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diff --git a/old/rmadv10.txt b/old/rmadv10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65c89b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rmadv10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4296 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid, by Hardy +#11 in our series by Thomas Hardy + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared from the 1920 Macmillan and Co. edition by +David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk. + + + + + +THE ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF A MILKMAID + +by Thomas Hardy + + + + +CHAPTER I + + + +It was half-past four o'clock (by the testimony of the land-surveyor, +my authority for the particulars of this story, a gentleman with the +faintest curve of humour on his lips); it was half-past four o'clock +on a May morning in the eighteen forties. A dense white fog hung +over the Valley of the Exe, ending against the hills on either side. + +But though nothing in the vale could be seen from higher ground, +notes of differing kinds gave pretty clear indications that bustling +life was going on there. This audible presence and visual absence of +an active scene had a peculiar effect above the fog level. Nature +had laid a white hand over the creatures ensconced within the vale, +as a hand might be laid over a nest of chirping birds. + +The noises that ascended through the pallid coverlid were perturbed +lowings, mingled with human voices in sharps and flats, and the bark +of a dog. These, followed by the slamming of a gate, explained as +well as eyesight could have done, to any inhabitant of the district, +that Dairyman Tucker's under-milker was driving the cows from the +meads into the stalls. When a rougher accent joined in the +vociferations of man and beast, it would have been realized that the +dairy-farmer himself had come out to meet the cows, pail in hand, and +white pinafore on; and when, moreover, some women's voices joined in +the chorus, that the cows were stalled and proceedings about to +commence. + +A hush followed, the atmosphere being so stagnant that the milk could +be heard buzzing into the pails, together with occasional words of +the milkmaids and men. + +'Don't ye bide about long upon the road, Margery. You can be back +again by skimming-time.' + +The rough voice of Dairyman Tucker was the vehicle of this remark. +The barton-gate slammed again, and in two or three minutes a +something became visible, rising out of the fog in that quarter. + +The shape revealed itself as that of a woman having a young and agile +gait. The colours and other details of her dress were then +disclosed--a bright pink cotton frock (because winter was over); a +small woollen shawl of shepherd's plaid (because summer was not +come); a white handkerchief tied over her head-gear, because it was +so foggy, so damp, and so early; and a straw bonnet and ribbons +peeping from under the handkerchief, because it was likely to be a +sunny May day. + +Her face was of the hereditary type among families down in these +parts: sweet in expression, perfect in hue, and somewhat irregular +in feature. Her eyes were of a liquid brown. On her arm she carried +a withy basket, in which lay several butter-rolls in a nest of wet +cabbage-leaves. She was the 'Margery' who had been told not to 'bide +about long upon the road.' + +She went on her way across the fields, sometimes above the fog, +sometimes below it, not much perplexed by its presence except when +the track was so indefinite that it ceased to be a guide to the next +stile. The dampness was such that innumerable earthworms lay in +couples across the path till, startled even by her light tread, they +withdrew suddenly into their holes. She kept clear of all trees. +Why was that? There was no danger of lightning on such a morning as +this. But though the roads were dry the fog had gathered in the +boughs, causing them to set up such a dripping as would go clean +through the protecting handkerchief like bullets, and spoil the +ribbons beneath. The beech and ash were particularly shunned, for +they dripped more maliciously than any. It was an instance of +woman's keen appreciativeness of nature's moods and peculiarities: a +man crossing those fields might hardly have perceived that the trees +dripped at all. + +In less than an hour she had traversed a distance of four miles, and +arrived at a latticed cottage in a secluded spot. An elderly woman, +scarce awake, answered her knocking. Margery delivered up the +butter, and said, 'How is granny this morning? I can't stay to go up +to her, but tell her I have returned what we owed her.' + +Her grandmother was no worse than usual: and receiving back the +empty basket the girl proceeded to carry out some intention which had +not been included in her orders. Instead of returning to the light +labours of skimming-time, she hastened on, her direction being +towards a little neighbouring town. Before, however, Margery had +proceeded far, she met the postman, laden to the neck with letter- +bags, of which he had not yet deposited one. + +'Are the shops open yet, Samuel?' she said. + +'O no,' replied that stooping pedestrian, not waiting to stand +upright. 'They won't be open yet this hour, except the saddler and +ironmonger and little tacker-haired machine-man for the farm folk. +They downs their shutters at half-past six, then the baker's at half- +past seven, then the draper's at eight.' + +'O, the draper's at eight.' It was plain that Margery had wanted the +draper's. + +The postman turned up a side-path, and the young girl, as though +deciding within herself that if she could not go shopping at once she +might as well get back for the skimming, retraced her steps. + +The public road home from this point was easy but devious. By far +the nearest way was by getting over a fence, and crossing the private +grounds of a picturesque old country-house, whose chimneys were just +visible through the trees. As the house had been shut up for many +months, the girl decided to take the straight cut. She pushed her +way through the laurel bushes, sheltering her bonnet with the shawl +as an additional safeguard, scrambled over an inner boundary, went +along through more shrubberies, and stood ready to emerge upon the +open lawn. Before doing so she looked around in the wary manner of a +poacher. It was not the first time that she had broken fence in her +life; but somehow, and all of a sudden, she had felt herself too near +womanhood to indulge in such practices with freedom. However, she +moved forth, and the house-front stared her in the face, at this +higher level unobscured by fog. + +It was a building of the medium size, and unpretending, the facade +being of stone; and of the Italian elevation made familiar by Inigo +Jones and his school. There was a doorway to the lawn, standing at +the head of a flight of steps. The shutters of the house were +closed, and the blinds of the bedrooms drawn down. Her perception of +the fact that no crusty caretaker could see her from the windows led +her at once to slacken her pace, and stroll through the flower-beds +coolly. A house unblinded is a possible spy, and must be treated +accordingly; a house with the shutters together is an insensate heap +of stone and mortar, to be faced with indifference. + +On the other side of the house the greensward rose to an eminence, +whereon stood one of those curious summer shelters sometimes erected +on exposed points of view, called an all-the-year-round. In the +present case it consisted of four walls radiating from a centre like +the arms of a turnstile, with seats in each angle, so that +whencesoever the wind came, it was always possible to find a screened +corner from which to observe the landscape. + +The milkmaid's trackless course led her up the hill and past this +erection. At ease as to being watched and scolded as an intruder, +her mind flew to other matters; till, at the moment when she was not +a yard from the shelter, she heard a foot or feet scraping on the +gravel behind it. Some one was in the all-the-year-round, apparently +occupying the seat on the other side; as was proved when, on turning, +she saw an elbow, a man's elbow, projecting over the edge. + +Now the young woman did not much like the idea of going down the hill +under the eyes of this person, which she would have to do if she went +on, for as an intruder she was liable to be called back and +questioned upon her business there. Accordingly she crept softly up +and sat in the seat behind, intending to remain there until her +companion should leave. + +This he by no means seemed in a hurry to do. What could possibly +have brought him there, what could detain him there, at six o'clock +on a morning of mist when there was nothing to be seen or enjoyed of +the vale beneath, puzzled her not a little. But he remained quite +still, and Margery grew impatient. She discerned the track of his +feet in the dewy grass, forming a line from the house steps, which +announced that he was an inhabitant and not a chance passer-by. At +last she peeped round. + + + +CHAPTER II + + + +A fine-framed dark-mustachioed gentleman, in dressing-gown and +slippers, was sitting there in the damp without a hat on. With one +hand he was tightly grasping his forehead, the other hung over his +knee. The attitude bespoke with sufficient clearness a mental +condition of anguish. He was quite a different being from any of the +men to whom her eyes were accustomed. She had never seen mustachios +before, for they were not worn by civilians in Lower Wessex at this +date. His hands and his face were white--to her view deadly white-- +and he heeded nothing outside his own existence. There he remained +as motionless as the bushes around him; indeed, he scarcely seemed to +breathe. + +Having imprudently advanced thus far, Margery's wish was to get back +again in the same unseen manner; but in moving her foot for the +purpose it grated on the gravel. He started up with an air of +bewilderment, and slipped something into the pocket of his dressing- +gown. She was almost certain that it was a pistol. The pair stood +looking blankly at each other. + +'My Gott, who are you?' he asked sternly, and with not altogether an +English articulation. 'What do you do here?' + +Margery had already begun to be frightened at her boldness in +invading the lawn and pleasure-seat. The house had a master, and she +had not known of it. 'My name is Margaret Tucker, sir,' she said +meekly. 'My father is Dairyman Tucker. We live at Silverthorn +Dairy-house.' + +'What were you doing here at this hour of the morning?' + +She told him, even to the fact that she had climbed over the fence. + +'And what made you peep round at me?' + +'I saw your elbow, sir; and I wondered what you were doing?' + +'And what was I doing?' + +'Nothing. You had one hand on your forehead and the other on your +knee. I do hope you are not ill, sir, or in deep trouble?' Margery +had sufficient tact to say nothing about the pistol. + +'What difference would it make to you if I were ill or in trouble? +You don't know me.' + +She returned no answer, feeling that she might have taken a liberty +in expressing sympathy. But, looking furtively up at him, she +discerned to her surprise that he seemed affected by her humane wish, +simply as it had been expressed. She had scarcely conceived that +such a tall dark man could know what gentle feelings were. + +'Well, I am much obliged to you for caring how I am,' said he with a +faint smile and an affected lightness of manner which, even to her, +only rendered more apparent the gloom beneath. 'I have not slept +this past night. I suffer from sleeplessness. Probably you do not.' + +Margery laughed a little, and he glanced with interest at the comely +picture she presented; her fresh face, brown hair, candid eyes, +unpractised manner, country dress, pink hands, empty wicker-basket, +and the handkerchief over her bonnet. + +'Well,' he said, after his scrutiny, 'I need hardly have asked such a +question of one who is Nature's own image . . . Ah, but my good +little friend,' he added, recurring to his bitter tone and sitting +wearily down, 'you don't know what great clouds can hang over some +people's lives, and what cowards some men are in face of them. To +escape themselves they travel, take picturesque houses, and engage in +country sports. But here it is so dreary, and the fog was horrible +this morning!' + +'Why, this is only the pride of the morning!' said Margery. 'By-and- +by it will be a beautiful day.' + +She was going on her way forthwith; but he detained her--detained her +with words, talking on every innocent little subject he could think +of. He had an object in keeping her there more serious than his +words would imply. It was as if he feared to be left alone. + +While they still stood, the misty figure of the postman, whom Margery +had left a quarter of an hour earlier to follow his sinuous course, +crossed the grounds below them on his way to the house. Signifying +to Margery by a wave of his hand that she was to step back out of +sight, in the hinder angle of the shelter, the gentleman beckoned to +the postman to bring the bag to where he stood. The man did so, and +again resumed his journey. + +The stranger unlocked the bag and threw it on the seat, having taken +one letter from within. This he read attentively, and his +countenance changed. + +The change was almost phantasmagorial, as if the sun had burst +through the fog upon that face: it became clear, bright, almost +radiant. Yet it was but a change that may take place in the +commonest human being, provided his countenance be not too wooden, or +his artifice have not grown to second nature. He turned to Margery, +who was again edging off, and, seizing her hand, appeared as though +he were about to embrace her. Checking his impulse, he said, 'My +guardian child--my good friend--you have saved me!' + +'What from?' she ventured to ask. + +'That you may never know.' + +She thought of the weapon, and guessed that the letter he had just +received had effected this change in his mood, but made no +observation till he went on to say, 'What did you tell me was your +name, dear girl?' + +She repeated her name. + +'Margaret Tucker.' He stooped, and pressed her hand. 'Sit down for +a moment--one moment,' he said, pointing to the end of the seat, and +taking the extremest further end for himself, not to discompose her. +She sat down. + +'It is to ask a question,' he went on, 'and there must be confidence +between us. You have saved me from an act of madness! What can I do +for you?' + +'Nothing, sir.' + +'Nothing?' + +'Father is very well off, and we don't want anything.' + +'But there must be some service I can render, some kindness, some +votive offering which I could make, and so imprint on your memory as +long as you live that I am not an ungrateful man?' + +'Why should you be grateful to me, sir?' + +He shook his head. 'Some things are best left unspoken. Now think. +What would you like to have best in the world?' + +Margery made a pretence of reflecting--then fell to reflecting +seriously; but the negative was ultimately as undisturbed as ever: +she could not decide on anything she would like best in the world; it +was too difficult, too sudden. + +'Very well--don't hurry yourself. Think it over all day. I ride +this afternoon. You live--where?' + +'Silverthorn Dairy-house.' + +'I will ride that way homeward this evening. Do you consider by +eight o'clock what little article, what little treat, you would most +like of any.' + +'I will, sir,' said Margery, now warming up to the idea. 'Where +shall I meet you? Or will you call at the house, sir?' + +'Ah--no. I should not wish the circumstances known out of which our +acquaintance rose. It would be more proper--but no.' + +Margery, too, seemed rather anxious that he should not call. 'I +could come out, sir,' she said. 'My father is odd-tempered, and +perhaps--' + +It was agreed that she should look over a stile at the top of her +father's garden, and that he should ride along a bridle-path outside, +to receive her answer. 'Margery,' said the gentleman in conclusion, +'now that you have discovered me under ghastly conditions, are you +going to reveal them, and make me an object for the gossip of the +curious?' + +'No, no, sir!' she replied earnestly. 'Why should I do that?' + +'You will never tell?' + +'Never, never will I tell what has happened here this morning.' + +'Neither to your father, nor to your friends, nor to any one?' + +'To no one at all,' she said. + +'It is sufficient,' he answered. 'You mean what you say, my dear +maiden. Now you want to leave me. Good-bye!' + +She descended the hill, walking with some awkwardness; for she felt +the stranger's eyes were upon her till the fog had enveloped her from +his gaze. She took no notice now of the dripping from the trees; she +was lost in thought on other things. Had she saved this handsome, +melancholy, sleepless, foreign gentleman who had had a trouble on his +mind till the letter came? What had he been going to do? Margery +could guess that he had meditated death at his own hand. Strange as +the incident had been in itself; to her it had seemed stranger even +than it was. Contrasting colours heighten each other by being +juxtaposed; it is the same with contrasting lives. + +Reaching the opposite side of the park there appeared before her for +the third time that little old man, the foot-post. As the turnpike- +road ran, the postman's beat was twelve miles a day; six miles out +from the town, and six miles back at night. But what with zigzags, +devious ways, offsets to country seats, curves to farms, looped +courses, and triangles to outlying hamlets, the ground actually +covered by him was nearer one-and-twenty miles. Hence it was that +Margery, who had come straight, was still abreast of him, despite her +long pause. + +The weighty sense that she was mixed up in a tragical secret with an +unknown and handsome stranger prevented her joining very readily in +chat with the postman for some time. But a keen interest in her +adventure caused her to respond at once when the bowed man of mails +said, 'You hit athwart the grounds of Mount Lodge, Miss Margery, or +you wouldn't ha' met me here. Well, somebody hey took the old place +at last.' + +In acknowledging her route Margery brought herself to ask who the new +gentleman might be. + +'Guide the girl's heart! What! don't she know? And yet how should +ye--he's only just a-come.--Well, nominal, he's a fishing gentleman, +come for the summer only. But, more to the subject, he's a foreign +noble that's lived in England so long as to be without any true +country: some of his letters call him Baron, some Squire, so that 'a +must be born to something that can't be earned by elbow-grease and +Christian conduct. He was out this morning a-watching the fog. +"Postman," 'a said, "good-morning: give me the bag." O, yes, 'a's a +civil genteel nobleman enough.' + +'Took the house for fishing, did he?' + +'That's what they say, and as it can be for nothing else I suppose +it's true. But, in final, his health's not good, 'a b'lieve; he's +been living too rithe. The London smoke got into his wyndpipe, till +'a couldn't eat. However, I shouldn't mind having the run of his +kitchen.' + +'And what is his name?' + +'Ah--there you have me! 'Tis a name no man's tongue can tell, or +even woman's, except by pen-and-ink and good scholarship. It begins +with X, and who, without the machinery of a clock in's inside, can +speak that? But here 'tis--from his letters.' The postman with his +walking-stick wrote upon the ground, + +'BARON VON XANTEN' + + + +CHAPTER III + + + +The day, as she had prognosticated, turned out fine; for weather- +wisdom was imbibed with their milk-sops by the children of the Exe +Vale. The impending meeting excited Margery, and she performed her +duties in her father's house with mechanical unconsciousness. + +Milking, skimming, cheesemaking were done. Her father was asleep in +the settle, the milkmen and maids were gone home to their cottages, +and the clock showed a quarter to eight. She dressed herself with +care, went to the top of the garden, and looked over the stile. The +view was eastward, and a great moon hung before her in a sky which +had not a cloud. Nothing was moving except on the minutest scale, +and she remained leaning over, the night-hawk sounding his croud from +the bough of an isolated tree on the open hill side. + +Here Margery waited till the appointed time had passed by three- +quarters of an hour; but no Baron came. She had been full of an +idea, and her heart sank with disappointment. Then at last the +pacing of a horse became audible on the soft path without, leading up +from the water-meads, simultaneously with which she beheld the form +of the stranger, riding home, as he had said. + +The moonlight so flooded her face as to make her very conspicuous in +the garden-gap. 'Ah my maiden--what is your name--Margery!' he said. +'How came you here? But of course I remember--we were to meet. And +it was to be at eight--proh pudor!--I have kept you waiting!' + +'It doesn't matter, sir. I've thought of something.' + +'Thought of something?' + +'Yes, sir. You said this morning that I was to think what I would +like best in the world, and I have made up my mind.' + +'I did say so--to be sure I did,' he replied, collecting his +thoughts. 'I remember to have had good reason for gratitude to you.' +He placed his hand to his brow, and in a minute alighted, and came up +to her with the bridle in his hand. 'I was to give you a treat or +present, and you could not think of one. Now you have done so. Let +me hear what it is, and I'll be as good as my word.' + +'To go to the Yeomanry Ball that's to be given this month.' + +'The Yeomanry Ball--Yeomanry Ball?' he murmured, as if, of all +requests in the world, this was what he had least expected. 'Where +is what you call the Yeomanry Ball?' + +'At Exonbury.' + +'Have you ever been to it before?' + +'No, sir.' + +'Or to any ball?' + +'No.' + +'But did I not say a gift--a present?' + +'Or a treat?' + +'Ah, yes, or a treat,' he echoed, with the air of one who finds +himself in a slight fix. 'But with whom would you propose to go?' + +'I don't know. I have not thought of that yet.' + +'You have no friend who could take you, even if I got you an +invitation?' + +Margery looked at the moon. 'No one who can dance,' she said; +adding, with hesitation, 'I was thinking that perhaps--' + +'But, my dear Margery,' he said, stopping her, as if he half-divined +what her simple dream of a cavalier had been; 'it is very odd that +you can think of nothing else than going to a Yeomanry Ball. Think +again. You are sure there is nothing else?' + +'Quite sure, sir,' she decisively answered. At first nobody would +have noticed in that pretty young face any sign of decision; yet it +was discoverable. The mouth, though soft, was firm in line; the +eyebrows were distinct, and extended near to each other. 'I have +thought of it all day,' she continued, sadly. 'Still, sir, if you +are sorry you offered me anything, I can let you off.' + +'Sorry?--Certainly not, Margery,' be said, rather nettled. 