----------------------------------------------------MR. TURLINGTON,

LADY WINWOOD At Home.

Wednesday, December 15th.--Ten o'clock.----------------------------------------------------

"Dearest Natalie--As the brute insists, the brute must have theinvitation which I inclose. Never mind, my child. You and Launceare coming to dinner, and I will see that you have your littleprivate opportunities of retirement afterward. All I expect ofyou in return is, _not_ to look (when you come back) as if yourhusband had been kissing you. You will certainly let out thesecret of those stolen kisses, if you don't take care. At mamma'sdinner yesterday, your color (when you came out of theconservatory) was a sight to see. Even your shoulders were red!They are charming shoulders, I know, and men take the strangestfancies sometimes. But, my dear, suppose you wear a chemisettenext time, if you haven't authority enough over him to preventhis doing it again!

"Your affectionate LOUISA."

The private history of the days that had passed since themarriagewas written in that letter. An additional chapter--of someimportance in its bearing on the future--was contributed by theprogress of events at Lady Winwood's party.

By previous arrangement with Natalie, the Graybrookes (invited todinner) arrived early. Leaving her husband and her stepdaughtersto entertain Sir Joseph and Miss Lavinia, Lady Winwood tookNatalie into her own boudoir, which communicated by a curtainedopening with the drawing-room.

"My dear, you are looking positively haggard this evening. Hasanything happened?"

"I am nearly worn out, Louisa. The life I am leading is sounendurable that, if Launce pressed me, I believe I shouldconsent to run away with him when we leave your house tonight."

"You will do nothing of the sort, if you please. Wait till youare sixteen. I delight in novelty, but the novelty of appearingat the Old Bailey is beyond my ambition. Is the brute comingto-night?"

"Of course. He insists on following me wherever I go. He lunchedat Muswell Hill today. More complaints of my incomprehensiblecoldness to him. Another scolding from papa. A furious letterfrom Launce. If I let Richard kiss my hand again in his presence,Launce warns me he will knock him down. Oh, the meanness and theguiltiness of the life I am leading now! I am in the falsest ofall false positions, Louisa, and you encouraged me to do it. Ibelieve Richard Turlington suspects us. The last two times Launceand I tried to get a minute together at my aunt's, he contrivedto put himself in our way. There he was, my dear, with hisscowling face, looking as if he longed to kill Launce. Can you doanything for us tonight? Not on my account. But Launce is soimpatient. If he can't say two words to me alone this evening, hedeclares he will come to Muswell Hill, and catch me in the gardentomorrow."

"Compose yourself, my dear; he shall say his two words to-night."

"How?"

Lady Winwood pointed through the curtained entrance of theboudoir to the door of the drawing-room. Beyond the door was thestaircase landing. And beyond the landing was a second drawing-room, the smaller of the two.

"There are only three or four people coming to dinner," herladyship proceeded; "and a few more in the evening. Being a smallparty, the small drawing-room will do for us. This drawing-roomwill not be lighted, and there will be only my reading-lamp herein the boudoir. I shall give the signal for leaving thedining-room earlier than usual. Launce will join us before theevening party begins. The moment he appears, send him inhere--boldly before your aunt and all of us."

"For what?"

"For your fan. Leave it there under the sofa-cushion before we godown to dinner. You will sit next to Launce, and you will givehim private instructions not to find the fan. You will getimpatient--you will go to find it yourself--and there you are.Take care of your shoulders, Mrs. Linzie! I have nothing more tosay."

The guests asked to dinner began to arrive. Lady Winwood wasrecalled to her duties as mistress of the house.

It was a pleasant little dinner--with one drawback. It began toolate. The ladies only reached the small drawing-room at tenminutes to ten. Launce was only able to join them as the clockstruck.

"Too late!" whispered Natalie. "He will be here directly."

"Nobody comes punctually to an evening party," said Launce."Don't let us lose a moment. Send me for your fan."

Natalie opened her lips to say the necessary words. Before shecould speak, the servant announced--"Mr. Turlington."

