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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11750-0.txt b/11750-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ccb37d --- /dev/null +++ b/11750-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5720 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11750 *** + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3 + +The Haunted Baronet (1871) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + +The Haunted Baronet + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The George and Dragon + +The pretty little town of Golden Friars--standing by the margin of the +lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint +and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow +windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old +church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like +silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw +moveless shadows upon the short level grass--is one of the most singular +and beautiful sights I have ever seen. + +There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so +light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture +reflected on the thin mist of night. + +On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of +the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars, +with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in +England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin +running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other +side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful +wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St. +George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold. + +In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old +_habitués_ of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the +fatigues of the day. + +This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in +summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a +fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a +pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the +room too hot. + +On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew the +weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed with each +inhabitant--a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite for all +sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a tumbler +of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it. Beside him +sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for more than +thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the last man in +Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an ex-captain of the +navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its wooden companion +beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the old-fashioned navy way, +and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the middle, opposite the +hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and smoked his pipe, looking +serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the George and Dragon every +now and then strutted in, and sat down in the high-backed wooden +arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned republican ways of the place, +and took his share in the talk gravely, and was heartily welcome. + +"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any +more you heard since." + +"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George. "Nothing +to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house won't +look so dowly now." + +"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time, hey?" +said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking. + +"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to +_you_, mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right +in time." + +"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another +grave nod. + +"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream of +smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here to save a +little, and perhaps he'll marry; and it is the more creditable, if, as +they say, he dislikes the place, and would prefer staying where he is." + +And having spoken thus gently, Mr. Peers resumed his pipe cheerfully. + +"No, he don't like the place; that is, I'm told he _didn't_," said the +innkeeper. + +"He _hates_ it," said the Doctor with another dark nod. + +"And no wonder, if all's true I've heard," cried old Jack Amerald. +"Didn't he drown a woman and her child in the lake?" + +"Hollo! my dear boy, don't let them hear you say that; you're all in the +clouds." + +"By Jen!" exclaimed the landlord after an alarmed silence, with his +mouth and eyes open, and his pipe in his hand, "why, sir, I pay rent for +the house up there. I'm thankful--dear knows, I _am_ thankful--we're all +to ourselves!" + +Jack Amerald put his foot on the floor, leaving his wooden leg in its +horizontal position, and looked round a little curiously. + +"Well, if it wasn't him, it was some one else. I'm sure it happened up +at Mardykes. I took the bearings on the water myself from Glads Scaur to +Mardykes Jetty, and from the George and Dragon sign down here--down to +the white house under Forrick Fells. I could fix a buoy over the very +spot. Some one here told me the bearings, I'd take my oath, where the +body was seen; and yet no boat could ever come up with it; and that was +queer, you know, so I clapt it down in my log." + +"Ay, sir, there _was_ some flummery like that, Captain," said Turnbull; +"for folk will be gabbin'. But 'twas his grandsire was talked o', not +him; and 'twould play the hangment wi' me doun here, if 'twas thought +there was stories like that passin' in the George and Dragon.' + +"Well, his grandfather; 'twas all one to him, I take it." + +"There never was no proof, Captain, no more than smoke; and the family +up at Mardykes wouldn't allow the king to talk o' them like that, sir; +for though they be lang deod that had most right to be angered in the +matter, there's none o' the name but would be half daft to think 'twas +still believed, and he full out as mich as any. Not that I need care +more than another, though they do say he's a bit frowsy and +short-waisted; for he can't shouther me out o' the George while I pay my +rent, till nine hundred and ninety-nine year be rin oot; and a man, be +he ne'er sa het, has time to cool before then. But there's no good +quarrellin' wi' teathy folk; and it may lie in his way to do the George +mony an ill turn, and mony a gude one; an' it's only fair to say it +happened a long way before he was born, and there's no good in vexin' +him; and I lay ye a pound, Captain, the Doctor hods wi' me." + +The Doctor, whose business was also sensitive, nodded; and then he said, +"But for all that, the story's old, Dick Turnbull--older than you or I, +my jolly good friend." + +"And best forgotten," interposed the host of the George. + +"Ay, best forgotten; but that it's not like to be," said the Doctor, +plucking up courage. "Here's our friend the Captain has heard it; and +the mistake he has made shows there's one thing worse than its being +quite remembered, and that is, its being _half_ remembered. We can't +stop people talking; and a story like that will see us all off the +hooks, and be in folks' mouths, still, as strong as ever." + +"Ay; and now I think on it, 'twas Dick Harman that has the boat down +there--an old tar like myself--that told me that yarn. I was trying for +pike, and he pulled me over the place, and that's how I came to hear it. +I say, Tom, my hearty, serve us out another glass of brandy, will you?" +shouted the Captain's voice as the waiter crossed the room; and that +florid and grizzled naval hero clapped his leg again on the chair by its +wooden companion, which he was wont to call his jury-mast. + +"Well, I do believe it will be spoke of longer than we are like to +hear," said the host, "and I don't much matter the story, if it baint +told o' the wrong man." Here he touched his tumbler with the spoon, +indicating by that little ring that Tom, who had returned with the +Captain's grog, was to replenish it with punch. "And Sir Bale is like to +be a friend to this house. I don't see no reason why he shouldn't. The +George and Dragon has bin in our family ever since the reign of King +Charles the Second. It was William Turnbull in that time, which they +called it the Restoration, he taking the lease from Sir Tony Mardykes +that was then. They was but knights then. They was made baronets first +in the reign of King George the Second; you may see it in the list of +baronets and the nobility. The lease was made to William Turnbull, which +came from London; and he built the stables, which they was out o' +repair, as you may read to this day in the lease; and the house has +never had but one sign since--the George and Dragon, it is pretty well +known in England--and one name to its master. It has been owned by a +Turnbull from that day to this, and they have not been counted bad men." +A murmur of applause testified the assent of his guests. "They has been +steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best +o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard +Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power +to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and +the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the +green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate. So 'tis +nout to me, except in the way o' friendliness, what the family may think +o' me; only the George and they has always been kind and friendly, and I +don't want to break the old custom." + +"Well said, Dick!" exclaimed Doctor Torvey; "I own to your conclusion; +but there ain't a soul here but ourselves--and we're all friends, and +you are your own master--and, hang it, you'll tell us that story about +the drowned woman, as you heard it from your father long ago." + +"Ay, do, and keep us to our liquor, my hearty!" cried the Captain. + +Mr. Peers looked his entreaty; and deaf Mr. Hollar, having no interest +in the petition, was at least a safe witness, and, with his pipe in his +lips, a cozy piece of furniture. + +Richard Turnbull had his punch beside him; he looked over his shoulder. +The door was closed, the fire was cheery, and the punch was fragrant, +and all friendly faces about him. So said he: + +"Gentlemen, as you're pleased to wish it, I don't see no great harm in +it; and at any rate, 'twill prevent mistakes. It is more than ninety +years since. My father was but a boy then; and many a time I have heard +him tell it in this very room." + +And looking into his glass he mused, and stirred his punch slowly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Drowned Woman + +"It ain't much of a homminy," said the host of the George. "I'll not +keep you long over it, gentlemen. There was a handsome young lady, Miss +Mary Feltram o' Cloostedd by name. She was the last o' that family; and +had gone very poor. There's but the walls o' the house left now; grass +growing in the hall, and ivy over the gables; there's no one livin' has +ever hard tell o' smoke out o' they chimblies. It stands on t'other side +o' the lake, on the level wi' a deal o' a'ad trees behint and aside it +at the gap o' the clough, under the pike o' Maiden Fells. Ye may see it +wi' a spyin'-glass from the boatbield at Mardykes Hall." + +"I've been there fifty times," said the Doctor. + +"Well there was dealin's betwixt the two families; and there's good and +bad in every family; but the Mardykes, in them days, was a wild lot. And +when old Feltram o' Cloostedd died, and the young lady his daughter was +left a ward o' Sir Jasper Mardykes--an ill day for her, poor +lass!--twenty year older than her he was, an' more; and nothin' about +him, they say, to make anyone like or love him, ill-faur'd and little +and dow." + +"Dow--that's gloomy," Doctor Torvey instructed the Captain aside. + +"But they do say, they has an old blud-stean ring in the family that +has a charm in't; and happen how it might, the poor lass fell in love +wi' him. Some said they was married. Some said it hang'd i' the +bell-ropes, and never had the priest's blessing; but anyhow, married or +no, there was talk enough amang the folk, and out o' doors she would na +budge. And there was two wee barns; and she prayed him hard to confess +the marriage, poor thing! But t'was a bootlese bene, and he would not +allow they should bear his name, but their mother's; he was a hard man, +and hed the bit in his teeth, and went his ain gait. And having tired of +her, he took in his head to marry a lady of the Barnets, and it behoved +him to be shut o' her and her children; and so she nor them was seen no +more at Mardykes Hall. And the eldest, a boy, was left in care of my +grandfather's father here in the George." + +"That queer Philip Feltram that's travelling with Sir Bale so long is a +descendant of his?" said the Doctor. + +"Grandson," observed Mr. Peers, removing his pipe for a moment; "and is +the last of that stock." + +"Well, no one could tell where she had gone to. Some said to distant +parts, some said to the madhouse, some one thing, some another; but +neither she nor the barn was ever seen or spoke to by the folk at +Mardykes in life again. There was one Mr. Wigram that lived in them +times down at Moultry, and had sarved, like the Captain here, in the +king's navy in his day; and early of a morning down he comes to the town +for a boat, sayin' he was looking towards Snakes Island through his +spyin'-glass, and he seen a woman about a hundred and fifty yards +outside of it; the Captain here has heard the bearings right enough. +From her hips upwards she was stark and straight out o' the water, and a +baby in her arms. Well, no one else could see it, nor he neither, when +they went down to the boat. But next morning he saw the same thing, and +the boatman saw it too; and they rowed for it, both pulling might and +main; but after a mile or so they could see it no more, and gave over. +The next that saw it was the vicar, I forget his name now--but he was up +the lake to a funeral at Mortlock Church; and coming back with a bit of +a sail up, just passin' Snakes Island, what should they hear on a sudden +but a wowl like a death-cry, shrill and bleak, as made the very blood +hoot in their veins; and looking along the water not a hundred yards +away, saw the same grizzled sight in the moonlight; so they turned the +tiller, and came near enough to see her face--blea it was, and drenched +wi' water--and she was above the lake to her middle, stiff as a post, +holdin' the weeny barn out to them, and flyrin' [smiling scornfully] on +them as they drew nigh her. They were half-frighted, not knowing what to +make of it; but passing as close as the boatman could bring her side, +the vicar stretched over the gunwale to catch her, and she bent forward, +pushing the dead bab forward; and as she did, on a sudden she gave a +yelloch that scared them, and they saw her no more. 'Twas no livin' +woman, for she couldn't rise that height above the water, as they well +knew when they came to think; and knew it was a dobby they saw; and ye +may be sure they didn't spare prayer and blessin', and went on their +course straight before the wind; for neither would a-took the worth o' +all the Mardykes to look sich a freetin' i' the face again. 'Twas seen +another time by market-folk crossin' fra Gyllenstan in the self-same +place; and Snakes Island got a bad neam, and none cared to go nar it +after nightfall." + +"Do you know anything of that Feltram that has been with him abroad?" +asked the Doctor. + +"They say he's no good at anything--a harmless mafflin; he was a long +gaumless gawky when he went awa," said Richard Turnbull. "The Feltrams +and the Mardykes was sib, ye know; and that made what passed in the +misfortune o' that young lady spoken of all the harder; and this young +man ye speak of is a grandson o' the lad that was put here in care o' my +grandfather." + +"_Great_-grandson. His father was grandson," said Mr. Peers; "he held a +commission in the army and died in the West Indies. This Philip Feltram +is the last o' that line--illegitimate, you know, it is held--and the +little that remained of the Feltram property went nearly fourscore years +ago to the Mardykes, and this Philip is maintained by Sir Bale; it is +pleasant, notwithstanding all the stories one hears, gentlemen, that the +only thing we know of him for certain should be so creditable to his +kindness." + +"To be sure," acquiesced Mr. Turnbull. + +While they talked the horn sounded, and the mail-coach drew up at the +door of the George and Dragon to set down a passenger and his luggage. + +Dick Turnbull rose and went out to the hall with careful bustle, and +Doctor Torvey followed as far as the door, which commanded a view of it, +and saw several trunks cased in canvas pitched into the hall, and by +careful Tom and a boy lifted one on top of the other, behind the corner +of the banister. It would have been below the dignity of his cloth to go +out and read the labels on these, or the Doctor would have done +otherwise, so great was his curiosity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Philip Feltram + +The new guest was now in the hall of the George, and Doctor Torvey could +hear him talking with Mr. Turnbull. Being himself one of the dignitaries +of Golden Friars, the Doctor, having regard to first impressions, did +not care to be seen in his post of observation; and closing the door +gently, returned to his chair by the fire, and in an under-tone informed +his cronies that there was a new arrival in the George, and he could not +hear, but would not wonder if he were taking a private room; and he +seemed to have trunks enough to build a church with. + +"Don't be too sure we haven't Sir Bale on board," said Amerald, who +would have followed his crony the Doctor to the door--for never was +retired naval hero of a village more curious than he--were it not that +his wooden leg made a distinct pounding on the floor that was inimical, +as experience had taught him, to mystery. + +"That can't be," answered the Doctor; "Charley Twyne knows everything +about it, and has a letter every second day; and there's no chance of +Sir Bale before the tenth; this is a tourist, you'll find. I don't know +what the d---l keeps Turnbull; he knows well enough we are all naturally +willing to hear who it is." + +"Well, he won't trouble us here, I bet ye;" and catching deaf Mr. +Hollar's eye, the Captain nodded, and pointed to the little table beside +him, and made a gesture imitative of the rattling of a dice-box; at +which that quiet old gentleman also nodded sunnily; and up got the +Captain and conveyed the backgammon-box to the table, near Hollar's +elbow, and the two worthies were soon sinc-ducing and catre-acing, with +the pleasant clatter that accompanies that ancient game. Hollar had +thrown sizes and made his double point, and the honest Captain, who +could stand many things better than Hollar's throwing such throws so +early in the evening, cursed his opponent's luck and sneered at his +play, and called the company to witness, with a distinctness which a +stranger to smiling Hollar's deafness would have thought hardly civil; +and just at this moment the door opened, and Richard Turnbull showed his +new guest into the room, and ushered him to a vacant seat near the other +corner of the table before the fire. + +The stranger advanced slowly and shyly, with something a little +deprecatory in his air, to which a lathy figure, a slight stoop, and a +very gentle and even heartbroken look in his pale long face, gave a more +marked character of shrinking and timidity. + +He thanked the landlord aside, as it were, and took his seat with a +furtive glance round, as if he had no right to come in and intrude upon +the happiness of these honest gentlemen. + +He saw the Captain scanning him from under his shaggy grey eyebrows +while he was pretending to look only at his game; and the Doctor was +able to recount to Mrs. Torvey when he went home every article of the +stranger's dress. + +It was odd and melancholy as his peaked face. + +He had come into the room with a short black cloak on, and a rather tall +foreign felt hat, and a pair of shiny leather gaiters or leggings on his +thin legs; and altogether presented a general resemblance to the +conventional figure of Guy Fawkes. + +Not one of the company assembled knew the appearance of the Baronet. The +Doctor and old Mr. Peers remembered something of his looks; and +certainly they had no likeness, but the reverse, to those presented by +the new-comer. The Baronet, as now described by people who had chanced +to see him, was a dark man, not above the middle size, and with a +certain decision in his air and talk; whereas this person was tall, +pale, and in air and manner feeble. So this broken trader in the world's +commerce, with whom all seemed to have gone wrong, could not possibly be +he. + +Presently, in one of his stealthy glances, the Doctor's eye encountered +that of the stranger, who was by this time drinking his tea--a thin and +feminine liquor little used in that room. + +The stranger did not seem put out; and the Doctor, interpreting his look +as a permission to converse, cleared his voice, and said urbanely, + +"We have had a little frost by night, down here, sir, and a little fire +is no great harm--it is rather pleasant, don't you think?" + +The stranger bowed acquiescence with a transient wintry smile, and +looked gratefully on the fire. + +"This place is a good deal admired, sir, and people come a good way to +see it; you have been here perhaps before?" + +"Many years ago." + +Here was another pause. + +"Places change imperceptibly--in detail, at least--a good deal," said +the Doctor, making an effort to keep up a conversation that plainly +would not go on of itself; "and people too; population shifts--there's +an old fellow, sir, they call _Death_." + +"And an old fellow they call the _Doctor_, that helps him," threw in the +Captain humorously, allowing his attention to get entangled in the +conversation, and treating them to one of his tempestuous ha-ha-ha's. + +"We are expecting the return of a gentleman who would be a very leading +member of our little society down here," said the Doctor, not noticing +the Captain's joke. "I mean Sir Bale Mardykes. Mardykes Hall is a pretty +object from the water, sir, and a very fine old place." + +The melancholy stranger bowed slightly, but rather in courtesy to the +relator, it seemed, than that the Doctor's lore interested him much. + +"And on the opposite side of the lake," continued Doctor Torvey, "there +is a building that contrasts very well with it--the old house of the +Feltrams--quite a ruin now, at the mouth of the glen--Cloostedd House, a +very picturesque object." + +"Exactly opposite," said the stranger dreamily, but whether in the tone +of acquiescence or interrogatory, the Doctor could not be quite sure. + +"That was one of our great families down here that has disappeared. It +has dwindled down to nothing." + +"Duce ace," remarked Mr. Hollar, who was attending to his game. + +"While others have mounted more suddenly and amazingly still," observed +gentle Mr. Peers, who was great upon county genealogies. + +"Sizes!" thundered the Captain, thumping the table with an oath of +disgust. + +"And Snakes Island is a very pretty object; they say there used to be +snakes there," said the Doctor, enlightening the visitor. + +"Ah! that's a mistake," said the dejected guest, making his first +original observation. "It should be spelt _Snaiks_. In the old papers it +is called Sen-aiks Island from the seven oaks that grew in a clump +there." + +"Hey? that's very curious, egad! I daresay," said the Doctor, set right +thus by the stranger, and eyeing him curiously. + +"Very true, sir," observed Mr. Peers; "three of those oaks, though, two +of them little better than stumps, are there still; and Clewson of +Heckleston has an old document----" + +Here, unhappily, the landlord entered the room in a fuss, and walking up +to the stranger, said, "The chaise is at the door, Mr. Feltram, and the +trunks up, sir." + +Mr. Feltram rose quietly and took out his purse, and said, + +"I suppose I had better pay at the bar?" + +"As you like best, sir," said Richard Turnbull. + +Mr. Feltram bowed all round to the gentlemen, who smiled, ducked or +waved their hands; and the Doctor fussily followed him to the hall-door, +and welcomed him back to Golden Friars--there was real kindness in this +welcome--and proffered his broad brown hand, which Mr. Feltram took; and +then he plunged into his chaise, and the door being shut, away he +glided, chaise, horses, and driver, like shadows, by the margin of the +moonlighted lake, towards Mardykes Hall. + +And after a few minutes' stand upon the steps, looking along the shadowy +track of the chaise, they returned to the glow of the room, in which a +pleasant perfume of punch still prevailed; and beside Mr. Philip +Feltram's deserted tea-things, the host of the George enlightened his +guests by communicating freely the little he had picked up. The +principal fact he had to tell was, that Sir Bale adhered strictly to his +original plan, and was to arrive on the tenth. A few days would bring +them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its +interest. But in the meantime, all Golden Friars was anxious to see what +Sir Bale Mardykes was like. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Baronet Appears + +As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach +of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a +depressing and agitating influence announced the coming of the +long-absent Baronet. + +From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a +great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that +unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely awful. + +Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, +as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity +to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their +hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew +mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention +of his name, nevertheless an interval of silence softened matters a +little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time. + +Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried +consultations held in many households. And though he was tried and +sentenced by drum-head over some austere hearths, as a rule the law of +gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser about it, +and county people within the visiting radius paid their respects at the +Hall. + +The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout +short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and +taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, +with his fat and garrulous wife on his arm. + +The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the +lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed and purple mountains. + +Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and +ornaments, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then +she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect. She wished to +stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything. + +You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such +strange tales of his doings. + +She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened +for the step of the truant Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly +beauty and fascination. + +She sustained a slight shock when he did appear. + +Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a +middle-aged man--and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking +man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly +made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and +animation of Versailles, and an evident cultivation of the art of +pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable gravity, not to say gloom, +of countenance--the only feature of which that struck her being a pair +of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the +ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person +who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but +who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not. + +He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile--not +even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and +did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; +and there was a suspicion of sarcasm in what he said that the rustic +literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect. + +"I believe I have not a clergyman but _you_, sir, within any reasonable +distance?" + +"Golden Friars _is_ the nearest," said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her +pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. "And southwards, +the nearest is Wyllarden--and by a bird's flight that is thirteen miles +and a half, and by the road more than nineteen--twenty, I may say, by +the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman." + +"Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The +road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to +make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of +points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or +who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's +end." + +"That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. +That's what Martin thinks--don't we, Martin?--And then, you know, coming +home is the time you _are_ in a hurry--when you are thinking of your cup +of tea and the children; and _then_, you know, you have the fall of the +ground all in your favour." + +"It's well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there +are children?" + +"A good many," said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a +nod; "you wouldn't guess how many." + +"Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all." + +"That's very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at +_one_ bout; there are--tell him, Martin--ha, ha, ha! there are eleven." + +"It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage," said Sir Bale +graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, "But how unequally +blessings are divided! You have eleven, and I not one--that I'm aware +of." + +"And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and +then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the +other side, before you reach Fottrell--and that is twenty-five miles by +the road----" + +"Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning +that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly +clergymen grow also down here--in one sense," he added politely, for the +vicar was stout. + +"We were looking out of the window--we amused ourselves that way before +you came--and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this +side; your view of the lake and the fells--what mountains they are, Sir +Bale!" + +"'Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder with a charge +of duck-shot, and I shouldn't be stifled by them long. But I suppose, as +we can't get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are +pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling." + +"I know you don't think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn't take a +good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall." + +"You can't get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those +frightful mountains," he said with a peevish frown at them. + +"Well, the lake at all events--that you _must_ admire, Sir Bale?" + +"No ma'am, I don't admire the lake. I'd drain the lake if I could--I +hate the lake. There's nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren +mountains. I can't conceive what possessed my people to build our house +down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious +fish it is--pike! I don't know how people digest it--_I_ can't. I'd as +soon think of eating a watchman's pike." + +"I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired +a great liking for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal +of it on the Continent, ain't there?" said Mrs. Bedel. "And the +boating." + +"Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don't you +think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the +shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we +have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I +hate boating, and I hate the water; and I'd rather have my house, like +Haworth, at the edge of a moss, with good wholesome peat to look at, and +an open horizon--savage and stupid and bleak as all that is--than be +suffocated among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and +drowned like a kitten. O, there's luncheon in the next room; won't you +take some?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Mrs. Julaper's Room + +Sir Bale Mardykes being now established in his ancestral house, people +had time to form conclusions respecting him. It must be allowed he was +not popular. There was, perhaps, in his conduct something of the caprice +of contempt. At all events his temper and conduct were uncertain, and +his moods sometimes violent and insulting. + +With respect to but one person was his conduct uniform, and that was +Philip Feltram. He was a sort of aide-de-camp near Sir Bale's person, +and chargeable with all the commissions and offices which could not be +suitably intrusted to a mere servant. But in many respects he was +treated worse than any servant of the Baronet's. Sir Bale swore at him, +and cursed him; laid the blame of everything that went wrong in house, +stable, or field upon his shoulders; railed at him, and used him, as +people said, worse than a dog. + +Why did Feltram endure this contumelious life? What could he do but +endure it? was the answer. What was the power that induced strong +soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to +be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with +an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of +an unconscious calculation of chances which satisfies them that it is +ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the +alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with +each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one +knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what +they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but +quite irresistible power. + +A man of spirit would rather break stones on the highway than eat that +bitter bread, was the burden of every man's song on Feltram's bondage. +But he was not so sure that even the stone-breaker's employment was open +to him, or that he could break stones well enough to retain it on a fair +trial. And he had other ideas of providing for himself, and a different +alternative in his mind. + +Good-natured Mrs. Julaper, the old housekeeper at Mardykes Hall, was +kind to Feltram, as to all others who lay in her way and were in +affliction. + +She was one of those good women whom Nature provides to receive the +burden of other people's secrets, as the reeds did long ago, only that +no chance wind could steal them away, and send them singing into strange +ears. + +You may still see her snuggery in Mardykes Hall, though the +housekeeper's room is now in a different part of the house. + +Mrs. Julaper's room was in the oldest quarter of that old house. It was +wainscoted, in black panels, up to the ceiling, which was stuccoed over +in the fanciful diagrams of James the First's time. Several dingy +portraits, banished from time to time from other statelier rooms, found +a temporary abode in this quiet spot, where they had come finally to +settle and drop out of remembrance. There is a lady in white satin and a +ruff; a gentleman whose legs have faded out of view, with a peaked +beard, and a hawk on his wrist. There is another in a black periwig lost +in the dark background, and with a steel cuirass, the gleam of which out +of the darkness strikes the eye, and a scarf is dimly discoverable +across it. This is that foolish Sir Guy Mardykes, who crossed the Border +and joined Dundee, and was shot through the temple at Killiecrankie and +whom more prudent and whiggish scions of the Mardykes family removed +forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from +which he has not since emerged. + +At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you +find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony +before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the +cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision. + +There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her _Whole Duty of +Man_, and her _Pilgrim's Progress_; and, in a file beside them, her +books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes, +cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the +Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would +nowadays give an eye or a hand. + +Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs, +and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him +a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of +coffee, or some little dainty. + +"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor +devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not +it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I +think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing. +I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind. +I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer." + +"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember +you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he. +They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one +minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the +tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard +words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea--ye like a cup o' +tea--and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see +how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening." + +She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff +in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on +him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a +delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with +so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as +she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little +apples. + +"Look out, I say," and she nodded towards the window, deep set in the +thick wall. "See how bright and soft everything looks in that pleasant +light; _that's_ better, child, than the finest picture man's hand ever +painted yet, and God gives it us for nothing; and how pretty Snakes +Island glows up in that light!" + +The dejected man, hardly raising his head, followed with his eyes the +glance of the old woman, and looked mournfully through the window. + +"That island troubles me, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Everything troubles you, my poor goose-cap. I'll pull your lug for ye, +child, if ye be so dowly;" and with a mimic pluck the good-natured old +housekeeper pinched his ear and laughed. + +"I'll go to the still-room now, where the water's boiling, and I'll make +a cup of tea; and if I find ye so dow when I come back, I'll throw it +all out o' the window, mind." + +It was indeed a beautiful picture that Feltram saw in its deep frame of +old masonry. The near part of the lake was flushed all over with the low +western light; the more distant waters lay dark in the shadow of the +mountains; and against this shadow of purple the rocks on Snakes Island, +illuminated by the setting sun, started into sharp clear yellow. + +But this beautiful view had no charm--at least, none powerful enough to +master the latent horror associated with its prettiest feature--for the +weak and dismal man who was looking at it; and being now alone, he rose +and leant on the window, and looked out, and then with a kind of shudder +clutching his hands together, and walking distractedly about the room. + +Without his perceiving, while his back was turned, the housekeeper came +back; and seeing him walking in this distracted way, she thought to +herself, as he leant again upon the window: + +"Well, it _is_ a burning shame to worrit any poor soul into that state. +Sir Bale was always down on someone or something, man or beast; there +always was something he hated, and could never let alone. It was not +pretty; it was his nature. Happen, poor fellow, he could not help it; +but so it was." + +A maid came in and set the tea-things down; and Mrs. Julaper drew her +sad guest over by the arm, and made him sit down, and she said: "What +has a man to do, frettin' in that way? By Jen, I'm ashamed o' ye, Master +Philip! Ye like three lumps o' sugar, I think, and--look cheerful, ye +must!--a good deal o' cream?" + +"You're so kind, Mrs. Julaper, you're so cheery. I feel quite +comfortable after awhile when I'm with you; I feel quite happy," and he +began to cry. + +She understood him very well by this time and took no notice, but went +on chatting gaily, and made his tea as he liked it; and he dried his +tears hastily, thinking she had not observed. + +So the clouds began to clear. This innocent fellow liked nothing better +than a cup of tea and a chat with gentle and cheery old Mrs. Julaper, +and a talk in which the shadowy old times which he remembered as a child +emerged into sunlight and lived again. + +When he began to feel better, drawn into the kindly old times by the +tinkle of that harmless old woman's tongue, he said: + +"I sometimes think I would not so much mind--I should not care so +much--if my spirits were not so depressed, and I so agitated. I suppose +I am not quite well." + +"Well, tell me what's wrong, child, and it's odd but I have a recipe on +the shelf there that will do you good." + +"It is not a matter of that sort I mean; though I'd rather have you than +any doctor, if I needed medicine, to prescribe for me." + +Mrs. Julaper smiled in spite of herself, well pleased; for her skill in +pharmacy was a point on which the good lady prided herself, and was open +to flattery, which, without intending it, the simple fellow +administered. + +"No, I'm well enough; I can't say I ever was better. It is only, ma'am, +that I have such dreams--you have no idea." + +"There are dreams and dreams, my dear: there's some signifies no more +than the babble of the lake down there on the pebbles, and there's +others that has a meaning; there's dreams that is but vanity, and +there's dreams that is good, and dreams that is bad. Lady +Mardykes--heavens be her bed this day! that's his grandmother I +mean--was very sharp for reading dreams. Take another cup of tea. Dear +me! what a noise the crows keep aboon our heads, going home! and how +high they wing it!--that's a sure sign of fine weather. An' what do you +dream about? Tell me your dream, and I may show you it's a good one, +after all. For many a dream is ugly to see and ugly to tell, and a good +dream, with a happy meaning, for all that." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The Intruder + +"Well, Mrs. Julaper, dreams I've dreamed like other people, old and +young; but this, ma'am, has taken a fast hold of me," said Mr. Feltram +dejectedly, leaning back in his chair and looking down with his hands in +his pockets. "I think, Mrs. Julaper, it is getting into me. I think it's +like possession." + +"Possession, child! what do you mean?" + +"I think there is something trying to influence me. Perhaps it is the +way fellows go mad; but it won't let me alone. I've seen it three times, +think of that!" + +"Well, dear, and what _have_ ye seen?" she asked, with an uneasy +cheerfulness, smiling, with eyes fixed steadily upon him; for the idea +of a madman--even gentle Philip in that state--was not quieting. + +"Do you remember the picture, full-length, that had no frame--the lady +in the white-satin saque--she was beautiful, _funeste_," he added, +talking more to himself; and then more distinctly to Mrs. Julaper +again----"in the white-satin saque; and with the little mob cap and blue +ribbons to it, and a bouquet in her fingers; that was--that--you know +who she was?" + +"That was your great-grandmother, my dear," said Mrs. Julaper, lowering +her eyes. "It was a dreadful pity it was spoiled. The boys in the pantry +had it for a year there on the table for a tray, to wash the glasses on +and the like. It was a shame; that was the prettiest picture in the +house, with the gentlest, rosiest face." + +"It ain't so gentle or rosy now, I can tell you," said Philip. "As fixed +as marble; with thin lips, and a curve at the nostril. Do you remember +the woman that was found dead in the clough, when I was a boy, that the +gipsies murdered, it was thought,--a cruel-looking woman?" + +"Agoy! Master Philip, dear! ye would not name that terrible-looking +creature with the pretty, fresh, kindly face!" + +"Faces change, you see; no matter what she's like; it's her talk that +frightens me. She wants to make use of me; and, you see, it is like +getting a share in my mind, and a voice in my thoughts, and a command +over me gradually; and it is just one idea, as straight as a line of +light across the lake--see what she's come to. O Lord, help me!" + +"Well, now, don't you be talkin' like that. It is just a little bit +dowly and troubled, because the master says a wry word now and then; and +so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies +comes into your head." + +"There's no fancy in my head," he said with a quick look of suspicion; +"only you asked me what I dreamed. I don't care if all the world knew. I +dreamed I went down a flight of steps under the lake, and got a message. +There are no steps near Snakes Island, we all know that," and he laughed +chillily. "I'm out of spirits, as you say; and--and--O dear! I +wish--Mrs. Julaper--I wish I was in my coffin, and quiet." + +"Now that's very wrong of you, Master Philip; you should think of all +the blessings you have, and not be makin' mountains o' molehills; and +those little bits o' temper Sir Bale shows, why, no one minds 'em--that +is, to take 'em to heart like you do, don't ye see?" + +"I daresay; I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you are right. I'm unreasonable +often, I know," said gentle Philip Feltram. "I daresay I make too much +of it; I'll try. I'm his secretary, and I know I'm not so bright as he +is, and it is natural he should sometimes be a little impatient; I ought +to be more reasonable, I'm sure. It is all that thing that has been +disturbing me--I mean fretting, and, I think, I'm not quite well; +and--and letting myself think too much of vexations. It's my own fault, +I'm sure, Mrs. Julaper; and I know I'm to blame." + +"That's quite right, that's spoken like a wise lad; only I don't say +you're to blame, nor no one; for folk can't help frettin' sometimes, no +more than they can help a headache--none but a mafflin would say +that--and I'll not deny but he has dowly ways when the fit's on him, and +he frumps us all round, if such be his humour. But who is there hasn't +his faults? We must bear and forbear, and take what we get and be +cheerful. So chirp up, my lad; Philip, didn't I often ring the a'd rhyme +in your ear long ago? + + "Be always as merry as ever you can, + For no one delights in a sorrowful man. + +"So don't ye be gettin' up off your chair like that, and tramping about +the room wi' your hands in your pockets, looking out o' this window, and +staring out o' that, and sighing and crying, and looking so +black-ox-trodden, 'twould break a body's heart to see you. Ye must be +cheery; and happen you're hungry, and don't know it. I'll tell the cook +to grill a hot bit for ye." + +"But I'm not hungry, Mrs. Julaper. How kind you are! dear me, Mrs. +Julaper, I'm not worthy of it; I don't deserve half your kindness. I'd +have been heartbroken long ago, but for you." + +"And I'll make a sup of something hot for you; you'll take a +rummer-glass of punch--you must." + +"But I like the tea better; I do, indeed, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Tea is no drink for a man when his heart's down. It should be something +with a leg in it, lad; something hot that will warm your courage for ye, +and set your blood a-dancing, and make ye talk brave and merry; and will +you have a bit of a broil first? No? Well then, you'll have a drop o' +punch?--ye sha'n't say no." + +And so, all resistance overpowered, the consolation of Philip Feltram +proceeded. + +A gentler spirit than poor Feltram, a more good-natured soul than the +old housekeeper, were nowhere among the children of earth. + +Philip Feltram, who was reserved enough elsewhere, used to come into her +room and cry, and take her by both hands piteously, standing before her +and looking down in her face, while tears ran deviously down his cheeks. + +"Did you ever know such a case? was there ever a fellow like _me_? did +you ever _know_ such a thing? You know what I am, Mrs. Julaper, and who +I am. They call me Feltram; but Sir Bale knows as well as I that my true +name is not that. I'm Philip Mardykes; and another fellow would make a +row about it, and claim his name and his rights, as she is always +croaking in my ear I ought. But you know that is not reasonable. My +grandmother was married; she was the true Lady Mardykes; _think_ what it +was to see a woman like that turned out of doors, and her children +robbed of their name. O, ma'am, you _can't_ think it; unless you were +me, you couldn't--you couldn't--you couldn't!" + +"Come, come, Master Philip, don't you be taking on so; and ye mustn't be +talking like that, d'ye mind? You know he wouldn't stand that; and it's +an old story now, and there's naught can be proved concerning it; and +what I think is this--I wouldn't wonder the poor lady was beguiled. But +anyhow she surely thought she was his lawful wife; and though the law +may hev found a flaw somewhere--and I take it 'twas so--yet sure I am +she was an honourable lady. But where's the use of stirring that old +sorrow? or how can ye prove aught? and the dead hold their peace, you +know; dead mice, they say, feels no cold; and dead folks are past +fooling. So don't you talk like that; for stone walls have ears, and ye +might say that ye couldn't _un_say; and death's day is doom's day. So +leave all in the keeping of God; and, above all, never lift hand when ye +can't strike." + +"Lift my hand! O, Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that; you little know +me; I did not mean that; I never dreamed of hurting Sir Bale. Good +heavens! Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that! It all comes of my poor +impatient temper, and complaining as I do, and my misery; but O, Mrs. +Julaper, you could not think I ever meant to trouble him by law, or any +other annoyance! I'd like to see a stain removed from my family, and my +name restored; but to touch his property, O, no!--O, no! that never +entered my mind, by heaven! that never entered my mind, Mrs. Julaper. +I'm not cruel; I'm not rapacious; I don't care for money; don't you know +that, Mrs. Julaper? O, surely you won't think me capable of attacking +the man whose bread I have eaten so long! I never dreamed of it; I +should hate myself. Tell me you don't believe it; O, Mrs. Julaper, say +you don't!" + +And the gentle feeble creature burst into tears and good Mrs. Julaper +comforted him with kind words; and he said, + +"Thank you, ma'am; thank you. God knows I would not hurt Bale, nor give +him one uneasy hour. It is only this: that I'm--I'm so miserable; and +I'm only casting in my mind where to turn to, and what to do. So little +a thing would be enough, and then I shall leave Mardykes. I'll go; not +in any anger, Mrs. Julaper--don't think that; but I can't stay, I must +be gone." + +"Well, now, there's nothing yet, Master Philip, to fret you like that. +You should not be talking so wild-like. Master Bale has his sharp word +and his short temper now and again; but I'm sure he likes you. If he +didn't, he'd a-said so to me long ago. I'm sure he likes you well." + +"Hollo! I say, who's there? Where the devil's Mr. Feltram?" called the +voice of the baronet, at a fierce pitch, along the passage. + +"La! Mr. Feltram, it's him! Ye'd better run to him," whispered Mrs. +Julaper. + +"D--n me! does nobody hear? Mrs. Julaper! Hollo! ho! house, there! ho! +D--n me, will nobody answer?" + +And Sir Bale began to slap the wainscot fast and furiously with his +walking-cane with a clatter like a harlequin's lath in a pantomime. + +Mrs. Julaper, a little paler than usual, opened her door, and stood with +the handle in her hand, making a little curtsey, enframed in the +door-case; and Sir Bale, being in a fume, when he saw her, ceased +whacking the panels of the corridor, and stamped on the floor, crying, + +"Upon my soul, ma'am, I'm glad to see you! Perhaps you can tell me where +Feltram is?" + +"He is in my room, Sir Bale. Shall I tell him you want him, please?" + +"Never mind; thanks," said the Baronet. "I've a tongue in my head;" +marching down the passage to the housekeeper's room, with his cane +clutched hard, glaring savagely, and with his teeth fast set, like a +fellow advancing to beat a vicious horse that has chafed his temper. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The Bank Note + +Sir Bale brushed by the housekeeper as he strode into her sanctuary, and +there found Philip Feltram awaiting him dejectedly, but with no signs of +agitation. + +If one were to judge by the appearance the master of Mardykes presented, +very grave surmises as to impending violence would have suggested +themselves; but though he clutched his cane so hard that it quivered in +his grasp, he had no notion of committing the outrage of a blow. The +Baronet was unusually angry notwithstanding, and stopping short about +three steps away, addressed Feltram with a pale face and gleaming eyes. +It was quite plain that there was something very exciting upon his mind. + +"I've been looking for you, Mr. Feltram; I want a word or two, if you +have done your--your--whatever it is." He whisked the point of his stick +towards the modest tea-tray. "I should like five minutes in the +library." + +The Baronet was all this time eyeing Feltram with a hard suspicious +gaze, as if he expected to read in his face the shrinkings and +trepidations of guilt; and then turning suddenly on his heel he led the +way to his library--a good long march, with a good many turnings. He +walked very fast, and was not long in getting there. And as Sir Bale +reached the hearth, on which was smouldering a great log of wood, and +turned about suddenly, facing the door, Philip Feltram entered. + +The Baronet looked oddly and stern--so oddly, it seemed to Feltram, that +he could not take his eyes off him, and returned his grim and somewhat +embarrassed gaze with a stare of alarm and speculation. + +And so doing, his step was shortened, and grew slow and slower, and came +quite to a stop before he had got far from the door--a wide stretch of +that wide floor still intervening between him and Sir Bale, who stood +upon the hearthrug, with his heels together and his back to the fire, +cane in hand, like a drill-sergeant, facing him. + +"Shut that door, please; that will do; come nearer now. I don't want to +bawl what I have to say. Now listen." + +The Baronet cleared his voice and paused, with his eyes upon Feltram. + +"It is only two or three days ago," said he, "that you said you wished +you had a hundred pounds. Am I right?" + +"Yes; I think so." + +"_Think_? you know it, sir, devilish well. You said that you wished to +get away. I have nothing particular to say against that, more especially +now. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Understand, Sir Bale? I do, sir--quite." + +"I daresay quite" he repeated with an angry sneer. "Here, sir, is an odd +coincidence: you want a hundred pounds, and you can't earn it, and you +can't borrow it--there's another way, it seems--but I have got it--a +Bank-of-England note of £100--locked up in that desk;" and he poked the +end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is, +and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys--I've got +one and you have the other--and devil another key in or out of the house +has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want +any d----d lying about it." + +Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something +very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that +unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from +detection, he looked very much put out indeed. + +"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a +bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but +I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to +pay the crown and quit-rents that you know--you--you--no matter--you +know well enough must be paid, I open it so--and so--and look _there_, +where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone--you understand, the +note's _gone_!" + +Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye, +poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but +said nothing. + +"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, _I_ did not steal that +note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go +away, and I have no objection to that--but d--n me if you take away that +note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter +in a worse place." + +"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill." + +"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money +off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a +bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and +I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly." + +"May my Maker strike me----" + +"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you +produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off +if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you; +and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you +searched, pockets, bag, and baggage." + +"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram. + +"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have +got it about you?" + +"God forbid, sir! O, Sir--O, Sir Bale--why, Bale, _Bale_, it's +impossible! You _can't_ believe it. When did I ever wrong you? You know +me since I was not higher than the table, and--and----" + +He burst into tears. + +"Stop your snivelling, sir, and give up the note. You know devilish well +I can't spare it; and I won't spare you if you put me to it. I've said +my say." + +Sir Bale signed towards the door; and like a somnambulist, with dilated +gaze and pale as death, Philip Feltram, at his wit's end, went out of +the room. It was not till he had again reached the housekeeper's door +that he recollected in what direction he was going. His shut hand was +pressed with all his force to his heart, and the first breath he was +conscious of was a deep wild sob or two that quivered from his heart as +he looked from the lobby-window upon a landscape which he did not see. + +All he had ever suffered before was mild in comparison with this dire +paroxysm. Now, for the first time, was he made acquainted with his real +capacity for pain, and how near he might be to madness and yet retain +intellect enough to weigh every scruple, and calculate every chance and +consequence, in his torture. + +Sir Bale, in the meantime, had walked out a little more excited than he +would have allowed. He was still convinced that Feltram had stolen the +note, but not quite so certain as he had been. There were things in his +manner that confirmed, and others that perplexed, Sir Bale. + +The Baronet stood upon the margin of the lake, almost under the evening +shadow of the house, looking towards Snakes Island. There were two +things about Mardykes he specially disliked. + +One was Philip Feltram, who, right or wrong, he fancied knew more than +was pleasant of his past life. + +The other was the lake. It was a beautiful piece of water, his eye, +educated at least in the excellences of landscape-painting, +acknowledged. But although he could pull a good oar, and liked other +lakes, to this particular sheet of water there lurked within him an +insurmountable antipathy. It was engendered by a variety of +associations. + +There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout +and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near. +His boding was made-up of omens, dreams, and such stuff as he most +affected to despise, and there fluttered at his heart a presentiment and +disgust. + +His foot was on the gunwale of the boat, that was chained to its ring at +the margin; but he would not have crossed that water in it for any +reason that man could urge. + +What was the mischief that sooner or later was to befall him from that +lake, he could not define; but that some fatal danger lurked there, was +the one idea concerning it that had possession of his fancy. + +He was now looking along its still waters, towards the copse and rocks +of Snakes Island, thinking of Philip Feltram; and the yellow level +sunbeams touched his dark features, that bore a saturnine resemblance to +those of Charles II, and marked sharply their firm grim lines, and left +his deep-set eyes in shadow. + +Who has the happy gift to seize the present, as a child does, and live +in it? Who is not often looking far off for his happiness, as Sidney +Smith says, like a man looking for his hat when it is upon his head? Sir +Bale was brooding over his double hatred, of Feltram and of the lake. It +would have been better had he struck down the raven that croaked upon +his shoulder, and listened to the harmless birds that were whistling all +round among the branches in the golden sunset. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Feltram's Plan + +This horror of the beautiful lake, which other people thought so lovely, +was, in that mind which affected to scoff at the unseen, a distinct +creation of downright superstition. + +The nursery tales which had scared him in his childhood were founded on +the tragedy of Snakes Island, and haunted him with an unavowed +persistence still. Strange dreams untold had visited him, and a German +conjuror, who had made some strangely successful vaticinations, had told +him that his worst enemy would come up to him from a lake. He had heard +very nearly the same thing from a fortune-teller in France; and once at +Lucerne, when he was waiting alone in his room for the hour at which he +had appointed to go upon the lake, all being quiet, there came to the +window, which was open, a sunburnt, lean, wicked face. Its ragged owner +leaned his arm on the window-frame, and with his head in the room, said +in his patois, "Ho! waiting are you? You'll have enough of the lake one +day. Don't you mind watching; they'll send when you're wanted;" and +twisting his yellow face into a malicious distortion, he went on. + +This thing had occurred so suddenly, and chimed-in so oddly with his +thoughts, which were at that moment at distant Mardykes and the haunted +lake, that it disconcerted him. He laughed, he looked out of the window. +He would have given that fellow money to tell him why he said that. But +there was no good in looking for the scamp; he was gone. + +A memory not preoccupied with that lake and its omens, and a +presentiment about himself, would not have noted such things. But _his_ +mind they touched indelibly; and he was ashamed of his childish slavery, +but could not help it. + +The foundation of all this had been laid in the nursery, in the winter's +tales told by its fireside, and which seized upon his fancy and his +fears with a strange congeniality. + +There is a large bedroom at Mardykes Hall, which tradition assigns to +the lady who had perished tragically in the lake. Mrs. Julaper was sure +of it; for her aunt, who died a very old woman twenty years before, +remembered the time of the lady's death, and when she grew to woman's +estate had opportunity in abundance; for the old people who surrounded +her could remember forty years farther back, and tell everything +connected with the old house in beautiful Miss Feltram's time. + +This large old-fashioned room, commanding a view of Snakes Island, the +fells, and the lake--somewhat vast and gloomy, and furnished in a +stately old fashion--was said to be haunted, especially when the wind +blew from the direction of Golden Friars, the point from which it blew +on the night of her death in the lake; or when the sky was overcast, and +thunder rolled among the lofty fells, and lightning gleamed on the wide +sheet of water. + +It was on a night like this that a lady visitor, who long after that +event occupied, in entire ignorance of its supernatural character, that +large room; and being herself a lady of a picturesque turn, and loving +the grander melodrama of Nature, bid her maid leave the shutters open, +and watched the splendid effects from her bed, until, the storm being +still distant, she fell asleep. + +It was travelling slowly across the lake, and it was the deep-mouthed +clangour of its near approach that startled her, at dead of night, from +her slumber, to witness the same phenomena in the tremendous loudness +and brilliancy of their near approach. + +At this magnificent spectacle she was looking with the awful ecstasy of +an observer in whom the sense of danger is subordinated to that of the +sublime, when she saw suddenly at the window a woman, whose long hair +and dress seemed drenched with water. She was gazing in with a look of +terror, and was shaking the sash of the window with vehemence. Having +stood there for a few seconds, and before the lady, who beheld all this +from her bed, could make up her mind what to do, the storm-beaten +figure, wringing her hands, seemed to throw herself backward, and was +gone. + +Possessed with the idea that she had seen some poor woman overtaken in +the storm, who, failing to procure admission there, had gone round to +some of the many doors of the mansion, and obtained an entry there, she +again fell asleep. + +It was not till the morning, when she went to her window to look out +upon the now tranquil scene, that she discovered what, being a stranger +to the house, she had quite forgotten, that this room was at a great +height--some thirty feet--from the ground. + +Another story was that of good old Mr. Randal Rymer, who was often a +visitor at the house in the late Lady Mardykes' day. In his youth he had +been a campaigner; and now that he was a preacher he maintained his +hardy habits, and always slept, summer and winter, with a bit of his +window up. Being in that room in his bed, and after a short sleep lying +awake, the moon shining softly through the window, there passed by that +aperture into the room a figure dressed, it seemed to him, in gray that +was nearly white. It passed straight to the hearth, where was an +expiring wood fire; and cowering over it with outstretched hands, it +appeared to be gathering what little heat was to be had. Mr. Rymer, +amazed and awestruck, made a movement in his bed; and the figure looked +round, with large eyes that in the moonlight looked like melting snow, +and stretching its long arms up the chimney, they and the figure itself +seemed to blend with the smoke, and so pass up and away. + +Sir Bale, I have said, did not like Feltram. His father, Sir William, +had left a letter creating a trust, it was said, in favour of Philip +Feltram. The document had been found with the will, addressed to Sir +Bale in the form of a letter. + +"That is mine," said the Baronet, when it dropped out of the will; and +he slipped it into his pocket, and no one ever saw it after. + +But Mr. Charles Twyne, the attorney of Golden Friars, whenever he got +drunk, which was pretty often, used to tell his friends with a grave +wink that he knew a thing or two about that letter. It gave Philip +Feltram two hundred a-year, charged on Harfax. It was only a direction. +It made Sir Bale a trustee, however; and having made away with the +"letter," the Baronet had been robbing Philip Feltram ever since. + +Old Twyne was cautious, even in his cups, in his choice of an audience, +and was a little enigmatical in his revelations. For he was afraid of +Sir Bale, though he hated him for employing a lawyer who lived seven +miles away, and was a rival. So people were not quite sure whether Mr. +Twyne was telling lies or truth, and the principal fact that +corroborated his story was Sir Bale's manifest hatred of his secretary. +In fact, Sir Bale's retaining him in his house, detesting him as he +seemed to do, was not easily to be accounted for, except on the +principle of a tacit compromise--a miserable compensation for having +robbed him of his rights. + +The battle about the bank-note proceeded. Sir Bale certainly had doubts, +and vacillated; for moral evidence made powerfully in favour of poor +Feltram, though the evidence of circumstance made as powerfully against +him. But Sir Bale admitted suspicion easily, and in weighing +probabilities would count a virtue very lightly against temptation and +opportunity; and whatever his doubts might sometimes be, he resisted and +quenched them, and never let that ungrateful scoundrel Philip Feltram so +much as suspect their existence. + +For two days Sir Bale had not spoken to Feltram. He passed by on stair +and passage, carrying his head high, and with a thundrous countenance, +rolling conclusions and revenges in his soul. + +Poor Feltram all this time existed in one long agony. He would have left +Mardykes, were it not that he looked vaguely to some just power--to +chance itself--against this hideous imputation. To go with this +indictment ringing in his ears, would amount to a confession and flight. + +Mrs. Julaper consoled him with might and main. She was a sympathetic and +trusting spirit, and knew poor Philip Feltram, in her simplicity, better +than the shrewdest profligate on earth could have known him. She cried +with him in his misery. She was fired with indignation by these +suspicions, and still more at what followed. + +Sir Bale showed no signs of relenting. It might have been that he was +rather glad of so unexceptionable an opportunity of getting rid of +Feltram, who, people thought, knew something which it galled the +Baronet's pride that he should know. + +The Baronet had another shorter and sterner interview with Feltram in +his study. The result was, that unless he restored the missing note +before ten o'clock next morning, he should leave Mardykes. + +To leave Mardykes was no more than Philip Feltram, feeble as he was of +will, had already resolved. But what was to become of him? He did not +very much care, if he could find any calling, however humble, that would +just give him bread. + +There was an old fellow and his wife (an ancient dame,) who lived at the +other side of the lake, on the old territories of the Feltrams, and who, +from some tradition of loyalty, perhaps, were fond of poor Philip +Feltram. They lived somewhat high up on the fells--about as high as +trees would grow--and those which were clumped about their rude dwelling +were nearly the last you passed in your ascent of the mountain. These +people had a multitude of sheep and goats, and lived in their airy +solitude a pastoral and simple life, and were childless. Philip Feltram +was hardy and active, having passed his early days among that arduous +scenery. Cold and rain did not trouble him; and these people being +wealthy in their way, and loving him, would be glad to find him +employment of that desultory pastoral kind which would best suit him. + +This vague idea was the only thing resembling a plan in his mind. + +When Philip Feltram came to Mrs. Julaper's room, and told her that he +had made up his mind to leave the house forthwith--to cross the lake to +the Cloostedd side in Tom Marlin's boat, and then to make his way up the +hill alone to Trebeck's lonely farmstead, Mrs. Julaper was overwhelmed. + +"Ye'll do no such thing to-night, anyhow. You're not to go like that. +Ye'll come into the small room here, where he can't follow; and we'll +sit down and talk it over a bit, and ye'll find 'twill all come +straight; and this will be no night, anyhow, for such a march. Why, +man,'twould take an hour and more to cross the lake, and then a long +uphill walk before ye could reach Trebeck's place; and if the night +should fall while you were still on the mountain, ye might lose your +life among the rocks. It can't be 'tis come to that yet; and the call +was in the air, I'm told, all yesterday, and distant thunder to-day, +travelling this way over Blarwyn Fells; and 'twill be a night no one +will be out, much less on the mountain side." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The Crazy Parson + +Mrs. Julaper had grown weather-wise, living for so long among this noble +and solitary scenery, where people must observe Nature or else +nothing--where signs of coming storm or change are almost local, and +record themselves on particular cliffs and mountain-peaks, or in the +mists, or in mirrored tints of the familiar lake, and are easily learned +or remembered. At all events, her presage proved too true. + +The sun had set an hour and more. It was dark; and an awful +thunder-storm, whose march, like the distant reverberations of an +invading army, had been faintly heard beyond the barriers of Blarwyn +Fells throughout the afternoon, was near them now, and had burst in +deep-mouthed battle among the ravines at the other side, and over the +broad lake, that glared like a sheet of burnished steel under its +flashes of dazzling blue. Wild and fitful blasts sweeping down the +hollows and cloughs of the fells of Golden Friars agitated the lake, and +bent the trees low, and whirled away their sere leaves in melancholy +drift in their tremendous gusts. And from the window, looking on a scene +enveloped in more than the darkness of the night, you saw in the +pulsations of the lightning, before "the speedy gleams the darkness +swallowed," the tossing trees and the flying foam and eddies on the +lake. + +In the midst of the hurlyburly, a loud and long knocking came at the +hall-door of Mardykes. How long it had lasted before a chance lull made +it audible I do not know. + +There was nothing picturesquely poor, any more than there were evidences +of wealth, anywhere in Sir Bale Mardykes' household. He had no lack of +servants, but they were of an inexpensive and homely sort; and the +hall-door being opened by the son of an old tenant on the estate--the +tempest beating on the other side of the house, and comparative shelter +under the gables at the front--he saw standing before him, in the +agitated air, a thin old man, who muttering, it might be, a benediction, +stepped into the hall, and displayed long silver tresses, just as the +storm had blown them, ascetic and eager features, and a pair of large +light eyes that wandered wildly. He was dressed in threadbare black; a +pair of long leather gaiters, buckled high above his knee, protecting +his thin shanks through moss and pool; and the singularity of his +appearance was heightened by a wide-leafed felt hat, over which he had +tied his handkerchief, so as to bring the leaf of it over his ears, and +to secure it from being whirled from his head by the storm. + +This odd and storm-beaten figure--tall, and a little stooping, as well +as thin--was not unknown to the servant, who saluted him with something +of fear as well as of respect as he bid him reverently welcome, and +asked him to come in and sit by the fire. + +"Get you to your master, and tell him I have a message to him from one +he has not seen for two-and-forty years." + +As the old man, with his harsh old voice, thus spoke, he unknotted his +handkerchief and bet the rain-drops from his hat upon his knee. + +The servant knocked at the library-door, where he found Sir Bale. + +"Well, what's the matter?" cried Sir Bale sharply, from his chair before +the fire, with angry eyes looking over his shoulder. + +"Here's 't sir cumman, Sir Bale," he answered. + +"Sir," or "the Sir," is still used as the clergyman's title in the +Northumbrian counties. + +"What sir?" + +"Sir Hugh Creswell, if you please, Sir Bale." + +"Ho!--mad Creswell?--O, the crazy parson. Well, tell Mrs. Julaper to let +him have some supper--and--and to let him have a bed in some suitable +place. That's what he wants. These mad fellows know what they are +about." + +"No, Sir Bale Mardykes, that is not what he wants," said the loud wild +voice of the daft sir over the servant's shoulder. "Often has Mardykes +Hall given me share of its cheer and its shelter and the warmth of its +fire; and I bless the house that has been an inn to the wayfarer of the +Lord. But to-night I go up the lake to Pindar's Bield, three miles on; +and there I rest and refresh--not here." + +"And why not _here_, Mr. Creswell?" asked the Baronet; for about this +crazy old man, who preached in the fields, and appeared and disappeared +so suddenly in the orbit of his wide and unknown perambulations of those +northern and border counties, there was that sort of superstitious +feeling which attaches to the mysterious and the good--an idea that it +was lucky to harbour and dangerous to offend him. No one knew whence he +came or whither he went. Once in a year, perhaps, he might appear at a +lonely farmstead door among the fells, salute the house, enter, and be +gone in the morning. His life was austere; his piety enthusiastic, +severe, and tinged with the craze which inspired among the rustic +population a sort of awe. + +"I'll not sleep at Mardykes to-night; neither will I eat, nor drink, nor +sit me down--no, nor so much as stretch my hands to the fire. As the man +of God came out of Judah to king Jeroboam, so come I to you, sent by a +vision, to bear a warning; and as he said, 'If thou wilt give me half +thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor +drink water in this place,' so also say I." + +"Do as you please," said Sir Bale, a little sulkily. "Say your say; and +you are welcome to stay or go, if go you will on so mad a night as +this." + +"Leave us," said Creswell, beckoning the servant back with his thin +hands; "what I have to say is to your master." + +The servant went, in obedience to a gesture from Sir Bale, and shut the +door. + +The old man drew nearer to the Baronet, and lowering his loud stern +voice a little, and interrupting his discourse from time to time, to +allow the near thunder-peals to subside, he said, + +"Answer me, Sir Bale--what is this that has chanced between you and +Philip Feltram?" + +The Baronet, under the influence of that blunt and peremptory demand, +told him shortly and sternly enough. + +"And of all these facts you are sure, else ye would not blast your early +companion and kinsman with the name of thief?" + +"I _am_ sure," said Sir Bale grimly. + +"Unlock that cabinet," said the old man with the long white locks. + +"I've no objection," said Sir Bale; and he did unlock an old oak cabinet +that stood, carved in high relief with strange figures and gothic +grotesques, against the wall, opposite the fireplace. On opening it +there were displayed a system of little drawers and pigeon-holes such as +we see in more modern escritoires. + +"Open that drawer with the red mark of a seal upon it," continued Hugh +Creswell, pointing to it with his lank finger. + +Sir Bale did so; and to his momentary amazement, and even consternation, +there lay the missing note, which now, with one of those sudden caprices +of memory which depend on the laws of suggestion and association, he +remembered having placed there with his own hand. + +"That is it," said old Creswell with a pallid smile, and fixing his wild +eyes on the Baronet. The smile subsided into a frown, and said he: "Last +night I slept near Haworth Moss; and your father came to me in a dream, +and said: 'My son Bale accuses Philip of having stolen a bank-note from +his desk. He forgets that he himself placed it in his cabinet. Come with +me.' I was, in the spirit, in this room; and he led me to this cabinet, +which he opened; and in that drawer he showed me that note. 'Go,' said +he, 'and tell him to ask Philip Feltram's pardon, else he will but go in +weakness to return in power;' and he said that which it is not lawful to +repeat. My message is told. Now a word from myself," he added sternly. +"The dead, through my lips, has spoken, and under God's thunder and +lightning his words have found ye. Why so uppish wi' Philip Feltram? See +how ye threaped, and yet were wrong. He's no tazzle--he's no taggelt. +Ask his pardon. Ye must change, or he will no taggelt. Go, in weakness, +come in power: mark ye the words. 'Twill make a peal that will be heard +in toon and desert, in the swirls o' the mountain, through pikes and +valleys, and mak' a waaly man o' thee." + +The old man with these words, uttered in the broad northern dialect of +his common speech, strode from the room and shut the door. In another +minute he was forth into the storm, pursuing what remained of his long +march to Pindar's Bield. + +"Upon my soul!" said Sir Bale, recovering from his sort of stun which +the sudden and strange visit had left, "that's a cool old fellow! Come +to rate me and teach me my own business in my own house!" and he rapped +out a fierce oath. "Change his mind or no, here he sha'n't stay +to-night--not an hour." + +Sir Bale was in the lobby in a moment, and thundered to his servants: + +"I say, put that fool out of the door--put him out by the shoulder, and +never let him put his foot inside it more!" + +But the old man's yea was yea, and his nay nay. He had quite meant what +he said; and, as I related, was beyond the reach of the indignity of +extrusion. + +Sir Bale on his return shut his door as violently as if it were in the +face of the old prophet. + +"Ask Feltram's pardon, by Jove! For what? Why, any jury on earth would +have hanged him on half the evidence; and I, like a fool, was going to +let him off with his liberty and my hundred pound-note! Ask his pardon +indeed!" + +Still there were misgivings in his mind; a consciousness that he did owe +explanation and apology to Feltram, and an insurmountable reluctance to +undertake either. The old dislike--a contempt mingled with fear--not any +fear of his malevolence, a fear only of his carelessness and folly; for, +as I have said, Feltram knew many things, it was believed, of the +Baronet's Continental and Asiatic life, and had even gently remonstrated +with him upon the dangers into which he was running. A simple fellow +like Philip Feltram is a dangerous depository of a secret. This Baronet +was proud, too; and the mere possession of his secrets by Feltram was an +involuntary insult, which Sir Bale could not forgive. He wished him far +away; and except for the recovery of his bank-note, which he could ill +spare, he was sorry that this suspicion was cleared up. + +The thunder and storm were unabated; it seemed indeed that they were +growing wilder and more awful. + +He opened the window-shutter and looked out upon that sublimest of +scenes; and so intense and magnificent were its phenomena, that Sir +Bale, for a while, was absorbed in this contemplation. + +When he turned about, the sight of his £100 note, still between his +finger and thumb, made him smile grimly. + +The more he thought of it, the clearer it was that he could not leave +matters exactly as they were. Well, what should he do? He would send for +Mrs. Julaper, and tell her vaguely that he had changed his mind about +Feltram, and that he might continue to stay at Mardykes Hall as usual. +That would suffice. She could speak to Feltram. + +He sent for her; and soon, in the lulls of the great uproar without, he +could hear the jingle of Mrs. Julaper's keys and her light tread upon +the lobby. + +"Mrs. Julaper," said the Baronet, in his dry careless way, "Feltram may +remain; your eloquence has prevailed. What have you been crying about?" +he asked, observing that his housekeeper's usually cheerful face was, in +her own phrase, 'all cried.' + +"It is too late, sir; he's gone." + +"And when did he go?" asked Sir Bale, a little put out. "He chose an odd +evening, didn't he? So like him!" + +"He went about half an hour ago; and I'm very sorry, sir; it's a sore +sight to see the poor lad going from the place he was reared in, and a +hard thing, sir; and on such a night, above all." + +"No one asked him to go to-night. Where is he gone to?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure; he left my room, sir, when I was upstairs; and +Janet saw him pass the window not ten minutes after Mr. Creswell left +the house." + +"Well, then, there's no good, Mrs. Julaper, in thinking more about it; +he has settled the matter his own way; and as he so ordains it--amen, +say I. Goodnight." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat + +Philip Feltram was liked very well--a gentle, kindly, and very timid +creature, and, before he became so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a +joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Where will Sir Bale +find so unresisting and respectful a butt and retainer? and whom will he +bully now? + +Something like remorse was worrying Sir Bale's heart a little; and the +more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell that night, with +its unexplained menace, the more uneasy he became. + +The storm continued; and even to him there seemed something exaggerated +and inhuman in the severity of his expulsion on such a night. It was his +own doing, it was true; but would people believe that? and would he have +thought of leaving Mardykes at all if it had not been for his kinsman's +severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh +Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how +all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, he would +have found him still in the house?--for he had not yet gone for ten +minutes after Creswell's departure, and thus, all that was to follow +might have been averted. But it was too late now, and Sir Bale would let +the affair take its own course. + +Below him, outside the window at which he stood ruminating, he heard +voices mingling with the storm. He could with tolerable certainty +perceive, looking into the obscurity, that there were three men passing +close under it, carrying some very heavy burden among them. + +He did not know what these three black figures in the obscurity were +about. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the +front, and in the lulls of the storm could hear their gruff voices +talking. + +We have all experienced what a presentiment is, and we all know with +what an intuition the faculty of observation is sometimes heightened. It +was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a +dream--a sort of knowledge that what those people were about was in a +dreadful way connected with his own fate. + +He watched for a time, thinking that they might return; but they did +not. He was in a state of uncomfortable suspense. + +"If they want me, they won't have much trouble in finding me, nor any +scruple, egad, in plaguing me; they never have." + +Sir Bale returned to his letters, a score of which he was that night +getting off his conscience--an arrear which would not have troubled him +had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether to employ Philip +Feltram, who had been accustomed to take all that sort of drudgery off +his hands. + +All the time he was writing now he had a feeling that the shadows he had +seen pass under his window were machinating some trouble for him, and an +uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, +fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless wait he would say +to himself, "If any one is coming, why the devil don't he come?" and +then he would apply himself again to his letters. + +But on a sudden he heard good Mrs. Julaper's step trotting along the +lobby, and the tiny ringing of her keys. + +Here was news coming; and the Baronet stood up looking at the door, on +which presently came a hurried rapping; and before he had answered, in +the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the +house, the good woman opened the door in great agitation, and cried with +a tremulous uplifting of her hands. + +"O, Sir Bale! O, la, sir! here's poor dear Philip Feltram come home +dead!" + +Sir Bale stared at her sternly for some seconds. + +"Gome, now, do be distinct," said Sir Bale; "what has happened?" + +"He's lying on the sofer in the old still-room. You never saw--my +God!--O, sir--what is life?" + +"D--n it, can't you cry by-and-by, and tell me what's the matter now?" + +"A bit o' fire there, as luck would have it; but what is hot or cold +now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and +Tom Warren is on the gallop down to Golden Friars for Doctor Torvey." + +"_Is_ he drowned, or is it only a ducking? Come, bring me to the place. +Dead men don't usually want a fire, or consult doctors. I'll see for +myself." + +So Sir Bale Mardykes, pale and grim, accompanied by the light-footed +Mrs. Julaper, strode along the passages, and was led by her into the old +still-room, which had ceased to be used for its original purpose. All +the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also +who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, +with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water along the +wrinkles and pockets of his waistcoat and from the feet of his trousers, +and pumping and oozing from his shoes, and streaming from his hair down +the channels of his cheeks like a continuous rain of tears. + +The people drew back a little as Sir Bale entered with a quick step and +a sharp pallid frown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over +Philip Feltram, who lay on a low bed next the wall, dimly lighted by two +or three candles here and there about the room. + +He laid his hand, for a moment, on his cold wet breast. + +Sir Bale knew what should be done in order to give a man in such a case +his last chance for life. Everybody was speedily put in motion. Philip's +drenched clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans +and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so +that the water flowed freely from his mouth. The old expedient for +inducing artificial breathing was employed, and a lusty pair of bellows +did duty for his lungs. + +But these helps to life, and suggestions to nature, availed not. Forlorn +and peaceful lay the features of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to +the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in the fish-like +eyes; pulseless and cold in the midst of all the hot bricks and +warming-pans about him. + +At length, everything having been tried, Sir Bale, who had been +directing, placed his hand within the clothes, and laid it silently on +Philip's shoulder and over his heart; and after a little wait, he shook +his head, and looking down on his sunken face, he said, + +"I am afraid he's gone. Yes, he's gone, poor fellow! And bear you this +in mind, all of you; Mrs. Julaper there can tell you more about it. She +knows that it was certainly in no compliance with my wish that he left +the house to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps--I +forgive him for it--a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some +blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; +than which imputation nothing can be more utterly false. Mrs. Julaper +there knows how welcome he was to stay the night; but he would not; he +had made up his mind, it seems, without telling any person. Had he told +you, Mrs. Julaper?" + +"No, sir," sobbed Mrs. Julaper from the centre of a pocket-handkerchief +in which her face was buried. + +"Not a human being: an angry whim of his own. Poor Feltram! and here's +the result," said the Baronet. "We have done our best--done everything. +I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will say that anything has been +omitted; but all won't do. Does any one here know how it happened?" + +Two men knew very well--the man who had been ducked, and his companion, +a younger man, who was also in the still-room, and had lent a hand in +carrying Feltram up to the house. + +Tom Marlin had a queer old stone tenement by the edge of the lake just +under Mardykes Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower +that had once belonged to Mardykes Castle, of which in the modern +building scarcely a relic was discoverable. + +This Tom Marlin had an ancient right of fishing in the lake, where he +caught pike enough for all Golden Friars; and keeping a couple of boats, +he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This +fellow, with a furrowed face and shaggy eyebrows, bald at top, but with +long grizzled locks falling upon his shoulders, said, + +"He wer wi' me this mornin', sayin' he'd want t' boat to cross the lake +in, but he didn't say what hour; and when it came on to thunder and blow +like this, ye guess I did not look to see him to-night. Well, my wife +was just lightin' a pig-tail--tho' light enough and to spare there was +in the lift already--when who should come clatterin' at the latch-pin in +the blow o' thunder and wind but Philip, poor lad, himself; and an ill +hour for him it was. He's been some time in ill fettle, though he was +never frowsy, not he, but always kind and dooce, and canty once, like +anither; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the +Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't +hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be +put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' +ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long +last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes +Island, so I'll pull him by that side--for the storm is blowin' right up +by Golden Friars, ye mind--and when we get near the point, thinks I, +he'll see wi' his een how the lake is, and gie it up. For I liked him, +poor lad; and seein' he'd set his heart on't, I wouldn't vex nor frump +him wi' a no. So down we three--myself, and Bill there, and Philip +Feltram--come to the boat; and we pulled out, keeping Snakes Island +atwixt us and the wind. 'Twas smooth water wi' us, for 'twas a scug +there, but white enough was all beyont the point; and passing the +finger-stone, not forty fathom from the shore o' the island, Bill and me +pullin' and he sittin' in the stern, poor lad, up he rises, a bit +rabblin' to himself, wi' his hands lifted so. + +"'Look a-head!' says I, thinkin' something wos comin' atort us. + +"But 'twasn't that. The boat was quiet, for while we looked, oo'er our +shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still; and lookin' +back again on Philip, he was rabblin' on all the same. + +"'It's nobbut a prass wi' himsel", poor lad,' thinks I. + +"But that wasn't it neither; for I sid something white come out o' t' +water, by the gunwale, like a hand. By Jen! and he leans oo'er and tuk +it; and he sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I +cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, +and I followed; and thrice I dived before I found him, and brought him +up by the hair at last; and there he is, poor lad! and all one if he lay +at the bottom o' t' mere." + +As Tom Marlin ended his narrative--often interrupted by the noise of the +tempest without, and the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, +like the chorus of a melancholy ballad--the sudden clang of the +hall-door bell, and a more faintly-heard knocking, announced a new +arrival. + +[Illustration: "I sid something white come out o' t' water, by the +gunwale, like a hand."] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Sir Bale's Dream + +It was Doctor Torvey who entered the old still-room now, buttoned-up to +the chin in his greatcoat, and with a muffler of many colours wrapped +partly over that feature. + +"Well!--hey? So poor Feltram's had an accident?" + +The Doctor was addressing Sir Bale, and getting to the bedside as he +pulled off his gloves. + +"I see you've been keeping him warm--that's right; and a considerable +flow of water from his mouth; turn him a little that way. Hey? O, ho!" +said the Doctor, as he placed his hand upon Philip, and gently stirred +his limbs. "It's more than an hour since this happened. I'm afraid +there's very little to be done now;" and in a lower tone, with his hand +on poor Philip Feltram's arm, and so down to his fingers, he said in Sir +Bale Mardykes' ear, with a shake of his head, + +"Here, you see, poor fellow, here's the cadaveric stiffness; it's very +melancholy, but it's all over, he's gone; there's no good trying any +more. Come here, Mrs. Julaper. Did you ever see any one dead? Look at +his eyes, look at his mouth. You ought to have known that, with half an +eye. And you know," he added again confidentially in Sir Bale's ear, +"trying any more _now_ is all my eye." + +Then after a few more words with the Baronet, and having heard his +narrative, he said from time to time, "Quite right; nothing could be +better; capital practice, sir," and so forth. And at the close of all +this, amid the sobs of kind Mrs. Julaper and the general whimpering of +the humbler handmaids, the Doctor standing by the bed, with his knuckles +on the coverlet, and a glance now and then on the dead face beside him, +said--by way of 'quieting men's minds,' as the old tract-writers used to +say--a few words to the following effect: + +"Everything has been done here that the most experienced physician could +have wished. Everything has been done in the best way. I don't know +anything that has not been done, in fact. If I had been here myself, I +don't know--hot bricks--salt isn't a bad thing. I don't know, I say, +that anything of any consequence has been omitted." And looking at the +body, "You see," and he drew the fingers a little this way and that, +letting them return, as they stiffly did, to their former attitude, "you +may be sure that the poor gentleman was quite dead by the time he +arrived here. So, since he was laid there, nothing has been lost by +delay. And, Sir Bale, if you have any directions to send to Golden +Friars, sir, I shall be most happy to undertake your message." + +"Nothing, thanks; it is a melancholy ending, poor fellow! You must come +to the study with me, Doctor Torvey, and talk a little bit more; +and--very sad, doctor--and you must have a glass of sherry, or some +port--the port used not to be bad here; I don't take it--but very +melancholy it is--bring some port and sherry; and, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +be good enough to see that everything that should be done here is looked +to; and let Marlin and the men have supper and something to drink. You +have been too long in your wet clothes, Marlin." + +So, with gracious words all round, he led the Doctor to the library +where he had been sitting, and was affable and hospitable, and told him +his own version of all that had passed between him and Philip Feltram, +and presented himself in an amiable point of view, and pleased the +Doctor with his port and flatteries--for he could not afford to lose +anyone's good word just now; and the Doctor was a bit of a gossip, and +in most houses in that region, in one character or another, every three +months in the year. + +So in due time the Doctor drove back to Golden Friars, with a high +opinion of Sir Bale, and higher still of his port, and highest of all of +himself: in the best possible humour with the world, not minding the +storm that blew in his face, and which he defied in good-humoured +mock-heroics spoken in somewhat thick accents, and regarding the thunder +and lightning as a lively gala of fireworks; and if there had been a +chance of finding his cronies still in the George and Dragon, he would +have been among them forthwith, to relate the tragedy of the night, and +tell what a good fellow, after all, Sir Bale was; and what a fool, at +best, poor Philip Feltram. + +But the George was quiet for that night. The thunder rolled over +voiceless chambers; and the lights had been put out within the windows, +on whose multitudinous small panes the lightning glared. So the Doctor +went home to Mrs. Torvey, whom he charmed into good-humoured curiosity +by the tale of wonder he had to relate. + +Sir Bale's qualms were symptomatic of something a little less sublime +and more selfish than conscience. He was not sorry that Philip Feltram +was out of the way. His lips might begin to babble inconveniently at any +time, and why should not his mouth be stopped? and what stopper so +effectual as that plug of clay which fate had introduced? But he did not +want to be charged with the odium of the catastrophe. Every man cares +something for the opinion of his fellows. And seeing that Feltram had +been well liked, and that his death had excited a vehement +commiseration, Sir Bale did not wish it to be said that he had made the +house too hot to hold him, and had so driven him to extremity. + +Sir Bale's first agitation had subsided. It was now late, he had written +many letters, and he was tired. It was not wonderful, then, that having +turned his lounging-chair to the fire, he should have fallen asleep in +it, as at last he did. + +The storm was passing gradually away by this time. The thunder was now +echoing among the distant glens and gorges of Daulness Fells, and the +angry roar and gusts of the tempest were subsiding into the melancholy +soughing and piping that soothe like a lullaby. + +Sir Bale therefore had his unpremeditated sleep very comfortably, except +that his head was hanging a little uneasily; which, perhaps, helped him +to this dream. + +It was one of those dreams in which the continuity of the waking state +that immediately preceded it seems unbroken; for he thought that he was +sitting in the chair which he occupied, and in the room where he +actually was. It seemed to him that he got up, took a candle in his +hand, and went through the passages to the old still-room where Philip +Feltram lay. The house seemed perfectly still. He could hear the chirp +of the crickets faintly from the distant kitchen, and the tick of the +clock sounded loud and hollow along the passage. In the old still-room, +as he opened the door, was no light, except what was admitted from the +candle he carried. He found the body of poor Philip Feltram just as he +had left it--his gentle face, saddened by the touch of death, was turned +upwards, with white lips: with traces of suffering fixed in its +outlines, such as caused Sir Bale, standing by the bed, to draw the +coverlet over the dead man's features, which seemed silently to upbraid +him. "Gone in weakness!" said Sir Bale, repeating the words of the "daft +sir," Hugh Creswell; as he did so, a voice whispered near him, with a +great sigh, "Come in power!" He looked round, in his dream, but there +was no one; the light seemed to fail, and a horror slowly overcame him, +especially as he thought he saw the figure under the coverlet stealthily +beginning to move. Backing towards the door, for he could not take his +eyes off it, he saw something like a huge black ape creep out at the +foot of the bed; and springing at him, it griped him by the throat, so +that he could not breathe; and a thousand voices were instantly round +him, holloaing, cursing, laughing in his ears; and in this direful +plight he waked. + +Was it the ring of those voices still in his ears, or a real shriek, and +another, and a long peal, shriek after shriek, swelling madly through +the distant passages, that held him still, freezing in the horror of his +dream? + +I will tell you what this noise was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch + +After his bottle of port with Sir Bale, the Doctor had gone down again +to the room where poor Philip Feltram lay. + +Mrs. Julaper had dried her eyes, and was busy by this time; and two old +women were making all their arrangements for a night-watch by the body, +which they had washed, and, as their phrase goes, 'laid out' in the +humble bed where it had lain while there was still a hope that a spark +sufficient to rekindle the fire of life might remain. These old women +had points of resemblance: they were lean, sallow, and wonderfully +wrinkled, and looked each malign and ugly enough for a witch. + +Marcella Bligh's thin hooked nose was now like the beak of a bird of +prey over the face of the drowned man, upon whose eyelids she was +placing penny-pieces, to keep them from opening; and her one eye was +fixed on her work, its sightless companion showing white in its socket, +with an ugly leer. + +Judith Wale was lifting the pail of hot water with which they had just +washed the body. She had long lean arms, a hunched back, a great sharp +chin sunk on her hollow breast, and small eyes restless as a ferret's; +and she clattered about in great bowls of shoes, old and clouted, that +were made for a foot as big as two of hers. + +The Doctor knew these two old women, who were often employed in such +dismal offices. + +"How does Mrs. Bligh? See me with half an eye? Hey--that's rhyme, isn't +it?--And, Judy lass--why, I thought you lived nearer the town--here +making poor Mr. Feltram's last toilet. You have helped to dress many a +poor fellow for his last journey. Not a bad notion of drill either--they +stand at attention stiff and straight enough in the sentry-box. Your +recruits do you credit, Mrs. Wale." + +The Doctor stood at the foot of the bed to inspect, breathing forth a +vapour of very fine old port, his hands in his pockets, speaking with a +lazy thickness, and looking so comfortable and facetious, that Mrs. +Julaper would have liked to turn him out of the room. + +But the Doctor was not unkind, only extremely comfortable. He was a +good-natured fellow, and had thought and care for the living, but not a +great deal of sentiment for the dead, whom he had looked in the face too +often to be much disturbed by the spectacle. + +"You'll have to keep that bandage on. You should be sharp; you should +know all about it, girl, by this time, and not let those muscles +stiffen. I need not tell you the mouth shuts as easily as this +snuff-box, if you only take it in time.--I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +send to Jos Fringer for the poor fellow's outfit. Fringer is a very +proper man--there ain't a properer und-aker in England. I always +re-mmend Fringer--in Church-street in Golden Friars. You know Fringer, I +daresay." + +"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. That will be as Sir Bale may please to +direct," answered Mrs. Julaper. + +"You've got him very straight--straighter than I thought you could; but +the large joints were not so stiff. A very little longer wait, and you'd +hardly have got him into his coffin. He'll want a vr-r-ry long one, poor +lad. Short cake is life, ma'am. Sad thing this. They'll open their eyes, +I promise you, down in the town. 'Twill be cool enough, I'd shay, affre +all th-thunr-thunnle, you know. I think I'll take a nip, Mrs. Jool-fr, +if you wouldn't mine makin' me out a thimmle-ful bran-band-bran-rand-andy, +eh, Mishs Joolfr?" + +And the Doctor took a chair by the fire; and Mrs. Julaper, with a +dubious conscience and dry hospitality, procured the brandy-flask and +wine-glass, and helped the physician in a thin hesitating stream, which +left him ample opportunity to cry "Hold--enough!" had he been so minded. +But that able physician had no confidence, it would seem, in any dose +under a bumper, which he sipped with commendation, and then fell asleep +with the firelight on his face--to tender-hearted Mrs. Julaper's +disgust--and snored with a sensual disregard of the solemnity of his +situation; until with a profound nod, or rather dive, toward the fire, +he awoke, got up and shook his ears with a kind of start, and standing +with his back to the fire, asked for his muffler and horse; and so took +his leave also of the weird sisters, who were still pottering about the +body, with croak and whisper, and nod and ogle. He took his leave also +of good Mrs. Julaper, who was completing arrangements with teapot and +kettle, spiced elderberry wine, and other comforts, to support them +through their proposed vigil. And finally, in a sort of way, he took his +leave of the body, with a long business-like stare, from the foot of the +bed, with his short hands stuffed into his pockets. And so, to Mrs. +Julaper's relief, this unseemly doctor, speaking thickly, departed. + +And now, the Doctor being gone, and all things prepared for the 'wake' +to be observed by withered Mrs. Bligh of the one eye, and yellow Mrs. +Wale of the crooked back, the house grew gradually still. The thunder +had by this time died into the solid boom of distant battle, and the +fury of the gale had subsided to the long sobbing wail that is charged +with so eerie a melancholy. Within all was stirless, and the two old +women, each a 'Mrs.' by courtesy, who had not much to thank Nature or +the world for, sad and cynical, and in a sort outcasts told off by +fortune to these sad and grizzly services, sat themselves down by the +fire, each perhaps feeling unusually at home in the other's society; and +in this soured and forlorn comfort, trimming their fire, quickening the +song of the kettle to a boil, and waxing polite and chatty; each +treating the other with that deprecatory and formal courtesy which +invites a return in kind, and both growing strangely happy in this +little world of their own, in the unusual and momentary sense of an +importance and consideration which were delightful. + +The old still-room of Mardykes Hall is an oblong room wainscoted. From +the door you look its full length to the wide stone-shafted Tudor window +at the other end. At your left is the ponderous mantelpiece, supported +by two spiral stone pillars; and close to the door at the right was the +bed in which the two crones had just stretched poor Philip Feltram, who +lay as still as an uncoloured wax-work, with a heavy penny-piece on each +eye, and a bandage under his jaw, making his mouth look stern. And the +two old ladies over their tea by the fire conversed agreeably, compared +their rheumatisms and other ailments wordily, and talked of old times, +and early recollections, and of sick-beds they had attended, and corpses +that "you would not know, so pined and windered" were they; and others +so fresh and canny, you'd say the dead had never looked so bonny in +life. + +Then they began to talk of people who grew tall in their coffins, of +others who had been buried alive, and of others who walked after death. +Stories as true as holy writ. + +"Were you ever down by Hawarth, Mrs. Bligh--hard by Dalworth Moss?" +asked crook-backed Mrs. Wale, holding her spoon suspended over her cup. + +"Neea whaar sooa far south, Mrs. Wale, ma'am; but ma father was off +times down thar cuttin' peat." + +"Ah, then ye'll not a kenned farmer Dykes that lived by the Lin-tree +Scaur. 'Tweer I that laid him out, poor aad fellow, and a dow man he was +when aught went cross wi' him; and he cursed and sweared, twad gar ye +dodder to hear him. They said he was a hard man wi' some folk; but he +kep a good house, and liked to see plenty, and many a time when I was +swaimous about my food, he'd clap t' meat on ma plate, and mak' me eat +ma fill. Na, na--there was good as well as bad in farmer Dykes. It was a +year after he deed, and Tom Ettles was walking home, down by the Birken +Stoop one night, and not a soul nigh, when he sees a big ball, as high +as his knee, whirlin' and spangin' away before him on the road. What it +wer he could not think; but he never consayted there was a freet or a bo +thereaway; so he kep near it, watching every spang and turn it took, +till it ran into the gripe by the roadside. There was a gravel pit just +there, and Tom Ettles wished to take another gliff at it before he went +on. But when he keeked into the pit, what should he see but a man +attoppa a horse that could not get up or on: and says he, 'I think ye be +at a dead-lift there, gaffer.' And wi' the word, up looks the man, and +who sud it be but farmer Dykes himsel; and Tom Ettles saw him plain +eneugh, and kenned the horse too for Black Captain, the farmer's aad +beast, that broke his leg and was shot two years and more before the +farmer died. 'Ay,' says farmer Dykes, lookin' very bad; +'forsett-and-backsett, ye'll tak me oot, Tom Ettles, and clap ye doun +behint me quick, or I'll claw ho'd o' thee.' Tom felt his hair risin' +stiff on his heed, and his tongue so fast to the roof o' his mouth he +could scarce get oot a word; but says he, 'If Black Jack can't do it o' +noo, he'll ne'er do't and carry double.' 'I ken my ain business best,' +says Dykes. 'If ye gar me gie ye a look, 'twill gie ye the creepin's +while ye live; so git ye doun, Tom;' and with that the dobby lifts its +neaf, and Tom saw there was a red light round horse and man, like the +glow of a peat fire. And says Tom, 'In the name o' God, ye'll let me +pass;' and with the word the gooast draws itsel' doun, all a-creaked, +like a man wi' a sudden pain; and Tom Ettles took to his heels more deed +than alive." + +They had approached their heads, and the story had sunk to that +mysterious murmur that thrills the listener, when in the brief silence +that followed they heard a low odd laugh near the door. + +In that direction each lady looked aghast, and saw Feltram sitting +straight up in the bed, with the white bandage in his hand, and as it +seemed, for one foot was below the coverlet, near the floor, about to +glide forth. + +Mrs. Bligh, uttering a hideous shriek, clutched Mrs. Wale, and Mrs. +Wale, with a scream as dreadful, gripped Mrs. Bligh; and quite +forgetting their somewhat formal politeness, they reeled and tugged, +wrestling towards the window, each struggling to place her companion +between her and the 'dobby,' and both uniting in a direful peal of +yells. + +This was the uproar which had startled Sir Bale from his dream, and was +now startling the servants from theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The Mist on the Mountain + +Doctor Torvey was sent for early next morning, and came full of wonder, +learning and scepticism. Seeing is believing, however; and there was +Philip Feltram living, and soon to be, in all bodily functions, just as +usual. + +"Upon my soul, Sir Bale, I couldn't have believed it, if I had not seen +it with my eyes," said the Doctor impressively, while sipping a glass of +sherry in the 'breakfast parlour,' as the great panelled and pictured +room next the dining-room was called. "I don't think there is any +similar case on record--no pulse, no more than the poker; no +respiration, by Jove, no more than the chimney-piece; as cold as a lead +image in the garden there. Well, you'll say all that might possibly be +fallacious; but what will you say to the cadaveric stiffness? Old Judy +Wale can tell you; and my friend Marcella--Monocula would be nearer the +mark--Mrs. Bligh, she knows all those common, and I may say up to this, +infallible, signs of death, as well as I do. There is no mystery about +them; they'll depose to the literality of the symptoms. You heard how +they gave tongue. Upon my honour, I'll send the whole case up to my old +chief, Sir Hervey Hansard, to London. You'll hear what a noise it will +make among the profession. There never was--and it ain't too much to +say there never _will_ be--another case like it." + +During this lecture, and a great deal more, Sir Bale leaned back in his +chair, with his legs extended, his heels on the ground, and his arms +folded, looking sourly up in the face of a tall lady in white satin, in +a ruff, and with a bird on her hand, who smiled down superciliously from +her frame on the Baronet. Sir Bale seemed a little bit high and dry with +the Doctor. + +"You physicians are unquestionably," he said, "a very learned +profession." + +The Doctor bowed. + +"But there's just one thing you know nothing about----" + +"Eh? What's that?" inquired Doctor Torvey. + +"Medicine," answered Sir Bale. "I was aware you never knew what was the +matter with a sick man; but I didn't know, till now, that you couldn't +tell when he was dead." + +"Ha, ha!--well--ha, ha!--_yes_--well, you see, you--ha, ha!--you +certainly have me there. But it's a case without a parallel--it is, upon +my honour. You'll find it will not only be talked about, but written +about; and, whatever papers appear upon it, will come to me; and I'll +take care, Sir Bale, you shall have an opportunity of reading them." + +"Of which I shan't avail myself," answered Sir Bale. "Take another glass +of sherry, Doctor." + +The Doctor made his acknowledgments and filled his glass, and looked +through the wine between him and the window. + +"Ha, ha!--see there, your port, Sir Bale, gives a fellow such +habits--looking for the beeswing, by Jove. It isn't easy, in one sense +at least, to get your port out of a fellow's head when once he has +tasted it." + +But if the honest Doctor meant a hint for a glass of that admirable bin, +it fell pointless; and Sir Bale had no notion of making another libation +of that precious fluid in honour of Doctor Torvey. + +"And I take it for granted," said Sir Bale, "that Feltram will do very +well; and, should anything go wrong, I can send for you--unless he +should die again; and in that case I think I shall take my own opinion." + +So he and the Doctor parted. + +Sir Bale, although he did not consult the Doctor on his own case, was +not particularly well. "That lonely place, those frightful mountains, +and that damp black lake"--which features in the landscape he cursed all +round--"are enough to give any man blue devils; and when a fellow's +spirits go, he's all gone. That's why I'm dyspeptic--that and those +d----d debts--and the post, with its flight of croaking and screeching +letters from London. I wish there was no post here. I wish it was like +Sir Amyrald's time, when they shot the York mercer that came to dun him, +and no one ever took anyone to task about it; and now they can pelt you +at any distance they please through the post; and fellows lose their +spirits and their appetite and any sort of miserable comfort that is +possible in this odious abyss." + +Was there gout in Sir Bale's case, or 'vapours'? I know not what the +faculty would have called it; but Sir Bale's mode of treatment was +simply to work off the attack by long and laborious walking. + +This evening his walk was upon the Fells of Golden Friars--long after +the landscape below was in the eclipse of twilight, the broad bare sides +and angles of these gigantic uplands were still lighted by the misty +western sun. + +There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the +silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the +level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and +colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a +strange fear and elation--an ascent above the reach of life's vexations +or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgiving. +The filmy disc of the moon had risen in the east, and was already +faintly silvering the shadowy scenery below, while yet Sir Bale stood in +the mellow light of the western sun, which still touched also the +summits of the opposite peaks of Morvyn Fells. + +Sir Bale Mardykes did not, as a stranger might, in prudence, hasten his +descent from the heights at which he stood while yet a gleam of daylight +remained to him. For he was, from his boyhood, familiar with those +solitary regions; and, beside this, the thin circle of the moon, hung in +the eastern sky, would brighten as the sunlight sank, and hang like a +lamp above his steps. + +There was in the bronzed and resolute face of the Baronet, lighted now +in the parting beams of sunset, a resemblance to that of Charles the +Second--not our "merry" ideal, but the more energetic and saturnine face +which the portraits have preserved to us. + +He stood with folded arms on the side of the slope, admiring, in spite +of his prejudice, the unusual effects of a view so strangely +lighted--the sunset tints on the opposite peaks, lost in the misty +twilight, now deepening lower down into a darker shade, through which +the outlines of the stone gables and tower of Golden Friars and the +light of fire or candle in their windows were dimly visible. + +As he stood and looked, his more distant sunset went down, and sudden +twilight was upon him, and he began to remember the beautiful Homeric +picture of a landscape coming out, rock and headland, in the moonlight. + +There had hung upon the higher summits, at his right, a heavy fold of +white cloud, which on a sudden broke, and, like the smoke of artillery, +came rolling down the slopes toward him. Its principal volume, however, +unfolded itself in a mighty flood down the side of the mountain towards +the lake; and that which spread towards and soon enveloped the ground on +which he stood was by no means so dense a fog. A thick mist enough it +was; but still, to a distance of twenty or thirty yards, he could +discern the outline of a rock or scaur, but not beyond it. + +There are few sensations more intimidating than that of being thus +enveloped on a lonely mountain-side, which, like this one, here and +there breaks into precipice. + +There is another sensation, too, which affects the imagination. +Overtaken thus on the solitary expanse, there comes a new chill and +tremour as this treacherous medium surrounds us, through which +unperceived those shapes which fancy conjures up might approach so near +and bar our path. + +From the risk of being reduced to an actual standstill he knew he was +exempt. The point from which the wind blew, light as it was, assured him +of that. Still the mist was thick enough seriously to embarrass him. It +had overtaken him as he was looking down upon the lake; and he now +looked to his left, to try whether in that direction it was too thick to +permit a view of the nearest landmarks. Through this white film he saw a +figure standing only about five-and-twenty steps away, looking down, as +it seemed, in precisely the same direction as he, quite motionless, and +standing like a shadow projected upon the smoky vapour. It was the +figure of a slight tall man, with his arm extended, as if pointing to a +remote object, which no mortal eye certainly could discern through the +mist. Sir Bale gazed at this figure, doubtful whether he were in a +waking dream, unable to conjecture whence it had come; and as he looked, +it moved, and was almost instantly out of sight. + +He descended the mountain cautiously. The mist was now thinner, and +through the haze he was beginning to see objects more distinctly, and, +without danger, to proceed at a quicker pace. He had still a long walk +by the uplands towards Mardykes Hall before he descended to the level of +the lake. + +The mist was still quite thick enough to circumscribe his view and to +hide the general features of the landscape; and well was it, perhaps, +for Sir Bale that his boyhood had familiarised him with the landmarks on +the mountain-side. + +He had made nearly four miles on his solitary homeward way, when, +passing under a ledge of rock which bears the name of the Cat's Skaitch, +he saw the same figure in the short cloak standing within some thirty or +forty yards of him--the thin curtain of mist, through which the +moonlight touched it, giving to it an airy and unsubstantial character. + +Sir Bale came to a standstill. The man in the short cloak nodded and +drew back, and was concealed by the angle of the rock. + +Sir Bale was now irritated, as men are after a start, and shouting to +the stranger to halt, he 'slapped' after him, as the northern phrase +goes, at his best pace. But again he was gone, and nowhere could he see +him, the mist favouring his evasion. + +Looking down the fells that overhang Mardykes Hall, the mountain-side +dips gradually into a glen, which, as it descends, becomes precipitous +and wooded. A footpath through this ravine conducts the wayfarer to the +level ground that borders the lake; and by this dark pass Sir Bale +Mardykes strode, in comparatively clear air, along the rocky path +dappled with moonlight. + +As he emerged upon the lower ground he again encountered the same +figure. It approached. It was Philip Feltram. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +A New Philip Feltram + +The Baronet had not seen Feltram since his strange escape from death. +His last interview with him had been stern and threatening; Sir Bale +dealing with appearances in the spirit of an incensed judge, Philip +Feltram lamenting in the submission of a helpless despair. + +Feltram was full in the moonlight now, standing erect, and smiling +cynically on the Baronet. + +There was that in the bearing and countenance of Feltram that +disconcerted him more than the surprise of the sudden meeting. + +He had determined to meet Feltram in a friendly way, whenever that not +very comfortable interview became inevitable. But he was confused by the +suddenness of Feltram's appearance; and the tone, cold and stern, in +which he had last spoken to him came first, and he spoke in it after a +brief silence. + +"I fancied, Mr. Feltram, you were in your bed; I little expected to find +you here. I think the Doctor gave very particular directions, and said +that you were to remain perfectly quiet." + +"But I know more than the Doctor," replied Feltram, still smiling +unpleasantly. + +"I think, sir, you would have been better in your bed," said Sir Bale +loftily. + +"Come, come, come, come!" exclaimed Philip Feltram contemptuously. + +[Illustration: It was the figure of a slight tall man, with his arm +extended, as if pointing to a remote object.] + +"It seems to me," said Sir Bale, a good deal astonished, "you rather +forget yourself." + +"Easier to forget oneself, Sir Bale, than to forgive others, at times," +replied Philip Feltram in his unparalleled mood. + +"That's the way fools knock themselves up," continued Sir Bale. "You've +been walking ever so far--away to the Fells of Golden Friars. It was you +whom I saw there. What d----d folly! What brought you there?" + +"To observe you," he replied. + +"And have you walked the whole way there and back again? How did you get +there?" + +"Pooh! how did I come--how did you come--how did the fog come? From the +lake, I suppose. We all come up, and then down." So spoke Philip +Feltram, with serene insolence. + +"You are pleased to talk nonsense," said Sir Bale. + +"Because I like it--with a _meaning_." + +Sir Bale looked at him, not knowing whether to believe his eyes and +ears. He did not know what to make of him. + +"I had intended speaking to you in a conciliatory way; you seem to wish +to make that impossible"--Philip Feltram's face wore its repulsive +smile;--"and in fact I don't know what to make of you, unless you are +ill; and ill you well may be. You can't have walked much less than +twelve miles." + +"Wonderful effort for me!" said Feltram with the same sneer. + +"Rather surprising for a man so nearly drowned," answered Sir Bale +Mardykes. + +"A dip: you don't like the lake, sir; but I do. And so it is: as Antaeus +touched the earth, so I the water, and rise refreshed." + +"I think you'd better get in and refresh there. I meant to tell you that +all the unpleasantness about that bank-note is over." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. It has been recovered by Mr. Creswell, who came here last night. +I've got it, and you're not to blame," said Sir Bale. + +"But some one _is_ to blame," observed Mr. Feltram, smiling still. + +"Well, _you_ are not, and that ends it," said the Baronet peremptorily. + + +"Ends it? Really, how good! how very good!" + +Sir Bale looked at him, for there was something ambiguous and even +derisive in the tone of Feltram's voice. + +But before he could quite make up his mind, Feltram spoke again. + +"Everything is settled about you and me?" + +"There is nothing to prevent your staying at Mardykes now," said Sir +Bale graciously. + +"I shall be with you for two years, and then I go on my travels," +answered Feltram, with a saturnine and somewhat wild look around him. + +"Is he going mad?" thought the Baronet. + +"But before I go, I'm to put you in a way of paying off your mortgages. +That is my business here." + +Sir Bale looked at him sharply. But now there was not the unpleasant +smile, but the darkened look of a man in secret pain. + +"You shall know it all by and by." + +And without more ceremony, and with a darkening face, Philip Feltram +made his way under the boughs of the thick oaks that grew there, leaving +on Sir Bale's mind an impression that he had been watching some one at a +distance, and had gone in consequence of a signal. + +In a few seconds he followed in the same direction, halloaing after +Feltram; for he did not like the idea of his wandering about the country +by moonlight, or possibly losing his life among the precipices, and +bringing a new discredit upon his house. But no answer came; nor could +he in that thick copse gain sight of him again. + +When Sir Bale reached Mardykes Hall he summoned Mrs. Julaper, and had a +long talk with her. But she could not say that there appeared anything +amiss with Philip Feltram; only he seemed more reserved, and as if he +was brooding over something he did not intend to tell. + +"But, you know, Sir Bale, what happened might well make a thoughtful man +of him. If he's ever to think of Death, it should be after looking him +so hard in the face; and I'm not ashamed to say, I'm glad to see he has +grace to take the lesson, and I hope his experiences may be sanctified +to him, poor fellow! Amen." + +"Very good song, and very well sung," said Sir Bale; "but it doesn't +seem to me that he has been improved, Mrs. Julaper. He seems, on the +contrary, in a queer temper and anything but a heavenly frame of mind; +and I thought I'd ask you, because if he is ill--I mean feverish--it +might account for his eccentricities, as well as make it necessary to +send after him, and bring him home, and put him to bed. But I suppose it +is as you say,--his adventure has upset him a little, and he'll sober in +a day or two, and return to his old ways." + +But this did not happen. A change, more comprehensive than at first +appeared, had taken place, and a singular alteration was gradually +established. + +He grew thin, his eyes hollow, his face gradually forbidding. + +His ways and temper were changed: he was a new man with Sir Bale; and +the Baronet after a time, people said, began to grow afraid of him. And +certainly Feltram had acquired an extraordinary influence over the +Baronet, who a little while ago had regarded and treated him with so +much contempt. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The Purse of Gold + +The Baronet was very slightly known in his county. He had led a reserved +and inhospitable life. He was pressed upon by heavy debts; and being a +proud man, held aloof from society and its doings. He wished people to +understand that he was nursing his estate; but somehow the estate did +not thrive at nurse. In the country other people's business is admirably +well known; and the lord of Mardykes was conscious, perhaps, that his +neighbours knew as well he did, that the utmost he could do was to pay +the interest charged upon it, and to live in a frugal way enough. + +The lake measures some four or five miles across, from the little jetty +under the walls of Mardykes Hall to Cloostedd. + +Philip Feltram, changed and morose, loved a solitary row upon the lake; +and sometimes, with no one to aid him in its management, would take the +little sailboat and pass the whole day upon those lonely waters. + +Frequently he crossed to Cloostedd; and mooring the boat under the +solemn trees that stand reflected in that dark mirror, he would +disembark and wander among the lonely woodlands, as people thought, +cherishing in those ancestral scenes the memory of ineffaceable +injuries, and the wrath and revenge that seemed of late to darken his +countenance, and to hold him always in a moody silence. + +One autumnal evening Sir Bale Mardykes was sourly ruminating after his +solitary meal. A very red sun was pouring its last low beams through the +valley at the western extremity of the lake, across its elsewhere sombre +waters, and touching with a sudden and blood-red tint the sail of the +skiff in which Feltram was returning from his lonely cruise. + +"Here comes my domestic water-fiend," sneered Sir Bale, as he lay back +in his cumbrous arm-chair. "Cheerful place, pleasant people, delicious +fate! The place alone has been enough to set that fool out of his little +senses, d--n him!" + +Sir Bale averted his eyes, and another subject not pleasanter entered +his mind. He was thinking of the races that were coming off next week at +Heckleston Downs, and what sums of money might be made there, and how +hard it was that he should be excluded by fortune from that brilliant +lottery. + +"Ah, Mrs. Julaper, is that you?" + +Mrs. Julaper, who was still at the door, curtsied, and said, "I came, +Sir Bale, to see whether you'd please to like a jug of mulled claret, +sir." + +"Not I, my dear. I'll take a mug of beer and my pipe; that homely solace +better befits a ruined gentleman." + +"H'm, sir; you're not that, Sir Bale; you're no worse than half the +lords and great men that are going. I would not hear another say that of +you, sir." + +"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Julaper; but you won't call _me_ out for +backbiting myself, especially as it is true, d----d true, Mrs. Julaper! +Look ye; there never was a Mardykes here before but he could lay his +hundred or his thousand pounds on the winner of the Heckleston Cup; and +what could I bet? Little more than that mug of beer I spoke of. It was +my great-grandfather who opened the course on the Downs of Heckleston, +and now _I_ can't show there! Well, what must I do? Grin and bear it, +that's all. If you please, Mrs. Julaper, I will have that jug of claret +you offered. I want spice and hot wine to keep me alive; but I'll smoke +my pipe first, and in an hour's time it will do." + +When Mrs. Julaper was gone, he lighted his pipe, and drew near the +window, through which he looked upon the now fading sky and the twilight +landscape. + +He smoked his pipe out, and by that time it had grown nearly dark. He +was still looking out upon the faint outlines of the view, and thinking +angrily what a little bit of luck at the races would do for many a man +who probably did not want it half so much as he. Vague and sombre as his +thoughts were, they had, like the darkening landscape outside, shape +enough to define their general character. Bitter and impious they +were--as those of egotistic men naturally are in suffering. And after +brooding, and muttering by fits and starts, he said: + +"How many tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds will change hands at +Heckleston next week; and not a shilling in all the change and shuffle +will stick to me! How many a fellow would sell himself, like Dr. +Faustus, just for the knowledge of the name of the winner! But he's no +fool, and does not buy his own." + +Something caught his eye; something moving on the wall. The fire was +lighted, and cast a flickering and gigantic shadow upward; the figure of +a man standing behind Sir Bale Mardykes, on whose shoulder he placed a +lean hand. Sir Bale turned suddenly about, and saw Philip Feltram. He +was looking dark and stern, and did not remove his hand from his +shoulder as he peered into the Baronet's face with his deep-set mad +eyes. + +"Ha, Philip, upon my soul!" exclaimed Sir Bale, surprised. "How time +flies! It seems only this minute since I saw the boat a mile and a half +away from the shore. Well--yes; there has been time; it is dark now. Ha, +ha! I assure you, you startled me. Won't you take something? Do. Shall I +touch the bell?" + +"You have been troubled about those mortgages. I told you I should pay +them off, I thought." + +Here there was a pause, and Sir Bale looked hard in Feltram's face. If +he had been in his ordinary spirits, or perhaps in some of his haunts +less solitary than Mardykes, he would have laughed; but here he had +grown unlike himself, gloomy and credulous, and was, in fact, a nervous +man. + +Sir Bale smiled, and shook his head dismally. + +"It is very kind of you, Feltram; the idea shows a kindly disposition. I +know you would do me a kindness if you could." + +As Sir Bale, each looking in the other's eyes, repeated in this sentence +the words "kind," "kindly," "kindness," a smile lighted Feltram's face +with at each word an intenser light; and Sir Bale grew sombre in its +glare; and when he had done speaking, Feltram's face also on a sudden +darkened. + +"I have found a fortune-teller in Cloostedd Wood. Look here." + +And he drew from his pocket a leathern purse, which he placed on the +table in his hand; and Sir Bale heard the pleasant clink of coin in it. + +"A fortune-teller! You don't mean to say she gave you that?" said Sir +Bale. + +Feltram smiled again, and nodded. + +"It _was_ the custom to give the fortuneteller a trifle. It is a great +improvement making _her_ fee you," observed Sir Bale, with an approach +to his old manner. + +"He put that in my hand with a message," said Feltram. + +"He? O, then it was a male fortune-teller!" + +"Gipsies go in gangs, men and women. _He_ might lend, though _she_ told +fortunes," said Feltram. + +"It's the first time I ever heard of gipsies lending money;" and he eyed +the purse with a whimsical smile. + +With his lean fingers still holding it, Feltram sat down at the table. +His face contracted as if in cunning thought, and his chin sank upon his +breast as he leaned back. + +"I think," continued Sir Bale, "ever since they were spoiled, the +Egyptians have been a little shy of lending, and leave that branch of +business to the Hebrews." + +"What would you give to know, now, the winner at Heckleston races?" said +Feltram suddenly, raising his eyes. + +"Yes; that would be worth something," answered Sir Bale, looking at him +with more interest than the incredulity he affected would quite warrant. + +"And this money I have power to lend you, to make your game." + +"Do you mean that really?" said Sir Bale, with a new energy in tone, +manner, and features. + +"That's heavy; there are some guineas there," said Feltram with a dark +smile, raising the purse in his hand a little, and letting it drop upon +the table with a clang. + +"There is _something_ there, at all events," said Sir Bale. + +Feltram took the purse by the bottom, and poured out on the table a +handsome pile of guineas. + +"And do you mean to say you got all that from a gipsy in Cloostedd +Wood?" + +"A friend, who is--_myself_," answered Philip Feltram. + +"Yourself! Then it is yours--_you_ lend it?" said the Baronet, amazed; +for there was no getting over the heap of guineas, and the wonder was +pretty equal whence they had come. + +"Myself, and not myself," said Feltram oracularly; "as like as voice and +echo, man and shadow." + +Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted +upon hidden treasure? There was a story of two Feltrams of Cloostedd, +brothers, who had joined the king's army and fought at Marston Moor, +having buried in Cloostedd Wood a great deal of gold and plate and +jewels. They had, it was said, intrusted one tried servant with the +secret; and that servant remained at home. But by a perverse fatality +the three witnesses had perished within a month: the two brothers at +Marston Moor; and the confidant, of fever, at Cloostedd. From that day +forth treasure-seekers had from time to time explored the woods of +Cloostedd; and many a tree of mark was dug beside, and the earth beneath +many a stone and scar and other landmark in that solitary forest was +opened by night, until hope gradually died out, and the tradition had +long ceased to prompt to action, and had become a story and nothing +more. + +The image of the nursery-tale had now recurred to Sir Bale after so long +a reach of years; and the only imaginable way, in his mind, of +accounting for penniless Philip Feltram having all that gold in his +possession was that, in some of his lonely wanderings, chance had led +him to the undiscovered hoard of the two Feltrams who had died in the +great civil wars. + +"Perhaps those gipsies you speak of found the money where you found +them; and in that case, as Cloostedd Forest, and all that is in it is my +property, their sending it to me is more like my servant's handing me my +hat and stick when I'm going out, than making me a present." + +"You will not be wise to rely upon the law, Sir Bale, and to refuse the +help that comes unasked. But if you like your mortgages as they are, +keep them; and if you like my terms as they are, take them; and when you +have made up your mind, let me know." + +Philip Feltram dropped the heavy purse into his capacious coat-pocket, +and walked, muttering, out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The Message from Cloostedd + +"Come back, Feltram; come back, Philip!" cried Sir Bale hastily. "Let us +talk, can't we? Come and talk this odd business over a little; you must +have mistaken what I meant; I should like to hear all about it." + +"All is not much, sir," said Philip Feltram, entering the room again, +the door of which he had half closed after him. "In the forest of +Cloostedd I met to-day some people, one of whom can foretell events, and +told me the names of the winners of the first three races at Heckleston, +and gave me this purse, with leave to lend you so much money as you care +to stake upon the races. I take no security; you shan't be troubled; and +you'll never see the lender, unless you seek him out." + +"Well, those are not bad terms," said Sir Bale, smiling wistfully at the +purse, which Feltram had again placed upon the table. + +"No, not bad," repeated Feltram, in the harsh low tone in which he now +habitually spoke. + +"You'll tell me what the prophet said about the winners; I should like +to hear their names." + +"The names I shall tell you if you walk out with me," said Feltram. + +"Why not here?" asked Sir Bale. + +"My memory does not serve me here so well. Some people, in some places, +though they be silent, obstruct thought. Come, let us speak," said +Philip Feltram, leading the way. + +Sir Bale, with a shrug, followed him. + +By this time it was dark. Feltram was walking slowly towards the margin +of the lake; and Sir Bale, more curious as the delay increased, followed +him, and smiled faintly as he looked after his tall, gaunt figure, as +if, even in the dark, expressing a ridicule which he did not honestly +feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there +was no one near enough to see. + +When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale +thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a +reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally +in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near, +no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his +change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was +but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering +faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing +upright, said, + +"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and +pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all +along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me." + +There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and +something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost +insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would +have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which +he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which +sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him. + +"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The +secret is yours when you promise." + +"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think +I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd +hardly take the trouble." + +Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he +raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand--the hollow of your +hand--like this. I divide the water for a sign--share to me and share to +you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the +hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in +his mockery. + +"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the +finder, be that who it may?" + +"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale. + +"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and +with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he +joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man." + +Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he. + +"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it +will serve you to remember by. And now the names. Don't speak; +listen--you may break the thought else. The winner of the first is +_Beeswing_; of the second, _Falcon_; and of the third, _Lightning_." + +He had stood for some seconds in silence before he spoke; his eyes were +closed; he seemed to bring up thought and speech with difficulty, and +spoke faintly and drowsily, both his hands a little raised, and the +fingers extended, with the groping air of a man who moves in the dark. +In this odd way, slowly, faintly, with many a sigh and scarcely audible +groan, he gradually delivered his message and was silent. He stood, it +seemed, scarcely half awake, muttering indistinctly and sighing to +himself. You would have said that he was exhausted and suffering, like a +man at his last hour resigning himself to death. + +At length he opened his eyes, looked round a little wildly and +languidly, and with another great sigh sat down on a large rock that +lies by the margin of the lake, and sighed heavily again and again. You +might have fancied that he was a second time recovering from drowning. + +Then he got up, and looked drowsily round again, and sighed like a man +worn out with fatigue, and was silent. + +Sir Bale did not care to speak until he seemed a little more likely to +obtain an answer. When that time came, he said, "I wish, for the sake of +my believing, that your list was a little less incredible. Not one of +the horses you name is the least likely; not one of them has a chance." + +"So much the better for you; you'll get what odds you please. You had +better seize your luck; on Tuesday Beeswing runs," said Feltram. "When +you want money for the purpose, I'm your banker--here is your bank." + +He touched his breast, where he had placed the purse, and then he turned +and walked swiftly away. + +Sir Bale looked after him till he disappeared in the dark. He fluctuated +among many surmises about Feltram. Was he insane, or was he practising +an imposture? or was he fool enough to believe the predictions of some +real gipsies? and had he borrowed this money, which in Sir Bale's eyes +seemed the greatest miracle in the matter, from those thriving shepherd +mountaineers, the old Trebecks, who, he believed, were attached to him? +Feltram had, he thought, borrowed it as if for himself; and having, as +Sir Bale in his egotism supposed, "a sneaking regard" for him, had meant +the loan for his patron, and conceived the idea of his using his +revelations for the purpose of making his fortune. So, seeing no risk, +and the temptation being strong, Sir Bale resolved to avail himself of +the purse, and use his own judgment as to what horse to back. + +About eleven o'clock Feltram, unannounced, walked, with his hat still +on, into Sir Bale's library, and sat down at the opposite side of his +table, looking gloomily into the Baronet's face for a time. + +"Shall you want the purse?" he asked at last. + +"Certainly; I always want a purse," said Sir Bale energetically. + +"The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have +named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the +sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse +contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make +some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?" + +"Of course; five pounds in the hundred--certainly; and how many hundreds +are there?" + +"Three." + +"Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, +but it ain't very much." + +"Quite enough, if you use it aright." + +"Three hundred pounds," repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, +which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and +contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in +little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but +he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor. + +"Ay," said he, after a second counting, "I think there _are_ exactly +three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five--fifteen +of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; +but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?" he added, with a +hesitating inquiry in the tone. + +"If you don't, you'll rue it," said Feltram coldly, and walked away. + +"Penny in pocket's a merry companion," says the old English proverb, and +Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as +he replaced the guineas in the purse. + +It was long since he had visited either the race-course or any other +place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his +pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of +the turf once more. + +"Who knows how this little venture may turn out?" he thought. "It is +time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in +Paris--d--n me, I'm owed something. It's time I should win a bit." + +Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life +imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first +time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in +his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, +therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, +followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen's Head at Heckleston, +where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day +following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those +days need have cared to show. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +On the Course--Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning + +As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the +early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he +looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that +hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he +took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched +with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite +side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the +side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a +pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking +in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated +the sail of Philip Feltram's boat, now midway between Mardykes and the +wooded shores of Cloostedd. + +"Going on the same errand," thought Sir Bale, "I should not wonder. I +wish him the same luck. Yes, he's going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he +may meet his gipsies there--the Trebecks, or whoever they are." + +And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such +people smote him, "Well," thought he, "who knows? Many a fellow will +make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will +be a light matter paying them then." + +Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like +him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and +conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, +however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual +was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town. + +Next morning he was on the race-course of Heckleston, renewing old +acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could--an object, +among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the +carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the +betting men, deep in more serious business. + +How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, +Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than +the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were +forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and +fifty to one against Falcon. + +"A pretty lot to choose!" exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. "As if I +had money so often, that I should throw it away!" + +The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram's +message as an impertinence and the money as his own. + +Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes' pocket fared. + +Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston +racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars. + +He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; +and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. +In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an +accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. +And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the +"fortune-teller" had predicted. + +Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral +house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very +welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred +instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would +have won 15,500 guineas. + +He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a +man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and +laughed dryly. + +"What do you laugh at?" asked Sir Bale tartly. + +"You've won, haven't you?" + +"Yes, I've won; I've won a trifle." + +"On the horses I named?" + +"Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident." + +Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away. + +Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse +mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so +ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more +of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment +yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all +likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. +Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to +Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the +poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, +that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's +fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he +did not. + +So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day +himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of +Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a +little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in +his excursions up the mountains. + +"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale. + +Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal. + +"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual +clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other +side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the +person about whom you are always thinking." + +"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for +he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it. + +"_I_ say it, because I _know_ it; and _you_ know it also. See that clump +of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, grows +an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H--F; so large +and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure them, +although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the trunk +of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are looking up +the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where stands +Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find our +fortune-teller?" + +"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because, +although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has +either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got +extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on +chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous +fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and +perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an +arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any +matter of the same kind again." + +"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy +and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach +him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he +invites you." + +Sir Bale laughed. + +"He knows his value, and means to make his own terms." + +"Well, there's nothing unfair in that; and I don't see that I should +dispute it. How is one to find him?" + +"Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. +Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its +surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about +the size of a man's head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, +that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the +line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take +carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the +forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are +sure to find him." + +"You'll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and +probably fail to discover him," said Sir Bale; "and I really wish to see +him." + +"When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don't. I can go with +you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your +side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, +that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see +that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I'll take you across the lake." + +"By Jove, you'll do no such thing!" said Sir Bale hastily. + +"But that is the way he chooses to be approached," said Philip Feltram. + +"I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it's the one childish spot +that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it--old +stories and warnings; and I can't think of that. I should feel I had +invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are +queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there." + +"Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all +were done, he would not see you. He knows what he's worth, and he'll +have his own way," answered Feltram. "The sun will soon set. See that +withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from +the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three +minutes to live." + +"That is a wonder which I can't see; it is too far away." + +"Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them," said +Feltram. + +"So it does," said the Baronet; "more than most men have got. I'll ride +round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way." + +"You'll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity +to vex him." + +"It was to you he lent the money," said Sir Bale. + +"Yes." + +"Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him," urged Sir +Bale. + +"Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don't go, he may be +offended, and you may hear no more from him." + +"We'll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for +once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What +do you say? + +"You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question--what horses, I +mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money +will change hands." + +"I'll try," said Feltram. + +"When will you go?" + +"To-morrow," he answered. + +"I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those +cursed mortgages." + +He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of +Feltram, who coldly answered, + +"So have I;" and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, +without another word or look. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +On the Lake, at Last + +Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat +on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no +little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude +pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now +satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the 'cunning man,' +and gather hints for the next race. + +When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale's +library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more +interested about his news than he would have cared to confess. + +Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with +great directness, proceeded to satisfy it. + +"I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day--and found the old +gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any +kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross +the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and +counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard +names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did +talk." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram." + +"He might have said something more likely," said Sir Bale sourly. "Did +he say anything more?" + +"Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell." + +"Any other name?" + +"No." + +"Silver Bell? Well, that's not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands +high in the list. He has a good many backers--long odds in his favour +against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell." + +The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the +moment he heard the soothsayer's prediction. He made up his mind to no +half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome. + +He was in great force and full of confidence on the race-course. He had +no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still +untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in +the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon +staked--such is the growing frenzy of that excitement--about twenty +thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven. + +He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds. + +And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, +having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about +him--quite at his wit's end. + +Feltram was standing--as on the occasion of his former happier +return--on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing +eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as +before, with a laugh. + +Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he +might, had he been a degree less desperate. + +He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted. + +"Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust +you. He's huffed, and played you false." + +"It was not he. I should have backed that d----d horse in any case," +said Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. "What a witch you have discovered! +One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might +have the estate now; but there ain't. They are all beggars. So much for +your conjurer." + +"He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him." + +"He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D--n me, I'm past helping +now." + +"Don't you talk so," said Feltram. "Be civil. You must please the old +gentleman. He'll make it up. He's placable when it suits him. Why not go +to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make +it up." + +"Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can't make even a guess at +what's coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?" + +"No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? +He won't see you unless you go to him as he chooses." + +"If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don't choose to go +on that water--and cross it I won't," said Sir Bale. + +But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the +idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his +resolution faltered. + +"I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose +to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a +boat?" + +Feltram smiled darkly, and answered. + +"I can't tell. Can you?" + +"Of course I can't--I say I can't; besides, what audacity of a fellow +like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can't +predict--do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?" + +"I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish +those who don't respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often +quite clear--not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him +out, and when you do, I think he'll help you through your trouble. He +said he would." + +"Then you have seen him since?" + +"Yesterday. He has put a pressure on you; but he means to help you." + +"If he means to help me, let him remember I want a banker more than a +seer. Let him give me a lift, as he did before. He must lend me money." + +"He'll not stick at that. When he takes up a man, he carries him +through." + +"The races of Byermere--I might retrieve at them. But they don't come +off for a month nearly; and what is a man like me to do in the +meantime?" + +"Every man should know his own business best. I'm not like you," said +Feltram grimly. + +Now Sir Bale's trouble increased, for some people were pressing. +Something like panic supervened; for it happened that land was bringing +just then a bad price, and more must be sold in consequence. + +"All I can tell them is, I am selling land. It can't be done in an hour. +I'm selling enough to pay them all twice over. Gentlemen used to be able +to wait till a man sold his acres for payment. D--n them! do they want +my body, that they can't let me alone for five minutes?" + +The end of it was, that before a week Sir Bale told Feltram that he +would go by boat, since that fellow insisted on it; and he did not very +much care if he were drowned. + +It was a beautiful autumnal day. Everything was bright in that mellowed +sun, and the deep blue of the lake was tremulous with golden ripples; +and crag and peak and scattered wood, faint in the distance, came out +with a filmy distinctness on the fells in that pleasant light. + +Sir Bale had been ill, and sent down the night before for Doctor Torvey. +He was away with a patient. Now, in the morning, he had arrived +inopportunely. He met Sir Bale as he issued from the house, and had a +word with him in the court, for he would not turn back. + +"Well," said the Doctor, after his brief inspection, "you ought to be in +your bed; that's all I can say. You are perfectly mad to think of +knocking about like this. Your pulse is at a hundred and ten; and, if +you go across the lake and walk about Cloostedd, you'll be raving before +you come back." + +Sir Bale told him, apologetically, as if his life were more to his +doctor than to himself, that he would take care not to fatigue himself, +and that the air would do him good, and that in any case he could not +avoid going; and so they parted. + +Sir Bale took his seat beside Feltram in the boat, the sail was spread, +and, bending to the light breeze that blew from Golden Friars, she +glided from the jetty under Mardykes Hall, and the eventful voyage had +begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Mystagogus + +The sail was loosed, the boat touched the stone step, and Feltram sprang +out and made her fast to the old iron ring. The Baronet followed. So! he +had ventured upon that water without being drowned. He looked round him +as if in a dream. He had not been there since his childhood. There were +no regrets, no sentiment, no remorse; only an odd return of the +associations and fresh feelings of boyhood, and a long reach of time +suddenly annihilated. + +The little hollow in which he stood; the three hawthorn trees at his +right; every crease and undulation of the sward, every angle and crack +in the lichen-covered rock at his feet, recurred with a sharp and +instantaneous recognition to his memory. + +"Many a time your brother and I fished for hours together from that bank +there, just where the bramble grows. That bramble has not grown an inch +ever since, not a leaf altered; we used to pick blackberries off it, +with our rods stuck in the bank--it was later in the year than now--till +we stript it quite bare after a day or two. The steward used to come +over--they were marking timber for cutting and we used to stay here +while they rambled through the wood, with an axe marking the trees that +were to come down. I wonder whether the big old boat is still anywhere. +I suppose she was broken up, or left to rot; I have not seen her since +we came home. It was in the wood that lies at the right--the other wood +is called the forest; they say in old times it was eight miles long, +northward up the shore of the lake, and full of deer; with a forester, +and a reeve, and a verderer, and all that. Your brother was older than +you; he went to India, or the Colonies; is he living still?" + +"I care not." + +"That's good-natured, at all events; but do you know?" + +"Not I; and what matter? If he's living, I warrant he has his share of +the curse, the sweat of his brow and his bitter crust; and if he is +dead, he's dust or worse, he's rotten, and smells accordingly." + +Sir Bale looked at him; for this was the brother over whom, only a year +or two ago, Philip used to cry tears of pathetic longing. Feltram looked +darkly in his face, and sneered with a cold laugh. + +"I suppose you mean to jest?" said Sir Bale. + +"Not I; it is the truth. It is what you'd say, if you were honest. If +he's alive, let him keep where he is; and if he's dead, I'll have none +of him, body or soul. Do you hear that sound?" + +"Like the wind moaning in the forest?" + +"Yes." + +"But I feel no wind. There's hardly a leaf stirring." + +"I think so," said Feltram. "Come along." + +And he began striding up the gentle slope of the glen, with many a rock +peeping through its sward, and tufted ferns and furze, giving a wild and +neglected character to the scene; the background of which, where the +glen loses itself in a distant turn, is formed by its craggy and wooded +side. + +Up they marched, side by side, in silence, towards that irregular clump +of trees, to which Feltram had pointed from the Mardykes side. + +As they approached, it showed more scattered, and two or three of the +trees were of grander dimensions than in the distance they had appeared; +and as they walked, the broad valley of Cloostedd Forest opened grandly +on their left, studding the sides of the valley with solitary trees or +groups, which thickened as it descended to the broad level, in parts +nearly three miles wide, on which stands the noble forest of Cloostedd, +now majestically reposing in the stirless air, gilded and flushed with +the melancholy tints of autumn. + +I am now going to relate wonderful things; but they rest on the report, +strangely consistent, it is true, of Sir Bale Mardykes. That all his +senses, however, were sick and feverish, and his brain not quite to be +relied on at that moment, is a fact of which sceptics have a right to +make all they please and can. + +Startled at their approach, a bird like a huge mackaw bounced from the +boughs of the trees, and sped away, every now and then upon the ground, +toward the shelter of the forest, fluttering and hopping close by the +side of the little brook which, emerging from the forest, winds into the +glen, and beside the course of which Sir Bale and Philip Feltram had +ascended from the margin of the lake. + +It fluttered on, as if one of its wings were hurt, and kept hopping and +bobbing and flying along the grass at its swiftest, screaming all the +time discordantly. + +"That must be old Mrs. Amerald's bird, that got away a week ago," said +Sir Bale, stopping and looking after it. "Was not it a mackaw?" + +"No," said Feltram; "that was a gray parrot; but there are stranger +birds in Cloostedd Forest, for my ancestors collected all that would +live in our climate, and were at pains to find them the food and shelter +they were accustomed to until they grew hardy--that is how it happens." + +"By Jove, that's a secret worth knowing," said Sir Bale. "That would +make quite a feature. What a fat brute that bird was! and green and +dusky-crimson and yellow; but its head is white--age, I suspect; and +what a broken beak--hideous bird! splendid plumage; something between a +mackaw and a vulture." + +Sir Bale spoke jocularly, but with the interest of a bird-fancier; a +taste which, when young, he had indulged; and for the moment forgot his +cares and the object of his unwonted excursion. + +A moment after, a lank slim bird, perfectly white, started from the same +boughs, and winged its way to the forest. + +"A kite, I think; but its body is a little too long, isn't it?" said Sir +Bale again, stopping and looking after its flight also. + +"A foreign kite, I daresay?" said Feltram. + +All this time there was hopping near them a jay, with the tameness of a +bird accustomed to these solitudes. It peered over its slender wing +curiously at the visitors; pecking here and nodding there; and thus +hopping, it made a circle round them more than once. Then it fluttered +up, and perched on a bough of the old oak, from the deep labyrinth of +whose branches the other birds had emerged; and from thence it flew down +and lighted on the broad druidic stone, that stood like a cyclopean +table on its sunken stone props, before the snakelike roots of the oak. + +Across this it hopped conceitedly, as over a stage on which it figured +becomingly; and after a momentary hesitation, with a little spring, it +rose and winged its way in the same direction which the other birds had +taken, and was quickly lost in thick forest to the left. + +"Here," said Feltram, "this is the tree." + +"I remember it well! A gigantic trunk; and, yes, those marks; but I +never before read them as letters. Yes, H.F., so they are--very odd I +should not have remarked them. They are so large, and so strangely +drawn-out in some places, and filled-in in others, and distorted, and +the moss has grown about them; I don't wonder I took them for natural +cracks and chasms in the bark," said Sir Bale. + +"Very like," said Feltram. + +Sir Bale had remarked, ever since they had begun their walk from the +shore, that Feltram seemed to undergo a gloomy change. Sharper, grimmer, +wilder grew his features, and shadow after shadow darkened his face +wickedly. + +The solitude and grandeur of the forest, and the repulsive gloom of his +companion's countenance and demeanour, communicated a tone of anxiety to +Sir Bale; and they stood still, side by side, in total silence for a +time, looking toward the forest glades; between themselves and which, on +the level sward of the valley, stood many a noble tree and fantastic +group of forked birch and thorn, in the irregular formations into which +Nature had thrown them. + +"Now you stand between the letters. Cast your eyes on the stone," said +Feltram suddenly, and his low stern tones almost startled the Baronet. + +Looking round, he perceived that he had so placed himself that his point +of vision was exactly from between the two great letters, now +half-obliterated, which he had been scrutinizing just as he turned about +to look toward the forest of Cloostedd. + +"Yes, so I am," said Sir Bale. + +There was within him an excitement and misgiving, akin to the sensation +of a man going into battle, and which corresponded with the pale and +sombre frown which Feltram wore, and the manifest change which had come +over him. + +"Look on the stone steadily for a time, and tell me if you see a black +mark, about the size of your hand, anywhere upon its surface," said +Feltram. + +Sir Bale affected no airs of scepticism now; his imagination was +stirred, and a sense of some unknown reality at the bottom of that which +he had affected to treat before as illusion, inspired a strange interest +in the experiment. + +"Do you see it?" asked Feltram. + +Sir Bale was watching patiently, but he had observed nothing of the +kind. + +Sharper, darker, more eager grew the face of Philip Feltram, as his eyes +traversed the surface of that huge horizontal block. + +"Now?" asked Feltram again. + +No, he had seen nothing. + +Feltram was growing manifestly uneasy, angry almost; he walked away a +little, and back again, and then two or three times round the tree, with +his hands shut, and treading the ground like a man trying to warm his +feet, and so impatiently he returned, and looked again on the stone. + +Sir Bale was still looking, and very soon said, drawing his brows +together and looking hard, + +"Ha!--yes--hush. There it is, by Jove!--wait--yes--there; it is growing +quite plain." + +It seemed not as if a shadow fell upon the stone, but rather as if the +stone became semi-transparent, and just under its surface was something +dark--a hand, he thought it--and darker and darker it grew, as if coming +up toward the surface, and after some little wavering, it fixed itself +movelessly, pointing, as he thought, toward the forest. + +"It looks like a hand," said he. "By Jove, it is a hand--pointing +towards the forest with a finger." + +"Don't mind the finger; look only on that black blurred mark, and from +the point where you stand, taking that point for your direction, look to +the forest. Take some tree or other landmark for an object, enter the +forest there, and pursue the same line, as well as you can, until you +find little flowers with leaves like wood-sorrel, and with tall stems +and a red blossom, not larger than a drop, such as you have not seen +before, growing among the trees, and follow wherever they seem to grow +thickest, and there you will find him." + +All the time that Feltram was making this little address, Sir Bale was +endeavouring to fix his route by such indications as Feltram described; +and when he had succeeded in quite establishing the form of a peculiar +tree--a melancholy ash, one huge limb of which had been blasted by +lightning, and its partly stricken arm stood high and barkless, +stretching its white fingers, as it were, in invitation into the forest, +and signing the way for him---- + +"I have it now," said he. "Come Feltram, you'll come a bit of the way +with me." + +Feltram made no answer, but slowly shook his head, and turned and walked +away, leaving Sir Bale to undertake his adventure alone. + +The strange sound they had heard from the midst of the forest, like the +rumble of a storm or the far-off trembling of a furnace, had quite +ceased. Not a bird was hopping on the grass, or visible on bough or in +the sky. Not a living creature was in sight--never was stillness more +complete, or silence more oppressive. + +It would have been ridiculous to give way to the old reluctance which +struggled within him. Feltram had strode down the slope, and was +concealed by a screen of bushes from his view. So alone, and full of an +interest quite new to him, he set out in quest of his adventures. