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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of King of the Castle, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: King of the Castle
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34609]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING OF THE CASTLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+King of the Castle
+By George Manville Fenn
+Published by Ward & Downey, 12 York Street, Covent Garden, London
+This edition dated 1892
+
+Volume One, Chapter I.
+
+PART OF THE GARRISON.
+
+"Hullo, Claude, going for a walk?"
+
+"Yes, papa."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No: Mary is going with me."
+
+"Humph!  If you were as giddy as Mary, I'd--I'd--"
+
+"What, papa?"
+
+"Don't know; something bad.  But, Claude, my girl."
+
+"Yes, dear?"
+
+"Why the dickens don't you dress better?  Look at you!"
+
+The girl admonished turned merrily round, and stood facing an old
+bevelled-glass cabinet in the solid-looking, well-furnished library, and
+saw her reflection--one which for some reason made her colour slightly;
+perhaps with pleasure at seeing her handsome oval face with soft, deep
+brown hair, and large dark, well-shaded eyes--a face that needed no more
+display to set it off than the plain green cloth well-fitting dress,
+held at the throat by a dead gold brooch of Roman make.
+
+"Well, papa," she said, as she altered the sit of her natty,
+flat-brimmed straw hat, "what is the matter with my dress?"
+
+The big-headed, grey-haired man addressed gave his stiff, wavy locks an
+impatient rub, wrinkled his broad forehead, and then smiled in a happy,
+satisfied way, his dark eyes lighting up, and his smile driving away the
+hard, severe look which generally rested upon his brow.
+
+"The matter?" he said, drawing the girl on to his knee and kissing her.
+"I don't understand such things; but your dress seems too common and
+plain."
+
+"But one can't wear silks and satins and muslins to scramble among the
+rocks and go up the glen."
+
+"Well, there, don't bother me.  But dress better.  If you want more
+money you can have it.  You ought to take the lead here, and there were
+ladies on some of the yachts and on the pier yesterday who quite left
+you behind.--Yes!  What is it?"
+
+"Isaac Woodham, from the quarry, sir, would like to see you," said a
+servant.
+
+"Confound Isaac Woodham!  Send him in."
+
+The servant retired, leaving his master muttering.
+
+"Wants to spend money in some confounded new machinery or something.  I
+made all my money without machinery, Claude, but these people want to
+waste it with their new-fangled plans."
+
+"But, papa dear, do speak more gently to them."
+
+"What! let them be masters and eat me out of house and home?  Not such a
+fool."
+
+"But, papa--"
+
+"Hold your tongue.  Weak little goose.  You don't know them; I do.  They
+must be ruled--ruled.  There: be off, and get your walk.  Seen Mr
+Glyddyr to-day?"
+
+The girl flushed scarlet.
+
+"Hallo, pussy; that brings the colour to your cheeks."
+
+"No, papa; indeed I--"
+
+"Yes, I know.  I say, Claudie, fine handsome fellow, eh?  Bit too pale
+for a yachtsman.  But what a yacht!  Do you know he came in for three
+hundred and fifty thousand when his father died?"
+
+"Indeed, papa?" said the girl carelessly.
+
+"Yes!  Old Glyddyr was not like your grandfather, confound him."
+
+"Papa!"
+
+"Con--found him!  Didn't I speak plain?  Glyddyr left his boys a slate
+quarry in Wales for the eldest, and three hundred and fifty for the
+younger.  Parry's the younger.  Eh?  Nice fortune for a handsome young
+yachtsman, Claudie.  There, go and have your walk, and keep Mary out of
+mischief.--Well?"
+
+This was to a hard, heavy-looking man in working clothes, covered with
+earth stains and stone dust, who was ushered into the room, and who,
+ignoring the speaker's presence, stood bowing awkwardly, cap in hand,
+and changing it from right to left and back.
+
+"Quite well, thank ye, miss, and sent her dooty to you."
+
+"I'm very glad, Woodham.  Remember me kindly to Sarah, and tell her I
+shall call at the cottage soon."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the old man impatiently, following his daughter to the
+door; "go on now.  I have business with Woodham.  Don't be so familiar
+with the work-people," he whispered, as he closed the door after the
+girl, who ran lightly to the foot of the great carved oak staircase, to
+call out merrily,--
+
+"Not ready, Mary?"
+
+"Yes; coming, coming, coming," and a quaint, mischievous-looking little
+body came tripping down the stairs, halting slightly as if from some
+form of lameness, which her activity partly concealed.  But no effort or
+trick of dress could hide the fact that she was deformed, stunted in
+proportion, and with her head resting closely between her shoulders,
+which she had a habit of shrugging impatiently when addressed.
+
+"Oh, do make haste, Mary, or we shall have no time before lunch."
+
+"Yes, I know.  You've seen him go by."
+
+"For shame, Mary!" said Claude, flushing.  "You are always thinking of
+such things.  It is not true."
+
+"Yes, it is; and I don't think more of such things than you do.  `Oh,
+'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go round,'" she
+sang, in a singularly sweet, thrilling soprano voice, her pretty but
+thin keen face lighting up with a malicious smile.  But the old song was
+checked by Claude's hand being clapped sharply over her mouth.
+
+"Be quiet, and come along.  Papa will hear you."
+
+"Well, I daresay he wants to see his darling married.  Take away your
+hand, or I'll bite it."
+
+"You're in one of your mocking moods this morning, Mary, and you really
+make me hate you."
+
+"Don't tell fibs," said the deformed girl, throwing her arms lovingly
+about her companion.  "You couldn't hate anybody, you dear old pet; and
+why shouldn't you have a true, handsome lover?"
+
+"Oh, Mary, you are insufferable.  You think of nothing else but lovers."
+
+"Well, why not, Claudie?" said the girl with a sigh, and a peculiarly
+pinched look coming about her mouth, as her clear, white forehead
+wrinkled up, and her fine eyes seemed full of trouble.  "One always
+longs for the unattainable.  Nobody will ever love me, so why shouldn't
+I enjoy seeing somebody love you?"
+
+"Mary, darling, I love you dearly."
+
+"Yes, pet, like the dearest, sweetest old sister that ever was.  You
+worship poor old humpty dumpty?"
+
+"Don't ridicule yourself.  Mary dear."
+
+"Why not?  But I meant no nice, handsome Christopher Lisle will ever
+want to look in my eyes and say--"
+
+"Will you be quiet, Mary?  Why will you be always bringing up Mr
+Christopher Lisle?  I never tease you about Mr Gullick."
+
+"Because--because--because--" She did not finish her speech, but burst
+out into a loud, ringing laugh, full of teasing, malicious mirth, till
+she saw Claude's flushed face, and then she stopped short.
+
+"There, I've done.  Which way shall we go?"
+
+"I don't care.  I feel as if I'd rather stay at home now."
+
+"No, no; I won't tease.  Shall we go as far as the town?"
+
+"No; anywhere you like."
+
+"Say somewhere."
+
+"Not I.  You'll only tease me, and say I had some reason.  I'll only go
+where you choose."
+
+"Then you shall, dear.  We'll go up the east glen to the fall, and then
+cross over the hill and come back by the west glen, and you shall tease
+me as much as you like."
+
+"I don't want to tease you."
+
+Mary made a grimace as she looked sidewise at herself, but she coloured
+a little, and was silent for a time.
+
+They were already some hundred yards from the great, grey granite
+mansion, which stood upon a bald bluff of cliff, built within the past
+thirty years, and by the fancy of its architect made to resemble a
+stronghold of the Norman times, with its battlements, towers, frowning
+gateway, moat and drawbridge crossing the deep channel, kept well filled
+by a spring far up in one of the glens at the back, while the front of
+the solid-looking, impregnable edifice frowned down upon the glittering
+sea.
+
+"See how grand Castle Dangerous looks from here," said Mary Dillon, as
+they were about to turn up the glen.  "Don't you often feel as if we
+were two forlorn maidens--I mean," she cried merrily, "a forlorn maiden
+and a half--shut up in that terrible place waiting for a gallant knight
+and a half to come and rescue us from the clutches of ogre-like Uncle
+Gartram?"
+
+"Mary, darling," said Claude affectionately, "if you knew how you hurt
+me, you would cease these mocking allusions to your affliction."
+
+"Then I will not hurt you any more, pet.  But I am such a sight."
+
+"No, you are not.  You have, when in repose, the sweetest, cleverest
+face I ever saw."
+
+"Let's be in repose, then."
+
+"And you know you are brilliant in intellect, where I am stupid."
+
+"Oh! if I could be as stupid!"
+
+"And you have the sweetest voice possible.  See what gifts these are."
+
+"Oh, yes, I suppose so, Claudie, but I don't care for them a bit--not a
+millionth part as much as having your love.  There, don't let's talk
+nonsense.  Come along."
+
+She hurried her companion over a bridge and towards a path roughly made
+beside the babbling stream which supplied the moat at the Fort, and then
+in and out among the rocks, and beneath the pensile birches which shed a
+dappled shade over the path, while every here and there in gardens great
+clumps of fuchsias and hydrangeas showed the moist warmth of the
+sheltered nook.
+
+They walked quickly, Claude urged on by her companion, who climbed the
+steep path with the agility of a goat, till they reached a fall, where
+the water came tumbling over the hoary, weather-stained rocks, and the
+path forked, one track going over the stream behind the fall, and the
+other becoming a rough stairway right up the side of the glen.
+
+"Hadn't we better go this way?" said Claude timidly, indicating the
+route to the left.
+
+"No; too far round," said Mary peremptorily.  "Come along," and she
+began to skip from rock to rock and rough step to step, up the side of
+the glen, Claude following her with more effort till they reached the
+rugged top of the cliff, and continued their walk onward among heather
+bloom and patches of beautifully fine grass, with here and there broken
+banks, where the wild thyme made the air fragrant with its scent.
+
+"This is ten times as nice as going through the woods," cried Mary.
+"You seem to get such delicious puffs of the sea breeze.  _Vorwarts_!"
+
+She hurried her companion on for about a mile, when the track turned
+sharply off to the right, and a steep descent led them to the banks of
+another stream which was gradually converging towards the one they had
+left, so that the two nearly joined where they swept down their rocky
+channels into the sea.
+
+"This is ten times as good a way, Claudie.  I always think it is the
+prettiest walk we have.  Look what a colour the fir trees are turning,
+with those pale green tassels at the tips; and how beautiful those
+patches of gorse are.  I wish one could get such a colour in paintings."
+
+She chatted on merrily as they descended the stream, with its many turns
+and zigzags, through the deep chasm along which it ran; and whenever
+Claude appeared disposed to speak, Mary always had some familiar object
+to which she could draw her companion's attention.  In fact, it seemed
+as if she would not give her time to think, as she noted that a quick,
+nervous look was directed at the stream from time to time.
+
+A stranger might have thought Claude was nervous about the risks of the
+path as it went round some pool, with the rocks coming down
+perpendicularly to the deep, dark water.  Or that she was in dread of
+encountering graver difficulties in the lonely ravine, whose almost
+perpendicular sides were clothed with growth of a hundred tints.  Far
+beneath them, flashing, foaming, and hurrying on with a deep, murmuring
+sound, ran the little river, from rapid to fall, and from fall to deep,
+dark, sluggish-looking hole; while in places the trees, which had
+contrived to get a footing in some crevice of the rock, overhung the
+river, and threw the water beneath into the deepest shade.
+
+They reached, at length, a more open part, where the sun shone down
+brightly, and their way lay through a patch of moss-grown hazel stubbs,
+which after a few steps made a complete screen from the sun's rays, and
+they walked over a verdant carpet which silenced every footfall.
+
+"We shall have plenty of time," said Mary, as they reached the farther
+edge of the hazel clump, "and we may as well sit down on the rocks and
+read."
+
+"No, not now," said Claude hastily.  Then in an agitated whisper, as a
+peculiar whizzing noise was heard: "Oh, Mary, this is too cruel.  Why
+have you brought me here?"
+
+"Because it was not considered good for Adam to live alone in Paradise.
+There's poor Adam alone and disconsolate, fishing to pass time away.
+Paradise in the glen is very pretty, but dull.  Enter Eve.  Now, Claude,
+dear, show yourself worthy of the name of woman.  Go on!"
+
+Volume One, Chapter II.
+
+THINGS GO CROOKED.
+
+Norman Gartram returned to his seat, looking rigid and scowling as he
+gazed fiercely at the workman.
+
+"Well?" he said sharply.
+
+"Don't believe she can be his bairn," said the workman to himself, as he
+returned his employers angry stare.
+
+"I said _Well_!"
+
+"I heard you, master.  Needn't shout."
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"Come about the big block at the corner.  Time it was blasted down."
+
+"Then blast it down; and how many more times am I to tell you to say
+_sir_ to me?"
+
+"You're my master, and pay me my wage, and I earn it honest.  That's all
+there is between us, for the Lord made all men equal, and--"
+
+"Look here, Isaac Woodham, once for all I will not have any of your
+Little Bethel cant in my presence.  Now about this block; let it be
+deeply tamped, and the powder put well home."
+
+"I'm going to blast it down with dinnymite."
+
+The elder man flushed up scarlet, and the veins in his forehead swelled
+up into knotted network.
+
+"Once for all--" he thundered.
+
+"There, don't get in a way, master," said the man coolly.  "If you go on
+like that you'll be having another fit, and I'm sure you oughtn't to cut
+short such a life as yours."
+
+"Isaac Woodham, one of these days you'll tempt me to knock you down.
+Insolent brute!  And now, look here; I've told you before that I would
+not have dynamite used in my quarry.  I'll have my work done as it
+always has been done--with powder.  The first man who uses a charge of
+that cursed stuff I'll discharge."
+
+"It's better, and does its work cleaner," grumbled the man sullenly; and
+he gave his superior a morose look from under his shaggy brows.
+
+"I don't care if it's a hundred times better.  Go and blast the block
+down with powder, as it always has been done, I tell you again.  I want
+my men; and there's no trusting that other stuff, or they're not fit to
+be trusted with it.  Now go, and don't come here again without being
+summoned."
+
+"Too grand for the likes o' me, eh, Master Gartram?"
+
+"Will you have the goodness to recollect that you are speaking to a
+gentleman, sir?"
+
+"I'm speaking to another man, I being a man," said Woodham sturdily.  "I
+don't know nothing about no gentlemen.  I'm speaking to Norman Gartram,
+quarry-owner, who lives here in riches and idleness upon what we poor
+slaves have made for him by the sweat of our brows."
+
+"What does this mean?" cried the old man.  "Have you turned Socialist?"
+
+"I've turned nowt.  But as a Christian man I warn you, Norman Gartram,
+that for all your fine house and your bags of money, and company and
+purple and fine linen, `the Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away.'"
+
+"You--"
+
+"There, I'm going to do my work honest, master, and earn my wages."
+
+"And blast that granite down with powder, sir."
+
+"I know my work," grumbled the man, and he backed out of the room
+without another word.
+
+Norman Gartram--the King of the Castle, as he was called at Danmouth--
+stood listening to the man's footsteps, at first heavy and dull as they
+passed over the carpet, and then loud and echoing as he reached the
+granite paving outside, till they died away, and then, with his face
+still flushed, he laid his hand gently on his temples.
+
+"A little hot," he muttered.  "A fit?  Enough to give any man a fit to
+be spoken to like that by the canting scum.  They're spoiled, that's
+what it is--spoiled.  Claude is always fooling and petting them, and the
+more there is done for them the worse they work, and the more exacting
+they grow.  I believe they think one's capital is to be sunk solely to
+benefit them.  What the deuce do you want now?"
+
+This to the servant, who had timidly opened the door.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir."
+
+"If it's some one from the quarry, tell him I'm engaged."
+
+"Mr Glyddyr, sir."
+
+"Why didn't you say so before?  Where is he?"
+
+"In the drawing-room, sir."
+
+Norman Gartram sprung at once from his chair, hurriedly crossed the
+room, stepped out of the window on to the granite paving, which did duty
+in his garden for a gravel walk, carefully closed the French casement,
+and locked it with a small pass-key he carried in his pocket, and walked
+round to the verandah in front of the house, entering by the French
+window of the drawing-room, where a tall, handsome man of about thirty
+was leaning against a table, apparently admiring the brown leather shoes
+which formed part of his yachting costume.
+
+"Ah, Mr Glyddyr, glad to see you.  Kept your word, then?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I always do that," said the visitor, shaking hands warmly.
+"Not come at an inconvenient time, have I--not too busy?"
+
+"Never too busy to receive friends," said Gartram.  "Sit down, sit
+down."
+
+"Miss Gartram none the worse for her visit to the yacht?"
+
+"Oh, by no means; enjoyed it thoroughly."
+
+"I could see that little Miss Dillon did, but I thought Miss Gartram
+seemed rather bored."
+
+"Oh dear, no; nothing of the kind; but you'll have something?"
+
+"Eh?  No, thanks.  Too early."
+
+"A cigar?"
+
+"Cigar?  Oh, come, I can't refuse that."
+
+"Come into my room, then.  Obliged to obey the female tyranny of my
+household, Mr Glyddyr.  I'm supposed to be master, but woman rules,
+sir, woman rules.  My daughter does what she pleases with me."
+
+"Happy man!"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I say happy man, sir, to be ruled by such a queen."
+
+Norman Gartram gave him a keen look.
+
+"Don't pay compliments, sir--society compliments.  We are out of all
+society.  I've kept my daughter out of it.  Only a tradesman."
+
+"Lord Gartram's brother a tradesman, sir?"
+
+"Yes; why not?  Why shouldn't he be?  My father left my brother and me
+with a few hundred pounds a-piece, and the prestige of being nobleman's
+sons, sir.  I had to consider what I should do--loaf about through
+drawing-rooms as a beggarly aristocrat, always in debt till I could
+cajole a rich girl into making me her poodle; or take off my coat and go
+to work like a man.  Be a contemptible hanger-on, too poor to dress
+well, or a sturdy, hardworking human being."
+
+"And your choice, sir?" said the visitor, inquiring for what he knew by
+heart.
+
+"The latter, sir.  I bit my nails down to the quick till I had an idea--
+sitting out on this very coast.  I was yonder smoking a bad cigar which
+my brother had given me.  I couldn't afford to buy cigars, neither could
+he, but he bought them all the same.  I sat smoking that cigar and
+thought out what I was sitting upon--granite--and went back to the hotel
+where we were staying, and told my brother what I had thought out.  He
+called me a fool, and went his way.  I, being a fool, went mine."
+
+"Yes, sir?"
+
+"My brother," said Gartram, "married a shrewish, elderly woman with some
+money.  I spent all I had in buying a few acres of the cliff land by the
+side of this coast.  Brother Fred said I must be mad.  Perhaps I am; but
+my cliff quarry has supplied granite for some of the finest buildings in
+England.  It has made me a rich man, while my Lord Gartram has to ask
+his wife for every shilling he wants to spend--when he does not ask me.
+But here, come along; I never know when to stop if I begin talking about
+myself.  This way."
+
+He led the visitor into his study, unlocked an oaken door in the wall
+with a bright key, and it swung open heavily, showing that the oak
+covered a slab of granite, and that the closet was formed of the same
+glittering stone.
+
+"Curious place to keep cigars, eh?  All granite, sir.  I believe in
+granite.  Take one of these," he continued, as he carelessly placed a
+couple of cedar boxes on the table.  "Light up.  I'll have one too.  Bad
+habit at this time in the morning, but one can't be always at work, eh?"
+
+"No, sir; and you work too hard, if report is correct."
+
+"Hang report!" said the old man, taking a cigar, throwing himself back
+in a chair, and gazing at his visitor through his half-closed eyes.
+"That a good one?"
+
+"Delicious!" said the visitor laconically, and there was silence.
+
+"What do you think of my place, eh?"
+
+"Solid.  Quite stand a siege."
+
+"I meant it to, sir.  There isn't a spot where I could use granite
+instead of wood that it is not used.  Granite arches instead of beams
+everywhere.  When I have my gate locked at night, I can laugh at all the
+burglars in Christendom."
+
+"Yes; I should think you are pretty safe here."
+
+There was another pause, broken by Gartram saying suddenly, in a loud,
+sharp voice,--
+
+"Well?"
+
+The visitor was a cool man about town, but the query was so sudden and
+unexpected that he started.
+
+"Well, Mr Gartram?"
+
+"Why did you come this morning?"
+
+"You asked me to look in--a friendly call."
+
+"Won't do.  If you had meant a friendly call you would have come in the
+afternoon.  You don't want to borrow money?"
+
+"Good heavens, sir!  No."
+
+"Then out with it, lad.  You are not a boy now.  I am an old man of the
+world; speak out frankly, and let's get it done."
+
+"You guess the object of my visit, then, sir?"
+
+"No; I can feel it.  Besides, I'm not blind."
+
+Parry Glyddyr looked at his host with a half-amused, half-vexed
+expression of countenance.
+
+"No," he said thoughtfully, in reference to Gartram's last remark; "I
+suppose not, sir.  Well, it is an awkward thing to do, and I may as well
+get it over.  I will be frank."
+
+"Best way, sir, if you wish to get on with me."
+
+Glyddyr cleared his throat, became deeply interested in the ash of his
+cigar, and lolled back in his easy chair, quite conscious of the fact
+that his host was scanning him intently.
+
+"I can sail my yacht as well as the master, Mr Gartram; I have a good
+seat in the hunting field, and I don't funk my hedges; I am a dead shot;
+you know I can throw a fly; and I am not a bad judge of a horse; but
+over a talk like this I am a mere faltering boy."
+
+"Glad to hear it, sir, and hope it is your first essay.  Go on."
+
+"Well, I came here nine months ago to repair damages after a storm, and
+you did me several pleasant little services."
+
+"Never mind them."
+
+"I came again at the end of another three months in fine weather."
+
+"And you have been here several times since.  Go on."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Glyddyr, smiling; "but are all fathers like you?"
+
+"No," said Gartram, with a hoarse laugh; "I am the only one of my kind.
+There, we have had enough preamble, Parry Glyddyr.  Out with it."
+
+"I will, sir.  You say you are not blind.  You know, then, that I was
+deeply impressed by Miss Gartram the first time we met.  I treated it as
+a temporary fancy, but the feeling has grown upon me, till I can only
+think of doing one thing--coming to you as a gentleman, telling you
+frankly I love Miss Gartram, and asking your permission to visit here
+regularly as her accepted suitor."
+
+"What does Claude say to this?"
+
+"Miss Gartram?" said Glyddyr, raising his eyebrows, and removing the
+grey ash from the end of his cigar; "nothing, sir.  How could I be other
+than the ordinary acquaintance without your sanction?"
+
+"Quite right," said Gartram, looking at him searchingly, "how, indeed?"
+and he remained gazing at the unshrinking countenance before him, full
+of candour and surprise at his ignorance of etiquette till he covered
+his own eyes.  "Then Claude knows nothing of this?"
+
+"I hope and believe, sir, that she knows a great deal, but not from my
+lips.  Women, I believe, are very quick in knowing when they are
+admired."
+
+"Humph!  And you like my daughter, Mr Glyddyr?" said Gartram, exhaling
+a huge cloud of smoke.
+
+"I love Miss Gartram very dearly, sir," said the visitor frankly; "so
+well that I dare not even think of the consequence of a refusal."
+
+"Broken heart, suicide and that sort of thing, eh?"
+
+"I hope I should never make a fool of myself, Mr Gartram," said Glyddyr
+coldly.
+
+"So do I.  Now look here, sir.  I gave up society to become a business
+man--slave driver some people politely call me; but as a tradesman I
+have been so tricked and swindled by everybody, even my banker, that I
+have grown suspicious."
+
+"I don't wonder, sir.  Without going into trade, a man has to keep his
+eyes open to the rascality of the world."
+
+"Yes," said Gartram, scanning the speaker keenly still.  "Then now, sir,
+let me ask you a question."
+
+"By all means; as many as you like."
+
+"Then pray, sir, if my daughter had been a penniless girl, would you
+have felt this deep admiration for her?"
+
+"Mr Gartram!" said Glyddyr haughtily, as he flushed deeply and rose
+from his chair.  "Bah!" he added, after a pause, and he let himself sink
+back, and smoked heavily for a few moments.  "Stupid to be so put out.
+Quite a natural question.  Really, sir," he said, smiling, and looking
+ingenuously in the old man's face, "fate has been so kind to me over
+money matters that fortune-hunting has not been one of my pursuits.  In
+round numbers, my father left me three hundred thousand pounds.  Golden
+armour, sir, against the arrows of poverty, and such as turns aside so
+fierce a stab as that of yours.  Has Miss Gartram any money?"
+
+"Humph!  I have," said the old man roughly.
+
+"If she has, so much the better," continued Glyddyr, smoking calmly, and
+evidently thoroughly enjoying his cigar.  "A lady with a private purse
+of her own no doubt occupies a more happy and independent position than
+one who appeals to her husband for all she wants.  I am sorry that our
+conversation has taken this turn, Mr Gartram," he added stiffly.
+
+"I'm not, Glyddyr.  It has shown you up in another light.  Well, what do
+you want me to say?"
+
+"To say, sir?" cried the young man eagerly.
+
+"Yes.  There, I don't think I need say anything.  Yes, I do.  I don't
+like the idea of Claude marrying any one, but nature is nature.  I shall
+be carried off some day by a fit, I suppose, and when I am, I believe--
+slave driver as I am, and oppressor of the poor, as they call me, for
+making Danmouth a prosperous place, and paying thousands a year in
+wages--I should rest more comfortably if I knew my child was married to
+the man she loved."
+
+"Mr Gartram."
+
+"I haven't done, Glyddyr."
+
+There was a pause, during which the old man seemed to look his visitor
+through and through.  Then he held out his hand with a quick, sharp
+movement.
+
+"Yes," he said; "I like you, my lad: I always did.  You think too much
+of sport; but you'll weary of that, and your whole thoughts will be of
+the best and truest girl that ever lived."
+
+"Then you consent, Mr Gartram?" cried Glyddyr with animation.
+
+"No: I consent to nothing.  You've got to win her first.  I give you my
+leave, though, to win if you can; and if you do marry her--well, I
+daresay I can afford to buy her outfit--trousseau--what you may call
+it."
+
+"Mr Gartram--"
+
+"That will do.  Be cool.  You haven't won her yet, my lad."
+
+"I may speak to her at once?"
+
+"If you like; but my advice is--don't.  Lead up to it gently--make sure
+of her before you speak.  There, I'm a busy man, and I've got to go up
+the east river to look at a vein of stone which crops up there.  Take
+another cigar, and walk with me--if you like."
+
+"I will, sir.  Try one of mine."
+
+"Yes," said Gartram laconically; and as they went out into the hall, he
+purposely picked out his worst hat from the stand, and put it on.
+
+"Old chap wants to make me shy at him, and show that I don't like
+walking through the town with that hat.  Got hold of the wrong pig by
+the ear," said Glyddyr to himself.
+
+They walked along the granite terrace, with its crenellated parapet and
+row of imitation guns, laboriously chipped out of the granite; and then
+out through the gateway and over the moat, and descended to the village,
+reaching the path leading to the east glen, and were soon walking beside
+the rushing salmon river, with Gartram pointing out great veins of good
+granite as it cropped out of the side of the deep ravine.
+
+"Hang his confounded stone!" said Glyddyr to himself, after he had made
+several attempts to change the drift of the conversation.
+
+"Fine bit of stuff that, sir," said his companion, pointing across the
+river with his heavy stick.  "I believe I could cut a monolith twenty
+feet long out of that rock, but the brutes won't let me have it.  My
+solicitor has fought for it hard, but they stick to it, and money won't
+tempt them.  I believe that was the beginning of my sleeplessness--
+insomnia, as Asher calls it."
+
+"Asher?"
+
+"Yes; our doctor.  You must know him.  Pleasant, smooth-spoken fellow in
+black."
+
+"Oh, yes; of course."
+
+"Worried me a deal, that did."
+
+"And you suffer from insomnia?"
+
+"Horribly.  Keep something to exorcise the demon, though," he said
+laughingly, taking a small bottle from his pocket.  "Chloral."
+
+"Dangerous stuff, sir.  Take it cautiously."
+
+"I take it as my medical man advises."
+
+"That is right.  Of course I remember Doctor Asher, and that other young
+friend of yours--the naturalist and salmon fisherman, and--"
+
+"Oh, Lisle.  Yes; sort of ward of mine.  I am his trustee."
+
+"Quite an old friend, then, sir?"
+
+"Yes; and--eh?" said the old man laughingly.  "Why, Glyddyr, I can read
+you like a book.  Is there, or has there ever been, anything between
+Claude and Christopher Lisle?  I should think not, indeed.  Rubbish,
+man, rubbish! and--"
+
+They had just turned one of the rugged corners of the glen, and there
+before them in the distance was Chris Lisle helping Claude to catch a
+fish--his words, of course, inaudible, but his actions sufficiently
+demonstrative to make Parry Glyddyr press his teeth hardly together, and
+the owner of the granite castle grip his stick and swear.
+
+Volume One, Chapter III.
+
+LESSON THE FIRST.
+
+Things that seem far-fetched are sometimes simple matters of fact.  Just
+as Claude was glancing back, and feeling as if she would give anything
+to be back home, a dove among the trees in the fern-clad glen began to
+coo, and Mary laughed.
+
+"There," she said, "only listen.  You can't go back now.  It would be
+absurd."
+
+"But you are so imprudent," whispered Claude, whose cheeks were growing
+hotter.  "How could you?"
+
+"I wanted to see you happy, my darling coz," was whispered back.  "I saw
+him coming here with his fishing-rod, and--"
+
+"But, Mary, what will Chris Lisle think?"
+
+"Think he's in luck, and bless poor little humpy, fairy godmother me,
+and--no, no, too late to retreat.  We have been seen."
+
+For as they had passed out into an open part of the glen where the river
+widened into a pool, there, only a short distance from them, and with
+his bright, sun-browned face directed toward the river, was a sturdy,
+well-built young fellow, dressed in a dark tweed Norfolk jacket and
+knickerbockers, busily throwing a fly across the pool till, as if
+intuitively becoming aware that he was watched, he looked sharply round.
+
+The next moment there was again the peculiar buzzing sound made by a
+rapidly-wound-up multiplying winch, the rod was thrown over the young
+man's shoulder, and he turned to meet them.
+
+"Ah, little Mary!" he cried merrily; and then, with a voice full of
+tender reverence, he turned, straw hat in hand, to Claude.
+
+"I did not expect to see you here."
+
+"And I am as much surprised," she said hastily.  "Mary and I were having
+a walk."
+
+"And now we are here, Mr Lisle, you may as well show us all your
+salmon," said Mary seriously.
+
+"My salmon!  I haven't had a rise."
+
+"And we have interrupted you, perhaps, just as the fish are biting.
+Come, Mary.  Good-morning, Mr Lisle."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Only a little interjection, but so full of reproach that Claude coloured
+here deeply, and more deeply still as, upon looking round for her
+companion, she found her comfortably seated upon a mossy stone, and with
+her head turned away to hide the mischievous delight which flashed from
+her eyes.
+
+"I'm beginning to be afraid that I have offended you, Miss Gartram--
+Claude."
+
+"Oh, no; what nonsense.  Come, Mary."
+
+The stone upon which she sat was not more deaf.
+
+"Don't hurry away.  I thought I was some day to give you a lesson in
+salmon fishing."
+
+"I should never learn, Mr Lisle; and, besides, it is not a very
+ladylike accomplishment."
+
+"Anything you did, Claude, would be ladylike.  Come, I know there are
+two or three salmon in this pool.  They will not rise for me; they might
+for you."
+
+"I should scare them away."
+
+"No," said the young man meaningly; "you would attract anything to
+stay."
+
+"Mr Lisle!"
+
+"Well, what have I said?  There, forgive me, and take the rod.  You
+promised I should show you how to throw a fly."
+
+"Yes, yes; but some other time--perhaps to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow comes never," said the young man laughingly.  "No; I have my
+chance now.  Miss Dillon, did not your cousin promise to let me show her
+how to catch a salmon?"
+
+"Yes; and I am so tired.  I'll wait till you have caught one, Claude."
+
+"There," cried the young man hurriedly; and the stronger will prevailing
+over the weaker, Claude allowed her instructor to thrust the lithe rod
+he held into her hands, and, trembling and blushing, she suffered
+herself to be led to the side of the pool.
+
+"I shall never learn," she said.
+
+"Not learn!  I shall be able to come up to the Fort carrying your first
+salmon, and to say to Mr Gartram: `there, sir; salmon fishing taught in
+one lesson,' What do you say to that?"
+
+"How can she be so foolish?--Of what am I talking?--Mr Lisle, pray let
+me go."
+
+All silent sentences, but as the last was thought Claude raised her eyes
+to her companion, to meet his fixed upon hers, so full of tender,
+reverent love that she dropped her own, and fell a-trembling with a joy
+she tried vainly to crush down, while her heart beat heavily the old,
+old theme,--
+
+"He loves me well--he loves me well."
+
+They had known each other since they were boy and girl, and the
+affection had slowly and steadily grown stronger and stronger, but Chris
+Lisle had said to himself time after time that it was too soon to tell
+her his love, and ask for the guardianship of her heart; and he had
+waited, feeling satisfied that some day Claude Gartram would be his.
+
+"There," he said playfully, "now for lesson the first.  Let me draw out
+some more line.  That's the way.  Now, you know as well as I do how to
+throw.  Try to let your fly fall amongst that foam below where the water
+rushes into the pool.  That's the way.  Bravo!"
+
+"There, Mr Lisle," cried Claude, after making a very fair cast, "now
+take the rod, for I must go.  Mary, dear, come along."
+
+"Sha'n't," said Mary to herself, as she grew more deaf than ever.
+"Gather your rosebuds while you may, dear.  He's a nice, good fellow.
+Ah! how I could have loved a man like that."
+
+"Mary Dillon is too much interested in her book," said Chris.  "There,
+that's plenty of line for a good cast.  You must go on now.  It isn't so
+very wicked, Claude."
+
+"There, then, this one throw and I must go," said the girl, her cheeks
+burning, and her head seeming to swim, for she was conscious of
+nothing--running river, the foam and swirl, the glorious landscape of
+rugged glen side, and the bright sun gilding the heathery earth upon
+which she stood--conscious of nothing save the fact that Chris Lisle was
+by her, and that his words seemed to thrill her to the heart, while in
+spite of herself he seemed to have acquired a mastery over her which it
+was sweet to obey.
+
+"Well back," he cried; "now then, a good one."
+
+It was not a good cast, being a very clumsy one, for the fly fell with a
+splash right out in a smooth, oily looking patch of water behind some
+stones.  But, as is often the case, the tyro is more successful than the
+tried fisherman.  The fly had no sooner touched the water than there was
+a rise, a singing whirr from the winch, and Chris shouted aloud with
+joy.
+
+"There!" he cried.  "You have him.  First lesson."
+
+"Have I caught it?"
+
+"Yes, yes; hold up the point of your rod."
+
+Claude immediately held it down, and the line went singing out, till
+Chris darted close behind his pupil and seized the rod, just over her
+hands, raising the top till it bent nearly double.
+
+"A beauty!" he cried excitedly.  "You lucky girl!"
+
+"Thank you.  That's right.  Now, take the rod and pull it out."
+
+"No, no," he said, with his lips close to her ear, and she trembled more
+and more as she felt his crisp beard tickle the back of her neck, and
+his strong arms tightly press hers to her sides; "you must land him
+now."
+
+Away darted the salmon wildly about the pool, but Claude could not tell
+whether it was the excitement caused by the electric messages sent
+through the line, or by the pressure of Chris Lisle's hands as he held
+hers to the rod.
+
+"Mary, come and see Mr Lisle catch this salmon," she cried huskily; but
+Mary only turned over a leaf, and seemed more deaf than ever, while the
+fish tugged and strained.
+
+"Mr Lisle, loose my hands now.  This is absurd.  What are you doing?"
+
+"Telling you I love you," he whispered, in spite of himself, for the
+time had come, "Claude, dearest, better than my life."
+
+"No, no; you must not tell me that," she said, half tearfully, for the
+declaration seemed to give her pain.
+
+"I must.  The words have come at last."
+
+"And you have lost your fish," cried Claude for the line had suddenly
+become slack.
+
+"But have I won you?"
+
+"No, no.  And pray let me go now."
+
+"No?"
+
+There was so much anguish in the tone in which that one little word was
+spoken, that it went right to Claude's heart, and as if involuntarily,
+she added quickly,--
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Claude, dearest," he whispered, and his voice trembled as the words
+were breathed in her ear, "for pity's sake don't trifle with me."
+
+"I am not trifling with you.  I told you the truth.  I don't know."
+
+"Ah, that's not catching salmon," came sharply from behind them.
+"Claude, dear, don't listen to him.  He's a wicked fortune-hunter."
+
+Chris started away from Claude as if some one had struck him a violent
+blow.
+
+"Mary!" cried Claude.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon.  What did I say?"
+
+_Whizz_!
+
+"Mr Lisle!  Help!" cried Claude, for the line had suddenly tightened,
+the top of the rod bent over in a curve, and the winch sang out as it
+rapidly revolved.
+
+"Take the rod, please, Mr Lisle," continued Claude, in a voice full of
+emotion; and, as he took it without a word, she saw that he was deadly
+pale, and that his white teeth were pressing hard upon his nether lip.
+
+He played the fish mechanically, and with Claude steadily looking on,
+and feeling as if she would like to run home to shut herself in her own
+room and throw herself upon her knees and sob.  But the face before her
+held her as by a chain, and she turned with a bitter look of reproach
+upon her cousin, as she saw the way in which Chris was stung.
+
+"Don't look at me like that, dear," cried Mary, "the words slipped out.
+I did not mean them, indeed.  It's a big fish, isn't it, Mr Lisle?
+Shall I gaff it for you?"
+
+"Thank you," he said drearily; and Mary picked up the bamboo staff with
+the glistening hook at the end.
+
+"Oh, I do beg your pardon, Mr Lisle."
+
+"Granted," was the laconic reply.
+
+"Don't, pray, don't punish me for saying those words," cried Mary.
+"There, finish your lesson in love and fishing.  Claude," she whispered,
+as the young man had to follow the fish a few yards down the stream,
+"you've caught him tightly; shall I gaff him as well?"
+
+"Yes; you had better finish your lesson, Miss Gartram," said Chris,
+walking back slowly winding in the line, and speaking in a hard, cold
+tone.
+
+"No; you had better finish," she replied hastily; and then, as she saw
+the cloud deepening on his brow, she stepped forward quickly, and laid
+her hand on the rod.  "Yes, let me finish, Chris," she said, and she
+gazed at him with her eyes full of faith and trust.
+
+"Claude," he whispered, as he gave her the rod, "you couldn't think--"
+
+"Hallo!  What's this?" cried a harsh voice, and all started, so suddenly
+had Norman Gartram--followed closely by his visitor--stepped up to where
+they stood.
+
+"Mr Lisle giving Claude and me a lesson in fishing," said Mary sharply.
+"Now, Claude, dear, wind in and I'll hook him out."
+
+"Most interesting group," said Parry Glyddyr, with rather a contemptuous
+look at the teacher of the art.
+
+"Very," said Norman Gartram, frowning.  "Here, Claude, stop that fooling
+and come home."
+
+"Mary, Mary, what have you done?" whispered Claude, as they walked away.
+
+"Made a mess of it, darling, I'm afraid."
+
+As they turned a corner of the glen, with her father's guest talking
+about what she did not know, Claude stole a glance back, to see
+Christopher Lisle standing with his hands resting upon the rod he held,
+and a bright, silvery fish lying at his feet.
+
+The girl's heart went on beating heavily with pulsations that seemed as
+full of pleasure as of pain.
+
+Volume One, Chapter IV.
+
+"ALL TO BITS!"
+
+Mary Dillon did the greater part of the talking on the way home, Gartram
+saying scarcely a word, but making great use of his eyes, to see how
+Glyddyr took the unpleasant _contretemps_.
+
+"And just after what I had said to him," muttered Gartram.  "The
+insolent young scoundrel!  The miserable, contemptible pauper!  How dare
+he?"
+
+But Glyddyr's behaviour was perfect, and excited Gartram's wonder.
+
+"He can't have seen what I did," he thought, "or he would never talk to
+her so coolly."
+
+For, ignoring everything, and as if he was blind to what had passed,
+Glyddyr dashed at once into a series of inquiries about Danmouth, and
+the weather in the winter.
+
+"Do the storms affect the place much?" he said, looking at Claude.
+
+"Knock the pots off sometimes, and always wash the slates clean," said
+Mary, before Claude could reply.
+
+"Not pleasant for the inhabitants," said Glyddyr, after giving Mary a
+quick, amused glance before turning again to Claude.  "But at the Fort,
+of course, you are too high up for the waves to reach?"
+
+"Salt spray coats all the windows, and makes the walls shine,"
+interposed Mary.
+
+"What will he think of me?" thought Claude; and then she wondered that
+she did not feel sorry, but that all the time, in spite of her father's
+fiercely sullen looks, a peculiar kind of joy seemed to pervade her
+breast.
+
+Glyddyr talked on, but he was completely talked down by Mary, who felt
+that the kindest thing she could do was to draw every one's attention
+from her cousin, till they had passed through the little town, and
+nearly reached the Fort, where they were met by a rough-looking workman,
+who ran unceremoniously towards them, caught hold of Gartram roughly,
+and cried out, in wild excitement,--
+
+"Come on to the quarry at once."
+
+"What's the matter--fall of rock?" cried Gartram.
+
+"Blasting--Woodham--blown all to bits," panted the man.
+
+"Then he has been using dynamite."
+
+"Nay; soon as we picked him up, he said it was the cursed bad powder."
+
+"Bah!  Where is he?"
+
+"We took him home, and I fetched the doctor, and then come on here."
+
+"Run home, girls.  No, Mr Glyddyr, see them in.  I'm going on to my
+workmen's cottages."
+
+He hurried off, and Glyddyr turned to Claude.
+
+"I'm sorry there is such terrible news," he began; but Claude did not
+seem to hear him.
+
+"Make haste, Mary," she said hurriedly.  "Bring brandy and wine, and
+join me there."
+
+"My dear Miss Gartram, are you going to the scene of the accident?"
+
+Claude looked at him in an absent way.
+
+"I am going to the Woodhams' cottage," she said hurriedly.  "Sarah
+Woodham was our old servant.  Don't stop me, please."
+
+She hurried along the narrow road leading west, and it was not until she
+had gone some hundred yards following the messenger, who was trotting
+heavily at Gartram's heels, that she realised that she was not alone.
+
+"Mr Glyddyr!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Pray pardon me," he said, in a low, earnest voice.  "As a friend, I
+cannot let you go alone at a time like this."
+
+Claude looked up at him wildly, but there was so much respectful
+deference in his manner that she could say nothing.  In fact, her
+thoughts were all with the suffering man and woman--the victims of this
+deplorable mishap.
+
+It was nearly half-a-mile along the rough cliff road; and it was
+traversed in silence, Claude being too much agitated to say more.
+
+The scene was easy enough to find when they were approaching the place,
+for a knot of rough quarry workmen were gathered round a clean-looking,
+white-washed cottage, from out of whose open door came the harsh tones
+of a man's voice, while the crowd parted left and right, and several
+placed the short black pipes they were smoking hurriedly in their
+pockets.
+
+Claude had nearly reached the door when the words which were being
+uttered within the cottage seemed to act like a spell, arresting her
+steps and making her half turn shuddering away, as they seemed to lash
+her, so keenly and cuttingly they fell.
+
+"Curse you! curse you!  It's all your doing.  You've murdered me.
+Sarah, my girl, he has done for me at last."
+
+Gartram's voice was heard in low, deep, muttering tones, as if in
+reproof; but the injured man's voice overbore it directly, sounding
+shrill and harsh from agony as he cried,--
+
+"Let every one outside hear it.  Hark ye, lads, I wanted to use the
+dinnymite, but he made me use the cursed old powder again, and he has
+murdered me."
+
+"My good man," said a fresh voice, which sounded clear in the silence,
+"you must be calm.  It was a terrible accident."
+
+"Nay, doctor, it's his doing; it's his meanness.  I wanted him to use
+the dinnymite, and he would keep to powder.  He has murdered me."
+
+There was a low groan, and then a terrible cry; and as Glyddyr mentally
+pictured the scene within, of the doctor dressing the injuries, he
+turned to the trembling girl beside him.
+
+"Miss Gartram," he whispered, "this is no place for you.  There is
+plenty of help.  Let me see you home."
+
+She shook her head as she looked at him wildly, and, making a
+deprecating gesture, Glyddyr turned to one of the men.
+
+"Is he very bad?" he whispered.
+
+"Blowed a'most to bits," said the man in a hoarse whisper.
+
+"Did the powder go off too soon?"
+
+"It warn't powder at all," said the man, as Gartram stepped quickly out
+of the cottage.  "It were the dinnymite.  He would use it, and he warn't
+used to its ways."
+
+It was evident from the peculiar tightening of Gartram's lips that he
+had heard the man's words; and he turned back and re-entered the
+cottage, for his name was sharply pronounced within.
+
+Then there was another groan, and the injured man cried,--
+
+"Don't, don't; you're killing me."
+
+At that moment a thin, keen-looking woman of about thirty rushed out of
+the cottage, her eyes wild and staring, and her face blanched, while her
+hands and apron were horribly stained.
+
+"I can't bear it," she cried; "I can't bear it!" and she flung herself
+upon her knees in the stony road, and covered her face with her hands,
+sobbing hysterically.
+
+The sight of the suffering woman roused Claude to action; and as she
+took a couple of steps forward, and with the tears falling fast, laid
+her hand upon the woman's shoulder, a low murmur arose among the men,
+and Glyddyr saw that they drew back respectfully, several turning right
+away.
+
+"Sarah, my poor Sarah," said Claude, bending low.
+
+At the tender words of sympathy and the touch of the gentle hands, the
+woman let her own fall from her face, and stared up appealingly at the
+speaker.
+
+Claude involuntarily shrank away from the ghastly face, for the hands
+had printed hideous traces upon the woman's brow.
+
+The shrinking away was momentary, for, recovering herself.  Claude drew
+her handkerchief from her pocket, to turn in surprise as it was drawn
+from her hand, but she directly gave Glyddyr a grateful look, as she saw
+him step to a rough granite trough into which a jet of pure water was
+pouring from the cliff, and saturating it quickly, he returned the
+handkerchief to its owner.
+
+But before the blood stains could be removed, the voice of the injured
+man was heard calling.
+
+"Sarah!  Don't leave me, my girl.  He has murdered me."
+
+The woman gave Claude a wild look, rose from her knees, and tottered
+back to the cottage as the voice of Gartram was heard in angry retort.
+
+"Its like talking to a madman, Ike Woodham," came clear and loud; "but
+you've got hurt by your own wilful obstinacy, and you want to throw the
+blame on me."
+
+As he spoke, Gartram strode out of the cottage, and then whispered to
+his child,--
+
+"Come home, my dear.  You can do no good."
+
+"No, no; not yet, papa," she whispered.  "I must try if I can help poor
+Sarah in her terrible trouble."
+
+A low murmur arose from the little crowd, and this seemed to excite
+Gartram.
+
+"Well," he cried fiercely, "what does that mean?  It was his own fault--
+in direct opposition to my orders; and this is not the first accident
+through your own folly."
+
+The low, angry muttering continued.
+
+"Here, come away, Claude," cried Gartram fiercely, as he looked round at
+the lowering faces.
+
+"He has murdered me, I tell you!" came from the open cottage door.
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Gartram angrily, and he strode away, but returned
+directly.
+
+"Are you coming, my girl?"
+
+"Yes, papa, soon.  Let me see if I can be of use."
+
+"Look here, Mr Glyddyr," said Gartram, speaking in a low, excited
+voice, "I can't stop.  I shall be saying things that will make them mad.
+See after Claude, and bring her home.  The senseless idiots!  If a man
+bruises himself with his own hammer, it is blamed on me."
+
+He strode away, and ignoring Glyddyr's presence, Claude was moving
+softly toward the door, when the man who had brought the message held
+out his hand to arrest her.
+
+"Don't go in, dear bairn," he said in a husky whisper; "it isn't for the
+likes of you to see."
+
+"Thank you, Wolfe," she said calmly, "I am not afraid."
+
+But at that moment, as Glyddyr was about to make a protest, a
+quiet-looking, gentlemanly man appeared at the door turning down his
+cuffs, the perspiration glistening upon his high white forehead as he
+came out into the sun.
+
+"No, no, my dear child," he said in a whisper, as a low moaning came
+from within and seemed to be followed by the low soft washing of the
+waves below.  "You can do no good."
+
+"Is--is he very bad, Doctor Asher?" asked Claude.
+
+He looked at her for an instant or two without replying, and then bent
+his head.
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Claude, with a low cry of pain.
+
+"Terribly crushed, my dear; better leave them together alone."
+
+"But--you do not think--oh, Doctor Asher, you can save him?"
+
+"Is it so bad as that, sir?" whispered Glyddyr, as he saw the peculiar
+look in the doctor's face.  "Couldn't you--with more help--shall I
+send?"
+
+"My dear sir," said the doctor in a low voice, "half a dozen of the
+crack London surgeons couldn't save him."
+
+"Oh!" sighed Claude again.  "But a clergyman.  Mr Glyddyr, would you go
+into Danmouth?"
+
+"Better not, my dear child," said the doctor quietly.  "You know their
+peculiar tenets.  His wife was praying with him when I came out."
+
+As if to endorse the doctor's words, the low, constant murmur of a voice
+was heard from within, and from time to time a gasping utterance was
+heard, and then twice over the word "Amen."
+
+Just then Claude stepped softly toward the open doorway, and sank upon
+her knees with her hands clasped, and her face turned up appealingly
+toward the sunny sky, while all around seemed full of life, and hope,
+though the black shadow of death was closing in upon the humble roof.
+And as Glyddyr saw the sweet, pure, upturned face, with its closed eyes,
+he involuntarily took off his hat, and gazed wistfully, with something
+very near akin to love seeming to swell within his breast.
+
+The silence was very deep, though the murmur from the cottage continued,
+till, in the midst of what seemed to be a painful pause, a loud and
+bitter wail came upon the stillness, and the doctor hurriedly stepped
+within.
+
+"Poor Ike's cottage is to let, mates," said a rough, low voice; "who
+wants to make a change?"
+
+"Dead?" asked Claude, with a motion of her lips, as after a short space
+the doctor returned.
+
+"No; the draught I have given him to dull the pain has had effect: he is
+asleep."
+
+"And when he awakes, Doctor Asher?" whispered Claude, as she clung to
+his arm.
+
+The doctor shook his head.
+
+"Can you do nothing?"
+
+"Only try to lull the pain," was the reply.  And then quickly, "Wanted
+somewhere else?"
+
+This last was to himself as a man was seen running toward them, and
+Claude turned if possible paler as she recognised one of the servants
+from the Fort.
+
+He ran up breathlessly.
+
+"Miss Claude--Doctor Asher," he panted.  "Come at once.  Master's got
+another of his fits."
+
+Volume One, Chapter V.
+
+THE DOCTOR IS KING.
+
+"Don't be flurried, my dear," said Doctor Asher, as, in a calm,
+business-like way, he saw to Gartram being laid easily on the floor,
+where he had fallen in the study.
+
+"But he looks so ghastly.  You do not think--"
+
+"Yes, I do, my child," said the doctor cheerfully.  "Not what you think,
+because I know.  He has another fit precisely the same as the last, and
+it was evidently a sudden seizure, just as he had risen from his chair,
+after writing that letter."
+
+"Then there is no danger?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no.  That's right, you see.  We'll have this mattress on the
+floor; and he can lie here.  Don't be alarmed."
+
+"But I am horribly alarmed."
+
+"Then you must not be, my child.  I will not conceal the fact from you
+that he will probably be subject to more fits, and may have one at any
+time."
+
+"But I feel so helpless."
+
+"So does a doctor, my dear.  We try all we can, but time has to perform
+the greater part of the cure, after we have done all we can to avoid
+suffocation, and the patient injuring himself in his struggles.  There,
+there; he's going on all right, and you've been a very good, brave girl.
+I quite admire your behaviour all through; and another time, if I am
+not here, you will know exactly how to act."
+
+"Oh, don't talk of another time, Doctor Asher."
+
+"Well, I will not," he said, smiling.  "Now, don't be alarmed, but keep
+perfectly cool, for I must go back and see to that poor fellow at the
+quarry."
+
+"Yes, of course.  But, doctor, if my poor father should be taken worse?"
+
+"He will not be taken worse, but gradually mend.  I shall not be very
+long away."
+
+"No, no; pray don't be long."
+
+"No; and mind you are my assistant.  So you must be cool and
+self-possessed.  Shall I send Miss Dillon to sit with you?"
+
+"Yes, please, do," said the agitated girl, as she gazed wildly at her
+father's altered face.
+
+Doctor Asher seemed rather to resemble a very smooth, black tom cat,
+and, as he drew down his cuffs, and passed his white hands over his
+glossy coat, an imaginative person would not have been much surprised to
+see him begin to lick himself, to remove a few specks caused by the
+business in which he had been engaged.
+
+As he left the study and crossed the hall, with its polished granite
+flooring, his delicate manner of proceeding toward the drawing-room, and
+stepping from one to another of the oases of Eastern rugs, was still
+like the progress of the cat who believed the polished granite to be
+water, and tried to avoid wetting his paws.
+
+When he laid his hand upon the drawing-room door, a murmur of voices
+came from within, and, as he entered, Mary Dillon jumped up from the low
+ottoman upon which she had been seated, talking to Glyddyr, and ran
+quickly to the doctor's side.
+
+"How is he?" she said excitedly.
+
+"Better, certainly.  Miss Gartram wants you to go and stay with her."
+
+"Yes, of course.  Good-bye, Mr Glyddyr, and thank you for being so
+kind."
+
+She spoke as she ran to the door, jerked the last words back over her
+shoulder, and was gone, leaving the doctor face to face with the
+visitor.
+
+"How is he?" said the latter.  "You can speak plainly to me."
+
+"To be sure I can, my dear sir.  Ah, what a world this is.  Yesterday we
+were taking our champagne in the saloon of your charming yacht,
+to-day--"
+
+"You are keeping me waiting for an answer," said Glyddyr, rather
+stiffly.
+
+"So I am," said the doctor, smiling.  "Well, how is he?  Rather bad.
+Nasty fit of his usual sort."
+
+"Then he is subject to these fits?"
+
+"Most decidedly."
+
+"But what caused it?"
+
+"Worry.  From what I can gather, he must have some upset when out
+walking.  Our friend has a temper."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Glyddyr.
+
+"Then he has had some quarrel with this poor fellow who is hurt.  The
+terrible accident followed, and, with the customary crass obstinacy of
+rustic, ignorant workmen, the poor fellow and his comrades lay the blame
+of a trouble, caused by their own stupidity, upon their employer."
+
+"Yes, I see.  Caused great mental disturbance?"
+
+"Exactly, my dear sir.  He being a man who, in the labour of making
+money, has nearly worried himself to death."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And who now worries himself far more to keep it."
+
+"Ah, money is hard to keep," said Glyddyr, with a smile.
+
+"He has found it so, sir.  When the old bank broke years ago, it hit him
+to the tune of many thousands."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and that set him building this place for his protection.  I
+shouldn't wonder if he has quite a bank here."
+
+"Indeed!  The the old man is rich?"
+
+"Rich!  I thought every one knew that.  Better be poor and happy."
+
+"As we are, eh, doctor?  Well, it's a terrible worry--money."
+
+This was accompanied by a peculiar look which the doctor interpreted,
+and replied to with one as suggestive.
+
+"No danger, I hope, to the old gentleman?"
+
+"No, no.  Fits are not favourable to health, though."
+
+"Well, no danger this time, I hope?"
+
+"Not a bit.  He'll feel the shock for a few days.  That's all."
+
+"And the other patient?"
+
+"Hah, yes; I'm just going over there."
+
+"He is very bad, you say?"
+
+"Bad!  I expect to find him gone."
+
+The doctor nodded, and left the room.
+
+"Bah! how I do hate them," said Glyddyr.  "I'd have walked down with
+him, but I always feel as if I were smelling physic."
+
+Glyddyr stood tapping the bottom of his watch, which he had just taken
+from his pocket, as he talked in a low tone, just as if he were
+conversing with the little round face before him.
+
+"How wild the old boy was--just after he had been talking to me as he
+had.  Pshaw!  I don't mind.  Rustic bit of courtship.  Half-bumpkin sort
+of fellow, and poor as Job.  Old man wouldn't have him at any price.
+The gipsy!  Been carrying on with him, then, eh?  Well, it's always the
+way with your smooth, drooping little violets.  Regular flirtation.  I
+don't mind.  I wouldn't give a dump for a girl without a bit of spirit
+in her.  It's all right.  Friends at court--a big friend at court.  But
+no more fits for friends--at present, I hope.  I'll get him to come on a
+cruise, and bring her.  Tell the old boy it will do him good.  Get the
+doctor on my side, and make him prescribe a trip round the islands, with
+him to come as medical attendant.  Nothing to do, and unlimited
+champagne.  Real diplomacy.  By Jupiter, Parry, you are a clever one,
+though you do get most awfully done on the turf!"
+
+"Yes," he said, after another look at the watch, for the purpose now of
+seeing the time, "that's the plan--a long sea trip round the islands,
+with sentiment, sighs and sunsets; and, as they said in the old
+melodramas, `Once aboard the lugger, she is mine.'  For, lugger read
+steam yacht, schooner-rigged _Fair Star_, of Cowes; Parry Glyddyr,
+owner."
+
+He laughed in a low, self-satisfied way, and then moved toward the door.
+
+"Well, it's of no use to wait here," he said.  "They will not show up
+again.  I can call, though, as often as I like.  Come again this
+evening, and see her then.  She can't refuse.  I'll go now and see how
+the salmon fisher is getting on."
+
+Volume One, Chapter VI.
+
+IN CHARGE.
+
+"Mary, dear, don't deceive me for the sake of trying to give me
+comfort," said Claude, as she knelt in the study, beside the mattress
+upon which her father lay breathing stertorously.
+
+"Claude, darling, I tease you and say spiteful things sometimes, but you
+know you can trust me."
+
+"Yes, yes, dear, I know; but you don't answer me."
+
+"I have told you again and again that your father is just like he was
+last time, and the best proof of there being no danger is Doctor Asher
+staying away so long."
+
+"It's that which worries me so.  He promised to come back soon."
+
+"Don't be unreasonable, dear.  You know he went to the quarry where that
+man is dangerously hurt."
+
+"Yes.  Poor Sarah!  How she must suffer!  It is very terrible.  But look
+now, Mary--that dark mark beneath papa's eyes."
+
+"Yes, I can see it," said Mary, rising quickly, and going to the table,
+where she changed the position of the lamp, with the result that the
+dark shadow lay now across the sleeper's lips.  "There, that is not a
+dangerous symptom, Claudie."
+
+"Don't laugh at me, Mary.  You can't think how I alarmed I am.  These
+fits seem to come more frequently than they used.  Ought not papa to
+have more advice?"
+
+"It would be of no use, dear.  I could cure him."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes; or he could cure himself."
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"Yes," said the little, keen-looking body, kneeling down by her cousin's
+side; "uncle has only to leave off worrying about making more money and
+piling up riches that he will never enjoy, and he would soon be well
+again."
+
+Claude sighed.
+
+"See what a life he leads, always in such a hurry that he cannot finish
+a meal properly; and as to taking a bit of pleasure in any form, he
+would think it wicked.  I haven't patience with him.  Yes, I have, poor
+old fellow--plenty.  He has been very good to miserable little me."
+
+"Of course he has, dear," said Claude, throwing her arms about her
+cousin's neck and kissing her, with the result that the sharp-looking,
+self-contained little body uttered an hysterical cry, clung to her, and
+burst out sobbing wildly, as if all control was gone.
+
+"Mary, darling, don't, pray don't.  You distress me.  What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I'm miserable, wretched," sobbed the poor girl, with her face hidden in
+her cousin's breast.  "I always seem to be doing something wrong.  It's
+just as if, when I tried to make people happy, I was a kind of imp of
+mischief, and caused trouble."
+
+"No, no, no!  What folly."
+
+"It isn't folly; it's quite true.  See what I did this morning."
+
+Claude felt her cheeks begin to burn, and she tried to speak, but the
+words would not come.
+
+"I knew that Chris Lisle had gone up the east river fishing, and I was
+sure he longed to see you, and I was quite certain you wanted to see
+him."
+
+"Mary, be silent," cried Claude, in an excited whisper; "it is not
+true."
+
+"Yes, it is, dear.  You know it is, and I could see that he was
+miserable, and had been since you went on board Mr Glyddyr's yacht, so
+I felt that it would be quite right to take you round there, so that you
+might meet and make it up.  And see what mischief I seem to have made."
+
+"Yes," said Claude gravely, as she metaphorically put on her maiden mask
+of prudery; "and you know now that it was very, very thoughtless of
+you."
+
+"Thoughtless!" said Mary, looking up with a quick look, half-troubled,
+half-amused; "didn't I think too much?"
+
+"Don't talk, Mary," said Claude primly.  "You may disturb poor papa.  It
+was very wicked and meddlesome and weak, and you don't know what harm
+you have done."
+
+Mary Dillon's face was flushed and tear-stained, and her eyes looked red
+and troubled; but she darted a glance at her cousin so full of
+mischievous drollery, that Claude's colour deepened, and she turned away
+troubled, and totally unable to continue the strain of reproof.
+
+She was spared further trouble by a cough heard in the hall.
+
+"Wipe your eyes quickly, Mary," she whispered; "here is Doctor Asher at
+last."
+
+Mary jumped up, and stepped to the window, where she was half hidden by
+the curtains, as there was a gentle tap at the door, the handle was
+turned, and the doctor, looking darker and more stern than ever, entered
+the room.
+
+He whisperingly asked how his patient had been, as he went down on one
+knee by the mattress, made a short examination, and turned to Claude,
+who, with parted lips, was watching him anxiously.
+
+"You think him worse?" she whispered.
+
+"Indeed I do not," he said quickly.  "Nothing could be better.  He will
+sleep heavily for a long time."
+
+"But did you notice his heavy breathing?"
+
+"Of course I did," said the doctor rising, "and you have no cause for
+alarm.  Ah, Miss Mary, I did not see you at first."
+
+"Don't deceive me, Doctor Asher," said Claude, in agonised tones; "tell
+me the worst."
+
+"There is no worse to tell you, my dear child.  I dare say your father
+will be well enough to sit up to-morrow."
+
+"Thank heaven!" said Claude to herself.  Then, turning to the doctor:
+"How is poor Isaac Woodham?"
+
+"Don't ask me."
+
+"How dreadful!"
+
+"Yes; it was a terrible accident."
+
+"But is there no hope?"
+
+"You asked me not to deceive you," said the doctor gravely.  "None at
+all."
+
+Just then the sick man moaned slightly in his sleep, and made an uneasy
+movement which took his daughter back to his side.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my child," said the doctor encouragingly; "there is
+nothing to fear."
+
+"But I am alarmed," said Claude; "and I look forward with horror to the
+long night when I am alone with him."
+
+"You are going to sit up with him?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Divide the night with your cousin."
+
+"Yes--but--"
+
+"Well--what is it?"
+
+"Oh, Doctor Asher, don't leave him.  Pray, pray, stay here."
+
+"But I have to go and see that poor fellow twice during the night."
+
+"I had forgotten him," sighed Claude.  "Couldn't you stop here, and go
+and see him in the night?"
+
+"Well, I might do that," said the doctor thoughtfully; "but really, my
+child, there is no necessity."
+
+"If you could stop, Doctor Asher," interposed Mary, "it would be a great
+relief to poor Claude, who is nervous and hysterical about my uncle's
+state."
+
+"Very well," was the cheerful reply.  "I'll tell you what; I'll sit with
+you till about nine, and then go and see poor Woodham.  Then I'll come
+back and stay up with Mr Gartram till about three, when you shall be
+called to relieve me."
+
+"But I shall not go to bed," said Claude decidedly.
+
+"I am your medical man, and I prescribe rest," said the doctor, smiling.
+"I don't want any more patients at present.  You and your cousin will
+go and lie down early, and then come and relieve me, so that I can go
+and see poor Woodham again.  After that I shall return here, and you can
+let me have a sofa ready, to be called if wanted.  There, I am the
+doctor, and a doctor rules in a sick house."
+
+"Must I do as you say?" asked Claude pleadingly.
+
+"Yes; you must," he replied; and so matters were settled.
+
+Doctor Asher walked down to the quarry cottage to see his patient there,
+and did what he could to alleviate the poor fellow's pain, always
+avoiding the inquiring look in the wife's eyes, and then he returned to
+the Fort.
+
+"How is he now?" asked Claude anxiously.
+
+"Very bad," was the reply.
+
+"You will find coffee all ready on the side-table, doctor," said Claude;
+"and there is a spirit lamp and the stand and glasses.  There are cigars
+on the shelf; but you will let me sit up too?"
+
+"To show that you have no confidence in your medical man."
+
+"Oh, no, no; but Mary and I might be of some use."
+
+"And of none at all to-morrow, my dears.  You must both go to bed, and
+be ready to relieve me."
+
+"But is there anything else I can do to help you?"
+
+"Yes; what I say--go to bed at once."
+
+Claude hesitated a few moments, and then walked quickly to the side of
+the mattress, knelt down, kissed her father lovingly, and then rose.
+
+"Come, Mary," she said.  "And you will ring the upstairs bell if there's
+the slightest need?"
+
+"Of course, of course.  There, good-night; I shall ring punctually at
+two."
+
+He shook hands, and the two girls left the room unwillingly, and
+proceeded slowly upstairs.
+
+"Well lie down in your room, Mary," said Claude; "it is so much nearer
+the bell.  Do you know, I feel so dreadfully low-spirited?  It is as if
+a terrible shadow had come over the place, and--don't laugh at me--it
+seemed to grow darker when Doctor Asher came into the room."
+
+"What nonsense!  Because he is all in black."
+
+"Do you think he is to be trusted, Mary?"
+
+"I don't know.  I don't like him, and I never did.  He is so sleek and
+smooth, and I hate him to call us `my dear' in that nasty, patronising,
+paternal sort of way."
+
+"Then let's sit up."
+
+"No, no.  It would be absurd.  I daresay we should feel the same about
+any other doctor."
+
+"I do hope he will take great care of poor papa," sighed Claude; and the
+door closed after them as they entered their room.
+
+If Doctor Asher was not going to take great care of Norman Gartram, it
+was very evident that he was going to take very great care of himself,
+for as soon as he was alone he struck a match, lit the spirit lamp,
+lifted the lid of the coffee pot, and found that it was still very hot,
+and then, removing a stopper in the spirit stand, he poured out into a
+cup a goodly portion of pale brandy.
+
+He had just restored the stopper to the spirit decanter, saying to
+himself, "Nice, thoughtful little girl!" when Gartram moaned and moved
+uneasily.
+
+The doctor crossed to him directly, went down on one knee, and felt to
+see that his patient's neck was well opened.
+
+"Almost a pity not to have had him undressed," he said to himself.
+"What's the matter with you--uncomfortable?  Why, poor old boy," he
+continued, with a half laugh, as his hands busily felt round the sick
+man, "how absurd!"
+
+He had passed a hand through the opening in Gartram's shirt front, and
+after a little effort succeeded in unbuckling a cash belt which was
+round his patient's waist, drawing the whole out, and noting that on one
+side there was a pocket stuffed full and hard as he threw the belt
+carelessly on the table.
+
+"Nice wadge that for a man to lie on.  There, old fellow, you'll be more
+comfortable now."
+
+As if to endorse his words, Gartram uttered a deep sigh, and seemed to
+settle off to sleep.
+
+"Breeches pockets full too, I daresay," muttered the doctor; "and
+shouldn't be surprised if there's a good, hard bunch of keys somewhere
+in his coat.  Doesn't trouble him, though."
+
+He rose, and went back to the tray at the side, filled the already
+primed coffee cup and carried it to the table, wheeled forward an easy
+chair, selected a cigar, which he lit, and then threw himself back and
+sipped his coffee and smoked.
+
+"Yes, sweet little girl Claude," he thought; "make a man a good wife--
+good rich wife, and if--no, no, not the slightest chance for me, and
+I'll go on as I am, and make the best of it."
+
+He had another sip.
+
+"Delicious coffee, fine cigar.  Worse things than being a doctor.  We
+get as much insight of family matters as the parsons, and are trusted
+with more secrets."
+
+He laughed to himself as he lay back.
+
+"Yes, nice little heiress, Claude," he said again.  "Wonder who'll get
+her--Christopher the salmon fisher, or our new yachting friend?  I think
+I should back Glyddyr."
+
+He smoked on, and thought seriously for some time about his other
+patient, and after a time he emitted a cloud of smoke which he had
+retained in his mouth, as he turned himself with a jerk from one side of
+his great easy chair to the other.
+
+"No," he said, "impossible to have done more.  The Royal College of
+Surgeons couldn't save him."
+
+He smoked on in silence, sipping his coffee from time to time, gazing
+the while at Gartram, upon whom the light shone faintly, just sufficient
+to show his stern-looking, deeply-marked face.
+
+"Yours is a good head, my dear patient," he mused.  "Well-cut features,
+and a look of firm determination in your aspect, even when your eyes are
+closed.  You miss something there, for you have keen, piercing eyes, but
+for all that you look like what you are, a stubborn, determined
+Englishman, who will have his own way over everything so long as his
+works will make him go.  When they run down, he comes to me for help,
+and I am helping him.  Yes, you were sure to get on and heap up money,
+and build grand houses, and slap your pocket-book and say: `I am a rich
+man,' and `I laugh at and deride the whole world,' and so you do, my
+dear sir, all but the doctor, who, once he has you, has you all his
+life, and can do what he likes with you.  I have you hard, Norman
+Gartram, and I am licenced; I have you completely under me, and so
+greatly am I in possession of you, that I could this night say to you
+die, and you would die; or I could bid you live, and you would live.  A
+simple giving or a simple taking.  A movement with the _tactus eruditus_
+of a physician, and then the flag would be down, the King of the Castle
+would be gone, and a new king would reign in the stead--or queen," he
+added, with a laugh.
+
+"Ah, you people trust us a great deal, and we in return trust you--a
+very long time often before we can get paid.  Not you, my dear Gartram,
+you always were a hard cash man.  But you people trust us a great deal,
+and our power is great.
+
+"And ought not to be abused," he said hastily.  "No, of course not.  No
+one ought to abuse those who trust.  Capital coffee this," he added, as
+he partook of more.  "Grand thing to keep a man awake.
+
+"Humph!  Tired.  Ours is weary work," and he yawned.
+
+"I believe I should have been a clever fellow," mused the doctor, "if I
+had not been so confoundedly lazy.  There's something very interesting
+in these cases.  In yours, for instance, my fine old fellow, it sets one
+thinking whether I could have treated you differently, and whether I
+could do anything to prevent the recurrence of these fits."
+
+He smoked on in silence, and then shook his head.
+
+"No," he said, half aloud; "if there is a fire burning, and that is kept
+burning, all that we can do is to keep on smothering it for a time.  It
+is sure to keep on eating its way out.  He has a fire in his brain which
+he insists upon keeping burning, so until he quenches it himself, all I
+can do is to stop the flames by smothering it over by my medical sods.
+You must cure yourself, Norman Gartram; I cannot cure you.  No, and you
+cannot cure yourself, for you will go on struggling to make more money
+that you have no use for, till you die.  Poor devil!"
+
+He said the last two words aloud, in a voice full of pitying contempt.
+Then, after another sip of his coffee, he looked round for a book, drew
+the lamp close to his right shoulder, and picked up one or two volumes,
+but only to throw them down again; and he was reaching over for another
+when his eye fell upon the cash belt with its bulging contents.
+
+"Humph," he ejaculated, as he turned it over and over, and noted that it
+had been in service a long time.  "Stuffed very full.  Notes, I suppose.
+Old boy hates banking.  Wonder how much there is in?  Very
+dishonourable," he muttered; "extremely so, but he has placed himself in
+my hands."
+
+He drew out a pocket-book.
+
+"Wants a new elastic band, my dear Gartram.  Out of order.  I must
+prescribe a new band.  Let me see; what have we here?  Notes--fivers--
+tens--two fifties.  Droll thing that these flimsy looking scraps of
+paper should represent so much money.  More here too--tens, all of
+them."
+
+He drew forth from the pockets of the book dirty doubled-up packets of
+Bank of England notes, and carelessly examined them, refolding them, and
+returning them to their places.
+
+"What a capital fee I might pay myself," he said, with an unpleasant
+little laugh; "and I don't suppose, old fellow, that you would miss it.
+Certainly, my dear Gartram, you would be none the worse.  Extremely
+one-sided sometimes," he said, "to have had the education of a gentleman
+and run short.  Yes, very."
+
+He returned the last notes to the pocket, and raised a little flap in
+the inner part.
+
+"Humph! what's this?  An old love letter.  No: man's
+handwriting:--`instructions to my executors.'"
+
+He gave vent to a low whistle, glanced at the sleeping man, then at the
+door, and back at his patient before laying down the pocket-book, and
+turning the soiled little envelope over and over.
+
+"Not fastened down," he muttered.  "I wonder what--Oh, no: one can't do
+that."
+
+He hastily picked up the pocket-book, and thrust the note back into its
+receptacle, but snatched it out again, opened it quickly, and read half
+aloud certain of the sentences which caught his attention--"`Granite
+closet behind book cases--vault under centre of study--big granite
+chest'."
+
+"Good heavens!" he said, after a pause, during which he read through the
+memorandum again; then refolding it and returning it to the envelope, he
+hastily placed the writing in its receptacle, and in turn this was put
+in the pocket-book.  Lastly, the book was returned to the pouch in the
+belt, which latter was thrust hastily into one of the drawers of the
+writing-table, the key turned and taken out.
+
+"Give it to Mademoiselle Claude," he said, with a half laugh.  "What an
+awkward thing if I had been tempted to behave as some would have done
+under the circumstances."
+
+He took out a delicate lawn handkerchief, unfolded it, and wiped the
+perspiration from his forehead, and then proceeded to do the same to his
+hands, which were cold and damp.
+
+"That coffee is strong," he said, "or it is my fancy; perhaps the place
+is too warm."
+
+He walked up and down the room two or three times, gazing anxiously at
+the bookshelves, and then at the table, where the floor was covered with
+a thick Turkey carpet; but he turned away and refilled his cup with
+coffee and brandy, found that his cigar was out, and threw the stump
+away before helping himself to a fresh one, and smoking heavily for some
+time, evidently thinking deeply.
+
+Then, apparently unable to resist the temptation, he rose and walked to
+the door, opened it and listened, found that all was silent, closed it
+again, and after glancing at his patient, who was sleeping heavily, he
+hastily drew out the key, opened the drawer, and, after a momentary
+hesitation, took out the belt.
+
+In another minute, the yellow looking memorandum was in his hands, being
+studied carefully before it was restored to its resting-place, and again
+locked up.
+
+"I did not know I had so much curiosity in my nature," he said, with a
+half laugh.  "Well, the study of mankind is man, doesn't some one say,
+and I'm none the worse for a little extra knowledge of a friend's
+affairs.  I might be called upon to give advice some day."
+
+Oddly enough, the knowledge again affected the doctor so that he wiped
+his brow and hands carefully, and then sat gazing thoughtfully before
+him as he sipped and smoked and seemed to settle down into a calm,
+restful state, which at times approached drowsiness.
+
+Upon these occasions he rose and softly paced the room, stopping to
+listen to his patient's breathing, and twice over feeling his pulse.
+
+"Could not be going on better," he muttered.
+
+Finally, during one of his turns up and down, he heard a step outside
+the door, followed by a light tap, and Claude entered.
+
+The doctor started, and looked at her wildly.
+
+"Why have you come down?" he said.
+
+"Come down?  How is he?  I overslept myself, and it is half-past two."
+
+"Is it so late as that?"
+
+"Doctor Asher!" cried Claude excitedly, as she caught him by the arm,
+"you are keeping something back."
+
+Her words seemed to smite him, and he tried vainly to speak.  It was as
+if he had suddenly been startled by some terrible shock, and he stared
+at Claude with his jaw slightly fallen.
+
+"Why don't you speak?"
+
+"Keeping something back," he said hoarsely.  "No!"
+
+"No?  Why do you say that?  You seem so confused and changed.  Tell me,
+for heaven's sake; my father--"
+
+"Better--better," he said, recovering himself, and speaking loudly, but
+in a husky voice.  "I--I have been a little drowsy, I suppose, with the
+long watching.  Not correct, but natural."
+
+She looked at him wonderingly, he seemed so strange, and unable to
+contain herself, she turned to where her father lay, with her heart
+throbbing wildly, and something seemed to whisper to her the words, "He
+is dead."
+
+Volume One, Chapter VII.
+
+SARAH WOODHAM'S VOW.
+
+It was after many hours of stupor, and when Doctor Asher, the physician
+of Danmouth, had gone back to the Fort, from a hurried visit to his
+injured patient, that Isaac Woodham unclosed his eyes, and lay gazing at
+the pale, agony-drawn face of his wife, upon which the light of the
+solitary candle fell.
+
+"What's the matter?" he said hoarsely.
+
+"Ike, husband," whispered the suffering woman.
+
+"Oh, yes; I remember now," he said, with a piteous groan.  "I always
+knew it would come."
+
+"Ike, dear, can I do anything?" said his wife tenderly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Tell me what, dear?"
+
+"I'll tell you soon," groaned the man.  "I knew it would come; I always
+felt it.  Ah, my girl, my girl, I've preached to them often, and talked
+about the end of a good Christian man, but it's very, very hard to die."
+
+"Die! oh, Isaac, don't say that."
+
+"Yes; and to die through him--through that tyrant, and all to make him
+rich."
+
+"No, no; you'll get better, dear, as Roberts did, and Jackson, who were
+worse than you."
+
+"Hah!" he cried, making a gesticulation, as if to cast aside his wife's
+vain words; and then, with a sudden access of force that was startling,
+he caught at her hand.
+
+"Sally, my lass," he whispered harshly, "Gartram has murdered me."
+
+"Isaac, my poor husband, don't say that."
+
+"It was all his doing.  He always thwarted me, and interfered when I had
+to blast."
+
+"Pray, pray be still, dear.  You are so bad and weak.  The doctor said
+you were to be kept quiet, and not to talk."
+
+"Doctor knew it was all over.  I am a dying man."
+
+"No, no, my darling."
+
+"Yes, I'll say it, and more too while I have time.  But for Gartram, I
+should be well and strong now.  Oh, how I hate him!  Curse him for a
+dog!"
+
+"Isaac!--darling husband."
+
+"Yes; I always hated him, the oppressor and tyrant.  He made me mad
+about blasting that bit of rock, and I felt I must do it--my way; but he
+bullied me till my hands were all of a tremble, and I was thinking about
+what he said till I wasn't myself, and the stuff went off too soon.  But
+it was his doing.  He murdered me; and if it hadn't been for him, I
+should have been right."
+
+"Oh, my darling!"
+
+"Hush, don't cry, my lass.  It's all over now, but I can't die peaceful
+like yet."
+
+"Let me put your poor hands together, Ike, and I'll pray for you."
+
+"Yes, my lass, but not yet.  I'm dying, Sally--fast."
+
+"No, no, Ike.  There, let me give you a drop of the stuff the doctor
+left.  It'll do you good."
+
+"Nothing'll do me good but you."
+
+"Ike, dear, be still and I'll run and fetch the doctor; he's at the
+Fort.  Gartram has had a bad fit."
+
+"Curse him!"
+
+"No, no, dear, don't curse.  You make me shiver."
+
+There was a terrible silence in the gloomy cottage room, where the
+ghastly face of the injured man seemed to loom out of the darkness, and
+looked weird and strange.  The woman tried to quit his side, but he held
+her tightly as he lay gazing straight up at her, his breath coming in a
+laboured way, as if he had to force each inspiration, suffering agony
+the while; and if ever the stamp of death was set-plainly upon human
+countenance, it was upon his.
+
+"Sally," he gasped, and his voice was changing rapidly.  "Sally!"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Don't leave me.  Where are you?"
+
+"Here, darling; holding your hands."
+
+"Why did you put out the light?"
+
+"Isaac, my own dear man!"
+
+"Listen.  Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes, dear, yes."
+
+"I'm dying fast, and I shall never rest without--without you do what I
+say."
+
+"Yes, dear, I'll do anything you tell me--you know I will."
+
+"That's right.  Quick, before it's too late."
+
+"Oh, if help would only come," moaned the woman.
+
+"No help can come, my lass.  Now, put your hand under me and lift my
+head on your shoulder.  That's right.  Ah!"
+
+He uttered a groan of agony, and lay speechless as she raised him; and
+the wife turned cold with horror, as it seemed to her that he was dead,
+but his lips moved again.
+
+"Now," he said, "I can talk without feeling strangled.  Gartram has made
+an end of me, and it's a dying man speaking to you.  It's almost a voice
+from the dead telling you what to do."
+
+"Yes, dear, tell me.  What shall I do?"
+
+"You'll swear to do what I tell you?"
+
+"Yes, Isaac, anything."
+
+"You're in the presence of death, wife, with the good and evil all about
+us, and what you say is registered against you."
+
+"Yes, dear," said the woman, shuddering.
+
+"You swear, so help you God, to obey my last words?"
+
+"Yes, dear," cried the woman, with her eyes lighting up, and a look of
+exultation in every feature; "I'll swear to obey you."
+
+"Then you will measure out to Norman Gartram, and pay back to him all he
+has paid to me."
+
+"Isaac!"
+
+"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, as it says in the Holy Book."
+
+"Husband!"
+
+"You have sworn to do it, woman, and there is no drawing back.  As he
+murdered me, so you shall cut short his cursed life."
+
+"Isaac, I cannot."
+
+"Woman, you have sworn to the dying; you are the instrument, the chosen
+vessel to execute God's wrath upon this man.  For he shall not live to
+do more wrong to the suffering people he has been grinding under his
+heel."
+
+"No, no: I could not do this thing, Isaac, it is too terrible."
+
+"She has sworn to do it.  She has heard the message, and his days will
+come to an end as mine have come, and he will go on no longer in his
+wickedness, piling up riches.  Ha! ha! ha!  Thou fool--this night shall
+thy--wife--are you there?"
+
+"Isaac!  Husband!"
