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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38989-8.txt b/38989-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42607ce --- /dev/null +++ b/38989-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10210 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Laid up in Lavender, by Stanley J. Weyman + +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: Laid up in Lavender + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38989] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAID UP IN LAVENDER *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=EII1AAAAMAAJ + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + + + BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + * * * + + THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF + THE NEW RECTOR + THE STORY OF FRANCIS CLUDDE + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE + THE MAN IN BLACK + UNDER THE RED ROBE + MY LADY ROTHA + THE RED COCKADE + A MINISTER OF FRANCE + SHREWSBURY + THE CASTLE INN + SOPHIA + COUNT HANNIBAL + IN KINGS' BYWAYS + THE LONG NIGHT + THE ABBESS OF VLAYE + STARVECROW FARM + CHIPPINGE + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + AUTHOR OF +"A GENTLEMAN OP FRANCE," "THE CASTLE INN," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," ETC. + + + + + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 91 and 98 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + 1907 + + + + + + + Copyright, 1907, By + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + * * * + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + NOTE + + +The Author desires to record his gratitude to the late Mr. James Payn +and to Mr. Comyns Carr, under whose fostering care these stories came +into existence; and to Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and to Messrs. +Smith, Elder and Co., whose enterprise found for them a first opening +in life. + +_July_, 1907. + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION. + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST. + + THE COLONEL'S BOY. + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA. + + BAB. + + GERALD. + + JOANNA'S BRACELET. + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT. + + THE VICAR'S SECRET. + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN. + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION + + +"Horry! I am sick to death of it!" + +There was a servant in the room collecting the tea-cups; but Lady +Betty Stafford, having been reared in the purple, was not to be +deterred from speaking her mind by a servant. Her cousin was either +more prudent or less vivacious. He did not answer on the instant, but +stood gazing through one of the windows at the leafless trees and +slow-dropping rain in the Mall. He only turned when Lady Betty +pettishly repeated her statement. + +"Had a bad time?" he vouchsafed, dropping into a chair near her, and +looking first at her, in a good-natured way, and then at his boots, +which he seemed to approve. + +"Horrid!" she replied. + +"Many people here?" + +"Hordes of them! Whole tribes!" she exclaimed. She was a little woman, +plump and pretty, with a pale, clear complexion, and bright eyes. "I +am bored beyond belief. And--and I have not seen Stafford since +morning," she added. + +"Cabinet council?" + +"Yes!" she answered viciously. "A cabinet council, and a privy +council, and a board of trade, and a board of green cloth, and all the +other boards! Horry, I am sick to death of it! What is the use of it +all?" + +"Don't do it," he said oracularly, still admiring his boots. "Country +go to the dogs!" + +"Let it!" she retorted, not relenting a whit. "I wish it would. I wish +the dogs joy of it!" + +He made an extraordinary effort at diffuseness. "I thought," he said, +"that you were becoming political, Betty. Going to write something, +and all that." + +"Rubbish! But here is Mr. Atlay. Mr. Atlay, will you have a cup of +tea?" she continued, addressing the new-comer. "There will be some +here presently. Where is Mr. Stafford?" + +"Mr. Stafford will take a cup of tea in the library, Lady Betty," the +secretary replied. "He asked, me to bring it to him. He is copying an +important paper." + +Sir Horace forsook his boots, and in a fit of momentary interest +asked, "They have come to terms?" + +The secretary nodded. Lady Betty said "Pshaw!" A man brought in the +fresh teapot. The next moment Mr. Stafford himself came into the room, +an open telegram in his hand. + +He nodded pleasantly to his wife and her cousin. But his thin, dark +face wore--it generally did--a preoccupied look. Country people to +whom he was pointed out in the street called him, according to their +political leanings, either insignificant, or a prig, or a "dry sort"; +or sometimes said, "How young he is!" But those whose fate it was to +face the Minister in the House knew that there was something in him +more to be feared even than his imperturbability, his honesty, or his +precision--and that was a sudden fiery heat, which was apt to carry +away the House at unexpected times. On one of these occasions, it was +rumored, Lady Betty Champion had seen him, and fallen in love with +him. Why he had thrown the handkerchief to her--that was another +matter; and whether the apparently incongruous match would +answer--that, too, remained to be seen. + +"More telegrams?" she cried. "It rains telegrams! how I hate them!" + +"Why?" he said. "Why should you?" He really wondered. + +She made a face at him. "Here is your tea," she said abruptly. + +"Thank you; you are very good," he replied. He took the cup and set it +down absently. "Atlay," he said, speaking to the secretary, "you have +not corrected the report of my speech at the Club, have you? No, I +know you have had no time. Will you run your eye over it, and see if +it is all right, and send it to the _Times_--I do not think I need to +see it--by eleven o'clock at latest? The editor," he continued, +tapping the pink paper in his hand, "seems to doubt us. I have to go +to Fitzgerald's now; so you must also copy Lord Pilgrimstone's terms, +if you please. I proposed to do it myself, but I shall be with you +before you have finished." + +"What are the terms?" Lady Betty asked. "Lord Pilgrimstone has not +agreed to----" + +"To permit me to communicate them?" he replied, with a grave smile. +"No. So you must pardon me, my dear. I have passed my word for +absolute secrecy. Indeed, it is as important to me as to Pilgrimstone +that they should not be divulged." + +"They are sure to leak out," she retorted. "They always do." + +"Well, it will not be through me, I hope." + +She stamped her foot on the carpet. "I should like to get them, and +send them to the _Times!_" she cried, her eyes flashing--he was so +provoking! "And let all the world know them! I vow I should!" + +He looked his astonishment, while the other two laughed, partly to +avoid embarrassment, perhaps. She often said these things, and no one +took them seriously. + +"You had better play the secretary for once, Lady Betty," said Atlay, +who was related to his chief. "You will then be able to satisfy your +curiosity. Shall I resign _pro tem.?_" + +She looked eagerly at her husband for the third part of a second--for +assent, perhaps. But she read no playfulness in his face, and her own +fell. He was thinking about other things. "No," she said, almost +sullenly, dropping her eyes to the carpet. "I should not spell well +enough." + +Soon after that they dispersed; this being Wednesday, Mr. Stafford's +day for dining out. At that time Ministers dined only twice a week in +session--on Wednesday and Sunday; and Sunday was often sacred to the +children where there were any, lest they should grow up and not know +their father by sight. At a quarter to eight Lady Betty came into the +library, and found her husband still at his desk, a pile of papers +before him awaiting his signature. As a fact, he had only just sat +down, displacing his secretary, who had gone upstairs to dress. + +"Stafford!" she said. + +She did not seem quite at her ease; but his mind was troubled, and he +failed to notice this. "Yes, my dear," he answered politely, shuffling +the papers before him into a heap. He knew that he was late, and he +could see that she was dressed. "Yes, I am going upstairs this minute. +I have not forgotten." + +"It is not that," she said, leaning with one hand on the table, "I +want to ask you----" + +"My dear, you really must tell it me in the carriage." He was on his +feet now, making some hasty preparations. "Where are we to dine? At +the Duke's? Then we shall have a mile to drive. Will not that do for +you?" He was working hard while he spoke. There was an oak post-box +within reach, and another box for letters which were to be delivered +by hand, and he was thrusting a handful of notes into each of these. +Other packets he swept into different drawers of the table. Still +standing, he stooped and signed his name to half a dozen letters, +which he left open on the blotting-pad. "Atlay will see to these when +he is dressed," he murmured. "Would you oblige me by locking the +drawers, my dear--it will save me a minute--and giving me the keys +when I come down?" + +He went off then, two or three papers in his hand, and almost ran +upstairs. Lady Betty stood a while on the spot on which he had left +her, looking in an odd way--just as if it were new to her--round the +grave, spacious room, with its sombre Spanish-leather-covered +furniture, its ponderous writing-tables and shelves of books, its +three lofty curtained windows. When her eyes at last came back to the +lamp, and dwelt on it, they were very bright, and her face was +flushed. Her foot could be heard tapping on the carpet. Presently she +remembered herself and fell to work, vehemently slamming such drawers +as were open, and locking them. + +The private secretary found her doing this when he came in. She +muttered something--stooping with her face over the drawers--and +almost immediately went out. He looked after her, partly because there +was something odd in her manner--she kept her face averted; and partly +because she was wearing a new and striking gown, and he admired her. +He noticed, as she passed through the doorway, that she had some +papers held down by her side. But, of course, he thought nothing of +this. + +He was hopelessly late for his own dinner-party, and only stayed a +moment to slip the letters last signed into envelopes prepared for +them. Then he made for the door, opened it, and came into collision +with Sir Horace, who was strolling in. + +"Beg pardon!" said that gentleman, with irritating placidity. "Late +for dinner?" + +"Rather!" the secretary cried, trying to get round him. + +"Well," drawled the other, "which is the hand-box, old fellow?" + +"It has been cleared. Here, give it me. The messenger is in the hall +now." + +Atlay snatched the letter from his companion, the two going into the +hall together. Marcus, the butler, a couple of tall footmen, and the +messenger were sorting letters at the table. "Here, Marcus," said the +secretary, pitching his letter on the slab, "let that go with the +others. And is my hansom here?" + +In another minute he was speeding one way, and the Staffords in their +brougham another; while Sir Horace walked at his leisure down to his +club. The Minister and his wife drove in silence; he forgot to ask her +what she wanted. And, strange to say, Lady Betty forgot to tell him. +At the party she made quite a sensation; never had she seemed more +gay, more piquant, more audaciously witty, than she showed herself +this evening. There were illustrious personages present, but they +paled beside her. The Duke, with whom she was a favorite, laughed at +her sallies until he could laugh no more; and even her husband, her +very husband, forgot for a time the country and the crisis, and +listened, half-proud and half-afraid. But she was not aware of this; +she could not see his face where she sat. To all seeming she never +looked that way. She was quite a model society wife. + +Mr. Stafford himself was an early riser. It was his habit to be up by +six; to make his own coffee over a spirit lamp, and then not only to +get through much work in his dressing-room, but to take his daily ride +before breakfast. On the morning after the Duke's party, however, he +lay later than usual; and as there was much business to be done--owing +to the crisis--the canter in the park had to be omitted. He was still +among his papers--though expecting the breakfast-gong with every +minute, when a hansom cab driven at full speed stopped at the door. He +glanced up wearily as he heard the doors of the cab flung open with a +crash. There had been a time when the stir and bustle of such arrivals +had been sweet to him--not so sweet as to some, for he had never been +deeply in love with the parade of office; but sweeter than to-day, +when they were no more to him than the creaking of the mill to the +camel that turns it blindfold and in darkness. + +Naturally he was thinking of Lord Pilgrimstone this morning, and +guessed, before he opened the note which the servant brought him, who +was its writer. But its contents had, nonetheless, an electrical +effect upon him. His brow reddened. With a most unusual display of +emotion he sprang to his feet, crushing the fragment of paper in his +fingers. "Who brought that?" he cried sharply. "Who brought it?" he +repeated in a louder tone, before the servant could explain. + +The man had never seen him so moved. "Mr. Scratchley, sir," he +answered. + +"Ha! Then, show him into the library," was the quick reply. And while +the servant went to do his bidding, the Minister hastily changed his +dressing-gown for a coat, and ran down a private staircase, reaching +the room he had mentioned by one door as Mr. Scratchley, Lord +Pilgrimstone's secretary, entered it through another. + +By that time he had regained his composure, and looked much as usual. +Still, when he held up the crumpled note, there was a brusqueness in +the gesture which would have surprised his ordinary acquaintances, and +did remind Mr. Scratchley of certain "warm nights" in the House. + +"You know the contents of this?" he said without prelude, and in a +tone which matched his gesture. + +The visitor bowed. He was a grave middle-aged man, who seemed +oppressed and burdened by the load of cares and responsibilities which +his smiling chief carried jauntily. People said that he was the proper +complement of Lord Pilgrimstone, as the more volatile Atlay was of his +leader. + +"And you are aware," continued Mr. Stafford, almost harshly, "that +Lord Pilgrimstone gives yesterday's agreement to the winds?" + +"I have never seen his lordship so deeply moved," replied the discreet +one. + +"He says: 'Our former negotiation was ruined by premature talk. But +this disclosure can only be referred to treachery or the grossest +carelessness.' What does it mean? I know of no disclosure, Mr. +Scratchley. I must have an explanation. And you, I presume, are here +to give me one." + +For a moment the other seemed taken aback. "You have not seen the +_Times_, sir?" he murmured. + +"This morning's? No. But it is here." + +He took it, as he spoke, from a table at his elbow, and unfolded it. +The secretary approached and pointed to the head of a column--the most +conspicuous, the column most readily to be found in the paper. "They +are crying it at the street corners I passed," he added with +deference. "There is nothing to be heard in St. James's Street and +Pall Mall but 'Detailed Programme of the Coalition.' The other dailies +are striking off second editions to include it!" + +Mr. Stafford's eyes were riveted to the paper. There was a long pause, +a pause on his part of dismay and consternation. He could scarcely--to +repeat a common phrase--believe his eyes. "It seems," he muttered at +length,--"it seems accurate--a tolerably precise account, at least." + +"It is a verbatim copy," the secretary said dryly. "The question +is, who furnished it. Lord Pilgrimstone, I am authorised to say, +has not permitted his note of the agreement to pass out of his +possession--even to the present moment." + +"And so he concludes"--the Minister said thoughtfully--"it is a fair +inference enough, perhaps--that the _Times_ must have procured its +information from my note?" + +With deference the secretary objected. "It is not a matter of +inference, Mr. Stafford. I am directed to say that. I have inquired, +early as it is, at the _Times_ office, and learned that the copy came +directly from the hands of your messenger." + +"Of my messenger!" Mr. Stafford cried, thunderstruck. "You are sure of +that?" + +"I am sure that the sub-editor says so." + +Again there was silence. "This must be looked into," said Mr. Stafford +at length, controlling himself by an effort. "For the present I agree +with Lord Pilgrimstone, that it alters the position--and perhaps +finally." + +"Lord Pilgrimstone will be damaged in the eyes of a large section of +his supporters--seriously damaged," Mr. Scratchley said, shaking his +head and frowning. + +"Possibly. From every point of view the thing is to be deplored. But I +will call on Lord Pilgrimstone," the Minister continued slowly, "after +lunch. Will you tell him so?" + +A curious embarrassment showed itself in the secretary's manner. He +twisted his hat in his hands, and looked suddenly sad--as if he were +about to join in the groan at a prayer-meeting. + +"Lord Pilgrimstone," he said in a voice he vainly strove to render +commonplace, "is going to the Sandown Spring Meeting to-day." + +The tone was really so lugubrious--to say nothing of a shake of the +head with which he could not help accompanying the statement--that a +faint smile played on Mr. Stafford's lips. + +"Then I must take the next possible opportunity," he said. "I will see +him to-morrow." + +Mr. Scratchley assented to this, and bowed himself out, after another +word or two, looking more gloomy and careworn than usual. The +interview had not been altogether to his mind. He wished that he had +spoken more roundly to Mr. Stafford; even asked for a categorical +denial of the charge. But the Minister's manner had overawed him. He +had found it impossible to put the question. And then the pitiful +confession which he had had to make for Lord Pilgrimstone! That had +put the copingstone to his dissatisfaction. + +"Oh!" the secretary sighed, as he stepped into his cab. "Oh, that men +so great should stoop to things so little!" + +It did not occur to him that there is a condition of things even more +sad: when little men meddle with great things. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Stafford stood at the window deep in unpleasant +thoughts, from which the entrance of the butler, who came to summon +him to breakfast, first aroused him. "Stay a moment, Marcus!" he said, +turning, as the man prepared to leave the room after doing his errand. +"I want to ask you a question. Did you make up the messenger's bag +last evening?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Did you notice a letter addressed to the _Times_ office?" + +The servant prepared himself to cogitate. But he found it unnecessary. +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Two." + +"Two?" Mr. Stafford repeated, dismay in his tone; though this was just +what he had reason to expect. + +"Yes, sir. There was one I took from the hand-box, and one Mr. Atlay +gave me in the hall at the last moment," the butler explained. + +"That will do. Thank you. Ask Mr. Atlay if he will come to me. No +doubt he will be able to tell me what I want to know." + +The words were commonplace, but the speaker's anxiety was so plain +that Marcus when he delivered the message--which he did with +haste--added a word or two of warning. + +"It is about a letter to the _Times_, sir, I think. Mr. Stafford seems +a good deal put out," he said, confidentially. + +"Indeed?" Atlay replied. "I will go down." And he started. But before +he reached the library he met some one. Lady Betty looked out of the +breakfast-room, and saw him descending the stairs with the butler +behind him. + +"Where is Mr. Stafford, Marcus?" she asked impatiently, as she stood +with her hand on the door. "Good morning, Mr. Atlay," she added, her +eyes descending to him. "Where is my husband? The coffee is getting +cold." + +"He has requested me to go to him," Atlay answered. "Marcus tells me +there is something in the _Times_ which has annoyed him, Lady Betty. I +will send him up as quickly as I can." + +But Lady Betty had not stayed to receive his assurance. She had drawn +back and shut the door quickly; yet not so quickly but that the +private secretary had seen her change colour. "Hallo!" he ejaculated +to himself--the lady was not much given to blushing--"I wonder what is +wrong with _her_ this morning. She is not generally rude--to me." + +It was not long before he got light on the matter. "Come here, Atlay," +his employer said, the moment he entered the library. "Look at this!" + +The secretary took the _Times_, and read the important matter. +Meanwhile the Minister read the secretary. He saw surprise and +consternation on his face, but no trace of guilt. Then he told him +what Marcus had said about the two letters which had gone the previous +evening from the house addressed to the _Times_ office. "One," he +said, "contained the notes of my speech. The other----" + +"The other----" the secretary replied, thinking while he spoke, "was +given to me at the last moment by Sir Horace. I threw it to Marcus in +the hall." + +"Ah!" his chief said, trying very hard to express nothing by the +exclamation, but not quite succeeding. "Did you see that that letter +was addressed to the editor of the _Times?_" + +The secretary reddened, and betrayed unexpected confusion. "I did," +he said. "I saw so much of the address as I threw the letter on the +slab--though I thought nothing of it at the time." + +Mr. Stafford looked at him fixedly. "Come," he said, "this is a grave +matter, Atlay. You noticed, I can see, the handwriting. Was it Sir +Horace's?" + +"No," the secretary replied. + +"Whose was it?" + +"I think--I think, Mr. Stafford--that it was Lady Betty's. But I +should be sorry, having seen it only for a moment--to say that it was +hers." + +"Lady Betty's?" + +Mr. Stafford repeated the exclamation three times, in surprise, in +anger, a third time in trembling. In this last stage he walked away to +the window, and turning his back on his companion looked out. He +recalled his wife's petulant exclamation of yesterday, the foolish +desire expressed, as he had supposed in jest. Had she been in earnest? +And had she carried out her threat? Had she--his wife--done this thing +so compromising to his honour, so mischievous to the country, so mad, +reckless, wicked? Impossible. It was impossible. And yet--and yet +Atlay was a man to be trusted, a gentleman, his own kinsman! And +Atlay's eye was not likely to be deceived in a matter of handwriting. +That Atlay had made up his mind he could see. + +The statesman turned from the window, and walked to and fro, his +agitation betrayed by his step. The third time he passed in front of +his secretary--who had riveted his eyes to the _Times_ and appeared to +be reading the money article--he stopped. "If this be true--mind I say +if, Atlay--" he cried jerkily, "what was Lady Betty's motive? I am in +the dark! blindfold! Help me! Tell me what has been passing round me +that I have not seen. You would not have my wife--a spy?" + +"No! no! no!" the other cried, as he dropped the paper, his vehemence +showing that he felt the pathos of the appeal. "It is not that. Lady +Betty is jealous, if I dare venture to judge, of your devotion to the +country--and to politics. She sees little of you. You are wrapped up +in public affairs and matters of state. She feels herself neglected +and--set aside. And--may I say it?--she has been married no more than +a year." + +"But she has her society," the Minister objected, compelling himself +to speak calmly, "and her cousin, and--many other things." + +"For which she does not care." returned the secretary. + +It was a simple answer, but something in it touched a tender place. +Mr. Stafford winced and cast an odd startled look at the speaker. +Before he could reply, however--if he intended to reply--a knock came +at the door, and Marcus put in his head. "My lady is waiting +breakfast, sir," he suggested timidly. What could a poor butler do +between an impatient mistress and an obdurate master? + +"I will come," Mr. Stafford said hastily. "I will come at once. +For this matter, Atlay," he continued when the door was closed again, +"let it rest for the present where it is. I know I can depend upon +your"--he paused, seeking a word--"your discretion. One thing is +certain, however. There is an end of the arrangement made yesterday. +Probably the Queen will send for Templetown. I shall see Lord +Pilgrimstone to-morrow, and--that will be the end of it." + +Atlay retired, marvelling at his coolness; trying to retrace the short +steps of their conversation, and to discern how far the Minister had +gone with him, and where he had turned off upon a resolution of his +own. He failed to find the clue, however, and marvelled still more as +the day went on and others succeeded it; days of political crisis. Out +of doors the world, or that small piece of it which has its centre at +Westminster, was in confusion. The newspapers, morning or evening, +found ready sale, and had no need to rely on murder-panics or prurient +discussions. The Coalition scandal, the resignation of Ministers, the +sending for Lord This and Mr. That, the certainty of a dissolution, +provided matter enough. In all this Atlay found nothing at which to +wonder. He had seen it all before. That which did cause him surprise +was the calm--the unnatural calm, as it seemed to him--which prevailed +in the house in Carlton Terrace. For a day or two, indeed, there +was much running to and fro, much closeting and button-holing; for +rather longer the secretary read anxiety and apprehension in one +countenance--Lady Betty's. Then things settled down. The knocker began +to find peace, such comparative peace as falls to knockers in Carlton +Terrace. Lady Betty's brow grew clear as her eye found no reflection +of its anxiety in Mr. Stafford's face. In a word the secretary looked +long but could discern no faintest sign of domestic trouble. + +The late Minister indeed was taking things with wonderful coolness. +Lord Pilgrimstone had failed to taunt him, and the triumph of old foes +had failed to goad him into a last effort. Apparently he was of +opinion that the country might for a time exist without him. He was +standing aside with a shade on his face, and there were rumours that +he would take a long holiday. + +A week saw all these things happen. And then, one day as Atlay sat +writing in the library--Mr. Stafford being out--Lady Betty came into +the room for something. Rising to supply her with the article she +wanted, he held the door open for her to pass out. She paused. + +"Shut the door, Mr. Atlay," she said, pointing to it. "I want to ask +you a question." + +"Pray do, Lady Betty," he answered. "It is this," she said, meeting +his eyes boldly--and a brighter, a more dainty creature than she +looked had seldom tempted man. "Mr. Stafford's resignation--had +it anything, Mr. Atlay, to do with"--her face coloured a very +little--"something that was in the _Times_ this day week?" + +His own cheek coloured violently enough. "If ever," he was saying to +himself, "I meddle or mar between husband and wife again, may I----" +But aloud he answered quietly, "Something perhaps." The question was +sudden. Her eyes were on his face. He found it impossible to +prevaricate. "Something perhaps," he said. + +"My husband has never spoken to me about it," she replied, breathing +quickly. + +He bowed, having no words adapted to the situation. But he repeated +his resolution (as above) more furiously. + +"He has never appeared aware of it," she persisted. "Are you sure that +he saw it?" + +He wondered at her innocence, or her audacity. That such a baby should +do so much mischief. The thought irritated him. "It was impossible +that he should not see it, Lady Betty," he said, with a touch of +asperity. "Quite impossible!" + +"Ah," she replied, with a faint sigh. "Well, he has never spoken to me +about it. And you think it had really something to do with his +resignation, Mr. Atlay?" + +"Most certainly," he said. He was no longer inclined to spare her. + +She nodded thoughtfully, and then with a quiet "Thank you" she went +out. + +"Well," muttered the secretary to himself when the door was +fairly shut behind her, "she is--upon my word, she is a fool! And +he"--appealing to the inkstand--"he has never said a word to her about +it. He is a new Don Quixote! a modern Job! a second Sir Isaac Newton! +I do not know what to call him!" + +It was Sir Horace, however, who precipitated the catastrophe. He +happened to come in about teatime that afternoon, before, in fact, my +lady had had an opportunity of seeing her husband. He found her alone +and in a brown study, a thing most unusual with her and portending +something. He watched her for a time in silence: seemed to draw +courage from a still longer inspection of his boots, and then said, +"So the cart is clean over, Betty?" + +She nodded. + +"Driver much hurt?" + +"Do you mean, does Stafford mind?" she replied impatiently. + +He nodded. + +"Well, I do not know. It is hard to say." + +"Think so?" he persisted. + +"Good gracious, Horry!" my lady retorted, losing patience, "I say I do +not know, and you say, 'Think so!' If you want to learn so +particularly, ask him yourself. Here he is!" + +Mr. Stafford had just entered the room. Perhaps she really wished to +satisfy herself as to the state of his feelings. Perhaps she only +desired in her irritation to put her cousin in a corner. At any rate +she turned to her husband and said, "Here is Horace wishing to know if +you mind being turned out?" + +Mr. Stafford's face flushed a little at the home-thrust which no +one else would have dared to deal. But he showed no displeasure. +"Well, not so much as I should have thought," he answered, pausing to +weigh a lump of sugar, and, as it seemed, his feelings. "There are +compensations, you know." + +"Pity all the same--those terms came out," Sir Horace grunted. + +"It was." + +"Stafford!" Lady Betty asked on a sudden, speaking fast and eagerly, +"is it true, I want to ask you, is it true that that led you to +resign?" + +Naturally he was startled, and he showed that he was. She was the last +person who should have put that question to him, but his long training +in self-control stood him in good stead. + +"Well, yes," he said quietly. + +It was better, he thought, indeed it was only right, that she should +know what she had done. But he did not look at her. + +"Was it only that?" she asked again. + +This time he weighed his answer. He thought her persistency odd. But +again he assented. + +"Yes," he said gravely. "Only that, I think. But for that I should +have remained in--with Lord Pilgrimstone of course. Perhaps things are +better as they are, my dear." + +Lady Betty sprang from her seat with all her old vivacity. "Well!" she +cried, "well, I am sure! Then why, I should like to know, did Mr. +Atlay tell me that my letter to the _Times_ had something to do with +it!" + +"Did not say so," quoth Sir Horace. "Absurd!" + +"Yes, he did," cried Lady Betty, so fiercely that the rash speaker, +who had returned to his boots, fairly shook in them. "You were not +there! How do you know?" + +"Don't know," Sir Horace admitted, meekly. + +"But stay, stay a moment!" Mr. Stafford said, getting in a word with +difficulty. It was strange if his wife could talk so calmly of her +misdeeds, and before a third party too. "What letter to the _Times_ +did Atlay mean?" + +"My letter about the Women's League," she explained earnestly. "You +did not see it? No, I thought not. But Mr. Atlay would have it that +you did, and that it had something to do with your going out. Horace +told me at the time that I ought not to send it without consulting +you. But I did, because you said you could not be bothered with it--I +mean you said you were busy, Stafford. And so I thought I would ask if +it had done any harm, and Mr. Atlay---- What is the matter?" she +cried, breaking off sharply at sight of the change in her husband's +face. "Did it do harm?" + +"No, no," he answered. "Only I never heard of this letter before. What +made you write it?" + +Lady Betty coloured violently, and became on a sudden very shy--like +most young authors. "Well," she said, "I wanted to be in the--in the +swim with you, don't you know." + +Mr. Stafford murmured, "Oh!" + +Thanks to his talk with Atlay he read the secret of that sudden +shyness. And confusion poured over him more and more. It caused him to +give way to impulse in a manner which a moment's reflection would have +led him to avoid. + +"Then it was not you," he exclaimed unwarily, "who sent Pilgrimstone's +terms to the _Times?_" + +"I?" she exclaimed in an indescribable tone, and with eyes like +saucers. "I?" she repeated. + +"Gad!" cried Sir Horace; and he looked about for a way of escape. + +"I?" she continued, struggling between wrath and wonder. "I betray you +to the _Times!_ And you thought so, Stafford?" + +There was silence in the room for a long moment during which the cool +statesman, the hard man of the world, did not know where to turn his +eyes. "There were circumstances--several circumstances," Mr. Stafford +muttered at last, "which made--which forced me to think so." + +"And Mr. Atlay thought so?" she asked. He nodded. "Oh, that tame cat!" +she cried, her eyes flashing. + +Then she seemed to meditate, while her husband gazed at her, a prey to +conflicting emotions, and Sir Horace made himself as small as +possible. "I see," she continued in a different tone. "Only--only if +you thought that, why did you never say anything? Why did you not +scold me, beat me, Stafford? I do not--I do not understand." + +"I thought," he explained in despair--he had so mismanaged +matters--"that perhaps I had left you--out of the swim, as you call +it, Betty. That I had not treated you very well, and after all it +might be my own fault." + +"And you said nothing! You intended to say nothing?" He nodded. + +"Gad!" cried Sir Horace very softly. + +But Lady Betty said nothing. She turned after a long look at her +husband, and went out of the room, her eyes wet with tears. The two +men heard her pause a moment on the landing, and then go upstairs and +shut her door. But her foot, even to their gross ears, seemed to touch +the stairs as if it loved them, and there was a happy lingering in the +slamming of the door. + +They looked, when she had left them, anywhere but at one another. Sir +Horace sought inspiration in his boots, and presently found it. +"Wonder who did it, then?" he burst out at last. + +"Ah! I wonder," replied the ex-minister, descending at a bound from +the cloudland to which his thoughts had borne him. "I never pushed the +inquiry; you know why now. But they should be able to enlighten us at +the _Times_ office. We could learn in whose handwriting the copy was, +at any rate. It is not well to have spies about us." + +"I can tell you in whose handwriting they say it was," Sir Horace said +bluntly. + +"In whose?" + +"In Atlay's." + +Mr. Stafford did not look surprised. Instead of answering he thought. +As a result of which he presently left the room in silence. When he +came back he had a copy of the _Times_ in his hand, and his face wore +a look of perplexity. "I have read the riddle," he said, "and yet it +is a riddle to me still. I never found time to read the report of my +speech at the Club. It occurred to me to look at it now. It is full of +errors; so full that it is clear the printer had not the corrected +proof Atlay prepared. Therefore I conclude that Atlay's copy of the +terms went to the _Times_ instead of the speech. But how was the +mistake made?" + +"That is the question." + +It happened that the private secretary came into the room at this +juncture. "Atlay," Mr. Stafford said at once, "I want you. Carry your +mind back a week--to this day week. Are you sure that you sent the +report of my speech at the Club to the _Times?_" + +"Am I sure?" the other replied confidently, nothing daunted by +being so abruptly challenged. "I am quite sure I did, sir. I remember +the circumstances. I found the report--it was type-written you +remember--lying on the blotting-pad when I came down before dinner. I +slipped it into an envelope, and put it in the box. I can see myself +doing it now." + +"But how do you know that it was the report you put in the envelope?" + +"You had indorsed it 'Corrected speech.--W. Stafford,'" Atlay replied +triumphantly. + +"Ah!" Mr. Stafford said, dropping his hands and eyes and sitting down +suddenly, "I remember! My wife came in, and--yes, my wife came in." + + + + + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST + + + + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST + + + CHAPTER I. + +"To be content," said the carrier, "that is half the battle. If I have +said it to one, I have said it to a hundred. You be content," says I, +"and you will be all right." + +For the first time, though they had plodded on a mile together, the +tall gentleman turned his eyes from the sombre moorland which +stretched away on either side of the road, and looked at his +companion. There had been something strange in the preoccupation of +his thoughts hitherto; though the carrier, lapped in his own +loquacity, had not felt it. And, to tell the truth, there had been +something still more strange in the tall gentleman's behaviour before +their meeting. Now he had raced along the road and now he had +loitered; sometimes he had stood still, letting his eyes stray over +the dark groups of heather, which lay islanded in a sea of brown +grass; and again he had sauntered onwards, his hat in his hand and his +face turned up to the sky, which hung low over the waste, and had yet +the breadth of a fen cloudscape. Whatever the eccentricity of his +lonely movements, his tall hat and fluttering frock-coat had +exaggerated it. + +At length on the summit of one of the ridges over which the road ran +he had made a longer halt, and had begun to look about him to right +and left, seeking, it seemed, for a track across the moss. Then he had +caught sight of the carrier plodding up the next ridge at the tail of +his cart, and he had started after him. But having almost overtaken +him, he had reduced his pace and loitered as if his desire for human +company had faded away. He had even paused as though to return. But a +glance at the desolate waste had determined him. He had walked on +again, and had overtaken and fallen to talking with the carrier. The +latter on his part had been glad to have a companion, and had readily +set down what was odd in the stranger's bearing to the cause which +accounted for his costume. The tall gentleman was a Londoner. + +"'You be content,' says I," quoth the old fellow again, his +companion's tardy attention encouraging him to repeat his statement, +"'and you will be all right.' I have told that to hundreds in my +time." + +"And you practise it yourself?" The tall gentleman's voice was husky. +His eyes, now that they had found their way to the other's face, +continued to dwell on it with a gleam in their depths which matched +the pallor of his features. His forehead was high, his face long and +thin, and lengthened by a dark brown beard which hid the working of +his lips. A nervous man meeting his gaze might have had strange +thoughts. But the carrier's were country nerves, and proof against +anything short of electricity. + +"Oh yes, I am pretty well content," Nickson answered sturdily. "I have +twenty acres of land from the duke, and I turn a penny with the +carrying, going into Sheffield twice a week, rain and shine. Then I +have as good a wife as ever kissed her man, and neither chick nor +child, and no more than three barren ewes this lambing." + +"My God!" said the stranger. + +The words seemed wrung from him by a twinge of mental pain, but +whether the feeling was envy of the man's innocent joys, or disgust at +his simplicity, did not appear. Whatever the impulse, the tall +gentleman showed an immediate consciousness that he had excited his +companion's astonishment. He began to talk rapidly, even gesticulating +a little. "But is there no drawback?" he said--"no bitter in your +life, man? This long journey--ten--eleven miles?--and the same journey +home again? Do you never find it cold, hot, dreary, intolerable?" + +"It is cold enough some days, and hot enough some days," the carrier +replied heartily. "But dreary?--never! And cold and heat are but skin +deep, you know." + +The tall gentleman let his head fall on his breast, and for some +distance walked on in silence. The carrier whistled to his horse, the +cry of a peewit came shrilling across the moor, one wheel of the cart +squeaked loudly for grease. The evening was grey and still, and rain +impended. + +"It is all downhill after this," Nickson said presently, pointing to +the sky-line, now less than a hundred yards ahead. "You see that stone +there, sir?" he continued, and pointing with his whip to a stone lying +a little off the road. "There was a man died in the snow there. Three +years back it would be. I went by him myself for a month and more, and +took him for a dead sheep. At last a keeper passing that way turned +him over with his foot, and--well, he was a sad sight, poor chap, by +that time." + +The carrier should have been pleased with the effect his story +produced; for the stranger shuddered. His face even seemed a shade +paler, but this might be the effect of the evening light. He did not +make any comment, however, and the two stepped out until they gained +the summit of the ridge. Here the moor fell away on every side--a dark +sweep of waste bounded by uncouth round-backed hills, which rose +shapeless and grey, with never a graceful outline or soaring peak to +break the horizon. + +"You will take a lift down the hill, sir?" the carrier asked, +gathering up his reins and preparing to mount. "I am light to-day." + +"No, I think not--I thank you," the stranger answered jerkily. + +"You are welcome, if you will," persisted the carrier. + +"No, I think not. I think I will walk," the tall gentleman answered. +But he still stood, and watched the other's preparations with strange +intentness. Even when Nickson, having wished him good day, drove +briskly off, he continued to gaze after the cart until a dip in the +descent--not far below--swallowed it up. Then he heaved a sigh, and +looked round at the grey sky and darkening heath. He took off his hat. + +"Hold up! what is the matter with the mare?" the carrier cried, coming +to a stop as soon, as it chanced, as the dip in the road hid him from +the other's eyes. "She has picked up a stone, drat it!" + +He got down stiffly, and taking his knife from his pocket went to the +mare's head. Having removed the stone he dropped the hoof, and stood a +second while he closed the knife. In this momentary pause there came +to his ear a sharp report like that of a gun, but brisker and less +loud. It was difficult to suppose it the sound of a snapping stick; or +of one stone struck against another. It puzzled Master Nickson, who +climbed hastily to his seat again and drove on until he was clear of +the dip. Then, swearing at himself for an old fool, he looked +anxiously back at the top of the ridge, which had come into view +again. He was looking for the tall gentleman. But the latter was not +to be seen, either standing against the sky-line or moving on the +intervening road. "Lord's sakes!" the carrier muttered uneasily, "what +has become of him? He cannot have gone back!" + +He continued to stare for some moments at the place where the stranger +should have been. At last giving way to a sudden conviction, he got +down from his cart, and, leaving it standing, hurried back through the +dip, and so to the top of the ridge. The ascent was steep, and he was +breathing heavily when he reached the summit and cast his eyes round +him. No, the tall gentleman was not to be seen. The brown grass and +heather stretched away on this side and that, broken by no human +figure. Not even a rabbit was visible on the long white strip of road +that in the far distance grew hazy with the fall of night. + +"The devil!" the carrier said, shuddering, and feeling more lonely +than he had ever felt in his life. "Then he has gone, and----" + +He stopped. His eyes were on a dark bundle of clothes that lay a +little aside from the road between two clumps of heather. Just a +bundle of clothes it seemed, but Master Nickson drew in his breath at +sight of it. The peewits and curlews had gone to rest. There was not a +sound to be heard on the wide moor, save the beating of his heart. + +He would have given pounds to drive on with a clear conscience, yet he +forced himself to go up to the huddled form, and to turn it over until +the face was exposed. There was a pistol near the right hand, and +behind the ear there was a small, a very small hole, from which the +blood welled sluggishly. Round this the skin was singed and blackened. +The eyes were closed, and the pale face, thoughtful and placid, was +scarcely disfigured. + +Suddenly Master Nickson fell on his knees. "Dang me, if I don't think +he is alive!" he whispered. "For sure, he breathes!" + +Convinced of it, the carrier sprang to his feet a different man. He +lost not a moment in bringing his cart to the spot and lifting the +insensible form into it. Then he led the horse to the road, and +started gingerly down the hill. "It is a mercy it happened right at +the doctor's door," he muttered, as he turned off the road into a +track which seemed to lead through the heather to nowhere in +particular. "If he lives five minutes longer he will be in good +hands." + +A stranger would have wondered where the doctor lived; for there was +no signs of a house to be seen. But when the wheels had rolled +noiselessly over the sward a hundred yards a faint curl of smoke +became visible, rising from the ground in front. A few more paces +brought the tops of trees to view, and nestling among them the gables +of an old stone house, standing below the level of the moor in a gully +or ravine, that here began to run down from the watershed towards +Bradfield and the Loxley. The track Nickson was following led to a +white gate, which formed the entrance to this lonely demesne. + +The carrier found assistance sooner than he had expected. Leaning +against the inner side of the gate, with her back to him, was a tall +girl. She was bending over a fiddle, drawing from it wailing sounds +that went well with the waste behind her and the fading light. Her +head swayed in time, her elbow moved slowly. She did not hear the +wheels, and he had to call, "Whisht! Miss Pleasance, whisht!" before +she heard and turned. + +He could see little of her face, for in the hollow the light was +almost gone, but her voice as she cried, "Is that you, Nickson? Have +you something for us?" rang out so cheerily that it strung his nerves +anew. + +"Yes, miss," he answered. "But it is your father I want. I have got a +man here who has been hurt----" + +"What? In the cart?" she cried. She stepped forward and would have +looked in. But he was before her. + +"No, miss, you fetch your father!" he said sharply. "It is just a +matter of minutes, maybe. You fetch him here, please." + +She understood now, and turned and sped through the shrubbery, and +across the little rivulet and the lawn. In five minutes the grey +house, which had stood gaunt and lifeless in the glooming, was +aroused. Lights flitted from window to window, and servants called to +one another. The surgeon, a tall, florid, elderly man, with drooping +white moustaches, came out, after snatching up one or two necessary +things. The groom hastened behind him with a candle. Only Pleasance, +the messenger of ill, whom her father had bidden stay in the house, +had nothing to do in the confusion. She laid down her violin and bow, +and stood in the darkness of the outer room--it was half hall, half +parlour--listening and wondering. + +The sound of heavy footsteps crunching the gravel presently warned her +that the man was to be brought into the house. She heard her father +direct the other bearers to make for his room, which was on the left +of the hall, and her face grew a shade paler as the men stumbled with +their burden through the doorway. There is something monstrous to the +unaccustomed in limbs which fall lifeless, or stick out stiff and +stark in ghastly prominence. She averted her face as the group passed +her, and yet managed to touch the groom's sleeve. "What is it, +Daniel?" she whispered. + +"He has been shot, miss," the servant answered. He was enjoying +himself hugely, if the truth be told. + +She had no time to ask more. The door was shut upon her, and she was +left alone with her curiosity. She wondered how it had happened, for +this was not the shooting season, and Nickson had spoken of the man as +a stranger. She pondered over the problem until the maids, who were +too much upset to stay in their own quarters, came into the room with +lights. Then she stepped outside, and stood on the gravel listening to +the murmur of the brook, and looking at the old sundial which gleamed +white on the lawn. + +She had been there no more than a minute when the doctor--as every one +in those parts called him--came out with Nickson. Carefully closing +the door behind him--an extraordinary precaution with one who was +usually the most easy-going of men--he laid his hand on his +companion's shoulder. "Why did he do it, Nickson?" he asked in a low +voice, which was not free from tremor. "Can you tell me? Have you any +idea? He is dressed as a gentleman, and he has a gold watch and money +in his pockets." + +Their eyes were new to the darkness, and they did not see her, though +she was within earshot, and was listening with growing comprehension. +"It beats me to say, sir," was Nickson's answer--"that it does. If you +will believe me, sir, he was talking to me, just before he did it, as +reasonably as ever man in my life." + +"Then what the devil was it?" + +"That is what I think, sir," the carrier answered, nodding. + +"What?" + +"It was just the devil, sir." + +"Pshaw!" the doctor returned pettishly. "You are sure that he did it +himself?" + +"As sure as I can be of anything!" the carrier answered. "There was +not a human creature barring myself within half a mile of him when the +pistol went off--no, nor could have been." + +"Well," the doctor said, after a pause, and in a tone of vexation, "it +is no good bringing in the police unless he dies, and I don't think he +will. He has had a wonderful escape. I suppose you will not go +blabbing it about, Nickson?" + +"Heaven forbid!" the carrier replied. And after a few more words took +his leave. + +They went without discovering the listener, and she slipped into the +lighted hall and stood there shivering. The darkness outside +frightened her. It seemed to hold some secret of despair. Even in the +familiar room, in which every faded rug and dusty folio and framed +sampler had its word of everyday life for her, she looked fearfully at +the closed door which led to her father's room. She shrank from +turning her back upon it. She kept glancing askance at it. When her +father came to supper, she could not meet his eye; and he must have +noticed her strangeness had he not been absorbed in the riddle +presented to him, in thoughts of his patient's case, and perhaps in +some painful train of meditation induced by it. Such questions as his +daughter put he answered absently, and he ate in the same manner, +breaking off once to visit his charge. It was only when the +preparations for the night were complete, when the maids had retired, +and Pleasance was waiting, candlestick in hand, to say good night, +that he spoke out. + +"When is Woolley coming back?" he asked with a sigh. + +"The twenty-eighth, father," she answered. She betrayed no surprise at +the question, though it was one he could have answered for himself. +Woolley was his assistant, and was absent on a holiday tour. + +He was silent a moment. His tone was querulous, his eye wandered when +he spoke next. "I thought--I did think that we should have this little +bit to ourselves, Pleasance," he complained. And he seemed shrunken. +His fierce moustaches and his florid colour no longer hid his weakness +of moral fibre. He looked years older than when he had bent with +professional alertness over his patient. Something in that patient's +strange case had come home to him and unmanned him. "This little bit," +he continued, looking at her wistfully, "though it be the last, girl." + +"It will not be the last, father," she answered, meeting his look +without flinching. "We shall stay together whatever happens." + +"Ay, but where, child?" he cried with passion, throwing out his hands +as though he appealed to the dumb things around him--"where? Do you +think to transplant me? I am too old. I have lived here too long--I +and my fathers before me for six generations, though I am but a broken +country apothecary--for me to take root elsewhere! Why, girl"--his +voice rose higher--"there is not a stone of this old place, not a +tree, that I do not know, that I do not love, that I would not rather +own than a mile of streets!" + +To her surprise he broke down and turned away to hide the tears in his +eyes--tears which it pained her deeply to see. She knew how weak he +was, and what cause she had to blame him in this matter. But his tears +disarmed her, and she laid her hand on his and stroked it tenderly. +"How much do you owe Mr. Woolley, father?" she asked, when he had +recovered himself. + +"Three thousand pounds," he answered, almost sullenly. + +He had never told her before, and she was appalled. "It is a large +sum," she said, looking at the faded cushions on the window-seats, the +fly-blown prints, the well-worn furniture, which made the room +picturesque indeed, but shabby. "What can have become of it?" + +He made a reckless movement with his hand--he still had his back +towards her--as though he flung something from him. + +She sighed. She had not intended to reproach him, for economy was not +one of her own strong points; and she remembered bills owing as well +as bills paid, and many a good intention falsified. No, she could not +reproach him; and she chose to look at the matter from another side. +"It is a great deal of money," she repeated. "Would he really let all +that go if--just to marry me?" + +"To be sure!" her father said briskly. "That is," he continued, his +conscience pricking him, "it would be the same thing then. The place +would come to him anyway." + +"I see," she answered dryly. She was always pale--though hers was a +warm paleness--but now there were dark shadows under her eyes. They +were grey eyes, frank and resolute, now sad and scornful also. As she +sat upright in a high-backed chair, with the forgotten candle in her +hand and her gaze fixed on vacancy, she seemed to be gazing at the +Skeleton of the House. It was a skeleton which she and her father kept +for the most part locked up. Possibly it had never been brought so +completely to view before. + +"You will think of it?" the doctor presently ventured, stealing a +glance at her. + +"I may think till Doomsday," she answered wearily. "I shall never do +it." + +"Why not?" he persisted. "What have you against him?" + +"Only one thing." + +"What is it?" A gleam of hope sparkled in his eyes as he put the +question. A definite accusation he might combat and refute; even a +prejudice he might overcome. He prepared himself for the effort. "What +is it?" he repeated. + +"I do not love him, father," she said. "I think I hate him." + +"So do I!" the doctor sighed, sinking suddenly into himself again. +Alas for his preparations! + + + CHAPTER II + +It was characteristic of both Pleasance and her father--and +particularly characteristic of the latter--that when they met at +breakfast next morning they ignored the trouble which had seemed so +overwhelming at midnight. The doctor was constitutionally careless. It +was his nature to live from day to day, plucking the flowers beside +his path, without giving thought to the direction in which the path +was leading him. Pleasance was careless too, but with a difference. +She did not shut her eyes to the prospect; but she was young and +sanguine, and she was confident--of a morning at any rate--that a way +of escape would be found. So the doctor gazed through the window as +cheerfully as if his title-deeds had been his own; and if Pleasance +felt any misgivings, they related rather to the man lying in the next +room than to her own case. + +"How is he, father?" she asked. "Have you been kept awake much?" The +doctor had spent the night on a sofa in order that he might be near +the stranger. + +"He is not conscious," Doctor Partridge answered, "but I think that +the brain is recovering from the shock, and if all goes well he will +come to himself in a few hours." Pleasance shuddered. Her father, +without noticing it, went on: "But he ought not to be left alone, and +I must see my patients. It is useless to ask the servants to stay with +him--they are as nervous as hares. So you must sit with him for an +hour or two after breakfast, Pleasance. There is no help for it." + +"I?" she said. + +"Yes, to be sure; why not?" he answered lightly. "You are not afraid, +I suppose? There is nothing to be done, and Daniel can be within +call." + +She gulped down her fears and assented. She was a good girl, +though she could not keep the housekeeping bills--nor her own bills, +for the matter of that--within bounds. She was used to a lonely +life--Sheffield lay nine miles away, and there were few neighbours on +the moorland; and her nerves had been braced by many a long ramble +over the ling and bracken, where the hill sheep were her only +companions. + +Yet she might have answered otherwise had she known that, while the +words were on her father's lips, he questioned the wisdom of his +proposal. The man might on coming to his senses--the doctor did not +think he would--but he might repeat his attempt. And then---- + +Her answer, however, clenched the matter. When they rose from +breakfast the doctor said, "Now my dear, come, and I will put you in +charge." + +She followed him. It was a relief to her to discover--from the +threshold of the room--that the bed had been moved, so that the light +might not fall on the patient's face. In its new position a curtain +hid him. The doctor set a chair for her behind the curtain, and she +sat down outwardly calm, inwardly trembling. He went himself to the +bedside, and stood for a moment gazing with a critical eye. Then he +nodded to her and went softly out. + +He left the door ajar, and she heard him ride away. She heard too +Daniel's clumsy footsteps as he came back through the house, and the +clatter of the china as Mary washed it in the kitchen. But these +homely sounds served only to heighten her dislike for her task. She +was not afraid. She no longer trembled. But she shrank almost with +loathing from contact with her wretched companion. She conjured +up a dreadful picture of him--ghastly and disfigured--defiant and +hopeless--self-doomed. + +He lay perfectly still. The curtain too on which her eyes dwelt hung +motionless. And presently there began to grow upon her a feeling and a +fear that he was dead. She fought with it, and more than once shook it +off. But it returned. At length she could bear it no longer, and she +rose in the silence, her breath coming quickly. She took a step +towards the bed, paused, stepped on, and stood where her father had +stood. + +"Water!" + +Before the faintly whispered word had ceased to sound she was halfway +to the carafe. Where was the loathing now? She brought a little water +in the tumbler, and held it to his lips. "Do not speak again," she +said softly. "You are in good hands. The doctor will return in a few +minutes." + +She watched the weary dazed eyes close; then she went back to her +chair as though she had been a trained nurse and this the most +ordinary case in the world. But she was immensely puzzled. The picture +of the patient as he really was remained with her, causing her to +wonder exceedingly how such a man had come to attempt his life. The +face handsome despite its bandages and pallor, the eyes kindly even in +stupor, were features the very opposite of those which she had +ascribed to the dark creature of her fancy. + +When her father returned she flew to tell him what had happened. He +entered and saw the patient, and came out again. "Yes," he said in his +professional tone, "if he can be kept quiet for forty-eight hours he +will do. Fever is the only thing to be feared. But he must not be left +alone, and I have to go to Ashopton. Do you mind being with him?" + +"Not at all." + +This time the easy-going doctor did not hesitate. He muttered +something about Daniel being within call, and, snatching a hasty meal, +got to horse again. + +The case at Ashopton proved to be serious. It led to complications, +and even to a consultation with a London physician. And so it happened +that that day, and the next, and the next, Pleasance was left in +charge at home. The stranger, as his senses returned to him--and with +them Heaven knows what thoughts of the past and the future, what +thankfulness or remorse--grew accustomed to look to her hands for +tendance. A woman can scarcely perform such offices without pitying +the object of them; and Pleasance after the first morning came to wait +upon the stranger's call and minister to his wants without the +disturbing remembrance that his own act had brought him to this. Away +from the bedside she shuddered; beside it she forgot. In the mean time +the tall gentleman, who at first lay gazing upwards, taciturn and +still, came more and more to follow her with his eyes as she moved to +and fro in his service. None the less he remained grave and smileless, +speaking little even when he began to sit up, and saying nothing from +which the current of his thoughts could be judged. + +"Father," she said one morning, when they had gone on in this way for +several days, "do you think that he is quite sane?" + +"Sane? yes, as sane as any of us," was the uncompromising answer. +"Indeed," the doctor continued, looking at her sharply, "more sane +than you will be if you stop in the house so much, my girl. Leave him +to himself this morning and go out. Walk till lunch." + +She assented, and, the weather being soft and bright, she started in +excellent spirits. As she climbed she thought that the moorland had +never looked more beautiful, the distance more full of colour. But +this mood proved less lasting than the May weather. Reaching the brow +of the hill, she turned to look down on the Old Hall, and the sudden +reflection that it must pass to strangers fell on her like a cold +shadow. The tears rushed to her eyes, the walk was spoiled. She came +back early, wondering at her own depression. + +As she emerged from the shrubbery she saw with surprise two figures +standing on the lawn. One was her father. The other--could it be Edgar +Woolley come back before his time? No; this man was taller and paler, +with an air of distinction which the surgeon lacked. She drew near, +and her father, not seeing her, went into the house; while the other +sank into an arm-chair which had been set for him, and turned and saw +her. He rose with an effort, and raised his hat as she approached. It +was the tall gentleman. + +The fact annoyed the girl. It was one thing, she thought, to nurse him +when he lay helpless, another to associate with him. She made up her +mind to pass him with a frigid bow. But at the last moment the sight +of his weakness melted her, and she paused on the threshold to tell +him that she was glad to see him out. + +"Thank you," he answered. He spoke very quietly; but a slight flush +came and went on his brow. Probably he understood her hesitation. + +Within doors a fresh surprise awaited her. She found the table laid +for lunch, and laid for three. "Father!" she cried, in a tone of +vexation, "is he going to take his meals with us?" + +"Where else is he to take them?" the doctor answered gruffly, looking +up from the old bureau at which he was writing. "Would you send him to +the servants? If he is left alone in his room, he will go mad in +earnest." + +He spoke gruffly because he knew he was wrong. He knew no more of the +tall gentleman, or of his reason for doing what he had done, than he +knew of the man in the moon. That the stranger dressed and spoke like +a gentleman, that there was no mark on his linen, that he had a watch +and money in his pockets, and that he had tried to take his life--this +was the sum of the doctor's knowledge; and he could not feel that +these matters rendered the stranger a fit companion for his daughter. +But the doctor had not strength of mind to grapple with the +difficulty, and he let things slide. + +Pleasance would not discuss the question, but at the meal she sat +silent and cold. The doctor was uncomfortable, and talked jerkily. A +shadow--but it seemed more than temporary--darkened the stranger's +face. At the earliest possible moment Pleasance withdrew. + +When she came down she found that the tall gentleman had retired to +his room, and she saw nothing more of him that evening. Next day, the +post brought a letter from Woolley, postponing his return for a day or +two, and this sent the doctor on his rounds in high spirits. Pleasance +herself, moving upstairs about her domestic business, felt more +charitable. There might be something in what her father said about +leaving the poor man to himself. She would go down presently, and talk +to him, preserving a due distance. + +She had scarcely made up her mind to this when she chanced to look +through the window, and saw the stranger walking slowly across the +lawn. She watched him for a moment in idle curiosity, wondering in +what class he had moved, and what had brought him to this. Then she +noticed the direction he was taking, and on the instant a dreadful +fear flashed into the girl's mind, and made her heart stand still. +Below the lawn the rivulet formed a pool among the trees He was going +that way, glancing sombrely about him as he went. + +Pleasance did not stay to think--to add up the chances. She flung the +door open, and ran down the stairs. She reached the lawn. He was not +to be seen, but she knew which way he had gone, and she darted down +the path that led to the water. She turned the corner--she saw him! He +was standing gazing into the dark pool, his back towards her, in an +attitude of profound melancholy. She ran on unfaltering until she +reached him, and laid her hand on his arm. + +"What are you doing?" she cried, on the impulse of her great fear. + +He turned with a violent start, and found the girl's pale face and +glowing eyes close to his. He looked ghastly enough. There was a +bandage round his head, under the soft hat which the doctor had lent +him; and in the surprise of the moment the colour had fled from his +face. "Doing?" he muttered, trembling in her grasp. And his eyes +dilated--his nerves were still suffering from the shock of his wound, +and probably from some long strain which had preceded it. "Doing? Yes, +I understand you." + +He uttered the last words with a groan and a distortion of the +features. "Come away!" she cried, pulling at his arm. + +He let her lead him away. He was so weak that apparently he could not +have returned without her help. Near the upper end of the walk there +was a rustic seat, and here he signed to her to let him sit down, and +she did so. When he had somewhat recovered himself he said faintly, +"You are mistaken; I came here by chance." + +She shook her head, looking down at him solemnly. She was still +excited, taken out of herself by her terror. + +"It is true," he said feebly. "I swear it." + +"Swear that you will not think of it again," she responded. + +"I swear," he answered. + +She gazed at him awhile. Then she said, "Wait!" She went quickly back +to the house, and returned with some wine. "Perhaps I startled you +without cause," she said, smiling on him. He had not seen her smile +before. "I must make amends. Drink this." + +He obeyed. "Now," she said, "you must take my arm and go back to your +chair." + +He assented as a child might, and when he reached the chair he sank +into it with a sigh of relief. She stood beside him. The back of his +seat was towards the house, and before him an opening in the shrubbery +disclosed a shoulder of the ravine rolling upwards, the gorse on one +rugged spur in bloom, the sunshine everywhere warming the dull browns +and lurking purples into brilliance. + +"See!" she said, with an undertone of reproach in her voice, "is not +that beautiful? Is not that a thing one would regret?" + +"Yes, beautiful now," he replied, answering her thought rather than +her words. "But I have seen it under another aspect. Stay!" he +continued, seeing she was about to answer. "Do not judge me too +hastily. You cannot tell what reason I had--what----" + +"No!" she retorted, "I cannot. But I can guess what grief you would +have caused to others, what a burden you would have shifted to weaker +shoulders, what duties you would have avoided, what a pang you would +have inflicted on friends and relations! For shame!" She stopped for +lack of breath. + +"I have no relatives," he answered slowly, "and few friends. I have no +duties that others would not perform as well. My death would cause +sorrow to some, joy to as many. My burden would die with me." + +She glanced at him with compressed lips, divining that he was reciting +arguments he had used a score of times to his own conscience. But she +was puzzled how to answer him. "Take all that for granted," she said +at last. "Are there no reasons higher than these which should have +deterred you?" + +"It may be so," he replied. "Perhaps I think so now." + +She felt the admission a victory, and, seeing he had recovered his +composure, she left him and went into the house. But the incident had +one lasting effect. It broke down the wall between them. She felt that +she knew him well--better than many whom she had owned as +acquaintances for years. The confidence surprised in a moment of +emotion cannot be recalled. It seemed idle for her to affect to keep +him at arm's length when she knew, if she did not acknowledge, that he +had confessed his sin, and been forgiven. + +So when she saw him walking feebly from the house next day she went +with him, and showed him where he could rest and where obtain a view +without climbing. Afterwards she fell naturally into the habit of +going with him; and little by little, as she saw more of him, she +owned the spell of a new perplexity. Who was he? He talked of things +in a tone novel to her. He seemed to have thought deeply and read +much. He spoke of visits to this country, to that country. One day her +father found him reading their day-old _Times_, and took it from him. +"You must not do that yet," the doctor said. "My daughter can read to +you, if you like, but not for long." + +She asked what she should read. He chose a review of a historical +work, and gently rejected the passing topics--even a speech by Lord +Hartington. This gave her an idea, and she privately searched the back +numbers of the paper, but could not find that any one who resembled +him was missing. Yet he had been with them almost three weeks; he had +received no letters, he had sent none. How could such a man pass from +his circle and cause no inquiry? Here at the Old Hall they knew no +more of him than on his coming. He had not offered to disclose his +name, and his host, who had fallen under his spell, had not plucked up +courage to ask for it, or for an explanation--had come, indeed, to no +understanding with him at all. + +It is possible that of himself the doctor might have gone on +unsuspicious to the last. But one afternoon, as he made up his books +at the old bureau in the hall--the door being open and a flood of +sunshine pouring through it--he was aware on a sudden of a shadow cast +across the boards. He looked up. A middle-sized fair man, with a +goatee beard and a fresh complexion, was setting down a bag on the +floor and beginning to take off his gloves. "Why, Woolley!" exclaimed +the doctor, gazing at him feebly, "is it you? We did not expect you +until Monday." + +"No, but you see I have come to-day," the traveller answered. It +was a peculiarity of this young man--he was not very young, say +thirty-eight--that when he was not well pleased he smiled. He smiled +now. + +The doctor rubbed his hands to hide a little embarrassment. "Yes, I +see you have come," he said. "But how? Did you walk from Sheffield?" + +"I came with Nickson." + +The doctor stopped rubbing, then went on faster, as his thoughts flew +from Nickson to the tall gentleman, and for some mysterious reason +from the tall gentleman to Pleasance. He had never consciously traced +this connection before, but something in his assistant's face helped +him to it now. + +"He tells me," Woolley continued, making a neat ball of his gloves and +smiling at the floor, "that you had a strange case here, a case he was +mixed up with, and that you made a cure of it." + +"Yes." + +"The fellow has cleared out, I suppose?" + +"Well, no," the doctor stammered, feeling warm. How odd it was that he +had never seen into what a pit of imprudence he was sinking! He had +been harbouring a lunatic, or one who had acted as a lunatic--a +criminal certainly; in no light a person fit to associate with his +daughter. "No, he is still here," he stammered. "I think--I suppose he +will be leaving in a day or two!" + +"Here still, is he?" Woolley said with a sneer. "A queer sort of +parlour-boarder, sir. May I ask where he is at present?" + +"I think he is out of doors somewhere." + +"Alone?" + +When the doctor thought over the scene afterwards he whistled when his +memory brought him to that "Alone." He knew then that the fat was in +the fire. He saw that Woolley had pumped the carrier--who had been to +the house several times since the affair--and drawn his own +conclusions. "I rather think," he ventured, "I am not sure, but I +think----" + +"I do not think," the other said dryly, "I see." + +He pointed through the open door, and alas! the tall gentleman and +Pleasance were visible approaching the house. They had that moment +emerged from the shrubbery, and were crossing the lawn. The girl was +carrying a basket full of marsh marigolds, the man had a great bush of +hawthorn on the end of his stick. They were both looking at the front +of the house without a thought that other eyes were upon them. +Pleasance's face, on which the light fell strongly, was far from gay, +her smile but a sad one; yet there was a tenderness in the one and the +other which was not calculated to reassure a jealous onlooker. + +"So!" Woolley muttered, his fingers closing like a vise on the +doctor's arm. "Let me deal with this." + + + CHAPTER III + +The walk which roused so much indignation in Edgar Woolley's breast +had been one of more than common interest; as perhaps something in the +faces of the returning couple assured him. There is a point in the +journey towards intimacy at which one or other of the converging pair +turns the conversation inwards, disclosing his or her hopes, fears, +ambitions. Pleasance in the purest innocence had reached this stage +to-day; arriving at it by the road of that silence which is tolerable +only when some progress has been made towards friendship, and which +even then invites attack. The tall gentleman, having lopped and picked +at her bidding, gathered up the last scraps of the hawthorn which he +had ruthlessly broken from the tree. He turned to find his companion +gazing into distance with a shadow on her face. "Your thoughts are not +pleasant ones, I fear," he said, half lightly, half seriously. "A +penny were too much for them." + +"I was thinking of Mr. Woolley," she answered simply. + +"Indeed!" he said, surprised. He was more surprised when she poured +out of a full heart the story of her father's debt to his assistant, +and of the mortgage on the old house which the Partridges had owned +for generations, and which was to her father as the apple of his eye. +She let fall no word of Woolley's position in regard to herself. But +the voice has subtle inflections, and men's apprehensions are quick +where they are interested--and he was interested here. Her story +omitted little which he could not conjecture. + +"I am sorry to hear this," he said, after a pause. "But money +troubles--after all, money troubles are not the worst troubles." He +raised his hat and walked for a moment bareheaded. + +"But this is not merely a money trouble," she answered warmly. She was +wrapped up in her own distresses, and did not perceive at the moment +that he had reverted to his. "We shall lose _that_." + +They had reached the crown of the hill, and as she spoke she pointed +to the Old Hall lying below them, its four gables, its stone front, +its mullioned windows warmed into beauty by lichens and sunlight. "We +shall lose that!" she repeated, pointing to it. + +"Yes," the stranger said, with a quick glance at her. "I understand. +And I do not wonder that it grieves you. It has always been your home, +I suppose?" She nodded. "And your father thinks it must go?" he +continued, after a pause given to deep thought, as it seemed. + +"He thinks so." + +"Something should be done!" he replied, in a tone of decision. "I +conclude from what you say that Mr. Woolley is pressing for his +money?" + +She nodded again. Her eyes were full of tears, which the sight of the +house had brought to them, and she could not trust herself to speak. +His sympathy seemed natural to her, so that she saw nothing at this +minute strange in his position. She forgot that only a few days or +weeks earlier he had been in the blackness of despair himself. He +talked now as if he could help others! + +They were close to the house, and he had referred to the mouldering +shield over the doorway, and she was telling its story when she +checked herself and stood still. Edgar Woolley had emerged, and was +standing before them with a flush of triumph on his check. The tall +gentleman could scarcely be in doubt who he was; nor could Woolley +well take Pleasance's involuntary cry for a sign of gladness--though +he strove to force the smile which was habitual to him. + +"Miss Pleasance," he said, "will you step inside? Your father is +asking for you." + +"Where is he?" she asked. He had used no form of greeting, neither did +she. Something--perhaps not the same thing in each--was at work, +kindling the one against the other. + +"He is in the hall," he answered, chafing at her delay. + +She turned to her companion. "I will take your flowers in, if you +please," she said. She held out her arms as she spoke, and he laid the +pile in them, Woolley looking on the while. The assistant's gaze was +bent on her, and he did not see what she saw--that some strong emotion +was distorting the tall gentleman's face. He turned a livid white, his +nostrils twitched, and a little pulse in his cheek beat wildly. + +She changed her mind, seeing that. "No, do you take them in," she +said. "Will you take them in, please?" she repeated peremptorily; and +she pushed the hawthorn into his arms, and held out her basket. The +stranger took the things with reluctance, but without demur, and went +into the house. + +"Now," she said, turning rapidly upon Woolley, "what do you want?" + +"My answer?" he retorted, with answering curtness. + +A second before he had not intended to say that. He had meant to carry +the war into the stranger's country. But his temper mastered him for a +second, and he found himself staking all, when he had planned an +affair of outposts. "Wait, Miss Pleasance," he added desperately, +seeing in a moment what he had done, and that he had committed +himself. "I beg you not to give it me without thought--without thought +of others, of me, of your father, as well as of yourself! Do not +judge me hastily! Do not judge me," he continued passionately, for her +face was icy, "by myself as I am now, Pleasance, wild with love of +you, but----" + +"By what then, Mr. Woolley?" she asked, her lip curling. "By what am I +to judge you if not by yourself?" + +"By----" + +"Well?" she said mercilessly. He had paused. He could not find words. +In truth, he had made a mistake. If he had ever had a chance of +winning her his chance was gone now; and, recognising this, he let his +fury grow to such a pitch that he could not wait for the answer he had +requested. He was mad with love of her, with rage at his own mistake, +with shame at being so outgeneralled. "I will tell you, Miss +Partridge!" he cried, his eyes sparkling with passion; "Judge me by +the future! That fellow who was with you, do you know who he is? Do +you know that I can put him in gaol any day?