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The Haunted Forest + +Sir Bale Mardykes walked in a straight line, by bush and scaur, over the +undulating ground, to the blighted ash-tree; and as he approached it, +its withered bough stretched more gigantically into the air, and the +forest seemed to open where it pointed. + +He passed it by, and in a few minutes had lost sight of it again, and +was striding onward under the shadow of the forest, which already +enclosed him. He was directing his march with all the care he could, in +exactly that line which, according to Feltram's rule, had been laid down +for him. Now and then, having, as soldiers say, taken an object, and +fixed it well in his memory, he would pause and look about him. + +As a boy he had never entered the wood so far; for he was under a +prohibition, lest he should lose himself in its intricacies, and be +benighted there. He had often heard that it was haunted ground, and that +too would, when a boy, have deterred him. It was on this account that +the scene was so new to him, and that he cared so often to stop and look +about him. Here and there a vista opened, exhibiting the same utter +desertion, and opening farther perspectives through the tall stems of +the trees faintly visible in the solemn shadow. No flowers could he see, +but once or twice a wood anemone, and now and then a tiny grove of +wood-sorrel. + +Huge oak-trees now began to mingle and show themselves more and more +frequently among the other timber; and gradually the forest became a +great oak wood unintruded upon by any less noble tree. Vast trunks +curving outwards to the roots, and expanding again at the branches, +stood like enormous columns, striking out their groining boughs, with +the dark vaulting of a crypt. + +As he walked under the shadow of these noble trees, suddenly his eye was +struck by a strange little flower, nodding quite alone by the knotted +root of one of those huge oaks. + +He stooped and picked it up, and as he plucked it, with a harsh scream +just over his head, a large bird with heavy beating wings broke away +from the midst of the branches. He could not see it, but he fancied the +scream was like that of the huge mackaw whose ill-poised flight he had +watched. This conjecture was but founded on the odd cry he had heard. + +The flower was a curious one--a stem fine as a hair supported a little +bell, that looked like a drop of blood, and never ceased trembling. He +walked on, holding this in his fingers; and soon he saw another of the +same odd type, then another at a shorter distance, then one a little to +the right and another to the left, and farther on a little group, and at +last the dark slope was all over trembling with these little bells, +thicker and thicker as he descended a gentle declivity to the bank of +the little brook, which flowing through the forest loses itself in the +lake. The low murmur of this forest stream was almost the first sound, +except the shriek of the bird that startled him a little time ago, which +had disturbed the profound silence of the wood since he entered it. +Mingling with the faint sound of the brook, he now heard a harsh human +voice calling words at intervals, the purport of which he could not yet +catch; and walking on, he saw seated upon the grass, a strange figure, +corpulent, with a great hanging nose, the whole face glowing like +copper. He was dressed in a bottle-green cut-velvet coat, of the style +of Queen Anne's reign, with a dusky crimson waistcoat, both overlaid +with broad and tarnished gold lace, and his silk stockings on thick +swollen legs, with great buckled shoes, straddling on the grass, were +rolled up over his knees to his short breeches. This ill-favoured old +fellow, with a powdered wig that came down to his shoulders, had a +dice-box in each hand, and was apparently playing his left against his +right, and calling the throws with a hoarse cawing voice. + +Raising his black piggish eyes, he roared to Sir Bale, by name, to come +and sit down, raising one of his dice-boxes, and then indicating a place +on the grass opposite to him. + +Now Sir Bale instantly guessed that this was the man, gipsy, warlock, +call him what he might, of whom he had come in search. With a strange +feeling of curiosity, disgust, and awe, he drew near. He was resolved to +do whatever this old man required of him, and to keep him, this time, in +good humour. + +Sir Bale did as he bid him, and sat down; and taking the box he +presented, they began throwing turn about, with three dice, the +copper-faced old man teaching him the value of the throws, as he +proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw, +grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes +almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he +sat before him. + +After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this +way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather +moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his +shoulder, + +"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had +not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking +another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man, +dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which +seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with +a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy +nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about +him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head +to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great +old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their +fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and +character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up +his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and +then he filled Sir Bale's glass. + +It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the +liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of +an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading +continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim, +and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work. + +"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his +glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the +other; "and you know what I mean." + +Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he +tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing +it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was +also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful +figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep +mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely, +wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerades. So much of her +throat and chin as he could see were beautifully white; and there was a +prettiness in her air and figure which made him think what a beautiful +creature she in all likelihood was. She was reclining slightly against +the burly man in bottle-green and gold, and her arm was round his neck, +and her slender white hand showed itself over his shoulder. + +"Ho! my little Geaiette," cried the old fellow hoarsely; "it will be +time that you and I should get home.--So, Bale Mardykes, I have nothing +to object to you this time; you've crossed the lake, and you've played +with me and won and lost, and drank your glass like a jolly companion, +and now we know one another; and an acquaintance is made that will last. +I'll let you go, and you'll come when I call for you. And now you'll +want to know what horse will win next month at Rindermere +races.--Whisper me, lass, and I'll tell him." + +So her lips, under the black curtain, crept close to his ear, and she +whispered. + +"Ay, so it will;" roared the old man, gnashing his teeth; "it will be +Rainbow, and now make your best speed out of the forest, or I'll set my +black dogs after you, ho, ho, ho! and they may chance to pull you down. +Away!" + +He cried this last order with a glare so black, and so savage a shake of +his huge fist, that Sir Bale, merely making his general bow to the +group, clapped his hat on his head, and hastily began his retreat; but +the same discordant voice yelled after him: + +"You'll want that, you fool; pick it up." And there came hurtling after +and beside him a great leather bag, stained, and stuffed with a heavy +burden, and bounding by him it stopped with a little wheel that brought +it exactly before his feet. + +He picked it up, and found it heavy. + +Turning about to make his acknowledgments, he saw the two persons in +full retreat; the profane old scoundrel in the bottle-green limping and +stumbling, yet bowling along at a wonderful rate, with many a jerk and +reel, and the slender lady in black gliding away by his side into the +inner depths of the forest. + +So Sir Bale, with a strange chill, and again in utter solitude, pursued +his retreat, with his burden, at a swifter pace, and after an hour or +so, had recovered the point where he had entered the forest, and passing +by the druidic stone and the mighty oak, saw down the glen at his right, +standing by the edge of the lake, Philip Feltram, close to the bow of +the boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Rindermere + +Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he +stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored. + +"You found him?" said he. + +"Yes." + +"The lady in black was there?" + +"She was." + +"And you played with him?" + +"Yes." + +"And what is that in your hand?" + +"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me. +We shall see just now; let us get away." + +"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in +his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes. + +"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him." + +"To be sure." + +The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by +the time they had reached the side where they now were. + +There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already +evening. + +"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said +Sir Bale; "only let us get away." + +He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its +heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope +and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull +together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had +got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore. + +The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram +knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a +secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a +long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax, +fragments of which were still sticking to it. + +He got it open, and found it full of guineas. + +"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick +upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!" + +Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter. +Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it +seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count +them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand. + +It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag, +and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply, + +"Come, take your oar--unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind +will soon be up from Golden Friars!" + +He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and +applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing +loath, the Baronet did so. + +It was slow work, for the boat was not built for speed; and by the time +they had got about midway, the sun went down, and twilight and the +melancholy flush of the sunset tints were upon the lake and fells. + +"Ho! here comes the breeze--up from Golden Friars," said Feltram; "we +shall have enough to fill the sails now. If you don't fear spirits and +Snakes Island, it is all the better for us it should blow from that +point. If it blew from Mardykes now, it would be a stiff pull for you +and me to get this tub home." + +Talking as if to himself, and laughing low, he adjusted the sail and +took the tiller, and so, yielding to the rising breeze, the boat glided +slowly toward still distant Mardykes Hall. + +The moon came out, and the shore grew misty, and the towering fells rose +like sheeted giants; and leaning on the gunwale of the boat, Sir Bale, +with the rush and gurgle of the water on the boat's side sounding +faintly in his ear, thought of his day's adventure, which seemed to him +like a dream--incredible but for the heavy bag that lay between his +feet. + +As they passed Snakes Island, a little mist, like a fragment of a fog, +seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came +near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; +and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the +mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the +same thing always happened. + +It was three weeks after, that Sir Bale, sitting up in his bed, very +pale and wan, with his silk night-cap nodding on one side, and his thin +hand extended on the coverlet, where the doctor had been feeling his +pulse, in his darkened room, related all the wonders of this day to +Doctor Torvey. The doctor had attended him through a fever which +followed immediately upon his visit to Cloostedd. + +"And, my dear sir, by Jupiter, can you really believe all that delirium +to be sober fact?" said the doctor, sitting by the bedside, and actually +laughing. + +"I can't help believing it, because I can't distinguish in any way +between all that and everything else that actually happened, and which I +must believe. And, except that this is more wonderful, I can find no +reason to reject it, that does not as well apply to all the rest." + +"Come, come, my dear sir, this will never do--nothing is more common. +These illusions accompanying fever frequently antedate the attack, and +the man is actually raving before he knows he is ill." + +"But what do you make of that bag of gold?" + +"Some one has lent it. You had better ask all about it of Feltram when +you can see him; for in speaking to me he seemed to know all about it, +and certainly did not seem to think the matter at all out of the +commonplace. It is just like that fisherman's story, about the hand that +drew Feltram into the water on the night that he was nearly drowned. +Every one can see what that was. Why of course it was simply the +reflection of his own hand in the water, in that vivid lightning. When +you have been out a little and have gained strength you will shake off +these dreams." + +"I should not wonder," said Sir Bale. + +It is not to be supposed that Sir Bale reported all that was in his +memory respecting his strange vision, if such it was, at Cloostedd. He +made a selection of the incidents, and threw over the whole adventure an +entirely accidental character, and described the money which the old man +had thrown to him as amounting to a purse of five guineas, and mentioned +nothing of the passages which bore on the coming race. + +Good Doctor Torvey, therefore, reported only that Sir Bale's delirium +had left two or three illusions sticking in his memory. + +But if they were illusions, they survived the event of his recovery, and +remained impressed on his memory with the sharpness of very recent and +accurately observed fact. + +He was resolved on going to the races of Rindermere, where, having in +his possession so weighty a guarantee as the leather purse, he was +determined to stake it all boldly on Rainbow--against which horse he was +glad to hear there were very heavy odds. + +The race came off. One horse was scratched, another bolted, the rider of +a third turned out to have lost a buckle and three half-pence and so was +an ounce and a half under weight, a fourth knocked down the post near +Rinderness churchyard, and was held to have done it with his left +instead of his right knee, and so had run at the wrong side. The result +was that Rainbow came in first, and I should be afraid to say how much +Sir Bale won. It was a sum that paid off a heavy debt, and left his +affairs in a much more manageable state. + +From this time Sir Bale prospered. He visited Cloostedd no more; but +Feltram often crossed to that lonely shore as heretofore, and it is +believed conveyed to him messages which guided his betting. One thing is +certain, his luck never deserted him. His debts disappeared; and his +love of continental life seemed to have departed. He became content with +Mardykes Hall, laid out money on it, and although he never again cared +to cross the lake, he seemed to like the scenery. + +In some respects, however, he lived exactly the same odd and unpopular +life. He saw no one at Mardykes Hall. He practised a very strict +reserve. The neighbours laughed at and disliked him, and he was voted, +whenever any accidental contact arose, a very disagreeable man; and he +had a shrewd and ready sarcasm that made them afraid of him, and himself +more disliked. + +Odd rumours prevailed about his household. It was said that his old +relations with Philip Feltram had become reversed; and that he was as +meek as a mouse, and Feltram the bully now. It was also said that Mrs. +Julaper had one Sunday evening when she drank tea at the Vicar's, told +his good lady very mysteriously, and with many charges of secrecy, that +Sir Bale was none the better of his late-found wealth; that he had a +load upon his spirits, that he was afraid of Feltram, and so was every +one else, more or less, in the house; that he was either mad or worse; +and that it was an eerie dwelling, and strange company, and she should +be glad herself of a change. + +Good Mrs. Bedel told her friend Mrs. Torvey; and all Golden Friars heard +all this, and a good deal more, in an incredibly short time. + +All kinds of rumours now prevailed in Golden Friars, connecting Sir +Bale's successes on the turf with some mysterious doings in Cloostedd +Forest. Philip Feltram laughed when he heard these stories--especially +when he heard the story that a supernatural personage had lent the +Baronet a purse full of money. + +"You should not talk to Doctor Torvey so, sir," said he grimly; "he's +the greatest tattler in the town. It was old Farmer Trebeck, who could +buy and sell us all down here, who lent that money. Partly from +good-will, but not without acknowledgment. He has my hand for the first, +not worth much, and yours to a bond for the two thousand guineas you +brought home with you. It seems strange you should not remember that +venerable and kind old farmer whom you talked with so long that day. His +grandson, who expects to stand well in his will, being a trainer in Lord +Varney's stables, has sometimes a tip to give, and he is the source of +your information." + +"By Jove, I must be a bit mad, then, that's all," said Sir Bale, with a +smile and a shrug. + +Philip Feltram moped about the house, and did precisely what he pleased. +The change which had taken place in him became more and more pronounced. +Dark and stern he always looked, and often malignant. He was like a man +possessed of one evil thought which never left him. + +There was, besides, the good old Gothic superstition of a bargain or +sale of the Baronet's soul to the arch-fiend. This was, of course, very +cautiously whispered in a place where he had influence. It was only a +coarser and directer version of a suspicion, that in a more credulous +generation penetrated a level of society quite exempt from such follies +in our day. + +One evening at dusk, Sir Bale, sitting after his dinner in his window, +saw the tall figure of Feltram, like a dark streak, standing movelessly +by the lake. An unpleasant feeling moved him, and then an impatience. He +got up, and having primed himself with two glasses of brandy, walked +down to the edge of the lake, and placed himself beside Feltram. + +"Looking down from the window," said he, nerved with his Dutch courage, +"and seeing you standing like a post, do you know what I began to think +of?" + +Feltram looked at him, but answered nothing. + +"I began to think of taking a wife--_marrying_." + +Feltram nodded. The announcement had not produced the least effect. + +"Why the devil will you make me so uncomfortable! Can't you be like +yourself--what you _were_, I mean? I won't go on living here alone with +you. I'll take a wife, I tell you. I'll choose a good church-going +woman, that will have every man, woman, and child in the house on their +marrow-bones twice a day, morning and evening, and three times on +Sundays. How will you like that?" + +"Yes, you will be married," said Feltram, with a quiet decision which +chilled Sir Bale, for he had by no means made up his mind to that +desperate step. + +Feltram slowly walked away, and that conversation ended. + +Now an odd thing happened about this time. There was a family of +Feltram--county genealogists could show how related to the vanished +family of Cloostedd--living at that time on their estate not far from +Carlisle. Three co-heiresses now represented it. They were great +beauties--the belles of their county in their day. + +One was married to Sir Oliver Haworth of Haworth, a great family in +those times. He was a knight of the shire, and had refused a baronetage, +and, it was said, had his eye on a peerage. The other sister was married +to Sir William Walsingham, a wealthy baronet; and the third and +youngest, Miss Janet, was still unmarried, and at home at Cloudesly +Hall, where her aunt, Lady Harbottle, lived with her, and made a +dignified chaperon. + +Now it so fell out that Sir Bale, having business at Carlisle, and +knowing old Lady Harbottle, paid his respects at Cloudesly Hall; and +being no less than five-and-forty years of age, was for the first time +in his life, seriously in love. + +Miss Janet was extremely pretty--a fair beauty with brilliant red lips +and large blue eyes, and ever so many pretty dimples when she talked and +smiled. It was odd, but not perhaps against the course of nature, that a +man, though so old as he, and quite _blasé_, should fall at last under +that fascination. + +But what are we to say of the strange infatuation of the young lady? No +one could tell why she liked him. It was a craze. Her family were +against it, her intimates, her old nurse--all would not do; and the +oddest thing was, that he seemed to take no pains to please her. The end +of this strange courtship was that he married her; and she came home to +Mardykes Hall, determined to please everybody, and to be the happiest +woman in England. + +With her came a female cousin, a good deal her senior, past +thirty--Gertrude Mainyard, pale and sad, but very gentle, and with all +the prettiness that can belong to her years. + +This young lady has a romance. Her hero is far away in India; and she, +content to await his uncertain return with means to accomplish the hope +of their lives, in that frail chance has long embarked all the purpose +and love of her life. + +When Lady Mardykes came home, a new leaf was, as the phrase is, turned +over. The neighbours and all the country people were willing to give the +Hall a new trial. There was visiting and returning of visits; and young +Lady Mardykes was liked and admired. It could not indeed have been +otherwise. But here the improvement in the relations of Mardykes Hall +with other homes ceased. On one excuse or another Sir Bale postponed or +evaded the hospitalities which establish intimacies. Some people said he +was jealous of his young and beautiful wife. But for the most part his +reserve was set down to the old inhospitable cause, some ungenial defect +in his character; and in a little time the tramp of horses and roll of +carriage-wheels were seldom heard up or down the broad avenue of +Mardykes Hall. + +Sir Bale liked this seclusion; and his wife, "so infatuated with her +idolatry of that graceless old man," as surrounding young ladies said, +that she was well content to forego the society of the county people for +a less interrupted enjoyment of that of her husband. "What she could see +in him" to interest or amuse her so, that for his sake she was willing +to be "buried alive in that lonely place," the same critics were +perpetually wondering. + +A year and more passed thus; for the young wife, happily--_very_ happily +indeed, had it not been for one topic on which she and her husband could +not agree. This was Philip Feltram; and an odd quarrel it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Sir Bale is Frightened + +To Feltram she had conceived, at first sight, a horror. It was not a +mere antipathy; fear mingled largely in it. Although she did not see him +often, this restless dread grew upon her so, that she urged his +dismissal upon Sir Bale, offering to provide, herself, for him a +handsome annuity, charged on that part of her property which, by her +marriage settlement, had remained in her power. There was a time when +Sir Bale was only too anxious to get rid of him. But that was changed +now. Nothing could now induce the Baronet to part with him. He at first +evaded and resisted quietly. But, urged with a perseverance to which he +was unused, he at last broke into fury that appalled her, and swore that +if he was worried more upon the subject, he would leave her and the +country, and see neither again. This exhibition of violence affrighted +her all the more by reason of the contrast; for up to this he had been +an uxorious husband. Lady Mardykes was in hysterics, and thoroughly +frightened, and remained in her room for two or three days. Sir Bale +went up to London about business, and was not home for more than a week. +This was the first little squall that disturbed the serenity of their +sky. + +This point, therefore, was settled; but soon there came other things to +sadden Lady Mardykes. There occurred a little incident, soon after Sir +Bale's return from London, which recalled the topic on which they had so +nearly quarrelled. + +Sir Bale had a dressing-room, remote from the bedrooms, in which he sat +and read and sometimes smoked. One night, after the house was all quiet, +the Baronet being still up, the bell of this dressing-room rang long and +furiously. It was such a peal as a person in extreme terror might ring. +Lady Mardykes, with her maid in her room, heard it; and in great alarm +she ran in her dressing-gown down the gallery to Sir Bale's room. +Mallard the butler had already arrived, and was striving to force the +door, which was secured. It gave way just as she reached it, and she +rushed through. + +Sir Bale was standing with the bell-rope in his hand, in the extremest +agitation, looking like a ghost; and Philip Feltram was sitting in his +chair, with a dark smile fixed upon him. For a minute she thought he had +attempted to assassinate his master. She could not otherwise account for +the scene. + +There had been nothing of the kind, however; as her husband assured her +again and again, as she lay sobbing on his breast, with her arms about +his neck. + +"To her dying hour," she afterwards said to her cousin, "she never could +forget the dreadful look in Feltram's face." + +No explanation of that scene did she ever obtain from Sir Bale, nor any +clue to the cause of the agony that was so powerfully expressed in his +countenance. Thus much only she learned from him, that Feltram had +sought that interview for the purpose of announcing his departure, which +was to take place within the year. + +"You are not sorry to hear that. But if you knew all, you might. Let the +curse fly where it may, it will come back to roost. So, darling, let us +discuss him no more. Your wish is granted, _dis iratis_." + +Some crisis, during this interview, seemed to have occurred in the +relations between Sir Bale and Feltram. Henceforward they seldom +exchanged a word; and when they did speak, it was coldly and shortly, +like men who were nearly strangers. + +One day in the courtyard, Sir Bale seeing Feltram leaning upon the +parapet that overlooks the lake, approached him, and said in a low tone, + +"I've been thinking if we--that is, I--do owe that money to old Trebeck, +it is high time I should pay it. I was ill, and had lost my head at the +time; but it turned out luckily, and it ought to be paid. I don't like +the idea of a bond turning up, and a lot of interest." + +"The old fellow meant it for a present. He is richer than you are; he +wished to give the family a lift. He has destroyed the bond, I believe, +and in no case will he take payment." + +"No fellow has a right to force his money on another," answered Sir +Bale. "I never asked him. Besides, as you know, I was not really myself, +and the whole thing seems to me quite different from what you say it +was; and, so far as my brain is concerned, it was all a phantasmagoria; +but, you say, it was he." + +"Every man is accountable for what he intends and for what he _thinks_ +he does," said Feltram cynically. + +"Well, I'm accountable for dealing with that wicked old dicer I +_thought_ I saw--isn't that it? But I must pay old Trebeck all the same, +since the money was his. Can you manage a meeting?" + +"Look down here. Old Trebeck has just landed; he will sleep to-night at +the George and Dragon, to meet his cattle in the morning at Golden +Friars fair. You can speak to him yourself." + +So saying Feltram glided away, leaving Sir Bale the task of opening the +matter to the wealthy farmer of Cloostedd Fells. + +A broad night of steps leads down from the courtyard to the level of the +jetty at the lake: and Sir Bale descended, and accosted the venerable +farmer, who was bluff, honest, and as frank as a man can be who speaks a +_patois_ which hardly a living man but himself can understand. + +Sir Bale asked him to come to the Hall and take luncheon; but Trebeck +was in haste. Cattle had arrived which he wanted to look at, and a pony +awaited him on the road, hard by, to Golden Friars; and the old fellow +must mount and away. + +Then Sir Bale, laying his hand upon his arm in a manner that was at once +lofty and affectionate, told in his ears the subject on which he wished +to be understood. + +The old farmer looked hard at him, and shook his head and laughed in a +way that would have been insupportable in a house, and told him, "I hev +narra bond o' thoine, mon." + +"I know how that is; so does Philip Feltram." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I must replace the money." + +The old man laughed again, and in his outlandish dialect told him to +wait till he asked him. Sir Bale pressed it, but the old fellow put it +off with outlandish banter; and as the Baronet grew testy, the farmer +only waxed more and more hilarious, and at last, mounting his shaggy +pony, rode off, still laughing, at a canter to Golden Friars; and when +he reached Golden Friars, and got into the hall of the George and +Dragon, he asked Richard Turnbull with a chuckle if he ever knew a man +refuse an offer of money, or a man want to pay who did not owe; and +inquired whether the Squire down at Mardykes Hall mightn't be a bit +"wrang in t' garrets." All this, however, other people said, was +intended merely to conceal the fact that he really had, through sheer +loyalty, lent the money, or rather bestowed it, thinking the old family +in jeopardy, and meaning a gift, was determined to hear no more about +it. I can't say; I only know people held, some by one interpretation, +some by another. + +As the caterpillar sickens and changes its hue when it is about to +undergo its transformation, so an odd change took place in Feltram. He +grew even more silent and morose; he seemed always in an agitation and a +secret rage. He used to walk through the woodlands on the slopes of the +fells above Mardykes, muttering to himself, picking up the rotten sticks +with which the ground was strewn, breaking them in his hands, and +hurling them from him, and stamping on the earth as he paced up and +down. + +One night a thunder-storm came on, the wind blowing gently up from +Golden Friars. It was a night black as pitch, illuminated only by the +intermittent glare of the lightning. At the foot of the stairs Sir Bale +met Feltram, whom he had not seen for some days. He had his cloak and +hat on. + +"I am going to Cloostedd to-night," he said, "and if all is as I expect, +I sha'n't return. We remember all, you and I." And he nodded and walked +down the passage. + +Sir Bale knew that a crisis had happened in his own life. He felt faint +and ill, and returned to the room where he had been sitting. Throughout +that melancholy night he did not go to his bed. + +In the morning he learned that Marlin, who had been out late, saw +Feltram get the boat off, and sail towards the other side. The night was +so dark that he could only see him start; but the wind was light and +coming up the lake, so that without a tack he could easily make the +other side. Feltram did not return. The boat was found fast to the ring +at Cloostedd landing-place. + +Lady Mardykes was relieved, and for a time was happier than ever. It was +different with Sir Bale; and afterwards her sky grew dark also. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +A Lady in Black + +Shortly after this, there arrived at the George and Dragon a stranger. +He was a man somewhat past forty, embrowned by distant travel, and, his +years considered, wonderfully good-looking. He had good eyes; his +dark-brown hair had no sprinkling of gray in it; and his kindly smile +showed very white and even teeth. He made inquiries about neighbours, +especially respecting Mardykes Hall; and the answers seemed to interest +him profoundly. He inquired after Philip Feltram, and shed tears when he +heard that he was no longer at Mardykes Hall, and that Trebeck or other +friends could give him no tidings of him. + +And then he asked Richard Turnbull to show him to a quiet room; and so, +taking the honest fellow by the hand, he said, + +"Mr. Turnbull, don't you know me?" + +"No, sir," said the host of the George and Dragon, after a puzzled +stare, "I can't say I do, sir." + +The stranger smiled a little sadly, and shook his head: and with a +gentle laugh, still holding his hand in a very friendly way, he said, "I +should have known you anywhere, Mr. Turnbull--anywhere on earth or +water. Had you turned up on the Himalayas, or in a junk on the Canton +river, or as a dervish in the mosque of St. Sophia, I should have +recognised my old friend, and asked what news from Golden Friars. But of +course I'm changed. You were a little my senior; and one advantage among +many you have over your juniors is that you don't change as we do. I +have played many a game of hand-ball in the inn-yard of the George, Mr. +Turnbull. You often wagered a pot of ale on my play; you used to say I'd +make the best player of fives, and the best singer of a song, within ten +miles round the meer. You used to have me behind the bar when I was a +boy, with more of an appetite than I have now. I was then at Mardykes +Hall, and used to go back in old Marlin's boat. Is old Marlin still +alive?" + +"Ay, that--he--is," said Turnbull slowly, as he eyed the stranger again +carefully. "I don't know who you can be, sir, unless you are--the +boy--William Feltram. La! he was seven or eight years younger than +Philip. But, lawk!--Well--By Jen, and _be_ you Willie Feltram? But no, +you can't!" + +"Ay, Mr. Turnbull, that very boy--Willie Feltram--even he, and no other; +and now you'll shake hands with me, not so formally, but like an old +friend." + +"Ay, that I will," said honest Richard Turnbull, with a great smile, and +a hearty grasp of his guest's hand; and they both laughed together, and +the younger man's eyes, for he was an affectionate fool, filled up with +tears. + +"And I want you to tell me this," said William, after they had talked a +little quietly, "now that there is no one to interrupt us, what has +become of my brother Philip? I heard from a friend an account of his +health that has caused me unspeakable anxiety." + +"His health was not bad; no, he was a hardy lad, and liked a walk over +the fells, or a pull on the lake; but he was a bit daft, every one said, +and a changed man; and, in troth, they say the air o' Mardykes don't +agree with every one, no more than him. But that's a tale that's neither +here nor there." + +"Yes," said William, "that was what they told me--his mind affected. God +help and guard us! I have been unhappy ever since; and if I only knew it +was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is +Philip now?" + +"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They +thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the +Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall--though those two families +was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him, +nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell." + +"_I_ heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But _I_ hoped it +had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor +fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know--I don't know what I +_would_ not give to know--I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old +friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes +Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in." + +At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the +stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the +balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose +leaves were half shed and gone with the winds--emblem of her hopes. The +solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake, +deepened her sadness. + +The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie. + +Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized +the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out. + +She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a +sob, she threw herself into his arms. + +Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had +reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from +shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness. + +William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and +only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought +it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health +unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and +energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with +fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something +to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them +happier than hundreds of thousand could other people. + +It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of +importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him. + +The refined tastes that are supposed to accompany gentle blood, his love +of art, his talent for music and drawing, had accidentally attracted the +attention of the little travelling-party which old Lady Harbottle +chaperoned. Miss Janet, now Lady Mardykes, learning that his name was +Feltram, made inquiry through a common friend, and learned what +interested her still more about him. It ended in an acquaintance, which +his manly and gentle nature and his entertaining qualities soon improved +into an intimacy. + +Feltram had chosen to work his own way, being proud, and also prosperous +enough to prevent his pride, in this respect, from being placed under +too severe a pressure of temptation. He heard not from but of his +brother, through a friend in London, and more lately from Gertrude, +whose account of him was sad and even alarming. + +When Lady Mardykes came in, her delight knew no bounds. She had already +formed a plan for their future, and was not to be put off--William +Feltram was to take the great grazing farm that belonged to the Mardykes +estate; or, if he preferred it, to farm it for her, sharing the profits. +She wanted something to interest her, and this was just the thing. It +was hardly half-a-mile away, up the lake, and there was such a +comfortable house and garden, and she and Gertrude could be as much +together as ever almost; and, in fact, Gertrude and her husband could be +nearly always at Mardykes Hall. + +So eager and entreating was she, that there was no escape. The plan was +adopted immediately on their marriage, and no happier neighbours for a +time were ever known. + +But was Lady Mardykes content? was she even exempt from the heartache +which each mortal thinks he has all to himself? The longing of her life +was for children; and again and again had her hopes been disappointed. + +One tiny pretty little baby indeed was born, and lived for two years, +and then died; and none had come to supply its place and break the +childless silence in the great old nursery. That was her sorrow; a +greater one than men can understand. + +Another source of grief was this: that Sir Bale Mardykes conceived a +dislike to William Feltram that was unaccountable. At first suppressed, +it betrayed itself negatively only; but with time it increased; and in +the end the Baronet made little secret of his wish to get rid of him. +Many and ingenious were the annoyances he contrived; and at last he told +his wife plainly that he wished William Feltram to find some other abode +for himself. + +Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude +were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her +own life would become. + +Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There +was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He +had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given +him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and +strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram +had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they +might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate +should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of +her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread. + +All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by +Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition +which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed +himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he +was. + +In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking +of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else. + +One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his +farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and +then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the +lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say: + +"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!" + +The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the +interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and +yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and +partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but +swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither +start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that +which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he owned +no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more. + +He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a +solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did +not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I +suppose, she would. + +They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the +more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles +away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude, +who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant +cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in +favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine +ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather +damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus: + +She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although +she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still +thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed +to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in +the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair +near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a +sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight +sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she +saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room. + +Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so +large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten +it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood +at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She +extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, +and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the +foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and +with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and +looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips +and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary, +and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute. + +How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing +like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand. +Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation +of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black +held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice. + +"Who are you?" asked Gertrude. + +"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell +you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet. +If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear me." + +Her voice was very distinct, but also very faint, with something +undulatory in it, that seemed to enter Gertrude's head rather than her +ear. + +Saying this she smiled horribly, and, lifting her handkerchief, +disclosed for a moment a great wound in her breast, deep in which +Gertrude saw darkly the head of a snake writhing. + +Hereupon she uttered a wild scream of terror, and, diving under the +bed-clothes, remained more dead than alive there, until her maid, +alarmed by her cry, came in, and having searched the room, and shut the +window at her desire, did all in her power to comfort her. + +If this was a nightmare and embodied only by a form of expression which +in some states belongs to the imagination, a leading idea in the +controversy in which her mind had long been employed, it had at least +the effect of deciding her against leaving Faxwell. And so that point +was settled; and unpleasant relations continued between the tenants of +the farm and the master of Mardykes Hall. + +To Lady Mardykes all this was very painful, although Sir Bale did not +insist upon making a separation between his wife and her cousin. But to +Mardykes Hall that cousin came no more. Even Lady Mardykes thought it +better to see her at Faxwell than to risk a meeting in the temper in +which Sir Bale then was. And thus several years passed. + +No tidings of Philip Feltram were heard; and, in fact, none ever reached +that part of the world; and if it had not been highly improbable that he +could have drowned himself in the lake without his body sooner or later +having risen to the surface, it would have been concluded that he had +either accidentally or by design made away with himself in its waters. + +Over Mardykes Hall there was a gloom--no sound of children's voices was +heard there, and even the hope of that merry advent had died out. + +This disappointment had no doubt helped to fix in Sir Bale's mind the +idea of the insecurity of his property, and the morbid fancy that +William Feltram and old Trebeck were conspiring to seize it; than which, +I need hardly say, no imagination more insane could have fixed itself in +his mind. + +In other things, however, Sir Bale was shrewd and sharp, a clear and +rapid man of business, and although this was a strange whim, it was not +so unnatural in a man who was by nature so prone to suspicion as Sir +Bale Mardykes. + +During the years, now seven, that had elapsed since the marriage of Sir +Bale and Miss Janet Feltram, there had happened but one event, except +the death of their only child, to place them in mourning. That was the +decease of Sir William Walsingham, the husband of Lady Mardykes' sister. +She now lived in a handsome old dower-house at Islington, and being +wealthy, made now and then an excursion to Mardykes Hall, in which she +was sometimes accompanied by her sister Lady Haworth. Sir Oliver being a +Parliament-man was much in London and deep in politics and intrigue, and +subject, as convivial rogues are, to occasional hard hits from gout. + +But change and separation had made no alteration in these ladies' mutual +affections, and no three sisters were ever more attached. + +Was Lady Mardykes happy with her lord? A woman so gentle and loving as +she, is a happy wife with any husband who is not an absolute brute. +There must have been, I suppose, some good about Sir Bale. His wife was +certainly deeply attached to him. She admired his wisdom, and feared his +inflexible will, and altogether made of him a domestic idol. To acquire +this enviable position, I suspect there must be something not +essentially disagreeable about a man. At all events, what her neighbours +good-naturedly termed her infatuation continued, and indeed rather +improved by time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +An Old Portrait + +Sir Bale--whom some remembered a gay and convivial man, not to say a +profligate one--had grown to be a very gloomy man indeed. There was +something weighing upon his mind; and I daresay some of the good gossips +of Golden Friars, had there been any materials for such a case, would +have believed that Sir Bale had murdered Philip Feltram, and was now the +victim of the worm and fire of remorse. + +The gloom of the master of the house made his very servants gloomy, and +the house itself looked sombre, as if it had been startled with strange +and dismal sights. + +Lady Mardykes was something of an artist. She had lighted lately, in an +out-of-the-way room, upon a dozen or more old portraits. Several of +these were full-lengths; and she was--with the help of her maid, both in +long aprons, amid sponges and basins, soft handkerchiefs and +varnish-pots and brushes--busy in removing the dust and smoke-stains, +and in laying-on the varnish, which brought out the colouring, and made +the transparent shadows yield up their long-buried treasures of finished +detail. + +Against the wall stood a full-length portrait as Sir Bale entered the +room; having for a wonder, a word to say to his wife. + +"O," said the pretty lady, turning to him in her apron, and with her +brush in her hand, "we are in such in pickle, Munnings and I have been +cleaning these old pictures. Mrs. Julaper says they are the pictures +that came from Cloostedd Hall long ago. They were buried in dust in the +dark room in the clock-tower. Here is such a characteristic one. It has +a long powdered wig--George the First or Second, I don't know which--and +such a combination of colours, and such a face. It seems starting out of +the canvas, and all but speaks. Do look; that is, I mean, Bale, if you +can spare time." + +Sir Bale abstractedly drew near, and looked over his wife's shoulder on +the full-length portrait that stood before him; and as he did so a +strange expression for a moment passed over his face. + +The picture represented a man of swarthy countenance, with signs of the +bottle glowing through the dark skin; small fierce pig eyes, a rather +flat pendulous nose, and a grim forbidding mouth, with a large wart a +little above it. On the head hung one of those full-bottomed powdered +wigs that look like a cloud of cotton-wadding; a lace cravat was about +his neck; he wore short black-velvet breeches with stockings rolled over +them, a bottle-green coat of cut velvet and a crimson waistcoat with +long flaps; coat and waistcoat both heavily laced with gold. He wore a +sword, and leaned upon a crutch-handled cane, and his figure and aspect +indicated a swollen and gouty state. He could not be far from sixty. +There was uncommon force in this fierce and forbidding-looking portrait. +Lady Mardykes said, "What wonderful dresses they wore! How like a fine +magic-lantern figure he looks! What gorgeous colouring! it looks like +the plumage of a mackaw; and what a claw his hand is! and that huge +broken beak of a nose! Isn't he like a wicked old mackaw?" + +"Where did you find that?" asked Sir Bale. + +Surprised at his tone, she looked round, and was still more surprised at +his looks. + +"I told you, dear Bale, I found them in the clock-tower. I hope I did +right; it was not wrong bringing them here? I ought to have asked. Are +you vexed, Bale?" + +"Vexed! not I. I only wish it was in the fire. I must have seen that +picture when I was a child. I hate to look at it. I raved about it once, +when I was ill. I don't know who it is; I don't remember when I saw it. +I wish you'd tell them to burn it." + +"It is one of the Feltrams," she answered. "'Sir Hugh Feltram' is on the +frame at the foot; and old Mrs. Julaper says he was the father of the +unhappy lady who was said to have been drowned near Snakes Island." + +"Well, suppose he is; there's nothing interesting in that. It is a +disgusting picture. I connect it with my illness; and I think it is the +kind of thing that would make any one half mad, if they only looked at +it often enough. Tell them to burn it; and come away, come to the next +room; I can't say what I want here." + +Sir Bale seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer he remained in +the room. He seemed to her both frightened and furious; and taking her a +little roughly by the wrist, he led her through the door. + +When they were in another apartment alone, he again asked the affrighted +lady who had told her that picture was there, and who told her to clean +it. + +She had only the truth to plead. It was, from beginning to end, the +merest accident. + +"If I thought, Janet, that you were taking counsel of others, talking me +over, and trying clever experiments--" he stopped short with his eyes +fixed on hers with black suspicion. + +His wife's answer was one pleading look, and to burst into tears. + +Sir Bale let-go her wrist, which he had held up to this; and placing his +hand gently on her shoulder, he said, + +"You must not cry, Janet; I have given you no excuse for tears. I only +wished an answer to a very harmless question; and I am sure you would +tell me, if by any chance you have lately seen Philip Feltram; he is +capable of arranging all that. No one knows him as I do. There, you must +not cry any more; but tell me truly, has he turned up? is he at +Faxwell?" + +She denied all this with perfect truth; and after a hesitation of some +time, the matter ended. And as soon as she and he were more themselves, +he had something quite different to tell her. + +"Sit down, Janet; sit down, and forget that vile picture and all I have +been saying. What I came to tell you, I think you will like; I am sure +it will please you." + +And with this little preface he placed his arm about her neck, and +kissed her tenderly. She certainly was pleased; and when his little +speech was over, she, smiling, with her tears still wet upon her cheeks, +put her arms round her husband's neck, and in turn kissed him with the +ardour of gratitude, kissed him affectionately; again and again thanking +him all the time. + +It was no great matter, but from Sir Bale Mardykes it was something +quite unusual. + +Was it a sudden whim? What was it? Something had prompted Sir Bale, +early in that dark shrewd month of December, to tell his wife that he +wished to call together some of his county acquaintances, and to fill +his house for a week or so, as near Christmas as she could get them to +come. He wished her sisters--Lady Haworth (with her husband) and the +Dowager Lady Walsingham--to be invited for an early day, before the +coming of the other guests, so that she might enjoy their society for a +little time quietly to herself before the less intimate guests should +assemble. + +Glad was Lady Mardykes to hear the resolve of her husband, and prompt to +obey. She wrote to her sisters to beg them to arrange to come, together, +by the tenth or twelfth of the month, which they accordingly arranged to +do. Sir Oliver, it was true, could not be of the party. A minister of +state was drinking the waters at Bath; and Sir Oliver thought it would +do him no harm to sip a little also, and his fashionable doctor politely +agreed, and "ordered" to those therapeutic springs the knight of the +shire, who was "consumedly vexed" to lose the Christmas with that jolly +dog, Bale, down at Mardykes Hall. But a fellow must have a stomach for +his Christmas pudding, and politics takes it out of a poor gentleman +deucedly; and health's the first thing, egad! + +So Sir Oliver went down to Bath, and I don't know that he tippled much +of the waters, but he did drink the burgundy of that haunt of the +ailing; and he had the honour of making a fourth not unfrequently in the +secretary of state's whist-parties. + +It was about the 8th of December when, in Lady Walsingham's carriage, +intending to post all the way, that lady, still young, and Lady Haworth, +with all the servants that were usual in such expeditions in those days, +started from the great Dower House at Islington in high spirits. + +Lady Haworth had not been very well--low and nervous; but the clear +frosty sun, and the pleasant nature of the excursion, raised her spirits +to the point of enjoyment; and expecting nothing but happiness and +gaiety--for, after all, Sir Bale was but one of a large party, and even +he could make an effort and be agreeable as well as hospitable on +occasion--they set out on their northward expedition. The journey, which +is a long one, they had resolved to break into a four days' progress; +and the inns had been written to, bespeaking a comfortable reception. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Through the Wall + +On the third night they put-up at the comfortable old inn called the +Three Nuns. With an effort they might easily have pushed on to Mardykes +Hall that night, for the distance is not more than five-and-thirty +miles. But, considering her sister's health, Lady Walsingham in planning +their route had resolved against anything like a forced march. + +Here the ladies took possession of the best sitting-room; and, +notwithstanding the fatigue of the journey, Lady Haworth sat up with her +sister till near ten o'clock, chatting gaily about a thousand things. + +Of the three sisters, Lady Walsingham was the eldest. She had been in +the habit of taking the command at home; and now, for advice and +decision, her younger sisters, less prompt and courageous than she, were +wont, whenever in her neighbourhood, to throw upon her all the cares and +agitations of determining what was best to be done in small things and +great. It is only fair to say, in addition, that this submission was not +by any means exacted; it was the deference of early habit and feebler +will, for she was neither officious nor imperious. + +It was now time that Lady Haworth, a good deal more fatigued than her +sister, should take leave of her for the night. + +Accordingly they kissed and bid each other good-night; and Lady +Walsingham, not yet disposed to sleep, sat for some time longer in the +comfortable room where they had taken tea, amusing the time with the +book that had, when conversation flagged, beguiled the weariness of the +journey. Her sister had been in her room nearly an hour, when she became +herself a little sleepy. She had lighted her candle, and was going to +ring for her maid, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and her +sister Lady Haworth entered in a dressing-gown, looking frightened. + +"My darling Mary!" exclaimed Lady Walsingham, "what is the matter? Are +you well?" + +"Yes, darling," she answered, "quite well; that is, I don't know what is +the matter--I'm frightened." She paused, listening, with her eyes turned +towards the wall. "O, darling Maud, I am so frightened! I don't know +what it can be." + +"You must not be agitated, darling; there's nothing. You have been +asleep, and I suppose you have had a dream. Were you asleep?" + +Lady Haworth had caught her sister fast by the arm with both hands, and +was looking wildly in her face. + +"Have _you_ heard nothing?" she asked, again looking towards the wall of +the room, as if she expected to hear a voice through it. + +"Nonsense, darling; you are dreaming still. Nothing; there has been +nothing to hear. I have been awake ever since; if there had been +anything to hear, I could not have missed it. Come, sit down. Sip a +little of this water; you are nervous, and over-tired; and tell me +plainly, like a good little soul, what is the matter; for nothing has +happened here; and you ought to know that the Three Nuns is the quietest +house in England; and I'm no witch, and if you won't tell me what's the +matter, I can't divine it." + +"Yes, of course," said Mary, sitting down, and glancing round her +wildly. "I don't hear it now; _you_ don't?" + +"Do, my dear Mary, tell me what you mean," said Lady Walsingham kindly +but firmly. + +Lady Haworth was holding the still untasted glass of water in her hand. + +"Yes, I'll tell you; I have been so frightened! You are right; I had a +dream, but I can scarcely remember anything of it, except the very end, +when I wakened. But it was not the dream; only it was connected with +what terrified me so. I was so tired when I went to bed, I thought I +should have slept soundly; and indeed I fell asleep immediately; and I +must have slept quietly for a good while. How long is it since I left +you?" + +"More than an hour." + +"Yes, I must have slept a good while; for I don't think I have been ten +minutes awake. How my dream began I don't know. I remember only that +gradually it came to this: I was standing in a recess in a panelled +gallery; it was lofty, and, I thought, belonged to a handsome but +old-fashioned house. I was looking straight towards the head of a wide +staircase, with a great oak banister. At the top of the stairs, as near +to me, about, as that window there, was a thick short column of oak, on +top of which was a candlestick. There was no other light but from that +one candle; and there was a lady standing beside it, looking down the +stairs, with her back turned towards me; and from her gestures I should +have thought speaking to people on a lower lobby, but whom from my place +I could not see. I soon perceived that this lady was in great agony of +mind; for she beat her breast and wrung her hands every now and then, +and wagged her head slightly from side to side, like a person in great +distraction. But one word she said I could not hear. Nor when she struck +her hand on the banister, or stamped, as she seemed to do in her pain, +upon the floor, could I hear any sound. I found myself somehow waiting +upon this lady, and was watching her with awe and sympathy. But who she +was I knew not, until turning towards me I plainly saw Janet's face, +pale and covered with tears, and with such a look of agony as--O God!--I +can never forget." + +"Pshaw! Mary darling, what is it but a dream! I have had a thousand more +startling; it is only that you are so nervous just now." + +"But that is not all--nothing; what followed is so dreadful; for either +there is something very horrible going on at Mardykes, or else I am +losing my reason," said Lady Haworth in increasing agitation. "I wakened +instantly in great alarm, but I suppose no more than I have felt a +hundred times on awakening from a frightful dream. I sat up in my bed; I +was thinking of ringing for Winnefred, my heart was beating so, but +feeling better soon I changed my mind. All this time I heard a faint +sound of a voice, as if coming through a thick wall. It came from the +wall at the left side of my bed, and I fancied was that of some woman +lamenting in a room separated from me by that thick partition. I could +only perceive that it was a sound of crying mingled with ejaculations of +misery, or fear, or entreaty. I listened with a painful curiosity, +wondering who it could be, and what could have happened in the +neighbouring rooms of the house; and as I looked and listened, I could +distinguish my own name, but at first nothing more. That, of course, +might have been an accident; and I knew there were many Marys in the +world besides myself. But it made me more curious; and a strange thing +struck me, for I was now looking at that very wall through which the +sounds were coming. I saw that there was a window in it. Thinking that +the rest of the wall might nevertheless be covered by another room, I +drew the curtain of it and looked out. But there is no such thing. It is +the outer wall the entire way along. And it is equally impossible of the +other wall, for it is to the front of the house, and has two windows in +it; and the wall that the head of my bed stands against has the gallery +outside it all the way; for I remarked that as I came to you." + +"Tut, tut, Mary darling, nothing on earth is so deceptive as sound; this +and fancy account for everything." + +"But hear me out; I have not told you all. I began to hear the voice +more clearly, and at last quite distinctly. It was Janet's, and she was +conjuring you by name, as well as me, to come to her to Mardykes, +without delay, in her extremity; yes, _you_, just as vehemently as me. +It was Janet's voice. It still seemed separated by the wall, but I heard +every syllable now; and I never heard voice or words of such anguish. +She was imploring of us to come on, without a moment's delay, to +Mardykes; and crying that, if we were not with her, she should go mad." + +"Well, darling," said Lady Walsingham, "you see I'm included in this +invitation as well as you, and should hate to disappoint Janet just as +much; and I do assure you, in the morning you will laugh over this fancy +with me; or rather, she will laugh over it with us, when we get to +Mardykes. What you do want is rest, and a little sal-volatile." + +So saying she rang the bell for Lady Haworth's maid. Having comforted +her sister, and made her take the nervous specific she recommended, she +went with her to her room; and taking possession of the arm-chair by the +fire, she told her that she would keep her company until she was asleep, +and remain long enough to be sure that the sleep was not likely to be +interrupted. Lady Haworth had not been ten minutes in her bed, when she +raised herself with a start to her elbow, listening with parted lips and +wild eyes, her trembling fingers behind her ears. With an exclamation of +horror, she cried, + +"There it is again, upbraiding us! I can't stay longer." + +She sprang from the bed, and rang the bell violently. + +"Maud," she cried in an ecstasy of horror, "nothing shall keep me here, +whether you go or not. I will set out the moment the horses are put to. +If you refuse to come, Maud, mind the responsibility is yours--listen!" +and with white face and starting eyes she pointed to the wall. "Have you +ears; don't you hear?" + +The sight of a person in extremity of terror so mysterious, might have +unnerved a ruder system than Lady Walsingham's. She was pale as she +replied; for under certain circumstances those terrors which deal with +the supernatural are more contagious than any others. Lady Walsingham +still, in terms, held to her opinion; but although she tried to smile, +her face showed that the panic had touched her. + +"Well, dear Mary," she said, "as you will have it so, I see no good in +resisting you longer. Here, it is plain, your nerves will not suffer you +to rest. Let us go then, in heaven's name; and when you get to Mardykes +Hall you will be relieved." + +All this time Lady Haworth was getting on her things, with the careless +hurry of a person about to fly for her life; and Lady Walsingham issued +her orders for horses, and the general preparations for resuming the +journey. + +It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with +them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that +with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach +Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning. + +When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively +tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's +voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or +visitation had produced. + +Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something +like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the +darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady +Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the +distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by +no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her +sister's heart had touched her own. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Perplexed + +The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses +turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling +undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or +three stages. + +While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear, +and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more +anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way; +for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's +head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting +again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to +her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense. + +Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars +looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both +ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and +Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household. + +What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was +opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to +the carriage-window, not half awake. + +"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham. + +"Is Sir Bale well?" + +"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?" + +With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to +these questions which her sister hastily put. The answers were all +satisfactory. With a great sigh and a little laugh, Lady Walsingham +placed her hand affectionately on that of her sister; who, saying, "God +be thanked!" began to weep. + +"When had you last news from Mardykes?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +"A servant was down here about four o'clock." + +"O! no one since?" said she in a disappointed tone. + +No one had been from the great house since, but all were well then. + +"They are early people, you know, dear; and it is dark at four, and that +is as late as they could well have heard, and nothing could have +happened since--very unlikely. We have come very fast; it is only a few +minutes past two, darling." + +But each felt the chill and load of their returning anxiety. + +While the people at the George were rapidly getting a team of horses to, +Lady Walsingham contrived a moment for an order from the other window to +her servant, who knew Golden Friars perfectly, to knock-up the people at +Doctor Torvey's, and to inquire whether all were well at Mardykes Hall. + +There he learned that a messenger had come for Doctor Torvey at ten +o'clock, and that the Doctor had not returned since. There was no news, +however, of any one's being ill; and the Doctor himself did not know +what he was wanted about. While Lady Haworth was talking to her maid +from the window next the steps, Lady Walsingham was, unobserved, +receiving this information at the other. + +It made her very uncomfortable. + +In a few minutes more, however, with a team of fresh horses, they were +again rapidly passing the distance between them and Mardykes Hall. + +About two miles on, their drivers pulled-up, and they heard a voice +talking with them from the roadside. A servant from the Hall had been +sent with a note for Lady Walsingham, and had been ordered, if +necessary, to ride the whole way to the Three Nuns to deliver it. The +note was already in Lady Walsingham's hand; her sister sat beside her, +and with the corner of the open note in her fingers, she read it +breathlessly at the same time by the light of a carriage-lamp which the +man held to the window. It said: + + +My dearest love--my darling sister--dear sisters both!--in God's name, +lose not a moment. I am so overpowered and _terrified_. I cannot +explain; I can only implore of you to come with all the haste you can +make. Waste no time, darlings. I hardly understand what I write. Only +this, dear sisters; I feel that my reason will desert me, unless you +come soon. You will not fail me now. Your poor distracted + +JANET + +The sisters exchanged a pale glance, and Lady Haworth grasped her +sister's hand. + +"Where is the messenger?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +A mounted servant came to the window. + +"Is any one ill at home?" she asked. + +"No, all were well--my lady, and Sir Bale--no one sick." + +"But the Doctor was sent for; what was that for?" + +"I can't say, my lady." + +"You are quite certain that no one--think--_no_ one is ill?" + +"There is no one ill at the Hall, my lady, that I have heard of." + +"Is Lady Mardykes, my sister, still up?" + +"Yes, my lady; and her maid is with her." + +"And Sir Bale, are you certain he is quite well?" + +"Sir Bale is quite well, my lady; he has been busy settling papers +to-night, and was as well as usual." + +"That will do, thanks," said the perplexed lady; and to her own servant +she added, "On to Mardykes Hall with all the speed they can make. I'll +pay them well, tell them." + +And in another minute they were gliding along the road at a pace which +the muffled beating of the horses' hoofs on the thin sheet of snow that +covered the road showed to have broken out of the conventional trot, and +to resemble something more like a gallop. + +And now they were under the huge trees, that looked black as +hearse-plumes in contrast with the snow. The cold gleam of the lake in +the moon which had begun to shine out now met their gaze; and the +familiar outline of Snakes Island, its solemn timber bleak and leafless, +standing in a group, seemed to watch Mardykes Hall with a dismal +observation across the water. Through the gate and between the huge +files of trees the carriage seemed to fly; and at last the steaming +horses stood panting, nodding and snorting, before the steps in the +courtyard. + +There was a light in an upper window, and a faint light in the hall, the +door of which was opened; and an old servant came down and ushered the +ladies into the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +The Hour + +Lightly they stepped over the snow that lay upon the broad steps, and +entering the door saw the dim figure of their sister, already in the +large and faintly-lighted hall. One candle in the hand of her scared +maid, and one burning on the table, leaving the distant parts of that +great apartment in total darkness, touched the figures with the odd +sharp lights in which Schalken delights; and a streak of chilly +moonlight, through the open door, fell upon the floor, and was stretched +like a white sheet at her feet. Lady Mardykes, with an exclamation of +agitated relief, threw her arms, in turn, round the necks of her +sisters, and hugging them, kissed them again and again, murmuring her +thanks, calling them her "blessed sisters," and praising God for his +mercy in having sent them to her in time, and altogether in a rapture of +agitation and gratitude. + +Taking them each by a hand, she led them into a large room, on whose +panels they could see the faint twinkle of the tall gilded frames, and +the darker indication of the old portraits, in which that interesting +house abounds. The moonbeams, entering obliquely through the Tudor +stone-shafts of the window and thrown upon the floor, reflected an +imperfect light; and the candle which the maid who followed her mistress +held in her hand shone dimly from the sideboard, where she placed it. +Lady Mardykes told her that she need not wait. + +"They don't know; they know only that we are in some great confusion; +but--God have mercy on me!--nothing of the reality. Sit down, darlings; +you are tired." + +She sat down between them on a sofa, holding a hand of each. They sat +opposite the window, through which appeared the magnificent view +commanded from the front of the house: in the foreground the solemn +trees of Snakes Island, one great branch stretching upward, bare and +moveless, from the side, like an arm raised to heaven in wonder or in +menace towards the house; the lake, in part swept by the icy splendour +of the moon, trembling with a dazzling glimmer, and farther off lost in +blackness; the Fells rising from a base of gloom, into ribs and peaks +white with snow, and looking against the pale sky, thin and transparent +as a haze. Right across to the storied woods of Cloostedd, and the old +domains of the Feltrams, this view extended. + +Thus alone, their mufflers still on, their hands clasped in hers, they +breathlessly listened to her strange tale. + +Connectedly told it amounted to this: Sir Bale seemed to have been +relieved of some great anxiety about the time when, ten days before, he +had told her to invite her friends to Mardykes Hall. This morning he had +gone out for a walk with Trevor, his under-steward, to talk over some +plans about thinning the woods at this side; and also to discuss +practically a proposal, lately made by a wealthy merchant, to take a +very long lease, on advantageous terms to Sir Bale as he thought, of the +old park and chase of Cloostedd, with the intention of building there, +and making it once more a handsome residence. + +In the improved state of his spirits, Sir Bale had taken a shrewd +interest in this negotiation; and was actually persuaded to cross the +lake that morning with his adviser, and to walk over the grounds with +him. + +Sir Bale had seemed unusually well, and talked with great animation. He +was more like a young man who had just attained his majority, and for +the first time grasped his estates, than the grim elderly Baronet who +had been moping about Mardykes, and as much afraid as a cat of the +water, for so many years. + +As they were returning toward the boat, at the roots of that same +scathed elm whose barkless bough had seemed, in his former visit to this +old wood, to beckon him from a distance, like a skeleton arm, to enter +the forest, he and his companion on a sudden missed an old map of the +grounds which they had been consulting. + +"We must have left it in the corner tower of Cloostedd House, which +commands that view of the grounds, you remember; it would not do to lose +it. It is the most accurate thing we have. I'll sit down here and rest a +little till you come back." + +The man was absent little more than twenty minutes. When he returned, he +found that Sir Bale had changed his position, and was now walking to and +fro, around and about, in what, at a distance, he fancied was mere +impatience, on the open space a couple of hundred paces nearer to the +turn in the valley towards the boat. It was not impatience. He was +agitated. He looked pale, and he took his companion's arm--a thing he +had never thought of doing before--and said, "Let us away quickly. I've +something to tell at home,--and I forgot it." + +Not another word did Sir Bale exchange with his companion. He sat in the +stern of the boat, gloomy as a man about to glide under traitor's-gate. +He entered his house in the same sombre and agitated state. He entered +his library, and sat for a long time as if stunned. + +At last he seemed to have made-up his mind to something; and applied +himself quietly and diligently to arranging papers, and docketing some +and burning others. Dinner-time arrived. He sent to tell Lady Mardykes +that he should not join her at dinner, but would see her afterwards. + +"It was between eight and nine," she continued, "I forget the exact +time, when he came to the tower drawing-room where I was. I did not hear +his approach. There is a stone stair, with a thick carpet on it. He told +me he wished to speak to me there. It is an out-of-the-way place--a +small old room with very thick walls, and there is a double door, the +inner one of oak--I suppose he wished to guard against being overheard. + +"There was a look in his face that frightened me; I saw he had something +dreadful to tell. He looked like a man on whom a lot had fallen to put +some one to death," said Lady Mardykes. "O, my poor Bale! my husband, my +husband! he knew what it would be to me." + +Here she broke into the wildest weeping, and it was some time before she +resumed. + +"He seemed very kind and very calm," she said at last; "he said but +little; and, I think, these were his words: 'I find, Janet, I have made +a great miscalculation--I thought my hour of danger had passed. We have +been many years together, but a parting must sooner or later be, and my +time has come.' + +"I don't know what I said. I would not have so much minded--for I could +not have believed, if I had not seen him--but there was that in his look +and tone which no one could doubt. + +"'I shall die before to-morrow morning,' he said. 'You must command +yourself, Janet; it can't be altered now.' + +"'O, Bale,' I cried nearly distracted, 'you would not kill yourself!' + +"'Kill myself! poor child! no, indeed,' he said; 'it is simply that I +shall die. No violent death--nothing but the common subsidence of +life--I have made up my mind; what happens to everybody can't be so very +bad; and millions of worse men than I die every year. You must not +follow me to my room, darling; I shall see you by and by.' + +"His language was collected and even cold; but his face looked as if it +was cut in stone; you never saw, in a dream, a face like it." + +Lady Walsingham here said, "I am certain he is ill; he's in a fever. You +must not distract and torture yourself about his predictions. You sent +for Doctor Torvey; what did he say?" + +"I could not tell him all." + +"O, no; I don't mean that; they'd only say he was mad, and we little +better for minding what he says. But did the Doctor see him? and what +did he say of his health?" + +"Yes; he says there is nothing wrong--no fever--nothing whatever. Poor +Bale has been so kind; he saw him to please me," she sobbed again +wildly. "I wrote to implore of him. It was my last hope, strange as it +seems; and O, would to God I could think it! But there is nothing of +that kind. Wait till you have seen him. There is a frightful calmness +about all he says and does; and his directions are all so clear, and his +mind so perfectly collected, it is quite impossible." + +And poor Lady Mardykes again burst into a frantic agony of tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Sir Bale in the Gallery + +"Now, Janet darling, you are yourself low and nervous, and you treat +this fancy of Bale's as seriously as he does himself. The truth is, he +is a hypochondriac, as the doctors say; and you will find that I am +right; he will be quite well in the morning, and I daresay a little +ashamed of himself for having frightened his poor little wife as he has. +I will sit up with you. But our poor Mary is not, you know, very strong; +and she ought to lie down and rest a little. Suppose you give me a cup +of tea in the drawing-room. I will run up to my room and get these +things off, and meet you in the drawing-room; or, if you like it better, +you can sit with me in my own room; and for goodness' sake let us have +candles enough and a bright fire; and I promise you, if you will only +exert your own good sense, you shall be a great deal more cheerful in a +very little time." + +Lady Walsingham's address was kind and cheery, and her air confident. +For a moment a ray of hope returned, and her sister Janet acknowledged +at least the possibility of her theory. But if confidence is contagious, +so also is panic; and Lady Walsingham experienced a sinking of the heart +which she dared not confess to her sister, and vainly strove to combat. + +Lady Walsingham went up with her sister Mary, and having seen her in her +room, and spoken again to her in the same cheery tone in which she had +lectured her sister Lady Mardykes, she went on; and having taken +possession of her own room, and put off her cloaks and shawls, she was +going downstairs again, when she heard Sir Bale's voice, as he +approached along the gallery, issuing orders to a servant, as it seemed, +exactly in his usual tone. + +She turned, with a strange throb at her heart, and met him. + +A little sterner, a little paler than usual he looked; she could +perceive no other change. He took her hand kindly and held it, as with +dilated eyes he looked with a dark inquiry for a moment in her face. He +signed to the servant to go on, and said, "I'm glad you have come, Maud. +You have heard what is to happen; and I don't know how Janet could have +borne it without your support. You did right to come; and you'll stay +with her for a day or two, and take her away from this place as soon as +you can." + +She looked at him with the embarrassment of fear. He was speaking to her +with the calmness of a leave-taking in the pressroom--the serenity that +overlies the greatest awe and agony of which human nature is capable. + +"I am glad to see you, Bale," she began, hardly knowing what she said, +and she stopped short. + +"You are come, it turns out, on a sad mission," he resumed; "you find +all about to change. Poor Janet! it is a blow to her. I shall not live +to see to-morrow's sun." + +"Come," she said, startled, "you must not talk so. No, Bale, you have no +right to speak so; you can have no reason to justify it. It is cruel and +wicked to trifle with your wife's feelings. If you are under a delusion, +you must make an effort and shake it off, or, at least, cease to talk of +it. You are not well; I know by your looks you are ill; but I am very +certain we shall see you much better by tomorrow, and still better the +day following." + +"No, I'm not ill, sister. Feel that pulse, if you doubt me; there is no +fever in it. I never was more perfectly in health; and yet I know that +before the clock, that has just struck three, shall have struck five, I, +who am talking to you, shall be dead." + +Lady Walsingham was frightened, and her fear irritated her. + +"I have told you what I think and believe," she said vehemently. "I +think it wrong and cowardly of you to torture my poor sister with your +whimsical predictions. Look into your own mind, and you will see you +have absolutely no reason to support what you say. How _can_ you inflict +all this agony upon a poor creature foolish enough to love you as she +does, and weak enough to believe in your idle dreams?" + +"Stay, sister; it is not a matter to be debated so. If to-morrow I can +hear you, it will be time enough to upbraid me. Pray return now to your +sister; she needs all you can do for her. She is much to be pitied; her +sufferings afflict me. I shall see you and her again before my death. It +would have been more cruel to leave her unprepared. Do all in your power +to nerve and tranquillise her. What is past cannot now be helped." + +He paused, looking hard at her, as if he had half made up his mind to +say something more. But if there was a question of the kind, it was +determined in favour of silence. + +He dropped her hand, turned quickly, and left her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Dr. Torvey's Opinion + +When Lady Walsingham reached the head of the stairs, she met her maid, +and from her learned that her sister, Lady Mardykes, was downstairs in +the same room. On approaching, she heard her sister Mary's voice talking +with her, and found them together. Mary, finding that she could not +sleep, had put on her clothes again, and come down to keep her sister +company. The room looked more comfortable now. There were candles +lighted, and a good fire burnt in the grate; tea-things stood on a +little table near the fire, and the two sisters were talking, Lady +Mardykes appearing more collected, and only they two in the room. + +"Have you seen him, Maud?" cried Lady Mardykes, rising and hastily +approaching her the moment she entered. + +"Yes, dear; and talked with him, and----" + +"Well?" + +"And I think very much as I did before. I think he is nervous, he says +he is not ill; but he is nervous and whimsical, and as men always are +when they happen to be out of sorts, very positive; and of course the +only thing that can quite undeceive him is the lapse of the time he has +fixed for his prediction, as it is sure to pass without any tragic +result of any sort. We shall then all see alike the nature of his +delusion." + +"O, Maud, if I were only sure you thought so! if I were sure you really +had hopes! Tell me, Maud, for God's sake, what you really think." + +Lady Walsingham was a little disconcerted by the unexpected directness +of her appeal. + +"Come, darling, you must not be foolish," she said; "we can only talk of +impressions, and we are imposed upon by the solemnity of his manner, and +the fact that he evidently believes in his own delusion; every one does +believe in his own delusion--there is nothing strange in that." + +"O, Maud, I see you are not convinced; you are only trying to comfort +me. You have no hope--none, none, none!" and she covered her face with +her hands, and wept again convulsively. + +Lady Walsingham was silent for a moment, and then with an effort said, +as she placed her hand on her sister's arm, "You see, dear Janet, there +is no use in my saying the same thing over and over again; an hour or +two will show who is right. Sit down again, and be like yourself. My +maid told me that you had sent to the parlour for Doctor Torvey; he must +not find you so. What would he think? Unless you mean to tell him of +Bale's strange fancy; and a pretty story that would be to set afloat in +Golden Friars. I think I hear him coming." + +So, in effect, he was. Doctor Torvey--with the florid gravity of a man +who, having just swallowed a bottle of port, besides some glasses of +sherry, is admitted to the presence of ladies whom he respects--entered +the room, made what he called his "leg and his compliments," and awaited +the ladies' commands. + +"Sit down, Doctor Torvey," said Lady Walsingham, who in the incapacity +of her sister undertook the doing of the honours. "My sister, Lady +Mardykes, has got it into her head somehow that Sir Bale is ill. I have +been speaking to him; he certainly does not look very well, but he says +he is quite well. Do you think him well?--that is, we know you don't +think there is anything of importance amiss--but she wishes to know +whether you think him _perfectly_ well." + +The Doctor cleared his voice and delivered his lecture, a little thickly +at some words, upon Sir Bale's case; the result of which was that it was +no case at all; and that if he would only live something more of a +country gentleman's life, he would be as well as any man could +desire--as well as any man, gentle or simple, in the country. + +"The utmost I should think of doing for him would be, perhaps, a little +quinine, nothing mo'--shurely--he is really and toory a very shoun' +shtay of health." + +Lady Walsingham looked encouragingly at her sister and nodded. + +"I've been shen' for, La'y Walsh--Walse--Walsing--_ham_; old Jack +Amerald--he likshe his glass o' port," he said roguishly, "and shuvversh +accord'n'ly," he continued, with a compassionating paddle of his right +hand; "one of thoshe aw--odd feels in his stomach; and as I have pretty +well done all I can man-n'ge down here, I must be off, ye shee. Wind up +from Golden Friars, and a little flutter ovv zhnow, thazh all;" and with +some remarks about the extreme cold of the weather, and the severity of +their night journey, and many respectful and polite parting speeches, +the Doctor took his leave; and they soon heard the wheels of his gig and +the tread of his horse, faint and muffled from the snow in the +court-yard, and the Doctor, who had connected that melancholy and +agitated household with the outer circle of humanity, was gone. + +There was very little snow falling, half-a-dozen flakes now and again, +and their flight across the window showed, as the Doctor had in a manner +boasted, that the wind was in his face as he returned to Golden Friars. +Even these desultory snow-flakes ceased, at times, altogether; and +returning, as they say, "by fits and starts," left for long intervals +the landscape, under the brilliant light of the moon, in its wide white +shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed to +Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that Snakes +Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of the old +tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an assassin, +who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches. + +Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white +sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham. +The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense +overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and +listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were +overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them. +And thus an hour or more passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Hush! + +Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude +of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests +of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced +her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace. + +Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from +the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed +features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came +in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then, +having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he +stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold +forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the +room. + +Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of +mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened +the door and followed. + +She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from +the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister, +and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without +hurry, to ascend the second flight. + +With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him +at a distance. + +She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door. + +Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the +apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened +for what should pass. + +She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time, +and then, after a pause, a sound as if some one had thrown himself +heavily on the bed. A silence followed, during which her sisters, who +had followed more timidly, joined her. She warned them with a look and +gesture to be silent. + +Lady Haworth stood a little behind, her white lips moving, and her hands +clasped in a silent agony of prayer. Lady Mardykes leaned against the +massive oak door-case. + +With her hand raised to her ear, and her lips parted, Lady Walsingham +listened for some seconds--for a minute, two minutes, three. At last, +losing heart, she seized the handle in her panic, and turned it sharply. +The door was locked on the inside, but some one close to it said from +within, "Hush, hush!" + +Much alarmed now, the same lady knocked violently at the door. No answer +was returned. + +She knocked again more violently, and shook the door with all her +fragile force. It was something of horror in her countenance as she did +so, that, no doubt, terrified Lady Mardykes, who with a loud and long +scream sank in a swoon upon the floor. + +The servants, alarmed by these sounds, were speedily in the gallery. +Lady Mardykes was carried to her room, and laid upon her bed; her +sister, Lady Haworth, accompanying her. In the meantime the door was +forced. Sir Bale Mardykes was found stretched upon his bed. + +Those who have once seen it, will not mistake the aspect of death. Here, +in Sir Bale Mardykes' room, in his bed, in his clothes, is a stranger, +grim and awful; in a few days to be insupportable, and to pass alone +into the prison-house, and to be seen no more. + +Where is Sir Bale Mardykes now, whose roof-tree and whose place at board +and bed will know him no more? Here lies a chap-fallen, fish-eyed image, +chilling already into clay, and stiffening in every joint. + +There is a marble monument in the pretty church of Golden Friars. It +stands at the left side of what antiquarians call "the high altar." Two +pillars at each end support an arch with several armorial bearings on as +many shields sculptured above. Beneath, on a marble flooring raised some +four feet, with a cornice round, lies Sir Bale Mardykes, of Mardykes +Hall, ninth Baronet of that ancient family, chiseled in marble with +knee-breeches and buckled-shoes, and _ailes de pigeon_, and +single-breasted coat and long waist-coat, ruffles and sword, such as +gentlemen wore about the year 1770, and bearing a strong resemblance to +the features of the second Charles. On the broad marble which forms the +background is inscribed an epitaph, which has perpetuated to our times +the estimate formed by his "inconsolable widow," the Dowager Lady +Mardykes, of the virtues and accomplishments of her deceased lord. + +Lady Walsingham would have qualified two or three of the more +highly-coloured hyperboles, at which the Golden Friars of those days +sniffed and tittered. They don't signify now; there is no contemporary +left to laugh or whisper. And if there be not much that is true in the +letter of that inscription, it at least perpetuates something that _is_ +true--that wonderful glorificaion of partisanship, the affection of an +idolising wife. + +Lady Mardykes, a few days after the funeral, left Mardykes Hall for +ever. She lived a great deal with her sister, Lady Walsingham; and died, +as a line cut at the foot of Sir Bale Mardykes' epitaph records, in the +year 1790; her remains being laid beside those of her beloved husband in +Golden Friars. + +The estates had come to Sir Bale Mardykes free of entail. He had been +pottering over a will, but it was never completed, nor even quite +planned; and after much doubt and scrutiny, it was at last ascertained +that, in default of a will and of issue, a clause in the +marriage-settlement gave the entire estates to the Dowager Lady +Mardykes. + +By her will she bequeathed the estates to "her cousin, also a kinsman of +the late Sir Bale Mardykes her husband," William Feltram, on condition +of his assuming the name and arms of Mardykes, the arms of Feltram being +quartered in the shield. + +Thus was oddly fulfilled the prediction which Philip Feltram had +repeated, that the estates of Mardykes were to pass into the hands of a +Feltram. + +About the year 1795 the baronetage was revived, and William Feltram +enjoyed the title for fifteen years, as Sir William Mardykes. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11750 *** diff --git a/11750-h/11750-h.htm b/11750-h/11750-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5d6363 --- /dev/null +++ b/11750-h/11750-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5783 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3{text-align: center;} + .ctr {text-align: center;} + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.full { width: 100%; + size: 5; } + BODY{margin-left: 10%;margin-right: 10%;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11750 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h1> +<br> +<br> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<h1>J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES,<br> +VOLUME 3</h1> + +<h2>The Haunted Baronet (1871)</h2> + +<h2>by<br> +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<p> </p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<center> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I: <i>The George and Dragon</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II: <i>The Drowned Woman</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III: <i>Philip Feltram</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV: <i>The Baronet Appears</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V: <i>Mrs. Julaper's Room</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI: <i>The Intruder</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII: <i>The Bank Note</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII: <i>Feltram's Plan</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX: <i>The Crazy Parson</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X: <i>Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI: <i>Sir Bale's Dream</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII: <i>Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII: <i>The Mist on the Mountain</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV: <i>A New Philip Feltram</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV: <i>The Purse of Gold</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI: <i>The Message from Cloostedd</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII: <i>On the Course--Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII: <i>On the Lake, at Last</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX: <i>Mystagogus</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX: <i>The Haunted Forest</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI: <i>Rindermere</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII: <i>Sir Bale is Frightened</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII: <i>A Lady in Black</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV: <i>An Old Portrait</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV: <i>Through the Wall</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI: <i>Perplexed</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII: <i>The Hour</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII: <i>Sir Bale in the Gallery</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX: <i>Dr. Torvey's Opinion</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX: <i>Hush!</i></b></a> + </center> + + <p> </p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + <center> + <a href="#IMAGE_1"><b>"I sid something white come out o' t' water, by the +gunwale, like a hand."</b></a><br><br> + <a href="#IMAGE_2"><b>It was the figure of a slight tall man, with his arm +extended, as if pointing to a remote object.</b></a> + </center> + + <p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<h2>The Haunted Baronet</h2> +<br> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h4>CHAPTER I</h4> + +<i><b>The George and Dragon</b></i> + +<p>The pretty little town of Golden Friars—standing by the margin of the +lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint +and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow +windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old +church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like +silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw +moveless shadows upon the short level grass—is one of the most singular +and beautiful sights I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so +light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture +reflected on the thin mist of night.</p> + +<p>On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of +the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars, +with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in +England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin +running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other +side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful +wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St. +George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold.</p> + +<p>In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old +<i>habitués</i> of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the +fatigues of the day.</p> + +<p>This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in +summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a +fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a +pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the +room too hot.</p> + +<p>On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew the +weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed with each +inhabitant—a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite for all +sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a tumbler +of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it. Beside him +sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for more than +thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the last man in +Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an ex-captain of the +navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its wooden companion +beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the old-fashioned navy way, +and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the middle, opposite the +hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and smoked his pipe, looking +serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the George and Dragon every +now and then strutted in, and sat down in the high-backed wooden +arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned republican ways of the place, +and took his share in the talk gravely, and was heartily welcome.</p> + +<p>"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any +more you heard since."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George. "Nothing +to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house won't +look so dowly now."</p> + +<p>"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time, hey?" +said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking.</p> + +<p>"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to +<i>you</i>, mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right +in time."</p> + +<p>"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another +grave nod.</p> + +<p>"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream of +smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here to save a +little, and perhaps he'll marry; and it is the more creditable, if, as +they say, he dislikes the place, and would prefer staying where he is."</p> + +<p>And having spoken thus gently, Mr. Peers resumed his pipe cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"No, he don't like the place; that is, I'm told he <i>didn't</i>," said the +innkeeper.</p> + +<p>"He <i>hates</i> it," said the Doctor with another dark nod.</p> + +<p>"And no wonder, if all's true I've heard," cried old Jack Amerald. +"Didn't he drown a woman and her child in the lake?"</p> + +<p>"Hollo! my dear boy, don't let them hear you say that; you're all in the +clouds."</p> + +<p>"By Jen!" exclaimed the landlord after an alarmed silence, with his +mouth and eyes open, and his pipe in his hand, "why, sir, I pay rent for +the house up there. I'm thankful—dear knows, I <i>am</i> thankful—we're all +to ourselves!"</p> + +<p>Jack Amerald put his foot on the floor, leaving his wooden leg in its +horizontal position, and looked round a little curiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, if it wasn't him, it was some one else. I'm sure it happened up +at Mardykes. I took the bearings on the water myself from Glads Scaur to +Mardykes Jetty, and from the George and Dragon sign down here—down to +the white house under Forrick Fells. I could fix a buoy over the very +spot. Some one here told me the bearings, I'd take my oath, where the +body was seen; and yet no boat could ever come up with it; and that was +queer, you know, so I clapt it down in my log."</p> + +<p>"Ay, sir, there <i>was</i> some flummery like that, Captain," said Turnbull; +"for folk will be gabbin'. But 'twas his grandsire was talked o', not +him; and 'twould play the hangment wi' me doun here, if 'twas thought +there was stories like that passin' in the George and Dragon.'</p> + +<p>"Well, his grandfather; 'twas all one to him, I take it."</p> + +<p>"There never was no proof, Captain, no more than smoke; and the family +up at Mardykes wouldn't allow the king to talk o' them like that, sir; +for though they be lang deod that had most right to be angered in the +matter, there's none o' the name but would be half daft to think 'twas +still believed, and he full out as mich as any. Not that I need care +more than another, though they do say he's a bit frowsy and +short-waisted; for he can't shouther me out o' the George while I pay my +rent, till nine hundred and ninety-nine year be rin oot; and a man, be +he ne'er sa het, has time to cool before then. But there's no good +quarrellin' wi' teathy folk; and it may lie in his way to do the George +mony an ill turn, and mony a gude one; an' it's only fair to say it +happened a long way before he was born, and there's no good in vexin' +him; and I lay ye a pound, Captain, the Doctor hods wi' me."</p> + +<p>The Doctor, whose business was also sensitive, nodded; and then he said, +"But for all that, the story's old, Dick Turnbull—older than you or I, +my jolly good friend."</p> + +<p>"And best forgotten," interposed the host of the George.</p> + +<p>"Ay, best forgotten; but that it's not like to be," said the Doctor, +plucking up courage. "Here's our friend the Captain has heard it; and +the mistake he has made shows there's one thing worse than its being +quite remembered, and that is, its being <i>half</i> remembered. We can't +stop people talking; and a story like that will see us all off the +hooks, and be in folks' mouths, still, as strong as ever."</p> + +<p>"Ay; and now I think on it, 'twas Dick Harman that has the boat down +there—an old tar like myself—that told me that yarn. I was trying for +pike, and he pulled me over the place, and that's how I came to hear it. +I say, Tom, my hearty, serve us out another glass of brandy, will you?" +shouted the Captain's voice as the waiter crossed the room; and that +florid and grizzled naval hero clapped his leg again on the chair by its +wooden companion, which he was wont to call his jury-mast.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do believe it will be spoke of longer than we are like to +hear," said the host, "and I don't much matter the story, if it baint +told o' the wrong man." Here he touched his tumbler with the spoon, +indicating by that little ring that Tom, who had returned with the +Captain's grog, was to replenish it with punch. "And Sir Bale is like to +be a friend to this house. I don't see no reason why he shouldn't. The +George and Dragon has bin in our family ever since the reign of King +Charles the Second. It was William Turnbull in that time, which they +called it the Restoration, he taking the lease from Sir Tony Mardykes +that was then. They was but knights then. They was made baronets first +in the reign of King George the Second; you may see it in the list of +baronets and the nobility. The lease was made to William Turnbull, which +came from London; and he built the stables, which they was out o' +repair, as you may read to this day in the lease; and the house has +never had but one sign since—the George and Dragon, it is pretty well +known in England—and one name to its master. It has been owned by a +Turnbull from that day to this, and they have not been counted bad men." +A murmur of applause testified the assent of his guests. "They has been +steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best +o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard +Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power +to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and +the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the +green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate. So 'tis +nout to me, except in the way o' friendliness, what the family may think +o' me; only the George and they has always been kind and friendly, and I +don't want to break the old custom."</p> + +<p>"Well said, Dick!" exclaimed Doctor Torvey; "I own to your conclusion; +but there ain't a soul here but ourselves—and we're all friends, and +you are your own master—and, hang it, you'll tell us that story about +the drowned woman, as you heard it from your father long ago."</p> + +<p>"Ay, do, and keep us to our liquor, my hearty!" cried the Captain.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peers looked his entreaty; and deaf Mr. Hollar, having no interest +in the petition, was at least a safe witness, and, with his pipe in his +lips, a cozy piece of furniture.</p> + +<p>Richard Turnbull had his punch beside him; he looked over his shoulder. +The door was closed, the fire was cheery, and the punch was fragrant, +and all friendly faces about him. So said he:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, as you're pleased to wish it, I don't see no great harm in +it; and at any rate, 'twill prevent mistakes. It is more than ninety +years since. My father was but a boy then; and many a time I have heard +him tell it in this very room."</p> + +<p>And looking into his glass he mused, and stirred his punch slowly.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h4>CHAPTER II</h4> + +<i><b>The Drowned Woman</b></i> + +<p>"It ain't much of a homminy," said the host of the George. "I'll not +keep you long over it, gentlemen. There was a handsome young lady, Miss +Mary Feltram o' Cloostedd by name. She was the last o' that family; and +had gone very poor. There's but the walls o' the house left now; grass +growing in the hall, and ivy over the gables; there's no one livin' has +ever hard tell o' smoke out o' they chimblies. It stands on t'other side +o' the lake, on the level wi' a deal o' a'ad trees behint and aside it +at the gap o' the clough, under the pike o' Maiden Fells. Ye may see it +wi' a spyin'-glass from the boatbield at Mardykes Hall."</p> + +<p>"I've been there fifty times," said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Well there was dealin's betwixt the two families; and there's good and +bad in every family; but the Mardykes, in them days, was a wild lot. And +when old Feltram o' Cloostedd died, and the young lady his daughter was +left a ward o' Sir Jasper Mardykes—an ill day for her, poor +lass!--twenty year older than her he was, an' more; and nothin' about +him, they say, to make anyone like or love him, ill-faur'd and little +and dow."</p> + +<p>"Dow—that's gloomy," Doctor Torvey instructed the Captain aside.</p> + +<p>"But they do say, they has an old blud-stean ring in the family that +has a charm in't; and happen how it might, the poor lass fell in love +wi' him. Some said they was married. Some said it hang'd i' the +bell-ropes, and never had the priest's blessing; but anyhow, married or +no, there was talk enough amang the folk, and out o' doors she would na +budge. And there was two wee barns; and she prayed him hard to confess +the marriage, poor thing! But t'was a bootlese bene, and he would not +allow they should bear his name, but their mother's; he was a hard man, +and hed the bit in his teeth, and went his ain gait. And having tired of +her, he took in his head to marry a lady of the Barnets, and it behoved +him to be shut o' her and her children; and so she nor them was seen no +more at Mardykes Hall. And the eldest, a boy, was left in care of my +grandfather's father here in the George."</p> + +<p>"That queer Philip Feltram that's travelling with Sir Bale so long is a +descendant of his?" said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Grandson," observed Mr. Peers, removing his pipe for a moment; "and is +the last of that stock."</p> + +<p>"Well, no one could tell where she had gone to. Some said to distant +parts, some said to the madhouse, some one thing, some another; but +neither she nor the barn was ever seen or spoke to by the folk at +Mardykes in life again. There was one Mr. Wigram that lived in them +times down at Moultry, and had sarved, like the Captain here, in the +king's navy in his day; and early of a morning down he comes to the town +for a boat, sayin' he was looking towards Snakes Island through his +spyin'-glass, and he seen a woman about a hundred and fifty yards +outside of it; the Captain here has heard the bearings right enough. +From her hips upwards she was stark and straight out o' the water, and a +baby in her arms. Well, no one else could see it, nor he neither, when +they went down to the boat. But next morning he saw the same thing, and +the boatman saw it too; and they rowed for it, both pulling might and +main; but after a mile or so they could see it no more, and gave over. +The next that saw it was the vicar, I forget his name now—but he was up +the lake to a funeral at Mortlock Church; and coming back with a bit of +a sail up, just passin' Snakes Island, what should they hear on a sudden +but a wowl like a death-cry, shrill and bleak, as made the very blood +hoot in their veins; and looking along the water not a hundred yards +away, saw the same grizzled sight in the moonlight; so they turned the +tiller, and came near enough to see her face—blea it was, and drenched +wi' water—and she was above the lake to her middle, stiff as a post, +holdin' the weeny barn out to them, and flyrin' [smiling scornfully] on +them as they drew nigh her. They were half-frighted, not knowing what to +make of it; but passing as close as the boatman could bring her side, +the vicar stretched over the gunwale to catch her, and she bent forward, +pushing the dead bab forward; and as she did, on a sudden she gave a +yelloch that scared them, and they saw her no more. 'Twas no livin' +woman, for she couldn't rise that height above the water, as they well +knew when they came to think; and knew it was a dobby they saw; and ye +may be sure they didn't spare prayer and blessin', and went on their +course straight before the wind; for neither would a-took the worth o' +all the Mardykes to look sich a freetin' i' the face again. 'Twas seen +another time by market-folk crossin' fra Gyllenstan in the self-same +place; and Snakes Island got a bad neam, and none cared to go nar it +after nightfall."</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything of that Feltram that has been with him abroad?" +asked the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"They say he's no good at anything—a harmless mafflin; he was a long +gaumless gawky when he went awa," said Richard Turnbull. "The Feltrams +and the Mardykes was sib, ye know; and that made what passed in the +misfortune o' that young lady spoken of all the harder; and this young +man ye speak of is a grandson o' the lad that was put here in care o' my +grandfather."</p> + +<p>"<i>Great</i>-grandson. His father was grandson," said Mr. Peers; "he held a +commission in the army and died in the West Indies. This Philip Feltram +is the last o' that line—illegitimate, you know, it is held—and the +little that remained of the Feltram property went nearly fourscore years +ago to the Mardykes, and this Philip is maintained by Sir Bale; it is +pleasant, notwithstanding all the stories one hears, gentlemen, that the +only thing we know of him for certain should be so creditable to his +kindness."</p> + +<p>"To be sure," acquiesced Mr. Turnbull.</p> + +<p>While they talked the horn sounded, and the mail-coach drew up at the +door of the George and Dragon to set down a passenger and his luggage.</p> + +<p>Dick Turnbull rose and went out to the hall with careful bustle, and +Doctor Torvey followed as far as the door, which commanded a view of it, +and saw several trunks cased in canvas pitched into the hall, and by +careful Tom and a boy lifted one on top of the other, behind the corner +of the banister. It would have been below the dignity of his cloth to go +out and read the labels on these, or the Doctor would have done +otherwise, so great was his curiosity.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h4>CHAPTER III</h4> + +<i><b>Philip Feltram</b></i> + +<p>The new guest was now in the hall of the George, and Doctor Torvey could +hear him talking with Mr. Turnbull. Being himself one of the dignitaries +of Golden Friars, the Doctor, having regard to first impressions, did +not care to be seen in his post of observation; and closing the door +gently, returned to his chair by the fire, and in an under-tone informed +his cronies that there was a new arrival in the George, and he could not +hear, but would not wonder if he were taking a private room; and he +seemed to have trunks enough to build a church with.</p> + +<p>"Don't be too sure we haven't Sir Bale on board," said Amerald, who +would have followed his crony the Doctor to the door—for never was +retired naval hero of a village more curious than he—were it not that +his wooden leg made a distinct pounding on the floor that was inimical, +as experience had taught him, to mystery.</p> + +<p>"That can't be," answered the Doctor; "Charley Twyne knows everything +about it, and has a letter every second day; and there's no chance of +Sir Bale before the tenth; this is a tourist, you'll find. I don't know +what the d---l keeps Turnbull; he knows well enough we are all naturally +willing to hear who it is."</p> + +<p>"Well, he won't trouble us here, I bet ye;" and catching deaf Mr. +Hollar's eye, the Captain nodded, and pointed to the little table beside +him, and made a gesture imitative of the rattling of a dice-box; at +which that quiet old gentleman also nodded sunnily; and up got the +Captain and conveyed the backgammon-box to the table, near Hollar's +elbow, and the two worthies were soon sinc-ducing and catre-acing, with +the pleasant clatter that accompanies that ancient game. Hollar had +thrown sizes and made his double point, and the honest Captain, who +could stand many things better than Hollar's throwing such throws so +early in the evening, cursed his opponent's luck and sneered at his +play, and called the company to witness, with a distinctness which a +stranger to smiling Hollar's deafness would have thought hardly civil; +and just at this moment the door opened, and Richard Turnbull showed his +new guest into the room, and ushered him to a vacant seat near the other +corner of the table before the fire.</p> + +<p>The stranger advanced slowly and shyly, with something a little +deprecatory in his air, to which a lathy figure, a slight stoop, and a +very gentle and even heartbroken look in his pale long face, gave a more +marked character of shrinking and timidity.</p> + +<p>He thanked the landlord aside, as it were, and took his seat with a +furtive glance round, as if he had no right to come in and intrude upon +the happiness of these honest gentlemen.</p> + +<p>He saw the Captain scanning him from under his shaggy grey eyebrows +while he was pretending to look only at his game; and the Doctor was +able to recount to Mrs. Torvey when he went home every article of the +stranger's dress.</p> + +<p>It was odd and melancholy as his peaked face.</p> + +<p>He had come into the room with a short black cloak on, and a rather tall +foreign felt hat, and a pair of shiny leather gaiters or leggings on his +thin legs; and altogether presented a general resemblance to the +conventional figure of Guy Fawkes.</p> + +<p>Not one of the company assembled knew the appearance of the Baronet. The +Doctor and old Mr. Peers remembered something of his looks; and +certainly they had no likeness, but the reverse, to those presented by +the new-comer. The Baronet, as now described by people who had chanced +to see him, was a dark man, not above the middle size, and with a +certain decision in his air and talk; whereas this person was tall, +pale, and in air and manner feeble. So this broken trader in the world's +commerce, with whom all seemed to have gone wrong, could not possibly be +he.</p> + +<p>Presently, in one of his stealthy glances, the Doctor's eye encountered +that of the stranger, who was by this time drinking his tea—a thin and +feminine liquor little used in that room.</p> + +<p>The stranger did not seem put out; and the Doctor, interpreting his look +as a permission to converse, cleared his voice, and said urbanely,</p> + +<p>"We have had a little frost by night, down here, sir, and a little fire +is no great harm—it is rather pleasant, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>The stranger bowed acquiescence with a transient wintry smile, and +looked gratefully on the fire.</p> + +<p>"This place is a good deal admired, sir, and people come a good way to +see it; you have been here perhaps before?"</p> + +<p>"Many years ago."</p> + +<p>Here was another pause.</p> + +<p>"Places change imperceptibly—in detail, at least—a good deal," said +the Doctor, making an effort to keep up a conversation that plainly +would not go on of itself; "and people too; population shifts—there's +an old fellow, sir, they call <i>Death</i>."</p> + +<p>"And an old fellow they call the <i>Doctor</i>, that helps him," threw in the +Captain humorously, allowing his attention to get entangled in the +conversation, and treating them to one of his tempestuous ha-ha-ha's.</p> + +<p>"We are expecting the return of a gentleman who would be a very leading +member of our little society down here," said the Doctor, not noticing +the Captain's joke. "I mean Sir Bale Mardykes. Mardykes Hall is a pretty +object from the water, sir, and a very fine old place."</p> + +<p>The melancholy stranger bowed slightly, but rather in courtesy to the +relator, it seemed, than that the Doctor's lore interested him much.</p> + +<p>"And on the opposite side of the lake," continued Doctor Torvey, "there +is a building that contrasts very well with it—the old house of the +Feltrams—quite a ruin now, at the mouth of the glen—Cloostedd House, a +very picturesque object."</p> + +<p>"Exactly opposite," said the stranger dreamily, but whether in the tone +of acquiescence or interrogatory, the Doctor could not be quite sure.</p> + +<p>"That was one of our great families down here that has disappeared. It +has dwindled down to nothing."</p> + +<p>"Duce ace," remarked Mr. Hollar, who was attending to his game.</p> + +<p>"While others have mounted more suddenly and amazingly still," observed +gentle Mr. Peers, who was great upon county genealogies.</p> + +<p>"Sizes!" thundered the Captain, thumping the table with an oath of +disgust.</p> + +<p>"And Snakes Island is a very pretty object; they say there used to be +snakes there," said the Doctor, enlightening the visitor.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that's a mistake," said the dejected guest, making his first +original observation. "It should be spelt <i>Snaiks</i>. In the old papers it +is called Sen-aiks Island from the seven oaks that grew in a clump +there."</p> + +<p>"Hey? that's very curious, egad! I daresay," said the Doctor, set right +thus by the stranger, and eyeing him curiously.</p> + +<p>"Very true, sir," observed Mr. Peers; "three of those oaks, though, two +of them little better than stumps, are there still; and Clewson of +Heckleston has an old document——"</p> + +<p>Here, unhappily, the landlord entered the room in a fuss, and walking up +to the stranger, said, "The chaise is at the door, Mr. Feltram, and the +trunks up, sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Feltram rose quietly and took out his purse, and said,</p> + +<p>"I suppose I had better pay at the bar?"</p> + +<p>"As you like best, sir," said Richard Turnbull.</p> + +<p>Mr. Feltram bowed all round to the gentlemen, who smiled, ducked or +waved their hands; and the Doctor fussily followed him to the hall-door, +and welcomed him back to Golden Friars—there was real kindness in this +welcome—and proffered his broad brown hand, which Mr. Feltram took; and +then he plunged into his chaise, and the door being shut, away he +glided, chaise, horses, and driver, like shadows, by the margin of the +moonlighted lake, towards Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>And after a few minutes' stand upon the steps, looking along the shadowy +track of the chaise, they returned to the glow of the room, in which a +pleasant perfume of punch still prevailed; and beside Mr. Philip +Feltram's deserted tea-things, the host of the George enlightened his +guests by communicating freely the little he had picked up. The +principal fact he had to tell was, that Sir Bale adhered strictly to his +original plan, and was to arrive on the tenth. A few days would bring +them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its +interest. But in the meantime, all Golden Friars was anxious to see what +Sir Bale Mardykes was like.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> + +<i><b>The Baronet Appears</b></i> + +<p>As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach +of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a +depressing and agitating influence announced the coming of the +long-absent Baronet.</p> + +<p>From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a +great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that +unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely awful.</p> + +<p>Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, +as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity +to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their +hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew +mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention +of his name, nevertheless an interval of silence softened matters a +little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time.</p> + +<p>Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried +consultations held in many households. And though he was tried and +sentenced by drum-head over some austere hearths, as a rule the law of +gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser about it, +and county people within the visiting radius paid their respects at the +Hall.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout +short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and +taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, +with his fat and garrulous wife on his arm.</p> + +<p>The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the +lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed and purple mountains.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and +ornaments, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then +she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect. She wished to +stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything.</p> + +<p>You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such +strange tales of his doings.</p> + +<p>She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened +for the step of the truant Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly +beauty and fascination.</p> + +<p>She sustained a slight shock when he did appear.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a +middle-aged man—and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking +man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly +made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and +animation of Versailles, and an evident cultivation of the art of +pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable gravity, not to say gloom, +of countenance—the only feature of which that struck her being a pair +of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the +ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person +who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but +who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not.</p> + +<p>He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile—not +even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and +did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; +and there was a suspicion of sarcasm in what he said that the rustic +literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect.</p> + +<p>"I believe I have not a clergyman but <i>you</i>, sir, within any reasonable +distance?"</p> + +<p>"Golden Friars <i>is</i> the nearest," said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her +pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. "And southwards, +the nearest is Wyllarden—and by a bird's flight that is thirteen miles +and a half, and by the road more than nineteen—twenty, I may say, by +the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman."</p> + +<p>"Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The +road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to +make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of +points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or +who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's +end."</p> + +<p>"That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. +That's what Martin thinks—don't we, Martin?—And then, you know, coming +home is the time you <i>are</i> in a hurry—when you are thinking of your cup +of tea and the children; and <i>then</i>, you know, you have the fall of the +ground all in your favour."</p> + +<p>"It's well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there +are children?"</p> + +<p>"A good many," said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a +nod; "you wouldn't guess how many."</p> + +<p>"Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all."</p> + +<p>"That's very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at +<i>one</i> bout; there are—tell him, Martin—ha, ha, ha! there are eleven."</p> + +<p>"It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage," said Sir Bale +graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, "But how unequally +blessings are divided! You have eleven, and I not one—that I'm aware +of."</p> + +<p>"And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and +then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the +other side, before you reach Fottrell—and that is twenty-five miles by +the road——"</p> + +<p>"Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning +that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly +clergymen grow also down here—in one sense," he added politely, for the +vicar was stout.</p> + +<p>"We were looking out of the window—we amused ourselves that way before +you came—and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this +side; your view of the lake and the fells—what mountains they are, Sir +Bale!"</p> + +<p>"'Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder with a charge +of duck-shot, and I shouldn't be stifled by them long. But I suppose, as +we can't get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are +pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling."</p> + +<p>"I know you don't think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn't take a +good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall."</p> + +<p>"You can't get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those +frightful mountains," he said with a peevish frown at them.</p> + +<p>"Well, the lake at all events—that you <i>must</i> admire, Sir Bale?"</p> + +<p>"No ma'am, I don't admire the lake. I'd drain the lake if I could—I +hate the lake. There's nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren +mountains. I can't conceive what possessed my people to build our house +down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious +fish it is—pike! I don't know how people digest it—<i>I</i> can't. I'd as +soon think of eating a watchman's pike."</p> + +<p>"I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired +a great liking for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal +of it on the Continent, ain't there?" said Mrs. Bedel. "And the +boating."</p> + +<p>"Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don't you +think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the +shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we +have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I +hate boating, and I hate the water; and I'd rather have my house, like +Haworth, at the edge of a moss, with good wholesome peat to look at, and +an open horizon—savage and stupid and bleak as all that is—than be +suffocated among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and +drowned like a kitten. O, there's luncheon in the next room; won't you +take some?"</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h4>CHAPTER V</h4> + +<i><b>Mrs. Julaper's Room</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes being now established in his ancestral house, people +had time to form conclusions respecting him. It must be allowed he was +not popular. There was, perhaps, in his conduct something of the caprice +of contempt. At all events his temper and conduct were uncertain, and +his moods sometimes violent and insulting.</p> + +<p>With respect to but one person was his conduct uniform, and that was +Philip Feltram. He was a sort of aide-de-camp near Sir Bale's person, +and chargeable with all the commissions and offices which could not be +suitably intrusted to a mere servant. But in many respects he was +treated worse than any servant of the Baronet's. Sir Bale swore at him, +and cursed him; laid the blame of everything that went wrong in house, +stable, or field upon his shoulders; railed at him, and used him, as +people said, worse than a dog.</p> + +<p>Why did Feltram endure this contumelious life? What could he do but +endure it? was the answer. What was the power that induced strong +soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to +be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with +an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of +an unconscious calculation of chances which satisfies them that it is +ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the +alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with +each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one +knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what +they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but +quite irresistible power.</p> + +<p>A man of spirit would rather break stones on the highway than eat that +bitter bread, was the burden of every man's song on Feltram's bondage. +But he was not so sure that even the stone-breaker's employment was open +to him, or that he could break stones well enough to retain it on a fair +trial. And he had other ideas of providing for himself, and a different +alternative in his mind.</p> + +<p>Good-natured Mrs. Julaper, the old housekeeper at Mardykes Hall, was +kind to Feltram, as to all others who lay in her way and were in +affliction.</p> + +<p>She was one of those good women whom Nature provides to receive the +burden of other people's secrets, as the reeds did long ago, only that +no chance wind could steal them away, and send them singing into strange +ears.</p> + +<p>You may still see her snuggery in Mardykes Hall, though the +housekeeper's room is now in a different part of the house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper's room was in the oldest quarter of that old house. It was +wainscoted, in black panels, up to the ceiling, which was stuccoed over +in the fanciful diagrams of James the First's time. Several dingy +portraits, banished from time to time from other statelier rooms, found +a temporary abode in this quiet spot, where they had come finally to +settle and drop out of remembrance. There is a lady in white satin and a +ruff; a gentleman whose legs have faded out of view, with a peaked +beard, and a hawk on his wrist. There is another in a black periwig lost +in the dark background, and with a steel cuirass, the gleam of which out +of the darkness strikes the eye, and a scarf is dimly discoverable +across it. This is that foolish Sir Guy Mardykes, who crossed the Border +and joined Dundee, and was shot through the temple at Killiecrankie and +whom more prudent and whiggish scions of the Mardykes family removed +forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from +which he has not since emerged.</p> + +<p>At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you +find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony +before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the +cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision.</p> + +<p>There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her <i>Whole Duty of +Man</i>, and her <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>; and, in a file beside them, her +books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes, +cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the +Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would +nowadays give an eye or a hand.</p> + +<p>Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs, +and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him +a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of +coffee, or some little dainty.</p> + +<p>"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor +devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not +it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I +think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing. +I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind. +I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer."</p> + +<p>"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember +you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he. +They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one +minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the +tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard +words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea—ye like a cup o' +tea—and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see +how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening."</p> + +<p>She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff +in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on +him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a +delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with +so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as +she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little +apples.</p> + +<p>"Look out, I say," and she nodded towards the window, deep set in the +thick wall. "See how bright and soft everything looks in that pleasant +light; <i>that's</i> better, child, than the finest picture man's hand ever +painted yet, and God gives it us for nothing; and how pretty Snakes +Island glows up in that light!"</p> + +<p>The dejected man, hardly raising his head, followed with his eyes the +glance of the old woman, and looked mournfully through the window.</p> + +<p>"That island troubles me, Mrs. Julaper."</p> + +<p>"Everything troubles you, my poor goose-cap. I'll pull your lug for ye, +child, if ye be so dowly;" and with a mimic pluck the good-natured old +housekeeper pinched his ear and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I'll go to the still-room now, where the water's boiling, and I'll make +a cup of tea; and if I find ye so dow when I come back, I'll throw it +all out o' the window, mind."</p> + +<p>It was indeed a beautiful picture that Feltram saw in its deep frame of +old masonry. The near part of the lake was flushed all over with the low +western light; the more distant waters lay dark in the shadow of the +mountains; and against this shadow of purple the rocks on Snakes Island, +illuminated by the setting sun, started into sharp clear yellow.</p> + +<p>But this beautiful view had no charm—at least, none powerful enough to +master the latent horror associated with its prettiest feature—for the +weak and dismal man who was looking at it; and being now alone, he rose +and leant on the window, and looked out, and then with a kind of shudder +clutching his hands together, and walking distractedly about the room.</p> + +<p>Without his perceiving, while his back was turned, the housekeeper came +back; and seeing him walking in this distracted way, she thought to +herself, as he leant again upon the window:</p> + +<p>"Well, it <i>is</i> a burning shame to worrit any poor soul into that state. +Sir Bale was always down on someone or something, man or beast; there +always was something he hated, and could never let alone. It was not +pretty; it was his nature. Happen, poor fellow, he could not help it; +but so it was."</p> + +<p>A maid came in and set the tea-things down; and Mrs. Julaper drew her +sad guest over by the arm, and made him sit down, and she said: "What +has a man to do, frettin' in that way? By Jen, I'm ashamed o' ye, Master +Philip! Ye like three lumps o' sugar, I think, and—look cheerful, ye +must!--a good deal o' cream?"</p> + +<p>"You're so kind, Mrs. Julaper, you're so cheery. I feel quite +comfortable after awhile when I'm with you; I feel quite happy," and he +began to cry.</p> + +<p>She understood him very well by this time and took no notice, but went +on chatting gaily, and made his tea as he liked it; and he dried his +tears hastily, thinking she had not observed.</p> + +<p>So the clouds began to clear. This innocent fellow liked nothing better +than a cup of tea and a chat with gentle and cheery old Mrs. Julaper, +and a talk in which the shadowy old times which he remembered as a child +emerged into sunlight and lived again.</p> + +<p>When he began to feel better, drawn into the kindly old times by the +tinkle of that harmless old woman's tongue, he said:</p> + +<p>"I sometimes think I would not so much mind—I should not care so +much—if my spirits were not so depressed, and I so agitated. I suppose +I am not quite well."</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me what's wrong, child, and it's odd but I have a recipe on +the shelf there that will do you good."</p> + +<p>"It is not a matter of that sort I mean; though I'd rather have you than +any doctor, if I needed medicine, to prescribe for me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper smiled in spite of herself, well pleased; for her skill in +pharmacy was a point on which the good lady prided herself, and was open +to flattery, which, without intending it, the simple fellow +administered.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm well enough; I can't say I ever was better. It is only, ma'am, +that I have such dreams—you have no idea."</p> + +<p>"There are dreams and dreams, my dear: there's some signifies no more +than the babble of the lake down there on the pebbles, and there's +others that has a meaning; there's dreams that is but vanity, and +there's dreams that is good, and dreams that is bad. Lady +Mardykes—heavens be her bed this day! that's his grandmother I +mean—was very sharp for reading dreams. Take another cup of tea. Dear +me! what a noise the crows keep aboon our heads, going home! and how +high they wing it!--that's a sure sign of fine weather. An' what do you +dream about? Tell me your dream, and I may show you it's a good one, +after all. For many a dream is ugly to see and ugly to tell, and a good +dream, with a happy meaning, for all that."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> + +<i><b>The Intruder</b></i> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Julaper, dreams I've dreamed like other people, old and +young; but this, ma'am, has taken a fast hold of me," said Mr. Feltram +dejectedly, leaning back in his chair and looking down with his hands in +his pockets. "I think, Mrs. Julaper, it is getting into me. I think it's +like possession."</p> + +<p>"Possession, child! what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I think there is something trying to influence me. Perhaps it is the +way fellows go mad; but it won't let me alone. I've seen it three times, +think of that!"</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, and what <i>have</i> ye seen?" she asked, with an uneasy +cheerfulness, smiling, with eyes fixed steadily upon him; for the idea +of a madman—even gentle Philip in that state—was not quieting.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember the picture, full-length, that had no frame—the lady +in the white-satin saque—she was beautiful, <i>funeste</i>," he added, +talking more to himself; and then more distinctly to Mrs. Julaper +again——"in the white-satin saque; and with the little mob cap and blue +ribbons to it, and a bouquet in her fingers; that was—that—you know +who she was?"</p> + +<p>"That was your great-grandmother, my dear," said Mrs. Julaper, lowering +her eyes. "It was a dreadful pity it was spoiled. The boys in the pantry +had it for a year there on the table for a tray, to wash the glasses on +and the like. It was a shame; that was the prettiest picture in the +house, with the gentlest, rosiest face."</p> + +<p>"It ain't so gentle or rosy now, I can tell you," said Philip. "As fixed +as marble; with thin lips, and a curve at the nostril. Do you remember +the woman that was found dead in the clough, when I was a boy, that the +gipsies murdered, it was thought,—a cruel-looking woman?"</p> + +<p>"Agoy! Master Philip, dear! ye would not name that terrible-looking +creature with the pretty, fresh, kindly face!"</p> + +<p>"Faces change, you see; no matter what she's like; it's her talk that +frightens me. She wants to make use of me; and, you see, it is like +getting a share in my mind, and a voice in my thoughts, and a command +over me gradually; and it is just one idea, as straight as a line of +light across the lake—see what she's come to. O Lord, help me!"</p> + +<p>"Well, now, don't you be talkin' like that. It is just a little bit +dowly and troubled, because the master says a wry word now and then; and +so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies +comes into your head."</p> + +<p>"There's no fancy in my head," he said with a quick look of suspicion; +"only you asked me what I dreamed. I don't care if all the world knew. I +dreamed I went down a flight of steps under the lake, and got a message. +There are no steps near Snakes Island, we all know that," and he laughed +chillily. "I'm out of spirits, as you say; and—and—O dear! I +wish—Mrs. Julaper—I wish I was in my coffin, and quiet."</p> + +<p>"Now that's very wrong of you, Master Philip; you should think of all +the blessings you have, and not be makin' mountains o' molehills; and +those little bits o' temper Sir Bale shows, why, no one minds 'em—that +is, to take 'em to heart like you do, don't ye see?"</p> + +<p>"I daresay; I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you are right. I'm unreasonable +often, I know," said gentle Philip Feltram. "I daresay I make too much +of it; I'll try. I'm his secretary, and I know I'm not so bright as he +is, and it is natural he should sometimes be a little impatient; I ought +to be more reasonable, I'm sure. It is all that thing that has been +disturbing me—I mean fretting, and, I think, I'm not quite well; +and—and letting myself think too much of vexations. It's my own fault, +I'm sure, Mrs. Julaper; and I know I'm to blame."</p> + +<p>"That's quite right, that's spoken like a wise lad; only I don't say +you're to blame, nor no one; for folk can't help frettin' sometimes, no +more than they can help a headache—none but a mafflin would say +that—and I'll not deny but he has dowly ways when the fit's on him, and +he frumps us all round, if such be his humour. But who is there hasn't +his faults? We must bear and forbear, and take what we get and be +cheerful. So chirp up, my lad; Philip, didn't I often ring the a'd rhyme +in your ear long ago?</p> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Be always as merry as ever you can,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For no one delights in a sorrowful man. </span><br> + +<p>"So don't ye be gettin' up off your chair like that, and tramping about +the room wi' your hands in your pockets, looking out o' this window, and +staring out o' that, and sighing and crying, and looking so +black-ox-trodden, 'twould break a body's heart to see you. Ye must be +cheery; and happen you're hungry, and don't know it. I'll tell the cook +to grill a hot bit for ye."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not hungry, Mrs. Julaper. How kind you are! dear me, Mrs. +Julaper, I'm not worthy of it; I don't deserve half your kindness. I'd +have been heartbroken long ago, but for you."</p> + +<p>"And I'll make a sup of something hot for you; you'll take a +rummer-glass of punch—you must."</p> + +<p>"But I like the tea better; I do, indeed, Mrs. Julaper."</p> + +<p>"Tea is no drink for a man when his heart's down. It should be something +with a leg in it, lad; something hot that will warm your courage for ye, +and set your blood a-dancing, and make ye talk brave and merry; and will +you have a bit of a broil first? No? Well then, you'll have a drop o' +punch?—ye sha'n't say no."</p> + +<p>And so, all resistance overpowered, the consolation of Philip Feltram +proceeded.</p> + +<p>A gentler spirit than poor Feltram, a more good-natured soul than the +old housekeeper, were nowhere among the children of earth.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram, who was reserved enough elsewhere, used to come into her +room and cry, and take her by both hands piteously, standing before her +and looking down in her face, while tears ran deviously down his cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know such a case? was there ever a fellow like <i>me</i>? did +you ever <i>know</i> such a thing? You know what I am, Mrs. Julaper, and who +I am. They call me Feltram; but Sir Bale knows as well as I that my true +name is not that. I'm Philip Mardykes; and another fellow would make a +row about it, and claim his name and his rights, as she is always +croaking in my ear I ought. But you know that is not reasonable. My +grandmother was married; she was the true Lady Mardykes; <i>think</i> what it +was to see a woman like that turned out of doors, and her children +robbed of their name. O, ma'am, you <i>can't</i> think it; unless you were +me, you couldn't—you couldn't—you couldn't!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Master Philip, don't you be taking on so; and ye mustn't be +talking like that, d'ye mind? You know he wouldn't stand that; and it's +an old story now, and there's naught can be proved concerning it; and +what I think is this—I wouldn't wonder the poor lady was beguiled. But +anyhow she surely thought she was his lawful wife; and though the law +may hev found a flaw somewhere—and I take it 'twas so—yet sure I am +she was an honourable lady. But where's the use of stirring that old +sorrow? or how can ye prove aught? and the dead hold their peace, you +know; dead mice, they say, feels no cold; and dead folks are past +fooling. So don't you talk like that; for stone walls have ears, and ye +might say that ye couldn't <i>un</i>say; and death's day is doom's day. So +leave all in the keeping of God; and, above all, never lift hand when ye +can't strike."</p> + +<p>"Lift my hand! O, Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that; you little know +me; I did not mean that; I never dreamed of hurting Sir Bale. Good +heavens! Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that! It all comes of my poor +impatient temper, and complaining as I do, and my misery; but O, Mrs. +Julaper, you could not think I ever meant to trouble him by law, or any +other annoyance! I'd like to see a stain removed from my family, and my +name restored; but to touch his property, O, no!--O, no! that never +entered my mind, by heaven! that never entered my mind, Mrs. Julaper. +I'm not cruel; I'm not rapacious; I don't care for money; don't you know +that, Mrs. Julaper? O, surely you won't think me capable of attacking +the man whose bread I have eaten so long! I never dreamed of it; I +should hate myself. Tell me you don't believe it; O, Mrs. Julaper, say +you don't!"</p> + +<p>And the gentle feeble creature burst into tears and good Mrs. Julaper +comforted him with kind words; and he said,</p> + +<p>"Thank you, ma'am; thank you. God knows I would not hurt Bale, nor give +him one uneasy hour. It is only this: that I'm—I'm so miserable; and +I'm only casting in my mind where to turn to, and what to do. So little +a thing would be enough, and then I shall leave Mardykes. I'll go; not +in any anger, Mrs. Julaper—don't think that; but I can't stay, I must +be gone."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, there's nothing yet, Master Philip, to fret you like that. +You should not be talking so wild-like. Master Bale has his sharp word +and his short temper now and again; but I'm sure he likes you. If he +didn't, he'd a-said so to me long ago. I'm sure he likes you well."</p> + +<p>"Hollo! I say, who's there? Where the devil's Mr. Feltram?" called the +voice of the baronet, at a fierce pitch, along the passage.</p> + +<p>"La! Mr. Feltram, it's him! Ye'd better run to him," whispered Mrs. +Julaper.</p> + +<p>"D—n me! does nobody hear? Mrs. Julaper! Hollo! ho! house, there! ho! +D—n me, will nobody answer?"</p> + +<p>And Sir Bale began to slap the wainscot fast and furiously with his +walking-cane with a clatter like a harlequin's lath in a pantomime.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper, a little paler than usual, opened her door, and stood +with the handle in her hand, making a little curtsey, enframed in the +door-case; and Sir Bale, being in a fume, when he saw her, ceased +whacking the panels of the corridor, and stamped on the floor, crying,</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, ma'am, I'm glad to see you! Perhaps you can tell me where +Feltram is?"</p> + +<p>"He is in my room, Sir Bale. Shall I tell him you want him, please?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind; thanks," said the Baronet. "I've a tongue in my head;" +marching down the passage to the housekeeper's room, with his cane +clutched hard, glaring savagely, and with his teeth fast set, like a +fellow advancing to beat a vicious horse that has chafed his temper.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> + +<i><b>The Bank Note</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale brushed by the housekeeper as he strode into her sanctuary, and +there found Philip Feltram awaiting him dejectedly, but with no signs of +agitation.</p> + +<p>If one were to judge by the appearance the master of Mardykes presented, +very grave surmises as to impending violence would have suggested +themselves; but though he clutched his cane so hard that it quivered in +his grasp, he had no notion of committing the outrage of a blow. The +Baronet was unusually angry notwithstanding, and stopping short about +three steps away, addressed Feltram with a pale face and gleaming eyes. +It was quite plain that there was something very exciting upon his mind.</p> + +<p>"I've been looking for you, Mr. Feltram; I want a word or two, if you +have done your—your—whatever it is." He whisked the point of his stick +towards the modest tea-tray. "I should like five minutes in the +library."</p> + +<p>The Baronet was all this time eyeing Feltram with a hard suspicious +gaze, as if he expected to read in his face the shrinkings and +trepidations of guilt; and then turning suddenly on his heel he led the +way to his library—a good long march, with a good many turnings. He +walked very fast, and was not long in getting there. And as Sir Bale +reached the hearth, on which was smouldering a great log of wood, and +turned about suddenly, facing the door, Philip Feltram entered.</p> + +<p>The Baronet looked oddly and stern—so oddly, it seemed to Feltram, that +he could not take his eyes off him, and returned his grim and somewhat +embarrassed gaze with a stare of alarm and speculation.</p> + +<p>And so doing, his step was shortened, and grew slow and slower, and came +quite to a stop before he had got far from the door—a wide stretch of +that wide floor still intervening between him and Sir Bale, who stood +upon the hearthrug, with his heels together and his back to the fire, +cane in hand, like a drill-sergeant, facing him.</p> + +<p>"Shut that door, please; that will do; come nearer now. I don't want to +bawl what I have to say. Now listen."</p> + +<p>The Baronet cleared his voice and paused, with his eyes upon Feltram.</p> + +<p>"It is only two or three days ago," said he, "that you said you wished +you had a hundred pounds. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I think so."</p> + +<p>"<i>Think</i>? you know it, sir, devilish well. You said that you wished to +get away. I have nothing particular to say against that, more especially +now. Do you understand what I say?"</p> + +<p>"Understand, Sir Bale? I do, sir—quite."</p> + +<p>"I daresay quite" he repeated with an angry sneer. "Here, sir, is an odd +coincidence: you want a hundred pounds, and you can't earn it, and you +can't borrow it—there's another way, it seems—but I have got it—a +Bank-of-England note of £100—locked up in that desk;" and he poked the +end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is, +and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys—I've got +one and you have the other—and devil another key in or out of the house +has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want +any d----d lying about it."</p> + +<p>Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something +very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that +unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from +detection, he looked very much put out indeed.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a +bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but +I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to +pay the crown and quit-rents that you know—you—you—no matter—you +know well enough must be paid, I open it so—and so—and look <i>there</i>, +where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone—you understand, the +note's <i>gone</i>!"</p> + +<p>Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye, +poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but +said nothing.</p> + +<p>"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, <i>I</i> did not steal that +note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go +away, and I have no objection to that—but d—n me if you take away that +note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter +in a worse place."</p> + +<p>"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill."</p> + +<p>"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money +off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a +bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and +I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly."</p> + +<p>"May my Maker strike me——"</p> + +<p>"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you +produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off +if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you; +and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you +searched, pockets, bag, and baggage."</p> + +<p>"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have +got it about you?"</p> + +<p>"God forbid, sir! O, Sir—O, Sir Bale—why, Bale, <i>Bale</i>, it's +impossible! You <i>can't</i> believe it. When did I ever wrong you? You know +me since I was not higher than the table, and—and——"</p> + +<p>He burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Stop your snivelling, sir, and give up the note. You know devilish well +I can't spare it; and I won't spare you if you put me to it. I've said +my say."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale signed towards the door; and like a somnambulist, with dilated +gaze and pale as death, Philip Feltram, at his wit's end, went out of +the room. It was not till he had again reached the housekeeper's door +that he recollected in what direction he was going. His shut hand was +pressed with all his force to his heart, and the first breath he was +conscious of was a deep wild sob or two that quivered from his heart as +he looked from the lobby-window upon a landscape which he did not see.</p> + +<p>All he had ever suffered before was mild in comparison with this dire +paroxysm. Now, for the first time, was he made acquainted with his real +capacity for pain, and how near he might be to madness and yet retain +intellect enough to weigh every scruple, and calculate every chance and +consequence, in his torture.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, in the meantime, had walked out a little more excited than he +would have allowed. He was still convinced that Feltram had stolen the +note, but not quite so certain as he had been. There were things in his +manner that confirmed, and others that perplexed, Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>The Baronet stood upon the margin of the lake, almost under the evening +shadow of the house, looking towards Snakes Island. There were two +things about Mardykes he specially disliked.</p> + +<p>One was Philip Feltram, who, right or wrong, he fancied knew more than +was pleasant of his past life.</p> + +<p>The other was the lake. It was a beautiful piece of water, his eye, +educated at least in the excellences of landscape-painting, +acknowledged. But although he could pull a good oar, and liked other +lakes, to this particular sheet of water there lurked within him an +insurmountable antipathy. It was engendered by a variety of +associations.</p> + +<p>There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout +and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near. +His boding was made-up of omens, dreams, and such stuff as he most +affected to despise, and there fluttered at his heart a presentiment and +disgust.</p> + +<p>His foot was on the gunwale of the boat, that was chained to its ring at +the margin; but he would not have crossed that water in it for any +reason that man could urge.</p> + +<p>What was the mischief that sooner or later was to befall him from that +lake, he could not define; but that some fatal danger lurked there, was +the one idea concerning it that had possession of his fancy.</p> + +<p>He was now looking along its still waters, towards the copse and rocks +of Snakes Island, thinking of Philip Feltram; and the yellow level +sunbeams touched his dark features, that bore a saturnine resemblance to +those of Charles II, and marked sharply their firm grim lines, and left +his deep-set eyes in shadow.</p> + +<p>Who has the happy gift to seize the present, as a child does, and live +in it? Who is not often looking far off for his happiness, as Sidney +Smith says, like a man looking for his hat when it is upon his head? Sir +Bale was brooding over his double hatred, of Feltram and of the lake. It +would have been better had he struck down the raven that croaked upon +his shoulder, and listened to the harmless birds that were whistling +all round among the branches in the golden sunset.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> + +<i><b>Feltram's Plan</b></i> + +<p>This horror of the beautiful lake, which other people thought so lovely, +was, in that mind which affected to scoff at the unseen, a distinct +creation of downright superstition.</p> + +<p>The nursery tales which had scared him in his childhood were founded on +the tragedy of Snakes Island, and haunted him with an unavowed +persistence still. Strange dreams untold had visited him, and a German +conjuror, who had made some strangely successful vaticinations, had told +him that his worst enemy would come up to him from a lake. He had heard +very nearly the same thing from a fortune-teller in France; and once at +Lucerne, when he was waiting alone in his room for the hour at which he +had appointed to go upon the lake, all being quiet, there came to the +window, which was open, a sunburnt, lean, wicked face. Its ragged owner +leaned his arm on the window-frame, and with his head in the room, said +in his patois, "Ho! waiting are you? You'll have enough of the lake one +day. Don't you mind watching; they'll send when you're wanted;" and +twisting his yellow face into a malicious distortion, he went on.</p> + +<p>This thing had occurred so suddenly, and chimed-in so oddly with his +thoughts, which were at that moment at distant Mardykes and the haunted +lake, that it disconcerted him. He laughed, he looked out of the window. +He would have given that fellow money to tell him why he said that. But +there was no good in looking for the scamp; he was gone.</p> + +<p>A memory not preoccupied with that lake and its omens, and a +presentiment about himself, would not have noted such things. But <i>his</i> +mind they touched indelibly; and he was ashamed of his childish slavery, +but could not help it.</p> + +<p>The foundation of all this had been laid in the nursery, in the winter's +tales told by its fireside, and which seized upon his fancy and his +fears with a strange congeniality.</p> + +<p>There is a large bedroom at Mardykes Hall, which tradition assigns to +the lady who had perished tragically in the lake. Mrs. Julaper was sure +of it; for her aunt, who died a very old woman twenty years before, +remembered the time of the lady's death, and when she grew to woman's +estate had opportunity in abundance; for the old people who surrounded +her could remember forty years farther back, and tell everything +connected with the old house in beautiful Miss Feltram's time.</p> + +<p>This large old-fashioned room, commanding a view of Snakes Island, the +fells, and the lake—somewhat vast and gloomy, and furnished in a +stately old fashion—was said to be haunted, especially when the wind +blew from the direction of Golden Friars, the point from which it blew +on the night of her death in the lake; or when the sky was overcast, and +thunder rolled among the lofty fells, and lightning gleamed on the wide +sheet of water.</p> + +<p>It was on a night like this that a lady visitor, who long after that +event occupied, in entire ignorance of its supernatural character, that +large room; and being herself a lady of a picturesque turn, and loving +the grander melodrama of Nature, bid her maid leave the shutters open, +and watched the splendid effects from her bed, until, the storm being +still distant, she fell asleep.</p> + +<p>It was travelling slowly across the lake, and it was the deep-mouthed +clangour of its near approach that startled her, at dead of night, from +her slumber, to witness the same phenomena in the tremendous loudness +and brilliancy of their near approach.</p> + +<p>At this magnificent spectacle she was looking with the awful ecstasy of +an observer in whom the sense of danger is subordinated to that of the +sublime, when she saw suddenly at the window a woman, whose long hair +and dress seemed drenched with water. She was gazing in with a look of +terror, and was shaking the sash of the window with vehemence. Having +stood there for a few seconds, and before the lady, who beheld all this +from her bed, could make up her mind what to do, the storm-beaten +figure, wringing her hands, seemed to throw herself backward, and was +gone.</p> + +<p>Possessed with the idea that she had seen some poor woman overtaken in +the storm, who, failing to procure admission there, had gone round to +some of the many doors of the mansion, and obtained an entry there, she +again fell asleep.</p> + +<p>It was not till the morning, when she went to her window to look out +upon the now tranquil scene, that she discovered what, being a stranger +to the house, she had quite forgotten, that this room was at a great +height—some thirty feet—from the ground.</p> + +<p>Another story was that of good old Mr. Randal Rymer, who was often a +visitor at the house in the late Lady Mardykes' day. In his youth he had +been a campaigner; and now that he was a preacher he maintained his +hardy habits, and always slept, summer and winter, with a bit of his +window up. Being in that room in his bed, and after a short sleep lying +awake, the moon shining softly through the window, there passed by that +aperture into the room a figure dressed, it seemed to him, in gray that +was nearly white. It passed straight to the hearth, where was an +expiring wood fire; and cowering over it with outstretched hands, it +appeared to be gathering what little heat was to be had. Mr. Rymer, +amazed and awestruck, made a movement in his bed; and the figure looked +round, with large eyes that in the moonlight looked like melting snow, +and stretching its long arms up the chimney, they and the figure itself +seemed to blend with the smoke, and so pass up and away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, I have said, did not like Feltram. His father, Sir William, +had left a letter creating a trust, it was said, in favour of Philip +Feltram. The document had been found with the will, addressed to Sir +Bale in the form of a letter.</p> + +<p>"That is mine," said the Baronet, when it dropped out of the will; and +he slipped it into his pocket, and no one ever saw it after.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Charles Twyne, the attorney of Golden Friars, whenever he got +drunk, which was pretty often, used to tell his friends with a grave +wink that he knew a thing or two about that letter. It gave Philip +Feltram two hundred a-year, charged on Harfax. It was only a direction. +It made Sir Bale a trustee, however; and having made away with the +"letter," the Baronet had been robbing Philip Feltram ever since.</p> + +<p>Old Twyne was cautious, even in his cups, in his choice of an audience, +and was a little enigmatical in his revelations. For he was afraid of +Sir Bale, though he hated him for employing a lawyer who lived seven +miles away, and was a rival. So people were not quite sure whether Mr. +Twyne was telling lies or truth, and the principal fact that +corroborated his story was Sir Bale's manifest hatred of his secretary. +In fact, Sir Bale's retaining him in his house, detesting him as he +seemed to do, was not easily to be accounted for, except on the +principle of a tacit compromise—a miserable compensation for having +robbed him of his rights.</p> + +<p>The battle about the bank-note proceeded. Sir Bale certainly had doubts, +and vacillated; for moral evidence made powerfully in favour of poor +Feltram, though the evidence of circumstance made as powerfully against +him. But Sir Bale admitted suspicion easily, and in weighing +probabilities would count a virtue very lightly against temptation and +opportunity; and whatever his doubts might sometimes be, he resisted and +quenched them, and never let that ungrateful scoundrel Philip Feltram so +much as suspect their existence.</p> + +<p>For two days Sir Bale had not spoken to Feltram. He passed by on stair +and passage, carrying his head high, and with a thundrous countenance, +rolling conclusions and revenges in his soul.</p> + +<p>Poor Feltram all this time existed in one long agony. He would have left +Mardykes, were it not that he looked vaguely to some just power—to +chance itself—against this hideous imputation. To go with this +indictment ringing in his ears, would amount to a confession and flight.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper consoled him with might and main. She was a sympathetic and +trusting spirit, and knew poor Philip Feltram, in her simplicity, better +than the shrewdest profligate on earth could have known him. She cried +with him in his misery. She was fired with indignation by these +suspicions, and still more at what followed.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale showed no signs of relenting. It might have been that he was +rather glad of so unexceptionable an opportunity of getting rid of +Feltram, who, people thought, knew something which it galled the +Baronet's pride that he should know.</p> + +<p>The Baronet had another shorter and sterner interview with Feltram in +his study. The result was, that unless he restored the missing note +before ten o'clock next morning, he should leave Mardykes.</p> + +<p>To leave Mardykes was no more than Philip Feltram, feeble as he was of +will, had already resolved. But what was to become of him? He did not +very much care, if he could find any calling, however humble, that would +just give him bread.</p> + +<p>There was an old fellow and his wife (an ancient dame,) who lived at the +other side of the lake, on the old territories of the Feltrams, and who, +from some tradition of loyalty, perhaps, were fond of poor Philip +Feltram. They lived somewhat high up on the fells—about as high as +trees would grow—and those which were clumped about their rude dwelling +were nearly the last you passed in your ascent of the mountain. These +people had a multitude of sheep and goats, and lived in their airy +solitude a pastoral and simple life, and were childless. Philip Feltram +was hardy and active, having passed his early days among that arduous +scenery. Cold and rain did not trouble him; and these people being +wealthy in their way, and loving him, would be glad to find him +employment of that desultory pastoral kind which would best suit him.</p> + +<p>This vague idea was the only thing resembling a plan in his mind.</p> + +<p>When Philip Feltram came to Mrs. Julaper's room, and told her that he +had made up his mind to leave the house forthwith—to cross the lake to +the Cloostedd side in Tom Marlin's boat, and then to make his way up the +hill alone to Trebeck's lonely farmstead, Mrs. Julaper was overwhelmed.