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diff --git a/16258.txt b/16258.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0540637 --- /dev/null +++ b/16258.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7596 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Squire of Sandal-Side, by Amelia Edith +Huddleston Barr + + +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: The Squire of Sandal-Side + A Pastoral Romance + + +Author: Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr + + + +Release Date: July 10, 2005 [eBook #16258] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SQUIRE OF SANDAL-SIDE*** + + +E-text prepared by Bethanne M. Simms, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE SQUIRE OF SANDAL-SIDE + +A Pastoral Romance + +by + +AMELIA E. BARR + +Author of "Jan Vedder's Wife," "A Daughter of Fife," +"The Bow of Orange Ribbon," etc. + +New York +The A.D. Porter Co. +Publishers + +1886 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. SEAT-SANDAL + + II. THE SHEEP-SHEARING + + III. JULIUS SANDAL + + IV. THUS RUNS THE WORLD AWAY + + V. CHARLOTTE + + VI. THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS + + VII. WOOING AND WEDDING + +VIII. THE ENEMY IN THE HOUSEHOLD + + IX. ESAU + + X. THE NEW SQUIRE + + XI. SANDAL AND SANDAL + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SEAT-SANDAL. + + "This happy breed of men, this little world." + + "To know + That which before us lies in daily life + Is the prime wisdom." + + "All that are lovers of virtue ... be quiet, and go a-angling." + + +There is a mountain called Seat-Sandal, between the Dunmail Raise and +Grisedale Pass; and those who have stood upon its summit know that +Grasmere vale and lake lie at their feet, and that Windermere, +Esthwaite, and Coniston, with many arms of the sea, and a grand +brotherhood of mountains, are all around them. There is also an old gray +manor-house of the same name. It is some miles distant from the foot of +the mountain, snugly sheltered in one of the loveliest valleys between +Coniston and Torver. No one knows when the first stones of this house +were laid. The Sandals were in Sandal-Side when the white-handed, +waxen-faced Edward was building Westminster Abbey, and William the +Norman was laying plans for the crown of England. Probably they came +with those Norsemen who a century earlier made the Isle of Man their +headquarters, and from it, landing on the opposite coast of Cumberland, +settled themselves among valleys and lakes and mountains of primeval +beauty, which must have strongly reminded them of their native land. + +For the prevailing names of this district are all of the Norwegian type, +especially such abounding suffixes and prefixes as _seat_ from "set," a +dwelling; _dale_ from "dal," a valley; _fell_ from "fjeld," a mountain; +_garth_ from "gard," an enclosure; and _thwaite_, from "thveit," a +clearing. It is certain, also, that, in spite of much Anglo-Saxon +admixture, the salt blood of the roving Viking is still in the +Cumberland dalesman. Centuries of bucolic isolation have not obliterated +it. Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the +restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way +over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the +cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors. + +But in the main, this lovely spot was a northern Lotus-land to the +Viking. The great hills shut him in from the sight of the sea. He built +himself a "seat," and enclosed "thwaites" of greater or less extent; +and, forgetting the world in his green paradise, was for centuries +almost forgotten by the world. And if long descent and an ancient family +have any special claim to be held honorable, it is among the Cumberland +"statesmen," or freeholders, it must be looked for in England. + +The Sandals have been wise and fortunate owners of the acres which +Loegberg Sandal cleared for his descendants. They have a family tradition +that he came from Iceland in his own galley; and a late generation has +written out portions of a saga,--long orally transmitted,--which relates +the incidents of his voyage. All the Sandals believe implicitly in its +authenticity; and, indeed, though it is full of fighting, of the plunder +of gold and rich raiment, and the carrying off of fair women, there is +nothing improbable in its relations, considering the people and the +time whose story it professes to tell. + +Doubtless this very Loegberg Sandal built the central hall of +Seat-Sandal. There were giants in those days; and it must have been the +hands of giants that piled the massive blocks, and eyes accustomed to +great expanses that measured off the large and lofty space. Smaller +rooms have been built above it and around it, and every generation has +added something to its beauty and comfort; but Loegberg's great hall, +with its enormous fireplace, is still the heart of the home. + +For nowhere better than among these "dalesmen" can the English elemental +resistance to fusion be seen. Only at the extreme point of necessity +have they exchanged ideas with any other section, yet they have left +their mark all over English history. In Cumberland and Westmoreland, the +most pathetic romances of the Red Rose were enacted. In the strength of +these hills, the very spirit of the Reformation was cradled. From among +them came the Wyckliffite queen of Henry the Eighth, and the noble +confessor and apostle Bernard Gilpin. No lover of Protestantism can +afford to forget the man who refused the bishopric of Carlisle, and a +provostship at Oxford, that he might traverse the hills and dales, and +read to the simple "statesmen" and shepherds the unknown Gospels in the +vernacular. They gathered round him in joyful wonder, and listened +kneeling to the Scriptures. Only the death of Mary prevented his +martyrdom; and to-day his memory is as green as are the ivies and +sycamores around his old home. + +The Protestant spirit which Gilpin raised among these English Northmen +was exceptionally intense; and here George Fox found ready the strong +mystical element necessary for his doctrines. For these men had long +worshipped "in temples not made with hands." In the solemn "high places" +they had learned to interpret the voices of winds and waters; and among +the stupendous crags, more like clouds at sunset than fragments of solid +land, they had seen and heard wonderful things. All over this country, +from Kendal to old Ulverston, Fox was known and loved; and from +Swarthmoor Hall, a manor-house not very far from Seat-Sandal, he took +his wife. + +After this the Stuarts came marching through the dales, but the +followers of Wyckliffe and Fox had little sympathy with the Stuarts. In +the rebellion of 1715, their own lord, the Earl of Derwentwater, was +beheaded for aiding the unfortunate family; and the hills and waters +around are sad with the memories of his lady's heroic efforts and +sufferings. So, when Prince Charles came again, in 1745, they were moved +neither by his beauty nor his romantic daring: they would take no part +at all in his brilliant blunder. + +It was for his stanch loyalty on this occasion, that the Christopher +Sandal of that day was put among the men whom King George determined to +honor. A baronetcy was offered him, which he declined; for he had a +feeling that he would deeply offend old Loegberg Sandal, and perhaps all +the rest of his ancestral wraiths, if he merged their ancient name in +that of Baron of Torver. The sentiment was one the German King of +England could understand and respect; and Sandal received, in place of a +costly title, the lucrative office of High Sheriff of Cumberland, and a +good share besides of the forfeited lands of the rebel houses of +Huddleston and Millom. + +Then he took his place among the great county families of England. He +passed over his own hills, and went up to London, and did homage for the +king's grace to him. And that strange journey awakened in the mountain +lord some old spirit of adventure and curiosity. He came home by the +ocean, and perceived that he had only half lived before. He sent his +sons to Oxford; he made them travel; he was delighted when the youngest +two took to the sea as naturally as the eider-ducks fledged in a +sea-sand nest. + +Good fortune did not spoil the old, cautious family. It went "cannily" +forward, and knew how "to take occasion by the hand," and how to choose +its friends. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, an opportune +loan again set the doors of the House of Lords open to the Sandals; but +the head of the family was even less inclined to enter it than his +grandfather had been. + +"Nay, then," was his answer, "t' Sandals are too old a family to hide +their heads in a coronet. Happen, I am a bit opinion-tied, but it's over +late to loosen knots made centuries ago; and I don't want to loosen +them, neither." + +So it will be perceived, that, though the Sandals moved, they moved +slowly. A little change went a great way with them. The men were all +conservative in politics, the women intensely so in all domestic +traditions. They made their own sweet waters and unguents and pomades, +long after the nearest chemist supplied a far better and cheaper +article. Their spinning-wheels hummed by the kitchen-fire, and their +shuttles glided deftly in the weaving-room, many a year after Manchester +cottons were cheap and plentiful. But they were pleasant, kindly women, +who did wonderful needlework, and made all kinds of dainty dishes and +cordials and sirups. They were famous florists and gardeners, and the +very neatest of housewives. They visited the poor and sick, and never +went empty-handed. They were hearty Churchwomen. They loved God, and +were truly pious, and were hardly aware of it; for those were not days +of much inquiry. People did their duty and were happy, and did not +reason as to "why" they did it, nor try to ascertain if there were a +legitimate cause for the effect. + +But about the beginning of this century, a different day began to dawn +over Sandal-Side. The young heir came to his own, and signalized the +event by marrying the rich Miss Lowther of Whitehaven. She had been +finely educated. She had lived in large cities, and been to court. She +dressed elegantly; she had a piano and much grand furniture brought over +the hills to Sandal; and she filled the old house during the summer with +lords and ladies, and poets and artists, who flitted about the idyllic +little village, like gay butterflies in a lovely garden. + +The husband and children of such a woman were not likely to stand still. +Sandal, encouraged by her political influence, went into Parliament. Her +children did fairly well; for though one boy was wild, and cost them a +deal of money, and another went away in a passion one morning, and never +came back, the heir was a good son, and the two girls made splendid +marriages. On the whole, she could feel that she had done well to her +generation. Even after she had been long dead, the old women in the +village talked of her beauty and spirit, of the tight hand she kept over +every one and every thing pertaining to Sandal. Of all the mistresses +of the old "seat," this Mistress Charlotte was the most prominent and +the best remembered. + +Every one who steps within the wide, cool hall of Seat-Sandal faces +first of all things her picture. It is a life-size painting of a +beautiful woman, in the queer, scant costume of the regency. She wears a +white satin frock and white satin slippers, and carries in her hand a +bunch of white roses. She appears to be coming down a flight of wide +stairs; one foot is lifted for the descent, and the dark background, and +the dim light in which it hangs, give to the illusion an almost +startling reality. It was her fancy to have the painting hung there to +welcome all who entered her doors; and though it is now old-fashioned, +and rather shabby and faded, no one of the present generation cares to +order its removal. All hold quietly to the opinion that "grandmother +would not like it." + +In that quiet acre on the hillside, which holds the generations of the +Sandals, she had been at rest for ten years. But her son still bared his +gray head whenever he passed her picture; still, at times, stood a +minute before it, and said with tender respect, "I salute thee, +mother." And in her granddaughter's lives still she interfered; for she +had left in their father's charge a sum of money, which was to be used +solely to give them some pleasure which they could not have without it. +In this way, though dead, she kept herself a part of their young lives; +became a kind of fairy grandmother, who gave them only delightful +things, and her name continued a household word. + +Only the mother seemed averse to speak it; and Charlotte, who was most +observant, noticed that she never lifted her eyes to the picture as she +passed it. There were reasons for these things which the children did +not understand. They had been too young at her death to estimate the +bondage in which she had kept her daughter-in-law, who, for her +husband's sake, had been ever patient and reticent. Nothing is, indeed, +more remarkable than the patience of wives under this particular trial. +They may be restive under many far less wrongs, but they bear the +mother-in-law grievance with a dignity which shames the grim joking and +the petulant abuse of men towards the same relationship. And for many +years the young wife had borne nobly a domestic tyranny which pressed +her on every hand. If then, she was glad to be set free from it, the +feeling was too natural to be severely blamed; for she never said +so,--no, not even by a look. Her children had the benefit of their +grandmother's kindness, and she was too honorable to deprive the dead of +their meed of gratitude. + +The present holder of Sandal had none of his mother's ambitious will. He +cared for neither political nor fashionable life; and as soon as he came +to his inheritance, married a handsome, sensible daleswoman with whom he +had long been in love. Then he retired from a world which had nothing to +give him comparable, in his eyes, with the simple, dignified pleasures +incident to his position as Squire of Sandal-Side. For dearly he loved +the old hall, with its sheltering sycamores and oaks,--oaks which had +been young trees when the knights lying in Furness Abbey led the +Grasmere bowmen at Crecy and Agincourt. Dearly he loved the large, low +rooms, full of comfortable elegance; and the sweet, old-fashioned, Dutch +garden, so green through all the snows of winter, so cheerfully grave +and fragrant in the summer twilights, so shady and cool even in the +hottest noons. + +Thirty years ago he was coming through it one July evening. It had been +a very hot day; and the flowers were drooping, and the birds weary and +silent. But Squire Sandal, though flushed and rumpled looking, had still +the air of drippy mornings and hazy afternoons about him. There was a +creel at his back, and a fishing-rod in his hand, and he had just come +from the high, unplanted places, and the broomy, breezy moorlands; and +his broad, rosy face expressed nothing but happiness. + +At his side walked his favorite daughter Charlotte,--his dear companion, +the confidant and sharer of all his sylvan pleasures. She was tired and +dusty; and her short printed gown showed traces of green, spongy grass, +and lichen-covered rocks. But her face was a joy to see: she had such +bright eyes, such a kind, handsome mouth, such a cheerful voice, such a +merry laugh. As they came in sight of the wide-open front-doors, she +looked ruefully down at her feet and her grass-and-water-stained skirt, +and then into her father's face. + +"I don't know what Sophia will say if she sees me, father; I don't, +indeed." + +"Never you mind her, dear. Sophia's rather high, you know. And we've +had a rare good time. Eh? What?" + +"I should think we have! There are not many pleasures in life better +than persuading a fine trout to go a little way down stream with you. +Are there, father?" + +"You are right, Charlotte. Trout are the kind of company you want on an +outing. And then, you know, if you can only persuade one to go down +stream a bit with you, there's not much difficulty in persuading him to +let you have the pleasure of seeing him to dinner. Eh? What?" + +"I think I will go round by the side-door, father. I might meet some one +in the hall." + +"Nay, don't do that. There isn't any need to shab off. You've done +nothing wrong, and I'm ready to stand by you, my dear; and you know what +a good time we've been having all day. Eh? What?" + +"Of course I know, father,-- + + "Showers and clouds and winds, + All things well and proper; + Trailer, red and white, + Dark and wily dropper. + Midges true to fling + Made of plover hackle, + With a gaudy wing, + And a cobweb tackle." + +"Cobweb tackle, eh, Charlotte? Yes, certainly; for a hand that can +manage it. Lancie Crossthwaite will land you a trout, three pounds +weight, with a line that wouldn't lift a dead weight of one pound from +the floor to the table. I'll uphold he will. Eh? What?" + +"I'll do it myself, some day; see if I don't, father." + +"I've no doubt of it, Charlotte; not a bit." Then being in the +entrance-hall, they parted with a smile of confidence, and Charlotte +hastened up-stairs to prepare herself for the evening meal. She gave one +quick glance at her grandmother's picture as she passed it, a glance of +mingled deprecation and annoyance; for there were times when the +complacent serenity of the perfect face, and the perfect propriety of +the white satin gown, gave her a little spasm of indignation. + +She dressed rapidly, with a certain deft grace that was part of her +character. And it was a delightful surprise to watch the metamorphosis; +the more so, as it went on with a perfect unconsciousness of its +wonderful beauty. Here a change, and there a change, until the bright +brown hair was loosened from its net of knotted silk, to fall in wavy, +curly masses; and the printed gown was exchanged for one of the finest +muslin, pink and flowing, and pinned together with bows of pale blue +satin. A daring combination, which precisely suited her blonde, +brilliant beauty. Her eyes were shining; her cheeks touched by the sun +till they had the charming tints of a peach on a southern wall. She +looked at herself with a little nod of satisfaction, and then tapped at +the door of the room adjoining her own. It was Miss Sandal's room; and +Miss Sandal, though only sixteen months older than Charlotte, exacted +all the deference due to her by the right of primogeniture. + +"Come in, Charlotte." + +"How did you know it was I?" + +"I know your knock, however you vary it. Nobody knocks like you. I +suppose no two people would make three taps just the same." She was far +too polite to yawn; but she made as much of the movement as she could +not control, and then put a mark in her book, and laid it down. A very +different girl, indeed, was she from her younger sister; a stranger +would never have suspected her of the same parentage. + +She had dark, fine eyes, which, however, did not express what she felt: +they rather gave the idea of storing up impressions to be re-acted upon +by some interior power. She had a delicate complexion, a great deal of +soft, black hair compactly dressed, and a neat figure. Her disposition +was dreamy and self-willed; occult studies fascinated her, and she was +passionately fond of moonlight. She was simply dressed in a white muslin +frock, with a black ribbon around her slim waist; but the ribbon was +clasped by a buckle of heavily chased gold, and her fingers had many +rings on them, and looked--a very rare circumstance--the better for +them. Having put down her book, she rose from her chair; and as she +dipped the tips of her hands in water, and wiped them with elaborate +nicety, she talked to Charlotte in a soft, deliberate way. + +"Where have you been, you and father, ever since daybreak?" + +"Up to Blaeberry Tarn, and then home by Holler Beck. We caught a creel +full of trout, and had a very happy day." + +"Really, you know?" + +"Yes, really; why not?" + +"I cannot understand it, Charlotte. I suppose we never were sisters +before." She said the words with the air of one who rather states a fact +than asks a question; and Charlotte, not at all comprehending, looked at +her curiously and interrogatively. + +"I mean that our relationship in this life does not touch our anterior +lives." + +"Oh, you know you are talking nonsense, Sophia! It gives me such a feel, +you can't tell, to think of having lived before; and I don't believe it. +There, now! Come, dear, let us go to dinner; I'm that hungry I'm fit to +drop." For Charlotte was watching, with a feeling of injury, Sophia's +leisurely method of putting every book and chair and hairpin in its +place. + +The sisters' rooms were precisely alike in their general features, and +yet there was as great a relative difference in their apartments as in +their natures. Both were large, low rooms, facing the sunrise. The walls +of both were of dark oak; the roofs of both were of the same sombre +wood; so also were the floors. They were literally oak chambers. And in +both rooms the draperies of the beds, chairs, and windows were of white +dimity. But in Sophia's, there were many pictures, souvenirs of +girlhood's friendships, needlework, finished and unfinished drawings, +and a great number of books mostly on subjects not usually attractive to +young women. Charlotte's room had no pictures on its walls, and no odds +and ends of memorials; and as sewing was to her a duty and not a +pleasure, there was no crotcheting or Berlin-wool work in hand; and with +the exception of a handsome copy of "Izaak Walton," there were no books +on her table but a Bible, Book of Common Prayer, and a very shabby +Thomas a Kempis. + +So dissimilar were the girls in their appearance and their tastes; and +yet they loved each other with that calm, habitual, family affection, +which, undemonstrative as it is, stands the wear and tug of life with a +wonderful tenacity. Down the broad, oak stairway they sauntered +together; Charlotte's tall, erect figure, bright, loose hair, pink +dress, and flowing ribbons, throwing into effective contrast the dark +hair, dark eyes, white drapery, and gleaming ornaments of her elder +sister. + +In the hall they met the squire. He was very fond and very proud of his +daughters; and he gave his right arm to Sophia, and slipped his left +hand into Charlotte's hand with an affectionate pride and confidence +that was charming. + +"Any news, mother?" he asked, as he lifted one of the crisp brown trout +from its bed of white damask and curly green parsley. + +"None, squire; only the sheep-shearing at the Up-Hill Farm to-morrow. +John of Middle Barra called with the statesman's respects. Will you go, +squire?" + +"Certainly. My men are all to lend a hand. Barf Latrigg is ageing fast +now; he was my father's crony; if I slighted him, I should feel as if +father knew about it. Which of you will go with me? Thou, mother?" + +"That, I cannot, squire. The servant lasses are all promised for the +fleece-folding; and it's a poor house that won't keep one woman busy in +it." + +"Sophia and Charlotte will go then?" + +"Excuse me, father," answered Sophia languidly. "I shall have a +headache to-morrow, I fear; I have been nervous and poorly all the +afternoon." + +"Why, Sophia, I didn't think I had such a foolish lass! Taking fancies +for she doesn't know what. If you plan for to-morrow, plan a bit of +pleasure with it; that's a long way better than expecting a headache. +Charlotte will go then. Eh? What?" + +"Yes, father; I will go. Sophia never could bear walking in the +heat. I like it; and I think there are few things merrier than a +sheep-shearing." + +"So poetic! So idyllic!" murmured Sophia, with mild sarcasm. + +"Many people think so, Sophia. Mr. Wordsworth would remember Pan and +Arcadian shepherds playing on reedy pipes, and Chaldaean shepherds +studying the stars, and those on Judaea's hills who heard the angels +singing. He would think of wild Tartar shepherds, and handsome Spanish +and Italian." + +"And still handsomer Cumberland ones." And Sophia, having given this +little sisterly reminder, added calmly, "I met Mr. Wordsworth to-day, +father. He had come over the fells with a party, and he looked very +much bored with his company." + +"I shouldn't wonder if he were. He likes his own company best. He is a +great man now, but I remember well when people thought he was just a +little off-at-side. You knew Nancy Butterworth, mother?" + +"Certainly I did, squire. She lived near Rydal." + +"Yes. Nancy wasn't very bright herself. A stranger once asked her what +Mr. Wordsworth was like; and she said, 'He's canny enough at times. +Mostly he's wandering up and down t' hills, talking his po-et-ry; but +now and then he'll say, "How do ye do, Nancy?" as sensible as you or +me.'" + +"Mr. Wordsworth speaks foolishness to a great many people besides Nancy +Butterworth," said Sophia warmly; "but he is a great poet and a great +seer to those who can understand him." + +"Well, well, Mr. Wordsworth is neither here nor there in our affairs. +We'll go up to Latriggs in the afternoon, Charlotte. I'll be ready at +two o'clock." + +"And I, also, father." Her face was flushed and thoughtful, and she had +become suddenly quiet. The squire glanced at her, but without curiosity; +he only thought, "What a pity she is a lass! I wish Harry had her good +sense and her good heart; I do that." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE SHEEP-SHEARING. + + "Plain living and high thinking ... + The homely beauty of the good old cause, + ...our peace, our fearful innocence, + And pure religion breathing household laws." + + "A happy youth, and their old age + Is beautiful and free." + + +The sheep-shearings at Up-Hill Farm were a kind of rural Olympics. +Shepherds came there from far and near to try their skill against each +other,--young men in their prime mostly, with brown, ruddy faces, and +eyes of that bright blue lustre which is only gained by a free, open-air +life. The hillside was just turning purple with heather bloom, and along +the winding, stony road the yellow asphodels were dancing in the wind. +Everywhere there was the scent of bog-myrtle and wild-rose and +sweetbrier, and the tinkling sound of becks babbling over glossy rocks; +and in the glorious sunshine and luminous air, the mountains appeared to +expand and elevate, and to throw out glowing peaks and summits into +infinite space. + +Hand in hand the squire and his daughter climbed the fellside. They had +left home in high spirits, merrily flinging back the mother's and +Sophia's last advices; but gradually they became silent, and then a +little mournful. "I wonder why it is, father?" asked Charlotte; "I'm not +at all tired, and how can fresh air and sunshine make one melancholy?" + +"Maybe, now, sad thoughts are catching. I was having a few. Eh? What?" + +"I don't know. Why were you having sad thoughts?" + +"Well, then, I really can't understand why. There's no need to fret over +changes. At the long end the great change puts all right. Charlotte, I +have been coming to Barf Latrigg's shearings for about half a century. I +remember the first. I held my nurse's hand, and wore such a funny little +coat, and such a big lace collar. And, dear me! it was just such a day +as this, thirty-two years ago, that your mother walked up to the +shearing with me, Charlotte; and I asked her if she would be my wife, +and she said she would. Thou takes after her a good deal; she had the +very same bright eyes and bonny face, and straight, tall shape thou has +to-day. Barf Latrigg was sixty then, turning a bit gray, but able to +shear with any man they could put against him. He'll be ninety now; but +his father lived till he was more than a hundred, and most of his +fore-elders touched the century. He's had his troubles too." + +"I never heard of them." + +"No. They are dead and buried. A dead trouble may be forgot: it is the +living troubles that make the eyes dim, and the heart fail. Yes, yes; +Barf is as happy as a boy now, but I remember when he was back-set and +fore-set with trouble. In life every thing goes round like a cart-wheel. +Eh? What?" + +In a short time they reached the outer wall of the farm. They were eight +hundred feet above the valley; and looking backwards upon the woods from +their airy shelf, the tops of the trees appeared like a solid green +road, on which they might drop down and walk. Stone steps in the stone +wall admitted them into the enclosure, and then they saw the low gray +house spreading itself in the shadow of the noble sycamores-- + + ... "musical with bees; + Such tents the patriarchs loved." + +As they approached, the old statesman strode to the open door to meet +them. He was a very tall man, with a bright, florid face, and a great +deal of fine, white hair. Two large sheep-dogs, which only wanted a hint +to be uncivil, walked beside him. He had that independent manner which +honorable descent and absolute ownership of house and land give; and he +looked every inch a gentleman, though he wore only the old dalesman's +costume,--breeches of buckskin fastened at the knees with five silver +buttons, home-knit stockings and low shoes, and a red waistcoat, open +that day, in order to show the fine ruffles on his shirt. He was +precisely what Squire Sandal would have been, if the Sandals had not +been forced by circumstances into contact with a more cultivated and a +more ambitious life. + +"Welcome, Sandal! I have been watching for thee. There would be little +prosperation in a shearing if thou wert absent. And a good day to thee, +Charlotte. My Ducie was speaking of thee a minute ago. Here she comes to +help thee off with thy things." + +Charlotte was untying her bonnet as she entered the deep, cool porch, +and a moment afterward Ducie was at her side. It was easy to see the +women loved each other, though Ducie only smiled, and said, "Come in; +I'm right glad to see you, Charlotte. Come into t' best room, and cool +your face a bit. And how is Mrs. Sandal and Sophia? Be things at their +usual, dear?" + +"Thank you, Ducie; all and every thing is well,--I hope. We have not +heard from Harry lately. I think it worrits father a little, but he is +never the one to show it. Oh, how sweet this room is!" + +She was standing before the old-fashioned swivel mirror, that had +reflected three generations,--a fair, bright girl, with the light and +hope of youth in her face. The old room, with its oak walls, immense +bed, carved awmries, drawers, and cupboards, made a fine environment for +so much life and color. And yet there were touches in it that resembled +her, and seemed to be the protest of the present with the past,--vivid +green and scarlet masses of geranium and fuchsia in the latticed window, +and a great pot of odorous flowers upon the hearthstone. But the +peculiar sweetness which Charlotte noticed came from the polished oak +floor, which was strewed with bits of rosemary and lavender, to prevent +the slipping of the feet upon it. + +Charlotte looked down at them as she ejaculated, "How sweet this room +is!" and the shadow of a frown crossed her face. "I would not do it, +Ducie, for any one," she said. "Poor herbs of grace! What sin have they +committed to be trodden under foot? I would not do it, Ducie: I feel as +if it hurt them." + +"Nay, now; flowers grow to be pulled dear, just as lasses grow to be +loved and married." + +"Is that what you think, Ducie? Some cherished in the jar; some thrown +under the feet, and bruised to death,--the feet of wrong and sorrow,"-- + +"Don't you talk that way, Charlotte. It isn't lucky for girls to talk of +wrong and sorrow. Talking of things bespeaks them. There's always _them_ +that hear; _them_ that we don't see. And everybody pulls flowers, +dearie." + +"I don't. If I pull a rose, I always believe every other rose on that +tree is sad about it. They may be in families, Ducie, who can tell? And +the little roses may be like the little children, and very dear to the +grown roses." + +"Why, what fancies! Let us go into the yard, and see the shearing. +You've made me feel as if I'd never like to pull a posy again. You +shouldn't say such things, indeed you shouldn't: you've given me quite a +turn, I'm sure." + +As Ducie talked, they went through the back-door into a large yard +walled in from the hillside, and having in it three grand old sycamores. +One of these was at the top of the enclosure, and a circle of green +shadow like a tent was around it. In this shadow the squire and the +statesman were sitting. Their heads were uncovered, their long clay +pipes in their hands; and, with a placid complacency, they were watching +the score of busy men before them. Many had come long distances to try +their skill against each other; for the shearings at Latrigg's were a +pastoral game, at which it was a local honor to be the winner. There the +young statesman who could shear his six score a day found others of a +like capacity, and it was Greek against Greek at Up-Hill shearing that +afternoon. + +"I had two thousand sheep to get over," said Latrigg, "but they'll be +bare by sunset, squire. That isn't bad for these days. When I was young +we wouldn't have thought so much of two thousand, but every dalesman +then knew what good shearing was. _Now_," and the old man shook his head +slowly, "good shearers are few and far between. Why, there's some here +from beyond Kirkstone Pass and Nab Scar!" + +It was customary for young people of all conditions to give men as aged +as Barf Latrigg the honorable name of "grandfather;" and Charlotte said, +as she sat down in the breezy shadow beside him, "Who is first, +grandfather?" + +"Why, our Stephen, to be sure! They'll have to be up before day-dawn to +keep sidey with our Steve.--Steve, how many is thou ahead now?" The +voice that asked the question, though full of triumph, was thin and +weak; but the answer came back in full, mellow tones,-- + +"Fifteen ahead, grandfather." + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" + +"Charlotte Sandal says 'she's so glad.' Now then, if thou loses ground, +I wouldn't give a ha'penny for thee." + +Then the women who were folding the fleeces on tables under the other +two sycamores lifted their eyes, and glanced at Steve; and some of the +elder ones sent him a merry jibe, and some of the younger ones, smiles, +that made his brown handsome face deepen in color; but he was far too +earnest in his work to spare a moment for a reply. By and by, the squire +put down his pipe, and sat watching with his hands upon his knees. And a +stray child crept up to Charlotte, and climbed upon her lap, and went to +sleep there, and the wind flecked these four representatives of four +generations all over with wavering shadows; and Ducie came backwards and +forwards, and finally carried the sleeping child into the house; and +Stephen, busy as he was, saw every thing that went on in the group under +the top sycamore. + +Even before sundown, the last batch of sheep were fleeced and +_smitten_,[Smitten. Marked with the cipher of the owner in a +mixture mostly of tar.] and turned on to the hillside; and Charlotte, +leaning over the wall, watched them wander contentedly up the fell, +with their lambs trotting beside them. Grandfather and the squire had +gone into the house; Ducie was calling her from the open door; she knew +it was tea-time, and she was young and healthy and hungry enough to be +glad of it. + +At the table she met Stephen. The strong, bare-armed Hercules, whom she +had watched tossing the sheep around for his shears as easily as if they +had been kittens under his hands, was now dressed in a handsome tweed +suit, and looking quite as much of a gentleman as the most fastidious +maiden could desire. He came in after the meal had begun, flushed +somewhat with his hard labor, and perhaps, also, with the hurry of his +toilet; but there was no embarrassment in his manner. It had never yet +entered Stephen's mind that there was any occasion for embarrassment, +for the friendship between the squire's family and his own had been +devoid of all sense of inequality. The squire was "the squire," and was +perhaps richer than Latrigg, but even that fact was uncertain; and the +Sandals had been to court, and married into county families; but then +the Latriggs had been for exactly seven hundred years the neighbors of +Sandal,--good neighbors, shoulder to shoulder with them in every trial +or emergency. + +The long friendship had never known but one temporary shadow, and this +had been during the time that the present squire's mother ruled in +Sandal; the Mistress Charlotte whose influence was still felt in the old +seat. She had entirely disapproved the familiar affection with which +Latrigg met her husband, and it was said the disputes which drove one of +her sons from his home were caused by her determination to break up the +companionship existing between the young people of the two houses at +that time. + +The squire remembered it. He had also, in some degree, regarded his +mother's prejudices while she lived; but, after her death, Sophia and +Charlotte, as well as their brother, began to go very often to Up-Hill +Farm. Naturally Stephen, who was Ducie's son, became the companion of +Harry Sandal; and the girls grew up in his sight like two beautiful +sisters. It was only within the past year that he had begun to +understand that one was dearer to him than the other; but though none of +the three was now ignorant of the fact, it was as yet tacitly ignored. +The knowledge had not been pleasant to Sophia; and to Charlotte and +Stephen it was such a delicious uncertainty, that they hardly desired to +make it sure; and they imagined their secret was all their own, and were +so happy in it, that they feared to look too curiously into their +happiness. + +There was to be a great feast and dance that night: and, as they sat at +the tea-table, they heard the mirth and stir of its preparation; but it +came into the room only like a pleasant echo, mingling with the barking +of the sheep-dogs, and the bleating of the shorn sheep upon the fells, +and the murmur of their quiet conversation about "the walks" Latrigg +owned, and the scrambling, black-faced breed whose endurance made them +so profitable. Something was also said of other shearings to which +Stephen must go, if he would assure his claim to be "top-shearer," and +of the wool-factories which the most astute statesmen were beginning to +build. + +"If I were a younger man, I'd be in with them," said Latrigg. "I'd spin +and weave my own fleeces, and send them to Leeds market, with no +go-between to share my profits." And Steve put in a sensible word now +and then, and passed the berry-cake and honey and cream; and withal met +Charlotte's eyes, and caught her smiles, and was as happy as love and +hope could make him. + +After tea the squire wished to go; but Latrigg said, "Smoke one pipe +with me Sandal," and they went into the porch together. Then Steve and +Charlotte sauntered about the garden, or, leaning on the stone wall, +looked down into the valley, or away off to the hills. Many things they +said to each other which seemed to mean so little, but which meant so +much when love was the interpreter. For Charlotte was eighteen and +Stephen twenty-two; and when mortals still so young are in love, they +are quite able to create worlds out of nothing. + +After a while the squire lifted his eyes, and took in the bit of +landscape which included them. The droop of the young heads towards each +other, and their air of happy confidence, awakened a vague suspicion in +his heart. Perhaps Latrigg was conscious of it; for he said, as if in +answer to the squire's thought, "Steve will have all that is mine. It's +a deal easier to die, Sandal, when you have a fine lad like Steve to +leave the old place to." + +"Steve is in the female line. That's a deal different to having sons. +Lasses are cold comfort for sons. Eh? What?" + +"To be sure; but I've given Steve my name. Any one not called Latrigg at +Up-Hill would seem like a stranger." + +"I know how you feel about that. A squire in Seat-Sandal out of the old +name would have a very middling kind of time, I think. He'd have a sight +of ill-will at his back." + +"Thou means with _them_!" + +The squire nodded gravely; and after a minute's silence said, "It stands +to reason _they_ take an interest. I do in them. When I think of this or +that Sandal, or when I look up at their faces as I sit smoking beside +them, I'm sure I feel like their son; and I wouldn't grieve them any +more than if they were to be seen and talked to. It's none likely, then, +that _they_ forget. I know they don't." + +"I'm quite of thy way of thinking, Sandal; but Steve will be called +Latrigg. He has never known any other name, thou sees." + +"To be sure. Is Ducie willing?" + +"Poor lass! She never names Steve's father. He'd no business in her +life, and he very soon went out of it. Stray souls will get into +families they have no business in, sometimes. They make a deal of +unhappiness when they do." + +Sandal sat listening with a sympathetic face. He hoped Latrigg was going +to tell him something definite about his daughter's trouble; but the old +man puffed, puffed, in silence a few minutes, and then turned the +conversation. However, Sandal had been touched on a point where he was +exceedingly sensitive; and he rose with a sigh, and said, "Well, well, +Latrigg, good-by. I'll go down the fell now. Come, Charlotte." + +Unconsciously he spoke with an authority not usual to him, and the +parting was a little silent and hurried; for Ducie was in the throng of +her festival, and rather impatient for Stephen's help. Only Latrigg +walked to the gate with them. He looked after Sandal and his daughter +with a grave, but not unhappy wistfulness; and when a belt of larches +hid them from his view, he turned towards the house, saying softly,-- + +"It is like to be my last shearing. Very soon this life will _have +been_, but through Christ's mercy I have the over-hand of the future." + +It was almost as hard to go down the fell as to come up it, for the road +was very steep and stony. The squire took it leisurely, carrying his +straw hat in his hand, and often standing still to look around him. The +day had been very warm; and limpid vapors hung over the mountains, like +something far finer than mist,--like air made visible,--giving them an +appearance of inconceivable remoteness, full of grandeur; for there is a +sublimity of distance, as well as a sublimity of height. He made +Charlotte notice them. "Maybe, many a year after this, you'll see the +hills look just that way, dearie; then think on this evening and on me." + +She did not speak, but she looked into his face, and clasped his hand +tightly. She was troubled with her own mood. Try as she would, it was +impossible to prevent herself drifting into most unusual silences. +Stephen's words and looks filled her heart; she had only half heard the +things her father had been saying. Never before had she found an hour in +her life when she wished for solitude in preference to his +society,--her good, tender father. She put Stephen out of her mind, and +tried again to feel all her old interest in his plans for their +amusement. Alas, alas! The first secret, especially if it be a +love-secret, makes a break in that sweet, confidential intercourse +between a parent and child which nothing restores. The squire hardly +comprehended that there might be a secret. Charlotte was unthoughtful of +wrong; but still there was a repression, a something undefinable between +them, impalpable, but positive as a breath of polar air. She noticed the +mountains, for he made her do so; but the birds sang sleepy songs to her +unheeded, and the yellow asphodels made a kind of sunshine at her feet +that she never saw; and even her father's voice disturbed the dreamy +charm of thoughts that touched a deeper, sweeter joy than moor or +mountain, bird or flower, had ever given her. + +Before they reached home, the squire had also become silent. He came +into the hall with the face of one dissatisfied and unhappy. The feeling +spread through the house, as a drop of ink spreads itself through a +glass of water. It almost suited Sophia's mood, and Mrs. Sandal was not +inclined to discuss it until the squire was alone with her. Then she +asked the question of all questions the most irritating, "What is the +matter with you, squire?" + +"What is the matter, indeed? Love-making. That is the matter, Alice." + +"Charlotte?" + +"Yes." + +"And Stephen Latrigg?" + +"Yes." + +"I thought as much. Opportunity is a dangerous thing." + +"My word! To hear you talk, one would think it was matterless how our +girls married." + +"It is never matterless how any girl marries, squire; and our +Charlotte"-- + +"Oh, I thought Charlotte was a child yet! How could I tell there was +danger at Up-Hill? You ought to have looked better after your daughters. +See that she doesn't go near-hand Latrigg's again." + +"I wouldn't be so foolish, William. It's a deal better not to notice. +Make no words about it; and, if you don't like Stephen, send Charlotte +away a bit. Half of young people's love-affairs is just because they are +handy to each other." + +"'Like Stephen!' It is more than a matter of liking, as you know very +well. If Harry Sandal goes on as he has been going, there will be little +enough left for the girls; and they must marry where money will not be +wanted. More than that, I've been thinking of brother Tom's boy for one +of them. Eh? What?" + +"You mean, you have been writing to Tom about a marriage? I would have +been above a thing like that, William. I suppose you did it to please +your mother. She always did hanker after Tom, and she always did dislike +the Latriggs. I have heard that when people were in the grave they +'ceased from troubling,' but"-- + +"Alice!" + +"I meant no harm, squire, I'm sure; and I would not say wrong of the +dead for any thing, specially of your mother; but I think about my own +girls." + +"There, now, Alice, don't whimper and cry. I am not going to harm your +girls, not I. Only mother was promised that Tom's son should have the +first chance for their favor. I'm sure there's nothing amiss in that. +Eh?" + +"A young man born in a foreign country among blacks, or very near +blacks. And nobody knows who his mother was." + +"Oh, yes! his mother was a judge's daughter, and she had a deal of +money. Her son has been well done to; sent to the very best German and +French schools, and now he is at Oxford. I dare say he is a very good +young man, and at any rate he is the only Sandal of this generation +except our own boy." + +"Your sisters have sons." + +"Yes, Mary has three: they are _Lockerbys_. Elizabeth has two: they are +_Piersons_. My poor brother Launcie was drowned, and never had son or +daughter; so that Tom's Julius is the nearest blood we have." + +"Julius! I never heard tell of such a name." + +"Yes, it is a silly kind of a foreign name. His mother is called Julia: +I suppose that is how it comes. No Sandal was ever called such a name +before, but the young man mustn't be blamed for his godfather's +foolishness, Alice. Eh?" + +"I'm not so unjust. Poor Launcie! I saw him once at a ball in Kendal. +Are you sure he was drowned?" + +"I followed him to Whitehaven, and found out that he had gone away in a +ship that never came home. Mother and Launcie were in bad bread when he +left, and she never fretted for him as she did for Tom." + +"Why did you not tell me all this before?" + +"I said to myself, there's time enough yet to be planning husbands for +girls that haven't a thought of the kind. We were very happy with them; +I couldn't bear to break things up; and I never once feared about Steve +Latrigg, not I." + +"What does your brother and his wife say?" + +"Tom is with me. As for his wife, I know nothing of her, and she knows +nothing of us. She has been in England a good many times, but she never +said she would like to come and see us, and my mother never wanted to +see her; so there wasn't a compliment wasted, you see. Eh? What?" + +"No, I don't see, William. All about it is in a muddle, and I must say I +never heard tell of such ways. It is like offering your own flesh and +blood for sale. And to people who want nothing to do with us. I'm +astonished at you, squire." + +"Don't go on so, Alice. Tom and I never had any falling out. He just got +out of the way of writing. He likes India, and he had his own reasons +for not liking England in any shape you could offer England to him. +There's no back reckonings between Tom and me, and he'll be glad for +Julius to come to his own people. We will ask Julius to Sandal; and you +say, yourself, that the half of young folks' loving is in being handy to +each other. Eh? What?" + +"I never thought you would bring my words up that way. But I'll tell you +one thing, my girls are not made of melted wax, William. You'll be a +wise man, and a strong man, if you get a ring on their fingers, if they +don't want it there. Sophia will say very soft and sweet, 'No, thank +you, father;' and you'll move Scawfell and Langdale Pikes before you get +her beyond it. As for Charlotte, you yourself will stand 'making' better +than she will. And you know that nothing short of an earthquake can lift +you an inch outside your own way." + +And perhaps Sandal thought the hyperbole a compliment; for he smiled a +little, and walked away, with what his wife privately called "a +peacocky air," saying something about "Greek meeting Greek" as he did +so. Mrs. Sandal did not in the least understand him: she wondered a +little over the remark, and then dismissed it as "some of the squire's +foolishness." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +JULIUS SANDAL. + + "Variety's the very spice of life + That gives it all its flavor." + + "Domestic happiness, thou only bliss + Of Paradise that has survived the fall." + + +Life has a chronology quite independent of the almanac. The heart +divides it into periods. When the sheep-shearing had been forgotten by +all others, the squire often looked back to it with longing. It was a +boundary which he could never repass, and which shut him out forever +from the happy days of his daughters' girlhood,--the days when they had +no will but his will, and no pleasures but in his smile and +companionship. His son Harry had never been to him what Sophia and +Charlotte were. Harry had spent his boyhood in public schools, and, when +his education was completed, had defied all the Sandal traditions, and +gone into the army. At this time he was with his regiment,--the old +Cameronian,--in Edinburgh. And in other points, besides his choice of +the military profession, Harry had asserted his will against his +father's will. But the squire's daughters gave him nothing but delight. +He was proud of their beauty, proud of Charlotte's love of out-door +pleasures, proud of Sophia's love of books; and he was immeasurably +happy in their affection and obedience. + +If Sandal had been really a wise man he would have been content with his +good fortune; and like the happy Corinthian have only prayed, "O +goddess, let the days of my prosperity continue!" But he had the +self-sufficiency and impatience of a man who is without peer in his own +small arena. He believed himself to be as capable of ordering his +daughters' lives as of directing his sheep "walks," or the change of +crops in his valley and upland meadows. + +Suddenly it had been revealed to him, that Stephen Latrigg had found his +way into a life he thought wholly his own. Until that moment of +revelation he had liked Stephen; but he liked him no longer. He felt +that Stephen had stolen the privilege he should have asked for, and he +deeply resented the position the young man had taken. On the contrary, +Stephen had been guilty of no intentional wrong. He had simply grown +into an affection too sweet to be spoken of, too uncertain and immature +to be subjected to the prudential rules of daily life; yet, had the +question been plainly put to him, he would have gone at once to the +squire, and said, "I love Charlotte, and I ask for your sanction to my +love." He would have felt such an acknowledgment to be the father's most +sacred and evident right, and he was thinking of making it at the very +hour in which Sandal was feeling bitterly toward him for its omission. +And thus the old, old tragedy of mutual misunderstanding works to +sorrowful ends. + +The night of the sheep-shearing the squire could not sleep. To lay awake +and peer into the future through the dark hours was a new experience, +and it made him full of restless anxieties. Of course he expected Sophia +and Charlotte to marry, but not just yet. He had so far persistently +postponed the consideration of this subject, and he was angry at Stephen +Latrigg for showing him that further delay might be dangerous to his own +plans. + +"A presumptuous young coxcomb," he muttered. "Does he think that being +'top-shearer' gives him a right to make love to Charlotte Sandal?" + +In the morning he wrote the following letter:-- + + NEPHEW JULIUS SANDAL,--I hear you are at Oxford, and I + should think you would wish to make the acquaintance of your + nearest relatives. They will be glad to see you at Seat-Sandal + during the vacation, if your liking leads you that way. To hear + soon from you is the hope of your affectionate uncle, + + WILLIAM SANDAL, _of Sandal-Side_. + +He finished the autograph with a broad flourish, and handed the paper to +his wife. "What do you think of that, Alice? Eh? What?" + +There was a short silence, then Mrs. Sandal laid the note upon the +table. "I don't think over much of it, William. Good-fortune won't bear +hurrying. Can't you wait till events ripen naturally?" + +"And have all my plans put out of the way?" + +"Are you sure that your plans are the best plans?" + +"They will be a bit better than any Charlotte and Stephen Latrigg have +made." + +"I don't believe they have such a thing as a plan between them. But if +you think so, send Charlotte to her aunt Lockerby for a few months. Love +is just like fire: it goes out if it hasn't fuel." + +"Nay, I want Charlotte here. After our Harry, Julius is the next heir, +and I'm set on him marrying one of the girls. If he doesn't like Sophia +he may like Charlotte. I have two chances then, and I'm not going to +throw one away for Steve Latrigg's liking or loving. Don't you see, +Alice? Eh? What?" + +"No: I never was one to see beyond the horizon. But if you must have +to-morrow in to-day, why then send off your letter. I would let 'well' +alone. When change comes to the door, it is time enough to ask it over +the threshold. We are very happy now, William, and every happy day is so +much certain gain in life." + +"That is a woman's way of talking. A man looks for the future." + +"And how seldom does he get what he looks for. But I know you, William +Sandal. You will take your own way, be it good or bad; and what is more, +you will make others take it with you." + +"I am inviting my own nephew, Alice. Eh? What?" + +"You know nothing about it. There are kin that are not kindred. You are +inviting you know not who or what. But,"--and she pushed the letter +towards him, with a gesture which seemed to say, "I am not responsible +for the consequences." + +The squire after a moment's thought accepted them. He went into the +yard, humming a strain of "The Bay of Biscay," and gave the letter to a +groom, with orders to take it at once to the post-office. Then he called +Charlotte from the rose-walk. "The horses are saddled," he said, "and I +want you to trot over to Dalton with me." + +Mrs. Sandal had gone to her eldest daughter. She was in the habit of +seeking Sophia's advice; or, more strictly speaking, she liked to +discuss with her the things she had already determined to do. Sophia was +sitting in the coolest and prettiest of gowns, working out with +elaborate care a pencil drawing of Rydal Mount. She listened to her +mother with the utmost respect and attention, and her fine color +brightened slightly at the mention of Julius Sandal; but she never +neglected once to change an F or an H pencil for a B at the precise +stroke the change was necessary. + +"And so you see, Sophia, we may have a strange young man in the house +for weeks, and where to put him I can't decide. And I wanted to begin +the preserving and the raspberry vinegar next week, but your father is +as thoughtless as ever was; and I am sure if Julius is like _his_ father +he'll be no blessing in a house, for I have heard your grandmother speak +in such a way of her son Tom." + +"I thought uncle Tom was grandmother's favorite." + +"I mean of his high temper and fine ways, and his quarrels with his +eldest brother Launcelot." + +"Oh! What did they quarrel about?" + +"A good many things; among the rest, about the Latriggs. There was more +than one pretty girl at Up-Hill then, and the young men all knew it. Tom +and his mother were always finger and thumb. He was her youngest boy, +and she fretted after him all her life." + +"And uncle Launcelot, did she not fret for him?" + +"Not so much. Launcelot was the eldest, and very set in his own way: she +couldn't order him around." + +"The eldest? Then father would not have been squire of Sandal-Side if +Launcelot had lived?" + +"No, indeed. Launcelot's death made a deal of difference to your father +and me. Father was very solemn and set about his brother's rights; and +even after grandfather died, he didn't like to be called 'squire' until +every hope was long gone. But I would as soon have thought of poor +Launcie coming back from the dead as of Tom's son visiting here; and it +is inconvenient right now, exceedingly so; harvesting coming on, and +preserving time, and none of the spare rooms opened since the spring +cleaning." + +"It is trying for you, mother, but perhaps Julius may not be very much +trouble. He'll be with father all the time, and he'll make a change." + +"Change! That is just what I dread. Young people are always for change. +They are certain that every change must be a gain. Old people know that +changes mean loss of some kind or other. After one is forty years old, +Sophia, the seasons bring change enough." + +"I dare say they do, mother. I don't care much for change, even at my +age. Have you told Charlotte?" + +"No, I haven't told her yet. I think she is off to Dalton. Father said +he was going this morning, and he never would go without her." + +Indeed, the squire and his younger daughter were at that moment +cantering down the valley, mid the fresh green of the fields, and the +yellow of the ripening wheat, and the hazy purple of mountains holding +the whole landscape in their solemn shelter except in front, where the +road stretched to the sea, amid low hills overgrown with parsley-fern +and stag's-horn-moss. They had not gone very far before they met Stephen +Latrigg. He was well mounted and handsomely dressed; and, as he bowed to +the squire and Charlotte, his happy face expressed a delight which +Sandal in his present mood felt to be offensive. Evidently Steve +intended to accompany them as far as their roads were identical; but the +squire pointedly drew rein, and by the cool civility of his manner made +the young man so sensible of his intrusion, that he had no alternative +but to take the hint. He looked at Charlotte with eyes full of tender +reproach, and she was too unprepared for such a speedy termination to +their meeting to oppose it. So Stephen was galloping at headlong speed +in advance, before she realized that he had been virtually refused their +company. + +"Father, why did you do that?" + +"Do what, Charlotte? Eh? What?" + +"Send Steve away. I am sure I do not know what to make of you doing such +a thing. Poor Steve!" + +"Well, then, I had my reason for it. Did you see the way he looked at +you? Eh? What?" + +"Dear me! A cat may look at a king. Did you send Steve away for a look? +You have put me about, father." + +"There's looks and other looks, my lass. Cats don't look at kings the +way Steve looked at you. Now, then, I want no love-making between you +and Steve Latrigg." + +"What nonsense! Steve hasn't said a word of love-making, as you call +it." + +"I thought you had all your woman-senses, Charlotte. Bethink you of the +garden walk last night." + +"We were talking all the time of the sweetbrier and hollyhocks,--and +things like that." + +"You might have talked of the days of the week or the +multiplication-table: one kind of words was just as good as another. Any +thing Steve said last night could have been spelled with four letters." + +"Four letters?" + +"To be sure. L-o-v-e." + +"You used to like Stephen." + +"I like all bright, honest, good lads; but when they want to make love +to Miss Charlotte Sandal, they think one thing, and I think another. +There has been ill-luck with love-making between the Sandals and the +Latriggs. My brothers Launcie and Tom quarrelled about one of Barf +Latrigg's daughters, and mother lost them both through her. There is no +love-line between the two houses, or if there is nothing can make it run +straight. Don't you try to, Charlotte; neither the dead nor the living +will like it or have it." + +He intended then to tell her about Julius Sandal, but a look at her face +checked him. He had a wise perception about women; and he reflected +that he had very seldom repented of speaking too little to them, but +very often repented of speaking too much. So he dropped Stephen, and +dropped Julius; and began to talk about the fish in the becks and tarns, +and the new breed of sheep he was trying in the lower "walks." Ere long +they came into the rich valley of Furness; and he made her notice the +difference between it and the vale of Esk and Duddon, with its dreary +waste of sullen moss and unfruitful solitudes. + +"Those old Cistercian monks that built Furness Abbey knew how to choose +a bit of good land, Charlotte. Eh? What?" + +"I suppose so. What did they do with it?" + +"Let it out." + +"I wonder who would want to come here seven hundred years ago." + +"You don't know what you are saying, Charlotte. There were great men +here then, and great deeds doing. King Stephen kept things very lively; +and the Scots were always running over the Border for cattle and sheep, +and any thing else they could lay their hands on. And the monks had +great flocks, so they rented their lands to companies of four fighting +men; and one of the four was to be ready day and night to protect the +sheep, and the Scots kept them busy. Eh? What?" + +"The Musgraves and Armstrongs and Netherbys, I know," and the cloud +passed from her face; and to the clatter of her horse's hoofs, she +lilted merrily a stanza of an old border song:-- + + "The mountain sheep were sweeter, + But the valley sheep were fatter; + We therefore deemed it meeter + To carry off the latter. + We made an expedition; + We met a force, and quelled it; + We took a strong position, + And killed the men who held it." + +And the squire, who knew the effort it cost her, fell readily into her +mood of forced gayety until the simulated feeling became a real one; and +they entered Dalton neck and neck together, after a mile's hard race. + +In the mean time the letter which was to summon Fate sped to its +destination. When it arrived in Oxford, Julius had left Oxford for +London, and it followed him there. He was sitting in his hotel the +ensuing night, when it was delivered into his hands; and as it happened, +he was in a mood most favorable to its success. He had been down the +river on a picnic, had found his company very tedious; and early in the +day the climate had shown him what it was capable of, even at +mid-summer. As he sat cowering before the smoky fire, the rain plashed +in the muddy streets, and dripped mournfully down the dim window-panes. +He was wondering what he must do with himself during the long vacation. +He was tired of the Continent, he was lonely in England; and the United +States had not then become the great playground for earth's weary or +curious children. + +Many times the idea of seeking out his own relations occurred to him. He +had promised his father to do so. But, as a rule, people haven't much +enthusiasm about unknown relations; and Julius regarded his promise more +in the light of a duty to be performed than as the realization of a +pleasure. Still, on that dreary night, in the solitary dulness of his +very respectable inn, the Sandals, Lockerbys, and Piersons became three +possible sources of interest. While his thoughts were drifting in this +direction, the squire's letter was received; and the young man, who was +something of a fatalist, accepted it as the solution of a difficulty. + +"Sandal turns the new leaf for me," he murmured; "the new leaf in the +book of life. I wonder what story will be written in it." + +He answered the invitation while the enthusiasm of its reception swayed +him, and he promised to follow the letter immediately. The squire +received this information on Saturday night, as he was sitting with his +wife and daughters. "Your nephew Julius Sandal, from Calcutta, is coming +to pay us a visit, Alice," he said; and his air was that of a man who +thinks he is communicating a piece of startling intelligence. But the +three women had already exchanged every possible idea on the subject, +and felt no great interest in its further discussion. + +"When is he coming?" asked Mrs. Sandal without enthusiasm; and Sophia +supplemented the question by remarking, "I suppose he has nowhere else +to go." + +"I wouldn't say such things, Sophia; I would not." + +"He has been in England some months, father." + +"Well, then, he was only waiting till he was asked to come. I'm sure +that was a proper thing. If there is any blame between us, it is my +fault. I sent him a word of welcome last Wednesday morning, and it is +very likely he will be here to-morrow. I'm sure he hasn't let any grass +grow under his feet. Eh? What?" + +Charlotte looked up quickly. "_Wednesday morning_." She was quite +capable of putting this and that together, and by a momentary mental +process she arrived at an exceedingly correct estimate of her father's +invitation. Her blue eyes scintillated beneath her dropped lids; and, +though she went calmly on tying the feather to the fishing-fly she was +making, she said, in a hurried and unsteady voice, "I know he will be +disagreeable, and I have made up my mind to dislike him." + +Julius Sandal arrived the next morning when the ladies were preparing +for church. He had passed the night at Ambleside, and driven over to +Sandal in the first cool hours of the day. The squire was walking about +the garden, and he saw the carriage enter the park gates. He said +nothing to any one, but laid down his pipe, and went to meet it. Then +Julius made the first step towards his uncle's affection,--he left the +vehicle when they met, and insisted upon walking by his side. + +When they reached the house, his valet was attending to the removal of +his luggage, and they entered the great hall together. At that moment +Mistress Charlotte's remarkable likeness seemed to force itself upon the +squire's attention. He was unable to resist the impulse which made him +lead his nephew up to it. "Let me introduce you, first of all, to your +father's mother. I greet you in her name as well as in my own." As he +spoke, the squire lifted his hat, and Julius did the same. It was a +sudden, and to both men a quite unexpected, ceremonial; and it gave an +air, touching and unusual, to his welcome. + +And if that man is an ingrate who does not love his native land, how +much more _immediate_, tender, and personal must the feeling be for the +_home_ of one's own race. That stately lady, who seemed to meet him at +the threshold, was only the last of a long, shadowy line, whose hands +were stretched out to him, even from the dark, forgotten days in which +Loegberg Sandal laid the foundations of it. Julius was sensitive, and +full of imagination: he felt his heart beat quick, and his eyes grow dim +to the thought; and he loitered up the wide, low steps, feeling very +like a man going up the phantom stairway of a dream. + +The squire's cheery voice broke the spell. "We shall be ready for church +in a quarter of an hour, Julius; will you remain at home, or go with +us?" + +"I should like to go with you." + +"That's good. It is but a walk through the park: the church is almost at +its gates." + +When he returned to the hall, the family were waiting for him; Mrs. +Sandal and her daughters standing together in a little group, the squire +walking leisurely about with his hands crossed behind his back. It would +have been to some men a rather trying ordeal to descend the long flight +of stairs, with three pairs of ladies' eyes watching him; but Julius +knew that he had a striking personal appearance, and that every +appointment of his toilet was faultless. He knew also the value of the +respectable middle-aged valet following him, and felt that his +irreproachable manner of serving his hat and gloves was a satisfactory +reflection of his own importance. + +It is the women of a family that give the tone and place to it. One +glance at his aunt and cousins satisfied Julius. Mrs. Sandal was stately +and comely, and had the quiet manners of a high-bred woman. Sophia, in +white mull, with a large hat covered with white drooping feathers, and a +glimmer of gold at her throat and wrists, was at least picturesque. Of +Charlotte, he saw nothing in the first moments of their meeting but a +pair of bright blue eyes, and a face as sweet and fresh as if it had +been made out of a rose. He took his place between the girls, and the +squire and his wife walked behind them. Sophia, being the eldest, took +the initiative, talking softly and thoughtfully, as it was proper to do +upon a Sunday morning. + +The sods under their feet were thick and green; the oaks and sycamores +above them had the broad shadows of many centuries. The air was balmy +with emanations from the woods and fields, and full of the expanding +melody of church-bells travelling from hill to hill. Julius was +conscious of every thing; even of the proud, shy girl who walked on his +left hand, and whose attitude impressed him as slightly antagonistic. +They soon reached the church, a very ancient one, built in the bloody +days of the Plantagenets by the two knights whose grim effigies kept +guard within the porch. It was dim and still when they entered: the +congregation all kneeling at the solemn confession; the clergyman's +voice, low and pathetic, intensifying silence to which it only added +mortal minors of lament and entreaty. He was a small, spare man, with a +face almost as white as the vesture of his holy office. Julius glanced +up at him, and for a few minutes forgot all his dreamy philosophies, +aggressive free thought, and shallow infidelities. He could not resist +the influences around him; and when the people rose, and the organ +filled the silence with melody, and a young sweet voice chanted +joyfully,-- + + _"O come let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice + in the strength of our salvation. + Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving: + and shew ourselves glad in him with Psalms,"--_ + +he turned round, and looked up to the singer, with a heart beating to +every triumphant note. Then he saw it was Charlotte Sandal; and he did +not wonder at the hearty way in which the squire joined in the melodious +invocation, nor at his happy face, nor at his shining eyes; and he said +to himself with a sigh, "That is a Psalm one could sing oftener than +once in seven days." + +He had not noticed Charlotte much as they went to church: he amended his +error as he returned to the "seat." And he thought that the old sylvan +goddesses must have been as she was; must have had just the same fresh +faces, and bright brown hair; just the same tall, erect forms and light +steps; just the same garments of mingled wood-colors and pale green. + +The squire had a very complacent feeling. He looked upon Julius as a +nephew of his own discovering, and he felt something of a personal pride +in all that was excellent in the young man. He watched impatiently for +his wife to express her satisfaction, but Mrs. Sandal was not yet sure +that she had any good reason to express it. + +"Is he not handsome, Alice?" + +"Some people would think so, William. I like a face I can read." + +"I'm sure it is a long way better to keep yourself to yourself. Say what +you will, I am sure he will have plenty of good qualities. Eh? What?" + +"For instance, a great deal of money." + +"Treat him fair, Alice; treat him fair. You never were one to be unfair, +and I don't think you'll begin with my nephew." + +"No, I'll never be unfair, not as long as I live; and I'll take up for +Julius Sandal as soon as I am half sure he deserves it." + +"You can't think what a pleasure it would be to me if he fancied one of +our girls. I've planned it this many a long day, Alice." + +"Well, then, William, if you have a wish as strong as that, it is +something more than a wish, it is a kind of right; and I'll never go +against you in any fair matter." + +"And though you spoke scornful of money, it is a good thing; and the +girl Julius marries will be a rich woman. Eh? What?" + +"Perhaps; but it is the happiness and not the riches of her child that +is a good mother's reward, and a good father's too. Eh, William?" + +"Certainly, Alice, certainly." But his unspoken reflection was, "women +are that short sighted, they cannot put up with a small evil to prevent +a big one." + +He had forgotten that "the wise One" and the "Counsellor" thought one +day's joys and sorrows "sufficient" for the heart to bear. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THUS RUNS THE WORLD AWAY. + + "But we mortals + Planted so lowly, with death to bless us, + Sorrow no longer." + + "Our choices are our destiny. Nothing is ours that our choices have + not made ours." + + +Julius Sandal had precisely those superficial excellences which the +world is ready to accept at their apparent value; and he had been in so +many schools, and imbibed such a variety of opinions, that he had a +mental suit for all occasions. "He knows about every thing," said Sandal +to the clergyman, at the close of an evening spent together,--an evening +in which Julius had been particularly interesting. "Don't you think so, +sir?" + +The rector looked up at the starry sky, and around the mountain-girdled +valley, and answered slowly, "He has a great many ideas, squire; but +they are second-hand, and do not fit his intellect." + +Charlotte had much the same opinion of the paragon, only she expressed +it in a different way. "He believes in every thing, and he might as well +believe in nothing. Confucius and Christ are about the same to him, and +he thinks Juggernaut only 'a clumsier spelling of a name which no man +spells correctly.'" + +"His mind is like a fine mosaic, Charlotte." + +"Oh, indeed, Sophia, I don't think so! Mosaics have a design and fit it. +The mind of Julius is more like that quilt of a thousand pieces which +grandmother patched. There they are, the whole thousand, just bits of +color, all sizes and shapes. I would rather have a good square of white +Marseilles." + +"I don't think you ought to speak in such a way, Charlotte. You can't +help seeing how much he admires you." + +There was a tone in Sophia's carefully modulated voice which made +Charlotte turn, and look at her sister. She was sitting at her +embroidery-frame, and apparently counting the stitches in the rose-leaf +she was copying; but Charlotte noticed that her hand trembled, and that +she was counting at random. In a moment the veil fell from her eyes: she +understood that Sophia was in love with Julius, and fearful of her own +influence over him. She had been about to leave the room: she returned +to the window, and stood at it a few moments, as if considering the +assertion. + +"I should be very sorry if that were the case, Sophia." + +"Why?" + +"Because I do not admire Julius in any way. I never could admire him. I +don't want to be in debt to him for even one-half hour of sentimental +affection." + +"You should let him understand that, Charlotte, if it be so." + +"He must be very dull if he does not understand." + +"When father and you went fishing yesterday, he went with you." + +"Why did you not come also? We begged you to do so." + +"Because I hate to be hot and untidy, and to get my hands soiled, and my +face flushed. That was your condition when you returned home; but all +the same, he said you looked like a water-nymph or a wood-nymph." + +"I think very little of him for such talk. There is nothing 'nymphy' +about me. I should hate myself if there were. I am going to write, and +ask Harry to get a furlough for a few weeks. I want to talk sensibly to +some one. I am tired of being on the heights or in the depths all the +time; and as for poetry, I wish I might never hear words that rhyme +again. I've got to feel that way about it, that if I open a book, and +see the lines begin with capitals, my first impulse is to tear it to +pieces. There, now, you have my opinions, Sophia!" + +Sophia laughed softly. "Where are you going? I see you have your bonnet +on." + +"I am going to Up-Hill. Grandfather Latrigg had a fall yesterday, and +that's a bad thing at his age. Father is quite put out about it." + +"Is he going with you?" + +"He was, but two of the shepherds from Holler Scree have just come for +him. There is something wrong with the flocks." + +"Julius?" + +"He does not know I am going; and if he did, I should tell him plainly +he was not wanted either at Up-Hill, or on the way to it. Ducie thinks +little of him, and grandfather Latrigg makes his face like a stone wall +when Julius talks his finest." + +"They don't understand Julius. How can they? Steve is their model, and +Steve is not the least like Julius." + +"I should think not." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Never mind. Good-by." + +She shut the door with more emphasis than she was aware of, and went to +her mother for some cordials and dainties to take with her. As she +passed through the hall the squire called her, and she followed his +voice into the small parlor which was emphatically "master's room." + +"I have had very bad news about the Holler Scree flock, Charlotte, and I +must away there to see what can be done. Tell Barf Latrigg it is the +sheep, and he will understand: he was always one to put the dumb +creatures first. The kindest thing that is in your own heart say it to +the dear old man for me; will you, Charlotte?" + +"You can trust to me, father." + +"Yes, I know I can; for that and more too. And there is more. I feel a +bit about Stephen. Happen I was less than kind to him the other day. +But I gave you good reasons, Charlotte; and I have such confidence in +you, that I said to mother, 'You can send Charlotte. There is nothing +underhand about her. She knows my will, and she'll do it.' Eh? What?" + +"Yes, father: I'll be square on all four sides with you. But I told you +there had been no love-making between me and Steve." + +"Steve was doing his best at it. Depend upon it he meant love-making; +and I must say I thought you made out to understand him very well. Maybe +I was mistaken. Every woman is a new book, and a book by herself; and it +isn't likely I can understand them all." + +"Stephen is sure to speak to me about your being so queer to him. Had I +not better tell the truth?" + +"I have a high opinion of that way. Truth may be blamed, but it can't be +shamed. However, if he was not making love to you at the shearing, won't +you find it a bit difficult to speak your mind? Eh? What?" + +"He will understand." + +"Ay, I thought so." + +"Father, we have never had any secrets, you and me. If I am not to +encourage Stephen Latrigg, do you want me to marry Julius Sandal?" + +"Well, I never! Such a question! What for?" + +"Because, at the very first, I want to tell you that I could not do +it--_no way_. I am quite ready to give up my will to your will, and my +pleasure to your pleasure. That is my duty; but to marry cousin Julius +is a different thing." + +"Don't get too far forward, Charlotte. Julius has not said a word to me +about marrying you." + +"But he is doing his best at it. Depend upon it he means marrying; and I +must say I thought you made out to understand him very well. Maybe I was +mistaken. Every man is a new book, and a book by himself; and it is not +likely I can understand them all." + +"Now you are picking up my own words, and throwing them back at me. That +isn't right. I don't know whatever to say for myself. Eh? What?" + +"Say, 'dear Charlotte,' and 'good-by Charlotte,' and take an easy mind +with you to Holler Scree, father. As far as I am concerned, I will +never grieve you, and never deceive you,--no, not in the least little +thing." + +So she left him. Her face was bright with smiles, and her words had even +a ring of mirth in them; but below all there was a stubborn weight that +she could not throw off, a darkness of spirit that no sunshine could +brighten. Since Julius had come into their home, home had never been the +same. There was a stranger at the table and in all its sweet, familiar +places, and she was sure that to her he always would be a stranger. +Something was said or done that put them farther apart every day. She +could not understand how any Sandal could be so absolutely out of her +love and sympathy. Who has not experienced these invasions of hostile +natures? Alien voices, characters fundamentally different, yet bound to +them by natural ties which the soul refuses to recognize. + +The somberness of her thoughts affected her surroundings very much as +rain affects the atmosphere. The hills looked melancholy: she was aware +of every stone on the road. Alas! this morning she had begun to grow +old, for she felt that she had _a past_,--a past that could never +return. Hitherto her life had been to-day and to-morrow, and to-morrow +always in the sunshine. Hitherto the thought of Stephen had been blended +with something that was to happen. Now she knew she must always be +remembering the days that for them would come no more. She found herself +reviewing even her former visits to Up-Hill. In them also change had +begun. And it is over the young, sorrow triumphs most cruelly. They are +so easily wounded, so inapt to resist, so harassed by scruples, so +astonished at troubles they cannot comprehend, that their very +sensitiveness prepares them for suffering. Very bitter tears are shed +before we are twenty years old. At forty we have learned to accept the +inevitable, and to feel many things possible which we once declared +would break our hearts in two. + +There was an air of great depression also at Up-Hill. Ducie was full of +apprehension. She said to Charlotte, "When men as old as father fall, +they stumble at their own grave; and I can't think what I'll do without +father." + +"You have Steve." + +"Steve is going away. He would have left this morning, but for this +fresh trouble. I see you are startled, Charlotte." + +"I am that. I heard nothing of it. He moves in a great hurry." + +"He always moves that way, does Steve." + +"How is grandfather?" + +"He has had quite a backening since yesterday night. He has got 'the +call,' Charlotte. I've had more than one sign of it. Just before he fell +he went into the garden, and brought in with him a sprig of +'Death-come-quickly.' [The plant _Geranium Robertianum_.] 'Father,' I +asked, 'whatever made you pull that?' Then he looked so queerly, and +answered, 'I didn't pull it, Ducie: I found it on the wall.' He was quite +curious, and sent me to ask this one and the other one if they had been +in the garden. No one had been there; and, at the long end, he said, +'Make no more talk about it, Ducie. There's _them_ that go up and down +the fellside that no one sees. _They_ lift the latch, and wait not for +the open door, the king's command being urgent. I have had a message.' He +fell an hour afterwards, Charlotte. He did not think he was much hurt at +the time, but he got his death-throw. I know it." + +"I should like to speak to him, Ducie. Tell him that Charlotte Sandal +wants his blessing." + +He was lying on the big oak bed in the best room, waiting for his +dismissal in cheerful serenity. "Come here, Charlotte," he said; "stoop +down, and let me see you once more. My sight grows dim. I am going away, +dear." + +"O grandfather! is there any thing I can do for you?" + +"Be a good girl. Be good, and do good. Stand true to +Steve,--remember,--true to Steve." And he did not seem inclined to talk +more. + +"He is saving his strength for the squire," said Ducie. "He has a deal +to say to him." + +"Father hoped to be back this afternoon." + +"Though it be the darkening when he gets home, ask him to come at once, +Charlotte. Father is waiting for him, and I don't think he will pass the +turn of the night." + +There were many subtle links of sympathy between Up-Hill and Sandal. +Death could not be in one house without casting a shadow in the other. +Julius privately thought such a fellow-feeling a little stretched. The +Latriggs were on a distinctly lower social footing than the Sandals. +Rich they might be; but they were not written among the list of county +families, nor had they even married into their ranks. He could not +understand why Barf Latrigg's death should be allowed to interfere with +life at Seat-Sandal. Yet Mrs. Sandal was at Up-Hill all the afternoon; +and, though the squire did not get home until quite the darkening, he +went at once, without taking food or rest, to the dying man. + +"Why, Barf is very near all the same as my own father," he said. And +then, in a lower voice, "and he may see my father before the strike of +day. I wouldn't miss Barfs last words for a year of life. I wouldn't +that." + +It was a lovely night,--warm, and sweet with the scent of August lilies, +and the rich aromas of ripening fruit and grain. The great hills and the +peaceful valleys lay under the soft radiance of a full moon; and there +was not a sound but the gurgle of running water, or the bark of some +solitary sheep-dog, watching the folds on the high fells. Sophia and +Julius were walking in the garden, both feeling the sensitive +suggestiveness of the hour, talking softly together on topics people +seldom discuss in the sunshine,--intimations of lost powers, prior +existences, immortal life. Julius was learned in the Oriental view of +metempsychosis. Sophia could trace the veiled intuition through the +highest inspiration of Western thought. + +"It whispers in the heart of every shepherd on these hills," she said; +"and they interpreted for Mr. Wordsworth the dream of his own soul." + +"I know, Sophia. I lifted the book yesterday: your mark was in it." And +he recited in a low, intense voice,-- + + "'Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: + The soul that rises with us, our life's star, + Hath had elsewhere its setting, + And cometh from afar: + Not in entire forgetfulness, + And not in utter nakedness, + But trailing clouds of glory do we come + From God, who is our home:'" + +"Oh, yes!" answered Sophia, lifting her dark eyes in a real enthusiasm. + + "Though inland far we be, + Our souls have sight of that immortal sea + Which brought us hither.'" + +And they were both very happy in this luxury of mystical speculation. +Eternity was behind as before them. Soft impulses from moon and stars, +and from the witching beauty of lonely hills and scented garden-ways, +touched within their souls some primal sympathy that drew them close to +that unseen boundary dividing spirits from shadow-casting men. It is +true they rather felt than understood; but when the soul has faith, what +matters comprehension? + +In the cold sweetness of the following dawn, the squire returned from +Up-Hill. "Barf is gone, Alice," were his first words. + +"But all is well, William." + +"No doubt of it. I met the rector on the hillside. 'How is Barf?' I +asked; and he answered, 'Thank God, he has the mastery!' Then he went on +without another word. Barf had lost his sight when I got there; but he +knew my voice, and he asked me to lay my face against his face. 