He came in, with his stiffly-upright shirt collar and hisloosely-fitting glossy black clothes. He made his sullen andclumsy bow to Lady Winwood. And then he did, what he had donedozens of times already--he caught Natalie, with her eyes stillbright and her face still animated (after talking to Launce)--astriking contrast to the cold and unimpulsive young lady whom hewas accustomed to see while Natalie was talking to _him_.

Lord Winwood's daughters were persons of some celebrity in theworld of amateur music. Noticing the look that Turlington cast atLaunce, Lady Winwood whispered to Miss Lavinia--who instantlyasked the young ladies to sing. Launce, in obedience to a signfrom Natalie, volunteered to find the music-books. It is needlessto add that he pitched on the wrong volume at starting. As helifted it from the piano to take it back to the stand, theredropped out from between the leaves a printed letter, lookinglike a circular. One of the young ladies took it up, and ran hereye over it, with a start.

"The Sacred Concerts!" she exclaimed.

Her two sisters, standing by, looked at each other guiltily:"What will the Committee say to us? We entirely forgot themeeting last month."

"Is there a meeting this month?"

They all looked anxiously at the printed letter.

"Yes! The twenty-third of December. Put it down in your book,Amelia." Amelia, then and there, put it down among theengagements for the latter end of the month. And Natalie'sunacknowledged husband placidly looked on.

So did the merciless irony of circumstances make Launce theinnocent means of exposing his own secret to discovery. Thanks tohis success in laying his hand on the wrong music-book, therewould now be a meeting--two good days before the elopement couldtake place--between the lord's daughters and the rector's wife!

The guests of the evening began to appear by twos and threes. Thegentlemen below stairs left the dinner-table, and joined them.

The small drawing-room was pleasantly filled, and no more. SirJoseph Graybrooke, taking Turlington's hand, led him eagerly totheir host. The talk in the dining-room had turned on finance.Lord Winwood was not quite satisfied with some of his foreigninvestments; and Sir Joseph's "dear Richard" was the very man togive him a little sound advice. The three laid their headstogether in a corner. Launce (watching them) slyly pressedNatalie's hand. A renowned "virtuoso" had arrived, and wasthundering on the piano. The attention of the guests generallywas absorbed in the performance. A fairer chance of sendingLaunce for the fan could not possibly have offered itself. Whilethe financial discussion was still proceeding, the married loverswere ensconced together alone in the boudoir.

Lady Winwood (privately observant of their absence) kept her eyeon the corner, watching Richard Turlington.

He was talking earnestly--with his back toward the company. Heneither moved nor looked round. It came to Lord Winwood's turn tospeak. He preserved the same position, listening. Sir Joseph tookup the conversation next. Then his attention wandered--he knewbeforehand what Sir Joseph would say. His eyes turned anxiouslytoward the place in which he had left Natalie. Lord Winwood saida word. His head turned back again toward the corner. Sir Josephput an objection. He glanced once more over his shoulder--thistime at the place in which Launce had been standing. The nextmoment his host recalled his attention, and made it impossiblefor him to continue his scrutiny of the room. At the same timestwo among the evening guests, bound for another party, approachedto take leave of the lady of the house. Lady Winwood was obligedto rise, and attend to them. They had something to say to herbefore they left, and they said it at terrible length, standingso as to intercept her view of the proceedings of the enemy. Whenshe had got rid of them at last, she looked--and behold LordWinwood and Sir Joseph were the only occupants of the corner!

Delaying one moment, to set the "virtuoso" thundering once more,Lady Winwood slipped out of the room and crossed the landing. Atthe entrance to the empty drawing-room she heard Turlington'svoice, low and threatening, in the boudoir. Jealousy has a SecondSight of its own. He had looked in the right place atstarting--and, oh heavens! he had caught them.

Her ladyship's courage was beyond dispute; but she turned pale asshe approached the entrance to the boudoir.

There stood Natalie--at once angry and afraid--between the man towhom she was ostensibly engaged, and the man to whom she wasactually married. Turlington's ruggedface expressed a martyrdom of suppressed fury. Launce--in theact of offering Natalie her fan--smiled, with the coolsuperiority of a man who knew that he had won his advantage, andwho triumphed in knowing it.

