Download the full version of the textbook now at textbookfull.

com

Starting Out with C++: From Control

Structures through Objects, Brief Edition,
9/e Tony Gaddis

https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-
with-c-from-control-structures-through-objects-
brief-edition-9-e-tony-gaddis/

Explore and download more textbook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Starting out with C++. From control structures through

objects Second Custom Edition For Penn State University
Tony Gaddis
https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-with-c-from-control-
structures-through-objects-second-custom-edition-for-penn-state-
university-tony-gaddis/
textbookfull.com

Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through

Objects (6th Edition) Gaddis

https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-with-java-from-control-
structures-through-objects-6th-edition-gaddis/

textbookfull.com

Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through

Objects (What's New in Computer Science) 7th Edition
Gaddis
https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-with-java-from-control-
structures-through-objects-whats-new-in-computer-science-7th-edition-
gaddis/
textbookfull.com

Narratives in Research and Interventions on Cyberbullying

among Young People Heidi Vandebosch

https://textbookfull.com/product/narratives-in-research-and-
interventions-on-cyberbullying-among-young-people-heidi-vandebosch/

textbookfull.com
SQL Server 2016 Developer s Guide 1st Edition Dejan Sarka

https://textbookfull.com/product/sql-server-2016-developer-s-
guide-1st-edition-dejan-sarka/

textbookfull.com

Statistics for Engineers: An Introduction with Examples

from Practice 1st Edition Hartmut Schiefer

https://textbookfull.com/product/statistics-for-engineers-an-
introduction-with-examples-from-practice-1st-edition-hartmut-schiefer/

textbookfull.com

Hidden Dangers 5G How governments telecom and electric

power utilities suppress the truth about the known hazards
of electro magnetic field EMF radiation Jerry Flynn
https://textbookfull.com/product/hidden-dangers-5g-how-governments-
telecom-and-electric-power-utilities-suppress-the-truth-about-the-
known-hazards-of-electro-magnetic-field-emf-radiation-jerry-flynn/
textbookfull.com

Web Information Systems Engineering WISE 2015 16th

International Conference Miami FL USA November 1 3 2015
Proceedings Part II 1st Edition Jianyong Wang
https://textbookfull.com/product/web-information-systems-engineering-
wise-2015-16th-international-conference-miami-fl-usa-
november-1-3-2015-proceedings-part-ii-1st-edition-jianyong-wang/
textbookfull.com

Metabolic Signaling: Methods and Protocols Sarah-Maria

Fendt

https://textbookfull.com/product/metabolic-signaling-methods-and-
protocols-sarah-maria-fendt/

textbookfull.com
American Foreign Policy Since World War II 18th Edition
Steven W. Hook

https://textbookfull.com/product/american-foreign-policy-since-world-
war-ii-18th-edition-steven-w-hook/

textbookfull.com
Starting Out With C++
From Control Structures through Objects
Brief Version

Ninth Edition
Starting Out With C++
From Control Structures through Objects
Brief Version

Ninth Edition

Tony Gaddis
Haywood Community College

330 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013

Senior Vice President Courseware Portfolio Management:
Marcia J. Horton

Director, Portfolio Management: Engineering, Computer

Science & Global Editions: Julian Partridge

Portfolio Manager: Matt Goldstein

Portfolio Management Assistant: Meghan Jacoby

Field Marketing Manager: Demetrius Hall

Product Marketing Manager: Yvonne Vannatta

Marketing Assistant: Jon Bryant

Managing Producer, ECS and Math: Scott Disanno

Content Producer: Amanda Brands

Composition: SPi Global

Project Manager: Billu Suresh/ SPi Global

Cover Designer: Joyce Wells

Cover Image: Viktar Malyshchyts/123RF

Printer/Binder: LSC Communications, Inc.

Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and

reproduced, with permission, appear on the Credits page in the
endmatter of this textbook.

Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ

07030. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of
America. This publication is protected by copyright and permissions
should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise. For information regarding permissions,
request forms and the appropriate contacts within the Pearson
Education Global Rights & Permissions department, please visit
www.pearsoned.com/permissions/.

Many of the designations by manufacturers and seller to distinguish

their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations
appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark
claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

The author and publisher of this book have used their best efforts in
preparing this book. These efforts include the development,
research, and testing of theories and programs to determine their
effectiveness. The author and publisher make no warranty of any
kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programs or the
documentation contained in this book. The author and publisher shall
not be liable in any event for incidental or consequential damages
with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of these
programs.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gaddis, Tony, author.

Title: Starting out with C++. From control structures through objects /
Tony

Gaddis, Haywood Community College.

Description: Brief version, Ninth edition. | New York : Pearson

Education, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017059120| ISBN 9780134895734 | ISBN

0134895738

Subjects: LCSH: C++ (Computer program language)

Classification: LCC QA76.73.C153 G3342 2019 | DDC 005.13/3—

dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059120

1 18
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-489573-4

ISBN-10: 0-13-489573-8
Contents at a Glance
Preface xv

CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Computers and Programming 1

CHAPTER 2 Introduction to C++ 27

CHAPTER 3 Expressions and Interactivity 85

CHAPTER 4 Making Decisions 151

CHAPTER 5 Loops and Files 231

CHAPTER 6 Functions 305

CHAPTER 7 Arrays and Vectors 381

CHAPTER 8 Searching and Sorting Arrays 463

CHAPTER 9 Pointers 503

CHAPTER 10 Characters, C-Strings, and More about the string

Class 557

CHAPTER 11 Structured Data 613

CHAPTER 12 Advanced File Operations 665

CHAPTER 13 Introduction to Classes 719

CHAPTER 14 More about Classes 817

CHAPTER 15 Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Virtual
Functions 907
Appendix A: The ASCII Character Set 989

Appendix B: Operator Precedence and Associativity 991

Quick References 993

Index 995

Online The following appendices are available at

www.pearson.com/gaddis.

Appendix C: Introduction to Flowcharting

Appendix D: Using UML in Class Design

Appendix E: Namespaces

Appendix F: Passing Command Line Arguments

Appendix G: Binary Numbers and Bitwise Operations

Appendix H: STL Algorithms

Appendix I: Multi-Source File Programs

Appendix J: Stream Member Functions for Formatting

Appendix K: Unions

Appendix L: Answers to Checkpoints

Appendix M: Answers to Odd Numbered Review Questions

Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
Case Study 1: String Manipulation

Case Study 2: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 1

Case Study 3: Loan Amortization

Case Study 4: Creating a String Class

Case Study 5: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 2

Case Study 6: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 3

Case Study 7: Intersection of Sets

Case Study 8: Sales Commission

Contents
Preface xv

CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Computers and Programming 1