+
+"Ah, yes.  Good wife, my last words.  Words from the other world.  You
+will not rest till you have fulfilled your sacred task.  I shall not
+rest till then--you--the chosen vessel--His wrath against the
+oppressor--as I have been--cut off--so shall Gartram be--cut off--yours
+the chosen hand, wife--quick--your hand--upon my head--you swear--that
+you will do my bidding--the bidding of--"
+
+He paused, and she saw his eyes gazing wildly in hers, and it seemed as
+if the words she whispered were dragged from her--a voice within her
+seeming to utter them, and the belief that she was but the instrument of
+a great punishment upon a sinful man appeared to strengthen within her
+breast.
+
+"Quick," gasped the dying man; "your hand upon my head, wife--your lips
+close to me--let me hear you speak."
+
+"Isaac!  Husband!" she groaned; "must I do this dreadful thing?"
+
+"It is a message from--"
+
+There was a terrible silence in the narrow chamber, and the dying man's
+eyes were fixed upon hers as she laid her hand upon his brow and spoke
+firmly,--
+
+"I swear."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+A low, rattling expiration of the breath, and as Sarah Woodham gazed in
+her husband's eyes, the wild, fiery look died slowly out, to become
+grave and tender.  Then it seemed to her that the look was fixed and
+strange.  She had been prepared, but not for so sudden a shock as this.
+
+"Ike!" she cried, lowering him upon the pillow.  "Ike!  Why don't you
+speak?  Do you hear me?" and her voice sounded peremptory and harsh; "do
+you hear me?"
+
+She had seized him by the shoulders as she bent over him, and her voice
+grew more excited and strange.
+
+"You are doing this to frighten me--to keep that oath--but I will do it.
+Ike, dear, do you hear me?  Don't play with me.  It hurts my poor
+heart--to see you--so fixed and strange--Ike!  Husband!  Speak!"
+
+In her horror and agony she gripped his shoulders more tightly and shook
+him.
+
+Then the horrible truth refused to be kept longer at bay, and, starting
+back from the couch where the fixed, grave eyes seemed to follow her,
+reminding her of her oath, she stood with her hands raised, staring
+wildly for a few moments before an exceeding bitter cry escaped her
+lips.
+
+"No," she cried; "it can't be.  My darling, don't leave me here alone in
+the weary world.  Isaac, my own!  My God! he's dead."
+
+She reeled, caught at the table to save herself, the ill-supported
+candle dropped from the stick, and she fell with a thud upon the floor,
+as the candle rolled from the table close to her face, flickered for a
+few moments to display its ghastly lineaments, and then died out.
+
+But it was not quite dark.
+
+A faint light stole in beside the drawn-down blind, the chill air of
+morning sighed round the house, and a low murmur came from the waves
+fretting among the broken granite far below; and it was as if the night,
+too, were dead, and the low sigh died away in a hushed silence.
+
+Then _pink, pink, pink, pink_ came the sharp cry of the blackbird from
+the tangle of bramble and whortleberry high up the cliff slope, and from
+the grassy level above, the clear loud song of the lark, as it rose high
+in the pale morning sky, telling that come sorrow come joy, the world
+still goes round, and that Nature will have her way, even though murder
+be on the wing.
+
+Volume One, Chapter VIII.
+
+CLAUDE OPENS THE AWFUL DOOR.
+
+Sarah Woodham sat in her little parlour, sallow of cheek, and with a
+hard, stern look in her eyes as she gazed straight before her at the
+drawn-down blind, and listened to the mournful wash of the waves which
+came with a slow, regular pulsation through the open door.
+
+Hers had been no romantic life.  Hard working servant for years at the
+Fort, till, in a dry, matter-of-fact way, Isaac Woodham, quarryman, and
+local preacher at the little chapel, and one of the most narrow-minded
+and bigoted of his sect, had cast his eyes upon her in the chapel and
+preached to her.  He had selected his texts from various parts of the
+Bible, where it was related that certain men took unto themselves wives,
+and when he was at work he told himself that Sarah was comely to look
+upon, and that one of these days he would marry her.
+
+And so it was that previously, on one of these days when he had to go on
+business to the Fort, he had told the woman in his hard, matter-of-fact
+way that he had prayed for guidance, and that he felt it was his duty
+and her duty that they two should wed.
+
+Sarah, in her hard, matter-of-fact way, asked for time to consider the
+matter herself, and at the end of a year's cold, business-like term of
+probation, she gave Isaac Woodham her hand, left the Fort, and went to
+live at one of the quarry cottages, which became at once the most
+spotless in the stone-cutters' hamlet by the sea.
+
+They neither of them ever displayed any great affection one for the
+other, but led a quiet, childless, orderly life, in which she--with no
+pleasant recollections of her sojourn at the Fort, but still with a
+deep, almost motherly kind of affection for the girl whom she had seen
+grow up to womanhood--listened to and sided with her husband in his
+harsh revilings of his tyrant.
+
+It was Isaac Woodham's never-failing theme--his hatred of his master,
+whom he looked upon with the bitter, narrow-minded envy of his nature.
+Every sharp word was magnified, every business order was looked upon as
+an insulting piece of tyranny, and after obeying in a morose, sulky way,
+he took his revenge by pitying the owner of the quarry, and praying that
+he might repent and become a better man.
+
+This went on for years, during which Norman Gartram did not repent after
+his servant's ideas of repentance; and had he known the circumstances,
+he would have said he had nothing to repent of, which, as far as his men
+were concerned, was perfectly just--his greatest sins being the
+insistence upon receiving a fair return for the wages he paid, and a
+rather stern way of giving his orders to all, Woodham being the most
+trusted for his sterling honesty, albeit Gartram sneered at him as being
+full of cant.
+
+Then came the catastrophe, with Sarah, the newly-made widow, in her
+bereavement, feeling that in her hard way she had dearly loved the cold,
+stern man who had been her husband those last few years; and then she
+shivered as she thought of the oath he had exacted from her, and felt
+that it was an order from the unseen world.
+
+Her husband had nursed indifference into hatred, till she was as bitter
+against Gartram as he was himself; and years passed as the sharer of his
+troubles had made her so much akin that, like her husband, she was full
+of the bitter letter of the old Scriptures, without the under-current of
+the spirit of forgiveness and love.
+
+And so it was that she sat there low in spirit, thinking of the few
+short hours that would elapse before friends would come and bear away
+the cold, stern-faced form of him who had been her all, straight to the
+little chapel-yard, with its rough granite walls, beyond the quarry,
+where he would be laid to rest, well within hearing of the waves, which
+would lull him in his long sleep, and near to where all day long rang
+out the crack of the heavy stone hammers, the ring of the tamping irons,
+and from time to time the sharp report and the following roar of some
+charge when a mass of the titanic granite was laid low.
+
+Only a few days could elapse, she thought, before, in obedience to the
+new orders of a cruel master, she would have to leave the carefully kept
+cottage which had been her pride--the only pride to which she gave
+harbour in her breast.
+
+And it would be better so, she thought.  The sooner Gartram bade her
+turn out homeless, almost penniless in the world, the easier would be
+her task.  It would give her fresh cause for hatred, a new stimulus for
+destroying the man who had caused her husband's death.
+
+It was hour by hour, with the dead lying so near, becoming easier to her
+to think of Gartram as her husband's murderer.  Isaac had with his dying
+lips insisted upon it that this was so, and he could not lie.  The seed
+he had planted then was rapidly growing into a tree, and, accepting the
+task, she brooded over the deed she was to do, telling herself that it
+was to give immortal rest to him who was gone before; and once the task
+was accomplished, she prayed that she might soon rejoin him in the
+realms of bliss, and look him again in the eyes and say--"It is done."
+
+How was it to be?
+
+She sat there, with a strange, lurid light in her dark eyes, thinking
+over the vengeance and of those of whom she had read; of how Jael slew
+Sisera with the hammer and nail--that deadly enemy of the chosen race.
+Then of Judith; and a strange exultation filled her breast, and in her
+weak, ignorant way she began to feel herself more and more as one
+selected to become the instrument of Heavens punishment upon one
+accursed.
+
+"The way will be opened unto me," she said to herself.  "The way will be
+opened unto me, and the wicked shall perish.  Yes, husband, you shall
+rest in peace."
+
+She started erect in her chair, and turned a fierce look of anger
+towards the door, as at that moment there was a light step, a shadow
+fell across the clean white stone, a sweet-toned, tremulous voice
+uttered her name, and there was the rustling of a dress upon the floor,
+while the next moment two soft arms were about her neck, her cheeks were
+wet with another's tears.  For Claude was kneeling by her, with her head
+resting on the hard, heavily-beating heart, and the girl's broken voice
+fell upon her ears.
+
+"My poor, poor Sarah!  I could not come to you before.  What can I do to
+help you?  What can I say?"
+
+Claude could not see the wild, agonised face, as she rested upon the
+trembling woman's breast.  There had been kindly, sympathetic,
+neighbourly words enough spoken to her before, but these--the words of
+the girl she had years before tended and loved, winning her gentle young
+love in return--went straight to her overcharged heart.  The tears
+falling for her sorrow seemed to quench the burning glow of bitterness
+and hate, and the next moment vengeance, and the determination to
+execute her husband's command, were swept away: her arms were tightening
+round the slight, girlish form as if it were something to which she
+could cling for safety, and the tears that had seemed dried up, after
+searing her brain, poured forth as she bent down sobbing hysterically,
+and in broken accents calling her visitor, "My darling bairn."
+
+Half-an-hour had passed, and the bitter wailing and hysterical cries had
+ceased, while the suffering woman's breast heaved slowly now, like the
+surface of the sea quieting after a storm; but she still held Claude
+tightly to her, and rocked herself gently to and fro, as in bygone years
+she had held the girl when some trouble had brought her, motherless, and
+smarting from some bitter scolding, to seek for consolation and help.
+
+The words came at last to break the silence of the solitary place.
+
+"It was like you to come, my darling, and I shall never, never forget
+it.  It was like you."
+
+"You know I would have come to you before, but poor papa has been so
+ill, and I dared not come away.  But he is better now, and sitting up."
+
+The mention of Gartram seemed to harden the woman once more, and with a
+catching sigh she sat up rigidly in her chair.  The thoughts of him who
+lay waiting in the next chamber brought with them the terrible scenes
+through which she had passed, and the scale of tenderness which Claude
+had borne down now rose upward to kick the beam.
+
+"It was a terrible shock to him," continued Claude.  "You have been too
+full of your own trouble to know, but he was seized with a fit, and when
+I reached home I thought he was dead."
+
+The woman drew her breath hard, but did not speak; only sat frowning,
+her brow a maze of wrinkles, her lips drawn to a thin pink line, and her
+teeth set fast, gazing once more straight before her at the drawn-down
+blind.
+
+"Hah!" she ejaculated at last.  "It has all come to an end."
+
+Claude started, and looked up in the woman's face, the words were spoken
+in so strange and hard a tone.
+
+"I don't like to talk to you about the future, and hope," Claude said at
+last; "it seems such a vain kind of way to comfort any one in
+affliction."
+
+"Yes; life is all affliction," said the woman bitterly; and she frowned
+now at the kneeling girl.
+
+"No, no; you must not look at things like that, Sarah.  But it is hard
+to bear.  How well I remember coming to see your home directly you were
+married."
+
+"Don't talk about it, child," said the woman hoarsely.
+
+"No, we'll talk about something else; or will it not be kinder if I sit
+with you only, and stay as long as I can?"
+
+"No," said the woman harshly.  "Rennals will take poor Isaac's place.
+How soon will it be?"
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Yes; how soon shall I have to turn out of my poor old home?"
+
+"Don't talk about it now, Sarah," said Claude gently.  "It will be
+terribly painful for you, I know."
+
+"Painful!" said the woman, with a bitter laugh, "to go out once more
+into the cruel world.  But a way will open," she added to herself; "the
+time will come."
+
+Her face grew more stony of aspect moment by moment, as she gazed
+through her nearly closed eyelids straight before her, heedless of the
+fact that Claude had risen from her knees, and was holding one of her
+hands.
+
+"Don't talk of the world so bitterly, Sarah, dear," said Claude gently.
+"I must go now."
+
+"Yes," said the woman, in a harsh voice.
+
+"Mary is sitting with papa till I go back, or she would have come with
+me.  She sent her kindest and most sympathetic wishes to you.  She is
+coming to see you soon."
+
+"Yes," said the woman again, in the same strange, harsh way.
+
+"You know you have many friends and well-wishers who will be only too
+glad to help you."
+
+"Yes; Norman Gartram, whose first thought is to turn me out of the home
+we have shared so long."
+
+"Don't be unjust, Sarah, dear.  Papa speaks harshly sometimes, but he
+has the welfare of all his people at heart."
+
+"And casts me out on to the high road."
+
+"Nonsense, dear," said Claude gently.  "Don't speak in that bitter way,
+when we are all trying so hard to soften your terrible loss.  Papa's
+business must go on; and Rennals, naturally, takes poor Woodham's place.
+I thought it all over this morning, and I felt that you would consent."
+
+"To give up the house?  Of course; it is not mine."
+
+"And would be of no use to you now."
+
+"No;--but a way will open to me yet," she added to herself.
+
+"Sarah, dear old friend, you could not live alone.  You will come back
+to your own old place with us?"
+
+"What?"
+
+The woman sprang to her feet as if she had received some shock, then
+reeled, and would have fallen, but for Claude's quick aid.
+
+"I have been too sudden.  I ought to have waited, but I thought it would
+set your mind at rest."
+
+"Say that again," whispered the woman, with her eyes closed.
+
+"There is nothing to say.  Papa will agree with me that it would be best
+to have our dear old servant back again; and, as soon as you can, you
+will come."
+
+"No, no; no, no; it is impossible," cried the woman, with a shudder.  "I
+could not return."
+
+"You think so now; but papa will consent, and I shall insist, too.  But
+there will be no need to insist.  It will be like coming back home."
+
+"No, I tell you," cried the woman excitedly; and it was as if a wild fit
+of delirium had suddenly attacked her.  "No, no, Isaac, darling, I
+cannot, I dare not do this thing."
+
+"My poor old nurse," said Claude affectionately; "we will not talk about
+it now.  You must wait, and think how it will be for the best."
+
+"Be for the best!" she cried, in a wild strange way.  "You do not know--
+you do not know."
+
+"Oh, yes; better than you do, I am sure.  Come, I will leave you now.
+Don't look so wildly at me.  There, good-bye, dear old nurse--my dear
+old nurse.  Kiss me, as you used when I was quite a child, and try to
+reconcile yourself to coming to us.  It is fate."
+
+Claude kissed her tenderly, and then, not daring to say more, she
+hurried from the darkened room, to walk swiftly back, glad that the
+loneliness of the cliff road enabled her to let tears have their free
+course for a time.
+
+Could she have seen the interior of the cottage, she would have stared
+in wonder and dread, for, sobbing wildly and tearing at her breast, with
+all the unbridled grief of one of her class, Sarah Woodham was walking
+hurriedly to and fro, like some imprisoned creature trying to escape
+from the bars which hemmed it in.
+
+"His child,"--she cried,--"his poor, innocent child to draw me there.
+What did she say?  It is fate.  Yes, it is fate; and we are but the
+instruments to work His will."
+
+She stopped, gazing wildly towards the inner chamber, pausing
+irresolutely for a few moments before rushing in and flinging herself
+upon her knees by the dead.
+
+It was an hour after that she came tottering out, to stand by the chair
+she had occupied, and by which she found a handkerchief Claude had
+dropped; and, catching it up, she pressed it to her lips.
+
+"His poor, innocent child to lead me there to execute judgment on the
+evil doer.  And I have prayed so hard--so hard--in vain--in vain.  Yes,
+she is right.  We are but instruments; and it is my fate."
+
+She stood with her hands pressed to her brow, as if to keep her
+throbbing brain from bursting its bonds.  Then a strangely-weird,
+despairing look came across her darkening face, and she let herself
+sink, as if it were vain to combat more; and there was a terrible
+silence in the place, as she seemed to be looking forward into the
+future.
+
+Once again she broke that silence as the turn of her thoughts was made
+manifest, but her voice sounded harsh and broken, as if the words would
+hardly come.
+
+"His innocent child--the girl I loved as if she had been my own flesh
+and blood;" and her voice rose to a wail.  Then, after a few moments'
+silence: "Yes, I must go.  I swore to the dead, and the way is opened
+now.  It is my fate."
+
+Volume One, Chapter IX.
+
+THE BEGGAR.
+
+Christopher Lisle sat in his snug, bachelor room at Danmouth, tying a
+fly with a proper amount of dubbing, hackle, and tinsel, for the
+deluding of some unfortunate salmon.  The breakfast things were still on
+the table, and there was a cloud over his head, and another cloud in his
+brain.
+
+The room was bright and pleasant, overlooked the sea, and was just such
+a place as a bachelor in comfortable circumstances, with a love for
+outdoor sports, would have called a snuggery.  For it was just so tidy
+as not to be very untidy, with fishing and shooting gear in all
+directions; pipes in a rack, tobacco jars and cigar boxes on shelves;
+natural history specimens in trays and cabinets, from pinned beetles up
+to minerals and fossils; and under a table, in a case, lay Chris Lisle's
+largest salmon, carefully cast and painted to fairly resemble life.
+
+The tying of that fly did not progress, and after a good many stoppages
+it was thrown down impatiently.
+
+"Confound the hook," cried Chris.  "That's four times I've pricked my
+finger.  Everything seems to go wrong.  Now, what had I better do?  He
+ought to be well enough to see me now, and so better get it over.  I'd
+no business to go on as I did; but who could help it, bless her, holding
+her in my arms like that, and loving her as I do?  Wrong.  Oh, it was
+honest human nature; and any other fellow would have done the same.
+
+"I suppose I ought to have spoken to the old man first.  Though who in
+the world could think of him at a time like that.  But how black he
+looked; and then there was that confounded good-looking yachtsman
+there."
+
+This was a point in the business which required thinking out; and to do
+this thoroughly Chris Lisle took up a black pipe, filled it, and after
+lighting it daintily with a good deal of toying with the flame, he threw
+himself back in his chair, and began to frown and smoke.
+
+"No," he said aloud, after a long pause.  "Nonsense; the old fellow
+might think something of it, but my darling little Claude--never.  And
+she's not the girl to flirt and play with any one.  No; I know her too
+well for that--far too well.  I frightened her, I was so sudden.  A
+woman is so different to a man, and that wasn't put on; it was sheer
+timidity--poor little darling!  How I do long to apologise, and ask her
+to forgive me.  I must have seemed terribly awkward and boorish in her
+eyes, for I pulled up quite sulkily after that facer I got from Mary
+Dillon.  The nasty, spiteful little minx.  It was too bad.
+Fortune-hunter!  Why, I'd marry Claudie without a penny, and be glad of
+the chance.  Hang the old man's money.  What do two young people, who
+love each other dearly, want with money?"
+
+The idea seemed to be absurd, and he sat smoking dreamily for some
+minutes.
+
+"I'll serve the spiteful, sharp-tongued little thing out for this," he
+said at last.  "No, I will not.  Rubbish!  She didn't mean it.  But I'll
+go up and hear how the old man is.  He ought to be able to see me this
+morning, and I'll speak out plainly this time, and get it over."
+
+Chris Lisle was not the man to hesitate.  He threw aside his pipe, rang
+for the breakfast things to be cleared away, glanced at the
+looking-glass to see if he appeared decent, and stuck a straw hat on his
+crisp, curly hair.
+
+"Not half such a good-looking chap as the yachtsman," he said, with a
+half laugh.  "Glad of it.  Wouldn't be such a smooth-looking dandy for
+the world.  Why, hang it!" he said with a laugh, as he strode along by
+the rocky beach in the full tide of his manly vigour, "I could eat a
+fellow like that.  I never thought of it before," he continued to
+himself, as he walked on.  "Fortune-hunter!  I can't be called a poor
+man.  Two hundred and fifty a year.  Why, I never felt short of money in
+my life.  Always seemed to be enough for everything I wanted.  Bah!
+nobody but little midges up there could ever say such a thing as that."
+
+A peculiar change seemed just then to be taking place in Chris Lisle.
+The moment before he was swinging easily along, giving a friendly nod
+here and there to fishermen and loungers, who saluted him with a smile
+and a "Morn, Mr Chris, sir," the next he had grown stiff and rigid, as
+he saw a dingy pulled in to the landing-place some distance ahead, and
+Glyddyr leap out, the distance fitting so that the young men had to pass
+each other, which they did with a short nod of recognition.
+
+"Swell!" muttered Chris contemptuous, as he strode on.
+
+"Bumpkin!" thought Glyddyr, as he went in the other direction, and he
+laughed softly to himself.
+
+A short distance farther along the cliff road Chris came suddenly upon a
+figure in deep mourning, and he stopped short, with his whole manner
+changing once more.
+
+"Ah, Mrs Woodham," he said, in a low voice full of commiseration, "I
+have not been up to the quarry, but I had not forgotten an old friend.
+Can I be of any service to you?"
+
+The woman shook her head.
+
+"Don't do that," he said kindly.  "They will not keep you, but
+recollect, Sarah, that we are very old friends, and I shall be hurt if
+you want money and don't come to me."
+
+"God bless you, Master Chris," said the woman hoarsely; "but don't keep
+me now."
+
+She hurried away, and he stood looking after her for a few moments.
+
+"Poor thing!" he said, as he went on.  "What trouble to have to bear.
+Hang it all, I wouldn't change places with Gartram if I could."
+
+He went on, thinking deeply about Glyddyr.
+
+"The old man seems to have quite taken to that fellow, and did from the
+first time he came here with his yacht.  Regular sporting chap.  Wins
+heavily on the turf.  Bound to say he loses, too.  Three hundred
+thousand pounds, they say, he had when his father died.  Well, good luck
+to him!  I hadn't when mine passed away."
+
+Chris began to whistle softly as he went on, stopping once to pick a
+flower from out of a niche where the water trickled down from a crack in
+the granite, and, farther on, taking out a tiny lens to inspect a fly.
+Then another botanical specimen took his attention, and was transferred
+to a pocket-book, and by that time he was up at the castellated gateway
+and bridge over the well-filled moat of the Fort.
+
+He went up to the entrance, with its nail-studded oaken door, just as he
+had been hundreds of times before since boyhood, rang, and walked into
+the hall before the servant had time to answer the bell.
+
+"Anybody at home?" he said carelessly.
+
+"Yes, sir; master's in the study, and the ladies are in the
+drawing-room."
+
+"Mr Gartram well enough to see me, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Doctor Asher was here to breakfast, and master's going
+out."
+
+"All right; I'll go in."
+
+There was no announcing.  Chris Lisle felt quite at home there, and he
+crossed the stone-paved hall, gave a sharp tap at the study door, and
+walked in.
+
+"Morning, sir," he cried cheerily.  "Very glad to hear you are so much
+better."
+
+"Thankye," said Gartram sourly; "but I'm not so much better."
+
+"Get out," said Chris.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I mean in the open air."
+
+"Oh.  Well, Mr Lisle, what do you want--money?"
+
+"I?  No, sir.  Well, yes, I do."
+
+"Then you had better go to a lawyer.  I have done all I could with your
+father's estate as your trustee, and if you want to raise money don't
+come to me."
+
+"Well," said Chris, laughing, "I don't want to raise money, and I do
+come to you."
+
+"What for, sir?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you," said Chris, speaking on the spur of the moment,
+for an idea had occurred to him.  "But suppose we drop the `sir'-ing.
+It doesn't seem to fit after having known me all these years."
+
+"Go on.  I'm not well.  Say what you want briefly.  I'm going out."
+
+"I won't keep you long, but it may be for your benefit.  Look here,
+guardian, you know what I have a year?"
+
+"Perfectly--two hundred and fifty, if you haven't been mortgaging."
+
+"Well, I haven't been mortgaging.  It is not one of my pastimes.  But it
+has occurred to me that I lead a very idle life."
+
+"Bless my soul!" cried Gartram sarcastically.  "When did you discover
+that?"
+
+"And," continued Chris, "it seems to me that, as you are growing
+older--"
+
+Gartram's face twitched.
+
+"Your health is not anything like what it should be."
+
+Gartram ground his teeth, but Chris was so intent upon his new idea that
+he noticed nothing, and went on in a frank, blundering, earnest way.
+
+"Worse still, you have just lost, by that terrible accident, poor
+Woodham, who was your right-hand man.  It would not be a bad thing for
+you, and it would be a capital thing for me, if you would take me on to
+be a sort of foreman or superintendent at the quarries.  Of course, I
+don't mean to go tamping and blasting, but to see that the men did their
+work properly, that the stones were taken to the wharf, and generally to
+see to things when you were not there or wanted a rest."
+
+"At a salary?"
+
+"Salary?  Well, I hadn't thought of that--But yes: at a salary.  A
+labourer's worthy of his hire.  It would make you more independent, and
+me too.  Of course, I am not clever in your business, but I've watched
+the men from a boy, and I know pretty well how things ought to be done;
+and of course you could trust me as you could yourself."
+
+Gartram's face was a study.  His illness had exacerbated his temper, and
+over and over again, as the young man went on in his frank, blundering,
+honest fashion, he seemed on the point of breaking out.  But Chris
+realised nothing of this.  He only grew more sanguine as his new idea
+seemed to be brighter and more feasible the more he developed it,
+feeling the while that he was untying an awkward knot, and that his
+proposals would benefit all.
+
+There was not a gleam of selfishness in his mind, and if Gartram had
+said: "I like your proposal, and I'll give you fourteen shillings a week
+to begin with," he would have accepted the paltry sum, and felt pleased.
+
+"You see," he continued, "it would be the very thing; you want a
+superintendent who would take all the petty worries off your mind."
+
+"And by-and-by," said Gartram, suffocating with wrath, "you would like
+me to offer you a partnership?"
+
+Chris's eyes flashed.
+
+"Yes, Mr Gartram, I should like that dearly.  I never felt till just
+now that I was a poor man; my wants have been so simple.  Yes,
+by-and-by, you might offer me a partnership if you found me worthy, and
+you should, sir; I swear you should."
+
+"And with it my daughter's hand?"
+
+"I was coming to that, Mr Gartram," said Chris flushing, and with a
+proud, happy look in his eyes, as he sat gazing straight out of the
+window to sea.  "I felt, naturally, a shrinking about speaking of that,
+but Claude and I were boy and girl together.  I always liked her, and
+that liking has grown into a man's honest, true love.  I should have
+come to you before to explain about what you saw in the glen, but of
+course, I felt how out of place anything would be from me at a time when
+you were in trouble and ill, and so I waited till this morning."
+
+"Yes," said Gartram hoarsely; "go on."
+
+"I know I ought not to have spoken to Claude as I did without first
+speaking to you, but it slipped out without thought, and I ought to say
+I am sorry, sir; but, feeling as I do, I can only say that I am glad."
+
+"One moment," said Gartram, speaking perfectly calmly, but with a voice
+that sounded as if it were iced; "let us perfectly understand one
+another--you propose that I should engage you as my foreman?"
+
+"Yes, Mr Gartram," said Chris quietly.  "I have had the education of a
+gentleman--well, I may say it--my father was a gentleman.  I am a
+gentleman, but I am not proud.  I quite agree with you that a man should
+lead a useful life.  I wish to lead a useful life."
+
+"Exactly," continued Gartram; "to be my foreman at a salary, with a view
+to future partnership and my daughter's hand?"
+
+"Yes, Mr Gartram; and I will make your interests my study.  What do you
+say?"
+
+"Say?" cried Gartram, in a voice of thunder.  "Damn your impudence!"
+
+"What!"
+
+"You miserable, insolent, conceited young hound!  You come here with
+such a proposition, after daring, on the strength of the freedom I gave
+you of my house--for your father's sake--to insult my daughter as you
+did up that glen."
+
+"Miss Gartram has not said I insulted her?" cried Chris.
+
+"I say insulted her with your silly, impudent talk about your love.
+Why, confound it, sir, what are you--a fool, an idiot, or a conceited,
+presumptuous, artful beggar?"
+
+"Mr Gartram!--No, I will not be angry," said Chris, subduing the
+indignant rage which was in him.  "You have been ill and are irritable.
+I have badly chosen my time.  Don't speak to me like that, sir.  I have
+always looked up to you as a guardian ever since I was left alone in the
+world.  You don't mean those words, sir.  Say you don't mean them, for
+Claude's sake."
+
+"Silence, sir!  For Claude's sake, indeed.  Confound you!  How dare you!
+You must be mad to raise your eyes to her.  You contemptible, artful,
+fortune-hunting scoundrel!"
+
+"Mr Gartram!" cried Chris, flushing with anger now.  "How dare you
+speak to me like this?"
+
+"Because I am in my own house, sir.  Because a miserable, mad-brained
+jackanapes has dared to make an attack upon me and upon my child.
+Silence--"
+
+"Silence, sir, yourself!" raged Chris.
+
+"What?  You insolent dog, I'll have you turned out of the house.  I'll
+have you horse-whipped.  Dare so much as to speak to my child again.
+Dare so much as to look at her.  Dare to come upon my premises again,
+and damme, sir, I'll--I'll shoot you!"
+
+"You don't mean it.  You shall not mean it," cried Chris hotly.
+
+"Out of my house, sir!"
+
+"Mr Gartram," cried Chris, as the old man, half mad with rage and
+excitement consequent upon the reaction from his fit, strode close up to
+where his visitor stood.
+
+"I say out of my house, sir, before I have you horse-whipped as I would
+a dog."
+
+As he spoke, he gave the young man a thrust, half blow, across the
+chest, just as the door opened, and the servant announced Mr Glyddyr,
+stood with open mouth, staring for a moment at the scene, and then, as
+the new visitor entered, ran back, without stopping to close the door,
+to announce to Claude and Mary that master was going to have another
+fit.
+
+"Hah!" cried Gartram, as his eyes lit upon Glyddyr; "you, is it?  Look
+here," he roared, in a voice choked with passion, "this beggarly,
+insolent upstart--this puppy that I have helped to rear--has had the
+audacity to propose for my daughter's hand."
+
+"What?" cried Glyddyr, taking his tone from Gartram; and, turning upon
+Chris, he darted a look mingled of incredulity, threatening and
+contempt.
+
+"Yes; I am weak from illness, or I'd ask no man's help.  You are young
+and strong.  Take him by the collar, and bundle the insolent scoundrel
+neck and crop out of the place.  That's right: quick!"
+
+Glyddyr advanced straight to where Chris stood, with a blank look of
+rage and despair upon his countenance, crushed, drooping, half
+broken-hearted, as he felt how ingenuous he had been to speak as he had
+to the hard, grasping man of the world before him; but as Glyddyr laid
+his hand upon his collar, he uttered a low, hoarse sound, like the growl
+of an angry beast.
+
+"Now, sir, out you go," cried Glyddyr, with a mocking, sneering look in
+his countenance, full of triumph.  "Out with you before you are kicked
+out."
+
+"Take away your hand," said Chris, in a low, husky whisper.
+
+"What!  No insolence.  Out with you!"
+
+"Take away your hand."
+
+"Do you hear me?  Now then, out."
+
+"Curse you, you will have it, then," cried Chris, shaking himself free;
+and then, as Glyddyr recovered himself, and tried to seize him again,
+Chris's left fist darted out from his shoulder, there was a low, dull
+sound, and Glyddyr staggered back for a couple of yards, to fall with a
+heavy crash, just as, with a shriek of horror, Claude, closely followed
+by Mary, rushed into the room.
+
+"Chris Lisle, what have you done?" cried Claude, while Mary, whom fate
+had made the busy help of the family, hurried to Glyddyr's side, and
+helped him to rise to a sitting position.  He did not attempt to get
+upon his feet.
+
+"Lost my temper, I suppose," said Chris, who began to calm down as he
+saw the effect of his blow.  "But it was his own doing.  I warned him to
+keep his hands off."
+
+"Leave my house, ruffian, before I send for the police."
+
+"You'll be sorry for all this, Mr Gartram," said Chris.  "Claude--"
+
+"Silence!" shouted Gartram.  "Recollect, my girl, that henceforth this
+man and we are strangers.  Everything between us is at an end.  Once
+more, sir, will you leave my house?"
+
+"Yes, I'll go," replied Chris slowly, as his eyes rested on Claude's.
+"Don't think ill of me," he said to her huskily.  "I have done nothing
+wrong."
+
+Gartram came between them, and, feeling that time alone could heal the
+terrible breach, Chris made a gesticulation and walked slowly to the
+door, where he turned.
+
+"Mr Gartram," he said, "you'll bitterly repent this.  But don't think
+that I shall give up.  I'll go now.  One of these days, when you have
+thought all over, you will ask me to come back, and we shall be friends
+again.  Claude--Mary, all this was not my seeking.  Good-bye."
+
+"Not his seeking!" cried Gartram, sinking into a chair and dabbing his
+face with his handkerchief.  "He wants to kill me: that's what he's
+trying to do.  How are you now, Glyddyr?  Pray forgive me for bringing
+this upon you.  The scoundrel must be mad."
+
+"Getting better now, sir," said Glyddyr; and, as his enemy had gone,
+beginning with a great show of suffering and effort to suppress it, as
+his eyes sought sympathy from Claude.  He found none, so directed his
+eyes at Mary, who offered him her hand as he made slowly for the nearest
+easy chair.  "I suppose I was a bit stunned.  Not hurt much, I think."
+
+"I don't know how to apologise enough," cried Gartram; "and you two
+girls, have you nothing to say?  An outrageous assault on my guest!  But
+he shall smart for it.  I'll have him summoned."
+
+"No, no, Mr Gartram, I'm getting all right fast," said Glyddyr, quickly
+seizing the opportunity to be magnanimous in Claudes eyes.  "Mr Lisle
+was excited, and he struck me.  A blow like that is nothing."
+
+"Mr Christopher Lisle will find out that a blow such as you've received
+means a great deal more than he thinks, sir.  Claude, ring the bell.
+Have the spirit stand and soda-water brought in.  Are you sure you are
+not seriously hurt, Glyddyr?"
+
+"Quite, sir: a mere nothing.  Great pity it happened.  Why, ladies, it
+must have regularly startled you.  Miss Gartram, I am very sorry.  You
+look pale."
+
+"Enough to startle any woman, Glyddyr.  But there, it's all over for the
+present.  You had better leave us now, girls."
+
+"No, no," cried Glyddyr, "don't let me drive them away, sir."
+
+"It is not driving them away, Mr Glyddyr," said Gartram shortly.  "I
+wish them to go."
+
+"I beg pardon, I am sure."
+
+"Granted, sir; but I like to be master in my own house."
+
+"Papa, dear, pray, pray be calm," whispered Claude, who had crept to his
+side.
+
+"Calm!  Of course.  I am calm.  There, there, there; don't talk to me,
+but go, and I said ring for the spirit stand."
+
+"Yes, papa, I did.  I'll go and send it in."
+
+"Yes, quickly.  You are sure you would not like the doctor fetched,
+Glyddyr?"
+
+"Oh, certain, sir.  There, let it pass now.  A mere nothing."
+
+"Oh, my poor darling Claude," whispered Mary, taking her cousin's hand
+as they went out, and kissing her pale face as the large dark eyes gazed
+pitifully down in hers.
+
+"Do you understand what it all means, Mary?"
+
+"Only too well, coz: poor Chris has been telling uncle he loved you, and
+that put our dear tyrant in a passion.  Then Mr Glyddyr came, and poor
+Chris got in a passion too, and knocked him down."
+
+"Yes," sighed Claude; "I'm afraid that must be it."
+
+"Yes, my dear, it's all cut and dried.  You are to be Mrs Glyddyr as
+soon as they have settled it all."
+
+"Never," said Claude, frowning and looking like a softened edition of
+her father.
+
+"And as that sets poor Chris at liberty," continued Mary, with one of
+her mischievous looks, "and you don't want him, there may be a bit of a
+chance for poor little me."
+
+"Mary, dear!" said Claude, in a voice full of remonstrance.
+
+"It's rather bad taste of you, for though Mr Glyddyr is very handsome,
+I think Chris is the better man.  Mr Glyddyr seems to me quite a coward
+making all that fuss, so that we might sympathise with him.  Better have
+had poor Chris."
+
+"Mary, dear, how can you make fun of everything when I am in such
+terrible trouble?"
+
+"It's because I can't help it, Claude, I suppose.  But oh, I am sorry
+for you if uncle makes you marry handsome Mr Glyddyr."
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"I cannot help it, dear; I must say it.  He's a coward.  He was hurt, of
+course, but not so much as he pretended.  Chris Lisle knocked him right
+down, and he wouldn't get up for fear he should get knocked down again.
+Didn't Chris look like a lion?"
+
+"It is all very, very terrible, Mary, and I want your help and sympathy
+so badly."
+
+"I can't help you, coz; I'm too bad.  And all this was my fault."
+
+"No; not all," said Claude sadly.  "Papa has been thinking about Mr
+Glyddyr for a long time, and dropping hints to me about him."
+
+"Yes; and you'll have to take him."
+
+"No," said Claude, with quiet firmness; and her father's stern,
+determined look came into her eyes.  "No, I will never be Mr Glyddyr's
+wife."
+
+"But uncle will never forgive poor Mr Lisle."
+
+"Don't say that, Mary.  Never is a terrible word.  Papa loves me, and he
+would like to see me happy."
+
+"And shall you tell him you love Chris?"
+
+"No," said Claude sternly.
+
+"If you please, ma'am, Mrs Woodham is here," said one of the servants;
+and Claude's face grew more troubled as she asked herself what her
+father would say to the step she had taken, in bidding the unhappy woman
+come and resume her old position in the house.
+
+She had not long to wait.
+
+As she rose to cross the room she caught sight of Glyddyr looking back
+at the windows on leaving the house, and heard the study bell ring
+furiously.
+
+"Quick, Mary!" she cried, as she rushed through the door, being under
+the impression that her father had had another seizure.
+
+The relief was so great as she entered the study and found him standing
+in the middle of the room, that she threw herself in his arms.
+
+"I thought you were taken ill again," she gasped, as she clung, to him,
+trembling.
+
+He was evidently in a fury, but his child's words were like oil upon the
+tempestuous waves.
+
+"You--you thought that?" he said, holding her to his breast and patting
+her cheek tenderly.  "You thought that, eh?  And they say in Danmouth
+that everybody hates me.  That there isn't a soul here who wouldn't like
+to dance upon my grave."
+
+"Papa, dear, don't talk like that."
+
+"Why not? the ungrateful wretches!  I've made Danmouth a prosperous
+place.  I spend thousands a year in wages, and the dogs all turn upon me
+and are ready to rend the hand that feeds them.  If they are not
+satisfied with their wages, they wait till I have some important
+contract on the way, and then they strike.  I haven't patience with
+them."
+
+"Father!" cried Claude firmly, "Doctor Asher said you were not to excite
+yourself in any way, or you would be ill."
+
+"And a good thing, too.  Better be ill, and die, and get out of the way.
+Hated--cursed by every living soul."
+
+Claude clung more tightly to him, laid her head upon his breast, and
+placed her hand across his lips as if to keep him from speaking.
+
+A smile came across the grim face, but there was no smile in his words
+as he went on fiercely, after removing the hand and seeming about to
+kiss it, but keeping it in his hand without.
+
+"Everything seems to go against me," he cried.  "Mr Glyddyr--just
+going--I was seeing him to the door, when, like a black ghost, up starts
+that woman Sarah Woodham.  What does she want?"
+
+"I'll tell you, dear, if you will sit down and be calm."
+
+"How the devil can I be calm," he raved, "when I am regularly persecuted
+by folk like this?"
+
+But he let Claude press him back into an easy chair, while, feeling that
+she was better away, Mary Dillon crept softly out of the room.
+
+"Well, then," he said, as if his child's touch was talismanic, and he
+lay back and closed his eyes, "I'll be calm.  But you don't know,
+Claude, you can't tell how I'm persecuted.  I'm robbed right and left."
+
+"Papa, my dear father, you are as rich as ever you can be, so what does
+it matter?"
+
+"Who says I'm rich?  Nonsense!  Absurd!  And then look at the worries I
+have.  All the trouble and inquest over that man's death, and through
+his sheer crass obstinacy."
+
+"Why bring that up again, father, dear?"
+
+"Don't say father.  Call me papa.  Whenever you begin fathering me, it
+means that you are going to preach at me and bully me, and have your own
+way."
+
+"Then, papa, dear, why bring that up again?"
+
+"I didn't.  It's brought up and thrust under my very nose.  Why is that
+woman here?"
+
+"Papa--"
+
+"Now, it's of no use.  Claude: that man regularly committed suicide out
+of opposition to me.  He destroyed a stone worth at least a hundred
+pounds by using that tearing dynamite, which smashes everything to
+pieces; and then, forsooth, he charges me in his dying moments with
+murdering him, and the wretched pack under him take up the cry and bark
+as he did.  Could anything be more unreasonable?"
+
+"No, dear, of course not.  But the poor fellow was mad with agony and
+despair.  It was so horrible for him, a hale, strong man, to be cut down
+in a moment."
+
+"He cut himself down.  It would not have happened if he had done as I
+ordered."
+
+"You must forgive all that now.  He knew no better; and as for the
+workmen, you know how easily they are influenced one way or the other."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know them.  And now this woman's here begging."
+
+"No, papa, dear."
+
+"I say she is.  I could see it in her servile, shivering way, as soon as
+she caught my eye; now, look here, Claude, I shan't give her a
+shilling."
+
+Claude held his hand to her cheek in silence.
+
+"I won't pay for the man's funeral.  I'm obliged to pay the doctor,
+because I contracted for him to attend the ungrateful hounds; but I will
+not help her in the least, and I'll have no more of your wretched
+tricks.  I'm always finding out that you are helping the people and
+letting them think it is my doing.  Now, then, I've done, and I want to
+be at peace, so go and send that woman away, or I shall be ill."
+
+Claude clung a little more closely to her father, nestling, as it were,
+in his breast.
+
+"Well," he said testily, "why don't you go?"
+
+"My father is the leading man in this neighbourhood," said Claude, in a
+soft, soothing tone, "and the people don't know the goodness of his
+heart as I do."
+
+"Now, Claudie, I won't have it.  You are beginning to preach at me, and
+give me a dose of morals.  My heart has grown as hard as granite."
+
+"No, it has not," said Claude, kissing his veined hand.  "It is as soft
+and good as ever, only you try to make it hard, and you say things you
+do not mean."
+
+"Ah, now!" he shouted, "you are going to talk about that Lisle, and I
+will not have his cursed name mentioned in the--"
+
+"I was not going to talk about Christopher Lisle," said Claude, in the
+same gentle, murmuring voice, whose tones seemed to soothe and quiet him
+down; "I was going on to say that I want the people--the weak, ignorant,
+easily-led people--about here to love and venerate my dear father's
+name."
+
+"And they will not, do what you will.  The more you do for them, the
+less self-helpful they are, and the more they revile and curse.  Why, if
+I was ruined to-morrow, after they've eaten my bread for years, I
+believe they'd light a bonfire and have a dance."
+
+"No, no; no, no," murmured Claude.  "You have done too much good for
+them."
+
+"I haven't.  You did it all, you hussy, and pretended it was I," he said
+grimly, as he played with her glossy hair.
+
+"I did it with your money, dear, and I am your child.  I acted as I felt
+you would act if you thoroughly knew the circumstances, but you had no
+time.  What is the use of having so much money if no good is done?"
+
+"For ungrateful people."
+
+"We are taught to do good for evil, dear."
+
+"What! for a race of thieves who are always cursing and reviling us?
+There, I'm busy and tired, Claudie.  I've listened to your moral lesson
+very patiently, and now I want to be at rest.  But I forbid you to help
+that wretched woman.  She and her husband always hated me.  Confound
+'em, they were always insulting me.  How dare they--actually publicly
+insult me--in that miserable little chapel."
+
+"Insulted you?  What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, they prayed for my heart to be softened, hang 'em!"
+
+"Oh, father, dear!"
+
+"There you go again.  Papa--papa--papa.  Don't forget that we do belong
+to the aristocracy after all.  Now, go and send that dreadful woman
+away."
+
+"I cannot, dear."
+
+"Cannot?"
+
+"No, papa.  She has come to stay."
+
+"Sarah Woodham?  To stay?  Here?"
+
+"Yes, dear.  Poor thing: she is left penniless, almost, for Woodham did
+not save."
+
+"No, of course not.  They none of them do."
+
+"He spent all he had to spare," continued Claude, in the same gentle,
+murmuring tone, as she pressed her father's hand to her cheek.
+"Everything he could scrape together he gave to the poorer chapel
+people."
+
+"Yes, I know; in his bigoted way to teach me what to do.  And don't keep
+on rubbing your cheek against my hand.  Any one who saw you would think
+you were a cat."
+
+"So, papa dear, as we want a good, trustworthy woman in the house, and
+Sarah was with us so long, and knew our ways so well, I arranged for her
+to come back."
+
+"Claude!"
+
+"Yes, dear; and these years of her married life, and the sad end, will
+be to her like a mournful dream."
+
+"I--"
+
+Norman Gartram made an angry gesture, but Claude's arms stole round his
+neck, her lips pressed his as she half lay upon his breast, and with the
+tears gently falling and hanging like pearls in his grisly beard, she
+said in a low, sweet voice,--
+
+"And some day, father dear, at the last, as she thinks of what an asylum
+this has been to her, she will go down to her grave blessing your name
+for all the good that you have done, and this will make me very happy,
+dear, and so it will you."
+
+There was a long silence in the room, and Norman Gartram's face began to
+grow less rugged.  It was as if there was something of the same look as
+that in his child's, when, with a tender kiss upon his brow, she left
+his arms and half playfully whispered,--
+
+"Am I to go and send Sarah Woodham away?"
+
+"No," he said hastily, as his old look returned; "you are as bad as your
+poor, dear mother, every bit.  No," he cried, with an angry flush.  "I
+won't do that, though.  Not a farthing of my money shall go towards
+paying for that man's funeral."
+
+"Father, dear--"
+
+"Papa."
+
+"Then papa, dear," said Claude quietly, "I have paid everything
+connected with poor Woodham's funeral."
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Yes; you are very generous to me with money, and I had plenty to do
+that."
+
+"Yes; and stinted yourself in clothes.  You don't dress half well
+enough.  Well, there, it's done now, and we can't alter it.  I suppose
+these people will think it was my doing."
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Of course.  Well, as to this woman, keep her and nurse and pamper her,
+and pay her the largest wages you can; and mark my words, my pet, she'll
+turn round and worry us for what we have done."
+
+"I have no fear, dear.  I know Sarah Woodham too well, and I can do
+anything I like with her."
+
+"Yes, as you can with me, you hussy," he cried.  "Duke--King--why, I'm
+like water with you, Claude.  But," he cried, shaking a finger at her,
+"there are things, though, in which I mean to have my way."
+
+Claude flushed up, and a hard look came into her eyes.
+
+But no more was said then.
+
+Volume One, Chapter X.
+
+DENISE.
+
+"What the deuce brought you here?"
+
+"Train my boy.  Saw in the shipping news that _The Fair Star_ was lying
+in Danmouth.  Felt a bit seedy, and knew that you would give me a berth
+aboard, and here I am."
+
+"So I see."
+
+"Well, don't be so gloriously glad, dear boy.  Don't go out of your mind
+and embrace me.  I hate to be kissed by a man; it's so horribly French."
+
+"Don't be a fool."
+
+"Certainly not; but you seemed to be in such raptures to meet me that I
+was obliged to protest."
+
+"Now, look here, Gellow, it's not of the slightest use for you to hunt
+me about the country.  I have no money, and I can't pay."
+
+"I never said a single word about money, dear boy."
+
+"No; but you look money, and think money, and smell of money.  Good
+heavens, man, why don't you dress like a gentleman, and not come down to
+the seaside like the window of a pawnbroker's shop?"
+
+"Dress like a gentleman, sir?  Why, I am dressed like a gentleman.
+These are real diamond studs, sir.  First water.  Rings, chain, watch,
+everything of the very best.  Never catch me wearing sham.  Look at
+those cuff studs.  As fine emeralds as you'd see."
+
+"Bah!  Why don't you wear a diamond collar, and a crown.  I believe
+you'd like to hang yourself in chains."
+
+"My dear Glyddyr, how confoundedly nasty you can be to the best friend
+you have in the world."
+
+"Best enemy; you are always hunting me for money."
+
+"Yes; and going back poorer.  You are such a one to wheedle a fresh
+loan."
+
+"Yes; at a hundred per cent."
+
+"Tchah!  Nonsense!  But, I say, nothing wrong about the lady, is there?"
+
+"Hold your tongue, and mind your own business."
+
+"Well, that is my business, you reckless young dog.  If you don't make a
+rich match, where shall I be?"
+
+"Here, what are you doing?"
+
+"Ringing the bell, dear boy."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Well, that's fool.  I have come all this way from town, had no end of
+trouble to run you down at your hotel, and then you think I don't want
+any breakfast."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr Glyddyr wants breakfast in directly.  Here, what have you got?  No,
+never mind what you've got.  I'll have broiled chicken and a sole.  A
+fresh chicken cut up, mind; none of your week-old, cooked stales.
+Coffee and brandy.  Mr Glyddyr's order, you know."
+
+The waiter glanced at Glyddyr where he sat pretending to read the paper,
+and receiving a short nod, he left the room.
+
+"Now, once more, why have you come down?"
+
+"First and foremost, I have picked up three or four good tips for
+Newmarket.  Chances for you to make a pile."
+
+"You are very generous," sneered Glyddyr.  "Your tips have not turned
+out so very rosy--so far."
+
+"Well, of course it's speculation.  Have a cigar?"
+
+Glyddyr made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Then I will.  Give me an appetite for the dejooney."
+
+The speaker lit a strong cigar that had an East London aroma, and went
+on chatting as he lolled back in his chair, and played with his
+enormously thick watch-chain.
+
+"A smoke always gives me an appetite; spoils some people's.  Well, you
+won't take the tips?"
+
+"No; I've no money for betting."
+
+"Happy to oblige you, dear boy.  Eh?  No!  All right.  Glad you are so
+independent.  It's going on bloomingly, then?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"The miller's lovely daughter," sang the visitor, laughingly.  "I mean
+the stonemason's."
+
+Glyddyr muttered an oath between his teeth.
+
+"Hush!  Don't swear, dear boy--the waiter."
+
+For at that moment the man brought in a tray, busied himself for a time
+till all was ready, and left the room.
+
+"That's your sort," said Glyddyr's visitor, settling himself at the
+table.  "Won't join me, I suppose?  Won't have an echo?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Second breakfast.  Eh?  No?  All right.  Hah!  Very appetising after a
+long journey--confoundedly long journey.  You do put up in such out of
+the way spots.  Quite hard to find."
+
+"Then stop away."
+
+"No, thanks.  Now look here, Glyddyr, dear boy, what's the use of your
+cutting up rusty when we are obliged to row so much in the same boat?"
+
+"Curse you!  I'd like to throw you overboard."
+
+"Of course you would, my dear fellow, but you see you can't.  Rather an
+awkward remark though, that, when I'm coming for a cruise with you in
+the yacht--my yacht."
+
+Glyddyr crushed up the newspaper into a ball, and cast it across to the
+corner of the room.
+
+"What's the matter, old man?  I say, what a delicious sole!  Ever catch
+any on the yacht?"
+
+The sound of Glyddyr's teeth grating could be plainly heard.
+
+"Be no good to throw me overboard to feed the fishes, my dear boy.  I'm
+thoroughly well insured, both as to money--and protection," he added
+meaningly.  "Hope this fish was not fed in that peculiar way.  _Tlat_!
+Capital coffee.  Now then, talk.  I can eat and listen.  How is it going
+on with the girl?"
+
+"Reuben Gellow, your insolence is insufferable."
+
+"My dear Gellow, I must have a thou, to-morrow," said the visitor,
+mockingly.  "Your words, dear boy, when you want money; the other when
+you don't want money.  What a contrast!  Well, I don't care.  Capital
+butter this!  It shows me that everything is progressing well with the
+pretty heiress, and that Parry Glyddyr, Esquire, will pay his debts like
+a gentleman.  Come, old fellow, don't twist about in your chair like a
+skinned eel."
+
+"Curse you, who skinned me?"
+
+"Not I, dear boy.  Half a dozen had had a turn at you, and that lovely
+epi--what-you-may-call-it of yours was hanging upon you in rags.  I only
+stripped the rest off, so as to give you a chance to grow a new one, and
+I'm helping you to do it as fast as you can.  Come, don't cut up rough.
+Be civil, and I'll keep you going in style so that you can marry her all
+right, and have two children and live happy ever after."
+
+"Look here," said Glyddyr, getting up and pacing the room furiously,
+while his visitor calmly discussed his breakfast, "you have something
+under all this, so open it out."
+
+"No, dear boy, only the natural desire to see how you are getting on.
+You owe me--"
+
+"Curse what I owe you!"
+
+"No, no, don't do that.  Pay it."
+
+"You know I cannot."
+
+"Till you've made a good marriage; and you cannot live in style and make
+a good marriage without my help, my dear Glyddyr."
+
+"You and your cursed fraternity hold plenty of security, so leave me in
+peace."
+
+"I will, dear boy; but I want my trifle of money, and you are not
+getting on as fast as I could wish, so I've come to help you."
+
+"Come to ruin me, you mean."
+
+"Wrong.  I have my cheque book in my pocket, and if you want a few
+hundreds to carry on the war, here they are."
+
+"At the old rate," sneered Glyddyr.
+
+"No, my dear fellow.  I must have a little more.  The risk is big."
+
+"Yes.  Might fail, and blow out my brains."
+
+"Ex-actly!  How I do like this country cream."
+
+Glyddyr threw himself into his seat with a crash.
+
+"That was all a metaphor," he said bitterly.
+
+"What was, dear boy?"
+
+"About the Devil and Dr Faustus."
+
+"Of course it was.  Why?"
+
+"Faustus was some poor devil hard up, and the other was not a devil at
+all, but a confounded money-lender.  It was a bill Faustus accepted, not
+a contract."
+
+"I daresay you are right, Glyddyr.  Have a drop of brandy?  Eh?  No?
+Well, there's nothing like a _chasse_ with a good breakfast, and this is
+really prime."
+
+"Well, I'll grin and bear it till I'm free," said Glyddyr.  "You want to
+know how I am getting on.  You need not stay."
+
+"But I want a change, and I can help you, perhaps."
+
+"You'll queer the whole affair if you stay here.  Once it is so much as
+suspected that I am not as well off as I was--"
+
+"That you are an utter beggar--I mean a rum beggar."
+
+"Do you want me to wring your neck?"
+
+"The neck of the goose that lays the golden eggs?  No.  They don't kill
+geese that way."
+
+"--The whole affair will be off."
+
+"Old man's a rum one, isn't he?"
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"How do I know?" said Gellow, with a quiet chuckle.  "That's my
+business.  I know everything about you, my dear boy.  I have a great
+personal interest in your proceedings, and every move is reported to
+me."
+
+"And, to make matters worse, you have yourself come down to play the
+spy."
+
+"Not a bit of it, my dear Glyddyr; but you have cursed and bullied me at
+such a tremendous rate, that, as I have you on the hook, I can't help
+playing you a little."
+
+"Oh!" snarled Glyddyr furiously.
+
+"But, all the same, I am the best friend you have in the world."
+
+"It's a lie!"
+
+"Is it?  Well, we shall see.  I want you to marry King Gartram's
+daughter, and I'll let you have all you want to carry it out.  And by
+the way, here are three letters for you."
+
+He took the letters out of his pocket-book, and handed them.
+
+"There you are: Parry Glyddyr, Esq, care of Reuben Gellow, Esq, 209
+Cecil Street, Strand."
+
+"Why, they've been opened!"
+
+"Yes, all three--and read."
+
+"You scoundrel!" roared Glyddyr.  "Do you dare to sit there and tell me
+that you have had the effrontery to open my letters and read them?"
+
+"I didn't tell you so."
+
+"But you have read them?"
+
+"Every line."
+
+"Look here, sir," cried Glyddyr, rising fiercely, "I found it necessary
+to have my letters sent to an agent."
+
+"Reuben Gellow."
+
+"To be forwarded to me where I might be yachting."
+
+"So as to throw your creditors off the scent."
+
+"And you, acting as my agent, have read them."
+
+"In your interest, dear boy."
+
+"Curse you!  I don't care what happens now.  All is at an end between
+us, you miserable--"
+
+"Go it, old fellow, if it does you good; but I didn't open the letters."
+
+"Then who did?"
+
+"Denise."
+
+Glyddyr's jaw dropped.
+
+"Now, then, you volcanic eruption of a man; who's your friend, eh?  I
+went down to the office yesterday morning.  `Lady waiting in your room,
+sir,' says my clerk.  `Who is it?' says I.  `Wouldn't give her name,'
+says my clerk.  `Wants money then,' says I to myself; and goes up, and
+there was Madame Denise just finishing reading number three."
+
+"Good heavens!" muttered Glyddyr, blankly.
+
+"`I came, sare,' she says, with one of her pretty, mocking laughs, `to
+ask you for ze address of my hosband, but you are absent, it ees no
+mattair.  I find tree of my hosband's lettaires, and one say he sup-poz
+my hosband go to Danmout.  Dat is all.'"
+
+"Then she'll find me out, and come down here and spoil all."
+
+"Divil a doubt of it, me boy, as Paddy says."
+
+"But you--you left the letters lying about."
+
+"Not I.  They came by the morning's post.  How the deuce could I tell
+that she would hunt me up, and then open her `hosband's' letters."
+
+"I am not her husband;" cried Glyddyr furiously.  "That confounded
+French marriage does not count."
+
+"That's what you've got to make her believe, my dear boy."
+
+"And if it did, I'd sooner smother myself than live with the wretched
+harpy."
+
+"Yes; I should say she had a temper Glyddyr.  So under the
+circumstances, dear boy, I thought the best thing I could do was to come
+down fast as I could and put you on your guard."
+
+"My dear Gellow."
+
+"Come, that's better.  Then we are brothers once again," cried Gellow,
+with mock melodramatic fervour.
+
+"Curse the woman!"
+
+"Better still; much better than cursing me."
+
+"Don't fool, man.  Can't you see that this will be perfect destruction?"
+
+"Quite so, dear boy; and now that this inner man is refreshed with food,
+so kindly and courteously supplied by you, he is quite ready for action.
+What are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know.  Think she will come down?"
+
+"Think?  No, I don't.  Ah, Parry Glyddyr, what a pity it is you have
+been such a wicked young man!"
+
+"Do you want to drive me mad with your foolery?"
+
+"No; only to act.  There, don't make a fuss about it.  The first thing
+is to throw her off the scent.  She knows you may be here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, she'll come down and inquire for you.  She is not obliged to know
+about the people at the Fort; your yacht put in here for victualling or
+repairs."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"When she comes, she finds you have sailed, and if we are lucky she will
+feel that she has missed you, and go back."
+
+"If she would only die!" muttered Glyddyr, but his visitor caught his
+words.
+
+"Not likely to.  Sort of woman with stuff enough in her to last to a
+hundred.  It strikes me, dear boy, that you are in a fix."
+
+Glyddyr sat frowning.
+
+"And now you see the value of a friend."
+
+"Yes," said Glyddyr thoughtfully.  "I must go."
+
+"And you must take me too.  If she sees me, she will smell a rat."
+
+"Yes, confound you, and one of the worst sort.  There, ring that bell."
+
+"What for--brandy?  Plenty here."
+
+"No, man, for the bill; I must be off at once."
+
+Volume One, Chapter XI.
+
+HOW TO REACH THE FAIR STAR.
+
+As Burns said, matters go very awkwardly sometimes for those who plot
+and plan--as if some malicious genius took delight in thwarting the most
+carefully-laid designs, and tangling matters up, till the undoing seems
+hopeless.
+
+Chris Lisle had had a bad time mentally.  He was wroth against Gartram
+and Glyddyr, and far more wroth with himself for letting his anger get
+the better of him.
+
+"It was as if I had made up my mind to fight against my own interests,
+for I could not have done that man a greater service than to strike
+him."
+
+"That's it, sure enough," he said.  "This good-looking yachting dandy is
+the man, and it was enough to make poor Claudie think me a violent
+ruffian, upon whom she must never look again.  But I will not give her
+up.  I'd sooner die; and, bless her, she will never allow herself to be
+forced into marrying such a man as that, good-looking as he is.  Well,
+we shall see."
+
+To go up to the Fort and apologise seemed to him impossible, and he
+spent his time wandering about the shore, the pier, harbour and rocks,
+everywhere, so that he could keep an eye on Glyddyr's proceedings.
+
+He told himself that he merely went down to breathe the fresh air, but
+the air never seemed to be worth breathing if he could not watch the
+different trimly-rigged yachts lying in the harbour, the smartest and
+best kept one of all being _The Fair Star_.
+
+Glyddyr stayed at the hotel while his yacht was in the harbour, and
+Chris avoided that hotel on principle; but all the same he seemed to be
+attracted to it, and several times over the young men had met, to pass
+each other with a scowl, but they had not spoken since the day they had
+encountered up at the Fort.
+
+There was a lurking hope, though, in Chris's breast, that sooner or
+later he would meet Claude, and come to an explanation.
+
+"Just to ask her," he said, "to wait.  I know I'm poor; at least, I
+suppose I am, but I'll get over that, and force myself somehow into a
+position that shall satisfy the old man.  He will not be so hard upon me
+when he sees what I have done.  How unlucky in my choice of time.  He
+was in a horrible fit of irritability from his illness, and I spoke to
+him like a weak boy.  I ought to have known better."
+
+Just then he caught sight of a dress in the distance, and his heart
+began to beat fast.
+
+"It's Claude!" he exclaimed, and he increased his pace.
+
+"No, it is not," he said, slackening directly.  "Stranger."
+
+If he could have seen two hundred yards farther, and round a corner, he
+would not have checked his pace, but then his were ordinary eyes, and he
+continued his course, looking half-inquiringly at the figure which had
+attracted his attention, and gradually grew more curious as he became
+aware of the fact that the lady was fashionably dressed, and very
+elegant in her carriage.
+
+The next minute he saw that she was young, and almost directly that she
+was very handsome, while, to complete his surprise, she smiled, showing
+her white teeth, and stopped short.
+
+"I demand your pardon, monsieur," she said, in a particularly rich,
+sweet voice, and pronouncing the words with a very foreign accent, "but
+I am so strange at zis place.  I want ze small ship yacht _Ze Fair
+Star_.  You will tell me?"
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Chris quickly; "one, two, three, four," he
+continued pointing to where several graceful-looking yachts swung at
+their buoys.  "That is it, the fourth from the left."
+
+"Ah, but yes, I see.  One--two--tree--four, and zat is _Ze Fair Star_?"
+
+There was something droll and yet prettily piquant about her way of
+speaking, and in spite of himself Chris smiled, and the stranger laughed
+a little silvery laugh.
+
+"I say someting founay, _n'est-ce pas_?" she said.
+
+"I beg your pardon," cried Chris.  "I don't think I made myself
+understood."
+
+"Ah, perfectly.  I am not Engleesh, but I understand.  I count one, two,
+tree, four, and zat is _Ze Fair Star_, nombair four.  Is it not so?"
+
+"Quite right," said Chris.
+
+"But how shall I get to him?"
+
+"You must go down to the landing-place and hail her, or else hire a
+boatman to take you to her."
+
+"Hail!  What is hail?"
+
+"Call--shout to the men on board."
+
+"But, yes: I am vairay stupide.  But where is ze boat to take me.  I am
+so strange here at zis place."
+
+"If you will allow me, I will show you."
+
+"Ah, I tank you so much," and in the most matter-of-fact way, the
+stranger walked beside Chris towards the harbour, smiling and chatting
+pleasantly.
+
+"I make you laugh vairay much," she said merrily; and then, "aha! ze
+_charmante_ young lady is your friend.  I will find my own way now."
+
+She looked curiously at Chris, who had suddenly turned scarlet and then
+ghastly pale, for at the lane leading to the harbour they had come upon
+Claude and Mary, both looking wonderingly at him and his companion, and
+passing on without heeding his hurried salute.
+
+"No, no," said Chris, recovering himself quickly; and there was a flash
+of anger in his eyes as he continued rather viciously, "I will see you
+to the harbour, and speak to one of the boatmen for you."
+
+"I thank you so vairay much," she said; "but I understand you wish to go
+back to ze two ladies."
+
+"You are mistaken," he said coldly; "this way, please.  It is very
+awkward for a stranger, and especially for a foreign lady."
+
+She smiled, looking at him curiously, and, aware that they were the
+object of every gaze, Chris walked on by her trying to be perfectly cool
+and collected; but, as he replied to his companions remarks, feeling
+more awkward than he had ever felt in his life, and growing moment by
+moment more absent as in spite of his efforts he wondered what Claude
+would think, and whether he could overtake her afterwards and explain.
+
+"I am French, and we speak quite plain, what we do tink," she said
+laughingly; "here you have been vairay good to me, but you want to go to
+ze ladies we encounter; is it not so?--Ah!"
+
+The laughing look changed to one full of vindictive anger, as she
+muttered that quick, sharp cry, and increased the pace almost to a run.
+
+Chris stared after his companion, seeming to ask himself whether she was
+a mad woman, but almost at the same moment he caught sight of Glyddyr
+and a showily--dressed stranger, just at the end of the little half-moon
+shaped granite pier which sheltered the few fishing luggers, brigs and
+schooners, and formed the only harbour for many miles along the coast.
+
+They were sixty or eighty yards away, and as he saw Chris's late
+companion running towards them, Glyddyr stepped down from the harbour
+wall, and, with less activity, his companion followed, that being a spot
+where some rough granite steps led down to the water, and where boats
+coming and going from the yachts were moored.
+
+Chris stood still for a moment or two, and then, carried away by an
+intense desire to see the end of the little adventure, he walked slowly
+down towards the pier, gradually coming in sight of Glyddyr and his
+companion, as the little gig into which they had descended was pulled
+steadily out towards the yacht.
+
+There were plenty of loungers close up by the houses beneath the cliff,
+and sailors seated about the decks of the vessels, but the pier was
+occupied only by the handsomely-dressed woman, who increased her pace to
+a run, and only paused at the end, where she stood gesticulating
+angrily, beating one well-gloved hand in the other as she called upon
+the occupants of the boat to stop.
+
+The stranger looked back at her and raised his hat, but Glyddyr sat
+immovable in the stern, looking straight out to sea, while the sailors
+bent to their oars, and made the water foam.
+
+Chris stopped short some thirty yards from the end.
+
+"It is no business of mine," he thought.  "Is this one of Mr Glyddyr's
+friends?"
+
+Then he felt a thrill of excitement run through him as he heard the
+woman shriek out, shaking her fist threateningly,--
+
+"_Lache!  Lache_!"  And then in quick, passionate, broken English, "You
+will not stop?  I come to you."
+
+Chris heard a shout behind him, and stood for a few moments as if
+petrified, for, with a shrill cry, the woman sprang right off the pier,
+and he saw the water splash out, glittering in the morning sun.
+
+Then once more a thrill of excitement ran through him, as, thinking to
+himself that there would be ten feet of water off there at that time of
+the tide, and that it was running like a mill-race by the end of the
+pier, he dashed along as fast as he could go, casting off his loose
+flannel jacket and straw hat, bearing a little to his left, and plunging
+from the pier end into the clear tide.
+
+As he rose from his dive, he shook his head, and saw a hand beating the
+water a dozen yards away; then this disappeared, and a patch of bright
+silk, inflated like a bladder, rose to the surface, and then two hands
+appeared, and, for a moment or two, the white face of the woman.
+
+All the time Chris was swimming vigorously in pursuit.
+
+The tide carried him along well, and as he made the water foam with his
+vigorous strokes, he took in the fact that Glyddyr was standing up in
+the gig, and that his companion was gesticulating and calling upon the
+men to row back.  The pier, too, was resounding with the trampling of
+feet, and men were shouting orders as they came running down.
+
+There was plenty of help at hand, but Chris knew that there was time for
+any one to drown before a boat could be manned, cast off and rowed to
+the rescue.  If help was to come to the half-mad woman, it must be first
+from him, and then from Glyddyr's gig, which seemed to be stationary, as
+far as the swimmer could see.
+
+But he had no time for further thought; his every effort was directed to
+reaching the drowning woman, and it seemed an age before he mastered the
+distance between them, and then it was just as she disappeared.  But,
+raising himself up, he made a quick turn, and dived down and caught hold
+of the stiff silken dress, to rise the next moment, and then engage in
+an awkward struggle, for first one and then another clinging hand
+paralysed his efforts.  He tried to shake himself clear and get hold of
+the drowning woman free from her hands, but it was in vain.  She clung
+to him with the energy of despair, and, in spite of his efforts to keep
+his head up, he was borne down by the swift tide; the strangling water
+bubbled in his nostrils, and there was a low thundering in his ears.
+
+A few vigorous kicks took him to the surface again, and, in his
+helplessness, he looked wildly round for help, to see that Glyddyr's gig
+was still some distance away; but the men were backing water, and the
+stranger was leaning over the stern, holding the boat-hook towards them.
+
+Then the tide closed over his head again, and a chilling sense of horror
+came upon him; but once more the dim shades of the water gave place to
+the light of day, and he managed to get partially free, and again to
+make desperate strokes to keep himself on the surface.
+
+But he felt that his strength was going, and that, unless help came
+quickly, there was to be the end.
+
+A shout away on the left sent a momentary accession of strength through
+him, and he fought desperately, but in vain, for again his arm was
+pinioned, and the water rolled over his head just as he felt a sharp
+jerk, and, half-insensible, he was drawn up to the stern of a boat.
+
+What happened during the next few minutes was a blank.  Then Chris found
+himself being lifted up the rough granite steps on to the pier, amidst
+the cheering of a crowd; and in a hoarse voice he gasped,--
+
+"The lady; is she safe?"
+
+"All right, Mr Lisle, sir," cried one of the men.  "She's all square."
+
+Then a strange voice close to his ear said hastily,--
+
+"Yes; all right.  You go."
+
+He did not realise what it meant for a few moments, but as he was
+struggling to his feet, to stand, weak and dripping, in the midst of a
+pool of water, the same voice said,--
+
+"That's right, my lad.  Carry her up to my hotel."
+
+"No, no, my lads," cried Chris confusedly to the too willing crowd of
+fishermen about him; "I'm all right.  I can walk.  Who has my jacket and
+hat?"
+
+"Here, what's all this?" said another voice, as some one came pushing
+through the crowd.
+
+"Only a bit of an accident, sir," said the same strange voice.  "Lady--
+friend of mine--too late for the boat--slipped off the end of the pier."
+
+"And Mr Chris Lisle saved her, sir."
+
+"Humph!  Whose boat is that--Mr Glyddyr's?"
+
+"Yes, friend of mine, sir," said the same strange voice.  "There, don't
+lose time, my lads.  Quick, carry her to my hotel."
+
+"Can I be of any assistance?" said another voice.
+
+"No, thank you.  I can manage."
+
+"Nonsense, sir; the lady's insensible.  Asher, you'd better go with them
+to the hotel."
+
+Chris heard no more, but stood looking confusedly after the crowd
+following the woman he had saved, and as he began to recover himself a
+little more, he realised that the strange voice was that of the
+over-dressed man who had been in Glyddyr's boat, and that Gartram and
+then Doctor Asher had come down the pier, and had gone back to the cliff
+road, while he, though he hardly realised the fact that it was he--so
+strangely confused he felt--was seated on one of the low stone mooring
+posts, with a rough fisherman's arm about his waist, and the houses on
+the cliff and the boats in the harbour going round and round.
+
+"Come, howd up, brave lad," said a rough voice.
+
+"Here, drink a tot o' this, Master Lisle, sir," said another, and a
+pannikin was held to his lips.
+
+"Seems to me he wants the doctor, too," said another.
+
+"Nay, he'll be all right directly.  That's it, my lad.  That's the real
+stuff to put life into you.  Now you can walk home, can't you?  A good
+rub and a run, and you'll be all right.  I've been drownded seven times,
+I have, and a drop of that allus brought me to."
+
+"That's very strong," gasped Chris, as he coughed a little.
+
+"Ay, 'tis," said the rough seaman, who had administered the dose.  "It's
+stuff as the 'cise forgot to put the dooty on."
+
+"I can stand now," said Chris, as the sense of confusion and giddiness
+passed off; and when he rose to his feet, the first thing he caught
+sight of was Glyddyr's gig, by where the yacht was moored.
+
+"Who saved me?"
+
+"That gent in Captain Glyddyr's boat, my son.  Got a howd on you with
+the boat-hook, and, my word, he's given you a fine scrape.  Torn the
+flannel, too."
+
+"Thank you, thank you.  I can manage now."
+
+"No, you can't, sir.  You're as giddy as a split dog-fish.  You keep a
+hold on my arm.  That's your sort.  I'll walk home with you.  Very
+plucky on you, sir.  That gent's wife, I suppose?"
+
+"Eh?  Yes.  I don't know."
+
+"Didn't want to be left behind, I s'pose.  Well, all I can say is, he'd
+ha' been a widower if it warn't for you."
+
+By this time they were at the shore end of the pier, but Chris still
+felt weak and giddy, and leaned heavily upon the rough seaman's arm,
+walking slowly homeward, with quite a procession of blue-jerseyed
+fishers and sailors behind.
+
+Then, as from out of a mist in front he caught a gleam of a woman's
+dress, and the blood flushed to his pale face as he saw that Claude was
+coming toward him, but stopped short, and it was Mary Dillon's hand that
+was laid upon his arm, and her voice which was asking how he was.
+
+Volume One, Chapter XII.
+
+THE GIFT OF A WHITE CARD.
+
+A hasty note had been despatched to the Fort by Glyddyr, announcing that
+a friend had come down from town, and that to entertain him he was going
+to take him for a short cruise in his yacht.  Then there were the
+customary hopes that Gartram was better, and with kindest regards to
+Miss Gartram, Glyddyr remained his very sincerely.
+
+"I don't like going off like this," grumbled Glyddyr; "it looks as if I
+were being scared away."
+
+"Well, that is curious," said Gellow, with mock seriousness.
+
+"And it's like retreating from the field and leaving it to Lisle."
+
+"Who the deuce is Lisle?"
+
+"Eh?  A man I know.  Had a bit of a quarrel with him," said Glyddyr
+hastily.
+
+"Quarrel?  What about?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing."
+
+Gellow talked in a light, bantering strain, but behind the mask of
+lightness he assumed, a keen observer would have noticed that he was all
+on the strain to notice everything, and he noted that there was
+something under Glyddyrs careless way of turning the subject aside.
+
+"Rival, of course," thought Gellow.
+
+They were walking down toward the pier, and as they neared the sea
+Glyddyrs pace grew slower, and his indecision more marked.
+
+"I can't afford to trifle with this affair," he said.  "I don't think
+I'll go."
+
+"Well, don't go.  Stop and order a nice piquant delicate little dinner
+in case Madame Denise comes, something of the _Trois Freres Provencaux_
+style, and I'll stop and dine with you, play gooseberry, and keep you
+from quarrelling."
+
+"Come along," said Glyddyr sharply; "we'll go, but I believe she will
+not come.  No, I won't go.  Suppose she does come down, and I'm not
+here, and she begins to make inquiries?"
+
+"Bosh!  If she comes and finds you are not here, the first inquiry she
+makes will be for when you went away, the second, for where you went."
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"Then let drop to some one that you are going to Redport, or Rainsbury,
+and she'll make at once for there."
+
+"Confound you!" cried Glyddyr sharply.  "Nature must have meant you for
+a fox."
+
+"You said a rat just now, dear boy.  I never studied Darwin.  Have it
+your own way.  That our boat?"
+
+"That's my boat," said Glyddyr sharply, as they reached the end of the
+pier.
+
+"In with you, then," cried Gellow; and then, in a voice loud enough to
+be heard on the nearest brig in the harbour, "Think the wind will hold
+good for Redport?"
+
+Glyddyr growled, and followed his companion into the boat, which was
+pushed off directly.
+
+"I don't believe she'll come down," he whispered to Gellow, as the two
+sailors bent to their oars, and the boat began to surge through the
+clear water.
+
+"Not likely," said Gellow.  "Look!"
+
+Glyddyr gave a hasty glance back, and saw that which made him sit fast
+staring straight before him, and say, in a quick low voice,--
+
+"Give way, my lads; I want to get on board."
+
+Then followed the excited appearance of the lady at the end of the pier,
+the cries to them to stop, and the plunge into the water.
+
+"Well, she is a tartar," whispered Gellow.
+
+"Don't look back, man."
+
+"Oh, all right.  Water isn't deep, I suppose?"
+
+"Look, sir," cried one of the sailors.  "Shall we row back?"
+
+"No; go on."
+
+"Water's ten foot deep, sir, and the tide's running like mad," cried the
+man excitedly.
+
+"Some one will help the lady out," said Glyddyr hastily.  "Plenty of
+hands there."
+
+"Hooray!" cried one of the men, as Chris leaped off the pier.
+
+"Tell them to back water," whispered Gellow excitedly.  "It's murder,
+man."
+
+Glyddyr made no reply, but seemed as if stricken with paralysis, as he
+looked back with a strangely confused set of thoughts struggling
+together in his brain, foremost among which, and mastering all the
+others, was one that seemed to suggest that fate was saving him from
+endless difficulties, for if the woman whom he could see being swept
+away by the swift current sank, to rise no more, before his boat reached
+her, his future would be assured.
+
+He made a feeble effort, though, to save the drowning pair, giving
+orders in a half-hearted way, trembling violently the while, and unable
+to crush the hope that the attempt might be unsuccessful.
+
+The men backed water rapidly, and Gellow raised the boat-hook, holding
+it well out over the stern in time to make the sharp snatch, which took
+effect in Chris's back, and holding on till more help came and they
+reached the pier.
+
+"It's all over," whispered Glyddyr bitterly, as willing hands dragged
+Chris and his insensible companion up the steps.
+
+"Not it," was whispered back.  "Will you leave yourself in my hands?"
+
+"I am in them already."
+
+"Don't fool," said Gellow quickly.  "You have got to marry that girl for
+your own sake."
+
+"And for yours."
+
+"Call it so if you like; but will you trust me to get you out of this
+scrape?"
+
+"Yes, curse you: do what you like."
+
+"Bless you, then, my dear boy; off you go."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Be off to the yacht, set sail, and don't come back to Danmouth till I
+tell you it's safe."
+
+"Do you mean this?"
+
+"Of course.  But keep me posted as to your whereabouts."
+
+"Here?"
+
+"No; in town."
+
+"But what are you going to do?"
+
+"Fight for your interests, and mine.  That woman's my wife, come down
+after me, and I'm going to take her home.  See?"
+
+"Not quite."
+
+"Then stop blind.  Be off, quick."
+
+This hurried colloquy took place in the boat by the rough granite
+stairs, the attention of those about being taken up by the two
+half-drowned people on the pier, the excited talk making the words
+inaudible save to those concerned.
+
+"Now, then," whispered Gellow, "you'll leave it to me?"
+
+"Yes," said Glyddyr, hesitating.
+
+"_Carte blanche_?"
+
+"You'll do nothing--"
+
+He did not finish the sentence.
+
+"_Carte blanche_?" said Gellow again.
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+"Right; and every lie I tell goes down to your account, dear boy.
+Bye-bye.  Off you go," he said aloud, as he sprang on the stones.  "I'm
+very sorry, Glyddyr; I apologise.  If I had known she would follow me, I
+wouldn't have come."
+
+"Give way," said Glyddyr, thrusting the boat from the steps; and he sank
+down in the stern, heedless of the dripping seat, and thinking deeply as
+the pier seemed to slip away from him, and with it the woman who had for
+years been, as he styled it, his curse.
+
+He only glanced back once, and saw that Chris Lisle was being helped up
+into a sitting position, but the little crowd closed round him, and he
+saw no more, but sat staring hard at his yacht, and seeing only the face
+of the woman just drawn from the sea.
+
+Then he seemed to see Chris recovering, and taking advantage of his
+absence to ruin all his hopes with Claude.
+
+"If these two, Claude and Denise, should meet and talk," he thought.
+
+"If Gartram should learn everything.  If Denise should not recover.
+Hah!"
+
+Glyddyr uttered a low expiration of the breath, as he recalled how
+closely Gellow's interests were mixed up with his own.
+
+"And I have given him _carte blanche_," he thought; "and he will say or
+do anything to throw them off the scent--or _do_ anything," he repeated,
+after a pause.  "No, he dare do no harm; he is too fond of his own
+neck."
+
+He had come to this point when he reached the side of his long,
+graceful-looking yacht, and as soon as he was aboard he gave his orders;
+the mooring ropes were cast off, and the sails hoisted.  Then, fetching
+a glass from the cabin, Glyddyr carefully scanned the pier and shore,
+but could see nothing but little knots of people standing about
+discussing the adventure, while the largest knots hung about the door of
+the hotel.
+
+Almost at the same moment, Gellow was using the telescope in the hotel
+hall.
+
+"Right," he said to himself, as he closed it, upon seeing that the sails
+of the yacht were being hoisted.  "Good boy; but you'll have to pay for
+it.  Well, doctor, how is she?"
+
+Doctor Asher had just come down from one of the bed-chambers.
+
+"Recovering fast," said that gentleman, following Gellow into a private
+room, "but very much excited.  She will require rest and great care for
+some days."
+
+Gellow tapped him on the breast, and gave him a meaning look.
+
+"No, she won't, doctor," he said, in a low voice.  "I must get her home
+at once.  Most painful for us both to stop.  People chattering and
+staring, and that sort of thing.  Most grateful to you for your
+attention," he continued, taking out his pocket-book, opening it
+quickly, and drawing therefrom two crisp new five-pound notes.  "Let me
+see, you doctors prefer guineas," he said, thrusting his hand into his
+pocket.
+
+"No, no, really," protested Asher, as his eyes sparkled at the sight of
+the notes.
+
+"Ah, well, I shall not press you, doctor; but I'm down and you are down
+after this painful affair, so what do you say to prescribing for us both
+pints of good cham and a seltzer, eh?  Not bad, eh?"
+
+"Excellent, I'm sure," said Asher, smiling; "but really I cannot think
+of--er--one note is ample."
+
+"Bosh, sir!" cried Gellow, crumpling up both, and pressing them into the
+doctor's hand.  "Professional knowledge must be paid for.  Here, waiter;
+wine-list.  That's right.  Bottle of--of--of--of--Oh, here we are.  Dry
+Monopole and two seltzers--no, one will do.  Must practise economy; eh,
+doctor?"
+
+The waiter hurried out, and Gellow continued confidentially,--
+
+"Bless her!  Charming woman, but bit of a tyrant, sir.  Love her like
+mad don't half express it; but there are times when a man does like a
+run alone.  Just off with a friend for a bit of a cruise when the
+check-string was pulled tight.  You understand?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I begin to understand."
