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diff --git a/35641.txt b/35641.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29533bc --- /dev/null +++ b/35641.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5501 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth + +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: Uncanny Tales + +Author: Mary Louisa Molesworth + +Illustrator: Fred Hyland + +Release Date: April 25, 2011 [EBook #35641] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net + + + + + + + + + + Uncanny Tales + + BY MRS MOLESWORTH + + LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO + Paternoster Row + + FRED HYLAND + + + + + TO + AN OTHERWISE UNACKNOWLEDGED "COLLABORATEUR" + IN THESE STORIES, + J. C. P. + + 19 SUMNER PLACE, S.W., + + _October, 1896._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT 1 + + "THE MAN WITH THE COUGH" 82 + + "HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES" 112 + + AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD 141 + + "---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE" 153 + + THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN 183 + + + + +UNCANNY TALES. + + + + +THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT. + +PART I. + + +We never thought of Finster St. Mabyn's being haunted. We really never +did. + +This may seem strange, but it is absolutely true. It was such an +extremely interesting and curious place in many ways that it required +nothing extraneous to add to its attractions. Perhaps this was the +reason. + +Now-a-days, immediately that you hear of a house being "very old," the +next remark is sure to be "I hope it is"--or "is not"--that depends on +the taste of the speaker--"haunted". + +But Finster was more than very old; it was _ancient_ and, in a modest +way, historical. I will not take up time by relating its history, +however, or by referring my readers to the chronicles in which mention +of it may be found. Nor shall I yield to the temptation of describing +the room in which a certain royalty spent one night, if not two or three +nights, four centuries ago, or the tower, now in ruins, where an even +more renowned personage was imprisoned for several months. All these +facts--or legends--have nothing to do with what I have to tell. Nor, +strictly speaking, has Finster itself, except as a sort of prologue to +my narrative. + +We heard of the house through friends living in the same county, though +some distance farther inland. They--Mr. and Miss Miles, it is convenient +to give their name at once--knew that we had been ordered to leave our +own home for some months, to get over the effects of a very trying +visitation of influenza, and that sea-air was specially desirable. + +We grumbled at this. Seaside places are often so dull and commonplace. +But when we heard of Finster we grumbled no longer. + +"Dull" in a sense it might be, but assuredly not "commonplace". Janet +Miles's description of it, though she was not particularly clever at +description, read like a fairy tale, or one of Longfellow's poems. + +"A castle by the sea--how perfect!" we all exclaimed. "Do, oh, do fix +for it, mother!" + +The objections were quickly over-ruled. It was rather isolated, said +Miss Miles, standing, as was not difficult to trace in its name, on a +point of land--a corner rather--with sea on two sides. It had not been +lived in, save spasmodically, for some years, for the late owner was one +of those happy, or unhappy people, who have more houses than they can +use, and the present one was a minor. Eventually it was to be overhauled +and some additions and alterations made, but the trustees would be glad +to let it at a moderate rent for some months, and had intended putting +it into some agents' hands when Mr. Miles happened to meet one of them, +who mentioned it to him. There was nothing against it; it was absolutely +healthy. But the furniture was old and shabby, and there was none too +much of it. If we wanted to have visitors we should certainly require to +add to it. This, however, could easily be done, our informant went on to +say. There was a very good upholsterer and furniture dealer at Raxtrew, +the nearest town, who was in the habit of hiring out things to the +officers at the fort. "Indeed," she added, "we often pick up charming +old pieces of furniture from him for next to nothing, so you could both +hire and buy." + +Of course, we should have visitors--and our own house would not be the +worse for some additional chairs and tables here and there, in place of +some excellent monstrosities Phil and Nugent and I had persuaded mother +to get rid of. + +"If I go down to spy the land with father," I said, "I shall certainly +go to the furniture dealer's and have a good look about me." + +I did go with father. I was nineteen--it is four years ago--and a +capable sort of girl. Then I was the only one who had not been ill, +and mother had been the worst of all, mother and Dormy--poor little +chap--for _he_ nearly died. + +He is the youngest of us--we are four boys and two girls. Sophy was then +fifteen. My own name is Leila. + +If I attempted to give any idea of the impression Finster St. Mabyn's +made upon us, I should go on for hours. It simply took our breath away. +It really felt like going back a few centuries merely to enter within +the walls and gaze round you. And yet we did not see it to any advantage, +so at least said the two Miles's who were our guides. It was a gloomy +day, with the feeling of rain not far off, early in April. It might have +been November, though it was not cold. + +"You can scarcely imagine what it is on a bright day," said Janet, +eager, as people always are in such circumstances, to show off her +_trouvaille_. "The lights and shadows are so exquisite." + +"I love it as it is," I said. "I don't think I shall ever regret having +seen it first on a grey day. It is just perfect." + +She was pleased at my admiration, and did her utmost to facilitate +matters. Father was taken with the place, too, I could see, but he +hummed and hawed a good deal about the bareness of the rooms--the +bedrooms especially. So Janet and I went into it at once in a +business-like way, making lists of the actually necessary additions, +which did not prove very formidable after all. + +"Hunter will manage all that _easily_," said Miss Miles, upon which +father gave in--I believe he had meant to do so all the time. The rent +was really so low that a little furniture-hire could be afforded, I +suggested. And father agreed. + +"It is extremely low," he said, "for a place possessing so many +advantages." + +But even then it did not occur to any of us to suggest "suspiciously +low". + +We had the Miles's guarantee for it all, to begin with. Had there been +any objection they must have known it. + +We spent the night with them and the next morning at the furniture +dealer's. He was a quick, obliging little man, and took in the situation +at a glance. And _his_ terms were so moderate that father said to me +amiably: "There are some quaint odds and ends here, Leila. You might +choose a few things, to use at Finster in the first place, and then to +take home with us." + +I was only too ready to profit by the permission, and with Janet's +help a few charmingly quaint chairs and tables, a three-cornered wall +cabinet, and some other trifles were soon put aside for us. We were just +leaving, when at one end of the shop some tempting-looking draperies +caught my eye. + +"What are these?" I asked the upholsterer. "Curtains! Why, this is real +old tapestry!" + +The obliging Hunter drew out the material in question. + +"They are not exactly curtains, miss," he said. "I thought they would +make nice _portieres_. You see the tapestry is set into cloth. It was so +frail when I got it that it was the only thing to do with it." + +He had managed it very ingeniously. Two panels, so to say, of old +tapestry, very charming in tone, had been lined and framed with dull +green cloth, making a very good pair of _portieres_ indeed. + +"Oh, papa!" I cried, "do let us have these. There are sure to be +draughty doors at Finster, and afterwards they would make _perfect_ +"_portieres_" for the two side doors in the hall at home." + +Father eyed the tapestry appreciatively, but first prudently inquired +the price. It seemed higher in proportion than Hunter's other charges. + +"You see, sir," he said half apologetically, "the panels are real +antique work, though so much the worse for wear." + +"Where did they come from?" asked father. + +Hunter hesitated. + +"To tell you the truth, sir," he replied, "I was asked not to name the +party that I bought it from. It seems a pity to part with _h_eir-looms, +but--it happens sometimes--I bought several things together of a family +quite lately. The _portieres_ have only come out of the workroom this +morning. We hurried on with them to stop them fraying more--you see +where they were before, they must have been nailed to the wall." + +Janet Miles, who was something of a connoisseur, had been examining the +tapestry. + +"It is well worth what he asks," she said, in a low voice. "You don't +often come across such tapestry in England." + +So the bargain was struck, and Hunter promised to see all that we had +chosen, both purchased and hired, delivered at Finster the week before +we proposed to come. + +Nothing interfered with our plans. By the end of the month we found +ourselves at our temporary home--all of us except Nat, our third +brother, who was at school. Dormer, the small boy, still did lessons +with Sophy's governess. The two older "boys," as we called them, +happened to be at home from different reasons--one, Nugent, on leave +from India; Phil, forced to miss a term at college through an attack +of the same illness which had treated mother and Dormy so badly. + +But now that everybody was well again, and going to be very much better, +thanks to Finster air, we thought the ill wind had brought us some very +distinct good. It would not have been half such fun had we not been a +large family party to start with, and before we had been a week at the +place we had added to our numbers by the first detachment of the guests +we had invited. + +It was not a very large house; besides ourselves we had not room for +more than three or four others. For some of the rooms--those on the top +story--were really too dilapidated to suit any one but rats--"rats or +ghosts," said some one laughingly one day, when we had been exploring +them. + +Afterwards the words returned to my memory. + +We had made ourselves very comfortable, thanks to the invaluable Hunter. +And every day the weather grew milder and more spring-like. The woods on +the inland side were full of primroses. It promised to be a lovely +season. + +There was a gallery along one side of the house, which soon became a +favourite resort; it made a pleasant lounging-place, in the day-time +especially, though less so in the evening, as the fireplace at one end +warmed it but imperfectly, and besides this it was difficult to light +up. It was draughty, too, as there was a superfluity of doors, two of +which, one at each end, we at once condemned. They were not needed, as +the one led by a very long spiral staircase, to the unused attic rooms, +the other to the kitchen and offices. And when we did have afternoon +tea in the gallery, it was easy to bring it through the dining or +drawing-rooms, long rooms, lighted at their extreme ends, which ran +parallel to the gallery lengthways, both of which had a door opening on +to it as well as from the hall on the other side. For all the principal +rooms at Finster were on the first-floor, not on the ground-floor. + +The closing of these doors got rid of a great deal of draught, and, as I +have said, the weather was really mild and calm. + +One afternoon--I am trying to begin at the beginning of our strange +experiences; even at the risk of long-windedness it seems better to do +so--we were all assembled in the gallery at tea-time. The "children," +as we called Sophy and Dormer, much to Sophy's disgust, and their +governess, were with us, for rules were relaxed at Finster, and Miss +Larpent was a great favourite with us all. + +Suddenly Sophy gave an exclamation of annoyance. + +"Mamma," she said, "I wish you would speak to Dormer. He has thrown +over my tea-cup--only look at my frock!" "If you cannot sit still," she +added, turning herself to the boy, "I don't think you should be allowed +to come to tea here." + +"What is the matter, Dormy?" said mother. + +Dormer was standing beside Sophy, looking very guilty, and rather white. + +"Mamma," he said, "I was only drawing a chair out. It got so dreadfully +cold where I was sitting, I really could not stay there," and he +shivered slightly. + +He had been sitting with his back to one of the locked-up doors. Phil, +who was nearest, moved his hand slowly across the spot. + +"You are fanciful, Dormy," he said, "there is really no draught +whatever." + +This did not satisfy mother. + +"He must have got a chill, then," she said, and she went on to question +the child as to what he had been doing all day, for, as I have said, he +was still delicate. + +But he persisted that he was quite well, and no longer cold. + +"It wasn't exactly a draught," he said, "it was--oh! just icy, all of a +sudden. I've felt it before--sitting in that chair." + +Mother said no more, and Dormer went on with his tea, and when bed-time +came he seemed just as usual, so that her anxiety faded. But she made +thorough investigation as to the possibility of any draught coming up +from the back stairs, with which this door communicated. None was to be +discovered--the door fitted fairly well, and beside this, Hunter had +tacked felt round the edges--furthermore, one of the thick heavy +_portieres_ had been hung in front. + +An evening or two later we were sitting in the drawing room after +dinner, when a cousin who was staying with us suddenly missed her fan. + +"Run and fetch Muriel's fan, Dormy," I said, for Muriel felt sure it had +slipped under the dinner table. None of the men had as yet joined us. + +"Why, where are you going, child?" as he turned towards the farther +door. "It is much quicker by the gallery." + +He said nothing, but went out, walking rather slowly, by the gallery +door. And in a few minutes he returned, fan in hand, but by the _other_ +door. + +He was a sensitive child, and though I wondered what he had got into his +head against the gallery, I did not say anything before the others. But +when, soon after, Dormy said "Good night," and went off to bed, I +followed him. + +"What do you want, Leila?" he said rather crossly. + +"Don't be vexed, child," I said. "I can see there is something the +matter. Why do you not like the gallery?" + +He hesitated, but I had laid my hand on his shoulder, and he knew I +meant to be kind. + +"Leila," he said, with a glance round, to be sure that no one was within +hearing--we were standing, he and I, near the inner dining-room door, +which was open--"you'll laugh at me, but--there's something queer +there--sometimes!" + +"What? And how do you mean 'sometimes'?" I asked, with a slight thrill +at his tone. + +"I mean not always, I've felt it several times--there was the cold the +day before yesterday, and besides that, I've felt a--a sort of +_breaving_"--Dormy was not perfect in his "th's"--"like somebody very +unhappy." + +"Sighing?" I suggested. + +"Like sighing in a whisper," he replied, "and that's always near the +door. But last week--no, not so long ago, it was on Monday--I went round +that way when I was going to bed. I didn't want to be silly. But it was +moonlight--and--Leila, a shadow went all along the wall on that side, +and stopped at the door. I saw it waggling about--its _hands_," and here +he shivered--"on that funny curtain that hangs up, as if it were feeling +for a minute or two, and then----" + +"Well,--what then?" + +"It just went out," he said simply. "But it's moonlight again to-night, +sister, and I daren't see it again. I just _daren't_." + +"But you did go to the dining-room that way," I reminded him. + +"Yes, but I shut my eyes and ran, and even then I felt as if something +cold was behind me." + +"Dormy, dear," I said, a good deal concerned, "I do think it's your +fancy. You are not _quite_ well yet, you know." + +"Yes, I am," he replied sturdily. "I'm not a bit frightened anywhere +else. I sleep in a room alone you know. It's not _me_, sister, its +somefing in the gallery." + +"Would you be frightened to go there with me now? We can run through the +dining-room; there's no one to see us," and I turned in that direction +as I spoke. + +Again my little brother hesitated. + +"I'll go with you if you'll hold hands," he said, "but I'll shut my +eyes. And I won't open them till you tell me there's no shadow on the +wall. You must tell me truly." + +"But there must be some shadows," I said, "in this bright moonlight, +trees and branches, or even clouds scudding across--something of that +kind is what you must have seen, dear." + +He shook his head. + +"No, no, of course I wouldn't mind that. I know the difference. No--you +couldn't mistake. It goes along, right along, in a creeping way, and +then at the door its hands come farther out, and it _feels_." + +"Is it like a man or a woman?" I said, beginning to feel rather creepy +myself. + +"I think it's most like a rather little man," he replied, "but I'm not +sure. Its head has got something fuzzy about it--oh, I know, like a +sticking out wig. But lower down it seems wrapped up, like in a cloak. +Oh, it's _horrid_." + +And again he shivered--it was quite time all this nightmare nonsense was +put out of his poor little head. + +I took his hand and held it firmly; we went through the dining-room. +Nothing could have looked more comfortable and less ghostly. For the +lights were still burning on the table, and the flowers in their silver +bowls, some wine gleaming in the glasses, the fruit and pretty dishes, +made a pleasant glow of colour. It certainly seemed a curiously sudden +contrast when we found ourselves in the gallery beyond, cold and +unillumined, save by the pale moonlight streaming through the +unshuttered windows. For the door closed with a bang as we passed +through--the gallery _was_ a draughty place. + +Dormy's hold tightened. + +"Sister," he whispered, "I've shut my eyes now. You must stand with +your back to the windows--between them, or else you'll think it's our +own shadows--and watch." + +I did as he said, and I had not long to wait. + +It came--from the farther end, the second condemned door, whence the +winding stair mounted to the attics--it seemed to begin or at least +take form there. Creeping along, just as Dormy said--stealthily but +steadily--right down to the other extremity of the long room. And then +it grew blacker--more concentrated--and out from the vague outline came +two bony hands, and, as the child had said, too, you could see that they +were _feeling_--all over the upper part of the door. + +I stood and watched. I wondered afterwards at my own courage, if courage +it was. It was the shadow of a small man, I felt sure. The head seemed +large in proportion, and--yes--it--the original of the shadow--was +evidently covered by an antique wig. Half mechanically I glanced +round--as if in search of the material body that _must_ be there. But +no; there was nothing, literally _nothing_, that could throw this +extraordinary shadow. + +Of this I was instantly convinced; and here I may as well say once +for all, that never was it maintained by any one, however previously +sceptical, who had fully witnessed the whole, that it could be accounted +for by ordinary, or, as people say, "natural" causes. There was this +peculiarity at least about our ghost. + +Though I had fast hold of his hand, I had almost forgotten Dormy--I +seemed in a trance. + +Suddenly he spoke, though in a whisper. + +"You see it, sister, I know you do," he said. + +"Wait, wait a minute, dear," I managed to reply in the same tone, though +I could not have explained why I waited. + +Dormer had said that after a time--after the ghastly and apparently +fruitless _feeling_ all over the door--"it"--"went out". + +I think it was this that I was waiting for. It was not quite as he had +said. The door was in the extreme corner of the wall, the hinges almost +in the angle, and as the shadow began to move on again, it _looked_ as +if it disappeared; but no, it was only fainter. My eyes, preternaturally +sharpened by my intense gaze, still saw it, working its way round the +corner, as assuredly no _shadow_ in the real sense of the word ever did +nor could do. I realised this, and the sense of horror grew all but +intolerable; yet I stood still, clasping the cold little hand in mine +tighter and tighter. And an instinct of protection of the child gave me +strength. Besides, it was coming on so quickly--we could not have +escaped--it was coming, nay, it _was behind_ us. + +"Leila!" gasped Dormy, "the cold--you feel it now?" + +Yes, truly--like no icy breath that I had ever felt before was that +momentary but horrible thrill of utter cold. If it had lasted another +second I think it would have killed us both. But, mercifully, it passed, +in far less time than it has taken me to tell it, and then we seemed in +some strange way to be released. + +"Open your eyes, Dormy," I said, "you won't see anything, I promise you. +I want to rush across to the dining-room." + +He obeyed me. I felt there was time to escape before that awful presence +would again have arrived at the dining-room door, though it was +_coming_--ah, yes, it was coming, steadily pursuing its ghastly round. +And, alas! the dining-room door was closed. But I kept my nerve to some +extent. I turned the handle without over much trembling, and in another +moment, the door shut and locked behind us, we stood in safety, looking +at each other, in the bright cheerful room we had left so short a time +ago. + +_Was_ it so short a time? I said to myself. It seemed hours! + +And through the door open to the hall came at that moment the sound +of cheerful laughing voices from the drawing-room. Some one was coming +out. It seemed impossible, incredible, that within a few feet of the +matter-of-fact pleasant material life, this horrible inexplicable drama +should be going on, as doubtless it still was. + +Of the two I was now more upset than my little brother. I was older and +"took in" more. He, boy-like, was in a sense triumphant at having proved +himself correct and no coward, and though he was still pale, his eyes +shone with excitement and a queer kind of satisfaction. + +But before we had done more than look at each other, a figure appeared +at the open doorway. It was Sophy. + +"Leila," she said, "mamma wants to know what you are doing with Dormy? +He is to go to bed at once. We saw you go out of the room after him, +and then a door banged. Mamma says if you are playing with him it's very +bad for him so late at night." + +Dormy was very quick. He was still holding my hand, and he pinched it to +stop my replying. + +"Rubbish!" he said. "I am speaking to Leila quietly, and she is coming +up to my room while I undress. Good night, Sophy." + +"Tell mamma Dormy really wants me," I added, and then Sophy departed. + +"We musn't tell _her_, Leila," said the boy. "She'd have 'sterics." + +"Whom shall we tell?" I said, for I was beginning to feel very helpless +and upset. + +"Nobody, to-night," he replied sensibly. "You _mustn't_ go in there," +and he shivered a little as he moved his head towards the gallery; +"you're not fit for it, and they'd be wanting you to. Wait till the +morning and then I'd--I think I'd tell Philip first. You needn't be +frightened to-night, sister. It won't stop you sleeping. It didn't me +the time I saw it before." + +He was right. I slept dreamlessly. It was as if the intense nervous +strain of those few minutes had utterly exhausted me. + + +PART II. + +Phil is our soldier brother. And there is nothing fanciful about _him_! +He is a rock of sturdy common-sense and unfailing good nature. He was +the very best person to confide our strange secret to, and my respect +for Dormy increased. + +We did tell him--the very next morning. He listened very attentively, +only putting in a question here and there, and though, of course, he was +incredulous--had I not been so myself?--he was not mocking. + +"I am glad you have told no one else," he said, when we had related the +whole as circumstantially as possible. "You see mother is not very +strong yet, and it would be a pity to bother father, just when he's +taken this place and settled it all. And for goodness' sake, don't let a +breath of it get about among the servants; there'd be the--something to +pay, if you did." + +"I won't tell anybody," said Dormy. + +"Nor shall I," I added. "Sophy is far too excitable, and if she knew, +she would certainly tell Nannie." Nannie is our old nurse. + +"If we tell any one," Philip went on, "that means," with a rather +irritating smile of self-confidence, "if by any possibility I do not +succeed in making an end of your ghost and we want another opinion about +it, the person to tell would be Miss Larpent." + +"Yes," I said, "I think so, too." + +I would not risk irritating him by saying how convinced I was that +conviction awaited _him_ as surely it had come to myself, and I knew +that Miss Larpent, though far from credulous, was equally far from +stupid scepticism concerning the mysteries "not dreamt of" in ordinary +"philosophy". + +"What do you mean to do?" I went on. "You have a theory, I see. Won't +you tell me what it is?" + +"I have two," said Phil, rolling up a cigarette as he spoke. "It is +either some queer optical illusion, partly the effect of some odd +reflection outside--or it is a clever trick." + +"A trick!" I exclaimed; "what _possible_ motive could there be for a +trick?" + +Phil shook his head. + +"Ah," he said, "that I cannot at present say." + +"And what are you going to do?" + +"I shall sit up to-night in the gallery and see for myself." + +"Alone?" I exclaimed, with some misgiving. For big, sturdy fellow as he +was, I scarcely liked to think of him--of _any one_--alone with that +awful thing. + +"I don't suppose you or Dormy would care to keep me company," he +replied, "and on the whole I would rather not have you." + +"I wouldn't do it," said the child honestly, "not for--for nothing." + +"I shall keep Tim with me," said Philip, "I would rather have him than +any one." + +Tim is Phil's bull-dog, and certainly, I agreed, much better than +nobody. + +So it was settled. + +Dormy and I went to bed unusually early that night, for as the day wore +on we both felt exceedingly tired. I pleaded a headache, which was not +altogether a fiction, though I repented having complained at all when I +found that poor mamma immediately began worrying herself with fears +that "after all" I, too, was to fall a victim to the influenza. + +"I shall be all right in the morning," I assured her. + +I knew no further details of Phil's arrangements. I fell asleep almost +at once. I usually do. And it seemed to me that I had slept a whole +night when I was awakened by a glimmering light at my door, and heard +Philip's voice speaking softly. + +"Are you awake, Lel?" he said, as people always say when they awake you +in any untimely way. Of course, _now_ I was awake, very much awake +indeed. + +"What is it?" I exclaimed eagerly, my heart beginning to beat very fast. + +"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," said my brother, advancing a little into +the room. "I just thought I'd look in on my way to bed to reassure you. +I have seen _nothing_, absolutely nothing." + +I do not know if I was relieved or disappointed. + +"Was it moonlight?" I asked abruptly. + +"No," he replied, "unluckily the moon did not come out at all, though +it is nearly at the full. I carried in a small lamp, which made things +less eerie. But I should have preferred the moon." + +I glanced up at him. Was it the reflection of the candle he held, or did +he look paler than usual? + +"And," I added suddenly, "did you _feel_ nothing?" + +He hesitated. + +"It--it was chilly, certainly," he said. "I fancy I must have dosed a +little, for I did feel pretty cold once or twice." + +"Ah, indeed!" thought I to myself. "And how about Tim?" + +Phil smiled, but not very successfully. + +"Well," he said, "I must confess Tim did not altogether like it. He +started snarling, then he growled, and finished up with whining in a +decidedly unhappy way. He's rather upset--poor old chap!" + +And then I saw that the dog was beside him--rubbing up close to Philip's +legs--a very dejected, reproachful Tim--all the starch taken out of him. + +"Good-night, Phil," I said, turning round on my pillow. "I'm glad +you are satisfied. To-morrow morning you must tell me which of your +theories holds most water. Good-night, and many thanks." + +He was going to say more, but my manner for the moment stopped him, and +he went off. + +Poor old Phil! + +We had it out the next morning. He and I alone. He was _not_ satisfied. +Far from it. In the bottom of his heart I believe it was a strange +yearning for a breath of human companionship, for the sound of a human +voice, that had made him look in on me the night before. + +_For he had felt the cold passing him._ + +But he was very plucky. + +"I'll sit up again to-night, Leila," he said. + +"Not to-night," I objected. "This sort of adventure requires one to be +at one's best. If you take my advice you will go to bed early and have a +good stretch of sleep, so that you will be quite fresh by to-morrow. +There will be a moon for some nights still." + +"Why do you keep harping on the moon?" said Phil rather crossly, for +him. + +"Because--I have some idea that it is only in the moonlight that--that +anything is to be _seen_." + +"Bosh!" said my brother politely--he was certainly rather +discomposed--"we are talking at cross-purposes. You are satisfied----" + +"Far from satisfied," I interpolated. + +"Well, convinced, whatever you like to call it--that the whole thing is +supernatural, whereas I am equally sure it is a trick; a clever trick I +allow, though I haven't yet got at the motive of it." + +"You need your nerves to be at their best to discover a trick of this +kind, if a trick it be," I said quietly. + +Philip had left his seat, and walked up and down the room; his way of +doing so gave me a feeling that he wanted to walk off some unusual +consciousness of irritability. I felt half provoked and half sorry for +him. + +At that moment--we were alone in the drawing-room--the door opened, and +Miss Larpent came in. + +"I cannot find Sophy," she said, peering about through her rather +short-sighted eyes, which, nevertheless, see a great deal sometimes; "do +you know where she is?" + +"I saw her setting off somewhere with Nugent," said Philip, stopping +his quarter-deck exercise for a moment. + +"Ah, then it is hopeless. I suppose I must resign myself to very +irregular ways for a little longer," Miss Larpent replied with a smile. + +She is not young, and not good looking, but she is gifted with a +delightful way of smiling, and she is--well, the dearest and almost the +wisest of women. + +She looked at Philip as he spoke. She had known us nearly since our +babyhood. + +"Is there anything the matter?" she said suddenly. "You look fagged, +Leila, and Philip seems worried." + +I glanced at Philip. He understood me. + +"Yes," he replied, "I am irritated, and Leila is----" he hesitated. + +"What?" asked Miss Larpent. + +"Oh, I don't know--obstinate, I suppose. Sit down, Miss Larpent, and +hear our