1.1 Why Program?1

1.2 Computer Systems: Hardware and Software 2

1.3 Programs and Programming Languages 8

1.4 What Is a Program Made of? 14

1.5 Input, Processing, and Output 17

1.6 The Programming Process 18

1.7 Procedural and Object-Oriented Programming 22

Review Questions and Exercises 24

CHAPTER 2 Introduction to C++ 27

2.1 The Parts of a C++ Program 27

2.2 The cout Object 31

2.3 The #include Directive 36

2.4 Variables, Literals, and Assignment Statements 38

2.5 Identifiers 42
 2.6 Integer Data Types 43

2.7 The char Data Type 49

2.8 The C++ string Class 53

2.9 Floating-Point Data Types 55

2.10 The bool Data Type 58

2.11 Determining the Size of a Data Type 59

2.12 More about Variable Assignments and Initialization 60

2.13 Scope 62

2.14 Arithmetic Operators 63

2.15 Comments 71

2.16 Named Constants 73

2.17 Programming Style 75

Review Questions and Exercises 77

Programming Challenges 81

CHAPTER 3 Expressions and Interactivity 85

3.1 The cin Object 85

3.2 Mathematical Expressions 91

3.3 When You Mix Apples and Oranges: Type Conversion

100

3.4 Overflow and Underflow 102

 3.5 Type Casting 103

3.6 Multiple Assignment and Combined Assignment 106

3.7 Formatting Output 110

3.8 Working with Characters and string Objects 120

3.9 More Mathematical Library Functions 126

3.10 Focus on Debugging: Hand Tracing a Program 132

3.11 Focus on Problem Solving: A Case Study 134

Review Questions and Exercises 138

Programming Challenges 144

CHAPTER 4 Making Decisions 151

4.1 Relational Operators 151

4.2 The if Statement 156

4.3 Expanding the if Statement 164

4.4 The if/else Statement 168

4.5 Nested if Statements 171

4.6 The if/else if Statement 178

4.7 Flags 183

4.8 Logical Operators 184

4.9 Checking Numeric Ranges with Logical Operators 191

4.10 Menus 192

 4.11 Focus on Software Engineering: Validating User Input
195

4.12 Comparing Characters and Strings 197

4.13 The Conditional Operator 201

4.14 The switch Statement 204

4.15 More about Blocks and Variable Scope 213

Review Questions and Exercises 216

Programming Challenges 222

CHAPTER 5 Loops and Files 231

5.1 The Increment and Decrement Operators 231

5.2 Introduction to Loops: The while Loop 236

5.3 Using the while Loop for Input Validation 243

5.4 Counters 245

5.5 The do-while Loop 246

5.6 The for Loop 251

5.7 Keeping a Running Total 261

5.8 Sentinels 264

5.9 Focus on Software Engineering: Deciding Which Loop to

Use 265

5.10 Nested Loops 266

 5.11 Using Files for Data Storage 269

5.12 Optional Topics: Breaking and Continuing a Loop 288

Review Questions and Exercises 292

Programming Challenges 297

CHAPTER 6 Functions 305

6.1 Focus on Software Engineering: Modular Programming
305

6.2 Defining and Calling Functions 306

6.3 Function Prototypes 315

6.4 Sending Data into a Function 317

6.5 Passing Data by Value 322

6.6 Focus on Software Engineering: Using Functions in a

Menu-Driven Program 324

6.7 The return Statement 328

6.8 Returning a Value from a Function 330

6.9 Returning a Boolean Value 338

6.10 Local and Global Variables 340

6.11 Static Local Variables 348

6.12 Default Arguments 351

6.13 Using Reference Variables as Parameters 354

6.14 Overloading Functions 360

 6.15 The exit() Function 364

6.16 Stubs and Drivers 367

Review Questions and Exercises 369

Programming Challenges 372

CHAPTER 7 Arrays and Vectors 381

7.1 Arrays Hold Multiple Values 381

7.2 Accessing Array Elements 383

7.3 No Bounds Checking in C++ 395

7.4 The Range-Based for Loop 398

7.5 Processing Array Contents 402

7.6 Focus on Software Engineering: Using Parallel Arrays

410

7.7 Arrays as Function Arguments 413

7.8 Two-Dimensional Arrays 424

7.9 Arrays with Three or More Dimensions 431

7.10 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: A Case

Study 433

7.11 Introduction to the STL vector 435

Review Questions and Exercises 449

Programming Challenges 454

CHAPTER 8 Searching and Sorting Arrays 463
8.1 Focus on Software Engineering: Introduction to Search
Algorithms 463

8.2 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: A Case

Study 469

8.3 Focus on Software Engineering: Introduction to Sorting

Algorithms 476

8.4 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: A Case

Study 486

8.5 Sorting and Searching vectors 495

Review Questions and Exercises 498

Programming Challenges 499

CHAPTER 9 Pointers 503

9.1 Getting the Address of a Variable 503

9.2 Pointer Variables 505

9.3 The Relationship between Arrays and Pointers 512

9.4 Pointer Arithmetic 516

9.5 Initializing Pointers 518

9.6 Comparing Pointers 519

9.7 Pointers as Function Parameters 521

9.8 Dynamic Memory Allocation 530

 9.9 Returning Pointers from Functions 534

9.10 Using Smart Pointers to Avoid Memory Leaks 541

9.11 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: A Case

Study 544
Review Questions and Exercises 550

Programming Challenges 553

CHAPTER 10 Characters, C-Strings, and More about the string

Class 557
10.1 Character Testing 557

10.2 Character Case Conversion 561

10.3 C-Strings 564

10.4 Library Functions for Working with C-Strings 568

10.5 String/Numeric Conversion Functions 579

10.6 Focus on Software Engineering: Writing Your Own C-

String-Handling Functions 585

10.7 More about the C++ string Class 591

10.8 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: A Case

Study 603

Review Questions and Exercises 604

Programming Challenges 607

CHAPTER 11 Structured Data 613
11.1 Abstract Data Types 613

11.2 Structures 615

11.3 Accessing Structure Members 618

11.4 Initializing a Structure 622

11.5 Arrays of Structures 625

11.6 Focus on Software Engineering: Nested Structures 627

11.7 Structures as Function Arguments 631

11.8 Returning a Structure from a Function 634

11.9 Pointers to Structures 637

11.10 Focus on Software Engineering: When to Use., When to

Use −>, and When to Use * 640

11.11 Enumerated Data Types 642

Review Questions and Exercises 653

Programming Challenges 659

CHAPTER 12 Advanced File Operations 665

12.1 File Operations 665

12.2 File Output Formatting 671

12.3 Passing File Stream Objects to Functions 673

12.4 More Detailed Error Testing 675

Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
 12.5 Member Functions for Reading and Writing Files 678