+
+"Ah, here's the stimulus, and I'm sure we require it."
+
+_Pop_!
+
+"Thanks, waiter.  Needn't wait.  Now, doctor: bless her--the dear
+thing's health.  Hah, not bad--for the country.  I may take her back
+to-day, eh?"
+
+"Well, er--if great care were taken, and you broke the journey if the
+lady seemed worse--I--er--think perhaps you might risk it," said Asher,
+setting down his empty glass.  "Of course you would take every
+precaution."
+
+"Who would take more, doctor?  Put out, of course; but the weaker sex,
+eh?  Yes, the weaker sex."
+
+He refilled the doctor's glass and his own.
+
+"An accident.  Pray, don't think it was anything else; and, I say: you
+will contradict any one who says otherwise?"
+
+"Of course, of course."
+
+"There are disagreeable people who might say that the poor dear sprang
+off the pier in a fit of temper at being left behind, but we know
+better, eh, doctor?"
+
+"Oh, of course," said Asher, playing with and enjoying his glass of
+champagne.
+
+"It's a wonderful thing, temper.  Take a cigar?"
+
+"Thanks, no.  I never smoke in the daytime."
+
+"Sorry for you, doctor.  Professional reasons, I suppose?"
+
+Asher bowed.
+
+"I was going to say," continued Gellow, carefully selecting one out of
+the four cigars he carried, for no earthly reason, since he would smoke
+all the others in their turn.  "I was going to say that it is a
+wonderful thing how Nature always gives the most beautiful women the
+worst tempers."
+
+"Compensation?" hazarded Asher.
+
+"Eh?  Yes; I suppose so.  Going, doctor?"
+
+"Yes; other patients to see."
+
+"Then my eternal gratitude, sir, for what you have done, and with all
+due respect to you and your skill, I hope I may never have to place a
+certain lady in your care again.  Shake hands, my dear sir.  Doctor
+Asher, I think you are called?  That name will be engraven on the lady's
+heart."
+
+"You will take the greatest care?" said Asher.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And break the journey, if needful?"
+
+"And break the journey if I think it needful.  You need be under no
+apprehension, my dear doctor.  Good-morning, and goodbye.
+
+"Yes; bless her!  I'll take the greatest care, Asher, by gad!" said
+Gellow to himself, as he saw the doctor pass the window, when he filled
+his own glass, took a hasty sip, and then drew out his pocket-book.
+
+"Shall I make a lump charge on this journey," he said, "or put down the
+separate items?  Better be exact," he muttered, and he carefully wrote
+down,--
+
+"Doctor's fees, twenty guineas; lunch for doctor, one guinea."
+
+"Always as well to be correct," he muttered, as he replaced his pencil
+in the book, and drew round the elastic band with a snap.  "How am I to
+know about how she is going on?  By jingo!"
+
+He started, so sudden was the apparition of the woman, who flung open
+the door, and closed it loudly, being evidently in a fierce fit of
+excitement and rage.
+
+"Where is my hosband?" she cried, speaking in a low voice, and through
+her teeth.
+
+Gellow beckoned her to the window, and pointed out to where _The Fair
+Star_ was careening over, with a pleasant breeze sending her rapidly
+through the water.
+
+"He is dere," she said, watching the yacht through her half-closed eyes.
+
+"Yes, he's off.  Gave me the slip while I was helping you.  By jingo,
+ma'am, you had a narrow escape."
+
+"And you came down here to reveal him I was coming," she said, turning
+upon him suddenly, with her eyes widely open and flashing.
+
+"Come, I like that," he replied, with cool effrontery.  "How the dickens
+should I know that you were coming down here?"
+
+She did not reply, but stood gazing at him searchingly.
+
+"But I wish to goodness you hadn't come."
+
+"And why, monsieur, do you wish that I shall not come?"
+
+"Because you spoil sport.  Do you know that Glyddyr owes me thousands?"
+
+"Of francs?  He is vairay extravagant."
+
+"Francs, be hanged!  Pounds.  I came down here to try and get some, and
+just as I'd got him safe, and he was taking me aboard his yacht to give
+me some money, you came and had that accident."
+
+"Yais, I come and had that ac-ceedon," said the woman through her teeth.
+"Where to is he gone, monsieur?"
+
+"Glyddyr?  Ah! that's what I should like to know.  Going to sail back to
+London, I expect.  Gravesend, perhaps.  How are you now?"
+
+"He will come back here?" said the woman, paying no heed to the
+question.
+
+Gellow burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"What for you laugh?" said the woman angrily.  "Am so I redeeculose in
+dese robe which do not fit me?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, no.  'Pon honour I never noticed your dress.  With a face like
+yours one does not see anything else."
+
+"Aha, I see," said the woman, raising her eyebrows.  "You flatter me,
+monsieur.  I am extreme oblige.  You tell me my face is handsome?"
+
+"Yes; and no mistake."
+
+"You tell me somting else I do not know at all."
+
+"Eh?  Oh, very well.  I will when I think of it."
+
+"You tell me now.  What for you laugh?"
+
+"Eh, why did I laugh?"  The woman screwed up her eyelids, and nodded her
+head a great deal.
+
+"I remember now.  It was at your thinking that Glyddyr would come back
+here."
+
+"He has sail away in his leettler sheep--in his yacht.  Why will he not
+come back to-night, to-morrow, the next day?"
+
+"Shall I tell you?"
+
+"Yes; you shall tell me."
+
+"Because he will say to himself: `no, I will not go back to Danmouth,
+because Madame Denise is so fond of me she will be waiting.'  Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Oh, yais.  I understand quite well.  You sneer me, but you are his
+friend.  You are his friend."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha," laughed Gellow; "you wouldn't have said that if you had
+heard him when I talked about money."
+
+"Well?"
+
+The abrupt question was so sudden, that Gellow looked at the speaker
+wonderingly.
+
+"Well what?" he said.
+
+"Why do you look at me?  Why do you ask me question?  You go your way, I
+go mine.  I want my hosband.  I will have my hosband.  Why is he here?"
+
+"He isn't here," said Gellow, in reply to the fierce question.
+
+"No, I know dat; and you know what I mean.  Why comes he here?"
+
+"Well," said Gellow, "I should think it was so as to get out of my way,
+and--now, don't be offended if I tell you the truth."
+
+"Bah!  I know you.  You cannot offend me."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry I am so insignificant in madame's beautiful eyes."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I say I am sorry I am so insignificant, but I'll tell you all the same.
+I should say that Mr Parry Glyddyr came down to this delectable,
+out-of-the-way spot so as to be where Mademoiselle Denise--"
+
+"Madame Denise Glyddyr, sare."
+
+"Ah, that's what Glyddyr says you are not."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I beg your pardon; I only tell you what he says."
+
+"We shall see," cried the woman, stamping her foot, "what you did not
+finish yourself?"
+
+"And I don't mean to," said Gellow, _sotto voce_.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I have no more to say, only that I believe he came here so as to avoid
+you, and he is off somewhere now to be away from you."
+
+"Yes, it is true," said the woman bitterly.
+
+"If you had not come down, I daresay he would have run back here."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"How should I know?  Play billiards, read the odds."
+
+"He has a wife here, then."
+
+"Do you mean Madame Denise?" said Gellow innocently.
+
+She gave him a scornful look.
+
+"Are you fool, or make fun of me?" she cried fiercely.  "Bah, I am too
+much angry.  Is there a lady here?"
+
+"No, I should think not, but we could easily find out.  If he has, it is
+too bad, owing me so much as he does.  No, I don't think so; stop--yes I
+do.  By Jingo, it's too bad.  That's why he did not want to take me out
+in his yacht."
+
+"What do you mean?" said the woman searchingly.
+
+"If there is one, madame--if he is married, she is aboard his yacht, and
+yonder they go--no, they don't; they're out of sight."
+
+There was so much reality in Gellow's delivery of this speech, that his
+_vis-a-vis_ was completely hoodwinked.  She tried to pass it off with a
+laugh, but the compression of her lips, the contraction about her eyes,
+all showed the jealous rage she was in; and it was only by giving one
+foot a fierce stamp on the carpet, and by walking quickly to the window,
+that she could keep herself from shrieking aloud.
+
+"Well, madame," said Gellow, "you are getting all right again."
+
+"Oh, yais; I am getting all right."
+
+"And you can do without my services?"
+
+"Oh, yais."
+
+"Then I'll say good-bye.  Glad I was near to help you out.  Glad to see
+you again if you like to give me a call in town."
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"Going?  Back to London as fast as I can."
+
+"And what for, sir?"
+
+"To read up all the yachting news, and see where _The Fair Star_ puts
+in, and then run down and give Master Glyddyr a bit of my mind."
+
+"Stop--an hour--two hours."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Till I get back my dress all a dry.  I go back wiz you."
+
+"Oh, certainly, if you wish it; but I wouldn't; you had better stop here
+and rest for a few days--a week.  I'll write and tell you all I find
+out."
+
+"I go back wiz you," said the woman decidedly.  And she kept her word,
+for in two hours they caught a train.
+
+The next day came a telegram from Underley, giving that as Glyddyr's
+temporary address.
+
+Gellow wrote back advising that the yacht should in future sail under
+another name, with her owner incog, and he added that the coast at
+Danmouth was now clear.
+
+Volume One, Chapter XIII.
+
+HEARTS ARE NOT DEFORMED.
+
+"Now Claude, darling, what do you think of me?" said Mary, one morning;
+"am I beautiful as a flower in spring?"
+
+"No," said Claude gravely; "only what you are, my dear little cousin;
+why?"
+
+Mary's face was flushed, and her eyes were sparkling as much from
+mischief as pleasure as she caught her cousin's hand, led her softly to
+the open window of her bedroom, and pointed down.
+
+Claude looked at her wonderingly, but she was too well used to her
+companion's whims to oppose her, and she looked down.
+
+"Can you see the goose?" whispered Mary.
+
+"I can see Mr Trevithick walking with papa; I thought they were in the
+study;" and, she hardly knew why, she gazed down with some little
+interest at the tall, stoutish man of thirty, with closely-cut dark hair
+and smoothly shaved face, which gave him rather the aspect of a giant
+boy as he walked beside Gartram, talking to him slowly and earnestly,
+evidently upon some business matter.
+
+"Well, that's who I mean," said Mary, laughing almost hysterically, "for
+he must be mad."
+
+"Now, Mary dear, what fit is this?" cried Claude, pressing her hands and
+drawing her away, as, a very child for the moment, she was about to get
+upon a chair and peep down from behind the curtain.  "I know how angry
+papa would be if he caught sight of you looking down."
+
+"Well, the man should not be such a goose--gander, I mean.  I thought he
+was such a clever, staid, serious lawyer that uncle trusted him deeply."
+
+"Of course," said Claude warmly; "and he's quite worthy of it.  I like
+Mr Trevithick very, very much."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mary, in a mock tragic tone, as she flung her cousin's
+hands away, "you'll make me hate you."
+
+"Mary, you ought to have been an actress."
+
+"You mean I ought to have been a man and an actor, Claudie.  Oh, how I
+could have played Richard the Third."
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"Oh, they can't hear.  They're talking of bills and bonds and lading.  I
+heard them.  But Claude, oh! and you professing to love Chris Lisle."
+
+"I never professed anything of the kind," cried Claude indignantly.
+
+"Your eyes did; and all the time uncle is engaging you to Mr Glyddyr."
+
+"Mary!  For shame!"
+
+"And in spite of this double-dealing, you must want Mr Trevithick,
+too?"
+
+"Do you wish to make me angry?"
+
+"Do you wish to make me jealous?"
+
+"Jealous?  Absurd!"
+
+"Of course," cried Mary sharply.  "What should a poor little miserable
+like I am know of love or jealousy or heartaches, and the rest of it?"
+
+"My dear coz," whispered Claude, placing an arm round her, "I shall
+never understand you."
+
+"There isn't much of me, Claude.  It oughtn't to take you long."
+
+"But it does," said Claude playfully.  "I never know when you are
+serious and when you are teasing.  I have not the most remote idea of
+what you mean now."
+
+"Then I'll tell you.  He's in love."
+
+"Who is?"
+
+"Mr Trevithick."
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"There you go.  No: not with you.  Of course, it would be quite natural
+if the great big fellow, coming here every now and then, had fallen in
+love with his client's beautiful daughter.  But the foolish goose has
+fallen in love with some one else."
+
+"Mary, dear, how do you know?  With whom?"
+
+"Ah!  Of course, you would never guess--with poor Mary Dillon."
+
+"Oh, Mary, darling!  But has he really told you so?"
+
+"I should like to see him dare."
+
+"Yes," said Claude quietly; "I suppose that is what most girls would
+like."
+
+"Don't, Claude dearest; pray don't.  My sedate and lovely cousin trying
+to make jokes.  Oh! this is too delicious.  But it won't do, Claudie; it
+is not in your way at all.  I am a natural, born female jester--a sort
+of Josephine Miller; but--you! oh, it is too ridiculous."
+
+"Now, tell me seriously, what does this mean?" said Claude, taking the
+girl's hands.
+
+"What I told you, darling.  Big, clever, serious Mr Trevithick, the
+learned lawyer, is in love--with me."
+
+"Mary, you must be serious now.  But how do you know?"
+
+"How do I know?" cried Mary, with a curl of the lip.  "How does a woman
+know when a man loves her?"
+
+"By his telling her so, I suppose; and you say Mr Trevithick has not
+told you."
+
+"Didn't you know Chris Lisle loved you before he dared to tell--I mean,
+to give you instructions in the art of catching salmon?"
+
+Claude was silent.
+
+"No, of course you did not, dear," said Mary mockingly.  "As if it was
+not only too easy to tell."
+
+"But, Mary dear, this is too serious to trifle about.  You have not
+given him any encouragement?"
+
+"Only been as sharp and disagreeable to him as I could."
+
+"But how has he shown it?"
+
+"Lots of ways.  Held my poor little tiny hand in his great big ugly paw,
+where it looked like a splash of cream in a trencher, and forgot to let
+it go when he was talking to me; looked down at me as if he were hungry,
+and I was something good to eat--like an ogre who wanted to pick my
+bones; sighed like the wind in Logan cave, and when I dragged my hand
+away, all crushed and crumpled up, and without a bit of feeling left in
+it, he begged my pardon, and looked ashamed of himself."
+
+"And what did you say?"
+
+"I?  I said, `Oh!'"
+
+"That all?"
+
+"No; I said, `you've quite spoiled that hand, Mr Trevithick,' and then
+the monster looked frightened of me."
+
+"I am very sorry--no, very glad, Mary," said Claude thoughtfully, and
+looking her surprise.
+
+"Which, dear?"
+
+There was a tap at the door, and Sarah Woodham entered.
+
+"Master wished me to tell you that Mr Trevithick will not stay for
+dinner, Miss Claude, and said would you come down."
+
+"Directly, Sarah," said Claude, rising.  "You will not come, Mary?" she
+whispered.
+
+"Indeed, but I shall."
+
+"Mary, dear," protested her cousin.
+
+"Why, if I stop away the monster will think all sort of things; that I
+care for him, that he has impressed me favourably, that I have gone to
+my room to dream.  No, my dear coz, there are some things which must be
+nipped in the bud, and this is one of them.  It is his whim--his maggot.
+Oh, Claude, he is six feet two.  What a huge maggot to nip."
+
+They were already part of the way down, to find Gartram and his great
+legal man of business standing in the hall.
+
+"Better alter your mind, Trevithick, and have a chop with us.  Try and
+persuade him, Claude."
+
+"We shall be extremely glad, Mr Trevithick," said Claude; but her words
+did not sound warm, and her father looked at her as if surprised.
+
+"I am greatly obliged, but I must get back to town," said their visitor;
+and he spoke in a heavy, bashful way, and looked at Mary as if expecting
+her to speak, but she did not even glance at him.
+
+"Well," said Gartram, "if you must, you must."
+
+The big lawyer looked at Claude again in a disappointed way, and his
+eyes seemed to say, "Coax me a little more."
+
+But Claude felt pained as she glanced from one to the other, for there
+was something too incongruous in the idea of those two becoming engaged,
+for her to wish to aid the matter in the slightest way, and she held out
+her hand for the parting.
+
+"I suppose it will be three months before we see you again, Mr
+Trevithick," she said.
+
+"Yes, Miss Gartram, three months; unless," he added hastily, "Mr
+Gartram should summon me before."
+
+"No fear, Trevithick; four days a year devoted to legal matters are
+quite enough for me."
+
+"We none of us know, Mr Gartram," said the big man solemnly.
+"Good-day, Miss Gartram; good-day, Miss Dillon," and he shook hands with
+both slowly, as if unwillingly, before he strode away.
+
+"I don't think Trevithick is well," said Gartram.
+
+Volume One, Chapter XIV.
+
+A TELEGRAM.
+
+The same old repetition in Chris Lisle's brain: "How am I to grow rich
+enough to satisfy the King?"
+
+Always that question, to which no answer came.
+
+Then would come, till he was half maddened by the thought, the idea that
+Glyddyr had returned after a few days' absence and had the free run of
+the Fort, and would be always at Claude's side.
+
+"Constant dropping will wear a stone," he would say to himself; "and she
+is not a stone.  I am sure she loved me, and I might have been happy if
+I had not been so cursedly poor--no, I mean, if she had not been so
+cruelly rich.  For I am not poor, and I never felt poor till now.  But I
+can't afford to keep a yacht, and go here and there to races, and win
+money.  He must win a great deal at these races.
+
+"Why cannot I?" he said half aloud, after a long, thoughtful pause.  She
+would think no better of me, but the old man would.
+
+"Surely I ought to be as clever as Mr Parry Glyddyr.  I ought to be a
+match for him.  Well, I am in brute strength.  Pish! what nonsense one
+does dream of at a time like this.  I can think of no means of making
+money, only of plenty of ways of losing it.  Nature meant me for an
+idler and dreamer by the beautiful river, so I may as well go out and
+idle and dream, instead of moping here, grumbling at my fate.
+
+"It's a fine morning, as the writer said; let's go out and kill
+something."
+
+He stepped out into the passage, lifted down his salmon rod from where
+it hung upon a couple of hooks, took his straw hat, in whose crown,
+carefully twisted up, were sundry salmon flies, thrust his gaff hook
+through the loop of a strap, and started off along the front of the
+houses, in full view of the row of fishermen, who were propping their
+backs up against the cliff rail.
+
+Plenty of "Mornin's" greeted him, with smiles and friendly nods, and
+then, as he walked on, the idlers discussed the probabilities of his
+getting a good salmon or two that morning.
+
+Away in the sheltered bay lay Glyddyr's yacht, looking the perfection of
+trimness; and as it caught his eye, Chris turned angrily away, wondering
+whether the owner was up at the Fort, or on board.
+
+Just as he reached the river which cut the little town in two, he saw
+the boy who did duty as telegraph messenger go along up the path which
+led away to the Fort, and with the habit born of living in a little
+gossiping village, Chris found himself thinking about the telegraph
+message.
+
+"Big order for stone," he said to himself as he studied the water.  "How
+money does pour in for those who don't want it."
+
+But soon after he saw the boy returning, a red telegraph envelope in his
+hand, and that he was trotting on quickly, as if in search of an owner.
+
+"Not at home," he muttered; and then he became interested in the boy's
+proceedings in in spite of himself, as he saw the young messenger go
+down to the end of the rough pier and stop, as if speaking to some one
+below, before coming quickly back, and finally passing him, going up the
+path by the river side, as if to reach the old stone bridge some hundred
+yards up the glen.
+
+"Gartram must be over at his new quarry," said Chris to himself, and as
+the boy disappeared, he thought no more of the incident till about fifty
+yards farther, as he had turned up by the bank of the river, he caught
+sight of him again.
+
+He forgot him the next moment, for his interest was taken up by the
+rushing water, and he watched numberless little falls and eddies, as he
+went on, till, as he neared the bridge, he caught sight of a well-known
+figure seated upon the parapet smoking, and in the act of taking the
+telegram from the boy.
+
+He tore it open and read the message, crumpled it up, and with an angry
+gesture threw it behind him into the stream; and as he pitched the boy a
+small coin, Chris saw the little crumpled-up ball of paper go sailing
+down towards the sea.
+
+For a moment the young man felt disposed to avoid meeting Glyddyr, as,
+to reach the fishing ground he had marked down, he would have to go over
+the bridge, and then along the rugged path on the other side.
+
+"And if he sees me going back, he'll think I'm afraid of him," muttered
+Chris.
+
+At the thought, he swung his long lithe rod over his shoulder, and
+strode on, his heavy fishing boots sounding loudly on the rugged stones.
+
+As Chris reached the bridge, Glyddyr was busy with his match-box
+lighting a fresh cigar, and did not look up till the other was only a
+few yards away, when he raised his head, saw who was coming, and changed
+colour.  Then the two young men gazed fiercely into each other's eyes,
+the look telling plainly enough that what had passed and was going on
+made them enemies for life.
+
+Chris tramped on, keeping his head up, and naturally, as he did not turn
+towards his rear, he was soon out of eyeshot, when the sharp report of a
+yacht's gun rang out from behind him, the effect being that he turned
+sharply round to look at the smoke rising half a mile away.
+
+It was a perfectly natural action, but Chris forgot that he was carrying
+a long, elastic salmon rod, and the effect was curious, for the rod
+swung through the air with a loud _whish_, and gave Glyddyr a smart blow
+on the cheek.
+
+"I beg your pardon," cried Chris involuntarily, as Glyddyr sprang from
+the parapet into the roadway, with a menacing look in his eyes.
+
+"You cad!" he roared.  "You did that on purpose."
+
+"No, I did not," said Chris, quite as hotly.  "If I had meant to do it,
+I should have used the butt of the rod, and knocked you over into the
+river."
+
+Glyddyr's lips seemed to contract till his white teeth were bare; and,
+dashing down cigar and match, he advanced towards Chris with his fists
+clenched, till he was within a couple of feet of his rival.
+
+Chris's face grew set and stony looking, but he did not move.  One hand
+held the rod, and the other was in his pocket, so that he offered an
+easy mark for a blow such as he felt would pay him back for the one
+which had sent Glyddyr over in the study at the Fort.
+
+But he knew that the blow would not come, and a curiously mocking smile
+slowly dawned upon his lip as he saw that Glyddyr was trembling with
+impotent rage, and dared not strike.
+
+"Well?" said Chris.  "Have you any more to say?"
+
+"You shall pay bitterly for these insults," whispered Glyddyr; for he
+could not speak aloud.
+
+"When you like, Mr Glyddyr," said Chris coolly; "but you dare not ask
+me for payment.  I told you that blow was an accident--so it was."
+
+"You lie!"
+
+Chris flushed.
+
+"Do I?" he said hoarsely.  "A minute ago I was sorry that I had struck
+you inadvertently, and I apologised as a gentleman should."
+
+"A gentleman!" said Glyddyr mockingly.
+
+"Yes, sir, a gentleman; but you called me a cad and a liar, so now I
+tell you I'm glad I did strike you, and that it wouldn't take much to
+make me undo the rod and use the second joint to give you a good
+thrashing.  Good-morning."
+
+There was a peculiar sound in the still sunny glen heard above the dull
+rush and murmur of the river.  It was the grating together of Glyddyr's
+teeth, as Chris turned round once more, and unintentionally brushed the
+top of his rod against his rival again.
+
+Glyddyr made a sharp movement, as if to snatch hold of and break the
+rod, but his hand did not go near it; and he stood there watching the
+fisherman as he turned down to the waterside, and went on up the glen,
+soon disappearing among the birches and luxuriant growth of heath and
+fern which crowned the stones.
+
+"Curse him!" muttered Glyddyr, picking up the fallen cigar and lighting
+it, without smoking for a few minutes.  "I'll pay him out yet.  Well,"
+he said, with a bitter laugh, "I'm going the right way.  Poor devil; how
+mad he is.  He shall see me come away from the church some day with
+little Claude on my arm, and I'd give a hundred pounds--if I'd got it--
+to let him see me take her in my arms, and cover her pretty face with
+kisses."
+
+There was a peculiarly malignant screw in his face as he stood looking
+up the glen, and then he laughed again.
+
+"Poor devil," he cried.  "I can afford to grin at him."
+
+He turned to go, and at that moment a puff of wind came down the glen,
+rustling a piece of paper in the road, and drawing his attention to the
+fact that it was the envelope of the telegram.
+
+Then he stooped and picked it up, and shaped it out till it was somewhat
+in the form of a boat, as he dropped it over the stone parapet, and
+stood watching as it swept round and round in an eddy, and then went
+sailing down the stream.
+
+"That's the way to serve you, Master Gellow," he muttered; "and I wish
+you were with it sailing away out yonder.  No, no, my fine fellow, once
+bit twice shy; once bit--a hundred times bit, but I've grown too cunning
+for you at last.  Now, I suppose some other scoundrel is in that with
+you.  Back it.  Not this time, my fine fellow; not this time."
+
+He smoked away furiously as he watched the scrap of paper float down,
+now fast, now slowly.  At one time it was gliding down some water slide,
+to plunge into a little foaming pool at the bottom, where it sailed
+round and round before it reached the edge and was whirled away again.
+Now it caught against a stone, and was nearly swamped; now it recovered
+itself, and was swept towards the side, but only to be snatched away,
+and go gliding down once more in company with iridescent bubbles and
+patches of foam.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Glyddyr, "if I only had now all that I have fooled
+away by taking their confounded tips, and backing the favourites they
+have sent me.  No, Master Gellow, I'm deep in enough now, and I'm not
+the gudgeon to take that bait.  Money, money.  There'll be a fresh
+demand directly, and the old bills to renew.  How easy it is to borrow,
+and how hard to pay it back.  If I only had a few hundreds now, how
+pleasant times would be, and how easy it would be to get what I want."
+
+Oddly enough, just at the same time, Chris Lisle was busily whipping
+away at the stream in foaming patch and in dark gliding pool, thinking
+deeply.
+
+"Such a despicable coward!" he muttered.  "Why, if a man had served me
+so, I should have half killed him.  What a fate for her if it were
+possible, and here is he accepted by that sordid old wretch of a fellow,
+just because he has money.  Now, if I had a few thousands!  Ha!"
+
+He whipped away, fishing with most patient energy till he reached the
+pool where Claude had caught her first fish, and where, as he stood by
+the water side, he seemed to feel her little hands clasping the rod with
+him as mentor, instructing her in the art.
+
+But, try hard as he would, no salmon rose.  Every pool, every eddy which
+had proved the home of some silvery fish in the past, was essayed in
+vain; and at last, after a couple of hours' honest work, he gave it up
+as a bad job, and determined to try at the mouth of the river, just
+where the salt tide met the fresh water, for one of the peel which
+frequented that part.
+
+Winding up his line, and hesitating as to how he should fish, he walked
+swiftly back, wondering whether Glyddyr would still be on the bridge,
+waiting to insult him with word and look, and feeling heartily relieved
+to see that the place was clear.
+
+Reaching the bridge, he went on down by the river on the same side as
+that on which he had been fishing.
+
+There was no path there, and the way among the rugged stones and bushes
+was laborious, but he crept and leaped and climbed away till he was
+within a hundred yards of the sea, where the river began to change its
+rough, turbulent course to one that was calm and gliding.
+
+It was extremely tortuous here, and in places there were eddies, in
+which patches of foam floated, just as they had come down from the
+little falls above, lingering, as it were, before taking the irrevocable
+plunge into the tide which would carry them far out to sea.
+
+Close by one of these eddies, where the water looked black and dark, the
+fisher had to make his way down to the very edge of the river, to climb
+round a rugged point, and so reach the wilderness of boulders below,
+among which the river rushed hurriedly towards the bar.
+
+It was the most slippery piece of climbing of all, and about half-way
+along Chris was standing with one foot upon an isolated stone, the other
+on a ledge of slatey rock, about to make his final spring, when
+something floating on the surface of the still water took his attention.
+
+It was only a scrap of pinkish paper, printed at the top, carefully
+ruled and crossed, and bearing some writing in coarse blue pencil.
+
+Chris stared hard at the object, for it was a telegram.  Glyddyr had
+received a telegram, crumpled it up and thrown it into the water, where,
+in all probability, consequent upon the action of the water, it had
+slowly opened out till it lay flat, as if asking to be read.
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Chris, turning away from temptation--as it seemed to
+him.
+
+The intention was good, but the mischief was done.  Even as he glanced
+at the telegram lying there upon the water he took in its meaning.  The
+writing was so large and clear, and the message so brief, that he
+grasped it all in what the Germans call an _augenblick_.
+
+"_Back the Prince's filly.--Gellow_."
+
+A curious feeling of annoyance came over Chris as he climbed on--a
+feeling which made him pick up a couple of heavy stones, and dash them
+down one after the other into the river.
+
+The second was unnecessary, for the first was so well aimed that it
+splashed right into the middle of the paper, and bore it down into the
+depths of the river beneath the rocky bank; and Chris walked on towards
+the smiling sea, with those words fixed in his mind and standing out
+before him.
+
+"Back the Prince's Filly."
+
+The thing seemed quite absurd, and he felt more and more angry as he
+went a few yards farther and prepared his tackle, and began to fish just
+in the eddy where the stream and sea met.  And there goodly fish, which
+had come up with the tide to feed on the tasty things brought down by
+the little river from the high grounds, gave him plenty of opportunities
+for making his creel heavy, but he saw nothing save the words upon the
+telegram, and could think of nothing else.
+
+It was evidently a very important message to Glyddyr about some race,
+but for the time being he had no idea what race was coming off.  He was
+fond of sport in one way, but Epsom, Ascot, Newmarket, Doncaster and
+Goodwood had no charm for him.
+
+But he knew accidentally that Glyddyr was a man who betted heavily, and
+report said that he won large sums on the turf, while by the irony of
+fate here was he, possibly Glyddyr's greatest enemy, suddenly put in
+possession of one of his great turf secrets--undoubtedly a hint from his
+agent by which he would win a heavy sum.
+
+"Well, let him win a heavy sum," cried Chris petulantly, as if some one
+were present tempting him to try his luck.  "Let him win and gamble and
+lose, and go hang himself; what is it to me?"
+
+He hurriedly wound in his line, to find that a fish had hooked itself;
+but, in his petulant state, he gave the rod a sharp jerk, snatched the
+hook free, and began to retrace his way to the bridge; but before he
+reached the spot where he had had to step amid the big stones, he caught
+sight of a scrap of pink paper sailing down to meet the tide, and he
+could not help seeing the words,--
+
+"_Prince's fil_--"
+
+And directly after another ragged fragment floated by showing, at the
+torn edge where the stone had dashed through, the one mutilated word,--
+
+"_Bac_--"
+
+"Any one would think there were invisible imps waiting to tempt me,"
+thought Chris.  "How absurd!"
+
+He strode on, leaping and climbing along the rugged bank till he once
+more reached the bridge, crossed it, and was half-way back to his
+apartments when he saw Gartram coming along the road with Claude and
+Mary.
+
+His first instinct was to avoid them.  The second, to go straight on and
+meet them, and this he did, to find that, as he raised his hat, Gartram
+turned away to speak to Claude, and completely check any attempt at
+recognition on her part.
+
+"How contemptible!" thought Chris.  "Now, if I had been as well off as
+Glyddyr, I should have been seized by the hand, asked why I did not go
+up more to the Fort, and generally treated as if I were a son."
+
+"_Back the Prince's filly_!"
+
+The idea came with such a flash across his brain that he started and
+looked sharply over his shoulder to see if any one had spoken.
+
+"How curious," he thought.  "It just shows how impressionable the human
+mind is.  If I gave way to it, I should begin calculating odds, and
+fooling away my pittance in gambling on the turf.  I suppose every man
+has the gaming instinct latent within him, ready to fly into activity
+directly the right string is pulled.  Ah, well, it isn't so with me."
+
+He walked on, trying to think of how beautiful the day was, and how
+lovely the silver-damascened sea, with the blue hills beyond; but away
+softly, describing arcs of circles with the tips of her masts, lay
+Glyddyr's yacht, and there, just before him, was Glyddyr himself going
+into the little post office, where the one wire from the telegraph pole
+seemed to descend through the roof.
+
+"Gone to send a message," thought Chris, with a feeling of anger that he
+could not for the moment analyse, but whose explanation seemed to come
+the next moment.  To back the Prince's horse, perhaps make more
+thousands, and then--"Oh! this is maddening!" he said, half aloud; and
+he increased his pace till he reached the pretty cottage where he had
+long been the tenant of a pleasant, elderly, ship-captain's widow; and
+after hanging his rod upon the hooks in the little passage, entered his
+room, threw the creel into the corner, and himself into a chair.
+
+"Cut dead!" he exclaimed bitterly.  "After all these years of happy
+life, to be served like that."
+
+"_Back the Prince's filly_."
+
+The words seemed to stand out before him, and he gave quite a start as
+the door opened and the pleasant smiling face of his landlady appeared,
+the bustling woman bearing in a large clean blue dish.
+
+"How many this time, Mr Lisle?" she said.  "Of course you'll like some
+for dinner?"
+
+"What?  No; none at all, Mrs Sarson," said Chris hastily.
+
+"No fish, sir?  Why, James Gadby came along and said that the river was
+just full."
+
+"Yes; I daresay, but I came back.  Headache.  Not well."
+
+"Let me send for Dr Asher, sir.  There's nothing like taking things in
+time.  A bit of cold, perhaps, with getting yourself so wet wading."
+
+"No, no, Mrs Sarson; there's nothing the matter.  Please don't bother
+me now.  I want to think."
+
+The woman went out softly, shaking her head.
+
+"Poor boy!" she said to herself; "I know.  Things are not going with him
+as they should, and it's a curious thing that love, as well enough I
+once used to know."
+
+"_Back the Prince's filly_."
+
+The words stood out so vividly before Chris Lisle that he sprang from
+his seat, caught up a book, and threw himself back once more in a chair
+by the window to read.
+
+But, as he turned over the leaves, he heard a familiar voice speaking in
+its eager, quick tones, and, directly after, there was another voice
+which seemed to thrill him through and through, the sounds coming in at
+the open window as the light steps passed.
+
+"No, Mary dear.  Let's go home."
+
+There was a ring of sadness in the tone in which those words were
+uttered, which seemed to give Chris hope.  Claude could not be happy to
+speak like that.
+
+He crept to the window, and, from behind the curtain, watched till he
+could see the white flannel dress with its blue braiding no more.
+
+"If I were only rich," thought Chris; and then he gave an angry stamp on
+the floor as he heard a quick pace, and saw Glyddyr pass, evidently
+hurrying on to overtake the two girls, who must have parted from Gartram
+lower down.
+
+Half mad with jealousy, he made for the door, but only to stop with his
+fingers upon the handle, as he felt how foolish any such step would be,
+and, going back to his chair, he took up his book again, and opened it,
+and there before him the words seemed to start out from the page.
+
+"Back the Prince's Filly."
+
+He closed the book with an angry snap.
+
+"Look here," he said to himself, "am I going to be ill, and is all this
+the beginning of a fit of delirium?"
+
+He laughed the next instant, and then, as if obeying the strange impulse
+within him, he crossed the room and rang the bell.
+
+"Have you taken away the newspaper that was here, Mrs Sarson?" he said
+sharply.
+
+The pleasant face before him coloured up.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir.  I didn't think you'd be back yet, and so I'd
+made so bold."
+
+"Bring it back," said Chris sternly.
+
+"Bless the poor man, what is coming to him?" muttered the landlady, as
+she hurried out to her own room.  "He was once as amiable as a dove, and
+now nothing's right for him."
+
+"Thank you; that will do," said Chris, shortly; and as soon as he was
+alone he stood with the paper in his hand.
+
+Volume One, Chapter XV.
+
+TEMPTED.
+
+It was some minutes before Chris opened that paper, and then he had to
+turn it over and over before he found the racing intelligence, and even
+then he did not begin to read, for plainly before him were the words,--
+
+"_Back the Prince's filly_."
+
+Then in a quick, excited way he looked down the column he had found, and
+before long saw that the important race on the _tapis_ was at Liverpool,
+and the last bettings on the various horses were before him, beginning
+with the favourite at four to one, and going on to horses against which
+as many as five hundred to one was the odds.
+
+But the Prince's horse!  What Prince?  What horse?  He stood thinking,
+and recalled a rumour which he had heard to the effect that the Prince's
+horses were run under the name of Mr Blanck, and there, sure enough,
+was in the list far down:--
+
+"Mr Blanck's ch. f. Simoom, 100 to 1."  Chris dashed down the paper in
+a rage.
+
+"What have I to do with such things as this?" he said aloud.  "Even if I
+were a racing man I could not do it.  It is too dishonourable."
+
+Then he set to work to argue the matter out.  He had come upon the
+information by accident, and it might be perfectly worthless.  Even if
+the advice was good, the matter was all speculation--a piece of
+gambling--and if a man staked his money upon a horse it was the merest
+chance whether this horse would win; so if he used the "tip," he would
+be wronging no one, except, perhaps, himself, by risking money he could
+not spare.
+
+Anxiety, love, jealousy and disappointment had combined to work Chris
+Lisle's brain into a very peculiar state of excitement, and he found
+himself battling hard now with a strange sense of temptation.
+
+Here was a message giving Glyddyr information how to make money, and it
+had fallen into other hands.  Why should not he, Christopher Lisle,
+seize the opportunity, take advantage of such a chance as might never
+come to him again, and back the Prince's horse to the extent of four or
+five hundred pounds?  Poor as he called himself, he had more than that
+lying at his bankers; and if he won, it might be the first step towards
+turning the tables on Gartram, and winning Claude.
+
+True, the information was meant for his rival, but what of that?  All
+was fair in love and war.  Glyddyr would stand at nothing to master him:
+so why should he shrink?  It would be an act of folly, and like throwing
+away a chance.
+
+Then his training stepped in, and did battle for him, pointing out that
+no gentleman would stoop to such an act, and for the next six hours a
+terrible struggle went on, which ended in honour winning.
+
+"I would not do such a dirty action; and she would scorn me if I did,"
+he said to himself.  "Eh?  Want me, Mrs Sarson?"
+
+"Which it's taking quite a liberty, Mr Lisle, sir," said his landlady,
+who had come for the fifth time into his room; "but if you would let me
+send for Doctor Asher, it would ease my mind--indeed it would."
+
+"Asher?  Send for him?  Are you ill?"
+
+"I?  No, my dear boy, but you are.  You are quite feverish.  It's
+terrible to see you.  Not a bit of dinner have you tasted, and you've
+been walking up and down the room as if you had the toothache, for
+hours.  Now, do trust to me, my dear, an old motherly body like me; I'd
+better send for him."
+
+"My dear Mrs Sarson, he could not do me the least good," said Chris,
+smiling at the troubled face before him.  "It was a fit of worry, that's
+all; but it's better now--all gone.  There, you see, I'm quite calmed
+down now, and you shall prescribe for me.  Give me some tea and meat
+together."
+
+"But are you really better, my dear?"
+
+"Yes; quite right now."
+
+"And quite forgive me for calling you my dear, Mr Lisle, sir?  You are
+so like my son out in New Zealand, and you have been with me so long."
+
+"Forgive you?  Yes."
+
+"That's right," said the woman, beginning to beam; and hurrying in and
+out she soon had a comfortable-looking and tempting meal spread waiting
+before her lodgers eager eyes, and he made a determined attack upon that
+before him.
+
+"That's more like you, Mr Lisle," she said, smiling her satisfaction.
+
+"Would you mind opening the window a little more, Mrs Sarson?" said
+Chris, as he drove the Prince's horse right out of his mind; and races,
+jockeys, grand stands, and even Glyddyr faded from his heated brain.
+
+"Certainly, sir.  And what a lovely evening it is--beautiful.  Hah!
+there goes that Mr Glyddyr's boat off to his yacht; and there's Mr
+Gartram in it, and the young ladies.  Going for an evening sail, I
+suppose."
+
+Chris dropped his knife and fork upon his plate.
+
+"Bless me!" ejaculated the landlady, turning sharply round.
+
+"Nothing, nothing, Mrs Sarson," said Chris hastily; "that will do now.
+I'll ring.  Don't wait."
+
+The landlady looked at him curiously, and left the room; and as soon as
+she was gone, Chris sprang from his chair, took a binocular glass from
+where it hung in its case against the wall, focussed it, and fixed it
+upon the smart gig being rowed out on the bright water.
+
+"I've fought all I knew, and I'm beaten," he muttered, as he saw Glyddyr
+leaning towards Claude, and talking to her.  "Every man has his
+temptations, and the best and strongest fall if the temptation is too
+strong.  I am only a poor, weak, blundering sort of fellow, I suppose;
+and I've fallen--low--very low indeed.
+
+"Claude, my darling!" he groaned, as he lowered the glass and gazed
+wistfully out toward the boat, "if it were some good, true fellow whom
+you loved, and I was going to see you happy, I'd try and bear it all
+like a man.  But you can't be happy with a fast scoundrel like that; and
+you love me.  I know, I'm sure you do, and I'd do anything to save you
+from such a fate."
+
+He pitched the glass on to the sofa, took a time table from where it
+lay, and, after satisfying himself as to the hours of the trains, he
+went quickly towards the door, just as it was opened and Mrs Sarson
+appeared.
+
+"There, my dear," she said, holding up a large glass dish; "there's a
+junket of which any woman might be proud, and--"
+
+"No, no; not now, Mrs Sarson.  I'm going out."
+
+"Going out, sir?"
+
+"Yes; up to London."
+
+"To London, sir?"
+
+"Yes; for a day or two," and he hurried by her.
+
+Half-an-hour later, he was on his way in the town fly to the railway
+station, just as the sun, low down in the west, was shining full on the
+white sails of Glyddyr's yacht, as it glided slowly on over the bright,
+calm sea.
+
+Chris turned his eyes away, and looked straight before him as he
+mentally conjured up the gathered thousands--the bright green course,
+the glossy horses making their preliminary canter, with the gay silken
+jackets of the jockeys filling out as they rose in their stirrups, and
+flashing in the bright sunshine.  There was the trampling of hoofs over
+the springy turf, the starting as the flag was dropped, the dashing of
+one to the front, of others challenging, and the minutes of excitement
+as, in a gathering roar, one horse seemed to glide out from a compressed
+group, gradually increasing its distance as it sped.
+
+Hiss, rush, roar!  Then the vision had parsed away, and Chris Lisle was
+seated, not in a saddle, but on a cushion in a first-class carriage, the
+speed increasing and the wind rushing by the windows as, with cheeks
+flushed, he rode on, his teeth set, and completely now under the
+domination of one thought alone as he softly repeated to himself the
+words he had read upon the telegram,--
+
+"_Back the Princes filly_."
+
+and a few minutes later the figures he had seen in that day's news,--
+
+"_100 to 1_."
+
+The simoom seemed to be scorching up his brains.
+
+It was all one whirl of excitement to Chris Lisle--that railway journey
+to town, and there were moments when he asked himself whether he was
+sane to go upon such a mission.  The night journey of the train seemed
+like a race, and the rattle of the bridges and tunnels suggested the
+shouts and cheers of the crowd as the horses swept on.  But he had
+determined to persevere, and with stubborn determination he went on,
+reached town, and without hesitation laid his money--four hundred
+pounds, in four different sums so as to insure himself as well as he
+could, in each case getting the odds of 100 to 1, so that, should the
+Prince's horse come in first, he would be the winner of forty thousand
+pounds.
+
+As soon as this was done, he went to a quiet hotel to try and get some
+rest.
+
+But that was impossible, for he was face to face with his folly.  Four
+hundred pounds gone in an insane hope of winning forty thousand, and he
+could see now how absurd it was.
+
+"Never mind," he said bitterly; "I shall not be the first fool who has
+lost money on a race, and I shall have had the excitement of a bit of
+gambling."
+
+His idea was to stay in town and go to a theatre, so as to divert the
+current of his thoughts; then have a long night's rest and go to some
+other place of amusement the next day, so as to pass the time till the
+race had been run, and he knew the worst.
+
+He dined, or rather tried to dine, and for the first time in his life
+drank heavily, but the wine seemed not to have the slightest effect.
+
+Then in a feverish heat he went to one of the best theatres, and saw a
+social drama enacted by the people who filled his brain, what was going
+on upon the stage being quite a blank.
+
+He saw himself as a disappointed hero, and Glyddyr, as the successful
+man, carrying all before him, winning Claude's love, and then, in what
+seemed to be the last act, there was a wedding, and a wretched man going
+afterwards right along to one of the towering cliffs overhanging the
+sea, below Danmouth, and leaping off to end his woes.
+
+"I'm glad I came to the theatre," he said mockingly to himself, in one
+of his lucid intervals.  "Better have gone to a doctor for something to
+send me to sleep."
+
+Then he became conscious of the fact that people in the pit were saying
+"Hush!" and "Sit down!" and that somebody had risen and come out from
+the place where he was jammed in, right in the centre of the stalls,
+just as the climax of the play was being reached.
+
+Then he grew conscious that he was the offender, and breathed more
+freely as he got out into the cool night air.
+
+It was not ten, and he found a chemist's open near the Strand.
+
+"I'm not very well," he said to the gentlemanly-looking man behind the
+counter.  "Had a lot of trouble, made me restless, and I want to take
+something to give me a good nights rest.  Can you give me a dose of
+laudanum?"
+
+The man looked at him curiously.
+
+"You ought to go to a doctor," he said.
+
+"Doctor!  Absurd!  What for?  I'm as well as you are.  Give me something
+calming.  It will be better than going back to the hotel and taking
+brandy or wine."
+
+The chemist nodded, and prepared a draught.
+
+"What's that?  Laudanum--morphia?"
+
+"No; a mild dose of chloral.  Try it.  If it does not act as you wish, I
+should advise you to go to a physician in the morning."
+
+Chris nodded, took the bottle, and strolled back to his hotel, where he
+at once went to bed after swallowing his draught.
+
+It did not have the desired effect.  His idea was to take a draught
+which would plunge him in oblivion for a few hours; but this dose of
+chloral seemed to transport him to a plain, surrounded by mountains
+covered with the most gloriously-tinted foliage, where flowers rippled
+all over the meadow-like pastures, and cascades of the most brilliant
+iridescent waters came foaming down, sparkling in the glorious sunshine.
+
+All deliciously dreamy and restful, but when the morning came it did not
+seem to him that he had slept.  Still, he was calmer, and felt more
+ready to think out the inevitable.
+
+"How many hours shall I have to wait?" he said.
+
+The race would probably be run about three o'clock, and till then he
+must be as patient as he could.
+
+"Better go back at once," he thought, "and repent at leisure over my
+madness."
+
+But he did not, for he accepted the last suggestion of his brain,
+partook of a hurried breakfast, and jumped into a hansom; had himself
+driven to the station, and soon after was being borne away by the
+express.
+
+The rest of that day's proceedings were a dreamy whirl of confusion.
+The rushing noise of the train seemed to bring back the old excitement,
+and this increased as he reached the station, and had himself driven to
+the course, where one of the first things he learned was that the case
+was hopeless; for the horse he had backed had gone down in the betting,
+till two hundred to one could be obtained, and for the first time he
+felt sick at heart.
+
+He went up into the principal stand, securing a good place to see the
+race, and waited while two others were run, the horses flying by without
+exciting the slightest interest; the only satisfaction he gained was in
+having them pass, so as to be nearer to the great feature of the day.
+
+At last, just as he had pictured it from old recollections of a minor
+race he had once seen, there was the shouting and bawling of the odds,
+the clearing of the course, and then the preliminary canter of the ten
+competitors, among which he now made out the colours of Simoom, a big
+ordinary-looking horse, with nothing to draw attention to it, while the
+three first favourites of the _cognoscenti_ were the perfection of
+equine beauty, and their admirers shouted with excitement as they
+flashed by.
+
+Then, after five false starts, each of which was maddening to Chris,
+who, while thinking the worst, could not help a gleam of hope piercing
+the dark cloud which overshadowed him, the cry arose that they were off,
+and amid a babel of sounds, as the parti-coloured throng of jockeys
+swept along the green course and disappeared, spasmodic cries arose,
+"Lady Ronald," "Safflower--Safflower leads," "Rotten race," "The
+favourite shows 'em all her heels," "Look!  The favourite!"
+
+The horses, after a period of silence, had swept round into sight again,
+and it was seen that three were together, then there was an interval,
+and there were four, another interval, and the rest behind.
+
+The second group excited no notice, save from Chris, who made out that
+his horse was with them; and while every eye was fixed on the exciting
+race between the favourite and the two horses which strove hard to get
+abreast, there was suddenly a yell of excitement, for Simoom all at once
+shot out from among the second lot, and going well, with her jockey
+using neither whip nor spur, began rapidly to near the leaders.
+
+The shouts increased, and a thrill ran through Chris as he saw the
+plain-looking mare glide on, but apparently too late to overtake the
+others.
+
+Another roar as it was seen that the favourite's jockey was beginning to
+use his whip, and the roar increased as Safflower was level with her
+shoulder, was head to head, was head in front, and the next moment,
+hopelessly beaten, the favourite was passed by Lady Ronald as well, who
+now challenged Safflower, and they were racing level for fifty yards.
+
+The excitement grew frantic.  "Safflower!  Lady Ronald!  Safflower!
+Safflower!"
+
+"No, no, no!" shouted a man on Chris's left.  "Look!"
+
+Chris heard all he said, and stood there bending forward, his lips
+apart, and eyes starting, as if turned to stone, living a very life in
+those seconds, as, amid a roar like the rushing of the tempest itself,
+the contemned mare came on.
+
+"By George, sir, if the course had been a hundred yards more, she'd have
+won," roared the man on Chris's left.  "Safflower's done.  It's Lady
+Ronald; by--, no.  Hurrah!  Simoom!  Simoom!" and in the midst of the
+frantic excitement, the mare upon which Chris's hopes were fixed passed
+Safflower.  There was a quick touch of the whip and she was alongside of
+Lady Ronald, and then Simoom's nose showed in front, and in the next few
+bounds she was half-a-length ahead, and swept past the post--winner.
+
+The man on Chris's left suddenly seized his arm.
+
+"Hurrah for the dark horse," he cried.  "Just for the fun of the thing,
+I put a sov on her, and I've won two hundred pounds.  I beg your pardon,
+sir, I see you're hit.  Forgive my excitement.  Don't be down-hearted;
+come and have a glass of champagne."
+
+"Thank you," said Chris quietly; but he did not move, for the place
+seemed to be spinning round him, and he held tightly by the rails till a
+hand was laid upon his arm.
+
+"Can I help you?  You look ill."
+
+"Help me?  No; I'm all right now," said Chris, making an effort.  "It
+was so sudden."
+
+"Have you lost heavily?"
+
+"Lost?" said Chris, looking at him wildly.  "No; I've won."
+
+He felt his hand being shaken warmly, and then he sank back into a wild,
+confused dream, in the midst of which he knew that he was being borne
+back by one of the express trains, with the roar of the race in his
+ears, and the sight of the horses sweeping by before his eyes.
+
+As he neared town he began to grow more calm, and he found himself
+repeating the words,--
+
+"Forty thousand pounds!  I've won; but shall I win her now?"
+
+And then, like a dark cloud, came the recollection of how he had
+obtained the information upon which his success was based.
+
+"I can never name it to a soul," he muttered.  "I must have been mad."
+
+Volume One, Chapter XVI.
+
+GARTRAM TAKES HIS DOSE.
+
+"It's all right, I tell you, my dear boy.  You don't understand women
+yet.  A girl who says _snap_ the moment you say _snip_, isn't worth
+having.  A good, true woman takes some wooing and winning; and no
+wonder, for it is a tremendous surrender for her to make."
+
+"Yes, sir, you are quite right, but--"
+
+"Yes; never mind the buts, Glyddyr.  I could put my foot down, and say:
+`Claude, my dear, there's your husband,' but it would mean a scene, and
+a lot of excitement, and I should be ill--perhaps have one of my
+confounded fits."
+
+"But without going so far as that, sir, couldn't you--just a little, you
+know--parental authority--you understand.  I am kept back so terribly as
+yet."
+
+"No, my lad, I should not be serving your cause," said Gartram firmly.
+"You see, she had always been so intimate with that fellow Lisle.  Boy
+and girl together.  It will take a little time to wean her from the
+fancy, and if I pull out the authoritative stop I shall be making him
+into a hero and her into a persecuted heroine.  I may as well tell you
+that she is a bit firm, like I am, and any angry discussion on my part
+would perhaps make her stubborn."
+
+"Then, perhaps, you had better not speak, sir."
+
+"Decidedly not.  There, you have the run of my place.  Set to and win
+her like a man.  Get along with you, you dog.  Smart, handsome fellow
+like you don't want any help.  It's only a matter of time.  Don't seem
+to push your suit too hard.  Treat it all as a something settled; and
+all you have to do is to get her used to you and her position as your
+betrothed.  Bah! it will all come right, so don't let's risk opposition.
+You will win."
+
+"You are right, sir," said Glyddyr.  "I'll be patient."
+
+"Of course you will.  That's right.  I say, though, that little upset?"
+
+"Little upset, sir?" said Glyddyr starting.
+
+"I mean about your friend, the visitor from town, whose wife came after
+him."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Glyddyr.  "I didn't know what you meant."
+
+"Rather an exciting affair, that.  Strikes me that if it had had a
+tragic termination, your friend would not have broken his heart.  I say,
+here you are in a hurry to get married, and you never know how the lady
+may turn out."
+
+"Ah, that was an exception, sir," said Glyddyr hurriedly.
+
+"Yes; but depend upon it, my dear boy, that was a hasty marriage.  The
+gentleman said _snip_, and she said _snap_.  Wasn't it so?"
+
+"Yes; I think you are right," said Glyddyr.
+
+"What a temper that woman must have.  They tell me she deliberately
+stepped off the pier to follow him, or drown herself in a fit of
+passion."
+
+"Well, I'll take your advice, sir," said Glyddyr, hurriedly changing the
+conversation.  "Of course, I can't help feeling impatient."
+
+"No, of course, no," said Gartram.  "Come in," he added, as there was a
+timid knock at the door.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir, but Doctor Asher said I was to be particular as to
+time."
+
+Sarah Woodham entered the room with a small tray, bearing glass and
+bottle.
+
+There was a peculiar, shrinking, furtive look about the woman, that
+would have impressed a stranger unfavourably; but Glyddyr was too intent
+upon his own business, and Gartram already disliked his old servant, and
+did not shrink about showing it.
+
+"Oh!" he said roughly.  "Well, pour it out.  Won't take a glass, I
+suppose, Glyddyr?"
+
+"Oh, no, thanks.  Not my favourite bin."
+
+"Thank your stars.  Nice thing to be under the doctor's hands.  Hard,
+isn't it?  Regular piece of tyranny."
+
+"Oh, you'll soon get over that, Mr Gartram.  Temporary trouble."
+
+"Ah, I don't know, my lad.  Here, that's more than usual, isn't it,
+Sarah?"
+
+"No, sir.  Exactly the quantity."
+
+"Humph!  Bah!  Horrible!"
+
+He had gulped the medicine down, and thrust the glass back on the tray.
+
+"There, take it away," he said.
+
+The woman looked at him furtively, and slowly left the room.
+
+"How I do hate to see a nurse in black," exclaimed Gartram impatiently.
+"When a man's ill, the woman who attends upon him ought to look bright
+and cheerful.  That woman always gives me a chill."
+
+"Why not make her dress differently?"
+
+"Can't.  Widow of that poor fellow who was killed."
+
+"Oh, yes; I remember."
+
+"Whim of Claude's to have her here."
+
+"Yes, I know.  Your old servant.  Well, it was a graceful act on Miss
+Gartram's part."
+
+"Of course; but it worries me."
+
+"The medicine makes you feel a little irritable, perhaps."
+
+"No, it does not, man.  It's tonic, and I'm taking chloral, which is
+calming, or I don't know what I should do."
+
+"Chloral?" said Glyddyr.
+
+"Yes; curse it--and bless it.  I don't know what I should do without it.
+Tell you what though.  You must give me some more sails in your yacht.
+Cuts both ways?"
+
+"I shall be most happy."
+
+"Yes; does me good and gives you pleasant opportunities, eh?  I ought to
+be ashamed to say it, perhaps, but I am not.  Confound that medicine!
+What a filthy taste it does leave in one's mouth; quite makes one's
+throat tingle, too."
+
+"When will you have another sail, sir?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  When did we go last?"
+
+"Tuesday."
+
+"To be sure; and this is Thursday.  That medicine seems to confuse me a
+bit sometimes.  Well, say this evening.  By-the-bye, Glyddyr, that was a
+pleasant little idea of yours."
+
+"What idea, sir?"
+
+"Quite startled my girl when that puss Mary drew her attention to it.
+How cunning you young fellows grow now-a-days."
+
+"I don't quite grasp what you mean, sir."
+
+"Altering the name of the yacht."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"A very delicate little compliment, my lad, and it does you credit."
+
+"But Miss Gartram, sir?" said Glyddyr hurriedly; "is she in the
+drawing-room?"
+
+"In the drawing-room? no," said Gartram, with a strange display of
+irritability.  "I told you when you first came that she had gone for a
+long walk up the glen with her cousin."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir.  I don't think--"
+
+"Now, damn it all, Glyddyr, don't you take to contradicting me; and
+perhaps by this time that confounded scoundrel Lisle has followed her."
+
+Glyddyr leaped from his seat.
+
+"No, no; I don't mean it," said Gartram, calming down.  "Lisle is not at
+home.  Gone to London, I think, or I wouldn't have let them go.  There,
+my lad, don't you take any notice of me," he continued, holding out his
+hand; "it's that medicine.  I wish Asher was hung.  So sure as I take a
+dose, I grow irritable and snappish, just as if a fit was threatening;
+but it keeps 'em off, eh?"
+
+"I should say so, decidedly; and I wouldn't dwell upon the possibility
+if I were you."
+
+"Well, curse it all, man, who does?" cried Gartram fiercely.  "There, I
+beg your pardon.  Go and meet the girls and come back, and we'll have an
+early dinner, and then you can take us for a sail.  Well, what the devil
+do you want?" he roared, as Sarah re-entered the room; "haven't I just
+taken the cursed stuff?"
+
+"Beg pardon, sir, a telegram."
+
+"Well, don't stand staring like a black image.  Give it to me."
+
+"For Mr Glyddyr, sir--the boy heard from the sailors at the pier that
+he was here, and brought it on."
+
+"Well, then, give it to him; and look here, I'm sure you must have given
+me too strong a dose this morning."
+
+"No, sir; Miss Claude measured it before she went.  I took the bottle
+and glass to her."
+
+"Humph!  Feels wrong somehow.  Is it fresh stuff?"
+
+"No, sir; the same."
+
+"Humph!  Well, Glyddyr, good news?"
+
+"Ye-es," said Glyddyr, with a peculiar look in his eyes.  "Only from my
+agent in town.  You'll excuse me now?"
+
+"To be sure.  Go round by the bridge and you'll meet 'em.  Dinner at
+five.  Hi, Sarah!  Mind that: five."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the woman, and she glided like a black shadow out of
+the room after Glyddyr, who hurried along the terrace down to the beach,
+where he could light a cigar and smoke.
+
+"I feel as if they were poisoning me amongst them," said Gartram quite
+savagely.  "Not trying to put me out of the way, are they, for the sake
+of my coin?  How I do hate to see that woman going about like a great
+black cat.  Bah!  I'm as full of fancies as a child."
+
+Glyddyr lit his cigar and took out his telegram again and read it.
+
+"_My congratulations.  Hope you put it on heavy.  I did.  Coming down.--
+Gellow_."
+
+The curse which Glyddyr uttered was, metaphorically speaking, glowing
+enough to fuse the sand.
+
+The next minute he began walking swiftly along under the towering
+granite cliffs, so as to get out of sight and hearing while he gave vent
+to his feelings, for he felt that he could not command himself.
+
+The telegram meant so much.
+
+"I shall have to kill that man before I have done.  Yes; I shall have to
+kill that man," said Glyddyr.
+
+He started and looked up, for, plainly heard, some one seemed to repeat
+his words, "Kill that man."
+
+"Bah!" he cried impatiently, as he looked in the direction from which
+the sounds came, to find he was facing a huge wall of rock.  "Frightened
+at echoes now!"
+
+END OF VOLUME ONE.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter I.
+
+THE LOOMING OF A STORM.
+
+"Well, my dear," said Gartram, as Claude entered the room; "want to see
+me?"
+
+"Yes, papa; you sent for me."
+
+"I sent for you?  Oh, to be sure; I forgot."
+
+He was seated in an easy-chair, leaning back as if half-asleep, and he
+raised himself slowly as Claude came to his side.
+
+She looked at him keenly, and felt a curious sensation of sinking and
+dread, as it struck her that her father was suffering from the effects
+of the sedative in which he indulged.
+
+"Well," he said smiling, "what are you looking at?"
+
+"At you, dear; are you well?"
+
+"Never better, my dear.  Sit down; I want to talk to you."
+
+Claude shrank inwardly as she took a chair, but he was not satisfied.
+
+"Come a little nearer, my dear."
+
+She obeyed, and the shrinking sensation increased as she felt that there
+was only one subject upon which her father was likely to speak.
+
+"That's better," he said, taking her hand.  "Mr Glyddyr has been here
+this morning?"
+
+"No, father."
+
+"Ha!" he exclaimed rather sharply.  "Now, I don't quite like the tone in
+which you said that `No, father,' my dear; and I think it is quite time
+that you and I came to an understanding.  Claude, my dear, you have been
+thinking a good deal lately about what young people of your age do think
+of a great deal--I mean marriage."
+
+"Oh, no, papa," said Claude emphatically.
+
+"Don't contradict, my dear.  I am not blind, and it is perfectly natural
+that you should think of such a thing now."
+
+Claude was silent.
+
+"You and Christopher Lisle were a good deal thrown together."
+
+Claude's cheek began to deepen in colour.
+
+"You were boy and girl together, and if not brother and sister in your
+intimacy, at least like cousins."
+
+"Yes, papa."
+
+"Well, presuming upon that, Master Christopher must suddenly forget he
+was a boy, and came to me with the most impudent proposals."
+
+"Papa!"
+
+"There, I am not going to say any more about him, only I have taken that
+as a preface to what will follow."
+
+Claude drew a deep, long sigh.
+
+"Now, of course, that was all boyish folly, and I bitterly regret that
+we should have had such a scene here; but the natural course of events
+was, that I should think very seriously of your future settlement in
+life."
+
+"I am settled in life, father," said Claude firmly.  "I do not intend to
+leave you."
+
+"Thank you, my darling.  Very good and filial of you," said Gartram,
+taking and holding her hand.  "One moment, the room is very warm; I'll
+open the window."
+
+"Let me open it, dear," said Claude; and she went and threw open the
+French window, returning directly to sit down, her countenance growing a
+little hard.
+
+"Now, then, child, we may as well understand each other at once."
+
+"Yes, papa, if you wish it."
+
+"Well, my darling, I began life as a very poor man.  I had a good name,
+but I was a pauper."
+
+"Not so bad as that, papa?"
+
+"Worse.  The worst kind of pauper--a gentleman without an income, and
+with no means of making one.  But there, you know what I have done; and
+I can say now that, thanks to my determined industry, I have honourably
+made a great fortune.  Well, you don't look pleased."
+
+"No, dear; I often think you would have been happier without the money."
+
+"Silly child!  You have had your every wish gratified, and do not know
+the value of a fortune.  Some day you will.  Well, my dear, I am growing
+old."
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear, I am; and my health is getting completely wrecked."
+
+"Then let's go away and travel."
+
+"No; I have another project on hand, Claude.  It has long been my wish
+to see you married."
+
+"Papa!"
+
+"To some good man who loves you."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"A man of wealth and some position in the world, and that man I believe
+I have found in Parry Glyddyr."
+
+"Papa, I--"
+
+"Hush, my dear, let me speak; you shall have your turn.  Glyddyr is the
+representative of a good old Welsh family.  He had three hundred
+thousand pounds at his father's death, and, best of all, he loves my
+darling child very dearly.  Now, what do you say to that?"
+
+"I do not love Mr Glyddyr," replied Claude coldly.
+
+"Tut, tut, tut.  Nonsense, my dear, not yet.  It is the man who loves
+first; that makes an impression upon the woman, who, as soon as she
+feels the influence of the man's affection, begins to love him in
+return.  A man's love begins like a flash; a woman's is a slow growth.
+That is nature, my dear, and you cannot improve upon her."
+
+"Papa, I--"
+
+"Now, don't be hasty, my child.  Glyddyr is a very good fellow--a
+thorough gentleman.  I like him, he loves you, and if you will only put
+aside all that boy and girl nonsense of the past, you will soon like him
+too--more than you can conceive.  But, as he reasonably enough says, you
+don't give him a chance."
+
+"Did Mr Glyddyr say that?" said Claude, with her lip curling.
+
+"Yes; and really, Claude, you are sometimes almost rude to him with your
+coldness.  Come, my dear, I want you to see that it is the dearest wish
+of my life to have you happy."
+
+"Yes, papa dear, I know it is, but--"
+
+"Now, let's have no buts.  I favour Glyddyr's suit because he is all one
+could desire, and he came to me like a frank gentleman and told me how
+he saw you first and took a fancy to you, but thought he should forget
+it all; then felt his love grow stronger, and, as he has shown us--he
+has waited months and months to prove himself--felt that you were the
+woman who would make him happy and--"
+
+"I could not make Mr Glyddyr happy, papa."
+
+"Nonsense, dear!  What do you know of such things?  I say you can, and
+that he can make you very happy and me, too, in seeing you married
+well."
+
+"Papa, dear, I don't think you quite understand a woman's heart," said
+Claude.
+
+"I understand a girl's, my dear--yours in particular--so now I want you
+to set aside some of this stiff formality, and to meet Glyddyr in a more
+friendly way.  Of course I don't want you to throw yourself at his head.
+You are an extremely wealthy heiress.  I've made my money for you, my
+pet, and you can afford to be proud, and to hold him off.  Make him know
+your value, and woo and win you, but, hang it all, my child, don't turn
+yourself into an icicle, and freeze the poor fellow's passion solid."
+
+"Papa, dear, you said I should speak soon."
+
+"And so you shall, my darling; but I have not quite done.  I want you to
+think all this over, and to look at it as a duty first, then as a matter
+of affection.  Oh, it's all right, my pet.  I'm glad to see so much
+maiden modesty and dutiful behaviour.  I didn't want him to think he had
+only to hold out his hand for you to jump at it; certainly not.  You are
+a prize worth winning, and you are quite right to teach him your value,
+you clever little jade.  There, I think I've nearly done.  Only begin to
+melt a little now, and give the poor fellow a bit of encouragement.  And
+you must not be piqued at his saying you were so distant.  I drew that
+out of him.  He did not come to complain, though I must say he had good
+cause.  There, now, I have quite done, and I am sure my darling sees the
+common sense of all this.  I don't want to lose my Claudie, and I
+shouldn't at all dislike a trip on the Continent with her.  There's no
+hurry--a year--two, if you like.  I'll let my pet make her own terms,
+only let's give the poor fellow a chance.  Then I may tell Glyddyr?"
+
+"No, father dear," said Claude firmly; "you must not tell Mr Glyddyr
+anything."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He is a man I do not like."
+
+Gartram's countenance changed a little, but he kept down his anger.
+
+"Not yet, my dear, not yet, of course.  It is not natural that you
+should, but you will in time, and the more for feeling a bit diffident
+now.  Come, we understand one another, and I won't say a word to the
+poor boy.  You will let him feel that the winter is passing, the thaw
+beginning.  Give him a little spring first, and the summer in full swing
+by-and-by."
+
+Claude shook her head.
+
+"It is impossible, papa, dear.  I could never like Mr Glyddyr."
+
+"Now, my dear child, don't make me angry by adopting that obstinate
+tone.  You are too young yet to understand your own mind."
+
+"I know I could never love Mr Glyddyr sufficiently to be his wife."
+
+"Now, look here--"
+
+"Don't be angry with me, dear.  You wish me to be always frank and plain
+with you?"
+
+"Of course, but--"
+
+"I must know about a matter like this.  I do not and cannot love this
+man."
+
+"Absurd, Claude."
+
+"I don't want to marry.  Let me stay here with you.  I can be very happy
+amongst the people I know, and who know me, and require my help."
+
+"Yes; a gang of impostors sucking my money through you."
+
+"No, no.  What I give is to make you loved and venerated by the poor
+people who are sometimes in distress."
+
+"Now I don't want a lecture on the relief of the poor, my dear," said
+Gartram quickly.  "I want you to quietly accept my wishes.  I am your
+father, and I know what is for your good."
+
+Claude was silent, for she knew by familiar signs that the tempest was
+about to burst.
+
+"Do you think I wish you to marry some penniless scoundrel, who wants to
+get my money to make ducks and drakes with it?  There: I was getting
+cross, but I am not going to be.  Once more, there is no hurry.  Thaw by
+degrees.  It will prove Glyddyr to you, and let you see that the poor
+fellow is thoroughly sincere.  Come, my pet, we understand each other
+now?  Hang it all, Claude, don't look at me like that!"
+
+"My dearest father," she cried, after a moment's hesitation, and she
+threw herself upon his breast and nestled to him, "are you not making a
+mistake?"
+
+"No; I am too much of a business man, my dear.  I am not making a
+mistake, unless it is in being too easy with you, and pleading when I
+might command.  There, I'm glad you agree with me."
+
+"No, no, papa; I cannot," she said tearfully.
+
+"Now, Claude, my darling, don't make me angry.  You know what my health
+is, and how, if I am crossed, it irritates me.  You are my obedient
+child, and you agree with what I say?"
+
+"No, papa," she said imploringly; "I cannot."
+
+"Then you are thinking still of that beggarly, fortune-hunting scoundrel
+Lisle?"
+
+"Father, dear, don't speak like that of Christopher Lisle.  He is a true
+gentleman."
+
+"He is a true money-seeking vagabond, and I have forbidden him my house
+for the best of reasons.  I would sooner see you dead than the wife of a
+man like that."
+
+Claude shrank away from him, and her convulsed face hardened, with the
+faint resemblance to her father beginning to appear.
+
+"You are unjust to him."
+
+"It is false, madam," he cried excitedly, with his brow beginning to
+grow knotty.  "I know the scoundrel by heart, and as you are refusing to
+meet me on the terms full of gentleness and love which I propose, you
+must be prepared for firmness.  Now, please understand.  It is the
+dearest wish of my heart that you should marry Parry Glyddyr.  I like
+him; he is the man I wish to have for my son-in-law; and he loves you.
+Those are strong enough points for me, and I'll have no opposition."
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Silence!  I will not hurry matters, but you may look upon this as a
+thing which is definitely settled.  Glyddyr is coming here this morning,
+as I told you before.  I shall tell him that we have come to an
+understanding, and that he may consider himself as accepted, with a long
+probation to go through.  There, you see, I am quite calm, for I make
+that concession to you--plenty of time."
+
+"Father, dear, listen to me," cried Claude passionately.
+
+"No!  I'll listen to no more.  You can go now and think.  You will come
+to your senses by-and-by, I have no doubt, even if it takes time."
+
+Claude caught his hand in hers, but he withdrew his own with an angry
+gesture, and she shrank back for a moment.  There was that, though, in
+his face which made her hesitate about saying more, and reaching up, and
+kissing him hurriedly, she left the room, thinking that he would calm
+down.
+
+He stood watching her as she left, and then, grinding his teeth with
+rage, his face flushing and his temples beating hard, he strode across
+to the door, locked it securely, and drew a curtain across.
+
+"The scoundrel!  He has poisoned her mind.  But I'd sooner kill him--I'd
+sooner--Oh, it's maddening," he cried, as he went to a drawer, fumbled
+with the key on a bunch he drew from his pocket, and had some difficulty
+in opening it, for his hand trembled with suppressed passion.
+
+Then he drew open the receptacle, and from the back took out a ring with
+three curiously formed keys.  These clinked together with the
+involuntary movements of his hands as he crossed to a bookcase, took out
+a couple of books, opened a little door behind them, and thrust another
+key in at the side.  There was a sharp click, and he started back,
+withdrawing the key, and stood and gave his head a shake as if to clear
+it.
+
+"How I do hate to be put out like this," he muttered, as he laid his
+hand in a particular way upon the end of the bookcase, which slowly
+revolved on a pivot, and laid bare a large iron door.
+
+"I don't feel at all myself," he continued, as he used the third and
+largest key, which opened the great door of his safe, and exposed a
+massive-looking closet built in the wall with blocks of granite, at the
+back of which were half-a-dozen iron shelves.
+
+"Hah!" he exclaimed, as he stood in the opening, reaching forward and
+taking down a small square box, which was heavy.  "He'd like to have the
+pleasure of spending you, no doubt, but I can checkmate him.  Now," he
+continued, "let's finish counting."
+
+He carried the box to the table, set it down, and then took out, one by
+one, five canvas bags, one of which he untied, and poured out a little
+heap of sovereigns.  This done, he went back to the safe and took a
+small, thick ledger from another shelf, walked back to the table, opened
+the book, and made an entry of the date therein, then, leaving the pen
+in the opening, seated himself once again to count the coins into little
+piles of twenty-five.
+
+"No," he murmured; "I haven't worked all these years to have my money
+swallowed up by a fortune-hunter.  No, Master Chris Lisle."
+
+He started from his seat, overturning a pile of sovereigns, for at that
+moment, sweet and clear, came the song of a robin seated upon a tamarisk
+just outside the window.
+
+"Good heavens!  I must be mad," he cried.  "Who opened that window?
+Yes; Claude, I remember," he muttered; and he was in the act of crossing
+to close it when he stopped short, threw out his hands, and fell with a
+heavy thud upon the thick Turkey carpet, to lie there with his face
+distorted, struggling violently, and striking his hands against a chair.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter II.
+
+CHRIS VISITS THE MUSEUM.
+
+Racing did not agree with Chris Lisle, for the morning after his return
+from town he rose with a bad headache; and as he lived one of the most
+regular lives, he knew that it could not be caused by errors of diet.
+It would have been easy enough to have attributed it to the true cause--
+constant worry--but he was not going to own to that, as it seemed weak,
+so he set it down to his hair being too long.
+
+"No wonder my head's hot," he said to himself; and, acting upon impulse,
+he hurried out of the room, and walked straight along the cliff road
+toward where, a few minutes before, Michael Wimble had had his head out
+of his door, looking for customers, after the fashion in which a magpie
+looks about for something to secrete.
+
+He was a dry, yellow-looking man, thin, quick and sharp in action as the
+above-named bird, one to which his long nose and quick black eyes gave
+him no little resemblance; and this he enhanced by his habit of
+thrusting his head out of his door, laying his ear on his shoulder, and
+looking sidewise in one direction, then changing the motion by laying
+his other ear upon the fellow shoulder, and looking out in the opposite
+direction.
+
+The Danmouth people, as a rule, always looked straight out to sea in a
+contemplative fashion, in search of something which might benefit them--
+fish, a ship in distress, flotsam and jetsam; but Michael Wimble looked
+for his benefits from the shore, and seldom gazed out to sea.
+
+His place of business was called generally "the shop," in spite of an
+oval board bearing upon it, in faded yellow letters upon a drab green
+ground, the word "_Museum_" as an attraction to any strangers who might
+visit the place, and be enticed by curiosity to see what the museum
+might contain, as well as by a printed notice pasted on each door-post,
+"Free admission."  Once within, they might become customers for shaving,
+haircutting, a peculiar yellow preparation which Michael Wimble called
+"pomehard," or some of the sundries he kept in stock, which included
+walking-sticks, prawn nets, fishing lines, and white fish hooks, made of
+soft tinned iron, so that, if they caught in the rough rocky bottom, or
+some stem of extra tough seaweed, a good tug would pull them through
+it--bending without breaking--a great advantage and saving, so long as
+they did not behave in this way with a large fish.
+
+Michael Wimble was very proud of his museum, and took pleasure in
+telling the seaside visitors that he had collected all his curiosities
+himself, and very much resented upon one occasion its being called a
+"Marine store" by a gentleman from town.
+
+The museum began as a labour of love, for Michael had cast his eyes upon
+the fair elderly motherly widow, Chriss landlady, and, since the
+commencement of his collection, he had laboured on, in the belief that,
+as it increased in importance, so would the woman soften toward him; and
+that some day all his four-roomed dwelling would become museum and
+business place, while he would go and reside at the widow's house--widow
+no longer, but Mrs Wimble--his own.
+
+The beginning of the museum was a star-fish, with four small rays and
+one of enormous size, that he picked up during his regular morning walk
+along the sea shore, wet or dry, summer or winter, at six o'clock, as
+near to the edge of the water as he could get, returning close under the
+cliffs in time to have his place of business opened by eight.
+
+The star-fish was duly dried and admired, and talked about by his
+regular customers; and this seemed so satisfactory that it was soon
+supplemented by a cuttlefish bone.
+
+A piece of wood well bored by teredoes followed.  Then a good-sized
+chump of ship timber, with a cluster of barnacles attached, was carried
+in one morning to commence the fine, fusty, saline, sea-weedy odour
+which smothered completely the best hair oil, the pomade and the scented
+soap.
+
+The museum grew rapidly: hanks of seaweed, more cuttlefish bones, native
+sponges, shells of all sorts and sizes, some perfect, and some ground
+thin and white by long chafing in the shingle.  Stones of all kinds,
+from spar to serpentine, and grey and ruddy granite; sharks' teeth,
+pieces of mineral of metallic lustre, fragments of spar, and fossils,
+including great ammonites, chipped out of a bed of rock which presented
+its water-washed face to the advancing tide.
+
+There was always something to bring home to suspend from the wall,
+arrange on shelf, or give a place of honour in one or other of the glass
+cases, which by degrees were purchased; and as Wimble's museum
+increased, so it became of local celebrity.
+
+Michael Wimble had been peering out when a customer appeared, and after
+due soaping and softening with hot water, the barber was operating with
+a thin razor, which scraped off the harsh bristles off the fisherman
+with a peculiar metallic ring.
+
+The final triumphant upper scrape was being given when Chris entered the
+museum, and the barber's eyes twinkled, for there were signs about Chris
+which suggested a new customer, one who was in the habit of getting his
+professional aid in the county town.
+
+"At liberty in a moment, sir," said the barber obsequiously; and he
+rapidly wrung out a sponge, removed the unscraped-off soap from the
+fisherman's face, and threw a towel at him with a look which seemed to
+say, "Take that and be off."
+
+"Nyste mornin' this, Mis' Lisle, sir," said the fisherman, wiping his
+face slowly.  "Long time since you've had a run after the bahss."
+
+"Yes, 'tis," said Chris shortly.
+
+"Ay, 'tis as you say, sir, that it is; but when you feel in the right
+mind you've only got to say so, and I'm your man, punt and all."
+
+"Cut or shave, sir?" said the little barber, with a look at his regular
+customer which seemed to say, "Go."  And he went.
+
+"Cut," said Chris laconically; and he took his seat in the operating
+chair.
+
+The barber looked disappointed as he drew his professional print cloth
+round his customer, giving it a shake, and then securing it about his
+neck like a Thug with a new victim.
+
+"Much or little off, sir?" continued Wimble, with a preliminary snip in
+the air.
+
+"Much; but don't make it a confounded crop," said Chris sourly; for he
+had a natural dislike to the barber, and was vexed with himself for not
+having had his hair cut in London.
+
+"Much, but not too much," said Wimble thoughtfully; and then, with the
+customary chatter of his profession, he started a topic.
+
+"Been up to the quarry, sir, lately?"
+
+"No."
+
+That was a negative strong enough to have crushed some men, but it only
+acted as a spur on the proprietor of the museum.
+
+"Then I should advise you to go up, sir.  I was there this morning, just
+casting an eye round for spars and crystals, and natural hist'ry
+specimens in general, and Mr Gartram's men have blasted out some of the
+finest stones I think I ever saw."
+
+Wimble waited for an answer, but none came; and, after a little
+snipping, which was all done with the operator's head very much on one
+side, he continued--
+
+"Fine property, that of Mr Gartram's, sir.  Grand estate."
+
+Chris felt as if he would have liked to gag the barber with his own
+lather brush.  But he sat still, holding his breath while the man
+prattled on.
+
+"You said much off, sir? yes, sir; very good plan, sir; keeps the head
+cool, and after a wash or a shampoo, just a rub with the towel and there
+you are.  I often admire our visitor, Mr Glyddyr, for that, sir."
+
+Chris flinched.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, sir; only the scissors touched the skin; cold steel,
+sir.  Keeps his hair very short, sir; quite like a Frenchman.
+Wonderfully fond of our town, sir.  His yacht's always here."
+
+Chris grunted, and wished he had not come to have his hair cut, as the
+man innocently prattled on.
+
+"If I might take the liberty of saying so, why don't you take to a
+yacht?"
+
+"Can't afford it," said Chris bluntly.
+
+Wimble uttered a little laugh that suggested disbelief.
+
+"They do say, sir, as this Mr Glyddyr is making up to Miss Gartram,
+sir."
+
+Chris set his teeth hard.  He could not jump up and run out of the place
+with his hair half cut.
+
+"And that Mr Gartram is set upon it, sir.  Well, it's a fine opening
+for any young man, I'm sure.  Mr Gartram must have a deal of money up
+yonder.  I often wonder he has never been robbed--that's it, sir.  The
+other side, please: thank you.  Stone walls and bolts and bars are all
+very well, but, as I said to Doctor Asher when I was cutting him the
+other day--If a man wants to commit a robbery, stone walls and iron bars
+is no use.  `No, sir,' I says, `there's sure to be times when doors is
+open and iron bars undone, and those are the times that a thief and a
+robber would choose.'"
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Chris.  "So you think there are times when a man
+might easily rob Mr Gartram?"
+
+"I do, sir, indeed; and if you'll believe me there, I wouldn't have his
+money and live as he does for anything."
+
+"Ah, well, I won't believe you," said Chris drily.
+
+"But you may, sir.  Yes, sir, it isn't safe to live with so much money
+in your house."
+
+"Well, I'll tell Mr Gartram what you say."
+
+The scissors dropped on the floor with a crash, and Wimble stood,
+wide-eyed, and harrowing his thin whiskers with his comb.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," faltered the barber; "you said--"
+
+"That I'd tell Mr Gartram."
+
+"I--I--I beg your pardon, Mr Lisle, sir; don't do that.  Mr Gartram's
+my landlord--a hard man, sir, in paint and repairs; and if he knew that
+I'd said such a thing about him being robbed or murdered, why, I do
+believe, sir, he'd turn me out of house and home."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," said Chris gruffly.  "Lesson to you to hold your
+tongue."