'I'll +show you that whatever hopes I have raised in your breast I am +honourable enough to gratify. If it lies in my power,' he added with +sudden firmness, 'you SHALL go to the Yeomanry Ball. In what +building is it to be held?' + +'In the Assembly Rooms.' + +'And would you be likely to be recognized there? Do you know many +people?' + +'Not many, sir. None, I may say. I know nobody who goes to balls.' + +'Ah, well; you must go, since you wish it; and if there is no other +way of getting over the difficulty of having nobody to take you, I'll +take you myself. Would you like me to do so? I can dance.' + +'O, yes, sir; I know that, and I thought you might offer to do it. +But would you bring me back again?' + +'Of course I'll bring you back. But, by-the-bye, can YOU dance?' + +'Yes.' + +'What?' + +'Reels, and jigs, and country-dances like the New-Rigged-Ship, and +Follow-my-Lover, and Haste-to-the-Wedding, and the College Hornpipe, +and the Favourite Quickstep, and Captain White's dance.' + +'A very good list--a very good! but unluckily I fear they don't dance +any of those now. But if you have the instinct we may soon cure your +ignorance. Let me see you dance a moment.' + +She stood out into the garden-path, the stile being still between +them, and seizing a side of her skirt with each hand, performed the +movements which are even yet far from uncommon in the dances of the +villagers of merry England. But her motions, though graceful, were +not precisely those which appear in the figures of a modern ball- +room. + +'Well, my good friend, it is a very pretty sight,' he said, warming +up to the proceedings. 'But you dance too well--you dance all over +your person--and that's too thorough a way for the present day. I +should say it was exactly how they danced in the time of your poet +Chaucer; but as people don't dance like it now, we must consider. +First I must inquire more about this ball, and then I must see you +again.' + +'If it is a great trouble to you, sir, I--' + +'O no, no. I will think it over. So far so good.' + +The Baron mentioned an evening and an hour when he would be passing +that way again; then mounted his horse and rode away. + +On the next occasion, which was just when the sun was changing places +with the moon as an illuminator of Silverthorn Dairy, she found him +at the spot before her, and unencumbered by a horse. The melancholy +that had so weighed him down at their first interview, and had been +perceptible at their second, had quite disappeared. He pressed her +right hand between both his own across the stile. + +'My good maiden, Gott bless you!' said he warmly. 'I cannot help +thinking of that morning! I was too much over-shadowed at first to +take in the whole force of it. You do not know all; but your +presence was a miraculous intervention. Now to more cheerful +matters. I have a great deal to tell--that is, if your wish about +the ball be still the same?' + +'O yes, sir--if you don't object.' + +'Never think of my objecting. What I have found out is something +which simplifies matters amazingly. In addition to your Yeomanry +Ball at Exonbury, there is also to be one in the next county about +the same time. This ball is not to be held at the Town Hall of the +county-town as usual, but at Lord Toneborough's, who is colonel of +the regiment, and who, I suppose, wishes to please the yeomen because +his brother is going to stand for the county. Now I find I could +take you there very well, and the great advantage of that ball over +the Yeomanry Ball in this county is, that there you would be +absolutely unknown, and I also. But do you prefer your own +neighbourhood?' + +'O no, sir. It is a ball I long to see--I don't know what it is +like; it does not matter where.' + +'Good. Then I shall be able to make much more of you there, where +there is no possibility of recognition. That being settled, the next +thing is the dancing. Now reels and such things do not do. For +think of this--there is a new dance at Almack's and everywhere else, +over which the world has gone crazy.' + +'How dreadful!' + +'Ah--but that is a mere expression--gone mad. It is really an +ancient Scythian dance; but, such is the power of fashion, that, +having once been adopted by Society, this dance has made the tour of +the Continent in one season.' + +'What is its name, sir?' + +'The polka. Young people, who always dance, are ecstatic about it, +and old people, who have not danced for years, have begun to dance +again, on its account. All share the excitement. It arrived in +London only some few months ago--it is now all over the country. Now +this is your opportunity, my good Margery. To learn this one dance +will be enough. They will dance scarce anything else at that ball. +While, to crown all, it is the easiest dance in the world, and as I +know it quite well I can practise you in the step. Suppose we try?' + +Margery showed some hesitation before crossing the stile: it was a +Rubicon in more ways than one. But the curious reverence which was +stealing over her for all that this stranger said and did was too +much for prudence. She crossed the stile. + +Withdrawing with her to a nook where two high hedges met, and where +the grass was elastic and dry, he lightly rested his arm on her +waist, and practised with her the new step of fascination. Instead +of music he whispered numbers, and she, as may be supposed, showed no +slight aptness in following his instructions. Thus they moved round +together, the moon-shadows from the twigs racing over their forms as +they turned. + +The interview lasted about half an hour. Then he somewhat abruptly +handed her over the stile and stood looking at her from the other +side. + +'Well,' he murmured, 'what has come to pass is strange! My whole +business after this will be to recover my right mind!' + +Margery always declared that there seemed to be some power in the +stranger that was more than human, something magical and compulsory, +when he seized her and gently trotted her round. But lingering +emotions may have led her memory to play pranks with the scene, and +her vivid imagination at that youthful age must be taken into account +in believing her. However, there is no doubt that the stranger, +whoever he might be, and whatever his powers, taught her the elements +of modern dancing at a certain interview by moonlight at the top of +her father's garden, as was proved by her possession of knowledge on +the subject that could have been acquired in no other way. + +His was of the first rank of commanding figures, she was one of the +most agile of milkmaids, and to casual view it would have seemed all +of a piece with Nature's doings that things should go on thus. But +there was another side to the case; and whether the strange gentleman +were a wild olive tree, or not, it was questionable if the +acquaintance would lead to happiness. 'A fleeting romance and a +possible calamity;' thus it might have been summed up by the +practical. + +Margery was in Paradise; and yet she was not at this date distinctly +in love with the stranger. What she felt was something more +mysterious, more of the nature of veneration. As he looked at her +across the stile she spoke timidly, on a subject which had apparently +occupied her long. + +'I ought to have a ball-dress, ought I not, sir?' + +'Certainly. And you shall have a ball-dress.' + +'Really?' + +'No doubt of it. I won't do things by halves for my best friend. I +have thought of the ball-dress, and of other things also.' + +'And is my dancing good enough?' + +'Quite--quite.' He paused, lapsed into thought, and looked at her. +'Margery,' he said, 'do you trust yourself unreservedly to me?' + +'O yes, sir,' she replied brightly; 'if I am not too much trouble: +if I am good enough to be seen in your society.' + +The Baron laughed in a peculiar way. 'Really, I think you may assume +as much as that.--However, to business. The ball is on the twenty- +fifth, that is next Thursday week; and the only difficulty about the +dress is the size. Suppose you lend me this?' And he touched her on +the shoulder to signify a tight little jacket she wore. + +Margery was all obedience. She took it off and handed it to him. +The Baron rolled and compressed it with all his force till it was +about as large as an apple-dumpling, and put it into his pocket. + +'The next thing,' he said, 'is about getting the consent of your +friends to your going. Have you thought of this?' + +'There is only my father. I can tell him I am invited to a party, +and I don't think he'll mind. Though I would rather not tell him.' + +'But it strikes me that you must inform him something of what you +intend. I would strongly advise you to do so.' He spoke as if +rather perplexed as to the probable custom of the English peasantry +in such matters, and added, 'However, it is for you to decide. I +know nothing of the circumstances. As to getting to the ball, the +plan I have arranged is this. The direction to Lord Toneborough's +being the other way from my house, you must meet me at Three-Walks- +End--in Chillington Wood, two miles or more from here. You know the +place? Good. By meeting there we shall save five or six miles of +journey--a consideration, as it is a long way. Now, for the last +time: are you still firm in your wish for this particular treat and +no other? It is not too late to give it up. Cannot you think of +something else--something better--some useful household articles you +require?' + +Margery's countenance, which before had been beaming with +expectation, lost its brightness: her lips became close, and her +voice broken. 'You have offered to take me, and now--' + +'No, no, no,' he said, patting her cheek. 'We will not think of +anything else. You shall go.' + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + +But whether the Baron, in naming such a distant spot for the +rendezvous, was in hope she might fail him, and so relieve him after +all of his undertaking, cannot be said; though it might have been +strongly suspected from his manner that he had no great zest for the +responsibility of escorting her. + +But he little knew the firmness of the young woman he had to deal +with. She was one of those soft natures whose power of adhesiveness +to an acquired idea seems to be one of the special attributes of that +softness. To go to a ball with this mysterious personage of romance +was her ardent desire and aim; and none the less in that she trembled +with fear and excitement at her position in so aiming. She felt the +deepest awe, tenderness, and humility towards the Baron of the +strange name; and yet she was prepared to stick to her point. + +Thus it was that the afternoon of the eventful day found Margery +trudging her way up the slopes from the vale to the place of +appointment. She walked to the music of innumerable birds, which +increased as she drew away from the open meads towards the groves. + +She had overcome all difficulties. After thinking out the question +of telling or not telling her father, she had decided that to tell +him was to be forbidden to go. Her contrivance therefore was this: +to leave home this evening on a visit to her invalid grandmother, who +lived not far from the Baron's house; but not to arrive at her +grandmother's till breakfast-time next morning. Who would suspect an +intercalated experience of twelve hours with the Baron at a ball? +That this piece of deception was indefensible she afterwards owned +readily enough; but she did not stop to think of it then. + +It was sunset within Chillington Wood by the time she reached Three- +Walks-End--the converging point of radiating trackways, now floored +with a carpet of matted grass, which had never known other scythes +than the teeth of rabbits and hares. The twitter overhead had +ceased, except from a few braver and larger birds, including the +cuckoo, who did not fear night at this pleasant time of year. Nobody +seemed to be on the spot when she first drew near, but no sooner did +Margery stand at the intersection of the roads than a slight crashing +became audible, and her patron appeared. He was so transfigured in +dress that she scarcely knew him. Under a light great-coat, which +was flung open, instead of his ordinary clothes he wore a suit of +thin black cloth, an open waistcoat with a frill all down his shirt- +front, a white tie, shining boots, no thicker than a glove, a coat +that made him look like a bird, and a hat that seemed as if it would +open and shut like an accordion. + +'I am dressed for the ball--nothing worse,' he said, drily smiling. +'So will you be soon.' + +'Why did you choose this place for our meeting, sir?' she asked, +looking around and acquiring confidence. + +'Why did I choose it? Well, because in riding past one day I +observed a large hollow tree close by here, and it occurred to me +when I was last with you that this would be useful for our purpose. +Have you told your father?' + +'I have not yet told him, sir.' + +'That's very bad of you, Margery. How have you arranged it, then?' + +She briefly related her plan, on which he made no comment, but, +taking her by the hand as if she were a little child, he led her +through the undergrowth to a spot where the trees were older, and +standing at wider distances. Among them was the tree he had spoken +of--an elm; huge, hollow, distorted, and headless, with a rift in its +side. + +'Now go inside,' he said, 'before it gets any darker. You will find +there everything you want. At any rate, if you do not you must do +without it. I'll keep watch; and don't be longer than you can help +to be.' + +'What am I to do, sir?' asked the puzzled maiden. + +'Go inside, and you will see. When you are ready wave your +handkerchief at that hole.' + +She stooped into the opening. The cavity within the tree formed a +lofty circular apartment, four or five feet in diameter, to which +daylight entered at the top, and also through a round hole about six +feet from the ground, marking the spot at which a limb had been +amputated in the tree's prime. The decayed wood of cinnamon-brown, +forming the inner surface of the tree, and the warm evening glow, +reflected in at the top, suffused the cavity with a faint mellow +radiance. + +But Margery had hardly given herself time to heed these things. Her +eye had been caught by objects of quite another quality. A large +white oblong paper box lay against the inside of the tree; over it, +on a splinter, hung a small oval looking-glass. + +Margery seized the idea in a moment. She pressed through the rift +into the tree, lifted the cover of the box, and, behold, there was +disclosed within a lovely white apparition in a somewhat flattened +state. It was the ball-dress. + +This marvel of art was, briefly, a sort of heavenly cobweb. It was a +gossamer texture of precious manufacture, artistically festooned in a +dozen flounces or more. + +Margery lifted it, and could hardly refrain from kissing it. Had any +one told her before this moment that such a dress could exist, she +would have said, 'No; it's impossible!' She drew back, went forward, +flushed, laughed, raised her hands. To say that the maker of that +dress had been an individual of talent was simply understatement: he +was a genius, and she sunned herself in the rays of his creation. + +She then remembered that her friend without had told her to make +haste, and she spasmodically proceeded to array herself. In removing +the dress she found satin slippers, gloves, a handkerchief nearly all +lace, a fan, and even flowers for the hair. 'O, how could he think +of it!' she said, clasping her hands and almost crying with +agitation. 'And the glass--how good of him!' + +Everything was so well prepared, that to clothe herself in these +garments was a matter of ease. In a quarter of an hour she was +ready, even to shoes and gloves. But what led her more than anything +else into admiration of the Baron's foresight was the discovery that +there were half-a-dozen pairs each of shoes and gloves, of varying +sizes, out of which she selected a fit. + +Margery glanced at herself in the mirror, or at as much as she could +see of herself: the image presented was superb. Then she hastily +rolled up her old dress, put it in the box, and thrust the latter on +a ledge as high as she could reach. Standing on tiptoe, she waved +the handkerchief through the upper aperture, and bent to the rift to +go out. + +But what a trouble stared her in the face. The dress was so airy, so +fantastical, and so extensive, that to get out in her new clothes by +the rift which had admitted her in her old ones was an impossibility. +She heard the Baron's steps crackling over the dead sticks and +leaves. + +'O, sir!' she began in despair. + +'What--can't you dress yourself?' he inquired from the back of the +trunk. + +'Yes; but I can't get out of this dreadful tree!' + +He came round to the opening, stooped, and looked in. 'It is obvious +that you cannot,' he said, taking in her compass at a glance; and +adding to himself; 'Charming! who would have thought that clothes +could do so much!--Wait a minute, my little maid: I have it!' he +said more loudly. + +With all his might he kicked at the sides of the rift, and by that +means broke away several pieces of the rotten touchwood. But, being +thinly armed about the feet, he abandoned that process, and went for +a fallen branch which lay near. By using the large end as a lever, +he tore away pieces of the wooden shell which enshrouded Margery and +all her loveliness, till the aperture was large enough for her to +pass without tearing her dress. She breathed her relief: the silly +girl had begun to fear that she would not get to the ball after all. + +He carefully wrapped round her a cloak he had brought with him: it +was hooded, and of a length which covered her to the heels. + +'The carriage is waiting down the other path,' he said, and gave her +his arm. A short trudge over the soft dry leaves brought them to the +place indicated. + +There stood the brougham, the horses, the coachman, all as still as +if they were growing on the spot, like the trees. Margery's eyes +rose with some timidity to the coachman's figure. + +'You need not mind him,' said the Baron. 'He is a foreigner, and +heeds nothing.' + +In the space of a short minute she was handed inside; the Baron +buttoned up his overcoat, and surprised her by mounting with the +coachman. The carriage moved off silently over the long grass of the +vista, the shadows deepening to black as they proceeded. Darker and +darker grew the night as they rolled on; the neighbourhood familiar +to Margery was soon left behind, and she had not the remotest idea of +the direction they were taking. The stars blinked out, the coachman +lit his lamps, and they bowled on again. + +In the course of an hour and a half they arrived at a small town, +where they pulled up at the chief inn, and changed horses; all being +done so readily that their advent had plainly been expected. The +journey was resumed immediately. Her companion never descended to +speak to her; whenever she looked out there he sat upright on his +perch, with the mien of a person who had a difficult duty to perform, +and who meant to perform it properly at all costs. But Margery could +not help feeling a certain dread at her situation--almost, indeed, a +wish that she had not come. Once or twice she thought, 'Suppose he +is a wicked man, who is taking me off to a foreign country, and will +never bring me home again.' + +But her characteristic persistence in an original idea sustained her +against these misgivings except at odd moments. One incident in +particular had given her confidence in her escort: she had seen a +tear in his eye when she expressed her sorrow for his troubles. He +may have divined that her thoughts would take an uneasy turn, for +when they stopped for a moment in ascending a hill he came to the +window. 'Are you tired, Margery?' he asked kindly. + +'No, sir.' + +'Are you afraid?' + +'N--no, sir. But it is a long way.' + +'We are almost there,' he answered. 'And now, Margery,' he said in a +lower tone, 'I must tell you a secret. I have obtained this +invitation in a peculiar way. I thought it best for your sake not to +come in my own name, and this is how I have managed. A man in this +county, for whom I have lately done a service, one whom I can trust, +and who is personally as unknown here as you and I, has (privately) +transferred his card of invitation to me. So that we go under his +name. I explain this that you may not say anything imprudent by +accident. Keep your ears open and be cautious.' Having said this +the Baron retreated again to his place. + +'Then he is a wicked man after all!' she said to herself; 'for he is +going under a false name.' But she soon had the temerity not to mind +it: wickedness of that sort was the one ingredient required just now +to finish him off as a hero in her eyes. + +They descended a hill, passed a lodge, then up an avenue; and +presently there beamed upon them the light from other carriages, +drawn up in a file, which moved on by degrees; and at last they +halted before a large arched doorway, round which a group of people +stood. + +'We are among the latest arrivals, on account of the distance,' said +the Baron, reappearing. 'But never mind; there are three hours at +least for your enjoyment.' + +The steps were promptly flung down, and they alighted. The steam +from the flanks of their swarthy steeds, as they seemed to her, +ascended to the parapet of the porch, and from their nostrils the hot +breath jetted forth like smoke out of volcanoes, attracting the +attention of all. + + + +CHAPTER V + + + +The bewildered Margery was led by the Baron up the steps to the +interior of the house, whence the sounds of music and dancing were +already proceeding. The tones were strange. At every fourth beat a +deep and mighty note throbbed through the air, reaching Margery's +soul with all the force of a blow. + +'What is that powerful tune, sir--I have never heard anything like +it?' she said. + +'The Drum Polka,' answered the Baron. 'The strange dance I spoke of +and that we practised--introduced from my country and other parts of +the continent.' + +Her surprise was not lessened when, at the entrance to the ballroom, +she heard the names of her conductor and herself announced as 'Mr. +and Miss Brown.' + +However, nobody seemed to take any notice of the announcement, the +room beyond being in a perfect turmoil of gaiety, and Margery's +consternation at sailing under false colours subsided. At the same +moment she observed awaiting them a handsome, dark-haired, rather +petite lady in cream-coloured satin. 'Who is she?' asked Margery of +the Baron. + +'She is the lady of the mansion,' he whispered. 'She is the wife of +a peer of the realm, the daughter of a marquis, has five Christian +names; and hardly ever speaks to commoners, except for political +purposes.' + +'How divine--what joy to be here!' murmured Margery, as she +contemplated the diamonds that flashed from the head of her ladyship, +who was just inside the ball-room door, in front of a little gilded +chair, upon which she sat in the intervals between one arrival and +another. She had come down from London at great inconvenience to +herself; openly to promote this entertainment. + +As Mr. and Miss Brown expressed absolutely no meaning to Lady +Toneborough (for there were three Browns already present in this +rather mixed assembly), and as there was possibly a slight +awkwardness in poor Margery's manner, Lady Toneborough touched their +hands lightly with the tips of her long gloves, said, 'How d'ye do,' +and turned round for more comers. + +'Ah, if she only knew we were a rich Baron and his friend, and not +Mr. and Miss Brown at all, she wouldn't receive us like that, would +she?' whispered Margery confidentially. + +'Indeed, she wouldn't!' drily said the Baron. 