"Can"t," said Gobion, "I keep my brilliancy for the comparative stranger."

"----and the positive _Pilgrim_, I suppose."

"Exactly. Hallo! there"s someone at the door." He shouted, "Yes!" it was one of his little mannerisms never to say, "Come in." The door opened and a girl came round the corner of the screen. It was Blanche Huntley, Wild"s mistress, dressed in a long macintosh dripping with rain.

Both men jumped up surprised, Gobion helping her to take off her ulster, while Sturtevant put her umbrella in the stand.

She came to the fireside, a girl not unlike a dainty ill.u.s.tration in a magazine, very neatly got up with a white froth of lace round her neck, and a _chic_ black rosette at her waist. Certainly a pretty girl, with a sweet rather tired mouth, well-marked eyebrows, and dark eyes somewhat full, the lids stained with bistre. Gobion knew her, having met her at Wild"s, and rather liked her. She was a girl with ideas, and might have made something of her life if she had not been mixed up in the famous Wrampling Divorce Case, and been forced to leave her type-writing office in the City.

When ruin comes a man begs, a woman sells.

She sat down, Gobion introducing her to Sturtevant, who looked with some interest. "Fashion-plate in distress," was his mental comment. Gobion thought, "Her youth is the golden background which shows up the sadness of her lot; lucky man Wild though," a very fair index to the individuality of the two men as far as such things go.

"I"m afraid I"ve got some bad news for you, old man, and it"s partly my fault," she said.

"What is it, Blanche?"

"Well, we were sitting at lunch to-day--Tom wasn"t going to the office--when that old pig, Mr. Heath, came rushing in, half mad, waving a paper in his hand, cursing and swearing till I thought they would hear him in the street. He threw it on the table, and I noticed a column in leaded type marked with blue pencil. "There," he said to Tom, "there"s a nice thing to see about one"s self! Some d.a.m.n dirty skunk"s been writing this about me and _The Pilgrim_." It was so funny to see him, I never saw anybody in such a bate before; I looked over Tom"s shoulder, and, without thinking, said, "Why, I typed that for Mr. Yardly Gobion."

"What!" they both yelled. "Well--I"m--d.a.m.ned! Curse the cad!" Excuse me telling you all this. Well, he went on storming and raving, and said he was going to sack you, and write you a letter you"d remember, and what was more, crab you in every paper in London. I"m horribly sorry, it was all through me."

Sturtevant gave a long whistle.

"Never mind, dear," said Gobion, "it doesn"t matter, I don"t care; what a rag it must have been!"

"I haven"t seen the thing in print yet," said Sturtevant, "I"ll go out and get a copy."

When he had gone, Blanche came closer to Gobion. "Poor boy," she said, "I"m afraid you"ll find things rather difficult now."

"Never mind, dear, it doesn"t matter, I"ve got past caring for most things. Does Wild know you"re here?"

"Tom? oh no, he"d half kill me if he did. He never liked you much, you know, he said you put on such a lot of Oxford side."

"Isn"t he kind to you, then?"

"Oh, Lord, no, not now. He was at first, but he"s getting tired."

"I should cut the brute."

"What would I do?" she said sadly, "what would I do? I"ve no character or money or anything. I"d have to go to the Empire promenade, I expect."

She stretched out her hands to the blaze wearily.

"Poor little girl," he said, taking one of her hands in his, "poor little girl, it"s a nasty, miserable world."

She said nothing for half a minute, and then she burst into an agony of tears, dropping her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, don"t, dear, don"t!" said Gobion, half crying too; "try to bear up."

"You don"t know what it means. You"re not an outcast."

"Yes I am, dear, I"m a good deal worse than you. I have a h.e.l.l, too. Be a brave girl."

She smiled faintly through her tears.

"You are good," she said, "not like the other men."

"I"m simply a blackguard; don"t tell me I"m good."

"You don"t shrink from me."

"I? Good G.o.d! you don"t know what I am--sister."

At that word she crouched down in her chair, pa.s.sionately sobbing.

"G.o.d bless you," she said, "G.o.d bless you."

"You must leave him, dear, and get your living by your type-writing." He pulled out his pocket-book and made a rapid calculation. "Twenty here and ten at my rooms. Look here," he said, "I"m not hard up now; here"s three fivers. It will keep you going for a month or two. Make a new start, little woman."

She took the money and looked him in the face. Some thoughts are prayers.

"Good-bye," she said, "good-bye. If only I"d met you first."

The man bowed his head, and they left the room hand in hand. When they reached the lane she turned, and in the dim light of the flickering lamp she saw that his face was wet.

He took her little ungloved hand, raising it to his lips, still with bowed head, and turning, left her without a word.

When Sturtevant came in an hour afterwards he found him lying on the floor dead drunk, with a little pool of whiskey dripping from the table on to his hair.

"We must do highly moral articles for those papers which are calculated not to bring a blush to the face of the purest girl (except in the advertis.e.m.e.nts of waterproof rouge), or you might try _The Spy_. They can hardly refuse your copy now," said Sturtevant, about three weeks after the exposure.

Gobion had found the girl spoke truly. Not a paper in London was open to him. He was barred at the "copy shop," and was living on money borrowed from Scott in a piteous appeal full of lies. He forwarded an article to Picton, but it was sent back by return of post, with a sarcastic little note, saying that Mr. Picton could not find himself sufficiently bold to accept any further contributions. Things were getting rather desperate.

Oxford bills were coming in by every post to both of them. They were nearly at their wits" end for money.

At this juncture came a letter from Condamine.

"OXFORD UNION SOCIETY.

"DEAR GOBION,--The game is played almost to an end. Only one more move, and that not till next June, to be taken. Then will be peace at last. My latest has been of its kind a master-stroke, that is, to disappear. Things were getting too hot for me, so I have gone down to read. Everybody was getting suspicious, and eyed me askance. Drage was sent down (another disappearance!) for lying drunk with a friend from Oriel in the fellows" quad, and for reviling the buck priest most blasphemously in that he had awakened him. My tutor waxed very wroth with me. I was troubled with frightful insomnia every afternoon, and often in the morning--often finding it necessary to go to bed at midnight, rise at two a.m. and work till five or so, and again retire. Perhaps this was due to the fact that I had to sleep off certain matters of no importance, and then awake early, which is a way of mine.

Drage"s last moments in Oxford I soothed by fetching Father Gray at ten p.m. Tommy had all sorts of ideas, Stage, Germany, Colonies, every manner of starvation, so I applied his Reverence as a last remedy, which succeeded. Many things I could tell you of this, but not now. He (the Gray father) has got a rich young cub with him, Lord Frederick Staines Calvert, and they are going to town for a time to-day. The boy is without understanding--very oofy--so if you are still _epris_ with the worthy parson you may be able to make something out of it.

"Farewell. Thine,

"ARTHUR CONDAMINE.

"TO CARADOC YARDLY GOBION."

Gobion showed this to Sturtevant. "Do you think there"s anything in it?"