</p> + +<p>"Ye'll do no such thing to-night, anyhow. You're not to go like that. +Ye'll come into the small room here, where he can't follow; and we'll +sit down and talk it over a bit, and ye'll find 'twill all come +straight; and this will be no night, anyhow, for such a march. Why, +man,'twould take an hour and more to cross the lake, and then a long +uphill walk before ye could reach Trebeck's place; and if the night +should fall while you were still on the mountain, ye might lose your +life among the rocks. It can't be 'tis come to that yet; and the call +was in the air, I'm told, all yesterday, and distant thunder to-day, +travelling this way over Blarwyn Fells; and 'twill be a night no one +will be out, much less on the mountain side."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h4>CHAPTER IX</h4> + +<i><b>The Crazy Parson</b></i> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper had grown weather-wise, living for so long among this noble +and solitary scenery, where people must observe Nature or else +nothing—where signs of coming storm or change are almost local, and +record themselves on particular cliffs and mountain-peaks, or in the +mists, or in mirrored tints of the familiar lake, and are easily learned +or remembered. At all events, her presage proved too true.</p> + +<p>The sun had set an hour and more. It was dark; and an awful +thunder-storm, whose march, like the distant reverberations of an +invading army, had been faintly heard beyond the barriers of Blarwyn +Fells throughout the afternoon, was near them now, and had burst in +deep-mouthed battle among the ravines at the other side, and over the +broad lake, that glared like a sheet of burnished steel under its +flashes of dazzling blue. Wild and fitful blasts sweeping down the +hollows and cloughs of the fells of Golden Friars agitated the lake, and +bent the trees low, and whirled away their sere leaves in melancholy +drift in their tremendous gusts. And from the window, looking on a scene +enveloped in more than the darkness of the night, you saw in the +pulsations of the lightning, before "the speedy gleams the darkness +swallowed," the tossing trees and the flying foam and eddies on the +lake.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the hurlyburly, a loud and long knocking came at the +hall-door of Mardykes. How long it had lasted before a chance lull made +it audible I do not know.</p> + +<p>There was nothing picturesquely poor, any more than there were evidences +of wealth, anywhere in Sir Bale Mardykes' household. He had no lack of +servants, but they were of an inexpensive and homely sort; and the +hall-door being opened by the son of an old tenant on the estate—the +tempest beating on the other side of the house, and comparative shelter +under the gables at the front—he saw standing before him, in the +agitated air, a thin old man, who muttering, it might be, a benediction, +stepped into the hall, and displayed long silver tresses, just as the +storm had blown them, ascetic and eager features, and a pair of large +light eyes that wandered wildly. He was dressed in threadbare black; a +pair of long leather gaiters, buckled high above his knee, protecting +his thin shanks through moss and pool; and the singularity of his +appearance was heightened by a wide-leafed felt hat, over which he had +tied his handkerchief, so as to bring the leaf of it over his ears, and +to secure it from being whirled from his head by the storm.</p> + +<p>This odd and storm-beaten figure—tall, and a little stooping, as well +as thin—was not unknown to the servant, who saluted him with something +of fear as well as of respect as he bid him reverently welcome, and +asked him to come in and sit by the fire.</p> + +<p>"Get you to your master, and tell him I have a message to him from one +he has not seen for two-and-forty years."</p> + +<p>As the old man, with his harsh old voice, thus spoke, he unknotted his +handkerchief and bet the rain-drops from his hat upon his knee.</p> + +<p>The servant knocked at the library-door, where he found Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the matter?" cried Sir Bale sharply, from his chair before +the fire, with angry eyes looking over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Here's 't sir cumman, Sir Bale," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Sir," or "the Sir," is still used as the clergyman's title in the +Northumbrian counties.</p> + +<p>"What sir?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Hugh Creswell, if you please, Sir Bale."</p> + +<p>"Ho!--mad Creswell?—O, the crazy parson. Well, tell Mrs. Julaper to +let him have some supper—and—and to let him have a bed in some +suitable place. That's what he wants. These mad fellows know what they +are about."</p> + +<p>"No, Sir Bale Mardykes, that is not what he wants," said the loud wild +voice of the daft sir over the servant's shoulder. "Often has Mardykes +Hall given me share of its cheer and its shelter and the warmth of its +fire; and I bless the house that has been an inn to the wayfarer of the +Lord. But to-night I go up the lake to Pindar's Bield, three miles on; +and there I rest and refresh—not here."</p> + +<p>"And why not <i>here</i>, Mr. Creswell?" asked the Baronet; for about this +crazy old man, who preached in the fields, and appeared and disappeared +so suddenly in the orbit of his wide and unknown perambulations of those +northern and border counties, there was that sort of superstitious +feeling which attaches to the mysterious and the good—an idea that it +was lucky to harbour and dangerous to offend him. No one knew whence he +came or whither he went. Once in a year, perhaps, he might appear at a +lonely farmstead door among the fells, salute the house, enter, and be +gone in the morning. His life was austere; his piety enthusiastic, +severe, and tinged with the craze which inspired among the rustic +population a sort of awe.</p> + +<p>"I'll not sleep at Mardykes to-night; neither will I eat, nor drink, nor +sit me down—no, nor so much as stretch my hands to the fire. As the man +of God came out of Judah to king Jeroboam, so come I to you, sent by a +vision, to bear a warning; and as he said, 'If thou wilt give me half +thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor +drink water in this place,' so also say I."</p> + +<p>"Do as you please," said Sir Bale, a little sulkily. "Say your say; and +you are welcome to stay or go, if go you will on so mad a night as +this."</p> + +<p>"Leave us," said Creswell, beckoning the servant back with his thin +hands; "what I have to say is to your master."</p> + +<p>The servant went, in obedience to a gesture from Sir Bale, and shut the +door.</p> + +<p>The old man drew nearer to the Baronet, and lowering his loud stern +voice a little, and interrupting his discourse from time to time, to +allow the near thunder-peals to subside, he said,</p> + +<p>"Answer me, Sir Bale—what is this that has chanced between you and +Philip Feltram?"</p> + +<p>The Baronet, under the influence of that blunt and peremptory demand, +told him shortly and sternly enough.</p> + +<p>"And of all these facts you are sure, else ye would not blast your early +companion and kinsman with the name of thief?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> sure," said Sir Bale grimly.</p> + +<p>"Unlock that cabinet," said the old man with the long white locks.</p> + +<p>"I've no objection," said Sir Bale; and he did unlock an old oak cabinet +that stood, carved in high relief with strange figures and gothic +grotesques, against the wall, opposite the fireplace. On opening it +there were displayed a system of little drawers and pigeon-holes such as +we see in more modern escritoires.</p> + +<p>"Open that drawer with the red mark of a seal upon it," continued Hugh +Creswell, pointing to it with his lank finger.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did so; and to his momentary amazement, and even consternation, +there lay the missing note, which now, with one of those sudden caprices +of memory which depend on the laws of suggestion and association, he +remembered having placed there with his own hand.</p> + +<p>"That is it," said old Creswell with a pallid smile, and fixing his wild +eyes on the Baronet. The smile subsided into a frown, and said he: "Last +night I slept near Haworth Moss; and your father came to me in a dream, +and said: 'My son Bale accuses Philip of having stolen a bank-note from +his desk. He forgets that he himself placed it in his cabinet. Come with +me.' I was, in the spirit, in this room; and he led me to this cabinet, +which he opened; and in that drawer he showed me that note. 'Go,' said +he, 'and tell him to ask Philip Feltram's pardon, else he will but go in +weakness to return in power;' and he said that which it is not lawful to +repeat. My message is told. Now a word from myself," he added sternly. +"The dead, through my lips, has spoken, and under God's thunder and +lightning his words have found ye. Why so uppish wi' Philip Feltram? See +how ye threaped, and yet were wrong. He's no tazzle—he's no taggelt. +Ask his pardon. Ye must change, or he will no taggelt. Go, in weakness, +come in power: mark ye the words. 'Twill make a peal that will be heard +in toon and desert, in the swirls o' the mountain, through pikes and +valleys, and mak' a waaly man o' thee."</p> + +<p>The old man with these words, uttered in the broad northern dialect of +his common speech, strode from the room and shut the door. In another +minute he was forth into the storm, pursuing what remained of his long +march to Pindar's Bield.</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul!" said Sir Bale, recovering from his sort of stun which +the sudden and strange visit had left, "that's a cool old fellow! Come +to rate me and teach me my own business in my own house!" and he rapped +out a fierce oath. "Change his mind or no, here he sha'n't stay +to-night—not an hour."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was in the lobby in a moment, and thundered to his servants:</p> + +<p>"I say, put that fool out of the door—put him out by the shoulder, and +never let him put his foot inside it more!"</p> + +<p>But the old man's yea was yea, and his nay nay. He had quite meant what +he said; and, as I related, was beyond the reach of the indignity of +extrusion.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale on his return shut his door as violently as if it were in the +face of the old prophet.</p> + +<p>"Ask Feltram's pardon, by Jove! For what? Why, any jury on earth would +have hanged him on half the evidence; and I, like a fool, was going to +let him off with his liberty and my hundred pound-note! Ask his pardon +indeed!"</p> + +<p>Still there were misgivings in his mind; a consciousness that he did owe +explanation and apology to Feltram, and an insurmountable reluctance to +undertake either. The old dislike—a contempt mingled with fear—not any +fear of his malevolence, a fear only of his carelessness and folly; for, +as I have said, Feltram knew many things, it was believed, of the +Baronet's Continental and Asiatic life, and had even gently remonstrated +with him upon the dangers into which he was running. A simple fellow +like Philip Feltram is a dangerous depository of a secret. This Baronet +was proud, too; and the mere possession of his secrets by Feltram was an +involuntary insult, which Sir Bale could not forgive. He wished him far +away; and except for the recovery of his bank-note, which he could ill +spare, he was sorry that this suspicion was cleared up.</p> + +<p>The thunder and storm were unabated; it seemed indeed that they were +growing wilder and more awful.</p> + +<p>He opened the window-shutter and looked out upon that sublimest of +scenes; and so intense and magnificent were its phenomena, that Sir +Bale, for a while, was absorbed in this contemplation.</p> + +<p>When he turned about, the sight of his £100 note, still between his +finger and thumb, made him smile grimly.</p> + +<p>The more he thought of it, the clearer it was that he could not leave +matters exactly as they were. Well, what should he do? He would send for +Mrs. Julaper, and tell her vaguely that he had changed his mind about +Feltram, and that he might continue to stay at Mardykes Hall as usual. +That would suffice. She could speak to Feltram.</p> + +<p>He sent for her; and soon, in the lulls of the great uproar without, he +could hear the jingle of Mrs. Julaper's keys and her light tread upon +the lobby.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Julaper," said the Baronet, in his dry careless way, "Feltram may +remain; your eloquence has prevailed. What have you been crying about?" +he asked, observing that his housekeeper's usually cheerful face was, in +her own phrase, 'all cried.'</p> + +<p>"It is too late, sir; he's gone."</p> + +<p>"And when did he go?" asked Sir Bale, a little put out. "He chose an odd +evening, didn't he? So like him!"</p> + +<p>"He went about half an hour ago; and I'm very sorry, sir; it's a sore +sight to see the poor lad going from the place he was reared in, and a +hard thing, sir; and on such a night, above all."</p> + +<p>"No one asked him to go to-night. Where is he gone to?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, I'm sure; he left my room, sir, when I was upstairs; and +Janet saw him pass the window not ten minutes after Mr. Creswell left +the house."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, there's no good, Mrs. Julaper, in thinking more about it; +he has settled the matter his own way; and as he so ordains it—amen, +say I. Goodnight."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h4>CHAPTER X</h4> + +<i><b>Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat</b></i> + +<p>Philip Feltram was liked very well—a gentle, kindly, and very timid +creature, and, before he became so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a +joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Where will Sir Bale +find so unresisting and respectful a butt and retainer? and whom will he +bully now?</p> + +<p>Something like remorse was worrying Sir Bale's heart a little; and the +more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell that night, with +its unexplained menace, the more uneasy he became.</p> + +<p>The storm continued; and even to him there seemed something exaggerated +and inhuman in the severity of his expulsion on such a night. It was his +own doing, it was true; but would people believe that? and would he have +thought of leaving Mardykes at all if it had not been for his kinsman's +severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh +Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how +all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, he would +have found him still in the house?—for he had not yet gone for ten +minutes after Creswell's departure, and thus, all that was to follow +might have been averted. But it was too late now, and Sir Bale would let +the affair take its own course.</p> + +<p>Below him, outside the window at which he stood ruminating, he heard +voices mingling with the storm. He could with tolerable certainty +perceive, looking into the obscurity, that there were three men passing +close under it, carrying some very heavy burden among them.</p> + +<p>He did not know what these three black figures in the obscurity were +about. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the +front, and in the lulls of the storm could hear their gruff voices +talking.</p> + +<p>We have all experienced what a presentiment is, and we all know with +what an intuition the faculty of observation is sometimes heightened. It +was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a +dream—a sort of knowledge that what those people were about was in a +dreadful way connected with his own fate.</p> + +<p>He watched for a time, thinking that they might return; but they did +not. He was in a state of uncomfortable suspense.</p> + +<p>"If they want me, they won't have much trouble in finding me, nor any +scruple, egad, in plaguing me; they never have."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale returned to his letters, a score of which he was that night +getting off his conscience—an arrear which would not have troubled him +had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether to employ Philip +Feltram, who had been accustomed to take all that sort of drudgery off +his hands.</p> + +<p>All the time he was writing now he had a feeling that the shadows he had +seen pass under his window were machinating some trouble for him, and an +uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, +fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless wait he would say +to himself, "If any one is coming, why the devil don't he come?" and +then he would apply himself again to his letters.</p> + +<p>But on a sudden he heard good Mrs. Julaper's step trotting along the +lobby, and the tiny ringing of her keys.</p> + +<p>Here was news coming; and the Baronet stood up looking at the door, on +which presently came a hurried rapping; and before he had answered, in +the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the +house, the good woman opened the door in great agitation, and cried with +a tremulous uplifting of her hands.</p> + +<p>"O, Sir Bale! O, la, sir! here's poor dear Philip Feltram come home +dead!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale stared at her sternly for some seconds.</p> + +<p>"Gome, now, do be distinct," said Sir Bale; "what has happened?"</p> + +<p>"He's lying on the sofer in the old still-room. You never saw—my +God!--O, sir—what is life?"</p> + +<p>"D—n it, can't you cry by-and-by, and tell me what's the matter now?"</p> + +<p>"A bit o' fire there, as luck would have it; but what is hot or cold +now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and +Tom Warren is on the gallop down to Golden Friars for Doctor Torvey."</p> + +<p>"<i>Is</i> he drowned, or is it only a ducking? Come, bring me to the place. +Dead men don't usually want a fire, or consult doctors. I'll see for +myself."</p> + +<p>So Sir Bale Mardykes, pale and grim, accompanied by the light-footed +Mrs. Julaper, strode along the passages, and was led by her into the old +still-room, which had ceased to be used for its original purpose. All +the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also +who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, +with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water along the +wrinkles and pockets of his waistcoat and from the feet of his trousers, +and pumping and oozing from his shoes, and streaming from his hair down +the channels of his cheeks like a continuous rain of tears.</p> + +<p>The people drew back a little as Sir Bale entered with a quick step and +a sharp pallid frown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over +Philip Feltram, who lay on a low bed next the wall, dimly lighted by two +or three candles here and there about the room.</p> + +<p>He laid his hand, for a moment, on his cold wet breast.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale knew what should be done in order to give a man in such a case +his last chance for life. Everybody was speedily put in motion. Philip's +drenched clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans +and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so +that the water flowed freely from his mouth. The old expedient for +inducing artificial breathing was employed, and a lusty pair of bellows +did duty for his lungs.</p> + +<p>But these helps to life, and suggestions to nature, availed not. Forlorn +and peaceful lay the features of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to +the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in the fish-like +eyes; pulseless and cold in the midst of all the hot bricks and +warming-pans about him.</p> + +<p>At length, everything having been tried, Sir Bale, who had been +directing, placed his hand within the clothes, and laid it silently on +Philip's shoulder and over his heart; and after a little wait, he shook +his head, and looking down on his sunken face, he said,</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he's gone. Yes, he's gone, poor fellow! And bear you this +in mind, all of you; Mrs. Julaper there can tell you more about it. She +knows that it was certainly in no compliance with my wish that he left +the house to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps—I +forgive him for it—a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some +blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; +than which imputation nothing can be more utterly false. Mrs. Julaper +there knows how welcome he was to stay the night; but he would not; he +had made up his mind, it seems, without telling any person. Had he told +you, Mrs. Julaper?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," sobbed Mrs. Julaper from the centre of a pocket-handkerchief +in which her face was buried.</p> + +<p>"Not a human being: an angry whim of his own. Poor Feltram! and here's +the result," said the Baronet. "We have done our best—done everything. +I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will say that anything has been +omitted; but all won't do. Does any one here know how it happened?"</p> + +<p>Two men knew very well—the man who had been ducked, and his companion, +a younger man, who was also in the still-room, and had lent a hand in +carrying Feltram up to the house.</p> + +<p>Tom Marlin had a queer old stone tenement by the edge of the lake just +under Mardykes Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower +that had once belonged to Mardykes Castle, of which in the modern +building scarcely a relic was discoverable.</p> + +<p>This Tom Marlin had an ancient right of fishing in the lake, where he +caught pike enough for all Golden Friars; and keeping a couple of boats, +he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This +fellow, with a furrowed face and shaggy eyebrows, bald at top, but with +long grizzled locks falling upon his shoulders, said,</p> + +<p>"He wer wi' me this mornin', sayin' he'd want t' boat to cross the lake +in, but he didn't say what hour; and when it came on to thunder and blow +like this, ye guess I did not look to see him to-night. Well, my wife +was just lightin' a pig-tail—tho' light enough and to spare there was +in the lift already—when who should come clatterin' at the latch-pin in +the blow o' thunder and wind but Philip, poor lad, himself; and an ill +hour for him it was. He's been some time in ill fettle, though he was +never frowsy, not he, but always kind and dooce, and canty once, like +anither; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the +Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't +hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be +put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' +ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long +last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes +Island, so I'll pull him by that side—for the storm is blowin' right up +by Golden Friars, ye mind—and when we get near the point, thinks I, +he'll see wi' his een how the lake is, and gie it up. For I liked him, +poor lad; and seein' he'd set his heart on't, I wouldn't vex nor frump +him wi' a no. So down we three—myself, and Bill there, and Philip +Feltram—come to the boat; and we pulled out, keeping Snakes Island +atwixt us and the wind. 'Twas smooth water wi' us, for 'twas a scug +there, but white enough was all beyont the point; and passing the +finger-stone, not forty fathom from the shore o' the island, Bill and me +pullin' and he sittin' in the stern, poor lad, up he rises, a bit +rabblin' to himself, wi' his hands lifted so.</p> + +<p>"'Look a-head!' says I, thinkin' something wos comin' atort us.</p> + +<p>"But 'twasn't that. The boat was quiet, for while we looked, oo'er our +shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still; and lookin' +back again on Philip, he was rabblin' on all the same.</p> + +<p>"'It's nobbut a prass wi' himsel", poor lad,' thinks I.</p> + +<p>"But that wasn't it neither; for I sid something white come out o' t' +water, by the gunwale, like a hand. By Jen! and he leans oo'er and tuk +it; and he sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I +cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, +and I followed; and thrice I dived before I found him, and brought him +up by the hair at last; and there he is, poor lad! and all one if he lay +at the bottom o' t' mere."</p> + +<p>As Tom Marlin ended his narrative—often interrupted by the noise of the +tempest without, and the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, +like the chorus of a melancholy ballad—the sudden clang of the +hall-door bell, and a more faintly-heard knocking, announced a new +arrival.</p> + +<a name="IMAGE_1"></a> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image1.jpg" width="346" height="240" +alt=""I sid something white come out o' t' water, +by the gunwale, like a hand.""></p> + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XI</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale's Dream</b></i> + +<p>It was Doctor Torvey who entered the old still-room now, buttoned-up to +the chin in his greatcoat, and with a muffler of many colours wrapped +partly over that feature.</p> + +<p>"Well!--hey? So poor Feltram's had an accident?"</p> + +<p>The Doctor was addressing Sir Bale, and getting to the bedside as he +pulled off his gloves.</p> + +<p>"I see you've been keeping him warm—that's right; and a considerable +flow of water from his mouth; turn him a little that way. Hey? O, ho!" +said the Doctor, as he placed his hand upon Philip, and gently stirred +his limbs. "It's more than an hour since this happened. I'm afraid +there's very little to be done now;" and in a lower tone, with his hand +on poor Philip Feltram's arm, and so down to his fingers, he said in Sir +Bale Mardykes' ear, with a shake of his head,</p> + +<p>"Here, you see, poor fellow, here's the cadaveric stiffness; it's very +melancholy, but it's all over, he's gone; there's no good trying any +more. Come here, Mrs. Julaper. Did you ever see any one dead? Look at +his eyes, look at his mouth. You ought to have known that, with half an +eye. And you know," he added again confidentially in Sir Bale's ear, +"trying any more <i>now</i> is all my eye."</p> + +<p>Then after a few more words with the Baronet, and having heard his +narrative, he said from time to time, "Quite right; nothing could be +better; capital practice, sir," and so forth. And at the close of all +this, amid the sobs of kind Mrs. Julaper and the general whimpering of +the humbler handmaids, the Doctor standing by the bed, with his knuckles +on the coverlet, and a glance now and then on the dead face beside him, +said—by way of 'quieting men's minds,' as the old tract-writers used to +say—a few words to the following effect:</p> + +<p>"Everything has been done here that the most experienced physician could +have wished. Everything has been done in the best way. I don't know +anything that has not been done, in fact. If I had been here myself, I +don't know—hot bricks—salt isn't a bad thing. I don't know, I say, +that anything of any consequence has been omitted." And looking at the +body, "You see," and he drew the fingers a little this way and that, +letting them return, as they stiffly did, to their former attitude, "you +may be sure that the poor gentleman was quite dead by the time he +arrived here. So, since he was laid there, nothing has been lost by +delay. And, Sir Bale, if you have any directions to send to Golden +Friars, sir, I shall be most happy to undertake your message."</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thanks; it is a melancholy ending, poor fellow! You must come +to the study with me, Doctor Torvey, and talk a little bit more; +and—very sad, doctor—and you must have a glass of sherry, or some +port—the port used not to be bad here; I don't take it—but very +melancholy it is—bring some port and sherry; and, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +be good enough to see that everything that should be done here is looked +to; and let Marlin and the men have supper and something to drink. You +have been too long in your wet clothes, Marlin."</p> + +<p>So, with gracious words all round, he led the Doctor to the library +where he had been sitting, and was affable and hospitable, and told him +his own version of all that had passed between him and Philip Feltram, +and presented himself in an amiable point of view, and pleased the +Doctor with his port and flatteries—for he could not afford to lose +anyone's good word just now; and the Doctor was a bit of a gossip, and +in most houses in that region, in one character or another, every three +months in the year.</p> + +<p>So in due time the Doctor drove back to Golden Friars, with a high +opinion of Sir Bale, and higher still of his port, and highest of all of +himself: in the best possible humour with the world, not minding the +storm that blew in his face, and which he defied in good-humoured +mock-heroics spoken in somewhat thick accents, and regarding the thunder +and lightning as a lively gala of fireworks; and if there had been a +chance of finding his cronies still in the George and Dragon, he would +have been among them forthwith, to relate the tragedy of the night, and +tell what a good fellow, after all, Sir Bale was; and what a fool, at +best, poor Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>But the George was quiet for that night. The thunder rolled over +voiceless chambers; and the lights had been put out within the windows, +on whose multitudinous small panes the lightning glared. So the Doctor +went home to Mrs. Torvey, whom he charmed into good-humoured curiosity +by the tale of wonder he had to relate.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale's qualms were symptomatic of something a little less sublime +and more selfish than conscience. He was not sorry that Philip Feltram +was out of the way. His lips might begin to babble inconveniently at any +time, and why should not his mouth be stopped? and what stopper so +effectual as that plug of clay which fate had introduced? But he did not +want to be charged with the odium of the catastrophe. Every man cares +something for the opinion of his fellows. And seeing that Feltram had +been well liked, and that his death had excited a vehement +commiseration, Sir Bale did not wish it to be said that he had made the +house too hot to hold him, and had so driven him to extremity.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale's first agitation had subsided. It was now late, he had written +many letters, and he was tired. It was not wonderful, then, that having +turned his lounging-chair to the fire, he should have fallen asleep in +it, as at last he did.</p> + +<p>The storm was passing gradually away by this time. The thunder was now +echoing among the distant glens and gorges of Daulness Fells, and the +angry roar and gusts of the tempest were subsiding into the melancholy +soughing and piping that soothe like a lullaby.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale therefore had his unpremeditated sleep very comfortably, except +that his head was hanging a little uneasily; which, perhaps, helped him +to this dream.</p> + +<p>It was one of those dreams in which the continuity of the waking state +that immediately preceded it seems unbroken; for he thought that he was +sitting in the chair which he occupied, and in the room where he +actually was. It seemed to him that he got up, took a candle in his +hand, and went through the passages to the old still-room where Philip +Feltram lay. The house seemed perfectly still. He could hear the chirp +of the crickets faintly from the distant kitchen, and the tick of the +clock sounded loud and hollow along the passage. In the old still-room, +as he opened the door, was no light, except what was admitted from the +candle he carried. He found the body of poor Philip Feltram just as he +had left it—his gentle face, saddened by the touch of death, was turned +upwards, with white lips: with traces of suffering fixed in its +outlines, such as caused Sir Bale, standing by the bed, to draw the +coverlet over the dead man's features, which seemed silently to upbraid +him. "Gone in weakness!" said Sir Bale, repeating the words of the "daft +sir," Hugh Creswell; as he did so, a voice whispered near him, with a +great sigh, "Come in power!" He looked round, in his dream, but there +was no one; the light seemed to fail, and a horror slowly overcame him, +especially as he thought he saw the figure under the coverlet stealthily +beginning to move. Backing towards the door, for he could not take his +eyes off it, he saw something like a huge black ape creep out at the +foot of the bed; and springing at him, it griped him by the throat, so +that he could not breathe; and a thousand voices were instantly round +him, holloaing, cursing, laughing in his ears; and in this direful +plight he waked.</p> + +<p>Was it the ring of those voices still in his ears, or a real shriek, and +another, and a long peal, shriek after shriek, swelling madly through +the distant passages, that held him still, freezing in the horror of his +dream?</p> + +<p>I will tell you what this noise was.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XII</h4> + +<i><b>Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch</b></i> + +<p>After his bottle of port with Sir Bale, the Doctor had gone down again +to the room where poor Philip Feltram lay.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper had dried her eyes, and was busy by this time; and two old +women were making all their arrangements for a night-watch by the body, +which they had washed, and, as their phrase goes, 'laid out' in the +humble bed where it had lain while there was still a hope that a spark +sufficient to rekindle the fire of life might remain. These old women +had points of resemblance: they were lean, sallow, and wonderfully +wrinkled, and looked each malign and ugly enough for a witch.</p> + +<p>Marcella Bligh's thin hooked nose was now like the beak of a bird of +prey over the face of the drowned man, upon whose eyelids she was +placing penny-pieces, to keep them from opening; and her one eye was +fixed on her work, its sightless companion showing white in its socket, +with an ugly leer.</p> + +<p>Judith Wale was lifting the pail of hot water with which they had just +washed the body. She had long lean arms, a hunched back, a great sharp +chin sunk on her hollow breast, and small eyes restless as a ferret's; +and she clattered about in great bowls of shoes, old and clouted, that +were made for a foot as big as two of hers.</p> + +<p>The Doctor knew these two old women, who were often employed in such +dismal offices.</p> + +<p>"How does Mrs. Bligh? See me with half an eye? Hey—that's rhyme, isn't +it?—And, Judy lass—why, I thought you lived nearer the town—here +making poor Mr. Feltram's last toilet. You have helped to dress many a +poor fellow for his last journey. Not a bad notion of drill either—they +stand at attention stiff and straight enough in the sentry-box. Your +recruits do you credit, Mrs. Wale."</p> + +<p>The Doctor stood at the foot of the bed to inspect, breathing forth a +vapour of very fine old port, his hands in his pockets, speaking with a +lazy thickness, and looking so comfortable and facetious, that Mrs. +Julaper would have liked to turn him out of the room.</p> + +<p>But the Doctor was not unkind, only extremely comfortable. He was a +good-natured fellow, and had thought and care for the living, but not a +great deal of sentiment for the dead, whom he had looked in the face too +often to be much disturbed by the spectacle.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to keep that bandage on. You should be sharp; you should +know all about it, girl, by this time, and not let those muscles +stiffen. I need not tell you the mouth shuts as easily as this +snuff-box, if you only take it in time.—I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +send to Jos Fringer for the poor fellow's outfit. Fringer is a very +proper man—there ain't a properer und-aker in England. I always +re-mmend Fringer—in Church-street in Golden Friars. You know Fringer, I +daresay."</p> + +<p>"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. That will be as Sir Bale may please to +direct," answered Mrs. Julaper.</p> + +<p>"You've got him very straight—straighter than I thought you could; but +the large joints were not so stiff. A very little longer wait, and you'd +hardly have got him into his coffin. He'll want a vr-r-ry long one, poor +lad. Short cake is life, ma'am. Sad thing this. They'll open their eyes, +I promise you, down in the town. 'Twill be cool enough, I'd shay, affre +all th-thunr-thunnle, you know. I think I'll take a nip, Mrs. Jool-fr, +if you wouldn't mine makin' me out a thimmle-ful +bran-band-bran-rand-andy, eh, Mishs Joolfr?"</p> + +<p>And the Doctor took a chair by the fire; and Mrs. Julaper, with a +dubious conscience and dry hospitality, procured the brandy-flask and +wine-glass, and helped the physician in a thin hesitating stream, which +left him ample opportunity to cry "Hold—enough!" had he been so minded. +But that able physician had no confidence, it would seem, in any dose +under a bumper, which he sipped with commendation, and then fell asleep +with the firelight on his face—to tender-hearted Mrs. Julaper's +disgust—and snored with a sensual disregard of the solemnity of his +situation; until with a profound nod, or rather dive, toward the fire, +he awoke, got up and shook his ears with a kind of start, and standing +with his back to the fire, asked for his muffler and horse; and so took +his leave also of the weird sisters, who were still pottering about the +body, with croak and whisper, and nod and ogle. He took his leave also +of good Mrs. Julaper, who was completing arrangements with teapot and +kettle, spiced elderberry wine, and other comforts, to support them +through their proposed vigil. And finally, in a sort of way, he took his +leave of the body, with a long business-like stare, from the foot of the +bed, with his short hands stuffed into his pockets. And so, to Mrs. +Julaper's relief, this unseemly doctor, speaking thickly, departed.</p> + +<p>And now, the Doctor being gone, and all things prepared for the 'wake' +to be observed by withered Mrs. Bligh of the one eye, and yellow Mrs. +Wale of the crooked back, the house grew gradually still. The thunder +had by this time died into the solid boom of distant battle, and the +fury of the gale had subsided to the long sobbing wail that is charged +with so eerie a melancholy. Within all was stirless, and the two old +women, each a 'Mrs.' by courtesy, who had not much to thank Nature or +the world for, sad and cynical, and in a sort outcasts told off by +fortune to these sad and grizzly services, sat themselves down by the +fire, each perhaps feeling unusually at home in the other's society; and +in this soured and forlorn comfort, trimming their fire, quickening the +song of the kettle to a boil, and waxing polite and chatty; each +treating the other with that deprecatory and formal courtesy which +invites a return in kind, and both growing strangely happy in this +little world of their own, in the unusual and momentary sense of an +importance and consideration which were delightful.</p> + +<p>The old still-room of Mardykes Hall is an oblong room wainscoted. From +the door you look its full length to the wide stone-shafted Tudor window +at the other end. At your left is the ponderous mantelpiece, supported +by two spiral stone pillars; and close to the door at the right was the +bed in which the two crones had just stretched poor Philip Feltram, who +lay as still as an uncoloured wax-work, with a heavy penny-piece on each +eye, and a bandage under his jaw, making his mouth look stern. And the +two old ladies over their tea by the fire conversed agreeably, compared +their rheumatisms and other ailments wordily, and talked of old times, +and early recollections, and of sick-beds they had attended, and corpses +that "you would not know, so pined and windered" were they; and others +so fresh and canny, you'd say the dead had never looked so bonny in +life.</p> + +<p>Then they began to talk of people who grew tall in their coffins, of +others who had been buried alive, and of others who walked after death. +Stories as true as holy writ.</p> + +<p>"Were you ever down by Hawarth, Mrs. Bligh—hard by Dalworth Moss?" +asked crook-backed Mrs. Wale, holding her spoon suspended over her cup.</p> + +<p>"Neea whaar sooa far south, Mrs. Wale, ma'am; but ma father was off +times down thar cuttin' peat."</p> + +<p>"Ah, then ye'll not a kenned farmer Dykes that lived by the Lin-tree +Scaur. 'Tweer I that laid him out, poor aad fellow, and a dow man he +was when aught went cross wi' him; and he cursed and sweared, twad gar +ye dodder to hear him. They said he was a hard man wi' some folk; but he +kep a good house, and liked to see plenty, and many a time when I was +swaimous about my food, he'd clap t' meat on ma plate, and mak' me eat +ma fill. Na, na—there was good as well as bad in farmer Dykes. It was a +year after he deed, and Tom Ettles was walking home, down by the Birken +Stoop one night, and not a soul nigh, when he sees a big ball, as high +as his knee, whirlin' and spangin' away before him on the road. What it +wer he could not think; but he never consayted there was a freet or a bo +thereaway; so he kep near it, watching every spang and turn it took, +till it ran into the gripe by the roadside. There was a gravel pit just +there, and Tom Ettles wished to take another gliff at it before he went +on. But when he keeked into the pit, what should he see but a man +attoppa a horse that could not get up or on: and says he, 'I think ye be +at a dead-lift there, gaffer.' And wi' the word, up looks the man, and +who sud it be but farmer Dykes himsel; and Tom Ettles saw him plain +eneugh, and kenned the horse too for Black Captain, the farmer's aad +beast, that broke his leg and was shot two years and more before the +farmer died. 'Ay,' says farmer Dykes, lookin' very bad; +'forsett-and-backsett, ye'll tak me oot, Tom Ettles, and clap ye doun +behint me quick, or I'll claw ho'd o' thee.' Tom felt his hair risin' +stiff on his heed, and his tongue so fast to the roof o' his mouth he +could scarce get oot a word; but says he, 'If Black Jack can't do it o' +noo, he'll ne'er do't and carry double.' 'I ken my ain business best,' +says Dykes. 'If ye gar me gie ye a look, 'twill gie ye the creepin's +while ye live; so git ye doun, Tom;' and with that the dobby lifts its +neaf, and Tom saw there was a red light round horse and man, like the +glow of a peat fire. And says Tom, 'In the name o' God, ye'll let me +pass;' and with the word the gooast draws itsel' doun, all a-creaked, +like a man wi' a sudden pain; and Tom Ettles took to his heels more deed +than alive."</p> + +<p>They had approached their heads, and the story had sunk to that +mysterious murmur that thrills the listener, when in the brief silence +that followed they heard a low odd laugh near the door.</p> + +<p>In that direction each lady looked aghast, and saw Feltram sitting +straight up in the bed, with the white bandage in his hand, and as it +seemed, for one foot was below the coverlet, near the floor, about to +glide forth.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bligh, uttering a hideous shriek, clutched Mrs. Wale, and Mrs. +Wale, with a scream as dreadful, gripped Mrs. Bligh; and quite +forgetting their somewhat formal politeness, they reeled and tugged, +wrestling towards the window, each struggling to place her companion +between her and the 'dobby,' and both uniting in a direful peal of +yells.</p> + +<p>This was the uproar which had startled Sir Bale from his dream, and was +now startling the servants from theirs.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIII</h4> + +<i><b>The Mist on the Mountain</b></i> + +<p>Doctor Torvey was sent for early next morning, and came full of wonder, +learning and scepticism. Seeing is believing, however; and there was +Philip Feltram living, and soon to be, in all bodily functions, just as +usual.</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, Sir Bale, I couldn't have believed it, if I had not seen +it with my eyes," said the Doctor impressively, while sipping a glass of +sherry in the 'breakfast parlour,' as the great panelled and pictured +room next the dining-room was called. "I don't think there is any +similar case on record—no pulse, no more than the poker; no +respiration, by Jove, no more than the chimney-piece; as cold as a lead +image in the garden there. Well, you'll say all that might possibly be +fallacious; but what will you say to the cadaveric stiffness? Old Judy +Wale can tell you; and my friend Marcella—Monocula would be nearer the +mark—Mrs. Bligh, she knows all those common, and I may say up to this, +infallible, signs of death, as well as I do. There is no mystery about +them; they'll depose to the literality of the symptoms. You heard how +they gave tongue. Upon my honour, I'll send the whole case up to my old +chief, Sir Hervey Hansard, to London. You'll hear what a noise it will +make among the profession. There never was—and it ain't too much to +say there never <i>will</i> be—another case like it."</p> + +<p>During this lecture, and a great deal more, Sir Bale leaned back in his +chair, with his legs extended, his heels on the ground, and his arms +folded, looking sourly up in the face of a tall lady in white satin, in +a ruff, and with a bird on her hand, who smiled down superciliously from +her frame on the Baronet. Sir Bale seemed a little bit high and dry with +the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"You physicians are unquestionably," he said, "a very learned +profession."</p> + +<p>The Doctor bowed.</p> + +<p>"But there's just one thing you know nothing about——"</p> + +<p>"Eh? What's that?" inquired Doctor Torvey.</p> + +<p>"Medicine," answered Sir Bale. "I was aware you never knew what was the +matter with a sick man; but I didn't know, till now, that you couldn't +tell when he was dead."</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!--well—ha, ha!--<i>yes</i>—well, you see, you—ha, ha!--you +certainly have me there. But it's a case without a parallel—it is, upon +my honour. You'll find it will not only be talked about, but written +about; and, whatever papers appear upon it, will come to me; and I'll +take care, Sir Bale, you shall have an opportunity of reading them."</p> + +<p>"Of which I shan't avail myself," answered Sir Bale. "Take another glass +of sherry, Doctor."</p> + +<p>The Doctor made his acknowledgments and filled his glass, and looked +through the wine between him and the window.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!--see there, your port, Sir Bale, gives a fellow such +habits—looking for the beeswing, by Jove. It isn't easy, in one sense +at least, to get your port out of a fellow's head when once he has +tasted it."</p> + +<p>But if the honest Doctor meant a hint for a glass of that admirable bin, +it fell pointless; and Sir Bale had no notion of making another libation +of that precious fluid in honour of Doctor Torvey.</p> + +<p>"And I take it for granted," said Sir Bale, "that Feltram will do very +well; and, should anything go wrong, I can send for you—unless he +should die again; and in that case I think I shall take my own opinion."</p> + +<p>So he and the Doctor parted.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, although he did not consult the Doctor on his own case, was +not particularly well. "That lonely place, those frightful mountains, +and that damp black lake"—which features in the landscape he cursed all +round—"are enough to give any man blue devils; and when a fellow's +spirits go, he's all gone. That's why I'm dyspeptic—that and those +d----d debts—and the post, with its flight of croaking and screeching +letters from London. I wish there was no post here. I wish it was like +Sir Amyrald's time, when they shot the York mercer that came to dun him, +and no one ever took anyone to task about it; and now they can pelt you +at any distance they please through the post; and fellows lose their +spirits and their appetite and any sort of miserable comfort that is +possible in this odious abyss."</p> + +<p>Was there gout in Sir Bale's case, or 'vapours'? I know not what the +faculty would have called it; but Sir Bale's mode of treatment was +simply to work off the attack by long and laborious walking.</p> + +<p>This evening his walk was upon the Fells of Golden Friars—long after +the landscape below was in the eclipse of twilight, the broad bare sides +and angles of these gigantic uplands were still lighted by the misty +western sun.</p> + +<p>There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the +silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the +level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and +colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a +strange fear and elation—an ascent above the reach of life's vexations +or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgiving. +The filmy disc of the moon had risen in the east, and was already +faintly silvering the shadowy scenery below, while yet Sir Bale stood in +the mellow light of the western sun, which still touched also the +summits of the opposite peaks of Morvyn Fells.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes did not, as a stranger might, in prudence, hasten his +descent from the heights at which he stood while yet a gleam of daylight +remained to him. For he was, from his boyhood, familiar with those +solitary regions; and, beside this, the thin circle of the moon, hung in +the eastern sky, would brighten as the sunlight sank, and hang like a +lamp above his steps.</p> + +<p>There was in the bronzed and resolute face of the Baronet, lighted now +in the parting beams of sunset, a resemblance to that of Charles the +Second—not our "merry" ideal, but the more energetic and saturnine face +which the portraits have preserved to us.</p> + +<p>He stood with folded arms on the side of the slope, admiring, in spite +of his prejudice, the unusual effects of a view so strangely +lighted—the sunset tints on the opposite peaks, lost in the misty +twilight, now deepening lower down into a darker shade, through which +the outlines of the stone gables and tower of Golden Friars and the +light of fire or candle in their windows were dimly visible.</p> + +<p>As he stood and looked, his more distant sunset went down, and sudden +twilight was upon him, and he began to remember the beautiful Homeric +picture of a landscape coming out, rock and headland, in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>There had hung upon the higher summits, at his right, a heavy fold of +white cloud, which on a sudden broke, and, like the smoke of artillery, +came rolling down the slopes toward him. Its principal volume, however, +unfolded itself in a mighty flood down the side of the mountain towards +the lake; and that which spread towards and soon enveloped the ground on +which he stood was by no means so dense a fog. A thick mist enough it +was; but still, to a distance of twenty or thirty yards, he could +discern the outline of a rock or scaur, but not beyond it.</p> + +<p>There are few sensations more intimidating than that of being thus +enveloped on a lonely mountain-side, which, like this one, here and +there breaks into precipice.</p> + +<p>There is another sensation, too, which affects the imagination. +Overtaken thus on the solitary expanse, there comes a new chill and +tremour as this treacherous medium surrounds us, through which +unperceived those shapes which fancy conjures up might approach so near +and bar our path.</p> + +<p>From the risk of being reduced to an actual standstill he knew he was +exempt. The point from which the wind blew, light as it was, assured him +of that. Still the mist was thick enough seriously to embarrass him. It +had overtaken him as he was looking down upon the lake; and he now +looked to his left, to try whether in that direction it was too thick to +permit a view of the nearest landmarks. Through this white film he saw a +figure standing only about five-and-twenty steps away, looking down, as +it seemed, in precisely the same direction as he, quite motionless, and +standing like a shadow projected upon the smoky vapour. It was the +figure of a slight tall man, with his arm extended, as if pointing to a +remote object, which no mortal eye certainly could discern through the +mist. Sir Bale gazed at this figure, doubtful whether he were in a +waking dream, unable to conjecture whence it had come; and as he looked, +it moved, and was almost instantly out of sight.</p> + +<p>He descended the mountain cautiously. The mist was now thinner, and +through the haze he was beginning to see objects more distinctly, and, +without danger, to proceed at a quicker pace. He had still a long walk +by the uplands towards Mardykes Hall before he descended to the level of +the lake.</p> + +<p>The mist was still quite thick enough to circumscribe his view and to +hide the general features of the landscape; and well was it, perhaps, +for Sir Bale that his boyhood had familiarised him with the landmarks on +the mountain-side.</p> + +<p>He had made nearly four miles on his solitary homeward way, when, +passing under a ledge of rock which bears the name of the Cat's Skaitch, +he saw the same figure in the short cloak standing within some thirty or +forty yards of him—the thin curtain of mist, through which the +moonlight touched it, giving to it an airy and unsubstantial character.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale came to a standstill. The man in the short cloak nodded and +drew back, and was concealed by the angle of the rock.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was now irritated, as men are after a start, and shouting to +the stranger to halt, he 'slapped' after him, as the northern phrase +goes, at his best pace. But again he was gone, and nowhere could he see +him, the mist favouring his evasion.</p> + +<p>Looking down the fells that overhang Mardykes Hall, the mountain-side +dips gradually into a glen, which, as it descends, becomes precipitous +and wooded. A footpath through this ravine conducts the wayfarer to the +level ground that borders the lake; and by this dark pass Sir Bale +Mardykes strode, in comparatively clear air, along the rocky path +dappled with moonlight.</p> + +<p>As he emerged upon the lower ground he again encountered the same +figure. It approached. It was Philip Feltram.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIV</h4> + +<i><b>A New Philip Feltram</b></i> + +<p>The Baronet had not seen Feltram since his strange escape from death. +His last interview with him had been stern and threatening; Sir Bale +dealing with appearances in the spirit of an incensed judge, Philip +Feltram lamenting in the submission of a helpless despair.</p> + +<p>Feltram was full in the moonlight now, standing erect, and smiling +cynically on the Baronet.</p> + +<p>There was that in the bearing and countenance of Feltram that +disconcerted him more than the surprise of the sudden meeting.</p> + +<p>He had determined to meet Feltram in a friendly way, whenever that not +very comfortable interview became inevitable. But he was confused by the +suddenness of Feltram's appearance; and the tone, cold and stern, in +which he had last spoken to him came first, and he spoke in it after a +brief silence.</p> + +<p>"I fancied, Mr. Feltram, you were in your bed; I little expected to find +you here. I think the Doctor gave very particular directions, and said +that you were to remain perfectly quiet."</p> + +<p>"But I know more than the Doctor," replied Feltram, still smiling +unpleasantly.</p> + +<p>"I think, sir, you would have been better in your bed," said Sir Bale +loftily.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, come, come!" exclaimed Philip Feltram contemptuously.</p> + +<a name="IMAGE_2"></a> +<p><img src="images/image2.jpg" width="250" height="413" align="left" +alt="It was the figure of a slight tall man, +with his arm extended, +as if pointing to a remote object."></p> + +<p>"It seems to me," said Sir Bale, a good deal astonished, "you rather +forget yourself."</p> + +<p>"Easier to forget oneself, Sir Bale, than to forgive others, at times," +replied Philip Feltram in his unparalleled mood.</p> + +<p>"That's the way fools knock themselves up," continued Sir Bale. "You've +been walking ever so far—away to the Fells of Golden Friars. It was you +whom I saw there. What d----d folly! What brought you there?"</p> + +<p>"To observe you," he replied.</p> + +<p>"And have you walked the whole way there and back again? How did you get +there?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! how did I come—how did you come—how did the fog come? From the +lake, I suppose. We all come up, and then down." So spoke Philip +Feltram, with serene insolence.</p> + +<p>"You are pleased to talk nonsense," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Because I like it—with a <i>meaning</i>."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him, not knowing whether to believe his eyes and +ears. He did not know what to make of him.</p> + +<p>"I had intended speaking to you in a conciliatory way; you seem to wish +to make that impossible"—Philip Feltram's face wore its repulsive +smile;—"and in fact I don't know what to make of you, unless you are +ill; and ill you well may be. You can't have walked much less than +twelve miles."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful effort for me!" said Feltram with the same sneer.</p> + +<p>"Rather surprising for a man so nearly drowned," answered Sir Bale +Mardykes.</p> + +<p>"A dip: you don't like the lake, sir; but I do. And so it is: as Antaeus +touched the earth, so I the water, and rise refreshed."</p> + +<p>"I think you'd better get in and refresh there. I meant to tell you that +all the unpleasantness about that bank-note is over."</p> + +<p>"Is it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It has been recovered by Mr. Creswell, who came here last night. +I've got it, and you're not to blame," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"But some one <i>is</i> to blame," observed Mr. Feltram, smiling still.</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>you</i> are not, and that ends it," said the Baronet peremptorily.</p> +<br> + +<p>"Ends it? Really, how good! how very good!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him, for there was something ambiguous and even +derisive in the tone of Feltram's voice.</p> + +<p>But before he could quite make up his mind, Feltram spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Everything is settled about you and me?"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing to prevent your staying at Mardykes now," said Sir +Bale graciously.</p> + +<p>"I shall be with you for two years, and then I go on my travels," +answered Feltram, with a saturnine and somewhat wild look around him.</p> + +<p>"Is he going mad?" thought the Baronet.</p> + +<p>"But before I go, I'm to put you in a way of paying off your mortgages. +That is my business here."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him sharply. But now there was not the unpleasant +smile, but the darkened look of a man in secret pain.</p> + +<p>"You shall know it all by and by."</p> + +<p>And without more ceremony, and with a darkening face, Philip Feltram +made his way under the boughs of the thick oaks that grew there, leaving +on Sir Bale's mind an impression that he had been watching some one at a +distance, and had gone in consequence of a signal.</p> + +<p>In a few seconds he followed in the same direction, halloaing after +Feltram; for he did not like the idea of his wandering about the country +by moonlight, or possibly losing his life among the precipices, and +bringing a new discredit upon his house. But no answer came; nor could +he in that thick copse gain sight of him again.</p> + +<p>When Sir Bale reached Mardykes Hall he summoned Mrs. Julaper, and had a +long talk with her. But she could not say that there appeared anything +amiss with Philip Feltram; only he seemed more reserved, and as if he +was brooding over something he did not intend to tell.</p> + +<p>"But, you know, Sir Bale, what happened might well make a thoughtful man +of him. If he's ever to think of Death, it should be after looking him +so hard in the face; and I'm not ashamed to say, I'm glad to see he has +grace to take the lesson, and I hope his experiences may be sanctified +to him, poor fellow! Amen."</p> + +<p>"Very good song, and very well sung," said Sir Bale; "but it doesn't +seem to me that he has been improved, Mrs. Julaper. He seems, on the +contrary, in a queer temper and anything but a heavenly frame of mind; +and I thought I'd ask you, because if he is ill—I mean feverish—it +might account for his eccentricities, as well as make it necessary to +send after him, and bring him home, and put him to bed. But I suppose it +is as you say,—his adventure has upset him a little, and he'll sober in +a day or two, and return to his old ways."</p> + +<p>But this did not happen. A change, more comprehensive than at first +appeared, had taken place, and a singular alteration was gradually +established.</p> + +<p>He grew thin, his eyes hollow, his face gradually forbidding.</p> + +<p>His ways and temper were changed: he was a new man with Sir Bale; and +the Baronet after a time, people said, began to grow afraid of him. And +certainly Feltram had acquired an extraordinary influence over the +Baronet, who a little while ago had regarded and treated him with so +much contempt.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XV</h4> + +<i><b>The Purse of Gold</b></i> + +<p>The Baronet was very slightly known in his county. He had led a reserved +and inhospitable life. He was pressed upon by heavy debts; and being a +proud man, held aloof from society and its doings. He wished people to +understand that he was nursing his estate; but somehow the estate did +not thrive at nurse. In the country other people's business is admirably +well known; and the lord of Mardykes was conscious, perhaps, that his +neighbours knew as well he did, that the utmost he could do was to pay +the interest charged upon it, and to live in a frugal way enough.</p> + +<p>The lake measures some four or five miles across, from the little jetty +under the walls of Mardykes Hall to Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram, changed and morose, loved a solitary row upon the lake; +and sometimes, with no one to aid him in its management, would take the +little sailboat and pass the whole day upon those lonely waters.</p> + +<p>Frequently he crossed to Cloostedd; and mooring the boat under the +solemn trees that stand reflected in that dark mirror, he would +disembark and wander among the lonely woodlands, as people thought, +cherishing in those ancestral scenes the memory of ineffaceable +injuries, and the wrath and revenge that seemed of late to darken his +countenance, and to hold him always in a moody silence.</p> + +<p>One autumnal evening Sir Bale Mardykes was sourly ruminating after his +solitary meal. A very red sun was pouring its last low beams through the +valley at the western extremity of the lake, across its elsewhere sombre +waters, and touching with a sudden and blood-red tint the sail of the +skiff in which Feltram was returning from his lonely cruise.</p> + +<p>"Here comes my domestic water-fiend," sneered Sir Bale, as he lay back +in his cumbrous arm-chair. "Cheerful place, pleasant people, delicious +fate! The place alone has been enough to set that fool out of his little +senses, d—n him!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale averted his eyes, and another subject not pleasanter entered +his mind. He was thinking of the races that were coming off next week at +Heckleston Downs, and what sums of money might be made there, and how +hard it was that he should be excluded by fortune from that brilliant +lottery.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mrs. Julaper, is that you?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper, who was still at the door, curtsied, and said, "I came, +Sir Bale, to see whether you'd please to like a jug of mulled claret, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Not I, my dear. I'll take a mug of beer and my pipe; that homely solace +better befits a ruined gentleman."</p> + +<p>"H'm, sir; you're not that, Sir Bale; you're no worse than half the +lords and great men that are going. I would not hear another say that of +you, sir."</p> + +<p>"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Julaper; but you won't call <i>me</i> out for +backbiting myself, especially as it is true, d----d true, Mrs. Julaper! +Look ye; there never was a Mardykes here before but he could lay his +hundred or his thousand pounds on the winner of the Heckleston Cup; and +what could I bet? Little more than that mug of beer I spoke of. It was +my great-grandfather who opened the course on the Downs of Heckleston, +and now <i>I</i> can't show there! Well, what must I do? Grin and bear it, +that's all. If you please, Mrs. Julaper, I will have that jug of claret +you offered. I want spice and hot wine to keep me alive; but I'll smoke +my pipe first, and in an hour's time it will do."</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Julaper was gone, he lighted his pipe, and drew near the +window, through which he looked upon the now fading sky and the twilight +landscape.</p> + +<p>He smoked his pipe out, and by that time it had grown nearly dark. He +was still looking out upon the faint outlines of the view, and thinking +angrily what a little bit of luck at the races would do for many a man +who probably did not want it half so much as he. Vague and sombre as his +thoughts were, they had, like the darkening landscape outside, shape +enough to define their general character. Bitter and impious they +were—as those of egotistic men naturally are in suffering. And after +brooding, and muttering by fits and starts, he said:</p> + +<p>"How many tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds will change hands at +Heckleston next week; and not a shilling in all the change and shuffle +will stick to me! How many a fellow would sell himself, like Dr. +Faustus, just for the knowledge of the name of the winner! But he's no +fool, and does not buy his own."</p> + +<p>Something caught his eye; something moving on the wall. The fire was +lighted, and cast a flickering and gigantic shadow upward; the figure of +a man standing behind Sir Bale Mardykes, on whose shoulder he placed a +lean hand. Sir Bale turned suddenly about, and saw Philip Feltram. He +was looking dark and stern, and did not remove his hand from his +shoulder as he peered into the Baronet's face with his deep-set mad +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ha, Philip, upon my soul!" exclaimed Sir Bale, surprised. "How time +flies! It seems only this minute since I saw the boat a mile and a half +away from the shore. Well—yes; there has been time; it is dark now. Ha, +ha! I assure you, you startled me. Won't you take something? Do. Shall I +touch the bell?"</p> + +<p>"You have been troubled about those mortgages. I told you I should pay +them off, I thought."</p> + +<p>Here there was a pause, and Sir Bale looked hard in Feltram's face. If +he had been in his ordinary spirits, or perhaps in some of his haunts +less solitary than Mardykes, he would have laughed; but here he had +grown unlike himself, gloomy and credulous, and was, in fact, a nervous +man.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale smiled, and shook his head dismally.</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of you, Feltram; the idea shows a kindly disposition. I +know you would do me a kindness if you could."</p> + +<p>As Sir Bale, each looking in the other's eyes, repeated in this sentence +the words "kind," "kindly," "kindness," a smile lighted Feltram's face +with at each word an intenser light; and Sir Bale grew sombre in its +glare; and when he had done speaking, Feltram's face also on a sudden +darkened.</p> + +<p>"I have found a fortune-teller in Cloostedd Wood. Look here."</p> + +<p>And he drew from his pocket a leathern purse, which he placed on the +table in his hand; and Sir Bale heard the pleasant clink of coin in it.</p> + +<p>"A fortune-teller! You don't mean to say she gave you that?" said Sir +Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram smiled again, and nodded.</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> the custom to give the fortuneteller a trifle. It is a great +improvement making <i>her</i> fee you," observed Sir Bale, with an approach +to his old manner.</p> + +<p>"He put that in my hand with a message," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"He? O, then it was a male fortune-teller!"</p> + +<p>"Gipsies go in gangs, men and women. <i>He</i> might lend, though <i>she</i> told +fortunes," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"It's the first time I ever heard of gipsies lending money;" and he eyed +the purse with a whimsical smile.</p> + +<p>With his lean fingers still holding it, Feltram sat down at the table. +His face contracted as if in cunning thought, and his chin sank upon his +breast as he leaned back.</p> + +<p>"I think," continued Sir Bale, "ever since they were spoiled, the +Egyptians have been a little shy of lending, and leave that branch of +business to the Hebrews."</p> + +<p>"What would you give to know, now, the winner at Heckleston races?" said +Feltram suddenly, raising his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; that would be worth something," answered Sir Bale, looking at him +with more interest than the incredulity he affected would quite warrant.</p> + +<p>"And this money I have power to lend you, to make your game."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that really?" said Sir Bale, with a new energy in tone, +manner, and features.</p> + +<p>"That's heavy; there are some guineas there," said Feltram with a dark +smile, raising the purse in his hand a little, and letting it drop upon +the table with a clang.</p> + +<p>"There is <i>something</i> there, at all events," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram took the purse by the bottom, and poured out on the table a +handsome pile of guineas.</p> + +<p>"And do you mean to say you got all that from a gipsy in Cloostedd +Wood?"</p> + +<p>"A friend, who is—<i>myself</i>," answered Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Yourself! Then it is yours—<i>you</i> lend it?" said the Baronet, amazed; +for there was no getting over the heap of guineas, and the wonder was +pretty equal whence they had come.</p> + +<p>"Myself, and not myself," said Feltram oracularly; "as like as voice and +echo, man and shadow."</p> + +<p>Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted +upon hidden treasure? There was a story of two Feltrams of Cloostedd, +brothers, who had joined the king's army and fought at Marston Moor, +having buried in Cloostedd Wood a great deal of gold and plate and +jewels. They had, it was said, intrusted one tried servant with the +secret; and that servant remained at home. But by a perverse fatality +the three witnesses had perished within a month: the two brothers at +Marston Moor; and the confidant, of fever, at Cloostedd. From that day +forth treasure-seekers had from time to time explored the woods of +Cloostedd; and many a tree of mark was dug beside, and the earth +beneath many a stone and scar and other landmark in that solitary forest +was opened by night, until hope gradually died out, and the tradition +had long ceased to prompt to action, and had become a story and nothing +more.</p> + +<p>The image of the nursery-tale had now recurred to Sir Bale after so long +a reach of years; and the only imaginable way, in his mind, of +accounting for penniless Philip Feltram having all that gold in his +possession was that, in some of his lonely wanderings, chance had led +him to the undiscovered hoard of the two Feltrams who had died in the +great civil wars.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps those gipsies you speak of found the money where you found +them; and in that case, as Cloostedd Forest, and all that is in it is my +property, their sending it to me is more like my servant's handing me my +hat and stick when I'm going out, than making me a present."</p> + +<p>"You will not be wise to rely upon the law, Sir Bale, and to refuse the +help that comes unasked. But if you like your mortgages as they are, +keep them; and if you like my terms as they are, take them; and when you +have made up your mind, let me know."</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram dropped the heavy purse into his capacious coat-pocket, +and walked, muttering, out of the room.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVI</h4> + +<i><b>The Message from Cloostedd</b></i> + +<p>"Come back, Feltram; come back, Philip!" cried Sir Bale hastily. "Let us +talk, can't we? Come and talk this odd business over a little; you must +have mistaken what I meant; I should like to hear all about it."</p> + +<p>"All is not much, sir," said Philip Feltram, entering the room again, +the door of which he had half closed after him. "In the forest of +Cloostedd I met to-day some people, one of whom can foretell events, and +told me the names of the winners of the first three races at Heckleston, +and gave me this purse, with leave to lend you so much money as you care +to stake upon the races. I take no security; you shan't be troubled; and +you'll never see the lender, unless you seek him out."</p> + +<p>"Well, those are not bad terms," said Sir Bale, smiling wistfully at +the purse, which Feltram had again placed upon the table.</p> + +<p>"No, not bad," repeated Feltram, in the harsh low tone in which he now +habitually spoke.</p> + +<p>"You'll tell me what the prophet said about the winners; I should like +to hear their names."</p> + +<p>"The names I shall tell you if you walk out with me," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Why not here?" asked Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"My memory does not serve me here so well. Some people, in some places, +though they be silent, obstruct thought. Come, let us speak," said +Philip Feltram, leading the way.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, with a shrug, followed him.</p> + +<p>By this time it was dark. Feltram was walking slowly towards the margin +of the lake; and Sir Bale, more curious as the delay increased, followed +him, and smiled faintly as he looked after his tall, gaunt figure, as +if, even in the dark, expressing a ridicule which he did not honestly +feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there +was no one near enough to see.</p> + +<p>When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale +thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a +reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally +in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near, +no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his +change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was +but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering +faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing +upright, said,</p> + +<p>"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and +pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all +along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me."</p> + +<p>There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and +something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost +insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would +have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which +he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which +sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him.</p> + +<p>"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The +secret is yours when you promise."</p> + +<p>"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think +I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd +hardly take the trouble."</p> + +<p>Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he +raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand—the hollow of your +hand—like this. I divide the water for a sign—share to me and share to +you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the +hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in +his mockery.</p> + +<p>"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the +finder, be that who it may?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and +with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he +joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he.</p> + +<p>"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it +will serve you to remember by. And now the names. Don't speak; +listen—you may break the thought else. The winner of the first is +<i>Beeswing</i>; of the second, <i>Falcon</i>; and of the third, <i>Lightning</i>."</p> + +<p>He had stood for some seconds in silence before he spoke; his eyes were +closed; he seemed to bring up thought and speech with difficulty, and +spoke faintly and drowsily, both his hands a little raised, and the +fingers extended, with the groping air of a man who moves in the dark. +In this odd way, slowly, faintly, with many a sigh and scarcely audible +groan, he gradually delivered his message and was silent. He stood, it +seemed, scarcely half awake, muttering indistinctly and sighing to +himself. You would have said that he was exhausted and suffering, like a +man at his last hour resigning himself to death.</p> + +<p>At length he opened his eyes, looked round a little wildly and +languidly, and with another great sigh sat down on a large rock that +lies by the margin of the lake, and sighed heavily again and again. You +might have fancied that he was a second time recovering from drowning.</p> + +<p>Then he got up, and looked drowsily round again, and sighed like a man +worn out with fatigue, and was silent.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did not care to speak until he seemed a little more likely to +obtain an answer. When that time came, he said, "I wish, for the sake of +my believing, that your list was a little less incredible. Not one of +the horses you name is the least likely; not one of them has a chance."</p> + +<p>"So much the better for you; you'll get what odds you please. You had +better seize your luck; on Tuesday Beeswing runs," said Feltram. "When +you want money for the purpose, I'm your banker—here is your bank."</p> + +<p>He touched his breast, where he had placed the purse, and then he turned +and walked swiftly away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked after him till he disappeared in the dark. He fluctuated +among many surmises about Feltram. Was he insane, or was he practising +an imposture? or was he fool enough to believe the predictions of some +real gipsies? and had he borrowed this money, which in Sir Bale's eyes +seemed the greatest miracle in the matter, from those thriving shepherd +mountaineers, the old Trebecks, who, he believed, were attached to him? +Feltram had, he thought, borrowed it as if for himself; and having, as +Sir Bale in his egotism supposed, "a sneaking regard" for him, had meant +the loan for his patron, and conceived the idea of his using his +revelations for the purpose of making his fortune. So, seeing no risk, +and the temptation being strong, Sir Bale resolved to avail himself of +the purse, and use his own judgment as to what horse to back.</p> + +<p>About eleven o'clock Feltram, unannounced, walked, with his hat still +on, into Sir Bale's library, and sat down at the opposite side of his +table, looking gloomily into the Baronet's face for a time.</p> + +<p>"Shall you want the purse?" he asked at last.</p> + +<p>"Certainly; I always want a purse," said Sir Bale energetically.</p> + +<p>"The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have +named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the +sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse +contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make +some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?"</p> + +<p>"Of course; five pounds in the hundred—certainly; and how many hundreds +are there?"</p> + +<p>"Three."</p> + +<p>"Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, +but it ain't very much."</p> + +<p>"Quite enough, if you use it aright."</p> + +<p>"Three hundred pounds," repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, +which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and +contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in +little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but +he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said he, after a second counting, "I think there <i>are</i> exactly +three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five—fifteen +of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; +but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?" he added, with a +hesitating inquiry in the tone.</p> + +<p>"If you don't, you'll rue it," said Feltram coldly, and walked away.</p> + +<p>"Penny in pocket's a merry companion," says the old English proverb, and +Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as +he replaced the guineas in the purse.</p> + +<p>It was long since he had visited either the race-course or any other +place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his +pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of +the turf once more.</p> + +<p>"Who knows how this little venture may turn out?" he thought. "It is +time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in +Paris—d—n me, I'm owed something. It's time I should win a bit."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life +imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first +time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in +his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, +therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, +followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen's Head at Heckleston, +where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day +following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those +days need have cared to show.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVII</h4> + +<i><b>On the Course—Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning</b></i> + +<p>As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the +early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he +looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that +hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he +took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched +with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite +side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the +side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a +pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking +in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated +the sail of Philip Feltram's boat, now midway between Mardykes and the +wooded shores of Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"Going on the same errand," thought Sir Bale, "I should not wonder. I +wish him the same luck. Yes, he's going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he +may meet his gipsies there—the Trebecks, or whoever they are."</p> + +<p>And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such +people smote him, "Well," thought he, "who knows? Many a fellow will +make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will +be a light matter paying them then."</p> + +<p>Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like +him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and +conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, +however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual +was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town.</p> + +<p>Next morning he was on the race-course of Heckleston, renewing old +acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could—an object, +among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the +carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the +betting men, deep in more serious business.</p> + +<p>How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, +Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than +the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were +forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and +fifty to one against Falcon.</p> + +<p>"A pretty lot to choose!" exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. "As if I +had money so often, that I should throw it away!"</p> + +<p>The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram's +message as an impertinence and the money as his own.</p> + +<p>Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes' pocket fared.</p> + +<p>Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston +racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars.</p> + +<p>He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; +and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. +In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an +accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. +And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the +"fortune-teller" had predicted.</p> + +<p>Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral +house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very +welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred +instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would +have won 15,500 guineas.</p> + +<p>He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a +man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and +laughed dryly.</p> + +<p>"What do you laugh at?" asked Sir Bale tartly.</p> + +<p>"You've won, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've won; I've won a trifle."</p> + +<p>"On the horses I named?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident."</p> + +<p>Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse +mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so +ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more +of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment +yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all +likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. +Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to +Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the +poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, +that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's +fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he +did not.</p> + +<p>So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day +himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of +Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a +little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in +his excursions up the mountains.</p> + +<p>"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal.</p> + +<p>"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual +clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other +side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the +person about whom you are always thinking."</p> + +<p>"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for +he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> say it, because I <i>know</i> it; and <i>you</i> know it also. See that clump +of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, +grows an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H—F; so +large and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure +them, although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the +trunk of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are +looking up the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where +stands Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find +our fortune-teller?"</p> + +<p>"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because, +although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has +either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got +extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on +chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous +fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and +perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an +arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any +matter of the same kind again."</p> + +<p>"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy +and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach +him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he +invites you."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale laughed.</p> + +<p>"He knows his value, and means to make his own terms."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's nothing unfair in that; and I don't see that I should +dispute it. How is one to find him?"</p> + +<p>"Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. +Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its +surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about +the size of a man's head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, +that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the +line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take +carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the +forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are +sure to find him."</p> + +<p>"You'll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and +probably fail to discover him," said Sir Bale; "and I really wish to see +him."</p> + +<p>"When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don't. I can go with +you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your +side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, +that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see +that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I'll take you across the lake."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, you'll do no such thing!" said Sir Bale hastily.</p> + +<p>"But that is the way he chooses to be approached," said Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it's the one childish spot +that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it—old +stories and warnings; and I can't think of that. I should feel I had +invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are +queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there."</p> + +<p>"Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all +were done, he would not see you. He knows what he's worth, and he'll +have his own way," answered Feltram. "The sun will soon set. See that +withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from +the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three +minutes to live."</p> + +<p>"That is a wonder which I can't see; it is too far away."</p> + +<p>"Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them," said +Feltram.</p> + +<p>"So it does," said the Baronet; "more than most men have got. I'll ride +round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way."</p> + +<p>"You'll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity +to vex him."</p> + +<p>"It was to you he lent the money," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him," urged Sir +Bale.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don't go, he may be +offended, and you may hear no more from him."</p> + +<p>"We'll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for +once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What +do you say?</p> + +<p>"You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question—what horses, I +mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money +will change hands."</p> + +<p>"I'll try," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"When will you go?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," he answered.</p> + +<p>"I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those +cursed mortgages."</p> + +<p>He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of +Feltram, who coldly answered,</p> + +<p>"So have I;" and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, +without another word or look.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVIII</h4> + +<i><b>On the Lake, at Last</b></i> + +<p>Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat +on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no +little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude +pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now +satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the 'cunning man,' +and gather hints for the next race.</p> + +<p>When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale's +library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more +interested about his news than he would have cared to confess.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with +great directness, proceeded to satisfy it.</p> + +<p>"I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day—and found the old +gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any +kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross +the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and +counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard +names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did +talk."</p> + +<p>"And what did he say?"</p> + +<p>"He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram."</p> + +<p>"He might have said something more likely," said Sir Bale sourly. "Did +he say anything more?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell."</p> + +<p>"Any other name?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Silver Bell? Well, that's not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands +high in the list. He has a good many backers—long odds in his favour +against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell."</p> + +<p>The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the +moment he heard the soothsayer's prediction. He made up his mind to no +half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome.</p> + +<p>He was in great force and full of confidence on the race-course. He had +no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still +untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in +the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon +staked—such is the growing frenzy of that excitement—about twenty +thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven.</p> + +<p>He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, +having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about +him—quite at his wit's end.</p> + +<p>Feltram was standing—as on the occasion of his former happier +return—on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing +eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as +before, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he +might, had he been a degree less desperate.</p> + +<p>He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted.</p> + +<p>"Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust +you. He's huffed, and played you false."</p> + +<p>"It was not he. I should have backed that d----d horse in any case," +said Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. "What a witch you have discovered! +One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might +have the estate now; but there ain't. They are all beggars. So much for +your conjurer."</p> + +<p>"He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him."</p> + +<p>"He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D—n me, I'm past helping +now."</p> + +<p>"Don't you talk so," said Feltram. "Be civil. You must please the old +gentleman. He'll make it up. He's placable when it suits him. Why not go +to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make +it up."</p> + +<p>"Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can't make even a guess at +what's coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?"</p> + +<p>"No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? +He won't see you unless you go to him as he chooses."</p> + +<p>"If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don't choose to go +on that water—and cross it I won't," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the +idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his +resolution faltered.</p> + +<p>"I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose +to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a +boat?"</p> + +<p>Feltram smiled darkly, and answered.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell. Can you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I can't—I say I can't; besides, what audacity of a fellow +like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can't +predict—do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?"</p> + +<p>"I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish +those who don't respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often +quite clear—not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him +out, and when you do, I think he'll help you through your trouble. He +said he would."</p> + +<p>"Then you have seen him since?"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday. He has put a pressure on you; but he means to help you."</p> + +<p>"If he means to help me, let him remember I want a banker more than a +seer. Let him give me a lift, as he did before. He must lend me money."</p> + +<p>"He'll not stick at that. When he takes up a man, he carries him +through."</p> + +<p>"The races of Byermere—I might retrieve at them. But they don't come +off for a month nearly; and what is a man like me to do in the +meantime?"</p> + +<p>"Every man should know his own business best. I'm not like you," said +Feltram grimly.</p> + +<p>Now Sir Bale's trouble increased, for some people were pressing. +Something like panic supervened; for it happened that land was bringing +just then a bad price, and more must be sold in consequence.</p> + +<p>"All I can tell them is, I am selling land. It can't be done in an hour. +I'm selling enough to pay them all twice over. Gentlemen used to be able +to wait till a man sold his acres for payment. D—n them! do they want +my body, that they can't let me alone for five minutes?"</p> + +<p>The end of it was, that before a week Sir Bale told Feltram that he +would go by boat, since that fellow insisted on it; and he did not very +much care if he were drowned.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful autumnal day. Everything was bright in that mellowed +sun, and the deep blue of the lake was tremulous with golden ripples; +and crag and peak and scattered wood, faint in the distance, came out +with a filmy distinctness on the fells in that pleasant light.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had been ill, and sent down the night before for Doctor Torvey. +He was away with a patient. Now, in the morning, he had arrived +inopportunely. He met Sir Bale as he issued from the house, and had a +word with him in the court, for he would not turn back.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Doctor, after his brief inspection, "you ought to be +in your bed; that's all I can say. You are perfectly mad to think of +knocking about like this. Your pulse is at a hundred and ten; and, if +you go across the lake and walk about Cloostedd, you'll be raving before +you come back."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale told him, apologetically, as if his life were more to his +doctor than to himself, that he would take care not to fatigue himself, +and that the air would do him good, and that in any case he could not +avoid going; and so they parted.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale took his seat beside Feltram in the boat, the sail was spread, +and, bending to the light breeze that blew from Golden Friars, she +glided from the jetty under Mardykes Hall, and the eventful voyage had +begun.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIX</h4> + +<i><b>Mystagogus</b></i> + +<p>The sail was loosed, the boat touched the stone step, and Feltram sprang +out and made her fast to the old iron ring. The Baronet followed. So! he +had ventured upon that water without being drowned. He looked round him +as if in a dream. He had not been there since his childhood. There were +no regrets, no sentiment, no remorse; only an odd return of the +associations and fresh feelings of boyhood, and a long reach of time +suddenly annihilated.</p> + +<p>The little hollow in which he stood; the three hawthorn trees at his +right; every crease and undulation of the sward, every angle and crack +in the lichen-covered rock at his feet, recurred with a sharp and +instantaneous recognition to his memory.</p> + +<p>"Many a time your brother and I fished for hours together from that bank +there, just where the bramble grows. That bramble has not grown an inch +ever since, not a leaf altered; we used to pick blackberries off it, +with our rods stuck in the bank—it was later in the year than now—till +we stript it quite bare after a day or two. The steward used to come +over—they were marking timber for cutting and we used to stay here +while they rambled through the wood, with an axe marking the trees that +were to come down. I wonder whether the big old boat is still anywhere. +I suppose she was broken up, or left to rot; I have not seen her since +we came home. It was in the wood that lies at the right—the other wood +is called the forest; they say in old times it was eight miles long, +northward up the shore of the lake, and full of deer; with a forester, +and a reeve, and a verderer, and all that. Your brother was older than +you; he went to India, or the Colonies; is he living still?"</p> + +<p>"I care not."</p> + +<p>"That's good-natured, at all events; but do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Not I; and what matter? If he's living, I warrant he has his share of +the curse, the sweat of his brow and his bitter crust; and if he is +dead, he's dust or worse, he's rotten, and smells accordingly."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him; for this was the brother over whom, only a year +or two ago, Philip used to cry tears of pathetic longing. Feltram looked +darkly in his face, and sneered with a cold laugh.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean to jest?" said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Not I; it is the truth. It is what you'd say, if you were honest. If +he's alive, let him keep where he is; and if he's dead, I'll have none +of him, body or soul. Do you hear that sound?"</p> + +<p>"Like the wind moaning in the forest?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But I feel no wind. There's hardly a leaf stirring."</p> + +<p>"I think so," said Feltram. "Come along."</p> + +<p>And he began striding up the gentle slope of the glen, with many a rock +peeping through its sward, and tufted ferns and furze, giving a wild and +neglected character to the scene; the background of which, where the +glen loses itself in a distant turn, is formed by its craggy and wooded +side.</p> + +<p>Up they marched, side by side, in silence, towards that irregular clump +of trees, to which Feltram had pointed from the Mardykes side.</p> + +<p>As they approached, it showed more scattered, and two or three of the +trees were of grander dimensions than in the distance they had appeared; +and as they walked, the broad valley of Cloostedd Forest opened grandly +on their left, studding the sides of the valley with solitary trees or +groups, which thickened as it descended to the broad level, in parts +nearly three miles wide, on which stands the noble forest of Cloostedd, +now majestically reposing in the stirless air, gilded and flushed with +the melancholy tints of autumn.</p> + +<p>I am now going to relate wonderful things; but they rest on the report, +strangely consistent, it is true, of Sir Bale Mardykes. That all his +senses, however, were sick and feverish, and his brain not quite to be +relied on at that moment, is a fact of which sceptics have a right to +make all they please and can.</p> + +<p>Startled at their approach, a bird like a huge mackaw bounced from the +boughs of the trees, and sped away, every now and then upon the ground, +toward the shelter of the forest, fluttering and hopping close by the +side of the little brook which, emerging from the forest, winds into the +glen, and beside the course of which Sir Bale and Philip Feltram had +ascended from the margin of the lake.</p> + +<p>It fluttered on, as if one of its wings were hurt, and kept hopping and +bobbing and flying along the grass at its swiftest, screaming all the +time discordantly.</p> + +<p>"That must be old Mrs. Amerald's bird, that got away a week ago," said +Sir Bale, stopping and looking after it. "Was not it a mackaw?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Feltram; "that was a gray parrot; but there are stranger +birds in Cloostedd Forest, for my ancestors collected all that would +live in our climate, and were at pains to find them the food and shelter +they were accustomed to until they grew hardy—that is how it happens."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, that's a secret worth knowing," said Sir Bale. "That would +make quite a feature. What a fat brute that bird was! and green and +dusky-crimson and yellow; but its head is white—age, I suspect; and +what a broken beak—hideous bird! splendid plumage; something between a +mackaw and a vulture."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale spoke jocularly, but with the interest of a bird-fancier; a +taste which, when young, he had indulged; and for the moment forgot his +cares and the object of his unwonted excursion.</p> + +<p>A moment after, a lank slim bird, perfectly white, started from the same +boughs, and winged its way to the forest.</p> + +<p>"A kite, I think; but its body is a little too long, isn't it?" said Sir +Bale again, stopping and looking after its flight also.</p> + +<p>"A foreign kite, I daresay?" said Feltram.</p> + +<p>All this time there was hopping near them a jay, with the tameness of a +bird accustomed to these solitudes. It peered over its slender wing +curiously at the visitors; pecking here and nodding there; and thus +hopping, it made a circle round them more than once. Then it fluttered +up, and perched on a bough of the old oak, from the deep labyrinth of +whose branches the other birds had emerged; and from thence it flew down +and lighted on the broad druidic stone, that stood like a cyclopean +table on its sunken stone props, before the snakelike roots of the oak.</p> + +<p>Across this it hopped conceitedly, as over a stage on which it figured +becomingly; and after a momentary hesitation, with a little spring, it +rose and winged its way in the same direction which the other birds had +taken, and was quickly lost in thick forest to the left.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Feltram, "this is the tree."</p> + +<p>"I remember it well! A gigantic trunk; and, yes, those marks; but I +never before read them as letters. Yes, H.F., so they are—very odd I +should not have remarked them. They are so large, and so strangely +drawn-out in some places, and filled-in in others, and distorted, and +the moss has grown about them; I don't wonder I took them for natural +cracks and chasms in the bark," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Very like," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had remarked, ever since they had begun their walk from the +shore, that Feltram seemed to undergo a gloomy change. Sharper, grimmer, +wilder grew his features, and shadow after shadow darkened his face +wickedly.</p> + +<p>The solitude and grandeur of the forest, and the repulsive gloom of his +companion's countenance and demeanour, communicated a tone of anxiety to +Sir Bale; and they stood still, side by side, in total silence for a +time, looking toward the forest glades; between themselves and which, on +the level sward of the valley, stood many a noble tree and fantastic +group of forked birch and thorn, in the irregular formations into which +Nature had thrown them.</p> + +<p>"Now you stand between the letters. Cast your eyes on the stone," said +Feltram suddenly, and his low stern tones almost startled the Baronet.</p> + +<p>Looking round, he perceived that he had so placed himself that his point +of vision was exactly from between the two great letters, now +half-obliterated, which he had been scrutinizing just as he turned about +to look toward the forest of Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"Yes, so I am," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>There was within him an excitement and misgiving, akin to the sensation +of a man going into battle, and which corresponded with the pale and +sombre frown which Feltram wore, and the manifest change which had come +over him.</p> + +<p>"Look on the stone steadily for a time, and tell me if you see a black +mark, about the size of your hand, anywhere upon its surface," said +Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale affected no airs of scepticism now; his imagination was +stirred, and a sense of some unknown reality at the bottom of that which +he had affected to treat before as illusion, inspired a strange interest +in the experiment.</p> + +<p>"Do you see it?" asked Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was watching patiently, but he had observed nothing of the +kind.</p> + +<p>Sharper, darker, more eager grew the face of Philip Feltram, as his eyes +traversed the surface of that huge horizontal block.</p> + +<p>"Now?" asked Feltram again.</p> + +<p>No, he had seen nothing.</p> + +<p>Feltram was growing manifestly uneasy, angry almost; he walked away a +little, and back again, and then two or three times round the tree, with +his hands shut, and treading the ground like a man trying to warm his +feet, and so impatiently he returned, and looked again on the stone.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was still looking, and very soon said, drawing his brows +together and looking hard,</p> + +<p>"Ha!--yes—hush. There it is, by Jove!--wait—yes—there; it is growing +quite plain."</p> + +<p>It seemed not as if a shadow fell upon the stone, but rather as if the +stone became semi-transparent, and just under its surface was something +dark—a hand, he thought it—and darker and darker it grew, as if coming +up toward the surface, and after some little wavering, it fixed itself +movelessly, pointing, as he thought, toward the forest.</p> + +<p>"It looks like a hand," said he. "By Jove, it is a hand—pointing +towards the forest with a finger."</p> + +<p>"Don't mind the finger; look only on that black blurred mark, and from +the point where you stand, taking that point for your direction, look to +the forest. Take some tree or other landmark for an object, enter the +forest there, and pursue the same line, as well as you can, until you +find little flowers with leaves like wood-sorrel, and with tall stems +and a red blossom, not larger than a drop, such as you have not seen +before, growing among the trees, and follow wherever they seem to grow +thickest, and there you will find him."</p> + +<p>All the time that Feltram was making this little address, Sir Bale was +endeavouring to fix his route by such indications as Feltram described; +and when he had succeeded in quite establishing the form of a peculiar +tree—a melancholy ash, one huge limb of which had been blasted by +lightning, and its partly stricken arm stood high and barkless, +stretching its white fingers, as it were, in invitation into the forest, +and signing the way for him——</p> + +<p>"I have it now," said he. "Come Feltram, you'll come a bit of the way +with me."</p> + +<p>Feltram made no answer, but slowly shook his head, and turned and walked +away, leaving Sir Bale to undertake his adventure alone.</p> + +<p>The strange sound they had heard from the midst of the forest, like the +rumble of a storm or the far-off trembling of a furnace, had quite +ceased. Not a bird was hopping on the grass, or visible on bough or in +the sky. Not a living creature was in sight—never was stillness more +complete, or silence more oppressive.</p> + +<p>It would have been ridiculous to give way to the old reluctance which +struggled within him. Feltram had strode down the slope, and was +concealed by a screen of bushes from his view. So alone, and full of an +interest quite new to him, he set out in quest of his adventures.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XX</h4> + +<i><b>The Haunted Forest</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes walked in a straight line, by bush and scaur, over the +undulating ground, to the blighted ash-tree; and as he approached it, +its withered bough stretched more gigantically into the air, and the +forest seemed to open where it pointed.</p> + +<p>He passed it by, and in a few minutes had lost sight of it again, and +was striding onward under the shadow of the forest, which already +enclosed him. He was directing his march with all the care he could, in +exactly that line which, according to Feltram's rule, had been laid down +for him. Now and then, having, as soldiers say, taken an object, and +fixed it well in his memory, he would pause and look about him.</p> + +<p>As a boy he had never entered the wood so far; for he was under a +prohibition, lest he should lose himself in its intricacies, and be +benighted there. He had often heard that it was haunted ground, and that +too would, when a boy, have deterred him. It was on this account that +the scene was so new to him, and that he cared so often to stop and look +about him. Here and there a vista opened, exhibiting the same utter +desertion, and opening farther perspectives through the tall stems of +the trees faintly visible in the solemn shadow. No flowers could he see, +but once or twice a wood anemone, and now and then a tiny grove of +wood-sorrel.</p> + +<p>Huge oak-trees now began to mingle and show themselves more and more +frequently among the other timber; and gradually the forest became a +great oak wood unintruded upon by any less noble tree. Vast trunks +curving outwards to the roots, and expanding again at the branches, +stood like enormous columns, striking out their groining boughs, with +the dark vaulting of a crypt.</p> + +<p>As he walked under the shadow of these noble trees, suddenly his eye +was struck by a strange little flower, nodding quite alone by the +knotted root of one of those huge oaks.</p> + +<p>He stooped and picked it up, and as he plucked it, with a harsh scream +just over his head, a large bird with heavy beating wings broke away +from the midst of the branches. He could not see it, but he fancied the +scream was like that of the huge mackaw whose ill-poised flight he had +watched. This conjecture was but founded on the odd cry he had heard.</p> + +<p>The flower was a curious one—a stem fine as a hair supported a little +bell, that looked like a drop of blood, and never ceased trembling. He +walked on, holding this in his fingers; and soon he saw another of the +same odd type, then another at a shorter distance, then one a little to +the right and another to the left, and farther on a little group, and at +last the dark slope was all over trembling with these little bells, +thicker and thicker as he descended a gentle declivity to the bank of +the little brook, which flowing through the forest loses itself in the +lake. The low murmur of this forest stream was almost the first sound, +except the shriek of the bird that startled him a little time ago, which +had disturbed the profound silence of the wood since he entered it. +Mingling with the faint sound of the brook, he now heard a harsh human +voice calling words at intervals, the purport of which he could not yet +catch; and walking on, he saw seated upon the grass, a strange figure, +corpulent, with a great hanging nose, the whole face glowing like +copper. He was dressed in a bottle-green cut-velvet coat, of the style +of Queen Anne's reign, with a dusky crimson waistcoat, both overlaid +with broad and tarnished gold lace, and his silk stockings on thick +swollen legs, with great buckled shoes, straddling on the grass, were +rolled up over his knees to his short breeches. This ill-favoured old +fellow, with a powdered wig that came down to his shoulders, had a +dice-box in each hand, and was apparently playing his left against his +right, and calling the throws with a hoarse cawing voice.</p> + +<p>Raising his black piggish eyes, he roared to Sir Bale, by name, to come +and sit down, raising one of his dice-boxes, and then indicating a place +on the grass opposite to him.</p> + +<p>Now Sir Bale instantly guessed that this was the man, gipsy, warlock, +call him what he might, of whom he had come in search. With a strange +feeling of curiosity, disgust, and awe, he drew near. He was resolved to +do whatever this old man required of him, and to keep him, this time, in +good humour.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did as he bid him, and sat down; and taking the box he +presented, they began throwing turn about, with three dice, the +copper-faced old man teaching him the value of the throws, as he +proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw, +grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes +almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he +sat before him.</p> + +<p>After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this +way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather +moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his +shoulder,</p> + +<p>"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had +not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking +another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man, +dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which +seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with +a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy +nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about +him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head +to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great +old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their +fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and +character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up +his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and +then he filled Sir Bale's glass.</p> + +<p>It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the +liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of +an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading +continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim, +and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work.</p> + +<p>"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his +glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the +other; "and you know what I mean."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he +tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing +it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was +also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful +figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep +mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely, +wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerades. So much of her +throat and chin as he could see were beautifully white; and there was a +prettiness in her air and figure which made him think what a beautiful +creature she in all likelihood was. She was reclining slightly against +the burly man in bottle-green and gold, and her arm was round his neck, +and her slender white hand showed itself over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Ho! my little Geaiette," cried the old fellow hoarsely; "it will be +time that you and I should get home.—So, Bale Mardykes, I have nothing +to object to you this time; you've crossed the lake, and you've played +with me and won and lost, and drank your glass like a jolly companion, +and now we know one another; and an acquaintance is made that will last. +I'll let you go, and you'll come when I call for you. And now you'll +want to know what horse will win next month at Rindermere +races.—Whisper me, lass, and I'll tell him."</p> + +<p>So her lips, under the black curtain, crept close to his ear, and she +whispered.</p> + +<p>"Ay, so it will;" roared the old man, gnashing his teeth; "it will be +Rainbow, and now make your best speed out of the forest, or I'll set my +black dogs after you, ho, ho, ho! and they may chance to pull you down. +Away!"</p> + +<p>He cried this last order with a glare so black, and so savage a shake of +his huge fist, that Sir Bale, merely making his general bow to the +group, clapped his hat on his head, and hastily began his retreat; but +the same discordant voice yelled after him:</p> + +<p>"You'll want that, you fool; pick it up." And there came hurtling after +and beside him a great leather bag, stained, and stuffed with a heavy +burden, and bounding by him it stopped with a little wheel that brought +it exactly before his feet.</p> + +<p>He picked it up, and found it heavy.</p> + +<p>Turning about to make his acknowledgments, he saw the two persons in +full retreat; the profane old scoundrel in the bottle-green limping and +stumbling, yet bowling along at a wonderful rate, with many a jerk and +reel, and the slender lady in black gliding away by his side into the +inner depths of the forest.</p> + +<p>So Sir Bale, with a strange chill, and again in utter solitude, pursued +his retreat, with his burden, at a swifter pace, and after an hour or +so, had recovered the point where he had entered the forest, and passing +by the druidic stone and the mighty oak, saw down the glen at his right, +standing by the edge of the lake, Philip Feltram, close to the bow of +the boat.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXI</h4> + +<i><b>Rindermere</b></i> + +<p>Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he +stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored.</p> + +<p>"You found him?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The lady in black was there?"</p> + +<p>"She was."</p> + +<p>"And you played with him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And what is that in your hand?"</p> + +<p>"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me. +We shall see just now; let us get away."</p> + +<p>"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in +his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him."</p> + +<p>"To be sure."</p> + +<p>The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by +the time they had reached the side where they now were.</p> + +<p>There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already +evening.</p> + +<p>"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said +Sir Bale; "only let us get away."</p> + +<p>He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its +heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope +and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull +together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had +got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore.</p> + +<p>The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram +knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a +secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a +long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax, +fragments of which were still sticking to it.</p> + +<p>He got it open, and found it full of guineas.</p> + +<p>"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick +upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!"</p> + +<p>Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter. +Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it +seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count +them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand.</p> + +<p>It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag, +and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply,</p> + +<p>"Come, take your oar—unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind +will soon be up from Golden Friars!"</p> + +<p>He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and +applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing +loath, the Baronet did so.</p> + +<p>It was slow work, for the boat was not built for speed; and by the time +they had got about midway, the sun went down, and twilight and the +melancholy flush of the sunset tints were upon the lake and fells.</p> + +<p>"Ho! here comes the breeze—up from Golden Friars," said Feltram; "we +shall have enough to fill the sails now. If you don't fear spirits and +Snakes Island, it is all the better for us it should blow from that +point. If it blew from Mardykes now, it would be a stiff pull for you +and me to get this tub home."</p> + +<p>Talking as if to himself, and laughing low, he adjusted the sail and +took the tiller, and so, yielding to the rising breeze, the boat glided +slowly toward still distant Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>The moon came out, and the shore grew misty, and the towering fells rose +like sheeted giants; and leaning on the gunwale of the boat, Sir Bale, +with the rush and gurgle of the water on the boat's side sounding +faintly in his ear, thought of his day's adventure, which seemed to him +like a dream—incredible but for the heavy bag that lay between his +feet.</p> + +<p>As they passed Snakes Island, a little mist, like a fragment of a fog, +seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came +near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; +and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the +mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the +same thing always happened.</p> + +<p>It was three weeks after, that Sir Bale, sitting up in his bed, very +pale and wan, with his silk night-cap nodding on one side, and his thin +hand extended on the coverlet, where the doctor had been feeling his +pulse, in his darkened room, related all the wonders of this day to +Doctor Torvey. The doctor had attended him through a fever which +followed immediately upon his visit to Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"And, my dear sir, by Jupiter, can you really believe all that delirium +to be sober fact?" said the doctor, sitting by the bedside, and actually +laughing.</p> + +<p>"I can't help believing it, because I can't distinguish in any way +between all that and everything else that actually happened, and which I +must believe. And, except that this is more wonderful, I can find no +reason to reject it, that does not as well apply to all the rest."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, my dear sir, this will never do—nothing is more common. +These illusions accompanying fever frequently antedate the attack, and +the man is actually raving before he knows he is ill."</p> + +<p>"But what do you make of that bag of gold?"</p> + +<p>"Some one has lent it. You had better ask all about it of Feltram when +you can see him; for in speaking to me he seemed to know all about it, +and certainly did not seem to think the matter at all out of the +commonplace. It is just like that fisherman's story, about the hand that +drew Feltram into the water on the night that he was nearly drowned. +Every one can see what that was. Why of course it was simply the +reflection of his own hand in the water, in that vivid lightning. When +you have been out a little and have gained strength you will shake off +these dreams."</p> + +<p>"I should not wonder," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that Sir Bale reported all that was in his +memory respecting his strange vision, if such it was, at Cloostedd. He +made a selection of the incidents, and threw over the whole adventure an +entirely accidental character, and described the money which the old man +had thrown to him as amounting to a purse of five guineas, and mentioned +nothing of the passages which bore on the coming race.</p> + +<p>Good Doctor Torvey, therefore, reported only that Sir Bale's delirium +had left two or three illusions sticking in his memory.</p> + +<p>But if they were illusions, they survived the event of his recovery, and +remained impressed on his memory with the sharpness of very recent and +accurately observed fact.</p> + +<p>He was resolved on going to the races of Rindermere, where, having in +his possession so weighty a guarantee as the leather purse, he was +determined to stake it all boldly on Rainbow—against which horse he was +glad to hear there were very heavy odds.</p> + +<p>The race came off. One horse was scratched, another bolted, the rider of +a third turned out to have lost a buckle and three half-pence and so was +an ounce and a half under weight, a fourth knocked down the post near +Rinderness churchyard, and was held to have done it with his left +instead of his right knee, and so had run at the wrong side. The result +was that Rainbow came in first, and I should be afraid to say how much +Sir Bale won. It was a sum that paid off a heavy debt, and left his +affairs in a much more manageable state.</p> + +<p>From this time Sir Bale prospered. He visited Cloostedd no more; but +Feltram often crossed to that lonely shore as heretofore, and it is +believed conveyed to him messages which guided his betting. One thing is +certain, his luck never deserted him. His debts disappeared; and his +love of continental life seemed to have departed. He became content with +Mardykes Hall, laid out money on it, and although he never again cared +to cross the lake, he seemed to like the scenery.</p> + +<p>In some respects, however, he lived exactly the same odd and unpopular +life. He saw no one at Mardykes Hall. He practised a very strict +reserve. The neighbours laughed at and disliked him, and he was voted, +whenever any accidental contact arose, a very disagreeable man; and he +had a shrewd and ready sarcasm that made them afraid of him, and himself +more disliked.</p> + +<p>Odd rumours prevailed about his household. It was said that his old +relations with Philip Feltram had become reversed; and that he was as +meek as a mouse, and Feltram the bully now. It was also said that Mrs. +Julaper had one Sunday evening when she drank tea at the Vicar's, told +his good lady very mysteriously, and with many charges of secrecy, that +Sir Bale was none the better of his late-found wealth; that he had a +load upon his spirits, that he was afraid of Feltram, and so was every +one else, more or less, in the house; that he was either mad or worse; +and that it was an eerie dwelling, and strange company, and she should +be glad herself of a change.</p> + +<p>Good Mrs. Bedel told her friend Mrs. Torvey; and all Golden Friars heard +all this, and a good deal more, in an incredibly short time.</p> + +<p>All kinds of rumours now prevailed in Golden Friars, connecting Sir +Bale's successes on the turf with some mysterious doings in Cloostedd +Forest. Philip Feltram laughed when he heard these stories—especially +when he heard the story that a supernatural personage had lent the +Baronet a purse full of money.</p> + +<p>"You should not talk to Doctor Torvey so, sir," said he grimly; "he's +the greatest tattler in the town. It was old Farmer Trebeck, who could +buy and sell us all down here, who lent that money. Partly from +good-will, but not without acknowledgment. He has my hand for the first, +not worth much, and yours to a bond for the two thousand guineas you +brought home with you. It seems strange you should not remember that +venerable and kind old farmer whom you talked with so long that day. His +grandson, who expects to stand well in his will, being a trainer in +Lord Varney's stables, has sometimes a tip to give, and he is the source +of your information."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, I must be a bit mad, then, that's all," said Sir Bale, with a +smile and a shrug.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram moped about the house, and did precisely what he pleased. +The change which had taken place in him became more and more pronounced. +Dark and stern he always looked, and often malignant. He was like a man +possessed of one evil thought which never left him.</p> + +<p>There was, besides, the good old Gothic superstition of a bargain or +sale of the Baronet's soul to the arch-fiend. This was, of course, very +cautiously whispered in a place where he had influence. It was only a +coarser and directer version of a suspicion, that in a more credulous +generation penetrated a level of society quite exempt from such follies +in our day.</p> + +<p>One evening at dusk, Sir Bale, sitting after his dinner in his window, +saw the tall figure of Feltram, like a dark streak, standing movelessly +by the lake. An unpleasant feeling moved him, and then an impatience. He +got up, and having primed himself with two glasses of brandy, walked +down to the edge of the lake, and placed himself beside Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Looking down from the window," said he, nerved with his Dutch courage, +"and seeing you standing like a post, do you know what I began to think +of?"</p> + +<p>Feltram looked at him, but answered nothing.</p> + +<p>"I began to think of taking a wife—<i>marrying</i>."</p> + +<p>Feltram nodded. The announcement had not produced the least effect.</p> + +<p>"Why the devil will you make me so uncomfortable! Can't you be like +yourself—what you <i>were</i>, I mean? I won't go on living here alone with +you. I'll take a wife, I tell you. I'll choose a good church-going +woman, that will have every man, woman, and child in the house on their +marrow-bones twice a day, morning and evening, and three times on +Sundays. How will you like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will be married," said Feltram, with a quiet decision which +chilled Sir Bale, for he had by no means made up his mind to that +desperate step.</p> + +<p>Feltram slowly walked away, and that conversation ended.</p> + +<p>Now an odd thing happened about this time. There was a family of +Feltram—county genealogists could show how related to the vanished +family of Cloostedd—living at that time on their estate not far from +Carlisle. Three co-heiresses now represented it. They were great +beauties—the belles of their county in their day.</p> + +<p>One was married to Sir Oliver Haworth of Haworth, a great family in +those times. He was a knight of the shire, and had refused a baronetage, +and, it was said, had his eye on a peerage. The other sister was married +to Sir William Walsingham, a wealthy baronet; and the third and +youngest, Miss Janet, was still unmarried, and at home at Cloudesly +Hall, where her aunt, Lady Harbottle, lived with her, and made a +dignified chaperon.</p> + +<p>Now it so fell out that Sir Bale, having business at Carlisle, and +knowing old Lady Harbottle, paid his respects at Cloudesly Hall; and +being no less than five-and-forty years of age, was for the first time +in his life, seriously in love.</p> + +<p>Miss Janet was extremely pretty—a fair beauty with brilliant red lips +and large blue eyes, and ever so many pretty dimples when she talked and +smiled. It was odd, but not perhaps against the course of nature, that a +man, though so old as he, and quite <i>blasé</i>, should fall at last under +that fascination.</p> + +<p>But what are we to say of the strange infatuation of the young lady? No +one could tell why she liked him. It was a craze. Her family were +against it, her intimates, her old nurse—all would not do; and the +oddest thing was, that he seemed to take no pains to please her. The end +of this strange courtship was that he married her; and she came home to +Mardykes Hall, determined to please everybody, and to be the happiest +woman in England.</p> + +<p>With her came a female cousin, a good deal her senior, past +thirty—Gertrude Mainyard, pale and sad, but very gentle, and with all +the prettiness that can belong to her years.</p> + +<p>This young lady has a romance. Her hero is far away in India; and she, +content to await his uncertain return with means to accomplish the hope +of their lives, in that frail chance has long embarked all the purpose +and love of her life.</p> + +<p>When Lady Mardykes came home, a new leaf was, as the phrase is, turned +over. The neighbours and all the country people were willing to give the +Hall a new trial. There was visiting and returning of visits; and young +Lady Mardykes was liked and admired. It could not indeed have been +otherwise. But here the improvement in the relations of Mardykes Hall +with other homes ceased. On one excuse or another Sir Bale postponed or +evaded the hospitalities which establish intimacies. Some people said he +was jealous of his young and beautiful wife. But for the most part his +reserve was set down to the old inhospitable cause, some ungenial +defect in his character; and in a little time the tramp of horses and +roll of carriage-wheels were seldom heard up or down the broad avenue of +Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale liked this seclusion; and his wife, "so infatuated with her +idolatry of that graceless old man," as surrounding young ladies said, +that she was well content to forego the society of the county people for +a less interrupted enjoyment of that of her husband. "What she could see +in him" to interest or amuse her so, that for his sake she was willing +to be "buried alive in that lonely place," the same critics were +perpetually wondering.</p> + +<p>A year and more passed thus; for the young wife, happily—<i>very</i> happily +indeed, had it not been for one topic on which she and her husband could +not agree. This was Philip Feltram; and an odd quarrel it was.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXII</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale is Frightened</b></i> + +<p>To Feltram she had conceived, at first sight, a horror. It was not a +mere antipathy; fear mingled largely in it. Although she did not see him +often, this restless dread grew upon her so, that she urged his +dismissal upon Sir Bale, offering to provide, herself, for him a +handsome annuity, charged on that part of her property which, by her +marriage settlement, had remained in her power. There was a time when +Sir Bale was only too anxious to get rid of him. But that was changed +now. Nothing could now induce the Baronet to part with him. He at first +evaded and resisted quietly. But, urged with a perseverance to which he +was unused, he at last broke into fury that appalled her, and swore that +if he was worried more upon the subject, he would leave her and the +country, and see neither again. This exhibition of violence affrighted +her all the more by reason of the contrast; for up to this he had been +an uxorious husband. Lady Mardykes was in hysterics, and thoroughly +frightened, and remained in her room for two or three days. Sir Bale +went up to London about business, and was not home for more than a week. +This was the first little squall that disturbed the serenity of their +sky.</p> + +<p>This point, therefore, was settled; but soon there came other things to +sadden Lady Mardykes. There occurred a little incident, soon after Sir +Bale's return from London, which recalled the topic on which they had so +nearly quarrelled.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had a dressing-room, remote from the bedrooms, in which he sat +and read and sometimes smoked. One night, after the house was all quiet, +the Baronet being still up, the bell of this dressing-room rang long and +furiously. It was such a peal as a person in extreme terror might ring. +Lady Mardykes, with her maid in her room, heard it; and in great alarm +she ran in her dressing-gown down the gallery to Sir Bale's room. +Mallard the butler had already arrived, and was striving to force the +door, which was secured. It gave way just as she reached it, and she +rushed through.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was standing with the bell-rope in his hand, in the extremest +agitation, looking like a ghost; and Philip Feltram was sitting in his +chair, with a dark smile fixed upon him. For a minute she thought he had +attempted to assassinate his master. She could not otherwise account for +the scene.</p> + +<p>There had been nothing of the kind, however; as her husband assured her +again and again, as she lay sobbing on his breast, with her arms about +his neck.</p> + +<p>"To her dying hour," she afterwards said to her cousin, "she never could +forget the dreadful look in Feltram's face."</p> + +<p>No explanation of that scene did she ever obtain from Sir Bale, nor any +clue to the cause of the agony that was so powerfully expressed in his +countenance. Thus much only she learned from him, that Feltram had +sought that interview for the purpose of announcing his departure, which +was to take place within the year.</p> + +<p>"You are not sorry to hear that. But if you knew all, you might. Let the +curse fly where it may, it will come back to roost. So, darling, let us +discuss him no more. Your wish is granted, <i>dis iratis</i>."</p> + +<p>Some crisis, during this interview, seemed to have occurred in the +relations between Sir Bale and Feltram. Henceforward they seldom +exchanged a word; and when they did speak, it was coldly and shortly, +like men who were nearly strangers.</p> + +<p>One day in the courtyard, Sir Bale seeing Feltram leaning upon the +parapet that overlooks the lake, approached him, and said in a low tone,</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking if we—that is, I—do owe that money to old Trebeck, +it is high time I should pay it. I was ill, and had lost my head at the +time; but it turned out luckily, and it ought to be paid. I don't like +the idea of a bond turning up, and a lot of interest."</p> + +<p>"The old fellow meant it for a present. He is richer than you are; he +wished to give the family a lift. He has destroyed the bond, I believe, +and in no case will he take payment."</p> + +<p>"No fellow has a right to force his money on another," answered Sir +Bale. "I never asked him. Besides, as you know, I was not really myself, +and the whole thing seems to me quite different from what you say it +was; and, so far as my brain is concerned, it was all a phantasmagoria; +but, you say, it was he."</p> + +<p>"Every man is accountable for what he intends and for what he <i>thinks</i> +he does," said Feltram cynically.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm accountable for dealing with that wicked old dicer I +<i>thought</i> I saw—isn't that it? But I must pay old Trebeck all the same, +since the money was his. Can you manage a meeting?"</p> + +<p>"Look down here. Old Trebeck has just landed; he will sleep to-night at +the George and Dragon, to meet his cattle in the morning at Golden +Friars fair. You can speak to him yourself."</p> + +<p>So saying Feltram glided away, leaving Sir Bale the task of opening the +matter to the wealthy farmer of Cloostedd Fells.</p> + +<p>A broad night of steps leads down from the courtyard to the level of the +jetty at the lake: and Sir Bale descended, and accosted the venerable +farmer, who was bluff, honest, and as frank as a man can be who speaks a +<i>patois</i> which hardly a living man but himself can understand.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale asked him to come to the Hall and take luncheon; but Trebeck +was in haste. Cattle had arrived which he wanted to look at, and a pony +awaited him on the road, hard by, to Golden Friars; and the old fellow +must mount and away.</p> + +<p>Then Sir Bale, laying his hand upon his arm in a manner that was at once +lofty and affectionate, told in his ears the subject on which he wished +to be understood.</p> + +<p>The old farmer looked hard at him, and shook his head and laughed in a +way that would have been insupportable in a house, and told him, "I hev +narra bond o' thoine, mon."</p> + +<p>"I know how that is; so does Philip Feltram."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must replace the money."</p> + +<p>The old man laughed again, and in his outlandish dialect told him to +wait till he asked him. Sir Bale pressed it, but the old fellow put it +off with outlandish banter; and as the Baronet grew testy, the farmer +only waxed more and more hilarious, and at last, mounting his shaggy +pony, rode off, still laughing, at a canter to Golden Friars; and when +he reached Golden Friars, and got into the hall of the George and +Dragon, he asked Richard Turnbull with a chuckle if he ever knew a man +refuse an offer of money, or a man want to pay who did not owe; and +inquired whether the Squire down at Mardykes Hall mightn't be a bit +"wrang in t' garrets." All this, however, other people said, was +intended merely to conceal the fact that he really had, through sheer +loyalty, lent the money, or rather bestowed it, thinking the old family +in jeopardy, and meaning a gift, was determined to hear no more about +it. I can't say; I only know people held, some by one interpretation, +some by another.</p> + +<p>As the caterpillar sickens and changes its hue when it is about to +undergo its transformation, so an odd change took place in Feltram. He +grew even more silent and morose; he seemed always in an agitation and a +secret rage. He used to walk through the woodlands on the slopes of the +fells above Mardykes, muttering to himself, picking up the rotten sticks +with which the ground was strewn, breaking them in his hands, and +hurling them from him, and stamping on the earth as he paced up and +down.</p> + +<p>One night a thunder-storm came on, the wind blowing gently up from +Golden Friars. It was a night black as pitch, illuminated only by the +intermittent glare of the lightning. At the foot of the stairs Sir Bale +met Feltram, whom he had not seen for some days. He had his cloak and +hat on.</p> + +<p>"I am going to Cloostedd to-night," he said, "and if all is as I expect, +I sha'n't return. We remember all, you and I." And he nodded and walked +down the passage.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale knew that a crisis had happened in his own life. He felt faint +and ill, and returned to the room where he had been sitting. Throughout +that melancholy night he did not go to his bed.</p> + +<p>In the morning he learned that Marlin, who had been out late, saw +Feltram get the boat off, and sail towards the other side. The night was +so dark that he could only see him start; but the wind was light and +coming up the lake, so that without a tack he could easily make the +other side. Feltram did not return. The boat was found fast to the ring +at Cloostedd landing-place.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes was relieved, and for a time was happier than ever. It was +different with Sir Bale; and afterwards her sky grew dark also.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIII</h4> + +<i><b>A Lady in Black</b></i> + +<p>Shortly after this, there arrived at the George and Dragon a stranger. +He was a man somewhat past forty, embrowned by distant travel, and, his +years considered, wonderfully good-looking. He had good eyes; his +dark-brown hair had no sprinkling of gray in it; and his kindly smile +showed very white and even teeth. He made inquiries about neighbours, +especially respecting Mardykes Hall; and the answers seemed to interest +him profoundly. He inquired after Philip Feltram, and shed tears when he +heard that he was no longer at Mardykes Hall, and that Trebeck or other +friends could give him no tidings of him.</p> + +<p>And then he asked Richard Turnbull to show him to a quiet room; and so, +taking the honest fellow by the hand, he said,</p> + +<p>"Mr. Turnbull, don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said the host of the George and Dragon, after a puzzled +stare, "I can't say I do, sir."</p> + +<p>The stranger smiled a little sadly, and shook his head: and with a +gentle laugh, still holding his hand in a very friendly way, he said, "I +should have known you anywhere, Mr. Turnbull—anywhere on earth or +water. Had you turned up on the Himalayas, or in a junk on the Canton +river, or as a dervish in the mosque of St. Sophia, I should have +recognised my old friend, and asked what news from Golden Friars. But of +course I'm changed. You were a little my senior; and one advantage among +many you have over your juniors is that you don't change as we do. I +have played many a game of hand-ball in the inn-yard of the George, Mr. +Turnbull. You often wagered a pot of ale on my play; you used to say I'd +make the best player of fives, and the best singer of a song, within ten +miles round the meer. You used to have me behind the bar when I was a +boy, with more of an appetite than I have now. I was then at Mardykes +Hall, and used to go back in old Marlin's boat. Is old Marlin still +alive?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, that—he—is," said Turnbull slowly, as he eyed the stranger again +carefully. "I don't know who you can be, sir, unless you are—the +boy—William Feltram. La! he was seven or eight years younger than +Philip. But, lawk!--Well—By Jen, and <i>be</i> you Willie Feltram? But no, +you can't!"</p> + +<p>"Ay, Mr. Turnbull, that very boy—Willie Feltram—even he, and no other; +and now you'll shake hands with me, not so formally, but like an old +friend."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that I will," said honest Richard Turnbull, with a great smile, and +a hearty grasp of his guest's hand; and they both laughed together, and +the younger man's eyes, for he was an affectionate fool, filled up with +tears.</p> + +<p>"And I want you to tell me this," said William, after they had talked a +little quietly, "now that there is no one to interrupt us, what has +become of my brother Philip? I heard from a friend an account of his +health that has caused me unspeakable anxiety."</p> + +<p>"His health was not bad; no, he was a hardy lad, and liked a walk over +the fells, or a pull on the lake; but he was a bit daft, every one said, +and a changed man; and, in troth, they say the air o' Mardykes don't +agree with every one, no more than him. But that's a tale that's neither +here nor there."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said William, "that was what they told me—his mind affected. God +help and guard us! I have been unhappy ever since; and if I only knew it +was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is +Philip now?"</p> + +<p>"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They +thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the +Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall—though those two families +was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him, +nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But <i>I</i> hoped it +had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor +fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know—I don't know what I +<i>would</i> not give to know—I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old +friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes +Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in."</p> + +<p>At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the +stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the +balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose +leaves were half shed and gone with the winds—emblem of her hopes. The +solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake, +deepened her sadness.</p> + +<p>The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie.</p> + +<p>Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized +the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out.</p> + +<p>She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a +sob, she threw herself into his arms.</p> + +<p>Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had +reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from +shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness.</p> + +<p>William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and +only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought +it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health +unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and +energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with +fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something +to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them +happier than hundreds of thousand could other people.</p> + +<p>It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of +importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him.</p> + +<p>The refined tastes that are supposed to accompany gentle blood, his love +of art, his talent for music and drawing, had accidentally attracted the +attention of the little travelling-party which old Lady Harbottle +chaperoned. Miss Janet, now Lady Mardykes, learning that his name was +Feltram, made inquiry through a common friend, and learned what +interested her still more about him. It ended in an acquaintance, which +his manly and gentle nature and his entertaining qualities soon improved +into an intimacy.</p> + +<p>Feltram had chosen to work his own way, being proud, and also prosperous +enough to prevent his pride, in this respect, from being placed under +too severe a pressure of temptation. He heard not from but of his +brother, through a friend in London, and more lately from Gertrude, +whose account of him was sad and even alarming.</p> + +<p>When Lady Mardykes came in, her delight knew no bounds. She had already +formed a plan for their future, and was not to be put off—William +Feltram was to take the great grazing farm that belonged to the Mardykes +estate; or, if he preferred it, to farm it for her, sharing the profits. +She wanted something to interest her, and this was just the thing. It +was hardly half-a-mile away, up the lake, and there was such a +comfortable house and garden, and she and Gertrude could be as much +together as ever almost; and, in fact, Gertrude and her husband could be +nearly always at Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>So eager and entreating was she, that there was no escape. The plan was +adopted immediately on their marriage, and no happier neighbours for a +time were ever known.</p> + +<p>But was Lady Mardykes content? was she even exempt from the heartache +which each mortal thinks he has all to himself? The longing of her life +was for children; and again and again had her hopes been disappointed.</p> + +<p>One tiny pretty little baby indeed was born, and lived for two years, +and then died; and none had come to supply its place and break the +childless silence in the great old nursery. That was her sorrow; a +greater one than men can understand.</p> + +<p>Another source of grief was this: that Sir Bale Mardykes conceived a +dislike to William Feltram that was unaccountable. At first suppressed, +it betrayed itself negatively only; but with time it increased; and in +the end the Baronet made little secret of his wish to get rid of him. +Many and ingenious were the annoyances he contrived; and at last he told +his wife plainly that he wished William Feltram to find some other abode +for himself.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude +were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her +own life would become.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There +was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He +had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given +him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and +strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram +had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they +might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate +should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of +her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread.</p> + +<p>All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by +Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition +which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed +himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he +was.</p> + +<p>In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking +of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else.</p> + +<p>One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his +farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and +then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the +lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say:</p> + +<p>"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!"</p> + +<p>The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the +interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and +yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and +partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but +swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither +start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that +which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he +owned no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more.</p> + +<p>He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a +solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did +not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I +suppose, she would.</p> + +<p>They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the +more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles +away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude, +who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant +cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in +favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine +ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather +damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus:</p> + +<p>She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although +she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still +thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed +to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in +the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair +near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a +sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight +sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she +saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room.</p> + +<p>Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so +large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten +it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood +at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She +extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, +and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the +foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and +with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and +looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips +and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary, +and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute.</p> + +<p>How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing +like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand. +Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation +of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black +held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" asked Gertrude.</p> + +<p>"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell +you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet. +If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear me."</p> + +<p>Her voice was very distinct, but also very faint, with something +undulatory in it, that seemed to enter Gertrude's head rather than her +ear.</p> + +<p>Saying this she smiled horribly, and, lifting her handkerchief, +disclosed for a moment a great wound in her breast, deep in which +Gertrude saw darkly the head of a snake writhing.</p> + +<p>Hereupon she uttered a wild scream of terror, and, diving under the +bed-clothes, remained more dead than alive there, until her maid, +alarmed by her cry, came in, and having searched the room, and shut the +window at her desire, did all in her power to comfort her.</p> + +<p>If this was a nightmare and embodied only by a form of expression which +in some states belongs to the imagination, a leading idea in the +controversy in which her mind had long been employed, it had at least +the effect of deciding her against leaving Faxwell. And so that point +was settled; and unpleasant relations continued between the tenants of +the farm and the master of Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>To Lady Mardykes all this was very painful, although Sir Bale did not +insist upon making a separation between his wife and her cousin. But to +Mardykes Hall that cousin came no more. Even Lady Mardykes thought it +better to see her at Faxwell than to risk a meeting in the temper in +which Sir Bale then was. And thus several years passed.</p> + +<p>No tidings of Philip Feltram were heard; and, in fact, none ever reached +that part of the world; and if it had not been highly improbable that he +could have drowned himself in the lake without his body sooner or later +having risen to the surface, it would have been concluded that he had +either accidentally or by design made away with himself in its waters.</p> + +<p>Over Mardykes Hall there was a gloom—no sound of children's voices was +heard there, and even the hope of that merry advent had died out.</p> + +<p>This disappointment had no doubt helped to fix in Sir Bale's mind the +idea of the insecurity of his property, and the morbid fancy that +William Feltram and old Trebeck were conspiring to seize it; than which, +I need hardly say, no imagination more insane could have fixed itself in +his mind.</p> + +<p>In other things, however, Sir Bale was shrewd and sharp, a clear and +rapid man of business, and although this was a strange whim, it was not +so unnatural in a man who was by nature so prone to suspicion as Sir +Bale Mardykes.</p> + +<p>During the years, now seven, that had elapsed since the marriage of Sir +Bale and Miss Janet Feltram, there had happened but one event, except +the death of their only child, to place them in mourning. That was the +decease of Sir William Walsingham, the husband of Lady Mardykes' sister. +She now lived in a handsome old dower-house at Islington, and being +wealthy, made now and then an excursion to Mardykes Hall, in which she +was sometimes accompanied by her sister Lady Haworth. Sir Oliver being a +Parliament-man was much in London and deep in politics and intrigue, and +subject, as convivial rogues are, to occasional hard hits from gout.</p> + +<p>But change and separation had made no alteration in these ladies' mutual +affections, and no three sisters were ever more attached.</p> + +<p>Was Lady Mardykes happy with her lord? A woman so gentle and loving as +she, is a happy wife with any husband who is not an absolute brute. +There must have been, I suppose, some good about Sir Bale. His wife was +certainly deeply attached to him. She admired his wisdom, and feared his +inflexible will, and altogether made of him a domestic idol. To acquire +this enviable position, I suspect there must be something not +essentially disagreeable about a man. At all events, what her neighbours +good-naturedly termed her infatuation continued, and indeed rather +improved by time.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIV</h4> + +<i><b>An Old Portrait</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale—whom some remembered a gay and convivial man, not to say a +profligate one—had grown to be a very gloomy man indeed. There was +something weighing upon his mind; and I daresay some of the good gossips +of Golden Friars, had there been any materials for such a case, would +have believed that Sir Bale had murdered Philip Feltram, and was now the +victim of the worm and fire of remorse.</p> + +<p>The gloom of the master of the house made his very servants gloomy, and +the house itself looked sombre, as if it had been startled with strange +and dismal sights.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes was something of an artist. She had lighted lately, in an +out-of-the-way room, upon a dozen or more old portraits. Several of +these were full-lengths; and she was—with the help of her maid, both in +long aprons, amid sponges and basins, soft handkerchiefs and +varnish-pots and brushes—busy in removing the dust and smoke-stains, +and in laying-on the varnish, which brought out the colouring, and made +the transparent shadows yield up their long-buried treasures of finished +detail.</p> + +<p>Against the wall stood a full-length portrait as Sir Bale entered the +room; having for a wonder, a word to say to his wife.</p> + +<p>"O," said the pretty lady, turning to him in her apron, and with her +brush in her hand, "we are in such in pickle, Munnings and I have been +cleaning these old pictures. Mrs. Julaper says they are the pictures +that came from Cloostedd Hall long ago. They were buried in dust in the +dark room in the clock-tower. Here is such a characteristic one. It has +a long powdered wig—George the First or Second, I don't know which—and +such a combination of colours, and such a face. It seems starting out of +the canvas, and all but speaks. Do look; that is, I mean, Bale, if you +can spare time."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale abstractedly drew near, and looked over his wife's shoulder on +the full-length portrait that stood before him; and as he did so a +strange expression for a moment passed over his face.</p> + +<p>The picture represented a man of swarthy countenance, with signs of the +bottle glowing through the dark skin; small fierce pig eyes, a rather +flat pendulous nose, and a grim forbidding mouth, with a large wart a +little above it. On the head hung one of those full-bottomed powdered +wigs that look like a cloud of cotton-wadding; a lace cravat was about +his neck; he wore short black-velvet breeches with stockings rolled over +them, a bottle-green coat of cut velvet and a crimson waistcoat with +long flaps; coat and waistcoat both heavily laced with gold. He wore a +sword, and leaned upon a crutch-handled cane, and his figure and aspect +indicated a swollen and gouty state. He could not be far from sixty. +There was uncommon force in this fierce and forbidding-looking portrait. +Lady Mardykes said, "What wonderful dresses they wore! How like a fine +magic-lantern figure he looks! What gorgeous colouring! it looks like +the plumage of a mackaw; and what a claw his hand is! and that huge +broken beak of a nose! Isn't he like a wicked old mackaw?"</p> + +<p>"Where did you find that?" asked Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Surprised at his tone, she looked round, and was still more surprised +at his looks.</p> + +<p>"I told you, dear Bale, I found them in the clock-tower. I hope I did +right; it was not wrong bringing them here? I ought to have asked. Are +you vexed, Bale?"</p> + +<p>"Vexed! not I. I only wish it was in the fire. I must have seen that +picture when I was a child. I hate to look at it. I raved about it once, +when I was ill. I don't know who it is; I don't remember when I saw it. +I wish you'd tell them to burn it."</p> + +<p>"It is one of the Feltrams," she answered. "'Sir Hugh Feltram' is on the +frame at the foot; and old Mrs. Julaper says he was the father of the +unhappy lady who was said to have been drowned near Snakes Island."</p> + +<p>"Well, suppose he is; there's nothing interesting in that. It is a +disgusting picture. I connect it with my illness; and I think it is the +kind of thing that would make any one half mad, if they only looked at +it often enough. Tell them to burn it; and come away, come to the next +room; I can't say what I want here."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer he remained in +the room. He seemed to her both frightened and furious; and taking her a +little roughly by the wrist, he led her through the door.</p> + +<p>When they were in another apartment alone, he again asked the affrighted +lady who had told her that picture was there, and who told her to clean +it.</p> + +<p>She had only the truth to plead. It was, from beginning to end, the +merest accident.</p> + +<p>"If I thought, Janet, that you were taking counsel of others, talking me +over, and trying clever experiments—" he stopped short with his eyes +fixed on hers with black suspicion.</p> + +<p>His wife's answer was one pleading look, and to burst into tears.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale let-go her wrist, which he had held up to this; and placing his +hand gently on her shoulder, he said,</p> + +<p>"You must not cry, Janet; I have given you no excuse for tears. I only +wished an answer to a very harmless question; and I am sure you would +tell me, if by any chance you have lately seen Philip Feltram; he is +capable of arranging all that. No one knows him as I do. There, you must +not cry any more; but tell me truly, has he turned up? is he at +Faxwell?"</p> + +<p>She denied all this with perfect truth; and after a hesitation of some +time, the matter ended. And as soon as she and he were more themselves, +he had something quite different to tell her.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Janet; sit down, and forget that vile picture and all I have +been saying. What I came to tell you, I think you will like; I am sure +it will please you."</p> + +<p>And with this little preface he placed his arm about her neck, and +kissed her tenderly. She certainly was pleased; and when his little +speech was over, she, smiling, with her tears still wet upon her cheeks, +put her arms round her husband's neck, and in turn kissed him with the +ardour of gratitude, kissed him affectionately; again and again thanking +him all the time.</p> + +<p>It was no great matter, but from Sir Bale Mardykes it was something +quite unusual.</p> + +<p>Was it a sudden whim? What was it? Something had prompted Sir Bale, +early in that dark shrewd month of December, to tell his wife that he +wished to call together some of his county acquaintances, and to fill +his house for a week or so, as near Christmas as she could get them to +come. He wished her sisters—Lady Haworth (with her husband) and the +Dowager Lady Walsingham—to be invited for an early day, before the +coming of the other guests, so that she might enjoy their society for a +little time quietly to herself before the less intimate guests should +assemble.</p> + +<p>Glad was Lady Mardykes to hear the resolve of her husband, and prompt to +obey. She wrote to her sisters to beg them to arrange to come, together, +by the tenth or twelfth of the month, which they accordingly arranged to +do. Sir Oliver, it was true, could not be of the party. A minister of +state was drinking the waters at Bath; and Sir Oliver thought it would +do him no harm to sip a little also, and his fashionable doctor politely +agreed, and "ordered" to those therapeutic springs the knight of the +shire, who was "consumedly vexed" to lose the Christmas with that jolly +dog, Bale, down at Mardykes Hall. But a fellow must have a stomach for +his Christmas pudding, and politics takes it out of a poor gentleman +deucedly; and health's the first thing, egad!</p> + +<p>So Sir Oliver went down to Bath, and I don't know that he tippled much +of the waters, but he did drink the burgundy of that haunt of the +ailing; and he had the honour of making a fourth not unfrequently in the +secretary of state's whist-parties.</p> + +<p>It was about the 8th of December when, in Lady Walsingham's carriage, +intending to post all the way, that lady, still young, and Lady Haworth, +with all the servants that were usual in such expeditions in those days, +started from the great Dower House at Islington in high spirits.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth had not been very well—low and nervous; but the clear +frosty sun, and the pleasant nature of the excursion, raised her spirits +to the point of enjoyment; and expecting nothing but happiness and +gaiety—for, after all, Sir Bale was but one of a large party, and even +he could make an effort and be agreeable as well as hospitable on +occasion—they set out on their northward expedition. The journey, which +is a long one, they had resolved to break into a four days' progress; +and the inns had been written to, bespeaking a comfortable reception.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXV</h4> + +<i><b>Through the Wall</b></i> + +<p>On the third night they put-up at the comfortable old inn called the +Three Nuns. With an effort they might easily have pushed on to Mardykes +Hall that night, for the distance is not more than five-and-thirty +miles. But, considering her sister's health, Lady Walsingham in planning +their route had resolved against anything like a forced march.</p> + +<p>Here the ladies took possession of the best sitting-room; and, +notwithstanding the fatigue of the journey, Lady Haworth sat up with her +sister till near ten o'clock, chatting gaily about a thousand things.</p> + +<p>Of the three sisters, Lady Walsingham was the eldest. She had been in +the habit of taking the command at home; and now, for advice and +decision, her younger sisters, less prompt and courageous than she, were +wont, whenever in her neighbourhood, to throw upon her all the cares and +agitations of determining what was best to be done in small things and +great. It is only fair to say, in addition, that this submission was not +by any means exacted; it was the deference of early habit and feebler +will, for she was neither officious nor imperious.</p> + +<p>It was now time that Lady Haworth, a good deal more fatigued than her +sister, should take leave of her for the night.</p> + +<p>Accordingly they kissed and bid each other good-night; and Lady +Walsingham, not yet disposed to sleep, sat for some time longer in the +comfortable room where they had taken tea, amusing the time with the +book that had, when conversation flagged, beguiled the weariness of the +journey. Her sister had been in her room nearly an hour, when she became +herself a little sleepy. She had lighted her candle, and was going to +ring for her maid, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and her +sister Lady Haworth entered in a dressing-gown, looking frightened.</p> + +<p>"My darling Mary!" exclaimed Lady Walsingham, "what is the matter? Are +you well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling," she answered, "quite well; that is, I don't know what is +the matter—I'm frightened." She paused, listening, with her eyes turned +towards the wall. "O, darling Maud, I am so frightened! I don't know +what it can be."</p> + +<p>"You must not be agitated, darling; there's nothing. You have been +asleep, and I suppose you have had a dream. Were you asleep?"</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth had caught her sister fast by the arm with both hands, and +was looking wildly in her face.</p> + +<p>"Have <i>you</i> heard nothing?" she asked, again looking towards the wall of +the room, as if she expected to hear a voice through it.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, darling; you are dreaming still. Nothing; there has been +nothing to hear. I have been awake ever since; if there had been +anything to hear, I could not have missed it. Come, sit down. Sip a +little of this water; you are nervous, and over-tired; and tell me +plainly, like a good little soul, what is the matter; for nothing has +happened here; and you ought to know that the Three Nuns is the quietest +house in England; and I'm no witch, and if you won't tell me what's the +matter, I can't divine it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," said Mary, sitting down, and glancing round her +wildly. "I don't hear it now; <i>you</i> don't?"</p> + +<p>"Do, my dear Mary, tell me what you mean," said Lady Walsingham kindly +but firmly.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth was holding the still untasted glass of water in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll tell you; I have been so frightened! You are right; I had a +dream, but I can scarcely remember anything of it, except the very end, +when I wakened. But it was not the dream; only it was connected with +what terrified me so. I was so tired when I went to bed, I thought I +should have slept soundly; and indeed I fell asleep immediately; and I +must have slept quietly for a good while. How long is it since I left +you?"</p> + +<p>"More than an hour."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must have slept a good while; for I don't think I have been ten +minutes awake. How my dream began I don't know. I remember only that +gradually it came to this: I was standing in a recess in a panelled +gallery; it was lofty, and, I thought, belonged to a handsome but +old-fashioned house. I was looking straight towards the head of a wide +staircase, with a great oak banister. At the top of the stairs, as near +to me, about, as that window there, was a thick short column of oak, on +top of which was a candlestick. There was no other light but from that +one candle; and there was a lady standing beside it, looking down the +stairs, with her back turned towards me; and from her gestures I should +have thought speaking to people on a lower lobby, but whom from my place +I could not see. I soon perceived that this lady was in great agony of +mind; for she beat her breast and wrung her hands every now and then, +and wagged her head slightly from side to side, like a person in great +distraction. But one word she said I could not hear. Nor when she struck +her hand on the banister, or stamped, as she seemed to do in her pain, +upon the floor, could I hear any sound. I found myself somehow waiting +upon this lady, and was watching her with awe and sympathy. But who she +was I knew not, until turning towards me I plainly saw Janet's face, +pale and covered with tears, and with such a look of agony as—O God!