'Now let us drop into +the dance at once; some of the people here, you see, dance much worse +than you.' + +Almost before she was aware she had obeyed his mysterious influence, +by giving him one hand, placing the other upon his shoulder, and +swinging with him round the room to the steps she had learnt on the +sward. + +At the first gaze the apartment had seemed to her to be floored with +black ice; the figures of the dancers appearing upon it upside down. +At last she realized that it was highly-polished oak, but she was +none the less afraid to move. + +'I am afraid of falling down,' she said. + +'Lean on me; you will soon get used to it,' he replied. 'You have no +nails in your shoes now, dear.' + +His words, like all his words to her, were quite true. She found it +amazingly easy in a brief space of time. The floor, far from +hindering her, was a positive assistance to one of her natural +agility and litheness. Moreover, her marvellous dress of twelve +flounces inspired her as nothing else could have done. Externally a +new creature, she was prompted to new deeds. To feel as well-dressed +as the other women around her is to set any woman at her ease, +whencesoever she may have come: to feel much better dressed is to +add radiance to that ease. + +Her prophet's statement on the popularity of the polka at this +juncture was amply borne out. It was among the first seasons of its +general adoption in country houses; the enthusiasm it excited to- +night was beyond description, and scarcely credible to the youth of +the present day. A new motive power had been introduced into the +world of poesy--the polka, as a counterpoise to the new motive power +that had been introduced into the world of prose--steam. + +Twenty finished musicians sat in the music gallery at the end, with +romantic mop-heads of raven hair, under which their faces and eyes +shone like fire under coals. + +The nature and object of the ball had led to its being very +inclusive. Every rank was there, from the peer to the smallest +yeoman, and Margery got on exceedingly well, particularly when the +recuperative powers of supper had banished the fatigue of her long +drive. + +Sometimes she heard people saying, 'Who are they?--brother and +sister--father and daughter? And never dancing except with each +other--how odd?' But of this she took no notice. + +When not dancing the watchful Baron took her through the drawing- +rooms and picture-galleries adjoining, which to-night were thrown +open like the rest of the house; and there, ensconcing her in some +curtained nook, he drew her attention to scrap-books, prints, and +albums, and left her to amuse herself with turning them over till the +dance in which she was practised should again be called. Margery +would much have preferred to roam about during these intervals; but +the words of the Baron were law, and as he commanded so she acted. +In such alternations the evening winged away; till at last came the +gloomy words, 'Margery, our time is up.' + +'One more--only one!' she coaxed, for the longer they stayed the more +freely and gaily moved the dance. This entreaty he granted; but on +her asking for yet another, he was inexorable. 'No,' he said. 'We +have a long way to go.' + +Then she bade adieu to the wondrous scene, looking over her shoulder +as they withdrew from the hall; and in a few minutes she was cloaked +and in the carriage. The Baron mounted to his seat on the box, where +she saw him light a cigar; they plunged under the trees, and she +leant back, and gave herself up to contemplate the images that filled +her brain. The natural result followed: she fell asleep. + +She did not awake till they stopped to change horses; when she saw +against the stars the Baron sitting as erect as ever. 'He watches +like the Angel Gabriel, when all the world is asleep!' she thought. + +With the resumption of motion she slept again, and knew no more till +he touched her hand and said, 'Our journey is done--we are in +Chillington Wood.' + +It was almost daylight. Margery scarcely knew herself to be awake +till she was out of the carriage and standing beside the Baron, who, +having told the coachman to drive on to a certain point indicated, +turned to her. + +'Now,' he said, smiling, 'run across to the hollow tree; you know +where it is. I'll wait as before, while you perform the reverse +operation to that you did last night.' She took no heed of the path +now, nor regarded whether her pretty slippers became scratched by the +brambles or no. A walk of a few steps brought her to the particular +tree which she had left about nine hours earlier. It was still +gloomy at this spot, the morning not being clear. + +She entered the trunk, dislodged the box containing her old clothing, +pulled off the satin shoes, and gloves, dress, and in ten minutes +emerged in the cotton and shawl of shepherd's plaid. + +Baron was not far off. 'Now you look the milkmaid again,' he said, +coming towards her. 'Where is the finery?' + +'Packed in the box, sir, as I found it.' She spoke with more +humility now. The difference between them was greater than it had +been at the ball. + +'Good,' he said. 'I must just dispose of it; and then away we go.' + +He went back to the tree, Margery following at a little distance. +Bringing forth the box, he pulled out the dress as carelessly as if +it had been rags. But this was not all. He gathered a few dry +sticks, crushed the lovely garment into a loose billowy heap, threw +the gloves, fan, and shoes on the top, then struck a light and +ruthlessly set fire to the whole. + +Margery was agonized. She ran forward; she implored and entreated. +'Please, sir--do spare it--do! My lovely dress--my-dear, dear +slippers--my fan--it is cruel! Don't burn them, please!' + +'Nonsense. We shall have no further use for them if we live a +hundred years.' + +'But spare a bit of it--one little piece, sir--a scrap of the lace-- +one bow of the ribbon--the lovely fan--just something!' + +But he was as immoveable as Rhadamanthus. 'No,' he said, with a +stern gaze of his aristocratic eye. 'It is of no use for you to +speak like that. The things are my property. I undertook to gratify +you in what you might desire because you had saved my life. To go to +a ball, you said. You might much more wisely have said anything +else, but no; you said, to go to a ball. Very well--I have taken you +to a ball. I have brought you back. The clothes were only the +means, and I dispose of them my own way. Have I not a right to?' + +'Yes, sir,' she said meekly. + +He gave the fire a stir, and lace and ribbons, and the twelve +flounces, and the embroidery, and all the rest crackled and +disappeared. He then put in her hands the butter basket she had +brought to take on to her grandmother's, and accompanied her to the +edge of the wood, where it merged in the undulating open country in +which her granddame dwelt. + +'Now, Margery,' he said, 'here we part. I have performed my +contract--at some awkwardness, if I was recognized. But never mind +that. How do you feel--sleepy?' + +'Not at all, sir,' she said. + +'That long nap refreshed you, eh? Now you must make me a promise. +That if I require your presence at any time, you will come to me . . +. I am a man of more than one mood,' he went on with sudden +solemnity; 'and I may have desperate need of you again, to deliver me +from that darkness as of Death which sometimes encompasses me. +Promise it, Margery--promise it; that, no matter what stands in the +way, you will come to me if I require you.' + +'I would have if you had not burnt my pretty clothes!' she pouted. + +'Ah--ungrateful!' + +'Indeed, then, I will promise, sir,' she said from her heart. +'Wherever I am, if I have bodily strength I will come to you.' + +He pressed her hand. 'It is a solemn promise,' he replied. 'Now I +must go, for you know your way.' + +'I shall hardly believe that it has not been all a dream!' she said, +with a childish instinct to cry at his withdrawal. 'There will be +nothing left of last night--nothing of my dress, nothing of my +pleasure, nothing of the place!' + +'You shall remember it in this way,' said he. 'We'll cut our +initials on this tree as a memorial, so that whenever you walk this +path you will see them.' + +Then with a knife he inscribed on the smooth bark of a beech tree the +letters M.T., and underneath a large X. + +'What, have you no Christian name, sir?' she said. + +'Yes, but I don't use it. Now, good-bye, my little friend.--What +will you do with yourself to-day, when you are gone from me?' he +lingered to ask. + +'Oh--I shall go to my granny's,' she replied with some gloom; 'and +have breakfast, and dinner, and tea with her, I suppose; and in the +evening I shall go home to Silverthorn Dairy, and perhaps Jim will +come to meet me, and all will be the same as usual.' + +'Who is Jim?' + +'O, he's nobody--only the young man I've got to marry some day.' + +'What!--you engaged to be married?--Why didn't you tell me this +before?' + +'I--I don't know, sir.' + +'What is the young man's name?' + +'James Hayward.' + +'What is he?' + +'A master lime-burner.' + +'Engaged to a master lime-burner, and not a word of this to me! +Margery, Margery! when shall a straightforward one of your sex be +found! Subtle even in your simplicity! What mischief have you +caused me to do, through not telling me this? I wouldn't have so +endangered anybody's happiness for a thousand pounds. Wicked girl +that you were; why didn't you tell me?' + +'I thought I'd better not!' said Margery, beginning to be frightened. + +'But don't you see and understand that if you are already the +property of a young man, and he were to find out this night's +excursion, he may be angry with you and part from you for ever? With +him already in the field I had no right to take you at all; he +undoubtedly ought to have taken you; which really might have been +arranged, if you had not deceived me by saying you had nobody.' + +Margery's face wore that aspect of woe which comes from the repentant +consciousness of having been guilty of an enormity. 'But he wasn't +good enough to take me, sir!' she said, almost crying; 'and he isn't +absolutely my master until I have married him, is he?' + +'That's a subject I cannot go into. However, we must alter our +tactics. Instead of advising you, as I did at first, to tell of this +experience to your friends, I must now impress on you that it will be +best to keep a silent tongue on the matter--perhaps for ever and +ever. It may come right some day, and you may be able to say "All's +well that ends well." Now, good morning, my friend. Think of Jim, +and forget me.' + +'Ah, perhaps I can't do that,' she said, with a tear in her eye, and +a full throat. + +'Well--do your best. I can say no more.' + +He turned and retreated into the wood, and Margery, sighing, went on +her way. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + +Between six and seven o'clock in the evening of the same day a young +man descended the hills into the valley of the Exe, at a point about +midway between Silverthorn and the residence of Margery's +grandmother, four miles to the east. + +He was a thoroughbred son of the country, as far removed from what is +known as the provincial, as the latter is from the out-and-out +gentleman of culture. His trousers and waistcoat were of fustian, +almost white, but he wore a jacket of old-fashioned blue West-of- +England cloth, so well preserved that evidently the article was +relegated to a box whenever its owner engaged in such active +occupations as he usually pursued. His complexion was fair, almost +florid, and he had scarcely any beard. + +A novel attraction about this young man, which a glancing stranger +would know nothing of, was a rare and curious freshness of atmosphere +that appertained to him, to his clothes, to all his belongings, even +to the room in which he had been sitting. It might almost have been +said that by adding him and his implements to an over-crowded +apartment you made it healthful. This resulted from his trade. He +was a lime-burner; he handled lime daily; and in return the lime +rendered him an incarnation of salubrity. His hair was dry, fair, +and frizzled, the latter possibly by the operation of the same +caustic agent. He carried as a walking-stick a green sapling, whose +growth had been contorted to a corkscrew pattern by a twining +honeysuckle. + +As he descended to the level ground of the water-meadows he cast his +glance westward, with a frequency that revealed him to be in search +of some object in the distance. It was rather difficult to do this, +the low sunlight dazzling his eyes by glancing from the river away +there, and from the 'carriers' (as they were called) in his path-- +narrow artificial brooks for conducting the water over the grass. +His course was something of a zigzag from the necessity of finding +points in these carriers convenient for jumping. Thus peering and +leaping and winding, he drew near the Exe, the central river of the +miles-long mead. + +A moving spot became visible to him in the direction of his scrutiny, +mixed up with the rays of the same river. The spot got nearer, and +revealed itself to be a slight thing of pink cotton and shepherd's +plaid, which pursued a path on the brink of the stream. The young +man so shaped his trackless course as to impinge on the path a little +ahead of this coloured form, and when he drew near her he smiled and +reddened. The girl smiled back to him; but her smile had not the +life in it that the young man's had shown. + +'My dear Margery--here I am!' he said gladly in an undertone, as with +a last leap he crossed the last intervening carrier, and stood at her +side. + +'You've come all the way from the kiln, on purpose to meet me, and +you shouldn't have done it,' she reproachfully returned. + +'We finished there at four, so it was no trouble; and if it had been- +-why, I should ha' come.' + +A small sigh was the response. + +'What, you are not even so glad to see me as you would be to see your +dog or cat?' he continued. 'Come, Mis'ess Margery, this is rather +hard. But, by George, how tired you dew look! Why, if you'd been up +all night your eyes couldn't be more like tea-saucers. You've walked +tew far, that's what it is. The weather is getting warm now, and the +air of these low-lying meads is not strengthening in summer. I wish +you lived up on higher ground with me, beside the kiln. You'd get as +strong as a hoss! Well, there; all that will come in time.' + +Instead of saying yes, the fair maid repressed another sigh. + +'What, won't it, then?' he said. + +'I suppose so,' she answered. 'If it is to be, it is.' + +'Well said--very well said, my dear.' + +'And if it isn't to be it isn't.' + +'What? Who's been putting that into your head? Your grumpy granny, +I suppose. However, how is she? Margery, I have been thinking to- +day--in fact, I was thinking it yesterday and all the week--that +really we might settle our little business this summer.' + +'This summer?' she repeated, with some dismay. 'But the partnership? +Remember it was not to be till after that was completed.' + +'There I have you!' said he, taking the liberty to pat her shoulder, +and the further liberty of advancing his hand behind it to the other. +'The partnership is settled. 'Tis "Vine and Hayward, lime-burners," +now, and "Richard Vine" no longer. Yes, Cousin Richard has settled +it so, for a time at least, and 'tis to be painted on the carts this +week--blue letters--yaller ground. I'll boss one of 'em, and drive +en round to your door as soon as the paint is dry, to show 'ee how it +looks?' + +'Oh, I am sure you needn't take that trouble, Jim; I can see it quite +well enough in my mind,' replied the young girl--not without a +flitting accent of superiority. + +'Hullo,' said Jim, taking her by the shoulders, and looking at her +hard. 'What dew that bit of incivility mean? Now, Margery, let's +sit down here, and have this cleared.' He rapped with his stick upon +the rail of a little bridge they were crossing, and seated himself +firmly, leaving a place for her. + +'But I want to get home-along,' dear Jim, she coaxed. + +'Fidgets. Sit down, there's a dear. I want a straightforward +answer, if you please. In what month, and on what day of the month, +will you marry me?' + +'O, Jim,' she said, sitting gingerly on the edge, 'that's too plain- +spoken for you yet. Before I look at it in that business light I +should have to--to--' + +'But your father has settled it long ago, and you said it should be +as soon as I became a partner. So, dear, you must not mind a plain +man wanting a plain answer. Come, name your time.' + +She did not reply at once. What thoughts were passing through her +brain during the interval? Not images raised by his words, but +whirling figures of men and women in red and white and blue, +reflected from a glassy floor, in movements timed by the thrilling +beats of the Drum Polka. At last she said slowly, 'Jim, you don't +know the world, and what a woman's wants can be.' + +'But I can make you comfortable. I am in lodgings as yet, but I can +have a house for the asking; and as to furniture, you shall choose of +the best for yourself--the very best.' + +'The best! Far are you from knowing what that is!' said the little +woman. 'There be ornaments such as you never dream of; work-tables +that would set you in amaze; silver candlesticks, tea and coffee pots +that would dazzle your eyes; tea-cups, and saucers, gilded all over +with guinea-gold; heavy velvet curtains, gold clocks, pictures, and +looking-glasses beyond your very dreams. So don't say I shall have +the best.' + +'H'm!' said Jim gloomily; and fell into reflection. 'Where did you +get those high notions from, Margery?' he presently inquired. 'I'll +swear you hadn't got 'em a week ago.' She did not answer, and he +added, 'YEW don't expect to have such things, I hope; deserve them as +you may?' + +'I was not exactly speaking of what I wanted,' she said severely. 'I +said, things a woman COULD want. And since you wish to know what I +CAN want to quite satisfy me, I assure you I can want those!' + +'You are a pink-and-white conundrum, Margery,' he said; 'and I give +you up for to-night. Anybody would think the devil had showed you +all the kingdoms of the world since I saw you last!' + +She reddened. 'Perhaps he has!' she murmured; then arose, he +following her; and they soon reached Margery's home, approaching it +from the lower or meadow side--the opposite to that of the garden +top, where she had met the Baron. + +'You'll come in, won't you, Jim?' she said, with more ceremony than +heartiness. + +'No--I think not to-night,' he answered. 'I'll consider what you've +said.' + +'You are very good, Jim,' she returned lightly. 'Good-bye.' + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + +Jim thoughtfully retraced his steps. He was a village character, and +he had a villager's simplicity: that is, the simplicity which comes +from the lack of a complicated experience. But simple by nature he +certainly was not. Among the rank and file of rustics he was quite a +Talleyrand, or rather had been one, till he lost a good deal of his +self-command by falling in love. + +Now, however, that the charming object of his distraction was out of +sight he could deliberate, and measure, and weigh things with some +approach to keenness. The substance of his queries was, What change +had come over Margery--whence these new notions? + +Ponder as he would he could evolve no answer save one, which, +eminently unsatisfactory as it was, he felt it would be unreasonable +not to accept: that she was simply skittish and ambitious by nature, +and would not be hunted into matrimony till he had provided a well- +adorned home. + +Jim retrod the miles to the kiln, and looked to the fires. The kiln +stood in a peculiar, interesting, even impressive spot. It was at +the end of a short ravine in a limestone formation, and all around +was an open hilly down. The nearest house was that of Jim's cousin +and partner, which stood on the outskirts of the down beside the +turnpike-road. From this house a little lane wound between the steep +escarpments of the ravine till it reached the kiln, which faced down +the miniature valley, commanding it as a fort might command a defile. + +The idea of a fort in this association owed little to imagination. +For on the nibbled green steep above the kiln stood a bye-gone, worn- +out specimen of such an erection, huge, impressive, and difficult to +scale even now in its decay. It was a British castle or +entrenchment, with triple rings of defence, rising roll behind roll, +their outlines cutting sharply against the sky, and Jim's kiln nearly +undermining their base. When the lime-kiln flared up in the night, +which it often did, its fires lit up the front of these ramparts to a +great majesty. They were old friends of his, and while keeping up +the heat through the long darkness, as it was sometimes his duty to +do, he would imagine the dancing lights and shades about the +stupendous earthwork to be the forms of those giants who (he +supposed) had heaped it up. Often he clambered upon it, and walked +about the summit, thinking out the problems connected with his +business, his partner, his future, his Margery. + +It was what he did this evening, continuing the meditation on the +young girl's manner that he had begun upon the road, and still, as +then, finding no clue to the change. + +While thus engaged he observed a man coming up the ravine to the +kiln. Business messages were almost invariably left at the house +below, and Jim watched the man with the interest excited by a belief +that he had come on a personal matter. On nearer approach Jim +recognized him as the gardener at Mount Lodge some miles away. If +this meant business, the Baron (of whose arrival Jim had vaguely +heard) was a new and unexpected customer. + +It meant nothing else, apparently. The man's errand was simply to +inform Jim that the Baron required a load of lime for the garden. + +'You might have saved yourself trouble by leaving word at Mr. +Vine's,' said Jim. + +'I was to see you personally,' said the gardener, 'and to say that +the Baron would like to inquire of you about the different qualities +of lime proper for such purposes.' + +'Couldn't you tell him yourself?' said Jim. + +'He said I was to tell you that,' replied the gardener; 'and it +wasn't for me to interfere.' + +No motive other than the ostensible one could possibly be conjectured +by Jim Hayward at this time; and the next morning he started with +great pleasure, in his best business suit of clothes. By eleven +o'clock he and his horse and cart had arrived on the Baron's +premises, and the lime was deposited where directed; an exceptional +spot, just within view of the windows of the south front. + +Baron von Xanten, pale and melancholy, was sauntering in the sun on +the slope between the house and the all-the-year-round. He looked +across to where Jim and the gardener were standing, and the identity +of Hayward being established by what he brought, the Baron came down, +and the gardener withdrew. + +The Baron's first inquiries were, as Jim had been led to suppose they +would be, on the exterminating effects of lime upon slugs and snails +in its different conditions of slaked and unslaked, ground and in the +lump. He appeared to be much interested by Jim's explanations, and +eyed the young man closely whenever he had an opportunity. + +'And I hope trade is prosperous with you this year,' said the Baron. + +'Very, my noble lord,' replied Jim, who, in his uncertainty on the +proper method of address, wisely concluded that it was better to err +by giving too much honour than by giving too little. 