The Structure of ГОЛОСА
Голоса is divided into Book One and Book Two, each with ten units, organized thematically. The conversational core of each unit is the set of four to five dialogs that introduce new vocabulary and grammar structures while recycling old ones. Activities for interpretive skills are scaffolded to promote comprehension strategies. Those activities often preview structures that will be activated in units to follow shortly thereafter. The systematic grammar explanations and exercises enable students to develop a conceptual understanding and partial control of all basic Russian structures. This strong structural base enables students to accomplish the linguistic tasks and prepares them for further study of the language.
Students successfully completing Books 1 and 2 of Голоса will be able to perform the following tasks:
Listening. Understand simple conversations about daily routine, home, family, school, and work. Understand simple public announcements, media advertisements, personal interviews, and brief news items such as weather forecasts. Get the gist of more complicated scripts such as short lectures and news items.
Speaking. Use complete sentences to express immediate needs and interests. Hold simple conversations about daily routine, home, family, school, and work. Discuss basic likes and dislikes. Manage simple transactional situations in stores, transportation hubs, hotels, dormitories, libraries, academic settings, and so on.
Reading. Read signs and public notices. Understand common written advertisements and announcements. Understand basic personal and business correspondence. Get the gist of important details in brief articles of topical interest such as news reports on familiar topics, weather forecasts, and entries in reference books. Understand significant parts of longer articles on familiar topics and brief literary texts.
Writing. Write short notes to Russian acquaintances, including invitations, thank-you notes, and simple directions. Write longer messages and letters providing basic biographical information. Write simple compositions about daily routine, home, family, school, work, hobbies and interests Голоса Book One
Students who have completed Голоса will also develop their language and intercultural competence as measured by the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, the “5 Cs”:
Communication. Голоса emphasizes the use of Russian for “real-life” situations. Students working through the activities will learn to communicate on a basic level in conversation and writing and will be better prepared to communicate in the Russian-speaking world outside the classroom.
Cultures. Students will understand the essentials of “small-c” culture necessary to function in Russia and areas where Russian is often used. The sections on Культура и быт (Culture and Everyday Life) provide necessary background information for each unit’s topic and will give students and teachers material for further discussion of culture in the Russian-speaking world, in Russian or English. Students should gain enough control of sociolinguistic aspects of Russian necessary for basic interaction, such as forms of address, greetings and salutations, giving and responding to compliments and invitations, and telephone etiquette. Students will also be acquainted with some of the cultural heritage associated with the language: famous writers and their works, as well as other figures in the arts.
Connections. Students will learn, through readings, audio and video materials, activities, and information in Культура и быт, about widely varying aspects of society, family life, daily rituals, housing, education, the economy, and culture in the Russophone world
Comparisons. Through an examination of basic aspects of Russian language and culture, students will be able to make some conclusions about language and culture at home. Голоса’s approach to grammar encourages students to think about linguistic structures generally. Through Голоса’s approach to “large-c” and “small-c” culture, students will be able to compare societies, careers, living spaces, economic and educational systems, family life, and other aspects of culture in the Russian-speaking world and their own culture(s).
Communities. The reading materials in the textbook, and the listening and video exercises, allow students to gain a sense of how Russia and Russianspeaking regions might look, sound, and feel, and will better prepare students to engage in active communication with friends and colleagues in the Russophone world.
Focused attention to skills development. Each language skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing) is addressed in its own right. Abundant activities are provided to promote the development of competence and confidence in each skill area.
Modularity. Голоса incorporates the best aspects of a variety of methods as appropriate to the material. All skills are presented on an equal footing, but instructors may choose to focus on those that best serve their students’ needs without violating the structural integrity of individual units or the program as a whole.
Authenticity and cultural relevance. Each unit contains authentic materials and realistic communicative activities for all skills. In addition, each unit features two e-mails with accompanying exercises to help students both focus on aspects of form and grammar and get the gist of what they are reading, giving students further practice in reading and understanding more complex, connected prose.
Spiraling approach. Students are exposed repeatedly to similar functions and structures at an increasing level of complexity. Vocabulary patterns of reading texts are recycled in listening scripts.
Learner-centered approach. Each unit places students in communicative settings where they can practice the four skills while developing their intercultural communicative competence. In addition to core lexicon, students acquire personalized vocabulary to express individual needs and interests.
Comprehensive coverage of beginning grammar. Communicative goals do not displace conceptual control of the main points of Russian grammar. By the end of Book One, students have had meaningful contextual exposure to all the cases in both the singular and plural, as well as tense/aspects. Book Two spirals out the basic grammar and fills in those items needed for basic communication and for reading texts geared toward the general reader, such as simple prose and press articles.
Голоса Book One Introduction xi
Learning strategies. Students acquire strategies that help them develop skills for interpretative, interpersonal, and presentational communication. This problem-solving approach leads students to become independent and confident in using the language in a variety of ways.
Phonetics and intonation. Pronunciation is fully integrated and practiced with the material in each unit’s audio materials and Student Activities Manual (SAM) exercises, rather than covered in isolation. Intonation training includes statements, requests, commands, questions, nouns of address, exclamations, and non-final pauses. Dialog and situation practice help students to absorb aspects of Russian phonetics and intonation. The Sixth Edition includes new exercises on syllable stress awareness.
Textbook and Student Activities Manual Structure
Each Голоса textbook and Student Activities Manual (SAM) unit is organized as follows:
Точка отсчёта
This warm-up section uses illustrations and simple contexts to introduce the unit vocabulary. A few simple activities provide practice of the new material, thereby preparing students for the recorded Разговоры, which introduce the unit topics.
Разговоры для слушания. Students listen to semiauthentic conversations based on situations they might encounter in the Russian-speaking world, from homestays to shopping. Simple pre-script questions help students understand these introductory conversations. Students learn to grasp the gist of what they hear, rather than focus on every word. The Разговоры serve as an introduction to the themes of the unit and prepare students for active conversational work to follow in Давайте поговорим.
Давайте поговорим
Диалоги. As in previous editions, the Диалоги introduce the active lexicon and structures to be learned.
Голоса Book One Introduction xii
Упражнения к диалогам. These exercises help develop the language presented in the dialogs. They consist of communicative exercises in which students learn how to search out language in context and use it. Exercises proceed from lesscomplicated activities based on recognition to those requiring active use of the language in context. This set of activities prepares students for the Игровые ситуации
Вопросы к диалогам. Straightforward questions in Russian, focused on the dialogs, beginning with Unit 5.