--ay, in goal!" + +"What has he done?" she asked. "Tell me." + +It was a pity he could not say, "He is a thief--a forger--a swindler!" +The charge he could bring against the stranger was heavy enough; and +yet he found it difficult to word it so that it should seem heavy. +"You thought he was shot?" he said at last. "Bah! he shot himself." + +"I know it," she answered, without the movement of a muscle. + +He stared at her. How was it? he wondered. Before his departure he had +been the Old Hall's master. He had wound the poor doctor round his +finger, and Pleasance had been civil to him at least. Now all this was +altered. And why? "Ah, well! He shall go to gaol, d----n him!" he +said, putting his conclusion into words. "He shall go to gaol! and if +you have a fancy for him you must go there to see him!" + +She lost her self-possession under the insult, and her face turned +scarlet. "You coward!" she said, with scorn. "You would not dare to +say to his face what you have said behind his back. Let me pass!" + +She swept into the house and left him standing in the sunlight. As she +hurried through the hall, which to her dazzled eyes seemed dusky, she +caught a glimpse of the tall gentleman leaning over the bureau with +his back to her. Had he heard? The door was open, and so was one +window. She could not be sure, but the suspicion was enough. Her face +was on fire as she ran up the stairs. How she hated, oh, how she hated +that wretch out there! She thought that she had never known before +what it was to hate. + +For there was something in what he had said. There was the sting. How +had she come to be so intimate with one who had done what the tall +gentleman had done? She tried to trace the stages, but she could not. +Then she tried to think of him with some of the horror, some of the +distaste which she had felt at the time of his arrival, when he lay +ghastly and blood-stained behind the closed door. But she could not. +The face we have known a year can never put on for us the look it wore +when we saw it first. The hand of time does not move backward. +Pleasance found this was so, and in the solitude of her own room hid +her face and trembled. Could anything but evil come of such a--a +friendship? + +Meanwhile Woolley's state of mind was even less enviable. Hitherto +his way in the world had been made by the exercise of tact and +self-control; and he valued himself upon the possession of those +qualities. He could not understand why they had failed him at this +pinch, or why the advantage he had so far enjoyed had deserted him +now. Yet the secret was not far to seek. He was jealous; and when +jealousy attacks him, the man who lives by playing on the passions of +others falls to the common level. Jealousy undermines his judgment as +certainly as passion deprives the fencer of his skill. + +Though Woolley did not allow that this was the cause of his defeat, he +knew that he could not command himself at present, and before seeking +the doctor he took a turn to collect his thoughts and arrange his +plans. When he returned to the house he found the hall empty. He +passed through it and down a short passage to a small room at the +back, which Dr. Partridge used--especially in times of trouble, when +bills poured in and he mediated a fresh loan--as a kind of sanctum. +Woolley rapped at the door. + +To his surprise no "Come in!" answered his knock, but some one rising +hastily from his chair came to the door and opened it to the extent of +a few inches. It was the doctor. He squeezed himself through. His face +was agitated--but then the passage was ill lit, even on a summer +afternoon--his manner nervous. "You want to see me, my dear fellow?" +he said, holding the door close behind him and speaking effusively. +"Do you mind coming back in a quarter of an hour or so? I am--I shall +be disengaged then." + +"I would prefer," Woolley said doggedly, "to see you now." + +"Wait ten minutes, and you shall," the doctor replied, taking him by +the button with his disengaged hand, as though he would bespeak his +confidence. "At this moment, my dear fellow--excuse me!" + +There was an odd tone in the doctor's voice--a tone half wheedling, +half hostile. But Woolley concluded that Pleasance was with +him--making a complaint in all probability; and this satisfied him. He +thought that he could still depend on the doctor. With a sulky nod he +gave way and returned to the lawn, and there he paced up and down, +prodding the daisies with his stick. Things had gone badly with him. +So much the worse for some one. + +When he returned he found the doctor alone in the dingy little room, +into which one plumped down two steps, so that it was very like a +well. "Come in, come in," the elder man said fussily. "What is it, +Woolley? What can I do for you?" As he spoke his hands were busy with +the papers on the table. Moreover, after one swift glance, which he +shot at his assistant's face on his entrance, he avoided looking at +him. "What is it?" + +"First," Woolley rejoined with acidity, "I should like to know whether +you propose to keep that fellow in your house as a companion for your +daughter?" + +"The tall gentleman?" + +"Precisely." + +"He is gone!" was the unexpected answer. "He is gone already. If you +doubt me, my dear fellow," the doctor added hastily, "ask the +servants--ask Daniel." + +"Gone, is he?" Woolley said gloomily, considering the statement. + +"Yes, he quite saw the propriety of it," the doctor continued. "He +gave me no trouble." + +"And paid you no fees, I suppose?" + +"Well, no, he did not." + +"Then now to my second question, sir," Woolley went on, tapping with +his fingers on the table. But try as he might, he could not quite rise +to the old level of superiority, he could not drive the flush from his +cheek or still his pulse. "What is your daughter's answer? From +something which has passed between us I conclude it to be unfavourable +to me." + +"Indeed?" the doctor said, looking at him blankly. + +"But, favourable or unfavourable," Woolley continued, "I must have it +betimes. You bade me go away and give her a month to think over it. I +have done so, and I am back. Now I ask, What is her answer?" + +"Well," the doctor said, rubbing his hands in great perplexity, "I +have not--I am not sure that I am prepared to say. You must give me a +little more time--indeed you must. Let us say until the day after +to-morrow. I will sound her and give you a decisive answer then--after +breakfast, and here if you like." + +The suitor restrained himself. He longed to reject the proposal. But +he did love her in his way, and at the sound of her father's uncertain +utterance hope began to tell her flattering tale. "Very well!" he +said. "But you understand, I hope," he continued, his manner curiously +made up of shame and defiance, "the alternative, sir? If I am not to +be allied to you, it will no longer suit me to have my money tied up +here, and I must have it--the sooner the better." + +"Well, well," the poor doctor said testily, "we will talk about that, +Woolley, when the time comes." + +There seemed to be nothing more to say. Yet Woolley lingered by the +table, fingering the things on it without looking up. Perhaps an +impulse to withdraw his threat and end the interview more kindly was +working in him. If so, however, he crushed it down, and presently he +took himself off. When his step ceased to sound in the passage the +doctor drew a sigh of relief. + +It has been said that travellers along the moorland road which passes +near the Old Hall--a road once frequented, but now little trodden, +save by tramps--that travellers along it see nothing of the house. The +house lies below the surface. In like manner a visitor arriving at the +Old Hall itself during the next thirty-six hours would have observed +nothing strange, though there was so much below the surface. The +assistant contrived to be abroad at his work during the greater part +of the intervening day. He judged that love-making would help him +little now. The doctor rubbed his hands and talked fast to preserve +appearances; and Pleasance as well as her suitor seemed to regret +their joint outbreak. She was civil to him, if somewhat cold. So that +when he knocked at the door of the little room--after a sleepless +night in which he had pondered long how he should act at the coming +interview--he had some hopes. He was feeling almost amiable. + +The doctor was seated behind his table, Pleasance on a chair in the +one small window recess. With three people in it the room looked more +like a well than ever. With three people? Nay, with four. Woolley shut +the door behind him very softly and set his teeth. For behind the +doctor stood the tall gentleman. + +The assistant smiled viciously. He was not prepared for this, but his +nerves were strung to-day. "A trick?" he said, looking from one to +another. "Very well. I know what to do. I can guess what my answer is +to be, doctor, and need scarcely stay to hear it. Shall I go?" + +"No! no!" the doctor replied, hurriedly. He was distressed and +perturbed, perhaps by the menace which underlay the other's words. As +for the tall gentleman, he gazed gravely over his beard, while +Pleasance looked through the window, her face hot. "No, no, I have +something to say which affects you. And this gentleman here----" + +"Has he anything to say?" the assistant retorted, eyeing his +antagonist. "I am ready to hear it--before I take out a warrant +against him for attempting to commit suicide. It is punishable with a +considerable imprisonment, my friend!" + +"I am no friend of yours," was the stranger's reply, given very +gravely. "You do not know me, Edgar Woolley." + +The assistant started. It was the first time he had heard the tall +gentleman's voice, and for a breathing space, while the looked two on +one another, he seemed to be racking his memory. But he got no result, +and he retorted with a bitter laugh, "No, I do not know you. Nor you +me--yet!" + +"Yes, I do," was the unexpected answer. "Too well!" + +"Bah!" Woolley exclaimed, though it was evident that he was ill at +ease. "Let us have an end of these heroics! If you have anything to +say, say it." + +"I will," the tall gentleman answered. He was still quiet, but there +was a glitter in his eyes. "I have already outlined my story, now I +must ask Dr. Partridge to hear it more at length. Many years ago there +was a young man, almost a boy, employed in the offices of a great firm +in Liverpool--a poor boy, very poor, but of a good and an old family." + +Woolley's smile of derision became fixed, so to speak. But he did not +interrupt, and the other after a pause went on. "This lad made the +acquaintance of a medical student a little older than himself, and was +led by him--I think he was weak and sensitive and easily led--into +gambling. He lost more than he could pay. His mother was a widow, +almost without means. To meet the debt, small as it was, would have +ruined her." + +The stranger paused again, overcome, it seemed, by painful memories. +There was a flush on Woolley's brow. The girl sitting in the window, +her hands clasped on her knees, turned so as to see more of the room. +"Now listen," the speaker continued, "to what happened. One day this +clerk's friend, to whom the greater part of the money was due, came to +the office at the luncheon hour and pressed him to pay. The other +clerks were out. The two were alone together, and while they were +alone there came in a client of the firm to pay some money. The lad +took the money and gave a receipt. He had power to do so. The man left +again, after telling them that he was starting to South America that +evening. When he was gone"--here his voice sank a little--"the friend +made a suggestion. I think you know what it was." + +No one spoke. + +"He suggested to the clerk to take this money and pay his debts with +it--to steal it. The boy resisted for a time, but in the end, still +telling himself he did not intend to steal it, he put it away in his +desk and locked it up, and gave in no account of it. After that the +issue was certain. A day came when, the other still pressing him and +tempting him, he took the money and used it, and became a thief." + +The silence in the little room was deep indeed. On Woolley a spell had +fallen. He would have interrupted the man, but he could not. + +"Immediately after this," the speaker continued, "those two parted. +Within a week--for the man had not gone to South America--the theft +was discovered. The boy's employers were merciful--God reward them! +They declined to prosecute; nay, they kept the matter secret, or as +secret as it could be kept, and even found him work in their foreign +office. He did not forget. He served them faithfully, and in the +course of years he repaid the money with interest. Then--God's ways +are not our ways--strange news reached this clerk. Three distant +kinsmen whom he had never seen had died within three months, and +the last of them had left him a large property. The name and the +honour"--for the first time the tall gentleman's voice faltered--"of a +great family had fallen upon his shoulders to wear and to uphold! And +he was a thief!" + +"_You_," he went on--and from this point he directly addressed the man +who gazed at him from beyond the table--"_you_ cannot enter into his +feelings, nor understand them! It were folly to tell _you_ that the +remembrance that he had stained the honour and disgraced the name of +his family poisoned his whole life. He tried--God knows he did--to +make amends by a life of integrity, and while his mother lived he led +that life. But he found no comfort in it. She died, and he lived on +alone in the house of his family, and it may be"--again his voice +shook--"that he brooded overmuch on this matter, and came to take too +morbid a view of it, to let it stand always between him and the sun." +He stopped, and looked uncertainly about him. + +"Yes, yes!" the doctor said. Pleasance had turned to the window, and +was weeping softly. "He did, indeed!" + +"Be that as it may, he met one day the manager of the firm he had +robbed, and he read in the man's eyes that he remembered. And if he, +why not others? He went out then, and he formed a resolution. You can +guess what that was. It was a wild, mad, perhaps a wicked resolution. +But such as it was--an ancestor in sterner times, writing in a book +which this man possessed, had said, 'Blood washes out shame!'--such as +it was he made it, and Heaven used it, and frustrated it in its own +time. The lad, now a man, following blind chance, as he thought, was +brought within a mile of this house--this one lonely house, of all +others in England, in which you live. But it was not chance which led +him, but Heaven's own guiding, to the end that his, Valentine Walton's +life, might be spared, and that you might be punished." + +Woolley struggled to reply. But the thought which the other's words +expressed was in his mind also, and held him dumb. How had Walton been +led to this house of all houses? Why had this forgotten sin risen up +now? He stood awhile speechless, glaring at Walton; aware, bitterly +aware, of what the listeners were thinking, and yet unable to say a +word in his defence. Then with an effort he became himself again. + +"That is your version, is it?" he said, with a jeering laugh which +failed to hide the effect the story had produced upon him. "You say +you are a thief? It is not worth my while to contradict you. And now, +if you please, we will descend from play-acting to business. You have +been very kind in arranging this little scene, Dr. Partridge, and I am +greatly obliged to you. I need only say that I shall take care to +repay you to the last penny." + +"First," the doctor said mildly, yet with dignity, "I should repay you +what I owe you--if you really want your money now, that is." + +"Want it? Of course I do!" was the fierce rejoinder. The man's nature +was recovering from the shock, and in the rebound passion was getting +the upper hand. + +"Very well," said the doctor firmly. "Then here it is." He pushed +aside a paper, and disclosed a small packet of notes and a pile of +gold and silver. "You will find the amount on that piece of paper, and +it includes your salary for the next quarter in lieu of notice. When +you have seen that it is correct I shall be glad to have your receipt, +and we will close our connection." + +The trapped man had one wish--to see them dead before him. But wishes +go for little, and in his rage and chagrin he clung to a shred of +pride. He would not own that he had been outgeneralled. He sat down +and wrote the quittance. The first pen--it was a quill--would not +write. He jabbed it violently on the table, and flung it with an oath +into the fireplace. But the next served him. + +"You have lent this money, I suppose," he said, looking at Walton as +he rose. "More fool you! You will never be repaid." + +He did not turn to Pleasance or look at her. He had come into the room +hoping to win her in spite of all. He went out--a stranger. Not even +their eyes had met. He had lost her, and revenge, and everything, save +his money. + + + CHAPTER IV + +Within doors a bedroom, littered and dismantled, showed a pile of +luggage stacked in the middle of the floor. Without was a grey cloudy +sky, such as we sometimes have in June, and a nipping east wind that +blew roughly; a wind almost visible to the man moodily gnawing his +nails at the window. He found no comfort within or without, in the +past or the future. Behind him he had a retrospect of humiliation, of +vain hopes and ambitions; before him no prospect but that dreary one +of starting afresh in a new place among new people, unfriended, save +by three thousand and odd pounds. It had come to this. + +"D----n him!" he whispered between his clenched teeth. It was no +formal expletive. He meant it--every letter of it. + +By and by he turned from the window, and his eyes fell on a small +article lying on the dressing-table. It was almost the only thing, +save a stout walking-stick, which he had not packed up. It was a +pistol. He had hit on it the day before in a dark nook behind the +medicine bottles in the surgery; and finding it in good condition, +with one barrel of the two undischarged, he had had no difficulty in +conjecturing whose it was and how it came there. No doubt it was +Walton's, the pistol with which he had shot himself--as indeed it was. +Nickson had brought it to the doctor, and the latter with a natural +distaste had thrust it into the first out-of-the-way place which lay +ready to his hand. + +This piece of evidence Woolley presently put in his pocket, and taking +his stick left the room; leaving it, as he knew, for good, and not +without a last bitter glance round the place where he had slept, and +schemed, and hoped for two years. He went down the stairs, and through +the house to the back door, seeing no one except Daniel, who was +rubbing down the mare in the yard. To the surgeon's fancy the house, +as he passed through it, seemed abnormally still; as if in the hush +and silence which fall upon a house in the afternoon it awaited +something--as if it knew that something strange was in the air, and +all the stones were saying "Hist!" + +Shaking off this feeling, the surgeon took a back path, which, passing +through the shrubbery, came into the main drive near the white gate. +From that point the track mounted between the bracken-covered flanks +of the ravine until it emerged on the crown of the moor. In one place +both path and glen turned at a sharp angle, and Woolley at this corner +happened to lift his eyes. He stopped short with an exclamation. +Before him, strolling slowly along in the same direction as himself, +with his hands behind him and his eyes on the path, was the tall +gentleman--Walton. + +"Ah!" Woolley whispered to himself, hating the other the more for +falling in his way now, "the devil take you for a mooning lunatic! I +would like to give you in charge here, and this minute, and swear you +were going to try it again!" + +He laughed grimly at this, his first thought; a natural thought +enough, since his intention at starting had been to swear an +information against Walton, and get him locked up if possible; at any +rate, to cause him as much vexation as he could. But that first +natural thought led to another which drove the blood from his cheek +and kindled an unholy fire in his eyes. That revenge was a poor one. +But was there not another within his grasp? What if Walton were found +lying on the path shot and dead, his own pistol beside him? + +Ah! what then? What would people say? Would they not say--would not +Nickson be ready to swear that the madman had done it again, and with +more thoroughness? Woolley's hand closed convulsively on the butt of +the weapon in his pocket. One barrel of it was still loaded. No one +had seen him take it. No one knew that he knew of its existence. Would +not even the doctor conclude that Walton had repossessed himself of +it, and in some temporary return of his moody aberration had used +it--this time with fatal effect? + +The perspiration stood on the tempted man's brow. Though the wind was +blowing keenly, and a wrack of white clouds was sweeping over his +head, the glen seemed to grow close and confined, roofed in by a +leaden sky. "It is a devil's thought!" he muttered, his eyes on the +figure before him, "a devil's thought!" At that moment there could be +no question with him of the existence of a devil. He felt him at his +elbow tempting him, promising revenge and impunity. + +"No! Not that!" He rather gasped the words than said them, yet gasped +them aloud, the more thoroughly to convince himself that he did reject +the idea. "Not that!" + +No, not that. Yet he began to walk on at a pace which must bring him +up with the other. His brain too dwelt on the ease and safety with +which he might carry out the scheme. He remembered that before he +turned the corner he had looked back and seen no one. Therefore for +some minutes he was secure from interruption from behind. All round +the ravine he could command the sky-line. There was one no visible. He +and Walton were alone. And he was overtaking Walton. + +The latter heard him walking behind him, and turned and stopped. He +showed no surprise on discovering who his follower was, but spoke as +if he had eyes in his back, and had watched him drawing gradually +nearer. "I have been waiting for you, Woolley," he said. "I thought I +should meet you." + +"Did you?" Woolley said softly, eying him in a curious fashion, and +himself very pale. + +"Yes, I wanted to say this to you." There the tall gentleman paused +and looked down, prodding the turf with his stick. He seemed to find a +difficulty in going on. "It is this," he continued at last. "I have +done you a mischief here, acting honestly, and doing only what seemed +to me to be right. But I have harmed you--that is the fact--and I am +anxious to know that you will not leave here a hardened man--a worse +man than I found you." + +"Thank you," the other said. His lips were dry, and he moistened them +with his tongue. But he did not take his eyes from Walton's face. + +"If you will let me know," the tall gentleman continued haltingly--he +was still intent upon the ground--"what your plans are, I will see if +I can further them. Until lately I thought you had spoiled my life, +and I bore you malice for it. I would have done you what harm I could. +Now----" + +"Yes?" + +"I think--I trust it may not be so. I have dwelt too much on that old +affair. I hope to begin a new life now." + +"With her?" + +The tall gentleman looked up, as if the other had struck him. There +was menace in the tone, and menace more dreadful in the face and +gleaming eyes which he found confronting him. "You fool!" Woolley +hissed--passion in the calmness of his voice--and he took a step +nearer to the other. "You fool, to come and tell me this!--to come and +taunt me! _You_ help me! _You_ pardon me! _You_ will not leave me +worse than you found me! Ay, but you will!" His voice rose. A wicked +smile nickered on his lips. His eyes still dwelling on the other's +face, he drew the pistol slowly from his pocket and levelled it at +Walton's head. "You will, for I--am going--to kill you." + +Walton heard the click of the hammer as it rose. For a second, during +which his tongue refused obedience, he tasted of the bitterness of the +cup which he had held to his own lips. It flashed across him, as his +heart gave a bound and stood still, that this was his punishment. Then +he recovered himself. + +"Not before that child!" he said coolly. He forced his eyes to quit +the dark muzzle which threatened him and to glance aside. + +There was no one there, but Woolley turned to look, and in an instant +Walton sprang upon him, and, knocking up the pistol with his stick, +closed with him. The one loaded barrel exploded in the air, and the +men went writhing and stumbling to and fro, Woolley striking savagely +at the other's face with the muzzle of the pistol. The taller man +contented himself with parrying these attacks, while he clutched +Woolley's left wrist with his disengaged hand. + +Presently they were down in a heap together. Then they rose and drew +apart, breathless and dishevelled, but there remained unnoticed on the +ground between them a tiny white object, a small packet about the size +of a letter. It was very light, for in the twinkling of an eye the +wind turned it over and over, and carried it three or four paces away. + +"You villain!" Walton gasped, trembling with excitement. His nerves +were shaken as much by the narrowness of his escape as by the +struggle. "You would have murdered me!" + +"I would!" the other said, with vengeful emphasis, and the two men +stood a moment glaring at one another. Meanwhile the wind, toying with +the white packet, rolled it slowly along the path; then, getting under +it at a place where a break in the ridge produced an eddy, it began to +hoist it merrily up the slope. At this point Walton's eye, straying +for a second from his opponent, alighted on it. + +Just then Woolley spoke. "You have had a lucky escape!" he said, with +a reckless gesture, half menace, half farewell. "Good-bye! Don't come +across my path again, or you will fail to come off so easily. And +don't--don't, you fool!" he added, returning in a fresh fit of anger +when he had already turned his back, "pat a man on the head when you +have got him down, or he will----" + +He stopped short, his hand at his breast pocket. For a moment, while +his face underwent a marvellous change, he searched frantically in the +pocket, in other pockets. "My notes!" he panted. "They were here! +Where are they?" Then a dreadful expression of rage and suspicion +distorted his features, and he advanced on Walton, his hands +outstretched. "What have you done with them?" he cried, scarcely able +to articulate. "Where are they?" + +"There!" the other answered sternly. He pointed to a little space of +clear turf halfway up the slope. On this the white packet could be +seen fluttering gently over and over. "There! But if you are not +pretty quick, you villain, you will pay a heavy price for this +business!" + +With an oath Woolley turned and started up the hill, the tall man +watching his exertions with grim satisfaction. The pursuer speedily +overtook the notes, but to gain possession of them was a different +matter. Three times he stooped to clutch them, and three times a +mischievous gust swept them away. Then he tripped and fell, and his +hat tumbled off, and his oaths flew freely on the breeze. + +Altogether it was not a dignified retreat, but it was a very +characteristic one. The last time Walton got a glimpse of him, he was +on the crown of the hill. He was still running, bent double with his +face to the ground, and his hand outstretched. Walton never saw him +again. + +The latter, getting back to the house unnoticed, said nothing for the +time of what had happened. But at night before he went to bed he told +the doctor. "He ought to go to prison!" the latter said sternly. He +was shocked beyond measure. + +"So ought I," said Walton, "if it is to come to prisons." + +"Pish!" + +A little word, but it cheered the tall gentleman, who, notwithstanding +his escape, stood in need of cheering. He had not seen Pleasance since +she had escaped from the room after hearing his explanation. She might +have taken his story in many different ways, and he was anxious to +know in which way she had taken it. But all day she had not shown +herself. Even at dinner the doctor apologised for her absence. "She is +not very well," he said. "She was a little upset this morning." And of +course the tall gentleman accepted the excuse with a heavy heart, and +presaged the worst. + +But dressing next morning he caught sight of Pleasance on the lawn. +She was walking with her father--talking to him earnestly, as Walton +could see. Apparently she was urging him to some course of action, and +the doctor, with his hands under his coattails, was assenting with a +poor grace. + +When Walton descended, however, they were already seated at breakfast, +and nothing was said during the meal either of this prelude or of what +was in their minds. But presently, when the doctor rose, he had +something to say. It was something which it went against the grain to +say; for he walked to the door--they were breakfasting in the hall, +and it stood open--and looked out as if he had more mind to fly than +speak. But he returned suddenly, and sat down with a bump. + +"Mr. Walton," he said, his florid face more florid than usual, "I +think there is something I ought to tell you. I do not think that I +can repay you the money you have advanced. And the place is not worth +it. What am I to do?" + +"Do?" the other said, looking up. "Take another cup of tea, as I am +doing, and think no more about it." + +"That is impossible," Pleasance cried impulsively. She turned red the +next instant, under the tall gentleman's eyes. She had not meant to +interfere. + +"Indeed!" he said, rising from his chair. "Then please listen to me. +There came to a certain house a man who had been a thief." + +"No!" she said firmly. + +"A man hopeless and despairing." + +"No." + +"Alas! yes," he answered, shaking his head soberly. "These are facts." + +"No, no, no!" she cried. There were tears in her eyes. "I do not want +to hear. I care nothing for facts!" + +"You will not hear me?" + +"No!" + +Something in her face, her voice, the pose of her figure told him the +truth. "If you will not listen to me," he said, leaning with both +hands on the table and speaking in a voice scarcely audible to the +doctor, "I will not say what I was going to propose. If I must be +repaid, I must. But you must repay me, Pleasance. Will you?" + +The doctor did not wait to hear the answer. He found the open door +very convenient. He got away and to horse with a lighter heart than he +had carried under his waistcoat for months. He felt no great doubt +about the answer; and indeed all that June morning, which was by good +luck as fine as the preceding one had been gloomy, while he rode from +house to house with an unprofessional smile on his lips and in his +eyes, the two left at home walked up and down the lawn in the +sunshine, planning the life which lay before them, and of which every +day was to be as cloudless as this day. A hundred times they passed +and repassed the old sundial, but it was nothing to them. Lovers count +only the hours when the sun does _not_ shine. + + + + + + THE COLONEL'S BOY + + + + + THE COLONEL'S BOY + + +A stranger, coming upon the Colonel as he sat in the morning-room of +the club and read his newspaper with an angelic smile, would have +sought for another copy of the paper and searched its columns with +pleasant anticipations. But I knew better. I knew that the Colonel, +though he had put on his glasses and was pretending to cull the news, +was only doing what I believe he did after lunch and after dinner, and +after he got into bed, and at every one of those periods when the old +campaigner, with a care for his digestion and his conscience, selects +some soothing matter for meditation. He was thinking of his boy; and I +went up to him and smacked him on the shoulder. "Well, Colonel," I +said, "how is Jim?" + +"Hallo! Why, it's Jolly Joe Bratton!" he replied, dropping his +glasses, and gripping my hand tightly--for we did not ride and tie at +Inkerman for nothing. "The very man I wanted to see." + +"And Jim, Colonel? How is the boy?" I asked. + +"Oh, just as fit as a--a middy on shore!" he answered, speaking +cheerfully, yet, it seemed to me, with an effort; so that I wondered +whether anything was wrong with the boy--a little bill or some small +indiscretion, such as might be pardoned in as fine a lad as ever +stepped, with a six-months'-old commission, a new uniform, and a +station fifty minutes from London. "But come," the Colonel continued +before I could make my comment, "you have lunched, Joe? Will you take +a turn?" + +"To be sure," I said; "on one condition--that you let Kitty give you a +cup of tea afterwards." + +"That is a bargain!" he answered. And we went into the hall. Every one +knows the "Junior United" hall. I had taken down my hat, and was +stepping back from the rack, when some one coming downstairs two +at a time--that is the worst of having any one under field rank in a +club--hit me sharply with his elbow. Perhaps my coat fits a bit +tightly round the waist nowadays, and perhaps not; any way, I +particularly object to being poked in the back--it may be a fad, or it +may not--and I turned round and cried "Confound----" + +I did not say any more, for I saw who had done it. My gentleman +stammered a confused apology, and taking a letter which it seemed I +had knocked out of his hand, from the Colonel, who had politely picked +it up, he passed into the morning-room with a red face. "Clumsy +scoundrel!" I said, but not so loudly that he could hear. + +"Hallo!" the Colonel exclaimed, standing still, and looking at me. + +"Well?" I said, perhaps rather testily. "What is the matter?" + +"You are not on very good terms with young Farquhar, then?" + +"I am not on any terms at all with him," I answered grumpily. + +The Colonel whistled. "Indeed!" he said, looking down at me with a +kind of wistfulness in his eyes; Dick is tall, and I am--well, I was +up to standard once. "I thought--that is, Jim told me--that he was a +good deal about your house, Joe. And I rather gathered that he was +making up to Kitty, don't you know." + +"You did, did you?" I grunted. "Well, perhaps he was, and perhaps he +wasn't. Any way, she is not for him. And he would not take an answer, +the young whipper-snapper!" I continued, giving my anger a little +vent, and feeling all the better for it. "He came persecuting her, if +you want to know. And I had to show him the door." + +I think I never saw a man--certainly on the steps of the "Junior +United"--look more pleased than the Colonel looked at that moment. +"Gad!" he said, "Then Jim will have a chance?" + +"Ho! ho!" I answered, chuckling. "The wind sets in that quarter, does +it? A chance? I should think he would have a chance, Colonel!" + +"And you would not object?" + +"Object?" I said. "Why, it would make me the happiest man in the +world, Dick. Are we not the oldest friends? And I have only Kitty and +you have only Jim. Why, it is--it is just Inkerman over again!" + +Really it was, and we stumped down the steps in great delight. Only I +felt a little anxious about Kitty's answer, for though I had a +suspicion that her affections were inclined in the right direction, I +could not be sure. The young soldier might not have won her heart as +he had mine: so that I was still more pleased when the Colonel +informed me that he believed Jim intended to put it to the test this +very afternoon. + +"She is at home," I said, standing still. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" he responded, taking my arm to lead me on. + +But I declined to move. "I'll tell you what," I said--"it is a quarter +to four; if Jim has not popped the question by now, he is not the man +I think him. Let us go home, Colonel, and hear the news." + +He demurred a little, but I had him in a hansom in the time it takes +to blow "Lights out," and we were bowling along Piccadilly in two +minutes more. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation, and, following the +direction of his hand, I was in time to catch a glimpse of Jim's +face--no other's--as he shot past us in a cab going eastwards. It left +us in no doubt, for the lad's cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, and as he swept by and saw us, he raised his hat with a +gesture of triumph. + +"Gad!" the Colonel exclaimed, "I'll bet a guinea he has kissed her! +Happy dog!" + +"Tra! la! la!" I answered. "I dare swear we shall not find Kitty in +tears." + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the cab swerved to one +side, throwing me against my companion. I heard our driver shout, and +caught sight of a bareheaded man mixed up with the near shaft. The +next moment we gave a lurch and stopped, and a crowd came round us. +The Colonel was the first out, but I joined him as quickly as I could. +"I do not think he is much hurt, sir," I heard the policeman say. "He +is drunk, I fancy. Come, old chap, pull yourself together," he +continued, giving a shake to the grey-haired man whom he and a +bystander were supporting. "There, hold up now. Here is your hat. You +are all right." + +And sure enough the man, whose red nose and shabby attire lent +probability to the policeman's charge, managed when left to himself to +keep his balance; but with some wavering. "Hallo!" he muttered, +looking uncertainly upon the crowd round him. "Is my son here to take +me home? Isaac? Where is Isaac?" + +"He's one part shaken," the policeman said, viewing him with an air of +experience. "And three parts drunk. He had better go to the station." + +"Where do you live?" the Colonel asked. + +"Greek Street, Soho, number twenty-seven, top floor"--this was +answered glibly enough. "And I'll tell you what," the man added with a +drunken hiccough and a reel which left him on the policeman's +shoulder--"if any gentleman will take another gentleman home, I will +make him rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I'll present him his +weight in gold. That I will. His weight in gold!" + +"I think----" the Colonel began, turning and meeting my eye. + +"His weight in gold!" murmured the drunken man. + +"Quite so!" I said, accepting the Colonel's unspoken suggestion. "We +will see him home, policeman." And paying our cabman, I hailed a +crawling four-wheeler, into which the officer bundled our man. We got +in, and in a moment were jolting eastwards at a snail's pace. + +"Perhaps we might have sent some one with him," the Colonel said, +looking at me apologetically. + +"Not at all!" I answered. I have no doubt that we both had the same +feeling, that, happy ourselves, it behooved us to do a good turn to +this poor wretch, whose shaking hands and tattered clothes showed that +he had almost reached the bottom of the hill. I have seen more than +one brother officer, once as gallant a lad as Jim, brought as low; +and, perhaps, but for Providence, old Joe Bratton himself---- But +there, it may have been some such thought as this, or it may have been +an extra glass of sherry at lunch, made us take the man home. We did +it; and the Lord only knows why fellows do things--good or bad. + +Hauling out our charge at the door of twenty-seven, we guided him up +the dingy stairs, the gibberish which he never ceased to repeat about +the dreams of avarice and our weight in gold sounding ten times as +absurd on the common stairs of this dirty tenth-rate lodging-house. +The attic gained, he straightened himself, and, winking at us with +drunken gravity, he laid his hand upon the latch of one of the doors. +"You shall see--what you shall see!" he muttered, and throwing open +the door he stumbled into the room. The Colonel raised his eyebrows in +a protest against our folly, but entered after him, and I followed. + +We found only one person in the garret, which was as miserable and +poverty-stricken as a room could be; and he rose and faced us with an +exclamation of anger. He was a young fellow, twenty years old perhaps, +of middle size, sallow and dark-eyed; to my thinking half-starved. The +drunken man seemed unaware of his feelings, however; for he balanced +himself on the floor between us, and waved his hand towards him. + +"Here you are, gentlemen!" he cried. "I'm a man of my word! Let me +introduce you! My son, Isaac Gold. Did not I tell you? Present +you--your weight in gold--or nearly so!" + +"Father!" the lad said, eyeing him gloomily, "go and lie down." + +"Great joke! Your weight in gold, gentlemen!" + +"Your father was knocked down by a cab," the Colonel said quietly, +"and finding that he was not able to take care of himself we brought +him home." + +The young man looked at us furtively, but he did not answer. Instead, +he took his father by the arm and forced him gently to a mattress +which lay in one corner, half hidden by a towel-rail--the latter +bearing a shirt, evidently home-washed and hung out to dry. Twice the +old fool started up muttering the same rubbish; but the third time he +went off into a heavy sleep. There was something pitiful to my eyes in +the boy's patience with him: so that when the lad turned to us at +last, and, with eyes which resented our presence, bade us begone if we +had satisfied our curiosity, I was not surprised that the Colonel held +his ground. "I am afraid you are badly off," he said gently. + +"What's that to you?" was the other's insolent reply. "Do you want to +be paid for your services?" + +"Steady! steady, my lad!" I put in. "You get nothing by that." + +"I think I know you," the Colonel continued, regarding him steadily. +"There was a charge preferred against you, or some one of your name, a +few weeks ago, of personating a candidate at the examination for +commissions in the army. The charge failed, I know." + +The young man's colour rose as the Colonel spoke. But his manner +indicated rather triumph than shame, and his dark eyes sparkled with +malice as he retorted: "It failed? Yes, you are right there. You have +been in the army yourself, I dare say?" + +"I have," the Colonel said gravely. + +"An honourable profession, is it not?" the lad continued in a tone of +mockery. "How many of your young friends, do you think, pass in +honestly? It is a competitive examination, too, mind you. And how many +do you think employ me--me--to pass for them?" + +"You should be ashamed to boast of it," the Colonel replied, "if you +are not afraid." + +"And what should they be? Tell me that!" + +"They are mean fellows, whoever they are." + +"So! so! You think so!" the young man laughed triumphantly. And then +all at once the light seemed to die out of his clever face, and I saw +before me only a half-starved lad, with his shabby clerk's coat +buttoned up to his throat to hide the want of a shirt. The same change +was visible, I think, to the Colonel's eye; for he looked at me and +muttered something about the cab. Understanding that he wanted a word +with the young fellow alone, I went to the window and for a moment or +so pretended to gaze through its murky panes. When I turned, the two +men were talking by the door; the drunken father was snoring behind +his improvised screen; and on a painted deal table beside me I +remarked the one and only article of luxury in the room--a small +soiled album. With a grunt I threw it open. It disclosed the portraits +of two lads, simpering whiskerless faces, surmounting irreproachable +dog-collars and sporting pins. I turned a page and came on two more +bearing a family resemblance in features, dog-collars, and pins to the +others. I turned again with a pish! and a pshaw! and found a vacant +place, and opposite it--a portrait of Jim! + +I stared at it for a moment in unthinking wonder, and then in a +twinkling it flashed across me what these portraits were, and above +all, what this portrait of Jim, placed in this scoundrel's album +meant. I remembered how anxious the Colonel had been as the lad's +examination drew near; how bitterly he had denounced the competitive +system, and vowed a dozen times a day that, what with pundits and +crammers and young officers who should have been girls and gone to +Girton, the service was going to the dogs. "To the dogs, do you hear +me, sir!" And then I recalled his great relief when the boy came out +quite high up; and the change which had at once taken place in his +sentiments. "We must move with the times, sir; it is no good running +your head against a brick wall! We must move with the times, begad!" +and so forth. And--well, I let fall a pretty strong word, at which the +Colonel turned. + +"What is it, Major?" he said. But, seeing me standing motionless by +the window, he turned again and spoke to the young man beside him. +"Well, think about it, and let me know at that address. Now," he +continued, advancing towards me, "what is it, Joe?" + +"What is what?" I said. I had shut the album by this time, and was +standing between him and the table on which it lay. I do not know +why--perhaps it came of the kindness he had been doing--but I noticed +in a way I had never noticed before what a fine figure of a man, tall +and straight, my old comrade still was. And a bit of a dimness, such +as I have experienced once or twice lately when I have taken a third +glass of sherry at lunch, came over my sight. "Confound it!" I said. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"Something in my eye!" + +"Let me get it out," he said--always the kindest fellow under the sun. + +"No! I'll get it out myself!" I snarled like a bear with a sore head. +And, without stopping to explain I plunged out of the room and down +the stairs. The Colonel, wondering no doubt what was the matter with +me, followed more at his leisure, after pausing to say a last word to +the young rascal at the door, whom I had not had the patience to speak +to: so that I had already closed a warm dispute with the cabman, by +sending him off with a flea in his ear and his fare to a sixpence, +when the Colonel overtook me. + +"What is up, Joe?" he asked, laying his hand on my shoulder. + +"That d----d dizziness came over me again. But there, I have always +said the '73 sherry at the club is not sound. I do not feel quite up +to the mark," I continued with truth. "I think I will go home alone, +Colonel--for to-day, if you do not mind." + +"I do mind," he said stoutly. "You may want an arm." But somehow I +made it clear to him that I would rather go alone, and that the walk +would do me good, and he got into a hansom at last and drove off, his +grey moustache and fine old nose peering at me round the side of the +cab, until a corner hid him altogether. + +I walked on a few paces, waving my umbrella cheerfully. Then I +stopped, and, retracing my steps, I mounted the staircase of +twenty-seven, and without parley opened the door. The young fellow we +had left was pacing the floor, turning over in his mind, I fancied, +what the Colonel had said to him. He stood still on seeing me, and +then glanced round the room. "Have you forgotten anything?" he said. + +"Nothing, young man," I answered. "I want to ask you a question." + +"You can ask," he replied, eyeing me askance. + +"That album," I said, pointing to it--"it contains, I suppose, the +photographs of the people you have been employed to personate?" + +"Possibly." + +"But does it?" + +"I did not know," he said slowly, the most provoking manner, "that I +had to do with a detective. What is the charge?" + +"There is no charge," I answered, keeping my temper really admirably. +"But I have seen the face of a friend of mine in that book, and I'll in +a word, I'll be hanged, young man, if I don't learn all about it!" I +continued. "All--do you hear? So there! Now, out with it, and do not +keep me waiting, you young rascal!" + +He only whistled and stared; and finding I was getting a little warm, +I took out my handkerchief, and wiping my forehead, sat down, the +thought of the Colonel's grief taking all the strength out of me. +"Look here," I said in a different tone, "I'll take back what I have +just said, and I give you my word of honour I do not want to harm +the--the gentleman. But I have seen his portrait, and, if I know no +more, must think the worse. Now I will give you a ten-pound note if +you will answer three questions." + +He shook his head; but I saw that he wavered. "I did not show you the +portrait," he said. "If you have seen it, that is your business. I +will name no names." + +"I want none," I answered. I threw open the album at the tell-tale +photograph, and laid my shaky finger on the face. "Was this sent to +you that you might personate the original?" + +He nodded. + +"From what place?" + +He considered a moment. Then he said reluctantly: "From Frome, in +Somerset, I believe." + +"Last year?" + +He nodded. Alas! Jim had been at a crammer's near Frome. Jim had +passed his examination during the last year. I took out the money and +gave it to the man; and a minute later I was standing in the street +with a sentence common enough at mess in the old days, ringing in my +ears: "Refer it to the Colonel! He is the soul of honour." + +The soul of honour! Ay! And what would he think of this? The soul of +honour! And his son, his son Jim, had done this! I walked through the +streets, lost in amazement. I had loved the boy right well myself, and +was ready to choke on my own account when I thought of him. But his +father--I knew that his father was wrapped up in him. His father had +been a mother to him as well, and that for years--had bought him toys +as a lad, and furnished his quarters later with things of which only a +mother would have thought. It would kill his father. + +I wiped my forehead as I thought of this and put my latchkey into the +door in Pont Street. I walked in with a heavy sigh--I do not know that +I ever entered with so sad a heart--and the next moment, with a +flutter of skirts, Kitty was out of the dining-room, where I do not +doubt she had been watching for me, and in my arms. Before Heaven! +until I saw her I had not thought of her--I had never considered her +at all in connection with this matter! No, nor how I should deal with +her, until I heard her say, with her face on my shoulder, and her eyes +looking into mine: "Oh, father, father, I am happy! Be the first to +wish me joy." + +Wish her joy! I could not. I could only mutter, "Wait, girl--wait, +wait!" and lead her into the dining-room, and, turning my back on her, +go to the window and look out--though for all I saw I might have had +my head in a soot-bag. She was alarmed of course--but to save her that +I could not face her. She came after me and clung to my arm, asking me +again and again what it was. + +"Nothing, nothing," I said. "There--wait a minute; don't you know that +I shall lose you?" + +"Father," she said, trying to look into my face, "it is not that. You +know you will not lose me! There is something else the matter. There +is something you are hiding from me! Ah! Jim went in a cab, and----" + +"Jim is all right." I answered, feeling her hand fall from my arm. "In +that way at any rate." + +"Then I am not afraid," she answered stoutly, "if you and Jim are all +right." + +"Look here, Kitty," I said, making up my mind, "sit down, I want to +talk to you." + +And she did sit down, and I told her all. With some girls it might not +have been the best course; but Kitty is not like most of the girls I +meet nowadays--of whom one half are blue stockings, with no more +fitness for the duties of wives and mothers than the statuettes in a +shop window, and the other half are misses in white muslin, who are +always giggling pertly or sitting with their thumbs in their mouths. +Kitty is a companion, a helpmeet, God bless her! She knows that +Wellington did not fight at Blenheim, and she does not think that +Lucknow is in the Crimea. She knows so much, though she knows no Greek +and she loves dancing--her very eyes dance at the thought of it. But +she would rather sit at home with the man she loves than waltz at +Marlborough House. And if she has not learned a little fortification +on the sly, and does not know how many men stand between Jim and his +company--I am a Dutchman! Lord! when I see a man marry a doll with a +pretty face--not that Kitty has not a pretty face, and a sweet one +too, no thanks to her father--I wonder whether he has considered what +it will be to sit opposite my lady at, say, twenty thousand nine +hundred meals on an average! That is the test, sir. + +So I told Kitty all, and the way she took it showed me that I was +right. "What?" she exclaimed, when I had finished the story, to which +she had listened, with her face turned from me, and her arm on the +mantelpiece, "is that all, father?" + +"My dear," I said sadly, "you do not understand." I remembered how +often I had heard--and sometimes noticed--that women's ideas of honour +differ from men's. + +"Understand!" she retorted, turning upon me, fiery hot. "I understand +that you think Jim has done this mean, miserable, wretched thing. +Father," she continued, with sudden gravity, and she laid both her +hands on my shoulders, so that her brave eyes looked into my eyes, "if +three people came to you and told you that I had gone into your +bedroom and taken money from the cash-box in your cupboard to pay a +bill of mine, and that when I had done it I had kept it from you, and +told stories about it--if three, four, five people told you that they +had seen me do it, would you believe them?" + +"No, Kitty," I said, smiling against my will, "not though five angels +told me so, my dear. I know you too well." + +"And, sir, though five angels told me this, I would not believe it! Do +you think I do not know him--and love him?" + +And the foolish girl, who had begun to waltz round the room like a mad +thing, stopped and looked at me with tears in her eyes and her lips +quivering. + +I could not but take some comfort from her confidence. + +"True," I said. "The Colonel brought him up, and it seems hardly +possible that the lad should turn out so bad. But the photograph, my +girl--the photograph? What do you say to that? It was Jim, I swear. I +could not be mistaken. There could not be another so like him." + +"There is no one like him," she said softly. + +"Very well. And then I have noticed that he has been in bad spirits +lately. I'm afraid--I'm afraid a bad conscience, my dear." + +"You dear old donkey!" she answered, shaking me with both her hands. +"That was about me. He has told me all that. He thought Mr. +Farquhar--Mr. Farquhar, indeed!" + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" I said. "Well, that may account for his +depression. But look you here, Kitty; was he not rather nervous about +his examination?" + +"A little," she answered with reluctance. + +"And, nonetheless, did he not come out pretty high?" + +"Seventeenth. Thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty-six marks," +Kitty replied glibly. + +"Just so! And if he had failed he would have suffered in your eyes?" + +"Not a scrap. And, besides, he did not fail," she retorted. + +"But he may have thought he would suffer," I answered, "if he failed. +That would be a sharp temptation, Kitty." + +She did not reply at once. She was busy rolling up a ribbon of her +frock into the smallest possible compass, and unrolling it again. At +last--it was clear I had made her think-- + +"I know he did not do it," she said, "but that is all I do know. I +cannot prove to you that white is not black; but it is not, and I know +it is not." + +"Well, my dear, I hope you are right," I answered. And it cheered me +to find that she held him worthy of confidence. + +She promised readily to let me have the first word with the lad +when he called next day. And as for undertaking to have nothing more +to do with him if the charge proved to be true, she made nothing of +that--because, as she said, it meant nothing. + +"A Jim who had done that would not be my Jim at all," she explained +gaily, "but quite a different Jim--a James, sir." + +Certainly, a girl's faith is a wonderful thing. And hers so far +affected me that I regretted I had not taken a bolder course, and, +showing the photograph to the Colonel, had the whole thing threshed +out on the spot. Possibly I might have saved myself a very wretched +hour or two. But no; on second thoughts I could not see how the boy +could be innocent. I could not help piecing the evidence together--the +damning evidence, as it seemed to me; the certain identity of Jim with +the original of the photograph, the arrival of the latter from Frome, +where the lad had spent the last weeks previous to his examination, +the fears he had expressed before the ordeal, and his success beyond +his hopes at it; these things seemed almost conclusive. I had only the +boy's character, his father's training, and his sweetheart's faith, to +set against them. + +His sweetheart's faith, did I say? Ah, well! when I came down to +breakfast next morning, whom should I find in tears--and she, as a +rule, the most equable girl in the world--but Kitty. + +"Hallo!" I said. "What is all this?" + +At the sound of my voice she sprang to her feet. She had been +kneeling by the fireplace groping with her hands inside the fender. +Her cheeks were crimson, and she was crying--yes, certainly crying, +although she tried by a hasty dab of the flimsy thing she calls a +pocket-handkerchief to remove the traces. + +"Well!" I said, for she was dumb. "What is it, my dear?" + +"I have--torn up a letter," she answered, a little sob dividing the +sentence into two. + +"So I see," I answered dryly. "And now, I suppose, you are sorry for +it." + +"It was a horrid letter, father," she cried, her eyes shining like +electric lamps in a shower--"about Jim." + +"Indeed," I said, with a very nasty feeling inside me. "What about +Jim? And why did you tear it up, my dear? One half of it, I should +say, has gone into the fire." + +"It was from--a woman!" she answered. + +And presently she told me that the letter, which was unsigned, +asserted that Jim had played with the affections of the writer, and +warned Kitty to be on her guard against him, and not to be a party to +the wrong he was doing an innocent girl. + +"Pooh!" I said, with a contemptuous laugh. "That cock will not fight, +my dear. It has been tried over and over again. You do not mean to say +that that has made you cry? Why, if so, you are--you are just as big a +fool as any girl I know." + +In truth, I was surprised to find Kitty's faith in her lover, which +had been proof against a charge made on the best of evidence, fail +before an unsigned accusation--because, forsooth, it mentioned a +woman. "What postmark did it bear?" I asked. + +"Frome," she murmured. + +That was certainly odd--very odd. Pretty devilments I knew those +fellows at crammers' were up to sometimes. Could it be that we were +mistaken in Master Jim, as I have once or twice known a lad's family +to be mistaken in him? Was he all the time an out-and-out bad one? Or +had he some enemy at Frome plotting against his happiness? This seemed +most unlikely and absurd besides; since we had lit upon Isaac Gold by +a chance, and on the portrait by a chance within a chance, and no +enemy, however acute--not Machiavelli himself--could have foreseen the +_rencontre_ or arranged the circumstances which had led me to the +photograph. Therefore, though the anonymous letter might be the work +of an ill-wisher, I did not see how the other could be. However, I +gathered up the few fragments of writing which had escaped the fire, +and put them aside, to serve, if need be, for evidence. + +On one thing I was making up my mind, however--I must put an end to +the matter between Jim and my girl unless he could clear himself of +these suspicions--when what should I hear but his voice, and his +father's, in the hall. There is something in the sound of a familiar +voice which so recalls our knowledge of the speaker that I know +nothing which pierces the cloud of doubt more thoroughly. At any rate, +when the two came in, I jumped up and gave a hand to each. Behind +Jim's back one might suspect him: confronted by his open eyes, and his +brown, honest, boyish face--well, by the Lord! I could as soon suspect +my old comrade, God bless him! + +"Jim," I found myself saying, his hand in mine, and every one of my +prudent resolutions gone to the wind, "Jim, my boy, I am a happy man. +Take her and be good to her, and God bless you! No, Colonel, no," I +continued in desperate haste, "I do not ask a question. Let the lad +take her. If your son cannot be trusted no one can. There, I am glad +that is settled." + +I verily believe I was almost blubbering; and though I said only what +I should have said if this confounded matter had never arisen, I let +drop, it seems, enough to set the Colonel questioning, for in five +minutes I had told him the whole story of the photograph. + +It was pleasant to observe his demeanour. Though he never for a moment +lost his faith in Jim--mind, he had not seen the portrait--and his +eyes continued to shoot little glances of confidence at his son, he +drew back his chair and squared his shoulders, and assumed a judicial +air. + +"Now, sir," he said, with his hands on his knees, "this must be +explained. We are much obliged to the Major for bringing it to our +notice. You will be good enough to explain, my lad." + +Jim did explain; or, rather, he answered frankly that he had never +heard Isaac Gold's name before and certainly had never given him a +photograph, and I believed him. Then he jumped up with his usual +impetuosity and proposed to go at once to Gold's house and see the +photograph, and I was delighted. In half a minute we were all three in +a cab, and in twenty more had the good luck to discover old Gold alone +at home. A five-shilling piece slipped into the drunkard's hand +sufficed to obtain for us the view we desired. + +"I suppose it _is_ a likeness of me," Jim murmured, looking hard at +the photograph. + +"Certainly it is!" the Colonel replied rather curtly. Up to this +moment he had thought me deceived by a chance resemblance. + +"Then let us see who took it, and where it was printed," Jim answered +in a matter-of-fact tone. "I do not believe I have ever been taken in +this dress. See, it bears no photographer's name; so an amateur has +taken it. Let me think." + +While he thought, old Gold pottered about the open door of the room on +the watch for Isaac's return. "Yes," Jim said at last, "I think I have +it. I was photographed in this dress as one of a group before a meet +of the hounds at Old Bulcher's. + +"At Frome?" + +"Yes. And this has been enlarged, I have no doubt, from the head in +the group. But why, or who has done it, or how it comes to be here, I +give you my honour, sir, I know no more than you do." + +At this moment young Gold's footsteps were heard ascending. He seemed +to have some suspicion that his secrets were in danger, for he came up +the stairs three at a time, and bounced into the room--looking for a +moment, as his eyes alighted on us and the open album, as if he would +knock us down. When his glance fell on Jim, however, a change came +over him. It was singular to see the two looking at one another, Jim +eyeing him with the supercilious stare of the boy-officer, and young +Gold returning the look with a covert recognition in his defiant eyes. +"Well," said Jim, "do you know me?" + +"I have never seen you before, to my knowledge." + +"Perhaps you will explain how you came by this photograph?" + +"That is my business!" said Gold sternly. + +"Oh, is it?" retorted Jim with fire. "We will see about that." I think +it annoyed him, as it certainly did me, to detect in the other's +glance and tone a subtle meaning--a covert understanding. "If you do +not explain, I'll--I will call in the police, my man." + +But here the Colonel interfered. He told me afterwards that he felt +some sympathy for Gold. He silenced Jim, and, telling the other that +he should hear from him again, he led us downstairs. I noticed that, +as we passed into the street, he slipped his arm through his son's, +and I have no doubt he managed to convey to the young fellow as +plainly as by words that his faith was unshaken. + +Very naturally, however, Jim was not satisfied with this or with the +present position of things; which was certainly puzzling. "But, look +here!" he said, standing still in the middle of the pavement, "what is +to be done, sir? That fellow believes or pretends to believe, though +he will not say a word, that I have used him to do my dirty work. And +I have not! Then why the deuce does he parade my photograph? Do you +think--by George! I believe I have got it--do you think it is a case +of blackmail?" + +"No," the Colonel said with decision, "it cannot be. We came upon the +photograph by the purest accident. It was not sent to us, or used +against you. No! But see here!" The Colonel in his turn stopped in the +middle of the pavement and struck the latter with his stick. He had +got his idea, and his eyes sparkled. + +"Well?" we said. + +"Suppose some other fellow employed Gold to pass the examination, and, +having this very fear--of being blackmailed--in his mind, got a +photograph of a friend tolerably like himself? And sent it up instead +of his own? What then?" + +"What then? Precisely!" I said. And we all nodded at one another like +so many Chinese mandarins, and the Colonel looked proudly at his son, +as though saying, "Now what do you think of your father, my boy?" + +"I think you have hit it, sir!" Jim said, answering the unspoken +question. "There were nearly thirty fellows at Bulcher's." + +"And among them there was one low rascal--a low rascal, sir," replied +the Colonel, his eyes sparkling, "who did not even trust his companion +in iniquity, but arranged to have an answer ready if his accomplice +turned upon him! 'I suborned him?' he resolved to say--'I deny it. He +has my name pat enough, but has he any proof? A photograph? But that +is not my photograph!' Do you see, Major?" + +"I see," I said. "And now come home with me, both of you, and we will +talk it over with Kitty." + +By this time, however, it was two o'clock. Jim, who had only come up +for an hour or two, found he must resign the hope of seeing Kitty +to-day, and take a cab to Charing Cross if he would catch his train. +The Colonel had a luncheon engagement--for which he was already late. +And so we separated then and there in something of a hurry. When I got +back the first question Kitty--who, you may be sure, met me in the +hall--asked was: "Where is Jim, father?" The second: "And what does he +say about the letter?" + +"God bless my soul!" I exclaimed, "I never gave a thought to the +letter! I am afraid I never mentioned it, my dear. I was thinking +about the photograph. I fancy we have got to something like the bottom +of that." + +"Pooh!" she said. And, she pretended to take very little interest in +the explanation I gave her, though--the sly little cat!--when I +dropped the subject, she was quite ready to take it up again, rather +than not talk about Jim at all. + +I am sometimes late for breakfast; she rarely or never. But next +morning on entering the dining-room I found the table laid for one +only, and Matthews, the maid, waiting modestly before the coffeepot. +"Where is Miss Bratton?" I said grumpily, taking the _Times_ from the +fender. "Miss Kitty had a headache," was the answer, "and is taking a +cup of tea in bed, sir." "Ho, ho!" thought I, "this comes of being in +love! Confound the lads! Sausage? No, I won't have sausage. Who the +deuce ordered sausages at this time of year? Bacon? Seems half done. +This coffee is thick. There, that will do! That will do. Don't rattle +those cups and saucers all day! Confound the girl!--do you hear? You +can go!" The way women bully a man when they get him alone is a +caution. + +When I returned from my morning stroll, I heard voices in the +dining-room, and looked in to see how Kitty was. Well, she was--in +brief, there was a scene going on. Miss Kitty, her cheeks crimson and +her eyes bright, was standing with her back to the window; and facing +her, half angry and half embarrassed, was Jim. "Hoity, toity, you +two!" I said, closing the door behind me. "These are early times for +this kind of thing. What is up?" + +"I'll be hanged if I know, sir!" Jim answered, looking rather foolish. + +"What have you got there, my dear?" I continued, for Kitty had one +hand behind her, and I was not slow to connect this hand with the +expression on her pretty face. + +"He knows," she said, trembling with anger--the little vixen. + +"I know nothing!" Jim returned sheepishly. "I came in, and when +I--Kitty flew out and attacked me, don't you see, sir?" + +"Very well, my dear," I answered, "if you do not feel able to explain, +Jim had better go. Only, if he goes now, of course I cannot say when +he will come back." + +"I will come back, Kitty, whenever you want me," said the young fool. + +"Shut your mouth, sir," I shouted. "Now, Kitty, attend to me. What is +it?" + +"Ask him--to whom he gave his photograph at Frome!" she said, in a +breathless sort of way. + +"His photograph? Why, that is just what we were talking about +yesterday," I replied sharply. "I thought it did not interest you, my +girl, when I told you all about it last night." + +"That photograph!"--with withering contempt--"I do not mean _that!_ Do +you think I suspect him of _that?_" She stepped forward as though to +go to him, and her face altered wonderfully. Then she recollected +herself and fell back. "No," she said coldly, "to what woman, sir, did +you give your photograph at Frome?" + +"To no woman at all," he said emphatically. + +"Then look at this!" she retorted. She held out as she spoke a +photograph, which I identified at once as the portrait we had seen at +Gold's, or a copy of that one. I snatched it from Jim. "Where did you +get this, my girl?" I asked briskly. + +"It came this morning--with another letter from that woman," she +murmured. + +I think she began to feel ashamed of herself; and in two minutes I got +the letter from her. It was written by the same hand as the letter of +the day before, and was, like it, unsigned. It merely said that the +writer, in proof of her good faith, enclosed a photograph which Master +Jim--that gay Lothario!--had given her. We were still looking at the +letter, when the Colonel came in. I explained the matter to him, and I +will answer for it, before he understood it, Kitty was more ashamed of +herself than ever. + +"This photograph and the one at Gold's are facsimiles," said he +thoughtfully. "That is certain. And both come from Frome. Doesn't it +seem probable that the gentleman who obtained Jim's photograph for his +own purpose last year--to send to Gold--printed off more than one +copy? And having this one by him, and wishing to cause mischief +between Kitty and Jim, thought of this and used it? The sender is, +therefore, some one who passed his examination last year and is still +at Frome." + +Jim shook his head. + +"If he passed, sir, he would not be at Bulcher's now," he said. + +"On second thoughts he may not be," the Colonel replied. "He may have +sent the two letters to Frome to a confidential friend with orders to +post them. Wait--wait a minute," my old chum added, looking at me with +a new light in his eyes. "Where have I seen a letter addressed to +Frome--within the last day or two? Eh? Wait a bit." + +We did wait; and presently the Colonel announced his discovery in a +grim voice. + +"I have it," he said. "It is that scoundrel, Farquhar!" + +"Farquhar!" I said. "What do you mean, Colonel?" + +"Just that, Major, just that. Do you remember him knocking against you +in the hall at the club the day before yesterday? He dropped a letter, +and I picked it up. It was addressed--I could not help seeing so +much--to Frome." + +"Well," Jim said slowly, "he was at Bulcher's, and he passed last +year." + +"And the letter," continued the Colonel in his turn, "was in a large +envelope--an envelope large enough to contain a cabinet photograph." + +There was silence in the room. Kitty's face was hidden. Jim moved at +last--towards her? No, towards the door. He had his hand on it when +the Colonel observed him. + +"Stop!" he said sharply. "Come back, my boy. None of that. The Major +and I will deal with him." + +Jim lingered with his hand on the door. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I will only----" + +"Come back!" roared the Colonel, but with a smile in his eyes as he +looked at his boy. "You will stop here, you lucky dog, you. And I hope +this will be a lesson to you not to give your photograph to young +ladies at Frome!" + +If Kitty squirmed a little at that, she deserved it. I said before +that a woman's faith is a wonderful thing. But when there is another +woman in the case--umph! + + + * * * * * + + +"Mr. Farquhar, sir? Yes, sir, he is in the house," the club porter +said, turning in his glass case to consult his book. "I believe he +went upstairs to the drawing-room, sir." + +"Thank you," the Colonel replied, and he glanced at me and I at him; +and then, fixing our hats on tightly, and grasping our sticks, we went +upstairs. + +We were in luck, as it turned out, for not only was Farquhar in the +drawing-room, but there was no one else in the long, stiff, splendid +room. He looked up from his writing, and saw us piloting our way +towards him between the chairs and tables. And I think he turned +green. At any rate, my last doubt left me at the sight of his face. + +"A word with you, Mr. Farquhar," the Colonel said grimly, keeping a +tight hand on my arm, for I confess I had been in favour of more +drastic measures. "It is about a photograph." + +"A photograph?" the startled wretch exclaimed, his mouth ajar. + +"Well, perhaps I should have said two photographs," the Colonel +replied gravely; "photographs of my son which are lying, one in the +possession of Major Bratton, and one in the album of a friend of +yours, Mr. Isaac Gold." + +He tried to frame the words, "A friend of mine!" and to feign +astonishment and stare us down. But it was a pitiable attempt, and his +eyes sank. He could only mutter, "I do not know--any Gold. There is +some mistake." + +"Perhaps so," the Colonel answered smoothly. "I hope there is some +mistake. But let me tell you this, Mr. Farquhar. Unless you apply +within a week for leave to resign your commission, I shall lay certain +facts concerning these photographs before the Commander-in-Chief and +before the mess of your regiment. You understand me, I am sure. Very +well. That is all I wish to say to you." + +Apparently he had nothing to say to us in return. And we were both +glad to turn our backs on that baffled, spiteful face, in which the +horror of discovery strove with the fear of ruin. It is ill striking a +man when he is down, and I was glad to get out of the house and +breathe a purer air. + +We had no need to go to the Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant Farquhar +applied for leave to resign within the week, and Her Majesty obtained, +I think, a better bargain in Private Isaac Gold, who, following the +Colonel's advice, enlisted about this time. He is already a corporal, +and, aided by an education rare in the ranks, bids fair to earn a +sergeant's stripes at an early date. He has turned over a new +leaf--the Colonel always maintained that he had a keen sense of +honour; and I feel little doubt that if he ever has the luck to rise +to Farquhar's grade, and bear the Queen's commission, he will be a +credit to it and to his friend and brother officer--the Colonel's boy. +Not, mind you, that I think he will ever be as good a fellow as Jim! +No, no. + + + + + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA + + + + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA + + +The clock of St. Martin's was striking ten as Archdeacon Yale, of +Studbury, in Gloucestershire, who had taken breakfast at the Athenæum, +walked down the club steps, eastward bound. He was a man of fresh +complexion and good presence; of tolerable means and some reputation +as the author of a curiously morbid book, "Timon Defended." As he +walked the pavement briskly, an unopened letter which peeped from his +pocket seemed--and rightly--to indicate a man free from anxieties: a +man without a care. + +Before he left the dignified stillness of Pall Mall, however, he found +leisure to read the note. "I enclose," wrote his wife, "a letter which +came for you this morning. I trust, Cyprian, that you are not fretting +about the visitation question and that you get your meals fairly well +cooked." The Archdeacon paused at this point and smiled as at some +pleasant reminiscence. "Give my love to dear Jack. Oh--h'm--I do not +recognise your correspondent's handwriting." + +"Nor do I!" the Archdeacon said aloud; and he opened the enclosure +with a curiosity that had in it no fear of trouble. After glancing at +the signature, however, he turned into a side street and read the +letter to the end. He sighed. "Oh dear, dear!" he muttered. "What +can I do? I must go! There is no room for refusal. And yet--oh +dear!--after all these years. Number 14, Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn +Road? What a place!" + +It was a shabby third-rate lodging-house place, as perhaps he knew. +But he called a cab and had himself driven thither forthwith. At the +corner of the street he dismissed the cab and looked about him +furtively. For a man who had left his club so free from care, and +whose wife at Studbury and son at Lincoln's Inn were well, he wore an +anxious face. It could not be--for he was an Archdeacon--that he was +about to do anything of which he was ashamed. Bishops, and others of +that class, may be open to temptations, or have pages of their lives +folded down, which they would not wish turned. But an Archdeacon? + +Yet when he was distant a house or so from No. 14 he started guiltily +at a very ordinary occurrence; at nothing more than the arrival of a +hansom cab at the door. True, a young woman descended from it, and let +herself into the house with a latchkey. But young women and latchkeys +are common in London, as common as--as dirt. It could hardly be that +which darkened his face as he rang the bell. + +In the hall, where a dun was sitting, there was little to remove the +prejudice he may have conceived; little, too, in the dingy staircase, +cumbered with plates and stale food; or in the first-floor rooms, +from which some one peeped and another whispered, and both giggled; +or in that second-floor room, at once smart and shabby, and remarkable +for many photographs of one young girl, where he was bidden to +wait--little or nothing. But when he had pished and pshawed at the +tenth photograph, he was called into an inner room, where a strange +silence prevailed. Involuntarily he stepped softly. "It was kind of +you to come," some one said--some one who was lying in a great chair +brought very near to the open window that the speaker might breathe +more easily--"very kind. And you have come so quickly." + +"I have been in London some days," he answered gently, the fastidious +expression gone from his face. "Your daughter's letter followed me +from the country and reached me an hour ago. It has been no trouble to +me to come. I am only pained at finding you so ill." + +"Ah!" she answered. Doubtless her thoughts were busy; while his flew +back nearly thirty years to a summer evening, when he had walked with +her under the trees in Chelsea Gardens and heard her pour into his +ear--she was a young actress in the first blush of success--her hopes +and ambitions. There was nothing in the memory of which he had need to +be ashamed. In those days he had been reading for orders, and, having +lodgings in a respectable street, had come by chance to know two of +his neighbours--her mother and herself. The two were living a quiet +domestic life, which surprised and impressed him. The girl's talent +and the contrast between her notoriety and her simple ways had had a +charm for him. For some months the neophyte and the actress were as +brother and sister. But there the feeling had stopped; and when his +appointment to a country curacy had closed this pretty episode in his +life, the exchange of a few letters had but added grace to its ending. + +Now old feelings rose to swell his pity as he traced the girl's +features in the woman's face. "You have a daughter. You have been +married since we parted," he said. + +"Yes. It is for her sake I have troubled you," was her answer. "She is +a good girl--oh, so good! But she has no one in the world except me, +and I am leaving her. Poor Grissel!" + +"She is on the stage?" he inquired gravely. + +"Yes; and she has succeeded young, as I did. We have not been unhappy +together. You remember the life my mother and I had? I think it has +been the same over again." + +She smiled ever so little. He remembered something of the quiet pathos +of that life. "Your husband is dead?" he asked. + +"Dead! I wish he were!" she answered bitterly, the smile passing from +her face. "My girl had better be alone than with her father. Ah, you +do not know! When he went to America years ago--with another woman--I +thanked God for it. Dead? Oh, no! There is no chance that he is dead." + +Mr. Yale was shocked. "You have not got a divorce?" he said. + +"No. After he left me I fell ill, and there were expenses. We were +very poor until last year, when Grissel made a good engagement. That +is why we are here. Now that her name is known he will come back and +find her out. She plays as Kittie Latouche, but the profession know +who she is, and--and what can I do? Oh, Mr. Yale! tell me what I can +do for her." + +Her anxiety unnerved him. Her terror of the future, not her own, but +her child's, wrung his heart. He had a presentiment whither she was +leading him; and he tried to escape, he tried to murmur some +commonplace of encouragement. + +"You may yet recover," he urged. "At any rate, there will be time to +talk of this again." + +"There will not be time," she entreated him. "I have scarcely three +days to live, and then my child will be alone. Oh, Mr. Yale! help me. +She is young and handsome, with no one to guide her. If her father +return, he will be her worst enemy. There is some one, too--some +gentleman--who has fallen in with her, and been here. He may be a +friend--what you were to me--or not! Don't you understand me?" she +cried piteously. "How can I leave her unless you--there is no one else +whom I can ask--will protect her?" + +He started and looked round for relief, but found none. "I? It is +impossible!" he cried. "Oh dear, dear! I am afraid that it is +impossible, Mrs. Kent." + +"Not impossible! I do not ask you to give her a home or money! Only +care. If you will be her guardian--her friend----" + +She was a woman dying in sore straits. He was a merciful man. In the +end he promised to do what she wished. Then he hastened to escape her +gratitude, unconscious, as he passed down the stairs, of the +whispering and giggling, the slatternliness and dirt, which had been +so dreadful to him on his entrance. + +He walked along Oxford Street in a reverie, "Poor thing!" falling from +him at intervals, until he reached the corner of Tottenham Court Road, +and his eye rested upon a hoarding--at the first idly, then with a +purpose, finally with a sidelong glance. The advertisement which had +caught his attention was a coarse engraving of half a dozen heads, +arranged in a circle, with one in the centre. Under this last, which +was larger and more staring, and less to be evaded than the others, +appeared the words, "Miss Kittie Latouche." He went on with a shiver, +crossing here and there to avoid the hoardings, but only to fall in +with a string of sandwich-men bearing the same device. He plunged into +the haven of Soho as if he were a political conspirator. + +The portrait and the name of his ward! In a few days he would be left +in charge of an actress whose name was known to all London--guardian, +_in loco parentis_, what you will, of the closest and most +responsible, to a giddy girl of unknown antecedents, and too +well-known name! He wondered whether Archdeacon had ever been in such +a position before, a position which it would be hard to acknowledge +and impossible to explain. He could talk of his old friendship for her +mother, the actress, and his duty to a dying woman. But would the +world believe him? Would even his wife believe him? Would not she read +much between the lines, though the space were white as snow? He, a man +of nearly sixty, grew red and white by turns as he thought of this. + +"I will tell Jack the story," was his first resolve. "I will tell it +him at dinner to-night," he groaned. But would he have the courage? He +had much respect for his son's practical nature. He had heard him +called "hard as nails." And when he found himself opposite to him, and +eyed the close-shaven young lawyer, who looked a decade older than his +years, he resorted to a subterfuge. + +"Jack," he said, "I want your opinion for a friend of mine." + +"It is at your service, sir," his son said, his hand upon the +apricots. "What is the subject? Law?" + +"Not precisely," the Archdeacon replied, clearing his throat. "It is +rather a question of knowledge of the world. You know, my boy," he +went on, "that I have a very high opinion of your discretion." + +"You are very good," said Jack. And he did that which was unusual with +him. He blushed; but the other did not observe it. + +"My friend, who, I may say, is a clergyman in my archdeaconry," the +elder gentleman resumed, "has been appointed guardian--it is a +ridiculous thing for a man in his position--to a--a young actress. She +is quite a girl, I understand, but of some notoriety." + +"Indeed," said Jack drily. "May I ask how that came about? Wards of +that kind do not fall from heaven--as a rule." + +The Archdeacon winced. "He tells me," he explained, "that her mother +was an old friend of his, and when she died, some time back, she left +the girl as a kind of legacy, you see." + +"A legacy to him, sir?" + +"To him, certainly," the elder man said in some distress. "You follow +me?" + +"Quite so," said Jack. "Oh, quite so! A common thing, no doubt. Did +you say that your friend was a married man, sir?" + +"Yes," the Archdeacon replied faintly. + +"Just so! just so!" his son said, in the same tone, a tone that was so +dreadful to the Archdeacon that it needed Jack's question, "And what +is the point upon which he wants advice?" to induce him to go on. + +"What he had better do, being a clergyman." + +"He should have thought of that earlier--ahem!--I mean it depends a +good deal on the young lady. There are actresses _and_ actresses, you +know." + +"I suppose so," the Archdeacon admitted grudgingly. He was in a mood +to see the darkest side of his difficulty. + +"Of course there are!" Jack said, for him quite warmly. And indeed +that is the worst of barristers. They will argue in season and out of +season if you do not agree with them quickly. "Some are as good--as +good girls as my mother when you married her, sir." + +"Well, well, she may be a good girl--I do not know," the elder man +allowed. + +"You always had a prejudice against the stage, sir." + +The Archdeacon looked up sharply, thinking this uncalled for; unless, +horrible thought! his son knew something of the matter, and was +chaffing him. He made an effort to get on firmer ground. "Granted she +is a good girl," he said, "there are still two difficulties. Her +father is a rascal, and there is a man, probably a rascal too, hanging +about her, and likely to give trouble in another way." + +Jack nodded and sagely pondered the position. "I think I should advise +your friend to get some respectable woman to live with the girl," he +suggested, "and play the duenna--first getting rid of your second +rascal." + +"But how will you do that? And what would you do about the father?" + +"Buy him off!" said Jack curtly. "As to the lover, have an interview +with him. Say to him, 'Do you wish to marry my ward? If you do, who +are you? If you do not, go about your business.'" + +"But if he will not go," the Archdeacon said, "what can my friend do?" + +"Well, indeed," replied Jack, looking rather nonplussed, "I hardly +know, unless you make her a ward of court. You see," he added +apologetically, "your friend's position is a little--shall I say a +little anomalous?" + +The Archdeacon shuddered. He dropped his napkin and picked it up +again, to hide his dismay. Then he plunged into a fresh subject. When +his son upon some excuse left him early, he was glad to be alone. He +had now a course laid down for him, and acting upon it, he next day +saw the landlady in Sidmouth Street and requested her to take charge +of the young lady in the event of the mother's death and to guard her +from intrusion until other arrangements could be made. "You will look +to me for all expenses," the Archdeacon added, seizing with eagerness +the only ground on which he felt himself at home. To which the +landlady gladly said she would, and accepted Mr. Yale's address at the +Athenæum Club as a personal favour to herself. + +So the Archdeacon, free for the moment, went down to Studbury, and +as he walked about his shrubberies with the scent of his wife's +old-fashioned flowers in the air, or sat drinking his glass of +Leoville '74 after dinner while Vinnells the butler, anxious to get to +his supper, rattled the spoons on the sideboard, he tried to believe +it a dream. What, he wondered, would Vinnells say if he knew that +master had a ward, and that ward a play-actress? Or, as Studbury would +prefer to style her, a painted Jezebel? And what would Mrs. Yale say, +who loved lavender, and had seen a ballet--once? Was Archdeacon ever, +he asked himself, in a position so--so anomalous before? + +"My dear," his wife remarked when he had read his letters one morning, +a week or two later, "I am sure you are not well. I have noticed that +you have not been yourself since you were in London." + +"Nonsense," he replied tartly. + +"It is not nonsense. There is something preying on your mind. I +believe," she persisted, "it is that visitation, Cyprian, that is +troubling you." + +"Visitation? What visitation?" he asked incautiously. For indeed he +had forgotten all about that very important business, and could think +only of a visitation more personal to himself. Before his wife could +hold up her hands in astonishment, "What visitation! indeed!" he had +escaped into the open air. Mrs. Kent was dead. + +Yes, the blow had fallen; but the first shock over, things were made +easy for him. He wrote to his ward as soon after the funeral as seemed +decent, and her answer pleased him greatly. Ready as he was to scent +misbehaviour in the air, he thought it a proper letter, a good girl's +letter. She did not deny his right to give advice. She had not, she +said, seen the gentleman he mentioned since her mother's death, +although Mr. Charles Williams--that was his name--had called several +times. But she had given him an appointment for the following Tuesday, +and was willing that Mr. Yale should see him on that occasion. + +All this in a formal and precise way; but there was something in the +tone of her reference to Mr. Williams which led the Archdeacon to +smile. "She is over head and ears in love," he thought. And in his +reply, after saying that he would be in Sidmouth Street on Tuesday at +the hour named, he added that if there appeared to be nothing against +Mr. Charles Williams he, the Archdeacon, would have pleasure in +forwarding his ward's happiness. + +"I am going to London to-morrow, my dear, for two nights," he said to +his wife on the Sunday evening. "I have some business there." + +Mrs. Yale sat silent for a moment, as if she had not heard. Then she +laid down her book and folded her hands. "Cyprian," she said, "what is +it?" + +The Archdeacon was fussing with his pile of sermons and did not turn. +"What is what, my dear?" he asked. + +"Why are you going to London?" + +"On business, my dear; business," he said lightly. + +"Yes, but what business?" replied Mrs. Yale with decision. "Cyprian, +you are keeping something from me; you were not used to have secrets +from me. Tell me what it is." + +But he remained obstinately silent. He would not tell a lie, and he +could not tell the truth. + +"Is it about Jack?" with sudden conviction. "I know what it is; he has +entangled himself with some girl!" + +The Archdeacon laughed oddly. "You ought to know your son better by +this time, my dear. He is about as likely to entangle himself with a +girl as--as I am." + +But Mrs. Yale shook her head unconvinced. The Archdeacon was a +landowner, though a poor one. It was his ambition, and his wife's, +that Jack should some day be rich enough to live at the Hall, instead +of letting it, as his father found it necessary to do. But while the +Archdeacon considered that Jack's way to the Hall lay over the +woolsack, his wife had in view a short cut through the marriage +market; being a woman, and so thinking it a small sin in a man to +marry for money. Consequently she lived in fear lest Jack should be +entrapped by some penniless fair one, and was not wholly reassured +now. "Well, I shall be sure to find out, Cyprian," she said warningly, +"if you are deceiving me." + +And these words recurred disagreeably to the Archdeacon's mind on his +way to town and afterwards. They rendered him as sensitive as a mole +in the sunshine. He found London almost intolerable. He could not walk +the streets without seeing those horrid placards, nor take up a +newspaper without being stared out of countenance by the name "Kittie +Latouche." While his conscience so multiplied each bill and poster and +programme that in twenty-four hours London seemed to him a great +hoarding of which his ward was the sole lessee. + +Naturally he shrank into himself as he passed down Sidmouth Street +next day. He pondered, standing on the steps of No. 14, what the +neighbours thought of the house; whether they knew that "Kittie +Latouche" lived there. He was spared the giggling and dirty plates on +the stairs, but looking round the room at the ten photographs, and +thinking what Mrs. Yale would say could she see him, he shuddered. +Nervously he picked up the first pamphlet he saw on the table. It was +a trifle in one act: "The Tench," Lacy's edition, by Charles Williams. +He set it down with a grimace, and a word about birds of a feather. +And then the door by which he had entered opened behind him, and he +turned. + +One look was enough. The kindly expression faded from his handsome +features. His face turned to flame. The veins of his forehead swelled +with passion, and he strode forward as though he would lay hands on +the intruder. "How dare you," he cried when he could find his +voice--"how dare you follow me? How dare you play the spy upon me, +sir? Speak!" + +But Jack--for Jack it was--had no answer ready. He seemed to have lost +for once (astonished at being taken in this way, perhaps) his presence +of mind. "I do not--understand," he said helplessly. + +"Understand? You understand," the Archdeacon cried, his son's very +confusion condemning him unheard, "that you have meanly followed me +to--to detect me in--in----" And then he came to a deadlock, and, +redder than before, thundered, "Are you not ashamed of yourself, sir?" + +"I thought I saw a back I knew," Jack muttered, looking everywhere but +at his father, which was terribly irritating. "I was coming through +the street." + +"You were coming through the street? I suppose you often pass through +Sidmouth Street!" retorted the Archdeacon with withering sarcasm. But +his wrath was growing cool. + +"Very often," said Jack so sturdily that his father could not but +believe him, and was further sobered. "I saw a back I thought I knew, +and I came in here. I had no intention of offending you, sir. And now +I think I will go," he added, looking about him uneasily, "and--and +speak to you another time." + +But the Archdeacon's anger was quite gone now. A wretched +embarrassment was taking its place as it dawned upon him that after +all Jack might by pure chance have seen him enter and have followed +innocently. In that case how had he committed himself by his +outbreak--how indeed! "Jack," he said, "I beg your pardon. I beg your +pardon, Jack. I see I was mistaken. Do not go, my boy, until I have +explained to you why I am here. It is not," he went on, smiling a +wretched smile at the pretty faces round him, "quite the place in +which you would expect to find me." + +"It is certainly not the place in which I did expect to find you," +Jack said bluntly. And he looked about him, also in a dazed fashion, +as if the Archdeacon and the photographs were not a conjunction for +which he was prepared. + +"No, no," assented the Archdeacon, wincing, however. "But it is the +simplest piece of business in the world which has brought me here." +And he recalled to his son's memory their talk at the club. + +"Ah, I understand!" Jack said, as if he did, too. "You have come about +your friend's business." + +The Archdeacon could not hide a spasm. "Well, not precisely. To tell +you the truth, there never was a friend, Jack. But," he went on +hurriedly, holding up a hand of dignified protest, for Jack was +looking at him queerly, very queerly, "you know me too well to doubt +me, I hope, when I say there is no ground for doubt?" + +The son's keen eyes met the father's for an instant, and then a rare +smile softened them as the men's hands met. "I do, sir. You may be +sure of that!" he said brightly. + +The Archdeacon cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said; "now I think +you will understand the position. Miss Kent, the young lady in +question, lives here; and I have called to-day to see her by +appointment." + +"The dickens you have! It is like your impudence!" cried some +one--some one behind them. + +Both men swung round at the interruption. In the doorway, holding the +door open with one hand, while with the other set against the wall he +balanced himself on his feet, stood a smart Jewish-looking man. "The +dickens you have!" this gentleman repeated, leering on the two most +unpleasantly. "So that is your game, is it? Ain't you ashamed of +yourself," he continued, addressing himself to the shuddering +Archdeacon--and how far away seemed Vinnells and the lavender, and the +calm delights of Studbury at that moment!--"ain't you ashamed of +yourself, old man?" + +"This is a private room," Jack said sternly, anticipating his father's +outburst. "You do not seem to be aware of it, my friend." + +"A private room, is it?" the visitor replied, closing one eye with +much enjoyment. "A private room, and what then?" + +"This much, that you are requested to leave it." + +"Ho, ho!" the man replied; "so you would put me out of my daughter's +room, would you--out of my own daughter's room? I daresay that you +would like to do it." Then, with a sudden change to ferocity, he +added, "You are bragging above your cards, young man, you are! Dry up, +do you hear? Dry up." + +And Jack did dry up, falling back against the table with a white face. +The Archdeacon, even in his own misery--misery which far exceeded his +presentiments--saw and marvelled at his son's collapse. That Jack, +keen, practical, hard-headed, should be so completely overwhelmed by +collision with this creature, so plainly scared by his insinuations, +infected the Archdeacon with a kind of terror. Yet, struggling against +the feeling, he forced himself to say, "You are Mr. Kent, I presume?" + +"I am, sir; yours to command," swaggered the wretch. + +"Then I may tell you that your daughter," the Archdeacon continued, +resuming something of his natural self-possession, "was left in my +charge by your wife, and that I am here in consequence of that +arrangement." + +"Gammon!" Mr. Kent replied, distinctly, putting his tongue in his +cheek. "Gammon! Do you think that that story will go down with me? Do +you think it will go down with any one?" + +"It is the truth." + +"All right; but look here, when did you see my wife? On her death-bed. +And before that--not for twenty years. Well, what do you make of it +now? Why," he exclaimed, with admiration in his tone, "you have the +impudence of the old one himself! Fie on you, sir! Ain't you ashamed +of hanging about stage doors, and following actresses home at your +age? But I know you. And your friends shall know you, Archdeacon Yale, +of the Athenæum Club. You will hear more of this!" + +"You are an insolent fellow!" the clergyman cried. But the +perspiration stood in great beads upon his brow, and his quivering +lips betrayed the agony of his soul as he writhed under the man's +coarse insinuations. The awkwardness, the improbability of the tale he +would have to tell in his defence flashed across his mind while the +other spoke. He saw how cogently the silence he had maintained about +the matter would tell against him. He pictured the nudge of one +friend, the wink of another, and his own crimsoning cheeks. His son's +unwonted silence, too, touched him home. Yet he tried to bear himself +as an innocent man; he struggled to give back look for look. "You are +a madman and a scoundrel, besides being drunk!" he said stoutly. "If +it were not so, or--or I were as young as my son here----" + +"I do not see him," the man answered curtly. + +"Jack!" the Archdeacon cried, purple with indignation. "Jack! if you +have a voice, speak to him, sir!" + +"It won't do," Mr. Kent replied, shaking his head. "Call him Charley, +and I might believe you." + +"Charley?" repeated the Archdeacon mechanically. + +"Ay, Charley--Charley Williams. Oh I know him, too," with vulgar +triumph. "I have not been hanging about this house for two days for +nothing. He has been here heaps of times! What you two are doing +together beats me, I confess. But I am certain of this, that I have +caught you both--killed two birds with one stone." + +It was the Archdeacon's turn to fall back, aghast. The light that +shone upon him with those words so blinded him that every spark of his +anger paled and dwindled before it. His son, Charles Williams? He +sought in that son's eyes some gleam of denial. But Jack's eyes +avoided his; Jack's downcast air seemed only too strongly to confirm +the charge. The shock was a severe one, taking from him all thought of +himself. The why and wherefore of his presence there could never again +be questioned. A real sorrow, a real trouble, gave him courage. +"Jack!" he said, "we had better go from here. Come with me. For you, +sir," he continued, turning to the actor, "your suspicions are natural +to you. Nothing I can say will remove them. So be it. They affect me +not one whit. It is enough for me that I came here in all honour, and +with an honourable purpose." + +"Indeed," replied Mr. Kent mockingly. "Indeed? And your son, Mr. +Charles Jack Williams Yale, Archdeacon? No doubt you will answer for +him, as he has not got a word to say for himself? He, too, came with +an honourable purpose, I suppose? Oh yes, of course; we are all +honourable men!" + +For an instant the Archdeacon quailed. He saw the pitfall dug before +him. He knew all that his answer would imply of disappointed hopes and +a vain ambition. He recognised all that might be made of it by his +listeners, friend or foe, and he blenched. But the cynical eye and +sneering lip of the wretch recalled him to himself. Nay, he seemed to +rise above himself, as he replied more sternly, "Yes, sir; I _will_ +answer for my son, as for myself! I will answer for him that he came +here in all honour." + +The man sneered still. But he knew better things if he did not ensue +them, and he stood aside with secret respect and let the two go +unmolested. + +"Sir," Jack said, when they had walked halfway down the street in +silence, which his father showed no sign of breaking, "you are +thinking more ill of me than I deserve." + +"You gave a false name," the Archdeacon snarled. + +"Not in a sense--not wilfully, I mean. I wrote a play some time ago, +and, as is usual for professional men, I submitted it under a _nom de +plume_. I was known as Charles Williams at the theatre, and I had no +more idea of doing wrong when I was introduced to Grissel in that name +than I have now." + +"I hope not," the Archdeacon said grimly. He was not a man to go back +from an engagement. "I trust not," he added with a bitterness. "You +may break your word to the girl if you please, but I will not break +mine to the mother. So help me Heaven!" + +"Sir," Jack said, his utterance a little husky, "God bless you! She is +a good girl, and some day she will honour you as I do." + +They parted without more words. The Archdeacon, hardly master of his +thoughts, walked on until he reached the corner of Oxford Street. +There he paused, and seeing girls pass, young, graceful, soft-eyed, +leaning back in carriages with parcels round them, ay, and thinking +that Jack might have chosen out of all these, while he had chosen +in Sidmouth Street--Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn Road--he could not +stifle a groan. He plunged recklessly across and found himself +presently in St. James' Square, and round and round this he walked, +fighting the battle with himself. His poor wife, that was the burden +of his cry. His poor wife, and the shock it would be to her, and the +downfall of hopes! He knew that she a woman would recoil from such a +daughter-in-law far more than he did, who had known Grissel's mother, +and knew that actresses may be good and true women. It would be +dreadful for her, with her old-world notions; the Archdeacon knew it. +But he valued one thing above even the peace of his home, and that was +his honour. It was not in sarcasm we called him a good man. To break +his word to the dead woman who had trusted him; to leave this girl, +whom it behooved him to protect, in the hands of her wretched father, +and so to leave her with her faith in goodness shattered--this he +could not do. + +But he was tempted to think hard things of Jack, to think that Jack, +who had never given him the heartache before, had better not have been +born than bring this trouble on them. It went no farther than +temptation; and he was marvellously thankful next morning that +he had not framed the thought in words; for, as he entered the +breakfast-room, looking a year older than he had looked, chipping his +egg yesterday, the hall-porter put a telegram into his hands. "Come at +once--Jack," were the words that first made themselves intelligible to +him; and then, a few seconds later, the address "St. Thomas's +Hospital." + +How swiftly does a great misfortune, a great loss, a great pain, expel +a less! I have known a man lose his wife and go heavily for a month, +and then losing a thousand pounds become as oblivious of her as if she +had never been born. But the Archdeacon was not such a man, and +rattling towards Westminster in a cab he felt not only that a thousand +pounds would be a small price to pay for his son's safety, but that, +if Providence should take him at his thought, he might have worse news +for his wife than those tidings which had almost aged him in a night. + +His son, however, met him at the great gates, whole and sound, but +with a grave face. "You are too late, sir," he said quietly. But he +flushed a little at the grasp of his father's hand, and a little more +when the Archdeacon told him to pay the cabman a double fare. "I have +brought you here for nothing. He died a quarter of an hour ago, +sinking very rapidly after I sent to you." + +"Who? Who died?" the Archdeacon asked, pressing one hand heavily on +the other's shoulder, as they walked back towards the bridge. + +"Mr. Kent." + +The elder man said nothing for a while--aloud at least. But presently +he asked Jack to tell him about it. + +"There is little to tell. After we left him he went out. Going home +late last night, and not I fear sober, he was run down by a road-car. +When they brought him to the hospital he was hopelessly injured, but +quite sensible. They fetched his daughter, and then he asked for +me--as your son. He did not know my address, but the assistant-surgeon +happened to be a friend of mine, and did, and he sent a cab for me." + +And really that seemed all. "It is very, very sudden; but--Heaven +forgive me!--I cannot regret his death," the clergyman said. "It is +impossible." + +They had reached the corner of the bridge. "There is something else I +should tell you," Jack said nervously. "When he had sent for me he had +a lawyer brought, and made his will." + +"His will!" the Archdeacon repeated, somewhat startled. "Had he +anything to leave?" He asked the question, rather in pity for so +wretched a creature as the man seemed to him, than out of curiosity. + +"If we may believe him," Jack said slowly, "and I think he was telling +the truth, he was worth thirty thousand pounds." + +"Impossible!" the Archdeacon cried. + +"I do not know," replied Jack. "But we shall learn. He said he had +made it in oil, and had come home a poor man to see how his wife and +child would receive him. I do not think he was all bad," Jack +continued thoughtfully. "There must have been a streak of romance in +him." + +"I fear," the Archdeacon muttered very sensibly, "that it is all +romance!" + +But it was not all romance; there is oil in the States yet, and Mr. +Kent, of whom since he is dead we all speak with respect, by hook or +crook had got his share. The thirty thousand pounds were discovered +pleasantly fructifying in Argentine railways, and proved as many +reasons why Mrs. Yale, when Jack's fate became known to her, should +smile again. The Archdeacon put it neatly: To marry an actress is a +grave offence because a common one, and one easily committed; but to +marry an actress with thirty thousand pounds! Such ladies are not +blackberries, not do they grow on every bush. + + +"Mr. and Mrs. John Yale have not yet established themselves at the +Hall. They live at Henley, and their house is the summer resort of all +kinds of people, among whom the Archdeacon is a very butterfly. An +idea prevails--though a few of us are in the secret--that Mrs. Jack +comes, in common with so many pretty women, of an old Irish family; +and the other day I overheard an amusing scrap of conversation at her +table. 'Mrs. Yale,' some one said, 'do you know that you remind me, I +if may say it without offence, of Miss Kittie Latouche, the actress?'" + +"Indeed?" the lady replied with a charming blush. "But do you know +that you are on dangerous ground? My husband was in love with that +lady before he knew me. And I believe that he regrets her now." + +"Tit for tat!" cried Jack. "Let us all tell tales. If my wife was not +in love with one Mr. Charles Williams a month--only a month--before +she married me, I will eat her." + +"Oh, Jack!" the lady exclaimed, covered with confusion. But this story +would not be believed in Studbury, where Mrs. John passes for being a +little shy, a little timid, and not a little prudish. + + + + + + BAB + + + + + BAB + + + + + CHAPTER I + + HER STORY + + +"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure." + +And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss +which clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the +Sogne Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +there, nor in all the Sogne district, I often thought, so deep and +soft, and of so dazzling an orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +gigantic grey boulders peeping through the moss here and there, very +fit to break your legs if you were careless. Little more than a mile +above us was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope towards +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother--who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny green-backed fishlets--and instead, came +down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and faster, and +deeper and wider, and full, too, of red-speckled yellow trout all +half-a-pound apiece, and very good to eat. + +But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch! + +"Who is, you greedy little chit?" + +"Oh, you know," she answered. "Don't you wish you had your grey plush +here, Bab?" + +I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which father says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got up +and went down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish the +cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the grey plush--and follow +or not as I liked. + +Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to father, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how little truth +there is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and +fished all day and had no one to run her errands--he meant Jack and +the others--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. As if I wanted +to grow an inch! An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a half high, +and father, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst measurer in the +world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her inches for my eyes. +So there! + +After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the grey plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me. I had filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat with a view to that particular +place. + +Our river--pleased to be so young, I suppose--did the oddest things +hereabouts. It was not a great churning stream of snow water foaming +and milky, such as we had seen in some parts, streams which affected +to be always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder +and clearing their paths even while you watched them with your fingers +in your ears. Our river was none of these; still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools. + +To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge on +which the water was shallow, yet deep enough to cover my boots. But I +was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, and as +pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily that I +hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its mouth +as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one time +to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by father at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red tackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered what I had done with it, and was certain it was mine--which +was nothing less than dishonest of her. + +I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish; and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of a +reinforcement was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river. + +"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" some one cried briskly. +"That is better!" + +The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep up +my heart. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" as I watched the top of my rod jigging up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man. + +"No, it will not," he cried bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a little +line with your fingers when he pulls hardest." + +We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness. + +"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I don't know," I answered, wildly. + +What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. Then he +waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he reached +me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands benumbed, +while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon us with a +sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, were +mottling my face all kinds of unbecoming colours. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain. + +"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by-and-by. You must be chilled +through." + +Quickly as I looked at him, I only met a good-humoured smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face; it was trickling from his chin, +and turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his +hands, they looked red and knuckly, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the manlier and nicer +for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for them not a whit. What +I looked like myself I dared not think. My skirts were as short as +short could be, and they were soaked; most of my hair was unplaited, +my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were out of shape. I was +forced, too, to shiver and shake with cold, which was provoking, for I +knew that it made me seem half as small again. + +"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr. ----, Mr. ----?" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with-- + +"Herapath. And to whom have I the honour of speaking?" + +"I am Miss Guest," I said, miserably. It was too cold to be frigid +with advantage. + +"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not soundproof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way." + +"I can't," I said, obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he? + +"Oh yes, you can," he answered, with intolerable good temper. "You +shall take your rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are +now." + +He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretence of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath, that +it would have been more--more----" + +"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. And now it +will be wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!" + +And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hand and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation. + +A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home. + +"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!" + +And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her; and I had +to find comfort in promising myself, that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fräulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Father was in the plot against me, too. What +right had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home +safe? He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and he is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one, who +did not contradict. It is in their parents, I believe. + +Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see any one but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy--whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest; and once at least during the evening he dubbed me plain +Bab. I tried to freeze him with a look then, and father gave him a +taste of his pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I +seemed. But it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all +down to the grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it +might have opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too +proud for that. + +When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening." + +Here was a chance. I was going to say that that no doubt was the +reason why I had never met him, when father ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?" + +"No," he replied. "I am in the London Fire Brigade." + +I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and his host seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. +The moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our +guest, but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was +dining with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as +surprise would let me with, "Oh, dear, what fun! Do tell me all about +a fire!" + +It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face that he had looked for their +astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager remark to +childish ignorance. + +"Some time I will," he said with a quiet smile _de haut en bas_; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am the Chief's private +secretary, aide-de-camp, and general factotum." + +It turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so that +father lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. Not for a +long time had I been used to young men talking politics to him, when +they could talk--politics--to me. + +Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of course--was +always on the spot fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy father's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of +the pass to get a glimpse of the Sultind peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with colour, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the +dark ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the +drawing-room in Bolton Gardens with a cosy fire burning, and afternoon +tea coming up. The tears came to my eyes, and he saw them before I +could turn away from the view; and said to father that he feared his +little girl was tired as well as cold--and so spoiled all my pleasure. +I looked back afterwards as father and I drove down; he was walking +beside Clare's cariole and they were laughing heartily. + +And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth together viciously and vowed that if ever we met in London--but +what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered nothing to me +what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so rudely familiar. +That was all; but it was quite enough to make me dislike him. + +However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt that I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had, before +his coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hillsides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed when I came upon him fishing; and fishing where he +had no right to be. Father had spoken to him about the danger of it, +and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet he was there, +thinking, I daresay, that we should not know. It was a spot where one +bank rose into a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at the foot of some +falls. Close to the cliff the water ran with the speed of a mill race. +But on the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water so +promising that it had tempted some one to devise means to fish it, +which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above the water +was a ledge, a foot wide, which might have served only it did not +reach the nearer end of the cliff. However, the foolhardy person had +espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the latter with a bit of +plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, in either case +leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise. + +And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who fished there must have learned to +curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were short +for me. I thought of this as I watched him, and I laughed, and was for +going on. But when I had walked a few yards, meaning to pass round the +rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all sorts of foolish things might +happen. I felt sure that I should have no more peace or pleasure if I +left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I would. I would go down, and ask +him to leave the place; and, of course, he would do it. + +I lost no time, but ran down the slope. My way lay over loose shale +mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It is wonderful how +swiftly a thing that cannot be undone is done, and we are left +wishing--oh, so vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in +it, back by a few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when +a big stone on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip +in a mass, and the stone to roll. It was done in a moment. I stayed +myself, that was easy, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board which only rested lightly at either end, and +before I could take it in the little bridge plunged end first into the +current, which swept it out of sight in an instant. + +He threw up his hands, for he had turned, and we both saw it happen. +He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but that was impossible. +Then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his arm to me in the +direction of home--again and again. The roar of the falls drowned what +he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not help him myself, but I +could fetch help. It was three miles to Breistolen, rough rocky ones, +and I doubted whether he could keep his cramped position with that +noise deafening him, and the endless whirling stream before his eyes, +while I was going and coming. But there was no better way; and even as +I wavered, he signalled to me again imperatively. For an instant +everything seemed to go round with me, but it was not the time for +that, and I tried to collect myself, and harden my heart. Up the bank +I went steadily, and once at the top set off at a rim homewards. + +I cannot tell how I did it; how I passed over the uneven ground or +whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning father made +afterwards. I only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I panted +uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, breathless and +half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I slipped and +dropped down places from which I should at other times have shrunk, +and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I thought +nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on for his +life, the clamour of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted over the +bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, father's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand that +Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I knew; and then I +seized a great pole which was leaning against the porch, and climbed +into the car. Father was not slow either; he snatched a coil of rope +from the luggage, and away we went, a man and boy whom he had hastily +called running behind us. We had lost very little time, but so much +may happen in a little time. + +We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from the river, +and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even father, as I had +never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he uttered when +I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one and we all looked. +The ledge was empty. Mr. Herapath was gone. I suppose I was tired out. +At any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way, and cry +without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men shouted to +one another in strange hushed voices and searched about for any sign +of his fate--"James Herapath!" So he had written his name only +yesterday in the travellers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, to hear him say "Bab" +once more! + +"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?" + +Safe and sound! Yes, when I turned he was there, safe, and strong, and +cool, rod in hand, and a smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen him +yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab" +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me +answering a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of +Norse and English, and something that was neither yet both, set in. + +"But how is this?" my father objected, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?" + +"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?" + +"The matter! Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" father +asked, bewildered by the new aspect of the case. + +"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so." + +Every one looked at me for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I asked feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it. + +"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure. Of course I had to +walk back round the hill; but I did not mind. I was thankful that it +was the plank and not you that fell in." + +"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me; +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous. It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But, when he laughed too--and he did until the tears came +into his eyes--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I had cut +my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me one-half +as much. Surely he might have seen another side to it. But he did not; +and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and father drove +me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to bed, and +petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next day, +with an ache in every part of me, he was gone. + +"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met." + +So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly, "he did not say that; he said 'the bravest +little girl.'" For indeed, lying upstairs with the window open I had +heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsören. As for father he +was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and wholly at a +loss to think how I could have made the mistake. + +"You've generally some common-sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man was in danger, I--can--not--imagine!" + +"Father," Clare put in suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt." + +And as I had to move my seat at that moment to avoid the glare of the +stove which was falling on my face, we never thought it out. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + HIS STORY + + +I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and partly because I cared little for it. But +these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, the +children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. All +three had a holiday flavour about them wholesome to recall in Scotland +Yard; and as I had expected that, playtime over, I should see no more +of them, I was pleased to find that Mr. Guest had not forgotten me, +and pleased also--foreseeing that we should kill our fish over +again--to regard his invitation to dine at a quarter to eight as a +royal command. + +But if I took it so, I was wanting in the regal courtesy to match. +What with one delay owing to work which would admit of none, and +another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was fifteen +minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton Gardens. A stately +man, so like the Queen's Counsel, that it was plain upon whom the +latter modelled himself, ushered me into the dining-room, where Guest +greeted me kindly, and met my excuses by apologies on his part--for +preferring, I suppose, the comfort of eleven people to mine. Then he +took me down the table, and said, "My daughter," and Miss Guest shook +hands with me and pointed to the chair at her left. I had still, as I +unfolded my napkin, to say, "Clear, if you please," and then I was +free to turn and apologise to her--feeling a little shy, and being, as +I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out. + +I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and, of course, some differences. Miss Guest could not be +more than nineteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, +and with the same child-like innocent look in her face. She had the +big, grey eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but hers were more +tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. Her hair +too was brown and wavy; only, instead of hanging loose or in a +pig-tail anywhere and anyhow in a fashion I well remembered, it was +coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that looked Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose was quite unlike +Bab's. Her dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest +white throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and these, of +course, no more recalled my little fishing mate than the sedate +self-possession and dignity of the girl, as she talked to her other +neighbour, suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the +landlady's children in her wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not Bab +in fact: and yet it might have been: an etherealised, queenly womanly +Bab, who presently turned to me-- + +"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear. + +"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well." + +"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork half-way to her +pretty mouth and her attitude one of questioning. + +"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab." + +She dropped her fork on the plate with a great clatter. + +"Perhaps I should say Miss Clare and Miss Bab." + +I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her colour rose, and she looked +me in the face in an odd way as if she resented the inquiry. It was a +relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, she faltered, "Oh, +yes, I beg your pardon, of course they were! How very foolish of me. +They are quite well, thank you," and so was silent again. But I +understood now. Mr. Guest had omitted to mention my name, and she had +taken me for some one else of whose holiday she knew. I gathered from +the aspect of the table and the room that the Guests saw much company, +and it was a very natural mistake, though by the grave look she bent +upon her plate it was clear that the young hostess was taking herself +to task for it: not without, if I might judge from the lurking smile +at the corners of her mouth, a humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps +of the difference between myself and the gentleman whose part I had +been unwittingly supporting. Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at +her unchecked; and thought of Dresden china, she was so dainty. + +"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others. + +"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not real to dignify her heroism." + +"That was like her," she answered in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tom-boy." + +While she was speaking there came one of those dreadful lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried, "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion." + +"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, father," she answered, +archly. "It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath--" I had murmured my +name as she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now tell me, did you not +think so?" she murmured, leaning the slightest bit towards me, and +opening her eyes as they looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating. + +"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little thing, +rather careless as children are, but likely to grow into a charming +girl." + +I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful +neighbour. Her tone when she spoke of her sister seemed to import no +great goodwill. + +"You think so?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," with a +laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?" + +"Yes," I answered, gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who +have seen you both and am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has beautiful eyes"--she lowered hers +swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style are different. +I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture you, Miss +Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after occasions," +I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at the queer +little figure I conjured up. + +"Thank you," she replied--and for some reason she blushed to her ears. +"That, I think, must be enough of compliments for to-night--as you are +not an old friend." And she turned away, leaving me to curse my folly +in saying so much, when our acquaintance was in the bud, and as +susceptible to over-warmth as to a temperature below zero. + +A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek lingered, as she swept past me with a wondrous show of dignity +in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, and we +talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, while the +rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from time to +time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies. + +I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why, they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a charm in a lady's drawing-room, and +there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind. A charm and a +subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing-room--a +room rich in subdued colours and a cunning blending of luxury and +comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt myself alone. Mr. Guest had +passed on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of +these people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I +had been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at +the piano, the centre of a circle of soft light, which showed up a +keen-faced, close-shaven man leaning over her with the air of one used +to the position. Every one else was so fully engaged that I may have +looked, as well as felt, forlorn; at any rate, meeting her eyes I +could have fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost with +triumph. It must have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for +the next moment she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier-- + +"There, Jack, Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fräulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything." + +There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favour in the face of other +guests. That young man's manner as he left her, and the smile of +intelligence which passed between them, were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled any one. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know. + +She did not speak; and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it?" + +She looked up, saw what I meant, and stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearances so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble. And the coincidence struck me." + +"Yes, I remember," she answered, looking at me I thought with a +certain suspicion, as though she were not sure that I was giving the +right motive. "I did this in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't +it a hateful disfigurement?" + +It was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of conquest +it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement--had she known what +the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood looking +shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she asked him +twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing for that soft, +scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added another to the +number of her slaves. I don't know now why the blemish should have so +touched me any more than I could then guess why, being a commonplace +person, I should fall in love at first sight and feel no surprise at +my condition, but only a half-consciousness that in some former state +of being I had met my love, and read her thoughts, and learned her +moods; and come to know the womanly spirit that looked from her eyes +as well as if she were an old friend. But so vivid was this sensation, +that once or twice, then and afterwards, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound. + +After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmace's dance?" she asked. + +"No," I answered her, humbly. "I go out so little." + +"Indeed?" with an odd smile not too kindly. "I wish--no I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you called her?" + +"Bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable. + +"Oh, yes, Bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and suddenly +she cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a terrific +discord and laughing at my start of discomfiture. Every one took it as +a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to meet her next day, +or the day after that. They engaged her for dances, and made up a +party for the play, and tossed to and fro a score of laughing +catch-words, that were beyond my comprehension. They all did this, +except myself. + +And yet I went away with something before me--the call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied that I should see her alone. +And so when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the +drawing-room, and heard voices and laughter behind it, I was hurt and +aggrieved beyond measure. There was a party, and a merry one, +assembled; who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I +caught sight of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, +and striving by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed +cheeks. The close-shaven man was there, and two men of his kind, and a +German governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, as bright and fair and graceful as I had been +picturing her each hour since we parted. + +She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you be blindfold, or will you +play the part of Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, +while I say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with this +gentleman--he is neighbour Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? +Clare does not so misbehave every day, only it is a wet afternoon and +so cold and wretched, and we did not think there would be any more +callers--and tea will be up in five minutes." + +She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot. + +It was a simple game, and not likely, one would say, to afford much +risk of that burning of the fingers, which gave a zest to the Vicar of +Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blindfolded, while the rest +disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one by +one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming the +speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn heard +things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's health. +The _rôle_ presently fell to me, and proved a heavy one, because I was +not so familiar with the others' voices as were the rest; and Miss +Guest--whose faintest tones I thought I should know--had a wondrous +knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's voice, and now--after the +door had been opened to admit the tea--her father's. So I failed again +and again to earn my relief. But when a voice behind me cried with +well-feigned eagerness-- + +"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!"--then, though no fresh +creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been given of an +addition to the players, I had no doubt who spoke, but exclaimed at +once, "That is Bab! Now I cry you mercy. I am right this time. That +was Bab!" + +I looked for a burst of applause such as had before attended a good +thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my words so odd a +silence fell upon the room that it was clear that something was wrong. +And I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, repeating, "That was Bab, I +am sure." + +But if it was, I could not see her. And what had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were bent upon +sniggering. Clare looked startled, and grandmamma gently titillated, +while Miss Guest, who had risen and turned away towards the windows, +seemed to be annoyed with some one. What was the matter? + +"I beg every one's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way; "but have I said anything wrong?" + +"Oh, dear no," cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologise to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!" + +"Jack, how dare you?" Miss Guest exclaimed, stamping her foot. + +"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded natural, I am sure. Well done, +I thought." + +"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare? Mr. +Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was Barbara." + +"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!" + +"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare the friend's privilege of being rude. I +forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you shall come off +the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since you are the +greatest stranger. It is a stupid game after all!" + +She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and so excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me no opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out; by +what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help Jack to +muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him! How slow I was to find +hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I turned +my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience an +acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. And +so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but the door-handle +was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid, as I fumbled with it. "We +are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. Herapath," +she murmured carelessly--and I found myself in the street. + +So carelessly she had said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of other fellows parading their favour? With the babble of +that society chit-chat, which I had often scorned, and--still scorned, +and had no part or concern in. They were not people to suit me, or do +me good. I would not go, I said, and I repeated it firmly on Monday +and Tuesday; on Wednesday I so far modified it that I thought at some +distant time I would leave a card--to avoid discourtesy. On Friday I +preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on Saturday I +walked shame-faced down the street and knocked and rang, and went +upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next Saturday +too, and the next, and the next; and that one when we all went to the +theatre, and that other one when Mr. Guest kept me to dinner. Ay, and +on other days that were not Saturdays, among which two stand high out +of the waters of forgetfulness--high days indeed--days like twin +pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to reach, as did the +seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown lands stretching +away under the setting sun. First that Wednesday on which I found +Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to wish to +make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or badly--told my +tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside. + +"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath. +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are under a delusion." + +"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried. + +"It is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will not take +an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise you +nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly. And she fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly, as I might. + +I longed for a great fire that evening, and failing one, I tired +myself by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach +myself that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a +sentiment, a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the +want and toil of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that +opened to right and left. In the main, I failed; but the effort did me +good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I were +going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial. + +"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work-basket, the music upon the piano, the table-easel, her +photograph. And I wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting. + +"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that grew into a conviction, +a certainty that the girl standing before me in the short-skirted +brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was the Bab I had +known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not mistake them now, +no matter what unaccustomed look they might wear--were Barbara +Guest's! + +"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?" + +"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a toy, and a plaything, with which you might be as +intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day, and hour by hour?" + +"But surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now!" + +"You are not," she retorted. "Don't say you have offered love to me, +who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes, and my pearls and my maid's work! +not with me. You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value." + +"How old are you?" I said, hoarsely. + +"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent. + +"I begin to understand now," I answered as soon as I could conquer +something in my throat. "Long ago when I hardly knew you, I hurt your +woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----" + +"No, you have tricked yourself!" + +"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is more complete than +you are able to understand. I loved you this morning above all the +world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell you this that +you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone." + +"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face. + +"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-bye." + +With that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so that +the little hands she raised as though they could ward off my words +were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I could +hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not all with +her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat and +go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which my +eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all. + +Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried-- + +"Oh, Bab, I love you so! Let us part friends." + +For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine, "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I told you only that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love." + +"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl. + +"She learned long ago, poor girl!" + +The fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting-place. + +"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir." + +"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose." + +And Bab blushed. I believe she did. + + + + + + GERALD + + + + + GERALD + + +I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and _bizarre_. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that some one would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play. + +Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people. + +I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path round the oval garden; +which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in London. This +part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged from it and +recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of Fitzhardinge +Street, I had an advantage over persons on the pavement. They were +under the lamps, while I, coming from the shadow under the trees, was +invisible. + +The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and standing at it was an elderly man-servant out of livery, who +looked up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement beside him. My surprise was great when he +uttered an exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if he +would retreat; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew so +pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely at +his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood, returning his +gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, and +his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, he cried, +"Oh! Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" in a tone that rang in the stillness +more like a wail than an ordinary cry. + +My name, my surname I mean, is George. For a moment I took the address +to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger; and my heart began +to beat more quickly with fear of what might have happened. "What is +it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I pulled from the lower part of my +face the silk muffler I was wearing. The evening was close, but I had +been suffering from a sore throat. + +He came nearer and peered more closely at me and I dismissed my fear; +for I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning upon him. His +pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable, seeing that +his plump features were those of a man with whom the world went well, +regained some of its lost colour, and a sigh of relief passed his +lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of escape from +whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place to his previous state +of expectancy of something. + +"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my immense astonishment, +he did not. With a visible effort he said "No!" + +"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two. + +"No, sir." + +"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?" + +Watching his shuffling indeterminate manner I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me. There was an almost desperate +deliberation in his manner. "My master wishes to see you, sir," was +what he said, "if you will kindly walk in for five minutes." + +I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But often the mind when it is +spurred by an emergency over-runs the more obvious course to adopt a +worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure? Have you not made a mistake, my +man?" + +With a sullenness that was new in him, he said, No, he had not. Would +I please to walk in? He stepped forward as he spoke, and induced me by +a kind of urgency to enter the house, taking from me with the ease of +a trained servant my hat, coat, and muffler. Finding himself in the +course of his duties he gained composure; while I, being thus treated, +lost my sense of the strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to +a full consciousness of my position when he had shut the door behind +us and was putting up the chain. + +Then I confess I looked round, alarmed at my easiness. But I found the +hall spacious, lofty, and dark-panelled, the ordinary hall of an old +London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants in flower. +There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with painted +crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, its poles +upright against the wall. + +No other servants were visible. But apart from this all was in order, +all was quiet, and the notion of violence was manifestly absurd. + +At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he hang about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show the excitement, even the terror, which I had witnessed? Why +should he introduce a stranger? + +I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a Venus of white Parian marble. They were not common +reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a Hercules and a +Meleager, and delicately tinted draperies and ottomans that under the +light of a silver hanging-lamp--a gem from Malta--changed a mere lobby +to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me with a certain suspicion; +which was dispelled, however, when my hand rested for an instant upon +the pedestal that supported one of the statues. The cold touch of the +marble was enough. The pillars were not of composite; as they +certainly would have been in a gaming-house, or worse. + +Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway by +which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon him +again. His impatience was so ill-concealed that I was not surprised, +though I was taken aback, when he dropped the mask. As I passed +him--it being now too late for me to retreat undiscovered, if the room +were occupied--he laid a trembling hand on my arm and thrust his face +close to mine. "Ask how he is!" he whispered, trembling. "Say +anything, no matter what, sir! Only, for the love of Heaven, stay five +minutes!" + +He gave me a gentle push as he spoke--pleasant all this!--and +announced in a loud quavering voice, "Mr. George!"--which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long dimly-lighted room, fell with a brisk +rattling sound. This was followed by the scuffling noise of a person, +still hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet. + +Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore grey moustaches and would have seemed in place at +a service club, was still seated. He regarded me with a perfectly +unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +he was as good-looking in a different way. But his face was white and, +unless I was mistaken, was distorted by the same terror--ay, and a +darker terror than that which I had surprised in the servant's +features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He looked as a +man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an outsider--and +done it twice. In that quiet drawing-room by the side of his placid +companion, with nothing in their surroundings to account for his +emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me inexpressibly. + +They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess-table, its +men in disorder. Almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if but for its support he would have fallen. + +To add one more fact; I had never seen either of them in my life. + +Or wait; could that be true? If so, I must be dreaming. For the elder +man broke the silence by addressing me in a quiet ordinary tone that +matched his face. "Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I +did not expect you this evening." He held out his hand, without rising +from his chair, and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you +were in Liverpool. How are you?" he continued. + +"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically. + +"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold. It is nothing worse, my boy, is it?" with +anxiety. + +"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life. + +"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, pleasure! + +It was otherwise with his companion. He had made no advances to me, +spoken no word, scarcely altered his position. His eyes he had never +taken from me. Yet there was a change in him. He had discovered his +mistake, as the butler had discovered his. The terror was gone from +his face, and a malevolence not much more pleasant to witness had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in an active form was part +of the mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise from glances +which he cast from time to time towards the door, and from the +occasional creaking of a board in that direction, that his +self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The inconsequences +of dreamland ran through it all. Why the elder man remained in error; +why the younger with that passion on his face was tongue-tied; why the +great house was so still; why the servant should have mixed me up with +the business at all--these were questions as unanswerable, one as the +other. + +And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him. "Now, Gerald!" he cried in sharp tones, "have you put those +pieces back? Good heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves like +yours! Don't remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to me!" With a +hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass over the +board, he sat down the half-dozen pieces with a rapid tap! tap! tap! +which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no doubt of +their various positions. + +"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, in a voice more genial than that which he +had used to Gerald. "I suppose you are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the enclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the other to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her." + +"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering. + +"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! Ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service." + +Gerald made a hurried move, the piece rattling upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--now behind the screen listening--have read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his--Ah! That +much was disclosed. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind! + +I began to see more clearly now. And from this moment I took up, in my +own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant who had impelled +me into the middle of the scene had had good reasons for doing so, as +I began to discern. But with a clue to the labyrinth in my hand I +could no longer move passively. I must act for myself. For a while I +sat still and made no sign. But my suspicions were presently +confirmed. The elder man more than once scolded his opponent for +playing slowly; in one of the intervals caused by his opponent's +indecision he took from an inside pocket of his waistcoat a small +packet. + +"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are +originals in it, they will be more safe with you than with me. You can +tell me all about it, now you are here. Gerald will leave us +presently." + +He held the papers towards me. To take them was to take an active part +in the imposture, and I hesitated, my hand half outstretched. But my +eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, and my +scruples took themselves off. He was eyeing the packet with an intense +greed, with a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers, to +fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I took the papers. +With a quiet, but I think a significant, look in his direction, I +placed them in the breast-pocket of my coat. I had no safer receptacle +about me, or into that they would have gone. + +"Very well, sir," I said. "There is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow." + +"So much the better. You ought not to be out with such a cold, my +boy," he continued. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon? The servants are all at the theatre--Gerald begged a +holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a minute." + +"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself, while they played. + +But I was out in my reckoning. "I will have mine also now," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?" + +Gerald jumped up to do it with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself, when he should have attended to his +father--if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those +papers in my pocket. The more I thought of it, the more certain I +became that they were the object of whatever deviltry was on foot; and +that possession of them gave me the whip-hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him. + +Perhaps I was a little too confident; a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the whip-hand. A creak of +the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It fell upon +my ear trumpet-tongued: it contained, I know not what note of warning. +I glanced up with a conviction that I was napping, and looked +instinctively towards the young man. He was busy at the tray, his back +to me. Relieved of my fear of something--perhaps a desperate attack +upon my pocket, I was removing my eyes, when I caught sight of his +reflection in a small mirror beyond him. + +What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless--I could fancy him breathless also--a +listening expression on his face; which seemed to me to have faded to +a greyish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled tumbler; the +other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during perhaps a +second, a small lamp upon the tray before him illumining his handsome +figure; then his eyes, glancing up, met the reflection of mine in the +mirror. Swiftly as thought could pass from brain to limb, the hand +which had been resting in the pocket flashed with a clatter among the +glasses; and turning as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the +chess-table, and set it down unsteadily. + +What had I seen! Actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been doing. +Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a losing crew. +I rose abruptly. + +"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass, "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it." + +He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. The +young man's colour, though he faced me hardily, shifted, and he seemed +to be swallowing a succession of oversized fives-balls. But his eyes +met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was not without its gleam of +triumph. I was persuaded that all was right before his father said so. + +"Perhaps you have mixed for me?" I suggested pleasantly. + +"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back towards me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before. + +The blind man's ear recognized the tone. "I wish you boys would agree +better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon play +chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the game if +you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came in, you +have not made a move which any one save an imbecile would make. Go to +bed, boy! Go to bed!" + +I had stepped to the table while he spoke. One of the glasses was +full. I lifted it with seeming unconcern to my nose. There was whisky +in it as well as water. Then _had_ Gerald mixed for me? At any rate, I +put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set the glass +down--and empty, my mind was made up. + +"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir," I said quietly, "so I +will. I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it will +suit you. To-night I feel inclined to get to bed early." + +"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +to-morrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?" + +"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?" + +"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club." + +"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a colour which does not go well with a black moustache--I +walked out of the room, which looked so peaceful, so cosy, so softly +lighted, I went downstairs. I hoped that I had paralysed the young +fellow, and might leave the house without molestation. + +But as I gained the foot of the stairs he tapped me on the shoulder. I +saw then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace of +the defiance which had marked his manner upstairs was gone. His face +was still pale, but it wore a smile as we confronted one another under +the hall lamp. "I have not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me +thank you for your help," he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of +frank spontaneity. "Barnes' idea of bringing you in was a splendid +one, and I am greatly obliged to you." + +"Don't mention it," I answered, proceeding with my preparations for +going out, as if he were not there. Although I must confess that this +complete change in him exercised my mind no little. + +"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as the cold is yours and not my brother's, +you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow instead of +keeping you from your bed to-night?" + +"It will do equally well--indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat, and buttoning it across my chest, while I affected to be +looking with curiosity at the sedan chair. + +He pointed to the place where the packet lay. "You are forgetting the +papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the answer, "To be +sure!" + +But I had made up my mind, and I answered instead, "Not at all. They +are quite safe, thank you!" + +"But you don't--I beg your pardon----" He opened his eyes very wide as +he spoke, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind +and he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?" + +"Certainly." + +"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George." + +"Just so!" was all I said. And I took a step towards the door. + +"You mean to take them?" he asked seriously. + +"I do; unless you can explain the part I have played this evening. And +also make it clear to me that you have a right to the possession of +the papers." + +"Confound it! If I must do so to-night, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honour, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I +bowed, and he went on: "My elder brother and I are in business +together. Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely +that a day or two ago we decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and +ask his help. George did so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes +of our liabilities. You ask why he did not make such a statement by +word of mouth? Because he had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice +to make a last effort to arrange the matter. As for me," with a +curious grimace, "my father would as soon discuss business with his +dog! Sooner!" + +"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was nicking the blossoms off the +geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket-handkerchief, looking +moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I can see it now. It had a red border, and was +heavily scented with white rose. "Well?" + +"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing, and this morning his doctor made him see Bristowe. He is an +authority on heart-disease, as you know; and his opinion is," he added +in a lower voice and with some emotion, "that even a slight shock may +prove fatal." + +I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket. + +"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade; and my first impulse was to get these papers from him. +All day I have been trying in vain to effect it. I took Barnes, who is +an old servant, into my confidence, but we could think of no plan. My +father, like many people who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I +was at my wits' end when Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he +added, looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into +my head, I fancy. Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you +announced--for a moment I thought that you were George." + +"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in. + +He coloured, but answered immediately, "I was afraid that he would +assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out something. +Good lord! if you knew the funk in which I have been all the evening +lest my father should ask me to read the letter!" He gathered up his +handkerchief with a sigh, and wiped his forehead. + +"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly over what he +had told me. To tell the truth, I was in no slight quandary what I +should do, or what I should believe. Was this really the key to it +all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had constructed was a +mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest? For the life of me I +could not tell! + +"Well, sir?" he said, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?" + +"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said. + +"Ask on," he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed. + +"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in your +waistcoat pocket?" + +He flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began to stammer. +Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will be frank +with you, Mr. Mr.----" + +"George," I said. + +"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to administer to my father--without his +knowledge, if possible--should he grow excited. I did not think that +you had seen it." + +Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, while +he gave this explanation his breath came and went so quickly that my +former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said-- + +"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?" + +"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point blank. + +"You cannot give them to me?" he repeated. + +"No. Moreover the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that the packet is out of your father's +hands--by keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your +brother, from whom it came." + +"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way. + +"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once." + +He considered the offer, eyeing me the while with the same disfavour +which he had exhibited in the drawing-room. At last he said +slowly-- + +"If you will do that?" + +"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately." + +He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +North-Western Hotel, Liverpool," and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good night on either +side--and little liking--the clocks striking midnight, and the +servants coming in as I passed into the cool darkness of the square. + +Late as it was, I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar-box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution, merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt. + +Some days passed during which it may be imagined that I thought no +little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and the +Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives--at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence which +did not lend itself freely to explanation. Or I might disbelieve his +story, plausible in its very strangeness as it was, in favour of my +own vague suspicions. Which was I to do? + +I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, notwithstanding +that I had to some extent committed myself by withholding the papers. +But with each day that passed without bringing an answer from +Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the other side. I began to pin my +faith to the tiger, adding each morning a point to the odds in the +animal's favour. So it went on until ten days had passed. + +Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I declare, because I thought +it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George Ritherdon. I +had no difficulty in learning where he could be found. I turned up the +firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), cotton-spinners and +India merchants, in the first directory I consulted. And about noon +the next day I called at their place of business, and sent in my +card to the senior partner. I waited five minutes--curiously scanned +by the porter, who without doubt saw a likeness between me and his +employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's room. + +He was a tall man with a fair beard, not a whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good-looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +greyer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving-glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed to be +in ill-health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only +noticed his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and +the young one's tale was true after all!" George Ritherdon was in deep +mourning. + +"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago." + +He looked at my card, which he held in his hand. + +"I think not," he said slowly. + +"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and North-Western +Hotel, at Liverpool." + +He was stepping to his writing-table, but he stopped. "I was in +Liverpool," he answered in a different tone, "but I was not at that +hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?" + +"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there." + +"Perhaps you had better explain," he suggested, speaking in the weary +tone of one returning to a painful matter, "what was the subject of +your letter. I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may +well have been overlooked." + +I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the story of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to occasional +exclamations, until I came to the arrangement I had made with his +brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain. + +"Enough!" he said. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some stranger. I +understand it all now." + +"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?" + +He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said, warmly, "that your brother is +a----" + +"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand. "He is dead." + +"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed. + +"Have you not seen it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he said +wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at Liverpool, +at the hotel you have named, and the day after you saw him." + +And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them, the one being as cold, business-like, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous. + +"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempt +failed; then he planned with Barnes' cognisance to get possession of +the packet by drugging my father. Barnes' courage deserted him at the +last; he called you in, and--you know the rest." + +"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool." + +George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not in it. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot was in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, re-sealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!" + +"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said? + +It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that which +leads through Fitzhardinge Square. + + + + + + JOANNA'S BRACELET + + + + + JOANNA'S BRACELET + + +On a morning early in the spring of last year, two men stood leaning +against the mantelpiece of a room in one of the Government offices. +The taller of the two--he who was at home in the room--was a slim, +well-dressed man, wearing his hair parted in the middle, and a diamond +pin in the sailor knot of his tie. He had his frock-coat open, and his +thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat. The attitude denoted +complacency, and the man was complacent. + +"Well, the funny part of it is," he said lightly, his shoulders +pressed against the mantelpiece, "that I am dining at the Burton +Smiths' this evening!" + +"Ah?" his companion answered, looking at him with eyes of envy. "And +so you will see her?" + +"Of course. She is to come to them to-day. But they do not know of our +engagement yet, and as she does not want to blurt it out the moment +she arrives--why, for this evening, it is a secret. Still I thought I +would tell you." + +He stepped away as he spoke, to straighten a red morocco-covered +despatch-box, which stood on the table behind him. It bore, in +addition to the flaunting gilt capitals "I.O.," a modest plate with +the name "Ernest Wibberley"--his name. + +The other waited until he resumed his place. Then, holding out his +hand, "Well, I am glad you told me, old boy," he said. "I congratulate +you most heartily, believe me." + +"Thank you, Jack," Wibberley replied. "I knew you would. I rather feel +myself that 'Fate cannot harm me. I have dined to-day.'" + +"Happy dog!" said Jack; and presently he took himself off. + +The Burton Smiths, of whom we've heard them speak, are tolerably well +known in London. Burton Smith himself is a barrister with money and +many relations--Irish landlords, Scotch members, Indian judges, and +the like. His wife is young, gracious, and fond of society. Their +drawing-rooms, though on the topmost flat of Onslow Mansions--rooms +with sloping ceilings and a dozen quaint nooks and corners--are seldom +empty during the regulation hours. + +This particular dinner-party had been planned with some care. "Lady +Linacre will come, no doubt," Mrs. Burton Smith had said one day at +breakfast, conning a list she held in her hand; "and Mr. May." + +But Burton Smith objected to May. "He will talk about nothing but +India," he protested, "and the superiority of Calcutta to London. A +little of these Bombay ducks goes a long way, my dear." + +"Well, James," Mrs. Burton Smith replied placidly--the Hon. Vereker +May is a son of Lord Hawthorn--"he will take me in, and I do not mind. +Only I must have Mr. Wibberley on the other side to make conversation +and keep me alive. Let me see--that will be three. And Joanna +Burton--she comes that afternoon--four. Do you know, James, when we +were at Rothley for Christmas I thought there was something between +your cousin and Mr. Wibberley?" + +"Then, for goodness' sake, do not let them sit together!" Burton Smith +cried, "or they will talk to one another and to no one else." + +"Very well," Mrs. Smith assented. "They shall sit facing one another, +and Mr. Wibberley shall take in Mrs. Galantine. She will be sure to +flirt with him, and we can watch Joanna's face. I shall soon see if +there is anything between them." + +Mr. Wibberley was a young man of some importance, if only in his +capacity of private secretary to a Minister. He had a thousand +acquaintances, and two friends--perhaps three. He might be something +some day--was bound to be. He dressed well, looked well, and talked +well. He was a little presumptuous, perhaps a trifle conceited; but +women like these things in young men, and he had tact. At any rate, he +had never yet found himself in a place too strait for him. + +This evening as he dressed for dinner--as he brushed his hair, or +paused to smile at some reflection--his own, but not in the glass--he +was in his happiest mood. Everything seemed to be going well with him. +He had no presentiment of evil. He was going to a house where he was +appreciated. Mrs. Burton Smith was a great ally of his. And then there +would be, as we know, some one else. Happy man! + +"Lady Linacre," said his hostess, as she introduced him to a stout +personage with white hair, a double chin, and diamonds. Wibberley +bowed, making up his mind that the dowager was one of those ladies +with strong prejudices, who drag their skirts together if you prove to +be a Home Ruler, and leave the room if you mention Sir Charles Dilke. +"Mr. May, you have met before," Mrs. Smith continued; "and you know +Miss Burton, I think?" + +He murmured assent, while she--Joanna--shook hands with him frankly +and with the ghost of a smile, perhaps. He played his part well, for a +moment; but halted in his sentence as it flashed across his mind that +this was their first meeting since she had said "Yes." He recovered +from his momentary embarrassment, however, before even Mrs. Burton +Smith could note it, and promptly offered Mrs. Galantine his arm. + +She was an old friend of his--as friends go in society. He had taken +her in to dinner half a dozen times. "Who is that girl?" she asked, +when they were seated; and she raised her glasses and stared through +them at her _vis-à-vis_. "I declare she would be pretty if her nose +were not so short." + +He seized the excuse to put up his glass too, and take a long look. +"It is rather short," he admitted, gazing with a whimsical sense of +propriety at the deficient organ. "But some people like short noses, +you know, Mrs. Galantine." + +"Ah! And theatres in August!" she replied incredulously. "And +drawing-room games! But, seriously, she would be pretty if it were not +for that." + +"Would she?" he questioned. "Well, I think she would, do you know?" + +And certainly Joanna was pretty, though her forehead was too large, +and her nose too small, and her lips too full. For her eyes were +bright and her complexion perfect, and her face told of wit, and good +temper, and freshness. She had beautiful arms, too, for a chit of +nineteen. Mrs. Galantine said nothing about the arms--not out of +modesty, but because her own did not form one of her strong points. +Wibberley, however, was thinking of them, and whether a bracelet he +had by him would fit them. He saw Joanna wore a bracelet--a sketchy +gold thing. He considered whether he should take it for a pattern, or +whether it might not be more pleasant to measure the wrist for +himself. + +But Mrs. Galantine returned to the charge. "She is a cousin, is she +not?" she asked, speaking so loudly that Joanna looked across and +smiled. "I have never met her before. Tell me all about her." + +Tell her all about her! Wibberley gasped. He saw a difficulty in +telling "all about her," the more as the general conversation was not +brisk, and Joanna must bear a part. For an instant, indeed, his +presence of mind failed him, and he cast an appalled glance round the +table. Then he bent to his task. "Mrs. Galantine," he murmured +sweetly, "pray--pray beware of becoming a potato!" + +The lady dropped her knife and fork with a clatter. "A potato, Mr. +Wibberley? What do you mean?" + +"What I say," he answered simply. "You see my plate? It is a picture. +You have there the manly beef, and the feminine peas, so young, so +tender! And the potato! The potato is the confidante. It is insipid. +Do you not agree with me?" + +"Bravo, Mr. Wibberley! But am I to apply your parable?" she spoke +sharply, glancing across the table, with her fork uplifted, and a pea +upon it. "Am I to be the potato?" + +"The choice is with you," he replied gallantly. "Shall it be the +potato? or the peas?" + +Mrs. Burton Smith, seeing him absorbed in his companion, was +puzzled. Look as she might at Joanna, she saw no sign of jealousy or +self-consciousness. Joanna seemed to be getting on perfectly with her +partner; to be enjoying herself to the full, and to be as much +interested as any one at table. Mrs. Burton Smith sighed. She had the +instinct of matchmaking. And she saw clearly now that there was +nothing between the two; that if there had been any philandering +at Rothley neither of the young people had put out a hand--or a +heart--beyond recovery. + +But this success of Wibberley's with Mrs. Galantine had its +consequences. After the ladies had withdrawn he grew a trifle +presumptuous. By ill-luck, the Hon. Vereker May had reached that +period of the evening when India--as seen through the glasses of his +memory--was accustomed to put on its rosiest tints; and the two facing +one another fell to debating on a subject of which the returned +Civilian had seen much and thought little, and the private secretary +had read more and thought not at all. They were therefore on a par as +to information, and what the younger man lacked in obstinacy he made +up in readiness. It was in vain the Nabob blustered, asserted, +contradicted--finally grew sulky, silent, stertorous. Wibberley pushed +his triumph, and soon paid dearly for it. + +It happened that he was the last to enter the drawing-room. The +evening was chilly, and the ladies had grouped themselves about the +fire, protected from assault, by a couple of gipsy-tables bearing +shaded lamps. The incomers, one by one, passed through these +outworks--all but Wibberley. He cast a glance of comic despair at +Joanna, who was by the fireplace in the heart of the citadel; then, +resigning himself to separation, he took a low chair by one of the +tables, and began to turn over the books which lay on the latter. +There were but half a dozen. He scanned them all, and then his eyes +fell on a bracelet which lay beside them; a sketchy gold bracelet, +with one big boss--Joanna's. + +He looked at the party--himself sitting a little aside, as we have +said. They were none of them facing his way. They were discussing a +photograph on the overmantel, a photograph of children. He extended +his hand and covered the bracelet. He would take it for a pattern, and +to-morrow Joanna should ransom it. He tried, as his fingers closed on +it, to catch her eye. He would fain have seen her face change and her +colour rise. It would have added to the charm which the boyish, +foolish act had for him, if she had been privy to it--yet unable to +prevent it. + +But she would not look; and he was obliged to be content with his +plunder. He slid the gold trifle deftly under the fringe of the table, +and clasped it round his arm--not a lusty arm--thrusting it as high as +it would go that no movement of his shirt-cuff might disclose it. He +had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and he would not for the world +that any besides Joanna should see the act: that doddering old fossil +May, for instance, who, however, was safe enough--standing on the rug +with his back turned, and his slow mind forming an opinion on the +photograph. + +Then--or within a few minutes, at any rate--Wibberley began to find +the party dull. He saw no chance of a private word with Joanna. Lady +Linacre, his nearest neighbour, was prosing on to Mrs. Burton Smith, +his next nearest. And he himself, after shining at dinner, had fallen +into the background. Hang it, he would go! It was ten o'clock. + +He rose, and was stooping across the table, murmuring his excuses to +Mrs. Burton Smith, when Lady Linacre uttered an exclamation. He was +leaning across her between her head and the lamp, and he fancied he +had touched her head-dress. "Pray pardon me, Lady Linacre!" he cried +gaily. "I am just going--I have to leave early. So the encroachment +will be but for a moment." + +"It is not that," the old lady replied. "But where is my bracelet?" +She was feeling about the table as she spoke, shifting with her white, +podgy hands the volumes that lay on it. + +No one on the instant took in the situation. Mrs. Burton Smith had +risen, and was listening to Wibberley. The others were talking. But +Lady Linacre was used to attention; and when she spoke again her voice +was shrill, and almost indecently loud. "Where is my bracelet?" she +repeated. "The one with the Agra diamond that I was showing you, Mrs. +Burton Smith. It was here a moment ago, and it is gone! It is gone!" + +Wibberley was still speaking to his hostess. He heard the old lady's +words, but did not at once apply them. He finished his leave-taking at +his leisure, and only as he turned recollected himself, and said, with +polite solicitude, "What is it, Lady Linacre? Have you dropped +something? Can I find it for you?" + +He stooped as he spoke; and she drew her skirt aside, and both peered +at the floor, while there was a chorus from those sitting nearest of, +"What is it, Lady Linacre? Dear Lady Linacre, what have you lost?" + +"My Agra diamond!" she replied, her head quivering, her fingers +groping about her dress. + +"No?" some one said in surprise. "Why, it was here a moment ago. I saw +it in your hand." + +The old lady held up her wrists. "See!" she said fussily, "I have not +got it!" + +"But are you sure it is not in your lap?" Burton Smith suggested. Lady +Linacre had rather an ample lap. By this time the attention of the +whole party had been drawn to the loss, and one or two of the most +prudent were looking uncomfortable. + +"No," she answered; "I am quite sure that I placed it on the table by +my side. I am sure I saw it there. I was going to put it on when the +gentlemen came in, and I laid it down for a minute, and--it is gone!" + +She was quite clear about it, and looked at Wibberley for +confirmation. The table stood between them. She thought he must have +seen it; Mrs. Burton Smith being the only other person close to the +table. + +Burton Smith saw the look. "I say, Wibberley," he said, appealing to +him, half in fun, half in earnest, "you have not hidden it for a joke, +have you?" + +"I? Certainly not!" + +To this day Ernest Wibberley wonders when he made the disagreeable +discovery of what he had done--that he had taken the wrong bracelet! +It was not at once. It was not until the aggrieved owner had twice +proclaimed her loss that he felt himself redden, and awoke to the +consciousness that the bracelet was on his arm. Even then, if he had +had presence of mind, he might have extricated himself. He might have +said, "By Jove! I think I slipped it on my wrist in pure absence of +mind," or, he might have made some other excuse for his possession of +it--an excuse which would have passed muster, though one or two might +have thought him odd. But time was everything; and he hesitated. He +hated to seem odd, even to one or two; he thought that presently he +might find some chance of restoring the bracelet. So he hesitated, +peering at the carpet, and the golden opportunity passed. Then each +moment made the avowal more difficult, and less ordinary; until, when +his host appealed to him--"If you have hidden it for a joke, old +fellow, out with it!"--madness overcame him, and he answered as he +did. + +He looked up, indeed, with well acted surprise, and said his "I? +Certainly not!" somewhat peremptorily. + +Half a dozen of the guests were peering stupidly about as if they +expected to find the lost article in a flower-vase, or within the +globe of a lamp. Presently their hostess stayed these explorations. +"Wait a moment!" she said abruptly, raising her head. "I have it!" + +"Well?" + +"John must have moved it when he brought in the tea. That must be it. +Ring the bell, James, and we will ask him." + +It was done. John came in, and the question was put to him. + +"Yes, sir," he said readily; "I saw a bracelet. On the table by the +lamp." He indicated the table near Lady Linacre. + +"Did you move it?" + +"Move it, sir?" the man repeated, surprised by the question, the +silence, and the strained faces turned to him. "No, sir; certainly +not. I saw it when I was handing the tea to--to Mr. Wibberley, I think +it was." + +"Ah, very well," his master answered. "That is all. You may go." + +It was not possible to doubt the man's face and manner. But when he +had left the room, an uncomfortable silence ensued. "It is very +strange," Burton Smith said, looking from one to another, and then, +for the twentieth time, he groped under the table. + +"It is very strange," Wibberley murmured. He felt bound to say +something. He could not free himself from an idea that the others, and +particularly the Indian Civilian, were casting odd looks at him. He +appeared calm enough, but he could not be sure of this. He felt as if +he were each instant changing colour, and betraying himself. His very +voice sounded forced to his ear as he repeated fussily, "It is very +odd--very odd! Where can it be?" + +"It cost," Lady Linacre quavered--irrelevantly, but by no means +impertinently--"it cost fourteen thousand out there. Indeed it did. +And that was before it was set." + +A hush as of awe fell upon the room. "Fourteen thousand pounds!" +Burton Smith said softly, his hair rising on end. + +"No, no," said the old lady, who had not intended to mystify them. +"Not pounds; rupees." + +"I understand," he replied, rubbing, his head. "But that is a good +sum." + +"It is over a thousand pounds," the Indian Civilian put in stonily, +"at the present rate of exchange." + +"But, good gracious, James!" Mrs. Burton Smith said impatiently, "why +are you valuing Lady Linacre's jewellery--instead of finding it for +her? The question is, 'Where is it?' It must be here. It was on this +table fifteen minutes ago. It cannot have been spirited away." + +"If any one," her husband began seriously, "is doing this for a joke, +I do hope----" + +"For a joke!" the hostess cried sharply. "Impossible! No one would be +so foolish!" + +"I say, my dear," he persisted, "if any one is doing this for a +joke, I hope he will own up. It seems to me that it has been +carried far enough." There was a chorus of assent, half-indignant, +half-exculpatory. But no one owned to the joke. No one produced the +bracelet. + +"Well!" Mrs. Burton Smith exclaimed. And as the company looked at one +another, it seemed as if they also had never known anything quite so +extraordinary as this. + +"Really, Lady Linacre, I think that it must be somewhere about you," +the host said at last. "Would you mind giving yourself a good shake?" + +She rose, and was solemnly preparing to agitate her skirts, when a +guest interfered. It was the Hon. Vereker May. "You need not trouble +yourself, Lady Linacre," he said, with a curious dryness. He was still +standing by the fireplace. "It is not about you." + +"Then where in the world is it?" retorted Mrs. Galantine. "Do you +know?" + +"If you do, for goodness' sake speak out," Mrs. Burton Smith added +indignantly. Every one turned and stared at the Civilian. + +"You had better," he said, "ask Mr. Wibberley!" + +That was all. But something in his tone produced an electrical effect. +Joanna, in her corner--remote, like the Indian, from the centre of the +disturbance--turned red and pale, and flashed angry glances round her. +For the rest, they wished themselves away. It was impossible to +overlook the insinuation. The words, simple as they were, in a moment +put a graver complexion on the matter. Even Mrs. Burton Smith was +silent, looking to her husband. He looked furtively at Wibberley. + +And Wibberley? So far he had merely thought himself in an unpleasant +fix, from which he must escape as best he could, at the expense of a +little embarrassment and a slight loss of self-respect. Even the +latter he might regain to-morrow, if he saw fit, by telling the truth +to Mrs. Burton Smith; and in time the whole thing would become a +subject for laughter, a stock dinner-party anecdote. But now, at the +first sound of the Indian's voice, he recognised his danger; and saw +in the hundredth part of a second that ruin, social damnation, perhaps +worse, threatened him. His presence of mind seemed to fail him at +sight of the pit opening at his feet. He felt himself reeling, +choking, his head surcharged with blood. The room, the expectant faces +all turned to him, all with that strange expression on them, swam +round before him. He had to lay his hand on a chair to steady himself. + +But he did steady himself; to such an extent that those who marked his +agitation did not know whether it proceeded from anger or fear. He +drew himself up and looked at his accuser, holding the chair suspended +in his hands. "What do you mean?" he said hoarsely. + +"I should not have spoken," the Civilian answered, returning his gaze, +and speaking in measured accents, "if Mr. Burton Smith had not twice +appealed to us to confess the joke, if a joke it was." + +"Well?" + +"Well, only this," the other replied. "I saw you take Lady Linacre's +bracelet from that table a few moments before it was missed, Mr. +Wibberley." + +"You saw me?" Wibberley cried. This time there was the ring of honest +defiance, of indignant innocence, in his tone. For if he felt certain +of one thing it was that no one had been looking at him when the +unlucky deed was done. + +"I did," the Civilian replied dispassionately. "My back was towards +you. But my eyes were on this mirror"--he touched an oval glass in a +Venetian frame which stood on the mantelpiece--"and I saw quite +clearly. I am bound to say that, judging from the expression of your +face, I was assured that it was a trick you were playing." + +Ernest Wibberley tried to frame the words, "And now?"--tried to force +a smile. But he could not. The perspiration stood in great beads on +his face. He shook all over. He felt himself--and this time it was no +fancy--growing livid. + +"To the best of my belief," the Civilian added quietly, "the bracelet +is on your left arm now." + +Wibberley tried to master, but could not, the impulse--the traitor +impulse?--which urged him to glance at his wrist. The idea that the +bracelet might be visible--that the damning evidence might be plain to +every eye--overcame him. He looked down. Of course there was nothing +to be seen; he might have known it, for he felt the hot grip of the +horrible thing burning his arm inches higher. But when he looked up +again--fleeting as had been his glance--he found that something had +happened. He faltered, and the chair dropped from his hands. He read +in every face save one suspicion or condemnation. Thief and liar! He +read the words in their eyes. Yet he would, he must, brazen it out. +And though he could not utter a word he looked from them to--Joanna. + +The girl's face was pale. But her eyes answered his eagerly, and they +were ablaze with indignation. They held doubt, no suspicion. The +moment his look fell on her, she spoke. "Show them your arm!" she +cried impulsively. "Show them that you have not got it, Ernest!" she +repeated with such scorn, such generous passion that it did not need +the tell-tale name which fell from her lips to betray the secret to +every woman in the room. + +"Show them your arm!" Ah, but that was just what he could not do! And +as he comprehended this he gnashed his teeth. He saw himself +entrapped, and his misery was so plainly written in his face that the +best and most merciful of those about him turned from him in pity. +Even the girl who loved him shrank back, clutching the mantelpiece in +the first spasm of doubt, and fear, and anguish. Her words, her +suggestion, had taken from him his last chance. He saw that it was so. +He felt the Nemesis the more bitterly on that account; and with a wild +gesture, and some reckless word of defiance, he turned blindly and +hurried from the room, seized his hat, and went down to the street. + +His feelings when he found himself outside were such as it is +impossible to describe in passionless sentences. He had wrecked his +honour and happiness in an hour. He had lost his place among men +through a thoughtless word. We talk and read of a thunderbolt from the +blue; still the thing is to us unnatural. Some law-abiding citizen +whom a moment's passion has made a murderer, some strong man whom a +stunning blow has left writhing on the ground, a twisted cripple--only +these could fitly describe his misery and despair as he passed through +the streets. It was misery he had brought on himself; and yet how far +the punishment exceeded the offence! How immensely the shame exceeded +the guilt! He had lied in careless will, with no evil intent; and the +lie had made him a thief! + +He went up to his rooms like one in a dream, and, scarcely knowing +what he did, he tore the bauble from his arm and flung it on the +mantel-shelf. By his last act--by bringing it away--he had made his +position a hundred times more serious. But he did not at once remember +this. After he had sat a while, however, with his head between his +hands, wondering if this really were himself--if this really had +happened to himself, this irrevocable thing!--he began to see things +more clearly. But he could not at once make up his mind what to do. +Beyond a hazy idea of returning the bracelet by the first post, and +going on the Continent--of course, he must resign his employment--he +had settled nothing, when a step mounting the staircase made him start +to his feet. Some one knocked at the door of his chambers. He stood +pallid and listened, struck by a sudden fear. + +"The police!" he said to himself. + +A moment's thought satisfied him that it was improbable, if not +impossible, that they could be on his track so soon; and he went to +the door listlessly and threw it open. On the mat stood Burton Smith, +in a soft slouched hat, his hands thrust into the pockets of his +overcoat. Wibberley glanced at him, and saw that he was alone; then +leaving him to shut the door, he returned to his chair, and sat down +in his old attitude, with his head between his hands. He looked +already a broken man. + +Burton Smith followed him in, and stood a moment looking at him +uncomfortably enough. It is bad to have had such a scene as has been +described in your house; it is worse, if a man be a man, to face a +fellow-creature in his hour of shame. At any rate, Burton Smith felt +it so. "Look here, Wibberley," he said at length, as much embarrassed +as if he had been the thief. "Look here, it will be better to hush +this up. Give me the d----d bracelet to hand back to Lady Linacre, and +the thing shall go no farther." + +His tone was suggestive both of old friendship and of present pity. +But when he had to repeat his question, when Wibberley gave him no +answer, his voice grew more harsh. Even then the man with the hidden +face did not speak, but pointed with an impatient gesture to the +mantel-shelf. + +Burton Smith stepped to the fire-place and looked. He was anxious to +spare the culprit as far as possible. Yes, there was the bracelet. He +took possession of it, anxious to escape from the place with all +speed. But he laid it down the next instant as quickly as he had taken +it up; and his brows came together as he turned upon his companion. + +"This is not the bracelet!" he said. There was no smack of affection +in his tone now; it was wholly hostile. His patience was exhausted. +"Lady Linacre's was a diamond bracelet of great value, as you know," +he said. "This is a plain gold thing worth two or three pounds. For +Heaven's sake, man!" he added with sudden vehemence, "for your own +sake, don't play the fool now! Where is the bracelet?" + +Doubtless despair had benumbed Wibberley's mind, for he did not reply, +and Burton Smith had to put his question more than once before he got +an answer. When Wibberley at last looked up it was with a dazed face. +"What is it?" he muttered, avoiding the other's eyes. + +"This is not Lady Linacre's bracelet." + +"That's not?" + +"No; certainly not." + +Still confused, still shunning the other's look, Wibberley rose, took +the bracelet in his hand, and frowned at it. Burton Smith saw him +start. + +"It is of the same shape," the barrister repeated, ice in his +voice--he thought the exchange a foolish, transparent artifice--worse +than the theft. "But Lady Linacre's has a large brilliant where that +has a plain boss. That is not the bracelet." + +Wibberley turned away, the thing in his hand, and went to the window, +and stood there a long moment looking out into the darkness. The +curtains were not drawn. As he stood, otherwise motionless, his +shoulders trembled so violently that a dreadful suspicion seized his +late host, who desisted from watching him and looked about, but in +vain, for a phial or a glass. + +At the end of the minute Wibberley turned. For the first time he +confronted his visitor. His eyes were bright, his face very pale; but +his mouth was set and firm. "I never said it was!" he answered. + +"Was what?" the other cried impatiently. + +"I never said it was Lady Linacre's. It was you who said that," he +continued, his head high, a change in his demeanour, an incisiveness +almost harsh in his tone. "It was you--you who suspected me! I could +not show you my arm because I had that bracelet on it." + +"And whose bracelet is it?" Burton Smith murmured, shaken as much by +the sudden change in the man's demeanour as by his denial. + +"It is your cousin's--Miss Burton's. We are engaged," Wibberley +continued sternly--so entirely had the two changed places. "She +intended to tell you to-morrow. I saw it on the table, and secreted it +when I thought that no one was looking. I needed a pattern--for a +bracelet I am giving her." + +"And it was Joanna's bracelet that Vereker May saw you take?" + +"Precisely." + +Burton Smith said a word about the Civilian which we need not repeat. +Then, "But why on earth, old fellow, did you not explain?" he asked. + +"First," Wibberley replied with force, "because I should have had to +proclaim my engagement to all those fools; and I had not Joanna's +permission to do that. Secondly--well, I did not wish to confess to +being such an idiot as I was." + +"Ah!" said Burton Smith, slowly, an odd light in his eyes. "I think +you were a fool, but--I suppose you will shake hands?" + +"Certainly, old man." And they did so, warmly. + +"Now," continued the barrister, his face becoming serious again, "the +question is, where is Lady Linacre's bracelet?" + +"I don't care a d----n," Wibberley answered. "I am sure you will +excuse me saying so. I have had trouble enough with it--I know +that--and, if you do not mind, I am going to bed." + +But though his friend left him, Wibberley did not go to bed at once. +Burton Smith hurrying homeward--to find when he reached Onslow +Mansions that Lady Linacre's bracelet had been discovered in a flounce +of her dress--would have been surprised, very much surprised indeed, +could he have looked into Wibberley's chambers a minute after his +departure. He would have seen his friend down on his knees before a +great chair, his face hidden, his form shaken by hysterical sobbing. +For Wibberley was moved to the inmost depths of his nature. It is not +given to many men to awake and find their doom a dream. Only in +dreams, indeed, does the cripple get his strength again, and the +murderer his old place among his fellow-men. Wibberley was fortunate. + +And the lesson? Did he take it to heart? Well, lessons and morals are +out of fashion in these days. Or stay--ask Joanna. She should know. + + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT + + +"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said. + +"Yes, indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?" + +"His body-birds?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" With which he +looked at me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had +learned it in part from books; hence the curious mixture I presently +noted of Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light +trap in which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat +that was lightening that journey; which lay through a part of +Carnarvonshire usually traversed only by wool-merchants and +cattle-dealers--a country of upland farms swept by the sea-breezes, +where English is not spoken at this day by one person in a hundred, +and even at inns and post-offices you get only "_Dim Sassenach_" for +your answer. "Do you not say," he went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, +but to be sure, it is in the Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his +self-esteem. + +"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?" + +"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain; and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine men +there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honour--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's wife +was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a stone +into the boat. They do say that before that she was pining at +Court--it was bleak, and lonesome, and cold in the winters, and she +had been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up +her head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then, of all at Court, there were left only Robert +Evans and the child, Peggy." + +"How old was the child then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +to the front, thoughtfully, striving, it would seem, to make the +situation clear to himself. + +"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right; it was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will." + +"But who----" + +By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips; and then there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us the sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were seagulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterwards they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now, to be sure. Besides, there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and +the three Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, +and many more who were all forward to visit Court, and be friendly +with old Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look +black at one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the +foreign child should be sent away; and at times one and another would +give her the rough word." + +"She must have had a bad time," I observed. + +"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy _bach_ grew up like +them, free and open and up-standing, though she lived on land. When +she was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +colour of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the seagulls, or else sitting with her +books in the cove where the farm-people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh yes, indeed +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; and Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength here; and the minister lent +her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that once, +when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to them +so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but led +the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral." + +"_Requiescat in pace_," said I. + +"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be at Court once or twice a week, so +that all the neighbourhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees's lobster-pots. +He was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up +his pots--oh, it might be two or three times a week. So it happened +one day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was +steering, that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden. + +"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy. + +"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees. + +"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well. + +"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loth to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers. + +"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gaily, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?' + +"'Yes,' Peggy answered, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he +had not determined that she was old Rees's daughter he would have +taken notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used +for the fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat moreover. + +"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said; and with that +he put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which +to fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks +were scarlet, and by-and-by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or +three times more--not roughly, but just offhand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling. + +"'You mustn't be speaking that fashion to her,' he said gruffly. + +"'What?' said the gentleman looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man. + +"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.' + +"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon,' he said, taking off his hat +grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.' + +"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by any one until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time. + +"But two things came of this; first, that every one began to call her +Miss McNeill Court which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then, that whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy _bach_ to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who, to be sure, did not +seem to be unhappy. + +"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that any one should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking every one for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such-like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that, though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make. + +"However, one day towards winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then, without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?' + +"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.' + +"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?' + +"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.' + +"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.' + +"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns. + +"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'No relation! And I +am not going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing +but a fortune-catcher!' + +"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again. + +"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money, he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!' + +"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house-place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.' + +"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.' + +"'Do you mean it?' he asked sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a time. + +"'Yes,' said she. + +"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him. + +"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was not to +be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door. + +"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.' + +"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?' + +"'No,' the old woman answered very short. 'It is just that.' + +"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all they would tell her. +'You will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, +as if he had been thinking about it. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house-room for you, and make no charge whatever. To-morrow +you will take this packet to the address upon it, and the next day a +packet will be returned to you, which you will bring back to me. I am +not well to-day, and I want to have the matter settled, yes, indeed.' + +"'But could not some one else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.' + +"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.' + +"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, she was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure +for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. She had +not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been despatched +in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big town was +strange to her. + +"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was dead. After +ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc to smooth his +pillow. + +"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting. She was stepping into it when Mr. +Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak. + +"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said, and he +spoke nicely, for he was a kind man, and, what with the shock and the +long journey, she was looking very pale. + +"Oh, yes,' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.' + +"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for every one in the +neighbourhood had learned about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.' + +"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I understood that I was not to be in +the will.' + +"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out.' + +"The young lady turned very red, and her voice was hard. + +"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked. "'The three families who +divide the estate,' he said. + +"'And are they obliged to do so?' + +"'Well--no,' he allowed. 'I am not sure that they are exactly obliged. +But no doubt----" + +'"I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage. + +"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, and besides a lad or two in the kitchen +there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and it was little +they seemed to have to tell her about the death. When she had heard +what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, 'Gwen,' +she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.' + +"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, _bach_, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face. + +"'Oh!' she answered with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that now?' +But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly. + +"'Yes, indeed, _bach_,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back to-night. And about the will moreover.' + +"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. When she turned to say good night, the girl was at her side, +her eyes shining in the light of the two candles. + +"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered, 'didn't he say anything?' + +"'Not a word, _bach_,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.' + +"Miss Peggy, I am believing, went into her room much in the same way. +No doubt she would be telling herself a great many times over before +she slept that he would come and see her in the morning: and in the +morning she would be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon'; and in +the afternoon, 'He will come in the evening.' But evening came, and +darkness, and still he did not appear. Then she could endure it no +longer. She let herself out of the front door, which there was no one +now to use but herself, and with a shawl over her head she ran all the +way to the shop. There was no light in the window upstairs; but at the +back door stood Mrs. Campbell, looking after some one who had just +left her. + +"The girl came, shrinking at the last moment, into the ring of light +about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, starting at +sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you alone?' + +"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?' + +"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' the good woman said +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I am supposing.' + +"'Yesterday? At what time, please?' the young lady asked. There was a +fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was getting a +footing now. + +"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----' + +"'But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night-wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel!' which +broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that night +at all I am not able to say. Only when it was dawn she was out upon +the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The fishermen who +were up early going out with the ebb saw her at times walking fast, +and then again standing still and looking seaward. But I do not know +what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she returned +and came down into the parlour at Court for the funeral, there were +none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort. + +"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a grey beard like a bird's nest, and thick lips--was +sitting with his wife on the horse-hair sofa. The Evanses of Nant, who +were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upwards, were by +the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were others, +besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when she +entered. + +"He rose and shook hands with her, marking the dark hollows under her +eyes, and fixing it in his mind to get her a settlement. Then he +hesitated, looking doubtfully at the others. 'We are going to read the +will before the funeral instead of afterwards,' he said. + +"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for she had forgotten all about the +will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come later.' + +"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you will be doing well, +whatever, to hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.' + +"But at that Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with an air of +importance. 'Maybe some one,' she said in a low voice, 'would like to +take a last look at the master?' + +"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman. + +"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes, briskly, when the +door was closed again. And every one nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs. + +"'Very fair,' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans. 'He was a very clever man, our +old friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a +word went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for +it. Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at +Court now, said it was time to be going to church. + +"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three portions of the property in +favour of Miss McNeill.' + +"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' Llewellyn cried sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?' + +"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer. + +"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law whatever?' + +"'Well, no,' Mr. Hughes assented grudgingly. + +"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.' + +"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and anxious to do the +best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith--forthwith," so that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.' + +"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.' + +"And he would say no other. Nor was it to any purpose that the lawyer +looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and feeling +the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could make +nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, indeed!' to +what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he turned to +them. + +"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young lady +has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.' + +"Mr. Bevan fidgeted, but his wife answered the lawyer as bold as +brass. 'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes,' she said. 'If it were twenty +pounds now, once for all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my +nephews would say the same--I think we might manage that?' + +"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word, whatever!' he answered. 'Let +the girl go to service. It is what we have wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They will be liking a young housekeeper.' + +"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers, looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a penny for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.' + +"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed by +an outcry overhead and quick running upon the stairs. The legatees +looked uncomfortably at the carpet; the lawyer was blacker than +before. He said to himself, 'It is that poor child that has fainted!' +The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was opened, +not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose, they were +thankful to see her; to their surprise she passed by Llewellyn, and +with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear. + +"'What!' he cried starting back a pace, and speaking so that the +wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?' + +"'It is true,' she answered, half-crying, 'and no fault of mine +neither.' Gwen added more in short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear. + +"'I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to them to make +room for her to pass out. Then he turned to them, a queer look upon +his face; it was not triumph altogether, for there was some doubt and +some alarm in it as well. 'You will believe me,' he said, 'that I am +as much taken aback as yourselves--that till this moment I have been +as much in the dark as any one. It seems--so I am told--that our old +friend is not dead.' + +"'What are you meaning!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'It is not +possible!' and he raised his black-gloved hands. + +"'What I say,' Mr. Hughes replied patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however it +comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans is +spared to us.' + +"With that he was glad to escape from the room. When he was gone, I am +told that their faces were very strange to see. There was a long +silence. Llewellyn was the first to speak. He swore a big oath and +banged his great hand upon the table. 'I do not believe it!' he cried. +'I do not believe it! It is a trick!' + +"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and they all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt form of Robert +Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one side and of +Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt alive. Behind him +were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and three or +four women, half frightened, half wondering. + +"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears, and they could find +not a word to say either of joy or grief. + +"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ho, ho!' he exclaimed, +as his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the +table. 'That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?' + +"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn. + +"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I'm thinking?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged, whatever.' + +"Llewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at Robert +Evans' elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage. + +"'What!' the old man cried sharply. 'How was that?' + +"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----' + +"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!' + +"But they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do, we were going to do, sir.' + +"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert, bitterly; 'for that +was nothing. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn Evans gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself towards the Evan Bevans who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.' + +"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, eagerly, 'we did indeed.' + +"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will set you down for +just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, _bach_,' he +continued, turning from the lady, who was looking very queer, and +putting into the girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, +'tear up this rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in +the other room. What, Llewellyn Evans, no appetite!' + +"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking amongst them, as they went, of +a conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes as they drove away +after dinner were very merry together--which may have been only the +home-brewed--at any rate all that came of Llewellyn's talking and +inquiries was that every one laughed very much, and Robert Evans' name +for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon. + +"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But towards five o'clock the +place grew quiet. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, and her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be +really glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls +screamed in the afternoon stillness that made it seem home each +minute, was hers still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, +nor poor. Maybe she was striving not to think of the thing which had +been taken from her and could not be given back. Whatever her +thoughts, she was roused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot +tears, through which she could see that the old man was awake and +looking at her with a strange expression which disappeared as she +became aware of it. + +"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that your eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.' + +"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Please don't speak of +him,' she pleaded in a low tone. 'Let us forget him.' + +"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he said, as if he were summing up the case in his own mind, +and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven him, and +I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written.' + +"'Oh, yes, yes!' the girl sobbed, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!' + +"'Yes, indeed! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated, as, surprised in the midst of her grief, she +wavered and hesitated, 'sit here;' and he pointed to the settle +opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had written, and +that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come somehow to +my hands? Now don't get excited, girl!' + +"'Oh!' Peggy cried, her lips parted, her eyes wide and frightened, her +whole form stiff with a question. + +"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you stand by it? Remember, he must have much +to explain. Would you be guided by me, my girl?' + +"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter, to remember her lover's flight, the lack of word or +message for her, and her misery. She nodded, and held out her hand, +for she could not speak. + +"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously. + +"'Oh yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short. He watched her while she thrust it +from her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed +it again and again. + +"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he, testily. 'Now let me see it.' + +"She turned upon him, holding it away behind her, as if it were some +living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet me at the +junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He was going to +London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And he will be +here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and suddenly +remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him the +letter. + +"'You said you would be led by me, you know,' said the old man +gravely. + +"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!' + +"'You promised,' he said. + +"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands. 'No +one shall come between us.' + +"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I will not be speaking for +nothing! But you had better tell Owen to take the trap to the station +to meet your man.'" + + + + + + THE VICAR'S SECRET + + + + + THE VICAR'S SECRET + + +The windows at the rear of Acton Chase, an old house in +Worcestershire, look on a quaint bowling-green flanked by yew hedges, +and backed by a stream of good size, on the farther side of which a +sparsely timbered slope leads up to the home farm. It leads also to +half a dozen smaller farms, which once formed the Chase. Zigzag up +this slope runs a track--probably it has so run for centuries, for at +the foot of it is a ford--which in spring is almost invisible, but in +autumn is brown and rutty. The Chase has long been a Roman Catholic +house, and up this track dead-and-gone squires, debarred from converse +with their neighbours, have ridden a-hunting, mornings innumerable; so +that to-day people sitting in the garden towards evening are apt to +see them come trailing home, their horses jaded, and themselves +calling for the black-jack. + +Our story is not of these, but of two men who strolled down this +path on an evening no farther back than last August. They seemed, +outwardly at least, ill-matched. The one, a young fellow under thirty, +fair-haired, pink-cheeked, prim-looking, was of middle size. He was +dressed as a clergyman, but more neatly and trimly than the average +country clergyman dresses. The other was one of the tallest and +thinnest men ever seen outside a show--a man whose very clothes, his +worn jacket and shrunken knickerbockers, had the air of sharing his +attenuation. He looked like a gamekeeper, and was, in fact, the +squire's son-in-law, Jim Foley. + +"I really cannot make you out," he said, as the two sighted the house; +and, shifting his gun to the other shoulder, he took occasion to +glance at his companion. "What do you do, old boy? You never kill +anything, unless it is a trout now and then. Now I could not live +without killing. Must kill something every day!" + +"And do you?" + +"Seldom miss," the long man rejoined cheerfully, "except on a hunting +day when we draw blank. Rats, rabbits, otters, pike, sometimes a hawk, +sometimes, as to-day, a brace of wood-pigeons. And game and foxes in +their season. Must kill something, my boy." + +His companion glanced at him, looked away again, and sighed. + +"Well, what is that for?" Foley asked, in the tone of an aggrieved +man. + +"I was only thinking," the other replied drily, "what a lucky fellow +you were to have nothing to do but kill." + +The tall man whistled. "I say," he said, "for a man who is to be +married in a week or so, you are in roaring spirits, ain't you? I tell +you what it is, my boy; you do not take very kindly to your bliss. I +can see Patty flitting about in the garden like a big white moth, +waiting, I have no doubt, for a word with her lord; and your step +lags, and your face is grave, and you try to be cynical! What is up?" + +The younger man laughed, but not merrily; and there was a tinge of +sullenness in his tone as he answered, "Nothing! A man cannot always +be grinning." + +"No; but _pâti de foie gras_ is not a man's ordinary meat," Jim +retorted imperturbably. "Jones!" + +"Well?" the other said snappishly. + +"You are in a mess, my boy--that is my opinion! Now, don't take it +amiss," Jim continued drily. "I am within my rights. I am one of the +family, and if the squire is blind and Patty is young, I am neither. +And I am not going to let this go on until I know more, my boy. You +have something on your mind of which they are ignorant." + +The young clergyman turned his face to his companion, and Jim Foley, +albeit of the coolest, was taken aback by the change which anger or +some other emotion had wrought in it. Even the clergyman's voice was +altered. "And what if I have?" he said, stopping so suddenly that the +two confronted one another. "What if I have, Mr. Foley?" + +Jim deliberately shut his eyes and opened them, to make sure that the +tragic spirit, so suddenly infused into the pleasant landscape, with +its long shadows and its distant forge-note, was no delusion. +Satisfied, he rose to the occasion. "This," he said, outwardly +unmoved. "You must get rid of it. That is all, Jones." + +"And if I cannot?" + +"Will not, you mean." + +"No, cannot!" the clergyman replied with vehemence. + +"Then," Jim drawled--"I am not a moral man, don't mistake me, but I +belong to the family--your majesty must go elsewhere for a wife! And a +little late to do so!" he continued, harshness in his tone. "What! you +are not coming to the house?" + +"No!" the other cried violently. And, without a word of farewell, he +turned his back on his companion, and strode away through the lush +grass to a point a little higher up the stream, where a plank-bridge +gave access to the Chase outbuildings, and through them to the +village. + +Foley stood awhile, looking after him. "Well," he said, speaking +gently, as if rallying himself on some weakness, "I am afraid--I +really am afraid that I am a little astonished. I should know men +by now, yet I did think that if any one could show a clean bill of +health it was the vicar. He is smug, he is next door to a prig. The +old women swear by him, the young ones dote on him. They say he is on +foot from morning till night, and not one blank day in a fortnight! +And now--pheugh! I wonder whether I ought to have knocked him down. +Poor little Patty! There is not a better girl in the country--except +the Partridge!" + +He looked pathetically at the gardens below him; then, seeing that the +chimneys of the house were smoking briskly, he bethought him of +dinner, and strode down to the gate with his usual air of +_insouciance_. + +Meanwhile the young clergyman gained the side avenue, and walked +rapidly towards the village, his eyes dazzled by the low beams of the +sun which shone in his face, and his mind confounded by the tumult of +his thoughts. A crisis which he had long foreseen, often dreaded, and +as often postponed, was now imminent, the power to control it gone +from his hands. He looked on the past with regret, and forward with +shame. That which had once been feasible--nay, as it seemed to him +now, easy--time and his cowardice had rendered impossible. He stood +aghast at his own feebleness; not considering that the routine of +parish work and the satisfaction derived from small duties done, had +weakened his moral fibre; even as the peace of the life about him, and +the transparent truthfulness of those, with whom his lot was cast, had +made the task of disclosure more formidable. He had fallen--no, he had +not fallen; but he had put off the act which honour demanded so long +that, though the day of grace was still his, there could be no grace +in the doing. + +The rooks, streaming homeward in some order of their own, were cawing +overhead as he opened the gate and entered the vicarage garden, where +the great hollyhocks stood in rows, and the peaches, catching the last +rays of the sun aslant, were glowing against the southern gable. To +the stranger--to the American, in particular--who looked in as he +passed, it seemed a paradise, that garden. But--for peaches are not +peace, nor hollyhocks either--its owner passed through it with +compressed lips and tingling cheeks. He entered the porch, where one +or two packing-cases told of coming changes; then he stood irresolute +in the cool hall, remembering that he had intended to dine at the +Chase, and that there was nothing prepared for him here. Not that he +had an appetite, but dinner was a decent observance, and it seemed to +him that not to dine would be to lose his hold on life and fall into +abysses before his time. + +It is well, when we are unfortunate, to consider how much worse a +minute, a few seconds, may see us. A faint sound at his elbow caused +him to turn. The door of the dining-room was ajar, and through the +opening a face peered at him. The young vicar did not start, but he +drew a deep breath, and stiffened as he gazed. A minute, and his +lips--while the other face, with a shifty smile, half mockery, half +shame, returned his look--formed the word "Father!" + +It was not audible two paces away. But as it fell the clergyman +glanced round with a gesture of alarm, and at a single stride he +was in the dining-room, and had shut the door behind him. The other +man--a shambling creature, grey-haired and blear-eyed and unwashed, +with a beard of a week's growth--fell back to the table and leaned +against it. His rusty black clothes and his broken boots seemed to +share, rather than to impart, the look of decay which marked his +person. The vicar, with his back against the door, looked at him and +shuddered, and then looked again, his face hard and his eyes gloomy. +"Well," he said, in a low stern voice, "what is the meaning of this? +You know our agreement. Why have you broken it, sir?" + +The old man pursed up his lips, and, with his head on one side, +contemplated his questioner in silence. Then he said suddenly, "Blow +the agreement!" + +The vicar winced as if he had been struck. But he found words again. + +"If you can do without the money," he said, "so much the better. +But----" + +"Blow the money!" cried the old man, with the same violence. +Notwithstanding his words, he stood in awe of his son, and was trying +to gain courage by working himself into a passion. "What is money?" he +continued. "I want no money! I am coming to live with you. You are +going to be married. I heard of it, though you kept it close, my boy! +I heard of it, and I said to myself, 'Good! I will go and live with my +boy. And his wife shall take care of my little comforts.'" + +The younger man shivered. He thought of Patty, and he looked at the +old man before him, sly, vicious, gin-sodden--and his father! "You do +not want to live with me," he answered coldly. "You could not bear to +live with me for one week, and you know it. Will you tell me what you +do want, and why you have left Glasgow?" + +"To congratulate you!" his father answered, with a drunken chuckle. +"Walter Jones and Patty Stanton--third time of asking! Oh, I heard of +it! But not through you. Why," he continued, with a quick change to +ferocity, "would you not ask your own father to your wedding, you +ungrateful boy?" + +"No," the vicar replied sternly, "he being such as he is, I would +not." + +"Oh, you are ashamed of him, are you? You have kept him dark, I +fancy?" the old man replied, grinning with wicked enjoyment as he saw +how his son winced at each sentence, how his colour went and came. +"Well, now you will have the pleasure of introducing me to the squire, +and to daughter Patty, and to all your friends. It will be a pleasant +surprise for them. I'll be bound you said I was dead." + +"I have not said you were dead." + +"Don't you wish I was?" + +"God keep me from it!" the vicar groaned. + +On that, the two men stood looking at each other, the one neat, +clean-shaven, conventional, the other vile with the degradation of +drink. Though the windows stood open, the room was full of the smell +of spirits, and seemed itself soiled and degraded. Suddenly the +younger man sat down at the table, and, burying his face between his +hands, fell into a storm of weeping. + +His father shifted his feet, and licking his lips nervously, looked at +him in maudlin shame; then from him to the sideboard, in search of his +supporter under all trials. But the sideboard was bare, the doors +closed, the key invisible. Mr. Jones grew indignant. "There, stop that +foolery!" he said brutally. "You make me sick." + +The rough adjuration restored the young man's nerve, and he looked up, +his cheeks wet with tears. Tears in a man are shameful; but this +tragedy was one not to be evaded by manliness, or, indeed, by any help +of men. "Tell me what it is you want," he said wearily. + +"More money," his father snarled. The liquor with which he had primed +himself was losing its effect. "I cannot live on what you give me. +Glasgow is a dear place. The money ought to be mine; all of it!" + +"You have had two hundred a year--one-half of my mother's money." + +"I know. I want three." + +"Well, you cannot have it," the son answered languidly. "If you must +know, I have agreed to settle one-half of my income on my wife now, +and the other half at your death. Therefore it will not be in my power +to allow you more. You have spent your own fortune, and you have no +claim on my mother's money." + +"Very well," Mr. Jones answered, his head trembling with rage and +weakness. "Then I stay with you. I stay here. Your father-in-law that +is to be will be glad to meet his old friend again--I have no doubt. +We were at college together. I dare say he will acknowledge me, if my +own son is too proud to do so. I shall stay here until I am tired of +the country." + +The young man looked at him in despair. Supplication he knew would +avail him nothing, and the only threat he could use--that he would +stop his father's allowance--would have no terrors, for he could not +execute it. To let his father go to the workhouse would increase the +scandal a hundred times. He rose at last and went out. His housekeeper +had come in, and he told her, keeping his burning face averted, to +prepare a bed and get supper for two. He shrank--he whose life in +Acton had been so full of propriety--from saying who his guest was. +Let his father proclaim himself if he would; that would be less +painful. The truth must out. Once before, at his first curacy, the +young man, younger then and more hopeful, had tried the work of +reformation. He had made a home for his father, and done what he +could. And the end had been hot, flaming shame, and an exposure which +had driven him to the other end of England. + +When he left the house next morning, though his mind was made up to go +to the squire and tell him all, he lingered on the white dusty road. +The sunlight fell about him in dazzling chequers, and, save for the +humming of the bees overhead and the whirr of a reaping-machine in a +neighbouring field, the stillness of the August noon hung with the +haze over the landscape. His heart, despite his resolution, grew hot +within him, as he looked around, and contrasted the peacefulness of +nature with the tumult of shame and agitation in his own breast. There +was the school which he opened with prayers four times a week. Between +the trees he caught a grey glimpse of the church--his church. As he +looked his secret grew more sordid, more formidable. + +He turned at last with an effort to enter the gates, and saw Patty and +her sister, Mrs. Foley, coming down the avenue. They were still a long +way off, their light frocks and parasols flitting from sunlight to +shadow, and shadow to sunlight, as they advanced. The young man +halted. Had Patty been alone, he would have gone to her and told her +all; and surely, surely, though he doubted it at this moment, he would +have won comfort--for love laughs at vicarious shame. But the +Partridge's presence frightened him. Mrs. Foley, round and small and +plump, in all things the antithesis of her husband, had yet imbibed +something of Jim's dryness. The vicar feared her under the present +circumstances, and he turned and fled down the road. He would let them +pass--probably they were going to the vicarage--and he would then step +up and see the squire. + +He was right in supposing that the ladies were going to the vicarage. +As they went in that direction, they came upon a strange dissolute old +man whom they eyed with wondering dislike, and to whom they gave a +wide berth as they passed. They had not gone by long before a third +person came through the lodge gates and sauntered after them. This was +Jim Foley, come out, with his hands in his pockets and a one-eyed +terrier at his heels, to smoke his morning pipe. He, too, espied the +old toper, and at sight of him took his pipe from his mouth and stood +in the middle of the road, an expression of surprise on his features; +while Mr. Jones, becoming aware of him too late--for his faculties +were not of the sharpest in the morning--also stood by some instinct +and looked, with a growing sense of unpleasant recognition, at his +lanky figure. + +"Hallo!" said Jim. Mr. Jones did not answer, but stood blinking in the +sunshine. He looked more blear-eyed and shabby, more hopelessly gone +to seed, than he had looked in the vicarage dining-room. + +"Hallo!" said Foley again. "My old friend Wilkins, I think!" + +"My name is Jones," the man muttered. + +"Ah, Jones is it? Jones _vice_ Wilkins resigned," Jim replied, with +ironical politeness. "Come down to Acton upon a little matter of +business, I suppose. Now look here, Jones _vice_ Wilkins," he +continued, pointing each sentence with a wave of his pipe, "I see your +game. You have come down here to screw out a ten-pound note, by +threatening to tell the squire some old story of my turf days. That is +it, isn't it?" + +Mr. Jones opened his mouth to deny the charge but thought better of +it; either because of the settled scepticism which Foley's face +expressed, or because he saw a ten-pound note in the immediate future. +He remained silent. + +"Just so," Foley went on with a nod, replacing his pipe in his mouth +and his hand in his pocket. "Well, it won't do. It won't do, do you +understand? Because, do you see, you have not accounted for the last +pony I sent you to put on Paradox for the Two Thousand. And I will +just trouble you for it and three to the back of it. Three to one was +the starting price, I think, Mr. Jones." + +Mr. Jones's face fell abruptly, and he glared at Foley. "It never +reached me," he muttered huskily. + +"You mean that you are not going to refund it," Jim retorted. "Well, +you don't look as if you had it. But I'll tell you what you'll do. You +will go back whence you came within three hours--there is a train at +two-forty, and you will go by it. You have caught a Tartar, do you +see?" Jim continued sternly, "and though you may, if you stay, give me +an unpleasant hour with the squire, I shall give you a much more +unpleasant hour with the policeman." + +"But the squire----" the old man began; "the squire----" + +"No, the policeman!" Foley retorted sharply. "Never mind the squire. +Keep your mind steadily on the policeman, and you will be the more +certain to catch the train. Now mind," Jim added, pausing to say +another word after he had turned away, "I am serious, my man. If I +find you here after the two-forty train has left, I give you in +charge, and we will both take the consequences." + +Jim strolled on towards the vicarage, congratulating himself on his +presence of mind and chuckling over the skill with which he had foiled +this attempt on his pocket; while Mr. Jones, though his appetite for a +country walk was spoiled by the meeting, tottered onwards too, in the +opposite direction, rather than seem, by turning, to be dogging Foley, +who had inspired him with a very genuine terror. The consequence was +that the next turn in the road brought the old man face to face with +his son. + +"Walter, I am going back," he said, quavering piteously. The interview +had shaken him. He seemed less offensive, less of a blot on the +landscape; on the other hand, more broken and older. It is not without +a sharp pang that the man who has once been a gentleman finds himself +threatened with the handcuffs, and forced to avoid the policeman. + +The vicar had been for passing him in silence, but the statement +brought him to a standstill. What if his father should indeed go? To +explain him in his absence seemed an easy, almost a normal, task. Yet +he feared a trap, and he only answered, "I am glad to hear it." + +"I am going by the two-forty train," the old man whined. "But I must +have a sovereign to pay my fare, Walter." + +"You shall have it," the vicar said, his heart bounding. + +"Give it me now! Give it me now!" his father repeated eagerly. "I tell +you I am going by the two-forty. Do you think I am a liar?" + +Reluctantly--not because he grudged the money, but because he feared +that, the coins once obtained, his father would prove a liar, the +clergyman took out two pounds and handed them to him. The old man +gripped them with avidity, and, thrusting them and his hands into his +pocket, turned his back on the donor, and hobbled away, mumbling to +himself. + +The vicar remained where he was, standing irresolute at the turn of +the road, which brought the lodge gates into view. He found it was a +quarter past twelve. He wondered what Patty was thinking of him, and +his strange avoidance of her. And what his housekeeper was thinking of +his guest, and whether many people had observed him. He began to feel +himself at a loose end in the familiar scene. He should have been +moving to and fro about his business; instead, he was here, hovering +stealthily upon the outskirts of the village, dreading men's eyes, and +prepared to fly from the first comer. By going straight to the squire +he might put an end to this intolerable position. But the temptation +to postpone his explanation until his father had left overcame him, +and he turned and walked from the village. + +He long remembered that tramp in the heat and dust. Throughout it he +was weighed down by the feeling that he was an outcast, that people +who met him looked strangely at him, that while he roamed aimlessly +his duty called him home. Presently a new fear rose to vex his +soul--that his father would not keep his word; the consequence of +which was that half an hour before the train started he was lurking +about the fir-plantation at the back of the station-house, peeping at +the platform, which lay grilling in the sunshine, and tormenting +himself with the suspicion that his watch was wrong. + +Presently the station woke up. One or two people arrived, and took +seats on a barrow in a shady place. The station-master labelled a +hamper and gave out a ticket. Then some one who was by no means +welcome to the vicar appeared--Jim Foley. He did not enter the +station, but the vicar caught sight of him standing on the bridge +which carried the road over the railway. What was more, Jim Foley at +the same moment discovered the vicar. + +Jim looked elsewhere, but he had his suspicions. "Hallo!" he muttered. +"Friend Jones grows more of a riddle than ever. I suppose he has had +dealings with Master Wilkins, and has an equal interest with me in +seeing him off. I hope he has got rid of him as cheaply! But it is +odd! I shall tell the Partridge, and hear what she says. She likes +him." + +He forgot his wife a few minutes later, when the train had steamed +slowly in, and stood, and steamed out again, and the two people who +had come by it had passed him, and even the vicar, slowly and +perforce, had crawled up to him on the bridge. Foley by that time had +found something else to consider. "I say," he exclaimed on the impulse +of the moment, meeting the clergyman open-mouthed, "this won't do, you +know." + +Jones was dazed, struck down and prostrated by his disappointment. +"What," he said feebly--"what won't do?" + +"He has not gone!" + +"No!" + +"The old buffer! I guessed what was up when I saw you hanging about. +Did he get anything out of you?" + +The question sounded brutal, but the clergyman answered it. "Yes," he +said, his cheek dark--and he looked down at the end of his stick and +wondered how the other had found it out. "Two sovereigns." + +"By Jove! Well, what is to be done now--that is the question?" + +"I shall go to the squire," Jones said. + +"What? And tell him this?" + +"Yes." + +Jim shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, after a pause in which he +tried to see if this would hurt him, "I dare say it is the best thing +you can do. While you are telling other things, perhaps you may as +well throw this in." + +Jim strolled towards the Acton Arms, after making this handsome +concession, much puzzled in his mind by the new light which events +were shedding on the character of Jones. The discovery that his future +brother-in-law had done a little betting did not surprise him. But, in +conjunction with the entanglement to which the vicar had owned the day +before, it seemed to indicate a character so different from the model +of propriety he had hitherto known, that he was staggered. "And he +never kills a thing," Jim thought, turning it over. "You would not +think that he knew what sport meant!" + +The village policeman was loitering outside the inn, and Foley, who +had a word for every one, invited him to come in and have a glass of +ale. The road in front of the Acton Arms is separated from the Chase +only by a sunk fence; and Jim, casting a glance behind him as he +entered, could see the windows of the great house flashing in the +sunlight, and the vicar pounding along the avenue towards them. He +went in, the constable at his heels, and turned into the cool fireless +taproom, which he took to be empty. His stick had scarcely rung on the +oak table, however, before a man who had been sitting on the settle, +his head on his hands and his senses lost in a drunken stupor, leapt +up and, supporting himself by the table, glared at the two intruders. + +"Ah!" the squire's son-in-law said drily, "so you are here, Master +Jones _vice_ Wilkins, are you? I might have known where to find you!" + +It is probable that the wretched man, recognising him, and seeing the +policeman with him, thought that they had come to arrest him. Roused +thus abruptly from his slumbers, bemused and drink-sodden, he saw in a +flash the hand of the law stretched out to grasp him, and an old and +ungovernable terror seized upon his shattered nerves. "Keep off! keep +off!" he gasped, clawing at the two with his trembling hands. "You +shall not take me! I will not be taken! Don't you see I am a +gentleman?"--this last in a feeble scream. + +"Easy, easy, old fellow," Jim said, surprised by his violence, "or you +will be doing yourself a mischief." + +But the words only confirmed the poor man in his mistake. "I won't be +taken!" he cried, waving them off. "My son will pay you, I tell you," +he cried, his voice rising in a shriek which rang in the road outside, +and startled the house-dog sleeping in the sunshine--"I tell you my +son will pay you!" One of his hands as he spoke overturned the empty +glass, and it rolled off the table--on such trifles life rests. For +the policeman instinctively started forward to catch it, and the old +man misunderstood the movement. He fell in a fit on the floor. + +Of course there was a great commotion. The inn was roused from its +afternoon slumber, and the policeman was sent for the doctor; with one +thing and another half an hour elapsed before Foley left the house and +slowly made his way to the Chase. He was thinking a great deal more +seriously than was his wont. As hard as nails, some of his friends +called him; but there is a soft spot in these men who are as hard as +nails, if one can find it. Approaching the house, he caught sight of +his sister-in-law, and shrugged his shoulders and shook himself to get +rid of unpleasant thoughts. Patty was a favourite with him, and, +seeing her loitering round the sweep before the house, he guessed that +she was waiting to intercept her betrothed and learn the cause of his +conduct. Jim said a naughty word under his breath and went to her, as +if he had something to say. But, reaching her, he listened instead--as +a man must when a woman has a mind to speak. + +"What is it, Jim?" she broke out. Her eyes were full of trouble and +her pale complexion was a shade paler than usual. "What is the matter +with Walter? He did not dine here last night, though he meant to do +so. And when we went to learn the reason this morning he was out. He +was away at luncheon-time, and the school had never been visited. And +now, when he appeared at last, he told Robert not to call me, and said +he would wait in papa's study until he came in." + +She stopped. "He is here now?" Jim asked. + +"Yes; papa has come in, and they are in the bowling-green." + +"I will go to them," he said. + +"But, Jim, what is it?" she repeated, speaking with a little quaver in +her voice; and laying her hand on his arm, she detained him. "Tell me, +is there anything the matter?" + +Jim looked down at her. She was one of those soft plump feminine women +who seem made to be protected--whom to hurt seems as wicked as to harm +a child. "The matter?" he said. "Nothing that I know of. What should +be the matter? I will go and see them." + +He escaped from her and, entering the hall, of which both the front +and back doors were open, he found that she was right. The young +vicar, the dust on his shoes and an unwonted shade of depression +darkening his face, was walking up and down the sward with the +squire--a little man as choleric as he was kind-hearted, who passed +two-thirds of his waking hours in breeches and gaiters. Jim Foley +strode towards them, a purpose in his mind. The vicar, just embarked +on his confession, found it interrupted and made a thousand times more +difficult. "Jones has come to explain matters, I hope, sir," Jim said. + +The clergyman winced. "He has come to turn my brain, I think," the +squire cried, angry and suspicious. "I cannot make out what he would +be at." + +"I was telling you, sir," the vicar answered with some +impatience--"that my father----" + +"You had better leave your father alone, I think!" Foley struck in +with a manner like the snapping of a trap. "And explain to Mr. Stanton +the matter you mentioned to me yesterday." + +"I was explaining it!" the clergyman rejoined. "I was saying that my +father--he was at school with you, sir, you remember?" + +"To be sure," the squire said, his grey whiskers curling with +impatience as he looked from one to the other. "And at college." + +"He lost money after my mother's death," the young man continued, "and +went to live in Glasgow." In his shrinking from the disclosure he had +to make his voice took a rambling tone as he added, "I think I told +you that, sir." + +"To be sure! Twice! + +"But I did not tell you," the clergyman replied, driving his +stick into the ground and working it about while his face grew +scarlet--"and I take great shame to myself that I did not, Mr. +Stanton--that my father was much----" + +"Good heavens, Jones!" Jim broke out, his patience exhausted. "What on +earth has your father to do with it? Yesterday you gave me to +understand that you had some entanglement which weighed on your mind. +And I thought that you had come here to make a clean breast of it. +Instead of which--for Heaven's sake man, don't make me think that you +are not running straight!" + +The vicar glared at him, while the squire gazed at both. "But that old +man," Jones said at last, almost at choking point by this time, "whom +you saw this afternoon was----" + +Jim struck in again savagely. "We do not want to know anything about +him either. As for him, he is----" + +"My father!" + +"He is dead," Jim persisted, raising his hand for silence, and +determined to keep his man to the point and to have things +straightened out. "We do not want to hear anything about him. He is +dead. We want----" + +"Who is dead?" + +The question was the vicar's. He wheeled round as he put it, his face +white, his voice changed. The squire, who, like most listeners, had +learned more than the talkers, saw his tremendous agitation, and, +grasping some idea of the truth, tried to intercept Foley's answer. +But he was too late. "The old fellow we went to see off," Jim said, +almost lightly. "He is dead. Died in a fit half an hour ago, I tell +you." + +"Dead?" + +"Yes, dead. At least the doctor says so." + +The vicar put his hands to his face, and turned away, his back +shaking. The others looked at him. "He was--he was my father!" he +murmured--almost under his breath. And even Jim, his eyes as wide as +saucers, understood. + +"Fetch some wine, you fool" the squire muttered, giving him a nudge. +And he put his arm round the clergyman, and led him to a seat in the +shade. There, I think, Walter Jones prayed that he might not be +thankful. Man is weak. And conventional man very weak. + + +Once a gentleman always a gentleman, was the squire's motto. There was +no attempt at concealment. The poor man, whose life had been so +unlovely, lay at peace at last in the best room at the vicarage, and +was presently, with some tears of pity shed by gentle eyes, laid in a +quiet corner of the churchyard. There was talk, of course, but the +talk was confined to the village, where the possession of a drunken +father was not uncommon, or uncharitably considered. The worst of the +dead man was known only to Jim Foley, and he kept it even from his +wife; while any Spartan thoughts which the squire might otherwise have +entertained, any objections he might have raised to his daughter's +match, were rendered futile and quixotic by the strange mode in which +the denouement had been reached in his presence. He consented, and +all--after an interval--went well. But the vicar will sometimes, I +think, in the days to come, when prosperity laps him round, wander to +the churchyard and recall the hot noon when he walked the roads +haunted by that strange sense of forlornness and ruin. + + + + + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN + + + + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN + + +"You are English, I take it, sir?" + +It was clear to me that the speaker was. I was travelling alone, and +had not fallen in with three Englishmen in as many weeks. I turned to +inspect the new-comer with a cordiality his smudged and smutty face +could not wholly suppress. "I am," I answered, "and I am glad to meet +a fellow-countryman." + +"You are a stranger here?" He did not take his eyes from me, but he +indicated by a gesture of his thumb the busy wharf below piled high +with hundreds and thousands of crates full of oranges. From the upper +deck of the _San Miguel_ we looked down upon it, and could see all +that came or went in the trim basin about us. The _San Miguel_, a +steamer of the Segovia Quadra and Company's line, bound for several +places on the coast southward, was waiting to clear out of El Grao, +the harbour of Valencia, and I was waiting impatiently to clear out +with her. "You are a stranger here?" he repeated. + +"Yes; I have been in the town four or five days, but otherwise I am a +stranger," I answered. + +"You are not in the trade?" he continued. He meant the orange trade. + +"No, I am not. I am travelling for pleasure," I answered readily. "You +will understand that, though it is more than a Frenchman or Spaniard +can." I smiled as I spoke, but he was not very responsive. + +"It is a queer place to visit for pleasure," he said, looking from me +to the busy throng about the orange crates. + +"Not at all," I retorted. "It is a lively town and quaint, and it is +warm and sunny. I cannot say as much for Madrid, from which I came two +or three weeks back." + +"Come straight here?" he asked. + +I was growing tired of his curiosity, but I answered, "No. I stayed a +short time at Toledo and Aranjuez, and at several other places." + +"You speak Spanish?" + +"Not much. _Muy poco de Castellano_," I laughed, calling to mind the +maddening grimace by which the Spanish peasant indicates that he does +not understand, and is not going to understand you. He is a good +fellow, is Sancho Panza, but having made up his mind that you do not +speak Spanish, the purest Castilian is not Spanish for him. + +"You are going some way with us--perhaps to Carthagena?" the +inquisitor persisted. + +He laid some stress on the last word, and with it shot a sly glance at +me--a glance so unpleasantly suggestive that I did not answer him at +once. Instead, I looked at him more closely. He was a wiry young +fellow, rather below than above the middle height, to all appearance +the chief engineer. Everything about him, not excluding the +atmosphere, was greasy and oily, as if he had come straight from the +engine-room. The whites of his eyes showed with unlovely prominence. +Seeing him thus, I took a dislike for him. "To Carthagena!" I answered +brusquely. "I am not going to stay at Carthagena. Why should you +suppose so? Unless, indeed," I added, as another construction of his +words occurred to me, "you think I want to see some fighting? No, I +fancy the fun might grow too furious." + +I should say that three days before there had been a mutiny among the +troops at Carthagena. An outlying fort had been captured, and the +governor of the city killed before the attempt was suppressed. The +news was in every one's mouth, and I fancied that his question +referred to it. + +My manner or my words disconcerted him. Without saying more he turned +away, not going below at once, but standing on the main deck near the +office in the afterpart. There was a good deal of bustle in that +quarter. The captain, the second officer, and clerk were there, giving +and taking receipts and what not. He did not speak to them, but leaned +against the rail close at hand. I had an uncomfortable feeling that he +was watching me; and this gave rise to a shrinking from the man, which +did not affect me always, but returned from time to time. + +Presently the dinner-bell rang, and simultaneously the _San Miguel_ +moved out to sea. We were to spend the next day at Alicante, and the +following one at Carthagena. + +Dinner was not a cheerful meal. The officers of the ship did not speak +English or French, and were not communicative in any language. Besides +myself there were only three first-class passengers. They were ladies, +relatives of the newly appointed Governor of Carthagena, and about to +join him there. I have no doubt that they were charming and +fashionable people, but their partiality for the knife in eating +prejudiced them unfairly in English eyes. Consequently, when I came on +deck again, and the engineer--he told me his name was Sleigh--sidled +up to me, I received him graciously. He proffered the omnipresent +cigarette, and I provided him with something to drink. He urged me to +go down with him and see the engine-room, and after some hesitation I +did so. It was after dinner. + +"I have pretty much my own way," he boasted. "They cannot do without +English engineers. They tried once, and lost three boats in six +months. In harbour, my time is my own. I have seven stokers under me, +all Spaniards. They tried it on with me when I first came aboard! But +the first that out with his knife to me I knocked on the head with a +shovel. I have had none of their sauce since!" + +"Was he much hurt?" I asked, scanning my companion. He was not big, +and he slouched. But there was an air of swaggering dare-devilry about +him that gave colour to his story. + +"I don't know," he answered. "They took him to the hospital, and he +never came aboard again. That is all I know." + +"I suppose your pay is good?" I suggested. To confess the truth, I +felt myself at a disadvantage with him down there. The flaring lights +and deep shadows, the cranks and pistons whirling at our elbows, the +clank and din, and the valves that hissed at unexpected moments, were +matters of every hour to him; they imbued me with a desire to +propitiate. As my after-dinner easiness abated, I regretted that it +had induced me to come down. + +He laughed harshly. "Pretty fair," he said, "with my opportunities. Do +you see that jacket?" + +"Yes." + +"That is my shore-going jacket," with a wink. "Here, look at it!" + +I complied. It appeared at first sight to be an ordinary sailor's +pea-coat; but, looking more closely, I found that inside were dozens +of tiny pockets. At the mouth of each pocket a small hook was fixed to +the lining. + +"They are for watches," he explained, when he saw that I did not +comprehend. "I get five francs over the price for every one I carry +ashore to a friend of mine--duty free, you understand." + +I nodded to show that I did understand. "And which is your port for +that?" I asked, desiring to say something as I turned to ascend. + +He touched me on the shoulder, and I found his face close to mine. His +eyes glittered in the light of the lamp that hung by the steam-gauge; +they had the same expression that had perplexed me before dinner. "At +Carthagena!" he whispered, bringing his face still closer to mine. "At +Carthagena! Wait a minute, mate, I have told you something," he went +on. "I am not too particular, and, what is more, I am not afraid! +Ain't you going to tell me something?" + +"I have nothing to tell you!" I answered, staring at him. + +"Ain't you going to tell me something, mate?" he repeated. His voice +was low, but it seemed to me that there was a menace in it. + +"I have not an idea what you mean, my good fellow," I said, and, +turning abruptly, my eye discovered a shovel lying ready to his +hand--I ran as nimbly as I could up the steep ladder, and gained the +deck. Once there, I looked down. He was still standing by the lamp, +staring up at me, chagrin plainly written on his face. Even as I +watched him he rounded his lips to an oath; and then seemed to hold it +over until he should be better assured of its necessity. + +I thought no worse of him for his revelations. In a country where the +head of the custom-house lives like a prince on the salary of a +beggar, smuggling is no sin. But I was angry with him, and vexed +with myself for the haste with which I had met his advances. I +disliked and distrusted him. Whether he was mad, or took me for +another smuggler--which seemed the most probable hypothesis--or had +conceived some false idea of me, whatever the key to the enigma of his +manner might be, I felt that I should do well to avoid him. + +Like should mate with like, and I am not a violent man. I should not +feel at home in a duel, though the part were played with the most +domestic of fire shovels, much less with a horrible thing out of a +stoke-hole. + +About half-past ten the _San Miguel_ began to roll, and I took the +hint and went below. The small saloon was empty, the lamp turned down. +As I passed the steward's pantry I looked in and begged a couple of +biscuits. I am a tolerable sailor, but when things are bad my policy +is comprised in "berth and biscuits." With this provision against +misfortune, I retired to my cabin, happy in the knowledge that it was +a four-berth one, and that I was its sole occupant. + +In truth I came near to chuckling as I looked round it. I did not need +the experience I had had of a cabin three feet six inches by six feet +three, shared with a drunken Spaniard, to lead me to view with +contentment my present quarters. A lamp in a glass case lighted at +once the cabin and the passage outside, and gave assurance that it +would burn all night. On my right hand were an upper and lower berth, +and on my left the same, with standing room between. A couch occupied +the side facing me. The sliding door was supplemented by a curtain. +What joy--to one who had known other things--to arrange this and stow +that, and fearlessly to place in the rack sponge and tooth-brush! What +wonder if I blessed the firm of Segovia Quadra and Company as I sank +back upon my well-hung mattress. + +I sleep well at sea. The motion suits me. A slight qualm of +sea-sickness does but induce a pleasant drowsiness. I love a snug +berth under the porthole, and to hear the swish and wash of the water +racing by, and the crisp plash as the vessel dips her forefoot under, +and the complaint of the stout timbers as they creak and groan in the +bowels of the ship. + +Cosy and warm, I fell asleep, and dreamed that I was again in the +engine-room, seated opposite to the other Englishman. "Haven't you +something to tell me? Haven't you something to tell me?" he droned +monotonously, wagging his head from side to side, with the perplexing +smile on his face which had distressed me waking. "Haven't you +something to tell me?" + +I strove to say that I had not, because I knew that if I did not +satisfy him, he would do some dreadful thing, though I did not know +what. But I could not utter the words, and while I struggled with this +horrible impotency, the thing was done. I was bound hand and foot to +the crank of the engine, and was going up and down with it, up and +down! I wept and prayed to be released, but the villain took no heed +of my prayers. He sat on, regarding my struggles with the same +impassive smile. In despair I strove to think what it was he +wanted--what it was--what---- + +How the ship was rolling! Thank Heaven I was awake! Thank Heaven I was +in my berth, and not in that horrible engine-room. But how was this? +The other Englishman was here too, standing by the lamp, looking at +me. Or--was it the other Englishman? It was some one who had a smudged +and smutty face. All the wonder in my mind had to do with that. I lay +for a while, between sleeping and waking, watching him. Then I saw him +reach across my feet to a little shelf above the berth. As he drew +back, something that was in his hand--the hand that rested on the edge +of my berth--glittered as the light fell upon it; and, wide awake, I +sprang to a sitting posture in my berth, and cried out for fear. + +He was gone on the instant, and in the same second of time I was out +of bed and on the floor. A moment's hesitation, and I drew aside the +curtain, which still shook. The passage was still and empty. But +opposite my cabin and separated from it by the width of the passage +was the door of another cabin, which was, or had been when I went to +bed, unoccupied. Now the curtain, drawn across the doorway, was +shaking, and I did not doubt that the intruder was behind it. But +behind it also was darkness, and I was unarmed, whereas the thing upon +which the light had fallen in the man's hand was either a knife or a +pistol. + +No wonder that I hesitated, or that discretion seemed the better part +of valour. To be sure I might call the steward and have the cabin +searched; but I feared to seem afraid. I stood on tiptoe listening. +All was still; and presently I shivered. The excitement was passing +away, I began to feel qualms. With a last glance at the opposite +cabin--had I really seen the curtain shake? might it not have been +caused by the motion of the ship?--I closed my sliding door, and +climbed hastily into my bunk. Robber or no robber I must be still. In +a short time, what with my qualms and my drowsiness, I fell asleep. + +I slept until the morning light filled the cabin, and I was roused by +the cheery voice of the steward, bidding me "Buenos dias." The ship +was moving on an even keel. Overhead the deck was being swabbed. I +opened my little window and looked out--and the night's doings rose in +my memory. But who could think of dreams of midnight assassins with +the sea air in his nostrils, and before his eyes that vignette of blue +sea and grey rocks--grey, but sparkling, gemlike, ethereal under the +sun of Spain? Not I. I was gay as a lark, hungry as a hunter. Sallying +out before I was dressed, I satisfied myself that the opposite cabin +was empty, and came back laughing at my folly. + +But when I found that something else was empty, I thought it no +laughing matter. I wanted a snack to stay my appetite until the +steward should bring my _café complet_, and I turned to the little +shelf over my berth where I had placed the biscuits. They were not +there. Curious! And I had not eaten them. Then it flashed upon my mind +that it was with this shelf my visitor had meddled. + +After that I did not lose a moment. I examined my luggage and the +pockets of my clothes; the result relieved as much as it astonished +me; nothing was missing. My armed apparition had carried off two +captain's biscuits, and nothing else! + +I passed the morning puzzling over it. Sleigh did not come near me. +Was he conscious of guilt, I wondered, or offended by the abruptness +of my leave-taking the night before? Or was he engaged about his work? + +About noon we came to our moorings at Alicante. The sky was unclouded. +The shabby town and the barren hills that rose behind it--barren to +the eye, since the vines were not in leaf--looked baking hot. I had +found a cool corner of the ship, and was amusing myself with a copy of +"Don Quixote" and a dictionary, when the engineer approached. + +"Not going ashore?" he said. + +For the twentieth time I wondered what it was in his manner that made +everything he said a gibe. Whatever it was, I hated him for it; and I +gave my feelings vent by answering sullenly, "No, I am not." And +forthwith I turned to my books again. + +"I thought you travellers for pleasure wanted to see everything," he +said. "Maybe you know Alicante?" + +"No," I answered snappishly. "And in this heat I don't want to know +it!" + +"All right, governor, all right!" he replied. "Think it might be too +hot for you, perhaps?" And with a hoarse laugh that lasted him from +stem to stern, and brought the blood to my cheeks, he left me. But I +could see that he did not lose sight of me, and at intervals I heard +him chuckling at his own wit for fully half an hour afterwards. But +where the joke came in I could not determine. + +Towards evening I went ashore, slipping away at a time when he had +gone below for a moment. I found a public walk in an avenue of +palm-trees which ran beside the sea. The palms were laden with +clusters of yellow dates, that were more like dried sea-weed than +fruit. As darkness fell, and with it coolness, I sat here, and watched +the vessels in the port fade one by one into the gloom, and little +sparks of light take their places. A number of people were still +abroad, enjoying the air, but these sauntered in the indolent southern +fashion, so that when I heard the step of a man approaching in haste, +I looked up sharply. To my surprise, it was Sleigh, the engineer! + +He passed close to me. I could not be mistaken, though he had put off +his slouching, shambling air, and was keenly on the alert, glancing +from this side to that, as if he were searching for some one. For +whom? I was one of half a dozen on a seat in deep shadow. If I were +the person he wanted, he overlooked me, and went on. I sat some time +after his step had died away in the distance, my thoughts not pleasant +ones. But he did not return, and I went up to the Hôtel Bossio +prepared to eat an excellent dinner. + +The _table d'hôte_ in the big whitewashed room was half finished. I +was late; and perhaps for this reason the waiters eyed me, as I took +my seat, with odd attention; or possibly it was because the English +were not numerous at Alicante, or not popular; or, again, it was +possible that some one--Sleigh, for example--had been there making +inquiries for a foreigner--blond, middle-sized, and speaking very +little Spanish. Their notice made me uncomfortable. It seemed as if I +could nowhere escape from my Old Man of the Sea. + +Nowhere indeed, for I was to have another rencontre that night, with +which my mind mixed him up, and which must be told because of the +light afterwards thrown upon it. Returning to my ship along the dark +wharf, I came upon figures loafing in the shadow of bales or barrels, +and, passing them, clutched my loaded stick more tightly. I got by +all, however, in safety and reached the spot where the ship lay. "San +Miguel! Bota!" I shouted in the approved fashion of that coast. "San +Miguel! Bota!" + +The words had scarcely left my lips when there was a rustling close to +me. A single footstep sounded on the pebbles, and the light of a +lantern was flashed in my face. I recoiled. As I did so two or three +men sprang forward. Dazzled by the light, I had only an indistinct +view of figures about me, and was on the point of fighting or running, +or making an attempt at both, when by good luck the clink of steel +fell upon my ear. + +By good luck! For they were police who had stopped me; and it is ill +work resisting the police in Spain. "What do you require, gentlemen?" +I asked in my best Spanish. "I am English." + +"Perdone usted, señor," replied the leader, who held the light. "Will +you have the goodness to show me your papers?" + +"Con mucho gusto!" I answered, delighted to find that things were no +worse. I was for producing my passport on the spot, but the sergeant, +with a polite but imperative "This way!" directed me to follow him. I +did so for a short distance, a door was flung open, and I found myself +in a well-lighted office, which I guessed was a custom-house. The +officer took his place behind a desk, and by a gesture of his cocked +hat signified his readiness to proceed. + +I had had to do with the police before, but I was aware of a +suppressed excitement in the group, of strange glances which they cast +at me, of a general drawing round their chief as he bent over my +passport, which seemed to indicate that this was no ordinary case of +passport examination. Singular, too, was the disappointment they +evinced when they found that my passport bore, besides the ordinary +_vise_, the signatures of the Vice-Consul and Alcalde at Valencia. As +their faces fell my spirits rose. Full conviction took possession of +them after I had answered half a dozen questions; and the interview +ended with the same "Perdone usted, señor," with which it had begun. I +was bowed out; a boat was instantly procured for me, and in two +minutes I was climbing the ladder which hung from the _San Miguel's_ +quarter. + +The first person I saw on board was Sleigh. He was lolling on a bench +in the saloon--confound his impudence!--drinking aguardiente and +staring moodily at the table. I tried to pass by him and reach my +cabin unnoticed, but on the last step of the companion I slipped. With +an oath at the interruption he looked up, and our eyes met. + +Never did I see a man more astonished. He gazed at me as if he could +not trust his sight. "Well, I never!" he cried, slapping his thigh +with an oath, and speaking in a jubilant tone. "Well, I am blest, +governor! So you did not go ashore after all! Here's a lark!" + +I saw that he had been drinking. "I have been ashore," I answered, my +dislike increased tenfold by his condition. + +"Honour bright?" he exclaimed. + +"I have told you that I have been ashore," I replied. + +He whistled. "You are a cool hand," he said, looking me over with a +new expression in his face. "I might have known that, precious mild as +you seemed! Dined at the Hôtel Bossio, I warrant you did, and took +your walk in the Alameda like any other man?" + +"I did." + +"So you did! O Lord! O Lord! So you did!" Again he contemplated me at +arm's length. I could construe his new expression now--it was one of +admiration. "So you did, governor! And came aboard in the dark, as +bold as brass!" + +That thawed me, for I thought that I had done rather a plucky thing in +coming on board alone at that time of night. But I told him nothing of +the affair with the police. I merely answered, "I do not understand +why I should not, Mr. Sleigh. And as I am tired, I will bid you good +night." + +"Wait a bit, governor," he said, in a lower tone, arresting me by a +gesture as I turned away. "Don't you think you are playing it a bit +high? You are a cool one, I swear, and fly--there is nothing you are +not fly to, I'll be bound! But two heads are better than one--you take +me?--letting alone that it is every one for himself in this world. Do +you rise to it?" + +"No, I don't rise to it," I answered, drawing back from his spirituous +breath and leering eyes. He was more drunk than I had fancied. + +"You don't? Think again, mate," he said, almost as if he pleaded with +me. "Don't play it too high." + +"Don't talk such confounded nonsense!" I retorted angrily. + +He looked at me a moment, a scowl darkening his face and not improving +it. Then he answered, "All right, governor! All right! Pleasant +dreams! and a pleasant waking at Carthagena!" + +"I have no doubt I shall enjoy both," I replied, "if you will have the +goodness not to disturb me as you did last night!" He should not think +he had escaped detection. + +"It is your turn now," he replied more soberly. "I don't know what you +are up to now. I didn't disturb you last night." + +"Some one did! And some one uncommonly like you." + +"What did he do?" he asked, eyeing me with suspicion. + +"I startled him," I answered, "or I do not know what he would have +done. As it was he did not do much. He took some biscuits." + +"Took some biscuits!" He pretended that he did not believe me, and he +did it so well that I began to doubt. "You must have been dreaming, +mate." + +"I could not dream the biscuits away," I retorted. + +The stroke went home. He stood thinking, drawing patterns on the table +with his finger and a puddle of spilled water. Guilty or innocent, he +did not seem ashamed, but puzzled and perplexed. Once or twice he +glanced cunningly at me. But whether he wished to see how I took it, +or suspected me of fooling him, I could not tell. + +"Good night!" I cried, losing patience at last; and I went to my +cabin. The last I saw of him, he was still standing at the table, +drawing patterns on it with his finger. + +I turned in at once, satisfied that after what had passed between us +there would be no repetition of last night's disturbance. In a +pleasant state between waking and sleeping I was aware of the tramp of +feet overhead as the moorings were cast off. The first slow motion of +the engines was followed by the familiar swish and wash of the water +sliding by. The ship began to heel over a little. We had reached the +open sea. After that I slept. + +I awoke suddenly, but in full possession of my senses. The cabin was +still lit by the lamp. I guessed that it was a little after midnight; +and "_O utinam!_" I sighed, "that I had not taken that cup of coffee +after dinner!" My portmanteau too had got loose. I could hear it +sliding about the floor, though, as I lay in the upper berth, I could +not see it. I must set that to rights. + +I vaulted out after my usual fashion. But instead of alighting fairly +and squarely on the floor, my bare feet struck something soft, a good +distance short of it, and I came down on my hands and knees--to form +part of the queerest tableau upon which a cabin-lamp ever shone. +There was I, lightly clothed in pyjamas, glaring into the eyes of a +dingy-faced man, who was likewise on his hands and knees on the floor, +but with more than half the breath knocked out of his body by my +descent upon him. I do not know which was the more astonished. + +"Hallo! how do you come here?" I cried, after we had stared at one +another for some seconds. + +He raised his hand. "Hush!" he whispered: and obeying his gesture I +crouched where I was, while he listened. Then we rose to our feet as +by one motion. I had not time to feel afraid, though it was far from a +pretty countenance that was close to mine. Terror was written too +plainly upon it. + +"You are English?" he said sullenly. + +I nodded. I saw that he had a pistol half-hidden behind him, but +somehow I felt master of the position. His fear of being overheard +seemed so much greater than my fear of his pistol; and it is not easy +to do much with a pistol without being overheard. "You are English, +too," I added, below my breath. "Perhaps you will kindly tell me what +you are doing in my cabin?" + +"You will not betray me?" he cried. + +"Betray you, my man!" I replied, with a prudent remembrance of his +weapon and the late hour of the night. "If you have taken nothing of +mine, you may go to the deuce for me, so long as you don't pay me +another visit." + +"Taken anything!" he retorted, almost forgetting his caution, "do you +take me for a thief? I will be bound----" he went on with a pride that +seemed to me very pitiable when I understood it--"that you are about +the only man in Spain who would not know me at sight. There is a +price upon my head! There are two thousand pesetas for whoever takes +me--dead or alive! There are bills of me in every town in Spain! Ay, +of me! in every town from Irun to Malaga!" + +I knew now who he was. "You were at Carthagena," I said sternly, +thinking of the old grey-headed general who had died at his post. + +He nodded. The momentary excitement was gone from his face, leaving +him what he was, a man, dirty, pallid, half famished. About my height, +he wore clothes, shabby and soiled, but like mine in make and +material. In his desperate desire for sympathy, for communion with +some one, he had already laid aside his fear of me. When I asked him +how he came to be in my cabin he told me freely. + +"I intended to ship from Valencia to France, but they watched all the +boats. I crept on board this one in the night, thinking that as she +was bound for Carthagena she would not be searched. I was right; they +did not think I should venture back into the lion's jaws." + +"But what will you do when we reach Carthagena?" I asked. + +"Stay on board and, if possible, go with this ship to Cadiz. From +there I can easily get over to Tangier," he answered. + +It sounded feasible. "And where have you been since we left Valencia?" +I asked. + +"Behind this sailcloth." He pointed to a long roll of spare canvas +which was stowed away between the floor and the lower berth. I opened +my eyes. + +"Ay!" he added, "they are close quarters, but there is room behind +there for a man lying on his face. What is more, except your two +biscuits I have had nothing to eat since the day before yesterday." + +"Then it was you who took the biscuits?" + +He nodded; then he fell back against my berth, all his strength gone +out of him. For from behind us came a more emphatic answer. "You may +take your oath to that, governor!" it ran; and briskly pushing aside +the door and curtain, Sleigh the engineer stood before us. "You may +bet upon that, I guess!" he added, an ugly smile playing about his +mouth. + +The refugee's face changed to a sickly white. His hand toyed feebly +with the pistol, but he did not move. I think that we both felt we +were in the presence of a stronger mind. + +"You had better put that plaything away," Sleigh said. He showed no +fear, but I observed that he watched us narrowly. "A shot would bring +the ship about your ears. There is no call for a long tale. I took the +governor here for you, but when he told me that some one was stealing +his biscuits, I thought I had got the right pig by the ear, and five +minutes outside this door have made it a certainty. Two thousand +pesetas! Why, hang me," he added brutally, "if I should have thought, +to look at you, that you were worth half the money!" + +The other plucked up spirit at the insult. "Who are you? What do you +want?" he cried, with an attempt at bravado. + +"Precisely. What do I want?" the engineer replied with a sneer. +"You are right to come to business. What do I want? A hundred pounds. +That is my price, mate. Fork it out and mum's the word. Turn rusty, +and----" He did not finish the sentence, but grasping his neck in both +hands, he pressed his thumbs upon his windpipe and dropped his jaw. It +was a ghastly performance. I had seen a garotte and I shuddered. + +"You would not give the man up? Your own countryman?" I cried in +horror. + +"Would I not?" he answered. "You will soon see, if he has not got the +cash!" + +"A hundred pounds!" the wretched fellow moaned. Sleigh's performance +had completely unmanned him. "I have not a hundred pesetas with me." + +As it happened--alas, it has often happened so with me!