12.6 Focus on Software Engineering: Working with Multiple

Files 686

12.7 Binary Files 688

12.8 Creating Records with Structures 693

12.9 Random-Access Files 697

12.10 Opening a File for Both Input and Output 705

Review Questions and Exercises 710

Programming Challenges 713

CHAPTER 13 Introduction to Classes 719

13.1 Procedural and Object-Oriented Programming 719

13.2 Introduction to Classes 726

13.3 Defining an Instance of a Class 731

13.4 Why Have Private Members? 744

13.5 Focus on Software Engineering: Separating Class

Specification from Implementation 745

13.6 Inline Member Functions 751

13.7 Constructors 754

13.8 Passing Arguments to Constructors 759

13.9 Destructors 767

13.10 Overloading Constructors 771

 13.11 Private Member Functions 775

13.12 Arrays of Objects 777

13.13 Focus on Problem Solving and Program Design: An

OOP Case Study 781

13.14 Focus on Object-Oriented Programming: Simulating

Dice with Objects 788

13.15 Focus on Object-Oriented Design: The Unified Modeling

Language (UML) 792

13.16 Focus on Object-Oriented Design: Finding the Classes

and Their Responsibilities 794
Review Questions and Exercises 803

Programming Challenges 808

CHAPTER 14 More about Classes 817

14.1 Instance and Static Members 817

14.2 Friends of Classes 825

14.3 Memberwise Assignment 830

14.4 Copy Constructors 831

14.5 Operator Overloading 837

14.6 Object Conversion 864

14.7 Aggregation 866

14.8 Focus on Object-Oriented Design: Class

Collaborations 871
 14.9 Focus on Object-Oriented Programming: Simulating the
Game of Cho-Han 876

14.10 Rvalue References and Move Semantics 886

Review Questions and Exercises 895

Programming Challenges 900

CHAPTER 15 Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Virtual

Functions 907
15.1 What Is Inheritance? 907

15.2 Protected Members and Class Access 916

15.3 Constructors and Destructors in Base and Derived

Classes 922

15.4 Redefining Base Class Functions 936

15.5 Class Hierarchies 941

15.6 Polymorphism and Virtual Member Functions 947

15.7 Abstract Base Classes and Pure Virtual Functions 963

15.8 Multiple Inheritance 970

Review Questions and Exercises 977

Programming Challenges 981

Appendix A: The ASCII Character Set 989

Appendix B: Operator Precedence and Associativity 991

Quick References 993

Index 995

Online The following appendices are available at

www.pearson.com/gaddis.