+
+This was so decided a rebuff that Wimble frowned, picked up his
+scissors, and went on snipping in silence for nearly half a minute, when
+the desire to talk, or habit of using his jaws in concert with the
+opening and shutting of his scissors, mastered him again.
+
+"If I might be so bold as ask, sir, Mrs Sarson quite well?"
+
+"Yes, quite well."
+
+"Most amiable woman, sir," said the barber, "Her house always seems to
+me as if it might take a prize--so beautifully kept, sir--so delicately
+clean."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I often wonder she hasn't married again."
+
+Chris had heard hints from his landlady about an offer of marriage from
+the owner of the museum, but it had slipped from his memory till now,
+when the suggestive remark brought it all back, and a mischievous spirit
+seemed to enter into him.
+
+He could not find it in his heart to bully the man, whose prattling
+gossip was a part of his trade, but he could vex him and revenge himself
+in another way for the annoyance Wimble was inflicting, and with boyish
+love of mischief he replied--
+
+"Yes; so do I.  But perhaps it is probable."
+
+Wimble checked his scissors as they were half-way through a tuft of
+hair.
+
+"Indeed, sir?" he said, as he went on snipping.  "Yes; of course you,
+being, as you may say, one of the family, and living on the premises,
+would know."
+
+"Yes," said Chris, in a tone suggestive of much knowledge; and then
+there was an interval of snipping, and Wimble coughed.
+
+"If one might say so, sir," he said, "that was a most gallant act of
+yours the other day."
+
+"Eh?  What was?"
+
+"Swimming out after that handsome French lady, and saving her life."
+
+"Pooh!  Nonsense!" said Chris pettishly.
+
+"But it was, sir.  People talk about it a deal."
+
+"More fools they."
+
+"Yes, sir; but people will talk."
+
+"Yes," said Chris meaningly; "they will."
+
+"Yes, sir; and it's wonderful what a man will go through for a woman's
+sake--I mean a gentleman for a lady."
+
+"You miserable little pump," muttered Chris to himself.
+
+"Elderly gentleman, or young, sir?" said Wimble insinuatingly.
+
+"Eh?  What do you mean?"
+
+"What you said, sir, about Mrs Sarson, sir--her future, sir."
+
+"Oh, you mustn't ask me, Mr Wimble.  It would be very much out of place
+for me to say anything.  Done?"
+
+"One minute, sir.  Anything on, sir?  Lime cream?"
+
+"No; just a brush.--Thanks; that will do.--Good morning."
+
+Trifling words do a great deal of mischief sometimes, and Chris Lisle's
+had the effect of making the owner of the museum stand at his door with
+his head sidewise, watching his last client till he was out of sight,
+and as he went down the street, dark thoughts entered his mind about age
+and good looks and opportunity; of the result of his own observations in
+life as to the weakness of elderly ladies for youth; and one by one
+ideas came into his mind such as had never been there before.
+
+"If it does turn out so," he muttered, as he slowly went back into his
+place of business, and apostrophised the head of a huge dog-fish which
+had been preserved and furnished with two glass eyes, asquint, and whose
+drying had resulted in a peculiar one-sided smile; "yes, if it does turn
+out so, I hope, for his sake and mine, he will not come here to be
+shaved."
+
+His thoughts had such a terrible effect upon Michael Wimble, that he
+took a razor from where it reposed in one of a series of leather loops
+against the wall, opened it, seized a leather strap which hung by one
+end from a table, and began to whet the implement with a degree of
+savage energy that was startling.
+
+Chris had his hair cut, and his head felt easier, but the barber's did
+not.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter III.
+
+GLYDDYR SEES THE GOLDEN CAVE.
+
+Faithful to his time of tryst with Gartram, Glyddyr made his way up to
+the Fort that morning, thinking deeply of his position, and wondering
+whether Gartram had good news to report.
+
+He reached the frowning gateway, went along the granite-paved passage,
+and was passing the end of the terrace walk which ran along the front of
+the house, when he caught sight of a dress just as the wearer passed
+round the corner of the house to the garden formed at the end.
+
+"Claude or Mary," he said to himself.  "Shall I?  The old man likes me
+to make myself at home, and it may mean a _tete-a-tete_ there,
+overlooking the sea.  I will."
+
+With a sinister smile he turned off to the left, instead of going up to
+the door.  He went by the bay window of the dining-room, and was in the
+act of passing that of Gartram's study when the robin flew out of the
+feathery tamarisk, and as he was looking at the flight of the bird, he
+turned sharply, for a curious, gasping cry came from the room on the
+right.
+
+He ran into the room, instinctively feeling what was wrong, and in
+nowise surprised to find that Gartram was struggling in a fit upon the
+carpet.
+
+His first act was to drag away the chairs nearest to the suffering man,
+and then to try and place him in a position so that he would not be
+likely to suffer from strangulation.
+
+"It's very horrid," he muttered, "and will frighten the poor girl almost
+to death; but I must ring--no: I'll go for help."
+
+He stopped short, for his eyes lit upon the bags and loose coin upon the
+table, and then upon the open safe, towards which he seemed drawn, as if
+fascinated.
+
+"By George!" he muttered, after glancing back at where Gartram lay,
+perfectly insensible to what went on around him.  "Monte Christo, and--"
+
+He paused, and looked stealthily about, feeling giddy the while, as a
+great temptation assailed him, making him turn pale.
+
+But he mastered the feeling directly, and after a moments thought swept
+the money back into the receptacle, and carried it and the book to the
+safe.
+
+"Poor old chap!" he thought.  "I needn't stoop to steal when he is so
+ready to give it all."
+
+He closed the door quickly, and locked it, then drew back and grasped
+the idea of how it was hidden directly, turning the great panel of the
+bookcase on its pivot, and closing in the iron door.
+
+He had just finished this and relocked the place, which he was able to
+do after a little puzzling, when he saw that the fit was growing more
+severe, and at the same time noted the open drawer in the table.
+
+"Keep the keys there," he said to himself, as he replaced them and
+closed the drawer.  "There, that's what he would have wished his
+son-in-law elect to do for him, so now for help."
+
+He bent over Gartram for a moment, and shrank slightly from the
+distorted face and rolling eyes.  Then, going to the door, he turned the
+handle.
+
+"Locked!" he exclaimed, "to keep out interruption and prying eyes.
+Well, old fellow, I am in your secret, and know the open sesame of the
+golden cave, so we shall see."
+
+He turned the key, threw open the door, and hurried into the hall, but
+ran back directly, and, glancing at Gartram as he did so, pulled the
+bell sharply.
+
+Almost as he reached the door, Sarah Woodham and one of the servants
+entered the hall.
+
+"Here, you," he said quickly to the dark, stern-looking woman, "send at
+once for the doctor; your master is in a fit."
+
+Sarah turned to her fellow-servant, gave her the required instructions,
+and followed Glyddyr back into the study.
+
+"Where are the young ladies?" he said.  "Don't let them come."
+
+"They must know, sir," said the woman, going down on one knee to place
+Gartram's head in a more natural position.  "Miss Claude would not
+forgive me if she was not told."
+
+Almost at the same moment, a step was heard on the terrace outside.
+Mary came by, humming a tune to herself, glanced in, and, seeing what
+was wrong, darted away.
+
+The next minute she and Claude were there, aiding in every possible way
+till the doctor's step was heard in the hall.
+
+He came in directly, and gave two or three short, quick orders, almost
+the first being to dismiss every one but Sarah Woodham.
+
+"Go into the drawing-room," he said.  "I'll call if I want any help.
+He'll soon come round now.  What has been the matter; some fresh
+excitement?"
+
+Claude's countenance was full of trouble, but she made no reply.  Still,
+she could not help glancing at Glyddyr, and to her shame and annoyance
+found that he was looking at her in an eager, imploring way, as he held
+open the door for her to pass out, and then followed.
+
+"He's coming into the drawing-room, Mary," Claude whispered.  "I cannot
+speak.  Pray say something to send him away."
+
+There was no need for Mary to speak.  Glyddyr came up to Claude at once,
+and took her hand.
+
+"I cannot tell you how grieved I am, Miss Gartram," he whispered, in a
+voice full of sympathy.  "Your father invited me to call upon him this
+morning, and when I came I found him lying in his room as you saw."
+
+He did not explain which way he entered, and for the time no one thought
+it strange.
+
+Then there was silence, and Claude, after a vain attempt to control her
+emotion and speech, tried to withdraw her hand, but it was held fast.
+
+"I am on the horns of a dilemma," continued Glyddyr--"puzzled.  I want
+to show my sympathy, and to be of help, but I cannot see in which way I
+can be of most service--by staying or by leaving at once."
+
+"By going, Mr Glyddyr.  Pray leave us now.  You can indeed do nothing."
+
+"I will obey your lightest wish," he said eagerly.  "You have only to
+speak."
+
+"Then, pray, go."
+
+He raised the hand he held to his lips, and pressed it long and
+tenderly, till it was hastily withdrawn, and then, bowing only to Mary,
+he went quickly from the room.
+
+"Bless the fit!" he said to himself.  "Brought me a bit nearer to her
+haughty ladyship.  Bah! it's only a question of time."
+
+It was in Claude's heart to relate her interview with her father that
+morning, but she shrank from speaking; and her attention was taken up by
+the entrance of the doctor.
+
+"Better," he said; "decidedly better."
+
+"Can I go to him?"
+
+"If you wish it.  But your entrance might disturb him now, as he has
+just sunk into a peaceful sleep.  Mrs Woodham is watching him, and will
+call you if there is any need.  But, believe me, there will be none.
+He'll sleep for some hours, and then wake quite himself; but, of course,
+very irritable and strange.  You will then see that he has the medicine
+I have left for him, and after an hour that which I shall send on."
+
+"Yes, doctor."
+
+"Either administer it yourself, or let that woman give it to him.  Don't
+trust Mr Gartram."
+
+"Not trust him?"
+
+"No; he will neglect it, and then take a double dose to make up for it,
+and that will not do.  Regularity, and keeping himself under the
+influence of the drug, is what we want."
+
+"I will attend to it myself," said Claude.
+
+"And when you are going to be away, let Mrs Woodham administer it.
+Perhaps it would be better to leave it entirely to her."
+
+"Oh, no; I would rather keep it under my own eye.  You will come in
+again soon?"
+
+"I begin to be ashamed of coming so often," said the doctor, smiling,
+"and ask myself whether my treatment is right."
+
+"Oh, I have perfect faith in that," said Claude, "and so has my father."
+
+"Thank you," he said smiling.
+
+"Now, please, tell me, Doctor Asher, the simple truth."
+
+"Why, of course."
+
+"You smile, and you say that out of mere politeness, and to make me
+comfortable.  I want to know the truth."
+
+"Now, my dear child--"
+
+"But I am not a child, Doctor Asher.  Once a child to you is to be
+always a child.  Can you not see that I am a grown woman, full of a
+woman's trouble's?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Gartram.  You shall not complain again."
+
+"Then tell me without any disguise--is my father's life in danger?"
+
+"Rest assured that it is not."
+
+"Thank heaven!"
+
+"But I must tell you this--I can do nothing to arrest these fits--"
+
+"These terrible fits!" sighed Claude.
+
+"--Without I have his co-operation, for so much depends upon his living
+a quiet, peaceful life, without throwing himself into these violent fits
+of temper.  You force me to speak plainly, but, of course, it is between
+us.  If he knew that I said what I do, it would have a bad effect upon
+him, and send him into another passion."
+
+"But what can I do?" said Claude her eyes filling with tears.
+
+"Use your woman's wit.  I can give you no better counsel.  You must be
+the cooling oil to stop the friction when you see it arising; and, above
+all, never thwart him in anything upon which he has set his mind."
+
+A great sob struggled for exit in Claude's breast as she heard the
+doctor's words, which were more full of meaning to her than he realised,
+and she glanced round, to see that her cousin was watching her closely.
+
+"I will do my best," she said.
+
+"That's well," said Asher, giving his white hands a soft rub together as
+he smiled from one to the other.  "`What can't be cured must be
+endured,' young ladies; but I do not say that this cannot be cured.  We
+will do our best, but the patient must be made to help.  Does he take
+his medicine regularly?"
+
+Claude shook her head.
+
+"I thought not.  Flies to it, I suppose, when he feels bad, and neglects
+it at other times."
+
+"But that other medicine, doctor--the chloral which he takes--is it good
+for him?"
+
+Asher shook his head.
+
+"Then why do you let him have it?"
+
+"My dear young lady, is not that rather unreasonable?  Now, look here;
+supposing I were to say, `Mr Gartram, chloral is ruining your system,'
+what would he reply?"
+
+Claude shook her head.
+
+"I appeal to you, Miss Dillon; what do you think your uncle would say?"
+
+"Go to the devil!" said Mary quietly.
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"Well, he would, Claudie, and you know it."
+
+"Miss Dillon is quite right," said the doctor, rubbing his hands.
+"Strong but truthful; chloral he will have, and if he keeps to it as I
+prescribe--in moderation--it will not do him much harm, but tend to calm
+him.  There, I'll look in again.  He is going on as well as can be."
+
+"Shall we go and sit with him?"
+
+"N-no; I hardly think it necessary.  You can do no good.  I have given
+Sarah Woodham the fullest instructions, and I'll come in again this
+evening."
+
+The doctor left, and as soon as he was gone, Mary Dillon shook her head.
+
+"Poor Claudie!" she whispered.  "Mustn't thwart uncle in any of his
+wishes.  And it means so much, doesn't it?"
+
+"Master would like to see you, Miss Claude," said Sarah Woodham, coming
+to the door.
+
+"Not worse, Sarah?"
+
+"No, miss; better, I think."
+
+Claude followed her into the passage on her way to her father's room,
+but the woman arrested her.
+
+"Miss Claude, may I say a word to you?"
+
+"Yes, certainly.  What is it?"
+
+"I've been thinking this all over, my dear, and after giving it a fair
+trial, I want you to let me go again."
+
+"Now, Sarah--"
+
+"Pray listen to me, miss.  Master does not like me, for I make him think
+of poor Woodham; and I'm a bad nurse, and I feel sometimes as if I
+couldn't bear it."
+
+"You are not a bad nurse," said Claude, taking the woman's hand; "but
+you feel it hard work to settle down again--that is all."
+
+"No, no, miss, it isn't only that," said the woman wildly.  "But let me
+speak to you again, my dear; he wants you now."
+
+Claude nodded to her smilingly, and hurried into her father's room,
+leaving the woman standing with knitted brow, and hands clasped.
+
+She looked fixedly at the door, uttered a sigh, and went to her room, to
+sit thinking deeply of the duty she was called upon to perform, just as
+her love for Claude was fast growing.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter IV.
+
+IN THE SHADOW.
+
+"Don't you think papa seems much better, Sarah?" said Claude one day.
+
+She was busy in the store-room, playing the part of mistress at the
+Fort, and giving out sundry and domestic necessaries to the old servant,
+who was watching her intently, and leaning over her with a singularly
+intent look in her eyes which seemed to soften her hard countenance.
+
+"Yes, my dear; it is some time since he has had a fit."
+
+"Let me see; you will want rice and more coffee."
+
+"And maccaroni," said Sarah quietly.
+
+"No; don't have rice and maccaroni.  Tell cook not to send up two
+farinaceous puddings the same day.  It annoys papa."
+
+"Because they are good for him," said Sarah drily.
+
+"Ah!" said Claude, turning upon her sharply, but with a playful manner;
+"you must not censure sick people.  Why, Sarah, what makes you watch me
+so intently?"
+
+There were tears in the woman's eyes, as, with a hysterical catching of
+the breath, she took hold of the hand which was passing her a package,
+and pressed it passionately to her lips, kissing it again and again.
+
+"Sarah!"
+
+"Don't be angry with me, my dear.  I'm not the same as I used to be.
+Trouble has changed me; I couldn't help it.  When I see you grown up
+into such a beautiful woman, so calm and quiet and ladylike, quite the
+mistress of the house, and talking as you do, it gives me a catching in
+the throat."
+
+"You are not well."
+
+"Yes, my dear, quite well; but it makes me think of the tiny girl who
+used to love me so, and whose pretty little arms were thrown about my
+neck, and who kissed me every night when she went to bed."
+
+"Yes; but I was a little girl then."
+
+"You were, my dear; and don't you remember, when I heard you say your
+prayers, it was always, `Pray God, bless Sarah,' as well as those whom
+it was your duty to pray for.  Ah, Miss Claude, you used to love me
+then."
+
+"And how do you know that I do not love you now?"
+
+"Ah, that's all changed, my dear.  You are no longer a little girl."
+
+"But I do love you now."
+
+"No, no, my dear; not as you used to."
+
+"And keep still to the simple old form of prayer I was taught as a
+child, with a word for the poor, stricken old friend who was always so
+tender and loving to me."
+
+"No," said the woman sadly.
+
+"Sarah!"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes; you do, my own darling," she cried, as she sank upon her
+knees and pressed Claude's hand to her cheek.  "You do, you must, and
+you have shown it to me by what you have done.  I'm a wicked, ungrateful
+wretch."
+
+"No, no, no; be calm, be calm," whispered Claude soothingly.
+
+"No, my dear, there is no more happiness and rest for me.  You do not
+know--you do not know."
+
+"I know my poor old nurse is in sad trouble, and that there must be
+times when she feels all the past cruelly.  But do you forget what we
+are taught about patience under affliction?  Do you ever pray for help
+to bear all this as you should?"
+
+"No, no," cried the woman fiercely; "I feel sometimes as if I dare not
+pray."
+
+"There, there," said Claude, laying her hand tenderly upon the woman's
+arm, "you must not talk like that.  You are ill and upset to-day.  Try
+and be patient.  Come, you are not quite alone in the world, Sarah.  I
+am your friend."
+
+The woman kissed her hand again passionately, as she moaned to herself
+in the agony of her spirit, for there before her she seemed to see her
+husband's reproachful eyes, and to hear his voice as he bade her be
+strong, and keep down all weak feelings of love for others till she had
+accomplished the terrible revenge.
+
+"Come, come, come," said Claude gently.  "I was in hopes that you were
+growing happier and more contented.  Try to be.  Time will soften all
+this pain.  I know how terribly you have suffered, and that my words
+must sound very weak and commonplace to you; but you will be more
+patient, and bear all this."
+
+The agonising emotion seemed to choke all utterance, for a fierce battle
+was going on within the woman's breast.  Love for her young mistress
+strove with the feeling of duty to the dead, and the superstitious
+horror of breaking that vow voluntarily; and at last, excusing herself,
+she hurried away to her room to lock herself in, and throw herself upon
+her knees to pray for help--to pray that she might be forgiven, and
+spared from the terrible task placed upon her as a duty to fulfil.
+
+But no comfort came, only a hard sensation of fate drawing her on till
+she grew feverish and restless.  Red spots burned in her sallow cheeks,
+and she rose from her knees at last with a heavy, lowering look in her
+eyes, as she muttered to herself--
+
+"Yes, it must be done.  It is fate.  He knew better than I, and saw with
+dying eyes what was right.  Yes, I cannot go back now."
+
+That night Sarah Woodham lay long awake, suffering a mental agony such
+as comes to the lot of few.  Her woman's nature rebelled against her
+fate, for beneath the hard, morose shell there was an abundance of the
+gentle milk of human kindness; but her long married training in the hard
+letter of the sect to which her husband belonged had placed her
+self-styled duty so to the front that it had become an idol--a stern,
+tyrannical idol, who must at all costs be obeyed, and she shrank with
+horror, as at a sin of the most terrible nature, from daring to disobey
+the injunction laid upon her by the dead.
+
+Religion belief and superstitious dread joined hand in hand to force her
+onward, and she lay shivering in her bed, reproaching herself for
+striving to escape from the fulfilment of her husband's last command.
+
+Night after night she suffered a martyrdom; but upon this particular
+occasion it seemed to her that she was in close communication with the
+unseen, and, with eyes wild and strained, she kept trying to pierce the
+darkness, lying in anticipation of some severe reproof for tarrying so
+long.
+
+Hours had passed, but sleep would not come; and at last, in a desponding
+voice, she moaned--
+
+"It is too much.  I am only a poor weak woman.  Isaac, Isaac, husband,
+my burden is greater than I can bear."
+
+The words she had uttered aloud startled her, and she lay trembling, but
+they seemed to have relieved her over-burdened heart, and a feeling of
+calm restfulness gradually stole over her, and she slept, with the tears
+slowly stealing from beneath her closed lids.
+
+"Isaac, husband, for her sake don't ask me to do this thing."
+
+The words came in a hurried whisper, telling too plainly that, even in
+sleep, the rest had not quite calmed her tortured brain, for the task
+was there, and she moaned again and again piteously, as if continuing
+her appeal for mercy.
+
+But in her imagination there was none.  Her eyes had hardly closed
+before she seemed to be back in the cottage listening to the dying man's
+utterances, full of bigoted intolerance and hate, bidding her avenge
+him; and at last she started up in bed with a cry of horror, to sit
+there pressing her wet dark hair back from her brow, and staring wildly
+into the darkest corner of the room.
+
+"Yes, I hear," she said, in a hoarse whisper.  "I have tried indeed; but
+you don't know.  I am only a poor, weak creature, and it is so hard--so
+hard, but I will--I will."
+
+She sat there for fully two hours rocking herself to and fro, weeping,
+praying, but finding no relief.  She threw herself down at last, and for
+a few moments the cool pillow relieved the agony of her throbbing
+temples; but only for the time, and then it was as hot as her fevered
+head.
+
+"If I could only sleep," she groaned; "if I could only sleep and
+forget."
+
+But the sleep that gathers up the ravelled sleeve of care would not
+come; and at last in despair she rose, bathed her burning temples, and
+then hurriedly began to dress.
+
+"I cannot bear it longer," she muttered; "I cannot bear it."
+
+Drawing the curtain aside, she saw that it was still night, and that her
+sleep, with its agonising dreams, must have been of the briefest kind,
+and going to her dressing-table she took her watch--the heavy silver
+watch that had been her husband's--from the stand where it hung to act
+as a little timepiece; but though she held it in various positions close
+to the window, the reflection of the moonlight which bathed the farther
+side of the house was not sufficient, and she opened the watch and
+trusted to her sense of touch.
+
+Here she was more successful, for, passing her forefinger lightly over
+the dial, she arrived at a fairly accurate knowledge of the time--
+half-past two.
+
+Setting her teeth hard, she went on dressing, muttering the while, a
+word from time to time being perfectly audible, and telling the
+direction of her thoughts.
+
+"I must--fought against it.  Maddening--wrong or right--must--poor
+master--must--I must."
+
+Each word was uttered in company with a jerk given to every button or
+string; and at last she stood thinking by the door, not hesitating but
+making up her mind as to her course.
+
+The dread and its accompanying trembling were gone now.  In their place
+was active determination as to the course she meant to take, and with a
+long-drawn breath she unfastened her door, and passed out into the utter
+darkness of the passage and landing.
+
+There was something weird and spiritualised about her appearance as she
+passed on to the stairs, and descended, the faint light shed by the
+glimmering stars through a skylight just making it evident that
+something was moving slowly down the steps, while the faint brushing
+sound of her dress seemed more like the whispering of the wind than a
+noise made by some one passing down the hard granite flight.
+
+She paused for a few moments by the door of Claude's room, as if
+listening; and again a sigh escaped her as she went on silently, awake
+to the fact that the slightest noise might arouse her master, who would,
+if not plunged in a drug-contrived stupor, be lying sleepless listening
+to every sound.
+
+But she passed on down the last flight of steps, across the hall, and
+without hesitation laid her hand upon the handle of the study door.
+
+"Locked!" she said to herself, the thought occurring directly that the
+reason was hers, for she recalled fastening the door.
+
+There was a slight grating sound and a sharp crack as she turned the
+key; but they had no effect upon the woman who, now that she had
+determined upon her course, seemed as if she would stop at nothing.
+
+The darkness in the study was profound; not even a gleam from the stars
+passing through the window, which was shuttered, and the curtains drawn.
+But, as if light were not needed in her mission, the woman went on
+across the room, avoiding the various articles of furniture in a way
+that was marvellous, and hardly making a sound till she turned the key
+of the oak cabinet, which creaked sharply as the door was thrown open.
+
+Then came the clink of bottle against bottle, and the squeaking sound of
+a cork, followed by the gurgling of a liquid being poured out.  The
+noise of the cork, the tap of the bottom of the bottle on being
+replaced, and then the closing and locking of the door followed.
+
+Sarah Woodham was about to cross the room back to the door, satisfied
+with the successful issue of her mission, which would have been thwarted
+had there been no key in the lock, when the sound of the handle of the
+door being moved made her start towards the window.  Her first idea was
+to throw one of the curtains round her, but there was no time, and she
+stood motionless in the dark, listening, under the impression that
+Claude had heard her come down, and had followed.
+
+A low cough undeceived her, and a chill of horror ran through her frame
+as she realised the fact that it was her master.
+
+He must have been awake and watchful, and she stood there trying to stop
+the beating of her heart, as she felt that she had been discovered.
+
+But Gartram slowly crossed the room, and in imagination she saw his
+hands outstretched as he felt his way to avoid coming in contact with
+the table.  The next moment her spirits began to rise, for she
+understood why he had come down.  There was no doubt about it, for she
+heard his hands touch the cabinet, the lock snap, and then there was a
+sharp, clicking sound, and she knew that he had knocked over a bottle on
+the shelf.
+
+"Confoundedly dark!" he muttered; and Sarah Woodham held her breath as
+she heard him move, and another sound.
+
+She knew well enough what it meant.  He had gone to a side table, and
+was feeling for the silver match-box which always stood beside the
+inkstand.
+
+Sarah stretched out a hand behind her as she took a step backward.  Then
+she paused, for a sudden silence in the room warned her that Gartram was
+listening.  But the next moment the rattling of the matches was heard,
+and _crick, crick, crack_, the striking of one upon a metallic box, and
+a line of faint sparks threw up for the moment the figure of Gartram,
+with his back to her bending over the table--a black silhouette seen for
+a moment, and then all profound darkness once more.
+
+_Crick, crick, crack_! two bright points of light, then a flash, but the
+curtain was drawn aside, and fell back in front of the woman as the
+match blazed up; and, though she could not see, Sarah Woodham felt that
+Gartram had turned sharply and was holding up the burning wax match to
+give a hasty glance round the room, before he applied it to a candle
+standing in the bronze inkstand.
+
+The perspiration oozed out upon her brow, for she felt that her master
+must have seen the curtain quivering, and be coming to drag it aside.
+
+"What shall I say?" she thought.
+
+But Gartram did not come to the curtain; and, gaining courage, Sarah
+peered cautiously, but with her heart beating wildly, through the narrow
+opening between the two curtains, to see him go back to the cabinet,
+pick up the fallen bottle, remove the cork, pour a certain amount into a
+medicine glass, set it down, after he had tossed off the liquid, and
+then close the cabinet.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated, with a sigh of satisfaction; and Sarah Woodham
+shivered again as the cold dank moisture gathered together, first in
+dew, then in the great drops of agony upon her face, and slowly trickled
+down.
+
+It did not seem as if Gartram was suspicious, and likely to come toward
+the window; but the terror from which she suffered became so acute that
+she felt as if she must cry out in her alarm; for it seemed as if fate
+was now working with her, and that now she would be able to sleep
+without the haunting horror of her husband's presence always near her,
+always upbraiding her for the task she had left undone.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Gartram again; and she heard him move, but she did not
+dare to stir to see if he were coming toward the curtain.
+
+It appeared like an hour before the light was suddenly extinguished, and
+a heavy, dull sound of steps going over the carpet was heard; then the
+door handle rattled, and she felt that she was safe.  But it was only
+for a moment; a low muttering arose, and the steps came back into the
+room; then there was a heavy creaking noise of springs and of stiff
+leather, and she knew that Gartram had thrown himself into the big
+easy-chair.
+
+There was a pause, during which the listener could count the heavy, slow
+beating of her heart, which seemed to stop directly, as Gartram spoke
+aloud--
+
+"The very sight of a bed seems to drive it away.  As if there was no
+more rest.  Rich beyond my wildest dreams, and what is it but a curse!
+If I could only sleep--if I could only sleep!"
+
+There was a long, low, piteous sigh, followed by mutterings, some slow
+and gently uttered, others quick and angry.  Then a long pause, during
+which, with heavily-beating heart, the woman stood listening for her
+masters next utterances, and thinking of how this man prayed for sleep.
+What then if it came now?  He took these drugs for sleep; suppose that
+sleep were to come--the long, long, restful sleep from which there is no
+waking here?
+
+Her eyes seemed to pierce the heavy cloth which hung between them, and
+she saw him going off into a deeper and deeper sleep, saw the day come
+stealing in through the cracks, and a faint and ghastly ray fall athwart
+the hard, stern face of the sleeping man, which she felt, as in a
+nightmare, compelled to watch, as it grew more grey and hard and fixed.
+Then there were sounds without--in the hall.  She knew the step, it was
+Claude's, and there was a tap at the door, and a voice calling gently,--
+
+"Father--papa.  Father, dear, are you there?  Are you asleep?"
+
+"Claude, my darling," she moaned, as the girl entered and went softly to
+the chair to lay her hand gently upon his brow; and then there was a
+sigh as she bent down, kissed him, and then went softly out.
+
+Sarah Woodham's heart seemed still and frozen within her, and the
+horrible feeling of dread and despair increased, so real had all this
+seemed.  But it was a vision conjured up by a guilty brain, for it was
+still dark, and there was no sound in the room but a regular, heavy
+breathing, telling that Gartram had found at last the sleep that refused
+to obey him in his chamber.
+
+Sarah listened.  He was asleep, and the trembling and dread came upon
+her again, to be horribly emphasised, but to be followed by a sensation
+full of resentment, as Gartram turned suddenly in his chair, and said
+loudly,--
+
+"Curse him!  It was no fault of mine.  He seems to haunt me.  Is there
+never to be any peace?"
+
+Sarah Woodham had clutched the curtain, and held it tightly in her hand
+as he spoke, and she stood there in the darkness gazing in the direction
+of the chair, resentful and fierce now; the feelings of remorse were all
+swept away, and the cold, stern determination with which she had
+received her husband's commands came back.
+
+An hour must have passed before she attempted to move; then her hand
+went slowly to a bottle thrust into her breast, and she stepped slowly
+out from the embayment of the window to stand close by the sleeping man,
+listening to his heavy, stertorous breathing for some time before
+silently crossing the study, and passing out into the hall.
+
+A few minutes later she was in her own room, heaving a piteous sigh as
+she gazed out at the faint light in the east before throwing herself,
+dressed, upon the bed, and sleeping heavily at once.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter V.
+
+APPROACHING A CRISIS.
+
+"Here I am again, Glyddyr.  How are your old chap?"
+
+Glyddyr was seated in the cabin of his yacht, thinking over his
+position, and of how long it would be before Claude would consent to the
+marriage taking place.
+
+He had no fear of his ultimate success, for he had seen enough of
+Gartram to know that his will was law, and that, even if Claude were
+thoroughly opposed to the match, she would be obliged to consent.
+
+But he could not conceal from himself the fact that it might be a long
+time first, press it on how he might; and till then he would be the
+abject slave of the man in whose clutches he had placed himself.
+
+He had not seen the boat leave the shore, where his men had gone to
+obtain stores, and, taking advantage of its being at the harbour, Gellow
+had stepped in, had himself rowed on board, and, walking along the deck
+giving the little crew a supercilious look, he had gone down to where
+Glyddyr was seated, and addressed him.
+
+"What do you want?" was the reply, delivered in a surly voice.
+
+"What do I want?  Why, as the little ragged boy said in _Punch_,
+`heverythink.'  In my case, specially money."
+
+Glyddyr made an impatient movement.
+
+"Oh, it's a fact, dear boy.  Times have not been rosy lately, and I've
+got low in the banking account.  So, as my dear old friend Glyddyr has
+had his little slice of luck, I said I'd run down and tap him."
+
+"What do you mean--what slice of luck?"
+
+"The wind that blows no one any good, dear boy; but the ill wind must
+have blown you a lot of good."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What did you put on her?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I said nothing."
+
+"Oh, yes.  You said so, and you didn't mean it."
+
+"I tell you I did not back the horse."
+
+"But I sent you the last tip--one worth a hundred thousand pounds.  I
+was thinking of sending it to the Marquis, but he's a mean cuss, and I
+knew you'd stump up handsome afterwards to the man who helped you.
+Come--between friends, you know--what did you land?"
+
+"I tell you I did not back the horse."
+
+"Get along with you!  None of your games.  Come along, old fellow, let's
+have it.  What did you pocket?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Glyddyr, my dear boy, don't say that you didn't get the telegram in
+time."
+
+"No; I got it in time."
+
+"Oh, come, that's right; and you did back it.  Get out with your talking
+like that.  You gave me a cold chill all down my back."
+
+"Hang it, man, how many more times am I to speak?  I tell you I did not
+back the horse."
+
+"What!  You let such a chance go by?  You actually fooled away money
+like that!"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by fooled away money."
+
+"Why, it is fooling away money to let such a chance as that go by you."
+
+"How was I to know it was a good chance?" cried Glyddyr savagely.
+
+"Why, didn't I send it to you?"
+
+"Yes; and how many times have you sent me tips which have turned out
+frauds, and I've lost my money?"
+
+"Well, but nobody can be sure, that's a certainty."
+
+"No!  Yours never were."
+
+"Oh, but this is absurd.  No.  I see through your game.  You're
+gammoning me.  You did work it all right."
+
+"Hark, here," cried Glyddyr; "if you wish me to kick you out of my
+cabin, say that again."
+
+Gellow blew out his cheeks, and quickly sucked them in.  Then he threw
+his right leg over his left, and then he threw his left over his right,
+balanced his ivory-handled crutch-stick, and ended by bringing the end
+down upon the cabin floor in the attempt.
+
+"Oh, very well," he said coldly, and the man's manner completely
+changed.  "I won't brave you to kick me out of my own cabin, Mr
+Glyddyr.  You see I could just sign a paper or two, and then I could
+kick you out."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Without lifting my foot, sir.  I've always been a gentleman to you, Mr
+Glyddyr, and you've always been a bully to me.  I wanted to be friends,
+and I've helped you with money till I've pinched myself, and I've helped
+you to throw your wife off the scent."
+
+"She is not my wife."
+
+"I don't know anything about that.  Out of politeness one is bound to
+believe a lady, and she says she is your wife, sir."
+
+"It is false."
+
+"Ah, well, that's nothing to me, sir.  That's your own affair.  Settle
+it between you.  Why, I consider that I've put two fortunes in your way,
+sir.  You've kicked over one; what are you going to do with the other?"
+
+Glyddyr scowled at him.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr Glyddyr.  Like my confounded impudence to
+ask.  I'm off back to town.  No message for Madame Denise, I suppose?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Very good, very good, sir.  Good day."
+
+"Good day," said Glyddyr shortly, and his visitor walked to the door of
+the tiny saloon, set his hat jauntily on one side, and then turned and
+came back, and rested his hands upon the back of the nearest seat.
+
+"Oh, by the way, Mr Glyddyr, I think I did hint that I was rather short
+of the ready.  Be good enough to write me a cheque for a thou, on
+account."
+
+Glyddyr winced.
+
+"I have no money in hand," he said abruptly.
+
+"All nonsense, my dear sir; don't trifle with a man.  You must be
+rolling in coin.  One thou, please."
+
+"I tell you I have no money."
+
+"Very well, then, my dear sir, very well; be good enough to get it.  I
+shall rely upon you, for I must have some within a week."
+
+He turned right round and walked to the door again, and then turned and
+said smilingly--
+
+"Sorry to trouble you, but may your men row me ashore?"
+
+"Yes, of course.  But stop.  Look here, Gellow."
+
+"Very sorry to have worried you, Mr Glyddyr.  One thou, please, within
+seven days."
+
+"But it will be inconvenient.  I can't raise the money in the time.  I--
+look here.  Why, confound the man!  Here, Gellow!"
+
+There was no reply, and angry, mortified, humbled by his impecunious
+position, Glyddyr hurried on to the deck, and found that his visitor was
+already in the boat, and several yards away from the yacht's side.
+
+"Look here, Gellow," he cried.
+
+"Eh?  Please write.  Can't stop.  Be just able to catch the next train
+and get in by to-morrow morning.  Pull away, my lads; a shilling a-piece
+for beer if you look sharp."
+
+Glyddyr ground his teeth with rage as he gazed after his spider, and
+felt how thoroughly he had been bound up like a fly of fashion in the
+wretched schemer's web.
+
+He could have yelled after him to come back, but his men were on deck
+and in the boat which bore his tyrant away; and in those moments the man
+seemed to live a life of repentance for having placed himself in the
+power of such a creature as this.  As it was, he could only stand
+looking at the receding boat in a nonchalant manner, and then turn
+slowly round, and descend to the cabin.
+
+"What am I to do?" he said to himself.  "I must write to him
+apologetically, and ask for time.  No; I can't do it.  I'd sooner suffer
+anything than be humbled further by the wretched cad!"
+
+He flung himself in an easy-chair, and began to agitate it to and fro,
+grinding his teeth the while with rage.
+
+"If I could only borrow the money!  If I could only get hold of enough
+to clear myself from this brute, I could--"
+
+He stopped short, and sat staring before him through one of the little
+open round port windows over the glittering sea, at the Fort, which
+stood up clearly cut and grey in the vivid sunshine; and as he gazed at
+the great castellated building, a strange idea came to him, one which
+made him picture the interior of that study as it appeared to him on the
+occasion of his entering through the window to find Gartram lying there
+insensible upon the floor.
+
+"A thousand within seven days," he muttered to himself, and once more he
+glanced sharply round to see whether he was overheard.
+
+He rose and paced the little cabin, only a few strides and a turn, but
+no idea came.
+
+One moment he was for following Gellow, and pleading to him for time,
+the next the thought seemed too degrading, and he shrank from having to
+plead and humble himself before the common, insolent man who had him in
+his power.
+
+"If he would only leave me alone I should soon be in a position to clear
+myself off, for Gartram is as rich as Croesus."
+
+As that thought came to him, he saw again the interior of the study and
+the open safe.
+
+"And of course that is a mere nothing," he thought; "the eccentric old
+fellow would not have much of his money there.  A thousand pounds.  Why,
+it would be a trifle to him, and if I asked him he would lend it in an
+instant."
+
+Glyddyr stopped short in his argument there.
+
+"Would he lend it in an instant?"
+
+"No," said Glyddyr to himself directly afterwards.  "He is too keen and
+hard a man.  His idea is that I am above all money troubles, and if I
+try him it will be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
+No; it would be ruin to attempt that and destroy all."
+
+With the impression upon him, though, that, he would get out of his
+dilemma by Gellow repenting, knowing as he did that the sharp, sordid
+money-maker would calculate his chances of repayment too accurately to
+run any risks, Glyddyr returned on deck, to find that the gig had just
+returned from the shore after landing his incubus.
+
+Springing in, he signed to the men to give way, and had himself rowed
+across to the rough pier, where he hesitated for a few minutes as to
+what he should do.
+
+The sight of Chris Lisle striding along the cliff road decided him.  A
+malicious look came into his face, and, thrusting his hands down in his
+pockets, he began to saunter along the pier, taking the short cut which
+led to Gartram's private path, cut in a zig-zag up the cliff face, a
+direction which would only be taken by one going up to the Fort.
+
+It was meant for Chris to see, and he saw it, suffering just as his
+rival intended, for there was a painful sting in the thought that this
+stranger should be free to come and go, while he, who had had the run of
+the place from boyhood, should be forbidden to approach.
+
+Chris was no dissembler, there was no diplomatic concealment of the
+feelings in his actions; he suffered, and he showed that he did as he
+encountered Glyddyr at the intersection of their ways, and retorted with
+a fierce look of anger when Glyddyr passed him with a supercilious smile
+full of contempt.
+
+"How I could enjoy wringing that dog's neck!" said Chris to himself.
+"He is going up there to the Fort to be made welcome and caressed, and
+treated as if he belonged to them, and--Oh, it does make me feel
+savage!"
+
+He turned up into the stiff slope running away to the cliff top, and in
+a short time was where he could look down on the Fort and get glimpses
+of the garden, where, to his infinite rage and pain, he soon after
+caught the glint of a white dress, then of one of the palest blue, and
+directly after there was a third party to form a trio, which sauntered
+up and down till he could bear it no longer, and walked right on.
+
+"It's of no use," he said to himself; "I must see Claude and ask her
+what it all means.  I can't go on like this, seeing that man go to and
+fro as if he were accepted.  It is too hard to be borne."
+
+He threw himself down at the top of the cliff, and lay gazing out to sea
+as he tried to settle his next proceedings.  One thing was certain; he
+must see Claude, and come to a thorough understanding about their
+future.  Then perhaps he could wait.
+
+But how was he to obtain an interview?
+
+Mary Dillon.
+
+No; she had refused point blank to act against her uncle's wishes,
+though she sympathised with both of them.
+
+Claude would not meet him, nor yet correspond, but had told him to wait.
+
+"And who can wait at a time like this?" he cried.  "If she only would
+not be quite so obedient," he continued, though all the time he knew in
+his heart that he loved her the more for her fulfilment of her fathers
+commands.
+
+No; it was of no use to think that she would consent to meet him by
+appointment, and there was no one person whom he cared to trust.
+
+"It is so degrading," he said, "to have to place yourself and her at the
+mercy of some common, vindictive kind of creature, who has to be paid."
+
+He was out of sight of the garden now, and its occupants, for he shrunk
+from watching Claude and her companion; but he was still well within
+view of a portion of the Fort and its defences.
+
+"It is all very well," he thought, as he threw himself back, with his
+straw hat off, and his hands behind his head; "but if a clever, resolute
+burglar made up his mind to get into the old man's stronghold after all
+was locked up, how easy it would be.  Why, I could climb up the sea-face
+quickly enough, and over the south wall, and then there is nothing to
+hinder one but the moat, across which a man might wade in a pair of
+fishing-stockings."
+
+A curious tingling sensation here attacked Chris Lisle, and the colour
+mounted into his cheek at the thoughts which came rushing through his
+brain.
+
+Suppose he played the part of burglar, not to obtain any of the old
+man's hoarded-up coin, but that which was the sole desire of his life?
+Claude would never consent to a meeting, but if he took her by surprise,
+and once more clasped her in his arms, she could not really be so very
+angry, for she loved him; of that there could, after all, be no doubt,
+and for the sake of that sweet delight he would risk her displeasure.
+It would only be right, for he would be showing her how his heart was
+hers, and hers alone.
+
+The cliff face?  A bit dangerous, but he could do it easily, even the
+wall.  Bah! he could climb a higher wall than that, while as to the drop
+of water in Gartram's moat, if he couldn't have waded it, he could have
+swam it, and would a thousand times so as to be once more near her.
+
+"It's a puzzle," said Chris aloud.  "Why, I ought to have done it long
+enough ago.  How was it I didn't think of it before?"
+
+There was no mental answer to this, and his thoughts took another
+direction.  He was comparatively a rich man now, but somehow he did not
+feel disposed to go and speak out again to Gartram, whose first question
+would be, "And, pray, how did you get this money?"
+
+The cash had in each case been paid over to him the settling day with
+quite commercial promptitude, and lay at his bankers at Toxeter; but
+somehow Chris felt no richer, and the exultation he had expected was not
+there.  Forty thousand pounds all his own, but he did not feel proud of
+it, and had sat up a night in his own room thinking of how little
+difference it made to a man, and, on the whole, feeling rather
+disappointed than otherwise at the result of his speculation.
+
+But when was it to be?  That night?  The next night?
+
+"I'll try till I do meet her, and if the old man sees me, and flies at
+me--
+
+"I wonder whether he keeps that revolver loaded?" said Chris, half
+aloud, as he rose and began to descend the cliff.  "Bah!  If he does, he
+couldn't hit me in the dark, and hurry of his aim."
+
+All the same, though, his active imagination was hard at work, showing
+him a series of dissolving views, in one of which a gallant youth was
+wading a deep fosse, with an irate parent standing on the bank, firing
+shot after shot, till in the dim light there was a fall and a splash as
+the aforesaid gallant youth fell back into the moat as he was crawling
+out, and not found until the next day.
+
+Would Claude weep and break her heart?  Would--
+
+"A fellow of my age, with an ordinary share of brains, to go on dreaming
+and mooning over such sentimental nonsense!" cried Chris, half aloud.
+"He'd better shoot at me.  If he does, hang me if I wait.  I'll coax her
+into coming right away.
+
+"By Jove!  I'll try to-night.  I wonder whether Mary would help me if
+she knew?"
+
+Volume Two, Chapter VI.
+
+GETTING LANGUID.
+
+If Chris Lisle had had a binocular with him when he climbed the great
+cliff slope, and looked down into Gartram's garden, he would not have
+felt those poignant, jealous pangs.  His eyes were good, and he could
+see that female figures were in the garden, and, naturally enough, he
+concluded that they were Claude and Mary.  Then he saw that another
+figure was there, a male--he could make that out--and he quite as
+naturally, as he had seen Glyddyr on his way to the Fort, concluded that
+this was he.
+
+But, as it happened, when Glyddyr reached the house, he was shown into
+Gartram's room, where he was warmly received by that gentleman, who kept
+him talking and in torture, for there was the particular piece of the
+bookcase which he knew would open, and behind which lay sums of money,
+any fraction of which would set him free; and through the open window,
+echoing from the stone walls, came the sounds of voices in the garden,
+where he longed to be.
+
+"Oh, yes, infinitely better, my dear boy, and I want you to come up and
+dine here to-night.  No ceremony.  Quiet dinner, and cigars and coffee
+afterwards.  Little music in the drawing-room, and a walk afterwards
+round the garden and on the terrace, eh?  You see I don't forget your
+interest, Glyddyr, now do I?"
+
+"No, sir; indeed, I only wish that--"
+
+"Claude would throw herself at your head.  Nonsense!  You like her all
+the better because she holds you off.  Better worth the wooing, my boy.
+No hurry.  Give me time.  She's yours, Glyddyr, and as to her fortune--
+there, she's my only child, and I'm very simple in my tastes and outlay,
+so you leave that to me."
+
+What an opportunity for asking a loan!
+
+"No; it would be madness," thought Glyddyr, and he refrained, but a
+curious sensation attacked him, and thoughts ran through his brain, some
+of which startled him.
+
+"Is that Miss Gartram in the garden?" he said.
+
+"Yes, my boy, yes.  Asher is out there having a chat with them.  Come up
+to see me about these confounded attacks of mine.  Sort of change in
+one's system, I suppose.  Better soon.  The worst of it is, that when I
+have one of these fits it seems to leave my brain a complete blank as to
+what has gone before.  That last one, for instance, I can't recall how I
+was seized, nor what upset me.  Ah, here they are."
+
+Steps were heard outside, and directly after the little party appeared
+in sight, passing along the terrace by the study window towards the
+private entrance.
+
+"Here!  Hi!  All of you come in this way," shouted Gartram, and then
+turned to Glyddyr.  "There, you see, not much the matter with me to have
+a doctor always hanging about.  But I can't sleep, Glyddyr, I can't
+sleep.  Well, doctor, what do you think of the garden?"
+
+"Delightful, my dear sir.  Perfect."
+
+"No, not perfect.  Sea winds cut the things up too much.  Regularly
+blast them sometimes.  Here, come on one side; I want to talk to you
+about something else."
+
+He looked sharply at Claude, who was listening politely to some remarks
+of Glyddyr, while Mary was turning over the leaves of a book.
+
+"Mary, my dear, I wish you would go and write to those people about the
+carriage; it's quite time we heard from them.  Oh, and by the way,
+there's your aunt; write to her."
+
+"May I write here, uncle?"
+
+"Eh?  No.  I shall want to sit down and write myself directly."
+
+Claude's lips twitched, but she made no other sign, and Mary turned
+towards the door.
+
+"It's very clever of you, uncle dear," she said to herself; "but it is
+of no use whatever."
+
+As the door closed, Gartram, who had risen, took the doctor's arm, and
+walked with him towards the window.
+
+"Look here," he said, "I wanted to speak to you about that stuff.  It
+isn't strong enough.  It used to be right, but I suppose I've got
+accustomed to it.  Six months ago a dose sent me into a comfortable
+sleep.  Now, two doses seem to have no effect whatever."
+
+Glyddyr heard his words, and a singing noise came in his ears, but
+Claude was beside him, and her father was evidently giving him a chance
+for a _tete-a-tete_.
+
+"Will you have the bottles made stronger?" continued Gartram.
+
+"Really--" began the doctor.
+
+"There, now, you are going to make an excuse about my nerves being weak,
+or something of that sort.  Nonsense, my dear sir; I'm as strong as a
+horse.  Make it more powerful."
+
+"No.  Really, Mr Gartram--"
+
+"Oh, very well; then I shall take three times as much, and so get over
+you, doctor.  You see you cannot help yourself.  Claude, my dear," he
+continued, turning sharply, "did you show Doctor Asher that new bamboo--
+how it is getting on?"
+
+"No, papa; I did not think of it," said Claude, rising hastily.
+
+"No, no.  Just like you forgetful girls.  I'll show him.  This way,
+doctor.  What is it?--_Bambusa Metake_.  I think that's right.  Come
+along.  Rather a rare plant for this neighbourhood.--Give the young
+folks a chance, doctor, eh?"
+
+"Yes, I see," said Asher, nodding and smiling, as he followed his
+patient out on to the terrace.  "_Bambusa Metake_, eh?"
+
+"Bamboo--bamboozle, doctor," cried Gartram, laughing.  "Now, then, about
+this stuff.  I must have it mixed up stronger."
+
+"But it will be very bad for you.  It is my duty to warn you of that."
+
+"Not half so bad as to lie in bed all night cursing my misery because I
+cannot sleep.  What is the use of life to me if I am to suffer like
+this?  The fits are bad enough, but when they are over, they're over,
+and if I can get to lead a little more tranquil life, I dare say they
+will not trouble me so much."
+
+"That is quite right, my dear Mr Gartram; but you must see that this is
+a growing habit."
+
+"Don't lecture, doctor; prescribe.  I vow here, if you do not, I shall
+get the stuff from some London chemist, and prescribe for myself."
+
+"My dear sir!  For heaven's sake don't do that!"
+
+"There, you see I have the whip hand of you.  You're afraid of losing
+your patient, eh?"
+
+"I should be so sorry to see you do anything reckless, Mr Gartram, that
+I will act as you wish.  Unwillingly, mind, and only under a promise
+that you will be very careful, and take the medicine with great
+discretion."
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll promise anything; only give me rest at night."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"That's right.  Now then, what do you think of the bamboozler?" cried
+Gartram, laughing, as he pointed to what looked like a fountain of
+verdure springing out of a moist, warm, well-sheltered part of the
+garden.
+
+"Beautiful!" exclaimed the other.  "Quite a tropic plant."
+
+"Yes.  Too graceful to give it only a glance.  Here, light a cigar and
+let's take time to contemplate its beauties--and growth," he added, with
+a dry laugh.  "There's no hurry, eh?"
+
+"Well, I have another patient to see; but--"
+
+"He can wait a little longer, eh?  What do you say to a seat and a
+light?  There, now, we can contemplate the beauties of nature all
+a-growing and all a-blowing," he added, after sending out a great puff
+of smoke.--"By the way, recollect you dine with us to-night," said
+Gartram, after about half-an-hour's conversation.
+
+"To-night?" said the doctor, hesitating.
+
+"Yes.  No nonsense; and you can bring me a fresh bottle in your pocket.
+Now, I think we may as well join them indoors, eh?"
+
+The doctor rose and walked with his host to the study window, where
+Gartram ground out an oath between his teeth.
+
+"You miserable, stupid little jade!" he muttered; "couldn't you see that
+you were not wanted here?"
+
+Mary's eyelids drooped.
+
+"Oh, yes, uncle dear," she said to herself.  "I understand your funny
+little ways, but I'm not going.  Of course, I knew that I was not wanted
+by one, but I was by the other, and as the other was poor Claude, why, I
+had the letters done in five minutes, and I've been here ever since."
+
+"Why didn't you write those letters, Mary?" said the old man fiercely.
+
+"I did write, dear, and there they are on your table, ready for you to
+read over.  Would you like to do it now?"
+
+"No," said Gartram, in his harshest voice.  "Going, Glyddyr?" he
+continued, as the latter rose.
+
+"Yes; I'll walk back with Doctor Asher."
+
+"Ah, well, we shall see you this evening.--Don't forget, doctor."
+
+He walked to the drawbridge with them, leaving Mary and Claude alone.
+
+"There, Claudie; if any one tells you that you haven't got a good little
+cousin, even if she is a bad shape--"
+
+"Mary, darling!" cried Claude, clinging to her, "I can't thank you
+enough.  I felt that I must rush away out of the room, and should have
+done so if you had not come."
+
+"Was he so very dreadful, Claudie?"
+
+"Dreadful!  It was horrible.  Oh, Mary, darling, pray that you may never
+have to listen to a man who loves you."
+
+"When you love somebody else, you mean?"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, yes," cried Claude excitedly.
+
+"Poor darling coz," said Mary affectionately; "but I need not pray,
+dear.  There's no need.  No man will ever sit down by me and take my
+hand and tell me he loves me.  I shall be spared all that."
+
+"And now I've wounded you with my thoughtless speech, Mary, dear.  Ah,
+my darling, if you only would not think of your appearance; I never do."
+
+"No, dear, you are beautiful."
+
+"Beautiful, Mary?  Ah! how gladly I'd change places with you."
+
+"What?  Young, pretty, rich, and with two lovers dying for you."
+
+"It is not true," cried Claude, flushing up.  "This man loves me for the
+money, and--"
+
+She stopped short.
+
+"Shall I finish?" said Mary maliciously; "and that man loves me for
+myself."
+
+"No," said Claude sadly.  "If he had loved me as he said, he would not
+have let himself be driven away from me so easily as he has."
+
+"Hist! uncle," whispered Mary, as a heavy step was heard on the granite
+slabs without, and Gartram entered, scowling.
+
+"Mary," he cried harshly, "I thought you had some brains in your head,
+but you are no better than a fool."
+
+"I'm very sorry, uncle," said the poor girl humbly.
+
+"There, be off, both of you; I have some letters to write.  See that the
+dinner is good, Claude, my dear, and--yes," he added, as he referred to
+his watch, "send that woman with my medicine; it is just time."
+
+As he spoke, there was a tap on the panel, and Sarah Woodham, looking
+dark and stern in her black widows dress, entered with a glass and
+phial.
+
+"Your medicine, sir," she said in a low, impressive voice.
+
+"Well, hang it all, woman, don't speak as if you had come to poison me,"
+said the old man fiercely.
+
+Sarah Woodham's lips seemed to whiten, and as she drew the squeaking
+cork from the bottle and poured out the mixture, the neck tapped softly
+against the edge of the glass.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter VII.
+
+FOR MONEY'S SAKE.
+
+"Yes, fine old man," said the doctor, as he and Glyddyr walked down the
+well-paved path together.  "Good for any number of years."
+
+"In spite of the fits?"
+
+"Oh, yes, my dear sir, in spite of the fits.  They will not hurt him.
+Come on after any fresh excitement, and prostrate him a bit afterward,
+but there's nothing much to mind."
+
+"But his sleeplessness?  He complains a good deal of that."
+
+"Hum!  Well, yes, that is a bad symptom.  But he has his cure in his
+hands.  He will worry himself about money, always striving to make more,
+when I'll be bound to say he already has plenty."
+
+"So report says, doctor."
+
+"Oh, yes, and I daresay it's true enough but that's nothing to us.  If
+he will only leave off worrying about the increase, he'll be able to
+sleep well enough.  But you said you would like a word with me."
+
+"Yes.  Nothing much the matter, but I think I do want setting up a
+little."
+
+"Come into my consulting-room, and we'll see," said Asher, leading the
+way through a dainty-looking hall, full of the tasteful collections of a
+man who had evidently an eye for beauty, and had turned his home into
+quite a little museum.
+
+"Why, doctor," cried Glyddyr, in astonishment, "I didn't know you had
+this sort of taste?"
+
+"Indeed?  Oh, yes.  Regular lover of bric-a-brac, as far as my income
+will allow.  This way."
+
+The next minute he had his new patient seated in a consulting-room that
+was the very opposite of the mausoleum-like abode of gloom into which a
+London physician has his patients shown.
+
+"Take that seat, my dear sir.  Don't be alarmed; it is not an operating
+chair.  A man who has to exist in this out-of-the-way part of the world
+need have some tastes.  Hum, ha! pulse, tongue, heart, lungs.  Look
+here, my dear Mr Glyddyr, I am very glad you have called upon me, or
+rather called in my services."
+
+"What?" said Glyddyr anxiously.  "You find something wrong?"
+
+"Nothing at all, my dear sir.  Just the sort of patient I like.  Sound
+as a roach; wants a dose now and then, and can afford to pay me my
+fees."
+
+"Come, you are frank," said Glyddyr.
+
+"Most commendable quality in a doctor, sir.  You have not been living
+quite so regularly lately as you should.  You have some anxiety on your
+mind, and it has upset your digestion.  Then, feeling a bit low, I
+should say you had been drinking some bad champagne instead of an honest
+drop of good Scotch whisky.  That's all."
+
+"I say, doctor, are you a necromancer or a magician?"
+
+"Bit of both, my dear sir.  Here, I'll begin and give you a dose at
+once."
+
+"No, hang it all, doctor, not quite so soon," said Glyddyr, glancing at
+the shelves with their large array of bottles.
+
+"Stitch in time saves nine, sir," said the doctor, taking out his keys,
+opening a closet of quaint old carved oak, and bringing forth tumblers,
+a seltzogene, and a large, curiously-cut decanter.  "There, take one
+third of that to two-thirds of the carbonic water, and one of these," he
+continued, handing a cigar box.
+
+"Oh, come!" said Glyddyr, laughing.  "Doctor Asher, if you'll come to
+town I'll guarantee you a fortune."
+
+"Thank you," said the doctor, helping himself mechanically to that which
+he had prescribed; and as soon as he had lit his cigar, throwing himself
+back in another chair.  "But no, my lot seems cast here, and I don't
+think I shall change.  Drop of good whisky, that?"
+
+"Delicious; but is this all the medicine I'm to have?"
+
+"No, I'll send you a box of pills.  Take a couple now and then, and
+leave the champagne alone."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir, you are wanted at the hotel," said the servant,
+after a tap at the door, from behind which she spoke without attempting
+to enter.
+
+"Yes: directly."
+
+Glyddyr took a good sip of his whisky and water, and was in the act of
+rising when the doctor promptly clapped his hands on his shoulders, and
+pressed him back.
+
+"No, no, my dear sir, sit still.  I don't suppose I shall be many
+minutes.  I have a patient there who thinks he is very bad.  I want to
+finish my cigar with you."
+
+He hurried out, leaving Glyddyr leaning back smoking; but, as soon as he
+was alone, he sat up and his eyes began to search the three rows of
+bottles before him, and to read the Latin inscriptions upon the drawers
+beneath, one of which was pulled half out.
+
+He sat forward listening intently to the retreating step of the doctor,
+after which all was still as death, save the regular beat of a timepiece
+on the mantelpiece.
+
+Then he threw himself back frowning, and took out his handkerchief to
+wipe the perspiration from his forehead, though the room was perfectly
+cool, and the window open.
+
+"It's madness," he muttered; "impossible!"
+
+He stretched out his hand, seized his glass, and gulped its contents
+down quickly, then, taking the decanter, poured out some more and drank
+that.
+
+"Dutch courage," he muttered, setting down the glass.  "No spirit.  But
+it's impossible," he said again, and he laid down his cigar, listening
+intently.
+
+And yet it seemed so easy, for there before him, in the upper row, with
+its black letters on a gold ground, was the bottle that would do the
+work.
+
+"No, no," he said, in a husky whisper; but he rose all the same, and
+stood listening in the midst of a silence that seemed death-like.
+
+"I should hear his step a minute before he could get here," he thought;
+and with the mocking face of Gellow before him, and his threat, he
+strode across the room, looked sharply about him, and saw that in the
+half-opened drawer there were a number of clean phials, each with a cork
+fitted loosely in.
+
+Taking one of these quickly, he drew the cork with his teeth.  Then,
+raising his hand, he was in the act of taking down the bottle upon which
+he had fixed his eye, when--
+
+_Paugh_!
+
+A hoarse, braying, trumpet-like sound of stentorian power, and he
+started away as if he had received a blow.
+
+"Only a confounded steam tug," he muttered, with his face glistening
+with perspiration; and taking down the bottle he removed the stopper,
+half filled the phial, replaced the stopper and bottle, safely corked
+the phial, and, trembling violently now, placed the stolen liquid in his
+breast, just as he heard a step outside.
+
+Quick as his trembling hands would allow him to act, he struck a light,
+re-lit his cigar, and sank back in his chair with a sigh of relief as
+the steps came nearer and nearer; still he suffered an agony of
+apprehension lest the doctor on his entrance should notice his
+agitation.
+
+"So easy to plan and act," thought Glyddyr, as he listened, "but so hard
+to retain one's nerve."
+
+Another five minutes would have enabled him to recover himself, but the
+steps were already at the door; and as he drew in a long breath and lay
+back, closing his eyes, his cigar between his fingers hanging over the
+arm of his chair, and his head on one side in a very bad imitation of
+one asleep, the steps passed on.
+
+A false alarm.
+
+Glyddyr breathed more freely.  He had time to glance round and see that
+he had done nothing to betray himself; the bottle was replaced, he had
+spilled nothing, and the phial was safe in his pocket.
+
+He sank back again with a sigh, the cold perspiration ceased to ooze
+from his temples, and his pulse throbbed with less violence, as he
+smoked slowly, beginning now to look ahead as he felt the little phial.
+
+He had his plan about ready as the step for which he listened was now
+heard approaching, and directly after the doctor entered the room.
+
+"Five hundred apologies, Mr Glyddyr.  You see what a slave a doctor
+is--everybody's slave.  No matter where he is or how he feels, if
+somebody has an ache or a pain, the doctor must go--yes, even," he added
+bitterly, "if it is to face death in the form of some deadly fever; and
+generally, in addition to his pay, he hears that he is not clever
+because he could not perform impossibilities."
+
+"Not an enviable life, doctor."
+
+"Disgusting, sir, at times.  Bah! what am I talking about?  Don't smoke
+that cigar; take another.  No?  Going?"
+
+"Yes; I'll get on board the yacht," said Glyddyr.  "I feel all the
+better for your prescription."
+
+"That's right.  Well, I shall see you again this evening."
+
+"And I am not to touch any of the old man's champagne, eh?"
+
+"We-ell," said the doctor, with a quaint, smile, "Gartram's wine is sure
+to be good, and a glass or two will not do you much harm.  An
+exceptional case, my dear sir.  A glass or two will brighten you, and
+put you in good key for conversation with the ladies."
+
+He smiled, and shook hands warmly with his new patient.
+
+"Don't throw me over by-and-by, Mr Glyddyr," he said.  "I have been the
+family doctor for some time now.  There, forgive me.  Very indiscreet
+remark of mine."
+
+"Nothing to forgive, my dear sir.  Till this evening, then."
+
+"Till this evening," said the doctor; and Glyddyr went down towards the
+harbour, with the doctor standing at the window watching him.
+
+"Lucky fellow," he said; "the old man favours it, and the girl--well,
+girls have to give way."
+
+Volume Two, Chapter VIII.
+
+AFTER DINNER.
+
+"What! you again, Woodham?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the woman, in her quiet, grave way.  "The time soon
+passes.  Every three hours."
+
+"Humph! six o'clock," said Gartram, looking at her uneasily, as she
+shook up the bottle and poured out the accustomed dose.
+
+"Bah!  Filthy!  Sugar."
+
+There was a lump laid on the little tray, and the big strong man took it
+as hurriedly as a schoolboy.
+
+"Shall I bring the medicine here at nine, sir?"
+
+"No; those gentlemen will be here smoking, perhaps.  Put the next dose
+in the glass, and leave it on the chimney-piece.  I'll take it when I
+come in."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir; but will you remember it?"
+
+"Of course; if I don't, you can remind me.  I don't want to have to be
+taking stuff before visitors, do I?"
+
+Sarah Woodham shook up the medicine, poured out another glassful, placed
+it on the mantelpiece as directed, and left the room.
+
+Half-an-hour later, the doctor and Glyddyr arrived together, and were
+received by Claude, Gartram not being quite dressed.
+
+Five minutes later he came down and hurried into the study, taking out
+his key as he crossed the room.
+
+"Hallo, little lady," he said sharply, as he found Mary standing by the
+fireplace with a wine glass in her hand; "what are you doing here?"
+
+"I was only looking round, uncle," she said quickly, "to see that
+everything was left straight.  You'll have the coffee brought in here, I
+suppose, after dinner?"
+
+"Yes, of course," he said rashly; "but you ought to be in the
+drawing-room.  What are you doing with that glass?"
+
+"It is a dirty one, uncle," said the girl, in a hurried manner; "I was
+going to take it away."
+
+"You please to put it back, and don't meddle with things in my room."
+
+"I'm very sorry, uncle dear," she said; and replacing the glass quickly,
+she hurried out of the room.
+
+"I mustn't forget that," said Gartram, as he opened the cabinet in which
+he kept his cigars, and then joined his guests in the drawing-room.
+
+Five minutes after, dinner was announced, and Glyddyr took in Claude,
+who trembled as she felt what a quiet, respectful manner he had adopted,
+and how it seemed to indicate a feeling of satisfied assurance that,
+sooner or later, she would be his.
+
+It was impossible to be quite calm under the circumstances; but she
+strove hard to keep away all such thoughts, and, in her quality of
+mistress of the house, did the honours of the table admirably, till it
+was time to rise and leave the gentlemen to their wine.
+
+"We sha'n't sit very long, Claude," said Gartram; "and after a cigar, we
+shall want some music."
+
+"Yes, papa," said Claude gravely; and she moved toward the door, which
+Glyddyr had hurried to open, fixing his eyes upon her in a dreamy,
+pleading way as she went out, and making her catch Mary's arm nervously
+as soon as they were alone.
+
+"Mary, dear," she said excitedly, "if it were not for papa's health, I
+should run away to aunt's, and stay there.  This man seems so
+persistent, and his quiet way thoroughly frightens me."
+
+"Sapping and mining, instead of bold assault," said Mary.
+
+"Shall I ever be such a coward as to consent?"
+
+"Bah!  How do we know what may not happen long before it is time to be
+obliged to say yes."
+
+"Nothing seems likely to happen to set aside my father's wishes," sighed
+Claude.
+
+"Ah, you don't know.  It is the unexpected which they say always
+happens.  So we are to sing to-night?"
+
+"Yes.  Is anything the matter with you, Mary, dear?"
+
+"With me?" was the reply, with a forced laugh.  "How absurd, dear.  No,
+of course not; nothing.  Why, Claude, you are making your great eyes
+look goggles.  You don't think I have done anything, do you?"
+
+"I don't think you can be well, Mary, dear," said Claude, taking her
+hand and kissing her brow; "why, your hands are cold and your forehead
+quite hot."
+
+"Of course they are.  Haven't we just had dinner?"
+
+Claude looked at her wearily, but her cousin laughed in a quick, excited
+way, and crossed to the canterbury to begin turning over the music.
+
+"They'll soon be here now," she said.
+
+But there did not seem to be much prospect of the gentlemen coming, for
+in a very few minutes after they were left alone, Gartram passed on the
+claret jug.
+
+"Wine, gentlemen," he said.  "Asher, you would prefer a glass of old
+port?"
+
+"Indeed, no, my dear sir; nothing more for me.  I have to ask you to
+excuse me soon."
+
+"What!" cried Gartram.
+
+"For about half-an-hour.  A patient."
+
+"What a nuisance!" said Gartram.  "Must you go?"
+
+"Without fail."
+
+"Then come in the study and have a cup of coffee and a cigar first."
+
+"To be sure.  I am with you there."
+
+Gartram threw open the door; they crossed the hall and entered the
+study, where a shaded lamp was burning, the window, wide open, and the
+soft subdued light of the moon, as it rose slowly over the glistening
+sea, flooded the room.
+
+"What a glorious night!" said the doctor, as he went to the table,
+filled a cup with coffee, and then took a cigar and cut off the end
+before looking round, and then walking to the chimney-piece, while
+Glyddyr threw himself in a chair and began to help himself.
+
+"Give me a cup too, my dear boy," said Gartram, as he took a cigar.
+"Doctor does not cut down my smoking yet.  No matches?"
+
+"All right; here they are on the chimney-piece," said the doctor, and as
+he spoke the flame of the little wax match gave his face a peculiar
+aspect in the dim room.  "But, hallo!  What have we here?  Secret
+drinking.  What is this?" and, as he spoke, he took up a glass standing
+on the chimney-piece.
+
+"Secret drinking, indeed!" grunted Gartram.  "It's your confounded
+tonic, put there ready for me to take by-and-by."
+
+"A thousand pardons," said the doctor, coming forward and taking up his
+coffee, while Glyddyr lay back in an easy-chair, gazing at the
+dimly-seen glass upon the mantelpiece, and smoking thoughtfully.
+
+"You've no light, Glyddyr," said Gartram, rising and going to the
+chimney-piece, where, with his back to his guests, he took up the wine
+glass, but uttered an impatient ejaculation, set it down again, and took
+up the match stand, which he placed beside Glyddyr, and then tossed off
+his coffee.  "What do you say to finishing our smoking out on the
+terrace?"
+
+"To be sure; yes," said the doctor.  "A most glorious night."
+
+He moved with his host toward the open French window, where the two men
+stood for a few moments darkening the room, and looking like two huge
+silhouettes to Glyddyr, as he lay back in his chair with his cigar half
+out.
+
+Then suddenly Gartram turned and looked at him with a peculiar smile.
+
+"You won't join us, I suppose?" he said.
+
+"I--thanks--if you will excuse me," said Glyddyr, in a faltering voice.
+
+"Excuse you, my dear boy? of course.  Come along, Asher, the sea looks
+lovely from the upper seat."
+
+Glyddyr's whole manner changed, and grew cat-like in its quick, soft
+movements as the pair walked away from the window along the granite
+terrace, Gartram's boots creaking loudly as they walked.
+
+There was a death-like silence then in the room, which made Glyddyr's
+long-drawn, catching breath sound strangely loud as he rose from his
+seat and walked silently over the thick carpet to stand listening by the
+window, his figure in turn looking perfectly black against the
+moonlight; and as he stood there, from outside there came the low murmur
+of the men's voices, and from the house, all muffled, the music of the
+piano in the drawing-room.
+
+With a quick, gliding movement Glyddyr walked to the chimney-piece,
+thrusting his hand into his breast-pocket.  Then, taking up the glass,
+he crossed to the window, and with a quick movement threw its contents
+sharply away, the liquid breaking up into a tiny sparkling shower in the
+soft yellow moonlight, and then it was gone.
+
+Quickly and silently Glyddyr stole back to the chimney-piece, and
+replaced the glass.  There was a faint, squeaking noise, as of a cork
+being removed from a phial, then the tap of glass upon glass, a faint
+gurgling, and another tapping of glass upon glass, as if his hand
+trembled.
+
+A low, catching sigh followed, then a repetition of the faint squeak of
+the cork, and Glyddyr once more moved towards the window, satisfied
+himself that the others were nowhere near, and then he drew back a
+little, extended his arm behind him, and hurled the little phial away
+with all his might.
+
+There was the quick rustle and jerk of clothes, then silence; then a
+faint sound, and Glyddyr drew a long breath, as if of satisfaction as he
+felt that all had gone as he wished, and the bottle had shivered to
+atoms on the rocks far below, while the next tide would cover the
+fragments, and wash them into crevices among the granite boulders as it
+destroyed all trace of the contents.
+
+Glyddyr stood thinking for a few moments, and then he gulped down his
+coffee, and went out into the hall, which he crossed, hesitated again
+for a few minutes, and then entered the drawing-room, where, as the door
+closed, a low fresh murmuring arose, and was succeeded a minute later by
+the sound of the piano and Claude's voice, which came sweet and pure to
+the hall, as a _portiere_ was drawn aside, and the dark figure of Sarah
+Woodham came forward into the light.
+
+She stood listening by the drawing-room door for a few minutes, and then
+her dress rustled softly as she went across to the study, listened,
+tapped lightly, turned the handle and entered, closing the door after
+her.
+
+The murmur of voices came from the terrace, and the woman replaced the
+coffee cups on the silver tray, and was in the act of lifting it, gazing
+out through the open window the while, but she set the tray down again,
+walked to the window, listened, and then went quickly to the
+chimney-piece.  Then there was an ejaculation that was almost a moan as
+she raised the glass, and then, after listening intently, she held it up
+to the light, uttered a piteous sigh, and crossing quickly to the tray,
+emptied the contents into one of the fresh-used coffee cups, and
+replaced the glass on the chimney-piece.  Then once more there was the
+faint squeaking of a cork in a bottle neck, the low gurgling of fluid
+being poured out, the replacing of the cork; and as the woman glided to
+the table, where the coffee tray remained, the light of the moon shone
+upon her dark dress and white apron, and showed her hurried movements as
+she thrust a bottle into the pocket among the folds of her dress.
+
+A low sigh once more escaped her lips, and she muttered softly as she
+took up the tray and left the room.
+
+"Not more than half an hour," said a voice, which echoed from the
+terrace wall, and there were approaching steps.
+
+"Make all the haste you can.  I'll have my nap while you are gone.  I
+say, doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Asher, pausing in the moonlight by the open window.
+
+"Don't disturb them in the drawing-room."
+
+"No, no, I understand," said the doctor; and he stepped softly into the
+room, smiling as he went to the table, helped himself to a cigar, bit
+off and spat out the end, then took up the match stand, struck a light,
+and walked slowly across the room as he lit his cigar, stopping for a
+few moments puffing heavily to get it well alight before he set down the
+matches in their old place.
+
+Five minutes after, Gartram's creaking boots were heard as he came along
+the terrace, entered the room, went straight to the chimney-piece,
+tossed off the contents of the glass, and then threw himself in an
+easy-chair.
+
+"There, Master Glyddyr," he said; "you have the field to yourself, and
+you will not mind my having a nap."
+
+Claude played well, and after a little entreaty she sang an old ballad,
+in a sweet low voice that would have thrilled some men, but to which
+Glyddyr listened in an abstracted way, as if his attention was more
+taken up by what was going on without.
+
+After a time the urn was brought in, and Claude was about to rise from
+the piano, but Glyddyr seemed to become all at once deeply interested,
+and begged so very earnestly that she stayed, a duet was produced, and
+Mary Dillon, directly after the prelude, took the first part in a voice
+so clear and piercing, so birdlike in its purity and strength, that for
+a few moments the visitor sat gazing at her in admiration.
+
+But he soon became abstracted again, and as the final notes of the
+combined voices rang out, he rose with a sigh, and walked to the window,
+while Claude proceeded to make the tea.
+
+"And never said `thank you,'" whispered Mary.  "Poor young man.  He is
+terribly in love."
+
+At that moment steps were heard passing down the stone pathway toward
+the gate.
+
+"Doctor Asher gone to give some poor creature physic," said Mary
+merrily; and Glyddyr came slowly back toward the table.
+
+"You will take some tea, Mr Glyddyr?" said Claude.
+
+"I?  No, thanks; I rarely take it," he replied.  "I'm afraid I am rather
+a burden upon you two ladies, and if you will excuse me I will go and
+have a chat with Mr Gartram, as he is alone."
+
+"I am afraid you will not find papa very conversational," said Claude
+gravely.  "He will be having his after-dinner nap."
+
+"Ah, well, I shall not disturb him.  I will go and have a cigar."
+
+He left the room in a hurried way, and as soon as the door was closed,
+Mary burst into a merry fit of laughter.
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"Well, I can't help it, Claude," she said.  "Oh, how grateful you ought
+to be to me.  I have saved you from no end of love-making.  Did you see
+how wistfully he kept on looking at us?"
+
+"No," said Claude, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"But he did, dear.  Talk about the language of the eye; you could read
+his without a dictionary.  It was, `do go, my dear Miss Mary.  I do want
+a _tete-a-tete_ with Claude so very, very badly.'"
+
+"Pray be silent, Mary."
+
+"Yes, dear, directly.  Mute as a fish; but it was such fun to watch his
+pleading looks and refuse silently all his prayers--for your sake,
+darling.  Remember that."
+
+"You are always good to me, Mary."
+
+"You don't half know, my dear.  Then, after a time, a change came over
+the man, and he grew cross.  I could see him growling mentally, and
+calling me names for a little crook-backed female Richard the Third, and
+once I thought he was going to kick me out of the door, or throw me out
+of the window, for being such an idiot as to stay."
+
+"Mary, what nonsense you do talk."
+
+"It is not nonsense, dear.  Uncle kept the doctor out in the garden, so
+that Mr Glyddyr could come and have a sweet little chat with you; and I
+ought to have left the room, of course, but, to oblige you, I sat here
+like an ice, and kept the enemy at a distance.  Oh, how he must hate
+me!"
+
+"Mary, dear, pray be serious."
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll be serious enough, dear.  There, I am solidity itself; I
+could not be better, I'm sure, when the enemy approaches," she
+whispered, as steps were once more heard crossing the hall.
+
+"Shall I go, dear?  Perhaps I had better now."
+
+She rose from her seat and set down her cup, but Claude laid her hand
+upon the thin little arm, and motioned towards a chair.
+
+The door opened, and Glyddyr re-entered.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said; and the matter-of-fact man of the world
+seemed to have quite lost his ordinary _aplomb_, and came on in a quiet,
+hesitating way.
+
+"I'm afraid I was very rude leaving you like that," he said; "and I did
+not thank you for the duet."
+
+"We needed no thanks, Mr Glyddyr," said Claude gravely.
+
+"No, no, of course not," he said.  "I meant to thank you.  Mr Gartram
+is asleep, and if you will not think me rude, I will go and sit in the
+study and smoke a cigar."
+
+"Pray do, Mr Glyddyr," said Claude; and he once more left the room.
+
+"Well, I couldn't have believed it, Claudie.  The lion completely tamed
+by love.  Why, my poor darling, you've turned him from a sarcastic,
+sharp-tongued, clever London society man to a weak, hesitating lover."
+
+"For goodness' sake, don't talk like that, Mary," cried Claude; for the
+picture her cousin painted seemed to her terrible.  She literally
+shuddered at the idea of this man really loving her, and sat looking
+aghast before her, while Glyddyr went slowly back, so excited that the
+perspiration oozed from his brow, and made him unconsciously take out
+his pocket handkerchief to wipe the palms of his hands.
+
+Upon the first occasion he had strung himself up and walked quickly to
+the study determined to carry out his plans.
+
+"It will only be a loan," he told himself; "only borrowing what is to be
+my own some day, and he would never miss it."
+
+Closing the door behind him, and merely glancing at the easy-chair in
+which Gartram lay back, with his face in the shade, and his white
+shirt-front standing out of the gloom like some peculiar creature,
+Glyddyr walked to the mantelpiece, looked at the glass; then crossed to
+the table, and began picking and choosing from the cigars in the box, as
+in a furtive way he listened to his host's slow, heavy breathing, and
+wondered whether he was sufficiently sound for him to attempt to get his
+keys.
+
+The breathing came very regularly, and at last, after hesitating a great
+deal on the selection of a cigar, he said aloud--
+
+"Where do you get your cigars, Mr Gartram?"
+
+No reply; only the heavy breathing.
+
+"I said where did you get your cigars?" said Glyddyr, still more loudly.
+
+"He must be safe," he thought to himself; and to make sure he walked
+carelessly to the side of the chair, and gazed full in Gartram's face.
+
+"He would have winced if there had been any pretence," he thought.  And
+then, "Pooh! what a fool I am."
+
+He glanced at the table in whose drawer the keys reposed, looked at the
+great section of the bookcase which swung round as upon a pivot, and
+then he walked quickly to the window and looked out right and left,
+listening the while to the beating of the waves upon the rocky coast far
+below.
+
+"While I am hesitating," he thought, "I might do it.  The doctor can't
+be back yet, and no one is likely to come."
+
+There was a step outside.
+
+He took a couple of strides, and then sharply threw himself into an
+easy-chair near the bookcase, and lay back in almost profound darkness,
+for the rays of the moon cut right across from the window, bathing the
+carpet with a soft light, but leaving beyond the well-defined line a
+deep shadow.
+
+He had hardly taken his place when there was a faint tap at the panel of
+the door, the handle turned, and, silent and ghastly-looking in the
+gloom, Sarah Woodham came into the room, closed the door behind her, and
+walked across to Gartram's chair.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter IX.
+
+AN UNPLEASANT POSITION.
+
+"It's enough to drive a man mad," said Chris Lisle, as he sat in his
+room with a book in his hand, one which he had been vainly trying to
+read.  "To think of him having the run of the Fort, and constant
+opportunities of being at her side.  But I will not think about it."
+
+He settled himself back in his chair, raised the open book once more to
+his eyes, uttered a mocking laugh at his own expense, and threw the
+volume passionately across the room, for he had realised that he had
+been sitting there for a full hour making pretence of reading with the
+book upside down.
+
+"I could not have believed that I was such a fool," he growled fiercely;
+"but always with her!" he added softly, as the wearing, tormenting
+thought uppermost in his brain asserted itself.
+
+"Women are naturally weak, and it is Gartram's wish.  How could I be
+surprised if she yielded?  No, she would not; she is too firm, and I am
+a contemptible brute to want faith in her."
+
+He felt a little better after that, roundly taking himself to task; and
+it was like a mental stimulus; but, like the action of most stimulants,
+the effect was not lasting.
+
+"It is not as if she had confessed her love for me, and promised to be
+my wife some day.  If she had pledged herself to me, I would not have
+cared, but I have nothing to hold on by; and if she obeyed her father's
+wishes, what right have I to complain?  Oh, it will drive me mad!" he
+muttered, as he leaped up and paced the room.
+
+At that moment there was a tap at the door.
+
+"Come in!" roared Chris, as impatiently as if he had answered
+half-a-dozen times.
+
+"It's only me, Mr Lisle," said his landlady, "and I'm sure I beg your
+pardon for coming in; but it does worry me so to hear you walking up and
+down so in such agony.  Now do be advised by me, sir; I'm getting on in
+years, and I've had some experience of such things."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, Mrs Sarson; but, pray, don't bother me now."
+
+"Indeed, no, sir, I won't; but though I can't help admiring the
+fortitude you show, it is more than I can bear to sit in my little room
+and hear you walking up and down in such pain.  Now mark my word, Mr
+Lisle, sir, it's _not_ toothache."
