"Well," he answered solemnly, "I hope you won"t bring _us_ bad luck, at all events!"

"_I_ "ope so, sir, I"m sure. I _"ope_ so. It will not be by any desire on my part, more partickler when you"re just settin" up "ousekeepin"

with your good lady "ere. But there"s no tellin" in these matters.

That"s where it is, you see--there"s no tellin". And, arter all my experence, with the best intentions in the world, I can"t go and guarantee to you as nothink won"t come of it. I wish I could, but, as a honest man, I can"t. If it"s to be," moralised this fatalistic plumber, "it _is_ to be, and that"s all about it, and no hefforts on my part or yours won"t make hany difference, will they, sir?"

"Well, well," said George, plainly ill at ease, "that will do, my friend. Now, Ella, what do you say--shall we go upstairs?"

"Not now," she gasped, "let us go away--. Oh, George, take me outside, please!"

"Dash that confounded fool of a plumber!" said George, irritably, when they were in the street again; "wonder if he thinks I"m going to employ him after that! Not that it isn"t all bosh, of course---- Why, Ella, you"re not tired, are you?"

"I--I think I am a little--do you mind if we drive home?"

Ella was very silent during their short drive. When they reached Linden Gardens she said, "I think we must say good-bye here, George. I feel as if I were going to have a headache."

"You poor little girl!" he said, looking rather crestfallen, for he had been counting upon going in and being invited to remain for dinner, "it"s been rather too much for you, going over the house and all that--or was it that beastly plumber with his rigmaroles?"

"It wasn"t the plumber," she said hurriedly, as the door was opened, "and--good-bye, George."

"How easily girls do get knocked up!" thought George, as he walked homeward, "a little pleasant excitement like this and she seems quite upset. She was delighted with the house, though, that"s one blessing, and I mustn"t forget to tell the girls how touched she was by their presents. What a darling she is, and how happy we shall be together!"

PART II

Once safely at home, Ella hastened upstairs to her own room, where, if the truth must be told, she employed the half-hour before dinner in unintermittent sobbing, into which temper largely entered. "He has spoilt it all for me! How _could_ he--oh, how could he?" ran the burden of her moan. At the dinner-table, though pale and silent, she had recovered composure.

"A pleasant walk, Ella?" inquired her mother, with rather formal interest.

"Yes, very," replied Ella, trusting she would not be questioned further.

"I believe I know where you went!" cried indiscreet Flossie. "You went to look at your new home--now, _didn"t_ you? Ah, I thought so! I suppose you have quite made up your minds how you mean to do the rooms?"

"Quite."

"We might go round to all the best places to-morrow," said Mrs. Hylton, "and see some papers and hangings--there were some lovely patterns in Blank"s windows the other day."

"And, Ella," added Flossie, "I"ve been out with Andrews after school several times, to Tottenham Court Road, and Wardour Street, and Oxford Street--oh, everywhere, hunting up old furniture, and I can show you where they have some beautiful things--not shams, but really good!"

"You know, Ella," said Mrs. Hylton, observing that she did not answer, "I want you to have a pretty house, and you and George must order exactly what you like; but I think you will find I may be some help to you in choosing."

"Thank you, mother," said Ella, without any animation; "I--I don"t think we shall want much."

"You will want all that young people in your position do want, I suppose," said Mrs. Hylton, a little impatiently; "and of course you understand that the bills are to be my affair."

"Thank you, mother," murmured Ella again. She didn"t feel able to tell them just yet how this had all been forestalled; she felt that she would infallibly break down if she tried.

"You seem a little overdone to-night, my dear," said her mother frigidly; she was naturally hurt at the very uneffusive way in which her good offices had been met.

"I have such a dreadful headache," pleaded Ella. "I--I think I overtired myself this afternoon."

"Then you were very foolish, after travelling all yesterday, as you did.

I don"t wonder that George was ashamed to come in. You had better go to bed early, and I will send Andrews in to you with some of my sleeping mixture."

Ella was glad enough to obey, though the draught took some time to operate; she felt as if no happiness or peace of mind were possible for her till George had been persuaded to undo his work.

Surely he could not refuse when he knew that her mother was prepared to do everything for them at her own expense!

And here it began to dawn upon her what this would entail! George"s words came back to her as if she heard them actually spoken. Did he not say that the house had been furnished out of his savings?

What was she asking him to do? To dismantle it entirely; to humiliate himself by going round to all the people he had dealt with, asking them as a favour to take back their goods, or else he must sell them as best he could for a fraction of their cost. Who was to refund him all he had so uselessly spent? Could she ask her mother to do so? Would he even consent to such an arrangement if it was proposed?

Then his sisters--how could she avoid offending them irreparably, perhaps involving George in a quarrel with his family, if she were to carry her point?

As she realised, for the first time, the inevitable consequences of success, she asked herself in despair what she ought to do--where her plain duty lay?

Did she love George--or was it all delusion, and was he less to her than mere superfluities, the fringe of life?

She did love him, in spite of any pa.s.sing disloyalty of thought. She felt his sterling worth and goodness, even his weaknesses had something lovable in them for her.

And he had been planning, spending, working all this time to give her pleasure, and this was his reward! She had been within an ace of letting him see the cruel ingrat.i.tude that was in her heart! "What a selfish wretch I have been!" she thought; "but I won"t be--no, I won"t! George shall _not_ be snubbed, hurt, estranged from his family on my account!"

No, she would suffer--she alone--and in silence. Never by a word would she betray to him the pain his well-intentioned action cost her. Not even to her mother and Flossie would she permit herself to utter the least complaint, lest they should insist upon opening George"s eyes!

So, having arrived at this heroic resolve, in which she found a touch of the sublime that almost consoled her, the tears dried on her cheeks and Ella fell asleep at last.

Some readers, no doubt--though possibly few of our heroine"s s.e.x--will smile scornfully at this crumpled rose-leaf agony, this tempest in a Dresden teacup; and the writer is not concerned to deny that the situation has its ludicrous side.

But, for a girl brought up as Ella Hylton had been, in an artistic _milieu_, her eye insensibly trained to love all that was beautiful in colour and form, to be almost morbidly sensitive to ugliness and vulgarity--it was a very real and bitter struggle, a hard-won victory to come to such a decision as she formed. Life, Heaven knows, contains worse trials and deeper tragedies than this; but at least Ella"s happy life had as yet known no harder.

And, so far, she must be given the credit of having conquered.

Resolution is, no doubt, half the battle. Unfortunately, Ella"s resolution, though she hardly perceived this at present, could not be effected by one isolated and final act, but by a long chain of daily and hourly forbearances, the first break in which would undo all that had gone before.

How she bore the test we are going to see.

She woke the next morning to a sense that her life had somehow lost its savour; the exaltation of her resolve overnight had gone off and left her spirits flat and dead; but she came down, nevertheless, determined to be staunch and true to George under all provocations.

"Have you and George decided when you would like your wedding to be?"

asked her mother, after breakfast, "because we ought to have the invitations printed very soon."

"Not yet," faltered Ella, and the words might have pa.s.sed either as an answer or an appeal.

"I think it should be some time before the end of next month, or people will be going out of town."

"I suppose so," was the reply, so listlessly given that Mrs. Hylton glanced keenly at her daughter.