Игровые ситуации. Roleplays put the students “on stage” with the language they know.
Устный перевод. This section, which requires students to play interpreter for a non-Russian speaker, resembles the Игровые ситуации, but here students find that they must be more precise in conveying their message.
Грамматика
This section contains grammatical presentations designed to encourage students to study the material at home. They feature clear, succinct explanations, charts and tables for easy reference, and numerous examples. Exercises allow for practice of new vocabulary and structures.
Давайте почитаем
Authentic reading texts are supplemented with activities that direct students’ attention to global content. Students learn strategies for guessing unfamiliar vocabulary from context and for getting information they might consider too difficult. The variety of text types included in Давайте почитаем ensures that students gain extensive practice with many kinds of reading material: official documents, daily schedules, menus, shopping directories, maps, advertisements, weather reports, classified ads, résumés, social networking sites, brief messages, e-mail correspondence, news and other informational articles, poetry, and short stories.
Давайте послушаем
Guided activities teach students strategies for developing global listening skills. Questions in the textbook accompany texts on the audio program (scripts appear in the Instructor’s Resource Manual). Students learn to get the gist of and extract important information from what they hear, rather than trying to understand every word.
Голоса Book One Introduction xiii
Learners are exposed to a great variety of audio materials, including voicemail messages, personal audio postings, public announcements, weather reports, radio and TV advertisements, brief speeches, conversations, interviews, news features and reports, and poems.
Культура
и быт
Culture boxes, spread throughout each unit, serve as an introduction to realia of the Russian-speaking world.
Это интересно!
An additional free-floating feature of each unit is an activity called Это интересно! These infographics provide accessible texts that require no scaffolding but can lead to class discussion in Russian.
Словарь
The Словарь at the end of each unit contains all active-vocabulary items. The Словарь at the end of the book lists the first unit in which the entry is introduced, along with those units where the use of the word is further developed.
Student Workbook
The Workbook is available in hard copy and online. It is the main vehicle for student work outside of class. Each version has advantages and drawbacks. Instructors can choose, keeping in mind that the hardcopy Workbook allows handwriting practice. But instant feedback is unavailable. The online workbook provides instant feedback, but not in activities involving free composition (about a third of all activities — more in the more advanced units). The Workbook consists of the following parts:
Устные упражнения. In Oral Drills, students practice active structures and receive immediate feedback in the form of an audio “key.”
Числительные. Students become familiar with numbers in context and at normal conversational speed. These sections are especially important for transactional situations.
Фонетика и интонация. Голоса has been the field’s leader in explicit work in phonetics and intonation. The Sixth Edition features newly created activities to raise learners’ sensitivity to role of syllable stress in Russian.
Голоса Book One Introduction
The written homework section starts with mechanical manipulation and builds up to activities resembling free composition. More complex exercises toward the end of this section provide students with further listening, reading, and especially composition practice. Here students listen to brief audio items, write notes and compositions, and prepare presentations or other more challenging assignments based on material presented in this unit. This section requires the integration of several skills, with a particular focus on writing. Finally, the Sixth Edition includes activities that address an oft-overlooked problem in production. Students sometimes attempt utterances for which they have no hope of communicative success. Students are asked to determine which utterances they can say, as opposed to those where they might want to wait until they have more linguistic wherewithal.
Video
The scaffolded video program covers both books and runs a little over two hours. Each video unit is between five and ten minutes long and features authentic interviews in which Russians you might meet every day not actors discuss their daily lives and introduce you to their families, homes, hometowns, workplaces, and events in their lives. The Sixth Edition now features more faces and places from outside European Russia.
Instructor Resources
Instructor’s Resource Manual (IRM)
The Instructor’s Resource Manual is available for online download. It provides sample syllabi, lesson plans, and scripts for all audio and video exercises.
Testing Program
The modular Testing Program allows for maximum flexibility: each unit of the Testing Program consists of a bank of customizable quiz activities closely coordinated with the vocabulary and grammar presented in the corresponding unit of the textbook. The quiz activities primarily elicit discrete answers. In addition, a highly flexible testing program provides two types of tests for each unit one that solicits more open-ended answers, and one that elicits more discrete answers. The Testing Program is available in electronic formats (both as fixed PDFs and fully editable texts and Microsoft docx.
Scope and Sequence
Алфавит
Коммуникативные задания
The Russian alphabet and sound system
Vowel reduction
Palatalization
Devoicing of consonants in final position
Consonant assimilation
Print, italic, and cursive
Урок 1: Немного о себе
Коммуникативные задания
Greetings and good-byes, formal and informal
Introducing and giving information about yourself
Asking for information about someone else
Reading Russian business cards
Russian social networking
Letters to and from Russian host family
Грамматика
Formal and informal speech situations: ты – вы
Russian names
Grammatical gender: introduction
Gender of names
Gender of modifier “my”
Grammatical case: introduction
Nominative case in singular
Prepositional case: introduction
The verb to be in Russian present-tense sentences
Культура и быт
Saying “hello”
Introductions
Physical contact
Голоса Book One Scope and Sequence xvii
Это интересно!
Russian names over time
Урок 2: Что у меня есть?
Коммуникативные задания
Greeting friends at the airport
Russian homestays
Russian family members
Talking about the weather
Reading and listening to ads
Грамматика
Gender of Russian nouns
Nominative plural of nouns
The 5- and 7-letter spelling rules
Pronouns он, она, оно, они
55
Whose? Possessive modifiers чей, мой (neuter, plural), твой, наш, ваш, его, её, их
Nominative case of adjectives
What? что vs какой
This is/these are: это vs этот, это, эта, эти
Have: У меня (тебя, вас) есть
Talking about the weather
Культура и быт
Temperatures in Celsius
Slippers at home: тапочки
Это интересно!
Global temperatures 1880–2020
Урок 3: Какие языки вы знаете?
Коммуникативные задания
Talking about languages
Discussing ethnic and national backgrounds
Reading and listening to ads about language programs
Грамматика
Verb conjugation: present and past tense
95
Position of adverbial modifiers Голоса Book One Scope and Sequencе xviii
Talking about languages: русский язык vs. по-русски
Talking about nationalities
Prepositional case of singular and plural modifiers and nouns
Preposition о; о vs. об
Conjunctions: и, а, но
Культура и быт
The place of foreign languages in Russia
Комплименты: responding to compliments
Это интересно!
Meanings of last names
Урок 4: Образование
Коммуникативные задания
Talking about where and what people study
Making a presentation about yourself
Reading and writing academic schedules
Reading diplomas and transcripts
Reading: Choosing a university in Russia
Listening to a university welcome speech
Грамматика
Study verbs: учиться, изучать, учить, заниматься
The 8-letter spelling rule
На каком курсе...?