Appendix C: Introduction to Flowcharting

Appendix D: Using UML in Class Design

Appendix E: Namespaces

Appendix F: Passing Command Line Arguments

Appendix G: Binary Numbers and Bitwise Operations

Appendix H: STL Algorithms

Appendix I: Multi-Source File Programs

Appendix J: Stream Member Functions for Formatting

Appendix K: Unions

Appendix L: Answers to Checkpoints

Appendix M: Answers to Odd Numbered Review Questions

Case Study 1: String Manipulation

Case Study 2: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 1

Case Study 3: Loan Amortization

Case Study 4: Creating a String Class

Case Study 5: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 2

Case Study 6: High Adventure Travel Agency—Part 3

Case Study 7: Intersection of Sets

Case Study 8: Sales Commission

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
Hammond gave a smile, like that of Mr. Charles Hawtrey on the
stage when his stage mother-in-law enters and announces that she
has come to spend a stage-day with him.
“How much this time, dean?”
The Dean of Colchester drew back; then he put his head on one side
and smiled indulgently on his victim.
“He is too bad, isn’t he?” This was to Lady Victoria. “But, do you
know, I really was going to write to you this week.”
“How much?” Hammond repeated, drearily.
“Lady Victoria, I appeal to you. I am sure you must think me quite
mercenary.”
“Hadn’t you better tell him?” suggested the matter-of-fact Victoria.
The dean shook his head in protest.
“I am actually silenced. The fact is that we are just raising a fund to
restore the north tower of the Cathedral, and I thought that, as you
had been so generous before, you might possibly see your way to
give us some assistance.”
“How much?”
“No, really! But if you did feel disposed to do something, however
small—”
The voice of the machine was again heard in the offing:
“Mr. Septimus Jones!”
“You had better make haste,” said Victoria to the dean.
The dean cast an imploring look at Hammond.
“I am so ashamed! May I really throw myself on your generosity?”
“How much?”
“I couldn’t possibly—” The curtain was lifted from outside. “Well, fifty
pounds?” Hammond took out a pocket-book and began to scribble a
memorandum in it. “This is too good of you. I assure you I never
expected it.”
The curtain had admitted a pale youth, with light-colored hair, parted
in the middle, who held a pair of gloves furtively in one hand, having
plainly just made the discovery that no one else had brought gloves,
and being distracted in consequence by a desire to smuggle them
into a pocket unperceived.
Victoria greeted him with suspicious cordiality.
“It is too bad of you to come so late, Mr. Jones. I haven’t enjoyed
myself a bit.”
“No, Lady Victoria, you mustn’t blame me.” At this point he made an
effort to slip the hand which contained the gloves into a tail-pocket,
but catching the unconscious eye of the dean fixed, as he supposed,
on the offending articles, he drew them out again hastily. “I couldn’t
get here sooner. My brougham wasn’t ready.”
“You should have come in a cab.”
“No, Lady Victoria, I am sure you don’t mean that I could have come
in a horrid cab. I would as soon walk.”
“Don’t you ride a bicycle?”
“Oh yes, Lady Victoria, of course I ride a bicycle—in the morning, in
the Park, you know, but not in the streets. You don’t mean that I
could have come here on a bicycle, do you?”
By this time he had dexterously transferred the gloves to his other
hand, and was again cautiously feeling his way round to his coat-
tails, when a sudden movement of Hammond’s, who had just
completed his business with the dean, caused the unfortunate youth
to take fright and once more relinquish his half-executed design.
“I am afraid you are not in earnest, Mr. Jones.”
“Oh yes, Lady Victoria, I am very earnest. Everybody says I am very
earnest. I take life quite seriously—I do, indeed. I go to all sorts of
lectures and that kind of thing, you know, to improve my mind.”
“You will have to be careful, then,” put in Hammond as he came up,
“or they will make you give them a testimonial, and advertise you in
all the papers as a marvellous cure.”
Mr. Jones shrank back.
“Ah, now, Hammond, I am afraid of you, because you are so
sarcastic. He was sarcastic then, wasn’t he, Lady Victoria?”
“Not very,” replied the person appealed to. The next instant she gave
an imperceptible start.
“Captain Mauleverer!”
“But if you two are going to quarrel I shall go into the next room,”
Victoria went on, quickly, beginning to move away.
“Oh no, Lady Victoria,” Mr. Jones remonstrated; “I never quarrel. I
am a subscriber to the Peace Society—I really am.”
The Dean of Colchester looked round.
“Then I can leave you in perfect safety,” retorted Victoria, gliding off.
“Dear me! I am afraid that Lady Victoria is sarcastic, too,” Mr. Jones
observed, sagaciously, looking after her. “Don’t you think so,
Hammond?”
“I have suspected her of it sometimes; but she never admits it, and
it is so difficult to prove these things.”
“I will ask the dean; I am sure he is not sarcastic—are you, dean?”
“My dear fellow,” Hammond interrupted, “I am surprised that you
should ask such a question. A sarcastic dean would be a moral
outrage. You might as well speak of a malicious cathedral.”
The dean thought of his fifty pounds, and smiled like an early
Christian martyr commencing an interview with a sharp-set lion.
At this point Hammond’s attention was diverted by the entrance of
the latest arrival. As he turned away to greet him, the dean laid a
caressing hand on Mr. Jones’s arm.
“Did I hear you say just now that you were a subscriber to—”
Mr. Jones gave a glance round. He was alone with the dean, and the
dean was on the wrong side of him. There was no human eye to see
the deed. With one swift movement he succeeded in depositing his
gloves in their long-sought hiding-place, and then suffered himself to
fall an unresisting prey to the north tower of the Colchester
Cathedral.
Captain Mauleverer’s face wore a decidedly cross expression as he
came into the room. At the sight of Hammond it lighted up, and the
two shook hands like old friends.
“So you patronize my aunt’s menagerie?” the captain observed,
disrespectfully.
“Well, yes.”
“I should have thought you had too much sense.”
“My dear fellow, you are here yourself,” returned Hammond.
The captain gave an impatient shrug.
“I know, but I shouldn’t be if I could help it. It’s a beastly bore. You
can’t smoke, and you can’t drink, and you are expected to sit beside
some sentimental woman of fifty and let her gush to you over some
beastly novel you haven’t read, and wouldn’t understand if you had.”
Hammond shook his head with a reproving smile.
“Yes, but you should remember that we are not here to please
ourselves. We are here to please society.”
“Why should you care about society? You’re not a damned pauper
like me. You have everything you want.”
“No one on the face of the earth has everything he wants,”
Hammond retorted. “But I see what it is; you are out of sorts.
What’s the matter?”
Mauleverer’s only answer was a despairing shrug.
“Been backing a horse?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“What is it, then? Cards?”
“No.”
“Not drink?” in a tone of incredulity.
“No, no.”
“Tell me.”
The captain hesitated for a moment before he gave the answer:
“Girl.”
Hammond let a mild exclamation of surprise escape him. Then he
looked at his friend with a certain air of sympathy.
“What should you say if I were to tell you that you and I were in the
same boat, old man?”
“You?” The other stared at him in amazement. “You don’t mean to
say that there is any girl in England who would refuse you?”
“Suppose there were a girl whom I hadn’t the courage to ask, not
because I was afraid of her refusing me, but because I was afraid of
her accepting me?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Suppose I had to choose between her and my ambition? Suppose I
knew that if I were to ask her to be my wife I might have to
abandon my whole career, because society would forbid the banns?”
“I never thought of that,” murmured his friend.
“This very morning,” Hammond went on, “I had a letter from a man
who thinks he is acting in my interests to warn me against the
woman I love.”
“That is rather rough on you, old man.”
Hammond smiled bitterly.
“You see, even a damned millionaire can’t have everything he
wants.”
“Miss Yorke!”
The name caused a sensation. Heads were turned from all
directions, and the Dean of Colchester and his victim hurried back to
the neighborhood of the doorway where Hammond and Mauleverer
were standing. At the same time Mr. Despencer slipped in from the
next room, and stealthily approached the group.
“What Miss Yorke is that?” asked Mauleverer, innocently.
“The Miss Yorke, I believe, popularly known as Belle Yorke,”
Despencer took it on himself to answer. He affected to keep his eyes
turned away from Hammond.
“Belle Yorke!” exclaimed Mr. Septimus Jones, with enthusiasm. “Oh, I
dote upon her! I think she is perfectly lovely—don’t you,
Hammond?”
“Yes.”
The Dean of Colchester gave a sound like an ecclesiastical purr.
“Now, this is very fortunate! I have so often wished to see her, but,
of course, I daren’t go to those places where she sings. It is so
thoughtful of the marchioness to bring her here. Ahem! isn’t there
something or other said about her?”
“They say plenty of things about her, but God knows how much of it
is true,” remarked Mauleverer.
“Oh, but Mauleverer,” Mr. Jones burst in, “you know when people say
so much it must be some of it true, mustn’t it?”
Hammond turned and looked at the three men, one after the other,
and then his eyes wandered to Despencer, who was standing by,
with a sneer on his thin lips. Here were these four men all looking at
the matter from different points of view, none of them apparently
with any reason to wish ill to Belle Yorke, two of them evidently
friendly towards her, and yet they all doubted her alike.
Before he could speak he saw a sudden change come over their
faces. A man had just come hurriedly through the doorway leading
from the reception-room. It was the Marquis of Severn; and he was
in full dress, with the blue ribbon of the Garter across his shirt-front.
He caught sight of his nephew, and strode up to him, his face
working with emotion.
“Here, Gerald, come this way; I want to speak to you!” he
exclaimed, without heeding the presence of the others.
He seized Mauleverer’s arm, and half led, half thrust him out of the
room. One or two of the by-standers saw what was happening, and
smiled. Hammond turned sharply on Despencer, whose smile was
peculiarly malicious.
“I shall be obliged if you can come with me into the conservatory for
five minutes. I wish to speak to you privately,” he said.
Despencer bowed with an air of bland unconcern, and followed him,
while the voice outside sounded again:
“Alderman Dobbin!”
 SCENE VII
A QUESTION OF CHEMISTRY