story. Leila, you can tell it." + +I did so--first obtaining a promise of secrecy, and making Phil relate +his own experience. + +Our new _confidante_ listened attentively, her face very grave. When +she had heard all, she said quietly, after a moment's silence:-- + +"It's very strange, very. Philip, if you will wait till to-morrow night, +and I quite agree with Leila that you had better do so, I will sit up +with you. I have pretty good nerves, and I have always wanted an +experience of that kind." + +"Then you don't think it is a trick?" I said eagerly. I was like Dormer, +divided between my real underlying longing to explain the thing, and get +rid of the horror of it, and a half childish wish to prove that I had +not exaggerated its ghastliness. + +"I will tell you that the day after to-morrow," she said. I could not +repress a little shiver as she spoke. + +She _had_ good nerves, and she was extremely sensible. + +But I almost blamed myself afterwards for having acquiesced in the plan. +For the effect on her was very great. They never told me exactly what +happened; "You _know_," said Miss Larpent. I imagine their experience +was almost precisely similar to Dormy's and mine, intensified, perhaps, +by the feeling of loneliness. For it was not till all the rest of +the family was in bed that this second vigil began. It was a bright +moonlight night--they had the whole thing complete. + +It was impossible to throw off the effect; even in the daytime the four +of us who had seen and heard, shrank from the gallery, and made any +conceivable excuse for avoiding it. + +But Phil, however convinced, behaved consistently. He examined the +closed door thoroughly, to detect any possible trickery. He explored +the attics, he went up and down the staircase leading to the offices, +till the servants must have thought he was going crazy. He found +_nothing_--no vaguest hint even as to why the gallery was chosen by the +ghostly shadow for its nightly round. + +Strange to say, however, as the moon waned, our horror faded, so that we +almost began to hope the thing was at an end, and to trust that in time +we should forget about it. And we congratulated ourselves that we had +kept our own counsel and not disturbed any of the others--even father, +who would, no doubt, have hooted at the idea--by the baleful whisper +that our charming castle by the sea was haunted! + +And the days passed by, growing into weeks. The second detachment of +our guests had left, and a third had just arrived, when one morning as I +was waiting at what we called "the sea-door" for some of the others to +join me in a walk along the sands, some one touched me on the shoulder. +It was Philip. + +"Leila," he said, "I am not happy about Dormer. He is looking ill again, +and----" + +"I thought he seemed so much stronger," I said, surprised and +distressed, "quite rosy, and so much merrier." + +"So he was till a few days ago," said Philip. "But if you notice him +well you'll see that he's getting that white look again. And--I've got +it into my head--he is an extraordinarily sensitive child, that it has +something to do with the moon. It's getting on to the full." + +For the moment I stupidly forgot the association. + +"Really, Phil," I said, "you are too absurd! Do you actually--oh," as he +was beginning to interrupt me, and my face fell, I feel sure--"you don't +mean about the gallery." + +"Yes, I do," he said. + +"How? Has Dormy told you anything?" and a sort of sick feeling came +over me. "I had begun to hope," I went on, "that somehow it had gone; +that, perhaps, it only comes once a year at a certain season, or +possibly that newcomers see it at the first and not again. Oh, Phil, +we _can't_ stay here, however nice it is, if it is really haunted." + +"Dormy hasn't said much," Philip replied. "He only told me he had _felt +the cold_ once or twice, 'since the moon came again,' he said. But I can +see the fear of more is upon him. And this determined me to speak to +you. I have to go to London for ten days or so, to see the doctors about +my leave, and a few other things. I don't like it for you and Miss +Larpent if--if this thing is to return--with no one else in your +confidence, especially on Dormy's account. Do you think we must tell +father before I go?" + +I hesitated. For many reasons I was reluctant to do so. Father would be +exaggeratedly sceptical at first, and then, if he were convinced, as I +_knew_ he would be, he would go to the other extreme and insist upon +leaving Finster, and there would be a regular upset, trying for mother +and everybody concerned. And mother liked the place, and was looking so +much better! + +"After all," I said, "it has not hurt any of us. Miss Larpent got +a shake, so did I. But it wasn't as great a shock to us as to you, +Phil, to have to believe in a ghost. And we can avoid the gallery +while you are away. No, except for Dormy, I would rather keep it to +ourselves--after all, we are not going to live here always. Yet it is so +nice, it seems such a pity." + +It was such an exquisite morning; the air, faintly breathing of the sea, +was like elixir; the heights and shadows on the cliffs, thrown out by +the darker woods behind, were indeed, as Janet Miles had said, +"wonderful". + +"Yes," Phil agreed, "it is an awful nuisance. But as for Dormy," he went +on, "supposing I get mother to let me take him with me? He'd be as jolly +as a sand-boy in London, and my old landlady would look after him like +anything if ever I had to be out late. And I'd let my doctor see +him--quietly, you know--he might give him a tonic or something." + +I heartily approved of the idea. So did mamma when Phil broached +it--she, too, had thought her "baby" looking quite pale lately. A London +doctor's opinion would be such a satisfaction. So it was settled, and +the very next day the two set off. Dormer, in his "old-fashioned," +reticent way, in the greatest delight, though only by one remark did the +brave little fellow hint at what was, no doubt, the principal cause of +his satisfaction. + +"The moon will be long past the full when we come back," he said. "And +after that there'll only be one other time before we go, won't there, +Leila? We've only got this house for three months?" + +"Yes," I said, "father only took it for three," though in my heart I +knew it was with the option of three more--six in all. + +And Miss Larpent and I were left alone, not with the ghost, certainly, +but with our fateful knowledge of its unwelcome proximity. + +We did not speak of it to each other, but we tacitly avoided the +gallery, even, as much as possible, in the daytime. I felt, and so, she +has since confessed, did she, that it would be impossible to endure +_that cold_ without betraying ourselves. + +And I began to breathe more freely, trusting that the dread of the +shadow's possible return was really only due to the child's overwrought +nerves. + +Till--one morning--my fool's paradise was abruptly destroyed. + +Father came in late to breakfast--he had been for an early walk, he +said, to get rid of a headache. But he did not look altogether as if he +had succeeded in doing so. + +"Leila," he said, as I was leaving the room after pouring out his +coffee--mamma was not yet allowed to get up early--"Leila, don't go. I +want to speak to you." + +I stopped short, and turned towards the table. There was something very +odd about his manner. He is usually hearty and eager, almost impetuous +in his way of speaking. + +"Leila," he began again, "you are a sensible girl, and your nerves are +strong, I fancy. Besides, you have not been ill like the others. Don't +speak of what I am going to tell you." + +I nodded in assent; I could scarcely have spoken. My heart was beginning +to thump. Father would not have commended my nerves had he known it. + +"Something odd and inexplicable happened last night," he went on. +"Nugent and I were sitting in the gallery. It was a mild night, and the +moon magnificent. We thought the gallery would be pleasanter than the +smoking-room, now that Phil and his pipes are away. Well--we were +sitting quietly. I had lighted my reading-lamp on the little table at +one end of the room, and Nugent was half lying in his chair, doing +nothing in particular except admiring the night, when all at once he +started violently with an exclamation, and, jumping up, came towards me. +Leila, his teeth were chattering, and he was _blue_ with cold. I was +very much alarmed--you know how ill he was at college. But in a moment +or two he recovered. + +"'What on earth is the matter?' I said to him. He tried to laugh. + +"'I really don't know,' he said; 'I felt as if I had had an electric +shock of _cold_--but I'm all right again now.' + +"I went into the dining-room, and made him take a little brandy and +water, and sent him off to bed. Then I came back, still feeling rather +uneasy about him, and sat down with my book, when, Leila--you will +scarcely credit it--I myself felt the same shock exactly. A perfectly +_hideous_ thrill of cold. That was how it began. I started up, and then, +Leila, by degrees, in some instinctive way, I seemed to realise what had +caused it. My dear child, you will think I have gone crazy when I tell +you that there was a shadow--a shadow in the moonlight--_chasing_ me, +so to say, round the room, and once again it caught me up, and again +came that appalling sensation. I would not give in. I dodged it after +that, and set myself to watch it, and then----" + +I need not quote my father further; suffice to say his experience +matched that of the rest of us entirely--no, I think it surpassed them. +It was the worst of all. + +Poor father! I shuddered for him. I think a shock of that kind is harder +upon a man than upon a woman. Our sex is less sceptical, less entrenched +in sturdy matters of fact, more imaginative, or whatever you like to +call the readiness to believe what we cannot explain. And it was +astounding to me to see how my father at once capitulated--never even +_alluding_ to a possibility of trickery. Astounding, yet at the same +time not without a certain satisfaction in it. It was almost a relief to +find others in the same boat with ourselves. + +I told him at once all _we_ had to tell, and how painfully exercised we +had been as to the advisability of keeping our secret to ourselves. I +never saw father so impressed; he was awfully kind, too, and so sorry +for us. He made me fetch Miss Larpent, and we held a council of--I +don't know what to call it!--not "war," assuredly, for none of us +thought of fighting the ghost. How could one fight a shadow? + +We decided to do nothing beyond endeavouring to keep the affair from +going further. During the next few days father arranged to have some +work done in the gallery which would prevent our sitting there, without +raising any suspicions on mamma's or Sophy's part. + +"And then," said father, "we must see. Possibly this extraordinary +influence only makes itself felt periodically." + +"I am almost certain it is so," said Miss Larpent. + +"And in this case," he continued, "we may manage to evade it. But I do +not feel disposed to continue my tenancy here after three months are +over. If once the servants get hold of the story, and they are sure to +do so sooner or later, it would be unendurable--the worry and annoyance +would do your mother far more harm than any good effect the air and +change have had upon her." + +I was glad to hear this decision. Honestly, I did not feel as if I +could stand the strain for long, and it might kill poor little Dormy. + +But where should we go? Our own home would be quite uninhabitable till +the autumn, for extensive alterations and repairs were going on there. I +said this to father. + +"Yes," he agreed, "it is not convenient,"--and he hesitated. "I cannot +make it out," he went on, "Miles would have been _sure_ to know if the +house had a bad name in any way. I think I will go over and see him +to-day, and tell him all about it--at least I shall inquire about some +other house in the neighbourhood--and _perhaps_ I will tell him our +reason for leaving this." + +He did so--he went over to Raxtrew that very afternoon, and, as I quite +anticipated would be the case, he told me on his return that he had +taken both our friends into his confidence. + +"They are extremely concerned about it," he said, "and very +sympathising, though, naturally, inclined to think us a parcel of very +weak-minded folk indeed. But I am glad of one thing--the Rectory there, +is to be let from the first of July for three months. Miles took me to +see it. I think it will do very well--it is quite out of the village, +for you really can't call it a town--and a nice little place in its way. +Quite modern, and as unghost-like as you could wish, bright and cheery." + +"And what will mamma think of our leaving so soon?" I asked. + +But as to this father reassured me. He had already spoken of it to her, +and somehow she did not seem disappointed. She had got it into her head +that Finster did not suit Dormy, and was quite disposed to think that +three months of such strong air were enough at a time. + +"Then have you decided upon Raxtrew Rectory?" I asked. + +"I have the refusal of it," said my father. "But you will be almost +amused to hear that Miles begged me not to fix absolutely for a few +days. He is coming to us to-morrow, to spend the night." + +"You mean to see for himself?" + +Father nodded. + +"Poor Mr. Miles!" I ejaculated. "You won't sit up with him, I hope, +father?" + +"I offered to do so, but he won't hear of it," was the reply. "He is +bringing one of his keepers with him--a sturdy, trustworthy young +fellow, and they two with their revolvers are going to nab the ghost, so +he says. We shall see. We must manage to prevent our servants suspecting +anything." + +This _was_ managed. I need not go into particulars. Suffice to say that +the sturdy keeper reached his own home before dawn on the night of the +vigil, no endeavours of his master having succeeded in persuading him to +stay another moment at Finster, and that Mr. Miles himself looked so ill +the next morning when he joined us at the breakfast-table that we, the +initiated, could scarcely repress our exclamations, when Sophy, with the +curious instinct of touching a sore place which some people have, told +him that he looked exactly "as if he had seen a ghost". + +His experience had been precisely similar to ours. After that we heard +no more from him--about the pity it was to leave a place that suited us +so well, etc., etc. On the contrary, before he left, he told my father +and myself that he thought us uncommonly plucky for staying out the +three months, though at the same time he confessed to feeling completely +nonplussed. + +"I have lived near Finster St. Mabyn's all my life," he said, "and +my people before me, and _never_, do I honestly assure you, have +I heard one breath of the old place being haunted. And in a shut-up +neighbourhood like this, such a thing would have leaked out." + +We shook our heads, but what could we say? + + +PART III. + +We left Finster St. Mabyn's towards the middle of July. + +Nothing worth recording happened during the last few weeks. If +the ghostly drama were still re-enacted night after night, or only +during some portion of each month, we took care not to assist at the +performance. I believe Phil and Nugent planned another vigil, but gave +it up by my father's expressed wish, and on one pretext or another he +managed to keep the gallery locked off without arousing any suspicion in +my mother or Sophy, or any of our visitors. + +It was a cold summer,--those early months of it at least--and that made +it easier to avoid the room. + +Somehow none of us were sorry to go. This was natural, so far as +several were concerned, but rather curious as regarded those of the +family who knew no drawback to the charms of the place. I suppose it was +due to some instinctive consciousness of the influence which so many of +the party had felt it impossible to resist or explain. + +And the Rectory at Raxtrew was really a dear little place. It was so +bright and open and sunny. Dormy's pale face was rosy with pleasure the +first afternoon when he came rushing in to tell us that there were tame +rabbits and a pair of guinea-pigs in an otherwise empty loose box in the +stable-yard. + +"Do come and look at them," he begged, and I went with him, pleased to +see him so happy. + +I did not care for the rabbits, but I always think guinea-pigs rather +fascinating, and we stayed playing with them some little time. + +"I'll show you another way back into the house," said Dormy, and he led +me through a conservatory into a large, almost unfurnished room, opening +again into a tiled passage leading to the offices. + +"This is the Warden boys' playroom," he said. "They keep their cricket +and football things here, you see, and their tricycle. I wonder if I +might use it?" + +"We must write and ask them," I said. "But what are all these big +packages?" I went on. "Oh, I see, its our heavy luggage from Finster. +There is not room in this house for our odds and ends of furniture, I +suppose. It's rather a pity they have put it in here, for we could have +had some nice games in this big room on a wet day, and see, Dormy, here +are several pairs of roller skates! Oh, we must have this place +cleared." + +We spoke to father about it--he came and looked at the room and agreed +with us that it would be a pity not to have the full use of it. Roller +skating would be good exercise for Dormy, he said, and even for Nat, who +would be joining us before long for his holidays. + +So our big cases, and the chairs and tables we had bought from Hunter, +in their careful swathings of wisps and matting, were carried out to an +empty barn--a perfectly dry and weather-tight barn--for everything at +the Rectory was in excellent repair. In this, as in all other details, +our new quarters were a complete contrast to the picturesque abode we +had just quitted. + +The weather was charming for the first two or three weeks--much warmer +and sunnier than at Finster. We all enjoyed it, and seemed to breathe +more freely. Miss Larpent, who was staying through the holidays this +year, and I congratulated each other more than once, when sure of not +being overheard, on the cheerful, wholesome atmosphere in which we found +ourselves. + +"I do not think I shall ever wish to live in a very old house again," +she said one day. We were in the play-room, and I had been persuading +her to try her hand--or feet--at roller skating. "Even now," she went +on, "I own to you, Leila, though it may sound very weak-minded, I cannot +think of that horrible night without a shiver. Indeed, I could fancy I +feel that thrill of indescribable cold at the present moment." + +She _was_ shivering--and, extraordinary to relate, as she spoke, her +tremor communicated itself to me. Again, I could swear to it, again I +felt that blast of unutterable, unearthly cold. + +I started up. We were seated on a bench against the wall--a bench +belonging to the play-room, and which we had not thought of removing, as +a few seats were a convenience. + +Miss Larpent caught sight of my face. Her own, which was very white, +grew distressed in expression. She grasped my arm. + +"My dearest child," she exclaimed, "you look blue, and your teeth are +chattering! I do wish I had not alluded to that fright we had. I had no +idea you were so nervous." + +"I did not know it myself," I replied. "I often think of the Finster +ghost quite calmly, even in the middle of the night. But just then, Miss +Larpent, do you know, I really _felt_ that horrid cold again!" + +"So did I--or rather my imagination did," she replied, trying to talk in +a matter-of-fact way. She got up as she spoke, and went to the window. +"It can't be _all_ imagination," she added. "See, Leila, what a gusty, +stormy day it is--not like the beginning of August. It really is cold." + +"And this play-room seems nearly as draughty as the gallery at Finster," +I said. "Don't let us stay here--come into the drawing-room and play +some duets. I wish we could quite forget about Finster." + +"Dormy has done so, I hope," said Miss Larpent. + +That chilly morning was the commencement of the real break-up in the +weather. We women would not have minded it so much, as there are always +plenty of indoor things we can find to do. And my two grown-up brothers +were away. Raxtrew held no particular attractions for them, and Phil +wanted to see some of our numerous relations before he returned to +India. So he and Nugent started on a round of visits. But, unluckily, +it was the beginning of the public school holidays, and poor Nat--the +fifteen-year-old boy--had just joined us. It was very disappointing +for him in more ways than one. He had set his heart on seeing Finster, +impressed by our enthusiastic description of it when we first went +there, and now his anticipations had to come down to a comparatively +tame and uninteresting village, and every probability--so said the +wise--of a stretch of rainy, unsummerlike weather. + +Nat is a good-natured, cheery fellow, however--not nearly as clever or +as impressionable as Dormy, but with the same common sense. So he wisely +determined to make the best of things, and as we were really sorry for +him, he did not, after all, come off very badly. + +His principal amusement was roller-skating in the play-room. Dormy had +not taken to it in the same way--the greater part of _his_ time was +spent with the rabbits and guinea-pigs, where Nat, when he himself had +had skating enough, was pretty sure to find him. + +I suppose it is with being the eldest sister that it always seems my +fate to receive the confidences of the rest of the family, and it was +about this time, a fortnight or so after his arrival, that it began to +strike me that Nat looked as if he had something on his mind. + +"He is sure to tell me what it is, sooner or later," I said to myself. +"Probably he has left some small debts behind him at school--only he did +not look worried or anxious when he first came home." + +The confidence was given. One afternoon Nat followed me into the +library, where I was going to write some letters, and said he wanted to +speak to me. I put my paper aside and waited. + +"Leila," he began, "you must promise not to laugh at me." + +This was not what I expected. + +"Laugh at you--no, certainly not," I replied, "especially if you are in +any trouble. And I have thought you were looking worried, Nat." + +"Well, yes," he said, "I don't know if there is anything coming over +me--I feel quite well, but--Leila," he broke off, "do you believe in +ghosts?" + +I started. + +"Has any one----" I was beginning rashly, but the boy interrupted me. + +"No, no," he said eagerly, "no one has put anything of the kind into my +head--no one. It is my own senses that have seen--felt it--or else, if +it is fancy, I must be going out of my mind, Leila--I do believe there +is a ghost here _in the play-room_." + +I sat silent, an awful dread creeping over me, which, as he went on, +grew worse and worse. Had the thing--the Finster shadow--attached itself +to us--I had read of such cases--had it journeyed with us to this +peaceful, healthful house? The remembrance of the cold thrill +experienced by Miss Larpent and myself flashed back upon me. And Nat +went on. + +Yes, the cold was the first thing he had been startled by, followed, +just as in the gallery of our old castle, by the consciousness of the +terrible shadow-like presence, gradually taking form in the moonlight. +For there had been moonlight the last night or two, and Nat, in his +skating ardour, had amused himself alone in the play-room after Dormy +had gone to bed. + +"The night before last was the worst," he said. "It stopped raining, +you remember, Leila, and the moon was very bright--I noticed how it +glistened on the wet leaves outside. It was by the moonlight I saw +the--the shadow. I wouldn't have thought of skating in the evening but +for the light, for we've never had a lamp in there. It came round the +walls, Leila, and then it seemed to stop and fumble away in one +corner--at the end where there is a bench, you know." + +Indeed I did know; it was where our governess and I had been sitting. + +"I got so awfully frightened," said Nat honestly, "that I ran off. Then +yesterday I was ashamed of myself, and went back there in the evening +with a candle. But I saw nothing: the moon did not come out. Only--I +felt the cold again. I believe it was there--though I could not see it. +Leila, what _can_ it be? If only I could make you understand! It is so +_much_ worse than it sounds to tell." + +I said what I could to soothe him. I spoke of odd shadows thrown by the +trees outside swaying in the wind, for the weather was still stormy. I +repeated the time-worn argument about optical illusions, etc., etc., +and in the end he gave in a little. It _might_ have been his fancy. +And he promised me most faithfully to breathe no hint--not the very +faintest--of the fright he had had, to Sophy or Dormy, or any one. + +Then I had to tell my father. I really shrank from doing so, but there +seemed no alternative. At first, of course, he pooh-poohed it at once by +saying Dormy must have been talking to Nat about the Finster business, +or if not Dormy, _some one_--Miss Larpent even! But when all such +explanations were entirely set at nought, I must say poor father looked +rather blank. I was sorry for him, and sorry for myself--the idea of +being _followed_ by this horrible presence was too sickening. + +Father took refuge at last in some brain-wave theory--involuntary +impressions had been made on Nat by all of us, whose minds were still +full of the strange experience. He said he felt sure, and no doubt he +tried to think he did, that this theory explained the whole. I felt glad +for him to get any satisfaction out of it, and I did my best to take it +up too. But it was no use. I felt that Nat's experience had been an +"objective" one, as Miss Larpent expressed it--or, as Dormy had said at +the first at Finster: "No, no, sister--it's something _there_--it's +nothing to do with _me_." + +And earnestly I longed for the time to come for our return to our own +familiar home. + +"I don't think I shall ever wish to leave it again," I thought. + +But after a week or two the feeling began to fade again. And father very +sensibly discovered that it would not do to leave our spare furniture +and heavy luggage in the barn--it was getting all dusty and cobwebby. So +it was all moved back again to the play-room, and stacked as it had been +at first, making it impossible for us to skate or amuse ourselves in any +way there, at which Sophy grumbled, but Nat did not. + +Father was very good to Nat. He took him about with him as much as he +could to get the thought of that horrid thing out of his head. But yet +it could not have been half as bad for Nat as for the rest of us, for +we took the greatest possible precautions against any whisper of the +dreadful and mysterious truth reaching him, that the ghost had _followed +us_ from Finster. + +Father did not tell Mr. Miles or Jenny about it. They had been worried +enough, poor things, by the trouble at Finster, and it would be too bad +for them to think that the strange influence was affecting us in the +_second_ house we had taken at their recommendation. + +"In fact," said father with a rather rueful smile, "if we don't take +care, we shall begin to be looked upon askance as a haunted family! Our +lives would have been in danger in the good old witchcraft days." + +"It is really a mercy that none of the servants have got hold of the +story," said Miss Larpent, who was one of our council of three. "We must +just hope that no further annoyance will befall us till we are safe at +home again." + +Her hopes were fulfilled. Nothing else happened while we remained at the +Rectory--it really seemed as if the unhappy shade was limited locally, +in one sense. For at Finster, even, it had never been seen or felt save +in the one room. + +The vividness of the impression of poor Nat's experience had almost died +away when the time came for us to leave. I felt now that I should rather +enjoy telling Phil and Nugent about it, and hearing what _they_ could +bring forward in the way of explanation. + +We left Raxtrew early in October. Our two big brothers were awaiting us +at home, having arrived there a few days before us. Nugent was due at +Oxford very shortly. + +It was very nice to be in our own house again, after several months' +absence, and it was most interesting to see how the alterations, +including a good deal of new papering and painting, had been carried +out. And as soon as the heavy luggage arrived we had grand consultations +as to the disposal about the rooms of the charming pieces of furniture +we had picked up at Hunter's. Our rooms are large and nicely shaped, +most of them. It was not difficult to make a pretty corner here and +there with a quaint old chair or two and a delicate spindle-legged +table, and when we had arranged them all--Phil, Nugent, and I, were the +movers--we summoned mother and Miss Larpent to give their opinion. + +They quite approved, mother even saying that she would be glad of a few +more odds and ends. + +"We might empower Janet Miles," she said, "to let us know if she sees +anything very tempting. Is that really all we have? They looked so much +more important in their swathings." + +The same idea struck me. I glanced round. + +"Yes," I said, "that's all, except--oh, yes, there are the tapestry +"_portieres_"--the best of all. We can't have them in the drawing-room, +I fear. It is too modern for them. Where shall we hang them?" + +"You are forgetting, Leila," said mother. "We spoke of having them in +the hall. They will do beautifully to hang before the two side doors, +which are seldom opened. And in cold weather the hall is draughty, +though nothing like the gallery at Finster." + +Why did she say that? It made me shiver, but then, of course, she did +not know. + +Our hall is a very pleasant one. We sit there a great deal. The side +doors mother spoke of are second entrances to the dining-room and +library--quite unnecessary, except when we have a large party, a dance +or something of that sort. And the "_portieres_" certainly seemed the +very thing, the mellow colouring of the tapestry showing to great +advantage. The boys--Phil and Nugent, I mean--set to work at once, and +in an hour or two the hangings were placed. + +"Of course," said Philip, "if ever these doors are to be opened, this +precious tapestry must be taken down, or very carefully looped back. It +is very worn in some places, and in spite of the thick lining it should +be tenderly handled. I am afraid it has suffered a little from being so +long rolled up at the Rectory. It should have been hung up!" + +Still, it looked very well indeed, and when father, who was away at some +magistrates' meeting, came home that afternoon, I showed him our +arrangements with pride. + +He was very pleased. + +"Very nice--very nice indeed," he said, though it was almost too dusk +for him to judge quite fully of the effect of the tapestry. "But, dear +me, child, this hall is very cold. We must have a larger fire. Only +October! What sort of a winter are we going to have?" + +He shivered as he spoke. He was standing close to one of the +"_portieres_"--smoothing the tapestry half absently with one hand. I +looked at him with concern. + +"I _hope_ you have not got a chill, papa," I said. + +But he seemed all right again when we went into the library, where tea +was waiting--an extra late tea for his benefit. + +The next