



Produced by Barbara Tozier, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                             LEONORE STUBBS

                            BY L. B. WALFORD

          AUTHOR OF "MR. SMITH," "THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER," ETC.


LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
91 & 93 FIFTH AVENUE,
NEW YORK LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1908




CONTENTS


I. "SHE HAS NO SETTLEMENT, DAMN IT"

II. ON THE STATION PLATFORM

III. SPECULATIONS

IV. A DULL BREAKFAST-TABLE

V. OLD PLAYMATES MEET

VI. A REVELATION

VII. "I HAVE LOST SOMETHING THAT I NEVER HAD"

VIII. A CAT AND MOUSE GAME

IX. "I'D LIKE TO HAVE THINGS ON A SOUNDER BASIS"

X. THE THIRD CASE

XI. DR. CRAIG'S WISDOM

XII. THE PHOTOGRAPH AND THE ORIGINAL

XIII. "I AM TO GIVE YOU A WIDE BERTH, ALWAYS"

XIV. PAUL GOES--AND RETURNS

XV. "YOU'VE BROKEN MY HEART, I THINK"

XVI. TEMPTATION

XVII. A KNIGHT TO THE RESCUE

XVIII. "A TURN OF THE WHEEL"

XIX. EPILOGUE




CHAPTER I.

"SHE HAS NO SETTLEMENT, DAMN IT."


"She can't come."

"But, father----"

"She shan't come, then--if you like that better."

"But, father----"

"Aye, of course, it's 'But father'--I might have known it would be that.
However, you may 'But father' me to the end of my time, you don't move
me. I tell you, Sukey, you're a fool. You know no more than an unhatched
chicken--and if you think I'm going to give in to their imposition--for
it's nothing else--you are mistaken."

"I was only going to say----"

"Say what you will, say what you will; my mind's made up; and the sooner
you understand that, and Leonore understands that, the better. You can
write and tell her so."

"What am I to tell her?"

"What I say. That she has made her own bed and must lie upon it."

"But you gave your consent to her marriage, and never till now----"

"I tell you, girl, you're a fool. Consent? Of course I gave my consent.
I was cheated--swindled. I married my daughter to a rich man, and he
dies and leaves her a pauper! Never knew such a trick in my life. And
you to stand up for it!"

General Boldero and his eldest daughter were alone, as may have been
gathered, and the latter held in her hand, a black-edged letter at which
she glanced from time to time, it being obviously the apple of discord
between them.

It had come by the afternoon post; and the general, having met the
postman in the avenue, and himself relieved him of the old-fashioned
leathern postbag with which he was hastening on, and having further,
according to established precedent, unlocked the same and distributed
the contents, there had been no chance of putting off the present evil
hour.

Instead there had been an instant demand: "What says Leonore? What's the
figure, eh? She must know by this time. Eh, what? A hundred and fifty?
Two hundred? What? Two hundred thousand would be nothing out of the way
in these days. Poor Goff wasn't a millionaire, but money sticks to money
and he had no expensive tastes. He must have been quietly rolling
up,--all the better for his widow, poor child. Little Leonore will
scarcely know what to do with a princely income, and we must see
to it that she doesn't get into the hands of sharpers and
fortune-hunters----" and so on, and so on.

Then the bolt fell. The "princely income" vanished into the air. The
problematic two hundred thousand was neither here nor there, nor
anywhere. As for "Poor Goff," General Boldero was never heard to speak
of his defunct son-in-law in those terms again.

In his rage and disappointment at finding himself, as he chose to
consider it, outwitted by a man upon whom he had always secretly looked
down, the true feelings wherewith he had regarded an alliance welcomed
by his cupidity, but resented by his pride, escaped without let or
hindrance.

"What did we want with a person called Stubbs? What the deuce could we
want with him or any of his kind but their money?" demanded he, pacing
the room, black with wrath. "I never should have let the fellow set foot
within these doors if I had dreamed of this happening. I took him for
an honest man. What? What d'ye say? Humph! Don't believe a word of it;
he _must_ have known; and as for his expecting to pull things round,
that's all very fine. It's a swindle, the whole thing." Then suddenly
the speaker stopped