In order to reach the conservatory Hammond and Despencer had to

thread their way through the concert-room. But their task was
rendered easier by the fact that Belle Yorke was just standing up to
sing. The mob, attracted partly by her reputation as a singer, and
partly by the story in circulation about her and their host, whose
hurried exit on her appearance had not gone unremarked, were
crowding towards that end of the saloon where the piano stood, and
thus the two men were able to make their way round the wall at the
deserted end.
As Hammond had anticipated, they found the conservatory empty. It
was little more than a long, narrow balcony, roofed over with glass,
and running along the side of the house.
Hammond was the first to reach it, but he stood back to allow
Despencer to enter. Despencer walked past him after a deprecating
shrug and bow, and then turned to meet his questioner, who came
in quickly, shutting the door behind them.
For a moment the two men stood face to face, scrutinizing each
other like two duellists who are uncertain of each other’s play.
Hammond’s gaze was stern and threatening. Despencer’s, equally
unflinching, was that of a man who does not quite know what is
required of him, but has nothing to fear or to conceal.
The situation was exactly what he had foreseen and desired. His
former reference to Belle Yorke had had the appearance of being
accidental. He had been far too clever to seek to press it home at
the time. Now, if Hammond himself chose to revive the subject of
his own accord, anything that Despencer might say would appear to
be dragged out of him against his will. He felt perfectly satisfied with
his play, so far. He still held all his best cards in reserve, and he had
thrown the lead into his adversary’s hands.
“Well, what is the mystery?” he said, lightly, after waiting some time
for Hammond to speak.
“I want to ask you for some explanation of what you said the other
afternoon.”
Despencer was mildly amazed.
“What did I say? I really don’t remember,” he murmured.
“About Miss Yorke. You referred to some story about her—some
report connecting her name with Lord Severn’s.”
Despencer drew back; his manner became reproachful.
“Oh, but, my dear sir, you must see that that was pure inadvertence
on my part. I was not to know that the lady was a friend of yours.”
It was impossible to quarrel with a man who showed himself so
perfectly polite and, at the same time, so perfectly indifferent.
Hammond’s tone lost some of its hostility.
“That is not the point. Till you spoke, I had never heard of the
existence of this—slander.” The momentary hesitation before the
word did not escape the watchful Despencer. “You have spoken,
fortunately or unfortunately, and, now I have heard of it, I cannot
rest till I know more.”
“Is that necessary?”
The tone in which the question was put made it a friendly
remonstrance, as much as if Despencer had said: “My dear fellow,
you want to think well of this woman. Why persist in making me
undeceive you?”
Hammond felt the implied warning in all its force. Nevertheless he
answered:
“Yes, it is necessary. The matter cannot end like this; I have a
motive for pursuing it. You heard what those other men said when
Miss Yorke was announced. I must be able to satisfy myself that this
statement is without foundation.”
Despencer could not quite resist a sneer.
“I should think that was easy enough. You have only to ask the lady
if she knows Lord Severn.”
Hammond frowned impatiently as he said, aloud, but rather to
himself than to Despencer:
“And what will be her answer?”
Despencer smiled compassionately.
“Judging from my own experience in such cases, I should say that
the lady’s answer would be ‘No.’”
For a minute Hammond stood irresolute. Despencer’s sneer had
shown him where he stood. Instead of silencing a slanderer, he was
discussing the truth of the slander with the man who had uttered it.
If he had really had confidence in the woman he had undertaken to
defend, it was to her, not to this cynical stranger, that he ought to
have been addressing his inquiries. He felt bitterly conscious of his
false position, yet he could not resist going on.
“Where did you hear this rumor?” he asked, after a brief pause,
during which Despencer had closely watched every shade of
expression on his face.
“I can hardly tell you, I have heard it from so many quarters,” was
the careless reply. “I thought everybody knew it.”
“Do you mean by that that everybody believes it?” demanded
Hammond.
“Yes; but that is no reason why you should, if you would rather not.
Take my advice, treat it as a mere passing calumny, and forget all
about it.”
Hammond glanced at him questioningly.
“And you, Despencer—of course, you believe this?”
“Well, yes; but I shall be happy to withdraw it.”
Despencer’s mocking smile was lost upon Hammond. He muttered:
“I must get at the truth.”
“Far better not,” observed the cynic. “The truth is sometimes very
disagreeable. I myself much prefer to be told pleasant falsehoods.”
“And to tell them, I suppose?”
Despencer did not wince.
“I am always anxious to oblige,” he answered, pointedly.
“You have no prejudice against Miss Yorke?” was Hammond’s next
question.
“I have no prejudices at all, I can assure you. I am a most broad-
minded person.”
“It would make no difference to you, I suppose, if this report were
true? It wouldn’t injure her in your opinion?”
“On the contrary, it would greatly increase my respect for her.”
Hammond seemed to be trying to sound the depths of his
companion’s character.
“I congratulate you. But you wouldn’t marry her?”
Despencer drew back, and shook his head with an amused air.
“Oh no! I am afraid I am not broad-minded enough for that.”
“Why not?”
“I couldn’t outrage decency, you know. Society would think me
worse than the marquis.”
“Damn society!”
“Oh, it is damned already,” said Despencer, quickly. “But even down
below there are certain regulations which must be respected. There
is an etiquette of Pandemonium.”
Hammond gave him another thoughtful look.
“You are a very clever man, Despencer, but, do you know, you
almost make immorality tedious. If you are not careful, people will
begin to get bored by vice, and virtue will become the fashion.”
“That is not a bad idea. There is always something attractive in
novelty.”
Again Hammond reflected for a minute, and again he resumed his
questioning.
“Tell me, has the marchioness heard this rumor?”
Despencer had not been expecting this question, and it nearly threw
him off his guard. His eye met Hammond’s for a moment before he
answered.
“I should hardly think so, or she wouldn’t have had her here. That
would have been too daring, even for her.”
“It would be equally daring for her to come here if there were
anything in it. Surely her very presence here proves her innocence?”
“Yes; but what about Lord Severn’s absence? You saw him hurry out
the moment she arrived?”
“My God, yes!” The words were dragged from Hammond in a burst
of anguish. “There is some damned mystery in this!” he muttered
between his teeth.
“Of course, it may be a mere coincidence,” the tempter threw in,
artfully. “But I am always so suspicious of coincidences.”
Hammond was not listening. A new idea had occurred to him.
“I have a great mind to go to Severn himself, and put myself in his
hands. But, then, of course, one couldn’t trust him,” he added,
regretfully.
“He is a man of honor,” objected the other.
“And when the good name of a woman is at stake, men of honor
always lie,” was the stern retort. “Oh would to Heaven you had
either never told me this, or else proved it up to the very hilt.”
“I didn’t speak out of any zeal for morality, you may be sure. I had
simply heard the common talk, and I naturally assumed that it was
true.”
“Why?”
Despencer gave a delicate, self-satisfied smile.
“When there is any doubt, I always believe the worst. I find I am
seldom wrong.”
Hammond stepped back, with an indignant gesture. He was
beginning to feel ashamed of the discussion.
“And you can stand like that and smile away a reputation!” he
exclaimed. “I wonder what they made you of.”
“I believe a chemical analysis of me would yield the ordinary results,”
returned Despencer, with unruffled composure. “I rather think that
hydrogen is the principal ingredient.”
Hammond gave a short laugh.
“Despencer, I begin actually to respect you. It can be no easy thing
to attain to such a height of perfect brutality as yours. You must
have taken great pains with yourself.”
“You may say what you like, Hammond, as long as you are not
violent. I always draw the line at violence.”
“Do you have to draw it often?”
Even the trained and admirable temper of Despencer gave way
under this taunt, and a red flush suffused his pale cheeks.
“Hammond, do you mean to be insulting?”
“Why, do you mind much? I should have thought the hydrogen
would have stood it.”
The words were drowned in a sudden crash of music and hand-
clapping as the door behind them opened, and Captain Mauleverer
came through with Belle Yorke on his arm.
Despencer drew to one side with a bow as they approached.
“Ah, captain, taking Lord Severn’s place, I see,” he remarked, with a
sarcastic emphasis intended for Hammond’s ear, and passed back
into the concert-room.
Mauleverer stared after him as if he had been some noxious animal.
“What has that damned cad—beg pardon, Miss Yorke—been doing
here?” he demanded of Hammond.
“Oh, only taking away some one’s character.”
“Not mine, I hope,” said Belle, with a smile.
“No, not in Hammond’s hearing, I’ll swear,” said the loyal captain.
“It was too bad of you to go outside just as I was going to sing,”
said Belle to the silent Hammond. “I shall expect an explanation.”
“I have been waiting here to give it to you,” was the grave answer.
“You seem quite serious about it. I am sure Mr. Despencer has been
saying something against me.”
Captain Mauleverer put in a word.
“I can’t let you give your explanation now, because Miss Yorke has
promised to sit out this next piece with me. You must wait your turn,
old fellow.”
“What does Miss Yorke say?” asked the other.
“I say what they say at the libraries about the book of the season.
You shall have me when the captain has done with me.” She turned
merrily to the captain. “But you mustn’t skip, you know. I shall allow
you fourteen minutes for perusal.”
“I want to read you through,” said Hammond. And he went out.
 SCENE VIII
CINDERELLA