+
+"No, no," he said impatiently; "it is not toothache."
+
+"No, sir.  Which well I know.  It's what the doctors call
+newrallergeer."
+
+"My dear Mrs Sarson--"
+
+"No, no, my dear, don't be cross with a poor woman whose only idea is to
+try and do you good.  No one knows what it is better than I do.  I've
+had your gnawing toothache, which is bad enough for anything; but your
+jig, jigging newrallergeer is ten times worse, and it makes me pity you,
+Mr Lisle."
+
+"Yes, thank you, Mrs Sarson, I am greatly obliged to you, but--"
+
+"Take my word for it, sir, 'tis your stomach, and you won't be no better
+till you've had a tonic."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, Mrs Sarson," cried Chris impatiently.
+
+"No, sir, it is not nonsense, and I don't a bit mind you being impatient
+with me, for it's quite natural; but do let me ask Doctor Asher to call
+in."
+
+"No, no, no," cried Chris, with increasing loudness and emphasis.  "And
+now, pray, go and leave me to myself."
+
+The landlady sighed, and slowly left the room.
+
+"This woman will send me crazy," muttered Chris.  "What shall I do?  Go
+right away for a long trip, and try and forget it all."  And he went and
+leaned against the side of the window and looked out over the sea,
+thinking only of Claude seated alone with Glyddyr, listening to his
+words, and that, as the stone yields before the constant dropping, so
+would she at last.
+
+"I must see, and will see her, and get her promise," he said at last
+excitedly; and, taking his hat, he strode out of the cottage and went
+right out up the east glen with the intention of getting away round over
+the high ground by the cliffs, and continuing under the shelter of the
+night to go up to the Fort by the back, so as to get within the garden,
+and perhaps manage to call either Claude's or Mary's attention by
+creeping round to the drawing-room window.
+
+It was a miserable, clandestine proceeding, and he felt all the nervous
+trepidation of a boy on his way to rob an orchard.  Two or three times
+over he hesitated and turned to go back; but the next moment the sweet,
+pleading face of Claude seemed to appear before him, and that of Glyddyr
+mocking and triumphant.
+
+"I can't help it," he cried.  "I must, I will see her to-night, if it's
+only for a minute."
+
+It was not so easy a task as he had told himself; and, as he descended
+the cliff towards where, on a separate little eminence cut off from the
+main cliff by a deep rift, the Fort stood, he noted for the first time
+that it was bathed in the soft yellow moonlight which rose above the
+sea.
+
+This checked him for the moment, till it occurred to him that though the
+moon shone brightly in parts, there were plenty of spots where he could
+approach the place in the deep shadows; and taking advantage of the
+clumps of furze, and the ragged, stunted pines, which had obtained a
+foothold for their precarious existence here and there, he crept on and
+on, selecting the narrow little gully for his course, down which gurgled
+the tiny spring which supplied the moat with water.
+
+"It's easy enough," muttered Chris, as he lowered himself down here,
+clung to a rock there, and managed all the time to keep in the shadow
+till he was at the end of the gully, where it opened on the moat, beyond
+which, and about fifty yards away, rose the fantastic, granite-built
+home of the woman he loved.
+
+There was the moat to cross, and, beyond, the massive wall, beyond which
+again was the well-planted garden, with its southern wall covered with
+well-trained fruit trees.
+
+It was for this part of the garden that Chris Lisle aimed, with every
+step of the way bringing up old remembrances of boy and girl life, and
+the hours he had spent in the grounds with Claude.
+
+"And will again," he muttered.  "I am not a beggar now."
+
+After a glance or two at the back of the house, which he was facing, he
+took hold of one of the pendant boughs overhanging the moat, stepped to
+the very edge, and then lowered himself into the water.
+
+It was deeper than he had anticipated, rising at once to his middle, and
+he paused for a moment, wondering whether he should have to swim; but
+fortunately, as he advanced, the depth was only increased by a few
+inches, and in a few seconds he had waded across, and was half dragging
+himself up by the ivy, half climbing to the foot of the wall, where,
+without thinking of what he was doing, he stood for a time to drain, the
+clear stream water trickling down, and forming a pool beneath the ivy at
+his feet.
+
+All seemed still, and he crept through the abundant ivy to where a huge,
+massive buttress sloped down from the top of the wall to the rock, where
+the architect had studied the strength of his work as regarded the
+attacks of time, and not those of men who had designs upon the wealth
+Gartram would not trust in the banks.  This buttress, when first built,
+might have been climbed by an active boy, while now, it was so densely
+coated with the ivy of many years' growth that Chris had no difficulty
+in making his way to the top of the wall, where he lay down for a few
+moments to reconnoitre, and, finding all still, he had only to make use
+of the trunk of a pear-tree, whose horizontally trained bows were as
+easy to descend as a ladder.
+
+He felt perfectly determined, but, all the same, a sensation of shame,
+mingled with dread, assailed him as he thought of how contemptible a
+figure he would cut if he were discovered.
+
+That was but a momentary thought, chased away by the recollection that
+he was once more within the walls which held the woman he loved; and,
+perfectly familiar with every foot of the ground, he soon crossed the
+rather open part devoted to fruit-growing, and made his way to the
+shrubs surrounding the upper and lower lawns.
+
+Here there were plenty of shadowy spots, among which he crept till he
+was brought to a standstill by the sound of steps coming along the
+terrace walk, and he recognised the voices at once as those of Gartram
+and Doctor Asher.
+
+The hot blood flushed the young man's face for two reasons.
+
+If he stayed there, he would be forced to play the eavesdropper; and for
+the second reason, Gartram and the doctor being together, it, in all
+probability, meant that Glyddyr had been left alone with Claude.
+
+At the risk of being heard, he drew back among the bushes, and crept
+slowly away, the voices seeming to follow him as he made from the side
+to the back of the house, and then in and out among the trees till he
+was right on the other side, where a light shone out from the
+drawing-room windows, and where, by a little manoeuvring, he was able to
+look in.
+
+His heart beat faster as he caught sight of a black coat and the bright
+dress of Claude.  It was just as he thought; and, unable to contain
+himself, he was about to cross the narrow patch of lawn, and make
+straight for the room, when a female figure passed the window, and he
+recognised Mary Dillon.
+
+He drew a catching breath, full of relief, and remained in the shade.
+
+Thank heaven! they were not alone.
+
+Still, there seemed to be no opportunity for a word with Claude, and to
+have done what he felt he would like to do--go boldly in and speak to
+her--would only mean a scene with her father, and pain to her.  There
+was nothing for it but to wait, and he remained there hidden, with his
+eyes fixed upon the window, and seeing, if he could not hear, much that
+was going on.
+
+He heard, though, the doctor's step, and knew when he left, his heart
+beating fast as he saw Glyddyr leave the room.
+
+This was his opportunity, and he cautiously approached the window,
+meaning to risk all, and tap upon the pane, but before he put his plan
+into effect the door re-opened, and Glyddyr returned, sending Chris back
+among the bushes, where, unable to bear the sight of his rival in
+Claude's presence, playing the part of the accepted lover, he stole off,
+intending to make his way round to the other side of the house, hoping
+that Gartram might be by this time following out a custom perfectly
+familiar to Chris, and having his after-dinner nap.
+
+By means of a little scheming he contrived to get down among the bushes
+below the terrace in front of the study, but it was no easy task, for
+the cliff, in whose interstices the bushes were placed, sloped rapidly
+down here, and a false step or slip would have meant a fall of fifty or
+sixty feet.
+
+Accustomed to rough climbing, though, as he was, he did not hesitate,
+and raising himself up till he could look over the edge, he was in time
+to see the study door open, and Sarah Woodham enter the room.
+
+It was a little disappointing, for at the first glimpse of the woman's
+dress he thought it was Claude; and, in utter ignorance of the fact that
+his opportunity had come, and that the ladies were now alone in the
+drawing-room, he remained watching for a time, and then crept slowly
+back, wishing that he had had the foresight to bring a note, for, had he
+borne one, he could easily have contrived to send it, with a pebble
+inside, through Claude's open window.
+
+Low-spirited and despondent, ready to take himself to task for coming
+upon so mad an expedition, he made his way cautiously back towards the
+garden, hesitating still as to whether he should go away, or wait about
+on the chance of getting a word with Claude.  Common sense and manly
+pride advocated the return, but there was the natural desire to see the
+woman he loved, even if he were playing the part of a spy; and with a
+sigh he crept from bush to bush, keeping well in the shadowy till once
+more he was within range of the drawing-room window, and in the act of
+parting two boughs to gaze between, when there was a rustling sound, a
+strong hand held him by the collar, another grasped his wrist, and a
+deep voice said--
+
+"I've got you, have I?  What are you doing here?"
+
+Stung to the quick by shame and annoyance, Chris swung himself back to
+make a desperate leap and escape--feeling that he had been discovered by
+Gartram, and like a flash the degradation and bitterness of what was to
+come seemed to blaze through his brain.
+
+But there is a good old saying: Look before you leap.
+
+Chris Lisle did not look before he leapt, and the consequence was that
+he went with a crash in among the elastic boughs of a short sturdy
+Weymouth pine, and was thrown back into his captor's arms.
+
+"Oh, no; you don't," rang in his ears, as he was borne to the ground,
+falling back on the grass with his face right out in the moonlight.
+
+"Mr Lisle!"
+
+"You, Brime!" whispered Chris huskily, as the hands were taken from his
+collar, and he struggled up, to stand facing the gardener.
+
+"Why, sir, if I didn't think it was one of them young dogs from down the
+harbour after the fruit.  They've got a dinner party on, and I come out
+of the house and ketched sight of you.  I beg your pardon, sir, I didn't
+know you were asked."
+
+"Hush!  Don't talk so loud.  No, I was not asked, Brime, but--that is--I
+thought I'd--I was looking at the drawing-room window."
+
+"I understand, sir.  I see, sir; but how did you manage to get in?"
+
+"Don't--don't ask me questions, man.  I--there, for heaven's sake, hold
+your tongue.  Take this.  Get yourself a glass."
+
+"Thankye, sir."
+
+"And don't say you saw me here."
+
+"Oh, dear, no, sir; certainly not."
+
+"It was a bit of a freak, Brime," continued Chris, feeling his cheeks
+burn, as he faltered and stumbled in his words, ready to bite out his
+own tongue at being compelled to lower himself like this to the man, as
+he was sure to go and chatter to the maids about how he had caught Mr
+Chris; and perhaps give Claude the credit of a clandestine meeting.
+
+"Yes, sir; young gents will have their larks sometimes," said the
+gardener drily, and mentally adding to himself, "Shabby beggar!
+Sixpence!  Bound to say if it had been Mr Glider he'd ha' made it
+half-a-crown."
+
+"I trust to your discretion, Brime.  Can you let me out through the side
+gate?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir: of course.  I've got the key in my pocket.  But don't let
+me interrupt you, sir, till you've quite done."
+
+"Done!  What do you mean?" cried Chris in an angry whisper, as he
+fancied he detected a sarcastic ring in the man's voice.
+
+"Oh, nothing, sir.  I thought perhaps you might be going to see
+somebody, and I'm in no hurry to go back home."
+
+"No, no; nonsense.  I am not going to see anybody," said Chris
+hurriedly.  "Go on first; and look here, Brime, once more I must beg of
+you not to speak to any one of this meeting.  It might cause trouble."
+
+"You may trust me, sir," said the man sturdily.
+
+"Thank you.  Of course," said Chris hastily, as the man led the way to a
+door in the thick wall of the garden, which door he opened, and Chris
+passed out.
+
+"Who'd ever think as such games as that was being carried on?" muttered
+the gardener; "and Miss Claude all the while so prim, and looking as if
+butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.  If it had been Miss Mary I shouldn't
+have wondered, for she can be a bit larky.  But he wouldn't come to see
+her, poor little crooked wench.  Now, I wonder what Mr Glider would say
+if he knowed," continued the gardener, as he thoughtfully turned the
+key, and went slowly back towards the house.  "There'd be a row, and
+I'll bet a tanner that he'd come down handsome if I told him; and it
+would serve t'other right--a mean snob.  Sixpence!  Yah!"
+
+He turned the coin over in his hand, and looked at it in the bright
+moonlight before putting it in his pocket.
+
+"Sixpence!" he said, half aloud.  "Why, I'd have given a bob myself if
+it had been me, and--well!  That it is!  Half-a-suffrin!  He's a trump,
+and I wouldn't let out about it for any money.
+
+"Why, of course!" he continued, "I might have known.  So he came to see
+Miss Claude on the sly when the governor was asleep, and couldn't see
+her because there's company.  Well, why not?  He's a good sort, that's
+what he is, and if I can help him without getting into trouble with the
+gaffer, I will, and no mistake.  Half-a-suffrin! why, that may be just
+like a bean as I sticks in the ground.  It may come up and have lots
+more half-suffrins.  I'm glad I come up to-night.  Better than gardening
+ever so much, that it is.  Now, if I knowed exactly when he was coming
+next, I might happen to be here again--by accident, of course."
+
+He stopped for a few minutes, thinking, and then walked slowly up
+towards the back entrance, musing slowly and deeply, as gardeners will
+muse.
+
+"I don't seem to move her yet much, but I'm not going to give up.  Hang
+me if I didn't for a moment think he might have been after her.  But no;
+he couldn't be.  Poor lass! so quiet and serious, and full o' trouble,
+just the sort o' woman a man could trust to bring all his savings to.
+Now, I wonder what it is in a widow as leads a chap on so.  I don't
+know, but she's leading me on, and the day as she's been a widow twelve
+month, sir, I'll speak to her like a man."
+
+Reuben Brime, the biggest fool in Danmouth, according to his mother,
+opened the back door, and went into the house just at the same moment
+that Doctor Asher entered up the front.
+
+Meanwhile, Chris Lisle had walked quickly down the narrow paved stone
+alley leading to the main path, crossed the lower drawbridge, and, with
+his teeth set, felt ready to curse himself for his folly.
+
+"The contemptible, degrading position," he muttered.  "To be under the
+thumb of a servant who will look at me furtively, and whom I shall have
+to bribe into silence for fear of his confounded tongue.  Oh, my
+darling, forgive me.  It was for your sake I came, but I must have been
+half-mad."
+
+He was walking quickly down the roadway leading to the public cliff
+path, so intent upon the events of the night that he was right upon some
+one coming in the other direction before he realised the fact, and they
+met just in a part where the moon shone clearly.
+
+"Ah, Mr Lisle," said the doctor's cheery voice, "nice evening, isn't
+it?"
+
+He passed on, and Chris almost staggered and reeled.
+
+"Good heaven!" he groaned to himself.  "I can't ask him, and now he will
+go and tell them all that he met me coming from the house.  What will
+Claude think.  What will Gartram say?"
+
+He went on, trying to find some excuse for his presence in that private
+roadway, but there was none.  Any one coming along there must have been
+up to the Fort, and he had done a bad night's work in yielding to his
+passionate desire to see Claude, and hear from her lips words of
+encouragement such as would make the situation more bearable--a worse
+night's work than he realised for some time to come.
+
+Chris Lisle went straight back to his lodgings, for the glorious night
+and the glittering sea had no attraction for him now.  His landlady
+looked at him pityingly, and longed to ask him whether he was better,
+but did not dare.
+
+"Poor young man," she said to herself, as she heard him go up to bed
+early; "a good night's rest is better than balm."
+
+She was quite right; but Chris Lisle had neither rest nor balm, but lay
+in his bed all night wakeful, seeing a pale, despicable looking man
+discovered like a thief in the Fort garden after he had waded the moat
+and climbed the wall.
+
+"I shall have to meet Gartram and face him, and listen to his sneers and
+insolent bullying reproaches.  Oh, how could I be such a fool?"
+
+Chris Lisle lay awake all night working up his defence, the more
+strongly that he felt that he now stood more upon an equality with
+Claude's father; but the slip he had made troubled him sorely.
+
+"There's only one way out of the difficulty," he said at last, as the
+sun shone brightly in through his window.  "Go up to him, confess what
+one has done, and boldly and frankly ask him once more to give me a
+chance."
+
+There was something so refreshing in that thought, backed as it was by
+forty thousand pounds, that Chris Lisle turned over and went to sleep.
+
+But it might have been because he was utterly tired out.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter X.
+
+PARRY GLYDDYR IS UNWELL.
+
+Doctor Asher did not go straight up to the Fort and tell every one that
+he had seen Chris Lisle coming down from the house.  In fact, he hardly
+gave the meeting a second thought, for his mind was full of other
+matters.
+
+"Well, young ladies," he said cheerily, "all alone?  I hope I am not too
+late for a cup of the boon.  No?  That's right.  Bless the man who first
+brought tea from China--the deliciously refreshing beverage we drink out
+of china, eh, Miss Dillon?"
+
+"But you always have it in china, Doctor Asher," said Mary quaintly.
+
+"No, no, no, no, no," said the doctor, smiling, as he tapped his cup
+with his spoon.  "I am not going to be inveigled into a chop-logic or
+punning encounter with you, my dear, because I should be beaten.  Come,
+now, if you want an argument, step on to my ground and give a poor man a
+chance.  Now, what is your opinion of the effect of a vegetable alkaloid
+on the digestive function?"
+
+"A very poor one," said Mary quietly.  "Can't argue."
+
+"Ah, well, but you can sing.  Will you?"
+
+"If you wish me to."
+
+"If I wish you, eh," said the doctor.  "You know I do.  But where is Mr
+Glyddyr?  Gone."
+
+"He went to smoke in the study," said Claude quietly.
+
+The doctor turned round sharply.
+
+"To burn vegetable alkaloid for his digestive function," said Mary.
+
+At that moment there was a step in the hall, and Glyddyr came in,
+looking rather sallow.
+
+"Just in time, Mr Glyddyr," said the doctor; "we are going to have a
+song."
+
+"Indeed?" said Glyddyr.  "I am very glad."
+
+"When I marry--that is, if I marry," said the doctor--"What delicious
+tea.  A little too strong.  Miss Gartram, would you kindly--a drop of
+milk--I mean cream.  Thanks.  What was I saying?  Oh!  I remember.  When
+I marry--if I marry--I shall ask a lady who is a clever musician to
+share my lot.  By the way, is Mr Gartram coming?"
+
+"Sound asleep still," said Glyddyr quickly.  "I spoke to him when I
+finished my cigar, but he didn't reply."
+
+"Not well, Mr Glyddyr?" said the doctor, between two sips of his tea.
+
+"Well, really, to be frank," said Glyddyr hastily, "I don't think I am
+quite the thing.  That last cigar was of a peculiar brand, I suppose,
+one I was not accustomed to; and if you will excuse me, Miss Gartram, I
+will say good-night."
+
+"Let me prescribe.  A cup of strong coffee, or a liqueur of brandy.
+Miss Gartram, may I ring?"
+
+"I will go and see that they are brought in," said Mary, leaving the
+piano, where she was arranging a piece of music.
+
+"No, no; I beg you will not," said Glyddyr.  "I'll walk down to the
+harbour in the fresh night air.  My men will be waiting.  I said ten--
+they must be there now.  Better soon."
+
+"Mr Gartram does have some strong cigars," said the doctor quietly.
+"Singular that nicotine from one leaf affects you more than another."
+
+"I am sorry you feel unwell, Mr Glyddyr," said Claude, in the most
+matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"Mere trifle--nothing.  Most absurd in me."
+
+"Pray let me ring for the spirit stand."
+
+"Indeed, no.  Good-night--good-night, Miss Dillon.  I'm going to be
+independent of you, Doctor Asher.  Good-night."
+
+"Smokes too much, I'm afraid," said the doctor, as the door was closed
+on Glyddyr's retreating figure.  "Seems unnerved.  I shall be called
+upon to prescribe for him, only I'm afraid that you would quarrel with
+my medicine, Miss Gartram."
+
+"I?" said Claude quickly.
+
+"I am afraid I have been indiscreet.  Elderly men will presume upon
+their years, my dear Miss Gartram, and think that they have a right to
+banter young ladies.  I was only going to say that my prescription would
+be, go away for a good long sea trip."
+
+"Is not papa sleeping an unusually long time, Mary?" said Claude,
+ignoring the doctor's remark, as she proceeded to refill his cup.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Mary; "I'll go and see."
+
+She left the room, and Claude at once turned to the doctor.
+
+"Do you think papa is acting rightly about the medicine he takes?"
+
+Asher raised his eyebrows, and gave his shoulders a slight shrug.
+
+"It makes me terribly uneasy," said Claude.  "Of course, I know very
+little about these matters, but I have naturally learned how the use of
+narcotics grows upon those who indulge in them; and papa seems to fly
+more and more to that chloral."
+
+The doctor pursed up his lips in the most professional way.
+
+"Really, my dear young lady," he said, "you are, to speak vulgarly,
+putting me in a corner."
+
+"Pray do not trifle with me, doctor.  You cannot think how I suffer."
+
+"I will be perfectly frank with you, my child.  No he is not acting
+rightly, and the use of this drug is doing him harm."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Claude; and then, with eyes flashing and an indignant
+look, "How can you let him go on taking it, then?"
+
+"Because I cannot help myself, my dear madam; and as I have before
+observed, it is better that he should take it under my supervision than
+left to himself, though even now I am helpless.  I prescribe certain
+quantities, but I cannot prevent his taking more."
+
+"But why don't you tell him that it is bad for him?"
+
+"I have done so a score of times."
+
+"And what does he say?"
+
+"That I am a fool, and am to mind my own business."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Claude, with the troubled look in her face increasing.
+
+"He tells me plainly that if I do not choose to go on attending him as
+he wishes, he will call in some one else.  My dear Miss Gartram, your
+father is not a man to drive; he always insists on holding the reins
+himself."
+
+"But, Doctor Asher, cannot anything be done?"
+
+"I am doing all that is possible, my dear.  I am giving him tonic
+medicine with the idea of counteracting any evil produced by the
+sedative dose he takes.  If you can suggest a better line to pursue,
+pray let me hear it."
+
+"No, no," said Claude sadly; "I am very ignorant and helpless.  Does he
+really require this medicine?"
+
+"Yes, and no, my child.  He suffers terribly from insomnia, and nothing
+can be worse for a weary man than to be lying sleepless, night after
+night.  It is a serious complaint."
+
+"Yes," sighed Claude.
+
+"He must have sleep, and to my mind the chloral seems the best thing to
+get it."
+
+"But you said _yes_ and _no_, doctor?"
+
+"I did.  Well, then, no.  Your father does not require this medicine if
+he will only change his course of life."
+
+Claude sighed.
+
+"Do you wish me to speak plainly as your friend?"
+
+"Yes; of course."
+
+"Then here is the case.  All this insomnia is the consequence of an
+over-excited brain.  Your father has certain ideas, and unfortunately
+they grow upon him.  He has struggled hard to be rich.  Now, of course,
+I know very little about his affairs, but everything points to the fact
+that he is a very rich man."
+
+"Yes," sighed Claude; "he is, I think, very rich."
+
+"We will take it to be so.  Well, then, why cannot he be content, and
+not be constantly striving for more?"  Claude sighed again.
+
+"I like money, wealth, power, and the rest of it; and I could go into
+London, say, and work up a prosperous practice; but I am happy here,
+with just enough for my needs; so I say to myself, `why should I stir?'"
+
+"You are right, doctor.  But my father's case--what can we do?"
+
+"I'll tell you.  Let me have your co-operation more.  I want him weaned
+from this hunt for wealth; and the only way to achieve this is for you
+and your cousin to give way to him in everything.  Never thwart him, for
+fear of bringing on one of those terrible fits."
+
+"I will try in every way," replied Claude.
+
+"Any opposition to his will would be seriously hurtful.  Then, as to his
+life, it really rests with you to wean him in every way from his present
+pursuits.  Company, visits, travel, anything to diver his attention from
+the constant struggle for more of the sordid dross."
+
+"But if you told him all this, doctor?  I feel so helpless."
+
+"I have told him again and again, without success, but if we all combine
+more and more to keep up the pressure, we may win at last."
+
+"And in the meantime?"
+
+"In the meantime we can quiet our consciences with the knowledge that we
+are doing what is right."
+
+"Fast asleep, dear," said Mary, entering the room just then; and Claude
+directed an uneasy look at the doctor.
+
+"Papa does not often sleep so long as this," said Claude, after an
+uneasy interval.
+
+"But it seemed a pity to disturb him," replied Mary, and the doctor bent
+his head gravely.  "He seemed to be so comfortable.  Woodham was there
+when I went in.  She had been shutting the window, as it was growing
+chilly."
+
+"Quite right," said the doctor.
+
+"She said she had been in before to remove the coffee cups; and I waited
+some time to see if he would wake, but, as he did not, I came away.
+That's what is the matter with uncle."
+
+The doctor looked round sharply.
+
+"Sleeping in the day time, and in the evenings.  Why doesn't he save it
+all up till night?"
+
+They sat a few minutes longer, and then, unable to keep back the feeling
+of uneasiness which troubled her, Claude rose, excused herself, and left
+the drawing-room to see if her father was awake.
+
+"Still asleep?" said Mary, as she returned.
+
+"Yes," said Claude, looking in a troubled way from one to the other; but
+the doctor seemed to be so very calm that she felt ashamed of the uneasy
+sensation which was troubling her, and, telling herself that she was
+foolishly nervous, she joined in the conversation.  Then Mary sang a
+song, which the doctor insisted upon being repeated.
+
+"I always felt and said that if ever I married it would be a lady with a
+charming voice."
+
+"Well," said Mary sharply, "every one says I have a charming voice."
+
+"You have indeed," said the doctor enthusiastically.
+
+"I need have something charming about me by way of compensation," cried
+Mary, as she made a grimace.  "Perhaps, Doctor Asher, you had better
+propose for me."
+
+"Mary!" exclaimed Claude, flushing up to the roots of her hair.
+
+"I don't mean it, dear," said Mary demurely.  "The tongue is an unruly
+member, you know."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, as he leaned back in his chair, with his eyes
+half closed, "some young ladies do not object to marrying a man thirty
+years their senior.  Why not?"
+
+"Shall I stand up and walk round, so that you may see all my graces and
+action?" said Mary banteringly.
+
+"A young man looks at the outward graces of form and complexion," said
+the doctor gravely; "a man of my age looks for those of the mind.  He
+wants a companion who can talk."
+
+"Oh, I can talk," said Mary merrily; "can't I, Claude?"
+
+"Mary, dear, I must request that you will not speak like this," said
+Claude, very gravely.  "You hurt me; and would you mind going in again
+and seeing if papa is awake."
+
+"Are you going to send me to bed, too, for being a naughty girl?" said
+Mary, rising.
+
+Claude made no reply, but there was a good deal conveyed in her intent
+gaze, which for that moment Mary seemed to resent; but directly after
+her bright eyes beamed upon her cousin, and she passed close behind her
+chair, giving her an affectionate tap on the shoulder as she passed.
+
+As she reached the door she turned, and there was a merry, yet
+half-pathetic look in her eyes as she said quickly--
+
+"No, thank you, Doctor Asher, I am a kind of lay nun."
+
+"Mary says a great deal sometimes that she does not mean," said Claude
+quickly.  "But as papa does not seem to come, you would like a little
+seltzer water and the spirits, would you not?"
+
+"I?  No, no, my dear child, no," said the doctor, taking out his watch.
+"I do take these things sometimes for sociability's sake, but I always
+avoid them if I can, and I have a good opportunity here.  Eleven
+o'clock.  How the time flies.  I must be off."
+
+"Pray don't say no because the spirits are not in the room."
+
+"Believe me, I am so old a friend now, that I should not scruple to ask
+for them if I was so disposed.--Hah!  Yes, that is one of the things
+which teach us that we are growing old."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"I meant your cousin's acuteness; when a man is about fifty, young
+ladies consider him a safe mark for their shafts."
+
+"Don't think that, Doctor Asher.  There is no malice in my dear cousin,
+but her deformity has caused her to be petted and indulged.  She has not
+had a mother's constant care."
+
+"Neither have you, my child."
+
+"No," said Claude quietly; "but believe me, my cousin would be deeply
+grieved if she knew that she had said--Yes.  What's the matter?  Papa?"
+
+Claude had started from her chair, for, after giving a sharp tap at the
+door, Sarah Woodham had entered, looking ghastly, her dark eyes so
+widely open that they showed a white ring about the iris, her lips
+apart, and her hands convulsively twisting and tearing the apron she
+held out before her.
+
+"Master, my dear.  He frightens me."
+
+"Don't be alarmed," said the doctor quickly, as he rose perfectly cool
+and collected, and followed Claude out of the room, while, as the door
+swung to, the woman uttered a hoarse, panting sound, threw herself upon
+her knees, and clasping her hands together, she rocked herself to and
+fro.
+
+"Oh, Isaac! husband!" she moaned, "it is too terrible.  Heaven help me!
+Why did I come here?"
+
+"Mary!  Papa!" cried Claude, as she ran into the study, followed by the
+doctor.
+
+"Hush!  Don't be alarmed," said Mary.  "I only thought that he was not
+breathing quite so naturally as he should, and I sent Woodham to fetch
+you."
+
+Claude flew to her father's side, and caught his hand, looking intently
+in his face and then inquiringly at the doctor, who advanced in a calm,
+professional way, removed the lamp shade, drew the light so that it
+would fall upon the patient's face, proceeded to feel his pulse, and
+then opened his eyelid to gaze attentively in the pupil.
+
+"Quick, tell me!" cried Claude, in an excited whisper; "is it another
+fit?"
+
+"No," said the doctor gravely.  "Be calm and quiet.  I should like him
+to wake up naturally.  There is nothing to mind."
+
+Claude uttered a sigh of relief, and closed her eyes for a few moments.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said then.
+
+"I am not sure yet, but I fear that it is what we said--an overdose."
+
+"Oh, Doctor Asher!"
+
+"Hush, my child; don't be agitated.  There, he will sleep more easily
+now," he continued, as he unfastened the insensible man's collar and
+drew off his tie.
+
+"You are not deceiving me?"
+
+"Deceiving you?" said the doctor reproachfully.
+
+"Can I do anything, ma'am?" said Woodham, softly entering the room.
+
+"No, I think; nothing," said the doctor thoughtfully.  "I am very glad I
+had not gone."
+
+"Then you think--there is danger?"
+
+"Danger?  No, no, my dear child.  There, let him rest.  Miss Dillon,
+will you draw back that lamp and replace the shade?  That's it.  Better
+let him sleep it off quietly."
+
+Woodham quickly raised the lamp and set it down in its old place, while
+Mary carefully put on the shade, with the effect that the room was once
+more gloomy of aspect, save where the bright light was condensed upon
+the table.
+
+As soon as this was done, Claude looked appealingly in the doctor's
+face, her eyes seeming to ask--What next?
+
+The question was so plainly expressed that Asher said, with a smile--
+
+"What next?  Oh, we must let him sleep it off.  I don't suppose that he
+will be very long before he wakes."
+
+Claude's hands seemed to go naturally together, and she passed one over
+the other, while Sarah Woodham stood gazing intently at Gartram, and a
+curious shudder ran through her from time to time.
+
+"But, Doctor Asher," said Claude at last, "I do feel so helpless--so
+lonely.  I--"
+
+"Oh, come, come," cried the doctor encouragingly; "don't look at it so
+seriously.  It is a heavy sleep, and may last for hours.  I'll stop for
+a bit, and then come in quite early in the morning.  Perhaps it would be
+as well for somebody to sit up."
+
+Claude tried to speak, but she could not.  She laid her hand upon the
+doctor's arm, and stood, with her lip quivering, gazing down at her
+father till she could command her voice, and then she whispered
+huskily,--
+
+"Don't go."
+
+She could say no more, but stood looking appealingly in his eyes.
+
+"You mean stay till he wakes?"
+
+She nodded quickly.
+
+"Oh, certainly, if you wish it; but I ought to tell you that I hardly
+think it necessary."
+
+"I do wish it," said Claude.  "Do not you.  Mary?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"By all means."
+
+"I will sit with you.  Mary, too, will keep us company."
+
+"No, no," said the doctor in a whisper, "there is no need for that.  If
+I stay, it is with the understanding that you both go to bed."
+
+Sarah Woodham was standing back in the shadow, but she appeared to be
+listening eagerly to every word.
+
+"But we should make it less dull for you," pleaded Claude.
+
+"I am never dull when I sit up with a sick person," said the doctor
+didactically.  "These are my hours for study of my patient.  No, no; if
+I am to stay it is as the doctor--the master of the situation.  You will
+go to bed."
+
+"But you will want refreshments--somebody within call."
+
+"To be sure, and there will be our old friend Mrs Woodham.  You will
+sit up?"
+
+"Yes, sir, of course," said the woman eagerly.
+
+"That's right.  Now, then, ladies, if you please, we must have utter
+silence till Mr Gartram wakes."
+
+Claude sighed, but she bowed her head, and turned to leave the room with
+Mary; but as she reached the door, she hurried back to where her father
+was seated, and bent over him to kiss his forehead.
+
+"Must I go, doctor?" she whispered.
+
+"Certainly," he said quietly.
+
+"But if he seems worse, you would have me called?"
+
+"Directly."
+
+The two girls left the room, Claude beckoning to Sarah Woodham, who
+followed them out.
+
+"You will make coffee for Doctor Asher."
+
+"Yes, ma'am, of course."
+
+"Go back and ask him when he would like it brought to him; and, Sarah,
+you will come and tell me how papa is.  I shall not undress--only lie
+down."
+
+"You may depend on me, Miss Claude."
+
+"But you--is anything the matter?  You look so ill."
+
+"I was a bit startled at master's way of breathing, my dear.  I thought
+he was going to be much worse."
+
+Claude went back into the drawing-room with Mary Dillon, neither of them
+noticing how wild and excited the servant grew, and a few minutes after
+they went slowly upstairs to Claude's room.
+
+Sarah Woodham softly retraced her steps to the study, tapped gently, and
+the door was opened by the doctor, who stood in the opening, book in
+hand.
+
+"When will I have coffee?  Oh, about four o'clock.  I have only just had
+tea.  Go and lie down somewhere within call--where I can find you."
+
+"I am not sleepy, sir."
+
+"No; but you may be by-and-by.  Go and lie down on the sofa in the
+dining-room, I can easily find you there.  Why, my good woman, you look
+ghastly."
+
+Sarah Woodham shrank away.
+
+"Don't disturb me till I ring.  No: I'll come for you.  Sleep is the
+best thing for him."
+
+"Sleep is the best thing for him," said Sarah Woodham in a hoarse
+whisper, as she went slowly back into the hall, and then into the
+servants' quarters, from whence, after a few minutes, she returned to go
+about in a silent way like a dark shadow, closing and fastening doors,
+before listening for awhile on the study mat, and then going into the
+dining-room, where she seated herself on one of the chairs, resting her
+chin upon her hands, and gazing straight before her in the darkness.
+Then for a time all was still, save a low sigh, almost like a moan,
+which came from the suffering woman's breast, followed by a shiver and a
+start, for it was as if the hand of the dead had just been laid upon her
+shoulder.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XI.
+
+THE NIGHT ALARM.
+
+"Asleep!"
+
+"You, sir?  I--I suppose I must have been," faltered Sarah.
+
+"Well, why not?  I just came to see if you were within reach, in case I
+wanted you."
+
+"Master, sir?"
+
+"Just the same."
+
+The doctor went out just as silently as he had entered, and Sarah heard
+the study door softly close, when once more she uttered the same low,
+moaning sigh, and rocked herself to and fro in her chair as she seemed
+to see the hard, thin face of her husband gazing straight at her, as she
+had seen it when he was dying in their cottage, and laying upon her the
+terrible duty she was to fulfil.
+
+How long she sat like that she could not tell, but hours must have
+passed unnoted--hours during which, with eyes unvisited by sleep, she
+had gone on and on through her old life, and the scenes, when her
+husband had returned from his work, bitterly reviling Gartram for some
+real or fancied wrong, and then a light seemed to flash into the room
+like the light she had been expecting, and the doctor stood before her
+with a curious, intense look in his countenance, one she recalled
+vividly as having been there on the day her husband died.
+
+Meanwhile Claude and Mary had sat talking for some time about the
+strange ending of the evening.  Claude, in spite of her anxiety on her
+father's behalf, feeling half pleased, half frightened by Glyddyr's
+acts.
+
+He appeared so strange, she thought, so shrinking in her presence, and
+so fearful of intruding upon her, even to be ready to go away.
+
+Was this the man's real love for her?  Did he really care for her? and
+was she misjudging him in thinking that his desire was for her future
+prospects alone--her money?
+
+She shuddered with dread lest he really should love her, and then her
+heart sank lower and lower, for the stern, upbraiding look of Chris
+Lisle was before her.  The face of the boy companion, for whom she had
+always felt a warm affection, one which she knew in her heart, though
+she had not confessed it, had ripened into woman's love for man.
+
+"Are we going to sit up, or try to sleep, Claude?" said Mary at last.
+
+"I am going to sit up, Mary.  You are going to lie down and sleep."
+
+"Doctor Asher said that we were both to lie down and rest."
+
+"Yes; and you will do so.  I could not sleep if I did.  It is
+impossible."
+
+"But uncle is not seriously ill now, dear."
+
+"How do we know, Mary?  He is not as he should be.  I know--I feel that
+he is in an unnatural state."
+
+Mary slowly rose, walked across the room to the washstand, and stood
+there for some minutes before turning to her cousin.
+
+"There," she said; "now I feel as you do--that it would be impossible to
+sleep.  Let's have a quiet talk about uncle, and see if we cannot devise
+some means for making him think less about the quarry and money.  Oh,
+Claudie, what a happy world this would be if there were no money and no
+love."
+
+Claude made no reply but sat gazing out through the window at the sea,
+where the moon, now high in the heavens, sent a path of silvery light
+along the dark waters, while, from far below, the waves washed and
+whispered among the rocks with a musical, plashing sound that rose in a
+drowsy murmur to the window against which she sat.
+
+"Claude, dear, shall I shut the window now?  Isn't it too cool on a
+night like this?"
+
+Claude turned to her, and looked rather vacantly in her face.
+
+"The tide is going out fast, Mary," she said, in a low, dreamy whisper.
+"Don't you ever feel that there may be some truth in what they say, that
+people who are near the end pass away from us with the falling tide?"
+
+"Claudie, dear, are you going to be ill?"
+
+"I hope not."
+
+"And so do I; but do you know you are talking a lot of dreamy nonsense,
+such as is most distressing at a time like this.  We haven't got anybody
+near the end.  Oh, what nonsense!  It's all old-fashioned silliness."
+
+Claude shook her head.
+
+"No," she said, "there is something in it all, Mary, and to-night it is
+as if some great trouble were coming upon us."
+
+"Are you going to set up for a prophetess, dear?"
+
+"Shall we go down and see how my father is, Mary?"
+
+"And insult Dr Asher by setting his commands at defiance.  No; I am
+going to sit here patiently till morning, unless he sends word to us
+that uncle has woke up, and that he has gone to bed like a Christian.
+Claude, dear, your father must be a very unhappy man."
+
+"Then it is our duty to try and make him happy."
+
+"By doing everything he wishes us to do?"
+
+Claude felt the hot blood flush into her cheeks again and she made no
+reply.  She only turned to look out at the broad path of light
+stretching far away over the sea, and, as the water murmured about the
+rocks, it was as if some solemn spell of silence had fallen upon them,
+influencing Mary so that she ceased speaking, leaving the bantering
+remarks ready, unsaid.  Claude put her arm around her cousin, and laid
+her head upon her shoulder, thinking of the words that had been spoken,
+and of why they were sitting up, till her heart almost sank, and the sea
+began to be to her full of strange whisperings and portents of some
+trouble to come.
+
+And so hour after hour glided by, till they were chilled by the cold
+night air, but neither moved till they were electrified by a quick,
+light tapping on the door, which was opened before they could reach it,
+and from out of the darkness came a husky voice which sounded familiar.
+
+"Come down, Miss Claude, at once."
+
+"Ah!  Woodham?  How is he?"
+
+"Don't ask me, my dear, but make haste down.  You may be wanted.  Doctor
+Asher wishes me to go and fetch Doctor Rixton."
+
+"But why?  What for?"
+
+"Miss Claude, dear, don't ask me," said the woman, in suffocating tones,
+as she turned slowly away.
+
+Claude hurriedly followed her down toward the study door, where she
+stood trembling for a few moments, feeling that there had then been a
+meaning in the portent which had troubled her that night.  Then, turning
+the handle, she went into the room.
+
+"Well, back so soon?" said the doctor, whose face was from her.  "Is he
+coming?"
+
+"Doctor Asher."
+
+"You, Miss Gartram!" he said, in a hoarse whisper, as he turned sharply
+round.  "What is it?  Why have you come?"
+
+"Woodham called me.  What is the matter?  Is he worse?"
+
+"Hush!" said the doctor, in a hurried way, as he took her hand.  "Don't
+be agitated.  We must hope for the best, and--"
+
+"Then he is worse," cried Claude, breaking from him and running to her
+father's side, but only to shrink back.
+
+For the light had been shifted so that it should fall upon Gartram's
+fixed, stern face, in which she read so terrible a reality that it was
+as if a hand of ice had clutched her heart, paralysing thought and
+action, so that she stood there with staring eyes and parted lips,
+feeling that she was in the presence of death.
+
+Then the reaction came, and, uttering a gasp, her womanly, helpful
+nature came to the front.
+
+"I am not a child," she said in a quick, passionate voice.  "Tell me;
+how is this?  When was he taken worse?  Doctor Asher, why don't you
+speak to me?  Tell me what I can do to help."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I am doing everything possible, and have sent Mrs Woodham for Doctor
+Rixton to share the responsibility."
+
+Claude caught him in turn by the wrist, drew him right to the far side
+of the room, by the panel of the bookshelves which formed the masked
+door, and in a whisper, as if she were afraid that her father should
+hear, she said--
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+"No, no--no, no, my dear Miss Gartram.  It is only what I have always
+feared, but he would not be advised.  Look, my child, look!"
+
+He went quickly to Gartram's side, and drew something from his
+breast-pocket and held it before Claude in the light.
+
+"Yes, I know," she said, "the medicine bottle--the sedative draught."
+
+"Yes," said Asher, quietly.  "You saw that he had it in his breast."
+
+"It is generally in that cabinet.  He keeps it there."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "but I found it in his breast-pocket as I was
+trying to place him in an easier position.  What can a medical man do
+when his patient acts in direct opposition to his wishes?"
+
+"I don't understand you--that is the medicine you prescribed for him."
+
+"Yes, my child," said the doctor, in quick, angry tones; "but if I order
+a patient to take a tablespoonful of brandy, I don't mean him to take a
+bottle."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Claude, the word coming from her breast like a moan.
+
+"You see he had this to take, but he has been in the habit of carrying
+it in his pocket, to apply to as a drunkard does to a flask.  I
+suspected to-night that he had taken a stronger dose than usual, or at
+more frequent intervals, and thought that the effect, as he was so
+inured to it, would pass off, but--"
+
+"It will, doctor--oh, say it will," whispered Claude.  "Why don't you
+give him something?  Would wine or spirits be of any good?  Ah, here is
+Doctor Rixton."
+
+She ran to open the door as steps were heard in the hall, but it was
+Sarah Woodham who entered, holding her hand to her side, haggard and
+breathless, as she staggered into the room, only just able to pant
+forth, "Coming directly," before she reeled and would have fallen, had
+not Claude supported her, and let her sink into a chair.
+
+"Hold up, woman!" whispered the doctor, savagely; "you must not give
+way."
+
+"I--ran--there--and--back--Miss Claude," whispered the woman, and then
+to herself, as she lay back with her eyes closed, "It is too horrible,
+too horrible!"
+
+The doctor went to the table and poured out some brandy, as Claude crept
+with a glass of wine to her father's side, knelt by him, and, taking his
+hand, laid her other across her breast.
+
+A chill crept through her, and a hysterical sob struggled to her lips,
+as she felt that the hand she held was growing clammy.  But making an
+effort, she told herself that, in cases of sudden illness, the
+extremities did grow cold, and that this was not a matter for alarm.
+There was the doctor's assurance, too.
+
+Just then she turned her head and saw Sarah Woodham thrusting back the
+glass the doctor had held to her lips.
+
+"No, no," she said with a shudder; and the doctor turned away
+impatiently and set the glass upon the table.
+
+"Miserable teetotal whims," he muttered; and he went back to Gartram's
+side, ignoring Claude's presence and inquiring looks as he bent over his
+patient for a moment, and then hurriedly crossed to the door, flung it
+open, and went out into the hall, and then to the front door, which he
+threw open, and stood out in the air wiping the perspiration from his
+brow.
+
+"He ought to be here by now," he muttered, "he ought to be here by now."
+
+"Sarah!  Sarah!"
+
+The wretched woman opened her eyes with a start, and gazed in a
+frightened way at her mistress, who was standing over her, and had
+shaken her shoulder.
+
+"Tell me--you were here?"
+
+"No, my dear.  He sent me to lie down in the dining-room to wait till he
+called me, but I did not go to sleep.  I was sitting there--in the
+dark--thinking, when he came to me and said, `I want more help.  Your
+master is worse.'"
+
+"Oh, Sarah, Sarah!" moaned Claude, clinging to her; "tell me it is not
+so bad as I think.  He will not die?"
+
+The woman shuddered as she rose to her feet, and, in a curiously furtive
+weird way, she crossed to where Gartram lay back in his chair.  Pausing
+once and shrinking away, but evidently overcome by the attraction, she
+once more advanced, battling the while with that which mastered her, and
+which drew her unwillingly on, till she stood close to the great
+easy-chair, and bent down over the form thereon.
+
+Then, drawing herself up to her full height, she stood there erect,
+gazing straight before her into space, and muttering strangely to
+herself.
+
+Claude gazed at her in alarm.
+
+"Sarah," she whispered, "Sarah! why don't you speak?  Sarah!"
+
+There was no reply, and at last Claude laid her hand upon the woman's
+arm, with the result that she turned slowly, muttering to herself the
+while, in a curiously absent manner, as if all the while unconscious of
+her mistress's presence.
+
+"Sarah," whispered Claude again, as she gazed in affright at the woman's
+strange, drawn face, "speak to me!  I want comfort--tell me--he is not
+dead?"
+
+"And I tried so hard," said the woman, hoarsely.  "I tried to do that
+which was right and just.--With all his sins upon his head, unrepentant,
+harsh and cruel to the last."
+
+"Sarah!"
+
+"Hush, my child, hush!" said the woman in a low voice, full of deep
+passionate emotion.  "I never had a child to love--to call me mother.
+Oh, my poor dear, helpless, motherless, fatherless girl; and I tried so
+hard--I tried so hard."
+
+"Sarah," cried Claude, struggling from the woman's encircling arm, "you
+don't think--"
+
+"This way, please--quick, sir, quick."
+
+The door was thrown open, and Doctor Asher entered, followed by a tall
+grave-looking man, who bowed to Claude, and laid his hat upon the table,
+looking then inquiringly at Asher.
+
+"Yes; of course," said the doctor.  "My dear Miss Gartram, you will go
+now."
+
+"But, doctor--"
+
+"No appeal, please; we must consult over the case and be alone.  Trust
+me; we will do our best.  There, you will come back soon."
+
+Claude reluctantly allowed herself to be led out of the room, and then,
+as she stood in the great sombre-looking hall; she in turn staggered and
+would have fallen, but for Sarah Woodham's arm, and she suffered herself
+to be led into the drawing-room, where, with the awful truth beginning
+to grow and grow till it overshadowed her like a cloud she was about to
+fling herself sobbing in a chair, when a low sigh caught her ear.
+
+Looking up, it was to see Mary Dillon coming slowly into the room, her
+eyes closed, and feeling her way along by the door, and then supporting
+herself by the various pieces of furniture she passed.
+
+"Mary!" cried Claude.
+
+"Yes; I have been there--in there all the time.  You did not see me, but
+I heard everything.  Oh, Claude, is it all true?"
+
+She did not wait for a response, but sank down, covering her face with
+her hands, and completely prostrated by her grief.
+
+"No, no," whispered Claude, going to her, kneeling by her side, and,
+hungering for love and sympathy, drawing the weeping girl to her breast.
+"Doctor Asher said that it was not so, Mary darling," she whispered;
+"help me to pray.  He must not--he cannot die."
+
+Sarah Woodham stood near them hearing every word, and a shiver swiftly
+ran through her as she listened to the allusions to death, and again and
+again, with her face working, she stretched out her hands as if to try
+and comfort the two weeping girls, but only to shake her head sadly, and
+draw back from where they were now clasped in each other's arms.
+
+And the time went on.
+
+Every few moments Claude rose to go to the door, and after opening it,
+stood listening intently, but the most she could hear was the low
+muffled sound of voices, and each time she returned to her cousin's side
+with a despairing sigh.
+
+"We seem so helpless," she exclaimed.  "Surely I might go back now."
+But she made no attempt to disobey the doctor's commands, and waited and
+waited till the low sobbing gave place to silent despair; and with eyes
+fixed upon the door, all sat waiting for the tidings that they dared not
+hope now would be good.
+
+A step at last in the hall, and Claude flew to the drawing-room door,
+and flung it open, but only to shrink away, as she saw that it was not
+Asher, but the strange doctor--a new comer to the place--and one whom
+they had hardly spoken to before.
+
+He came slowly across the hall, and bowed his head gravely as he
+entered, looking from one to the other, as if waiting to be
+interrogated, but no one spoke; and as the door swung to, the light of
+another day came stealing though the windows, and between the half-drawn
+blinds in a curious ghastly way, making everything look unreal, and the
+candles lit upon the table burn with a sickly glare.
+
+Claude made an effort to speak twice, but the words failed upon her
+lips.  She felt that she must rush by this strange, solemn-looking man,
+and seek the information she wanted in her father's room, but her limbs
+refused to act, and she stood holding on by the back of a chair, while
+the new doctor now fixed his eyes on Sarah Woodham, who stood there
+wild-looking and motionless, her eyes appearing to burn.
+
+"I grieve to say," said the new doctor at last, and then he turned, for
+the woman's eyes glared at him so fiercely that he ceased, paralysed.
+
+"Well," she said harshly, "Why do you not speak?"
+
+"Doctor Asher has given me a history of the case," he said, with an
+effort.  "It is a most regretful incident.  No one to blame.  Perhaps
+Doctor Asher might have--but no--I should probably, under the
+circumstances, have been guilty of the same error."
+
+He paused in his low, faltering delivery, for Sarah Woodham had taken a
+step toward him, bending forward, and fascinating him with her wild,
+dark eyes.
+
+Then, after a painful interval, as a low, querulous wail arose from
+outside, followed by what sounded like a fiendish chorus of chattering
+laughter from the rocks below, where a flock of gulls were quarrelling
+over some refuse cast up by the sea, the doctor continued--
+
+"We have done everything possible under the circumstances, but the case
+was beyond our power.  Ladies, this is a most painful communication for
+me to have to make.  Doctor Asher--completely prostrated by grief.  His
+most prominent patient, and--"
+
+Claude stretched out one hand blindly fur that of her cousin, and took a
+step toward the door, but, as they reached it, Mary uttered a low cry
+and shrank back, withdrawing her hand.
+
+Claude did not notice the action, but went slowly out of the room, as
+one goes deliberately on when walking in sleep.
+
+They followed her to the door and saw her cross the hall, into which the
+soft glow of morning was now stealing fast, and there was something
+weird and strange about her movements as she went on and slowly opened
+the study door, to pass from their sight, as it were, from day into
+night.
+
+One moment, the morning light bathed her light dress and gave her a look
+that was mistily transparent; the next, as she passed through the
+doorway into the shuttered and curtained room, the glow from the lamp
+within made her black and strange.
+
+Then the door swung to behind her as she walked silently over the thick
+carpet.
+
+"Miss Gartram!  You have come?"
+
+Claude made no reply, but walked straight to the couch upon which her
+father had been laid, and there she stood mentally stunned and unable to
+realise the fact.
+
+His face looked stern and hard, but no more stern and hard than she had
+often seen it when she had stolen into the room where he had been lying
+asleep--as he appeared to be lying now--after some tiresome, wakeful
+night.  Everything was the same, even to the faint odour of drugs and
+spirits which pervaded the place.
+
+For one instant a flash of hope illumined her dark heart, but it was
+only for a moment.  No: he would wake no more.  The end had come; and as
+the truth forced itself deep down into her heart, she sank slowly upon
+her knees, placed her hands gently round the stalwart figure, and laying
+her cheek against the stony face, she whispered softly--
+
+"Father, father!  I loved you very dearly.  Left--left alone!"
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XII.
+
+HER OWN MISTRESS.
+
+Chris Lisle sat at the table, over his breakfast, but nothing was good.
+
+He had all that money lying at his bank, and after trying all kinds of
+subterfuges to satisfy his conscience that he had as good a right to it
+as anybody--that if he had not won it some one else would--that people
+who gambled deserved no sympathy--that all was fair in money wars, as he
+dubbed gaming--and that he would do more good with the money than any
+one else--and the like, his conscience refused to be bamboozled and told
+him constantly that he had won that money by a clever piece of
+dishonourable sharping, and that he ought to be ashamed of himself.
+
+And he was.
+
+That was one non-appetiser; the other was his interview with the
+gardener the previous night, and over this, after waking with it ready
+to confront him, he had been metaphorically gnashing his teeth.
+
+"How I could have made myself such an ass!  How I could have been such
+an idiot as to run such risks!  It is like dragging her down to be the
+common talk and gossip of the place.  Why, I shall always be that
+scoundrel's slave.  What an idiot he must have thought me!"
+
+No wonder the coffee tasted bitter, and that the bacon was too salt,
+while he thrust the butter away as rancid, and the bread as being dry.
+
+"If it were not for one thing I'd--Well, Mrs Sarson?"
+
+The landlady had run in hastily, looking pale and excited, and then
+stood speechless before him.
+
+"Is anything the matter?" exclaimed Chris, the blood rising to his
+cheeks, as with boyish dread he seemed to read in his landlady's eyes
+the fact that she knew of the past night's escapade.
+
+"Matter, indeed, sir!  Then you have not heard?"
+
+"Heard what?"
+
+"Mr Gartram, sir--dead!"
+
+"What!"
+
+Chris Lisle sprang from his chair and stood feeling as if the room was
+swimming round him, while the landlady went on hurriedly.
+
+"I've just this minute heard, sir.  There was a dinner party; Doctor
+Asher and that Mr Glyddyr, who has the yacht, were there; and they say
+he was taken bad about eleven.  Doctor Asher stopped, and, in the middle
+of the night, the new doctor was fetched, too."
+
+"Oh, it can't be true," cried Chris, and dashing out of the room he
+seized his hat and hurried along the street, but had not gone far before
+he was conscious of the fact that groups of people were standing about
+talking.
+
+Further on he saw that shutters were closed; and as he reached the
+harbour there, lying off some distance was Glyddyr's yacht, with a flag
+up, half-mast high, while, as soon as he came in sight of the Fort--
+Gartram's pride--in place of the bright glistening windows, every
+opening had a dull dead look, and appeared to be staring at him blankly.
+There was no doubt now--every blind was drawn down.
+
+Chris uttered a groan.
+
+"My poor darling, it will break her heart!  Poor old fellow!  Cut off
+like that."
+
+Resentment, bitterness, died out in this great sorrow; and Chris could
+only see now the fine-looking, masterful, elderly man, who had always
+been his friend, till ambition had led him astray, and he had discarded
+the suitor who had grown up to love his child.
+
+It seems too horrible!  One of these terrible fits.
+
+He was on his way up to ask to see Claude, and try to administer some
+consolation, but he paused.  It would be an outrage to go now.  It would
+be indecent to force his way there in disobedience to the wishes of the
+man who was lying blank and cold--blank and cold as the edifice he had
+so proudly reared with the money he had fought for so long.
+
+"No," thought Chris.  "I must go back and write."
+
+In the manly frankness of his disposition, up to that moment, no thought
+of obstacle removed, or the future that lay before him, had come across
+his brain, till just then he caught sight of the gardener coming quickly
+along the town street, when, like a flash, came back to him the scene of
+the past night, and his discovery.  Then, with the incongruity of human
+nature, there came a feeling of satisfaction in the thought that Gartram
+could never now sting him with contemptuous allusions to his wretched
+escapade, and that now he need not fear this man.
+
+Momentary thoughts, which he chased away with a feeling of indignation
+against himself as he stopped the gardener.
+
+"Is it--true?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  It's true enough.  He was a hard master, one as come down
+upon you awful if he see a weed; but I'd give that there right hand to
+have him alive and well before me now."
+
+Chris bowed his head and walked slowly back, to start aside and gaze
+fiercely in the eyes of the man whom he encountered a few yards farther
+on, for, as he was approaching the post-office, Glyddyr came out
+suddenly with a telegraph form in his hand.
+
+The two young men paused as if arrested by some power over which they
+had no control, and as they stood gazing at each other, Chris, waiting
+for Glyddyr to speak, a crowd of thoughts flashed through his brain.
+
+Claude--alone--her own mistress, what of your triumph now!
+
+Very different were Glyddyr's thoughts.  Claude was somehow mixed up
+with them, but he read in his rival's eye distrust, suspicion, and a
+hidden knowledge of his latest acts; and they passed on rapidly through
+his mind, till he saw Chris Lisle denouncing him as a murderer and about
+to seize him then.
+
+Neither spoke, and after the long, intense gaze of eye into eye had
+lasted some moments, each went his way, one back to his yacht to try and
+make up his mind whether he ought to call at once, the other home to sit
+down and write to Claude, and tell her that he was always hers, and that
+in this, her terrible hour of affliction, he was longing to try and
+share her pain.
+
+"And if I said that," thought Chris, as he slowly tore up the letter,
+"she would think it an insult, and that I am triumphing over the dead."
+
+So Chris's letter, full of the tender love he felt, never reached
+Claude's hand.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XIII.
+
+GLYDDYR COMMUNES WITH SELF.
+
+Glyddyr gave the orders to unmoor and make sail, after a great deal of
+hesitation, and then countermanded those orders, and went down into his
+cabin.  There he made the man who acted as steward and valet open for
+him a pint of champagne, which he tossed off as if suffering from a
+burning thirst.
+
+That seemed to do him good.  His hand ceased to shake, and the peculiar
+sensation of sinking passed off for the time as he sat by the cabin
+window, lit a cigar, and let it out again while he watched the Fort,
+with its drawn-down blinds, and thought over the last night's
+proceedings.
+
+"It was an accident," he said to himself, "a terrible mistake, and all
+in vain.  Good heavens! who could have thought that a little drop of
+clear white-looking stuff could have done that; and him so used to
+taking it."
+
+He shrank away from the window, dashed away his cigar and sat down there
+in the cabin, with his face buried in his hands.
+
+"I ought to have summoned help when I saw how strange and cold he
+turned.  It would have saved him, poor old fellow!  I wouldn't for all
+the world that it should have happened, it seems impossible, and I can't
+even believe it yet."
+
+With a start of childish disbelief, he straightened himself and looked
+out of the cabin window, as if he had half-expected to see the blinds
+drawn up, and the Fort looking as usual.
+
+But there was no change, and, with a groan of agony, he turned away and
+stamped his foot with impatient rage.
+
+"Just like my cursed luck," he cried.  "Any one but me would have made a
+pot of money over Simoom.  I could have made enough to free me from this
+wretched bondage, but now it's just as if something always stood between
+me and success, and baulked all my plans."
+
+He let his head sink upon his hands, and sat thinking again, but only to
+raise himself in an angry fashion and ring the bell.
+
+"You ring, sir?" said the steward at the end of a minute.
+
+"Of course, I rang," said Glyddyr with petulant rage.  "You heard me
+ring, and knew I rang, or you wouldn't have come.  Well, where is it?"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir?"
+
+"I say, where is it?"
+
+"Where is what, sir?"
+
+"The pint of champagne I told you to bring."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir, I did bring it and you drank it."
+
+"What?" roared Glyddyr.  "Yes, of course, so I did.  I had forgotten.
+Bring me another."
+
+"Guv'nor on the house?" said one of the sailors.
+
+"Hold your row.  Upset over that affair up at the toyshop," said the
+steward in a whisper, and he took in the fresh pint of wine.
+
+"Set it down."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The steward beat a retreat, and Glyddyr tossed off another glass, poured
+out the remainder, and sat gazing at it vacantly for a few minutes
+before taking it up, his hand once more trembling violently.
+
+"If I weren't such a cursed coward," he said, "I could get on.  He must
+have had a lot before, and that's what did it.  By George, it gives me
+the horrors!"
+
+He tossed off the wine.
+
+"No," he muttered as he set down the glass; "it wasn't what I gave him.
+It wasn't enough, and to think now that there was all that lying ready
+to my hand, without my having the pluck to take what I wanted.  I must
+have been a fool.  I must have been mad."
+
+"Curse these bottles!" he cried, after a pause.  "Pint?  They don't hold
+half--a wretched swindle.  I believe there are thousands lying there;
+and I might have borrowed what I wanted, and all would have been well;
+but I was such a fool."
+
+"No, I wasn't," he cried, as if apostrophising someone.  "How could I
+get it with that woman coming in and out, and the feeling on me that one
+of the girls might open the door at any moment.  They'd have thought I
+meant to steal the cursed stuff.  Then, too, it seemed as if he might
+wake up at any moment.  Bah!  How upset I do feel.  That stuff's no
+better than water."
+
+He rose angrily, and opened a locker, from which he took out a brandy
+decanter, and placed it on the table.  "Let's have a nip of you.  I seem
+to want something to steady my nerves."
+
+He poured out a goodly dram and tossed it off.
+
+"Ah, that's better!  One can taste you.  Seems to take off this horrible
+feeling of sinking.--Poor old fellow!  Seemed as if he would wake up.
+Never wake up again."
+
+He started up and looked sharply round, trembling violently; and then
+wiped his forehead with his hand.
+
+"This will not do!" he muttered.  "I mustn't show the white feather.
+I've got nothing to fear.  Nothing at all.  Why should I have?  It was
+an accident; I didn't mean it.  No: wouldn't hurt a hair of the old
+man's head--no, not a hair.  Yes: it was an accident."
+
+He drew up his head and picked up the cigar he had thrown down, re-lit
+it, and after a puff or two, threw it down once more.
+
+"Wretched trash!" he muttered, taking out his case and fiercely biting
+the end off another.  One of Gellow's best.  "Ah," he cried, as he
+brought down his fist upon the table heavily.  "Only let me once get
+clear of that man!  And I might have done it so easily," he continued,
+as he lit the cigar, "so very easily, and been free of that cursed
+incubus for a time."
+
+He let his cigar go out again, and his head sank upon his hands as he
+stared in a maundering way at the cabin door.
+
+"But it's always my luck--always my luck; and I'm the most miserable
+wretch that ever crawled."
+
+There was no one present to endorse his words, as the maudlin tears rose
+to his eyes and dripped slowly down between his feet, nature seeming to
+distil the wine and spirits he had been imbibing all the morning ever
+since he had left the cot in which he had lain tossing in a fever of
+fear all through the night.
+
+But after a time champagne and brandy had their effect, and the abject
+shivering man of half-an-hour before seemed to have grown defiant as to
+the future.
+
+He was in the act of snapping his fingers with a half-tipsy laugh, when
+a boat bumped up against the side, and he heard a trampling on the deck,
+and the buzz of voices.
+
+"What's that?" he panted, completely sobered now, and trembling
+violently, as he suddenly turned to one of the most abject-looking and
+white-faced creatures it is possible to imagine.  "What's that?" he
+panted, with his voice trembling; and he took up the brandy to help
+himself again.  "Bah! some boat has struck us.  That's all."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said a voice; and the steward stood in the doorway.
+
+"Yes; what is it?"
+
+"Boat from the shore, sir, with a policeman in the stern and another
+man."
+
+"Policeman?  Other man?" faltered Glyddyr in a low, faint voice; "what
+do they want?"
+
+"You, sir," said the man; and then, "Oh, here they are."
+
+Glyddyr sat back, staring at the men wildly.
+
+"Well," said the steward to himself; "I have seen the guv'nor a bit on,
+but this beats all.  I say, you might have waited till you were asked to
+come down."
+
+This to a policeman who was stooping down to enter the cabin, while
+Glyddyr clutched the table, and held on, for the sickening sensation in
+his head threatened a complete collapse.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XIV.
+
+WIMBLE FINDS A CURIOSITY.
+
+Any one who could have watched Michael Wimble shaving himself at early
+morn would have wondered whether the man were really sane, for, as he
+performed the operation upon himself, he worked as if it was for
+practice--to keep his hand in, just as acrobats and instrumentalists go
+through their tasks constantly, so as to keep a tight hold upon that
+which has taken them so much time and labour to acquire.
+
+Being a barber, he considered that those who shaved should shave well,
+and that the wearing of moustache, or the very smallest morsel of
+whisker was but a wreak pandering to the savages who had introduced or
+followed the moustache movement in the time of the Crimean war.
+
+"It's filthy, that's what it is, filthy," Wimble used to say; "and how a
+man can go about with his face like the back of a wild beast, beats me."
+
+Consequently, soon after springing from his solitary bed, the owner of
+the Museum used to set light to a spirit lamp to boil a small shaving
+pot of water, and then, as there were signs of ebullitions at the side,
+the brush was dipped in, and the performance commenced with a tremendous
+lathering.
+
+There were no half-measures.  Wimble passed the brush deftly all over
+his quaintly wrinkled face, till masses of lather hung on to his ears,
+and covered his cheeks, so that only his eyes were seen.  Then, as he
+glared at himself in a shaving glass, he set to and scraped and scraped
+his countenance all over, applied the brush again and again in obstinate
+places, and finished off by grinning hideously in the little mirror, as
+he stood, with the razor passing over the skin in a way that would have
+suggested horrors about to be perpetrated by a maniac, weary of his
+life, to any one who could have seen the process.
+
+Clever as he was, too, in the manipulation, there were at times,
+however, suggestions that a looker-on might have been right in his
+ideas.  As, for instance, upon the morning in question, when a slip or a
+pimple--it is needless to say which--necessitated the use of sponge and
+sticking-plaster.
+
+Then the task was done, and Michael Wimble finished dressing, talking to
+himself rapidly the while, sundry words which were spoken more loudly
+than others, giving the key to the subject of the man's thoughts--the
+old, old theme, love.  Other words told too of disappointment and
+jealousy, and all this tended to make Mr Wimble go the wrong way when
+he started for his regular morning walk along the shore.
+
+His way was always west, but he went east, so as to pass Chris Lisle's
+lodgings; and as he did so, staring hard at the drawn-down blinds, and
+the chimney pot innocent as yet of smoke, he gnashed his teeth softly,
+for there were two new flowers in Chris's bedroom window--a fuchsia and
+a geranium, in pots of dazzling red, and the mignonette box, full of
+nasturtiums, which flowed over and hung down, had been newly painted a
+delicate green.
+
+Fresh attentions to the lodger.  The previous week clean muslin curtains
+had been put up, and the week before there was a new cover over the
+little table in the window upon which lay the big History of England
+which Mrs Sarson had taken in, or been taken in with, in shilling
+numbers, by a book canvasser, and had bound afterwards for one pound
+fifteen and sixpence, gilt lettered, and blind tooled, the canvasser had
+said.
+
+That table cover, when Wimble saw it through the half-open window, was
+composed of crochet work and green satin, and must have been the widow's
+handiwork, and a delicate compliment to her lodger.
+
+That was bad enough, but the two new flower pots in the bedroom window
+were beyond all bearing.
+
+"But wait a bit," said Wimble to himself.  "I can wait;" and he went on,
+turned up the glen path, struck off to the left, where he reached the
+bridge, and, by passing along by the backs of the cottages, he made his
+way to the alley by the public-house at the harbour head, and from there
+round by the boats and down to the sea shore.
+
+Mr Wimble thought of the widow, and walked fast, gathering shells and
+scraps of weeds washed up by the tide, and paused from time to time to
+examine fragments of driftwood and pieces of rotten rope.
+
+Everything was thrown away though, for he had plenty of duplicates at
+home, and only exceptional finds were now worthy of a place in the
+museum.
+
+So limpets, and turritellas, and pectens were passed as unworthy of
+notice.  A pelican's foot shell was transferred to his pocket, but
+nothing more; and growing quite low-spirited at last, for three
+reasons--his ill-luck, love, and the want of his breakfast--he turned at
+last, made for the cliffs, and came along close under the land, in and
+out among the rocks where the soft sand lay thick and smooth, past the
+hollows where the old boots and shoes were washed up in company with the
+other _disjecta membra_ with which shore-dwellers insult the ocean, in
+the belief that the tide will play the part of scavenger and sweep
+everything away, a task that the sea mostly scorns.
+
+And so it was that in sundry corners beneath the mighty granite rocks,
+piled high like titanic walls, Michael Wimble thought of the widow, and
+made his way among old baskets, fish-heads, scraps of worn-out netting
+and tangles of rusty steel, half-covered with rotten fabric suggesting
+female attire.
+
+No objects these for his museum, for, though old, they were not old
+enough.  Had a few centuries passed since they were cast into the waves,
+that would have made all the difference, and a thousand years would have
+made them treasures great as gold.
+
+But it was a barren hunt that morning.  There had been no storm to tear
+away the sand and sweep bare the rock, to leave exposed tarnished old
+coins once cast ashore from an Armada galley; no serpula encrusted gem;
+nothing worthy of notice; and Wimble, with his thoughts turning eagerly
+now from the widow and her lodger to the toast and the rasher of bacon,
+he passed over his bachelor rival and stepped out till he came beneath
+the rocky point upon which Gartram had built his home, and was half-way
+by when a ray of sunshine flashed from something lying among the rocks
+in a little patch of soft, dry sand.
+
+It might be a diamond, or at least a crystal ground out of the rocks!
+
+But it was only a clear phial bottle--short, unlabelled, tightly corked,
+and holding about a teaspoonful of some clear fluid at the bottom.
+
+A disappointment; but a clean bottle was always useful, and, after a
+brief examination, the barber transferred it to his pocket, but not
+until he had removed the cork, sniffed, replaced it, and looked round,
+asking himself whether it had floated there in the last spring tide.
+
+No; it seemed too fresh.  The cork was too new and dry.  It could only
+have come from about--been thrown from Gartram's windows, and--
+
+Wimble got no further in his chain of reasoning.  The vacuum which his
+nature abhorred was giving him strong hints which he was glad to obey;
+and the breakfast he had that morning was excellent for a jealous man in
+love.
+
+Afterwards he rose, took off his coat to put on his apron, found the
+bottle in his pocket, put it carelessly in a drawer to wait till it
+could be washed, and declared himself ready for business.  He had not
+long to wait, for one of his regular customers came for a shave.  "Heard
+the news, of course?"
+
+"News? no," said Wimble, stopping short in the stropping of a razor.
+"What news?  What is it?"
+
+"The King of the Castle--dead."
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XV.
+
+THE DEAD TELL NO TALES.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" said one of the men who had come off from
+the shore to Glyddyr's yacht, after performing the duty he had in hand.
+
+"Well," said the steward, laughing, "he's my boss, so it ain't for me to
+say; but if it had been you, I should have said you had been looking
+into a brandy glass till you were too giddy to stand."
+
+"Well; that's what I thought," said the coroner's officer, "but being a
+gentleman, I held my tongue.  Thought gents never did take too much."
+
+"Oh, no; never," said the steward, sarcastically.  "But don't talk about
+it; the guvnor's a good deal upset about the affair at Mr Gartram's."
+
+"'Nough to upset any one.  Who'd have thought it.  Well, good morning."
+
+"Don't want me as a witness, do you?"
+
+The officer laughed, and was rowed back to the shore, while Glyddyr sat
+in his cabin watching the progress of the boat, and asking himself, as
+he glanced from time to time at the summons to the inquest which he held
+in his hand, whether he had committed himself in any way by word or look
+in the presence of the coroner's officer.
+
+Twice over he turned to the brandy decanter in search of courage, but he
+shrank from it with a fresh chill of dread.
+
+"It may make me talk too much," he said; "I might say something I
+couldn't take back."
+
+Hurriedly thrusting the temptation from him, he well bathed his burning
+temples, and felt refreshed by the cold water.
+
+"Now," he said, setting his teeth and trying to be firm; "there's only
+one man who knows the rights of this case, and I am that man.  If I go
+straight no one can find it out, and there's a rich wife for me at the
+end of a few months, and freedom from this cursed load of debt.  Well,
+I'll go through it in spite of everything.  I will face it out."
+
+But even as he tried to screw himself up his own words struck him with
+terrible force--
+
+"A rich wife!"
+
+How would he dare to continue his advances towards the child of the man
+he had murdered?
+
+"I can't do it.  I dare not do it," he said in a despairing way.  "She
+will be looking me through and through, and some day she might find out.
+No; Gellow must do his worst, I can't go on."
+
+But as he thought all this his eyes were directed towards the Fort, with
+its blank-looking casements, and though he shuddered as he thought of
+the dead man lying there behind one of those blank windows--his work--
+the man whose hand he had grasped only the night before in friendship,
+and whom he had cut off by that one act--though he thought of all this
+with shudders, and vainly tried to screen himself from the darts of
+conscience by holding up as shield the word accident--the place had a
+terrible fascination, and he felt that he must go on now, for there was
+the sweet young girl heiress to so great a property, there was the ideal
+seaside home for a man who had yachting proclivities.  The place was
+pretentious, and the mockery of an old Norman castle jarred upon his
+tastes; but there was the place waiting for him, ready to be his if he
+only had patience and manly force enough to keep his own counsel.
+
+"And I will," he said, as he clenched his fists.  "It isn't cowardice;
+it's overstrung sensibility.  I have the strength, and I will face it
+all out, come what may."
+
+He felt cooler now, and began to hesitate as to what he should do.  The
+coroners inquest was to him the enemy, and he would have to view the
+body.
+
+"No, no," he muttered, "how confused I am--that is, for the jury.  I am
+only a witness called because--Yes, I remember, what the man said now,
+because I saw the deceased last night."
+
+"Yes, I saw him last night," groaned Glyddyr; "and I feel as if I shall
+always be seeing him now."
+
+Once more he made an effort to collect himself, and took the situation
+in the full.  He had nearly been committing the grave error of running
+away, but he had fortunately paused.
+
+"It would have been madness," he thought, "and only inviting pursuit by
+attracting attention to my actions."
+
+He walked on deck, his nervous excitement having completely counteracted
+the effect produced by the spirits and wine, and ordered his men into
+the boat to row him ashore.
+
+He had made up his mind what to do, and as soon as they reached the
+landing steps he walked straight up to the Fort for the second time that
+morning.
+
+He was cool now, for he was fully awake to the fact that his life
+depended upon his calmly facing facts.
+
+Half-way up, towards the bridge, he met Doctor Asher and his colleague,
+the latter bowing and passing on, but Asher stopped short, and took
+Glyddyr's extended hand.
+
+"Going in?" he said.
+
+"Yes; how is she--Miss Gartram?"
+
+"Terrible state, poor girl; broken-hearted; I only saw her for a few
+moments.  Dreadful accident, is it not?"
+
+Glyddyr felt his blood run cold, and his eyes seemed to him to be
+vacant, as he gazed straight at the doctor.  "Accident?" he said,
+huskily.
+
+"Oh, yes; no doubt about that.  But you understand, do you not?"
+
+"No--yes--I think I do," said Glyddyr, whose throat felt dry.
+
+"Of course.  Poor fellow, I warned him against it over and over again,
+but it is of no use with a man who once becomes a slave to a drug."
+
+"Yes, I see," said Glyddyr, staring hard at the doctor, but not seeing
+him.
+
+"I feel as if I were to blame, but, on dispassionate consideration, what
+could I do?"
+
+"Of course," answered Glyddyr, "what could you do?"
+
+"It was better that he should take the drug under my supervision than
+recklessly alone."
+
+"Yes; much," said Glyddyr, vacantly.
+
+"And yet on the face of it one can't say that it seems so.  But what
+could a medical man do in such a case?  `I am suffering for want of
+sleep,' he used to say, `and I must have this stuff.'  `It is madness to
+take it,' I said.  `If you don't give it me, I shall get it myself at
+the druggists.'  So, of course, I had to give way and exhibit safe
+doses, but no foresight can prevent a man taking double or triple the
+quantities prescribed."
+
+"No; I see," said Glyddyr, in the same vacant way.  "But do you think he
+did get more at the druggist's?"
+
+"That was my first thought, and I telegraphed to the two nearest and
+most likely men, but they say in each case, `no.'  Most awful accident,
+Mr Glyddyr.  It ought to be a warning to people not to tamper with
+drugs which they do not understand, eh?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"How can anyone know how much to prescribe or take?  A medical man of
+long experience has to go very cautiously, for what is a safe dose for
+one constitution is certain death to another.  But, there: I must go.
+My colleague, to whom I have every reason to be grateful for his loyal
+aid, is waiting for me.  I wanted help, for I cannot recall when I have
+been so overcome as by this case.  The shock was terrible.  Dining with
+him--called away--returning to find that he was asleep.  Let me see you
+were with him, were you not?"
+
+"Yes, part of the time," faltered Glyddyr, as he felt a thrill of dread
+run through him under the doctor's searching eyes, which seemed to be
+reading his inmost thoughts; and he found himself wondering whether this
+man had really been called away upon two occasions, or had made excuses,
+so as to watch his every act.
+
+"And did you notice anything particular?"
+
+"N-no," faltered Glyddyr; and then, in response to the sharply applied
+goad of dread, "no, nothing; only that he breathed rather heavily."
+
+"To be sure; yes.  But, there: good-bye.  We shall meet again at the
+inquest, I suppose I I am not surprised at you looking so pale and
+overcome."
+
+"Do I look pale and overcome?" said Glyddyr hastily, the words slipping
+from his lips.
+
+"Terribly, my dear sir, terribly.  Good morning."
+
+Glyddyr stood looking after him as the doctor walked away, and a fit of
+trembling came on.
+
+"He was pumping me, and he is suspicious," thought Glyddyr.  "Curse him!
+These doctors have a way of reading a man, and seeing through you.  But
+he could only suspect; and what is suspicion where they want certainty?"
+
+"What could he say," he thought; "and how does it stand?  He gave him
+chloral; Gartram took it himself, and if a little more was given, well,
+what could they prove unless they saw?"
+
+"No; unless I betray myself, I am safe," he muttered, as he walked up to
+the principal entrance and rang; but as the loud clangour of the bell
+ran through the place, the shiver of dread returned, and he was
+conscious from his sensations that he must be looking ghastly, and that
+his lips be white and cracked.
+
+The door was opened by one of the maids.
+
+"Ask Miss Gartram if she can see me for a few minutes," he said, in a
+voice he hardly knew as his own.
+
+The maid drew back for him to enter, and showed him into the
+drawing-room, where the yellow gloom of the light passing through the
+drawn-down blinds seemed to add to the oppression from which he
+suffered.  Then, as he stood there, his hot eyes fixed themselves upon
+the chair which had been occupied by Claude when he was there the
+previous night; and he found himself wondering what he should say to
+her; and then a singular feeling of confusion came over him as he asked
+himself why he had come.
+
+A footstep in the hall made him tremble, and he felt as if he could have
+given anything to be away from the place, for now, in its full force, he
+felt the terror of the interview he had to go through with the child of
+the man he had murdered, and who must now be lying still and stark not
+many yards away, while in the spirit, where was he?--perhaps about to be
+present to guard his child.
+
+"If I only had more strength of mind!" groaned Glyddyr, as he vainly
+tried to string himself up.  Then the door was opened, and he was face
+to face with Mary Dillon.
+
+He drew a breath of relief, and his brain began to grow clearer, as if a
+mist had been wafted away, and, recovering himself, he advanced with
+extended hand.
+
+"Will you be seated, Mr Glyddyr?" said Mary, ignoring the extended
+hand, and sinking wearily on the couch to half close her eyes and
+wrinkle up her brow.
+
+"Thank you," he said in a whisper; "I ought to apologise for coming,
+but--at such a time--dear Claude must--"
+
+His words began to trail off slowly into silence, and he sat gazing at
+Mary helplessly, as if he could not command the flow of that which he
+wished to say.
+
+"It is very good of you to come," said Mary slowly, as if she were
+repeating a lesson when her thoughts were far away.  "But poor Claude is
+completely prostrate.  She cannot see you.  It is cruel of you to ask
+for such a thing."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," he said meekly.  "But, occupying the position as I
+do--she in such distress--I felt it a duty, let alone my own warm
+feelings.  Miss Dillon, is there nothing I can do?"
+
+He stopped short now, wondering at his own words, for they had come
+quickly, and sounded thoroughly natural in their ring.
+
+"No," said Mary, looking at him piercingly now; but he seemed nerved by
+the instinct of self-preservation, and the knowledge that everything
+depended upon him being calm.
+
+Mary paused, and appeared to be struggling with her emotion for a few
+moments.  Then, in a cold, hard way, she faced Glyddyr, as if she were
+defending her cousin from attack.
+
+"No," she said, in clear firm tones.  "My cousin is seriously ill, Mr
+Glyddyr.  Broken-hearted at our terrible loss, and anyone who feels
+respect for her, and wishes to be helpful at such an hour as this will
+leave her in peace till time has done something toward blunting the
+agony she is in."
+
+"Yes," said Glyddyr, "you are quite right."
+
+He stood for a moment undecided, and as if he were about to go; but as
+he looked straight before him at the door, he saw mentally Gartram's
+study; and a vision of wealth greater than any of which he had ever
+dreamed, appeared to be lying there waiting for him to call it _mine_;
+and the dazzling prospect began to drive away his terrors, and
+strengthen him in his belief that he was safe.  No, he could not go back
+now, he felt, even if the figure of the dead were to rise up before him
+in defence of his hoards.
+
+The dead tell no tales, he fancied he heard something within him say;
+and then--can the dead know?
+
+Mary was looking at him inquiringly, and as he became conscious of this,
+he turned to her sadly and gravely.
+
+"Yes; you are right," he said, "it must be the kindest treatment to
+leave her to herself.  It was my love for her that brought me here.
+Tell her, please, from me that my heart bleeds for her, and that I will
+wait until she can see me.  I can say no more now.  I trust you to be my
+faithful messenger.  Good-bye."
+
+He held out his hand, and for a few moments she ignored his action, but
+as he stood there with his fingers outstretched, she felt unable to
+resist, and at last she placed her own within his, and he raised them to
+his lips.
+
+The next minute she listened to his retiring steps as he went along the
+granite terrace, talking to himself.
+
+"I did not think I could have done it," he said; "but I have only to
+keep on, and the rest will come easy.  I am too much a man of the world
+to be frightened at shadows after all."
