to herr boreas was allotted the pleasing duty of opening the concert. the jolly german gentleman, neatly and seasonably dressed in black, with a large diamond-brooch in his plaited shirt-front, and with stuffy-looking black-cloth boots with shiny tips, opened his big chest, and puffed away at his ophicleide, evoking now the loudest and now the softest notes; while the crowds kept pouring in to the railed-off space, and took their seats, laughing and chattering, and not paying the smallest attention to the performance. it was a great day at the palace, a day on which great people thought it proper to be seen there. the little public-houses in the neighbourhood were filled with resplendent creatures in gorgeous liveries, whose employers were making their way through nave and transept, looking at nothing save the other people there, and looking at them as though they were singular specimens of humanity specially put out for show. in the matter of staring, it must be confessed that the other people returned the compliment. the regular attendants at the crystal palace are, for the most part, resident in the neighbourhood, and the neighbouring residents are, for the most part, of or belonging to the city. the brokers of stocks, shares, and sugar; the owners of manchester warehouses, the riggers of markets, and the projectors of companies; the directors of banks, and the "floaters" of "concerns," have, many of them, charming villas, magnificent mansions, or delicious snuggeries at blackheath, eltham, or sydenham; and the palace is the great place of resort for their wives and daughters, and for themselves when the cares of business are laid aside. how many successful matches, in which money has been allied to money, have commenced in flirtations by the side of the plashing fountains, or in the shade of the stunted orange-trees! what execution has not been done by flashing eyes in the central promenade! there, by the dying gladiator, lord claude votate proposed for miss meggifer, and secured the fortune which rescued the calfington estates from his lordship's creditors; there, behind the dancing faun, charles partington, of partington nephews, kissed minnie black, daughter of black brothers--was seen to do it by mrs. black, consequently could not escape, and thus cemented an alliance between those hitherto rival houses, considered in wood-street as the horatii and curiatii of the berlin-wool trade. pleasant place of decorous festivity and innocent diversion, whence instruction has been completely routed by amusement, and where the assyrian gods and the renaissance friezes are deserted for the dancing dogs and the temple of momus as constructed by mr. nelson lee!
by the time that herr boreas had finished his solo--which was not until he had blown all the breath out of his body, and was apparently on the verge of apoplexy--the audience had taken possession of all the seats; and as the german gentleman bowed himself out of the orchestra, amidst a great deal of applause from people who, indeed, could not help having heard, but had not paid the least attention to him, there was a general reference to the programmes to see what was coming next, then a rustling, a whispering, and that curious settling stir which electrically runs through an audience just before the advent of a favourite artist. gilbert lloyd, not insensible to this, involuntarily looked round from behind the pillar by which he was standing to the spot where he had seen gertrude, but she was no longer there. the next instant thunders of applause rang through the building as she advanced upon the platform. she bowed gracefully but coldly; then the conductor waved his baton, and dead silence fell upon the audience, leaning forward with outstretched necks to catch the first notes of her voice. soft and sweet, clear and trilling, comes the bird-like song, warbled without the smallest apparent effort, while thrilling the listeners to the heart--thrilling gilbert lloyd, who holds his breath, and looks on in rapture. he had heard her before, but in italian opera; now she is singing an english ballad, of no great musical pretension indeed, but pretty and sympathetic. at the end of the first verse the applause burst out in peals on peals; and so carried away was gilbert lloyd, that he found himself joining in the general feeling--he who scarcely knew one note of music from another, and who had come to the place on a matter of important business. that must stand over now, though--he felt that. the absconding turfite might go to america, or to the deuce, for the matter of that; gilbert lloyd felt it an impossibility to leave the place where he then was, and tried to cheat himself by pretending that it was expedient for his own interest that he should keep a close watch upon lord ticehurst just at that time. that young nobleman certainly took no pains to conceal his warm admiration for miss lambert, and his intense delight at her performance. he applauded more loudly than anyone else, and assumed an attitude of rapt attention, which would have been highly interesting if it had not also been slightly comic. when the song ceased, the cries for a repetition were loud and universal. gertrude, who had retired, again advanced to the front of the orchestra. by an involuntary impulse, gilbert lloyd stepped from behind the pillar which had hitherto shielded him, and their eyes met--met for the first time since he left her at the brighton hotel, on the day of harvey gore's death.