На + prepositional case for location
Accusative case of modifiers and nouns
Любить + accusative or infinitive
Prepositional case of question words and personal pronouns
Question words and sentence expanders: где, что, как, какой, почему, потому
что
Тоже vs также
Культура и быт
The most popular majors in Russia
Russian grading system
Russian diplomas
Schools in Russia
Higher education in Russia: universities and institutes
Голоса Book One Scope and Sequence
xix
University departments
“College” in Russian
Standardized exams: Единый
Это интересно!
Higher education around the world
Урок 5: Распорядок дня Коммуникативные задания
Talking about daily activities and schedules
Talking about classes
Asking and telling time on the hour
Making and responding to simple invitations
Talking on the phone
Reading handwritten Russian
Listening to a podcast: the daily life of a student
Listening to voicemail
Speaking and writing in paragraphs
Грамматика
Class: курс, занятия, урок, лекция, пара
Days of the week
Times of the day: утром, днём, вечером, ночью
Time on the hour
New verbs to answer: Что вы делаете?
Stable and shifting stress in verb conjugations
Going: идти vs. ехать; я иду vs. я хожу
Asking where: где and куда
В/на + accusative case for direction
Expressing necessity or obligation: должен, должна, должно, должны
Free (not busy): свободен, свободна, свободно, свободны
Культура и быт
Evening vs. night in Russian
Это интересно!
Names for days of the week
187
Урок 6: Дом, квартира,
Коммуникативные задания
Talking about homes, rooms, furnishings
Adjectives used to name a room
Colors: Какого цвета...?
Making and responding to invitations
Online furniture shopping
Reading a letter about communal apartments
Renting an apartment
Грамматика
Хотеть
Verbs of position: стоять, висеть, лежать
Genitive case of pronouns, question words, and singular modifiers and nouns
Ownership, existence, and presence: (у кого) есть что
Nonexistence and absence: (у кого) нет чего
Possession and attribution (of): genitive case of noun phrases
Specifying quantity
At someone’s place: у кого
Review: uses of the genitive case
Культура и быт
Ты и вы
How many rooms?
Apartment size in square meters
Housing in Russia
Russian apartments, dormitories, and dachas
Это интересно!
Living space in the U.S. and Russia
Урок 7: Наша семья Коммуникативные задания
Naming family members
Talking about people: names, ages, professions, where they were born, where they grew up
Talking about professions and workplaces
Reading and writing foreign names of workplaces
Telling where your city is located
Голоса Book One Scope and Sequence
289 xxi
Reading job ads and résumés
Listening: family game show
Video: families talk about themselves
Грамматика
Born, grew up: родился, вырос
Expressing age: the dative case of pronouns; год, года, лет
Genitive plural of nouns and modifiers: introduction
Specifying quantity
Comparing ages: моложе/старше
Telling someone’s name: зовут
Accusative case: summary
Accusative case of nouns, modifiers, and pronouns
Культура и быт
Various kinds of families: sexual orientation and gender identity
Teachers vs. professors
Это интересно!
Global demographics
Урок 8: В магазине
Коммуникативные задания
Asking for advice about purchases
Making simple purchases
Birthday greetings
Presents and gift-giving
Measuring in metric
Online clothes shopping
Грамматика
Past tense: был, была, было, были
Have and did not have: the past tense of есть and нет
Went: ходил vs. пошёл, ездил vs. поехал
Dative case of modifiers and nouns
Uses of the dative case
• Expressing age
• Indirect objects
• The preposition по
• Expressing necessity, possibility, impossibility, the forbidden Голоса Book One Scope and Sequencе
• Expressions of possibility and impossibility: можно, невозможно
• Other dative subjectless constructions: трудно, легко, интересно
• Liking or not liking: нравиться
Культура и быт
The market: рынок
Это интересно!
Clothing measurements in various countries
Урок 9: Что мы будем есть?
Коммуникативные задания
Making plans to go to a restaurant
Reading menus
Ordering meals in a restaurant
Making plans to cook dinner
Russian food stores
Russian restaurants and cafés
Listening to restaurant advertisements
Грамматика
Eating and drinking: conjugation of есть and пить
For in Russian: для vs. за
Instrumental case with the preposition с
Verbs in -овать: советовать
Future tense of быть
The future tense
Verbal aspect – introduction
Verbs for buying, taking, giving
Question words and pronouns
Культура и быт
Metric system: weight and volume
Tipping in Russia
Это интересно!
Tipping around the world
Урок 10: Биография
Коммуникативные задания
Talking more about yourself and your family
Saying you are adopted
Telling where your city is located
Points on the compass
Reading and listening to short biographies
Listening: career and family
Грамматика
Expressing resemblance: похож на кого
Expressing location: на севере (юге, востоке, западе) (от) чего
Entering and graduating from school: поступать/поступить (куда), окончить (что)
Indicating the year in which an event takes (took) place: В каком году?
Time expressions with через and назад
Verbal aspect: past tense
Review of going verbs
Have been doing: use present tense
Культура и быт
Graduate school in Russia
Which Tolstoy?
Это интересно!
First jobs
Scope and Sequencе
Русское письмо
The Russian alphabet and sound system
• Vowel reduction
• Palatalization
• Devoicing of consonants in final position
• Consonant assimilation
• Print, italic, and cursive
Introduction to the Russian Alphabet
The Russian alphabet contains 33 characters: 10 vowel letters, 21 consonant letters, and two signs. Russian spelling closely reflects pronunciation. Once you have learned the alphabet and a few pronunciation rules, you will be able to recognize many familiar words and proper names.
Some Russian letters look and sound somewhat like their English counterparts:
СONSONANTS
LETTER
APPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATION
Кк like k in skit, but without aspiration or breath
Мм like m in mother
Сс like s in sail (never like k)
Тт like t in stay, but tongue against upper teeth
VOWELS
LETTER
APPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATION
Аa when stressed, like a in father
О o when stressed, between the o in mole and the vowel sound in talk
Words you knew all along: Each word is under a drawing that illustrates it.
Who’s there?
Кто там?