day Nugent went to Oxford. Nat had already returned to school. +So our home party was reduced to father and mother, Miss Larpent, Phil +and I, and the children. + +We were very glad to have Phil settled at home for some time. There was +little fear of his being tempted away, now that the shooting had begun. +We were expecting some of our usual guests at this season; the weather +was perfect autumn weather; we had thrown off all remembrance of +influenza and other depressing "influences," and were feeling bright +and cheerful, when again--ah, yes, even now it gives me a faint, sick +sensation to recall the horror of that _third_ visitation! + +But I must tell it simply, and not give way to painful remembrances. + +It was the very day before our first visitors were expected that the +blow fell, the awful fear made itself felt. And, as before, the victim +was a new one--the one who, for reasons already mentioned, we had +specially guarded from any breath of the gruesome terror--poor little +Sophy! + +What she was doing alone in the hall late that evening I cannot quite +recall--yes, I think I remember her saying she had run downstairs when +half-way up to bed, to fetch a book she had left there in the afternoon. +She had no light, and the one lamp in the hall--we never sat there after +dinner--was burning feebly. _It was bright moonlight._ + +I was sitting at the piano, where I had been playing in a rather sleepy +way--when a sudden touch on my shoulder made me start, and, looking up, +I saw my sister standing beside me, white and trembling. + +"Leila," she whispered, "come with me quickly. I don't want mamma to +notice." + +For mother was still nervous and delicate. + +The drawing-room is very long, and has two or three doors. No-one else +was at our end. It was easy to make our way out unperceived. Sophy +caught my hand and hurried me upstairs without speaking till we reached +my own room, where a bright fire was burning cheerfully. + +Then she began. + +"Leila," she said, "I have had such an awful fright. I did not want to +speak until we were safe up here." + +"What was it?" I exclaimed breathlessly. Did I already suspect the +truth? I really do not know, but my nerves were not what they had been. + +Sophy gasped and began to tremble. I put my arm round her. + +"It does not sound so bad," she said. "But--oh, Leila, what _could_ it +be? It was in the hall," and then I think she explained how she had come +to be there. "I was standing near the side door into the library that we +never use--and--all of a sudden a sort of darkness came along the wall, +and seemed to settle on the door--where the old tapestry is, you know. +I thought it was the shadow of something outside, for it was bright +moonlight, and the windows were not shuttered. But in a moment I saw it +could not be that--there is nothing to throw such a shadow. It seemed +to wriggle about--like--like a monstrous spider, or--" and there she +hesitated--"almost like a deformed sort of human being. And all at once, +Leila, my breath went and I fell down. I really did. I was _choked_ with +cold. I think my senses went away, but I am not sure. The next thing I +remember was rushing across the hall and then down the south corridor to +the drawing-room, and then I was so thankful to see you there by the +piano." + +I drew her down on my knee, poor child. + +"It was very good of you, dear," I said, "to control yourself, and not +startle mamma." + +This pleased her, but her terror was still uppermost. + +"Leila," she said piteously, "can't you explain it? I did so hope you +could." + +What _could_ I say? + +"I--one would need to go to the hall and look well about to see what +could cast such a shadow," I said vaguely, and I suppose I must +involuntarily have moved a little, for Sophy started, and clutched me +fast. + +"Oh, Leila, don't go--you don't mean you are going now?" she entreated. + +Nothing truly was farther from my thoughts, but I took care not to say +so. + +"I won't leave you if you'd rather not," I said, "and I tell you what, +Sophy, if you would like very much to sleep here with me to-night, you +shall. I will ring and tell Freake to bring your things down and undress +you--on one condition." + +"What?" she said eagerly. She was much impressed by my amiability. + +"That you won't say _one word_ about this, or give the least shadow of a +hint to any one that you have had a fright. You don't know the trouble +it will cause." + +"Of course I will promise to let no one know, if you think it better, +for you are so kind to me," said Sophy. But there was a touch of +reluctance in her tone. "You--you mean to do something about it though, +Leila," she went on. "I shall never be able to forget it if you don't." + +"Yes," I said, "I shall speak to father and Phil about it to-morrow. +If any one has been trying to frighten us," I added unguardedly, "by +playing tricks, they certainly must be exposed." + +"Not _us_," she corrected, "it was only me," and I did not reply. Why I +spoke of the possibility of a trick I scarcely know. I had no hope of +any such explanation. + +But another strange, almost incredible idea was beginning to take shape +in my mind, and with it came a faint, very faint touch of relief. Could +it be not the _houses_, nor the _rooms_, nor, worst of all, we ourselves +that were haunted, but something or things among the old furniture we +had bought at Raxtrew? + +And lying sleepless that night a sudden flash of illumination struck +me--could it--whatever the "it" was--could it have something to do with +the tapestry hangings? + +The more I thought it over the more striking grew the coincidences. At +Finster it had been on one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed +to settle, as again here in our own hall. But in both cases the +"_portieres_" had hung in front! + +And at the Rectory? The tapestry, as Philip had remarked, had been there +rolled up all the time. Was it possible that it had never been taken out +to the barn at all? What _more_ probable than that it should have been +left, forgotten, under the bench where Miss Larpent and I had felt +for the second time that hideous cold? And, stay, something else was +returning to my mind in connection with that bench. Yes--I had it--Nat +had said "it seemed to stop and fumble away in one corner--at the end +where there is a bench, you know." + +And then to my unutterable thankfulness at last I fell asleep. + + +PART IV. + +I told Philip the next morning. There was no need to bespeak his +attention. I think he felt nearly as horrified as I had done myself at +the idea that our own hitherto bright, cheerful home was to be haunted +by this awful thing--influence or presence, call it what you will. And +the suggestions which I went on to make struck him, too, with a sense of +relief. + +He sat in silence for some time after making me recapitulate as +precisely as possible every detail of Sophy's story. + +"You are sure it was the door into the library?" he said at last. + +"Quite sure," I replied; "and, oh, Philip," I went on, "it has just +occurred to me that _father_ felt a chill there the other evening." + +For till that moment the little incident in question had escaped my +memory. + +"Do you remember which of the "_portieres_" hung in front of the door at +Finster?" said Philip. + +I shook my head. + +"Dormy would," I said, "he used to examine the pictures in the tapestry +with great interest. I should not know one from the other. There is an +old castle in the distance in each, and a lot of trees, and something +meant for a lake." + +But in his turn Philip shook his head. + +"No," he said, "I won't speak to Dormy about it if I can possibly help +it. Leave it to me, Leila, and try to put it out of your own mind as +much as you possibly can, and don't be surprised at anything you may +notice in the next few days. I will tell you, first of any one, whenever +I have anything to tell." + +That was all I could get out of him. So I took his advice. + +Luckily, as it turned out, Mr. Miles, the only outsider, so to say +(except the unfortunate keeper), who had witnessed the ghostly drama, +was one of the shooting party expected that day. And him Philip at +once determined to consult about this new and utterly unexpected +manifestation. + +He did not tell me this. Indeed, it was not till fully a week later that +I heard anything, and then in a letter--a very long letter from my +brother, which, I think, will relate the sequel of our strange ghost +story better than any narration at second-hand, of my own. + +Mr. Miles only stayed two nights with us. The very day after he +came he announced that, to his great regret, he was obliged--most +unexpectedly--to return to Raxtrew on important business. + +"And," he continued, "I am afraid you will all feel much more vexed with +me when I tell you I am going to carry off Phil with me." + +Father looked very blank indeed. + +"Phil!" he exclaimed, "and how about our shooting?" + +"You can easily replace us," said my brother, "I have thought of that," +and he added something in a lower tone to father. He--Phil--was leaving +the room at the time. _I_ thought it had reference to the real reason of +his accompanying Mr. Miles, but I was mistaken. Father, however, said +nothing more in opposition to the plan, and the next morning the two +went off. + +We happened to be standing at the hall door--several of us--for we were +a large party now--when Phil and his friend drove away. As we turned to +re-enter the house, I felt some one touch me. It was Sophy. She was +going out for a constitutional with Miss Larpent, but had stopped a +moment to speak to me. + +"Leila," she said in a whisper, "why have they--did you know that the +tapestry had been taken down?" + +She glanced at me with a peculiar expression. I had not observed it. +Now, looking up, I saw that the two locked doors were visible in the +dark polish of their old mahogany as of yore--no longer shrouded by the +ancient _portieres_. I started in surprise. + +"No," I whispered in return, "I did not know. Never mind, Sophy. I +suspect there is a reason for it which we shall know in good time." + +I felt strongly tempted--the moon being still at the full--to visit the +hall that night--in hopes of feeling and seeing--_nothing_. But when +the time drew near, my courage failed; besides I had tacitly promised +Philip to think as little as I possibly could about the matter, and any +vigil of the kind would certainly not have been acting in accordance +with the spirit of his advice. + +I think I will now copy, as it stands, the letter from Philip which I +received a week or so later. It was dated from his club in London. + + + "MY DEAR LEILA, + + "I have a long story to tell you and a very extraordinary one. I + think it is well that it should be put into writing, so I will + devote this evening to the task--especially as I shall not be + home for ten days or so. + + "You may have suspected that I took Miles into my confidence as + soon as he arrived. If you did you were right. He was the best + person to speak to for several reasons. He looked, I must say, + rather--well 'blank' scarcely expresses it--when I told him of + the ghost's re-appearance, not only at the Rectory, but in our + own house, and on both occasions to persons--Nat, and then + Sophy--who had not heard a breath of the story. But when I went + on to propound your suggestion, Miles cheered up. He had been, + I fancy, a trifle touchy about our calling Finster haunted, + and it was evidently a satisfaction to him to start another + theory. We talked it well over, and we decided to test the + thing again--it took some resolution, I own, to do so. We sat + up that night--bright moonlight luckily--and--well, I needn't + repeat it all. Sophy was quite correct. It came again--the + horrid creeping shadow--poor wretch, I'm rather sorry for it + now--just in the old way--quite as much at home in ----shire, + apparently, as in the Castle. It stopped at the closed library + door, and fumbled away, then started off again--ugh! We watched + it closely, but kept well in the middle of the room, so that + the cold did not strike us so badly. We both noted the special + part of the tapestry where its hands seemed to sprawl, and we + meant to stay for another round; but--when it came to the point + we funked it, and went to bed. + + "Next morning, on pretence of examining the date of + the tapestry, we had it down--you were all out--and we + found--_something_. Just where the hands felt about, there had + been a cut--three cuts, three sides of a square, as it were, + making a sort of door in the stuff, the fourth side having + evidently acted as a hinge, for there was a mark where it had + been folded back. And just where--treating the thing as a + door--you might expect to find a handle to open it by, we found + a distinct dint in the tapestry, as if a button or knob had + once been there. We looked at each other. The same idea had + struck us. The tapestry had been used to conceal a small door + in the wall--the door of a secret cupboard probably. The + ghostly fingers had been vainly seeking for the spring which in + the days of their flesh and bone they had been accustomed to + press. + + "'The first thing to do,' said Miles, 'is to look up Hunter and + make him tell where he got the tapestry from. Then we shall + see.' + + "'Shall we take the _portieres_ with us?' I said. + + "But Miles shuddered, though he half laughed too. + + "'No, thank you,' he said. 'I'm not going to travel with the + evil thing.' + + "'We can't hang it up again, though,' I said, 'after this last + experience.' + + "In the end we rolled up the two _portieres_, not to attract + attention by only moving one, and--well, I thought it just + possible the ghost might make a mistake, and I did not want + any more scares while I was away--we rolled them up together, + first carefully measuring the cut, and its position in the + curtain, and then we hid them away in one of the lofts that no + one ever enters, where they are at this moment, and where the + ghost may have been disporting himself, for all I know, though + I fancy he has given it up by this time, for reasons you shall + hear. + + "Then Miles and I, as you know, set off for Raxtrew. I smoothed + my father down about it, by reminding him how good-natured they + had been to us, and telling him Miles really needed me. We went + straight to Hunter. He hummed and hawed a good deal--he had + not distinctly promised not to give the name of the place the + tapestry had come from, but he knew the gentleman he had bought + it from did not want it known. + + "'Why?' said Miles. 'Is it some family that has come down in + the world, and is forced to part with things to get some ready + money?' + + "'Oh, dear no!' said Hunter. 'It is not that, at all. It + was only that--I suppose I must give you the name--Captain + Devereux--did not want any gossip to get about, as to ----' + + "'Devereux!' repeated Miles, 'you don't mean the people at + Hallinger?' + + "'The same,' said Hunter. 'If you know them, sir, you will be + careful, I hope, to assure the captain that I did my best to + carry out his wishes?' + + "'Certainly,' said Miles, 'I'll exonerate you.' + + "And then Hunter told us that Devereux, who only came into the + Hallinger property a few years ago, had been much annoyed by + stories getting about of the place being haunted, and this had + led to his dismantling one wing, and--Hunter thought, but was + not quite clear as to this--pulling down some rooms altogether. + But he, Devereux, was very touchy on the subject--he did not + want to be laughed at. + + "'And the tapestry came from him--you are certain as to that?' + Miles repeated. + + "'Positive, sir. I took it down with my own hands. It was + fitted on to two panels in what they call the round room at + Hallinger--there were, oh, I daresay, a dozen of them, with + tapestry nailed on, but I only bought these two pieces--the + others were sold to a London dealer.' + + "'The round room,' I said. Leila, the expression struck me. + + "Miles, it appeared, knew Devereux fairly well. Hallinger is + only ten miles off. We drove over there, but found he was in + London. So our next move was to follow him there. We called + twice at his club, and then Miles made an appointment, saying + that he wanted to see him on private business. + + "He received us civilly, of course. He is quite a young + fellow--in the Guards. But when Miles began to explain to him + what we had come about, he stiffened. + + "'I suppose you belong to the Psychical Society?' he said. 'I + can only repeat that I have nothing to tell, and I detest the + whole subject.' + + "'Wait a moment,' said Miles, and as he went on I saw that + Devereux changed. His face grew intent with interest and a + queer sort of eagerness, and at last he started to his feet. + + "'Upon my soul,' he said, 'I believe you've run him to earth + for me--the ghost, I mean, and if so, you shall have my endless + gratitude. I'll go down to Hallinger with you at once--this + afternoon, if you like, and see it out.' + + "He was so excited that he spoke almost incoherently, but after + a bit he calmed down, and told us all he had to tell--and that + was a good deal--which would indeed have been nuts for the + Psychical Society. What Hunter had said was but a small part of + the whole. It appeared that on succeeding to Hallinger, on the + death of an uncle, young Devereux had made considerable changes + in the house. He had, among others, opened out a small wing--a + sort of round tower--which had been completely dismantled and + bricked up for, I think he said, over a hundred years. There + was some story about it. An ancestor of his--an awful + gambler--had used the principal room in this wing for his + orgies. Very queer things went on there, the finish up being + the finding of old Devereux dead there one night, when his + servants were summoned by the man he had been playing + with--with whom he had had an awful quarrel. This man, a low + fellow, probably a professional cardsharper, vowed that he had + been robbed of a jewel which his host had staked, and it was + said that a ring of great value had disappeared. But it was + all hushed up--Devereux had really died in a fit--though soon + after, for reasons only hinted at, the round tower was shut + up, till the present man rashly opened it again. + + "Almost at once, he said, the annoyances, to use a mild term, + began. First one, then another of the household were terrified + out of their wits, just as we were, Leila. Devereux himself had + seen it two or three times, the 'it,' of course, being his + miserable old ancestor. A small man, with a big wig, and long, + thin, claw-like fingers. It all corresponded. Mrs. Devereux is + young and nervous. She could not stand it. So in the end the + round tower was shut up again, all the furniture and hangings + sold, and locally speaking, the ghost laid. That was all + Devereux knew. + + "We started, the three of us, that very afternoon, as excited + as a party of schoolboys. Miles and I kept questioning + Devereux, but he had really no more to tell. He had never + thought of examining the walls of the haunted room--it was + wainscotted, he said--and might be lined all through with + secret cupboards, for all he knew. But he could not get + over the extraordinariness of the ghost's sticking to the + _tapestry_--and indeed it does rather lower one's idea of + ghostly intelligence. + + "We went at it at once--the tower was not _bricked_ up again, + luckily--we got in without difficulty the next morning--Devereux + making some excuse to the servants, a new set who had not heard + of the ghost, for our eccentric proceedings. It was a tiresome + business. There were so many panels in the room, as Hunter had + said, and it was impossible to tell in which _the_ tapestry had + been fixed. But we had our measures, and we carefully marked a + line as near as we could guess at the height from the floor that + the cut in the _portieres_ must have been. Then we tapped and + pummelled and pressed imaginary springs till we were nearly sick + of it--there was nothing to guide us. The wainscotting was dark + and much shrunk and marked with age, and full of joins in the + wood any one of which might have meant a door. + + "It was Devereux himself who found it at last. We heard an + exclamation from where he was standing by himself at the other + side of the room. He was quite white and shaky. + + "'Look here,' he said, and we looked. + + "Yes--there was a small deep recess, or cupboard in the + thickness of the wall, excellently contrived. Devereux had + touched the spring at last, and the door, just matching the + cut in the tapestry, flew open. + + "Inside lay what at first we took for a packet of letters, and + I hoped to myself they contained nothing that would bring + trouble on poor Devereux. They were not letters, however, but + two or three incomplete packs of cards--grey and dust-thick + with age--and as Miles spread them out, certain markings on + them told their own tale. Devereux did not like it, + naturally--their supposed owner had been a member of his house. + + "'The ghost has kept a conscience,' he said, with an attempt at + a laugh. 'Is there nothing more?' + + "Yes--a small leather bag--black and grimy, though originally, + I fancy, of chamois skin. It drew with strings. Devereux pulled + it open, and felt inside. + + "'By George!' he exclaimed. And he held out the most + magnificent diamond ring I have ever seen--sparkling away as if + it had only just come from the polisher's. 'This must be _the_ + ring,' he said. + + "And we all stared--too astonished to speak. + + "Devereux closed the cupboard again, after carefully examining + it to make sure nothing had been left behind. He marked the + exact spot where he had pressed the spring so as to find it at + any time. Then we all left the round room, locking the door + securely after us. + + "Miles and I spent that night at Hallinger. We sat up late + talking it all over. There are some queer inconsistencies about + the thing which will probably never be explained. First and + foremost--why has the ghost stuck to the tapestry instead of to + the actual spot he seemed to have wished to reveal? Secondly, + what was the connection between his visits and the full + moon--or is it that only by the moonlight the shade becomes + perceptible to human sense? Who can say? + + "As to the story itself--what was old Devereux's motive in + concealing his own ring? Were the marked cards his, or his + opponent's, of which he had managed to possess himself, and had + secreted as testimony against the other fellow? + + "I incline, and so does Miles, to this last theory, and when we + suggested it to Devereux, I could see it was a relief to him. + After all, one likes to think one's ancestors were gentlemen! + + "'But what, then, has he been worrying about all this century + or more?' he said. 'If it were that he wanted the ring returned + to its real owner--supposing the fellow _had_ won it--I could + understand it, though such a thing would be impossible. There + is no record of the man at all--his name was never mentioned in + the story.' + + "'He may want the ring restored to its proper owner all the + same,' said Miles. 'You are its owner, as the head of the + family, and it has been your ancestor's fault that it has been + hidden all these years. Besides, we cannot take upon ourselves + to explain motives in such a case. Perhaps--who knows?--the + poor shade could not help himself. His peregrinations may have + been of the nature of punishment.' + + "'I hope they are over now,' said Devereux, 'for his sake and + everybody else's. I should be glad to think he wanted the ring + restored to us, but besides that, I should like to do + something--something _good_ you know--if it would make him + easier, poor old chap. I must consult Lilias.' Lilias is Mrs. + Devereux. + + "This is all I have to tell you at present, Leila. When I come + home we'll have the _portieres_ up again and see what happens. + I want you now to read all this to my father, and if he has no + objection--he and my mother, of course--I should like to invite + Captain and Mrs. Devereux to stay a few days with us--as well + as Miles, as soon as I come back." + +Philip's wish was acceded to. It was with no little anxiety and interest +that we awaited his return. + +The tapestry _portieres_ were restored to their place--and on the first +moonlight night, my father, Philip, Captain Devereux and Mr. Miles held +their vigil. + +What happened? + +_Nothing_--the peaceful rays lighted up the quaint landscape of +the tapestry, undisturbed by the poor groping fingers--no gruesome +unearthly chill as of worse than death made itself felt to the midnight +watchers--the weary, may we not hope repentant, spirit was at rest at +last! + +And never since has any one been troubled by the shadow in the +moonlight. + +"I cannot help hoping," said Mrs. Devereux, when talking it over, "that +what Michael has done may have helped to calm the poor ghost." + +And she told us what it was. Captain Devereux is rich, though not +immensely so. He had the ring valued--it represented a very large sum, +but Philip says I had better not name the figures--and then he, so to +say, bought it from himself. And with this money he--no, again, Phil +says I must not enter into particulars beyond saying that with it he did +something very good, and very useful, which had long been a pet scheme +of his wife's. + +Sophy is grown up now and she knows the whole story. So does our mother. +And Dormy too has heard it all. The horror of it has quite gone. We feel +rather proud of having been the actual witnesses of a ghostly drama. + + + + +"THE MAN WITH THE COUGH." + + +I am a German by birth and descent. My name is Schmidt. But by education +I am quite as much an Englishman as a "Deutscher," and by affection much +more the former. My life has been spent pretty equally between the two +countries, and I flatter myself I speak both languages without any +foreign accent. + +I count England my headquarters now: it is "home" to me. But a few years +ago I was resident in Germany, only going over to London now and then on +business. I will not mention the town where I lived. It is unnecessary +to do so, and in the peculiar experience I am about to relate I think +real names of people and places are just as well, or better, avoided. + +I was connected with a large and important firm of engineers. I had been +bred up to the profession, and was credited with a certain amount of +talent; and I was considered--and, with all modesty, I think I deserved +the opinion--steady and reliable, so that I had already attained a fair +position in the house, and was looked upon as a "rising man". But I was +still young, and not quite so wise as I thought myself. I came very near +once to making a great mess of a certain affair. It is this story which +I am going to tell. + +Our house went in largely for patents--rather too largely, some thought. +But the head partner's son was a bit of a genius in his way, and his +father was growing old, and let Herr Wilhelm--Moritz we will call the +family name--do pretty much as he chose. And on the whole Herr Wilhelm +did well. He was cautious, and he had the benefit of the still greater +caution and larger experience of Herr Gerhardt, the second partner in +the firm. + +Patents and the laws which regulate them are queer things to have to do +with. No one who has not had personal experience of the complications +that arise could believe how far these spread and how entangled they +become. Great acuteness as well as caution is called for if you would +guide your patent bark safely to port--and perhaps more than anything, +a power of holding your tongue. I was no chatterbox, nor, when on a +mission of importance, did I go about looking as if I were bursting +with secrets, which is, in my opinion, almost as dangerous as revealing +them. No one, to meet me on the journeys which it often fell to my lot +to undertake, would have guessed that I had anything on my mind but an +easy-going young fellow's natural interest in his surroundings, though +many a time I have stayed awake through a whole night of railway travel +if at all doubtful about my fellow-passengers, or not dared to go to +sleep in a hotel without a ready-loaded revolver by my pillow. + +For now and then--though not through me--our secrets did ooze out. And +if, as _has_ happened, they were secrets connected with Government +orders or contracts, there was, or but for the exertion of the greatest +energy and tact on the part of my superiors, there _would_ have been, to +put it plainly, the devil to pay. + +One morning--it was nearing the end of November--I was sent for to Herr +Wilhelm's private room. There I found him and Herr Gerhardt before a +table spread with papers covered with figures and calculations, and +sheets of beautifully executed diagrams. + +"Lutz," said Herr Wilhelm. He had known me from childhood, and often +called me by the abbreviation of my Christian name, which is Ludwig, +or Louis. "Lutz, we are going to confide to you a matter of extreme +importance. You must be prepared to start for London to-morrow." + +"All right, sir," I said, "I shall be ready." + +"You will take the express through to Calais--on the whole it is the +best route, especially at this season. By travelling all night you will +catch the boat there, and arrive in London so as to have a good night's +rest, and be clear-headed for work the next morning." + +I bowed agreement, but ventured to make a suggestion. + +"If, as I infer, the matter is one of great importance," I said, "would +it not be well for me to start sooner? I can--yes," throwing a rapid +survey over the work I had before me for the next two days--"I can be +ready to-night." + +Herr Wilhelm looked at Herr Gerhardt. Herr Gerhardt shook his head. + +"No," he replied; "to-morrow it must be," and then he proceeded to +explain to me why. + +I need not attempt to give all the details of the matter with which I +was entrusted. Indeed, to "lay" readers it would be impossible. Suffice +it to say, the whole concerned a patent--that of a very remarkable and +wonderful invention, which it was hoped and believed the Governments +of both countries would take up. But to secure this being done in a +thoroughly satisfactory manner it was necessary that our firm should go +about it in concert with an English house of first-rate standing. To +this house--the firm of Messrs. Bluestone and Fagg I will call them--I +was to be sent with full explanations. And the next half-hour or more +passed in my superiors going minutely into the details, so as to satisfy +themselves that I understood. The mastering of the whole was not +difficult, for I was well grounded technically; and like many of the +best things the idea was essentially simple, and the diagrams were +perfect. When the explanations were over, and my instructions duly +noted, I began to gather together the various sheets, which were all +numbered. But, to my surprise, Herr Gerhardt, looking over me, withdrew +two of the most important diagrams, without which the others were +valueless, because inexplicable. + +"Stay," he said; "these two, Ludwig, must be kept separate. These we +send to-day, by registered post, direct to Bluestone and Fagg. They +will receive them a day before they see you, and with them a letter +announcing your arrival." + +I looked up in some disappointment. I had known of precautions of the +kind being taken, but usually when the employe sent was less reliable +than I believed myself to be. Still, I