a deep flush overspread gilbert lloyd's usually pallid cheeks, but gertrude's expression did not change in the slightest degree. not a trace of the faintest emotion, even of curiosity, could be seen in her face. the conductor of the orchestra, just before he left her in front of the audience, addressed some remark to her; and as she replied, gilbert noticed that her lips were curling with a slight sneer--an expression which he fancied he understood, when the band commenced to play an air which even he, all unmusical as he was, recognised as "home, sweet home." but she never looked at him again during the song, which she sung even more sweetly than the first, and with a deep pathos that roused the audience to enthusiasm. gilbert lloyd kept his eyes fixed on her, never moving them for an instant; and as he marked the calm air with which she received the public applause, and the graceful ease of all her movements--as he saw how her face, always clear cut and classically moulded, had ripened in womanly beauty and intellectual expression--as he noticed the rounded elegance of her figure, the tasteful simplicity of her dress--and he noticed all these details down to the fit of her gloves and the colour of her bonnet-strings--he raged against himself for having been fool enough to relinquish the hold he once had on her. could that hold be re?stablished? if he were again to have an opportunity--but while these thoughts were passing through his mind, gertrude had finished her song and quitted the orchestra, and her glance had not fallen on him again.
meantime gilbert lloyd saw he had been noticed by the group with whom miss lambert had been sitting previous to her performance, and as miles challoner was no longer with them he thought it better to join the party. his appearance amongst them was evidently a surprise to lord ticehurst, who expressed the greatest astonishment at his mentor's finding any amusement in so slow a proceeding as a concert, and who grew very red and looked very conscious when gilbert asked him what particular charm such an entertainment could possess for him. lord sandilands was, as usual in his behaviour to mr. lloyd, scrupulously polite, but not particularly cordial. he had nothing in common with gilbert, detested the turf and all its associations, and looked on lord ticehurst's turf mentor as very little better than lord ticehurst's stud-groom. mr. boulderson munns still remained with them, and intended so to remain. it was part of mr. munns' business that he should be seen in close and confidential communication "with two nobs," as he elegantly phrased it, and he took advantage of the opportunity. nothing pleased him so much as to notice when members of the promenading crowd would elbow each other, look towards him, and whisper together, or when he saw heads bent forward and opera-glasses pointed in his direction. it was his concert, he thought: when herr boreas blew his ophicleide, or miss lambert sang her song, he felt inclined to place his thumbs in the arm-holes of his big white waistcoat, and go forward and acknowledge the applause. he had done so in former years in the transformation-scenes of pantomimes, when the people called for scumble the scene-painter, and why not now? boreas and the lambert were quite as much his people as scumble! mr. munns restrained himself, however, from motives of policy. it was pretty plain to him, as he afterwards explained to mr. duff, that this young swell, this ticehurst, was dead spoons on the lambert; and as he had no end of money, and was good for a box every night, and perhaps something more if the screw were properly put on, it would be best to make it all sugar for 'em. with this laudable intent he commenced talking loudly to lord ticehurst of miss lambert's attractions, and did not suffer himself to be interrupted for more than a minute by lloyd's arrival.
"as i was telling you, my lord," he recommenced, "she's a wonder, this--this young lady--a wonder, and nothing but it! not merely for the hit she's made, though it's a great go, and i don't mean to deny it; but i don't go by the public, i know too much of them. why, lord sandilands here, he remembers when--well, it's no good going into that; lots of them we've seen in our time, and then, after a season or two, all dickey! regular frost! but there's something very different from that with miss lambert--so quiet, and so quite the lady; none of your flaring up, and ballyragging the people about. why miss murch, our wardrobe-woman, said to me only last night, that she only wished the other prima donnas were like her--won't wear this, and won't wear that--how d'ye do, mr. lloyd? i was talking to his lordship of miss lambert, who's just been singing, and saying what a stunner she was. now, if you've got a filly to name--one that's likely to be something, and do something, you know--you should call her grace lambert--"
"no, i think not; not quite that, mr. munns!" interposed lord ticehurst; "that's scarcely the kind of compliment i should care to pay to miss lambert."