Stress
Stress refers to the “strong” syllable in a word. A desert gets little rain. A dessert is something sweet. In Russian (as in English), the place of stress affects the sound of some vowels. Listen to the first two words above: ма́ска, ма́ма. The stressed а is pronounced like the а in father, whereas the unstressed а is pronounced like the a in about. This change in the sound of an unstressed vowel letter, called vowel reduction, is even more noticeable with the vowel letter о. For example, in the word ко́смос, the unstressed о in the second syllable is reduced to the sound of a in about
Stress marks appear only in dictionaries and Russian-language textbooks like this one. If a capitalized vowel is stressed, it’s not marked, e.g. Отто, not Óтто
Some Russian letters look like Greek letters, which you may recognize from their use in mathematics or by some student organizations:
LETTER APPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATION
Гг like g in gamma
Дд like d in delta, but with tongue against upper teeth
Лл like l in lambda, but tongue against upper teeth
Пп like p in spot (looks like Greek pi)
Рр flap r, similar to trilled r in Spanish; similar to tt in better and butter (looks like Greek rho)
Фф like f in fun (looks like Greek phi)
Хх like ch in Bach (looks like Greek chi)
More geographical names
Да́ллас Корк
Оклахо́ма
You’ll no doubt recognize . . .
ла́мпа
па́па
порт фото́граф
сорт Ха-ха-ха!
Your textbook is called . . .
Голоса́ “voices” (Го́лос is one voice).
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"Civil? She treated them like the dirt under her feet. She laughed at them to their noses. Elle faisait ses farces sur tout le monde. Ah! but she had a droll of tongue. Quel esprit, quelle blague, quel chic! But it was a festival to listen to her."
"Had she the air of a woman who had been a lady, and who had dégringolé?"
"Pas le moins du monde. She was franchement canaille. Elle n'avait pas dégringolé. She had rather risen in the world. Some little grisette, perhaps; some little rat of the Opera—but jolie à croquer— tall, proud, with an air of queen!"
"You often had a chat with her, I dare say, Monsieur Louis, as she went in and out of the hotel?"
"Mais, oui. She would come into the bureau, to ask questions, to order a carriage, and would stop to put on her gloves—she had no femme de chambre—and though her clothes were handsome, she was a slovenly dresser, and wore the same gown every day, which is not the mark of a lady."
"In these casual conversations did you find out who she is, where she lives, in London or elsewhere?"
"From her conversation I would say she lives nowhere—a nomad, drifting about the world, drinking her bottle of champagne with her dinner, crunching pralines all the afternoon, smoking nine or ten cigarettes after every meal, and costing pas mal d'argent to the person who has to pay for her caprices. She talked of London, she talked of Rome, of Vienna—she knows every theatre and restaurant in Paris, but not half a dozen sentences of French."
"A free lance," said Faunce. "Now for the name of this lady and gentleman."
The name had escaped Monsieur Louis. He had to find the page in his ledger.
"Mr. and Mrs. Randall, numbers 11 and 12, first floor, from February 7th to February 25th."
Randall! The name that Miss Rodney's Duchess had told her, and which Lady Perivale had told Faunce.
"And the lady's Christian name? Can you remember that? You must have heard her pseudo-husband call her by it."
Louis tapped his forehead smartly, as if he were knocking at the door of memory.
"Tiens, tiens, tiens! I heard it often—it was some term of endearment. Tiens! It was Pig!"
"Pig!—Pigs are for good luck. I wonder what kind of luck this one will bring Colonel——Randall. And what did she call him? Another term of endearment?"
"She called him sometimes Dick, but the most often Ranny. When they were good friends, bien entendu. There were days when she would not address him the word. Elle savait comment se faire valoir!"
"They generally do know that, when they spring from the gutter," said Faunce.
He had learnt a good deal. Such a woman—with such beauty, dash, devilry—ought to be traceable in London, Paris, or New York, anywhere. He told himself that it might take him a long time to find her—or time that would be long for him, an adept in rapid action— but he felt very sure that he could find her, and that when he found her he could mould her to his will.
There was only one thing, Faunce thought, that would make her difficult—a genuine attachment to Rannock. If she really loved him, as such women can love, it might be hard work to induce her to betray him, even though no fatal consequences to him hung upon her secrecy. He knew the dogged fidelity which worthless women sometimes give to worthless men.
The hotel was almost empty, so after a prolonged siesta Mr Faunce dined with the manager in the restaurant, which they had to themselves, while half a dozen tourists made a disconsolate little group in the desolation of the spacious dining-room.
Faunce did not pursue the subject of the Randalls and their behaviour during the social meal, for he knew that the manager's mind having been set going in that direction he would talk about them of his own accord, a surmise which proved correct, for M. Louis talked of nothing else; but there were no vital facts elicited over the bottle of Pommery which Mr. Faunce ordered.
"The lady was something of a slattern, you say?" said Faunce. "In that case she would be likely to leave things—odd gloves, old letters, trinkets—behind her. Now, in my work things are often of the last importance. Trifles light as air, mon ami, are sign-posts and guiding stars for the detective. You may remember Müller's hat—his murdered victim's, with the crown cut down—thriftiness that cost the German youth dear. I could recall innumerable instances. Now, did not this lady leave some trifling trail, some litter of gloves, fans, letters, which your gallantry would treasure as a souvenir?"
"If you come to that, her room was a pig-sty."
"To correspond with her pet name."
"But the hotel was full, and I set the chambermaids at work ten minutes after the Randalls drove to the boat. We had people coming into the rooms that afternoon."
"And you had neither leisure nor curiosity to seek for relics of the lovely creature?"
Monsieur Louis shrugged his shoulders.
"Is my room on the same floor?"
"Mais oui."
"And I have the same chambermaid?"
"Yes. She is the oldest servant we have, and she stays in the hotel all the summer; while most of our staff are in Switzerland."
This was enough for Faunce. He retired to his room early, after smoking a couple of cigarettes under the palm trees in front of the hotel, in the sultry hush of the summer night. The scene around him was all very modern, all very French—a café-concert on the right, a
café-concert on the left—and it needed an occasional Arab stalking by in a long white mantle to remind him that he was in Africa. He meant to start on his return journey to London by the next boat. He was not going to Corsica or Sardinia in search of new facts. He trusted to his professional acumen to run the lady to ground in London or Paris.
He shut the window against insect life, lighted his candles, and seated himself at the table, with his writing-case open before him, and then rang the dual summons which brings the hotel chambermaid.
"Be so good as to get me some ink," he said.
The chambermaid, who was elderly and sour-visaged, told him that ink was the waiter's business, not hers. He should have rung once, not twice, for ink.
"Never mind the ink, Marie," he said, in French. "I want something more valuable even than ink. I want information, and I think you can give it to me. Do you remember Monsieur and Madame Randall, who had rooms on this floor before Easter?"