'In short, +trade is looking so well that I've become a partner in the firm.' + +'Indeed; I am glad to hear it. So now you are settled in life.' + +'Well, my lord; I am hardly settled, even now. For I've got to +finish it--I mean, to get married.' + +'That's an easy matter, compared with the partnership.' + +'Now a man might think so, my baron,' said Jim, getting more +confidential. 'But the real truth is, 'tis the hardest part of all +for me.' + +'Your suit prospers, I hope?' + +'It don't,' said Jim. 'It don't at all just at present. In short, I +can't for the life o' me think what's come over the young woman +lately.' And he fell into deep reflection. + +Though Jim did not observe it, the Baron's brow became shadowed with +self-reproach as he heard those simple words, and his eyes had a look +of pity. 'Indeed--since when?' he asked. + +'Since yesterday, my noble lord.' Jim spoke meditatively. He was +resolving upon a bold stroke. Why not make a confidant of this kind +gentleman, instead of the parson, as he had intended? The thought +was no sooner conceived than acted on. 'My lord,' he resumed, 'I +have heard that you are a nobleman of great scope and talent, who has +seen more strange countries and characters than I have ever heard of, +and know the insides of men well. Therefore I would fain put a +question to your noble lordship, if I may so trouble you, and having +nobody else in the world who could inform me so trewly.' + +'Any advice I can give is at your service, Hayward. What do you wish +to know?' + +'It is this, my baron. What can I do to bring down a young woman's +ambition that's got to such a towering height there's no reaching it +or compassing it: how get her to be pleased with me and my station +as she used to be when I first knew her?' + +'Truly, that's a hard question, my man. What does she aspire to?' + +'She's got a craze for fine furniture.' + +'How long has she had it?' + +'Only just now.' + +The Baron seemed still more to experience regret. + +'What furniture does she specially covet?' he asked. + +'Silver candlesticks, work-tables, looking-glasses, gold tea-things, +silver tea-pots, gold clocks, curtains, pictures, and I don't know +what all--things I shall never get if I live to be a hundred--not so +much that I couldn't raise the money to buy 'em, as that to put it to +other uses, or save it for a rainy day.' + +'You think the possession of those articles would make her happy?' + +'I really think they might, my lord.' + +'Good. Open your pocket-book and write as I tell you.' + +Jim in some astonishment did as commanded, and elevating his pocket- +book against the garden-wall, thoroughly moistened his pencil, and +wrote at the Baron's dictation: + +'Pair of silver candlesticks: inlaid work-table and work-box: one +large mirror: two small ditto: one gilt china tea and coffee +service: one silver tea-pot, coffee-pot, sugar-basin, jug, and dozen +spoons: French clock: pair of curtains: six large pictures.' + +'Now,' said the Baron, 'tear out that leaf and give it to me. Keep a +close tongue about this; go home, and don't be surprised at anything +that may come to your door.' + +'But, my noble lord, you don't mean that your lordship is going to +give--' + +'Never mind what I am going to do. Only keep your own counsel. I +perceive that, though a plain countryman, you are by no means +deficient in tact and understanding. If sending these things to you +gives me pleasure, why should you object? The fact is, Hayward, I +occasionally take an interest in people, and like to do a little for +them. I take an interest in you. Now go home, and a week hence +invite Marg--the young woman and her father, to tea with you. The +rest is in your own hands.' + +A question often put to Jim in after times was why it had not +occurred to him at once that the Baron's liberal conduct must have +been dictated by something more personal than sudden spontaneous +generosity to him, a stranger. To which Jim always answered that, +admitting the existence of such generosity, there had appeared +nothing remarkable in the Baron selecting himself as its object. The +Baron had told him that he took an interest in him; and self-esteem, +even with the most modest, is usually sufficient to over-ride any +little difficulty that might occur to an outsider in accounting for a +preference. He moreover considered that foreign noblemen, rich and +eccentric, might have habits of acting which were quite at variance +with those of their English compeers. + +So he drove off homeward with a lighter heart than he had known for +several days. To have a foreign gentleman take a fancy to him--what +a triumph to a plain sort of fellow, who had scarcely expected the +Baron to look in his face. It would be a fine story to tell Margery +when the Baron gave him liberty to speak out. + +Jim lodged at the house of his cousin and partner, Richard Vine, a +widower of fifty odd years. Having failed in the development of a +household of direct descendants this tradesman had been glad to let +his chambers to his much younger relative, when the latter entered on +the business of lime manufacture; and their intimacy had led to a +partnership. Jim lived upstairs; his partner lived down, and the +furniture of all the rooms was so plain and old fashioned as to +excite the special dislike of Miss Margery Tucker, and even to +prejudice her against Jim for tolerating it. Not only were the +chairs and tables queer, but, with due regard to the principle that a +man's surroundings should bear the impress of that man's life and +occupation, the chief ornaments of the dwelling were a curious +collection of calcinations, that had been discovered from time to +time in the lime-kiln--misshapen ingots of strange substance, some of +them like Pompeian remains. + +The head of the firm was a quiet-living, narrow-minded, though +friendly, man of fifty; and he took a serious interest in Jim's love- +suit, frequently inquiring how it progressed, and assuring Jim that +if he chose to marry he might have all the upper floor at a low rent, +he, Mr. Vine, contenting himself entirely with the ground level. It +had been so convenient for discussing business matters to have Jim in +the same house, that he did not wish any change to be made in +consequence of a change in Jim's domestic estate. Margery knew of +this wish, and of Jim's concurrent feeling; and did not like the idea +at all. + +About four days after the young man's interview with the Baron, there +drew up in front of Jim's house at noon a waggon laden with cases and +packages, large and small. They were all addressed to 'Mr. Hayward,' +and they had come from the largest furnishing ware-houses in that +part of England. + +Three-quarters of an hour were occupied in getting the cases to Jim's +rooms. The wary Jim did not show the amazement he felt at his +patron's munificence; and presently the senior partner came into the +passage, and wondered what was lumbering upstairs. + +'Oh--it's only some things of mine,' said Jim coolly. + +'Bearing upon the coming event--eh?' said his partner. + +'Exactly,' replied Jim. + +Mr. Vine, with some astonishment at the number of cases, shortly +after went away to the kiln; whereupon Jim shut himself into his +rooms, and there he might have been heard ripping up and opening +boxes with a cautious hand, afterwards appearing outside the door +with them empty, and carrying them off to the outhouse. + +A triumphant look lit up his face when, a little later in the +afternoon, he sent into the vale to the dairy, and invited Margery +and her father to his house to supper. + +She was not unsociable that day, and, her father expressing a hard +and fast acceptance of the invitation, she perforce agreed to go with +him. Meanwhile at home, Jim made himself as mysteriously busy as +before in those rooms of his, and when his partner returned he too +was asked to join in the supper. + +At dusk Hayward went to the door, where he stood till he heard the +voices of his guests from the direction of the low grounds, now +covered with their frequent fleece of fog. The voices grew more +distinct, and then on the white surface of the fog there appeared two +trunkless heads, from which bodies and a horse and cart gradually +extended as the approaching pair rose towards the house. + +When they had entered Jim pressed Margery's hand and conducted her up +to his rooms, her father waiting below to say a few words to the +senior lime-burner. + +'Bless me,' said Jim to her, on entering the sitting-room; 'I quite +forgot to get a light beforehand; but I'll have one in a jiffy.' + +Margery stood in the middle of the dark room, while Jim struck a +match; and then the young girl's eyes were conscious of a burst of +light, and the rise into being of a pair of handsome silver +candlesticks containing two candles that Jim was in the act of +lighting. + +'Why--where--you have candlesticks like that?' said Margery. Her +eyes flew round the room as the growing candle-flames showed other +articles. 'Pictures too--and lovely china--why I knew nothing of +this, I declare.' + +'Yes--a few things that came to me by accident,' said Jim in quiet +tones. + +'And a great gold clock under a glass, and a cupid swinging for a +pendulum; and O what a lovely work-table--woods of every colour--and +a work-box to match. May I look inside that work-box, Jim?--whose is +it?' + +'O yes; look at it, of course. It is a poor enough thing, but 'tis +mine; and it will belong to the woman I marry, whoever she may be, as +well as all the other things here.' + +'And the curtains and the looking-glasses: why I declare I can see +myself in a hundred places.' + +'That tea-set,' said Jim, placidly pointing to a gorgeous china +service and a large silver tea-pot on the side table, 'I don't use at +present, being a bachelor-man; but, says I to myself, "whoever I +marry will want some such things for giving her parties; or I can +sell em"--but I haven't took steps for't yet--' + +'Sell 'em--no, I should think not,' said Margery with earnest +reproach. 'Why, I hope you wouldn't be so foolish! Why, this is +exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of when I told you of the +things women could want--of course not meaning myself particularly. +I had no idea that you had such valuable--' + +Margery was unable to speak coherently, so much was she amazed at the +wealth of Jim's possessions. + +At this moment her father and the lime-burner came upstairs; and to +appear womanly and proper to Mr. Vine, Margery repressed the +remainder of her surprise. + +As for the two elderly worthies, it was not till they entered the +room and sat down that their slower eyes discerned anything brilliant +in the appointments. Then one of them stole a glance at some +article, and the other at another; but each being unwilling to +express his wonder in the presence of his neighbours, they received +the objects before them with quite an accustomed air; the lime-burner +inwardly trying to conjecture what all this meant, and the dairyman +musing that if Jim's business allowed him to accumulate at this rate, +the sooner Margery became his wife the better. Margery retreated to +the work-table, work-box, and tea-service, which she examined with +hushed exclamations. + +An entertainment thus surprisingly begun could not fail to progress +well. Whenever Margery's crusty old father felt the need of a civil +sentence, the flash of Jim's fancy articles inspired him to one; +while the lime-burner, having reasoned away his first ominous thought +that all this had come out of the firm, also felt proud and blithe. + +Jim accompanied his dairy friends part of the way home before they +mounted. Her father, finding that Jim wanted to speak to her +privately, and that she exhibited some elusiveness, turned to Margery +and said; 'Come, come, my lady; no more of this nonsense. You just +step behind with that young man, and I and the cart will wait for +you.' + +Margery, a little scared at her father's peremptoriness, obeyed. It +was plain that Jim had won the old man by that night's stroke, if he +had not won her. + +'I know what you are going to say, Jim,' she began, less ardently +now, for she was no longer under the novel influence of the shining +silver and glass. 'Well, as you desire it, and as my father desires +it, and as I suppose it will be the best course for me, I will fix +the day--not this evening, but as soon as I can think it over.' + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + +Notwithstanding a press of business, Jim went and did his duty in +thanking the Baron. The latter saw him in his fishing-tackle room, +an apartment littered with every appliance that a votary of the rod +could require. + +'And when is the wedding-day to be, Hayward?' the Baron asked, after +Jim had told him that matters were settled. + +'It is not quite certain yet, my noble lord,' said Jim cheerfully. +'But I hope 'twill not be long after the time when God A'mighty +christens the little apples.' + +'And when is that?' + +'St. Swithin's--the middle of July. 'Tis to be some time in that +month, she tells me.' + +When Jim was gone the Baron seemed meditative. He went out, ascended +the mount, and entered the weather-screen, where he looked at the +seats, as though re-enacting in his fancy the scene of that memorable +morning of fog. He turned his eyes to the angle of the shelter, +round which Margery had suddenly appeared like a vision, and it was +plain that he would not have minded her appearing there then. The +juncture had indeed been such an impressive and critical one that she +must have seemed rather a heavenly messenger than a passing milkmaid, +more especially to a man like the Baron, who, despite the mystery of +his origin and life, revealed himself to be a melancholy, emotional +character--the Jacques of this forest and stream. + +Behind the mount the ground rose yet higher, ascending to a +plantation which sheltered the house. The Baron strolled up here, +and bent his gaze over the distance. The valley of the Exe lay +before him, with its shining river, the brooks that fed it, and the +trickling springs that fed the brooks. The situation of Margery's +house was visible, though not the house itself; and the Baron gazed +that way for an infinitely long time, till, remembering himself, he +moved on. + +Instead of returning to the house he went along the ridge till he +arrived at the verge of Chillington Wood, and in the same desultory +manner roamed under the trees, not pausing till he had come to Three- +Walks-End, and the hollow elm hard by. He peeped in at the rift. In +the soft dry layer of touch-wood that floored the hollow Margery's +tracks were still visible, as she had made them there when dressing +for the ball. + +'Little Margery!' murmured the Baron. + +In a moment he thought better of this mood, and turned to go home. +But behold, a form stood behind him--that of the girl whose name had +been on his lips. + +She was in utter confusion. 'I--I--did not know you were here, sir!' +she began. 'I was out for a little walk.' She could get no further; +her eyes filled with tears. That spice of wilfulness, even hardness, +which characterized her in Jim's company, magically disappeared in +the presence of the Baron. + +'Never mind, never mind,' said he, masking under a severe manner +whatever he felt. 'The meeting is awkward, and ought not to have +occurred, especially if as I suppose, you are shortly to be married +to James Hayward. But it cannot be helped now. You had no idea I +was here, of course. Neither had I of seeing you. Remember you +cannot be too careful,' continued the Baron, in the same grave tone; +'and I strongly request you as a friend to do your utmost to avoid +meetings like this. When you saw me before I turned, why did you not +go away?' + +'I did not see you, sir. I did not think of seeing you. I was +walking this way, and I only looked in to see the tree.' + +'That shows you have been thinking of things you should not think +of,' returned the Baron. 'Good morning.' + +Margery could answer nothing. A browbeaten glance, almost of misery, +was all she gave him. He took a slow step away from her; then turned +suddenly back and, stooping, impulsively kissed her cheek, taking her +as much by surprise as ever a woman was taken in her life. + +Immediately after he went off with a flushed face and rapid strides, +which he did not check till he was within his own boundaries. + +The haymaking season now set in vigorously, and the weir-hatches were +all drawn in the meads to drain off the water. The streams ran +themselves dry, and there was no longer any difficulty in walking +about among them. The Baron could very well witness from the +elevations about his house the activity which followed these +preliminaries. The white shirt-sleeves of the mowers glistened in +the sun, the scythes flashed, voices echoed, snatches of song floated +about, and there were glimpses of red waggon-wheels, purple gowns, +and many-coloured handkerchiefs. + +The Baron had been told that the haymaking was to be followed by the +wedding, and had he gone down the vale to the dairy he would have had +evidence to that effect. Dairyman Tucker's house was in a whirlpool +of bustle, and among other difficulties was that of turning the +cheese-room into a genteel apartment for the time being, and hiding +the awkwardness of having to pass through the milk-house to get to +the parlour door. These household contrivances appeared to interest +Margery much more than the great question of dressing for the +ceremony and the ceremony itself. In all relating to that she showed +an indescribable backwardness, which later on was well remembered. + +'If it were only somebody else, and I was one of the bridesmaids, I +really think I should like it better!' she murmured one afternoon. + +'Away with thee--that's only your shyness!' said one of the +milkmaids. + +It is said that about this time the Baron seemed to feel the effects +of solitude strongly. Solitude revives the simple instincts of +primitive man, and lonely country nooks afford rich soil for wayward +emotions. Moreover, idleness waters those unconsidered impulses +which a short season of turmoil would stamp out. It is difficult to +speak with any exactness of the bearing of such conditions on the +mind of the Baron--a man of whom so little was ever truly known--but +there is no doubt that his mind ran much on Margery as an individual, +without reference to her rank or quality, or to the question whether +she would marry Jim Hayward that summer. She was the single lovely +human thing within his present horizon, for he lived in absolute +seclusion; and her image unduly affected him. + +But, leaving conjecture, let me state what happened. + +One Saturday evening, two or three weeks after his accidental meeting +with her in the wood, he wrote the note following:- + + +DEAR MARGERY, - + +You must not suppose that, because I spoke somewhat severely to you +at our chance encounter by the hollow tree, I have any feeling +against you. Far from it. Now, as ever, I have the most grateful +sense of your considerate kindness to me on a momentous occasion +which shall be nameless. + +You solemnly promised to come and see me whenever I should send for +you. Can you call for five minutes as soon as possible, and disperse +those plaguy glooms from which I am so unfortunate as to suffer? If +you refuse I will not answer for the consequences. + +I shall be in the summer shelter of the mount to-morrow morning at +half-past ten. If you come I shall be grateful. I have also +something for you. Yours, + +X. + + +In keeping with the tenor of this epistle the desponding, self- +oppressed Baron ascended the mount on Sunday morning and sat down. +There was nothing here to signify exactly the hour, but before the +church bells had begun he heard somebody approaching at the back. +The light footstep moved timidly, first to one recess, and then to +another; then to the third, where he sat in the shade. Poor Margery +stood before him. + +She looked worn and weary, and her little shoes and the skirts of her +dress were covered with dust. The weather was sultry, the sun being +already high and powerful, and rain had not fallen for weeks. The +Baron, who walked little, had thought nothing of the effects of this +heat and drought in inducing fatigue. A distance which had been but +a reasonable exercise on a foggy morning was a drag for Margery now. +She was out of breath; and anxiety, even unhappiness was written on +her everywhere. + +He rose to his feet, and took her hand. He was vexed with himself at +sight of her. 'My dear little girl!' he said. 'You are tired--you +should not have come.' + +'You sent for me, sir; and I was afraid you were ill; and my promise +to you was sacred.' + +He bent over her, looking upon her downcast face, and still holding +her hand; then he dropped it, and took a pace or two backwards. + +'It was a whim, nothing more,' he said, sadly. 'I wanted to see my +little friend, to express good wishes--and to present her with this.' +He held forward a small morocco case, and showed her how to open it, +disclosing a pretty locket, set with pearls. 'It is intended as a +wedding present,' he continued. 'To be returned to me again if you +do not marry Jim this summer--it is to be this summer, I think?' + +'It was, sir,' she said with agitation. 'But it is so no longer. +And, therefore, I cannot take this.' + +'What do you say?' + +'It was to have been to-day; but now it cannot be.' + +'The wedding to-day--Sunday?' he cried. + +'We fixed Sunday not to hinder much time at this busy season of the +year,' replied she. + +'And have you, then, put it off--surely not?' + +'You sent for me, and I have come,' she answered humbly, like an +obedient familiar in the employ of some great enchanter. Indeed, the +Baron's power over this innocent girl was curiously like enchantment, +or mesmeric influence. It was so masterful that the sexual element +was almost eliminated. It was that of Prospero over the gentle +Ariel. And yet it was probably only that of the cosmopolite over the +recluse, of the experienced man over the simple maid. + +'You have come--on your wedding-day!--O Margery, this is a mistake. +Of course, you should not have obeyed me, since, though I thought +your wedding would be soon, I did not know it was to-day.' + +'I promised you, sir; and I would rather keep my promise to you than +be married to Jim.' + +'That must not be--the feeling is wrong!' he murmured, looking at the +distant hills. 