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diff --git a/21135.txt b/21135.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b334a51 --- /dev/null +++ b/21135.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3364 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Nearly Lost but Dearly Won, by Theodore P. Wilson + +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: Nearly Lost but Dearly Won + +Author: Theodore P. Wilson + +Illustrator: M. D. H. + +Release Date: April 18, 2007 [EBook #21135] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEARLY LOST BUT DEARLY WON *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Nearly Lost but Dearly Won + +by the Reverend T.P. Wilson, M.A. +________________________________________________________________ +Wilson wrote several books around the end of the 1880s. He had won a +prize some ten years previously for the best book assessed by The Band +of Hope, a Society devoted to helping the young never to take up +drinking. This present book gives you the impression that it might well +have been another one written to be entered into the competition. +Anyway, if it was, it didn't win. + +It's quite a good story, but I think its trouble is, that it is neither +a book that would appeal directly to teenagers, which one supposes was +its target audience, nor yet to young adults. There is nothing like the +amount of action we saw in "Frank Oldfield." + +it is rather a short book, but one of its crowning glories is the set of +ten line drawings by "MDH". These are really superb, full of action and +life, particularly where there are children or horses. I wish all +childrens' books were as well illustrated. NH +________________________________________________________________ + +NEARLY LOST BUT DEARLY WON + +BY THE REVEREND T.P. WILSON, M.A. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +ESAU TANKARDEW. + +Certainly, Mr Tankardew was not a pattern of cleanliness, either in his +house or his person. Someone had said of him sarcastically, "that there +was nothing clean in his house but his _towels_;" and there was a great +deal of truth in the remark. He seemed to dwell in an element of +cobwebs; the atmosphere in which he lived, rather than breathed, was +apparently a mixture of fog and dust. Everything he had on was faded-- +everything that he had about him was faded--the only dew that seemed to +visit the jaded-looking shrubs in the approach to his dwelling was +_mil_dew. Dilapidation and dinginess went hand-in-hand everywhere: the +railings round the house were dilapidated--some had lost there points, +others came to an abrupt conclusion a few inches above the stone-work +from which they sprang; the steps were dilapidated--one of them rocked +as you set your foot upon it, and the others sloped inwards so as to +hold treacherous puddles in wet weather to entrap unwary visitors; the +entrance hall was dilapidated; if ever there had been a pattern to the +paper, it had now retired out of sight and given place to irregular +stains, which looked something like a vast map of a desolate country, +all moors and swamps; the doors were dilapidated, fitting so badly, that +when the front door opened a sympathetic clatter of all the lesser ones +rang through the house; the floors were dilapidated, and afforded ample +convenience for easy egress and ingress to the flourishing colonies of +rats and mice which had established themselves on the premises; and +above all, Mr Tankardew himself was dilapidated in his dress, and in +his whole appearance and habits--his very voice was dilapidated, and his +words slipshod and slovenly. + +And yet Mr Tankardew was a man of education and a gentleman, and you +knew it before you had been five minutes in his company. He was the +owner of the house he lived in, on the outskirts of the small town of +Hopeworth, and also of considerable property in the neighbourhood. +Amongst other possessions, he was the landlord of two houses of some +pretensions, a little out in the country, which were prettily situated +in the midst of shrubberies and orchards. In one of these houses lived +a Mr Rothwell, a gentleman of independent means; in the other a Mrs +Franklin, the widow of an officer, with her daughter Mary, now about +fifteen years of age. + +Mr Tankardew had settled in his present residence some ten years since. +_Why_ he bought it nobody knew, nor was likely to know; all that people +were sure of was that he _had_ bought it, and pretty cheap too, for it +was not a house likely to attract any one who appreciated comfort or +liveliness; moreover, current report said that it was haunted. Still, +it was for sale, and it passed somehow or other into Mr Tankardew's +hands, and Mr Tankardew's hands and whole person passed into _it_; and +here he was now with his one old servant, Molly Gilders, a shade more +dingy and dilapidated than himself. Several persons put questions to +Molly about her master, but found it a very discouraging business, so +they gave up the attempt as hopeless, and it remained an unexplained +mystery why Mr Tankardew came to Hopeworth, and where he came from. As +for questioning the old gentleman himself, no one had the hardihood to +undertake it; and indeed he gave them little opportunity, as he very +rarely showed his face out of his own door; so rumour had to say what it +pleased, and among other things, rumour said that the old dressing-gown +in which he was ordinarily seen was never off duty, either day or night. + +Mr Tankardew employed no agent, but collected his own rents; which he +required to be paid to himself half-yearly, in the beginning of January +and July, at his own residence. + +It was on one crisp, frosty, cheery January morning that Mr Rothwell, +and his son Mark, a young lad of eighteen, were ushered into Mr +Tankardew's sitting-room; if that could be properly called a sitting- +room, in which nobody seemed ever to sit, to judge by the deep unruffled +coating of dust which reposed on every article, the chairs included. +Respect for their own garments caused father and son to stand while they +waited for their landlord; but, before he made his appearance, two more +visitors were introduced, or rather let into the room by old Molly, who, +considering her duty done when she had given them an entrance into the +apartment, never troubled herself as to their further comfort and +accommodation. + +A strange contrast were these visitors to the old room and its +furniture. Mr Rothwell was a tall and rather portly man with a +pleasant countenance, a little flushed, indicating a somewhat free +indulgence in what is certainly miscalled "good living." The cast of +his features was that of a person easy-going, good-tempered, and happy; +but a line or two of care here and there, and an occasional wrinkling up +of the forehead showed that the surface was not to be trusted. Mark, +his son, was like him, and the very picture of good humour and light- +heartedness; so buoyant, indeed, that at times he seemed indebted to +spirits something more than "animal." But the brightness had not yet +had any of the gilding rubbed off--everyone liked him, no one could be +dull where he was. Mrs Franklin, how sweet and lovable her gentle +face! You could tell that, whatever she might have lost, she had gained +grace--a glow from the Better Land gave her a heavenly cheerfulness. +And Mary--she had all her mother's sweetness without the shadow from +past sorrows, and her laugh was as bright and joyous as the sunlit +ripple on a lake in summer time. + +The Rothwells and Franklins, as old friends, exchanged a hearty but +whispered greeting. + +"I daren't speak out loud," said Mark to Mary, "for fear of raising the +dust, for that'll set me sneezing, and then good-bye to one another; for +the first sneeze 'll raise such a cloud that we shall never see each +other till we get out of doors again." + +"O Mark, don't be foolish! You'll make me laugh, and we shall offend +poor Mr Tankardew; but it is very odd. I never was here before, but +mamma wished me to come with her, as a sort of protection, for she's +half afraid of the old gentleman." + +"Your first visit to our landlord, I think?" said Mr Rothwell. + +"Yes," replied Mrs Franklin. "I sent my last half-year's rent by +Thomas, but as there are some little alterations I want doing at the +house, and Mr Tankardew, I'm told, will never listen to anything on +this subject second-hand, I have come myself and brought Mary with me." + +"Just exactly my own case," said Mr Rothwell; "and Mark has given me +his company, just for the sake of the walk. I think you have never met +our landlord?" + +"No, never!--and I must confess that I feel considerably relieved that +our interview will be less private than I had anticipated." + +Further conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Mr Tankardew +himself. He was tall and very grey, with strongly-marked features, and +deeply-furrowed cheeks and forehead. His eyes were piercing and +restless, but there was a strange gentleness of expression about the +mouth, which might lead one, when viewing his countenance as a whole, to +gather that he was one who, though often deceived, _must_ still trust +and love. He had on slippers and worsted stockings, but neither of them +were pairs. He wore an old black handkerchief with the tie half-way +towards the back of his neck, while a very long and discoloured +dressing-gown happily shrouded from view a considerable portion of his +lower raiment. + +The room in which he met his tenants was thoroughly in keeping with its +owner: old and dignified, panelled in dark wood, with a curiously-carved +chimneypiece, and a ceiling apparently adorned with some historical or +allegorical painting, if you could only have seen it. + +How Mr Tankardew got into the room on the present occasion was by no +means clear, for nobody saw him enter. + +Mark suggested to Mary, in a whisper, that he had come up through a trap +door. At any rate he was there, and greeted his visitors without +embarrassment. + +"Sorry to keep you waiting," he muttered, "sorry to see you standing. +Ah! Dusty, I see;" and with the long tail of his dressing-gown he +proceeded to raise a cloud of dust from four massive oak chairs, much to +the disturbance of Mark's equanimity, who succeeded with some difficulty +in maintaining his gravity. "Sorry," added Mr Tankardew, "to appear in +this _dishabille_, must excuse and take me as I am." + +"Pray don't mention it," replied both his tenants, and then proceeded to +business. + +The rent had been paid and receipts duly given, when the old man raised +his eyes and fixed them on Mary's face. She had been sitting back in +the deep recess of a window, terribly afraid of a mirthful explosion +from Mark, and therefore drawing herself as far out of sight as +possible; but now a bright ray of sunshine cast itself full on her +sweet, loving features, and as Mr Tankardew caught their expression he +uttered a sudden exclamation, and stood for a moment as if transfixed to +the spot. Mary felt and looked half-confused, half-frightened, but the +next moment Mr Tankardew turned away, muttered something to himself, +and then entered into the subject of requested alterations. His +visitors had anticipated some probable difficulties, if not a refusal, +on the part of their landlord; but to their surprise and satisfaction he +promised at once to do all that they required: indeed he hardly seemed +to take the matter in thoroughly, but to have his mind occupied with +something quite foreign to the subject in hand. At last he said,-- + +"Well, well, get it all done--get it all done, Mr Rothwell, Mrs +Franklin--get it all done, and send in the bills to me--there, there." + +Again he fixed his eyes earnestly on Mary's face, then slowly withdrew +them, and striding up to the fireplace opened a panel above it, and +disclosed an exquisite portrait of a young girl about Mary's age. +Nothing could be more striking than the contrast between the gloomy, +dingy hue of the apartment, and the vivid colouring of the picture, +which beamed out upon them like a rainbow spanning a storm-cloud. Then +he closed the panel abruptly, and turned towards the company with a deep +sigh. + +"Ah! Well, well," he said, half aloud; "well, good-morning, good- +morning; when shall we meet again?" + +These last words were addressed to Mrs Franklin and her daughter. + +"Really," replied the former, hardly knowing what to say, "I'm sure, +I--" + +Mr Rothwell came to the rescue. + +"My dear sir, I'm sure I shall be very glad to see you at my house; you +don't go into society much; it'll do you good to come out a little; +you'll get rid of a few of the cobwebs--from your mind"--he added +hastily, becoming painfully conscious that he was treading on rather +tender ground when he was talking about cobwebs. + +"Wouldn't Mr Tankardew like to come to our juvenile party on Twelfth +Night?" asked Mark with a little dash of mischief in his voice, and a +demure look at Mary. + +Mrs Franklin bit her lips, and Mr Rothwell frowned. + +"A juvenile party at your house?" asked Mr Tankardew, very gravely. + +"Only my son's nonsense, you must pardon him," said Mr Rothwell; "we +always have a young people's party that night, of course you would be +heartily welcome, only--" + +"A juvenile party?" asked Mr Tankardew again, very slowly. + +"Yes, sir," replied Mark, for the sake of saying something, and feeling +a little bit of a culprit; "twelfth cake, crackers, negus, lots of fun, +something like a breaking-up at school. Miss Franklin will be there, +and plenty more young people too." + +"Something like a breaking-up," muttered the old man, "more like a +breaking-_down_, I should think--I'll come." + +The effect of this announcement was perfectly overwhelming. Mr +Rothwell expressed his gratification with as much self-possession as he +could command, and named the hour. Mrs Franklin checked an exclamation +of astonishment with some difficulty. Poor Mary coughed her suppressed +laughter into her handkerchief; but as for Mark, he was forced to beat a +hasty retreat, and dashed down the stairs like a whirlwind. + +The way home lay first down a narrow lane, into which they entered about +a hundred yards from Mr Tankardew's house. Here the rest of the party +found Mark behaving himself rather like a recently-escaped lunatic: he +was jumping up and down, then tossing his cap into the air, then leaning +back on the bank, holding his sides, and every now and then crying out +while the tears rolled over his cheeks. + +"Oh dear! Oh dear! What _shall_ I do? Old Tanky's coming to our +juvenile party." + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE JUVENILE PARTY. + +Let us look into two very different houses on the morning of January +6th. + +Mr Rothwell's place is called "The Firs," from a belt of those trees +which shelter the premises on the north. + +All is activity at "The Firs" on Twelfth-day morning. + +It is just noon, and Mrs Rothwell and her daughters are assembled in +the drawing-room making elaborate preparations for the evening with +holly, and artificial flowers and mottoes, and various cunning and +beautiful devices. On a little table by the grand piano stands a tray +with a decanter of sherry, a glass jug filled (and likely to remain so) +with water, and a few biscuits. Mrs Rothwell is lying back in an +elegant easy-chair, looking flushed and languid. Her three daughters, +Jane, Florence, and Alice, are standing near her, all looking rather +weary. + +"What a bore these parties are!" exclaimed the eldest. "I'm sick to +death of them. I shall be tired out before the evening begins." + +"So shall I," chimes in her sister Florence. "I hate having to be civil +to those odious little frights, the Graysons, and their cousins. Why +can't they stay at home and knock one another's heads about in the +nursery?" + +"Very aimiable of you I must say, my dears," drawls out Mrs Rothwell. +"Come, you must exert yourselves, you know it only comes once a year." + +"Ay, once too often, mamma!" + +"I'm sure," cries little Alice, "I shall enjoy the party very much: +it'll be jolly, as Mark says, only I wish I wasn't so tired just now: +ah! Dear me!" + +"Oh! Child, don't yawn!" says her mother; "you'll make me more fatigued +than I am, and I'm quite sinking now. Jane, do just pour me out another +glass of sherry. Thank you, I can sip a little as I want it. Take some +yourself, my dear, it'll do you good." + +"And me too, mamma," cries Alice, stretching out her hand. + +"Really, Alice, you're too young; you mustn't be getting into wanting +wine so early in the day, it'll spoil your digestion." + +"Oh! Nonsense, mamma! Everybody takes it now; it'll do me good, you'll +see. Mark often gives me wine; he's a dear good brother is Mark." + +Mrs Rothwell sighs, and takes a sip of sherry: she is beginning to +brighten up. + +"What in the world did your father mean by asking old Mr Tankardew to +the party to-night?" she exclaims, turning to her elder daughters. + +"Mean! Mamma--you may well ask that: the old scarecrow! They say he +looks like a bag of dust and rags." + +"Mark says," cries her sister, "that he's just the image of a stuffed +Guy Fawkes, which the boys used to carry about London on a chair." + +"Well, my dears, we must make the best of matters, we can't help it +now." + +"Oh! I daresay it'll be capital fun," exclaims Alice; "I shall like to +see Mark doing the polite to `Old Tanky,' as he calls him." + +"Come, Miss Pert, you must mind your behaviour," says Florence; +"remember, Mr Tankardew is a gentleman and an old man." + +"Indeed, Miss Gravity, but I'm not going to learn manners of you; mamma +pays Miss Craven to teach me that, so good-bye;" and the child, with a +mocking courtesy towards her sister, runs out of the room laughing. + +And now let us look into the breakfast-room of "The Shrubbery," as Mrs +Franklin's house is called. + +Mary and her mother are sitting together, the former adding some little +adornments to her evening dress, and the latter knitting. + +"Don't you like Mark Rothwell, mamma?" + +"No, my child." + +"Oh! Mamma! What a cruelly direct answer!" + +"Shouldn't I speak the direct truth, Mary?" + +"Oh! Yes, certainly the truth, only you might have softened it off a +little, because I think you must like some things in him." + +"Yes, he is cheerful and good-tempered." + +"And obliging, mamma?" + +"I'm not so sure of that, Mary; self-indulgent people are commonly +selfish people, and selfish people are seldom obliging: a really +obliging person is one who will cross his own inclination to gratify +yours, without having any selfish end in view." + +"And you don't think Mark would do this, mamma?" + +"I almost think not. I like to see a person obliging from principle, +and not merely from impulse: not merely when his being obliging is only +another form of self-gratification." + +"But why should not Mark Rothwell be obliging on principle?" + +"Well, Mary, you know my views. I can trust a person as truly obliging +who acts on Christian principle, who follows the rule, `Look not +everyone on his own things, but everyone also on the things of others,' +because he loves Christ. I am afraid poor Mark has never learned to +love Christ." + +Mary sighs, and her mother looks anxiously at her. + +"My dearest child," she says, earnestly, "I don't want you to get too +intimate with the young Rothwells. I am sure they are not such +companions as your own heart would approve of." + +"Why, no, mamma, I can't say I admire the way in which they have been +brought up." + +"Admire it! Oh! Mary, this is one of the crying sins of the day. I +mean the utter selfishness and self-indulgence in which so many young +people are educated; they must eat, they must drink, they must talk just +like their elders; they acknowledge no betters, they spurn all +authority; the holy rule, `Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for +this is right,' is quite out of date with too many of them now." + +"I fear it is so, mamma. I don't like the girls much at `The Firs,' but +I cannot help liking Mark; I mean," she added, colouring, "as a light- +hearted, generous, pleasant boy." A silence of a few moments, and then +she looks up and says, timidly and lovingly, "If you think it better, +dearest mamma, I won't go to the party to-night." + +"No, Mary, I would not advise that; _I_ shall be with you, and I should +like you to see and judge for yourself. I have every confidence in you. +I do believe that you love your Saviour, and loving Him, I feel sure +that you will not knowingly enter into any very intimate acquaintance +with any one who has not the same hope; without which hope, my precious +child, there may be much amiability and attractiveness, but can be no +solid and abiding happiness or peace." + +Mary's reply is a child's earnest embrace and a whispered assurance of +unchanging love to her mother, and trust in her judgment. + +Six o'clock.