--I had but +three hundred pesetas, some twelve pounds odd, about me, nor any hope +of a remittance nearer than Malaga. Still, I did what I could. "Look +here," I said to Sleigh, "I can hardly believe that you are in +earnest, but I will do this. I will give you ten pounds to be silent +and let the man take his chance. It is no good to haggle with me," I +added, "because I have no more." + +"Ten pounds!" he replied derisively, "when the police will give me +eighty! I am not such a fool." + +"Better ten pounds and clean hands, than eighty pounds of blood +money," I retorted. + +"Look here, Mister," he answered sternly; "do you mind your own +business and let us settle ours. I am sorry for you, mate, that is a +fact, but I cannot let the chance pass. If I do not get this money +some one else will. I'll tell you what I will do." As he paused I +breathed again, while the miserable man whose life was in the balance +looked up with renewed hope. "I will lower my terms," he said. "I +would rather get the money honestly, I am free to confess that. If you +will out with two thousand pesetas, I will keep my mouth shut, and +give you a helping hand besides." + +"If not?" I said. + +"If not," he answered, shrugging his shoulders--but I noticed that he +laid his hand on his knife--"if you do not accept my terms before we +are in port at Carthagena, I go to the first policeman and tell him +who is aboard. Those are my terms, and you have time to think about +them." + +With that he left the cabin, keeping his face to us to the last. +Hateful and treacherous as he was, I could not help admiring his +coolness and courage, and his firm grasp of the men he had to do with. + +For I felt that we were a sorry pair. I suppose that my companion, bad +as his position seemed, had cherished strong hopes of escape. Now he +was utterly unmanned. He sat on the couch, his elbows on his knees, +his head on his hands, the picture of despair. The pistol had vanished +into some pocket, and although capture meant death, I judged that he +would let himself be taken without striking a blow. + +My own reflections were far from being comfortable. The man grovelling +before me might deserve death; knowing the stakes, he had gambled and +lost. Moreover, he was a complete stranger to me. But he was an +Englishman. He had trusted me. He had spent an hour--but it seemed +many--in my company, and I shrank from the pain of seeing him dragged +away to his death. My nature revolted against it; I forgot what the +consequences of interference might be to myself. + +"Look here," I said, after a long interval of silence, "I will do what +I can. We shall not reach Carthagena until eight o'clock. Something +may turn up before that. At the worst I have a scheme, though I set +little store by it, and advise you to do the same. Put on these +clothes in place of those you wear." I handed to him a suit taken from +my portmanteau. "Wash and shave. Take my passport and papers. It is +just possible that if you play your part well they may not identify +you, and may arrest me--despite our friend upstairs. For myself, once +on shore I shall have no difficulty in proving my innocence." + +Not that I was without misgivings. The Spanish civil guards give but +short shrift at times, and at the best I might be punished for +connivance at an escape. But to some extent I trusted to my +nationality; and for the rest, the avidity with which the hunted +wretch at my side clutched at the slender hope held out to him drove +hesitation from my mind. + +As long as I live I shall remember the scene which ensued. The grey +light was beginning to steal through the port-hole, giving a sicklier +hue to my companion's features, as I helped him with trembling fingers +to dress. The odour of the expiring lamp hung upon the air. The +tumbled bed-clothes, the ransacked luggage, the coats swaying against +the bulkheads to the music of the creaking timbers, formed +surroundings deeply imprinted on the memory. + +About seven o'clock I procured some coffee and biscuits and a little +fruit, and fed him. Then I gave him my papers, and charged him to +employ himself about the cabin. My plan was to be out of the way, +ashore, or elsewhere, when Sleigh fired his mine, and to trust my +companion to return my luggage and papers to my hotel at Malaga; until +I reached which place I must take my chance. In reality I played no +fine and magnanimous part, for, looking back, I do not think I +believed for a moment that the police would be deceived. + +A little after eight o'clock I went on deck, to find that the ship was +steaming slowly between the fortified hills that frown upon the +harbour of Carthagena; a harbour so spacious that in its amphitheatre +of waters all the navies of the world might lie. For a time the +engineer was not visible on deck. The steward pointed out to me +some of the lions--the deeply embayed arsenal, the distant fort, +high-perched on a hill, which the mutineers had seized, the governor's +house over the gateway where the wounded general had died; and we were +within a cable's length of the wharf, crowded with idlers and flecked +with sentinels, when Sleigh came up from below. + +Although the morning was fine, he was wearing the heavy pea-jacket +which I had seen in the engine-room. He cast a spiteful glance at me, +then, turning away, he affected to busy himself with other matters. +Bad as he was, I think that he was ashamed of the work he had in hand. + +"Do we stay here all day?" I asked the steward. + +"No, señor, no. Only until ten o'clock," I understood him to say. It +was close upon nine already. He explained that the town was still so +much disturbed that business was at a standstill. The _San Miguel_ +would land her passengers by boat and go at once to Almeria, where +cargo awaited her. "Here is the police-boat," he added. + +Then the time had come. I was quivering with excitement--and with +something else--a new idea! Darting from the steward's side, I flew +down the stairs, through the saloon and to my cabin, the door of which +I dragged open impatiently. "Give me my papers!" I cried, breathless +with haste. "The police are here!" + +The man--he was pretending to pack, with his back to the door, but at +my entrance he rose with an assumption of ease--drew back. "Why? will +you desert me too?" he cried, his face blanched. "Will you betray me? +Then, my God! I am lost!" and he flung himself upon the sofa in a +paroxysm of terror. + +Every moment was of priceless value. This a conspirator! I had no +patience with him. "Give them to me!" I cried imperatively, +desperately. "I have another plan. Do you hear?" + +He heard, but he did not believe me. He was sure that my courage had +failed at the last moment. But--and let this be written on his side of +the account--he gave me the papers; it may be in pure generosity, it +may be because he had not the spirit to resist. + +Armed with them I ran on deck as quickly as I had descended. I found +the position of things but slightly changed. The police-boat was now +alongside. The officer in command, attended by two or three +subordinates, was mounting the ladder. Close to the gangway Sleigh was +standing, evidently waiting for him. But he had his eye on the saloon +door also, for I had scarcely emerged before he stepped up to me. + +"Have you changed your mind, governor? Are you going to buy him off?" +he muttered, looking askance at me as I moved forward with him by my +side. + +My answer took him by surprise. "No, señor, no!" I exclaimed loudly +and repeatedly--so loudly that the attention of the group at the +gangway was drawn to us. When I saw this, I stepped in front of +Sleigh, and before he guessed what I would be at, I was at the +officer's side. "Sir," I said, raising my hat, "do you speak French?" + +"Parfaitement, monsieur," he answered, politely returning my salute. + +"I am an Englishman, and I wish to lay an information," I said, +speaking in French, and pausing there that I might look at Sleigh. As +I had expected, he did not understand French. His baffled and +perplexed face assured me of that. He tried to interrupt me, but the +courteous official waved him aside. + +"The man who is trying to shut my mouth is a smuggler of foreign +watches," I resumed. "He has them about him, and is going to take them +ashore. They are in a number of pockets made for the purpose in the +lining of his coat. I am connected with the watch trade, and my firm +will give ten pounds reward to any one who will capture and prosecute +him." + +"I understand," the officer replied. And, turning to Sleigh, who, +ignorant of what was going forward, was fretting and fuming in a fever +of distrust, he addressed some words to him. He spoke in Spanish and +quickly, and I could not understand what he said. That it was to the +point, however, the engineer's face betrayed. It fell amazingly, and +he cast a vengeful glance at me. + +That which followed was ludicrous enough. My heart was beating fast, +but I could not suppress a smile as Sleigh, clasping the threatened +coat about him, backed from the police. He poured out a torrent of +fluent Spanish, and emphatically denied the charge; but, alas! he +cherished the coat--at which the police were making tentative +dives--overmuch for an innocent man with no secret pockets about him. + +His "No, señor, no!" his "Por dios!" and "Madre de Dios!" and the rest +were breath wasted. At a sign from the grim-looking officer, two of +the policemen seized him, and in a twinkling, notwithstanding his +resistance, had the thick coat off him, and were probing its recesses. +It was the turn of the by-standers to cry, "Madre de Dios!" as from +pocket upon pocket came watch after watch, until five dozen lay in +sparkling rows upon the deck. I could see that there were those among +the ship's company besides the culprit who gazed at me with little +favour; but the eyes of the police officer twinkled with gratification +as each second added to the rich prize. And that was enough for me. + +Still I knew that all was not done yet, and I stood on my guard. +Sleigh, taken into custody, had desisted from his prayers and oaths. I +saw, however, that he was telling a long story, of which I could make +out little more than the word "Inglese" repeated more than once. It +was his turn now. If he had not understood my French, neither could I +understand his Spanish. And I noticed that the officer, as the story +rolled on, looked at me doubtfully. I judged that the crisis was near, +and I interfered. "May I beg to know, sir, what he says?" I asked +courteously. + +"He tells me a strange story, Mr. Englishman," was the answer; and the +speaker eyed me with curiosity. "He says that Morrissey, the +villainous Englishman--your pardon--who was at the bottom of the +affair of last Sunday, has had the temerity to return to the scene of +his crime, and is on this vessel." + +I shrugged my shoulders. "A strange story!" I answered. "But it is for +Monsieur to do his duty. I am the only Englishman on board, as the +steward will inform you; and for me, permit me to hand you my papers. +Your prisoner wishes, no doubt, to be even with me!" + +He nodded as he took the papers. And that upon which I counted +happened. The engineer in his rage and excitement had not made his +story plain. No one dreamt of the charge being aimed against another +Englishman. No one knew of another Englishman. The steward sullenly +corroborated me when I said that I was the only one on board; and all +who heard Sleigh--befogged, perhaps, by his Spanish, which, good +enough for ordinary occasions, may have failed him here--did not doubt +that his was a counter-accusation preferred _en revanche_. + +For one thing, the improbability of Morrissey's return had weight with +them; and my credentials were ample and in order. Among these, too, a +note for two hundred and fifty pesetas had slipped, which had +disappeared when they were returned to me. Need I say how it ended? Or +that while the police officer bowed his courteous "Adios" to me, and +his men gathered up the watches, and the crew scowled, the prisoner +was removed to the boat, foaming at the mouth, and screaming to the +last threats which my ears were long in forgetting. I walked up and +down the deck, brazening it out, but very sick at heart. + +However, the _San Miguel_, despite her engineer's mishap, duly left in +half an hour--a nervous half-hour to me. With a thankful heart I +watched the fort-crowned hills about Carthagena change from brown to +blue, and blue to purple, until at length they sank below the horizon. + +But officers and men looked coldly on me; and that evening, at +Almeria, I took up bag and baggage and left the _San Miguel_. I had +had enough of the thanks, and more than enough of the company, of my +cabin-fellow, whom I left where I had found him--behind the sailcloth. +I believe that he succeeded in making his escape. For fully a month +later a friend of mine staying at the Hôtel de la Paz, at Madrid, was +placed under arrest on suspicion of being Morrissey; so that the +latter must at that time have been at liberty. + + + + + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + + + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + +Upon arriving at the middle of the Close the Dean stopped. He had been +walking briskly, his chin from custom a little tilted, but his eyes +beaming with condescension and goodwill, while an indulgent smile +playing about the lower part of his face relieved its massive +character. His walking-stick swung to and fro in a loose grasp, his +feet trod the pavement of the precincts with the step of an owner, he +felt the warmth of the sun, the balminess of the spring air, and +somewhere at the back of his mind he was conscious of a vacant +bishopric, and that he was the husband of one wife. In fine he +presented the appearance of a contented, placid, unruffled dignitary, +until he reached the middle of the Close. There, alas! the ferrel of +his stick came to the ground with a thud, and the sweetness and light +faded from his eyes as they rested upon Mr. Swainson's plot. The +condescension and goodwill became conspicuous only by their absence. +The Dean was undisguisedly angry; he disliked opposition as much +as lesser men, and met with it more rarely. For Bicester is +old-fashioned, and loves both Church and State, but especially the +former, and looks up to principalities and powers, and even now, on +account of a mistake he made, execrates the memory of a recreant +Bicestrian, otherwise reputable. It was at a public dinner. "I +remember," said this misguided man, "going in my young days to the old +and beautiful cathedral of this city. (Great applause.) I was only a +child then, and my head hardly rose above the top of the seat, but I +remember I thought the Dean the greatest of living men. (Whirlwinds of +applause.) Well (smiling), perhaps, I do not think quite that now." +(Dead silence.) And so dull at bottom may a man be whose name is known +in half the capitals of Europe, that this degenerate fellow never +guessed why the friends of his youth during the rest of the day turned +their backs upon him. + +Such is the faith of Bicester, but even in Bicester there are +heretics. To say that the Dean rarely met with opposition is to say +that he rarely met with Mr. Swainson, and that he seldom saw Mr. +Swainson's plot. As a rule, when he crossed the Close he averted his +eyes by a happy impulse of custom, for he did not like Mr. Swainson, +and as for the latter's plot, it was _anathema maranatha_ to him. The +Dean was tall, Mr. Swainson was taller; the Dean was stubborn, Mr. +Swainson was obstinate; so that there arose between them the +antagonism that is born of similarity. On the other hand the Dean was +stout and Mr. Swainson a scarecrow; the Dean was comely and clerical, +but not over-rich, Mr. Swainson was pallid, lantern-jawed, wealthy, +and a lawyer, and hence the dislike born of difference. Moreover, +years ago, when Mr. Swainson had been Mayor of Bicester, there had +been a little dispute between the Chapter and the Bishop, and he had +shown so much energy upon the one side as to earn the nickname of the +"Mayor of the Palace." Finally Mr. Swainson delighted in opposition as +a cat in milk, and cared as little to have a good reason for his +antagonism as puss in the dairy about a sixty years' title to the +cream-pan. + +But a sixty years' title to his plot was the very thing which Mr. +Swainson did claim to have. Exactly opposite his house--his father's +and grandfather's house in which, said his enemies, they have lived +and grown fat upon cathedral patronage--lay this debatable land. His +front windows commanded it, and on such a morning as this he loved to +stand upon his doorstep and gaze at it with the air of a dog watching +the spot where his bone lies buried. But if Mr. Swainson was right, +that was just what was not buried there; there were no bones there. +True, the smoothly shorn surface of the little patch was divided from +the green turf round the cathedral only by a slight iron railing, but, +said Mr. Swainson, ponderously seizing upon his opponent's weapon and +using it with effect, it was of another sort altogether; of a very +different nature. It had never been consecrated, and close as it lay +to the sacred pile, being separated from it on two sides but by a sunk +fence, it did not belong to it, it was not of it; it was private +property, the property of Erasmus John Swainson, and the appanage of +his substantial red-brick house just across the Close. + +And no one could refute him, though several tried their best, to his +delight. It cannot now be computed by how many years the discovery of +his rights prolonged his life--but certainly by some. His liver +demanded activity, namely a quarrel, and what a coil this was! If he +had been given the choice of all possible opponents, he would have +selected the Dean and Chapter, they were so substantial, wealthy, and +formidable. And such a thorn in the side of those comfortable +personages as these rights of his were like to prove he could hardly +have imagined in his most sanguine dreams, or hoped for in his +happiest moments. + +It was great fun stating his claim, flouting it in their faces, +displaying it through the city, brandishing it in season and out of +season; but when it came to making a hole in the smooth turf hitherto +so sacred, and setting up an unsightly post, and affixing to it a +board with "Trespassers will be prosecuted. E. J. Swainson," the fun +became furious. So did the Dean, so did the Chapter, so did every +sidesman and verger. Bicester was torn in pieces by the contending +parties, but Mr. Swainson was firm. The only concession which could be +wrung from him was the removal of the obnoxious board. Instead he set +a neat iron railing round his property, enclosing just thirty feet by +fifteen. Such was the _status in quo_ on this morning, and with it the +Dean had for some time been forced to rest content. + +Yet, sooth to say, the greatest pleasure of the very reverend +gentleman's life was gone with this accession to the roundness and +fulness of Mr. Swainson's. No more with the thorough satisfaction of +the past could he conduct the American traveller through the ancient +crypt, or dilate to the Marquis of Bicester's visitors upon the beauty +of the quaint gargoyles. No; that railed-in spot became a plague-spot +to him, ever itching, an eyesore even when invisible, a thing to be +evaded and dodged and given the slip, as a Dean who is a Dean should +scorn to evade anything. He winced at the mere thought that the +inquisitive sightseer might touch upon it, and probe the matter with +questions. He hurried him past it with averted finger and voluble +tongue, nor recovered his air of kindly condescension, or polished +ease (as the case might be), until he was safe within his own hall. +Only in moments of forgetfulness could the Dean now walk in his Close +of Bicester with the grace of old times. + +But on this particular morning the sunshine was so pleasant, the wind +so balmy, that he walked halfway across the Close as if the river of +Lethe flowed fathoms deep over Mr. Swainson's plot. Then it chanced +that his eyes in a heedless moment rested upon the enclosure: and he +saw that a man was at work in it, and he paused. The Dean knew Mr. +Swainson too well to trust him. What was this? By the man's side lay a +small heap of greyish-white things, and he was holding a short-handled +mallet, which he was using to drive one of the greyish-white things +into the ground. From him the Dean's eyes travelled to a couple of +parti-coloured sticks, one at each end of the plot. What was this? A +thing so terrible that the Dean stood still, and that change came over +him which we have described. + +Great men rise to the occasion. It was only a moment he thus stood and +looked. Then he turned and walked to a house. A tall thin man was +standing upon the steps of the house, with the ghost of a smile upon +his face. For a moment the Dean could only stammer. It was such a +dreadful outrage. + +"Is that," he said at last, "is that, sir, being done by your +authority?" With a shaking finger he pointed to Mr. Swainson's plot. +The tall man in a leisurely way settled a pair of eye-glasses upon his +nose and looked in the direction indicated. "Ah, I see what you mean," +he said at last. "Certainly, Mr. Dean, certainly!" + +"Are you aware, sir, what it is?" gasped the clergyman; "it is +sacrilege!" + +"Nothing of the kind, I assure you, my dear sir. It's croquet!" + +The tone was one of explanation, and the words were uttered with so +transparent an air of frankness, that the veins in the Dean's temples +swelled and his face grew, if possible, redder than before. + +"I won't stay to bandy words with you!" he cried. + +"Bandy!" returned the tall man, intensely amused. "Ha, ha, ha! you +thought it was hockey! Bandy! Oh, no, you play it with hoops and a +mallet. Drive the balls through--so!" + +And to the intense delight of the Close people, many of whom were at +their windows, Mr. Swainson executed an ungainly kind of gambado upon +the steps. "Disgusting," the Dean called it afterwards, when talking +to sympathetic ears. Now he merely put it away from him with a wave of +the hand. + +"I will not discuss it now, Mr. Swainson," he said. "If your feelings +of decency and of what is right and proper do not forbid this--this +profanity--I can call it nothing else--I have but one word to add. The +Chapter shall prevent it." + +"The Chapter!" replied the other, in a tone of contempt, which gave +place to temper as he continued, "you are well read in history, Mr. +Dean, they tell me. Doubtless you remember what happened when King +Canute bade the tide come no further. I am the tide, and you and the +Chapter--sit in the chair of Canute." + +The Dean, it must be confessed, was no little taken aback by this +defiance. He was amazed. The two glared at one another, and the +clergyman was the first to give way; baffled and disconcerted, yet +swelling with rage, he strode towards the Deanery. His antagonist +followed him with his eyes, then looked more airily than ever at his +plot and the progress made there, considered the weather with his chin +at the decanal angle, finally with a flirt of his long coat-tails he +went into the house, a happy man and the owner of a vastly improved +appetite. + +But the Dean had more to suffer yet. At the door of his garden he ran +in his haste against some one coming out. Ordinarily, great man as he +was, he was also a gentleman. But this was too much. That, when the +father had insulted him, the son should collide with him on his own +threshold, was intolerable; at any rate at a moment when he was +smarting under a sense of defeat. + +"Good morning, Mr. Dean," said the young fellow, raising his hat with +an evident desire to please that was the antipodes of his father's +manner--only the Dean was in no mood to discriminate--"I have just +been having a delightful game of croquet." + +It is to be regretted, but here a short hiatus in the narrative +occurs. The minor canons, than whom no men are more wanting in +reverence, say that the Dean's answer consisted of two words, one of +them pithy and full of meaning, but in the mouth of a Dean, however +choleric, impossible. Accounting this as a gloss, we are driven to +conjecture that the Dean's answer expressed mild disapprobation of the +game of croquet. Certain it is that young Swainson, surprised by so +novel and original a sentiment, answered only-- + +"I beg your pardon." + +"Hem!" the Dean exclaimed. "I mean to say that I do not approve of +this. I will come to the point. I must ask you to discontinue your +visits at my house." The young man stared as if he thought the excited +divine had gone mad; the Deanery was almost a home to him. "Your +father," the Dean went on more coherently, "has taken a step so +unseemly, so--so indecent, has used language so insulting to me, sir, +that I cannot, at any rate at present, receive you." + +Young Swainson was a gentleman; moreover, for a very good reason, the +Dean failed to anger him. He raised his hat as respectfully as before, +bowed in token of acquiescence, and went on his way sorrowfully. + +He had a singularly pleasant smile, this young man, though this was +not a time to display it. Mrs. Dean had once pronounced him a pippin +grafted on a crab-stock, and thereafter in certain circles he had +become known as King Pepin. He was tall and straight and open-eyed, +with faults enough, but of a generous youthful kind, easily overlooked +and more easily forgiven. Doubtless Mr. Swainson would have had his +son more practical, cool-headed, and precise, but the shoot did not +grow in the same way as the parent tree. Old Swainson would not have +been happy without an enemy, nor young Swainson as happy with one; and +if, as the former often said, the latter's worst enemy was himself, he +was likely to have a prosperous life. + +In a space of time inconceivably short, the doings of the old +lawyer and the Dean's remonstrance were all over Bicester. Nay, fast +as the stone rolled, it gathered moss. It was asserted by people who +rapid-grew to be eye-witnesses, that Mr. Swainson had danced a +hornpipe in the middle of his plot, snapping his fingers at the Dean, +while the latter prodded him as well as he could through the railings +with his umbrella; finally that only the arrival of Mr. Swainson's son +had put an end to this disgraceful exhibition. + +Neither side wasted time. The Dean, the Canon in residence, and the +Præcentor, an active young fellow, consulted their lawyer, and talked +largely of ejectment, title, and seisin. Mr. Swainson, having nine +points of the law in his favour, and as well acquainted with the tenth +as his opponent's legal adviser, devoted himself to the fighter +pursuit of the mallet and hoop. In a state of felicity undreamt of +before, he played, or affected to play, croquet, his right hand +against his left, the former giving the latter two hoops and a cage. +He played with a cage and a bell; it was more cheerful. + +Of course all Bicester found occasion to pass through the Close and +see this great sight, while every window in the precincts was raised, +that visitors might hear the tap, tap of the sacrilegious mallet. The +Cathedral lawyer, urged to take some step, and well versed in the +strength of the enemy's position, was fairly nonplussed. While he +pondered, with a certain grim amusement, over Mr. Swainson's crotchet, +which did not present itself to his legal mind in so dreadful a light +as to the mind clerical, some unknown person took action, and made it +war to the knife. + +"Who did it?" Bicester asked when it rose one morning, to find Mr. +Swainson in a state of mind which seemed to call for a padded room and +a strait waistcoat. Some one during the night had thrown down the iron +railing, taken up and broken the hoops, crushed the bell, and snapped +the pegs; all this in the neatest possible manner, and with no damage +to the turf. War to the knife indeed! Mr. Swainson, like the famous +Widdrington, would have fought upon his stumps on such a provocation. + +He expressed his opinion with much heat that this was the work of +"that arrogant priest," and that he should smart for it. A clergyman +in this kind of context becomes a priest. + +The Dean said, if hints went for anything, that it was a more or less +direct interposition of Providence. + +Young Swainson said nothing. + +The vergers followed his example, but smiled broadly. + +The Dean's lawyer said it was a very foolish act, whoever did it. Mrs. +Dean said that she should like to give the man who did it five +shillings. Perhaps her inclination mastered her. + +The Dean's daughter sighed. + +And Bicester said everything except what young Swainson said. + +I have not mentioned the Dean's daughter before. It is the popular +belief that she was christened Sweet Clive, and if people are mistaken +in this, and the name "Sweet" does not appear upon the favoured +register, what of it? It is but one proof the more of the utter want +of foresight of godfathers and godmothers. They send into the world +the future lounger in St. James's handicapped with the name of Joseph +or Zachary, and dub the country curate Tom or Jerry. No matter; Clive, +whatever her name, could be nothing but sweet. She was not tall nor +short; she was just as tall and just as short as she should have been, +with a well-rounded figure and a grave carriage of the head. Her hair +was wavy and brown, and sometimes it strayed over a white brow, on +which a frown came so rarely that its right of entry was barred +by the Statute of Limitations. There were a few freckles about her +well-shaped nose. But these charms grew upon one gradually; at first +her suitors were only conscious of her grey wide-open eyes, so kind +and frank and trustful, and so wise, that they filled every young man +upon whom she turned them with a certainty of her purity and goodness +and lovableness, and sent him away with a frantic desire to make her +his wife without loss of time. With all this, she overflowed with fun +and happiness--except when she sighed--and she was just nineteen. Such +was Sweet Clive. If her picture were painted to-day, there would be +this difference: she is older and more beautiful. + +To return to Mr. Swainson's enclosure. Bicester watched with bated +breath to see what Mr. Swainson would do. No culprit was forthcoming, +and it seemed as if the day were going against him. He made no sign; +only the broken hoops, the cage and battered bell, so lately the +instruments and insignia of triumph, were cleared away and, at the +ex-mayor's strenuous request, taken in charge by the police. Even +the iron railing was removed. The excitement in the Close rose high. +Once more the Cathedral vicinage was undefiled by lay appropriation, +but the Dean knew Mr. Swainson too well to rejoice. The ground +was cleared, but only, as he foresaw, that it might be used for +some mysterious operations, of which the end and aim--his own +annoyance--were clear to him, but not the means. What would Mr. +Swainson do? + +The strange unnatural calm lasted several days. The Cathedral +dignitaries moved in fear and trembling. At length the dwellers in the +Close were aroused one night by a peculiar hammering. It was frequent, +deep, and ominous, and it came from the direction of Mr. Swainson's +plot. To the nervous it seemed as the knocking of nails into an +untimely coffin; to the guilty--and this was near the Cathedral--like +the noise of a rising scaffold, to the brave and those with clear +consciences, such as Clive, it more nearly resembled the erection of a +hoarding. Indeed, that was the thing it was, and round Mr. Swainson's +plot. + +But what a hoarding! When the light of day discovered it to waking +eyes, the Dean's fearful anticipations seemed slight to him, as the +boy's vision who dreaming he is about to be flogged, awakes to find +his father standing over him with a strap. It was so unsightly, so +gaunt, so unpainted, so terrible; the stones of the Cathedral seemed +to blush a deeper red at discovering it, and the oldest houses to turn +a darker purple. Had the Dean possessed the hundred tongues of Fame +(which in Bicester possessed many more) and the five hundred fingers +of Briareus, he could not hope to prevent the Marquis's visitors +asking questions about _that_, nor to divert the attention of the +least curious American. He recognised the truth at a glance, +and formed his plan. Many generals have formed it; before; it +was--retreat. He despatched his butler to borrow a continental +Bradshaw from the club, and he shut himself up in his study. The truly +great mind is never overwhelmed. + +The vergers alone inspected the monster unmoved. They eyed it with +glances not only of curiosity, but of appreciative intelligence. Not +so, later in the day. Then Mr. Swainson appeared, leading by a strong +chain a brindled bull-dog, of the most ferocious description and about +sixty pounds dead weight. The animal contemplated the nearest verger +with satisfaction, and licked his chops; it might be at some grateful +memory. The verger, who was in a small way a student of natural +history, pronounced it a lick of anticipation, and appeared +disconcerted. Mr. Swainson entered with the dog by a small door at the +corner, and came out without him. The other vergers left. + +Their coming and going was nothing to Mr. Swainson. It was enough for +him that he stood there the cynosure of every eye in the Close; even +Mrs. Dean was watching him from a distant garret window. In slow and +measured fashion he walked to the steps of his own house, and, taking +thence a board he had previously placed there, he returned to the +entrance of his plot, now enclosed to the height of about ten feet +by his terrible hoarding. Above the door he hung the board and drew +back a few feet to take in the effect. Mrs. Dean sent down for her +opera-glasses, but there was no need of them. The legend in huge black +letters on a white ground ran thus: "No Admittance! Beware of the +Dog!!!" A smile of content crept slowly over Mr. Swainson's face, and +he said aloud-- + +"Trump that card, Mr. Dean, if you can." + +As he turned--Mrs. Dean saw it distinctly and declared herself ready +to swear to it in a court of justice--he snapped his fingers at the +Deanery. And the dog howled! + +It was the first of many howls, for he was a dog of great width of +chest; not even the surgeon of an insurance company, if he had lived +twenty-four hours in Bicester Close, would have found fault with his +lungs. Why he howled during the night, for it was not the time of full +moon, became the burning question of each morning. That he joined in +the Cathedral services with a zest which rendered the organ +superfluous, and drove the organist to the verge of resignation, was +only to be expected. There was nothing strange in that, nor in his +rivalry of the Præcentor's best notes, whose voice was considered very +fine in the Litany. The voluntary, Tiger made his own; of the sermon +he expressed disapproval in so marked a manner that it was hard to say +which swelled more with rage, the Dean within or the dog without. +Their rage was equally impotent. + +Things went so far that the Dean publicly wrung his hands at the +breakfast-table. "You could not hear the benediction this morning?" he +wailed, with tears in his eyes. "And I was in good voice too, my +dear!" + +"You should appeal to the Marquis," his wife suggested. It must be +explained that the Marquis in Bicester ranks next to and little +beneath Providence. But the Dean shook his head. He put no faith in +the power even of the Marquis to handle Mr. Swainson. "I will lay it +before the Bishop, my dear," he said humbly. And then, then indeed, +Mrs. Dean knew that the iron had entered into his soul, and that the +hand of the Mayor of the Palace was very heavy upon him; and her good, +wifely heart grew so hot that she felt she could have no more patience +with her daughter. + +For Clive's sympathies were no longer to be trusted. She was not the +Sweet Clive of a month ago, but a sadder and more sedate young woman, +who had a way of defending the absent foe, and of sighing in dark +corners, that was more than provoking. Duty demanded that she should +be an ocean, into which her father and mother might pour the streams +of their indignation and meet with a sympathising flood-tide. And lo! +this unfeeling girl declined to make herself useful in that way, and +instead sent forth a "bore" of light jesting that made little of the +enemy's enormities and a trifle of his outrages. More, she showed +herself for the first time disobedient; she refused to promise not to +speak to King Pepin if opportunity served, and, clever girl as she +was, laughed her father out of insisting upon it, and kissed her +mother into a not unwilling ally. A wise woman was her mother and +clear-sighted; she saw that Clive had a spirit, but no longer a heart +of her own. Yet at such a time as this, when her husband was wringing +his hands, Clive's insensibility to the family grievance tried Mrs. +Dean sorely. It was hard that the Canon's sleepless night, the +Præcentor's peevishness, the singing man's influenza, and all the +countless counts of the indictment against Mr. Swainson should fail to +awaken in the young lady's mind a tithe of the indignation felt by +every other person at the Deanery, from the Dean himself to the +scullery-maid. But then, love is blind, for which most of us may thank +Heaven. + +Day after day went by and the hoarding still reared its gaunt height, +and the unclean beast of the Hebrews still made night hideous, and the +day a time for the expression of strong feelings. At length the Dean +met his lawyer in the Close, within a few feet of the obnoxious +erection. He kept his back to it with ridiculous care, while they +talked. + +"We have come to something like a settlement at last," the lawyer said +briskly. "Con-fusion take the dog! I can hardly hear myself speak. We +are to meet at the Chapter House at five, Mr. Dean, if that will suit +you; Mr. Swainson, the Bishop, Canon Rowcliffe, and myself. I think he +is inclined to be reasonable at last." + +The Dean shook his head gloomily. + +"You will see it turn out better than you expect," the lawyer assured +him. "Let me whisper something to you. There is an action begun +against him for shutting up a road across one of his farms at +Middleton and it will be stoutly fought. One suit at a time will +satisfy even Mr. Swainson." + +"You don't say so? This is good news!" the Dean cried, with +unmistakable pleasure. "Certainly, I will be there." + +"And--I am sure I need not doubt it--you will be ready to meet Mr. +Swainson halfway?" + +The Dean looked gloomy again. But at this moment a long howl, more +frenzied, more fiendish than any which had preceded it, seemed to +proclaim that the dog knew that his reign was menaced, and, like +Sardanapalus, was determined to go out right royally. It was more than +the Dean could stand. With an involuntary movement of his hands to his +ears, he nodded and fled in haste to a place less exposed, where he +could in a seemly and decanal manner relieve his feelings. + +The best-laid plans even of lawyers will go astray, and when they do +so, the havoc is generally of a singularly wide-spread description. +The meeting in the Chapter-house proved stormy from the first. Whether +it was that the writ in the right-of-way case had not yet reached Mr. +Swainson, so that he clung to his only split-straw, or that the Dean +was soured by want of sleep, or that the Bishop was not thorough +enough--whatever was the cause, the spirit of compromise was absent; +and the discussion across the Chapter-house table threatened to make +matters worse and not better. Whether the Dean first called Mr. +Swainson's enclosure the "toadstool of a night," or Mr. Swainson took +the initiative by styling the Dean the "mushroom of a day" (the Dean +was not of old family), was a question afterwards much and hotly +debated in Bicester circles. Be that as it may, the high powers rose +from the table in dudgeon and much confusion. + +There was behind the Dean at the end of the Chapter-house a large +window. It looked immediately-upon what he, in the course of the +discussion, had termed "The Profanation," and since the eventful day +of Mr. Swainson's match at croquet it had been, by the Dean's order, +kept shuttered, that he might not, when occupied in the Chapter-house, +have the Profanation directly before his eyes. At the meeting the +shutter remained closed; it may be that this phenomenon had weakened +Mr. Swainson's doubtful inclination towards peace. + +The Dean was a choleric man. As the party rose, he stepped to this +shutter and flung it back. He turned to the others and cried with +indignation-- + +"Look, sir; look, my lord! Is that a sight becoming the threshold of a +cathedral? Is that a thing to be endured on consecrated ground?" + +They stepped towards the window, a wide low-browed Tudor casement, +and looked out. The Dean himself stood aside, grasping the shutter +with a hand which shook with passion. His eyes were on the others' +faces. He expected little show of shame or contrition on that of Mr. +Swainson, but he did wish to bring this hideous thing home to the +Bishop, who had not been as thorough in the matter as he should have +been. Yet surely, as a bishop, he could not see that thing in its +horrid reality and be unmoved! + +No, he certainly could not. Slowly, and as if reluctantly, his +lordship's face changed; it broke into a smile that broadened and +rippled wider and wider, second by second as he looked. His colour +deepened, until he became almost purple! And Mr. Swainson? His face +was the picture of horror; there could not be a doubt of that. +Confusion and astonishment were stamped on every feature. The Dean +could not believe his eyes. He turned in perplexity to the lawyer, who +was peeping between the others' heads. His shoulders were shaking, and +his face was puckered with laughter. + +The Bishop stepped back. "Really, gentlemen, I think it is hardly fair +of us to--to use this window. This is no place for us." He was a +kindly man; there never was a more popular bishop in Bicester, and +never will be. + +At this the Canon and the lawyer lost all control over themselves, and +their laughter, if not loud, was deep. The Dean was puzzled--confused, +perplexed, wholly angry. He did at last what he should have done at +first, instead of striking that attitude with the shutter in his hand. +He looked through the window. It was dusty, and he was somewhat +nearsighted, but at length he saw; and this was what he saw. + +In the further comer of the enclosure, a couple of lovers billing and +cooing; about and round them Mr. Swainson's big dog cutting a hundred +uncouth gambols. Bad enough this; but it was not all. The ingenuous +couple were Frank Swainson and--the Dean's daughter. Frank's arm was +around her, and as the Dean looked, he stooped and kissed her, and +Clive, raising her face, returned his gaze with eyes full of love, and +scarcely blushed. + +When the Dean turned he was alone. + +Was it very wrong of them? There was nowhere else, since this +miserable fracas had begun, where freed from others' eyes, they could +steal a kiss. But into Mr. Swainson's plot no window, save a shuttered +one, could look; the door, too, was close to one of the side doors of +the cathedral, and they could pop in and out again unseen, and as for +the big dog, Frank and Tiger were great friends. So if it was very +wrong, it was very easy and very sweet and--_facilis descensus +Averni_. + +For one hour the Dean remained shut up in his study. At the end of +that time he put on his hat and walked across the Close. He knocked at +Mr. Swainson's door, and, upon its being opened, went in, and did not +come out again for an hour and five minutes by Mrs. Canon Rowcliffe's +watch. I have not the slightest idea of what passed between them. More +than two score different and distinct accounts of the interview were +current next day in Bicester, but no one, and I have examined them all +with care, seems to me to account for the undoubted results. First the +disappearance next day from Mr. Swainson's plot of the famous +hoarding, which was not replaced even by the old iron railing. +Secondly, the marriage six weeks later of King Pepin and Sweet Clive. + + + + + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + + + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + +On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a +shoe-lace, having taken advantage for that purpose of the step of a +corner house in St. James's Square, when a man passing behind me +stopped. + +"Well!" said he, after a short pause during which I wondered--I could +not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk is +disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be ashamed +to own a house and leave it like that!" + +The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby too--a little +red-nosed man wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order." + +"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public." + +"And your hat?" I asked with winning politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?" + +"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage. + +"Cannot afford it? But my good man, you ought to think of the public." + +"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary. + +I was about to go mine, but was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener; a thin, grey-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke. + +"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he +observed, with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we +are very much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir." + +"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too." + +"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now, might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?" + +"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States." + +I could have fancied that he sighed. + +"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began. "I was wrong. It is +curious how much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. Now +I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures." + +I was inclined to humour the old fellow's mood. "I like a good +picture, I admit," I said. + +"Then perhaps you would not be offended," he suggested timidly, +"if I asked you to step inside and look at one or two. I would not +take the liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in +the dining-room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; +and there is no one in the house but my wife and myself." + +It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason why I should not accept it, and I followed him into the hall. +It was spacious, but sparely furnished. The matted floor had a cold +look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a fixture, and +boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. As I passed +a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room well furnished +with prints and water-colours on the walls. But these were of a common +order. A dozen replicas of each and all might be seen in a walk +through Bond Street. So that even this oasis of taste and comfort told +the same story as had the bare hall and dreary exterior; and laid, as +it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly as I followed my guide +along the strip of matting towards the rear of the house. + +He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out at the back, as a state dining-room or +ball-room. At present it resembled the latter, for it was without +furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully touching +my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider your labour +lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the second Lord +Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one of the +finest specimens of his style in existence." + +I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upwards to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically. + +"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved as he spoke a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted." + +Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Walter, Lord Wetherby, and Anne, his +wife, grew into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; +and it was with a heart full of wonder and pity that I accompanied the +old man, in whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, +round the walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in +Holland, the Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very +Barmecide feast of art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the +pictures; but I saw only bare walls. + +"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, though the house is not what it was." + +"Very fine pictures," I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said, "I suppose that he is +not in London?" + +"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here." + +"But this is the Wetherby's town house," I persisted. I knew so much. + +"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterwards, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him." + +He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?" + +"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That is +how it is. And the present peer, who was only a second cousin--well, I +say nothing about him." A reticence which was calculated to consign +his lordship to the lowest deep. + +"He did not help?" I asked. + +"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there, it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like." + +By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman wearing an apron +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked much astonished. "I have +been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was still +occupied with the door. + +A flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have been +very much interested, madam," I said softly. + +Her gaze left me to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord a mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs." + +"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to retire into one of the side +passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand. + +In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?" + +"About the pictures?" + +"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see." + +"Blind?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and been so +proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his own, why +it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to do it, +and he thinks they are there to this day." + +Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea, +and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall and +a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, that, +it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left, might find home in +them. "Your mistress," I said presently, when the sounds had died away +upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but has not something +annoyed her?" + +"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper; who was, I daresay, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should notice it!" + +"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily. + +"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied. And then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion. + +"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him in five minutes; +and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, turning +towards the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a better +man than you has waited longer at that door." + +"Hush, John. Do you not see the gentleman?" his wife interposed, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute." + +"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands. But though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while I listened to John parleying +with some one at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire +which would have been strange in another man, to see this thing to the +end--conceived it and acted upon it. + +The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigrams's sitting-room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the visitor by +one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced myself behind a +screen, which I seemed to know would mask it. I was going to listen. +Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what matter? As a fact, +I listened. + +The room was spacious but sombre, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank back +behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of the +most formal; but, though the room was still, I failed to hear it, and +when I recovered myself he was speaking. + +"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he said, +with an effort at gallantry which sat ill upon him. "Although I think +it would have been better if we had left the matter to our +solicitors." + +"Indeed." + +"Yes. I thought you were aware of my opinion." + +"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby," she replied, with +a coldness which did not hide her dislike for him, "your preference +for that course. You naturally shrink from telling me your terms face +to face." + +"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business." + +"Business!" she retorted. "Does that mean wringing advantage from my +weakness?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a-year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a-year for the house. What can be more fair?" + +"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for fifteen hundred." + +"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not." + +"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!" + +"We are not acting a play," he answered doggedly, but I could see that +her words stung him. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing but my +rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favour. You +have my offer." + +"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction." + +"Try me," he rejoined, drumming with his fingers upon the table. "Try +me, and you will see." + +"If my husband had lived----" + +"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?" + +For a moment she seemed about to break down, but, her pride coming to +the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness. + +"I have no choice," she said with dignity. + +"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!" + +She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them." + +"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is doubtless in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven." + +"I do not think that he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should +know if he were here." + +"Not here!" he answered angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease; it is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take twenty minutes." + +"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the servants." + +"Thank you. You are very good," he said smoothly, adding, when she had +left the room, "and the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a-year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." With that, now +grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk, and now congratulating +himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat down to his task. + +A hansom cab, on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and, under cover of the noise, I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt the desire to raise my hand +and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in his life +experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and as it was I +put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of sunshine, +piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on the Wetherby coat +of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, and so created the one +bright spot in the bare, dismantled room; which had once, unless the +tiers of empty shelves and the lingering odour of Russia lied, been +lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord had taken the +furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had taken--nothing but +his rights. + +Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed to gain his attention. + +He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room was natural; but +possibly also there was something in the atmosphere of that house +which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he cried in a +tone which matched his face. + +"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan and +Poole that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret +that some delay has been caused." + +"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk." + +Involuntarily I glanced aside, and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and moustaches, grey eyes, and an ugly +scar seaming the face from nose to ear. "Yet I hope to give you +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk." + +"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better +late than never; and after all it may be better that you should be +here and see it executed. Only you will not forget," he continued, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, for which an allowance must be made. But +there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for itself." + +I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favour that was no favour from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion, +saw as he thought nothing unusual; nor had any presentiment--how +should he?--of the strange scene which the room with the dingy windows +was about to witness. + +I had been writing for five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped in his +passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eyeglasses fell, touching my shoulder. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere! And lately, too. Where, I wonder?" + +"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby." + +"Indeed." There was both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?" + +"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now." + +His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and on the instant +retreated to the window. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued with transparent carelessness. "A +strange coincidence. And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?" + +"At that time?" I answered, looking him full in the face. "Upon a +will, my lord." + +He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him credit for +possessing. My shot had not struck where I had looked to place it; +and, finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, while I +pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think he was +busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower orders--if +he would go through the instrument. And he took my seat. + +Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and; neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield, +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----" + +He turned swiftly, and saw where I was. "What the deuce are you doing +there, sir?" he cried in astonishment, rising to his feet and coming +towards me, the pen in his hand and his face aflame with anger. "You +forget----" + +"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob." + +"Leave it alone, sir!" he cried furiously. + +He spoke too late. The shield had swung outwards on a hinge, +door-fashion; and where it had been, gaped a small open safe lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large envelope which +lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been put there that +morning. No doubt the safe was air-tight. I laid my hand upon it. "My +lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed exultation, +"here is a paper--I think, a will!" + +A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +had been dark with the rush of blood. But his anger died down at sight +of the packet. He regained his self-control, and a moment saw him pale +and calm, all show of resentment confined to a wicked gleam in his +eye. "A will?" he repeated, with a certain kind of dignity, though the +hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. "Indeed, then it is +my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and I am within my +rights, sir." + +I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take, when +instead he carried the envelope to the table by the window, and tore +off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your handwriting?" were +his first words. And he looked at me with a distrust that was almost +superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, my ominous talk, and my +discovery seemed to him to savour of the devil. + +"No," I replied unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one." + +"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood awhile staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth, dashing the back of his hand against +the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?" + +"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I. + +"The unjust provisions of this will?" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered. + +"Fifty thousand pounds to a woman who had not a penny when she married +his son! And the interest on another fifty thousand for her life! Why, +it is a prodigious income, an abnormal income--for a woman! And out of +whose pocket? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is monstrous! I say +it is! How am I to support the title on the income left to me, I +should like to know?" + +I marvelled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds." + +"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!" + +What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked in a low voice. + +So low--for under certain conditions a tone conveys much--that he shot +a stealthy glance towards the door before he answered, "John +Williams." + +"Blind," I replied in the same low tone. + +"William Williams." + +"He is dead. He was Mr. Wigram's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time." + +"True. I fancy that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And the +handwriting is Lord Wetherby's." + +I assented. + +Then for fully a minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, +and I stood behind him looking down at him with thoughts in my mind +which he could no more fathom than the senseless wood upon which I +leaned. Yet I mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; +and--so he was--but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me. + +I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting "_quem Deus vult perdere_." + +My words startled him. He answered hurriedly, "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he concluded slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make." + +I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would not need to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap residence as +well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the latter loss he +had resigned himself; but he could not bear to forego the petty gain +for which he had schemed. "I think I understand, my lord," I replied. + +"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me." + +"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier." + +He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not in +that event get my good word," he said. + +"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered. + +"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?" + +"A hundred pounds." + +"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay? Which will do no one any +harm?" + +"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted drily. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you know, +will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have Wetherby +House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it." + +"You are an impertinent fellow!" he cried. + +"So you have said before, my lord." + +I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a hint of power in my tone, beyond the defiance which the words +expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a thoughtful +gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at Poole and Duggan's," he said +slowly. "How was it that they did not search this cupboard, with which +you were acquainted?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined." + +"You are not a member of the firm?" + +"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, if I knew those +respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord in +this for ten times a hundred pounds. + +He seemed satisfied, and taking out a note-case laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. To-morrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan and Poole, or to Mrs. Wigram, as +you please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be +good enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am +waiting?" + +There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," some one said. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement at twelve. Do I understand that you are ready? If +so, I will summon Mrs. Williams." + +"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back to the end of the room. "Be good enough to ring the bell if Mrs. +Wigram permit it," he said. + +As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with surprise. But when I had regained my position +and looked towards her, she was standing near the window gazing +steadily into the square, an expression of disdain rendered by face +and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her head so +high, and to read even in the outline of her form a contempt which I, +and I only, knew to be so justly based? For myself, I leant against +the edge of the screen by the door, and perhaps my hundred pounds lay +heavily on my heart. As for him, he fidgeted with his papers, although +they were all in order. He was visibly impatient to get his bit of +knavery accomplished. Oh! he was a worthy man! And Welshman! + +"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have seen +it in the draft." + +She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting! I saw her eyes grow large, and fear leap into them, +as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer to +the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly! Who wrote this?" + +He was nervous on his own account, wrapt in his own piece of scheming, +and obtuse. + +"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----" + +"Think! Think! no! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she repeated, +her voice hysterical with excitement. "This? This?" + +He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his evil +conscience. + +"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan and Poole's." + +"Where is he?" she cried breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him. + +"Where is he?" he repeated in querulous surprise. "Why, here, of +course; where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature." + +It was little of signatures I recked at that moment. I was praying to +Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; and that my lightly planned +vengeance might not fall on my own head. "Joy does not kill," I said +to myself, repeating it over and over again, and clinging to it +desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But oh! was it true? in face of that +white-lipped woman! + +"Here!" She did not say more, but she gazed at me with dazed eyes, she +raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to obey; +to go nearer to her, out into the light. + +"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me as a whisper, +"I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news." + +"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face from which +all colour had passed peered into mine, and searched it in infinite +hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need of +physical lips? "Good news?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----" + +"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her?" + +"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!" + + +An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me----" I cried, pleased that the tidings had +come by his lips--"to go to her? That she will see me?" + +"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied. + +"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?' + +"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time." + + + + + THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Laid up in Lavender, by Stanley J. 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Weyman"> + +<meta name="Publisher" content="Longmans, Green, and Co."> +<meta name="Date" content="1907"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +.center {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} +.stage {margin-left:10%} + + +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + + +.poem0 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 0%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem1 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 2em; + margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem2 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem3 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 30%; + margin-right: 30%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + + + + + +figcenter {margin:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} +.t9 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:9em; margin-right:0px;} +.t10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10em; margin-right:0px;} +.t11 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:11em; margin-right:0px;} +.t12 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:12em; margin-right:0px;} +.t13 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:13em; margin-right:0px;} +.t14 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:14em; margin-right:0px;} +.t15 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:15em; margin-right:0px;} +.t16 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:16em; margin-right:0px;} + + +.quote {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} +.ctrquote {text-align: center; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} + +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;} +span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;} + +hr.W10 {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:9pt; margin-bottom:9pt} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;} + + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Laid up in Lavender, by Stanley J. Weyman + +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: Laid up in Lavender + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38989] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAID UP IN LAVENDER *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=EII1AAAAMAAJ</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>LAID UP IN LAVENDER</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<table cellpadding="20" style="width:50%; margin-left:25%; border: 2px solid black"> +<tr> +<td> +<h3>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</h3> + +<hr class="W10"> +<div style="margin-left:15%; font-weight:bold"> +<p class="normal">THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF</p> +<p class="normal">THE NEW RECTOR</p> +<p class="normal">THE STORY OF FRANCIS CLUDDE</p> +<p class="normal">A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE</p> +<p class="normal">THE MAN IN BLACK</p> +<p class="normal">UNDER THE RED ROBE</p> +<p class="normal">MY LADY ROTHA</p> +<p class="normal">THE RED COCKADE</p> +<p class="normal">A MINISTER OF FRANCE</p> +<p class="normal">SHREWSBURY</p> +<p class="normal">THE CASTLE INN</p> +<p class="normal">SOPHIA</p> +<p class="normal">COUNT HANNIBAL</p> +<p class="normal">IN KINGS' BYWAYS</p> +<p class="normal">THE LONG NIGHT</p> +<p class="normal">THE ABBESS OF VLAYE</p> +<p class="normal">STARVECROW FARM</p> +<p class="normal">CHIPPINGE</p> +</div> +</td></tr></table> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>LAID UP IN LAVENDER</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>STANLEY J. WEYMAN</h2> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF<br> +"A GENTLEMAN OP FRANCE," "THE CASTLE INN," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.<br> +<span class="sc2">91 and 98 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</span><br> +1907</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1907, By</span><br> +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</h4> +<hr class="W10"> +<h5><i>All rights reserved</i></h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>NOTE</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">The Author desires to record his gratitude to the late Mr. James Payn +and to Mr. Comyns Carr, under whose fostering care these stories came +into existence; and to Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and to Messrs. +Smith, Elder and Co., whose enterprise found for them a first opening +in life.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>July</i>, 1907.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<div style="margin-left:30%; font-weight:bold"> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">THE SURGEON'S GUEST.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">THE COLONEL'S BOY.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">BAB.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">GERALD.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">JOANNA'S BRACELET.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09">THE VICAR'S SECRET.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10">THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11">KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE.</a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12">FAMILY PORTRAITS.</a></p> +</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>LAID UP IN LAVENDER</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Horry! I am sick to death of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a servant in the room collecting the tea-cups; but Lady +Betty Stafford, having been reared in the purple, was not to be +deterred from speaking her mind by a servant. Her cousin was either +more prudent or less vivacious. He did not answer on the instant, but +stood gazing through one of the windows at the leafless trees and +slow-dropping rain in the Mall. He only turned when Lady Betty +pettishly repeated her statement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Had a bad time?" he vouchsafed, dropping into a chair near her, and +looking first at her, in a good-natured way, and then at his boots, +which he seemed to approve.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Horrid!" she replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many people here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hordes of them! Whole tribes!" she exclaimed. She was a little woman, +plump and pretty, with a pale, clear complexion, and bright eyes. "I +am bored beyond belief. And--and I have not seen Stafford since +morning," she added.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cabinet council?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" she answered viciously. "A cabinet council, and a privy +council, and a board of trade, and a board of green cloth, and all the +other boards! Horry, I am sick to death of it! What is the use of it +all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't do it," he said oracularly, still admiring his boots. "Country +go to the dogs!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let it!" she retorted, not relenting a whit. "I wish it would. I wish +the dogs joy of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He made an extraordinary effort at diffuseness. "I thought," he said, +"that you were becoming political, Betty. Going to write something, +and all that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Rubbish! But here is Mr. Atlay. Mr. Atlay, will you have a cup of +tea?" she continued, addressing the new-comer. "There will be some +here presently. Where is Mr. Stafford?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Stafford will take a cup of tea in the library, Lady Betty," the +secretary replied. "He asked, me to bring it to him. He is copying an +important paper."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sir Horace forsook his boots, and in a fit of momentary interest +asked, "They have come to terms?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The secretary nodded. Lady Betty said "Pshaw!" A man brought in the +fresh teapot. The next moment Mr. Stafford himself came into the room, +an open telegram in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded pleasantly to his wife and her cousin. But his thin, dark +face wore--it generally did--a preoccupied look. Country people to +whom he was pointed out in the street called him, according to their +political leanings, either insignificant, or a prig, or a "dry sort"; +or sometimes said, "How young he is!" But those whose fate it was to +face the Minister in the House knew that there was something in him +more to be feared even than his imperturbability, his honesty, or his +precision--and that was a sudden fiery heat, which was apt to carry +away the House at unexpected times. On one of these occasions, it was +rumored, Lady Betty Champion had seen him, and fallen in love with +him. Why he had thrown the handkerchief to her--that was another +matter; and whether the apparently incongruous match would +answer--that, too, remained to be seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"More telegrams?" she cried. "It rains telegrams! how I hate them!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?" he said. "Why should you?" He really wondered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She made a face at him. "Here is your tea," she said abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you; you are very good," he replied. He took the cup and set it +down absently. "Atlay," he said, speaking to the secretary, "you have +not corrected the report of my speech at the Club, have you? No, I +know you have had no time. Will you run your eye over it, and see if +it is all right, and send it to the <i>Times</i>--I do not think I need to +see it--by eleven o'clock at latest? The editor," he continued, +tapping the pink paper in his hand, "seems to doubt us. I have to go +to Fitzgerald's now; so you must also copy Lord Pilgrimstone's terms, +if you please. I proposed to do it myself, but I shall be with you +before you have finished."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are the terms?" Lady Betty asked. "Lord Pilgrimstone has not +agreed to----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To permit me to communicate them?" he replied, with a grave smile. +"No. So you must pardon me, my dear. I have passed my word for +absolute secrecy. Indeed, it is as important to me as to Pilgrimstone +that they should not be divulged."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are sure to leak out," she retorted. "They always do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it will not be through me, I hope."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stamped her foot on the carpet. "I should like to get them, and +send them to the <i>Times!</i>" she cried, her eyes flashing--he was so +provoking! "And let all the world know them! I vow I should!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked his astonishment, while the other two laughed, partly to +avoid embarrassment, perhaps. She often said these things, and no one +took them seriously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better play the secretary for once, Lady Betty," said Atlay, +who was related to his chief. "You will then be able to satisfy your +curiosity. Shall I resign <i>pro tem.?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked eagerly at her husband for the third part of a second--for +assent, perhaps. But she read no playfulness in his face, and her own +fell. He was thinking about other things. "No," she said, almost +sullenly, dropping her eyes to the carpet. "I should not spell well +enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">Soon after that they dispersed; this being Wednesday, Mr. Stafford's +day for dining out. At that time Ministers dined only twice a week in +session--on Wednesday and Sunday; and Sunday was often sacred to the +children where there were any, lest they should grow up and not know +their father by sight. At a quarter to eight Lady Betty came into the +library, and found her husband still at his desk, a pile of papers +before him awaiting his signature. As a fact, he had only just sat +down, displacing his secretary, who had gone upstairs to dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stafford!" she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not seem quite at her ease; but his mind was troubled, and he +failed to notice this. "Yes, my dear," he answered politely, shuffling +the papers before him into a heap. He knew that he was late, and he +could see that she was dressed. "Yes, I am going upstairs this minute. +I have not forgotten."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not that," she said, leaning with one hand on the table, "I +want to ask you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear, you really must tell it me in the carriage." He was on his +feet now, making some hasty preparations. "Where are we to dine? At +the Duke's? Then we shall have a mile to drive. Will not that do for +you?" He was working hard while he spoke. There was an oak post-box +within reach, and another box for letters which were to be delivered +by hand, and he was thrusting a handful of notes into each of these. +Other packets he swept into different drawers of the table. Still +standing, he stooped and signed his name to half a dozen letters, +which he left open on the blotting-pad. "Atlay will see to these when +he is dressed," he murmured. "Would you oblige me by locking the +drawers, my dear--it will save me a minute--and giving me the keys +when I come down?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He went off then, two or three papers in his hand, and almost ran +upstairs. Lady Betty stood a while on the spot on which he had left +her, looking in an odd way--just as if it were new to her--round the +grave, spacious room, with its sombre Spanish-leather-covered +furniture, its ponderous writing-tables and shelves of books, its +three lofty curtained windows. When her eyes at last came back to the +lamp, and dwelt on it, they were very bright, and her face was +flushed. Her foot could be heard tapping on the carpet. Presently she +remembered herself and fell to work, vehemently slamming such drawers +as were open, and locking them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The private secretary found her doing this when he came in. She +muttered something--stooping with her face over the drawers--and +almost immediately went out. He looked after her, partly because there +was something odd in her manner--she kept her face averted; and partly +because she was wearing a new and striking gown, and he admired her. +He noticed, as she passed through the doorway, that she had some +papers held down by her side. But, of course, he thought nothing of +this.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was hopelessly late for his own dinner-party, and only stayed a +moment to slip the letters last signed into envelopes prepared for +them. Then he made for the door, opened it, and came into collision +with Sir Horace, who was strolling in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Beg pardon!" said that gentleman, with irritating placidity. "Late +for dinner?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Rather!" the secretary cried, trying to get round him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," drawled the other, "which is the hand-box, old fellow?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has been cleared. Here, give it me. The messenger is in the hall +now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Atlay snatched the letter from his companion, the two going into the +hall together. Marcus, the butler, a couple of tall footmen, and the +messenger were sorting letters at the table. "Here, Marcus," said the +secretary, pitching his letter on the slab, "let that go with the +others. And is my hansom here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">In another minute he was speeding one way, and the Staffords in their +brougham another; while Sir Horace walked at his leisure down to his +club. The Minister and his wife drove in silence; he forgot to ask her +what she wanted. And, strange to say, Lady Betty forgot to tell him. +At the party she made quite a sensation; never had she seemed more +gay, more piquant, more audaciously witty, than she showed herself +this evening. There were illustrious personages present, but they +paled beside her. The Duke, with whom she was a favorite, laughed at +her sallies until he could laugh no more; and even her husband, her +very husband, forgot for a time the country and the crisis, and +listened, half-proud and half-afraid. But she was not aware of this; +she could not see his face where she sat. To all seeming she never +looked that way. She was quite a model society wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford himself was an early riser. It was his habit to be up by +six; to make his own coffee over a spirit lamp, and then not only to +get through much work in his dressing-room, but to take his daily ride +before breakfast. On the morning after the Duke's party, however, he +lay later than usual; and as there was much business to be done--owing +to the crisis--the canter in the park had to be omitted. He was still +among his papers--though expecting the breakfast-gong with every +minute, when a hansom cab driven at full speed stopped at the door. He +glanced up wearily as he heard the doors of the cab flung open with a +crash. There had been a time when the stir and bustle of such arrivals +had been sweet to him--not so sweet as to some, for he had never been +deeply in love with the parade of office; but sweeter than to-day, +when they were no more to him than the creaking of the mill to the +camel that turns it blindfold and in darkness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally he was thinking of Lord Pilgrimstone this morning, and +guessed, before he opened the note which the servant brought him, who +was its writer. But its contents had, nonetheless, an electrical +effect upon him. His brow reddened. With a most unusual display of +emotion he sprang to his feet, crushing the fragment of paper in his +fingers. "Who brought that?" he cried sharply. "Who brought it?" he +repeated in a louder tone, before the servant could explain.</p> + +<p class="normal">The man had never seen him so moved. "Mr. Scratchley, sir," he +answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha! Then, show him into the library," was the quick reply. And while +the servant went to do his bidding, the Minister hastily changed his +dressing-gown for a coat, and ran down a private staircase, reaching +the room he had mentioned by one door as Mr. Scratchley, Lord +Pilgrimstone's secretary, entered it through another.</p> + +<p class="normal">By that time he had regained his composure, and looked much as usual. +Still, when he held up the crumpled note, there was a brusqueness in +the gesture which would have surprised his ordinary acquaintances, and +did remind Mr. Scratchley of certain "warm nights" in the House.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You know the contents of this?" he said without prelude, and in a +tone which matched his gesture.</p> + +<p class="normal">The visitor bowed. He was a grave middle-aged man, who seemed +oppressed and burdened by the load of cares and responsibilities which +his smiling chief carried jauntily. People said that he was the proper +complement of Lord Pilgrimstone, as the more volatile Atlay was of his +leader.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you are aware," continued Mr. Stafford, almost harshly, "that +Lord Pilgrimstone gives yesterday's agreement to the winds?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have never seen his lordship so deeply moved," replied the discreet +one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He says: 'Our former negotiation was ruined by premature talk. But +this disclosure can only be referred to treachery or the grossest +carelessness.' What does it mean? I know of no disclosure, Mr. +Scratchley. I must have an explanation. And you, I presume, are here +to give me one."