'There seems to be a fate in all this; I get out of +the frying-pan into the fire. What a recompense to you for your +goodness! The fact is, I was out of health and out of spirits, so I- +-but no more of that. Now instantly to repair this tremendous +blunder that we have made--that's the question.' + +After a pause, he went on hurriedly, 'Walk down the hill; get into +the road. By that time I shall be there with a phaeton. We may get +back in time. What time is it now? If not, no doubt the wedding can +be to-morrow; so all will come right again. Don't cry, my dear girl. +Keep the locket, of course--you'll marry Jim.' + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + +He hastened down towards the stables, and she went on as directed. +It seemed as if he must have put in the horse himself, so quickly did +he reappear with the phaeton on the open road. Margery silently took +her seat, and the Baron seemed cut to the quick with self-reproach as +he noticed the listless indifference with which she acted. There was +no doubt that in her heart she had preferred obeying the apparently +important mandate that morning to becoming Jim's wife; but there was +no less doubt that had the Baron left her alone she would quietly +have gone to the altar. + +He drove along furiously, in a cloud of dust. There was much to +contemplate in that peaceful Sunday morning--the windless trees and +fields, the shaking sunlight, the pause in human stir. Yet neither +of them heeded, and thus they drew near to the dairy. His first +expressed intention had been to go indoors with her, but this he +abandoned as impolitic in the highest degree. + +'You may be soon enough,' he said, springing down, and helping her to +follow. 'Tell the truth: say you were sent for to receive a wedding +present--that it was a mistake on my part--a mistake on yours; and I +think they'll forgive . . . And, Margery, my last request to you is +this: that if I send for you again, you do not come. Promise +solemnly, my dear girl, that any such request shall be unheeded.' + +Her lips moved, but the promise was not articulated. 'O, sir, I +cannot promise it!' she said at last. + +'But you must; your salvation may depend on it!' he insisted almost +sternly. 'You don't know what I am.' + +'Then, sir, I promise,' she replied. 'Now leave me to myself, +please, and I'll go indoors and manage matters.' + +He turned the horse and drove away, but only for a little distance. +Out of sight he pulled rein suddenly. 'Only to go back and propose +it to her, and she'd come!' he murmured. + +He stood up in the phaeton, and by this means he could see over the +hedge. Margery still sat listlessly in the same place; there was not +a lovelier flower in the field. 'No,' he said; 'no, no--never!' He +reseated himself, and the wheels sped lightly back over the soft dust +to Mount Lodge. + +Meanwhile Margery had not moved. If the Baron could dissimulate on +the side of severity she could dissimulate on the side of calm. He +did not know what had been veiled by the quiet promise to manage +matters indoors. Rising at length she first turned away from the +house; and, by-and-by, having apparently forgotten till then that she +carried it in her hand, she opened the case, and looked at the +locket. This seemed to give her courage. She turned, set her face +towards the dairy in good earnest, and though her heart faltered when +the gates came in sight, she kept on and drew near the door. + +On the threshold she stood listening. The house was silent. +Decorations were visible in the passage, and also the carefully swept +and sanded path to the gate, which she was to have trodden as a +bride; but the sparrows hopped over it as if it were abandoned; and +all appeared to have been checked at its climacteric, like a clock +stopped on the strike. Till this moment of confronting the suspended +animation of the scene she had not realized the full shock of the +convulsion which her disappearance must have caused. It is quite +certain--apart from her own repeated assurances to that effect in +later years--that in hastening off that morning to her sudden +engagement, Margery had not counted the cost of such an enterprise; +while a dim notion that she might get back again in time for the +ceremony, if the message meant nothing serious, should also be +mentioned in her favour. But, upon the whole, she had obeyed the +call with an unreasoning obedience worthy of a disciple in primitive +times. A conviction that the Baron's life might depend upon her +presence--for she had by this time divined the tragical event she had +interrupted on the foggy morning--took from her all will to judge and +consider calmly. The simple affairs of her and hers seemed nothing +beside the possibility of harm to him. + +A well-known step moved on the sanded floor within, and she went +forward. That she saw her father's face before her, just within the +door, can hardly be said: it was rather Reproach and Rage in a human +mask. + +'What! ye have dared to come back alive, hussy, to look upon the +dupery you have practised on honest people! You've mortified us all; +I don't want to see 'ee; I don't want to hear 'ee; I don't want to +know anything!' He walked up and down the room, unable to command +himself. 'Nothing but being dead could have excused 'ee for not +meeting and marrying that man this morning; and yet you have the +brazen impudence to stand there as well as ever! What be you here +for?' + +'I've come back to marry Jim, if he wants me to,' she said faintly. +'And if not--perhaps so much the better. I was sent for this morning +early. I thought--.' She halted. To say that she had thought a +man's death might happen by his own hand if she did not go to him, +would never do. 'I was obliged to go,' she said. 'I had given my +word.' + +'Why didn't you tell us then, so that the wedding could be put off, +without making fools o' us?' + +'Because I was afraid you wouldn't let me go, and I had made up my +mind to go.' + +'To go where?' + +She was silent; till she said, 'I will tell Jim all, and why it was; +and if he's any friend of mine he'll excuse me.' + +'Not Jim--he's no such fool. Jim had put all ready for you, Jim had +called at your house, a-dressed up in his new wedding clothes, and a- +smiling like the sun; Jim had told the parson, had got the ringers in +tow, and the clerk awaiting; and then--you was GONE! Then Jim turned +as pale as rendlewood, and busted out, "If she don't marry me to- +day," 'a said, "she don't marry me at all! No; let her look +elsewhere for a husband. For tew years I've put up with her haughty +tricks and her takings," 'a said. "I've droudged and I've traipsed, +I've bought and I've sold, all wi' an eye to her; I've suffered +horseflesh," he says--yes, them was his noble words--"but I'll suffer +it no longer. She shall go!" "Jim," says I, "you be a man. If +she's alive, I commend 'ee; if she's dead, pity my old age." "She +isn't dead," says he; "for I've just heard she was seen walking off +across the fields this morning, looking all of a scornful triumph." +He turned round and went, and the rest o' the neighbours went; and +here be I left to the reproach o't.' + +'He was too hasty,' murmured Margery. 'For now he's said this I +can't marry him to-morrow, as I might ha' done; and perhaps so much +the better.' + +'You can be so calm about it, can ye? Be my arrangements nothing, +then, that you should break 'em up, and say off hand what wasn't done +to-day might ha' been done to-morrow, and such flick-flack? Out o' +my sight! I won't hear any more. I won't speak to 'ee any more.' + +'I'll go away, and then you'll be sorry!' + +'Very well, go. Sorry--not I.' + +He turned and stamped his way into the cheese-room. Margery went +upstairs. She too was excited now, and instead of fortifying herself +in her bedroom till her father's rage had blown over, as she had +often done on lesser occasions, she packed up a bundle of articles, +crept down again, and went out of the house. She had a place of +refuge in these cases of necessity, and her father knew it, and was +less alarmed at seeing her depart than he might otherwise have been. +This place was Rook's Gate, the house of her grandmother, who always +took Margery's part when that young woman was particularly in the +wrong. + +The devious way she pursued, to avoid the vicinity of Mount Lodge, +was tedious, and she was already weary. But the cottage was a +restful place to arrive at, for she was her own mistress there--her +grandmother never coming down stairs--and Edy, the woman who lived +with and attended her, being a cipher except in muscle and voice. +The approach was by a straight open road, bordered by thin lank +trees, all sloping away from the south-west wind-quarter, and the +scene bore a strange resemblance to certain bits of Dutch landscape +which have been imprinted on the world's eye by Hobbema and his +school. + +Having explained to her granny that the wedding was put off; and that +she had come to stay, one of Margery's first acts was carefully to +pack up the locket and case, her wedding present from the Baron. The +conditions of the gift were unfulfilled, and she wished it to go back +instantly. Perhaps, in the intricacies of her bosom, there lurked a +greater satisfaction with the reason for returning the present than +she would have felt just then with a reason for keeping it. + +To send the article was difficult. In the evening she wrapped +herself up, searched and found a gauze veil that had been used by her +grandmother in past years for hiving swarms of bees, buried her face +in it, and sallied forth with a palpitating heart till she drew near +the tabernacle of her demi-god the Baron. She ventured only to the +back-door, where she handed in the parcel addressed to him, and +quickly came away. + +Now it seems that during the day the Baron had been unable to learn +the result of his attempt to return Margery in time for the event he +had interrupted. Wishing, for obvious reasons, to avoid direct +inquiry by messenger, and being too unwell to go far himself, he +could learn no particulars. He was sitting in thought after a lonely +dinner when the parcel intimating failure as brought in. The +footman, whose curiosity had been excited by the mode of its arrival, +peeped through the keyhole after closing the door, to learn what the +packet meant. Directly the Baron had opened it he thrust out his +feet vehemently from his chair, and began cursing his ruinous conduct +in bringing about such a disaster, for the return of the locket +denoted not only no wedding that day, but none to-morrow, or at any +time. + +'I have done that innocent woman a great wrong!' he murmured. +'Deprived her of, perhaps, her only opportunity of becoming mistress +of a happy home!' + + + +CHAPTER X + + + +A considerable period of inaction followed among all concerned. + +Nothing tended to dissipate the obscurity which veiled the life of +the Baron. The position he occupied in the minds of the country-folk +around was one which combined the mysteriousness of a legendary +character with the unobtrusive deeds of a modern gentleman. To this +day whoever takes the trouble to go down to Silverthorn in Lower +Wessex and make inquiries will find existing there almost a +superstitious feeling for the moody melancholy stranger who resided +in the Lodge some forty years ago. + +Whence he came, whither he was going, were alike unknown. It was +said that his mother had been an English lady of noble family who had +married a foreigner not unheard of in circles where men pile up 'the +cankered heaps of strange-achieved gold'--that he had been born and +educated in England, taken abroad, and so on. But the facts of a +life in such cases are of little account beside the aspect of a life; +and hence, though doubtless the years of his existence contained +their share of trite and homely circumstance, the curtain which +masked all this was never lifted to gratify such a theatre of +spectators as those at Silverthorn. Therein lay his charm. His life +was a vignette, of which the central strokes only were drawn with any +distinctness, the environment shading away to a blank. + +He might have been said to resemble that solitary bird the heron. +The still, lonely stream was his frequent haunt: on its banks he +would stand for hours with his rod, looking into the water, beholding +the tawny inhabitants with the eye of a philosopher, and seeming to +say, 'Bite or don't bite--it's all the same to me.' He was often +mistaken for a ghost by children; and for a pollard willow by men, +when, on their way home in the dusk, they saw him motionless by some +rushy bank, unobservant of the decline of day. + +Why did he come to fish near Silverthorn? That was never explained. +As far as was known he had no relatives near; the fishing there was +not exceptionally good; the society thereabout was decidedly meagre. +That he had committed some folly or hasty act, that he had been +wrongfully accused of some crime, thus rendering his seclusion from +the world desirable for a while, squared very well with his frequent +melancholy. But such as he was there he lived, well supplied with +fishing-tackle, and tenant of a furnished house, just suited to the +requirements of such an eccentric being as he. + + +Margery's father, having privately ascertained that she was living +with her grandmother, and getting into no harm, refrained from +communicating with her, in the hope of seeing her contrite at his +door. It had, of course, become known about Silverthorn that at the +last moment Margery refused to wed Hayward, by absenting herself from +the house. Jim was pitied, yet not pitied much, for it was said that +he ought not to have been so eager for a woman who had shown no +anxiety for him. + +And where was Jim himself? It must not be supposed that that +tactician had all this while withdrawn from mortal eye to tear his +hair in silent indignation and despair. He had, in truth, merely +retired up the lonesome defile between the downs to his smouldering +kiln, and the ancient ramparts above it; and there, after his first +hours of natural discomposure, he quietly waited for overtures from +the possibly repentant Margery. But no overtures arrived, and then +he meditated anew on the absorbing problem of her skittishness, and +how to set about another campaign for her conquest, notwithstanding +his late disastrous failure. Why had he failed? To what was her +strange conduct owing? That was the thing which puzzled him. + +He had made no advance in solving the riddle when, one morning, a +stranger appeared on the down above him, looking as if he had lost +his way. The man had a good deal of black hair below his felt hat, +and carried under his arm a case containing a musical instrument. +Descending to where Jim stood, he asked if there were not a short cut +across that way to Tivworthy, where a fete was to be held. + +'Well, yes, there is,' said Jim. 'But 'tis an enormous distance for +'ee.' + +'Oh, yes,' replied the musician. 'I wish to intercept the carrier on +the highway.' + +The nearest way was precisely in the direction of Rook's Gate, where +Margery, as Jim knew, was staying. Having some time to spare, Jim +was strongly impelled to make a kind act to the lost musician a +pretext for taking observations in that neighbourhood, and telling +his acquaintance that he was going the same way, he started without +further ado. + +They skirted the long length of meads, and in due time arrived at the +back of Rook's Gate, where the path joined the high road. A hedge +divided the public way from the cottage garden. Jim drew up at this +point and said, 'Your road is straight on: I turn back here.' + +But the musician was standing fixed, as if in great perplexity. +Thrusting his hand into his forest of black hair, he murmured, +'Surely it is the same--surely!' + +Jim, following the direction of his neighbour's eyes, found them to +be fixed on a figure till that moment hidden from himself--Margery +Tucker--who was crossing the garden to an opposite gate with a little +cheese in her arms, her head thrown back, and her face quite exposed. + +'What of her?' said Jim. + +'Two months ago I formed one of the band at the Yeomanry Ball given +by Lord Toneborough in the next county. I saw that young lady +dancing the polka there in robes of gauze and lace. Now I see her +carry a cheese!' + +'Never!' said Jim incredulously. + +'But I do not mistake. I say it is so!' + +Jim ridiculed the idea; the bandsman protested, and was about to lose +his temper, when Jim gave in with the good-nature of a person who can +afford to despise opinions; and the musician went his way. + +As he dwindled out of sight Jim began to think more carefully over +what he had said. The young man's thoughts grew quite to an +excitement, for there came into his mind the Baron's extraordinary +kindness in regard to furniture, hitherto accounted for by the +assumption that the nobleman had taken a fancy to him. Could it be, +among all the amazing things of life, that the Baron was at the +bottom of this mischief; and that he had amused himself by taking +Margery to a ball? + +Doubts and suspicions which distract some lovers to imbecility only +served to bring out Jim's great qualities. Where he trusted he was +the most trusting fellow in the world; where he doubted he could be +guilty of the slyest strategy. Once suspicious, he became one of +those subtle, watchful characters who, without integrity, make good +thieves; with a little, good jobbers; with a little more, good +diplomatists. Jim was honest, and he considered what to do. + +Retracing his steps, he peeped again. She had gone in; but she would +soon reappear, for it could be seen that she was carrying little new +cheeses one by one to a spring-cart and horse tethered outside the +gate--her grandmother, though not a regular dairywoman, still +managing a few cows by means of a man and maid. With the lightness +of a cat Jim crept round to the gate, took a piece of chalk from his +pocket, and wrote upon the boarding 'The Baron.' Then he retreated +to the other side of the garden where he had just watched Margery. + +In due time she emerged with another little cheese, came on to the +garden-door, and glanced upon the chalked words which confronted her. +She started; the cheese rolled from her arms to the ground, and broke +into pieces like a pudding. + +She looked fearfully round, her face burning like sunset, and, seeing +nobody, stooped to pick up the flaccid lumps. Jim, with a pale face, +departed as invisibly as he had come. He had proved the bandsman's +tale to be true. On his way back he formed a resolution. It was to +beard the lion in his den--to call on the Baron. + +Meanwhile Margery had recovered her equanimity, and gathered up the +broken cheese. But she could by no means account for the +handwriting. Jim was just the sort of fellow to play her such a +trick at ordinary times, but she imagined him to be far too incensed +against her to do it now; and she suddenly wondered if it were any +sort of signal from the Baron himself. + +Of him she had lately heard nothing. If ever monotony pervaded a +life it pervaded hers at Rook's Gate; and she had begun to despair of +any happy change. But it is precisely when the social atmosphere +seems stagnant that great events are brewing. Margery's quiet was +broken first, as we have seen, by a slight start, only sufficient to +make her drop a cheese; and then by a more serious matter. + +She was inside the same garden one day when she heard two watermen +talking without. The conversation was to the effect that the strange +gentleman who had taken Mount Lodge for the season was seriously ill. + +'How ill?' cried Margery through the hedge, which screened her from +recognition. + +'Bad abed,' said one of the watermen. + +'Inflammation of the lungs,' said the other. + +'Got wet, fishing,' the first chimed in. + +Margery could gather no more. An ideal admiration rather than any +positive passion existed in her breast for the Baron: she had of +late seen too little of him to allow any incipient views of him as a +lover to grow to formidable dimensions. It was an extremely romantic +feeling, delicate as an aroma, capable of quickening to an active +principle, or dying to 'a painless sympathy,' as the case might be. + +This news of his illness, coupled with the mysterious chalking on the +gate, troubled her, and revived his image much. She took to walking +up and down the garden-paths, looking into the hearts of flowers, and +not thinking what they were. His last request had been that she was +not to go to him if be should send for her; and now she asked +herself, was the name on the gate a hint to enable her to go without +infringing the letter of her promise? Thus unexpectedly had Jim's +manoeuvre operated. + +Ten days passed. All she could hear of the Baron were the same +words, 'Bad abed,' till one afternoon, after a gallop of the +physician to the Lodge, the tidings spread like lightning that the +Baron was dying. + +Margery distressed herself with the question whether she might be +permitted to visit him and say her prayers at his bedside; but she +feared to venture; and thus eight-and-forty hours slipped away, and +the Baron still lived. Despite her shyness and awe of him she had +almost made up her mind to call when, just at dusk on that October +evening, somebody came to the door and asked for her. + +She could see the messenger's head against the low new moon. He was +a man-servant. He said he had been all the way to her father's, and +had been sent thence to her here. He simply brought a note, and, +delivering it into her hands, went away. + + +DEAR MARGERY TUCKER (ran the note)--They say I am not likely to live, +so I want to see you. Be here at eight o'clock this evening. Come +quite alone to the side-door, and tap four times softly. My trusty +man will admit you. The occasion is an important one. Prepare +yourself for a solemn ceremony, which I wish to have performed while +it lies in my power. + +VON XANTEN. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + +Margery's face flushed up, and her neck and arms glowed in sympathy. +The quickness of youthful imagination, and the assumptiveness of +woman's reason, sent her straight as an arrow this thought: 'He +wants to marry me!' + +She had heard of similar strange proceedings, in which the orange- +flower and the sad cypress were intertwined. People sometimes wished +on their death-beds, from motives of esteem, to form a legal tie +which they had not cared to establish as a domestic one during their +active life. + +For a few minutes Margery could hardly be called excited; she was +excitement itself. Between surprise and modesty she blushed and +trembled by turns. She became grave, sat down in the solitary room, +and looked into the fire. At seven o'clock she rose resolved, and +went quite tranquilly upstairs, where she speedily began to dress. + +In making this hasty toilet nine-tenths of her care were given to her +hands. The summer had left them slightly brown, and she held them up +and looked at them with some misgiving, the fourth finger of her left +hand more especially. Hot washings and cold washings, certain +products from bee and flower known only to country girls, everything +she could think of, were used upon those little sunburnt hands, till +she persuaded herself that they were really as white as could be +wished by a husband with a hundred titles. Her dressing completed, +she left word with Edy that she was going for a long walk, and set +out in the direction of Mount Lodge. + +She no longer tripped like a girl, but walked like a woman. While +crossing the park she murmured 'Baroness von Xanten' in a +pronunciation of her own. The sound of that title caused her such +agitation that she was obliged to pause, with her hand upon her +heart. + +The house was so closely neighboured by shrubberies on three of its +sides that it was not till she had gone nearly round it that she +found the little door. The resolution she had been an hour in +forming failed her when she stood at the portal. While pausing for +courage to tap, a carriage drove up to the front entrance a little +way off, and peeping round the corner she saw alight a clergyman, and +a gentleman in whom Margery fancied that she recognized a well-known +solicitor from the neighbouring town. She had no longer any doubt of +the nature of the ceremony proposed. 