--I +can never forget."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! Mary darling, what is it but a dream! I have had a thousand more +startling; it is only that you are so nervous just now."</p> + +<p>"But that is not all—nothing; what followed is so dreadful; for either +there is something very horrible going on at Mardykes, or else I am +losing my reason," said Lady Haworth in increasing agitation. "I wakened +instantly in great alarm, but I suppose no more than I have felt a +hundred times on awakening from a frightful dream. I sat up in my bed; I +was thinking of ringing for Winnefred, my heart was beating so, but +feeling better soon I changed my mind. All this time I heard a faint +sound of a voice, as if coming through a thick wall. It came from the +wall at the left side of my bed, and I fancied was that of some woman +lamenting in a room separated from me by that thick partition. I could +only perceive that it was a sound of crying mingled with ejaculations of +misery, or fear, or entreaty. I listened with a painful curiosity, +wondering who it could be, and what could have happened in the +neighbouring rooms of the house; and as I looked and listened, I could +distinguish my own name, but at first nothing more. That, of course, +might have been an accident; and I knew there were many Marys in the +world besides myself. But it made me more curious; and a strange thing +struck me, for I was now looking at that very wall through which the +sounds were coming. I saw that there was a window in it. Thinking that +the rest of the wall might nevertheless be covered by another room, I +drew the curtain of it and looked out. But there is no such thing. It is +the outer wall the entire way along. And it is equally impossible of +the other wall, for it is to the front of the house, and has two windows +in it; and the wall that the head of my bed stands against has the +gallery outside it all the way; for I remarked that as I came to you."</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, Mary darling, nothing on earth is so deceptive as sound; this +and fancy account for everything."</p> + +<p>"But hear me out; I have not told you all. I began to hear the voice +more clearly, and at last quite distinctly. It was Janet's, and she was +conjuring you by name, as well as me, to come to her to Mardykes, +without delay, in her extremity; yes, <i>you</i>, just as vehemently as me. +It was Janet's voice. It still seemed separated by the wall, but I heard +every syllable now; and I never heard voice or words of such anguish. +She was imploring of us to come on, without a moment's delay, to +Mardykes; and crying that, if we were not with her, she should go mad."</p> + +<p>"Well, darling," said Lady Walsingham, "you see I'm included in this +invitation as well as you, and should hate to disappoint Janet just as +much; and I do assure you, in the morning you will laugh over this fancy +with me; or rather, she will laugh over it with us, when we get to +Mardykes. What you do want is rest, and a little sal-volatile."</p> + +<p>So saying she rang the bell for Lady Haworth's maid. Having comforted +her sister, and made her take the nervous specific she recommended, she +went with her to her room; and taking possession of the arm-chair by the +fire, she told her that she would keep her company until she was asleep, +and remain long enough to be sure that the sleep was not likely to be +interrupted. Lady Haworth had not been ten minutes in her bed, when she +raised herself with a start to her elbow, listening with parted lips and +wild eyes, her trembling fingers behind her ears. With an exclamation of +horror, she cried,</p> + +<p>"There it is again, upbraiding us! I can't stay longer."</p> + +<p>She sprang from the bed, and rang the bell violently.</p> + +<p>"Maud," she cried in an ecstasy of horror, "nothing shall keep me here, +whether you go or not. I will set out the moment the horses are put to. +If you refuse to come, Maud, mind the responsibility is yours—listen!" +and with white face and starting eyes she pointed to the wall. "Have you +ears; don't you hear?"</p> + +<p>The sight of a person in extremity of terror so mysterious, might have +unnerved a ruder system than Lady Walsingham's. She was pale as she +replied; for under certain circumstances those terrors which deal with +the supernatural are more contagious than any others. Lady Walsingham +still, in terms, held to her opinion; but although she tried to smile, +her face showed that the panic had touched her.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear Mary," she said, "as you will have it so, I see no good in +resisting you longer. Here, it is plain, your nerves will not suffer you +to rest. Let us go then, in heaven's name; and when you get to Mardykes +Hall you will be relieved."</p> + +<p>All this time Lady Haworth was getting on her things, with the careless +hurry of a person about to fly for her life; and Lady Walsingham issued +her orders for horses, and the general preparations for resuming the +journey.</p> + +<p>It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with +them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that +with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach +Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning.</p> + +<p>When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively +tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's +voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or +visitation had produced.</p> + +<p>Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something +like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the +darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady +Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the +distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by +no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her +sister's heart had touched her own.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVI</h4> + +<i><b>Perplexed</b></i> + +<p>The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses +turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling +undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or +three stages.</p> + +<p>While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear, +and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more +anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way; +for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's +head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting +again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to +her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense.</p> + +<p>Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars +looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both +ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and +Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household.</p> + +<p>What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was +opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to +the carriage-window, not half awake.</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>"Is Sir Bale well?"</p> + +<p>"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?"</p> + +<p>With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to +these questions which her sister hastily put. The answers were all +satisfactory. With a great sigh and a little laugh, Lady Walsingham +placed her hand affectionately on that of her sister; who, saying, "God +be thanked!" began to weep.</p> + +<p>"When had you last news from Mardykes?" asked Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>"A servant was down here about four o'clock."</p> + +<p>"O! no one since?" said she in a disappointed tone.</p> + +<p>No one had been from the great house since, but all were well then.</p> + +<p>"They are early people, you know, dear; and it is dark at four, and that +is as late as they could well have heard, and nothing could have +happened since—very unlikely. We have come very fast; it is only a few +minutes past two, darling."</p> + +<p>But each felt the chill and load of their returning anxiety.</p> + +<p>While the people at the George were rapidly getting a team of horses to, +Lady Walsingham contrived a moment for an order from the other window to +her servant, who knew Golden Friars perfectly, to knock-up the people at +Doctor Torvey's, and to inquire whether all were well at Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>There he learned that a messenger had come for Doctor Torvey at ten +o'clock, and that the Doctor had not returned since. There was no news, +however, of any one's being ill; and the Doctor himself did not know +what he was wanted about. While Lady Haworth was talking to her maid +from the window next the steps, Lady Walsingham was, unobserved, +receiving this information at the other.</p> + +<p>It made her very uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes more, however, with a team of fresh horses, they were +again rapidly passing the distance between them and Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>About two miles on, their drivers pulled-up, and they heard a voice +talking with them from the roadside. A servant from the Hall had been +sent with a note for Lady Walsingham, and had been ordered, if +necessary, to ride the whole way to the Three Nuns to deliver it. The +note was already in Lady Walsingham's hand; her sister sat beside her, +and with the corner of the open note in her fingers, she read it +breathlessly at the same time by the light of a carriage-lamp which the +man held to the window. It said:</p> +<br> + +<p>My dearest love—my darling sister—dear sisters both!--in God's name, +lose not a moment. I am so overpowered and <i>terrified</i>. I cannot +explain; I can only implore of you to come with all the haste you can +make. Waste no time, darlings. I hardly understand what I write. Only +this, dear sisters; I feel that my reason will desert me, unless you +come soon. You will not fail me now. Your poor distracted</p> + +<p>JANET</p> + +<p>The sisters exchanged a pale glance, and Lady Haworth grasped her +sister's hand.</p> + +<p>"Where is the messenger?" asked Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>A mounted servant came to the window.</p> + +<p>"Is any one ill at home?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No, all were well—my lady, and Sir Bale—no one sick."</p> + +<p>"But the Doctor was sent for; what was that for?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say, my lady."</p> + +<p>"You are quite certain that no one—think—<i>no</i> one is ill?"</p> + +<p>"There is no one ill at the Hall, my lady, that I have heard of."</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Mardykes, my sister, still up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my lady; and her maid is with her."</p> + +<p>"And Sir Bale, are you certain he is quite well?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Bale is quite well, my lady; he has been busy settling papers +to-night, and was as well as usual."</p> + +<p>"That will do, thanks," said the perplexed lady; and to her own servant +she added, "On to Mardykes Hall with all the speed they can make. I'll +pay them well, tell them."</p> + +<p>And in another minute they were gliding along the road at a pace which +the muffled beating of the horses' hoofs on the thin sheet of snow that +covered the road showed to have broken out of the conventional trot, +and to resemble something more like a gallop.</p> + +<p>And now they were under the huge trees, that looked black as +hearse-plumes in contrast with the snow. The cold gleam of the lake in +the moon which had begun to shine out now met their gaze; and the +familiar outline of Snakes Island, its solemn timber bleak and leafless, +standing in a group, seemed to watch Mardykes Hall with a dismal +observation across the water. Through the gate and between the huge +files of trees the carriage seemed to fly; and at last the steaming +horses stood panting, nodding and snorting, before the steps in the +courtyard.</p> + +<p>There was a light in an upper window, and a faint light in the hall, the +door of which was opened; and an old servant came down and ushered the +ladies into the house.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVII</h4> + +<i><b>The Hour</b></i> + +<p>Lightly they stepped over the snow that lay upon the broad steps, and +entering the door saw the dim figure of their sister, already in the +large and faintly-lighted hall. One candle in the hand of her scared +maid, and one burning on the table, leaving the distant parts of that +great apartment in total darkness, touched the figures with the odd +sharp lights in which Schalken delights; and a streak of chilly +moonlight, through the open door, fell upon the floor, and was stretched +like a white sheet at her feet. Lady Mardykes, with an exclamation of +agitated relief, threw her arms, in turn, round the necks of her +sisters, and hugging them, kissed them again and again, murmuring her +thanks, calling them her "blessed sisters," and praising God for his +mercy in having sent them to her in time, and altogether in a rapture of +agitation and gratitude.</p> + +<p>Taking them each by a hand, she led them into a large room, on whose +panels they could see the faint twinkle of the tall gilded frames, and +the darker indication of the old portraits, in which that interesting +house abounds. The moonbeams, entering obliquely through the Tudor +stone-shafts of the window and thrown upon the floor, reflected an +imperfect light; and the candle which the maid who followed her mistress +held in her hand shone dimly from the sideboard, where she placed it. +Lady Mardykes told her that she need not wait.</p> + +<p>"They don't know; they know only that we are in some great confusion; +but—God have mercy on me!--nothing of the reality. Sit down, darlings; +you are tired."</p> + +<p>She sat down between them on a sofa, holding a hand of each. They sat +opposite the window, through which appeared the magnificent view +commanded from the front of the house: in the foreground the solemn +trees of Snakes Island, one great branch stretching upward, bare and +moveless, from the side, like an arm raised to heaven in wonder or in +menace towards the house; the lake, in part swept by the icy splendour +of the moon, trembling with a dazzling glimmer, and farther off lost in +blackness; the Fells rising from a base of gloom, into ribs and peaks +white with snow, and looking against the pale sky, thin and transparent +as a haze. Right across to the storied woods of Cloostedd, and the old +domains of the Feltrams, this view extended.</p> + +<p>Thus alone, their mufflers still on, their hands clasped in hers, they +breathlessly listened to her strange tale.</p> + +<p>Connectedly told it amounted to this: Sir Bale seemed to have been +relieved of some great anxiety about the time when, ten days before, he +had told her to invite her friends to Mardykes Hall. This morning he had +gone out for a walk with Trevor, his under-steward, to talk over some +plans about thinning the woods at this side; and also to discuss +practically a proposal, lately made by a wealthy merchant, to take a +very long lease, on advantageous terms to Sir Bale as he thought, of the +old park and chase of Cloostedd, with the intention of building there, +and making it once more a handsome residence.</p> + +<p>In the improved state of his spirits, Sir Bale had taken a shrewd +interest in this negotiation; and was actually persuaded to cross the +lake that morning with his adviser, and to walk over the grounds with +him.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had seemed unusually well, and talked with great animation. He +was more like a young man who had just attained his majority, and for +the first time grasped his estates, than the grim elderly Baronet who +had been moping about Mardykes, and as much afraid as a cat of the +water, for so many years.</p> + +<p>As they were returning toward the boat, at the roots of that same +scathed elm whose barkless bough had seemed, in his former visit to this +old wood, to beckon him from a distance, like a skeleton arm, to enter +the forest, he and his companion on a sudden missed an old map of the +grounds which they had been consulting.</p> + +<p>"We must have left it in the corner tower of Cloostedd House, which +commands that view of the grounds, you remember; it would not do to lose +it. It is the most accurate thing we have. I'll sit down here and rest a +little till you come back."</p> + +<p>The man was absent little more than twenty minutes. When he returned, he +found that Sir Bale had changed his position, and was now walking to and +fro, around and about, in what, at a distance, he fancied was mere +impatience, on the open space a couple of hundred paces nearer to the +turn in the valley towards the boat. It was not impatience. He was +agitated. He looked pale, and he took his companion's arm—a thing he +had never thought of doing before—and said, "Let us away quickly. I've +something to tell at home,—and I forgot it."</p> + +<p>Not another word did Sir Bale exchange with his companion. He sat in the +stern of the boat, gloomy as a man about to glide under traitor's-gate. +He entered his house in the same sombre and agitated state. He entered +his library, and sat for a long time as if stunned.</p> + +<p>At last he seemed to have made-up his mind to something; and applied +himself quietly and diligently to arranging papers, and docketing some +and burning others. Dinner-time arrived. He sent to tell Lady Mardykes +that he should not join her at dinner, but would see her afterwards.</p> + +<p>"It was between eight and nine," she continued, "I forget the exact +time, when he came to the tower drawing-room where I was. I did not hear +his approach. There is a stone stair, with a thick carpet on it. He told +me he wished to speak to me there. It is an out-of-the-way place—a +small old room with very thick walls, and there is a double door, the +inner one of oak—I suppose he wished to guard against being overheard.</p> + +<p>"There was a look in his face that frightened me; I saw he had something +dreadful to tell. He looked like a man on whom a lot had fallen to put +some one to death," said Lady Mardykes. "O, my poor Bale! my husband, my +husband! he knew what it would be to me."</p> + +<p>Here she broke into the wildest weeping, and it was some time before she +resumed.</p> + +<p>"He seemed very kind and very calm," she said at last; "he said but +little; and, I think, these were his words: 'I find, Janet, I have made +a great miscalculation—I thought my hour of danger had passed. We have +been many years together, but a parting must sooner or later be, and my +time has come.'</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I said. I would not have so much minded—for I could +not have believed, if I had not seen him—but there was that in his look +and tone which no one could doubt.</p> + +<p>"'I shall die before to-morrow morning,' he said. 'You must command +yourself, Janet; it can't be altered now.'</p> + +<p>"'O, Bale,' I cried nearly distracted, 'you would not kill yourself!'</p> + +<p>"'Kill myself! poor child! no, indeed,' he said; 'it is simply that I +shall die. No violent death—nothing but the common subsidence of +life—I have made up my mind; what happens to everybody can't be so very +bad; and millions of worse men than I die every year. You must not +follow me to my room, darling; I shall see you by and by.'</p> + +<p>"His language was collected and even cold; but his face looked as if it +was cut in stone; you never saw, in a dream, a face like it."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham here said, "I am certain he is ill; he's in a fever. You +must not distract and torture yourself about his predictions. You sent +for Doctor Torvey; what did he say?"</p> + +<p>"I could not tell him all."</p> + +<p>"O, no; I don't mean that; they'd only say he was mad, and we little +better for minding what he says. But did the Doctor see him? and what +did he say of his health?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he says there is nothing wrong—no fever—nothing whatever. Poor +Bale has been so kind; he saw him to please me," she sobbed again +wildly. "I wrote to implore of him. It was my last hope, strange as it +seems; and O, would to God I could think it! But there is nothing of +that kind. Wait till you have seen him. There is a frightful calmness +about all he says and does; and his directions are all so clear, and his +mind so perfectly collected, it is quite impossible."</p> + +<p>And poor Lady Mardykes again burst into a frantic agony of tears.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVIII</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale in the Gallery</b></i> + +<p>"Now, Janet darling, you are yourself low and nervous, and you treat +this fancy of Bale's as seriously as he does himself. The truth is, he +is a hypochondriac, as the doctors say; and you will find that I am +right; he will be quite well in the morning, and I daresay a little +ashamed of himself for having frightened his poor little wife as he has. +I will sit up with you. But our poor Mary is not, you know, very strong; +and she ought to lie down and rest a little. Suppose you give me a cup +of tea in the drawing-room. I will run up to my room and get these +things off, and meet you in the drawing-room; or, if you like it better, +you can sit with me in my own room; and for goodness' sake let us have +candles enough and a bright fire; and I promise you, if you will only +exert your own good sense, you shall be a great deal more cheerful in a +very little time."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham's address was kind and cheery, and her air confident. +For a moment a ray of hope returned, and her sister Janet acknowledged +at least the possibility of her theory. But if confidence is contagious, +so also is panic; and Lady Walsingham experienced a sinking of the heart +which she dared not confess to her sister, and vainly strove to combat.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham went up with her sister Mary, and having seen her in her +room, and spoken again to her in the same cheery tone in which she had +lectured her sister Lady Mardykes, she went on; and having taken +possession of her own room, and put off her cloaks and shawls, she was +going downstairs again, when she heard Sir Bale's voice, as he +approached along the gallery, issuing orders to a servant, as it seemed, +exactly in his usual tone.</p> + +<p>She turned, with a strange throb at her heart, and met him.</p> + +<p>A little sterner, a little paler than usual he looked; she could +perceive no other change. He took her hand kindly and held it, as with +dilated eyes he looked with a dark inquiry for a moment in her face. He +signed to the servant to go on, and said, "I'm glad you have come, Maud. +You have heard what is to happen; and I don't know how Janet could have +borne it without your support. You did right to come; and you'll stay +with her for a day or two, and take her away from this place as soon as +you can."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with the embarrassment of fear. He was speaking to her +with the calmness of a leave-taking in the pressroom—the serenity that +overlies the greatest awe and agony of which human nature is capable.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you, Bale," she began, hardly knowing what she said, +and she stopped short.</p> + +<p>"You are come, it turns out, on a sad mission," he resumed; "you find +all about to change. Poor Janet! it is a blow to her. I shall not live +to see to-morrow's sun."</p> + +<p>"Come," she said, startled, "you must not talk so. No, Bale, you have +no right to speak so; you can have no reason to justify it. It is cruel +and wicked to trifle with your wife's feelings. If you are under a +delusion, you must make an effort and shake it off, or, at least, cease +to talk of it. You are not well; I know by your looks you are ill; but I +am very certain we shall see you much better by tomorrow, and still +better the day following."</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not ill, sister. Feel that pulse, if you doubt me; there is no +fever in it. I never was more perfectly in health; and yet I know that +before the clock, that has just struck three, shall have struck five, I, +who am talking to you, shall be dead."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was frightened, and her fear irritated her.</p> + +<p>"I have told you what I think and believe," she said vehemently. "I +think it wrong and cowardly of you to torture my poor sister with your +whimsical predictions. Look into your own mind, and you will see you +have absolutely no reason to support what you say. How <i>can</i> you inflict +all this agony upon a poor creature foolish enough to love you as she +does, and weak enough to believe in your idle dreams?"</p> + +<p>"Stay, sister; it is not a matter to be debated so. If to-morrow I can +hear you, it will be time enough to upbraid me. Pray return now to your +sister; she needs all you can do for her. She is much to be pitied; her +sufferings afflict me. I shall see you and her again before my death. It +would have been more cruel to leave her unprepared. Do all in your power +to nerve and tranquillise her. What is past cannot now be helped."</p> + +<p>He paused, looking hard at her, as if he had half made up his mind to +say something more. But if there was a question of the kind, it was +determined in favour of silence.</p> + +<p>He dropped her hand, turned quickly, and left her.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIX</h4> + +<i><b>Dr. Torvey's Opinion</b></i> + +<p>When Lady Walsingham reached the head of the stairs, she met her maid, +and from her learned that her sister, Lady Mardykes, was downstairs in +the same room. On approaching, she heard her sister Mary's voice talking +with her, and found them together. Mary, finding that she could not +sleep, had put on her clothes again, and come down to keep her sister +company. The room looked more comfortable now. There were candles +lighted, and a good fire burnt in the grate; tea-things stood on a +little table near the fire, and the two sisters were talking, Lady +Mardykes appearing more collected, and only they two in the room.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen him, Maud?" cried Lady Mardykes, rising and hastily +approaching her the moment she entered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear; and talked with him, and——"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"And I think very much as I did before. I think he is nervous, he says +he is not ill; but he is nervous and whimsical, and as men always are +when they happen to be out of sorts, very positive; and of course the +only thing that can quite undeceive him is the lapse of the time he has +fixed for his prediction, as it is sure to pass without any tragic +result of any sort. We shall then all see alike the nature of his +delusion."</p> + +<p>"O, Maud, if I were only sure you thought so! if I were sure you really +had hopes! Tell me, Maud, for God's sake, what you really think."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was a little disconcerted by the unexpected directness +of her appeal.</p> + +<p>"Come, darling, you must not be foolish," she said; "we can only talk of +impressions, and we are imposed upon by the solemnity of his manner, and +the fact that he evidently believes in his own delusion; every one does +believe in his own delusion—there is nothing strange in that."</p> + +<p>"O, Maud, I see you are not convinced; you are only trying to comfort +me. You have no hope—none, none, none!" and she covered her face with +her hands, and wept again convulsively.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was silent for a moment, and then with an effort said, +as she placed her hand on her sister's arm, "You see, dear Janet, there +is no use in my saying the same thing over and over again; an hour or +two will show who is right. Sit down again, and be like yourself. My +maid told me that you had sent to the parlour for Doctor Torvey; he must +not find you so. What would he think? Unless you mean to tell him of +Bale's strange fancy; and a pretty story that would be to set afloat in +Golden Friars. I think I hear him coming."</p> + +<p>So, in effect, he was. Doctor Torvey—with the florid gravity of a man +who, having just swallowed a bottle of port, besides some glasses of +sherry, is admitted to the presence of ladies whom he respects—entered +the room, made what he called his "leg and his compliments," and awaited +the ladies' commands.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Doctor Torvey," said Lady Walsingham, who in the incapacity +of her sister undertook the doing of the honours. "My sister, Lady +Mardykes, has got it into her head somehow that Sir Bale is ill. I have +been speaking to him; he certainly does not look very well, but he says +he is quite well. Do you think him well?—that is, we know you don't +think there is anything of importance amiss—but she wishes to know +whether you think him <i>perfectly</i> well."</p> + +<p>The Doctor cleared his voice and delivered his lecture, a little thickly +at some words, upon Sir Bale's case; the result of which was that it was +no case at all; and that if he would only live something more of a +country gentleman's life, he would be as well as any man could +desire—as well as any man, gentle or simple, in the country.</p> + +<p>"The utmost I should think of doing for him would be, perhaps, a little +quinine, nothing mo'—shurely—he is really and toory a very shoun' +shtay of health."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham looked encouragingly at her sister and nodded.</p> + +<p>"I've been shen' for, La'y Walsh—Walse—Walsing—<i>ham</i>; old Jack +Amerald—he likshe his glass o' port," he said roguishly, "and shuvversh +accord'n'ly," he continued, with a compassionating paddle of his right +hand; "one of thoshe aw—odd feels in his stomach; and as I have pretty +well done all I can man-n'ge down here, I must be off, ye shee. Wind up +from Golden Friars, and a little flutter ovv zhnow, thazh all;" and with +some remarks about the extreme cold of the weather, and the severity of +their night journey, and many respectful and polite parting speeches, +the Doctor took his leave; and they soon heard the wheels of his gig and +the tread of his horse, faint and muffled from the snow in the +court-yard, and the Doctor, who had connected that melancholy and +agitated household with the outer circle of humanity, was gone.</p> + +<p>There was very little snow falling, half-a-dozen flakes now and again, +and their flight across the window showed, as the Doctor had in a manner +boasted, that the wind was in his face as he returned to Golden Friars. +Even these desultory snow-flakes ceased, at times, altogether; and +returning, as they say, "by fits and starts," left for long intervals +the landscape, under the brilliant light of the moon, in its wide white +shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed +to Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that +Snakes Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of +the old tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an +assassin, who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches.</p> + +<p>Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white +sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham. +The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense +overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and +listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were +overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them. +And thus an hour or more passed.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXX</h4> + +<i><b>Hush!</b></i> + +<p>Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude +of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests +of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced +her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from +the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed +features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came +in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then, +having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he +stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold +forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the +room.</p> + +<p>Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of +mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened +the door and followed.</p> + +<p>She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from +the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister, +and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without +hurry, to ascend the second flight.</p> + +<p>With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him +at a distance.</p> + +<p>She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door.</p> + +<p>Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the +apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened +for what should pass.</p> + +<p>She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time, +and then, after a pause, a sound as if some one had thrown himself +heavily on the bed. A silence followed, during which her sisters, who +had followed more timidly, joined her. She warned them with a look and +gesture to be silent.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth stood a little behind, her white lips moving, and her hands +clasped in a silent agony of prayer. Lady Mardykes leaned against the +massive oak door-case.</p> + +<p>With her hand raised to her ear, and her lips parted, Lady Walsingham +listened for some seconds—for a minute, two minutes, three. At last, +losing heart, she seized the handle in her panic, and turned it sharply. +The door was locked on the inside, but some one close to it said from +within, "Hush, hush!"</p> + +<p>Much alarmed now, the same lady knocked violently at the door. No answer +was returned.</p> + +<p>She knocked again more violently, and shook the door with all her +fragile force. It was something of horror in her countenance as she did +so, that, no doubt, terrified Lady Mardykes, who with a loud and long +scream sank in a swoon upon the floor.</p> + +<p>The servants, alarmed by these sounds, were speedily in the gallery. +Lady Mardykes was carried to her room, and laid upon her bed; her +sister, Lady Haworth, accompanying her. In the meantime the door was +forced. Sir Bale Mardykes was found stretched upon his bed.</p> + +<p>Those who have once seen it, will not mistake the aspect of death. Here, +in Sir Bale Mardykes' room, in his bed, in his clothes, is a stranger, +grim and awful; in a few days to be insupportable, and to pass alone +into the prison-house, and to be seen no more.</p> + +<p>Where is Sir Bale Mardykes now, whose roof-tree and whose place at board +and bed will know him no more? Here lies a chap-fallen, fish-eyed image, +chilling already into clay, and stiffening in every joint.</p> + +<p>There is a marble monument in the pretty church of Golden Friars. It +stands at the left side of what antiquarians call "the high altar." Two +pillars at each end support an arch with several armorial bearings on as +many shields sculptured above. Beneath, on a marble flooring raised some +four feet, with a cornice round, lies Sir Bale Mardykes, of Mardykes +Hall, ninth Baronet of that ancient family, chiseled in marble with +knee-breeches and buckled-shoes, and <i>ailes de pigeon</i>, and +single-breasted coat and long waist-coat, ruffles and sword, such as +gentlemen wore about the year 1770, and bearing a strong resemblance to +the features of the second Charles. On the broad marble which forms the +background is inscribed an epitaph, which has perpetuated to our times +the estimate formed by his "inconsolable widow," the Dowager Lady +Mardykes, of the virtues and accomplishments of her deceased lord.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham would have qualified two or three of the more +highly-coloured hyperboles, at which the Golden Friars of those days +sniffed and tittered. They don't signify now; there is no contemporary +left to laugh or whisper. And if there be not much that is true in the +letter of that inscription, it at least perpetuates something that <i>is</i> +true—that wonderful glorificaion of partisanship, the affection of an +idolising wife.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes, a few days after the funeral, left Mardykes Hall for +ever. She lived a great deal with her sister, Lady Walsingham; and died, +as a line cut at the foot of Sir Bale Mardykes' epitaph records, in the +year 1790; her remains being laid beside those of her beloved husband in +Golden Friars.</p> + +<p>The estates had come to Sir Bale Mardykes free of entail. He had been +pottering over a will, but it was never completed, nor even quite +planned; and after much doubt and scrutiny, it was at last ascertained +that, in default of a will and of issue, a clause in the +marriage-settlement gave the entire estates to the Dowager Lady +Mardykes.</p> + +<p>By her will she bequeathed the estates to "her cousin, also a kinsman of +the late Sir Bale Mardykes her husband," William Feltram, on condition +of his assuming the name and arms of Mardykes, the arms of Feltram being +quartered in the shield.</p> + +<p>Thus was oddly fulfilled the prediction which Philip Feltram had +repeated, that the estates of Mardykes were to pass into the hands of a +Feltram.</p> + +<p>About the year 1795 the baronetage was revived, and William Feltram +enjoyed the title for fifteen years, as Sir William Mardykes.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11750 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11750-h/images/image1.jpg b/11750-h/images/image1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..28c237e --- /dev/null +++ b/11750-h/images/image1.jpg diff --git a/11750-h/images/image2.jpg b/11750-h/images/image2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ddccd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/11750-h/images/image2.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..451a57f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11750 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11750) diff --git a/old/11750-8.txt b/old/11750-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b78fe72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11750-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6148 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 + +Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [eBook #11750] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 3*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3 + +The Haunted Baronet (1871) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + +The Haunted Baronet + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The George and Dragon + +The pretty little town of Golden Friars--standing by the margin of the +lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint +and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow +windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old +church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like +silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw +moveless shadows upon the short level grass--is one of the most singular +and beautiful sights I have ever seen. + +There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so +light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture +reflected on the thin mist of night. + +On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of +the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars, +with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in +England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin +running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other +side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful +wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St. +George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold. + +In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old +_habitués_ of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the +fatigues of the day. + +This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in +summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a +fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a +pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the +room too hot. + +On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew the +weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed with each +inhabitant--a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite for all +sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a tumbler +of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it. Beside him +sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for more than +thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the last man in +Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an ex-captain of the +navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its wooden companion +beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the old-fashioned navy way, +and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the middle, opposite the +hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and smoked his pipe, looking +serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the George and Dragon every +now and then strutted in, and sat down in the high-backed wooden +arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned republican ways of the place, +and took his share in the talk gravely, and was heartily welcome. + +"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any +more you heard since." + +"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George. "Nothing +to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house won't +look so dowly now." + +"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time, hey?" +said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking. + +"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to +_you_, mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right +in time." + +"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another +grave nod. + +"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream of +smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here to save a +little, and perhaps he'll marry; and it is the more creditable, if, as +they say, he dislikes the place, and would prefer staying where he is." + +And having spoken thus gently, Mr. Peers resumed his pipe cheerfully. + +"No, he don't like the place; that is, I'm told he _didn't_," said the +innkeeper. + +"He _hates_ it," said the Doctor with another dark nod. + +"And no wonder, if all's true I've heard," cried old Jack Amerald. +"Didn't he drown a woman and her child in the lake?" + +"Hollo! my dear boy, don't let them hear you say that; you're all in the +clouds." + +"By Jen!" exclaimed the landlord after an alarmed silence, with his +mouth and eyes open, and his pipe in his hand, "why, sir, I pay rent for +the house up there. I'm thankful--dear knows, I _am_ thankful--we're all +to ourselves!" + +Jack Amerald put his foot on the floor, leaving his wooden leg in its +horizontal position, and looked round a little curiously. + +"Well, if it wasn't him, it was some one else. I'm sure it happened up +at Mardykes. I took the bearings on the water myself from Glads Scaur to +Mardykes Jetty, and from the George and Dragon sign down here--down to +the white house under Forrick Fells. I could fix a buoy over the very +spot. Some one here told me the bearings, I'd take my oath, where the +body was seen; and yet no boat could ever come up with it; and that was +queer, you know, so I clapt it down in my log." + +"Ay, sir, there _was_ some flummery like that, Captain," said Turnbull; +"for folk will be gabbin'. But 'twas his grandsire was talked o', not +him; and 'twould play the hangment wi' me doun here, if 'twas thought +there was stories like that passin' in the George and Dragon.' + +"Well, his grandfather; 'twas all one to him, I take it." + +"There never was no proof, Captain, no more than smoke; and the family +up at Mardykes wouldn't allow the king to talk o' them like that, sir; +for though they be lang deod that had most right to be angered in the +matter, there's none o' the name but would be half daft to think 'twas +still believed, and he full out as mich as any. Not that I need care +more than another, though they do say he's a bit frowsy and +short-waisted; for he can't shouther me out o' the George while I pay my +rent, till nine hundred and ninety-nine year be rin oot; and a man, be +he ne'er sa het, has time to cool before then. But there's no good +quarrellin' wi' teathy folk; and it may lie in his way to do the George +mony an ill turn, and mony a gude one; an' it's only fair to say it +happened a long way before he was born, and there's no good in vexin' +him; and I lay ye a pound, Captain, the Doctor hods wi' me." + +The Doctor, whose business was also sensitive, nodded; and then he said, +"But for all that, the story's old, Dick Turnbull--older than you or I, +my jolly good friend." + +"And best forgotten," interposed the host of the George. + +"Ay, best forgotten; but that it's not like to be," said the Doctor, +plucking up courage. "Here's our friend the Captain has heard it; and +the mistake he has made shows there's one thing worse than its being +quite remembered, and that is, its being _half_ remembered. We can't +stop people talking; and a story like that will see us all off the +hooks, and be in folks' mouths, still, as strong as ever." + +"Ay; and now I think on it, 'twas Dick Harman that has the boat down +there--an old tar like myself--that told me that yarn. I was trying for +pike, and he pulled me over the place, and that's how I came to hear it. +I say, Tom, my hearty, serve us out another glass of brandy, will you?" +shouted the Captain's voice as the waiter crossed the room; and that +florid and grizzled naval hero clapped his leg again on the chair by its +wooden companion, which he was wont to call his jury-mast. + +"Well, I do believe it will be spoke of longer than we are like to +hear," said the host, "and I don't much matter the story, if it baint +told o' the wrong man." Here he touched his tumbler with the spoon, +indicating by that little ring that Tom, who had returned with the +Captain's grog, was to replenish it with punch. "And Sir Bale is like to +be a friend to this house. I don't see no reason why he shouldn't. The +George and Dragon has bin in our family ever since the reign of King +Charles the Second. It was William Turnbull in that time, which they +called it the Restoration, he taking the lease from Sir Tony Mardykes +that was then. They was but knights then. They was made baronets first +in the reign of King George the Second; you may see it in the list of +baronets and the nobility. The lease was made to William Turnbull, which +came from London; and he built the stables, which they was out o' +repair, as you may read to this day in the lease; and the house has +never had but one sign since--the George and Dragon, it is pretty well +known in England--and one name to its master. It has been owned by a +Turnbull from that day to this, and they have not been counted bad men." +A murmur of applause testified the assent of his guests. "They has been +steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best +o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard +Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power +to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and +the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the +green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate. So 'tis +nout to me, except in the way o' friendliness, what the family may think +o' me; only the George and they has always been kind and friendly, and I +don't want to break the old custom." + +"Well said, Dick!" exclaimed Doctor Torvey; "I own to your conclusion; +but there ain't a soul here but ourselves--and we're all friends, and +you are your own master--and, hang it, you'll tell us that story about +the drowned woman, as you heard it from your father long ago." + +"Ay, do, and keep us to our liquor, my hearty!" cried the Captain. + +Mr. Peers looked his entreaty; and deaf Mr. Hollar, having no interest +in the petition, was at least a safe witness, and, with his pipe in his +lips, a cozy piece of furniture. + +Richard Turnbull had his punch beside him; he looked over his shoulder. +The door was closed, the fire was cheery, and the punch was fragrant, +and all friendly faces about him. So said he: + +"Gentlemen, as you're pleased to wish it, I don't see no great harm in +it; and at any rate, 'twill prevent mistakes. It is more than ninety +years since. My father was but a boy then; and many a time I have heard +him tell it in this very room." + +And looking into his glass he mused, and stirred his punch slowly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Drowned Woman + +"It ain't much of a homminy," said the host of the George. "I'll not +keep you long over it, gentlemen. There was a handsome young lady, Miss +Mary Feltram o' Cloostedd by name. She was the last o' that family; and +had gone very poor. There's but the walls o' the house left now; grass +growing in the hall, and ivy over the gables; there's no one livin' has +ever hard tell o' smoke out o' they chimblies. It stands on t'other side +o' the lake, on the level wi' a deal o' a'ad trees behint and aside it +at the gap o' the clough, under the pike o' Maiden Fells. Ye may see it +wi' a spyin'-glass from the boatbield at Mardykes Hall." + +"I've been there fifty times," said the Doctor. + +"Well there was dealin's betwixt the two families; and there's good and +bad in every family; but the Mardykes, in them days, was a wild lot. And +when old Feltram o' Cloostedd died, and the young lady his daughter was +left a ward o' Sir Jasper Mardykes--an ill day for her, poor +lass!--twenty year older than her he was, an' more; and nothin' about +him, they say, to make anyone like or love him, ill-faur'd and little +and dow." + +"Dow--that's gloomy," Doctor Torvey instructed the Captain aside. + +"But they do say, they has an old blud-stean ring in the family that +has a charm in't; and happen how it might, the poor lass fell in love +wi' him. Some said they was married. Some said it hang'd i' the +bell-ropes, and never had the priest's blessing; but anyhow, married or +no, there was talk enough amang the folk, and out o' doors she would na +budge. And there was two wee barns; and she prayed him hard to confess +the marriage, poor thing! But t'was a bootlese bene, and he would not +allow they should bear his name, but their mother's; he was a hard man, +and hed the bit in his teeth, and went his ain gait. And having tired of +her, he took in his head to marry a lady of the Barnets, and it behoved +him to be shut o' her and her children; and so she nor them was seen no +more at Mardykes Hall. And the eldest, a boy, was left in care of my +grandfather's father here in the George." + +"That queer Philip Feltram that's travelling with Sir Bale so long is a +descendant of his?" said the Doctor. + +"Grandson," observed Mr. Peers, removing his pipe for a moment; "and is +the last of that stock." + +"Well, no one could tell where she had gone to. Some said to distant +parts, some said to the madhouse, some one thing, some another; but +neither she nor the barn was ever seen or spoke to by the folk at +Mardykes in life again. There was one Mr. Wigram that lived in them +times down at Moultry, and had sarved, like the Captain here, in the +king's navy in his day; and early of a morning down he comes to the town +for a boat, sayin' he was looking towards Snakes Island through his +spyin'-glass, and he seen a woman about a hundred and fifty yards +outside of it; the Captain here has heard the bearings right enough. +From her hips upwards she was stark and straight out o' the water, and a +baby in her arms. Well, no one else could see it, nor he neither, when +they went down to the boat. But next morning he saw the same thing, and +the boatman saw it too; and they rowed for it, both pulling might and +main; but after a mile or so they could see it no more, and gave over. +The next that saw it was the vicar, I forget his name now--but he was up +the lake to a funeral at Mortlock Church; and coming back with a bit of +a sail up, just passin' Snakes Island, what should they hear on a sudden +but a wowl like a death-cry, shrill and bleak, as made the very blood +hoot in their veins; and looking along the water not a hundred yards +away, saw the same grizzled sight in the moonlight; so they turned the +tiller, and came near enough to see her face--blea it was, and drenched +wi' water--and she was above the lake to her middle, stiff as a post, +holdin' the weeny barn out to them, and flyrin' [smiling scornfully] on +them as they drew nigh her. They were half-frighted, not knowing what to +make of it; but passing as close as the boatman could bring her side, +the vicar stretched over the gunwale to catch her, and she bent forward, +pushing the dead bab forward; and as she did, on a sudden she gave a +yelloch that scared them, and they saw her no more. 'Twas no livin' +woman, for she couldn't rise that height above the water, as they well +knew when they came to think; and knew it was a dobby they saw; and ye +may be sure they didn't spare prayer and blessin', and went on their +course straight before the wind; for neither would a-took the worth o' +all the Mardykes to look sich a freetin' i' the face again. 'Twas seen +another time by market-folk crossin' fra Gyllenstan in the self-same +place; and Snakes Island got a bad neam, and none cared to go nar it +after nightfall." + +"Do you know anything of that Feltram that has been with him abroad?" +asked the Doctor. + +"They say he's no good at anything--a harmless mafflin; he was a long +gaumless gawky when he went awa," said Richard Turnbull. "The Feltrams +and the Mardykes was sib, ye know; and that made what passed in the +misfortune o' that young lady spoken of all the harder; and this young +man ye speak of is a grandson o' the lad that was put here in care o' my +grandfather." + +"_Great_-grandson. His father was grandson," said Mr. Peers; "he held a +commission in the army and died in the West Indies. This Philip Feltram +is the last o' that line--illegitimate, you know, it is held--and the +little that remained of the Feltram property went nearly fourscore years +ago to the Mardykes, and this Philip is maintained by Sir Bale; it is +pleasant, notwithstanding all the stories one hears, gentlemen, that the +only thing we know of him for certain should be so creditable to his +kindness." + +"To be sure," acquiesced Mr. Turnbull. + +While they talked the horn sounded, and the mail-coach drew up at the +door of the George and Dragon to set down a passenger and his luggage. + +Dick Turnbull rose and went out to the hall with careful bustle, and +Doctor Torvey followed as far as the door, which commanded a view of it, +and saw several trunks cased in canvas pitched into the hall, and by +careful Tom and a boy lifted one on top of the other, behind the corner +of the banister. It would have been below the dignity of his cloth to go +out and read the labels on these, or the Doctor would have done +otherwise, so great was his curiosity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Philip Feltram + +The new guest was now in the hall of the George, and Doctor Torvey could +hear him talking with Mr. Turnbull. Being himself one of the dignitaries +of Golden Friars, the Doctor, having regard to first impressions, did +not care to be seen in his post of observation; and closing the door +gently, returned to his chair by the fire, and in an under-tone informed +his cronies that there was a new arrival in the George, and he could not +hear, but would not wonder if he were taking a private room; and he +seemed to have trunks enough to build a church with. + +"Don't be too sure we haven't Sir Bale on board," said Amerald, who +would have followed his crony the Doctor to the door--for never was +retired naval hero of a village more curious than he--were it not that +his wooden leg made a distinct pounding on the floor that was inimical, +as experience had taught him, to mystery. + +"That can't be," answered the Doctor; "Charley Twyne knows everything +about it, and has a letter every second day; and there's no chance of +Sir Bale before the tenth; this is a tourist, you'll find. I don't know +what the d---l keeps Turnbull; he knows well enough we are all naturally +willing to hear who it is." + +"Well, he won't trouble us here, I bet ye;" and catching deaf Mr. +Hollar's eye, the Captain nodded, and pointed to the little table beside +him, and made a gesture imitative of the rattling of a dice-box; at +which that quiet old gentleman also nodded sunnily; and up got the +Captain and conveyed the backgammon-box to the table, near Hollar's +elbow, and the two worthies were soon sinc-ducing and catre-acing, with +the pleasant clatter that accompanies that ancient game. Hollar had +thrown sizes and made his double point, and the honest Captain, who +could stand many things better than Hollar's throwing such throws so +early in the evening, cursed his opponent's luck and sneered at his +play, and called the company to witness, with a distinctness which a +stranger to smiling Hollar's deafness would have thought hardly civil; +and just at this moment the door opened, and Richard Turnbull showed his +new guest into the room, and ushered him to a vacant seat near the other +corner of the table before the fire. + +The stranger advanced slowly and shyly, with something a little +deprecatory in his air, to which a lathy figure, a slight stoop, and a +very gentle and even heartbroken look in his pale long face, gave a more +marked character of shrinking and timidity. + +He thanked the landlord aside, as it were, and took his seat with a +furtive glance round, as if he had no right to come in and intrude upon +the happiness of these honest gentlemen. + +He saw the Captain scanning him from under his shaggy grey eyebrows +while he was pretending to look only at his game; and the Doctor was +able to recount to Mrs. Torvey when he went home every article of the +stranger's dress. + +It was odd and melancholy as his peaked face. + +He had come into the room with a short black cloak on, and a rather tall +foreign felt hat, and a pair of shiny leather gaiters or leggings on his +thin legs; and altogether presented a general resemblance to the +conventional figure of Guy Fawkes. + +Not one of the company assembled knew the appearance of the Baronet. The +Doctor and old Mr. Peers remembered something of his looks; and +certainly they had no likeness, but the reverse, to those presented by +the new-comer. The Baronet, as now described by people who had chanced +to see him, was a dark man, not above the middle size, and with a +certain decision in his air and talk; whereas this person was tall, +pale, and in air and manner feeble. So this broken trader in the world's +commerce, with whom all seemed to have gone wrong, could not possibly be +he. + +Presently, in one of his stealthy glances, the Doctor's eye encountered +that of the stranger, who was by this time drinking his tea--a thin and +feminine liquor little used in that room. + +The stranger did not seem put out; and the Doctor, interpreting his look +as a permission to converse, cleared his voice, and said urbanely, + +"We have had a little frost by night, down here, sir, and a little fire +is no great harm--it is rather pleasant, don't you think?" + +The stranger bowed acquiescence with a transient wintry smile, and +looked gratefully on the fire. + +"This place is a good deal admired, sir, and people come a good way to +see it; you have been here perhaps before?" + +"Many years ago." + +Here was another pause. + +"Places change imperceptibly--in detail, at least--a good deal," said +the Doctor, making an effort to keep up a conversation that plainly +would not go on of itself; "and people too; population shifts--there's +an old fellow, sir, they call _Death_." + +"And an old fellow they call the _Doctor_, that helps him," threw in the +Captain humorously, allowing his attention to get entangled in the +conversation, and treating them to one of his tempestuous ha-ha-ha's. + +"We are expecting the return of a gentleman who would be a very leading +member of our little society down here," said the Doctor, not noticing +the Captain's joke. "I mean Sir Bale Mardykes. Mardykes Hall is a pretty +object from the water, sir, and a very fine old place." + +The melancholy stranger bowed slightly, but rather in courtesy to the +relator, it seemed, than that the Doctor's lore interested him much. + +"And on the opposite side of the lake," continued Doctor Torvey, "there +is a building that contrasts very well with it--the old house of the +Feltrams--quite a ruin now, at the mouth of the glen--Cloostedd House, a +very picturesque object." + +"Exactly opposite," said the stranger dreamily, but whether in the tone +of acquiescence or interrogatory, the Doctor could not be quite sure. + +"That was one of our great families down here that has disappeared. It +has dwindled down to nothing." + +"Duce ace," remarked Mr. Hollar, who was attending to his game. + +"While others have mounted more suddenly and amazingly still," observed +gentle Mr. Peers, who was great upon county genealogies. + +"Sizes!" thundered the Captain, thumping the table with an oath of +disgust. + +"And Snakes Island is a very pretty object; they say there used to be +snakes there," said the Doctor, enlightening the visitor. + +"Ah! that's a mistake," said the dejected guest, making his first +original observation. "It should be spelt _Snaiks_. In the old papers it +is called Sen-aiks Island from the seven oaks that grew in a clump +there." + +"Hey? that's very curious, egad! I daresay," said the Doctor, set right +thus by the stranger, and eyeing him curiously. + +"Very true, sir," observed Mr. Peers; "three of those oaks, though, two +of them little better than stumps, are there still; and Clewson of +Heckleston has an old document----" + +Here, unhappily, the landlord entered the room in a fuss, and walking up +to the stranger, said, "The chaise is at the door, Mr. Feltram, and the +trunks up, sir." + +Mr. Feltram rose quietly and took out his purse, and said, + +"I suppose I had better pay at the bar?" + +"As you like best, sir," said Richard Turnbull. + +Mr. Feltram bowed all round to the gentlemen, who smiled, ducked or +waved their hands; and the Doctor fussily followed him to the hall-door, +and welcomed him back to Golden Friars--there was real kindness in this +welcome--and proffered his broad brown hand, which Mr. Feltram took; and +then he plunged into his chaise, and the door being shut, away he +glided, chaise, horses, and driver, like shadows, by the margin of the +moonlighted lake, towards Mardykes Hall. + +And after a few minutes' stand upon the steps, looking along the shadowy +track of the chaise, they returned to the glow of the room, in which a +pleasant perfume of punch still prevailed; and beside Mr. Philip +Feltram's deserted tea-things, the host of the George enlightened his +guests by communicating freely the little he had picked up. The +principal fact he had to tell was, that Sir Bale adhered strictly to his +original plan, and was to arrive on the tenth. A few days would bring +them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its +interest. But in the meantime, all Golden Friars was anxious to see what +Sir Bale Mardykes was like. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Baronet Appears + +As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach +of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a +depressing and agitating influence announced the coming of the +long-absent Baronet. + +From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a +great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that +unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely awful. + +Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, +as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity +to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their +hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew +mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention +of his name, nevertheless an interval of silence softened matters a +little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time. + +Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried +consultations held in many households. And though he was tried and +sentenced by drum-head over some austere hearths, as a rule the law of +gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser about it, +and county people within the visiting radius paid their respects at the +Hall. + +The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout +short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and +taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, +with his fat and garrulous wife on his arm. + +The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the +lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed and purple mountains. + +Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and +ornaments, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then +she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect. She wished to +stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything. + +You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such +strange tales of his doings. + +She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened +for the step of the truant Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly +beauty and fascination. + +She sustained a slight shock when he did appear. + +Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a +middle-aged man--and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking +man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly +made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and +animation of Versailles, and an evident cultivation of the art of +pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable gravity, not to say gloom, +of countenance--the only feature of which that struck her being a pair +of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the +ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person +who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but +who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not. + +He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile--not +even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and +did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; +and there was a suspicion of sarcasm in what he said that the rustic +literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect. + +"I believe I have not a clergyman but _you_, sir, within any reasonable +distance?" + +"Golden Friars _is_ the nearest," said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her +pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. "And southwards, +the nearest is Wyllarden--and by a bird's flight that is thirteen miles +and a half, and by the road more than nineteen--twenty, I may say, by +the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman." + +"Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The +road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to +make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of +points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or +who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's +end." + +"That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. +That's what Martin thinks--don't we, Martin?--And then, you know, coming +home is the time you _are_ in a hurry--when you are thinking of your cup +of tea and the children; and _then_, you know, you have the fall of the +ground all in your favour." + +"It's well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there +are children?" + +"A good many," said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a +nod; "you wouldn't guess how many." + +"Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all." + +"That's very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at +_one_ bout; there are--tell him, Martin--ha, ha, ha! there are eleven." + +"It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage," said Sir Bale +graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, "But how unequally +blessings are divided! You have eleven, and I not one--that I'm aware +of." + +"And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and +then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the +other side, before you reach Fottrell--and that is twenty-five miles by +the road----" + +"Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning +that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly +clergymen grow also down here--in one sense," he added politely, for the +vicar was stout. + +"We were looking out of the window--we amused ourselves that way before +you came--and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this +side; your view of the lake and the fells--what mountains they are, Sir +Bale!" + +"'Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder with a charge +of duck-shot, and I shouldn't be stifled by them long. But I suppose, as +we can't get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are +pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling." + +"I know you don't think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn't take a +good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall." + +"You can't get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those +frightful mountains," he said with a peevish frown at them. + +"Well, the lake at all events--that you _must_ admire, Sir Bale?" + +"No ma'am, I don't admire the lake. I'd drain the lake if I could--I +hate the lake. There's nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren +mountains. I can't conceive what possessed my people to build our house +down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious +fish it is--pike! I don't know how people digest it--_I_ can't. I'd as +soon think of eating a watchman's pike." + +"I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired +a great liking for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal +of it on the Continent, ain't there?" said Mrs. Bedel. "And the +boating." + +"Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don't you +think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the +shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we +have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I +hate boating, and I hate the water; and I'd rather have my house, like +Haworth, at the edge of a moss, with good wholesome peat to look at, and +an open horizon--savage and stupid and bleak as all that is--than be +suffocated among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and +drowned like a kitten. O, there's luncheon in the next room; won't you +take some?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Mrs. Julaper's Room + +Sir Bale Mardykes being now established in his ancestral house, people +had time to form conclusions respecting him. It must be allowed he was +not popular. There was, perhaps, in his conduct something of the caprice +of contempt. At all events his temper and conduct were uncertain, and +his moods sometimes violent and insulting. + +With respect to but one person was his conduct uniform, and that was +Philip Feltram. He was a sort of aide-de-camp near Sir Bale's person, +and chargeable with all the commissions and offices which could not be +suitably intrusted to a mere servant. But in many respects he was +treated worse than any servant of the Baronet's. Sir Bale swore at him, +and cursed him; laid the blame of everything that went wrong in house, +stable, or field upon his shoulders; railed at him, and used him, as +people said, worse than a dog. + +Why did Feltram endure this contumelious life? What could he do but +endure it? was the answer. What was the power that induced strong +soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to +be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with +an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of +an unconscious calculation of chances which satisfies them that it is +ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the +alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with +each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one +knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what +they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but +quite irresistible power. + +A man of spirit would rather break stones on the highway than eat that +bitter bread, was the burden of every man's song on Feltram's bondage. +But he was not so sure that even the stone-breaker's employment was open +to him, or that he could break stones well enough to retain it on a fair +trial. And he had other ideas of providing for himself, and a different +alternative in his mind. + +Good-natured Mrs. Julaper, the old housekeeper at Mardykes Hall, was +kind to Feltram, as to all others who lay in her way and were in +affliction. + +She was one of those good women whom Nature provides to receive the +burden of other people's secrets, as the reeds did long ago, only that +no chance wind could steal them away, and send them singing into strange +ears. + +You may still see her snuggery in Mardykes Hall, though the +housekeeper's room is now in a different part of the house. + +Mrs. Julaper's room was in the oldest quarter of that old house. It was +wainscoted, in black panels, up to the ceiling, which was stuccoed over +in the fanciful diagrams of James the First's time. Several dingy +portraits, banished from time to time from other statelier rooms, found +a temporary abode in this quiet spot, where they had come finally to +settle and drop out of remembrance. There is a lady in white satin and a +ruff; a gentleman whose legs have faded out of view, with a peaked +beard, and a hawk on his wrist. There is another in a black periwig lost +in the dark background, and with a steel cuirass, the gleam of which out +of the darkness strikes the eye, and a scarf is dimly discoverable +across it. This is that foolish Sir Guy Mardykes, who crossed the Border +and joined Dundee, and was shot through the temple at Killiecrankie and +whom more prudent and whiggish scions of the Mardykes family removed +forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from +which he has not since emerged. + +At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you +find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony +before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the +cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision. + +There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her _Whole Duty of +Man_, and her _Pilgrim's Progress_; and, in a file beside them, her +books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes, +cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the +Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would +nowadays give an eye or a hand. + +Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs, +and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him +a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of +coffee, or some little dainty. + +"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor +devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not +it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I +think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing. +I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind. +I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer." + +"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember +you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he. +They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one +minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the +tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard +words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea--ye like a cup o' +tea--and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see +how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening." + +She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff +in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on +him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a +delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with +so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as +she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little +apples. + +"Look out, I say," and she nodded towards the window, deep set in the +thick wall. "See how bright and soft everything looks in that pleasant +light; _that's_ better, child, than the finest picture man's hand ever +painted yet, and God gives it us for nothing; and how pretty Snakes +Island glows up in that light!" + +The dejected man, hardly raising his head, followed with his eyes the +glance of the old woman, and looked mournfully through the window. + +"That island troubles me, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Everything troubles you, my poor goose-cap. I'll pull your lug for ye, +child, if ye be so dowly;" and with a mimic pluck the good-natured old +housekeeper pinched his ear and laughed. + +"I'll go to the still-room now, where the water's boiling, and I'll make +a cup of tea; and if I find ye so dow when I come back, I'll throw it +all out o' the window, mind." + +It was indeed a beautiful picture that Feltram saw in its deep frame of +old masonry. The near part of the lake was flushed all over with the low +western light; the more distant waters lay dark in the shadow of the +mountains; and against this shadow of purple the rocks on Snakes Island, +illuminated by the setting sun, started into sharp clear yellow. + +But this beautiful view had no charm--at least, none powerful enough to +master the latent horror associated with its prettiest feature--for the +weak and dismal man who was looking at it; and being now alone, he rose +and leant on the window, and looked out, and then with a kind of shudder +clutching his hands together, and walking distractedly about the room. + +Without his perceiving, while his back was turned, the housekeeper came +back; and seeing him walking in this distracted way, she thought to +herself, as he leant again upon the window: + +"Well, it _is_ a burning shame to worrit any poor soul into that state. +Sir Bale was always down on someone or something, man or beast; there +always was something he hated, and could never let alone. It was not +pretty; it was his nature. Happen, poor fellow, he could not help it; +but so it was." + +A maid came in and set the tea-things down; and Mrs. Julaper drew her +sad guest over by the arm, and made him sit down, and she said: "What +has a man to do, frettin' in that way? By Jen, I'm ashamed o' ye, Master +Philip! Ye like three lumps o' sugar, I think, and--look cheerful, ye +must!--a good deal o' cream?" + +"You're so kind, Mrs. Julaper, you're so cheery. I feel quite +comfortable after awhile when I'm with you; I feel quite happy," and he +began to cry. + +She understood him very well by this time and took no notice, but went +on chatting gaily, and made his tea as he liked it; and he dried his +tears hastily, thinking she had not observed. + +So the clouds began to clear. This innocent fellow liked nothing better +than a cup of tea and a chat with gentle and cheery old Mrs. Julaper, +and a talk in which the shadowy old times which he remembered as a child +emerged into sunlight and lived again. + +When he began to feel better, drawn into the kindly old times by the +tinkle of that harmless old woman's tongue, he said: + +"I sometimes think I would not so much mind--I should not care so +much--if my spirits were not so depressed, and I so agitated. I suppose +I am not quite well." + +"Well, tell me what's wrong, child, and it's odd but I have a recipe on +the shelf there that will do you good." + +"It is not a matter of that sort I mean; though I'd rather have you than +any doctor, if I needed medicine, to prescribe for me." + +Mrs. Julaper smiled in spite of herself, well pleased; for her skill in +pharmacy was a point on which the good lady prided herself, and was open +to flattery, which, without intending it, the simple fellow +administered. + +"No, I'm well enough; I can't say I ever was better. It is only, ma'am, +that I have such dreams--you have no idea." + +"There are dreams and dreams, my dear: there's some signifies no more +than the babble of the lake down there on the pebbles, and there's +others that has a meaning; there's dreams that is but vanity, and +there's dreams that is good, and dreams that is bad. Lady +Mardykes--heavens be her bed this day! that's his grandmother I +mean--was very sharp for reading dreams. Take another cup of tea. Dear +me! what a noise the crows keep aboon our heads, going home! and how +high they wing it!--that's a sure sign of fine weather. An' what do you +dream about? Tell me your dream, and I may show you it's a good one, +after all. For many a dream is ugly to see and ugly to tell, and a good +dream, with a happy meaning, for all that." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The Intruder + +"Well, Mrs. Julaper, dreams I've dreamed like other people, old and +young; but this, ma'am, has taken a fast hold of me," said Mr. Feltram +dejectedly, leaning back in his chair and looking down with his hands in +his pockets. "I think, Mrs. Julaper, it is getting into me. I think it's +like possession." + +"Possession, child! what do you mean?" + +"I think there is something trying to influence me. Perhaps it is the +way fellows go mad; but it won't let me alone. I've seen it three times, +think of that!" + +"Well, dear, and what _have_ ye seen?" she asked, with an uneasy +cheerfulness, smiling, with eyes fixed steadily upon him; for the idea +of a madman--even gentle Philip in that state--was not quieting. + +"Do you remember the picture, full-length, that had no frame--the lady +in the white-satin saque--she was beautiful, _funeste_," he added, +talking more to himself; and then more distinctly to Mrs. Julaper +again----"in the white-satin saque; and with the little mob cap and blue +ribbons to it, and a bouquet in her fingers; that was--that--you know +who she was?" + +"That was your great-grandmother, my dear," said Mrs. Julaper, lowering +her eyes. "It was a dreadful pity it was spoiled. The boys in the pantry +had it for a year there on the table for a tray, to wash the glasses on +and the like. It was a shame; that was the prettiest picture in the +house, with the gentlest, rosiest face." + +"It ain't so gentle or rosy now, I can tell you," said Philip. "As fixed +as marble; with thin lips, and a curve at the nostril. Do you remember +the woman that was found dead in the clough, when I was a boy, that the +gipsies murdered, it was thought,--a cruel-looking woman?" + +"Agoy! Master Philip, dear! ye would not name that terrible-looking +creature with the pretty, fresh, kindly face!" + +"Faces change, you see; no matter what she's like; it's her talk that +frightens me. She wants to make use of me; and, you see, it is like +getting a share in my mind, and a voice in my thoughts, and a command +over me gradually; and it is just one idea, as straight as a line of +light across the lake--see what she's come to. O Lord, help me!" + +"Well, now, don't you be talkin' like that. It is just a little bit +dowly and troubled, because the master says a wry word now and then; and +so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies +comes into your head." + +"There's no fancy in my head," he said with a quick look of suspicion; +"only you asked me what I dreamed. I don't care if all the world knew. I +dreamed I went down a flight of steps under the lake, and got a message. +There are no steps near Snakes Island, we all know that," and he laughed +chillily. "I'm out of spirits, as you say; and--and--O dear! I +wish--Mrs. Julaper--I wish I was in my coffin, and quiet." + +"Now that's very wrong of you, Master Philip; you should think of all +the blessings you have, and not be makin' mountains o' molehills; and +those little bits o' temper Sir Bale shows, why, no one minds 'em--that +is, to take 'em to heart like you do, don't ye see?" + +"I daresay; I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you are right. I'm unreasonable +often, I know," said gentle Philip Feltram. "I daresay I make too much +of it; I'll try. I'm his secretary, and I know I'm not so bright as he +is, and it is natural he should sometimes be a little impatient; I ought +to be more reasonable, I'm sure. It is all that thing that has been +disturbing me--I mean fretting, and, I think, I'm not quite well; +and--and letting myself think too much of vexations. It's my own fault, +I'm sure, Mrs. Julaper; and I know I'm to blame." + +"That's quite right, that's spoken like a wise lad; only I don't say +you're to blame, nor no one; for folk can't help frettin' sometimes, no +more than they can help a headache--none but a mafflin would say +that--and I'll not deny but he has dowly ways when the fit's on him, and +he frumps us all round, if such be his humour. But who is there hasn't +his faults? We must bear and forbear, and take what we get and be +cheerful. So chirp up, my lad; Philip, didn't I often ring the a'd rhyme +in your ear long ago? + + "Be always as merry as ever you can, + For no one delights in a sorrowful man. + +"So don't ye be gettin' up off your chair like that, and tramping about +the room wi' your hands in your pockets, looking out o' this window, and +staring out o' that, and sighing and crying, and looking so +black-ox-trodden, 'twould break a body's heart to see you. Ye must be +cheery; and happen you're hungry, and don't know it. I'll tell the cook +to grill a hot bit for ye." + +"But I'm not hungry, Mrs. Julaper. How kind you are! dear me, Mrs. +Julaper, I'm not worthy of it; I don't deserve half your kindness. I'd +have been heartbroken long ago, but for you." + +"And I'll make a sup of something hot for you; you'll take a +rummer-glass of punch--you must." + +"But I like the tea better; I do, indeed, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Tea is no drink for a man when his heart's down. It should be something +with a leg in it, lad; something hot that will warm your courage for ye, +and set your blood a-dancing, and make ye talk brave and merry; and will +you have a bit of a broil first? No? Well then, you'll have a drop o' +punch?--ye sha'n't say no." + +And so, all resistance overpowered, the consolation of Philip Feltram +proceeded. + +A gentler spirit than poor Feltram, a more good-natured soul than the +old housekeeper, were nowhere among the children of earth. + +Philip Feltram, who was reserved enough elsewhere, used to come into her +room and cry, and take her by both hands piteously, standing before her +and looking down in her face, while tears ran deviously down his cheeks. + +"Did you ever know such a case? was there ever a fellow like _me_? did +you ever _know_ such a thing? You know what I am, Mrs. Julaper, and who +I am. They call me Feltram; but Sir Bale knows as well as I that my true +name is not that. I'm Philip Mardykes; and another fellow would make a +row about it, and claim his name and his rights, as she is always +croaking in my ear I ought. But you know that is not reasonable. My +grandmother was married; she was the true Lady Mardykes; _think_ what it +was to see a woman like that turned out of doors, and her children +robbed of their name. O, ma'am, you _can't_ think it; unless you were +me, you couldn't--you couldn't--you couldn't!" + +"Come, come, Master Philip, don't you be taking on so; and ye mustn't be +talking like that, d'ye mind? You know he wouldn't stand that; and it's +an old story now, and there's naught can be proved concerning it; and +what I think is this--I wouldn't wonder the poor lady was beguiled. But +anyhow she surely thought she was his lawful wife; and though the law +may hev found a flaw somewhere--and I take it 'twas so--yet sure I am +she was an honourable lady. But where's the use of stirring that old +sorrow? or how can ye prove aught? and the dead hold their peace, you +know; dead mice, they say, feels no cold; and dead folks are past +fooling. So don't you talk like that; for stone walls have ears, and ye +might say that ye couldn't _un_say; and death's day is doom's day. So +leave all in the keeping of God; and, above all, never lift hand when ye +can't strike." + +"Lift my hand! O, Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that; you little know +me; I did not mean that; I never dreamed of hurting Sir Bale. Good +heavens! Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that! It all comes of my poor +impatient temper, and complaining as I do, and my misery; but O, Mrs. +Julaper, you could not think I ever meant to trouble him by law, or any +other annoyance! I'd like to see a stain removed from my family, and my +name restored; but to touch his property, O, no!--O, no! that never +entered my mind, by heaven! that never entered my mind, Mrs. Julaper. +I'm not cruel; I'm not rapacious; I don't care for money; don't you know +that, Mrs. Julaper? O, surely you won't think me capable of attacking +the man whose bread I have eaten so long! I never dreamed of it; I +should hate myself. Tell me you don't believe it; O, Mrs. Julaper, say +you don't!" + +And the gentle feeble creature burst into tears and good Mrs. Julaper +comforted him with kind words; and he said, + +"Thank you, ma'am; thank you. God knows I would not hurt Bale, nor give +him one uneasy hour. It is only this: that I'm--I'm so miserable; and +I'm only casting in my mind where to turn to, and what to do. So little +a thing would be enough, and then I shall leave Mardykes. I'll go; not +in any anger, Mrs. Julaper--don't think that; but I can't stay, I must +be gone." + +"Well, now, there's nothing yet, Master Philip, to fret you like that. +You should not be talking so wild-like. Master Bale has his sharp word +and his short temper now and again; but I'm sure he likes you. If he +didn't, he'd a-said so to me long ago. I'm sure he likes you well." + +"Hollo! I say, who's there? Where the devil's Mr. Feltram?" called the +voice of the baronet, at a fierce pitch, along the passage. + +"La! Mr. Feltram, it's him! Ye'd better run to him," whispered Mrs. +Julaper. + +"D--n me! does nobody hear? Mrs. Julaper! Hollo! ho! house, there! ho! +D--n me, will nobody answer?" + +And Sir Bale began to slap the wainscot fast and furiously with his +walking-cane with a clatter like a harlequin's lath in a pantomime. + +Mrs. Julaper, a little paler than usual, opened her door, and stood with +the handle in her hand, making a little curtsey, enframed in the +door-case; and Sir Bale, being in a fume, when he saw her, ceased +whacking the panels of the corridor, and stamped on the floor, crying, + +"Upon my soul, ma'am, I'm glad to see you! Perhaps you can tell me where +Feltram is?" + +"He is in my room, Sir Bale. Shall I tell him you want him, please?" + +"Never mind; thanks," said the Baronet. "I've a tongue in my head;" +marching down the passage to the housekeeper's room, with his cane +clutched hard, glaring savagely, and with his teeth fast set, like a +fellow advancing to beat a vicious horse that has chafed his temper. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The Bank Note + +Sir Bale brushed by the housekeeper as he strode into her sanctuary, and +there found Philip Feltram awaiting him dejectedly, but with no signs of +agitation. + +If one were to judge by the appearance the master of Mardykes presented, +very grave surmises as to impending violence would have suggested +themselves; but though he clutched his cane so hard that it quivered in +his grasp, he had no notion of committing the outrage of a blow. The +Baronet was unusually angry notwithstanding, and stopping short about +three steps away, addressed Feltram with a pale face and gleaming eyes. +It was quite plain that there was something very exciting upon his mind. + +"I've been looking for you, Mr. Feltram; I want a word or two, if you +have done your--your--whatever it is." He whisked the point of his stick +towards the modest tea-tray. "I should like five minutes in the +library." + +The Baronet was all this time eyeing Feltram with a hard suspicious +gaze, as if he expected to read in his face the shrinkings and +trepidations of guilt; and then turning suddenly on his heel he led the +way to his library--a good long march, with a good many turnings. He +walked very fast, and was not long in getting there. And as Sir Bale +reached the hearth, on which was smouldering a great log of wood, and +turned about suddenly, facing the door, Philip Feltram entered. + +The Baronet looked oddly and stern--so oddly, it seemed to Feltram, that +he could not take his eyes off him, and returned his grim and somewhat +embarrassed gaze with a stare of alarm and speculation. + +And so doing, his step was shortened, and grew slow and slower, and came +quite to a stop before he had got far from the door--a wide stretch of +that wide floor still intervening between him and Sir Bale, who stood +upon the hearthrug, with his heels together and his back to the fire, +cane in hand, like a drill-sergeant, facing him. + +"Shut that door, please; that will do; come nearer now. I don't want to +bawl what I have to say. Now listen." + +The Baronet cleared his voice and paused, with his eyes upon Feltram. + +"It is only two or three days ago," said he, "that you said you wished +you had a hundred pounds. Am I right?" + +"Yes; I think so." + +"_Think_? you know it, sir, devilish well. You said that you wished to +get away. I have nothing particular to say against that, more especially +now. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Understand, Sir Bale? I do, sir--quite." + +"I daresay quite" he repeated with an angry sneer. "Here, sir, is an odd +coincidence: you want a hundred pounds, and you can't earn it, and you +can't borrow it--there's another way, it seems--but I have got it--a +Bank-of-England note of £100--locked up in that desk;" and he poked the +end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is, +and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys--I've got +one and you have the other--and devil another key in or out of the house +has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want +any d----d lying about it." + +Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something +very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that +unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from +detection, he looked very much put out indeed. + +"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a +bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but +I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to +pay the crown and quit-rents that you know--you--you--no matter--you +know well enough must be paid, I open it so--and so--and look _there_, +where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone--you understand, the +note's _gone_!" + +Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye, +poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but +said nothing. + +"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, _I_ did not steal that +note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go +away, and I have no objection to that--but d--n me if you take away that +note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter +in a worse place." + +"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill." + +"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money +off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a +bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and +I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly." + +"May my Maker strike me----" + +"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you +produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off +if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you; +and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you +searched, pockets, bag, and baggage." + +"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram. + +"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have +got it about you?" + +"God forbid, sir! O, Sir--O, Sir Bale--why, Bale, _Bale_, it's +impossible! You _can't_ believe it. When did I ever wrong you? You know +me since I was not higher than the table, and--and----" + +He burst into tears. + +"Stop your snivelling, sir, and give up the note. You know devilish well +I can't spare it; and I won't spare you if you put me to it. I've said +my say." + +Sir Bale signed towards the door; and like a somnambulist, with dilated +gaze and pale as death, Philip Feltram, at his wit's end, went out of +the room. It was not till he had again reached the housekeeper's door +that he recollected in what direction he was going. His shut hand was +pressed with all his force to his heart, and the first breath he was +conscious of was a deep wild sob or two that quivered from his heart as +he looked from the lobby-window upon a landscape which he did not see. + +All he had ever suffered before was mild in comparison with this dire +paroxysm. Now, for the first time, was he made acquainted with his real +capacity for pain, and how near he might be to madness and yet retain +intellect enough to weigh every scruple, and calculate every chance and +consequence, in his torture. + +Sir Bale, in the meantime, had walked out a little more excited than he +would have allowed. He was still convinced that Feltram had stolen the +note, but not quite so certain as he had been. There were things in his +manner that confirmed, and others that perplexed, Sir Bale. + +The Baronet stood upon the margin of the lake, almost under the evening +shadow of the house, looking towards Snakes Island. There were two +things about Mardykes he specially disliked. + +One was Philip Feltram, who, right or wrong, he fancied knew more than +was pleasant of his past life. + +The other was the lake. It was a beautiful piece of water, his eye, +educated at least in the excellences of landscape-painting, +acknowledged. But although he could pull a good oar, and liked other +lakes, to this particular sheet of water there lurked within him an +insurmountable antipathy. It was engendered by a variety of +associations. + +There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout +and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near. +His boding was made-up of omens, dreams, and such stuff as he most +affected to despise, and there fluttered at his heart a presentiment and +disgust. + +His foot was on the gunwale of the boat, that was chained to its ring at +the margin; but he would not have crossed that water in it for any +reason that man could urge. + +What was the mischief that sooner or later was to befall him from that +lake, he could not define; but that some fatal danger lurked there, was +the one idea concerning it that had possession of his fancy. + +He was now looking along its still waters, towards the copse and rocks +of Snakes Island, thinking of Philip Feltram; and the yellow level +sunbeams touched his dark features, that bore a saturnine resemblance to +those of Charles II, and marked sharply their firm grim lines, and left +his deep-set eyes in shadow. + +Who has the happy gift to seize the present, as a child does, and live +in it? Who is not often looking far off for his happiness, as Sidney +Smith says, like a man looking for his hat when it is upon his head? Sir +Bale was brooding over his double hatred, of Feltram and of the lake. It +would have been better had he struck down the raven that croaked upon +his shoulder, and listened to the harmless birds that were whistling all +round among the branches in the golden sunset. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Feltram's Plan + +This horror of the beautiful lake, which other people thought so lovely, +was, in that mind which affected to scoff at the unseen, a distinct +creation of downright superstition. + +The nursery tales which had scared him in his childhood were founded on +the tragedy of Snakes Island, and haunted him with an unavowed +persistence still. Strange dreams untold had visited him, and a German +conjuror, who had made some strangely successful vaticinations, had told +him that his worst enemy would come up to him from a lake. He had heard +very nearly the same thing from a fortune-teller in France; and once at +Lucerne, when he was waiting alone in his room for the hour at which he +had appointed to go upon the lake, all being quiet, there came to the +window, which was open, a sunburnt, lean, wicked face. Its ragged owner +leaned his arm on the window-frame, and with his head in the room, said +in his patois, "Ho! waiting are you? You'll have enough of the lake one +day. Don't you mind watching; they'll send when you're wanted;" and +twisting his yellow face into a malicious distortion, he went on. + +This thing had occurred so suddenly, and chimed-in so oddly with his +thoughts, which were at that moment at distant Mardykes and the haunted +lake, that it disconcerted him. He laughed, he looked out of the window. +He would have given that fellow money to tell him why he said that. But +there was no good in looking for the scamp; he was gone. + +A memory not preoccupied with that lake and its omens, and a +presentiment about himself, would not have noted such things. But _his_ +mind they touched indelibly; and he was ashamed of his childish slavery, +but could not help it. + +The foundation of all this had been laid in the nursery, in the winter's +tales told by its fireside, and which seized upon his fancy and his +fears with a strange congeniality. + +There is a large bedroom at Mardykes Hall, which tradition assigns to +the lady who had perished tragically in the lake. Mrs. Julaper was sure +of it; for her aunt, who died a very old woman twenty years before, +remembered the time of the lady's death, and when she grew to woman's +estate had opportunity in abundance; for the old people who surrounded +her could remember forty years farther back, and tell everything +connected with the old house in beautiful Miss Feltram's time. + +This large old-fashioned room, commanding a view of Snakes Island, the +fells, and the lake--somewhat vast and gloomy, and furnished in a +stately old fashion--was said to be haunted, especially when the wind +blew from the direction of Golden Friars, the point from which it blew +on the night of her death in the lake; or when the sky was overcast, and +thunder rolled among the lofty fells, and lightning gleamed on the wide +sheet of water. + +It was on a night like this that a lady visitor, who long after that +event occupied, in entire ignorance of its supernatural character, that +large room; and being herself a lady of a picturesque turn, and loving +the grander melodrama of Nature, bid her maid leave the shutters open, +and watched the splendid effects from her bed, until, the storm being +still distant, she fell asleep. + +It was travelling slowly across the lake, and it was the deep-mouthed +clangour of its near approach that startled her, at dead of night, from +her slumber, to witness the same phenomena in the tremendous loudness +and brilliancy of their near approach. + +At this magnificent spectacle she was looking with the awful ecstasy of +an observer in whom the sense of danger is subordinated to that of the +sublime, when she saw suddenly at the window a woman, whose long hair +and dress seemed drenched with water. She was gazing in with a look of +terror, and was shaking the sash of the window with vehemence. Having +stood there for a few seconds, and before the lady, who beheld all this +from her bed, could make up her mind what to do, the storm-beaten +figure, wringing her hands, seemed to throw herself backward, and was +gone. + +Possessed with the idea that she had seen some poor woman overtaken in +the storm, who, failing to procure admission there, had gone round to +some of the many doors of the mansion, and obtained an entry there, she +again fell asleep. + +It was not till the morning, when she went to her window to look out +upon the now tranquil scene, that she discovered what, being a stranger +to the house, she had quite forgotten, that this room was at a great +height--some thirty feet--from the ground. + +Another story was that of good old Mr. Randal Rymer, who was often a +visitor at the house in the late Lady Mardykes' day. In his youth he had +been a campaigner; and now that he was a preacher he maintained his +hardy habits, and always slept, summer and winter, with a bit of his +window up. Being in that room in his bed, and after a short sleep lying +awake, the moon shining softly through the window, there passed by that +aperture into the room a figure dressed, it seemed to him, in gray that +was nearly white. It passed straight to the hearth, where was an +expiring wood fire; and cowering over it with outstretched hands, it +appeared to be gathering what little heat was to be had. Mr. Rymer, +amazed and awestruck, made a movement in his bed; and the figure looked +round, with large eyes that in the moonlight looked like melting snow, +and stretching its long arms up the chimney, they and the figure itself +seemed to blend with the smoke, and so pass up and away. + +Sir Bale, I have said, did not like Feltram. His father, Sir William, +had left a letter creating a trust, it was said, in favour of Philip +Feltram. The document had been found with the will, addressed to Sir +Bale in the form of a letter. + +"That is mine," said the Baronet, when it dropped out of the will; and +he slipped it into his pocket, and no one ever saw it after. + +But Mr. Charles Twyne, the attorney of Golden Friars, whenever he got +drunk, which was pretty often, used to tell his friends with a grave +wink that he knew a thing or two about that letter. It gave Philip +Feltram two hundred a-year, charged on Harfax. It was only a direction. +It made Sir Bale a trustee, however; and having made away with the +"letter," the Baronet had been robbing Philip Feltram ever since. + +Old Twyne was cautious, even in his cups, in his choice of an audience, +and was a little enigmatical in his revelations. For he was afraid of +Sir Bale, though he hated him for employing a lawyer who lived seven +miles away, and was a rival. So people were not quite sure whether Mr. +Twyne was telling lies or truth, and the principal fact that +corroborated his story was Sir Bale's manifest hatred of his secretary. +In fact, Sir Bale's retaining him in his house, detesting him as he +seemed to do, was not easily to be accounted for, except on the +principle of a tacit compromise--a miserable compensation for having +robbed him of his rights. + +The battle about the bank-note proceeded. Sir Bale certainly had doubts, +and vacillated; for moral evidence made powerfully in favour of poor +Feltram, though the evidence of circumstance made as powerfully against +him. But Sir Bale admitted suspicion easily, and in weighing +probabilities would count a virtue very lightly against temptation and +opportunity; and whatever his doubts might sometimes be, he resisted and +quenched them, and never let that ungrateful scoundrel Philip Feltram so +much as suspect their existence. + +For two days Sir Bale had not spoken to Feltram. He passed by on stair +and passage, carrying his head high, and with a thundrous countenance, +rolling conclusions and revenges in his soul. + +Poor Feltram all this time existed in one long agony. He would have left +Mardykes, were it not that he looked vaguely to some just power--to +chance itself--against this hideous imputation. To go with this +indictment ringing in his ears, would amount to a confession and flight. + +Mrs. Julaper consoled him with might and main. She was a sympathetic and +trusting spirit, and knew poor Philip Feltram, in her simplicity, better +than the shrewdest profligate on earth could have known him. She cried +with him in his misery. She was fired with indignation by these +suspicions, and still more at what followed. + +Sir Bale showed no signs of relenting. It might have been that he was +rather glad of so unexceptionable an opportunity of getting rid of +Feltram, who, people thought, knew something which it galled the +Baronet's pride that he should know. + +The Baronet had another shorter and sterner interview with Feltram in +his study. The result was, that unless he restored the missing note +before ten o'clock next morning, he should leave Mardykes. + +To leave Mardykes was no more than Philip Feltram, feeble as he was of +will, had already resolved. But what was to become of him? He did not +very much care, if he could find any calling, however humble, that would +just give him bread. + +There was an old fellow and his wife (an ancient dame,) who lived at the +other side of the lake, on the old territories of the Feltrams, and who, +from some tradition of loyalty, perhaps, were fond of poor Philip +Feltram. They lived somewhat high up on the fells--about as high as +trees would grow--and those which were clumped about their rude dwelling +were nearly the last you passed in your ascent of the mountain. These +people had a multitude of sheep and goats, and lived in their airy +solitude a pastoral and simple life, and were childless. Philip Feltram +was hardy and active, having passed his early days among that arduous +scenery. Cold and rain did not trouble him; and these people being +wealthy in their way, and loving him, would be glad to find him +employment of that desultory pastoral kind which would best suit him. + +This vague idea was the only thing resembling a plan in his mind. + +When Philip Feltram came to Mrs. Julaper's room, and told her that he +had made up his mind to leave the house forthwith--to cross the lake to +the Cloostedd side in Tom Marlin's boat, and then to make his way up the +hill alone to Trebeck's lonely farmstead, Mrs. Julaper was overwhelmed. + +"Ye'll do no such thing to-night, anyhow. You're not to go like that. +Ye'll come into the small room here, where he can't follow; and we'll +sit down and talk it over a bit, and ye'll find 'twill all come +straight; and this will be no night, anyhow, for such a march. Why, +man,'twould take an hour and more to cross the lake, and then a long +uphill walk before ye could reach Trebeck's place; and if the night +should fall while you were still on the mountain, ye might lose your +life among the rocks. It can't be 'tis come to that yet; and the call +was in the air, I'm told, all yesterday, and distant thunder to-day, +travelling this way over Blarwyn Fells; and 'twill be a night no one +will be out, much less on the mountain side." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The Crazy Parson + +Mrs. Julaper had grown weather-wise, living for so long among this noble +and solitary scenery, where people must observe Nature or else +nothing--where signs of coming storm or change are almost local, and +record themselves on particular cliffs and mountain-peaks, or in the +mists, or in mirrored tints of the familiar lake, and are easily learned +or remembered. At all events, her presage proved too true. + +The sun had set an hour and more. It was dark; and an awful +thunder-storm, whose march, like the distant reverberations of an +invading army, had been faintly heard beyond the barriers of Blarwyn +Fells throughout the afternoon, was near them now, and had burst in +deep-mouthed battle among the ravines at the other side, and over the +broad lake, that glared like a sheet of burnished steel under its +flashes of dazzling blue. Wild and fitful blasts sweeping down the +hollows and cloughs of the fells of Golden Friars agitated the lake, and +bent the trees low, and whirled away their sere leaves in melancholy +drift in their tremendous gusts. And from the window, looking on a scene +enveloped in more than the darkness of the night, you saw in the +pulsations of the lightning, before "the speedy gleams the darkness +swallowed," the tossing trees and the flying foam and eddies on the +lake. + +In the midst of the hurlyburly, a loud and long knocking came at the +hall-door of Mardykes. How long it had lasted before a chance lull made +it audible I do not know. + +There was nothing picturesquely poor, any more than there were evidences +of wealth, anywhere in Sir Bale Mardykes' household. He had no lack of +servants, but they were of an inexpensive and homely sort; and the +hall-door being opened by the son of an old tenant on the estate--the +tempest beating on the other side of the house, and comparative shelter +under the gables at the front--he saw standing before him, in the +agitated air, a thin old man, who muttering, it might be, a benediction, +stepped into the hall, and displayed long silver tresses, just as the +storm had blown them, ascetic and eager features, and a pair of large +light eyes that wandered wildly. He was dressed in threadbare black; a +pair of long leather gaiters, buckled high above his knee, protecting +his thin shanks through moss and pool; and the singularity of his +appearance was heightened by a wide-leafed felt hat, over which he had +tied his handkerchief, so as to bring the leaf of it over his ears, and +to secure it from being whirled from his head by the storm. + +This odd and storm-beaten figure--tall, and a little stooping, as well +as thin--was not unknown to the servant, who saluted him with something +of fear as well as of respect as he bid him reverently welcome, and +asked him to come in and sit by the fire. + +"Get you to your master, and tell him I have a message to him from one +he has not seen for two-and-forty years." + +As the old man, with his harsh old voice, thus spoke, he unknotted his +handkerchief and bet the rain-drops from his hat upon his knee. + +The servant knocked at the library-door, where he found Sir Bale. + +"Well, what's the matter?" cried Sir Bale sharply, from his chair before +the fire, with angry eyes looking over his shoulder. + +"Here's 't sir cumman, Sir Bale," he answered. + +"Sir," or "the Sir," is still used as the clergyman's title in the +Northumbrian counties. + +"What sir?" + +"Sir Hugh Creswell, if you please, Sir Bale." + +"Ho!--mad Creswell?--O, the crazy parson. Well, tell Mrs. Julaper to let +him have some supper--and--and to let him have a bed in some suitable +place. That's what he wants. These mad fellows know what they are +about." + +"No, Sir Bale Mardykes, that is not what he wants," said the loud wild +voice of the daft sir over the servant's shoulder. "Often has Mardykes +Hall given me share of its cheer and its shelter and the warmth of its +fire; and I bless the house that has been an inn to the wayfarer of the +Lord. But to-night I go up the lake to Pindar's Bield, three miles on; +and there I rest and refresh--not here." + +"And why not _here_, Mr. Creswell?" asked the Baronet; for about this +crazy old man, who preached in the fields, and appeared and disappeared +so suddenly in the orbit of his wide and unknown perambulations of those +northern and border counties, there was that sort of superstitious +feeling which attaches to the mysterious and the good--an idea that it +was lucky to harbour and dangerous to offend him. No one knew whence he +came or whither he went. Once in a year, perhaps, he might appear at a +lonely farmstead door among the fells, salute the house, enter, and be +gone in the morning. His life was austere; his piety enthusiastic, +severe, and tinged with the craze which inspired among the rustic +population a sort of awe. + +"I'll not sleep at Mardykes to-night; neither will I eat, nor drink, nor +sit me down--no, nor so much as stretch my hands to the fire. As the man +of God came out of Judah to king Jeroboam, so come I to you, sent by a +vision, to bear a warning; and as he said, 'If thou wilt give me half +thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor +drink water in this place,' so also say I." + +"Do as you please," said Sir Bale, a little sulkily. "Say your say; and +you are welcome to stay or go, if go you will on so mad a night as +this." + +"Leave us," said Creswell, beckoning the servant back with his thin +hands; "what I have to say is to your master." + +The servant went, in obedience to a gesture from Sir Bale, and shut the +door. + +The old man drew nearer to the Baronet, and lowering his loud stern +voice a little, and interrupting his discourse from time to time, to +allow the near thunder-peals to subside, he said, + +"Answer me, Sir Bale--what is this that has chanced between you and +Philip Feltram?" + +The Baronet, under the influence of that blunt and peremptory demand, +told him shortly and sternly enough. + +"And of all these facts you are sure, else ye would not blast your early +companion and kinsman with the name of thief?" + +"I _am_ sure," said Sir Bale grimly. + +"Unlock that cabinet," said the old man with the long white locks. + +"I've no objection," said Sir Bale; and he did unlock an old oak cabinet +that stood, carved in high relief with strange figures and gothic +grotesques, against the wall, opposite the fireplace. On opening it +there were displayed a system of little drawers and pigeon-holes such as +we see in more modern escritoires. + +"Open that drawer with the red mark of a seal upon it," continued Hugh +Creswell, pointing to it with his lank finger. + +Sir Bale did so; and to his momentary amazement, and even consternation, +there lay the missing note, which now, with one of those sudden caprices +of memory which depend on the laws of suggestion and association, he +remembered having placed there with his own hand. + +"That is it," said old Creswell with a pallid smile, and fixing his wild +eyes on the Baronet. The smile subsided into a frown, and said he: "Last +night I slept near Haworth Moss; and your father came to me in a dream, +and said: 'My son Bale accuses Philip of having stolen a bank-note from +his desk. He forgets that he himself placed it in his cabinet. Come with +me.' I was, in the spirit, in this room; and he led me to this cabinet, +which he opened; and in that drawer he showed me that note. 'Go,' said +he, 'and tell him to ask Philip Feltram's pardon, else he will but go in +weakness to return in power;' and he said that which it is not lawful to +repeat. My message is told. Now a word from myself," he added sternly. +"The dead, through my lips, has spoken, and under God's thunder and +lightning his words have found ye. Why so uppish wi' Philip Feltram? See +how ye threaped, and yet were wrong. He's no tazzle--he's no taggelt. +Ask his pardon. Ye must change, or he will no taggelt. Go, in weakness, +come in power: mark ye the words. 'Twill make a peal that will be heard +in toon and desert, in the swirls o' the mountain, through pikes and +valleys, and mak' a waaly man o' thee." + +The old man with these words, uttered in the broad northern dialect of +his common speech, strode from the room and shut the door. In another +minute he was forth into the storm, pursuing what remained of his long +march to Pindar's Bield. + +"Upon my soul!" said Sir Bale, recovering from his sort of stun which +the sudden and strange visit had left, "that's a cool old fellow! Come +to rate me and teach me my own business in my own house!" and he rapped +out a fierce oath. "Change his mind or no, here he sha'n't stay +to-night--not an hour." + +Sir Bale was in the lobby in a moment, and thundered to his servants: + +"I say, put that fool out of the door--put him out by the shoulder, and +never let him put his foot inside it more!" + +But the old man's yea was yea, and his nay nay. He had quite meant what +he said; and, as I related, was beyond the reach of the indignity of +extrusion. + +Sir Bale on his return shut his door as violently as if it were in the +face of the old prophet. + +"Ask Feltram's pardon, by Jove! For what? Why, any jury on earth would +have hanged him on half the evidence; and I, like a fool, was going to +let him off with his liberty and my hundred pound-note! Ask his pardon +indeed!" + +Still there were misgivings in his mind; a consciousness that he did owe +explanation and apology to Feltram, and an insurmountable reluctance to +undertake either. The old dislike--a contempt mingled with fear--not any +fear of his malevolence, a fear only of his carelessness and folly; for, +as I have said, Feltram knew many things, it was believed, of the +Baronet's Continental and Asiatic life, and had even gently remonstrated +with him upon the dangers into which he was running. A simple fellow +like Philip Feltram is a dangerous depository of a secret. This Baronet +was proud, too; and the mere possession of his secrets by Feltram was an +involuntary insult, which Sir Bale could not forgive. He wished him far +away; and except for the recovery of his bank-note, which he could ill +spare, he was sorry that this suspicion was cleared up. + +The thunder and storm were unabated; it seemed indeed that they were +growing wilder and more awful. + +He opened the window-shutter and looked out upon that sublimest of +scenes; and so intense and magnificent were its phenomena, that Sir +Bale, for a while, was absorbed in this contemplation. + +When he turned about, the sight of his £100 note, still between his +finger and thumb, made him smile grimly. + +The more he thought of it, the clearer it was that he could not leave +matters exactly as they were. Well, what should he do? He would send for +Mrs. Julaper, and tell her vaguely that he had changed his mind about +Feltram, and that he might continue to stay at Mardykes Hall as usual. +That would suffice. She could speak to Feltram. + +He sent for her; and soon, in the lulls of the great uproar without, he +could hear the jingle of Mrs. Julaper's keys and her light tread upon +the lobby. + +"Mrs. Julaper," said the Baronet, in his dry careless way, "Feltram may +remain; your eloquence has prevailed. What have you been crying about?" +he asked, observing that his housekeeper's usually cheerful face was, in +her own phrase, 'all cried.' + +"It is too late, sir; he's gone." + +"And when did he go?" asked Sir Bale, a little put out. "He chose an odd +evening, didn't he? So like him!" + +"He went about half an hour ago; and I'm very sorry, sir; it's a sore +sight to see the poor lad going from the place he was reared in, and a +hard thing, sir; and on such a night, above all." + +"No one asked him to go to-night. Where is he gone to?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure; he left my room, sir, when I was upstairs; and +Janet saw him pass the window not ten minutes after Mr. Creswell left +the house." + +"Well, then, there's no good, Mrs. Julaper, in thinking more about it; +he has settled the matter his own way; and as he so ordains it--amen, +say I. Goodnight." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat + +Philip Feltram was liked very well--a gentle, kindly, and very timid +creature, and, before he became so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a +joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Where will Sir Bale +find so unresisting and respectful a butt and retainer? and whom will he +bully now? + +Something like remorse was worrying Sir Bale's heart a little; and the +more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell that night, with +its unexplained menace, the more uneasy he became. + +The storm continued; and even to him there seemed something exaggerated +and inhuman in the severity of his expulsion on such a night. It was his +own doing, it was true; but would people believe that? and would he have +thought of leaving Mardykes at all if it had not been for his kinsman's +severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh +Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how +all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, he would +have found him still in the house?--for he had not yet gone for ten +minutes after Creswell's departure, and thus, all that was to follow +might have been averted. But it was too late now, and Sir Bale would let +the affair take its own course. + +Below him, outside the window at which he stood ruminating, he heard +voices mingling with the storm. He could with tolerable certainty +perceive, looking into the obscurity, that there were three men passing +close under it, carrying some very heavy burden among them. + +He did not know what these three black figures in the obscurity were +about. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the +front, and in the lulls of the storm could hear their gruff voices +talking. + +We have all experienced what a presentiment is, and we all know with +what an intuition the faculty of observation is sometimes heightened. It +was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a +dream--a sort of knowledge that what those people were about was in a +dreadful way connected with his own fate. + +He watched for a time, thinking that they might return; but they did +not. He was in a state of uncomfortable suspense. + +"If they want me, they won't have much trouble in finding me, nor any +scruple, egad, in plaguing me; they never have." + +Sir Bale returned to his letters, a score of which he was that night +getting off his conscience--an arrear which would not have troubled him +had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether to employ Philip +Feltram, who had been accustomed to take all that sort of drudgery off +his hands. + +All the time he was writing now he had a feeling that the shadows he had +seen pass under his window were machinating some trouble for him, and an +uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, +fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless wait he would say +to himself, "If any one is coming, why the devil don't he come?" and +then he would apply himself again to his letters. + +But on a sudden he heard good Mrs. Julaper's step trotting along the +lobby, and the tiny ringing of her keys. + +Here was news coming; and the Baronet stood up looking at the door, on +which presently came a hurried rapping; and before he had answered, in +the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the +house, the good woman opened the door in great agitation, and cried with +a tremulous uplifting of her hands. + +"O, Sir Bale! O, la, sir! here's poor dear Philip Feltram come home +dead!" + +Sir Bale stared at her sternly for some seconds. + +"Gome, now, do be distinct," said Sir Bale; "what has happened?" + +"He's lying on the sofer in the old still-room. You never saw--my +God!--O, sir--what is life?" + +"D--n it, can't you cry by-and-by, and tell me what's the matter now?" + +"A bit o' fire there, as luck would have it; but what is hot or cold +now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and +Tom Warren is on the gallop down to Golden Friars for Doctor Torvey." + +"_Is_ he drowned, or is it only a ducking? Come, bring me to the place. +Dead men don't usually want a fire, or consult doctors. I'll see for +myself." + +So Sir Bale Mardykes, pale and grim, accompanied by the light-footed +Mrs. Julaper, strode along the passages, and was led by her into the old +still-room, which had ceased to be used for its original purpose. All +the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also +who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, +with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water along the +wrinkles and pockets of his waistcoat and from the feet of his trousers, +and pumping and oozing from his shoes, and streaming from his hair down +the channels of his cheeks like a continuous rain of tears. + +The people drew back a little as Sir Bale entered with a quick step and +a sharp pallid frown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over +Philip Feltram, who lay on a low bed next the wall, dimly lighted by two +or three candles here and there about the room. + +He laid his hand, for a moment, on his cold wet breast. + +Sir Bale knew what should be done in order to give a man in such a case +his last chance for life. Everybody was speedily put in motion. Philip's +drenched clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans +and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so +that the water flowed freely from his mouth. The old expedient for +inducing artificial breathing was employed, and a lusty pair of bellows +did duty for his lungs. + +But these helps to life, and suggestions to nature, availed not. Forlorn +and peaceful lay the features of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to +the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in the fish-like +eyes; pulseless and cold in the midst of all the hot bricks and +warming-pans about him. + +At length, everything having been tried, Sir Bale, who had been +directing, placed his hand within the clothes, and laid it silently on +Philip's shoulder and over his heart; and after a little wait, he shook +his head, and looking down on his sunken face, he said, + +"I am afraid he's gone. Yes, he's gone, poor fellow! And bear you this +in mind, all of you; Mrs. Julaper there can tell you more about it. She +knows that it was certainly in no compliance with my wish that he left +the house to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps--I +forgive him for it--a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some +blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; +than which imputation nothing can be more utterly false. Mrs. Julaper +there knows how welcome he was to stay the night; but he would not; he +had made up his mind, it seems, without telling any person. Had he told +you, Mrs. Julaper?" + +"No, sir," sobbed Mrs. Julaper from the centre of a pocket-handkerchief +in which her face was buried. + +"Not a human being: an angry whim of his own. Poor Feltram! and here's +the result," said the Baronet. "We have done our best--done everything. +I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will say that anything has been +omitted; but all won't do. Does any one here know how it happened?" + +Two men knew very well--the man who had been ducked, and his companion, +a younger man, who was also in the still-room, and had lent a hand in +carrying Feltram up to the house. + +Tom Marlin had a queer old stone tenement by the edge of the lake just +under Mardykes Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower +that had once belonged to Mardykes Castle, of which in the modern +building scarcely a relic was discoverable. + +This Tom Marlin had an ancient right of fishing in the lake, where he +caught pike enough for all Golden Friars; and keeping a couple of boats, +he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This +fellow, with a furrowed face and shaggy eyebrows, bald at top, but with +long grizzled locks falling upon his shoulders, said, + +"He wer wi' me this mornin', sayin' he'd want t' boat to cross the lake +in, but he didn't say what hour; and when it came on to thunder and blow +like this, ye guess I did not look to see him to-night. Well, my wife +was just lightin' a pig-tail--tho' light enough and to spare there was +in the lift already--when who should come clatterin' at the latch-pin in +the blow o' thunder and wind but Philip, poor lad, himself; and an ill +hour for him it was. He's been some time in ill fettle, though he was +never frowsy, not he, but always kind and dooce, and canty once, like +anither; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the +Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't +hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be +put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' +ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long +last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes +Island, so I'll pull him by that side--for the storm is blowin' right up +by Golden Friars, ye mind--and when we get near the point, thinks I, +he'll see wi' his een how the lake is, and gie it up. For I liked him, +poor lad; and seein' he'd set his heart on't, I wouldn't vex nor frump +him wi' a no. So down we three--myself, and Bill there, and Philip +Feltram--come to the boat; and we pulled out, keeping Snakes Island +atwixt us and the wind. 'Twas smooth water wi' us, for 'twas a scug +there, but white enough was all beyont the point; and passing the +finger-stone, not forty fathom from the shore o' the island, Bill and me +pullin' and he sittin' in the stern, poor lad, up he rises, a bit +rabblin' to himself, wi' his hands lifted so. + +"'Look a-head!' says I, thinkin' something wos comin' atort us. + +"But 'twasn't that. The boat was quiet, for while we looked, oo'er our +shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still; and lookin' +back again on Philip, he was rabblin' on all the same. + +"'It's nobbut a prass wi' himsel", poor lad,' thinks I. + +"But that wasn't it neither; for I sid something white come out o' t' +water, by the gunwale, like a hand. By Jen! and he leans oo'er and tuk +it; and he sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I +cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, +and I followed; and thrice I dived before I found him, and brought him +up by the hair at last; and there he is, poor lad! and all one if he lay +at the bottom o' t' mere." + +As Tom Marlin ended his narrative--often interrupted by the noise of the +tempest without, and the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, +like the chorus of a melancholy ballad--the sudden clang of the +hall-door bell, and a more faintly-heard knocking, announced a new +arrival. + +[Illustration: "I sid something white come out o' t' water, by the +gunwale, like a hand."] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Sir Bale's Dream + +It was Doctor Torvey who entered the old still-room now, buttoned-up to +the chin in his greatcoat, and with a muffler of many colours wrapped +partly over that feature. + +"Well!--hey? So poor Feltram's had an accident?" + +The Doctor was addressing Sir Bale, and getting to the bedside as he +pulled off his gloves. + +"I see you've been keeping him warm--that's right; and a considerable +flow of water from his mouth; turn him a little that way. Hey? O, ho!" +said the Doctor, as he placed his hand upon Philip, and gently stirred +his limbs. "It's more than an hour since this happened. I'm afraid +there's very little to be done now;" and in a lower tone, with his hand +on poor Philip Feltram's arm, and so down to his fingers, he said in Sir +Bale Mardykes' ear, with a shake of his head, + +"Here, you see, poor fellow, here's the cadaveric stiffness; it's very +melancholy, but it's all over, he's gone; there's no good trying any +more. Come here, Mrs. Julaper. Did you ever see any one dead? Look at +his eyes, look at his mouth. You ought to have known that, with half an +eye. And you know," he added again confidentially in Sir Bale's ear, +"trying any more _now_ is all my eye." + +Then after a few more words with the Baronet, and having heard his +narrative, he said from time to time, "Quite right; nothing could be +better; capital practice, sir," and so forth. And at the close of all +this, amid the sobs of kind Mrs. Julaper and the general whimpering of +the humbler handmaids, the Doctor standing by the bed, with his knuckles +on the coverlet, and a glance now and then on the dead face beside him, +said--by way of 'quieting men's minds,' as the old tract-writers used to +say--a few words to the following effect: + +"Everything has been done here that the most experienced physician could +have wished. Everything has been done in the best way. I don't know +anything that has not been done, in fact. If I had been here myself, I +don't know--hot bricks--salt isn't a bad thing. I don't know, I say, +that anything of any consequence has been omitted." And looking at the +body, "You see," and he drew the fingers a little this way and that, +letting them return, as they stiffly did, to their former attitude, "you +may be sure that the poor gentleman was quite dead by the time he +arrived here. So, since he was laid there, nothing has been lost by +delay. And, Sir Bale, if you have any directions to send to Golden +Friars, sir, I shall be most happy to undertake your message." + +"Nothing, thanks; it is a melancholy ending, poor fellow! You must come +to the study with me, Doctor Torvey, and talk a little bit more; +and--very sad, doctor--and you must have a glass of sherry, or some +port--the port used not to be bad here; I don't take it--but very +melancholy it is--bring some port and sherry; and, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +be good enough to see that everything that should be done here is looked +to; and let Marlin and the men have supper and something to drink. You +have been too long in your wet clothes, Marlin." + +So, with gracious words all round, he led the Doctor to the library +where he had been sitting, and was affable and hospitable, and told him +his own version of all that had passed between him and Philip Feltram, +and presented himself in an amiable point of view, and pleased the +Doctor with his port and flatteries--for he could not afford to lose +anyone's good word just now; and the Doctor was a bit of a gossip, and +in most houses in that region, in one character or another, every three +months in the year. + +So in due time the Doctor drove back to Golden Friars, with a high +opinion of Sir Bale, and higher still of his port, and highest of all of +himself: in the best possible humour with the world, not minding the +storm that blew in his face, and which he defied in good-humoured +mock-heroics spoken in somewhat thick accents, and regarding the thunder +and lightning as a lively gala of fireworks; and if there had been a +chance of finding his cronies still in the George and Dragon, he would +have been among them forthwith, to relate the tragedy of the night, and +tell what a good fellow, after all, Sir Bale was; and what a fool, at +best, poor Philip Feltram. + +But the George was quiet for that night. The thunder rolled over +voiceless chambers; and the lights had been put out within the windows, +on whose multitudinous small panes the lightning glared. So the Doctor +went home to Mrs. Torvey, whom he charmed into good-humoured curiosity +by the tale of wonder he had to relate. + +Sir Bale's qualms were symptomatic of something a little less sublime +and more selfish than conscience. He was not sorry that Philip Feltram +was out of the way. His lips might begin to babble inconveniently at any +time, and why should not his mouth be stopped? and what stopper so +effectual as that plug of clay which fate had introduced? But he did not +want to be charged with the odium of the catastrophe. Every man cares +something for the opinion of his fellows. And seeing that Feltram had +been well liked, and that his death had excited a vehement +commiseration, Sir Bale did not wish it to be said that he had made the +house too hot to hold him, and had so driven him to extremity. + +Sir Bale's first agitation had subsided. It was now late, he had written +many letters, and he was tired. It was not wonderful, then, that having +turned his lounging-chair to the fire, he should have fallen asleep in +it, as at last he did. + +The storm was passing gradually away by this time. The thunder was now +echoing among the distant glens and gorges of Daulness Fells, and the +angry roar and gusts of the tempest were subsiding into the melancholy +soughing and piping that soothe like a lullaby. + +Sir Bale therefore had his unpremeditated sleep very comfortably, except +that his head was hanging a little uneasily; which, perhaps, helped him +to this dream. + +It was one of those dreams in which the continuity of the waking state +that immediately preceded it seems unbroken; for he thought that he was +sitting in the chair which he occupied, and in the room where he +actually was. It seemed to him that he got up, took a candle in his +hand, and went through the passages to the old still-room where Philip +Feltram lay. The house seemed perfectly still. He could hear the chirp +of the crickets faintly from the distant kitchen, and the tick of the +clock sounded loud and hollow along the passage. In the old still-room, +as he opened the door, was no light, except what was admitted from the +candle he carried. He found the body of poor Philip Feltram just as he +had left it--his gentle face, saddened by the touch of death, was turned +upwards, with white lips: with traces of suffering fixed in its +outlines, such as caused Sir Bale, standing by the bed, to draw the +coverlet over the dead man's features, which seemed silently to upbraid +him. "Gone in weakness!" said Sir Bale, repeating the words of the "daft +sir," Hugh Creswell; as he did so, a voice whispered near him, with a +great sigh, "Come in power!" He looked round, in his dream, but there +was no one; the light seemed to fail, and a horror slowly overcame him, +especially as he thought he saw the figure under the coverlet stealthily +beginning to move. Backing towards the door, for he could not take his +eyes off it, he saw something like a huge black ape creep out at the +foot of the bed; and springing at him, it griped him by the throat, so +that he could not breathe; and a thousand voices were instantly round +him, holloaing, cursing, laughing in his ears; and in this direful +plight he waked. + +Was it the ring of those voices still in his ears, or a real shriek, and +another, and a long peal, shriek after shriek, swelling madly through +the distant passages, that held him still, freezing in the horror of his +dream? + +I will tell you what this noise was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch + +After his bottle of port with Sir Bale, the Doctor had gone down again +to the room where poor Philip Feltram lay. + +Mrs. Julaper had dried her eyes, and was busy by this time; and two old +women were making all their arrangements for a night-watch by the body, +which they had washed, and, as their phrase goes, 'laid out' in the +humble bed where it had lain while there was still a hope that a spark +sufficient to rekindle the fire of life might remain. These old women +had points of resemblance: they were lean, sallow, and wonderfully +wrinkled, and looked each malign and ugly enough for a witch. + +Marcella Bligh's thin hooked nose was now like the beak of a bird of +prey over the face of the drowned man, upon whose eyelids she was +placing penny-pieces, to keep them from opening; and her one eye was +fixed on her work, its sightless companion showing white in its socket, +with an ugly leer. + +Judith Wale was lifting the pail of hot water with which they had just +washed the body. She had long lean arms, a hunched back, a great sharp +chin sunk on her hollow breast, and small eyes restless as a ferret's; +and she clattered about in great bowls of shoes, old and clouted, that +were made for a foot as big as two of hers. + +The Doctor knew these two old women, who were often employed in such +dismal offices. + +"How does Mrs. Bligh? See me with half an eye? Hey--that's rhyme, isn't +it?--And, Judy lass--why, I thought you lived nearer the town--here +making poor Mr. Feltram's last toilet. You have helped to dress many a +poor fellow for his last journey. Not a bad notion of drill either--they +stand at attention stiff and straight enough in the sentry-box. Your +recruits do you credit, Mrs. Wale." + +The Doctor stood at the foot of the bed to inspect, breathing forth a +vapour of very fine old port, his hands in his pockets, speaking with a +lazy thickness, and looking so comfortable and facetious, that Mrs. +Julaper would have liked to turn him out of the room. + +But the Doctor was not unkind, only extremely comfortable. He was a +good-natured fellow, and had thought and care for the living, but not a +great deal of sentiment for the dead, whom he had looked in the face too +often to be much disturbed by the spectacle. + +"You'll have to keep that bandage on. You should be sharp; you should +know all about it, girl, by this time, and not let those muscles +stiffen. I need not tell you the mouth shuts as easily as this +snuff-box, if you only take it in time.--I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +send to Jos Fringer for the poor fellow's outfit. Fringer is a very +proper man--there ain't a properer und-aker in England. I always +re-mmend Fringer--in Church-street in Golden Friars. You know Fringer, I +daresay." + +"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. That will be as Sir Bale may please to +direct," answered Mrs. Julaper. + +"You've got him very straight--straighter than I thought you could; but +the large joints were not so stiff. A very little longer wait, and you'd +hardly have got him into his coffin. He'll want a vr-r-ry long one, poor +lad. Short cake is life, ma'am. Sad thing this. They'll open their eyes, +I promise you, down in the town. 'Twill be cool enough, I'd shay, affre +all th-thunr-thunnle, you know. I think I'll take a nip, Mrs. Jool-fr, +if you wouldn't mine makin' me out a thimmle-ful bran-band-bran-rand-andy, +eh, Mishs Joolfr?" + +And the Doctor took a chair by the fire; and Mrs. Julaper, with a +dubious conscience and dry hospitality, procured the brandy-flask and +wine-glass, and helped the physician in a thin hesitating stream, which +left him ample opportunity to cry "Hold--enough!" had he been so minded. +But that able physician had no confidence, it would seem, in any dose +under a bumper, which he sipped with commendation, and then fell asleep +with the firelight on his face--to tender-hearted Mrs. Julaper's +disgust--and snored with a sensual disregard of the solemnity of his +situation; until with a profound nod, or rather dive, toward the fire, +he awoke, got up and shook his ears with a kind of start, and standing +with his back to the fire, asked for his muffler and horse; and so took +his leave also of the weird sisters, who were still pottering about the +body, with croak and whisper, and nod and ogle. He took his leave also +of good Mrs. Julaper, who was completing arrangements with teapot and +kettle, spiced elderberry wine, and other comforts, to support them +through their proposed vigil. And finally, in a sort of way, he took his +leave of the body, with a long business-like stare, from the foot of the +bed, with his short hands stuffed into his pockets. And so, to Mrs. +Julaper's relief, this unseemly doctor, speaking thickly, departed. + +And now, the Doctor being gone, and all things prepared for the 'wake' +to be observed by withered Mrs. Bligh of the one eye, and yellow Mrs. +Wale of the crooked back, the house grew gradually still. The thunder +had by this time died into the solid boom of distant battle, and the +fury of the gale had subsided to the long sobbing wail that is charged +with so eerie a melancholy. Within all was stirless, and the two old +women, each a 'Mrs.' by courtesy, who had not much to thank Nature or +the world for, sad and cynical, and in a sort outcasts told off by +fortune to these sad and grizzly services, sat themselves down by the +fire, each perhaps feeling unusually at home in the other's society; and +in this soured and forlorn comfort, trimming their fire, quickening the +song of the kettle to a boil, and waxing polite and chatty; each +treating the other with that deprecatory and formal courtesy which +invites a return in kind, and both growing strangely happy in this +little world of their own, in the unusual and momentary sense of an +importance and consideration which were delightful. + +The old still-room of Mardykes Hall is an oblong room wainscoted. From +the door you look its full length to the wide stone-shafted Tudor window +at the other end. At your left is the ponderous mantelpiece, supported +by two spiral stone pillars; and close to the door at the right was the +bed in which the two crones had just stretched poor Philip Feltram, who +lay as still as an uncoloured wax-work, with a heavy penny-piece on each +eye, and a bandage under his jaw, making his mouth look stern. And the +two old ladies over their tea by the fire conversed agreeably, compared +their rheumatisms and other ailments wordily, and talked of old times, +and early recollections, and of sick-beds they had attended, and corpses +that "you would not know, so pined and windered" were they; and others +so fresh and canny, you'd say the dead had never looked so bonny in +life. + +Then they began to talk of people who grew tall in their coffins, of +others who had been buried alive, and of others who walked after death. +Stories as true as holy writ. + +"Were you ever down by Hawarth, Mrs. Bligh--hard by Dalworth Moss?" +asked crook-backed Mrs. Wale, holding her spoon suspended over her cup. + +"Neea whaar sooa far south, Mrs. Wale, ma'am; but ma father was off +times down thar cuttin' peat." + +"Ah, then ye'll not a kenned farmer Dykes that lived by the Lin-tree +Scaur. 'Tweer I that laid him out, poor aad fellow, and a dow man he was +when aught went cross wi' him; and he cursed and sweared, twad gar ye +dodder to hear him. They said he was a hard man wi' some folk; but he +kep a good house, and liked to see plenty, and many a time when I was +swaimous about my food, he'd clap t' meat on ma plate, and mak' me eat +ma fill. Na, na--there was good as well as bad in farmer Dykes. It was a +year after he deed, and Tom Ettles was walking home, down by the Birken +Stoop one night, and not a soul nigh, when he sees a big ball, as high +as his knee, whirlin' and spangin' away before him on the road. What it +wer he could not think; but he never consayted there was a freet or a bo +thereaway; so he kep near it, watching every spang and turn it took, +till it ran into the gripe by the roadside. There was a gravel pit just +there, and Tom Ettles wished to take another gliff at it before he went +on. But when he keeked into the pit, what should he see but a man +attoppa a horse that could not get up or on: and says he, 'I think ye be +at a dead-lift there, gaffer.' And wi' the word, up looks the man, and +who sud it be but farmer Dykes himsel; and Tom Ettles saw him plain +eneugh, and kenned the horse too for Black Captain, the farmer's aad +beast, that broke his leg and was shot two years and more before the +farmer died. 'Ay,' says farmer Dykes, lookin' very bad; +'forsett-and-backsett, ye'll tak me oot, Tom Ettles, and clap ye doun +behint me quick, or I'll claw ho'd o' thee.' Tom felt his hair risin' +stiff on his heed, and his tongue so fast to the roof o' his mouth he +could scarce get oot a word; but says he, 'If Black Jack can't do it o' +noo, he'll ne'er do't and carry double.' 'I ken my ain business best,' +says Dykes. 'If ye gar me gie ye a look, 'twill gie ye the creepin's +while ye live; so git ye doun, Tom;' and with that the dobby lifts its +neaf, and Tom saw there was a red light round horse and man, like the +glow of a peat fire. And says Tom, 'In the name o' God, ye'll let me +pass;' and with the word the gooast draws itsel' doun, all a-creaked, +like a man wi' a sudden pain; and Tom Ettles took to his heels more deed +than alive." + +They had approached their heads, and the story had sunk to that +mysterious murmur that thrills the listener, when in the brief silence +that followed they heard a low odd laugh near the door. + +In that direction each lady looked aghast, and saw Feltram sitting +straight up in the bed, with the white bandage in his hand, and as it +seemed, for one foot was below the coverlet, near the floor, about to +glide forth. + +Mrs. Bligh, uttering a hideous shriek, clutched Mrs. Wale, and Mrs. +Wale, with a scream as dreadful, gripped Mrs. Bligh; and quite +forgetting their somewhat formal politeness, they reeled and tugged, +wrestling towards the window, each struggling to place her companion +between her and the 'dobby,' and both uniting in a direful peal of +yells. + +This was the uproar which had startled Sir Bale from his dream, and was +now startling the servants from theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The Mist on the Mountain + +Doctor Torvey was sent for early next morning, and came full of wonder, +learning and scepticism. Seeing is believing, however; and there was +Philip Feltram living, and soon to be, in all bodily functions, just as +usual. + +"Upon my soul, Sir Bale, I couldn't have believed it, if I had not seen +it with my eyes," said the Doctor impressively, while sipping a glass of +sherry in the 'breakfast parlour,' as the great panelled and pictured +room next the dining-room was called. "I don't think there is any +similar case on record--no pulse, no more than the poker; no +respiration, by Jove, no more than the chimney-piece; as cold as a lead +image in the garden there. Well, you'll say all that might possibly be +fallacious; but what will you say to the cadaveric stiffness? Old Judy +Wale can tell you; and my friend Marcella--Monocula would be nearer the +mark--Mrs. Bligh, she knows all those common, and I may say up to this, +infallible, signs of death, as well as I do. There is no mystery about +them; they'll depose to the literality of the symptoms. You heard how +they gave tongue. Upon my honour, I'll send the whole case up to my old +chief, Sir Hervey Hansard, to London. You'll hear what a noise it will +make among the profession. There never was--and it ain't too much to +say there never _will_ be--another case like it." + +During this lecture, and a great deal more, Sir Bale leaned back in his +chair, with his legs extended, his heels on the ground, and his arms +folded, looking sourly up in the face of a tall lady in white satin, in +a ruff, and with a bird on her hand, who smiled down superciliously from +her frame on the Baronet. Sir Bale seemed a little bit high and dry with +the Doctor. + +"You physicians are unquestionably," he said, "a very learned +profession." + +The Doctor bowed. + +"But there's just one thing you know nothing about----" + +"Eh? What's that?" inquired Doctor Torvey. + +"Medicine," answered Sir Bale. "I was aware you never knew what was the +matter with a sick man; but I didn't know, till now, that you couldn't +tell when he was dead." + +"Ha, ha!--well--ha, ha!--_yes_--well, you see, you--ha, ha!--you +certainly have me there. But it's a case without a parallel--it is, upon +my honour. You'll find it will not only be talked about, but written +about; and, whatever papers appear upon it, will come to me; and I'll +take care, Sir Bale, you shall have an opportunity of reading them." + +"Of which I shan't avail myself," answered Sir Bale. "Take another glass +of sherry, Doctor." + +The Doctor made his acknowledgments and filled his glass, and looked +through the wine between him and the window. + +"Ha, ha!--see there, your port, Sir Bale, gives a fellow such +habits--looking for the beeswing, by Jove. It isn't easy, in one sense +at least, to get your port out of a fellow's head when once he has +tasted it." + +But if the honest Doctor meant a hint for a glass of that admirable bin, +it fell pointless; and Sir Bale had no notion of making another libation +of that precious fluid in honour of Doctor Torvey. + +"And I take it for granted," said Sir Bale, "that Feltram will do very +well; and, should anything go wrong, I can send for you--unless he +should die again; and in that case I think I shall take my own opinion." + +So he and the Doctor parted. + +Sir Bale, although he did not consult the Doctor on his own case, was +not particularly well. "That lonely place, those frightful mountains, +and that damp black lake"--which features in the landscape he cursed all +round--"are enough to give any man blue devils; and when a fellow's +spirits go, he's all gone. That's why I'm dyspeptic--that and those +d----d debts--and the post, with its flight of croaking and screeching +letters from London. I wish there was no post here. I wish it was like +Sir Amyrald's time, when they shot the York mercer that came to dun him, +and no one ever took anyone to task about it; and now they can pelt you +at any distance they please through the post; and fellows lose their +spirits and their appetite and any sort of miserable comfort that is +possible in this odious abyss." + +Was there gout in Sir Bale's case, or 'vapours'? I know not what the +faculty would have called it; but Sir Bale's mode of treatment was +simply to work off the attack by long and laborious walking. + +This evening his walk was upon the Fells of Golden Friars--long after +the landscape below was in the eclipse of twilight, the broad bare sides +and angles of these gigantic uplands were still lighted by the misty +western sun. + +There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the +silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the +level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and +colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a +strange fear and elation--an ascent above the reach of life's vexations +or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgiving. +The filmy disc of the moon had risen in the east, and was already +faintly silvering the shadowy scenery below, while yet Sir Bale stood in +the mellow light of the western sun, which still touched also the +summits of the opposite peaks of Morvyn Fells. + +Sir Bale Mardykes did not, as a stranger might, in prudence, hasten his +descent from the heights at which he stood while yet a gleam of daylight +remained to him. For he was, from his boyhood, familiar with those +solitary regions; and, beside this, the thin circle of the moon, hung in +the eastern sky, would brighten as the sunlight sank, and hang like a +lamp above his steps. + +There was in the bronzed and resolute face of the Baronet, lighted now +in the parting beams of sunset, a resemblance to that of Charles the +Second--not our "merry" ideal, but the more energetic and saturnine face +which the portraits have preserved to us. + +He stood with folded arms on the side of the slope, admiring, in spite +of his prejudice, the unusual effects of a view so strangely +lighted--the sunset tints on the opposite peaks, lost in the misty +twilight, now deepening lower down into a darker shade, through which +the outlines of the stone gables and tower of Golden Friars and the +light of fire or candle in their windows were dimly visible. + +As he stood and looked, his more distant sunset went down, and sudden +twilight was upon him, and he began to remember the beautiful Homeric +picture of a landscape coming out, rock and headland, in the moonlight. + +There had hung upon the higher summits, at his right, a heavy fold of +white cloud, which on a sudden broke, and, like the smoke of artillery, +came rolling down the slopes toward him. Its principal volume, however, +unfolded itself in a mighty flood down the side of the mountain towards +the lake; and that which spread towards and soon enveloped the ground on +which he stood was by no means so dense a fog. A thick mist enough it +was; but still, to a distance of twenty or thirty yards, he could +discern the outline of a rock or scaur, but not beyond it. + +There are few sensations more intimidating than that of being thus +enveloped on a lonely mountain-side, which, like this one, here and +there breaks into precipice. + +There is another sensation, too, which affects the imagination. +Overtaken thus on the solitary expanse, there comes a new chill and +tremour as this treacherous medium surrounds us, through which +unperceived those shapes which fancy conjures up might approach so near +and bar our path. + +From the risk of being reduced to an actual standstill he knew he was +exempt. The point from which the wind blew, light as it was, assured him +of that. Still the mist was thick enough seriously to embarrass him. It +had overtaken him as he was looking down upon the lake; and he now +looked to his left, to try whether in that direction it was too thick to +permit a view of the nearest landmarks. Through this white film he saw a +figure standing only about five-and-twenty steps away, looking down, as +it seemed, in precisely the same direction as he, quite motionless, and +standing like a shadow projected upon the smoky vapour. It was the +figure of a slight tall man, with his arm extended, as if pointing to a +remote object, which no mortal eye certainly could discern through the +mist. Sir Bale gazed at this figure, doubtful whether he were in a +waking dream, unable to conjecture whence it had come; and as he looked, +it moved, and was almost instantly out of sight. + +He descended the mountain cautiously. The mist was now thinner, and +through the haze he was beginning to see objects more distinctly, and, +without danger, to proceed at a quicker pace. He had still a long walk +by the uplands towards Mardykes Hall before he descended to the level of +the lake. + +The mist was still quite thick enough to circumscribe his view and to +hide the general features of the landscape; and well was it, perhaps, +for Sir Bale that his boyhood had familiarised him with the landmarks on +the mountain-side. + +He had made nearly four miles on his solitary homeward way, when, +passing under a ledge of rock which bears the name of the Cat's Skaitch, +he saw the same figure in the short cloak standing within some thirty or +forty yards of him--the thin curtain of mist, through which the +moonlight touched it, giving to it an airy and unsubstantial character. + +Sir Bale came to a standstill. The man in the short cloak nodded and +drew back, and was concealed by the angle of the rock. + +Sir Bale was now irritated, as men are after a start, and shouting to +the stranger to halt, he 'slapped' after him, as the northern phrase +goes, at his best pace. But again he was gone, and nowhere could he see +him, the mist favouring his evasion. + +Looking down the fells that overhang Mardykes Hall, the mountain-side +dips gradually into a glen, which, as it descends, becomes precipitous +and wooded. A footpath through this ravine conducts the wayfarer to the +level ground that borders the lake; and by this dark pass Sir Bale +Mardykes strode, in comparatively clear air, along the rocky path +dappled with moonlight. + +As he emerged upon the lower ground he again encountered the same +figure. It approached. It was Philip Feltram. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +A New Philip Feltram + +The Baronet had not seen Feltram since his strange escape from death. +His last interview with him had been stern and threatening; Sir Bale +dealing with appearances in the spirit of an incensed judge, Philip +Feltram lamenting in the submission of a helpless despair. + +Feltram was full in the moonlight now, standing erect, and smiling +cynically on the Baronet. + +There was that in the bearing and countenance of Feltram that +disconcerted him more than the surprise of the sudden meeting. + +He had determined to meet Feltram in a friendly way, whenever that not +very comfortable interview became inevitable. But he was confused by the +suddenness of Feltram's appearance; and the tone, cold and stern, in +which he had last spoken to him came first, and he spoke in it after a +brief silence. + +"I fancied, Mr. Feltram, you were in your bed; I little expected to find +you here. I think the Doctor gave very particular directions, and said +that you were to remain perfectly quiet." + +"But I know more than the Doctor," replied Feltram, still smiling +unpleasantly. + +"I think, sir, you would have been better in your bed," said Sir Bale +loftily. + +"Come, come, come, come!" exclaimed Philip Feltram contemptuously. + +[Illustration: It was the figure of a slight tall man, with his arm +extended, as if pointing to a remote object.] + +"It seems to me," said Sir Bale, a good deal astonished, "you rather +forget yourself." + +"Easier to forget oneself, Sir Bale, than to forgive others, at times," +replied Philip Feltram in his unparalleled mood. + +"That's the way fools knock themselves up," continued Sir Bale. "You've +been walking ever so far--away to the Fells of Golden Friars. It was you +whom I saw there. What d----d folly! What brought you there?" + +"To observe you," he replied. + +"And have you walked the whole way there and back again? How did you get +there?" + +"Pooh! how did I come--how did you come--how did the fog come? From the +lake, I suppose. We all come up, and then down." So spoke Philip +Feltram, with serene insolence. + +"You are pleased to talk nonsense," said Sir Bale. + +"Because I like it--with a _meaning_." + +Sir Bale looked at him, not knowing whether to believe his eyes and +ears. He did not know what to make of him. + +"I had intended speaking to you in a conciliatory way; you seem to wish +to make that impossible"--Philip Feltram's face wore its repulsive +smile;--"and in fact I don't know what to make of you, unless you are +ill; and ill you well may be. You can't have walked much less than +twelve miles." + +"Wonderful effort for me!" said Feltram with the same sneer. + +"Rather surprising for a man so nearly drowned," answered Sir Bale +Mardykes. + +"A dip: you don't like the lake, sir; but I do. And so it is: as Antaeus +touched the earth, so I the water, and rise refreshed." + +"I think you'd better get in and refresh there. I meant to tell you that +all the unpleasantness about that bank-note is over." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. It has been recovered by Mr. Creswell, who came here last night. +I've got it, and you're not to blame," said Sir Bale. + +"But some one _is_ to blame," observed Mr. Feltram, smiling still. + +"Well, _you_ are not, and that ends it," said the Baronet peremptorily. + + +"Ends it? Really, how good! how very good!" + +Sir Bale looked at him, for there was something ambiguous and even +derisive in the tone of Feltram's voice. + +But before he could quite make up his mind, Feltram spoke again. + +"Everything is settled about you and me?" + +"There is nothing to prevent your staying at Mardykes now," said Sir +Bale graciously. + +"I shall be with you for two years, and then I go on my travels," +answered Feltram, with a saturnine and somewhat wild look around him. + +"Is he going mad?" thought the Baronet. + +"But before I go, I'm to put you in a way of paying off your mortgages. +That is my business here." + +Sir Bale looked at him sharply. But now there was not the unpleasant +smile, but the darkened look of a man in secret pain. + +"You shall know it all by and by." + +And without more ceremony, and with a darkening face, Philip Feltram +made his way under the boughs of the thick oaks that grew there, leaving +on Sir Bale's mind an impression that he had been watching some one at a +distance, and had gone in consequence of a signal. + +In a few seconds he followed in the same direction, halloaing after +Feltram; for he did not like the idea of his wandering about the country +by moonlight, or possibly losing his life among the precipices, and +bringing a new discredit upon his house. But no answer came; nor could +he in that thick copse gain sight of him again. + +When Sir Bale reached Mardykes Hall he summoned Mrs. Julaper, and had a +long talk with her. But she could not say that there appeared anything +amiss with Philip Feltram; only he seemed more reserved, and as if he +was brooding over something he did not intend to tell. + +"But, you know, Sir Bale, what happened might well make a thoughtful man +of him. If he's ever to think of Death, it should be after looking him +so hard in the face; and I'm not ashamed to say, I'm glad to see he has +grace to take the lesson, and I hope his experiences may be sanctified +to him, poor fellow! Amen." + +"Very good song, and very well sung," said Sir Bale; "but it doesn't +seem to me that he has been improved, Mrs. Julaper. He seems, on the +contrary, in a queer temper and anything but a heavenly frame of mind; +and I thought I'd ask you, because if he is ill--I mean feverish--it +might account for his eccentricities, as well as make it necessary to +send after him, and bring him home, and put him to bed. But I suppose it +is as you say,--his adventure has upset him a little, and he'll sober in +a day or two, and return to his old ways." + +But this did not happen. A change, more comprehensive than at first +appeared, had taken place, and a singular alteration was gradually +established. + +He grew thin, his eyes hollow, his face gradually forbidding. + +His ways and temper were changed: he was a new man with Sir Bale; and +the Baronet after a time, people said, began to grow afraid of him. And +certainly Feltram had acquired an extraordinary influence over the +Baronet, who a little while ago had regarded and treated him with so +much contempt. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The Purse of Gold + +The Baronet was very slightly known in his county. He had led a reserved +and inhospitable life. He was pressed upon by heavy debts; and being a +proud man, held aloof from society and its doings. He wished people to +understand that he was nursing his estate; but somehow the estate did +not thrive at nurse. In the country other people's business is admirably +well known; and the lord of Mardykes was conscious, perhaps, that his +neighbours knew as well he did, that the utmost he could do was to pay +the interest charged upon it, and to live in a frugal way enough. + +The lake measures some four or five miles across, from the little jetty +under the walls of Mardykes Hall to Cloostedd. + +Philip Feltram, changed and morose, loved a solitary row upon the lake; +and sometimes, with no one to aid him in its management, would take the +little sailboat and pass the whole day upon those lonely waters. + +Frequently he crossed to Cloostedd; and mooring the boat under the +solemn trees that stand reflected in that dark mirror, he would +disembark and wander among the lonely woodlands, as people thought, +cherishing in those ancestral scenes the memory of ineffaceable +injuries, and the wrath and revenge that seemed of late to darken his +countenance, and to hold him always in a moody silence. + +One autumnal evening Sir Bale Mardykes was sourly ruminating after his +solitary meal. A very red sun was pouring its last low beams through the +valley at the western extremity of the lake, across its elsewhere sombre +waters, and touching with a sudden and blood-red tint the sail of the +skiff in which Feltram was returning from his lonely cruise. + +"Here comes my domestic water-fiend," sneered Sir Bale, as he lay back +in his cumbrous arm-chair. "Cheerful place, pleasant people, delicious +fate! The place alone has been enough to set that fool out of his little +senses, d--n him!" + +Sir Bale averted his eyes, and another subject not pleasanter entered +his mind. He was thinking of the races that were coming off next week at +Heckleston Downs, and what sums of money might be made there, and how +hard it was that he should be excluded by fortune from that brilliant +lottery. + +"Ah, Mrs. Julaper, is that you?" + +Mrs. Julaper, who was still at the door, curtsied, and said, "I came, +Sir Bale, to see whether you'd please to like a jug of mulled claret, +sir." + +"Not I, my dear. I'll take a mug of beer and my pipe; that homely solace +better befits a ruined gentleman." + +"H'm, sir; you're not that, Sir Bale; you're no worse than half the +lords and great men that are going. I would not hear another say that of +you, sir." + +"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Julaper; but you won't call _me_ out for +backbiting myself, especially as it is true, d----d true, Mrs. Julaper! +Look ye; there never was a Mardykes here before but he could lay his +hundred or his thousand pounds on the winner of the Heckleston Cup; and +what could I bet? Little more than that mug of beer I spoke of. It was +my great-grandfather who opened the course on the Downs of Heckleston, +and now _I_ can't show there! Well, what must I do? Grin and bear it, +that's all. If you please, Mrs. Julaper, I will have that jug of claret +you offered. I want spice and hot wine to keep me alive; but I'll smoke +my pipe first, and in an hour's time it will do." + +When Mrs. Julaper was gone, he lighted his pipe, and drew near the +window, through which he looked upon the now fading sky and the twilight +landscape. + +He smoked his pipe out, and by that time it had grown nearly dark. He +was still looking out upon the faint outlines of the view, and thinking +angrily what a little bit of luck at the races would do for many a man +who probably did not want it half so much as he. Vague and sombre as his +thoughts were, they had, like the darkening landscape outside, shape +enough to define their general character. Bitter and impious they +were--as those of egotistic men naturally are in suffering. And after +brooding, and muttering by fits and starts, he said: + +"How many tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds will change hands at +Heckleston next week; and not a shilling in all the change and shuffle +will stick to me! How many a fellow would sell himself, like Dr. +Faustus, just for the knowledge of the name of the winner! But he's no +fool, and does not buy his own." + +Something caught his eye; something moving on the wall. The fire was +lighted, and cast a flickering and gigantic shadow upward; the figure of +a man standing behind Sir Bale Mardykes, on whose shoulder he placed a +lean hand. Sir Bale turned suddenly about, and saw Philip Feltram. He +was looking dark and stern, and did not remove his hand from his +shoulder as he peered into the Baronet's face with his deep-set mad +eyes. + +"Ha, Philip, upon my soul!" exclaimed Sir Bale, surprised. "How time +flies! It seems only this minute since I saw the boat a mile and a half +away from the shore. Well--yes; there has been time; it is dark now. Ha, +ha! I assure you, you startled me. Won't you take something? Do. Shall I +touch the bell?" + +"You have been troubled about those mortgages. I told you I should pay +them off, I thought." + +Here there was a pause, and Sir Bale looked hard in Feltram's face. If +he had been in his ordinary spirits, or perhaps in some of his haunts +less solitary than Mardykes, he would have laughed; but here he had +grown unlike himself, gloomy and credulous, and was, in fact, a nervous +man. + +Sir Bale smiled, and shook his head dismally. + +"It is very kind of you, Feltram; the idea shows a kindly disposition. I +know you would do me a kindness if you could." + +As Sir Bale, each looking in the other's eyes, repeated in this sentence +the words "kind," "kindly," "kindness," a smile lighted Feltram's face +with at each word an intenser light; and Sir Bale grew sombre in its +glare; and when he had done speaking, Feltram's face also on a sudden +darkened. + +"I have found a fortune-teller in Cloostedd Wood. Look here." + +And he drew from his pocket a leathern purse, which he placed on the +table in his hand; and Sir Bale heard the pleasant clink of coin in it. + +"A fortune-teller! You don't mean to say she gave you that?" said Sir +Bale. + +Feltram smiled again, and nodded. + +"It _was_ the custom to give the fortuneteller a trifle. It is a great +improvement making _her_ fee you," observed Sir Bale, with an approach +to his old manner. + +"He put that in my hand with a message," said Feltram. + +"He? O, then it was a male fortune-teller!" + +"Gipsies go in gangs, men and women. _He_ might lend, though _she_ told +fortunes," said Feltram. + +"It's the first time I ever heard of gipsies lending money;" and he eyed +the purse with a whimsical smile. + +With his lean fingers still holding it, Feltram sat down at the table. +His face contracted as if in cunning thought, and his chin sank upon his +breast as he leaned back. + +"I think," continued Sir Bale, "ever since they were spoiled, the +Egyptians have been a little shy of lending, and leave that branch of +business to the Hebrews." + +"What would you give to know, now, the winner at Heckleston races?" said +Feltram suddenly, raising his eyes. + +"Yes; that would be worth something," answered Sir Bale, looking at him +with more interest than the incredulity he affected would quite warrant. + +"And this money I have power to lend you, to make your game." + +"Do you mean that really?" said Sir Bale, with a new energy in tone, +manner, and features. + +"That's heavy; there are some guineas there," said Feltram with a dark +smile, raising the purse in his hand a little, and letting it drop upon +the table with a clang. + +"There is _something_ there, at all events," said Sir Bale. + +Feltram took the purse by the bottom, and poured out on the table a +handsome pile of guineas. + +"And do you mean to say you got all that from a gipsy in Cloostedd +Wood?" + +"A friend, who is--_myself_," answered Philip Feltram. + +"Yourself! Then it is yours--_you_ lend it?" said the Baronet, amazed; +for there was no getting over the heap of guineas, and the wonder was +pretty equal whence they had come. + +"Myself, and not myself," said Feltram oracularly; "as like as voice and +echo, man and shadow." + +Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted +upon hidden treasure? There was a story of two Feltrams of Cloostedd, +brothers, who had joined the king's army and fought at Marston Moor, +having buried in Cloostedd Wood a great deal of gold and plate and +jewels. They had, it was said, intrusted one tried servant with the +secret; and that servant remained at home. But by a perverse fatality +the three witnesses had perished within a month: the two brothers at +Marston Moor; and the confidant, of fever, at Cloostedd. From that day +forth treasure-seekers had from time to time explored the woods of +Cloostedd; and many a tree of mark was dug beside, and the earth beneath +many a stone and scar and other landmark in that solitary forest was +opened by night, until hope gradually died out, and the tradition had +long ceased to prompt to action, and had become a story and nothing +more. + +The image of the nursery-tale had now recurred to Sir Bale after so long +a reach of years; and the only imaginable way, in his mind, of +accounting for penniless Philip Feltram having all that gold in his +possession was that, in some of his lonely wanderings, chance had led +him to the undiscovered hoard of the two Feltrams who had died in the +great civil wars. + +"Perhaps those gipsies you speak of found the money where you found +them; and in that case, as Cloostedd Forest, and all that is in it is my +property, their sending it to me is more like my servant's handing me my +hat and stick when I'm going out, than making me a present." + +"You will not be wise to rely upon the law, Sir Bale, and to refuse the +help that comes unasked. But if you like your mortgages as they are, +keep them; and if you like my terms as they are, take them; and when you +have made up your mind, let me know." + +Philip Feltram dropped the heavy purse into his capacious coat-pocket, +and walked, muttering, out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The Message from Cloostedd + +"Come back, Feltram; come back, Philip!" cried Sir Bale hastily. "Let us +talk, can't we? Come and talk this odd business over a little; you must +have mistaken what I meant; I should like to hear all about it." + +"All is not much, sir," said Philip Feltram, entering the room again, +the door of which he had half closed after him. "In the forest of +Cloostedd I met to-day some people, one of whom can foretell events, and +told me the names of the winners of the first three races at Heckleston, +and gave me this purse, with leave to lend you so much money as you care +to stake upon the races. I take no security; you shan't be troubled; and +you'll never see the lender, unless you seek him out." + +"Well, those are not bad terms," said Sir Bale, smiling wistfully at the +purse, which Feltram had again placed upon the table. + +"No, not bad," repeated Feltram, in the harsh low tone in which he now +habitually spoke. + +"You'll tell me what the prophet said about the winners; I should like +to hear their names." + +"The names I shall tell you if you walk out with me," said Feltram. + +"Why not here?" asked Sir Bale. + +"My memory does not serve me here so well. Some people, in some places, +though they be silent, obstruct thought. Come, let us speak," said +Philip Feltram, leading the way. + +Sir Bale, with a shrug, followed him. + +By this time it was dark. Feltram was walking slowly towards the margin +of the lake; and Sir Bale, more curious as the delay increased, followed +him, and smiled faintly as he looked after his tall, gaunt figure, as +if, even in the dark, expressing a ridicule which he did not honestly +feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there +was no one near enough to see. + +When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale +thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a +reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally +in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near, +no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his +change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was +but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering +faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing +upright, said, + +"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and +pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all +along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me." + +There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and +something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost +insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would +have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which +he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which +sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him. + +"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The +secret is yours when you promise." + +"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think +I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd +hardly take the trouble." + +Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he +raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand--the hollow of your +hand--like this. I divide the water for a sign--share to me and share to +you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the +hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in +his mockery. + +"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the +finder, be that who it may?" + +"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale. + +"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and +with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he +joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man." + +Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he. + +"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it +will serve you to remember by. And now the names. Don't speak; +listen--you may break the thought else. The winner of the first is +_Beeswing_; of the second, _Falcon_; and of the third, _Lightning_." + +He had stood for some seconds in silence before he spoke; his eyes were +closed; he seemed to bring up thought and speech with difficulty, and +spoke faintly and drowsily, both his hands a little raised, and the +fingers extended, with the groping air of a man who moves in the dark. +In this odd way, slowly, faintly, with many a sigh and scarcely audible +groan, he gradually delivered his message and was silent. He stood, it +seemed, scarcely half awake, muttering indistinctly and sighing to +himself. You would have said that he was exhausted and suffering, like a +man at his last hour resigning himself to death. + +At length he opened his eyes, looked round a little wildly and +languidly, and with another great sigh sat down on a large rock that +lies by the margin of the lake, and sighed heavily again and again. You +might have fancied that he was a second time recovering from drowning. + +Then he got up, and looked drowsily round again, and sighed like a man +worn out with fatigue, and was silent. + +Sir Bale did not care to speak until he seemed a little more likely to +obtain an answer. When that time came, he said, "I wish, for the sake of +my believing, that your list was a little less incredible. Not one of +the horses you name is the least likely; not one of them has a chance." + +"So much the better for you; you'll get what odds you please. You had +better seize your luck; on Tuesday Beeswing runs," said Feltram. "When +you want money for the purpose, I'm your banker--here is your bank." + +He touched his breast, where he had placed the purse, and then he turned +and walked swiftly away. + +Sir Bale looked after him till he disappeared in the dark. He fluctuated +among many surmises about Feltram. Was he insane, or was he practising +an imposture? or was he fool enough to believe the predictions of some +real gipsies? and had he borrowed this money, which in Sir Bale's eyes +seemed the greatest miracle in the matter, from those thriving shepherd +mountaineers, the old Trebecks, who, he believed, were attached to him? +Feltram had, he thought, borrowed it as if for himself; and having, as +Sir Bale in his egotism supposed, "a sneaking regard" for him, had meant +the loan for his patron, and conceived the idea of his using his +revelations for the purpose of making his fortune. So, seeing no risk, +and the temptation being strong, Sir Bale resolved to avail himself of +the purse, and use his own judgment as to what horse to back. + +About eleven o'clock Feltram, unannounced, walked, with his hat still +on, into Sir Bale's library, and sat down at the opposite side of his +table, looking gloomily into the Baronet's face for a time. + +"Shall you want the purse?" he asked at last. + +"Certainly; I always want a purse," said Sir Bale energetically. + +"The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have +named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the +sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse +contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make +some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?" + +"Of course; five pounds in the hundred--certainly; and how many hundreds +are there?" + +"Three." + +"Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, +but it ain't very much." + +"Quite enough, if you use it aright." + +"Three hundred pounds," repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, +which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and +contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in +little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but +he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor. + +"Ay," said he, after a second counting, "I think there _are_ exactly +three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five--fifteen +of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; +but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?" he added, with a +hesitating inquiry in the tone. + +"If you don't, you'll rue it," said Feltram coldly, and walked away. + +"Penny in pocket's a merry companion," says the old English proverb, and +Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as +he replaced the guineas in the purse. + +It was long since he had visited either the race-course or any other +place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his +pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of +the turf once more. + +"Who knows how this little venture may turn out?" he thought. "It is +time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in +Paris--d--n me, I'm owed something. It's time I should win a bit." + +Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life +imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first +time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in +his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, +therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, +followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen's Head at Heckleston, +where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day +following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those +days need have cared to show. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +On the Course--Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning + +As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the +early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he +looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that +hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he +took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched +with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite +side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the +side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a +pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking +in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated +the sail of Philip Feltram's boat, now midway between Mardykes and the +wooded shores of Cloostedd. + +"Going on the same errand," thought Sir Bale, "I should not wonder. I +wish him the same luck. Yes, he's going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he +may meet his gipsies there--the Trebecks, or whoever they are." + +And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such +people smote him, "Well," thought he, "who knows? Many a fellow will +make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will +be a light matter paying them then." + +Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like +him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and +conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, +however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual +was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town. + +Next morning he was on the race-course of Heckleston, renewing old +acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could--an object, +among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the +carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the +betting men, deep in more serious business. + +How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, +Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than +the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were +forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and +fifty to one against Falcon. + +"A pretty lot to choose!" exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. "As if I +had money so often, that I should throw it away!" + +The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram's +message as an impertinence and the money as his own. + +Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes' pocket fared. + +Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston +racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars. + +He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; +and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. +In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an +accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. +And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the +"fortune-teller" had predicted. + +Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral +house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very +welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred +instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would +have won 15,500 guineas. + +He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a +man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and +laughed dryly. + +"What do you laugh at?" asked Sir Bale tartly. + +"You've won, haven't you?" + +"Yes, I've won; I've won a trifle." + +"On the horses I named?" + +"Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident." + +Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away. + +Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse +mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so +ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more +of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment +yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all +likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. +Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to +Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the +poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, +that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's +fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he +did not. + +So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day +himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of +Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a +little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in +his excursions up the mountains. + +"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale. + +Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal. + +"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual +clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other +side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the +person about whom you are always thinking." + +"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for +he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it. + +"_I_ say it, because I _know_ it; and _you_ know it also. See that clump +of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, grows +an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H--F; so large +and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure them, +although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the trunk +of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are looking up +the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where stands +Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find our +fortune-teller?" + +"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because, +although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has +either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got +extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on +chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous +fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and +perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an +arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any +matter of the same kind again." + +"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy +and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach +him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he +invites you." + +Sir Bale laughed. + +"He knows his value, and means to make his own terms." + +"Well, there's nothing unfair in that; and I don't see that I should +dispute it. How is one to find him?" + +"Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. +Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its +surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about +the size of a man's head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, +that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the +line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take +carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the +forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are +sure to find him." + +"You'll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and +probably fail to discover him," said Sir Bale; "and I really wish to see +him." + +"When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don't. I can go with +you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your +side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, +that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see +that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I'll take you across the lake." + +"By Jove, you'll do no such thing!" said Sir Bale hastily. + +"But that is the way he chooses to be approached," said Philip Feltram. + +"I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it's the one childish spot +that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it--old +stories and warnings; and I can't think of that. I should feel I had +invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are +queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there." + +"Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all +were done, he would not see you. He knows what he's worth, and he'll +have his own way," answered Feltram. "The sun will soon set. See that +withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from +the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three +minutes to live." + +"That is a wonder which I can't see; it is too far away." + +"Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them," said +Feltram. + +"So it does," said the Baronet; "more than most men have got. I'll ride +round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way." + +"You'll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity +to vex him." + +"It was to you he lent the money," said Sir Bale. + +"Yes." + +"Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him," urged Sir +Bale. + +"Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don't go, he may be +offended, and you may hear no more from him." + +"We'll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for +once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What +do you say? + +"You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question--what horses, I +mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money +will change hands." + +"I'll try," said Feltram. + +"When will you go?" + +"To-morrow," he answered. + +"I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those +cursed mortgages." + +He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of +Feltram, who coldly answered, + +"So have I;" and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, +without another word or look. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +On the Lake, at Last + +Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat +on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no +little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude +pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now +satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the 'cunning man,' +and gather hints for the next race. + +When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale's +library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more +interested about his news than he would have cared to confess. + +Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with +great directness, proceeded to satisfy it. + +"I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day--and found the old +gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any +kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross +the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and +counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard +names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did +talk." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram." + +"He might have said something more likely," said Sir Bale sourly. "Did +he say anything more?" + +"Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell." + +"Any other name?" + +"No." + +"Silver Bell? Well, that's not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands +high in the list. He has a good many backers--long odds in his favour +against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell." + +The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the +moment he heard the soothsayer's prediction. He made up his mind to no +half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome. + +He was in great force and full of confidence on the race-course. He had +no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still +untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in +the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon +staked--such is the growing frenzy of that excitement--about twenty +thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven. + +He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds. + +And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, +having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about +him--quite at his wit's end. + +Feltram was standing--as on the occasion of his former happier +return--on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing +eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as +before, with a laugh. + +Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he +might, had he been a degree less desperate. + +He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted. + +"Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust +you. He's huffed, and played you false." + +"It was not he. I should have backed that d----d horse in any case," +said Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. "What a witch you have discovered! +One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might +have the estate now; but there ain't. They are all beggars. So much for +your conjurer." + +"He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him." + +"He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D--n me, I'm past helping +now." + +"Don't you talk so," said Feltram. "Be civil. You must please the old +gentleman. He'll make it up. He's placable when it suits him. Why not go +to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make +it up." + +"Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can't make even a guess at +what's coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?" + +"No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? +He won't see you unless you go to him as he chooses." + +"If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don't choose to go +on that water--and cross it I won't," said Sir Bale. + +But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the +idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his +resolution faltered. + +"I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose +to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a +boat?" + +Feltram smiled darkly, and answered. + +"I can't tell. Can you?" + +"Of course I can't--I say I can't; besides, what audacity of a fellow +like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can't +predict--do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?" + +"I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish +those who don't respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often +quite clear--not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him +out, and when you do, I think he'll help you through your trouble. He +said he would." + +"Then you have seen him since?" + +"Yesterday. He has put a pressure on you; but he means to help you." + +"If he means to help me, let him remember I want a banker more than a +seer. Let him give me a lift, as he did before. He must lend me money." + +"He'll not stick at that. When he takes up a man, he carries him +through." + +"The races of Byermere--I might retrieve at them. But they don't come +off for a month nearly; and what is a man like me to do in the +meantime?" + +"Every man should know his own business best. I'm not like you," said +Feltram grimly. + +Now Sir Bale's trouble increased, for some people were pressing. +Something like panic supervened; for it happened that land was bringing +just then a bad price, and more must be sold in consequence. + +"All I can tell them is, I am selling land. It can't be done in an hour. +I'm selling enough to pay them all twice over. Gentlemen used to be able +to wait till a man sold his acres for payment. D--n them! do they want +my body, that they can't let me alone for five minutes?" + +The end of it was, that before a week Sir Bale told Feltram that he +would go by boat, since that fellow insisted on it; and he did not very +much care if he were drowned. + +It was a beautiful autumnal day. Everything was bright in that mellowed +sun, and the deep blue of the lake was tremulous with golden ripples; +and crag and peak and scattered wood, faint in the distance, came out +with a filmy distinctness on the fells in that pleasant light. + +Sir Bale had been ill, and sent down the night before for Doctor Torvey. +He was away with a patient. Now, in the morning, he had arrived +inopportunely. He met Sir Bale as he issued from the house, and had a +word with him in the court, for he would not turn back. + +"Well," said the Doctor, after his brief inspection, "you ought to be in +your bed; that's all I can say. You are perfectly mad to think of +knocking about like this. Your pulse is at a hundred and ten; and, if +you go across the lake and walk about Cloostedd, you'll be raving before +you come back." + +Sir Bale told him, apologetically, as if his life were more to his +doctor than to himself, that he would take care not to fatigue himself, +and that the air would do him good, and that in any case he could not +avoid going; and so they parted. + +Sir Bale took his seat beside Feltram in the boat, the sail was spread, +and, bending to the light breeze that blew from Golden Friars, she +glided from the jetty under Mardykes Hall, and the eventful voyage had +begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Mystagogus + +The sail was loosed, the boat touched the stone step, and Feltram sprang +out and made her fast to the old iron ring. The Baronet followed. So! he +had ventured upon that water without being drowned. He looked round him +as if in a dream. He had not been there since his childhood. There were +no regrets, no sentiment, no remorse; only an odd return of the +associations and fresh feelings of boyhood, and a long reach of time +suddenly annihilated. + +The little hollow in which he stood; the three hawthorn trees at his +right; every crease and undulation of the sward, every angle and crack +in the lichen-covered rock at his feet, recurred with a sharp and +instantaneous recognition to his memory. + +"Many a time your brother and I fished for hours together from that bank +there, just where the bramble grows. That bramble has not grown an inch +ever since, not a leaf altered; we used to pick blackberries off it, +with our rods stuck in the bank--it was later in the year than now--till +we stript it quite bare after a day or two. The steward used to come +over--they were marking timber for cutting and we used to stay here +while they rambled through the wood, with an axe marking the trees that +were to come down. I wonder whether the big old boat is still anywhere. +I suppose she was broken up, or left to rot; I have not seen her since +we came home. It was in the wood that lies at the right--the other wood +is called the forest; they say in old times it was eight miles long, +northward up the shore of the lake, and full of deer; with a forester, +and a reeve, and a verderer, and all that. Your brother was older than +you; he went to India, or the Colonies; is he living still?" + +"I care not." + +"That's good-natured, at all events; but do you know?" + +"Not I; and what matter? If he's living, I warrant he has his share of +the curse, the sweat of his brow and his bitter crust; and if he is +dead, he's dust or worse, he's rotten, and smells accordingly." + +Sir Bale looked at him; for this was the brother over whom, only a year +or two ago, Philip used to cry tears of pathetic longing. Feltram looked +darkly in his face, and sneered with a cold laugh. + +"I suppose you mean to jest?" said Sir Bale. + +"Not I; it is the truth. It is what you'd say, if you were honest. If +he's alive, let him keep where he is; and if he's dead, I'll have none +of him, body or soul. Do you hear that sound?" + +"Like the wind moaning in the forest?" + +"Yes." + +"But I feel no wind. There's hardly a leaf stirring." + +"I think so," said Feltram. "Come along." + +And he began striding up the gentle slope of the glen, with many a rock +peeping through its sward, and tufted ferns and furze, giving a wild and +neglected character to the scene; the background of which, where the +glen loses itself in a distant turn, is formed by its craggy and wooded +side. + +Up they marched, side by side, in silence, towards that irregular clump +of trees, to which Feltram had pointed from the Mardykes side. + +As they approached, it showed more scattered, and two or three of the +trees were of grander dimensions than in the distance they had appeared; +and as they walked, the broad valley of Cloostedd Forest opened grandly +on their left, studding the sides of the valley with solitary trees or +groups, which thickened as it descended to the broad level, in parts +nearly three miles wide, on which stands the noble forest of Cloostedd, +now majestically reposing in the stirless air, gilded and flushed with +the melancholy tints of autumn. + +I am now going to relate wonderful things; but they rest on the report, +strangely consistent, it is true, of Sir Bale Mardykes. That all his +senses, however, were sick and feverish, and his brain not quite to be +relied on at that moment, is a fact of which sceptics have a right to +make all they please and can. + +Startled at their approach, a bird like a huge mackaw bounced from the +boughs of the trees, and sped away, every now and then upon the ground, +toward the shelter of the forest, fluttering and hopping close by the +side of the little brook which, emerging from the forest, winds into the +glen, and beside the course of which Sir Bale and Philip Feltram had +ascended from the margin of the lake. + +It fluttered on, as if one of its wings were hurt, and kept hopping and +bobbing and flying along the grass at its swiftest, screaming all the +time discordantly. + +"That must be old Mrs. Amerald's bird, that got away a week ago," said +Sir Bale, stopping and looking after it. "Was not it a mackaw?" + +"No," said Feltram; "that was a gray parrot; but there are stranger +birds in Cloostedd Forest, for my ancestors collected all that would +live in our climate, and were at pains to find them the food and shelter +they were accustomed to until they grew hardy--that is how it happens." + +"By Jove, that's a secret worth knowing," said Sir Bale. "That would +make quite a feature. What a fat brute that bird was! and green and +dusky-crimson and yellow; but its head is white--age, I suspect; and +what a broken beak--hideous bird! splendid plumage; something between a +mackaw and a vulture." + +Sir Bale spoke jocularly, but with the interest of a bird-fancier; a +taste which, when young, he had indulged; and for the moment forgot his +cares and the object of his unwonted excursion. + +A moment after, a lank slim bird, perfectly white, started from the same +boughs, and winged its way to the forest. + +"A kite, I think; but its body is a little too long, isn't it?" said Sir +Bale again, stopping and looking after its flight also. + +"A foreign kite, I daresay?" said Feltram. + +All this time there was hopping near them a jay, with the tameness of a +bird accustomed to these solitudes. It peered over its slender wing +curiously at the visitors; pecking here and nodding there; and thus +hopping, it made a circle round them more than once. Then it fluttered +up, and perched on a bough of the old oak, from the deep labyrinth of +whose branches the other birds had emerged; and from thence it flew down +and lighted on the broad druidic stone, that stood like a cyclopean +table on its sunken stone props, before the snakelike roots of the oak. + +Across this it hopped conceitedly, as over a stage on which it figured +becomingly; and after a momentary hesitation, with a little spring, it +rose and winged its way in the same direction which the other birds had +taken, and was quickly lost in thick forest to the left. + +"Here," said Feltram, "this is the tree." + +"I remember it well! A gigantic trunk; and, yes, those marks; but I +never before read them as letters. Yes, H.F., so they are--very odd I +should not have remarked them. They are so large, and so strangely +drawn-out in some places, and filled-in in others, and distorted, and +the moss has grown about them; I don't wonder I took them for natural +cracks and chasms in the bark," said Sir Bale. + +"Very like," said Feltram. + +Sir Bale had remarked, ever since they had begun their walk from the +shore, that Feltram seemed to undergo a gloomy change. Sharper, grimmer, +wilder grew his features, and shadow after shadow darkened his face +wickedly. + +The solitude and grandeur of the forest, and the repulsive gloom of his +companion's countenance and demeanour, communicated a tone of anxiety to +Sir Bale; and they stood still, side by side, in total silence for a +time, looking toward the forest glades; between themselves and which, on +the level sward of the valley, stood many a noble tree and fantastic +group of forked birch and thorn, in the irregular formations into which +Nature had thrown them. + +"Now you stand between the letters. Cast your eyes on the stone," said +Feltram suddenly, and his low stern tones almost startled the Baronet. + +Looking round, he perceived that he had so placed himself that his point +of vision was exactly from between the two great letters, now +half-obliterated, which he had been scrutinizing just as he turned about +to look toward the forest of Cloostedd. + +"Yes, so I am," said Sir Bale. + +There was within him an excitement and misgiving, akin to the sensation +of a man going into battle, and which corresponded with the pale and +sombre frown which Feltram wore, and the manifest change which had come +over him. + +"Look on the stone steadily for a time, and tell me if you see a black +mark, about the size of your hand, anywhere upon its surface," said +Feltram. + +Sir Bale affected no airs of scepticism now; his imagination was +stirred, and a sense of some unknown reality at the bottom of that which +he had affected to treat before as illusion, inspired a strange interest +in the experiment. + +"Do you see it?" asked Feltram. + +Sir Bale was watching patiently, but he had observed nothing of the +kind. + +Sharper, darker, more eager grew the face of Philip Feltram, as his eyes +traversed the surface of that huge horizontal block. + +"Now?" asked Feltram again. + +No, he had seen nothing. + +Feltram was growing manifestly uneasy, angry almost; he walked away a +little, and back again, and then two or three times round the tree, with +his hands shut, and treading the ground like a man trying to warm his +feet, and so impatiently he returned, and looked again on the stone. + +Sir Bale was still looking, and very soon said, drawing his brows +together and looking hard, + +"Ha!--yes--hush. There it is, by Jove!--wait--yes--there; it is growing +quite plain." + +It seemed not as if a shadow fell upon the stone, but rather as if the +stone became semi-transparent, and just under its surface was something +dark--a hand, he thought it--and darker and darker it grew, as if coming +up toward the surface, and after some little wavering, it fixed itself +movelessly, pointing, as he thought, toward the forest. + +"It looks like a hand," said he. "By Jove, it is a hand--pointing +towards the forest with a finger." + +"Don't mind the finger; look only on that black blurred mark, and from +the point where you stand, taking that point for your direction, look to +the forest. Take some tree or other landmark for an object, enter the +forest there, and pursue the same line, as well as you can, until you +find little flowers with leaves like wood-sorrel, and with tall stems +and a red blossom, not larger than a drop, such as you have not seen +before, growing among the trees, and follow wherever they seem to grow +thickest, and there you will find him." + +All the time that Feltram was making this little address, Sir Bale was +endeavouring to fix his route by such indications as Feltram described; +and when he had succeeded in quite establishing the form of a peculiar +tree--a melancholy ash, one huge limb of which had been blasted by +lightning, and its partly stricken arm stood high and barkless, +stretching its white fingers, as it were, in invitation into the forest, +and signing the way for him---- + +"I have it now," said he. "Come Feltram, you'll come a bit of the way +with me." + +Feltram made no answer, but slowly shook his head, and turned and walked +away, leaving Sir Bale to undertake his adventure alone. + +The strange sound they had heard from the midst of the forest, like the +rumble of a storm or the far-off trembling of a furnace, had quite +ceased. Not a bird was hopping on the grass, or visible on bough or in +the sky. Not a living creature was in sight--never was stillness more +complete, or silence more oppressive. + +It would have been ridiculous to give way to the old reluctance which +struggled within him. Feltram had strode down the slope, and was +concealed by a screen of bushes from his view. So alone, and full of an +interest quite new to him, he set out in quest of his adventures. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The Haunted Forest + +Sir Bale Mardykes walked in a straight line, by bush and scaur, over the +undulating ground, to the blighted ash-tree; and as he approached it, +its withered bough stretched more gigantically into the air, and the +forest seemed to open where it pointed. + +He passed it by, and in a few minutes had lost sight of it again, and +was striding onward under the shadow of the forest, which already +enclosed him. He was directing his march with all the care he could, in +exactly that line which, according to Feltram's rule, had been laid down +for him. Now and then, having, as soldiers say, taken an object, and +fixed it well in his memory, he would pause and look about him. + +As a boy he had never entered the wood so far; for he was under a +prohibition, lest he should lose himself in its intricacies, and be +benighted there. He had often heard that it was haunted ground, and that +too would, when a boy, have deterred him. It was on this account that +the scene was so new to him, and that he cared so often to stop and look +about him. Here and there a vista opened, exhibiting the same utter +desertion, and opening farther perspectives through the tall stems of +the trees faintly visible in the solemn shadow. No flowers could he see, +but once or twice a wood anemone, and now and then a tiny grove of +wood-sorrel. + +Huge oak-trees now began to mingle and show themselves more and more +frequently among the other timber; and gradually the forest became a +great oak wood unintruded upon by any less noble tree. Vast trunks +curving outwards to the roots, and expanding again at the branches, +stood like enormous columns, striking out their groining boughs, with +the dark vaulting of a crypt. + +As he walked under the shadow of these noble trees, suddenly his eye was +struck by a strange little flower, nodding quite alone by the knotted +root of one of those huge oaks. + +He stooped and picked it up, and as he plucked it, with a harsh scream +just over his head, a large bird with heavy beating wings broke away +from the midst of the branches. He could not see it, but he fancied the +scream was like that of the huge mackaw whose ill-poised flight he had +watched. This conjecture was but founded on the odd cry he had heard. + +The flower was a curious one--a stem fine as a hair supported a little +bell, that looked like a drop of blood, and never ceased trembling. He +walked on, holding this in his fingers; and soon he saw another of the +same odd type, then another at a shorter distance, then one a little to +the right and another to the left, and farther on a little group, and at +last the dark slope was all over trembling with these little bells, +thicker and thicker as he descended a gentle declivity to the bank of +the little brook, which flowing through the forest loses itself in the +lake. The low murmur of this forest stream was almost the first sound, +except the shriek of the bird that startled him a little time ago, which +had disturbed the profound silence of the wood since he entered it. +Mingling with the faint sound of the brook, he now heard a harsh human +voice calling words at intervals, the purport of which he could not yet +catch; and walking on, he saw seated upon the grass, a strange figure, +corpulent, with a great hanging nose, the whole face glowing like +copper. He was dressed in a bottle-green cut-velvet coat, of the style +of Queen Anne's reign, with a dusky crimson waistcoat, both overlaid +with broad and tarnished gold lace, and his silk stockings on thick +swollen legs, with great buckled shoes, straddling on the grass, were +rolled up over his knees to his short breeches. This ill-favoured old +fellow, with a powdered wig that came down to his shoulders, had a +dice-box in each hand, and was apparently playing his left against his +right, and calling the throws with a hoarse cawing voice. + +Raising his black piggish eyes, he roared to Sir Bale, by name, to come +and sit down, raising one of his dice-boxes, and then indicating a place +on the grass opposite to him. + +Now Sir Bale instantly guessed that this was the man, gipsy, warlock, +call him what he might, of whom he had come in search. With a strange +feeling of curiosity, disgust, and awe, he drew near. He was resolved to +do whatever this old man required of him, and to keep him, this time, in +good humour. + +Sir Bale did as he bid him, and sat down; and taking the box he +presented, they began throwing turn about, with three dice, the +copper-faced old man teaching him the value of the throws, as he +proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw, +grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes +almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he +sat before him. + +After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this +way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather +moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his +shoulder, + +"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had +not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking +another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man, +dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which +seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with +a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy +nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about +him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head +to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great +old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their +fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and +character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up +his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and +then he filled Sir Bale's glass. + +It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the +liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of +an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading +continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim, +and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work. + +"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his +glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the +other; "and you know what I mean." + +Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he +tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing +it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was +also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful +figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep +mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely, +wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerades. So much of her +throat and chin as he could see were beautifully white; and there was a +prettiness in her air and figure which made him think what a beautiful +creature she in all likelihood was. She was reclining slightly against +the burly man in bottle-green and gold, and her arm was round his neck, +and her slender white hand showed itself over his shoulder. + +"Ho! my little Geaiette," cried the old fellow hoarsely; "it will be +time that you and I should get home.--So, Bale Mardykes, I have nothing +to object to you this time; you've crossed the lake, and you've played +with me and won and lost, and drank your glass like a jolly companion, +and now we know one another; and an acquaintance is made that will last. +I'll let you go, and you'll come when I call for you. And now you'll +want to know what horse will win next month at Rindermere +races.--Whisper me, lass, and I'll tell him." + +So her lips, under the black curtain, crept close to his ear, and she +whispered. + +"Ay, so it will;" roared the old man, gnashing his teeth; "it will be +Rainbow, and now make your best speed out of the forest, or I'll set my +black dogs after you, ho, ho, ho! and they may chance to pull you down. +Away!" + +He cried this last order with a glare so black, and so savage a shake of +his huge fist, that Sir Bale, merely making his general bow to the +group, clapped his hat on his head, and hastily began his retreat; but +the same discordant voice yelled after him: + +"You'll want that, you fool; pick it up." And there came hurtling after +and beside him a great leather bag, stained, and stuffed with a heavy +burden, and bounding by him it stopped with a little wheel that brought +it exactly before his feet. + +He picked it up, and found it heavy. + +Turning about to make his acknowledgments, he saw the two persons in +full retreat; the profane old scoundrel in the bottle-green limping and +stumbling, yet bowling along at a wonderful rate, with many a jerk and +reel, and the slender lady in black gliding away by his side into the +inner depths of the forest. + +So Sir Bale, with a strange chill, and again in utter solitude, pursued +his retreat, with his burden, at a swifter pace, and after an hour or +so, had recovered the point where he had entered the forest, and passing +by the druidic stone and the mighty oak, saw down the glen at his right, +standing by the edge of the lake, Philip Feltram, close to the bow of +the boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Rindermere + +Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he +stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored. + +"You found him?" said he. + +"Yes." + +"The lady in black was there?" + +"She was." + +"And you played with him?" + +"Yes." + +"And what is that in your hand?" + +"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me. +We shall see just now; let us get away." + +"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in +his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes. + +"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him." + +"To be sure." + +The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by +the time they had reached the side where they now were. + +There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already +evening. + +"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said +Sir Bale; "only let us get away." + +He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its +heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope +and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull +together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had +got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore. + +The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram +knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a +secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a +long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax, +fragments of which were still sticking to it. + +He got it open, and found it full of guineas. + +"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick +upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!" + +Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter. +Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it +seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count +them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand. + +It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag, +and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply, + +"Come, take your oar--unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind +will soon be up from Golden Friars!" + +He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and +applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing +loath, the Baronet did so. + +It was slow work, for the boat was not built for speed; and by the time +they had got about midway, the sun went down, and twilight and the +melancholy flush of the sunset tints were upon the lake and fells. + +"Ho! here comes the breeze--up from Golden Friars," said Feltram; "we +shall have enough to fill the sails now. If you don't fear spirits and +Snakes Island, it is all the better for us it should blow from that +point. If it blew from Mardykes now, it would be a stiff pull for you +and me to get this tub home." + +Talking as if to himself, and laughing low, he adjusted the sail and +took the tiller, and so, yielding to the rising breeze, the boat glided +slowly toward still distant Mardykes Hall. + +The moon came out, and the shore grew misty, and the towering fells rose +like sheeted giants; and leaning on the gunwale of the boat, Sir Bale, +with the rush and gurgle of the water on the boat's side sounding +faintly in his ear, thought of his day's adventure, which seemed to him +like a dream--incredible but for the heavy bag that lay between his +feet. + +As they passed Snakes Island, a little mist, like a fragment of a fog, +seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came +near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; +and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the +mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the +same thing always happened. + +It was three weeks after, that Sir Bale, sitting up in his bed, very +pale and wan, with his silk night-cap nodding on one side, and his thin +hand extended on the coverlet, where the doctor had been feeling his +pulse, in his darkened room, related all the wonders of this day to +Doctor Torvey. The doctor had attended him through a fever which +followed immediately upon his visit to Cloostedd. + +"And, my dear sir, by Jupiter, can you really believe all that delirium +to be sober fact?" said the doctor, sitting by the bedside, and actually +laughing. + +"I can't help believing it, because I can't distinguish in any way +between all that and everything else that actually happened, and which I +must believe. And, except that this is more wonderful, I can find no +reason to reject it, that does not as well apply to all the rest." + +"Come, come, my dear sir, this will never do--nothing is more common. +These illusions accompanying fever frequently antedate the attack, and +the man is actually raving before he knows he is ill." + +"But what do you make of that bag of gold?" + +"Some one has lent it. You had better ask all about it of Feltram when +you can see him; for in speaking to me he seemed to know all about it, +and certainly did not seem to think the matter at all out of the +commonplace. It is just like that fisherman's story, about the hand that +drew Feltram into the water on the night that he was nearly drowned. +Every one can see what that was. Why of course it was simply the +reflection of his own hand in the water, in that vivid lightning. When +you have been out a little and have gained strength you will shake off +these dreams." + +"I should not wonder," said Sir Bale. + +It is not to be supposed that Sir Bale reported all that was in his +memory respecting his strange vision, if such it was, at Cloostedd. He +made a selection of the incidents, and threw over the whole adventure an +entirely accidental character, and described the money which the old man +had thrown to him as amounting to a purse of five guineas, and mentioned +nothing of the passages which bore on the coming race. + +Good Doctor Torvey, therefore, reported only that Sir Bale's delirium +had left two or three illusions sticking in his memory. + +But if they were illusions, they survived the event of his recovery, and +remained impressed on his memory with the sharpness of very recent and +accurately observed fact. + +He was resolved on going to the races of Rindermere, where, having in +his possession so weighty a guarantee as the leather purse, he was +determined to stake it all boldly on Rainbow--against which horse he was +glad to hear there were very heavy odds. + +The race came off. One horse was scratched, another bolted, the rider of +a third turned out to have lost a buckle and three half-pence and so was +an ounce and a half under weight, a fourth knocked down the post near +Rinderness churchyard, and was held to have done it with his left +instead of his right knee, and so had run at the wrong side. The result +was that Rainbow came in first, and I should be afraid to say how much +Sir Bale won. It was a sum that paid off a heavy debt, and left his +affairs in a much more manageable state. + +From this time Sir Bale prospered. He visited Cloostedd no more; but +Feltram often crossed to that lonely shore as heretofore, and it is +believed conveyed to him messages which guided his betting. One thing is +certain, his luck never deserted him. His debts disappeared; and his +love of continental life seemed to have departed. He became content with +Mardykes Hall, laid out money on it, and although he never again cared +to cross the lake, he seemed to like the scenery. + +In some respects, however, he lived exactly the same odd and unpopular +life. He saw no one at Mardykes Hall. He practised a very strict +reserve. The neighbours laughed at and disliked him, and he was voted, +whenever any accidental contact arose, a very disagreeable man; and he +had a shrewd and ready sarcasm that made them afraid of him, and himself +more disliked. + +Odd rumours prevailed about his household. It was said that his old +relations with Philip Feltram had become reversed; and that he was as +meek as a mouse, and Feltram the bully now. It was also said that Mrs. +Julaper had one Sunday evening when she drank tea at the Vicar's, told +his good lady very mysteriously, and with many charges of secrecy, that +Sir Bale was none the better of his late-found wealth; that he had a +load upon his spirits, that he was afraid of Feltram, and so was every +one else, more or less, in the house; that he was either mad or worse; +and that it was an eerie dwelling, and strange company, and she should +be glad herself of a change. + +Good Mrs. Bedel told her friend Mrs. Torvey; and all Golden Friars heard +all this, and a good deal more, in an incredibly short time. + +All kinds of rumours now prevailed in Golden Friars, connecting Sir +Bale's successes on the turf with some mysterious doings in Cloostedd +Forest. Philip Feltram laughed when he heard these stories--especially +when he heard the story that a supernatural personage had lent the +Baronet a purse full of money. + +"You should not talk to Doctor Torvey so, sir," said he grimly; "he's +the greatest tattler in the town. It was old Farmer Trebeck, who could +buy and sell us all down here, who lent that money. Partly from +good-will, but not without acknowledgment. He has my hand for the first, +not worth much, and yours to a bond for the two thousand guineas you +brought home with you. It seems strange you should not remember that +venerable and kind old farmer whom you talked with so long that day. His +grandson, who expects to stand well in his will, being a trainer in Lord +Varney's stables, has sometimes a tip to give, and he is the source of +your information." + +"By Jove, I must be a bit mad, then, that's all," said Sir Bale, with a +smile and a shrug. + +Philip Feltram moped about the house, and did precisely what he pleased. +The change which had taken place in him became more and more pronounced. +Dark and stern he always looked, and often malignant. He was like a man +possessed of one evil thought which never left him. + +There was, besides, the good old Gothic superstition of a bargain or +sale of the Baronet's soul to the arch-fiend. This was, of course, very +cautiously whispered in a place where he had influence. It was only a +coarser and directer version of a suspicion, that in a more credulous +generation penetrated a level of society quite exempt from such follies +in our day. + +One evening at dusk, Sir Bale, sitting after his dinner in his window, +saw the tall figure of Feltram, like a dark streak, standing movelessly +by the lake. An unpleasant feeling moved him, and then an impatience. He +got up, and having primed himself with two glasses of brandy, walked +down to the edge of the lake, and placed himself beside Feltram. + +"Looking down from the window," said he, nerved with his Dutch courage, +"and seeing you standing like a post, do you know what I began to think +of?" + +Feltram looked at him, but answered nothing. + +"I began to think of taking a wife--_marrying_." + +Feltram nodded. The announcement had not produced the least effect. + +"Why the devil will you make me so uncomfortable! Can't you be like +yourself--what you _were_, I mean? I won't go on living here alone with +you. I'll take a wife, I tell you. I'll choose a good church-going +woman, that will have every man, woman, and child in the house on their +marrow-bones twice a day, morning and evening, and three times on +Sundays. How will you like that?" + +"Yes, you will be married," said Feltram, with a quiet decision which +chilled Sir Bale, for he had by no means made up his mind to that +desperate step. + +Feltram slowly walked away, and that conversation ended. + +Now an odd thing happened about this time. There was a family of +Feltram--county genealogists could show how related to the vanished +family of Cloostedd--living at that time on their estate not far from +Carlisle. Three co-heiresses now represented it. They were great +beauties--the belles of their county in their day. + +One was married to Sir Oliver Haworth of Haworth, a great family in +those times. He was a knight of the shire, and had refused a baronetage, +and, it was said, had his eye on a peerage. The other sister was married +to Sir William Walsingham, a wealthy baronet; and the third and +youngest, Miss Janet, was still unmarried, and at home at Cloudesly +Hall, where her aunt, Lady Harbottle, lived with her, and made a +dignified chaperon. + +Now it so fell out that Sir Bale, having business at Carlisle, and +knowing old Lady Harbottle, paid his respects at Cloudesly Hall; and +being no less than five-and-forty years of age, was for the first time +in his life, seriously in love. + +Miss Janet was extremely pretty--a fair beauty with brilliant red lips +and large blue eyes, and ever so many pretty dimples when she talked and +smiled. It was odd, but not perhaps against the course of nature, that a +man, though so old as he, and quite _blasé_, should fall at last under +that fascination. + +But what are we to say of the strange infatuation of the young lady? No +one could tell why she liked him. It was a craze. Her family were +against it, her intimates, her old nurse--all would not do; and the +oddest thing was, that he seemed to take no pains to please her. The end +of this strange courtship was that he married her; and she came home to +Mardykes Hall, determined to please everybody, and to be the happiest +woman in England. + +With her came a female cousin, a good deal her senior, past +thirty--Gertrude Mainyard, pale and sad, but very gentle, and with all +the prettiness that can belong to her years. + +This young lady has a romance. Her hero is far away in India; and she, +content to await his uncertain return with means to accomplish the hope +of their lives, in that frail chance has long embarked all the purpose +and love of her life. + +When Lady Mardykes came home, a new leaf was, as the phrase is, turned +over. The neighbours and all the country people were willing to give the +Hall a new trial. There was visiting and returning of visits; and young +Lady Mardykes was liked and admired. It could not indeed have been +otherwise. But here the improvement in the relations of Mardykes Hall +with other homes ceased. On one excuse or another Sir Bale postponed or +evaded the hospitalities which establish intimacies. Some people said he +was jealous of his young and beautiful wife. But for the most part his +reserve was set down to the old inhospitable cause, some ungenial defect +in his character; and in a little time the tramp of horses and roll of +carriage-wheels were seldom heard up or down the broad avenue of +Mardykes Hall. + +Sir Bale liked this seclusion; and his wife, "so infatuated with her +idolatry of that graceless old man," as surrounding young ladies said, +that she was well content to forego the society of the county people for +a less interrupted enjoyment of that of her husband. "What she could see +in him" to interest or amuse her so, that for his sake she was willing +to be "buried alive in that lonely place," the same critics were +perpetually wondering. + +A year and more passed thus; for the young wife, happily--_very_ happily +indeed, had it not been for one topic on which she and her husband could +not agree. This was Philip Feltram; and an odd quarrel it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Sir Bale is Frightened + +To Feltram she had conceived, at first sight, a horror. It was not a +mere antipathy; fear mingled largely in it. Although she did not see him +often, this restless dread grew upon her so, that she urged his +dismissal upon Sir Bale, offering to provide, herself, for him a +handsome annuity, charged on that part of her property which, by her +marriage settlement, had remained in her power. There was a time when +Sir Bale was only too anxious to get rid of him. But that was changed +now. Nothing could now induce the Baronet to part with him. He at first +evaded and resisted quietly. But, urged with a perseverance to which he +was unused, he at last broke into fury that appalled her, and swore that +if he was worried more upon the subject, he would leave her and the +country, and see neither again. This exhibition of violence affrighted +her all the more by reason of the contrast; for up to this he had been +an uxorious husband. Lady Mardykes was in hysterics, and thoroughly +frightened, and remained in her room for two or three days. Sir Bale +went up to London about business, and was not home for more than a week. +This was the first little squall that disturbed the serenity of their +sky. + +This point, therefore, was settled; but soon there came other things to +sadden Lady Mardykes. There occurred a little incident, soon after Sir +Bale's return from London, which recalled the topic on which they had so +nearly quarrelled. + +Sir Bale had a dressing-room, remote from the bedrooms, in which he sat +and read and sometimes smoked. One night, after the house was all quiet, +the Baronet being still up, the bell of this dressing-room rang long and +furiously. It was such a peal as a person in extreme terror might ring. +Lady Mardykes, with her maid in her room, heard it; and in great alarm +she ran in her dressing-gown down the gallery to Sir Bale's room. +Mallard the butler had already arrived, and was striving to force the +door, which was secured. It gave way just as she reached it, and she +rushed through. + +Sir Bale was standing with the bell-rope in his hand, in the extremest +agitation, looking like a ghost; and Philip Feltram was sitting in his +chair, with a dark smile fixed upon him. For a minute she thought he had +attempted to assassinate his master. She could not otherwise account for +the scene. + +There had been nothing of the kind, however; as her husband assured her +again and again, as she lay sobbing on his breast, with her arms about +his neck. + +"To her dying hour," she afterwards said to her cousin, "she never could +forget the dreadful look in Feltram's face." + +No explanation of that scene did she ever obtain from Sir Bale, nor any +clue to the cause of the agony that was so powerfully expressed in his +countenance. Thus much only she learned from him, that Feltram had +sought that interview for the purpose of announcing his departure, which +was to take place within the year. + +"You are not sorry to hear that. But if you knew all, you might. Let the +curse fly where it may, it will come back to roost. So, darling, let us +discuss him no more. Your wish is granted, _dis iratis_." + +Some crisis, during this interview, seemed to have occurred in the +relations between Sir Bale and Feltram. Henceforward they seldom +exchanged a word; and when they did speak, it was coldly and shortly, +like men who were nearly strangers. + +One day in the courtyard, Sir Bale seeing Feltram leaning upon the +parapet that overlooks the lake, approached him, and said in a low tone, + +"I've been thinking if we--that is, I--do owe that money to old Trebeck, +it is high time I should pay it. I was ill, and had lost my head at the +time; but it turned out luckily, and it ought to be paid. I don't like +the idea of a bond turning up, and a lot of interest." + +"The old fellow meant it for a present. He is richer than you are; he +wished to give the family a lift. He has destroyed the bond, I believe, +and in no case will he take payment." + +"No fellow has a right to force his money on another," answered Sir +Bale. "I never asked him. Besides, as you know, I was not really myself, +and the whole thing seems to me quite different from what you say it +was; and, so far as my brain is concerned, it was all a phantasmagoria; +but, you say, it was he." + +"Every man is accountable for what he intends and for what he _thinks_ +he does," said Feltram cynically. + +"Well, I'm accountable for dealing with that wicked old dicer I +_thought_ I saw--isn't that it? But I must pay old Trebeck all the same, +since the money was his. Can you manage a meeting?" + +"Look down here. Old Trebeck has just landed; he will sleep to-night at +the George and Dragon, to meet his cattle in the morning at Golden +Friars fair. You can speak to him yourself." + +So saying Feltram glided away, leaving Sir Bale the task of opening the +matter to the wealthy farmer of Cloostedd Fells. + +A broad night of steps leads down from the courtyard to the level of the +jetty at the lake: and Sir Bale descended, and accosted the venerable +farmer, who was bluff, honest, and as frank as a man can be who speaks a +_patois_ which hardly a living man but himself can understand. + +Sir Bale asked him to come to the Hall and take luncheon; but Trebeck +was in haste. Cattle had arrived which he wanted to look at, and a pony +awaited him on the road, hard by, to Golden Friars; and the old fellow +must mount and away. + +Then Sir Bale, laying his hand upon his arm in a manner that was at once +lofty and affectionate, told in his ears the subject on which he wished +to be understood. + +The old farmer looked hard at him, and shook his head and laughed in a +way that would have been insupportable in a house, and told him, "I hev +narra bond o' thoine, mon." + +"I know how that is; so does Philip Feltram." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I must replace the money." + +The old man laughed again, and in his outlandish dialect told him to +wait till he asked him. Sir Bale pressed it, but the old fellow put it +off with outlandish banter; and as the Baronet grew testy, the farmer +only waxed more and more hilarious, and at last, mounting his shaggy +pony, rode off, still laughing, at a canter to Golden Friars; and when +he reached Golden Friars, and got into the hall of the George and +Dragon, he asked Richard Turnbull with a chuckle if he ever knew a man +refuse an offer of money, or a man want to pay who did not owe; and +inquired whether the Squire down at Mardykes Hall mightn't be a bit +"wrang in t' garrets." All this, however, other people said, was +intended merely to conceal the fact that he really had, through sheer +loyalty, lent the money, or rather bestowed it, thinking the old family +in jeopardy, and meaning a gift, was determined to hear no more about +it. I can't say; I only know people held, some by one interpretation, +some by another. + +As the caterpillar sickens and changes its hue when it is about to +undergo its transformation, so an odd change took place in Feltram. He +grew even more silent and morose; he seemed always in an agitation and a +secret rage. He used to walk through the woodlands on the slopes of the +fells above Mardykes, muttering to himself, picking up the rotten sticks +with which the ground was strewn, breaking them in his hands, and +hurling them from him, and stamping on the earth as he paced up and +down. + +One night a thunder-storm came on, the wind blowing gently up from +Golden Friars. It was a night black as pitch, illuminated only by the +intermittent glare of the lightning. At the foot of the stairs Sir Bale +met Feltram, whom he had not seen for some days. He had his cloak and +hat on. + +"I am going to Cloostedd to-night," he said, "and if all is as I expect, +I sha'n't return. We remember all, you and I." And he nodded and walked +down the passage. + +Sir Bale knew that a crisis had happened in his own life. He felt faint +and ill, and returned to the room where he had been sitting. Throughout +that melancholy night he did not go to his bed. + +In the morning he learned that Marlin, who had been out late, saw +Feltram get the boat off, and sail towards the other side. The night was +so dark that he could only see him start; but the wind was light and +coming up the lake, so that without a tack he could easily make the +other side. Feltram did not return. The boat was found fast to the ring +at Cloostedd landing-place. + +Lady Mardykes was relieved, and for a time was happier than ever. It was +different with Sir Bale; and afterwards her sky grew dark also. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +A Lady in Black + +Shortly after this, there arrived at the George and Dragon a stranger. +He was a man somewhat past forty, embrowned by distant travel, and, his +years considered, wonderfully good-looking. He had good eyes; his +dark-brown hair had no sprinkling of gray in it; and his kindly smile +showed very white and even teeth. He made inquiries about neighbours, +especially respecting Mardykes Hall; and the answers seemed to interest +him profoundly. He inquired after Philip Feltram, and shed tears when he +heard that he was no longer at Mardykes Hall, and that Trebeck or other +friends could give him no tidings of him. + +And then he asked Richard Turnbull to show him to a quiet room; and so, +taking the honest fellow by the hand, he said, + +"Mr. Turnbull, don't you know me?" + +"No, sir," said the host of the George and Dragon, after a puzzled +stare, "I can't say I do, sir." + +The stranger smiled a little sadly, and shook his head: and with a +gentle laugh, still holding his hand in a very friendly way, he said, "I +should have known you anywhere, Mr. Turnbull--anywhere on earth or +water. Had you turned up on the Himalayas, or in a junk on the Canton +river, or as a dervish in the mosque of St. Sophia, I should have +recognised my old friend, and asked what news from Golden Friars. But of +course I'm changed. You were a little my senior; and one advantage among +many you have over your juniors is that you don't change as we do. I +have played many a game of hand-ball in the inn-yard of the George, Mr. +Turnbull. You often wagered a pot of ale on my play; you used to say I'd +make the best player of fives, and the best singer of a song, within ten +miles round the meer. You used to have me behind the bar when I was a +boy, with more of an appetite than I have now. I was then at Mardykes +Hall, and used to go back in old Marlin's boat. Is old Marlin still +alive?" + +"Ay, that--he--is," said Turnbull slowly, as he eyed the stranger again +carefully. "I don't know who you can be, sir, unless you are--the +boy--William Feltram. La! he was seven or eight years younger than +Philip. But, lawk!--Well--By Jen, and _be_ you Willie Feltram? But no, +you can't!" + +"Ay, Mr. Turnbull, that very boy--Willie Feltram--even he, and no other; +and now you'll shake hands with me, not so formally, but like an old +friend." + +"Ay, that I will," said honest Richard Turnbull, with a great smile, and +a hearty grasp of his guest's hand; and they both laughed together, and +the younger man's eyes, for he was an affectionate fool, filled up with +tears. + +"And I want you to tell me this," said William, after they had talked a +little quietly, "now that there is no one to interrupt us, what has +become of my brother Philip? I heard from a friend an account of his +health that has caused me unspeakable anxiety." + +"His health was not bad; no, he was a hardy lad, and liked a walk over +the fells, or a pull on the lake; but he was a bit daft, every one said, +and a changed man; and, in troth, they say the air o' Mardykes don't +agree with every one, no more than him. But that's a tale that's neither +here nor there." + +"Yes," said William, "that was what they told me--his mind affected. God +help and guard us! I have been unhappy ever since; and if I only knew it +was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is +Philip now?" + +"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They +thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the +Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall--though those two families +was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him, +nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell." + +"_I_ heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But _I_ hoped it +had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor +fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know--I don't know what I +_would_ not give to know--I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old +friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes +Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in." + +At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the +stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the +balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose +leaves were half shed and gone with the winds--emblem of her hopes. The +solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake, +deepened her sadness. + +The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie. + +Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized +the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out. + +She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a +sob, she threw herself into his arms. + +Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had +reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from +shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness. + +William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and +only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought +it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health +unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and +energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with +fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something +to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them +happier than hundreds of thousand could other people. + +It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of +importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him. + +The refined tastes that are supposed to accompany gentle blood, his love +of art, his talent for music and drawing, had accidentally attracted the +attention of the little travelling-party which old Lady Harbottle +chaperoned. Miss Janet, now Lady Mardykes, learning that his name was +Feltram, made inquiry through a common friend, and learned what +interested her still more about him. It ended in an acquaintance, which +his manly and gentle nature and his entertaining qualities soon improved +into an intimacy. + +Feltram had chosen to work his own way, being proud, and also prosperous +enough to prevent his pride, in this respect, from being placed under +too severe a pressure of temptation. He heard not from but of his +brother, through a friend in London, and more lately from Gertrude, +whose account of him was sad and even alarming. + +When Lady Mardykes came in, her delight knew no bounds. She had already +formed a plan for their future, and was not to be put off--William +Feltram was to take the great grazing farm that belonged to the Mardykes +estate; or, if he preferred it, to farm it for her, sharing the profits. +She wanted something to interest her, and this was just the thing. It +was hardly half-a-mile away, up the lake, and there was such a +comfortable house and garden, and she and Gertrude could be as much +together as ever almost; and, in fact, Gertrude and her husband could be +nearly always at Mardykes Hall. + +So eager and entreating was she, that there was no escape. The plan was +adopted immediately on their marriage, and no happier neighbours for a +time were ever known. + +But was Lady Mardykes content? was she even exempt from the heartache +which each mortal thinks he has all to himself? The longing of her life +was for children; and again and again had her hopes been disappointed. + +One tiny pretty little baby indeed was born, and lived for two years, +and then died; and none had come to supply its place and break the +childless silence in the great old nursery. That was her sorrow; a +greater one than men can understand. + +Another source of grief was this: that Sir Bale Mardykes conceived a +dislike to William Feltram that was unaccountable. At first suppressed, +it betrayed itself negatively only; but with time it increased; and in +the end the Baronet made little secret of his wish to get rid of him. +Many and ingenious were the annoyances he contrived; and at last he told +his wife plainly that he wished William Feltram to find some other abode +for himself. + +Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude +were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her +own life would become. + +Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There +was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He +had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given +him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and +strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram +had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they +might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate +should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of +her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread. + +All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by +Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition +which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed +himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he +was. + +In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking +of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else. + +One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his +farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and +then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the +lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say: + +"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!" + +The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the +interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and +yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and +partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but +swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither +start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that +which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he owned +no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more. + +He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a +solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did +not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I +suppose, she would. + +They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the +more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles +away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude, +who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant +cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in +favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine +ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather +damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus: + +She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although +she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still +thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed +to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in +the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair +near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a +sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight +sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she +saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room. + +Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so +large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten +it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood +at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She +extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, +and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the +foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and +with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and +looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips +and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary, +and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute. + +How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing +like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand. +Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation +of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black +held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice. + +"Who are you?" asked Gertrude. + +"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell +you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet. +If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear me." + +Her voice was very distinct, but also very faint, with something +undulatory in it, that seemed to enter Gertrude's head rather than her +ear. + +Saying this she smiled horribly, and, lifting her handkerchief, +disclosed for a moment a great wound in her breast, deep in which +Gertrude saw darkly the head of a snake writhing. + +Hereupon she uttered a wild scream of terror, and, diving under the +bed-clothes, remained more dead than alive there, until her maid, +alarmed by her cry, came in, and having searched the room, and shut the +window at her desire, did all in her power to comfort her. + +If this was a nightmare and embodied only by a form of expression which +in some states belongs to the imagination, a leading idea in the +controversy in which her mind had long been employed, it had at least +the effect of deciding her against leaving Faxwell. And so that point +was settled; and unpleasant relations continued between the tenants of +the farm and the master of Mardykes Hall. + +To Lady Mardykes all this was very painful, although Sir Bale did not +insist upon making a separation between his wife and her cousin. But to +Mardykes Hall that cousin came no more. Even Lady Mardykes thought it +better to see her at Faxwell than to risk a meeting in the temper in +which Sir Bale then was. And thus several years passed. + +No tidings of Philip Feltram were heard; and, in fact, none ever reached +that part of the world; and if it had not been highly improbable that he +could have drowned himself in the lake without his body sooner or later +having risen to the surface, it would have been concluded that he had +either accidentally or by design made away with himself in its waters. + +Over Mardykes Hall there was a gloom--no sound of children's voices was +heard there, and even the hope of that merry advent had died out. + +This disappointment had no doubt helped to fix in Sir Bale's mind the +idea of the insecurity of his property, and the morbid fancy that +William Feltram and old Trebeck were conspiring to seize it; than which, +I need hardly say, no imagination more insane could have fixed itself in +his mind. + +In other things, however, Sir Bale was shrewd and sharp, a clear and +rapid man of business, and although this was a strange whim, it was not +so unnatural in a man who was by nature so prone to suspicion as Sir +Bale Mardykes. + +During the years, now seven, that had elapsed since the marriage of Sir +Bale and Miss Janet Feltram, there had happened but one event, except +the death of their only child, to place them in mourning. That was the +decease of Sir William Walsingham, the husband of Lady Mardykes' sister. +She now lived in a handsome old dower-house at Islington, and being +wealthy, made now and then an excursion to Mardykes Hall, in which she +was sometimes accompanied by her sister Lady Haworth. Sir Oliver being a +Parliament-man was much in London and deep in politics and intrigue, and +subject, as convivial rogues are, to occasional hard hits from gout. + +But change and separation had made no alteration in these ladies' mutual +affections, and no three sisters were ever more attached. + +Was Lady Mardykes happy with her lord? A woman so gentle and loving as +she, is a happy wife with any husband who is not an absolute brute. +There must have been, I suppose, some good about Sir Bale. His wife was +certainly deeply attached to him. She admired his wisdom, and feared his +inflexible will, and altogether made of him a domestic idol. To acquire +this enviable position, I suspect there must be something not +essentially disagreeable about a man. At all events, what her neighbours +good-naturedly termed her infatuation continued, and indeed rather +improved by time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +An Old Portrait + +Sir Bale--whom some remembered a gay and convivial man, not to say a +profligate one--had grown to be a very gloomy man indeed. There was +something weighing upon his mind; and I daresay some of the good gossips +of Golden Friars, had there been any materials for such a case, would +have believed that Sir Bale had murdered Philip Feltram, and was now the +victim of the worm and fire of remorse. + +The gloom of the master of the house made his very servants gloomy, and +the house itself looked sombre, as if it had been startled with strange +and dismal sights. + +Lady Mardykes was something of an artist. She had lighted lately, in an +out-of-the-way room, upon a dozen or more old portraits. Several of +these were full-lengths; and she was--with the help of her maid, both in +long aprons, amid sponges and basins, soft handkerchiefs and +varnish-pots and brushes--busy in removing the dust and smoke-stains, +and in laying-on the varnish, which brought out the colouring, and made +the transparent shadows yield up their long-buried treasures of finished +detail. + +Against the wall stood a full-length portrait as Sir Bale entered the +room; having for a wonder, a word to say to his wife. + +"O," said the pretty lady, turning to him in her apron, and with her +brush in her hand, "we are in such in pickle, Munnings and I have been +cleaning these old pictures. Mrs. Julaper says they are the pictures +that came from Cloostedd Hall long ago. They were buried in dust in the +dark room in the clock-tower. Here is such a characteristic one. It has +a long powdered wig--George the First or Second, I don't know which--and +such a combination of colours, and such a face. It seems starting out of +the canvas, and all but speaks. Do look; that is, I mean, Bale, if you +can spare time." + +Sir Bale abstractedly drew near, and looked over his wife's shoulder on +the full-length portrait that stood before him; and as he did so a +strange expression for a moment passed over his face. + +The picture represented a man of swarthy countenance, with signs of the +bottle glowing through the dark skin; small fierce pig eyes, a rather +flat pendulous nose, and a grim forbidding mouth, with a large wart a +little above it. On the head hung one of those full-bottomed powdered +wigs that look like a cloud of cotton-wadding; a lace cravat was about +his neck; he wore short black-velvet breeches with stockings rolled over +them, a bottle-green coat of cut velvet and a crimson waistcoat with +long flaps; coat and waistcoat both heavily laced with gold. He wore a +sword, and leaned upon a crutch-handled cane, and his figure and aspect +indicated a swollen and gouty state. He could not be far from sixty. +There was uncommon force in this fierce and forbidding-looking portrait. +Lady Mardykes said, "What wonderful dresses they wore! How like a fine +magic-lantern figure he looks! What gorgeous colouring! it looks like +the plumage of a mackaw; and what a claw his hand is! and that huge +broken beak of a nose! Isn't he like a wicked old mackaw?" + +"Where did you find that?" asked Sir Bale. + +Surprised at his tone, she looked round, and was still more surprised at +his looks. + +"I told you, dear Bale, I found them in the clock-tower. I hope I did +right; it was not wrong bringing them here? I ought to have asked. Are +you vexed, Bale?" + +"Vexed! not I. I only wish it was in the fire. I must have seen that +picture when I was a child. I hate to look at it. I raved about it once, +when I was ill. I don't know who it is; I don't remember when I saw it. +I wish you'd tell them to burn it." + +"It is one of the Feltrams," she answered. "'Sir Hugh Feltram' is on the +frame at the foot; and old Mrs. Julaper says he was the father of the +unhappy lady who was said to have been drowned near Snakes Island." + +"Well, suppose he is; there's nothing interesting in that. It is a +disgusting picture. I connect it with my illness; and I think it is the +kind of thing that would make any one half mad, if they only looked at +it often enough. Tell them to burn it; and come away, come to the next +room; I can't say what I want here." + +Sir Bale seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer he remained in +the room. He seemed to her both frightened and furious; and taking her a +little roughly by the wrist, he led her through the door. + +When they were in another apartment alone, he again asked the affrighted +lady who had told her that picture was there, and who told her to clean +it. + +She had only the truth to plead. It was, from beginning to end, the +merest accident. + +"If I thought, Janet, that you were taking counsel of others, talking me +over, and trying clever experiments--" he stopped short with his eyes +fixed on hers with black suspicion. + +His wife's answer was one pleading look, and to burst into tears. + +Sir Bale let-go her wrist, which he had held up to this; and placing his +hand gently on her shoulder, he said, + +"You must not cry, Janet; I have given you no excuse for tears. I only +wished an answer to a very harmless question; and I am sure you would +tell me, if by any chance you have lately seen Philip Feltram; he is +capable of arranging all that. No one knows him as I do. There, you must +not cry any more; but tell me truly, has he turned up? is he at +Faxwell?" + +She denied all this with perfect truth; and after a hesitation of some +time, the matter ended. And as soon as she and he were more themselves, +he had something quite different to tell her. + +"Sit down, Janet; sit down, and forget that vile picture and all I have +been saying. What I came to tell you, I think you will like; I am sure +it will please you." + +And with this little preface he placed his arm about her neck, and +kissed her tenderly. She certainly was pleased; and when his little +speech was over, she, smiling, with her tears still wet upon her cheeks, +put her arms round her husband's neck, and in turn kissed him with the +ardour of gratitude, kissed him affectionately; again and again thanking +him all the time. + +It was no great matter, but from Sir Bale Mardykes it was something +quite unusual. + +Was it a sudden whim? What was it? Something had prompted Sir Bale, +early in that dark shrewd month of December, to tell his wife that he +wished to call together some of his county acquaintances, and to fill +his house for a week or so, as near Christmas as she could get them to +come. He wished her sisters--Lady Haworth (with her husband) and the +Dowager Lady Walsingham--to be invited for an early day, before the +coming of the other guests, so that she might enjoy their society for a +little time quietly to herself before the less intimate guests should +assemble. + +Glad was Lady Mardykes to hear the resolve of her husband, and prompt to +obey. She wrote to her sisters to beg them to arrange to come, together, +by the tenth or twelfth of the month, which they accordingly arranged to +do. Sir Oliver, it was true, could not be of the party. A minister of +state was drinking the waters at Bath; and Sir Oliver thought it would +do him no harm to sip a little also, and his fashionable doctor politely +agreed, and "ordered" to those therapeutic springs the knight of the +shire, who was "consumedly vexed" to lose the Christmas with that jolly +dog, Bale, down at Mardykes Hall. But a fellow must have a stomach for +his Christmas pudding, and politics takes it out of a poor gentleman +deucedly; and health's the first thing, egad! + +So Sir Oliver went down to Bath, and I don't know that he tippled much +of the waters, but he did drink the burgundy of that haunt of the +ailing; and he had the honour of making a fourth not unfrequently in the +secretary of state's whist-parties. + +It was about the 8th of December when, in Lady Walsingham's carriage, +intending to post all the way, that lady, still young, and Lady Haworth, +with all the servants that were usual in such expeditions in those days, +started from the great Dower House at Islington in high spirits. + +Lady Haworth had not been very well--low and nervous; but the clear +frosty sun, and the pleasant nature of the excursion, raised her spirits +to the point of enjoyment; and expecting nothing but happiness and +gaiety--for, after all, Sir Bale was but one of a large party, and even +he could make an effort and be agreeable as well as hospitable on +occasion--they set out on their northward expedition. The journey, which +is a long one, they had resolved to break into a four days' progress; +and the inns had been written to, bespeaking a comfortable reception. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Through the Wall + +On the third night they put-up at the comfortable old inn called the +Three Nuns. With an effort they might easily have pushed on to Mardykes +Hall that night, for the distance is not more than five-and-thirty +miles. But, considering her sister's health, Lady Walsingham in planning +their route had resolved against anything like a forced march. + +Here the ladies took possession of the best sitting-room; and, +notwithstanding the fatigue of the journey, Lady Haworth sat up with her +sister till near ten o'clock, chatting gaily about a thousand things. + +Of the three sisters, Lady Walsingham was the eldest. She had been in +the habit of taking the command at home; and now, for advice and +decision, her younger sisters, less prompt and courageous than she, were +wont, whenever in her neighbourhood, to throw upon her all the cares and +agitations of determining what was best to be done in small things and +great. It is only fair to say, in addition, that this submission was not +by any means exacted; it was the deference of early habit and feebler +will, for she was neither officious nor imperious. + +It was now time that Lady Haworth, a good deal more fatigued than her +sister, should take leave of her for the night. + +Accordingly they kissed and bid each other good-night; and Lady +Walsingham, not yet disposed to sleep, sat for some time longer in the +comfortable room where they had taken tea, amusing the time with the +book that had, when conversation flagged, beguiled the weariness of the +journey. Her sister had been in her room nearly an hour, when she became +herself a little sleepy. She had lighted her candle, and was going to +ring for her maid, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and her +sister Lady Haworth entered in a dressing-gown, looking frightened. + +"My darling Mary!" exclaimed Lady Walsingham, "what is the matter? Are +you well?" + +"Yes, darling," she answered, "quite well; that is, I don't know what is +the matter--I'm frightened." She paused, listening, with her eyes turned +towards the wall. "O, darling Maud, I am so frightened! I don't know +what it can be." + +"You must not be agitated, darling; there's nothing. You have been +asleep, and I suppose you have had a dream. Were you asleep?" + +Lady Haworth had caught her sister fast by the arm with both hands, and +was looking wildly in her face. + +"Have _you_ heard nothing?" she asked, again looking towards the wall of +the room, as if she expected to hear a voice through it. + +"Nonsense, darling; you are dreaming still. Nothing; there has been +nothing to hear. I have been awake ever since; if there had been +anything to hear, I could not have missed it. Come, sit down. Sip a +little of this water; you are nervous, and over-tired; and tell me +plainly, like a good little soul, what is the matter; for nothing has +happened here; and you ought to know that the Three Nuns is the quietest +house in England; and I'm no witch, and if you won't tell me what's the +matter, I can't divine it." + +"Yes, of course," said Mary, sitting down, and glancing round her +wildly. "I don't hear it now; _you_ don't?" + +"Do, my dear Mary, tell me what you mean," said Lady Walsingham kindly +but firmly. + +Lady Haworth was holding the still untasted glass of water in her hand. + +"Yes, I'll tell you; I have been so frightened! You are right; I had a +dream, but I can scarcely remember anything of it, except the very end, +when I wakened. But it was not the dream; only it was connected with +what terrified me so. I was so tired when I went to bed, I thought I +should have slept soundly; and indeed I fell asleep immediately; and I +must have slept quietly for a good while. How long is it since I left +you?" + +"More than an hour." + +"Yes, I must have slept a good while; for I don't think I have been ten +minutes awake. How my dream began I don't know. I remember only that +gradually it came to this: I was standing in a recess in a panelled +gallery; it was lofty, and, I thought, belonged to a handsome but +old-fashioned house. I was looking straight towards the head of a wide +staircase, with a great oak banister. At the top of the stairs, as near +to me, about, as that window there, was a thick short column of oak, on +top of which was a candlestick. There was no other light but from that +one candle; and there was a lady standing beside it, looking down the +stairs, with her back turned towards me; and from her gestures I should +have thought speaking to people on a lower lobby, but whom from my place +I could not see. I soon perceived that this lady was in great agony of +mind; for she beat her breast and wrung her hands every now and then, +and wagged her head slightly from side to side, like a person in great +distraction. But one word she said I could not hear. Nor when she struck +her hand on the banister, or stamped, as she seemed to do in her pain, +upon the floor, could I hear any sound. I found myself somehow waiting +upon this lady, and was watching her with awe and sympathy. But who she +was I knew not, until turning towards me I plainly saw Janet's face, +pale and covered with tears, and with such a look of agony as--O God!--I +can never forget." + +"Pshaw! Mary darling, what is it but a dream! I have had a thousand more +startling; it is only that you are so nervous just now." + +"But that is not all--nothing; what followed is so dreadful; for either +there is something very horrible going on at Mardykes, or else I am +losing my reason," said Lady Haworth in increasing agitation. "I wakened +instantly in great alarm, but I suppose no more than I have felt a +hundred times on awakening from a frightful dream. I sat up in my bed; I +was thinking of ringing for Winnefred, my heart was beating so, but +feeling better soon I changed my mind. All this time I heard a faint +sound of a voice, as if coming through a thick wall. It came from the +wall at the left side of my bed, and I fancied was that of some woman +lamenting in a room separated from me by that thick partition. I could +only perceive that it was a sound of crying mingled with ejaculations of +misery, or fear, or entreaty. I listened with a painful curiosity, +wondering who it could be, and what could have happened in the +neighbouring rooms of the house; and as I looked and listened, I could +distinguish my own name, but at first nothing more. That, of course, +might have been an accident; and I knew there were many Marys in the +world besides myself. But it made me more curious; and a strange thing +struck me, for I was now looking at that very wall through which the +sounds were coming. I saw that there was a window in it. Thinking that +the rest of the wall might nevertheless be covered by another room, I +drew the curtain of it and looked out. But there is no such thing. It is +the outer wall the entire way along. And it is equally impossible of the +other wall, for it is to the front of the house, and has two windows in +it; and the wall that the head of my bed stands against has the gallery +outside it all the way; for I remarked that as I came to you." + +"Tut, tut, Mary darling, nothing on earth is so deceptive as sound; this +and fancy account for everything." + +"But hear me out; I have not told you all. I began to hear the voice +more clearly, and at last quite distinctly. It was Janet's, and she was +conjuring you by name, as well as me, to come to her to Mardykes, +without delay, in her extremity; yes, _you_, just as vehemently as me. +It was Janet's voice. It still seemed separated by the wall, but I heard +every syllable now; and I never heard voice or words of such anguish. +She was imploring of us to come on, without a moment's delay, to +Mardykes; and crying that, if we were not with her, she should go mad." + +"Well, darling," said Lady Walsingham, "you see I'm included in this +invitation as well as you, and should hate to disappoint Janet just as +much; and I do assure you, in the morning you will laugh over this fancy +with me; or rather, she will laugh over it with us, when we get to +Mardykes. What you do want is rest, and a little sal-volatile." + +So saying she rang the bell for Lady Haworth's maid. Having comforted +her sister, and made her take the nervous specific she recommended, she +went with her to her room; and taking possession of the arm-chair by the +fire, she told her that she would keep her company until she was asleep, +and remain long enough to be sure that the sleep was not likely to be +interrupted. Lady Haworth had not been ten minutes in her bed, when she +raised herself with a start to her elbow, listening with parted lips and +wild eyes, her trembling fingers behind her ears. With an exclamation of +horror, she cried, + +"There it is again, upbraiding us! I can't stay longer." + +She sprang from the bed, and rang the bell violently. + +"Maud," she cried in an ecstasy of horror, "nothing shall keep me here, +whether you go or not. I will set out the moment the horses are put to. +If you refuse to come, Maud, mind the responsibility is yours--listen!" +and with white face and starting eyes she pointed to the wall. "Have you +ears; don't you hear?" + +The sight of a person in extremity of terror so mysterious, might have +unnerved a ruder system than Lady Walsingham's. She was pale as she +replied; for under certain circumstances those terrors which deal with +the supernatural are more contagious than any others. Lady Walsingham +still, in terms, held to her opinion; but although she tried to smile, +her face showed that the panic had touched her. + +"Well, dear Mary," she said, "as you will have it so, I see no good in +resisting you longer. Here, it is plain, your nerves will not suffer you +to rest. Let us go then, in heaven's name; and when you get to Mardykes +Hall you will be relieved." + +All this time Lady Haworth was getting on her things, with the careless +hurry of a person about to fly for her life; and Lady Walsingham issued +her orders for horses, and the general preparations for resuming the +journey. + +It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with +them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that +with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach +Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning. + +When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively +tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's +voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or +visitation had produced. + +Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something +like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the +darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady +Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the +distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by +no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her +sister's heart had touched her own. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Perplexed + +The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses +turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling +undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or +three stages. + +While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear, +and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more +anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way; +for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's +head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting +again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to +her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense. + +Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars +looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both +ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and +Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household. + +What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was +opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to +the carriage-window, not half awake. + +"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham. + +"Is Sir Bale well?" + +"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?" + +With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to +these questions which her sister hastily put. The answers were all +satisfactory. With a great sigh and a little laugh, Lady Walsingham +placed her hand affectionately on that of her sister; who, saying, "God +be thanked!" began to weep. + +"When had you last news from Mardykes?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +"A servant was down here about four o'clock." + +"O! no one since?" said she in a disappointed tone. + +No one had been from the great house since, but all were well then. + +"They are early people, you know, dear; and it is dark at four, and that +is as late as they could well have heard, and nothing could have +happened since--very unlikely. We have come very fast; it is only a few +minutes past two, darling." + +But each felt the chill and load of their returning anxiety. + +While the people at the George were rapidly getting a team of horses to, +Lady Walsingham contrived a moment for an order from the other window to +her servant, who knew Golden Friars perfectly, to knock-up the people at +Doctor Torvey's, and to inquire whether all were well at Mardykes Hall. + +There he learned that a messenger had come for Doctor Torvey at ten +o'clock, and that the Doctor had not returned since. There was no news, +however, of any one's being ill; and the Doctor himself did not know +what he was wanted about. While Lady Haworth was talking to her maid +from the window next the steps, Lady Walsingham was, unobserved, +receiving this information at the other. + +It made her very uncomfortable. + +In a few minutes more, however, with a team of fresh horses, they were +again rapidly passing the distance between them and Mardykes Hall. + +About two miles on, their drivers pulled-up, and they heard a voice +talking with them from the roadside. A servant from the Hall had been +sent with a note for Lady Walsingham, and had been ordered, if +necessary, to ride the whole way to the Three Nuns to deliver it. The +note was already in Lady Walsingham's hand; her sister sat beside her, +and with the corner of the open note in her fingers, she read it +breathlessly at the same time by the light of a carriage-lamp which the +man held to the window. It said: + + +My dearest love--my darling sister--dear sisters both!--in God's name, +lose not a moment. I am so overpowered and _terrified_. I cannot +explain; I can only implore of you to come with all the haste you can +make. Waste no time, darlings. I hardly understand what I write. Only +this, dear sisters; I feel that my reason will desert me, unless you +come soon. You will not fail me now. Your poor distracted + +JANET + +The sisters exchanged a pale glance, and Lady Haworth grasped her +sister's hand. + +"Where is the messenger?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +A mounted servant came to the window. + +"Is any one ill at home?" she asked. + +"No, all were well--my lady, and Sir Bale--no one sick." + +"But the Doctor was sent for; what was that for?" + +"I can't say, my lady." + +"You are quite certain that no one--think--_no_ one is ill?" + +"There is no one ill at the Hall, my lady, that I have heard of." + +"Is Lady Mardykes, my sister, still up?" + +"Yes, my lady; and her maid is with her." + +"And Sir Bale, are you certain he is quite well?" + +"Sir Bale is quite well, my lady; he has been busy settling papers +to-night, and was as well as usual." + +"That will do, thanks," said the perplexed lady; and to her own servant +she added, "On to Mardykes Hall with all the speed they can make. I'll +pay them well, tell them." + +And in another minute they were gliding along the road at a pace which +the muffled beating of the horses' hoofs on the thin sheet of snow that +covered the road showed to have broken out of the conventional trot, and +to resemble something more like a gallop. + +And now they were under the huge trees, that looked black as +hearse-plumes in contrast with the snow. The cold gleam of the lake in +the moon which had begun to shine out now met their gaze; and the +familiar outline of Snakes Island, its solemn timber bleak and leafless, +standing in a group, seemed to watch Mardykes Hall with a dismal +observation across the water. Through the gate and between the huge +files of trees the carriage seemed to fly; and at last the steaming +horses stood panting, nodding and snorting, before the steps in the +courtyard. + +There was a light in an upper window, and a faint light in the hall, the +door of which was opened; and an old servant came down and ushered the +ladies into the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +The Hour + +Lightly they stepped over the snow that lay upon the broad steps, and +entering the door saw the dim figure of their sister, already in the +large and faintly-lighted hall. One candle in the hand of her scared +maid, and one burning on the table, leaving the distant parts of that +great apartment in total darkness, touched the figures with the odd +sharp lights in which Schalken delights; and a streak of chilly +moonlight, through the open door, fell upon the floor, and was stretched +like a white sheet at her feet. Lady Mardykes, with an exclamation of +agitated relief, threw her arms, in turn, round the necks of her +sisters, and hugging them, kissed them again and again, murmuring her +thanks, calling them her "blessed sisters," and praising God for his +mercy in having sent them to her in time, and altogether in a rapture of +agitation and gratitude. + +Taking them each by a hand, she led them into a large room, on whose +panels they could see the faint twinkle of the tall gilded frames, and +the darker indication of the old portraits, in which that interesting +house abounds. The moonbeams, entering obliquely through the Tudor +stone-shafts of the window and thrown upon the floor, reflected an +imperfect light; and the candle which the maid who followed her mistress +held in her hand shone dimly from the sideboard, where she placed it. +Lady Mardykes told her that she need not wait. + +"They don't know; they know only that we are in some great confusion; +but--God have mercy on me!--nothing of the reality. Sit down, darlings; +you are tired." + +She sat down between them on a sofa, holding a hand of each. They sat +opposite the window, through which appeared the magnificent view +commanded from the front of the house: in the foreground the solemn +trees of Snakes Island, one great branch stretching upward, bare and +moveless, from the side, like an arm raised to heaven in wonder or in +menace towards the house; the lake, in part swept by the icy splendour +of the moon, trembling with a dazzling glimmer, and farther off lost in +blackness; the Fells rising from a base of gloom, into ribs and peaks +white with snow, and looking against the pale sky, thin and transparent +as a haze. Right across to the storied woods of Cloostedd, and the old +domains of the Feltrams, this view extended. + +Thus alone, their mufflers still on, their hands clasped in hers, they +breathlessly listened to her strange tale. + +Connectedly told it amounted to this: Sir Bale seemed to have been +relieved of some great anxiety about the time when, ten days before, he +had told her to invite her friends to Mardykes Hall. This morning he had +gone out for a walk with Trevor, his under-steward, to talk over some +plans about thinning the woods at this side; and also to discuss +practically a proposal, lately made by a wealthy merchant, to take a +very long lease, on advantageous terms to Sir Bale as he thought, of the +old park and chase of Cloostedd, with the intention of building there, +and making it once more a handsome residence. + +In the improved state of his spirits, Sir Bale had taken a shrewd +interest in this negotiation; and was actually persuaded to cross the +lake that morning with his adviser, and to walk over the grounds with +him. + +Sir Bale had seemed unusually well, and talked with great animation. He +was more like a young man who had just attained his majority, and for +the first time grasped his estates, than the grim elderly Baronet who +had been moping about Mardykes, and as much afraid as a cat of the +water, for so many years. + +As they were returning toward the boat, at the roots of that same +scathed elm whose barkless bough had seemed, in his former visit to this +old wood, to beckon him from a distance, like a skeleton arm, to enter +the forest, he and his companion on a sudden missed an old map of the +grounds which they had been consulting. + +"We must have left it in the corner tower of Cloostedd House, which +commands that view of the grounds, you remember; it would not do to lose +it. It is the most accurate thing we have. I'll sit down here and rest a +little till you come back." + +The man was absent little more than twenty minutes. When he returned, he +found that Sir Bale had changed his position, and was now walking to and +fro, around and about, in what, at a distance, he fancied was mere +impatience, on the open space a couple of hundred paces nearer to the +turn in the valley towards the boat. It was not impatience. He was +agitated. He looked pale, and he took his companion's arm--a thing he +had never thought of doing before--and said, "Let us away quickly. I've +something to tell at home,--and I forgot it." + +Not another word did Sir Bale exchange with his companion. He sat in the +stern of the boat, gloomy as a man about to glide under traitor's-gate. +He entered his house in the same sombre and agitated state. He entered +his library, and sat for a long time as if stunned. + +At last he seemed to have made-up his mind to something; and applied +himself quietly and diligently to arranging papers, and docketing some +and burning others. Dinner-time arrived. He sent to tell Lady Mardykes +that he should not join her at dinner, but would see her afterwards. + +"It was between eight and nine," she continued, "I forget the exact +time, when he came to the tower drawing-room where I was. I did not hear +his approach. There is a stone stair, with a thick carpet on it. He told +me he wished to speak to me there. It is an out-of-the-way place--a +small old room with very thick walls, and there is a double door, the +inner one of oak--I suppose he wished to guard against being overheard. + +"There was a look in his face that frightened me; I saw he had something +dreadful to tell. He looked like a man on whom a lot had fallen to put +some one to death," said Lady Mardykes. "O, my poor Bale! my husband, my +husband! he knew what it would be to me." + +Here she broke into the wildest weeping, and it was some time before she +resumed. + +"He seemed very kind and very calm," she said at last; "he said but +little; and, I think, these were his words: 'I find, Janet, I have made +a great miscalculation--I thought my hour of danger had passed. We have +been many years together, but a parting must sooner or later be, and my +time has come.' + +"I don't know what I said. I would not have so much minded--for I could +not have believed, if I had not seen him--but there was that in his look +and tone which no one could doubt. + +"'I shall die before to-morrow morning,' he said. 'You must command +yourself, Janet; it can't be altered now.' + +"'O, Bale,' I cried nearly distracted, 'you would not kill yourself!' + +"'Kill myself! poor child! no, indeed,' he said; 'it is simply that I +shall die. No violent death--nothing but the common subsidence of +life--I have made up my mind; what happens to everybody can't be so very +bad; and millions of worse men than I die every year. You must not +follow me to my room, darling; I shall see you by and by.' + +"His language was collected and even cold; but his face looked as if it +was cut in stone; you never saw, in a dream, a face like it." + +Lady Walsingham here said, "I am certain he is ill; he's in a fever. You +must not distract and torture yourself about his predictions. You sent +for Doctor Torvey; what did he say?" + +"I could not tell him all." + +"O, no; I don't mean that; they'd only say he was mad, and we little +better for minding what he says. But did the Doctor see him? and what +did he say of his health?" + +"Yes; he says there is nothing wrong--no fever--nothing whatever. Poor +Bale has been so kind; he saw him to please me," she sobbed again +wildly. "I wrote to implore of him. It was my last hope, strange as it +seems; and O, would to God I could think it! But there is nothing of +that kind. Wait till you have seen him. There is a frightful calmness +about all he says and does; and his directions are all so clear, and his +mind so perfectly collected, it is quite impossible." + +And poor Lady Mardykes again burst into a frantic agony of tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Sir Bale in the Gallery + +"Now, Janet darling, you are yourself low and nervous, and you treat +this fancy of Bale's as seriously as he does himself. The truth is, he +is a hypochondriac, as the doctors say; and you will find that I am +right; he will be quite well in the morning, and I daresay a little +ashamed of himself for having frightened his poor little wife as he has. +I will sit up with you. But our poor Mary is not, you know, very strong; +and she ought to lie down and rest a little. Suppose you give me a cup +of tea in the drawing-room. I will run up to my room and get these +things off, and meet you in the drawing-room; or, if you like it better, +you can sit with me in my own room; and for goodness' sake let us have +candles enough and a bright fire; and I promise you, if you will only +exert your own good sense, you shall be a great deal more cheerful in a +very little time." + +Lady Walsingham's address was kind and cheery, and her air confident. +For a moment a ray of hope returned, and her sister Janet acknowledged +at least the possibility of her theory. But if confidence is contagious, +so also is panic; and Lady Walsingham experienced a sinking of the heart +which she dared not confess to her sister, and vainly strove to combat. + +Lady Walsingham went up with her sister Mary, and having seen her in her +room, and spoken again to her in the same cheery tone in which she had +lectured her sister Lady Mardykes, she went on; and having taken +possession of her own room, and put off her cloaks and shawls, she was +going downstairs again, when she heard Sir Bale's voice, as he +approached along the gallery, issuing orders to a servant, as it seemed, +exactly in his usual tone. + +She turned, with a strange throb at her heart, and met him. + +A little sterner, a little paler than usual he looked; she could +perceive no other change. He took her hand kindly and held it, as with +dilated eyes he looked with a dark inquiry for a moment in her face. He +signed to the servant to go on, and said, "I'm glad you have come, Maud. +You have heard what is to happen; and I don't know how Janet could have +borne it without your support. You did right to come; and you'll stay +with her for a day or two, and take her away from this place as soon as +you can." + +She looked at him with the embarrassment of fear. He was speaking to her +with the calmness of a leave-taking in the pressroom--the serenity that +overlies the greatest awe and agony of which human nature is capable. + +"I am glad to see you, Bale," she began, hardly knowing what she said, +and she stopped short. + +"You are come, it turns out, on a sad mission," he resumed; "you find +all about to change. Poor Janet! it is a blow to her. I shall not live +to see to-morrow's sun." + +"Come," she said, startled, "you must not talk so. No, Bale, you have no +right to speak so; you can have no reason to justify it. It is cruel and +wicked to trifle with your wife's feelings. If you are under a delusion, +you must make an effort and shake it off, or, at least, cease to talk of +it. You are not well; I know by your looks you are ill; but I am very +certain we shall see you much better by tomorrow, and still better the +day following." + +"No, I'm not ill, sister. Feel that pulse, if you doubt me; there is no +fever in it. I never was more perfectly in health; and yet I know that +before the clock, that has just struck three, shall have struck five, I, +who am talking to you, shall be dead." + +Lady Walsingham was frightened, and her fear irritated her. + +"I have told you what I think and believe," she said vehemently. "I +think it wrong and cowardly of you to torture my poor sister with your +whimsical predictions. Look into your own mind, and you will see you +have absolutely no reason to support what you say. How _can_ you inflict +all this agony upon a poor creature foolish enough to love you as she +does, and weak enough to believe in your idle dreams?" + +"Stay, sister; it is not a matter to be debated so. If to-morrow I can +hear you, it will be time enough to upbraid me. Pray return now to your +sister; she needs all you can do for her. She is much to be pitied; her +sufferings afflict me. I shall see you and her again before my death. It +would have been more cruel to leave her unprepared. Do all in your power +to nerve and tranquillise her. What is past cannot now be helped." + +He paused, looking hard at her, as if he had half made up his mind to +say something more. But if there was a question of the kind, it was +determined in favour of silence. + +He dropped her hand, turned quickly, and left her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Dr. Torvey's Opinion + +When Lady Walsingham reached the head of the stairs, she met her maid, +and from her learned that her sister, Lady Mardykes, was downstairs in +the same room. On approaching, she heard her sister Mary's voice talking +with her, and found them together. Mary, finding that she could not +sleep, had put on her clothes again, and come down to keep her sister +company. The room looked more comfortable now. There were candles +lighted, and a good fire burnt in the grate; tea-things stood on a +little table near the fire, and the two sisters were talking, Lady +Mardykes appearing more collected, and only they two in the room. + +"Have you seen him, Maud?" cried Lady Mardykes, rising and hastily +approaching her the moment she entered. + +"Yes, dear; and talked with him, and----" + +"Well?" + +"And I think very much as I did before. I think he is nervous, he says +he is not ill; but he is nervous and whimsical, and as men always are +when they happen to be out of sorts, very positive; and of course the +only thing that can quite undeceive him is the lapse of the time he has +fixed for his prediction, as it is sure to pass without any tragic +result of any sort. We shall then all see alike the nature of his +delusion." + +"O, Maud, if I were only sure you thought so! if I were sure you really +had hopes! Tell me, Maud, for God's sake, what you really think." + +Lady Walsingham was a little disconcerted by the unexpected directness +of her appeal. + +"Come, darling, you must not be foolish," she said; "we can only talk of +impressions, and we are imposed upon by the solemnity of his manner, and +the fact that he evidently believes in his own delusion; every one does +believe in his own delusion--there is nothing strange in that." + +"O, Maud, I see you are not convinced; you are only trying to comfort +me. You have no hope--none, none, none!" and she covered her face with +her hands, and wept again convulsively. + +Lady Walsingham was silent for a moment, and then with an effort said, +as she placed her hand on her sister's arm, "You see, dear Janet, there +is no use in my saying the same thing over and over again; an hour or +two will show who is right. Sit down again, and be like yourself. My +maid told me that you had sent to the parlour for Doctor Torvey; he must +not find you so. What would he think? Unless you mean to tell him of +Bale's strange fancy; and a pretty story that would be to set afloat in +Golden Friars. I think I hear him coming." + +So, in effect, he was. Doctor Torvey--with the florid gravity of a man +who, having just swallowed a bottle of port, besides some glasses of +sherry, is admitted to the presence of ladies whom he respects--entered +the room, made what he called his "leg and his compliments," and awaited +the ladies' commands. + +"Sit down, Doctor Torvey," said Lady Walsingham, who in the incapacity +of her sister undertook the doing of the honours. "My sister, Lady +Mardykes, has got it into her head somehow that Sir Bale is ill. I have +been speaking to him; he certainly does not look very well, but he says +he is quite well. Do you think him well?--that is, we know you don't +think there is anything of importance amiss--but she wishes to know +whether you think him _perfectly_ well." + +The Doctor cleared his voice and delivered his lecture, a little thickly +at some words, upon Sir Bale's case; the result of which was that it was +no case at all; and that if he would only live something more of a +country gentleman's life, he would be as well as any man could +desire--as well as any man, gentle or simple, in the country. + +"The utmost I should think of doing for him would be, perhaps, a little +quinine, nothing mo'--shurely--he is really and toory a very shoun' +shtay of health." + +Lady Walsingham looked encouragingly at her sister and nodded. + +"I've been shen' for, La'y Walsh--Walse--Walsing--_ham_; old Jack +Amerald--he likshe his glass o' port," he said roguishly, "and shuvversh +accord'n'ly," he continued, with a compassionating paddle of his right +hand; "one of thoshe aw--odd feels in his stomach; and as I have pretty +well done all I can man-n'ge down here, I must be off, ye shee. Wind up +from Golden Friars, and a little flutter ovv zhnow, thazh all;" and with +some remarks about the extreme cold of the weather, and the severity of +their night journey, and many respectful and polite parting speeches, +the Doctor took his leave; and they soon heard the wheels of his gig and +the tread of his horse, faint and muffled from the snow in the +court-yard, and the Doctor, who had connected that melancholy and +agitated household with the outer circle of humanity, was gone. + +There was very little snow falling, half-a-dozen flakes now and again, +and their flight across the window showed, as the Doctor had in a manner +boasted, that the wind was in his face as he returned to Golden Friars. +Even these desultory snow-flakes ceased, at times, altogether; and +returning, as they say, "by fits and starts," left for long intervals +the landscape, under the brilliant light of the moon, in its wide white +shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed to +Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that Snakes +Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of the old +tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an assassin, +who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches. + +Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white +sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham. +The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense +overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and +listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were +overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them. +And thus an hour or more passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Hush! + +Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude +of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests +of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced +her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace. + +Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from +the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed +features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came +in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then, +having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he +stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold +forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the +room. + +Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of +mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened +the door and followed. + +She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from +the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister, +and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without +hurry, to ascend the second flight. + +With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him +at a distance. + +She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door. + +Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the +apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened +for what should pass. + +She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time, +and then, after a pause, a sound as if some one had thrown himself +heavily on the bed. A silence followed, during which her sisters, who +had followed more timidly, joined her. She warned them with a look and +gesture to be silent. + +Lady Haworth stood a little behind, her white lips moving, and her hands +clasped in a silent agony of prayer. Lady Mardykes leaned against the +massive oak door-case. + +With her hand raised to her ear, and her lips parted, Lady Walsingham +listened for some seconds--for a minute, two minutes, three. At last, +losing heart, she seized the handle in her panic, and turned it sharply. +The door was locked on the inside, but some one close to it said from +within, "Hush, hush!" + +Much alarmed now, the same lady knocked violently at the door. No answer +was returned. + +She knocked again more violently, and shook the door with all her +fragile force. It was something of horror in her countenance as she did +so, that, no doubt, terrified Lady Mardykes, who with a loud and long +scream sank in a swoon upon the floor. + +The servants, alarmed by these sounds, were speedily in the gallery. +Lady Mardykes was carried to her room, and laid upon her bed; her +sister, Lady Haworth, accompanying her. In the meantime the door was +forced. Sir Bale Mardykes was found stretched upon his bed. + +Those who have once seen it, will not mistake the aspect of death. Here, +in Sir Bale Mardykes' room, in his bed, in his clothes, is a stranger, +grim and awful; in a few days to be insupportable, and to pass alone +into the prison-house, and to be seen no more. + +Where is Sir Bale Mardykes now, whose roof-tree and whose place at board +and bed will know him no more? Here lies a chap-fallen, fish-eyed image, +chilling already into clay, and stiffening in every joint. + +There is a marble monument in the pretty church of Golden Friars. It +stands at the left side of what antiquarians call "the high altar." Two +pillars at each end support an arch with several armorial bearings on as +many shields sculptured above. Beneath, on a marble flooring raised some +four feet, with a cornice round, lies Sir Bale Mardykes, of Mardykes +Hall, ninth Baronet of that ancient family, chiseled in marble with +knee-breeches and buckled-shoes, and _ailes de pigeon_, and +single-breasted coat and long waist-coat, ruffles and sword, such as +gentlemen wore about the year 1770, and bearing a strong resemblance to +the features of the second Charles. On the broad marble which forms the +background is inscribed an epitaph, which has perpetuated to our times +the estimate formed by his "inconsolable widow," the Dowager Lady +Mardykes, of the virtues and accomplishments of her deceased lord. + +Lady Walsingham would have qualified two or three of the more +highly-coloured hyperboles, at which the Golden Friars of those days +sniffed and tittered. They don't signify now; there is no contemporary +left to laugh or whisper. And if there be not much that is true in the +letter of that inscription, it at least perpetuates something that _is_ +true--that wonderful glorificaion of partisanship, the affection of an +idolising wife. + +Lady Mardykes, a few days after the funeral, left Mardykes Hall for +ever. She lived a great deal with her sister, Lady Walsingham; and died, +as a line cut at the foot of Sir Bale Mardykes' epitaph records, in the +year 1790; her remains being laid beside those of her beloved husband in +Golden Friars. + +The estates had come to Sir Bale Mardykes free of entail. He had been +pottering over a will, but it was never completed, nor even quite +planned; and after much doubt and scrutiny, it was at last ascertained +that, in default of a will and of issue, a clause in the +marriage-settlement gave the entire estates to the Dowager Lady +Mardykes. + +By her will she bequeathed the estates to "her cousin, also a kinsman of +the late Sir Bale Mardykes her husband," William Feltram, on condition +of his assuming the name and arms of Mardykes, the arms of Feltram being +quartered in the shield. + +Thus was oddly fulfilled the prediction which Philip Feltram had +repeated, that the estates of Mardykes were to pass into the hands of a +Feltram. + +About the year 1795 the baronetage was revived, and William Feltram +enjoyed the title for fifteen years, as Sir William Mardykes. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. 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Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3{text-align: center;} + .ctr {text-align: center;} + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.full { width: 100%; + size: 5; } + BODY{margin-left: 10%;margin-right: 10%;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3</p> +<p>Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</p> +<p>Release Date: March 28, 2004 [eBook #11750]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3***</p> +<br> +<br> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<h1>J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES,<br> +VOLUME 3</h1> + +<h2>The Haunted Baronet (1871)</h2> + +<h2>by<br> +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<p> </p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<center> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I: <i>The George and Dragon</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II: <i>The Drowned Woman</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III: <i>Philip Feltram</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV: <i>The Baronet Appears</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V: <i>Mrs. Julaper's Room</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI: <i>The Intruder</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII: <i>The Bank Note</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII: <i>Feltram's Plan</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX: <i>The Crazy Parson</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X: <i>Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI: <i>Sir Bale's Dream</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII: <i>Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII: <i>The Mist on the Mountain</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV: <i>A New Philip Feltram</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV: <i>The Purse of Gold</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI: <i>The Message from Cloostedd</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII: <i>On the Course--Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII: <i>On the Lake, at Last</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX: <i>Mystagogus</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX: <i>The Haunted Forest</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI: <i>Rindermere</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII: <i>Sir Bale is Frightened</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII: <i>A Lady in Black</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV: <i>An Old Portrait</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV: <i>Through the Wall</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI: <i>Perplexed</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII: <i>The Hour</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII: <i>Sir Bale in the Gallery</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX: <i>Dr. Torvey's Opinion</i></b></a><br><br> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX: <i>Hush!</i></b></a> + </center> + + <p> </p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + <center> + <a href="#IMAGE_1"><b>"I sid something white come out o' t' water, by the +gunwale, like a hand."</b></a><br><br> + <a href="#IMAGE_2"><b>It was the figure of a slight tall man, with his arm +extended, as if pointing to a remote object.</b></a> + </center> + + <p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<h2>The Haunted Baronet</h2> +<br> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h4>CHAPTER I</h4> + +<i><b>The George and Dragon</b></i> + +<p>The pretty little town of Golden Friars—standing by the margin of the +lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint +and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow +windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old +church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like +silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw +moveless shadows upon the short level grass—is one of the most singular +and beautiful sights I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so +light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture +reflected on the thin mist of night.</p> + +<p>On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of +the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars, +with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in +England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin +running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other +side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful +wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St. +George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold.</p> + +<p>In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old +<i>habitués</i> of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the +fatigues of the day.</p> + +<p>This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in +summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a +fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a +pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the +room too hot.</p> + +<p>On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew the +weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed with each +inhabitant—a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite for all +sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a tumbler +of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it. Beside him +sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for more than +thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the last man in +Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an ex-captain of the +navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its wooden companion +beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the old-fashioned navy way, +and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the middle, opposite the +hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and smoked his pipe, looking +serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the George and Dragon every +now and then strutted in, and sat down in the high-backed wooden +arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned republican ways of the place, +and took his share in the talk gravely, and was heartily welcome.</p> + +<p>"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any +more you heard since."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George. "Nothing +to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house won't +look so dowly now."</p> + +<p>"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time, hey?" +said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking.</p> + +<p>"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to +<i>you</i>, mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right +in time."</p> + +<p>"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another +grave nod.</p> + +<p>"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream of +smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here to save a +little, and perhaps he'll marry; and it is the more creditable, if, as +they say, he dislikes the place, and would prefer staying where he is."</p> + +<p>And having spoken thus gently, Mr. Peers resumed his pipe cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"No, he don't like the place; that is, I'm told he <i>didn't</i>," said the +innkeeper.</p> + +<p>"He <i>hates</i> it," said the Doctor with another dark nod.</p> + +<p>"And no wonder, if all's true I've heard," cried old Jack Amerald. +"Didn't he drown a woman and her child in the lake?"</p> + +<p>"Hollo! my dear boy, don't let them hear you say that; you're all in the +clouds."</p> + +<p>"By Jen!" exclaimed the landlord after an alarmed silence, with his +mouth and eyes open, and his pipe in his hand, "why, sir, I pay rent for +the house up there. I'm thankful—dear knows, I <i>am</i> thankful—we're all +to ourselves!"</p> + +<p>Jack Amerald put his foot on the floor, leaving his wooden leg in its +horizontal position, and looked round a little curiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, if it wasn't him, it was some one else. I'm sure it happened up +at Mardykes. I took the bearings on the water myself from Glads Scaur to +Mardykes Jetty, and from the George and Dragon sign down here—down to +the white house under Forrick Fells. I could fix a buoy over the very +spot. Some one here told me the bearings, I'd take my oath, where the +body was seen; and yet no boat could ever come up with it; and that was +queer, you know, so I clapt it down in my log."</p> + +<p>"Ay, sir, there <i>was</i> some flummery like that, Captain," said Turnbull; +"for folk will be gabbin'. But 'twas his grandsire was talked o', not +him; and 'twould play the hangment wi' me doun here, if 'twas thought +there was stories like that passin' in the George and Dragon.'</p> + +<p>"Well, his grandfather; 'twas all one to him, I take it."</p> + +<p>"There never was no proof, Captain, no more than smoke; and the family +up at Mardykes wouldn't allow the king to talk o' them like that, sir; +for though they be lang deod that had most right to be angered in the +matter, there's none o' the name but would be half daft to think 'twas +still believed, and he full out as mich as any. Not that I need care +more than another, though they do say he's a bit frowsy and +short-waisted; for he can't shouther me out o' the George while I pay my +rent, till nine hundred and ninety-nine year be rin oot; and a man, be +he ne'er sa het, has time to cool before then. But there's no good +quarrellin' wi' teathy folk; and it may lie in his way to do the George +mony an ill turn, and mony a gude one; an' it's only fair to say it +happened a long way before he was born, and there's no good in vexin' +him; and I lay ye a pound, Captain, the Doctor hods wi' me."</p> + +<p>The Doctor, whose business was also sensitive, nodded; and then he said, +"But for all that, the story's old, Dick Turnbull—older than you or I, +my jolly good friend."</p> + +<p>"And best forgotten," interposed the host of the George.</p> + +<p>"Ay, best forgotten; but that it's not like to be," said the Doctor, +plucking up courage. "Here's our friend the Captain has heard it; and +the mistake he has made shows there's one thing worse than its being +quite remembered, and that is, its being <i>half</i> remembered. We can't +stop people talking; and a story like that will see us all off the +hooks, and be in folks' mouths, still, as strong as ever."</p> + +<p>"Ay; and now I think on it, 'twas Dick Harman that has the boat down +there—an old tar like myself—that told me that yarn. I was trying for +pike, and he pulled me over the place, and that's how I came to hear it. +I say, Tom, my hearty, serve us out another glass of brandy, will you?" +shouted the Captain's voice as the waiter crossed the room; and that +florid and grizzled naval hero clapped his leg again on the chair by its +wooden companion, which he was wont to call his jury-mast.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do believe it will be spoke of longer than we are like to +hear," said the host, "and I don't much matter the story, if it baint +told o' the wrong man." Here he touched his tumbler with the spoon, +indicating by that little ring that Tom, who had returned with the +Captain's grog, was to replenish it with punch. "And Sir Bale is like to +be a friend to this house. I don't see no reason why he shouldn't. The +George and Dragon has bin in our family ever since the reign of King +Charles the Second. It was William Turnbull in that time, which they +called it the Restoration, he taking the lease from Sir Tony Mardykes +that was then. They was but knights then. They was made baronets first +in the reign of King George the Second; you may see it in the list of +baronets and the nobility. The lease was made to William Turnbull, which +came from London; and he built the stables, which they was out o' +repair, as you may read to this day in the lease; and the house has +never had but one sign since—the George and Dragon, it is pretty well +known in England—and one name to its master. It has been owned by a +Turnbull from that day to this, and they have not been counted bad men." +A murmur of applause testified the assent of his guests. "They has been +steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best +o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard +Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power +to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and +the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the +green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate. So 'tis +nout to me, except in the way o' friendliness, what the family may think +o' me; only the George and they has always been kind and friendly, and I +don't want to break the old custom."</p> + +<p>"Well said, Dick!" exclaimed Doctor Torvey; "I own to your conclusion; +but there ain't a soul here but ourselves—and we're all friends, and +you are your own master—and, hang it, you'll tell us that story about +the drowned woman, as you heard it from your father long ago."</p> + +<p>"Ay, do, and keep us to our liquor, my hearty!" cried the Captain.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peers looked his entreaty; and deaf Mr. Hollar, having no interest +in the petition, was at least a safe witness, and, with his pipe in his +lips, a cozy piece of furniture.</p> + +<p>Richard Turnbull had his punch beside him; he looked over his shoulder. +The door was closed, the fire was cheery, and the punch was fragrant, +and all friendly faces about him. So said he:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, as you're pleased to wish it, I don't see no great harm in +it; and at any rate, 'twill prevent mistakes. It is more than ninety +years since. My father was but a boy then; and many a time I have heard +him tell it in this very room."</p> + +<p>And looking into his glass he mused, and stirred his punch slowly.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h4>CHAPTER II</h4> + +<i><b>The Drowned Woman</b></i> + +<p>"It ain't much of a homminy," said the host of the George. "I'll not +keep you long over it, gentlemen. There was a handsome young lady, Miss +Mary Feltram o' Cloostedd by name. She was the last o' that family; and +had gone very poor. There's but the walls o' the house left now; grass +growing in the hall, and ivy over the gables; there's no one livin' has +ever hard tell o' smoke out o' they chimblies. It stands on t'other side +o' the lake, on the level wi' a deal o' a'ad trees behint and aside it +at the gap o' the clough, under the pike o' Maiden Fells. Ye may see it +wi' a spyin'-glass from the boatbield at Mardykes Hall."</p> + +<p>"I've been there fifty times," said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Well there was dealin's betwixt the two families; and there's good and +bad in every family; but the Mardykes, in them days, was a wild lot. And +when old Feltram o' Cloostedd died, and the young lady his daughter was +left a ward o' Sir Jasper Mardykes—an ill day for her, poor +lass!--twenty year older than her he was, an' more; and nothin' about +him, they say, to make anyone like or love him, ill-faur'd and little +and dow."</p> + +<p>"Dow—that's gloomy," Doctor Torvey instructed the Captain aside.</p> + +<p>"But they do say, they has an old blud-stean ring in the family that +has a charm in't; and happen how it might, the poor lass fell in love +wi' him. Some said they was married. Some said it hang'd i' the +bell-ropes, and never had the priest's blessing; but anyhow, married or +no, there was talk enough amang the folk, and out o' doors she would na +budge. And there was two wee barns; and she prayed him hard to confess +the marriage, poor thing! But t'was a bootlese bene, and he would not +allow they should bear his name, but their mother's; he was a hard man, +and hed the bit in his teeth, and went his ain gait. And having tired of +her, he took in his head to marry a lady of the Barnets, and it behoved +him to be shut o' her and her children; and so she nor them was seen no +more at Mardykes Hall. And the eldest, a boy, was left in care of my +grandfather's father here in the George."</p> + +<p>"That queer Philip Feltram that's travelling with Sir Bale so long is a +descendant of his?" said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Grandson," observed Mr. Peers, removing his pipe for a moment; "and is +the last of that stock."</p> + +<p>"Well, no one could tell where she had gone to. Some said to distant +parts, some said to the madhouse, some one thing, some another; but +neither she nor the barn was ever seen or spoke to by the folk at +Mardykes in life again. There was one Mr. Wigram that lived in them +times down at Moultry, and had sarved, like the Captain here, in the +king's navy in his day; and early of a morning down he comes to the town +for a boat, sayin' he was looking towards Snakes Island through his +spyin'-glass, and he seen a woman about a hundred and fifty yards +outside of it; the Captain here has heard the bearings right enough. +From her hips upwards she was stark and straight out o' the water, and a +baby in her arms. Well, no one else could see it, nor he neither, when +they went down to the boat. But next morning he saw the same thing, and +the boatman saw it too; and they rowed for it, both pulling might and +main; but after a mile or so they could see it no more, and gave over. +The next that saw it was the vicar, I forget his name now—but he was up +the lake to a funeral at Mortlock Church; and coming back with a bit of +a sail up, just passin' Snakes Island, what should they hear on a sudden +but a wowl like a death-cry, shrill and bleak, as made the very blood +hoot in their veins; and looking along the water not a hundred yards +away, saw the same grizzled sight in the moonlight; so they turned the +tiller, and came near enough to see her face—blea it was, and drenched +wi' water—and she was above the lake to her middle, stiff as a post, +holdin' the weeny barn out to them, and flyrin' [smiling scornfully] on +them as they drew nigh her. They were half-frighted, not knowing what to +make of it; but passing as close as the boatman could bring her side, +the vicar stretched over the gunwale to catch her, and she bent forward, +pushing the dead bab forward; and as she did, on a sudden she gave a +yelloch that scared them, and they saw her no more. 'Twas no livin' +woman, for she couldn't rise that height above the water, as they well +knew when they came to think; and knew it was a dobby they saw; and ye +may be sure they didn't spare prayer and blessin', and went on their +course straight before the wind; for neither would a-took the worth o' +all the Mardykes to look sich a freetin' i' the face again. 'Twas seen +another time by market-folk crossin' fra Gyllenstan in the self-same +place; and Snakes Island got a bad neam, and none cared to go nar it +after nightfall."</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything of that Feltram that has been with him abroad?" +asked the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"They say he's no good at anything—a harmless mafflin; he was a long +gaumless gawky when he went awa," said Richard Turnbull. "The Feltrams +and the Mardykes was sib, ye know; and that made what passed in the +misfortune o' that young lady spoken of all the harder; and this young +man ye speak of is a grandson o' the lad that was put here in care o' my +grandfather."</p> + +<p>"<i>Great</i>-grandson. His father was grandson," said Mr. Peers; "he held a +commission in the army and died in the West Indies. This Philip Feltram +is the last o' that line—illegitimate, you know, it is held—and the +little that remained of the Feltram property went nearly fourscore years +ago to the Mardykes, and this Philip is maintained by Sir Bale; it is +pleasant, notwithstanding all the stories one hears, gentlemen, that the +only thing we know of him for certain should be so creditable to his +kindness."</p> + +<p>"To be sure," acquiesced Mr. Turnbull.</p> + +<p>While they talked the horn sounded, and the mail-coach drew up at the +door of the George and Dragon to set down a passenger and his luggage.</p> + +<p>Dick Turnbull rose and went out to the hall with careful bustle, and +Doctor Torvey followed as far as the door, which commanded a view of it, +and saw several trunks cased in canvas pitched into the hall, and by +careful Tom and a boy lifted one on top of the other, behind the corner +of the banister. It would have been below the dignity of his cloth to go +out and read the labels on these, or the Doctor would have done +otherwise, so great was his curiosity.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h4>CHAPTER III</h4> + +<i><b>Philip Feltram</b></i> + +<p>The new guest was now in the hall of the George, and Doctor Torvey could +hear him talking with Mr. Turnbull. Being himself one of the dignitaries +of Golden Friars, the Doctor, having regard to first impressions, did +not care to be seen in his post of observation; and closing the door +gently, returned to his chair by the fire, and in an under-tone informed +his cronies that there was a new arrival in the George, and he could not +hear, but would not wonder if he were taking a private room; and he +seemed to have trunks enough to build a church with.</p> + +<p>"Don't be too sure we haven't Sir Bale on board," said Amerald, who +would have followed his crony the Doctor to the door—for never was +retired naval hero of a village more curious than he—were it not that +his wooden leg made a distinct pounding on the floor that was inimical, +as experience had taught him, to mystery.</p> + +<p>"That can't be," answered the Doctor; "Charley Twyne knows everything +about it, and has a letter every second day; and there's no chance of +Sir Bale before the tenth; this is a tourist, you'll find. I don't know +what the d---l keeps Turnbull; he knows well enough we are all naturally +willing to hear who it is."</p> + +<p>"Well, he won't trouble us here, I bet ye;" and catching deaf Mr. +Hollar's eye, the Captain nodded, and pointed to the little table beside +him, and made a gesture imitative of the rattling of a dice-box; at +which that quiet old gentleman also nodded sunnily; and up got the +Captain and conveyed the backgammon-box to the table, near Hollar's +elbow, and the two worthies were soon sinc-ducing and catre-acing, with +the pleasant clatter that accompanies that ancient game. Hollar had +thrown sizes and made his double point, and the honest Captain, who +could stand many things better than Hollar's throwing such throws so +early in the evening, cursed his opponent's luck and sneered at his +play, and called the company to witness, with a distinctness which a +stranger to smiling Hollar's deafness would have thought hardly civil; +and just at this moment the door opened, and Richard Turnbull showed his +new guest into the room, and ushered him to a vacant seat near the other +corner of the table before the fire.</p> + +<p>The stranger advanced slowly and shyly, with something a little +deprecatory in his air, to which a lathy figure, a slight stoop, and a +very gentle and even heartbroken look in his pale long face, gave a more +marked character of shrinking and timidity.</p> + +<p>He thanked the landlord aside, as it were, and took his seat with a +furtive glance round, as if he had no right to come in and intrude upon +the happiness of these honest gentlemen.</p> + +<p>He saw the Captain scanning him from under his shaggy grey eyebrows +while he was pretending to look only at his game; and the Doctor was +able to recount to Mrs. Torvey when he went home every article of the +stranger's dress.</p> + +<p>It was odd and melancholy as his peaked face.</p> + +<p>He had come into the room with a short black cloak on, and a rather tall +foreign felt hat, and a pair of shiny leather gaiters or leggings on his +thin legs; and altogether presented a general resemblance to the +conventional figure of Guy Fawkes.</p> + +<p>Not one of the company assembled knew the appearance of the Baronet. The +Doctor and old Mr. Peers remembered something of his looks; and +certainly they had no likeness, but the reverse, to those presented by +the new-comer. The Baronet, as now described by people who had chanced +to see him, was a dark man, not above the middle size, and with a +certain decision in his air and talk; whereas this person was tall, +pale, and in air and manner feeble. So this broken trader in the world's +commerce, with whom all seemed to have gone wrong, could not possibly be +he.</p> + +<p>Presently, in one of his stealthy glances, the Doctor's eye encountered +that of the stranger, who was by this time drinking his tea—a thin and +feminine liquor little used in that room.</p> + +<p>The stranger did not seem put out; and the Doctor, interpreting his look +as a permission to converse, cleared his voice, and said urbanely,</p> + +<p>"We have had a little frost by night, down here, sir, and a little fire +is no great harm—it is rather pleasant, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>The stranger bowed acquiescence with a transient wintry smile, and +looked gratefully on the fire.</p> + +<p>"This place is a good deal admired, sir, and people come a good way to +see it; you have been here perhaps before?"</p> + +<p>"Many years ago."</p> + +<p>Here was another pause.</p> + +<p>"Places change imperceptibly—in detail, at least—a good deal," said +the Doctor, making an effort to keep up a conversation that plainly +would not go on of itself; "and people too; population shifts—there's +an old fellow, sir, they call <i>Death</i>."</p> + +<p>"And an old fellow they call the <i>Doctor</i>, that helps him," threw in the +Captain humorously, allowing his attention to get entangled in the +conversation, and treating them to one of his tempestuous ha-ha-ha's.</p> + +<p>"We are expecting the return of a gentleman who would be a very leading +member of our little society down here," said the Doctor, not noticing +the Captain's joke. "I mean Sir Bale Mardykes. Mardykes Hall is a pretty +object from the water, sir, and a very fine old place."</p> + +<p>The melancholy stranger bowed slightly, but rather in courtesy to the +relator, it seemed, than that the Doctor's lore interested him much.</p> + +<p>"And on the opposite side of the lake," continued Doctor Torvey, "there +is a building that contrasts very well with it—the old house of the +Feltrams—quite a ruin now, at the mouth of the glen—Cloostedd House, a +very picturesque object."</p> + +<p>"Exactly opposite," said the stranger dreamily, but whether in the tone +of acquiescence or interrogatory, the Doctor could not be quite sure.</p> + +<p>"That was one of our great families down here that has disappeared. It +has dwindled down to nothing."</p> + +<p>"Duce ace," remarked Mr. Hollar, who was attending to his game.</p> + +<p>"While others have mounted more suddenly and amazingly still," observed +gentle Mr. Peers, who was great upon county genealogies.</p> + +<p>"Sizes!" thundered the Captain, thumping the table with an oath of +disgust.</p> + +<p>"And Snakes Island is a very pretty object; they say there used to be +snakes there," said the Doctor, enlightening the visitor.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that's a mistake," said the dejected guest, making his first +original observation. "It should be spelt <i>Snaiks</i>. In the old papers it +is called Sen-aiks Island from the seven oaks that grew in a clump +there."</p> + +<p>"Hey? that's very curious, egad! I daresay," said the Doctor, set right +thus by the stranger, and eyeing him curiously.</p> + +<p>"Very true, sir," observed Mr. Peers; "three of those oaks, though, two +of them little better than stumps, are there still; and Clewson of +Heckleston has an old document——"</p> + +<p>Here, unhappily, the landlord entered the room in a fuss, and walking up +to the stranger, said, "The chaise is at the door, Mr. Feltram, and the +trunks up, sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Feltram rose quietly and took out his purse, and said,</p> + +<p>"I suppose I had better pay at the bar?"</p> + +<p>"As you like best, sir," said Richard Turnbull.</p> + +<p>Mr. Feltram bowed all round to the gentlemen, who smiled, ducked or +waved their hands; and the Doctor fussily followed him to the hall-door, +and welcomed him back to Golden Friars—there was real kindness in this +welcome—and proffered his broad brown hand, which Mr. Feltram took; and +then he plunged into his chaise, and the door being shut, away he +glided, chaise, horses, and driver, like shadows, by the margin of the +moonlighted lake, towards Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>And after a few minutes' stand upon the steps, looking along the shadowy +track of the chaise, they returned to the glow of the room, in which a +pleasant perfume of punch still prevailed; and beside Mr. Philip +Feltram's deserted tea-things, the host of the George enlightened his +guests by communicating freely the little he had picked up. The +principal fact he had to tell was, that Sir Bale adhered strictly to his +original plan, and was to arrive on the tenth. A few days would bring +them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its +interest. But in the meantime, all Golden Friars was anxious to see what +Sir Bale Mardykes was like.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> + +<i><b>The Baronet Appears</b></i> + +<p>As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach +of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a +depressing and agitating influence announced the coming of the +long-absent Baronet.</p> + +<p>From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a +great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that +unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely awful.</p> + +<p>Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, +as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity +to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their +hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew +mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention +of his name, nevertheless an interval of silence softened matters a +little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time.</p> + +<p>Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried +consultations held in many households. And though he was tried and +sentenced by drum-head over some austere hearths, as a rule the law of +gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser about it, +and county people within the visiting radius paid their respects at the +Hall.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout +short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and +taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, +with his fat and garrulous wife on his arm.</p> + +<p>The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the +lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed and purple mountains.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and +ornaments, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then +she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect. She wished to +stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything.</p> + +<p>You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such +strange tales of his doings.</p> + +<p>She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened +for the step of the truant Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly +beauty and fascination.</p> + +<p>She sustained a slight shock when he did appear.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a +middle-aged man—and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking +man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly +made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and +animation of Versailles, and an evident cultivation of the art of +pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable gravity, not to say gloom, +of countenance—the only feature of which that struck her being a pair +of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the +ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person +who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but +who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not.</p> + +<p>He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile—not +even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and +did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; +and there was a suspicion of sarcasm in what he said that the rustic +literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect.</p> + +<p>"I believe I have not a clergyman but <i>you</i>, sir, within any reasonable +distance?"</p> + +<p>"Golden Friars <i>is</i> the nearest," said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her +pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. "And southwards, +the nearest is Wyllarden—and by a bird's flight that is thirteen miles +and a half, and by the road more than nineteen—twenty, I may say, by +the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman."</p> + +<p>"Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The +road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to +make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of +points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or +who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's +end."</p> + +<p>"That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. +That's what Martin thinks—don't we, Martin?—And then, you know, coming +home is the time you <i>are</i> in a hurry—when you are thinking of your cup +of tea and the children; and <i>then</i>, you know, you have the fall of the +ground all in your favour."</p> + +<p>"It's well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there +are children?"</p> + +<p>"A good many," said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a +nod; "you wouldn't guess how many."</p> + +<p>"Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all."</p> + +<p>"That's very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at +<i>one</i> bout; there are—tell him, Martin—ha, ha, ha! there are eleven."</p> + +<p>"It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage," said Sir Bale +graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, "But how unequally +blessings are divided! You have eleven, and I not one—that I'm aware +of."</p> + +<p>"And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and +then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the +other side, before you reach Fottrell—and that is twenty-five miles by +the road——"</p> + +<p>"Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning +that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly +clergymen grow also down here—in one sense," he added politely, for the +vicar was stout.</p> + +<p>"We were looking out of the window—we amused ourselves that way before +you came—and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this +side; your view of the lake and the fells—what mountains they are, Sir +Bale!"</p> + +<p>"'Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder with a charge +of duck-shot, and I shouldn't be stifled by them long. But I suppose, as +we can't get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are +pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling."</p> + +<p>"I know you don't think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn't take a +good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall."</p> + +<p>"You can't get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those +frightful mountains," he said with a peevish frown at them.</p> + +<p>"Well, the lake at all events—that you <i>must</i> admire, Sir Bale?"</p> + +<p>"No ma'am, I don't admire the lake. I'd drain the lake if I could—I +hate the lake. There's nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren +mountains. I can't conceive what possessed my people to build our house +down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious +fish it is—pike! I don't know how people digest it—<i>I</i> can't. I'd as +soon think of eating a watchman's pike."</p> + +<p>"I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired +a great liking for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal +of it on the Continent, ain't there?" said Mrs. Bedel. "And the +boating."</p> + +<p>"Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don't you +think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the +shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we +have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I +hate boating, and I hate the water; and I'd rather have my house, like +Haworth, at the edge of a moss, with good wholesome peat to look at, and +an open horizon—savage and stupid and bleak as all that is—than be +suffocated among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and +drowned like a kitten. O, there's luncheon in the next room; won't you +take some?"</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h4>CHAPTER V</h4> + +<i><b>Mrs. Julaper's Room</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes being now established in his ancestral house, people +had time to form conclusions respecting him. It must be allowed he was +not popular. There was, perhaps, in his conduct something of the caprice +of contempt. At all events his temper and conduct were uncertain, and +his moods sometimes violent and insulting.</p> + +<p>With respect to but one person was his conduct uniform, and that was +Philip Feltram. He was a sort of aide-de-camp near Sir Bale's person, +and chargeable with all the commissions and offices which could not be +suitably intrusted to a mere servant. But in many respects he was +treated worse than any servant of the Baronet's. Sir Bale swore at him, +and cursed him; laid the blame of everything that went wrong in house, +stable, or field upon his shoulders; railed at him, and used him, as +people said, worse than a dog.</p> + +<p>Why did Feltram endure this contumelious life? What could he do but +endure it? was the answer. What was the power that induced strong +soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to +be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with +an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of +an unconscious calculation of chances which satisfies them that it is +ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the +alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with +each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one +knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what +they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but +quite irresistible power.</p> + +<p>A man of spirit would rather break stones on the highway than eat that +bitter bread, was the burden of every man's song on Feltram's bondage. +But he was not so sure that even the stone-breaker's employment was open +to him, or that he could break stones well enough to retain it on a fair +trial. And he had other ideas of providing for himself, and a different +alternative in his mind.</p> + +<p>Good-natured Mrs. Julaper, the old housekeeper at Mardykes Hall, was +kind to Feltram, as to all others who lay in her way and were in +affliction.</p> + +<p>She was one of those good women whom Nature provides to receive the +burden of other people's secrets, as the reeds did long ago, only that +no chance wind could steal them away, and send them singing into strange +ears.