The Man Between | Page 9

us! Always the same--nothing but loves and cradles."
She found Ruth Bayard dressed for dinner, but her father was not
present. That was satisfactory, for he was always a little impatient when
the talk was of lovers and weddings; and just then this topic was
uppermost in Ethel's mind.
"Ruth," she said, "Dora is engaged," and then in a few sentences she
told the little romance Dora had lived for the past year, and its happy
culmination. "Setting money aside, I think he will make a very suitable
husband. What do you think, Ruth?"
"From what I know of Mr. Stanhope, I should doubt it. I am sure he
will put his duties before every earthly thing, and I am sure Dora will
object to that. Then I wonder if Dora is made on a pattern large enough
to be the moneyed partner in matrimony. I should think Mr. Stanhope
was a proud man."
"Dora says he is connected with the English noble family of

Stanhopes."
"We shall certainly have all the connections of the English nobility in
America very soon now--but why does he marry Dora? Is it her
money?"
"I think not. I have heard from various sources some fine things of
Basil Stanhope. There are many richer girls than Dora in St. Jude's. I
dare say some one of them would have married him."
"You are mistaken. Do you think Margery Starey, Jane Lewes, or any
of the girls of their order would marry a man with a few thousands a
year? And to marry for love is beyond the frontiers of such women's
intelligence. In their creed a husband is a banker, not a man to be loved
and cared for. You know how much of a banker Mr. Stanhope could
be."
"Bryce Denning is very angry at what he evidently considers his sister's
mesalliance."
"If Mr. Stanhope is connected with the English Stanhopes, the
mesalliance must be laid to his charge."
"Indeed the Dennings have some pretenses to good lineage, and Bryce
spoke of his sister `disgracing his family by her contemplated
marriage.'"
"His family! My dear Ethel, his grandfather was a manufacturer of tin
tacks. And now that we have got as far away as the Denning's
grandfather, suppose we drop the subject."
"Content; I am a little tired of the clan Denning--that is their original
name Dora says. I will go now and dress for dinner."
Then Ruth rose and looked inquisitively around the room. It was as she
wished it to be--the very expression of elegant comfort --warm and
light, and holding the scent of roses: a place of deep, large chairs with
no odds and ends to worry about, a room to lounge and chat in, and

where the last touch of perfect home freedom was given by a big
mastiff who, having heard the door-bell ring, strolled in to see who had
called.

CHAPTER II
DURING dinner both Ruth and Ethel were aware of some sub-interest
in the Judge's manner; his absent-mindedness was unusual, and once
Ruth saw a faint smile that nothing evident could have induced.
Unconsciously also he set a tone of constraint and hurry; the meal was
not loitered over, the conversation flagged, and all rose from the table
with a sense of relief; perhaps, indeed, with a feeling of expectation.
They entered the parlor together, and the mastiff rose to meet them,
asking permission to remain with the little coaxing push of his nose
which brought the ready answer:
"Certainly, Sultan. Make yourself comfortable."
Then they grouped themselves round the fire, and the Judge lit his cigar
and looked at Ethel in a way that instantly brought curiosity to the
question:
"You have a secret, father," she said. "Is it about grandmother?"
"It is news rather than a secret, Ethel. And grandmother has a good deal
to do with it, for it is about her family--the Mostyns."
"Oh!"
The tone of Ethel's "Oh!" was not encouraging, and Ruth's look of
interest held in abeyance was just as chilling. But something like this
attitude had been expected, and Judge Rawdon was not discouraged by
it; he knew that youth is capable of great and sudden changes, and that
its ability to find reasonable motives for them is unlimited, so he
calmly continued:

"You are aware that your grandmother's name before marriage was
Rachel Mostyn?"
"I have seen it a thousand times at the bottom of her sampler, father, the
one that is framed and hanging in her morning room-- Rachel Mostyn,
November, Anno Domini, 1827."
"Very well. She married George Rawdon, and they came to New York
in 1834. They had a pretty house on the Bowling Green and lived very
happily there. I was born in 1850, the youngest of their children. You
know that I sign my