"I forbid you to take your fan from that man's hands," saidTurlington, speaking to Natalie, and pointing to Launce.

"Isn't it rather too soon to begin 'forbidding'?" asked LadyWinwood, good-humoredly.

"Exactly what I say!" exclaimed Launce. "It seems necessary toremind Mr. Turlington that he is not married to Natalie yet!"

Those last words were spoken in a tone which made both the womentremble inwardly for results. Lady Winwood took the fan fromLaunce with one hand, and took Natalie's arm with the other.

"There is your fan, my dear," she said, in her easy off-handmanner. "Why do you allow these two barbarous men to keep youhere while the great Bootmann is playing the Nightmare Sonata inthe next room? Launce! Mr. Turlington! follow me, and learn to bemusical directly! You have only to shut your eyes, and you willfancy you hear four modern German composers playing, instead ofone, and not the ghost of a melody among all the four. "She ledthe way out with Natalie, and whispered, "Did he catch you?"Natalie whispered back, "I heard him in time. He only caught uslooking for the fan." The two men waited behind to have two wordstogether alone in the boudoir.

"This doesn't end here, Mr. Linzie!"

Launce smiled satirically. "For once I agree with you," heanswered. "It doesn't end here, as you say."

Lady Winwood stopped, and looked back at them from the drawing-room door. They were keeping her waiting--they had no choice butto follow the mistress of the house.

Arrived in the next room, both Turlington and Launce resumedtheir places among the guests with the same object in view. As anecessary result of the scene in the boudoir, each had his ownspecial remonstrance to address to Sir Joseph. Even here, Launcewas beforehand with Turlington. He was the first to getpossession of Sir Joseph's private ear. His complaint took theform of a protest against Turlington's jealousy, and an appealfor a reconsideration of the sentence which excluded him fromMuswell Hill. Watching them from a distance, Turlington'ssuspicious eye detected the appearance of something undulyconfidential in the colloquy between the two. Under cover of thecompany, he stole behind them and listened.

The great Bootmann had arrived at that part of the NightmareSonata in which musical sound, produced principally with the lefthand, is made to describe, beyond all possibility of mistake, therising of the moon in a country church-yard and a dance ofVampires round a maiden's grave. Sir Joseph, having no chanceagainst the Vampires in a whisper, was obliged to raise his voiceto make himself audible in answering and comforting Launce. "Isincerely sympathize with you," Turlington heard him say; "andNatalie feels about it as I do. But Richard is an obstacle in ourway. We must look to the consequences, my dear boy, supposingRichard found us out." He nodded kindly to his nephew; and,declining to pursue the subject, moved away to another part ofthe room.

Turlington's jealous distrust, wrought to the highest pitch ofirritability for weeks past, instantly associated the words hehad just heard with the words spoken by Launce in the boudoir,which had reminded him that he was not married to Natalie yet.Was there treachery at work under the surface? and was the objectto persuade weak Sir Joseph to reconsider his daughter'scontemplated marriage in a sense favorable to Launce?Turlington's blind suspicion overleaped at a bound all themanifest improbabilities which forbade such a conclusion as this.After an instant's consideration with himself, he decided onkeeping his own counsel, and on putting Sir Joseph's good faiththen and there to a test which he could rely on as certain totake Natalie's father by surprise.

"Graybrooke!"

Sir Joseph started at the sight of his future son-in-law's face.

"My dear Richard, you are looking very strangely! Is the heat ofthe room too much for you?"

"Never mind the heat! I have seen enough to-night to justify mein insisting that your daughter and Launcelot Linzie shall meetno more between this and the day of my marriage." Sir Josephattempted to speak. Turlington declined to give him theopportunity. "Yes! yes! your opinion of Linzie isn't mine, Iknow. I saw you as thick as thieves together just now." SirJoseph once more attempted to make himself heard. Wearied byTurlington's perpetual complaints of his daughter and his nephew,he was sufficiently irritated by this time to have reported whatLaunce had actually said to him if he had been allowed thechance. But Turlington persisted in going on. "I cannot preventLinzie from being received in this house, and at your sister's,"he said; "but I can keep him out of _my_ house in the country,and to the country let us go. I propose a change in thearrangements. Have you any engagement for the Christmasholidays?"

