The enlightenment of the Hemyock family as to the identity of the real Lord Quorn had been, for obvious reasons, delayed by the parties most interested in keeping them in the dark. But now that the new-found peer was not to fall to Lady Ormstork's bag, that spiteful dowager determined to let the cat out of it.
"May I order my carriage, Lord Quorn?" she said in her most distinct and penetrating tones. "It is getting late."
As Quorn rose in his lumbering fashion and rang the bell, the Hemyock girls who had been gaily chattering to Gage became abruptly silent, and Lady Agatha looked stonily nonplussed.
"Lord Quorn?" she said, with a brave attempt at a successful smile. "Surely this is not Lord Quorn?"
"I'm nobody else," Quorn assured her bluffly.
"How very singular," said Lady Ormstork icily, "that you should not have known it."
"Not at all," rejoined Lady Agatha promptly. "We have for weeks past understood this gentleman was Lord Quorn."
"I didn't like to contradict you," said Gage on being indicated.
Lady Agatha, for once too dumfounded for speech, could only give a significant look of appeal to her daughters. And at the look John Arbuthnot Sharnbrook, who had taken the precaution to get near the door, opened it quietly and slipped out.
Meanwhile the brown eyes of Miss Ethel and the black orbs of Miss Dagmar were fastened searchingly on Lord Quorn, and they transmitted to their owners the impression that he was not an attractive personage. In truth there was yet a good deal of the Jenkins about him. His clothes looked as though he had been in the habit of going to bed in them, and his hair cried out for the barber. For the moment, at any rate, he was not to be jumped at, and with that conviction the original impulse to spring was stilled. Lady Agatha rose, with a lofty ignoring of Lady Ormstork's exultant smile.
"If," she said to Gage, "you are not Lord Quorn, as you have all along thought proper to pretend to be, may one ask who you are?"
"I am Peter Gage," he answered with a touch of amusement.
The eyes of Lady Agatha and her daughters met, and all that could be read in them was an indignant perplexity.
"It is all very extraordinary." Colonel Hemyock's thin voice sounded through the room, but his family heeded it not. Their minds were busy with the enigma of the position which was too complicated, not to say suspicious, to be comprehended at once. Only one thing in all the business seemed safe, and their minds jumped together to it. They recoiled, as by a single impulse, from the unattractive personality of Lord Quorn, from the doubtful individualities of Gage and Peckover, and their eyes by common consent sought the spot where their sheet-anchor had lately rested.
"Sharnbrook!"
"Where is he?"
They ran a dead heat to the door, charged through it, and so out into the garden. But John Arbuthnot Sharnbrook's start served him well, and he was at that moment sprinting homewards down the drive with a canny smile on his simple face.
Liverpool Postsays:—"The study of the prostrate man giving the best of his brains to the assistance of Herriard is beyond all praise. It is one more variant of the 'double' theory, but it is one of the best achievements of its kind."
The Tribunesays:—"It must be admitted that Sir Wm. Magnay knows London life better than many novelists, that his men talk like gentlemen, and that his pictures of society are clever and truthful."
The Manchester City Newssays:—"This well written and attractive story outlines a true picture of the vanities and insincerities of fashionable society in London."
The Roadsays:—"Few plots in even the best up-to-date novels of to-day are as strongly drawn as this one, which has all the freshness of absolute novelty to recommend it."
The Court Journalsays:—"The intensely interesting situation is developed with much ingenuity and power. It is a capital story, told with far more literary skill than is usual. A really fascinating story."
The Daily Telegraphsays:—"Good and well written, readable from opening chapter to finish."
The Illustrated Mailsays:—"The story teems with incident, moves briskly and as a narrative is very readable."
The Fieldsays:—"The ultimate fate of Fauconberg is always in doubt from the beginning to the unexpected ending. The book has grip and should be a success."
The Aberdeen Journalsays:—"From start to finish the story is full of striking situations and Fauconberg will unfailingly appeal to all who love a vigorously told narrative."
Lloyd's Newssays:—"One of the most readable novels of the adventure type that we have taken up. A story full of action with its characters strongly drawn. Adventures and hair-breadth escapes abound, the style is refreshingly crisp, and the book altogether is one that can be most heartily recommended."