</p> + +<p>You may still see her snuggery in Mardykes Hall, though the +housekeeper's room is now in a different part of the house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper's room was in the oldest quarter of that old house. It was +wainscoted, in black panels, up to the ceiling, which was stuccoed over +in the fanciful diagrams of James the First's time. Several dingy +portraits, banished from time to time from other statelier rooms, found +a temporary abode in this quiet spot, where they had come finally to +settle and drop out of remembrance. There is a lady in white satin and a +ruff; a gentleman whose legs have faded out of view, with a peaked +beard, and a hawk on his wrist. There is another in a black periwig lost +in the dark background, and with a steel cuirass, the gleam of which out +of the darkness strikes the eye, and a scarf is dimly discoverable +across it. This is that foolish Sir Guy Mardykes, who crossed the Border +and joined Dundee, and was shot through the temple at Killiecrankie and +whom more prudent and whiggish scions of the Mardykes family removed +forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from +which he has not since emerged.</p> + +<p>At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you +find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony +before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the +cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision.</p> + +<p>There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her <i>Whole Duty of +Man</i>, and her <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>; and, in a file beside them, her +books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes, +cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the +Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would +nowadays give an eye or a hand.</p> + +<p>Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs, +and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him +a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of +coffee, or some little dainty.</p> + +<p>"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor +devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not +it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I +think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing. +I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind. +I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer."</p> + +<p>"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember +you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he. +They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one +minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the +tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard +words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea—ye like a cup o' +tea—and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see +how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening."</p> + +<p>She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff +in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on +him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a +delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with +so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as +she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little +apples.</p> + +<p>"Look out, I say," and she nodded towards the window, deep set in the +thick wall. "See how bright and soft everything looks in that pleasant +light; <i>that's</i> better, child, than the finest picture man's hand ever +painted yet, and God gives it us for nothing; and how pretty Snakes +Island glows up in that light!"</p> + +<p>The dejected man, hardly raising his head, followed with his eyes the +glance of the old woman, and looked mournfully through the window.</p> + +<p>"That island troubles me, Mrs. Julaper."</p> + +<p>"Everything troubles you, my poor goose-cap. I'll pull your lug for ye, +child, if ye be so dowly;" and with a mimic pluck the good-natured old +housekeeper pinched his ear and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I'll go to the still-room now, where the water's boiling, and I'll make +a cup of tea; and if I find ye so dow when I come back, I'll throw it +all out o' the window, mind."</p> + +<p>It was indeed a beautiful picture that Feltram saw in its deep frame of +old masonry. The near part of the lake was flushed all over with the low +western light; the more distant waters lay dark in the shadow of the +mountains; and against this shadow of purple the rocks on Snakes Island, +illuminated by the setting sun, started into sharp clear yellow.</p> + +<p>But this beautiful view had no charm—at least, none powerful enough to +master the latent horror associated with its prettiest feature—for the +weak and dismal man who was looking at it; and being now alone, he rose +and leant on the window, and looked out, and then with a kind of shudder +clutching his hands together, and walking distractedly about the room.</p> + +<p>Without his perceiving, while his back was turned, the housekeeper came +back; and seeing him walking in this distracted way, she thought to +herself, as he leant again upon the window:</p> + +<p>"Well, it <i>is</i> a burning shame to worrit any poor soul into that state. +Sir Bale was always down on someone or something, man or beast; there +always was something he hated, and could never let alone. It was not +pretty; it was his nature. Happen, poor fellow, he could not help it; +but so it was."</p> + +<p>A maid came in and set the tea-things down; and Mrs. Julaper drew her +sad guest over by the arm, and made him sit down, and she said: "What +has a man to do, frettin' in that way? By Jen, I'm ashamed o' ye, Master +Philip! Ye like three lumps o' sugar, I think, and—look cheerful, ye +must!--a good deal o' cream?"</p> + +<p>"You're so kind, Mrs. Julaper, you're so cheery. I feel quite +comfortable after awhile when I'm with you; I feel quite happy," and he +began to cry.</p> + +<p>She understood him very well by this time and took no notice, but went +on chatting gaily, and made his tea as he liked it; and he dried his +tears hastily, thinking she had not observed.</p> + +<p>So the clouds began to clear. This innocent fellow liked nothing better +than a cup of tea and a chat with gentle and cheery old Mrs. Julaper, +and a talk in which the shadowy old times which he remembered as a child +emerged into sunlight and lived again.</p> + +<p>When he began to feel better, drawn into the kindly old times by the +tinkle of that harmless old woman's tongue, he said:</p> + +<p>"I sometimes think I would not so much mind—I should not care so +much—if my spirits were not so depressed, and I so agitated. I suppose +I am not quite well."</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me what's wrong, child, and it's odd but I have a recipe on +the shelf there that will do you good."</p> + +<p>"It is not a matter of that sort I mean; though I'd rather have you than +any doctor, if I needed medicine, to prescribe for me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper smiled in spite of herself, well pleased; for her skill in +pharmacy was a point on which the good lady prided herself, and was open +to flattery, which, without intending it, the simple fellow +administered.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm well enough; I can't say I ever was better. It is only, ma'am, +that I have such dreams—you have no idea."</p> + +<p>"There are dreams and dreams, my dear: there's some signifies no more +than the babble of the lake down there on the pebbles, and there's +others that has a meaning; there's dreams that is but vanity, and +there's dreams that is good, and dreams that is bad. Lady +Mardykes—heavens be her bed this day! that's his grandmother I +mean—was very sharp for reading dreams. Take another cup of tea. Dear +me! what a noise the crows keep aboon our heads, going home! and how +high they wing it!--that's a sure sign of fine weather. An' what do you +dream about? Tell me your dream, and I may show you it's a good one, +after all. For many a dream is ugly to see and ugly to tell, and a good +dream, with a happy meaning, for all that."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> + +<i><b>The Intruder</b></i> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Julaper, dreams I've dreamed like other people, old and +young; but this, ma'am, has taken a fast hold of me," said Mr. Feltram +dejectedly, leaning back in his chair and looking down with his hands in +his pockets. "I think, Mrs. Julaper, it is getting into me. I think it's +like possession."</p> + +<p>"Possession, child! what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I think there is something trying to influence me. Perhaps it is the +way fellows go mad; but it won't let me alone. I've seen it three times, +think of that!"</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, and what <i>have</i> ye seen?" she asked, with an uneasy +cheerfulness, smiling, with eyes fixed steadily upon him; for the idea +of a madman—even gentle Philip in that state—was not quieting.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember the picture, full-length, that had no frame—the lady +in the white-satin saque—she was beautiful, <i>funeste</i>," he added, +talking more to himself; and then more distinctly to Mrs. Julaper +again——"in the white-satin saque; and with the little mob cap and blue +ribbons to it, and a bouquet in her fingers; that was—that—you know +who she was?"</p> + +<p>"That was your great-grandmother, my dear," said Mrs. Julaper, lowering +her eyes. "It was a dreadful pity it was spoiled. The boys in the pantry +had it for a year there on the table for a tray, to wash the glasses on +and the like. It was a shame; that was the prettiest picture in the +house, with the gentlest, rosiest face."</p> + +<p>"It ain't so gentle or rosy now, I can tell you," said Philip. "As fixed +as marble; with thin lips, and a curve at the nostril. Do you remember +the woman that was found dead in the clough, when I was a boy, that the +gipsies murdered, it was thought,—a cruel-looking woman?"</p> + +<p>"Agoy! Master Philip, dear! ye would not name that terrible-looking +creature with the pretty, fresh, kindly face!"</p> + +<p>"Faces change, you see; no matter what she's like; it's her talk that +frightens me. She wants to make use of me; and, you see, it is like +getting a share in my mind, and a voice in my thoughts, and a command +over me gradually; and it is just one idea, as straight as a line of +light across the lake—see what she's come to. O Lord, help me!"</p> + +<p>"Well, now, don't you be talkin' like that. It is just a little bit +dowly and troubled, because the master says a wry word now and then; and +so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies +comes into your head."</p> + +<p>"There's no fancy in my head," he said with a quick look of suspicion; +"only you asked me what I dreamed. I don't care if all the world knew. I +dreamed I went down a flight of steps under the lake, and got a message. +There are no steps near Snakes Island, we all know that," and he laughed +chillily. "I'm out of spirits, as you say; and—and—O dear! I +wish—Mrs. Julaper—I wish I was in my coffin, and quiet."</p> + +<p>"Now that's very wrong of you, Master Philip; you should think of all +the blessings you have, and not be makin' mountains o' molehills; and +those little bits o' temper Sir Bale shows, why, no one minds 'em—that +is, to take 'em to heart like you do, don't ye see?"</p> + +<p>"I daresay; I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you are right. I'm unreasonable +often, I know," said gentle Philip Feltram. "I daresay I make too much +of it; I'll try. I'm his secretary, and I know I'm not so bright as he +is, and it is natural he should sometimes be a little impatient; I ought +to be more reasonable, I'm sure. It is all that thing that has been +disturbing me—I mean fretting, and, I think, I'm not quite well; +and—and letting myself think too much of vexations. It's my own fault, +I'm sure, Mrs. Julaper; and I know I'm to blame."</p> + +<p>"That's quite right, that's spoken like a wise lad; only I don't say +you're to blame, nor no one; for folk can't help frettin' sometimes, no +more than they can help a headache—none but a mafflin would say +that—and I'll not deny but he has dowly ways when the fit's on him, and +he frumps us all round, if such be his humour. But who is there hasn't +his faults? We must bear and forbear, and take what we get and be +cheerful. So chirp up, my lad; Philip, didn't I often ring the a'd rhyme +in your ear long ago?</p> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Be always as merry as ever you can,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For no one delights in a sorrowful man. </span><br> + +<p>"So don't ye be gettin' up off your chair like that, and tramping about +the room wi' your hands in your pockets, looking out o' this window, and +staring out o' that, and sighing and crying, and looking so +black-ox-trodden, 'twould break a body's heart to see you. Ye must be +cheery; and happen you're hungry, and don't know it. I'll tell the cook +to grill a hot bit for ye."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not hungry, Mrs. Julaper. How kind you are! dear me, Mrs. +Julaper, I'm not worthy of it; I don't deserve half your kindness. I'd +have been heartbroken long ago, but for you."</p> + +<p>"And I'll make a sup of something hot for you; you'll take a +rummer-glass of punch—you must."</p> + +<p>"But I like the tea better; I do, indeed, Mrs. Julaper."</p> + +<p>"Tea is no drink for a man when his heart's down. It should be something +with a leg in it, lad; something hot that will warm your courage for ye, +and set your blood a-dancing, and make ye talk brave and merry; and will +you have a bit of a broil first? No? Well then, you'll have a drop o' +punch?—ye sha'n't say no."</p> + +<p>And so, all resistance overpowered, the consolation of Philip Feltram +proceeded.</p> + +<p>A gentler spirit than poor Feltram, a more good-natured soul than the +old housekeeper, were nowhere among the children of earth.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram, who was reserved enough elsewhere, used to come into her +room and cry, and take her by both hands piteously, standing before her +and looking down in her face, while tears ran deviously down his cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know such a case? was there ever a fellow like <i>me</i>? did +you ever <i>know</i> such a thing? You know what I am, Mrs. Julaper, and who +I am. They call me Feltram; but Sir Bale knows as well as I that my true +name is not that. I'm Philip Mardykes; and another fellow would make a +row about it, and claim his name and his rights, as she is always +croaking in my ear I ought. But you know that is not reasonable. My +grandmother was married; she was the true Lady Mardykes; <i>think</i> what it +was to see a woman like that turned out of doors, and her children +robbed of their name. O, ma'am, you <i>can't</i> think it; unless you were +me, you couldn't—you couldn't—you couldn't!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Master Philip, don't you be taking on so; and ye mustn't be +talking like that, d'ye mind? You know he wouldn't stand that; and it's +an old story now, and there's naught can be proved concerning it; and +what I think is this—I wouldn't wonder the poor lady was beguiled. But +anyhow she surely thought she was his lawful wife; and though the law +may hev found a flaw somewhere—and I take it 'twas so—yet sure I am +she was an honourable lady. But where's the use of stirring that old +sorrow? or how can ye prove aught? and the dead hold their peace, you +know; dead mice, they say, feels no cold; and dead folks are past +fooling. So don't you talk like that; for stone walls have ears, and ye +might say that ye couldn't <i>un</i>say; and death's day is doom's day. So +leave all in the keeping of God; and, above all, never lift hand when ye +can't strike."</p> + +<p>"Lift my hand! O, Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that; you little know +me; I did not mean that; I never dreamed of hurting Sir Bale. Good +heavens! Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that! It all comes of my poor +impatient temper, and complaining as I do, and my misery; but O, Mrs. +Julaper, you could not think I ever meant to trouble him by law, or any +other annoyance! I'd like to see a stain removed from my family, and my +name restored; but to touch his property, O, no!--O, no! that never +entered my mind, by heaven! that never entered my mind, Mrs. Julaper. +I'm not cruel; I'm not rapacious; I don't care for money; don't you know +that, Mrs. Julaper? O, surely you won't think me capable of attacking +the man whose bread I have eaten so long! I never dreamed of it; I +should hate myself. Tell me you don't believe it; O, Mrs. Julaper, say +you don't!"</p> + +<p>And the gentle feeble creature burst into tears and good Mrs. Julaper +comforted him with kind words; and he said,</p> + +<p>"Thank you, ma'am; thank you. God knows I would not hurt Bale, nor give +him one uneasy hour. It is only this: that I'm—I'm so miserable; and +I'm only casting in my mind where to turn to, and what to do. So little +a thing would be enough, and then I shall leave Mardykes. I'll go; not +in any anger, Mrs. Julaper—don't think that; but I can't stay, I must +be gone."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, there's nothing yet, Master Philip, to fret you like that. +You should not be talking so wild-like. Master Bale has his sharp word +and his short temper now and again; but I'm sure he likes you. If he +didn't, he'd a-said so to me long ago. I'm sure he likes you well."</p> + +<p>"Hollo! I say, who's there? Where the devil's Mr. Feltram?" called the +voice of the baronet, at a fierce pitch, along the passage.</p> + +<p>"La! Mr. Feltram, it's him! Ye'd better run to him," whispered Mrs. +Julaper.</p> + +<p>"D—n me! does nobody hear? Mrs. Julaper! Hollo! ho! house, there! ho! +D—n me, will nobody answer?"</p> + +<p>And Sir Bale began to slap the wainscot fast and furiously with his +walking-cane with a clatter like a harlequin's lath in a pantomime.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper, a little paler than usual, opened her door, and stood +with the handle in her hand, making a little curtsey, enframed in the +door-case; and Sir Bale, being in a fume, when he saw her, ceased +whacking the panels of the corridor, and stamped on the floor, crying,</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, ma'am, I'm glad to see you! Perhaps you can tell me where +Feltram is?"</p> + +<p>"He is in my room, Sir Bale. Shall I tell him you want him, please?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind; thanks," said the Baronet. "I've a tongue in my head;" +marching down the passage to the housekeeper's room, with his cane +clutched hard, glaring savagely, and with his teeth fast set, like a +fellow advancing to beat a vicious horse that has chafed his temper.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> + +<i><b>The Bank Note</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale brushed by the housekeeper as he strode into her sanctuary, and +there found Philip Feltram awaiting him dejectedly, but with no signs of +agitation.</p> + +<p>If one were to judge by the appearance the master of Mardykes presented, +very grave surmises as to impending violence would have suggested +themselves; but though he clutched his cane so hard that it quivered in +his grasp, he had no notion of committing the outrage of a blow. The +Baronet was unusually angry notwithstanding, and stopping short about +three steps away, addressed Feltram with a pale face and gleaming eyes. +It was quite plain that there was something very exciting upon his mind.</p> + +<p>"I've been looking for you, Mr. Feltram; I want a word or two, if you +have done your—your—whatever it is." He whisked the point of his stick +towards the modest tea-tray. "I should like five minutes in the +library."</p> + +<p>The Baronet was all this time eyeing Feltram with a hard suspicious +gaze, as if he expected to read in his face the shrinkings and +trepidations of guilt; and then turning suddenly on his heel he led the +way to his library—a good long march, with a good many turnings. He +walked very fast, and was not long in getting there. And as Sir Bale +reached the hearth, on which was smouldering a great log of wood, and +turned about suddenly, facing the door, Philip Feltram entered.</p> + +<p>The Baronet looked oddly and stern—so oddly, it seemed to Feltram, that +he could not take his eyes off him, and returned his grim and somewhat +embarrassed gaze with a stare of alarm and speculation.</p> + +<p>And so doing, his step was shortened, and grew slow and slower, and came +quite to a stop before he had got far from the door—a wide stretch of +that wide floor still intervening between him and Sir Bale, who stood +upon the hearthrug, with his heels together and his back to the fire, +cane in hand, like a drill-sergeant, facing him.</p> + +<p>"Shut that door, please; that will do; come nearer now. I don't want to +bawl what I have to say. Now listen."</p> + +<p>The Baronet cleared his voice and paused, with his eyes upon Feltram.</p> + +<p>"It is only two or three days ago," said he, "that you said you wished +you had a hundred pounds. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I think so."</p> + +<p>"<i>Think</i>? you know it, sir, devilish well. You said that you wished to +get away. I have nothing particular to say against that, more especially +now. Do you understand what I say?"</p> + +<p>"Understand, Sir Bale? I do, sir—quite."</p> + +<p>"I daresay quite" he repeated with an angry sneer. "Here, sir, is an odd +coincidence: you want a hundred pounds, and you can't earn it, and you +can't borrow it—there's another way, it seems—but I have got it—a +Bank-of-England note of £100—locked up in that desk;" and he poked the +end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is, +and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys—I've got +one and you have the other—and devil another key in or out of the house +has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want +any d----d lying about it."</p> + +<p>Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something +very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that +unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from +detection, he looked very much put out indeed.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a +bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but +I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to +pay the crown and quit-rents that you know—you—you—no matter—you +know well enough must be paid, I open it so—and so—and look <i>there</i>, +where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone—you understand, the +note's <i>gone</i>!"</p> + +<p>Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye, +poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but +said nothing.</p> + +<p>"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, <i>I</i> did not steal that +note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go +away, and I have no objection to that—but d—n me if you take away that +note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter +in a worse place."</p> + +<p>"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill."</p> + +<p>"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money +off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a +bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and +I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly."</p> + +<p>"May my Maker strike me——"</p> + +<p>"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you +produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off +if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you; +and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you +searched, pockets, bag, and baggage."</p> + +<p>"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have +got it about you?"</p> + +<p>"God forbid, sir! O, Sir—O, Sir Bale—why, Bale, <i>Bale</i>, it's +impossible! You <i>can't</i> believe it. When did I ever wrong you? You know +me since I was not higher than the table, and—and——"</p> + +<p>He burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Stop your snivelling, sir, and give up the note. You know devilish well +I can't spare it; and I won't spare you if you put me to it. I've said +my say."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale signed towards the door; and like a somnambulist, with dilated +gaze and pale as death, Philip Feltram, at his wit's end, went out of +the room. It was not till he had again reached the housekeeper's door +that he recollected in what direction he was going. His shut hand was +pressed with all his force to his heart, and the first breath he was +conscious of was a deep wild sob or two that quivered from his heart as +he looked from the lobby-window upon a landscape which he did not see.</p> + +<p>All he had ever suffered before was mild in comparison with this dire +paroxysm. Now, for the first time, was he made acquainted with his real +capacity for pain, and how near he might be to madness and yet retain +intellect enough to weigh every scruple, and calculate every chance and +consequence, in his torture.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, in the meantime, had walked out a little more excited than he +would have allowed. He was still convinced that Feltram had stolen the +note, but not quite so certain as he had been. There were things in his +manner that confirmed, and others that perplexed, Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>The Baronet stood upon the margin of the lake, almost under the evening +shadow of the house, looking towards Snakes Island. There were two +things about Mardykes he specially disliked.</p> + +<p>One was Philip Feltram, who, right or wrong, he fancied knew more than +was pleasant of his past life.</p> + +<p>The other was the lake. It was a beautiful piece of water, his eye, +educated at least in the excellences of landscape-painting, +acknowledged. But although he could pull a good oar, and liked other +lakes, to this particular sheet of water there lurked within him an +insurmountable antipathy. It was engendered by a variety of +associations.</p> + +<p>There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout +and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near. +His boding was made-up of omens, dreams, and such stuff as he most +affected to despise, and there fluttered at his heart a presentiment and +disgust.</p> + +<p>His foot was on the gunwale of the boat, that was chained to its ring at +the margin; but he would not have crossed that water in it for any +reason that man could urge.</p> + +<p>What was the mischief that sooner or later was to befall him from that +lake, he could not define; but that some fatal danger lurked there, was +the one idea concerning it that had possession of his fancy.</p> + +<p>He was now looking along its still waters, towards the copse and rocks +of Snakes Island, thinking of Philip Feltram; and the yellow level +sunbeams touched his dark features, that bore a saturnine resemblance to +those of Charles II, and marked sharply their firm grim lines, and left +his deep-set eyes in shadow.</p> + +<p>Who has the happy gift to seize the present, as a child does, and live +in it? Who is not often looking far off for his happiness, as Sidney +Smith says, like a man looking for his hat when it is upon his head? Sir +Bale was brooding over his double hatred, of Feltram and of the lake. It +would have been better had he struck down the raven that croaked upon +his shoulder, and listened to the harmless birds that were whistling +all round among the branches in the golden sunset.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> + +<i><b>Feltram's Plan</b></i> + +<p>This horror of the beautiful lake, which other people thought so lovely, +was, in that mind which affected to scoff at the unseen, a distinct +creation of downright superstition.</p> + +<p>The nursery tales which had scared him in his childhood were founded on +the tragedy of Snakes Island, and haunted him with an unavowed +persistence still. Strange dreams untold had visited him, and a German +conjuror, who had made some strangely successful vaticinations, had told +him that his worst enemy would come up to him from a lake. He had heard +very nearly the same thing from a fortune-teller in France; and once at +Lucerne, when he was waiting alone in his room for the hour at which he +had appointed to go upon the lake, all being quiet, there came to the +window, which was open, a sunburnt, lean, wicked face. Its ragged owner +leaned his arm on the window-frame, and with his head in the room, said +in his patois, "Ho! waiting are you? You'll have enough of the lake one +day. Don't you mind watching; they'll send when you're wanted;" and +twisting his yellow face into a malicious distortion, he went on.</p> + +<p>This thing had occurred so suddenly, and chimed-in so oddly with his +thoughts, which were at that moment at distant Mardykes and the haunted +lake, that it disconcerted him. He laughed, he looked out of the window. +He would have given that fellow money to tell him why he said that. But +there was no good in looking for the scamp; he was gone.</p> + +<p>A memory not preoccupied with that lake and its omens, and a +presentiment about himself, would not have noted such things. But <i>his</i> +mind they touched indelibly; and he was ashamed of his childish slavery, +but could not help it.</p> + +<p>The foundation of all this had been laid in the nursery, in the winter's +tales told by its fireside, and which seized upon his fancy and his +fears with a strange congeniality.</p> + +<p>There is a large bedroom at Mardykes Hall, which tradition assigns to +the lady who had perished tragically in the lake. Mrs. Julaper was sure +of it; for her aunt, who died a very old woman twenty years before, +remembered the time of the lady's death, and when she grew to woman's +estate had opportunity in abundance; for the old people who surrounded +her could remember forty years farther back, and tell everything +connected with the old house in beautiful Miss Feltram's time.</p> + +<p>This large old-fashioned room, commanding a view of Snakes Island, the +fells, and the lake—somewhat vast and gloomy, and furnished in a +stately old fashion—was said to be haunted, especially when the wind +blew from the direction of Golden Friars, the point from which it blew +on the night of her death in the lake; or when the sky was overcast, and +thunder rolled among the lofty fells, and lightning gleamed on the wide +sheet of water.</p> + +<p>It was on a night like this that a lady visitor, who long after that +event occupied, in entire ignorance of its supernatural character, that +large room; and being herself a lady of a picturesque turn, and loving +the grander melodrama of Nature, bid her maid leave the shutters open, +and watched the splendid effects from her bed, until, the storm being +still distant, she fell asleep.</p> + +<p>It was travelling slowly across the lake, and it was the deep-mouthed +clangour of its near approach that startled her, at dead of night, from +her slumber, to witness the same phenomena in the tremendous loudness +and brilliancy of their near approach.</p> + +<p>At this magnificent spectacle she was looking with the awful ecstasy of +an observer in whom the sense of danger is subordinated to that of the +sublime, when she saw suddenly at the window a woman, whose long hair +and dress seemed drenched with water. She was gazing in with a look of +terror, and was shaking the sash of the window with vehemence. Having +stood there for a few seconds, and before the lady, who beheld all this +from her bed, could make up her mind what to do, the storm-beaten +figure, wringing her hands, seemed to throw herself backward, and was +gone.</p> + +<p>Possessed with the idea that she had seen some poor woman overtaken in +the storm, who, failing to procure admission there, had gone round to +some of the many doors of the mansion, and obtained an entry there, she +again fell asleep.</p> + +<p>It was not till the morning, when she went to her window to look out +upon the now tranquil scene, that she discovered what, being a stranger +to the house, she had quite forgotten, that this room was at a great +height—some thirty feet—from the ground.</p> + +<p>Another story was that of good old Mr. Randal Rymer, who was often a +visitor at the house in the late Lady Mardykes' day. In his youth he had +been a campaigner; and now that he was a preacher he maintained his +hardy habits, and always slept, summer and winter, with a bit of his +window up. Being in that room in his bed, and after a short sleep lying +awake, the moon shining softly through the window, there passed by that +aperture into the room a figure dressed, it seemed to him, in gray that +was nearly white. It passed straight to the hearth, where was an +expiring wood fire; and cowering over it with outstretched hands, it +appeared to be gathering what little heat was to be had. Mr. Rymer, +amazed and awestruck, made a movement in his bed; and the figure looked +round, with large eyes that in the moonlight looked like melting snow, +and stretching its long arms up the chimney, they and the figure itself +seemed to blend with the smoke, and so pass up and away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, I have said, did not like Feltram. His father, Sir William, +had left a letter creating a trust, it was said, in favour of Philip +Feltram. The document had been found with the will, addressed to Sir +Bale in the form of a letter.</p> + +<p>"That is mine," said the Baronet, when it dropped out of the will; and +he slipped it into his pocket, and no one ever saw it after.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Charles Twyne, the attorney of Golden Friars, whenever he got +drunk, which was pretty often, used to tell his friends with a grave +wink that he knew a thing or two about that letter. It gave Philip +Feltram two hundred a-year, charged on Harfax. It was only a direction. +It made Sir Bale a trustee, however; and having made away with the +"letter," the Baronet had been robbing Philip Feltram ever since.</p> + +<p>Old Twyne was cautious, even in his cups, in his choice of an audience, +and was a little enigmatical in his revelations. For he was afraid of +Sir Bale, though he hated him for employing a lawyer who lived seven +miles away, and was a rival. So people were not quite sure whether Mr. +Twyne was telling lies or truth, and the principal fact that +corroborated his story was Sir Bale's manifest hatred of his secretary. +In fact, Sir Bale's retaining him in his house, detesting him as he +seemed to do, was not easily to be accounted for, except on the +principle of a tacit compromise—a miserable compensation for having +robbed him of his rights.</p> + +<p>The battle about the bank-note proceeded. Sir Bale certainly had doubts, +and vacillated; for moral evidence made powerfully in favour of poor +Feltram, though the evidence of circumstance made as powerfully against +him. But Sir Bale admitted suspicion easily, and in weighing +probabilities would count a virtue very lightly against temptation and +opportunity; and whatever his doubts might sometimes be, he resisted and +quenched them, and never let that ungrateful scoundrel Philip Feltram so +much as suspect their existence.</p> + +<p>For two days Sir Bale had not spoken to Feltram. He passed by on stair +and passage, carrying his head high, and with a thundrous countenance, +rolling conclusions and revenges in his soul.</p> + +<p>Poor Feltram all this time existed in one long agony. He would have left +Mardykes, were it not that he looked vaguely to some just power—to +chance itself—against this hideous imputation. To go with this +indictment ringing in his ears, would amount to a confession and flight.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper consoled him with might and main. She was a sympathetic and +trusting spirit, and knew poor Philip Feltram, in her simplicity, better +than the shrewdest profligate on earth could have known him. She cried +with him in his misery. She was fired with indignation by these +suspicions, and still more at what followed.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale showed no signs of relenting. It might have been that he was +rather glad of so unexceptionable an opportunity of getting rid of +Feltram, who, people thought, knew something which it galled the +Baronet's pride that he should know.</p> + +<p>The Baronet had another shorter and sterner interview with Feltram in +his study. The result was, that unless he restored the missing note +before ten o'clock next morning, he should leave Mardykes.</p> + +<p>To leave Mardykes was no more than Philip Feltram, feeble as he was of +will, had already resolved. But what was to become of him? He did not +very much care, if he could find any calling, however humble, that would +just give him bread.</p> + +<p>There was an old fellow and his wife (an ancient dame,) who lived at the +other side of the lake, on the old territories of the Feltrams, and who, +from some tradition of loyalty, perhaps, were fond of poor Philip +Feltram. They lived somewhat high up on the fells—about as high as +trees would grow—and those which were clumped about their rude dwelling +were nearly the last you passed in your ascent of the mountain. These +people had a multitude of sheep and goats, and lived in their airy +solitude a pastoral and simple life, and were childless. Philip Feltram +was hardy and active, having passed his early days among that arduous +scenery. Cold and rain did not trouble him; and these people being +wealthy in their way, and loving him, would be glad to find him +employment of that desultory pastoral kind which would best suit him.</p> + +<p>This vague idea was the only thing resembling a plan in his mind.</p> + +<p>When Philip Feltram came to Mrs. Julaper's room, and told her that he +had made up his mind to leave the house forthwith—to cross the lake to +the Cloostedd side in Tom Marlin's boat, and then to make his way up the +hill alone to Trebeck's lonely farmstead, Mrs. Julaper was overwhelmed.</p> + +<p>"Ye'll do no such thing to-night, anyhow. You're not to go like that. +Ye'll come into the small room here, where he can't follow; and we'll +sit down and talk it over a bit, and ye'll find 'twill all come +straight; and this will be no night, anyhow, for such a march. Why, +man,'twould take an hour and more to cross the lake, and then a long +uphill walk before ye could reach Trebeck's place; and if the night +should fall while you were still on the mountain, ye might lose your +life among the rocks. It can't be 'tis come to that yet; and the call +was in the air, I'm told, all yesterday, and distant thunder to-day, +travelling this way over Blarwyn Fells; and 'twill be a night no one +will be out, much less on the mountain side."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h4>CHAPTER IX</h4> + +<i><b>The Crazy Parson</b></i> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper had grown weather-wise, living for so long among this noble +and solitary scenery, where people must observe Nature or else +nothing—where signs of coming storm or change are almost local, and +record themselves on particular cliffs and mountain-peaks, or in the +mists, or in mirrored tints of the familiar lake, and are easily learned +or remembered. At all events, her presage proved too true.</p> + +<p>The sun had set an hour and more. It was dark; and an awful +thunder-storm, whose march, like the distant reverberations of an +invading army, had been faintly heard beyond the barriers of Blarwyn +Fells throughout the afternoon, was near them now, and had burst in +deep-mouthed battle among the ravines at the other side, and over the +broad lake, that glared like a sheet of burnished steel under its +flashes of dazzling blue. Wild and fitful blasts sweeping down the +hollows and cloughs of the fells of Golden Friars agitated the lake, and +bent the trees low, and whirled away their sere leaves in melancholy +drift in their tremendous gusts. And from the window, looking on a scene +enveloped in more than the darkness of the night, you saw in the +pulsations of the lightning, before "the speedy gleams the darkness +swallowed," the tossing trees and the flying foam and eddies on the +lake.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the hurlyburly, a loud and long knocking came at the +hall-door of Mardykes. How long it had lasted before a chance lull made +it audible I do not know.</p> + +<p>There was nothing picturesquely poor, any more than there were evidences +of wealth, anywhere in Sir Bale Mardykes' household. He had no lack of +servants, but they were of an inexpensive and homely sort; and the +hall-door being opened by the son of an old tenant on the estate—the +tempest beating on the other side of the house, and comparative shelter +under the gables at the front—he saw standing before him, in the +agitated air, a thin old man, who muttering, it might be, a benediction, +stepped into the hall, and displayed long silver tresses, just as the +storm had blown them, ascetic and eager features, and a pair of large +light eyes that wandered wildly. He was dressed in threadbare black; a +pair of long leather gaiters, buckled high above his knee, protecting +his thin shanks through moss and pool; and the singularity of his +appearance was heightened by a wide-leafed felt hat, over which he had +tied his handkerchief, so as to bring the leaf of it over his ears, and +to secure it from being whirled from his head by the storm.</p> + +<p>This odd and storm-beaten figure—tall, and a little stooping, as well +as thin—was not unknown to the servant, who saluted him with something +of fear as well as of respect as he bid him reverently welcome, and +asked him to come in and sit by the fire.</p> + +<p>"Get you to your master, and tell him I have a message to him from one +he has not seen for two-and-forty years."</p> + +<p>As the old man, with his harsh old voice, thus spoke, he unknotted his +handkerchief and bet the rain-drops from his hat upon his knee.</p> + +<p>The servant knocked at the library-door, where he found Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the matter?" cried Sir Bale sharply, from his chair before +the fire, with angry eyes looking over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Here's 't sir cumman, Sir Bale," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Sir," or "the Sir," is still used as the clergyman's title in the +Northumbrian counties.</p> + +<p>"What sir?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Hugh Creswell, if you please, Sir Bale."</p> + +<p>"Ho!--mad Creswell?—O, the crazy parson. Well, tell Mrs. Julaper to +let him have some supper—and—and to let him have a bed in some +suitable place. That's what he wants. These mad fellows know what they +are about."</p> + +<p>"No, Sir Bale Mardykes, that is not what he wants," said the loud wild +voice of the daft sir over the servant's shoulder. "Often has Mardykes +Hall given me share of its cheer and its shelter and the warmth of its +fire; and I bless the house that has been an inn to the wayfarer of the +Lord. But to-night I go up the lake to Pindar's Bield, three miles on; +and there I rest and refresh—not here."</p> + +<p>"And why not <i>here</i>, Mr. Creswell?" asked the Baronet; for about this +crazy old man, who preached in the fields, and appeared and disappeared +so suddenly in the orbit of his wide and unknown perambulations of those +northern and border counties, there was that sort of superstitious +feeling which attaches to the mysterious and the good—an idea that it +was lucky to harbour and dangerous to offend him. No one knew whence he +came or whither he went. Once in a year, perhaps, he might appear at a +lonely farmstead door among the fells, salute the house, enter, and be +gone in the morning. His life was austere; his piety enthusiastic, +severe, and tinged with the craze which inspired among the rustic +population a sort of awe.</p> + +<p>"I'll not sleep at Mardykes to-night; neither will I eat, nor drink, nor +sit me down—no, nor so much as stretch my hands to the fire. As the man +of God came out of Judah to king Jeroboam, so come I to you, sent by a +vision, to bear a warning; and as he said, 'If thou wilt give me half +thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor +drink water in this place,' so also say I."</p> + +<p>"Do as you please," said Sir Bale, a little sulkily. "Say your say; and +you are welcome to stay or go, if go you will on so mad a night as +this."</p> + +<p>"Leave us," said Creswell, beckoning the servant back with his thin +hands; "what I have to say is to your master."</p> + +<p>The servant went, in obedience to a gesture from Sir Bale, and shut the +door.</p> + +<p>The old man drew nearer to the Baronet, and lowering his loud stern +voice a little, and interrupting his discourse from time to time, to +allow the near thunder-peals to subside, he said,</p> + +<p>"Answer me, Sir Bale—what is this that has chanced between you and +Philip Feltram?"</p> + +<p>The Baronet, under the influence of that blunt and peremptory demand, +told him shortly and sternly enough.</p> + +<p>"And of all these facts you are sure, else ye would not blast your early +companion and kinsman with the name of thief?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> sure," said Sir Bale grimly.</p> + +<p>"Unlock that cabinet," said the old man with the long white locks.</p> + +<p>"I've no objection," said Sir Bale; and he did unlock an old oak cabinet +that stood, carved in high relief with strange figures and gothic +grotesques, against the wall, opposite the fireplace. On opening it +there were displayed a system of little drawers and pigeon-holes such as +we see in more modern escritoires.</p> + +<p>"Open that drawer with the red mark of a seal upon it," continued Hugh +Creswell, pointing to it with his lank finger.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did so; and to his momentary amazement, and even consternation, +there lay the missing note, which now, with one of those sudden caprices +of memory which depend on the laws of suggestion and association, he +remembered having placed there with his own hand.</p> + +<p>"That is it," said old Creswell with a pallid smile, and fixing his wild +eyes on the Baronet. The smile subsided into a frown, and said he: "Last +night I slept near Haworth Moss; and your father came to me in a dream, +and said: 'My son Bale accuses Philip of having stolen a bank-note from +his desk. He forgets that he himself placed it in his cabinet. Come with +me.' I was, in the spirit, in this room; and he led me to this cabinet, +which he opened; and in that drawer he showed me that note. 'Go,' said +he, 'and tell him to ask Philip Feltram's pardon, else he will but go in +weakness to return in power;' and he said that which it is not lawful to +repeat. My message is told. Now a word from myself," he added sternly. +"The dead, through my lips, has spoken, and under God's thunder and +lightning his words have found ye. Why so uppish wi' Philip Feltram? See +how ye threaped, and yet were wrong. He's no tazzle—he's no taggelt. +Ask his pardon. Ye must change, or he will no taggelt. Go, in weakness, +come in power: mark ye the words. 'Twill make a peal that will be heard +in toon and desert, in the swirls o' the mountain, through pikes and +valleys, and mak' a waaly man o' thee."</p> + +<p>The old man with these words, uttered in the broad northern dialect of +his common speech, strode from the room and shut the door. In another +minute he was forth into the storm, pursuing what remained of his long +march to Pindar's Bield.</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul!" said Sir Bale, recovering from his sort of stun which +the sudden and strange visit had left, "that's a cool old fellow! Come +to rate me and teach me my own business in my own house!" and he rapped +out a fierce oath. "Change his mind or no, here he sha'n't stay +to-night—not an hour."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was in the lobby in a moment, and thundered to his servants:</p> + +<p>"I say, put that fool out of the door—put him out by the shoulder, and +never let him put his foot inside it more!"</p> + +<p>But the old man's yea was yea, and his nay nay. He had quite meant what +he said; and, as I related, was beyond the reach of the indignity of +extrusion.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale on his return shut his door as violently as if it were in the +face of the old prophet.</p> + +<p>"Ask Feltram's pardon, by Jove! For what? Why, any jury on earth would +have hanged him on half the evidence; and I, like a fool, was going to +let him off with his liberty and my hundred pound-note! Ask his pardon +indeed!"</p> + +<p>Still there were misgivings in his mind; a consciousness that he did owe +explanation and apology to Feltram, and an insurmountable reluctance to +undertake either. The old dislike—a contempt mingled with fear—not any +fear of his malevolence, a fear only of his carelessness and folly; for, +as I have said, Feltram knew many things, it was believed, of the +Baronet's Continental and Asiatic life, and had even gently remonstrated +with him upon the dangers into which he was running. A simple fellow +like Philip Feltram is a dangerous depository of a secret. This Baronet +was proud, too; and the mere possession of his secrets by Feltram was an +involuntary insult, which Sir Bale could not forgive. He wished him far +away; and except for the recovery of his bank-note, which he could ill +spare, he was sorry that this suspicion was cleared up.</p> + +<p>The thunder and storm were unabated; it seemed indeed that they were +growing wilder and more awful.</p> + +<p>He opened the window-shutter and looked out upon that sublimest of +scenes; and so intense and magnificent were its phenomena, that Sir +Bale, for a while, was absorbed in this contemplation.</p> + +<p>When he turned about, the sight of his £100 note, still between his +finger and thumb, made him smile grimly.</p> + +<p>The more he thought of it, the clearer it was that he could not leave +matters exactly as they were. Well, what should he do? He would send for +Mrs. Julaper, and tell her vaguely that he had changed his mind about +Feltram, and that he might continue to stay at Mardykes Hall as usual. +That would suffice. She could speak to Feltram.</p> + +<p>He sent for her; and soon, in the lulls of the great uproar without, he +could hear the jingle of Mrs. Julaper's keys and her light tread upon +the lobby.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Julaper," said the Baronet, in his dry careless way, "Feltram may +remain; your eloquence has prevailed. What have you been crying about?" +he asked, observing that his housekeeper's usually cheerful face was, in +her own phrase, 'all cried.'</p> + +<p>"It is too late, sir; he's gone."</p> + +<p>"And when did he go?" asked Sir Bale, a little put out. "He chose an odd +evening, didn't he? So like him!"</p> + +<p>"He went about half an hour ago; and I'm very sorry, sir; it's a sore +sight to see the poor lad going from the place he was reared in, and a +hard thing, sir; and on such a night, above all."</p> + +<p>"No one asked him to go to-night. Where is he gone to?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, I'm sure; he left my room, sir, when I was upstairs; and +Janet saw him pass the window not ten minutes after Mr. Creswell left +the house."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, there's no good, Mrs. Julaper, in thinking more about it; +he has settled the matter his own way; and as he so ordains it—amen, +say I. Goodnight."</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h4>CHAPTER X</h4> + +<i><b>Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat</b></i> + +<p>Philip Feltram was liked very well—a gentle, kindly, and very timid +creature, and, before he became so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a +joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Where will Sir Bale +find so unresisting and respectful a butt and retainer? and whom will he +bully now?</p> + +<p>Something like remorse was worrying Sir Bale's heart a little; and the +more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell that night, with +its unexplained menace, the more uneasy he became.</p> + +<p>The storm continued; and even to him there seemed something exaggerated +and inhuman in the severity of his expulsion on such a night. It was his +own doing, it was true; but would people believe that? and would he have +thought of leaving Mardykes at all if it had not been for his kinsman's +severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh +Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how +all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, he would +have found him still in the house?—for he had not yet gone for ten +minutes after Creswell's departure, and thus, all that was to follow +might have been averted. But it was too late now, and Sir Bale would let +the affair take its own course.</p> + +<p>Below him, outside the window at which he stood ruminating, he heard +voices mingling with the storm. He could with tolerable certainty +perceive, looking into the obscurity, that there were three men passing +close under it, carrying some very heavy burden among them.</p> + +<p>He did not know what these three black figures in the obscurity were +about. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the +front, and in the lulls of the storm could hear their gruff voices +talking.</p> + +<p>We have all experienced what a presentiment is, and we all know with +what an intuition the faculty of observation is sometimes heightened. It +was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a +dream—a sort of knowledge that what those people were about was in a +dreadful way connected with his own fate.</p> + +<p>He watched for a time, thinking that they might return; but they did +not. He was in a state of uncomfortable suspense.</p> + +<p>"If they want me, they won't have much trouble in finding me, nor any +scruple, egad, in plaguing me; they never have."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale returned to his letters, a score of which he was that night +getting off his conscience—an arrear which would not have troubled him +had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether to employ Philip +Feltram, who had been accustomed to take all that sort of drudgery off +his hands.</p> + +<p>All the time he was writing now he had a feeling that the shadows he had +seen pass under his window were machinating some trouble for him, and an +uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, +fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless wait he would say +to himself, "If any one is coming, why the devil don't he come?" and +then he would apply himself again to his letters.</p> + +<p>But on a sudden he heard good Mrs. Julaper's step trotting along the +lobby, and the tiny ringing of her keys.</p> + +<p>Here was news coming; and the Baronet stood up looking at the door, on +which presently came a hurried rapping; and before he had answered, in +the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the +house, the good woman opened the door in great agitation, and cried with +a tremulous uplifting of her hands.</p> + +<p>"O, Sir Bale! O, la, sir! here's poor dear Philip Feltram come home +dead!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale stared at her sternly for some seconds.</p> + +<p>"Gome, now, do be distinct," said Sir Bale; "what has happened?"</p> + +<p>"He's lying on the sofer in the old still-room. You never saw—my +God!--O, sir—what is life?"</p> + +<p>"D—n it, can't you cry by-and-by, and tell me what's the matter now?"</p> + +<p>"A bit o' fire there, as luck would have it; but what is hot or cold +now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and +Tom Warren is on the gallop down to Golden Friars for Doctor Torvey."</p> + +<p>"<i>Is</i> he drowned, or is it only a ducking? Come, bring me to the place. +Dead men don't usually want a fire, or consult doctors. I'll see for +myself."</p> + +<p>So Sir Bale Mardykes, pale and grim, accompanied by the light-footed +Mrs. Julaper, strode along the passages, and was led by her into the old +still-room, which had ceased to be used for its original purpose. All +the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also +who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, +with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water along the +wrinkles and pockets of his waistcoat and from the feet of his trousers, +and pumping and oozing from his shoes, and streaming from his hair down +the channels of his cheeks like a continuous rain of tears.</p> + +<p>The people drew back a little as Sir Bale entered with a quick step and +a sharp pallid frown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over +Philip Feltram, who lay on a low bed next the wall, dimly lighted by two +or three candles here and there about the room.</p> + +<p>He laid his hand, for a moment, on his cold wet breast.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale knew what should be done in order to give a man in such a case +his last chance for life. Everybody was speedily put in motion. Philip's +drenched clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans +and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so +that the water flowed freely from his mouth. The old expedient for +inducing artificial breathing was employed, and a lusty pair of bellows +did duty for his lungs.</p> + +<p>But these helps to life, and suggestions to nature, availed not. Forlorn +and peaceful lay the features of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to +the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in the fish-like +eyes; pulseless and cold in the midst of all the hot bricks and +warming-pans about him.</p> + +<p>At length, everything having been tried, Sir Bale, who had been +directing, placed his hand within the clothes, and laid it silently on +Philip's shoulder and over his heart; and after a little wait, he shook +his head, and looking down on his sunken face, he said,</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he's gone. Yes, he's gone, poor fellow! And bear you this +in mind, all of you; Mrs. Julaper there can tell you more about it. She +knows that it was certainly in no compliance with my wish that he left +the house to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps—I +forgive him for it—a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some +blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; +than which imputation nothing can be more utterly false. Mrs. Julaper +there knows how welcome he was to stay the night; but he would not; he +had made up his mind, it seems, without telling any person. Had he told +you, Mrs. Julaper?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," sobbed Mrs. Julaper from the centre of a pocket-handkerchief +in which her face was buried.</p> + +<p>"Not a human being: an angry whim of his own. Poor Feltram! and here's +the result," said the Baronet. "We have done our best—done everything. +I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will say that anything has been +omitted; but all won't do. Does any one here know how it happened?"</p> + +<p>Two men knew very well—the man who had been ducked, and his companion, +a younger man, who was also in the still-room, and had lent a hand in +carrying Feltram up to the house.</p> + +<p>Tom Marlin had a queer old stone tenement by the edge of the lake just +under Mardykes Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower +that had once belonged to Mardykes Castle, of which in the modern +building scarcely a relic was discoverable.</p> + +<p>This Tom Marlin had an ancient right of fishing in the lake, where he +caught pike enough for all Golden Friars; and keeping a couple of boats, +he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This +fellow, with a furrowed face and shaggy eyebrows, bald at top, but with +long grizzled locks falling upon his shoulders, said,</p> + +<p>"He wer wi' me this mornin', sayin' he'd want t' boat to cross the lake +in, but he didn't say what hour; and when it came on to thunder and blow +like this, ye guess I did not look to see him to-night. Well, my wife +was just lightin' a pig-tail—tho' light enough and to spare there was +in the lift already—when who should come clatterin' at the latch-pin in +the blow o' thunder and wind but Philip, poor lad, himself; and an ill +hour for him it was. He's been some time in ill fettle, though he was +never frowsy, not he, but always kind and dooce, and canty once, like +anither; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the +Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't +hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be +put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' +ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long +last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes +Island, so I'll pull him by that side—for the storm is blowin' right up +by Golden Friars, ye mind—and when we get near the point, thinks I, +he'll see wi' his een how the lake is, and gie it up. For I liked him, +poor lad; and seein' he'd set his heart on't, I wouldn't vex nor frump +him wi' a no. So down we three—myself, and Bill there, and Philip +Feltram—come to the boat; and we pulled out, keeping Snakes Island +atwixt us and the wind. 'Twas smooth water wi' us, for 'twas a scug +there, but white enough was all beyont the point; and passing the +finger-stone, not forty fathom from the shore o' the island, Bill and me +pullin' and he sittin' in the stern, poor lad, up he rises, a bit +rabblin' to himself, wi' his hands lifted so.</p> + +<p>"'Look a-head!' says I, thinkin' something wos comin' atort us.</p> + +<p>"But 'twasn't that. The boat was quiet, for while we looked, oo'er our +shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still; and lookin' +back again on Philip, he was rabblin' on all the same.</p> + +<p>"'It's nobbut a prass wi' himsel", poor lad,' thinks I.</p> + +<p>"But that wasn't it neither; for I sid something white come out o' t' +water, by the gunwale, like a hand. By Jen! and he leans oo'er and tuk +it; and he sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I +cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, +and I followed; and thrice I dived before I found him, and brought him +up by the hair at last; and there he is, poor lad! and all one if he lay +at the bottom o' t' mere."</p> + +<p>As Tom Marlin ended his narrative—often interrupted by the noise of the +tempest without, and the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, +like the chorus of a melancholy ballad—the sudden clang of the +hall-door bell, and a more faintly-heard knocking, announced a new +arrival.</p> + +<a name="IMAGE_1"></a> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image1.jpg" width="346" height="240" +alt=""I sid something white come out o' t' water, +by the gunwale, like a hand.""></p> + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XI</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale's Dream</b></i> + +<p>It was Doctor Torvey who entered the old still-room now, buttoned-up to +the chin in his greatcoat, and with a muffler of many colours wrapped +partly over that feature.</p> + +<p>"Well!--hey? So poor Feltram's had an accident?"</p> + +<p>The Doctor was addressing Sir Bale, and getting to the bedside as he +pulled off his gloves.</p> + +<p>"I see you've been keeping him warm—that's right; and a considerable +flow of water from his mouth; turn him a little that way. Hey? O, ho!" +said the Doctor, as he placed his hand upon Philip, and gently stirred +his limbs. "It's more than an hour since this happened. I'm afraid +there's very little to be done now;" and in a lower tone, with his hand +on poor Philip Feltram's arm, and so down to his fingers, he said in Sir +Bale Mardykes' ear, with a shake of his head,</p> + +<p>"Here, you see, poor fellow, here's the cadaveric stiffness; it's very +melancholy, but it's all over, he's gone; there's no good trying any +more. Come here, Mrs. Julaper. Did you ever see any one dead? Look at +his eyes, look at his mouth. You ought to have known that, with half an +eye. And you know," he added again confidentially in Sir Bale's ear, +"trying any more <i>now</i> is all my eye."</p> + +<p>Then after a few more words with the Baronet, and having heard his +narrative, he said from time to time, "Quite right; nothing could be +better; capital practice, sir," and so forth. And at the close of all +this, amid the sobs of kind Mrs. Julaper and the general whimpering of +the humbler handmaids, the Doctor standing by the bed, with his knuckles +on the coverlet, and a glance now and then on the dead face beside him, +said—by way of 'quieting men's minds,' as the old tract-writers used to +say—a few words to the following effect:</p> + +<p>"Everything has been done here that the most experienced physician could +have wished. Everything has been done in the best way. I don't know +anything that has not been done, in fact. If I had been here myself, I +don't know—hot bricks—salt isn't a bad thing. I don't know, I say, +that anything of any consequence has been omitted." And looking at the +body, "You see," and he drew the fingers a little this way and that, +letting them return, as they stiffly did, to their former attitude, "you +may be sure that the poor gentleman was quite dead by the time he +arrived here. So, since he was laid there, nothing has been lost by +delay. And, Sir Bale, if you have any directions to send to Golden +Friars, sir, I shall be most happy to undertake your message."</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thanks; it is a melancholy ending, poor fellow! You must come +to the study with me, Doctor Torvey, and talk a little bit more; +and—very sad, doctor—and you must have a glass of sherry, or some +port—the port used not to be bad here; I don't take it—but very +melancholy it is—bring some port and sherry; and, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +be good enough to see that everything that should be done here is looked +to; and let Marlin and the men have supper and something to drink. You +have been too long in your wet clothes, Marlin."</p> + +<p>So, with gracious words all round, he led the Doctor to the library +where he had been sitting, and was affable and hospitable, and told him +his own version of all that had passed between him and Philip Feltram, +and presented himself in an amiable point of view, and pleased the +Doctor with his port and flatteries—for he could not afford to lose +anyone's good word just now; and the Doctor was a bit of a gossip, and +in most houses in that region, in one character or another, every three +months in the year.</p> + +<p>So in due time the Doctor drove back to Golden Friars, with a high +opinion of Sir Bale, and higher still of his port, and highest of all of +himself: in the best possible humour with the world, not minding the +storm that blew in his face, and which he defied in good-humoured +mock-heroics spoken in somewhat thick accents, and regarding the thunder +and lightning as a lively gala of fireworks; and if there had been a +chance of finding his cronies still in the George and Dragon, he would +have been among them forthwith, to relate the tragedy of the night, and +tell what a good fellow, after all, Sir Bale was; and what a fool, at +best, poor Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>But the George was quiet for that night. The thunder rolled over +voiceless chambers; and the lights had been put out within the windows, +on whose multitudinous small panes the lightning glared. So the Doctor +went home to Mrs. Torvey, whom he charmed into good-humoured curiosity +by the tale of wonder he had to relate.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale's qualms were symptomatic of something a little less sublime +and more selfish than conscience. He was not sorry that Philip Feltram +was out of the way. His lips might begin to babble inconveniently at any +time, and why should not his mouth be stopped? and what stopper so +effectual as that plug of clay which fate had introduced? But he did not +want to be charged with the odium of the catastrophe. Every man cares +something for the opinion of his fellows. And seeing that Feltram had +been well liked, and that his death had excited a vehement +commiseration, Sir Bale did not wish it to be said that he had made the +house too hot to hold him, and had so driven him to extremity.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale's first agitation had subsided. It was now late, he had written +many letters, and he was tired. It was not wonderful, then, that having +turned his lounging-chair to the fire, he should have fallen asleep in +it, as at last he did.</p> + +<p>The storm was passing gradually away by this time. The thunder was now +echoing among the distant glens and gorges of Daulness Fells, and the +angry roar and gusts of the tempest were subsiding into the melancholy +soughing and piping that soothe like a lullaby.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale therefore had his unpremeditated sleep very comfortably, except +that his head was hanging a little uneasily; which, perhaps, helped him +to this dream.</p> + +<p>It was one of those dreams in which the continuity of the waking state +that immediately preceded it seems unbroken; for he thought that he was +sitting in the chair which he occupied, and in the room where he +actually was. It seemed to him that he got up, took a candle in his +hand, and went through the passages to the old still-room where Philip +Feltram lay. The house seemed perfectly still. He could hear the chirp +of the crickets faintly from the distant kitchen, and the tick of the +clock sounded loud and hollow along the passage. In the old still-room, +as he opened the door, was no light, except what was admitted from the +candle he carried. He found the body of poor Philip Feltram just as he +had left it—his gentle face, saddened by the touch of death, was turned +upwards, with white lips: with traces of suffering fixed in its +outlines, such as caused Sir Bale, standing by the bed, to draw the +coverlet over the dead man's features, which seemed silently to upbraid +him. "Gone in weakness!" said Sir Bale, repeating the words of the "daft +sir," Hugh Creswell; as he did so, a voice whispered near him, with a +great sigh, "Come in power!" He looked round, in his dream, but there +was no one; the light seemed to fail, and a horror slowly overcame him, +especially as he thought he saw the figure under the coverlet stealthily +beginning to move. Backing towards the door, for he could not take his +eyes off it, he saw something like a huge black ape creep out at the +foot of the bed; and springing at him, it griped him by the throat, so +that he could not breathe; and a thousand voices were instantly round +him, holloaing, cursing, laughing in his ears; and in this direful +plight he waked.</p> + +<p>Was it the ring of those voices still in his ears, or a real shriek, and +another, and a long peal, shriek after shriek, swelling madly through +the distant passages, that held him still, freezing in the horror of his +dream?</p> + +<p>I will tell you what this noise was.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XII</h4> + +<i><b>Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch</b></i> + +<p>After his bottle of port with Sir Bale, the Doctor had gone down again +to the room where poor Philip Feltram lay.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper had dried her eyes, and was busy by this time; and two old +women were making all their arrangements for a night-watch by the body, +which they had washed, and, as their phrase goes, 'laid out' in the +humble bed where it had lain while there was still a hope that a spark +sufficient to rekindle the fire of life might remain. These old women +had points of resemblance: they were lean, sallow, and wonderfully +wrinkled, and looked each malign and ugly enough for a witch.</p> + +<p>Marcella Bligh's thin hooked nose was now like the beak of a bird of +prey over the face of the drowned man, upon whose eyelids she was +placing penny-pieces, to keep them from opening; and her one eye was +fixed on her work, its sightless companion showing white in its socket, +with an ugly leer.</p> + +<p>Judith Wale was lifting the pail of hot water with which they had just +washed the body. She had long lean arms, a hunched back, a great sharp +chin sunk on her hollow breast, and small eyes restless as a ferret's; +and she clattered about in great bowls of shoes, old and clouted, that +were made for a foot as big as two of hers.</p> + +<p>The Doctor knew these two old women, who were often employed in such +dismal offices.</p> + +<p>"How does Mrs. Bligh? See me with half an eye? Hey—that's rhyme, isn't +it?—And, Judy lass—why, I thought you lived nearer the town—here +making poor Mr. Feltram's last toilet. You have helped to dress many a +poor fellow for his last journey. Not a bad notion of drill either—they +stand at attention stiff and straight enough in the sentry-box. Your +recruits do you credit, Mrs. Wale."</p> + +<p>The Doctor stood at the foot of the bed to inspect, breathing forth a +vapour of very fine old port, his hands in his pockets, speaking with a +lazy thickness, and looking so comfortable and facetious, that Mrs. +Julaper would have liked to turn him out of the room.</p> + +<p>But the Doctor was not unkind, only extremely comfortable. He was a +good-natured fellow, and had thought and care for the living, but not a +great deal of sentiment for the dead, whom he had looked in the face too +often to be much disturbed by the spectacle.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to keep that bandage on. You should be sharp; you should +know all about it, girl, by this time, and not let those muscles +stiffen. I need not tell you the mouth shuts as easily as this +snuff-box, if you only take it in time.—I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +send to Jos Fringer for the poor fellow's outfit. Fringer is a very +proper man—there ain't a properer und-aker in England. I always +re-mmend Fringer—in Church-street in Golden Friars. You know Fringer, I +daresay."</p> + +<p>"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. That will be as Sir Bale may please to +direct," answered Mrs. Julaper.</p> + +<p>"You've got him very straight—straighter than I thought you could; but +the large joints were not so stiff. A very little longer wait, and you'd +hardly have got him into his coffin. He'll want a vr-r-ry long one, poor +lad. Short cake is life, ma'am. Sad thing this. They'll open their eyes, +I promise you, down in the town. 'Twill be cool enough, I'd shay, affre +all th-thunr-thunnle, you know. I think I'll take a nip, Mrs. Jool-fr, +if you wouldn't mine makin' me out a thimmle-ful +bran-band-bran-rand-andy, eh, Mishs Joolfr?"</p> + +<p>And the Doctor took a chair by the fire; and Mrs. Julaper, with a +dubious conscience and dry hospitality, procured the brandy-flask and +wine-glass, and helped the physician in a thin hesitating stream, which +left him ample opportunity to cry "Hold—enough!" had he been so minded. +But that able physician had no confidence, it would seem, in any dose +under a bumper, which he sipped with commendation, and then fell asleep +with the firelight on his face—to tender-hearted Mrs. Julaper's +disgust—and snored with a sensual disregard of the solemnity of his +situation; until with a profound nod, or rather dive, toward the fire, +he awoke, got up and shook his ears with a kind of start, and standing +with his back to the fire, asked for his muffler and horse; and so took +his leave also of the weird sisters, who were still pottering about the +body, with croak and whisper, and nod and ogle. He took his leave also +of good Mrs. Julaper, who was completing arrangements with teapot and +kettle, spiced elderberry wine, and other comforts, to support them +through their proposed vigil. And finally, in a sort of way, he took his +leave of the body, with a long business-like stare, from the foot of the +bed, with his short hands stuffed into his pockets. And so, to Mrs. +Julaper's relief, this unseemly doctor, speaking thickly, departed.</p> + +<p>And now, the Doctor being gone, and all things prepared for the 'wake' +to be observed by withered Mrs. Bligh of the one eye, and yellow Mrs. +Wale of the crooked back, the house grew gradually still. The thunder +had by this time died into the solid boom of distant battle, and the +fury of the gale had subsided to the long sobbing wail that is charged +with so eerie a melancholy. Within all was stirless, and the two old +women, each a 'Mrs.' by courtesy, who had not much to thank Nature or +the world for, sad and cynical, and in a sort outcasts told off by +fortune to these sad and grizzly services, sat themselves down by the +fire, each perhaps feeling unusually at home in the other's society; and +in this soured and forlorn comfort, trimming their fire, quickening the +song of the kettle to a boil, and waxing polite and chatty; each +treating the other with that deprecatory and formal courtesy which +invites a return in kind, and both growing strangely happy in this +little world of their own, in the unusual and momentary sense of an +importance and consideration which were delightful.</p> + +<p>The old still-room of Mardykes Hall is an oblong room wainscoted. From +the door you look its full length to the wide stone-shafted Tudor window +at the other end. At your left is the ponderous mantelpiece, supported +by two spiral stone pillars; and close to the door at the right was the +bed in which the two crones had just stretched poor Philip Feltram, who +lay as still as an uncoloured wax-work, with a heavy penny-piece on each +eye, and a bandage under his jaw, making his mouth look stern. And the +two old ladies over their tea by the fire conversed agreeably, compared +their rheumatisms and other ailments wordily, and talked of old times, +and early recollections, and of sick-beds they had attended, and corpses +that "you would not know, so pined and windered" were they; and others +so fresh and canny, you'd say the dead had never looked so bonny in +life.</p> + +<p>Then they began to talk of people who grew tall in their coffins, of +others who had been buried alive, and of others who walked after death. +Stories as true as holy writ.</p> + +<p>"Were you ever down by Hawarth, Mrs. Bligh—hard by Dalworth Moss?" +asked crook-backed Mrs. Wale, holding her spoon suspended over her cup.</p> + +<p>"Neea whaar sooa far south, Mrs. Wale, ma'am; but ma father was off +times down thar cuttin' peat."</p> + +<p>"Ah, then ye'll not a kenned farmer Dykes that lived by the Lin-tree +Scaur. 'Tweer I that laid him out, poor aad fellow, and a dow man he +was when aught went cross wi' him; and he cursed and sweared, twad gar +ye dodder to hear him. They said he was a hard man wi' some folk; but he +kep a good house, and liked to see plenty, and many a time when I was +swaimous about my food, he'd clap t' meat on ma plate, and mak' me eat +ma fill. Na, na—there was good as well as bad in farmer Dykes. It was a +year after he deed, and Tom Ettles was walking home, down by the Birken +Stoop one night, and not a soul nigh, when he sees a big ball, as high +as his knee, whirlin' and spangin' away before him on the road. What it +wer he could not think; but he never consayted there was a freet or a bo +thereaway; so he kep near it, watching every spang and turn it took, +till it ran into the gripe by the roadside. There was a gravel pit just +there, and Tom Ettles wished to take another gliff at it before he went +on. But when he keeked into the pit, what should he see but a man +attoppa a horse that could not get up or on: and says he, 'I think ye be +at a dead-lift there, gaffer.' And wi' the word, up looks the man, and +who sud it be but farmer Dykes himsel; and Tom Ettles saw him plain +eneugh, and kenned the horse too for Black Captain, the farmer's aad +beast, that broke his leg and was shot two years and more before the +farmer died. 'Ay,' says farmer Dykes, lookin' very bad; +'forsett-and-backsett, ye'll tak me oot, Tom Ettles, and clap ye doun +behint me quick, or I'll claw ho'd o' thee.' Tom felt his hair risin' +stiff on his heed, and his tongue so fast to the roof o' his mouth he +could scarce get oot a word; but says he, 'If Black Jack can't do it o' +noo, he'll ne'er do't and carry double.' 'I ken my ain business best,' +says Dykes. 'If ye gar me gie ye a look, 'twill gie ye the creepin's +while ye live; so git ye doun, Tom;' and with that the dobby lifts its +neaf, and Tom saw there was a red light round horse and man, like the +glow of a peat fire. And says Tom, 'In the name o' God, ye'll let me +pass;' and with the word the gooast draws itsel' doun, all a-creaked, +like a man wi' a sudden pain; and Tom Ettles took to his heels more deed +than alive."</p> + +<p>They had approached their heads, and the story had sunk to that +mysterious murmur that thrills the listener, when in the brief silence +that followed they heard a low odd laugh near the door.</p> + +<p>In that direction each lady looked aghast, and saw Feltram sitting +straight up in the bed, with the white bandage in his hand, and as it +seemed, for one foot was below the coverlet, near the floor, about to +glide forth.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bligh, uttering a hideous shriek, clutched Mrs. Wale, and Mrs. +Wale, with a scream as dreadful, gripped Mrs. Bligh; and quite +forgetting their somewhat formal politeness, they reeled and tugged, +wrestling towards the window, each struggling to place her companion +between her and the 'dobby,' and both uniting in a direful peal of +yells.</p> + +<p>This was the uproar which had startled Sir Bale from his dream, and was +now startling the servants from theirs.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIII</h4> + +<i><b>The Mist on the Mountain</b></i> + +<p>Doctor Torvey was sent for early next morning, and came full of wonder, +learning and scepticism. Seeing is believing, however; and there was +Philip Feltram living, and soon to be, in all bodily functions, just as +usual.</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, Sir Bale, I couldn't have believed it, if I had not seen +it with my eyes," said the Doctor impressively, while sipping a glass of +sherry in the 'breakfast parlour,' as the great panelled and pictured +room next the dining-room was called. "I don't think there is any +similar case on record—no pulse, no more than the poker; no +respiration, by Jove, no more than the chimney-piece; as cold as a lead +image in the garden there. Well, you'll say all that might possibly be +fallacious; but what will you say to the cadaveric stiffness? Old Judy +Wale can tell you; and my friend Marcella—Monocula would be nearer the +mark—Mrs. Bligh, she knows all those common, and I may say up to this, +infallible, signs of death, as well as I do. There is no mystery about +them; they'll depose to the literality of the symptoms. You heard how +they gave tongue. Upon my honour, I'll send the whole case up to my old +chief, Sir Hervey Hansard, to London. You'll hear what a noise it will +make among the profession. There never was—and it ain't too much to +say there never <i>will</i> be—another case like it."</p> + +<p>During this lecture, and a great deal more, Sir Bale leaned back in his +chair, with his legs extended, his heels on the ground, and his arms +folded, looking sourly up in the face of a tall lady in white satin, in +a ruff, and with a bird on her hand, who smiled down superciliously from +her frame on the Baronet. Sir Bale seemed a little bit high and dry with +the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"You physicians are unquestionably," he said, "a very learned +profession."</p> + +<p>The Doctor bowed.</p> + +<p>"But there's just one thing you know nothing about——"</p> + +<p>"Eh? What's that?" inquired Doctor Torvey.</p> + +<p>"Medicine," answered Sir Bale. "I was aware you never knew what was the +matter with a sick man; but I didn't know, till now, that you couldn't +tell when he was dead."</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!--well—ha, ha!--<i>yes</i>—well, you see, you—ha, ha!--you +certainly have me there. But it's a case without a parallel—it is, upon +my honour. You'll find it will not only be talked about, but written +about; and, whatever papers appear upon it, will come to me; and I'll +take care, Sir Bale, you shall have an opportunity of reading them."</p> + +<p>"Of which I shan't avail myself," answered Sir Bale. "Take another glass +of sherry, Doctor."</p> + +<p>The Doctor made his acknowledgments and filled his glass, and looked +through the wine between him and the window.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!--see there, your port, Sir Bale, gives a fellow such +habits—looking for the beeswing, by Jove. It isn't easy, in one sense +at least, to get your port out of a fellow's head when once he has +tasted it."</p> + +<p>But if the honest Doctor meant a hint for a glass of that admirable bin, +it fell pointless; and Sir Bale had no notion of making another libation +of that precious fluid in honour of Doctor Torvey.</p> + +<p>"And I take it for granted," said Sir Bale, "that Feltram will do very +well; and, should anything go wrong, I can send for you—unless he +should die again; and in that case I think I shall take my own opinion."</p> + +<p>So he and the Doctor parted.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, although he did not consult the Doctor on his own case, was +not particularly well. "That lonely place, those frightful mountains, +and that damp black lake"—which features in the landscape he cursed all +round—"are enough to give any man blue devils; and when a fellow's +spirits go, he's all gone. That's why I'm dyspeptic—that and those +d----d debts—and the post, with its flight of croaking and screeching +letters from London. I wish there was no post here. I wish it was like +Sir Amyrald's time, when they shot the York mercer that came to dun him, +and no one ever took anyone to task about it; and now they can pelt you +at any distance they please through the post; and fellows lose their +spirits and their appetite and any sort of miserable comfort that is +possible in this odious abyss."</p> + +<p>Was there gout in Sir Bale's case, or 'vapours'? I know not what the +faculty would have called it; but Sir Bale's mode of treatment was +simply to work off the attack by long and laborious walking.</p> + +<p>This evening his walk was upon the Fells of Golden Friars—long after +the landscape below was in the eclipse of twilight, the broad bare sides +and angles of these gigantic uplands were still lighted by the misty +western sun.</p> + +<p>There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the +silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the +level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and +colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a +strange fear and elation—an ascent above the reach of life's vexations +or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgiving. +The filmy disc of the moon had risen in the east, and was already +faintly silvering the shadowy scenery below, while yet Sir Bale stood in +the mellow light of the western sun, which still touched also the +summits of the opposite peaks of Morvyn Fells.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes did not, as a stranger might, in prudence, hasten his +descent from the heights at which he stood while yet a gleam of daylight +remained to him. For he was, from his boyhood, familiar with those +solitary regions; and, beside this, the thin circle of the moon, hung in +the eastern sky, would brighten as the sunlight sank, and hang like a +lamp above his steps.</p> + +<p>There was in the bronzed and resolute face of the Baronet, lighted now +in the parting beams of sunset, a resemblance to that of Charles the +Second—not our "merry" ideal, but the more energetic and saturnine face +which the portraits have preserved to us.</p> + +<p>He stood with folded arms on the side of the slope, admiring, in spite +of his prejudice, the unusual effects of a view so strangely +lighted—the sunset tints on the opposite peaks, lost in the misty +twilight, now deepening lower down into a darker shade, through which +the outlines of the stone gables and tower of Golden Friars and the +light of fire or candle in their windows were dimly visible.</p> + +<p>As he stood and looked, his more distant sunset went down, and sudden +twilight was upon him, and he began to remember the beautiful Homeric +picture of a landscape coming out, rock and headland, in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>There had hung upon the higher summits, at his right, a heavy fold of +white cloud, which on a sudden broke, and, like the smoke of artillery, +came rolling down the slopes toward him. Its principal volume, however, +unfolded itself in a mighty flood down the side of the mountain towards +the lake; and that which spread towards and soon enveloped the ground on +which he stood was by no means so dense a fog. A thick mist enough it +was; but still, to a distance of twenty or thirty yards, he could +discern the outline of a rock or scaur, but not beyond it.</p> + +<p>There are few sensations more intimidating than that of being thus +enveloped on a lonely mountain-side, which, like this one, here and +there breaks into precipice.</p> + +<p>There is another sensation, too, which affects the imagination. +Overtaken thus on the solitary expanse, there comes a new chill and +tremour as this treacherous medium surrounds us, through which +unperceived those shapes which fancy conjures up might approach so near +and bar our path.</p> + +<p>From the risk of being reduced to an actual standstill he knew he was +exempt. The point from which the wind blew, light as it was, assured him +of that. Still the mist was thick enough seriously to embarrass him. It +had overtaken him as he was looking down upon the lake; and he now +looked to his left, to try whether in that direction it was too thick to +permit a view of the nearest landmarks. Through this white film he saw a +figure standing only about five-and-twenty steps away, looking down, as +it seemed, in precisely the same direction as he, quite motionless, and +standing like a shadow projected upon the smoky vapour. It was the +figure of a slight tall man, with his arm extended, as if pointing to a +remote object, which no mortal eye certainly could discern through the +mist. Sir Bale gazed at this figure, doubtful whether he were in a +waking dream, unable to conjecture whence it had come; and as he looked, +it moved, and was almost instantly out of sight.</p> + +<p>He descended the mountain cautiously. The mist was now thinner, and +through the haze he was beginning to see objects more distinctly, and, +without danger, to proceed at a quicker pace. He had still a long walk +by the uplands towards Mardykes Hall before he descended to the level of +the lake.</p> + +<p>The mist was still quite thick enough to circumscribe his view and to +hide the general features of the landscape; and well was it, perhaps, +for Sir Bale that his boyhood had familiarised him with the landmarks on +the mountain-side.</p> + +<p>He had made nearly four miles on his solitary homeward way, when, +passing under a ledge of rock which bears the name of the Cat's Skaitch, +he saw the same figure in the short cloak standing within some thirty or +forty yards of him—the thin curtain of mist, through which the +moonlight touched it, giving to it an airy and unsubstantial character.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale came to a standstill. The man in the short cloak nodded and +drew back, and was concealed by the angle of the rock.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was now irritated, as men are after a start, and shouting to +the stranger to halt, he 'slapped' after him, as the northern phrase +goes, at his best pace. But again he was gone, and nowhere could he see +him, the mist favouring his evasion.</p> + +<p>Looking down the fells that overhang Mardykes Hall, the mountain-side +dips gradually into a glen, which, as it descends, becomes precipitous +and wooded. A footpath through this ravine conducts the wayfarer to the +level ground that borders the lake; and by this dark pass Sir Bale +Mardykes strode, in comparatively clear air, along the rocky path +dappled with moonlight.</p> + +<p>As he emerged upon the lower ground he again encountered the same +figure. It approached. It was Philip Feltram.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIV</h4> + +<i><b>A New Philip Feltram</b></i> + +<p>The Baronet had not seen Feltram since his strange escape from death. +His last interview with him had been stern and threatening; Sir Bale +dealing with appearances in the spirit of an incensed judge, Philip +Feltram lamenting in the submission of a helpless despair.</p> + +<p>Feltram was full in the moonlight now, standing erect, and smiling +cynically on the Baronet.</p> + +<p>There was that in the bearing and countenance of Feltram that +disconcerted him more than the surprise of the sudden meeting.</p> + +<p>He had determined to meet Feltram in a friendly way, whenever that not +very comfortable interview became inevitable. But he was confused by the +suddenness of Feltram's appearance; and the tone, cold and stern, in +which he had last spoken to him came first, and he spoke in it after a +brief silence.</p> + +<p>"I fancied, Mr. Feltram, you were in your bed; I little expected to find +you here. I think the Doctor gave very particular directions, and said +that you were to remain perfectly quiet."</p> + +<p>"But I know more than the Doctor," replied Feltram, still smiling +unpleasantly.</p> + +<p>"I think, sir, you would have been better in your bed," said Sir Bale +loftily.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, come, come!" exclaimed Philip Feltram contemptuously.</p> + +<a name="IMAGE_2"></a> +<p><img src="images/image2.jpg" width="250" height="413" align="left" +alt="It was the figure of a slight tall man, +with his arm extended, +as if pointing to a remote object."></p> + +<p>"It seems to me," said Sir Bale, a good deal astonished, "you rather +forget yourself."</p> + +<p>"Easier to forget oneself, Sir Bale, than to forgive others, at times," +replied Philip Feltram in his unparalleled mood.</p> + +<p>"That's the way fools knock themselves up," continued Sir Bale. "You've +been walking ever so far—away to the Fells of Golden Friars. It was you +whom I saw there. What d----d folly! What brought you there?"</p> + +<p>"To observe you," he replied.</p> + +<p>"And have you walked the whole way there and back again? How did you get +there?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! how did I come—how did you come—how did the fog come? From the +lake, I suppose. We all come up, and then down." So spoke Philip +Feltram, with serene insolence.</p> + +<p>"You are pleased to talk nonsense," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Because I like it—with a <i>meaning</i>."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him, not knowing whether to believe his eyes and +ears. He did not know what to make of him.</p> + +<p>"I had intended speaking to you in a conciliatory way; you seem to wish +to make that impossible"—Philip Feltram's face wore its repulsive +smile;—"and in fact I don't know what to make of you, unless you are +ill; and ill you well may be. You can't have walked much less than +twelve miles."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful effort for me!" said Feltram with the same sneer.</p> + +<p>"Rather surprising for a man so nearly drowned," answered Sir Bale +Mardykes.</p> + +<p>"A dip: you don't like the lake, sir; but I do. And so it is: as Antaeus +touched the earth, so I the water, and rise refreshed."</p> + +<p>"I think you'd better get in and refresh there. I meant to tell you that +all the unpleasantness about that bank-note is over."</p> + +<p>"Is it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It has been recovered by Mr. Creswell, who came here last night. +I've got it, and you're not to blame," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"But some one <i>is</i> to blame," observed Mr. Feltram, smiling still.</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>you</i> are not, and that ends it," said the Baronet peremptorily.</p> +<br> + +<p>"Ends it? Really, how good! how very good!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him, for there was something ambiguous and even +derisive in the tone of Feltram's voice.</p> + +<p>But before he could quite make up his mind, Feltram spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Everything is settled about you and me?"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing to prevent your staying at Mardykes now," said Sir +Bale graciously.</p> + +<p>"I shall be with you for two years, and then I go on my travels," +answered Feltram, with a saturnine and somewhat wild look around him.</p> + +<p>"Is he going mad?" thought the Baronet.</p> + +<p>"But before I go, I'm to put you in a way of paying off your mortgages. +That is my business here."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him sharply. But now there was not the unpleasant +smile, but the darkened look of a man in secret pain.</p> + +<p>"You shall know it all by and by."</p> + +<p>And without more ceremony, and with a darkening face, Philip Feltram +made his way under the boughs of the thick oaks that grew there, leaving +on Sir Bale's mind an impression that he had been watching some one at a +distance, and had gone in consequence of a signal.</p> + +<p>In a few seconds he followed in the same direction, halloaing after +Feltram; for he did not like the idea of his wandering about the country +by moonlight, or possibly losing his life among the precipices, and +bringing a new discredit upon his house. But no answer came; nor could +he in that thick copse gain sight of him again.</p> + +<p>When Sir Bale reached Mardykes Hall he summoned Mrs. Julaper, and had a +long talk with her. But she could not say that there appeared anything +amiss with Philip Feltram; only he seemed more reserved, and as if he +was brooding over something he did not intend to tell.</p> + +<p>"But, you know, Sir Bale, what happened might well make a thoughtful man +of him. If he's ever to think of Death, it should be after looking him +so hard in the face; and I'm not ashamed to say, I'm glad to see he has +grace to take the lesson, and I hope his experiences may be sanctified +to him, poor fellow! Amen."</p> + +<p>"Very good song, and very well sung," said Sir Bale; "but it doesn't +seem to me that he has been improved, Mrs. Julaper. He seems, on the +contrary, in a queer temper and anything but a heavenly frame of mind; +and I thought I'd ask you, because if he is ill—I mean feverish—it +might account for his eccentricities, as well as make it necessary to +send after him, and bring him home, and put him to bed. But I suppose it +is as you say,—his adventure has upset him a little, and he'll sober in +a day or two, and return to his old ways."</p> + +<p>But this did not happen. A change, more comprehensive than at first +appeared, had taken place, and a singular alteration was gradually +established.</p> + +<p>He grew thin, his eyes hollow, his face gradually forbidding.</p> + +<p>His ways and temper were changed: he was a new man with Sir Bale; and +the Baronet after a time, people said, began to grow afraid of him. And +certainly Feltram had acquired an extraordinary influence over the +Baronet, who a little while ago had regarded and treated him with so +much contempt.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XV</h4> + +<i><b>The Purse of Gold</b></i> + +<p>The Baronet was very slightly known in his county. He had led a reserved +and inhospitable life. He was pressed upon by heavy debts; and being a +proud man, held aloof from society and its doings. He wished people to +understand that he was nursing his estate; but somehow the estate did +not thrive at nurse. In the country other people's business is admirably +well known; and the lord of Mardykes was conscious, perhaps, that his +neighbours knew as well he did, that the utmost he could do was to pay +the interest charged upon it, and to live in a frugal way enough.</p> + +<p>The lake measures some four or five miles across, from the little jetty +under the walls of Mardykes Hall to Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram, changed and morose, loved a solitary row upon the lake; +and sometimes, with no one to aid him in its management, would take the +little sailboat and pass the whole day upon those lonely waters.</p> + +<p>Frequently he crossed to Cloostedd; and mooring the boat under the +solemn trees that stand reflected in that dark mirror, he would +disembark and wander among the lonely woodlands, as people thought, +cherishing in those ancestral scenes the memory of ineffaceable +injuries, and the wrath and revenge that seemed of late to darken his +countenance, and to hold him always in a moody silence.</p> + +<p>One autumnal evening Sir Bale Mardykes was sourly ruminating after his +solitary meal. A very red sun was pouring its last low beams through the +valley at the western extremity of the lake, across its elsewhere sombre +waters, and touching with a sudden and blood-red tint the sail of the +skiff in which Feltram was returning from his lonely cruise.</p> + +<p>"Here comes my domestic water-fiend," sneered Sir Bale, as he lay back +in his cumbrous arm-chair. "Cheerful place, pleasant people, delicious +fate! The place alone has been enough to set that fool out of his little +senses, d—n him!"</p> + +<p>Sir Bale averted his eyes, and another subject not pleasanter entered +his mind. He was thinking of the races that were coming off next week at +Heckleston Downs, and what sums of money might be made there, and how +hard it was that he should be excluded by fortune from that brilliant +lottery.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mrs. Julaper, is that you?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Julaper, who was still at the door, curtsied, and said, "I came, +Sir Bale, to see whether you'd please to like a jug of mulled claret, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Not I, my dear. I'll take a mug of beer and my pipe; that homely solace +better befits a ruined gentleman."</p> + +<p>"H'm, sir; you're not that, Sir Bale; you're no worse than half the +lords and great men that are going. I would not hear another say that of +you, sir."</p> + +<p>"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Julaper; but you won't call <i>me</i> out for +backbiting myself, especially as it is true, d----d true, Mrs. Julaper! +Look ye; there never was a Mardykes here before but he could lay his +hundred or his thousand pounds on the winner of the Heckleston Cup; and +what could I bet? Little more than that mug of beer I spoke of. It was +my great-grandfather who opened the course on the Downs of Heckleston, +and now <i>I</i> can't show there! Well, what must I do? Grin and bear it, +that's all. If you please, Mrs. Julaper, I will have that jug of claret +you offered. I want spice and hot wine to keep me alive; but I'll smoke +my pipe first, and in an hour's time it will do."</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Julaper was gone, he lighted his pipe, and drew near the +window, through which he looked upon the now fading sky and the twilight +landscape.</p> + +<p>He smoked his pipe out, and by that time it had grown nearly dark. He +was still looking out upon the faint outlines of the view, and thinking +angrily what a little bit of luck at the races would do for many a man +who probably did not want it half so much as he. Vague and sombre as his +thoughts were, they had, like the darkening landscape outside, shape +enough to define their general character. Bitter and impious they +were—as those of egotistic men naturally are in suffering. And after +brooding, and muttering by fits and starts, he said:</p> + +<p>"How many tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds will change hands at +Heckleston next week; and not a shilling in all the change and shuffle +will stick to me! How many a fellow would sell himself, like Dr. +Faustus, just for the knowledge of the name of the winner! But he's no +fool, and does not buy his own."</p> + +<p>Something caught his eye; something moving on the wall. The fire was +lighted, and cast a flickering and gigantic shadow upward; the figure of +a man standing behind Sir Bale Mardykes, on whose shoulder he placed a +lean hand. Sir Bale turned suddenly about, and saw Philip Feltram. He +was looking dark and stern, and did not remove his hand from his +shoulder as he peered into the Baronet's face with his deep-set mad +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ha, Philip, upon my soul!" exclaimed Sir Bale, surprised. "How time +flies! It seems only this minute since I saw the boat a mile and a half +away from the shore. Well—yes; there has been time; it is dark now. Ha, +ha! I assure you, you startled me. Won't you take something? Do. Shall I +touch the bell?"</p> + +<p>"You have been troubled about those mortgages. I told you I should pay +them off, I thought."</p> + +<p>Here there was a pause, and Sir Bale looked hard in Feltram's face. If +he had been in his ordinary spirits, or perhaps in some of his haunts +less solitary than Mardykes, he would have laughed; but here he had +grown unlike himself, gloomy and credulous, and was, in fact, a nervous +man.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale smiled, and shook his head dismally.</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of you, Feltram; the idea shows a kindly disposition. I +know you would do me a kindness if you could."</p> + +<p>As Sir Bale, each looking in the other's eyes, repeated in this sentence +the words "kind," "kindly," "kindness," a smile lighted Feltram's face +with at each word an intenser light; and Sir Bale grew sombre in its +glare; and when he had done speaking, Feltram's face also on a sudden +darkened.</p> + +<p>"I have found a fortune-teller in Cloostedd Wood. Look here."</p> + +<p>And he drew from his pocket a leathern purse, which he placed on the +table in his hand; and Sir Bale heard the pleasant clink of coin in it.</p> + +<p>"A fortune-teller! You don't mean to say she gave you that?" said Sir +Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram smiled again, and nodded.</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> the custom to give the fortuneteller a trifle. It is a great +improvement making <i>her</i> fee you," observed Sir Bale, with an approach +to his old manner.</p> + +<p>"He put that in my hand with a message," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"He? O, then it was a male fortune-teller!"</p> + +<p>"Gipsies go in gangs, men and women. <i>He</i> might lend, though <i>she</i> told +fortunes," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"It's the first time I ever heard of gipsies lending money;" and he eyed +the purse with a whimsical smile.</p> + +<p>With his lean fingers still holding it, Feltram sat down at the table. +His face contracted as if in cunning thought, and his chin sank upon his +breast as he leaned back.</p> + +<p>"I think," continued Sir Bale, "ever since they were spoiled, the +Egyptians have been a little shy of lending, and leave that branch of +business to the Hebrews."</p> + +<p>"What would you give to know, now, the winner at Heckleston races?" said +Feltram suddenly, raising his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; that would be worth something," answered Sir Bale, looking at him +with more interest than the incredulity he affected would quite warrant.</p> + +<p>"And this money I have power to lend you, to make your game."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that really?" said Sir Bale, with a new energy in tone, +manner, and features.</p> + +<p>"That's heavy; there are some guineas there," said Feltram with a dark +smile, raising the purse in his hand a little, and letting it drop upon +the table with a clang.</p> + +<p>"There is <i>something</i> there, at all events," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram took the purse by the bottom, and poured out on the table a +handsome pile of guineas.</p> + +<p>"And do you mean to say you got all that from a gipsy in Cloostedd +Wood?"</p> + +<p>"A friend, who is—<i>myself</i>," answered Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Yourself! Then it is yours—<i>you</i> lend it?" said the Baronet, amazed; +for there was no getting over the heap of guineas, and the wonder was +pretty equal whence they had come.</p> + +<p>"Myself, and not myself," said Feltram oracularly; "as like as voice and +echo, man and shadow."</p> + +<p>Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted +upon hidden treasure? There was a story of two Feltrams of Cloostedd, +brothers, who had joined the king's army and fought at Marston Moor, +having buried in Cloostedd Wood a great deal of gold and plate and +jewels. They had, it was said, intrusted one tried servant with the +secret; and that servant remained at home. But by a perverse fatality +the three witnesses had perished within a month: the two brothers at +Marston Moor; and the confidant, of fever, at Cloostedd. From that day +forth treasure-seekers had from time to time explored the woods of +Cloostedd; and many a tree of mark was dug beside, and the earth +beneath many a stone and scar and other landmark in that solitary forest +was opened by night, until hope gradually died out, and the tradition +had long ceased to prompt to action, and had become a story and nothing +more.</p> + +<p>The image of the nursery-tale had now recurred to Sir Bale after so long +a reach of years; and the only imaginable way, in his mind, of +accounting for penniless Philip Feltram having all that gold in his +possession was that, in some of his lonely wanderings, chance had led +him to the undiscovered hoard of the two Feltrams who had died in the +great civil wars.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps those gipsies you speak of found the money where you found +them; and in that case, as Cloostedd Forest, and all that is in it is my +property, their sending it to me is more like my servant's handing me my +hat and stick when I'm going out, than making me a present."</p> + +<p>"You will not be wise to rely upon the law, Sir Bale, and to refuse the +help that comes unasked. But if you like your mortgages as they are, +keep them; and if you like my terms as they are, take them; and when you +have made up your mind, let me know."</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram dropped the heavy purse into his capacious coat-pocket, +and walked, muttering, out of the room.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVI</h4> + +<i><b>The Message from Cloostedd</b></i> + +<p>"Come back, Feltram; come back, Philip!" cried Sir Bale hastily. "Let us +talk, can't we? Come and talk this odd business over a little; you must +have mistaken what I meant; I should like to hear all about it."</p> + +<p>"All is not much, sir," said Philip Feltram, entering the room again, +the door of which he had half closed after him. "In the forest of +Cloostedd I met to-day some people, one of whom can foretell events, and +told me the names of the winners of the first three races at Heckleston, +and gave me this purse, with leave to lend you so much money as you care +to stake upon the races. I take no security; you shan't be troubled; and +you'll never see the lender, unless you seek him out."</p> + +<p>"Well, those are not bad terms," said Sir Bale, smiling wistfully at +the purse, which Feltram had again placed upon the table.</p> + +<p>"No, not bad," repeated Feltram, in the harsh low tone in which he now +habitually spoke.</p> + +<p>"You'll tell me what the prophet said about the winners; I should like +to hear their names."</p> + +<p>"The names I shall tell you if you walk out with me," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Why not here?" asked Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"My memory does not serve me here so well. Some people, in some places, +though they be silent, obstruct thought. Come, let us speak," said +Philip Feltram, leading the way.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale, with a shrug, followed him.</p> + +<p>By this time it was dark. Feltram was walking slowly towards the margin +of the lake; and Sir Bale, more curious as the delay increased, followed +him, and smiled faintly as he looked after his tall, gaunt figure, as +if, even in the dark, expressing a ridicule which he did not honestly +feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there +was no one near enough to see.</p> + +<p>When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale +thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a +reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally +in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near, +no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his +change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was +but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering +faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing +upright, said,</p> + +<p>"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and +pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all +along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me."</p> + +<p>There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and +something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost +insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would +have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which +he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which +sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him.</p> + +<p>"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The +secret is yours when you promise."</p> + +<p>"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think +I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd +hardly take the trouble."</p> + +<p>Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he +raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand—the hollow of your +hand—like this. I divide the water for a sign—share to me and share to +you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the +hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in +his mockery.</p> + +<p>"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the +finder, be that who it may?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and +with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he +joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he.</p> + +<p>"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it +will serve you to remember by. And now the names. Don't speak; +listen—you may break the thought else. The winner of the first is +<i>Beeswing</i>; of the second, <i>Falcon</i>; and of the third, <i>Lightning</i>."</p> + +<p>He had stood for some seconds in silence before he spoke; his eyes were +closed; he seemed to bring up thought and speech with difficulty, and +spoke faintly and drowsily, both his hands a little raised, and the +fingers extended, with the groping air of a man who moves in the dark. +In this odd way, slowly, faintly, with many a sigh and scarcely audible +groan, he gradually delivered his message and was silent. He stood, it +seemed, scarcely half awake, muttering indistinctly and sighing to +himself. You would have said that he was exhausted and suffering, like a +man at his last hour resigning himself to death.</p> + +<p>At length he opened his eyes, looked round a little wildly and +languidly, and with another great sigh sat down on a large rock that +lies by the margin of the lake, and sighed heavily again and again. You +might have fancied that he was a second time recovering from drowning.</p> + +<p>Then he got up, and looked drowsily round again, and sighed like a man +worn out with fatigue, and was silent.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did not care to speak until he seemed a little more likely to +obtain an answer. When that time came, he said, "I wish, for the sake of +my believing, that your list was a little less incredible. Not one of +the horses you name is the least likely; not one of them has a chance."</p> + +<p>"So much the better for you; you'll get what odds you please. You had +better seize your luck; on Tuesday Beeswing runs," said Feltram. "When +you want money for the purpose, I'm your banker—here is your bank."</p> + +<p>He touched his breast, where he had placed the purse, and then he turned +and walked swiftly away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked after him till he disappeared in the dark. He fluctuated +among many surmises about Feltram. Was he insane, or was he practising +an imposture? or was he fool enough to believe the predictions of some +real gipsies? and had he borrowed this money, which in Sir Bale's eyes +seemed the greatest miracle in the matter, from those thriving shepherd +mountaineers, the old Trebecks, who, he believed, were attached to him? +Feltram had, he thought, borrowed it as if for himself; and having, as +Sir Bale in his egotism supposed, "a sneaking regard" for him, had meant +the loan for his patron, and conceived the idea of his using his +revelations for the purpose of making his fortune. So, seeing no risk, +and the temptation being strong, Sir Bale resolved to avail himself of +the purse, and use his own judgment as to what horse to back.</p> + +<p>About eleven o'clock Feltram, unannounced, walked, with his hat still +on, into Sir Bale's library, and sat down at the opposite side of his +table, looking gloomily into the Baronet's face for a time.</p> + +<p>"Shall you want the purse?" he asked at last.</p> + +<p>"Certainly; I always want a purse," said Sir Bale energetically.</p> + +<p>"The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have +named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the +sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse +contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make +some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?"</p> + +<p>"Of course; five pounds in the hundred—certainly; and how many hundreds +are there?"</p> + +<p>"Three."</p> + +<p>"Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, +but it ain't very much."</p> + +<p>"Quite enough, if you use it aright."</p> + +<p>"Three hundred pounds," repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, +which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and +contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in +little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but +he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said he, after a second counting, "I think there <i>are</i> exactly +three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five—fifteen +of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; +but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?" he added, with a +hesitating inquiry in the tone.</p> + +<p>"If you don't, you'll rue it," said Feltram coldly, and walked away.</p> + +<p>"Penny in pocket's a merry companion," says the old English proverb, and +Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as +he replaced the guineas in the purse.</p> + +<p>It was long since he had visited either the race-course or any other +place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his +pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of +the turf once more.</p> + +<p>"Who knows how this little venture may turn out?" he thought. "It is +time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in +Paris—d—n me, I'm owed something. It's time I should win a bit."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life +imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first +time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in +his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, +therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, +followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen's Head at Heckleston, +where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day +following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those +days need have cared to show.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVII</h4> + +<i><b>On the Course—Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning</b></i> + +<p>As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the +early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he +looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that +hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he +took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched +with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite +side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the +side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a +pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking +in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated +the sail of Philip Feltram's boat, now midway between Mardykes and the +wooded shores of Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"Going on the same errand," thought Sir Bale, "I should not wonder. I +wish him the same luck. Yes, he's going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he +may meet his gipsies there—the Trebecks, or whoever they are."</p> + +<p>And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such +people smote him, "Well," thought he, "who knows? Many a fellow will +make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will +be a light matter paying them then."</p> + +<p>Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like +him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and +conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, +however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual +was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town.</p> + +<p>Next morning he was on the race-course of Heckleston, renewing old +acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could—an object, +among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the +carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the +betting men, deep in more serious business.</p> + +<p>How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, +Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than +the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were +forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and +fifty to one against Falcon.</p> + +<p>"A pretty lot to choose!" exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. "As if I +had money so often, that I should throw it away!"</p> + +<p>The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram's +message as an impertinence and the money as his own.</p> + +<p>Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes' pocket fared.</p> + +<p>Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston +racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars.</p> + +<p>He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; +and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. +In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an +accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. +And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the +"fortune-teller" had predicted.</p> + +<p>Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral +house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very +welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred +instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would +have won 15,500 guineas.</p> + +<p>He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a +man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and +laughed dryly.</p> + +<p>"What do you laugh at?" asked Sir Bale tartly.</p> + +<p>"You've won, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've won; I've won a trifle."</p> + +<p>"On the horses I named?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident."</p> + +<p>Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse +mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so +ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more +of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment +yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all +likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. +Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to +Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the +poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, +that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's +fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he +did not.</p> + +<p>So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day +himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of +Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a +little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in +his excursions up the mountains.</p> + +<p>"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal.</p> + +<p>"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual +clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other +side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the +person about whom you are always thinking."</p> + +<p>"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for +he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> say it, because I <i>know</i> it; and <i>you</i> know it also. See that clump +of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, +grows an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H—F; so +large and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure +them, although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the +trunk of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are +looking up the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where +stands Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find +our fortune-teller?"</p> + +<p>"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because, +although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has +either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got +extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on +chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous +fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and +perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an +arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any +matter of the same kind again."</p> + +<p>"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy +and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach +him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he +invites you."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale laughed.</p> + +<p>"He knows his value, and means to make his own terms."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's nothing unfair in that; and I don't see that I should +dispute it. How is one to find him?"</p> + +<p>"Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. +Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its +surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about +the size of a man's head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, +that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the +line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take +carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the +forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are +sure to find him."</p> + +<p>"You'll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and +probably fail to discover him," said Sir Bale; "and I really wish to see +him."</p> + +<p>"When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don't. I can go with +you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your +side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, +that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see +that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I'll take you across the lake."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, you'll do no such thing!" said Sir Bale hastily.</p> + +<p>"But that is the way he chooses to be approached," said Philip Feltram.</p> + +<p>"I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it's the one childish spot +that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it—old +stories and warnings; and I can't think of that. I should feel I had +invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are +queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there."</p> + +<p>"Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all +were done, he would not see you. He knows what he's worth, and he'll +have his own way," answered Feltram. "The sun will soon set. See that +withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from +the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three +minutes to live."</p> + +<p>"That is a wonder which I can't see; it is too far away."</p> + +<p>"Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them," said +Feltram.</p> + +<p>"So it does," said the Baronet; "more than most men have got. I'll ride +round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way."</p> + +<p>"You'll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity +to vex him."</p> + +<p>"It was to you he lent the money," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him," urged Sir +Bale.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don't go, he may be +offended, and you may hear no more from him."</p> + +<p>"We'll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for +once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What +do you say?</p> + +<p>"You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question—what horses, I +mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money +will change hands."</p> + +<p>"I'll try," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>"When will you go?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," he answered.</p> + +<p>"I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those +cursed mortgages."</p> + +<p>He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of +Feltram, who coldly answered,</p> + +<p>"So have I;" and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, +without another word or look.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XVIII</h4> + +<i><b>On the Lake, at Last</b></i> + +<p>Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat +on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no +little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude +pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now +satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the 'cunning man,' +and gather hints for the next race.</p> + +<p>When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale's +library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more +interested about his news than he would have cared to confess.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with +great directness, proceeded to satisfy it.</p> + +<p>"I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day—and found the old +gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any +kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross +the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and +counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard +names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did +talk."</p> + +<p>"And what did he say?"</p> + +<p>"He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram."</p> + +<p>"He might have said something more likely," said Sir Bale sourly. "Did +he say anything more?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell."</p> + +<p>"Any other name?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Silver Bell? Well, that's not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands +high in the list. He has a good many backers—long odds in his favour +against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell."</p> + +<p>The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the +moment he heard the soothsayer's prediction. He made up his mind to no +half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome.</p> + +<p>He was in great force and full of confidence on the race-course. He had +no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still +untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in +the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon +staked—such is the growing frenzy of that excitement—about twenty +thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven.</p> + +<p>He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, +having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about +him—quite at his wit's end.</p> + +<p>Feltram was standing—as on the occasion of his former happier +return—on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing +eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as +before, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he +might, had he been a degree less desperate.</p> + +<p>He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted.</p> + +<p>"Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust +you. He's huffed, and played you false."</p> + +<p>"It was not he. I should have backed that d----d horse in any case," +said Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. "What a witch you have discovered! +One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might +have the estate now; but there ain't. They are all beggars. So much for +your conjurer."</p> + +<p>"He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him."</p> + +<p>"He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D—n me, I'm past helping +now."</p> + +<p>"Don't you talk so," said Feltram. "Be civil. You must please the old +gentleman. He'll make it up. He's placable when it suits him. Why not go +to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make +it up."</p> + +<p>"Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can't make even a guess at +what's coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?"</p> + +<p>"No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? +He won't see you unless you go to him as he chooses."</p> + +<p>"If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don't choose to go +on that water—and cross it I won't," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the +idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his +resolution faltered.</p> + +<p>"I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose +to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a +boat?"</p> + +<p>Feltram smiled darkly, and answered.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell. Can you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I can't—I say I can't; besides, what audacity of a fellow +like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can't +predict—do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?"</p> + +<p>"I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish +those who don't respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often +quite clear—not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him +out, and when you do, I think he'll help you through your trouble. He +said he would."</p> + +<p>"Then you have seen him since?"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday. He has put a pressure on you; but he means to help you."</p> + +<p>"If he means to help me, let him remember I want a banker more than a +seer. Let him give me a lift, as he did before. He must lend me money."</p> + +<p>"He'll not stick at that. When he takes up a man, he carries him +through."</p> + +<p>"The races of Byermere—I might retrieve at them. But they don't come +off for a month nearly; and what is a man like me to do in the +meantime?"</p> + +<p>"Every man should know his own business best. I'm not like you," said +Feltram grimly.</p> + +<p>Now Sir Bale's trouble increased, for some people were pressing. +Something like panic supervened; for it happened that land was bringing +just then a bad price, and more must be sold in consequence.</p> + +<p>"All I can tell them is, I am selling land. It can't be done in an hour. +I'm selling enough to pay them all twice over. Gentlemen used to be able +to wait till a man sold his acres for payment. D—n them! do they want +my body, that they can't let me alone for five minutes?"</p> + +<p>The end of it was, that before a week Sir Bale told Feltram that he +would go by boat, since that fellow insisted on it; and he did not very +much care if he were drowned.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful autumnal day. Everything was bright in that mellowed +sun, and the deep blue of the lake was tremulous with golden ripples; +and crag and peak and scattered wood, faint in the distance, came out +with a filmy distinctness on the fells in that pleasant light.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had been ill, and sent down the night before for Doctor Torvey. +He was away with a patient. Now, in the morning, he had arrived +inopportunely. He met Sir Bale as he issued from the house, and had a +word with him in the court, for he would not turn back.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Doctor, after his brief inspection, "you ought to be +in your bed; that's all I can say. You are perfectly mad to think of +knocking about like this. Your pulse is at a hundred and ten; and, if +you go across the lake and walk about Cloostedd, you'll be raving before +you come back."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale told him, apologetically, as if his life were more to his +doctor than to himself, that he would take care not to fatigue himself, +and that the air would do him good, and that in any case he could not +avoid going; and so they parted.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale took his seat beside Feltram in the boat, the sail was spread, +and, bending to the light breeze that blew from Golden Friars, she +glided from the jetty under Mardykes Hall, and the eventful voyage had +begun.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XIX</h4> + +<i><b>Mystagogus</b></i> + +<p>The sail was loosed, the boat touched the stone step, and Feltram sprang +out and made her fast to the old iron ring. The Baronet followed. So! he +had ventured upon that water without being drowned. He looked round him +as if in a dream. He had not been there since his childhood. There were +no regrets, no sentiment, no remorse; only an odd return of the +associations and fresh feelings of boyhood, and a long reach of time +suddenly annihilated.</p> + +<p>The little hollow in which he stood; the three hawthorn trees at his +right; every crease and undulation of the sward, every angle and crack +in the lichen-covered rock at his feet, recurred with a sharp and +instantaneous recognition to his memory.</p> + +<p>"Many a time your brother and I fished for hours together from that bank +there, just where the bramble grows. That bramble has not grown an inch +ever since, not a leaf altered; we used to pick blackberries off it, +with our rods stuck in the bank—it was later in the year than now—till +we stript it quite bare after a day or two. The steward used to come +over—they were marking timber for cutting and we used to stay here +while they rambled through the wood, with an axe marking the trees that +were to come down. I wonder whether the big old boat is still anywhere. +I suppose she was broken up, or left to rot; I have not seen her since +we came home. It was in the wood that lies at the right—the other wood +is called the forest; they say in old times it was eight miles long, +northward up the shore of the lake, and full of deer; with a forester, +and a reeve, and a verderer, and all that. Your brother was older than +you; he went to India, or the Colonies; is he living still?"</p> + +<p>"I care not."</p> + +<p>"That's good-natured, at all events; but do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Not I; and what matter? If he's living, I warrant he has his share of +the curse, the sweat of his brow and his bitter crust; and if he is +dead, he's dust or worse, he's rotten, and smells accordingly."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale looked at him; for this was the brother over whom, only a year +or two ago, Philip used to cry tears of pathetic longing. Feltram looked +darkly in his face, and sneered with a cold laugh.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean to jest?" said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Not I; it is the truth. It is what you'd say, if you were honest. If +he's alive, let him keep where he is; and if he's dead, I'll have none +of him, body or soul. Do you hear that sound?"</p> + +<p>"Like the wind moaning in the forest?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But I feel no wind. There's hardly a leaf stirring."</p> + +<p>"I think so," said Feltram. "Come along."</p> + +<p>And he began striding up the gentle slope of the glen, with many a rock +peeping through its sward, and tufted ferns and furze, giving a wild and +neglected character to the scene; the background of which, where the +glen loses itself in a distant turn, is formed by its craggy and wooded +side.</p> + +<p>Up they marched, side by side, in silence, towards that irregular clump +of trees, to which Feltram had pointed from the Mardykes side.</p> + +<p>As they approached, it showed more scattered, and two or three of the +trees were of grander dimensions than in the distance they had appeared; +and as they walked, the broad valley of Cloostedd Forest opened grandly +on their left, studding the sides of the valley with solitary trees or +groups, which thickened as it descended to the broad level, in parts +nearly three miles wide, on which stands the noble forest of Cloostedd, +now majestically reposing in the stirless air, gilded and flushed with +the melancholy tints of autumn.</p> + +<p>I am now going to relate wonderful things; but they rest on the report, +strangely consistent, it is true, of Sir Bale Mardykes. That all his +senses, however, were sick and feverish, and his brain not quite to be +relied on at that moment, is a fact of which sceptics have a right to +make all they please and can.</p> + +<p>Startled at their approach, a bird like a huge mackaw bounced from the +boughs of the trees, and sped away, every now and then upon the ground, +toward the shelter of the forest, fluttering and hopping close by the +side of the little brook which, emerging from the forest, winds into the +glen, and beside the course of which Sir Bale and Philip Feltram had +ascended from the margin of the lake.</p> + +<p>It fluttered on, as if one of its wings were hurt, and kept hopping and +bobbing and flying along the grass at its swiftest, screaming all the +time discordantly.</p> + +<p>"That must be old Mrs. Amerald's bird, that got away a week ago," said +Sir Bale, stopping and looking after it. "Was not it a mackaw?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Feltram; "that was a gray parrot; but there are stranger +birds in Cloostedd Forest, for my ancestors collected all that would +live in our climate, and were at pains to find them the food and shelter +they were accustomed to until they grew hardy—that is how it happens."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, that's a secret worth knowing," said Sir Bale. "That would +make quite a feature. What a fat brute that bird was! and green and +dusky-crimson and yellow; but its head is white—age, I suspect; and +what a broken beak—hideous bird! splendid plumage; something between a +mackaw and a vulture."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale spoke jocularly, but with the interest of a bird-fancier; a +taste which, when young, he had indulged; and for the moment forgot his +cares and the object of his unwonted excursion.</p> + +<p>A moment after, a lank slim bird, perfectly white, started from the same +boughs, and winged its way to the forest.</p> + +<p>"A kite, I think; but its body is a little too long, isn't it?" said Sir +Bale again, stopping and looking after its flight also.</p> + +<p>"A foreign kite, I daresay?" said Feltram.</p> + +<p>All this time there was hopping near them a jay, with the tameness of a +bird accustomed to these solitudes. It peered over its slender wing +curiously at the visitors; pecking here and nodding there; and thus +hopping, it made a circle round them more than once. Then it fluttered +up, and perched on a bough of the old oak, from the deep labyrinth of +whose branches the other birds had emerged; and from thence it flew down +and lighted on the broad druidic stone, that stood like a cyclopean +table on its sunken stone props, before the snakelike roots of the oak.</p> + +<p>Across this it hopped conceitedly, as over a stage on which it figured +becomingly; and after a momentary hesitation, with a little spring, it +rose and winged its way in the same direction which the other birds had +taken, and was quickly lost in thick forest to the left.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Feltram, "this is the tree."</p> + +<p>"I remember it well! A gigantic trunk; and, yes, those marks; but I +never before read them as letters. Yes, H.F., so they are—very odd I +should not have remarked them. They are so large, and so strangely +drawn-out in some places, and filled-in in others, and distorted, and +the moss has grown about them; I don't wonder I took them for natural +cracks and chasms in the bark," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>"Very like," said Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had remarked, ever since they had begun their walk from the +shore, that Feltram seemed to undergo a gloomy change. Sharper, grimmer, +wilder grew his features, and shadow after shadow darkened his face +wickedly.</p> + +<p>The solitude and grandeur of the forest, and the repulsive gloom of his +companion's countenance and demeanour, communicated a tone of anxiety to +Sir Bale; and they stood still, side by side, in total silence for a +time, looking toward the forest glades; between themselves and which, on +the level sward of the valley, stood many a noble tree and fantastic +group of forked birch and thorn, in the irregular formations into which +Nature had thrown them.</p> + +<p>"Now you stand between the letters. Cast your eyes on the stone," said +Feltram suddenly, and his low stern tones almost startled the Baronet.</p> + +<p>Looking round, he perceived that he had so placed himself that his point +of vision was exactly from between the two great letters, now +half-obliterated, which he had been scrutinizing just as he turned about +to look toward the forest of Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"Yes, so I am," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>There was within him an excitement and misgiving, akin to the sensation +of a man going into battle, and which corresponded with the pale and +sombre frown which Feltram wore, and the manifest change which had come +over him.</p> + +<p>"Look on the stone steadily for a time, and tell me if you see a black +mark, about the size of your hand, anywhere upon its surface," said +Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale affected no airs of scepticism now; his imagination was +stirred, and a sense of some unknown reality at the bottom of that which +he had affected to treat before as illusion, inspired a strange interest +in the experiment.</p> + +<p>"Do you see it?" asked Feltram.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was watching patiently, but he had observed nothing of the +kind.</p> + +<p>Sharper, darker, more eager grew the face of Philip Feltram, as his eyes +traversed the surface of that huge horizontal block.</p> + +<p>"Now?" asked Feltram again.</p> + +<p>No, he had seen nothing.</p> + +<p>Feltram was growing manifestly uneasy, angry almost; he walked away a +little, and back again, and then two or three times round the tree, with +his hands shut, and treading the ground like a man trying to warm his +feet, and so impatiently he returned, and looked again on the stone.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was still looking, and very soon said, drawing his brows +together and looking hard,</p> + +<p>"Ha!--yes—hush. There it is, by Jove!--wait—yes—there; it is growing +quite plain."</p> + +<p>It seemed not as if a shadow fell upon the stone, but rather as if the +stone became semi-transparent, and just under its surface was something +dark—a hand, he thought it—and darker and darker it grew, as if coming +up toward the surface, and after some little wavering, it fixed itself +movelessly, pointing, as he thought, toward the forest.</p> + +<p>"It looks like a hand," said he. "By Jove, it is a hand—pointing +towards the forest with a finger."</p> + +<p>"Don't mind the finger; look only on that black blurred mark, and from +the point where you stand, taking that point for your direction, look to +the forest. Take some tree or other landmark for an object, enter the +forest there, and pursue the same line, as well as you can, until you +find little flowers with leaves like wood-sorrel, and with tall stems +and a red blossom, not larger than a drop, such as you have not seen +before, growing among the trees, and follow wherever they seem to grow +thickest, and there you will find him."</p> + +<p>All the time that Feltram was making this little address, Sir Bale was +endeavouring to fix his route by such indications as Feltram described; +and when he had succeeded in quite establishing the form of a peculiar +tree—a melancholy ash, one huge limb of which had been blasted by +lightning, and its partly stricken arm stood high and barkless, +stretching its white fingers, as it were, in invitation into the forest, +and signing the way for him——</p> + +<p>"I have it now," said he. "Come Feltram, you'll come a bit of the way +with me."</p> + +<p>Feltram made no answer, but slowly shook his head, and turned and walked +away, leaving Sir Bale to undertake his adventure alone.</p> + +<p>The strange sound they had heard from the midst of the forest, like the +rumble of a storm or the far-off trembling of a furnace, had quite +ceased. Not a bird was hopping on the grass, or visible on bough or in +the sky. Not a living creature was in sight—never was stillness more +complete, or silence more oppressive.</p> + +<p>It would have been ridiculous to give way to the old reluctance which +struggled within him. Feltram had strode down the slope, and was +concealed by a screen of bushes from his view. So alone, and full of an +interest quite new to him, he set out in quest of his adventures.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XX</h4> + +<i><b>The Haunted Forest</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes walked in a straight line, by bush and scaur, over the +undulating ground, to the blighted ash-tree; and as he approached it, +its withered bough stretched more gigantically into the air, and the +forest seemed to open where it pointed.</p> + +<p>He passed it by, and in a few minutes had lost sight of it again, and +was striding onward under the shadow of the forest, which already +enclosed him. He was directing his march with all the care he could, in +exactly that line which, according to Feltram's rule, had been laid down +for him. Now and then, having, as soldiers say, taken an object, and +fixed it well in his memory, he would pause and look about him.</p> + +<p>As a boy he had never entered the wood so far; for he was under a +prohibition, lest he should lose himself in its intricacies, and be +benighted there. He had often heard that it was haunted ground, and that +too would, when a boy, have deterred him. It was on this account that +the scene was so new to him, and that he cared so often to stop and look +about him. Here and there a vista opened, exhibiting the same utter +desertion, and opening farther perspectives through the tall stems of +the trees faintly visible in the solemn shadow. No flowers could he see, +but once or twice a wood anemone, and now and then a tiny grove of +wood-sorrel.</p> + +<p>Huge oak-trees now began to mingle and show themselves more and more +frequently among the other timber; and gradually the forest became a +great oak wood unintruded upon by any less noble tree. Vast trunks +curving outwards to the roots, and expanding again at the branches, +stood like enormous columns, striking out their groining boughs, with +the dark vaulting of a crypt.</p> + +<p>As he walked under the shadow of these noble trees, suddenly his eye +was struck by a strange little flower, nodding quite alone by the +knotted root of one of those huge oaks.</p> + +<p>He stooped and picked it up, and as he plucked it, with a harsh scream +just over his head, a large bird with heavy beating wings broke away +from the midst of the branches. He could not see it, but he fancied the +scream was like that of the huge mackaw whose ill-poised flight he had +watched. This conjecture was but founded on the odd cry he had heard.</p> + +<p>The flower was a curious one—a stem fine as a hair supported a little +bell, that looked like a drop of blood, and never ceased trembling. He +walked on, holding this in his fingers; and soon he saw another of the +same odd type, then another at a shorter distance, then one a little to +the right and another to the left, and farther on a little group, and at +last the dark slope was all over trembling with these little bells, +thicker and thicker as he descended a gentle declivity to the bank of +the little brook, which flowing through the forest loses itself in the +lake. The low murmur of this forest stream was almost the first sound, +except the shriek of the bird that startled him a little time ago, which +had disturbed the profound silence of the wood since he entered it. +Mingling with the faint sound of the brook, he now heard a harsh human +voice calling words at intervals, the purport of which he could not yet +catch; and walking on, he saw seated upon the grass, a strange figure, +corpulent, with a great hanging nose, the whole face glowing like +copper. He was dressed in a bottle-green cut-velvet coat, of the style +of Queen Anne's reign, with a dusky crimson waistcoat, both overlaid +with broad and tarnished gold lace, and his silk stockings on thick +swollen legs, with great buckled shoes, straddling on the grass, were +rolled up over his knees to his short breeches. This ill-favoured old +fellow, with a powdered wig that came down to his shoulders, had a +dice-box in each hand, and was apparently playing his left against his +right, and calling the throws with a hoarse cawing voice.</p> + +<p>Raising his black piggish eyes, he roared to Sir Bale, by name, to come +and sit down, raising one of his dice-boxes, and then indicating a place +on the grass opposite to him.</p> + +<p>Now Sir Bale instantly guessed that this was the man, gipsy, warlock, +call him what he might, of whom he had come in search. With a strange +feeling of curiosity, disgust, and awe, he drew near. He was resolved to +do whatever this old man required of him, and to keep him, this time, in +good humour.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale did as he bid him, and sat down; and taking the box he +presented, they began throwing turn about, with three dice, the +copper-faced old man teaching him the value of the throws, as he +proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw, +grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes +almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he +sat before him.</p> + +<p>After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this +way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather +moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his +shoulder,</p> + +<p>"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had +not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking +another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man, +dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which +seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with +a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy +nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about +him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head +to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great +old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their +fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and +character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up +his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and +then he filled Sir Bale's glass.</p> + +<p>It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the +liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of +an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading +continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim, +and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work.</p> + +<p>"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his +glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the +other; "and you know what I mean."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he +tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing +it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was +also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful +figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep +mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely, +wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerades. So much of her +throat and chin as he could see were beautifully white; and there was a +prettiness in her air and figure which made him think what a beautiful +creature she in all likelihood was. She was reclining slightly against +the burly man in bottle-green and gold, and her arm was round his neck, +and her slender white hand showed itself over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Ho! my little Geaiette," cried the old fellow hoarsely; "it will be +time that you and I should get home.—So, Bale Mardykes, I have nothing +to object to you this time; you've crossed the lake, and you've played +with me and won and lost, and drank your glass like a jolly companion, +and now we know one another; and an acquaintance is made that will last. +I'll let you go, and you'll come when I call for you. And now you'll +want to know what horse will win next month at Rindermere +races.—Whisper me, lass, and I'll tell him."</p> + +<p>So her lips, under the black curtain, crept close to his ear, and she +whispered.</p> + +<p>"Ay, so it will;" roared the old man, gnashing his teeth; "it will be +Rainbow, and now make your best speed out of the forest, or I'll set my +black dogs after you, ho, ho, ho! and they may chance to pull you down. +Away!"</p> + +<p>He cried this last order with a glare so black, and so savage a shake of +his huge fist, that Sir Bale, merely making his general bow to the +group, clapped his hat on his head, and hastily began his retreat; but +the same discordant voice yelled after him:</p> + +<p>"You'll want that, you fool; pick it up." And there came hurtling after +and beside him a great leather bag, stained, and stuffed with a heavy +burden, and bounding by him it stopped with a little wheel that brought +it exactly before his feet.</p> + +<p>He picked it up, and found it heavy.</p> + +<p>Turning about to make his acknowledgments, he saw the two persons in +full retreat; the profane old scoundrel in the bottle-green limping and +stumbling, yet bowling along at a wonderful rate, with many a jerk and +reel, and the slender lady in black gliding away by his side into the +inner depths of the forest.</p> + +<p>So Sir Bale, with a strange chill, and again in utter solitude, pursued +his retreat, with his burden, at a swifter pace, and after an hour or +so, had recovered the point where he had entered the forest, and passing +by the druidic stone and the mighty oak, saw down the glen at his right, +standing by the edge of the lake, Philip Feltram, close to the bow of +the boat.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXI</h4> + +<i><b>Rindermere</b></i> + +<p>Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he +stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored.</p> + +<p>"You found him?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The lady in black was there?"</p> + +<p>"She was."</p> + +<p>"And you played with him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And what is that in your hand?"</p> + +<p>"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me. +We shall see just now; let us get away."</p> + +<p>"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in +his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him."</p> + +<p>"To be sure."</p> + +<p>The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by +the time they had reached the side where they now were.</p> + +<p>There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already +evening.</p> + +<p>"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said +Sir Bale; "only let us get away."</p> + +<p>He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its +heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope +and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull +together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had +got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore.</p> + +<p>The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram +knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a +secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a +long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax, +fragments of which were still sticking to it.</p> + +<p>He got it open, and found it full of guineas.</p> + +<p>"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick +upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!"</p> + +<p>Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter. +Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it +seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count +them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand.</p> + +<p>It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag, +and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply,</p> + +<p>"Come, take your oar—unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind +will soon be up from Golden Friars!"</p> + +<p>He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and +applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing +loath, the Baronet did so.</p> + +<p>It was slow work, for the boat was not built for speed; and by the time +they had got about midway, the sun went down, and twilight and the +melancholy flush of the sunset tints were upon the lake and fells.</p> + +<p>"Ho! here comes the breeze—up from Golden Friars," said Feltram; "we +shall have enough to fill the sails now. If you don't fear spirits and +Snakes Island, it is all the better for us it should blow from that +point. If it blew from Mardykes now, it would be a stiff pull for you +and me to get this tub home."</p> + +<p>Talking as if to himself, and laughing low, he adjusted the sail and +took the tiller, and so, yielding to the rising breeze, the boat glided +slowly toward still distant Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>The moon came out, and the shore grew misty, and the towering fells rose +like sheeted giants; and leaning on the gunwale of the boat, Sir Bale, +with the rush and gurgle of the water on the boat's side sounding +faintly in his ear, thought of his day's adventure, which seemed to him +like a dream—incredible but for the heavy bag that lay between his +feet.</p> + +<p>As they passed Snakes Island, a little mist, like a fragment of a fog, +seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came +near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; +and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the +mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the +same thing always happened.</p> + +<p>It was three weeks after, that Sir Bale, sitting up in his bed, very +pale and wan, with his silk night-cap nodding on one side, and his thin +hand extended on the coverlet, where the doctor had been feeling his +pulse, in his darkened room, related all the wonders of this day to +Doctor Torvey. The doctor had attended him through a fever which +followed immediately upon his visit to Cloostedd.</p> + +<p>"And, my dear sir, by Jupiter, can you really believe all that delirium +to be sober fact?" said the doctor, sitting by the bedside, and actually +laughing.</p> + +<p>"I can't help believing it, because I can't distinguish in any way +between all that and everything else that actually happened, and which I +must believe. And, except that this is more wonderful, I can find no +reason to reject it, that does not as well apply to all the rest."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, my dear sir, this will never do—nothing is more common. +These illusions accompanying fever frequently antedate the attack, and +the man is actually raving before he knows he is ill."</p> + +<p>"But what do you make of that bag of gold?"</p> + +<p>"Some one has lent it. You had better ask all about it of Feltram when +you can see him; for in speaking to me he seemed to know all about it, +and certainly did not seem to think the matter at all out of the +commonplace. It is just like that fisherman's story, about the hand that +drew Feltram into the water on the night that he was nearly drowned. +Every one can see what that was. Why of course it was simply the +reflection of his own hand in the water, in that vivid lightning. When +you have been out a little and have gained strength you will shake off +these dreams."</p> + +<p>"I should not wonder," said Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that Sir Bale reported all that was in his +memory respecting his strange vision, if such it was, at Cloostedd. He +made a selection of the incidents, and threw over the whole adventure an +entirely accidental character, and described the money which the old man +had thrown to him as amounting to a purse of five guineas, and mentioned +nothing of the passages which bore on the coming race.</p> + +<p>Good Doctor Torvey, therefore, reported only that Sir Bale's delirium +had left two or three illusions sticking in his memory.</p> + +<p>But if they were illusions, they survived the event of his recovery, and +remained impressed on his memory with the sharpness of very recent and +accurately observed fact.</p> + +<p>He was resolved on going to the races of Rindermere, where, having in +his possession so weighty a guarantee as the leather purse, he was +determined to stake it all boldly on Rainbow—against which horse he was +glad to hear there were very heavy odds.</p> + +<p>The race came off. One horse was scratched, another bolted, the rider of +a third turned out to have lost a buckle and three half-pence and so was +an ounce and a half under weight, a fourth knocked down the post near +Rinderness churchyard, and was held to have done it with his left +instead of his right knee, and so had run at the wrong side. The result +was that Rainbow came in first, and I should be afraid to say how much +Sir Bale won. It was a sum that paid off a heavy debt, and left his +affairs in a much more manageable state.</p> + +<p>From this time Sir Bale prospered. He visited Cloostedd no more; but +Feltram often crossed to that lonely shore as heretofore, and it is +believed conveyed to him messages which guided his betting. One thing is +certain, his luck never deserted him. His debts disappeared; and his +love of continental life seemed to have departed. He became content with +Mardykes Hall, laid out money on it, and although he never again cared +to cross the lake, he seemed to like the scenery.</p> + +<p>In some respects, however, he lived exactly the same odd and unpopular +life. He saw no one at Mardykes Hall. He practised a very strict +reserve. The neighbours laughed at and disliked him, and he was voted, +whenever any accidental contact arose, a very disagreeable man; and he +had a shrewd and ready sarcasm that made them afraid of him, and himself +more disliked.</p> + +<p>Odd rumours prevailed about his household. It was said that his old +relations with Philip Feltram had become reversed; and that he was as +meek as a mouse, and Feltram the bully now. It was also said that Mrs. +Julaper had one Sunday evening when she drank tea at the Vicar's, told +his good lady very mysteriously, and with many charges of secrecy, that +Sir Bale was none the better of his late-found wealth; that he had a +load upon his spirits, that he was afraid of Feltram, and so was every +one else, more or less, in the house; that he was either mad or worse; +and that it was an eerie dwelling, and strange company, and she should +be glad herself of a change.</p> + +<p>Good Mrs. Bedel told her friend Mrs. Torvey; and all Golden Friars heard +all this, and a good deal more, in an incredibly short time.</p> + +<p>All kinds of rumours now prevailed in Golden Friars, connecting Sir +Bale's successes on the turf with some mysterious doings in Cloostedd +Forest. Philip Feltram laughed when he heard these stories—especially +when he heard the story that a supernatural personage had lent the +Baronet a purse full of money.</p> + +<p>"You should not talk to Doctor Torvey so, sir," said he grimly; "he's +the greatest tattler in the town. It was old Farmer Trebeck, who could +buy and sell us all down here, who lent that money. Partly from +good-will, but not without acknowledgment. He has my hand for the first, +not worth much, and yours to a bond for the two thousand guineas you +brought home with you. It seems strange you should not remember that +venerable and kind old farmer whom you talked with so long that day. His +grandson, who expects to stand well in his will, being a trainer in +Lord Varney's stables, has sometimes a tip to give, and he is the source +of your information."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, I must be a bit mad, then, that's all," said Sir Bale, with a +smile and a shrug.</p> + +<p>Philip Feltram moped about the house, and did precisely what he pleased. +The change which had taken place in him became more and more pronounced. +Dark and stern he always looked, and often malignant. He was like a man +possessed of one evil thought which never left him.</p> + +<p>There was, besides, the good old Gothic superstition of a bargain or +sale of the Baronet's soul to the arch-fiend. This was, of course, very +cautiously whispered in a place where he had influence. It was only a +coarser and directer version of a suspicion, that in a more credulous +generation penetrated a level of society quite exempt from such follies +in our day.</p> + +<p>One evening at dusk, Sir Bale, sitting after his dinner in his window, +saw the tall figure of Feltram, like a dark streak, standing movelessly +by the lake. An unpleasant feeling moved him, and then an impatience. He +got up, and having primed himself with two glasses of brandy, walked +down to the edge of the lake, and placed himself beside Feltram.</p> + +<p>"Looking down from the window," said he, nerved with his Dutch courage, +"and seeing you standing like a post, do you know what I began to think +of?"</p> + +<p>Feltram looked at him, but answered nothing.</p> + +<p>"I began to think of taking a wife—<i>marrying</i>."</p> + +<p>Feltram nodded. The announcement had not produced the least effect.</p> + +<p>"Why the devil will you make me so uncomfortable! Can't you be like +yourself—what you <i>were</i>, I mean? I won't go on living here alone with +you. I'll take a wife, I tell you. I'll choose a good church-going +woman, that will have every man, woman, and child in the house on their +marrow-bones twice a day, morning and evening, and three times on +Sundays. How will you like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will be married," said Feltram, with a quiet decision which +chilled Sir Bale, for he had by no means made up his mind to that +desperate step.</p> + +<p>Feltram slowly walked away, and that conversation ended.</p> + +<p>Now an odd thing happened about this time. There was a family of +Feltram—county genealogists could show how related to the vanished +family of Cloostedd—living at that time on their estate not far from +Carlisle. Three co-heiresses now represented it. They were great +beauties—the belles of their county in their day.</p> + +<p>One was married to Sir Oliver Haworth of Haworth, a great family in +those times. He was a knight of the shire, and had refused a baronetage, +and, it was said, had his eye on a peerage. The other sister was married +to Sir William Walsingham, a wealthy baronet; and the third and +youngest, Miss Janet, was still unmarried, and at home at Cloudesly +Hall, where her aunt, Lady Harbottle, lived with her, and made a +dignified chaperon.</p> + +<p>Now it so fell out that Sir Bale, having business at Carlisle, and +knowing old Lady Harbottle, paid his respects at Cloudesly Hall; and +being no less than five-and-forty years of age, was for the first time +in his life, seriously in love.</p> + +<p>Miss Janet was extremely pretty—a fair beauty with brilliant red lips +and large blue eyes, and ever so many pretty dimples when she talked and +smiled. It was odd, but not perhaps against the course of nature, that a +man, though so old as he, and quite <i>blasé</i>, should fall at last under +that fascination.</p> + +<p>But what are we to say of the strange infatuation of the young lady? No +one could tell why she liked him. It was a craze. Her family were +against it, her intimates, her old nurse—all would not do; and the +oddest thing was, that he seemed to take no pains to please her. The end +of this strange courtship was that he married her; and she came home to +Mardykes Hall, determined to please everybody, and to be the happiest +woman in England.</p> + +<p>With her came a female cousin, a good deal her senior, past +thirty—Gertrude Mainyard, pale and sad, but very gentle, and with all +the prettiness that can belong to her years.</p> + +<p>This young lady has a romance. Her hero is far away in India; and she, +content to await his uncertain return with means to accomplish the hope +of their lives, in that frail chance has long embarked all the purpose +and love of her life.</p> + +<p>When Lady Mardykes came home, a new leaf was, as the phrase is, turned +over. The neighbours and all the country people were willing to give the +Hall a new trial. There was visiting and returning of visits; and young +Lady Mardykes was liked and admired. It could not indeed have been +otherwise. But here the improvement in the relations of Mardykes Hall +with other homes ceased. On one excuse or another Sir Bale postponed or +evaded the hospitalities which establish intimacies. Some people said he +was jealous of his young and beautiful wife. But for the most part his +reserve was set down to the old inhospitable cause, some ungenial +defect in his character; and in a little time the tramp of horses and +roll of carriage-wheels were seldom heard up or down the broad avenue of +Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale liked this seclusion; and his wife, "so infatuated with her +idolatry of that graceless old man," as surrounding young ladies said, +that she was well content to forego the society of the county people for +a less interrupted enjoyment of that of her husband. "What she could see +in him" to interest or amuse her so, that for his sake she was willing +to be "buried alive in that lonely place," the same critics were +perpetually wondering.</p> + +<p>A year and more passed thus; for the young wife, happily—<i>very</i> happily +indeed, had it not been for one topic on which she and her husband could +not agree. This was Philip Feltram; and an odd quarrel it was.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXII</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale is Frightened</b></i> + +<p>To Feltram she had conceived, at first sight, a horror. It was not a +mere antipathy; fear mingled largely in it. Although she did not see him +often, this restless dread grew upon her so, that she urged his +dismissal upon Sir Bale, offering to provide, herself, for him a +handsome annuity, charged on that part of her property which, by her +marriage settlement, had remained in her power. There was a time when +Sir Bale was only too anxious to get rid of him. But that was changed +now. Nothing could now induce the Baronet to part with him. He at first +evaded and resisted quietly. But, urged with a perseverance to which he +was unused, he at last broke into fury that appalled her, and swore that +if he was worried more upon the subject, he would leave her and the +country, and see neither again. This exhibition of violence affrighted +her all the more by reason of the contrast; for up to this he had been +an uxorious husband. Lady Mardykes was in hysterics, and thoroughly +frightened, and remained in her room for two or three days. Sir Bale +went up to London about business, and was not home for more than a week. +This was the first little squall that disturbed the serenity of their +sky.