Yes, she remembered them; but what then?
"When Madame Randall left she was in a hurry, was she not?"
"She was always in a hurry when she had to go anywhere—unless she was sulky and would not budge. She would sit like a stone figure if she had one of her tempers," the chambermaid answered, with many contemptuous shrugs.
"She left hurriedly, and she left her room in a litter—left all sorts of things behind her?" suggested Faunce, with an insinuating smile.
The chambermaid's sharp black eyes flashed angrily, and the chambermaid tossed her head in scorn. And then she held out a skinny forefinger almost under Faunce's nose.
"She has not left so much as that," she said, striking the finger on the first joint with the corresponding finger of the other hand. "Not so much as that!" and from her vehemence Faunce suspected that she
had reaped a harvest of small wares, soiled gloves and lacebordered handkerchiefs, silk stockings with ravelled heels.
"What a pity," he said in his quietest voice, "for I should have been glad to have given you a couple of napoleons for any old letters or other documents that you might have found among the rubbish when you swept the rooms."
"For letters, they were all in the fireplace, torn to shreds," said the chambermaid; "but there was something—something that I picked up, and kept, in case the lady should come back, when I could return it to her."
"There is always something," said Faunce. "Well, Marie, what is it?"
"A photograph."
"Of the lady?"
"No, Monsieur, of a young man—pas grand' chose. But if Monsieur values the portrait at forty francs it is at his disposition, and I will hazard the anger of Madame should she return and ask me for it."
"Pas de danger! She will not return. She belongs to the wandering tribes, the people who never come back. Since the portrait is not of the lady herself, and may be worth nothing to me, we will say twenty francs, ma belle."
The chambermaid was inclined to haggle, but when Faunce shrugged his shoulders, laid a twenty-franc piece upon the table, and declined further argument, she pocketed the coin, and went to fetch the photograph.
It was the least possible thing in the way of portraits, of the kind called "midget," a full-length portrait of a young man, faded and dirty, in a little morocco case that had once been red, but was soiled to blackness.
"By Jove!" muttered Faunce, "I ought to know that face."
He told himself that he ought to know it, for it was a familiar face, a face that spoke to him out of the long ago; but he could not place it in the record of his professional experiences. He took the photo out of
the case, and looked at the back, where he found what he expected. There is always something written upon that kind of photograph by that kind of woman.
"San Remo,
"Poor old Tony. November 22th, '88."
The 22th, the uneducated penmanship sprawling over the little card, alike indicated the style of the writer.
"Poor old Tony!" mused Faunce, slowly puffing his last cigarette, with the midget stuck up in front of him, between the two candles. "Who is Tony? A swell, by the cut of his clothes, and that—well, the goodbred ones have an air of their own, an air that one can no more deny than one can describe it. Poor old Tony! At San Remo—condemned by the doctors. There's death in every line of the face and figure. A consumptive, most likely. The last sentence has been passed on you, poor beggar! Poor old Tony! And that woman was with you at San Remo, the companion of a doomed man, dying by inches. And she must have been in the flower of her beauty then, a splendid creature. Was she very fond of you, I wonder, honestly, sincerely attached to you? I think she was, for her hand trembled when she wrote those words! Poor old Tony! And there is a smudge across the date, that might indicate a tear. Well, if I fail in running her to earth in London, I could trace some part of her past life at San Remo, and get at her that way. But who was Tony? I'm positive I know the face. Perhaps the reflex action of the brain will help me," concluded Faunce.
The reflex action did nothing for Mr. Faunce, in the profound slumber which followed upon the fatigue of a long journey. No suggestion as to the original of the photograph had occurred to him when he put it in his letter-case next morning. It was hours afterwards, when he was lying in his berth in the steamer, "rocked in the cradle of the deep," wakeful, but with his brain in an idle, unoccupied state, that Tony's identity flashed upon him.
"Sir Hubert Withernsea," he said to himself, sitting up in his berth, and clapping his hand upon his forehead. "That's the man! I
remember him about town ten years ago—a Yorkshire baronet with large estates in the West Riding—a weak-kneed youth with a passion for the Fancy, always heard of at prize-fights, and entertaining fighting men, putting up money for private glove-fights; a poor creature, born to be the prey of swindlers and loose women."
Faunce looked back to that period of ten years ago, which seemed strangely remote, more by reason of the changes in ideas and fashions, whim and folly, than by the lapse of time. He searched his mind for the name of any one woman in particular with whom Sir Hubert Withernsea had been associated, but here memory failed him. He had never had business relations with the young man, and though his ears were always open to the gossip of the town, he kept no record of trivial things outside the affairs of his clients. One young fool more or less travelling along the primrose path made no impression upon him. But with the knowledge of this former episode in the pseudo-Mrs. Randall's career, it ought to be easy for him to find out all about her in London, that focus of the world's intelligence, where he almost invariably searched for information before drawing any foreign capital.
CHAPTER IX.
"What begins now?"
"Happiness
Such as the world contains not."
Faunce wrote to Lady Perivale on his arrival in town, and told her the result of his journey briefly, and without detail. She might make her mind easy. The woman who resembled her would be found. He was on her track, and success was only a question of time.
Grace read the letter to Susan Rodney, who was dining with her that evening. She had been in much better spirits of late, and Sue rejoiced in the change, but did not suspect the cause. She had gone to her own den at the back of her house when Grace left her, and
had not seen the carriage standing by the park gate, nor had the interview in the park come to her knowledge. Her friend, who confided most things to her, was reticent here. She attributed Lady Perivale's cheerfulness to a blind faith in Faunce the detective.
The season was drawing towards its close. Lady Morningside's white ball had been a success, all the prettiest people looking their prettiest in white frocks, and the banks of gloxinias in the hall and staircase and supper-rooms being a thing to rave about. The London season was waning. The Homburg people and the Marienbad people were going or gone. The yachting people were rushing about buying stores, or smart clothes for Cowes. The shooting people were beginning to talk about their grouse moors.
"Sue, we must positively go somewhere," Grace said. "Even you must be able to take a holiday within an hour of London; and you may be sure I shan't go far while I have this business on hand. You will come with me, won't you, Sue? I am beginning to sicken of solitude."
"I shall love to come, if you are near enough for me to run up to town once or twice a week. I have three or four pig-headed pupils who won't go away when I want them; but most of my suburbans are packing their golf clubs for Sandwich, Cromer, or North Berwick."
"You will come! That's capital! I shall take a house on the river between Windsor and Goring."