“How very sober Mr. Hammond seems to-night! I hope he isn’t going
to be cross.”
Though she spoke gayly enough, a vague sense of ill was stealing
over her. She sat down on a low cane settee, over which flowering
shrubs made a sort of canopy, and a sadness seemed to breathe in
the heavy scent of tuberose and stephanotis.
Captain Mauleverer placed himself beside her, and looked at her with
a certain respectful pity as he answered:
“That isn’t likely. I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy to be cross with you,
Miss Yorke.”
Belle detected something in his voice which increased her
foreboding.
“You look as grave as Mr. Hammond. Is anything the matter?”
“Yes, I’m afraid there is.”
The moment he had spoken the words he wished them unuttered.
The light faded out of the beautiful eyes, and a pathetic sadness
took its place.
“Oh, please don’t tell me that!” she pleaded. “I am enjoying myself
so much this evening.”
“Are you? I am glad of that,” said Mauleverer, tugging uneasily at his
mustache.
“Yes; I have never been to a place like this before, you know, and it
is all so strange and beautiful. I am a little bit afraid of the
Marchioness of Severn, but every one else has been so kind that I
haven’t felt myself a stranger. I feel almost like the little chimney-
sweep who wandered by accident into the state bedroom of the
castle, and turned out to be the rightful heir. Please don’t send me
back to my chimney.”
The captain swallowed something in his throat.
“I wish I hadn’t promised to, but the fact is I have undertaken to
give you a message.”
This time Belle turned to him with a look of something like alarm.
“Can’t you put it off till to-morrow? Do let me have my dream out to-
night.”
Mauleverer shook himself.
“Hang it! I have a great mind to,” he exclaimed.
“Please do, if it is an unkind message. I didn’t think I had any
enemies.”
“You have none—at least, I don’t believe you have. It isn’t that.
What I have promised to tell you is something about yourself,
something you ought to know.”
“Something about myself! Oh, what do you mean? I haven’t been
doing anything wrong, have I?”
Captain Mauleverer bit his lip and looked more than half inclined to
run away. Then he said, slowly:
“Perhaps I should have said—something about your father.”
“My father!” She gazed at him in astonishment. “But he is dead! He
died before I was born.”
“No!”
The answer struck her dumb. She sat still and pressed her hand
against her heart. The man replied to her unspoken questions with a
grave shake of the head.
“My father is not dead? Oh, Captain Mauleverer, what are you
saying? What do you know about him?”
“I wish I didn’t have to speak to you like this. Your father is alive.”
“And they have always told me he was dead! My mother— Captain
Mauleverer, are you sure of what you say?”
“I am. I know your father.”
“Then why—” She broke off in the midst of the question and wrung
her hands. “Ah! I begin to understand. My father has done
something that has made them hide his existence from me. And you
are going to tell me what it is.”
“I—well, I promised that I would.”
She gave a half-sob.
“You may go on now. I find that I am only the little chimney-
sweeper after all. But stay!” A fresh thought struck her with
overwhelming force. “Perhaps this is some mistake after all. You say
my father is alive, but did you know that my mother had been
married again?”
The captain clenched his fists.
“God forgive me—I can’t tell you!”
“Then—then there is only one explanation, Captain Mauleverer.” She
hid her face in her hands for a minute, and then raised it again and
looked him bravely in the face. “Is that it? Tell me the truth.”
Mauleverer sprang from his seat.
“No, I’m damned if I do!”
A burst of music and a babble of tongues told them that the door
had opened again, and some one else was coming in. It was the
Marchioness of Severn, and she was alone.
Belle rose from her seat dry-eyed.
“Ah, Miss Yorke, they told me I should find you here. That will do,
Gerald. Miss Yorke and I are going to have a little talk. Pray sit down
again.”
Belle resumed her seat in silence, with an inward dread of what was
in store for her next, while Captain Mauleverer walked off with the
hang-dog air of a man who feels he has made a brute of himself.
The marchioness sat down beside her guest.
“I have to thank you for a most delightful evening. You sang most
charmingly. I almost wish I hadn’t asked you for that one called
‘Little Willy,’ though. I am so sensitive. You almost made me cry—
you did, indeed.”
Belle stole a timid glance at her.
“It is very kind of you to praise me so much. That song of mine has
always been a favorite.”
“I don’t wonder at it. Dear, sweet little thing, freezing to death like
that! Why didn’t some one give him a seal-skin jacket? And do you
really sing things like that at those dreadful places in Leicester
Square?”
Belle began to feel uncomfortable. The patronage it was difficult to
resent, but the hinted disparagement roused her courage.
“I am sorry you think them dreadful,” she said, modestly but quite
firmly, “because, you know, I have to sing there for my living.”
The marchioness’s determined good-nature was not to be turned
aside.
“No, no; of course, I ought not to have called them that before you.
But one reads such shocking things about them in the newspapers
when they apply for their licenses to the County Council. I’m sure I
hope it isn’t half of it true.”
“I hope you won’t be offended if I stand up for them,” Belle
persisted, bravely. “I must be loyal to my own profession, mustn’t I?”
“Of course! Of course! Most properly. I hope—in fact, I am sure, that
they have done you no harm. But I have heard so much about these
places, and the life, that it makes me feel the very gravest doubt. I
take an interest in you, Miss Yorke, and I should be so sorry if you
were to lower yourself by your connection with the music-halls.”
Still bleeding from the wound dealt her in all respectful kindness by
the man who had been with her just before, Belle roused herself to
ward off the more envenomed stabs of the woman who was with her
now.
“I don’t intend to lower myself, or to let myself be lowered, by any
place I may go to,” she said, with dignity, looking the marchioness in