scarcely dared to demur. + +"Do you think that necessary?" I said respectfully. "I can assure you +that from the moment you entrust me with the papers they shall never +quit me day or night. And if there were any postal delay--you say time +is valuable in this case--or if the papers were stolen in the +transit--such things have happened--my whole mission would be +worthless." + +"We do not doubt your zeal and discretion, my good Schmidt," said Herr +Gerhardt. "But in this case we must take even extra precautions. I +had not meant to tell you, fearing to add to the certain amount of +nervousness and strain unavoidable in such a case, but still, perhaps +it is best that you should know that we _have_ reason for some special +anxiety. It has been hinted to us that some breath of this"--and he +tapped the papers--"has reached those who are always on the watch for +such things. We cannot be too careful." + +"And yet," I persisted, "you would trust the post?" + +"We do not trust the post," he replied. "Even if these diagrams were +tampered with, they would be perfectly useless. And tampered with they +will not be. But even supposing anything so wild, the rogues in question +knowing of your departure (and they are _more_ likely to know of it than +of our packet by post), were they in collusion with some traitor in the +post-office, are sharp enough to guess the truth--that we have made a +Masonic secret of it--the two separate diagrams are valueless without +your papers; _your_ papers reveal nothing without Nos. 7 and 13." + +I bowed in submission. But I was, all the same, disappointed, as I said, +and a trifle mortified. + +Herr Wilhelm saw it, and cheered me up. + +"All right, Lutz, my boy," he said. "I feel just like you--nothing I +should enjoy more than a rush over to London, carrying the whole +documents, and prepared for a fight with any one who tried to get hold +of them. But Herr Gerhardt here is cooler-blooded than we are." + +The elder man smiled. + +"I don't doubt your readiness to fight, nor Ludwig's either. But it +would be by no such honestly brutal means as open robbery that we should +be outwitted. Make friends readily with no one while travelling, Lutz, +yet avoid the appearance of keeping yourself aloof. You understand?" + +"Perfectly," I said. "I shall sleep well to-night, so as to be prepared +to keep awake throughout the journey." + +The papers were then carefully packed up. Those consigned to my care +were to be carried in a certain light, black handbag with a very good +lock, which had often before been my travelling companion. + +And the following evening I started by the express train agreed upon. +So, at least, I have always believed, but I have never been able to +bring forward a witness to the fact of my train at the start being the +right one, as no one came with me to see me off. For it was thought best +that I should depart in as unobtrusive a manner as possible, as, even in +a large town such as ours, the members and employes of an old and +important house like the Moritzes' were well known. + +I took my ticket then, registering no luggage, as I had none but what I +easily carried in my hand, as well as _the_ bag. It was already dusk, if +not dark, and there was not much bustle in the station, nor apparently +many passengers. I took my place in an empty second-class compartment, +and sat there quietly till the train should start. A few minutes before +it did so, another man got in. I was somewhat annoyed at this, as in my +circumstances nothing was more undesirable than travelling alone with +one other. Had there been a crowded compartment, or one with three or +four passengers, I would have chosen it; but at the moment I got in, the +carriages were all either empty or with but one or two occupants. Now, I +said to myself, I should have done better to wait till nearer the time +of departure, and then chosen my place. + +I turned to reconnoitre my companion, but I could not see his face +clearly, as he was half leaning out of the window. Was he doing so on +purpose? I said to myself, for naturally I was in a suspicious mood. And +as the thought struck me I half started up, determined to choose another +compartment. Suddenly a peculiar sound made itself heard. My companion +was coughing. He drew his head in, covering his face with his hand, as +he coughed again. You never heard such a curious cough. It was more like +a hen clucking than anything I can think of. Once, twice he coughed; +then, as if he had been waiting for the slight spasm to pass, he sprang +up, looked eagerly out of the window again, and, opening the door, +jumped out, with some exclamation, as if he had just caught sight of a +friend. + +And in another moment or two--he could barely have had time to get in +elsewhere--much to my satisfaction, the train moved off. + +"Now," thought I, "I can make myself comfortable for some hours. We do +not stop till M----: it will be nine o'clock by then. If no one gets in +there I am safe to go through till to-morrow alone; then there will only +be ---- Junction, and a clear run to Calais." + +I unstrapped my rug and lit a cigar--of course I had chosen a +smoking-carriage--and, delighted at having got rid of my clucking +companion, the time passed pleasantly till we pulled up at M----. The +delay there was not great, and to my enormous satisfaction no one +molested my solitude. Evidently the express to Calais was not in very +great demand that night. I now felt so secure that, notwithstanding my +intention of keeping awake all night, my innermost consciousness had not +I suppose quite resigned itself to the necessity, for, not more than a +hour or so after leaving M----, possibly sooner, I fell fast asleep. + +It seemed to me that I had slept heavily, for when I awoke I had great +difficulty in remembering where I was. Only by slow degrees did I +realise that I was not in my comfortable bed at home, but in a chilly, +ill-lighted railway-carriage. Chilly--yes, that it was--very chilly; but +as my faculties returned I remembered my precious bag, and forgot all +else in a momentary terror that it had been taken from me. No; there it +was--my elbow had been pressed against it as I slept. But how was this? +The train was not in motion. We were standing in a station; a dingy +deserted-looking place, with no cheerful noise or bustle; only one or +two porters slowly moving about, with a sort of sleepy "night duty," +surly air. It could not be the Junction? I looked at my watch. Barely +midnight! Of course, not the Junction. We were not due there till four +o'clock in the morning or so. + +What, then, were we doing here, and what _was_ "here"? Had there been +an accident--some unforeseen necessity for stopping? At that moment a +curious sound, from some yards' distance only it seemed to come, caught +my ear. It was that croaking, cackling cough!--the cough of my momentary +fellow-passenger, towards whom I had felt an instinctive aversion. I +looked out of the window--there was a refreshment-room just opposite, +dimly lighted, like everything else, and in the doorway, as if just +entering, was a figure which I felt pretty sure was that of the man with +the cough. + +"Bah!" I said to myself, "I must not be fanciful. I daresay the fellow's +all right. He is evidently in the same hole as myself. What in Heaven's +name are we waiting here for?" + +I sprang out of the carriage, nearly tumbling over a porter slowly +passing along. + +"How long are we to stay here?" I cried. "When do we start again for +----?" and I named the Junction. + +"For ----" he repeated in the queerest German I ever heard--was it +German? or did I discover his meaning by some preternatural cleverness +of my own? "There is no train for ---- for four or five hours, not +till----" and he named the time; and leaning forward lazily, he took +out my larger bag and my rug, depositing them on the platform. He did +not seem the least surprised at finding me there--I might have been +there for a week, it seemed to me. + +"No train for five hours? Are you mad?" I said. + +He shook his head and mumbled something, and it seemed to me that he +pointed to the refreshment-room opposite. Gathering my things together I +hurried thither, hoping to find some more reliable authority. But there +was no one there except a fat man with a white apron, who was clearing +the counter--and--yes, in one corner was the figure I had mentally +dubbed "The man with the cough". + +I addressed the cook or waiter--whichever he was. But he only shook his +head--denied all knowledge of the trains, but informed me that--in other +words--I must turn out; he was going to shut up. + +"And where am I to spend the night, then?" I said angrily, though +clearly it was not the aproned individual who was responsible for the +position in which I found myself. + +There was a "Restauration," he informed me, near at hand, which I +should find still open, straight before me on leaving the station, and +then a few doors to the right, I would see the lights. + +Clearly there was nothing else to be done. I went out, and as I did so +the silent figure in the corner rose also and followed me. The station +was evidently going to bed. As I passed the porter I repeated the hour +he had named, adding: "That is the first train for ---- Junction?" + +He nodded, again naming the exact time. But I cannot do so, as I have +never been able to recollect it. + +I trudged along the road--there were lamps, though very feeble ones; but +by their light I saw that the man who had been in the refreshment-room +was still a few steps behind me. It made me feel slightly nervous, and I +looked round furtively once or twice; the last time I did so he was not +to be seen, and I hoped he had gone some other way. + +The "Restauration" was scarcely more inviting than the station +refreshment-room. It, too, was very dimly lighted, and the one or two +attendants seemed half asleep and were strangely silent. There was a +fire, of a kind, and I seated myself at a small table near it and asked +for some coffee, which would, I thought, serve the double purpose of +warming me and keeping me awake. + +It was brought me, in silence. I drank it, and felt the better for it. +But there was something so gloomy and unsociable, so queer and almost +weird about the whole aspect and feeling of the place, that a sort of +irritable resignation took possession of me. If these surly folk won't +speak, neither will I, I said to myself childishly. And, incredible as +it may sound, I did _not_ speak. I think I paid for the coffee, but I am +not quite sure. I know I never asked what I had meant to ask--the name +of the town--a place of some importance, to judge by the size of the +station and the extent of twinkling lights I had observed as I made my +way to the "Restauration". From that day to this I have never been able +to identify it, and I am quite sure I never shall. + +What was there peculiar about that coffee? Or was it something peculiar +about my own condition that caused it to have the unusual effect I now +experienced? That question, too, I cannot answer. All I remember is +feeling a sensation of irresistible drowsiness creeping over me--mental, +or moral I may say, as well as physical. For when one part of me feebly +resisted the first onslaught of sleep, something seemed to reply: "Oh, +nonsense! you have several hours before you. Your papers are all right. +No one can touch them without awaking you." + +And dreamily conscious that my belongings were on the floor at my +feet--_the_ bag itself actually resting against my ankle--my scruples +silenced themselves in an extraordinary way. I remember nothing more, +save a vague consciousness through all my slumber of confused and +chaotic dreams, which I have never been able to recall. + +I awoke at last, and that with a start, almost a jerk. Something had +awakened me--a sound--and as it was repeated to my now aroused ears I +knew that I had heard it before, off and on, during my sleep. It was the +extraordinary cough! + +I looked up. Yes, there he was! At some two or three yards' distance +only, at the other side of the fireplace, which, and this I have +forgotten to mention as another peculiar item in that night's peculiar +experiences, considering I have every reason to believe I was still in +Germany, was not a stove, but an open grate. + +And he had not been there when I first fell asleep; to that I was +prepared to swear. + +"He must have come sneaking in after me," I thought, and in all +probability I should neither have noticed nor recognised him but for +that traitorous cackle of his. + +Now, my misgivings aroused, my first thought, of course, was for my +precious charge. I stooped. There were my rugs, my larger bag, but--no, +not the smaller one; and though the other two were there, I knew at +once that they were not quite in the same position--not so close to me. +Horror seized me. Half wildly I gazed around, when my silent neighbour +bent towards me. I could declare there was nothing in his hand when he +did so, and I could declare as positively that I had already looked +under the small round table beside which I sat, and that the bag was not +there. And yet when the man, with a slight cackle, caused, no doubt, by +his stooping, raised himself, the thing was in his hand! + +Was he a conjurer, a pupil of Maskelyne and Cook? And how was it that, +even as he held out my missing property, he managed, and that most +cleverly and unobtrusively, to prevent my catching sight of his face? I +did not see it then--I never did see it! + +Something he murmured, to the effect that he supposed the bag was what I +was looking for. In what language he spoke I know not; it was more that +by the action accompanying the mumbled sounds I gathered his meaning, +than that I heard anything articulate. + +I thanked him, of course, mechanically, so to say, though I began to +feel as if he were an evil spirit haunting me. I could only hope that +the splendid lock to the bag had defied all curiosity, but I felt in a +fever to be alone again, and able to satisfy myself that nothing had +been tampered with. + +The thought recalled my wandering faculties. How long had I been asleep? +I drew out my watch. Heavens! It was close upon the hour named for the +first train in the morning. I sprang up, collected my things, and dashed +out of the "Restauration". If I had not paid for my coffee before, I +certainly did not pay for it then. Besides my haste, there was another +reason for this--there was no one to pay to! Not a creature was to be +seen in the room or at the door as I passed out--always excepting the +man with the cough. + +As I left the place and hurried along the road, a bell began, not to +ring, but to toll. It sounded most uncanny. What it meant, of course, I +have never known. It may have been a summons to the workpeople of some +manufactory, it may have been like all the other experiences of that +strange night. But no; this theory I will not at present enter upon. + +Dawn was not yet breaking, but there was in one direction a faint +suggestion of something of the kind not far off. Otherwise all was dark. +I stumbled along as best as I could, helped in reality, I suppose, by +the ugly yellow glimmer of the woebegone street, or road lamps. And it +was not far to the station, though somehow it seemed farther than when I +came; and somehow, too, it seemed to have grown steep, though I could +not remember having noticed any slope the other way on my arrival. A +nightmare-like sensation began to oppress me. I felt as if my luggage +was growing momentarily heavier and heavier, as if I should _never_ +reach the station; and to this was joined the agonising terror of +missing the train. + +I made a desperate effort. Cold as it was, the beads of perspiration +stood out upon my forehead as I forced myself along. And by degrees the +nightmare feeling cleared off. I found myself entering the station at a +run just as--yes, a train was actually beginning to move! I dashed, +baggage and all, into a compartment; it was empty, and it was a +second-class one, precisely similar to the one I had occupied before; it +might have been the very same one. The train gradually increased its +speed, but for the first few moments, while still in the station and +passing through its immediate _entourage_, another strange thing struck +me--the extraordinary silence and lifelessness of all about. Not one +human being did I see, no porter watching our departure with the +faithful though stolid interest always to be seen on the porter's +visage. I might have been alone in the train--it might have had a +freight of the dead, and been itself propelled by some supernatural +agency, so noiselessly, so gloomily did it proceed. + +You will scarcely credit that I actually and for the third time fell +asleep. I could not help it. Some occult influence was at work upon me +throughout those dark hours, I am positively certain. And with the +daylight it was dispelled. For when I again awoke I felt for the first +time since leaving home completely and normally myself, fresh and +vigorous, all my faculties at their best. + +But, nevertheless, my first sensation was a start of amazement, almost +of terror. The compartment was nearly full! There were at least five or +six travellers besides myself, very respectable, ordinary-looking folk, +with nothing in the least alarming about them. Yet it was with a gasp of +extraordinary relief that I found my precious bag in the corner beside +me, where I had carefully placed it. It was concealed from view. No one, +I felt assured, could have touched it without awaking me. + +It was broad and bright daylight. How long had I slept? + +"Can you tell me," I inquired of my opposite neighbour, a cheery-faced +compatriot--"Can you tell me how soon we get to ---- Junction by this +train? I am most anxious to catch the evening mail at Calais, and am +quite out in my reckonings, owing to an extraordinary delay at ----. I +have wasted the night by getting into a stopping train instead of the +express." + +He looked at me in astonishment. He must have thought me either mad or +just awaking from a fit of intoxication--only I flatter myself I did +not look as if the latter were the case. + +"How soon we get to ---- Junction?" he repeated. "Why, my good sir, you +left it about three hours ago! It is now eight o'clock. We all got in at +the Junction. You were alone, if I mistake not?"--he glanced at one or +two of the others, who endorsed his statement. "And very fast asleep +you were, and must have been, not to be disturbed by the bustle at the +station. And as for catching the evening boat at Calais"--he burst into +a loud guffaw--"why, it would be very hard lines to do no better than +that! _We_ all hope to cross by the mid-day one." + +"Then--what train _is_ this?" I exclaimed, utterly perplexed. + +"The express, of course. All of us, excepting yourself, joined it at the +Junction," he replied. + +"The express?" I repeated. "The express that leaves"--and I named my own +town--"at six in the evening?" + +"Exactly. You have got into the right train after all," and here came +another shout of amusement. "How did you think we had all got in if you +had not yet passed the Junction? You had not the pleasure of our +company from M----, I take it? M----, which you passed at nine o'clock +last night, if my memory is correct." + +"Then," I persisted, "this is the double-fast express, which does not +stop between M---- and your Junction?" + +"Exactly," he repeated; and then, confirmed most probably in his belief +that I was mad, or the other thing, he turned to his newspaper, and left +me to my extraordinary cogitations. + +Had I been dreaming? Impossible! Every sensation, the very taste of +the coffee, seemed still present with me--the curious accent of the +officials at the mysterious town, I could perfectly recall. I still +shivered at the remembrance of the chilly waking in the "Restauration"; +I heard again the cackling cough. + +But I felt I must collect myself, and be ready for the important +negotiation entrusted to me. And to do this I must for the time banish +these fruitless efforts at solving the problem. + +We had a good run to Calais, found the boat in waiting, and a fair +passage brought us prosperously across the Channel. I found myself in +London punctual to the intended hour of my arrival. + +At once I drove to the lodgings in a small street off the Strand which I +was accustomed to frequent in such circumstances. I felt nervous till I +had an opportunity of thoroughly overhauling my documents. The bag had +been opened by the Custom House officials, but the words "private +papers" had sufficed to prevent any further examination; and to my +unspeakable delight they were intact. A glance satisfied me as to this +the moment I got them out, for they were most carefully numbered. + +The next morning saw me early on my way to--No. 909, we will +say--Blackfriars Street, where was the office of Messrs. Bluestone & +Fagg. I had never been there before, but it was easy to find, and had I +felt any doubt, their name stared me in the face at the side of the open +doorway. "Second-floor" I thought I read; but when I reached the first +landing I imagined I must have been mistaken. For there, at a door ajar, +stood an eminently respectable-looking gentleman, who bowed as he saw +me, with a discreet smile. + +"Herr Schmidt?" he said. "Ah, yes; I was on the look-out for you." + +I felt a little surprised, and my glance involuntarily strayed to the +doorway. There was no name upon it, and it appeared to have been freshly +painted. My new friend saw my glance. + +"It is all right," he said; "we have the painters here. We are using +these lower rooms temporarily. I was watching to prevent your having the +trouble of mounting to the second-floor." + +And as I followed him in, I caught sight of a painter's ladder--a small +one--on the stair above, and the smell was also unmistakable. + +The large outer office looked bare and empty, but under the +circumstances that was natural. No one was, at the first glance, to be +seen; but behind a dulled glass partition screening off one corner I +fancied I caught sight of a seated figure. And an inner office, to which +my conductor led the way, had a more comfortable and inhabited look. +Here stood a younger man. He bowed politely. + +"Mr. Fagg, my junior," said the first individual airily. "And now, Herr +Schmidt, to business at once, if you please. Time is everything. You +have all the documents ready?" + +I answered by opening my bag and spreading out its contents. Both men +were very grave, almost taciturn; but as I proceeded to explain things +it was easy to see that they thoroughly understood all I said. + +"And now," I went on, when I had reached a certain point, "if you will +give me Nos. 7 and 13 which you have already received by registered +post, I can put you in full possession of the whole. Without them, of +course, all I have said is, so to say, preliminary only." + +The two looked at each other. + +"Of course," said the elder man, "I follow what you say. The key of the +whole is wanting. But I was momentarily expecting you to bring it out. +We have not--Fagg, I am right, am I not--we have received nothing by +post?" + +"Nothing whatever," replied his junior. And the answer seemed simplicity +itself. Why did a strange thrill of misgiving go through me? Was it +something in the look that had passed between them? Perhaps so. In any +case, strange to say, the inconsistency between their having received no +papers and yet looking for my arrival at the hour mentioned in the +letter accompanying the documents, and accosting me by name, did not +strike me till some hours later. + +I threw off what I believed to be my ridiculous mistrust, and it was +not difficult to do so in my extreme annoyance. + +"I cannot understand it," I said. "It is really too bad. Everything +depends upon 7 and 13. I must telegraph at once for inquiries to be +instituted at the post-office." + +"But your people must have duplicates," said Fagg eagerly. "These can be +forwarded at once." + +"I hope so," I said, though feeling strangely confused and worried. + +"They must send them direct _here_," he went on. + +I did not at once answer. I was gathering my papers together. + +"And in the meantime," he proceeded, touching my bag, "you had better +leave _these_ here. We will lock them up in the safe at once. It is +better than carrying them about London." + +It certainly seemed so. I half laid down the bag on the table, but at +that moment from the outer room a most peculiar sound caught my ears--a +faint cackling cough! I _think_ I concealed my start. I turned away as +if considering Fagg's suggestion, which, to confess the truth, I had +been on the very point of agreeing to. For it would have been a great +relief to me to know that the papers were in safe custody. But now a +flash of lurid light seemed to have transformed everything. + +"I thank you," I replied. "I should be glad to be free from the +responsibility of the charge, but I dare not let these out of my own +hands till the agreement is formally signed." + +The younger man's face darkened. He assumed a bullying tone. + +"I don't know how it strikes _you_, Mr. Bluestone," he said, "but it +seems to me that this young gentleman is going rather too far. Do you +think your employers will be pleased to hear of your insulting us, sir?" + +But the elder man smiled condescendingly, though with a touch of +superciliousness. It was very well done. He waved his hand. + +"Stay, my dear Mr. Fagg; we can well afford to make allowance. You will +telegraph at once, no doubt, Herr Schmidt, and--let me see--yes, we +shall receive the duplicates of Nos. 7 and 13 by first post on Thursday +morning." + +I bowed. + +"Exactly," I replied, as I lifted the now locked bag. "And you may +expect me at the same hour on Thursday morning." + +Then I took my departure, accompanied to the door by the urbane +individual who had received me. + +The telegram which I at once despatched was not couched precisely as he +would have dictated, I allow. And he would have been considerably +surprised at my sending off another, later in the day, to Bluestone & +Fagg's telegraphic address, in these words:--- + +"Unavoidably detained till Thursday morning.--SCHMIDT." + +This was _after_ the arrival of a wire from home in answer to mine. + +By Thursday morning I had had time to receive a letter from Herr +Wilhelm, and to secure the services of a certain noted detective, +accompanied by whom I presented myself at the appointed hour at 909. But +my companion's services were not required. The birds had flown, warned +by the same traitor in our camp through whom the first hints of the new +patent had leaked out. With him it was easy to deal, poor wretch! but +the clever rogues who had employed him and personated the members of the +honourable firm of Bluestone & Fagg were never traced. + +The negotiation was successfully carried out. The experience I had gone +through left me a wiser man. It is to be hoped, too, that the owners of +909 Blackfriars Street were more cautious in the future as to whom they +let their premises to when temporarily vacant. The re-painting of the +doorway, etc., at the tenant's own expense had already roused some +slight suspicion. + +It is needless to add that Nos. 7 and 13 had been duly received on the +second-floor. + +I have never known the true history of that extraordinary night. Was it +all a dream, or a prophetic vision of warning? Or was it in any sense +true? _Had_ I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I +intended, and really travelled in a slow train? + +Or had the man with a cough, for his own nefarious purposes, mesmerised +or hypnotised me, and to some extent succeeded? + +I cannot say. Sometimes, even, I ask myself if I am quite sure that +there ever was such a person as "the man with the cough"! + + + + +"HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES." + +(A RIGHT-OF-WAY INCIDENT.) + + +By the road, Scarby village is good three miles from Colletwood, the +nearest town and railway station. But there is a short cut over the +hills for foot passengers. _Over_ the hills they call it, but _between_ +the hills would be more correct, for there is a sort of tableland once +you have climbed a short, steep bit up from the town, which extends +nearly to Scarby, sloping gradually down to the village. + +And on each side of this tableland the hills rise again, north and +south, much higher to the north than to the south. So this flat stretch, +though at some considerable height, is neither bleak nor exposed, being +sheltered on the colder side, and fairly open to the sunshine south and +west. + +It is a pleasant place, and so it must have been considered in the old +days; for a large monastery stood there once, of which the ruins are +still to be seen, and of which the memory is still preserved in the +name--"Monksholdings". + +Pleasant, but a trifle inconvenient, as the only carriage-road makes a +great round from Colletwood, winding along the base of the hill on the +north side till it reaches the village, then up again by the gradual +slope, half a mile or so--a drive in all of three to four miles, +whereas, as the bird flies or the pedestrian walks, the distance from +the town is barely a quarter of that. + +In the old days there was probably no road at all, the hill-path +doubtless serving all requirements. Naturally enough, therefore, it came +to be looked upon as entirely public property, and people forgot--if, +indeed, any one had ever thought of it--that though the monastery was a +ruin, the once carefully kept land round about the old dwelling-place of +Monksholdings was still private property. + +And the sensation was great when suddenly the news reached the +neighbourhood that this "unique estate," as the agents called it, was +sold--sold by the old Duke of Scarshire, who scarcely remembered that +he owned it, to a man who meant to live on it, to build a house which +should be a home for several months of the year for himself and his +family. + +There was considerable growling and grumbling; and this rose to its +height when a rumour got about that the hill-path--such part of it, that +is to say, as lay within the actual demesne--was to be closed--_must_ be +closed, if the site already chosen for the new house was to be retained; +for the house would actually stand upon the old foot-track, and there +could be no two opinions that this position had been well and wisely +selected. + +Things grew warlike, boding no agreeable reception for the newcomers--a +Mr. Raynald and his family, newcomers to England, it was said, as well +as to Scarshire. Every one plunged into questions of right-of-way; the +local legalities raised and discussed knotty points; Colletwood and +Scarby were aflame. But it all ended, flatly enough, in a compromise! + +Mr. Raynald turned out to be one of the most reasonable and courteous of +men. He came, saw, and--conquered. The goodwill of his future neighbours +was won e'er he knew he had risked its loss. Henceforward congratulations, +reciprocated and repeated, on the charming additions to Scarby society +were the order of the day, and the _detour_, skirting the south boundary +of the Monksholdings grounds, which the footpath was now inveigled into +making, was voted "a great improvement". + +And in due time the mansion rose. + +"A great improvement" also, to the aspect of the surrounding landscape. +It was in perfectly good taste--unpretentious and quietly picturesque. +It might have been there always for any jarring protest to the contrary. + +And just half-way along the