'It is sudden but I must obey +him!' she murmured: and tapped four times. + +The door was opened so quickly that the servant must have been +standing immediately inside. She thought him the man who had driven +them to the ball--the silent man who could be trusted. Without a +word he conducted her up the back staircase, and through a door at +the top, into a wide corridor. She was asked to wait in a little +dressing-room, where there was a fire, and an old metal-framed +looking-glass over the mantel-piece, in which she caught sight of +herself. A red spot burnt in each of her cheeks; the rest of her +face was pale; and her eyes were like diamonds of the first water. + +Before she had been seated many minutes the man came back +noiselessly, and she followed him to a door covered by a red and +black curtain, which he lifted, and ushered her into a large chamber. +A screened light stood on a table before her, and on her left the +hangings of a tall dark four-post bedstead obstructed her view of the +centre of the room. Everything here seemed of such a magnificent +type to her eyes that she felt confused, diminished to half her +height, half her strength, half her prettiness. The man who had +conducted her retired at once, and some one came softly round the +angle of the bed-curtains. He held out his hand kindly--rather +patronisingly: it was the solicitor whom she knew by sight. This +gentleman led her forward, as if she had been a lamb rather than a +woman, till the occupant of the bed was revealed. + +The Baron's eyes were closed, and her entry had been so noiseless +that he did not open them. The pallor of his face nearly matched the +white bed-linen, and his dark hair and heavy black moustache were +like dashes of ink on a clean page. Near him sat the parson and +another gentleman, whom she afterwards learnt to be a London +physician; and on the parson whispering a few words the Baron opened +his eyes. As soon as he saw her he smiled faintly, and held out his +hand. + +Margery would have wept for him, if she had not been too overawed and +palpitating to do anything. She quite forgot what she had come for, +shook hands with him mechanically, and could hardly return an answer +to his weak 'Dear Margery, you see how I am--how are you?' + +In preparing for marriage she had not calculated on such a scene as +this. Her affection for the Baron had too much of the vague in it to +afford her trustfulness now. She wished she had not come. On a sign +from the Baron the lawyer brought her a chair, and the oppressive +silence was broken by the Baron's words. + +'I am pulled down to death's door, Margery,' he said; 'and I suppose +I soon shall pass through . . . My peace has been much disturbed in +this illness, for just before it attacked me I received--that present +you returned, from which, and in other ways, I learnt that you had +lost your chance of marriage . . . Now it was I who did the harm, and +you can imagine how the news has affected me. It has worried me all +the illness through, and I cannot dismiss my error from my mind . . . +I want to right the wrong I have done you before I die. Margery, you +have always obeyed me, and, strange as the request may be, will you +obey me now?' + +She whispered 'Yes.' + +'Well, then,' said the Baron, 'these three gentlemen are here for a +special purpose: one helps the body--he's called a physician; +another helps the soul--he's a parson; the other helps the +understanding--he's a lawyer. They are here partly on my account, +and partly on yours.' + +The speaker then made a sign to the lawyer, who went out of the door. +He came back almost instantly, but not alone. Behind him, dressed up +in his best clothes, with a flower in his buttonhole and a +bridegroom's air, walked--Jim. + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + +Margery could hardly repress a scream. As for flushing and blushing, +she had turned hot and turned pale so many times already during the +evening, that there was really now nothing of that sort left for her +to do; and she remained in complexion much as before. O, the mockery +of it! That secret dream--that sweet word 'Baroness!'--which had +sustained her all the way along. Instead of a Baron there stood Jim, +white-waistcoated, demure, every hair in place, and, if she mistook +not, even a deedy spark in his eye. + +Jim's surprising presence on the scene may be briefly accounted for. +His resolve to seek an explanation with the Baron at all risks had +proved unexpectedly easy: the interview had at once been granted, +and then, seeing the crisis at which matters stood, the Baron had +generously revealed to Jim the whole of his indebtedness to and +knowledge of Margery. The truth of the Baron's statement, the +innocent nature as yet of the acquaintanceship, his sorrow for the +rupture he had produced, was so evident that, far from having any +further doubts of his patron, Jim frankly asked his advice on the +next step to be pursued. At this stage the Baron fell ill, and, +desiring much to see the two young people united before his death, he +had sent anew Hayward, and proposed the plan which they were to now +about to attempt--a marriage at the bedside of the sick man by +special licence. The influence at Lambeth of some friends of the +Baron's, and the charitable bequests of his late mother to several +deserving Church funds, were generally supposed to be among the +reasons why the application for the licence was not refused. + +This, however, is of small consequence. The Baron probably knew, in +proposing this method of celebrating the marriage, that his enormous +power over her would outweigh any sentimental obstacles which she +might set up--inward objections that, without his presence and +firmness, might prove too much for her acquiescence. Doubtless he +foresaw, too, the advantage of getting her into the house before +making the individuality of her husband clear to her mind. + +Now, the Baron's conjectures were right as to the event, but wrong as +to the motives. Margery was a perfect little dissembler on some +occasions, and one of them was when she wished to hide any sudden +mortification that might bring her into ridicule. She had no sooner +recovered from her first fit of discomfiture than pride bade her +suffer anything rather than reveal her absurd disappointment. Hence +the scene progressed as follows: + +'Come here, Hayward,' said the invalid. Hayward came near. The +Baron, holding her hand in one of his own, and her lover's in the +other, continued, 'Will you, in spite of your recent vexation with +her, marry her now if she does not refuse?' + +'I will, sir,' said Jim promptly. + +'And Margery, what do you say? It is merely a setting of things +right. You have already promised this young man to be his wife, and +should, of course, perform your promise. You don't dislike Jim?' + +'O, no, sir,' she said, in a low, dry voice. + +'I like him better than I can tell you,' said the Baron. 'He is an +honourable man, and will make you a good husband. You must remember +that marriage is a life contract, in which general compatibility of +temper and worldly position is of more importance than fleeting +passion, which never long survives. Now, will you, at my earnest +request, and before I go to the South of Europe to die, agree to make +this good man happy? I have expressed your views on the subject, +haven't I, Hayward?' + +'To a T, sir,' said Jim emphatically; with a motion of raising his +hat to his influential ally, till he remembered he had no hat on. +'And, though I could hardly expect Margery to gie in for my asking, I +feels she ought to gie in for yours.' + +'And you accept him, my little friend?' + +'Yes, sir,' she murmured, 'if he'll agree to a thing or two.' + +'Doubtless he will--what are they?' + +'That I shall not be made to live with him till I am in the mind for +it; and that my having him shall be kept unknown for the present.' + +'Well, what do you think of it, Hayward?' + +'Anything that you or she may wish I'll do, my noble lord,' said Jim. + +'Well, her request is not unreasonable, seeing that the proceedings +are, on my account, a little hurried. So we'll proceed. You rather +expected this, from my allusion to a ceremony in my note, did you +not, Margery?' + +'Yes, sir,' said she, with an effort. + +'Good; I thought so; you looked so little surprised.' + +We now leave the scene in the bedroom for a spot not many yards off. + +When the carriage seen by Margery at the door was driving up to Mount +Lodge it arrested the attention, not only of the young girl, but of a +man who had for some time been moving slowly about the opposite lawn, +engaged in some operation while he smoked a short pipe. A short +observation of his doings would have shown that he was sheltering +some delicate plants from an expected frost, and that he was the +gardener. When the light at the door fell upon the entering forms of +parson and lawyer--the former a stranger, the latter known to him-- +the gardener walked thoughtfully round the house. Reaching the small +side-entrance he was further surprised to see it noiselessly open to +a young woman, in whose momentarily illumined features he discerned +those of Margery Tucker. + +Altogether there was something curious in this. The man returned to +the lawn front, and perfunctorily went on putting shelters over +certain plants, though his thoughts were plainly otherwise engaged. +On the grass his footsteps were noiseless, and the night moreover +being still, he could presently hear a murmuring from the bedroom +window over his head. + +The gardener took from a tree a ladder that he had used in nailing +that day, set it under the window, and ascended half-way, hoodwinking +his conscience by seizing a nail or two with his hand and testing +their twig-supporting powers. He soon heard enough to satisfy him. +The words of a church-service in the strange parson's voice were +audible in snatches through the blind: they were words he knew to be +part of the solemnization of matrimony, such as 'wedded wife,' +'richer for poorer,' and so on; the less familiar parts being a more +or less confused sound. + +Satisfied that a wedding was in progress there, the gardener did not +for a moment dream that one of the contracting parties could be other +than the sick Baron. He descended the ladder and again walked round +the house, waiting only till he saw Margery emerge from the same +little door; when, fearing that he might be discovered, he withdrew +in the direction of his own cottage. + +This building stood at the lower corner of the garden, and as soon as +the gardener entered he was accosted by a handsome woman in a widow's +cap, who called him father, and said that supper had been ready for a +long time. They sat down, but during the meal the gardener was so +abstracted and silent that his daughter put her head winningly to one +side and said, 'What is it, father dear?' + +'Ah--what is it!' cried the gardener. 'Something that makes very +little difference to me, but may be of great account to you, if you +play your cards well. THERE'S BEEN A WEDDING AT THE LODGE TO-NIGHT!' +He related to her, with a caution to secrecy, all that he had heard +and seen. + +'We are folk that have got to get their living,' he said, 'and such +ones mustn't tell tales about their betters,--Lord forgive the +mockery of the word!--but there's something to be made of it. She's +a nice maid; so, Harriet, do you take the first chance you get for +honouring her, before others know what has happened. Since this is +done so privately it will be kept private for some time--till after +his death, no question;--when I expect she'll take this house for +herself; and blaze out as a widow-lady ten thousand pound strong. +You being a widow, she may make you her company-keeper; and so you'll +have a home by a little contriving.' + +While this conversation progressed at the gardener's Margery was on +her way out of the Baron's house. She was, indeed, married. But, as +we know, she was not married to the Baron. The ceremony over she +seemed but little discomposed, and expressed a wish to return alone +as she had come. To this, of course, no objection could be offered +under the terms of the agreement, and wishing Jim a frigid good-bye, +and the Baron a very quiet farewell, she went out by the door which +had admitted her. Once safe and alone in the darkness of the park +she burst into tears, which dropped upon the grass as she passed +along. In the Baron's room she had seemed scared and helpless; now +her reason and emotions returned. The further she got away from the +glamour of that room, and the influence of its occupant, the more she +became of opinion that she had acted foolishly. She had +disobediently left her father's house, to obey him here. She had +pleased everybody but herself. + +However, thinking was now too late. How she got into her +grandmother's house she hardly knew; but without a supper, and +without confronting either her relative or Edy, she went to bed. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + +On going out into the garden next morning, with a strange sense of +being another person than herself, she beheld Jim leaning mutely over +the gate. + +He nodded. 'Good morning, Margery,' he said civilly. + +'Good morning,' said Margery in the same tone. + +'I beg your pardon,' he continued. 'But which way was you going this +morning?' + +'I am not going anywhere just now, thank you. But I shall go to my +father's by-and-by with Edy.' She went on with a sigh, 'I have done +what he has all along wished, that is, married you; and there's no +longer reason for enmity atween him and me.' + +'Trew--trew. Well, as I am going the same way, I can give you a lift +in the trap, for the distance is long.' + +'No thank you--I am used to walking,' she said. + +They remained in silence, the gate between them, till Jim's +convictions would apparently allow him to hold his peace no longer. +'This is a bad job!' he murmured. + +'It is,' she said, as one whose thoughts have only too readily been +identified. 'How I came to agree to it is more than I can tell!' +And tears began rolling down her cheeks. + +'The blame is more mine than yours, I suppose,' he returned. 'I +ought to have said No, and not backed up the gentleman in carrying +out this scheme. 'Twas his own notion entirely, as perhaps you know. +I should never have thought of such a plan; but he said you'd be +willing, and that it would be all right; and I was too ready to +believe him.' + +'The thing is, how to remedy it,' said she bitterly. 'I believe, of +course, in your promise to keep this private, and not to trouble me +by calling.' + +'Certainly,' said Jim. 'I don't want to trouble you. As for that, +why, my dear Mrs. Hayward--' + +'Don't Mrs. Hayward me!' said Margery sharply. 'I won't be Mrs. +Hayward!' + +Jim paused. 'Well, you are she by law, and that was all I meant,' he +said mildly. + +'I said I would acknowledge no such thing, and I won't. A thing +can't be legal when it's against the wishes of the persons the laws +are made to protect. So I beg you not to call me that anymore.' + +'Very well, Miss Tucker,' said Jim deferentially. 'We can live on +exactly as before. We can't marry anybody else, that's true; but +beyond that there's no difference, and no harm done. Your father +ought to be told, I suppose, even if nobody else is? It will partly +reconcile him to you, and make your life smoother.' + +Instead of directly replying, Margery exclaimed in a low voice: + +'O, it is a mistake--I didn't see it all, owing to not having time to +reflect! I agreed, thinking that at least I should get reconciled to +father by the step. But perhaps he would as soon have me not married +at all as married and parted. I must ha' been enchanted--bewitched-- +when I gave my consent to this! I only did it to please that dear +good dying nobleman--though why he should have wished it so much I +can't tell!' + +'Nor I neither,' said Jim. 'Yes, we've been fooled into it, +Margery,' he said, with extraordinary gravity. 'He's had his way wi' +us, and now we've got to suffer for it. Being a gentleman of +patronage, and having bought several loads of lime o' me, and having +given me all that splendid furniture, I could hardly refuse--' + +'What, did he give you that?' + +'Ay sure--to help me win ye.' + +Margery covered her face with her hands; whereupon Jim stood up from +the gate and looked critically at her. ''Tis a footy plot between +you two men to--snare me!' she exclaimed. 'Why should you have done +it--why should he have done it--when I've not deserved to be treated +so. He bought the furniture--did he! O, I've been taken in--I've +been wronged!' The grief and vexation of finding that long ago, when +fondly believing the Baron to have lover-like feelings himself for +her, he was still conspiring to favour Jim's suit, was more than she +could endure. + +Jim with distant courtesy waited, nibbling a straw, till her paroxysm +was over. 'One word, Miss Tuck--Mrs.--Margery,' he then recommenced +gravely. 'You'll find me man enough to respect your wish, and to +leave you to yourself--for ever and ever, if that's all. But I've +just one word of advice to render 'ee. That is, that before you go +to Silverthorn Dairy yourself you let me drive ahead and call on your +father. He's friends with me, and he's not friends with you. I can +break the news, a little at a time, and I think I can gain his good +will for you now, even though the wedding be no natural wedding at +all. At any count, I can hear what he's got to say about 'ee, and +come back here and tell 'ee.' + +She nodded a cool assent to this, and he left her strolling about the +garden in the sunlight while he went on to reconnoitre as agreed. It +must not be supposed that Jim's dutiful echoes of Margery's regret at +her precipitate marriage were all gospel; and there is no doubt that +his private intention, after telling the dairy-farmer what had +happened, was to ask his temporary assent to her caprice, till, in +the course of time, she should be reasoned out of her whims and +induced to settle down with Jim in a natural manner. He had, it is +true, been somewhat nettled by her firm objection to him, and her +keen sorrow for what she had done to please another; but he hoped for +the best. + +But, alas for the astute Jim's calculations! He drove on to the +dairy, whose white walls now gleamed in the morning sun; made fast +the horse to a ring in the wall, and entered the barton. Before +knocking, he perceived the dairyman walking across from a gate in the +other direction, as if he had just come in. Jim went over to him. +Since the unfortunate incident on the morning of the intended wedding +they had merely been on nodding terms, from a sense of awkwardness in +their relations. + +'What--is that thee?' said Dairyman Tucker, in a voice which +unmistakably startled Jim by its abrupt fierceness. 'A pretty fellow +thou be'st!' + +It was a bad beginning for the young man's life as a son-in-law, and +augured ill for the delicate consultation he desired. + +'What's the matter?' said Jim. + +'Matter! I wish some folks would burn their lime without burning +other folks' property along wi' it. You ought to be ashamed of +yourself. You call yourself a man, Jim Hayward, and an honest lime- +burner, and a respectable, market-keeping Christen, and yet at six +o'clock this morning, instead o' being where you ought to ha' been-- +at your work, there was neither vell or mark o' thee to be seen!' + +'Faith, I don't know what you are raving at,' said Jim. + +'Why--the sparks from thy couch-heap blew over upon my hay-rick, and +the rick's burnt to ashes; and all to come out o' my well-squeezed +pocket. I'll tell thee what it is, young man. There's no business +in thee. I've known Silverthorn folk, quick and dead, for the last +couple-o'-score year, and I've never knew one so three-cunning for +harm as thee, my gentleman lime-burner; and I reckon it one o' the +luckiest days o' my life when I 'scaped having thee in my family. +That maid of mine was right; I was wrong. She seed thee to be a +drawlacheting rogue, and 'twas her wisdom to go off that morning and +get rid o' thee. I commend her for't, and I'm going to fetch her +home to-morrow.' + +'You needn't take the trouble. She's coming home-along to-night of +her own accord. I have seen her this morning, and she told me so.' + +'So much the better. I'll welcome her warm. Nation! I'd sooner see +her married to the parish fool than thee. Not you--you don't care +for my hay. Tarrying about where you shouldn't be, in bed, no doubt; +that's what you was a-doing. Now, don't you darken my doors again, +and the sooner you be off my bit o' ground the better I shall be +pleased.' + +Jim looked, as he felt, stultified. If the rick had been really +destroyed, a little blame certainly attached to him, but he could not +understand how it had happened. However, blame or none, it was clear +he could not, with any self-respect, declare himself to be this +peppery old gaffer's son-in-law in the face of such an attack as +this. + +For months--almost years--the one transaction that had seemed +necessary to compose these two families satisfactorily was Jim's +union with Margery. No sooner had it been completed than it appeared +on all sides as the gravest mishap for both. Stating coldly that he +would discover how much of the accident was to be attributed to his +negligence, and pay the damage, he went out of the barton, and +returned the way he had come. + +Margery had been keeping a look-out for him, particularly wishing him +not to enter the house, lest others should see the seriousness of +their interview; and as soon as she heard wheels she went to the +gate, which was out of view. + +'Surely father has been speaking roughly to you!' she said, on seeing +his face. + +'Not the least doubt that he have,' said Jim. + +'But is he still angry with me?' + +'Not in the least. He's waiting to welcome 'ee.' + +'Ah! because I've married you.' + +'Because he thinks you have not married me! He's jawed me up hill +and down. He hates me; and for your sake I have not explained a +word.' + +Margery looked towards home with a sad, severe gaze. 'Mr. Hayward,' +she said, 'we have made a great mistake, and we are in a strange +position.' + +'True, but I'll tell you what, mistress--I won't stand--' He stopped +suddenly. 'Well, well; I've promised!' he quietly added. + +'We must suffer for our mistake,' she went on. 'The way to suffer +least is to keep our own counsel on what happened last evening, and +not to meet. I must now return to my father.' + +He inclined his head in indifferent assent, and she went indoors, +leaving him there. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + +Margery returned home, as she had decided, and resumed her old life +at Silverthorn. And seeing her father's animosity towards Jim, she +told him not a word of the marriage. + +Her inner life, however, was not what it once had been. She had +suffered a mental and emotional displacement--a shock, which had set +a shade of astonishment on her face as a permanent thing. + +Her indignation with the Baron for collusion with Jim, at first +bitter, lessened with the lapse of a few weeks, and at length +vanished in the interest of some tidings she received one day. + +The Baron was not dead, but he was no longer at the Lodge. To the +surprise of the physicians, a sufficient improvement had taken place +in his condition to permit of his removal before the cold weather +came. His desire for removal had been such, indeed, that it was +advisable to carry it out at almost any risk. The plan adopted had +been to have him borne on men's shoulders in a sort of palanquin to +the shore near Idmouth, a distance of several miles, where a yacht +lay awaiting him. By this means the noise and jolting of a carriage, +along irregular bye-roads, were avoided. The singular procession +over the fields took place at night, and was witnessed by but few +people, one being a labouring man, who described the scene to +Margery. When the seaside was reached a long, narrow gangway was +laid from the deck of the yacht to the shore, which was so steep as +to allow the yacht to lie quite near. The men, with their burden, +ascended by the light of lanterns, the sick man was laid in the +cabin, and, as soon as his bearers had returned to the shore, the +gangway was removed, a rope was heard skirring over wood in the +darkness, the yacht quivered, spread her woven wings to the air, and +moved away. Soon she was but a small, shapeless phantom upon the +wide breast of the sea. + +It was said that the yacht was bound for Algiers. + +When the inimical autumn and winter weather came on, Margery wondered +if he were still alive. The house being shut up, and the servants +gone, she had no means of knowing, till, on a particular Saturday, +her father drove her to Exonbury market. Here, in attending to his +business, he left her to herself for awhile. Walking in a quiet +street in the professional quarter of the town, she saw coming +towards her the solicitor who had been present at the wedding, and +who had acted for the Baron in various small local matters during his +brief residence at the Lodge. + +She reddened to peony hues, averted her eyes, and would have passed +him. But he crossed over and barred the pavement, and when she met +his glance he was looking with friendly severity at her. The street +was quiet, and he said in a low voice, 'How's the husband?' + +'I don't know, sir,' said she. + +'What--and are your stipulations about secrecy and separate living +still in force?' + +'They will always be,' she replied decisively. 'Mr. Hayward and I +agreed on the point, and we have not the slightest wish to change the +arrangement.' + +'H'm. Then 'tis Miss Tucker to the world; Mrs. Hayward to me and one +or two others only?' + +Margery nodded. Then she nerved herself by an effort, and, though +blushing painfully, asked, 'May I put one question, sir? Is the +Baron dead?' + +'He is dead to you and to all of us. Why should you ask?' + +'Because, if he's alive, I am sorry I married James Hayward. If he +is dead I do not much mind my marriage.' + +'I repeat, he is dead to you,' said the lawyer emphatically. 'I'll +tell you all I know. My professional services for him ended with his +departure from this country; but I think I should have heard from him +if he had been alive still. I have not heard at all: and this, +taken in connection with the nature of his illness, leaves no doubt +in my mind that he is dead.' + +Margery sighed, and thanking the lawyer she left him with a tear for +the Baron in her eye. After this incident she became more restful; +and the time drew on for her periodical visit to her grandmother. + +A few days subsequent to her arrival her aged relative asked her to +go with a message to the gardener at Mount Lodge (who still lived on +there, keeping the grounds in order for the landlord). Margery hated +that direction now, but she went. The Lodge, which she saw over the +trees, was to her like a skull from which the warm and living flesh +had vanished. It was twilight by the time she reached the cottage at +the bottom of the Lodge garden, and, the room being illuminated +within, she saw through the window a woman she had never seen before. +She was dark, and rather handsome, and when Margery knocked she +opened the door. It was the gardener's widowed daughter, who had +been advised to make friends with Margery. + +She now found her opportunity. Margery's errand was soon completed, +the young widow, to her surprise, treating her with preternatural +respect, and afterwards offering to accompany her home. Margery was +not sorry to have a companion in the gloom, and they walked on +together. The widow, Mrs. Peach, was demonstrative and confidential; +and told Margery all about herself. She had come quite recently to +live with her father--during the Baron's illness, in fact--and her +husband had been captain of a ketch. + +'I saw you one morning, ma'am,' she said. 'But you didn't see me. +It was when you were crossing the hill in sight of the Lodge. You +looked at it, and sighed. 'Tis the lot of widows to sigh, ma'am, is +it not?' + +'Widows--yes, I suppose; but what do you mean?' + +Mrs. Peach lowered her voice. 'I can't say more, ma'am, with proper +respect. But there seems to be no question of the poor Baron's +death; and though these foreign princes can take (as my poor husband +used to tell me) what they call left-handed wives, and leave them +behind when they go abroad, widowhood is widowhood, left-handed or +right. And really, to be the left-handed wife of a foreign baron is +nobler than to be married all round to a common man. You'll excuse +my freedom, ma'am; but being a widow myself, I have pitied you from +my heart; so young as you are, and having to keep it a secret, and +(excusing me) having no money out of his vast riches because 'tis +swallowed up by Baroness Number One.' + +Now Margery did not understand a word more of this than the bare fact +that Mrs. Peach suspected her to be the Baron's undowered widow, and +such was the milkmaid's nature that she did not deny the widow's +impeachment. The latter continued - + +'But ah, ma'am, all your troubles are straight backward in your +memory--while I have troubles before as well as grief behind.' + +'What may they be, Mrs. Peach?' inquired Margery with an air of the +Baroness. + +The other dropped her voice to revelation tones: 'I have been +forgetful enough of my first man to lose my heart to a second!' + +'You shouldn't do that--it is wrong. You should control your +feelings.' + +'But how am I to control my feelings?' + +'By going to your dead husband's grave, and things of that sort.' + +'Do you go to your dead husband's grave?' + +'How can I go to Algiers?' + +'Ah--too true! Well, I've tried everything to cure myself--read the +words against it, gone to the Table the first Sunday of every month, +and all sorts. But, avast, my shipmate!--as my poor man used to say- +-there 'tis just the same. In short, I've made up my mind to +encourage the new one. 'Tis flattering that I, a new-comer, should +have been found out by a young man so soon.' + +'Who is he?' said Margery listlessly. + +'A master lime-burner.' + +'A master lime-burner?' + +'That's his profession. He's a partner-in-co., doing very well +indeed.' + +'But what's his name?' + +'I don't like to tell you his name, for, though 'tis night, that +covers all shame-facedness, my face is as hot as a 'Talian iron, I +declare! Do you just feel it.' + +Margery put her hand on Mrs. Peach's face, and, sure enough, hot it +was. 'Does he come courting?' she asked quickly. + +'Well only in the way of business. He never comes unless lime is +wanted in the neighbourhood. He's in the Yeomanry, too, and will +look very fine when he comes out in regimentals for drill in May.' + +'Oh--in the Yeomanry,' Margery said, with a slight relief. 'Then it +can't--is he a young man?' + +'Yes, junior partner-in-co.' + +The description had an odd resemblance to Jim, of whom Margery had +not heard a word for months. He had promised silence and absence, +and had fulfilled his promise literally, with a gratuitous addition +that was rather amazing, if indeed it were Jim whom the widow loved. +One point in the description puzzled Margery: Jim was not in the +Yeomanry, unless, by a surprising development of enterprise, he had +entered it recently. + +At parting Margery said, with an interest quite tender, 'I should +like to see you again, Mrs. Peach, and hear of your attachment. When +can you call?' + +'Oh--any time, dear Baroness, I'm sure--if you think I am good +enough.' + +'Indeed, I do, Mrs. Peach. Come as soon as you've seen the lime- +burner again.' + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + +Seeing that Jim lived several miles from the widow, Margery was +rather surprised, and even felt a slight sinking of the heart, when +her new acquaintance appeared at her door so soon as the evening of +the following Monday. She asked Margery to walk out with her, which +the young woman readily did. + +'I am come at once,' said the widow breathlessly, as soon as they +were in the lane, 'for it is so exciting that I can't keep it. I +must tell it to somebody, if only a bird, or a cat, or a garden +snail.' + +'What is it?' asked her companion. + +'I've pulled grass from my husband's grave to cure it--wove the +blades into true lover's knots; took off my shoes upon the sod; but, +avast, my shipmate,--' + +'Upon the sod--why?' + +'To feel the damp earth he's in, and make the sense of it enter my +soul. But no. It has swelled to a head; he is going to meet me at +the Yeomanry Review.' + +'The master lime-burner?' + +The widow nodded. + +'When is it to be?' + +'To-morrow. He looks so lovely in his accoutrements! He's such a +splendid soldier; that was the last straw that kindled my soul to say +yes. He's home from Exonbury for a night between the drills,' +continued Mrs. Peach. 'He goes back to-morrow morning for the +Review, and when it's over he's going to meet me. But, guide my +heart, there he is!' + +Her exclamation had rise in the sudden appearance of a brilliant red +uniform through the trees, and the tramp of a horse carrying the +wearer thereof. In another half-minute the military gentleman would +have turned the corner, and faced them. + +'He'd better not see me; he'll think I know too much,' said Margery +precipitately. 'I'll go up here.' + +The widow, whose thoughts had been of the same cast, seemed much +relieved to see Margery disappear in the plantation, in the midst of +a spring chorus of birds. Once among the trees, Margery turned her +head, and, before she could see the rider's person she recognized the +horse as Tony, the lightest of three that Jim and his partner owned, +for the purpose of carting out lime to their customers. + +Jim, then, had joined the Yeomanry since his estrangement from +Margery. A man who had worn the young Queen Victoria's uniform for +seven days only could not be expected to look as if it were part of +his person, in the manner of long-trained soldiers; but he was a +well-formed young fellow, and of an age when few positions came amiss +to one who has the capacity to adapt himself to circumstances. + +Meeting the blushing Mrs. Peach (to whom Margery in her mind sternly +denied the right to blush at all), Jim alighted and moved on with +her, probably at Mrs. Peach's own suggestion; so that what they said, +how long they remained together, and how they parted, Margery knew +not. She might have known some of these things by waiting; but the +presence of Jim had bred in her heart a sudden disgust for the widow, +and a general sense of discomfiture. She went away in an opposite +direction, turning her head and saying to the unconscious Jim, +'There's a fine rod in pickle for you, my gentleman, if you carry out +that pretty scheme!' + +Jim's military coup had decidedly astonished her. What he might do +next she could not conjecture. The idea of his doing anything +sufficiently brilliant to arrest her attention would have seemed +ludicrous, had not Jim, by entering the Yeomanry, revealed a capacity +for dazzling exploits which made it unsafe to predict any limitation +to his powers. + +Margery was now excited. The daring of the wretched Jim in bursting +into scarlet amazed her as much as his doubtful acquaintanceship with +the demonstrative Mrs. Peach. To go to that Review, to watch the +pair, to eclipse Mrs. Peach in brilliancy, to meet and pass them in +withering contempt--if she only could do it! But, alas! she was a +forsaken woman. + +'If the Baron were alive, or in England,' she said to herself (for +sometimes she thought he might possibly be alive), 'and he were to +take me to this Review, wouldn't I show that forward Mrs. Peach what +a lady is like, and keep among the select company, and not mix with +the common people at all!' + +It might at first sight be thought that the best course for Margery +at this juncture would have been to go to Jim, and nip the intrigue +in the bud without further scruple. But her own declaration in after +days was that whoever could say that was far from realizing her +situation. It was hard to break such ice as divided their two lives +now, and to attempt it at that moment was a too humiliating +proclamation of defeat. The only plan she could think of--perhaps +not a wise one in the circumstances--was to go to the Review herself; +and be the gayest there. + +A method of doing this with some propriety soon occurred to her. She +dared not ask her father, who scorned to waste time in sight-seeing, +and whose animosity towards Jim knew no abatement; but she might call +on her old acquaintance, Mr. Vine, Jim's partner, who would probably +be going with the rest of the holiday-folk, and ask if she might +accompany him in his spring-trap. She had no sooner perceived the +feasibility of this, through her being at her grandmother's, than she +decided to meet with the old man early the next morning. + +In the meantime Jim and Mrs. Peach had walked slowly along the road +together, Jim leading the horse, and Mrs. Peach informing him that +her father, the gardener, was at Jim's village further on, and that +she had come to meet him. Jim, for reasons of his own, was going to +sleep at his partner's that night, and thus their route was the same. +The shades of eve closed in upon them as they walked, and by the time +they reached the lime-kiln, which it was necessary to pass to get to +the village, it was quite dark. Jim stopped at the kiln, to see if +matters had progressed rightly in his seven days' absence, and Mrs. +Peach, who stuck to him like a teazle, stopped also, saying she would +wait for her father there. + +She held the horse while he ascended to the top of the kiln. Then +rejoining her, and not quite knowing what to do, he stood beside her +looking at the flames, which to-night burnt up brightly, shining a +long way into the dark air, even up to the ramparts of the earthwork +above them, and overhead into the bosoms of the clouds. + +It was during this proceeding that a carriage, drawn by a pair of +dark horses, came along the turnpike road. The light of the kiln +caused the horses to swerve a little, and the occupant of the +carriage looked out. He saw the bluish, lightning-like flames from +the limestone, rising from the top of the furnace, and hard by the +figures of Jim Hayward, the widow, and the horse, standing out with +spectral distinctness against the mass of night behind. The scene +wore the aspect of some unholy assignation in Pandaemonium, and it +was all the more impressive from the fact that both Jim and the woman +were quite unconscious of the striking spectacle they presented. The +gentleman in the carriage watched them till he was borne out of +sight. + +Having seen to the kiln, Jim and the widow walked on again, and soon +Mrs. Peach's father met them, and relieved Jim of the lady. When +they had parted, Jim, with an expiration not unlike a breath of +relief; went on to Mr. Vine's, and, having put the horse into the +stable, entered the house. His partner was seated at the table, +solacing himself after the labours of the day by luxurious +alternations between a long clay pipe and a mug of perry. + +'Well,' said Jim eagerly, 'what's the news--how do she take it?' + +'Sit down--sit down,' said Vine. ''Tis working well; not but that I +deserve something o' thee for the trouble I've had in watching her. +The soldiering was a fine move; but the woman is a better!--who +invented it?' + +'I myself,' said Jim modestly. + +'Well; jealousy is making her rise like a thunderstorm, and in a day +or two you'll have her for the asking, my sonny. What's the next +step?' + +'The widow is getting rather a weight upon a feller, worse luck,' +said Jim. 'But I must keep it up until to-morrow, at any rate. I +have promised to see her at the Review, and now the great thing is +that Margery should see we a-smiling together--I in my full-dress +uniform and clinking arms o' war. 'Twill be a good strong sting, and +will end the business, I hope. Couldn't you manage to put the hoss +in and drive her there? She'd go if you were to ask her.' + +'With all my heart,' said Mr. Vine, moistening the end of a new pipe +in his perry. 'I can call at her grammer's for her--'twill be all in +my way.' + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + +Margery duly followed up her intention by arraying herself the next +morning in her loveliest guise, and keeping watch for Mr. Vine's +appearance upon the high road, feeling certain that his would form +one in the procession of carts and carriages which set in towards +Exonbury that day. Jim had gone by at a very early hour, and she did +not see him pass. Her anticipation was verified by the advent of Mr. +Vine about eleven o'clock, dressed to his highest effort; but Margery +was surprised to find that, instead of her having to stop him, he +pulled in towards the gate of his own accord. The invitation planned +between Jim and the old man on the previous night was now promptly +given, and, as may be supposed, as promptly accepted. Such a strange +coincidence she had never before known. She was quite ready, and +they drove onward at once. + +The Review was held on some high ground a little way out of the city, +and her conductor suggested that they should put up the horse at the +inn, and walk to the field--a plan which pleased her well, for it was +more easy to take preliminary observations on foot without being seen +herself than when sitting elevated in a vehicle. + +They were just in time to secure a good place near the front, and in +a few minutes after their arrival the reviewing officer came on the +ground. Margery's eye had rapidly run over the troop in which Jim +was enrolled, and she discerned him in one of the ranks, looking +remarkably new and bright, both as to uniform and countenance. +Indeed, if she had not worked herself into such a desperate state of +mind she would have felt proud of him then and there. His shapely +upright figure was quite noteworthy in the row of rotund yeomen on +his right and left; while his charger Tony expressed by his bearing, +even more than Jim, that he knew nothing about lime-carts whatever, +and everything about trumpets and glory. How Jim could have scrubbed +Tony to such shining blackness she could not tell, for the horse in +his natural state was ingrained with lime-dust, that burnt the colour +out of his coat as it did out of Jim's hair. Now he pranced +martially, and was a war-horse every inch of him. + +Having discovered Jim her next search was for Mrs. Peach, and, by +dint of some oblique glancing Margery indignantly discovered the +widow in the most forward place of all, her head and bright face +conspicuously advanced; and, what was more shocking, she had +abandoned her mourning for a violet drawn-bonnet and a gay spencer, +together with a parasol luxuriously fringed in a way Margery had +never before seen. 'Where did she get the money?' said Margery, +under her breath. 'And to forget that poor sailor so soon!' + +These general reflections were precipitately postponed by her +discovering that Jim and the widow were perfectly alive to each +other's whereabouts, and in the interchange of telegraphic signs of +affection, which on the latter's part took the form of a playful +fluttering of her handkerchief or waving of her parasol. Richard +Vine had placed Margery in front of him, to protect her from the +crowd, as he said, he himself surveying the scene over her bonnet. +Margery would have been even more surprised than she was if she had +known that Jim was not only aware of Mrs. Peach's presence, but also +of her own, the treacherous Mr. Vine having drawn out his flame- +coloured handkerchief and waved it to Jim over the young woman's head +as soon as they had taken up their position. + +'My partner makes a tidy soldier, eh--Miss Tucker?' said the senior +lime-burner. 'It is my belief as a Christian that he's got a party +here that he's making signs to--that handsome figure o' fun straight +over-right him.' + +'Perhaps so,' she said. + +'And it's growing warm between 'em if I don't mistake,' continued the +merciless Vine. + +Margery was silent, biting her lip; and the troops being now set in +motion, all signalling ceased for the present between soldier Hayward +and his pretended sweetheart. + +'Have you a piece of paper that I could make a memorandum on, Mr. +Vine?' asked Margery. + +Vine took out his pocket-book and tore a leaf from it, which he +handed her with a pencil. + +'Don't move from here--I'll return in a minute,' she continued, with +the innocence of a woman who means mischief. And, withdrawing +herself to the back, where the grass was clear, she pencilled down +the words + + +'JIM'S MARRIED.' + + +Armed with this document she crept into the throng behind the +unsuspecting Mrs. Peach, slipped the paper into her pocket on the top +of her handkerchief; and withdrew unobserved, rejoining Mr. Vine with +a bearing of nonchalance. + +By-and-by the troops were in different order, Jim taking a left-hand +position almost close to Mrs. Peach. He bent down and said a few +words to her. From her manner of nodding assent it was surely some +arrangement about a meeting by-and-by when Jim's drill was over, and +Margery was more certain of the fact when, the Review having ended, +and the people having strolled off to another part of the field where +sports were to take place, Mrs. Peach tripped away in the direction +of the city. + +'I'll just say a word to my partner afore he goes off the ground, if +you'll spare me a minute,' said the old lime-burner. 'Please stay +here till I'm back again.' He edged along the front till he reached +Jim. + +'How is she?' said the latter. + +'In a trimming sweat,' said Mr. Vine. 'And my counsel to 'ee is to +carry this larry no further. 'Twill do no good. She's as ready to +make friends with 'ee as any wife can be; and more showing off can +only do harm.' + +'But I must finish off with a spurt,' said Jim. 'And this is how I +am going to do it. I have arranged with Mrs. Peach that, as soon as +we soldiers have entered the town and been dismissed, I'll meet her +there. It is really to say good-bye, but she don't know that; and I +wanted it to look like a lopement to Margery's eyes. When I'm clear +of Mrs. Peach I'll come back here and make it up with Margery on the +spot. But don't say I'm coming, or she may be inclined to throw off +again. Just hint to her that I may be meaning to be off to London +with the widow.' + +The old man still insisted that this was going too far. + +'No, no, it isn't,' said Jim. 'I know how to manage her. 