--Both drawing-rooms at "The Firs" were thrown into one, and +brilliantly lighted up. Mysterious sounds in the dining-room below told +of preparations for that part of the evening's proceedings, by no means +the least gratifying to the members of a juvenile party. Friends began +to assemble: young boys and girls in shoals, the former dazzling in +neckties and pins, the latter in brooches and earrings: with a +sprinkling of seniors. The host, hostess, and her daughters were all +smiles; the last-named especially, unable, indeed, to give expression to +their satisfaction at having the happiness of receiving their dear young +friends. Mark was there, of course, full of fun, and really enjoying +himself, the life and soul of everything. + +And now, when Mrs Franklin and Mary had just taken their seats and had +begun to look around them, the door was thrown widely open, and the +servant announced in a loud voice, "Mr Esau Tankardew!" + +Every sound was instantly hushed, every head bent forward, every mouth +parted in breathless expectation. Mark crept close up to Mary and +squeezed his white gloves into ropes; the next moment Mr Tankardew +entered. + +Marvellous transformation! The faded garments had entirely disappeared. +Was this the man of dilapidation? Yes, it was Mr Tankardew. He was +habited in a suit of black, which, though not new, had evidently not +seen much service; his trousers ceased at the knee, leaving his silk +stockings and shoes conspicuous. No reproach could be cast on the +purity of his white neckcloth, nor on the general cleanliness of his +person. His greeting of the host and hostess, though a little old- +fashioned, was thoroughly easy and courteous, after which he begged them +to leave him to himself, and to give their undivided attention to the +young, whose special evening it was. Curiosity once gratified, the +suspended buzz of eager talk broke out again, and allowed Mr Tankardew +to make his way to Mrs Franklin and her daughter. These he saluted +very heartily, and added, "Let an old man sit by you awhile, and watch +the proceedings of the young people, and realise if he possibly can that +he was once young himself--ah yes! Once young," and he sighed deeply. + +Fun and frolic were soon at their height. Merry music struck up, and +the larger of the two drawing-rooms was cleared for a dance. Mark +hurried up to Mary. "Come, Mary," he cried, "I want you for a partner; +we shall have capital fun; come along." + +"Thank you," she replied; "I prefer to watch the others--at present, at +any rate." + +"Oh! Nonsense! You _must_ come, there'll be no fun without you; it's +very hot though, but there'll be lots of negus presently." + +"Mary will do her part by trying to amuse some of the very little ones," +said her mother; "I think that will be more to her taste." + +"Oh! Yes, dear mamma, that it will. Thank you, Mark, all the same." + +"Good, very good, very good," cried Mr Tankardew, in a low voice, and +beating one hand gently on the other; "keep to that, my child, keep to +that." + +Mark retired with a very bad grace, and Mary, slipping away from her +mother's side, gathered a company around her of the tinier sort, with +glowing cheeks and very wide eyes, who were rather scared by the more +boisterous proceedings of those somewhat older; she amused them in a +quiet way, raising many a little happy laugh, and fairly winning their +hearts. + +"God bless her," muttered Mr Tankardew, when he had watched her for +some time very attentively; "very good, that will do, very good indeed; +keep her to it, Mrs Franklin, keep her to it." + +"She's a dear, good child," said her mother. + +"Very true, madam; yes, dear and good; some are dear and bad--dear at +any price. I see some now." + +Wine and negus were soon handed round; the tray was presented to Mary. +Mr Tankardew lent forward and bent a piercing look at her. She +declined, not at all knowing that he was watching her. + +"Good again; very good, good girl, wise girl, prudent girl," he murmured +to himself. + +The tray now came to Mrs Franklin. She took a glass of sherry. Mr +Tankardew's brow clouded. "Ah!" he exclaimed, and moved restlessly on +his chair. The servant then approached him and offered the contents of +the tray, but he waved it off with an imperious gesture of his hand, and +did not vouchsafe a word. + +The more boisterous party in the other room now became conscious of the +presence of the wine and negus, and rushed in, surrounding the maid who +was bringing in a fresh supply. Mark was at the head of them, and +tossed down two glasses in rapid succession. The rest clamoured for the +strong drink with eager hands and outstretched arms. "Give me some, +give me some," was uttered on all sides. Self reigned paramount. + +Mr Tankardew's tall form rose high above the edge of the struggling +crowd, which he had approached. + +"Poor things, poor things, poor things!" he said gloomily. + +"A pleasant sight, these little ones enjoying themselves," said Mr +Rothwell, coming up. + +Mr Tankardew seemed scarcely to hear him, and returned to his place by +Mrs Franklin. + +"Enjoying themselves!" he exclaimed, in an undertone, "call it pampering +the flesh, killing the soul, and courting the devil." + +"Rather hard upon the poor dear children," laughingly remarked a lady, +who overheard him: "why, surely you wouldn't deny _them_, their share of +the enjoyment of God's good creatures?" + +"God's good creatures, madam! Are the wine and negus God's good +creatures?" + +"Certainly they are," was the reply: "God has permitted man to +manufacture them out of the fruits of the earth, and to make them the +means of pleasurable excitement, and therefore surely we may take them +and give them as His good creatures." + +Mr Tankardew made no answer, but striding up to Mary, where she sat +with a circle of little interesting faces round her, eagerly intent on +some simple story she was telling them, he said, "Miss Franklin, will +you favour me by bringing me a few of your young friends here. There, +now, my dear," (speaking to one of the little girls), "just hand me that +empty negus glass." The child did so, and Mr Tankardew, producing from +his coat pocket a considerable sized bottle, turned to the lady who had +addressed him, and said: + +"Madam, will you help me to dispense some of the contents of this bottle +to these little children?" + +"Gladly," she replied. "I suppose it is something very good, such as +little folks like." + +"It is one of God's good creatures, madam:" saying which, he turned +towards the other's astonished gaze the broad label on which was printed +in great black letters, "Laudanum--Poison." + +"My dear sir, what do you mean?" + +"I mean, madam, that the liquid in this bottle is made from the poppy, +which is one of the fruits of the earth; therefore it is one of God's +good creatures, just as the wine and negus are. It produces very +pleasurable sensations, too, if you take it, just as _they_ do; +therefore it is right to indulge in it, and give it to others, just as +it is right for the same reasons to indulge in wine and negus and +spirits, and to give them to others." + +"I really don't understand you, sir." + +"Don't you, madam? I think you won't be able to pick a hole in my +argument." + +"Ah! But this liquid is poison!" + +"So is alcohol, madam, only it is not labelled so: more's the pity, for +it has killed thousands and tens of thousands, where laudanum has only +killed units. There, my child," he added, turning to Mary, and taking +an elegant little packet from his pocket, "give these _bonbons_ to the +little ones. I didn't mean to disappoint them." + +While this dialogue was going on, the rest of the party was too full of +noisy mirth to notice what was passing. Mark's voice was getting very +wild and conspicuous; and now he made his way with flushed face and +sparkling eyes to Mary, who was sitting quietly between her mother and +Mr Tankardew. He carried a jug in one hand, and a glass in the other, +and, without noticing the elder people, exclaimed, "It is an hour yet to +supper time, and you'll be dead with thirst; I am sure I am. You must +take some of this, it is capital stuff; our butler made it: I have just +had a tumbler--it is punch. Come, Mary, you must," and he thrust the +glass into her hand: "you must, I say; you shall; never mind old Tanky," +he added, in what he meant to be a whisper. Then he raised the jug with +unsteady fingers, but, before a drop could reach the tumbler, Mr +Tankardew had risen, and with one sweep of his hand dashed it out of +Mary's grasp on the ground. Few heard the crash, amidst the din of the +general merriment, and those who noticed it supposed it to be an +accident. "Nearly lost!" whispered Mr Tankardew in Mary's ear; then he +said, in a louder voice, "Faugh! The atmosphere of this place does not +suit me. I must retire. Mrs Franklin, pray make an old man's excuses +to our host and hostess." + +He was _gone_! + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE SWOLLEN STREAM. + +It is the morning after the juvenile party at "The Firs." A clear, +bright frost still: everything _outside_ the house fresh and vigorous: +half-a-dozen labourers' little children running to school with faces +like peonies; jumping, racing, sliding, puffing out clouds of steaming +breath as they shout out again and again for very excess of health and +spirits. + +Everything _inside_ the house limp, languid, and lugubrious; the fires +are sulky and won't burn; the maids are sulkier still. Mr Rothwell +breakfasts alone, feeling warm in nothing but his temper: the grate +sends forth little white jets of smoke from a wall of black coal, +instead of presenting a cheery surface of glowing heat: the toast is +black at the corners and white in the middle: the eggs look so truly new +laid that they seem to have come at once from the henhouse to the table, +without passing through the saucepan: the coffee is feeble and the milk +smoked: the news in the daily papers is flat, and the state of affairs +in country and county peculiarly depressing. Upstairs, Mrs Rothwell +tosses about with a sick headache, unable to rest and unwilling to rise. +The young ladies are dawdling in dressing-gowns over a bedroom +breakfast, and exchanging mutual sarcasms and recriminations, blended +with gall and bitterness flung back on last night's party. Poor Mark +has the worst of it, nausea and splitting headache, with a shameful +sense of having made both a fool and a beast of himself. So much for +the delights of "lots of negus, wine, and punch!" He has also a +humbling remembrance of having been rude to Mr Tankardew. A knock at +his door. "Come in." + +"Please, sir, there's a hamper come for you," says the butler; "shall I +bring it in?" + +"Yes, if you like." + +The hamper is brought in and opened; it is only a small one. In the +midst of a deep bed of straw lies a hard substance; it is taken out and +the paper wrapped round it unfolded; only a glass tumbler! There is a +paper in it on which is written, "To Mr Mark Rothwell, from Mr Esau +Tankardew, to replace what he broke last night: keep it empty, my boy; +keep it empty." + +Nine o'clock at "The Shrubbery." Mary and her mother are seated at +breakfast, both a little dull and disinclined to speak. At last Mary +breaks the silence by a profound sigh. Mrs Franklin smiles, and says: + +"You seem rather burdened with care, my child." + +"Well, I don't know, dear mamma; I don't think it is exactly care, but +I'm dissatisfied or disappointed that I don't feel happier for last +night's party." + +"You don't think there was much real enjoyment in it?" + +"Not to _me_, mamma; and I don't imagine very much to anybody--except, +perhaps, to some of the very little ones. There was a hollowness and +emptiness about the whole thing; plenty of excitement and a great deal +of selfishness, but nothing to make me feel really brighter and +happier." + +"No, my child; I quite agree with you: and I was specially sorry for old +Mr Tankardew. I can't quite understand what induced him to come: his +conduct was very strange, and yet there is something very amiable about +him in the midst of his eccentricities." + +"What a horror he seems to have of wine and negus and suchlike things, +mamma." + +"Yes; and I'm sure what he saw last night would not make him any fonder +of them. Poor Mark Rothwell quite forgot himself. I was truly glad to +get away early." + +"Oh! So was I, mamma; it was terrible. I wish he wouldn't touch such +things; I'm sure he'll do himself harm if he does." + +"Yes, indeed, Mary; harm in body, and character, and soul. Those are +fearful words, `No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.'" + +"I wish I was like Mr Tankardew," says Mary, after a pause; "did you +see, mamma, how he refused the negus? I never saw such a frown." + +"Well, Mary, I'm not certain that total abstinence would suit either of +us, but it is better to be on the safe side. I am sure, in these days +of special self-indulgence, it would be worth a little sacrifice if our +example might do good; but I'll think about it." + +It was a lovely morning in the September after the juvenile party, one +of those mornings which combine the glow of summer with the richness of +autumn. A picnic had been arranged to a celebrated hill about ten miles +distant from Hopeworth. The Rothwells had been the originators, and had +pressed Mary Franklin to join the party. Mrs Franklin had at first +declined for her daughter. She increasingly dreaded any intimacy +between her and Mark, whose habits she feared were getting more and more +self-indulgent; and Mary herself was by no means anxious to go, but +Mark's father had been particularly pressing on the subject, more so +than Mrs Franklin could exactly understand, so she yielded to the joint +importunity of father and son, though with much reluctance. Mary had +seen Mark occasionally since the night of the 6th of January, and still +liked him, without a thought of going beyond this; but she was grieved +to see how strongly her mother felt against him, and was inclined to +think her a little hard. True, he had been betrayed into an excess on +Twelfth night; but, then, he was no drunkard. So she argued to herself, +and so too many argue; but how strange it is that people should argue so +differently about the sin of drunkenness from what they argue about +other sins! If a man lies to us _now and then_, do we call him +_habitually_ truthful? If a man steals _now and then_, do we call him +_habitually_ honest? Surely not; yet if a man is _only now and then_ +drunken, his fault is winked at; he is considered by many as +_habitually_ a sober man; and yet, assuredly, if there be one sin more +than another which from the guilt and misery that it causes deserves +little indulgence, it is the sin of drunkenness. Mary took the common +view, and could not think of Mark as being otherwise than habitually +sober, because he was only now and then the worse for strong drink. + +It was, as we have said, a lovely September morning, and all the members +of the picnic party were in high spirits. An omnibus had been hired +expressly for the occasion. Mark sat by the driver, and acted as +presiding genius. The common meeting-place was an old oak, above a mile +out of the town, and thither by ten o'clock all the providers and their +provisions had made their way. No one could look more bright than Mark +Rothwell, no one more peacefully lovely than Mary Franklin. All being +seated, off they started at an uproarious signal from Mark. Away they +went, along level road, through pebbly lane, its banks gorgeous with +foxgloves and fragrant with honeysuckles, over wild heath, and then up +grassy slopes. There were fourteen in the party: Mr Rothwell, Mark and +his three sisters, and a lady neighbour; Mrs Franklin and her daughter, +with a female friend; and five young gentlemen who were or seemed to be +cousins, more or less, to everybody. Five miles were soon passed, and +then the road was crossed by a little stream. Cautiously the lumbering +vehicle made its way down the shelving gravel, plunged into the +sparkling water, fouling it with thick eddies of liquid mud, and then, +with some slight prancings on the part of the willing horses, gained the +opposite bank. The other five miles were soon accomplished, all feeling +the exhilarating effect of drinking in copious draughts of mountain +air--God's pure and unadulterated stimulant to strengthen the nerves, +string up the muscles, and clear the brain, free from every drop of +spirit except the glowing spirit of health. And now the omnibus was +abandoned by a little roadside inn to the care of a hostler, who took +the horses (poor dumb brutes!) to feast on corn and water, God's truly +"good creatures," unspoilt by the perverse hand of self-indulgent man! + +The driver, with the rest of the party, toiled up the hill-side, and +all, on gaining the summit, gazed with admiration across one of those +lovely scenes which may well make us feel that the stamp of God's hand +is there, however much man may have marred what his Creator has made: +wood and lane, cornfields red-ripe, turnip fields in squares of dazzling +green, were spread out before them in rich embroidery with belts of +silver stream flashing like diamonds on the robe of beauty with which +Almighty love had clothed the earth. Oh! To think that sin should +defile so fair a prospect! Yet sin was there, though unseen by those +delighted gazers. Ay, and thickly sown among those sweet hills and +dales were drunkards' houses, where hearts were withering, and beings +made for immortality were destroying body and soul by a lingering +suicide. + +An hour passed quickly by, and there came a summons to luncheon. Under +a tall rock, affording an unbroken view of the magnificent landscape +outspread below, the tablecloth was laid and secured at the corners by +large stones. Pies both savoury and sweet were abundant, bread +sufficient, salt scanty, and water absent altogether. Bottles were +plentiful--bottles of ale, of porter, of wines heavy and light. Corks +popped, champagne fizzed, ale sparkled. Mark surrendered the eatables +into other hands, and threw his whole energies into the joint +consumption and distribution of strong drink. He seemed in this matter, +at least, to act upon the rule that "Example is better than precept": if +he pressed others to drink, he led the way by taking copious draughts +himself. The driver, too, was not forgotten; the poor man was getting a +chance of rising a little above his daily plodding as he looked out on +the lovely scenery before him: but he was not to be left to God's +teachings; ale, porter, champagne, he must taste them all. Mark +insisted on it; so the unfortunate man drank and drank, and then threw +himself down among some heath to sleep off, if he could, the fumes of +alcohol that were clouding his brains. + +And what of Mrs Franklin and Mary? Both had declined all the +stimulants, and had asked for water. + +"Nonsense," cried Mark; "water! I've taken very good care that there +shall be no water drunk to-day; you must take some wine or ale, you must +indeed." + +"We will manage without it, if you please," said Mrs Franklin quietly. + +Mark pressed the intoxicants upon them even to rudeness, but without +effect. Mr Rothwell was evidently annoyed at his son's pertinacity, +and tried to check him; but all in vain, for Mark had taken so much as +just to make him obstinate and unmanageable. But, finding that he could +not prevail, the young man hurried away in anger, and plied the other +members of the company with redoubled vigour. + +So engrossing had been the luncheon that few of the party had noticed a +sudden lull in the atmosphere, and an oppressive calm which had +succeeded to the brisk and cheery breeze. But now, as Mary rose from +her seat on the grass, she said to her mother: + +"Oh, mamma, how close it has become! And look there in the distance: +what a threatening bank of clouds! I fear we are going to have a +storm." + +"I fear so indeed, Mary; we must give our friends warning, and seek out +a shelter." + +All had now become conscious of the change. A stagnant heat brooded +over everything; not a breath of wind; huge banks of magnificent storm- +cloud came marching up majestically from the horizon, throwing out +little jets of lightning, with solemn murmurs of thunder. Drop, drop, +drop, tinkled on the gathered leaves, now quicker, now quicker, and +thicker. Under a huge roof of overhanging rock the party cowered +together. At last, down came the storm with a blast like a hurricane, +and deluges of rain. On, on it poured relentlessly, with blinding +lightning and deafening peals of thunder. Hour after hour! Would it +never cease? At last a lull between four and five o'clock, and, as the +tempest rolled murmuring away, the dispirited friends began their +preparations for returning. Six o'clock before all had reached the inn. +Where were the driver and Mark? Another tedious hour before they +appeared, and each manifestly the worse for liquor. Past seven by the +time they had fairly started. And now the clouds began to gather again. +On they went, furiously at first, and then in unsteady jerks, the +omnibus swaying strangely. It was getting dark, and the lowering clouds +made it darker still. Not a word was spoken by the passengers, but each +was secretly dreading the crossing of the stream. At last the bank was +gained--but what a change! The little brook had become a torrent deep +and strong. + +"Oh! For goodness' sake, stop! Stop! Let us get out," screamed the +Misses Rothwell. + +"In with it! In with it!" roared Mark to the driver; "dash through like +a trump." + +"Tchuck, tchuck," was the half-drunken driver's reply, as he lashed his +horses and urged them into the stream. + +Down they went: splash! Dash! Plunge! The water foaming against the +wheels like a millstream. Screams burst from all the terrified ladies +except Mary and her mother, who held each other's hand tightly. Mrs +Franklin had taught her daughter presence of mind both by example and +precept. But now the water rushed into the vehicle itself as the +frightened horses struggled for the opposite bank. Mark's voice was now +heard in curses, as he snatched the whip from the driver and scourged +the poor bewildered horses. Another splash: the driver was gone: the +poor animals pulled nobly. Crash! Jerk! Bang! A trace had snapped: +another jerk, a fearful dashing and struggling, the omnibus was drawn +half out of the water, and lay partly over on its side: then all was +still except the wails and the shrieks of the ladies. Happily a lamp +had been lighted and still burned in the omnibus, which was now above +the full violence of the water. The door was opened and the passengers +released; but by whom?