'I've +done well to Sandal,--well to Sandal,' he muttered at intervals. +'You'll know it some day, William.' I can't think what he meant. I hope +he hasn't left me any money. I could not take it, Alice." + +"Was that all?" + +"When Steve came in he said something like 'Charlotte,' and he looked +hard at me; and then again, 'I've done well by Sandal.' But I was too +late. Ducie said he had been very restless about me earlier in the +afternoon: he was nearly outside life when I got there. We thought he +would speak no more; but about three o'clock this morning he called +quite clearly, '_Ducie, the abbot's cross_.' Then Ducie unlocked the oak +chest that stands by the bed-side, and took from it an ivory crucifix. +She put it in his left hand. With a smile he touched the Christ upon it; +and so, clasping the abbot's cross, he died." + +"I wonder at that, William. A better Church-of-England man was not in +all the dales than Barf Latrigg." + +"Ay; but you see, Alice, that cross is older than the Church of England. +It was given to the first Latrigg of Up-Hill by the first abbot of +Furness. Before the days of Wyckliffe and Latimer, every one of them, +babe and hoary-head, died with it in their hands. There are things that +go deeper down than creeds, Alice; and the cross with the Saviour on it +is one of them. I would like to feel it myself, even when I was past +seeing it. I would like to take the step between here and there with it +in my hands." + +In the cool of the afternoon, Julius and the girls went to Up-Hill. He +had a solemn curiousness about death; and both personally and +theoretically the transition filled him with vague, momentous ideas, +relating to all sides of his conscious being. In every land where he had +sojourned, the superstitions and ceremonials that attended it were +subjects of interest to him. So he was much touched when he entered the +deep, cool porch, and saw the little table at the threshold, covered +with a white linen cloth, and holding a plate of evergreens and a +handful of salt. And when Sophia and Charlotte each scattered a little +salt upon the ground, and broke off a small spray of boxwood, he knew +instinctively that they were silently expressing their faith in the +preservation of the body, and in the life everlasting; and he imitated +them in the simple rite. + +Ducie met them with a grave and tender pleasure. "Come, and see the +empty soul-case," she said softly; "there is nothing to fear you." And +she led them into the chamber where it lay. The great bed was white as a +drift of snow. On the dark oak walls, there were branches of laurel and +snowberry. The floor was fragrant under the feet, with bits of rosemary, +and bruised ears of lavender, and leaves of thyme. The casements were +wide open to admit the fresh mountain breeze; and at one of them Steve +rested in the carved chair that had been his grandfather's, and was now +his own. + +The young men did not know each other; but this was neither the time nor +the place for social civilities, and they only slightly bowed as their +eyes met. Indeed, it seemed wrong to trouble the peaceful silence with +mere words of courtesy; but Charlotte gave her hand to Stephen, and with +it that candid, loving gaze, which has, from the eyes of the beloved, +the miraculous power of turning the water of life into wine. And +Charlotte perceived this, and she went home happy in the happiness she +had given. + +Four days later, Barf Latrigg was buried. In the glory of the August +afternoon, the ladies of Seat-Sandal stood with Julius in the shadow of +the park gates, and watched the long procession winding slowly down the +fells. At first it was accompanied by fitful, varying gusts of solemn +melody; but as it drew nearer, the affecting tones of the funeral hymn +became more and more distinct and sustained. There were at least three +hundred voices thrilling the still, warm air with its pathetic music; +and, as they approached the church gates, it blended itself with the +heavy tread of those who carried and of those who followed the dead, +like a wonderful, triumphant march. + +After the funeral was over, the squire went back to Up-Hill to eat the +arvel-meal, [Death-feast.] and to hear the will of his old friend read. +It was nearly dark when he returned, and he was very glad to find his +wife alone. "I have had a few hard hours, Alice," he said wearily; "and +I am more bothered about Barfs will than I can tell why." + +"I suppose Steve got all." + +"Pretty nearly. Barf's married daughters had their portions long ago, +but he left each of them three hundred pounds as a good-will token. +Ducie got a thousand pounds and her right in Up-Hill as long as she +lived. All else was for Steve except--and this bothers me--a box of +papers left in Ducie's charge. They are to be given to me at her +discretion; and, if not given during her lifetime or my lifetime, the +charge remains then between those that come after us. I don't like it, +and I can't think what it means. Eh? What?" + +"He left you nothing?" + +"He left me his staff. He knew better than to leave me money. But I am +bothered about that box of papers. What can they refer to? Eh? What?" + +"I can make a guess, William. When your brother Tom left home, and went +to India, he took money enough with him; but I'm afraid he got it +queerly. At any rate, your father had some big sums to raise. You were +at college at the time; and though there was some underhand talk, maybe +you never heard it, for no one round Sandal-Side would pass on a word +likely to trouble the old squire, or offend Mistress Charlotte. Now, +perhaps it was at that time Barf Latrigg 'did well to Sandal.'" + +"I think you may be right, Alice. I remember that father was a bit mean +with me the last year I was at Oxford. He would have reasons he did not +tell me of. One should never judge a father. He is often forced to cut +the loaf unevenly for the good of every one." + +But this new idea troubled Sandal. He was a man of super-sensitive honor +with regard to money matters. If there were really any obligation of +that kind between the two houses, he hardly felt grateful to Latrigg for +being silent about it. And still more the transfer of these papers vexed +him. Ducie might know what he might never know. Steve might have it in +his power to trouble Harry when he was at rest with his fore-elders. The +subject haunted and worried him; and as worries are never complete +worries till they have an individuality, Steve very soon became the +personal embodiment of mortifying uncertainty, and wounded _amour +propre_. For if Mrs. Sandal's suspicion were true, or even if it were +not true, she was not likely to be the only one in Sandal-Side who would +construe Latrigg's singular disposition of his papers in the same way. +Certainly Squire William did not feel as if the dead man had 'done well +to Sandal.' + +Stephen was equally annoyed. His grandfather had belonged to a dead +century, and retained until the last his almost feudal idea of the bond +between his family and the Sandals. But the present squire had stepped +outside the shadows of the past, and Stephen was fully abreast of his +own times. He understood very well, that, whatever these papers related +to, they would be a constant thorn in Sandal's side; and he saw them +lying between Charlotte and himself, a barrier unknown, and +insurmountable because unknown. + +From Ducie he could obtain neither information nor assistance. "Mother," +he asked, "do you know what those papers are about?" + +"Ratherly." + +"When can you tell me?" + +"There must be a deal of sorrow before I can tell you." + +"Do you want to tell me?" + +"If I should dare to want it one minute, I should ask God's pardon the +next. When I unlock that box, Steve, there is like to be trouble in +Sandal. I think your grandfather would rather the key rusted away." + +"Does the squire know any thing about them?" + +"Not he." + +"If he asks, will you tell him?" + +"Not yet. I--hope never." + +"I wish they were in the fire." + +"Perhaps some day you may put them there. You will have the right when I +am gone." + +Then Steve silently kissed her, and went into the garden; and Ducie +watched him through the window, and whispered to herself, "It is a bit +hard, but it might be harder; and right always gets the over-hand at the +long end." + +The first interview between the squire and Stephen after Barf Latrigg's +funeral was not a pleasanter one than this misunderstanding promised. +Sandal was walking on Sandal Scree-top one morning, and met Steve. +"Good-morning, Mr. Latrigg," he said; "you are a statesman now, and we +must give you your due respect." He did not say it unkindly; but Steve +somehow felt the difference between Mr. Latrigg and Squire Sandal as he +had never felt it when the greeting had only been, "Good-morning, +Steve. How do all at home do?" + +Still, he was anxious to keep Sandal's good-will, and he hastened to ask +his opinion upon several matters relating to the estate which had just +come into his hands. Ordinarily this concession would have been a piece +of subtle flattery quite irresistible to the elder man, but just at that +time it was the most imprudent thing Steve could have done. + +"I had an offer this morning from Squire Methley. He wants to rent the +Skelwith 'walk' from me. What do you think of him, sir?" + +"As how?" + +"As a tenant. I suppose he has money. There are about a thousand sheep +on it." + +"He lives on the other side of the range, and I know him not; but our +sheep have mingled on the mountain for thirty years. I count not after +him, and he counts not after me;" and Sandal spoke coldly, like a man +defending his own order. "Are you going to rent your 'walks' so soon? +Eh? What?" + +"As soon as I can advantageously." + +"I bethink me. At the last shearing you were all for spinning and +weaving. The Coppice Woods were to make your bobbins; Silver Force was +to feed your engines; the little herd lads and lassies to mind your +spinning-frames. Well, well, Mr. Latrigg, such doings are not for me to +join in! I shall be sorry to see these lovely valleys turned into +weaving-shops; but you belong to a new generation, and the young know +every thing,--or they think they do." + +"And you will soon join the new generation, squire. You were always +tolerant and wide awake. I never knew your prejudices beyond reasoning +with." + +"Mr. Latrigg, leave my prejudices, as you call them, alone. To-day I am +not in the humor either to defend them or repent of them." + +They talked for some time longer,--talked until the squire felt bored +with Steve's plans. The young man kept hoping every moment to say +something that would retrieve his previous blunders; but who can please +those who are determined not to be pleased? And yet Sandal was annoyed +at his own injustice, and then still more annoyed at Steve for causing +him to be unjust. Besides which, the young man's eagerness for change, +his enthusiasms and ambitions, offended him in a particular way that +morning; for he had had an unpleasant letter from his son Harry, who was +not eager and enthusiastic and ambitious, but lazy, extravagant, and +quite commonplace. Also Charlotte had not cared to come out with him, +and the immeasurable self-complacency of his nephew Julius had really +quite spoiled his breakfast; and then, below all, there was that +disagreeable feeling about the Latriggs. + +So Stephen did not conciliate Sandal, and he was himself very much +grieved at the squire's evident refusal of his friendly advances. There +is no humiliation so bitter as that of a rejected offering. Was it not +the failure of Cain's attempted propitiation that kindled the flame of +hate and murder in his heart? Steve Latrigg went back to Up-Hill, +nursing a feeling of indignation against the man who had so suddenly +conceived a dislike to him, and who had dashed, with regrets and +doubtful speeches and faint praise, all the plans which at sunrise had +seemed so full of hope, and so worthy of success. + +The squire was equally annoyed. He could not avoid speaking of the +interview, for it irritated him, and was uppermost in his thoughts. He +detailed it with a faint air of pitying contempt. "The lad is upset with +the money and land he has come into, and the whole place is too small +for his greatness." That was what he said, and he knew he was unjust; +but the moral atmosphere between Steve and himself had become permeated +with distrust and dislike. Unhappy miasmas floated hither and thither in +it, and poisoned him. When with Stephen he hardly recognized himself: he +did not belong to himself. Sarcasm, contradiction, opposing ideas, took +possession of and ruled him by the forces of antipathy, just as others +ruled him by the forces of love and attraction. + +The days that had been full of peaceful happiness were troubled in all +their hours; and yet the sources of trouble were so vague, so blended +with what he had called unto himself, that he could not give vent to his +unrest and disappointment. His life had had a jar; nothing ran smoothly; +and he was almost glad when Julius announced the near termination of his +visit. He had begun to feel as if Julius were inimical to him; not +consciously so, but in that occult way which makes certain foods and +drinks, certain winds and weathers, inimical to certain personalities. +His presence seemed to have blighted his happiness, as the north wind +blighted his myrtles. "If I could only have let 'well' alone. If I had +never written that letter." Many a time a day he said such words to his +own heart. + +In the mean time, Julius was quite unconscious of his position. He was +thoroughly enjoying himself. If others were losing, he was not. He was +in love with the fine old hall. The simple, sylvan character of its +daily life charmed his poetic instincts. The sweet, hot days on the +fells, with a rod in his hand, and Charlotte and the squire for company, +were like an idyl. The rainy days in the large, low drawing-room, +singing with Sophia, or dreaming and speculating with her on all sorts +of mysteries, were, in their way, equally charmful. He liked to walk +slowly up and down, and to talk to her softly of things obscure, +cryptic, cabalistic. The plashing rain, the moaning wind, made just the +monotonous accompaniment that seemed fitting; and the lovely girl, +listening, with needle half-drawn, and sensitive, sensuous face lifted +to his own, made a situation in which he knew he did himself full +justice. + +At such times he thought Sophia was surely his natural mate,--'the soul +that halved his own,' the one of 'nearer kindred than life hinted of.' +At other times he was equally conscious that he loved Charlotte Sandal +with an intensity to which his love for Sophia was as water is to wine. +But Charlotte's indifference mortified him, and their natures were +almost antagonistic to each other. Under such circumstances a great love +is often a dangerous one. Very little will turn it into hatred. And +Julius had been made to feel more than once the utter superfluity of his +existence, as far as Charlotte Sandal was concerned. + +Still, he determined not to resign the hope of winning her until he was +sure that her indifference was not an affectation. He had read of women +who used it as a lure. If it were Charlotte's special weapon he was +quite willing to be brought to submission by it. After all, there was +piquancy in the situation; for to most men, love sought and hardly won +is far sweeter than love freely given. + +Yet of all the women whom he had known, Charlotte Sandal was the least +approachable. She was fertile in preventing an opportunity; and if the +opportunity came, she was equally fertile in spoiling it. But Julius had +patience; and patience is the art and secret of hoping. A woman cannot +always be on guard, and he believed in not losing heart, and in waiting. +Sooner or later, the happy moment when success would be possible was +certain to arrive. + +One day in the early part of September, the squire asked his wife for +all the house-servants she could spare. "A few more hands will bring +home the harvest to-night," he said; "and it would be a great thing to +get it in without a drop of rain." + +So the men and maids went off to the wheat-fields, as if they were going +to a frolic; and there was a happy sense of freedom, with the picnicky +dinner, and the general air of things being left to themselves about the +house. After an unusually merry lunch, Julius proposed a walk to the +harvest-field, and Sophia and Charlotte eagerly agreed to it. + +It was a joy to be out of doors under such a sky. The intense, +repressing greens of summer were now subdued and shaded. The air was +subtle and fragrant. Amber rays shone through the boughs. The hills were +clothed in purple. An exquisite, impalpable haze idealized all nature. +Right and left the reapers swept their sharp sickles through the ripe +wheat. The women went after them, binding the sheaves, and singing among +the yellow swaths shrill, wild songs, full of simple modulations. + +The squire's field was busy as a fair; and the idle young people sat +under the oaks, or walked slowly in the shadow of the hedges, pulling +poppies and wild flowers, and realizing all the poetry of a pastoral +life, without any of its hard labor or its vulgar cares. Mrs. Sandal had +given them a basket with berries and cake and cream in it. They were all +young enough to get pleasantly hungry in the open air, all young enough +to look upon berries and cake and cream as a distinct addition to +happiness. They set out a little feast under the trees, and called the +squire to come and taste their dainties. + +He was standing, without his coat and vest, on the top of a loaded wain, +the very embodiment of a jovial, handsome, country gentleman. The reins +were in his hand; he was going to drive home the wealthy wagon; but he +stopped and stooped, and Charlotte, standing on tip-toes, handed him a +glass of cream. "God love thy bonny face," he said, with a beaming +smile, as he handed her back the empty glass. Then off went the great +horses with their towering load, treading carefully between the hedges +of the narrow lane, and leaving upon the hawthorns many a stray ear for +the birds gleaning. + +When the squire returned he called to Julius and his daughters, "What +idle-backs you are! Come, and bind a sheaf with me." And they rose with +a merry laugh, and followed him down the field, working a little, and +resting a little; and towards the close of the afternoon, listening to +the singing of an old man who had brought his fiddle to the field in +order to be ready to play at the squire's "harvest-home." He was a thin, +crooked, old man, very spare and ruddy. "Eighty-three years old, young +sir," he said to Julius; and then, in a trembling, cracked voice, he +quavered out,-- + + "Says t' auld man to t' auld oak-tree, + Young and lusty was I when I kenned thee: + I was young and lusty, I was fair and clear, + Young and lusty was I, many a long year. + But sair failed is I, sair failed now; + Sair failed is I, since I kenned thou. + Sair failed, honey, + Sair failed now; + Sair failed, honey, + Since I kenned thou." + +It was the appeal of tottering age to happy, handsome youth, and Julius +could not resist it. With a royal grace he laid a guinea in the old +man's open palm, and felt fully rewarded by his look of wonder and +delight. + +"God give you love and luck, young sir. I am eighty-three now, and sair +failed; but I was once twenty-three, and young and lusty as you be. But +life is at the fag end with me now. God save us all!" Then, with a +meaning look at the two pretty girls watching him, he went slowly off, +droning out to a monotonous accompaniment, an old love ballad:-- + + "Picking of lilies the other day, + Picking of lilies both fresh and gay, + Picking of lilies, red, white, and blue, + Little I thought what love could do." + +"'_Little I thought what love could do_,'" Julius repeated; and he sang +the doleful refrain over and over, as they strolled back to the oak +under which they had had their little feast. Then Sophia, who had a +natural love of neatness and order, began to collect the plates and +napkins, and arrange them in the basket; and this being done, she looked +around for the housemaid in order to put it in her charge. The girl was +at the other end of the field, and she went to her. + +Charlotte had scarcely perceived what was going on. The old man's +singing had made her a little sad. She, too, was thinking of "what love +could do." She was standing under the tree, leaning against the great +mossy trunk. Her brown hair had fallen loose, her cheeks were flushed, +her lips crimson, her whole form a glowing picture of youth in its +perfect beauty and freshness. Sophia was out of hearing. Julius stepped +close to her. His soul was in his face; he spoke like a man who was no +longer master of himself. + +"Charlotte, I love you. I love you with all my heart." + +She looked at him steadily. Her eyes flashed. She threw downward her +hands with a deprecating motion. + +"You have no right to say such words to me, Julius. I have done all a +woman could do to prevent, them. I have never given you any +encouragement. A gentleman does not speak without it." + +"I could not help speaking. I love you, Charlotte. Is there any wrong in +loving you? If I had any hope of winning you." + +"No, no; there is no hope. I do not love you. I never shall love you." + +"Unless you have some other lover, Charlotte, I shall dare to hope"-- + +"I have a lover." + +"Oh!" + +"And I am frank with you because it is best. I trust you will respect my +candor." + +He only bowed. Indeed, he found speech impossible. Never before had +Charlotte looked so lovely and so desirable to him. He felt her positive +rejection very keenly. + +"Sophia is coming. Please to forget that this conversation has ever +been." + +"You are very cruel." + +"No. I am truly kind. Sophia, I am tired; let us go home." + +So they turned out of the field, and into the lane. But something was +gone, and something had come. Sophia felt the change, and she looked +curiously at Julius and Charlotte. Charlotte was calmly mingling the +poppies and wheat in her hands. Her face revealed nothing. Julius was a +little melancholy. "The fairies have left us," he said. "All of a +sudden, the revel is over." Then as they walked slowly homeward, he took +Sophia's hand, and swayed it gently to and fro to the old fiddler's +refrain,-- + + "'Little I thought what love could do.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARLOTTE. + + "Oh, how this spring of love resembleth + The uncertain glory of an April day!" + + "Hammering and clinking, chattering stony names + Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and tuff, + Amygdaloid and trachyte." + + +When Charlotte again went to Up-Hill she found herself walking through a +sober realm of leafless trees. The glory of autumn was gone. The hills, +with their circular sheep-pens, were now brown and bare; and the plaided +shepherds, descending far apart, gave only an air of loneliness to the +landscape. She could see the white line of the stony road with a sad +distinctness. It was no longer bordered with creeping vines and patches +of murmuring bee-bent heather. And the stream-bed also had lost nearly +all its sentinel rushes, and the tall brakens from its shaggy slopes +were gone. But Silver Beck still ran musically over tracts of tinkling +stones; and, through the chilly air, the lustered black cock was +crowing for the gray hen in the hollow. + +Very soon the atmosphere became full of misty rain; and ere she reached +the house, there was a cold wind, and the nearest cloud was sprinkling +the bubbling beck. It was pleasant to see Ducie at the open door ready +to welcome her; pleasant to get into the snug houseplace, and watch the +great fire leaping up the chimney, and throwing lustres on the carved +oak presses and long settles, and on the bright brass and pewter +vessels, and the rows of showy chinaware. Very pleasant to draw her +chair to the little round table on the hearthstone, and to inhale the +fragrance of the infusing tea, and the rich aroma of potted char and +spiced bread and freshly-baked cheese-cakes. And still more pleasant to +be taken possession of, to have her damp shoes and cloak removed, her +chill fingers warmed in a kindly, motherly clasp, and to be made to feel +through all her senses that she was indeed "welcome as sun-shining." + +With a little shiver of disappointment she noticed that there were only +two tea-cups on the table; and the house, when she came to analyze its +atmosphere, had in it the perceptible loneliness of the absent master. +"Is not Stephen at home?" she asked, as Ducie settled herself +comfortably for their meal; "I thought Stephen was at home." + +"No, he isn't. He went to Kendal three days ago about his fleeces. +Whitney's carpet-works have made him a very good offer. Did not the +squire speak of it?" + +"No." + +"Well he knew all about it. He met Steve, and Steve told him. The squire +has been a little queer with us lately, Charlotte. Do you know what the +trouble is? I thought I would have you up to tea, and ask you; so when +Sandal was up here this morning, I said, 'Let Charlotte come, and have a +cup of tea with me, squire, I'd be glad.' And he said, 'When?' And I +said, 'This afternoon. I am fair lonely without Steve.' And he said, +'I'm agreeable. She'll be glad enough to come.' And I said, 'Thank'ee, +squire, I'll be glad enough to see her.' But what _is_ the matter, +Charlotte? The squire has been in his airs with Steve ever so long." + +Then Charlotte's face grew like a flame; and she answered, in a tone of +tender sadness, "Father thinks Steve loves me; and he says there is no +love-line between our houses, and that, if there were, it is crossed +with sorrow, and that neither the living nor the dead will have marriage +between Steve and me." + +"I thought that was the trouble. I did so. As for the living, he speaks +for himself; as for the dead, it is your grandmother Sandal he thinks +of. She was a hard, proud woman, Charlotte. Her two daughters rejoiced +at their wedding-days, and two out of her three sons she drove away from +their home. Your father was on the point of going, when his brother +Launcie's death made him the heir. Then she gave him a bit more respect, +and for pretty Alice Morecombe's sake he stayed by the old squire. Ten +years your mother waited for William Sandal, Charlotte." + +"Yes, I know." + +"Do you love Steve, Charlotte? I am Steve's mother, dear, and you may +speak to me as if you were talking to your own heart. I would never tell +Steve either this way or that way for any thing. Steve would not thank +me if I did. He is one of them that wants to reach his happiness in his +own way, and by his own hand. And I have good reasons for asking you +such a question, or I would not ask it; you may be sure I have, that you +may." + +Charlotte had put down her cup, and she sat with her hands clasped upon +her lap, looking down into it. Ducie's question took her by surprise, +and she was rather offended by it. For Charlotte Sandal had been taught +all the reticences of good society, and for a moment she resented a +catechism so direct and personal; but only for a moment. Before Ducie +had done speaking, she had remembered that nothing but true kindness +could have prompted the inquiry. Ducie was not a curious, tattling, +meddlesome woman; Charlotte had never known her to interfere in any +one's affairs. She had few visitors, and she made no calls. Year in and +year out, Ducie could always be found at home with herself. + +"You need not tell me, dear, if you do not know; or if you do not want +to tell me." + +"I do know, Ducie; and I do not mind telling you in the least. I love +Stephen very dearly. I have loved him ever since--I don't know when." + +"And you have always had as good and as true as you have given. Steve is +fondly heart-grown to you, Charlotte. But we will say no more; and what +we have said is dropped into my heart like a stone dropped into deep +water." + +Then they spoke of the rector, how he was failing a little; and of one +of the maids at Seat-Sandal who was to marry the head shepherd at +Up-Hill; and at last, when there had been enough of indifferent talk to +effectually put Steve out of mind, Ducie asked suddenly, "How is Harry, +and is he doing well?" + +This was a subject Charlotte was glad to discuss with Ducie. Harry was a +great favorite with her, and had been accustomed to run to Up-Hill +whenever he was in any boyish scrape. And Harry was _not_ doing well. +"Father is vexed and troubled about him, Ducie," she answered. "Whenever +a letter comes from Harry, it puts every thing wrong in the house. +Mother goes away and cries; and Sophia sulks because, she says, 'it is a +shame any single one of the family should be allowed to make all the +rest uncomfortable.'" + +"Harry should never have gone into the army. He hasn't any resisting +power, hasn't Harry. And there is nothing but temptation in the army. +Dear me, Charlotte! We may well pray not to be led into the way of +temptation; for if we once get into it, we are no better off than a fly +in a spider's web." + +She was filling the two empty cups as she spoke, but she suddenly set +down the teapot, and listened a moment. "I hear Steve's footsteps. Sit +still, Charlotte. He is opening the door. I knew it was he." + +"Mother! mother!" + +"Here I am, Steve." + +He came in rosy and wet with his climb up the fellside; and, as he +kissed his mother, he put out his hand to Charlotte. Then there was the +pleasantest stir of care and welcome imaginable; and Steve soon found +himself sitting opposite the girl he loved so dearly, taking his cup +from her hands, looking into her bright, kind eyes, exchanging with her +those charming little courtesies which can be made the vehicles of so +much that is not spoken, and that is understood without speech. + +But the afternoons were now very short, and the happy meal had to be +hastened. The clouds, too, had fallen low; and the rain, as Ducie said, +"was plashing and pattering badly." She folded her own blanket-shawl +around Charlotte; and as there was no wind, and the road was mostly wide +enough for two, Steve could carry an umbrella, and get her safely home +before the darkening. + +How merrily they went out together into the storm! Steve thought he +could hardly have chosen any circumstances that would have pleased him +better. It was quite necessary that Charlotte should keep close to his +side; it was quite natural that she should lift her face to his in +talking; it was equally natural that Steve should bend towards +Charlotte, and that, in a moment, without any conscious intention of +doing so, he should kiss her. + +She trembled and stood still, but she was not angry. "That was very +wrong, Steve. I told you at the harvest-home what father said, and what +I had promised father. I'll break no squares with father, and you must +not make me do so." + +"I could not help it, Charlotte, you looked so bewitching." + +"Oh, dear! the old, old excuse, 'The woman tempted me,' etc." + +"Forgive me, dear Charlotte. I was going to tell you that I had been +very fortunate in Kendal, and next week I am going to Bradford to learn +all about spinning and weaving and machinery. But what is success +without you? If I make every dream come to pass, and have not Charlotte, +my heart will keep telling me, night and day, '_All for nothing, all for +nothing_.'" + +"Do not be so impatient. You are making trouble, and forespeaking +disappointment. Before you have learned all about manufacturing, and +built your mill, before you are really ready to begin your life's work, +many a change may have taken place in Sandal-Side. When Julius comes at +Christmas I think he will ask Sophia to marry him, and I think Sophia +will accept his offer. That marriage would open the way for our +marriage." + +"Only partly I fear. I can see that squire Sandal has taken a dislike, +and your mother was a little high with me when I saw her last." + +"Partly your own fault, sir. Why did you give up the ways of your +fathers? The idea of mills and trading in these dales is such a new +one." + +"But a man must move with his own age, Charlotte. There is no prospect +of another Stuart rebellion. I cannot do the queen's service, and get +rewarded as old Christopher Sandal did. And I want to go to Parliament, +and can't go without money. And I can't make money quick enough by +keeping sheep and planting wheat. But manufacturing means money, land, +influence, power." + +"Father does not see these things as you do, Steve. He sees the peaceful +dales invaded by white-faced factory-hands, loud-voiced, quarrelling, +disrespectful. All the old landmarks and traditions will disappear; also +simple ways of living, calm religion, true friendships. Every good old +sentiment will be gauged by money, will finally vanish before money, and +what the busy world calls 'improvements.' It makes him fretful, jealous, +and unhappy." + +"That is just the trouble, Charlotte. When a man has not the spirit of +his age, he has all its unhappiness. But my greatest fear is, that you +will grow weary of waiting for _our hour_." + +"I have told you that I shall not. There is an old proverb which says, +'Trust not the man who promises with an oath.' Is not my simple word, +then, the best and the surest hope?" + +Then she nestled close to his side, and began to talk of his plans and +his journey, and to anticipate the time when he would break ground upon +Silver Beck, and build the many-windowed factory that had been his dream +ever since he had began to plan his own career. The wind rose, the rain +fell in a down-pour before they reached the park-gates; but there was a +certain joy in facing the wet breeze, and although they did not loiter, +yet neither did they hurry. In both their hearts there was a little fear +of the squire, but neither spoke of it. Charlotte would not suppose or +suggest any necessity for avoiding him, and Steve was equally sensitive +on the subject. + +When they arrived at Seat-Sandal the main entrance was closed, and +Stephen stood with her on the threshold until a man-servant opened +slowly its ponderous panels. There was a bright fire burning in the +hall, and lights were in the sconces on the walls. Charlotte asked Steve +to come in and rest a while. She tried to avoid showing either fear or +hurry, and Steve was conscious of the same effort on his own part; but +yet he knew that they both thought it well none of the family were aware +of her return, or of his presence. She watched him descend the dripping +steps into the darkness, and then went towards the fire. An unusual +silence was in the house. She stood upon the hearthstone while the +servant rebolted the door, and then asked,-- + +"Is dinner served, Noel?" + +"It be over, Miss Charlotte." + +So she went to her own room. It was chilly and dreary. The fire had been +allowed to die down, and had only just been replenished. It was smoking +also, and the candles on her toilet-table burned dimly in the damp +atmosphere. She hurriedly changed her gown, and was going down-stairs, +when a movement in Sophia's room arrested her attention. It was very +unusual for Sophia to be up-stairs at that hour, and the fact struck her +significantly. She knocked at the door, and was told rather irritably to +"Come in." + +"Dear me, Sophia! what is the matter? It feels as if there were +something wrong in the house." + +"I suppose there is something wrong. Father got a letter from Harry by +the late post, and he left his dinner untouched; and mother is in her +room crying, of course. I do think it is a shame that Harry is allowed +to turn the house upside down whenever he feels like it." + +"Perhaps he is in trouble." + +"He is always in trouble, for he is always busy making trouble. His very +amusements mean trouble for all who have the misfortune to have any +thing to do with him. Julius told me that no man in the 'Cameronians' +had a worse name than Harry Sandal." + +"Julius! The idea of Julius talking badly about our Harry, and to you! I +wonder you listened to him. It was a shabby thing to do; it was that." + +"Julius only repeated what he had heard, and he was very sorry to do so. +He felt it to be conscientiously his duty." + +"Bah! God save me from such a conscience! If Julius had heard any thing +good of Harry, he would have had no conscientious scruples about +silence; not he! I dare say Julius would be glad if poor Harry was out +of his way." + +"Charlotte Sandal, you shall not say such very unladylike, such +unchristianlike, things in my room. It is quite easy to see _whose_ +company you have been in." + +"I have been with Ducie. Can you find me a sweeter or better soul?" + +"Or a handsomer young man than her son?" + +"I mean that also, certainly. Handsome, energetic, enterprising, kind, +religious." + +"Spare me the balance of your adjectives. We all know that Steve is +square on every side, and straight in every corner. Don't be so earnest; +you fatigue me to-night. I am on the verge of a nervous headache, and I +really think you had better leave me." She turned her chair towards the +fire as she spoke, and hardly palliated this act of dismissal by the +faint "excuse me," which accompanied it. And Charlotte made no remark, +though she left her sister's room, mentally promising herself to keep +away from it in the future. + +She went next to the parlor. The squire's chair was empty, and on the +little stand at its side, the "Gentleman's Magazine" lay uncut. His +slippers, usually assumed after dinner, were still warming on the white +sheepskin rug before the fire. But the large, handsome face, that +always made a sunshiny feeling round the hearth, was absent; and the +room had a loneliness that made her heart fear. She waited a few +minutes, looking with expectation towards a piece of knitting which was +Mrs. Sandal's evening work. But the ivory needles and the colored wools +remained uncalled for, and she grew rapidly impatient, and went to her +mother's room. Mrs. Sandal was lying upon her couch, exhausted with +weeping; and the squire sat holding his head in his hands, the very +picture of despondency and sorrow. + +"Can I come and speak to you, mother?" + +The squire answered, "To be sure you can, Charlotte. We are glad to see +you. We are in trouble, my dear." + +"Is it Harry, father?" + +"Trouble mostly comes that way. Yes, it is Harry. He is in a great +strait, and wants five hundred pounds, Charlotte; five hundred pounds, +dear, and he wants it at once. Only six weeks ago he wrote in the same +way for a hundred and fifty pounds. He is robbing me, robbing his +mother, robbing Sophia and you." + +"William, I wouldn't give way to temper that road; calling your own son +and my son a thief. It's not fair," said Mrs. Sandal, with considerable +asperity. + +"I must call things by their right names, Alice. I call a cat, a cat; +and I call our Harry a thief; for I don't know that forcing money from a +father is any better than forcing it from a stranger. It is only using a +father's love as a pick-lock instead of an iron tool. That's all the +difference, Alice; and I don't think the difference is one that helps +Harry's case much. Eh? What?" + +"Dear me! it is always money," sighed Charlotte. + +"Your father knows very well that Harry must have the money, Charlotte. +I think it is cruel of him to make every one ill before he gives what is +sure to be given in the end. Sophia has a headache, I dare say, and I am +sure I have." + +"But I cannot give him this money, Alice. I have not realized on my wool +and wheat yet. I cannot coin money. I will not beg or borrow it. I will +not mortgage an acre for it." + +"And you will let your only son the heir of Sandal-Side, go to jail and +disgrace for five hundred pounds. I never heard tell of such cruelty. +Never, never, never!" + +"You do not know what you are saying, Alice. Tell me how I am to find +five hundred pounds. Eh? What?" + +"There must be ways. How can a woman tell?" + +"Father, have I not got some money of my own?" + +"You have the accrued interest on the thousand pounds your grandmother +left you. Sophia has the same." + +"Is the interest sufficient?" + +"You have drawn from it at intervals. I think there is about three +hundred pounds to your credit." + +"Sophia will have nearly as much. Call her, father. Surely between us we +can arrange five hundred pounds. I shall be real glad to help Harry. +Young men have so many temptations now, father. Harry is a good sort in +the main. Just have a little patience with him. Eh, father?" + +And the squire was glad of the pleading voice. Glad for some one to make +the excuses he did not think it right to make. Glad to have the little +breath of hope that Charlotte's faith in her brother gave him. He stood +up, and took her face between his hands and kissed it. Then he sent a +servant for Sophia; and after a short delay the young lady appeared, +looking pale and exceedingly injured. + +"Did you send for me, father?" + +"Yes, I did. Come in and sit down. There is something to be done for +Harry, and we want your help, Sophia. Eh? What?" + +She pushed a chair gently to the table, and sat down languidly. She was +really sick, but her air and attitude was that of a person suffering an +extremity of physical anguish. The squire looked at her and then at +Charlotte with dismay and self-reproach. + +"Harry wants five hundred pounds, Sophia." + +"I am astonished he does not want five thousand pounds. Father, I would +not send him a sovereign of it. Julius told me about his carryings-on." + +She could hardly have said any words so favorable to Harry's cause. The +squire was on the defensive for his own side in a moment. + +"What has Julius to do with it?" he cried. "Sandal-Side is not his +property, and please God it never will be. Harry is one kind of a +sinner, Julius is another kind of a sinner. God Almighty only knows +which kind of sinner is the meaner and worse. The long and the short of +it, is this: Harry must have five hundred pounds. Charlotte is willing +to give the balance of her interest account, about three hundred pounds, +towards it. Will you make up what is lacking, out of your interest +money? Eh? What?" + +"I do not know why I should be asked to do this, I am sure." + +"Only because I have no ready money at present. And because, however bad +Harry is, he is your brother. And because he is heir of Sandal, and the +honor of the name is worth saving. And because your mother will break +her heart if shame comes to Harry. And there are some other reasons too; +but if mother, brother, and honor don't seem worth while to you, why, +then, Sophia, there is no use wasting words. Eh? What?" + +"Let father have what is needed, Sophia. I will pay you back." + +"Very well, Charlotte; but I think it is most unjust, most iniquitous, +as Julius says"-- + +"Now, then, don't quote Julius to me. What right had he to be discussing +my family matters, or Sandal matters either, I wonder? Eh? What?" + +"He is in the family." + +"Is he? Very well, then, I am still the head of the family. If he has +any advice to offer, he can come to me with it. Eh? What?" + +"Father, I am as sick as can be to-night." + +"Go thy ways then. Mother and I are both poorly too. Good-night, girls, +both." And he turned away with an air of hopeless depression, that was +far more pitiful than the loudest complaining. + +The sisters went away together, silent, and feeling quite "out" with +each other. But Sophia really had a nervous attack, and was shivery and +sick with it. By the lighted candle in her hand, Charlotte saw that her +very lips were white, and that heavy tears were silently rolling down +her wan cheeks. They washed all of Charlotte's anger away; she forgot +her resolution not to enter her sister's room again, and at its door she +said, "Let me stay with you till you can sleep, Sophia; or I will go, +and ask Ann to make you a cup of strong coffee. You are suffering very +much." + +"Yes, I am suffering; and father knows how I do suffer with these +headaches, and that any annoyance brings them on; and yet, if Harry +cries out at Edinburgh, every one in Seat-Sandal must be put out of +their own way to help him. And I do think it is a shame that our little +fortunes are to be crumbled as a kind of spice into his big fortune. If +Harry does not know the value of money I do." + +"I will pay you back every pound. I really do not care a bit about +money. I have all the dress I want. You buy books and music, I do not. +I have no use for my money except to make happiness with it; and, after +all, that is the best interest I can possibly get." + +"Very well. Then, you can pay Harry's debts if it gives you pleasure. I +suppose I am a little peculiar on this subject. Last Sunday, when the +rector was preaching about the prodigal son, I could not help thinking +that the sympathy for the bad young man was too much. I know, if I had +been the elder brother, I should have felt precisely as he did. I don't +think he ought to be blamed. And it would certainly have been more just +and proper for the father to have given the feast and the gifts to the +son who never at any time transgressed his commandments. You see, +Charlotte, that parable is going on all over the world ever since; going +on right here in Seat-Sandal; and I am on the elder brother's side. +Harry has given me a headache to-night; and I dare say he is enjoying +himself precisely as the Jerusalem prodigal did before the swine husks, +when it was the riotous living." + +"Have a cup of coffee, Sophy. I'll go down for it. You are just as +trembly and excited as you can be." + +"Very well; thank you, Charlotte. You always have such a bright, kind +face. I am afraid I do not deserve such a good sister." + +"Yes, you do deserve all I can help or pleasure you in." And then, when +the coffee had been taken, and Sophia lay restless and wide-eyed upon +her bed, Charlotte proposed to read to her from any book she desired; an +offer involving no small degree of self-denial, for Sophia's books were +very rarely interesting, or even intelligible, to her sister. But she +lifted the nearest two, Barret's "Maga," and "The Veiled Prophet," and +rather dismally asked which it was to be? + +"Neither of them, Charlotte. The 'Maga' makes me think, and I know you +detest poetry. I got a letter to-night from Agnes Bulteel, and it +appears to be about Professor Sedgwick. I was so annoyed at Harry I +could not feel any interest in it then; but, if you don't object, I +should like to hear you read it now." + +"Object? No, indeed. I think a great deal of the old professor. What gay +times father and I have had on the Screes with him, and his hammer and +leather bags! And, as Agnes writes a large, round hand, and does not +fresco her letters, I can read about the professor easily." + + RESPECTED MISS SANDAL,--I have such a thing to tell you + about Professor Sedgwick and our Joe; hoping that the squire or + Miss Charlotte may see him, and let him know that Joe meant no harm + at all. One hot forenoon lately, when we were through at home, an + old gentlemanly make of a fellow came into our fold, and said, + quite natural, that he wanted somebody to go with him on to the + fells. We all stopped, and took a good look at him before anybody + spoke; but at last father said, middling sharp-like,--he always + speaks that way, does father, when we're busy,-- + + "We've something else to do here than go raking over the fells on a + fine day like this with nobody knows who." + + He gave father a lile, cheerful bit of a laugh, and said he didn't + want to hinder work; but he would give anybody that knew the fells + well a matter of five shillings to go with him, and carry his two + little bags. And father says to our Joe, "Away with thee! It's a + crown more than ever thou was worth at home." So the strange man + gave Joe two little leather bags to carry; and Joe thought he was + going to make his five shillings middling easy, for he never + expected he would find any thing on the fells to put into the bags. + But Joe was mistaken. The old gentleman, he said, went louping over + wet spots and great stones, and scraffling over crags and screes, + till you would have thought he was some kin to a Herdwick sheep. + +Charlotte laughed heartily at this point. "It is just the way Sedgwick +goes on. He led father and me exactly such a chase one day last June." + +"I dare say he did. I remember you looked like it. Go on." + + After a while he began looking hard at all the stones and crags he + came to; and then he took to breaking lumps off them with a queer + little hammer he had with him, and stuffing the bits into the bags + that Joe was carrying. He fairly capped Joe then. He couldn't tell + what to make of such a customer. At last Joe asked him why ever he + came so far up the fell for little bits of stone, when he might get + so many down in the dales? He laughed, and went on knapping away + with his little hammer, and said he was a jolly-jist. + +"Geologist she means, Charlotte." + +"Of course; but Agnes spells it 'jolly-jist.'" + +"Agnes ought to know better. She waited table frequently, and must have +heard the word pronounced. Go on, Charlotte." + + He kept on at this feckless work till late in the afternoon, and by + that time he had filled both bags full with odd bits of stone. Joe + said he hadn't often had a harder darrack after sheep at + clipping-time than he had after that old man, carrying his leather + bags. But, however, they got back to our house, and mother gave the + stranger some bread and milk; and after he had taken it, and talked + with father about sheep-farming and such like, he paid Joe his five + shillings like a man, and told him he would give him another five + shillings if he would bring his bags full of stones down to + Skeal-Hill by nine o'clock in the morning. + +"Are you sleepy Sophy?" + +"Oh, dear, no! Go on." + + Next morning Joe took the bags, and started for Skeal-Hill. It was + another hot morning; and he hadn't gone far till he began to think + that he was as great a fool as the jolly-jist to carry broken + stones to Skeal-Hill, when he could find plenty on any road-side + close to the place he was going to. So he shook them out of the + bags, and stepped on a gay bit lighter without them. When he got + near to Skeal-Hill he found old Abraham Atchisson sitting on a + stool, breaking stones to mend roads with; and Joe asked him if he + could fill his leather bags from his heap. Abraham told Joe to take + them that wasn't broken if he wanted stones; so Joe told him how it + was, and all about it. The old man was like to tottle off his stool + with laughing, and he said, "Joe take good care of thysen'; thou + art over sharp to live very long in this world; fill thy bags, and + make on with thee." + +"Don't you remember old Abraham, Sophy? He built the stone dyke at the +lower fold." + +"No, I do not remember, I think." + +"You are getting sleepy. Shall I stop?" + +"No, no; finish the letter." + + When Joe got to Skeal-Hill, the jolly-jist had just got his + breakfast, and they took Joe into the parlor to him. He laughed all + over when Joe went in with the bags, and told him to set them down + in a corner, and asked him if he would have some breakfast. Joe had + had his porridge, but he said he didn't mind; so he told them to + bring in some more coffee and eggs, and ham and toasted bread; and + Joe got such a breakfast as isn't common with him, while the old + gentleman was getting himself ready to go off in a carriage that + was waiting at the door for him. When he came down-stairs he gave + Joe another five shillings, and paid for Joe's breakfast, and for + what he had eaten himself. Then he told him to put the leather bags + beside the driver's feet, and into the carriage he got, and + laughed, and nodded, and away he went; and then Joe heard them say + he was Professor Sedgwick, a great jolly-jist. And Joe thinks it + would be a famous job if father could sell all of the stones on our + fell at five shillings a bagful, and a breakfast at odd times. And + would it not be so, Miss Sandal? But I'm not easy in my mind about + Joe changing the stones; though, as Joe says, one make of stone is + about the same as another. + +"Sophia, you are sleepy now." + +"Yes, a little. You can finish to-morrow." + +Then she laid down the simple letter, and sat very still for a little +while. Her heart was busy. There is a solitary place that girdles our +life into which it is good to enter at the close of every day. There we +may sit still with our own soul, and commune with it; and out of its +peace pass easily into the shadowy kingdom of sleep, and find a little +space of rest prepared. So Charlotte sat in quiet meditation until +Sophia was fathoms deep below the tide of life. Sight, speech, feeling, +where were they gone? Ah! when the door is closed, and the windows +darkened, who can tell what passes in the solemn temple of mortality? +Are we unvisited then? Unfriended? Uncounselled? + + "Behold! + The solemn spaces of the night are thronged + By bands of tender dreams, that come and go + Over the land and sea; they glide at will + Through all the dim, strange realms of men asleep, + And visit every soul." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS. + + "Still to ourselves in every place consigned. + Our own felicity we make or find." + + "Catch, then, oh, catch the transient hour! + Improve each moment as it flies. + Life's a short summer, man a flower; + He dies, alas! how soon he dies!" + + +There are days which rise sadly, go on without sunshine, and pass into +night without one gleam of color. Life, also, has these pallid, +monotonous hours. A distrust of all things invades the soul, and +physical inertia and mental languor make daily existence a simple +weight. It was Christmas-time, but the squire felt none of the elation +of the season. He was conscious that the old festal preparations were +going on, but there was no response to them in his heart. Julius had +arrived, and was helping Sophia to hang the holly and mistletoe. But +Sandal knew that his soul shrank from the nephew he had called into his +life; knew that the sound of his voice irritated him, that his laugh +filled him with resentment, that his very presence in the house seemed +to desecrate it, and to slay for him the very idea of home. + +He was sitting in the "master's room," wondering how the change had come +about. But he found nothing to answer the wonder, because he was looking +for some palpable wrong, some distinctive time or cause. He was himself +too simple-hearted to reflect that it is seldom a great fault which +destroys liking for a person. A great fault can be forgiven. It is small +personal offences constantly repeated; little acts of meanness, and, +above all, the petty plans and provisions of a selfish nature. Besides +which, the soul has often marvellous intuitions, unmasking men and +things; premonitions, warnings, intelligences, that it cannot doubt and +cannot explain. + +Inside the house there was a pleasant air and stir of preparation; the +rapid movements of servants, the shutting and opening of doors, the low +laughter of gay hearts well contented with the time and the +circumstances. Outside, the mesmerizing snow was falling with a soft, +silent persistence. The squire looked sadly at the white hills, and the +white park, and the branches bending under their load, and the sombre +sky, gray upon darker gray. + +Last Christmas the girls had relied entirely upon his help. He had found +the twine, and driven the nails, and steadied the ladder when Sophia's +light form mounted it in order to hang the mistletoe. They had been so +happy. The echo of their voices, their snatches of Christmas carols, +their laughter and merry badinage, was still in his heart. He remembered +the impromptu lunch, which they had enjoyed so much while at work. He +could see the mother come smiling in, with constant samples of the +Christmas cheer fresh out of the oven. He had printed the verses and +mottoes himself, spent all the afternoon over them, and been rather +proud of his efforts. Charlotte had said, "they were really beautiful;" +even Sophia had admitted that "they looked well among the greens." But +to-day he had not been asked to assist in the decorations. True, he had +said, in effect, that he did not wish to assist; but, all the same, he +felt shut out from his old pre-eminence; and he could not help +regarding Julius Sandal as a usurper. + +These were drearisome Christmas thoughts and feelings; and they found +their climax in a pathetic complaint, "I never thought Charlotte would +have given me the go-by. All along she has taken my side, no matter what +came up. Oh, my little lass!" + +As if in answer to the heart-cry, Charlotte opened the door. She was +dressed in furs and tweeds, and she had the squire's big coat and +woollen wraps in her hand. Before he could speak, she had reached his +chair, and put her arm across his shoulder, and said in her bright, +confidential way, "Come, father, let you and me have a bit of pleasure +by ourselves: there isn't much comfort in the house to-day." + +"You say right, Charlotte; you do so, my dear. Where shall we go? Eh? +Where?" + +"Wherever you like best. There is no snow to hamper us yet. Some of the +servants are down from Up-Hill. Ducie has sent mother a great spice-loaf +and a fine Christmas cheese." + +"Ducie is a kind woman. I have known Ducie ever since I knew myself. +Could we climb the fell-breast, Charlotte? Eh? What?" + +"I think we could. Ducie will miss it, if you don't go and wish her 'a +merry Christmas.' You never missed grandfather Latrigg. Old friends are +best, father." + +"They are that. Is Steve at home?" + +"He isn't coming home this Christmas. I wasn't planning about Steve, +father. Don't think such a thing as that of me." + +"I don't, Charlotte. I don't think of Charlotte Sandal and of any thing +underhand at the same time. I'm a bit troubled and out of sorts this +morning, my dear." + +She kissed him affectionately for answer. She not only divined what a +trial Julius had become, but she knew also that his heart was troubled +in far greater depths than Julius had any power to stir. Harry Sandal +was really at the root of every bitter moment. For Harry had not taken +the five hundred pounds with the creditable contrite humiliation of the +repenting prodigal. It was even yet doubtful whether he would respond to +his parents' urgent request to spend Christmas at Seat-Sandal. And when +there is one rankling wrong, which we do not like to speak of, it is so +natural to relieve the heart by talking a great deal about those wrongs +which we are less inclined to disguise and deny. + +In the great hall a sudden thought struck the squire; and he stood +still, and looked in Charlotte's face. "You are sure that you want to +go, my dear? Won't you be missed? Eh? What?" + +She clasped his hand tighter, and shook her head very positively. "They +don't want me, father. I am in the way." + +He did not answer until they had walked some distance; then he asked +meaningly, "Has it come to that? Eh? What?" + +"Yes, it has come to that." + +"I am very glad it isn't you. And I'm nettled at myself for ever showing +him a road to slight you, Charlotte." + +"If there is any slight between Julius and me, father, I gave it; for he +asked me to marry him, and I plainly told him no." + +"Hear--you--but. I _am_ glad. You refused him? Come, come, that's a bit +of pleasure I would have given a matter of five pounds to have known a +day or two since. It would have saved me a few good ratings. Eh? What?" + +"Why, father! Who has been rating you?" + +"Myself, to be sure. You can't think what set-downs I have given William +Sandal. Do you mind telling me about that refusal, Charlotte? Eh? What?" + +"Not a bit. It was in the harvest-field. He said he loved me, and I told +him gentlemen did not talk that way to girls who had never given them +the least encouragement; and I said I did not love him, and never, never +could love him. I was very firm, father, perhaps a little bit cross; for +I did not like the way he spoke. I don't think he admires me at all now." + +"I dare be bound he doesn't. 'Firm and a little bit cross.' It wouldn't +be a nice five minutes for Julius. He sets a deal of store by himself;" +and then, as if he thought it was his duty not to show too much +gratification, he added, "I hope you were very civil, Charlotte. A good +asker should have a good nay-say. And you refused him? Well, I _am_ +pleased. Mother never heard tell of it? Eh? What?" + +"Oh, no; I have told no one but you. At the long end you always get at +my secrets, father." + +"We've had a goodish few together,--fishing secrets, and such like; but +I must tell mother this one, eh? She _will_ go on about it. In the +harvest-field, was it? I understand now why he walked himself off a day +or two before the set day. And he is all for Sophia now, is he? Well, I +shouldn't wonder if Sophia will 'best' him a little on every side. You +_have_ given me a turn, Charlotte. I didn't think of a son-in-law +yet,--not just yet. Dear me! How life does go on! Ever since the +sheep-shearing it has been running away with me. Life is a road on which +there is no turning round, Charlotte. Oh, if there only were! If you +could just run back to where you made the wrong turning! If you could +only undo things that you have done! Eh? What?" + +"Not even God can make what has been, not to have been. When a thing is +done, if it is only the taking of a walk, the walk is taken to all +eternity." + +At the word "eternity," they stood on the brow of the hill which they +had been climbing, and the squire said it again very solemnly. +"Eternity! How dreadful to spend it in repentance which can undo +nothing! That is the most awful conception of the word 'eternity.' Eh? +What?" + +They were silent a moment, then Sandal turned and looked westward. "It +is mizzling already, Charlotte; the snow will turn into rain, and we +shall have a downpour. Had we not better go home?" + +But Charlotte painted in such glowing colors Ducie's fireside, and the +pipe, and the cosey, quiet dinner they would be sure to get there, that +the squire could not resist the temptation. "For all will be at sixes +and sevens at home," he commented, "and no peace for anybody, with +greens and carols and what not. Eh? What?" + +"And very likely, as it is Christmas Eve, you may be asked to give +Sophia away. So a nice dinner, and a quiet smoke, and an hour's nap will +help you through to-night." And the thought in each heart, beyond this +one, was "Perhaps Harry will be at home." + +Nobody missed the fugitives. Mrs. Sandal was sure Harry would come, and +she was busy preparing his room with her own hands. The brightest fire, +the gayest greens, the whitest and softest and best of every thing, she +chose for Harry's room. + +Certainly they were not missed by Julius and Sophia. They were far too +much interested in themselves and in their own affairs. From the first +hour of his return to Seat-Sandal, Sophia had understood that Julius was +her lover, and that the time for his declaration rested in the main with +herself. When the Christmas bells were ringing, when the house was +bright with light and evergreens, and the very atmosphere full of +happiness, she had determined to give him the necessary encouragement. +But the clock of Fate cannot be put back. When the moment arrives, the +word is spoken or the deed done. Both of them were prepared for the +moment, and yet not just then prepared; for Love still holds his great +surprise somewhat in reserve. + +They were in the drawing-room. The last vase had been filled, the last +wreath hung; and Sophia looked at her beautiful hands, marked with the +rim of the scissors, and stained with leaves and berries, in a little +affected distress. Julius seated himself on the sofa beside her. She +trembled, but he looked at her almost triumphantly. Over Sophia's heart +he knew his power. With the questioning, unwinking gaze of love his eyes +sought hers, and he tenderly spoke her name, "_Sophia_." She could +answer only by her conscious silence. + +"My wife! Mine in lives long forgotten." + +"O Julius!" + +"Always mine; missed in some existences, recovered in others, but +bringing into every life with you my mark of ownership. See here." + +Then he lifted her hand, and opening its palm upward, he placed his own +in the same attitude beside it. "Look into them both, Sophia, and see +how closely our line of fortune is alike. That is something, but +behold." And he showed her a singular mark, which had in his own palm +its precise counterpart. + +"Is it not also in Charlotte's palm? In others?" + +"No, indeed. Among all the women on earth, only yours has this facsimile +of my own. It is the soul mark upon the body. Every educated Hindoo can +trace it; and all will tell you, that, if two individuals have it +precisely alike, they are twin souls, and nothing can prevent their +union." + +"Did they explain it to you, Julius?" + +"An Oriental never explains. They apprehend what is too subtle for +words. They know best just what they have never been told. Sophia, this +hand of yours fits mine. It is the key to it; the interpreter of my +fate. Give me my own, darling." + +To Charlotte he would never have spoken in such a tone. She would have +resented its claim and authority, and perceived that it was likely to be +the first encroachment of a tyranny she did not intend to bow to. But +Sophia was easily deceived on this ground. She liked the mystical air it +gave to the event; the gray sanction of unknown centuries to the love of +to-day. + +They speculated and supposed, and were supremely happy. The usual lover +wanders in the dreams of the future: they sought each other through the +phantom visions of the past. And they were so charmed with the +occupation, that they quite forgot the exigencies and claims of the +present existence until the rattle of wheels, the stamping of feet, and +a joyful cry from Mrs. Sandal recalled them to it. + +"It is Harry," said Sophia. "I must go to him, Julius." + +He held her very firmly. "I am first. Wait a moment. You must promise me +once more: 'My life is your life, my love is your love, my will is your +will, my interest is your interest; I am your second self.' Will you say +this Sophia, as I say it?" And she answered him without a word. Love +knows how such speech may be. Even when she had escaped from her lover, +she was not very sorry to find that Harry had gone at once to his own +room; for he had driven through the approaching storm, and been +thoroughly drenched. She was longing for a little solitude to bethink +her of the new position in which she found herself; for, though she had +a dreamy curiosity about her pre-existences, she had a very active and +positive interest in the success and happiness of her present life. + +Suddenly she remembered Charlotte, and with the remembrance came the +fact that she had not seen her since the early forenoon. But she +immediately coupled the circumstance with the absence of the squire, and +then she reached the real solution of the position in a moment. "They +have gone to Up-Hill, of course. Father always goes the day before +Christmas; and Charlotte, no doubt, expected to find Steve at home. I +must tell Julius about Charlotte and Steve. Julius will not approve of +a young man like Steve in our family, and it ought not to be. I am sure +father and mother think so." + +At this point in her reflections, she heard Charlotte enter her own +room, but she did not go to her. Sophia had a dislike to wet, untidy +people, and she was not in any particular flurry to tell her success. +Indeed, she was rather inclined to revel for an hour in the sense of it +belonging absolutely to Julius and herself. She was not one of those +impolitic women, who fancy that they double their happiness by imparting +it to others. + +She determined to dress with extraordinary care. The occasion warranted +it, surely; for it was not only Christmas Eve, it was also her betrothal +eve. She put on her richest garment, a handsome gown of dark blue silk +and velvet. A spray of mistletoe-berries was in her black hair, and a +glittering necklace of fine sapphires enhanced the beauty and whiteness +of her exquisite neck and shoulders. She was delighted with the effect +of her own brave apparel, and also a little excited with the course +events had taken, or she never would have so far forgotten the +privileges of her elder birth as to visit Charlotte's room first on +such an important personal occasion. + +Charlotte was still wrapped in her dressing-gown, lazily musing before +the crackling, blazing fire. Her hands were clasped above her head, her +feet comfortably extended upon the fender, her eyes closed. She had been +a little tired with buffeting the storm; and the hot tea, which Mrs. +Sandal had insisted upon as a preventative of cold, had made her, as she +told Sophia, "deliciously dozy." + +"But dinner will be ready in half an hour, and you have to dress yet, +Charlotte. How do I look?" + +"You look charming. How bright your eyes are, Sophia! I never saw you +look so well. How much Julius will admire you to-night!" + +"As to that, Julius always admires me. He says he used to dream about +me, even before he saw me." + +"Oh, you know that is nonsense! He couldn't do that. I dare say he +dreams about you now, though. I should think he would like to." + +"You will have to hurry, Charlotte." + +"I can dress in ten minutes if I want to." + +"I will leave you now." She hesitated a moment at the door, but she +could not bring herself to speak of her engagement. She saw that +Charlotte was in one of her "no-matter-every-thing-right" moods, and +knew she would take the important news without the proper surprise and +enthusiasm. In fact, she perceived that Harry's visit occupied her whole +mind; for, as she stood a moment or two irresolute as to her own +desires, Charlotte talked eagerly of her brother. + +"Well, I hope if Harry is of so much importance in your eyes, you will +dress decently to meet him. The rector is coming to dinner also." + +"I shall wear my blue gown. If I imitate you, I cannot be much out of +the way. Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! I hope Harry will have a pleasant visit. We +must do our best, Sophia, to make him happy." + +"O Charlotte, if you have nothing to talk about but Harry, Harry, Harry, +I am going! I am very fond of Harry, but I don't pretend to be blind to +Harry's faults. Remember how many disagreeable hours he has given us +lately. And I must say that I think he was very ungrateful about the +hundred and eighty pounds I gave him. He never wrote me a line of +thanks." + +"You did not give it to Harry, you loaned it to me. Be just Sophia. I +have paid you fifteen pounds of it back already, and I shall not buy a +single new dress until it is all returned. You will not lose a shilling, +Sophia." + +"How Quixotic you can be! However, it is no use exciting ourselves +to-night. One likes to keep the peace at Yule-tide, and so I will bow +down to your idol as much as I can conscientiously." + +Charlotte made no answer. She had risen hastily, and with rather +unnecessary vigor was rattling the ewer and basin, and plashing out the +water. Sophia came back into the room, arranged the glass at the proper +angle to give her a last comprehensive review of herself; and this being +quite satisfactory, she went away with a smiling complacency, and a +subdued excitement of manner, which in some peculiar way revealed to +Charlotte the real position of affairs between her sister and Julius +Sandal. + +"She might have told me." She dashed the water over her face at the +implied complaint; and it was easy to see, from the impatient way in +which she subsequently unbound her hair, and pulled the comb through it, +and from the irritability of all her movements, that she felt the +omission to be a slight, not only indicating something not quite +pleasant in the past, but prefiguring also she knew not what +disagreeable feelings for the future. + +"It is not Sophia's fault," she muttered; "Julius is to blame for it. I +think he really hates me now. He has said to her, 'There is no need to +tell Charlotte, specially; it will make her of too much importance. I +don't approve of Charlotte in many ways.' Oh, I know you, sir!" and with +the thought she pulled the string of her necklace so impatiently that it +broke; and the golden beads fell to her feet, and rolled hither and +thither about the room. + +The incident calmed her. She finished her toilet in haste, and went +down-stairs. All the rooms were lighted, and she saw Julius and Sophia +pacing up and down the main parlor, hand in hand, so interested in their +_sotto voce_ conversation as to be quite unconscious that she had stood +a moment at the open door for their recognition. So she passed on +without troubling them. She heard her mother's happy laugh in the large +dining-room, and she guessed from its tone that Harry was with her. Mrs. +Sandal was beautifully dressed in black satin, and she held in her hand +a handsome silver salver. Evidently she had been about to leave the room +with it, when detained by some remark of her son's; for she was half-way +between the table and the door, her pretty, kindly face all alight with +love and happiness. + +Harry was standing on the hearth-rug, facing the room,--a splendidly +handsome young fellow in a crimson and yellow uniform. He was in the +midst of a hearty laugh, but when he saw Charlotte there was a sudden +and wonderful transformation in his face. It grew in a moment much +finer, more thoughtful, wistful, human. He sprang forward, took her in +his arms, and kissed her. Then he held her from him a little, looked at +her again, and kissed her again; and with that last kiss he whispered, +"You good sister. You saved me, Charlotte, with that five hundred +pounds." + +"I would have given it had it been my all, it been fifty times as much, +Harry." + +There was no need to say another word. Harry and Charlotte understood +each other, and Harry turned the conversation upon his cousin. + +"This Indian fellow, this Sandal of the Brahminical caste, what is he +like, Charley?" + +"He does not admire me, Harry; so how can I admire him?" + +"Then there must be something wrong with him in the fundamentals; a +natural-born inability to admire what is lovely and good." + +"You mustn't say such a thing as that, Harry. I am sure that Sophia is +engaged to him." + +"Does father like him?" + +"Not much; but Julius is a Sandal, after all, and"-- + +"After me, the next heir. Exactly. It shall not be my fault, Charley, if +he does not stand a little farther off soon. I can get married too." + +"O Harry, if you only would! It is your duty; and there is little Emily +Beverley. She is so beautiful and good, and she adores you, Harry." + +"Dear little Emmy. I used to love Emmy a long time ago." + +"It would make father so happy, and mother and me too. And the Beverleys +are related to mother,--and isn't mother sweet. Father was saying"-- + +At that moment the squire entered the room. His face was a little +severe; but the moment his eyes fell upon Charlotte and Harry, every +line of sternness was gone like a flash. Harry's arm was round his +sister's waist, her head against his shoulder; but in a moment he gently +released himself, and went to his father. And in his nineteenth-century +way he said what the erring son of old said, "Father, I have not done +right lately. I am very sorry." + +"Say no more, Harry, my lad. There shall be no back reckoning between +you and me. You have been mixed up with a sight of follies, but you can +over-get all that. You take after me in looks. Up-sitting and +down-sitting, you are my son. You come of a good kind; you have a kind +heart and plenty of dint;[Dint, energy.] now, then, make a +fresh start, Harry. Oh, my dear, dear son!" The father's eyes were full +of tears, his face shone with love, and he held the young man's hand in +a clasp which forgave every thing in the past, and promised everything +for the future. + +Then Julius and Sophia came in, and there was barely time to introduce +the young men before dinner was served. They disliked each other on +sight; indeed, the dislike was anterior to sight, and may be said to +have commenced when Harry first heard how thoroughly at home Julius had +made himself at Seat-Sandal, and when Julius first saw what a desirable +estate and fine old "seat" Harry's existence deprived him of. And in +half an hour this general aversion began to particularize itself. The +slim, suave youth, with his black eyes and soft speech, and small hands +and feet, seemed to Harry Sandal in every respect an interloper. The +Saxon in this Sandal was lost in the Oriental. The two races were, +indeed, distinctly evident in the two men in many ways, but noticeably +in their eyes: Harry's being large, blue, and wide open; those of +Julius, very black; and in their long, narrow setting and dreamy look, +expressing centuries of tranquil contemplation. + +But the dinner passed off very pleasantly, more so than family festivals +usually pass. After it the lovers went into private session to consider +whether they should declare their new relationship during the evening, +or wait until Julius could have a private audience with the squire. +Sophia was inclined to the first course, because of the presence of the +rector. She felt that his blessing on her betrothal would add a +religious grace to the event, but Julius was averse to speak on any +matter so private to himself before Harry Sandal. He felt that he could +neither endure his congratulations nor his dissent; that, in fact, he +did not want his opinion on the matter at all. Besides, he had +determined to have but one discussion of the affair, and that must +include all pertaining to Sophia's rights and her personal fortune. + +While they were deciding this momentous question, the rector and +Charlotte were singing over the carols for the Christmas service; the +squire was smoking and listening; and Harry was talking in a low voice +to his mother. But after the rector had gone, it became very difficult +to avoid a feeling of _ennui_ and restraint, although it was Christmas +Eve. Mrs. Sandal soon went into the housekeeper's room to assist in the +preparation of the Yule hampers for the families of the men who worked +on the estate. Sandal fell into a musing fit, and soon appeared to be +dozing; although Charlotte saw that he occasionally opened his eyes, and +looked at the whispering lovers, or else shot her a glance full of +sympathetic intelligence. + +Music has many according charms, and Charlotte tried it, but with small +success. Julius and Sophia had a song in their own hearts, and this +night they knew no other. Harry loved his sister very dearly, but he was +not inclined to "carolling;" and the repression and constraint were soon +evident through all the conventional efforts to be "merry." It was the +squire who finally hit upon the circumstance which tided over the +evening, and sent every one to bed in a ripple of laughter. For, when +the piano was closed, he opened his eyes, and said, "Sophia, your mother +tells me she has had a very nice Christmas present from the little maid +you took such a liking to,--little Agnes Bulteel. It is a carriage hap +made of sheepskins white as the snow, and from some new breed of sheep +surely; for the wool is longer and silkier than ever I saw." + +"Agnes Bulteel!" cried Charlotte. "O Sophia! where are her last letters? +I am sure father would like to hear about Joe and the jolly-jist." + +"Joe Bulteel is no fool," said the squire warmly. "It is the way around +here to laugh a bit at Joe; but Joe aims to do right, and he is a very +spirity lad. What are you and Sophia laughing at? Eh? What?" + +"Get the letters, Sophia. Julius and Harry will enjoy them I know. Harry +must remember Joe Bulteel." + +"Certainly. Joe has carried my line and creel many a day. Trout couldn't +fool Joe. He was the one to find plovers' eggs, and to spot a blaeberry +patch. Joe has some senses ordinary people do not have, I think. I +should like to hear about Joe and the _what_?" + +"The jolly-jist,--Professor Sedgwick really. Joe has been on the fells +with the professor." + +So they drew around the fire, and Sophia went for the letters. She was a +good reader, and could give the county peculiarities with all their +quaint variations of mood and temper and accent. She was quite aware +that the reading would exhibit her in an entirely new _role_ to Julius, +and she entered upon the task with all the confidence and enthusiasm +which insured the entertainment. And as both Professor Sedgwick and Joe +Bulteel were well known to the squire and Harry, they entered into the +joke also with all their hearts; and one peal of laughter followed +another, as the squire's comments made many a distinct addition to the +unconscious humor of the letters. + +At that point of the story where Joe had triumphantly pocketed his last +five shillings, and gone home reflecting on what a "famous job it would +be to sell all the stones on their fell at five shillings a little +bagful," Mrs. Sandal entered. A servant followed with spiced wine and +dainty bits of cake and pastry; and then, after a merry interval of +comment and refreshment, Sophia resumed the narrative. + + All this happened at the end of May, Miss Sandal; and one day last + August father went down Lorton way, and it was gayly late when he + got home. As he was sitting on his own side the fire, trying to + loose the buttons of his spats, he said to Joe, "I called at + Skeal-Hill on my road home." Mother was knitting at her side of the + hearth. She hadn't opened her mouth since father came home; nay, + she hadn't so much as looked at him after the one hard glower that + she gave him at first; but when he said he'd been at Skeal-Hill, + she gave a grunt, and said, as if she spoke to nobody but herself, + "Ay, a blind body might see that."--"I was speaking to Joe," said + father. "Joe," said he again, "I was at Skeal-Hill,"--mother gave + another grunt then,--"and they told me that thy old friend the + jolly-jist is back again. I think thou had better step down, and + see if he wants to buy any more broken stones; old Abraham has a + fine heap or two lying aside Kirgat." Joe thought he had done many + a dafter thing than take father at his word, whether he meant it or + not; and so thought, so done, for next morning he took himself off + to Skeal-Hill. + + When he got there, and asked if the jolly-jist was stirring yet, + one servant snorted, and another grunted, till Joe got rather + maddish; but at last one of them skipjacks of fellows, that wear a + little jacket like a lass's bedgown, said he would see. He came + back laughing, and said, "Come this way, Joe." Well, our Joe + followed him till he stopped before a room door; and he gave a + little knock, and then opened it, and says he, "Joe, sir." Joe + wasn't going to stand that; and he said, "'Joe, sir,' he'll ken its + 'Joe, sir,' as soon as he sees the face of me. And get out with thy + 'Joe, sir,' or I'll make thee laugh at the wrong side of that ugly + face of thine." With that the fellow skipped out of our Joe's way + gayly sharp, and Joe stepped quietly into the room. + + There the little old gentleman was sitting at a table + writing,--gray hair, spectacles, white neck-cloth, black + clothes,--just as if he had never either doffed or donned himself + since he went away. But before Joe could put out his hand, or say a + civil word to him, he glinted up at Joe through his spectacles very + fierce like, and grunted out something about wondering how Joe + durst show his face again. Well, that put the cap on all for poor + Joe. He had thought over what father said, and _how_ he said it, on + his road down till he found himself getting rather mad about it; + and the way they all snorted and laughed when he came to Skeal-Hill + made him madder; and that bedgown fellow, with his "Joe, sir," made + him madder than ever; but when the old jolly-jist--that he thought + would be so fain to see him, if it was only for the sake of their + sprogue on the fells together--when he wondered "how Joe durst show + his face there," it set Joe rantin' mad, and he _did_ make a burst. + +At this point the squire was laughing so noisily that Sophia had to +stop; and his hearty _ha, ha, ha_! was so contagious, that Harry and +Julius and Charlotte, and even Mrs. Sandal, echoed it in a variety of +merry peals. Sophia was calmer. She sat by the lamp, pleasantly +conscious of the amusement she was giving; and, considering that she had +already laughed the circumstance out in her room, quite as well +entertained as any of the party. In a few minutes the squire recovered +himself. "Let us have the rest now, Sophia. I'd have given a gold +guinea to have heard Joe's 'burst.'" + + "Show my face?" said Joe; "and what should I show, then? If it + comes to showing faces, I've a better face to show than ever + belonged to one of your breed, if the rest of them are aught like + the sample they have sent us. But if you must know," said Joe, "I + come of a stock that never would be frightened to show their face + to a king, let alone an old noodles that calls himself a + jolly-jist. And I defy the face of clay," said Joe, "to show that + any of us ever did aught he need to be ashamed of, wherever we show + our faces. Dare to show my face, eh?" said Joe again, "My song! but + this is a bonnie welcome to give a fellow that has come so far to + see you such a hot morning." Joe said a deal more of the same make; + and all the time he was saying it, the old man laid himself back in + his great chair, and kept twiddling his thumbs, and glancing up at + Joe with a half-smirk on his face, as if he had got something very + funny before him. + +"Joe is like all these shepherd lads," said the squire, "as independent +as never was. They are a manly race, but the Bulteels all come of a good +kind." + +Julius laughed scornfully, but the squire took him up very short. "You +need not laugh, nephew. It is as I say. The Bulteels are as good stock +as the Sandals; a fine old family, and, like the Sandals, at home here +when the Conqueror came. Joe would do the right thing I'll be bound. Let +us hear if he didn't, Sophia." + + After a while Joe stopped, for he had run himself very near short + of wind; and he began rather to think shame of shouting and + bellering so at an old man, and him as whisht as a trout through it + all. And when Joe pulled in, he only said, as quietly as ever was, + that Joe was a "natural curiosity." + + Joe didn't know very well what this meant; but he thought it was + sauce, and it had like to have set him off again; but he beat + himself down as well as he could, and he said, "Have you any thing + against me? If you have, speak it out like a man; and don't sit + there twiddling your thumbs, and calling folks out of their names + in this road." Then it came out plain enough. All this ill-nature, + Miss Sandal, was just because poor Joe hadn't brought him the same + stones as he had gathered on the fells; and he said that changing + them was either a very dirty trick, or a very clumsy joke. + + "Trick," said Joe. "_Joke_, did you say? It was ratherly past a + joke to expect me to carry a load of broken stones all the way + here, when there was plenty on the spot. I'm not such a fool as + you've taken me for," said Joe. The jolly-jist took off his + spectacles, and glowered at Joe without them. Then he put them on + again, and glowered at Joe with them; and then he laughed, and + asked Joe, if he thought there could be no difference in stones. + "Why!" answered Joe, "you hardly have the face to tell me that one + bag of stones isn't as good as another bag of stones; and surely to + man you'll never be so conceited as to say that you can break + stones better than old Abraham Atchisson, who breaks them for his + bread, and breaks them all day long and every day." + + With that the old man laughed again, and told Joe to sit down; and + then he asked him what he thought made him take so much trouble + seeking bits of stone on the fells, if he could get what he wanted + on the road-side. "Well," Joe said, "if I must tell you the truth, + I thought you were rather soft in the head; but it made no matter + what I thought, so long as you paid me so well for going with you." + As Joe said this, it came into his head that it was better to + flatter a fool than to fight him; and after all, that there might + be something in the old man liking stones of his own breaking + better than those of other folks' breaking. We all think the most + of what we have had a hand in ourselves, don't we Miss Sandal? It's + nothing but natural. And as soon as this run, through Joe's head, + he found himself getting middling sorry for the old man; and he + said, "What will you give me to get you your own bits of stones + back again?" + + He cocked up his ears at that, and asked if his "speciments," as he + called them, were safe. "Ay," said Joe, "they are safe enough. + Nobody hereabout thinks a little lot of stones worth meddling with, + so long as they don't lie in their road." With that the jolly-jist + jumped up, and said Joe must have something to eat and drink. Then + Joe thought to himself, "Come, come, we are getting back to our own + menseful way again." But he would not stir a peg till he heard + what he was to have for getting the stones again; for Joe knew he + would never hear the last of it, if he came home empty-handed. They + made it all right very soon, however; and the old man went + up-stairs, and brought down the two leather bags, and gave them to + Joe to carry, as if nothing had happened; and off they started, + very like as they did before. + + The Skeal-Hill folk all gathered together about the door to look + after them, as if they had been a show; but they neither of them + minded for that, but walked away as thick as inkle-weavers till + they got to the foot of our great meadow, where the stones were all + lying just as Joe had turned them out of the bags, only rather + grown over with grass. And as Joe picked them up one by one, and + handed them to the old jolly-jist, it did Joe's heart good to see + how pleased he looked. He wiped them on his coat-cuff, and wet + them, and glowered at them through his spectacles, as if they were + something good to eat, and he was very hungry; and then he packed + them away into the bags till they were both chock full again. + + Well, the bargain was, that Joe should carry them back to + Skeal-Hill; so back they put, the jolly-jist watching his bags all + the way, as if they were full of golden guineas, and our Joe a + thief. When they got there, he made Joe take them right into the + parlor; and the first thing he did was to call for some red wax and + a light, and he clapped a great splatch of a seal on either bag; + and then he looked at Joe, and gave a little grunt of a laugh, and + a smartish wag of the head, as much as to say, "Do it again, Joe, + if you can." But after that he said, "Here, Joe, is five shillings + for restoring my speciments, and here is another five shillings for + showing me a speciment of human nature that I did not believe in + until this day." [This story is told of Professor Sedgwick in broad + _patois_ by Alexander Craig Gibson, F.S.A.] + +"That is good," cried the squire, clapping his knee emphatically. "It +was like the professor, and it was like Joe Bulteel. The story does them +both credit. I am glad I heard it. Alice, fill our glasses again." Then +he stood up, and looked around with a smile. + +"God's blessing on this house, and on all beneath its roof-tree! + +"Wife and children, a merry Christmas to you! + +"Friends and serving hands, a merry Christmas to you!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WOOING AND WEDDING. + + "She was made for him,--a special providence in his behalf." + + "Like to like,--and yet love may be dear bought." + + "In time comes she whom Fate sends." + + +Until after Twelfth Night the Christmas festivities were continued; but +if the truth had been admitted, the cumbrous ceremonials, the excessive +eating and visiting, would have been pronounced by every one very +tiresome. Julius found it particularly so, for the festival had no roots +in his boyhood's heart; and he did not include it in his dreams of +pre-existence. + +"It is such semblance of good fellowship, such a wearisome pretence of +good wishes that mean nothing," he said one day. "What value is there in +such talk?" + +"Well," answered the squire, "it isn't a bad thing for some of us to +feel obliged once in a twelve months to be good-natured, and give our +neighbors a kind wish. There are them that never do it except at +Christmas. Eh? What?" + +"Such wishes mean nothing." + +"Nay, now, there is no need to think that kind words are false words. +There is a deal of good sometimes in a mouthful of words. Eh? What?" + +"And yet, sir, as the queen of the crocodiles remarked, 'Words mend none +of the eggs that are broken.'" + +"I know nothing about the queen of the crocodiles. But if you don't +believe in words, Julius, it is quite allowable at Christmas time to put +your good words into any substantial form you like. Nobody will doubt a +good wish that is father to a handsome gift; so, if you don't believe in +good words, you have a very reliable substitute in good deeds. I saw how +you looked when I said 'A merry Christmas' to old Simon Gills, and you +had to say the words after me. Very well; send old Simon a new plaid or +a pound of tobacco, and he'll believe in your wish, and you'll believe +in yourself. Eh? What?" + +The days were full of such strained conversations on various topics. +Harry could say nothing which Julius did not politely challenge by some +doubtful inquiry. Julius felt in every word and action of Harry's the +authority of the heir, and the forbearance of a host tolerant to a +guest. He complained bitterly to Sophia of the position in which he was +constantly put. "Your father and brother have been examining timber, and +looking at the out-houses this morning, and I understand they were +discussing the building of a conservatory for Charlotte; but I was left +out of the conversation entirely. Is it fair, Sophia? You and I are the +next heirs, and just as likely to inherit as Harry. More so, I may say, +for a soldier's life is already sold, and Harry is reckless and +dissipated as well. I think I ought to have been consulted. I should not +be in favor of thinning the timber. I dare say it is done to pay Harry's +bills; and thus, you see, it may really be we who are made to suffer. I +don't think your father likes our marriage, dear one." + +"But he gave his consent, beloved." + +"I was very dissatisfied with his way of doing it. He might as well have +said, 'If it has to be, it has to be; and there is no use fretting +about it.' I may be wrong, but that is the impression his consent left +on my mind. And he was quite unreasonable when I alluded to money +matters. I would not have believed that your father was capable of being +so disagreeably haughty. Of course, I expected him to say something +about our rights, failing Harry's, and he treated them as if they did +not exist. Even when I introduced them in the most delicate way, he was +what I call downright rude. 