+
+"It was perfect," thought Mary Dillon, as she stood alone in the
+darkened drawing-room, "nothing could have been better, but I hate him
+and distrust him.  Somehow he makes me shrink away with horror.  But its
+only prejudice for poor Claude's sake.  I'd kill him first.  He'd break
+her heart, and spend her money, and--yes, I'd kill him before he should
+do all that."
+
+She went slowly out into the hall, and stood hesitating for a few
+minutes.  She appeared to be listening, and there was a curious weird
+look in her fine eyes as she glanced quickly here and there before
+drawing a long breath, and going across to the study door.
+
+Here she paused on the thick wool mat, and tapped softly, but only to
+utter a faint hysterical cry, and press her hands to her lips, as if to
+keep back more, for the act had been one to which she was accustomed,
+and a thrill ran through her as she realised what she had done, and that
+the familiar, harsh voice could never again call to her "Come in."
+
+She turned the handle, and entered the darkened room to walk firmly
+across to where Gartram lay, and she stood for some minutes gazing at
+the dimly-seen figure covered by a white sheet, through which the
+prominent features of his face stood out.
+
+For a moment she looked as if she were about to raise the white linen
+cover to gaze upon the face of the dead, but she did not stir, only
+remained there as if turned to stone, as, from out of the gloom, a low
+groan arose, and for the moment it seemed to her that the sheet moved
+and the body heaved.
+
+Mary Dillon felt her heart throb as if it had burst the bond which
+regulated its slow action; a terrible feeling of fear paralysed her, and
+for a time her sufferings were acute.
+
+Then reason came to her aid.
+
+"He is not dead," she said; and trembling violently, she ran to the
+window to draw aside the curtain, looking over her shoulder in a
+frightened way; but before light could shine in upon the solemn chamber
+she stopped short.
+
+"Woodham!" she exclaimed, "you here!"
+
+There was a quick rustling sound, and the startled occupant of the room
+rose from her knees by the dead man's side, and stood shrinking from her
+questioner, and looking as if she was about to flee from the room.
+
+For a few moments the only sounds heard were those of quick breathing
+and the low hissing wash of the sea among the rocks, for the tide was
+well in now beneath the walls of the Fort.  Then Mary Dillon recovered
+from her surprise, and went to the woman's side, and laid her hand upon
+her arm.
+
+"Come away," she whispered.
+
+Sarah Woodham jerked herself free, and stood as if at bay, her eyes in
+the gloom flashing with anger; but with quiet firmness Mary Dillon
+followed her, took hold of her wrist, and led her from the chamber of
+death, and out across the hall to the drawing-room.
+
+"Why, Woodham!" said Mary, gently, "what does this mean?"
+
+The woman looked at her fiercely, as if resenting the question, and half
+turned away.
+
+"Don't be angry with me for asking," said Mary gently.  "It was so
+strange."
+
+"Is it strange for a woman to pray, Miss?" was asked in solemn tones.
+
+"No, no, of course not; but I could not help feeling surprised to see
+you kneeling there."
+
+"We all need forgiveness, Miss, for the sins we commit."
+
+Mary Dillon winced and looked angrily at the woman, for it sounded to
+her like an insult to the dead for this woman, their servant, to take
+upon herself so sacred a duty.
+
+"Yes, Miss, we all need forgiveness for what we have done.  Don't keep
+me, please, I cannot hear to talk now."
+
+"I am sorry if I have said anything to wound you," continued Mary.  "I
+ought to have been pleased; I am sure my poor cousin will for your
+sympathy and thoughtful ways."
+
+"You think I was praying for him, Miss Mary?"
+
+The girl nodded her head quickly, and remained silent, for she could not
+trust herself to speak.
+
+Sarah stood gazing before her in a strangely absent way, and went on
+muttering softly--
+
+"Isaac, poor husband, you can rest now.  If you can see all from where
+you are, look down upon me.  You must feel content--you must be content,
+and forgive me for keeping you waiting so long."
+
+"Woodham," said Mary gently, after standing watching the strange, weird
+face before her, and catching a word here and there, "you are ill; the
+shock of poor uncle's death has been too much for you.  There, try and
+be calm."
+
+"Miss Mary," said the woman hoarsely, and her eyes glowed with her great
+excitement, "what do you mean?  Have I been talking, like, in my sleep?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, smiling in her troubled face, and trying to soothe
+her.
+
+"Yes!  What did I say?  Quick; tell me.  I didn't say anything aloud?"
+
+"Yes, you did.  I heard parts of what you spoke."
+
+"Tell me!" cried the woman, excitedly.  "Quick!  What did I say?"
+
+"You talked about prayer and forgiveness, and spoke about your poor
+husband.  There, there; try and be calm.  This has been too much for
+you, and has brought up all your old sorrows.  You want rest and a good
+long sleep."
+
+"What else did I say?"
+
+"Oh, I don't remember much more."
+
+"You must," cried the woman angrily; "I will know."
+
+"Very little else.  I think you said that you hoped your husband was
+looking down upon you, or words to that effect.  There, don't let us
+talk about it any more.  Go and lie down, and when you are well rested
+come and help me again.  We have so much to do.  My poor cousin is
+completely prostrate."
+
+"Yes," said the woman, looking at her searchingly.  "Poor Miss Claude!
+Broken-hearted.  He worshipped her, in his way--in his way."
+
+"Come," said Mary, gently, as she tried to lead her from the room, for
+the woman seemed to her as one distraught.
+
+"Tell me again; try to recollect.  What did I say?"
+
+"Surely I have told you enough," said Mary.  "There, you are ill."
+
+"Yes, ill--sick at heart--sick with horror," whispered the woman,
+clinging to her with convulsive strength.  "I came in and looked at his
+poor appealing face, and it was like seeing Isaac--my husband, again--
+snatched away so suddenly, just when he was so strong and full of what
+he meant to do; and it was as if master's eyes were staring at me and
+read my heart, and knew everything--everything, and it was too horrible
+to bear."
+
+The woman burst into a passionate fit of hysterical weeping, and sank
+upon her knees, covering her face with her hands, rocking herself to and
+fro, and bending lower and lower, till her arms were upon her knees.
+
+Mary spoke to her, knelt beside her, and tried to whisper words of
+comfort, about resignation and patience, but without avail.  Nothing she
+said appeared to be heard; and at last--weary, hopeless, and suffering,
+too, from the terrible trouble which had fallen upon the house--she
+knelt there in silence beside the moaning and sobbing woman, her hands
+clasped in her lap, and her eyes fixed upon vacancy, as she thought of
+how happy they had all been by comparison a few hours before.
+
+Mary Dillon was startled from her fit of sad musing by the opening of
+the drawing-room door.
+
+"Claude!" she exclaimed, "I thought you were asleep."
+
+Her cousin gave a look that was almost reproachful, and came slowly to
+where Sarah Woodham crouched.
+
+As Claude laid her hand upon the sobbing woman's shoulder, it was as if
+the latter had received a shock.  She looked up wildly, and hurriedly
+rose to her feet, pressed her hair back from her eyes, and made a
+tremendous effort to master the emotion to which she had given way.
+Then, with a heavy sigh she grew calm, her distorted features resumed
+their old saddened dreamy expression, and she moved towards the door.
+
+Claude tried to speak to her, and her lips moved, but no words came, for
+her face began to work, and she was turning away when the woman seized
+her hand, kissed it passionately, and hurried from the room.
+
+"We are not alone in our suffering, Mary," said Claude at last; and she
+drew her cousin to her breast and wept silently upon her shoulder, while
+Mary gave her the most loving form of consolation that woman can give to
+woman, the silent pressure that tells of heart beating for heart in
+sympathetic unison, as they stood together in the darkened room.
+
+Volume Two, Chapter XVI.
+
+MR WIMBLE RAKES FOR INFORMATION.
+
+An enormous increase has taken place during the past five-and-twenty
+years in local journalism.  England seems to have been almost
+Americanised in respect of news, for every centre worthy of the
+enterprise has been furnished with its newspaper, in which everything is
+told that is worthy of chronicling, and very often, from want of news,
+something unworthy of the paper upon which it appears.  Notably that
+celebrated paragraph about So-and-So's horse and cart, which, left
+untended, moves on; the horse is startled by shouts, begins to trot,
+then gallops, and is finally stopped.  "It was fortunate that the
+accident occurred before noon, for at that hour the children would have
+been leaving school, and," etc, etc--suggestion of the horror of what
+might have been.
+
+But Danmouth was not a centre worthy of the enterprise, and, with the
+exception of a few copies of the county paper which came in weekly to
+partly satisfy the thirst for news, the inhabitants had no fount to
+depend upon save Michael Wimble, and to him they gravitated for
+information respecting the proceedings all around, from a failure,
+scandal, or accident on shore up to a shipwreck.
+
+Consequently, Wimble's business on the morning of Gartram's death was so
+great that he began to think that he must hire a boy to lather, and the
+leather slipper nailed up against the wall to serve as a quaintly
+original till had to be emptied twice.
+
+As a rule, the "salt" personages who hung about the cliff, staring into
+the sea, came to be shaved on Saturdays, but the news on the wing
+prompted every man to have a clean shave that morning, and many a
+stalwart fisher lady regretted that she had not a hirsute excuse for
+visiting the shop.
+
+Wimble made the most of such information as he was able to glean, and as
+the morning advanced, he was able to keep on making additions, till the
+one little seed he received first thing came up, grew and blossomed into
+a news plant that would have been worth a good deal in town.
+
+Towards evening, though, the excitement at Wimbles museum had fallen
+off, and gathered about the Harbour Inn, where the gossips of the place,
+clean shaven, and looking unusually like being in holiday trim, were
+able to quench their double thirst.
+
+Michael Wimble sighed as he stood at his door looking towards that inn.
+
+"Ah," he said to himself, "now, if I had a licence to sell beer by
+retail to be drunk on the premises,"--he was quoting from a board with
+whose lettering he was familiar--"they would have stopped; and my place
+being nearest to the Fort, the coroner would have held the inquest
+there."
+
+"Hah!" he said aloud, after a pause, "how it would have read in the
+paper: `An inquest was held at Wimble's Museum, Danmouth'--eh?  I beg
+your pardon, Mr Brime, sir; I didn't hear you come up.  Shave, sir?
+Certainly, sir.  Come in."
+
+Wimble's heart beat high as he thought of the chance.  His customers had
+pumped him dry, and gone away; and here, by a tremendous stroke of luck,
+was the commencement of a perfect spring of information to refill his
+well right to the brim.
+
+Reuben Brime, who looked worried and haggard, entered the museum, took
+his place in the Windsor arm-chair, was duly covered with the print
+cloth, after removing collar and tie, and laid his head back in the
+rest.
+
+"Why, you look fagged out, Mr Brime, sir," said Wimble, quietly walking
+to the door, closing it, and slipping the bolt.
+
+The gardener from the Fort was nervous and agitated.  Death in the
+house--sudden death--had unhinged him.  His master might have been
+poisoned, either by his own hand or by that of an enemy.  That would be
+murder.  He was bound, as it were, for the sacrifice; there were a dozen
+razors at hand; the barber's aspect was suspicious, and he had closed
+the door.  What did it mean?
+
+"I say," cried the gardener, sitting bolt upright, "what did you do that
+for?"
+
+"Do what, Mr Brime?  Fasten the door?  I'll tell you.  I've been that
+worked this day that I haven't had time for a decent meal, and I won't
+shave another chin.  That's what I mean."
+
+"Oh!" said Brime, calming down a little.
+
+"I don't hold with working oneself to death, sir.  Do you?"
+
+"No; certainly not," said the gardener, with divers memories of idle
+pipes in the tool-house when "Master" had gone in the quarry.
+
+"And so say I, sir," said Wimble.  "Nobody thinks a bit the better of
+you if you do."
+
+"That's true," said the gardener, letting his head sink back with a
+sigh, as Wimble stood before him working up the lather in his pot to a
+splendid consistency.
+
+"Anxious time for you people at the Fort, sir," said Wimble, beginning
+to lather gently, and taking care to leave his customer's lips quite
+free.
+
+"Yes," said the gardener shortly.
+
+"Poor man!  Ah, I wonder how many times I have shaved him, sir."
+
+The gardener stared straight before him in silence, frowning heavily.
+
+"In the midst of life we are in death, Mr Brime, sir, parson says o'
+Sundays," continued Wimble, pausing to tuck the cloth a little more in
+round his customer's neck.
+
+No acquiescent reply.
+
+"Just like things in your profession, Mr Brime, or, as I might say, in
+mine.  Flowers and grass comes up, and the frost takes one, and the
+scythe the other; or beards comes up and the hair grows, and it's the
+razor for one, and the shears for the other, eh?"
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Yes, sir; you are quite right," said Wimble, replacing the brush in the
+pot, and proceeding to rub the soap into his customer's cheeks, throat
+and chin with a long, lissome finger.
+
+Silence.
+
+"Wonderful stiff, wiry beard yours, Mr Brime, sir.  Pleasure to shave
+it, though.  I hate your fluffy beards that lie down before the razor.
+Yours is a downright upright one, which meets the razor like crisp
+grass.  What a difference in beards.  Not in a hurry, sir, I hope?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I'll do it well, sir, so as to make it last.  Ah, many's the time
+I've shaved poor Mr Gartram, sir!  Hard man to please over pimples,
+while a nick used to make him swear terrible, and there are times when
+you can't help just a touch, sir."
+
+"No," said Brime, thinking of slips with the scythe.
+
+"Good customer gone," said the barber, resuming the brush once more, but
+still keeping clear of the lips.  "Always a shilling for going up and
+shaving him, Mr Brime.  Yes, a capital customer gone."
+
+Here the shaving pot was set down, and a razor taken out of a loop to
+re-strop.
+
+"Bad job for me, Mr Brime.  Won't affect you, I suppose, sir?"
+continued Wimble, finishing off the keen-edged razor on his palm with a
+loud _pat, pat, pat_.
+
+"Not affect me?" said the gardener, sitting up sharply; for the barber
+had touched the right key at last, and the instrument began to sound.
+"But it will affect me.  How do I know what'll take place now, sir?
+Saved up my little bit o' money, and made the cottage comfortable and
+fit for a wife."
+
+"Indeed, Mr Brime, and you'd been thinking of that sort o' thing, sir?"
+
+"P'raps I had and p'r'aps I hadn't," snarled the gardener, savagely.
+"Not the first man, I suppose, as thought of it."
+
+"No, sir, indeed.  I've been thinking of it for years, and making my
+bits o' preparation; but,"--he said with a sigh--"it hasn't come off
+yet."
+
+A brother in disappointment.  The gardener felt satisfied and disposed
+to be confidential, although the lather was beginning to feel cold and
+clammy, and the tiny vesicles were bursting and dying away.
+
+"Yes, I were thinking about it, Mr Wimble," he said bitterly; "and I
+were going to speak, and I dessay afore long you'd ha' heared us asked
+in church, and now this comes and upsets it all."
+
+"Don't say that, sir," said the barber, still stropping his razor
+gently.  "Like everything else, it passes away and is forgotten.  You've
+only got to wait."
+
+"Got to wait!" cried the gardener; "why, the trouble has 'most killed
+her, sir, and how do I know what's going to happen next?"
+
+"Ah, bad indeed, sir."
+
+"Our young Miss'll never stop in that great place now; and, of course,
+it's a month's warning, and not a chance of another place nigh here."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, Mr Brime, sir.  That's the worst way of looking at
+it."
+
+"Ay, but it's the true way."
+
+"You're a bit upset with trouble now, sir.  You wait.  Why, there's a
+fine chance here for a clever man like yourself to set up for himself in
+the fruit and greengrocery.  See what a job it is to get a bit of decent
+green stuff.  I never know what it is.  Leastways, I shouldn't if it
+weren't for a friend bringing me in a morsel o' fruit now and then."
+
+"Ah, it's all over with that now, Mr Wimble.  Poor master; and we may
+as well give up all thoughts o' wedding.  Strange set-out it's been."
+
+"Ah!" said Wimble; and _pat, pat, pat_, went the razor over his hand as
+the lather dried.
+
+"I can't see much chance for Mr Glyddyr now."
+
+"Ah! he was going to marry Miss Gartram, wasn't he?"
+
+"He'd ha' liked to, and the poor guvnor was on for it; but I know a
+little more about that than he did."
+
+"Ah, yes, Mr Brime, lookers-on sees more of the game.  I always used to
+think--but of course it was no business of mine--that it was to be Mr
+Christopher Lisle, till he seemed to be chucked over like--and for
+looking elsewhere," he added between his teeth.
+
+"Looking elsewhere?  Gammon!"
+
+"Oh, but he does, sir."
+
+"Yah!  Not he, Wimble.  He's dead on to the young missus."
+
+"No, no, Mr Brime, sir," said Wimble, waving his razor; "you'll excuse
+me.  You're wrong there."
+
+"Wrong?" cried the gardener, excitedly.  "Bet you a shilling on it.  No,
+I don't want to rob you, because I know."
+
+"Well, you may know a deal about gardening, Mr Brime," said Wimble
+deprecatingly, as he shook his head shrewdly; "but fax is fax."
+
+"Not always, Wimble.  You won't let it go no further, because he's a
+good sort."
+
+"If you feel as you can't trust me, Mr Brime, sir," said the barber,
+laying down the razor and taking up the brush and shaving pot once more
+to dip the former very slowly in the hot water.
+
+"Oh, you won't tell," said Brime, who had calmed his excitement with a
+great many glasses of the household ale at the Fort.  "You're all wrong.
+Mr Lisle's after our young Miss still; and--you mark my words--as soon
+as they decently can, they'll marry."
+
+"No, sir, no," said Wimble, shaking his head, with his eyes fixed upon
+his best razor, and his mind upon Mrs Sarson; "you're wrong."
+
+"Why, he was up at our place to see her only last night."
+
+"No!"
+
+"He was, and I ketched him on the hop."
+
+"You don't say so."
+
+"But I do.  He owned what he was up there for, poor chap, for the
+guv'nor was very rough on him at last.  I took him for a boy after our
+fruit."
+
+"Are you talking about last night, when your Master died?" said Wimble,
+breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Where was he then?"
+
+"Down our garden, on the sly."
+
+Wimble's face was a study.
+
+"It was like this.  He didn't know there was company, and he was trying
+to get a word with Miss Claude; but, of course, she couldn't get to him,
+because there was Mr Glider and the doctor there."
+
+"Well, you do surprise me, Mr Brime."
+
+"Yes: where would your shilling be now, eh?"
+
+"Well, young folks will be young folks; but I was deceived."
+
+"Yes, you were.  Poor chap.  He little thought when he left me in low
+spirits, because he couldn't get to see his lass, how soon his chances
+were going to mend.  Bah!  Miss Claude didn't care that for the other
+one--a mean, sneaking sort of fellow.  How the poor guv'nor could have
+taken to him as he did, I don't know."
+
+"Well, you do surprise me," said Wimble, re-tucking in the cloth which
+had been disarranged by Brime's "don't care that" and snap of the
+fingers.
+
+"Yes, I thought I could; but keep it quiet."
+
+"By all means, Mr Brime.  Your girl's in sad trouble, I suppose?"
+
+"Crying her eyes out, poor lass.  Master was as hard as his own stone;
+but they had been very fond of each other."
+
+"Yes; and I s'pose he was a good-hearted, generous man underneath.  Give
+away a great deal to the poor."
+
+"Not he, Wimble.  There was a deal given away, but it was Miss Claude
+did all that, bless her.  Master--there; I'm not going to say a word
+again' the dead."
+
+"No, no, of course not, sir; but what trouble you must be in!"
+
+"Trouble, sir!  When I heard of it this morning, you might have knocked
+me down with a feather."
+
+"Hah! very awful really, sir," said Wimble, beginning to lather again,
+and this time in so thoughtful a manner that the gardener's mouth
+disappeared in the soapy foam, and the desire for more information
+seemed to have gone.
+
+"Was Chris Lisle up at the Fort last night?  Was our suspicions unjust,
+then?"
+
+"Then, it must be all on her side," thought Wimble, beginning to strop
+his razor again fiercely, and he operated directly after with so much
+savage energy, that the gardener's hands clutched the sides of the
+chair, and he held on, with the perspiration oozing out upon his
+forehead, and causing a tickling sensation around the roots of his hair.
+
+"Find it hot, Mr Brime, sir?" said the barber, as he gave a few
+finishing touches to his patient's chin.
+
+"Very," said the gardener, with a sigh of relief, as the razor was wiped
+and thrown down, and a cool, wet sponge removed the last traces of the
+soap; "you went over me so quick, I was afraid of an accident."
+
+"No fear, sir.  When a man's shaved a hundred thousand people, he isn't
+likely to make a mistake.  Thank you, sir; and I hope you will get
+everything settled all right up yonder.  When's the funeral?"
+
+"Don't know yet, sir.  When the doctors and coroners have done, I
+suppose."
+
+"Hum!" said Wimble to himself, as he ran over the gardener's words.
+"Then, perhaps I have been wrong about him, but I can't be about her.
+She wouldn't have held me off all this time if she hadn't had thoughts
+elsewhere."
+
+He was standing at the door as he spoke, probably meaning to receive
+more customers after all, for he did not slip the bolt.
+
+"Up there in the garden, last night, to see the young lady, and the next
+morning Mr Gartram found dead.  Well, it's a terrible affair."
+
+Michael Wimble had obtained more information than he had anticipated,
+and of a very different class.
+
+END OF VOLUME TWO.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter I.
+
+AN ANGRY ENCOUNTER.
+
+Night, and the tramping of many feet on the granite-paved path and
+terrace.
+
+The wind from off the sea rushing and sighing round the house, making,
+as the great hall door was opened, the lightly-hung pictures on the
+walls swing gently to and fro, as if ghostly hands touched them from
+time to time.
+
+Claude and Mary were waiting, dressed, in the drawing-room, ready to go
+to the inquest, and the latter held her cousin's hand tightly as they
+listened, and in imagination painted, by the help of the sounds, all
+that was going on.
+
+There were whispers in men's voices, muffled footsteps on the thick rugs
+in the paved hall, with the sharp sound from time to time as a foot fell
+on the bare granite.
+
+Then came the opening of the study door, and a piteous sigh escaped from
+Claude's breast as in imagination she saw the darkened room into which
+the jurymen passed one by one, to stay a few moments, and then pass out.
+
+Then more whispers, more trampling, muffled and loud; the closing of the
+study door; and then the sighing and moaning of the wind ceased
+suddenly, as the great hall door was shut; voices came more loudly as
+steps passed along the terrace, and grew fainter and fainter as they
+filed out, and once more the house was still.
+
+Down by the inn, affected most by the fishermen from its proximity to
+the harbour, the principal part of the inhabitants of the place were
+gathered, waiting in knots and discussing Gartram's death, till such
+time as the jury returned.  Then a lane was opened for them to pass
+through into the great room of the inn, the fishermen crowding in
+afterwards, while two men drawn, one by summons, the other for reasons
+of his own, to the inquest, found themselves, by the irony of fate, side
+by side, and compelled to walk in this way down the long passage packed
+in by the crowd, and upstairs to the room where the inquest was to be
+held.
+
+Parry Glyddyr had grown more calm and firm as the day had worn on, while
+Chris had, on the other hand, become more excited; and, finding himself
+thus thrown close beside his rival, he could not help turning a sharp
+inquiring look upon him, as if asking what he had to say.
+
+But no word was spoken, and, forced on by the crowd behind, they at last
+found themselves close up to the head of the table, listening to the
+coroners words as the various witnesses were examined, a low murmur
+arising when Claude's name was called, and a way clear made for her to
+pass through, and give the little evidence she could as to her father's
+habits, and then she was led, silently weeping, away.
+
+Sarah Woodham--cold, dark and stern now--was called to speak of her duty
+in taking to her master his tonic draught, and she could tell of his
+habit in using a narcotic to produce sleep.
+
+Other witnesses were examined, including both the doctors.  As her
+gravely and deprecatingly stating how he had prescribed for his patient.
+The new doctor gave his opinion upon what he had seen; the coroner
+summed up; and the jury, sworn to do their duty in the inquiry, had no
+difficulty in unanimously agreeing that it was a case of accidental
+death, and gradually melting away with the crowd.  Glyddyr, one of the
+last to leave the room, breathing more freely since he had given his
+evidence relative to seeing Gartram lying asleep, but feeling that he
+was ghastly pale, and afraid to meet Chris Lisle's eye, as he passed out
+of the inquiry room, and out on to the cliff to let the soft, cool night
+air fan his cheeks.
+
+His knees seemed to give way beneath him, and he was glad to move a
+little to one side, and rest against the iron rail that guarded the edge
+of the cliff, for he was giddy with emotion as he felt how narrow an
+escape he had had from destruction.
+
+"But they could not tell," he said to himself.  "It was his heart; and
+no doctor could have analysed the case sufficiently to have said who
+gave him a larger quantity than he usually took.
+
+"Yes, safe," he muttered, with a feeling of relief and elation.  But the
+giddy sensation returned, and he could gladly have gone into the inn and
+call for brandy, had he dared, the thought that such an action on his
+part might cause suspicion keeping him back.
+
+He could hear the people, grouped about, discussing the event, and
+though it horrified him, and moment by moment as he stood leaning over
+the rail and gazing out to sea, he anticipated hearing something said
+which would fix suspicion upon him, he could not tear himself away.
+
+His men were waiting for him at the harbour steps, but he shrank from
+moving, though he suffered agony in staying there, for out before him,
+on the dark sea with the stars reflected, and looking up at him like
+eyes, he felt that there was danger, and that he would not dare to go
+out to his yacht.
+
+And yet he kept asking himself what there was to fear.
+
+"Dead men tell no tales," he kept saying to himself; but nothing seemed
+to check his nervous dread.
+
+"Suppose all should be discovered?"
+
+At last he tore himself away, determined to get on board the yacht, have
+a good stiff glass of brandy and water, and go to bed early; but,
+instead of turning off to the left and down to the end of the pier, he
+found himself led as it were up the cliff-path towards the Fort; and
+with the full intention of going right to the door to inquire how the
+ladies were, so as to force down and master the cowardly dread, he
+passed on, and when close to the drawbridge, stopped short.
+
+A firm, elastic step was coming in the other direction, and a new dread
+assailed him.
+
+Thought flies quickly, and in a few moments he had analysed his
+position.
+
+He had, in his endeavour to obtain money, destroyed Gartram's life.  He
+had tried to make himself believe that he was only going to borrow part
+of what would be his anon; but, in his hurry and fear, he had failed to
+obtain the money, and he had removed Gartram.
+
+What would be the result?  Claude would doubtless have become his wife
+when urged by her father, but that father was dead, and he was face to
+face with the fact that he had destroyed his chances.  For Claude had
+evidently a strong leaning towards Chris Lisle; and while he had been
+shiveringly and nervously leaning against the cliff rail, Chris had
+quickly made his way to the ladies' side, had walked home with them, and
+now was returning master of the situation, and in another few moments
+would be standing face to face with him.
+
+A fierce feeling of resentment sprang up in his breast, and, as his
+hands clenched, he could feel the veins in his forehead tingle and
+start.
+
+Chris was coming slowly down the path, with his head bent, thinking
+deeply of Claude's sorrow, and in spite of the angry words which had
+passed during their last interview, full of sorrow for the hard,
+passionate man cut off so suddenly; but as he suddenly found himself
+confronted by Glyddyr, he felt the blood flush up into his temples, and
+his hands shook,
+
+It was momentary.  His hands dropped easily to his sides, and he told
+himself that he need not fear Glyddyr now.  He had only to wait
+patiently till the time of mourning and sorrow had passed away, and then
+Claude would naturally turn to him; and for the first time he felt glad
+that he had made that _coup_.
+
+"I am not going to make an enemy of this man," he said to himself.  "I
+can afford to be generous;" and, breaking the silence, he said quietly,
+"Going up to the house, Mr Glyddyr?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I said, are you going up to the house?"
+
+"The man's angry and disappointed," thought Chris, and he spoke in the
+same quiet, inquiring tone.
+
+"And, pray, by what right do you question me?" said Glyddyr angrily, and
+glad of something which roused him from the trembling, morbid state in
+which he was grovelling.
+
+"I can hardly call it a right," replied Chris, "and only speak as a very
+old friend of the family."
+
+"Friend?  Why, confound you, sir; Mr Gartram ordered you never to enter
+his house again."
+
+"Let Mr Gartram rest," replied Chris, gravely, and his tones were so
+impressive and seemed so full of suggestion that Glyddyr shrank again,
+and was silent.  "I only wished to say that Miss Gartram is ill--utterly
+prostrate--and that an intrusion--"
+
+"Intrusion!" cried Glyddyr, recovering himself, and beginning to quiver
+with jealous rage.
+
+"Yes, sir; intrusion upon Miss Gartram at such a time would be as cruel
+as uncalled for."
+
+"Intrusion!  Such insolence!  Are you aware, sir--"
+
+"I am aware of everything, sir, everything," said Chris firmly; and once
+more Glyddyr, ridden by coward conscience, shivered, that word
+"everything" conveyed so much.  "This is neither time nor place to
+discuss such matters.  That poor gentleman is lying dead yonder; his
+child is broken-hearted, and I ask you, as a gentleman, to refrain from
+going up there now."
+
+There was silence for a few moments, during which Glyddyr battled hard
+with his feelings, and Chris felt that, had it been any one else, he
+would not have spoken in this way.
+
+"And suppose, sir, I refuse?" cried Glyddyr at last.
+
+There was another pause, for the smouldering hatred against this man
+deep down in Chris Lisle's breast began to glow, and there was a curious
+twitching about his fingers; but the thoughts of what had taken place,
+and Claude's pale, sorrowful countenance, rose before him, and he said
+quietly,--
+
+"You cannot refuse, sir."
+
+"But I do," raged Glyddyr.  "Do you hear?  I do refuse, and tell you it
+is a piece of insolent assumption on your part to dictate to me what I
+shall do."
+
+Chris was silent, and Glyddyr misinterpreted that silence in his
+excitement, or he would not have gone on with a passionate rage that was
+almost childish.
+
+"Confound you for daring to come here at all.  What do you mean, fellow?
+And now, understand this: if you intrude your presence upon that lady
+or her cousin again, I'll have you horse-whipped and turned off the
+place.  Do you hear me--go!"
+
+"Parry Glyddyr," said Chris gently, "at a time like this, every instinct
+within me prompts me to try and behave like a gentleman--"
+
+"You--a gentleman!" sneered Glyddyr.
+
+"To one who was that poor man's friend, and whom I should fain have
+believed--"
+
+"Curse your insolence!" sneered Glyddyr.  "Leave this place.  Go back to
+your kennel, dog.  Don't preach to me."
+
+"You have totally forgotten yourself, sir, and I can only attribute it
+to your having been drinking.  I will not quarrel with you now, I once
+more appeal to you to go."
+
+"And I once more order you to go!" cried Glyddyr, whose mad rage for the
+moment rode over his natural cowardice.  "What!  You will not go?  It is
+an insult to every one here.  Be off!"
+
+"Have you forgotten trying to turn me away from here once before?"
+
+"When you took a cowardly advantage of me, sir.  I have not forgotten
+it, but--bah!  I have no time to quarrel with such a cad.  Be off, and
+if you come here again, take the consequences."
+
+He turned on his heel to go up to the house.
+
+"Stop," said Chris, in a low deep trembling voice.  "Mr Glyddyr, I
+appeal to you once more.  Don't go up there to that place now," and he
+laid his hand upon his shoulder.
+
+Glyddyr turned upon him, and made a backhanded blow at his face.
+
+The flame flashed out for an instant, and then it was smothered down.
+
+Quick as lightning Chris Lisle's firm, strong hand gripped his rival by
+the wrist; there was a savage wrench given to the arm, and, after a
+miserable attempt at resistance, Glyddyr leant over to ease the agony he
+felt.
+
+"If I did what nature seems to prompt me to do," whispered Chris, "I
+should throw you into that moat; but, I will try and keep my temper.
+You are half-drunk.  You are not fit to go up to that house.  I am not
+afraid of your going there, but I will not have her insulted by your
+presence to-night.  Come down here."
+
+His grip was like that of some machine as he gave Glyddyr's arm another
+wrench, and then marched him right away down the path to the harbour,
+and then along the pier to the end.
+
+Before they reached this point, Glyddyr had made another feeble attempt
+to free himself, and there was a momentary struggle, which brought both
+to the edge of the south pier, where there was a fall into deep water.
+
+"Come quietly, or, by all that's holy, I'll throw you in," said Chris
+hoarsely; and Glyddyr ceased struggling, and suffered himself to be led
+to the end, where the crew of the yacht's gig were waiting, smoking,
+till their master came.
+
+"Now," whispered Chris, "go and sleep off your drunken fit.  Another
+time, when you can act and think like a man, we may both have something
+more to say."
+
+He loosened his grip of Glyddyr's arm.
+
+"Here, my lads," he said, "get your master aboard; he is not fit to be
+alone."
+
+"Drunk or mad," said Chris to himself, as he strode quickly along the
+pier to get back to his own room, and try to grow calm.
+
+"I suppose a man must feel like I did to-night," he thought, after a
+time, "when the devil comes into him, and he kills his enemy.  If he had
+known what was in me then, he wouldn't have dared to say all that.  But
+I'm better now."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter II.
+
+AT THE GRAVE.
+
+All Danmouth gathered to see the funeral procession wind down the
+granite-paved path to the cliff, and then along by the harbour to the
+little church on the rock shelf at the entrance of the glen.
+
+Gartram had been hated, but death had destroyed all petty dislikes, and
+the people only remembered now the many acts of charity he had
+performed.
+
+It was unwittingly, and by proxy, for he never knew one half of the
+kindly actions done in his name, and as the procession wound through the
+place, there was many a wet eye among the lookers-on, and the saying
+that ran among the simple folks, quarrymen's and fishers' wives, was: "A
+hard man;" and then, "but oh, so generous and good."
+
+It was against the etiquette of the sad ceremony, but Claude had said
+that she should follow her father to the grave, and the cousins walked
+behind the plain massive coffin, swung at arm's-length by the handles,
+and carried by three relays of Gartram's stout quarrymen, all ready to
+say: "Yes, a good master after all."
+
+Every blind was down, every one was in the street or along the cliff,
+for "The King of the Castle" was dead, and, for the most part, Danmouth
+seemed to have been made by him.  So its people felt real sorrow for
+themselves as they said: "What is to be done now?"
+
+On and on, with the slow tolling of the bell echoing right up the glen,
+and startling the white-breasted gulls which floated here and there,
+uttering their querulous cries as the procession wound its slow way on
+to the granite-built lych-gate--Gartram's gift; and as they passed on to
+the church, Claude was conscious more than ever that Chris Lisle was
+standing bareheaded by the church door till they passed, and then,
+through her tear-blinded eyes, she saw that Glyddyr was within, pale and
+ashen, as he rested one hand upon a pew door.
+
+Then out to the wind-swept churchyard, and there, after a few minutes,
+it seemed to Claude that she was standing alone, to place a few flowers
+which she carried upon the hollow-sounding oaken case.
+
+"Come," whispered a voice at her side, and she took the hand held out to
+her by her cousin, and was led away, feeling that she was alone now in
+the world.  Wealth, position, such as few women at her age could claim,
+all seemed as nothing.  She was alone.
+
+As the mourners went sadly away, Chris Lisle walked slowly up to the
+entrance of the vault, and stood gazing down at the shining breastplate.
+
+"Good-bye," he said softly.  "I will not say I forgive you, only that
+you did not know me.  It was a mistake."
+
+As he moved away, he was aware of a ghastly countenance at a little
+distance, as Glyddyr stood watching him; but his attention was taken off
+directly by a tall, dark figure going slowly to the door of the vault,
+to stand there with hands clasped, and looking down.
+
+He could not have told afterwards what it was that checked him from
+following the returning procession, but he stayed to watch that one
+figure, as, regardless of those around, it drooped for a moment, and
+then sank slowly upon its knees, and cover its face with its hands, and
+remain there as if weeping bitterly.
+
+There was a group of rough quarrymen close at hand, all waiting to go up
+and have a last look at "the master," before discussing among
+themselves, once more, their project to cut and erect a granite pillar
+over Gartram's tomb.
+
+They were so near Chris that he could hear the words, as one of the
+party said,--
+
+"Poor Ike Woodham's widow.  Ay, lads, she's lost the pride of her life
+once more.  He was downright good to her when Woodham went."
+
+Chris took a step or two forward, for the solitary figure attracted him,
+and then another and another, quietly, as he heard a low, piteous wail,
+and saw the woman rise tottering to her feet, swaying to and fro.
+
+"Forgive me! oh, forgive me!" she sobbed; and then she threw up her
+hands to clutch at vacancy.
+
+Another moment, and she would have fallen heavily into the great granite
+vault, but Chris was in time: he flung an arm round her, and snatched
+her back insensible.  She had swooned away, and had to be carried into
+the church till a vehicle had been procured; and Glyddyr had the
+satisfaction of seeing Chris enter the rough carriage and support the
+suffering woman till they reached the Fort.
+
+"Thank you, Mr Chris," she said hurriedly; "I'm better now," and as he
+left her immediately, she hurried up to her room, opened her box, and
+poured out a portion of the contents of a phial into a glass.
+
+Half an hour later, Claude was roused from her sad musings by one of the
+servants, who announced that Mrs Woodham was "took bad."
+
+It was something to divert Claude's thoughts, and she hurried up to the
+bedroom to lay her hand upon the woman's burning brow.
+
+"Are you in pain, Sarah?"
+
+"Hah!"
+
+A long sigh, as if the cool, soft hand had acted like a professors rod
+in an electrical experiment, and the pain had been discharged.
+
+"No, no--no pain."
+
+The woman's eyes were closed, now that she had taken hold of the hand
+that had seemed to give her rest, and clung to it, keeping it by her
+cheek as she half-turned over in her bed; while Claude sent word that
+she was going to stay there and watch.  And there, in spite of Mary
+Dillon's prayers to let her stay, she did watch, and listen to Sarah
+Woodham's muttered words.
+
+"At rest now," she cried twice.  "Now he will sleep; or will he meet him
+face to face?"
+
+Toward morning she slept calmly, and when, at daybreak, Mary stole into
+the room, exhaustion had done its work, and Claude was sleeping too.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter III.
+
+GLYDDYR REQUIRES A PICK-ME-UP.
+
+"Guv'nor aboard?"
+
+Glyddyr was seated in the cabin, restlessly smoking a cigar, and gazing
+through the open window at the Fort, where it stood up grey and
+glittering in the sunshine, and holding within it, protected by the
+memory of its builder, the two objects for which Parry Glyddyr longed.
+
+He had made up his mind a dozen times over to go straight to the place
+and see Claude, but the recollection of that horrible night kept him
+back, and he gave up, to go on pacing the little saloon, talking to
+himself wildly.
+
+For how, he said, could he approach Claude now--he, the destroyer of her
+father's life--go and ask her to listen to him, talk to her and try to
+lead her into thinking that, before long, she must become his wife--tell
+her that it was her duty, that it was her father's wish, when all the
+time it would seem to him that the mocking, angry spirit of the dead
+would be pervading his old home, looking at him furtively from his
+easy-chair, from his window and door, as he had seen him look a score of
+times before.
+
+No: it was too horrible; he dared not.
+
+Three times since Gartram's death he had, with great effort, written
+kindly letters--he could not go to the Fort and speak--telling Claude
+that she was not to think him unfeeling for not calling upon her, but to
+attribute it to a delicacy upon his part--a desire not to intrude upon
+her at such a time; and that he was going away for a cruise, but would
+shortly be back, then he would call.
+
+Three times he did set sail, and as many times did he come back into the
+harbour after being out for a few hours, to the disgust of the crew.
+
+"The skipper's mad," they said; "drinks a deal too much, and he'll have
+the `horrors' if he don't mind.  He used to be able to cruise a bit, and
+now, if there's a screw loose in the engine, she careens over, or
+there's a cloud to wind'ard, he's back into port, and here we are
+getting rusty for want of a run."
+
+It was always so.  So soon as they were a few miles away, Glyddyr saw
+his rival taking advantage of his absence, and winning Claude over to
+his side, and with her the wealth that was to have been his.
+
+"If I hadn't been such a fool," he would mutter, "I might have had it
+easy enough."  And he would sit day after day watching the Fort with his
+double glass, thinking of the wealth lying there--how easily it could be
+snatched by foul means, seeing how well he knew the place.
+
+But common sense would step in then, and remind him that everything
+would be locked up now, perhaps sealed, and that Gartram's arrangements
+were secure enough to set even burglars at defiance.  No; it must be by
+fair play.  He must lose no more time, but go to the Fort, and quietly
+show Claude that he was waiting, and contrive to make her confide in
+him--let him help her, so that he might gradually strengthen his
+position.
+
+"And it wants no strengthening," he said angrily; "it was her father's
+wish, and we are betrothed."
+
+Then a fit of trembling assailed him, and he shrank from going up to the
+place, where it would seem as if Gartram were standing at the entrance,
+stern and forbidding, to keep him back.
+
+He flew to brandy again, to steady his shaking nerves.
+
+"No," he gasped, as he drained his glass; "I can't do it.  I'm bad
+enough, but I can't go and court the daughter after--"
+
+"Curse you, be quiet!" he cried, smiting himself across the mouth.  "Do
+you want to blab to everybody the story of the accident?"
+
+He seized the binocular again to watch the way up to the Fort, in
+jealous dread lest Chris Lisle should go up there; but, though he was
+constantly watching, and often saw Chris go out from his lodgings, it
+was mostly with his rod upon his shoulder, and in the other direction--
+toward the bridge and the glen.
+
+And so the days glided by, till one morning, as he sat watching, longing
+to go up to the Fort, but putting off his visit till time had made him
+more confident and firm, he suddenly caught sight of a figure--the tall,
+sturdy figure of a man--going up to the entrance-gate.
+
+Glyddyr was all excitement on the instant.  A stranger--a well-dressed
+man--going up there!  What could it mean?
+
+He hardly left the little porthole through which he watched that day,
+but was constantly directing his glasses at the grey building.
+
+Towards afternoon he saw the tall man come out from the study window,
+and begin walking up and down with his hands behind his back; then he
+stopped in a corner sheltered from the wind, and directly after there
+came a faint film of blue smoke rising, and Glyddyr looked on as the
+stranger walked to and fro.
+
+"One of the old man's best cigars, I'll be bound," muttered Glyddyr,
+laying down the glass, and biting his nails.  "Who can he be?"
+
+Ten minutes after, as Glyddyr sat there, glass in hand, he saw two
+figures in black come out of the front entrance, and go along the
+terrace a little way, to stand watching the sea.
+
+He had it all there in miniature within the double circle of those
+glasses: Claude and Mary Dillon; and he could almost make out the
+expression upon the two pale countenances, till they moved slowly away
+and joined the tall gentleman who was walking up and down, and for the
+next hour they were in his company, ending by going in together, and the
+terrace was blank.
+
+"A visitor--seems to be young--on familiar terms.  There is no brother;
+I never heard of a cousin.  Who can it be?"
+
+Glyddyr gnawed his moustache, for here was a fresh complication.  He
+could see no other reason for a visitor to be at Gartram's house than as
+a fortune-hunter in search of Claude's hand.  This, then, was a new
+danger--from a man who was openly received there, and seemed quite at
+home.  So that, while he was watching for the dangers of an assault upon
+the Fort by Chris Lisle, another had entered and taken possession.
+
+"While I, like a cursed coward, have hung about, not daring to renew my
+suit."
+
+"Guv'nor aboard?"
+
+Glyddyr had heard no splash of oars, nor the light jar of a boat
+touching his yacht side, but that voice made him start to his feet, and
+stand grinding his teeth.
+
+"All right, I'll go down."
+
+The next minute he was face to face with Gellow, dressed in a
+jaunty-looking yachting suit, and smoking a very strong cigar.
+
+"Well, Guvnor," he said, with an unpleasant grin, as he looked Glyddyr
+in the face, "there's my hand if you like to take it; if you don't, you
+can leave it alone, for it's all the same to me.  We parted huffy and
+short, and I'll own up I was going to be very nasty.  You kicked out,
+and it made me feel it.  I was going to bite, Glyddyr, but I said to
+myself: `No; we've been good friends, and I won't round upon him now.'"
+
+"Why have you come down?"
+
+"Now, come, don't talk like that to a man who wants to help you.  Come
+down to see you, of course."
+
+"For money--to badger me for payment of some of your cursed bills."
+
+"Oh, Glyddyr, my dear boy, what a fellow you are!  No; I forgive you
+your nastiness, and I haven't come down for money--there."
+
+"Then why have you come?"
+
+"Two reasons."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"To see how you were getting on."
+
+"That's only one."
+
+"To have a chat with you about a certain lady."
+
+Glyddyr winced, and Gellow noticed it, but made no sign.
+
+"We'll talk that over after a bit.  But how are you getting on over
+yonder?"
+
+Glyddyr made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Your digestion's wrong, dear boy--that's what's the matter with you.
+But I congratulate you."
+
+"Con--what?"
+
+"Gratulate you, dear boy.  Of course, I saw all about that poor old chap
+dying of a drop too much."
+
+Glyddyr shivered.
+
+"But it's a grand thing for you.  Easy for you to go and hang up your
+hat behind the door of as nice a bit of property as I ever saw.  Pretty
+young wife, and your yacht, and a racehorse or two: you'll be able to do
+that.  By George, you're a lucky man."
+
+Glyddyr drew a long breath, and Gellow threw himself on the padded seat.
+
+"Might as well have shaken hands," he said; "but, bah! it's only form.
+Very sad about the old chap, but a grand stroke of fate for you.  I'm
+glad you've stopped on here.  Very wise: because, of course, there's
+sure to be a shoal of poor relatives wanting to nibble the cake--your
+cake--our cake, eh?"
+
+"So that's why you've come down?"
+
+"Yes.  Been sooner, but a certain lady has taken up a lot of my time.
+You didn't want her here now.  I've plenty of time, though.  I knew you
+were on the spot, and that nothing would be done till the old gentleman
+had been put away quietly, and the lady had time to order the mourning.
+Oh, I say, Glyddyr! you'll excuse me, but--"
+
+"But what, man?"
+
+"Don't be so snaggy to a man who is helping you.  But what bad form."
+
+"I don't understand you."
+
+"Look at yourself in the glass.  Promised wife in deep mourning, and you
+in blue serge and a red tie.  Why, you ought to be as solemn looking as
+an undertaker."
+
+Glyddyr involuntarily glanced at himself in a mirrored panel at the side
+of the saloon.
+
+"Change all that, dear boy.  That's where I come in so useful, you see."
+
+Glyddyr moved impatiently.
+
+"You see, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm quite as good, or better.  There are
+not many legal dodges I'm not up to, and you can take me with you to the
+house, introduce me to the young lady, and I can put her up to saving
+hundreds in rental on the estates.  When are you going next?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You'll want a bit of money, too.  Don't stint yourself--I'm at your
+back all ready, so that you may cut it fat right through.  By George,
+Glyddyr, you are lucky.  The estate is about as good as a million of
+money."
+
+"How do you know?" said Glyddyr savagely.
+
+"How do I know, man?" said Gellow, laughing.  "Used my wits.  Fine thing
+wits.  You began life with a pot of money.  I began life with tuppence.
+But it's you fellows who get the luck, and turn out millionaires."
+
+"Look here, Mr Gellow--"
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, man.  How huffy you will be to your best friend!
+Come, you must want my help, so let's talk business over quietly.  When
+are you going over yonder?"
+
+"I told you I don't know."
+
+"Gammon!  Don't be absurd, man, and talk rough just because we were a
+little out last time I was down.  That's all over.  You talk as if you
+wanted to throw me over, and get your millions without my help; but you
+can't do it, my dear boy.  Let alone what you owe me, you know, I must
+stand in here."
+
+"Stand in!  What do you mean?"
+
+"You know."
+
+"Why, you scoundrel--"
+
+"Now, there you go again.  You force me to take up the cudgels in my
+defence."
+
+"Leave this room."
+
+"Cabin, dear boy, cabin.  But what for?  To go ashore, walk up to
+Gartram's Fort--I mean Glyddyr's Fort, if I like it to be--ask to see
+the young lady, and tell her exactly what you are, and how you stand
+with a certain person."
+
+Glyddyr stared at him helplessly.
+
+"No: you wouldn't drive me to do such a thing--such a cowardly thing as
+it really would be--in self-defence.  No, no, my dear boy; you are
+really too hard on an old friend--far too hard."
+
+Glyddyr's teeth grated together in his impotent rage.
+
+"Come, come, come, shake hands, and let me help you to pay your debts
+like a gentleman, and to drop into this good thing easily and nicely as
+can be."
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Tell me how matters stand.  I know pretty well, but I should like to
+hear from you."
+
+"You'll hear nothing from me."
+
+"Very well.  I'll tell you what I know.  You can correct me where I am
+wrong, eh?  Now, then, to begin with.  Papa told the young lady she was
+to marry you.  That ought to be good enough to carry the day, but--
+there's your little but again--there's a gentleman, a Mr Christopher
+Lisle--old friend, playmate, and the rest of it--whom the lady likes,
+eh?"
+
+Glyddyr uttered an ejaculation.
+
+"And then there's something else on.  Tall, big gent stopping at the
+house.  Young lady and he are shut up together a deal."
+
+"How do you know all this?" cried Glyddyr, thrown off his guard by a
+dread lest, after all, Claude should escape him.
+
+"How do I know?  Now, come; isn't there a tall, biggish gent staying at
+the house?"
+
+Glyddyr nodded.
+
+"Of course there is.  I don't say things unless they are right.  Now,
+what does he want?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know!  Well, how long has he been there?"
+
+"I don't know that either."
+
+Gellow sat up suddenly, and glared at Glyddyr.
+
+"Look here; you are not playing with a good thing, are you?"
+
+Glyddyr shook his head.
+
+"When were you there last?"
+
+"Mr Gellow, I object to the line of cross-examination that you are
+taking."
+
+"Do you?  Then look here, Mr Parry Glyddyr, you'll have to object.  If
+you don't know what's good for you, I must.  Now, then: when were you
+there last?"
+
+"I have not been there since Mr Gartram died."
+
+"Well, I am!" cried Gellow.  "You're engaged to the young lady, and
+haven't been since the father's death.  Why?"
+
+Glyddyr was silent.
+
+"Good heavens, man, don't turn stunt like that.  There isn't a tiff on,
+is there?"
+
+"I felt it better not to go near the house while the poor girl is in so
+much trouble."
+
+"Hark at him!" cried Gellow excitedly, "when every day he stops away may
+mean ten thousand pounds."
+
+"She may have been ill, and I have been unwell," said Glyddyr sullenly.
+
+"And all the time the old man's money might be running down the sink
+hole, or into the poor relatives' pockets.  What are you at?"
+
+"I tell you I couldn't go to the house with that old man lying there
+dead," cried Glyddyr, with a half-suppressed shudder.
+
+"Look at him!" cried Gellow angrily, "shivering and shaking as if he had
+been on the drink for six months.  Not afraid of a dead man, are you?"
+
+"Your language is revolting," cried Glyddyr passionately.
+
+"Well, ain't it enough to make any man revolt?  Why, you ought to have
+hold there; you ought to have taken possession and looked after
+everything.  It's as good as your own.  Oh, where would you be if I
+didn't look after you.  Now, then: you'd better get over there at once."
+
+"No," said Glyddyr, "not yet;" and, in spite of himself, he shuddered,
+and then glanced at his visitor to see if it had been noticed.
+
+"Look at him!  Why, the old man isn't there now.  There, I won't bully
+you, dear boy.  I see how it is.  Ring the bell; have in the steward,
+and let me mix you a pick-me-up.  You're down, regularly down.  I'll
+soon wind you up, and set you going again.  I'm like a father to you."
+
+Glyddyr obeyed in a weak, helpless way, ringing for the steward, and
+then ordering in the spirits.
+
+"Bring in the _liqueurs_ too, my lad--Curacoa, Chartreuse, anything.--
+You want me now, old fellow, but you must take care.  You're as white as
+wax, and your hand's all of a tremble.  It won't do.  You don't drink
+fair.  Now, as soon as your man brings in the tackle, I'll give you a
+dose, and then you've got to go over yonder."
+
+"No," said Glyddyr hoarsely, "no: not to-day."
+
+"Yes, to-day.  You don't want two chaps cutting the ground from under
+your feet.--Hah, that's your sort, steward.  Better than being aboard
+ship, and having to put your hand in your pocket every time you want a
+drink.  Needn't wait."
+
+The man left the little saloon, and Gellow deftly concocted a draught
+with seltzer and _liqueurs_, which Glyddyr took with trembling hand, and
+tossed off.
+
+"Talk about making a new man!" cried Gellow.  "You feel better already,
+don't you?"
+
+Glyddyr nodded.
+
+"Of course you do.  Now, then, let's take the boat and go over yonder.
+I'm curious to see the place."
+
+"No: impossible," said Glyddyr, flushing.
+
+"Not a bit impossible.  Come on, and I'll back you up."
+
+"No: I will not take you there."
+
+"Coming round more and more," said Gellow, laughing.  "Well, will you go
+alone?"
+
+"Not to-day."
+
+"You'll leave those two chaps to oust you out of what is your own?"
+
+"No.  I'll go and call."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Now: at once."
+
+"That's your sort," cried Gellow.  "Never you say I'm not your friend."
+
+Ten minutes later the boat was manned, and Glyddyr was ready to step in,
+but Gellow laid his hand upon his arm, and drew him back.
+
+"Don't," he said, almost with tears in his eyes; "don't go like that,
+dear boy."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Go and change that tie.  If you haven't got a black one, put on a
+white."
+
+Glyddyr obeyed him sullenly, and changed his tie before starting, while
+his visitor went down into the saloon, helped himself to a cigar, and
+took up a glass and the brandy decanter.
+
+"A nip wouldn't do me any harm," he said with a laugh, and, removing the
+stopper, poured out a goodly dram.
+
+It was half-way to his lips when he stopped, and poured it back.
+
+"No," he said quickly, "I want a clear head now; I can enjoy myself when
+I've got Master Glyddyr quite in trim."
+
+He went on deck, to begin smoking and asking questions of the two men
+left on board; but all the time he had an eye on Glyddyr's boat,
+watching it till it reached the pier-steps, and then he was able to see
+its owner at intervals, till he disappeared among the houses.
+
+After this, Gellow went below and used the binocular, fixing it upon the
+Fort till he made out Glyddyr approaching the house, where he stood in
+the entry for a few moments talking to a servant, and then turned away.
+
+Gellow set down the glass, thrust his hands in his pockets, and stood
+with the cigar in the exact centre of his lips, puffing away
+rapidly--"For all the world like a steam launch," said one of the men
+left on board when talking about it afterwards--till Glyddyr came on
+board.
+
+"Out," said the latter laconically.
+
+"Fashionable slang for engaged with another chap," said Gellow, with a
+sneer.
+
+Glyddyr turned upon him fiercely.
+
+"Don't be waxey, dear boy," said Gellow; "but it was quite time I came
+down."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The progress of affairs at the Fort had been business-like meanwhile.
+
+"I beg your pardon, miss."
+
+"It is nothing, Woodham; come in," said Claude quietly, as the woman was
+withdrawing after giving an unheeded tap, and entering the room.
+
+"Mr Trevithick's compliments, ma'am, and would you see him in the
+study?"
+
+"Yes, at once," said Claude; and both thought how she had seemed to
+change during the past few weeks, from the slight girl into the
+dignified woman.  "Come, Mary."
+
+"Isn't it private business?" said Mary, shrinking back strangely.
+
+"Yes, dear; our private business," said Claude, and they passed out,
+Sarah Woodham holding open the door.
+
+Claude gave her an affectionate smile, and crossed to the study; and, as
+the door closed after them, Sarah Woodham stood alone in the doorway,
+with her hands clasped and eyes closed as she muttered softly--
+
+"And let me live for her--die for her, grateful for her undeserved love,
+in expiation--oh, my God, in expiation!"
+
+"Ah!" said Trevithick, rising from a chair at the table covered with
+papers, and looking like the great, heavy, bashful Englishman he was, as
+he placed chairs opposite to where he had been seated, "I am sorry to
+trouble you, Miss Gartram, Miss Dillon too," he said with a smile, as he
+beamed upon her.
+
+Mary gave him an angry, resentful look, and he turned chapfallen on the
+instant, and became the man of business again, then cold, and seeming to
+perspire figures.
+
+"Miss Dillon takes part in our little conference, Miss Gartram?" he
+said, rather stiffly.
+
+"Of course.  My cousin is, as it were, my sister, Mr Trevithick."
+
+"Yes, of course," he said, as he slowly resumed his seat, pursed up his
+lips a little, and then he took up a pen, with the holder of which he
+scratched his head as he studied a paper before him on the table.  "Are
+you ready, Miss Gartram?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Well, then, I have very bad news for you, I am sorry to say."
+
+"I am used to bad news, Mr Trevithick."
+
+"My dear madam, I spoke too bluntly.  I meant bad news as to money
+matters.  Forgive me my rough way.  I am a man of business--a mere
+machine."
+
+Claude smiled her thanks, for the words were uttered with a manly
+sympathy that was pleasant to her ears, and Mr Trevithick felt better,
+and beamed again at Mary.
+
+Mary once more resented that beam, and Trevithick passed his hand
+through his hair, which more than ever resembled a brush, and sighed,
+and said--
+
+"I have gone over all papers and accounts, Miss Gartram, over and over
+again, and an auditor may perhaps find an error, but for the life of me
+I can't tell where, for I have studied the figures night and day ever
+since I came here last, and I cannot bring them right.  I was wrong to
+the extent of one, seven, eight; but I found a receipt afterwards,
+evidently carelessly thrown into the drawer before entering, and I wish
+I could find the other."
+
+"What other?" said Mary sharply.
+
+"That other," said Mr Trevithick, beaming at her again, being silently
+snubbed, and collapsing once more.  "As I make it, Miss Gartram," he
+continued, in the most stern and business way, "you inherit from my late
+respected client, your father, the freehold quarry, this residence, also
+freehold and of great value, while the quarry is almost inexhaustible;
+the furniture and plate, good debts, etcetera, and five hundred and
+twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and forty-nine pounds, seven
+shillings and four-pence, including half-a-sheet of stamps."
+
+"Indeed?" said Claude, with a sigh.
+
+"What bad news!" said Mary, with preternatural solemnity.
+
+"That is to come, Miss Dillon," said Trevithick, with a look of triumph
+which met so sharp a glance that it was turned aside on the instant, and
+he took refuge in his papers.
+
+"Yes, madam," he repeated, "that is to come.  There is a very serious
+deficit, Miss Gartram.  I find that there should have been five hundred
+and sixty-eight thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine, seven and
+four-pence--a deficit, you see, of forty-one thousand pounds--I need not
+add, a very large sum."
+
+"Yes," said Claude quietly.
+
+"Yes," said Trevithick.  "Well, madam, what have you to say?"
+
+"Nothing, Mr Trevithick."
+
+"But really, my dear madam, I think you ought to say something about
+this sum, and give me some instructions what to do to recover it."
+
+Claude shook her head gravely.
+
+"No," she said, "I cannot regard this as a loss in the presence of one
+so much greater.  Thank you very much, Mr Trevithick, for all that you
+have done; and now, pray, give me some advice as to what to do with this
+money."
+
+"Good, my dear madam, and that I am sure you will do."
+
+"I mean as to its investment."
+
+"To be sure.  I was coming to that, for the sooner this heavy amount is
+out of your hands the more comfortable you will be."
+
+"I said something like this to my cousin a little while back, Mr
+Trevithick," said Mary sharply.  "Pray give her some better advice than
+that."
+
+The solicitor looked disconcerted, but he recovered himself.
+
+"Well, Miss Gartram, I have plenty of clients who want money, and would
+agree to pay five per centum; but, excuse me, you don't want to make
+money, and, as your father's trusted legal adviser, I shall give his
+daughter the most valuable advice I can."
+
+"And what is that, Mr Trevithick?"
+
+"Let me at once invest all this money for you in Consols.  Only two and
+a half now, but there will be no fluctuations, no heavy dividend one
+year, nothing at all the next, and some day perhaps failure.  It is very
+poor advice, perhaps, but safe as the Bank of England."
+
+"Take the necessary steps at once, Mr Trevithick," said Claude
+decisively.
+
+"Thank you, madam," making a note; "it shall be done."
+
+"And that is all?" said Claude.
+
+"Oh, no, my dear madam.  The next question is this residence.  If you
+will part with it, I have a client who will give a very handsome sum--
+its full value--and take it, furniture and all.  Cash."
+
+"And is that all?" said Claude quietly.
+
+"No, madam, there is the quarry.  I should advise you to sell that to a
+small company.  You can get your own price, for it is very valuable, and
+retain shares in it if you liked; but I should say no--sell; add the
+purchase money to that for this house, and let me invest it in Consols
+also."
+
+"No," said Claude, rising, and speaking firmly, though with tears in her
+eyes; "the opening of that quarry was my father's dearest enterprise,
+and the building of this house his greatest pleasure.  While I live, his
+quarry and his people shall be my life business, and nothing shall be
+touched, nothing shall be changed in this his house."
+
+"My dear Miss Gartram," said the lawyer, colouring like a girl, as he
+rose and stretched out his hand to take Claude's, which he raised
+reverently to his lips, "I feel proud of the confidence you placed in
+me.  I feel far more proud now, and I honour you for what you have just
+said.  Your wishes shall be carried out.  One word more.  You will
+require some assistance over the commercial matters of the quarry--a
+gentleman learned in stone, and--"
+
+"No, Mr Trevithick, I shall only want help as to the monetary affairs
+of the business.  That I hope you will oblige me by supervising
+yourself.  The workpeople will help me in the rest."
+
+The lawyer bowed, and once more beamed on Mary, but looked stern again.
+
+"Now, have you done, Mr Trevithick?" said Claude.
+
+"Not quite.  The deficit."
+
+"If, as you say, there is a deficit, it must remain.  There is enough."
+
+"But my late client would not have rested till it was put straight."
+
+"No," said Claude dreamily; "but my father may have had some project of
+which we are ignorant.  We had better wait.  You will stay with us a few
+days longer?"
+
+"I should say no," replied Trevithick; "but I cannot conscientiously
+leave these premises till this money is safe.  Till then, my dear madam,
+I am your guest."
+
+Claude would have spoken again, but the look she cast round the study
+brought up such a flood of painful memories that she could only make a
+sign to Mary to follow, as she hurried from the room.
+
+"A woman any man might love," said the lawyer, as soon as he was alone.
+"I hope no money-hunting scoundrel will catch her up.  No; she is too
+strong-minded and firm.  Now, what have I done to offend little Mary?"
+he added, with a sigh.  "Bless her, I don't get along with her as I
+could wish."
+
+He was quiet and thoughtful for a few moments, and then began tapping
+the table.
+
+"Gartram had that forty--one thousand.  His books say so, and he was
+correct as an actuary.  Some one knew the secret of this room, and got
+at that cash."
+
+"Yes.  I should like to find that out.  It would please little Mary,
+too."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter IV.
+
+WIMBLE SEIZES THE CLUE.
+
+"Love is blind," said Michael Wimble, with a piteous sigh.  "Yes, love
+is blind."
+
+He had been a great many times past Mrs Sarson's cottage, always with a
+stern determination in his breast to treat her with distance and
+resentment, as one who shunned him for the sake of her lodger; but so
+surely as he caught a glimpse of the pleasant lady at door or window,
+his heart softened, and he knew that if she would only turn to him,
+there was forgiveness for her and more.
+
+Upon the morning in question he had had his constitutional, and found a
+splendid specimen of an auk washed up, quite fresh, which he meant to
+stuff and add to his museum.
+
+An hour later a neat little servant-maid came to the door with a parcel
+and a letter.
+
+"With missus's compliments."
+
+Wimble took the letter and parcel, his hands trembling and a mist coming
+before his eyes, for it was Mrs Sarson's little maid.
+
+"We are all wrong," he said, as he hurried in, his heart beating
+complete forgiveness, happiness in store, and everything exactly as he
+wished.
+
+He turned back to the door, slipped the bolt, and then seated himself at
+the table with his back to the window, and cut the string of the parcel
+with a razor.
+
+"She has relented, and it is a present," he said to himself, as he
+tingled with pleasure; "a present and a letter."
+
+He stopped, with his fingers twitching nervously and his eyes going from
+parcel to note and back again.
+
+Which should he open first--note or parcel?
+
+He took the parcel, unfastened the paper, and found a neat cardboard
+box; and he had only to take off the lid to see its contents, but he
+held himself back from the fulfilment of his delight by taking up the
+note, opening it, and reading--
+
+"Mrs Sarson would be greatly obliged by Mr Wimble's attention to the
+enclosed at once.  To be returned within a week."
+
+"Attention--returned--a week!" faltered Wimble; and with a sudden snatch
+he raised the lid, and sat staring dismally at its contents.
+
+"And me to have seen her all these times and not to know that," he
+groaned, as he rested his elbows on the table and his brow upon his
+hands, gazing the while dismally into the box.  "Ah! false one--false as
+false can be.  Why, I've gazed at her fondly hundreds o' times, but love
+is blind, and--yes," he muttered, as he took the object from the box and
+rested it upon his closed fist in the position it would have occupied
+when in use, "there is some excuse.  As good a skin parting as I ever
+saw.  One of Ribton's, I suppose."
+
+There was a long and dismal silence as Michael Wimble, feeling that he
+was thoroughly disillusioned, slowly replaced the object in its box.
+
+"How can a woman be so deceitful, and all for the sake of show?  And me
+never to know that she wore a front!"
+
+"All, well!" he sighed, "I can't touch it to-day," and rising slowly he
+replaced it in the box, dropped the note within, roughly secured the
+packet, and opened a drawer at the side.
+
+As he pulled the drawer sharply out, something rolled from front to
+back, and then, as the drawer was out to its full extent, rolled down to
+the front.
+
+He picked it out, dropped the cardboard box within, and shut it up,
+ignoring the bottle he held in his hand as he walked away to slip the
+bolt back and throw open the door.
+
+He was just in time to receive a customer in the shape of Doctor Asher,
+who entered and nodded.
+
+"I want you, Wimble," he said.  "When can you come up?  Beginning to
+show a little grey about the roots, am I not?"
+
+"Yes, sir, decidedly," said Wimble, as the doctor took off his hat, and
+displayed his well-kept dark hair.
+
+"When will you come, then?"
+
+"When you like, sir," said Wimble, unconsciously rubbing the tip of his
+nose with the cork of the little bottle he held in his hand.
+
+"To-morrow afternoon, then," said the doctor sharply; "and you needn't
+shake the hair dye in my face."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir?  Oh, I see!  That's not hair dye, sir."
+
+"What is it, then?  New dodge for bringing hair on bald places?"
+
+He held out his hand for the bottle, and the barber passed it at once.
+
+"Oh, no, sir," he said, "nothing of that kind."
+
+With the action born of long habit, the doctor took out the cork,
+sniffed, held the bottle up to the light, shook it, applied a finger to
+the neck, shook the bottle again, tasted the drug at the end of his
+finger, and quickly spat it out.
+
+"Why, Wimble, what the dickens are you doing with chloral?"
+
+"Nothing, sir, nothing; only an old bottle."
+
+"Throw it away, then," said the doctor hastily.  "Don't take it.  Very
+bad habit.  Recollect that's how poor Mr Gartram came to his end.
+Good-day.  Come round, then, at three."
+
+"Yes, sir, certainly, sir; but you forgot to--"
+
+"Oh, I beg pardon.  Yes, of course," said the doctor, handing back the
+bottle, and then, beating himself with his right-hand glove, he walked
+hastily out of the place.
+
+Wimble stood looking after his visitor till he was out of sight, and
+then walked slowly back into his museum to operate upon the dead bird,
+which lay where he had placed it upon a shelf ready for skinning.
+
+"Ah," he said mournfully, as he rubbed his nose slowly with the cork of
+the little bottle, "what a world of deception it is.  There is nothing
+honest.  Were all more or less like specimens.  A front, and me not to
+have known it all this time.  If she had taken me sooner into her
+confidence, I wouldn't have cared.  The doctor did.  Hah!  I wonder who
+ever suspected him, with his clear dark locks, as I keep so right.  Yes,
+he's a deceiver, and without me what would he look like in a couple of
+months?--Deceit, deceit, deceit.--And I trusted her so.  It's taking a
+mean advantage of a man.
+
+"Well, it was a mark of confidence, and perhaps I have been all wrong.
+It shows she is waiting to trust me, and ought I to?  Well, we shall
+see."
+
+Michael Wimble looked a little brighter, and then his eyes fell upon the
+bottle, which he shook as the doctor had shaken it, took out the cork,
+applied a finger to it, and tasted in the same way, quickly spitting it
+out as he became aware of the sharp taste.
+
+"What did he say: chloral?  Don't take any of it.  No, I sha'n't do
+that."
+
+Wimble suddenly became thoughtful and dreamy as he replaced the cork,
+and he seemed to see the bright ray of light once more on the dry patch
+of sand beyond where the tide had reached.
+
+Then he thought about Gartram's death by chloral.
+
+"Might have been the same bottle," he said thoughtfully; "took what he
+wanted, and then threw it out of the window."
+
+He looked at the tiny drop in the bottom, turned it over and over, and
+his thoughts seemed to run riot in his brain, till he grew confused at
+their number.  But after a time he followed the one theme again.
+
+"What a piece of evidence to have brought up at the inquest.  How
+important a witness I should have been.  But why should he have thrown
+the bottle out of the window?  He didn't poison himself.  He wasn't the
+man to do that.  Thousands upon thousands of money.  Everything he could
+wish for.  Regular king of the place.  He wouldn't do that--he
+couldn't."
+
+Wimble stood with his brow wrinkled up, and then all at once, as if
+startled by the suddenness of a thought, he dropped the bottle on the
+oilcloth and drew back, gazing at it in a horrified way, his eyes
+dilating, and the white showing all round.
+
+"Somebody must have given it to him."
+
+"No, no.  They wouldn't do that; it would be murder.  No one would try
+to murder him."
+
+He passed his hand over his forehead, and drew it away quite wet.
+
+"His money!" he half whispered, as the thought seemed to grow and grow.
+"They say he kept thousands up there.  Or some one who hated him, as
+lots of people did."
+
+Wimble dropped into his shaving chair, and sat thinking of the numbers
+of workpeople who had quarrelled with Gartram and spoken threateningly;
+but he did not feel that it was possible for any one of these to have
+done such a deed.
+
+"Some one who hated him--some one who wanted to get rid of him--some one
+who, who--no, no, no, it's too horrible to think about.  I wouldn't know
+if I could."
+
+He lifted the little bottle between his finger and thumb, and drew back
+with his arm extended to the utmost to hurl the little vessel across the
+road, and right out toward the sea.
+
+But he checked himself thoughtfully, drew back, and went across his shop
+to the side.  Here he stood, bottle in hand, thinking deeply, before
+slowly opening the drawer and placing it in a corner.
+
+"It would be very valuable," he said softly, "if that was the bottle
+some one used to poison the old man; and if it was, why, I haven't got a
+specimen in my museum that would attract people half so much.  `The
+Danmouth murder; the bottle that held the poison,' Why, they'd come in
+hundreds to see it."
+
+He took the phial out again, for it seemed to have a strange fascination
+for him, and after staring at it till his hands grew moist, he took out
+a piece of white paper, carefully rolled it therein, and placed it in
+another drawer, which he had to unlock, and fastened afterwards with the
+greatest care.
+
+"That bottle's worth at least a hundred pound," he said huskily, as he
+put the key in his pocket.  "It will be quite a little fortune to me.
+
+"Somebody who hated him--somebody who wanted him out of the way," he
+said, as he tapped his teeth with the key.  "No, I can't think, and
+won't try any more.  I'm not a detective, and I don't want to know.
+
+"Some one who hated him and had quarrelled with him, and who wanted him
+out of the way."
+
+In spite of his determination not to think any more of the subject, it
+came back persistently, and at last, to clear his brain and drive away
+the thoughts, he took down his hat, and determined to let the museum
+take care of itself for an hour, while he walked down along the beach.
+
+He knew, as he came to this determination, that he would go straight
+down beneath the Fort, and look at the spot where he found the bottle;
+but, all the same, he felt that he must go, and, putting on his hat, he
+took the key out from inside of the door, and standing just inside the
+shop, began to put the key into the outer portion of the lock, as the
+thought came again more strongly than ever--
+
+"Some one who hated him and had quarrelled with him, and wanted him out
+of the way."
+
+He was in the act of closing his door as a quick step came along the
+path, and as the door closed, a voice said to some one--
+
+"How do, Edward?" and the speaker passed on with creel on back and
+salmon rod over his shoulder.
+
+Wimble darted back into the museum, shut the door, and stood trembling
+in the middle of the place.
+
+"Oh!" he said, in a hoarse whisper, as the great drops stood out upon
+his brow.  "What did Brime say?"
+
+He shivered, and his voice dropped into a whisper.
+
+"Mr Chris Lisle!  He was there that night!"
+
+Volume Three, Chapter V.
+
+MR WIMBLE IS IN DOUBT.
+
+"Want lodgings, sir?" said Reuben Brime taking his short black pipe from
+his lips, and gazing straight out to sea, as if he thought there was
+plenty of room for a good long rest out there.  Then straightening
+himself from having a good, thoughtful lean on the cliff rail, where he
+had been having his evening's idle after the day's work done, he turned,
+and, looking thoughtfully at a youngish man in tweeds, as if he were a
+plant not growing quite so satisfactorily as could be wished, he said
+again, in a tone of mild inquiry,--"Lodgings?"
+
+"Yes, lodgings," said the new-comer shortly.
+
+"Well, I was trying to think of some, sir; and I could have told you of
+the very thing if something as I had in hand had come up--I mean off."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the gardener thoughtfully.  "I don't mind who knows it.
+I'd got as nice a little cottage in my eye as any man would wish to
+have there, the money to buy all the furniture, as much more as was
+wanted, theirs being very old; and I could have said to you, `There's a
+bedroom and a setten'-room, and the best of attendance.'"
+
+"But it is not in hand, eh?"
+
+"In hand, sir?  No, sir; nothing like in hand."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Ah, well, I don't care who knows it now, sir.  Mebbe if she heard how
+it's talked about, and the man's disappointment, she may get better, and
+alter her mind."
+
+"She?  The lady?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the lady, as I may say I'd engaged myself to; but she's took
+bad and strange, and I suppose it's all off."
+
+"Ah, well, I'm sorry to hear that," said the stranger, looking amused,
+and as if he thought the man he addressed was a little wanting in
+brains.
+
+"Thank you, sir, kindly.  Lodgings?--no.  You see this isn't a seaside
+place."
+
+"Then what do you call it?" said the stranger.
+
+"Call it, sir?  Well, we calls it Danmouth, or, mostly, Dan'orth,
+because you see it's shorter, and more like one word."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know the name; but what do you call it if it isn't a seaside
+place?"
+
+"I calls it a port, sir, and as good a little port as there is anywheres
+about this coast.  Dinton and Bartoe and Minxton's seaside places, with
+lots of visitors and bathing machines, and bands and Punch and Judies.
+Lodgings, eh?  Let me see.  Lodgings for a gentleman?  What do you say
+to the Harbour Inn?  They've got as good a drop of beer there as a man
+could wish to drink."
+
+"No, no, I don't want to be at a public house.  I'm here for a
+fortnight's fishing, and I want nice, comfortable apartments."
+
+"And you want comfortable apartments?" said Brime respectfully, as he
+rubbed his sunburned face with the stem of his pipe.  "Fishing, eh?  You
+mean pottering about with a rod and line; not going with a boat and
+nets?"
+
+"Quite right."
+
+"I've got it," said the gardener.  "Mrs Sarson; she lets lodgings.
+Stop a moment.  I'll take you on to the museum."
+
+"Museum!  Hang it all, man, I'm not a specimen."
+
+Brime laughed for the first time for a month.
+
+"No, sir, you don't look as if you was stuffed.  I was going to take you
+to our barber's.  He knows everything; and he'll tell us whether Mrs
+Sarson can take you in."
+
+"Is it far--the museum?"
+
+"Only yonder.  Just where you see that man looking out of the door."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the stranger sharply.  "Yours seems a busy place."
+
+"Tidy, sir, tidy."
+
+"Whose castle's that?"
+
+"Mr Gartram's, sir.  Leastwise it was.  He's gone."
+
+"Oh!  Dead?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  The hardest and the best master as ever was.  Some on us'll
+miss him, I expect."
+
+"Curious kind of master, my lad, and likely to be missed.  Gartram?  Oh,
+yes, I know; the stone quarry man.  Mr Trevithick, in our town, has to
+do with his affairs."
+
+"If you talked all night, sir, you couldn't say a truer word than that.
+Mr Trevithick, sir, very big man, lawyer."
+
+"Yes; they call him Jumbo our way."
+
+Kck!
+
+Brime burst out into a monosyllabic half laugh, and then stopped short
+as Wimble was drawing back into his den to let them pass.
+
+"Here, Mr Wimble, sir, this gent wants to ask something about Mrs
+Sarson."
+
+"Eh!  Yes!" said the barber sharply; and the suspicious look which had
+been gathering of late in his face grew more intense.  "Step in, sir,
+pray," he added eagerly.
+
+"Oh, that's not worth while now," said the stranger, passing his hand
+over his chin.  "Give you a look in to-morrow.  My friend here thought
+you could tell me about Mrs Sarson's lodgings."
+
+"Yes," said Brime; "and--of course, this gent wants to go fishing, and
+Mr Lisle's always fishing."
+
+"Mr Lisle?" said the stranger.  "Christopher Lisle?"
+
+"That's the man, sir," said the barber sharply.  "You know anything
+about him, sir?"
+
+"Only that he has a good heavy account with our bank."
+
+Wimble looked sharply at the stranger, with his head on one side, and
+more than one eager question upon his lips.  But the new-comer felt that
+he had made a slip by talking too freely, and prevented him by asking a
+question himself.
+
+"Do you think Mrs Sarson could accommodate me?"
+
+"No, sir," said Wimble, looking at him searchingly.  "No: she has no
+room, I am sure.  Take the gentleman up to Mrs Lampton's at the top of
+the cliff road.  I daresay she could accommodate him."
+
+"Why, of course," said Brime; "the very place.  I never thought of
+that."
+
+"No, Mr Brime," said Wimble patronisingly, as he looked longingly at
+the visitor with cross-examination in his breast.  "Say I recommended
+the gentleman."
+
+"All right.  Come along, sir, I'll show you; and if you want a few worms
+for fishing, I'm your man."
+
+"Worms?" said the visitor, laughing.  "I always use flies."
+
+"Most gents do, sir.  Mr Chris Lisle does.  But the way to get hold of
+a good fish in a river is with a whacking great worm."
+
+"Do you know Mr Lisle?"
+
+"Know him?  Poor young man, yes."
+
+"Poor?  I don't call a gentleman who lately came in for a big fortune
+poor."
+
+"Big fortune, sir?  Mr Chris Lisle come in for a big fortune, sir?
+Hurrah!  Our young lady will be glad."
+
+The visitor was ready to pull himself up again sharp, for this was
+another mistake.
+
+Brime stopped, smiling, at a pretty cottage, where fuchsias and
+hydrangeas were blooming side by side with myrtles, and was going off,
+when the visitor offered him a shilling for his trouble.
+
+"Thankye, sir, and I hope you'll be comfortable," said the gardener,
+descending the chief path.--"Well, I am glad.  Come in for a large
+fortune.  Now, if I were him, I'd just send Mr Glyddyr to the right
+about, and get the business settled as soon as it seemed decent after
+master's death.  He is a good sort, is Mr Lisle, and he's fond enough
+of her.  Why, they'll be married now, and keep up the old place just as
+it is; and if I speak when we want more help, he isn't the gent to tell
+a hard-working man to get up a bit earlier and work a bit later.  Not
+he.  He made a friend of me when he gave me that half-sov'rin, and I
+made a friend of him when I caught him.  My, what a lark it was when I
+dropped on to him, and he thought it was the governor!  I know he did."
+
+Reuben Brime smiled as he had not smiled for days, and a minute or two
+later he grinned outright.  From his point of vantage, high up the cliff
+side, he could see to the mouth of the glen, and there, to his intense
+delight, he could just make out two figures in deep mourning, one tall
+and graceful, and the other short, and her head low down between her
+shoulders, walking away from him in the distance, and, not far behind, a
+sturdy-looking man in light brown tweeds, with a fishing creel slung at
+his back, and a rod over his shoulder, trying hard to overtake the pair
+in front.
+
+"Wouldn't give much for Mr Glyddyr's chance," thought Brime, as he
+watched the trio out of sight.  "Been an awfully cloudy time, but the
+sun's coming strong now, and things'll grow.  What a fellow I am to give
+up because she was a bit off.  Friends with the new guv'nor means
+friends with the new missus, and as Sarah about worships her, and'll do
+what she tells her, why, it'll come right in the end."
+
+He walked on, building castles as he went, and in the height of his
+elation he said, half aloud--
+
+"It's only six pounds a year, and I could let it till she said yes.
+Hang me if I don't take the cottage after all."
+
+"Well, Mr Brime," said a voice at his elbow, "did Mrs Lampton take the
+gentleman in?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, I don't know, as I didn't stop.  But she'd be sure to."
+
+"Oh, yes, it will be all right," said Wimble.  "But you'll come in, Mr
+Brime?"
+
+"No.  I think I'll get back now, and finish my pipe by the cliff."
+
+"With a beard like that, sir?  Better have it off."
+
+"Eh?  No, it isn't shaving day."
+
+"Your beard grows wonderfully fast, Mr Brime, believe me, sir.  I
+wonder at a young man like you being so careless of his personal
+appearance.  You'll be wanting to marry some day, sir, and there's
+nothing goes further with the ladies than seeing a man clean-shaved."
+
+It was not quite a random shot, for Wimble had wheedled out a little
+respecting the gardener's future, and he had only to draw back with a
+smile for the man to follow him in, passing his hand thoughtfully over
+his chin, wondering whether it had anything to do with the very severe
+rebuff he had more than once received.
+
+Once more in the chair, tied up in the cloth, and with his face
+lathered, he was at Wimble's mercy; and as the razor played about his
+nose and chin, giving a scrape here and a scrape there, the barber
+cross-examined the gardener in a quiet, unconcerned way, that would have
+been the envy of an Old Bailey counsel.  In very few minutes he had
+drawn out everything that the gardener had learned, and so insidiously
+soft were the operator's words, that Brime found himself unconsciously
+inventing and supplying particulars that the barber stowed up in his
+brain cell, ready for future use.