old foot-track, that is to say, between the +two stiles which let the traveller to or from Scarby in or out of the +Monksholdings demesne, stood Sybil Raynald's grand piano! + +The stiles remained as an interesting survival; but they were made use +of by no one not bound for the house itself. And beside each was a +gate--a good oaken gate, that suited the place, as did everything about +it; and beside each gate a quaint miniature dwelling, one of which came +to be known as the east, and the other as the west, Monksholdings lodge. + +The first time the Raynalds came down to their new home they made but +a short stay there. It was already late in the season, and though the +preceding summer had been a magnificent one for drying fresh walls and +plaster, it would scarcely have done to risk damp or chilly weather in +so recently-built a house. + +They stayed long enough to confirm the favourable impression the head of +the family had already made, and to lead themselves to look forward with +pleasure to a less curtailed stay in Scarshire. + +The last morning of their visit, Sybil, the eldest daughter, up and +about betimes, turned to her father, when she had taken her place beside +him at the breakfast-table, with a suspicion of annoyance on her usually +cheerful face. + +"Papa," she said, "I have seen that old man _again_, leaning on the +stile by the Scarby lodge and looking in--along the drive--_so_ queerly. +I don't quite like it. It gave me rather a ghosty feeling; or else he is +out of his mind." + +Her brother, Mark by name, began to laugh, after the manner of brothers. + +"How very oddly you express yourself!" he said. "I should like to +experience 'a ghosty feeling'. A ghost is just what this place wants to +make it perfect. But it should be the spirit of one of the original +monks." + +Mr. Raynald turned to his son rather sharply. + +"I don't want any nonsense of that kind set about, Mark," he said. "It +would frighten the younger children when they come down here. I will ask +about the old man. It is quite possible he is half-witted, or something +of that sort. I forgot about it when Sybil mentioned it before. But no +doubt he is perfectly harmless. Has no one seen him but you, Sybil?" + +The girl shook her head. + +"None of _us_," she replied. "And I wasn't exactly frightened. There was +something very pathetic about him. He looked at me closely, murmuring +some words, and then shook his head. That was all." + +But just then her father was called away to give some last directions, +and in the bustle of hurry to catch their train the matter passed from +the minds of the younger as well as the elder members of the family. + +It returned to Sybil's memory, however, when she found herself in their +London house again, and called upon by her younger sisters to relate +every detail of Monksholdings and its neighbourhood. But mindful of her +father's warning, she said nothing to Esther or Annis of the figure at +the gate. It was only to Miss March--Ellinor March--the dearly-loved +governess, who was more friend than teacher to her three pupils, that +she spoke of it, late in the evening, when the younger ones had gone to +bed, and her father and mother were busy with Indian letters in Mr. +Raynald's study. + +The two girls, we may say--for Ellinor was still some years under +thirty--were alone in the drawing-room. Ellinor had been playing +something tender and faintly weird--it died away under her fingers, and +she sat on at the piano in silence. + +Sybil spoke suddenly. + +"That is _so_ melancholy," she said, "something so long ago about it, +like the ghost of a sorrow rather than a sorrow itself. I know--I know +what it makes me think of. Listen, Ellinor." + +For out of school hours the two threw formality aside. And Sybil told of +the sad, wistful old face looking over the stile. + +"Now it has come back to me," she said, "I can't forget it." + +Ellinor, too, was impressed. + +"Yes," she said, "it sounds very pitiful. Who knows what tragedy is +bound up in it?" and she sighed. + +Sybil understood her. Miss March's own history was a strange one. + +"We must find out about it when we go down to Monksholdings next year," +she said. + +"And perhaps," added Ellinor, "even if he is half-witted, we might do +something to comfort the poor man." + +Sybil hesitated. + +"Then you don't think he can be a ghost?" she said, looking half ashamed +of the suggestion. + +Miss March smiled--her smile was sad. + +"In one sense, no, I should think it highly improbable; in another, yes, +there must be the ghost of some great sorrow about the face you +describe," she said. + +So there was. + +This is the story. + +At the farther end of Scarby village--the farther end, that is to say, +from Monksholdings and the path between the hills--the road drops +again somewhat suddenly. Only for a short distance, however; Mayling +Farm--"Giles's" as it is colloquially called--which is the first house +you come to when you reach level ground again, being by no means low +lying. + +On the contrary, the west windows command a grand view of the great +Scarshire plain beneath, bordered by the faint hazy blue, scarcely to be +distinguished from clouds, of the long range of hills concealing the +far-off glimmer of the ocean, which otherwise might sometimes be +perceptible. + +Mayling is a very old place, and the Giles's had been there "always," so +to speak--steady-going, unambitious, save as regards their farming and +its success; they had been just the make of men to settle on to their +ground as if it and they could have no existence apart. A fine race +physically as well as morally, though some twenty-five years or so +before the Raynalds bought Monksholdings, a run of ill luck, a whole +chapter of casualties, had brought them down to but one representative, +and he scarcely the typical Farmer Giles of Mayling. + +This was Barnett, the youngest of four stalwart sons; the youngest and +the only survivor. He was already forty when his father died, earnestly +commending to him the "old place," which even at eighty the aged farmer +felt himself better fitted to manage than the somewhat delicate, +sensitive man whom his brothers had made good-natured fun of in his +youth as a "book-worm". + +But Barnett was intelligent and sensible, and he rose to the occasion. +Circumstances helped him. The year after old Giles's death Barnett for +the first time fell in love, wisely and well. His affection was bestowed +on a worthy object--Marion Grover, the daughter of a yeoman in the next +county--and was fully returned. + +Marion was years younger than her lover, fifteen at least, eminently +practical, healthy, and pretty. She brought her husband just exactly +what he was most in need of--brightness, energy, and youth. It was an +ideal marriage, and everything prospered at Mayling. Four years after +the advent of the new Mrs. Giles you would scarcely have recognised the +farmer, he seemed another man. + +He adored his wife, and could hardly find it in his heart to regret that +their child was not a son, even though, failing an heir, the old name +must die out; for if there was one creature the husband and wife loved +more than each other it was their baby girl. + +A month or two after this child's second birthday the singular +catastrophe occurred which changed the world to poor Barnett Giles, +leaving him but a wreck of his former self, physically and mentally. + +Young Mrs. Giles was strong in every way, and from the first she took +the line of saving her husband all extra fatigue or annoyance which +she could possibly hoist on to her own brave shoulders. There was +something quaint and even pathetic in the relations of the couple. For, +notwithstanding Marion's being so much Barnett's junior, her attitude +towards him had a decided suggestion of the maternal about it, though at +times of real emergency his sound judgment and advice never failed her. +It was within a week or two of Christmas; the weather was bitingly, +raspingly cold. And though as yet no snow had fallen, the weather-wise +were predicting it daily. + +"I _must_ go over to Colletwood this week," said Mrs. Giles, "and I must +take Nelly. Her new coat is waiting to be tried at the dressmaker's, and +I must get her some boots and several other things before Christmas. And +there is a whole list of other shopping too--all our Christmas presents +to see to." + +Her husband was looking out of the window, it was still very early in +the day. + +"I doubt if the snow will hold off much longer," he said. + +"And once it begins it may be heavy," his wife replied, "and then I +might not be able to go for ever so long, even by the road,"--for a deep +fall of snow at Scarby was practically a stoppage to all traffic. "I'll +tell you what, Barnett, we'll go to-day and make sure of it. I will put +other things aside and start before noon. A couple of hours, or three at +the most, will do everything, and then Nelly and I will be back long +before dark. You'll come to meet us, won't you?" + +"Of course I will--if you go. But," and again he glanced at the sky. +The morning was, so far, clear and bright, though very cold, but over +towards the north there was a suspicious look about the blue-grey +clouds. "I don't know," he said, "but that you'd better wait till +to-morrow and see if it blows off again." + +But Marion shook her head. + +"I've a feeling," she said, "that if I don't go to-day, I won't go at +all. And I really must. I'll take Betsy to carry the child till we're +just above the town, and then send her home, so as not to be tired for +coming back. Not that I'm _ever_ tired, as you know," with a smile. + +He gave in, only stipulating that at all costs they should start to +return by a certain hour, unless the snow should have already begun, in +which case Marion was to run no risks, but either to hire a fly to bring +her home by the road, or to stay in the town with some of her friends +till the weather cleared again. + +"And I'll meet you," he added. "Let us set our watches together--I'll +start from here so as to be at--let me see----" + +"Half-way between the stiles," said Marion. "We can each see the other +from one stile to the opposite one, you know, even though it's a good +bit of a way. Yes, dear, I'll time it as near as I can to meet half-way +between the stiles." + +And with these words the last on her lips, she set off, a picture of +health and happiness--little Nelly crowing back to "Dada" from over +stout Betsy's shoulder. + +Betsy was home again within the hour. + +But the mother and child--alas and alas! It was the immortal story of +"Lucy Gray" in an almost more pathetic shape. + +Farmer Giles, as I have said, was a studious, often absent-minded man. +There was not much to do at that season and in such weather, and what +there was, some amount of supervision on his part was enough for. After +his early dinner he got out his books for an hour or two's quiet reading +till it should be time to set off to meet his darlings. No fear of his +forgetting _that_ time, but till the clock struck, and he saw it was +approaching nearly, he never looked out--he was unconscious of the rapid +growth of the lurid, steely clouds; he had no idea that the snowflakes +were already falling, falling, more and more closely and thickly with +each instant that passed. + +Then rose the storm spirit and issued his orders--all too quickly +obeyed. Before Barnett Giles had left the village street he found +himself in what now-a-days would be called a "blizzard". And his pale +face grew paler, and his heart beat as if to choke him, when at last he +reached the first stile and stood there panting, to regain his breath. +It was all he could do to battle on through the fury of the wind, the +blinding, whirling snow, which seemed to envelop him as if in sheets. +Not for many and many a day will that awful snowstorm be forgotten in +Scarshire. + + * * * * * + +It was at the appointed trysting place they found him--"half-way between +the stiles". But not till late that evening, when Betsy, more alarmed by +his absence than by her mistress's not returning, at last struggled out +through the deep-lying snow to alarm the nearest neighbours. + +"The missis and Miss Nell will have stayed the night in the town," she +said. "But I misdoubt me if the master will ever have got so far, though +he may have been tempted on when he did not meet them." + +By this time the fury of the storm had spent itself, and they found poor +Giles after a not very protracted search, and brought him home--dead, +they thought at first. + +No, he was not dead, but it was less than half _life_ that he +returned to. For his first inquiry late the next day, when glimmering +consciousness had begun to revive--"Marion, the baby?"--seemed by some +subtle instinct to answer itself truthfully, in spite of the kindly +endeavour to deceive him for the time. + +"Dead!" he murmured. "I knew it. Half-way between the stiles," and he +turned his face to the wall. + +They almost wished he had died too--the rough but kind-hearted +country-folk who were his neighbours. But he lived. He never asked and +never knew the details of the tragedy, which, indeed, was never fully +known by any one. + +All that came to light was that the dead body of Marion Giles was +brought by some semi-gipsy wanderers to the workhouse of a town several +miles south of Colletwood, early on the morning after the blizzard. They +had found it, they said, at some little distance from the road along +which they were journeying, so that she must have lost her way long +before approaching the Monksholdings confines, not improbably, indeed, +in attempting to retrace her steps to the town which she had so +imprudently quitted. But of the child the tramps said nothing, and after +making the above deposition, they were allowed to go on their way, which +they expressed themselves as anxious to do; for reasons of their own, no +doubt; possibly the same reasons which had prevented their returning to +Colletwood with the young woman's corpse, as would have seemed more +natural. + +And afterwards no very special inquiry was made about the baby. The +father was incapable of it, and in those days people accepted things +more carelessly, perhaps. It was taken for granted that "Little Nell" +had fallen down some cliff, no doubt, and lay buried there, with the +snow for her shroud, like a strayed lambkin. Her tiny bones might yet be +found, years hence, maybe, by a shepherd in search of some bleating +wanderer, or--no more might ever be known of the infant's fate! + +Barnett Giles rose from his bed, after many weeks, with all the look of +a very old man. At first it was thought that his mind was quite gone; +but it did not prove to be so. After a time, with the help of an +excellent foreman, or bailiff, he showed himself able to manage his farm +with a strange, mechanical kind of intelligence. It seemed as if the +sense of duty outlived the loss of other perceptions, though these, too, +cleared by degrees to a considerable extent, and material things, +curious as it may appear, prospered with him. + +But he rarely spoke unless obliged to do so; and whenever he felt +himself at leisure, and knew that his work was not calling for him, he +seemed to relapse into the half-dreamy state which was his more real +life. Then he would pass through the village and slowly climb the slope +to the stile, where he would stand for hours together, patiently gazing +before him, while he murmured the old refrain: "'Half-way between the +stiles,' she said. I shall meet them there, 'half-way between the +stiles'." + +Fortunately, perhaps, it was not often he attempted to climb over; he +contented himself with standing and gazing. Fortunately so, for +otherwise the changes at Monksholdings would have probably terribly +shocked his abnormally sensitive brain. But he did not seem to notice +them, nor the new route of the old right-of-way agreed to by the +compromise. He was content with his post--standing, leaning on the +stile, and gazing before him. + +His, of course, was the worn, wistful face which had half frightened, +half appealed to Sybil Raynald. + +But she forgot about it again, or other things put it temporarily +aside, so that when the Raynalds came down to Monksholdings again the +following Easter it did not at once occur to her to remind her father of +the inquiry he had promised to make. + +Miss March was not with her pupils and their parents at first. She had +gone to spend a holiday week with the friends who had brought her up +and seen to her education--good, benevolent people, if not specially +sympathetic, but to whom she felt herself bound by ties of sincerest +gratitude, though her five years with the Raynald family had given her +more of the feeling of a "home" than she had ever had before. + +And her arrival at Monksholdings was the occasion of much rejoicing. +There was everything to show her, and every one, from Mark down to +little Robin, wanted to be her guide. It was not till the morning of the +next day that Sybil managed to get her to herself for a _tete-a-tete_ +stroll. + +Ellinor had some things to tell her quondam pupil. Mrs. Bellairs, her +self-appointed guardian, was growing old and somewhat feeble. + +"I fear she is not likely to live many years," said Miss March, "and she +thinks so herself. She has a curious longing, which I never saw in her +before, to find out my history--to know if there is no one really +belonging to me to whom she can give me back, as it were, before she +dies. She gave me the little parcel containing the clothes I had on when +she rescued me from being sent to a workhouse. They are carefully washed +and mended, and though I was a poor, dirty little object when I was +found, they do not look really as if I had been a beggar child," with a +little smile. + +"You a beggar child!" exclaimed Sybil indignantly. "Of course not. +Perhaps, on the contrary, you were somebody very grand." + +"No, no," said Ellinor sensibly. "In that case I should have been +advertised for and inquired after. No, I have never thought that, and I +should not wish it. I should be more than thankful to know I came of +good, honest people, however simple; to have some one of my very own." + +"I forget the actual details," said Sybil, "though you have often told +me about it. You were found--no, not literally in the workhouse, was +it?" + +"They were going to take me there," said Miss March. "It was at a +village near Bath where Mr. and Mrs. Bellairs were then living, and +one day, after a party of gipsies had been encamping on the common, a +cottager's wife heard something crying in the night, and found me in her +little garden. She was too poor to keep me herself, and felt certain I +was a child the gipsies had stolen and then wanted to get rid of. I was +fair-haired and blue-eyed, not like them. She was a friend or relation +of some of Mrs. Bellairs's servants, and so the story got round to my +kind old friend. And you know the rest--how they first thought of +bringing me up in quite a humble way, and then finding me--well, +intelligent and naturally rather refined, I suppose, I got a really good +education, and my good luck did not desert me, dear, when I came to be +your governess." + +Sybil smiled. + +"And can you remember _nothing_?" + +Ellinor hesitated. + +"Queer, dreamy fragments come back to me sometimes," she said. "I have +a feeling of having seen hills long, long ago. It is strange," she +went on, for by this time they had left the private grounds and were +strolling along the hill-path in the direction of the town, "it is +strange that since I came here I seem to have got hold of a tiny bit of +these old memories, if they are such. It must be the hills," and she +stood still and gazed round her with a deep breath of satisfaction, "I +could only have been between two and three when I was found," she went +on. "The only words I said were 'Dada' and 'Nennie'--it sounded like +'Nelly'. That was why Mrs. Bellairs called me 'Ellinor,' and 'March,' +because it was in that month she took me to her house." + +Sybil walked on in silence for a moment or two. + +"It _is_ such a romantic story," she said at last. "I am never tired of +thinking about it." + +They entered Monksholdings again from the east entrance, Ellinor glanced +at the stile. + +"By-the-bye," she said, "this is one of the two old stiles, I suppose. +Have you ever seen your ghost again, Sybil? Have you found out anything +about him?" + +Sybil looked round her half nervously. + +"It is the other stile he haunts," she said. "I rather avoid it, at +least, I mean to do so now. It is curious you speak of it, for till +yesterday I had not seen him again, and had almost forgotten about it. +But yesterday afternoon, just before you came, there he was--exactly +the same, staring in. I meant to speak to papa about it, but with the +pleasure and bustle of your arrival, I forgot it. Remind me about it. I +am afraid he is out of his mind." + +"Poor old man!" said Ellinor. "I wish we could do something to comfort +him. I feel as if everybody _must_ be happy here. It is such a charming, +exhilarating place. Dear me, how windy it is! The path is all strewn +with the white petals of the cherry blossom." + +"They have degenerated into wild cherry trees," said Sybil. "Long ago +papa says these must have been good fruit trees of many kinds, and this +is a great cherry country, you know." + +The wind dropped that afternoon, but only temporarily. It rose again so +much during the night that by the next morning the grounds looked, to +use little Annis's expression, "quite untidy". + +"And down in the village, or just beyond it," said Mark, who had been +for an early stroll, "at one place it really looks as if it had been +snowing. The road skirts that old farmhouse; you know it, father? I +forget the name--there's a grand cherry orchard there." + +"'Mayling Farm,' you must mean," said Mr. Raynald. "Farmer Giles's. Oh, +by the way, that reminds me, Sybil," but a glance round the table made +him stop short. They were at breakfast. He scarcely felt inclined to +relate the tragic story before the younger children, "they might look +frightened or run away if they came across the poor fellow," he +reflected. "I will tell Sybil about it afterwards." + +Easter holidays were not yet over, though the governess had returned, so +regular routine was set aside, and the whole of the young party, Ellinor +included, spent that morning in a scramble among the hills. + +The children seemed untirable, and set off again somewhere or other in +the afternoon. Sybil was busy with her mother, writing letters and +orders to be despatched to London, so that towards four o'clock or so, +when Miss March, having finished her own correspondence, entered the +drawing-room, she found it deserted. + +Sybil had promised to practise some duets with her, and while waiting on +the chance of her coming, Ellinor seated herself at the piano and began +to play--nothing very important--just snatches of old airs which she +wove into a kind of half-dreamy harmony, one melting into another as +they occurred to her. + +All at once a shadow fell on the keys, and then she remembered having +heard the door softly open a moment or two before--so softly, that she +had not looked round, imagining it to be the wind, which, though fallen +now, still lingered about. + +Now her ideas took another shape. + +"It is Sybil, no doubt," she thought with a smile. "She is going to make +me jump," and she waited, half expecting to feel Sybil's hands suddenly +clasped over her eyes from behind. + +But this was not to be the mode of attack, apparently, though she heard +what sounded like stealthy footsteps. + +"You need not try to startle me, Sybbie," she exclaimed laughingly, +without turning or ceasing to play, "I hear you." + +It was no laughing voice which replied. + +On the contrary, a sigh, almost a groan, close to her made her look +up sharply--a trifle indignant perhaps at the joke being carried so +far--and she saw, a pace or two from her only, the figure of an old +man--a white-haired, somewhat bent form, a worn face with wistful blue +eyes--gazing at her. + +She had scarcely time to feel frightened, for almost instantaneously +Sybil's "ghost" recurred to her memory. + +"He has found his way in, then," she thought, not without a slight +and natural tremor, which, however, disappeared as she gazed, so +pathetically gentle was the whole aspect of the intruder. + +But--his face changed curiously--the sight of hers, now fully in +his view, seemed strangely to affect him. With a gesture of utter +bewilderment he raised his hand to his forehead as if to brush something +away--the cloud still resting on his brain--then a smile broke over the +old face, a wonderful smile. + +"Marion," he said, "at last? I--I thought I was dreaming. I heard you +playing in my dream. It is the right place though, 'Half-way between the +stiles,' you said. I have waited so long and come so often, and now it +is snowing again. Just a little, dear, nothing to hurt. Marion, my +darling, why don't you speak? Is it all a dream--this fine room, the +music and all? Are _you_ a dream?" + +He closed his eyes as if he were fainting. Inexpressibly touched, all +Ellinor's womanly nature went out to him. She started forward, half +leading, half lifting him to a seat close at hand. + +"I--I am not Marion," she said, and afterwards she wondered what had +inspired the words, "but I am"--not "Ellinor," something made her change +the name as he spoke--"I am Nelly." + +He opened his eyes again. + +"Little Nell," he said, "has she sent you down to me from heaven? My +little Nell!" + +And then he fell back unconscious--this time he had fainted. + +She thought he was dead, but it was not so--her cries for help soon +brought her friends, Mr. Raynald first of all. He did not seem startled, +he soothed Ellinor at once. + +"It is poor old Giles," he said. "I know all about him, he has found his +way in at last." + +"But--but----," stammered the girl, "there is something else, Mr. +Raynald. I--I seem to remember something." + +She looked nearly as white as their poor visitor, and as Mr. Raynald +glanced at her, a curious expression flitted across his own face. + +Could it be so? He knew all her story. + +"Wait a little, my dear," he said. "We must attend to poor Giles first." + +They were very kind and tender to the old man, but he seemed to be +barely conscious, even after restoratives had brought him out of the +actual fainting fit. Then Mrs. Raynald proposed that his servants--his +housekeeper if he had one--should be sent for. + +And when faithful Betsy, stout as of old, though less nimble, made her +appearance, her irrepressible emotion at the sight of Ellinor, pale and +trembling though the young governess was, gave form and substance to Mr. +Raynald's suspicions. + +Yes, they had met at last--father and daughter--"half-way between the +stiles". He was "Dada," she was little "Nell". Might it not be that +Marion's prayers had brought them together? + +Every reasonable proof was forthcoming--the little parcel of clothes, +the correspondence in the dates, the strong resemblance to her mother. + +And--joy does not often kill. Barnett was able to understand it all +better than might have been expected. He was never _quite_ himself, but +infinitely better both in mind and body than poor old Betsy had ever +dreamt of seeing him. And he was perfectly content--content to live as +long as it should please God to spare him to his little Nell; ready to +go to his Marion when the time should come. + +And Ellinor had her wish--a home, though not a "grand" one; some one of +her "very own" to care for; a father's devoted love, and, to complete +her happiness, the friends who had grown so dear to her close at hand. + +More may yet be hers in the future, for she is still young. Her father +may live to see his grandchildren playing about the farmstead at +Mayling, so that, though the name be changed, the old stock will still +nourish where so many generations of its ancestors have sown and +reaped. + + + + +AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD. + + +Have I ever seen a ghost? + +I do not know. + +That is the only reply I can truthfully make to the question now-a-days +so often asked. And sometimes, if inquirers care to hear more, I go on +to tell them the one experience which makes it impossible for me to +reply positively either in the affirmative or negative, and restricts me +to "I do not know". + +This was the story. + +I was staying with relations in the country. Not a very isolated or +out-of-the-way part of the world, and yet rather inconvenient of access +by the railway. For the nearest station was six miles off. Though the +family I was visiting were nearly connected with me I did not know much +of their home or its neighbourhood, as the head of the house, an uncle +of mine by marriage, had only come into the property a year or two +previously to the date of which I am writing, through the death of an +elder brother. + +It was a nice place. A good comfortable old house, a prosperous, +satisfactory estate. Everything about it was in good order, from the +farmers, who always paid their rents, to the shooting, which was always +good; from the vineries, which were noted, to the woods, where the +earliest primroses in all the country side were yearly to be found. + +And my uncle and aunt and their family deserved these pleasant things +and made a good use of them. + +But there was a touch of the commonplace about it all. There was nothing +picturesque or romantic. The country was flat though fertile, the house, +though old, was conveniently modern in its arrangements, airy, cheery, +and bright. + +"Not even a ghost, or the shadow of one," I remember saying one day with +a faint grumble. + +"Ah, well--as to that," said my uncle, "perhaps we----" but just then +something interrupted him, and I forgot his unfinished speech. + +Into the happy party of which for the time being I was one, there fell +one morning a sudden thunderbolt of calamity. The post brought news of +the alarming illness of the eldest daughter--Frances, married a year or +two ago and living, as the crow flies, at no very great distance. But +as the crow flies is not always as the railroad runs, and to reach the +Aldoyns' home from Fawne Court, my uncle's place, was a complicated +business--it was scarcely possible to go and return in a day. + +"Can one of you come over?" wrote the young husband. "She is already out +of danger, but longing to see her mother or one of you. She is worrying +about the baby"--a child of a few months old--"and wishing for nurse." + +We looked at each other. + +"Nurse must go at once," said my uncle to me, as the eldest of the +party. Perhaps I should here say that I am a widow, though not old, and +with no close ties or responsibilities. "But for your aunt it is +impossible." + +"Quite so," I agreed. For she was at the moment painfully lamed by +rheumatism. + +"And the other girls are almost too young at such a crisis," my uncle +continued. "Would you, Charlotte----" and he hesitated. "It would be +such a comfort to have personal news of her." + +"Of course I will go," I said. "Nurse and I can start at once. I will +leave her there, and return alone, to give you, I have no doubt, better +news of poor Francie." + +He was full of gratitude. So were they all. + +"Don't hurry back to-night," said my uncle. "Stay till--till Monday if +you like." But I could not promise. I knew they would be glad of news at +once, and in a small house like my cousin's, at such a time, an inmate +the more might be inconvenient. + +"I will try to return to-night," I