'Twill +just mellow her heart nicely by the time I come back. I must bring +her down real tender, or 'twill all fail.' + +His senior reluctantly gave in and returned to Margery. A short time +afterwards the Yeomanry hand struck up, and Jim with the regiment +followed towards Exonbury. + +'Yes, yes; they are going to meet,' said Margery to herself, +perceiving that Mrs. Peach had so timed her departure as to be in the +town at Jim's dismounting. + +'Now we will go and see the games,' said Mr. Vine; 'they are really +worth seeing. There's greasy poles, and jumping in sacks, and other +trials of the intellect, that nobody ought to miss who wants to be +abreast of his generation.' + +Margery felt so indignant at the apparent assignation, which seemed +about to take place despite her anonymous writing, that she +helplessly assented to go anywhere, dropping behind Vine, that he +might not see her mood. + +Jim followed out his programme with literal exactness. No sooner was +the troop dismissed in the city than he sent Tony to stable and +joined Mrs. Peach, who stood on the edge of the pavement expecting +him. But this acquaintance was to end: he meant to part from her +for ever and in the quickest time, though civilly; for it was +important to be with Margery as soon as possible. He had nearly +completed the manoeuvre to his satisfaction when, in drawing her +handkerchief from her pocket to wipe the tears from her eyes, Mrs. +Peach's hand grasped the paper, which she read at once. + +'What! is that true?' she said, holding it out to Jim. + +Jim started and admitted that it was, beginning an elaborate +explanation and apologies. But Mrs. Peach was thoroughly roused, and +then overcome. 'He's married, he's married!' she said, and swooned, +or feigned to swoon, so that Jim was obliged to support her. + +'He's married, he's married!' said a boy hard by who watched the +scene with interest. + +'He's married, he's married!' said a hilarious group of other boys +near, with smiles several inches broad, and shining teeth; and so the +exclamation echoed down the street. + +Jim cursed his ill-luck; the loss of time that this dilemma entailed +grew serious; for Mrs. Peach was now in such a hysterical state that +he could not leave her with any good grace or feeling. It was +necessary to take her to a refreshment room, lavish restoratives upon +her, and altogether to waste nearly half an hour. When she had kept +him as long as she chose, she forgave him; and thus at last he got +away, his heart swelling with tenderness towards Margery. He at once +hurried up the street to effect the reconciliation with her. + +'How shall I do it?' he said to himself. 'Why, I'll step round to +her side, fish for her hand, draw it through my arm as if I wasn't +aware of it. Then she'll look in my face, I shall look in hers, and +we shall march off the field triumphant, and the thing will be done +without takings or tears.' + +He entered the field and went straight as an arrow to the place +appointed for the meeting. It was at the back of a refreshment tent +outside the mass of spectators, and divided from their view by the +tent itself. He turned the corner of the canvas, and there beheld +Vine at the indicated spot. But Margery was not with him. + +Vine's hat was thrust back into his poll. His face was pale, and his +manner bewildered. 'Hullo? what's the matter?' said Jim. 'Where's +my Margery?' + +'You've carried this footy game too far, my man!' exclaimed Vine, +with the air of a friend who has 'always told you so.' 'You ought to +have dropped it several days ago, when she would have come to 'ee +like a cooing dove. Now this is the end o't!' + +'Hey! what, my Margery? Has anything happened, for God's sake?' + +'She's gone.' + +'Where to?' + +'That's more than earthly man can tell! I never see such a thing! +'Twas a stroke o' the black art--as if she were sperrited away. When +we got to the games I said--mind, you told me to!--I said, "Jim +Hayward thinks o' going off to London with that widow woman"--mind +you told me to! She showed no wonderment, though a' seemed very low. +Then she said to me, "I don't like standing here in this slummocky +crowd. I shall feel more at home among the gentlepeople." And then +she went to where the carriages were drawn up, and near her there was +a grand coach, a-blazing with lions and unicorns, and hauled by two +coal-black horses. I hardly thought much of it then, and by degrees +lost sight of her behind it. Presently the other carriages moved +off, and I thought still to see her standing there. But no, she had +vanished; and then I saw the grand coach rolling away, and glimpsed +Margery in it, beside a fine dark gentleman with black mustachios, +and a very pale prince-like face. As soon as the horses got into the +hard road they rattled on like hell-and-skimmer, and went out of +sight in the dust, and--that's all. If you'd come back a little +sooner you'd ha' caught her.' + +Jim had turned whiter than his pipeclay. 'O, this is too bad--too +bad!' he cried in anguish, striking his brow. 'That paper and that +fainting woman kept me so long. Who could have done it? But 'tis my +fault. I've stung her too much. I shouldn't have carried it so +far.' + +'You shouldn't--just what I said,' replied his senior. + +'She thinks I've gone off with that cust widow; and to spite me she's +gone off with the man! Do you know who that stranger wi' the lions +and unicorns is? Why, 'tis that foreigner who calls himself a Baron, +and took Mount Lodge for six months last year to make mischief--a +villain! O, my Margery--that it should come to this! She's lost, +she's ruined!--Which way did they go?' + +Jim turned to follow in the direction indicated, when, behold, there +stood at his back her father, Dairyman Tucker. + +'Now look here, young man,' said Dairyman Tucker. 'I've just heard +all that wailing--and straightway will ask 'ee to stop it sharp. +'Tis like your brazen impudence to teave and wail when you be another +woman's husband; yes, faith, I see'd her a-fainting in yer arms when +you wanted to get away from her, and honest folk a-standing round who +knew you'd married her, and said so. I heard it, though you didn't +see me. "He's married!" says they. Some sly register-office +business, no doubt; but sly doings will out. As for Margery--who's +to be called higher titles in these parts hencefor'ard--I'm her +father, and I say it's all right what she's done. Don't I know +private news, hey? Haven't I just learnt that secret weddings of +high people can happen at expected deathbeds by special licence, as +well as low people at registrars' offices? And can't husbands come +back and claim their own when they choose? Begone, young man, and +leave noblemen's wives alone; and I thank God I shall be rid of a +numskull!' + +Swift words of explanation rose to Jim's lips, but they paused there +and died. At that last moment he could not, as Margery's husband, +announce Margery's shame and his own, and transform her father's +triumph to wretchedness at a blow. + +'I--I--must leave here,' he stammered. Going from the place in an +opposite course to that of the fugitives, he doubled when out of +sight, and in an incredibly short space had entered the town. Here +he made inquiries for the emblazoned carriage, and gained from one or +two persons a general idea of its route. They thought it had taken +the highway to London. Saddling poor Tony before he had half eaten +his corn, Jim galloped along the same road. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + +Now Jim was quite mistaken in supposing that by leaving the field in +a roundabout manner he had deceived Dairyman Tucker as to his object. +That astute old man immediately divined that Jim was meaning to track +the fugitives, in ignorance (as the dairyman supposed) of their +lawful relation. He was soon assured of the fact, for, creeping to a +remote angle of the field, he saw Jim hastening into the town. +Vowing vengeance on the young lime-burner for his mischievous +interference between a nobleman and his secretly-wedded wife, the +dairy-farmer determined to balk him. + +Tucker had ridden on to the Review ground, so that there was no +necessity for him, as there had been for poor Jim, to re-enter the +town before starting. The dairyman hastily untied his mare from the +row of other horses, mounted, and descended to a bridle-path which +would take him obliquely into the London road a mile or so ahead. +The old man's route being along one side of an equilateral triangle, +while Jim's was along two sides of the same, the former was at the +point of intersection long before Hayward. + +Arrived here, the dairyman pulled up and looked around. It was a +spot at which the highway forked; the left arm, the more important, +led on through Sherton Abbas and Melchester to London; the right to +Idmouth and the coast. Nothing was visible on the white track to +London; but on the other there appeared the back of a carriage, which +rapidly ascended a distant hill and vanished under the trees. It was +the Baron's who, according to the sworn information of the gardener +at Mount Lodge, had made Margery his wife. + +The carriage having vanished, the dairyman gazed in the opposite +direction, towards Exonbury. Here he beheld Jim in his regimentals, +laboriously approaching on Tony's back. + +Soon he reached the forking roads, and saw the dairyman by the +wayside. But Jim did not halt. Then the dairyman practised the +greatest duplicity of his life. + +'Right along the London road, if you want to catch 'em!' he said. + +'Thank 'ee, dairyman, thank 'ee!' cried Jim, his pale face lighting +up with gratitude, for he believed that Tucker had learnt his mistake +from Vine, and had come to his assistance. Without drawing rein he +diminished along the road not taken by the flying pair. The dairyman +rubbed his hands with delight, and returned to the city as the +cathedral clock struck five. + +Jim pursued his way through the dust, up hill and down hill; but +never saw ahead of him the vehicle of his search. That vehicle was +passing along a diverging way at a distance of many miles from where +he rode. Still he sped onwards, till Tony showed signs of breaking +down; and then Jim gathered from inquiries he made that he had come +the wrong way. It burst upon his mind that the dairyman, still +ignorant of the truth, had misinformed him. Heavier in his heart +than words can describe he turned Tony's drooping head, and resolved +to drag his way home. + +But the horse was now so jaded that it was impossible to proceed far. +Having gone about half a mile back he came again to a small roadside +hamlet and inn, where he put up Tony for a rest and feed. As for +himself, there was no quiet in him. He tried to sit and eat in the +inn kitchen; but he could not stay there. He went out, and paced up +and down the road. + +Standing in sight of the white way by which he had come he beheld +advancing towards him the horses and carriage he sought, now black +and daemonic against the slanting fires of the western sun. + +The why and wherefore of this sudden appearance he did not pause to +consider. His resolve to intercept the carriage was instantaneous. +He ran forward, and doggedly waiting barred the way to the advancing +equipage. + +The Baron's coachman shouted, but Jim stood firm as a rock, and on +the former attempting to push past him Jim drew his sword, resolving +to cut the horses down rather than be displaced. The animals were +thrown nearly back upon their haunches, and at this juncture a +gentleman looked out of the window. It was the Baron himself. + +'Who's there?' he inquired. + +'James Hayward!' replied the young man fiercely, 'and he demands his +wife.' + +The Baron leapt out, and told the coachman to drive back out of sight +and wait for him. + +'I was hastening to find you,' he said to Jim. 'Your wife is where +she ought to be, and where you ought to be also--by your own +fireside. Where's the other woman?' + +Jim, without replying, looked incredulously into the carriage as it +turned. Margery was certainly not there. 'The other woman is +nothing to me,' he said bitterly. 'I used her to warm up Margery: I +have now done with her. The question I ask, my lord, is, what +business had you with Margery to-day?' + +'My business was to help her to regain the husband she had seemingly +lost. I saw her; she told me you had eloped by the London road with +another. I, who have--mostly--had her happiness at heart, told her I +would help her to follow you if she wished. She gladly agreed; we +drove after, but could hear no tidings of you in front of us. Then I +took her--to your house--and there she awaits you. I promised to +send you to her if human effort could do it, and was tracking you for +that purpose.' + +'Then you've been a-pursuing after me?' + +'You and the widow.' + +'And I've been pursuing after you and Margery! My noble lord, your +actions seem to show that I ought to believe you in this; and when +you say you've her happiness at heart, I don't forget that you've +formerly proved it to be so. Well, Heaven forbid that I should think +wrongfully of you if you don't deserve it! A mystery to me you have +always been, my noble lord, and in this business more than in any.' + +'I am glad to hear you say no worse. In one hour you'll have proof +of my conduct--good and bad. Can I do anything more? Say the word, +and I'll try.' + +Jim reflected. 'Baron,' he said, 'I am a plain man, and wish only to +lead a quiet life with my wife, as a man should. You have great +power over her--power to any extent, for good or otherwise. If you +command her anything on earth, righteous or questionable, that she'll +do. So that, since you ask me if you can do more for me, I'll answer +this, you can promise never to see her again. I mean no harm, my +lord; but your presence can do no good; you will trouble us. If I +return to her, will you for ever stay away?' + +'Hayward,' said the Baron, 'I swear to you that I will disturb you +and your wife by my presence no more. And he took Jim's hand, and +pressed it within his own upon the hilt of Jim's sword. + +In relating this incident to the present narrator Jim used to declare +that, to his fancy, the ruddy light of the setting sun burned with +more than earthly fire on the Baron's face as the words were spoken; +and that the ruby flash of his eye in the same light was what he +never witnessed before nor since in the eye of mortal man. After +this there was nothing more to do or say in that place. Jim +accompanied his never-to-be-forgotten acquaintance to the carriage, +closed the door after him, waved his hat to him, and from that hour +he and the Baron met not again on earth. + +A few words will suffice to explain the fortunes of Margery while the +foregoing events were in action elsewhere. On leaving her companion +Vine she had gone distractedly among the carriages, the rather to +escape his observation than of any set purpose. Standing here she +thought she heard her name pronounced, and turning, saw her foreign +friend, whom she had supposed to be, if not dead, a thousand miles +off. He beckoned, and she went close. 'You are ill--you are +wretched,' he said, looking keenly in her face. 'Where's your +husband?' + +She told him her sad suspicion that Jim had run away from her. The +Baron reflected, and inquired a few other particulars of her late +life. Then he said: 'You and I must find him. Come with me.' At +this word of command from the Baron she had entered the carriage as +docilely as a child, and there she sat beside him till he chose to +speak, which was not till they were some way out of the town, at the +forking ways, and the Baron had discovered that Jim was certainly +not, as they had supposed, making off from Margery along that +particular branch of the fork that led to London. + +'To pursue him in this way is useless, I perceive,' he said. 'And +the proper course now is that I should take you to his house. That +done I will return, and bring him to you if mortal persuasion can do +it.' + +'I didn't want to go to his house without him, sir,' said she, +tremblingly. + +'Didn't want to!' he answered. 'Let me remind you, Margery Hayward, +that your place is in your husband's house. Till you are there you +have no right to criticize his conduct, however wild it may be. Why +have you not been there before?' + +'I don't know, sir,' she murmured, her tears falling silently upon +her hand. + +'Don't you think you ought to be there?' + +She did not answer. + +'Of course you ought.' + +Still she did not speak. + +The Baron sank into silence, and allowed his eye to rest on her. +What thoughts were all at once engaging his mind after those moments +of reproof? Margery had given herself into his hands without a +remonstrance, her husband had apparently deserted her. She was +absolutely in his power, and they were on the high road. + +That his first impulse in inviting her to accompany him had been the +legitimate one denoted by his words cannot reasonably be doubted. +That his second was otherwise soon became revealed, though not at +first to her, for she was too bewildered to notice where they were +going. Instead of turning and taking the road to Jim's, the Baron, +as if influenced suddenly by her reluctance to return thither if Jim +was playing truant, signalled to the coachman to take the branch road +to the right, as her father had discerned. + +They soon approached the coast near Idmouth. The carriage stopped. +Margery awoke from her reverie. + +'Where are we?' she said, looking out of the window, with a start. +Before her was an inlet of the sea, and in the middle of the inlet +rode a yacht, its masts repeating as if from memory the rocking they +had practised in their native forest. + +'At a little sea-side nook, where my yacht lies at anchor,' he said +tentatively. 'Now, Margery, in five minutes we can be aboard, and in +half an hour we can be sailing away all the world over. Will you +come?' + +'I cannot decide,' she said, in low tones. + +'Why not?' + +'Because--' + +Then on a sudden, Margery seemed to see all contingencies: she +became white as a fleece, and a bewildered look came into her eyes. +With clasped hands she leant on the Baron. + +Baron von Xanten observed her distracted look, averted his face, and +coming to a decision opened the carriage door, quickly mounted +outside, and in a second or two the carriage left the shore behind, +and ascended the road by which it had come. + +In about an hour they reached Jim Hayward's home. The Baron +alighted, and spoke to her through the window. 'Margery, can you +forgive a lover's bad impulse, which I swear was unpremeditated?' he +asked. 'If you can, shake my hand.' + +She did not do it, but eventually allowed him to help her out of the +carriage. He seemed to feel the awkwardness keenly; and seeing it, +she said, 'Of course I forgive you, sir, for I felt for a moment as +you did. Will you send my husband to me?' + +'I will, if any man can,' said he. 'Such penance is milder than I +deserve! God bless you and give you happiness! I shall never see +you again!' He turned, entered the carriage, and was gone; and +having found out Jim's course, came up with him upon the road as +described. + +In due time the latter reached his lodging at his partner's. The +woman who took care of the house in Vine's absence at once told Jim +that a lady who had come in a carriage was waiting for him in his +sitting-room. Jim proceeded thither with agitation, and beheld, +shrinkingly ensconced in the large slippery chair, and surrounded by +the brilliant articles that had so long awaited her, his long- +estranged wife. + +Margery's eyes were round and fear-stricken. She essayed to speak, +but Jim, strangely enough, found the readier tongue then. 'Why did I +do it, you would ask,' he said. 'I cannot tell. Do you forgive my +deception? O Margery--you are my Margery still! But how could you +trust yourself in the Baron's hands this afternoon, without knowing +him better?' + +'He said I was to come, and I went,' she said, as well as she could +for tearfulness. + +'You obeyed him blindly.' + +'I did. But perhaps I was not justified in doing it.' + +'I don't know,' said Jim musingly. 'I think he's a good man.' +Margery did not explain. And then a sunnier mood succeeded her +tremblings and tears, till old Mr. Vine came into the house below, +and Jim went down to declare that all was well, and sent off his +partner to break the news to Margery's father, who as yet remained +unenlightened. + +The dairyman bore the intelligence of his daughter's untitled state +as best he could, and punished her by not coming near her for several +weeks, though at last he grumbled his forgiveness, and made up +matters with Jim. The handsome Mrs. Peach vanished to Plymouth, and +found another sailor, not without a reasonable complaint against Jim +and Margery both that she had been unfairly used. + +As for the mysterious gentleman who had exercised such an influence +over their lives, he kept his word, and was a stranger to Lower +Wessex thenceforward. Baron or no Baron, Englishman or foreigner, he +had shown a genuine interest in Jim, and real sorrow for a certain +reckless phase of his acquaintance with Margery. That he had a more +tender feeling toward the young girl than he wished her or any one +else to perceive there could be no doubt. That he was strongly +tempted at times to adopt other than conventional courses with regard +to her is also clear, particularly at that critical hour when she +rolled along the high road with him in the carriage, after turning +from the fancied pursuit of Jim. But at other times he schooled +impassioned sentiments into fair conduct, which even erred on the +side of harshness. In after years there was a report that another +attempt on his life with a pistol, during one of those fits of +moodiness to which he seemed constitutionally liable, had been +effectual; but nobody in Silverthorn was in a position to ascertain +the truth. + +There he is still regarded as one who had something about him magical +and unearthly. In his mystery let him remain; for a man, no less +than a landscape, who awakens an interest under uncertain lights and +touches of unfathomable shade, may cut but a poor figure in a garish +noontide shine. + +When she heard of his mournful death Margery sat in her nursing- +chair, gravely thinking for nearly ten minutes, to the total neglect +of her infant in the cradle. Jim, from the other side of the fire- +place, said: 'You are sorry enough for him, Margery. I am sure of +that.' + +'Yes, yes,' she murmured, 'I am sorry.' After a moment she added: +'Now that he's dead I'll make a confession, Jim, that I have never +made to a soul. If he had pressed me--which he did not--to go with +him when I was in the carriage that night beside his yacht, I would +have gone. And I was disappointed that he did not press me.' + +'Suppose he were to suddenly appear now, and say in a voice of +command, "Margery, come with me!"' + +'I believe I should have no power to disobey,' she returned, with a +mischievous look. 'He was like a magician to me. I think he was +one. He could move me as a loadstone moves a speck of steel . . . +Yet no,' she added, hearing the infant cry, 'he would not move me +now. It would be so unfair to baby.' + +'Well,' said Jim, with no great concern (for 'la jalousie +retrospective,' as George Sand calls it, had nearly died out of him), +'however he might move 'ee, my love, he'll never come. He swore it +to me: and he was a man of his word.' + +Midsummer, 1883. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid, by Hardy + |