--certainly not by Mark. A tall figure moved +about in the dusk, and coming up to Mary threw a large cloak over her +shoulders, for it was now raining heavily, and said in a voice whose +tones she was sure she knew: + +"Come with me, my child, your mother is close at hand; there, trust to +me; take my other arm, Mrs Franklin: very fortunate I was at hand to +help. The drink, the drink," he muttered in a low voice; "if they'd +stuck to the water at the beginning they wouldn't have stuck _in_ the +water at the end." + +And now a light flashed on them: it was the ruddy glow from a forge. + +"Come in for a moment," said their conductor, "till I see what is to be +done. Tom Flint, lend us a lantern, and send your Jim to show some of +these good people the way to the inn; they'll get no strong drink +there," he said, half to himself. + +And now several of the unlucky company had straggled into the smithy, +which was only a _few_ yards from the swollen stream. Among these was +Mark, partially sobered by the accident, and dripping from head to foot. + +"Here's some capital stuff to stave off a cold," he said, addressing +Mrs Franklin and her daughter, whose faces were visible in the forge +light: at the same time he rilled the cover of a small flask with +spirits. "Come, let us be as jolly as we can under the circumstances." + +"Thank you," said Mrs Franklin; "perhaps a very little mixed with water +might be prudent, as Mary, I fear, is very wet." + +Mark stretched out the cup towards her, but before a drop could be taken +the tall stranger had stepped forward, and snatching it, had emptied its +contents on the glowing coals. Up there shot a brilliant dazzling flame +to the smoky roof, and in that vivid blaze Mrs Franklin and Mary both +recognised in their timely helper none other than Mr Esau Tankardew. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER. + +"This way, this way," said Mr Tankardew, utterly unmoved by the +expression of angry astonishment on the face of Mark Rothwell at the +sudden conversion of his cup of liquid fire into harmless flame--"Come +this way, come this way, Mrs and Miss Franklin: Tom, give me the +lantern, I'll take the ladies to Sam Hodges' farm, and do you be so good +as to see this young gentleman across to the `Wheatsheaf'; Jones will +look well after them all, I know." + +So saying, he offered his arm to Mrs Franklin, and bade Mary follow +close behind. + +"It will be all right, madam," he added, seeing a little hesitation on +the part of his companion; "you may trust an old man to keep you out of +harm's way: there, let me go first with the lantern; now, two steps and +you are over the stile: the path is rather narrow, you must keep close +to the hedge: just over three fields and we shall be there." + +Not a word was uttered as they followed their guide. Mrs Franklin +lifted up her heart in silent praise for their preservation, and in +prayer for present direction. Backward and forward swayed the lantern, +just revealing snatches of hedge and miry path. At last the deep +barking of a dog told that they were not far off from a dwelling: the +next minute Mr Tankardew exclaimed, "Here we are;" and the light showed +them that they were come to a little gate in a paling fence. + +"Hollo, Sam," shouted out their guide: the dog's barking was instantly +changed into a joyful whine. A door opened a few yards in front of +them, and a dark figure appeared in the midst of a square opening all +ablaze with cheerful light. + +"Hollo, Sam," said Mr Tankardew again, in a more subdued voice. + +"Is that you, mayster? All right," cried the other. + +"I've brought you some company, Sam, rather late though." + +"You're welcome, mayster, company and all," was the reply. In a few +moments all three had entered, and found themselves in an enormous +kitchen, nearly large enough to accommodate a village. Huge beams +crossed the low white ceiling; great massive doors opened in different +directions rather on the slant through age, and giving a liberal +allowance of space at top and bottom for ventilation. A small colony of +hams and flitches hung in view; and a monstrous chimney, with a fire in +the centre, invited a nearer approach, and seemed fashioned for a cozy +retiring place from the world of kitchen. Everything looked warm and +comfortable, from the farmer, his wife and daughter, to the two cats +dozing on the hearth. Vessels of copper, brass, and tin shone so +brightly that it seemed a shame to use them for anything but looking- +glasses; while tables and chairs glowed with the results of perpetual +friction. + +"Come, sit ye down, sit ye down, ladies," said Mrs Hodges; "there, come +into the chimney nook: eh! Deary me! Ye're quite wet." + +"Yes, Betty," said Mr Tankardew, "these ladies joined a party to the +hills, and, coming back, they've been nearly upset into the brook, which +is running now like a mill stream; they came in an omnibus, and very +nearly stuck fast in the middle; it is a mercy they were not all +drowned; no thanks to the driver, though." + +"Poor things," exclaimed the farmer's wife; "come, I must help you to +some dry things, such as they are: and you must stay here to-night; it +is not fit for you to go home, indeed it is not," she added, as Mrs +Franklin prepared to decline. + +"I'll make you as comfortable as ever I can. Jane, go and put a fire in +the Red-room." + +"Indeed," said Mrs Franklin, "I can't think of allowing you to put +yourself to all this trouble; besides, our servants will be alarmed when +they find us not returning." + +"Leave that to me, madam," said Mr Tankardew; "I shall sleep at the +`Wheatsheaf' to-night, and will take care to send a trusty messenger +over to `The Shrubbery' to tell them how matters stand; and Mr Hodges +will, I am sure, drive you over in his gig in the morning. Hark how the +rain comes down! You really must stop: Mrs Hodges will make you very +comfortable." + +With many thanks, but still with considerable reluctance, Mrs Franklin +acquiesced in this arrangement. Their hostess then accommodated them +with such garments as they needed, and all assembled round the blazing +fire. Mr Tankardew had divested himself of a rough top coat, and, +looking like the gentleman he was, begged Mrs Hodges to give them some +tea. + +What a tea that was! Mary, though delicately brought up, thought she +had never tasted anything like it, so delicious and reviving: such ham! +Such eggs! Such bread! Such cream! Really, it was almost worth while +getting the fright and the wetting to enjoy such a meal with so keen a +relish. + +"They've got a famous distillery in this house," remarked Mr Tankardew +when they had finished their tea. + +"A famous what?" asked Mrs Franklin, in great surprise. + +"Dear me," said Mary aghast, "I really thought I--" + +"Oh! You thought they were teetotalers here: well, you should know that +it is a common custom in these parts to put rum or other spirits into +the tea, especially when people have company. Now, Hodges and his wife +are not content with putting spirits into the tea, but they put them +into everything: into their bread, and their ham, and into their eggs." + +Mrs Franklin looked partly dismayed and partly puzzled. + +"Yes, it is true, madam. The fact is simply this: the spirits which my +good tenants distil are made up of four ingredients--diligence, good +temper, honesty, and total abstinence; and that is what makes everything +they have to be so good of its kind." + +"I wish we had more distilleries of this kind," said Mrs Franklin, +smiling. + +"So do I, madam; but it is a sadly dishonest, unfaithful, and self- +indulgent age, and the drink has very much to do with it, directly or +indirectly. Here, Sam," to the farmer and his wife who had just re- +entered the kitchen, "do you and your mistress come and draw up your +chairs, and give us a little of your thoughts on the subject; there's +nothing, sometimes, so good as seeing with other people's eyes, +specially when they are the eyes of persons who look on things from a +different level of life." + +"Why, Mayster Tankardew," said the farmer, "it isn't for the likes of me +to be giving my opinion of things afore you and these ladies; but I +_has_ my opinion, nevertheless." + +"Of course you have. Now, tell us what you think about the young people +of our day, and their self-indulgent habits." + +"Ah! Mayster! You're got upon a sore subject; it is time summut was +done, we're losing all the girls and boys, there'll be none at all +thirty years hence." + +"Surely you don't mean," said Mrs Franklin anxiously, "that there is +any unusual mortality just now among children." + +"No, no, ma'am, that's not it," cried the farmer, laughing: "no, I mean +that we shall have nothing but babies and men and women; we shall skip +the boys and girls altogether." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Why, just this way, ma'am: as soon as young mayster and miss gets old +enough to know how things is, they're too old for the nursery; they +won't go in leading strings; they must be little men and women. Plain +food won't do for 'em; they must have just what their pas and mas has. +They've no notion of holding their tongues--not they; they must talk +with the biggest; and I blames their parents for it, I do. They never +think of checking them; they're too much like old Eli. The good old- +fashioned rod's gone to light the fire with." + +"Ay, and Sam," broke in his wife, "what's almost worst of all--and oh! +It is a sin and a shame--they let 'em get to the beer and the wine and +the spirits: you mustn't say them nay. Ay, it is sad, it is for sure, +to see how these little ones is brought up to think of nothing but +themselves; and then, when they goes wrong, their fathers and mothers +can't think how it is." + +"You're right, wife; they dress their bodies as they like, and eat and +drink what they like, and don't see how Christ bought their bodies for +Himself, and they are not their own. Ah! There'll be an awful +reckoning one day. Young people can't grow up as they're doing and not +leave a mark on our country as it'll take a big fire of the Almighty's +chastisements to burn it out." + +Mrs Franklin sighed, and Mary looked very thoughtful. + +Mr Tankardew was about to speak when a faint halloo was heard above the +noise of the storm, which was now again raging without. All paused to +listen. It was repeated again, and this time nearer. + +"Somebody missed his road, I should think," said Mr Tankardew. + +"Maybe, sir; I'll go out and see." + +So saying, Sam Hodges left the kitchen, and calling to quiet his dog who +was barking furiously, soon returned with a stranger who was dressed in +a long waterproof and felt hat, which he doffed on seeing the ladies, +disclosing a head of curling black hair. He was rather tall, and +apparently slightly made, as far as could be judged; for the wrappings +in which he was clothed from head to foot concealed the build of his +person. + +"Sorry to disturb you," he said, in a gentlemanly voice. "It is a +terrible night, and I've missed my way. I ought to have been at +Hopeworth by now, perhaps you can kindly direct me." + +"Nay," said the farmer, "you mustn't be off again to-night: we'll manage +to take you in: we'll find you a bed, and you're welcome to such as we +have to eat and drink: it is plain, but it is wholesome." + +"A thousand thanks, kind friends," replied the other; "but I feel sure +that I am intruding. These ladies--" + +"We are driven in here like yourself by the storm," said Mrs Franklin. +"I'm sure I should be the very last to wish any one to expose himself +again to such a night on our account." + +Mr Tankardew had not spoken since the stranger's entrance; he was +sitting rather in shadow and the new-comer had scarcely noticed him. +But now the old man leant forward, and looked at the new guest as though +his whole soul was going out of his eyes; it was but for a moment, and +then he leant back again. The stranger glanced from one to another, and +then his eyes rested for a moment admiringly on Mary's face--and who +could wonder! A sweeter picture and one more full of harmonious +contrast could hardly be seen than the young girl with her hair somewhat +negligently and yet neatly turned back from her forehead, her dress +partly her own and partly the coarser garments of her hostess's +daughter, sitting in that plain old massive kitchen, giving refinement +and gaining simplicity, with the mingled glow of health and bashfulness +lending a special brilliancy to her fair complexion. This was no +ordinary man's child the stranger saw, and again he expressed his +willingness to retire and make his way to the town rather than intrude +his company on those who might prefer greater privacy. + +"Sit ye down, man, sit ye down," said Hodges; "the ladies 'll do very +well, the kitchen's a good big un, so there's room for ye all. Have you +crossed the brook? You'd find it no easy matter unless you came over +the foot bridge." + +"I'm sorry, my friend, to say," was the reply, "that I have both crossed +the brook and been _in_ it. I was about to go over by a little bridge a +mile or so farther down, when I thought I saw some creature or other +struggling in the water. I stooped down, and to my surprise and +consternation found that it was a man. I plunged into the stream and +contrived to drag him to the bank, but he was evidently quite dead. +What I had taken for struggling was only the force of the stream swaying +him about against the supports of the bridge. His dress was that of a +coachman or driver of some public conveyance. I got help from a +neighbouring cottage, and we carried him in, and I sent someone off for +the nearest doctor, and then I thought to take a short cut into the +road, and I've been wandering about for a long time now, and am very +thankful to find any shelter." + +During this account Mrs Franklin and her daughter turned deadly pale, +and then the former exclaimed: + +"I fear it was our poor driver--I heard a splash while our omnibus was +struggling in the water. Oh! I fear, I fear it must have been the +unfortunate man; and oh! Poor man, I'm afraid he wasn't in a fit state +to die." + +"If he was like your young friend at the forge, I fear not indeed," said +Mr Tankardew. "That drink that accursed drink," he added, rising and +approaching the stranger, who was now divesting himself of his wet outer +garments. He was tall, as we have said, and his figure was slight and +graceful; he wore a thick black beard and moustache, and had something +of a military air; his eyes were piercing and restless, and seemed to +take in at a glance and comprehend whatever they rested on. + +But what was there in him that seemed familiar to Mrs Franklin and +Mary? Had they seen him elsewhere? They felt sure that they had not, +and yet his voice and face both reminded them of someone they had seen +and heard before. The same thing seemed to strike Mr Tankardew, but, +as he turned towards the young stranger, the latter started back and +uttered a confused exclamation of astonishment. The old man also was +now strangely moved, he muttered aloud: + +"It must be--no--it cannot be: yes, it surely must be;" then he seemed +to restrain himself by a sudden effort, he paused for a moment, and then +with two rapid strides he reached the young man, placed his left hand +upon the other's lips, and seizing him by the right hand hurried him out +of the kitchen before another word could be spoken. + +Poor Mrs Franklin and her daughter looked on in astonishment, hardly +knowing what to say or think of this extraordinary proceeding, but their +host reassured them at once. + +"Never fear, ma'am, the old mayster couldn't hurt a fly; it'll be all +right, take my word for it; there's summut strange as _we_ can't make +out. I think I sees a little into it, but it is not for me to speak if +the mayster wants to keep things secret. It'll all turn out right in +the end, you may be sure. The old mayster's been getting a bit of a +shake of late, but it is a shake of the right sort. He's been coming +out of some of his odd ways and giving his mind to better things. He's +had his heart broke once, but it seems to me as he's been getting it +mended again." + +For the next half hour, the farmer, his wife, and daughter were busy +about their home concerns, and their two guests were left to their own +meditations. + +At last a distant door opened, and Mr Tankardew appeared followed by +the young stranger. By the flickering fire Mrs Franklin thought she +saw the traces of tears on both faces, and there was a strange light in +the old man's eyes which she had not seen there before. + +"Let me introduce you to a young friend and an old friend in one," he +said, addressing the ladies; "this is Mr John Randolph, a great +traveller." + +Mrs Franklin said some kind words expressive of her pleasure in seeing +the gratification Mr Tankardew felt in this renewal of acquaintance. + +"Ah! Yes," said the old man; "you may well say gratification. Why, +I've known this young gentleman's father ever since I can remember. +Sam," he added to the farmer, who had just come in, "I'm going to run +away with our young friend here, we shall both take up our quarters at +the inn for to-night. I see it is fairer now. Mrs Franklin, pray make +yourself quite easy. I shall despatch a messenger at once to `The +Shrubbery' with full particulars. Good-night! Good-night!" + +And so Mary and her mother were left to their own musings and +conjectures, for the farmer and his family made no allusion afterwards +to the events of the evening. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE YOUNG MUSICIAN. + +A Grand piano being carried into Mr Esau Tankardew's! What next! What +_can_ the old gentleman want with a grand piano? Most likely he has +taken it for a bad debt--some tenant sold up. But say what they may, +the fact is the same. And, stranger still, a tuner pays a visit to put +the instrument in tune. What can it all mean? Marvellous reports, too, +tell of a sudden domestic revolution. The dust and cobwebs have had +notice to quit, brooms and brushes have travelled into corners and +crevices hitherto unexplored, the piano rests in a parlour which smiles +in the gaiety of a new carpet and new curtains; prints have come to +light upon the walls, chairs and tables have taken heart, and now wear +an honest gloss upon their legs and faces; ornaments, which had hitherto +been too dirty to be ornamental, now show themselves in their real +colours. Outside the house, also, wonderful things have come to pass; +the rocking doorstep is at rest, and its fellow has been adjusted to a +proper level; _ever_-greens have taken the place of the old _never_- +greens; knocker and door handle are not ashamed to show their native +brass; the missing rails have returned to their duty in the ranks. The +whole establishment, including its master, has emerged out of a state of +foggy dilapidation. Old Molly Gilders has retired into the interior, +and given place above stairs to a dapper damsel. As for the ghosts, +they could not be expected to remain under such _dispiriting_ +circumstances, and have had the good sense to resort to some more +congenial dwelling. + +While gossip on this unlooked-for transformation was still flying in hot +haste about Hopeworth and the neighbourhood, the families both at "The +Firs" and "The Shrubbery" were greatly astonished one morning by an +invitation to spend an evening at Mr Tankardew's. + +"Well," said Mr Rothwell, "I suppose it won't do to decline; the old +gentleman means it, no doubt, as an attention, and it would not be +politic to vex him." + +"I am sure, my dear," said his wife, "_I_ can't think of going. I shall +be bored to death; you must make my excuses and accept the invitation +for the girls. I don't suppose Mark will care to go; the old man seems +to have a spite against him--I can't tell why." + +"I'll go," interposed Mark, "if it be only to see the fun. I'll be on +my good behaviour. I'll call for tea and toast-and-water at regular +intervals all through the evening, and then the old gentleman will be +sure to put me down for something handsome in his will." + +"You'd better take some music with you," said his mother, turning to her +eldest daughter; "Mr Tankardew has got his new piano on purpose, I +suppose." + +"Ay, do," cried Mark; "take something lively, and you'll fetch out the +old spiders and daddy-long-legs which have been sent into the corners +like naughty boys, and they'll come out by millions and dance for us." + +So it was settled that the invitation should be accepted. The surprise +at "The Shrubbery" was of a more agreeable kind. Mrs Franklin and her +daughter had learnt to love the old man, in spite of his eccentricities; +they saw the sterling strength and consistency of his character. They +had, however, hardly expected such an invitation; but the reports of the +strange changes in progress in Mr Tankardew's dwelling had reached +their ears, so that it was evident that he was intending, for some +unknown reasons, to break through the reserve and retirement of years, +and let a little more light and sociability into the inner recesses of +his establishment. That he had a special object in doing this they felt +assured; what that object was they could not divine. Had Mrs Franklin +known that the Rothwells had been asked, she would have declined the +invitation; but she was unaware of this till she had agreed to go; it +was then too late to draw back. + +All the guests were very punctual on the appointed evening, curiosity +having acted as a stimulant with the Rothwells of a more wholesome kind +than they were in the habit of imbibing. What a change! It was now the +end of October, and the evenings were chilly, so that all were glad of +the cheery fire, partly of wood and partly of coal, which threw its +brightness all abroad in flashes of restless light. Old pictures, +apparently family portraits, adorned the walls, relieved by prints of a +more modern and lively appearance. One space was bare, where a portrait +might have been expected as a match to another on the other side of the +fireplace. The omission struck every one at once on entering. The +furniture, generally, was old-fashioned, and somewhat subdued in its +tints, as though it had long languished under the cold shade of neglect, +and had passed its best days in obscurity. + +Not many minutes, however, were given to the guests for observation, for +Mr Tankardew soon appeared in evening costume, accompanied by the young +stranger who had taken refuge on the night of the storm in Samuel +Hodges' farm kitchen. Mr Tankardew introduced him to the Rothwells as +Mr John Randolph, an old-young friend. "I've known his father sixty +years and more," he said; then he added, "my young friend has travelled +a good deal, and will have some curiosities to show you by-and-by--but +now let us have tea. Mrs Franklin, pray do me the honour to preside." + +While tea was in progress, Mr Tankardew suddenly surprised his guests +by remarking dryly, and abruptly: + +"You must know, ladies and gentlemen, that my mother was a brewer." + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Mr Rothwell, in considerable astonishment; and then +asked, "was the business an extensive one?" + +"Pretty well, pretty well," was the reply. "She brewed every morning +and night, but she'd only one _dray_ and that was a _tray_, and she'd a +famous large teapot for a vat; we never used hops nor sent our barley to +be malted, what little we used we gave to the fowls; and we never felt +the want of porter, or pale ale, or bitter beer." + +"It is a pity that more people are not of your mother's mind," said Mrs +Franklin, laughing. + +"So it is indeed; but I shouldn't, perhaps, have said anything about it, +only the teapot you've got in your hand now was my dear old mother's +brewery, and that set me thinking and talking about it." + +It was not their host's fault, nor Mr John Randolph's, who acted as +joint entertainer, if their guests did not make a hearty tea. The meal +concluded, Mr Tankardew requested his young friend to bring out some of +his curiosities. These greatly interested all the party--especially +Mrs Franklin and Mary, who were delighted with the traveller's +liveliness and intelligence. + +"Show our friends some of your sketches," said the old man. These were +produced, and were principally in water colours, evidently being the +work of a master's hand. As he turned to a rather un-English scene, the +young artist sighed and said, "I have some very sad remembrances +connected with that sketch." + +"Pray let us have them," said Mr Tankardew. Mr Randolph complied, and +proceeded: "This is an Australian sketch: you see those curious-looking +trees, they are blue and red gums: there is the wattle, too, with its +almond-scented flowers, and the native lilac. That cottage in the +foreground was put up by an enterprising colonist, who went out from +England some fifteen years ago; you see how lovely its situation is with +its background of hills. I was out late one evening with a young +companion, and we were rather jaded with walking, when we came upon this +cottage. We stood upon no ceremony, but marched in and craved +hospitality, which no one in the bush ever dreamt of refusing. We found +the whole family at supper: the father had died about a year before of +consumption, after he had fenced in his three acres and built his house, +and planted vineyard and peach orchard. There were sheep, too, with a +black fellow for a shepherd, and a stock yard with some fine bullocks in +it; altogether, it was a tidy little property, and a blooming family to +manage it. The widow sat at the head of the table, and her son, a young +man of two-and-twenty, next to her. There were three younger children, +two girls and a boy, all looking bright and healthy. We had a hearty +welcome, and poured out news while they poured out tea, which with +damper (an Australian cake baked on the hearth), and mutton made an +excellent meal. When tea was over we had a good long talk, and found +that the young farmer was an excellent son, and in a fair way to +establish the whole family in prosperity. Well, the time came for +parting, they pressed us to stay the night, but we could not. Just as +we were leaving, my companion took out a flask of spirits, and said, +`Come, let us drink to our next happy meeting, and success to the farm.' +I shall never forget the look of the poor mother, nor of the young man +himself; the old woman turned very pale, and the son very red, and said, +`Thank you all the same, I've done with these things, I've had too much +of them.' `Oh! Nonsense,' my friend said; `a little drop won't hurt +you, perhaps we may never meet again.' `Well, I don't know,' said the +other, in a sort of irresolute way. I could see he was thirsting for +the drink, for his eye sparkled when the flask was produced. I +whispered to my friend to forbear, but he would not. `Nonsense,' he +said; `just a little can do them no harm, it is only friendly to offer +it.' `Just a taste, then, merely a taste,' said our host, and produced +glasses. The mother tried to interfere, but her son frowned her into +silence. So grog was made, and the younger ones, too, must taste it, +and before we left the flask had been emptied. I took none myself, for +never has a drop of intoxicants passed my lips since I first left my +English home. I spoke strongly to my companion when we were on our way +again, but he only laughed at me, and said, `What's the harm?'" + +"And what _was_ the harm?" asked Mark, in a rather sarcastic tone. + +"I will tell you," replied John Randolph, quietly. "Four years later I +passed alone across the same track, and thought I would look in on my +old entertainer. I found the place, but where were the owners? All was +still as death, little of the fence remained, the stock yard was all to +pieces, the garden was a wilderness, the cottage a wreck. I made +inquiries afterward very diligently, and heard that the young farmer had +taken to drinking, that the younger children had followed his example, +the poor mother was in her grave, and her eldest son a disreputable +vagabond; where the rest were no one knew. Oh! I resolved when I heard +it that never would I under any circumstances offer intoxicating drinks +to others, as I had previously, while myself a total abstainer, +occasionally done." + +"But surely," said Mr Rothwell, "we are not answerable for the abuse +which others may make of what is lawful and useful if taken in +moderation. The other day I offered the guard of my train a glass of +ale; he took it; afterward the train ran off the line through his +neglect; it seems he was drunken, but he appeared all right when I gave +him the ale; surely I was not answerable there? The guard ought to have +stopped and refused when he knew he had had enough." + +"No, not answerable for the accident, perhaps," said Mr Tankardew; "but +your case and the case just related by my young friend are not quite +parallel, for his companion knew that the farmer had, by his own +confession, been in the habit of exceeding; _you_ didn't know but that +the guard was a moderate man." + +"Exactly so," replied the other; "I presumed, of course, that he knew +when to stop." + +"And yet, my dear sir," rejoined the old man, earnestly, "isn't it +perilous work offering a stimulant which is so ruinous to tens of +thousands, and has emptied multitudes of homes of health, and peace, and +character?" + +"Well, it may be so; I'm certainly beginning to think it anything but +wise getting children into the habit of liking these things;" and he +glanced anxiously at Mark, who appeared intensely absorbed in looking at +some photographs upside down. + +There was a few moments' pause, and then the old man said, "Come, let us +have a little music, perhaps Miss Rothwell will favour us." + +Nothing loth, the young lady led off in a brilliant sonata, displaying +in the execution more strength of muscle than purity of taste; then came +a duet by the eldest and youngest sisters, and then a song by the +second. Mr Tankardew expressed his satisfaction emphatically at the +conclusion, possibly more at finding the performance ended than at the +performance itself. + +Mr John Randolph then seated himself at the piano, at the host's +request, and addressed himself to his work with a loving earnestness +that showed that the soul of music dwelt within him. The very first +chords he struck riveted at once the attention of every one, an +attention which was deepened into surprised delight, as he executed with +perfect finish passages of surpassing brilliancy growing out of the +national airs of many countries--airs which floated out from the +entanglements of the more rapid portions with an earnest pathos that +held every hearer as with a spell of enchantment. + +"Marvellous, marvellous! Bravo!" cried both Mr Rothwell and Mark at +the conclusion. + +"My young friend," said Mr Tankardew, "will be glad to give lessons in +music, as an occupation. He will be making my house his home at +present." + +There was a slight expression of surprise on every face, and of +something like scorn or contempt on the Rothwells'. However, both the +young ladies at "The Firs" and Mrs Franklin expressed their wish to +engage Mr Randolph's services, and so it was arranged. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +HEARTLESS WORK. + +Music certainly flourished at "The Firs" and "The Shrubbery" under the +able instructions of Mr John Randolph. The young man's manner was +puzzling to his pupils at both houses. With the Misses Rothwell (who +gave _themselves_ airs, besides practising those which were given them +by their master), he was quietly civil and deferential, and yet made +them sensible of his superiority to them in a way which they could not +help feeling, and yet equally could not resent. With Mary Franklin his +respectful manner was mingled with an almost tenderness, ever kept in +check by a cautious self-restraint. What did it mean? It made her feel +embarrassed and almost unhappy. She had no wish to entangle the young +musician's affections, and indeed felt that her own were getting +entangled with Mark Rothwell. Mark contrived to throw himself a good +deal in her way at this time, far more than her mother liked, but Mr +Rothwell himself seemed bent on promoting the intimacy, and his son laid +himself out to please. There was, moreover, rankling in Mary's heart +the impression that Mark was being harshly judged by her mother; this +helped to draw her closer to him. He was, besides, an excellent +performer on the flute, and would sometimes come over on lesson mornings +and accompany her, much to the annoyance of her instructor. + +On one of these occasions, a little more than a year after the party at +his house, Mr Tankardew was present, having made an unusually early +call. Mark wished him gone, and when the music lesson was over, and Mr +Randolph had retired, hoped that the old man would take his leave; but +nothing seemed farther from that gentleman's thoughts, so that Mark was +obliged to bottle up his wrath (the only spirit, alas! That he ever did +bottle up), and to leave Mr Tankardew in possession. When he was gone, +the old man looked keenly at mother and daughter. Mrs Franklin +coloured and sighed. Mary turned very red and then very pale, and took +an earnest passing interest in the pattern of the hearthrug. + +"A very musical young gentleman, Mr Mark Rothwell," said their visitor +dryly. "I wish he'd breathe as much harmony into his home as he +breathes melody out of his flute." Neither mother nor daughter spoke, +but Mary's heart beat very fast. "Hem! I see," continued the other, +"you don't believe it! Only slander, malice, lies. Well, take my word +for it, the love that comes out of the brandy flask will never get into +the teapot. I wish you both a very good morning; ay, better one than +this, a great deal;" and with a sternness of manner quite unusual, the +old man took his leave. + +"How cruel! How unjust!" exclaimed Mary, when Mr Tankardew was gone. +"Poor Mark! Every one strikes at him." + +But _was_ it cruel? _was_ it unjust? Let us go with Mark Rothwell +himself, as he leaves his house that very night, sneaking out at the +backdoor like a felon. + +A few hundred yards to the rear of the outbuildings stood a neat and +roomy cottage; this was occupied by John Gubbins, the coachman, a man +bound to Mark by unlimited donations of beer, and equally bound to a +gang of swindlers who had floated their way to his pocket and privacy on +the waves of strong drink. John had been gambling with these men, and +had of course lost his money to them, and somebody else's too: the hard- +earned savings of one of the maids who had trusted him to put them in +the bank: of course he meant to repay them, with interest; that is to +say, when the luck turned in his favour; but luck, like fortune, is +blind, and tramples on those who court her most. It was very dark +outside, as Mark groped his way along; but a muffled light showed him +where the cottage window was. Three times he gave a long, low whistle, +and then knocked four distinct raps on the door, which was cautiously +opened by a man with a profusion of hair, beard and whiskers, which +looked as though they did not belong to him, as was probably the case, +not only with his hair, but with everything else that he wore, including +some tarnished ornaments. + +"All right, sir, come in," he said, and Mark entered. + +What a scene for a young man brought up as he had been! Could he really +find any satisfaction in it? Yes, birds that love carrion flock +together, and there was plenty of moral carrion here. A long deal table +occupied the middle of the room, a smaller round one stood under the +window and supported a tray loaded with glasses and pipes, with a tall +black bottle in the midst of them. The glasses were turned upside down +for the present, a pity it should not have been for the future too; they +looked with the bottle in the centre like a little congregation +surrounding a preacher. Oh! What a sermon of woe that bottle might +have preached to them! But it didn't speak; it was to set on fire the +tongues of other speakers. There was a coloured print over the +mantelpiece of Moses smiting the rock. What a solemn contrast to the +streams of fire-water soon about to flow! John Gubbins sat at the top +of the table, looking fat and anxious, half shy and half foolish; the +man with the false hair and ornaments placed himself next to him. Three +other strangers were present, a mixture of sham gentility and swagger, +of whom it would be difficult to say which had descended into the lowest +depths of blackguardism. And now business was begun; the glasses were +transferred to the larger table, the bottle uncorked, lemons and sugar +produced, and the poor kettle, made for better things, forced to defile +its healthful contents by mixture with liquid madness, in the shape of +whisky; then out came cards and dice. But what sound was that? Three +very faint trembling whistles, followed by four equally feeble taps at +the door? Another madman, who was he? Could it really be Jim Forbes, +the footman, that respectable, steady-looking young man, who waited +daily at the dining tables? Alas! It was indeed. Jim was the son of a +poor widow, whose husband, a small farmer, had died of fever, leaving +behind him a large family, a small cottage, smaller savings, and a good +character; Jim was the eldest sort, and next to him was a poor crippled +sister, whose patient hands added a little to the common stock by +sewing; Jim, however, had been his widowed mother's mainstay since his +father's death, and a willing, loving helper he was: ay, he _had_ been, +but was he still? Jim had got a place at "The Firs"; first of all as a +general helper, then as a footman, in which latter capacity he enjoyed +the very questionable privilege of waiting at table, and hearing what +was said at meals by Mr and Mrs Rothwell, their children, and guests. +What Jim learnt on these occasions was this, that money and strong drink +were the chief things worth living for. He didn't believe it at first, +for he saw in his mother's cottage real happiness where there was little +money and less alcohol; he saw, too, on his suffering sister's brow a +gilding of heaven's sunshine more lovely than burnished gold, and a +smile on her thin pale lips, which grace and love made sweeter than the +most sparkling laugh of unsanctified beauty. Still, what he heard so +constantly on the lips of those better educated than himself left its +mark; he began to long for things out of his reach, and to pilfer a +little and then a little more of what _was_ in his reach, not money, but +drink. Indeed he heard so much about betting and gambling, his master's +guests seemed to find the cards and the dice box so convenient a way of +slipping a few pounds out of a friend's pocket into their own without +the trouble of giving an equivalent, that poor Jim got confused. True, +he had learnt