</p> + +<p>This point, therefore, was settled; but soon there came other things to +sadden Lady Mardykes. There occurred a little incident, soon after Sir +Bale's return from London, which recalled the topic on which they had so +nearly quarrelled.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had a dressing-room, remote from the bedrooms, in which he sat +and read and sometimes smoked. One night, after the house was all quiet, +the Baronet being still up, the bell of this dressing-room rang long and +furiously. It was such a peal as a person in extreme terror might ring. +Lady Mardykes, with her maid in her room, heard it; and in great alarm +she ran in her dressing-gown down the gallery to Sir Bale's room. +Mallard the butler had already arrived, and was striving to force the +door, which was secured. It gave way just as she reached it, and she +rushed through.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale was standing with the bell-rope in his hand, in the extremest +agitation, looking like a ghost; and Philip Feltram was sitting in his +chair, with a dark smile fixed upon him. For a minute she thought he had +attempted to assassinate his master. She could not otherwise account for +the scene.</p> + +<p>There had been nothing of the kind, however; as her husband assured her +again and again, as she lay sobbing on his breast, with her arms about +his neck.</p> + +<p>"To her dying hour," she afterwards said to her cousin, "she never could +forget the dreadful look in Feltram's face."</p> + +<p>No explanation of that scene did she ever obtain from Sir Bale, nor any +clue to the cause of the agony that was so powerfully expressed in his +countenance. Thus much only she learned from him, that Feltram had +sought that interview for the purpose of announcing his departure, which +was to take place within the year.</p> + +<p>"You are not sorry to hear that. But if you knew all, you might. Let the +curse fly where it may, it will come back to roost. So, darling, let us +discuss him no more. Your wish is granted, <i>dis iratis</i>."</p> + +<p>Some crisis, during this interview, seemed to have occurred in the +relations between Sir Bale and Feltram. Henceforward they seldom +exchanged a word; and when they did speak, it was coldly and shortly, +like men who were nearly strangers.</p> + +<p>One day in the courtyard, Sir Bale seeing Feltram leaning upon the +parapet that overlooks the lake, approached him, and said in a low tone,</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking if we—that is, I—do owe that money to old Trebeck, +it is high time I should pay it. I was ill, and had lost my head at the +time; but it turned out luckily, and it ought to be paid. I don't like +the idea of a bond turning up, and a lot of interest."</p> + +<p>"The old fellow meant it for a present. He is richer than you are; he +wished to give the family a lift. He has destroyed the bond, I believe, +and in no case will he take payment."</p> + +<p>"No fellow has a right to force his money on another," answered Sir +Bale. "I never asked him. Besides, as you know, I was not really myself, +and the whole thing seems to me quite different from what you say it +was; and, so far as my brain is concerned, it was all a phantasmagoria; +but, you say, it was he."</p> + +<p>"Every man is accountable for what he intends and for what he <i>thinks</i> +he does," said Feltram cynically.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm accountable for dealing with that wicked old dicer I +<i>thought</i> I saw—isn't that it? But I must pay old Trebeck all the same, +since the money was his. Can you manage a meeting?"</p> + +<p>"Look down here. Old Trebeck has just landed; he will sleep to-night at +the George and Dragon, to meet his cattle in the morning at Golden +Friars fair. You can speak to him yourself."</p> + +<p>So saying Feltram glided away, leaving Sir Bale the task of opening the +matter to the wealthy farmer of Cloostedd Fells.</p> + +<p>A broad night of steps leads down from the courtyard to the level of the +jetty at the lake: and Sir Bale descended, and accosted the venerable +farmer, who was bluff, honest, and as frank as a man can be who speaks a +<i>patois</i> which hardly a living man but himself can understand.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale asked him to come to the Hall and take luncheon; but Trebeck +was in haste. Cattle had arrived which he wanted to look at, and a pony +awaited him on the road, hard by, to Golden Friars; and the old fellow +must mount and away.</p> + +<p>Then Sir Bale, laying his hand upon his arm in a manner that was at once +lofty and affectionate, told in his ears the subject on which he wished +to be understood.</p> + +<p>The old farmer looked hard at him, and shook his head and laughed in a +way that would have been insupportable in a house, and told him, "I hev +narra bond o' thoine, mon."</p> + +<p>"I know how that is; so does Philip Feltram."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must replace the money."</p> + +<p>The old man laughed again, and in his outlandish dialect told him to +wait till he asked him. Sir Bale pressed it, but the old fellow put it +off with outlandish banter; and as the Baronet grew testy, the farmer +only waxed more and more hilarious, and at last, mounting his shaggy +pony, rode off, still laughing, at a canter to Golden Friars; and when +he reached Golden Friars, and got into the hall of the George and +Dragon, he asked Richard Turnbull with a chuckle if he ever knew a man +refuse an offer of money, or a man want to pay who did not owe; and +inquired whether the Squire down at Mardykes Hall mightn't be a bit +"wrang in t' garrets." All this, however, other people said, was +intended merely to conceal the fact that he really had, through sheer +loyalty, lent the money, or rather bestowed it, thinking the old family +in jeopardy, and meaning a gift, was determined to hear no more about +it. I can't say; I only know people held, some by one interpretation, +some by another.</p> + +<p>As the caterpillar sickens and changes its hue when it is about to +undergo its transformation, so an odd change took place in Feltram. He +grew even more silent and morose; he seemed always in an agitation and a +secret rage. He used to walk through the woodlands on the slopes of the +fells above Mardykes, muttering to himself, picking up the rotten sticks +with which the ground was strewn, breaking them in his hands, and +hurling them from him, and stamping on the earth as he paced up and +down.</p> + +<p>One night a thunder-storm came on, the wind blowing gently up from +Golden Friars. It was a night black as pitch, illuminated only by the +intermittent glare of the lightning. At the foot of the stairs Sir Bale +met Feltram, whom he had not seen for some days. He had his cloak and +hat on.</p> + +<p>"I am going to Cloostedd to-night," he said, "and if all is as I expect, +I sha'n't return. We remember all, you and I." And he nodded and walked +down the passage.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale knew that a crisis had happened in his own life. He felt faint +and ill, and returned to the room where he had been sitting. Throughout +that melancholy night he did not go to his bed.</p> + +<p>In the morning he learned that Marlin, who had been out late, saw +Feltram get the boat off, and sail towards the other side. The night was +so dark that he could only see him start; but the wind was light and +coming up the lake, so that without a tack he could easily make the +other side. Feltram did not return. The boat was found fast to the ring +at Cloostedd landing-place.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes was relieved, and for a time was happier than ever. It was +different with Sir Bale; and afterwards her sky grew dark also.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIII</h4> + +<i><b>A Lady in Black</b></i> + +<p>Shortly after this, there arrived at the George and Dragon a stranger. +He was a man somewhat past forty, embrowned by distant travel, and, his +years considered, wonderfully good-looking. He had good eyes; his +dark-brown hair had no sprinkling of gray in it; and his kindly smile +showed very white and even teeth. He made inquiries about neighbours, +especially respecting Mardykes Hall; and the answers seemed to interest +him profoundly. He inquired after Philip Feltram, and shed tears when he +heard that he was no longer at Mardykes Hall, and that Trebeck or other +friends could give him no tidings of him.</p> + +<p>And then he asked Richard Turnbull to show him to a quiet room; and so, +taking the honest fellow by the hand, he said,</p> + +<p>"Mr. Turnbull, don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said the host of the George and Dragon, after a puzzled +stare, "I can't say I do, sir."</p> + +<p>The stranger smiled a little sadly, and shook his head: and with a +gentle laugh, still holding his hand in a very friendly way, he said, "I +should have known you anywhere, Mr. Turnbull—anywhere on earth or +water. Had you turned up on the Himalayas, or in a junk on the Canton +river, or as a dervish in the mosque of St. Sophia, I should have +recognised my old friend, and asked what news from Golden Friars. But of +course I'm changed. You were a little my senior; and one advantage among +many you have over your juniors is that you don't change as we do. I +have played many a game of hand-ball in the inn-yard of the George, Mr. +Turnbull. You often wagered a pot of ale on my play; you used to say I'd +make the best player of fives, and the best singer of a song, within ten +miles round the meer. You used to have me behind the bar when I was a +boy, with more of an appetite than I have now. I was then at Mardykes +Hall, and used to go back in old Marlin's boat. Is old Marlin still +alive?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, that—he—is," said Turnbull slowly, as he eyed the stranger again +carefully. "I don't know who you can be, sir, unless you are—the +boy—William Feltram. La! he was seven or eight years younger than +Philip. But, lawk!--Well—By Jen, and <i>be</i> you Willie Feltram? But no, +you can't!"</p> + +<p>"Ay, Mr. Turnbull, that very boy—Willie Feltram—even he, and no other; +and now you'll shake hands with me, not so formally, but like an old +friend."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that I will," said honest Richard Turnbull, with a great smile, and +a hearty grasp of his guest's hand; and they both laughed together, and +the younger man's eyes, for he was an affectionate fool, filled up with +tears.</p> + +<p>"And I want you to tell me this," said William, after they had talked a +little quietly, "now that there is no one to interrupt us, what has +become of my brother Philip? I heard from a friend an account of his +health that has caused me unspeakable anxiety."</p> + +<p>"His health was not bad; no, he was a hardy lad, and liked a walk over +the fells, or a pull on the lake; but he was a bit daft, every one said, +and a changed man; and, in troth, they say the air o' Mardykes don't +agree with every one, no more than him. But that's a tale that's neither +here nor there."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said William, "that was what they told me—his mind affected. God +help and guard us! I have been unhappy ever since; and if I only knew it +was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is +Philip now?"</p> + +<p>"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They +thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the +Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall—though those two families +was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him, +nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But <i>I</i> hoped it +had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor +fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know—I don't know what I +<i>would</i> not give to know—I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old +friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes +Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in."</p> + +<p>At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the +stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the +balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose +leaves were half shed and gone with the winds—emblem of her hopes. The +solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake, +deepened her sadness.</p> + +<p>The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie.</p> + +<p>Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized +the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out.</p> + +<p>She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a +sob, she threw herself into his arms.</p> + +<p>Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had +reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from +shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness.</p> + +<p>William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and +only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought +it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health +unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and +energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with +fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something +to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them +happier than hundreds of thousand could other people.</p> + +<p>It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of +importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him.</p> + +<p>The refined tastes that are supposed to accompany gentle blood, his love +of art, his talent for music and drawing, had accidentally attracted the +attention of the little travelling-party which old Lady Harbottle +chaperoned. Miss Janet, now Lady Mardykes, learning that his name was +Feltram, made inquiry through a common friend, and learned what +interested her still more about him. It ended in an acquaintance, which +his manly and gentle nature and his entertaining qualities soon improved +into an intimacy.</p> + +<p>Feltram had chosen to work his own way, being proud, and also prosperous +enough to prevent his pride, in this respect, from being placed under +too severe a pressure of temptation. He heard not from but of his +brother, through a friend in London, and more lately from Gertrude, +whose account of him was sad and even alarming.</p> + +<p>When Lady Mardykes came in, her delight knew no bounds. She had already +formed a plan for their future, and was not to be put off—William +Feltram was to take the great grazing farm that belonged to the Mardykes +estate; or, if he preferred it, to farm it for her, sharing the profits. +She wanted something to interest her, and this was just the thing. It +was hardly half-a-mile away, up the lake, and there was such a +comfortable house and garden, and she and Gertrude could be as much +together as ever almost; and, in fact, Gertrude and her husband could be +nearly always at Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>So eager and entreating was she, that there was no escape. The plan was +adopted immediately on their marriage, and no happier neighbours for a +time were ever known.</p> + +<p>But was Lady Mardykes content? was she even exempt from the heartache +which each mortal thinks he has all to himself? The longing of her life +was for children; and again and again had her hopes been disappointed.</p> + +<p>One tiny pretty little baby indeed was born, and lived for two years, +and then died; and none had come to supply its place and break the +childless silence in the great old nursery. That was her sorrow; a +greater one than men can understand.</p> + +<p>Another source of grief was this: that Sir Bale Mardykes conceived a +dislike to William Feltram that was unaccountable. At first suppressed, +it betrayed itself negatively only; but with time it increased; and in +the end the Baronet made little secret of his wish to get rid of him. +Many and ingenious were the annoyances he contrived; and at last he told +his wife plainly that he wished William Feltram to find some other abode +for himself.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude +were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her +own life would become.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There +was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He +had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given +him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and +strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram +had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they +might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate +should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of +her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread.</p> + +<p>All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by +Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition +which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed +himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he +was.</p> + +<p>In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking +of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else.</p> + +<p>One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his +farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and +then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the +lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say:</p> + +<p>"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!"</p> + +<p>The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the +interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and +yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and +partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but +swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither +start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that +which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he +owned no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more.</p> + +<p>He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a +solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did +not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I +suppose, she would.</p> + +<p>They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the +more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles +away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude, +who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant +cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in +favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine +ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather +damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus:</p> + +<p>She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although +she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still +thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed +to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in +the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair +near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a +sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight +sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she +saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room.</p> + +<p>Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so +large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten +it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood +at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She +extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, +and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the +foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and +with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and +looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips +and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary, +and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute.</p> + +<p>How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing +like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand. +Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation +of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black +held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" asked Gertrude.</p> + +<p>"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell +you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet. +If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear me."</p> + +<p>Her voice was very distinct, but also very faint, with something +undulatory in it, that seemed to enter Gertrude's head rather than her +ear.</p> + +<p>Saying this she smiled horribly, and, lifting her handkerchief, +disclosed for a moment a great wound in her breast, deep in which +Gertrude saw darkly the head of a snake writhing.</p> + +<p>Hereupon she uttered a wild scream of terror, and, diving under the +bed-clothes, remained more dead than alive there, until her maid, +alarmed by her cry, came in, and having searched the room, and shut the +window at her desire, did all in her power to comfort her.</p> + +<p>If this was a nightmare and embodied only by a form of expression which +in some states belongs to the imagination, a leading idea in the +controversy in which her mind had long been employed, it had at least +the effect of deciding her against leaving Faxwell. And so that point +was settled; and unpleasant relations continued between the tenants of +the farm and the master of Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>To Lady Mardykes all this was very painful, although Sir Bale did not +insist upon making a separation between his wife and her cousin. But to +Mardykes Hall that cousin came no more. Even Lady Mardykes thought it +better to see her at Faxwell than to risk a meeting in the temper in +which Sir Bale then was. And thus several years passed.</p> + +<p>No tidings of Philip Feltram were heard; and, in fact, none ever reached +that part of the world; and if it had not been highly improbable that he +could have drowned himself in the lake without his body sooner or later +having risen to the surface, it would have been concluded that he had +either accidentally or by design made away with himself in its waters.</p> + +<p>Over Mardykes Hall there was a gloom—no sound of children's voices was +heard there, and even the hope of that merry advent had died out.</p> + +<p>This disappointment had no doubt helped to fix in Sir Bale's mind the +idea of the insecurity of his property, and the morbid fancy that +William Feltram and old Trebeck were conspiring to seize it; than which, +I need hardly say, no imagination more insane could have fixed itself in +his mind.</p> + +<p>In other things, however, Sir Bale was shrewd and sharp, a clear and +rapid man of business, and although this was a strange whim, it was not +so unnatural in a man who was by nature so prone to suspicion as Sir +Bale Mardykes.</p> + +<p>During the years, now seven, that had elapsed since the marriage of Sir +Bale and Miss Janet Feltram, there had happened but one event, except +the death of their only child, to place them in mourning. That was the +decease of Sir William Walsingham, the husband of Lady Mardykes' sister. +She now lived in a handsome old dower-house at Islington, and being +wealthy, made now and then an excursion to Mardykes Hall, in which she +was sometimes accompanied by her sister Lady Haworth. Sir Oliver being a +Parliament-man was much in London and deep in politics and intrigue, and +subject, as convivial rogues are, to occasional hard hits from gout.</p> + +<p>But change and separation had made no alteration in these ladies' mutual +affections, and no three sisters were ever more attached.</p> + +<p>Was Lady Mardykes happy with her lord? A woman so gentle and loving as +she, is a happy wife with any husband who is not an absolute brute. +There must have been, I suppose, some good about Sir Bale. His wife was +certainly deeply attached to him. She admired his wisdom, and feared his +inflexible will, and altogether made of him a domestic idol. To acquire +this enviable position, I suspect there must be something not +essentially disagreeable about a man. At all events, what her neighbours +good-naturedly termed her infatuation continued, and indeed rather +improved by time.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIV</h4> + +<i><b>An Old Portrait</b></i> + +<p>Sir Bale—whom some remembered a gay and convivial man, not to say a +profligate one—had grown to be a very gloomy man indeed. There was +something weighing upon his mind; and I daresay some of the good gossips +of Golden Friars, had there been any materials for such a case, would +have believed that Sir Bale had murdered Philip Feltram, and was now the +victim of the worm and fire of remorse.</p> + +<p>The gloom of the master of the house made his very servants gloomy, and +the house itself looked sombre, as if it had been startled with strange +and dismal sights.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes was something of an artist. She had lighted lately, in an +out-of-the-way room, upon a dozen or more old portraits. Several of +these were full-lengths; and she was—with the help of her maid, both in +long aprons, amid sponges and basins, soft handkerchiefs and +varnish-pots and brushes—busy in removing the dust and smoke-stains, +and in laying-on the varnish, which brought out the colouring, and made +the transparent shadows yield up their long-buried treasures of finished +detail.</p> + +<p>Against the wall stood a full-length portrait as Sir Bale entered the +room; having for a wonder, a word to say to his wife.</p> + +<p>"O," said the pretty lady, turning to him in her apron, and with her +brush in her hand, "we are in such in pickle, Munnings and I have been +cleaning these old pictures. Mrs. Julaper says they are the pictures +that came from Cloostedd Hall long ago. They were buried in dust in the +dark room in the clock-tower. Here is such a characteristic one. It has +a long powdered wig—George the First or Second, I don't know which—and +such a combination of colours, and such a face. It seems starting out of +the canvas, and all but speaks. Do look; that is, I mean, Bale, if you +can spare time."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale abstractedly drew near, and looked over his wife's shoulder on +the full-length portrait that stood before him; and as he did so a +strange expression for a moment passed over his face.</p> + +<p>The picture represented a man of swarthy countenance, with signs of the +bottle glowing through the dark skin; small fierce pig eyes, a rather +flat pendulous nose, and a grim forbidding mouth, with a large wart a +little above it. On the head hung one of those full-bottomed powdered +wigs that look like a cloud of cotton-wadding; a lace cravat was about +his neck; he wore short black-velvet breeches with stockings rolled over +them, a bottle-green coat of cut velvet and a crimson waistcoat with +long flaps; coat and waistcoat both heavily laced with gold. He wore a +sword, and leaned upon a crutch-handled cane, and his figure and aspect +indicated a swollen and gouty state. He could not be far from sixty. +There was uncommon force in this fierce and forbidding-looking portrait. +Lady Mardykes said, "What wonderful dresses they wore! How like a fine +magic-lantern figure he looks! What gorgeous colouring! it looks like +the plumage of a mackaw; and what a claw his hand is! and that huge +broken beak of a nose! Isn't he like a wicked old mackaw?"</p> + +<p>"Where did you find that?" asked Sir Bale.</p> + +<p>Surprised at his tone, she looked round, and was still more surprised +at his looks.</p> + +<p>"I told you, dear Bale, I found them in the clock-tower. I hope I did +right; it was not wrong bringing them here? I ought to have asked. Are +you vexed, Bale?"</p> + +<p>"Vexed! not I. I only wish it was in the fire. I must have seen that +picture when I was a child. I hate to look at it. I raved about it once, +when I was ill. I don't know who it is; I don't remember when I saw it. +I wish you'd tell them to burn it."</p> + +<p>"It is one of the Feltrams," she answered. "'Sir Hugh Feltram' is on the +frame at the foot; and old Mrs. Julaper says he was the father of the +unhappy lady who was said to have been drowned near Snakes Island."</p> + +<p>"Well, suppose he is; there's nothing interesting in that. It is a +disgusting picture. I connect it with my illness; and I think it is the +kind of thing that would make any one half mad, if they only looked at +it often enough. Tell them to burn it; and come away, come to the next +room; I can't say what I want here."</p> + +<p>Sir Bale seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer he remained in +the room. He seemed to her both frightened and furious; and taking her a +little roughly by the wrist, he led her through the door.</p> + +<p>When they were in another apartment alone, he again asked the affrighted +lady who had told her that picture was there, and who told her to clean +it.</p> + +<p>She had only the truth to plead. It was, from beginning to end, the +merest accident.</p> + +<p>"If I thought, Janet, that you were taking counsel of others, talking me +over, and trying clever experiments—" he stopped short with his eyes +fixed on hers with black suspicion.</p> + +<p>His wife's answer was one pleading look, and to burst into tears.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale let-go her wrist, which he had held up to this; and placing his +hand gently on her shoulder, he said,</p> + +<p>"You must not cry, Janet; I have given you no excuse for tears. I only +wished an answer to a very harmless question; and I am sure you would +tell me, if by any chance you have lately seen Philip Feltram; he is +capable of arranging all that. No one knows him as I do. There, you must +not cry any more; but tell me truly, has he turned up? is he at +Faxwell?"</p> + +<p>She denied all this with perfect truth; and after a hesitation of some +time, the matter ended. And as soon as she and he were more themselves, +he had something quite different to tell her.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Janet; sit down, and forget that vile picture and all I have +been saying. What I came to tell you, I think you will like; I am sure +it will please you."</p> + +<p>And with this little preface he placed his arm about her neck, and +kissed her tenderly. She certainly was pleased; and when his little +speech was over, she, smiling, with her tears still wet upon her cheeks, +put her arms round her husband's neck, and in turn kissed him with the +ardour of gratitude, kissed him affectionately; again and again thanking +him all the time.</p> + +<p>It was no great matter, but from Sir Bale Mardykes it was something +quite unusual.</p> + +<p>Was it a sudden whim? What was it? Something had prompted Sir Bale, +early in that dark shrewd month of December, to tell his wife that he +wished to call together some of his county acquaintances, and to fill +his house for a week or so, as near Christmas as she could get them to +come. He wished her sisters—Lady Haworth (with her husband) and the +Dowager Lady Walsingham—to be invited for an early day, before the +coming of the other guests, so that she might enjoy their society for a +little time quietly to herself before the less intimate guests should +assemble.</p> + +<p>Glad was Lady Mardykes to hear the resolve of her husband, and prompt to +obey. She wrote to her sisters to beg them to arrange to come, together, +by the tenth or twelfth of the month, which they accordingly arranged to +do. Sir Oliver, it was true, could not be of the party. A minister of +state was drinking the waters at Bath; and Sir Oliver thought it would +do him no harm to sip a little also, and his fashionable doctor politely +agreed, and "ordered" to those therapeutic springs the knight of the +shire, who was "consumedly vexed" to lose the Christmas with that jolly +dog, Bale, down at Mardykes Hall. But a fellow must have a stomach for +his Christmas pudding, and politics takes it out of a poor gentleman +deucedly; and health's the first thing, egad!</p> + +<p>So Sir Oliver went down to Bath, and I don't know that he tippled much +of the waters, but he did drink the burgundy of that haunt of the +ailing; and he had the honour of making a fourth not unfrequently in the +secretary of state's whist-parties.</p> + +<p>It was about the 8th of December when, in Lady Walsingham's carriage, +intending to post all the way, that lady, still young, and Lady Haworth, +with all the servants that were usual in such expeditions in those days, +started from the great Dower House at Islington in high spirits.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth had not been very well—low and nervous; but the clear +frosty sun, and the pleasant nature of the excursion, raised her spirits +to the point of enjoyment; and expecting nothing but happiness and +gaiety—for, after all, Sir Bale was but one of a large party, and even +he could make an effort and be agreeable as well as hospitable on +occasion—they set out on their northward expedition. The journey, which +is a long one, they had resolved to break into a four days' progress; +and the inns had been written to, bespeaking a comfortable reception.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXV</h4> + +<i><b>Through the Wall</b></i> + +<p>On the third night they put-up at the comfortable old inn called the +Three Nuns. With an effort they might easily have pushed on to Mardykes +Hall that night, for the distance is not more than five-and-thirty +miles. But, considering her sister's health, Lady Walsingham in planning +their route had resolved against anything like a forced march.</p> + +<p>Here the ladies took possession of the best sitting-room; and, +notwithstanding the fatigue of the journey, Lady Haworth sat up with her +sister till near ten o'clock, chatting gaily about a thousand things.</p> + +<p>Of the three sisters, Lady Walsingham was the eldest. She had been in +the habit of taking the command at home; and now, for advice and +decision, her younger sisters, less prompt and courageous than she, were +wont, whenever in her neighbourhood, to throw upon her all the cares and +agitations of determining what was best to be done in small things and +great. It is only fair to say, in addition, that this submission was not +by any means exacted; it was the deference of early habit and feebler +will, for she was neither officious nor imperious.</p> + +<p>It was now time that Lady Haworth, a good deal more fatigued than her +sister, should take leave of her for the night.</p> + +<p>Accordingly they kissed and bid each other good-night; and Lady +Walsingham, not yet disposed to sleep, sat for some time longer in the +comfortable room where they had taken tea, amusing the time with the +book that had, when conversation flagged, beguiled the weariness of the +journey. Her sister had been in her room nearly an hour, when she became +herself a little sleepy. She had lighted her candle, and was going to +ring for her maid, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and her +sister Lady Haworth entered in a dressing-gown, looking frightened.</p> + +<p>"My darling Mary!" exclaimed Lady Walsingham, "what is the matter? Are +you well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling," she answered, "quite well; that is, I don't know what is +the matter—I'm frightened." She paused, listening, with her eyes turned +towards the wall. "O, darling Maud, I am so frightened! I don't know +what it can be."</p> + +<p>"You must not be agitated, darling; there's nothing. You have been +asleep, and I suppose you have had a dream. Were you asleep?"</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth had caught her sister fast by the arm with both hands, and +was looking wildly in her face.</p> + +<p>"Have <i>you</i> heard nothing?" she asked, again looking towards the wall of +the room, as if she expected to hear a voice through it.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, darling; you are dreaming still. Nothing; there has been +nothing to hear. I have been awake ever since; if there had been +anything to hear, I could not have missed it. Come, sit down. Sip a +little of this water; you are nervous, and over-tired; and tell me +plainly, like a good little soul, what is the matter; for nothing has +happened here; and you ought to know that the Three Nuns is the quietest +house in England; and I'm no witch, and if you won't tell me what's the +matter, I can't divine it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," said Mary, sitting down, and glancing round her +wildly. "I don't hear it now; <i>you</i> don't?"</p> + +<p>"Do, my dear Mary, tell me what you mean," said Lady Walsingham kindly +but firmly.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth was holding the still untasted glass of water in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll tell you; I have been so frightened! You are right; I had a +dream, but I can scarcely remember anything of it, except the very end, +when I wakened. But it was not the dream; only it was connected with +what terrified me so. I was so tired when I went to bed, I thought I +should have slept soundly; and indeed I fell asleep immediately; and I +must have slept quietly for a good while. How long is it since I left +you?"</p> + +<p>"More than an hour."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must have slept a good while; for I don't think I have been ten +minutes awake. How my dream began I don't know. I remember only that +gradually it came to this: I was standing in a recess in a panelled +gallery; it was lofty, and, I thought, belonged to a handsome but +old-fashioned house. I was looking straight towards the head of a wide +staircase, with a great oak banister. At the top of the stairs, as near +to me, about, as that window there, was a thick short column of oak, on +top of which was a candlestick. There was no other light but from that +one candle; and there was a lady standing beside it, looking down the +stairs, with her back turned towards me; and from her gestures I should +have thought speaking to people on a lower lobby, but whom from my place +I could not see. I soon perceived that this lady was in great agony of +mind; for she beat her breast and wrung her hands every now and then, +and wagged her head slightly from side to side, like a person in great +distraction. But one word she said I could not hear. Nor when she struck +her hand on the banister, or stamped, as she seemed to do in her pain, +upon the floor, could I hear any sound. I found myself somehow waiting +upon this lady, and was watching her with awe and sympathy. But who she +was I knew not, until turning towards me I plainly saw Janet's face, +pale and covered with tears, and with such a look of agony as—O God!--I +can never forget."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! Mary darling, what is it but a dream! I have had a thousand more +startling; it is only that you are so nervous just now."</p> + +<p>"But that is not all—nothing; what followed is so dreadful; for either +there is something very horrible going on at Mardykes, or else I am +losing my reason," said Lady Haworth in increasing agitation. "I wakened +instantly in great alarm, but I suppose no more than I have felt a +hundred times on awakening from a frightful dream. I sat up in my bed; I +was thinking of ringing for Winnefred, my heart was beating so, but +feeling better soon I changed my mind. All this time I heard a faint +sound of a voice, as if coming through a thick wall. It came from the +wall at the left side of my bed, and I fancied was that of some woman +lamenting in a room separated from me by that thick partition. I could +only perceive that it was a sound of crying mingled with ejaculations of +misery, or fear, or entreaty. I listened with a painful curiosity, +wondering who it could be, and what could have happened in the +neighbouring rooms of the house; and as I looked and listened, I could +distinguish my own name, but at first nothing more. That, of course, +might have been an accident; and I knew there were many Marys in the +world besides myself. But it made me more curious; and a strange thing +struck me, for I was now looking at that very wall through which the +sounds were coming. I saw that there was a window in it. Thinking that +the rest of the wall might nevertheless be covered by another room, I +drew the curtain of it and looked out. But there is no such thing. It is +the outer wall the entire way along. And it is equally impossible of +the other wall, for it is to the front of the house, and has two windows +in it; and the wall that the head of my bed stands against has the +gallery outside it all the way; for I remarked that as I came to you."</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, Mary darling, nothing on earth is so deceptive as sound; this +and fancy account for everything."</p> + +<p>"But hear me out; I have not told you all. I began to hear the voice +more clearly, and at last quite distinctly. It was Janet's, and she was +conjuring you by name, as well as me, to come to her to Mardykes, +without delay, in her extremity; yes, <i>you</i>, just as vehemently as me. +It was Janet's voice. It still seemed separated by the wall, but I heard +every syllable now; and I never heard voice or words of such anguish. +She was imploring of us to come on, without a moment's delay, to +Mardykes; and crying that, if we were not with her, she should go mad."</p> + +<p>"Well, darling," said Lady Walsingham, "you see I'm included in this +invitation as well as you, and should hate to disappoint Janet just as +much; and I do assure you, in the morning you will laugh over this fancy +with me; or rather, she will laugh over it with us, when we get to +Mardykes. What you do want is rest, and a little sal-volatile."</p> + +<p>So saying she rang the bell for Lady Haworth's maid. Having comforted +her sister, and made her take the nervous specific she recommended, she +went with her to her room; and taking possession of the arm-chair by the +fire, she told her that she would keep her company until she was asleep, +and remain long enough to be sure that the sleep was not likely to be +interrupted. Lady Haworth had not been ten minutes in her bed, when she +raised herself with a start to her elbow, listening with parted lips and +wild eyes, her trembling fingers behind her ears. With an exclamation of +horror, she cried,</p> + +<p>"There it is again, upbraiding us! I can't stay longer."</p> + +<p>She sprang from the bed, and rang the bell violently.</p> + +<p>"Maud," she cried in an ecstasy of horror, "nothing shall keep me here, +whether you go or not. I will set out the moment the horses are put to. +If you refuse to come, Maud, mind the responsibility is yours—listen!" +and with white face and starting eyes she pointed to the wall. "Have you +ears; don't you hear?"</p> + +<p>The sight of a person in extremity of terror so mysterious, might have +unnerved a ruder system than Lady Walsingham's. She was pale as she +replied; for under certain circumstances those terrors which deal with +the supernatural are more contagious than any others. Lady Walsingham +still, in terms, held to her opinion; but although she tried to smile, +her face showed that the panic had touched her.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear Mary," she said, "as you will have it so, I see no good in +resisting you longer. Here, it is plain, your nerves will not suffer you +to rest. Let us go then, in heaven's name; and when you get to Mardykes +Hall you will be relieved."</p> + +<p>All this time Lady Haworth was getting on her things, with the careless +hurry of a person about to fly for her life; and Lady Walsingham issued +her orders for horses, and the general preparations for resuming the +journey.</p> + +<p>It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with +them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that +with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach +Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning.</p> + +<p>When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively +tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's +voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or +visitation had produced.</p> + +<p>Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something +like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the +darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady +Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the +distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by +no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her +sister's heart had touched her own.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVI</h4> + +<i><b>Perplexed</b></i> + +<p>The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses +turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling +undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or +three stages.</p> + +<p>While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear, +and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more +anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way; +for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's +head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting +again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to +her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense.</p> + +<p>Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars +looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both +ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and +Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household.</p> + +<p>What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was +opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to +the carriage-window, not half awake.</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>"Is Sir Bale well?"</p> + +<p>"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?"</p> + +<p>With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to +these questions which her sister hastily put. The answers were all +satisfactory. With a great sigh and a little laugh, Lady Walsingham +placed her hand affectionately on that of her sister; who, saying, "God +be thanked!" began to weep.</p> + +<p>"When had you last news from Mardykes?" asked Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>"A servant was down here about four o'clock."</p> + +<p>"O! no one since?" said she in a disappointed tone.</p> + +<p>No one had been from the great house since, but all were well then.</p> + +<p>"They are early people, you know, dear; and it is dark at four, and that +is as late as they could well have heard, and nothing could have +happened since—very unlikely. We have come very fast; it is only a few +minutes past two, darling."</p> + +<p>But each felt the chill and load of their returning anxiety.</p> + +<p>While the people at the George were rapidly getting a team of horses to, +Lady Walsingham contrived a moment for an order from the other window to +her servant, who knew Golden Friars perfectly, to knock-up the people at +Doctor Torvey's, and to inquire whether all were well at Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>There he learned that a messenger had come for Doctor Torvey at ten +o'clock, and that the Doctor had not returned since. There was no news, +however, of any one's being ill; and the Doctor himself did not know +what he was wanted about. While Lady Haworth was talking to her maid +from the window next the steps, Lady Walsingham was, unobserved, +receiving this information at the other.</p> + +<p>It made her very uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes more, however, with a team of fresh horses, they were +again rapidly passing the distance between them and Mardykes Hall.</p> + +<p>About two miles on, their drivers pulled-up, and they heard a voice +talking with them from the roadside. A servant from the Hall had been +sent with a note for Lady Walsingham, and had been ordered, if +necessary, to ride the whole way to the Three Nuns to deliver it. The +note was already in Lady Walsingham's hand; her sister sat beside her, +and with the corner of the open note in her fingers, she read it +breathlessly at the same time by the light of a carriage-lamp which the +man held to the window. It said:</p> +<br> + +<p>My dearest love—my darling sister—dear sisters both!--in God's name, +lose not a moment. I am so overpowered and <i>terrified</i>. I cannot +explain; I can only implore of you to come with all the haste you can +make. Waste no time, darlings. I hardly understand what I write. Only +this, dear sisters; I feel that my reason will desert me, unless you +come soon. You will not fail me now. Your poor distracted</p> + +<p>JANET</p> + +<p>The sisters exchanged a pale glance, and Lady Haworth grasped her +sister's hand.</p> + +<p>"Where is the messenger?" asked Lady Walsingham.</p> + +<p>A mounted servant came to the window.</p> + +<p>"Is any one ill at home?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No, all were well—my lady, and Sir Bale—no one sick."</p> + +<p>"But the Doctor was sent for; what was that for?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say, my lady."</p> + +<p>"You are quite certain that no one—think—<i>no</i> one is ill?"</p> + +<p>"There is no one ill at the Hall, my lady, that I have heard of."</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Mardykes, my sister, still up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my lady; and her maid is with her."</p> + +<p>"And Sir Bale, are you certain he is quite well?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Bale is quite well, my lady; he has been busy settling papers +to-night, and was as well as usual."</p> + +<p>"That will do, thanks," said the perplexed lady; and to her own servant +she added, "On to Mardykes Hall with all the speed they can make. I'll +pay them well, tell them."</p> + +<p>And in another minute they were gliding along the road at a pace which +the muffled beating of the horses' hoofs on the thin sheet of snow that +covered the road showed to have broken out of the conventional trot, +and to resemble something more like a gallop.</p> + +<p>And now they were under the huge trees, that looked black as +hearse-plumes in contrast with the snow. The cold gleam of the lake in +the moon which had begun to shine out now met their gaze; and the +familiar outline of Snakes Island, its solemn timber bleak and leafless, +standing in a group, seemed to watch Mardykes Hall with a dismal +observation across the water. Through the gate and between the huge +files of trees the carriage seemed to fly; and at last the steaming +horses stood panting, nodding and snorting, before the steps in the +courtyard.</p> + +<p>There was a light in an upper window, and a faint light in the hall, the +door of which was opened; and an old servant came down and ushered the +ladies into the house.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVII</h4> + +<i><b>The Hour</b></i> + +<p>Lightly they stepped over the snow that lay upon the broad steps, and +entering the door saw the dim figure of their sister, already in the +large and faintly-lighted hall. One candle in the hand of her scared +maid, and one burning on the table, leaving the distant parts of that +great apartment in total darkness, touched the figures with the odd +sharp lights in which Schalken delights; and a streak of chilly +moonlight, through the open door, fell upon the floor, and was stretched +like a white sheet at her feet. Lady Mardykes, with an exclamation of +agitated relief, threw her arms, in turn, round the necks of her +sisters, and hugging them, kissed them again and again, murmuring her +thanks, calling them her "blessed sisters," and praising God for his +mercy in having sent them to her in time, and altogether in a rapture of +agitation and gratitude.</p> + +<p>Taking them each by a hand, she led them into a large room, on whose +panels they could see the faint twinkle of the tall gilded frames, and +the darker indication of the old portraits, in which that interesting +house abounds. The moonbeams, entering obliquely through the Tudor +stone-shafts of the window and thrown upon the floor, reflected an +imperfect light; and the candle which the maid who followed her mistress +held in her hand shone dimly from the sideboard, where she placed it. +Lady Mardykes told her that she need not wait.</p> + +<p>"They don't know; they know only that we are in some great confusion; +but—God have mercy on me!--nothing of the reality. Sit down, darlings; +you are tired."</p> + +<p>She sat down between them on a sofa, holding a hand of each. They sat +opposite the window, through which appeared the magnificent view +commanded from the front of the house: in the foreground the solemn +trees of Snakes Island, one great branch stretching upward, bare and +moveless, from the side, like an arm raised to heaven in wonder or in +menace towards the house; the lake, in part swept by the icy splendour +of the moon, trembling with a dazzling glimmer, and farther off lost in +blackness; the Fells rising from a base of gloom, into ribs and peaks +white with snow, and looking against the pale sky, thin and transparent +as a haze. Right across to the storied woods of Cloostedd, and the old +domains of the Feltrams, this view extended.</p> + +<p>Thus alone, their mufflers still on, their hands clasped in hers, they +breathlessly listened to her strange tale.</p> + +<p>Connectedly told it amounted to this: Sir Bale seemed to have been +relieved of some great anxiety about the time when, ten days before, he +had told her to invite her friends to Mardykes Hall. This morning he had +gone out for a walk with Trevor, his under-steward, to talk over some +plans about thinning the woods at this side; and also to discuss +practically a proposal, lately made by a wealthy merchant, to take a +very long lease, on advantageous terms to Sir Bale as he thought, of the +old park and chase of Cloostedd, with the intention of building there, +and making it once more a handsome residence.</p> + +<p>In the improved state of his spirits, Sir Bale had taken a shrewd +interest in this negotiation; and was actually persuaded to cross the +lake that morning with his adviser, and to walk over the grounds with +him.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale had seemed unusually well, and talked with great animation. He +was more like a young man who had just attained his majority, and for +the first time grasped his estates, than the grim elderly Baronet who +had been moping about Mardykes, and as much afraid as a cat of the +water, for so many years.</p> + +<p>As they were returning toward the boat, at the roots of that same +scathed elm whose barkless bough had seemed, in his former visit to this +old wood, to beckon him from a distance, like a skeleton arm, to enter +the forest, he and his companion on a sudden missed an old map of the +grounds which they had been consulting.</p> + +<p>"We must have left it in the corner tower of Cloostedd House, which +commands that view of the grounds, you remember; it would not do to lose +it. It is the most accurate thing we have. I'll sit down here and rest a +little till you come back."</p> + +<p>The man was absent little more than twenty minutes. When he returned, he +found that Sir Bale had changed his position, and was now walking to and +fro, around and about, in what, at a distance, he fancied was mere +impatience, on the open space a couple of hundred paces nearer to the +turn in the valley towards the boat. It was not impatience. He was +agitated. He looked pale, and he took his companion's arm—a thing he +had never thought of doing before—and said, "Let us away quickly. I've +something to tell at home,—and I forgot it."</p> + +<p>Not another word did Sir Bale exchange with his companion. He sat in the +stern of the boat, gloomy as a man about to glide under traitor's-gate. +He entered his house in the same sombre and agitated state. He entered +his library, and sat for a long time as if stunned.</p> + +<p>At last he seemed to have made-up his mind to something; and applied +himself quietly and diligently to arranging papers, and docketing some +and burning others. Dinner-time arrived. He sent to tell Lady Mardykes +that he should not join her at dinner, but would see her afterwards.</p> + +<p>"It was between eight and nine," she continued, "I forget the exact +time, when he came to the tower drawing-room where I was. I did not hear +his approach. There is a stone stair, with a thick carpet on it. He told +me he wished to speak to me there. It is an out-of-the-way place—a +small old room with very thick walls, and there is a double door, the +inner one of oak—I suppose he wished to guard against being overheard.</p> + +<p>"There was a look in his face that frightened me; I saw he had something +dreadful to tell. He looked like a man on whom a lot had fallen to put +some one to death," said Lady Mardykes. "O, my poor Bale! my husband, my +husband! he knew what it would be to me."</p> + +<p>Here she broke into the wildest weeping, and it was some time before she +resumed.</p> + +<p>"He seemed very kind and very calm," she said at last; "he said but +little; and, I think, these were his words: 'I find, Janet, I have made +a great miscalculation—I thought my hour of danger had passed. We have +been many years together, but a parting must sooner or later be, and my +time has come.'</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I said. I would not have so much minded—for I could +not have believed, if I had not seen him—but there was that in his look +and tone which no one could doubt.</p> + +<p>"'I shall die before to-morrow morning,' he said. 'You must command +yourself, Janet; it can't be altered now.'</p> + +<p>"'O, Bale,' I cried nearly distracted, 'you would not kill yourself!'</p> + +<p>"'Kill myself! poor child! no, indeed,' he said; 'it is simply that I +shall die. No violent death—nothing but the common subsidence of +life—I have made up my mind; what happens to everybody can't be so very +bad; and millions of worse men than I die every year. You must not +follow me to my room, darling; I shall see you by and by.'</p> + +<p>"His language was collected and even cold; but his face looked as if it +was cut in stone; you never saw, in a dream, a face like it."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham here said, "I am certain he is ill; he's in a fever. You +must not distract and torture yourself about his predictions. You sent +for Doctor Torvey; what did he say?"</p> + +<p>"I could not tell him all."</p> + +<p>"O, no; I don't mean that; they'd only say he was mad, and we little +better for minding what he says. But did the Doctor see him? and what +did he say of his health?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he says there is nothing wrong—no fever—nothing whatever. Poor +Bale has been so kind; he saw him to please me," she sobbed again +wildly. "I wrote to implore of him. It was my last hope, strange as it +seems; and O, would to God I could think it! But there is nothing of +that kind. Wait till you have seen him. There is a frightful calmness +about all he says and does; and his directions are all so clear, and his +mind so perfectly collected, it is quite impossible."</p> + +<p>And poor Lady Mardykes again burst into a frantic agony of tears.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXVIII</h4> + +<i><b>Sir Bale in the Gallery</b></i> + +<p>"Now, Janet darling, you are yourself low and nervous, and you treat +this fancy of Bale's as seriously as he does himself. The truth is, he +is a hypochondriac, as the doctors say; and you will find that I am +right; he will be quite well in the morning, and I daresay a little +ashamed of himself for having frightened his poor little wife as he has. +I will sit up with you. But our poor Mary is not, you know, very strong; +and she ought to lie down and rest a little. Suppose you give me a cup +of tea in the drawing-room. I will run up to my room and get these +things off, and meet you in the drawing-room; or, if you like it better, +you can sit with me in my own room; and for goodness' sake let us have +candles enough and a bright fire; and I promise you, if you will only +exert your own good sense, you shall be a great deal more cheerful in a +very little time."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham's address was kind and cheery, and her air confident. +For a moment a ray of hope returned, and her sister Janet acknowledged +at least the possibility of her theory. But if confidence is contagious, +so also is panic; and Lady Walsingham experienced a sinking of the heart +which she dared not confess to her sister, and vainly strove to combat.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham went up with her sister Mary, and having seen her in her +room, and spoken again to her in the same cheery tone in which she had +lectured her sister Lady Mardykes, she went on; and having taken +possession of her own room, and put off her cloaks and shawls, she was +going downstairs again, when she heard Sir Bale's voice, as he +approached along the gallery, issuing orders to a servant, as it seemed, +exactly in his usual tone.</p> + +<p>She turned, with a strange throb at her heart, and met him.</p> + +<p>A little sterner, a little paler than usual he looked; she could +perceive no other change. He took her hand kindly and held it, as with +dilated eyes he looked with a dark inquiry for a moment in her face. He +signed to the servant to go on, and said, "I'm glad you have come, Maud. +You have heard what is to happen; and I don't know how Janet could have +borne it without your support. You did right to come; and you'll stay +with her for a day or two, and take her away from this place as soon as +you can."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with the embarrassment of fear. He was speaking to her +with the calmness of a leave-taking in the pressroom—the serenity that +overlies the greatest awe and agony of which human nature is capable.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you, Bale," she began, hardly knowing what she said, +and she stopped short.</p> + +<p>"You are come, it turns out, on a sad mission," he resumed; "you find +all about to change. Poor Janet! it is a blow to her. I shall not live +to see to-morrow's sun."</p> + +<p>"Come," she said, startled, "you must not talk so. No, Bale, you have +no right to speak so; you can have no reason to justify it. It is cruel +and wicked to trifle with your wife's feelings. If you are under a +delusion, you must make an effort and shake it off, or, at least, cease +to talk of it. You are not well; I know by your looks you are ill; but I +am very certain we shall see you much better by tomorrow, and still +better the day following."</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not ill, sister. Feel that pulse, if you doubt me; there is no +fever in it. I never was more perfectly in health; and yet I know that +before the clock, that has just struck three, shall have struck five, I, +who am talking to you, shall be dead."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was frightened, and her fear irritated her.</p> + +<p>"I have told you what I think and believe," she said vehemently. "I +think it wrong and cowardly of you to torture my poor sister with your +whimsical predictions. Look into your own mind, and you will see you +have absolutely no reason to support what you say. How <i>can</i> you inflict +all this agony upon a poor creature foolish enough to love you as she +does, and weak enough to believe in your idle dreams?"</p> + +<p>"Stay, sister; it is not a matter to be debated so. If to-morrow I can +hear you, it will be time enough to upbraid me. Pray return now to your +sister; she needs all you can do for her. She is much to be pitied; her +sufferings afflict me. I shall see you and her again before my death. It +would have been more cruel to leave her unprepared. Do all in your power +to nerve and tranquillise her. What is past cannot now be helped."</p> + +<p>He paused, looking hard at her, as if he had half made up his mind to +say something more. But if there was a question of the kind, it was +determined in favour of silence.</p> + +<p>He dropped her hand, turned quickly, and left her.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXIX</h4> + +<i><b>Dr. Torvey's Opinion</b></i> + +<p>When Lady Walsingham reached the head of the stairs, she met her maid, +and from her learned that her sister, Lady Mardykes, was downstairs in +the same room. On approaching, she heard her sister Mary's voice talking +with her, and found them together. Mary, finding that she could not +sleep, had put on her clothes again, and come down to keep her sister +company. The room looked more comfortable now. There were candles +lighted, and a good fire burnt in the grate; tea-things stood on a +little table near the fire, and the two sisters were talking, Lady +Mardykes appearing more collected, and only they two in the room.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen him, Maud?" cried Lady Mardykes, rising and hastily +approaching her the moment she entered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear; and talked with him, and——"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"And I think very much as I did before. I think he is nervous, he says +he is not ill; but he is nervous and whimsical, and as men always are +when they happen to be out of sorts, very positive; and of course the +only thing that can quite undeceive him is the lapse of the time he has +fixed for his prediction, as it is sure to pass without any tragic +result of any sort. We shall then all see alike the nature of his +delusion."</p> + +<p>"O, Maud, if I were only sure you thought so! if I were sure you really +had hopes! Tell me, Maud, for God's sake, what you really think."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was a little disconcerted by the unexpected directness +of her appeal.</p> + +<p>"Come, darling, you must not be foolish," she said; "we can only talk of +impressions, and we are imposed upon by the solemnity of his manner, and +the fact that he evidently believes in his own delusion; every one does +believe in his own delusion—there is nothing strange in that."</p> + +<p>"O, Maud, I see you are not convinced; you are only trying to comfort +me. You have no hope—none, none, none!" and she covered her face with +her hands, and wept again convulsively.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham was silent for a moment, and then with an effort said, +as she placed her hand on her sister's arm, "You see, dear Janet, there +is no use in my saying the same thing over and over again; an hour or +two will show who is right. Sit down again, and be like yourself. My +maid told me that you had sent to the parlour for Doctor Torvey; he must +not find you so. What would he think? Unless you mean to tell him of +Bale's strange fancy; and a pretty story that would be to set afloat in +Golden Friars. I think I hear him coming."</p> + +<p>So, in effect, he was. Doctor Torvey—with the florid gravity of a man +who, having just swallowed a bottle of port, besides some glasses of +sherry, is admitted to the presence of ladies whom he respects—entered +the room, made what he called his "leg and his compliments," and awaited +the ladies' commands.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Doctor Torvey," said Lady Walsingham, who in the incapacity +of her sister undertook the doing of the honours. "My sister, Lady +Mardykes, has got it into her head somehow that Sir Bale is ill. I have +been speaking to him; he certainly does not look very well, but he says +he is quite well. Do you think him well?—that is, we know you don't +think there is anything of importance amiss—but she wishes to know +whether you think him <i>perfectly</i> well."</p> + +<p>The Doctor cleared his voice and delivered his lecture, a little thickly +at some words, upon Sir Bale's case; the result of which was that it was +no case at all; and that if he would only live something more of a +country gentleman's life, he would be as well as any man could +desire—as well as any man, gentle or simple, in the country.</p> + +<p>"The utmost I should think of doing for him would be, perhaps, a little +quinine, nothing mo'—shurely—he is really and toory a very shoun' +shtay of health."</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham looked encouragingly at her sister and nodded.</p> + +<p>"I've been shen' for, La'y Walsh—Walse—Walsing—<i>ham</i>; old Jack +Amerald—he likshe his glass o' port," he said roguishly, "and shuvversh +accord'n'ly," he continued, with a compassionating paddle of his right +hand; "one of thoshe aw—odd feels in his stomach; and as I have pretty +well done all I can man-n'ge down here, I must be off, ye shee. Wind up +from Golden Friars, and a little flutter ovv zhnow, thazh all;" and with +some remarks about the extreme cold of the weather, and the severity of +their night journey, and many respectful and polite parting speeches, +the Doctor took his leave; and they soon heard the wheels of his gig and +the tread of his horse, faint and muffled from the snow in the +court-yard, and the Doctor, who had connected that melancholy and +agitated household with the outer circle of humanity, was gone.</p> + +<p>There was very little snow falling, half-a-dozen flakes now and again, +and their flight across the window showed, as the Doctor had in a manner +boasted, that the wind was in his face as he returned to Golden Friars. +Even these desultory snow-flakes ceased, at times, altogether; and +returning, as they say, "by fits and starts," left for long intervals +the landscape, under the brilliant light of the moon, in its wide white +shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed +to Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that +Snakes Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of +the old tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an +assassin, who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches.</p> + +<p>Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white +sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham. +The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense +overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and +listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were +overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them. +And thus an hour or more passed.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a><h4>CHAPTER XXX</h4> + +<i><b>Hush!</b></i> + +<p>Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude +of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests +of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced +her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace.</p> + +<p>Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from +the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed +features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came +in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then, +having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he +stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold +forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the +room.</p> + +<p>Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of +mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened +the door and followed.</p> + +<p>She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from +the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister, +and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without +hurry, to ascend the second flight.</p> + +<p>With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him +at a distance.</p> + +<p>She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door.</p> + +<p>Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the +apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened +for what should pass.</p> + +<p>She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time, +and then, after a pause, a sound as if some one had thrown himself +heavily on the bed. A silence followed, during which her sisters, who +had followed more timidly, joined her. She warned them with a look and +gesture to be silent.</p> + +<p>Lady Haworth stood a little behind, her white lips moving, and her hands +clasped in a silent agony of prayer. Lady Mardykes leaned against the +massive oak door-case.</p> + +<p>With her hand raised to her ear, and her lips parted, Lady Walsingham +listened for some seconds—for a minute, two minutes, three. At last, +losing heart, she seized the handle in her panic, and turned it sharply. +The door was locked on the inside, but some one close to it said from +within, "Hush, hush!"</p> + +<p>Much alarmed now, the same lady knocked violently at the door. No answer +was returned.</p> + +<p>She knocked again more violently, and shook the door with all her +fragile force. It was something of horror in her countenance as she did +so, that, no doubt, terrified Lady Mardykes, who with a loud and long +scream sank in a swoon upon the floor.</p> + +<p>The servants, alarmed by these sounds, were speedily in the gallery. +Lady Mardykes was carried to her room, and laid upon her bed; her +sister, Lady Haworth, accompanying her. In the meantime the door was +forced. Sir Bale Mardykes was found stretched upon his bed.</p> + +<p>Those who have once seen it, will not mistake the aspect of death. Here, +in Sir Bale Mardykes' room, in his bed, in his clothes, is a stranger, +grim and awful; in a few days to be insupportable, and to pass alone +into the prison-house, and to be seen no more.</p> + +<p>Where is Sir Bale Mardykes now, whose roof-tree and whose place at board +and bed will know him no more? Here lies a chap-fallen, fish-eyed image, +chilling already into clay, and stiffening in every joint.</p> + +<p>There is a marble monument in the pretty church of Golden Friars. It +stands at the left side of what antiquarians call "the high altar." Two +pillars at each end support an arch with several armorial bearings on as +many shields sculptured above. Beneath, on a marble flooring raised some +four feet, with a cornice round, lies Sir Bale Mardykes, of Mardykes +Hall, ninth Baronet of that ancient family, chiseled in marble with +knee-breeches and buckled-shoes, and <i>ailes de pigeon</i>, and +single-breasted coat and long waist-coat, ruffles and sword, such as +gentlemen wore about the year 1770, and bearing a strong resemblance to +the features of the second Charles. On the broad marble which forms the +background is inscribed an epitaph, which has perpetuated to our times +the estimate formed by his "inconsolable widow," the Dowager Lady +Mardykes, of the virtues and accomplishments of her deceased lord.</p> + +<p>Lady Walsingham would have qualified two or three of the more +highly-coloured hyperboles, at which the Golden Friars of those days +sniffed and tittered. They don't signify now; there is no contemporary +left to laugh or whisper. And if there be not much that is true in the +letter of that inscription, it at least perpetuates something that <i>is</i> +true—that wonderful glorificaion of partisanship, the affection of an +idolising wife.</p> + +<p>Lady Mardykes, a few days after the funeral, left Mardykes Hall for +ever. She lived a great deal with her sister, Lady Walsingham; and died, +as a line cut at the foot of Sir Bale Mardykes' epitaph records, in the +year 1790; her remains being laid beside those of her beloved husband in +Golden Friars.</p> + +<p>The estates had come to Sir Bale Mardykes free of entail. He had been +pottering over a will, but it was never completed, nor even quite +planned; and after much doubt and scrutiny, it was at last ascertained +that, in default of a will and of issue, a clause in the +marriage-settlement gave the entire estates to the Dowager Lady +Mardykes.</p> + +<p>By her will she bequeathed the estates to "her cousin, also a kinsman of +the late Sir Bale Mardykes her husband," William Feltram, on condition +of his assuming the name and arms of Mardykes, the arms of Feltram being +quartered in the shield.</p> + +<p>Thus was oddly fulfilled the prediction which Philip Feltram had +repeated, that the estates of Mardykes were to pass into the hands of a +Feltram.</p> + +<p>About the year 1795 the baronetage was revived, and William Feltram +enjoyed the title for fifteen years, as Sir William Mardykes.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> + +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. 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Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 + +Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [eBook #11750] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 3*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3 + +The Haunted Baronet (1871) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + +The Haunted Baronet + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The George and Dragon + +The pretty little town of Golden Friars--standing by the margin of the +lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint +and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow +windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old +church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like +silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw +moveless shadows upon the short level grass--is one of the most singular +and beautiful sights I have ever seen. + +There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so +light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture +reflected on the thin mist of night. + +On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of +the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars, +with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in +England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin +running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other +side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful +wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St. +George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold. + +In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old +_habitues_ of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the +fatigues of the day. + +This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in +summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a +fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a +pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the +room too hot. + +On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew the +weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed with each +inhabitant--a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite for all +sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a tumbler +of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it. Beside him +sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for more than +thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the last man in +Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an ex-captain of the +navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its wooden companion +beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the old-fashioned navy way, +and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the middle, opposite the +hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and smoked his pipe, looking +serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the George and Dragon every +now and then strutted in, and sat down in the high-backed wooden +arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned republican ways of the place, +and took his share in the talk gravely, and was heartily welcome. + +"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any +more you heard since." + +"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George. "Nothing +to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house won't +look so dowly now." + +"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time, hey?" +said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking. + +"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to +_you_, mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right +in time." + +"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another +grave nod. + +"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream of +smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here to save a +little, and perhaps he'll marry; and it is the more creditable, if, as +they say, he dislikes the place, and would prefer staying where he is." + +And having spoken thus gently, Mr. Peers resumed his pipe cheerfully. + +"No, he don't like the place; that is, I'm told he _didn't_," said the +innkeeper. + +"He _hates_ it," said the Doctor with another dark nod. + +"And no wonder, if all's true I've heard," cried old Jack Amerald. +"Didn't he drown a woman and her child in the lake?" + +"Hollo! my dear boy, don't let them hear you say that; you're all in the +clouds." + +"By Jen!" exclaimed the landlord after an alarmed silence, with his +mouth and eyes open, and his pipe in his hand, "why, sir, I pay rent for +the house up there. I'm thankful--dear knows, I _am_ thankful--we're all +to ourselves!" + +Jack Amerald put his foot on the floor, leaving his wooden leg in its +horizontal position, and looked round a little curiously. + +"Well, if it wasn't him, it was some one else. I'm sure it happened up +at Mardykes. I took the bearings on the water myself from Glads Scaur to +Mardykes Jetty, and from the George and Dragon sign down here--down to +the white house under Forrick Fells. I could fix a buoy over the very +spot. Some one here told me the bearings, I'd take my oath, where the +body was seen; and yet no boat could ever come up with it; and that was +queer, you know, so I clapt it down in my log." + +"Ay, sir, there _was_ some flummery like that, Captain," said Turnbull; +"for folk will be gabbin'. But 'twas his grandsire was talked o', not +him; and 'twould play the hangment wi' me doun here, if 'twas thought +there was stories like that passin' in the George and Dragon.' + +"Well, his grandfather; 'twas all one to him, I take it." + +"There never was no proof, Captain, no more than smoke; and the family +up at Mardykes wouldn't allow the king to talk o' them like that, sir; +for though they be lang deod that had most right to be angered in the +matter, there's none o' the name but would be half daft to think 'twas +still believed, and he full out as mich as any. Not that I need care +more than another, though they do say he's a bit frowsy and +short-waisted; for he can't shouther me out o' the George while I pay my +rent, till nine hundred and ninety-nine year be rin oot; and a man, be +he ne'er sa het, has time to cool before then. But there's no good +quarrellin' wi' teathy folk; and it may lie in his way to do the George +mony an ill turn, and mony a gude one; an' it's only fair to say it +happened a long way before he was born, and there's no good in vexin' +him; and I lay ye a pound, Captain, the Doctor hods wi' me." + +The Doctor, whose business was also sensitive, nodded; and then he said, +"But for all that, the story's old, Dick Turnbull--older than you or I, +my jolly good friend." + +"And best forgotten," interposed the host of the George. + +"Ay, best forgotten; but that it's not like to be," said the Doctor, +plucking up courage. "Here's our friend the Captain has heard it; and +the mistake he has made shows there's one thing worse than its being +quite remembered, and that is, its being _half_ remembered. We can't +stop people talking; and a story like that will see us all off the +hooks, and be in folks' mouths, still, as strong as ever." + +"Ay; and now I think on it, 'twas Dick Harman that has the boat down +there--an old tar like myself--that told me that yarn. I was trying for +pike, and he pulled me over the place, and that's how I came to hear it. +I say, Tom, my hearty, serve us out another glass of brandy, will you?" +shouted the Captain's voice as the waiter crossed the room; and that +florid and grizzled naval hero clapped his leg again on the chair by its +wooden companion, which he was wont to call his jury-mast. + +"Well, I do believe it will be spoke of longer than we are like to +hear," said the host, "and I don't much matter the story, if it baint +told o' the wrong man." Here he touched his tumbler with the spoon, +indicating by that little ring that Tom, who had returned with the +Captain's grog, was to replenish it with punch. "And Sir Bale is like to +be a friend to this house. I don't see no reason why he shouldn't. The +George and Dragon has bin in our family ever since the reign of King +Charles the Second. It was William Turnbull in that time, which they +called it the Restoration, he taking the lease from Sir Tony Mardykes +that was then. They was but knights then. They was made baronets first +in the reign of King George the Second; you may see it in the list of +baronets and the nobility. The lease was made to William Turnbull, which +came from London; and he built the stables, which they was out o' +repair, as you may read to this day in the lease; and the house has +never had but one sign since--the George and Dragon, it is pretty well +known in England--and one name to its master. It has been owned by a +Turnbull from that day to this, and they have not been counted bad men." +A murmur of applause testified the assent of his guests. "They has been +steady churchgoin' folk, and brewed good drink, and maintained the best +o' characters, hereaways and farther off too, though 'tis I, Richard +Turnbull, that says it; and while they pay their rent, no man has power +to put them out; for their title's as good to the George and Dragon, and +the two fields, and the croft, and the grazing o' their kye on the +green, as Sir Bale Mardykes to the Hall up there and estate. So 'tis +nout to me, except in the way o' friendliness, what the family may think +o' me; only the George and they has always been kind and friendly, and I +don't want to break the old custom." + +"Well said, Dick!" exclaimed Doctor Torvey; "I own to your conclusion; +but there ain't a soul here but ourselves--and we're all friends, and +you are your own master--and, hang it, you'll tell us that story about +the drowned woman, as you heard it from your father long ago." + +"Ay, do, and keep us to our liquor, my hearty!" cried the Captain. + +Mr. Peers looked his entreaty; and deaf Mr. Hollar, having no interest +in the petition, was at least a safe witness, and, with his pipe in his +lips, a cozy piece of furniture. + +Richard Turnbull had his punch beside him; he looked over his shoulder. +The door was closed, the fire was cheery, and the punch was fragrant, +and all friendly faces about him. So said he: + +"Gentlemen, as you're pleased to wish it, I don't see no great harm in +it; and at any rate, 'twill prevent mistakes. It is more than ninety +years since. My father was but a boy then; and many a time I have heard +him tell it in this very room." + +And looking into his glass he mused, and stirred his punch slowly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Drowned Woman + +"It ain't much of a homminy," said the host of the George. "I'll not +keep you long over it, gentlemen. There was a handsome young lady, Miss +Mary Feltram o' Cloostedd by name. She was the last o' that family; and +had gone very poor. There's but the walls o' the house left now; grass +growing in the hall, and ivy over the gables; there's no one livin' has +ever hard tell o' smoke out o' they chimblies. It stands on t'other side +o' the lake, on the level wi' a deal o' a'ad trees behint and aside it +at the gap o' the clough, under the pike o' Maiden Fells. Ye may see it +wi' a spyin'-glass from the boatbield at Mardykes Hall." + +"I've been there fifty times," said the Doctor. + +"Well there was dealin's betwixt the two families; and there's good and +bad in every family; but the Mardykes, in them days, was a wild lot. And +when old Feltram o' Cloostedd died, and the young lady his daughter was +left a ward o' Sir Jasper Mardykes--an ill day for her, poor +lass!--twenty year older than her he was, an' more; and nothin' about +him, they say, to make anyone like or love him, ill-faur'd and little +and dow." + +"Dow--that's gloomy," Doctor Torvey instructed the Captain aside. + +"But they do say, they has an old blud-stean ring in the family that +has a charm in't; and happen how it might, the poor lass fell in love +wi' him. Some said they was married. Some said it hang'd i' the +bell-ropes, and never had the priest's blessing; but anyhow, married or +no, there was talk enough amang the folk, and out o' doors she would na +budge. And there was two wee barns; and she prayed him hard to confess +the marriage, poor thing! But t'was a bootlese bene, and he would not +allow they should bear his name, but their mother's; he was a hard man, +and hed the bit in his teeth, and went his ain gait. And having tired of +her, he took in his head to marry a lady of the Barnets, and it behoved +him to be shut o' her and her children; and so she nor them was seen no +more at Mardykes Hall. And the eldest, a boy, was left in care of my +grandfather's father here in the George." + +"That queer Philip Feltram that's travelling with Sir Bale so long is a +descendant of his?" said the Doctor. + +"Grandson," observed Mr. Peers, removing his pipe for a moment; "and is +the last of that stock." + +"Well, no one could tell where she had gone to. Some said to distant +parts, some said to the madhouse, some one thing, some another; but +neither she nor the barn was ever seen or spoke to by the folk at +Mardykes in life again. There was one Mr. Wigram that lived in them +times down at Moultry, and had sarved, like the Captain here, in the +king's navy in his day; and early of a morning down he comes to the town +for a boat, sayin' he was looking towards Snakes Island through his +spyin'-glass, and he seen a woman about a hundred and fifty yards +outside of it; the Captain here has heard the bearings right enough. +From her hips upwards she was stark and straight out o' the water, and a +baby in her arms. Well, no one else could see it, nor he neither, when +they went down to the boat. But next morning he saw the same thing, and +the boatman saw it too; and they rowed for it, both pulling might and +main; but after a mile or so they could see it no more, and gave over. +The next that saw it was the vicar, I forget his name now--but he was up +the lake to a funeral at Mortlock Church; and coming back with a bit of +a sail up, just passin' Snakes Island, what should they hear on a sudden +but a wowl like a death-cry, shrill and bleak, as made the very blood +hoot in their veins; and looking along the water not a hundred yards +away, saw the same grizzled sight in the moonlight; so they turned the +tiller, and came near enough to see her face--blea it was, and drenched +wi' water--and she was above the lake to her middle, stiff as a post, +holdin' the weeny barn out to them, and flyrin' [smiling scornfully] on +them as they drew nigh her. They were half-frighted, not knowing what to +make of it; but passing as close as the boatman could bring her side, +the vicar stretched over the gunwale to catch her, and she bent forward, +pushing the dead bab forward; and as she did, on a sudden she gave a +yelloch that scared them, and they saw her no more. 'Twas no livin' +woman, for she couldn't rise that height above the water, as they well +knew when they came to think; and knew it was a dobby they saw; and ye +may be sure they didn't spare prayer and blessin', and went on their +course straight before the wind; for neither would a-took the worth o' +all the Mardykes to look sich a freetin' i' the face again. 'Twas seen +another time by market-folk crossin' fra Gyllenstan in the self-same +place; and Snakes Island got a bad neam, and none cared to go nar it +after nightfall." + +"Do you know anything of that Feltram that has been with him abroad?" +asked the Doctor. + +"They say he's no good at anything--a harmless mafflin; he was a long +gaumless gawky when he went awa," said Richard Turnbull. "The Feltrams +and the Mardykes was sib, ye know; and that made what passed in the +misfortune o' that young lady spoken of all the harder; and this young +man ye speak of is a grandson o' the lad that was put here in care o' my +grandfather." + +"_Great_-grandson. His father was grandson," said Mr. Peers; "he held a +commission in the army and died in the West Indies. This Philip Feltram +is the last o' that line--illegitimate, you know, it is held--and the +little that remained of the Feltram property went nearly fourscore years +ago to the Mardykes, and this Philip is maintained by Sir Bale; it is +pleasant, notwithstanding all the stories one hears, gentlemen, that the +only thing we know of him for certain should be so creditable to his +kindness." + +"To be sure," acquiesced Mr. Turnbull. + +While they talked the horn sounded, and the mail-coach drew up at the +door of the George and Dragon to set down a passenger and his luggage. + +Dick Turnbull rose and went out to the hall with careful bustle, and +Doctor Torvey followed as far as the door, which commanded a view of it, +and saw several trunks cased in canvas pitched into the hall, and by +careful Tom and a boy lifted one on top of the other, behind the corner +of the banister. It would have been below the dignity of his cloth to go +out and read the labels on these, or the Doctor would have done +otherwise, so great was his curiosity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Philip Feltram + +The new guest was now in the hall of the George, and Doctor Torvey could +hear him talking with Mr. Turnbull. Being himself one of the dignitaries +of Golden Friars, the Doctor, having regard to first impressions, did +not care to be seen in his post of observation; and closing the door +gently, returned to his chair by the fire, and in an under-tone informed +his cronies that there was a new arrival in the George, and he could not +hear, but would not wonder if he were taking a private room; and he +seemed to have trunks enough to build a church with. + +"Don't be too sure we haven't Sir Bale on board," said Amerald, who +would have followed his crony the Doctor to the door--for never was +retired naval hero of a village more curious than he--were it not that +his wooden leg made a distinct pounding on the floor that was inimical, +as experience had taught him, to mystery. + +"That can't be," answered the Doctor; "Charley Twyne knows everything +about it, and has a letter every second day; and there's no chance of +Sir Bale before the tenth; this is a tourist, you'll find. I don't know +what the d---l keeps Turnbull; he knows well enough we are all naturally +willing to hear who it is." + +"Well, he won't trouble us here, I bet ye;" and catching deaf Mr. +Hollar's eye, the Captain nodded, and pointed to the little table beside +him, and made a gesture imitative of the rattling of a dice-box; at +which that quiet old gentleman also nodded sunnily; and up got the +Captain and conveyed the backgammon-box to the table, near Hollar's +elbow, and the two worthies were soon sinc-ducing and catre-acing, with +the pleasant clatter that accompanies that ancient game. Hollar had +thrown sizes and made his double point, and the honest Captain, who +could stand many things better than Hollar's throwing such throws so +early in the evening, cursed his opponent's luck and sneered at his +play, and called the company to witness, with a distinctness which a +stranger to smiling Hollar's deafness would have thought hardly civil; +and just at this moment the door opened, and Richard Turnbull showed his +new guest into the room, and ushered him to a vacant seat near the other +corner of the table before the fire. + +The stranger advanced slowly and shyly, with something a little +deprecatory in his air, to which a lathy figure, a slight stoop, and a +very gentle and even heartbroken look in his pale long face, gave a more +marked character of shrinking and timidity. + +He thanked the landlord aside, as it were, and took his seat with a +furtive glance round, as if he had no right to come in and intrude upon +the happiness of these honest gentlemen. + +He saw the Captain scanning him from under his shaggy grey eyebrows +while he was pretending to look only at his game; and the Doctor was +able to recount to Mrs. Torvey when he went home every article of the +stranger's dress. + +It was odd and melancholy as his peaked face. + +He had come into the room with a short black cloak on, and a rather tall +foreign felt hat, and a pair of shiny leather gaiters or leggings on his +thin legs; and altogether presented a general resemblance to the +conventional figure of Guy Fawkes. + +Not one of the company assembled knew the appearance of the Baronet. The +Doctor and old Mr. Peers remembered something of his looks; and +certainly they had no likeness, but the reverse, to those presented by +the new-comer. The Baronet, as now described by people who had chanced +to see him, was a dark man, not above the middle size, and with a +certain decision in his air and talk; whereas this person was tall, +pale, and in air and manner feeble. So this broken trader in the world's +commerce, with whom all seemed to have gone wrong, could not possibly be +he. + +Presently, in one of his stealthy glances, the Doctor's eye encountered +that of the stranger, who was by this time drinking his tea--a thin and +feminine liquor little used in that room. + +The stranger did not seem put out; and the Doctor, interpreting his look +as a permission to converse, cleared his voice, and said urbanely, + +"We have had a little frost by night, down here, sir, and a little fire +is no great harm--it is rather pleasant, don't you think?" + +The stranger bowed acquiescence with a transient wintry smile, and +looked gratefully on the fire. + +"This place is a good deal admired, sir, and people come a good way to +see it; you have been here perhaps before?" + +"Many years ago." + +Here was another pause. + +"Places change imperceptibly--in detail, at least--a good deal," said +the Doctor, making an effort to keep up a conversation that plainly +would not go on of itself; "and people too; population shifts--there's +an old fellow, sir, they call _Death_." + +"And an old fellow they call the _Doctor_, that helps him," threw in the +Captain humorously, allowing his attention to get entangled in the +conversation, and treating them to one of his tempestuous ha-ha-ha's. + +"We are expecting the return of a gentleman who would be a very leading +member of our little society down here," said the Doctor, not noticing +the Captain's joke. "I mean Sir Bale Mardykes. Mardykes Hall is a pretty +object from the water, sir, and a very fine old place." + +The melancholy stranger bowed slightly, but rather in courtesy to the +relator, it seemed, than that the Doctor's lore interested him much. + +"And on the opposite side of the lake," continued Doctor Torvey, "there +is a building that contrasts very well with it--the old house of the +Feltrams--quite a ruin now, at the mouth of the glen--Cloostedd House, a +very picturesque object." + +"Exactly opposite," said the stranger dreamily, but whether in the tone +of acquiescence or interrogatory, the Doctor could not be quite sure. + +"That was one of our great families down here that has disappeared. It +has dwindled down to nothing." + +"Duce ace," remarked Mr. Hollar, who was attending to his game. + +"While others have mounted more suddenly and amazingly still," observed +gentle Mr. Peers, who was great upon county genealogies. + +"Sizes!" thundered the Captain, thumping the table with an oath of +disgust. + +"And Snakes Island is a very pretty object; they say there used to be +snakes there," said the Doctor, enlightening the visitor. + +"Ah! that's a mistake," said the dejected guest, making his first +original observation. "It should be spelt _Snaiks_. In the old papers it +is called Sen-aiks Island from the seven oaks that grew in a clump +there." + +"Hey? that's very curious, egad! I daresay," said the Doctor, set right +thus by the stranger, and eyeing him curiously. + +"Very true, sir," observed Mr. Peers; "three of those oaks, though, two +of them little better than stumps, are there still; and Clewson of +Heckleston has an old document----" + +Here, unhappily, the landlord entered the room in a fuss, and walking up +to the stranger, said, "The chaise is at the door, Mr. Feltram, and the +trunks up, sir." + +Mr. Feltram rose quietly and took out his purse, and said, + +"I suppose I had better pay at the bar?" + +"As you like best, sir," said Richard Turnbull. + +Mr. Feltram bowed all round to the gentlemen, who smiled, ducked or +waved their hands; and the Doctor fussily followed him to the hall-door, +and welcomed him back to Golden Friars--there was real kindness in this +welcome--and proffered his broad brown hand, which Mr. Feltram took; and +then he plunged into his chaise, and the door being shut, away he +glided, chaise, horses, and driver, like shadows, by the margin of the +moonlighted lake, towards Mardykes Hall. + +And after a few minutes' stand upon the steps, looking along the shadowy +track of the chaise, they returned to the glow of the room, in which a +pleasant perfume of punch still prevailed; and beside Mr. Philip +Feltram's deserted tea-things, the host of the George enlightened his +guests by communicating freely the little he had picked up. The +principal fact he had to tell was, that Sir Bale adhered strictly to his +original plan, and was to arrive on the tenth. A few days would bring +them to that, and the nine-days wonder run its course and lose its +interest. But in the meantime, all Golden Friars was anxious to see what +Sir Bale Mardykes was like. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Baronet Appears + +As the candles burn blue and the air smells of brimstone at the approach +of the Evil One, so, in the quiet and healthy air of Golden Friars, a +depressing and agitating influence announced the coming of the +long-absent Baronet. + +From abroad, no good whatever had been at any time heard of him, and a +great deal that was, in the ears of simple folk living in that +unsophisticated part of the world, vaguely awful. + +Stories that travel so far, however, lose something of their authority, +as well as definiteness, on the way; there was always room for charity +to suggest a mistake or exaggeration; and if good men turned up their +hands and eyes after a new story, and ladies of experience, who knew +mankind, held their heads high and looked grim and mysterious at mention +of his name, nevertheless an interval of silence softened matters a +little, and the sulphureous perfume dissipated itself in time. + +Now that Sir Bale Mardykes had arrived at the Hall, there were hurried +consultations held in many households. And though he was tried and +sentenced by drum-head over some austere hearths, as a rule the law of +gravitation prevailed, and the greater house drew the lesser about it, +and county people within the visiting radius paid their respects at the +Hall. + +The Reverend Martin Bedel, the then vicar of Golden Friars, a stout +short man, with a mulberry-coloured face and small gray eyes, and +taciturn habits, called and entered the drawing-room at Mardykes Hall, +with his fat and garrulous wife on his arm. + +The drawing-room has a great projecting Tudor window looking out on the +lake, with its magnificent background of furrowed and purple mountains. + +Sir Bale was not there, and Mrs. Bedel examined the pictures, and +ornaments, and the books, making such remarks as she saw fit; and then +she looked out of the window, and admired the prospect. She wished to +stand well with the Baronet, and was in a mood to praise everything. + +You may suppose she was curious to see him, having heard for years such +strange tales of his doings. + +She expected the hero of a brilliant and wicked romance; and listened +for the step of the truant Lovelace who was to fulfil her idea of manly +beauty and fascination. + +She sustained a slight shock when he did appear. + +Sir Bale Mardykes was, as she might easily have remembered, a +middle-aged man--and he looked it. He was not even an imposing-looking +man for his time of life: he was of about the middle height, slightly +made, and dark featured. She had expected something of the gaiety and +animation of Versailles, and an evident cultivation of the art of +pleasing. What she did see was a remarkable gravity, not to say gloom, +of countenance--the only feature of which that struck her being a pair +of large dark-gray eyes, that were cold and earnest. His manners had the +ease of perfect confidence; and his talk and air were those of a person +who might have known how to please, if it were worth the trouble, but +who did not care twopence whether he pleased or not. + +He made them each a bow, courtly enough, but there was no smile--not +even an affectation of cordiality. Sir Bale, however, was chatty, and +did not seem to care much what he said, or what people thought of him; +and there was a suspicion of sarcasm in what he said that the rustic +literality of good Mrs. Bedel did not always detect. + +"I believe I have not a clergyman but _you_, sir, within any reasonable +distance?" + +"Golden Friars _is_ the nearest," said Mrs. Bedel, answering, as was her +pleasure on all practicable occasions, for her husband. "And southwards, +the nearest is Wyllarden--and by a bird's flight that is thirteen miles +and a half, and by the road more than nineteen--twenty, I may say, by +the road. Ha, ha, ha! it is a long way to look for a clergyman." + +"Twenty miles of road to carry you thirteen miles across, hey? The +road-makers lead you a pretty dance here; those gentlemen know how to +make money, and like to show people the scenery from a variety of +points. No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or +who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's +end." + +"That is so true, Sir Bale; one never cares if one is not in a hurry. +That's what Martin thinks--don't we, Martin?--And then, you know, coming +home is the time you _are_ in a hurry--when you are thinking of your cup +of tea and the children; and _then_, you know, you have the fall of the +ground all in your favour." + +"It's well to have anything in your favour in this place. And so there +are children?" + +"A good many," said Mrs. Bedel, with a proud and mysterious smile, and a +nod; "you wouldn't guess how many." + +"Not I; I only wonder you did not bring them all." + +"That's very good-natured of you, Sir Bale, but all could not come at +_one_ bout; there are--tell him, Martin--ha, ha, ha! there are eleven." + +"It must be very cheerful down at the vicarage," said Sir Bale +graciously; and turning to the vicar he added, "But how unequally +blessings are divided! You have eleven, and I not one--that I'm aware +of." + +"And then, in that direction straight before you, you have the lake, and +then the fells; and five miles from the foot of the mountain at the +other side, before you reach Fottrell--and that is twenty-five miles by +the road----" + +"Dear me! how far apart they are set! My gardener told me this morning +that asparagus grows very thinly in this part of the world. How thinly +clergymen grow also down here--in one sense," he added politely, for the +vicar was stout. + +"We were looking out of the window--we amused ourselves that way before +you came--and your view is certainly the very best anywhere round this +side; your view of the lake and the fells--what mountains they are, Sir +Bale!" + +"'Pon my soul, they are! I wish I could blow them asunder with a charge +of duck-shot, and I shouldn't be stifled by them long. But I suppose, as +we can't get rid of them, the next best thing is to admire them. We are +pretty well married to them, and there is no use in quarrelling." + +"I know you don't think so, Sir Bale, ha, ha, ha! You wouldn't take a +good deal and spoil Mardykes Hall." + +"You can't get a mouthful or air, or see the sun of a morning, for those +frightful mountains," he said with a peevish frown at them. + +"Well, the lake at all events--that you _must_ admire, Sir Bale?" + +"No ma'am, I don't admire the lake. I'd drain the lake if I could--I +hate the lake. There's nothing so gloomy as a lake pent up among barren +mountains. I can't conceive what possessed my people to build our house +down here, at the edge of a lake; unless it was the fish, and precious +fish it is--pike! I don't know how people digest it--_I_ can't. I'd as +soon think of eating a watchman's pike." + +"I thought that having travelled so much abroad, you would have acquired +a great liking for that kind of scenery, Sir Bale; there is a great deal +of it on the Continent, ain't there?" said Mrs. Bedel. "And the +boating." + +"Boating, my dear Mrs. Bedel, is the dullest of all things; don't you +think so? Because a boat looks very pretty from the shore, we fancy the +shore must look very pretty from a boat; and when we try it, we find we +have only got down into a pit and can see nothing rightly. For my part I +hate boating, and I hate the water; and I'd rather have my house, like +Haworth, at the edge of a moss, with good wholesome peat to look at, and +an open horizon--savage and stupid and bleak as all that is--than be +suffocated among impassable mountains, or upset in a black lake and +drowned like a kitten. O, there's luncheon in the next room; won't you +take some?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Mrs. Julaper's Room + +Sir Bale Mardykes being now established in his ancestral house, people +had time to form conclusions respecting him. It must be allowed he was +not popular. There was, perhaps, in his conduct something of the caprice +of contempt. At all events his temper and conduct were uncertain, and +his moods sometimes violent and insulting. + +With respect to but one person was his conduct uniform, and that was +Philip Feltram. He was a sort of aide-de-camp near Sir Bale's person, +and chargeable with all the commissions and offices which could not be +suitably intrusted to a mere servant. But in many respects he was +treated worse than any servant of the Baronet's. Sir Bale swore at him, +and cursed him; laid the blame of everything that went wrong in house, +stable, or field upon his shoulders; railed at him, and used him, as +people said, worse than a dog. + +Why did Feltram endure this contumelious life? What could he do but +endure it? was the answer. What was the power that induced strong +soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to +be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with +an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of +an unconscious calculation of chances which satisfies them that it is +ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the +alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with +each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one +knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what +they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but +quite irresistible power. + +A man of spirit would rather break stones on the highway than eat that +bitter bread, was the burden of every man's song on Feltram's bondage. +But he was not so sure that even the stone-breaker's employment was open +to him, or that he could break stones well enough to retain it on a fair +trial. And he had other ideas of providing for himself, and a different +alternative in his mind. + +Good-natured Mrs. Julaper, the old housekeeper at Mardykes Hall, was +kind to Feltram, as to all others who lay in her way and were in +affliction. + +She was one of those good women whom Nature provides to receive the +burden of other people's secrets, as the reeds did long ago, only that +no chance wind could steal them away, and send them singing into strange +ears. + +You may still see her snuggery in Mardykes Hall, though the +housekeeper's room is now in a different part of the house. + +Mrs. Julaper's room was in the oldest quarter of that old house. It was +wainscoted, in black panels, up to the ceiling, which was stuccoed over +in the fanciful diagrams of James the First's time. Several dingy +portraits, banished from time to time from other statelier rooms, found +a temporary abode in this quiet spot, where they had come finally to +settle and drop out of remembrance. There is a lady in white satin and a +ruff; a gentleman whose legs have faded out of view, with a peaked +beard, and a hawk on his wrist. There is another in a black periwig lost +in the dark background, and with a steel cuirass, the gleam of which out +of the darkness strikes the eye, and a scarf is dimly discoverable +across it. This is that foolish Sir Guy Mardykes, who crossed the Border +and joined Dundee, and was shot through the temple at Killiecrankie and +whom more prudent and whiggish scions of the Mardykes family removed +forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from +which he has not since emerged. + +At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you +find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony +before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the +cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision. + +There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her _Whole Duty of +Man_, and her _Pilgrim's Progress_; and, in a file beside them, her +books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes, +cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the +Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would +nowadays give an eye or a hand. + +Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs, +and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him +a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of +coffee, or some little dainty. + +"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor +devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not +it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I +think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing. +I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind. +I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer." + +"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember +you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he. +They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one +minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the +tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard +words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea--ye like a cup o' +tea--and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see +how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening." + +She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff +in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on +him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a +delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with +so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as +she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little +apples. + +"Look out, I say," and she nodded towards the window, deep set in the +thick wall. "See how bright and soft everything looks in that pleasant +light; _that's_ better, child, than the finest picture man's hand ever +painted yet, and God gives it us for nothing; and how pretty Snakes +Island glows up in that light!" + +The dejected man, hardly raising his head, followed with his eyes the +glance of the old woman, and looked mournfully through the window. + +"That island troubles me, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Everything troubles you, my poor goose-cap. I'll pull your lug for ye, +child, if ye be so dowly;" and with a mimic pluck the good-natured old +housekeeper pinched his ear and laughed. + +"I'll go to the still-room now, where the water's boiling, and I'll make +a cup of tea; and if I find ye so dow when I come back, I'll throw it +all out o' the window, mind." + +It was indeed a beautiful picture that Feltram saw in its deep frame of +old masonry. The near part of the lake was flushed all over with the low +western light; the more distant waters lay dark in the shadow of the +mountains; and against this shadow of purple the rocks on Snakes Island, +illuminated by the setting sun, started into sharp clear yellow. + +But this beautiful view had no charm--at least, none powerful enough to +master the latent horror associated with its prettiest feature--for the +weak and dismal man who was looking at it; and being now alone, he rose +and leant on the window, and looked out, and then with a kind of shudder +clutching his hands together, and walking distractedly about the room. + +Without his perceiving, while his back was turned, the housekeeper came +back; and seeing him walking in this distracted way, she thought to +herself, as he leant again upon the window: + +"Well, it _is_ a burning shame to worrit any poor soul into that state. +Sir Bale was always down on someone or something, man or beast; there +always was something he hated, and could never let alone. It was not +pretty; it was his nature. Happen, poor fellow, he could not help it; +but so it was." + +A maid came in and set the tea-things down; and Mrs. Julaper drew her +sad guest over by the arm, and made him sit down, and she said: "What +has a man to do, frettin' in that way? By Jen, I'm ashamed o' ye, Master +Philip! Ye like three lumps o' sugar, I think, and--look cheerful, ye +must!--a good deal o' cream?" + +"You're so kind, Mrs. Julaper, you're so cheery. I feel quite +comfortable after awhile when I'm with you; I feel quite happy," and he +began to cry. + +She understood him very well by this time and took no notice, but went +on chatting gaily, and made his tea as he liked it; and he dried his +tears hastily, thinking she had not observed. + +So the clouds began to clear. This innocent fellow liked nothing better +than a cup of tea and a chat with gentle and cheery old Mrs. Julaper, +and a talk in which the shadowy old times which he remembered as a child +emerged into sunlight and lived again. + +When he began to feel better, drawn into the kindly old times by the +tinkle of that harmless old woman's tongue, he said: + +"I sometimes think I would not so much mind--I should not care so +much--if my spirits were not so depressed, and I so agitated. I suppose +I am not quite well." + +"Well, tell me what's wrong, child, and it's odd but I have a recipe on +the shelf there that will do you good." + +"It is not a matter of that sort I mean; though I'd rather have you than +any doctor, if I needed medicine, to prescribe for me." + +Mrs. Julaper smiled in spite of herself, well pleased; for her skill in +pharmacy was a point on which the good lady prided herself, and was open +to flattery, which, without intending it, the simple fellow +administered. + +"No, I'm well enough; I can't say I ever was better. It is only, ma'am, +that I have such dreams--you have no idea." + +"There are dreams and dreams, my dear: there's some signifies no more +than the babble of the lake down there on the pebbles, and there's +others that has a meaning; there's dreams that is but vanity, and +there's dreams that is good, and dreams that is bad. Lady +Mardykes--heavens be her bed this day! that's his grandmother I +mean--was very sharp for reading dreams. Take another cup of tea. Dear +me! what a noise the crows keep aboon our heads, going home! and how +high they wing it!--that's a sure sign of fine weather. An' what do you +dream about? Tell me your dream, and I may show you it's a good one, +after all. For many a dream is ugly to see and ugly to tell, and a good +dream, with a happy meaning, for all that." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The Intruder + +"Well, Mrs. Julaper, dreams I've dreamed like other people, old and +young; but this, ma'am, has taken a fast hold of me," said Mr. Feltram +dejectedly, leaning back in his chair and looking down with his hands in +his pockets. "I think, Mrs. Julaper, it is getting into me. I think it's +like possession." + +"Possession, child! what do you mean?" + +"I think there is something trying to influence me. Perhaps it is the +way fellows go mad; but it won't let me alone. I've seen it three times, +think of that!" + +"Well, dear, and what _have_ ye seen?" she asked, with an uneasy +cheerfulness, smiling, with eyes fixed steadily upon him; for the idea +of a madman--even gentle Philip in that state--was not quieting. + +"Do you remember the picture, full-length, that had no frame--the lady +in the white-satin saque--she was beautiful, _funeste_," he added, +talking more to himself; and then more distinctly to Mrs. Julaper +again----"in the white-satin saque; and with the little mob cap and blue +ribbons to it, and a bouquet in her fingers; that was--that--you know +who she was?" + +"That was your great-grandmother, my dear," said Mrs. Julaper, lowering +her eyes. "It was a dreadful pity it was spoiled. The boys in the pantry +had it for a year there on the table for a tray, to wash the glasses on +and the like. It was a shame; that was the prettiest picture in the +house, with the gentlest, rosiest face." + +"It ain't so gentle or rosy now, I can tell you," said Philip. "As fixed +as marble; with thin lips, and a curve at the nostril. Do you remember +the woman that was found dead in the clough, when I was a boy, that the +gipsies murdered, it was thought,--a cruel-looking woman?" + +"Agoy! Master Philip, dear! ye would not name that terrible-looking +creature with the pretty, fresh, kindly face!" + +"Faces change, you see; no matter what she's like; it's her talk that +frightens me. She wants to make use of me; and, you see, it is like +getting a share in my mind, and a voice in my thoughts, and a command +over me gradually; and it is just one idea, as straight as a line of +light across the lake--see what she's come to. O Lord, help me!" + +"Well, now, don't you be talkin' like that. It is just a little bit +dowly and troubled, because the master says a wry word now and then; and +so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies +comes into your head." + +"There's no fancy in my head," he said with a quick look of suspicion; +"only you asked me what I dreamed. I don't care if all the world knew. I +dreamed I went down a flight of steps under the lake, and got a message. +There are no steps near Snakes Island, we all know that," and he laughed +chillily. "I'm out of spirits, as you say; and--and--O dear! I +wish--Mrs. Julaper--I wish I was in my coffin, and quiet." + +"Now that's very wrong of you, Master Philip; you should think of all +the blessings you have, and not be makin' mountains o' molehills; and +those little bits o' temper Sir Bale shows, why, no one minds 'em--that +is, to take 'em to heart like you do, don't ye see?" + +"I daresay; I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you are right. I'm unreasonable +often, I know," said gentle Philip Feltram. "I daresay I make too much +of it; I'll try. I'm his secretary, and I know I'm not so bright as he +is, and it is natural he should sometimes be a little impatient; I ought +to be more reasonable, I'm sure. It is all that thing that has been +disturbing me--I mean fretting, and, I think, I'm not quite well; +and--and letting myself think too much of vexations. It's my own fault, +I'm sure, Mrs. Julaper; and I know I'm to blame." + +"That's quite right, that's spoken like a wise lad; only I don't say +you're to blame, nor no one; for folk can't help frettin' sometimes, no +more than they can help a headache--none but a mafflin would say +that--and I'll not deny but he has dowly ways when the fit's on him, and +he frumps us all round, if such be his humour. But who is there hasn't +his faults? We must bear and forbear, and take what we get and be +cheerful. So chirp up, my lad; Philip, didn't I often ring the a'd rhyme +in your ear long ago? + + "Be always as merry as ever you can, + For no one delights in a sorrowful man. + +"So don't ye be gettin' up off your chair like that, and tramping about +the room wi' your hands in your pockets, looking out o' this window, and +staring out o' that, and sighing and crying, and looking so +black-ox-trodden, 'twould break a body's heart to see you. Ye must be +cheery; and happen you're hungry, and don't know it. I'll tell the cook +to grill a hot bit for ye." + +"But I'm not hungry, Mrs. Julaper. How kind you are! dear me, Mrs. +Julaper, I'm not worthy of it; I don't deserve half your kindness. I'd +have been heartbroken long ago, but for you." + +"And I'll make a sup of something hot for you; you'll take a +rummer-glass of punch--you must." + +"But I like the tea better; I do, indeed, Mrs. Julaper." + +"Tea is no drink for a man when his heart's down. It should be something +with a leg in it, lad; something hot that will warm your courage for ye, +and set your blood a-dancing, and make ye talk brave and merry; and will +you have a bit of a broil first? No? Well then, you'll have a drop o' +punch?--ye sha'n't say no." + +And so, all resistance overpowered, the consolation of Philip Feltram +proceeded. + +A gentler spirit than poor Feltram, a more good-natured soul than the +old housekeeper, were nowhere among the children of earth. + +Philip Feltram, who was reserved enough elsewhere, used to come into her +room and cry, and take her by both hands piteously, standing before her +and looking down in her face, while tears ran deviously down his cheeks. + +"Did you ever know such a case? was there ever a fellow like _me_? did +you ever _know_ such a thing? You know what I am, Mrs. Julaper, and who +I am. They call me Feltram; but Sir Bale knows as well as I that my true +name is not that. I'm Philip Mardykes; and another fellow would make a +row about it, and claim his name and his rights, as she is always +croaking in my ear I ought. But you know that is not reasonable. My +grandmother was married; she was the true Lady Mardykes; _think_ what it +was to see a woman like that turned out of doors, and her children +robbed of their name. O, ma'am, you _can't_ think it; unless you were +me, you couldn't--you couldn't--you couldn't!" + +"Come, come, Master Philip, don't you be taking on so; and ye mustn't be +talking like that, d'ye mind? You know he wouldn't stand that; and it's +an old story now, and there's naught can be proved concerning it; and +what I think is this--I wouldn't wonder the poor lady was beguiled. But +anyhow she surely thought she was his lawful wife; and though the law +may hev found a flaw somewhere--and I take it 'twas so--yet sure I am +she was an honourable lady. But where's the use of stirring that old +sorrow? or how can ye prove aught? and the dead hold their peace, you +know; dead mice, they say, feels no cold; and dead folks are past +fooling. So don't you talk like that; for stone walls have ears, and ye +might say that ye couldn't _un_say; and death's day is doom's day. So +leave all in the keeping of God; and, above all, never lift hand when ye +can't strike." + +"Lift my hand! O, Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that; you little know +me; I did not mean that; I never dreamed of hurting Sir Bale. Good +heavens! Mrs. Julaper, you couldn't think that! It all comes of my poor +impatient temper, and complaining as I do, and my misery; but O, Mrs. +Julaper, you could not think I ever meant to trouble him by law, or any +other annoyance! I'd like to see a stain removed from my family, and my +name restored; but to touch his property, O, no!--O, no! that never +entered my mind, by heaven! that never entered my mind, Mrs. Julaper. +I'm not cruel; I'm not rapacious; I don't care for money; don't you know +that, Mrs. Julaper? O, surely you won't think me capable of attacking +the man whose bread I have eaten so long! I never dreamed of it; I +should hate myself. Tell me you don't believe it; O, Mrs. Julaper, say +you don't!" + +And the gentle feeble creature burst into tears and good Mrs. Julaper +comforted him with kind words; and he said, + +"Thank you, ma'am; thank you. God knows I would not hurt Bale, nor give +him one uneasy hour. It is only this: that I'm--I'm so miserable; and +I'm only casting in my mind where to turn to, and what to do. So little +a thing would be enough, and then I shall leave Mardykes. I'll go; not +in any anger, Mrs. Julaper--don't think that; but I can't stay, I must +be gone." + +"Well, now, there's nothing yet, Master Philip, to fret you like that. +You should not be talking so wild-like. Master Bale has his sharp word +and his short temper now and again; but I'm sure he likes you. If he +didn't, he'd a-said so to me long ago. I'm sure he likes you well." + +"Hollo! I say, who's there? Where the devil's Mr. Feltram?" called the +voice of the baronet, at a fierce pitch, along the passage. + +"La! Mr. Feltram, it's him! Ye'd better run to him," whispered Mrs. +Julaper. + +"D--n me! does nobody hear? Mrs. Julaper! Hollo! ho! house, there! ho! +D--n me, will nobody answer?" + +And Sir Bale began to slap the wainscot fast and furiously with his +walking-cane with a clatter like a harlequin's lath in a pantomime. + +Mrs. Julaper, a little paler than usual, opened her door, and stood with +the handle in her hand, making a little curtsey, enframed in the +door-case; and Sir Bale, being in a fume, when he saw her, ceased +whacking the panels of the corridor, and stamped on the floor, crying, + +"Upon my soul, ma'am, I'm glad to see you! Perhaps you can tell me where +Feltram is?" + +"He is in my room, Sir Bale. Shall I tell him you want him, please?" + +"Never mind; thanks," said the Baronet. "I've a tongue in my head;" +marching down the passage to the housekeeper's room, with his cane +clutched hard, glaring savagely, and with his teeth fast set, like a +fellow advancing to beat a vicious horse that has chafed his temper. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The Bank Note + +Sir Bale brushed by the housekeeper as he strode into her sanctuary, and +there found Philip Feltram awaiting him dejectedly, but with no signs of +agitation. + +If one were to judge by the appearance the master of Mardykes presented, +very grave surmises as to impending violence would have suggested +themselves; but though he clutched his cane so hard that it quivered in +his grasp, he had no notion of committing the outrage of a blow. The +Baronet was unusually angry notwithstanding, and stopping short about +three steps away, addressed Feltram with a pale face and gleaming eyes. +It was quite plain that there was something very exciting upon his mind. + +"I've been looking for you, Mr. Feltram; I want a word or two, if you +have done your--your--whatever it is." He whisked the point of his stick +towards the modest tea-tray. "I should like five minutes in the +library." + +The Baronet was all this time eyeing Feltram with a hard suspicious +gaze, as if he expected to read in his face the shrinkings and +trepidations of guilt; and then turning suddenly on his heel he led the +way to his library--a good long march, with a good many turnings. He +walked very fast, and was not long in getting there. And as Sir Bale +reached the hearth, on which was smouldering a great log of wood, and +turned about suddenly, facing the door, Philip Feltram entered. + +The Baronet looked oddly and stern--so oddly, it seemed to Feltram, that +he could not take his eyes off him, and returned his grim and somewhat +embarrassed gaze with a stare of alarm and speculation. + +And so doing, his step was shortened, and grew slow and slower, and came +quite to a stop before he had got far from the door--a wide stretch of +that wide floor still intervening between him and Sir Bale, who stood +upon the hearthrug, with his heels together and his back to the fire, +cane in hand, like a drill-sergeant, facing him. + +"Shut that door, please; that will do; come nearer now. I don't want to +bawl what I have to say. Now listen." + +The Baronet cleared his voice and paused, with his eyes upon Feltram. + +"It is only two or three days ago," said he, "that you said you wished +you had a hundred pounds. Am I right?" + +"Yes; I think so." + +"_Think_? you know it, sir, devilish well. You said that you wished to +get away. I have nothing particular to say against that, more especially +now. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Understand, Sir Bale? I do, sir--quite." + +"I daresay quite" he repeated with an angry sneer. "Here, sir, is an odd +coincidence: you want a hundred pounds, and you can't earn it, and you +can't borrow it--there's another way, it seems--but I have got it--a +Bank-of-England note of L100--locked up in that desk;" and he poked the +end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is, +and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys--I've got +one and you have the other--and devil another key in or out of the house +has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want +any d----d lying about it." + +Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something +very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that +unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from +detection, he looked very much put out indeed. + +"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a +bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but +I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to +pay the crown and quit-rents that you know--you--you--no matter--you +know well enough must be paid, I open it so--and so--and look _there_, +where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone--you understand, the +note's _gone_!" + +Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye, +poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but +said nothing. + +"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, _I_ did not steal that +note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go +away, and I have no objection to that--but d--n me if you take away that +note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter +in a worse place." + +"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill." + +"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money +off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a +bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and +I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly." + +"May my Maker strike me----" + +"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you +produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off +if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you; +and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you +searched, pockets, bag, and baggage." + +"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram. + +"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have +got it about you?" + +"God forbid, sir! O, Sir--O, Sir Bale--why, Bale, _Bale_, it's +impossible! You _can't_ believe it. When did I ever wrong you? You know +me since I was not higher than the table, and--and----" + +He burst into tears. + +"Stop your snivelling, sir, and give up the note. You know devilish well +I can't spare it; and I won't spare you if you put me to it. I've said +my say." + +Sir Bale signed towards the door; and like a somnambulist, with dilated +gaze and pale as death, Philip Feltram, at his wit's end, went out of +the room. It was not till he had again reached the housekeeper's door +that he recollected in what direction he was going. His shut hand was +pressed with all his force to his heart, and the first breath he was +conscious of was a deep wild sob or two that quivered from his heart as +he looked from the lobby-window upon a landscape which he did not see. + +All he had ever suffered before was mild in comparison with this dire +paroxysm. Now, for the first time, was he made acquainted with his real +capacity for pain, and how near he might be to madness and yet retain +intellect enough to weigh every scruple, and calculate every chance and +consequence, in his torture. + +Sir Bale, in the meantime, had walked out a little more excited than he +would have allowed. He was still convinced that Feltram had stolen the +note, but not quite so certain as he had been. There were things in his +manner that confirmed, and others that perplexed, Sir Bale. + +The Baronet stood upon the margin of the lake, almost under the evening +shadow of the house, looking towards Snakes Island. There were two +things about Mardykes he specially disliked. + +One was Philip Feltram, who, right or wrong, he fancied knew more than +was pleasant of his past life. + +The other was the lake. It was a beautiful piece of water, his eye, +educated at least in the excellences of landscape-painting, +acknowledged. But although he could pull a good oar, and liked other +lakes, to this particular sheet of water there lurked within him an +insurmountable antipathy. It was engendered by a variety of +associations. + +There is a faculty in man that will acknowledge the unseen. He may scout +and scare religion from him; but if he does, superstition perches near. +His boding was made-up of omens, dreams, and such stuff as he most +affected to despise, and there fluttered at his heart a presentiment and +disgust. + +His foot was on the gunwale of the boat, that was chained to its ring at +the margin; but he would not have crossed that water in it for any +reason that man could urge. + +What was the mischief that sooner or later was to befall him from that +lake, he could not define; but that some fatal danger lurked there, was +the one idea concerning it that had possession of his fancy. + +He was now looking along its still waters, towards the copse and rocks +of Snakes Island, thinking of Philip Feltram; and the yellow level +sunbeams touched his dark features, that bore a saturnine resemblance to +those of Charles II, and marked sharply their firm grim lines, and left +his deep-set eyes in shadow. + +Who has the happy gift to seize the present, as a child does, and live +in it? Who is not often looking far off for his happiness, as Sidney +Smith says, like a man looking for his hat when it is upon his head? Sir +Bale was brooding over his double hatred, of Feltram and of the lake. It +would have been better had he struck down the raven that croaked upon +his shoulder, and listened to the harmless birds that were whistling all +round among the branches in the golden sunset. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Feltram's Plan + +This horror of the beautiful lake, which other people thought so lovely, +was, in that mind which affected to scoff at the unseen, a distinct +creation of downright superstition. + +The nursery tales which had scared him in his childhood were founded on +the tragedy of Snakes Island, and haunted him with an unavowed +persistence still. Strange dreams untold had visited him, and a German +conjuror, who had made some strangely successful vaticinations, had told +him that his worst enemy would come up to him from a lake. He had heard +very nearly the same thing from a fortune-teller in France; and once at +Lucerne, when he was waiting alone in his room for the hour at which he +had appointed to go upon the lake, all being quiet, there came to the +window, which was open, a sunburnt, lean, wicked face. Its ragged owner +leaned his arm on the window-frame, and with his head in the room, said +in his patois, "Ho! waiting are you? You'll have enough of the lake one +day. Don't you mind watching; they'll send when you're wanted;" and +twisting his yellow face into a malicious distortion, he went on. + +This thing had occurred so suddenly, and chimed-in so oddly with his +thoughts, which were at that moment at distant Mardykes and the haunted +lake, that it disconcerted him. He laughed, he looked out of the window. +He would have given that fellow money to tell him why he said that. But +there was no good in looking for the scamp; he was gone. + +A memory not preoccupied with that lake and its omens, and a +presentiment about himself, would not have noted such things. But _his_ +mind they touched indelibly; and he was ashamed of his childish slavery, +but could not help it. + +The foundation of all this had been laid in the nursery, in the winter's +tales told by its fireside, and which seized upon his fancy and his +fears with a strange congeniality. + +There is a large bedroom at Mardykes Hall, which tradition assigns to +the lady who had perished tragically in the lake. Mrs. Julaper was sure +of it; for her aunt, who died a very old woman twenty years before, +remembered the time of the lady's death, and when she grew to woman's +estate had opportunity in abundance; for the old people who surrounded +her could remember forty years farther back, and tell everything +connected with the old house in beautiful Miss Feltram's time. + +This large old-fashioned room, commanding a view of Snakes Island, the +fells, and the lake--somewhat vast and gloomy, and furnished in a +stately old fashion--was said to be haunted, especially when the wind +blew from the direction of Golden Friars, the point from which it blew +on the night of her death in the lake; or when the sky was overcast, and +thunder rolled among the lofty fells, and lightning gleamed on the wide +sheet of water. + +It was on a night like this that a lady visitor, who long after that +event occupied, in entire ignorance of its supernatural character, that +large room; and being herself a lady of a picturesque turn, and loving +the grander melodrama of Nature, bid her maid leave the shutters open, +and watched the splendid effects from her bed, until, the storm being +still distant, she fell asleep. + +It was travelling slowly across the lake, and it was the deep-mouthed +clangour of its near approach that startled her, at dead of night, from +her slumber, to witness the same phenomena in the tremendous loudness +and brilliancy of their near approach. + +At this magnificent spectacle she was looking with the awful ecstasy of +an observer in whom the sense of danger is subordinated to that of the +sublime, when she saw suddenly at the window a woman, whose long hair +and dress seemed drenched with water. She was gazing in with a look of +terror, and was shaking the sash of the window with vehemence. Having +stood there for a few seconds, and before the lady, who beheld all this +from her bed, could make up her mind what to do, the storm-beaten +figure, wringing her hands, seemed to throw herself backward, and was +gone. + +Possessed with the idea that she had seen some poor woman overtaken in +the storm, who, failing to procure admission there, had gone round to +some of the many doors of the mansion, and obtained an entry there, she +again fell asleep. + +It was not till the morning, when she went to her window to look out +upon the now tranquil scene, that she discovered what, being a stranger +to the house, she had quite forgotten, that this room was at a great +height--some thirty feet--from the ground. + +Another story was that of good old Mr. Randal Rymer, who was often a +visitor at the house in the late Lady Mardykes' day. In his youth he had +been a campaigner; and now that he was a preacher he maintained his +hardy habits, and always slept, summer and winter, with a bit of his +window up. Being in that room in his bed, and after a short sleep lying +awake, the moon shining softly through the window, there passed by that +aperture into the room a figure dressed, it seemed to him, in gray that +was nearly white. It passed straight to the hearth, where was an +expiring wood fire; and cowering over it with outstretched hands, it +appeared to be gathering what little heat was to be had. Mr. Rymer, +amazed and awestruck, made a movement in his bed; and the figure looked +round, with large eyes that in the moonlight looked like melting snow, +and stretching its long arms up the chimney, they and the figure itself +seemed to blend with the smoke, and so pass up and away. + +Sir Bale, I have said, did not like Feltram. His father, Sir William, +had left a letter creating a trust, it was said, in favour of Philip +Feltram. The document had been found with the will, addressed to Sir +Bale in the form of a letter. + +"That is mine," said the Baronet, when it dropped out of the will; and +he slipped it into his pocket, and no one ever saw it after. + +But Mr. Charles Twyne, the attorney of Golden Friars, whenever he got +drunk, which was pretty often, used to tell his friends with a grave +wink that he knew a thing or two about that letter. It gave Philip +Feltram two hundred a-year, charged on Harfax. It was only a direction. +It made Sir Bale a trustee, however; and having made away with the +"letter," the Baronet had been robbing Philip Feltram ever since. + +Old Twyne was cautious, even in his cups, in his choice of an audience, +and was a little enigmatical in his revelations. For he was afraid of +Sir Bale, though he hated him for employing a lawyer who lived seven +miles away, and was a rival. So people were not quite sure whether Mr. +Twyne was telling lies or truth, and the principal fact that +corroborated his story was Sir Bale's manifest hatred of his secretary. +In fact, Sir Bale's retaining him in his house, detesting him as he +seemed to do, was not easily to be accounted for, except on the +principle of a tacit compromise--a miserable compensation for having +robbed him of his rights. + +The battle about the bank-note proceeded. Sir Bale certainly had doubts, +and vacillated; for moral evidence made powerfully in favour of poor +Feltram, though the evidence of circumstance made as powerfully against +him. But Sir Bale admitted suspicion easily, and in weighing +probabilities would count a virtue very lightly against temptation and +opportunity; and whatever his doubts might sometimes be, he resisted and +quenched them, and never let that ungrateful scoundrel Philip Feltram so +much as suspect their existence. + +For two days Sir Bale had not spoken to Feltram. He passed by on stair +and passage, carrying his head high, and with a thundrous countenance, +rolling conclusions and revenges in his soul. + +Poor Feltram all this time existed in one long agony. He would have left +Mardykes, were it not that he looked vaguely to some just power--to +chance itself--against this hideous imputation. To go with this +indictment ringing in his ears, would amount to a confession and flight. + +Mrs. Julaper consoled him with might and main. She was a sympathetic and +trusting spirit, and knew poor Philip Feltram, in her simplicity, better +than the shrewdest profligate on earth could have known him. She cried +with him in his misery. She was fired with indignation by these +suspicions, and still more at what followed. + +Sir Bale showed no signs of relenting. It might have been that he was +rather glad of so unexceptionable an opportunity of getting rid of +Feltram, who, people thought, knew something which it galled the +Baronet's pride that he should know. + +The Baronet had another shorter and sterner interview with Feltram in +his study. The result was, that unless he restored the missing note +before ten o'clock next morning, he should leave Mardykes. + +To leave Mardykes was no more than Philip Feltram, feeble as he was of +will, had already resolved. But what was to become of him? He did not +very much care, if he could find any calling, however humble, that would +just give him bread. + +There was an old fellow and his wife (an ancient dame,) who lived at the +other side of the lake, on the old territories of the Feltrams, and who, +from some tradition of loyalty, perhaps, were fond of poor Philip +Feltram. They lived somewhat high up on the fells--about as high as +trees would grow--and those which were clumped about their rude dwelling +were nearly the last you passed in your ascent of the mountain. These +people had a multitude of sheep and goats, and lived in their airy +solitude a pastoral and simple life, and were childless. Philip Feltram +was hardy and active, having passed his early days among that arduous +scenery. Cold and rain did not trouble him; and these people being +wealthy in their way, and loving him, would be glad to find him +employment of that desultory pastoral kind which would best suit him. + +This vague idea was the only thing resembling a plan in his mind. + +When Philip Feltram came to Mrs. Julaper's room, and told her that he +had made up his mind to leave the house forthwith--to cross the lake to +the Cloostedd side in Tom Marlin's boat, and then to make his way up the +hill alone to Trebeck's lonely farmstead, Mrs. Julaper was overwhelmed. + +"Ye'll do no such thing to-night, anyhow. You're not to go like that. +Ye'll come into the small room here, where he can't follow; and we'll +sit down and talk it over a bit, and ye'll find 'twill all come +straight; and this will be no night, anyhow, for such a march. Why, +man,'twould take an hour and more to cross the lake, and then a long +uphill walk before ye could reach Trebeck's place; and if the night +should fall while you were still on the mountain, ye might lose your +life among the rocks. It can't be 'tis come to that yet; and the call +was in the air, I'm told, all yesterday, and distant thunder to-day, +travelling this way over Blarwyn Fells; and 'twill be a night no one +will be out, much less on the mountain side." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The Crazy Parson + +Mrs. Julaper had grown weather-wise, living for so long among this noble +and solitary scenery, where people must observe Nature or else +nothing--where signs of coming storm or change are almost local, and +record themselves on particular cliffs and mountain-peaks, or in the +mists, or in mirrored tints of the familiar lake, and are easily learned +or remembered. At all events, her presage proved too true. + +The sun had set an hour and more. It was dark; and an awful +thunder-storm, whose march, like the distant reverberations of an +invading army, had been faintly heard beyond the barriers of Blarwyn +Fells throughout the afternoon, was near them now, and had burst in +deep-mouthed battle among the ravines at the other side, and over the +broad lake, that glared like a sheet of burnished steel under its +flashes of dazzling blue. Wild and fitful blasts sweeping down the +hollows and cloughs of the fells of Golden Friars agitated the lake, and +bent the trees low, and whirled away their sere leaves in melancholy +drift in their tremendous gusts. And from the window, looking on a scene +enveloped in more than the darkness of the night, you saw in the +pulsations of the lightning, before "the speedy gleams the darkness +swallowed," the tossing trees and the flying foam and eddies on the +lake. + +In the midst of the hurlyburly, a loud and long knocking came at the +hall-door of Mardykes. How long it had lasted before a chance lull made +it audible I do not know. + +There was nothing picturesquely poor, any more than there were evidences +of wealth, anywhere in Sir Bale Mardykes' household. He had no lack of +servants, but they were of an inexpensive and homely sort; and the +hall-door being opened by the son of an old tenant on the estate--the +tempest beating on the other side of the house, and comparative shelter +under the gables at the front--he saw standing before him, in the +agitated air, a thin old man, who muttering, it might be, a benediction, +stepped into the hall, and displayed long silver tresses, just as the +storm had blown them, ascetic and eager features, and a pair of large +light eyes that wandered wildly. He was dressed in threadbare black; a +pair of long leather gaiters, buckled high above his knee, protecting +his thin shanks through moss and pool; and the singularity of his +appearance was heightened by a wide-leafed felt hat, over which he had +tied his handkerchief, so as to bring the leaf of it over his ears, and +to secure it from being whirled from his head by the storm. + +This odd and storm-beaten figure--tall, and a little stooping, as well +as thin--was not unknown to the servant, who saluted him with something +of fear as well as of respect as he bid him reverently welcome, and +asked him to come in and sit by the fire. + +"Get you to your master, and tell him I have a message to him from one +he has not seen for two-and-forty years." + +As the old man, with his harsh old voice, thus spoke, he unknotted his +handkerchief and bet the rain-drops from his hat upon his knee. + +The servant knocked at the library-door, where he found Sir Bale. + +"Well, what's the matter?" cried Sir Bale sharply, from his chair before +the fire, with angry eyes looking over his shoulder. + +"Here's 't sir cumman, Sir Bale," he answered. + +"Sir," or "the Sir," is still used as the clergyman's title in the +Northumbrian counties. + +"What sir?" + +"Sir Hugh Creswell, if you please, Sir Bale." + +"Ho!--mad Creswell?--O, the crazy parson. Well, tell Mrs. Julaper to let +him have some supper--and--and to let him have a bed in some suitable +place. That's what he wants. These mad fellows know what they are +about." + +"No, Sir Bale Mardykes, that is not what he wants," said the loud wild +voice of the daft sir over the servant's shoulder. "Often has Mardykes +Hall given me share of its cheer and its shelter and the warmth of its +fire; and I bless the house that has been an inn to the wayfarer of the +Lord. But to-night I go up the lake to Pindar's Bield, three miles on; +and there I rest and refresh--not here." + +"And why not _here_, Mr. Creswell?" asked the Baronet; for about this +crazy old man, who preached in the fields, and appeared and disappeared +so suddenly in the orbit of his wide and unknown perambulations of those +northern and border counties, there was that sort of superstitious +feeling which attaches to the mysterious and the good--an idea that it +was lucky to harbour and dangerous to offend him. No one knew whence he +came or whither he went. Once in a year, perhaps, he might appear at a +lonely farmstead door among the fells, salute the house, enter, and be +gone in the morning. His life was austere; his piety enthusiastic, +severe, and tinged with the craze which inspired among the rustic +population a sort of awe. + +"I'll not sleep at Mardykes to-night; neither will I eat, nor drink, nor +sit me down--no, nor so much as stretch my hands to the fire. As the man +of God came out of Judah to king Jeroboam, so come I to you, sent by a +vision, to bear a warning; and as he said, 'If thou wilt give me half +thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor +drink water in this place,' so also say I." + +"Do as you please," said Sir Bale, a little sulkily. "Say your say; and +you are welcome to stay or go, if go you will on so mad a night as +this." + +"Leave us," said Creswell, beckoning the servant back with his thin +hands; "what I have to say is to your master." + +The servant went, in obedience to a gesture from Sir Bale, and shut the +door. + +The old man drew nearer to the Baronet, and lowering his loud stern +voice a little, and interrupting his discourse from time to time, to +allow the near thunder-peals to subside, he said, + +"Answer me, Sir Bale--what is this that has chanced between you and +Philip Feltram?" + +The Baronet, under the influence of that blunt and peremptory demand, +told him shortly and sternly enough. + +"And of all these facts you are sure, else ye would not blast your early +companion and kinsman with the name of thief?" + +"I _am_ sure," said Sir Bale grimly. + +"Unlock that cabinet," said the old man with the long white locks. + +"I've no objection," said Sir Bale; and he did unlock an old oak cabinet +that stood, carved in high relief with strange figures and gothic +grotesques, against the wall, opposite the fireplace. On opening it +there were displayed a system of little drawers and pigeon-holes such as +we see in more modern escritoires. + +"Open that drawer with the red mark of a seal upon it," continued Hugh +Creswell, pointing to it with his lank finger. + +Sir Bale did so; and to his momentary amazement, and even consternation, +there lay the missing note, which now, with one of those sudden caprices +of memory which depend on the laws of suggestion and association, he +remembered having placed there with his own hand. + +"That is it," said old Creswell with a pallid smile, and fixing his wild +eyes on the Baronet. The smile subsided into a frown, and said he: "Last +night I slept near Haworth Moss; and your father came to me in a dream, +and said: 'My son Bale accuses Philip of having stolen a bank-note from +his desk. He forgets that he himself placed it in his cabinet. Come with +me.' I was, in the spirit, in this room; and he led me to this cabinet, +which he opened; and in that drawer he showed me that note. 'Go,' said +he, 'and tell him to ask Philip Feltram's pardon, else he will but go in +weakness to return in power;' and he said that which it is not lawful to +repeat. My message is told. Now a word from myself," he added sternly. +"The dead, through my lips, has spoken, and under God's thunder and +lightning his words have found ye. Why so uppish wi' Philip Feltram? See +how ye threaped, and yet were wrong. He's no tazzle--he's no taggelt. +Ask his pardon. Ye must change, or he will no taggelt. Go, in weakness, +come in power: mark ye the words. 'Twill make a peal that will be heard +in toon and desert, in the swirls o' the mountain, through pikes and +valleys, and mak' a waaly man o' thee." + +The old man with these words, uttered in the broad northern dialect of +his common speech, strode from the room and shut the door. In another +minute he was forth into the storm, pursuing what remained of his long +march to Pindar's Bield. + +"Upon my soul!" said Sir Bale, recovering from his sort of stun which +the sudden and strange visit had left, "that's a cool old fellow! Come +to rate me and teach me my own business in my own house!" and he rapped +out a fierce oath. "Change his mind or no, here he sha'n't stay +to-night--not an hour." + +Sir Bale was in the lobby in a moment, and thundered to his servants: + +"I say, put that fool out of the door--put him out by the shoulder, and +never let him put his foot inside it more!" + +But the old man's yea was yea, and his nay nay. He had quite meant what +he said; and, as I related, was beyond the reach of the indignity of +extrusion. + +Sir Bale on his return shut his door as violently as if it were in the +face of the old prophet. + +"Ask Feltram's pardon, by Jove! For what? Why, any jury on earth would +have hanged him on half the evidence; and I, like a fool, was going to +let him off with his liberty and my hundred pound-note! Ask his pardon +indeed!" + +Still there were misgivings in his mind; a consciousness that he did owe +explanation and apology to Feltram, and an insurmountable reluctance to +undertake either. The old dislike--a contempt mingled with fear--not any +fear of his malevolence, a fear only of his carelessness and folly; for, +as I have said, Feltram knew many things, it was believed, of the +Baronet's Continental and Asiatic life, and had even gently remonstrated +with him upon the dangers into which he was running. A simple fellow +like Philip Feltram is a dangerous depository of a secret. This Baronet +was proud, too; and the mere possession of his secrets by Feltram was an +involuntary insult, which Sir Bale could not forgive. He wished him far +away; and except for the recovery of his bank-note, which he could ill +spare, he was sorry that this suspicion was cleared up. + +The thunder and storm were unabated; it seemed indeed that they were +growing wilder and more awful. + +He opened the window-shutter and looked out upon that sublimest of +scenes; and so intense and magnificent were its phenomena, that Sir +Bale, for a while, was absorbed in this contemplation. + +When he turned about, the sight of his L100 note, still between his +finger and thumb, made him smile grimly. + +The more he thought of it, the clearer it was that he could not leave +matters exactly as they were. Well, what should he do? He would send for +Mrs. Julaper, and tell her vaguely that he had changed his mind about +Feltram, and that he might continue to stay at Mardykes Hall as usual. +That would suffice. She could speak to Feltram. + +He sent for her; and soon, in the lulls of the great uproar without, he +could hear the jingle of Mrs. Julaper's keys and her light tread upon +the lobby. + +"Mrs. Julaper," said the Baronet, in his dry careless way, "Feltram may +remain; your eloquence has prevailed. What have you been crying about?" +he asked, observing that his housekeeper's usually cheerful face was, in +her own phrase, 'all cried.' + +"It is too late, sir; he's gone." + +"And when did he go?" asked Sir Bale, a little put out. "He chose an odd +evening, didn't he? So like him!" + +"He went about half an hour ago; and I'm very sorry, sir; it's a sore +sight to see the poor lad going from the place he was reared in, and a +hard thing, sir; and on such a night, above all." + +"No one asked him to go to-night. Where is he gone to?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure; he left my room, sir, when I was upstairs; and +Janet saw him pass the window not ten minutes after Mr. Creswell left +the house." + +"Well, then, there's no good, Mrs. Julaper, in thinking more about it; +he has settled the matter his own way; and as he so ordains it--amen, +say I. Goodnight." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Adventure in Tom Marlin's Boat + +Philip Feltram was liked very well--a gentle, kindly, and very timid +creature, and, before he became so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a +joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Where will Sir Bale +find so unresisting and respectful a butt and retainer? and whom will he +bully now? + +Something like remorse was worrying Sir Bale's heart a little; and the +more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell that night, with +its unexplained menace, the more uneasy he became. + +The storm continued; and even to him there seemed something exaggerated +and inhuman in the severity of his expulsion on such a night. It was his +own doing, it was true; but would people believe that? and would he have +thought of leaving Mardykes at all if it had not been for his kinsman's +severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh +Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how +all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, he would +have found him still in the house?--for he had not yet gone for ten +minutes after Creswell's departure, and thus, all that was to follow +might have been averted. But it was too late now, and Sir Bale would let +the affair take its own course. + +Below him, outside the window at which he stood ruminating, he heard +voices mingling with the storm. He could with tolerable certainty +perceive, looking into the obscurity, that there were three men passing +close under it, carrying some very heavy burden among them. + +He did not know what these three black figures in the obscurity were +about. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the +front, and in the lulls of the storm could hear their gruff voices +talking. + +We have all experienced what a presentiment is, and we all know with +what an intuition the faculty of observation is sometimes heightened. It +was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a +dream--a sort of knowledge that what those people were about was in a +dreadful way connected with his own fate. + +He watched for a time, thinking that they might return; but they did +not. He was in a state of uncomfortable suspense. + +"If they want me, they won't have much trouble in finding me, nor any +scruple, egad, in plaguing me; they never have." + +Sir Bale returned to his letters, a score of which he was that night +getting off his conscience--an arrear which would not have troubled him +had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether to employ Philip +Feltram, who had been accustomed to take all that sort of drudgery off +his hands. + +All the time he was writing now he had a feeling that the shadows he had +seen pass under his window were machinating some trouble for him, and an +uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, +fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless wait he would say +to himself, "If any one is coming, why the devil don't he come?" and +then he would apply himself again to his letters. + +But on a sudden he heard good Mrs. Julaper's step trotting along the +lobby, and the tiny ringing of her keys. + +Here was news coming; and the Baronet stood up looking at the door, on +which presently came a hurried rapping; and before he had answered, in +the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the +house, the good woman opened the door in great agitation, and cried with +a tremulous uplifting of her hands. + +"O, Sir Bale! O, la, sir! here's poor dear Philip Feltram come home +dead!" + +Sir Bale stared at her sternly for some seconds. + +"Gome, now, do be distinct," said Sir Bale; "what has happened?" + +"He's lying on the sofer in the old still-room. You never saw--my +God!--O, sir--what is life?" + +"D--n it, can't you cry by-and-by, and tell me what's the matter now?" + +"A bit o' fire there, as luck would have it; but what is hot or cold +now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and +Tom Warren is on the gallop down to Golden Friars for Doctor Torvey." + +"_Is_ he drowned, or is it only a ducking? Come, bring me to the place. +Dead men don't usually want a fire, or consult doctors. I'll see for +myself." + +So Sir Bale Mardykes, pale and grim, accompanied by the light-footed +Mrs. Julaper, strode along the passages, and was led by her into the old +still-room, which had ceased to be used for its original purpose. All +the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also +who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, +with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water along the +wrinkles and pockets of his waistcoat and from the feet of his trousers, +and pumping and oozing from his shoes, and streaming from his hair down +the channels of his cheeks like a continuous rain of tears. + +The people drew back a little as Sir Bale entered with a quick step and +a sharp pallid frown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over +Philip Feltram, who lay on a low bed next the wall, dimly lighted by two +or three candles here and there about the room. + +He laid his hand, for a moment, on his cold wet breast. + +Sir Bale knew what should be done in order to give a man in such a case +his last chance for life. Everybody was speedily put in motion. Philip's +drenched clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans +and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so +that the water flowed freely from his mouth. The old expedient for +inducing artificial breathing was employed, and a lusty pair of bellows +did duty for his lungs. + +But these helps to life, and suggestions to nature, availed not. Forlorn +and peaceful lay the features of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to +the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in the fish-like +eyes; pulseless and cold in the midst of all the hot bricks and +warming-pans about him. + +At length, everything having been tried, Sir Bale, who had been +directing, placed his hand within the clothes, and laid it silently on +Philip's shoulder and over his heart; and after a little wait, he shook +his head, and looking down on his sunken face, he said, + +"I am afraid he's gone. Yes, he's gone, poor fellow! And bear you this +in mind, all of you; Mrs. Julaper there can tell you more about it. She +knows that it was certainly in no compliance with my wish that he left +the house to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps--I +forgive him for it--a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some +blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; +than which imputation nothing can be more utterly false. Mrs. Julaper +there knows how welcome he was to stay the night; but he would not; he +had made up his mind, it seems, without telling any person. Had he told +you, Mrs. Julaper?" + +"No, sir," sobbed Mrs. Julaper from the centre of a pocket-handkerchief +in which her face was buried. + +"Not a human being: an angry whim of his own. Poor Feltram! and here's +the result," said the Baronet. "We have done our best--done everything. +I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will say that anything has been +omitted; but all won't do. Does any one here know how it happened?" + +Two men knew very well--the man who had been ducked, and his companion, +a younger man, who was also in the still-room, and had lent a hand in +carrying Feltram up to the house. + +Tom Marlin had a queer old stone tenement by the edge of the lake just +under Mardykes Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower +that had once belonged to Mardykes Castle, of which in the modern +building scarcely a relic was discoverable. + +This Tom Marlin had an ancient right of fishing in the lake, where he +caught pike enough for all Golden Friars; and keeping a couple of boats, +he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This +fellow, with a furrowed face and shaggy eyebrows, bald at top, but with +long grizzled locks falling upon his shoulders, said, + +"He wer wi' me this mornin', sayin' he'd want t' boat to cross the lake +in, but he didn't say what hour; and when it came on to thunder and blow +like this, ye guess I did not look to see him to-night. Well, my wife +was just lightin' a pig-tail--tho' light enough and to spare there was +in the lift already--when who should come clatterin' at the latch-pin in +the blow o' thunder and wind but Philip, poor lad, himself; and an ill +hour for him it was. He's been some time in ill fettle, though he was +never frowsy, not he, but always kind and dooce, and canty once, like +anither; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the +Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't +hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be +put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' +ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long +last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes +Island, so I'll pull him by that side--for the storm is blowin' right up +by Golden Friars, ye mind--and when we get near the point, thinks I, +he'll see wi' his een how the lake is, and gie it up. For I liked him, +poor lad; and seein' he'd set his heart on't, I wouldn't vex nor frump +him wi' a no. So down we three--myself, and Bill there, and Philip +Feltram--come to the boat; and we pulled out, keeping Snakes Island +atwixt us and the wind. 'Twas smooth water wi' us, for 'twas a scug +there, but white enough was all beyont the point; and passing the +finger-stone, not forty fathom from the shore o' the island, Bill and me +pullin' and he sittin' in the stern, poor lad, up he rises, a bit +rabblin' to himself, wi' his hands lifted so. + +"'Look a-head!' says I, thinkin' something wos comin' atort us. + +"But 'twasn't that. The boat was quiet, for while we looked, oo'er our +shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still; and lookin' +back again on Philip, he was rabblin' on all the same. + +"'It's nobbut a prass wi' himsel", poor lad,' thinks I. + +"But that wasn't it neither; for I sid something white come out o' t' +water, by the gunwale, like a hand. By Jen! and he leans oo'er and tuk +it; and he sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I +cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, +and I followed; and thrice I dived before I found him, and brought him +up by the hair at last; and there he is, poor lad! and all one if he lay +at the bottom o' t' mere." + +As Tom Marlin ended his narrative--often interrupted by the noise of the +tempest without, and the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, +like the chorus of a melancholy ballad--the sudden clang of the +hall-door bell, and a more faintly-heard knocking, announced a new +arrival. + +[Illustration: "I sid something white come out o' t' water, by the +gunwale, like a hand."] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Sir Bale's Dream + +It was Doctor Torvey who entered the old still-room now, buttoned-up to +the chin in his greatcoat, and with a muffler of many colours wrapped +partly over that feature. + +"Well!--hey? So poor Feltram's had an accident?" + +The Doctor was addressing Sir Bale, and getting to the bedside as he +pulled off his gloves. + +"I see you've been keeping him warm--that's right; and a considerable +flow of water from his mouth; turn him a little that way. Hey? O, ho!" +said the Doctor, as he placed his hand upon Philip, and gently stirred +his limbs. "It's more than an hour since this happened. I'm afraid +there's very little to be done now;" and in a lower tone, with his hand +on poor Philip Feltram's arm, and so down to his fingers, he said in Sir +Bale Mardykes' ear, with a shake of his head, + +"Here, you see, poor fellow, here's the cadaveric stiffness; it's very +melancholy, but it's all over, he's gone; there's no good trying any +more. Come here, Mrs. Julaper. Did you ever see any one dead? Look at +his eyes, look at his mouth. You ought to have known that, with half an +eye. And you know," he added again confidentially in Sir Bale's ear, +"trying any more _now_ is all my eye." + +Then after a few more words with the Baronet, and having heard his +narrative, he said from time to time, "Quite right; nothing could be +better; capital practice, sir," and so forth. And at the close of all +this, amid the sobs of kind Mrs. Julaper and the general whimpering of +the humbler handmaids, the Doctor standing by the bed, with his knuckles +on the coverlet, and a glance now and then on the dead face beside him, +said--by way of 'quieting men's minds,' as the old tract-writers used to +say--a few words to the following effect: + +"Everything has been done here that the most experienced physician could +have wished. Everything has been done in the best way. I don't know +anything that has not been done, in fact. If I had been here myself, I +don't know--hot bricks--salt isn't a bad thing. I don't know, I say, +that anything of any consequence has been omitted." And looking at the +body, "You see," and he drew the fingers a little this way and that, +letting them return, as they stiffly did, to their former attitude, "you +may be sure that the poor gentleman was quite dead by the time he +arrived here. So, since he was laid there, nothing has been lost by +delay. And, Sir Bale, if you have any directions to send to Golden +Friars, sir, I shall be most happy to undertake your message." + +"Nothing, thanks; it is a melancholy ending, poor fellow! You must come +to the study with me, Doctor Torvey, and talk a little bit more; +and--very sad, doctor--and you must have a glass of sherry, or some +port--the port used not to be bad here; I don't take it--but very +melancholy it is--bring some port and sherry; and, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +be good enough to see that everything that should be done here is looked +to; and let Marlin and the men have supper and something to drink. You +have been too long in your wet clothes, Marlin." + +So, with gracious words all round, he led the Doctor to the library +where he had been sitting, and was affable and hospitable, and told him +his own version of all that had passed between him and Philip Feltram, +and presented himself in an amiable point of view, and pleased the +Doctor with his port and flatteries--for he could not afford to lose +anyone's good word just now; and the Doctor was a bit of a gossip, and +in most houses in that region, in one character or another, every three +months in the year. + +So in due time the Doctor drove back to Golden Friars, with a high +opinion of Sir Bale, and higher still of his port, and highest of all of +himself: in the best possible humour with the world, not minding the +storm that blew in his face, and which he defied in good-humoured +mock-heroics spoken in somewhat thick accents, and regarding the thunder +and lightning as a lively gala of fireworks; and if there had been a +chance of finding his cronies still in the George and Dragon, he would +have been among them forthwith, to relate the tragedy of the night, and +tell what a good fellow, after all, Sir Bale was; and what a fool, at +best, poor Philip Feltram. + +But the George was quiet for that night. The thunder rolled over +voiceless chambers; and the lights had been put out within the windows, +on whose multitudinous small panes the lightning glared. So the Doctor +went home to Mrs. Torvey, whom he charmed into good-humoured curiosity +by the tale of wonder he had to relate. + +Sir Bale's qualms were symptomatic of something a little less sublime +and more selfish than conscience. He was not sorry that Philip Feltram +was out of the way. His lips might begin to babble inconveniently at any +time, and why should not his mouth be stopped? and what stopper so +effectual as that plug of clay which fate had introduced? But he did not +want to be charged with the odium of the catastrophe. Every man cares +something for the opinion of his fellows. And seeing that Feltram had +been well liked, and that his death had excited a vehement +commiseration, Sir Bale did not wish it to be said that he had made the +house too hot to hold him, and had so driven him to extremity. + +Sir Bale's first agitation had subsided. It was now late, he had written +many letters, and he was tired. It was not wonderful, then, that having +turned his lounging-chair to the fire, he should have fallen asleep in +it, as at last he did. + +The storm was passing gradually away by this time. The thunder was now +echoing among the distant glens and gorges of Daulness Fells, and the +angry roar and gusts of the tempest were subsiding into the melancholy +soughing and piping that soothe like a lullaby. + +Sir Bale therefore had his unpremeditated sleep very comfortably, except +that his head was hanging a little uneasily; which, perhaps, helped him +to this dream. + +It was one of those dreams in which the continuity of the waking state +that immediately preceded it seems unbroken; for he thought that he was +sitting in the chair which he occupied, and in the room where he +actually was. It seemed to him that he got up, took a candle in his +hand, and went through the passages to the old still-room where Philip +Feltram lay. The house seemed perfectly still. He could hear the chirp +of the crickets faintly from the distant kitchen, and the tick of the +clock sounded loud and hollow along the passage. In the old still-room, +as he opened the door, was no light, except what was admitted from the +candle he carried. He found the body of poor Philip Feltram just as he +had left it--his gentle face, saddened by the touch of death, was turned +upwards, with white lips: with traces of suffering fixed in its +outlines, such as caused Sir Bale, standing by the bed, to draw the +coverlet over the dead man's features, which seemed silently to upbraid +him. "Gone in weakness!" said Sir Bale, repeating the words of the "daft +sir," Hugh Creswell; as he did so, a voice whispered near him, with a +great sigh, "Come in power!" He looked round, in his dream, but there +was no one; the light seemed to fail, and a horror slowly overcame him, +especially as he thought he saw the figure under the coverlet stealthily +beginning to move. Backing towards the door, for he could not take his +eyes off it, he saw something like a huge black ape creep out at the +foot of the bed; and springing at him, it griped him by the throat, so +that he could not breathe; and a thousand voices were instantly round +him, holloaing, cursing, laughing in his ears; and in this direful +plight he waked. + +Was it the ring of those voices still in his ears, or a real shriek, and +another, and a long peal, shriek after shriek, swelling madly through +the distant passages, that held him still, freezing in the horror of his +dream? + +I will tell you what this noise was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Marcella Bligh and Judith Wale Keep Watch + +After his bottle of port with Sir Bale, the Doctor had gone down again +to the room where poor Philip Feltram lay. + +Mrs. Julaper had dried her eyes, and was busy by this time; and two old +women were making all their arrangements for a night-watch by the body, +which they had washed, and, as their phrase goes, 'laid out' in the +humble bed where it had lain while there was still a hope that a spark +sufficient to rekindle the fire of life might remain. These old women +had points of resemblance: they were lean, sallow, and wonderfully +wrinkled, and looked each malign and ugly enough for a witch. + +Marcella Bligh's thin hooked nose was now like the beak of a bird of +prey over the face of the drowned man, upon whose eyelids she was +placing penny-pieces, to keep them from opening; and her one eye was +fixed on her work, its sightless companion showing white in its socket, +with an ugly leer. + +Judith Wale was lifting the pail of hot water with which they had just +washed the body. She had long lean arms, a hunched back, a great sharp +chin sunk on her hollow breast, and small eyes restless as a ferret's; +and she clattered about in great bowls of shoes, old and clouted, that +were made for a foot as big as two of hers. + +The Doctor knew these two old women, who were often employed in such +dismal offices. + +"How does Mrs. Bligh? See me with half an eye? Hey--that's rhyme, isn't +it?