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the other seemed taken aback. "You have not seen the +<i>Times</i>, sir?" he murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This morning's? No. But it is here."</p> + +<p class="normal">He took it, as he spoke, from a table at his elbow, and unfolded it. +The secretary approached and pointed to the head of a column--the most +conspicuous, the column most readily to be found in the paper. "They +are crying it at the street corners I passed," he added with +deference. "There is nothing to be heard in St. James's Street and +Pall Mall but 'Detailed Programme of the Coalition.' The other dailies +are striking off second editions to include it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford's eyes were riveted to the paper. There was a long pause, +a pause on his part of dismay and consternation. He could scarcely--to +repeat a common phrase--believe his eyes. "It seems," he muttered at +length,--"it seems accurate--a tolerably precise account, at least."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a verbatim copy," the secretary said dryly. "The question +is, who furnished it. Lord Pilgrimstone, I am authorised to say, +has not permitted his note of the agreement to pass out of his +possession--even to the present moment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so he concludes"--the Minister said thoughtfully--"it is a fair +inference enough, perhaps--that the <i>Times</i> must have procured its +information from my note?"</p> + +<p class="normal">With deference the secretary objected. "It is not a matter of +inference, Mr. Stafford. I am directed to say that. I have inquired, +early as it is, at the <i>Times</i> office, and learned that the copy came +directly from the hands of your messenger."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of my messenger!" Mr. Stafford cried, thunderstruck. "You are sure of +that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sure that the sub-editor says so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again there was silence. "This must be looked into," said Mr. Stafford +at length, controlling himself by an effort. "For the present I agree +with Lord Pilgrimstone, that it alters the position--and perhaps +finally."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lord Pilgrimstone will be damaged in the eyes of a large section of +his supporters--seriously damaged," Mr. Scratchley said, shaking his +head and frowning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly. From every point of view the thing is to be deplored. But I +will call on Lord Pilgrimstone," the Minister continued slowly, "after +lunch. Will you tell him so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A curious embarrassment showed itself in the secretary's manner. He +twisted his hat in his hands, and looked suddenly sad--as if he were +about to join in the groan at a prayer-meeting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lord Pilgrimstone," he said in a voice he vainly strove to render +commonplace, "is going to the Sandown Spring Meeting to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tone was really so lugubrious--to say nothing of a shake of the +head with which he could not help accompanying the statement--that a +faint smile played on Mr. Stafford's lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I must take the next possible opportunity," he said. "I will see +him to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Scratchley assented to this, and bowed himself out, after another +word or two, looking more gloomy and careworn than usual. The +interview had not been altogether to his mind. He wished that he had +spoken more roundly to Mr. Stafford; even asked for a categorical +denial of the charge. But the Minister's manner had overawed him. He +had found it impossible to put the question. And then the pitiful +confession which he had had to make for Lord Pilgrimstone! That had +put the copingstone to his dissatisfaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh!" the secretary sighed, as he stepped into his cab. "Oh, that men +so great should stoop to things so little!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It did not occur to him that there is a condition of things even more +sad: when little men meddle with great things.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Mr. Stafford stood at the window deep in unpleasant +thoughts, from which the entrance of the butler, who came to summon +him to breakfast, first aroused him. "Stay a moment, Marcus!" he said, +turning, as the man prepared to leave the room after doing his errand. +"I want to ask you a question. Did you make up the messenger's bag +last evening?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you notice a letter addressed to the <i>Times</i> office?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant prepared himself to cogitate. But he found it unnecessary. +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Two."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Two?" Mr. Stafford repeated, dismay in his tone; though this was just +what he had reason to expect.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir. There was one I took from the hand-box, and one Mr. Atlay +gave me in the hall at the last moment," the butler explained.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will do. Thank you. Ask Mr. Atlay if he will come to me. No +doubt he will be able to tell me what I want to know."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were commonplace, but the speaker's anxiety was so plain +that Marcus when he delivered the message--which he did with +haste--added a word or two of warning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is about a letter to the <i>Times</i>, sir, I think. Mr. Stafford seems +a good deal put out," he said, confidentially.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed?" Atlay replied. "I will go down." And he started. But before +he reached the library he met some one. Lady Betty looked out of the +breakfast-room, and saw him descending the stairs with the butler +behind him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is Mr. Stafford, Marcus?" she asked impatiently, as she stood +with her hand on the door. "Good morning, Mr. Atlay," she added, her +eyes descending to him. "Where is my husband? The coffee is getting +cold."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has requested me to go to him," Atlay answered. "Marcus tells me +there is something in the <i>Times</i> which has annoyed him, Lady Betty. I +will send him up as quickly as I can."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Lady Betty had not stayed to receive his assurance. She had drawn +back and shut the door quickly; yet not so quickly but that the +private secretary had seen her change colour. "Hallo!" he ejaculated +to himself--the lady was not much given to blushing--"I wonder what is +wrong with <i>her</i> this morning. She is not generally rude--to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not long before he got light on the matter. "Come here, Atlay," +his employer said, the moment he entered the library. "Look at this!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The secretary took the <i>Times</i>, and read the important matter. +Meanwhile the Minister read the secretary. He saw surprise and +consternation on his face, but no trace of guilt. Then he told him +what Marcus had said about the two letters which had gone the previous +evening from the house addressed to the <i>Times</i> office. "One," he +said, "contained the notes of my speech. The other----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The other----" the secretary replied, thinking while he spoke, "was +given to me at the last moment by Sir Horace. I threw it to Marcus in +the hall."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" his chief said, trying very hard to express nothing by the +exclamation, but not quite succeeding. "Did you see that that letter +was addressed to the editor of the <i>Times?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The secretary reddened, and betrayed unexpected confusion. "I did," +he said. "I saw so much of the address as I threw the letter on the +slab--though I thought nothing of it at the time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford looked at him fixedly. "Come," he said, "this is a grave +matter, Atlay. You noticed, I can see, the handwriting. Was it Sir +Horace's?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," the secretary replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whose was it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think--I think, Mr. Stafford--that it was Lady Betty's. But I +should be sorry, having seen it only for a moment--to say that it was +hers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lady Betty's?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford repeated the exclamation three times, in surprise, in +anger, a third time in trembling. In this last stage he walked away to +the window, and turning his back on his companion looked out. He +recalled his wife's petulant exclamation of yesterday, the foolish +desire expressed, as he had supposed in jest. Had she been in earnest? +And had she carried out her threat? Had she--his wife--done this thing +so compromising to his honour, so mischievous to the country, so mad, +reckless, wicked? Impossible. It was impossible. And yet--and yet +Atlay was a man to be trusted, a gentleman, his own kinsman! And +Atlay's eye was not likely to be deceived in a matter of handwriting. +That Atlay had made up his mind he could see.</p> + +<p class="normal">The statesman turned from the window, and walked to and fro, his +agitation betrayed by his step. The third time he passed in front of +his secretary--who had riveted his eyes to the <i>Times</i> and appeared to +be reading the money article--he stopped. "If this be true--mind I say +if, Atlay--" he cried jerkily, "what was Lady Betty's motive? I am in +the dark! blindfold! Help me! Tell me what has been passing round me +that I have not seen. You would not have my wife--a spy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no! no!" the other cried, as he dropped the paper, his vehemence +showing that he felt the pathos of the appeal. "It is not that. Lady +Betty is jealous, if I dare venture to judge, of your devotion to the +country--and to politics. She sees little of you. You are wrapped up +in public affairs and matters of state. She feels herself neglected +and--set aside. And--may I say it?--she has been married no more than +a year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But she has her society," the Minister objected, compelling himself +to speak calmly, "and her cousin, and--many other things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For which she does not care." returned the secretary.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a simple answer, but something in it touched a tender place. +Mr. Stafford winced and cast an odd startled look at the speaker. +Before he could reply, however--if he intended to reply--a knock came +at the door, and Marcus put in his head. "My lady is waiting +breakfast, sir," he suggested timidly. What could a poor butler do +between an impatient mistress and an obdurate master?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will come," Mr. Stafford said hastily. "I will come at once. +For this matter, Atlay," he continued when the door was closed again, +"let it rest for the present where it is. I know I can depend upon +your"--he paused, seeking a word--"your discretion. One thing is +certain, however. There is an end of the arrangement made yesterday. +Probably the Queen will send for Templetown. I shall see Lord +Pilgrimstone to-morrow, and--that will be the end of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Atlay retired, marvelling at his coolness; trying to retrace the short +steps of their conversation, and to discern how far the Minister had +gone with him, and where he had turned off upon a resolution of his +own. He failed to find the clue, however, and marvelled still more as +the day went on and others succeeded it; days of political crisis. Out +of doors the world, or that small piece of it which has its centre at +Westminster, was in confusion. The newspapers, morning or evening, +found ready sale, and had no need to rely on murder-panics or prurient +discussions. The Coalition scandal, the resignation of Ministers, the +sending for Lord This and Mr. That, the certainty of a dissolution, +provided matter enough. In all this Atlay found nothing at which to +wonder. He had seen it all before. That which did cause him surprise +was the calm--the unnatural calm, as it seemed to him--which prevailed +in the house in Carlton Terrace. For a day or two, indeed, there +was much running to and fro, much closeting and button-holing; for +rather longer the secretary read anxiety and apprehension in one +countenance--Lady Betty's. Then things settled down. The knocker began +to find peace, such comparative peace as falls to knockers in Carlton +Terrace. Lady Betty's brow grew clear as her eye found no reflection +of its anxiety in Mr. Stafford's face. In a word the secretary looked +long but could discern no faintest sign of domestic trouble.</p> + +<p class="normal">The late Minister indeed was taking things with wonderful coolness. +Lord Pilgrimstone had failed to taunt him, and the triumph of old foes +had failed to goad him into a last effort. Apparently he was of +opinion that the country might for a time exist without him. He was +standing aside with a shade on his face, and there were rumours that +he would take a long holiday.</p> + +<p class="normal">A week saw all these things happen. And then, one day as Atlay sat +writing in the library--Mr. Stafford being out--Lady Betty came into +the room for something. Rising to supply her with the article she +wanted, he held the door open for her to pass out. She paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shut the door, Mr. Atlay," she said, pointing to it. "I want to ask +you a question."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pray do, Lady Betty," he answered. "It is this," she said, meeting +his eyes boldly--and a brighter, a more dainty creature than she +looked had seldom tempted man. "Mr. Stafford's resignation--had +it anything, Mr. Atlay, to do with"--her face coloured a very +little--"something that was in the <i>Times</i> this day week?"</p> + +<p class="normal">His own cheek coloured violently enough. "If ever," he was saying to +himself, "I meddle or mar between husband and wife again, may I----" +But aloud he answered quietly, "Something perhaps." The question was +sudden. Her eyes were on his face. He found it impossible to +prevaricate. "Something perhaps," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My husband has never spoken to me about it," she replied, breathing +quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He bowed, having no words adapted to the situation. But he repeated +his resolution (as above) more furiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has never appeared aware of it," she persisted. "Are you sure that +he saw it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He wondered at her innocence, or her audacity. That such a baby should +do so much mischief. The thought irritated him. "It was impossible +that he should not see it, Lady Betty," he said, with a touch of +asperity. "Quite impossible!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah," she replied, with a faint sigh. "Well, he has never spoken to me +about it. And you think it had really something to do with his +resignation, Mr. Atlay?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most certainly," he said. He was no longer inclined to spare her.</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded thoughtfully, and then with a quiet "Thank you" she went +out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," muttered the secretary to himself when the door was +fairly shut behind her, "she is--upon my word, she is a fool! And +he"--appealing to the inkstand--"he has never said a word to her about +it. He is a new Don Quixote! a modern Job! a second Sir Isaac Newton! +I do not know what to call him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Sir Horace, however, who precipitated the catastrophe. He +happened to come in about teatime that afternoon, before, in fact, my +lady had had an opportunity of seeing her husband. He found her alone +and in a brown study, a thing most unusual with her and portending +something. He watched her for a time in silence: seemed to draw +courage from a still longer inspection of his boots, and then said, +"So the cart is clean over, Betty?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Driver much hurt?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean, does Stafford mind?" she replied impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I do not know. It is hard to say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Think so?" he persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good gracious, Horry!" my lady retorted, losing patience, "I say I do +not know, and you say, 'Think so!' If you want to learn so +particularly, ask him yourself. Here he is!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford had just entered the room. Perhaps she really wished to +satisfy herself as to the state of his feelings. Perhaps she only +desired in her irritation to put her cousin in a corner. At any rate +she turned to her husband and said, "Here is Horace wishing to know if +you mind being turned out?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford's face flushed a little at the home-thrust which no +one else would have dared to deal. But he showed no displeasure. +"Well, not so much as I should have thought," he answered, pausing to +weigh a lump of sugar, and, as it seemed, his feelings. "There are +compensations, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pity all the same--those terms came out," Sir Horace grunted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stafford!" Lady Betty asked on a sudden, speaking fast and eagerly, +"is it true, I want to ask you, is it true that that led you to +resign?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally he was startled, and he showed that he was. She was the last +person who should have put that question to him, but his long training +in self-control stood him in good stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, yes," he said quietly.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was better, he thought, indeed it was only right, that she should +know what she had done. But he did not look at her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was it only that?" she asked again.</p> + +<p class="normal">This time he weighed his answer. He thought her persistency odd. But +again he assented.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," he said gravely. "Only that, I think. But for that I should +have remained in--with Lord Pilgrimstone of course. Perhaps things are +better as they are, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady Betty sprang from her seat with all her old vivacity. "Well!" she +cried, "well, I am sure! Then why, I should like to know, did Mr. +Atlay tell me that my letter to the <i>Times</i> had something to do with +it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did not say so," quoth Sir Horace. "Absurd!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, he did," cried Lady Betty, so fiercely that the rash speaker, +who had returned to his boots, fairly shook in them. "You were not +there! How do you know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't know," Sir Horace admitted, meekly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But stay, stay a moment!" Mr. Stafford said, getting in a word with +difficulty. It was strange if his wife could talk so calmly of her +misdeeds, and before a third party too. "What letter to the <i>Times</i> +did Atlay mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My letter about the Women's League," she explained earnestly. "You +did not see it? No, I thought not. But Mr. Atlay would have it that +you did, and that it had something to do with your going out. Horace +told me at the time that I ought not to send it without consulting +you. But I did, because you said you could not be bothered with it--I +mean you said you were busy, Stafford. And so I thought I would ask if +it had done any harm, and Mr. Atlay---- What is the matter?" she +cried, breaking off sharply at sight of the change in her husband's +face. "Did it do harm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no," he answered. "Only I never heard of this letter before. What +made you write it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady Betty coloured violently, and became on a sudden very shy--like +most young authors. "Well," she said, "I wanted to be in the--in the +swim with you, don't you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford murmured, "Oh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thanks to his talk with Atlay he read the secret of that sudden +shyness. And confusion poured over him more and more. It caused him to +give way to impulse in a manner which a moment's reflection would have +led him to avoid.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it was not you," he exclaimed unwarily, "who sent Pilgrimstone's +terms to the <i>Times?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I?" she exclaimed in an indescribable tone, and with eyes like +saucers. "I?" she repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gad!" cried Sir Horace; and he looked about for a way of escape.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I?" she continued, struggling between wrath and wonder. "I betray you +to the <i>Times!</i> And you thought so, Stafford?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was silence in the room for a long moment during which the cool +statesman, the hard man of the world, did not know where to turn his +eyes. "There were circumstances--several circumstances," Mr. Stafford +muttered at last, "which made--which forced me to think so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Mr. Atlay thought so?" she asked. He nodded. "Oh, that tame cat!" +she cried, her eyes flashing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she seemed to meditate, while her husband gazed at her, a prey to +conflicting emotions, and Sir Horace made himself as small as +possible. "I see," she continued in a different tone. "Only--only if +you thought that, why did you never say anything? Why did you not +scold me, beat me, Stafford? I do not--I do not understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought," he explained in despair--he had so mismanaged +matters--"that perhaps I had left you--out of the swim, as you call +it, Betty. That I had not treated you very well, and after all it +might be my own fault."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you said nothing! You intended to say nothing?" He nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gad!" cried Sir Horace very softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Lady Betty said nothing. She turned after a long look at her +husband, and went out of the room, her eyes wet with tears. The two +men heard her pause a moment on the landing, and then go upstairs and +shut her door. But her foot, even to their gross ears, seemed to touch +the stairs as if it loved them, and there was a happy lingering in the +slamming of the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">They looked, when she had left them, anywhere but at one another. Sir +Horace sought inspiration in his boots, and presently found it. +"Wonder who did it, then?" he burst out at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! I wonder," replied the ex-minister, descending at a bound from +the cloudland to which his thoughts had borne him. "I never pushed the +inquiry; you know why now. But they should be able to enlighten us at +the <i>Times</i> office. We could learn in whose handwriting the copy was, +at any rate. It is not well to have spies about us."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can tell you in whose handwriting they say it was," Sir Horace said +bluntly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In whose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In Atlay's."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Stafford did not look surprised. Instead of answering he thought. +As a result of which he presently left the room in silence. When he +came back he had a copy of the <i>Times</i> in his hand, and his face wore +a look of perplexity. "I have read the riddle," he said, "and yet it +is a riddle to me still. I never found time to read the report of my +speech at the Club. It occurred to me to look at it now. It is full of +errors; so full that it is clear the printer had not the corrected +proof Atlay prepared. Therefore I conclude that Atlay's copy of the +terms went to the <i>Times</i> instead of the speech. But how was the +mistake made?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the question."</p> + +<p class="normal">It happened that the private secretary came into the room at this +juncture. "Atlay," Mr. Stafford said at once, "I want you. Carry your +mind back a week--to this day week. Are you sure that you sent the +report of my speech at the Club to the <i>Times?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Am I sure?" the other replied confidently, nothing daunted by +being so abruptly challenged. "I am quite sure I did, sir. I remember +the circumstances. I found the report--it was type-written you +remember--lying on the blotting-pad when I came down before dinner. I +slipped it into an envelope, and put it in the box. I can see myself +doing it now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how do you know that it was the report you put in the envelope?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had indorsed it 'Corrected speech.--W. Stafford,'" Atlay replied +triumphantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" Mr. Stafford said, dropping his hands and eyes and sitting down +suddenly, "I remember! My wife came in, and--yes, my wife came in."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE SURGEON'S GUEST</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">THE SURGEON'S GUEST</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"To be content," said the carrier, "that is half the battle. If I have +said it to one, I have said it to a hundred. You be content," says I, +"and you will be all right."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time, though they had plodded on a mile together, the +tall gentleman turned his eyes from the sombre moorland which +stretched away on either side of the road, and looked at his +companion. There had been something strange in the preoccupation of +his thoughts hitherto; though the carrier, lapped in his own +loquacity, had not felt it. And, to tell the truth, there had been +something still more strange in the tall gentleman's behaviour before +their meeting. Now he had raced along the road and now he had +loitered; sometimes he had stood still, letting his eyes stray over +the dark groups of heather, which lay islanded in a sea of brown +grass; and again he had sauntered onwards, his hat in his hand and his +face turned up to the sky, which hung low over the waste, and had yet +the breadth of a fen cloudscape. Whatever the eccentricity of his +lonely movements, his tall hat and fluttering frock-coat had +exaggerated it.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length on the summit of one of the ridges over which the road ran +he had made a longer halt, and had begun to look about him to right +and left, seeking, it seemed, for a track across the moss. Then he had +caught sight of the carrier plodding up the next ridge at the tail of +his cart, and he had started after him. But having almost overtaken +him, he had reduced his pace and loitered as if his desire for human +company had faded away. He had even paused as though to return. But a +glance at the desolate waste had determined him. He had walked on +again, and had overtaken and fallen to talking with the carrier. The +latter on his part had been glad to have a companion, and had readily +set down what was odd in the stranger's bearing to the cause which +accounted for his costume. The tall gentleman was a Londoner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You be content,' says I," quoth the old fellow again, his +companion's tardy attention encouraging him to repeat his statement, +"'and you will be all right.' I have told that to hundreds in my +time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you practise it yourself?" The tall gentleman's voice was husky. +His eyes, now that they had found their way to the other's face, +continued to dwell on it with a gleam in their depths which matched +the pallor of his features. His forehead was high, his face long and +thin, and lengthened by a dark brown beard which hid the working of +his lips. A nervous man meeting his gaze might have had strange +thoughts. But the carrier's were country nerves, and proof against +anything short of electricity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes, I am pretty well content," Nickson answered sturdily. "I have +twenty acres of land from the duke, and I turn a penny with the +carrying, going into Sheffield twice a week, rain and shine. Then I +have as good a wife as ever kissed her man, and neither chick nor +child, and no more than three barren ewes this lambing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My God!" said the stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">The words seemed wrung from him by a twinge of mental pain, but +whether the feeling was envy of the man's innocent joys, or disgust at +his simplicity, did not appear. Whatever the impulse, the tall +gentleman showed an immediate consciousness that he had excited his +companion's astonishment. He began to talk rapidly, even gesticulating +a little. "But is there no drawback?" he said--"no bitter in your +life, man? This long journey--ten--eleven miles?--and the same journey +home again? Do you never find it cold, hot, dreary, intolerable?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is cold enough some days, and hot enough some days," the carrier +replied heartily. "But dreary?--never! And cold and heat are but skin +deep, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tall gentleman let his head fall on his breast, and for some +distance walked on in silence. The carrier whistled to his horse, the +cry of a peewit came shrilling across the moor, one wheel of the cart +squeaked loudly for grease. The evening was grey and still, and rain +impended.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is all downhill after this," Nickson said presently, pointing to +the sky-line, now less than a hundred yards ahead. "You see that stone +there, sir?" he continued, and pointing with his whip to a stone lying +a little off the road. "There was a man died in the snow there. Three +years back it would be. I went by him myself for a month and more, and +took him for a dead sheep. At last a keeper passing that way turned +him over with his foot, and--well, he was a sad sight, poor chap, by +that time."</p> + +<p class="normal">The carrier should have been pleased with the effect his story +produced; for the stranger shuddered. His face even seemed a shade +paler, but this might be the effect of the evening light. He did not +make any comment, however, and the two stepped out until they gained +the summit of the ridge. Here the moor fell away on every side--a dark +sweep of waste bounded by uncouth round-backed hills, which rose +shapeless and grey, with never a graceful outline or soaring peak to +break the horizon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will take a lift down the hill, sir?" the carrier asked, +gathering up his reins and preparing to mount. "I am light to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I think not--I thank you," the stranger answered jerkily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are welcome, if you will," persisted the carrier.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I think not. I think I will walk," the tall gentleman answered. +But he still stood, and watched the other's preparations with strange +intentness. Even when Nickson, having wished him good day, drove +briskly off, he continued to gaze after the cart until a dip in the +descent--not far below--swallowed it up. Then he heaved a sigh, and +looked round at the grey sky and darkening heath. He took off his hat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hold up! what is the matter with the mare?" the carrier cried, coming +to a stop as soon, as it chanced, as the dip in the road hid him from +the other's eyes. "She has picked up a stone, drat it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He got down stiffly, and taking his knife from his pocket went to the +mare's head. Having removed the stone he dropped the hoof, and stood a +second while he closed the knife. In this momentary pause there came +to his ear a sharp report like that of a gun, but brisker and less +loud. It was difficult to suppose it the sound of a snapping stick; or +of one stone struck against another. It puzzled Master Nickson, who +climbed hastily to his seat again and drove on until he was clear of +the dip. Then, swearing at himself for an old fool, he looked +anxiously back at the top of the ridge, which had come into view +again. He was looking for the tall gentleman. But the latter was not +to be seen, either standing against the sky-line or moving on the +intervening road. "Lord's sakes!" the carrier muttered uneasily, "what +has become of him? He cannot have gone back!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He continued to stare for some moments at the place where the stranger +should have been. At last giving way to a sudden conviction, he got +down from his cart, and, leaving it standing, hurried back through the +dip, and so to the top of the ridge. The ascent was steep, and he was +breathing heavily when he reached the summit and cast his eyes round +him. No, the tall gentleman was not to be seen. The brown grass and +heather stretched away on this side and that, broken by no human +figure. Not even a rabbit was visible on the long white strip of road +that in the far distance grew hazy with the fall of night.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The devil!" the carrier said, shuddering, and feeling more lonely +than he had ever felt in his life. "Then he has gone, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stopped. His eyes were on a dark bundle of clothes that lay a +little aside from the road between two clumps of heather. Just a +bundle of clothes it seemed, but Master Nickson drew in his breath at +sight of it. The peewits and curlews had gone to rest. There was not a +sound to be heard on the wide moor, save the beating of his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have given pounds to drive on with a clear conscience, yet he +forced himself to go up to the huddled form, and to turn it over until +the face was exposed. There was a pistol near the right hand, and +behind the ear there was a small, a very small hole, from which the +blood welled sluggishly. Round this the skin was singed and blackened. +The eyes were closed, and the pale face, thoughtful and placid, was +scarcely disfigured.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly Master Nickson fell on his knees. "Dang me, if I don't think +he is alive!" he whispered. "For sure, he breathes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Convinced of it, the carrier sprang to his feet a different man. He +lost not a moment in bringing his cart to the spot and lifting the +insensible form into it. Then he led the horse to the road, and +started gingerly down the hill. "It is a mercy it happened right at +the doctor's door," he muttered, as he turned off the road into a +track which seemed to lead through the heather to nowhere in +particular. "If he lives five minutes longer he will be in good +hands."</p> + +<p class="normal">A stranger would have wondered where the doctor lived; for there was +no signs of a house to be seen. But when the wheels had rolled +noiselessly over the sward a hundred yards a faint curl of smoke +became visible, rising from the ground in front. A few more paces +brought the tops of trees to view, and nestling among them the gables +of an old stone house, standing below the level of the moor in a gully +or ravine, that here began to run down from the watershed towards +Bradfield and the Loxley. The track Nickson was following led to a +white gate, which formed the entrance to this lonely demesne.</p> + +<p class="normal">The carrier found assistance sooner than he had expected. Leaning +against the inner side of the gate, with her back to him, was a tall +girl. She was bending over a fiddle, drawing from it wailing sounds +that went well with the waste behind her and the fading light. Her +head swayed in time, her elbow moved slowly. She did not hear the +wheels, and he had to call, "Whisht! Miss Pleasance, whisht!" before +she heard and turned.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could see little of her face, for in the hollow the light was +almost gone, but her voice as she cried, "Is that you, Nickson? Have +you something for us?" rang out so cheerily that it strung his nerves +anew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, miss," he answered. "But it is your father I want. I have got a +man here who has been hurt----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? In the cart?" she cried. She stepped forward and would have +looked in. But he was before her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, miss, you fetch your father!" he said sharply. "It is just a +matter of minutes, maybe. You fetch him here, please."</p> + +<p class="normal">She understood now, and turned and sped through the shrubbery, and +across the little rivulet and the lawn. In five minutes the grey +house, which had stood gaunt and lifeless in the glooming, was +aroused. Lights flitted from window to window, and servants called to +one another. The surgeon, a tall, florid, elderly man, with drooping +white moustaches, came out, after snatching up one or two necessary +things. The groom hastened behind him with a candle. Only Pleasance, +the messenger of ill, whom her father had bidden stay in the house, +had nothing to do in the confusion. She laid down her violin and bow, +and stood in the darkness of the outer room--it was half hall, half +parlour--listening and wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sound of heavy footsteps crunching the gravel presently warned her +that the man was to be brought into the house. She heard her father +direct the other bearers to make for his room, which was on the left +of the hall, and her face grew a shade paler as the men stumbled with +their burden through the doorway. There is something monstrous to the +unaccustomed in limbs which fall lifeless, or stick out stiff and +stark in ghastly prominence. She averted her face as the group passed +her, and yet managed to touch the groom's sleeve. "What is it, +Daniel?" she whispered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has been shot, miss," the servant answered. He was enjoying +himself hugely, if the truth be told.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had no time to ask more. The door was shut upon her, and she was +left alone with her curiosity. She wondered how it had happened, for +this was not the shooting season, and Nickson had spoken of the man as +a stranger. She pondered over the problem until the maids, who were +too much upset to stay in their own quarters, came into the room with +lights. Then she stepped outside, and stood on the gravel listening to +the murmur of the brook, and looking at the old sundial which gleamed +white on the lawn.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had been there no more than a minute when the doctor--as every one +in those parts called him--came out with Nickson. Carefully closing +the door behind him--an extraordinary precaution with one who was +usually the most easy-going of men--he laid his hand on his +companion's shoulder. "Why did he do it, Nickson?" he asked in a low +voice, which was not free from tremor. "Can you tell me? Have you any +idea? He is dressed as a gentleman, and he has a gold watch and money +in his pockets."</p> + +<p class="normal">Their eyes were new to the darkness, and they did not see her, though +she was within earshot, and was listening with growing comprehension. +"It beats me to say, sir," was Nickson's answer--"that it does. If you +will believe me, sir, he was talking to me, just before he did it, as +reasonably as ever man in my life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then what the devil was it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is what I think, sir," the carrier answered, nodding.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was just the devil, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pshaw!" the doctor returned pettishly. "You are sure that he did it +himself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As sure as I can be of anything!" the carrier answered. "There was +not a human creature barring myself within half a mile of him when the +pistol went off--no, nor could have been."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," the doctor said, after a pause, and in a tone of vexation, "it +is no good bringing in the police unless he dies, and I don't think he +will. He has had a wonderful escape. I suppose you will not go +blabbing it about, Nickson?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heaven forbid!" the carrier replied. And after a few more words took +his leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">They went without discovering the listener, and she slipped into the +lighted hall and stood there shivering. The darkness outside +frightened her. It seemed to hold some secret of despair. Even in the +familiar room, in which every faded rug and dusty folio and framed +sampler had its word of everyday life for her, she looked fearfully at +the closed door which led to her father's room. She shrank from +turning her back upon it. She kept glancing askance at it. When her +father came to supper, she could not meet his eye; and he must have +noticed her strangeness had he not been absorbed in the riddle +presented to him, in thoughts of his patient's case, and perhaps in +some painful train of meditation induced by it. Such questions as his +daughter put he answered absently, and he ate in the same manner, +breaking off once to visit his charge. It was only when the +preparations for the night were complete, when the maids had retired, +and Pleasance was waiting, candlestick in hand, to say good night, +that he spoke out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When is Woolley coming back?" he asked with a sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The twenty-eighth, father," she answered. She betrayed no surprise at +the question, though it was one he could have answered for himself. +Woolley was his assistant, and was absent on a holiday tour.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was silent a moment. His tone was querulous, his eye wandered when +he spoke next. "I thought--I did think that we should have this little +bit to ourselves, Pleasance," he complained. And he seemed shrunken. +His fierce moustaches and his florid colour no longer hid his weakness +of moral fibre. He looked years older than when he had bent with +professional alertness over his patient. Something in that patient's +strange case had come home to him and unmanned him. "This little bit," +he continued, looking at her wistfully, "though it be the last, girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will not be the last, father," she answered, meeting his look +without flinching. "We shall stay together whatever happens."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, but where, child?" he cried with passion, throwing out his hands +as though he appealed to the dumb things around him--"where? Do you +think to transplant me? I am too old. I have lived here too long--I +and my fathers before me for six generations, though I am but a broken +country apothecary--for me to take root elsewhere! Why, girl"--his +voice rose higher--"there is not a stone of this old place, not a +tree, that I do not know, that I do not love, that I would not rather +own than a mile of streets!"</p> + +<p class="normal">To her surprise he broke down and turned away to hide the tears in his +eyes--tears which it pained her deeply to see. She knew how weak he +was, and what cause she had to blame him in this matter. But his tears +disarmed her, and she laid her hand on his and stroked it tenderly. +"How much do you owe Mr. Woolley, father?" she asked, when he had +recovered himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Three thousand pounds," he answered, almost sullenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had never told her before, and she was appalled. "It is a large +sum," she said, looking at the faded cushions on the window-seats, the +fly-blown prints, the well-worn furniture, which made the room +picturesque indeed, but shabby. "What can have become of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He made a reckless movement with his hand--he still had his back +towards her--as though he flung something from him.</p> + +<p class="normal">She sighed. She had not intended to reproach him, for economy was not +one of her own strong points; and she remembered bills owing as well +as bills paid, and many a good intention falsified. No, she could not +reproach him; and she chose to look at the matter from another side. +"It is a great deal of money," she repeated. "Would he really let all +that go if--just to marry me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure!" her father said briskly. "That is," he continued, his +conscience pricking him, "it would be the same thing then. The place +would come to him anyway."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see," she answered dryly. She was always pale--though hers was a +warm paleness--but now there were dark shadows under her eyes. They +were grey eyes, frank and resolute, now sad and scornful also. As she +sat upright in a high-backed chair, with the forgotten candle in her +hand and her gaze fixed on vacancy, she seemed to be gazing at the +Skeleton of the House. It was a skeleton which she and her father kept +for the most part locked up. Possibly it had never been brought so +completely to view before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will think of it?" the doctor presently ventured, stealing a +glance at her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I may think till Doomsday," she answered wearily. "I shall never do +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not?" he persisted. "What have you against him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only one thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" A gleam of hope sparkled in his eyes as he put the +question. A definite accusation he might combat and refute; even a +prejudice he might overcome. He prepared himself for the effort. "What +is it?" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not love him, father," she said. "I think I hate him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So do I!" the doctor sighed, sinking suddenly into himself again. +Alas for his preparations!</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">It was characteristic of both Pleasance and her father--and +particularly characteristic of the latter--that when they met at +breakfast next morning they ignored the trouble which had seemed so +overwhelming at midnight. The doctor was constitutionally careless. It +was his nature to live from day to day, plucking the flowers beside +his path, without giving thought to the direction in which the path +was leading him. Pleasance was careless too, but with a difference. +She did not shut her eyes to the prospect; but she was young and +sanguine, and she was confident--of a morning at any rate--that a way +of escape would be found. So the doctor gazed through the window as +cheerfully as if his title-deeds had been his own; and if Pleasance +felt any misgivings, they related rather to the man lying in the next +room than to her own case.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How is he, father?" she asked. "Have you been kept awake much?" The +doctor had spent the night on a sofa in order that he might be near +the stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is not conscious," Doctor Partridge answered, "but I think that +the brain is recovering from the shock, and if all goes well he will +come to himself in a few hours." Pleasance shuddered. Her father, +without noticing it, went on: "But he ought not to be left alone, and +I must see my patients. It is useless to ask the servants to stay with +him--they are as nervous as hares. So you must sit with him for an +hour or two after breakfast, Pleasance. There is no help for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I?" she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, to be sure; why not?" he answered lightly. "You are not afraid, +I suppose? There is nothing to be done, and Daniel can be within +call."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gulped down her fears and assented. She was a good girl, +though she could not keep the housekeeping bills--nor her own bills, +for the matter of that--within bounds. She was used to a lonely +life--Sheffield lay nine miles away, and there were few neighbours on +the moorland; and her nerves had been braced by many a long ramble +over the ling and bracken, where the hill sheep were her only +companions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet she might have answered otherwise had she known that, while the +words were on her father's lips, he questioned the wisdom of his +proposal. The man might on coming to his senses--the doctor did not +think he would--but he might repeat his attempt. And then----</p> + +<p class="normal">Her answer, however, clenched the matter. When they rose from +breakfast the doctor said, "Now my dear, come, and I will put you in +charge."</p> + +<p class="normal">She followed him. It was a relief to her to discover--from the +threshold of the room--that the bed had been moved, so that the light +might not fall on the patient's face. In its new position a curtain +hid him. The doctor set a chair for her behind the curtain, and she +sat down outwardly calm, inwardly trembling. He went himself to the +bedside, and stood for a moment gazing with a critical eye. Then he +nodded to her and went softly out.</p> + +<p class="normal">He left the door ajar, and she heard him ride away. She heard too +Daniel's clumsy footsteps as he came back through the house, and the +clatter of the china as Mary washed it in the kitchen. But these +homely sounds served only to heighten her dislike for her task. She +was not afraid. She no longer trembled. But she shrank almost with +loathing from contact with her wretched companion. She conjured +up a dreadful picture of him--ghastly and disfigured--defiant and +hopeless--self-doomed.</p> + +<p class="normal">He lay perfectly still. The curtain too on which her eyes dwelt hung +motionless. And presently there began to grow upon her a feeling and a +fear that he was dead. She fought with it, and more than once shook it +off. But it returned. At length she could bear it no longer, and she +rose in the silence, her breath coming quickly. She took a step +towards the bed, paused, stepped on, and stood where her father had +stood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Water!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Before the faintly whispered word had ceased to sound she was halfway +to the carafe. Where was the loathing now? She brought a little water +in the tumbler, and held it to his lips. "Do not speak again," she +said softly. "You are in good hands. The doctor will return in a few +minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">She watched the weary dazed eyes close; then she went back to her +chair as though she had been a trained nurse and this the most +ordinary case in the world. But she was immensely puzzled. The picture +of the patient as he really was remained with her, causing her to +wonder exceedingly how such a man had come to attempt his life. The +face handsome despite its bandages and pallor, the eyes kindly even in +stupor, were features the very opposite of those which she had +ascribed to the dark creature of her fancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">When her father returned she flew to tell him what had happened. He +entered and saw the patient, and came out again. "Yes," he said in his +professional tone, "if he can be kept quiet for forty-eight hours he +will do. Fever is the only thing to be feared. But he must not be left +alone, and I have to go to Ashopton. Do you mind being with him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">This time the easy-going doctor did not hesitate. He muttered +something about Daniel being within call, and, snatching a hasty meal, +got to horse again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The case at Ashopton proved to be serious. It led to complications, +and even to a consultation with a London physician. And so it happened +that that day, and the next, and the next, Pleasance was left in +charge at home. The stranger, as his senses returned to him--and with +them Heaven knows what thoughts of the past and the future, what +thankfulness or remorse--grew accustomed to look to her hands for +tendance. A woman can scarcely perform such offices without pitying +the object of them; and Pleasance after the first morning came to wait +upon the stranger's call and minister to his wants without the +disturbing remembrance that his own act had brought him to this. Away +from the bedside she shuddered; beside it she forgot. In the mean time +the tall gentleman, who at first lay gazing upwards, taciturn and +still, came more and more to follow her with his eyes as she moved to +and fro in his service. None the less he remained grave and smileless, +speaking little even when he began to sit up, and saying nothing from +which the current of his thoughts could be judged.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father," she said one morning, when they had gone on in this way for +several days, "do you think that he is quite sane?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sane? yes, as sane as any of us," was the uncompromising answer. +"Indeed," the doctor continued, looking at her sharply, "more sane +than you will be if you stop in the house so much, my girl. Leave him +to himself this morning and go out. Walk till lunch."</p> + +<p class="normal">She assented, and, the weather being soft and bright, she started in +excellent spirits. As she climbed she thought that the moorland had +never looked more beautiful, the distance more full of colour. But +this mood proved less lasting than the May weather. Reaching the brow +of the hill, she turned to look down on the Old Hall, and the sudden +reflection that it must pass to strangers fell on her like a cold +shadow. The tears rushed to her eyes, the walk was spoiled. She came +back early, wondering at her own depression.</p> + +<p class="normal">As she emerged from the shrubbery she saw with surprise two figures +standing on the lawn. One was her father. The other--could it be Edgar +Woolley come back before his time? No; this man was taller and paler, +with an air of distinction which the surgeon lacked. She drew near, +and her father, not seeing her, went into the house; while the other +sank into an arm-chair which had been set for him, and turned and saw +her. He rose with an effort, and raised his hat as she approached. It +was the tall gentleman.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fact annoyed the girl. It was one thing, she thought, to nurse him +when he lay helpless, another to associate with him. She made up her +mind to pass him with a frigid bow. But at the last moment the sight +of his weakness melted her, and she paused on the threshold to tell +him that she was glad to see him out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," he answered. He spoke very quietly; but a slight flush +came and went on his brow. Probably he understood her hesitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Within doors a fresh surprise awaited her. She found the table laid +for lunch, and laid for three. "Father!" she cried, in a tone of +vexation, "is he going to take his meals with us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where else is he to take them?" the doctor answered gruffly, looking +up from the old bureau at which he was writing. "Would you send him to +the servants? If he is left alone in his room, he will go mad in +earnest."</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke gruffly because he knew he was wrong. He knew no more of the +tall gentleman, or of his reason for doing what he had done, than he +knew of the man in the moon. That the stranger dressed and spoke like +a gentleman, that there was no mark on his linen, that he had a watch +and money in his pockets, and that he had tried to take his life--this +was the sum of the doctor's knowledge; and he could not feel that +these matters rendered the stranger a fit companion for his daughter. +But the doctor had not strength of mind to grapple with the +difficulty, and he let things slide.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pleasance would not discuss the question, but at the meal she sat +silent and cold. The doctor was uncomfortable, and talked jerkily. A +shadow--but it seemed more than temporary--darkened the stranger's +face. At the earliest possible moment Pleasance withdrew.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she came down she found that the tall gentleman had retired to +his room, and she saw nothing more of him that evening. Next day, the +post brought a letter from Woolley, postponing his return for a day or +two, and this sent the doctor on his rounds in high spirits. Pleasance +herself, moving upstairs about her domestic business, felt more +charitable. There might be something in what her father said about +leaving the poor man to himself. She would go down presently, and talk +to him, preserving a due distance.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had scarcely made up her mind to this when she chanced to look +through the window, and saw the stranger walking slowly across the +lawn. She watched him for a moment in idle curiosity, wondering in +what class he had moved, and what had brought him to this. Then she +noticed the direction he was taking, and on the instant a dreadful +fear flashed into the girl's mind, and made her heart stand still. +Below the lawn the rivulet formed a pool among the trees He was going +that way, glancing sombrely about him as he went.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pleasance did not stay to think--to add up the chances. She flung the +door open, and ran down the stairs. She reached the lawn. He was not +to be seen, but she knew which way he had gone, and she darted down +the path that led to the water. She turned the corner--she saw him! He +was standing gazing into the dark pool, his back towards her, in an +attitude of profound melancholy. She ran on unfaltering until she +reached him, and laid her hand on his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing?" she cried, on the impulse of her great fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned with a violent start, and found the girl's pale face and +glowing eyes close to his. He looked ghastly enough. There was a +bandage round his head, under the soft hat which the doctor had lent +him; and in the surprise of the moment the colour had fled from his +face. "Doing?" he muttered, trembling in her grasp. And his eyes +dilated--his nerves were still suffering from the shock of his wound, +and probably from some long strain which had preceded it. "Doing? Yes, +I understand you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He uttered the last words with a groan and a distortion of the +features. "Come away!" she cried, pulling at his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">He let her lead him away. He was so weak that apparently he could not +have returned without her help. Near the upper end of the walk there +was a rustic seat, and here he signed to her to let him sit down, and +she did so. When he had somewhat recovered himself he said faintly, +"You are mistaken; I came here by chance."</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head, looking down at him solemnly. She was still +excited, taken out of herself by her terror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is true," he said feebly. "I swear it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Swear that you will not think of it again," she responded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I swear," he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gazed at him awhile. Then she said, "Wait!" She went quickly back +to the house, and returned with some wine. "Perhaps I startled you +without cause," she said, smiling on him. He had not seen her smile +before. "I must make amends. Drink this."</p> + +<p class="normal">He obeyed. "Now," she said, "you must take my arm and go back to your +chair."</p> + +<p class="normal">He assented as a child might, and when he reached the chair he sank +into it with a sigh of relief. She stood beside him. The back of his +seat was towards the house, and before him an opening in the shrubbery +disclosed a shoulder of the ravine rolling upwards, the gorse on one +rugged spur in bloom, the sunshine everywhere warming the dull browns +and lurking purples into brilliance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"See!" she said, with an undertone of reproach in her voice, "is not +that beautiful? Is not that a thing one would regret?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, beautiful now," he replied, answering her thought rather than +her words. "But I have seen it under another aspect. Stay!" he +continued, seeing she was about to answer. "Do not judge me too +hastily. You cannot tell what reason I had--what----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" she retorted, "I cannot. But I can guess what grief you would +have caused to others, what a burden you would have shifted to weaker +shoulders, what duties you would have avoided, what a pang you would +have inflicted on friends and relations! For shame!" She stopped for +lack of breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no relatives," he answered slowly, "and few friends. I have no +duties that others would not perform as well. My death would cause +sorrow to some, joy to as many. My burden would die with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She glanced at him with compressed lips, divining that he was reciting +arguments he had used a score of times to his own conscience. But she +was puzzled how to answer him. "Take all that for granted," she said +at last. "Are there no reasons higher than these which should have +deterred you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It may be so," he replied. "Perhaps I think so now."</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt the admission a victory, and, seeing he had recovered his +composure, she left him and went into the house. But the incident had +one lasting effect. It broke down the wall between them. She felt that +she knew him well--better than many whom she had owned as +acquaintances for years. The confidence surprised in a moment of +emotion cannot be recalled. It seemed idle for her to affect to keep +him at arm's length when she knew, if she did not acknowledge, that he +had confessed his sin, and been forgiven.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when she saw him walking feebly from the house next day she went +with him, and showed him where he could rest and where obtain a view +without climbing. Afterwards she fell naturally into the habit of +going with him; and little by little, as she saw more of him, she +owned the spell of a new perplexity. Who was he? He talked of things +in a tone novel to her. He seemed to have thought deeply and read +much. He spoke of visits to this country, to that country. One day her +father found him reading their day-old <i>Times</i>, and took it from him. +"You must not do that yet," the doctor said. "My daughter can read to +you, if you like, but not for long."</p> + +<p class="normal">She asked what she should read. He chose a review of a historical +work, and gently rejected the passing topics--even a speech by Lord +Hartington. This gave her an idea, and she privately searched the back +numbers of the paper, but could not find that any one who resembled +him was missing. Yet he had been with them almost three weeks; he had +received no letters, he had sent none. How could such a man pass from +his circle and cause no inquiry? Here at the Old Hall they knew no +more of him than on his coming. He had not offered to disclose his +name, and his host, who had fallen under his spell, had not plucked up +courage to ask for it, or for an explanation--had come, indeed, to no +understanding with him at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is possible that of himself the doctor might have gone on +unsuspicious to the last. But one afternoon, as he made up his books +at the old bureau in the hall--the door being open and a flood of +sunshine pouring through it--he was aware on a sudden of a shadow cast +across the boards. He looked up. A middle-sized fair man, with a +goatee beard and a fresh complexion, was setting down a bag on the +floor and beginning to take off his gloves. "Why, Woolley!" exclaimed +the doctor, gazing at him feebly, "is it you? We did not expect you +until Monday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, but you see I have come to-day," the traveller answered. It +was a peculiarity of this young man--he was not very young, say +thirty-eight--that when he was not well pleased he smiled. He smiled +now.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor rubbed his hands to hide a little embarrassment. "Yes, I +see you have come," he said. "But how? Did you walk from Sheffield?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I came with Nickson."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor stopped rubbing, then went on faster, as his thoughts flew +from Nickson to the tall gentleman, and for some mysterious reason +from the tall gentleman to Pleasance. He had never consciously traced +this connection before, but something in his assistant's face helped +him to it now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He tells me," Woolley continued, making a neat ball of his gloves and +smiling at the floor, "that you had a strange case here, a case he was +mixed up with, and that you made a cure of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fellow has cleared out, I suppose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, no," the doctor stammered, feeling warm. How odd it was that he +had never seen into what a pit of imprudence he was sinking! He had +been harbouring a lunatic, or one who had acted as a lunatic--a +criminal certainly; in no light a person fit to associate with his +daughter. "No, he is still here," he stammered. "I think--I suppose he +will be leaving in a day or two!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here still, is he?" Woolley said with a sneer. "A queer sort of +parlour-boarder, sir. May I ask where he is at present?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think he is out of doors somewhere."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">When the doctor thought over the scene afterwards he whistled when his +memory brought him to that "Alone." He knew then that the fat was in +the fire. He saw that Woolley had pumped the carrier--who had been to +the house several times since the affair--and drawn his own +conclusions. "I rather think," he ventured, "I am not sure, but I +think----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not think," the other said dryly, "I see."</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed through the open door, and alas! the tall gentleman and +Pleasance were visible approaching the house. They had that moment +emerged from the shrubbery, and were crossing the lawn. The girl was +carrying a basket full of marsh marigolds, the man had a great bush of +hawthorn on the end of his stick. They were both looking at the front +of the house without a thought that other eyes were upon them. +Pleasance's face, on which the light fell strongly, was far from gay, +her smile but a sad one; yet there was a tenderness in the one and the +other which was not calculated to reassure a jealous onlooker.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So!" Woolley muttered, his fingers closing like a vise on the +doctor's arm. "Let me deal with this."</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">The walk which roused so much indignation in Edgar Woolley's breast +had been one of more than common interest; as perhaps something in the +faces of the returning couple assured him. There is a point in the +journey towards intimacy at which one or other of the converging pair +turns the conversation inwards, disclosing his or her hopes, fears, +ambitions. Pleasance in the purest innocence had reached this stage +to-day; arriving at it by the road of that silence which is tolerable +only when some progress has been made towards friendship, and which +even then invites attack. The tall gentleman, having lopped and picked +at her bidding, gathered up the last scraps of the hawthorn which he +had ruthlessly broken from the tree. He turned to find his companion +gazing into distance with a shadow on her face. "Your thoughts are not +pleasant ones, I fear," he said, half lightly, half seriously. "A +penny were too much for them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was thinking of Mr. Woolley," she answered simply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" he said, surprised. He was more surprised when she poured +out of a full heart the story of her father's debt to his assistant, +and of the mortgage on the old house which the Partridges had owned +for generations, and which was to her father as the apple of his eye. +She let fall no word of Woolley's position in regard to herself. But +the voice has subtle inflections, and men's apprehensions are quick +where they are interested--and he was interested here. Her story +omitted little which he could not conjecture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry to hear this," he said, after a pause. "But money +troubles--after all, money troubles are not the worst troubles." He +raised his hat and walked for a moment bareheaded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But this is not merely a money trouble," she answered warmly. She was +wrapped up in her own distresses, and did not perceive at the moment +that he had reverted to his. "We shall lose <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">They had reached the crown of the hill, and as she spoke she pointed +to the Old Hall lying below them, its four gables, its stone front, +its mullioned windows warmed into beauty by lichens and sunlight. "We +shall lose that!" she repeated, pointing to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," the stranger said, with a quick glance at her. "I understand. +And I do not wonder that it grieves you. It has always been your home, +I suppose?" She nodded. "And your father thinks it must go?" he +continued, after a pause given to deep thought, as it seemed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He thinks so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something should be done!" he replied, in a tone of decision. "I +conclude from what you say that Mr. Woolley is pressing for his +money?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded again. Her eyes were full of tears, which the sight of the +house had brought to them, and she could not trust herself to speak. +His sympathy seemed natural to her, so that she saw nothing at this +minute strange in his position. She forgot that only a few days or +weeks earlier he had been in the blackness of despair himself. He +talked now as if he could help others!</p> + +<p class="normal">They were close to the house, and he had referred to the mouldering +shield over the doorway, and she was telling its story when she +checked herself and stood still. Edgar Woolley had emerged, and was +standing before them with a flush of triumph on his check. The tall +gentleman could scarcely be in doubt who he was; nor could Woolley +well take Pleasance's involuntary cry for a sign of gladness--though +he strove to force the smile which was habitual to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Pleasance," he said, "will you step inside? Your father is +asking for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?" she asked. He had used no form of greeting, neither did +she. Something--perhaps not the same thing in each--was at work, +kindling the one against the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is in the hall," he answered, chafing at her delay.</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned to her companion. "I will take your flowers in, if you +please," she said. She held out her arms as she spoke, and he laid the +pile in them, Woolley looking on the while. The assistant's gaze was +bent on her, and he did not see what she saw--that some strong emotion +was distorting the tall gentleman's face. He turned a livid white, his +nostrils twitched, and a little pulse in his cheek beat wildly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She changed her mind, seeing that. "No, do you take them in," she +said. "Will you take them in, please?" she repeated peremptorily; and +she pushed the hawthorn into his arms, and held out her basket. The +stranger took the things with reluctance, but without demur, and went +into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now," she said, turning rapidly upon Woolley, "what do you want?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My answer?" he retorted, with answering curtness.</p> + +<p class="normal">A second before he had not intended to say that. He had meant to carry +the war into the stranger's country. But his temper mastered him for a +second, and he found himself staking all, when he had planned an +affair of outposts. "Wait, Miss Pleasance," he added desperately, +seeing in a moment what he had done, and that he had committed +himself. "I beg you not to give it me without thought--without thought +of others, of me, of your father, as well as of yourself! Do not +judge me hastily! Do not judge me," he continued passionately, for her +face was icy, "by myself as I am now, Pleasance, wild with love of +you, but----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"By what then, Mr. Woolley?" she asked, her lip curling. "By what am I +to judge you if not by yourself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"By----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" she said mercilessly. He had paused. He could not find words. +In truth, he had made a mistake. If he had ever had a chance of +winning her his chance was gone now; and, recognising this, he let his +fury grow to such a pitch that he could not wait for the answer he had +requested. He was mad with love of her, with rage at his own mistake, +with shame at being so outgeneralled. "I will tell you, Miss +Partridge!" he cried, his eyes sparkling with passion; "Judge me by +the future! That fellow who was with you, do you know who he is? Do +you know that I can put him in gaol any day?--ay, in goal!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What has he done?" she asked. "Tell me."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a pity he could not say, "He is a thief--a forger--a swindler!" +The charge he could bring against the stranger was heavy enough; and +yet he found it difficult to word it so that it should seem heavy. +"You thought he was shot?" he said at last. "Bah! he shot himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know it," she answered, without the movement of a muscle.</p> + +<p class="normal">He stared at her. How was it? he wondered. Before his departure he had +been the Old Hall's master. He had wound the poor doctor round his +finger, and Pleasance had been civil to him at least. Now all this was +altered. And why? "Ah, well! He shall go to gaol, d----n him!" he +said, putting his conclusion into words. "He shall go to gaol! and if +you have a fancy for him you must go there to see him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She lost her self-possession under the insult, and her face turned +scarlet. "You coward!" she said, with scorn. "You would not dare to +say to his face what you have said behind his back. Let me pass!