'Julius,' he said, 'I will not discuss any +future that pre-supposes Harry's death.'" + +"Father's sun rises and sets in Harry, and it was like him to speak that +way; he meant nothing against us. Father would always do right. What I +feel most is the refusal to give us our own apartments in Seat-Sandal. +We do not want to live here all the time, but we ought to be able to +feel that we have a certain home here." + +"Yes, indeed. It is very important in my eyes to keep a footing in the +house. Possession is a kind of right. But never mind, Sophia. I have +always had an impression that this was my home. The first moment I +crossed the threshold I felt it. All its rooms were familiar to me. +People do not have such presentiments for nothing." + +There is a class of lovers who find their supremest pleasure in +isolating themselves; who consider their own affairs an oasis of +delight, and make it desert all around them. Julius and Sophia belonged +to it. They really enjoyed the idea that they were being badly used. +They talked over the squire's injustice, Mrs. Sandal's indifference to +every one but Harry, and Charlotte's envy, until they had persuaded +themselves that they were the only respectable and intelligent members +of the family. Naturally Sophia's nature deteriorated under this +isolating process. She grew secretive and suspicious. Her love-affairs +assumed a proportion which put her in false relations to all the rest of +the world. + +It was unfortunate that they had come to a crisis during Harry's visit, +for of course Harry occupied a large share of every one's interest. The +squire took the opportunity to talk over the affairs of the estate with +him, and this was not a kind of conversation they felt inclined to make +general. It took them long solitary walks to the different "folds," and +several times as far as Kendal together. "Am I one of the family, or am +I not?" Julius would ask Sophia on such occasions; and then the +discussion of this question separated them from it, sometimes for hours +at a time. + +Mrs. Sandal hardly perceived the growth of this domestic antagonism. +When Harry was at Seat-Sandal, she lived and moved and had her being in +Harry. His food and drink, and the multitude of his small comforts; his +friends and amusements; the renovation of his linen and hosiery; his +hopes and fears, and his promotion or marriage, were enough to fill the +mother's heart. She was by no means oblivious of Sophia's new interests, +she only thought that they could be put aside until Harry's short visit +was over; and Charlotte's sympathies were also with Harry. "Julius and +Sophia do not want them, mother," she said, "they are sufficient unto +themselves. If I enter a room pre-occupied by them, Sophia sits silent +over her work, with a look of injury on her face; and Julius walks +about, and kicks the stools out of his way, and simply 'looks' me out of +their presence." + +After such an expulsion one morning, she put on her bonnet and mantle, +and went into the park. She was hot and trembling with anger, and her +eyes were misty with tears. In the main walk she met Harry. He was +smoking, and pacing slowly up and down under the bare branches of the +oaks. For a moment he also seemed annoyed at her intrusion on his +solitude; but the next one he had tucked her arm through his own, and +was looking with brotherly sympathy into her flushed and troubled face. +This morning Charlotte felt it to be a great comfort to complain to him, +to even cry a little over the breaking of the family bond, and the loss +of her sister's affection. + +"I have always been so proud of Sophia, always given up to her in every +thing. When grandmother showed me the sapphire necklace, and said she +was going to leave it to me because she loved me best, I begged her not +to slight Sophia in such a way as that,--Sophia being the elder, you +know, Harry. I cried about it until she was almost angry with me. Julius +offered his hand to me first; and though I claim no merit for giving up +what I do not want, yet, all the same, if I had wanted him I should +have refused, because I saw that Sophia had set her heart upon him. I +should indeed, Harry." + +"I believe you would, Charlotte." + +"And somehow Julius manages to give me the feeling that I am only in +Seat-Sandal on his tolerance. Many a time a day I have to tell myself +that father is still alive, and that I have a right in my own home. I do +not know how he manages to make me feel so." + +"In the same way that he conveys to me the impression that I shall never +be squire of Sandal-Side. He has doomed me to death in his own mind; and +I believe if I had to live with him, I should feel constrained to go and +shoot myself." + +"I would come home, and get married, Harry. There will be room enough +and welcome enough for your wife in Seat-Sandal, especially if she be +Emily." + +"She will not be Emily; for I love some one else far away +better,--millions of times better than I love Emily." + +"I am so glad, Harry. Have you told father?" + +"Not yet. I do not think he will be glad, Charlotte." + +"But why?" + +"There are many reasons." + +"Such as?" + +"She is poor." + +"Oh! that is bad, Harry; because I know that we are not rich. But she is +not your inferior? I mean she is not uneducated or unladylike?" + +"She is highly educated, and in all England there is not a more perfect +lady." + +"Then I can see no reason to think father will not be pleased. I am +sure, Harry, that I shall love your wife. Oh, yes! I shall love her very +dearly." + +Then Harry pressed her arm close to his side, and looked lovingly down +into her bright, earnest face. There was no need of speech. In a glance +their souls touched each other. + +"And so he asked you first, eh, Charley?" + +"Yes." + +"And you would not have him? What for Charley?" + +"I did not like Julius, and I did like some one else." + +"Oh! Oh! Who is the some one else?" + +"Guess, Harry. He is very like you, very: fair and tall, with clear, +candid, happy blue eyes; and brown hair curling close over his head. In +the folds and in the fields he is a master. His heart is gentle to all, +and full of love for me. He has spirit, dint, [Dint, energy.] +ambition, enterprise; and can work twenty hours out of the twenty-four +to carry out his own plans. He is a right good fellow, Harry." + +"A North-country man?" + +"Certainly. Do you think I would marry a stranger?" + +"Cumberland born?" + +"Who else?" + +"Then it is Steve Latrigg, eh? Well, Charley, you might go farther, and +fare worse. I don't think he is worthy of you." + +"Oh, but I do!" + +"Very few men are worthy of you." + +"Only Steve. I want you to like Steve. Harry." + +"Certainly. Seat-Sandal folks and Up-Hill folks are always thick +friends. And Steve and I were boy chums. He is a fine fellow, and no +mistake. I am glad he is to be my brother. I asked mother about him; +and she said he was in Yorkshire, learning how to spin and weave wool--a +queer thing, Charley." + +"Not at all. He may just as well spin his own fleeces as sell them to +Yorkshiremen to spin." Then they talked awhile of Stephen's plans, and +Harry appeared to be much impressed with them. "It is a pity father does +not join him, Charley," he said. "Every one is doing something of the +kind now. Land and sheep do not make money fast enough for the wants of +our present life. The income of the estate is no larger than it was in +grandfather's time; but the expenses are much greater, although we do +not keep up the same extravagant style. I need money, too, need it very +much; but I see plainly that father has none to spare. Julius will press +him very close." + +"What has Julius to do with father's money?" + +"Father must, in honor, pay Sophia's portion. Unfortunately, when the +fellow was here last, father told him that he had put away from the +estate one hundred pounds a year for each of his girls. Under this +promise, Sophia's right with interest will be near three thousand +pounds, exclusive of her share in the money grandmother left you. I am +sorry to say that I have had something to do with making it hard for +father to meet these obligations. And Julius wants the money paid at the +marriage. Father, too, feels very much as I feel, and would rather throw +it into the sea than give it to him; only _noblesse oblige_." + +The subject evidently irritated Harry beyond endurance, and he suddenly +changed it by taking from his pocket an ivory miniature. He gave it to +Charlotte, and watched her face with a glow of pleasant expectation. +"Why, Harry!" she cried, "does so lovely a woman really exist?" + +He nodded happily, and answered in a voice full of emotion, "And she +loves me." + +"It is the countenance of an angel." + +"And she loves me. I am not worthy to touch the hem of her garment, +Charley, but she loves me." Then Charlotte lifted the pictured face to +her lips. Their confidence was complete; and they did not think it +necessary to talk it over, or to exact promises of secrecy from each +other. + +The next day Harry returned to his regiment, and Sophia's affairs began +to receive the attention which their important crisis demanded. In those +days it was customary for girls to make their own wedding outfit, and +there was no sewing-machine to help them. "Mine is the first marriage in +the family," Sophia said, "and I think there ought to be a great deal of +interest felt in it." And there was. Grandmother Sandal's awmries were +opened for old laces and fine cambric, and petticoats and spencers of +silks wonderful in quality and color, and guiltless of any admixture of +less precious material. There were whole sets of many garments to make, +and tucking and frilling and stitching were then slow processes. Agnes +Bulteel came to assist; but the work promised to be so tedious, that the +marriage-day was postponed until July. + +In the mean time, Julius spent his time between Oxford and Sandal-Side. +Every visit was distinguished by some rich or rare gift to his bride, +and he always felt a pleasure in assuring himself that Charlotte was +consumed with envy and regret. He was very much in love with Sophia, and +quite glad she was going to marry him; and yet he dearly liked to think +that he made Charlotte sorry for her rejection of his love, and +wistfully anxious for the rings and bracelets that were the portion of +his betrothed. Sophia soon found out that this idea flattered and +pleased him, and it gave her neither shame nor regret to indorse it. She +loved no one but Julius, and she made a kind of merit in giving up every +one for him. The sentiment sounded rather well; but it was really an +intense selfishness, wearing the mask of unselfishness. She did not +reflect that the daily love and duty due to others cannot be sinlessly +withheld, or given to some object of our own particular choice, or that +such a selfish idolatry is a domestic crime. + +It was a very unhappy time to Charlotte. Her mother was weary with many +unusual cares, her father more silent and depressed than she had ever +before seen him. The sunny serenity of her happy home was disturbed by a +multitude of new elements, for an atmosphere of constant expectation +gave a restless tone to its usual placid routine. And through all and +below all, there was that feeling of money perplexity, which, where it +exists, is no more to be hid than the subtle odor of musk, present +though unseen. + +This year the white winter appeared to Charlotte interminable in length. +The days in which it was impossible to go out, full of Sophia's sewing +and little worries and ostentations; the windy, tempestuous nights, that +swept the gathering drifts away; the cloudless moonlight nights, full of +that awful, breathless quiet that broods in land-locked dales,--all of +them, and all of Nature's moods, had become inexpressibly, monotonously +wearisome before the change came. But one morning at the end of March, +there was a great west wind charged with heavy rains, and in a few hours +the snow on all the fells had been turned into rushing floods, that came +roaring down from every side into the valley. + + "'Oh, wind! + If winter comes, can spring be far behind?'" + +quoted Charlotte, as she stood watching the white cascades. + +"It will be cuckoo time directly my dear; and the lambs will be bleating +on the fells, and the yellow primroses blowing under all the hedges. I +want to see the swallows take the storm on their wings badly this year. +Eh? What, Charlotte?" + +"So do I, father. I never was so tired of the house before." + +"There's a bit of a difference lately, I think. Eh? What?" + +Charlotte looked at him; there was no need to speak. They both +understood and felt the full misery of household changes that are not +entirely happy ones; changes that bring unfaithfulness and ingratitude +on one side, and resentful, wounded love on the other. And the worst of +it all was, that it might have been so different. Why had the lovers set +themselves apart from the family, had secrets and consultations and +interests they refused to share? How had it happened that Sophia had +come to consider her welfare as apart from, and in opposition to, that +of the general welfare of Seat-Sandal? And when this feeling existed, it +seemed unjust to Charlotte that they should still expect the whole house +and household to be kept in turmoil for the furtherance of their plans, +and that every one should be made to contribute to their happiness. + +"After all, maybe it is a bit natural," said the squire with a sad air +of apology. "I have noticed even the robins get angry if you watch them +building their nests." + +"But they, at least, build their own nest, father. The cock-robin does +not go to his parents, and the hen robin to her parents, and say, 'Give +us all the straw you can, and put it down at the foot of our tree; but +don't dare to peep into the branches, or offer us any suggestions about +the nest, or expect to have an opinion about our housekeeping.' +Selfishness spoils every thing, father. I think if a rose could be +selfish it would be hideous." + +"I don't think a lover would make my Charlotte forget her father and +mother, and feel contempt for her home, and all in and about it that she +does not want for herself. Why, a stranger would think that Sophia was +never loved by any human heart before! They would think that she never +had been happy before. Nay, then, she sets more store by the few +nick-nacks Julius has given her than all I have bought her for twenty +years. When yonder last bracelet came, she went on as if she had never +seen aught of the kind in all her born days. Yet I have bought her one +or two that cost more money, and happen more love, than it did. Eh? +What, Charlotte?" + +There were two large tears standing in his blue eyes, and two sprang +into Charlotte's to meet them. She clasped his hand tight, and after a +minute's silence said,-- + +"I have a lover, father; the best a girl ever had. Has he made any +difference between you and me? Only that I love you better. You are my +first love; the very first creature I remember, father. One summer day +you had me in your arms in the garden. I recollect looking at you and +knowing you. I think it was at that moment my soul found me." + +"It was on a summer day, Charlotte? Eh? What?" + +"And the garden was all roses, father; red with roses,--roses full of +scent. I can smell them yet. The sunshine, the roses, the sweet air, +your face,--I shall never, never forget that moment, father." + +"Nor I. I was a very happy man in those days, Charlotte. Young and +happy, and full of hope. I thought my children were some new make of +children. I could not have believed then, that they would ever give me +a heartache, or have one themselves. And I had not a care. Money was +very easy with me then: now it is middling hard to bring buckle and +tongue together." + +"When Sophia is married, we can begin and save a little. Mother and you +and I can be happy without extravagances." + +"To be sure, we can; but the trouble is, my saving will be the losing of +all I have to send away. It is very hard, Charlotte, to do right at both +ends. Eh? What?" + +After this conversation, spring came on rapidly, and it was not long ere +Charlotte managed to reach Up-Hill. She had not seen Ducie for several +weeks, and she was longing to hear something of Stephen. "But if ill had +come, ill would have cried out, and I would have heard tell;" she +thought, as she picked her way among the stones and _debris_ of the +winter storms. The country was yet bare; the trees had no leaves, no +nests, no secrets; but she could see the sap running into the branches, +making them dark red, scarlet, or yellow as rods of gold. Higher up, the +pines, always green, took her into their shade; into their calm spirit +of unchangeableness, their equal light, their keen aromatic air. Then +came the bare fell, and the raw north wind, and the low gray house, +stretching itself under the leafless, outspreading limbs of the +sycamores. + +In the valley, there had been many wild flowers,--tufts of violets and +early primroses,--and even at Up-Hill the blackthorn's stiff boughs were +covered with tiny white buds, and here and there an open blossom. Ducie +was in the garden at work; and as Charlotte crossed the steps in its +stone wall she lifted her head, and saw her. Their meeting was free from +all demonstration; only a smile, and a word or two of welcome, and yet +how conscious of affection! How satisfied both women were! Ducie went on +with her task, and Charlotte stood by her side, and watched her drop the +brown seeds into the damp, rich earth; watched her clip the box-borders, +and loosen the soil about the springing crocus bulbs. Here and there +tufts of snowdrops were in full bloom,--white, frail bells, looking as +if they had known only cheerless hours and cold sunbeams, and wept and +shrank and feared through them. + +As they went into the house, Ducie gathered a few; but at the +threshhold, Charlotte turned, and saw them in her hand. A little fear +and annoyance came into her face. "You a North-country woman, Ducie," +she said, "and yet going to bring snowdrops across the doorstone? I +would not have believed such a thing of you. Leave them outside the +porch. Be said, now." + +"It seems such a thing to think of flowers that way,--making them signs +of sorrow." + +"You know what you said about your father and the +plant,--'Death-come-quickly.' I have heard snowdrops called 'flowers +from dead-men's dale.' Look at them. They are like a shrouded corpse. +They keep their heads always turned down to the grave. It is ill-luck to +bring them where there is life and love and warmth. It will do you no +harm to mind me; so be said, Ducie. Besides, I wouldn't pull them +anyway. There was little Grace Lewthwaite, she was always gathering the +poor, innocent flowers just to fling them on the dusty road to be +trodden and trampled to pieces; well, before she was twelve years old, +she faded away too. Perhaps even the prayers of mangled flowers may be +heard by the merciful Creator." + +"You do give me such turns, Charlotte." But who ever reasons with a +superstition? Ducie simply obeyed Charlotte's wish, and laid the pallid +blooms almost remorsefully back upon the earth from which she had taken +them. A strange melancholy filled her heart; although the servants were +busy all around, and everywhere she heard the good-natured laugh, the +thoughtless whistle, or the songs of hearts at ease. + +When she entered the houseplace she put the bright kettle on the hob, +and took out her silver teapot and her best cups of lovely crown Derby. +And as she moved about in her quiet, hospitable way they began to talk +of Stephen. "Was he well?"--"Yes, he was well, but there were things +that might be better. I thought when he went to Bradford," continued +Ducie, "that he would at least be learning something that he might be +the better of in the long end; and that in a mill he would over-get his +notions about sheepskins being spun into golden fleeces. But he doesn't +seem to get any new light that way, and Up-Hill is not doing well +without him. Fold and farm are needing the master's eye and hand; and it +will be a poor lambing season for us, I think, wanting Steve. And, deary +me, Charlotte, one word from you would bring him home!" + +Charlotte stooped, and lifted the tortoise-shell cat, lying on the rug +at her feet. She was not fond of cats, and she was only attentive to +puss as the best means of hiding her blushes. Ducie understood the +small, womanly ruse, and waited no other answer. "What is the matter +with the squire, Charlotte? Does he think that Stephen isn't good enough +to marry you? I'll not say that Latrigg evens Sandal in all things, but +I will say that there are very few families that can even Latrigg. We +have been without reproach,--good women, honest men; not afraid of any +face of clay, though it wore a crown above it." + +"Dear Ducie, there is no question at all of that. The trouble arose +about Julius Sandal. Father was determined that I or Sophia should marry +him, and he was afraid of Steve standing in the way of Julius. As for +myself, I felt as if Julius had been invited to Seat-Sandal that he +might make his choice of us; and I took good care that he should +understand from the first hour that I was not on his approbation. I +resented the position on my own account, and I did not intend Stephen to +feel that he was only getting a girl who had been appraised by Julius +Sandal, and declined." + +"You are a good girl, Charlotte; and as for Steve standing in the way of +Julius Sandal, he will, perhaps, do that yet, and to some more purpose +than sweet-hearting. I hear tell that he is very rich; but Steve is not +poor,--no, not by a good deal. His grandfather and I have been saving +for him more than twenty years, and Steve is one to turn his penny well +and often. If you marry Steve, you will not have to study about money +matters." + +"Poor or rich, I shall marry Steve if he is true to me." + +"There is another thing, Charlotte, a thing I talk about to no one; but +we will speak of it once and forever. Have you heard a word about +Steve's father? My trouble is long dead and buried, but there are some +that will open the grave itself for a mouthful of scandal. What have you +heard? Don't be afraid to speak out." + +"I heard that you ran away with Steve's father." + +"Yes, I did." + +"That your father and mother opposed your marriage very much." + +"Yes, that also is true." + +"That he was a handsome lad, called Matt Pattison, your father's head +shepherd." + +"Was that all?" + +"That it killed your mother." + +"No, that is untrue. Mother died from an inflammation brought on by +taking cold. I was no-ways to blame for her death. I was to blame for +running away from my home and duty, and I took in full all the sorrowful +wage I earned. Steve's father did not live to see his son; and when I +heard of mother's death, I determined to go back to father, and stay +with him always if he would let me. I got to Sandal village in the +evening, and stayed with Nancy Bell all night. In the morning I went up +the fell; it was a wet, cold morning, with gusts of wind driving the +showers like a solid sheet eastward. We had a hard fight up the breast +of the mountain; and the house looked bleak and desolate, for the men +were all in the barn threshing, and the women in the kitchen at the +butter-troughs. I stood in the porch to catch my breath, and take my +plaid from around the child; and I heard father in a loud, solemn voice +saying the Collect,--father always spoke in that way when he was saying +the Confession or the Collect,--and I knew very well that he would be +standing at that east window, with his prayer-book open on the sill. So +I waited until I heard the 'Amen,' and then I lifted the latch and went +in. He turned around and faced me; and his eyes fell at once upon little +Steve, who was a bonny lad then, more than three years old. 'I have come +back to you, father,' I said, 'I and my little Steve.'--'Where is thy +husband?' he asked. I said, 'He is in the grave. I did wrong, and I am +sorry, father." + +"'Then I forgive thee.' That was all he said. His eyes were fixed upon +Steve, for he never had a son of his own; and he held out his hands, and +Steve went straight to him; and he lifted the boy, and kissed him again +and again, and from that moment he loved him with all his soul. He never +cast up to me the wrong I had done; and by and by I told him all that +had happened to me, and we never more had a secret between us, but +worked together for one end; and what that end was, some day you may +find out. I wish you would write a word or two to Steve. A word would +bring him home, dear." + +"But I cannot write it, Ducie. I promised father there should be no +love-making between us, and I would not break a word that father trusts +in. Besides, Stephen is too proud and too honorable to have any +underhand courting. When he can walk in and out Seat-Sandal in dayshine +and in dark, and as every one's equal, he will come to see me. Until +then we can trust each other and wait." + +"What does the squire think of Steve's plans? Maybe, now, they are not +very pleasant to him. I remember at the sheep-shearing he did not say +very much." + +"He did not say very much because he never thought that Steve was in +earnest. Father does not like changes, and you know how land-owners +regard traders. And I'm sure you wouldn't even one of our shepherd-lads +with a man that minds a loom. The brave fellows, travelling the +mountain-tops in the fiercest storms to fold the sheep, or seek some +stray or weakly lamb, are very different from the lank, white-faced +mannikins all finger-ends for a bit of machinery; aren't they, Ducie? +And I would far rather see Steve counting his flocks on the fells than +his spinning-jennys in a mill. Father was troubled about the railway +coming to Ambleside, and I do think a factory in Sandal-Side would make +him heart-sick." + +"Then Steve shall never build one while Sandal lives. Do you think I +would have the squire made heart-sick if I could make him heart-whole? +Not for all the woollen yarn in England. Tell him Ducie said so. The +squire and I are old, old friends. Why, we pulled primroses together in +the very meadow Steve thought of building in! I'm not the woman to put a +mill before a friend, oh, no! And in the long end I think you are right, +Charlotte. A man had better work among sheep than among human beings. +They are a deal more peaceable and easy to get on with. It is not so +very hard for a shepherd to be a good man." + +"You speak as I like to hear you, Ducie; but I must be going, for a deal +falls to my oversight now." And she rose quickly from the tea-table, +and as she tied on her bonnet, began to sing,-- + + "'God bless the sheep upon the fells! + Oh, do you hear the tinkling bells + Of sheep that wander on the fells? + + The tinkling bells the silence fills, + Sings cheerily the soul that wills; + God bless the shepherd on the hills! + + God bless the sheep! Their tinkling bells + Make music over all the fells; + By _force_ and _gill_ and _tarn_ it swells, + And this is what their music tells: + God bless the sheep upon the fells.'" + +The melody was wild and simple, a little plaintive also; and Charlotte +sang it with a low, sweet monotony that recalled, one knew not how or +why, the cool fragrance of the hillside, and the scent of wild flowers +by running water. + +Then she went slowly home, Ducie walking to the pine-wood with her. +There was a vague unrest and fear at her heart, she knew not why; for +who can tell whence spring their thoughts, or what mover first starts +them from their secret lodging-place? A sadness she could not fight +down took possession of her; and it annoyed her the more, because she +found every one pleasantly excited over a box of presents that had just +arrived from India for Sophia. She knew that her depression would be +interpreted by some as envy and jealousy, and she resented the false +position it put her in; and yet she found it impossible to affect the +enthusiasm which was expected from her over the Cashmere shawl and +scarfs, the Indian fans and jewelry, the carved ivory trinkets, the +boxes full of Eastern scents,--sandalwood and calamus, nard and attar of +roses, and pungent gums that made the old "Seat" feel like a little bit +of Asia. + +In a few days Julius followed; he came to see the presents, and to read, +with personal illustrations and comments, the letters that had +accompanied them. Sophia's ideas of her own importance grew constantly +more pronounced; indeed, there was a certain amount of "claim" in them, +which no one liked very well to submit to. And yet it was difficult to +resist demands enforced by such remarks as, "It is the last time I shall +ask for such a thing;" "One expects their own people to take a little +interest in their marriage;" "I am sure Julius and _his_ family have +done all _they_ can;" "They seem to understand what a girl must feel and +like at such an eventful time of her life," and so on, and so on, in +variations suited to the circumstances or the occasion. + +Every one was worn out before July, and every one felt it to be a relief +when the wedding-day came. It was ushered in with the chiming of bells, +and the singing of bride-songs by the village children. The village +itself was turned upside down, and the house inside out. As for the +gloomy old church, it looked like a festal place, with flowers and gay +clothing and smiling faces. It was the express wish of Sophia that none +of the company should wear white. "That distinction," she said, "ought +to be reserved for the bride;" and among the maids in pink and blue and +primrose, she stood a very lily of womanhood. Her diaphanous, floating +robe of Dacca muslin; her Indian veil of silver tissue, filmy as light; +her gleaming pearls and feathery fan, made her + + "A sight to dream of, not to tell." + +The service was followed by the conventional wedding-breakfast; the +congratulations of friends, and the rattling away of the bridal-carriage +to the "hurrahing" of the servants and the villagers; and the +_tin-tin-tabula_ of the wedding-peals. Before four o'clock the last +guest had departed, and the squire stood with his wife and Charlotte +weary and disconsolate amid the remains of the feast and the dying +flowers; all of them distinctly sensitive to that mournful air which +accomplished pleasures leave behind them. + +The squire could say nothing to dispel it. He took his rod as an excuse +for solitude, and went off to the fells. Mrs. Sandal was crying with +exhaustion, and was easily persuaded to go to her room, and sleep. Then +Charlotte called the servants, men and women, and removed every trace of +the ceremony, and all that was unusual or extravagant. She set the +simplest of meals; she managed in some way, without a word, to give the +worried squire the assurance that all the folly and waste and hurryment +were over for ever; and that his life was to fall back into a calm, +regular, economical groove. + +He drank his tea and smoked his pipe to this sense, and was happier than +he had been for many a week. + +"It is a middling good thing, Alice," he said, "that we have only one +more daughter to marry. I should think a matter of three or four would +ruin or kill a man, let alone a mother. Eh? What?" + +"That is the blessed truth, William. And yet it is the pride of my heart +to say that there never was such a bride or such a bridal in Sandal-Side +before. Still, I am tired, and I feel just as if I had had a trouble. +Come day, go day; at the long end, life is no better than the preacher +called it--_vanity_." + +"To be sure it is not. We laugh at a wedding, we cry at a burying, a +christening brings us a feast. On the Sabbath we say our litany; and as +for the rest of the year, one day marrows another." + +"Well, well, William Sandal! Maybe we will both feel better after a +night's sleep. To-morrow is untouched." + +And the squire, looking into her pale, placid face, had not the heart to +speak out his thought, which was, "Nay, nay; we have mortgaged +to-morrow. Debt and fear, and the penalties of over-work and over-eating +and over-feeling, will be dogging us for their dues by dayshine." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ENEMY IN THE HOUSEHOLD. + + "There is a method in man's wickedness, + It grows up by degrees." + + "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is + To have a thankless child!" + + +After the wedding, there were some weeks of that peaceful monotony which +is the happiest vehicle for daily life,--weeks so uniform that Charlotte +remembered their events as little as she did their particular weather. +The only circumstance that cast any shadow over them related to Harry. +His behavior had been somewhat remarkable, and the hope that time would +explain it had not been realized at the end of August. + +About three weeks before Sophia's marriage, Harry suddenly wrote to say +that he had obtained a three months' furlough, in order to go to Italy +with a sick friend. This letter, so utterly unexpected, caused some +heart-burning and disappointment. Sophia had calculated upon Harry's +fine appearance and splendid uniform as a distinct addition to her +wedding spectacle. She also felt that the whole neighborhood would be +speculating upon the cause of his absence, and very likely infer from it +that he disapproved of Julius; and the bare suspicion of such a slight +made her indignant. + +Julius considered this to be the true state of the case, though he +promised himself "to find out all about Mr. Harry's affairs" as soon as +he had the leisure and opportunity. + +"The idea of Harry going as sick-nurse with any friend or comrade is +absurd, Sophia. However, we can easily take Florence into our +wedding-trip, only we must not let Charlotte know of our intention. +Charlotte is against us, Sophia; and you may depend upon it, Harry meant +to insult us by his absence." + +Insult or not to the bride and bridegroom, it was a great disappointment +to Mrs. Sandal. To see, to speak to Harry was always a sure delight to +her. The squire loved and yet feared his visits. Harry always needed +money; and lately his father had begun to understand, and for the first +time in his life, what a many-sided need it was. To go to his +secretary, and to find no gold pieces in its cash-drawer; and to his +bank-book, and find no surplus credit there, gave the squire a feeling +of blank amazement and heart-sick perplexity. He felt that such a change +as that might prefigure other changes still more painful and frightsome. + +Charlotte inclined to the same opinion as Julius, regarding her +brother's sudden flight to Florence. She concluded that he had felt it +impossible to congratulate his sister, or to simulate any fraternal +regard for Julius; and her knowledge of facts made her read for "sick +friend" "fair friend." It was, indeed, very likely that the beautiful +girl, whose likeness Harry carried so near his heart, had gone to +Florence; and that he had moved heaven and earth to follow her there. +And when his own love-affairs were pressing and important, how was it +likely that he could care for those of Julius and Sophia? + +So, at intervals, they wondered a little about Harry's peculiar +movement, and tried hard to find something definite below the surface +words of his short letters. Otherwise, a great peace had settled over +Seat-Sandal. Its hall-doors stood open all day long, and the August +sunshine and the garden scents drifted in with the lights and shadows. +Life had settled down into such simple ways, that it seemed to be always +at rest. The hours went and came, and brought with them their little +measure of duty and pleasure, both so usual and easy, that they took +nothing from the feelings or the strength, and gave an infinite sense of +peace and contentment. + +One August evening they were in the garden; there had been several hot, +clear days, and the harvesters were making the most of every hour. The +squire had been in the field until near sunset, and now he was watching +anxiously for the last wain. "We have the earliest shearing in +Sandal-Side," he said. "The sickle has not been in the upper meadows +yet, and if they finish to-night it will be a good thing. It's a fine +moon for work. _A fine moon, God bless her!_ Hark! There is the song I +have been waiting for, and all's well, Charlotte." And they stood still +to listen to the rumble of the wagon, and the rude, hearty chant that at +intervals accompanied it:-- + + "Blest be the day that Christ was born! + The last sheaf of Sandal corn + Is well bound, and better shorn. + Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +"Good-evening, squire." The speaker had come quickly around one of the +garden hedges, and his voice seemed to fall out of mid-air. Charlotte +turned, with eyes full of light, and a flush of color that made her +exceedingly handsome. + +"Well-a-mercy! Good-evening, Stephen. When did you get home? Nobody had +heard tell. Eh? What?" + +"I came this afternoon, squire; and as there is a favor you can do us, I +thought I would ask it at once." + +"Surely, Stephen. What can I do? Eh? What?" + +"I hear your harvest is home. Can you spare us a couple of men? The +wheat in Low Barra fields is ready for the sickle." + +"Three men, four, if you want them. You cannot have too many sickles. +Cut wheat while the sun shines. Eh? What? How is the lady at Up-Hill?" + +"Mother is middling well, I'm obliged to you. I think she has failed +though, since grandfather died." + +"It is likely. She has been too much by herself. You should stay at +home, Stephen Latrigg. A man's duty is more often there than anywhere +else. Eh?" + +"I think you are right now, squire." And then he blundered into the very +statement that he ought to have let alone. "And I am not going to build +the mill, squire,--not yet, at least. I would not do any thing to annoy +you for the world." + +The information was pleasant to Sandal; but he had already heard it, in +its least offensive way, through Ducie and Charlotte. Steve's broad +relinquishment demanded some acknowledgment, and appeared to put him +under an obligation which he did not feel he had any right to +acknowledge. He considered the building of a mill so near his own +property a great social wrong, and why should he thank Stephen Latrigg +for not committing it? + +So he answered coldly, "You must take your own way, Stephen. I am an old +man. I have had my say in my generation, maybe I haven't any right to +meddle with yours. New men, new times." Then being conscious that he +was a little ungenerous he walked off to Mrs. Sandal, and left the +lovers together. Steve would have forgiven the squire a great deal more +for such an opportunity, especially as a still kinder after-thought +followed it. For he had not gone far before he turned, and called back, +"Bring Steve into the house, Charlotte. He will stay, and have a bit of +supper with us, no doubt." Perhaps the lovers made the way into the +house a little roundabout. But Sandal was not an unjust man; and having +given them the opportunity, he did not blame them for taking it. Besides +he could trust Charlotte. Though the heavens fell, he could trust +Charlotte. + +During supper the conversation turned again to Stephen's future plans. +Whether the squire liked to admit the fact or not, he was deeply +interested in them; and he listened carefully to what the young man +said. + +"If I am going to trust to sheep, squire, then I may as well have plenty +to trust to. I think of buying the Penghyll 'walk,' and putting a +thousand on it." + +"My song, Stephen!" + +"I can manage them quite well. I shall get more shepherds, and there +are new ways of doing things that lighten labor very much. I have been +finding out all about them. I think of taking three thousand fleeces, at +the very least, to Bradford next summer." + +"Two hundred years ago somebody thought of harnessing a flock of wild +geese for a trip to the moon. They never could do it. Eh? What?" + +Stephen laughed a little uncomfortably. "That was nonsense, squire." + +"It was 'almighty youth,' Stephen. The young think they can do every +thing. In a few years they do what they can and what they may. It is a +blessed truth that the mind cannot stay long in a _bree_. It gets tired +of ballooning, and comes down to hands and feet again. Eh? What?" + +"I think you mean kindly, squire." + +The confidence touched him. "I do, Steve. Don't be in a hurry, my lad. +There are some things in life that are worth a deal more than +money,--things that money cannot buy. Let money take a backward place." +Then he voluntarily asked about the processes of spinning and weaving +wool, and in spite of his prejudices was a little excited over +Stephen's startling statements and statistics. + +Indeed, the young man was so interesting, that Sandal went with him to +the hall-door, and stood there with him, listening to his graphic +descriptions of the wool-rooms at the top of the great Yorkshire mills. +"I'd like well to take you through one, squire. Fleeces? You would be +wonder-struck. There are long staple and short staple; silky wool and +woolly wool; black fleeces from the Punjaub, and curly white ones from +Bombay; long warps from Russia, short ones from Buenos Ayres; little +Spanish fleeces, and our own Westmoreland and Cumberland skins, that +beat every thing in the world for size. And then to see them turned into +cloth as fast as steam can do it! My word, squire, there never was magic +or witchcraft like the steam and metal witchcraft of a Yorkshire mill." + +"Well, well, Steve. I don't fret myself because I am set in stiller +ways, and I don't blame those who like the hurryment of steam and metal. +Each of us has God's will to do, and our own race to run; and may we +prosper." + +After this, Steve, sometimes gaining and sometimes losing, gradually +won his way back to the squire's liking. September proved to be an +unusually fair month; and to the lovers it was full of happiness, for +early in it their relation to each other was fully recognized; and +Stephen had gone in and out of the pleasant "Seat," dayshine and dark, +as the acknowledged lover of Charlotte Sandal. The squire, upon the +whole, submitted gracefully: he only stipulated that for some time, +indefinitely postponed, the subject of marriage was not to be taken into +consideration. "I could not bear it any road. I could not bear it yet, +Stephen. Wait your full time, and be glad to wait. So few young men will +understand that to pluck the blossom is to destroy the fruit." + +Towards the end of September, there was a letter from Sophia dated +Florence. Some letters are like some individuals, they carry with them a +certain unpleasant atmosphere. None of Sophia's epistles had been very +satisfactory; for they were so short, and yet so definitely pinned to +Julius, that they were but commentaries on that individual. At Paris she +had simply asked Julius, "What do _you_ think of Paris?" And the opinion +of Julius was then given to Seat-Sandal confidently as the only correct +estimate that the world was likely to get. At Venice, Rome, Naples, her +plan was identical; and any variation of detail simply referred to the +living at different places, and how Julius liked it, and how it had +agreed with him. + +So when the Florence letter came, there was no particular enthusiasm +about it. The address assigned it to the squire, and he left it lying on +the table while he finished the broiled trout and coffee before him. But +it troubled Charlotte, and she waited anxiously for the unpleasant words +she felt sure were inside of it. Yet there was no change on the squire's +face, and no sign of annoyance, as he read it. "It is about the usual +thing, Alice. Julius likes Florence. It is called 'the beautiful.' +Julius thinks that it deserves the title. The wine in Rome did not suit +Julius, but he finds the Florence vintage much better. The climate is +very delightful, Julius is sure he will derive benefit from it; and so +on, and so on, and so on." Then there was a short pause, and a rapid +turn of the sheet to glance at the other side. "Oh, Julius met Harry +yesterday! He--Julius--does not think Harry is doing right. 