"Make it as near London as you can."
"If you are good it shall be below Windsor, even if the river is not so pretty there as it is at Wargrave or Taplow. I want to be near London, for Mr. Faunce's convenience. I hope he will have news to bring me. I wrote to beg him to call to-morrow morning—I want to know what discoveries he made in Algiers."
People who have twenty thousand a year, more or less, seldom have to wait for things. Lady Perivale drove to a fashionable agent in
Mount Street next morning, and stated her wishes; and the appearance of her victoria and servants, and the fact that she made no mention of price, indicated that she was a client worth having. The agent knew of a charming house on a lovely reach of the river near Runnymede—gardens perfection, stables admirable, boathouse spacious, and well provided with boats at the tenant's disposal. Unluckily, he had let it the day before; but he hoped that little difficulty might be got over. He would offer his client a villa further up the river. He would write to Lady Perivale next morning.
The little difficulty was got over. The client, actual or fictitious, was mollified, and Lady Perivale took the house for a month at two hundred guineas, on the strength of a water-colour sketch. She sent some of her servants to prepare for her coming, and she and Susan Rodney were installed there at the end of the week.
The house and gardens were almost as pretty as they looked in water-colour, though the river was not quite so blue, and the roses were not quite so much like summer cabbages as the artist had made them. There were a punt and a couple of good skiffs in the boat-house; and Lady Perivale and her friend, who could both row, spent half their days on the river, where Grace met some of those quondam friends whom she had passed so often in the park; met and passed them with unalterable disdain, though sometimes she thought she saw a little look of regret, an almost appealing expression in their faces, as if they were beginning to think they might have been too hasty in their conclusions about her.
One friend she met on the river whom she did not pretend to scorn. On the second Saturday afternoon a skiff flashed past her through the July sunshine, and her eyes were quick to recognize the rower. It was Arthur Haldane. She gave an involuntary cry of surprise, and he turned his light craft, and brought it beside the roomy boat in which she and Sue were sitting, with books and work, and the marron poodle, as in a floating parlour.
"Are you staying near here, Lady Perivale?" he asked, when greetings had been exchanged.
"We are living close by, Miss Rodney and I, at Runnymede Grange. I hope you won't laugh at our rowing. Our idea of a boat is only a movable summer-house. We dawdle up and down for an hour or two, and then creep into a backwater, and talk, and work, and read, all the afternoon, and one of the servants comes to us at five o'clock, and makes tea on the bank with a gipsy kettle."
"You might ask him to one of our gipsy teas, Grace," suggested Susan.
"With pleasure. Will you come this afternoon? We shall be in the little creek—the first you come to after passing Runnymede Grange, which you will know by the Italian terrace and sundial."
"I shall come and help your footman to boil the kettle."
He looked radiant. He had seen Lady Perivale's happy look when his boat neared hers, and his heart danced for joy All the restraint he had set upon himself was flung to the winds. If she loved him, what did anything matter? It was not the world's mistrust he dreaded, or the world's contempt. His only fear had been that she should doubt him, misread his motives, rank him with the fortune-hunters who had pursued her.
"Are you staying near here?" asked Susan.
"I come up the river for a day or two now and then. There is a cottage at Staines kept by a nice old spinster, whose rooms are the pink of cleanliness, and who can cook a mutton chop. I keep a quire or two of foolscap in her garden parlour, and go there sometimes to do my work. Her garden goes down to the water, and there is a roomy arbour of hops that I share with the caterpillars, a kind of berceau, from which I can see the river and the boats going by, through the leafy screen, while nobody can see me. It is the quietest place I know of near London. The rackety people seldom come below Maidenhead."
He spent the hours between tea-time and sunset with Grace and her friend, in a summer idleness, while the poodle, who found himself receiving less attention from his mistress than usual, roamed up and down, scratching holes in the bank, and pretending to hunt rats
among the sedges, evidently oppressed with ennui. Of those three friends there were two who knew not the lapse of time, and were surprised to see the great golden disc sink below the rosy water where the river curved westward, and the sombre shadows steal over keep and battlements yonder where the Royal fortress barred the evening sky.
"How short the days are getting," Grace said naively.
They two had found so much to talk about after having lived a year without meeting. All the books they had read, all the plays they had seen, the music they had heard—everything made a subject for discussion; and then it was so sweet to be there, in the full confidence of friendship, spell-bound in a present happiness, and in vague dreams of the future, sure that nothing could ever again come between them and their trust in each other.
"The days are shortening by a cock's step or so," said Sue, looking up from an afternoon tea-cloth, which she was decorating with an elaborate design in silk and gold thread, and which she had been seen engaged upon for the last ten years.
It was known as "Sue's work." It went everywhere with her, and was criticized and admired everywhere, and everybody knew that it would never be finished.
"The days are shortening, no doubt," repeated Sue; "they must begin, or we should never get to the long winter evenings, but I haven't perceived any difference yet, and I don't think there's anything odd in the sun going down at eight o'clock."
"Eight o'clock! Nonsense, Sue!" cried Lady Perivale, flinging down a volume of "The Ring and the Book," which she had been nursing all the afternoon.
"And as we are supposed to dine at eight, I think we ought to go home and put on our tea-gowns," pursued Sue, sedately.
Can there be such happiness in life; bliss that annihilates thought and time? Grace blushed crimson, ashamed of having been so happy.
Mr Haldane bade them good night at the bottom of the garden steps, where his outrigger was waiting for him. It would have been so easy to ask him to dinner, so easy to keep him till midnight, so easy to prolong the sweetness of golden hours. But Grace was discreet. They were not lovers, only friends. She wanted to spin to its finest thread this season of sweet uncertainty, these exquisite hours on the threshold of Paradise. And then Sue might think him a bore. Sue was not overfond of masculine society. She liked to put her feet on a chair after dinner, and she sometimes liked a cigarette.
"I never smoke before men," she told Grace. "They think we do it to please, or to shock them."
CHAPTER X.
"True as steel, boys! That knows all chases, and can watch all hours."
In the course of that summer afternoon's talk with Grace Perivale, Arthur Haldane had explained the change in his plans since their meeting in Regent's Park.
The business which would have taken him away from England for some time had hung fire, and his journey was postponed indefinitely. He did not tell her that his contemplated journey was solely in her interests, that he had thought of going to America in quest of Colonel Rannock, with the idea that he, the man with whose name Lady Perivale's had been associated, should himself set her right before that little world which had condemned her. He knew not by what machinery that rehabilitation could be accomplished; but his first impulse was to find the man whose acquaintance had brought this trouble upon her.
