



Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by
Google Books (the New York Public Library)











Transcriber's Notes:
   1. Page scan source: Google Books
      https://books.google.com/books?id=PAAoAAAAMAAJ
      (the New York Public Library)






LEISURE HOURS SERIES.
---------------------
THE SHIELD OF LOVE



BY
B. L. FARJEON



NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1891






COPYRIGHT, 1891,
BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.



THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J.






CONTENTS.

CHAPTER
      I. In which some particulars are given of the Fox-Cordery
            family.
     II. Poor Cinderella.
    III. A family discussion.
     IV. Wherein Cinderella asserts herself.
      V. In which John Dixon informs Mr. Fox-Cordery
            that he has seen a ghost.
     VI. In which we make the acquaintance of Rathbeal.
    VII. Billy turns the corner.
   VIII. The gambler's confession.
     IX. Mr. Fox-Cordery is not easy in his mind.
      X. In which Mr. Fox-Cordery meets with a repulse.
     XI. Little Prue.
    XII. "DRIP--DRIP--DRIP!"
   XIII. In which Rathbeal makes a winning move.
    XIV. Do you remember Billy's last prayer?
     XV. Friends in Council.
    XVI. Mr. Fox-Cordery's master-stroke.
   XVII. Retribution.






THE SHIELD OF LOVE.




CHAPTER I.
In which some particulars are given of the Fox-Cordery Family.


This is not exactly a story of Cinderella, although a modern
Cinderella--of whom there are a great many more in our social life
than people wot of--plays her modest part therein; and the allusion to
one of the world's prettiest fairy-tales is apposite enough because
her Prince, an ordinary English gentleman prosaically named John
Dixon, was first drawn to her by the pity which stirs every honest
heart when innocence and helplessness are imposed upon. Pity became
presently sweetened by affection, and subsequently glorified by love,
which, at the opening of our story, awaited its little plot of
fresh-smelling earth to put forth its leaves, the healthy flourishing
of which has raised to the dignity of a heavenly poem that most
beautiful of all words, Home.

Her Christian name was Charlotte, her surname Fox-Cordery, and she had
a mother and a brother. These, from the time her likeness to
Cinderella commenced, comprised the household.

Had it occurred to a stranger who gazed for the first time upon Mr.
and Miss Fox-Cordery, as they sat in the living-room of the
Fox-Cordery establishment, that for some private reason the brother
and sister had dressed in each other's clothes, he might well have
been excused the fancy. It was not that the lady was so much like a
gentleman, but that the gentleman was so much like a lady; and a
closer inspection would certainly have caused the stranger to do
justice at least to Miss Fox-Cordery. She was the taller and stouter
of the twain, and yet not too tall or stout for grace and beauty of an
attractive kind. There was some color in her face, his was perfectly
pallid, bearing the peculiar hue observable in waxwork figures; her
eyes were black, his blue; her hair was brown, his sandy; and the
waxwork suggestion was strengthened by his whiskers and mustache,
which had a ludicrous air of having been stuck on. There was a
cheerful energy in her movements which was conspicuously absent in
his, and her voice had a musical ring in it, while his was languid and
deliberate. She was his junior by a good ten years, her age being
twenty-eight, but had he proclaimed himself no more than thirty, only
those who were better informed would have disputed the statement. When
men and women reach middle age the desire to appear younger than they
are is a pardonable weakness, and it was to the advantage of Mr.
Fox-Cordery that it was less difficult for him than for most of us to
maintain the harmless fiction.

This was not the only bubble which Mr. Fox-Cordery was ready to
encourage in order to deceive the world. His infantile face, his
appealing blue eyes, his smooth voice, were traps which brought many
unwary persons to grief. Nature plays numberless astonishing tricks,
but few more astonishing than that which rendered the contrast between
the outer and inner Mr. Fox-Cordery even more startling than that
which existed in the physical characteristics of this brother and
sister.

There were other contrasts which it may be as well to mention. As
brother and sister they were of equal social rank, but the equality
was not exhibited in their attire. Mr. Fox-Cordery would have been
judged to be a man of wealth, rich enough to afford himself all the
luxuries of life; Charlotte would have been judged a young woman who
had to struggle hard for a living, which, indeed, was not far from the
truth, for she was made to earn her bread and butter, if ever woman
was. Her clothing was common and coarse, and barely sufficient, the
length of her frock being more suitable to a girl of fifteen than to a
woman of twenty-eight. This was not altogether a drawback, for
Charlotte had shapely feet and ankles, but they would have been seen
to better advantage in neat boots or shoes than in the