+
+"There, Mr Brime," he said, after delivering the final upper strokes
+with a dexterity that was perfect, though thrilling, from the danger
+they suggested, "I think you will say, sir, that a good shave is not
+dear at the price."
+
+These last words were accompanied by little dabs with a wet sponge, to
+remove soapy patches among the thick whiskers, and then the towel was
+handed, and the victim walked to the glass.
+
+"Yes, it does make a difference in a man," he said, as he dabbed and
+dried.
+
+"Difference, sir?  It's a duty to be clean-shaved.  To a man, sir,
+speaking from years of experience, a beard is hair, natural hair.  To a
+woman, sir, it is nothing of the kind.  A woman cannot help it, sir; it
+is born in her, but to her, sir, a beard is simply dirt."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the gardener, and he thought deeply.
+
+"Yes, sir; I've often heard them call it so.  Even on the properest man,
+it is, in their eyes--dirt."
+
+Brime paid and took his departure, while Wimble plunged at once among
+his own dark thoughts.
+
+"That man is blind as a mole," he said, "and can see nothing which is
+not just before his eyes.  He can dig a garden, but he cannot dig down
+into his own brain.  How horrible! how strange!  And how the slackest
+deeds will come out in a way nobody who is guilty suspects.  Yesterday,
+quite a poor man--to-day, very rich--a heavy banking account--come in
+for a fortune.  Yes, it's all plain enough now.  Now, ought I to do
+anything--and if so, what?"
+
+Volume Three, Chapter VI.
+
+TWO MEETINGS.
+
+After a long stay within the walls of the Fort, Claude had yielded to
+her cousin's importunity, and gone out.
+
+She felt the truth of the French saying before she had gone a hundred
+yards from her gates.  It was only the first step that cost, for, as she
+passed along the little row of houses facing the harbour, there was a
+smile from one, a look of glad recognition from another, and several of
+the rough fishermen who were hanging about waiting for signs of fish
+doffed their hats with a hearty "How do, miss?"
+
+A thrill of pleasure ran through her, and a feeling of awakening as from
+a time of sloth, as she realised that life could not be passed as a time
+for mourning.
+
+She turned to speak to Mary, after another or two of these friendly
+salutations to the lady of the Fort, and was met by a smile and a nod.
+
+"There, I told you so, Claudie.  It was quite time you came out.  It was
+a duty."
+
+Claude felt her cheeks burn slightly as she noted the direction in which
+they were going, but she kept on, feeling truly that she would have felt
+the same whichever direction they had taken.
+
+It was a glorious evening, with the sun turning the whole of the western
+sky to orange and gold; and, as she breathed in the soft elastic air,
+watched the brilliant shimmer of colour as of liquid flames at sea, she
+listened to the murmurs of the ripple among the boulders, where the
+little river ran swiftly down from the glen, and the twitter of the
+birds in birch and fir.  The joyous sensation that filled her breast was
+painful, even to drawing tears.
+
+It was to her like the first walk after a long illness, when there is a
+feeling akin to ecstasy, and life seems never to have been so beautiful
+before.  She could not speak, but wandered on beside her cousin--over
+the bridge, where they paused to gaze down at the golden-amber water,
+sparkling and foaming on its way to the sea.  Ever onward and up the
+glen, but not far before the sound of a large pebble, kicked by a heavy
+boot out into the rippling water, where it fell with a splash, told them
+that they were not alone, and the next minute Chris had overtaken them
+and held out his hand.
+
+There was a look almost of reproach in Claude's eyes, as, with quivering
+lip, she laid her hand in his, and yielded it, as he gently and
+reverently carried it to his lips.
+
+"I have not been to you; I have not written," he said, in a deep voice.
+"I felt that it was a duty to respect your sorrow.  I have felt for you
+none the less deeply."
+
+She stood looking gravely in his eyes, and he went on--
+
+"Under the painful circumstances, I could not come to you; I was driven
+from your side.  But Claude, dearest," he continued, with the passion
+within him making his words vibrate, as it were, in her breast, and her
+heart flutter as it had never beaten before.  "I love you more clearly
+than ever; and listen, darling--I would not say it, but cruel words have
+been spoken about my mercenary thoughts."
+
+"Don't, don't," she murmured.
+
+"But one word--for your sake."
+
+"No, no," she cried piteously.
+
+"Then for mine," he pleaded.
+
+"What do you wish to say?"
+
+"Then I am no longer the poor beggar I was called."
+
+"Chris!"
+
+"But comparatively rich, love.  I only said that so that those who would
+see evil in my acts may meet something to act as a shield to cast off
+these malicious darts.  No, no, don't withdraw your hand, dearest.  I
+know how you have suffered.  I have suffered too--sorrow for you--bitter
+jealousy of that man."
+
+"Chris," she whispered, with a look of appeal, "for pity's sake!  I am
+weak and ill--I cannot bear it."
+
+"Forgive me," he cried; "what a selfish brute I am!  There, I hold your
+dear hand once more, and I am satisfied.  I will not say another word,
+only go and wait patiently.  My Claude cannot be anything but all that
+is kind and just to me.  I'll go and wait."
+
+She stood looking in his eyes, and he clasped her hand, while the soft,
+ruddy glow which struck right up the glen seemed to bathe them both in
+its warm light.  Her lips moved to speak, but no sound came, though her
+eyes were full of joy and pride in the brave, manly young fellow whose
+words had thrilled her to the core.
+
+"If it could have been," she felt.  And then a pang of agony shot
+through her, and she shuddered.
+
+"How worn and thin you look, darling," he said tenderly.  "My poor, poor
+girl."
+
+This seemed to unloose the frozen words within her; the tears gushed
+from her eyes, and she tried to withdraw her hand, but it was too
+tightly held.
+
+"Chris," she said at last, and she clung to his hand as she spoke, "I do
+not doubt you.  I know all you say is the simple truth, but it seems
+cruel to me now."
+
+"Cruel!  My darling!"
+
+"Hush, pray hush.  It would be cruel, too, in me to let you speak like
+this about what can never, never be."
+
+"Claude!  What are you saying?"
+
+"That I have my poor father's words still ringing in my ears.  He
+forbade it, and I cannot go in opposition to his washes."
+
+"Claude!"
+
+"I cannot help it.  It is better that the words should be spoken now,
+and the pain be over.  Chris, when we meet again it must be as friends."
+
+"No," he cried passionately; "you must meet me as my promised wife."
+
+"It is impossible," she said faintly, after a painful pause.  "No,
+Chris, as my friend--brother, if you wish, but that is at an end."
+
+"But why--no, no; don't answer me.  You are ill and hysterical, dear.
+You think seriously of words that will grow fainter and of less import
+as the time goes on.  There, come.  Let us put all this aside now.  I am
+content that we have met, and you know the truth--that I have spoken,
+and so plainly, once again."
+
+"No; you must hear me now," she said with a sigh, that seemed to be torn
+from her breast.
+
+"Well, then, speak," he said, with a smile full of pity.
+
+"Once more," she said, after a pause; "you must never speak to me again
+as you have to-night."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You know, Chris, my father's wish."
+
+"The result of a mistake.  Claude, you love me."
+
+She made an effort once more to free herself, and stood with her eyes
+fixed upon the ground.
+
+"Claude," he cried passionately, "you will tell me that."
+
+"I cannot," she said firmly.
+
+He let her hand fall from between his, and a curiously heavy look came
+slowly into his face as the jealous anger within him began to seethe.
+
+"You cast at me your father's words," he said hurriedly.
+
+"I am obliged to remind you of his wish."
+
+"That you should marry this man, this Glyddyr.  Claude, you cannot, you
+dare not tell me this."
+
+"I do not tell you this," she said, quickly and excitedly.  "No, that is
+impossible.  I could not be his wife: I must not be yours."
+
+"You are speaking in riddles."
+
+"Riddles that you can easily read," she said sadly.  "Chris, my life is
+marked out for me.  I have my duties waiting.  I cannot, I will not
+marry a man I do not love, but I will not disobey my poor dead father
+and listen to you.  Good-bye now--I can bear no more.  Some day we can
+meet again patiently and calmly as in the happy old times."
+
+"Yes," he said, with the angry feeling passing away, "I shall wait
+contented, for you will not marry this man--you promise me that?"
+
+"Claude, dear; Claude."
+
+They had neither of them given Mary a thought, and she had discreetly
+walked away but to return now quickly, and as they raised their eyes it
+was to see her close at hand, and some fifty yards away Parry Glyddyr
+advancing fast.
+
+Claude saw that Glyddyr looked white and strange, but it was the rage in
+Chris Lisle's eyes which startled her, as Glyddyr strode up, with
+extended hand, ignoring the presence of her companion.
+
+"Claude, don't leave them alone, as there'll be trouble," whispered
+Mary, and her cousin's words seemed to cast a lurid light upon the
+situation.
+
+She did not give Glyddyr her hand, but turned to Chris and said gently--
+
+"Good-bye.  It will be better that we should not meet again--not yet."
+
+He took the hand gravely, let his own close over it in a firm, warm
+clasp, and released it silently.
+
+"Mary."
+
+Claude turned to go, and her cousin went to her side white as ashes.
+Glyddyr stood looking from one to the other, as if hesitating what to
+do.
+
+"Claude, do you hear me," whispered Mary.
+
+"Mr Glyddyr, are you going this way?" said Claude in a low deep voice.
+
+"Yes, of course," he cried, with his face lighting up, and darting a
+look of triumph at his rival, who stood motionless, with one hand
+resting upon his rod as though it were a spear, he went on down the glen
+by Claude's side.
+
+"Mr Lisle--Chris--do you not hear?  Good-bye."
+
+Chris started back as it were into life, and saw that Mary had run back
+and laid her hand in his.
+
+"Ah, little woman," he said, with a gentle, pitying tone in his voice,
+"I was thinking, I suppose.  Good-bye, Mary, and don't fall in love,
+dear; it's a mistake."
+
+"Chris," she cried, with the tears in her beautiful eyes, as she gazed
+at the broad-shouldered sturdy fellow, "why do you talk like that?"
+
+"Why do I talk like that?" he said bitterly.  "Because I am a weak fool,
+I suppose.  Look there."
+
+He pointed down the glen.
+
+"Chris!"
+
+"There, run after them, and play propriety, little lady," he said
+bitterly.  "Or no--they do not miss you; better stop behind, or shall I
+see you home?"
+
+"Chris, dear Chris," she whispered.
+
+"Don't talk to me," he cried.  "I'm half mad.  Good-bye, Mary,
+good-bye."
+
+He turned sharply and hurried away up the glen, and as Mary watched, she
+heard his reel begin to sing as he walked on down by the stream, making
+casts blindly among the boulders.
+
+"Poor fellow," she said, as she turned and walked swiftly away.  "I wish
+I had not said a word."
+
+She gave one more glance back and hurried after the retreating pair.
+Had she looked long enough she would have seen Chris Lisle stride into
+the first clump of trees and throw himself down with his face buried in
+his arms, and there he was lying still long after darkness had come on,
+and the stars were peering down and glistening in the rushing stream.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter VII.
+
+GLYDDYR ENDORSES A NOTE.
+
+"There, I'm off back to London town to keep a certain party quiet.  You
+are going on all right here.  You are bound to win, but don't be rash--
+play her very carefully."
+
+Glyddyr nodded.
+
+"And now take my advice; go and see a doctor--that man--what's his name?
+Get him to set you up, dear boy.  There: good-bye.  Bless you, my son.
+It's perhaps a million.  Don't play with it."
+
+"Haven't got it to play with."
+
+"No; but you will have it by-and-by.  There: once more, good-bye.  Be
+gentle with her.  Go early in the day, and promise me you'll call at the
+doctor's."
+
+"Yes, I promise," said Glyddyr; and he stood watching Gellow, as he was
+rowed ashore, cursing him bitterly the while, but confessing in his own
+mind that he was right.
+
+"Yes, I'll go and see Asher," he muttered.  "He'll set me up.  I must go
+on with it.  I'll be a good husband to her.  It'll be like doing penance
+for the past--ugh!"
+
+He shuddered and looked ghastly.
+
+"It's being low makes me think of it so much," he continued.  "Yes; as
+soon as the boat gets back I'll go and see Asher."
+
+Vacillating to a degree, he was firm in this, and stepped into the boat
+as soon as it reached the yacht, ordering the men to put him ashore, and
+this done, the men watching him as he walked sharply away, clinging to
+the hope that a strong tonic would calm his feelings and give him
+strength to go on with his plans, and trusting to time to dull the agony
+of his thoughts.
+
+"Seems horrible to go on," he said.  "But it will be like penance; and,
+poor old boy, he did wish it."  Then aloud--"Doctor Asher at home?"
+
+He was shown into the doctor's consulting-room to be warmly received.
+
+"Yes, of course," said the doctor.  "I don't wonder you are a bit run
+down.  I'll soon set you right."
+
+Then after a short examination, and a little professional business.
+
+"Wonder whether he knows what's really the matter with me;" thought
+Glyddyr.
+
+"Wonder whether he thinks me such a fool as not to know that he is
+saturated with brandy?" said the doctor to himself, as he composed a
+draught, while Glyddyr took up a card box from the chimney-piece, opened
+it mechanically, and then, as the doctor raised his hand to the shelf
+where the chloral bottle stood, the box slipped through Glyddyr's
+fingers, fell on the edge of the fender, burst open, and the cards were
+scattered over the rug, and beneath the fireplace.
+
+"I beg your pardon."
+
+"Oh, never mind!  Don't stop to pick them up."
+
+Glyddyr paid no heed, but nervously collected the pack together, rose
+with them in his hands, and then, watching the doctor as he wrote out
+the directions on a label, involuntarily, and as if naturally from
+feeling the cards in his hands, began to shuffle them slowly.
+
+The doctor smiled.
+
+"You play a bit, I see."
+
+"Oh! yes, of course," said Glyddyr, hastily setting down the pack.
+"Confoundedly stupid of me to drop them."
+
+"Nonsense!  Very unprofessional to have them here, eh?"
+
+"You play, then?" said Glyddyr, repeating the doctor's query.
+
+"Not often.  No one to play with.  A game now and then would do you
+good."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Glyddyr, eagerly.  "Come on board.  I'm very dull
+there."
+
+"Most happy if you'll have a game here sometimes."
+
+Glyddyr accepted the proposal so readily that in a few minutes they were
+seated together at piquet, and when the patient rose he was ten pounds
+in the doctor's debt.
+
+"I shall have to give you my IOU, doctor," said Glyddyr, "I have no cash
+down here."
+
+"All right, my dear sir," said the doctor, smilingly; and Glyddyr wrote
+the indebtedness upon half a sheet of notepaper, to go away feeling
+better for his visit, and after the doctor had promised to go on board
+the yacht that night and give him his revenge.
+
+This was given, Glyddyr managing to win twenty pounds, and receiving
+back his IOU and a ten-pound note.
+
+"You London gentlemen are too clever for me," said the doctor,
+laughingly.  "But never mind; I shall have to win that back."
+
+"Mustn't win much off him if I'm to take his medicine," said Glyddyr to
+himself.  "Might give me too strong a dose.  Ugh!  What a fool I am to
+think such things as that."
+
+"I believe he's half a sharper," said the doctor to himself as he was
+rowed ashore.  "But never mind; let him marry her.  He will be another
+patient to the good, and I dare say I can manage him, clever as he is."
+
+The next day Glyddyr called at the Fort, and found Claude at home.  She
+received him with Mary by her side, and the triumphant feelings that
+filled his breast after the last encounter with Chris slowly filtered
+away.
+
+He was not himself he knew, feeling nothing like so strong and well,
+through having gone to bed the previous night perfectly sober, and
+refraining that morning from taking what he called a peg to string
+himself up, for fear that the odour should accompany him on his visit.
+
+He told himself that he never showed to worse advantage, for he was
+troubled all through the visit by a horrible sensation of nervous dread,
+starting at every sound, and hurriedly bringing his visit to a close.
+
+On the other hand, Claude thought she had never liked her visitor so
+well.
+
+"He seemed so full of respectful deference," she said.
+
+"Yes," said downright Mary, "but I wish he would take a dislike to the
+place.  I'm sick of seeing his yacht moored in the harbour.  It's
+beginning to blow.  I wish the wind would blow it right away."
+
+But Glyddyr had not the least intention of going.  In spite of his
+hurried ending to his visit, he came away feeling better.
+
+"It's natural that I should feel uncomfortable there, but it will soon
+wear off, and it's plain enough to see that I am gradually becoming
+welcome.  Gellow's right," he said, recalling one of their
+conversations.  "Patience is the thing.
+
+"I'm all right.  Wish I could feel like this when I am there."
+
+"Good-morning."
+
+"Ah, doctor."
+
+"Why it's `ah, patient.'  You're better, Glyddyr, decidedly.  You must
+keep on with that tonic."
+
+"Yes, ever so much better," said Glyddyr, who was flushed with hope.
+"Come on board and dine with me."
+
+"Thanks, no.  I'm not such a very bad sailor, but not good enough to
+enjoy my dinner with the table dancing up and down.  Going to be a
+gale."
+
+"Humph!  Yes, I suppose it will be a bit rough, even if we shift the
+moorings.  Never mind, come and dine with me at the hotel and we can
+have a private room, and a hand at cards with our coffee."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said the doctor, hesitating.
+
+"Yes, come," said Glyddyr eagerly.  "I'm dull and hipped.  Want a
+companion.  Do me more good than your tonics.  At seven."
+
+"Very well," said the doctor, "seven be it.  Do me good, too, perhaps,"
+he muttered, as he went away.  "Better for him to marry her.  Yes, I can
+turn him round my finger."
+
+He went home musing deeply, and, punctual to time, joined Glyddyr at the
+hotel, to find him looking flushed and excited.
+
+"Hallo!  That's not the tonic," he said.
+
+"Eh!  Tonic?  No, it's the weather.  Storm always affects me a little.
+I was obliged to have a pint of champagne to pull me up."
+
+The doctor laughed as he shook his head, for he saw in the half-wrecked
+man before him, a life annuity, if the cards were rightly played, and
+during the dinner he once or twice told himself that his game was to
+hurry on the engagement between Claude and Glyddyr.
+
+"If he is wise," the doctor said to himself, "Glyddyr will play the
+trump card.  It would take the trick.  Your father's wish, my dear.
+Poor old gentleman."
+
+They parted almost sworn friends, for the real cards had been kindly to
+both, and neither had lost or won.
+
+"It's rather rough for going on board to-night," said the doctor.
+
+"Pish!  Not a bit I'm not afraid of a few waves."
+
+"Well, don't get drowned."
+
+"Those who are bound to be hanged will never be drowned," came into
+Glyddyr's head as the doctor departed, and the old saw sent quite a
+chill through him.
+
+"Confound it.  What a coward I am," he muttered angrily.  "I felt so
+much better all the evening.  Here," he said roughly to the waiter, who
+had come in accidentally, as waiters do when the guests begin to stir.
+"My bill."
+
+That document was quite ready; and after glancing at it, Glyddyr took a
+bank-note from his pocket-book, and laid it upon the tray.
+
+The waiter bowed, went out, and returned with the note, crossed to a
+side table where there was a blotting case and inkstand, both of which
+he brought to where Glyddyr was smoking.
+
+"What's the matter?  Not a bad one, is it?"
+
+"Oh dear no, sir," said the waiter, with a deprecatory cough, "only
+master said would you mind putting your name on the back?"
+
+"Damn your master," cried Glyddyr, snatching the pen and scribbling down
+his name.  "There: you ought to know me by this time."
+
+"Yes, sir; of course, sir; but we always do that with notes, sir."
+
+"Get out, and bring me my change."
+
+"Yes, sir; directly sir."
+
+"It was your father's wish, Claude--your father's latest wish.  You will
+not refuse me.  I can wait."
+
+Glyddyr was muttering this as the waiter brought his change, and the
+words kept on running in his head as he walked down to the pier, to find
+his men waiting for him.  The words haunted him, too, as he rode over
+the rough waves in the little harbour.
+
+"Bah!" he thought, as he reached his cabin and threw himself down,
+flushed and in high spirits now, "it was an accident, and I am a fool to
+shrink with a prize like that waiting for me.  I will go on, and she
+can't refuse me if I only have plenty of pluck.  I've been a bit out of
+order, and weak.  It's all right now.  That cad hasn't a chance.  My
+wife before six months are gone, and then, Master Gellow, if I don't
+send you to the right about I'll--"
+
+He stopped, for he remembered Denise.
+
+"No," he muttered uneasily, "one's obliged to keep a cad to do one's
+dirty work, and Gellow can be useful when he likes."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter VIII.
+
+MRS SARSON'S APPEAL.
+
+"Sit down, Mr Wimble, and how's all Danmouth?  I was coming over in a
+day or two perhaps, to stay at the Fort, and if I do, I dare say I shall
+have to make a call on you."
+
+"Glad to see you at any time, sir," said Wimble, looking uneasily at the
+portly figure of the lawyer as he sat back in his chair, after a long
+study over Gartram's papers.
+
+For, in spite of Claude's decision, that missing sum of money troubled
+Trevithick.
+
+"It's a reflection on me, as his business-man," he said to himself.
+"Forty thousand in notes gone and nobody knows where.  I'll trace that
+money.  I shall not rest till I do."
+
+He had some thought, too, that if he did triumphantly trace that missing
+sum, Claude would be pleased, and Mary Dillon more than satisfied.  So
+he worked on in secret, and he was busy when his clerk announced the
+Danmouth barber.
+
+"And now, what can I do for you?" said Trevithick.
+
+The barber hesitated, looked round, and then back at the calm,
+thoughtful man before him.
+
+"You need not be afraid to speak, Mr Wimble," said Trevithick looking
+very serious but feeling amused, "no one can hear."
+
+"Sure, sir?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Because it's horribly private, sir."
+
+"Indeed!  What is it?  Want to borrow a little cash?"
+
+"Me, sir?" cried the barber jumping up indignantly.  "No, sir; I've got
+my little bit saved up and safely invested at five per cent."
+
+"I beg your pardon, and congratulate you.  Then what is it?"
+
+Wimble went on tiptoe to the entrance, opened the door, peeped out, and,
+after closing it, came stealthily back close to the table, upon which he
+rested his hand, bent forward till his face came within a foot of the
+lawyer's, and gazed at him wildly.
+
+"Well, Mr Wimble, what is it?" said Trevithick at last, for his visitor
+was silent.
+
+"It's murder, sir," whispered the barber.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Murder, sir."
+
+"Well, then, you had better go to the police, man, for that's not in my
+way."
+
+"If you'll excuse me, sir, it is.  You are Mr Gartram's lawyer, and
+have to do with his affairs."
+
+"Good heavens, man, what do you mean?"
+
+"That Mr Gartram was murdered, sir--poisoned, and I've got the clue."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I thought I wouldn't say a word, sir.  That it was too horrible, and
+that no matter what one did, it wouldn't bring the poor man back to
+life; but when I see the murderer going on in his wickedness, spending
+the money he must have stolen, and pretending he has come in for a
+fortune, and on the strength of it trying to delude weak widows he
+lodges with, and carrying on with other ladies too, it is time to speak.
+The human heart won't hold such secrets without a busting out."
+
+The lawyer started at the sound of the word _money_, for it seemed to
+strike a chord within his own breast.
+
+"Look here, Mr Wimble," he said; "do I gather aright that you think
+that Mr Gartram was murdered?"
+
+"Poisoned, sir."
+
+"Good heavens!  But by whom?"
+
+"One who had sworn to have revenge upon him--one who wanted his money;
+and who was seen and caught lurking about the Fort, sir, one dark night,
+waiting for his opportunity, for he knew the place well from a boy."
+
+"Great heavens, man, whom do you mean?"
+
+"The man who has blighted my life, sir, Mr Christopher Lisle."
+
+"Rubbish!"
+
+"What, sir?"
+
+"You're mad."
+
+"I wish I was, sir, and that I could say to myself you're fancying all
+this; I should be a happier man, sir.  But I can't.  I've fought with it
+and smothered it down, but it's one living fire, sir, and it's kept
+burning the day through."
+
+"Mr Christopher Lisle?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Him as was turned away, and heard to say threatening things
+against poor Mr Gartram."
+
+"But found on the premises?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the night Mr Gartram died of poison, no matter what the
+doctors said; and that night the deed was done this bottle of stuff was
+thrown out of the window down among the rocks and sand."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because I found it early next morning," said Wimble, holding up the
+bottle; "and I can swear it was not there the day before."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, man!  It's impossible."
+
+"That's what I said to myself, sir, but nature argued it out inside me.
+`Here's Mr Chris Lisle,' it said, `wanted Miss Claude, and her father
+refused him, and was going to give her to Mr Glyddyr, of the yacht.'
+There's one reason.  Mr Chris was thrown over, because he was poor.
+That's another reason.  Mr Chris is rich now.  How did he become rich?
+Nobody knows.  Mr Chris was found in the garden, hiding, on the night
+Mr Gartram died, and the window was open.--What do you say to that?
+This bottle, with some poison in it, was found under the window by me."
+
+"Let me look."
+
+"No, sir.  That bottle's mine now.  I wouldn't part with it for a
+hundred pounds."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it's a curiosity, sir, as thousands would come to see.  That
+bottle killed a man."
+
+"Let me look.  I'll give it you back."
+
+"Honour bright, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Wimble unrolled the bottle from its cover and handed it to the lawyer,
+who took and examined it.
+
+"Pish!" he said, looking at the limpid fluid within.  "Water."
+
+"I was told it was chloral, sir."
+
+"Chloral?" cried Trevithick; "he died of an overdose of chloral."
+
+"Of course he did, sir," said the barber triumphantly.  "Now, sir, am I
+mad?"
+
+Trevithick rose, and walked heavily up and down the room, like a small
+elephant seeking to quit its enclosure, but professional training came
+to his aid directly, and he reseated himself, looking quite calm.
+
+"This is a terribly serious thing, Mr Wimble," he said sternly.  "You
+are charging Mr Lisle with murder."
+
+"Terribly serious thing to take Mr Gartram's life, sir."
+
+"If he did, my man--if he did.  But it must be all a mistake."
+
+"I hope it is, sir, indeed."
+
+"If the police knew of this, it would be awkward for Mr Lisle."
+
+"Of course it would, sir."
+
+"But, my good man, you are taking the view that he is guilty.  I tell
+you that it is impossible."
+
+"I hope it is, sir; but I've gone over it in my bed till I'm obliged to
+believe Mr Lisle did it; and I feel I couldn't keep the secret any
+longer."
+
+"And so you came to me?"
+
+"Yes, sir, as Mr Gartram's business-man."
+
+"Dear, dear--dear, dear!" ejaculated Trevithick excitedly, as the man
+began to overcome the lawyer.  "There are the ladies, Wimble.  We must
+be very careful.  If this reached their ears it would be horrible."
+
+"Yes, sir, of course; but the wicked ought to be punished."
+
+"You don't like Mr Lisle?" said the lawyer, looking at him searchingly.
+
+"Well, sir, if I must speak out, no: I don't like Mr Lisle."
+
+"And so you magnify this suspicion, and seek to do him harm by setting
+about the story."
+
+"Steady there, sir, please.  I don't set about a story without good
+proof.  Now, let me ask you, sir, was Mr Gartram the sort of man to go
+and kill himself with an overdose of that stuff?"
+
+"By accident, man; yes."
+
+"Not a bit of it, sir.  He was too clever.  I don't want to prove Mr
+Lisle guilty, but there's the case.  He was hanging about the grounds
+that night."
+
+"Who saw him?"
+
+"The gardener, sir, Brime.  Caught him there after he had been forbidden
+the place, and he persuaded the man to hold his tongue."
+
+"Look here, Wimble," said Trevithick, sternly, "there may be a slight
+substratum of probability in what you say, but it is most unlikely that
+this young man can have committed such a crime.  Now, then, I'll tell
+you what it is your duty to do."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Wimble eagerly.
+
+"Go back to Danmouth, and keep your own counsel for the present.  You
+can do that?"
+
+"Hold my tongue, sir?  Of course."
+
+"Don't mention this to a soul."
+
+"And hush it up, sir--a murder?"
+
+"Pish!  It is no murder.  Let the matter rest while I try to make out
+whether there is anything in what you say."
+
+"Ah, you'll find it right, sir.  Young men like Mr Chris don't get rich
+in a day."
+
+"Never mind about that.  I'll go into the matter quietly.  Recollect
+that it would be your ruin if it was known that you had, without
+foundation, made this horrible charge against Mr Lisle."
+
+"My ruin, sir?"
+
+"Of course.  You could not stay in the town afterwards.  There, go back
+and hold your tongue.  I'm coming over to Danmouth to-morrow, and after
+I have carefully weighed all you have said, I will see you again."
+
+"Come in and see me to-morrow, sir.  You can easily do that, sir.
+Nobody would think it meant anything more than coming in to be shaved."
+
+"Well, I'll call; and now, mind this: not a soul in the place must hear
+a word.  It is our secret, Wimble."
+
+"Yes, sir, I see," said the barber.  "You may trust me.  I came straight
+to you, sir.  Oh, I can be as close and secret as grim death, sir,
+you'll see."
+
+"That's right, my man.  And take my advice, don't think any more of it.
+I confess that it looks bad, but we shall find out that it is all
+imagination, and I hope it is, for every one's sake.  Close, Mr Wimble,
+perfectly close, mind, at all events for the present."
+
+"Trust me, sir.  I'm glad I came to you, and you shall find me close as
+a box."
+
+Wimble spoke in all sincerity, and he returned to Danmouth, feeling glad
+that he had seen the lawyer; but when he spoke he did not realise that
+there was a key that would open that box.
+
+He had no necessity for going round by Mrs Sarson's cottage, it was
+quite out of his way, but it was in the dusk of evening, when love will
+assert itself even in middle-aged minds.
+
+"All alone there at the mercy of a murderer," thought Wimble.  "I'll
+just walk by and see if she is quite safe."
+
+It was rather a hopeless thing to do, he owned, for there was not likely
+to be anything in the outside walls to indicate whether the widow was
+safe or no.  All the same, he went round that way to find that all
+looked right; but as he passed very slowly by, he found that the window
+of Chris's room was open, and he stopped short as if spellbound, for a
+familiar voice said, in tones which indicated that the speaker was
+shedding tears--
+
+"No, no, my dear; you can't think how much I think about you."
+
+The voice ceased as Wimble gave a very decided knock at the door.
+
+Mrs Sarson came to answer it slowly, for she was wiping her eyes after
+a long, long talk with Chris, whom in a motherly way she had been trying
+to rouse from the reckless, despondent state into which he had fallen,
+and tried in vain.
+
+Consequently there was a wet gleam on her cheeks, as, candle in hand,
+she answered the door.
+
+"You, Mr Wimble!" she said, starting, and feeling a little confused.
+"So bold of him to come and call," she thought.
+
+"Yes, Mrs Sarson, I want to speak to you particularly."
+
+"Not to-night, Mr Wimble.  I--I am not quite well."
+
+"Yes; to-night."
+
+"But Mr Lisle is at home."
+
+"Yes, I know," he said, with a dark look in his eyes; and--fluttered and
+trembling before the strange, stern manner of her visitor--she drew
+back, allowed him to enter, closed the door, and led the way to the snug
+back room--half kitchen, half parlour--and then looked at him
+wonderingly, her heart fluttering more and more as she saw his wild
+look, and that he carefully closed the door.
+
+"Goodness me, Mr Wimble, what is the matter?" she said faintly.
+
+"Everything," he cried, making a snatch at her wrist, and holding it
+tightly.  "Woman, you know how for years I have had hopes."
+
+"Well, Mr Wimble, you made me think so; but it's quite impossible, I
+assure you.  Neighbours, but nothing more."
+
+"Why, woman, why?" he said, in a whisper.
+
+"Because--because I am quite happy and contented as I am, Mr Wimble,
+with my little bit of an income and my lodger."
+
+"Yes," cried Wimble, with a laugh, "that's it.  Ah, woman, woman, that
+you could throw yourself away upon a creature like that?"
+
+"Mr Wimble, what do you mean?"
+
+"Knowing how I worshipped you, for you to consort with a vile creature,
+who cheats and abuses your confidence--a villain too bad to be allowed
+to live--a man whom the law will seize before long."
+
+"Mr Wimble, are you mad?"
+
+"Yes, madam, with shame and horror, to think what must come when you
+find out that this serpent who has wound himself about you is a convict,
+a murderer, who stops at nothing."
+
+"Mr Wimble, whom do you mean?"
+
+"Mean? who should I mean," he cried tragically, "but that wretch in
+yonder room?"
+
+"A murderer!"
+
+"Yes, of the man who drove him from his home.  I denounce him as the
+murderer of poor old Gartram, and--"
+
+There was a wild shriek, and as Chris Lisle rushed into the room to see
+what was wrong, Wimble remembered his promise to the lawyer; but too
+late: the box was wide open now.
+
+"Mrs Sarson--Wimble! what is the matter?"
+
+"Oh, Mr Lisle," cried the widow, sobbing wildly.  "Oh, my poor darling,
+he says you murdered Mr Gartram.  Tell him he is mad."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Sarah Woodham was seated an hour later that night sewing, when she was
+startled by the sudden entrance of Reuben, the gardener, looking
+wild-eyed and strange, and she involuntarily rose from her chair, and
+stood upon the defensive, the other servants being down the town, and
+her heart telling her that "this foolish man," as she termed him, was
+about to renew advances which he had been making before.
+
+"Don't be frightened," he said, quickly grasping the meaning of her
+action; "I wasn't going to say anything about that now.  Have you
+heard?"
+
+"Heard what?"
+
+"I've just come from the harbour, and they're all talking about it."
+
+"Yes?  What--some wreck?"
+
+"No; about Mr Chris Lisle."
+
+"What about him--dead?" said Sarah Woodham, in a hoarse whisper, as she
+laid her hand upon her side and thought of Claude.
+
+"Better if he was, my dear," said the gardener hoarsely, and in her
+excitement the woman did not think to resent his familiarity.  "They are
+saying that he murdered master with poison."
+
+Sarah reeled, and would have fallen, so great was the shock the words
+gave her, but Brime caught her in his arms.
+
+She recovered herself, and thrust him away.
+
+"Mr Chris Lisle?  Impossible."
+
+"So I thought, but he was skulking about our grounds that night, for I
+caught him hiding."
+
+"Oh, it can't be true.  You people are always inventing foolish
+scandals.  What nonsense!  Let him rest in his grave in peace."
+
+She looked so ghastly that even the unobservant gardener noticed it, and
+made a remark.
+
+"Look white? of course," she said, with a curious laugh.  "Any woman
+would turn pale on hearing such talk as that.  There, go away."
+
+"You needn't be cross with me, Sarah Woodham," said Brime, paying no
+heed to her last words, and only too glad of an excuse to hold her in
+conversation.  "I knew how you liked Miss Claude, and the news was about
+her young man, and I thought it better to tell you than go and tell
+her."
+
+"What! you would not dare to tell her such a thing."
+
+"Well, somebody will if I don't.  She's sure to know."
+
+"Hush, man!  Don't dare to speak of it again.  It is a miserable scandal
+of some of the tattling gossips, and it will be forgotten, perhaps,
+to-morrow.  There, not another word."
+
+"But, Sarah, let me talk of something else."
+
+She went to the door and opened it, pointing out.
+
+"Go," she said.
+
+Brime sighed deeply, and went away slowly without another word.
+
+"Poor fellow," said the woman softly, "better for him to jump into the
+sea than to go on thinking about that."
+
+She stood for a few moments with her hands to her forehead, as if to
+dull the excitement from which she was suffering, uttering a low moan
+from time to time.
+
+"How horrible!" she gasped.  "It seems more than I can bear.  Poor
+child, if she was to hear!"
+
+She stood staring before her at last, with her lips moving, and her eyes
+fixed upon the darkness in the farther corner of the room, as if she saw
+something there.
+
+"I cannot bear it," she muttered at last; and hurriedly passing out, she
+hurried up to her room, and threw herself upon her knees by the bedside.
+
+How long she remained there she did not know.  Suddenly she started up,
+believing that she heard voices below.
+
+"They will have heard it, perhaps," she said excitedly; and, hurrying
+out, she found that the two servants who had been out had returned, and
+were talking quickly.
+
+Sarah Woodham turned cold with apprehension, under the impression that
+the women were retailing the scandal they had heard to their mistress,
+and she uttered a sigh of relief as she heard Mary Dillon say quickly--
+
+"And they are talking about it everywhere you say?"
+
+"Yes, miss; and we thought you ought to hear."
+
+"Hush!--Oh, Woodham, these two have come back with a silly tale that--"
+
+Sarah Woodham laid a thin hand upon her arm.
+
+"That--have you heard?  Oh, how horrible!  But what absurd nonsense.
+There, go away, all of you.  It is too dreadful to talk about, and you
+must let it die a natural death."
+
+"But they say, miss, that the police will take Mr Christopher Lisle,
+and that he will be hung for murder," whispered the cook in awe-stricken
+tones; "and if Miss Claude should hear that--Oh!"
+
+Claude had quietly opened the drawing-room door and stepped out into the
+hall, coming in search of her cousin, the low whispering without having
+attracted her attention.
+
+"You heard what I said," cried Mary, quickly.  "Why don't you go?"
+
+"Stop!" said Claude, in a strangely altered voice.
+
+"No, no, Claude, dear," said Mary, crossing to her.  "It is nothing you
+need listen to.  Only a wretched tattling from down on the beach."
+
+"I know what they said," replied Claude, hoarsely.  "Sarah Woodham, have
+you heard this--this dreadful charge?"
+
+The woman did not answer with her lips, but her dark eyes were fixed
+wildly on those of her mistress.
+
+"Then it is true!"
+
+"Claude, dear; pray come," whispered Mary, clinging to her; but she was
+thrust away.
+
+"I will know everything," she cried, excitedly.  "You, Sarah Woodham,
+speak out, and tell me all the truth."
+
+"No--no," whispered the woman, and she stood trembling as if with ague.
+
+"I will know," said Claude, catching her up by the arm.  "I heard what
+was said--that Mr Lisle was charged with murder.  It could not be."
+
+"No, no, Claude, of course not."
+
+"Silence, Mary!  Speak, woman, or must I go down to the beach and ask
+there.  Tell me.  It was a quarrel; they met and fought.  Is Mr Glyddyr
+dead?"
+
+They gazed at her wonderingly--stricken for the moment--the silence
+being broken by the two servants exclaiming in a breath--
+
+"No, no, miss.  It was master they said he killed."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Come away, Claude," whispered Mary, who was white and trembling.  "It
+is a horrible invention.  There is no truth in it.  Come back into the
+drawing-room, and I'll tell you quietly, dear, what I have heard."
+
+"Go on," said Claude, fixing the two women with her eyes as she held her
+cousin's arm and half forced her back.  "Tell me everything you have
+heard."
+
+Between them, trembling the while before the wild eyes which seemed to
+force them to speak, the women related confusedly the report they had
+heard, one which had grown rapidly as is the custom with such news; and
+out of the tangle, as Sarah Woodham and Mary both strangely moved, stood
+speechless and silent, Claude learned the charge which had arisen
+against the man she loved, to the bitter end, struggling the while to
+make indignant denial of that at which her soul felt to revolt.  But no
+words would come.  Her reason, her soul, both cried out aloud within her
+that this was an utter impossibility, but the rumours mastered them with
+a terrible array of facts, till she was forced to believe that, stung to
+madness by the treatment he had received, and hurried on by a lust for
+gold, Chris, her old playmate and brother as a child, the man at last
+she had grown to love, had been tempted to commit this deed.
+
+"It is not true--it is not true," something within her kept on saying as
+she gazed wildly from one to the other, seeing the gap--the black gap--
+already existing between her and her lover, widening into an awful,
+impassable chasm, in which were buried her life's hopes and happiness
+for ever.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter IX.
+
+A DEBATE.
+
+Glyddyr had undoubtedly gone backward in health with rapid strides since
+he and the Doctor had last met, not many hours before.  His face was of
+a sickly yellow; there were dark marks under his eyes, and his hands
+trembled as he weakly arranged the flower in his button-hole, and played
+with his blue serge yachting cap.
+
+"How terrible!" he murmured at last.  "Poor girl!  What a shock!"
+
+"Yes; enough to give her brain fever," said the Doctor, speaking
+quickly.  "The wretched, cackling fools."
+
+"Terrible! terrible!" muttered Glyddyr.  Then, after a pause, as he took
+a turn up and down the Doctor's little surgery, as if it were his own
+cabin, he passed his tongue over his dry lips, and turned quickly to the
+Doctor, who was watching him curiously.  "Here, I say: I'm completely
+knocked over.  For heaven's sake give me a dose."
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"No, no, not that cursed stuff," cried Glyddyr, as he saw the Doctor's
+hand raised toward the ammonia bottle.  "Brandy--whisky, for goodness'
+sake!"
+
+Asher gave him a quick look, then took his key, and, opening a cellaret,
+poured a goodly dram of brandy into a glass, and placed it on the table.
+
+"There's water in that bottle," he said.
+
+Glyddyr made an impatient gesture, and tossed off the raw spirit.
+
+"Hah!" he cried, setting down the glass, "I can talk now.  What--what do
+you think of this report?"
+
+"Oh, all madness, of course," cried the Doctor hastily.
+
+"Yes--yes--all madness, of course," said Glyddyr, letting himself sink
+down in a chair.  "All madness, of course.  He couldn't, could he?"
+
+The two men gazed in each other's eyes, and there was silence for quite
+a long space.
+
+"But they found that bottle," continued Glyddyr, as if speaking to
+himself.  "Ugly piece of evidence, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, but that proves nothing," said Asher.
+
+"And he being found in the garden that night, when Gartram was having
+his after-dinner nap," continued Glyddyr, looking at the door.
+
+"Yes, looks bad," said the Doctor, "but all nonsense.  Why can't they
+let the old man rest?"
+
+"You--you don't think he poisoned him?" said Glyddyr.
+
+"No, certainly not."
+
+"It would have been impossible, of course.  But they say he is rich now;
+has plenty of money.  How could he come by that?"
+
+"Who can say?"
+
+"Yes; and a large sum was missing--a very large sum."
+
+"That is the worst argument yet," said the doctor.  "But, pooh, pooh, my
+dear sir, the old man died from an overdose of chloral.  My colleague
+and I were satisfied about that.  There, don't look so white."
+
+"Do I look white?" said Glyddyr, picking up the glass he had used and
+draining the last drops.  "Oh, I feel much better now.  But, Doctor,
+what do you think of it all?  They'll arrest that young man, I suppose.
+It would be very horrible if he were to be tried and condemned to
+death."
+
+"Horrible!"
+
+"Do you think he will be taken?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I'm--I'm glad of that," faltered Glyddyr, with his trembling hands
+playing about his watch chain.  "So horrible.  He was a friend, you see,
+of Miss Gartram's.  Of course, with such a charge as that against him,
+he could never speak to her again."
+
+"Look here, Glyddyr," said the Doctor, "you and I may as well understand
+each other."
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Glyddyr, sinking back in his chair.
+
+"That we have somehow become friends, and we may as well continue so.
+You mean to marry Claude Gartram?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," assented Glyddyr drawing a long hoarse breath.
+
+"And, I'm sure, you feel all this very deeply.  Terrible shock for the
+poor girl."
+
+"Yes, terrible," whispered Glyddyr.
+
+"I don't wonder that you are so completely prostrated this morning."
+
+"No; it is no wonder, is it?"
+
+"Not the slightest."
+
+"And I feel it, too, about young Lisle.  I--I shouldn't like him to be
+hung."
+
+"Make yourself easy, man; he will not be.  There will be nine days' talk
+about it, and that is all.  The old man was examined; our evidence was
+taken, and he is at rest in his grave.  The law can't take any notice of
+these scandals."
+
+"Do--do you feel that--it will not take him and imprison him for life,
+say."
+
+"No, man, it will not; but as far as he is concerned with Claude
+Gartram, it will be just as if he had been put out of the way.  Last
+night's reports will be the making of you."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You know.  Claude had a lingering liking for that fellow, but she can
+never speak to him again; and if you play your cards right, her pretty
+little hand will some day be laid in yours.  You'll give her a new name,
+and take possession yonder."
+
+Glyddyr looked at him rather wildly.
+
+"Why, you don't seem glad, man.  Hallo!"
+
+There was a sharp knock just then, and the two occupants of the surgery
+listened intently to the opening, and the low murmuring of voices.
+
+The servant tapped on the surgery door directly after.
+
+"Mr Trevithick, sir, would be glad to speak to you."
+
+"Show him in," said the Doctor.  "No, don't go, Glyddyr.  He has come
+over about that rumour."
+
+The lawyer entered, and shook hands with both.
+
+"Did not want to interrupt you, Doctor; but I should like a few minutes'
+conversation."
+
+"About that rumour concerning Gartram?  By all means.  Mr Glyddyr and I
+were discussing the matter."
+
+"Well, what is your opinion?"
+
+"That it is all nonsense."
+
+"You have heard everything; the report of the money, the finding of a
+bottle, and Mr Lisle being seen that night in the grounds?"
+
+"Yes--oh, yes; but what does all that prove?" said the Doctor
+decisively.  "We were quite satisfied how Gartram met with his end.  Let
+the rumour blow over, as it will do, and let the old man rest."
+
+The lawyer sat looking very thoughtful for a few moments, as he ran over
+in his mind all that had passed.
+
+"By the way, how did you hear of it?"
+
+"I am not at liberty to say."
+
+"Then I'll tell you," said Asher quickly.  "That crazy barber came over
+to you yesterday.  He found a bottle, and showed it to me.  Bah! all
+rubbish.  The man's half mad."
+
+"I am beginning to think you are right," said Trevithick.
+
+"I'm sure I am."
+
+"But it is a bad thing for Mr Christopher Lisle to have such a charge
+made against him, especially after being on such friendly terms with the
+family."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, you must excuse me; I am going up to the house," cried
+the Doctor.
+
+"I will walk with you," said Trevithick quietly.
+
+"And I am to be left out in the cold," muttered Glyddyr, as he followed
+them slowly out, only to stop hesitating, as he caught sight of the
+principal object of his thoughts.
+
+"That don't look like guilt, Mr Trevithick," said Asher, who had seen
+Chris before Glyddyr had caught sight of him.
+
+"Might be clever cunning," said the lawyer quietly.
+
+"Might be, but it is not.  Oh, hang it all, sir, don't let us harbour
+the thought for a moment.  The young man's as innocent as you are.
+Good-morning, Mr Lisle."
+
+"Ah, glad to see you, Doctor," cried Chris, whose face looked drawn and
+old.  "Morning, Mr Trevithick.  You have heard the rumour?"
+
+The Doctor bowed his head.
+
+"I will not stoop to deny it, of course.  The insensate fools!  As if it
+were possible," he cried excitedly.
+
+"Of course no one believes such an absurd rumour--I mean no one with
+brains--eh, Mr Trevithick?" said Asher.
+
+The lawyer coughed, and the pair moved on.
+
+Chris was left standing by himself as the Doctor and lawyer went on up
+to the house.  He stood gazing after them for a time, and then turned to
+go all alone towards the beach.  At that moment he became aware of the
+fact that Glyddyr was watching him, and the feeling of love and sympathy
+for Claude, and the desire to clear himself in her eyes, turned to
+bitterness and jealousy.
+
+"Of course," he said savagely; "ready to believe ill of me!  Ah, how I
+could enjoy half-an-hour with you, Parry Glyddyr, alone!"
+
+He walked on, to become conscious directly of that which, in his
+excitement, he had not before observed.
+
+There were not many people visible, but those who were hanging about in
+knots were evidently talking about and watching him; and as he passed on
+toward his home, he found that men who had known from boyhood suddenly
+turned away to enter their houses, or begin talking earnestly to their
+companions.  Not one gave him look or word of recognition.
+
+"Has it come to this?" he said, savagely.  "A pariah--a leper to be
+avoided.  Well, let them.  Oh! you!" he muttered, as a great stout
+fisherman, whose boat he had used scores of times, passed him with his
+hands deep down in his pockets, staring straight out over his left
+shoulder to sea.
+
+Chris's fists involuntarily clenched, and he strode away, not once
+looking back or he would have seen heads thrust out of doors, and knots
+gathering together to discuss his case, and the burden of all the
+converse was: "How soon will he be took and put in gaol?"
+
+"Hah! my dear," ejaculated Mrs Sarson, as he reached his lodgings.
+"You've got safely back.  Mr Wimble came by just now, and though I
+wouldn't listen to him, he said the police were going to take you over
+to Toxeter and lock you up for committing murder."
+
+"They will if that man don't mind, Mrs Sarson," cried Chris, as he
+hurried into his room.  "Curse him!  I feel as if I could go at once,
+get hold of him, and wring his neck."
+
+"Mr Christopher!" cried the poor woman, bursting into a fit of sobbing;
+"don't--don't do anything rash."
+
+"Look here, old lady," he cried, catching her by the arm; "you are not
+going to join this wretched crew, are you, and to believe I could be
+such a wretch?"
+
+"Oh, no, my dear!  Oh, no."
+
+"That's right.  But think twice.  If you have the least thought of the
+kind, I'll go at once."
+
+"Indeed, no, my dear," she sobbed; "and even if you had done it, I
+couldn't be such a cruel wretch as to tell against you, for you must
+have been mad."
+
+"Hang it, woman! if you talk like that, you'll make me mad."
+
+"I've done, my dear.  There, I won't say another word, only to defend
+you.  But tell me, my dear, what are you going to do?"
+
+"What an honest man should do, Mrs Sarson," said Chris, excitedly.
+"Mind I'm not wild with you, only with the wretched fools out yonder,"
+he said more gently, as he took his landlady's hands.  "There, my good
+old soul, it'll all come right some day, here or hereafter."
+
+"But you'll go and tell the magistrate, won't you, that it's all false?"
+
+"No," said Chris, sternly, and with his face growing hard and old.  "I'm
+not going to deny anything.  I'm an Englishman, Mrs Sarson, a
+strong-willed, stubborn Englishman, let them say what they like--do what
+they like, I'm here, and here I stay till they drag me away, and I do
+not care whether they do or do not now."
+
+"But one thing, my dear, one word, and I won't ask you another question.
+Were you at the Fort that night, and did Reuben Brime find you?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs Sarson."
+
+"Oh!--But why were you there, my dear, like that?"
+
+"You asked one question, but I'll answer the other.  Because I am a weak
+young fool--in love with somebody who seemed to have cared little for
+me, and I wanted to get one word with her.  Yes, I was a weak young
+fool.  That seems years ago now," he continued, half-talking to himself,
+"and I seem to have grown much older.  Old enough to be firm and
+strong."
+
+"But you didn't tell me, my dear, what you mean to do."
+
+"Mean to do?" cried Chris, with a bitter laugh.  "I'm going to live it
+down."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter X.
+
+COMING BACK ON FRIDAY.
+
+Chris found it a harder task than he had anticipated.  "Give a dog a bad
+name, and then hang him," says the old saw; and in his case Chris used
+to say bitterly to himself that he might as well have been hung out of
+his misery.
+
+For Wimble's shop had always been the fertile manure heap from which,
+fungus-like, scandals sprung, and their spores were carried away in all
+directions, to start into growth again and again in all directions.
+Often enough one scandal would grow, flourish, and then seem to die
+right away, but that was only the belief of the parties concerned.  Just
+as they were hugging themselves upon the fact there had been a nine
+days' wonder, and it had come to an end, a little round toadstool-like
+head would spring up in quite a different direction, and grow, and seed
+and spread itself more strongly than ever.
+
+Even minor scandals died hard, if they died at all, in Danmouth; but,
+for the most part, they proved evergreen, and lived on long after the
+authors had been gathered to their fathers and forgotten.
+
+This being the case with the lesser, it was not likely that one of the
+greatest ever known should drop away; and though weeks and months glided
+on, the story of the bottle found under the library window of the Fort
+was as fresh as ever, and people, after an easy shave, would ask quietly
+to see it, to have it taken with great show of secrecy from the drawer
+where it reposed, shaken so as to form globules of solution of chloral,
+and, if favoured customers, the cork might be removed and the contents
+smelt.
+
+Wimble was quite right.  That bottle proved to be the finest curiosity
+he possessed, and bade fair to become worth quite a hundred pounds to
+him, if not more.
+
+As time went on, the ingenious idea occurred to him that it would be
+advisable to add to its attractions by giving the contents a perceptible
+odour, and this he did by introducing one single drop of patchouli, a
+scent not familiar to the lower orders of the little fishing port, and
+whose inhalation was thoroughly enjoyed by many a gaping idiot, who
+shook his Solon-like head, and said "Hah!" softly and mysteriously,
+before handing back the bottle and whispering, "'nuff to kill any man."
+
+The treasure might have had additional piquancy if Chris Lisle had been
+tried for murder and hanged; but as he was not, Wimble said he must make
+the best of things, and went on profiting by his possession; but as he
+felt that his declaration to the widow that night had not advanced his
+suit, he spent his spare time watching her house, and wondering how long
+it would be ere Chris Lisle realised the fact that, as public opinion
+let him exist, it was his duty to live somewhere else.
+
+But Chris was as stubborn as public opinion, and, regardless of
+side-long glances, and the fact that he was regularly avoided, he went
+on just as of old, apparently living his old life, and waging war upon
+the salmon, trout, and fish that visited the mouth of the river; but
+they had an easy time.
+
+Claude had left Danmouth, but she made no sign before she went away, and
+Chris was too stubbornly proud to make any advance.
+
+"If she believes so ill of me, she may," he used to say to himself.  "A
+woman who can love like that is not worth a second thought from any
+man."
+
+He used to say that often, and tell himself that he could never tire.
+He could live it all down, and that some day he would enjoy a keen
+revenge on those who had doubted him.  He was happy enough, he said, and
+the fools might think what they liked so long as they did not molest
+him.
+
+The little mob of Danmouth had gone near this though once, when, soon
+after the news was spread, they found that no steps were taken to bring
+the crime home to the murderer.  For Trevithick, though terribly
+exercised in spirit about that missing sum of money, felt himself bound
+to agree with the Doctor that no steps could be taken, and consequently
+Gartram was left in peace beneath the handsome granite obelisk cut from
+his own quarry.
+
+So the wrath of those who would have liked to take the law in their own
+hands cooled down, and their enmity found its vent in scowls and
+avoidance, at which Chris laughed scornfully, or resented with looks as
+fierce in public; but there was a hard set of lines growing more marked
+about the corners of his mouth and his eyes, and there were times when
+he broke down in secret far up the glen, and told himself that life was
+not worth living.  He would be better dead.
+
+Claude went to recover her strength in the south of France, and Sarah
+Woodham was left in charge of the house, about which Reuben Brime sighed
+as he mowed the grass, and groaned as he drove in his spade; but Sarah
+did not heed, and he too used to think to himself that he might as well
+put out his pipe some night by taking a plunge off the end of the pier.
+
+Glyddyr stayed on in the harbour till the day after Claude and Mary
+left, when the yacht glided slowly out, and Chris watched it till it
+disappeared beyond one of the headlands far away; and then the time
+seemed like years as he went on setting public opinion at defiance,
+wrestling with it still.
+
+There were those in the place who would have met him on friendly terms,
+notably Asher; but Chris met all advances curtly, and went his way.
+
+"They shall not tolerate me," he said bitterly.  "I will live in the
+full sunshine.  Till I do, I can be content with the shade."
+
+There was one, though, whom he encountered from time to time when
+wandering listlessly whipping the streams, not very often, but on the
+rare occasions when she sought some solitary spot far away out on the
+rocky moorland to dream over the past.
+
+The first time they met, Chris's heart hounded, and his eyes flashed as
+he was about to speak.
+
+"No," he said, checking himself; "I shall not stoop.  The advance shall
+come from her."
+
+A month passed, and again on a cold, windy day of winter he was aware of
+a dark-looking, thickly-wrapped figure going along the track, and his
+heart whispered to him, "You have only to go back a few dozen yards to
+speak to her, and hear the news for which, in spite of all you say, you
+are hungering."
+
+Chris nearly yielded, but the will was too stubborn yet, and he stood
+firm.
+
+Then came a day in spring when the promise of the coming time of beauty
+was being given by swelling bud, green arum, and the tender blades of
+grass which peeped from among last year's drab dry strands.  It had been
+a cruel, stormy time for weeks, cruelly stormy, too, in Chris's heart,
+for the load was more heavy than ever, and the young man's heart was
+very sore.
+
+He was going up the glen near where he had first told Claude of his
+love, and the time of year seemed to bring with it hope and a longing
+for human intercourse and sympathy; and though he would not own it, he
+would have given anything for news of the one who filled his thoughts.
+
+She came upon him suddenly this time, and they were within half-a-dozen
+yards of each other before either was aware of the other's presence.
+
+"Ah, Sarah Woodham!" he said; and she stopped short to stand looking at
+him, with her fierce dark eyes softening, and the vestige of a smile
+about her thin parched lips.  "Well," he continued carelessly, though
+his heart beat fast, "hadn't you better go on?  You'll lose caste if any
+one sees you talking to me."
+
+"Mr Lisle," she said reproachfully.
+
+"Well, am I not a murderer?"
+
+"Oh!"
+
+The woman shuddered, and looked at him wildly.
+
+"Mr Lisle!  Don't talk like that!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"No one worth notice could think such a thing of you."
+
+"Not even your mistress!" he said, with boyish irritability; but only to
+feel as if he would have given all he possessed to recall it.
+
+"Don't say cruel things about her, sir.  She has suffered deeply."
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+He checked himself, and though Sarah Woodham remained silent and
+waiting, he did not speak.
+
+"What changes and troubles we have seen, sir, since the happy old days
+when, quite a boy then, you used to come to the quarry with Miss
+Claude."
+
+"Bah!  You never seemed to be very happy, Sarah.  You were much brighter
+and happier before you were married."
+
+The woman glanced at him sharply, and then her eyes grew dreamy and
+thoughtful again.
+
+"Woodham was a good, kind husband to me, sir," she said gently.
+
+"Yes; but see what a cold, stern, hard life you lived.  He--"
+
+"Hush, sir, please," said the woman gently; "he was a good, true man to
+me, and we all misjudge at times."
+
+"Is that meant for a cut at me, Sarah?" said Chris cynically.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the woman naively.  "I don't think you ought to be one
+to cast a stone--at the dead."
+
+He turned upon her angrily, but she met his sharp look with one so grave
+and calm that it disarmed him, and, led on by the fact that he had
+hardly spoken to a soul for weeks, he said--
+
+"Few people have such cause to be bitter as I have."
+
+"We all think our fate the hardest, sir."
+
+"Going to preach at me, Sarah?"
+
+"No, sir," she said, with her eyes lighting up, and a pleasant look
+softening her face; "I only feel grieved and pained to see the bonnie,
+handsome boy, who I always thought would naturally be my dear Miss
+Claude's husband, drifting away to wreck like one of the ships we often
+see."
+
+"Silence, woman!" cried Chris.  "For God's sake don't talk like that!"
+
+"I will not, sir, if you tell me not," said Sarah quietly; "but I think
+you deal hard with poor Miss Claude for what she cannot help."
+
+"What?"
+
+"She has tried to do her duty--that I know."
+
+"Yes," he said bitterly; "every one seems to have tried to do his or her
+duty by me."
+
+There was a dead silence, during which the woman stood gazing at him
+wistfully, and more than once her lips moved, and her hand played
+restlessly about her shawl, as if she wanted to lay it upon his arm, and
+say something comforting to one who appeared so lonely and cast out.
+
+"Miss Claude is coming home on Friday, sir," she said at last; and she
+saw the fervour of hope and joy which beamed from the young man's eyes--
+only to be clouded over directly, as he said bitterly--
+
+"Well, she has a right to.  What is it to me?"
+
+"Mr Chris!"
+
+"Oh, don't talk to me!" he cried passionately.  "The world has all gone
+wrong with me, and I am a cursed and bitter man.  God knows that I am,
+or I could not speak as I do.  They'll find out some day that I am not a
+murderer and a thief.--I'm losing time, for the fish are rising fast."
+
+She stood looking after him wistfully as he strode along by the river
+side, and then walked away with the old dull, agonised look coming back
+into her face.
+
+"Poor boy!" she said softly.  "Poor boy!"
+
+"Coming back on Friday--coming back on Friday!"
+
+Sarah Woodham's words kept repeating themselves in Chris Lisle's ears as
+he walked on up the glen, waving his fishing-rod so that the line hissed
+and whistled through the air, and at every repetition of the words his
+heart bounded, and the young blood ran dancing through his veins.
+
+"Coming back on Friday!"
+
+It was as if new life were rushing through him; his step grew more
+elastic, his eyes brightened, and he leaped from rock to rock, where the
+brown water came flashing and foaming down.
+
+"Coming back," he muttered; "coming back."
+
+The past was going to be dead; the clouds were about to rise from about
+him, and there was once more going to be something worth living for.
+
+"Bah!" he ejaculated, "I've been a morose, bitter, disappointed fool,
+too ready to give up; but that's all past now.  She is coming back, and
+all this time of misery and despair is at an end."
+
+It seemed to be another man who was hurrying along the margin of the
+river, in and out over the mighty water-worn stones, with the water
+rushing between, till he was brought up short by the whizzing sound made
+by his winch, for the hook had caught in a bush, and his rod was bent
+half double.
+
+"I can't fish to-day," he said, turning back, and winding in till he
+could give the hook a sharp jerk and snap the gut bottom.  "I must go
+home and think."
+
+He hurried back, with the feeling growing upon him that all the past
+trouble was at an end.  For the moment he felt intoxicated with the new
+sense of elation which thrilled him, and it was as if all the young hope
+and joy which were natural to his age, and had been clouded now, had
+suddenly burst forth like so much sunshine.  But this was short lived.
+
+As he reached the bridge, a couple of fishermen whom he had known from
+boyhood were standing with their backs to the parapet, chatting and
+smoking, but as soon as they saw him approach they turned round, leaned
+over the side, and began to stare down at the river.
+
+It was like a cold dark mist blown athwart him, but he strode on.
+
+"Fools!" he muttered; and increasing his pace, he began to note more
+than ever now that his coming was the signal for people standing at
+their doors to go inside, and for the fishermen to turn their backs.
+
+All this had occurred every time he had been out of late, but he had
+grown hardened to it, and laughed in his stubborn contempt; but this
+day, after the fit of elation he had passed through,--it all looked new,
+and he hurried on chilled to the heart; the bright, sunshiny day was
+clouded over again, and all was once more hopeless and blank.
+
+So bitter was the feeling of despair which now sunk deep into his
+breast, that he shrank from Wimble, who was standing at his door in the
+act of saying good-day to a customer, both looking hard at him till he
+had entered the cottage.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XI.
+
+UNDER THE CLOUD.
+
+"Better go away," said Chris to himself.
+
+But he stayed, and in contempt of the avoidance of those he met, he was
+constantly going to and fro during the next twenty-four hours.
+
+Now he was down on the beach, close to the sea; now wandering high up on
+the moorland, and seeing, from each point of view, trifles which showed
+that the mistress of the Fort was coming home.
+
+He called himself "idiot," and asked mentally where his pride had gone,
+and determined to shut himself up with his books, but the determination
+was too weak, and he could not rest.  It was something, if only to see
+the home that would soon again contain the woman who held him fast.
+
+"She will meet me again," he said, with his hopes rising once more
+toward the evening of the next day.  "I'll go up boldly like a man.  My
+darling!  And all this misery will be at an end.  Nine weary months has
+she been away, and it has seemed like years.  Why didn't I write?  Why
+didn't I crush down all this foolish pride and obstinacy?  I ought to
+have gone to her, instead of letting myself be maddened by that
+miserable scoundrel, believing she could listen to him, even if it was
+her father's wish."
+
+He had strolled down the pier and lit a cigar, to stand gazing out to
+the west, where the sun was setting behind a golden bank of cloud which
+began to darken with purple as the plainly-marked rays spread out
+towards the zenith, while the calm sea gently heaved, and began to glow
+with ruby, topaz and emerald hues.
+
+Far out beyond the shelter of the headland and the long low isle which
+acted like a breakwater to the bay, the sea was ruffled by the gentle
+evening breeze; and as Chris loitered, with his breast once more growing
+calm, he could see lugger after lugger, that had been tugged out with
+the large oars, hoisting sail to catch the soft gale and then glide
+slowly away, the tawny sails catching the reflected light, till all
+around was beautiful as some golden dream.
+
+Chris turned and looked back at the Fort, to see that its windows were
+aglow, and the cliffs that rose behind and on either side were more
+lovely than ever.
+
+"What a welcome home for her!" he said softly.  "My darling!  Oh, if she
+could see her old home now! if she would only come, and I could be the
+first to welcome her and take her by the hand."
+
+"Yes," he said, as he turned and gazed out to sea and shore, heedless of
+the fact that a group of sailors were slowly coming down the pier.  "I
+will be there to meet her and take her by the hand.  She could not have
+believed it; and, now that the time of sorrow is at an end, she will--
+she shall listen to me.  Heaven give me strength to master this bitter,
+cruel pride and foolish jealousy.  I will hope."
+
+"Bet yer a gallon it is," cried a voice behind him.
+
+"Yah!  Yer don't know what yer talking about.  Such gashly stuff!"
+
+"Oh, you're precious clever, you are.  Think that there schooner lay
+here all those many months and I shouldn't know her again?  Here, let's
+go up to the point, and get the coastie to lend us his glass."
+
+"I don't want no glass," said another voice.  "My eyes are good enough
+for that.  Jemmy Gadly's right enough.  I could swear to her."
+
+The speaker made a binocular of his two hands, and gazed out to sea, at
+where the white sails of a yacht came well into view from beyond the
+island.
+
+Chris heard every word, but he did not turn.  He stood gazing at the
+yacht, which with every stitch of canvas set, was running fast for the
+harbour, beautiful in the evening light--a picture in that gleaming sea.
+
+"Ay," said the man at last, as he dropped his hands and turned to Chris,
+who was gazing out to sea with a strange singing in his ears, and a
+sensation at his temples as if the blood was throbbing hard.  "Ay,
+that's Mr Glyddyr's yacht, sure enough, and he's come back o' course to
+meet young Miss.  Oh, it be you?"
+
+This last as Chris turned round upon him with a ghastly face glaring at
+him wildly.
+
+"Lor'!  Look at that," cried the man addressed as Gadly, and with an
+ugly grin overspreading his face as the love of baiting came uppermost.
+"Come away, Joe; he means mischief.  Look out or there'll be another
+murder done."
+
+_Thud_!
+
+It was as quick as lightning.  Chris Lisle's left fist flashed out,
+caught the man full in the cheek, and he staggered back, tried to save
+himself, and then tripped over a rope and fell heavily upon the stones,
+while his assailant glared round seeking another victim as a low angry
+murmur rose.
+
+"You coward!" he growled between his teeth.
+
+"Ay, and sarve him gashly well right," said the sturdy fisherman, who
+had had his hands up to his eyes, and had addressed Chris.  "He is a
+coward to say that there.  Howd off, my lads, and let him bide.  There's
+been quite enough o' this gashly jaw.  I don't believe you did kill the
+old man, Mr Chris, sir, and there's my hand on it."
+
+He thrust out his great brown hairy, horny paw, and it was like help
+held forth to a drowning man.  Chris grasped the hand with both of his,
+and stood gazing full in the rough fellow's eyes, his face working, his
+breast heaving, and a great struggle going on as he tried to speak,
+while the little group around looked on at the strange scene.
+
+It was the first kindly word man seemed to have spoken to him all those
+weary months, and Chris, completely overcome, strove hard to utter his
+thanks, but for a time nothing would come.  At last it was in a low,
+hoarse murmur that he said--
+
+"God bless you for that, my man!" and hurried back to his room.
+
+"And you call yourselves mates," growled the fisherman, who had
+prudently kept in a reclining position, and who now slowly rose; "and
+you call yourselves mates.  Why, you ought to ha' chucked him off the
+wall."
+
+"And I felt so happy!" groaned Chris; "and I felt so happy!"
+
+"How did he know she was coming back?" he cried suddenly, as he sprang
+up and caught a telescope from where it lay upon a row of books,
+adjusted it, and stood looking out of the open window.
+
+"Yes, its his boat; and there he stands using a glass watching her
+home."
+
+He shrank away, with his eyes looking dull and sunken as he laid the
+glass upon the shelf.
+
+"How did he know--how did he know?"
+
+He sank down in a chair, and buried his face in his hands, as a flood of
+surmises rushed through his brain, every one full of agony, and all
+pointing to the idea that Claude must have been in communication with
+Glyddyr, or he never could have timed his return after all these months
+like that.
+
+Half-an-hour had passed, and then he started from his chair, for there
+was a loud report.
+
+He sank back in his seat again, with a mocking laugh.
+
+"Beer!" he said bitterly.  "Beer!  What a world this is!"
+
+And in imagination he saw the white smoke curling up from the mouth of
+the little cannon which stood by the flagstaff in front of the Harbour
+Inn, knowing, as he did, that the piece had been loaded in honour of
+Glyddyr's return, and fired with the taproom poker, made red for the
+purpose.
+
+Then there arose a boisterous burst of cheering, taken up again and
+again, as Glyddyr's gig was rowed up to the steps, and he stepped out
+upon the pier.
+
+"Yes, cheer away, you idiots," cried Chris, rising from his seat in his
+jealous agony; "cheer and shout, and go down on the stones and grovel
+before him."
+
+_Bang_!
+
+"That's right!  Again.  Again.  Down with you, and let him walk in
+triumph over your necks.  The new man--the new master of the Fort."
+
+"They know it," he groaned, as he dashed to the window, and then backed
+away, after seeing that he was right, and that Glyddyr was coming along
+the pier, scattering coins among the little crowd that had gathered
+round, while the sound of hurrying feet could be heard as men and boys,
+attracted by the gunfire, were running down to the harbour.
+
+"Yes, they know it.  The new lord of the Fort, and I stand here instead
+of joining them, and cheering too for the new king of the castle.  My
+God, what a world it is!"
+
+He stopped short, pale and ghastly, as the cheering came nearer, and
+just then, looking proud and elate, Parry Glyddyr passed the window on
+his way to the hotel.
+
+"And leave him to triumph over my death!" muttered Chris, in a low
+fierce voice.  "No," he added, after a pause; "I've been too great a cur
+as it is.  Not yet: it has not come quite to the worst."
+
+Chris was right.  There had been communication between Claude and
+Glyddyr, and quiet pertinacity, mingled with the greatest show of gentle
+respect and consideration, had not been without result.
+
+It was only a short run across to Ettreville, and one morning, during a
+walk with Mary, Glyddyr came up to salute Claude with grave, respectful
+courtesy.
+
+They had just put in for a few hours, he said, and they sailed again
+that afternoon.  He was so glad to see Miss Gartram again, and he was
+sure she was better for the change.
+
+Only a few minutes' conversation, and he was gone.
+
+A fortnight later he was there again, and the stay was a little longer;
+but there was always the same shrinking show of respect for her, and
+even Mary could say nothing.
+
+And so time wore on, till the coming of the yacht and a stay for at
+least a few days was no uncommon thing.
+
+"No, I wouldn't say a word," said Gellow, in conference with his man.
+"Keep quiet, dear boy, till she gets back, even if it's months yet, and
+then strike home."
+
+"But I'm getting sick of it."
+
+"Never mind, dear boy.  It's a very big stake, and I can't understand,
+seeing what a darling she is, how you shy at her so.  No other reason,
+have you?"
+
+"No, no," said Glyddyr hurriedly.
+
+"But it looks as if you had, even when you say no.  But there, it's all
+right.  Give her plenty of time.  You have hooked her.  If you are hasty
+now, she'll break away, and never take the fly again.  Wait till she
+goes back into her own quiet little groove.  Then be quite ready; job
+the landing-net under her with a sure and steady hand, and though she'll
+kick and struggle a bit, and try to leap back into deep water, the
+pretty little goldfish will be yours.  And well earned, too."
+
+So Glyddyr waited his time, knew exactly when Claude would return home,
+and was ready to incite the fishermen and the workers at the quarry to
+get up a reception in her honour.
+
+This was done, and as Chris Lisle stayed at home, gnawing his lips with
+agony, he knew that flags and banners were being strung across from
+house to house, that yachts' guns were to be fired, and that the band
+from Toxeter was to be there.
+
+It was short time for preparation, but enthusiasm was at high pressure,
+and the first dawning Chris had of the hour at which Claude would return
+was given by the band.
+
+For a moment he hesitated.  Jealousy said stay, but the old boyish love
+carried all before it, and, reckless of the lowering looks which greeted
+him, he hurried along the beach, and made for the Fort, so as to be one
+of the first to welcome its mistress back.
+
+The bells in the little church began to ring musically, for Glyddyr had
+well done his work, and then the guns were fired, and as this was
+supplemented by the distant music, a fierce pang shot through Chris
+Lisle's heart.
+
+"Why did I not think to do all this?"
+
+He went on, and joined the little crowd by the gateway of the Fort,
+where the school children were in front, ready with handkerchiefs and
+coloured ribbons, for there were no flowers to be had.
+
+As he approached to take his stand by the gate, the children began to
+cheer, and he bit his lip angrily as he heard them rebuked and hushed
+into silence.
+
+But he forgot all this directly, for fresh firing and the nearing of the
+band told that Claude must be close at hand--she for whom his heart
+yearned--she whom his eyes longed to see, and they grew dim in the
+excitement, as, forgetful of all past trouble, he strained them to catch
+her first glance.
+
+Would she smile at him?  Would she stop and stretch out her hands, and
+in spite of all those gathered around her, should he clasp her in his
+arms?
+
+All excited thoughts, as there was the crashing sound of wheels, the
+loud cheering caught up now by the children as the carriage which had
+been to meet her rolled slowly up toward the gateway.
+
+At last.  Bending forward with her pale face flushed, her eyes humid,
+and her black gloved hand waving her white kerchief in answer to the
+bursts of cheers.
+
+Chris strained forward, and was about to press up to the carriage-door
+as it came slowly into the gateway to avoid crushing those who flocked
+round.
+
+"Three cheers for the Queen of the Castle!" cried a loud voice; and then
+to Chris Lisle it was as if heaven and earth had come together.
+
+For the voice was the voice of Glyddyr, who had risen from his seat
+beside Claude, unseen till then; and as the answering chorus rang out,
+sick almost unto death, his brain swimming and a dull throbbing at his
+breast, Chris shrank away without encountering Claude Gartram's eyes,
+veiled almost to blindness by her tears.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XII.
+
+CONSCIENCE PRICKING.
+
+"It does seem so hard to think that we have been away all these months,
+Claudie," said Mary the next morning.  "Aren't you glad to be back once
+more in the dear old home?"
+
+"Yes, dear; and no," said Claude sadly.
+
+"Now, who is to understand what that means?  But, Claude, dear, I did
+not speak last night--"
+
+"What about," said Claude quickly.
+
+"I don't like to say.  The subject is tabooed."
+
+Claude turned toward the window, so that her cousin should not see her
+face.
+
+"The last time I mentioned his name you scolded me."
+
+Claude remained silent.
+
+"Did you see him yesterday when we came up to the gate?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He was there, and coming up to the carriage when he saw Mr Glyddyr get
+up to call for three cheers, and then he shrank away."
+
+Claude shivered, as if from a sudden chill, but she remained silent.
+
+"May I say what I think?" asked Mary.
+
+Claude turned upon her an agonised look.
+
+"If you wish to give me pain," she said, almost in a whisper; and at
+that moment Sarah Woodham entered the room.
+
+"Mr Glyddyr, ma'am.  He asks you to excuse his calling so early, but if
+you would see him for a few minutes he would be grateful."
+
+The shiver ran through Claude again, but she smothered her emotion.
+
+"Show Mr Glyddyr in," she said calmly, and Sarah Woodham's face grew
+harder as she left the room.
+
+"What are you going to say, Claude?" said Mary quickly.
+
+"Say?"
+
+"Yes.  Why do you put on that air of ignorance?  You know why he has
+come."
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"Yes, I will speak.  All these quiet calls have meant that, I am sure.
+He has only been waiting till you came home to ask you to be his wife."
+
+"Hush!"
+
+The door opened, and Glyddyr entered, looking sallow and nervous; but he
+began to brighten a little, as if the presence of Mary were a reprieve
+from the task he had set himself to do.
+
+It was only a short one, though, for, after the first greetings, Mary
+rose to go.
+
+Claude looked at her wistfully.
+
+"Don't let me drive you away, Miss Dillon," said Glyddyr quickly.
+
+Claude uttered no word to stay her, but sat gazing straight before her
+at a large photograph of her father, her eyes wild and fixed with the
+emotion from which she suffered, and for a few moments after the door
+was closed neither spoke.
+
+"Miss Gartram--Claude," said Glyddyr, at last, in a husky voice, and at
+his words she started, as if from a dream.
+
+Her look seemed to freeze him, but he had taken the step now, and he
+rose and crossed to her side, taking the hand she surrendered to him
+unresistingly.
+
+"Claude, you know how all these weary months I have been silent," he
+whispered; "how I have feared to intrude upon you in your grief, though
+all the while I have suffered painfully too."
+
+"Yes," she said gently, "you have been very patient with me, I know."
+
+"Because I dared to hope that the time might come when I could speak to
+you as I do now.  You know how I love you, and--forgive me for saying
+what I do--you know how my happiness is in your hands.  Tell me to be
+patient even now, and I will wait."
+
+Her wild fixed look intensified as she listened to his impassioned
+prayer, for she saw only the face of her father as she had seen him last
+in life.
+
+"I hardly dare to say the words," he went on; "it seems like putting
+pressure on one whom I want to love me of herself, to make me happy by
+her own gentle confession; but I must speak now, even if it gives you
+pain.  Claude, dearest, it was his wish.  Tell me you will be my wife."
+
+He uttered his last sentence or two in a hesitating whisper.
+
+"You heard what I said, dearest?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes--yes," said Claude dreamily.
+
+"You will not hold me off longer.  Claude, dearest, what can I say to
+move you?  Is it to be always thus?"
+
+She looked at him wildly for a few moments, and he was about to speak
+again, but her lips moved, and she said slowly--
+
+"You say it would make you happy?"
+
+"Happy?" he exclaimed passionately, "oh, if I had but words to tell you
+all."
+
+"Hush!" she said, slowly withdrawing her hand.  "Six months ago I
+thought I saw my course marked out for me; but now all appears changed.
+You know how, long before we ever met--"
+
+"Yes," he cried eagerly, "I know everything you would say, but, Claude,
+dearest, it is impossible.  If that was to make you happy, I would have
+gone away, and patiently borne all, but it is impossible."
+
+"Yes," she said, shuddering slightly, "it is impossible."
+
+"Then you will let me hope?" he cried quickly.
+
+"It was my dear father's wish," she said dreamily; "I have thought of
+this, and what was my duty, left as I am, his child and the steward of
+his great wealth."
+
+"Yes--yes!" he cried excitedly.
+
+"It was all darkness--black, black darkness for a time, but by slow
+degrees the light has come."
+
+"Claude, my love!"
+
+"Oh, hush: pray hush!" she said with a slight shiver as she gazed
+straight past her wooer at the photograph upon the table.  "It was his
+wish; and if you desire this, Parry Glyddyr, I will try to be your true
+and faithful wife."
+
+"My own!" he whispered, and he tried to pass his arm around her, but she
+shrank back with so pained a look that he forbore.  "There," he said, "I
+will be patient.  I have waited all these long months, and I know now
+how your love for me will come.  I can wait.  But, Claude, let me go
+away quite happy.  How soon?"
+
+"It was his wish."
+
+"In a month from now?" he whispered tenderly.
+
+"Yes," she said, still gazing past him at the photograph.
+
+"My own!" he cried, "I had not dared to hope for this.  But, Claude,
+dearest, why do you look so strange?"
+
+He felt as if a hand of ice had touched him, and his own closed upon
+hers with a spasmodic grip, as he looked sharply round and saw the
+photograph, the counterfeit presentment gazing sternly in his eyes.
+
+But Claude was too intent upon her own thoughts to notice his ghastly
+pallor, and, uttering a low sigh, she at last withdrew her hand.
+
+"Do not say more to me now, Mr Glyddyr," she sighed faintly.  "I am
+weak.  The shock of coming back here has been almost more than I can
+bear.  You will go now.  Do not think me unkind and cold, but you will
+leave me till to-morrow."
+
+"Yes, yes," he cried huskily, as he forced himself to take her hand
+which felt like ice, and, bending over it, he pressed his lips upon the
+clear transparent skin.  "Yes, till to-morrow," he said; and, carefully
+keeping his eyes averted from the photograph, he walked quickly from the
+room.
+
+"Claude!  Claude!" cried Mary entering, but there was no reply.
+"Claude!" and she laid her hand upon the girl's shoulder, to start back
+in alarm at the waxen face that was slowly turned towards her.  "Claude,
+darling, don't look like that.  Tell me.  He did ask you?"
+
+Claude nodded.
+
+"And you refused him?"
+
+She shook her head sadly.
+
+"Oh, Claude!" cried Mary reproachfully.  "And poor Chris!"
+
+"Silence!" said Claude excitedly.  "Never mention his name again."
+
+"But you can't--you don't think that horrible charge was true?"
+
+"I think it was, my dear--my dead father's wish that I should wed Mr
+Glyddyr.  I have prayed for strength to carry out his will."
+
+"And you have accepted him!"
+
+"Mary, a woman cannot live for herself.  It was my duty.  In a month I
+shall be Parry Glyddyr's wife."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XIII.
+
+A STRANGE WOOING.
+
+Chris Lisle heard the news without showing the slightest emotion, and as
+soon as he was alone he sat down and wrote as follows:--
+
+"_I pray God that you may be happy_.
+
+"Chris Lisle."
+
+That was all, and he dropped it into the post-box himself, turned back
+to meet Trevithick on his way to the Fort, nodded to him and went
+straight to his room, where he stood for a few moments in silence.
+
+"Yes," he said slowly and solemnly, "I pray God that you may be happy."
+
+Then, after a pause:
+
+"But," he cried, with terrible earnestness, "if--"
+
+There was another pause in which he silently continued that which he
+might have said.  Then, with a fierce light flashing from his eyes, he
+clenched his hands and said in a whisper more startling than the loudest
+words--
+
+"I'll kill him as I would some venomous beast."
+
+He threw himself into a chair and sat looking white and changed for
+quite an hour before he rose up and drew a long deep breath.
+
+"Dead!" he said softly; "dead!  Now, then, to bear it--like a man--and
+show no sign."
+
+There was a gentle tap at the door.
