The Changeling. Walter Besant

for visitors. "At last! I thought you were never coming to see me again."

      "It has been a long summer. I only came home last night."

      "Sit down, and let me look at you." She put him in a chair, and turned his face to the light, familiarly holding it by the chin. "You look very well, Dick. You are browned by the summer's sun, that's all."

      She released his chin, and lightly boxed his ears. They had always been on very friendly terms, these two.

      "Well, Dick, tell me about your summer. Has it been prosperous? Have you had adventures?" She laughed, because she knew very well the kind of adventures that this young man desired.

      "Adventures come to the adventurous, Molly."

      "Oh, how I envied you that day when you turned up among the tombs, covered all over with dust, looking so fit and going so free! If I were only a man, to go off with you on the tramp!"

      "I wish you were, Molly. We would go off together. I've often thought of it. You should carry a mandoline; I would stick to the fiddle. We would take a room at the inn, and have a little show. You should dance and sing and twang the mandoline. I should play the fiddle and do the patter. We should have a rare time, Molly."

      "We should, oh, we should! Do you remember that time when daddy let me go with him, and you came too?"

      "I do. I remember how charming you looked, even then! You were about fourteen; you wore a red flannel cap. You used to take off your shoes and stockings whenever we came to a brook, and wade in it with your pretty bare feet."

      "And we rested on the trunks of trees in the woods, and had dinner in the open. And you talked to all the gipsies in their own language. And one night we sat round their fire, and had some of their stew for supper. Oh! And we listened to the birds, and made nosegays of honeysuckle. And the people came to the inn at night while you played the fiddle, and daddy sang comic songs and did conjuring tricks. Oh, what a time it was!"

      "And you danced. Don't forget your dance, Molly. I taught you that dance."

      The girl laughed merrily. Then she threw herself into the attitude common to all dancing-girls in all ages and all countries – the arms held out and the foot pointed.

      "I haven't forgotten it, Dicky. I only wish I could forget it." She sighed. "It would be better for me if I could."

      "If we could go away together, Molly!" He took her hand and held it.

      "Don't, Dick, don't! You make me feel a longing for the road and the country."

      "There's nothing like it, Molly darlin', nothing! When the summer comes, I'm off. All the winter I live in a lonely flat, and am respectable."

      "As respectable as you can be, Dick."

      "Well, I put on dress clothes and get engagements. I don't mind, so that in summer I can be a tramp and a rogue and a vagabond."

      "Not a rogue, Dick."

      "I was born behind the scenes in a circus at St. Louis before my worthy parent ran away from his wife. It's in the blood, I suppose. I don't care, Molly, what they say." He sprang to his feet, and began to walk about. "There is no life like it. We don't want money; we don't try to be gentlefolk. We're not cooped up in cages. All we've got to do is to amuse the people. We're not stupid; we're not dull. We're not selfish; we are contented with a little. We're never tired of it. We're always trying some new business. My poor Molly, you're out of it. Pity, pity!" He sat down again, shaking his head. "And you born to it – actually born to it!"

      "Well, I'm to have the next best thing to it. I'm to be an actress, at any rate."

      "An actress! Well, that's something. Tell me about it, Molly."

      "A serious actress – a tragic actress. It's all settled. I'm to show the world the real inwardness of Shakespeare. I'm to be the light and lamp of all other actresses. I'm to be another Siddons."

      "You another Siddons? Oh, Molly!" He laughed, but not convincingly. The part of the scoffer was new to him. "You, with that face, with those lips, with those eyes? My child, you might be another Nelly Farren, but never another Siddons."

      The girl laughed too; but only for a moment. Then she became serious.

      "It's got to be, Dick. Don't tempt me. Don't make me unhappy. It would grieve Hilarie awfully if I failed or changed my mind – which is her mind."

      "My cousin Hilarie hasn't the complete disposal of your life, has she?"

      "She ought to have, because she saved my life. What should I have done, Dick, when daddy died and left me without a penny? There are relations about, I dare say; but I don't know where. My only chance was to get in somewhere. You were away. What could I do? Eighteenpence a night to go on – "

      "No, no; not with that crew, Molly."

      "There Hilarie found me. And she thinks she is doing the best thing in the world for me when she gets me taught to be a tragedy queen."

      "You shall be a great actress, Molly. You shall rake in fifty pounds a week, and you shall wear long chains of diamonds, if you like."

      "I've got ambition enough, if that counts for anything. I like that part of it where the great actress sweeps across the stage, with all the people shouting and clapping. Why, when daddy took me to the pit, and I used to watch the leading lady marching majestically – like this – with her long train, sweeping it back – so – I resolved to be an actress. And when she spoke the lines, I didn't care twopence about the sense, if they had any; I was thinking all the time how grand she looked, and how splendid it must be to have all the world in love with you."

      "You shall have it, Molly – if you like, that is. You were always ready to think about fellows being in love with you, were you not?"

      "Why not? The stories and the plays and the songs are all about love. A girl can't help wanting all the world to be in love with her. At the theatre I used to see love and admiration on every man's face. The women's faces were not so full of love, I noticed."

      "Oh, you noticed that, did you? At so early an age? Wonderful!"

      "And now, Dick, now, you see, I've found out that it means work; and after all the work it may mean failure. Sometimes I think – Dick, I don't mind saying everything to you – girls who are beautiful – like me, in my way – were never intended to work; they were to be rewarded for their good looks by – you know – the prince, Dick."

      "Sometimes it comes off," Dick replied thoughtfully. "There was Claribel Winthrop – Jane Perks her real name was – in one of my country companies; she married a young lord. But she worked desperately hard for it. All of us looked on and backed her up. It might come off that way; but I should be sorry, Molly. You're born for better things; you ought to have an empty purse."

      "What should you say, Dick, if it was to come off that way?"

      "Is there a young lord, then? Already?" He changed colour.

      "He isn't a lord, but he is not far off, Dick; and I can have him if I like."

      "What sort of a fellow, Molly? Oh, be very careful. It is the devil and all if he isn't the right sort. Do you like him?" His face twisted as if he could not find it in his heart to like him.

      "He's a baronet. He's young. He wants to conceal things. His mother doesn't like show folk. He thinks most people are cads. He's rich."

      "You don't mean to say it's that cousin of mine – not Sir Humphrey?"

      She nodded her head. "You don't like him, I know. I'm afraid he's got a temper, and I don't know if I shall be able to put up with him."

      "You haven't promised, have you?"

      "He says I have. But I haven't, really. I am always reminding him that there is still time to draw back. But, Dick, think! To have plenty of money! To be independent!"

      Dick groaned. "It's the greatest temptation in the world. Eve's apple was made of gold, and after she'd got it she couldn't eat it. You think of that, Molly. You can't eat a golden apple. Now, I could give you a real delicious Ribstone pippin." He sat down beside her, and took her hand again. "It's very serious, my dear." It is