said. And as I sprang into the +carriage I added: "Send to Moore to meet the last train, unless I +telegraph to the contrary." + +My uncle nodded; the boys called after me, "All right;" the old butler +bowed assent, and I was satisfied. + +Nurse and I reached our journey's end promptly, considering the four or +five junctions at which we had to change carriages. But on the whole +"going," the trains fitted astonishingly. + +We found Frances better, delighted to see us, eager for news of her +mother, and, finally, disposed to sleep peacefully now that she knew +that there was an experienced person in charge. And both she and her +husband thanked me so much that I felt ashamed of the little I had done. +Mr. Aldoyn begged me to stay till Monday; but the house was upset, and I +was eager to carry back my good tidings. + +"They are meeting me at Moore by the last train," I said. "No, thank +you, I think it is best to go." + +"You will have an uncomfortable journey," he replied. "It is Saturday, +and the trains will be late, and the stations crowded with the market +people. It will be horrid for you, Charlotte." + +But I persisted. + +It _was_ rather horrid. And it was queer. There was a sort of uncanny +eeriness about that Saturday evening's journey that I have never +forgotten. The season was very early spring. It was not very cold, but +chilly and ungenial. And there were such odd sorts of people about. I +travelled second-class; for I am not rich, and I am very independent. +I did not want my uncle to pay my fare, for I liked the feeling of +rendering him some small service in return for his steady kindness to +me. The first stage of my journey was performed in the company of two +old naturalists travelling to Scotland to look for some small plant +which was to be found only in one spot in the Highlands. This I gathered +from their talk to each other. You never saw two such extraordinary +creatures as they were. They both wore black kid gloves much too large +for them, and the ends of the fingers waved about like feathers. + +Then followed two or three short transits, interspersed with weary +waitings at stations. The last of these was the worst, and tantalising, +too, for by this time I was within a few miles of Moore. The station was +crowded with rough folk, all, it seemed to me, more or less tipsy. So I +took refuge in a dark waiting-room on the small side line by which I was +to proceed, where I felt I might have been robbed and murdered and no +one the wiser. + +But at last came my slow little train, and in I jumped, to jump out +again still more joyfully some fifteen minutes later when we drew up at +Moore. + +I peered about for the carriage. It was not to be seen; only two or +three tax-carts or dog-carts, farmers' vehicles, standing about, while +their owners, it was easy to hear, were drinking far more than was good +for them in the taproom of the Unicorn. Thence, nevertheless--not to +the taproom, but to the front of the inn--I made my way, though not +undismayed by the shouts and roars breaking the stillness of the quiet +night. "Was the Fawne Court carriage not here?" I asked. + +The landlady was a good-natured woman, especially civil to any member of +the "Court" family. But she shook her head. + +"No, no carriage had been down to-day. There must have been some +mistake." + +There was nothing for it but to wait till she could somehow or other +disinter a fly and a horse, and, worst of all a driver. For the "men" +she had to call were all rather--"well, ma'am, you see it's Saturday +night. We weren't expecting any one." + +And when, after waiting half an hour, the fly at last emerged, my heart +almost failed me. Even before he drove out of the yard, it was very +plain that if ever we reached Fawne Court alive, it would certainly be +more thanks to good luck than to the driver's management. + +But the horse was old and the man had a sort of instinct about him. We +got on all right till we were more than half way to our journey's end. +The road was straight and the moonlight bright, especially after we had +passed a certain corner, and got well out of the shade of the trees +which skirted the first part of the way. + +Just past this turn there came a dip in the road. It went down, down +gradually, for a quarter of a mile or more, and I looked up anxiously, +fearful of the horse taking advantage of the slope. But no, he jogged +on, if possible more slowly than before, though new terrors assailed me +when I saw that the driver was now fast asleep, his head swaying from +side to side with extraordinary regularity. After a bit I grew easier +again; he seemed to keep his equilibrium, and I looked out at the side +window on the moon-flooded landscape, with some interest. I had never +seen brighter moonlight. + +Suddenly from out of the intense stillness and loneliness a figure, a +human figure, became visible. It was that of a man, a young and active +man, running along the footpath a few feet to our left, apparently +from some whim, keeping pace with the fly. My first feeling was of +satisfaction that I was no longer alone, at the tender mercies of my +stupefied charioteer. But, as I gazed, a slight misgiving came over me. +Who could it be running along this lonely road so late, and what was his +motive in keeping up with us so steadily. It almost seemed as if he had +been waiting for us, yet that, of course, was impossible. He was not +very highwayman-like certainly; he was well-dressed--neatly-dressed that +is to say, like a superior gamekeeper--his figure was remarkably good, +tall and slight, and he ran gracefully. But there was something queer +about him, and suddenly the curiosity that had mingled in my observation +of him was entirely submerged in alarm, when I saw that, as he ran, he +was slowly but steadily drawing nearer and nearer to the fly. + +"In another moment he will be opening the door and jumping in," I +thought, and I glanced before me only to see that the driver was more +hopelessly asleep than before; there was no chance of his hearing if +I called out. And get out I could not without attracting the strange +runner's attention, for as ill-luck would have it, the window was drawn +up on the right side, and I could not open the door without rattling the +glass. While, worse and worse, the left hand window was down! Even that +slight protection wanting! + +I looked out once more. By this time the figure was close, close to the +fly. Then an arm was stretched out and laid along the edge of the door, +as if preparatory to opening it, and then, for the first time I saw his +face. It was a young face, but terribly, horribly pale and ghastly, and +the eyes--all was so visible in the moonlight--had an expression such as +I had never seen before or since. It terrified me, though afterwards on +recalling it, it seemed to me that it might have been more a look of +agonised appeal than of menace of any kind. + +I cowered back into my corner and shut my eyes, feigning sleep. It was +the only idea that occurred to me. My heart was beating like a sledge +hammer. All sorts of thoughts rushed through me; among them I remember +saying to myself: "He must be an escaped lunatic--his eyes are so +awfully wild". + +How long I sat thus I don't know--whenever I dared to glance out +furtively he was still there. But all at once a strange feeling of +relief came over me. I sat up--yes, he was gone! And though, as I took +courage, I leant out and looked round in every direction, not a trace of +him was to be seen, though the road and the fields were bare and clear +for a long distance round. + +When I got to Fawne Court I had to wake the lodge-keeper--every one was +asleep. But my uncle was still up, though not expecting me, and very +distressed he was at the mistake about the carriage. + +"However," he concluded, "all's well that ends well. It's delightful to +have your good news. But you look sadly pale and tired, Charlotte." + +Then I told him of my fright--it seemed now so foolish of me, I said. +But my uncle did not smile--on the contrary. + +"My dear," he said. "It sounds very like our ghost, though, of course, +it may have been only one of the keepers." + +He told me the story. Many years ago in his grandfather's time, a young +and favourite gamekeeper had been found dead in a field skirting the +road down there. There was no sign of violence upon the body; it was +never explained what had killed him. But he had had in his charge a +watch--a very valuable one--which his master for some reason or other +had handed to him to take home to the house, not wishing to keep it on +him. And when the body was found late that night, the watch was not on +it. Since then, so the story goes, on a moonlight night the spirit of +the poor fellow haunts the spot. It is supposed that he wants to tell +what had become of his master's watch, which was never found. But no one +has ever had courage to address him. + +"He never comes farther than the dip in the road," said my uncle. "If +you had spoken to him, Charlotte, I wonder if he would have told you his +secret?" + +He spoke half laughingly, but I have never quite forgiven myself for my +cowardice. It was the look in those eyes! + + + + +"---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE." + + +"'Lingard,' 'Trevannion,'" murmured Captain Murray, as he ran his eye +down the column of the morning paper specially devoted to so-called +fashionable intelligence, "Lingard, Arthur Lingard; yes, I've met him; +a very good fellow. And Trevannion; don't you know a Miss Trevannion, +Bessie?" + +Mrs. Murray glanced up from her teacups. + +"What do you say, Walter? Trevannion; yes, I have met a girl of the name +at my aunt's. A pretty girl, and I think I heard she was going to be +married. Is that what you are talking about?" + +"No," her husband replied. "It's the other way--broken off, I wonder +why." + +"What an old gossip you are," said Mrs. Murray. "No good reason at all, +I daresay. People are so capricious now-a-days." + +"Still, they don't often announce a marriage till it's pretty certain +to come off. This sort of thing," tapping the paper as he spoke, "isn't +exactly pleasant." + +"Very much the reverse," agreed Mrs. Murray, and then they thought no +more about it. + +"I wonder why," said a good many people that morning, when they caught +sight of the announcement. For the two principals it concerned--Arthur +Lingard, especially--had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and +their engagement had been the subject of much and hearty congratulation. +It seemed so natural and fitting that these two should marry. Both +young, amiable, good-looking, and sufficiently well off. Even the most +cynical could discern no cloud in the bright sky of their future, no +crook in the lot before them. + +And now-- + +No marvel that Captain Murray's soliloquy was repeated by many. + +But who would have guessed that in one heart it was ever ringing with +maddening anguish? + +"I wonder why, oh, I wonder why he has done it. Oh, if he would but tell +me, it could not surely seem quite so unendurable." + +And Daisy Trevannion pressed her aching head, and her poor swollen eyes +on to her mother's loving bosom in a sort of wild despair. + +"Mamma, mamma," she cried, "help me. I cannot be angry with him. I wish +I could. He was so gentle, so sweet--and he is so heartbroken, I can see +by his letter. Oh, mamma, what can it be?" + +But to this, even the devoted mother, who would gladly have given her +own life to save her child this misery, could find no answer. + +This was what had happened. + +They had been engaged about three months, the wedding day was +approximately fixed, when one morning the blow fell. + +A letter to Daisy's father, enclosing one to herself--a letter which +made Mr. Trevannion draw his brows together in instinctive indignation, +and then as the first impulse cooled a little, caused him to turn to his +daughter with a movement of irritation, underneath which, hope had, +nevertheless, found time to reassert itself. + +"Daisy," he exclaimed sharply, "what is the meaning of all this +nonsense? Have you been quarrelling with Lingard? You're a bit of a +spoilt child I know, my dear, but I don't like playing with edged +tools--a man like Arthur won't stand being trifled with. Do you hear, +Daisy--eh, what?" + +For the girl had scarcely caught the sense of his words, so absorbed was +she in those of the short, all too short, but terrible letter she had +just read--the letter addressed to herself, which began "Daisy, my +Daisy, for the last time," and ended abruptly with the simple signature, +"Arthur Lingard". + +She gazed up at her father--her white face all drawn, and as it were, +withered with that minute's agony--her eyes dulled and yet wild. Never +was there such a metamorphosis from the happy, laughing girl who had +hurried in with some pretty excuse for her unpunctuality. + +"Daisy, my child! Daisy," her father repeated, repenting already of his +hasty remarks, "don't take it so seriously." "Margaret," to his wife, +"speak to her." + +And Mrs. Trevannion, as pale almost as her daughter, drew the sheet of +note-paper from the girl's unresisting hands, while her husband held out +to her his own letter. + +"Some complete mistake," she said, "some misplaced quixotry. Daisy, my +own darling, do not take it so seriously. Your father will see him--you +will, will you not, Hugh?" detecting the proud hesitation in her +husband's face. "It is not as if we did not know him well, and all about +him. Your father will find out, Daisy, and make it all right." + +Mr. Trevannion did not contradict her, but murmured some consolatory +words, and then the mother led Daisy away, and to a certain extent the +girl allowed herself to be reassured. + +"I will consult Keir if necessary," said the father when out of hearing +of his daughter. "He is the natural person, both as our own connection +and because he introduced Lingard, and thinks so highly of him. But +first I will see Arthur alone. The fewer mixed up in such a case the +better." + +Mrs. Trevannion agreed. She was constitutionally sanguine, but a painful +idea struck her as her husband spoke. + +"Hugh," she said hesitatingly, "you don't think--it surely is not +possible that his--that Arthur's brain is affected?" + +"His brain--tut, nonsense! What a woman's idea!" replied Mr. Trevannion +irritably. "Why, he is receiving compliments on every side, from the +very highest quarters, too, on that article of his on the Capricorn +Islands. Brain affected, indeed!" + +And to a whisper of, "I was thinking of over-work," which followed him +apologetically, he vouchsafed no reply. + +Some intensely trying days passed. Mr. Trevannion's interview with his +recalcitrant son-in-law-to-be, proved a complete failure. Nothing, +absolutely nothing was to be "got out of the fellow," he told his wife +in mingled anger and wretchedness, for the poor man was a devoted +father. Arthur was gentleness itself, respectful, deferential even, +to the man whose peculiarly disagreeable position he felt for +inexpressibly. But he was as firm, as hard in his decision that all +should be, must be, over between Miss Trevannion and himself, as if his +own heart had suddenly turned to iron, as if he possessed no feelings at +all. He grew white to the lips, with a terrible death-like whiteness, +when he named her; he said with a quiet, deliberate emphasis, more +impressive by far than any passionate declaration, that never, never +while he lived, would he forgive himself for the trouble he had brought +into her young life, but that he was powerless to do otherwise, he was +absolutely without a choice. As to the reason for the breaking off of +the engagement to be given to the world, he left it entirely in the +Trevannions' own hands; he would contradict nothing they thought it best +to say; but, if possible, he grew still whiter when his visitor from +under his shaggy eyebrows glanced at him with a look of contempt while +he replied cuttingly that he had no love of falsehood. For his part he +would tell the truth, and in the end he believed it would be best for +Daisy that all the world should know the way in which she had been +treated. + +"Best for her and worst for you," he repeated. + +And Arthur only said:-- + +"I hope so. It must be as you think well." + +Then Trevannion softened again a little. + +"I shall say nothing to any one at present," he went on. "I must see +Keir; possibly he may understand you better than I can." + +But, "No, it will be no use," the young man repeated coldly, though his +very heart was wrung for the father, crushing down his own pride while +he thought he saw still the ghost of a hope. "It will be no use. No one +can do anything." + +"And you adhere to your determination not to see my--not to see Daisy +again?" + +Lingard bowed his head. + +And Mr. Trevannion left him. + +Philip Keir was no blood relation of the Trevannions, but a cousin by +marriage and a very intimate friend. He was some years older than Mr. +Lingard, and it was through him that the acquaintance resulting in +Daisy's engagement had begun. He was a reserved man, with a frank and +cordial manner. Daisy thought she knew him well, but as to this she was +in some directions entirely mistaken. + +He was away from home when Mr. Trevannion called on him, driving +straight to his chambers from the fruitless interview with Lingard. +Philip did not return for a couple of days, and had left no address. +Hence ensued the painful interval of suspense alluded to. + +But on the third evening a hansom dashed up to the Trevannions' door, +and Mr. Keir jumped out. It was late, but there was no hesitation as to +admitting him. + +"I found your note," he said, as he grasped his host's hand, "and came +straight on. I have only just got back. What is the matter? Tell me at +once." + +He was a self-controlled man, but his agitation was evident. "Daisy?" he +added hastily. + +"Yes," replied the father. The two were alone in his study. "Poor +Daisy!" And then he told the story. + +Keir listened, though not altogether in silence, for broken +exclamations, which he seemed unable to repress, broke out from him more +than once. + +"Impossible----inconceivable!" he muttered, "Lingard, of all men, to +behave like a----" he stopped short, at a loss for a comparison. + +"Then you can throw no light upon it--none whatever?" said Mr. +Trevannion. "We had hoped--foolishly, perhaps--I had somehow hoped that +you might have helped us. You know him well, you see, you have been so +much together, your acquaintance is of old date, and you must understand +any peculiarities of his character." + +His tone still sounded as if he could not bring himself finally to +accept the position. Keir was inexpressibly sorry for him. + +"I know of none," he said. "Frankly, I know of nothing about him that is +not estimable. And, as you say, we have been much and most intimately +associated. We have travelled together half over the world, we have been +dependent on each other for months at a time, and the more I have seen +of him the more I have admired and--yes--loved him. If I had to pick a +fault in him I would say it is a curious spice of obstinacy--I have seen +it very strongly now and then. Once," and his face grew grave, "once, we +nearly quarrelled because he would not give in on a certain point. It +was in Siberia, not long ago," and here Philip gave a sort of shiver, +"it was very horrible--no need to go into details. He, Arthur, got it +into his head that a particular course of action was called for, and +there was no moving him. However it ended all right. I had almost +forgotten it. But he was determined." + +Mr. Trevannion listened, but vaguely. Keir's remarks scarcely seemed to +the point. + +"Obstinate!" he repeated. "Yes, but that doesn't explain things. There +was no question of giving in. They had had no quarrel. Daisy was +perfectly happy. The only thing she can say on looking back over the +last week or two closely, is that Arthur had seemed depressed now and +then, and when she taxed him with it he evaded a reply. You don't think, +Philip, that there is anything of that kind--melancholia, you know--in +his family?" + +"Bless you, no, my dear sir. He comes of the healthiest stock possible. +People one knows all about for generations. No, no, it's nothing of that +kind," Keir replied. "And--what man ever had such happy prospects?" + +"Then what in heaven's name is it?" said Mr. Trevannion, bringing his +hand down violently on the table beside which they were sitting. "Can +you get it out of him, if you can do nothing else for us, Philip? It is +our right to know; it is--it is due to my child, it is----" he stopped, +his face working with emotion. "He won't see her, you know," he added +disconnectedly. + +"I will try," said Philip. "It is indeed the least I can do. If--if I +could get him to see her--Daisy; surely that would be the best chance." + +Mr. Trevannion looked at him sharply, scrutinisingly. + +"You--you are satisfied then--entirely satisfied that there is nothing +we need dread her being mixed up in, so to say? Nothing wrong--nothing +to shock a girl like her? You see," half apologetically, "his refusing +to see her makes one afraid----" + +"I am as sure of him as of myself--surer," said Philip earnestly. "There +is nothing in his past to explain it--nothing." + +"An early secret marriage; a wife he thought dead turning up again," +suggested the father. "It sounds absurd, sensational--but after +all--there must be some reason." + +"Not that," said Keir, getting up as he spoke. "Well then, I will see +him first thing in the morning, and communicate with you as soon as +possible after I have done so. You will tell Mrs. Trevannion and--and +Daisy that I will do my best?" + +"My wife is still in the drawing-room. Will you not see her to-night?" + +Philip shook his head. + +"It is late," he said, "and I am dusty and unpresentable. Besides, there +is really nothing to say. To-morrow it shall be as you all think best. I +will see Mrs. Trevannion--and Daisy," here he flushed a little, but his +host did not observe it, "if you like and if she wishes it. Heaven send +I may have better news than I expect." + +And with a warm pressure of his old friend's hand, Mr. Keir left him. + +The two younger men met the next morning. There was no difficulty about +it, for Lingard, knowing by instinct that the interview must take place, +had determined to face it. So of the two he was the more prepared, the +more forearmed. + +The conversation was long--an hour, two hours passed before poor Philip +could make up his mind to accept the ultimatum contained in the few hard +words with which Arthur Lingard first greeted him. + +"I know what you have come about. I knew you must come. You could not +help yourself. But, Philip, it will save you pain--I don't mind for +myself; nothing can matter now--if you will at once take my word for it +that nothing you can say will do the least shadow of good. No, don't +shake hands with me. I would rather you didn't." + +And he put his right arm behind his back and stood there, leaning +against the mantelpiece, facing his friend. + +Philip looked up at him grimly. + +"No," he said, "I've given my word to--to these poor dear people, and +I'll stick to it. You've got to make up your mind to a cross-examination, +Lingard." + +But through or below the grimness was a terrible pity. Philip's heart +was very tender for the man whose inexplicable conduct was yet filling +him with indignation past words. Arthur was so changed--the last week or +two had done the work of years--all the youthfulness, the almost boyish +brightness, which had been one of his charms, was gone, dead. He was +pale with a strange indescribable pallor, that told of days, and worse +still, of nights of agony; the lines of his face were hardened; the lips +spoke of unalterable determination. Only once had Philip seen him look +thus, and then it was but in expression--the likeness and the contrast +struck him curiously. The other time it had been resolution temporarily +hardening a youthful face; now--what did it remind him of? A monk who +had gone through a life-time of spiritual struggle alone, unaided by +human sympathy? A martyr--no, there was no enthusiasm. It was all dull, +dead anguish of unalterable resolve. + +There was silence for a moment. Keir was choking down an uncomfortable +something in his throat, and bracing himself to the inquisitorial +torture before him to perform. + +"Well," said Arthur, at last. + +And Philip looked up at him again. + +How queer his eyes were--they used to be so deeply blue. Daisy had often +laughed at his changeable eyes, as she called them--blue in the daytime, +almost black at night, but always lustrous and liquid. Now, they were +glassy, almost filmy. What was it? A sudden thought struck Philip. + +"Arthur!" he exclaimed, "Arthur, old fellow, are you going blind? Is +that the mystery? If it is that, good Lord, how little you know her, if +you think that----" + +Arthur's pale lips grew visibly paler. He had been unprepared for attack +in this direction, and for the moment he quailed before it. + +"No," he whispered hoarsely, "it is not that. Would to God it were!" + +But almost instantly he had mastered himself, and from that moment +throughout the interview not even the mention of Daisy's name had power +to stir him. + +And Philip, annoyed with his own impulsiveness, stiffened again. + +"You are determined not to reveal your secret," he began, "but I want to +come to an understanding with you on one point. If I guess it, if I put +my finger on it, will you give me the satisfaction of owning that I have +done so." + +Lingard hesitated. + +"Yes," he said, "I will do so on one condition--your word of honour, +your oath, never to tell it to any human being." + +"Not to--her--Daisy?" + +"Least of all." + +Philip groaned. This did not look very promising for the meeting with +Daisy, which at the bottom of his heart he believed in as his last--his +trump card. + +Still, he had gained something. + +"Then, my first question seems, in the face of that, almost a mockery. I +was going to ask you," and he half gasped--"it is nothing--nothing about +her that is at the root of all this misery? No fancy," again the gasp, +"that--that she doesn't care for you, or love you enough? No nonsense +about your not being suited to each other, or that you couldn't make a +girl of her sensitive, high-strung nature happy?" + +"No," said Arthur, and the word seemed to ring through the room. "No, I +know she loves me as I love her. Oh, no, not quite like that, I trust," +and his voice was firm through all the tragedy of the last sentence. +"And I believe I could have made her very happy. Leave her name out of +it now, Phil, once for all. It has nothing to do personally with the +woman who is, and always will be, to me my perfect ideal of sweetness +and excellence and truth and beauty." + +"Then it has to do with yourself," murmured Keir. "Come, the radius is +narrowing. I flew out at poor Trevannion when he suggested it, but all +the same, it's nothing in your past you're ashamed of that's come to +light, is it? The best fellows in the world make fools of themselves +sometimes, you know. Don't mind my asking." + +"I don't mind," said Arthur wearily, "but it's no use. No, it's nothing +like that. I have done nothing I am ashamed of. I am not secretly +married, nor have I committed forgery," with a very ghastly attempt at a +smile. + +"Then," said Philip, "is it something about your family. Have you found +out that there's a strain of insanity in the Lingards perhaps? People +exaggerate that kind of thing now-a-days. There's a touch of it in us +all, I take it." + +"No," said Arthur, again "my family's all right. I've no very near +relations except my sister, but you know her, and you know all about us. +We're not adventurers in any sense of the word." + +"Far from it," agreed Philip warmly. Then for a moment or two he +relapsed into silence. "Does your sister--does Lady West know +about--about this mysterious affair?" he asked abruptly, after some +pondering. + +"Nothing whatever. I, of course, was bound by every consideration not to +tell her--to tell no one anything till it was understood by--the +Trevannions. And I had no reason for consulting her or--any friend," +Arthur replied. + +He spoke jerkily and with effort, as if he were putting force on himself +to endure what yet he was convinced was absolutely useless torture. + +But his words gave Keir a new opening, which he was quick to seize. + +"That's just it," he exclaimed eagerly. "That's just where it strikes +me you've gone wrong. You should have consulted some one--not myself, +not your sister even; I don't say whom, but some one sensible and +trustworthy. I believe your mind has got warped. You've been thinking +over this trouble, whatever it is, till you can't see it rightly. You've +exaggerated it out of all proportion, and you shouldn't trust your own +morbid judgment." + +Lingard did not answer. He stood motionless, his eyes fixed upon the +ground. For an instant a wild hope dashed through Philip that at last +he had made some impression. But as Arthur slowly raised his dim, worn +eyes, and looked him in the face, it faded again, even before the young +man spoke. + +"To satisfy you, I will tell you this much. I have consulted one +person--a man whom you would allow was trustworthy and wise and good. +From him I have hidden nothing whatever, and he agrees with me that I +have no choice--that duty points unmistakably to the course I am +pursuing." + +Again a flash of suggestion struck his hearer. + +"One person--a man," he repeated. "Arthur, is it some priest? Have they +been converting or perverting you, my boy? Are you going over to Rome, +fancying yourself called to be a Trappist, or a--those fellows at the +Grande Chartreuse, you remember?" + +For the second time during the interview, Arthur smiled, and his smile +was a trifle less ghastly this time. + +"No, again," he said. "You're quite on a wrong tack. I have not the +slightest inclination that way. I--I wish I had. No, my adviser is no +priest. But he's one of the best of men, all the same, and one of the +wisest." + +"You won't tell me who he is?" + +"I cannot." + +"And"--Philip was reluctant to try his last hope, and felt conscious +that he would do it clumsily--"Arthur," he burst out, "you will see +her--Daisy--once more? She has a right to it. You are putting enough +upon her without refusing this one request of hers." + +He stood up as he spoke. He himself had grown strangely pale, and seeing +this, as he glanced at him, Lingard's own face became ashen. + +He shook his head. + +"Good God!" he said, "I think this might have been spared me. No, I will +not see her again. The only thing I can do for her is to refuse this +last request. Tell her so, Philip--tell her what I say. And now leave +me. Don't shake hands with me. I don't wish it, and I daresay you don't. +If--if we never meet again, you and I--and who knows?