+
+"May I come in, sir, please?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh yes, Mrs Sarson.  What is it?"
+
+"I was going to--Oh my dear, dear boy!"
+
+The poor woman caught his hand in hers, and kissed it, as her tears fell
+fast.
+
+"Why, Mrs Sarson," he said, smiling, "what's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, my dear," she said; "you haven't lived here with me all these years
+from quite a boy as you were, without me feeling just like a mother to
+you.  And you so alone in the world.  I know what trouble you're in, and
+what you must feel; and it hurts me too."
+
+"There, there.  You're a good soul," he said.  "But that's all over.
+Why, I've had the aching tooth taken out, and I'm quite a new man now."
+
+"Oh, my dear--my dear!"
+
+"I'm off for a few hours' fishing, and I shall want a good meat tea
+about six.  I sha'n't be later."
+
+He nodded cheerfully, and took his creel and rod from the passage, Mrs
+Sarson hurrying to the window, and watching till he was out of sight,
+"Ah!" she said, shaking her head; "but it don't deceive me.  I've read
+of them as held their hands in the fire till they were burned away; and
+he's a martyr, too, as would do it, without making a sign.  But he can't
+deceive me."
+
+Meanwhile Trevithick had gone up to the Fort to see Claude about certain
+business matters connected with the quarry, and with the full intent to
+ask her a few questions about the missing money in spite of her former
+words; but on his way that morning he had heard startling news, which
+made his face look peculiarly serious, and he said to himself--
+
+"Well, it was her father's wish, but if I don't make the tightest
+marriage settlements ever drawn up I'm not an honest man."
+
+He was admitted by Sarah Woodham, and shown into the library, where,
+quite at home, he took his seat, unlocked his black bag, and began to
+arrange a number of endorsed papers, tied up with red tape.
+
+"Mrs Woodham does not seem to approve of the wedding," he said to
+himself.  "Not a cheerful woman."
+
+Then he looked round the room, and in imagination searched Gartram's
+safe and cash receptacles for the hundredth time.
+
+"No," he said, giving one ear a vicious rub, "I can't get it that way.
+It was someone who knew him and his ways pretty well stole that money,
+or there would have been some record left.  All those thousands short.
+He never omitted keeping account of even trifling sums."
+
+"And Miss Dillon does not approve of the wedding," he said to himself as
+Mary entered, her eyes plainly showing that she had been weeping.
+
+"Good-morning," she said, taking the chair placed for her with heavy
+courtesy.  "My cousin is unwell, Mr Trevithick, and cannot see you.
+Will you either come over again or state your business to me?"
+
+"I shall be only too glad," he said, smiling.
+
+"I thought you would," replied Mary.  "Of course you will make a charge
+for this journey."
+
+Trevithick looked at her aghast; and then flushed and perspired.
+
+"I said I should be only too glad to discuss the business with you, Miss
+Dillon," he said stiffly.
+
+"No, you did not, Mr Trevithick."
+
+"I beg pardon.  That is what I meant."
+
+"Oh! then please go on."
+
+"Why will she always be so sharp with me?" thought the lawyer, as he
+looked across the table wistfully.
+
+"Yes, Mr Trevithick?  I am all attention."
+
+"Yes; of course," he said, suddenly becoming very business-like, for he
+could deal with her then.  "The little matters of business can wait, or
+perhaps you could take the papers up for Miss Gartram's signature."
+
+"Yes; of course," said Mary, sharply.  "Where are they?"
+
+"Here," he said, quietly; "but there is one, I might say two things, I
+should like Miss Gartram's opinion upon.  Will you tell her, please?"
+
+"Do speak a little faster, Mr Trevithick, I have a great deal to do
+this morning."
+
+"I beg your pardon.  Will you please tell Miss Gartram that I am, in
+spite of her commands, much exercised in mind about that missing money.
+Tell her, please, that I have studied it from every point of view, and I
+am compelled to say that it is her duty to Mr Gartram deceased--that
+most exact of business men--to instruct me to make further inquiries
+into the matter."
+
+"It would be of no use, Mr Trevithick.  I am sure your cousin would not
+allow it.  Is that all?"
+
+"Will you not appeal to her from me?"
+
+"No.  I am sure she would not listen to any such suggestion.  Now, is
+that all?"
+
+Mary spoke in a quick, excited way, as if she wanted to get out of the
+room, and yet wished to stay.
+
+"Well--no," he answered softly, as he kept on taking up and laying down
+his papers in different order.
+
+"Mr Trevithick!"
+
+"Pray, give me time, Miss Dillon," he protested.  "The fact is I have
+heard very important news this morning."
+
+"Of course you have.  You mean about my cousin's approaching marriage."
+
+"Then it is true?"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+Trevithick sighed.
+
+"Well, Mr Trevithick, is that all?"
+
+"No, madam, I may say that I am very sorry."
+
+"Well, is that all?" cried Mary, impatiently.
+
+"No.  As the late Mr Gartram's trusted, confidential adviser, I was
+aware that this was his wish, but, all the same, I am deeply grieved."
+
+"Of course, and so is everybody else," said Mary passionately.  "I
+mean," she said, checking herself, "it seems sad for it to be so soon.
+That is all, I suppose."
+
+"No, Miss Dillon; this being so I should have liked to discuss with Miss
+Gartram the question of the settlements.  I presume, as she has
+continued to trust me as her father trusted me, that she would wish me
+to see to all the legal matters connected with her fortune."
+
+"What a stupid question.  Why, of course."
+
+"Well, forgive me; hardly a stupid question.  Perhaps too retiring--for
+a lawyer."
+
+"Mr Trevithick, you are not half decided and prompt enough.  Well,
+then; my cousin anticipated all this, and said, `tell Mr Trevithick to
+do what is right and just, and that I leave myself entirely in his
+hands.  Tell him to do what he would have done had my father been
+alive.'"
+
+"Ah!" said the lawyer slowly.  "Yes; then I will proceed at once.  It is
+a great responsibility, as Miss Gartram has neither relative nor
+executor to whom she could appeal.  A very great responsibility, but I
+will do what is just and right in her interest, tying down her property
+as under the circumstances should be done."
+
+"Do--do Mr Trevithick--dear Mr Trevithick, pray do," cried Mary,
+starting from her seat, and advancing to the table--her old, sharp
+manner gone, and an intense desire to hasten the lawyer's proposals
+flashing from her eyes.
+
+"I will," he said firmly; and he held out his hand.  "You will trust me,
+Mary Dillon, as your cousin trusts me?"
+
+"Indeed, I will," she said eagerly, and she placed her thin little white
+hand in his.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated with a long expiration of the breath; and his great
+hand closed and prisoned the little one laid therein.  "You told me just
+now that I was not decided and prompt enough."
+
+"Yes, I did.  But you are holding my hand very tightly, Mr Trevithick."
+
+"Yes," he said quietly, "I am.  That is because you are wrong.  I am
+very decided and prompt sometimes, and I am going to be now.  Mary
+Dillon, will you be my wife?"
+
+"What!" she cried, flushing scarlet, and struggling to release her hand,
+as her eyes flashed and seemed to be reading him through and through.
+"Absurd!"
+
+"No--no," he said gravely; "don't say that, even if my way and manner
+are absurd."
+
+"I did not mean that," she cried quickly.  "I meant to--Oh, it is
+absurd!" she said again, though her heart was throbbing violently, and
+she struggled vainly to withdraw her hand.  "Look at me--weak,
+misshapen, pitiful.  Mr Trevithick, you are mad."
+
+"Don't try to take your hand away," he said slowly; it makes me afraid
+of hurting you; and don't speak again like that--you hurt me very--very
+much.
+
+"But, Mr Trevithick!  It is too dreadful.  I cannot--I must not listen
+to you."
+
+"Why?  You are quite free; and you are not an heiress."
+
+"I!" she cried bitterly.  "No; I have nothing but a pitiful few hundred
+pounds.  Now you know the truth.  Do you hear me?  I am a pauper,
+dependent on my cousin's charity."
+
+"I am very glad," he said, gazing at her thoughtfully, and still
+speaking in his slow and deliberate way.  "I was afraid that perhaps you
+had money of which I did not know.  But you will say `yes'?"
+
+"No; impossible.  Are you blind?  Look at me."
+
+"I might say, `Look at me,'" he retorted, with a frank, honest laugh,
+which lit up his countenance pleasantly.  "I wish you could look at me
+as I do at you, and see there something that you could love.  Yes," he
+said, his genuine passion making him speak fluently and well; "for all
+these long, long months, Mary, I have always had your sweet, earnest
+eyes before me, and your clever, bright face.  I have seemed to listen
+to your voice, and sometimes I have been sad as I have asked myself what
+a woman could find in me to love."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the trembling girl.
+
+"And I've felt that, when you have said all those many sharp, hard
+things to me, that they were not quite real, and when your words have
+been most cruel, I've dared to fancy that your eyes seemed to be sorry
+that your tongue could be so bitter."
+
+"Mr Trevithick, pray!"
+
+"And then I've hoped and waited, and thought of what you were."
+
+"Yes," said Mary bitterly, as she made a gesture with one hand.
+
+"Bah!" he cried, "what of that?  An accident when you were a child.  I
+would not have you different for worlds.  I want those two dear eyes to
+look into mine, true and trustful and clever.  You, to whom I can come
+home from my work for help and counsel, to be everything to me--my wife.
+Mary dear, in my slow and clumsy way I love you very dearly, and your
+cousin's wedding has brought it all out.  I didn't think I could make
+love like that."
+
+He took her other hand, and gazed at her very fondly as she stood by his
+side, with the tears streaming down her cheeks.
+
+"You are not angry with me, dear?"
+
+"No," she said gently; "I am sorry."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"For you.  See how the world will sneer."
+
+"What!" he cried eagerly.  "Then you will?"
+
+She looked at him searchingly, as if a lingering doubt were there, and a
+shadow of suspicion were making her try to see if he was truly in
+earnest.
+
+"No, no," she said, as a sob burst from her lips; "it is impossible."
+And she struggled hard to get away.
+
+"Impossible!" he said, as he tightened his grasp.  "Tell me one thing,
+Mary.  You knew I loved you?"
+
+She nodded quickly.
+
+"And--you don't think me ridiculous?"
+
+"I think you the truest, most honest gentleman I ever saw," she sobbed;
+"but--"
+
+"Ah!" he said, with a pleasant little satisfied laugh, "that settles it,
+then.  The impossibility has gone like smoke.  Mary dear, I never hoped
+to be so happy as you have made me now."
+
+His great arms enfolded her for a moment, during which she lay panting
+on his breast, then, struggling to free herself, she caught and kissed
+one of his hands.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated, "now we must think of some one else."
+
+He led her gently back to her chair, and bent down to kiss her forehead.
+Then, returning to his seat as calmly as if nothing had happened--
+
+"I can talk freely to you now, Mary," he said.  "Is not this a great
+mistake?"
+
+"Yes," she said, with an arch look, full of her newly-found joy.
+
+"No, no; you know what I mean.  We must be very serious now.  I don't
+like this Mr Glyddyr."
+
+"I hate him," cried Mary.
+
+"Well, that's honest," he said, smiling.  "But it was her father's wish,
+and I suppose it is to be."
+
+"Yes; it is to be.  Nothing would turn her now."
+
+John Trevithick did not say, "And is this to be soon?" but he thought
+it, and set the idea aside.
+
+"No," he said to himself; "we must wait."  And soon after, calm, quiet
+and business-like, he went away to draw up the marriage settlements
+tightly on Claude's behalf, and wandered whether he could ever manage to
+trace that missing cash.
+
+He took out a pocket-book, and turned to a certain page covered with
+figures, and ran it down.
+
+"Only a few of these notes have reached the bank.  Well, some day I may
+come upon a clue in a way I least expect.
+
+"Impossible, eh?" he said, with a smile of content.  "Bless her sweet
+eyes!  I won't believe in the impossible now."
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XIV.
+
+"AND THIS IS BEING MARRIED."
+
+"You are sure you don't mind me talking about it, sir?"
+
+"Mind!  Oh, no, Mrs Sarson, say what you like."
+
+"Well, you see, sir, even if one is a widow and growing old, one can't
+help feeling interested in weddings.  I suppose it's being a woman.
+Everybody's dreadfully disappointed."
+
+"Indeed," said Chris coldly.
+
+"And, yes, indeed, sir.  No big party; no wedding breakfast and cake; no
+going away in chaises and fours.  If poor Mr Gartram had been alive, it
+wouldn't have been like this.  Why, do you know, sir, the quarry folk
+were getting ready powder and going to fire guns, and make a big bonfire
+on the cliffs; but Mr Trevithick, the lawyer, went to them with a
+message from Miss Claude, sir, asking for them to do nothing; and
+they're just going to the church and back to the big house, and not even
+going away."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, and I did hear that Miss Claude actually wanted to be
+married in black, but Miss Mary Dillon persuaded her not.  I heard it on
+the best of authority, sir."
+
+Chris made no reply, and, finding no encouragement, Mrs Sarson cleared
+her lodger's breakfast things away, and left the room.
+
+The moment he was alone, Chris started from his chair to stand with his
+back to the light; his teeth set hard and fists clenched as a spasm of
+mental agony for the moment mastered him.
+
+"No," he said, after a few moments, with a bitter laugh, "this won't do.
+What is it to me?  I can bear it now like a man.  She shall see how
+indifferent I am."
+
+For it was the morning of the ill-starred wedding--a morning in which
+Nature seemed to be in the mood to make everything depressing, for the
+wind blew hard, bringing from the Atlantic a drenching shower, through
+which, with Gellow for his best man, Glyddyr would have to drive to the
+little church.  Meanwhile, he was having so severe a shivering fit at
+the hotel where he had been staying, that his companion had become
+alarmed, and suggested calling in the doctor.
+
+"Bah! nonsense!  Ring for some brandy."
+
+"And I'll take a flask to the church," said Gellow to himself, "or the
+brute will breakdown.  We're going to have a jolly wedding seemingly.
+Only wants that confounded Frenchwoman to get scent of it, and come
+down, and then we should be perfect."
+
+"That's better," said Gellow, after the brandy had been brought.  "But
+what a day!  What a cheerful lookout!  I say, Glyddyr, am I dreaming?
+Is it a wedding this morning or a funeral?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, it looks more like the latter.  I say: Young Lisle won't come and
+have a pop at you in the church?"
+
+Glyddyr turned ghastly.
+
+"You--you don't think--"
+
+"Bah!  My chaff.  You are out of sorts; on your wedding-day, too.  Hold
+hard with that brandy, or it will pop you off, and not Lisle.  Steady,
+man, steady."
+
+"Gellow, it's all over," gasped the miserable man.  "I shall never be
+able to go through with it."
+
+"Oh, if I can only get this morning over," said Gellow to himself; and
+then aloud--
+
+"Nonsense, my dear boy, you're a bit nervous, that's all.  I suppose a
+man is when he's going to be married.  You're all right.  Come, have a
+devilled kidney or a snack of something.  You don't eat enough."
+
+"Eat?" said Glyddyr, with a shudder.  "No; I seem to have no appetite
+now."
+
+"Come on, and let's get it over.  Here's the carriage waiting.  Steady,
+man, steady.  No; not a drop more."
+
+"The carriage is at the door, sir," said the waiter; and striving hard
+to be firm, and to master a tremulous sensation about his knees, Glyddyr
+walked out into the hall, where a buzzing sound that was heard suddenly
+ceased till the pair were in the carriage, from whose roof the rain was
+streaming.  Then, after banging too the door, the waiter dashed back
+under shelter, the dripping horses started off, and the carriage
+disappeared in the misty rain.
+
+"Looks as if he was going to execution," said the man, with a laugh, as
+he dabbed the top of his head with his napkin.  "Well, it do rain
+to-day."
+
+At the Fort everything had gone on that morning in a calm, subdued way
+that seemed to betoken no change.  Claude came down to breakfast as
+usual, and sat looking dreamily before her, while Mary, red-eyed and
+sorrowful, had not the heart to speak.
+
+Trevithick had slept there the previous night, and was the only guest,
+for Doctor Asher had declined to be present, on the score of
+professional calls.
+
+"I'm afraid there is very little chance of its holding up," said
+Trevithick, when they rose from the scarcely-touched breakfast.
+
+"No, Mr Trevithick," said Claude quietly.  "I think we shall have a
+very wet day.  Mary, dear, we must take our waterproofs.  It is fifty
+yards from the lych-gate to the church door.  Isn't it time we went up
+to dress?"
+
+She moved towards the door, but came back, and held out her hand to the
+lawyer.
+
+"Forgive me for being so absent and strange with you," she said, with a
+faint smile.  "You have been very good and kind to me, but I dare say
+you think all this odd and unnatural."
+
+"Oh, no; not at all," said Trevithick, colouring like a girl.
+
+"It was the only thing in which I asked to have my way--to let the
+wedding be perfectly quiet.  Don't be long, Mary."
+
+Trevithick looked at his little betrothed as the door closed, and she
+looked up at him.
+
+"I say, Mary, dear," he said, "is she quite--you know what I mean.  I
+feel almost as if I ought to interfere."
+
+"Oh, John, John," cried the little thing, bursting into a passionate fit
+of weeping; "if we could only stop it even now!"
+
+She sobbed on his breast for a few seconds, and then hastily wiped her
+eyes.
+
+"There, I'm better now," she said.  "I've talked to her till I'm tired,
+but it's of no use.  `It's my _duty_' is all she will say.  Oh! why did
+people ever invent the horrid word.  Don't say anything, John, dear.
+Let's get it over, and hope for the best; but if there's any chance of
+our wedding being like this, let's shake hands like Christians, forgive
+one another, and say good-bye."
+
+She ran out of the room, and Trevithick sat watching the rain trickle
+down the window-panes, and tried to follow the course of a big ship
+struggling up Channel, its storm topsails dimly seen through the mist of
+rain.
+
+"I wouldn't be on that ship for all I've saved," he said, shaking his
+head.  "Looks as if there was going to be a wreck.
+
+"So there is," he said, after a pause, "a social wreck, and I'm going to
+assist.  No, I'm not.  I'm looking after the salvage.  Poor girl!
+Gartram must have been mad."
+
+His meditations were broken in upon by the sound of wheels.
+Half-an-hour later the door was thrown open.
+
+"Now, Mr Trevithick, please," said Mary; and he hurried into the hall
+to find Claude ready and looking very calm and composed.
+
+"Good-bye," she was saying to first one and then another of the maids,
+who, catching the contagion, burst into tears.
+
+"As if it wasn't wet enough already," said Reuben Brime, who stood with
+the footman by the carriage-door.
+
+"Good-bye, Woodham, dear," said Claude, holding out her hand, but
+snatching it back directly as she yielded to a sudden impulse, and threw
+her arms around the stern-looking woman's neck.  "Thank you for all that
+you have done."
+
+"Good-bye!  Why did she say good-bye?" thought Woodham, as Trevithick
+handed the bride into the carriage, the drops from the edge of the
+portico falling like great tears upon her hair.  "Yes: good-bye to youth
+and happiness and your sweet young life."
+
+The carriage-door was banged, and banged again, for the wet had made it
+hard to shut.  Then, as the footman mounted to his place on the box, the
+gardener hurried round in front of the horses, and ran for the short cut
+over the cliffs to the church.
+
+"Shouldn't you go, Mrs Woodham?" said one of the maids.
+
+Sarah Woodham shook her head.
+
+"They will soon be back," she said.  "I'm going to stay to meet the new
+master."
+
+"Why does not something happen to stop this hateful match?" she muttered
+to herself.  "My poor girl.  My poor, dear girl."
+
+The carriage sped on through the driving rain, and the little party
+descended at the church gate, where a few fishermen were gathered in
+their yellow and black oilskins to follow them, dripping, into the
+little church, while it seemed to Claude that it was only the other day
+that her father was borne to his resting-place.  And there they were,
+standing face to face before God's altar, she pale, sad and composed,
+having to give her whole love and life to the pale trembling man who
+faced her, and who, though she knew it not, exhaled a strong odour of
+the spirits he had taken to enable him to go through the task.
+
+But Claude saw nothing, realised nothing but the words of the clergyman,
+repeating every response in a low, earnest tone right on to the end,
+when, as the last words of the service was uttered, there was the sound
+of some one drawing a long, deep breath.
+
+It was only Gellow's way of congratulating himself on the fact that his
+money and much more were safe at last.
+
+"Now!" he muttered, as he hugged himself.  "Now you may have _DT_, or
+anything you like."
+
+The book was signed, and the few fishermen and women who had braved the
+storm began to go clattering out of the church as Glyddyr, making an
+effort to look happy and content, held his arm to his newly-made bride
+to lead her down the little nave.
+
+"Father, dear, it was your wish," said Claude softly, and, with a sigh,
+she raised her eyes towards the faint light which came through the west
+window.
+
+Then she stopped short, gazing wildly at where Chris Lisle stood like a
+black silhouette against the dim lattice panes, as he had stood with
+folded arms right through the service.
+
+He made no sign; he uttered no sound, his features hardly visible from
+the position against the light; but the sight of that figure was enough
+to bring like a flood the recollections of the past, and of what might
+have been, but for her irrevocable step; and, snatching her hand from
+her husband's arm, Claude clasped her forehead as she uttered a low,
+faint cry, and fell heavily upon the floor.
+
+"Keep back, all of you!" cried Glyddyr excitedly.  "Do you hear, keep
+back.  The carriage, there.  Do you hear me?  Keep back!"
+
+He lifted Claude from where she lay, and bore her out, holding her
+tightly in his arms, as if he feared that she might be snatched away by
+him who had caused this shock.
+
+"Curse him!" he muttered, as the carriage was driven back to the Fort at
+a canter; "but he's too late.  The dark horse has won, Chris Lisle, and
+the stakes are mine."
+
+Claude was still insensible when the carriage stopped, and Glyddyr
+resigned her to Sarah Woodham's arms.
+
+"A bit faint, that's all," he said, with a half laugh.  "She'll be
+better soon."
+
+"You--you are married, sir?" faltered the woman, looking at him wildly.
+
+"You bet!" he snarled, as he turned away, and strode into the library,
+but came back looking ghastly and slamming the door.  "Here, some one
+bring the spirits into the dining-room; not in there.  Quick! don't you
+see your mistress is taken ill?"
+
+"Open the door," whispered Woodham; "we'll take her in there."
+
+"No; in the dining-room--anywhere," cried Glyddyr.  "Don't take her
+there.
+
+"And this is being married!" he muttered, as soon as he was alone.  "The
+cad!  The coward!  But I've bested him, and I'm a free man once again,
+and master here."
+
+They had carried Claude into the dining-room; and, hardly caring where
+he went, Glyddyr had entered the drawing-room, thrown to the door, and
+was walking hurriedly up and down, till, as he uttered the last words,
+his eyes fell upon the large photograph of Gartram.
+
+He stopped short, with his eyes showing a ring of white about the iris,
+and the cold sweat glistening upon his forehead till the spasm of dread
+passed away.  Then dashing forward, he was about to tear the likeness
+from its easel and frame, but the door was suddenly opened, and he
+recovered himself, and turned to face Trevithick and his best man, for
+he had not heard the wheels as the second carriage stopped.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XV.
+
+"ONLY WAIT."
+
+The occupants of the Fort were broken up into little parties on that
+eventful day.  Claude seemed to go from one fit into another, and her
+cousin and Sarah Woodham did not leave her side.
+
+Brime had been despatched for Doctor Asher, but had come back with a
+message that the doctor had been taken ill, and could not leave his
+home, but they were not to be alarmed.  It was only hysteria, he wrote,
+and all needed was quiet and rest.
+
+Trevithick had betaken himself to the library, where he sat alone,
+waiting for tidings, and had at last taken his note-book from his
+pocket, as if inspired by the place, and began to run over the numbers
+of the missing notes.
+
+"I can't go away till afternoon," he had said to himself; "and till I
+have had a quiet few minutes with Mary."
+
+In the dining-room Glyddyr was now alone with Gellow, and there had been
+a scene.
+
+"Look here," said the latter, after partaking heartily of the breakfast,
+"I'm not a man who boasts, and I suppose my principles, as people call
+'em, are not of the best, but, 'pon my soul, Glyddyr, if I couldn't show
+up better after marrying a girl like that, I'd go and hang myself."
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"No, you don't; not a drop more," continued Gellow, laying his hand upon
+a bottle of champagne that Glyddyr was about to take.  "You've had too
+much now.  When I'm gone, you can do as you like.  You're master here,
+but I won't sit and see you go on like this."
+
+"It don't hurt me.  I'm as sober as you are."
+
+"P'r'aps so, now; but what will you be by-and-by?  Hang it all, Glyd,
+you've got the girl, and the money, and you can pay me off.  She's a
+little darling, that's what she is, and I'd turn over a fresh leaf--
+clean the slate and begin square now, I would, 'pon my soul.  Do you
+hear?"
+
+"Yes, I hear."
+
+"And now I think I'll go back to the hotel; you don't want me."
+
+"Eh!  What?  No, no; don't go," said Glyddyr excitedly.
+
+"Not go?"
+
+"No, man, no; don't go and leave me here alone."
+
+"Well, upon my soul, Glyddyr, you are a one."
+
+"That fellow, Lisle.  You saw him in the corner.  He means mischief.
+I'm sure he does."
+
+"Let him.  You're King of the Castle now.  Keep him out.  Don't be such
+a cur."
+
+"He's half mad.  I know he is.  I don't want a scene.  I should kill him
+if he came."
+
+"Yes, you look as if you would."
+
+"And I haven't done much for you yet.  We shall want to talk business."
+
+"What, on your wedding-day!  Nonsense.  I'll go back to the hotel."
+
+"No, no.  There is plenty of room in the place--for a friend.  You must
+stop here for a few days."
+
+"Oh, very well.  Play policeman, eh, and keep t'other fellow off.  I see
+your little game.  Cheerful for me, though, all the same."
+
+"Help me to get rid of that lawyer; I don't want him hanging about.--
+Gellow."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Why didn't I insist upon going over to Paris or Baden as soon as we
+were married?"
+
+"How should I know?  I suppose I may light a cigar now.  Your wife won't
+object?"
+
+"It was her doing," said Glyddyr thoughtfully.  "She insisted on
+staying."
+
+"No, you don't.  If I'm to play policeman, no more drink, or very
+little, do you have to-day."
+
+Gellow drew the bottle farther away again, and Glyddyr threw himself
+back in his chair and began gnawing his nails.
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"What's the matter now?" said Gellow, as Glyddyr shuddered.
+
+"I don't know.  Somehow I don't like this place."
+
+"Buy it off you, if you like.  But, I say, hadn't you better ring and
+ask after your wife?"
+
+About this time, as John Trevithick sat cogitating over his memoranda,
+seeking for the light where all was dark, the door opened, and Mary came
+in.
+
+"Ah!  How is she now?"
+
+"Very ill.  I have left her for a few minutes in the drawing-room with
+Sarah Woodham," said Mary, with a catching of the breath.  "Oh, John,
+how cruel of Chris Lisle to come and do that."
+
+"I don't know," said Trevithick thoughtfully.  "I'm afraid I should have
+acted the same.  But there: the mischief is done.  I'm glad you've come.
+I wanted to see you before I went."
+
+"Before you went?  Oh!" exclaimed Mary, catching at his hand, "you must
+not go."
+
+"Not go?  Oh, I'm not wanted here."
+
+"You don't know," cried Mary excitedly.  "Don't leave us, John.  I'm
+frightened.  It all seems so horrible.  Suppose Chris Lisle were to
+come?"
+
+"Chris Lisle would not be so mad."
+
+"I don't know.  I saw his face, poor fellow, and it looked dreadful, and
+I have just seen Mr Glyddyr.  I went to the dining-room to see if you
+were there.  He looks ghastly, and he has been drinking.  For Claude's
+sake, pray stay."
+
+"You do not know what you are saying, my dear," said the big lawyer
+gently.  "Mr Glyddyr is master here now.  But I'm afraid you are right.
+He had been drinking before he came.  I cannot interfere."
+
+"Not to protect her?"
+
+"No, I have no right."
+
+"Then stop to protect me, John, dear," she whispered.
+
+"The law gives me no right," he said slowly, "but if you put it in that
+way, why, hang the law!"
+
+"And you will stay?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, if I have to wring Parry Glyddyr's neck."
+
+"Ah, now you are speaking like yourself," cried Mary, drawing a breath
+full of relief.  "I'm not a bit afraid now."
+
+Just then a bell rang, and Mary ran out of the room, to find Sarah
+Woodham anxiously awaiting her, for Claude was pacing the floor wildly,
+her face flushed, and the excitement from which she suffered finding
+vent in rapid, almost incoherent words.
+
+She ran to Mary and clung to her, sobbing out--
+
+"Don't--don't leave me again, dear.  Stay with me.  I cannot bear it.
+Oh, Mary, Mary, I must have been mad--I must have been mad."
+
+"Hush, darling!  Be calm; try and be calm."
+
+"Calm!  You do not know--you do not know.  Stop!" she cried wildly, as
+she saw Woodham cross gently towards the drawing-room door.  "Don't
+leave me.  If you care for me now, pray stay."
+
+"Claude, dear, this is terrible," said Mary firmly.  "You are acting
+like a child."
+
+Claude sank upon her knees and buried her face in her cousin's dress.
+
+"Don't think me cruel or unfeeling to you, but what can we do or say?
+You are Mr Glyddyr's wife."
+
+"Yes, I know," wailed Claude.  Then, looking excitedly in her cousin's
+face, "I did not know then.  I was blind to it all.  Mary, what have I
+done?  Tell me--that man--he has married me--for the fortune--tell him
+to take all and set me free."
+
+"My own darling cousin," whispered Mary, sinking upon her knees, to draw
+Claude's face to her breast.  "No, no, no; all that is impossible.  This
+fit will pass off, and you must be brave and strong.  Try and think,
+dear, of what you said.  It was poor uncle's wish."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," said Claude wearily; and she struggled to her feet, to
+throw herself into one of the lounges and sit wringing her hands
+involuntarily, dragging at one finger until the little golden circle,
+lately placed there, passed over the joint, and at last flew off, to
+fall trinkling in the fender.
+
+Claude uttered a faint cry, and covered her face with her hands, while
+Woodham and Mary stood gazing at each other till the former crossed
+softly and picked up the ring from where it lay.
+
+"Claude, darling," said Mary, as, after a little hesitation, she took
+the ring from Woodham, and gently drawing her cousins hand from her
+face, began to slip the little token back into its place.
+
+There was no resistance, only a helpless, dazed expression in Claude's
+face, as she dropped her hand into her lap, and sat back gazing down at
+her cousin's act, shuddering slightly, and then closing her eyes.
+
+They drew back, watching her for some time, and at last Woodham crept
+cautiously forward, peering anxiously into her mistress's face, watching
+the regular rise and fall of her breast, and then gave Mary a satisfied
+nod, as they stole very softly away to the far end of the room, and sat
+down to watch.
+
+"Exhausted, Miss Mary, asleep," whispered Woodham.  "Oh, my dear, what
+can we do?"
+
+"Nothing," whispered back Mary bitterly; "only wait."
+
+The wind increased, setting in more and more for one of the western
+gales.  The rain beat at the windows and the storm came in fierce
+squalls, as if to tear down the unhappy house; but hours went by, and
+Claude had not moved, remaining plunged in a kind of stupor more than
+sleep.
+
+And so the weary hours went on, broken only by the sound of an opening
+or closing-door, and faintly heard voices which made the watchers start
+and glance anxiously towards the door in anticipation of Glyddyr's
+coming; but he did not leave the dining-room, and Trevithick remained
+still in the library, where, through Woodham's forethought, refreshments
+had been taken to him twice.
+
+As the night closed in, a lamp was lit, and a screen drawn before the
+table where it stood so as to leave the spot where Claude lay back in
+darkness, and once more the watchers sat waiting.
+
+It was about eight o'clock, when, after for the twentieth time stealing
+across to her cousin's side, and returning, Mary placed her lips to
+Woodham's ear.
+
+"I am getting frightened at her state," she whispered; "surely we ought
+to send over for the doctor."
+
+"No, my dear," said Woodham sadly.  "Let her rest.  It will be better
+than anything the doctor can do."
+
+"Woodham," whispered Mary again, "it seems horrible to say, but I feel
+as if I could poison that man and set her free."
+
+Sarah Woodham's jaw dropped, and as she sank back, Mary could see that
+her eyes were wide and staring.
+
+"Sarah, you foolish woman, don't take what I say like that."
+
+The woman struggled to recover herself, and she gasped--
+
+"It was so horrible, Miss Mary; for thoughts like that came to me."
+
+"But, Sarah," whispered Mary, "I did not think of it before; when she
+wakes, if she is wild like that again, there is some of poor uncle's
+medicine in the library--there is a bottle of that chloral that had not
+been opened.  Would it be wise to give her some of it to make her calm?"
+
+"Miss Mary!" gasped Woodham, as she pressed her hand to her side.
+"Hush!  Don't!  You--oh, pray, pray, don't talk of that!"
+
+Mary looked at her wonderingly, the woman's excitement seemed so wild
+and strange.
+
+"No, it would not be wise," she said.
+
+At that moment there was the sound of the dining-room door being opened,
+and Claude sprang to her feet.
+
+"Mary!  Woodham!" she panted.  "He is coming."
+
+"Claude!  Claude, darling!" cried Mary, with a sob, as she flew to her
+cousin's arms.
+
+"Keep Woodham here too.  He's coming!  Do you hear?"
+
+"But, Claude, dearest, he is master here.  You made him so.  You are his
+wife."
+
+"Yes, Mary.  I was blind and mad.  I forced myself to it, thinking it
+must be my father's will--my duty to the dead.  But it is too horrible.
+Chris could not have done this thing."
+
+"No, no, my poor darling; he could not have been so vile."
+
+And as the cousins clung together, Mary felt the heart that beat against
+hers fluttering like that of some prisoner bird.  There was the sound of
+an angry voice in the hall, and then a door was opened.
+
+"Oh, you're there, are you?"
+
+"Yes, Mr Glyddyr, I am here."
+
+"Then why didn't you come into the dining-room like a man, not stop
+hiding there.  What the hell do you mean?"
+
+"Don't go on like that, old fellow," said another voice.  "Here, come
+back into the dining-room.  Mr Trevithick will join us, perhaps."
+
+"Hold your tongue, curse you!  Here, you--you can go back into your
+hole; and as to you, Gellow, I know what I'm about.  Come along."
+
+The voices died away, as if the speakers had gone back into the
+dining-room, and the door swung to.
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Claude, with a piteous sigh.
+
+"I know what I'm about," came loudly again, followed by the banging of a
+door and a step in the hall.
+
+"Mary!"
+
+"Claude, dear, you must.  He is your husband."
+
+"And I love Chris still with all my heart."
+
+"Claude!" whispered Mary, as the door was thrown open, and Glyddyr
+strode in.
+
+"Here, Claude, where are you?  Why don't you have more lights?  Oh,
+there you are, and our little cousin, eh?  Now, woman, you can go."
+
+Sarah Woodham gave her mistress one wild, pitying look, and then left
+the room.
+
+"Ah, that's better," said Glyddyr, whose face was flushed, but his gait
+was steady, and there was an insolent smile upon his lips.  "Only been
+obliged to entertain my best man," he said, with a laugh; and he gave
+his head a shake, and suddenly stretched out a hand to steady himself.
+"But kept myself all right."
+
+It was plain to Mary that the man had been drinking heavily, and her
+spirit rose with indignation and horror, mingled with excitement at her
+cousin's avowal.
+
+"Mary, don't leave me," whispered Claude.
+
+"Now, then, little one, you go and talk to the other fellows; I want to
+have a chat with my wife."
+
+He laughed in a low, chuckling way, for he had long ago mastered
+Gellow's opposition, and been told to drink himself blind if he liked.
+And he had drunk till his miserable feeling of abject dread had been
+conquered for the moment, while, inured as he was to the use of brandy,
+he only seemed to be unsteady at times.
+
+"Do you hear?" he said sharply.  "Why don't you go?"
+
+"Claude, dearest, what shall I do?" whispered Mary.
+
+"Stay with me, Mary, pray," panted Claude.  And she looked wildly round
+for a way of escape, her eyes resting last upon the window, which opened
+over a steep portion of the cliff.
+
+"Oh! what are you thinking?" said Mary wildly.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Glyddyr, with a savage expression crossing his face,
+"the window?  No; he's not there.  Curse him!  I could shoot him like a
+dog."
+
+Claude, covered her quivering face with her hands.
+
+"Yes, madam, it's time we came to a little explanation about that, and
+then we can go on happily.  No trifling with me.--Now then," he cried
+fiercely, "will you go?"
+
+"No," cried Mary, turning upon him so sharply that he dropped the hand
+he had raised to seize her by the shoulder.  "How dare you come into my
+cousin's presence like this?  Shame upon you!  She is ill--agitated--not
+fit to meet you now, and you dare to force your way to her like this--
+drunken as one of the quarrymen at his worst."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Is this the gentleman who begged and pleaded and humbled himself to
+her?  You shall not stop here now, master or no master--husband or no
+husband.  She is my dear cousin, and--"
+
+"She is my wife," thundered Glyddyr.  "My slave if I like; and as for
+you--"
+
+"Oh, would that my uncle were alive to see his cruel work!"
+
+Those last words were like a sharp blow in Glyddyr's face, and he
+stepped back, looked quickly round, and a shudder ran through him as he
+turned pale.  But it was momentary.  The potent brandy was strong in its
+influence still, and he recovered himself.
+
+"Bah! nonsense!" he cried, with the flush coming back into his face.
+"I'm not to be fooled like that.  There; be off at once."
+
+He took a couple of steps forward.
+
+"Come, Claude; there has been enough of this."
+
+Claude flinched away toward the window, and Mary sprang between them.
+
+"Not while you are like this," she cried.
+
+Glyddyr uttered an angry snarl, seized Mary savagely by the arm, and
+gripped the frail limb so cruelly that, in spite of her determined
+courage, she uttered a piercing cry for help.
+
+"Silence, you little vixen.--Hah!"
+
+It was as if the arm of a giant had suddenly interposed, for Glyddyr was
+seized by John Trevithick, dashed staggering back, to totter three or
+four yards, catch at a little table to save himself, and drag it over
+with him in his fall.
+
+"Curse you!" he roared, as he rose to his hands and knees; and then,
+uttering a wild cry of horror, he backed away from the picture he had
+dragged with him to the floor, one which had fallen, with its little
+velvet-covered table-easel to which it had been secured, on end, and
+close to his face.
+
+It was as if Gartram had come back to him from the dead to interpose
+between him and his child; and, with that shriek of horror, Glyddyr fell
+over sidewise, his face contorted, his eyes staring, his teeth gnashing,
+and the foam gathering upon his lips.
+
+"Take him away! take him away!" he shrieked, and then lay uttering
+strangely inhuman sounds as he writhed in the agonies of a fit.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XVI.
+
+HOW JOHN TREVITHICK HUNG ABOUT.
+
+For weeks Parry Glyddyr lay almost at the point of death, and there were
+times when Sarah Woodham shuddered and left the room, barring the door
+against all comers, as the poor wretch raved in his delirium about
+poison, and the dead coming back to torture him and drag him down.
+
+His ravings were so frightful that at times the hard, stern woman was
+quite unnerved; but she refused all assistance, and returned to her
+post, keeping the young wife from being present at all such scenes.
+
+Asher had sternly refused to attend him, after being present during one
+of Glyddyr's fits of raving.  So the rival from the upper part of the
+little Churchtown took his place, and after a week's attendance laid
+before Claude and her friends the necessity for calling in further help.
+
+The result was that the young wife insisted upon the presence of an
+eminent medical man from London, and was present afterwards when the
+great magnate had been in consultation.
+
+"It is most painful, madam," he said, "to have to speak out before you;
+but since you insist--"
+
+"Yes; I do insist," said Claude firmly.  "Let us all know the truth."
+
+"The truth is this, madam," he said; "Mr Glyddyr--"
+
+He paused, and looked round the drawing-room, where Mary, Trevithick and
+Gellow were seated.
+
+"--Mr Glyddyr, though apparently naturally of a good constitution, has
+completely shattered his health by terrible excesses in the use of
+stimulants.  Our friend here, my brother practitioner, has done
+everything possible, and has accepted a few suggestions of mine which I
+hope will have good results."
+
+"But you will save his life, Doctor?" said Claude piteously.
+
+"I hope yes, my dear madam.  I think I can say you may rely upon our
+friend here.  It will be a long and tedious recovery, no doubt, and
+afterwards it will rest with you to save him from the temptation of
+further indulgence.--And if he is not an idiot he will thank his stars
+for his fate," added the great Doctor himself.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"And I will try so hard, so hard," vowed Claude.  "It was like a
+judgment upon me.  Yes, I will try to be his good, true wife, and bring
+him back to a better life."
+
+Thus, on her knees that night, ere she lay down to rest.
+
+"Talks, does he, of murder, eh?" said Gellow.  "Yes, Mr Trevithick,
+they do at times.  Never had _DT_, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir; I never had."
+
+"Good job for you.  I had once, and that was enough for me.  I didn't
+swear off, but I swore a little way on.  I've had 'em, sir.  Snakes in
+your boots--blue-devils, things crawling all over you; it's enough to
+make you shiver to think of it."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"You won't believe me, but I couldn't keep him away from the stuff."
+
+"Then he has been in the habit of drinking a great deal?"
+
+"Great deal isn't half big enough, sir."
+
+"Then don't you think it would have been your duty to warn Miss Gartram
+of the character of the man she was about to wed?"
+
+"Split on my friend; get up an action for slander; set the young lady
+against me; and perhaps have poor old Glyddyr knock me on the head.  No,
+sir: I'm not that sort of man.  There, good evening.  If you want me, I
+shall be at the hotel.  I seem to be the poor chap's only friend, and I
+can't go back to town till I see him safe."
+
+"I don't like that man," said Trevithick.  "He has some hold on Glyddyr,
+I am sure."
+
+As the great doctor prophesied, it was a long, slow recovery, and there
+were returns of the delirium and horrible nights when Glyddyr appeared
+to be haunted by one who was always reproaching him for some deed, and
+Sarah Woodham would sit, looking at him wildly, and with the past and
+her oath to her dead husband slowly revolving in her mind.
+
+Then the invalid began to mend, and became constant in his demands for
+Claude.
+
+"Where is she?" he would ask with a quick, jealous eagerness if she were
+away from his room for an hour; and on her return from one of the walks
+necessary for her health, he would cross-examine her, gazing at her
+searchingly, as to where she had been and whom she had seen.
+
+Claude had nothing to conceal, and she answered him quietly and without
+resentment; but she did not--and she knew it--allay the pang of mad
+jealousy in her husband's breast.
+
+"It is a judgment on me," she used to say, "for I gave him cause."
+
+Time glided on, and Glyddyr began to be about, at first in an invalid
+chair, and then he was able to walk up and down a little on the terraces
+of the Fort; and as the rough fishermen of the place saw him, there was
+a quiet nudge passed on, as they said that the new King of the Castle
+was not like the old.
+
+As he grew better, he looked a haggard, sallow being, with wild,
+restless eyes, which appeared to be always on the lookout for some
+anticipated danger or trouble, and the sight of Chris Lisle passing in
+the distance was sufficient at any time to make him turn angrily upon
+his wife, and, clinging to her arm, bid her help him in doors.
+
+Claude never showed even that she was hurt, but bore his taunts and
+peevish remarks patiently, always with the same grave, calm pale face.
+But in the solitude of her own room, or when clasped in Mary's arms, she
+sobbed wildly at times to relieve her overladen breast.
+
+Trevithick had his legal business to transact at the Fort, but he never
+resented the sneers and snarls of its owner, who was constantly making
+allusions as to the probable length of his bill.
+
+"And I deserve it all, Mary, dear," Trevithick used to say.  "I could do
+it all by means of letters, except when I wanted a signature witnessed;
+but of course I sha'n't charge."
+
+"But why do you come?" asked Mary demurely; "I'm sure this place is
+miserable enough.  It's a perfect purgatory."
+
+"For shame!" he said, with a quiet, happy smile; "why, its a perfect
+paradise, dear, and unless I'm very hard at work, I'm wretched unless
+I'm here.--Mary, dear?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When is it to be?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Our wedding."
+
+"How can you ask me such a thing?  As if I could ever think of leaving
+poor Claude.  And besides, after such a lesson upon what matrimony
+really is, I wonder that you should ever renew the subject."
+
+"No, you don't, dear," he said, gaining possession of the little white
+hand, which pretended to escape, and then resigned itself to its fate,
+while Trevithick's countenance told how truthful were his words.
+
+"Tell me when it shall be," he said in a whisper.
+
+"When I can see Claude happy.--John, couldn't she have a divorce?"
+
+"For what reason?"
+
+"Because she does not love him; and the way in which he treats her with
+his horrid jealousy is maddening."
+
+"That's no reason."
+
+"No reason?  Why, I thought people could be divorced if they could prove
+cruelty."
+
+"Yes--legal cruelty.  No, my dear, jealousy and suspicion will not do."
+
+"Why did you come over to-day?"
+
+"Business.  I had to see old Mrs Sarson at the cottage where Mr Lisle
+lodges.  She's ill."
+
+"What for?  You are not a doctor."
+
+"No," he said, with a chuckle, "but about her affairs.  She thinks it
+time to make a will and arrange about her savings.  Curious old body."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Troubled with poor Mr Gartram's complaint."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Distrust.  She has all her savings hoarded up, and next time I go she
+has promised to place them in my hands for investment."
+
+"Don't talk about that.  I hate the very name of money.  I wish poor
+Claude hadn't a shilling, and we were both free girls, able to do what
+we liked."
+
+Trevithick laughed.
+
+"How can you be so cruel, sir?" cried Mary.  "Oh, John, dear, that man
+is killing poor Claude.  Seriously, can't you discover some way to
+separate them?"
+
+Trevithick shook his head.
+
+"Then Claude will separate herself."
+
+"I wish she could.  But how?" said Trevithick, with a sigh.
+
+"By dying."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Yes," said Mary, with the tears in her eyes.  "I can see beneath all
+that calm, patient way of hers.  Her heart is broken, John; and before
+six months are over she will--"
+
+Poor Mary could not finish, but sank upon her knees at Trevithick's
+feet, laid her face in her hands, and sobbed as if her heart would
+break.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XVII.
+
+A CLIMAX IN GLYDDYR'S LIFE.
+
+There was a scene one day at the Fort when, after finishing the business
+in connection with a heavy sum which had been raised to pay over to
+Gellow, the lawyer had taken upon himself to suggest that it was not
+fair to his old client's daughter that such a heavy drain should be kept
+up on the fortune she had brought him.
+
+This was sufficient to send Glyddyr into a fit of passion, with the
+result that Trevithick was ordered to give up all charge of the estate
+for the future, and hand his papers over to another solicitor, who was
+named.
+
+"Very good, Mr Glyddyr," said the lawyer quietly.  "As far as you have
+claims I will do so; but I must remind you that I am your wife's
+trustee, and even if she wished to obey you, I cannot be ousted from
+that."
+
+Claude suffered bitterly for this when the lawyer was gone, but she
+forbore to speak.  She felt that she was forced to give up the hints and
+friendly counsel of one whom her father trusted, and she trembled lest
+there should be a breach with regard to Mary, and that she should lose
+her.  Sarah Woodham had been abused and insulted almost beyond bearing a
+hundred times, and ordered to go, but she always smiled sadly in
+Claude's face afterwards.
+
+"Don't you be afraid, my dear," she used to say.  "Let him say what he
+will, I'll never leave you."
+
+One day Sarah Woodham entered the room to find Mary in tears, but as
+they were hastily dried, they were ignored.
+
+"I beg pardon, miss; I thought Mr Trevithick was here."
+
+"Why should you think that?"
+
+"Because I saw him at the hotel half-an-hour ago."
+
+"No; he has not been, and is not likely to come after such treatment as
+he received from Mr Glyddyr a fortnight ago."
+
+"Going out, miss?" said Sarah, as she saw Mary beginning to dress
+hurriedly.
+
+"Yes.  Where is your master--in the garden?"
+
+"No, miss.  He has gone down to the quarry."
+
+"With your mistress?"
+
+"No, Miss Mary.  She is in the garden."
+
+Mary shuddered as she thought of the future, and of Glyddyr's recovery
+of his health.
+
+"Are you cold, Miss Mary?" said Woodham earnestly.
+
+"Yes--I mean no.  That is--nothing.  If Miss Claude--"
+
+She stopped short.
+
+"I mean, if your mistress calls for me, say I have gone for a walk.  No,
+no, no," she cried passionately.  "I must not go.  If he knew that I had
+been out, it would cause trouble."
+
+Sarah Woodham sighed.  The words were incontrovertible.
+
+Mary began to take off her things, but changed her mind and put them on
+again.
+
+"I will go.  I must see him," she said.  "You shall go with me, Sarah.
+It would not look so then--would it?"
+
+"I think, as Mr Trevithick cannot come here now, you have a perfect
+right to go and see him."
+
+"Mr Trevithick!" cried Mary, with her face aflame; "why do you say
+that?  I did not speak of going to see Mr Trevithick."
+
+"No, Miss Mary--no, my dear; but do you think I did not know.  And I'm
+very, very glad."
+
+Mary was looking at her with flashing eyes, but the flames were put out
+by her tears, and she caught and pressed Sarah's hand.
+
+"You don't seem like a servant to us," she whispered quickly.  "Come
+with me, please."
+
+Five minutes later they were on their way down the slope to the beach,
+with Mary trembling at what she thought was her daring behaviour; and as
+she walked on everybody she passed seemed to know where she was going,
+and to crown her confusion, just as they were nearing Mrs Sarson's,
+Chris Lisle came out, nodded to her, changing colour a little, and was
+about to pass her, but he stopped short.
+
+It was the first time they had met for months.
+
+"Will you shake hands, Mary?" he said, raising his own hesitatingly.
+
+"You know I will," she cried eagerly, as she placed hers in his, glad of
+the relief from her thoughts.
+
+"I am very, very glad to speak to you again, dear," he said, in a
+subdued way.  "You look so well, too, with that colour.  There, I will
+not keep you.  Perhaps some day we may meet again, and be able to have a
+friendly chat.  Good-bye!"
+
+He walked hurriedly away, and the tears rose to her eyes.
+
+"Poor dear Chris!" she said.  "I always seemed to love him as if he were
+my brother."
+
+"Who could help liking him, Miss Mary?"
+
+"Sarah?"
+
+"Yes, miss.  You were speaking aloud.  Ah! poor lad, we don't often see
+him about now.  Look, miss; Mr Trevithick."
+
+Mary had already seen the lawyer as he stepped out of the hotel and came
+towards them slowly, till he appeared to see them suddenly, when he
+turned sharply upon his heel and went back to the hotel.
+
+Mary crimsoned with mortification, and then felt as if she would sink
+beneath the weight of her misery.  Nearly a fortnight had passed, and
+her lover had made no sign; and now, when they were on the point of
+meeting, he had openly avoided her.
+
+Mary's heart felt as if it sank down into the darkness.  There could be
+but one interpretation, she said.  He had repented of the engagement,
+and his eyes had been opened to what a poor, misshapen little thing she
+was.
+
+"Sarah!" she whispered hoarsely, "I cannot see where I am going; please
+take me home quickly, so that I am not--"
+
+"No, no, my dear, let's walk up here first and over the bridge into the
+glen.  You are too agitated to be seen.  Try and be firm, my dear--try
+and be firm."
+
+Totally unnerved, the poor girl clung to the sturdy woman by her side,
+and readily allowed her to guide her right away up into the calm, silent
+glen, where, making a sign, she let Sarah Woodham assist her to one of
+the detached rocks, where she sat down to let her tears of misery have
+full vent.
+
+"And I was so happy," she moaned at last, as she looked up piteously in
+Sarah Woodham's face.  "Is there real happiness, Sarah, for poor
+creatures such as we?  Life appears to be all misery and care."
+
+It was only about the third walk that Glyddyr had taken alone, and he
+left home reluctantly, and with a shadow as it were following every
+step.
+
+"I oughtn't to have gone and left her," he muttered.  "It's of no use
+trying to deceive myself; all that quiet, calm way means something, and
+I'm sure they meet--I could swear it.  She never dares to look me
+straight in the face.  I won't stay away long.  I won't stay here long
+either.  I see him; he's always hanging about trying to catch sight of
+her.  Does he think I'm blind?  I know!  I know!"
+
+He walked on hurriedly toward the quarry, but he had over-rated his
+strength, and grinding his teeth with rage, he sat down and began to
+wipe his wet brow.
+
+"This cursed weakness," he groaned.  "But I'm stronger and better now.
+If I could have a drop of brandy now and then--not much--I should soon
+be all right."
+
+"Yes," he said, after a pause, during which he had been looking
+nervously round, "I'll go away and take her on the Continent for our
+wedding trip.  In another week I shall be strong and well enough, and
+we'll go away, and Chris Lisle may grind his teeth, and say the grapes
+are sour.
+
+"I wonder whether they ever have met while I was so ill and at my worst?
+He knows the way.  He was found in the grounds that night.  Would she
+dare?
+
+"No, no," he muttered, after a long pause.  "She wouldn't dare, but he
+might persuade her.  Curse him!  Why does he stay in the place?
+
+"There, there; this won't do.  I'm getting hot and excited, and I can't
+bear it yet.  I'll go on now and see what the scoundrels are doing with
+the stones.  I know they rob me because I'm ill and don't understand the
+trade; but I'll startle some of them.
+
+"Now, then, I'm better now.  The old strength's coming back, and--No,"
+he cried, with a whine of misery, "I can't go on.  If I go there it will
+seem as if he's back and at my elbow always.  It's bad enough at home.
+He seems to haunt the cursed place, and I'm always fancying he's there.
+That doctor does me no good; no good.  I want strength, strength.
+There, I'll go back."
+
+He was so weak that, short as the distance was, he was well-nigh spent,
+and had to sit down twice.  But as he reached the end of the hollow
+road, overshadowed by trees, and came out in the open, where he could
+see the sea and feel the cool breeze, he recovered himself.
+
+"Yes, there she lies," he said, as he let his eyes rest upon his yacht.
+"What a time since I have been aboard!  Yes, why not at once?  We'll go
+to-morrow and sail across to France, and coast down to the Pyrenees.
+Get away from here; curse the place.  It will be long before I come
+back."
+
+He panted a little as he turned up the slope and passed through the
+gateway, to pause on the terrace, and look once more upon the yacht, as
+she lay about a quarter of a mile from where he stood.
+
+"I was a fool not to think of it before.  Get her right away; she
+daren't refuse.  No, no; not so bad as that.  She wouldn't have dared.
+And yet it would have been so easy while I was lying by."
+
+He entered the hall with curious thoughts buzzing through his brain.
+
+"A miserable, puling, white-faced thing!  Where is she?  I'll tell her
+to get ready.  We will go to-morrow."
+
+He went into the drawing-room, but Claude was not there, and in an
+instant suspicion was master of his brain.  Where was she?
+
+He crossed the room and looked out through the open window, but no
+Claude.  Then, hurrying to the dining-room, he saw that she was not
+there.
+
+As he came out, he caught sight of a skirt just passing through a
+swing-door, and he dashed after it.
+
+It was one of the maids.
+
+"Here," he said, in a half-whisper.  "Your mistress--upstairs?"
+
+"No, sir.  In the library, I think.  A gentleman came."
+
+"That'll do," he said sharply.  "No; stop.  Where is Miss Mary?"
+
+"Gone out, sir, with Mrs Woodham."
+
+He turned quickly and swung to the door, with a look in his face that
+was diabolical.
+
+"Gun--pistol?" he muttered.  "No, no; not that--not murder.  Better
+revenge.  Lot of the money's mine.  Free, free!  Let him take her--let
+him--curse him!  I wish I was strong once more."
+
+As if impelled by the wave of passion that came over him, he walked
+quickly to the library door, and as he reached it, he heard a peculiar
+clang, as of the closing of the book-shelf doors which screened the iron
+safe.
+
+A peculiar look of rage and cunning distorted his face; and, twisting
+the handle round, he threw open the door and rushed in, as, with her
+face wild from excitement, Claude turned towards him.
+
+"Hah!" he cried, with a look of fierce triumph, as he caught her by the
+wrist, "I've come back."  And he uttered a low laugh as he pointed to
+the great safe.
+
+Claude tried to speak, but no words would come, and she clung to the
+hand which held her to keep herself from falling.
+
+"Didn't expect me back, eh?  Didn't expect me back?"
+
+"Come away quick; come away!" panted Claude, in a voice hardly above a
+whisper.
+
+"Yes, of course," he snarled, as he held her at arm's-length, nearly
+fainting from terror and agony.  "Come away, so as not to disturb our
+dear Chris!"
+
+Claude looked at him wildly.
+
+"Parry Glyddyr!" she cried, as a look of horror dilated her eyes, and
+she tried to cling to him and push him towards the door, for no further
+words words would come.
+
+"Yes!  Parry Glyddyr, your lawful husband," he yelled.  "Found out at
+last!"
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XVIII.
+
+THE LAWYER IS BUSY.
+
+John Trevithick would, in an ordinary way, have finished the little
+business in connection with Mrs Sarson's savings in a very short time,
+but he quite fluttered the widow by the importance he attached to the
+deed, and the way in which he was going to invest the money.
+
+"You will not have any savings left, Mrs Sarson, when he sends in his
+bill," Chris said to her grimly; and, on Trevithick's next visit, the
+poor woman, in an agitated way, touched upon the topic of the bill of
+costs.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Trevithick, smiling.  "My dear Mrs Sarson, I always
+charge what the legal men call _pro rata_."
+
+"Oh, do you, sir?" she said.  "Then that way is not very expensive?"
+
+"Certainly not.  You don't understand.  If you were very rich, the bill
+would be high; but in your case, if you trust to me, your costs shall be
+very small indeed."
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir; and will you take the money to-day?"
+
+"No; you have kept it safely so far, and a few days will not hurt.  I'll
+take it next time."
+
+When "next time" came, John Trevithick said the same, and at his next
+visit he once more put her off.
+
+"What a shame!" he said to himself on his next visit to Danmouth.  "It
+is imposing on the poor woman.  I must find some other excuse for coming
+over.  By George!"
+
+He slapped his great knee, and laughed with delight at his happy
+thought.
+
+"I'll open an office here in Danmouth; take Mrs Sarson's second
+parlour, and come over twice a week.  Do her good and do me good, and,
+who knows, it may bring clients."
+
+Full of this idea, he called upon Mrs Sarson one morning about a
+fortnight before the incidents of the last chapter, and on being
+closeted with her, opened out his business at once in a quick, legal
+way.
+
+"Now, then, my dear madam, if you will hand me that money, I'll take
+charge of it, complete the little mortgage, and you can have the deeds
+of the premises upon which your money is to be lent at five per cent, or
+I will keep them for you--which you please."
+
+"Oh, I should like, if you don't think it would be wrong, Mr
+Trevithick, to keep the deeds myself, as I shall not have the money."
+
+"Very good."
+
+Mrs Sarson, who had recovered from the rheumatic attack which had
+frightened her into making arrangements about her savings, rose from her
+chair, and, in a very feminine way, sought for the key, which was kept
+hidden in an under pocket--one of the make of a saddle bag--whose
+security depended on the strength of two tape strings.
+
+The lawyer smiled to himself, and thought of his own iron safe, built in
+the wall of the office, as the widow brought out her key, and opened a
+large tea-caddy standing upon a side table.
+
+"Not a very safe place, Mrs Sarson, eh?"
+
+"Ah, you don't know, sir," said the woman, with a smile, as she threw up
+the lid, took up a large cut glass sugar basin full of white lumps from
+the centre compartment, and then first one and then the other of the two
+oblong receptacles, each well filled with fragrant black and green, for
+she opened them, and laughingly displayed their contents.
+
+This done, she thrust her hand down into the round velvet-lined hole
+from which the sugar basin had been lifted, gave it a knock sideways,
+and then lifted out the whole of the internal fittings of the caddy, set
+it on the table, and held it on one side, showing that the bottom was
+the exact size of a Bank of England note, one for ten pounds being
+visible.
+
+"There!" she said, with a sigh; "that was my dear husband's idea.  He
+was a cabinetmaker, sir, and he was quite right.  They have always been
+safe."
+
+"Yes, Mrs Sarson," said the lawyer; "but you have lost your interest."
+
+"Lost what, sir?"
+
+"Your interest!  How many years have they been lying here?"
+
+"Oh, a many, sir.  Some were put there by my poor husband, and I've gone
+on putting in more as often as I could save up another ten pounds, for I
+kept the sovereigns in my pocket till I had ten, and then I used to
+change them for notes."
+
+"Humph, yes!" said Trevithick, wetting a finger, bank-clerkly, and
+counting the notes.  "Twenty-seven.  All tens.  Two hundred and seventy
+pounds.  I only want two hundred and fifty, Mrs Sarson.  You shall put
+two back for nest eggs."
+
+He took the two top notes off, before turning the parcel over and
+looking at the bottom note, one that looked old and yellow, and he read
+the date.
+
+"Forty years old that one, Mrs Sarson."
+
+"Yes, sir; but that don't matter, does it?"
+
+"Oh, no; the Bank of England never refuses its paper.  And this top one
+is dated--let me see.  Ah! two years old, and pretty new--Good God!"
+
+The number had struck his eye, and he had turned it over, and read a
+name written upon the back.
+
+"Oh, Mr Trevithick!  Don't, pray don't say it's a bad one!"
+
+"Eh?  Bad?" cried the lawyer absently.  "Where did you get this note?"
+
+"From the hotel, sir," cried the poor woman, in a broken voice.  "They
+always change my gold for me there.  But they shall give me a good one,
+for I can swear that I got it there."
+
+"Wait a moment," cried Trevithick excitedly.  "No; those are quite
+right."
+
+"Oh, thank goodness for that!" cried Mrs Sarson, who was trembling so
+that the notes she took back rustled in her hand.  "But do, do look
+again at the others and see if they are good."
+
+"Yes, yes, all good, Mrs Sarson," said Trevithick, looking over them
+hurriedly.
+
+"Then give me that one, sir, and I'll take it back to them at once."
+
+"No, no, Mrs Sarson, the note is quite good," said the lawyer, putting
+on his business mask, and looking quite calm, though his heart was
+thumping heavily.
+
+"Oh, dear! and you gave me such a fright, sir.  You are sure it is a
+good one?"
+
+"So good, Mrs Sarson, that I'd give you ten golden sovereigns for it.
+Five hundred if it were necessary," he said to himself; and after being
+witness to the replacing of two notes in the caddy, and giving a receipt
+for those confided to his charge, he made his way back to Toxeter in a
+state of excitement that was new to him, and did not rest till he was
+locked up in his own private room.
+
+"It seems impossible," he thought, as he compared the note with the
+closely written figures he had in his pocket-book, and then examined the
+signature at the back.
+
+"Yes; there's the clue I have sought for so long--dropped into my hands
+like this.  Oh!"
+
+He sat back with the perspiration gathering on his forehead, and the
+look of excitement on his face changing slowly into horror as bit by bit
+the meaning of the name on the back of that note gradually unfolded
+itself till he was gazing upon a picture of horror that appalled him.
+
+"No, no, no!  It's too shocking," he cried at last, as he wiped his
+brow.  The man could not be such a wretch.
+
+"But he is a wretch!  A cold-blooded, swearing, drinking brute; and with
+all his flash and show, and yacht, I know that he was always hard up for
+money, and being hunted by that usurious scoundrel Gellow."
+
+Trevithick wiped his brow again.
+
+"Why, he must have had it all.  Robbed the poor old man who had taken
+him to his hearth.  Yes, I daresay to pay off that scoundrel and get
+time.  Yes, there's his name to the note.  He must have changed it at
+the hotel.  I knew that money was missing.  Robbed him--the man who
+welcomed him as a son, and encouraged him to win his daughter.  The
+black-hearted traitor.  I always hated him.  A cowardly, despicable
+thief, stealing the money that some day would have been his."
+
+Trevithick leaped from his seat, and in his excitement struck a
+penholder, and knocked over the ink.
+
+"Good Heaven!" he exclaimed, "he murdered him!"
+
+Trevithick stood with his hands pressed upon his brow, trying to think
+calmly, but his head became hotter as the idea grew strong.
+
+"Yes," he said, "died of an overdose of chloral, they said.  He could
+never have taken that money without.  He must have got to know, and--
+yes, he must have drugged him to death, so as to get the heavy sum.
+Christopher Lisle!  Bah!  This was the man!
+
+"No, no; I'm growing wild--I must be calm."
+
+He caught a glass, and poured out some water from a table-filter, drank
+it hastily, and began to walk up and down the room for a time, till,
+feeling more himself, he took a seat to try and think the matter out,
+raising up every point strongly in Glyddyr's favour.
+
+"No man could be such a wretch as to murder another, and then marry his
+child," he said at last firmly; but the accusation came more strongly,
+and with supporting evidence, as something began to whisper to him, "But
+what was the meaning of all that drinking--of that conduct on the
+wedding-day--of the abject dread of Gartram's picture, and of the
+delirious wanderings about being haunted?
+
+"He is the man!" cried Trevithick at last, as he brought his fist down
+heavily into his left palm.  "Gartram was murdered--accidentally,
+perhaps--but murdered, and--Great Heavens! what shall I--what ought I to
+do?"
+
+He sat long, turning the matter over and over, viewing it from every
+point, and at last coldly and clearly it all seemed to stand out before
+him.
+
+"No," he said, "I cannot keep silence.  He is a curse to that poor girl.
+Poor blind old Gartram favoured him, and the fiend played upon the poor
+girls filial duty.  Yes, I know that well enough.  Poor Claude would
+almost give her life to be free from the wretch who is dissipating her
+property to clear off debts to Gellow.  And is he an accomplice?
+
+"Accomplice in forcing on the marriage; but that wretch must have done
+the deed, and, Heaven helping me, I'll bring it home to him, and set the
+poor girl free.
+
+"Stop.  I'm going on too fast.  It may be remorse and horror for the
+robbery.  He could not have murdered Gartram.  Poor fellow, he did
+indulge in chloral, and the doctor said it was an overdose.  No, Gartram
+was too clever and experienced in his treatment of himself for that.  I
+can't help it; something seems to impel me.  I must go.
+
+"And Claude!
+
+"I can't help it.  I feel so sure.  Better the shock and be free, than
+be slowly tortured to death by a man who is little better than a devil.
+
+"Yes," he cried finally, "I am sure, but I'll take other advice before I
+proceed very much further."
+
+The consequence was that poor Mrs Sarson was horrified at not receiving
+her mortgage deed to hide away, and shivered as she credited the lawyer
+with going off to London to spend her savings of a life, for she could
+only obtain from his office the news that he was out on business.
+
+As shown, Mrs Sarson was not the only one who had misjudged Trevithick,
+for, in his abstraction and earnest following of the quest upon which he
+was now engaged, there were no more meetings with Mary; and his
+avoidance of her when they met was for very special reasons of his own.
+
+"I can save her from the scene," he had said, "though I cannot save poor
+Claude."
+
+He was wrong, for he found her hurrying back with Sarah Woodham, and
+when he hurriedly tried to stay her, she turned upon him angrily, and
+refused to hear.
+
+And so it was that Claude was seated alone in the library that day, sick
+at heart, as she thought of her future, and asking herself what she
+could do to win her husband's love and bring herself to love him, when
+one of the maids announced that a gentleman wanted to see master.
+
+"Yes, Mr Glyddyr," said a quiet, firm voice, and the man, who had
+followed the servant, stepped in, signed to the girl to go, closed the
+door after her, and then turned to face Claude, who had risen and was
+standing trembling, as if from a suspicion of some terrible trouble to
+come.
+
+The visitor took in her agitation directly.
+
+"Sort of body who will try to screen him," he said to himself.
+
+"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" said Claude, trying to be calm.
+
+"Business, ma'am.  Sorry to trouble you.  Where's Mr Glyddyr?"
+
+"Mr Glyddyr is out."
+
+The man smiled pityingly.
+
+"You will excuse me, ma'am--Mrs Glyddyr?"
+
+"Yes; I'm Mrs Glyddyr."
+
+"Servant did not say he was out.  Too ill to go out.  Where is he,
+please?  You see I know."
+
+"I told you Mr Glyddyr was out.  What do you want?"
+
+"Business, ma'am--important business.  Must see him at once."
+
+"You must call when he is at home."
+
+"Sorry to be rude to a lady, but your face, ma'am, says he is at home,
+and will not show up."
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+The man looked sharply round, and his eyes rested on the ajar door of
+the safe, with its casing of books, its old purpose being now at an end.
+
+"Way into another room," he said to himself; "he's there.--I want Mr
+Glyddyr," he continued firmly.  "Now, look here, ma'am; I can feel for
+you, though I am a police officer, but I have my duty to do."
+
+"Your duty?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, my duty; and Mr Glyddyr is in there; he may as well come
+out like a gentleman, and let it all be quietly done.  He must know that
+the game is up, and that any attempt at getting away from me is worse
+than folly.  Will you let me pass?"
+
+"Stop!" cried Claude excitedly, as, like lightning, thought after
+thought flashed through her mind; for at that moment she heard a cough
+and a step that she recognised only too well.  And this man--police--it
+must be to arrest.
+
+"Tell me," she cried quickly, "what is it?  Why have you come?"
+
+"I'll tell Mr Glyddyr himself, ma'am, please.  Stand aside.  I don't
+want to be rude, but I've got my duty to do, and do it I will."
+
+He passed Claude sharply, brushing against her arm, and seized the thick
+door to draw it open, while the thought flashed through her brain--
+
+"I am his wife.  I prayed for a way to win his love--to give him mine.
+This man will arrest him, and I must save him if I can."
+
+Without pausing to consider as to the folly of her impulse, she turned
+on the man as he threw open the door and bent forward, and, thrusting
+with all her might, she sent him staggering in.
+
+The door closed upon him with a loud clang.
+
+"He is my husband," panted Claude, mad with dread and excitement.  "O
+Heaven help me! what has he done?"
+
+At that moment, wild with jealous rage and doubt, Glyddyr came into the
+room, and ended, as she clung to him, speechless with emotion, by
+striking her savagely with such force as he possessed.
+
+Claude uttered a low moan, and fell insensible across the entrance to
+the safe; while, after wrenching out the key, Glyddyr hurried panting
+from the library, closed and locked the door, and stood thinking.
+
+"Yes," he said, with a malignant look; "I'll do that.  Witnesses--
+witnesses!  They shall all know."
+
+He crossed the hall to the drawing-room, and dragged at the bell so
+violently that, as he returned, the servants came hurrying through the
+swing-door.
+
+"Here, quick, I want you," he said hoarsely.  "Ah, just in time," he
+cried, as at that moment the entrance door was darkened, and Mary Dillon
+entered, with Trevithick trying to detain her, and closely followed by
+Sarah Woodham.  "Better and better," he said, with a grin.  "This way--
+this way, witnesses, please."
+
+He unlocked and threw open the library door, and drew back for the
+others to go past.
+
+"John Trevithick, quick! there is something wrong," cried Mary, as she
+ran in--to shriek wildly and loudly, "Help! he has murdered her!"
+
+"You villain!" roared Trevithick, seizing Glyddyr, but he wrested
+himself free.
+
+"Bah! great idiot!" he cried.  "There, look, she is only fainting--with
+joy, can't you see?" he continued, as Claude uttered a sigh, and moved
+one hand.  "Now then, witnesses," he cried, with a savage laugh, "I have
+been out; I have just returned.  This is my dear wife, who wishes for a
+divorce; and this," he almost yelled, as he threw open the great
+book-covered door of the safe, "is our dear friend Mr--"
+
+He ceased speaking, with the malignant grin frozen upon his face, as the
+quick, stern-looking man staggered panting, half-suffocated from the
+safe, stared wildly for a few moments, and then, before Glyddyr could
+realise his position, recovered himself sufficiently to clap his hand
+upon the scoundrel's shoulder.
+
+"Mr Parry Glyddyr," he cried, "you are my prisoner.  I arrest you for
+murder!"
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XIX.
+
+TWO WIVES.
+
+Chris Lisle caught Trevithick, too, by the shoulder as he was leaving
+Danmouth that day, and, half wild with excitement, implored him to say
+whether the rumour was true.
+
+"True enough, Mr Lisle.  Mr Glyddyr is arrested, and his friend, who
+is believed to be an accomplice, was taken yesterday in London."
+
+Chris fell back, staring like one who has received some mental shock,
+and then walked slowly along the main street of the place to get to the
+bridge and go up the glen, so as to try and think quietly of all that it
+might mean to him.
+
+As he went along he became dimly conscious of the fact that first one
+and then another touched his cap, or gave him a friendly nod; but he was
+too much dazed to pay any heed, and he could only come to one
+conclusion: that there must be as great a mistake here as there was over
+the rumour about himself.
+
+"It is too horrible to be true," he said, with a shudder.
+
+At the Fort, Claude lay prostrate, unable to realise the truth of what
+had taken place, and shuddering from time to time as the terrible scene
+kept coming back.
+
+"I would have spared her if I could," Trevithick had whispered to Mary
+before leaving; "but it was better that she should suffer sharply for a
+time than all her life."
+
+Mary could not speak--she dared not trust herself for fear of saying
+words of which she would afterwards repent, for there was a great joy in
+her heart now that she knew the reason for Trevithick's silence, and she
+could not even go to Sarah Woodham's side, lest she should open her
+heart there.
+
+Then came days of wild excitement in the place, with event after event
+occurring to keep the gossip at white heat.  There were the examinations
+of Glyddyr, at which he preserved a stubborn silence.  And a fresh
+excitement in the presence, at the second examination, of a handsome,
+sharp-looking woman fashionably dressed, who took up her abode after the
+examination at the hotel.
+
+She had seated herself in the court by the help of a friendly--made
+friendly--policeman, where she could face Glyddyr; and when, at last,
+their eyes met, he started and changed colour, but composed himself
+directly, for another trouble was but a trifle compared to that
+overhanging his life.
+
+It was no friendly look that he had encountered, neither was the keen
+glance directed at Gellow, who, upon the second morning, was placed
+beside Glyddyr in the dock.  For Denise showed her teeth slightly in the
+malicious smile, watching and listening intently to the end.
+
+"I did not know that I should find him through the newspapers," she said
+to herself.  "I was fooled by that man into believing that he was gone
+abroad, when I might have come down and seen this madam whom he has
+married.  But it is well."
+
+Then came fresh fuel to keep the excitement at white heat.  A gentleman
+was down from London, and it was known that orders had been given from
+high quarters that Gartram's remains were to be taken from the vault.
+That there was to be a _post mortem_ examination, and a great chemist in
+London was to assist in bringing the crime home to the prisoner under
+remand.
+
+This was true enough, and Doctor Asher and his colleague were called
+upon to assist.  Two other doctors were also going to be present, on
+behalf of the prisoner and the Government.
+
+When Asher received his instructions he shuddered, and the paper dropped
+from his hand.
+
+"It is too horrible!" he muttered.  "I will not be dragged into it
+again."  But he had hardly uttered the words when his colleague arrived
+to talk the matter over with him.
+
+"It is as horrible as it is absurd," Asher said.
+
+"Yes, but we have received our instructions, and cannot refuse."
+
+"But we performed our examination for the inquest," protested Asher.
+"It is so unnecessary.  The man is innocent.  We know well enough the
+cause of death."
+
+The other shrugged his shoulders, and finally went away; while the next
+night it was being whispered, with bated breath, that the examination
+had been made, and there was talk of sealed bottles and the analytical
+chemist in London.
+
+A week later, while the prisoners were lying under remand at the county
+gaol, Mrs Sarson tapped softly at Chris Lisle's door, and entered.
+
+He did not move, for he was thinking deeply of how he would give the
+world if he dared go to the Fort as a friend and say a few words to
+Claude.
+
+"And I can make no sign; I dare make no sign," he was muttering, as his
+landlady's hand was laid upon his arm.
+
+"I thought you'd like to hear the news, sir," she said respectfully.
+
+"Yes.  What news?"
+
+"I have just heard, sir, that Mrs Glyddyr is going over to Toxeter this
+morning to see Mr Glyddyr.  Mr Trevithick has come to fetch her."
+
+A spasm ran through Chris, and he turned away his head.
+
+"Yes," he said; "suppose it is her duty."
+
+"And Doctor Asher is very bad indeed, sir, this morning, and two other
+doctors are there.  He is worse than when I spoke to you last night."
+
+"Did you speak to me about him last night?"
+
+"Why, surely, sir, you don't forget?  But I have heard this morning what
+is the matter."
+
+"Yes?" said Chris vacantly.
+
+"It is very horrible, sir; but the new doctor told one of his patients
+that Doctor Asher's knife slipped during the terrible examination of Mr
+Gartram the other day, and the cut has gone bad with some name he called
+it."
+
+"Blood poisoning!" exclaimed Chris, startled by the news; "how
+shocking."
+
+"Shocking indeed, sir.  I didn't think poor little Danmouth could have
+had such trouble as all this; but the Lord be thanked that the whole
+truth has come out at last, and you can hold up your head once more.
+Poor fellow!" she muttered softly, "he don't seem to hear a word I
+said."
+
+But Chris had heard; and, as soon as he was alone, he slipped a small
+glass in his pocket, and tramped out to the back of the place, and up
+the highest piece of cliff, where he could lie upon his breast and watch
+the Fort.
+
+He did not wait long, for the carriage soon drew up to the front
+entrance, and directly after Trevithick appeared, leading out Claude, in
+deep mourning and thickly veiled.  Then Mary came out, to step into the
+carriage; and it was driven away, while Sarah Woodham, thin and
+sallow-looking, stood on the steps watching till it had disappeared, and
+at last Chris saw her as she turned, holding her hands to her temples,
+as if they throbbed.
+
+"Will she come back to-night?" said Chris to himself.  "I'll wait and
+see."
+
+A couple of hours later, Trevithick led Claude slowly up towards the
+prison gates, for his companion had to cling to his arm for support, and
+he could feel the struggle that was going on as she strove to perform
+this duty to her husband.
+
+They were within about fifty yards of the place, when Claude reeled and
+would have fallen but for the lawyer's strong arm.
+
+"Take my advice," he whispered gently.  "You can do no good, and you are
+not strong enough to go through such an interview as this."
+
+"I am better now," she said feebly.  "A little faint, that is all."
+
+"Put it off till another day."
+
+"No," she said more faintly.  "It is a duty to him.  I will not believe
+that it can be true."
+
+Trevithick was silent.
+
+"Let us go on now," she said; and they had nearly reached the prison
+gates when there was a quick step, and a tall, fashionably-dressed woman
+stepped before them.
+
+"Where are you going?" she said sharply in a strangely accented way.
+
+"To see Mr Glyddyr, madam," said Claude, meekly.  "I am his wife."
+
+"You!  Bah!  You are nothing, girl," cried the woman, her dark eyes
+blazing with vindictive spite.  "He is mine.  He married me five years
+ago from his yacht, in Marseilles.  Yes, I, Denise Leschalles.  Yes.
+And you, my faith, what could I not do to you?"
+
+Claude uttered a faint cry and threw up her veil, to gaze wildly at the
+woman.
+
+"My faith, you look.  Yes, I am his wife, I tell you again.  You are
+nothing."
+
+"Woman, is this true?" said Trevithick sternly.
+
+"Bah!  I say it not again.  Go ask him, but he will only lie.  Aha! and
+he could leave me to marry that!  She is poor and weak.  Take her away.
+I have the power to go and see my husband.  This woman shall not pass."
+
+"Tell me where you are staying," whispered Trevithick quickly.  "Ah, I
+remember now.  I saw you at Danmouth, at the hotel."
+
+The woman made no reply, but went on up to the gate, while Claude clung
+to the strong arm which supported her.
+
+"Mr Trevithick, can this be true?" she whispered.
+
+"Heaven only knows," he said; "but you cannot go there now."
+
+Chris Lisle's watch proved to be far shorter than he could have hoped,
+his patience being rewarded by the sight of the young mistress of the
+Fort as she was supported back into her home.
+
+Volume Three, Chapter XX.
+
+THE TRUTH.
+
+The next day was a more eventful one still in the annals of Danmouth,
+and people stood in knots about the place discussing the new horror.
+
+Doctor Asher was dying, and his colleague had sent for the nearest
+magistrate that morning, to take down the dying man's deposition in the
+presence of witnesses, Trevithick being of those summoned to the bed.
+
+The deposition was brief, but convincing, telling how the dying man had,
+when attending Gartram, found in his pocket-book sundry directions to
+his executors, explaining how his wealth was bestowed.  The temptation
+had been too great for him, and after waiting long for an opportunity,
+he had taken advantage one evening of being at the house to add a
+certain drug to the chloral Gartram was in the habit of taking from time
+to time.
+
+"As a dying man about to appear before my Maker," he said, "I swear I
+had no intention of taking his life.  I wished to make his sleep so sure
+that I could easily take what notes I wished, and this I did, to the
+amount of forty thousand pounds, but I did not calculate that the drug
+would be so strong, and I was horrified when I found that I could not
+bring him back from his deadly sleep."
+
+"What was the drug?" asked the magistrate, in the midst of a terrible
+silence.
+
+"Better that it should not be known," said the dying man feebly.  "I
+have told the truth.  The money is in the iron safe in my study.  All
+but a few hundred pounds or so I sent abroad, and a note or two I passed
+beside.  I gave Glyddyr that one by mistake, and--"
+
+The words that would have followed were never uttered, for insensibility
+supervened, and Doctor Asher never spoke again.
+
+The law moves slowly, but it is pretty sure, and in due course the two
+men accused of complicity in Gartram's death were discharged without a
+stain upon their character, so it was said, but Glyddyr was re-arrested
+upon another charge.
+
+A guilty conscience had kept him silent about the accusation of murder,
+for he had added to the draught Gartram was in the habit of taking, but
+other hands had thrown this away.  Still, he had always suffered
+mentally from the idea that he had murdered the man who had chosen him
+as a son.
+
+Against the charge of bigamy he fought savagely, for there was the
+impending punishment to dread, and the loss of an almost princely
+fortune; but Denise made good her claim.  The pleas of her being an
+alien fell to the ground, and the law cut asunder the tie that held
+Claude Gartram to one who passed for ever from her sight.  Glyddyr's
+term of imprisonment was but short, for his health had been so shattered
+that he was shortly after set at liberty, to die in Denise's arms.
+
+Of the rest of the actors who played their parts in this life drama, no
+more need be said than is contained in the French proverb: _Cela va sans
+dire_.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's King of the Castle, by George Manville Fenn
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