'Harry +always was selfish and extravagant, and though he did affront us on our +wedding-day, Julius thought it proper to call upon him. He--I mean +Harry--was with a most beautiful young girl. Julius thinks father ought +to write to him, and tell him to go back to his duty.'" + +These were the words, doubtful and suggestive, which made every heart in +Seat-Sandal thoroughly uncomfortable. And yet Charlotte stoutly said, "I +would not mind Sophia's insinuations, father and mother. She is angry at +Harry. Harry has as much right in Florence as Sophia has. He told us he +was going there. He has written to us frequently. Suppose he was with a +beautiful girl: is Julius the only young man entitled to such a +privilege? Sophia is happy in her own way, and we do not envy nor +interfere with her happiness; but why should we permit her to make us +unhappy? Throw the letter out of your memories, dear father and mother. +It is only a piece of ill-nature. Perhaps Julius had been cross with +her; and if Sophia has a grievance, she never rests until she passes it +on to some one." + +Women still hold the divining-cup, and Charlotte was not far wrong in +her supposition. In spite of their twinship of soul, and in spite of +that habit of loving which was involved in their belief "that they had +been husband and wife in many a previous existence," Mr. and Mrs. Julius +Sandal disagreed as conventionally as the ordinary husband and wife of +one existence. The day on which the Florence letter was written had been +a very unhappy one for Sophia. Julius had quarrelled with her about some +very trivial affair, and had gone out in a temper disgracefully at +variance with the occasion for it; and Sophia had sat all day nursing +her wrath in her darkened room. She did not dress for the evening drive, +for she had determined to "keep up" her anger until Julius made her some +atonement. + +But when he came home, she could not resist his air of confidence and +satisfaction. He had quite forgotten the affair at the breakfast-table, +and was only eager for her help and sympathy. "I have seen Harry," he +said. + +"Very well. You came here to find him. I suppose I can see him also. I +am sure I need to see some one. I have been neglected all day; +suffering, lonely,"-- + +"Sophia, you and I are here to look after our own affairs a little. If +you are willing to help me, I shall be glad; if not"-- + +"You know I will help you in any thing I can, Julius." + +Then he kissed her, and she cried a little, and he kissed her again; and +she dressed herself, and they went for a drive, and during it met Harry, +and brought him back to dine with them. Julius was particularly pleasant +to the unsuspicious soldier. He soon perceived that he was thoroughly +disgusted with the rigor and routine of military life, and longing to +free himself from its thraldom; and he encouraged him in the idea. + +"I wonder how you stand it, Harry," he said sympathetically. + +"You see, Julius, when I went into the army, I was so weary of +Sandal-Side; and I liked the uniform, and the stir of an officer's life, +and the admiration of the girls, and the whole _eclat_ of the thing. But +when a man's time comes, and he falls so deeply in love that he cares +for nothing on earth but one woman, then he hates whatever comes between +himself and that woman." + +"Naturally so. I suppose it is the young lady I saw you walking with +this morning." + +And Harry blushed like a girl as he gravely nodded his head. + +"Does she live here?" + +"She will for the future." + +"And you must go back to your regiment?" + +"Almost immediately." + +"Too bad! Too bad! Why not leave the army?" + +"I--I have thought of that; but unless I returned to Sandal-Side, my +father would be angry beyond every thing." + +"Fathers cannot be autocrats--quite. You might sell out." + +"Julius, you ought not to suggest such a thing. The temptation has been +lurking in my own heart. I am sorry you have given it a voice. It would +be a shameful thing to do unless father were willing." + +"I have a friend anxious for a commission. I should think a thousand +pounds would make an exchange." + +"Do not speak on the subject, Julius." + +"Very well. I was only supposing; a fellow-feeling, you know. I have +married the girl I desired; and I am sorry for a young man who is +obliged to leave a handsome mistress, and to feel that others may see +her and talk to her while he cannot. It was only a supposition. Do not +mind it." + +But the germ of every wrong deed is the reflection whether it be +possible. And after Harry had gone away with the thought in his heart, +Julius sat musing over his own plans, and Sophia wrote the letter which +so unnecessarily and unkindly shadowed the pleasant life at Seat-Sandal. +For though the squire pooh-poohed it, and Charlotte professed +indifference about it, and Mrs. Sandal kept assuring herself and others +that "Harry never, never would do any thing wrong or unkind, especially +about a woman," every one was apprehensive and watchful. But at last, +even suspicion tires of watching for events that never happen; and +Sophia sent other letters, and made no mention of Harry; and the fear +that had crouched at each home-heart slunk away into forgetfulness. + +Into total forgetfulness. When Harry voluntarily came home for +Christmas, no one coupled his visit with the remarks made by Sophia four +months previously. They had not expected to see him, and the news of +his advent barely reached the house before he followed it; for there was +a heavy snow-storm, and the mail was sent forward with difficulty. So +Mrs. Sandal was reading the letter announcing his visit when she heard +his voice in the hall, and the joyful cry of Charlotte as she ran to +meet him. And that night every one was too happy, too full of inquiry +and information, to notice that Harry was under an unusual restraint. It +did not even strike Charlotte until she awoke the next morning with all +her faculties fresh and clear; then she felt, rather than understood, +that there was something not quite right about Harry. + +It was still snowing, and every thing was white; but the atmosphere of a +quiet, happy Christmas was in the house. There were smiling faces and +good wishes at the breakfast-table, and the shifting lustres of blazing +fires upon the dark walls and evergreens and wax-white mistletoe. And +the wind brought a Christmas greeting from the bells of Furness and +Torver, and Sandal-Side peal sent it on to Earlstower and Coniston. +After breakfast they all went to church; and Harry saw, as in a dream, +the sacred table spread with spotless cloth and silver cups and +flagons, and the dim place decked with holly, and the smiling glance of +welcome from his old acquaintances in the village. And he fell into a +reverie which was not a Christmas reverie, and had it suddenly broken by +his sister singing high and clear the carol the angels sung on the hills +of Bethlehem,--"Glory be to God on high!" And the tears sprang into his +eyes, and he looked stealthily at his father and mother, who were +reverently listening; and said softly to himself, "I wish that I had +never been born." + +For he had come to tell his father news which he knew would shake the +foundations of love and life; and he felt like a coward and a thief in +delaying the explanation. "What right have I to this one day's more +love?" he asked himself; and yet he could not endure to mar the holy, +unselfish festival with the revelation of his own selfishness. As the +day wore on, a sense of weariness and even gloom came with it. Rich food +and wine are by no means conducive to cheerfulness. The squire sloomed +and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed. +The servants had a party in their own hall, and Mrs. Sandal and +Charlotte were occupied an hour or two in its ordering. Then the mother +was thoroughly weary; and before it was quite nine o'clock, Harry and +Charlotte were left alone by the parlor fire. Charlotte was a little +dull also; for Steve had found it impossible to get down the mountain +during the storm, and she missed him, and was constantly inclined to +fall into short silences. + +After one of them, she raised her eyes to Harry's face, and was shocked +by its expression. "Harry," she said, leaning forward to take his hand, +"I am sure you are in trouble. What is it?" + +"If I durst tell you, Charlotte!" + +"Whatever you have dared to do, you may dare to tell me, Harry, I +think." + +"I have got married." + +"Well, where is the harm? Is it to the lady whose picture you showed +me?" + +"Yes. I told you she was poor." + +"It is a great pity she is poor. I am afraid we are getting poor too. +Father was saying last week that he had been talking with Squire +Beverley. Emily is to have fifteen thousand pounds. Father is feverishly +anxious about you and Emily. Her fortune would be a great thing at +Sandal, and father likes her." + +"What is the use of talking about Emily? I have been married to Beatrice +Lanza since last September." + +"Such a strange name! Is it a Scotch name?" + +"She is an Italian." + +"Harry Sandal! What a shame!" + +"Don't you think God made Italians as well as Englishmen?" + +"That is not the question. God made Indians and negroes and all sorts of +people. But he set the world in races, as he set races in families. He +told the Jews to keep to themselves. He was angry when they intermarried +with others. It always brought harm. What kind of a person is an +Italian? They are papists, I know. The Pope of Rome is an Italian. O +Harry, Harry, Harry! It will kill father and mother. But perhaps, as you +met her in Edinburgh, she is a Protestant. The Scotch are all +Protestants." + +"Beatrice is a Roman Catholic, a very strict Roman Catholic. I had to +marry her in a Romish church." He said the words rather defiantly, for +Charlotte's attitude offended him; and he had reached that point when it +was a reckless pleasure to put things at their worst. + +"Then I am ashamed of you. The dear old rector! He married father and +mother; he christened and confirmed you; you might be sure, that if you +could not ask him to marry you, you had no business to marry at all." + +"You said her face was like an angel's, and that you would love her, +Charlotte." + +"Oh, indeed! But I did not think the angel was an Italian angel and a +Roman-Catholic angel. Circumstances alter cases. You, who have been +brought up a good Church-of-England gentleman, to go over to the Pope of +Rome!" + +"I have not gone over to the Pope of Rome." + +"All the same, Harry; all the same. And you know how father feels about +that. Father would fight for the Church quicker than he would fight for +his own house and land. Why! the Sandals got all of their Millom Estate +for being good Protestants; for standing by the Hanoverian line instead +of those popish Stuarts. Father will think you have committed an act of +treason against both church and state, and he will be ashamed to show +his face among the Dale squires. It is too bad! too bad for any thing!" +and she covered her face, and cried bitterly. + +"She is so lovely, so good"-- + +"Nonsense! Were there no lovely English girls? no good English girls? +Emily is ten times lovelier." + +"You know what you said." + +"I said it to please you." + +"Charlotte!" + +"Yes, I did,--at least, in a great measure. It is easy enough to call a +pretty girl an angel; and as for my promise to love your wife, of course +I expected you would choose a wife suitable to your religion and your +birth. Suppose you selected some outlandish dress,--an Italian +brigand's, for instance,--what would the neighboring gentlemen think of +you? It would be an insult to their national costume, and they would do +right to resent it. Well, being who and what you are, you have no right +to bring an Italian woman into Seat-Sandal. It is an insult to every +woman in the county, and they will make you feel it." + +"I shall not give them the opportunity. Beatrice cannot live in this +beastly climate." + +"The climate is wrong also? Naturally. It would follow the religion and +the woman. Harry Sandal, I wish I had died, ere my ears had heard such a +shame and sorrow for my father and mother! Where are you going to live, +then?" + +"In Florence. It is the birthplace of Beatrice the city associated with +all her triumphs." + +"God have mercy, Harry! Her triumphs! Is she, then, an actress?" + +"She is a singer,--a wonderful singer; one to whom the world has +listened with breathless delight." + +"A singing woman! And you have married her? It is an outrage on your +ancestors, and on your parents and sisters." + +"I will not hear you speak in that way, Charlotte. Of course I married +her. Did you wish me to ruin and debase her? _That_, I suppose, you +could have forgiven. My sin against the Sandals and society is, that I +married her." + +"No, sir; you know better. Your sin is in having any thing whatever to +do with her. There is not a soul in Sandal that would have hesitated +between ruin and marriage. If it had to be one or the other, then father +and mother both, then I, then all your friends, would have said without +hesitation, 'Marry the woman.'" + +"I expected and hoped this would be your view of the situation. I could +not give up Beatrice, and I could not be a scoundrel to her." + +"You might have thought of another woman besides Beatrice. Is a sin +against a mother a less sin than one against a strange woman? A mother +is something sacred. To wound her heart is to throw a stone at her. You +have committed a sort of sacrilege. And you are married. No entreaties +can prevent, and no repentance can avail. Oh, what a sorrow to darken +all the rest of father's and mother's days! What right have you to spoil +their lives, in order to give yourself a little pleasure? O Harry! I +never knew that you were selfish before." + +"I deserve all you say, Charley, but I loved Beatrice so much." + +"Are you sure, even of that excuse? I heard you vow that you loved Eliza +Pierson 'so much,' and Fanny Ulloch 'so much,' and Emily Beverley 'so +much.' Why did you not come home, and speak to me before it was too +late? Why come at all now?" + +"Because I want to talk to you about money. I have sold out." + +"Sold out? Is there any more bad news? Do you know what father paid for +your commission? Do you know how it hampered him to do it? that, in +fact, he has never been quite easy about ready money since?" + +"I had to sell out. Did I not tell you that Beatrice could not live in +this climate? She was very ill when she returned to Italy. Signor Lanza +was in great trouble about her." + +"Signor Lanza? Her brother, I suppose." + +"You suppose wrong. He is her father." + +"For her, then, you have given up your faith, your country, your home, +your profession, every thing that other men hold dear and sacred. Do you +expect father to support you? Or is your wife to sing in Italy?" + +"I think you are trying how disagreeable you can be, Charlotte." + +"I am asking you honest questions in honest words." + +"I have the money from the sale of my commission." + +"It does not then strike you as dishonorable to keep it?" + +"No, father gave me it." + +"It appears to me, that if money was taken from the estate, let us say +to stock a sheep-walk, and it was decided after three years' trial to +give up the enterprise, and sell the sheep, that the money would +naturally go back to the estate. When you came of age, father made you a +very generous allowance. After a time you preferred that he should +invest a large sum in a military commission for you; and you proposed to +live upon your pay,--a thing you never have even tried to do. Suddenly, +you find that the commission will not suit your more recent plans, and +you sell it. Ought not the money to go back to the estate, and you to +make a fresh arrangement with father about your allowance? That is my +idea." + +"Foolishness! And pray what allowance would my father make me, after the +marriage I have contracted?" + +"Now, you show your secret heart, Harry. You know you have no right to +expect one, and so you keep what is not yours. This sin also for the +woman whom you have put before every sentiment of love and honor." + +"You were stubborn enough about Steve Latrigg." + +"I was honorable; I was considerate for father, and did not put Stephen +before him. Do you think I would ever marry Stephen against father's +wish, or to the injury or suffering of any one whom I love? Certainly I +would marry no one else, but I gave father my word that I would wait for +his sanction. When people do right, things come right for them. But if +father had stood out twenty years, Steve and I would have waited. Ducie +gave us the same advice. 'Wait, children,' she said: 'I have seen many a +wilful match, and many a run-away match, but never one, never one that +prospered.'" + +"Charley, I expected you to stand by me. I expected you to help me." + +"O Harry, Harry! How can I help? What can I do? There is nothing left +but to suffer." + +"There is this: plead for me when I am away. My wife is sick in +Florence. I must go to her at once. The money I have from my commission +is all I have. I am going to invest it in a little house and vineyard. I +have found out that my real tastes are for a pastoral life." + +"Ah, if you could only have found that out for father!" + +"Circumstances may change." + +"That is, your father may die. I suppose you and your wife have talked +over that probability. Beatrice will be able to endure the climate +then." + +"If I did not see that you were under very strong excitement, Charlotte, +I should be much offended by what you say. But you don't mean to hurt +me. Do you imagine that I feel no sorrow in leaving father and my mother +and you and the old home? My heart is very sad to-night, Charley. I feel +that I shall come here no more." + +"Then why go away? Why, why?" + +"Because a man leaves father and mother and every thing for the woman he +loves. Charley, help me." + +She shook her head sadly. + +"Help me to break the trouble to father." + +"There is no 'breaking' it. It will break him. It will kill him. Alas, +it is the ungrateful child that has the power to inflict a slow and +torturing death! Poor father! Poor mother! And it is I that must witness +it. I, that would die to save them from such undeserved sorrow." + +Then Harry rose up angrily, pushed his chair impatiently away, and +without a word went to his own room. + +In the morning the squire came down to breakfast in exceedingly high +spirits. A Scotchman would have called him "_fey_," and been certain +that misfortune was at his heels. And Charlotte looked at him in +wondering pity, for Harry's face was the face of a man determined to +carry out his own will regardless of consequences. + +"Come, come, Harry," said the squire in a loud, cheerful voice, "you are +moping, and eating no breakfast. Charlotte will have to fill three times +before it is 'cup down' with me. I think we will take Dobbin, and go +over to Windermere in the tax-cart. The roads will be a bit sloppery, +but Dobbin isn't too old to splash through them at a rattling pace. He +is a famous good old-has-been is Dobbin. Give me a Suffolk Punch for a +roadster. I set much by them. Eh? What?" + +"I must leave Sandal this morning, sir." + +"Sir me no sir, Harry. 'Father' will stand between you and me, I think. +You must make a put-off for one day. I was at Bowness last week, and +they say such a winter for char-fishing was never seen. While I was on +the lakeside, Kit Noble's boat came in. He had all of twenty dozen in +the bottom of it. Mr. Wordsworth was there too, and he made a piece of +poetry about 'The silvery lights playing over them;' and he took me to +see a picture that a London gentleman painted of Kit and his boat. You +never saw fish out of the water look so fresh; their olive-green backs +and vermillion bellies and dark-red fins were as natural as life. Come +Harry, we will go and fetch over a few dozen. If you carry your colonel +some, he will take the gift as an excuse for the day. Eh? What?" + +"I think Harry had better not go with you, father." + +"Eh? What is the matter with you, Charlotte? You are as nattert and +cross as never was. Where is your mother? I like my morning cup filled +with a smile. It helps the day through." + +"Mother isn't feeling well. She had a bad dream about Harry and you, and +she is making herself sick over it. She is all in a tremble. I didn't +think mother was so foolish." + +"Dreams are from somewhere beyond us, Charlotte. There's them that visit +us a-dreaming. I am not so wise as to be foolish. I believe in some +things that are outside of my short wits. Maybe we had better not go to +Windermere. We might be tempted into a boat, and dry land is a middling +bit safer. Eh? What?" + +Charlotte felt as if she could endure her father's unsuspicious +happiness no longer. It was like watching a little child smiling and +prattling on the road to its mother's funeral. She put Mrs. Sandal's +breakfast on a small tray, and with this in her hand went up-stairs, +leaving Harry and the squire still at the table. + +"Charlotte is a bit hurrysome this morning," he said; and Harry making +no answer, he seemed suddenly to be struck with his attitude. He looked +curiously at him a moment, and then lapsed into silence. "Harry wants +money." That was his first thought, and he began to calculate how far he +was able to meet the want. Even then, his only bitter reflection was, +that Harry should suppose it necessary to be glum about it. "A cheerful +asker is the next thing to a cheerful giver;" and to such musings he +filled his pipe, and with a shadow of offence on his large ruddy face +went into "the master's room" to smoke. + +When kindly good-nature is snubbed, it feels it keenly; and there was a +mist of tears in the squire's blue eyes when Harry followed, and he +turned them on him. And it was part of his punishment, that, even in the +first flush of the pleasure of his sin, he felt all the pangs of +remorse. + +"Father?" + +"Well, well, Harry! I see you are wanting money again." + +"It will be the last time. I am married, and am going to Italy to live." + +"Eh? What?" The squire flushed hotly. His hand shook, his long clay pipe +fell to the hearthstone, and was shattered to pieces. + +Then a reckless desire to have the whole wrong out urged the unhappy +son to a most cruel distinctness of detail. Without wasting a word in +explanation or excuse, he stated broadly that he had fallen in love with +the famous singer, Beatrice Lanza, and had married her. He spared +himself or his father nothing; he appeared to gather a hard courage as +he spoke of her failing health, her hatred of England, her devotion to +her own faith, and the necessity of his retirement to Italy with her. He +seemed determined to put it out of the power of any one to say worse of +him than he had already said of himself. In conclusion he added, "I have +sold my commission, and paid what I owed, and have very little money +left. Life, however, is not an expensive affair in the village to which +I am going. If you will allow me two hundred pounds a year I shall be +very grateful." + +"I will not give you one penny, sir." + +The words came thick and heavy, and with great difficulty; though the +wretched father had risen, and was standing by the table, leaning hard +with both hands upon it. + +He would not look at his son, though the young man went on speaking. He +heard nothing that he said. In his ears there was the roaring of mighty +waters. All the waves and the billows were going over him. For a few +moments he struggled desperately with the black, advancing tide. His +sight failed, it was growing dark. Then he threw the last forces of life +into one terrible cry, and fell, as a great tree falls, heavily to the +ground. + +The cry rang through the house. The mother, trembling in her bed; +Charlotte, crouching upon the stairs, fearing and listening; the +servants, chattering in the kitchen and the chambers,--all heard it, and +were for a moment horrified by the agony and despair it expressed. But +ere the awful echo had quite subsided, Charlotte was at her father's +side; in a moment afterwards, Mrs. Sandal, sobbing at every flying step, +and still in her night-clothing, followed; and then servants from every +quarter came rushing to the master's room. + +There was no time for inquiry or lamentation. Harry and two of the men +mounted swift horses in search of medical help. Others lifted the +insensible man, and carried him tenderly to his bed. In a moment the +atmosphere of the house had changed. The master's room, which had held +for generations nothing but memories of pastoral business and sylvan +pleasures, had suddenly become a place of sorrow. The shattered pipe +upon the hearthstone made Charlotte utter a low, hopeless cry of pain. +She closed the shutters, and put the burning logs upon the hearth safely +together, and then locked the door. Alas! alas! they had carried the +master out, and in Charlotte's heart there was a conviction that he +would never more cross its threshold. + +After Harry's first feelings of anguish and horror had subsided, he was +distinctly resentful. He felt his father's suffering to be a wrong to +him. He began to reflect that the day for such intense emotions had +passed away. But he forgot that the squire belonged to a generation +whose life was filled and ruled by a few strong, decided feelings and +opinions that struck their roots deep into the very foundations of +existence; a generation, also, which was bearing the brunt of the +transition between the strong, simple life of the past, and the rapid, +complex life of the present. Thus the squire opposed to the indifference +of the time a rigidity of habits, which, to even small events, gave +that exceptional character which rarity once imparted. He felt every +thing deeply, because every thing retained its importance to him. He had +great reverence. He loved, and he hated. All his convictions and +prejudices were for life. + +Harry's marriage had been a blow at the roots of all his conscious +existence. The Sandals had always married in their own county, +Cumberland ladies of honorable pedigree, good daughters of the Church of +England, good housewives, gentle and modest women, with more or less +land and gold as their dowry. Emily Beverley would have been precisely +such a wife. And in a moment, even while Harry was speaking, the squire +had contrasted this Beatrice Lanza with her;--a foreigner,--an Italian, +of all foreigners most objectionable; a subject of the Papal States; a +member of the Romish Church; a woman of obscure birth, poor and +portionless, and in ill-health; worse than all, a public woman, who had +sung for money, and yet who had made Harry desert his home and country +and profession for her. And with this train of thought another ran +parallel,--the shame and the wrong of it all. The disgrace to his wife +and daughters, the humiliation to himself. Each bitter thought beat on +his heart like the hammer on the anvil. They fought and blended with +each other. He could not master one. He felt himself being beaten to the +ground. He made agonizing efforts to retain control over the surging +wave of anguish, rising, rising, rising from his breast to his brain. +And failing to do so, he fell with the mighty cry of one who, even in +the death agony, protests against the victor. + +The news spread as if all the birds in the air carried it. There were a +dozen physicians in Seat-Sandal before noon. There was a crowd of +shepherds around it, waiting in silent groups for their verdict. All the +afternoon the gentlemen of the Dales were coming and going with offers +of help and sympathy; and in the lonely parlor the rector was softly +pacing up and down, muttering, as he walked, passages from the "Order +for the Visitation of the Sick":-- + +"O Saviour of the world, who by thy cross and precious blood hast +redeemed us, save us, and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord. + +"Spare us good Lord. Spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy +most precious blood. + +"Shut not up thy tender mercies in displeasure; but make him to hear of +joy and gladness. + +"Deliver him from the fear of the enemy. Lift up the light of thy +countenance upon him. Amen." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ESAU. + + "To be weak is miserable, + Doing or suffering." + + "Now conscience wakes despair + That slumberd; wakes the bitter memory + Of what he was, what is, and what must be." + + +It was the middle of February before Harry could leave Sandal-Side. He +had remained there, however, only out of that deference to public +opinion which no one likes to offend; and it had been a most melancholy +and anxious delay. He was not allowed to enter the squire's room, and +indeed he shrank from the ordeal. His mother and Charlotte treated him +with a reserve he felt to be almost dislike. He had been so accustomed +to consider mother-love sufficient to cover all faults, that he forgot +there was a stronger tie; forgot that to the tender wife the husband of +her youth--her lover, friend, companion--is far nearer and dearer than +the tie that binds her to sons and daughters. + +Also, he did not care to give any consideration to the fact, that both +his mother and Charlotte resented the kind of daughter and sister he had +forced upon them. So there was little sympathy with him at Seat-Sandal, +and he fancied that all the gentlemen of the neighborhood treated him +with a perceptible coolness of manner. Perhaps they did. There are +social intuitions, mysterious in their origin, and yet hitting +singularly near the truth. Before circumstances permitted him to leave +Sandal-Side, he had begun to hate the Seat and the neighborhood, and +every thing pertaining to it, with all his heart. + +The only place of refuge he had found had been Up-Hill. The day after +the catastrophe he fought his way there, and with passionate tears and +complaints told Ducie the terrible story. Ducie had some memories of her +own wilful marriage, which made her tolerant with Harry. She had also +been accused of causing her mother's death; and though she knew herself +to be innocent, she had suffered by the accusation. She understood +Harry's trouble as few others could have done; and though a good deal +of his evident misery was on account of his separation from Beatrice, +Ducie did not suspect this, and really believed the young man to be +breaking his heart over the results of his rash communication. + +He was agreeably surprised, also, to find that Stephen treated him with +a consideration he had never done when he was a dashing officer, with +all his own small world at his feet. For when any man was in trouble, +Steve Latrigg was sure to take that man's part. He did not ask too +particularly into the trouble. He had a way of saying to Ducie, "There +will be faults on both sides. If two stones knock against each other +until they strike fire, you may be sure both of them have been hard, +mother. Any way, Harry is in trouble, and there is none but us to stand +up for him." + +But in spite of Steve's constant friendship, and Ducie's never-failing +sympathy, Harry had a bad six weeks. There were days during them when he +stood in the shadow of death, with almost the horror of a parricide in +his heart. Long, lonely days, empty of every thing but anxiety and +weariness. Long, stormy days, when he had not even the relief of a walk +to Up-Hill. Days in which strangers slighted him. Days in which his +mother and Charlotte could not even bear to see him. Days in which he +fancied the servants disliked and neglected him. He was almost happy one +afternoon when Stephen met him on the hillside, and said, "The squire is +much better. The doctors think he is in no immediate danger. You might +go to your wife, Harry, I should say." + +"I am glad, indeed, to hear the squire is out of danger. And I long to +go to my sick wife. I get little credit for staying here. I really +believe, Steve, that people accuse me of waiting to step into father's +shoes. And yet if I go away they will say things just as cruel and +untrue." + +But he went away before day-dawn next morning. Charlotte came +down-stairs, and served his coffee; but Mrs. Sandal was watching the +squire, who had fallen into a deep sleep. Charlotte wept much, and said +little; and Harry felt at that hour as if he were being very badly +treated. He could scarcely swallow; and the intense silence of the house +made every slight noise, every low word, so distinct and remarkable, +that he felt the constraint to be really painful. + +"Well," he said, rising in haste, "I may as well go without a kind word. +I am not to have one, apparently." + +"Who is here to speak it? Can father? or mother? or I? But you have that +woman." + +"Good-by, Charley." + +She bit her lips, and wrung her hands; and moaning like some wounded +creature lifted her face, and kissed him. + +"Good-by. Fare you well, poor Harry." + +A little purse was in his hand when she took her hand away; a netted +silk one that he had watched the making of, and there was the glimmer of +gold pieces through it. With a blush he put it in his pocket, for he was +sorely pressed for money; and the small gift was a great one to him. And +it almost broke his heart. He felt that it was all she could give +him,--a little gold for all the sweet love that had once been his. + +His horse was standing ready saddled. 'Osttler Bill opened the +yard-gate, and lifted the lantern above his head, and watched him ride +slowly away down the lane. When he had gone far enough to drown the +clatter of the hoofs he put the creature to his mettle, and Bill waved +the lantern as a farewell. Then, as it was still dark, he went back to +the stable and lay down to sleep until the day broke, and the servants +began to open up the house. + +When Harry reached Ambleside it was quite light, and he went to the +Salutation Inn, and ordered his breakfast. He had been a favorite with +the landlady all his life long, and she attended to his comfort with +many kindly inquiries and many good wishes. "And what do you think now, +Capt. Sandal? Here has been a man from Up-Hill with a letter for you." + +"Is he gone?" + +"That he is. He would not wait, even for a bite of good victuals. He was +dryish, though, and I gave him a glass of beer. Then him and his little +Galloway took themselves off, without more words about it. Here it is, +and Mr. Latrigg's writing on it or I wasn't christened Hannah Stavely." + +Harry opened it a little anxiously; but his heart lightened as he +read,-- + + DEAR HARRY,--If you show the enclosed slip of paper to + your old friend Hannah Stavely, she will give you a hundred pounds + for it. That is but a little bit of the kindness in mother's heart + and mine for you. At Seat-Sandal I will speak up for you always, + and I will send you a true word as to how all gets on there. God + bless the squire, and bring you and him together again! + + Your friend and brother, + + STEPHEN LATRIGG. + +And so Harry went on his way with a lighter heart. Indeed, he was not +inclined at any time to share sorrow out of which he had escaped. Every +mile which he put between himself and Sandal-Side gave back to him +something of his old gay manner. He began first to excuse himself, then +to blame others; and in a few hours he was in very comfortable relations +with his own conscience; and this, not because he was deliberately cruel +or wicked, but because he was weak, and loved pleasure, and considered +that there was no use in being sorry when sorrow was neither a credit to +himself, nor a compliment to others. And so to Italy and to love he sped +as fast as money and steam could carry him. And on the journey he did +his very best to put out of his memory the large, lonely, gray "Seat," +with its solemn, mysterious chamber of suffering, and its wraiths and +memories and fearful fighting away of death. + +But on the whole, the hope which Stephen had given him of the squire's +final recovery was a too flattering one. There was, perhaps, no +immediate danger of death, but there was still less prospect of entire +recovery. He had begun to remember a little, to speak a word or two, to +use his hands in the weak, uncertain way of a young child; but in the +main he lay like a giant, bound by invisible and invincible bonds; +speechless, motionless, seeking through his large, pathetic eyes the +help and comfort of those who bent over him. He had quite lost the fine, +firm contour of his face, his ruddy color was all gone; indeed, the +country expression of "face of clay," best of all words described the +colorless, still countenance amid the white pillows in the darkened +room. + +As the spring came on he gained strength and intelligence, and one +lovely day his men lifted him to a couch by the window. The lattices +were flung wide open, that he might see the trees tossing about their +young leaves, and the grass like grass in paradise, and hear the bees +humming among the apple-blooms, and the sheep bleating on the fells. +The earth was full of the beauty and the tranquillity of God. The squire +looked long at the familiar sights; looked till his lips trembled, and +the tears rolled heavily down his gray face. And then he realized all +that he had suffered, he remembered the hand that had dealt him the +blow. And while Mrs. Sandal was kissing away his tears, and speaking +words of hope and love, a letter came from Sophia. + +It was dated Calcutta. Julius had taken her there in the winter, and the +news of her father's illness did not reach her for some weeks. But, as +it happened, when Charlotte's letter detailing the sad event arrived, +Julius was particularly in need of something to wonder over and to +speculate about; and of all subjects, Seat-Sandal interested him most. +To be master of the fine old place was his supreme ambition. He felt +that he possessed all the qualities necessary to make him a leader among +the Dales gentlemen. He foresaw, through them, social influence and +political power; and he had an ambition to make his reign in the house +of Sandal the era of a new and far more splendid dynasty. + +He had been lying in the shade, drinking iced coffee, and smoking. But +as Sophia read, he sat upright, and a look of speculation came into his +eyes. "There is no use weeping, my love," he said languidly, "you will +only dim your beauty, and that will do neither your father nor me any +good. Let us go to Sandal. Charlotte and mother must be worn out, and we +can be useful at such a time. I think, indeed, our proper place is +there. The affairs of the 'walks' and the farms must be attended to, and +what will they do on quarter-day? Of course Harry will not remain there. +It would be unkind, wrong, and in exceedingly bad taste." + +"Poor, dear father! And oh, Julius, what a disgrace to the family! A +singer! How could Harry behave so shamefully to us all?" + +"Harry never cared for any mortal but himself. How disgracefully he +behaved about our marriage; for this same woman's sake, I have no doubt. +You must remember that I disapproved of Harry from the very first. The +idea of terminating a _liaison_ of that kind with a marriage! Harry +ought to be put out of decent society. You and I ought to be at +Seat-Sandal now. Charlotte will be pushing that Stephen Latrigg into the +Sandal affairs, and you know what I think of Stephen Latrigg. He is to +be feared, too, for he has capabilities, and Charlotte to back him; and +Charlotte was always underhand, Sophia. You would not see it, but she +was. Order your trunks to be packed at once,--don't forget the rubies my +mother promised you,--and I will have a conversation with the judge." + +Judge Thomas Sandal was by no means a bad fellow. He had left +Sandal-Side under a sense of great injustice, but he had done well to +himself; and those who had done him wrong, had disappeared into the +cloud of death. He had forgotten all his grievances, he had even +forgotten the inflicters of them. He had now a kindly feeling towards +Sandal, and was a little proud of having sprung from such a grand old +race. Therefore, when Julius told him what had happened, and frankly +said he thought he could buy from Harry Sandal all his rights of +succession to the estate, Judge Thomas Sandal saw nothing unjust in the +affair. + +The law of primogeniture had always appeared to him a most unjust and +foolish law. In his own youth it had been a source of burning anger and +dispute. He had always declared it was a shame to give Launcelot every +thing, and William and himself scarce a crumb off the family loaf. To +his eldest brother, as his eldest brother, he had declined to give +"honor and obedience." "William is a far finer fellow," he said one day +to his mother; "far more worthy to follow father than Launcie is. If +there is any particular merit in keeping up the old seat and name, for +goodness' sake let father choose the best of us to do it!" For such +revolutionary and disrespectful sentiments he had been frequently in +disgrace; and the end of the disputing had been his own expatriation, +and the founding of a family of East-Indian Sandals. + +He heard Julius with approval. "I think you have a very good plan," he +said. "Harry Sandal, with his play-singing wife, would have a very bad +time of it among the Dalesmen. He knows it. He will have no desire to +test the feeling. I am sure he will be glad to have a sum of ready money +in lieu of such an uncomfortable right. As for the Latriggs, my mother +always detested them. Sophia and you are both Sandals; certainly, your +claim would be before that of a Charlotte Latrigg." + +"Harry, too, is one of those men who are always poor, always wanting +money. I dare say I can buy his succession for a song." + +"No, no. Give him a fair price. I never thought much of Jacob buying +poor Esau out for a mess of pottage. It was a mean trick. I will put ten +thousand pounds at Bunder's in Threadneedle Street, London, for you. +Draw it all if you find it just and necessary. The rental ought to +determine the value. I want you to have Seat-Sandal, but I do not want +you to steal it. However, my brother William may not die for many a year +yet; those Dale squires are a century-living race." + +In accordance with these plans and intentions, Sophia wrote. Her letter +was, therefore, one of great and general sympathy; in fact, a very +clever letter indeed. It completely deceived every one. The squire was +told that Sophia and Julius were coming, and his face brightened a +little. Mrs. Sandal and Charlotte forgot all but their need of some help +and comfort which was family help and comfort, free of ceremony, and +springing from the same love, hopes, and interests. + +Stephen, however, foresaw trouble. "Julius will get the squire under his +finger," he said to Charlotte. "He will make himself indispensable about +the estate. As for Sophia, she could always work mother to her own +purposes. Mother obeyed her will, even while she resented and +disapproved her authority. So, Charlotte, I shall begin at once to build +Latrigg Hall. I know it will be needed. The plan is drawn, the site is +chosen; and next Monday ground shall be broken for the foundation." + +"There is no harm in building your house, Steve. If father should die, +mother and I would be here upon Harry's sufferance. He might leave the +place in our care, he might bring his wife to it any day." + +"And how could you live with her?" + +"It would be impossible. I should feel as if I were living with my +father's--with the one who really gave father the death-blow." + +So when Julius and Sophia arrived at Seat-Sandal, the walls of Latrigg +Hall were rising above the green sod. A most beautiful site had been +chosen for it,--the lowest spur on the western side of the fell; a +charming plateau facing the sea, shaded with great oaks, and sloping +down into a little dale of lovely beauty. The plan showed a fine central +building, with lower wings on each side. The wide porches, deep windows, +and small stone balconies gave a picturesque irregularity to the general +effect. This home had been the dream of Stephen's manhood, and Ducie +also had urged him to its speedy realization; for she knew that it was +the first step towards securing for himself that recognition among the +county gentry which his wealth and his old family entitled him to. Not +that there was any intention of abandoning Up-Hill. Both would have +thought such a movement a voluntary insult to the family wraiths,--one +sure to bring upon them disaster of every kind. Up-Hill was to be +Ducie's residence as long as she lived; it was to be always the home of +the family in the hot months, and thus retain its right as an integral +part and portion of the Latriggs' hearth. + +"I have seen the plan of Latrigg Hall," said Julius one day to Sophia. +"An absurdly fine building for a man of Stephen's birth. What will he +do with it? It will require as large an income as Seat-Sandal to support +it." + +"Stephen is rich. His grandfather left him a great deal of money. Ducie +will add considerably to the sum, and Stephen seems to have the faculty +of getting it. My mother says he is managing three 'walks,' and all of +them are doing well." + +"Nevertheless, I do not like him. 