--if this is our +goodbye, thank you, old fellow, thank you for all you have tried to do. +Perhaps I know the cost of it to you better than you imagine. Good-bye, +Phil!" + +Keir turned towards the door. But he looked back ere he reached it. +Arthur was standing as he had been--motionless. + +"You're not thinking of killing yourself, are you?" he said quietly. + +Arthur looked at him. His eyes had a different expression now--or was +it that something was gleaming softly in them that had not been there +before? + +"No, no--I am not going to be false to my colours. I--I don't care to +talk much about it, but--I am a Christian, Phil." + +"At least I can put that horrid idea out of the poor child's head, +then," thought Keir to himself. Though to Arthur he did not reply, save +by a bend of his head. + + * * * * * + +Time passed. And in his wings there was healing. + +At twenty-four, Daisy Trevannion, though her face bore traces of +suffering of no common order, was yet a sweet and serene woman. To some +extent she had outlived the strange tragedy of her earlier girlhood. + +It had never been explained. The one person who might naturally have +been looked to, to throw some light on the mystery, Lingard's sister, +Lady West, was, as her brother had stated, completely in the dark. At +first she had been disposed to blame Daisy, or her family; and though +afterwards convinced that in so doing she was entirely mistaken, she +never became in any sense confidential with them on the matter. And +after a few months they met no more. For her husband was sent abroad, +and detained there on an important diplomatic mission. + +Now and then, in the earlier days of her broken engagement, Daisy would +ask Philip to "try to find out if Mary West knows where he is". And to +please her he did so. But all he learnt was--what indeed was all the +sister had to tell--that Arthur was off again on his old travels--to +the Capricorn Islands or to the moon, it was not clear which. + +"He has promised that I shall hear from him once a year--as near my +birthday as he can manage. That is all I can tell you," she said, trying +to make light of it. + +And whether this promise was kept or no, one thing was certain--Arthur +Lingard had entirely disappeared from London society. + +At twenty-five, Daisy married Philip. He had always loved her, though he +had never allowed her to suspect it; and knowing herself and her history +as he did, he was satisfied with the true affection she could give +him--satisfied, that is to say, in the hope and belief that his own +devotion would kindle ever-increasing response on her side. And his +hopes were not disappointed. They were very happy. + +Now for the sequel to the story--such sequel, that is to say, as there +is to give--a suggestion of explanation rather than any positive +_denoument_ of the mystery. + +They--Philip and Daisy--had been married for two or three years when one +evening it chanced to them to dine at the house of a rather well-known +literary man with whom they were but slightly acquainted. They had been +invited for a special reason; their hosts were pleasant and genial +people who liked to get those about them with interests in common. +And Keir, though his wings were now so happily clipt, still held his +position as a traveller who had seen and noted much in his former +wanderings. + +"We think your husband may enjoy a talk with Sir Abel Maynard, who is +with us for a few days," Mrs. Thorncroft had said in her note. + +And Sir Abel, not being of the surly order of lions who refuse to roar +when they know that their audience is eager to hear them, made himself +most agreeable. He appreciated Mr. Keir's intelligence and sympathy, and +was by no means indifferent to Mrs. Keir's beauty, though "evidently," +he thought to himself, "she is not over fond of reminiscences of her +husband's travels. Perhaps she is afraid of his taking flight again." + +During dinner the conversation turned, not unnaturally, on a subject +just at that moment much to the fore. For it was about the time of the +heroic Damien's death. + +"No," said Sir Abel, in answer to some inquiry, "I never visited his +place. But I have seen lepers--to perfection. By-the-by," he went on +suddenly, "I came across a queer, a very queer, story a while ago. I +wonder, Keir, if you can throw any light upon it?" + +But at that moment Mrs. Thorncroft gave the magic signal and the women +left the room. + +By degrees the men came straggling upstairs after them, then a little +music followed, but it was not till much later in the evening than was +usual with him that Philip made his appearance in the drawing-room, +preceded by Sir Abel Maynard. Philip looked tired and rather "distrait," +thought Daisy, whose eyes were keen with the quick discernment of +perfect affection, and she was not sorry when, before very long, he +whispered to her that it was getting late, might they not leave soon? +Nor was she sorry that during the interval before her husband made this +suggestion, Sir Abel, who had been devoting himself to her, had avoided +all mention of his travels, and had been amusing her with his criticism +of a popular novel instead. She could never succeed altogether in +banishing the painful association of Arthur Lingard from allusion to +her husband's old wanderings. + +Poor Arthur! Where was he now? + +"Philip, dear," she said, slipping her hand into his when they found +themselves alone, and with a longish drive before them, in their own +little brougham, "there is something the matter. You have heard +something? Tell me what it is." + +Keir hesitated. + +"Yes," he said, "I suppose it is best to tell you. It is the strange +story Sir Abel alluded to before you left the room." + +"About--about Arthur? Is it about Arthur?" whispered she, shivering a +little. + +Philip put his arm round her. + +"I can't say. We shall perhaps never know certainly," he replied. "But +it looks very like it. Listen, dear. Some little time ago--two or +three years ago--Maynard spent some days at one of those awful leper +settlements--never mind where. I would just as soon you did not know. +There, to his amazement, among the most devoted of the attendants upon +the poor creatures he found an Englishman, young still, at least by his +own account, though to judge by his appearance it would have been +impossible to say. For he was himself far gone, very far gone in some +ways, in the disease. But he was, or had been, a man of strong +constitution and enormous determination. Ill as he was, he yet managed +to tend others with indescribable devotion. They looked upon him as a +saint. Maynard did not like to inquire what had brought him to such a +pass--he, the poor fellow, was a perfect gentleman. But the day Sir Abel +was leaving, the Englishman took him to some extent into his confidence, +and asked him to do him a service. This was his story. Some years +before, in quite a different part of the world, the young man had nursed +a leper--a dying leper--for some hours. He believed for long that he had +escaped all danger, in fact he never thought of it; but it was not so. +There must have been an unhealed wound of some kind--a slight scratch +would do it--on his hand. No need to go into the details of his first +misgivings, of the horror of the awful certainty at last. It came upon +him in the midst of the greatest happiness; he was going to be married +to a girl he adored." + +"Oh, Philip, Philip, why did he not tell?" Daisy wailed. + +"He consulted the best and greatest physician, who--as a friend, he +said--approved of the course he had mapped out for himself. He decided +to tell no one, to break off his engagement, and die out of her--the +girl's--life; not once, after he was sure, did he see her again. He +would not even risk touching her hand. And he believed that telling +would only have brought worse agony upon her in the end than the agony +he was forced to inflict. For he was a doomed man, though they gave him +a few years to live. And he did the only thing he could do with those +years. He set off to the settlement in question. Maynard was to call +there some months later on his way home, and the young man knew he would +be dead then, and so he was. But he showed Maynard a letter explaining +all, that he had got ready--all but the address--_that_, he would not +add till he was in the act of dying. There must be no risk of her +knowing till he was dead. And this letter Maynard was to fetch on his +return. He did so, but--there had been no time to add the address--death +had come suddenly. All sorts of precautions had been ordered by the poor +fellow as to disinfecting the letter and so on. But it did not seem to +Maynard that these had been taken. So he contented himself by spreading +out the paper on the sea-shore and learning it by heart, and then +leaving it. The sum total of it was what I have told you, but not one +name was named." + +Daisy was sobbing quietly. + +"Was it he?" she said. + +"Yes, I feel sure of it," Philip replied. "For I can supply the missing +link. The one time I really quarrelled with Arthur was when we were in +Siberia. He _would_ spend a night in a dying leper's hut. I would have +done it myself, I believe and hope, had it been necessary. But by riding +on a few miles we could have got help for the poor creature--which +indeed I did--and more efficient help than ours. But Lingard was +determined, and no ill seemed to come of it. I had almost forgotten the +circumstance. I never associated it with the mystery that caused you +such anguish, my poor darling." + +"It was he," whispered Daisy. "Philip, he was a hero after all." + +"Not even you can feel that, as I do," Keir replied. + +Then they were silent. + + * * * * * + +A few weeks afterwards came a letter from Lady West, in her far-off +South American home. Daisy had not heard from her for years. + +"By circuitous ways, I need not explain the details," she wrote, "I have +learnt that my darling brother is dead. I thought I had better tell you. +I am sure his most earnest wish was that you should live to be happy, +dear Daisy, as I trust you are. And I know you have long forgiven him +the sorrow he caused you--it was worse still for him." + +"I wonder," said Daisy, "if she knows more?" + +But the letter seemed to add certainty to their own conviction. + + + + +THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN. + + +"You misunderstand me wilfully, Helen. I neither said nor inferred +anything of the kind." + +"What did you mean then, for if words to you bear a different +interpretation from what they do to me, I must trouble you to speak in +_my_ language when addressing me," angrily retorted a young girl, with +what nature had intended to be a very pretty face with a charming +expression, but which at the present moment was far from deserving the +latter part of the description. Eyes flashing, cheeks burning and hands +clenched in the excess of her indignation, stood Helen Beaumont by the +window of her pretty little sitting-room, or "studio" as she loved to +call it, presenting a striking contrast to the peaceful scene without; +where a carefully tended garden still looked bright with the remaining +flowers of late September. Her companion, standing in the attitude +invariably assumed now-a-days by novelists' heroes, namely, leaning +against the mantelpiece, was a young man of equally prepossessing +appearance with her own. At first glance no one would have suspected him +of sharing any of the young lady's excitement, for his expression was so +calm as almost to merit the description of sleepy. Looking more closely, +however, the signs of some unusual disturbance or annoyance were to be +descried, for his face was slightly flushed and his blue eyes had lost +the look of sweet temper evidently their ordinary expression. + +"What I meant to say, Helen, was not, as you choose to misinterpret it, +that I blame you for proper womanly courage and spirit, than which, I +consider few things more admirable, nor as you are well aware do I +admire the sweetly silly and affectedly timid order of young ladies. But +this I do mean and repeat, that I think your persistence in this foolish +scheme a piece of sheer bravado and foolhardiness, totally unworthy of +any sensible person's approval, and what is more----" + +"Thank you, Malcolm, or rather Mr. Willoughby, I have heard quite +enough,"--and as she spoke, Helen turned from the window out of which +she had been gazing while Malcolm spoke, with, it must be confessed, +very little interest in the varied tints of the dahlias blooming in all +their rich brilliance on the terrace,--"I have heard quite enough, and +think myself exceedingly fortunate in having heard it now before it +is too late. You may imagine," she continued, "that I am speaking in +temper, but it is not so. I have for some time suspected, and now feel +convinced, that we are not suited to each other. Your own words bear +witness to your opinion of me, 'self-willed, foolhardy, unwomanly,' and +I know not what other pretty expressions you have applied to me, and for +my part I tell you simply that I cannot and will not marry a man whose +opinion of what a woman should be is like yours; and who insults me +constantly as you do, by telling me how far short I fall of his ideal. +Marry your ideal, Malcolm Willoughby, and I shall wish you joy of her. +Some silly little fool who dares not move a step alone in her bewitching +helplessness. But do not think to convert _me_ into such a piece of +contemptible inanity," and so saying she turned towards the door. + +"Helen," said Malcolm quietly, so quietly that Helen was arrested in +spite of herself, "you are unjust, unreasonable and ungenerous. You know +that I never cared for any woman but you, you know that nothing pleases +me more than to witness your superiority in numberless particulars to +the general run of girls, and you know too the pride and pleasure I take +in your skill as an artist; but blinded by self-will you will not see +the perfect reasonableness of my request that you will abandon this +absurd expedition. If not for your own sake, at least do so for Edith's, +who is as you know left in your special charge by Leonard." + +The first part of this speech seemed, to judge by Helen's transparent +countenance, likely to soften and move her, but the unlucky word +"absurd" and the tone in which Malcolm spoke, as if it was necessary to +remind her of her duty, effectually did away with any good result that +his remonstrance might have worked. She turned, with her hand on the +door, and saying, "I have told you my decision, Mr. Willoughby, and I +wish you good-evening," left the room. Malcolm remained behind, lost +in thought of no pleasurable nature. At last he too left the little +sitting-room, after first ringing the bell and ordering his horse to be +brought round. Making his way to the front entrance he there "mounted +and rode away," his spirits, poor fellow, by no means the better for +his visit. + +It is time, I think, to explain the cause of the lovers' quarrel +above described. Helen and Edith Beaumont were orphans, left to the +guardianship of their brother Leonard, in whose house we have seen the +former. Delicacy, induced by a severe illness some months previously, +had obliged Mr. Beaumont, accompanied by his wife, to go for the autumn +and winter months to the south of France, leaving his sisters at home +under the nominal chaperonage of an elderly aunt, who performed her duty +to the perfect satisfaction of her nieces by letting them do exactly as +they liked. More correctly speaking, perhaps, exactly as Helen liked, +for the younger of the two, Edith, a girl of seventeen and four years +her sister's junior, could hardly be said to have likes or dislikes +distinct from those of Helen. Possibly Mr. Beaumont might not have left +the two to their own devices with so easy a mind, had he not quitted +home happy in the knowledge of Helen's engagement to his friend and +neighbour Malcolm Willoughby. The gentleman in question lived within a +few miles of our heroine's home, having succeeded some years before to +his father's property. His only sister, Mrs. Lindsay, was at this time +living with him for a few months while awaiting her husband's return +from India, and though some years older, was, next to her sister, +Helen's most valued friend and companion. Malcolm Willoughby was a man +of high character, peculiarly fitted, by his unusual amount of sterling +good sense, to be the guide of an impulsive, enthusiastic girl like +pretty Helen Beaumont, whom to know was to love, and who would have been +altogether charming but for her inordinate amount of self-will and +inveterate dislike to being, as she expressed it, "ordered" to do or not +to do whatever came into her head. She and her sister had real talent as +artists, and their spirited and well-executed landscapes bore but little +resemblance to the insipid productions of most young lady painters. To +improving herself in this direction Helen had devoted much time and +labour. Unfortunately, it had so absorbed her thoughts and desires that +in its pursuance she was inclined sometimes to forget what were for +her more important avocations. Helen's fortunate engagement to Mr. +Willoughby had for some time past corrected these only objectionable +tendencies in her character, and all had gone smoothly and happily till +the date at which our story commences, when, unluckily, some artist +friends had filled her head with their descriptions of the exquisite +autumn scenery, "effects of foliage," etc., to be seen in a mountainous +and hitherto little explored part of Wales. Her imagination, and through +her that of her sister Edith, ran wild on the subject, and now nothing +would satisfy her but a journey to the spot in question, by themselves, +in order that they might enjoy their freedom to the utmost, and revel in +the delight of painting some of the wonderful Welsh scenery described to +them. The idea had at first been mooted half in joke, but an impolitic +expression of strong disapprobation on the part of Mr. Willoughby had +done more to determine Helen on carrying it out than all the anticipated +artistic enjoyment. + +"It will be just the opportunity I wanted," thought the foolish girl, +"of showing him that I do not intend to be a silly nonentity of a wife +with no opinion of my own, and hedged in by all the absurd old-fashioned +conventionalities which will not allow a woman to have an existence of +her own or give her opportunity to cultivate what talents she may +possess." + +And once determined, Miss Helen remained inflexible. In vain Mr. +Willoughby remonstrated, in vain even their indulgent old aunt expressed +her horror at the idea of "two young girls scouring the country by +themselves," her own feebleness rendering her accompanying them out of +the question. Go to Wales Helen and Edith must, and go they would, till +at last the discussion with her _fiance_ terminated in the disastrous +manner above recorded. + +I will not undertake to describe Helen's feelings, when, in the solitude +of her own room, she thought over what she had done. Had she herself +been obliged to put them into words, I believe she would have repeated +that she had not acted in temper and that the stand she had made for her +womanly freedom, as she would have expressed it, had been an act of +supreme heroism and devotion to the cause of right. She said all this +to herself and tried hard, very hard to believe it; and to stifle the +little voice at the very bottom of her heart which whispered that +she had behaved like a silly, self-willed, petted child, and shown +herself undeserving of so good a gift as the love of a man like +Malcolm Willoughby. The little voice was smothered for the time by +exaggerated anticipations of the delights of their tour and attempted +self-congratulations at her newly regained liberty to do as she chose; +for Malcolm did not come near her again, and it took all her pride to +hide from herself and others the shock she felt through all her being +when, in the course of a few days, she heard accidentally that Mr. +Willoughby was leaving home for an uncertain length of time. + +"He has taken me at my word," thought she, "but of course I meant him to +do so," and she hurried on the preparations for their journey which they +were now on the eve of. + +"You will at least take Maxwell," said Aunt Fanny timidly. + +"Maxwell, aunt! No, thank you," said Helen ironically; "she would be +crying for her spring mattress the first night and thinking she was +going to die if she heard the wind howl. No, thank you, I mean to be +independent for once in my life, and so does Edith." + +Other twenty-four hours saw our two young ladies on their way. +Unaccustomed as they were to travelling alone they got on very well for +the greater part of their journey, till they arrived at a certain +railway station in Wales, of name unpronounceable by civilised tongue, +but which sounded to them like that of the place where they were to +leave the railway. Never doubting but what they were right in so doing +Helen and Edith calmly descended from their carriage, watched the train +disappear in the tunnel hard by, and then began to make inquiries for a +conveyance to transport themselves and their luggage, white umbrellas, +easels and all, the five or six miles which they imagined were all that +divided them from their destination. A colloquy ensued with the most +intelligible of two or three fly-drivers, carmen, or whatever these +personages are called in Wales; but what was Helen's consternation on +learning that fifteen miles at least remained to be traversed; they +having left the railway at Llanfar, two stations too soon, instead of +remaining in it till they reached Llanfair, the point nearest to the +farm-house where lodgings had been taken for them. No chance of a train +to Llanfair till to-morrow morning, for the line was a new one, and the +traffic as yet but small. No prospect of a night's accommodation where +they were. Nothing for it but to trust to the driver's assurance that he +and his unpromising-looking horse could easily convey them to the +farm-house, with the inevitably unpronounceable name. With some +unconfessed misgivings Helen and Edith mounted the vehicle awaiting +them, and drove off along a muddy, jolting lane into the quickly +gathering gloom. + +Shivering on her uncomfortable seat, did Helen wish herself at home +again in her own little sitting-room, with Aunt Fanny peacefully +knitting, Edith kneeling on the hearth-rug, and Malcolm's face bright +with the reflection of the ruddy log fire so welcome in autumn evenings; +all together as was their wont, enjoying "blind man's holiday"? + +I think we had better not press the question too closely. However, "it's +a long lane that has no ending," and even this dreary journey gradually +drew to a close. They passed but few houses of any kind, one or two +straggling hamlets were left behind, and for some two or three miles the +road had been perfectly solitary, when they suddenly heard wheels +advancing to meet them, and in a few minutes a car like their own drove +towards them, and being hailed by their driver, drew up at their side. A +jabbering ensued of directions asked and given, and they again drove on. + +"Are you sure you know the way?" said Helen timidly. + +"Oh yes, miss," the driver answered confidently, and further informed +them that the car they had met, had just returned from their own +destination (being translated), the Black Nest Farm, having there +deposited a traveller who had taken the middle course of leaving the +railway at the intermediate stoppage between Llanfar and Llanfair. Other +three-quarters of an hour and they pulled up at last before a house +which the darkness prevented their seeing more of than that it was long +and low. They stumbled up the rough garden path, and in answer to their +knock, the door was opened by a tidy, clean-looking old woman, with a +flickering candle in her hand, evidently surprised at their appearance. +She had, she said, quite given up thoughts of their coming that night, +and feared the fire in the sitting-room was out. Thankful to have +reached the Black Nest at last, a chilly room seemed a smaller evil than +the two girls would have considered it at home; and after all, things +were not so bad, for the fire in the little farmhouse parlour, to which +their landlady conducted them, was not quite out, and a little judicious +coaxing soon brought it round. + +Their hostess's and their own first idea was of course _tea_. What a +blessing, by the way, it is that British womankind in general, high and +low, rich and poor, old and young, have this _one_ taste in common! +Refreshed by the homely meal speedily set before them, Helen and Edith +proceeded, under the guidance of the old woman (apparently the only +inhabitant of the house), and the flickering candle, to inspect their +sleeping apartment. The result was not eminently satisfactory, for it +struck them as gloomy, ill-ventilated, and a long way from their +parlour, though but few rooms appeared to intervene between the two. +This puzzled them at the time, but was afterwards explained by the fact +that Black Nest Farm-house had originally consisted of two one-storeyed +cottages standing at some yards distance from each other, and which, on +becoming the property of one owner, had been united by a long passage; +which arrangement was looked upon in the neighbourhood as a triumph of +architectural ingenuity. On returning to their sitting-room Helen's eye +fell on a door beside their own which she had not before noticed, and +she inquired if that was a bedroom. To which the old woman replied in +the affirmative, but added that they could not have it, as it and a +small sitting-room opening out of it were engaged by a "strange +gentleman". And besides this, she added, the bedroom was not so +desirable for ladies, having a second, or rather third door to the +outside of the house. The only other room they could have was so small +that she did not think they would like it, but they should see for +themselves, and so saying she turned towards a recess in the passage. +Helen followed her, but the flickering candle suddenly throwing light in +a new direction, she gave a little exclamation of alarm at what appeared +at the first moment to be a very ugly grinning portrait high up on the +wall. + +"It's only the clock, miss," said the old woman. "Though, to be sure, it +is quare," and as she spoke she threw the light more fully upon the +object that had startled Helen, which she now perceived to be a very +antique clock, standing high in a dark wooden case, and with the face +she had seen, peeping at you as it were from behind the dial-plate. An +ugly, coarsely painted face, with a disagreeably mocking expression it +seemed to Helen; nor was it the only repulsive feature in this very +remarkable clock, for the artist appeared to have outdone himself in the +grotesquely hideous devices at the bottom of the dial. Death's heads, +cross-bones, and other equally unpleasant objects of various kinds, +curiously intermingled with a condensed solar system, in which sun, moon +and stars appeared jumbled together haphazard. The general object of the +whole evidently being to bring before the spectator the ghastly side of +his future, and to read him a wholesome, but certainly not attractive, +homily on the shortness of life, and the speed with which time was +ticking away. Helen felt half fascinated by its hideousness. + +"Dear me, what a very curious clock!" she ejaculated, and the old woman +repeated, with a little inward chuckle at what she evidently considered +the admiration drawn forth by her heirloom:-- + +"Yes, sure it _is_ quare." + +An uncanny object it certainly was, and Helen felt relieved that the +room in its immediate vicinity was so small as to be out of the question +for the accommodation of her sister and herself. Re-entering the +sitting-room she found poor Edith looking so utterly worn-out that she +proposed that they should at once go to bed; which they accordingly did, +followed by the old woman with offers of assistance. Passing the door of +"the strange gentleman's" room, they heard sounds of some one moving +inside, and Edith sleepily remarked that she wondered what could have +brought a gentleman to an outlandish place like the Black Nest, unless, +like themselves, he came to take views in the neighbourhood. Helen +pricked up her ears at this and inquired of Mrs. Jones if their +fellow-lodger was an artist. Mrs. Jones thought not, but seemed +unwilling to pursue the topic of the strange gentleman further. In +rather a forced manner she changed the subject by inquiring if the young +ladies would like to hire her pony while there, as it was rough walking, +and her grandson Griffith, the only other inhabitant of the cottage, a +little lad of twelve, could lead it for them, and show them the way +whenever they chose. Helen gladly closed with the offer. + +"Dear me, Mrs. Jones," she exclaimed "how very lonely you must be living +here with no one but a little boy. Have you no near neighbours?" + +"None nearer than three miles ma'am, for the farm-men live at a +distance, save old Thomas in the last cottage you passed, but he is +bed-ridden. My widow daughter, Griffith's mother, was with me till she +took ill, two winters ago, and died before the doctor could get to her. +Yes, it is lonesome like in winter to be sure. It's not often that +gentry like you, miss, care to be in these parts so late in the year." + +Further inquiries elicited that the nearest church was a good five miles +off, that there was no doctor nearer than Llanfar, that the butcher only +came in the winter once a fortnight and that irregularly; in consequence +of which the Black Nesters had often to depend upon their own scanty +resources, the roads being almost impassable in stormy weather. + +"Don't you think it feels rather dreary, Helen?" said Edith, as she was +falling asleep. + +"_Eerie_, rather, I should say," replied her sister, "but that, you +know, is the beauty of it. In the morning, I daresay, it will look +bright enough, but I confess I do not like that clock. Listen, can't +you hear its ticking, faintly, even here, at the end of that long +passage?" + +"What clock do you mean? I saw no clock," said Edith, but almost before +Helen could answer, her soft regular breathing told that she was asleep. +Helen however, could not so quickly compose herself. She felt excited +and vaguely uneasy; and when she at last fell asleep, it was only to +have her discomfort increased, by absurd, yet alarming dreams. With +them all the ugly clock was grotesquely intermingled. Sometimes it was +herself, sometimes Edith, and once Malcolm, whom she fancied in some +position of terrible peril, always associated with the clock, and at +last she awoke with a half-smothered scream of horror at the most +frightful dream of all; in which the "strange gentleman," their +fellow-lodger, was pursuing her with a veil over his face, which just as +he caught her fell off, and disclosed, horrible to relate, the face on +the clock. + +Edith started up as Helen convulsively clutched her, and exclaiming, +"What in the world is the matter?" really thought Helen was going out of +her mind when she replied, "That horrible clock;" and as she spoke, as +if invoked, the clock began to strike: "One, two, three, four," and so +on. "Is it never going to stop?" said Helen. Poor Edith, half asleep +still, listened with her. + +"Edith, I am almost certain that clock struck _thirteen_," said Helen in +an awe-struck voice; and then they heard a door shut at the end of the +passage. + +"Helen, you have been dreaming, and you are only half awake now," said +Edith. "It is not like you to waken me in this frightening way, please +let me go to sleep." + +"I am very sorry," said Helen penitently, and she too closed her eyes +and tried hard to go to sleep, which of course she did, as soon as she +left off trying, and had made up her mind to lie awake till daylight. + +The morning broke clear and fresh; and, as Helen had said, things in +general bore a very different aspect to that of the night before. +Indoors, the quaint old house now looked simply picturesque, and Mrs. +Jones the _beau ideal_ of