Two days after that golden sunset in which he and Lady Perivale had parted, with clasped hands that vowed life-long fidelity, while yet no
word had been spoken, Mr Haldane called upon John Faunce at his pied à terre in Essex Street.
He had written for an appointment on business connected with Lady Perivale's case, and Faunce had replied asking him to call at his rooms in Essex Street at ten o'clock next morning. An early hour, which denoted the man whose every hour was valuable.
He found the house one of the oldest in the old-world street, next door to a nest of prosperous solicitors, but itself of a somewhat shabby and retiring aspect. The bell was answered by a bright-eyed servant girl, clean and fresh looking, but with an accent that suggested the Irish Town Limerick, rather than a London slum—a much pleasanter accent to Haldane's ear.
To the inquiry if Mr. Faunce lived there, she answered with a note of interrogation.
"Mr. Wh-hat?"
"Mr. Faunce."
"Yes, he does. Any message?"
"Is he at home?"
"I don't know. I'll go and see. Wh-hat name?"
A quick-eyed scrutiny of the visitor's spotless holland waistcoat, the neat dark stripes of the straight-knee'd trousers falling in a graceful curve over the irreproachable boots, and the sheen of a silk-faced coat, had assured her of his respectability before she committed herself even so far as that.
But when this well-groomed gentleman, who was far too quietly dressed to be a member of the swell-mob, produced an immaculate card out of a silver case, she grasped it and dashed up the steep stairs.
"Will I tell 'um you want to see 'um?"
"Thanks."
"I shall!" and she vanished round the first landing.
She was back again and leaning over the same spot on the bannister rail in half a minute.
"You're to be good enough to step up, if ye plaze, surr."
Mr. Faunce occupied the second floor, front and back, as sittingroom and bedroom; the busy nature and uncertain hours of his avocations during the last few years having made his rural retreat at Putney impossible for him except in the chance intervals of his serious work, or from Friday to Monday, when that work was slack. It was not that he loved wife and home less, but that he loved duty more.
He emerged from the bedroom as Haldane entered the sitting-room, in the act of fixing a collar to his grey flannel shirt, and welcomed his visitor cordially, with apologies for not being dressed. He had been late overnight, and had been slower than usual at his toilet, as he was suffering from a touch of rheumatism. His profession was betrayed by a pair of regulation high-waisted trousers of a thick blueblack material, over Blucher boots, which were also made to the sealed pattern of the Force. But his costume was rounded off by a pepper-and-salt Norfolk jacket of workman-like cut.
There was no paltry pride about Mr. Faunce. Although a man of respectable parentage, good parts, and education, he was not in the least ashamed of having been for many years a respected member of the Police. In ordinary life he somewhat affected the get-up of a country parson with sporting tastes; but here, in his own den, and quite at his ease, he was nothing more or less than a retired policeofficer.
His rheumatism had taken him in the arm, he explained, or he would have been at his table there writing up one of his cases.
"There is often as much in one of 'em as would make a three-volume novel, Mr. Haldane;" and then, with a polite wave of the hand—"in bulk," he added, disclaiming all literary pretentions, and at the same time motioning his guest to a chair.
This laborious penwork was perhaps the most remarkable feature in John Faunce's career The hours of patient labour this supremely
patient man employed in noting down every detail and every word concerning the case in hand, which may have come to the notice of himself or any of his numerous temporary assistants, in and out of the police-force, stamped him as the detective who is born, not made, or, in other words, the worker who loves his work.
The room reflected the man's mind. It was a perfectly arranged receptacle of a wonderful amount of precise information. It was like the sitting-room of an exceptionally methodical student preparing for a very stiff examination. The neat dwarf bookcase contained a goodly number of standard books of reference, and a lesser number of the most famous examples of modern fiction.
One corner of the room was occupied by a stack of japanned tin boxes that recalled a solicitor's office; but these boxes had no lettering upon them. A discreet little numeral was sufficient indication of their contents for Faunce, who was incapable of forgetting a fact once registered in the book of his mind.
"You must find papers accumulate rapidly in your work, Mr. Faunce," said Haldane.
"They would if I let them, sir; but I don't. When once a case is settled or withdrawn from my hands, I return all letters and other papers that may have reached me, and I burn my history of the case."
"You will have nothing left for your Reminiscences, then?"
"They are here, sir," the detective replied sharply, tapping his massive brow; "and one day—well, sir, one day I may let the reading world know that truth is stranger—and sometimes even more thrilling —than fiction. But I must have consummate cheek to talk of fiction to the author of 'Mary Deane.'"
Haldane started, half inclined to resent an impertinence; but a glance at the man's fine head and brilliant eye reminded him that the detective and the novelist might be upon the same intellectual plane, or that in sheer brain power the man from Scotland Yard might be his superior.
Faunce had seen the look, and smiled his quiet smile.
"It's one of the penalties of being famous, Mr Haldane, that your inferiors may venture to admire you. I have your book among my favourites."
He pointed to the shelf, where Haldane saw the modest, dark-green cloth back of his one novel, between "Esmond" and "The Woman in White."
"And now to business, sir. And first allow me to say that I am glad to see any friend of Lady Perivale's."
"Thank you, Mr. Faunce. You must not suppose that Lady Perivale sent me here. She did not even know that I wanted to see you; and I must ask you not to mention my visit. I heard of what you were doing from a friend of Lady Perivale's, not from herself, and I am here to consult you on a matter that only indirectly affects her case."
"Well, sir, I am at your service."
"I shall be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Faunce. I believe a gentleman of your profession may be considered a kind of father confessor, that anything I say in this office will be—strictly Masonic."
"That is so."
"Well, then, I may tell you in the first place that Lady Perivale is the woman whom I admire and respect above all other women, and that it is my highest ambition to win her for my wife."
"I think that is a very natural ambition, sir, in any gentleman who— being free to choose—has the honour to know that lady," Faunce replied, with a touch of enthusiasm.
"I know something of Colonel Rannock's antecedents, and have met him in society, though he was never a friend of mine; and when I heard the scandal about Lady Perivale, it occurred to me that the best thing I could do, in her interest, was to find Rannock and call upon him to clear her name."
"A difficult thing for him to do, sir, even if he were willing to do it."
"I thought the way might be found, if the man were made to feel that it must be found. I have the worst possible opinion of Colonel
Rannock; but a man of that character has generally a weak joint in his harness, and I thought I should be able to bring him to book."
"A very tough customer, I'm afraid, sir. A human armadillo."
