The Far Horizon | Page 2

Lodge being a
happy exception--has vanished under the hand of the early Victorian
speculative builder; who, in their stead, has erected full complement of
the architectural platitudes common to his age and taste. Dignity has
very sensibly given place to gentility. Nevertheless the timid red, or
sickly yellow-grey, brick of the existing houses is pleasingly veiled by
ivy and Virginia creeper, while no shop front obtrudes derogatory
suggestion of retail trade. The local authorities, moreover, some ten
years back girdled the Green with healthy young balsam-poplar and
plane trees and enclosed the grass with iron hurdles--to rescue it from
trampling into unsightly pathways--thus doing a well-intentioned, if
somewhat unimaginative, best to safeguard the theatre of long ago
Trimmer's beneficence or infamy from greater spoliation.
Hence it follows that, certain inherent limitations admitted, the scene
upon which Dominic Iglesias' eyes rested was not without elements of
attraction. And of this fact, being a person of an excellent temperance
of expectation, he was gratefully aware. His surroundings, indeed,
constituted, so it appeared to him, the maximum of comfort and
advantage which could be expected by a middle-aged gentleman, of
moderate fortune, in the capacity of a "paying guest." Not only in word
but in thought--for in acknowledgment of obligation he was
scrupulously courteous. He frequently tendered thanks to his neighbour
and old school-fellow, Mr. George Lovegrove, first for calling his
attention to Mrs. Porcher's advertisement, and subsequently for
reassuring him as to its import. For, though incapable of forming so
much as a thought to her concrete disparagement, Mr. Iglesias was not
without a quiet sense of humour, or of that instinct of self-protection
common to even the most chivalrous of mankind. He was, therefore,
perfectly sensible that "the widow of a military officer," who describes
herself in print as "bright, musical and thoroughly domesticated," while
offering "a cheerful and refined home at the West End, within three
minutes of Tube and omnibus"--"noble dining and recreation rooms,
bath h. and c." thrown in--to unmarried members of the stronger sex,
must of necessity be a lady whose close acquaintance it would be
foolhardy to make without a trifle of preliminary scouting.

Happily not only George Lovegrove, but his estimable wife was at
hand. The latter hastened to prosecute inquiries, beginning with a visit
to the Anglican vicar of the parish, the Rev. Giles Nevington. He
reported Mrs. Porcher an evening communicant at the greater festivals,
and a not ungenerous donor to parochial charities; adding that a former
curate had resided under her roof with perfect impunity. Mrs.
Lovegrove terminated her researches by an interview with the
fishmonger, who assured her that "Cedar Lodge always took the best
cuts," sternly refused fish or poultry which had suffered cold storage,
and paid its housebooks without fail before noon on Thursday. She
ascertained, further, from a source socially intermediate between
clergyman and tradesman, that Mrs. Porcher's husband, some time
veterinary surgeon of a crack regiment, had died in the odour of alcohol
rather than in that of sanctity, leaving his widow--in addition to his
numerous and heavy debts--but a fraction of the comfortable fortune to
procure the enjoyment of which he had so considerately married her.
The solid Georgian mansion was her freehold; and it was to secure
sufficient means for continued residence in it that the poor lady started
a boarding-house, or in the politer language of the present day, had
decided to receive paying guests.
Encouraged by the satisfactory nature of the above information, Mr.
Iglesias--shortly after his mother's death, now nearly eight years ago--
had become a member of Mrs. Porcher's household. He had never, so
far, had reason to regret that step. And it was with a consciousness of
well-being and repose that he returned daily--after hours of strenuous
work in the well-known city banking house of Messrs. Barking
Brothers & Barking--to this square first-floor sitting-room, to its dimly
white panelled and painted walls, its nice details of carved work in
chimney- piece and ceiling, and the outlook from its tall, narrow
windows. A touch of old-world stateliness in its aspect satisfied his
latent pride of race. To certain natures not obscurity or slender means,
but the pretentious vulgarity which, in English-speaking countries, too
often goes along with these constitutes the burden and the offence.
To-night, however, things were different. Material objects remained the
same; but the conditions of existence had taken on a strange appearance,

and with that appearance Iglesias was bound to reckon, being uncertain
as yet whether it was destined to prove that of a friend or of an enemy.
In furtherance of such reckoning, he had declined dining at the public
table, in company with his hostess, Miss Eliza Hart, her devoted friend
and companion, and the three gentlemen--Mr. de Courcy Smyth, Mr.
Farge, and Mr. Worthington--who shared with him