a cheery old hostess. Even the face of the +clock, when Helen pointed it out to Edith, seemed to have lost its +mocking grin, and to be merely bidding them good-morning, with a comical +smile at the consternation it had awakened the night before. + +Out-of-doors they soon turned their steps. There was no view from the +house, but a short voyage of discovery quickly explained to them their +locality. Black Nest Farm stood at the foot of a hill close on to the +high road, or what passed for such in that hitherto little frequented +neighbourhood. On the opposite side of the road but little was to be +seen, as the meadows were soon lost in a thick belt of wood; but +immediately behind the house was a tempting prospect, for there a little +winding path led up the hill to one of the spots Helen and Edith most +ardently desired to paint, and of which their friends had given them a +glowing description. It was rather a long walk to the Black Lake, Mrs. +Jones informed them, but their enthusiasm knew no bounds, and hardly +permitted them to do justice to their breakfast of ham and eggs, +home-made bread and home-churned butter. See them then starting on their +expedition,--their painting materials, and some creature comforts in the +shape of sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs, safely packed on the pony's +back, Griffith leading him and acting as guide. A pretty stiff pull it +was, enthusiasm notwithstanding, and rather hard work for the little +feet, sensibly shod in good strong boots it is true, but unaccustomed +nevertheless to mountain scrambling. But at last their circuitous path +brought them to the summit, and there a curious prospect broke upon +them. They stood at the edge of the great Welsh tableland. There it +stretched away before them, miles and miles beyond their view; a vast +expanse of wild, brown moor, unrelieved by tree or shrub, but here and +there dotted by great patches of what Edith at first sight took to be +"lovely emerald moss". Treacherous loveliness, for it told, as they +learnt from Griffith, of fearful bog-pits, down whose slimy sides once +slipped no man or beast could ever regain firm ground. + +"What a horrible death that would be," said Helen, shuddering, "far +worse than regular drowning in clean water. It would be slow suffocation +in nasty, dirty mud." + +A few minutes' careful walking brought them in sight of the Black Lake, +the special object of their excursion. And it certainly was well worth +coming to see, if not to paint; probably too, better seen in the +greyness of a late autumn day than in the summer sun, whose bright rays +reflected on its surface would have little harmonised with its character +of gloom and loneliness. The lake was equal to several acres in extent, +but from where they stood could not all be seen, as its farther end +was hidden by the undulations of the land. In colour it was a dull, +leaden grey, and looking at it, one's mind spontaneously reverted to +travellers' descriptions of the Dead Sea, for _dead_ was essentially the +word by which to describe it. There were no fish to be caught in it +Griffith told them, and as for its depth he had never heard tell of any +one's sounding it. The effect of the whole scene was very peculiar, and +so Helen and Edith felt it to be, as they stood gazing at the leaden +water and the great, apparently boundless moorland. It was difficult to +realise that they were so far above the ordinary haunts of men, for +there was nothing in that great plain to remind them of the existence +even of hills and mountains, except a steady-blowing breeze of that +peculiar freshness pertaining only to sea or mountain air. Pleasantly +invigorating at first, but soon becoming too chilly to make one care to +stand about, or, worse still, to _sit_, as our young ladies now +prepared to do. + +"We are very lucky in the weather," remarked Helen, as they prepared for +their sketching. "I should fancy it is just the day to see the lake to +the best advantage." + +"Or disadvantage," said Edith, "for I do think it is the most horrible +place I ever saw. I don't know," added she dreamily, "but what it would +seem even more desolate on a bright, sunny day. I don't know why." + +"I understand how you mean," replied her sister, "the contrast would be +so strange. Like a skeleton dressed in a golden robe. Dear me, I am +becoming quite poetical. But look, Edith, how do you like this?" And a +consultation on their work ensued. + +Very cold work it became, as it grew to afternoon, notwithstanding the +pleasurable excitement of their occupation, and Edith, for one, was not +sorry when Helen at last thought it time to pack up their painting +materials and turn homewards. A drizzling rain began to fall as they +neared the foot of the hill, and they both felt thankful to reach the +farm-house,--tired, muddy and damp, and in not _quite_ such high +spirits as when they set off on their expedition. A savoury odour +meeting them on their entrance, Helen suddenly bethought herself that +she had utterly forgotten to order anything for their "high tea," or +whatever one likes to call the said incongruous meal. It was therefore +an agreeable surprise to her after remembering her neglect to see on +entering their little sitting-room the brightest of fires, and the table +daintily set out with evident preparation for a tempting repast; part of +which, in the shape of a delicious-looking ham, "a new-made pat of +butter and a wheaten loaf so fine," had already made its appearance. +Damp clothes and muddy boots discarded, they sat down with an excellent +appetite to their meal, and the savoury odour which had greeted them was +soon explained by the appearance of Mrs. Jones bearing a chicken stewed +in mushrooms. + +"Mushrooms!" exclaimed Helen, "the thing of all others I like. How +clever you are, Mrs. Jones, to get us all these good things! I shall +leave our food to your providing, I think, in future." + +Mrs. Jones laughed and said a friend had sent some things from Llanfar, +and a friend also had gathered the mushrooms, the last of their season, +thinking the young ladies might like them. + +"Your friends are as good as yourself then, Mrs. Jones," said Helen; but +as she spoke she was startled by what sounded like a half-smothered +laugh or exclamation of some kind just outside the door. Almost at the +same moment her friend the clock began to strike, and she therefore +fancied the sound she had heard must have come from it. "Its internal +arrangements are, I daresay, as peculiar as its outside," thought she to +herself, and refrained therefore from mentioning to Edith what she +thought she had heard. All the rest of the evening, however, though she +would hardly have owned it to herself, she felt a little nervous and +uneasy, particularly when she heard the clock strike. + +"I wonder what our fellow-lodger does with himself all day," said Edith +that evening. + +"I am sure I don't know, or care either," said Helen, "indeed, I hardly +believe there is such a being at all." + +They went early to bed, and fell quickly asleep. After having slept, it +seemed to her for several hours, Helen woke suddenly with the feeling +that something had wakened her, and found that the clock was busy +striking, and to her confused fancy had been striking for ever so long +before she woke. Its strokes ceased before she was sufficiently awake to +count them, but a moment or two afterwards she heard a door shut as it +had done the night before. + +"It is very annoying that I can't get a good night's rest here," thought +she. A whispered "Helen," told her that Edith too was awake. + +"The clock _did_ strike thirteen," said Edith, "and there _must_ be +somebody in that room, for I heard the door shut again." + +"And so did I," said Helen, whereupon they lay still in awe-struck +silence, till they both fell fast asleep again. + +The next day was Saturday, and though somewhat stiff and tired with +their exertions, Friday's programme was repeated. The sketches proceeded +satisfactorily, but our heroines were less fortunate in other respects, +for just as they were about to leave the Black Lake in the afternoon, +the rain came on in torrents. Long before they got back to the +farm-house the poor girls were thoroughly drenched. Edith escaped with +no ill results, but Helen sat shivering over the fire all the evening, +passed an uneasy night in which it seemed to her that the clock never +left off striking at all, and woke on Sunday morning with every symptom +of a delightfully bad cold. The prospect outside was not cheering. Rain, +rain, rain. Down it came in torrents. No chance of making their way to +the five miles' off church, no chance even of a quiet stroll along the +lanes; and, worst of all, no books to read, for such a possibility as a +whole day in the house had never presented itself to their inexperienced +imaginations! It was very dull. Helen was almost cross with Edith for +being so exceedingly sympathetic. It was kind of course, but provoking +nevertheless, as to Helen's sensitiveness it seemed to convey a tacit +reproach. She would not allow to herself that they were at all to be +pitied. All the same she was not sorry when the time came at last for +them to go to bed. + +"I wish we had brought some sherry with us," said Edith. "A little white +wine whey would have been the very thing for your cold." + +"What's the good of wishing," replied her sister rather snappishly, "you +had better call Mrs. Jones and ask her to make me some gruel." But on +Mrs. Jones's appearance, and when the request had been made, both the +girls felt rather surprised at her volunteering the very thing they had +been wishing for. + +She had, she said, "some very nice sherry wine, given her by a friend," +and many years ago, when she was in service in Chester, she had learnt +to make white wine whey. Sure enough a tempting-looking basinful shortly +after made its appearance. + +Thanks to its soporific influence Helen soon fell asleep, but woke (as +she had got strangely into the habit of doing) just at midnight, or +as Edith had taken to calling it, "thirteen o'clock". The clock was +half-way through its striking when she woke, and a sudden impulse seized +her to jump up, and, opening the door slightly, to peep out and either +see who it was that always shut a door after the clock struck, or, by +seeing nothing, satisfy herself that the sound had all along been merely +the creation of her own and Edith's imagination. + +She opened the door very cautiously, and instantly perceived that there +was a light at the end of the passage in the recess where stood the +clock. Helen's heart beat more loudly, and she wished devoutly that she +had allowed her curiosity to remain unsatisfied, when to her horror the +light moved out of the recess, and she saw that it was held by a tall +dark figure with its back turned towards her. The passage was so long +and the light flickered so much that it was impossible for her to +distinguish anything but the general outline of the person who held it. +Not Mrs. Jones or Griffith, assuredly, but poor Helen was too frightened +to do more than lock the door with her trembling fingers and leap back +into bed, thereby awakening Edith, who on hearing Helen's story calmly +assured her that she had either been dreaming, or had seen the strange +gentleman their fellow-lodger whose existence Helen had rashly dared to +question. Oddly enough she had forgotten all about him, and felt +somewhat relieved by Edith's matter-of-fact solution. + +"Only what should he be doing at the clock at this time of night? I hope +he is not out of his mind;"--to which Edith replied:-- + +"I do believe he gets up to make it strike thirteen on purpose to tease +us." + +Monday morning wore a more promising aspect than Sunday, for such clouds +as there were, bespoke nothing worse than showers, and our young ladies +succeeded in obtaining an hour or two's sketching at the lake. Helen, +however, felt still considerably the worse of her terrible wetting, +and was actually the first to propose that they should return to the +farm-house. Somewhat weakened by her cold, and tired too, she mounted +the little pony at Edith's suggestion, and they were proceeding cheerily +enough on their way--Griffith, loaded with their painting materials, +some little distance behind--when a stumble on the pony's part brought +him suddenly to the ground. Helen had been paying little attention to +her steed, and, unprepared for the shock, fell on her side with some +little force. A most undignified procedure had there been any one to +witness it, but which would have drawn forth nothing but a laugh had it +not been that in the fall her foot caught in the stirrup. Her sharp cry +of pain terrified Edith, who, however, soon succeeded in disentangling +her, as the poor little pony remained perfectly quiet, but a moment's +examination, and a vain attempt to stand, showed them that the ankle was +badly sprained. All that could be done was to mount Helen again as well +as Edith and Griffith could manage, and to make the best of their way +home. Arrived there, hot applications soon reduced the pain, but it was +easy to be seen, even by their inexperienced eyes, that Helen must not +attempt to move for several days to come. + +Here was a charming ending to their expedition! Helen, even, felt +woefully disconcerted, and poor Edith fairly began to cry. + +"If it were not that you would not like it, I would write to Mrs. +Lindsay to come and nurse you," said Edith, "she is so good and kind, +and I know she would come in a minute, for she has nothing to prevent +her." + +"Mrs. Lindsay! Edith," exclaimed Helen indignantly, "the very last +person I would apply to, however good and kind she may be. Do you really +think that. I would put myself under such an obligation to the sister of +the man I have----" "Quarrelled with for nothing at all," said the +little voice at the bottom of her heart. Edith said nothing, but for the +first time in her life took an independent resolution and acted upon it. +Her love for Helen conquered her fear of displeasing her. What this +resolution was we shall not disclose, nor shall we tell whose hand +addressed a letter to Mrs. Lindsay carried that evening by the post-boy +to Llanfar. The strangest coincidence was that _two_ letters bearing the +same direction left the Black Nest Farm that evening. + +Tired out with the pain of her ankle, Helen, for the first time since +their arrival, slept past midnight and only woke to hear the clock +strike five. All too soon for her comfort, for her thoughts were none +of the brightest, as she lay waiting for the daylight. Her folly, her +headstrong determination, right or wrong, to carry out her own way, +began to show themselves to her more clearly; or rather, she began to +allow herself to see them in their true light. And when at last the +morning came, and she was established for the day on the hard little +horse-hair sofa in their sitting-room, her spirits were not improved by +the perusal of a letter from her Aunt Fanny. The good old lady, after +deploring their absence and pathetically describing her anxiety on their +behalf, made mention of a visit from Mrs. Lindsay, who had come to tell +her how unhappy she was about her brother. "He left home," wrote Aunt +Fanny, "two days after that unfortunate conversation with you without +telling his sister what was the matter. At least she only gathered that +something unpleasant had happened from his saying that you were leaving +home, and that he did not expect to see you before you went. He left no +direction beyond telling her to write to his club, which she has done +two or three times, but got no answer. She says he looked so unlike +himself that she fears he has fallen ill somewhere and cannot write to +tell her. Oh, Helen, I do wish you had never thought of this +expedition." + +"How very silly Mrs. Lindsay is to be so fanciful," said Helen, in which +view of the case tender-hearted little Edith did not at all agree, +though she hardly dared to say so. They spent a dull day, for Edith +would not consent to leave her sister, and their paintings were at a +standstill for want of another day's sketching from the original. + +"To-morrow, Edith," said Helen, "you might go to the lake for an hour or +so without me and finish your sketch, and I might go on with mine from +yours," to which Edith made no objection. + +By night Helen's feverish uneasiness had increased, and Edith secretly +congratulated herself on her resolute step of the day before. And a +wretched night followed. In reality Helen was very anxious and unhappy +about Malcolm Willoughby, and her dreams were full of terrors that +something had befallen him. Through all, the disagreeable clock again +thrust forward its ugly face, and she woke in an indescribable state of +horror, fancying that the clock was standing by her bedside, striking +loudly in her ears to a kind of "refrain" of the words: "I told you so. +I told you so." Of course the clock _was_ striking, and had evidently +awakened her by so doing. + +"Thirteen again," whispered Edith, "it is really very disagreeable." + +"It sounds to _me_ like the voice of my conscience," said Helen, +"warning me that some terrible punishment is coming upon me for my +wicked folly. Yes, Edith, I see it all now, and as soon as ever I can +move we shall go home, and I shall ask poor Aunt Fanny to forgive me. I +wish every other consequence of my wrong-doing could be done away with +as easily as her displeasure." And all her pride broken down, poor Helen +burst into tears, and Edith's affectionate words of soothing were of no +avail to stop her sobs. She felt rather better in the morning however, +partly, perhaps, because the day was bright and sunny. About mid-day +she fell into a doze on her sofa, and waking after an hour's sleep was +surprised to miss Edith. A note in pencil pinned to the table-cover +caught her attention. It bore these words: "You are so nicely asleep I +don't like to waken you. I shall come back as early as I can, but don't +be alarmed if I am a little later than you expect." + +"She has gone to finish the sketch," thought Helen uneasily. "I wish I +had not asked her to do so, it looks dull and overcast." + +She rang the hand-bell for Mrs. Jones, who appeared with a basin of +soup, and told her that the young lady had set off a quarter of an hour +before. + +"It can't be helped now," said Helen, "but I wish I had not proposed +it." + +The afternoon seemed long and dull, and yet Helen felt sorry when it +began to close in, for no Edith had yet appeared. Still it was not later +than they had been out together more than once. Helen tried to think it +was not yet dusk outside, but felt this comfort fail her when it +gradually grew so indisputably dark that Mrs. Jones brought in candles +without her asking for them. + +"Are you not uneasy about my sister and Griffith, Mrs. Jones?" said +Helen; but her anxiety was tenfold increased when Mrs. Jones replied +calmly:-- + +"Griffith is not with the young lady to-day. I had to send him a message +to Llanfair, and as like as not he will stay at his uncle's till the +morning. The young lady said it did not matter, and I saddled the pony +for her myself." + +"Griffith not with her!" exclaimed Helen. "Oh, Mrs. Jones, what will +become of her?" + +"Don't be alarmed, miss," said the old woman, "the pony is very steady, +and the darkness comes on so sudden-like, it seems later than it is." + +And with this scanty consolation Helen was obliged to remain satisfied. +Mrs. Jones stirred up the fire and set the tea all ready, but Helen grew +sick at heart as the time went on, and still no Edith. Six, struck the +clock, and ticked on again to seven. Helen could bear it no longer. + +"Mrs. Jones," cried she, "can you not get any one to go to look for my +sister? She may be on her way down the hill, and have got into some +difficulty with the pony." + +"Indeed, miss, I don't know what I can do. There's no one nearer than +old Thomas and he can't move." + +"The strange gentleman!" said Helen suddenly; "your other lodger. Would +he not help me?" + +"He has been out since early this morning," replied Mrs. Jones, "and he +told me he was not sure of being back to-night. He has gone to meet a +friend." + +Helen felt more in despair than before. It seemed an aggravation of her +anxiety to have to lie still on the sofa doing nothing. Indeed had she +been able to do so, nothing would have prevented her making her way to +the Black Lake, and too probably losing her own life in the endeavour to +save her sister's. As it was, she managed at last to drag herself to the +door in hopes of hearing footsteps up the path, but nothing broke the +silence save the tick, tick of the clock. It wore on to nine, despite +her wretchedness and indescribable anxiety. She pictured to herself her +sister, her dear little Edith, left so specially in her charge, cowering +on the moor, alone in that dreary darkness, sobbing in despair of ever +finding her way out of that frightful desert. Or, worse still, lying +cold and dead in one of those fearful pits under the mockingly beautiful +moss; whence, in all probability, her poor body even would never be +recovered. It was too frightful. Helen almost shrieked aloud: "Oh, my +darling, my little sister, come back, do come back. Oh, Malcolm, if +only you were here. How terribly I am punished for my self-will!" And +terribly punished she was, for the memory of that night's suffering was +too painful to recall in after years without a shudder. Mrs. Jones was +in helpless distress, though in hopes of every moment hearing the pony +and the young lady at the gate, and she returned to her own domains +saying she had better have hot water ready as Miss Edith would be +fainting for her tea. Helen remained alone at the window of the +sitting-room. + +The night was fine but very dark. Darker than she had ever seen a night +before, it seemed to Helen. She was almost in a stupor of despair. She +sank down half-unconsciously before the fire and never knew how long she +had lain there when she was roused by the clock striking. "One, two, +three, four,"--she counted aloud as if bewitched, till when it got to +the fatal _thirteen_, her over-strained nerves gave way, and with a +scream she ran or stumbled, she knew not how, along the passage to seek +for Mrs. Jones. As she passed the front-door she was arrested by the +sharp sounds of steps coming quickly up the garden path. The door was +pushed open. The only light was what came through the open door of the +room she had just left, and she could distinguish nothing but a tall +dark figure hurrying towards her. She screamed with terror but stood, +unable to move, when to her intense relief a voice from behind the +person she saw, exclaimed eagerly: "Helen, dearest Helen, don't be +frightened. I am quite safe," and some one rushed past the tall person, +now close to her, and kissing her passionately, Helen felt, rather than +saw, that it was Edith. + +"Malcolm! Malcolm! she is fainting!" called Edith, and the tall person +pressed forward, caught her up in his arms like a baby, and, unconscious +now of everything, Helen was carried back into the sitting-room, laid on +the hard little sofa, and there held tenderly by the strong yet gentle +arms whose protecting care she, poor foolish child, had fancied she +could so well dispense with. + +It was the first time in her life that Helen Beaumont had ever fainted, +and it was not long before she began to recover. + +"Malcolm! oh, Malcolm!" were her first words on returning consciousness +(and it seemed to her afterwards as if some one else had spoken them for +her, her good angel perhaps!), "can you ever forgive me?" + +"My darling," was the whispered answer, "you know you need not ask it." +And then Helen felt as if she were just going to die, but was too happy +to care, and too languid to ask even how all this had come about. But +now a third person came forward saying:-- + +"Malcolm, let me stay beside her," and, wonderful to tell, the sweet +voice and kind face were Mrs. Lindsay's. Helen thought she must be +dreaming, but lay still as she was told, and then drank something or +other Mrs. Lindsay brought her; so before long she was able to sit up +and begin to wonder what was the meaning of it all. + +"Are you not amazed, Helen?" said Edith; "but first of all you must +forgive me for frightening you so, for indeed I have been nearly as +wretched as you, thinking of what you must have been feeling." And +before Helen could reply the eager girl ran on with her explanations. +"Who do you think has been our fellow-lodger all this time, Helen? Who +do you think is the 'strange gentleman'? Only fancy Malcolm's having +been here ever since we came! It was he that travelled by the same +train, and seeing as it moved off at Llanfar that we had got out, he did +so at the next station, and arrived here before us. He had inquired +about Mrs. Jones, and heard what a good creature she was; and he had +time to have a talk with her, and to take her to some extent into his +confidence." + +Helen looked at first, as this recital went on, as if she were wavering +between a return to her old dislike to being interfered with, and +gratitude to Malcolm for his undeserved devotion. The good angel +triumphed, as Malcolm, who was watching her anxiously, quickly +perceived. + +"I did not interfere with you, Helen," he said in a low voice, "but it +was the greatest comfort to me to be able to protect and care for you, +even though you did not know it." + +The tears started to Helen's eyes. + +"Oh, Malcolm, I know how good you are, but----" + +"Never mind any 'buts,'" said Mrs. Lindsay brightly, catching the last +word. "'All's well, that ends well.'" + +"I know now who foraged for us so successfully," said Edith. "Who was +the mysterious friend that gave Mrs. Jones the mushrooms!" + +"And nearly betrayed myself by laughing at the door, when passing I +heard Helen's enthusiastic thanks to Mrs. Jones," said Malcolm. + +"Yes, and frightened me horribly by so doing," added Helen, "as I really +began to think that clock was bewitched, and had a special ill-will +against me. In fact it took the place of my conscience for the time +being." + +"I have the very greatest regard for the clock," said Malcolm demurely, +"and I intend to make Mrs. Jones an offer for it forthwith." + +"Please don't," said Helen piteously. "I daresay it is very silly, but I +really don't quite like that clock, though, after all, its warning of +ill-luck has brought the very reverse to me. But I have not heard yet +what kept Edith out so late, or how in the world you and Mrs. Lindsay +met her at the Black Lake." + +"The Black Lake?" said Mrs. Lindsay, "what do you mean?" + +Whereupon Edith hastened on with that part of her story relating to her +own adventures. She, it appeared, feeling confident in Mrs. Lindsay's +ready kindness, and never doubting but what she would at once respond to +her appeal by coming to nurse Helen, instead of going to the Black Lake +to sketch, as Helen imagined, set off on the pony to meet her friend +at the station, having proposed to her to come by a certain train. +Overtaking Griffith on the road to Llanfair, as she expected from Mrs. +Jones's account, he accompanied her to the village, where she gave over +the pony to his care. As she entered the station she saw a return train +about to start for the Junction about half an hour's journey from where +she was. Finding by her watch that she was in ample time, it struck her +that she might as well go so far to meet her friend, but on arriving at +the Junction she was startled to find that with the new month a change +had taken place in the trains, and that consequently Mrs. Lindsay could +not arrive till late in the evening. Worse still she herself could not +now get back to Helen till she was frightened to think what hour, the +evening train in question not going farther than Llanfar, the station +near the Junction at which she and her sister had by mistake got out on +their arrival, and which was fifteen miles from the Black Nest. It is +needless to describe her distress of mind all the long hours she had to +sit in the little waiting-room at the Junction; or her corresponding +delight when, on the train coming up, she descried looking out of a +window the familiar face of Malcolm Willoughby, and found that he was +accompanied by his sister whom he had gone to meet half-way on her +journey. + +Helen woke at noon the next day feeling indescribably happy, she could +not tell why till the sight of Mrs. Lindsay's sweet face recalled to her +mind all her misery of the night before and the relief and happiness +with which it had ended. + +"How little I deserve it!" thought she humbly and gratefully, "and how +can I ever repay Malcolm for his goodness?" + +Their dull little parlour looked very different now that it was +enlivened by the presence of the two newcomers; and Helen could scarcely +believe it to be the same room in which, but yesterday, she had passed +hours of such agonising suspense. So thoroughly penitent and softened +did she feel that she offered no opposition to anything proposed, and it +was therefore arranged that as soon as Helen was well enough to travel +they should all return home together to relieve poor Aunt Fanny's +anxiety. + +"I wonder," said Helen, with a little sigh, a few days afterwards, when +they were packing up their painting materials, "I wonder if I shall ever +finish my sketch of the Black Lake." + +"I don't like to make rash promises," said Malcolm, "but if somebody I +know is _very_ good perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake +again, provided she will neither catch cold nor tumble off her pony." + +Edith laughed and Helen blushed. + +"But there's one thing still," said Edith, "which I don't understand. +Why, Malcolm, did you always shut your door as the clock struck +thirteen?" + +"Very simply explained," replied he. "The first night I was here I was +sitting up reading till midnight and thought I heard it strike thirteen. +I thought it very odd, and for a night or two I listened till it began +to strike and then opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken. And +one night I went out with my candle to examine the clock, trying to make +out the cause of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man, they +say, can resist meddling with a clock even though he is no mechanical +genius." + +"All the same," said Edith triumphantly, "notwithstanding your +examinations, you and no one else can tell the reason why that clock +does strike thirteen." + + +THE END. + +ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE + + +Hyphenation is inconsistent; in a small number of instances, missing +punctuation has been added. + +A duplicated word "than" was removed from the sentence "...of a "home" +than she had ever had before." + +Several obvious misspellings have been corrected. The following +additional change was made to punctuation in keeping with the logic of +the plot (original is followed by corrected version): + + The more I thought it over the more striking grew the + coincidences at Finster. It had been on one of the closed doors + that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall. + + The more I thought it over the more striking grew the + coincidences. At Finster it had been on one of the closed doors + that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 35641.txt or 35641.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/4/35641/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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