He paused, and fixed his eyes attentively on Sir Joseph. SirJoseph, looking a little surprised, replied briefly that he hadno engagement.

"In that case, "resumed Turlington, "I invite you all toSomersetshire, and I propose that the marriage shall take placefrom my house, and not from yours. Do you refuse?"

"It is contrary to the usual course of proceeding in such cases,Richard," Sir Joseph began.

"Do you refuse?" reiterated Turlington. "I tell you plainly, Ishall place a construction of my own upon your motive if you do."

"No, Richard," said Sir Joseph, quietly, "I accept."

Turlington drew back a step in silence. Sir Joseph had turned thetables on him, and had taken _him_ by surprise.

"It will upset several plans, and be strongly objected to by theladies," proceeded the old gentleman. "But if nothing less willsatisfy you, I say, Yes! I shall have occasion, when we meet to-morrow at Muswell Hill, to appeal to your indulgence undercircumstances which may greatly astonish you. The least I can do,in the meantime, is to set an example of friendly sympathy andforbearance on my side. No more now, Richard. Hush! the music!"

It was impossible to make him explain himself further that night.Turlington was left to interpret Sir Joseph's mysteriouscommunication with such doubtful aid to success as his ownunassisted ingenuity might afford.

The meeting of the next day at Muswell Hill had for its object--as Turlington had already been informed--the drawing of Natalie'smarriage-settlement. Was the question of money at the bottom ofSir Joseph's contemplated appeal to his indulgence? He thought ofhis commercial position. The depression in the Levant trade stillcontinued. Never had his business at any previous time requiredsuch constant attention, and repaid that attention with so littleprofit. The Bills of Lading had been already used by the firm, inthe ordinary course of trade, to obtain possession of the goods.The duplicates in the hands of Bulpit Brothers were literallywaste paper. Repayment of the loan of forty thousand pounds (withinterest) was due in less than a month's time. There was hiscommercial position! Was it possible that money-loving Sir Josephhad any modification to propose in the matter of his daughter'sdowry? The bare dread that it might be so struck him cold. Hequitted the house--and forgot to wish Natalie goodnight.

Meanwhile, Launce had left the evening party before him--andLaunce also found matter for serious reflection presented to hismind before he slept that night. In other words, he found, onreaching his lodgings, a letter from his brother marked"private." Had the inquiry into the secrets of Turlington's earlylife--now prolonged over some weeks--led to positive results atlast? Launce eagerly opened the letter. It contained a Report anda Summary. He passed at once to the Summary, and read thesewords:

"If you only want moral evidence to satisfy your own mind, yourend is gained. There is, morally, no doubt that Turlington andthe sea-captain who cast the foreign sailor overboard to drownare on e and the same man. Legally, the matter is beset bydifficulties, Turlington having destroyed all provable connectionbetween his present self and his past life. There is only onechance for us. A sailor on board the ship (who was in hismaster's secrets) is supposed to be still living (under hismaster's protection). All the black deeds of Turlington's earlylife are known to this man. He can prove the facts, if we canfind him, and make it worth his while to speak. Under what aliashe is hidden we do not know. His own name is Thomas Wildfang. Ifwe are to make the attempt to find him, not a moment is to belost. The expenses may be serious. Let me know whether we are togo on, or whether enough has been done to attain the end you havein view."

Enough had been done--not only to satisfy Launce, but to producethe right effect on Sir Joseph's mind if Sir Joseph provedobdurate when the secret of the marriage was revealed. Launcewrote a line directing the stoppage of the proceedings at thepoint which they had now reached. "Here is a reason for her notmarrying Turlington," he said to himself, as he placed the papersunder lock and key. "And if she doesn't marry Turlington," headded, with a lover's logic, "why shouldn't she marry Me?"