'In-law' kinsmen and kinswomen are +generally detestable. Look at my brothers-in-law, Mr. Harry Sandal and +Mr. Stephen Latrigg; and my sisters-in-law, Mrs. Harry Sandal and Miss +Charlotte Sandal; a pretty undesirable quartette I think." + +"And look at mine. For sisters-in-law, Mahal and Judith Sandal; for +brothers-in-law, William and Tom Sandal; a pretty undesirable quartette +I think." + +Julius did not relish the retort; for he replied stiffly, "If so, they +are at least at the other end of the world, and not likely to trouble +you. That is surely something in their favor." + +The first movement of the Julius Sandals in Seat-Sandal had been a +clever one. "I want you to let us have the east rooms, dear mother," +said Sophia, on their arrival; "Julius does feel the need of the morning +sun so much." And though other rooms had been prepared, the request was +readily granted, and without any suspicion of the motive which had +dictated it. And yet they had made a very prudent calculation. Occupying +the east rooms gave them a certain prominence and standing in the house, +for only guests of importance were assigned to them; and the servants, +who are people of wise perceptions generally, took their tone from the +circumstance. + +It seemed as if a spirit of dissatisfaction and quarrelling came with +them. The maids all found out that their work was too heavy, and that +they were worn out with it. Sophia had been pitying them. "Mrs. Sandal +does not mean to be hard, but she is so wrapped up in the squire she +sees nothing; and Miss Charlotte is so strong herself, she really +expects too much from others. She does not intend to be exacting, but +then she is; she can't help it." + +And sitting over "a bit of hot supper" the chambermaid repeated the +remark; and the housemaid said she only knew that she was traipsed off +her feet, and hadn't been near hand her own folks for a fortnight; and +the cook thought Missis had got quite nattry. She had been near falling +out with her more than once; and all the ill-nature was because she was +fagged out, all day long and every day making some kind of little +knick-shaw or other that was never eaten. + +Not one remembered that the Julius Sandals had themselves considerably +increased the work of the house; and that Mrs. Julius alone could find +quite sufficient employment for one maid. Since her advent, Charlotte's +room had been somewhat neglected for the fine guest-chambers; but it was +upon Charlotte all the blame of over-work and weariness was laid. +Insensibly the thought had its effect. She began to feel that for some +reason or other she was out of favor; that her few wants were carelessly +attended to, and that Mrs. Julius influenced the house as completely as +she had done when she was Miss Sandal. + +She soon discovered, also, that repining was useless. Her mother begged +for peace at any cost. "Put up with it," she said, "for a little while, +Charlotte. I cannot bear quarrelling. And you know how Sophia will +insist upon explaining. She will call up the servants, and 'fend and +prove,' and make complaints and regrets, and in the long end have all on +her own side. And I can tell you that Ann has been queer lately, and +Elizabeth talks of leaving at Martinmas. O Charlotte! put up with +things, my dear. There is only you to help me." + +Charlotte could not resist such appeals. She knew she was really the +hand to which all other hands in the house looked, the heart on which +her father and mother leaned their weary hearts; still, she could not +but resent many an unkind position, which Sophia's clever tactics +compelled her to take. For instance, as she was leaving the room one +morning, Sophia said in her blandest voice, "Dear Charlotte, will you +tell Ann to make one of those queen puddings for Julius. He does enjoy +them so much." + +Ann did not receive the order pleasantly. "They are a sight of trouble, +Miss Charlotte. I'll be hard set with the squire's fancies to-day. And +there is as good as three dinners to make now, and I must say a queen's +pudding is a bit thoughtless of you." And Charlotte felt the injustice +she was too proud to explain to a servant. But even to Sophia, complaint +availed nothing. "You must give extra orders yourself to Ann in the +future," she said. "Ann accuses me of being thoughtless in consequence +of them." + +"As if I should think of interfering in your duties, Charlotte. I hope I +know better than that. You would be the first to complain of my 'taking +on' if I did, and I should not blame you. I am only a guest here now. +But I am sure a little queen pudding is not too much to ask, in one's +own father's house too. Julius has not many fancies I am sure, but such +a little thing." + +"Julius can have all the fancies he desires, only do please order them +from Ann yourself." + +"Well, I never! I am sure father and mother would never oppose a little +pudding that Julius fancies." + +Does any one imagine that such trials as these are small and +insignificant? They are the very ones that make the heart burn, and the +teeth close on the lips, and the eyes fill with angry tears. They take +hope out of daily work, and sunshine out of daily life, and slay love as +nothing else can slay it. There was an evil spirit in the house,--a +small, selfish, envious, malicious spirit; people were cross, and they +knew not why; felt injured, and they knew not why; the days were harder +than those dreadful ones when fire and candle were never out, and every +one was a watcher in the shadow of death. + +As the season advanced, Julius took precisely the position which Stephen +had foretold he would take. At first he deferred entirely to the squire; +he received his orders, and then saw them carried out. Very soon he +forgot to name the squire in the matter. He held consultations with the +head man, and talked with him about the mowing and harvesting, and the +sale of lambs and fleeces. The master's room was opened, and Julius sat +at the table to receive tenants and laborers. In the squire's chair it +was easy to feel that he was himself squire of Sandal-Side and Torver. + +It was a most unhappy summer. Evils, like weeds, grow apace. There was +scarcely any interval between some long-honored custom and its +disappearance. To-day it was observed as it had been for a lifetime; +the next week it had passed away, and appeared to be forgotten. "Such +times I never saw," said Ann. "I have been at Sandal twenty-two years +come Martinmas, but I'm going to Beverley next feast." + +"You'll not do it, Ann. It's but talk." + +"Nay, but I'm set on it. I have taken the 'fastening penny,' and I'm +bound to make that good. Things are that trying here now, that I can't +abide them longer." + +All summer servants were going and coming at Seat-Sandal; the very +foundations of its domestic life were broken up, and Charlotte's bright +face had a constant wrinkle of worry and annoyance. Sophia was careful +to point out the fact. "She has no housekeeping ability. Every thing is +in a mess. If I only durst take hold of things. But Charlotte is such a +spitfire, one does not like to offer help. I would be only too glad to +put things right, but I should give offence," etc. "The poison of asps +under the tongue," and a very little of it, can paralyze and irritate a +whole household. + +Mowing-time and shearing-time and reaping-time came and went, but the +gay pastoral festivals brought none of their old-time pleasure. The men +in the fields did not like Julius in the squire's place, and they took +no pains to hide the fact. Then he came home with complaints. "They were +idle. They were disrespectful. The crops had fallen short." He could not +understand it; and when he had expressed some dissatisfaction on the +matter, the head man had told him, to take his grumbling to God +Almighty. "An insolent race, these statesmen and Dale shepherds," he +added; "if one of them owns ten acres, he thinks himself as good as if +he owns a thousand." + +"All well-born men, Julius, all of them; are they not, Charlotte? Eh? +What?" + +"So well born," answered Charlotte warmly, "that King James the First +set up a claim to all these small estates, on the plea that their owners +had never served a feudal lord, and were, therefore, tenants of the +crown. But the large statesmen went with the small ones. They led them +in a body to a heath between Kendal and Stavely, and there over two +thousand men swore, 'that as they had their lands by the sword, they +would keep them by the same.' So you see, Julius, they were gentlemen +before the feudal system existed; they never put a finger under its +authority, and they have long survived its fall." + +"Well, for all that, they make poor servants." + +"There's men that want Indian ryots or negro slaves to do their turn. I +want free men at Sandal-Side as long as I am squire of that name." + +"They missed you sorely in the fields, father. It was not shearing-time, +nor hay-time, nor harvest-time to any one in Sandal this year. But you +will stand in your meadows again--God grant it!--next summer. And then +how the men will work! And what shouting there will be at the sight of +you! And what a harvest-home we shall have!" + +And he caught her enthusiasm, and stood up to try his feet, and felt +sure that he walked stronger, and would soon be down-stairs once more. +And Julius, whose eyes love did not blind, felt a little scorn for those +who could not see such evident decay and dissolution. "It is really +criminal," he said to Sophia, "to encourage hopes so palpably false." +For Julius, like all selfish persons, could perceive only one side of a +question, the side that touched his own side. It never entered his mind +that the squire was trying to cheer and encourage his wife and daughter, +and was privately quite aware of his own condition. Sandal had not told +him that he had received "the token," the secret message which every +soul receives when the King desires his presence. He had never heard +those solemn conversations which followed the reading of "The Evening +Service," when the rector knelt by the side of his old friend, and they +two talked with Death as with a companion. So, though Julius meddled +much with Sandal affairs, there was a life there into which he never +entered. + +One evening in October, Charlotte was walking with Stephen. They had +been to look at the new building, for every inch of progress was a +matter of interest to them. As they came through the village, they +perceived that Farmer Huet was holding his apple feast; for he was +carrying from his house into his orchard a great bowl of spiced ale, and +was followed by a merry company, singing wassail as they poured a little +at the root of every tree:-- + + "Here's to thee, good apple-tree! + Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow, + Whence thou may'st bear apples enou'; + Hats full, caps full, + Bushels full, sacks full. + Hurrah, then! Hurrah, then! + Here's to thee, good apple-tree!" + +They waited a little to watch the procession round the orchard; and as +they stood, Julius advanced from an opposite direction. He took a letter +from his pocket, which he had evidently been to the mail to secure, for +Charlotte watched him break the seal as he approached; and when he +suddenly raised his head, and saw her look of amazement, he made a +little bravado of the affair, and said, with an air of frankness, "It is +a letter from Harry. I thought it was best for his letters not to come +to the house. The mail-bag might be taken to the squire's room, and who +knows what would happen if he should see one of these," and he tapped +the letter significantly with his long pointed fore-finger. + +"You should not have made such an arrangement as that, Julius, without +speaking to mother. It was cruel to Harry. Why should the villagers +think that the sight of a letter from him would be so dreadful to his +own people?" + +"I did it for the best, Charlotte. Of course, you will misjudge me." + +"Ah! I know now why Polly Esthwaite called you, 'such a nice, kind, +thoughtful gentleman as never was.' Is the letter for you?" + +"Mr. Latrigg can examine the address if you wish." + +"Mr. Latrigg distinctly refuses to look at the letter. Come, Charlotte, +the air is cold and raw;" and with very scant courtesy they parted. + +"What can it mean, Steve, Julius and Harry in correspondence? I don't +know what to think of such a thing. Harry has only written once to me +since he went away. There is something wrong in all this secrecy, you +may depend upon it." + +"I would not be suspicious, Charlotte. Harry is affectionate and +trusting. Julius has written him letters full of sympathy and +friendship; and the poor fellow, cut off from home and kindred, has been +only too glad to answer. Perhaps we should have written also." + +"But why did Julius take that trouble? Julius always has a motive for +what he does. I mean a selfish motive. Has Harry written to you?" + +"Only a few lines the very day he left. I have heard nothing since." + +The circumstance troubled Charlotte far beyond its apparent importance. +She could conceive of no possible reason for Julius interfering in +Harry's life, and she had the feeling of a person facing a danger in the +dark. Julius was also annoyed at her discovery. "It precipitates +matters," he said to Sophia, "and is apparently an unlucky chance. But +chance is destiny, and this last letter of Harry's indicates that all +things are very nearly ready for me. As for your sister, Charlotte +Sandal, I think she is the most interfering person I ever knew." + +The air of the supper-table was one of reserve and offence. Only Sophia +twittered and observed and wondered about all kinds of trivial things. +"Mother has so many headaches now. Does she take proper care of herself, +Charlotte? She ought to take exercise. Julius and I never neglect taking +exercise. We think it a duty. No time do you say? Mother ought to take +time. Poor, dear father was never unreasonable; he would wish mother to +take time. What tasteless custards, Charlotte! I don't think Ann cares +how she cooks now. When I was at home, and the eldest daughter, she +always liked to have things nice. Julius, my dear one, can you find any +thing fit to eat?" And so on, and so on, until Charlotte felt as if she +must scream, or throw a plate down, or fly beyond the sight and sound of +all things human. + +The next evening Julius announced his intention of going abroad at once. +"But I shall leave Sophia to be a little society for mother, and I shall +not delay an hour beyond the time necessary for travel and business." He +spoke with an air of conscious self-denial; and as Charlotte did not +express any gratitude he continued, "Not that I expect any thanks, +Sophia and I, but fortunately we find duty is its own reward." + +"Are you going to see Harry?" + +"I may do such a thing." + +"Is he sick?" + +"No." + +"I hope he will not get sick while you are there." And then some +passionate impulse took possession of her; her face glowed like a +flame, and her eyes scintillated like sparks. "If any thing happens +Harry while you are with him, I swear, by each separate Sandal that ever +lived, that you shall account for it!" + +"Oh, you know, Sophia dear, this is too much! Leave the table, my love. +Your sister must be"--and he tapped his forehead; while Sophia, with a +look of annihilating scorn, drew her drapery tight around her, and +withdrew. + +"What did I say? What do I think? What terror is in my heart? Oh, Harry, +Harry, Harry!" + +She buried her face in her hands, and sat lost in woeful thought,--sat so +long that Phoebe the table-maid felt her delay to be unkind and +aggravating; especially when one of the chamber-maids came down for her +supper, and informed the rulers of the servants' hall that "Mrs. Julius +was crying up-stairs about Miss Charlotte falling out with her husband." + +"Mercy on us! What doings we have to bide with!" and Ann shook her check +apron, and sat down with an air of nearly exhausted patience. + +"You can't think what a taking Mr. Julius is in. He's going away +to-morrow." + +"For good and all?" + +"Not he. He'll be back again. He has had a falling-out with Miss +Charlotte." + +"Poor lass! Say what you will, she has been hard set lately. I never +knew nor heard tell of her being flighty and fratchy before the squire's +trouble." + +"Good hearts are plenty in good times, Ann Skelton. Miss Charlotte's +temper is past all the last few weeks, she is that off-and-on and +changeable like and spirity. Mrs. Julius says she does beat all." + +"I don't pin my faith on what Mrs. Julius says. Not I." + +In the east rooms the criticism was still more severe. Julius railed for +an hour ere he finally decided that he never saw a more suspicious, +unladylike, uncharitable, unchristianlike girl than Charlotte Sandal! "I +am glad to get away from her a little while," he cried; "how can she be +your sister, Sophia?" + +So glad was he to get away, that he left before Charlotte came down in +the morning. Ann made him a cup of coffee, and received a shilling and +some suave words, and was quite sure after them that "Mr. Julius was the +finest gentleman that ever trod in shoe-leather." And Julius was not +above being gratified with the approbation and good wishes of servants; +and it gave him pleasure to leave in the little hurrah of their bows and +courtesies, their smiles and their good wishes. + +He went without delay straight to the small Italian village in which +Harry had made his home. Harry's letters had prepared him for trouble +and poverty, but he had little idea of the real condition of the heir of +Sandal-Side. A few bare rooms in some dilapidated palace, grim with +faded magnificence, comfortless and dull, was the kind of place he +expected. He found him in a small cottage surrounded by a barren, sandy +patch of ground overgrown with neglected vines and vagabond weeds. The +interior was hot and untidy. On a couch a woman in the firm grip of +consumption was lying; an emaciated, feverish woman, fretful with acute +suffering. A little child, wan and waxy-looking, and apparently as ill +as its mother, wailed in a cot by her side. Signor Lanza was smoking +under a fig-tree in the neglected acre, which had been a vineyard or a +garden. Harry had gone into the village for some necessity; and when he +returned Julius felt a shock and a pang of regret for the dashing young +soldier squire that he had known as Harry Sandal. + +He kissed his wife with passionate love and sorrow, and then turned to +Julius with that mute look of inquiry which few find themselves able to +resist. + +"He is alive yet,--much better, he says; and Charlotte thinks he may be +in the fields again next season." + +"Thank God! My poor Beatrice and her baby! You see what is coming to +them?" + +"Yes." + +"And I am so poor I cannot get her the change of air, the luxuries, the +medicines, which would at least prolong life, and make death easy." + +"Go back with me to Sandal-Side, and see the squire: he may listen to +you now." + +"Never more! It was cruel of father to take my marriage in such a way. +He turned my life's joy into a crime, cursed every hour that was left +me." + +"People used to be so intense--'a few strong feelings,' as Mr. +Wordsworth says--too strong for ordinary life. We really can't afford to +love and hate and suffer in such a teetotal way now; but the squire came +from the Middle Ages. This is a dreadfully hot place, Harry." + +"Yes, it is. We were very much deceived in it. I bought it; and we +dreamed of vineyards and milk and wine, and a long, happy, simple life +together. Nothing has prospered with us. We were swindled in the house +and land. The signor knows nothing about vines. He was born here, and +wanted to come back and be a great man." And as he spoke he laughed +hysterically, and took Julius into an inner room. "I don't want Beatrice +to hear that I am out of money. She does not know I am destitute. That +sorrow, at least, I have kept from her." + +"Harry, I am going to make you a proposal. I want to be kind and just to +you. I want to put you beyond the need of any one's help. Answer me one +question truly. If your father dies, what will you do?" + +"You said he was getting better. For God's sake, do not speak of his +death." + +"I am supposing a case. You would then be squire of Sandal-Side. Would +you return there with Beatrice?" + +"Ah, no! I know what those Dalesmen are. My father's feelings were only +their feelings intensified by his relation to me. They would look upon +me as my father's murderer, and Beatrice as an accessory to the deed." + +"Still you would be squire of Sandal-Side." + +"Mother would have to take my place, or Charlotte. I have thought of +that. I could not bear to sit in father's chair, and go up and down the +house. I should see him always. I should hear continually that awful cry +with which he fell. It fills, even here, all the spaces of my memory and +my dreams. I cannot go back to Sandal-Side. Nothing could take me back, +not even my mother." + +"Then listen, I am the heir failing you." + +"No, no: there is my son Michael." + +Julius was stunned for a moment. "Oh, yes! The child is a boy, then?" + +"It is a boy. What were you going to say?" + +"I was going to ask you to sell your rights to me for ten thousand +pounds. It would be better for you to have a sum like that in your hand +at once, than to trust to dribbling remittances sent now and then by +women in charge. You could invest that sum to noble purpose in America, +become a citizen of the country, and found an American line, as my +father has founded an Indian one." + +"The poor little chap makes no difference. He is only born to die. And I +think your offer is a good one. I am so worn out, and things are really +desperate with me. I never can go back to England. I am sick to death of +Florence. There are places where Beatrice might even yet recover. Yes, +for her sake, I will sell you my inheritance. Can I have the money +soon?" + +"This hour. I had the proper paper drawn up before I came here. Read it +over carefully. See if you think it fair and honorable. If you do, sign +your name; and I will give you a check you can cash here in Florence. +Then it will be your own fault if Beatrice wants change of air, +luxuries, and medicine." + +He laid the paper on the table, and Harry sat down and pretended to read +it. But he did not understand any thing of the jargon. The words danced +up and down. He could only see "Beatrice," "freedom from care," "power +to get away from Florence," and the final thought, the one which removed +his last scruple, "Lanza can have the cottage, and I shall be clear of +him forever." + +Without a word he went for a pen and ink, and wrote his name boldly to +the deed of relinquishment. Then Julius handed him a check for ten +thousand pounds, and went with him to the bank in order to facilitate +the transfer of the sum to Harry's credit. On the street, in the hot +sunshine, they stood a few minutes. + +"You are quite satisfied, Harry?" + +"You have saved me from despair. Perhaps you have saved Beatrice. I am +grateful to you." + +"Have I done justly and honorably by you?" + +"I believe you have." + +"Then good-by. I must hasten home. Sophia will be anxious, and one never +knows what may happen." + +"Julius, one moment. Tell my mother to pray for me. And the same word to +Charlotte. Poor Charley! Sophia"-- + +"Sophia pities you very much, Harry. Sophia feels as I do. We don't +expect people to cut their lives on a fifteenth-century pattern." + +Then Harry lifted his hat, and walked away, with a shadow still of his +old military, up-head manner. And Julius looked after him with contempt, +and thought, "What a poor fellow he is! Not a word for himself, or a +plea for that wretched little heir in his cradle. There are some +miserable kinds of men in this world. I thank God I am not one of them!" + +And the wretched Esau, with the ten thousand pounds in his pocket? Ah, +God only knew his agony, his shame, his longing, and despair! He felt +like an outcast. Yes, even when he clasped Beatrice in his arms, with +promises of unstinted comforts; when she kissed him, with tender words +and tears of joy,--he felt like an outcast. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE NEW SQUIRE. + + "A word was brought, + Unto him,--the King himself desired his presence." + + "The mystery of life + He probes; and in the battling din of things + That frets the feeble ear, he seeks and finds + A harmony that tunes the dissonant strife + To sweetest music." + + +This year the effort to keep Christmas in Seat-Sandal was a failure. +Julius did not return in time for the festival, and the squire was +unable to take any part in it. There had been one of those sudden, +mysterious changes in his condition, marking a point in life from which +every step is on the down-hill road to the grave. One day he had seemed +even better than usual; the next morning he looked many years older. +Lassitude of body and mind had seized the once eager, sympathetic man; +he was weary of the struggle for life, and had _given up_. This change +occurred just before Christmas; and Charlotte could not help feeling +that the evergreens for the feast might, after all, be the evergreens +for the funeral. + +One snowy day between Christmas and New Year, Julius came home. Before +he said a word to Sophia, she divined that he had succeeded in his +object. He entered the house with the air of a master; and, when he +heard how rapidly the squire was failing, he congratulated himself on +his prudent alacrity in the matter. The next morning he was permitted an +interview. "You have been a long time away, Julius," said the squire +languidly, and without apparent interest in the subject. + +"I have been a long journey." + +"Ah! Where have you been? Eh?" + +"To Italy." + +The sick man flushed crimson, and his large, thin hands quivered +slightly. Julius noted the change in him with some alarm; for, though it +was not perhaps actually necessary to have the squire's signature to +Harry's relinquishment, it would be more satisfactory to obtain it. He +knew that neither Mrs. Sandal nor Charlotte would dispute Harry's deed; +but he wished not only to possess Seat-Sandal, but also the good-will +of the neighborhood, and for this purpose he must show a clear, clean +right to the succession. He had explained the matter to Sophia, and been +annoyed at her want of enthusiasm. She feared that any discussion +relating to Harry might seriously excite and injure her father, and she +could not bring herself to advise it. But the disapproval only made +Julius more determined to carry out his own views; and therefore, when +the squire asked, "Where have you been?" he told him the truth; and oh, +how cruel the truth can sometimes be! + +"I have been to Italy." + +"To see"-- + +"Harry? Yes." + +Then, without waiting to inform himself as to whether the squire wished +the conversation dropped or continued, he added, "He was in a miserable +condition,--destitute, with a dying wife and child." + +"Child! Eh? What?" + +"Yes, a son; a little chap, nothing but skin and bone and black +eyes,--an Italian Sandal." + +The squire was silent a few minutes; then he asked in a slow, +constrained voice, "What did you do?" + +"Harry sent for me in order that we might discuss a certain proposal he +wished to make me. I have accepted it--reluctantly accepted it; but +really it appeared the only way to help him to any purpose." + +"What did Harry want? Eh? What?" + +"He wanted to go to America, and begin a new life, and found a new house +there; and, as he had determined never under any circumstances to visit +Sandal-Side again, he asked me to give him the money necessary for +emigration." + +"Did you?" + +"Yes, I did." + +"For what? What equivalent could he give you?" + +"He had nothing to give me but his right of succession. I bought it for +ten thousand pounds. A sum of money like that ought to give him a good +start in America. I think, upon the whole, he was very wise." + +"Harry Sandal sold my home and estate over my head, while I was still +alive, without a word to me! God have mercy!" + +"Uncle, he never thought of it in that light, I am sure." + +"That is what he did; sold it without a thought as to what his mother's +or sister's wishes might be. Sold it away from his own child. My God! +The man is an immeasurable scoundrel; and, Julius Sandal, you are +another." + +"Sir?" + +"Leave me. I am still master of Sandal. Leave me. Leave my house. Do not +enter it again until my dead body has passed the gates." + +"It will be right for you first to sign this paper." + +"What paper? Eh? What?" + +"The deed of Harry's relinquishment. He has my money. I look to your +honor to secure me." + +"You look the wrong road. I will sign no such paper,--no, not for twenty +years of life." + +He spoke sternly, but almost in a whisper. The strain upon him was +terrible; he was using up the last remnants of his life to maintain it. + +"That you should sign the deed is only bare honesty. I gave the money +trusting to your honesty." + +"I will not sign it. It would be a queer thing for me to be a partner +in such a dirty job. The right of succession to Sandal, barring Harry +Sandal, is not vested in you. It is in Harry's son. Whoever his mother +may be, the little lad is heir of Sandal-Side; and I'll not be made a +thief in my last hours by you. That's a trick beyond your power. Now, +then, I'll waste no more words on you, good, bad, or indifferent." + +He had, in fact, reached the limit of his powers, and Julius saw it; yet +he did not hesitate to press his right to Sandal's signature by every +argument he thought likely to avail. Sandal was as one that heard not, +and fortunately Mrs. Sandal's entrance put an end to the painful +interview. + +This was a sorrow the squire had never contemplated, and it filled his +heart with anxious misery. He strove to keep calm, to husband his +strength, to devise some means of protecting his wife's rights. "I must +send for Lawyer Moser: if there is any way out of this wrong, he will +know the right way," he thought. But he had to rest a little ere he +could give the necessary prompt instructions. Towards noon he revived, +and asked eagerly for Stephen Latrigg. A messenger was at once sent to +Up-Hill. He found Stephen in the barn, where the men were making the +flails beat with a rhythm and regularity as exhilarating as music. +Stephen left them at once; but, when he told Ducie what word had been +brought him, he was startled at her look and manner. + +"I have been looking for this news all day: I fear me, Steve, that the +squire has come to 'the passing.' Last night I saw your grandfather." + +"Dreamed of him?" + +"Well, then, call it a dream. I saw your grandfather. He was in this +room; he was sorting the papers he left; and, as I watched his hands, he +lifted his head and looked at me. I have got my orders, I feel that. But +wait not now, I will follow you anon." + +In the "Seat" there was a distinct feeling of consummating calamity. The +servants had come to a state of mind in which the expectation was rather +a relief. They were only afraid the squire might rally again. In Mrs. +Sandal's heart there was that resentful resignation which says to +sorrow, "Do thy worst. I am no longer able to resist, or even to plead." +Charlotte only clung to her dream of hope, and refused to be wakened +from it. She was sure her father had been worse many a time. She was +almost cross at Ducie's unusual visit. + +About four o'clock Steve had a long interview with the squire. Charlotte +walked restlessly to and fro in the corridor; she heard Steve's voice, +strong and kind and solemn, and she divined what promises he was making +to the dying man for herself and for her mother. But even her love did +not anticipate their parting words,-- + +"Farewell, Stephen. Yet one word more. If Harry should come back--what +of Harry? Eh? What?" + +"I will stand by him. I will put my hand in his hand, and my foot with +his foot. They that wrong Harry will wrong me, they that shame Harry +will shame me. I will never call him less than a brother, as God hears +me speak." + +A light "that never was on sea or sky" shone in Sandal's fast dimming +eyes, and irradiated his set gray countenance. "Stephen, tell him at +death's door I turned back to forgive him--to bless him. I +stretch--out--my hand--to--him." + +At this moment Charlotte opened the door softly, and waved Stephen +towards her. "Your mother is come, and she says she must see the +squire." And then, before Stephen could answer, Ducie gently put them +both aside. "Wait in the corridor, my children," she said: "none but God +and Sandal must hear my farewell." With the words, she closed the door, +and went to the dying man. He appeared to be unconscious; but she took +his hand, stroked it kindly, and bending down whispered, "William, +William Sandal! Do you know me?" + +"Surely it is Ducie. It is growing dark. We must go home, Ducie. Eh? +What?" + +"William, try and understand what I say. You will go the happier to +heaven for my words." And, as they grew slowly into the squire's +apprehension, a look of amazement, of gratitude, of intense +satisfaction, transfigured the clay for the last time. It seemed as if +the departing soul stood still to listen. He was perfectly quiet until +she ceased speaking; then, in a strange, unearthly tone, he uttered one +word, "Happy." It was the last word that ever parted his lips. Between +shores he lingered until the next daybreak, and then the loving +watchers saw that the pallid wintry light fell on the dead. How peaceful +was the large, worn face! How tranquil! How distant from them! How +grandly, how terribly indifferent! To Squire William Sandal, all the +noisy, sorrowful controversies of earth had grown suddenly silent. + +The reading of the squire's will made public the real condition of +affairs. Julius had spoken with the lawyer previously, and made clear to +him his right in equity to stand in the heir's place. But the squires +and statesmen of the Dales heard the substitution with muttered +dissents, or in a silence still more emphatic of disapproval. Ducie and +Mrs. Sandal and Charlotte were shocked and astounded at the revelation, +and there was not a family in Sandal-Side who had that night a good word +for Julius Sandal. He thought it very hard, and said so. He had not +forced Harry in any way. He had taken no advantage of him. Harry was +quite satisfied with the exchange, and what had other people to do with +his affairs? He did not care for their opinion. "That for it!" and he +snapped his fingers defiantly to every point of the compass. But, all +the same, he walked the floor of the east rooms nearly all night, and +kept Sophia awake to listen to his complaints. + +Sophia was fretful and sleepy, and not as sympathetic with "the soul +that halved her own," as centuries of fellow-feeling might have claimed; +but she had her special worries. She perceived, even thus early, that as +long as the late squire's widow was in the Seat, her own authority would +be imperfect. "Of course, she did not wish to hurry her mother; but she +would feel, in her place, how much more comfortable for all a change +would be. And mother had her dower-house in the village; a very +comfortable home, quite large enough for Charlotte and herself and a +couple of maids, which was certainly all they needed." + +Where did such thoughts and feelings spring from? Were they lying +dormant in her heart that summer when the squire drove home his harvest, +and her mother went joyfully up and down the sunny old rooms, always +devising something for her girls' comfort or pleasures? In those days +how proud Sophia had been of her father and mother! What indignation she +would have felt had one suggested that the time was coming when she +would be glad to see a stranger in her father's place, and feel +impatient to say to her mother, "Step down lower; I would be mistress in +your room"! Alas! there are depths in the human heart we fear to look +into; for we know that often all that is necessary to assuage a great +grief, or obliterate a great loss, is the inheritance of a fine mansion, +or a little money, or a few jewels, or even a rich garment. And as soon +as the squire was in his grave, Julius and Sophia began to discuss the +plans which only a very shallow shame had made them reticent about +before. + +Indeed, it soon became necessary for others, also, to discuss the +future. People soon grow unwelcome in a house that is not their own; and +the new squire of Sandal-Side was eager to so renovate and change the +place that it would cease to remind him of his immediate predecessors. +The Sandals of past centuries were welcome, they gave dignity to his +claims; but the last squire, and his son Harry Sandal, only reminded him +of circumstances he felt it more comfortable to forget. So, during the +long, dreary days of midwinter, he and Sophia occupied themselves very +pleasantly in selecting styles of furniture, and colors of draperies, +and in arranging for a full suite of Oriental rooms, which were to +perpetuate in pottery and lacquerware, Indian bronzes and mattings, +Chinese screens and cabinets, the Anglo-Indian possessor of the old +Cumberland estate. + +Even pending these alterations, others were in progress. Every family +arrangement was changed in some respect. The hour for breakfast had been +fixed at what Julius called a civilized time. This, of course, delayed +every other meal; yet the servants, who had grumbled at over-work under +the old authority, had not a complaint to make under the new. For the +present master and mistress of Sandal were not people who cared for +complaints. "If you can do the work, Ann, you may stay," said Sophia to +the dissatisfied cook; "if not, the squire will pay you your due wages. +He has a friend in London whose cook would like a situation in the +country." After which explanation Ann behaved herself admirably, and +never found her work hard, though dinner was two hours later, and the +supper dishes were not sent in until eleven o'clock. + +But, though Julius had succeeded in bringing his table so far within his +own ideas of comfort, in other respects he felt his impotence to order +events. Every meal-time brought him in contact with the widow Sandal and +with Charlotte; and neither Sophia, nor yet himself, had felt able to +request the late mistress to resign her seat at the foot of the table. +And Sophia soon began to think it unkind of her mother not to see the +position, and voluntarily amend it. "I do really think mother might have +some consideration for me, Julius," she complained. "It puts me in such +a very peculiar position not to take my place at my own table; and it is +so trying and perplexing for the servants,--making them feel as if there +were two mistresses." + +"And always the calm, scornful face of your sister Charlotte at her +side. Do you notice with what ostentatious obedience and attention she +devotes herself to your mother?" + +"She thinks that she is showing me my duty, Julius. But people have some +duties toward themselves." + +"And towards their husbands." + +"Certainly. I thank Heaven I have always put my husband first." And she +really glanced upwards with the complacent air of one who expected +Heaven to imitate men, and "praise her for doing well unto herself." + +"This state of things cannot go on much longer, Sophia." + +"Certainly it cannot. Mother must look after her own house soon." + +"I would speak to her to-day, Sophia. She has had six weeks now to +arrange her plans, and next month I want to begin and put the house into +decent condition. I think I will write to London this afternoon, and +tell Jeffcott to send the polishers and painters on the 15th of March." + +"Mother is so slow about things, I don't think she will be ready to move +so early." + +"Oh, I really can't stand them any longer! I can't indeed, Sophia, and I +won't. I did not marry your mother and sister, nor yet buy them with the +place. Your mother has her recognized rights in the estate, and she has +a dower-house to which to retire; and the sooner she goes there now, the +better. You may tell her I say so." + +"You may as well tell her yourself, Julius." + +"Do you wish me to be insulted by your sister Charlotte again? It is +too bad to put me in such a position. I cannot punish two women, even +for such shameful innuendos as I had to take when she sat at the head of +the table. You ought to reflect, too, that the rooms they occupy are the +best rooms in the house,--the master's rooms. I am going to have the oak +walls polished, in order to bring out the carvings; and I think we will +choose green and white for the carpets and curtains. The present +furniture is dreadfully old-fashioned, and horribly full of old +memories." + +"Well, then, I shall give mother to understand that we expect to make +these changes very soon." + +"Depend upon it, the sooner your mother and Charlotte go to their own +house, the better for all parties. For, if we do not insist upon it, +they will stay and stay, until that Latrigg young man has his house +finished. Then Charlotte will expect to be married from here, and we +shall have all the trouble and expense of the affair. Oh, I tell you, +Sophia, I see through the whole plan! But reckoning without me, and +reckoning with me, are different things." + +This conversation took place after a most unpleasant lunch. Julius had +come to it in a fretful, hypercritical mood. He had been calculating +what his proposed changes would cost, and the sum total had given him a +slight shock. He was like many extravagant people, subject to passing +spells of almost contemptible economy; and at that hour the proposed +future outlay of thousands did not trouble him so much as the actual +penny-half-penny value of his mother-in-law's lunch. + +He did not say so, but in some way the feeling permeated the table. The +widow pushed her plate aside, and sipped her glass of wine in silence. +Charlotte took a pettish pleasure in refusing what she felt she was +unwelcome to. Both left the table before Julius and Sophia had finished +their meal; and both, as soon as they reached their rooms, turned to +each other with faces hot with indignation, and hearts angry with a +sense of shameful unkindness. + +Charlotte spoke first. "What is to be done, mother? I cannot see you +insulted, meal after meal, in this way. Let us go at once. I have told +you it would come to this. We ought to have moved immediately,--just as +soon as Julius came here as master." + +"My house in the village has been empty for three years. It is cold and +damp. It needs attention of every kind. If we could only stay here until +Stephen's house was finished: then you could be married." + +"O mother dear, that is not possible! You know Steve and I cannot marry +until father has been dead at least a year. It would be an insult to +father to have a wedding in his mourning year." + +"If your father knows any thing, Charlotte, he knows the trouble we are +in. He would count it no insult." + +"But all through the Dales it would be a shame to us. Steve and I would +not like to begin life with the ill words or ill thoughts of our +neighbors." + +"What shall I do? Charlotte, dear, what shall I do?" + +"Let us go to our own home. Better to brave a little damp and discomfort +than constant humiliation." + +"This is my home, my own dear home! It is full of memories of your +father and Harry." + +"O mother, I should think you would want to forget Harry!" + +"No, no, no! I want to remember him every hour of the day and night. How +could I pray for him, if I forgot him? Little you know how a mother +loves, Charlotte. His father forgave him: shall I be less pitiful?--I, +who nursed him at my breast, and carried him in my arms." + +Charlotte did not answer. She was touched by her mother's fidelity, and +she found in her own heart a feeling much akin to it. Their conversation +reverted to their unhappy position, and to the difficulty of making an +immediate change. For not only was the dower-house in an untenantable +state, but the weather was very much against them. The gray weather, the +gloomy sky, the monotonous rains, the melting snow, the spiteful east +wind,--by all this enmity of the elements, as well as by the enmity in +the household, the poor bereaved lady was saddened and controlled. + +The wretched conversation was followed by a most unhappy silence. Both +hearts were brooding over their slights and wrongs. Day by day +Charlotte's life had grown harder to bear. Sophia's little flaunts and +dissents, her astonishments and corrections, were almost as cruel as the +open hatred of Julius, his silence, his lowering brows, and insolence +of proprietorship. To these things she had to add the intangible +contempt of servants, and the feeling of constraint in the house where +she had been the beloved child and the one in authority. Also she found +the insolence which Stephen had to brave every time he called upon her +just as difficult to bear as were her own peculiar slights. Julius had +ceased to recognize him, had ceased to speak of him except as "that +person." Every visit he made Charlotte was the occasion of some petty +impertinence, some unmistakable assurance that his presence was +offensive to the master of Seat-Sandal. + +All these things troubled the mother also, but her bitterest pang was +the cruelty of Sophia. A slow, silent process of alienation had been +going on in the girl ever since her engagement to Julius: it had first +touched her thoughts, then her feelings; now its blighting influence had +deteriorated her whole nature. And in her mother's heart there were sad +echoes of that bitter cry that comes down from age to age, "Oh, my son +Absalom, Absalom! My son, my son!" + +"O Sophia! oh, my child, my child! How can you treat me so? What have I +done?" She was murmuring such words to herself when the door was opened, +and Sophia entered. It was characteristic of the woman that she did not +knock ere entering. She had always jealously guarded her rights to the +solitude of her own room; and, even when she was a school-girl, it had +been an understood household regulation that no one was to enter it +without knocking. But now that she was mistress of all the rooms in +Seat-Sandal, she ignored the simple courtesy towards others. +Consequently, when she entered, she saw the tears in her mother's eyes. +They only angered her. "Why should the sorrows of others darken her +happy home?" Sophia was one of those women whom long regrets fatigue. As +for her father, she reflected, "that he had been well nursed, decorously +buried, and that every propriety had been attended to. It was, in her +opinion, high time that the living--Julius and herself--should be +thought of." The stated events of life--its regular meals, its trivial +pleasures--had quite filled any void in her existence made by her +father's death. If he had come back to earth, if some one had said to +her, "He is here," she would have been far more embarrassed than +delighted. The worldly advantages built upon the extinction of a great +love! Sophia could contemplate them without a blush. + +She came forward, shivering slightly, and stirred the fire. "How cold +and dreary you are! Mother, why don't you cheer up and do something? It +would be better for you than moping on the sofa." + +"Suppose Julius had died six weeks ago, would you think of 'cheering +up,' Sophia?" + +"Charlotte, what a shameful thing to say!" + +"Precisely what you have just said to mother." + +"Supposing Julius dead! I never heard such a cruel thing. I dare say it +would delight you." + +"No, it would not; for Julius is not fit to die." + +"Mother, I will not be insulted in my own house in such a way. Speak to +Charlotte, or I must tell Julius." + +"What have you come to say, Sophia?" + +"I came to talk pleasantly, to see you, and"-- + +"You saw me an hour or two since, and were very rude and unkind. But if +you regret it, my dear, it is forgiven." + +"I do not know what there is to forgive. But really, Charlotte and you +seem so completely unhappy and dissatisfied here, that I should think +you would make a change." + +"Do you mean that you wish me to go?" + +"If you put words into my mouth." + +"It is not worth while affecting either regret or offence, Sophia. How +soon do you wish us to leave?" + +The dowager mistress of Sandal-Side had stood up as she asked the +question. She was quite calm, and her manner even cold and indifferent. +"If you wish us to go to-day, it is still possible. I can walk as far as +the rectory. For your father's sake, the rector will make us +welcome.