Man and Maid

George Harcourt was called suddenly to Rome that morning and so even

hearing him talk further about the Bulteels was denied me for the time.

I passed some days of the cruelest unrest. There was no sign of Alathea.

I allowed Maurice to drag me out into the world and spent my evenings

among my kind.

A number of my old pals have been killed lately, such an irony when the

war seems to be drawing to a close! There is still an atmosphere of

tension and unrestfulness in the air, though.

After an awful week George Harcourt came back and dropped in to see me.

I opened fire at once, and asked him to tell me all that he knew of the

Bulteels, especially his old brother officer Bobby.

"I have a particular reason for asking, George," I said.

"Very curious your speaking of them, Nicholas, because there has just

been the devil of a fuss in the French Foreign Legion about that

infernal blackguard; it came to my knowledge in my work."

"Has he been cheating at cards again?"

George nodded.

"Tell me from the beginning."

So he started--many of the bits I already knew. Lady Hilda had been a

great friend of his and he dwelt upon the life of suffering she had

had.

"There were a few years of frantic love and some sort of happiness, I

expect, and then funds began to give out, and Bobbie's insane desire to

gamble led him into the shadiest society, at Baden-Baden and Nice, and

other warm spots. Poor Hilda used to go about with him then in a shamed,

defiant way, running from any old friend, or staring over his head. I

happened upon them once or twice in my wanderings; then I lost sight of

them for some years, and the next thing was someone told me the poor

woman had broken down and was a nervous wreck, and two children had been

born in quick succession, when the first one was about eleven years old,

and the whole family were in miserable straits. I think relations paid

up that time--with the understanding that never again were they to be

applied to. And since then I have heard nothing until the other day it

came to my ears that the eldest girl--she must be over twenty now, was

supporting the entire family. One of the children died lately, and now

Bobby has put the cap on it. I am sorry for them, but Bobby is

impossible."

Oh! My poor little girl, what a life! How I longed to take her out of

it!