in the eighth commandment, when a boy, the words, "Thou +shalt not steal"; but these better-informed guests at Mr Rothwell's +seemed able to take a flying leap over this scriptural barrier without +any trouble, so he swallowed his scruples and his master's wine at the +same time, and thought he should like to have an opportunity of turning +a snug little legacy of a hundred pounds, left him by an uncle, into +something handsomer by a lucky venture or two. Conscience was not +satisfied at first, but he silenced it by telling himself that he was +going to enrich his poor mother, and make a lady of his crippled sister. +Somehow or other there is a strange attraction that draws together +kindred spirits in evil. Mark Rothwell found out what was going on in +Jim's mind, and determined to make use of him; only, of course, so as to +get himself out of a little difficulty. Oh! No! He meant the poor lad +no harm; nay, he intended to put him in the way of making his fortune. +So one day after dinner Mark and the young man were closeted together +for an hour in the butler's pantry; wine flowed freely, and Jim was +given to understand that his young master was quite willing to admit his +humble companion into a choice little society of friends who were to +meet at the coachman's cottage on certain evenings, and play games of +chance, in which, after due instruction from Mark, a person of Jim's +intelligence would be sure to win a golden harvest without the tedious +process of tilling and sowing. The instructions commenced there and +then in the pantry; several games were played, nearly all of which Jim +won to his great delight. They only played "for love" this time, Mark +said, but it was difficult to see where the "love" was, except for the +drink, and there was plenty of that. One little favour, however, was +required by the young master, for initiating Jim into the mysteries and +miseries of gambling, and that was that he should lend his instructor +what money he could spare, as Mark happened to be rather short just at +this time. So Jim drew out a part of his legacy from the bank, and +deposited half in Mark's hands; the other half he took with him to the +coachman's cottage. Oh! It was a grand thing to be allowed to sit with +such company, and to hear the wonderful stories of the gentlemen who +condescended to come and place their stores of gold and silver within a +poor footman's reach. What with the tales, and the songs, and the +whisky punch, Jim thought himself the happiest fellow alive the first +night he joined the party, especially when he found himself the winner +of three or four bright sovereigns, which had become his own for the +mere throwing down of a few cards, and a rattle or two of the dice box. +But all was not so pleasant the next morning. Jim awoke with a sick +headache and a sore heart. And what should he do with his winnings? He +would take them to his mother: nay, the very thought stung him like a +serpent. His mother would want to know how he got the gold; or, when he +threw it into her lap, she would say, "The Lord bless you, Jimmy, and +give it you back a hundredfold"; and his sister would clasp her wasted +hands in thankfulness, and he could not bear to think of a mother's +blessing and a sister's prayers over gains that were tainted with the +leprosy of sin. So he kept the money, and the next night of meeting he +lost it, and more besides; and then another night he was a gainer; and +the gambler's thirst grew strong in him. But loss soon followed loss. +His legacy was slipping surely down into the pockets of his new friends. +Cruel! Cruel! Heartless Mark! And oh! The cursed drink! What +meanness is there to which it will not lead its slaves? + +And now the night came we have before referred to. John Gubbins sat at +the top of the table; Jim Forbes took his place near him. The spirits +went round; the cards and dice were busy. John Gubbins lost, and Mark +won. Jim Forbes lost; and his cheeks flushed, and his eyes glittered +with excitement, and he ground his teeth together. The strangers +affected to be surprised at his ill luck; really they couldn't +understand it, they said; they were quite sorry for him; but, "nothing +venture, nothing win"; _his_ turn would come next. But it did not come +that night. Jim had now drawn the whole of his legacy from the bank. +The last sovereign was staked; it was lost. He sprang to his feet, +seized the uncut pack of cards, and hurled it to the further end of the +room; then he shook his fist at his new companions, calling them cheats +and villains. Up darted the man with the exuberant hair, and up rose +Mark and Gubbins. But what was _that_? A strange noise outside. The +dog in the kennel muttered a low growl, and then began to bark +furiously; then the approach of footsteps was plain; a deathlike +stillness fell on the whole party; the strangers caught up the cards and +dice, and looked this way and that, pale and aghast. And now there came +a loud and peremptory knocking at the door, as of men who were +determined to find entrance. + +"Who's there?" asked Gubbins, in quivering tones. + +"Open the door," was the reply from a deep, loud voice. + +"I can't, by no means, do nothing of the sort, at this unseasonable +hour," said the coachman, a little more boldly. + +"Open the door, or I'll force it," said the same voice. + +Poor Mark! And poor, wretched Jim! How utterly guilty and crestfallen +they looked! As for the gamblers, they cowered together, in abject +terror, not daring to attempt a retreat by the back, lest the enemy +should be lurking for them there. + +"Will you open the door, or will you not?" + +No answer from within. + +Then came a tremendous blow; then a foot was seen forcing its way over +the doorsill, another moment, and the barrier to the entrance of the +invaders gave way with a rattling crash. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +BITTER FRUIT. + +No sooner was the door burst open, than in rushed several stout men, who +proceeded to seize and handcuff the four strangers, who made but the +faintest show of resistance. John Gubbins shook with abject terror, as +he tried in vain to double up his fat person into a small compass in a +corner. Jim Forbes stood speechless for a moment, and then darted out +through the open doorway. As for Mark Rothwell, what with shame and +dismay, and semi-intoxication from whisky punch, his position and +appearance were anything but enviable. He recovered himself, however, +in a few minutes, and turned fiercely on the intruders. + +"By what right, and by whose authority," he cried, "do you dare to break +into my coachman's house, and to lay violent hands on these gentlemen?" + +"By this warrant, young sir," said the chief of the invading party, +producing a parchment. "I'm a detective; I've been looking after these +_gentlemen_ a long time; they are part of a regular gang of pickpockets +and swindlers, and we've a case or two against 'em as 'll keep 'em at +home, under lock and key, for a bit. I'm sorry we've been so rough, but +I was afraid of losing 'em. I didn't think to find 'em in such company, +and I hope, young gent, if you'll let me give you a word of advice, that +you'll keep clear of such as these for the future for your own sake." + +Alas! Poor Mark! Crestfallen and wretched, he slunk away home. + +And what had become of Jim Forbes? Nobody knew at "The Firs." He was +missing that night and the next day. Mr Rothwell asked for him at +breakfast, and was told that he had not slept in the house the night +before, and was nowhere to be found. The day passed away, but Jim did +not make his appearance. + +It was a dark November evening: a dim light twinkled through the +casement of Mrs Forbes' cottage: the wind was whistling and sighing +mournfully, sometimes lulling for a while, and then rising and rushing +through crack and crevice with a wild complaining moan. Inside that +little dwelling were weeping eyes and aching hearts. Upstairs all was +peace; four little children lay fast asleep in the inner chamber, twined +in each other's ruddy arms, their regular breathing contrasting, in its +deep peace, with the fitful sighings of the wind; yet on the long +eyelashes of one of the little sleepers there stood a glistening tear, +and from the parted lips there came, now and again, the words, "Brother +Jim." + +But ah! No blessed sleep stilled the throbbing hearts of those who +cowered over the scanty fire in the kitchen below; Jim's mother and +crippled sister. Was it poverty that made them sad? No. Poverty was +there, but it was very neat and cleanly poverty. No, it was not poverty +that wrung the bitter tears from the eyes of those heart-sick watchers; +they were rich in faith; they could trust God; they could afford to +wait. It wasn't _that_. Jim! Poor Jim! Poor erring Jim! How changed +he had been of late; none of his old brightness; none of his old love. +It wasn't so much that he brought his mother no welcome help now; it was +hard to miss it, but she could battle on without. It wasn't that +crippled Sally's cheek grew paler because she was forced to do without +the little comforts supplied so long by a brother's thoughtful love, +though it was harder still to miss these. No, but it was that mother +and daughter both saw, too plainly, that Jim was going down-hill, and +that too with quickening steps. They saw that he was getting the slave +of the drink, and they feared that there was worse behind; and, of +course, there was: for when did ever the drink-fiend get an immortal +being into his grasp without bringing a companion demon along with him? +And now, this very day, Jim was reported to them as being missing from +"The Firs," and dark suspicions and terrible rumours were afloat, and +John Gubbins' name and the young master's name were mixed up with them. +Mother and daughter sat there together by the dying embers, and +shuddered closer to one another at each moaning of the blast. + +"Oh, mother! I'm heartbroke," at last burst out from the poor girl's +lips: "to think of our Jim, so kind, so good, 'ticed away by that +miserable drink, and gone nobody knows where." + +"Hush! Hush! Child, ye mustn't fret; I've faith to believe as the Lord +'ll not forsake us: He'll bring our Jim back again: He'll hear a +mother's prayer: He'll--" + +But here a sudden sound of uneven footsteps made the poor widow start to +her feet, and Sally to cry out. The next moment the door was rudely +shaken, and then Jim staggered into the room, haggard, blear-eyed, +muttering to himself savagely. The sight of his mother and sister +seemed partially to sober him, for the spirit within him bowed +instinctively before the beauty of holiness, which neither poverty nor +terror could obliterate from the face of those whom he used to love so +dearly. But the spell was soon broken. + +"I say," he exclaimed, "what's to do here? I want my supper; I haven't +scarce tasted to-day, and nobody cares for me no more nor a dog. I say, +mother, stir yourself, and get me my supper." He flung himself into a +chair, with an oath, as he almost lost his balance. + +Oh! Misery! Misery! Every word was a separate stab, but Mrs Forbes +restrained herself. + +"Jim, dear," she said, soothingly, "we've nothing in the house for +supper: we didn't expect you: we hoped you'd gone back to your +master's." + +"Ah! There it is! Didn't expect me! No supper! This is all I'm to +get after spending all my wages on them as don't care to give me a +mouthful of meat and a drop of drink when I want 'em!" + +"Jim! Jim! Don't," exclaimed his poor sister, "oh! Don't! For the +Lord's sake! You'll repent it bitterly by-and-by! Oh! It can't be our +dear, kind Jim, as God sent to help and comfort us! We'd give you meat +and drink, if we had them, but the last crumb's gone, and mother's never +bitten to-day!" + +"Nonsense! Don't tell _me_! None of your humbug and cant with me! If +I can't get supper where I ought, I'll get it where I can! I'll not +darken this door again as sure as my name's Jim Forbes!" + +With a scowl, and a curse, and a slam of the door that startled the +little ones from their sleep, the miserable son flung himself out of his +home. The next day he enlisted; the day following he was gone +altogether. + +Weep! Weep! Ye holy angels! Howl with savage glee, ye mocking fiends! +See what the drink can do! And yet, O wondrous strange! There are +thinking men, loving men, Christian men, who tell us we are wrong, we +are mad in trying to pluck the intoxicating cup away from men and women, +and to keep it wholly out of the hands of little children and upgrowing +boys and girls. Mad are we? Be it so; but there's method, there's holy +love, there's heavenly wisdom in our madness. + +A month had passed away, but no tidings of Jim Forbes; no letter telling +of penitence or love. Oh! If he would only write: only just a word: +only to say, "Mother, sister, I love you still." But no; hearts must +wither, hearts must break, as the idol car of intemperance holds on its +way, crushing out life temporal and eternal from thousands and tens of +thousands who throw themselves madly under its wheels. But must it be +so for ever?--No! It cannot, it shall not be, God helping us; for their +rises up a cry to heaven against the unholy traffic in strong drink; a +cry that _must_ be heard. + +The snow was falling fast, but not faster nor more softly than the tears +of the widowed mother and the crippled daughter, as they bowed +themselves down before the cold bars, which ought to have enclosed a +mass of glowing coals on that pitiless December day; but only a dull red +spark or two, amid a heap of dust, just twinkled in the grate, and +seemed to mock their wretchedness. Cold! Cold! Everything was cold +there but faith and love. Food there was none! But on the little table +lay the open Bible; and just beneath those weary, swollen _eyes_, were +the words, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither +shall the sun light on them nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the +midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains +of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." But what +were those voices? Were they the voices of angels? Poor, shivering, +weary watchers! They might almost seem so to you. Anyhow, they were +very gentle, loving voices; and now they ask admittance. Mrs Franklin +and Mary entered; and, though not angels, they were come to do angels' +work, as messengers of love and mercy. Tea, and bread and butter, and +eggs, and divers other comforts came suddenly to light from under the +wide folds of the ladies' cloaks, and then the visitors sat down, and +stopped the outburst of tearful thanks by bright loving words of pity +and interest. + +"Oh, ma'am! It is true, but I never knowed afore how true it was that +God will never forsake His own. I'd well nigh given up all for lost." + +"Nay, mother," said Sally; "it wasn't you, it was me; _your_ faith held +out still." + +"I was very, very sorry to hear of your troubles," said Mrs Franklin +after a pause; "but you mustn't despair; God will bring your poor son +back again." + +"Oh! I believe it, ma'am, but it is hard not to doubt when one's cold +and hunger-bitten; he was such a good lad to us afore he took to that +miserable drink." + +"Well, we must pray for him, and I daresay Mr and Mrs Rothwell will +stand your friends." + +"Friends! Ma'am," cried the poor woman; "oh! You don't know, ma'am; +look, ma'am, at yon empty cupboard; there ought to be meat and drink +there, ma'am, and earned by honest labour. It is not an hour, ma'am, +since I was up at `The Firs,' taking back some work as my poor Sally did +for the young ladies (she's a beautiful sewer, is our Sally, there's +none to match her in all Hopeworth), and I'd a fortnight's charing as I +was owed for. I'd left the little ones with a kind neighbour, so I went +up to the house and asked to see the missus: she couldn't see me, but I +begged hard; and they showed me up into the drawing-room. Mrs Rothwell +was lying on a `sofy,' and there was wine on a table close by, and the +young ladies was all crowding round the fire, contradicting their +mother, and quarrelling with one another. `Oh! For goodness' sake +don't interrupt us,' says one of the young ladies, and their mamma bids +me sit down; and there I sat for a long time, till Miss Jane had +finished a fairy tale; something about a young lady as was shut up in a +castle to be eaten by a giant; and how a young gentleman fell in love +with her, and got a fairy to turn her into a bird, and get her out of +the castle: and they all cried over the story as if their hearts would +break, and when it was over they all had some wine; and Mrs Rothwell, +who had been crying very much too, asked me what I wanted. So I told +her as I'd come to my last penny, and I should be very thankful if she'd +be so good as to pay me for my work, and for what our Sally had been +doing for the young ladies. Then she fired up at once, and told me she +thought it very impertinent in me coming and teasing her in that way, as +she meant to pay me as soon as it was convenient; and oh! Ma'am! Then +she asked me what I wanted for Sally's work; and when I told her, she +said I charged too much, though I didn't ask above half as they'd ask +for it in Hopeworth; and then she nearly cut my heart in two by saying +(Oh, ma'am! I can't scarce bear to repeat it), that I shouldn't have +come to pester her if it hadn't been for my idle vagabond of a son (them +was the very words she used, ma'am), as had run away and left his place. +Oh, Mrs Franklin! You're a mother; you know how I must feel for my +poor wanderer, for he's my own flesh and blood still. I dursn't speak; +I couldn't stay; and I've come back penniless as I went: but the Lord +has sent you to help me, and I'll never doubt Him again." + +"Never do," said her visitor; "I'll find you and Sally work for the +present, and try and think charitably of Mrs Rothwell; she may mean +more kindly than she has spoken." + +"Mean kindly! Oh! Dear Mrs Franklin! The drink has washed out all +kindness: there's ruin hanging over that house, not as I wishes it to +them, but it is so. The children's been brought up to think of just +nothing but themselves; their eating and drinking, and dressing, and +playing: there's sipping in the parlour all day long; drinking in the +dining-room; swilling in the kitchen. Our poor Jim's seen his betters +there living as if men, women, and children had nothing to do in this +world but to drown the thoughts of the next in drink and pleasure, and +he's learnt his lesson too well; but I trust the Lord 'll take the book +out of his hand, and teach him the better way again." + +"I'm afraid what you say is too true," remarked Mrs Franklin, sadly; +"if our young people continue to be brought up in such self-indulgent +habits, we may well expect to hear God crying aloud by His judgments, +`Woe to the drunkards of England,' as He once cried, `Woe to the +drunkards of Ephraim.'" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +A DOUBLE PERIL. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Mark, I _must_ have a stop put to this: my +patience is quite worn out. Do you think I'm made of money? Do you +think I can coin money as fast as you choose to spend it? You'll ruin +me with your thoughtless, selfish extravagance, and break your mother's +heart and mine by your drunkenness and folly, that you will." + +These words, uttered in a tone of passionate bitterness, were spoken by +Mr Rothwell to his son in the hall at "The Firs," as the young man was +urging his father to grant him a considerable sum to pay some pressing +debts. At the same moment Mr John Randolph came out of the drawing- +room, and could not help overhearing what was being said. + +Mr Rothwell turned fiercely upon him: + +"What right have _you_, sir, to be intruding on my privacy?" he cried, +nettled at his rebuke having been overheard by a stranger. + +"I am not conscious of being guilty of any intrusion," said the other +quietly. + +"You _are_ intruding," cried Mark, glad to vent his exasperation at his +father's reproaches on somebody, and specially glad of an opportunity of +doing so on the music-master. + +"You shall not need to make the complaint again then," said Mr +Randolph, calmly, "my lessons to your sisters will cease from to-day;" +and with a stiff bow he closed the door behind him. + +Rather more than two years had elapsed since Jim Forbes' enlistment when +the scene just described took place. Mark had been sinking deeper and +deeper in the mire; he was scarcely ever sober except when visiting the +Franklins, on which occasions he was always on his guard, though his +excited manner, and the eagerness with which he tossed down the few +glasses of wine to which he, evidently with difficulty, restricted +himself, made a most painful impression not only _on_ Mrs Franklin, but +also on her daughter. + +Mary was now nineteen, and shone with the brightness which the gentle +light of holiness casts on every word and feature. She was full of +innocent cheerfulness, and was the joy of all who knew her. Mark loved +her as much as he could love anything that was not himself, and tried to +make himself acceptable to her. Mary _hoped_ the best about him, but +that hope had begun to droop for some time past. He had never yet +ventured to declare his affection to her; somehow or other he could not. +A little spark of nobleness still remained in him unquenched by the +drink, and it lighted him to see that to bind Mary to himself for life +would be to tie her to a living firebrand that would scorch and shrivel +up beauty, health and peace. He dared not speak: before her unsullied +loveliness his drink-envenomed lips were closed: he could rattle on in +wild exuberance of spirits, but he could not yet venture to ask her to +be his. And she? She pitied him deeply, and her heart's affections +hovered over him; would they settle there? If so, lost! Lost! All +peace would be lost: how great her peril! + +Another visit from Mr Tankardew: the old man had been a frequent +caller, and was ever welcome. That he cherished a fatherly love for +Mary was evident; indeed his heart seemed divided between herself and +the young musician, Mr John Randolph, who, though he had ceased to give +lessons at "The Firs," was most scrupulously punctual in his attendance +at "The Shrubbery." + +It was a bright summer's morning as the old man sat in the drawing-room +where Mary and her mother were engaged in the mysteries of the needle. + +"Let me hear your last piece, my child," he said; "John tells me that he +will soon have nothing more to teach you." + +Mary sat down and played with loving grace, till the old man bowed his +head upon his hands and wept. + +"`Home, sweet home!'" he murmured. "Ay; you have played that lovely air +with variations as if you felt it: you know what a sweet home is, Mary; +I knew it once. `Home, sweet home!'" he added again, with a sigh. + +There was a pause: then he went on: "There are plenty of homes that +aren't sweet; homes with variations enough and to spare in them; but +they're variations of misery. I hope you'll never have one of those +homes, my child." + +Mary coloured deeply, and her mother's eyes filled with tears. Mr +Tankardew looked earnestly at them both. + +"No danger of any but sweet variations _here_," he said; "but all new +homes are not sweet homes--there's no sweetness that will last where the +barrel, the bottle, and the spirit-flask play a trio of discords: +they'll drown all the harmonies of harp and piano. Promise me two +things, my child;" he added, abruptly. + +"What are they?" asked Mary, timidly and tearfully. + +"Just these: promise me to become a pledged abstainer; and promise me +that you'll never marry a man that loves the drink." + +Poor Mary burst into tears, but her mother came to her aid, and said: + +"I don't quite see what good Mary's signing the pledge will do. She has +taken neither beer nor wine for some time past, so that she does all +that is needed in the way of example." + +"No, she does not, madam, if you'll excuse my being so blunt. She just +does not do what will make her example _tell_. Power for good comes +through combination; the devil knows it well enough, and he gets +drunkards to band together in clubs; and worldly people band together in +clubs, and back one another up and concentrate their forces. All who +see the curse and misery of the drink should sign, and not stand apart +as solitary abstainers; they won't do the same good; it is by uniting +together that the great work is done by God's blessing. A body of +Christian abstainers united in the same work, and bound by the same +pledge, attract others, and give them something to lean on and cling to: +and that is one reason why we want children to combine in Bands of Hope. +Why, I've seen a man light a fire with a piece of glass, but how did he +do it? Not by putting the fuel under one ray of the sun; not by +carrying it about from place to place in the sunshine; but by gathering, +with the help of the glass, all the little rays together into one hot +bright focus. And so we want to gather together the power and influence +of total abstainers in Total Abstinence Societies and Bands of Hope, by +their union through the pledge as a common bond. We want to set hearts +on fire with a holy love that shall make them burn to rescue poor slaves +of the drink from their misery and ruin. Won't you help? Can you hold +back? Are not souls perishing by millions through the drink, and is any +sacrifice too dear to make, any cross too heavy to take up in such a +cause?" + +The old man had risen, and was walking up and down the room with great +swinging strides. Then he stopped abruptly and waited for an answer. + +"I'm sure," said Mrs Franklin, "we would both sign if it could do any +real good." + +"It _will_ do good, it _must_ do good: sign now;" he produced a pledge- +book: "no time like the present." + +The signatures were made, and then Mr Tankardew, clasping his thin +hands together, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, offered a short +emphatic prayer that God would bless and strengthen these His servants, +and enable them by His grace to be a blessing to others as pledged +abstainers. And then he turned again to Mary, and said: + +"You have given me the one promise; will you give me the other? Will +you promise me that you will never knowingly marry a man who loves the +drink?" + +Mary buried her face in her hands. A few moments, and no one spoke. + +"Hear me, my child," cried the old man, again beginning to pace the room +with measured strides; "you are dear to me, very dear, for you're the +image of one lost to me years ago, long weary years ago. I cannot bear +to see you offered as another victim on the altar of the Drink-Moloch: +he has had victims enough: too many, too many. Do you wish to wither +into a premature grave? Do you wish to see the light die out of your +mother's smile? Then marry a drink-worshipper. Do you wish to tremble +every time you hear the footstep of the man who has turned `sweet home' +into a shuddering prison? then marry a drink-worshipper. Do you wish to +see little children hide the terror of their eyes in your lap and +tremble at the name of father? Then marry a drink-worshipper. Stay, +stay, I'm an old fool to break out in this way, and scare you out of +your wits;" for Mary and her mother were both sobbing bitterly: "forgive +me, but don't forget me; there, let us change the subject." + +But Mary had checked her sobs, and, rising up calm and beautiful in her +tears, she laid her hand lovingly on the old man's arm, and said, gently +but firmly: + +"Dear old friend, thank you for what you have said. I promise you that +never will I knowingly marry one who loves intoxicating drinks." + +"God bless you, my child. You have taken a load off the old man's +heart, and off your mother's too, I know." + +Would Mary keep her word? She was soon to be put to the test. Though +Mark hesitated to propose to Mary Franklin, his mother had no scruples +on the subject. He had now come to man's estate, and she wished him to +marry; specially she wished him to marry Mrs Franklin's daughter, as +Mary would enjoy a nice little income when she came of age, and Mark's +prospects were cloudy enough as far as anything from his father was +concerned. Besides, she hoped that marrying Mary would steady her son-- +a favourite scheme with mothers of drunkards. As for Mary's own peace +or happiness, she never gave them a thought. The experiment would be +something like caging a tiger and a lamb together for the purpose of +subduing the tiger's ferocity; pleasant enough for the tiger, but simply +destruction to the lamb. However, Mrs Rothwell pressed Mark to +propose, so he yielded after a faint resistance, and now watched for his +opportunity. + +It was a sweet July evening: the sun was near his setting, and was +casting long shadows across the lawn at the back of "The Shrubbery." +Mrs Franklin was sitting on a garden seat reading, her attention +divided between her book and the glowing tints of a bed of flowers all +ablaze with variegated beauty. A little shaded walk turned off near +this seat into the kitchen garden, which was separated from the flower +garden in this quarter by a deep ravine, at the bottom of which ran a +trout stream. The ravine was crossed by a rustic bridge. Mr John +Randolph had been calling at the house with some music, and, being now +looked upon more in the light of a friend than an instructor, had the +privilege of making a short cut to the turnpike road over this foot +bridge and through the kitchen garden. Mark Rothwell also usually +availed himself of this more direct approach to the house. On the +present occasion the two young men met in the kitchen garden, and passed +each other by without recognition, Mark hurrying forward to make his +proposal, his already intense excitement inflamed by strong drink, which +he had taken with less caution than on his ordinary visits to "The +Shrubbery"; John Randolph lingering on his way in a somewhat +discontented mood, which was not improved by the sight of Mark. +Suddenly the stillness was broken by a loud scream and cry for help: it +was Mary Franklin's voice. Both the young men rushed towards the +bridge, and beheld a sight which filled them with dismay. Mary had +strolled from her mother's side to the little foot bridge, and, filled +with sorrowful thoughts, leant against the rustic parapet. The +woodwork, which was inwardly decayed, gave way beneath her weight; she +tried to recover herself but in vain, and fell over the side of the +bridge, still, however, managing to keep herself from plunging into the +stream by clinging to a creaking fragment of the broken rails. Her +dress also helped to stay her up, having become entangled with the +woodwork. Mark reached the bridge first, but was so confused by drink +and excitement that he scarcely knew what he was doing, when he felt +himself flung aside by the strong arm of John Randolph, who sprang +forward, and stooping down endeavoured to raise the poor terrified girl, +but for a few moments without success: indeed his own strength began to +fail, and it seemed as if both must be precipitated into the stream, if +assistance had not come from another quarter. The gardener hearing the +cries hurried up, and, lending his powerful help, Mary was delivered +from her peril, and was carried, fainting and bruised, into the house by +her two rescuers, before Mark Rothwell had fairly recovered himself from +the fall which John Randolph had given him in his haste. But now, +boiling with wrath and vexation, Mark made his way to the front door, +and disregarding in the blindness of his passion the sight of Mary just +recovering consciousness, and of Mrs Franklin who was bending over her +in mingled grief and thankfulness, he turned furiously upon John, who +was just retiring, and shaking his fist in his face, cried out: + +"How dare you interfere with me, sir? I'll not put up with this +insolence from my sisters' discarded music-master." + +The face of the other flushed crimson for a moment, then with unruffled +voice he replied: + +"Better, Mr Mark, to be a master of music and of one's self, than a +slave of the drink. I wish you good evening." + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE CRISIS. + +Several weeks had passed by after the accident and timely rescue, weeks +of anxious watching and tender nursing, before Mary Franklin was +sufficiently recovered from the shock and injuries she had received to +appear again among her friends. Many had been the inquiries made by +Mark and Mr Tankardew, and once or twice by John Randolph. + +It was on a calm Sabbath morning that mother and daughter first walked +beyond their own grounds, and made their way to the little village +church. Public thanks were offered that day for Mary's wonderful +preservation, and many a loving eye looked through tears at the pale, +serene face of her who had been so mercifully rescued. Was Mark +Rothwell there?--no; but there was one who could not help gazing for a +few moments, with a deeper sentiment than admiring pity, at the fair +young girl, as the words of holy praise "for the late mercies vouchsafed +unto her" were uttered by the minister: it was John Randolph. They met +after service at the gate of the churchyard, and the young man having +expressed his heartfelt congratulations, after a moment's hesitation +offered Mary his arm, which she gently declined. A slight shade of +mingled shame, sadness, and annoyance clouded his face for a moment, and +as quickly passed away. Mary was struggling to say something to him +expressive of her gratitude, but before she could put it into shape he +was gone. + +The next day brought Mr Tankardew to "The Shrubbery." The old man drew +Mary to him in the fulness of his heart, and blessed her, calling her +his child. "Well, what have the doctors made of you?" he asked, rather +abruptly. + +"Made of me?" asked Mary, laughing. + +"Yes, made of you, they never could make anything _of_ me or _by_ me; +but what have they made of _you_?" + +"You puzzle me," replied the other. + +"Did they put labels on all their physic bottles?" + +"My dear sir," interposed Mrs Franklin, "I'm thankful to say that our +doctor has prescribed little else than rest and tonics." + +"And were the tonics labelled?" + +"Oh! I understand you now. Mary has not broken her pledge, she would +take no wine." + +"Excellent girl! Of course she was ordered wine?" + +"Oh! Yes; and ale or porter too. The doctor almost insisted on it." + +"Of course he did; they always do. Ah! Well! Brave girl! You said +no." + +"Yes, I felt convinced that I should do as well without beer or wine, +and I have had no cause to regret that I did not take them." + +"Bravo! You'll _never_ regret it. You must help us to fight the +doctors: they mean well, some of them; but most of them are building up +the palace of intemperance faster than we can pull it down. `The doctor +ordered it;' that's an excuse with thousands to drown their souls in +drink. I wonder if they'd swallow a shovelful of red hot coals if the +doctor ordered it?" + +Summer had now given place to autumn; it was a bright September day when +the above conversation took place. When Mr Tankardew rose to go, Mrs +Franklin and Mary volunteered to accompany him a little way. So they +went forth, and a sweet and pleasant sight it was, the hale, grey-haired +veteran still full of fire, yet checking his steps to keep pace with the +young girl's feebler tread: she, all gentleness and sober gladness, and +her mother happy in the abiding trust of a believing heart. + +They passed out of the grounds across a lane thickly shaded by trees, +whose foliage was beginning to change its summer hue for the gorgeous +varieties of autumnal colouring. Then they followed a winding path that +skirted a wide sea of wheat, which rose and fell in rustling waves, +disclosing now and again bright dazzling gleams of the scarlet poppy. +At the end of this field was a stile leading into the highroad to +Hopeworth. Here they paused, and were just about to part, when the +sound of a horse's feet in rapid but very irregular motion arrested +their attention. The animal and his rider soon came into view, the +latter evidently keeping his seat with difficulty. There was plainly a +struggle of some kind going on between the brute and the _rational_ +being who was mounted on him, and while drawing the reins tight with one +hand, was belabouring the poor creature about the head most unmercifully +with a heavy hunting whip. The horse not appreciating the advantages of +this treatment at the hands of its _intellectual_ owner, was resisting +by a shuffling, remonstrating sort of gallop; while his rider, who was +evidently a practised horseman, seemed to stick to his saddle by a kind +of instinct, having little else to guide him, for his hat was completely +shaken down over his eyes. + +Mr Tankardew's indignation was kindled in a moment. + +"The wretch! The drunken beast!" he cried; "serve him right if his +horse pitches him head foremost into the first ditch with any dirty +water in it." + +On came the contending pair, the man swaying from side to side, but +nevertheless marvellously retaining his seat. At the sight of the +ladies, or at a sudden movement forward of Mr Tankardew, the animal +swerved and almost unseated his tormentor, who, however, recovered +himself, but in doing so lost his hat, as the poor beast again plunged +forward with his almost unconscious burden. The horseman took no notice +of his loss, nor did he see who were the spectators of his sinful +degradation, but to them he was fully revealed: it was Mark Rothwell. +Another minute and he was out of sight. + +Mary sank, with a bitter cry, into her mother's arms, while Mr +Tankardew sprang forward to support them both. In a moment or two, +however, the ladies had recovered themselves, and turned homewards. The +old man saw that they would prefer to be alone, so, with a kind and +courteous farewell, he made his way with slow strides towards the town. + +"Humph!" he muttered to himself; "`Good entertainment for man and +beast,' that's what they put over some of these alcohol shops. I'd like +to know which was the beast just now. Entertainment! Ay, very +entertaining, such a sight to the devil and his angels. O miserable +drink! Haven't you drowned souls enough yet?" + +Two days after this disgraceful exposure of himself, Mark Rothwell made +an early call at "The Shrubbery." He was utterly ignorant of his having +been seen in his drunkenness by Mrs Franklin and her daughter, and was +scrupulously sober on the present occasion, and full of good +resolutions, as habitual drunkards very commonly are after an outbreak +of more than usual violence. He was quite convinced--at least he was +enjoying a good deal of cheerful self-congratulation on the supposed +conviction--that he never would exceed again; so in the strength of this +conviction, he entered the room where Mary and her mother were sitting, +with a confident step, though he could not quite keep down every feeling +of misgiving. Still, it never occurred to him that Mary could possibly +refuse him. He had too high an opinion of himself: he was such a +general favourite and so popular, that he felt sure any young lady of +his acquaintance would esteem herself honoured by the offer of his hand. +He was well aware, it is true, that Mary had a horror of drunkenness; +but he flattered himself, first, that he could persuade her that he +meant to be sober for the future, and a total abstainer too if she +required it; and then, that he had got a sufficient hold upon her heart, +or at any rate regard, to make her willing to accept him without any +stipulations rather than lose him. Strong in these impressions, he had +now come over to make a formal proposal. The manner, however, of mother +and daughter disturbed him; something he saw was amiss; there was a +sadness and constraint in the words of both which distressed and +embarrassed him. After a brief conversation on commonplace topics Mary +rose hastily and left the room. Mark hesitated, but feeling that he +must seize the opportunity, he at once asked Mrs Franklin's permission +to avow his attachment to her daughter. + +A long and painful pause: broken, at last, by Mrs Franklin's reply, +that she could not advise her daughter to encourage his addresses. + +Mark was thunderstruck! For several minutes surprise and mortification +kept him silent. At last he exclaimed: + +"But what does Mary wish herself? We've known each other so long; she +knows I love her, she must know it. I'm sure she would not refuse me; +may I not see her? May I not have `yes,' or `no,' from her own lips?" + +"I will ask her," was the reply; and poor Mark was left for half an hour +to his own not very agreeable reflections. At the end of that time Mrs +Franklin returned, with a sealed letter in her hand. + +"Mary does not feel equal to seeing you now," she said, "and indeed I +could not recommend her doing so at present. She sends you this letter +instead; do not read it now," for Mark was tearing it open, "but wait +till you can give it your calm and full attention." + +Mark would have remonstrated, but Mrs Franklin's quiet decision +restrained him; he flung himself out of the house, and on