the face.
The marchioness smiled on her like a mother.
“That is right. I am so glad to hear you say that. But you can’t be
too careful, you know. The world is so censorious. Society has very
keen ears for the least whisper against a woman’s name.”
This time Belle realized that there was some serious purpose
beneath her persecutor’s moralizing. She turned on her indignantly.
“I hope you don’t mean that society has been listening to any
whispers against my name!” she cried.
The marchioness put out her hands with a soothing gesture.
“Oh, no—not yet, at all events. Still, as I say, you cannot be too
careful in your unfortunate position. I thought I ought to take the
opportunity of giving you a friendly warning. It is so easy to check a
thing of this kind at the outset, but afterwards it may be too late.”
“I am afraid I don’t understand you yet,” said Belle, in a carefully
measured voice which would have betrayed the rising anger to a
duller ear than the Marchioness of Severn’s. “Do you mean to say
that there is anything for me to check?”
The marchioness, becoming slightly nervous, tried to beat about the
bush.
“No, no; I won’t go so far as that. I don’t put it in that way—merely
a possibility, that is all. Of course, it is very natural that the men who
go to such places should admire you, with your voice and figure;
only don’t let one particular man admire you more openly than the
rest. You understand me?”
Belle’s voice became cold and metallic.
“Do you mean that there is some one whose name has been
associated with mine as an admirer more than the rest?”
The marchioness bowed and smiled.
“That is just it. You have put it very nicely.”
“May I ask you to tell me his name?”
The marchioness threw a glance of mild reproach at her young
friend.
“Surely, my dear Miss Yorke, you must know that! Every one tells me
that his attentions have been most marked—Mr. Hammond.”
The marchioness brought out the name with a jerk, watching her
victim keenly the while. But Belle gave her no assurance, by so
much as the flutter of an eyelid, that the shaft had gone home.
“Mr. Hammond’s attentions to me have always been perfectly
respectful.”
The marchioness positively bubbled over with shame at the implied
suggestion that she had thought otherwise.
“Of course! Naturally! But you know, my dear girl, that society will
take a very different view. Society is so incredulous. It never believes
that a man’s friendship for a woman is perfectly respectful.”
“Not when he asks her to become his wife?” Belle could not resist
the question.
“That is quite different.” The marchioness suddenly became the
great lady. “We are not talking of that, as you know. Mr. Hammond is
not one of those foolish young men who marry a girl out of their
own class and regret it ever afterwards. You must put that idea out
of your head at once, believe me. I am speaking as your friend and
as a woman of the world.”
Belle looked at her friend for a moment with a silence that had
something satirical in it.
“What is Mr. Hammond’s class?”
“Don’t you know? Mr. Hammond is a millionaire. He moves in the
very best society. He could marry almost any woman in England,
except royalty. I know dukes, even, who would feel honored by an
alliance with Mr. Hammond.”
All this time it had not occurred to Belle, in her simplicity, that she
could possibly be regarded by the great lady beside her as a rival,
and a dangerous rival, to her own daughter. She only felt that
something very dear to her was at stake, and she wrestled for it
blindly.
“Is that simply because he is rich?” she demanded, with the scorn
which youth always feels for wealth.
“Not entirely,” the marchioness answered, mildly, “though, of course,
that has a great deal to do with it. But Mr. Hammond comes of a
most respectable family, I believe. I have heard that his father was
quite a gentleman towards the end of his life. And then he has a fine
political career before him; he is in Parliament, and may be in the
Cabinet. You can’t expect him to throw all that away to marry you,
my dear.”
Belle began to fear that she was going to be beaten.
“And would he? Would it be such a very great disgrace?” she
murmured below her breath.
“I don’t say that it would,” replied her deeply sympathizing friend;
“but society would consider it so. You see, we can none of us do all
that we like. There are many things that I should like to do, but I
dare not. We all feel inclined to rebel sometimes and gratify our own
inclinations, but we are restrained by a higher law.”
“What higher law is there than the loyal instinct of our own hearts?”
demanded Belle, with a flash of indignation.
“My dear, the prejudices of society! Its feelings must be respected.
We have to mould our lives accordingly.”
“Why? Why should we obey such a code? Why should we cringe to
this bogie you call society? Why should we make ourselves slaves to
one another’s shadows?”
The marchioness drew herself up and regarded her young friend
with real pain.
“Miss Yorke, you quite surprise me. I am shocked to hear you use
such language. Do you realize what you are saying? You called
society a bogie!”
“I was wrong. It is something more.”
“It is true that its dictates sometimes appear harsh and
unreasonable, but that is the same for all of us. Why should you
expect to be an exception to the rule more than others?”
“Shall I tell you?” All the bitterness of her newly acquired knowledge
rang out in Belle’s voice. “Because I am one of the victims of society;
because it placed its brand upon me before ever I was born. Society
has made me an outlaw, and therefore I owe it no allegiance, and I
will give it none. You tell me that because I am a public singer I
have no right to the friendship of an honorable man; that there are
whispers in circulation against my name already. Let them whisper! I
have done with all that. I shall not abandon my friends at society’s
bidding, and I won’t give up the man I love because it tells me—I
won’t do it!”
The marchioness rose, deeply shocked and grieved.
“Really, I can’t stay here—”
Again the sudden loudness of the sounds from the concert-room.
Again the door stood open, and John Hammond in the doorway.
 SCENE IX
AND THE PRINCE

