CHAPTER XXV.

FASCINATION.

"Snake! snake! your treacherous eyes, Grow and deepen to marvellous skies, Stars shine out in the rosy space, Every star is a woman's face, Flushed and wreathed with amorous smiles, Drawing my soul with magical wiles, Vision! while I am rapt in thee, Death is coming unknown to me. Snake hath caught me fast in his toils, Round me winding his shining coils, Ah, from dreams with a start I wake, Thou host stung me, oh cruel snake."

Most men of strongly imaginative natures are superstitious, and Gartney was no exception to the rule, his instinctive leanings in this direction having been strengthened to a considerable extent by his contact with the fatalistic dreamers of the East. He had travelled over a goodly portion of the world without having been infected by the habits or thoughts of the so-called civilized races but the many months he had dwelt among the descendants of Ishmael, had inoculated him imperceptibly with their strong belief in predestination. In fact, his adaptability to the ways and customs of the East, seemed, to himself, so marvellous, that he almost inclined to the theory of transmigration, and believed he had lived before amid these lonely deserts.

At all events, his last sojourn among them had developed his instinctive vein of superstition in the strongest fashion, and he came back to England fully convinced that all things were preordained by the deity we call Fate. It was a very convenient doctrine, as it enabled him to blame a supernatural power for his own shortcomings, and when anything happened out of the ordinary course of events, he said "Kismet," like the veriest follower of Mahomet.

With this belief, it was little to be wondered at that he believed he saw the finger of Fate intervening in the matter of his love for Lady Errington, and argued the question in this style:

On his return to England, he had determined to abstain from seeing Alizon so as to keep out of the way of temptation, but Fate, in the person of Aunt Jelly, had forced him to meet her against his will in order to see if he could bring about an understanding between the young couple. Yielding to his passion, he had made up his mind to gratify it, but moved by the spectacle of Guy's misery, had gained a victory over himself, and strove to reconcile husband and wife.

With this aim, he had taken Guy up to Town, thinking a short absence might be beneficial, but Fate for the second time interfered, and in the most innocent fashion in the world he (Fate's instrument) had delivered the young man into the power of his bitterest enemy, by introducing him to Mrs. Veilsturm. She hated Lady Errington, and would certainly do her best to estrange husband and wife still further, thus the field was left open to Eustace to declare his dishonourable passion.

Twice, therefore, had he striven to conquer his feeling, and twice Fate had intervened, so that he now felt inclined to fight no longer. Had he given way to his present desires, he would have left Guy to the tender mercies of Cleopatra, and gone down to stay at Castle Grim from whence he would have been able to go over to Errington Hall daily and pay his court to Alizon. All feelings of honour, however, were not absolutely dead in his breast, so he determined to await the course of events and see if Mrs. Veilsturm would manage to subjugate Guy, in which case he determined to interfere. He knew quite enough about Mrs. Veilsturm, for his opinion to carry considerable weight with that lady, and although it was not a pleasant thing to step between a panther and its prey, yet he made up his mind to do so should occasion arise. But if Fate intervened for the third time, and rendered his trouble useless, Eustace felt in his own heart that further struggling against Destiny would be beyond his strength.

At present, however, he had rather over-estimated the situation, as Guy was by no means the abject slave of Mrs. Veilsturm he deemed him to be. Love for Alizon, although but ill-requited, still had possession of Guy's whole being, and formed a safeguard against the dangerous assaults of Cleopatra. Errington was constantly in attendance on her, and she put forth all her arts to enmesh him in her toils, but although three weeks had now passed, she saw that she had not made much headway. Guy liked her for her kindly manner towards him, admired her for her beauty, felt flattered by her preference, but in reality was as heart-whole as when he first saw her, and had his wife lifted her little finger, he would have flown to her side without a moment's hesitation.

Cleopatra was much too clever a woman not to see this, and felt rather nettled that any man should dare to withstand her charms. Moreover, being bent on separating Errington from his wife, she had a very powerful reason to do her best in reducing him to a state of bondage; therefore spared neither time nor trouble in attempting to do so. Errington's love for his wife, however, stood him in good stead, and despite the temptations to which he was subjected, he did not succumb in any way.

Major Griff was by no means pleased with this new fancy of his friend and partner. As a rule, by dexterous management, he could make her do what he liked, but on some occasions she broke away from leading-strings, and did what she pleased. This present desire to captivate Errington was due, not to a feeling of love, but to the more powerful one of revenge, and Griff, being an astute reader of character, saw that in her present frame of mind he could do nothing with her.

