She is not a
fit person for Elinor Leyton to associate with, and consequently, one
whom it is your duty to avoid, instead of cultivating.”

“I think you exceed _your_ duty, Doctor, in speaking to me thus!”

“I am sorry you should think so, Pullen, but your anger will not deter
me from telling you what is in my mind. You must not forget how old a
friend I am of both sides of your family. Your brother Arthur is one
of my greatest chums, and his wife’s father was, without exception,
my dearest friend--added to this, I am on intimate terms with the
Walthamstowes. Knowing what I do, therefore, I should hold myself
criminal if I left you in ignorance of the truth concerning this young
woman.”

“Are you alluding, may I ask, to Miss Brandt?”

“I am alluding to the girl who calls herself by that name, but who is
in reality only the bastard daughter of Henry Brandt, one of the most
infamous men whom God ever permitted to desecrate this earth, and his
half-caste mistress.”

“Be careful what you say, Doctor Phillips!” said Ralph Pullen, with
ill-suppressed wrath gleaming in his blue eyes. “There is no need to be, my dear fellow, I can verify everything I
say, and I fear no man’s resentment. I was stationed in Jamaica with
my regiment, some fifteen years ago, when this girl was a child of six
years old, running half naked about her father’s plantation, uncared
for by either parent, and associating solely with the negro servants. Brandt was a brute--the perpetrator of such atrocities in vivisection
and other scientific experiments, that he was finally slaughtered on
his own plantation by his servants, and everyone said it served him
right. The mother was the most awful woman I have ever seen, and my
experience of the sex in back slums and alleys has not been small. She was the daughter of a certain Judge Carey of Barbadoes by one of
his slave girls, and Brandt took her as his mistress before she was
fourteen. At thirty, when I saw her, she was a revolting spectacle. Gluttonous and obese--her large eyes rolling and her sensual lips
protruding as if she were always licking them in anticipation of her
prey. She was said to be ‘Obeah’ too by the natives and they ascribed
all the deaths and diseases that took place on the plantation, to her
malign influence. Consequently, when they got her in their clutches,
I have heard that they did not spare her, but killed her in the most
torturing fashion they could devise.”

“And did the British Government take no notice of the massacre?”

“There was an enquiry, of course, but the actual perpetrator of the
murders could not be traced, and so the matter died out. The hatred
and suspicion in which Brandt had been held for some time, had a great
effect upon the verdict, for in addition to his terrible experiments
upon animals--experiments which he performed simply for his own
gratification and for no use that he made of them in treating his
fellow creatures--he had been known to decoy diseased and old natives
into his laboratory, after which they were never seen again, and it was
the digging up of human bones on the plantation, which finally roused
the negroes to such a pitch of indignation that they rose _en masse_,
and after murdering both Brandt and his abominable mistress, they set
fire to the house and burned it to the ground. There is no doubt but
that, if the overseer of the plantation, an African negro named Pete,
had not carried off the little girl, she would have shared the fate of
her parents. And who can say if it would not have been as well if she
had!”

“I really cannot see what right you have to give vent to such a
sentiment!” exclaimed Captain Pullen. “What has this terrible story got
to do with Miss Brandt?”

“Everything! ‘When the cat is black, the kitten is black too!’ It’s the
law of Nature!”

“I don’t believe it! Miss Brandt bears no trace in feature or character
of the parentage you ascribe to her!”

“Does she not? Your assertion only proves your ignorance of character,
or characteristics. The girl is a quadroon, and she shews it distinctly
in her long-shaped eyes with their blue whites and her wide mouth and
blood-red lips! Also in her supple figure and apparently boneless
hands and feet. Of her personal character, I have naturally had no
opportunity of judging, but I can tell you by the way she eats her
food, and the way in which she uses her eyes, that she has inherited
her half-caste mother’s greedy and sensual disposition. And in ten
years’ time she will in all probability have no figure at all! She will
run to fat. I could tell that also at a glance!”

“And have you any more compliments to pay the young lady?” enquired
Captain Pullen, sarcastically. “I have this still to say, Pullen--that she is a woman whom you
must never introduce to your wife, and that it is your bounden duty
to separate her, as soon as possible, from your _fiancée_ and your
sister-in-law!”

“And what if I refuse to interfere in a matter which, as far as I can
see, concerns no one but Miss Brandt herself?”

“In that case, I regret to say that I shall feel it _my_ duty, to
inform your brother Colonel Pullen and your future father-in-law, Lord
Walthamstowe of what I have told you! Come, my dear boy, be reasonable! This girl has attracted you, I suppose! We are all subject to a woman’s
influence at times, but you must not let it go further. You must break
it off, and this is an excellent opportunity to do so! Your sister’s
infant is, I fear, seriously ill. Take your party on to Ostende, and
send the Baroness a polite note to say that you are prevented from
going to Brussels, and all will be right! You will take my advice--will
you not?”

“No! I’ll be hanged if I will,” exclaimed the young man, “I am not a
boy to be ordered here and there, as if I were not fit to take care
of myself. I’ve pledged my word to go to Brussels and to Brussels I
shall go. If Miss Leyton doesn’t like it, she must do the other thing! She does not shew me such a superfluity of affection as to prevent the
necessity of my seeking for sympathy and friendship elsewhere.”

“I am sorry to hear you speak like that, Pullen. It does not augur well
for the happiness of your married life!”

“I have thought more than once lately, that I shall not be married at
all--that is to Miss Leyton!”

“No! no! don’t say so. It is only a passing infidelity, engendered by
the attraction of this other girl. Consider what your brother would
say, and what Lord Walthamstowe would think, if you committed the
great mistake at this late hour, of breaking off your engagement!”

“I cannot see why my brother’s opinion, or Lord Walthamstowe’s
thoughts, should interfere with the happiness of my whole life,”
rejoined Ralph, sullenly. “However, let that pass! The question on the
_tapis_ is, my acquaintance with Miss Brandt, which you consider should
be put a stop to. For what reason? If what you bring against her is
true, it appears to me that she has all the more need of the protection
and loyalty of her friends.