--Charlotte, my bonnet and cloak!" + +"Mother! I think such threats very uncalled for. What will people say? +And how can poor Julius defend himself against two ladies? I call it +taking advantage of us." + +"'Taking advantage?' Oh, no! Oh, no!--Charlotte, my dear, give me my +cloak." + +The little lady was not to be either frightened or entreated; and she +deigned Julius--who had been hastily summoned by Sophia--no answer, +either to his arguments or his apologies. + +"It is enough," she cried, with a slight quiver in her voice, "it is +enough! You turn me out of the home he gave me. Do you think that the +dead see not? know not? You will find out, you will find out." And so, +leaning upon Charlotte's arm, she walked slowly down the stairway, and +into the dripping, soaking, gloomy afternoon. It was indeed wretched +weather. A thick curtain of mist filled all the atmosphere, and made of +daylight only a diluted darkness, in which it was hard to distinguish +the skeletons of the trees which winter had stripped. The mountains had +disappeared; there was no sky; a veil of chilling moisture and +depressing gloom was over every thing. But neither Charlotte nor her +mother was at that hour conscious of such inoffensive disagreeables. +They were trembling with anger and sorrow. In a moment such a great +event had happened, one utterly unconceived of, and unprepared for. Half +an hour previous, the unhappy mother had dreaded the breaking away from +her old life, and had declined to discuss with Charlotte any plan +tending to such a consummation. Then, suddenly, she had taken a step +more decided and unusual than had ever entered Charlotte's mind. + +The footpath through the park was very wet and muddy. Every branch +dropped water. They were a little frightened at what they were doing, +and their hearts were troubled by many complex emotions. But fortunately +the walk was a short one, and the shortest way to the rectory lay +directly through the churchyard. Without a word Mrs. Sandal took it; and +without a word she turned aside at a certain point, and through the +long, rank, withered grasses walked straight to the squire's grave. It +was yet quite bare; the snow had melted away, and it had a look as +desolate as her own heart. She stood a few minutes speechless by its +side; but the painfully tight clasp in which she held Charlotte's hand +expressed better than any words could have done the tension of feeling, +the passion of emotion, which dominated her. And Charlotte felt that +silence was her mother's safety. If she spoke, she would weep, perhaps +break down completely, and be unable to reach the shelter of the +rectory. + +The rector was walking about his study. He saw the two female forms +passing through the misty graveyard, and up to his own front door; but +that they were Mrs. Sandal and Charlotte Sandal, was a supposition +beyond the range of his life's probabilities. So, when they entered his +room, he was for the moment astounded; but how much more so, when +Charlotte, seeing her mother unable to frame a word, said, "We have come +to you for shelter and protection!" + +Then Mrs. Sandal began to sob hysterically; and the rector called his +housekeeper, and the best rooms were quickly opened and warmed, and the +sorrowful, weary lady lay down to rest in their comfort and seclusion. +Charlotte did not find their friend as unprepared for the event as she +supposed likely. Private matters sift through the public mind in a way +beyond all explanation, and "There had been a general impression," he +said, "that the late squire's widow was very ill done to by the new +squire." + +Charlotte did not spare the new squire. All his petty ways of annoying +her mother and herself and Stephen; all his small economies about their +fire and food and comforts; all his scornful contempt for their +household ways and traditions; all that she knew regarding his purchase +of Harry's rights, and its ruthless revelation to her dying father,--all +that she knew wrong of Julius, she told. It was a relief to do it. While +he had been their guest, and afterwards while they had been his guests, +her mouth had been closed. Week after week she had suffered in silence. +The long-restrained tide of wrong flowed from her lips with a strange, +pathetic eloquence; and, as the rector held her hands, his own were wet +with her fast-falling tears. At last she laid her head against his +shoulder, and wept as if her heart would break. "He has been our ruin," +she cried, "our evil angel. He has used Harry's folly and father's +goodness and Sophia's love--all of them--for his own selfish ends." + +"He is a bad one. He should be hanged, and cheap at it! Hear him, +talking of having lived so often! God have mercy! He is not worthy of +one life, let alone of two." + +At this juncture, Julius himself entered the room. Neither of its +occupants had heard his arrival, and he saw Charlotte in the abandon of +her grief and anger. She would have risen, but the rector would not let +her. "Sit still, Charlotte," he said. "He has done his do, and you need +not fear him any more. And dry your tears, my dearie; learn while you +are young to squander nothing, not even grief." Then he turned to +Julius, and gave him one of those looks which go through all disguises +into the shoals and quicksands of the heart; such a look as that with +which the tamer of wild beasts controls his captive. + +"Well, squire, what want you?" + +"I want justice, sir. I am come here to defend myself." + +"Very well, I am here to listen." + +Self-justification is a vigorous quality: Julius spoke with eloquence, +and with a superficial show of right. The rector heard him patiently, +offering no comment, and permitting no disputation. But, when Julius was +finished, he answered with a certain stern warmth, "Say what you will, +squire, you and I are of two ways of thinking. You are in the wrong, and +you will be hard set to prove yourself in the right; and that is as +true as gospel." + +"I am, at least, a gentleman, rector; and I know how to treat +gentlewomen." + +"Gentle-man! Gentle-sinner, let me say! Will Satan care whether you be a +peasant, or a star-and-garter gentleman? Tut, tut! in my office I know +nothing about gentlemen. There are plenty of gentlemen with Beelzebub; +and they will ring all eternity for a drop of water, and never find a +servant to answer them." + +"Sir, though you are a clergyman, you have no right to speak to me in +such a manner." + +"Because I am a clergyman, I have the right. If I see a man sleeping +while the Devil rocks his cradle, have I not the right to say to him, +'Wake up, you are in danger'? Let me tell you, squire, you have +committed more than one sin. Go home, and confess them to God and man. +Above all, turn down a leaf in your Bible where a fool once asked, 'Who +is my neighbor?' Keep it turned down, until you have answered the +question better than you have been doing it lately." + +"None of my neighbors can say wrong of me. I have always done my duty +to them. I have paid every one what I owe"-- + +"Not enough, squire; not enough. Follow on, as Hosea says, to love them. +Don't always give them the white, and keep the yolk for yourself. You +know your duty. Haste you back home, then, and do it." + +"I will not be put off in such a way, sir. You must interfere in this +matter: make these silly women behave themselves. I cannot have the +whole country-side talking of my affairs." + +"Me interfere! No, no! I am not in your livery, squire; and I won't +fight your quarrels. Sir, my time is engaged." + +"I have a right"-- + +"My time is engaged. It is my hour for reading the Evening Service. Stay +and hear it, if you desire. But it is a bad neighborhood, where a man +can't say his prayers quietly." And he stood up, walked slowly to his +reading-desk, and began to turn the leaves of the Book of Common Prayer. + +Then Julius went out in a passion, and the rector muttered, "The Devil +may quote Scripture, but he does not like to hear it read. Come, +Charlotte, let us thank God, thank him twice, nay, thrice, not alone +for the faith of Christ Jesus, but also for the legacy of Christ Jesus. +Oh, child, amid earth's weary restlessness and noisy quarrels, how rich +a legacy,"-- + +"'Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SANDAL AND SANDAL. + + "Time will discover every thing; it is a babbler, and speaks even + when no question is put." + + "Run, spindles! Run, and weave the threads of doom." + + +Next morning very early, Stephen had a letter from Charlotte. He was +sitting at breakfast with Ducie when the rector's boy brought it; and it +came, as great events generally come, without any premonition or +heralding circumstance. Ducie was pouring out coffee; and she went on +with her employment, thinking, not of the letter Stephen was opening, +but of the malt, and of the condition of the brewing-boiler. An angry +exclamation from Stephen made her lift her eyes to his face. "My word, +Stephen, you are put out! What's to do?" + +"Julius has turned Mrs. Sandal and Charlotte from house and home, +yesterday afternoon. They are at the rectory. I am going, mother." + +"Stop a moment, Steve. This is now my affair." + +Stephen looked at his mother with amazement. Her countenance, her voice, +her whole manner, had suddenly changed. An expression of angry purpose +was in her wide-open eyes and firm mouth, as she asked, "Can you or +Jamie, or any of the men, drive me to Kendal?" + +"To-day?" + +"I want to leave within an hour." + +"The rain down-pours; and it is like to be worse yet, if the wind does +not change." + +"If it were ten times worse, I must to Kendal. I am much to blame that I +have let weather stop me so far and so long. While Dame Nature was busy +about her affairs, I should have been minding mine. Deary me, deary me!" + +"If you are for Kendal, then I will drive. The cart-road down the fell +is too bad to trust you with any one but myself. Can we stop a moment at +the rectory on our road?" + +"We can stop a goodish bit. I have a deal to say to the parson. Have the +tax-cart ready in half an hour; for there will be no betterness in the +weather until the moon--God bless her!--is full round; and things are +past waiting for now." + +In twenty minutes Ducie was ready. The large cloak and hood of the +Daleswoman wrapped her close. She was almost indistinguishable in its +folds. The rector met her with a little irritation. It was very early to +be disturbed, and he thought her visit would refer, doubtless, to some +trivial right between her son and Charlotte Sandal; besides which, he +had made up his mind to discuss the Sandal affairs with no one. + +But Ducie had spoken but a few moments before a remarkable change took +place in his manner. He was bending eagerly forward, listening to her +half-whispered words with the greatest interest and amazement. As she +proceeded, he could scarcely control his emotion; and very soon all +other expressions were lost in one of a satisfaction that was almost +triumph. + +"I will keep them here until you return," he answered; "but let me tell +you, Ducie, you have been less quick to do right than I thought of you." + +"The fell has been a hard walk for an old woman, the cart-road nearly +impassable until this rain washed away the drifts; but I did not +neglect my duty altogether, neither, parson. Moser was written to six +weeks since, and he has been at work. Maybe, after all, no time has been +lost. I'll away now, if you will call Stephen. Don't let Mrs. Sandal +'take on' more than you can help;" and, as Stephen lifted the reins, +"You think it best to bring all here?" + +"Far away best. God speed you!" He watched them out of sight,--his snowy +hair and strong face and black garments making a vivid picture in the +misty, drippy doorway,--and then, returning to his study, he began his +daily walk up and down its carpeted length, with a singularly solemn +elation. Ere long, the thoughtful stride was accompanied by low, musical +mutterings, dropping from his lips in such majestic cadences that his +steps involuntarily fell to their music in a march-like rhythm. + + "Daughter of Justice, wronged Nemesis, + Thou of the awful eyes, + Whose silent sentence judgeth mortal life,-- + Thou with the curb of steel, + Which proudest jaws must feel, + Stayest the snort and champ of human strife. + + Under thy wheel unresting, trackless, all + Our joys and griefs befall; + In thy full sight our secret things go on; + Step after step, thy wrath + Follows the caitiff's path, + And in his triumph breaks his vile neck bone. + To all alike, thou meetest out their due, + Cubit for cubit, inch for inch,--stern, true." + +At the word "true" he paused a moment, and touched with his finger an +old black volume on one of the book-shelves. "'Stern, true,' whether +Euripides says 'cubit for cubit,' or Moses 'an eye for an eye,' or +Solomon that 'he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.' +Stern, true; for surely that which a man sows he shall also reap." + +After a while he went up-stairs and talked with Mrs. Sandal and +Charlotte. They were much depressed and very anxious, and had what +Charlotte defined "a homeless feeling." "But you must be biddable, +Charlotte," said the rector; "you must remain here until Stephen +returns. Ducie had business that could not wait, and who but Stephen +should drive her? When he comes back, we will all look to it. You shall +not be very long out of your own home; and, in the mean time, how +welcome you are here!" + +"It seems such a weary time, sir; so many months that we have been in +trouble." + +"It was all night long, once, with some tired, fearful ones 'toiling in +rowing;' but in the fourth watch came Christ and help to them. It is +nigh hand--the 'fourth watch'--with you; so be cheerful." + +Yet it was the evening of the sixth day before Ducie and Stephen +returned. It was still raining heavily, and Ducie only waited a moment +or two at the rectory gate. Charlotte was amazed to see the old +clergyman hasten through the plashing shower to speak to her. "Surely +Ducie's business must have a great deal of interest to the rector, +mother: he has gone out to speak to her, and such weather too." + +"Ducie was always a favorite with him. I hope, now that her affairs have +been attended to, ours may receive some care." + +Charlotte answered only by a look of sympathy. It had seemed to her a +little hard that their urgent need must wait upon Ducie's business; that +Stephen should altogether leave them in their extremity; that her +anxious inquiries and suggestions, her plans and efforts about their +new home, should have been so coldly received, and so positively put +aside until Ducie and Stephen came back. And she had a pang of jealousy +when she saw the rector, usually so careful of his health, hasten with +slippered feet and uncovered head, through the wet, chilling atmosphere, +to speak to them. + +He came back with a radiant face, however, and Charlotte could hear him +moving about his study; now rolling out a grand march of musical Greek +syllables from Homer or Euripides, anon breaking into some familiar +verse of Christian song. And, when tea was served, he went up-stairs for +the ladies, and escorted them to the table with a manner so beaming and +so happily predictive that Charlotte could not but catch some of its +hopeful spirit. + +Just as they sat down to the tea-table, the wet, weary travellers +reached Up-Hill. With a sigh of pleasure and content, Ducie once more +passed into its comfortable shelter; and never had it seemed to her such +a haven of earthly peace. Her usually placid face bore marks of strong +emotion; she was physically tired; and Stephen was glad to see her among +the white fleeces of his grandfather's big chair, with her feet +outstretched to the blazing warmth of the fire, and their cosey +tea-service by her side. Always reticent with him, she had been very +tryingly so on their journey. No explanation of it had been given; and +he had been permitted to pass his time among the looms in Ireland's +mill, while she and the lawyer were occupied about affairs to which even +his signature was not asked. + +As they sat together in the evening, she caught his glance searching her +face tenderly; and she bent forward, and said, "Kiss me, Stephen, my +dear lad. I have seen this week how kind and patient, how honorable and +trustful, thou art. Well, then, the hour has come that will try thy love +to the uttermost. But wise or unwise, all that has been done has been +done with good intent, and I look for no word to pain me from thy mouth. +Stephen, what is thy name?" + +"Stephen Latrigg." + +"Nay, but it isn't." + +Stephen blushed vividly; his mother's face was white and calm. "I would +rather be called Latrigg than--the other name, than by my father's +name." + +"Has any one named thy father to thee?" + +"Charlotte told me what you and she said on the matter. She understood +his name to be Pattison. We were wondering if our marriage could be +under my adopted name, that was all, and things like it." + +Ducie was watching his handsome face as he spoke, and feeling keenly the +eager deprecation of pain to herself, mingling with the natural +curiosity about his own identity, which the cloud upon his early years +warranted. She looked at him steadily, with eyes shining brightly +through tears. + +"Your name is not Pattison, neither is it Latrigg. When you marry +Charlotte Sandal, it must be by your own true name; and that is Stephen +Sandal." + +"Stephen Sandal, mother?" + +"Yes. You are the son of Launcelot Sandal, the late squire's eldest +brother." + +"Then, mother, then I am--What am I, mother?" + +"You are squire of Sandal-Side and Torver. No living man but you has a +right to the name, or the land, or to Seat-Sandal." + +"I should have known this before, mother." + +"I think not. We had, father and I, what we believed good reasons, and +kind reasons, for holding our peace. But times and circumstances have +changed; and, where silence was once true friendship and kindness, it is +now wrong and cruelty. Many years ago, Stephen, when I was young and +beautiful, Launcelot Sandal loved me. And my father and Launcelot's +father loved each other as David and Jonathan loved. They were scarcely +happy apart; and not even to please the proud mistress Charlotte, would +the squire loosen the grip of heart and hand between them. But your +father was more under his mother's influence: proud lad as he was, he +feared her; and when she discovered his love for me, there was such a +scene between them as no man will go through twice in his lifetime. I +have no excuse to make for marrying him secretly except the old, old +one, Stephen. I loved him, loved him as women have loved, and will love, +from the beginning to the end of time." + +"Dear mother, there was no wrong in that. But why did you let the world +think you loved a man beneath you? an uneducated shepherd like my +reputed father? That wronged not only you, but those behind and those +after you." + +"We were afraid of many things, and we wished to spare the friendship +between our fathers. There were many other reasons, scarcely worth +repeating now." + +"And what became of the shepherd?" + +"He was not Cumberland born. He came from the Cheviot Hills, and was +always fretting for the border life: so he gladly fell in with the +proposal your father made him. One summer morning he said he was going +to herd the lambs on Latrigg Fell, but he went to Egremont. Your father +had gone there a week before; but he came back that night, and met me at +Ravenglass. We were married in Egremont church, by Parson Sellafield, +and went to Whitehaven, where we lived quietly and happily for many a +week. Pattison witnessed our marriage, and then, with gold in his +pocket, took the border road. He went to Moffat and wed the girl he +loved, and has been shepherding on Loch Fell ever since." + +"He is alive, then?" + +"He is at the Salutation Inn at Ambleside to-night. So, also, is Parson +Sellafield, and the man and woman with whom we staid in Whitehaven, and +in whose house you were born and lived until your fourth year. They are +called Chisholm, and have been at Up-Hill many times." + +"I remember them." + +"And I did not intend that they should forget you." + +"I have always heard that Launcelot Sandal was drowned." + +"You have always heard that your father was drowned? That was near by +the truth. While in Whitehaven, he wrote to his brother Tom, who was +living and doing well in India. When his answer came, we determined to +go to Calcutta; but I was not in a state of health fit for such a +journey as that then was. So it was decided that your father should go +first, and get a home ready for me. He left in the 'Lady Liddel,' and +she was lost at sea. Your father was in an open boat for many days, and +died of exhaustion." + +"Who told you so, mother?" + +"The captain lived to reach his home again, and he brought me his watch +and ring and last message. He never saw your face, my lad, he never saw +your face." + +A silence of some minutes ensued. Ducie had long ceased to weep for her +dead love, but he was unforgotten. Her silence was not oblivion: it was +a sanctuary where lights were burning round the shrine, over which the +wings of affection were folded. + +"When my father was gone, then you came back to Up-Hill?" + +"No: I did not come back until you were in your fourth year. Then my +mother died, and I brought you home. At the first moment you went +straight to your grandfather's heart; and that night, as you lay asleep +upon his knee, I told him the truth, as I tell it to you this night. And +he said to me, 'Ducie, things have settled a bit lately. The squire has +got over his trouble about Launcie; and young William is the +acknowledged heir, and the welcome heir. He is going to marry Alice +Morecombe at the long last, but it will make a big difference if +Launcelot's son steps in where nobody wants him. Now, then,' he said, 'I +will tell thee a far better way. We will give this dear lad my own name, +none better in old Cumbria; and we will save gold, and we will make +gold, to put it to the very front in the new times that are coming. And +he will keep my name on the face of the earth, and so please the great +company of his kin behind him. And it will be far better for him to be +the top-sheaf of the Latriggs, than to force his way into Seat-Sandal, +where there is neither love nor welcome for him.' + +"And I thought the same thing, Stephen; and after that, our one care was +to make you happy, and to do well to you. That you were a born Sandal, +was a great joy to him, for he loved your father and your grandfather; +and, when Harry came, he loved him also, and he liked well to see you +two on the fells together. Often he called me to come and look at you +going off with your rods or guns; and often he said, 'Both fine lads, +Ducie, but our Steve is the finer.'" + +"Oh, mother, I cannot take Harry's place! I love Harry, and I did not +know how much until this hour"-- + +"Stop a bit, Stephen. When Harry grew up, and went into the army, your +grandfather wasn't so satisfied with what he had done. 'Here's a fine +property going to sharpers and tailors and Italian singing-women,' he +used to say; and he felt baddish about it. And yet he loved Squire +William, as he had loved his father, and Mistress Alice and Harry and +Sophia and Charlotte; why, he thought of them like his own flesh and +blood. And he could not bear to undo his kindness. And he could not bear +to tell Squire William the truth, for he knew well that he would undo +it. So one day he sent for Lawyer Moser; and the two of them together +found out a plan that seemed fair, for both Sandal and Latrigg. + +"You were to remain Stephen Latrigg, unless it was to ward off wrong or +ruin in Sandal-Side. But if ever the day came when Sandal needed +Latrigg, you were to claim your right, and stand up for Sandal. Such a +state of things as Harry brought about, my father never dreamed of. He +would not have been able to think of a man selling away his right to a +place like Seat-Sandal; and among all the villains he ever knew, or +heard tell of, he couldn't have picked out one to lead him to such a +villain as Julius Sandal. So, you see, he left no special directions for +such a case, and I was a bit feared to move in too big a hurry; and, +maybe, I was a bit of a coward about setting every tongue in Sandal-Side +talking about me and my bygone days. + +"But, when the squire died, I thought from what Charlotte told me of the +Julius Sandals, that there would have to be a change; and when I saw +your grandfather sorting the papers for me, and heard that Mistress +Alice and Charlotte had been forced to leave their home, I knew that the +hour for the change had struck, and that I must be about the business. +Moser was written to soon after the funeral of Squire William. He has +now all the necessary witnesses and papers ready. He is at Ambleside +with them, and to-morrow morning they will have a talk with Mr. Julius +at Seat-Sandal." + +"I wonder where Harry Sandal is." + +"After you, comes Harry. Your grandfather did not forget him. There is a +provision in the will, which directs, that if, for any cause not +conceivable by the testator, Harry Sandal must resign in favor of +Stephen Sandal, then the land and money devised to you, as his heir, +shall become the property of Harry Sandal. In a great measure you would +only change places, and that is not a very hard punishment for a man who +cared so little for his family home as Harry did. So you see, Stephen, +you must claim your rights in order to give Harry his." + +The facts of this conversation opened up endlessly to the mother and +son, and hour after hour it was continued without any loss of interest. +But the keenest pleasure his new prospects gave Stephen referred itself +to Mrs. Sandal and Charlotte. He could now reinstate them in their old +home and in their old authority in it. For the bright visions underneath +his eyelids, he could not sleep,--visions of satisfied affection, and of +grief and humiliation crowned with joy and happiness and honor. + +It had been decided that Stephen should drive his mother to the rectory +in the morning, and there they were to wait the result of Moser's +interview with Julius. The dawning came up with sunshine; the storm was +over, the earth lay smiling in that "clear shining after rain," which is +so exhilarating and full of promise. The sky was as blue, the air as +fresh, fell and wood, meadow and mountain, as clean and bright as if +they had just come new from the fingers of the Almighty. Ducie was +handsomely dressed in dark violet-colored satin, and Stephen noticed +with pride how well her rich clothing and quiet, dignified manner became +her; while Ducie felt even a greater pride in the stately, handsome +young man who drove her with such loving care down Latrigg fell that +eventful morning. + +Julius was at breakfast when the company from Ambleside were shown into +the master's room in Seat-Sandal. The lawyer sent in his card; and +Julius, who knew him well, was a trifle annoyed by the visit. "It will +be about your mother's income, Sophia," he said, as he viciously broke +the egg he was holding; "now mind, I am not going to yield one inch." + +"Why should you, Julius? I am sure we have been blamed and talked over +enough. We never can be popular here." + +"We don't want to be popular here. When we have refurnished the house, +we will bring our company from Oxford and London and elsewhere. We will +have fine dinners and balls, hunting-parties and fishing-parties; and, +depend upon it, we shall very soon have these shepherd lords and +gentlemen begging for our favor." + +"Oh, you don't know them, Julius! They would not break bread with us if +they were starving." + +"Very well. What do I care?" + +But he did care. When the wagoners driving their long teams pretended +not to hear his greeting, for the jingling of their bells, he knew it +was pretence, and the wagoners' aversion hurt him. When the herdsmen +sauntered away from his path, and preferred not to talk to him, he felt +the bitterness of their dislike, though they were only shepherds. When +the gentlemen of the neighborhood looked straight before them, and did +not see him in their path, he burned with an indignation he would have +liked well to express. But no one took the trouble to offend him by word +or deed, and a man cannot pick a quarrel with people for simply letting +him alone. + +Sophia's opinion recalled one or two of these events that were +particularly galling; and he finished his breakfast in a sulky, +leisurely fashion, to such reflections as they evoked. Then, with a +cigar in his mouth, he went to the master's room to see Moser. He had +been told that other parties were there also, but he did not surmise +that their business was identical. Yet he noticed the clergyman on +entering, and appeared inclined to attend to his request first; but as +he courteously waved his claim away, and retired to the other end of +the room, Julius said curtly,-- + +"Well, Mr. Moser, good-morning, sir." + +The lawyer was pretending to be absorbed in the captions of the papers +in his hand, for he was offended at being kept waiting so long: "As if a +bite of victuals was of more ado than business that could bring Matthew +Moser all the road from Kendal." + +"Good-morning, Mr. Sandal." + +The omission of "Squire," and the substitution of "Mr.," annoyed Julius +very much, though he had not a suspicion of the lawyer's errand; and he +corrected the mistake with a bland smile on his lips, and an angry light +in his eyes. Moser, in reply, selected one particular paper, and put it +into the hand of Julius. + +"Acting for Squire Sandal, I would be a middling bad sort of a lawyer to +give you his name. Eh?" + +"You are talking in riddles, sir." + +"Eh! But I always read my riddles, Mr. Sandal. I am here to take +possession of house and land, for the real heir of Sandal-Side." + +"I bought his right, as you know very well. You have Harry Sandal's own +acknowledgment." + +"Eh? But you see, Harry Sandal never had a penny-worth of right to sell. +Launcelot Sandal left a son, and for him I am acting. Eh?" + +"Launcelot Sandal was drowned. He never married." + +"Eh, but he did!--Parson Sellafield, what do you say about that?" + +"I married him on July 11, 18--, at Egremont church. There," pointing to +Matt Pattison, "is the witness. Here is a copy of the license and the +'lines.' They are signed, 'Launcelot Sandal' and 'Ducie Latrigg.'" + +"Confusion!" + +"Eh? No, no! There's not a bit of confusion, Mr. Sandal. It is all as +clear as the multiplication table, and there is nothing clearer than +that. Launcelot Sandal married Ducie Latrigg; they had one son, Stephen +Sandal, otherwise known as Stephen Latrigg: proofs all ready, sir, not a +link missing, Mr. Sandal. When will you vacate? The squire is inclined +to be easy with you, and not to back-reckon, unless you force him to do +so." + +"This is a conspiracy, Moser." + +"Conspiracy! Eh? Ugly word, Mr. Sandal. An actionable word, I may say." + +"It is a conspiracy. You shall hear from me through some respectable +lawyer." + +"In the mean time, Mr. Sandal, I have taken, as you will see, the proper +legal steps to prevent you wasting any more of the Sandal revenues. +Every shilling you touch now, you will be held responsible for. Also," +and he laid another paper down, "you are hereby restrained from +removing, injuring, or in any way changing, or disposing of, the present +furniture of the Seat. The squire insists specially on this direction, +and he kindly allows you seven days to remove your private effects. A +very reasonable gentleman is Squire Sandal." + +Without further courtesies they parted; and the deposed squire locked +the room-door, lifted the various documents, and read them with every +sense he had. Then he went to Sophia; and at that hour he was almost +angry with her, although he could not have told how, or why, such a +feeling existed. When he opened the door of the parlor, her first words +were a worry over the non-arrival, by mail, of some floss-silks, +needful in the bird's-nest she was working for a fire-screen. + +"They have not come, Julius," she cried, with a face full of inquiry and +annoyance. + +"They? Who?" + +"The flosses for my bird's-nest. The eggs must be in white floss." + +"The bird's nest can go to Jericho, or Calcutta, or into the fire. We +are ordered to leave Seat-Sandal in seven days." + +"I would not be so absurd, Julius, so unfeeling, so ungentlemanly." + +"Well, then, my soul," and he bowed with elaborate grace, "Stephen +Latrigg, squire of Sandal-Side, orders us to leave in seven days. Can +you be ready?" + +She looked into the suave, mocking, inscrutable face, shrugged her +shoulders, and began to count her stitches. Julius had many varieties of +ill-humor. She regarded this statement only as a new phase of his +temper; but he soon undeceived her. With a pitiless exactness he went +over his position, and, in doing so, made the hopelessness of his case +as clear to himself as it was to others. And yet he was determined not +to yield without a struggle; though, apart from the income of Sandal, +which he could not reach, he had little money and no credit. + +The story, with all its romance of attachment and its long trial of +faithful secrecy, touched the prejudices and the sympathies of every +squire and shepherd between Duddon and Esk and Windermere. Stephen came +to his own, and they received him with open arms. But for Julius, there +was not a "seat" in the Dales, nor a cottage on the fells, no, nor a +chair in any of the local inns, where he was welcome. He stood his +social excommunication longer than could have been expected; and, even +at the end, his surrender was forced from him by the want of money, and +the never-ceasing laments of Sophia. She was clever enough to understand +from the first, that fighting the case was simply "indulging Julius in +his temper;" and she did not see the wisdom of spending what little +money they had in such a gratification. + +"You have been caught in your own trap, Julius," she said aggravatingly. +"Very clever people often are. It is folly to struggle. You had better +ask Stephen to pay you back the ten thousand pounds. I think he ought to +do that. It is only common honesty." + +But Stephen had not the same idea of common honesty as Sophia had. He +referred Julius to Harry. + +"Harry, indeed! Harry who is in New York making ducks and drakes of your +money, Julius,--trying to buy shares and things that he knows no more of +than he knows of Greek. It's a shame!" and Sophia burst into some +genuine tears over the reflection. + +Still the idea, on a less extravagant basis, seemed possible to Steve. +He began to think that it would be better to compromise matters with the +Julius Sandals; better to lose a thousand pounds, or even two thousand +pounds, if, by doing so, he could at once restore Mrs. Sandal and +Charlotte to their home. And he was on the point of making a proposition +of this kind, when it was discovered that Julius and his wife had +silently taken their departure. + +"It is a hopeless fight against destiny," said Julius. "When the purse +is empty, any cause is weak. I have barely money to take us to Calcutta, +Sophia. It is very disagreeable to go there, of course; but my father +advised this step, and I shall remind him of it. He ought, therefore, to +re-arrange my future. It is hard enough for me to have lost so much +time carrying out his plans. And I should write a letter to your mother +before you go, if I were you, Sophia. It is your duty. She ought to have +her cruel behavior to you pointed out to her." + +Sophia did her duty. She wrote a very clever letter, which really did +make both her mother and sister wretchedly uncomfortable. Charlotte held +it in her hand with a heartache, wondering whether she had indeed been +as envious and unjust and unkind as Sophia felt her to have been; and +Mrs. Sandal buried her face in her sofa pillow, and had a cry over her +supposed partiality and want of true motherly feeling. "They had been so +misunderstood, Julius and she,--wilfully misunderstood, she feared; and +they were being driven to a foreign land, a deadly foreign land, because +Charlotte and Stephen had raised against them a social hatred they had +not the heart to conquer. If they defended themselves, they must accuse +those of their own blood and house, and they were not mean enough to do +such a thing as that. Oh, no! Sophia Sandal had always done her duty, +and always would do it forever." And broad statements are such +confusing, confounding things, that for one miserable hour the mother +and sister felt as mean and remorseful as Sophia and Julius could +desire. Then the rector read the letter aloud, and dived down into its +depths as if it was a knotty text, and showed the two simple women on +what false conditions all of its accusations rested. + +At the same time Julius wrote a letter also. It was to Harry Sandal,--a +very short letter, but destined to cause nearly six years of lonely, +wretched wandering and anxious sorrow. + + DEAR HARRY,--There is great trouble about that ten thousand pounds. + It seems you had no right to sell. "Money on false pretences," I + think they call it. I should go West, far West, if I were you. + + Your friend, + + JULIUS SANDAL. + +He read it to Sophia, and she said, "What folly! Let Harry return home. +You have heard that he comes into the Latrigg money. Very well, let him +come home, and then you can make him pay you back. Harry is very +honorable." + +"There is not the slightest chance of Harry paying me back. If he had a +million, he wouldn't pay me back. Harry spoke me fair, but I caught one +look which let me see into his soul. He hated me for buying his right. +With my money in his hand, he hated me. He would toss his hat to the +stars if he heard how far I have been over-reached. Next to Charlotte +Sandal, I hate Harry Sandal; and I am going to send him a road that he +is not likely to return. I don't intend Stephen and Harry to sit +together, and chuckle over me. Besides, your mother and Charlotte are +surely calculating upon having 'dear Harry' and 'poor Harry' at home +again very soon. I have no doubt Charlotte is planning about that Emily +Beverley already. For Harry is to have Latrigg Hall when it is finished, +I hear." + +"Really? Is that so? Are you sure?" + +"Harry is to have the new hall, and all of old Latrigg's gold and +property." + +"Julius, would it not be better to try and get around Harry? We could +stay with him. I cannot endure Calcutta, and I always did like Harry." + +"And I always detested him. And he always detested me. No, my sweet +Sophia, there is really nothing for us but a decent lodging-house on the +shady side of the Chowringhee Road. My father can give me a post in +'The Company,' and I must get as many of its rupees as I can manage. Go +through the old rooms, and bid them farewell, my soul. We shall not come +back to Seat-Sandal again in this chapter of our eternity." And with a +mocking laugh he turned away to make his own preparations. + +"But why go in the night, Julius? You said to-night at eleven o'clock. +Why not wait until morning?" + +"Because, beloved, I owe a great deal of money in the neighborhood. +Stephen can pay it for me. I have sent him word to do so. Why should we +waste our money? We have done with these boors. What they think of us, +what they say of us, shall we mind it, my soul, when we drive under the +peopuls and tamarinds at Barrackpore, or jostle the crowds upon the +Moydana, or sit under the great stars and listen to the tread of the +chokedars? All fate, Sophia! All fate, soul of my soul! What is +Sandal-Side? Nothing. What is Calcutta? Nothing. What is life itself, my +own one? Only a little piece out of something that was before, and will +be after." + + * * * * * + +Who that has seen the Cumberland moors and fells in July can ever forget +them?--the yellow broom and purple heather, the pink and white waxen +balls of the rare vacciniums, the red-leaved sundew, the asphodels, the +cranberries and blueberries and bilberries, and the wonderful green +mosses in all the wetter places; and, above and around all, the great +mountain chains veiled in pale, ethereal atmosphere, and rising in it as +airy and unsubstantial as if they could tremble in unison with every +thrill of the ether above them. + +It was thus they looked, and thus the fells and the moors looked, one +day in July, eighteen months after the death of Squire William +Sandal,--his daughter Charlotte's wedding-day. From far and near, the +shepherd boys and lasses were travelling down the craggy ways, making +all the valleys ring to their wild and simple songs, and ever and anon +the bells rung out in joyful peals; and from Up-Hill to Seat-Sandal, and +around the valley to Latrigg Hall, there were happy companies telling +each other, "Oh, how beautiful was the bride with her golden hair +flowing down over her dress of shining white satin!" "And how proud and +handsome the bridegroom!" "And how lovely in their autumn days the two +mothers! Mistress Alice Sandal leaning so confidently upon the arm of +the stately Mrs. Ducie Sandal." "And how glad was the good rector!" +Little work, either in field or house or fellside, was done that day; +for, when all has been said about human selfishness, this truth +abides,--in the main, we do rejoice with those who rejoice, and we do +weep with those who weep. + +The old Seat was almost gay in the sunshine, all its windows open for +the wandering breezes, and its great hall doors set wide for the feet of +the new squire and his bride. For they were too wise to begin their +married life by going away from their home; they felt that it was better +to come to it with the bridal benediction in their ears, and the +sunshine of the wedding-day upon their faces. + +The ceremony had been delayed some months, for Stephen had been in +America seeking Harry; seeking him in the great cities and in the lonely +mining-camps, but never coming upon his foot steps until they had been +worn away into forgetfulness. At last the rector wrote to him, "Return +home, Stephen. We are both wrong. It is not human love, but God love, +that must seek the lost ones. If you found Harry now, and brought him +back, it would be too soon. When his lesson is learned, the heart of God +will be touched, and he will say, 'That will do, my son. Arise, and go +home.'" + +And when Mrs. Sandal smiled through her tears, for the hope's sake, he +took her hand, and added solemnly, "Be confident and glad, you shall see +Harry come joyfully to his own home. Oh, if you could only listen, +angels still talk with men! Raphael, the affable angel, loves to bring +them confidences. God also speaks to his children in dreams, and by the +oracles that wait in darkness. If we know not, it is because we ask not. +But I know, and am sure, that Harry will return in joy and in peace. And +if the dead look over the golden bar of heaven upon their earthly homes, +Barf Latrigg, seeing the prosperity of the two houses, which stand upon +his love and his self-denial, will say once more to his friend, +'William, I did well to Sandal.'" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SQUIRE OF SANDAL-SIDE*** + + +******* This file should be named 16258.txt or 16258.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/2/5/16258 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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