e House

III First Sequel to Defiance

IV Rachel--and Christopher and Roddy

V Lizzie's Journey--I

VI All the Beaminsters

VII Rachel and Breton

VIII Christopher's Day

IX The Darkest Hour

X Lizzie's Journey--II

XI Roddy Is Master

XII Lizzie's Journey--III

BOOK III: RODDY

I Regent's Park--Breton and Lizzie

II The Duchess Moves

III Roddy Moves

IV March 13th: Breton's Tiger

V March 13th: Rachel's Heart

VI March 13th: Roddy Talks to the Devil and the Duchess
Denies God

VII Chamber Music--A Trio

VIII A Quartette

IX Rachel and Roddy

X Lizzie Becomes Miss Rand Again

XI The Last View from High Windows

XII Rachel, Roddy, Lord John, Christopher

XIII Epilogue--Prologue

BOOK I

THE DUCHESS

CHAPTER I

FELIX BRUN, DR. CHRISTOPHER, RACHEL BEAMINSTER--THEY ARE SURVEYED BY THE
PORTRAIT.

I

Felix Brun, perched like a little bird, on the steps of the Rede Art
Gallery, gazed up and down Bond Street, with his sharp eyes for someone
to whom he might show Yale Ross's portrait of the Duchess of Wrexe. The
afternoon was warm, the date May of the year 1898, and the occasion was
the Young Portrait Painters' first show with Ross's "Duchess" as its
principal attraction.

Brun was thrilled with excitement, with emotion, and he must have his
audience. There must be somebody to whom he might talk, to whom he might
explain exactly why this occasion was of so stirring an importance.

His eyes lighted with satisfaction. Coming towards him was a tall, gaunt
man with a bronzed face, loose ill-fitting clothes, a stride that had
little of the town about it. This was Arkwright, the explorer, a man who
had been lost in African jungles during the last five years, the very
creature for Brun's purposes.

Here was someone who, knowing nothing about Art, would listen all the
more readily to Brun's pronouncement upon it, a homely simple soul,
fitted for the killing of lions and tigers, but pliable as wax in the
hands of a master of civilization like Brun. At the same time Arkwright
was no fool; a psychologist in his way, he had written two books about
the East that had aroused considerable interest.

No fool, Arkwright.... He would be able to appreciate Brun's subtleties
and perhaps add some of his own.

He had, however, been away from E