Lady Belgrade was partly right and partly wrong.
A girl with such a physique as Salome could never be pretty, never be handsome, but, with such a soul as hers, might grow beautiful.
At her Majesty"s first drawing-room, Salome Levison was presented at court, where she attracted the attention, only as the daughter of Sir Lemuel Levison, the new Radical member for Lone, and as the sole heiress of the great banker"s almost fabulous wealth.
Then under the experienced guidance of Lady Belgrade, she was launched into fashionable society. And society received the young expectant of enormous wealth, as society always does, with excessive adulation.
Salome was admired, followed, flattered, feted, as though she had been a beauty as well as an heiress. She was petted at home and worshiped abroad. Her father gave unlimited pocket-money in form of bank-cheques, to be filled up at her own discretion. For she was his only daughter, and he wished to get her in love with the world and out of conceit of a convent. And surely the run of his bank, and of all the fine shops of London, would do that, he thought, if anything could.
But Salome remained a "sealed book" to the wealthy banker, and a great trial to the fashionable chaperon who had her in training. Salome _would not_ grow pretty, in spite of all that could be done for her.
Salome would not make a sensation, for all her father"s wealth and her own expectations. She remained quiet, shy, silent, dreamy, even in the gayest society, as in the Highland solitudes, with one worship in her soul--the worship of that self-devoted son--that self-banished prince, whose "counterfeit presentment" she had seen in the tower at Lone, and who had become the idol of her religion.
But all this did not hinder the heiress from receiving some very matter of fact and highly eligible offers of marriage; for though Salome, in the holiness of her dreams, was almost unapproachable, the banker was not inaccessible. And it was through her father that Salome, in the course of the season, had successively the coronet of a widowed earl, the t.i.tle of a duke"s younger son, and the fortune of a baronet who was just of age, laid at her feet.
She rejected them all--to her father"s great disappointment and disturbance.
"I fear--I do much fear that her mind still runs on that convent. She does nothing but dream, dream, dream, and absolutely ignore homage that would turn another girl"s head. I wish she were well married, or--I had almost said ill married! anything is better than the convent for my only surviving child! If she will not accept an earl or a baronet, why cannot her perversity take the form of any other girl"s perversity? Why can she not fall in love with some penniless younger son, or some dissipated captain in a marching regiment? I am sure even under such circ.u.mstances I should not perform the part of the "cruel parent" in the comedies! I should say, "Bless you my children," with all my heart! And I should enrich the impecunious young son, or reform the tipsy soldier. Anything but the convent for my only child!" concluded the banker, with a sigh.
But Salome had ceased to think of the convent. She thought now only of the missing marquis.
The offers of marriage that had been made to Salome, rejected though they were, had this good effect upon her mind. They encouraged her to think more hopefully of herself. Salome was too unworldly, too pure, and holy, to suspect that these offers had been made her from any other motive than personal preference. It was possible, then, that she might be loved. If other men preferred her, so also might he on whom she had fixed. And now it had come to this with the dreaming girl--she resolved to think no more of retiring to a convent, but to live in the world that contained her hero; to keep herself free from all engagements for his sake, to give _herself_ to him, if possible, if not to give his land back to him some day, at least. So in her secret soul she consecrated herself in a pure devotion to a man she had never seen, and who did not even know of her existence.
When Parliament rose at the end of the London season, Sir Lemuel Levison took his daughter on an extended Continental tour, showing her all the wonders of nature, and all the glories of art in countries and cities.
And Salome was interested and instructed, of course. Yet the greatest value her travels had for her was in the possibility of their bringing her to a meeting with the missing heir. It had been said that the mad duke and his son were somewhere on the Continent. A wide field! Yet, on the arrival of Sir Lemuel and Miss Levison at any city, Salome"s first thought was this:
"Perhaps they are living here, and I shall see him."
But she was always disappointed. And at the end of a seven months"
sojourn on the Continent, Sir Lemuel Levison brought his daughter back to London, only in time for the meeting of Parliament.
Only two years of Salome"s probation was left--only two more seasons in London. Her father"s anxiety increased.
He sent for her chaperone again, and opened his house in Westbourne Terrace to all the world of fashion. Again the young heiress was followed, flattered, feted as much as if she had been a beauty as well.
Again she received and rejected several eligible offers of marriage. And so the second season pa.s.sed.
Sir Lemuel Levison took his daughter to Scotland, and invited a large company to stay with them at Lone, thinking that, after all, more matches were made in the close daily intercourse of a country house, than in the crowded ball-rooms of a London season.
But though the banker"s daughter received two or three more eligible offers of marriage, she politely declined them all, and stole away as often as she could to worship the pictured image in the old tower.
Her chaperone was in despair.
"How many good men and brave has she refused, do you know, Lemuel?"
inquired Lady Belgrade.
"Seven, to my certain knowledge," angrily replied the banker.
"Perhaps she likes some one you know nothing about," suggested the dowager.
"She does not; I would let her marry almost any man rather than have her enter a convent, as she is sure to do when she is of age. I would let her marry any one; aye, even Johnnie Scott, who is the most worthless scamp I know in the world."
"And pray who is Johnnie Scott!"
"Oh, a handsome rascal; is sort of kinsman and hanger-on of the young Marquis of Arondelle; he used to be. I don"t know anything more about him."
"Perhaps he _is_ the man."
"Oh, no, he is not. There is no man in the convent. Well, we go up to London again in February. It will be her last season. If she does not fall in love or marry before May, when she will be twenty-one years of age, she will immure herself in a convent, as I am pledged not to prevent her."
The conversation ended unsatisfactorily just here.
In the beginning of February Sir Lemuel Levison, with his daughter and her chaperone, went up to London for her third season. They established themselves again in the sumptuous house on Westbourne Terrace, and again entered into the whirl of fashionable gayeties.
It was quite in the beginning of the season that Sir Lemuel and Miss Levison received invitations to a dinner party at the Premier"s.
It was to be a semi-political dinner, at which were to be entertained certain ministers, members of Parliament, with their wives, and leading journalists.
Sir Lemuel accepted for himself and Miss Levison. On the appointed day they rendered themselves at the Premier"s house, where they were courteously welcomed by the great minister and his accomplished wife.
After the usual greetings had been exchanged with the guests that were present, and while Sir Lemuel and Miss Levison were conversing with their hostess, the Premier came up with a stranger on his right arm.
Salome looked up, her heart gave a great bound and then stood still.
The original of the portrait in the tower, the self-devoted son, the self-exiled heir, the idol of her pure worship, the young Marquis of Arondelle stood before her.
And while the scene swam before her eyes, the Premier bowed, and presenting him, said:
"Sir Lemuel, let me introduce to you, Mr. John Scott of the _National Liberator_. Mr. Scott, Sir Lemuel Levison, our new member for Lone."
Mr. John Scott!
CHAPTER III.
THE RUINED HEIR.
Where, meanwhile, was the "mad" duke with his loyal son?
Various reports had been circulated concerning them, so long as they had been remembered. Some had said that they had emigrated to Australia; others that they had gone to Canada; others again that they were living on the Continent. All agreed that wherever they were, they must be in great dest.i.tution.
But now, three years had pa.s.sed since the fall of Lone and the disappearance of the ruined ducal family, and they were very nearly forgotten.
Meanwhile where were they then?
They were hidden in the great wilderness of London.