"The first matter was to find him. He was said to be in the Rocky Mountains, and I was prepared to go there after him; only such an expedition seemed improbable at the time of year. I had heard of him in chambers in the Albany; but on inquiry there I found he gave up his chambers last March, sold lease and furniture, and that his present address, if he had one in London, was unknown."
"Then I take it, sir, not having my professional experience, you were baffled, and went no further."
"No; I wasn't beaten quite so easily. I think, Faunce, your profession has a certain fascination for every man. It is the hunter's instinct, common to mankind, from the Stone Age downwards. After a good deal of trouble I found Rannock's late body-servant, a shrewd fellow, now billiard-marker at the Sans-Souci Club; and from him I heard that Rannock's destination was not the Rockies, but Klondyke. He left London for New York by the American Line at the end of March, taking the money he got for his lease and furniture, and he was to join two other men—whose names his servant gave me—at San Francisco, on their way to Vancouver. He was to write to his servant about certain confidential matters as soon as he arrived in New York, and was to send him money if he prospered in his gold-digging, for certain special payments, and for wages in arrear. I had no interest in knowing more of these transactions than the man chose to tell me; but the one salient fact is that no communication of any kind has reached the servant since his master left him, and the man feels considerable anxiety on his account. He has written to an agent in San Francisco, whose address Rannock had given him, and the agent replied that no such person as Colonel Rannock had been at his office or had communicated with him."
"Well, sir, Colonel Rannock changed his mind at the eleventh hour; or he had a reason for pretending to go to one place and going to another," said Faunce, quietly, looking up from a writing-pad on which he had made two or three pencil-notes.
"That might be so. I cabled an inquiry to the agent, whose letter to the valet was six weeks old, and I asked the whereabouts of the two friends whose party Rannock was to join. The reply came this morning. No news of Rannock; the other men started for Vancouver on April 13th."
"Do you want me to pursue this inquiry further, Mr. Haldane?"
"Yes; I want to find Rannock. It may be a foolish idea on my part. But Lady Perivale has been cruelly injured by the association of her name with this man—possibly by no fault of his—possibly by some devilish device to punish her for having slighted him."
"That hardly seems likely. They may have done such things in the last century, sir, when duelling was in fashion, and when a fine gentleman thought it no disgrace to wager a thousand pounds against a lady's honour, and write his wager in the club books, if she happened to offend him. But it doesn't seem likely nowadays."
"I want you to find this man," pursued Haldane, surprised, and a little vexed, at Faunce's dilettante air.
He had not expected to find a detective who talked like an educated man, and he began to doubt the criminal investigator's professional skill, in spite of his tin boxes and reference books, and appearance of mental power.
"In Lady Perivale's interest?"
"Certainly."
"Don't you think, sir, you'd better let me solve the problem on my own lines? You are asking me to take up a tangled skein at the wrong end. I am travelling steadily along my own road, and you want me to go off at a tangent. I dare say I shall come to Colonel Rannock in good time, working my own way."
"If that is so, I won't interfere," Haldane said, with a troubled look. "All my anxiety is for Lady Perivale's rehabilitation, and every hour's delay irritates me."
"You may safely leave the matter to me, sir. Festina lente. These things can't be hurried. I shall give the case my utmost attention, and
as much time as I can spare, consistently with my duty to other clients."
"You have other cases on your hands?"
Faunce smiled his grave, benign smile.
"Four years ago, when I retired from the C.I., I thought I was going to settle down in a cottage at Putney, with my good little wife, and enjoy my otium cum dignitate for the rest of my days," said Faunce, confidentially, "but, to tell you the truth, Mr. Haldane, I found the otium rather boring, and, one or two cases falling in my way, fortuitously, I took up the old business in a new form, and devoted myself to those curious cases which are of frequent occurrence in the best-regulated families, cases requiring very delicate handling, inexhaustible patience, and a highly-trained skill. Since then I have had more work brought me than I could possibly undertake; and I have been, so far, fortunate in giving my clients satisfaction. I hope I shall satisfy Lady Perivale."
There was a firmness in Faunce's present tone that pleased Haldane.
"At any rate, it was just as well that you should know the result of my search for Rannock," he said, taking up his hat and stick.
"Certainly, sir. Any information bearing on the case is of value, and I thank you for coming to me," answered Faunce, as he rose to escort his visitor to the door.
He did not attach any significance to the fact that Colonel Rannock had announced his intention of going to Klondyke, and had not gone there. He might have twenty reasons for throwing his servant off the scent; or he might have changed his mind. The new gold region is too near the North Pole to be attractive to a man of luxurious habits, accustomed to chambers in the Albany, and the run of half a dozen rowdy country houses, where the company was mixed and the play high.
Sport in Scotland and Ireland, sport in Norway, or even in Iceland, might inure a man to a hard life, but it would not bring him within
measurable distance of the hazards and hardships in that white world beyond Dawson City.
John Faunce, seated in front of his empty fireplace, listened mechanically to a barrel-organ playing the "Washington Post," and meditated upon Arthur Haldane's statement.
He had not been idle since his return to London, and had made certain inquiries about Colonel Rannock among people who were likely to know. He had interviewed a fashionable gunmaker with whom Rannock had dealt for twenty years, and the secretary of a club which he had frequented for about the same period The man was frankly Bohemian in his tastes, but had always kept a certain footing in society, and, in his own phrase, had never been "bowled out." He had been banished from no baccarat table, though he was not untainted with a suspicion of occasionally tampering with his stake. He played all the fashionable card games, and, like Dudley Smooth, though he did not cheat, he always won. He had plenty of followers among the callow youth who laughed at his jokes and almost died of his cigars; but he had no friends of his own age and station, and the great ladies of the land never admitted him within their intimate circle, though they might send him a card once or twice a year for a big party, out of friendly feeling for his mother—five-andtwenty years a widow, and for the greater part of her life attached to the Court.
Would such a man wheel a barrow and tramp the snow-bound shores of the Yukon River? Unlikely as the thing seemed, Faunce told himself that it was not impossible. Rannock had fought well in the Indian hill-country, had never been a feather-bed soldier, and had never affected the passing fashion of effeminacy. He had loved music with that inborn love which is like an instinct, and had made himself a fine player with very little trouble, considering the exacting nature of the 'cello; but he had never put on dilettante airs, or pretended that music was the only thing worth living for. He was as much at home with men who painted pictures as with composers and fiddlers. Versatility was the chief note in his character. The Scotch University, the Army school, the mess-room, the continental wanderings of later years, had made him an expert in most things