reaching the +highway, burst open the envelope and read as follows:-- + + "Dear Mark,--We have always been friends, and I hope shall remain so; + but we can never be anything more to one another. I have solemnly + resolved in God's sight that I will never marry a drunkard, and I + never will. I was witness to your ill-usage of your poor horse the + other day, when you were intoxicated; I cannot forget it; my mind is + made up, I cannot alter it, and my dear mother entirely approves of my + decision. I thank you for your offer, and pray that you may have + grace given you to forsake the sin which has made it impossible that + there can ever be more than a feeling of sincere interest and + kindliness towards yourself, from yours truly,-- + + "Mary Franklin." + +Mark Rothwell tore the letter, when he had glanced through it, into +bits, dashed them on the ground, and, with loud imprecations, stamped on +them. There was a fire in his heart, a mad desire for revenge; he was, +what drunkards must be, essentially selfish. Wounded vanity, +disappointed affection, bitter jealousy, were the fuel to that fire. He +had no thought now of remonstrance with Mary: he had no _wish_ to +remonstrate: his one great burning desire was to be revenged. He rushed +home, but found little to cheer him there. For months past a cloud had +hung over "The Firs," which had become denser and darker every day. And +now it was come abroad that Mr Rothwell was bankrupt. It was too true: +the reckless expenditure of Mark, and the incautious good nature of Mr +Rothwell, which had led him, under the influence of free living, to +engage in disastrous speculations, had brought ruin on the miserable +family. A few more weeks and "The Firs" was untenanted. + +But, in the midst of all this darkness, there shone forth a ray of +heavenly light. + +It was near midnight of the day when the sale of Mr Rothwell's effects +had taken place at "The Firs." A candle twinkled still in the cottage +of Mrs Forbes, for there was work to be sent home early on the morrow, +and neither lateness nor weariness might suspend their anxious toil. +Lame Sally and her mother had been talking over, what was in everyone's +mouth and thoughts, the sad downfall of the Rothwells. They saw God's +hand in it, but they did not rejoice; they had found their Saviour true +to His word, and enjoyed a peace in casting their care on Him which they +knew all the wealth of the world could not have given them. Only one +thing they still prayed for which the Lord had not yet granted: Jim, +poor Jim! But what was that? A footstep: how their hearts beat! Could +it be the old familiar tread? Yes; Jim, but no longer drunken, +gambling, prodigal Jim, was next moment at his mother's feet, and a +minute after with his arms round his sister's neck. And there was +weeping, but not for sorrow, in that cottage, and there was joy before +the angels of heaven over a repentant sinner. Jim was come back. A +mother's and sister's prayers had reached him and drawn him home. He +was sober now: he was a pledged abstainer: he had brought his pay in his +hand and love in his heart; and that night, while the shadows lay thick +around the deserted mansion of "The Firs," and not even the wail of +sorrow broke the stillness, there was light and music and peace in that +humble cottage; the light of love, the music of thanksgiving, and "the +peace of God which passeth understanding." + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +DESPERATE DOINGS. + +It is not to be supposed that Mary Franklin could mourn very deeply the +departure of Mark Rothwell. Recent events had worn out the old +impressions of tenderness. All that was bright and attractive in Mark +had melted away before the scorching, withering flame of alcohol. She +had heard his cruel taunts to her preserver on the evening of her +rescue; she had seen him shamefully intoxicated when ill-using his poor +horse. Could she cherish love or tenderness for such a being as this? +Impossible! She was thankful to forget him. O misery! Why do so many +of the good and noble frown upon those who would keep the intoxicating +cup altogether out of the hands of the young? What do the young lose by +never tasting it? Not health, not cheerfulness, not self-respect, not +self-control. No! And what do they gain by tasting? Too often, habits +of ruinous self-indulgence; too often a thirst which grows with years; +too often a withered manhood or womanhood, and a decrepit and +dishonoured old age. + +October was drawing to its close: nothing had been heard of the +Rothwells, and their old dwelling was now occupied by another tenant. +John Randolph's visits to "The Shrubbery" began to be more frequent, and +were certainly not unacceptable. Gratitude to him for her rescue +forbade Mary's repelling him; and, indeed, the more she and her mother +came to know him, the more they learnt to value his manly and Christian +character. They began likewise to perceive that he was more than he +seemed to be. Mr Tankardew had given them to understand latterly that +he was their equal both in birth and fortune. A mystery there was about +him, it was true; but the veil was now getting so thin that they could +both see pretty distinctly through it, but were content to wait for the +proper time of its withdrawal. And so it was felt by all that, in time, +John Randolph and Mary Franklin would be drawn together by a closer bond +than that of esteem and respect, but no one as yet gave outspoken +expression to this conviction. + +Things were thus hanging in no unpleasing suspense, when, in the +twilight of an October evening, two men of rather suspicious appearance +might have been seen climbing the paling _fence_ at the back of "The +Shrubbery." Scarcely had one of them reached the top, when a third +person approached, at first hastily; then he suddenly checked himself, +and cautiously crept along, so as to keep himself out of the sight of +the two others who were climbing into the grounds. This third person +was John Randolph, who had lately left "The Shrubbery," and had come +round by the road at the back, to call, by Mrs Franklin's request, on a +poor sick cottager in the village. The road in this part was lonely, +and the trespassers evidently imagined themselves unobserved. The first +who scaled the palings was a stoutish, middle-aged man: but who was the +other? Randolph's heart beat violently with a terrible suspicion. Did +he know this second figure? He could not be quite sure, for he was +afraid to approach too near; but he was almost convinced that he had +seen him before. When fairly over the fence, both men crept along as +quietly as possible under the shelter of a large bank of evergreens. He +who had climbed over last led the way, and was plainly well acquainted +with the grounds; he was a much younger man than his companion, and +seemed scarcely sober, yet without having lost self-possession and the +knowledge of what he was doing. John waited till they were fairly out +of hearing, and then himself rapidly and noiselessly followed them +towards the house under cover of the laurels. It was now getting very +dusk, but he could manage to track them till they had reached some +outhouses, along the wall of which they crawled, crouching down. And +now they had arrived at the rear of the house, and stood in shadow +opposite a back passage window. Randolph crept silently up and squeezed +himself behind a huge water-butt, where he was perfectly concealed, and +could overhear part of the conversation now hurriedly held between the +two burglars, if such they were. + +"You're sure the man does not sleep in the house?" asked the elder man. + +"Sure," replied the second, in a husky whisper. John Randolph felt +pretty certain that he knew the voice, but he hardly dared think it. + +"Where's the plate chest?" + +"Don't know: most likely in the pantry." + +John was now confident that he knew the speaker. + +"Hush!" whispered the elder man, fiercely, "this passage window 'll do: +it won't take much to prise it open: you'll look after the women." + +"Trust _me_ for that," muttered the other; and Randolph thought he heard +a click, as of the cocking of a pistol. + +"Hush, you fool!" growled the older burglar, with an oath: then there +was a few moments' silence, and the two crept back. They sat down under +the shelter of some large shrubs, with their backs to John, who could +only just make them out from his hiding-place, for it was now getting +quite dark. A little while, and they rose, and passed very near their +unsuspected watcher, who could just catch the words "Two o'clock," as +they made their way back to the fence. A few moments more, and they +were clear of the grounds. + +John Randolph's mind was made up in a moment what to do. Having +cautiously followed the two men into the road, and ascertained that they +were not lurking anywhere about "The Shrubbery," he hurried off at once +to Hopeworth, and communicated what he had seen and heard to the police. +He was very anxious that no unnecessary alarm should be given to Mrs +Franklin or Mary, and that they should be kept, if possible, in +ignorance of the whole matter till the danger was over; so he resolved +to accompany the constables, who, with the superintendent, were +preparing to encounter the housebreakers. It was presumed, from what he +had overheard, that an attempt was to be made on "The Shrubbery" that +very night, and that the two men seen by John Randolph were only part of +a larger gang. Help was therefore procured, and about one o'clock a +party of a dozen, including John, all disguised in labourers' clothes, +had noiselessly scaled the fence in different parts by two and two, and, +recognising one another by a password previously agreed upon, were soon +clustered together under some dense shrubs not far from the passage +window before mentioned. It was a tranquil morning, but very cloudy. +All was deep stillness in the house. Little did Mrs Franklin and her +daughter think, as they read together before parting for the night those +comforting words, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that +fear Him, and delivereth them," that such foes and such protectors were +so close at hand. But they laid them down in perfect peace, and their +heavenly Father's loving power was as a wall of fire about them. +Patiently did the watchers listen from their hiding-place to every +sound. Two o'clock, at last, rang out clear from the great timepiece on +the stairs; they could hear it distinctly outside. What was that sound? +Only the distant barking of a fox. But now there are other sounds. +One, two, three, at length six men in all have crept to the part of the +yard opposite the back door. All paused and looked carefully round: +everything seemed safe. + +"Well," said one who appeared to be a leader, "it does not seem as if we +need be over particular: there's neither dog nor man about, and the +women won't _do_ much. Where's the crowbar?" + +"Here." + +Just at this moment a bright ray of light flashed out along the passage, +and a female figure could be seen crossing the landing. The +housebreakers shrunk back. + +"It will not do," said the leader, half aloud; "they've got scent of us +somehow: pr'aps they've some men inside to help them, we'd better be +off." + +"Fools! Cowards!" exclaimed a younger man, in a fierce whisper, as the +others began to slink away; "are you afraid of a parcel of women? But +I'll not be baffled: she's there:" and he raised a pistol, and pointed +it towards the figure which had descended close to the passage window +with the light in her hand, and was trying to peer into the darkness +outside. His companion pulled down his arm with a savage imprecation. +All was still for a few minutes, and the female retired to the landing +and then disappeared. The burglars hesitated, when, just at the moment +of their indecision, one of the police imitated the low growling of a +dog close at hand. Instantly the whole gang took to their heels, +closely followed by the constables. No shout had been raised, no word +had been spoken, for John Randolph had been most anxious that the +thieves should be captured without alarming the ladies. And now in the +darkness, pursuers and pursued were scattered in different directions. +John sprang after the young man who had raised the pistol, and succeeded +in grappling with him before he could mount the fence. The clouds were +now dispersed, and there was light enough for one to recognise another. +Randolph could not doubt; the intended murderer was Mark Rothwell. +Fiercely did the two young men strive together, and at last both fell, +Mark undermost; and, relaxing his hold, John was rising to his feet, +when the other drew a pistol, but before he could fire his adversary had +turned it aside; it went off, wounding the unhappy young man who held +it. Randolph drew back in dismay, hearing the injured man's involuntary +groan, but in another instant Mark had drawn a second pistol and fired. +The ball grazed the other's forehead, and he staggered back stupefied. +When he recovered himself Mark had disappeared, and never from that +night was heard of or seen in Hopeworth or its neighbourhood. Near the +part of the fence where the scuffle took place were afterwards found +marks of a horse's hoofs, and traces of blood. The miserable young man +contrived to get clear away: the rest of the gang were all captured by +the police. + +The day after this adventure old Mr Tankardew and John Randolph paid a +visit together to "The Shrubbery." Of course the wildest tales were in +circulation, the central point in most being the murder of Mrs Franklin +and her daughter. "I trust," said the old man to Mary and her mother, +"that you have suffered nothing but a little fright. All's well that +ends well, and I'm thankful that my young friend here was able to be of +some service; you see, God can take care of His own." + +"It has been so, indeed," replied Mrs Franklin; "Mary could not sleep, +she cannot tell why; she felt restless and uneasy, and just about two +o'clock she was crossing to my room, when she thought she heard some +unusual sounds in the yard. She looked out of the passage window, but +could see nothing; then she heard a sort of scuffle, and, after that, +all was still; and, though we were rather alarmed, we heard nothing +more. But this morning has brought us strange tidings, and I find that +we are again indebted to our kind young friend here for help in time of +need, and that, too, I fear, at his own imminent risk." + +"Don't mention this," said the young man; "it has been a privilege to me +to have been able to render this assistance. I am only too thankful +that I was put in the way of discovering what might have otherwise been +a very serious business. But we must see that you are better protected +for the future." + +"True, true, John," interrupted Mr Tankardew, smiling; "I see I must +put in a word. My dear child, Miss Franklin seems more willing than +able to speak just now. Yes; let me make a clean breast of it. Let me +introduce our young friend in a new character, John Randolph Tankardew, +my only son, my only surviving child." His voice trembled, and then he +added, "He has twice been the protector of my dear adopted daughter, let +me join their hands together as a pledge that he may shortly obtain a +better title to be her protector while life shall last." + +And so, placing the half-shrinking hand of Mary in the young man's +stronger grasp, he held them together with a fervent blessing. + +"And now," he added, as they sat in a loving group, too full of tearful +peace to wish to break the charmed silence by hasty words, "now let me +tell my story, and unravel the little tangle which has made me a mystery +to my neighbours, and a burden to my friends. But all that is past; +there are brighter days before us now." + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +MR. TANKARDEW'S STORY BEGUN. + +"You must know, dear friends," began the old man sadly, "that I'm a +wiser man now than I was once. Not that there's much wisdom to boast of +now; only I have learnt by experience, and he is a sharp schoolmaster. + +"I was born to trust others; it was misery to me to live in distrust and +suspicion; I couldn't do it. People told me I was a fool; it was true, +I knew it, but I went on trusting. David said in his haste, `all men +are liars.' I said in my haste, or rather my folly, `all men are true.' +They might lie to others, but I thought they couldn't, or wouldn't, or +didn't lie to me. At any rate I'd trust them; it was so sad to think +that a being made in God's image could go about wilfully deceiving +others. I'd take a brighter view of my fellow-men and women. I never +could abide your shrewd, knowing people, who seemed to be always living +with a wink in their eyes, and a grin on their lips, as if they believed +in nobody and nothing but their own sharpness. I loathed them, and I +loathe them still. But I wasn't wise. I had to smart for it. I had +plenty of money when I came of age, and I had plenty of friends, or +rather acquaintances, who knew it. But I was shy, and not over fond of +many companions; my weakness wasn't in that direction. I had sense +enough to see through your common gold-hunters. I was never over fond +of sugar-candy; coarse flattery made me sick, and I had no taste for +patching up the holes in the purses of profligates and spendthrifts. I +never was a worshipper of money, but I knew its value, and wasn't +disposed to make ducks and drakes of it, nor partridges and pheasants +either. So the summer flies, after buzzing about me a little, flew off +to sunnier spots; all except one. He puzzled me a bit at first, but I +blamed myself for having a shadow of suspicion of him. All seemed so +open about him, open hands, open eyes, open brow; he wound himself round +my heart before I knew where I was. Mine was a fair estate (it will be +yours one day, Mary, my child, I trust; John's and yours together). I'd +lived away from home many years before I came into it, for both my +parents died while I was young, and when I came of age, my nearest +relations were only distant. I never had brother nor sister. When I +came to reside on my property the neighbours called, and I returned +their calls, and it didn't go much beyond that. They thought me cold +and unfeeling, but they were mistaken. But I must go back and take up +my dropped thread. I said there was one man who got hold of my heart. +I had a good stout fence of prejudices, and an inner paling of reserve +about that heart of mine, but he contrived to climb over both, and get +inside. I could have done anything for him, but he did not seem to want +anything but my affection; so I thought. He had a sister: well, what +shall I say? I'm a poor, weak, old fool; it is all past and gone now. +I must go straight on; but it is like ploughing up my heart into a +thousand deep furrows with my own hand. But; well, he had a sister; +I'll not tell you her name, nor his either: at least not now. He +brought her with him to call on me one day. She had never been in the +neighbourhood before, for her brother was only a recent settler in the +place. I was charmed with her; the more so because she was so like her +brother, so bright and so open; so thoroughly transparent. She beamed +upon me like a flood of sunshine, and gilded my cloudy reserve with her +own radiance, so that I shone out myself in her company; so they told +me, and I believed it. I was young then, you'll remember. I wasn't the +wrinkled old pilgrim that I am now. We got attached to one another, it +would seem, at once; others may _fall_ in love; _we leapt_ into it; I +never thought to ask myself whether she loved God. I was content to +know that she loved _me_. I was aware that I had a heart, but at that +time I hadn't learnt that I had a soul. Well, my friend (shall I drop +the `r,' and call him `fiend'? 