The moment she saw who had come into the conservatory the
marchioness sat down again promptly, and with a decision which
spoke volumes for her intention to remain.
Hammond advanced, and recognized the marchioness with a look of
wonder.
“Where is Mauleverer?” he inquired.
“I sent Gerald away,” replied the marchioness, with an intonation
which plainly added: “And I should like to send you away, too.”
“That was considerate of you,” retorted Hammond, with a pleasant
smile.
There was a vacant space on the seat between the two women, and
he took possession of it with a cool deliberateness which appeared
to cause the marchioness some dismay.
“I wanted to have a little private chat with Miss Yorke,” she
observed, stiffly.
“The very thing I wanted, too. You have done me out of my turn,
hasn’t she, Miss Yorke? You are positively quite a cuckoo, my dear
marchioness.”
The marchioness made a painful effort to smile.
“I am not at all sure that I shall allow you to speak to Miss Yorke,”
she responded, trying to look past him at Belle herself.
On Hammond’s entrance Belle had shrunk back with a certain
apprehension which had afforded secret satisfaction to her hostess.
She now waited in silence, nervously plucking at the leaves of a
camellia which brushed her shoulder where she sat.
“Now she is under my roof,” pursued the marchioness, “I feel in the
position of her guardian. I regard you as a very dangerous
character.”
A smile of bitter irony gleamed for a moment on Hammond’s lips.
“I rather think you must be right. I don’t know why it is, but I am
feeling in a peculiarly lawless mood this evening. If Miss Yorke were
not here, I am not at all sure that your diamonds would be safe.”
Something in the manner of this speech, rather than in the words,
caused the marchioness to move several inches farther off along the
settee. It was a distinct shock to her to hear the Severn diamonds
made the subject of coarse jocularity. The one in the centre of her
bosom had been given to the first Mauleverer by King John as a
reward for resisting the agitation for Magna Charta. Those in the
tiara above her forehead had been brought into the family by a left-
handed daughter of John of Gaunt. The value of the whole was
nearly a year’s income of the much-mortgaged Severn estates.
“Really, Mr. Hammond, you speak so strangely that if I didn’t know
you so well I should think something was the matter with you.”
It was necessary to let her ladyship see clearly that she was out of
place. Hammond cast on her a look which she had not seen in his
eyes before.
“Do you know me well? Does any of us know another well? Don’t
we, most of us, drift through life with our eyes half closed, ignorant
of our aims, ignorant of our very natures, till some shock comes to
awaken us, and in the moment of trial we find out for the first time
who and what we really are?”
A subtle instinct told him, before he had finished speaking, that his
words were being eagerly followed by the girl who sat on his right
hand. On the marchioness they fell with something of the effect of a
cold spray. She shivered and got up.
“Ah, yes, of course, all that is very true, no doubt,” she murmured,
hastily. “But I must really be going back to look after the people.”
She turned a feline glance on Belle. “I wouldn’t sit out here too long
if I were you, Miss Yorke; you may catch cold.”
“Thank you; I am not afraid of that,” was the quiet answer.
The marchioness turned her eyes from one to the other, pursed up
her lips with severity, and reluctantly retreated.
Hammond watched her exit with a sarcastic smile.
“I am afraid the marchioness believes I have been drinking,” he
observed.
The cynicism jarred on Belle as harshly as the seriousness had jarred
on the marchioness. There is no woman who can respond to a man
through all his moods, not even she who loves him best.
“I wonder how much truth there is in what you said just now?”
Hammond turned and fixed an earnest gaze on her. He saw her for
the first time in his experience with a troubled brow, but he never
guessed the cause. There is no man who can follow a woman
through all her moods, not even he who loves her best.
“That is what I wanted to ask you,” he said, in answer to her
question. “We two have known each other for some time, haven’t
we; but how much do I know of you, or you of me?”
Belle felt what was coming. She saw it in his eye, she heard it in his
voice. Desperately she resolved to meet it half-way.
“I have been finding that out this evening. Since I have come here I
have understood for the first time what you are and what I am. Mr.
Hammond, after this evening we must not meet again.”
“Belle! Why do you say that?”
There was a note of anguish in his voice. He had been fighting a
battle with himself all this time. It had never occurred to him that
there might be another to overcome besides.
She looked him steadily in the face.
“Why do you call me Belle?”
“I thought we were friends,” he said. But he blushed as he said it.
“What kind of friends? Would your friendship with Lady Victoria allow
you to call her by her Christian name? Don’t you see that the
difference between her and me makes our friendship impossible?”
“Don’t you trust me, then?” asked the man.
“You have no right to ask me for my trust. You and I belong to
different worlds. Where there is no equality there can be no
friendship. It would have been better if we had never met.”
She spoke with a certain rigidity which baffled him. He did not know
that the poor girl was but repeating the bitter lesson which had just
been taught to her.
“But why,” he eagerly demanded—“why should you suddenly take
this tone with me? I was going to ask you for your confidence. I
meant to beg you to let me take your part against your enemies,
and you rebuff me at the outset like this.”
“Have I enemies? I didn’t know that.” She spoke with a pathetic
resignation. She had heard too much within the last half-hour to be
much moved by any new disclosure. “But there is all the more
reason that I should give them no handle against me. Consider what
society is likely to think of such a friendship as ours—you, a public
man, wealthy, ambitious, honored by the world, with a great career
before you, and I a humble singer, whose very calling makes her
name a mark for every spiteful tongue.”
“Why should we be afraid of what society thinks or says?”
“You can afford to ask that. You are a man, and can defy society; I
am a woman, and to me its breath means life or death.”
Hammond sat silent for a minute; he felt that all this conversation
was insincere. It was but the preface to what he had come there to
say. How was he to pave the way for the questions he had resolved
to put?
“Tell me,” he said, earnestly, “have I ever given you cause to think of
me as other than an honorable man?”
Belle turned and looked at him.
“No,” was all she said.
“Will you let me tell you something—something that it may be
painful for you to hear?”
Belle’s eyes opened wide. The apprehension of what was coming
shone out in them, and Hammond, mistaking the meaning of that
apprehension, faltered in his purpose.
“Speak! What is it?” she commanded.
“It is something which concerns yourself.”
Was he going to repeat to her the gossip at which the marchioness
had only hinted, to tell her to her face that their names had been
joined in the world’s calumnious breath? She gazed at him in
absolute bewilderment.
“Tell it me—quickly!” she breathed.
“I am ashamed to repeat such a slander. Yet, since it is in circulation,
it is only right that you should know it, if only that you may cause it
to be crushed.”
“Yes; please go on.”
“They say—they pretend—they connect your name with—”
“With yours, sir?” She sat upright, with flashing eyes.
“Great heavens, no!” He stared back at her with little less
amazement than her own.
She sank slowly down again, the anger in her face changing to
deepest scorn.
“With whose, then?”
“With the Marquis of Severn’s.”
“What!” She started up again in sheer astonishment. “Who dares? I
have never seen nor spoken to him in my life!”
“Thank God!”
Not till he had heard the denial did the man realize what a burden it
had lifted from his heart; and yet he believed that he loyally loved
this woman.
“Who dares to slander me? Who dares to smirch my name with
falsehoods?” Come what might, he should not go away doubting her.
“It was that man Despencer who told me first.”
“And you listened to him—you, an honorable man, and my friend?”
Hammond bowed his head. He thought he could bear her
reproaches now.
“Go on; you can say nothing to me that I have not said already to
myself. I have been a brute, a fool; I know it. I did give him the lie
once, but his words rankled in my mind, and I could not rest till I
had had the charge disproved.”
“If you are satisfied, go.”
Hammond started and shivered. He had not heard that tone before;
he had not seen that deeply resolute expression, in which Belle’s
face was set like stone.
“Oh, not like this! You will forgive me, Belle? You must! This lie has
tortured me far worse than you.”
He might have made the excuse that he had only repeated the
slander for her sake, and not for the satisfaction of his own doubts.
But he scorned to stoop to subterfuge with her.
“Why should I? Your good opinion or your friendship are nothing to
me any longer.”
“My good opinion—friendship! Ah, it is more than that! You know,
you must know, that I have loved you all the time!”
“So much the worse. For you to speak of love to me is only another
insult.”
“I did not mean to insult you,” was the humble answer. “I meant to
offer you the love that a man offers to his betrothed.”
“Does a man cast suspicions on his betrothed?”
“I have not cast suspicions. My worst fault is to have listened to
those of others. There is no love without jealousy.”
“There is no love without perfect trust. If a man really loves a
woman, does he set himself to doubt her, to gather up the malicious
tattle of her enemies, and carry it to her, like an accusing judge, and
ask her to clear herself? Ah, no! If he loves her, he first crushes the
slander and the enemy together, and then comes to tell her what he
has done.”
“Listen to me.”
“Wait! But I cannot expect to be treated like that. My good name is
of no importance to me; I am public property. There would be
nothing to talk about in the club smoking-rooms if we poor singers
were to be respected. It is natural that we should be bad. And so
you come to me and repeat the accusations which you had not the
courage to despise. And that is your love!”
“I implore you—”
“No! With us poor girls it is different. We have not your prudence
and self-restraint. Where we love we do not ask for references. We
give our hearts without reserve, and from the moment we have
given them, instead of searching for stains on the character of the
man we love, we set ourselves to see only the good in him; we shut
our eyes to the evil; we screen his faults; if others attack him, we
defend him; and if the world casts him out, we cling to him all the
more.”
Her voice sank down and ended in a sob. Hammond clasped his
hands together in despair.
“Why did I ever hesitate? I was a coward. I dreaded the idea of
even a whisper being raised against my wife. Forgive me.”
“And you were right. Yes, I forgive you.”
The answer came softly, and the man’s heart was thrilled to the
core.
“And something more,” he pleaded passionately. “Tell me that you
love me like that.”
Belle slowly, gently shook her head.
“No. Why do you make it so hard for me? Leave me, I entreat you.”
Hammond turned faint.
“You do not love me, then?” he gasped.
She gave him a despairing look, and answered passionately:
“No! I don’t love you—I don’t love you!”
He rose up, without another word, and went away from her. The
next instant, as the door closed behind him, Belle sank down on the
seat, like a flower whose stem is broken, and the tears began to
come like rain.
A door at the far end of the conservatory softly opened, and a man
stepped through and came towards her, with his finger on his lips.
It was the Marquis of Severn.