The Kingsays:—"A romance of stirring adventure. Excitingly narrated, and the book in every way ought to prove one of the best reading romances of the season."
The Swansea Gazettesays:—"A very thrilling and interesting book, and commands in every page the reader's attention."
The Irish Timessays:—"A most thrilling story, well written and cleverly put together, the romance is a fascinating one."
Public Opinionsays:—"It positively bristles with adventure. A capital book, wildly exciting."
The Daily Telegraphsays:—"A story which is distinctly good."
An absorbing romance of modern life, depending for its interest quite as much on its vivid pictures of society as on its more sensational incidents. Mr. E. F. Benson and Mr. Robert Hichens have more than once achieved the same effect in the weaving of stories of tense dramatic interest, and the present book is a strong and clever specimen of its class. Without sacrificing the probabilities the author realizes with great skill the element of strangeness which often carries the circumstances of modern life even to the verge of fantasy. It is an engrossing story, cleverly set forth.
The Worldsays:—"This story is delightful; full of life and movement, genuine human nature, and the stir of love and grief, good fortune and evil with so much reality in the persons on the stage that they enlist sympathy or excite animosity as fully as the author needs to desire. The stars which Sir William Magnay has selected and set shining for us in an atmosphere well suited for their radiance are very bright and particular indeed."
The Dundee Couriersays:—"We commend this book to any one on the look out for a thrilling, fascinating, and skilfully narrated tale. Each chapter abounds in exciting situations and daring deeds, one's anxiety to know what comes next increasing as the story unfolds."
The Portsmouth Timessays:—"A brilliant romance crowded with stirring incident and is never for a moment dull."
The Morning Leadersays:—"The story is spirited and exciting and may be read with pleasure by all who enjoy a stirring romance."
The Scotsmansays:—"The story is full of exciting adventures skilfully narrated. Swords are whirling in every page and so thrilling are the incidents that each chapter breeds anxiety to know the events of the next."
The Athenæumsays:—"Sir Wm. Magnay wafts us away to the realms of pure romance, where the hard facts of a prosaic century are forgotten in the Hercynian Forest of two hundred years ago. The princess is loveliest of the lovely, the villains craftiest of the crafty; gallant deeds are done and gallant words are spoken, and the whole flows smoothly on to a happy conclusion, leaving the reader under a debt of gratitude for a pleasing entertainment."
The Birmingham Postsays:—"The reader's enjoyment will be enhanced by delightful touches of humour which the author has interspersed among the many exciting and dramatic scenes of a stirring chronicle."
The Liverpool Postsays:—"A book that maintains interest at a high pitch from start to finish, and should command immediate success."
The Aberdeen Free Presssays:—"Abounds in striking situations and is dominated throughout by strong dramatic power."
The Court Journalsays:—"It is certainly one of the books of the hour, very interesting and distinctly clever."
The Dundee Couriersays:—"The story is admirably constructed and highly dramatic."
Vanity Fairsays:—"A very remarkably good story, told with much force and lightened by some very humorous observations of life and people."
The Bristol Mercurysays:—"A magnificent tribute to the author's power of imagination. It is well written; the author keeping his characters in hand with marvellous skill, and works out an intricate plot to a dramatic conclusion."
The Yorkshire Heraldsays:—"Full of excitement. The plot hangs upon the disappearance of a Prince who has been kidnapped by Count Zarka, his foe, who condemns him to cruel torture, and imprisons him in a cunningly devised room in his castle. The story of the discovery of the Prince and of the final defeat of Zarka is a stirring one, and there is a strong love interest throughout the romance, which is heightened in the scene where the heroine is induced to fight a duel with swords by Zarka's jealous mistress."
The World says:—"Sir William Magnay's novelCount Zarkais a clever and entertaining story; it affords us glimpses of forest scenery which we like, and one remarkable departure from beaten tracks, a woman's duel in earnest."
The Dundee Couriersays:—"The story is brightly and thrillingly told, and holds one through all its three hundred odd pages."