'Twould be truer); he did all he could +to hasten on our marriage. He did it very quietly, so openly, too. He +was so radiant with joy at the thoughts of my coming happiness. `She +was such a sister,' he said, `she would be such a wife to me.' I never +had any misgivings but once, and then the shadow was but as the passing +of a white cloud before summer's noonday sunshine. I was going from +home for a week, but unexpected business detained me for another day. I +walked over to my future brother-in-law's in the afternoon. It was +summer time. I went in, as was my habit, by the garden door, and was +crossing the lawn, when I heard sounds of wild laughter proceeding from +a little summer-house; they were sounds of boisterous and almost idiotic +mirth. There was a duet of merriment, in which a male and female each +took a part. I hardly knew what I was doing, or whether to go back or +advance. As I hesitated, all was hushed. I saw a female figure dart +like lightning into the house, and then my friend (I must call him so +for want of a better title) came forward, and holding out both his hands +to me, said `Welcome, welcome, this is an unexpected pleasure. I +thought you were far away on your journey before now; my sister and I +have been almost dying with laughter over a book lent to us by a friend. +I do think I never read anything so irresistibly ludicrous in all my +life.' I hardly knew what to say in reply, I was so completely taken +aback. I was turning, however, towards the summer-house in which I just +caught a glance of a table with a bottle and glasses on it, when my +companion, catching my arm in his, hurried me away to another part of +the garden, where, he said, he was going to make some improvements, +about which he must have my judgment and suggestions. As we afterwards +went into the house, we again passed the summer-house, but the glasses +and bottle were gone. We entered into one of the sitting-rooms, and the +servant came to tell us that her mistress had just been sent for to see +a poor sick cottager, who wanted her immediately. This led her brother +to break out into raptures about his sister's benevolence, self-denial, +and charity! Indeed, I never heard him so eloquent on any subject +before. I left, however, in a little while, for he seemed unnaturally +restless and excited during my stay, and a cloud lowered upon me all the +way home, but it had melted away by the next morning. But I must hasten +on. We were married soon after this, and I settled a handsome allowance +on my wife for her own private use. She had no parents living, but had +kept house for another brother before she came to reside in our +neighbourhood. I wished to suppose myself happy as a married man, but, +somehow or other, I was not. My wife made large professions of +affection, but, spite of myself, I mistrusted them. Her brother, too, +seldom came now to see me, unless he had some private business with his +sister; and they were often closeted together alone for an hour or more. +Then she would come out to me, radiant with smiles, and full of +excitement; and her brother would rattle on, hurrying from one topic to +another, so as to leave me no power to collect my thoughts, or shape any +questions which I was anxious to ask him. I am given to trust, as I +have told you, and ever shall be, if I live to be a dozen centuries old. +Still, I couldn't help having my doubts, my grievous doubts. Well, one +morning, my brother-in-law called; he seemed agitated, and in much +distress, saying that he must give up his house and join his brother, +with whom he was in partnership; as he found his presence was required +for the investigation, and, he feared it might be, the winding-up of +their affairs. I pitied him, and offered him help. He refused it +almost with indignation, but I pressed it, and he accepted a loan, +merely as a loan, he said, of a thousand pounds, for which I gave him a +cheque on the spot. With tears in his eyes, and a warm pressure of the +hand, he was gone. I never saw him again. A _few_ mornings after this; +it was about six months after we were married; my wife and I were +sitting at breakfast when she threw a paper to me across the table, +saying, `I suppose you'll see to that.' It was a bill for a +considerable amount, contracted by herself before our marriage, and for +articles which were certainly no part of a lady's toilet or wardrobe, +nor could be of any possible use to one of her sex. I was astonished; +but she treated the matter very coolly, or appeared to do so. When I +asked for an explanation, she avoided my eye, and turned the matter off; +and when I pressed her on the subject, she said, `Well, it is no use my +entering into explanations now; you'll find it all right.' I was +greatly disturbed, for there was something in her manner that showed me +she was ill at ease, though she endeavoured to wear a nonchalant air. +There was a wild light, too, in her eyes, which distressed and almost +alarmed me, and a suspicion came over me which almost made me faint. +She left the breakfast table abruptly, and I saw no more of her till +luncheon time; but when I went to my library, I found a packet on my +table which I had not noticed there before. I opened it; it was full of +unpaid bills, all made out to my wife in her maiden name, and most, +indeed nearly all of them, for articles unsuited for female use. A +horrible suspicion flashed across my mind. Could it possibly be that +these were her brother's debts: that he had got these articles in her +name, and had had the bills sent in to her? And could it be that +brother and sister had been in league together, and that he with all his +assumption of openness and candour and large-heartedness, had entrapped +me into this marriage that I might liquidate the debts of an abandoned +and reckless profligate? And could it be, farther, (madden ing +thought!) that the _whole_ extravagance was not his, and that numerous +unpaid accounts for wine and spirits were, partly, for what she had +taken as well as her brother? Then I thought of the scene in the +garden, of the wild laughter, of her sudden disappearance, of the signs +of drinking in the summer-house. Oh! My heart turned sick; was I +tricked, deceived, ruined in my peace for ever? I paced up and down my +library, more like a lunatic than a sane man. Luncheon time came: we +met: she threw herself into my arms, and wept and laughed and implored; +but I felt that a drunkard was embracing me, and I flung her from me, +and rushed out of the house. O misery! Whither should I go, what +should I do? It was all too true: her brother was the basest of men: +she did love _him_, I believe, it was the only unselfish thing about +her. Well, I had to go back home; _home_! Vilest of names to me then! +`home, _bitter_ home!' And yet I loved that poor guilty, fallen +creature. There was a terrible light in her eyes as we sat opposite one +another at dinner. We had to play a part before the footman. Oh! What +a dreadful meal that was! I seemed to be feeding on ashes, and drinking +wormwood. I felt as if every morsel would choke me. We spoke to one +another in measured terms. Would the miserable farce of a dinner never +be over? It came to an end at last. And then she came to me trembling +and penitent, and, laying her head on my shoulder, wept till tears would +fall no longer. She was sober then; she had taken nothing but water at +dinner. She unburdened her heart to me (so I thought), and confessed +all. She told me how she and her brother had been brought up, as +children, in habits of self-indulgence, especially in having free access +to the wine and spirits. She told me that she and her unworthy brother +had been all in all to one another, that gambling and drink had brought +him into difficulties, and that she had allowed him to run up accounts +in her name. She declared that he really loved and valued me, and that +the thought of hurrying on our marriage for any selfish object, was +quite a recent idea, suggested by distress under pecuniary +embarrassment. She asserted passionately that she truly loved me; she +implored me to overlook the past, and promised, with solemn appeal to +Heaven, that she would renounce the drink from that hour, and give me no +more uneasiness. Ay, she promised; a drunkard's promise! Lighter than +the lightest gossamer; brittle as the ice of an April morning. I +believed her: did she believe herself? I fear not. But the worst was +to come, the shadows were deepening, the storm was gathering. A year +had passed over our wedded life, when a little girl was given to us. +Every cord of my heart that had been untwined or slackened of late wound +itself fast round that blessed little one." + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +MR. TANKARDEW'S STORY FINISHED. + +"All was joy for a time. We called our little one Mary; it was a name I +loved. I had not lived as a total abstainer; though, as I told you +once, my mother, whom I can only recollect as a widow, had banished all +intoxicants from our table. But I was young when she died, and I +became, and continued for many years a moderate drinker. But now when +our little girl was born, I had swept the house clear of all alcoholic +drinks; we hadn't a drop in the place from cellar to attics, so I +thought. And my wife agreed with me that our little one should never +know the taste of the strong drink. We had not many friends, for I was +shy and reserved still, and my home was my world and society; at least I +wished it to be so. Sometimes I thought my wife strangely excited, it +looked very like the old misery, but she solemnly declared that she +never tasted anything intoxicating. I hoped she spoke the truth, even +against the evidence of my senses. After a while she persuaded me that +I wanted change, that I was rusting out in my loneliness. She would +have me accept an invitation to a friend's house now and then: it would +do me good. _She_ was happy in her home, she said, only she should be +happier still if she could see me gaining spirits by occasional +intercourse with like-minded friends. Not that she wished me to leave +her; it was for my own good she said it, and she should be delighting in +the thoughts of the good it would do me, and should find abundance to +cheer her in my absence, in the care of our darling child. She said all +this so openly, so artlessly, that I believed her. I thought she might +be right; so I went now and then from home for a few days, and, by +degrees, more and more frequently. And my wife encouraged it. She said +it did me so much good, and the benefit I reaped in improved health, +spirits, and intelligence quite reconciled her to the separation. We +went on so till our Mary was five years old; I could not say that my +wife was ever manifestly intemperate, but painful suspicions hung like a +black cloud over me. At last one summer's day, one miserable day: I can +never forget it: I set out to pay a week's visit to a friend, who lived +some ten miles distant from my home. I drove myself in a light, open +carriage; my horse was young and rather shy. I was just going round a +bend in the road, when a boy jumped suddenly over a hedge, right in +front of us. Away went my horse at the top of his speed, and soon +landed me in a ditch, and broke away, leaving the carriage with a +fractured shaft behind him. I was not hurt myself, so I got assistance +from the nearest cottage; and, having caught my horse, and found someone +to whom I could trust the repairing of my vehicle, I walked home. It +was afternoon when I arrived. I walked straight in through the back of +the premises, and entered the dining-room; there was no one there. I +was going to ring for one of the servants, when the door opened, and +little Mary toddled (I ought rather to say tottered) up to me. Her +mother was close behind her, but, at the sight of me, she uttered a wild +cry, shut the door violently, and rushed upstairs. I had seen enough in +her face: too much, too much! And the little child, our darling little +Mary, what was amiss with her? Could it be? Had that cruel woman dared +to do such a thing? Yes: it was so indeed: the little child was under +the influence of strong drink; I drew the horrible truth from her by +degrees. The mother had taught that little babe to like the exciting +cup; she had sweetened and made it specially palatable. She had done +this to make the child a willing partaker in her sin, to bribe her to +secrecy, and to use her as a tool for the gratifying of her own vile +appetite. Thus was she deliberately poisoning the body and soul of her +child, and training her in deceit, that she might league that little +one, as she grew up, with herself in procuring the forbidden stimulant, +and in deceiving her own father. O accursed drink, which can thus turn +a mother into the tempter and destroyer of her own guileless and +unsuspecting child! I rushed out of the room, and was about to hurry +upstairs, but I shrank back shivering and heart-sick. Then I went up +slowly and heavily: my bedroom door was bolted; so was the door of my +wife's dressing-room; I came downstairs again, and, taking Mary by the +hand, went into my library. There the storm of trouble did its work, +for it drove me down upon my knees. I poured out my heart in strong +crying to God; I owned that I had lived without Him, and that I had not +loved nor sought Him. I prayed for pardon and a new heart, and that He +would have mercy on my poor wife and child. As I knelt in my agony of +supplication I felt two little hands placed on my own, then mine were +gently pulled from me, and my precious little child, looking up in my +face with streaming eyes, said, `Papa, don't cry; dear papa, don't cry. +I _will_ be a good girl.' I pressed her to my heart, and blessed God +that it was not yet too late. Before nightfall I had driven away with +that dear child, and had placed her with a valued friend whom I could +trust, one of the few who had ever visited at our house, a total +abstainer, and, better still, a devoted Christian. My child had always +loved her, and I felt that I could leave her in such hands with the +utmost confidence. But I had a home still, in name at least, for all +the sunshine had gone out of the word `home' for me. I returned the +next day to our childless house: where was the mother? She lay on the +floor of her dressing-room, crushed in spirit to the dust. I raised her +up; she would not look at me, but hid her face in her hands; her eyes +were dry, she had wept away all her tears. I could not bear her grief, +and I tried to comfort her; all might yet be well. Again she confessed +all, her deceit, her heartlessness; but she laid it to the drink. True, +she was in this a self-deceiver, but how terrible must be the power for +evil in a stimulant which can so utterly degrade the soul, cloud the +intellect, and benumb the conscience! Well, she poured forth a torrent +of vows, promises, and resolutions for the future. I bade her turn them +into prayers, but she did not understand me. However, there was peace +for awhile: our Mary came home again, and I watched her with an +unwearying carefulness. Another year brought us a son: he sits among us +now: John Randolph we call him. There was a sort of truce till John was +ten years old. I knew that my poor unhappy wife still continued to +obtain strong drink, but she did not take it to excess to my knowledge, +and it was never placed upon our table. I was myself, at this time, +practically a total abstainer, but I had signed no pledge. I didn't see +the use of it then, so I had not got my children to sign. My poor wife +_professed_ to take no alcoholic stimulants, yet I could not but know +that she was deceiving herself. She was, alas! Too self-confident. +She seemed to think that all danger of _excess_ was now over, and that a +white lie about taking none was no real harm, so long as it satisfied +_me_; but it neither deceived nor satisfied me. At last, one winter's +day, she proposed that John should drive her in her pony-carriage to the +neighbouring village, where there was an old servant of ours who was +ill, whom she wanted to see. The pony was a quiet one, and was used to +John's driving, so I did not object, as I was very busy at the time, and +could not therefore drive myself. It was very late before she came +back; she had kept the poor boy at the cottage door nearly two hours, +and when she returned to the carriage was so excited that he was in fear +and trembling all the way home. That night his miserable mother lay +hopelessly intoxicated on a sofa when I retired to my resting-_place_, +for to rest I certainly did not retire. From that day she utterly broke +down, and became lost to all shame; one appetite, one passion alone, +possessed her; a mad thirst for the drink. We separated by mutual +consent, and I made her an allowance sufficient to supply all her lawful +wants. Alas! Alas! The sad end hurries on. She wrote to me for a +larger allowance; I knew what she wanted it for, and I refused. She +wrote again and I did not reply. Then she wrote to Mary with the same +object. Of course, I need hardly tell you that the children remained +with me. Poor dear Mary loved her mother dearly, and sent her all her +own pocket money. I found it out, and forbade it for the future. Two +more years passed by. From time to time I heard of my miserable wife; +she was sinking lower and lower. At last, in the twilight of an autumn +evening, as Mary was returning home alone, a wild-looking, ragged woman +crept towards her with a strange, undecided step: it was her mother. +She flung herself at her child's feet, imploring her, if she still had +any love for her, to find her the means of gratifying her insatiable +thirst. She must die, she said, if she refused her. Poor Mary, poor +Mary! Terror-stricken, heart-broken, she spoke words of love, of +entreaty, to that miserable creature; she urged her to break off her +sin; she pointed her to Jesus for strength; she told her that she dared +not supply her regularly with money, as she had promised me that she +would not, and it would do her no good. The wretched woman slunk away +without another word. Next day her body was found floating on the +river; she had destroyed herself. Poor, dear Mary never looked up after +that. She connected her mother's awful end with her own refusal to give +her money for the drink, though there could be no blame to her: and so +she faded away, my lovely child, and left me, ere another spring came +round, for the land of eternal summers. I was heart-sick, hopeless; +life seemed objectless; I gave way to despondency, and forgot my duty as +a man and a Christian. I felt that I was no proper guide nor companion +for poor John; so I sent him first to France, where he gained his skill +as an artist and musician; and since then he has, by his own desire, +been a traveller in distant lands. I let my house, and came over to +Hopeworth, to be out of the way of everything and everybody that could +remind me of the past. Yet, I could not forget. You noticed the vacant +space in my sitting-room, where a picture should have been; that empty +space reminded me of what might have been, had my wife, whose portrait +should have been there, been a different wife to me. But light came at +last. When I saw _you_, Mary my child, for the first time, I scarce +knew what to say or think. You were, and are, the very image of my own +loved and lost one, my Mary my beloved child; the portrait behind the +panel is hers. I longed to have you for my own. I determined, however, +to see what you were; I went to the juvenile party merely for that end. +And then, when John came home unexpectedly, I resolved in my heart that, +if I could bring it about, you _should_ be my own dear child. So John +and I talked it over; and John, who is a true branch from the old tree, +a little crotchety or so, was resolved to win you in his own fashion; +and, having learnt a little colonial independence, he wished to look at +you a bit behind the scenes; so he would come before you, not as the +heir of an eccentric old gentleman, with a good estate and plenty of +money to speak for him, but as the travelled artist and music-master. +And now, I think I've pretty well unravelled the greater part of the +tangle; the rest you can easily smooth out for yourselves. + +"So you see it has been `nearly lost, but dearly won.' My child, Mary, +you nearly lost old Esau's heart, when you seemed bent on throwing your +own away; but you've won it, and won it dearly, like a dear good child. +You nearly lost your peace to one who would soon have drowned it out of +home, but you won it dearly and bravely, I know, at no little sacrifice. +And John, my son, I once thought you'd nearly lost the noblest and best +of wives; but you've won her, and dearly, too, but she's worth the price +of a little stooping, ay, and of a great deal too. And old Esau +Tankardew nearly lost his peace and his self-respect, in selfish +unsanctified sorrow, but he has won something better than respect, +though it cost him a hard struggle; he has won a daughter who hates that +drink which blotted out light and joy from the old man's home and heart; +and he has won, through grace, a peace that passeth understanding, and +can say, `Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord +Jesus Christ.'" + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Nearly Lost but Dearly Won, by Theodore P. 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