"you may depend upon it that it's one which, if miss lambert had the option, she would scarcely care to accept, my lord," said lord sandilands tartly; "however, there she is to answer for herself;" and he pointed through the glass to the garden, where gertrude was seen walking with mrs. bloxam. there was an evident intention on the part of all composing the group to join them, and seeing this gilbert lloyd would have withdrawn; but lord ticehurst took him by the arm, and saying, "i've long wanted to introduce you to miss lambert, old fellow, and now you can't possibly escape," led the way.
if he were ever again to have an opportunity! had that opportunity then come? was his never-failing luck holding by him still, and giving him this chance of retrieving the blunder he had made in the brighton hotel? he thought so. his breath came short and thick as he nerved himself for the meeting. he saw her as she and mrs. bloxam strolled before them up the gardenwalk, noticed the swimming ease of her gait, the fall of her black-lace cloak, as it hung from her shoulders, the graceful pose of her head. she turned, he heard the sound of her approaching feet, he felt her presence close opposite to him, he heard lord ticehurst's voice repeating the set formula of introduction, but he saw nothing until he looked up to catch the faintest inclination of gertrude's head, and to see her face colder, more set, more rigid than ever. neither spoke; and the silence was becoming awkward, when lord ticehurst said, "i imagine you must have heard me speak of my friend lloyd, miss lambert? good enough to manage my racing matters for me, and to manage them deuced well--with the greatest talent and skill, and all that kind of thing. not in your line, i know, miss lambert; but still--still--" and his lordship's eloquence failed him, and he broke down.
again neither of them spoke, but gilbert lloyd looked up from under his brow, and saw the stony glance which gertrude cast upon him for an instant, then turned to mrs. bloxam, and suggested that they should return to the concert-room, where she would speedily be wanted. lord sandilands was at her right hand, lord ticehurst on the other side of mrs. bloxam. mr. munns preceded them, and caused a great sensation, on which he had reckoned, when he flung open the door and ostentatiously ushered them into the building; but gilbert lloyd walked slowly behind, his hands plunged into his pockets, and his face--there was no one to heed him, no reason for him to don an unnatural expression--savage, set, and careworn.
so it had come at last, he thought. they had met after so long an estrangement; and that was to be the end of the meeting. no recognition--he had not expected that--no public recognition, no hint that they had ever been anything to each other. he recollected the words that he had addressed to her on their parting; they came surging up and ringing in his ears: "it is not very likely that we shall ever run across each other's path in the future, but if we do, we meet as entire strangers; and the fact of our having been anything to one another must never be brought forward to prejudice any scheme in which either of us may be engaged." memory brought before him the dingy cold room of the second-rate hotel, with the dying sunlight streaking its discoloured walls, in which these words had been spoken; brought before him the slight figure and the deadly pallid face of the girl as she listened to them, and acquiesced in their verdict. in that verdict she acquiesced still, was acting up to its spirit, to its very letter. it was his proposition to leave her alone and unfettered "in any scheme in which she might be engaged." the fooling, the enslavement of this idiot ticehurst, who was a mere tool in his hands, was the game which she was now playing, at which he was to look on helplessly, having himself spoken the words which rendered her independent of his control.
and she, how did she take it? calmly enough; but not so calmly as gilbert lloyd supposed. she had never gone in for much feeling, and whatever she had was now completely at her command, far more completely even than when she last had parted from her husband. moreover, while gilbert had utterly given himself up to the business of his turf profession, resolutely refusing to think of his wife, or to acknowledge to himself that there was ever a possibility of their again being brought into contact, the chance of such a meeting had often occurred to gertrude, and the manner in which she would demean herself, should the occasion arise, had--been thought over by her and settled in her mind. and now that it had arisen, so far as her outward demeanour was concerned, she had behaved herself exactly as she had always proposed. and her facial control was such, that no one looking at her could have an inkling of what was passing in her mind, which was fortunate on this occasion, for she was considerably more disturbed than she had expected. the first sight of her husband was a complete shock to her, and it was only by the exercise of the greatest presence of mind that she prevented herself from betraying her perturbation. when the first shock was past--and she owed it to the strict discipline of professional training that she was enabled to get over it so quickly--her thoughts reverted to the subject, and she was able to discuss it calmly with herself. what brought gilbert lloyd to that place? she knew him well enough to feel sure that there must have been some strong inducement, and what could that be? gilbert was lié with lord ticehurst; and that that full-flavoured young nobleman was considerably in love with her, gertrude had never attempted to disguise from herself; but what could that matter to the man from whom she had been, so long estranged, and who had never shown the smallest interest in her proceedings during that long estrangement? the possibility of a desire on gilbert's part to negotiate for a renewal of intimacy crossed her mind for an instant, but was at once rejected; and not even for an instant did she imagine the desire for such a proceeding was based on anything but motives of policy. and, after all, what did it matter to her? to her gilbert lloyd was dead and buried, she had nothing to look for at his hands, nothing to fear from him--her lip curled as she recollected that; she would dismiss him entirely from her thoughts, she would--what could have brought him to that concert, of all places in the world? it might be useful to know something of his mode of life. she would lead lady carabas to talk of him; the marchioness would be only too happy to dilate on such a subject.