--And, Judy lass--why, I thought you lived nearer the town--here +making poor Mr. Feltram's last toilet. You have helped to dress many a +poor fellow for his last journey. Not a bad notion of drill either--they +stand at attention stiff and straight enough in the sentry-box. Your +recruits do you credit, Mrs. Wale." + +The Doctor stood at the foot of the bed to inspect, breathing forth a +vapour of very fine old port, his hands in his pockets, speaking with a +lazy thickness, and looking so comfortable and facetious, that Mrs. +Julaper would have liked to turn him out of the room. + +But the Doctor was not unkind, only extremely comfortable. He was a +good-natured fellow, and had thought and care for the living, but not a +great deal of sentiment for the dead, whom he had looked in the face too +often to be much disturbed by the spectacle. + +"You'll have to keep that bandage on. You should be sharp; you should +know all about it, girl, by this time, and not let those muscles +stiffen. I need not tell you the mouth shuts as easily as this +snuff-box, if you only take it in time.--I suppose, Mrs. Julaper, you'll +send to Jos Fringer for the poor fellow's outfit. Fringer is a very +proper man--there ain't a properer und-aker in England. I always +re-mmend Fringer--in Church-street in Golden Friars. You know Fringer, I +daresay." + +"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. That will be as Sir Bale may please to +direct," answered Mrs. Julaper. + +"You've got him very straight--straighter than I thought you could; but +the large joints were not so stiff. A very little longer wait, and you'd +hardly have got him into his coffin. He'll want a vr-r-ry long one, poor +lad. Short cake is life, ma'am. Sad thing this. They'll open their eyes, +I promise you, down in the town. 'Twill be cool enough, I'd shay, affre +all th-thunr-thunnle, you know. I think I'll take a nip, Mrs. Jool-fr, +if you wouldn't mine makin' me out a thimmle-ful bran-band-bran-rand-andy, +eh, Mishs Joolfr?" + +And the Doctor took a chair by the fire; and Mrs. Julaper, with a +dubious conscience and dry hospitality, procured the brandy-flask and +wine-glass, and helped the physician in a thin hesitating stream, which +left him ample opportunity to cry "Hold--enough!" had he been so minded. +But that able physician had no confidence, it would seem, in any dose +under a bumper, which he sipped with commendation, and then fell asleep +with the firelight on his face--to tender-hearted Mrs. Julaper's +disgust--and snored with a sensual disregard of the solemnity of his +situation; until with a profound nod, or rather dive, toward the fire, +he awoke, got up and shook his ears with a kind of start, and standing +with his back to the fire, asked for his muffler and horse; and so took +his leave also of the weird sisters, who were still pottering about the +body, with croak and whisper, and nod and ogle. He took his leave also +of good Mrs. Julaper, who was completing arrangements with teapot and +kettle, spiced elderberry wine, and other comforts, to support them +through their proposed vigil. And finally, in a sort of way, he took his +leave of the body, with a long business-like stare, from the foot of the +bed, with his short hands stuffed into his pockets. And so, to Mrs. +Julaper's relief, this unseemly doctor, speaking thickly, departed. + +And now, the Doctor being gone, and all things prepared for the 'wake' +to be observed by withered Mrs. Bligh of the one eye, and yellow Mrs. +Wale of the crooked back, the house grew gradually still. The thunder +had by this time died into the solid boom of distant battle, and the +fury of the gale had subsided to the long sobbing wail that is charged +with so eerie a melancholy. Within all was stirless, and the two old +women, each a 'Mrs.' by courtesy, who had not much to thank Nature or +the world for, sad and cynical, and in a sort outcasts told off by +fortune to these sad and grizzly services, sat themselves down by the +fire, each perhaps feeling unusually at home in the other's society; and +in this soured and forlorn comfort, trimming their fire, quickening the +song of the kettle to a boil, and waxing polite and chatty; each +treating the other with that deprecatory and formal courtesy which +invites a return in kind, and both growing strangely happy in this +little world of their own, in the unusual and momentary sense of an +importance and consideration which were delightful. + +The old still-room of Mardykes Hall is an oblong room wainscoted. From +the door you look its full length to the wide stone-shafted Tudor window +at the other end. At your left is the ponderous mantelpiece, supported +by two spiral stone pillars; and close to the door at the right was the +bed in which the two crones had just stretched poor Philip Feltram, who +lay as still as an uncoloured wax-work, with a heavy penny-piece on each +eye, and a bandage under his jaw, making his mouth look stern. And the +two old ladies over their tea by the fire conversed agreeably, compared +their rheumatisms and other ailments wordily, and talked of old times, +and early recollections, and of sick-beds they had attended, and corpses +that "you would not know, so pined and windered" were they; and others +so fresh and canny, you'd say the dead had never looked so bonny in +life. + +Then they began to talk of people who grew tall in their coffins, of +others who had been buried alive, and of others who walked after death. +Stories as true as holy writ. + +"Were you ever down by Hawarth, Mrs. Bligh--hard by Dalworth Moss?" +asked crook-backed Mrs. Wale, holding her spoon suspended over her cup. + +"Neea whaar sooa far south, Mrs. Wale, ma'am; but ma father was off +times down thar cuttin' peat." + +"Ah, then ye'll not a kenned farmer Dykes that lived by the Lin-tree +Scaur. 'Tweer I that laid him out, poor aad fellow, and a dow man he was +when aught went cross wi' him; and he cursed and sweared, twad gar ye +dodder to hear him. They said he was a hard man wi' some folk; but he +kep a good house, and liked to see plenty, and many a time when I was +swaimous about my food, he'd clap t' meat on ma plate, and mak' me eat +ma fill. Na, na--there was good as well as bad in farmer Dykes. It was a +year after he deed, and Tom Ettles was walking home, down by the Birken +Stoop one night, and not a soul nigh, when he sees a big ball, as high +as his knee, whirlin' and spangin' away before him on the road. What it +wer he could not think; but he never consayted there was a freet or a bo +thereaway; so he kep near it, watching every spang and turn it took, +till it ran into the gripe by the roadside. There was a gravel pit just +there, and Tom Ettles wished to take another gliff at it before he went +on. But when he keeked into the pit, what should he see but a man +attoppa a horse that could not get up or on: and says he, 'I think ye be +at a dead-lift there, gaffer.' And wi' the word, up looks the man, and +who sud it be but farmer Dykes himsel; and Tom Ettles saw him plain +eneugh, and kenned the horse too for Black Captain, the farmer's aad +beast, that broke his leg and was shot two years and more before the +farmer died. 'Ay,' says farmer Dykes, lookin' very bad; +'forsett-and-backsett, ye'll tak me oot, Tom Ettles, and clap ye doun +behint me quick, or I'll claw ho'd o' thee.' Tom felt his hair risin' +stiff on his heed, and his tongue so fast to the roof o' his mouth he +could scarce get oot a word; but says he, 'If Black Jack can't do it o' +noo, he'll ne'er do't and carry double.' 'I ken my ain business best,' +says Dykes. 'If ye gar me gie ye a look, 'twill gie ye the creepin's +while ye live; so git ye doun, Tom;' and with that the dobby lifts its +neaf, and Tom saw there was a red light round horse and man, like the +glow of a peat fire. And says Tom, 'In the name o' God, ye'll let me +pass;' and with the word the gooast draws itsel' doun, all a-creaked, +like a man wi' a sudden pain; and Tom Ettles took to his heels more deed +than alive." + +They had approached their heads, and the story had sunk to that +mysterious murmur that thrills the listener, when in the brief silence +that followed they heard a low odd laugh near the door. + +In that direction each lady looked aghast, and saw Feltram sitting +straight up in the bed, with the white bandage in his hand, and as it +seemed, for one foot was below the coverlet, near the floor, about to +glide forth. + +Mrs. Bligh, uttering a hideous shriek, clutched Mrs. Wale, and Mrs. +Wale, with a scream as dreadful, gripped Mrs. Bligh; and quite +forgetting their somewhat formal politeness, they reeled and tugged, +wrestling towards the window, each struggling to place her companion +between her and the 'dobby,' and both uniting in a direful peal of +yells. + +This was the uproar which had startled Sir Bale from his dream, and was +now startling the servants from theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The Mist on the Mountain + +Doctor Torvey was sent for early next morning, and came full of wonder, +learning and scepticism. Seeing is believing, however; and there was +Philip Feltram living, and soon to be, in all bodily functions, just as +usual. + +"Upon my soul, Sir Bale, I couldn't have believed it, if I had not seen +it with my eyes," said the Doctor impressively, while sipping a glass of +sherry in the 'breakfast parlour,' as the great panelled and pictured +room next the dining-room was called. "I don't think there is any +similar case on record--no pulse, no more than the poker; no +respiration, by Jove, no more than the chimney-piece; as cold as a lead +image in the garden there. Well, you'll say all that might possibly be +fallacious; but what will you say to the cadaveric stiffness? Old Judy +Wale can tell you; and my friend Marcella--Monocula would be nearer the +mark--Mrs. Bligh, she knows all those common, and I may say up to this, +infallible, signs of death, as well as I do. There is no mystery about +them; they'll depose to the literality of the symptoms. You heard how +they gave tongue. Upon my honour, I'll send the whole case up to my old +chief, Sir Hervey Hansard, to London. You'll hear what a noise it will +make among the profession. There never was--and it ain't too much to +say there never _will_ be--another case like it." + +During this lecture, and a great deal more, Sir Bale leaned back in his +chair, with his legs extended, his heels on the ground, and his arms +folded, looking sourly up in the face of a tall lady in white satin, in +a ruff, and with a bird on her hand, who smiled down superciliously from +her frame on the Baronet. Sir Bale seemed a little bit high and dry with +the Doctor. + +"You physicians are unquestionably," he said, "a very learned +profession." + +The Doctor bowed. + +"But there's just one thing you know nothing about----" + +"Eh? What's that?" inquired Doctor Torvey. + +"Medicine," answered Sir Bale. "I was aware you never knew what was the +matter with a sick man; but I didn't know, till now, that you couldn't +tell when he was dead." + +"Ha, ha!--well--ha, ha!--_yes_--well, you see, you--ha, ha!--you +certainly have me there. But it's a case without a parallel--it is, upon +my honour. You'll find it will not only be talked about, but written +about; and, whatever papers appear upon it, will come to me; and I'll +take care, Sir Bale, you shall have an opportunity of reading them." + +"Of which I shan't avail myself," answered Sir Bale. "Take another glass +of sherry, Doctor." + +The Doctor made his acknowledgments and filled his glass, and looked +through the wine between him and the window. + +"Ha, ha!--see there, your port, Sir Bale, gives a fellow such +habits--looking for the beeswing, by Jove. It isn't easy, in one sense +at least, to get your port out of a fellow's head when once he has +tasted it." + +But if the honest Doctor meant a hint for a glass of that admirable bin, +it fell pointless; and Sir Bale had no notion of making another libation +of that precious fluid in honour of Doctor Torvey. + +"And I take it for granted," said Sir Bale, "that Feltram will do very +well; and, should anything go wrong, I can send for you--unless he +should die again; and in that case I think I shall take my own opinion." + +So he and the Doctor parted. + +Sir Bale, although he did not consult the Doctor on his own case, was +not particularly well. "That lonely place, those frightful mountains, +and that damp black lake"--which features in the landscape he cursed all +round--"are enough to give any man blue devils; and when a fellow's +spirits go, he's all gone. That's why I'm dyspeptic--that and those +d----d debts--and the post, with its flight of croaking and screeching +letters from London. I wish there was no post here. I wish it was like +Sir Amyrald's time, when they shot the York mercer that came to dun him, +and no one ever took anyone to task about it; and now they can pelt you +at any distance they please through the post; and fellows lose their +spirits and their appetite and any sort of miserable comfort that is +possible in this odious abyss." + +Was there gout in Sir Bale's case, or 'vapours'? I know not what the +faculty would have called it; but Sir Bale's mode of treatment was +simply to work off the attack by long and laborious walking. + +This evening his walk was upon the Fells of Golden Friars--long after +the landscape below was in the eclipse of twilight, the broad bare sides +and angles of these gigantic uplands were still lighted by the misty +western sun. + +There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the +silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the +level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and +colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a +strange fear and elation--an ascent above the reach of life's vexations +or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgiving. +The filmy disc of the moon had risen in the east, and was already +faintly silvering the shadowy scenery below, while yet Sir Bale stood in +the mellow light of the western sun, which still touched also the +summits of the opposite peaks of Morvyn Fells. + +Sir Bale Mardykes did not, as a stranger might, in prudence, hasten his +descent from the heights at which he stood while yet a gleam of daylight +remained to him. For he was, from his boyhood, familiar with those +solitary regions; and, beside this, the thin circle of the moon, hung in +the eastern sky, would brighten as the sunlight sank, and hang like a +lamp above his steps. + +There was in the bronzed and resolute face of the Baronet, lighted now +in the parting beams of sunset, a resemblance to that of Charles the +Second--not our "merry" ideal, but the more energetic and saturnine face +which the portraits have preserved to us. + +He stood with folded arms on the side of the slope, admiring, in spite +of his prejudice, the unusual effects of a view so strangely +lighted--the sunset tints on the opposite peaks, lost in the misty +twilight, now deepening lower down into a darker shade, through which +the outlines of the stone gables and tower of Golden Friars and the +light of fire or candle in their windows were dimly visible. + +As he stood and looked, his more distant sunset went down, and sudden +twilight was upon him, and he began to remember the beautiful Homeric +picture of a landscape coming out, rock and headland, in the moonlight. + +There had hung upon the higher summits, at his right, a heavy fold of +white cloud, which on a sudden broke, and, like the smoke of artillery, +came rolling down the slopes toward him. Its principal volume, however, +unfolded itself in a mighty flood down the side of the mountain towards +the lake; and that which spread towards and soon enveloped the ground on +which he stood was by no means so dense a fog. A thick mist enough it +was; but still, to a distance of twenty or thirty yards, he could +discern the outline of a rock or scaur, but not beyond it. + +There are few sensations more intimidating than that of being thus +enveloped on a lonely mountain-side, which, like this one, here and +there breaks into precipice. + +There is another sensation, too, which affects the imagination. +Overtaken thus on the solitary expanse, there comes a new chill and +tremour as this treacherous medium surrounds us, through which +unperceived those shapes which fancy conjures up might approach so near +and bar our path. + +From the risk of being reduced to an actual standstill he knew he was +exempt. The point from which the wind blew, light as it was, assured him +of that. Still the mist was thick enough seriously to embarrass him. It +had overtaken him as he was looking down upon the lake; and he now +looked to his left, to try whether in that direction it was too thick to +permit a view of the nearest landmarks. Through this white film he saw a +figure standing only about five-and-twenty steps away, looking down, as +it seemed, in precisely the same direction as he, quite motionless, and +standing like a shadow projected upon the smoky vapour. It was the +figure of a slight tall man, with his arm extended, as if pointing to a +remote object, which no mortal eye certainly could discern through the +mist. Sir Bale gazed at this figure, doubtful whether he were in a +waking dream, unable to conjecture whence it had come; and as he looked, +it moved, and was almost instantly out of sight. + +He descended the mountain cautiously. The mist was now thinner, and +through the haze he was beginning to see objects more distinctly, and, +without danger, to proceed at a quicker pace. He had still a long walk +by the uplands towards Mardykes Hall before he descended to the level of +the lake. + +The mist was still quite thick enough to circumscribe his view and to +hide the general features of the landscape; and well was it, perhaps, +for Sir Bale that his boyhood had familiarised him with the landmarks on +the mountain-side. + +He had made nearly four miles on his solitary homeward way, when, +passing under a ledge of rock which bears the name of the Cat's Skaitch, +he saw the same figure in the short cloak standing within some thirty or +forty yards of him--the thin curtain of mist, through which the +moonlight touched it, giving to it an airy and unsubstantial character. + +Sir Bale came to a standstill. The man in the short cloak nodded and +drew back, and was concealed by the angle of the rock. + +Sir Bale was now irritated, as men are after a start, and shouting to +the stranger to halt, he 'slapped' after him, as the northern phrase +goes, at his best pace. But again he was gone, and nowhere could he see +him, the mist favouring his evasion. + +Looking down the fells that overhang Mardykes Hall, the mountain-side +dips gradually into a glen, which, as it descends, becomes precipitous +and wooded. A footpath through this ravine conducts the wayfarer to the +level ground that borders the lake; and by this dark pass Sir Bale +Mardykes strode, in comparatively clear air, along the rocky path +dappled with moonlight. + +As he emerged upon the lower ground he again encountered the same +figure. It approached. It was Philip Feltram. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +A New Philip Feltram + +The Baronet had not seen Feltram since his strange escape from death. +His last interview with him had been stern and threatening; Sir Bale +dealing with appearances in the spirit of an incensed judge, Philip +Feltram lamenting in the submission of a helpless despair. + +Feltram was full in the moonlight now, standing erect, and smiling +cynically on the Baronet. + +There was that in the bearing and countenance of Feltram that +disconcerted him more than the surprise of the sudden meeting. + +He had determined to meet Feltram in a friendly way, whenever that not +very comfortable interview became inevitable. But he was confused by the +suddenness of Feltram's appearance; and the tone, cold and stern, in +which he had last spoken to him came first, and he spoke in it after a +brief silence. + +"I fancied, Mr. Feltram, you were in your bed; I little expected to find +you here. I think the Doctor gave very particular directions, and said +that you were to remain perfectly quiet." + +"But I know more than the Doctor," replied Feltram, still smiling +unpleasantly. + +"I think, sir, you would have been better in your bed," said Sir Bale +loftily. + +"Come, come, come, come!" exclaimed Philip Feltram contemptuously. + +[Illustration: It was the figure of a slight tall man, with his arm +extended, as if pointing to a remote object.] + +"It seems to me," said Sir Bale, a good deal astonished, "you rather +forget yourself." + +"Easier to forget oneself, Sir Bale, than to forgive others, at times," +replied Philip Feltram in his unparalleled mood. + +"That's the way fools knock themselves up," continued Sir Bale. "You've +been walking ever so far--away to the Fells of Golden Friars. It was you +whom I saw there. What d----d folly! What brought you there?" + +"To observe you," he replied. + +"And have you walked the whole way there and back again? How did you get +there?" + +"Pooh! how did I come--how did you come--how did the fog come? From the +lake, I suppose. We all come up, and then down." So spoke Philip +Feltram, with serene insolence. + +"You are pleased to talk nonsense," said Sir Bale. + +"Because I like it--with a _meaning_." + +Sir Bale looked at him, not knowing whether to believe his eyes and +ears. He did not know what to make of him. + +"I had intended speaking to you in a conciliatory way; you seem to wish +to make that impossible"--Philip Feltram's face wore its repulsive +smile;--"and in fact I don't know what to make of you, unless you are +ill; and ill you well may be. You can't have walked much less than +twelve miles." + +"Wonderful effort for me!" said Feltram with the same sneer. + +"Rather surprising for a man so nearly drowned," answered Sir Bale +Mardykes. + +"A dip: you don't like the lake, sir; but I do. And so it is: as Antaeus +touched the earth, so I the water, and rise refreshed." + +"I think you'd better get in and refresh there. I meant to tell you that +all the unpleasantness about that bank-note is over." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. It has been recovered by Mr. Creswell, who came here last night. +I've got it, and you're not to blame," said Sir Bale. + +"But some one _is_ to blame," observed Mr. Feltram, smiling still. + +"Well, _you_ are not, and that ends it," said the Baronet peremptorily. + + +"Ends it? Really, how good! how very good!" + +Sir Bale looked at him, for there was something ambiguous and even +derisive in the tone of Feltram's voice. + +But before he could quite make up his mind, Feltram spoke again. + +"Everything is settled about you and me?" + +"There is nothing to prevent your staying at Mardykes now," said Sir +Bale graciously. + +"I shall be with you for two years, and then I go on my travels," +answered Feltram, with a saturnine and somewhat wild look around him. + +"Is he going mad?" thought the Baronet. + +"But before I go, I'm to put you in a way of paying off your mortgages. +That is my business here." + +Sir Bale looked at him sharply. But now there was not the unpleasant +smile, but the darkened look of a man in secret pain. + +"You shall know it all by and by." + +And without more ceremony, and with a darkening face, Philip Feltram +made his way under the boughs of the thick oaks that grew there, leaving +on Sir Bale's mind an impression that he had been watching some one at a +distance, and had gone in consequence of a signal. + +In a few seconds he followed in the same direction, halloaing after +Feltram; for he did not like the idea of his wandering about the country +by moonlight, or possibly losing his life among the precipices, and +bringing a new discredit upon his house. But no answer came; nor could +he in that thick copse gain sight of him again. + +When Sir Bale reached Mardykes Hall he summoned Mrs. Julaper, and had a +long talk with her. But she could not say that there appeared anything +amiss with Philip Feltram; only he seemed more reserved, and as if he +was brooding over something he did not intend to tell. + +"But, you know, Sir Bale, what happened might well make a thoughtful man +of him. If he's ever to think of Death, it should be after looking him +so hard in the face; and I'm not ashamed to say, I'm glad to see he has +grace to take the lesson, and I hope his experiences may be sanctified +to him, poor fellow! Amen." + +"Very good song, and very well sung," said Sir Bale; "but it doesn't +seem to me that he has been improved, Mrs. Julaper. He seems, on the +contrary, in a queer temper and anything but a heavenly frame of mind; +and I thought I'd ask you, because if he is ill--I mean feverish--it +might account for his eccentricities, as well as make it necessary to +send after him, and bring him home, and put him to bed. But I suppose it +is as you say,--his adventure has upset him a little, and he'll sober in +a day or two, and return to his old ways." + +But this did not happen. A change, more comprehensive than at first +appeared, had taken place, and a singular alteration was gradually +established. + +He grew thin, his eyes hollow, his face gradually forbidding. + +His ways and temper were changed: he was a new man with Sir Bale; and +the Baronet after a time, people said, began to grow afraid of him. And +certainly Feltram had acquired an extraordinary influence over the +Baronet, who a little while ago had regarded and treated him with so +much contempt. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The Purse of Gold + +The Baronet was very slightly known in his county. He had led a reserved +and inhospitable life. He was pressed upon by heavy debts; and being a +proud man, held aloof from society and its doings. He wished people to +understand that he was nursing his estate; but somehow the estate did +not thrive at nurse. In the country other people's business is admirably +well known; and the lord of Mardykes was conscious, perhaps, that his +neighbours knew as well he did, that the utmost he could do was to pay +the interest charged upon it, and to live in a frugal way enough. + +The lake measures some four or five miles across, from the little jetty +under the walls of Mardykes Hall to Cloostedd. + +Philip Feltram, changed and morose, loved a solitary row upon the lake; +and sometimes, with no one to aid him in its management, would take the +little sailboat and pass the whole day upon those lonely waters. + +Frequently he crossed to Cloostedd; and mooring the boat under the +solemn trees that stand reflected in that dark mirror, he would +disembark and wander among the lonely woodlands, as people thought, +cherishing in those ancestral scenes the memory of ineffaceable +injuries, and the wrath and revenge that seemed of late to darken his +countenance, and to hold him always in a moody silence. + +One autumnal evening Sir Bale Mardykes was sourly ruminating after his +solitary meal. A very red sun was pouring its last low beams through the +valley at the western extremity of the lake, across its elsewhere sombre +waters, and touching with a sudden and blood-red tint the sail of the +skiff in which Feltram was returning from his lonely cruise. + +"Here comes my domestic water-fiend," sneered Sir Bale, as he lay back +in his cumbrous arm-chair. "Cheerful place, pleasant people, delicious +fate! The place alone has been enough to set that fool out of his little +senses, d--n him!" + +Sir Bale averted his eyes, and another subject not pleasanter entered +his mind. He was thinking of the races that were coming off next week at +Heckleston Downs, and what sums of money might be made there, and how +hard it was that he should be excluded by fortune from that brilliant +lottery. + +"Ah, Mrs. Julaper, is that you?" + +Mrs. Julaper, who was still at the door, curtsied, and said, "I came, +Sir Bale, to see whether you'd please to like a jug of mulled claret, +sir." + +"Not I, my dear. I'll take a mug of beer and my pipe; that homely solace +better befits a ruined gentleman." + +"H'm, sir; you're not that, Sir Bale; you're no worse than half the +lords and great men that are going. I would not hear another say that of +you, sir." + +"That's very kind of you, Mrs. Julaper; but you won't call _me_ out for +backbiting myself, especially as it is true, d----d true, Mrs. Julaper! +Look ye; there never was a Mardykes here before but he could lay his +hundred or his thousand pounds on the winner of the Heckleston Cup; and +what could I bet? Little more than that mug of beer I spoke of. It was +my great-grandfather who opened the course on the Downs of Heckleston, +and now _I_ can't show there! Well, what must I do? Grin and bear it, +that's all. If you please, Mrs. Julaper, I will have that jug of claret +you offered. I want spice and hot wine to keep me alive; but I'll smoke +my pipe first, and in an hour's time it will do." + +When Mrs. Julaper was gone, he lighted his pipe, and drew near the +window, through which he looked upon the now fading sky and the twilight +landscape. + +He smoked his pipe out, and by that time it had grown nearly dark. He +was still looking out upon the faint outlines of the view, and thinking +angrily what a little bit of luck at the races would do for many a man +who probably did not want it half so much as he. Vague and sombre as his +thoughts were, they had, like the darkening landscape outside, shape +enough to define their general character. Bitter and impious they +were--as those of egotistic men naturally are in suffering. And after +brooding, and muttering by fits and starts, he said: + +"How many tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds will change hands at +Heckleston next week; and not a shilling in all the change and shuffle +will stick to me! How many a fellow would sell himself, like Dr. +Faustus, just for the knowledge of the name of the winner! But he's no +fool, and does not buy his own." + +Something caught his eye; something moving on the wall. The fire was +lighted, and cast a flickering and gigantic shadow upward; the figure of +a man standing behind Sir Bale Mardykes, on whose shoulder he placed a +lean hand. Sir Bale turned suddenly about, and saw Philip Feltram. He +was looking dark and stern, and did not remove his hand from his +shoulder as he peered into the Baronet's face with his deep-set mad +eyes. + +"Ha, Philip, upon my soul!" exclaimed Sir Bale, surprised. "How time +flies! It seems only this minute since I saw the boat a mile and a half +away from the shore. Well--yes; there has been time; it is dark now. Ha, +ha! I assure you, you startled me. Won't you take something? Do. Shall I +touch the bell?" + +"You have been troubled about those mortgages. I told you I should pay +them off, I thought." + +Here there was a pause, and Sir Bale looked hard in Feltram's face. If +he had been in his ordinary spirits, or perhaps in some of his haunts +less solitary than Mardykes, he would have laughed; but here he had +grown unlike himself, gloomy and credulous, and was, in fact, a nervous +man. + +Sir Bale smiled, and shook his head dismally. + +"It is very kind of you, Feltram; the idea shows a kindly disposition. I +know you would do me a kindness if you could." + +As Sir Bale, each looking in the other's eyes, repeated in this sentence +the words "kind," "kindly," "kindness," a smile lighted Feltram's face +with at each word an intenser light; and Sir Bale grew sombre in its +glare; and when he had done speaking, Feltram's face also on a sudden +darkened. + +"I have found a fortune-teller in Cloostedd Wood. Look here." + +And he drew from his pocket a leathern purse, which he placed on the +table in his hand; and Sir Bale heard the pleasant clink of coin in it. + +"A fortune-teller! You don't mean to say she gave you that?" said Sir +Bale. + +Feltram smiled again, and nodded. + +"It _was_ the custom to give the fortuneteller a trifle. It is a great +improvement making _her_ fee you," observed Sir Bale, with an approach +to his old manner. + +"He put that in my hand with a message," said Feltram. + +"He? O, then it was a male fortune-teller!" + +"Gipsies go in gangs, men and women. _He_ might lend, though _she_ told +fortunes," said Feltram. + +"It's the first time I ever heard of gipsies lending money;" and he eyed +the purse with a whimsical smile. + +With his lean fingers still holding it, Feltram sat down at the table. +His face contracted as if in cunning thought, and his chin sank upon his +breast as he leaned back. + +"I think," continued Sir Bale, "ever since they were spoiled, the +Egyptians have been a little shy of lending, and leave that branch of +business to the Hebrews." + +"What would you give to know, now, the winner at Heckleston races?" said +Feltram suddenly, raising his eyes. + +"Yes; that would be worth something," answered Sir Bale, looking at him +with more interest than the incredulity he affected would quite warrant. + +"And this money I have power to lend you, to make your game." + +"Do you mean that really?" said Sir Bale, with a new energy in tone, +manner, and features. + +"That's heavy; there are some guineas there," said Feltram with a dark +smile, raising the purse in his hand a little, and letting it drop upon +the table with a clang. + +"There is _something_ there, at all events," said Sir Bale. + +Feltram took the purse by the bottom, and poured out on the table a +handsome pile of guineas. + +"And do you mean to say you got all that from a gipsy in Cloostedd +Wood?" + +"A friend, who is--_myself_," answered Philip Feltram. + +"Yourself! Then it is yours--_you_ lend it?" said the Baronet, amazed; +for there was no getting over the heap of guineas, and the wonder was +pretty equal whence they had come. + +"Myself, and not myself," said Feltram oracularly; "as like as voice and +echo, man and shadow." + +Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted +upon hidden treasure? There was a story of two Feltrams of Cloostedd, +brothers, who had joined the king's army and fought at Marston Moor, +having buried in Cloostedd Wood a great deal of gold and plate and +jewels. They had, it was said, intrusted one tried servant with the +secret; and that servant remained at home. But by a perverse fatality +the three witnesses had perished within a month: the two brothers at +Marston Moor; and the confidant, of fever, at Cloostedd. From that day +forth treasure-seekers had from time to time explored the woods of +Cloostedd; and many a tree of mark was dug beside, and the earth beneath +many a stone and scar and other landmark in that solitary forest was +opened by night, until hope gradually died out, and the tradition had +long ceased to prompt to action, and had become a story and nothing +more. + +The image of the nursery-tale had now recurred to Sir Bale after so long +a reach of years; and the only imaginable way, in his mind, of +accounting for penniless Philip Feltram having all that gold in his +possession was that, in some of his lonely wanderings, chance had led +him to the undiscovered hoard of the two Feltrams who had died in the +great civil wars. + +"Perhaps those gipsies you speak of found the money where you found +them; and in that case, as Cloostedd Forest, and all that is in it is my +property, their sending it to me is more like my servant's handing me my +hat and stick when I'm going out, than making me a present." + +"You will not be wise to rely upon the law, Sir Bale, and to refuse the +help that comes unasked. But if you like your mortgages as they are, +keep them; and if you like my terms as they are, take them; and when you +have made up your mind, let me know." + +Philip Feltram dropped the heavy purse into his capacious coat-pocket, +and walked, muttering, out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The Message from Cloostedd + +"Come back, Feltram; come back, Philip!" cried Sir Bale hastily. "Let us +talk, can't we? Come and talk this odd business over a little; you must +have mistaken what I meant; I should like to hear all about it." + +"All is not much, sir," said Philip Feltram, entering the room again, +the door of which he had half closed after him. "In the forest of +Cloostedd I met to-day some people, one of whom can foretell events, and +told me the names of the winners of the first three races at Heckleston, +and gave me this purse, with leave to lend you so much money as you care +to stake upon the races. I take no security; you shan't be troubled; and +you'll never see the lender, unless you seek him out." + +"Well, those are not bad terms," said Sir Bale, smiling wistfully at the +purse, which Feltram had again placed upon the table. + +"No, not bad," repeated Feltram, in the harsh low tone in which he now +habitually spoke. + +"You'll tell me what the prophet said about the winners; I should like +to hear their names." + +"The names I shall tell you if you walk out with me," said Feltram. + +"Why not here?" asked Sir Bale. + +"My memory does not serve me here so well. Some people, in some places, +though they be silent, obstruct thought. Come, let us speak," said +Philip Feltram, leading the way. + +Sir Bale, with a shrug, followed him. + +By this time it was dark. Feltram was walking slowly towards the margin +of the lake; and Sir Bale, more curious as the delay increased, followed +him, and smiled faintly as he looked after his tall, gaunt figure, as +if, even in the dark, expressing a ridicule which he did not honestly +feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there +was no one near enough to see. + +When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale +thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a +reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally +in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near, +no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his +change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was +but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering +faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing +upright, said, + +"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and +pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all +along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me." + +There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and +something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost +insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would +have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which +he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which +sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him. + +"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The +secret is yours when you promise." + +"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think +I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd +hardly take the trouble." + +Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he +raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand--the hollow of your +hand--like this. I divide the water for a sign--share to me and share to +you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the +hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in +his mockery. + +"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the +finder, be that who it may?" + +"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale. + +"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and +with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he +joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man." + +Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he. + +"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it +will serve you to remember by. And now the names. Don't speak; +listen--you may break the thought else. The winner of the first is +_Beeswing_; of the second, _Falcon_; and of the third, _Lightning_." + +He had stood for some seconds in silence before he spoke; his eyes were +closed; he seemed to bring up thought and speech with difficulty, and +spoke faintly and drowsily, both his hands a little raised, and the +fingers extended, with the groping air of a man who moves in the dark. +In this odd way, slowly, faintly, with many a sigh and scarcely audible +groan, he gradually delivered his message and was silent. He stood, it +seemed, scarcely half awake, muttering indistinctly and sighing to +himself. You would have said that he was exhausted and suffering, like a +man at his last hour resigning himself to death. + +At length he opened his eyes, looked round a little wildly and +languidly, and with another great sigh sat down on a large rock that +lies by the margin of the lake, and sighed heavily again and again. You +might have fancied that he was a second time recovering from drowning. + +Then he got up, and looked drowsily round again, and sighed like a man +worn out with fatigue, and was silent. + +Sir Bale did not care to speak until he seemed a little more likely to +obtain an answer. When that time came, he said, "I wish, for the sake of +my believing, that your list was a little less incredible. Not one of +the horses you name is the least likely; not one of them has a chance." + +"So much the better for you; you'll get what odds you please. You had +better seize your luck; on Tuesday Beeswing runs," said Feltram. "When +you want money for the purpose, I'm your banker--here is your bank." + +He touched his breast, where he had placed the purse, and then he turned +and walked swiftly away. + +Sir Bale looked after him till he disappeared in the dark. He fluctuated +among many surmises about Feltram. Was he insane, or was he practising +an imposture? or was he fool enough to believe the predictions of some +real gipsies? and had he borrowed this money, which in Sir Bale's eyes +seemed the greatest miracle in the matter, from those thriving shepherd +mountaineers, the old Trebecks, who, he believed, were attached to him? +Feltram had, he thought, borrowed it as if for himself; and having, as +Sir Bale in his egotism supposed, "a sneaking regard" for him, had meant +the loan for his patron, and conceived the idea of his using his +revelations for the purpose of making his fortune. So, seeing no risk, +and the temptation being strong, Sir Bale resolved to avail himself of +the purse, and use his own judgment as to what horse to back. + +About eleven o'clock Feltram, unannounced, walked, with his hat still +on, into Sir Bale's library, and sat down at the opposite side of his +table, looking gloomily into the Baronet's face for a time. + +"Shall you want the purse?" he asked at last. + +"Certainly; I always want a purse," said Sir Bale energetically. + +"The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have +named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the +sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse +contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make +some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?" + +"Of course; five pounds in the hundred--certainly; and how many hundreds +are there?" + +"Three." + +"Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, +but it ain't very much." + +"Quite enough, if you use it aright." + +"Three hundred pounds," repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, +which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and +contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in +little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but +he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor. + +"Ay," said he, after a second counting, "I think there _are_ exactly +three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five--fifteen +of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; +but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?" he added, with a +hesitating inquiry in the tone. + +"If you don't, you'll rue it," said Feltram coldly, and walked away. + +"Penny in pocket's a merry companion," says the old English proverb, and +Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as +he replaced the guineas in the purse. + +It was long since he had visited either the race-course or any other +place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his +pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of +the turf once more. + +"Who knows how this little venture may turn out?" he thought. "It is +time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in +Paris--d--n me, I'm owed something. It's time I should win a bit." + +Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life +imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first +time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in +his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, +therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, +followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen's Head at Heckleston, +where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day +following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those +days need have cared to show. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +On the Course--Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning + +As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the +early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he +looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that +hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he +took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched +with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite +side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the +side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a +pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking +in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated +the sail of Philip Feltram's boat, now midway between Mardykes and the +wooded shores of Cloostedd. + +"Going on the same errand," thought Sir Bale, "I should not wonder. I +wish him the same luck. Yes, he's going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he +may meet his gipsies there--the Trebecks, or whoever they are." + +And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such +people smote him, "Well," thought he, "who knows? Many a fellow will +make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will +be a light matter paying them then." + +Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like +him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and +conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, +however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual +was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town. + +Next morning he was on the race-course of Heckleston, renewing old +acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could--an object, +among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the +carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the +betting men, deep in more serious business. + +How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, +Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than +the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were +forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and +fifty to one against Falcon. + +"A pretty lot to choose!" exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. "As if I +had money so often, that I should throw it away!" + +The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram's +message as an impertinence and the money as his own. + +Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes' pocket fared. + +Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston +racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars. + +He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; +and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. +In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an +accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. +And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the +"fortune-teller" had predicted. + +Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral +house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very +welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred +instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would +have won 15,500 guineas. + +He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a +man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and +laughed dryly. + +"What do you laugh at?" asked Sir Bale tartly. + +"You've won, haven't you?" + +"Yes, I've won; I've won a trifle." + +"On the horses I named?" + +"Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident." + +Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away. + +Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse +mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so +ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more +of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment +yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all +likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. +Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to +Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the +poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, +that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's +fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he +did not. + +So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day +himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of +Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a +little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in +his excursions up the mountains. + +"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale. + +Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal. + +"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual +clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other +side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the +person about whom you are always thinking." + +"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for +he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it. + +"_I_ say it, because I _know_ it; and _you_ know it also. See that clump +of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, grows +an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H--F; so large +and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure them, +although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the trunk +of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are looking up +the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where stands +Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find our +fortune-teller?" + +"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because, +although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has +either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got +extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on +chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous +fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and +perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an +arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any +matter of the same kind again." + +"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy +and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach +him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he +invites you." + +Sir Bale laughed. + +"He knows his value, and means to make his own terms." + +"Well, there's nothing unfair in that; and I don't see that I should +dispute it. How is one to find him?" + +"Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. +Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its +surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about +the size of a man's head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, +that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the +line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take +carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the +forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are +sure to find him." + +"You'll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and +probably fail to discover him," said Sir Bale; "and I really wish to see +him." + +"When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don't. I can go with +you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your +side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, +that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see +that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I'll take you across the lake." + +"By Jove, you'll do no such thing!" said Sir Bale hastily. + +"But that is the way he chooses to be approached," said Philip Feltram. + +"I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it's the one childish spot +that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it--old +stories and warnings; and I can't think of that. I should feel I had +invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are +queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there." + +"Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all +were done, he would not see you. He knows what he's worth, and he'll +have his own way," answered Feltram. "The sun will soon set. See that +withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from +the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three +minutes to live." + +"That is a wonder which I can't see; it is too far away." + +"Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them," said +Feltram. + +"So it does," said the Baronet; "more than most men have got. I'll ride +round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way." + +"You'll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity +to vex him." + +"It was to you he lent the money," said Sir Bale. + +"Yes." + +"Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him," urged Sir +Bale. + +"Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don't go, he may be +offended, and you may hear no more from him." + +"We'll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for +once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What +do you say? + +"You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question--what horses, I +mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money +will change hands." + +"I'll try," said Feltram. + +"When will you go?" + +"To-morrow," he answered. + +"I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those +cursed mortgages." + +He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of +Feltram, who coldly answered, + +"So have I;" and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, +without another word or look. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +On the Lake, at Last + +Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat +on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no +little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude +pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now +satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the 'cunning man,' +and gather hints for the next race. + +When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale's +library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more +interested about his news than he would have cared to confess. + +Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with +great directness, proceeded to satisfy it. + +"I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day--and found the old +gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any +kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross +the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and +counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard +names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did +talk." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram." + +"He might have said something more likely," said Sir Bale sourly. "Did +he say anything more?" + +"Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell." + +"Any other name?" + +"No." + +"Silver Bell? Well, that's not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands +high in the list. He has a good many backers--long odds in his favour +against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell." + +The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the +moment he heard the soothsayer's prediction. He made up his mind to no +half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome. + +He was in great force and full of confidence on the race-course. He had +no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still +untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in +the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon +staked--such is the growing frenzy of that excitement--about twenty +thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven. + +He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds. + +And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, +having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about +him--quite at his wit's end. + +Feltram was standing--as on the occasion of his former happier +return--on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing +eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as +before, with a laugh. + +Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he +might, had he been a degree less desperate. + +He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted. + +"Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust +you. He's huffed, and played you false." + +"It was not he. I should have backed that d----d horse in any case," +said Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. "What a witch you have discovered! +One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might +have the estate now; but there ain't. They are all beggars. So much for +your conjurer." + +"He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him." + +"He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D--n me, I'm past helping +now." + +"Don't you talk so," said Feltram. "Be civil. You must please the old +gentleman. He'll make it up. He's placable when it suits him. Why not go +to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make +it up." + +"Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can't make even a guess at +what's coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?" + +"No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? +He won't see you unless you go to him as he chooses." + +"If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don't choose to go +on that water--and cross it I won't," said Sir Bale. + +But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the +idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his +resolution faltered. + +"I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose +to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a +boat?" + +Feltram smiled darkly, and answered. + +"I can't tell. Can you?" + +"Of course I can't--I say I can't; besides, what audacity of a fellow +like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can't +predict--do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?" + +"I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish +those who don't respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often +quite clear--not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him +out, and when you do, I think he'll help you through your trouble. He +said he would." + +"Then you have seen him since?" + +"Yesterday. He has put a pressure on you; but he means to help you." + +"If he means to help me, let him remember I want a banker more than a +seer. Let him give me a lift, as he did before. He must lend me money." + +"He'll not stick at that. When he takes up a man, he carries him +through." + +"The races of Byermere--I might retrieve at them. But they don't come +off for a month nearly; and what is a man like me to do in the +meantime?" + +"Every man should know his own business best. I'm not like you," said +Feltram grimly. + +Now Sir Bale's trouble increased, for some people were pressing. +Something like panic supervened; for it happened that land was bringing +just then a bad price, and more must be sold in consequence. + +"All I can tell them is, I am selling land. It can't be done in an hour. +I'm selling enough to pay them all twice over. Gentlemen used to be able +to wait till a man sold his acres for payment. D--n them! do they want +my body, that they can't let me alone for five minutes?" + +The end of it was, that before a week Sir Bale told Feltram that he +would go by boat, since that fellow insisted on it; and he did not very +much care if he were drowned. + +It was a beautiful autumnal day. Everything was bright in that mellowed +sun, and the deep blue of the lake was tremulous with golden ripples; +and crag and peak and scattered wood, faint in the distance, came out +with a filmy distinctness on the fells in that pleasant light. + +Sir Bale had been ill, and sent down the night before for Doctor Torvey. +He was away with a patient. Now, in the morning, he had arrived +inopportunely. He met Sir Bale as he issued from the house, and had a +word with him in the court, for he would not turn back. + +"Well," said the Doctor, after his brief inspection, "you ought to be in +your bed; that's all I can say. You are perfectly mad to think of +knocking about like this. Your pulse is at a hundred and ten; and, if +you go across the lake and walk about Cloostedd, you'll be raving before +you come back." + +Sir Bale told him, apologetically, as if his life were more to his +doctor than to himself, that he would take care not to fatigue himself, +and that the air would do him good, and that in any case he could not +avoid going; and so they parted. + +Sir Bale took his seat beside Feltram in the boat, the sail was spread, +and, bending to the light breeze that blew from Golden Friars, she +glided from the jetty under Mardykes Hall, and the eventful voyage had +begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Mystagogus + +The sail was loosed, the boat touched the stone step, and Feltram sprang +out and made her fast to the old iron ring. The Baronet followed. So! he +had ventured upon that water without being drowned. He looked round him +as if in a dream. He had not been there since his childhood. There were +no regrets, no sentiment, no remorse; only an odd return of the +associations and fresh feelings of boyhood, and a long reach of time +suddenly annihilated. + +The little hollow in which he stood; the three hawthorn trees at his +right; every crease and undulation of the sward, every angle and crack +in the lichen-covered rock at his feet, recurred with a sharp and +instantaneous recognition to his memory. + +"Many a time your brother and I fished for hours together from that bank +there, just where the bramble grows. That bramble has not grown an inch +ever since, not a leaf altered; we used to pick blackberries off it, +with our rods stuck in the bank--it was later in the year than now--till +we stript it quite bare after a day or two. The steward used to come +over--they were marking timber for cutting and we used to stay here +while they rambled through the wood, with an axe marking the trees that +were to come down. I wonder whether the big old boat is still anywhere. +I suppose she was broken up, or left to rot; I have not seen her since +we came home. It was in the wood that lies at the right--the other wood +is called the forest; they say in old times it was eight miles long, +northward up the shore of the lake, and full of deer; with a forester, +and a reeve, and a verderer, and all that. Your brother was older than +you; he went to India, or the Colonies; is he living still?" + +"I care not." + +"That's good-natured, at all events; but do you know?" + +"Not I; and what matter? If he's living, I warrant he has his share of +the curse, the sweat of his brow and his bitter crust; and if he is +dead, he's dust or worse, he's rotten, and smells accordingly." + +Sir Bale looked at him; for this was the brother over whom, only a year +or two ago, Philip used to cry tears of pathetic longing. Feltram looked +darkly in his face, and sneered with a cold laugh. + +"I suppose you mean to jest?" said Sir Bale. + +"Not I; it is the truth. It is what you'd say, if you were honest. If +he's alive, let him keep where he is; and if he's dead, I'll have none +of him, body or soul. Do you hear that sound?" + +"Like the wind moaning in the forest?" + +"Yes." + +"But I feel no wind. There's hardly a leaf stirring." + +"I think so," said Feltram. "Come along." + +And he began striding up the gentle slope of the glen, with many a rock +peeping through its sward, and tufted ferns and furze, giving a wild and +neglected character to the scene; the background of which, where the +glen loses itself in a distant turn, is formed by its craggy and wooded +side. + +Up they marched, side by side, in silence, towards that irregular clump +of trees, to which Feltram had pointed from the Mardykes side. + +As they approached, it showed more scattered, and two or three of the +trees were of grander dimensions than in the distance they had appeared; +and as they walked, the broad valley of Cloostedd Forest opened grandly +on their left, studding the sides of the valley with solitary trees or +groups, which thickened as it descended to the broad level, in parts +nearly three miles wide, on which stands the noble forest of Cloostedd, +now majestically reposing in the stirless air, gilded and flushed with +the melancholy tints of autumn. + +I am now going to relate wonderful things; but they rest on the report, +strangely consistent, it is true, of Sir Bale Mardykes. That all his +senses, however, were sick and feverish, and his brain not quite to be +relied on at that moment, is a fact of which sceptics have a right to +make all they please and can. + +Startled at their approach, a bird like a huge mackaw bounced from the +boughs of the trees, and sped away, every now and then upon the ground, +toward the shelter of the forest, fluttering and hopping close by the +side of the little brook which, emerging from the forest, winds into the +glen, and beside the course of which Sir Bale and Philip Feltram had +ascended from the margin of the lake. + +It fluttered on, as if one of its wings were hurt, and kept hopping and +bobbing and flying along the grass at its swiftest, screaming all the +time discordantly. + +"That must be old Mrs. Amerald's bird, that got away a week ago," said +Sir Bale, stopping and looking after it. "Was not it a mackaw?" + +"No," said Feltram; "that was a gray parrot; but there are stranger +birds in Cloostedd Forest, for my ancestors collected all that would +live in our climate, and were at pains to find them the food and shelter +they were accustomed to until they grew hardy--that is how it happens." + +"By Jove, that's a secret worth knowing," said Sir Bale. "That would +make quite a feature. What a fat brute that bird was! and green and +dusky-crimson and yellow; but its head is white--age, I suspect; and +what a broken beak--hideous bird! splendid plumage; something between a +mackaw and a vulture." + +Sir Bale spoke jocularly, but with the interest of a bird-fancier; a +taste which, when young, he had indulged; and for the moment forgot his +cares and the object of his unwonted excursion. + +A moment after, a lank slim bird, perfectly white, started from the same +boughs, and winged its way to the forest. + +"A kite, I think; but its body is a little too long, isn't it?" said Sir +Bale again, stopping and looking after its flight also. + +"A foreign kite, I daresay?" said Feltram. + +All this time there was hopping near them a jay, with the tameness of a +bird accustomed to these solitudes. It peered over its slender wing +curiously at the visitors; pecking here and nodding there; and thus +hopping, it made a circle round them more than once. Then it fluttered +up, and perched on a bough of the old oak, from the deep labyrinth of +whose branches the other birds had emerged; and from thence it flew down +and lighted on the broad druidic stone, that stood like a cyclopean +table on its sunken stone props, before the snakelike roots of the oak. + +Across this it hopped conceitedly, as over a stage on which it figured +becomingly; and after a momentary hesitation, with a little spring, it +rose and winged its way in the same direction which the other birds had +taken, and was quickly lost in thick forest to the left. + +"Here," said Feltram, "this is the tree." + +"I remember it well! A gigantic trunk; and, yes, those marks; but I +never before read them as letters. Yes, H.F., so they are--very odd I +should not have remarked them. They are so large, and so strangely +drawn-out in some places, and filled-in in others, and distorted, and +the moss has grown about them; I don't wonder I took them for natural +cracks and chasms in the bark," said Sir Bale. + +"Very like," said Feltram. + +Sir Bale had remarked, ever since they had begun their walk from the +shore, that Feltram seemed to undergo a gloomy change. Sharper, grimmer, +wilder grew his features, and shadow after shadow darkened his face +wickedly. + +The solitude and grandeur of the forest, and the repulsive gloom of his +companion's countenance and demeanour, communicated a tone of anxiety to +Sir Bale; and they stood still, side by side, in total silence for a +time, looking toward the forest glades; between themselves and which, on +the level sward of the valley, stood many a noble tree and fantastic +group of forked birch and thorn, in the irregular formations into which +Nature had thrown them. + +"Now you stand between the letters. Cast your eyes on the stone," said +Feltram suddenly, and his low stern tones almost startled the Baronet. + +Looking round, he perceived that he had so placed himself that his point +of vision was exactly from between the two great letters, now +half-obliterated, which he had been scrutinizing just as he turned about +to look toward the forest of Cloostedd. + +"Yes, so I am," said Sir Bale. + +There was within him an excitement and misgiving, akin to the sensation +of a man going into battle, and which corresponded with the pale and +sombre frown which Feltram wore, and the manifest change which had come +over him. + +"Look on the stone steadily for a time, and tell me if you see a black +mark, about the size of your hand, anywhere upon its surface," said +Feltram. + +Sir Bale affected no airs of scepticism now; his imagination was +stirred, and a sense of some unknown reality at the bottom of that which +he had affected to treat before as illusion, inspired a strange interest +in the experiment. + +"Do you see it?" asked Feltram. + +Sir Bale was watching patiently, but he had observed nothing of the +kind. + +Sharper, darker, more eager grew the face of Philip Feltram, as his eyes +traversed the surface of that huge horizontal block. + +"Now?" asked Feltram again. + +No, he had seen nothing. + +Feltram was growing manifestly uneasy, angry almost; he walked away a +little, and back again, and then two or three times round the tree, with +his hands shut, and treading the ground like a man trying to warm his +feet, and so impatiently he returned, and looked again on the stone. + +Sir Bale was still looking, and very soon said, drawing his brows +together and looking hard, + +"Ha!--yes--hush. There it is, by Jove!--wait--yes--there; it is growing +quite plain." + +It seemed not as if a shadow fell upon the stone, but rather as if the +stone became semi-transparent, and just under its surface was something +dark--a hand, he thought it--and darker and darker it grew, as if coming +up toward the surface, and after some little wavering, it fixed itself +movelessly, pointing, as he thought, toward the forest. + +"It looks like a hand," said he. "By Jove, it is a hand--pointing +towards the forest with a finger." + +"Don't mind the finger; look only on that black blurred mark, and from +the point where you stand, taking that point for your direction, look to +the forest. Take some tree or other landmark for an object, enter the +forest there, and pursue the same line, as well as you can, until you +find little flowers with leaves like wood-sorrel, and with tall stems +and a red blossom, not larger than a drop, such as you have not seen +before, growing among the trees, and follow wherever they seem to grow +thickest, and there you will find him." + +All the time that Feltram was making this little address, Sir Bale was +endeavouring to fix his route by such indications as Feltram described; +and when he had succeeded in quite establishing the form of a peculiar +tree--a melancholy ash, one huge limb of which had been blasted by +lightning, and its partly stricken arm stood high and barkless, +stretching its white fingers, as it were, in invitation into the forest, +and signing the way for him---- + +"I have it now," said he. "Come Feltram, you'll come a bit of the way +with me." + +Feltram made no answer, but slowly shook his head, and turned and walked +away, leaving Sir Bale to undertake his adventure alone. + +The strange sound they had heard from the midst of the forest, like the +rumble of a storm or the far-off trembling of a furnace, had quite +ceased. Not a bird was hopping on the grass, or visible on bough or in +the sky. Not a living creature was in sight--never was stillness more +complete, or silence more oppressive. + +It would have been ridiculous to give way to the old reluctance which +struggled within him. Feltram had strode down the slope, and was +concealed by a screen of bushes from his view. So alone, and full of an +interest quite new to him, he set out in quest of his adventures. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The Haunted Forest + +Sir Bale Mardykes walked in a straight line, by bush and scaur, over the +undulating ground, to the blighted ash-tree; and as he approached it, +its withered bough stretched more gigantically into the air, and the +forest seemed to open where it pointed. + +He passed it by, and in a few minutes had lost sight of it again, and +was striding onward under the shadow of the forest, which already +enclosed him. He was directing his march with all the care he could, in +exactly that line which, according to Feltram's rule, had been laid down +for him. Now and then, having, as soldiers say, taken an object, and +fixed it well in his memory, he would pause and look about him. + +As a boy he had never entered the wood so far; for he was under a +prohibition, lest he should lose himself in its intricacies, and be +benighted there. He had often heard that it was haunted ground, and that +too would, when a boy, have deterred him. It was on this account that +the scene was so new to him, and that he cared so often to stop and look +about him. Here and there a vista opened, exhibiting the same utter +desertion, and opening farther perspectives through the tall stems of +the trees faintly visible in the solemn shadow. No flowers could he see, +but once or twice a wood anemone, and now and then a tiny grove of +wood-sorrel. + +Huge oak-trees now began to mingle and show themselves more and more +frequently among the other timber; and gradually the forest became a +great oak wood unintruded upon by any less noble tree. Vast trunks +curving outwards to the roots, and expanding again at the branches, +stood like enormous columns, striking out their groining boughs, with +the dark vaulting of a crypt. + +As he walked under the shadow of these noble trees, suddenly his eye was +struck by a strange little flower, nodding quite alone by the knotted +root of one of those huge oaks. + +He stooped and picked it up, and as he plucked it, with a harsh scream +just over his head, a large bird with heavy beating wings broke away +from the midst of the branches. He could not see it, but he fancied the +scream was like that of the huge mackaw whose ill-poised flight he had +watched. This conjecture was but founded on the odd cry he had heard. + +The flower was a curious one--a stem fine as a hair supported a little +bell, that looked like a drop of blood, and never ceased trembling. He +walked on, holding this in his fingers; and soon he saw another of the +same odd type, then another at a shorter distance, then one a little to +the right and another to the left, and farther on a little group, and at +last the dark slope was all over trembling with these little bells, +thicker and thicker as he descended a gentle declivity to the bank of +the little brook, which flowing through the forest loses itself in the +lake. The low murmur of this forest stream was almost the first sound, +except the shriek of the bird that startled him a little time ago, which +had disturbed the profound silence of the wood since he entered it. +Mingling with the faint sound of the brook, he now heard a harsh human +voice calling words at intervals, the purport of which he could not yet +catch; and walking on, he saw seated upon the grass, a strange figure, +corpulent, with a great hanging nose, the whole face glowing like +copper. He was dressed in a bottle-green cut-velvet coat, of the style +of Queen Anne's reign, with a dusky crimson waistcoat, both overlaid +with broad and tarnished gold lace, and his silk stockings on thick +swollen legs, with great buckled shoes, straddling on the grass, were +rolled up over his knees to his short breeches. This ill-favoured old +fellow, with a powdered wig that came down to his shoulders, had a +dice-box in each hand, and was apparently playing his left against his +right, and calling the throws with a hoarse cawing voice. + +Raising his black piggish eyes, he roared to Sir Bale, by name, to come +and sit down, raising one of his dice-boxes, and then indicating a place +on the grass opposite to him. + +Now Sir Bale instantly guessed that this was the man, gipsy, warlock, +call him what he might, of whom he had come in search. With a strange +feeling of curiosity, disgust, and awe, he drew near. He was resolved to +do whatever this old man required of him, and to keep him, this time, in +good humour. + +Sir Bale did as he bid him, and sat down; and taking the box he +presented, they began throwing turn about, with three dice, the +copper-faced old man teaching him the value of the throws, as he +proceeded, with many a curse and oath; and when he did not like a throw, +grinning with a look of such real fury, that the master of Mardykes +almost expected him to whip out his sword and prick him through as he +sat before him. + +After some time spent at this play, in which guineas passed now this +way, now that, chucked across the intervening patch of grass, or rather +moss, that served them for a green cloth, the old man roared over his +shoulder, + +"Drink;" and picking up a longstemmed conical glass which Sir Bale had +not observed before, he handed it over to the Baronet; and taking +another in his fingers, he held it up, while a very tall slim old man, +dressed in a white livery, with powdered hair and cadaverous face, which +seemed to run out nearly all into a long thin hooked nose, advanced with +a flask in each hand. Looking at the unwieldly old man, with his heavy +nose, powdered head, and all the bottle-green, crimson, and gold about +him, and the long slim serving man, with sharp beak, and white from head +to heel, standing by him, Sir Bale was forcibly reminded of the great +old macaw and the long and slender kite, whose colours they, after their +fashion, reproduced, with something, also indescribable, of the air and +character of the birds. Not standing on ceremony, the old fellow held up +his own glass first, which the white lackey filled from the flask, and +then he filled Sir Bale's glass. + +It was a large glass, and might have held about half a pint; and the +liquor with which the servant filled it was something of the colour of +an opal, and circles of purple and gold seemed to be spreading +continually outward from the centre, and running inward from the rim, +and crossing one another, so as to form a beautiful rippling net-work. + +"I drink to your better luck next time," said the old man, lifting his +glass high, and winking with one eye, and leering knowingly with the +other; "and you know what I mean." + +Sir Bale put the liquor to his lips. Wine? Whatever it was, never had he +tasted so delicious a flavour. He drained it to the bottom, and placing +it on the grass beside him, and looking again at the old dicer, who was +also setting down his glass, he saw, for the first time, the graceful +figure of a young woman seated on the grass. She was dressed in deep +mourning, had a black hood carelessly over her head, and, strangely, +wore a black mask, such as are used at masquerades. So much of her +throat and chin as he could see were beautifully white; and there was a +prettiness in her air and figure which made him think what a beautiful +creature she in all likelihood was. She was reclining slightly against +the burly man in bottle-green and gold, and her arm was round his neck, +and her slender white hand showed itself over his shoulder. + +"Ho! my little Geaiette," cried the old fellow hoarsely; "it will be +time that you and I should get home.--So, Bale Mardykes, I have nothing +to object to you this time; you've crossed the lake, and you've played +with me and won and lost, and drank your glass like a jolly companion, +and now we know one another; and an acquaintance is made that will last. +I'll let you go, and you'll come when I call for you. And now you'll +want to know what horse will win next month at Rindermere +races.--Whisper me, lass, and I'll tell him." + +So her lips, under the black curtain, crept close to his ear, and she +whispered. + +"Ay, so it will;" roared the old man, gnashing his teeth; "it will be +Rainbow, and now make your best speed out of the forest, or I'll set my +black dogs after you, ho, ho, ho! and they may chance to pull you down. +Away!" + +He cried this last order with a glare so black, and so savage a shake of +his huge fist, that Sir Bale, merely making his general bow to the +group, clapped his hat on his head, and hastily began his retreat; but +the same discordant voice yelled after him: + +"You'll want that, you fool; pick it up." And there came hurtling after +and beside him a great leather bag, stained, and stuffed with a heavy +burden, and bounding by him it stopped with a little wheel that brought +it exactly before his feet. + +He picked it up, and found it heavy. + +Turning about to make his acknowledgments, he saw the two persons in +full retreat; the profane old scoundrel in the bottle-green limping and +stumbling, yet bowling along at a wonderful rate, with many a jerk and +reel, and the slender lady in black gliding away by his side into the +inner depths of the forest. + +So Sir Bale, with a strange chill, and again in utter solitude, pursued +his retreat, with his burden, at a swifter pace, and after an hour or +so, had recovered the point where he had entered the forest, and passing +by the druidic stone and the mighty oak, saw down the glen at his right, +standing by the edge of the lake, Philip Feltram, close to the bow of +the boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Rindermere + +Feltram looked grim and agitated when Sir Bale came up to him, as he +stood on the flat-stone by which the boat was moored. + +"You found him?" said he. + +"Yes." + +"The lady in black was there?" + +"She was." + +"And you played with him?" + +"Yes." + +"And what is that in your hand?" + +"A bag of something, I fancy money; it is heavy; he threw it after me. +We shall see just now; let us get away." + +"He gave you some of his wine to drink?" said Feltram, looking darkly in +his face; but there was a laugh in his eyes. + +"Yes; of course I drank it; my object was to please him." + +"To be sure." + +The faint wind that carried them across the lake had quite subsided by +the time they had reached the side where they now were. + +There was now not wind enough to fill the sail, and it was already +evening. + +"Give me an oar; we can pull her over in little more than an hour," said +Sir Bale; "only let us get away." + +He got into the boat, sat down, and placed the leather bag with its +heavy freightage at his feet, and took an oar. Feltram loosed the rope +and shoved the boat off; and taking his seat also, they began to pull +together, without another word, until, in about ten minutes, they had +got a considerable way off the Cloostedd shore. + +The leather bag was too clumsy a burden to conceal; besides, Feltram +knew all about the transaction, and Sir Bale had no need to make a +secret. The bag was old and soiled, and tied about the "neck" with a +long leather thong, and it seemed to have been sealed with red wax, +fragments of which were still sticking to it. + +He got it open, and found it full of guineas. + +"Halt!" cried Sir Bale, delighted, for he had half apprehended a trick +upon his hopes; "gold it is, and a lot of it, by Jove!" + +Feltram did not seem to take the slightest interest in the matter. +Sulkily and drowsily he was leaning with his elbow on his knee, and it +seemed thinking of something far away. Sir Bale could not wait to count +them any longer. He reckoned them on the bench, and found two thousand. + +It took some time; and when he had got them back into the leather bag, +and tied them up again, Feltram, with a sudden start, said sharply, + +"Come, take your oar--unless you like the lake by night; and see, a wind +will soon be up from Golden Friars!" + +He cast a wild look towards Mardykes Hall and Snakes Island, and +applying himself to his oar, told Sir Bale to take his also; and nothing +loath, the Baronet did so. + +It was slow work, for the boat was not built for speed; and by the time +they had got about midway, the sun went down, and twilight and the +melancholy flush of the sunset tints were upon the lake and fells. + +"Ho! here comes the breeze--up from Golden Friars," said Feltram; "we +shall have enough to fill the sails now. If you don't fear spirits and +Snakes Island, it is all the better for us it should blow from that +point. If it blew from Mardykes now, it would be a stiff pull for you +and me to get this tub home." + +Talking as if to himself, and laughing low, he adjusted the sail and +took the tiller, and so, yielding to the rising breeze, the boat glided +slowly toward still distant Mardykes Hall. + +The moon came out, and the shore grew misty, and the towering fells rose +like sheeted giants; and leaning on the gunwale of the boat, Sir Bale, +with the rush and gurgle of the water on the boat's side sounding +faintly in his ear, thought of his day's adventure, which seemed to him +like a dream--incredible but for the heavy bag that lay between his +feet. + +As they passed Snakes Island, a little mist, like a fragment of a fog, +seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came +near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; +and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the +mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the +same thing always happened. + +It was three weeks after, that Sir Bale, sitting up in his bed, very +pale and wan, with his silk night-cap nodding on one side, and his thin +hand extended on the coverlet, where the doctor had been feeling his +pulse, in his darkened room, related all the wonders of this day to +Doctor Torvey. The doctor had attended him through a fever which +followed immediately upon his visit to Cloostedd. + +"And, my dear sir, by Jupiter, can you really believe all that delirium +to be sober fact?" said the doctor, sitting by the bedside, and actually +laughing. + +"I can't help believing it, because I can't distinguish in any way +between all that and everything else that actually happened, and which I +must believe. And, except that this is more wonderful, I can find no +reason to reject it, that does not as well apply to all the rest." + +"Come, come, my dear sir, this will never do--nothing is more common. +These illusions accompanying fever frequently antedate the attack, and +the man is actually raving before he knows he is ill." + +"But what do you make of that bag of gold?" + +"Some one has lent it. You had better ask all about it of Feltram when +you can see him; for in speaking to me he seemed to know all about it, +and certainly did not seem to think the matter at all out of the +commonplace. It is just like that fisherman's story, about the hand that +drew Feltram into the water on the night that he was nearly drowned. +Every one can see what that was. Why of course it was simply the +reflection of his own hand in the water, in that vivid lightning. When +you have been out a little and have gained strength you will shake off +these dreams." + +"I should not wonder," said Sir Bale. + +It is not to be supposed that Sir Bale reported all that was in his +memory respecting his strange vision, if such it was, at Cloostedd. He +made a selection of the incidents, and threw over the whole adventure an +entirely accidental character, and described the money which the old man +had thrown to him as amounting to a purse of five guineas, and mentioned +nothing of the passages which bore on the coming race. + +Good Doctor Torvey, therefore, reported only that Sir Bale's delirium +had left two or three illusions sticking in his memory. + +But if they were illusions, they survived the event of his recovery, and +remained impressed on his memory with the sharpness of very recent and +accurately observed fact. + +He was resolved on going to the races of Rindermere, where, having in +his possession so weighty a guarantee as the leather purse, he was +determined to stake it all boldly on Rainbow--against which horse he was +glad to hear there were very heavy odds. + +The race came off. One horse was scratched, another bolted, the rider of +a third turned out to have lost a buckle and three half-pence and so was +an ounce and a half under weight, a fourth knocked down the post near +Rinderness churchyard, and was held to have done it with his left +instead of his right knee, and so had run at the wrong side. The result +was that Rainbow came in first, and I should be afraid to say how much +Sir Bale won. It was a sum that paid off a heavy debt, and left his +affairs in a much more manageable state. + +From this time Sir Bale prospered. He visited Cloostedd no more; but +Feltram often crossed to that lonely shore as heretofore, and it is +believed conveyed to him messages which guided his betting. One thing is +certain, his luck never deserted him. His debts disappeared; and his +love of continental life seemed to have departed. He became content with +Mardykes Hall, laid out money on it, and although he never again cared +to cross the lake, he seemed to like the scenery. + +In some respects, however, he lived exactly the same odd and unpopular +life. He saw no one at Mardykes Hall. He practised a very strict +reserve. The neighbours laughed at and disliked him, and he was voted, +whenever any accidental contact arose, a very disagreeable man; and he +had a shrewd and ready sarcasm that made them afraid of him, and himself +more disliked. + +Odd rumours prevailed about his household. It was said that his old +relations with Philip Feltram had become reversed; and that he was as +meek as a mouse, and Feltram the bully now. It was also said that Mrs. +Julaper had one Sunday evening when she drank tea at the Vicar's, told +his good lady very mysteriously, and with many charges of secrecy, that +Sir Bale was none the better of his late-found wealth; that he had a +load upon his spirits, that he was afraid of Feltram, and so was every +one else, more or less, in the house; that he was either mad or worse; +and that it was an eerie dwelling, and strange company, and she should +be glad herself of a change. + +Good Mrs. Bedel told her friend Mrs. Torvey; and all Golden Friars heard +all this, and a good deal more, in an incredibly short time. + +All kinds of rumours now prevailed in Golden Friars, connecting Sir +Bale's successes on the turf with some mysterious doings in Cloostedd +Forest. Philip Feltram laughed when he heard these stories--especially +when he heard the story that a supernatural personage had lent the +Baronet a purse full of money. + +"You should not talk to Doctor Torvey so, sir," said he grimly; "he's +the greatest tattler in the town. It was old Farmer Trebeck, who could +buy and sell us all down here, who lent that money. Partly from +good-will, but not without acknowledgment. He has my hand for the first, +not worth much, and yours to a bond for the two thousand guineas you +brought home with you. It seems strange you should not remember that +venerable and kind old farmer whom you talked with so long that day. His +grandson, who expects to stand well in his will, being a trainer in Lord +Varney's stables, has sometimes a tip to give, and he is the source of +your information." + +"By Jove, I must be a bit mad, then, that's all," said Sir Bale, with a +smile and a shrug. + +Philip Feltram moped about the house, and did precisely what he pleased. +The change which had taken place in him became more and more pronounced. +Dark and stern he always looked, and often malignant. He was like a man +possessed of one evil thought which never left him. + +There was, besides, the good old Gothic superstition of a bargain or +sale of the Baronet's soul to the arch-fiend. This was, of course, very +cautiously whispered in a place where he had influence. It was only a +coarser and directer version of a suspicion, that in a more credulous +generation penetrated a level of society quite exempt from such follies +in our day. + +One evening at dusk, Sir Bale, sitting after his dinner in his window, +saw the tall figure of Feltram, like a dark streak, standing movelessly +by the lake. An unpleasant feeling moved him, and then an impatience. He +got up, and having primed himself with two glasses of brandy, walked +down to the edge of the lake, and placed himself beside Feltram. + +"Looking down from the window," said he, nerved with his Dutch courage, +"and seeing you standing like a post, do you know what I began to think +of?" + +Feltram looked at him, but answered nothing. + +"I began to think of taking a wife--_marrying_." + +Feltram nodded. The announcement had not produced the least effect. + +"Why the devil will you make me so uncomfortable! Can't you be like +yourself--what you _were_, I mean? I won't go on living here alone with +you. I'll take a wife, I tell you. I'll choose a good church-going +woman, that will have every man, woman, and child in the house on their +marrow-bones twice a day, morning and evening, and three times on +Sundays. How will you like that?" + +"Yes, you will be married," said Feltram, with a quiet decision which +chilled Sir Bale, for he had by no means made up his mind to that +desperate step. + +Feltram slowly walked away, and that conversation ended. + +Now an odd thing happened about this time. There was a family of +Feltram--county genealogists could show how related to the vanished +family of Cloostedd--living at that time on their estate not far from +Carlisle. Three co-heiresses now represented it. They were great +beauties--the belles of their county in their day. + +One was married to Sir Oliver Haworth of Haworth, a great family in +those times. He was a knight of the shire, and had refused a baronetage, +and, it was said, had his eye on a peerage. The other sister was married +to Sir William Walsingham, a wealthy baronet; and the third and +youngest, Miss Janet, was still unmarried, and at home at Cloudesly +Hall, where her aunt, Lady Harbottle, lived with her, and made a +dignified chaperon. + +Now it so fell out that Sir Bale, having business at Carlisle, and +knowing old Lady Harbottle, paid his respects at Cloudesly Hall; and +being no less than five-and-forty years of age, was for the first time +in his life, seriously in love. + +Miss Janet was extremely pretty--a fair beauty with brilliant red lips +and large blue eyes, and ever so many pretty dimples when she talked and +smiled. It was odd, but not perhaps against the course of nature, that a +man, though so old as he, and quite _blase_, should fall at last under +that fascination. + +But what are we to say of the strange infatuation of the young lady? No +one could tell why she liked him. It was a craze. Her family were +against it, her intimates, her old nurse--all would not do; and the +oddest thing was, that he seemed to take no pains to please her. The end +of this strange courtship was that he married her; and she came home to +Mardykes Hall, determined to please everybody, and to be the happiest +woman in England. + +With her came a female cousin, a good deal her senior, past +thirty--Gertrude Mainyard, pale and sad, but very gentle, and with all +the prettiness that can belong to her years. + +This young lady has a romance. Her hero is far away in India; and she, +content to await his uncertain return with means to accomplish the hope +of their lives, in that frail chance has long embarked all the purpose +and love of her life. + +When Lady Mardykes came home, a new leaf was, as the phrase is, turned +over. The neighbours and all the country people were willing to give the +Hall a new trial. There was visiting and returning of visits; and young +Lady Mardykes was liked and admired. It could not indeed have been +otherwise. But here the improvement in the relations of Mardykes Hall +with other homes ceased. On one excuse or another Sir Bale postponed or +evaded the hospitalities which establish intimacies. Some people said he +was jealous of his young and beautiful wife. But for the most part his +reserve was set down to the old inhospitable cause, some ungenial defect +in his character; and in a little time the tramp of horses and roll of +carriage-wheels were seldom heard up or down the broad avenue of +Mardykes Hall. + +Sir Bale liked this seclusion; and his wife, "so infatuated with her +idolatry of that graceless old man," as surrounding young ladies said, +that she was well content to forego the society of the county people for +a less interrupted enjoyment of that of her husband. "What she could see +in him" to interest or amuse her so, that for his sake she was willing +to be "buried alive in that lonely place," the same critics were +perpetually wondering. + +A year and more passed thus; for the young wife, happily--_very_ happily +indeed, had it not been for one topic on which she and her husband could +not agree. This was Philip Feltram; and an odd quarrel it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Sir Bale is Frightened + +To Feltram she had conceived, at first sight, a horror. It was not a +mere antipathy; fear mingled largely in it. Although she did not see him +often, this restless dread grew upon her so, that she urged his +dismissal upon Sir Bale, offering to provide, herself, for him a +handsome annuity, charged on that part of her property which, by her +marriage settlement, had remained in her power. There was a time when +Sir Bale was only too anxious to get rid of him. But that was changed +now. Nothing could now induce the Baronet to part with him. He at first +evaded and resisted quietly. But, urged with a perseverance to which he +was unused, he at last broke into fury that appalled her, and swore that +if he was worried more upon the subject, he would leave her and the +country, and see neither again. This exhibition of violence affrighted +her all the more by reason of the contrast; for up to this he had been +an uxorious husband. Lady Mardykes was in hysterics, and thoroughly +frightened, and remained in her room for two or three days. Sir Bale +went up to London about business, and was not home for more than a week. +This was the first little squall that disturbed the serenity of their +sky. + +This point, therefore, was settled; but soon there came other things to +sadden Lady Mardykes. There occurred a little incident, soon after Sir +Bale's return from London, which recalled the topic on which they had so +nearly quarrelled. + +Sir Bale had a dressing-room, remote from the bedrooms, in which he sat +and read and sometimes smoked. One night, after the house was all quiet, +the Baronet being still up, the bell of this dressing-room rang long and +furiously. It was such a peal as a person in extreme terror might ring. +Lady Mardykes, with her maid in her room, heard it; and in great alarm +she ran in her dressing-gown down the gallery to Sir Bale's room. +Mallard the butler had already arrived, and was striving to force the +door, which was secured. It gave way just as she reached it, and she +rushed through. + +Sir Bale was standing with the bell-rope in his hand, in the extremest +agitation, looking like a ghost; and Philip Feltram was sitting in his +chair, with a dark smile fixed upon him. For a minute she thought he had +attempted to assassinate his master. She could not otherwise account for +the scene. + +There had been nothing of the kind, however; as her husband assured her +again and again, as she lay sobbing on his breast, with her arms about +his neck. + +"To her dying hour," she afterwards said to her cousin, "she never could +forget the dreadful look in Feltram's face." + +No explanation of that scene did she ever obtain from Sir Bale, nor any +clue to the cause of the agony that was so powerfully expressed in his +countenance. Thus much only she learned from him, that Feltram had +sought that interview for the purpose of announcing his departure, which +was to take place within the year. + +"You are not sorry to hear that. But if you knew all, you might. Let the +curse fly where it may, it will come back to roost. So, darling, let us +discuss him no more. Your wish is granted, _dis iratis_." + +Some crisis, during this interview, seemed to have occurred in the +relations between Sir Bale and Feltram. Henceforward they seldom +exchanged a word; and when they did speak, it was coldly and shortly, +like men who were nearly strangers. + +One day in the courtyard, Sir Bale seeing Feltram leaning upon the +parapet that overlooks the lake, approached him, and said in a low tone, + +"I've been thinking if we--that is, I--do owe that money to old Trebeck, +it is high time I should pay it. I was ill, and had lost my head at the +time; but it turned out luckily, and it ought to be paid. I don't like +the idea of a bond turning up, and a lot of interest." + +"The old fellow meant it for a present. He is richer than you are; he +wished to give the family a lift. He has destroyed the bond, I believe, +and in no case will he take payment." + +"No fellow has a right to force his money on another," answered Sir +Bale. "I never asked him. Besides, as you know, I was not really myself, +and the whole thing seems to me quite different from what you say it +was; and, so far as my brain is concerned, it was all a phantasmagoria; +but, you say, it was he." + +"Every man is accountable for what he intends and for what he _thinks_ +he does," said Feltram cynically. + +"Well, I'm accountable for dealing with that wicked old dicer I +_thought_ I saw--isn't that it? But I must pay old Trebeck all the same, +since the money was his. Can you manage a meeting?" + +"Look down here. Old Trebeck has just landed; he will sleep to-night at +the George and Dragon, to meet his cattle in the morning at Golden +Friars fair. You can speak to him yourself." + +So saying Feltram glided away, leaving Sir Bale the task of opening the +matter to the wealthy farmer of Cloostedd Fells. + +A broad night of steps leads down from the courtyard to the level of the +jetty at the lake: and Sir Bale descended, and accosted the venerable +farmer, who was bluff, honest, and as frank as a man can be who speaks a +_patois_ which hardly a living man but himself can understand. + +Sir Bale asked him to come to the Hall and take luncheon; but Trebeck +was in haste. Cattle had arrived which he wanted to look at, and a pony +awaited him on the road, hard by, to Golden Friars; and the old fellow +must mount and away. + +Then Sir Bale, laying his hand upon his arm in a manner that was at once +lofty and affectionate, told in his ears the subject on which he wished +to be understood. + +The old farmer looked hard at him, and shook his head and laughed in a +way that would have been insupportable in a house, and told him, "I hev +narra bond o' thoine, mon." + +"I know how that is; so does Philip Feltram." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I must replace the money." + +The old man laughed again, and in his outlandish dialect told him to +wait till he asked him. Sir Bale pressed it, but the old fellow put it +off with outlandish banter; and as the Baronet grew testy, the farmer +only waxed more and more hilarious, and at last, mounting his shaggy +pony, rode off, still laughing, at a canter to Golden Friars; and when +he reached Golden Friars, and got into the hall of the George and +Dragon, he asked Richard Turnbull with a chuckle if he ever knew a man +refuse an offer of money, or a man want to pay who did not owe; and +inquired whether the Squire down at Mardykes Hall mightn't be a bit +"wrang in t' garrets." All this, however, other people said, was +intended merely to conceal the fact that he really had, through sheer +loyalty, lent the money, or rather bestowed it, thinking the old family +in jeopardy, and meaning a gift, was determined to hear no more about +it. I can't say; I only know people held, some by one interpretation, +some by another. + +As the caterpillar sickens and changes its hue when it is about to +undergo its transformation, so an odd change took place in Feltram. He +grew even more silent and morose; he seemed always in an agitation and a +secret rage. He used to walk through the woodlands on the slopes of the +fells above Mardykes, muttering to himself, picking up the rotten sticks +with which the ground was strewn, breaking them in his hands, and +hurling them from him, and stamping on the earth as he paced up and +down. + +One night a thunder-storm came on, the wind blowing gently up from +Golden Friars. It was a night black as pitch, illuminated only by the +intermittent glare of the lightning. At the foot of the stairs Sir Bale +met Feltram, whom he had not seen for some days. He had his cloak and +hat on. + +"I am going to Cloostedd to-night," he said, "and if all is as I expect, +I sha'n't return. We remember all, you and I." And he nodded and walked +down the passage. + +Sir Bale knew that a crisis had happened in his own life. He felt faint +and ill, and returned to the room where he had been sitting. Throughout +that melancholy night he did not go to his bed. + +In the morning he learned that Marlin, who had been out late, saw +Feltram get the boat off, and sail towards the other side. The night was +so dark that he could only see him start; but the wind was light and +coming up the lake, so that without a tack he could easily make the +other side. Feltram did not return. The boat was found fast to the ring +at Cloostedd landing-place. + +Lady Mardykes was relieved, and for a time was happier than ever. It was +different with Sir Bale; and afterwards her sky grew dark also. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +A Lady in Black + +Shortly after this, there arrived at the George and Dragon a stranger. +He was a man somewhat past forty, embrowned by distant travel, and, his +years considered, wonderfully good-looking. He had good eyes; his +dark-brown hair had no sprinkling of gray in it; and his kindly smile +showed very white and even teeth. He made inquiries about neighbours, +especially respecting Mardykes Hall; and the answers seemed to interest +him profoundly. He inquired after Philip Feltram, and shed tears when he +heard that he was no longer at Mardykes Hall, and that Trebeck or other +friends could give him no tidings of him. + +And then he asked Richard Turnbull to show him to a quiet room; and so, +taking the honest fellow by the hand, he said, + +"Mr. Turnbull, don't you know me?" + +"No, sir," said the host of the George and Dragon, after a puzzled +stare, "I can't say I do, sir." + +The stranger smiled a little sadly, and shook his head: and with a +gentle laugh, still holding his hand in a very friendly way, he said, "I +should have known you anywhere, Mr. Turnbull--anywhere on earth or +water. Had you turned up on the Himalayas, or in a junk on the Canton +river, or as a dervish in the mosque of St. Sophia, I should have +recognised my old friend, and asked what news from Golden Friars. But of +course I'm changed. You were a little my senior; and one advantage among +many you have over your juniors is that you don't change as we do. I +have played many a game of hand-ball in the inn-yard of the George, Mr. +Turnbull. You often wagered a pot of ale on my play; you used to say I'd +make the best player of fives, and the best singer of a song, within ten +miles round the meer. You used to have me behind the bar when I was a +boy, with more of an appetite than I have now. I was then at Mardykes +Hall, and used to go back in old Marlin's boat. Is old Marlin still +alive?" + +"Ay, that--he--is," said Turnbull slowly, as he eyed the stranger again +carefully. "I don't know who you can be, sir, unless you are--the +boy--William Feltram. La! he was seven or eight years younger than +Philip. But, lawk!--Well--By Jen, and _be_ you Willie Feltram? But no, +you can't!" + +"Ay, Mr. Turnbull, that very boy--Willie Feltram--even he, and no other; +and now you'll shake hands with me, not so formally, but like an old +friend." + +"Ay, that I will," said honest Richard Turnbull, with a great smile, and +a hearty grasp of his guest's hand; and they both laughed together, and +the younger man's eyes, for he was an affectionate fool, filled up with +tears. + +"And I want you to tell me this," said William, after they had talked a +little quietly, "now that there is no one to interrupt us, what has +become of my brother Philip? I heard from a friend an account of his +health that has caused me unspeakable anxiety." + +"His health was not bad; no, he was a hardy lad, and liked a walk over +the fells, or a pull on the lake; but he was a bit daft, every one said, +and a changed man; and, in troth, they say the air o' Mardykes don't +agree with every one, no more than him. But that's a tale that's neither +here nor there." + +"Yes," said William, "that was what they told me--his mind affected. God +help and guard us! I have been unhappy ever since; and if I only knew it +was well with poor Philip, I think I should be too happy. And where is +Philip now?" + +"He crossed the lake one night, having took leave of Sir Bale. They +thought he was going to old Trebeck's up the Fells. He likes the +Feltrams, and likes the folk at Mardykes Hall--though those two families +was not always o'er kind to one another. But Trebeck seed nowt o' him, +nor no one else; and what has gone wi' him no one can tell." + +"_I_ heard that also," said William with a deep sigh. "But _I_ hoped it +had been cleared up by now, and something happier been known of the poor +fellow by this time. I'd give a great deal to know--I don't know what I +_would_ not give to know--I'm so unhappy about him. And now, my good old +friend, tell your people to get me a chaise, for I must go to Mardykes +Hall; and, first, let me have a room to dress in." + +At Mardykes Hall a pale and pretty lady was looking out, alone, from the +stone-shafted drawing-room window across the courtyard and the +balustrade, on which stood many a great stone cup with flowers, whose +leaves were half shed and gone with the winds--emblem of her hopes. The +solemn melancholy of the towering fells, the ripple of the lonely lake, +deepened her sadness. + +The unwonted sound of carriage-wheels awoke her from her reverie. + +Before the chaise reached the steps, a hand from its window had seized +the handle, the door was thrown open, and William Feltram jumped out. + +She was in the hall, she knew not how; and, with a wild scream and a +sob, she threw herself into his arms. + +Here at last was an end of the long waiting, the dejection which had +reached almost the point of despair. And like two rescued from +shipwreck, they clung together in an agony of happiness. + +William had come back with no very splendid fortune. It was enough, and +only enough, to enable them to marry. Prudent people would have thought +it, very likely, too little. But he was now home in England, with health +unimpaired by his long sojourn in the East, and with intelligence and +energies improved by the discipline of his arduous struggle with +fortune. He reckoned, therefore, upon one way or other adding something +to their income; and he knew that a few hundreds a year would make them +happier than hundreds of thousand could other people. + +It was five years since they had parted in France, where a journey of +importance to the Indian firm, whose right hand he was, had brought him. + +The refined tastes that are supposed to accompany gentle blood, his love +of art, his talent for music and drawing, had accidentally attracted the +attention of the little travelling-party which old Lady Harbottle +chaperoned. Miss Janet, now Lady Mardykes, learning that his name was +Feltram, made inquiry through a common friend, and learned what +interested her still more about him. It ended in an acquaintance, which +his manly and gentle nature and his entertaining qualities soon improved +into an intimacy. + +Feltram had chosen to work his own way, being proud, and also prosperous +enough to prevent his pride, in this respect, from being placed under +too severe a pressure of temptation. He heard not from but of his +brother, through a friend in London, and more lately from Gertrude, +whose account of him was sad and even alarming. + +When Lady Mardykes came in, her delight knew no bounds. She had already +formed a plan for their future, and was not to be put off--William +Feltram was to take the great grazing farm that belonged to the Mardykes +estate; or, if he preferred it, to farm it for her, sharing the profits. +She wanted something to interest her, and this was just the thing. It +was hardly half-a-mile away, up the lake, and there was such a +comfortable house and garden, and she and Gertrude could be as much +together as ever almost; and, in fact, Gertrude and her husband could be +nearly always at Mardykes Hall. + +So eager and entreating was she, that there was no escape. The plan was +adopted immediately on their marriage, and no happier neighbours for a +time were ever known. + +But was Lady Mardykes content? was she even exempt from the heartache +which each mortal thinks he has all to himself? The longing of her life +was for children; and again and again had her hopes been disappointed. + +One tiny pretty little baby indeed was born, and lived for two years, +and then died; and none had come to supply its place and break the +childless silence in the great old nursery. That was her sorrow; a +greater one than men can understand. + +Another source of grief was this: that Sir Bale Mardykes conceived a +dislike to William Feltram that was unaccountable. At first suppressed, +it betrayed itself negatively only; but with time it increased; and in +the end the Baronet made little secret of his wish to get rid of him. +Many and ingenious were the annoyances he contrived; and at last he told +his wife plainly that he wished William Feltram to find some other abode +for himself. + +Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude +were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her +own life would become. + +Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There +was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He +had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given +him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and +strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram +had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they +might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate +should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of +her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread. + +All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by +Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition +which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed +himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he +was. + +In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking +of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else. + +One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his +farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and +then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the +lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say: + +"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!" + +The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the +interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and +yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and +partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but +swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither +start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that +which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he owned +no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more. + +He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a +solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did +not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I +suppose, she would. + +They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the +more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles +away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord. Gertrude, +who felt Sir Bale's unkindness all the more that she was a distant +cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in +favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine +ingenuity and persistence upon her husband. A very singular dream rather +damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus: + +She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although +she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep. She was still +thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm. It seemed +to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in +the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair +near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly. It was a +sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised. A very slight +sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she +saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room. + +Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so +large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten +it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes. A sofa stood +at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped. She +extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, +and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the +foot. She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and +with the old-fashioned hood over her head. She was young and pretty, and +looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips +and eyebrows that indicates pain. This little twitching was momentary, +and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute. + +How it was that she was not frightened on seeing this lady, standing +like an old friend at her bedside, she could not afterwards understand. +Some influence besides the kindness of her look prevented any sensation +of terror at the time. With a very white hand the young lady in black +held a white handkerchief pressed to her bosom at the top of her bodice. + +"Who are you?" asked Gertrude. + +"I am a kinswoman, although you don't know me; and I have come to tell +you that you must not leave Faxwell" (the name of the place) "or Janet. +If you go, I will go with you; and I can make you fear me." + +Her voice was very distinct, but also very faint, with something +undulatory in it, that seemed to enter Gertrude's head rather than her +ear. + +Saying this she smiled horribly, and, lifting her handkerchief, +disclosed for a moment a great wound in her breast, deep in which +Gertrude saw darkly the head of a snake writhing. + +Hereupon she uttered a wild scream of terror, and, diving under the +bed-clothes, remained more dead than alive there, until her maid, +alarmed by her cry, came in, and having searched the room, and shut the +window at her desire, did all in her power to comfort her. + +If this was a nightmare and embodied only by a form of expression which +in some states belongs to the imagination, a leading idea in the +controversy in which her mind had long been employed, it had at least +the effect of deciding her against leaving Faxwell. And so that point +was settled; and unpleasant relations continued between the tenants of +the farm and the master of Mardykes Hall. + +To Lady Mardykes all this was very painful, although Sir Bale did not +insist upon making a separation between his wife and her cousin. But to +Mardykes Hall that cousin came no more. Even Lady Mardykes thought it +better to see her at Faxwell than to risk a meeting in the temper in +which Sir Bale then was. And thus several years passed. + +No tidings of Philip Feltram were heard; and, in fact, none ever reached +that part of the world; and if it had not been highly improbable that he +could have drowned himself in the lake without his body sooner or later +having risen to the surface, it would have been concluded that he had +either accidentally or by design made away with himself in its waters. + +Over Mardykes Hall there was a gloom--no sound of children's voices was +heard there, and even the hope of that merry advent had died out. + +This disappointment had no doubt helped to fix in Sir Bale's mind the +idea of the insecurity of his property, and the morbid fancy that +William Feltram and old Trebeck were conspiring to seize it; than which, +I need hardly say, no imagination more insane could have fixed itself in +his mind. + +In other things, however, Sir Bale was shrewd and sharp, a clear and +rapid man of business, and although this was a strange whim, it was not +so unnatural in a man who was by nature so prone to suspicion as Sir +Bale Mardykes. + +During the years, now seven, that had elapsed since the marriage of Sir +Bale and Miss Janet Feltram, there had happened but one event, except +the death of their only child, to place them in mourning. That was the +decease of Sir William Walsingham, the husband of Lady Mardykes' sister. +She now lived in a handsome old dower-house at Islington, and being +wealthy, made now and then an excursion to Mardykes Hall, in which she +was sometimes accompanied by her sister Lady Haworth. Sir Oliver being a +Parliament-man was much in London and deep in politics and intrigue, and +subject, as convivial rogues are, to occasional hard hits from gout. + +But change and separation had made no alteration in these ladies' mutual +affections, and no three sisters were ever more attached. + +Was Lady Mardykes happy with her lord? A woman so gentle and loving as +she, is a happy wife with any husband who is not an absolute brute. +There must have been, I suppose, some good about Sir Bale. His wife was +certainly deeply attached to him. She admired his wisdom, and feared his +inflexible will, and altogether made of him a domestic idol. To acquire +this enviable position, I suspect there must be something not +essentially disagreeable about a man. At all events, what her neighbours +good-naturedly termed her infatuation continued, and indeed rather +improved by time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +An Old Portrait + +Sir Bale--whom some remembered a gay and convivial man, not to say a +profligate one--had grown to be a very gloomy man indeed. There was +something weighing upon his mind; and I daresay some of the good gossips +of Golden Friars, had there been any materials for such a case, would +have believed that Sir Bale had murdered Philip Feltram, and was now the +victim of the worm and fire of remorse. + +The gloom of the master of the house made his very servants gloomy, and +the house itself looked sombre, as if it had been startled with strange +and dismal sights. + +Lady Mardykes was something of an artist. She had lighted lately, in an +out-of-the-way room, upon a dozen or more old portraits. Several of +these were full-lengths; and she was--with the help of her maid, both in +long aprons, amid sponges and basins, soft handkerchiefs and +varnish-pots and brushes--busy in removing the dust and smoke-stains, +and in laying-on the varnish, which brought out the colouring, and made +the transparent shadows yield up their long-buried treasures of finished +detail. + +Against the wall stood a full-length portrait as Sir Bale entered the +room; having for a wonder, a word to say to his wife. + +"O," said the pretty lady, turning to him in her apron, and with her +brush in her hand, "we are in such in pickle, Munnings and I have been +cleaning these old pictures. Mrs. Julaper says they are the pictures +that came from Cloostedd Hall long ago. They were buried in dust in the +dark room in the clock-tower. Here is such a characteristic one. It has +a long powdered wig--George the First or Second, I don't know which--and +such a combination of colours, and such a face. It seems starting out of +the canvas, and all but speaks. Do look; that is, I mean, Bale, if you +can spare time." + +Sir Bale abstractedly drew near, and looked over his wife's shoulder on +the full-length portrait that stood before him; and as he did so a +strange expression for a moment passed over his face. + +The picture represented a man of swarthy countenance, with signs of the +bottle glowing through the dark skin; small fierce pig eyes, a rather +flat pendulous nose, and a grim forbidding mouth, with a large wart a +little above it. On the head hung one of those full-bottomed powdered +wigs that look like a cloud of cotton-wadding; a lace cravat was about +his neck; he wore short black-velvet breeches with stockings rolled over +them, a bottle-green coat of cut velvet and a crimson waistcoat with +long flaps; coat and waistcoat both heavily laced with gold. He wore a +sword, and leaned upon a crutch-handled cane, and his figure and aspect +indicated a swollen and gouty state. He could not be far from sixty. +There was uncommon force in this fierce and forbidding-looking portrait. +Lady Mardykes said, "What wonderful dresses they wore! How like a fine +magic-lantern figure he looks! What gorgeous colouring! it looks like +the plumage of a mackaw; and what a claw his hand is! and that huge +broken beak of a nose! Isn't he like a wicked old mackaw?" + +"Where did you find that?" asked Sir Bale. + +Surprised at his tone, she looked round, and was still more surprised at +his looks. + +"I told you, dear Bale, I found them in the clock-tower. I hope I did +right; it was not wrong bringing them here? I ought to have asked. Are +you vexed, Bale?" + +"Vexed! not I. I only wish it was in the fire. I must have seen that +picture when I was a child. I hate to look at it. I raved about it once, +when I was ill. I don't know who it is; I don't remember when I saw it. +I wish you'd tell them to burn it." + +"It is one of the Feltrams," she answered. "'Sir Hugh Feltram' is on the +frame at the foot; and old Mrs. Julaper says he was the father of the +unhappy lady who was said to have been drowned near Snakes Island." + +"Well, suppose he is; there's nothing interesting in that. It is a +disgusting picture. I connect it with my illness; and I think it is the +kind of thing that would make any one half mad, if they only looked at +it often enough. Tell them to burn it; and come away, come to the next +room; I can't say what I want here." + +Sir Bale seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer he remained in +the room. He seemed to her both frightened and furious; and taking her a +little roughly by the wrist, he led her through the door. + +When they were in another apartment alone, he again asked the affrighted +lady who had told her that picture was there, and who told her to clean +it. + +She had only the truth to plead. It was, from beginning to end, the +merest accident. + +"If I thought, Janet, that you were taking counsel of others, talking me +over, and trying clever experiments--" he stopped short with his eyes +fixed on hers with black suspicion. + +His wife's answer was one pleading look, and to burst into tears. + +Sir Bale let-go her wrist, which he had held up to this; and placing his +hand gently on her shoulder, he said, + +"You must not cry, Janet; I have given you no excuse for tears. I only +wished an answer to a very harmless question; and I am sure you would +tell me, if by any chance you have lately seen Philip Feltram; he is +capable of arranging all that. No one knows him as I do. There, you must +not cry any more; but tell me truly, has he turned up? is he at +Faxwell?" + +She denied all this with perfect truth; and after a hesitation of some +time, the matter ended. And as soon as she and he were more themselves, +he had something quite different to tell her. + +"Sit down, Janet; sit down, and forget that vile picture and all I have +been saying. What I came to tell you, I think you will like; I am sure +it will please you." + +And with this little preface he placed his arm about her neck, and +kissed her tenderly. She certainly was pleased; and when his little +speech was over, she, smiling, with her tears still wet upon her cheeks, +put her arms round her husband's neck, and in turn kissed him with the +ardour of gratitude, kissed him affectionately; again and again thanking +him all the time. + +It was no great matter, but from Sir Bale Mardykes it was something +quite unusual. + +Was it a sudden whim? What was it? Something had prompted Sir Bale, +early in that dark shrewd month of December, to tell his wife that he +wished to call together some of his county acquaintances, and to fill +his house for a week or so, as near Christmas as she could get them to +come. He wished her sisters--Lady Haworth (with her husband) and the +Dowager Lady Walsingham--to be invited for an early day, before the +coming of the other guests, so that she might enjoy their society for a +little time quietly to herself before the less intimate guests should +assemble. + +Glad was Lady Mardykes to hear the resolve of her husband, and prompt to +obey. She wrote to her sisters to beg them to arrange to come, together, +by the tenth or twelfth of the month, which they accordingly arranged to +do. Sir Oliver, it was true, could not be of the party. A minister of +state was drinking the waters at Bath; and Sir Oliver thought it would +do him no harm to sip a little also, and his fashionable doctor politely +agreed, and "ordered" to those therapeutic springs the knight of the +shire, who was "consumedly vexed" to lose the Christmas with that jolly +dog, Bale, down at Mardykes Hall. But a fellow must have a stomach for +his Christmas pudding, and politics takes it out of a poor gentleman +deucedly; and health's the first thing, egad! + +So Sir Oliver went down to Bath, and I don't know that he tippled much +of the waters, but he did drink the burgundy of that haunt of the +ailing; and he had the honour of making a fourth not unfrequently in the +secretary of state's whist-parties. + +It was about the 8th of December when, in Lady Walsingham's carriage, +intending to post all the way, that lady, still young, and Lady Haworth, +with all the servants that were usual in such expeditions in those days, +started from the great Dower House at Islington in high spirits. + +Lady Haworth had not been very well--low and nervous; but the clear +frosty sun, and the pleasant nature of the excursion, raised her spirits +to the point of enjoyment; and expecting nothing but happiness and +gaiety--for, after all, Sir Bale was but one of a large party, and even +he could make an effort and be agreeable as well as hospitable on +occasion--they set out on their northward expedition. The journey, which +is a long one, they had resolved to break into a four days' progress; +and the inns had been written to, bespeaking a comfortable reception. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Through the Wall + +On the third night they put-up at the comfortable old inn called the +Three Nuns. With an effort they might easily have pushed on to Mardykes +Hall that night, for the distance is not more than five-and-thirty +miles. But, considering her sister's health, Lady Walsingham in planning +their route had resolved against anything like a forced march. + +Here the ladies took possession of the best sitting-room; and, +notwithstanding the fatigue of the journey, Lady Haworth sat up with her +sister till near ten o'clock, chatting gaily about a thousand things. + +Of the three sisters, Lady Walsingham was the eldest. She had been in +the habit of taking the command at home; and now, for advice and +decision, her younger sisters, less prompt and courageous than she, were +wont, whenever in her neighbourhood, to throw upon her all the cares and +agitations of determining what was best to be done in small things and +great. It is only fair to say, in addition, that this submission was not +by any means exacted; it was the deference of early habit and feebler +will, for she was neither officious nor imperious. + +It was now time that Lady Haworth, a good deal more fatigued than her +sister, should take leave of her for the night. + +Accordingly they kissed and bid each other good-night; and Lady +Walsingham, not yet disposed to sleep, sat for some time longer in the +comfortable room where they had taken tea, amusing the time with the +book that had, when conversation flagged, beguiled the weariness of the +journey. Her sister had been in her room nearly an hour, when she became +herself a little sleepy. She had lighted her candle, and was going to +ring for her maid, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and her +sister Lady Haworth entered in a dressing-gown, looking frightened. + +"My darling Mary!" exclaimed Lady Walsingham, "what is the matter? Are +you well?" + +"Yes, darling," she answered, "quite well; that is, I don't know what is +the matter--I'm frightened." She paused, listening, with her eyes turned +towards the wall. "O, darling Maud, I am so frightened! I don't know +what it can be." + +"You must not be agitated, darling; there's nothing. You have been +asleep, and I suppose you have had a dream. Were you asleep?" + +Lady Haworth had caught her sister fast by the arm with both hands, and +was looking wildly in her face. + +"Have _you_ heard nothing?" she asked, again looking towards the wall of +the room, as if she expected to hear a voice through it. + +"Nonsense, darling; you are dreaming still. Nothing; there has been +nothing to hear. I have been awake ever since; if there had been +anything to hear, I could not have missed it. Come, sit down. Sip a +little of this water; you are nervous, and over-tired; and tell me +plainly, like a good little soul, what is the matter; for nothing has +happened here; and you ought to know that the Three Nuns is the quietest +house in England; and I'm no witch, and if you won't tell me what's the +matter, I can't divine it." + +"Yes, of course," said Mary, sitting down, and glancing round her +wildly. "I don't hear it now; _you_ don't?" + +"Do, my dear Mary, tell me what you mean," said Lady Walsingham kindly +but firmly. + +Lady Haworth was holding the still untasted glass of water in her hand. + +"Yes, I'll tell you; I have been so frightened! You are right; I had a +dream, but I can scarcely remember anything of it, except the very end, +when I wakened. But it was not the dream; only it was connected with +what terrified me so. I was so tired when I went to bed, I thought I +should have slept soundly; and indeed I fell asleep immediately; and I +must have slept quietly for a good while. How long is it since I left +you?" + +"More than an hour." + +"Yes, I must have slept a good while; for I don't think I have been ten +minutes awake. How my dream began I don't know. I remember only that +gradually it came to this: I was standing in a recess in a panelled +gallery; it was lofty, and, I thought, belonged to a handsome but +old-fashioned house. I was looking straight towards the head of a wide +staircase, with a great oak banister. At the top of the stairs, as near +to me, about, as that window there, was a thick short column of oak, on +top of which was a candlestick. There was no other light but from that +one candle; and there was a lady standing beside it, looking down the +stairs, with her back turned towards me; and from her gestures I should +have thought speaking to people on a lower lobby, but whom from my place +I could not see. I soon perceived that this lady was in great agony of +mind; for she beat her breast and wrung her hands every now and then, +and wagged her head slightly from side to side, like a person in great +distraction. But one word she said I could not hear. Nor when she struck +her hand on the banister, or stamped, as she seemed to do in her pain, +upon the floor, could I hear any sound. I found myself somehow waiting +upon this lady, and was watching her with awe and sympathy. But who she +was I knew not, until turning towards me I plainly saw Janet's face, +pale and covered with tears, and with such a look of agony as--O God!--I +can never forget." + +"Pshaw! Mary darling, what is it but a dream! I have had a thousand more +startling; it is only that you are so nervous just now." + +"But that is not all--nothing; what followed is so dreadful; for either +there is something very horrible going on at Mardykes, or else I am +losing my reason," said Lady Haworth in increasing agitation. "I wakened +instantly in great alarm, but I suppose no more than I have felt a +hundred times on awakening from a frightful dream. I sat up in my bed; I +was thinking of ringing for Winnefred, my heart was beating so, but +feeling better soon I changed my mind. All this time I heard a faint +sound of a voice, as if coming through a thick wall. It came from the +wall at the left side of my bed, and I fancied was that of some woman +lamenting in a room separated from me by that thick partition. I could +only perceive that it was a sound of crying mingled with ejaculations of +misery, or fear, or entreaty. I listened with a painful curiosity, +wondering who it could be, and what could have happened in the +neighbouring rooms of the house; and as I looked and listened, I could +distinguish my own name, but at first nothing more. That, of course, +might have been an accident; and I knew there were many Marys in the +world besides myself. But it made me more curious; and a strange thing +struck me, for I was now looking at that very wall through which the +sounds were coming. I saw that there was a window in it. Thinking that +the rest of the wall might nevertheless be covered by another room, I +drew the curtain of it and looked out. But there is no such thing. It is +the outer wall the entire way along. And it is equally impossible of the +other wall, for it is to the front of the house, and has two windows in +it; and the wall that the head of my bed stands against has the gallery +outside it all the way; for I remarked that as I came to you." + +"Tut, tut, Mary darling, nothing on earth is so deceptive as sound; this +and fancy account for everything." + +"But hear me out; I have not told you all. I began to hear the voice +more clearly, and at last quite distinctly. It was Janet's, and she was +conjuring you by name, as well as me, to come to her to Mardykes, +without delay, in her extremity; yes, _you_, just as vehemently as me. +It was Janet's voice. It still seemed separated by the wall, but I heard +every syllable now; and I never heard voice or words of such anguish. +She was imploring of us to come on, without a moment's delay, to +Mardykes; and crying that, if we were not with her, she should go mad." + +"Well, darling," said Lady Walsingham, "you see I'm included in this +invitation as well as you, and should hate to disappoint Janet just as +much; and I do assure you, in the morning you will laugh over this fancy +with me; or rather, she will laugh over it with us, when we get to +Mardykes. What you do want is rest, and a little sal-volatile." + +So saying she rang the bell for Lady Haworth's maid. Having comforted +her sister, and made her take the nervous specific she recommended, she +went with her to her room; and taking possession of the arm-chair by the +fire, she told her that she would keep her company until she was asleep, +and remain long enough to be sure that the sleep was not likely to be +interrupted. Lady Haworth had not been ten minutes in her bed, when she +raised herself with a start to her elbow, listening with parted lips and +wild eyes, her trembling fingers behind her ears. With an exclamation of +horror, she cried, + +"There it is again, upbraiding us! I can't stay longer." + +She sprang from the bed, and rang the bell violently. + +"Maud," she cried in an ecstasy of horror, "nothing shall keep me here, +whether you go or not. I will set out the moment the horses are put to. +If you refuse to come, Maud, mind the responsibility is yours--listen!" +and with white face and starting eyes she pointed to the wall. "Have you +ears; don't you hear?" + +The sight of a person in extremity of terror so mysterious, might have +unnerved a ruder system than Lady Walsingham's. She was pale as she +replied; for under certain circumstances those terrors which deal with +the supernatural are more contagious than any others. Lady Walsingham +still, in terms, held to her opinion; but although she tried to smile, +her face showed that the panic had touched her. + +"Well, dear Mary," she said, "as you will have it so, I see no good in +resisting you longer. Here, it is plain, your nerves will not suffer you +to rest. Let us go then, in heaven's name; and when you get to Mardykes +Hall you will be relieved." + +All this time Lady Haworth was getting on her things, with the careless +hurry of a person about to fly for her life; and Lady Walsingham issued +her orders for horses, and the general preparations for resuming the +journey. + +It was now between ten and eleven; but the servant who rode armed with +them, according to the not unnecessary usage of the times, thought that +with a little judicious bribing of postboys they might easily reach +Mardykes Hall before three o'clock in the morning. + +When the party set forward again, Lady Haworth was comparatively +tranquil. She no longer heard the unearthly mimickry of her sister's +voice; there remained only the fear and suspense which that illusion or +visitation had produced. + +Her sister, Lady Walsingham, after a brief effort to induce something +like conversation, became silent. A thin sheet of snow had covered the +darkened landscape, and some light flakes were still dropping. Lady +Walsingham struck her repeater often in the dark, and inquired the +distances frequently. She was anxious to get over the ground, though by +no means fatigued. Something of the anxiety that lay heavy at her +sister's heart had touched her own. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Perplexed + +The roads even then were good, and very good horses the posting-houses +turned out; so that by dint of extra pay the rapid rate of travelling +undertaken by the servant was fully accomplished in the first two or +three stages. + +While Lady Walsingham was continually striking her repeater in her ear, +and as they neared their destination, growing in spite of herself more +anxious, her sister's uneasiness showed itself in a less reserved way; +for, cold as it was, with snowflakes actually dropping, Lady Haworth's +head was perpetually out at the window, and when she drew it up, sitting +again in her place, she would audibly express her alarms, and apply to +her sister for consolation and confidence in her suspense. + +Under its thin carpet of snow, the pretty village of Golden Friars +looked strangely to their eyes. It had long been fast asleep, and both +ladies were excited as they drew up at the steps of the George and +Dragon, and with bell and knocker roused the slumbering household. + +What tidings awaited them here? In a very few minutes the door was +opened, and the porter staggered down, after a word with the driver, to +the carriage-window, not half awake. + +"Is Lady Mardykes well?" demanded Lady Walsingham. + +"Is Sir Bale well?" + +"Are all the people at Mardykes Hall quite well?" + +With clasped hands Lady Haworth listened to the successive answers to +these questions which her sister hastily put. The answers were all +satisfactory. With a great sigh and a little laugh, Lady Walsingham +placed her hand affectionately on that of her sister; who, saying, "God +be thanked!" began to weep. + +"When had you last news from Mardykes?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +"A servant was down here about four o'clock." + +"O! no one since?" said she in a disappointed tone. + +No one had been from the great house since, but all were well then. + +"They are early people, you know, dear; and it is dark at four, and that +is as late as they could well have heard, and nothing could have +happened since--very unlikely. We have come very fast; it is only a few +minutes past two, darling." + +But each felt the chill and load of their returning anxiety. + +While the people at the George were rapidly getting a team of horses to, +Lady Walsingham contrived a moment for an order from the other window to +her servant, who knew Golden Friars perfectly, to knock-up the people at +Doctor Torvey's, and to inquire whether all were well at Mardykes Hall. + +There he learned that a messenger had come for Doctor Torvey at ten +o'clock, and that the Doctor had not returned since. There was no news, +however, of any one's being ill; and the Doctor himself did not know +what he was wanted about. While Lady Haworth was talking to her maid +from the window next the steps, Lady Walsingham was, unobserved, +receiving this information at the other. + +It made her very uncomfortable. + +In a few minutes more, however, with a team of fresh horses, they were +again rapidly passing the distance between them and Mardykes Hall. + +About two miles on, their drivers pulled-up, and they heard a voice +talking with them from the roadside. A servant from the Hall had been +sent with a note for Lady Walsingham, and had been ordered, if +necessary, to ride the whole way to the Three Nuns to deliver it. The +note was already in Lady Walsingham's hand; her sister sat beside her, +and with the corner of the open note in her fingers, she read it +breathlessly at the same time by the light of a carriage-lamp which the +man held to the window. It said: + + +My dearest love--my darling sister--dear sisters both!--in God's name, +lose not a moment. I am so overpowered and _terrified_. I cannot +explain; I can only implore of you to come with all the haste you can +make. Waste no time, darlings. I hardly understand what I write. Only +this, dear sisters; I feel that my reason will desert me, unless you +come soon. You will not fail me now. Your poor distracted + +JANET + +The sisters exchanged a pale glance, and Lady Haworth grasped her +sister's hand. + +"Where is the messenger?" asked Lady Walsingham. + +A mounted servant came to the window. + +"Is any one ill at home?" she asked. + +"No, all were well--my lady, and Sir Bale--no one sick." + +"But the Doctor was sent for; what was that for?" + +"I can't say, my lady." + +"You are quite certain that no one--think--_no_ one is ill?" + +"There is no one ill at the Hall, my lady, that I have heard of." + +"Is Lady Mardykes, my sister, still up?" + +"Yes, my lady; and her maid is with her." + +"And Sir Bale, are you certain he is quite well?" + +"Sir Bale is quite well, my lady; he has been busy settling papers +to-night, and was as well as usual." + +"That will do, thanks," said the perplexed lady; and to her own servant +she added, "On to Mardykes Hall with all the speed they can make. I'll +pay them well, tell them." + +And in another minute they were gliding along the road at a pace which +the muffled beating of the horses' hoofs on the thin sheet of snow that +covered the road showed to have broken out of the conventional trot, and +to resemble something more like a gallop. + +And now they were under the huge trees, that looked black as +hearse-plumes in contrast with the snow. The cold gleam of the lake in +the moon which had begun to shine out now met their gaze; and the +familiar outline of Snakes Island, its solemn timber bleak and leafless, +standing in a group, seemed to watch Mardykes Hall with a dismal +observation across the water. Through the gate and between the huge +files of trees the carriage seemed to fly; and at last the steaming +horses stood panting, nodding and snorting, before the steps in the +courtyard. + +There was a light in an upper window, and a faint light in the hall, the +door of which was opened; and an old servant came down and ushered the +ladies into the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +The Hour + +Lightly they stepped over the snow that lay upon the broad steps, and +entering the door saw the dim figure of their sister, already in the +large and faintly-lighted hall. One candle in the hand of her scared +maid, and one burning on the table, leaving the distant parts of that +great apartment in total darkness, touched the figures with the odd +sharp lights in which Schalken delights; and a streak of chilly +moonlight, through the open door, fell upon the floor, and was stretched +like a white sheet at her feet. Lady Mardykes, with an exclamation of +agitated relief, threw her arms, in turn, round the necks of her +sisters, and hugging them, kissed them again and again, murmuring her +thanks, calling them her "blessed sisters," and praising God for his +mercy in having sent them to her in time, and altogether in a rapture of +agitation and gratitude. + +Taking them each by a hand, she led them into a large room, on whose +panels they could see the faint twinkle of the tall gilded frames, and +the darker indication of the old portraits, in which that interesting +house abounds. The moonbeams, entering obliquely through the Tudor +stone-shafts of the window and thrown upon the floor, reflected an +imperfect light; and the candle which the maid who followed her mistress +held in her hand shone dimly from the sideboard, where she placed it. +Lady Mardykes told her that she need not wait. + +"They don't know; they know only that we are in some great confusion; +but--God have mercy on me!--nothing of the reality. Sit down, darlings; +you are tired." + +She sat down between them on a sofa, holding a hand of each. They sat +opposite the window, through which appeared the magnificent view +commanded from the front of the house: in the foreground the solemn +trees of Snakes Island, one great branch stretching upward, bare and +moveless, from the side, like an arm raised to heaven in wonder or in +menace towards the house; the lake, in part swept by the icy splendour +of the moon, trembling with a dazzling glimmer, and farther off lost in +blackness; the Fells rising from a base of gloom, into ribs and peaks +white with snow, and looking against the pale sky, thin and transparent +as a haze. Right across to the storied woods of Cloostedd, and the old +domains of the Feltrams, this view extended. + +Thus alone, their mufflers still on, their hands clasped in hers, they +breathlessly listened to her strange tale. + +Connectedly told it amounted to this: Sir Bale seemed to have been +relieved of some great anxiety about the time when, ten days before, he +had told her to invite her friends to Mardykes Hall. This morning he had +gone out for a walk with Trevor, his under-steward, to talk over some +plans about thinning the woods at this side; and also to discuss +practically a proposal, lately made by a wealthy merchant, to take a +very long lease, on advantageous terms to Sir Bale as he thought, of the +old park and chase of Cloostedd, with the intention of building there, +and making it once more a handsome residence. + +In the improved state of his spirits, Sir Bale had taken a shrewd +interest in this negotiation; and was actually persuaded to cross the +lake that morning with his adviser, and to walk over the grounds with +him. + +Sir Bale had seemed unusually well, and talked with great animation. He +was more like a young man who had just attained his majority, and for +the first time grasped his estates, than the grim elderly Baronet who +had been moping about Mardykes, and as much afraid as a cat of the +water, for so many years. + +As they were returning toward the boat, at the roots of that same +scathed elm whose barkless bough had seemed, in his former visit to this +old wood, to beckon him from a distance, like a skeleton arm, to enter +the forest, he and his companion on a sudden missed an old map of the +grounds which they had been consulting. + +"We must have left it in the corner tower of Cloostedd House, which +commands that view of the grounds, you remember; it would not do to lose +it. It is the most accurate thing we have. I'll sit down here and rest a +little till you come back." + +The man was absent little more than twenty minutes. When he returned, he +found that Sir Bale had changed his position, and was now walking to and +fro, around and about, in what, at a distance, he fancied was mere +impatience, on the open space a couple of hundred paces nearer to the +turn in the valley towards the boat. It was not impatience. He was +agitated. He looked pale, and he took his companion's arm--a thing he +had never thought of doing before--and said, "Let us away quickly. I've +something to tell at home,--and I forgot it." + +Not another word did Sir Bale exchange with his companion. He sat in the +stern of the boat, gloomy as a man about to glide under traitor's-gate. +He entered his house in the same sombre and agitated state. He entered +his library, and sat for a long time as if stunned. + +At last he seemed to have made-up his mind to something; and applied +himself quietly and diligently to arranging papers, and docketing some +and burning others. Dinner-time arrived. He sent to tell Lady Mardykes +that he should not join her at dinner, but would see her afterwards. + +"It was between eight and nine," she continued, "I forget the exact +time, when he came to the tower drawing-room where I was. I did not hear +his approach. There is a stone stair, with a thick carpet on it. He told +me he wished to speak to me there. It is an out-of-the-way place--a +small old room with very thick walls, and there is a double door, the +inner one of oak--I suppose he wished to guard against being overheard. + +"There was a look in his face that frightened me; I saw he had something +dreadful to tell. He looked like a man on whom a lot had fallen to put +some one to death," said Lady Mardykes. "O, my poor Bale! my husband, my +husband! he knew what it would be to me." + +Here she broke into the wildest weeping, and it was some time before she +resumed. + +"He seemed very kind and very calm," she said at last; "he said but +little; and, I think, these were his words: 'I find, Janet, I have made +a great miscalculation--I thought my hour of danger had passed. We have +been many years together, but a parting must sooner or later be, and my +time has come.' + +"I don't know what I said. I would not have so much minded--for I could +not have believed, if I had not seen him--but there was that in his look +and tone which no one could doubt. + +"'I shall die before to-morrow morning,' he said. 'You must command +yourself, Janet; it can't be altered now.' + +"'O, Bale,' I cried nearly distracted, 'you would not kill yourself!' + +"'Kill myself! poor child! no, indeed,' he said; 'it is simply that I +shall die. No violent death--nothing but the common subsidence of +life--I have made up my mind; what happens to everybody can't be so very +bad; and millions of worse men than I die every year. You must not +follow me to my room, darling; I shall see you by and by.' + +"His language was collected and even cold; but his face looked as if it +was cut in stone; you never saw, in a dream, a face like it." + +Lady Walsingham here said, "I am certain he is ill; he's in a fever. You +must not distract and torture yourself about his predictions. You sent +for Doctor Torvey; what did he say?" + +"I could not tell him all." + +"O, no; I don't mean that; they'd only say he was mad, and we little +better for minding what he says. But did the Doctor see him? and what +did he say of his health?" + +"Yes; he says there is nothing wrong--no fever--nothing whatever. Poor +Bale has been so kind; he saw him to please me," she sobbed again +wildly. "I wrote to implore of him. It was my last hope, strange as it +seems; and O, would to God I could think it! But there is nothing of +that kind. Wait till you have seen him. There is a frightful calmness +about all he says and does; and his directions are all so clear, and his +mind so perfectly collected, it is quite impossible." + +And poor Lady Mardykes again burst into a frantic agony of tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Sir Bale in the Gallery + +"Now, Janet darling, you are yourself low and nervous, and you treat +this fancy of Bale's as seriously as he does himself. The truth is, he +is a hypochondriac, as the doctors say; and you will find that I am +right; he will be quite well in the morning, and I daresay a little +ashamed of himself for having frightened his poor little wife as he has. +I will sit up with you. But our poor Mary is not, you know, very strong; +and she ought to lie down and rest a little. Suppose you give me a cup +of tea in the drawing-room. I will run up to my room and get these +things off, and meet you in the drawing-room; or, if you like it better, +you can sit with me in my own room; and for goodness' sake let us have +candles enough and a bright fire; and I promise you, if you will only +exert your own good sense, you shall be a great deal more cheerful in a +very little time." + +Lady Walsingham's address was kind and cheery, and her air confident. +For a moment a ray of hope returned, and her sister Janet acknowledged +at least the possibility of her theory. But if confidence is contagious, +so also is panic; and Lady Walsingham experienced a sinking of the heart +which she dared not confess to her sister, and vainly strove to combat. + +Lady Walsingham went up with her sister Mary, and having seen her in her +room, and spoken again to her in the same cheery tone in which she had +lectured her sister Lady Mardykes, she went on; and having taken +possession of her own room, and put off her cloaks and shawls, she was +going downstairs again, when she heard Sir Bale's voice, as he +approached along the gallery, issuing orders to a servant, as it seemed, +exactly in his usual tone. + +She turned, with a strange throb at her heart, and met him. + +A little sterner, a little paler than usual he looked; she could +perceive no other change. He took her hand kindly and held it, as with +dilated eyes he looked with a dark inquiry for a moment in her face. He +signed to the servant to go on, and said, "I'm glad you have come, Maud. +You have heard what is to happen; and I don't know how Janet could have +borne it without your support. You did right to come; and you'll stay +with her for a day or two, and take her away from this place as soon as +you can." + +She looked at him with the embarrassment of fear. He was speaking to her +with the calmness of a leave-taking in the pressroom--the serenity that +overlies the greatest awe and agony of which human nature is capable. + +"I am glad to see you, Bale," she began, hardly knowing what she said, +and she stopped short. + +"You are come, it turns out, on a sad mission," he resumed; "you find +all about to change. Poor Janet! it is a blow to her. I shall not live +to see to-morrow's sun." + +"Come," she said, startled, "you must not talk so. No, Bale, you have no +right to speak so; you can have no reason to justify it. It is cruel and +wicked to trifle with your wife's feelings. If you are under a delusion, +you must make an effort and shake it off, or, at least, cease to talk of +it. You are not well; I know by your looks you are ill; but I am very +certain we shall see you much better by tomorrow, and still better the +day following." + +"No, I'm not ill, sister. Feel that pulse, if you doubt me; there is no +fever in it. I never was more perfectly in health; and yet I know that +before the clock, that has just struck three, shall have struck five, I, +who am talking to you, shall be dead." + +Lady Walsingham was frightened, and her fear irritated her. + +"I have told you what I think and believe," she said vehemently. "I +think it wrong and cowardly of you to torture my poor sister with your +whimsical predictions. Look into your own mind, and you will see you +have absolutely no reason to support what you say. How _can_ you inflict +all this agony upon a poor creature foolish enough to love you as she +does, and weak enough to believe in your idle dreams?" + +"Stay, sister; it is not a matter to be debated so. If to-morrow I can +hear you, it will be time enough to upbraid me. Pray return now to your +sister; she needs all you can do for her. She is much to be pitied; her +sufferings afflict me. I shall see you and her again before my death. It +would have been more cruel to leave her unprepared. Do all in your power +to nerve and tranquillise her. What is past cannot now be helped." + +He paused, looking hard at her, as if he had half made up his mind to +say something more. But if there was a question of the kind, it was +determined in favour of silence. + +He dropped her hand, turned quickly, and left her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Dr. Torvey's Opinion + +When Lady Walsingham reached the head of the stairs, she met her maid, +and from her learned that her sister, Lady Mardykes, was downstairs in +the same room. On approaching, she heard her sister Mary's voice talking +with her, and found them together. Mary, finding that she could not +sleep, had put on her clothes again, and come down to keep her sister +company. The room looked more comfortable now. There were candles +lighted, and a good fire burnt in the grate; tea-things stood on a +little table near the fire, and the two sisters were talking, Lady +Mardykes appearing more collected, and only they two in the room. + +"Have you seen him, Maud?" cried Lady Mardykes, rising and hastily +approaching her the moment she entered. + +"Yes, dear; and talked with him, and----" + +"Well?" + +"And I think very much as I did before. I think he is nervous, he says +he is not ill; but he is nervous and whimsical, and as men always are +when they happen to be out of sorts, very positive; and of course the +only thing that can quite undeceive him is the lapse of the time he has +fixed for his prediction, as it is sure to pass without any tragic +result of any sort. We shall then all see alike the nature of his +delusion." + +"O, Maud, if I were only sure you thought so! if I were sure you really +had hopes! Tell me, Maud, for God's sake, what you really think." + +Lady Walsingham was a little disconcerted by the unexpected directness +of her appeal. + +"Come, darling, you must not be foolish," she said; "we can only talk of +impressions, and we are imposed upon by the solemnity of his manner, and +the fact that he evidently believes in his own delusion; every one does +believe in his own delusion--there is nothing strange in that." + +"O, Maud, I see you are not convinced; you are only trying to comfort +me. You have no hope--none, none, none!" and she covered her face with +her hands, and wept again convulsively. + +Lady Walsingham was silent for a moment, and then with an effort said, +as she placed her hand on her sister's arm, "You see, dear Janet, there +is no use in my saying the same thing over and over again; an hour or +two will show who is right. Sit down again, and be like yourself. My +maid told me that you had sent to the parlour for Doctor Torvey; he must +not find you so. What would he think? Unless you mean to tell him of +Bale's strange fancy; and a pretty story that would be to set afloat in +Golden Friars. I think I hear him coming." + +So, in effect, he was. Doctor Torvey--with the florid gravity of a man +who, having just swallowed a bottle of port, besides some glasses of +sherry, is admitted to the presence of ladies whom he respects--entered +the room, made what he called his "leg and his compliments," and awaited +the ladies' commands. + +"Sit down, Doctor Torvey," said Lady Walsingham, who in the incapacity +of her sister undertook the doing of the honours. "My sister, Lady +Mardykes, has got it into her head somehow that Sir Bale is ill. I have +been speaking to him; he certainly does not look very well, but he says +he is quite well. Do you think him well?--that is, we know you don't +think there is anything of importance amiss--but she wishes to know +whether you think him _perfectly_ well." + +The Doctor cleared his voice and delivered his lecture, a little thickly +at some words, upon Sir Bale's case; the result of which was that it was +no case at all; and that if he would only live something more of a +country gentleman's life, he would be as well as any man could +desire--as well as any man, gentle or simple, in the country. + +"The utmost I should think of doing for him would be, perhaps, a little +quinine, nothing mo'--shurely--he is really and toory a very shoun' +shtay of health." + +Lady Walsingham looked encouragingly at her sister and nodded. + +"I've been shen' for, La'y Walsh--Walse--Walsing--_ham_; old Jack +Amerald--he likshe his glass o' port," he said roguishly, "and shuvversh +accord'n'ly," he continued, with a compassionating paddle of his right +hand; "one of thoshe aw--odd feels in his stomach; and as I have pretty +well done all I can man-n'ge down here, I must be off, ye shee. Wind up +from Golden Friars, and a little flutter ovv zhnow, thazh all;" and with +some remarks about the extreme cold of the weather, and the severity of +their night journey, and many respectful and polite parting speeches, +the Doctor took his leave; and they soon heard the wheels of his gig and +the tread of his horse, faint and muffled from the snow in the +court-yard, and the Doctor, who had connected that melancholy and +agitated household with the outer circle of humanity, was gone. + +There was very little snow falling, half-a-dozen flakes now and again, +and their flight across the window showed, as the Doctor had in a manner +boasted, that the wind was in his face as he returned to Golden Friars. +Even these desultory snow-flakes ceased, at times, altogether; and +returning, as they say, "by fits and starts," left for long intervals +the landscape, under the brilliant light of the moon, in its wide white +shroud. The curtain of the great window had not been drawn. It seemed to +Lady Walsingham that the moonbeams had grown more dazzling, that Snakes +Island was nearer and more distinct, and the outstretched arm of the old +tree looked bigger and angrier, like the uplifted arm of an assassin, +who draws silently nearer as the catastrophe approaches. + +Cold, dazzling, almost repulsive in this intense moonlight and white +sheeting, the familiar landscape looked in the eyes of Lady Walsingham. +The sisters gradually grew more and more silent, an unearthly suspense +overhung them all, and Lady Mardykes rose every now and then and +listened at the open door for step or voice in vain. They all were +overpowered by the intenser horror that seemed gathering around them. +And thus an hour or more passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Hush! + +Pale and silent those three beautiful sisters sat. The horrible quietude +of a suspense that had grown all but insupportable oppressed the guests +of Lady Mardykes, and something like the numbness of despair had reduced +her to silence, the dreadful counterfeit of peace. + +Sir Bale Mardykes on a sudden softly entered the room. Reflected from +the floor near the window, the white moonlight somehow gave to his fixed +features the character of a smile. With a warning gesture, as he came +in, he placed his finger to his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then, +having successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he +stooped over his almost fainting wife, and twice pressed her cold +forehead with his lips; and so, without a word, he went softly from the +room. + +Some seconds elapsed before Lady Walsingham, recovering her presence of +mind, with one of the candlesticks from the table in her hand, opened +the door and followed. + +She saw Sir Bale mount the last stair of the broad flight visible from +the hall, and candle in hand turn the corner of the massive banister, +and as the light thrown from his candle showed, he continued, without +hurry, to ascend the second flight. + +With the irrepressible curiosity of horror she continued to follow him +at a distance. + +She saw him enter his own private room, and close the door. + +Continuing to follow she placed herself noiselessly at the door of the +apartment, and in breathless silence, with a throbbing heart, listened +for what should pass. + +She distinctly heard Sir Bale pace the floor up and down for some time, +and then, after a pause, a sound as if some one had thrown himself +heavily on the bed. A silence followed, during which her sisters, who +had followed more timidly, joined her. She warned them with a look and +gesture to be silent. + +Lady Haworth stood a little behind, her white lips moving, and her hands +clasped in a silent agony of prayer. Lady Mardykes leaned against the +massive oak door-case. + +With her hand raised to her ear, and her lips parted, Lady Walsingham +listened for some seconds--for a minute, two minutes, three. At last, +losing heart, she seized the handle in her panic, and turned it sharply. +The door was locked on the inside, but some one close to it said from +within, "Hush, hush!" + +Much alarmed now, the same lady knocked violently at the door. No answer +was returned. + +She knocked again more violently, and shook the door with all her +fragile force. It was something of horror in her countenance as she did +so, that, no doubt, terrified Lady Mardykes, who with a loud and long +scream sank in a swoon upon the floor. + +The servants, alarmed by these sounds, were speedily in the gallery. +Lady Mardykes was carried to her room, and laid upon her bed; her +sister, Lady Haworth, accompanying her. In the meantime the door was +forced. Sir Bale Mardykes was found stretched upon his bed. + +Those who have once seen it, will not mistake the aspect of death. Here, +in Sir Bale Mardykes' room, in his bed, in his clothes, is a stranger, +grim and awful; in a few days to be insupportable, and to pass alone +into the prison-house, and to be seen no more. + +Where is Sir Bale Mardykes now, whose roof-tree and whose place at board +and bed will know him no more? Here lies a chap-fallen, fish-eyed image, +chilling already into clay, and stiffening in every joint. + +There is a marble monument in the pretty church of Golden Friars. It +stands at the left side of what antiquarians call "the high altar." Two +pillars at each end support an arch with several armorial bearings on as +many shields sculptured above. Beneath, on a marble flooring raised some +four feet, with a cornice round, lies Sir Bale Mardykes, of Mardykes +Hall, ninth Baronet of that ancient family, chiseled in marble with +knee-breeches and buckled-shoes, and _ailes de pigeon_, and +single-breasted coat and long waist-coat, ruffles and sword, such as +gentlemen wore about the year 1770, and bearing a strong resemblance to +the features of the second Charles. On the broad marble which forms the +background is inscribed an epitaph, which has perpetuated to our times +the estimate formed by his "inconsolable widow," the Dowager Lady +Mardykes, of the virtues and accomplishments of her deceased lord. + +Lady Walsingham would have qualified two or three of the more +highly-coloured hyperboles, at which the Golden Friars of those days +sniffed and tittered. They don't signify now; there is no contemporary +left to laugh or whisper. And if there be not much that is true in the +letter of that inscription, it at least perpetuates something that _is_ +true--that wonderful glorificaion of partisanship, the affection of an +idolising wife. + +Lady Mardykes, a few days after the funeral, left Mardykes Hall for +ever. She lived a great deal with her sister, Lady Walsingham; and died, +as a line cut at the foot of Sir Bale Mardykes' epitaph records, in the +year 1790; her remains being laid beside those of her beloved husband in +Golden Friars. + +The estates had come to Sir Bale Mardykes free of entail. He had been +pottering over a will, but it was never completed, nor even quite +planned; and after much doubt and scrutiny, it was at last ascertained +that, in default of a will and of issue, a clause in the +marriage-settlement gave the entire estates to the Dowager Lady +Mardykes. + +By her will she bequeathed the estates to "her cousin, also a kinsman of +the late Sir Bale Mardykes her husband," William Feltram, on condition +of his assuming the name and arms of Mardykes, the arms of Feltram being +quartered in the shield. + +Thus was oddly fulfilled the prediction which Philip Feltram had +repeated, that the estates of Mardykes were to pass into the hands of a +Feltram. + +About the year 1795 the baronetage was revived, and William Feltram +enjoyed the title for fifteen years, as Sir William Mardykes. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. 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