It was a terrible trouble to the Major that things should be like this, as during this season Rumour had once more been busy with Cleopatra's name, and to such a good purpose, that many doors hitherto open were now closed against her. Society began to talk of the number of men who had lost large sums of money at Mrs. Veilsturm's, hinted that the West Indian estates were a myth, and that Cleopatra was no better than an adventuress. Society suddenly discovered that it had been deceived, that a base woman had passed herself off as the purest of her sex, that it had nourished a viper in its bosom; so now Society, in righteous wrath, was prepared to denounce Mrs. Veilsturm and Major Griff with the bitterest vindictiveness from the house-tops. The storm had not broken yet, but could be heard muttering in the distance, and now this foolish passion of Cleopatra so openly displayed would accelerate the period of its bursting.

The Major, having his eyes and ears open on every possible occasion, saw all this, and took measures to secure a safe retreat in case of an unexpected collapse of the London campaign. America was to be the next field of the firm's operations, and both the Major and his fair friend had determined to signalize their departure by a grand fancy dress ball, to which friends and foes alike were to be invited, after which they could depart with flying colours to New York.

This little scheme had been very nicely arranged, but unluckily this Errington affair threatened to upset the whole business. Knowing she had very little time at her disposal, and being determined to ruin Guy's life if she possibly could, Cleopatra went beyond all the bounds of prudence, and blazoned her preference for Errington so very openly that everyone was scandalized.

In vain the Major implored Cleopatra to be cautious and not ruin everything by her mad folly; but, carried away by a fierce feeling of revenge against Lady Errington, she merely laughed at his entreaties and prosecuted her scheme of entangling Guy with redoubled ardour. Major Griff spoke to Eustace, thinking he could stop the affair by taking his cousin away, but Gartney, being determined to leave the matter in the hands of Fate, simply shrugged his shoulders and said he could do nothing. Being therefore unable to do anything, the Major could only look on in a cold fury at Cleopatra striving to ruin herself, Errington, and himself in a fit of mad anger.

Mrs. Veilsturm's intimate friends were also very indignant about what they pleased to call her infatuation, little dreaming of the real reason of this sudden passion. It was only the Major's influence over Mr. Dolser that kept the affair out of the scurrilous pages of "The Pepper Box," but although it had not appeared in print, the whole affair was an open secret.

Dolly Thambits, who was in love with Cleopatra, was furious at the way in which he was neglected, but this kind of treatment only made him all the more in love with his disdainful mistress, much to the relief of Griff, who was afraid that the boy would escape from his toils.

In the midst of this whirl of rage, envy, and revenge, Guy, seeing no special favour in Cleopatra's condescension, was quite cool and composed, being the most unconcerned person of the whole lot. Of course, no one dared to speak to him about the real facts of the case, and of the enmity he had provoked, so he remained in complete ignorance, anxiously awaiting for a letter from his wife asking him to return.

That letter never came, however, for Alizon was perfectly happy with her baby, and missed Errington no more than if he had been a stock or stone. She knew nothing of the perils to which her husband was exposed, and, curiously enough, none of her London friends wrote and told her, else she might have been for once startled from the serene pleasures of motherhood.

According to his promise, Otterburn called upon Aunt Jelly, and was graciously received by that strong-minded lady, who took a great fancy to him. As yet, he had not spoken outright to Victoria, but still the young couple understood one another, and such understanding was approved of by Miss Corbin, who saw in Otterburn the very husband she would have chosen for her ward. So Otterburn called on the old lady pretty often, and brought her all the news of the town, while Victoria, feeling completely at rest concerning her lover, listened quietly.

All her ideas of making Otterburn propose, and then refusing him out of revenge, had quite vanished, as she was now passionately in love with him, and according to the position now strangely altered since those old days at Como, it was for her to crave and for him to grant. Otterburn, however, knew nothing of this, but wooed in all honour and timidity, while Aunt Jelly, like a good but grim cherub, looked on in silent approval.

It was during one of Otterburn's visits, that by chance he let fall something of what was going on between Mrs. Veilsturm and Guy, whereupon the old lady, having an eye like a hawk, immediately saw that something was going on of which she knew nothing. With this idea she waited till Maclean departed, and then put Victoria through her facings, with the result that she found out all about it and was terribly wroth against her nephew.

Eustace called to see her, and she spoke to him about it, but Eustace point-blank refused to interfere again, saying he had done his best, but could now do no more. Aunt Jelly, therefore, being alarmed, not only for the happiness but for the respectability of the Errington household, wrote a note to Guy, asking him to call.

Having despatched this, she worked herself up into such a fury over the whole affair that she took a fit, and for some time was in danger of dying, but her indomitable spirit asserted itself, and with iron determination she arose from her bed of sickness to see her nephew.

It was a fight between Cleopatra and Aunt Jelly for possession of Guy, but all this time Guy had no more idea of playing his wife false, than he had of returning Mrs. Veilsturm's openly-displayed passion.