by the time miss lambert was to sing again, she had quite made up her mind on this point, and the sight of gilbert lloyd, planté là, did not cause her the slightest emotion. he stood as one rapt, fascinated by her beauty, drinking-in her voice, with one constant idea beating in his brain:--was the past irrevocable? could not the mischief be undone? the power he had had in the old days remained to him still; he had but to exercise it, and all would be right again. true that just then she had rebuffed him; but that was her way, always had been; she had always piqued herself upon her pride, and after that had had its fling he should be able to do with her as he liked. miss lambert was in full song as these thoughts passed through gilbert lloyd's mind, when suddenly she changed colour, a transient flush overspread her face, dying away again almost instantaneously. at the same instant, gilbert lloyd turned swiftly round in the direction in which he had noticed her glance fall, and saw miles challoner, who had recently entered and dropped into a chair just behind lord sandilands' seat. no doubt of it, no doubt of it; her self-command was so shaken that her voice faltered for an instant, and he--look at his eyes, fastened on her face with a look of perfect love and trust, and it was impossible to doubt the position. lloyd's heart sunk within him at the sight, and a bitter oath was rising to his lips, and would have found utterance, when he felt his arm pressed, and looking round, saw tommy toshington, of the clubs, standing behind him. mr. toshington had on a new and curly wig, a light high muslin cravat, and looked bland and amiable. he winked affably at lloyd, and laying his finger lightly against his nose, said, "you're wrong, my dear boy;--it's all right!" mr. gilbert lloyd shortly bade his friend not to be an ass, but if he had anything to say, to out with it. nothing abashed at the strength of gilbert's language, tommy said,
"my dear fellow, i mean exactly what i say; you're under a mistake, while all the time it's all right for you!"
"what's all right for me--with whom--where?"
"there!" said tommy toshington, wagging his new wig and his curly-brimmed hat in the direction where lord ticehurst was sitting; "his lordship is entêté with a certain warbler, eh? fourth finger of the left hand--death do us part, and all that sort of thing, eh? that wouldn't suit your book, i should think--have to give up your rooms; she persuade him to cut the turf, go to church, and that kind of thing. don't you be afraid, my boy; i know the world better than you, and that'll never come off!"
"you think not?" asked gilbert.
"i'm sure not," replied tommy. "look here; he'd like it fast enough. etchingham would marry her to-morrow if he got the chance; but she's full of pluck and spirit, and don't care a bit for him. how do i know? because she cares for somebody else. how do i know that? my dear fellow, don't i know everything? what used the old dook to say, 'ask toshington, he'll know; he knows everything, tommy does.' and he didn't make many mistakes, the old dook."
"perhaps you know who is the 'somebody' else for whom the lady cares?" said gilbert, an evil light dawning in his face, and his lips involuntarily tightening as he put the question.
"of course i do!" said tommy, with a crisp little laugh; "keep my eyes open, see everything; seen 'em together lots of times--carabas house, lady lowndes', and lots of places. you know him, i should think; tall man from gloucestershire--big beard--chaldecott--some name like that!"
this time the oath broke from lloyd's lips unchecked. he turned rapidly on his heel, and strode away.
"dev'lish ill-bred young man that," said old toshington, looking afte him; "dammy, there's no manners left in the men of the present day!"