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She swept into the house and left him standing in the sunlight. As she +hurried through the hall, which to her dazzled eyes seemed dusky, she +caught a glimpse of the tall gentleman leaning over the bureau with +his back to her. Had he heard? The door was open, and so was one +window. She could not be sure, but the suspicion was enough. Her face +was on fire as she ran up the stairs. How she hated, oh, how she hated +that wretch out there! She thought that she had never known before +what it was to hate.</p> + +<p class="normal">For there was something in what he had said. There was the sting. How +had she come to be so intimate with one who had done what the tall +gentleman had done? She tried to trace the stages, but she could not. +Then she tried to think of him with some of the horror, some of the +distaste which she had felt at the time of his arrival, when he lay +ghastly and blood-stained behind the closed door. But she could not. +The face we have known a year can never put on for us the look it wore +when we saw it first. The hand of time does not move backward. +Pleasance found this was so, and in the solitude of her own room hid +her face and trembled. Could anything but evil come of such a--a +friendship?</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Woolley's state of mind was even less enviable. Hitherto +his way in the world had been made by the exercise of tact and +self-control; and he valued himself upon the possession of those +qualities. He could not understand why they had failed him at this +pinch, or why the advantage he had so far enjoyed had deserted him +now. Yet the secret was not far to seek. He was jealous; and when +jealousy attacks him, the man who lives by playing on the passions of +others falls to the common level. Jealousy undermines his judgment as +certainly as passion deprives the fencer of his skill.</p> + +<p class="normal">Though Woolley did not allow that this was the cause of his defeat, he +knew that he could not command himself at present, and before seeking +the doctor he took a turn to collect his thoughts and arrange his +plans. When he returned to the house he found the hall empty. He +passed through it and down a short passage to a small room at the +back, which Dr. Partridge used--especially in times of trouble, when +bills poured in and he mediated a fresh loan--as a kind of sanctum. +Woolley rapped at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">To his surprise no "Come in!" answered his knock, but some one rising +hastily from his chair came to the door and opened it to the extent of +a few inches. It was the doctor. He squeezed himself through. His face +was agitated--but then the passage was ill lit, even on a summer +afternoon--his manner nervous. "You want to see me, my dear fellow?" +he said, holding the door close behind him and speaking effusively. +"Do you mind coming back in a quarter of an hour or so? I am--I shall +be disengaged then."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would prefer," Woolley said doggedly, "to see you now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait ten minutes, and you shall," the doctor replied, taking him by +the button with his disengaged hand, as though he would bespeak his +confidence. "At this moment, my dear fellow--excuse me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was an odd tone in the doctor's voice--a tone half wheedling, +half hostile. But Woolley concluded that Pleasance was with +him--making a complaint in all probability; and this satisfied him. He +thought that he could still depend on the doctor. With a sulky nod he +gave way and returned to the lawn, and there he paced up and down, +prodding the daisies with his stick. Things had gone badly with him. +So much the worse for some one.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he returned he found the doctor alone in the dingy little room, +into which one plumped down two steps, so that it was very like a +well. "Come in, come in," the elder man said fussily. "What is it, +Woolley? What can I do for you?" As he spoke his hands were busy with +the papers on the table. Moreover, after one swift glance, which he +shot at his assistant's face on his entrance, he avoided looking at +him. "What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"First," Woolley rejoined with acidity, "I should like to know whether +you propose to keep that fellow in your house as a companion for your +daughter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The tall gentleman?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is gone!" was the unexpected answer. "He is gone already. If you +doubt me, my dear fellow," the doctor added hastily, "ask the +servants--ask Daniel."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gone, is he?" Woolley said gloomily, considering the statement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, he quite saw the propriety of it," the doctor continued. "He +gave me no trouble."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And paid you no fees, I suppose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, no, he did not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then now to my second question, sir," Woolley went on, tapping with +his fingers on the table. But try as he might, he could not quite rise +to the old level of superiority, he could not drive the flush from his +cheek or still his pulse. "What is your daughter's answer? From +something which has passed between us I conclude it to be unfavourable +to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed?" the doctor said, looking at him blankly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, favourable or unfavourable," Woolley continued, "I must have it +betimes. You bade me go away and give her a month to think over it. I +have done so, and I am back. Now I ask, What is her answer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," the doctor said, rubbing his hands in great perplexity, "I +have not--I am not sure that I am prepared to say. You must give me a +little more time--indeed you must. Let us say until the day after +to-morrow. I will sound her and give you a decisive answer then--after +breakfast, and here if you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">The suitor restrained himself. He longed to reject the proposal. But +he did love her in his way, and at the sound of her father's uncertain +utterance hope began to tell her flattering tale. "Very well!" he +said. "But you understand, I hope," he continued, his manner curiously +made up of shame and defiance, "the alternative, sir? If I am not to +be allied to you, it will no longer suit me to have my money tied up +here, and I must have it--the sooner the better."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well," the poor doctor said testily, "we will talk about that, +Woolley, when the time comes."</p> + +<p class="normal">There seemed to be nothing more to say. Yet Woolley lingered by the +table, fingering the things on it without looking up. Perhaps an +impulse to withdraw his threat and end the interview more kindly was +working in him. If so, however, he crushed it down, and presently he +took himself off. When his step ceased to sound in the passage the +doctor drew a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p class="normal">It has been said that travellers along the moorland road which passes +near the Old Hall--a road once frequented, but now little trodden, +save by tramps--that travellers along it see nothing of the house. The +house lies below the surface. In like manner a visitor arriving at the +Old Hall itself during the next thirty-six hours would have observed +nothing strange, though there was so much below the surface. The +assistant contrived to be abroad at his work during the greater part +of the intervening day. He judged that love-making would help him +little now. The doctor rubbed his hands and talked fast to preserve +appearances; and Pleasance as well as her suitor seemed to regret +their joint outbreak. She was civil to him, if somewhat cold. So that +when he knocked at the door of the little room--after a sleepless +night in which he had pondered long how he should act at the coming +interview--he had some hopes. He was feeling almost amiable.</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor was seated behind his table, Pleasance on a chair in the +one small window recess. With three people in it the room looked more +like a well than ever. With three people? Nay, with four. Woolley shut +the door behind him very softly and set his teeth. For behind the +doctor stood the tall gentleman.</p> + +<p class="normal">The assistant smiled viciously. He was not prepared for this, but his +nerves were strung to-day. "A trick?" he said, looking from one to +another. "Very well. I know what to do. I can guess what my answer is +to be, doctor, and need scarcely stay to hear it. Shall I go?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no!" the doctor replied, hurriedly. He was distressed and +perturbed, perhaps by the menace which underlay the other's words. As +for the tall gentleman, he gazed gravely over his beard, while +Pleasance looked through the window, her face hot. "No, no, I have +something to say which affects you. And this gentleman here----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has he anything to say?" the assistant retorted, eyeing his +antagonist. "I am ready to hear it--before I take out a warrant +against him for attempting to commit suicide. It is punishable with a +considerable imprisonment, my friend!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am no friend of yours," was the stranger's reply, given very +gravely. "You do not know me, Edgar Woolley."</p> + +<p class="normal">The assistant started. It was the first time he had heard the tall +gentleman's voice, and for a breathing space, while the looked two on +one another, he seemed to be racking his memory. But he got no result, +and he retorted with a bitter laugh, "No, I do not know you. Nor you +me--yet!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I do," was the unexpected answer. "Too well!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bah!" Woolley exclaimed, though it was evident that he was ill at +ease. "Let us have an end of these heroics! If you have anything to +say, say it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will," the tall gentleman answered. He was still quiet, but there +was a glitter in his eyes. "I have already outlined my story, now I +must ask Dr. Partridge to hear it more at length. Many years ago there +was a young man, almost a boy, employed in the offices of a great firm +in Liverpool--a poor boy, very poor, but of a good and an old family."</p> + +<p class="normal">Woolley's smile of derision became fixed, so to speak. But he did not +interrupt, and the other after a pause went on. "This lad made the +acquaintance of a medical student a little older than himself, and was +led by him--I think he was weak and sensitive and easily led--into +gambling. He lost more than he could pay. His mother was a widow, +almost without means. To meet the debt, small as it was, would have +ruined her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The stranger paused again, overcome, it seemed, by painful memories. +There was a flush on Woolley's brow. The girl sitting in the window, +her hands clasped on her knees, turned so as to see more of the room. +"Now listen," the speaker continued, "to what happened. One day this +clerk's friend, to whom the greater part of the money was due, came to +the office at the luncheon hour and pressed him to pay. The other +clerks were out. The two were alone together, and while they were +alone there came in a client of the firm to pay some money. The lad +took the money and gave a receipt. He had power to do so. The man left +again, after telling them that he was starting to South America that +evening. When he was gone"--here his voice sank a little--"the friend +made a suggestion. I think you know what it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">No one spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He suggested to the clerk to take this money and pay his debts with +it--to steal it. The boy resisted for a time, but in the end, still +telling himself he did not intend to steal it, he put it away in his +desk and locked it up, and gave in no account of it. After that the +issue was certain. A day came when, the other still pressing him and +tempting him, he took the money and used it, and became a thief."</p> + +<p class="normal">The silence in the little room was deep indeed. On Woolley a spell had +fallen. He would have interrupted the man, but he could not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Immediately after this," the speaker continued, "those two parted. +Within a week--for the man had not gone to South America--the theft +was discovered. The boy's employers were merciful--God reward them! +They declined to prosecute; nay, they kept the matter secret, or as +secret as it could be kept, and even found him work in their foreign +office. He did not forget. He served them faithfully, and in the +course of years he repaid the money with interest. Then--God's ways +are not our ways--strange news reached this clerk. Three distant +kinsmen whom he had never seen had died within three months, and +the last of them had left him a large property. The name and the +honour"--for the first time the tall gentleman's voice faltered--"of a +great family had fallen upon his shoulders to wear and to uphold! And +he was a thief!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>You</i>," he went on--and from this point he directly addressed the man +who gazed at him from beyond the table--"<i>you</i> cannot enter into his +feelings, nor understand them! It were folly to tell <i>you</i> that the +remembrance that he had stained the honour and disgraced the name of +his family poisoned his whole life. He tried--God knows he did--to +make amends by a life of integrity, and while his mother lived he led +that life. But he found no comfort in it. She died, and he lived on +alone in the house of his family, and it may be"--again his voice +shook--"that he brooded overmuch on this matter, and came to take too +morbid a view of it, to let it stand always between him and the sun." +He stopped, and looked uncertainly about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, yes!" the doctor said. Pleasance had turned to the window, and +was weeping softly. "He did, indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Be that as it may, he met one day the manager of the firm he had +robbed, and he read in the man's eyes that he remembered. And if he, +why not others? He went out then, and he formed a resolution. You can +guess what that was. It was a wild, mad, perhaps a wicked resolution. +But such as it was--an ancestor in sterner times, writing in a book +which this man possessed, had said, 'Blood washes out shame!'--such as +it was he made it, and Heaven used it, and frustrated it in its own +time. The lad, now a man, following blind chance, as he thought, was +brought within a mile of this house--this one lonely house, of all +others in England, in which you live. But it was not chance which led +him, but Heaven's own guiding, to the end that his, Valentine Walton's +life, might be spared, and that you might be punished."</p> + +<p class="normal">Woolley struggled to reply. But the thought which the other's words +expressed was in his mind also, and held him dumb. How had Walton been +led to this house of all houses? Why had this forgotten sin risen up +now? He stood awhile speechless, glaring at Walton; aware, bitterly +aware, of what the listeners were thinking, and yet unable to say a +word in his defence. Then with an effort he became himself again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is your version, is it?" he said, with a jeering laugh which +failed to hide the effect the story had produced upon him. "You say +you are a thief? It is not worth my while to contradict you. And now, +if you please, we will descend from play-acting to business. You have +been very kind in arranging this little scene, Dr. Partridge, and I am +greatly obliged to you. I need only say that I shall take care to +repay you to the last penny."</p> + +<p class="normal">"First," the doctor said mildly, yet with dignity, "I should repay you +what I owe you--if you really want your money now, that is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Want it? Of course I do!" was the fierce rejoinder. The man's nature +was recovering from the shock, and in the rebound passion was getting +the upper hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," said the doctor firmly. "Then here it is." He pushed +aside a paper, and disclosed a small packet of notes and a pile of +gold and silver. "You will find the amount on that piece of paper, and +it includes your salary for the next quarter in lieu of notice. When +you have seen that it is correct I shall be glad to have your receipt, +and we will close our connection."</p> + +<p class="normal">The trapped man had one wish--to see them dead before him. But wishes +go for little, and in his rage and chagrin he clung to a shred of +pride. He would not own that he had been outgeneralled. He sat down +and wrote the quittance. The first pen--it was a quill--would not +write. He jabbed it violently on the table, and flung it with an oath +into the fireplace. But the next served him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have lent this money, I suppose," he said, looking at Walton as +he rose. "More fool you! You will never be repaid."</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not turn to Pleasance or look at her. He had come into the room +hoping to win her in spite of all. He went out--a stranger. Not even +their eyes had met. He had lost her, and revenge, and everything, save +his money.</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">Within doors a bedroom, littered and dismantled, showed a pile of +luggage stacked in the middle of the floor. Without was a grey cloudy +sky, such as we sometimes have in June, and a nipping east wind that +blew roughly; a wind almost visible to the man moodily gnawing his +nails at the window. He found no comfort within or without, in the +past or the future. Behind him he had a retrospect of humiliation, of +vain hopes and ambitions; before him no prospect but that dreary one +of starting afresh in a new place among new people, unfriended, save +by three thousand and odd pounds. It had come to this.</p> + +<p class="normal">"D----n him!" he whispered between his clenched teeth. It was no +formal expletive. He meant it--every letter of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">By and by he turned from the window, and his eyes fell on a small +article lying on the dressing-table. It was almost the only thing, +save a stout walking-stick, which he had not packed up. It was a +pistol. He had hit on it the day before in a dark nook behind the +medicine bottles in the surgery; and finding it in good condition, +with one barrel of the two undischarged, he had had no difficulty in +conjecturing whose it was and how it came there. No doubt it was +Walton's, the pistol with which he had shot himself--as indeed it was. +Nickson had brought it to the doctor, and the latter with a natural +distaste had thrust it into the first out-of-the-way place which lay +ready to his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">This piece of evidence Woolley presently put in his pocket, and taking +his stick left the room; leaving it, as he knew, for good, and not +without a last bitter glance round the place where he had slept, and +schemed, and hoped for two years. He went down the stairs, and through +the house to the back door, seeing no one except Daniel, who was +rubbing down the mare in the yard. To the surgeon's fancy the house, +as he passed through it, seemed abnormally still; as if in the hush +and silence which fall upon a house in the afternoon it awaited +something--as if it knew that something strange was in the air, and +all the stones were saying "Hist!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Shaking off this feeling, the surgeon took a back path, which, passing +through the shrubbery, came into the main drive near the white gate. +From that point the track mounted between the bracken-covered flanks +of the ravine until it emerged on the crown of the moor. In one place +both path and glen turned at a sharp angle, and Woolley at this corner +happened to lift his eyes. He stopped short with an exclamation. +Before him, strolling slowly along in the same direction as himself, +with his hands behind him and his eyes on the path, was the tall +gentleman--Walton.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" Woolley whispered to himself, hating the other the more for +falling in his way now, "the devil take you for a mooning lunatic! I +would like to give you in charge here, and this minute, and swear you +were going to try it again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed grimly at this, his first thought; a natural thought +enough, since his intention at starting had been to swear an +information against Walton, and get him locked up if possible; at any +rate, to cause him as much vexation as he could. But that first +natural thought led to another which drove the blood from his cheek +and kindled an unholy fire in his eyes. That revenge was a poor one. +But was there not another within his grasp? What if Walton were found +lying on the path shot and dead, his own pistol beside him?</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! what then? What would people say? Would they not say--would not +Nickson be ready to swear that the madman had done it again, and with +more thoroughness? Woolley's hand closed convulsively on the butt of +the weapon in his pocket. One barrel of it was still loaded. No one +had seen him take it. No one knew that he knew of its existence. Would +not even the doctor conclude that Walton had repossessed himself of +it, and in some temporary return of his moody aberration had used +it--this time with fatal effect?</p> + +<p class="normal">The perspiration stood on the tempted man's brow. Though the wind was +blowing keenly, and a wrack of white clouds was sweeping over his +head, the glen seemed to grow close and confined, roofed in by a +leaden sky. "It is a devil's thought!" he muttered, his eyes on the +figure before him, "a devil's thought!" At that moment there could be +no question with him of the existence of a devil. He felt him at his +elbow tempting him, promising revenge and impunity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! Not that!" He rather gasped the words than said them, yet gasped +them aloud, the more thoroughly to convince himself that he did reject +the idea. "Not that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">No, not that. Yet he began to walk on at a pace which must bring him +up with the other. His brain too dwelt on the ease and safety with +which he might carry out the scheme. He remembered that before he +turned the corner he had looked back and seen no one. Therefore for +some minutes he was secure from interruption from behind. All round +the ravine he could command the sky-line. There was one no visible. He +and Walton were alone. And he was overtaking Walton.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter heard him walking behind him, and turned and stopped. He +showed no surprise on discovering who his follower was, but spoke as +if he had eyes in his back, and had watched him drawing gradually +nearer. "I have been waiting for you, Woolley," he said. "I thought I +should meet you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you?" Woolley said softly, eying him in a curious fashion, and +himself very pale.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I wanted to say this to you." There the tall gentleman paused +and looked down, prodding the turf with his stick. He seemed to find a +difficulty in going on. "It is this," he continued at last. "I have +done you a mischief here, acting honestly, and doing only what seemed +to me to be right. But I have harmed you--that is the fact--and I am +anxious to know that you will not leave here a hardened man--a worse +man than I found you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," the other said. His lips were dry, and he moistened them +with his tongue. But he did not take his eyes from Walton's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you will let me know," the tall gentleman continued haltingly--he +was still intent upon the ground--"what your plans are, I will see if +I can further them. Until lately I thought you had spoiled my life, +and I bore you malice for it. I would have done you what harm I could. +Now----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think--I trust it may not be so. I have dwelt too much on that old +affair. I hope to begin a new life now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"With her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The tall gentleman looked up, as if the other had struck him. There +was menace in the tone, and menace more dreadful in the face and +gleaming eyes which he found confronting him. "You fool!" Woolley +hissed--passion in the calmness of his voice--and he took a step +nearer to the other. "You fool, to come and tell me this!--to come and +taunt me! <i>You</i> help me! <i>You</i> pardon me! <i>You</i> will not leave me +worse than you found me! Ay, but you will!" His voice rose. A wicked +smile nickered on his lips. His eyes still dwelling on the other's +face, he drew the pistol slowly from his pocket and levelled it at +Walton's head. "You will, for I--am going--to kill you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Walton heard the click of the hammer as it rose. For a second, during +which his tongue refused obedience, he tasted of the bitterness of the +cup which he had held to his own lips. It flashed across him, as his +heart gave a bound and stood still, that this was his punishment. Then +he recovered himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not before that child!" he said coolly. He forced his eyes to quit +the dark muzzle which threatened him and to glance aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no one there, but Woolley turned to look, and in an instant +Walton sprang upon him, and, knocking up the pistol with his stick, +closed with him. The one loaded barrel exploded in the air, and the +men went writhing and stumbling to and fro, Woolley striking savagely +at the other's face with the muzzle of the pistol. The taller man +contented himself with parrying these attacks, while he clutched +Woolley's left wrist with his disengaged hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently they were down in a heap together. Then they rose and drew +apart, breathless and dishevelled, but there remained unnoticed on the +ground between them a tiny white object, a small packet about the size +of a letter. It was very light, for in the twinkling of an eye the +wind turned it over and over, and carried it three or four paces away.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You villain!" Walton gasped, trembling with excitement. His nerves +were shaken as much by the narrowness of his escape as by the +struggle. "You would have murdered me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would!" the other said, with vengeful emphasis, and the two men +stood a moment glaring at one another. Meanwhile the wind, toying with +the white packet, rolled it slowly along the path; then, getting under +it at a place where a break in the ridge produced an eddy, it began to +hoist it merrily up the slope. At this point Walton's eye, straying +for a second from his opponent, alighted on it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just then Woolley spoke. "You have had a lucky escape!" he said, with +a reckless gesture, half menace, half farewell. "Good-bye! Don't come +across my path again, or you will fail to come off so easily. And +don't--don't, you fool!" he added, returning in a fresh fit of anger +when he had already turned his back, "pat a man on the head when you +have got him down, or he will----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stopped short, his hand at his breast pocket. For a moment, while +his face underwent a marvellous change, he searched frantically in the +pocket, in other pockets. "My notes!" he panted. "They were here! +Where are they?" Then a dreadful expression of rage and suspicion +distorted his features, and he advanced on Walton, his hands +outstretched. "What have you done with them?" he cried, scarcely able +to articulate. "Where are they?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There!" the other answered sternly. He pointed to a little space of +clear turf halfway up the slope. On this the white packet could be +seen fluttering gently over and over. "There! But if you are not +pretty quick, you villain, you will pay a heavy price for this +business!"</p> + +<p class="normal">With an oath Woolley turned and started up the hill, the tall man +watching his exertions with grim satisfaction. The pursuer speedily +overtook the notes, but to gain possession of them was a different +matter. Three times he stooped to clutch them, and three times a +mischievous gust swept them away. Then he tripped and fell, and his +hat tumbled off, and his oaths flew freely on the breeze.</p> + +<p class="normal">Altogether it was not a dignified retreat, but it was a very +characteristic one. The last time Walton got a glimpse of him, he was +on the crown of the hill. He was still running, bent double with his +face to the ground, and his hand outstretched. Walton never saw him +again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter, getting back to the house unnoticed, said nothing for the +time of what had happened. But at night before he went to bed he told +the doctor. "He ought to go to prison!" the latter said sternly. He +was shocked beyond measure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So ought I," said Walton, "if it is to come to prisons."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pish!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A little word, but it cheered the tall gentleman, who, notwithstanding +his escape, stood in need of cheering. He had not seen Pleasance since +she had escaped from the room after hearing his explanation. She might +have taken his story in many different ways, and he was anxious to +know in which way she had taken it. But all day she had not shown +herself. Even at dinner the doctor apologised for her absence. "She is +not very well," he said. "She was a little upset this morning." And of +course the tall gentleman accepted the excuse with a heavy heart, and +presaged the worst.</p> + +<p class="normal">But dressing next morning he caught sight of Pleasance on the lawn. +She was walking with her father--talking to him earnestly, as Walton +could see. Apparently she was urging him to some course of action, and +the doctor, with his hands under his coattails, was assenting with a +poor grace.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Walton descended, however, they were already seated at breakfast, +and nothing was said during the meal either of this prelude or of what +was in their minds. But presently, when the doctor rose, he had +something to say. It was something which it went against the grain to +say; for he walked to the door--they were breakfasting in the hall, +and it stood open--and looked out as if he had more mind to fly than +speak. But he returned suddenly, and sat down with a bump.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Walton," he said, his florid face more florid than usual, "I +think there is something I ought to tell you. I do not think that I +can repay you the money you have advanced. And the place is not worth +it. What am I to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do?" the other said, looking up. "Take another cup of tea, as I am +doing, and think no more about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is impossible," Pleasance cried impulsively. She turned red the +next instant, under the tall gentleman's eyes. She had not meant to +interfere.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" he said, rising from his chair. "Then please listen to me. +There came to a certain house a man who had been a thief."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" she said firmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A man hopeless and despairing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alas! yes," he answered, shaking his head soberly. "These are facts."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no, no!" she cried. There were tears in her eyes. "I do not want +to hear. I care nothing for facts!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not hear me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Something in her face, her voice, the pose of her figure told him the +truth. "If you will not listen to me," he said, leaning with both +hands on the table and speaking in a voice scarcely audible to the +doctor, "I will not say what I was going to propose. If I must be +repaid, I must. But you must repay me, Pleasance. Will you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor did not wait to hear the answer. He found the open door +very convenient. He got away and to horse with a lighter heart than he +had carried under his waistcoat for months. He felt no great doubt +about the answer; and indeed all that June morning, which was by good +luck as fine as the preceding one had been gloomy, while he rode from +house to house with an unprofessional smile on his lips and in his +eyes, the two left at home walked up and down the lawn in the +sunshine, planning the life which lay before them, and of which every +day was to be as cloudless as this day. A hundred times they passed +and repassed the old sundial, but it was nothing to them. Lovers count +only the hours when the sun does <i>not</i> shine.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE COLONEL'S BOY</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">THE COLONEL'S BOY</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A stranger, coming upon the Colonel as he sat in the morning-room of +the club and read his newspaper with an angelic smile, would have +sought for another copy of the paper and searched its columns with +pleasant anticipations. But I knew better. I knew that the Colonel, +though he had put on his glasses and was pretending to cull the news, +was only doing what I believe he did after lunch and after dinner, and +after he got into bed, and at every one of those periods when the old +campaigner, with a care for his digestion and his conscience, selects +some soothing matter for meditation. He was thinking of his boy; and I +went up to him and smacked him on the shoulder. "Well, Colonel," I +said, "how is Jim?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo! Why, it's Jolly Joe Bratton!" he replied, dropping his +glasses, and gripping my hand tightly--for we did not ride and tie at +Inkerman for nothing. "The very man I wanted to see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Jim, Colonel? How is the boy?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, just as fit as a--a middy on shore!" he answered, speaking +cheerfully, yet, it seemed to me, with an effort; so that I wondered +whether anything was wrong with the boy--a little bill or some small +indiscretion, such as might be pardoned in as fine a lad as ever +stepped, with a six-months'-old commission, a new uniform, and a +station fifty minutes from London. "But come," the Colonel continued +before I could make my comment, "you have lunched, Joe? Will you take +a turn?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," I said; "on one condition--that you let Kitty give you a +cup of tea afterwards."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a bargain!" he answered. And we went into the hall. Every one +knows the "Junior United" hall. I had taken down my hat, and was +stepping back from the rack, when some one coming downstairs two +at a time--that is the worst of having any one under field rank in a +club--hit me sharply with his elbow. Perhaps my coat fits a bit +tightly round the waist nowadays, and perhaps not; any way, I +particularly object to being poked in the back--it may be a fad, or it +may not--and I turned round and cried "Confound----"</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not say any more, for I saw who had done it. My gentleman +stammered a confused apology, and taking a letter which it seemed I +had knocked out of his hand, from the Colonel, who had politely picked +it up, he passed into the morning-room with a red face. "Clumsy +scoundrel!" I said, but not so loudly that he could hear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo!" the Colonel exclaimed, standing still, and looking at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" I said, perhaps rather testily. "What is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not on very good terms with young Farquhar, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not on any terms at all with him," I answered grumpily.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Colonel whistled. "Indeed!" he said, looking down at me with a +kind of wistfulness in his eyes; Dick is tall, and I am--well, I was +up to standard once. "I thought--that is, Jim told me--that he was a +good deal about your house, Joe. And I rather gathered that he was +making up to Kitty, don't you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You did, did you?" I grunted. "Well, perhaps he was, and perhaps he +wasn't. Any way, she is not for him. And he would not take an answer, +the young whipper-snapper!" I continued, giving my anger a little +vent, and feeling all the better for it. "He came persecuting her, if +you want to know. And I had to show him the door."</p> + +<p class="normal">I think I never saw a man--certainly on the steps of the "Junior +United"--look more pleased than the Colonel looked at that moment. +"Gad!" he said, "Then Jim will have a chance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ho! ho!" I answered, chuckling. "The wind sets in that quarter, does +it? A chance? I should think he would have a chance, Colonel!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you would not object?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Object?" I said. "Why, it would make me the happiest man in the +world, Dick. Are we not the oldest friends? And I have only Kitty and +you have only Jim. Why, it is--it is just Inkerman over again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Really it was, and we stumped down the steps in great delight. Only I +felt a little anxious about Kitty's answer, for though I had a +suspicion that her affections were inclined in the right direction, I +could not be sure. The young soldier might not have won her heart as +he had mine: so that I was still more pleased when the Colonel +informed me that he believed Jim intended to put it to the test this +very afternoon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is at home," I said, standing still.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ha! ha! ha!" he responded, taking my arm to lead me on.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I declined to move. "I'll tell you what," I said--"it is a quarter +to four; if Jim has not popped the question by now, he is not the man +I think him. Let us go home, Colonel, and hear the news."</p> + +<p class="normal">He demurred a little, but I had him in a hansom in the time it takes +to blow "Lights out," and we were bowling along Piccadilly in two +minutes more. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation, and, following the +direction of his hand, I was in time to catch a glimpse of Jim's +face--no other's--as he shot past us in a cab going eastwards. It left +us in no doubt, for the lad's cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, and as he swept by and saw us, he raised his hat with a +gesture of triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gad!" the Colonel exclaimed, "I'll bet a guinea he has kissed her! +Happy dog!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tra! la! la!" I answered. "I dare swear we shall not find Kitty in +tears."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the cab swerved to one +side, throwing me against my companion. I heard our driver shout, and +caught sight of a bareheaded man mixed up with the near shaft. The +next moment we gave a lurch and stopped, and a crowd came round us. +The Colonel was the first out, but I joined him as quickly as I could. +"I do not think he is much hurt, sir," I heard the policeman say. "He +is drunk, I fancy. Come, old chap, pull yourself together," he +continued, giving a shake to the grey-haired man whom he and a +bystander were supporting. "There, hold up now. Here is your hat. You +are all right."</p> + +<p class="normal">And sure enough the man, whose red nose and shabby attire lent +probability to the policeman's charge, managed when left to himself to +keep his balance; but with some wavering. "Hallo!" he muttered, +looking uncertainly upon the crowd round him. "Is my son here to take +me home? Isaac? Where is Isaac?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He's one part shaken," the policeman said, viewing him with an air of +experience. "And three parts drunk. He had better go to the station."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where do you live?" the Colonel asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Greek Street, Soho, number twenty-seven, top floor"--this was +answered glibly enough. "And I'll tell you what," the man added with a +drunken hiccough and a reel which left him on the policeman's +shoulder--"if any gentleman will take another gentleman home, I will +make him rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I'll present him his +weight in gold. That I will. His weight in gold!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think----" the Colonel began, turning and meeting my eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"His weight in gold!" murmured the drunken man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite so!" I said, accepting the Colonel's unspoken suggestion. "We +will see him home, policeman." And paying our cabman, I hailed a +crawling four-wheeler, into which the officer bundled our man. We got +in, and in a moment were jolting eastwards at a snail's pace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps we might have sent some one with him," the Colonel said, +looking at me apologetically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all!" I answered. I have no doubt that we both had the same +feeling, that, happy ourselves, it behooved us to do a good turn to +this poor wretch, whose shaking hands and tattered clothes showed that +he had almost reached the bottom of the hill. I have seen more than +one brother officer, once as gallant a lad as Jim, brought as low; +and, perhaps, but for Providence, old Joe Bratton himself---- But +there, it may have been some such thought as this, or it may have been +an extra glass of sherry at lunch, made us take the man home. We did +it; and the Lord only knows why fellows do things--good or bad.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hauling out our charge at the door of twenty-seven, we guided him up +the dingy stairs, the gibberish which he never ceased to repeat about +the dreams of avarice and our weight in gold sounding ten times as +absurd on the common stairs of this dirty tenth-rate lodging-house. +The attic gained, he straightened himself, and, winking at us with +drunken gravity, he laid his hand upon the latch of one of the doors. +"You shall see--what you shall see!" he muttered, and throwing open +the door he stumbled into the room. The Colonel raised his eyebrows in +a protest against our folly, but entered after him, and I followed.</p> + +<p class="normal">We found only one person in the garret, which was as miserable and +poverty-stricken as a room could be; and he rose and faced us with an +exclamation of anger. He was a young fellow, twenty years old perhaps, +of middle size, sallow and dark-eyed; to my thinking half-starved. The +drunken man seemed unaware of his feelings, however; for he balanced +himself on the floor between us, and waved his hand towards him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here you are, gentlemen!" he cried. "I'm a man of my word! Let me +introduce you! My son, Isaac Gold. Did not I tell you? Present +you--your weight in gold--or nearly so!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father!" the lad said, eyeing him gloomily, "go and lie down."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Great joke! Your weight in gold, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your father was knocked down by a cab," the Colonel said quietly, +"and finding that he was not able to take care of himself we brought +him home."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man looked at us furtively, but he did not answer. Instead, +he took his father by the arm and forced him gently to a mattress +which lay in one corner, half hidden by a towel-rail--the latter +bearing a shirt, evidently home-washed and hung out to dry. Twice the +old fool started up muttering the same rubbish; but the third time he +went off into a heavy sleep. There was something pitiful to my eyes in +the boy's patience with him: so that when the lad turned to us at +last, and, with eyes which resented our presence, bade us begone if we +had satisfied our curiosity, I was not surprised that the Colonel held +his ground. "I am afraid you are badly off," he said gently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's that to you?" was the other's insolent reply. "Do you want to +be paid for your services?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Steady! steady, my lad!" I put in. "You get nothing by that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I know you," the Colonel continued, regarding him steadily. +"There was a charge preferred against you, or some one of your name, a +few weeks ago, of personating a candidate at the examination for +commissions in the army. The charge failed, I know."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man's colour rose as the Colonel spoke. But his manner +indicated rather triumph than shame, and his dark eyes sparkled with +malice as he retorted: "It failed? Yes, you are right there. You have +been in the army yourself, I dare say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have," the Colonel said gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An honourable profession, is it not?" the lad continued in a tone of +mockery. "How many of your young friends, do you think, pass in +honestly? It is a competitive examination, too, mind you. And how many +do you think employ me--me--to pass for them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You should be ashamed to boast of it," the Colonel replied, "if you +are not afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what should they be? Tell me that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are mean fellows, whoever they are."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So! so! You think so!" the young man laughed triumphantly. And then +all at once the light seemed to die out of his clever face, and I saw +before me only a half-starved lad, with his shabby clerk's coat +buttoned up to his throat to hide the want of a shirt. The same change +was visible, I think, to the Colonel's eye; for he looked at me and +muttered something about the cab. Understanding that he wanted a word +with the young fellow alone, I went to the window and for a moment or +so pretended to gaze through its murky panes. When I turned, the two +men were talking by the door; the drunken father was snoring behind +his improvised screen; and on a painted deal table beside me I +remarked the one and only article of luxury in the room--a small +soiled album. With a grunt I threw it open. It disclosed the portraits +of two lads, simpering whiskerless faces, surmounting irreproachable +dog-collars and sporting pins. I turned a page and came on two more +bearing a family resemblance in features, dog-collars, and pins to the +others. I turned again with a pish! and a pshaw! and found a vacant +place, and opposite it--a portrait of Jim!</p> + +<p class="normal">I stared at it for a moment in unthinking wonder, and then in a +twinkling it flashed across me what these portraits were, and above +all, what this portrait of Jim, placed in this scoundrel's album +meant. I remembered how anxious the Colonel had been as the lad's +examination drew near; how bitterly he had denounced the competitive +system, and vowed a dozen times a day that, what with pundits and +crammers and young officers who should have been girls and gone to +Girton, the service was going to the dogs. "To the dogs, do you hear +me, sir!" And then I recalled his great relief when the boy came out +quite high up; and the change which had at once taken place in his +sentiments. "We must move with the times, sir; it is no good running +your head against a brick wall! We must move with the times, begad!" +and so forth. And--well, I let fall a pretty strong word, at which the +Colonel turned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it, Major?" he said. But, seeing me standing motionless by +the window, he turned again and spoke to the young man beside him. +"Well, think about it, and let me know at that address. Now," he +continued, advancing towards me, "what is it, Joe?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is what?" I said. I had shut the album by this time, and was +standing between him and the table on which it lay. I do not know +why--perhaps it came of the kindness he had been doing--but I noticed +in a way I had never noticed before what a fine figure of a man, tall +and straight, my old comrade still was. And a bit of a dimness, such +as I have experienced once or twice lately when I have taken a third +glass of sherry at lunch, came over my sight. "Confound it!" I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something in my eye!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me get it out," he said--always the kindest fellow under the sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! I'll get it out myself!" I snarled like a bear with a sore head. +And, without stopping to explain I plunged out of the room and down +the stairs. The Colonel, wondering no doubt what was the matter with +me, followed more at his leisure, after pausing to say a last word to +the young rascal at the door, whom I had not had the patience to speak +to: so that I had already closed a warm dispute with the cabman, by +sending him off with a flea in his ear and his fare to a sixpence, +when the Colonel overtook me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is up, Joe?" he asked, laying his hand on my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That d----d dizziness came over me again. But there, I have always +said the '73 sherry at the club is not sound. I do not feel quite up +to the mark," I continued with truth. "I think I will go home alone, +Colonel--for to-day, if you do not mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do mind," he said stoutly. "You may want an arm." But somehow I +made it clear to him that I would rather go alone, and that the walk +would do me good, and he got into a hansom at last and drove off, his +grey moustache and fine old nose peering at me round the side of the +cab, until a corner hid him altogether.</p> + +<p class="normal">I walked on a few paces, waving my umbrella cheerfully. Then I +stopped, and, retracing my steps, I mounted the staircase of +twenty-seven, and without parley opened the door. The young fellow we +had left was pacing the floor, turning over in his mind, I fancied, +what the Colonel had said to him. He stood still on seeing me, and +then glanced round the room. "Have you forgotten anything?" he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, young man," I answered. "I want to ask you a question."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can ask," he replied, eyeing me askance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That album," I said, pointing to it--"it contains, I suppose, the +photographs of the people you have been employed to personate?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But does it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not know," he said slowly, the most provoking manner, "that I +had to do with a detective. What is the charge?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no charge," I answered, keeping my temper really admirably. +"But I have seen the face of a friend of mine in that book, and I'll in +a word, I'll be hanged, young man, if I don't learn all about it!" I +continued. "All--do you hear? So there! Now, out with it, and do not +keep me waiting, you young rascal!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He only whistled and stared; and finding I was getting a little warm, +I took out my handkerchief, and wiping my forehead, sat down, the +thought of the Colonel's grief taking all the strength out of me. +"Look here," I said in a different tone, "I'll take back what I have +just said, and I give you my word of honour I do not want to harm +the--the gentleman. But I have seen his portrait, and, if I know no +more, must think the worse. Now I will give you a ten-pound note if +you will answer three questions."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head; but I saw that he wavered. "I did not show you the +portrait," he said. "If you have seen it, that is your business. I +will name no names."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I want none," I answered. I threw open the album at the tell-tale +photograph, and laid my shaky finger on the face. "Was this sent to +you that you might personate the original?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"From what place?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He considered a moment. Then he said reluctantly: "From Frome, in +Somerset, I believe."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Last year?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. Alas! Jim had been at a crammer's near Frome. Jim had +passed his examination during the last year. I took out the money and +gave it to the man; and a minute later I was standing in the street +with a sentence common enough at mess in the old days, ringing in my +ears: "Refer it to the Colonel! He is the soul of honour."</p> + +<p class="normal">The soul of honour! Ay! And what would he think of this? The soul of +honour! And his son, his son Jim, had done this! I walked through the +streets, lost in amazement. I had loved the boy right well myself, and +was ready to choke on my own account when I thought of him. But his +father--I knew that his father was wrapped up in him. His father had +been a mother to him as well, and that for years--had bought him toys +as a lad, and furnished his quarters later with things of which only a +mother would have thought. It would kill his father.</p> + +<p class="normal">I wiped my forehead as I thought of this and put my latchkey into the +door in Pont Street. I walked in with a heavy sigh--I do not know that +I ever entered with so sad a heart--and the next moment, with a +flutter of skirts, Kitty was out of the dining-room, where I do not +doubt she had been watching for me, and in my arms. Before Heaven! +until I saw her I had not thought of her--I had never considered her +at all in connection with this matter! No, nor how I should deal with +her, until I heard her say, with her face on my shoulder, and her eyes +looking into mine: "Oh, father, father, I am happy! Be the first to +wish me joy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wish her joy! I could not. I could only mutter, "Wait, girl--wait, +wait!" and lead her into the dining-room, and, turning my back on her, +go to the window and look out--though for all I saw I might have had +my head in a soot-bag. She was alarmed of course--but to save her that +I could not face her. She came after me and clung to my arm, asking me +again and again what it was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, nothing," I said. "There--wait a minute; don't you know that +I shall lose you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father," she said, trying to look into my face, "it is not that. You +know you will not lose me! There is something else the matter. There +is something you are hiding from me! Ah! Jim went in a cab, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jim is all right." I answered, feeling her hand fall from my arm. "In +that way at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I am not afraid," she answered stoutly, "if you and Jim are all +right."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look here, Kitty," I said, making up my mind, "sit down, I want to +talk to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did sit down, and I told her all. With some girls it might not +have been the best course; but Kitty is not like most of the girls I +meet nowadays--of whom one half are blue stockings, with no more +fitness for the duties of wives and mothers than the statuettes in a +shop window, and the other half are misses in white muslin, who are +always giggling pertly or sitting with their thumbs in their mouths. +Kitty is a companion, a helpmeet, God bless her! She knows that +Wellington did not fight at Blenheim, and she does not think that +Lucknow is in the Crimea. She knows so much, though she knows no Greek +and she loves dancing--her very eyes dance at the thought of it. But +she would rather sit at home with the man she loves than waltz at +Marlborough House. And if she has not learned a little fortification +on the sly, and does not know how many men stand between Jim and his +company--I am a Dutchman! Lord! when I see a man marry a doll with a +pretty face--not that Kitty has not a pretty face, and a sweet one +too, no thanks to her father--I wonder whether he has considered what +it will be to sit opposite my lady at, say, twenty thousand nine +hundred meals on an average! That is the test, sir.</p> + +<p class="normal">So I told Kitty all, and the way she took it showed me that I was +right. "What?" she exclaimed, when I had finished the story, to which +she had listened, with her face turned from me, and her arm on the +mantelpiece, "is that all, father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear," I said sadly, "you do not understand." I remembered how +often I had heard--and sometimes noticed--that women's ideas of honour +differ from men's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Understand!" she retorted, turning upon me, fiery hot. "I understand +that you think Jim has done this mean, miserable, wretched thing. +Father," she continued, with sudden gravity, and she laid both her +hands on my shoulders, so that her brave eyes looked into my eyes, "if +three people came to you and told you that I had gone into your +bedroom and taken money from the cash-box in your cupboard to pay a +bill of mine, and that when I had done it I had kept it from you, and +told stories about it--if three, four, five people told you that they +had seen me do it, would you believe them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Kitty," I said, smiling against my will, "not though five angels +told me so, my dear. I know you too well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, sir, though five angels told me this, I would not believe it! Do +you think I do not know him--and love him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">And the foolish girl, who had begun to waltz round the room like a mad +thing, stopped and looked at me with tears in her eyes and her lips +quivering.</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not but take some comfort from her confidence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"True," I said. "The Colonel brought him up, and it seems hardly +possible that the lad should turn out so bad. But the photograph, my +girl--the photograph? What do you say to that? It was Jim, I swear. I +could not be mistaken. There could not be another so like him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no one like him," she said softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well. And then I have noticed that he has been in bad spirits +lately. I'm afraid--I'm afraid a bad conscience, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You dear old donkey!" she answered, shaking me with both her hands. +"That was about me. He has told me all that. He thought Mr. +Farquhar--Mr. Farquhar, indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, that was it, was it?" I said. "Well, that may account for his +depression. But look you here, Kitty; was he not rather nervous about +his examination?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A little," she answered with reluctance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, nonetheless, did he not come out pretty high?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Seventeenth. Thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty-six marks," +Kitty replied glibly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so! And if he had failed he would have suffered in your eyes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a scrap. And, besides, he did not fail," she retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he may have thought he would suffer," I answered, "if he failed. +That would be a sharp temptation, Kitty."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not reply at once. She was busy rolling up a ribbon of her +frock into the smallest possible compass, and unrolling it again. At +last--it was clear I had made her think--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know he did not do it," she said, "but that is all I do know. I +cannot prove to you that white is not black; but it is not, and I know +it is not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, my dear, I hope you are right," I answered. And it cheered me +to find that she held him worthy of confidence.</p> + +<p class="normal">She promised readily to let me have the first word with the lad +when he called next day. And as for undertaking to have nothing more +to do with him if the charge proved to be true, she made nothing of +that--because, as she said, it meant nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A Jim who had done that would not be my Jim at all," she explained +gaily, "but quite a different Jim--a James, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly, a girl's faith is a wonderful thing. And hers so far +affected me that I regretted I had not taken a bolder course, and, +showing the photograph to the Colonel, had the whole thing threshed +out on the spot. Possibly I might have saved myself a very wretched +hour or two. But no; on second thoughts I could not see how the boy +could be innocent. I could not help piecing the evidence together--the +damning evidence, as it seemed to me; the certain identity of Jim with +the original of the photograph, the arrival of the latter from Frome, +where the lad had spent the last weeks previous to his examination, +the fears he had expressed before the ordeal, and his success beyond +his hopes at it; these things seemed almost conclusive. I had only the +boy's character, his father's training, and his sweetheart's faith, to +set against them.</p> + +<p class="normal">His sweetheart's faith, did I say? Ah, well! when I came down to +breakfast next morning, whom should I find in tears--and she, as a +rule, the most equable girl in the world--but Kitty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo!" I said. "What is all this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">At the sound of my voice she sprang to her feet. She had been +kneeling by the fireplace groping with her hands inside the fender. +Her cheeks were crimson, and she was crying--yes, certainly crying, +although she tried by a hasty dab of the flimsy thing she calls a +pocket-handkerchief to remove the traces.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well!" I said, for she was dumb. "What is it, my dear?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have--torn up a letter," she answered, a little sob dividing the +sentence into two.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I see," I answered dryly. "And now, I suppose, you are sorry for +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was a horrid letter, father," she cried, her eyes shining like +electric lamps in a shower--"about Jim."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed," I said, with a very nasty feeling inside me. "What about +Jim? And why did you tear it up, my dear? One half of it, I should +say, has gone into the fire."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was from--a woman!" she answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">And presently she told me that the letter, which was unsigned, +asserted that Jim had played with the affections of the writer, and +warned Kitty to be on her guard against him, and not to be a party to +the wrong he was doing an innocent girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pooh!" I said, with a contemptuous laugh. "That cock will not fight, +my dear. It has been tried over and over again. You do not mean to say +that that has made you cry? Why, if so, you are--you are just as big a +fool as any girl I know."</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, I was surprised to find Kitty's faith in her lover, which +had been proof against a charge made on the best of evidence, fail +before an unsigned accusation--because, forsooth, it mentioned a +woman. "What postmark did it bear?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Frome," she murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was certainly odd--very odd. Pretty devilments I knew those +fellows at crammers' were up to sometimes. Could it be that we were +mistaken in Master Jim, as I have once or twice known a lad's family +to be mistaken in him? Was he all the time an out-and-out bad one? Or +had he some enemy at Frome plotting against his happiness? This seemed +most unlikely and absurd besides; since we had lit upon Isaac Gold by +a chance, and on the portrait by a chance within a chance, and no +enemy, however acute--not Machiavelli himself--could have foreseen the +<i>rencontre</i> or arranged the circumstances which had led me to the +photograph. Therefore, though the anonymous letter might be the work +of an ill-wisher, I did not see how the other could be. However, I +gathered up the few fragments of writing which had escaped the fire, +and put them aside, to serve, if need be, for evidence.</p> + +<p class="normal">On one thing I was making up my mind, however--I must put an end to +the matter between Jim and my girl unless he could clear himself of +these suspicions--when what should I hear but his voice, and his +father's, in the hall. There is something in the sound of a familiar +voice which so recalls our knowledge of the speaker that I know +nothing which pierces the cloud of doubt more thoroughly. At any rate, +when the two came in, I jumped up and gave a hand to each. Behind +Jim's back one might suspect him: confronted by his open eyes, and his +brown, honest, boyish face--well, by the Lord! I could as soon suspect +my old comrade, God bless him!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jim," I found myself saying, his hand in mine, and every one of my +prudent resolutions gone to the wind, "Jim, my boy, I am a happy man. +Take her and be good to her, and God bless you! No, Colonel, no," I +continued in desperate haste, "I do not ask a question. Let the lad +take her. If your son cannot be trusted no one can. There, I am glad +that is settled."</p> + +<p class="normal">I verily believe I was almost blubbering; and though I said only what +I should have said if this confounded matter had never arisen, I let +drop, it seems, enough to set the Colonel questioning, for in five +minutes I had told him the whole story of the photograph.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was pleasant to observe his demeanour. Though he never for a moment +lost his faith in Jim--mind, he had not seen the portrait--and his +eyes continued to shoot little glances of confidence at his son, he +drew back his chair and squared his shoulders, and assumed a judicial +air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, sir," he said, with his hands on his knees, "this must be +explained. We are much obliged to the Major for bringing it to our +notice. You will be good enough to explain, my lad."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim did explain; or, rather, he answered frankly that he had never +heard Isaac Gold's name before and certainly had never given him a +photograph, and I believed him. Then he jumped up with his usual +impetuosity and proposed to go at once to Gold's house and see the +photograph, and I was delighted. In half a minute we were all three in +a cab, and in twenty more had the good luck to discover old Gold alone +at home. A five-shilling piece slipped into the drunkard's hand +sufficed to obtain for us the view we desired.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose it <i>is</i> a likeness of me," Jim murmured, looking hard at +the photograph.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly it is!" the Colonel replied rather curtly. Up to this +moment he had thought me deceived by a chance resemblance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then let us see who took it, and where it was printed," Jim answered +in a matter-of-fact tone. "I do not believe I have ever been taken in +this dress. See, it bears no photographer's name; so an amateur has +taken it. Let me think."</p> + +<p class="normal">While he thought, old Gold pottered about the open door of the room on +the watch for Isaac's return. "Yes," Jim said at last, "I think I have +it. I was photographed in this dress as one of a group before a meet +of the hounds at Old Bulcher's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At Frome?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. And this has been enlarged, I have no doubt, from the head in +the group. But why, or who has done it, or how it comes to be here, I +give you my honour, sir, I know no more than you do."</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment young Gold's footsteps were heard ascending. He seemed +to have some suspicion that his secrets were in danger, for he came up +the stairs three at a time, and bounced into the room--looking for a +moment, as his eyes alighted on us and the open album, as if he would +knock us down. When his glance fell on Jim, however, a change came +over him. It was singular to see the two looking at one another, Jim +eyeing him with the supercilious stare of the boy-officer, and young +Gold returning the look with a covert recognition in his defiant eyes. +"Well," said Jim, "do you know me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have never seen you before, to my knowledge."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you will explain how you came by this photograph?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is my business!" said Gold sternly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, is it?" retorted Jim with fire. "We will see about that." I think +it annoyed him, as it certainly did me, to detect in the other's +glance and tone a subtle meaning--a covert understanding. "If you do +not explain, I'll--I will call in the police, my man."</p> + +<p class="normal">But here the Colonel interfered. He told me afterwards that he felt +some sympathy for Gold. He silenced Jim, and, telling the other that +he should hear from him again, he led us downstairs. I noticed that, +as we passed into the street, he slipped his arm through his son's, +and I have no doubt he managed to convey to the young fellow as +plainly as by words that his faith was unshaken.</p> + +<p class="normal">Very naturally, however, Jim was not satisfied with this or with the +present position of things; which was certainly puzzling. "But, look +here!" he said, standing still in the middle of the pavement, "what is +to be done, sir? That fellow believes or pretends to believe, though +he will not say a word, that I have used him to do my dirty work. And +I have not! Then why the deuce does he parade my photograph? Do you +think--by George! I believe I have got it--do you think it is a case +of blackmail?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," the Colonel said with decision, "it cannot be. We came upon the +photograph by the purest accident. It was not sent to us, or used +against you. No! But see here!" The Colonel in his turn stopped in the +middle of the pavement and struck the latter with his stick. He had +got his idea, and his eyes sparkled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" we said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Suppose some other fellow employed Gold to pass the examination, and, +having this very fear--of being blackmailed--in his mind, got a +photograph of a friend tolerably like himself? And sent it up instead +of his own? What then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What then? Precisely!" I said. And we all nodded at one another like +so many Chinese mandarins, and the Colonel looked proudly at his son, +as though saying, "Now what do you think of your father, my boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you have hit it, sir!" Jim said, answering the unspoken +question. "There were nearly thirty fellows at Bulcher's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And among them there was one low rascal--a low rascal, sir," replied +the Colonel, his eyes sparkling, "who did not even trust his companion +in iniquity, but arranged to have an answer ready if his accomplice +turned upon him! 'I suborned him?' he resolved to say--'I deny it. He +has my name pat enough, but has he any proof? A photograph? But that +is not my photograph!' Do you see, Major?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see," I said. "And now come home with me, both of you, and we will +talk it over with Kitty."</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time, however, it was two o'clock. Jim, who had only come up +for an hour or two, found he must resign the hope of seeing Kitty +to-day, and take a cab to Charing Cross if he would catch his train. +The Colonel had a luncheon engagement--for which he was already late. +And so we separated then and there in something of a hurry. When I got +back the first question Kitty--who, you may be sure, met me in the +hall--asked was: "Where is Jim, father?" The second: "And what does he +say about the letter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God bless my soul!" I exclaimed, "I never gave a thought to the +letter! I am afraid I never mentioned it, my dear. I was thinking +about the photograph. I fancy we have got to something like the bottom +of that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pooh!" she said. And, she pretended to take very little interest in +the explanation I gave her, though--the sly little cat!--when I +dropped the subject, she was quite ready to take it up again, rather +than not talk about Jim at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">I am sometimes late for breakfast; she rarely or never. But next +morning on entering the dining-room I found the table laid for one +only, and Matthews, the maid, waiting modestly before the coffeepot. +"Where is Miss Bratton?" I said grumpily, taking the <i>Times</i> from the +fender. "Miss Kitty had a headache," was the answer, "and is taking a +cup of tea in bed, sir." "Ho, ho!" thought I, "this comes of being in +love! Confound the lads! Sausage? No, I won't have sausage. Who the +deuce ordered sausages at this time of year? Bacon? Seems half done. +This coffee is thick. There, that will do! That will do. Don't rattle +those cups and saucers all day! Confound the girl!--do you hear? You +can go!" The way women bully a man when they get him alone is a +caution.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I returned from my morning stroll, I heard voices in the +dining-room, and looked in to see how Kitty was. Well, she was--in +brief, there was a scene going on. Miss Kitty, her cheeks crimson and +her eyes bright, was standing with her back to the window; and facing +her, half angry and half embarrassed, was Jim. "Hoity, toity, you +two!" I said, closing the door behind me. "These are early times for +this kind of thing. What is up?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll be hanged if I know, sir!" Jim answered, looking rather foolish.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What have you got there, my dear?" I continued, for Kitty had one +hand behind her, and I was not slow to connect this hand with the +expression on her pretty face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He knows," she said, trembling with anger--the little vixen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know nothing!" Jim returned sheepishly. "I came in, and when +I--Kitty flew out and attacked me, don't you see, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, my dear," I answered, "if you do not feel able to explain, +Jim had better go. Only, if he goes now, of course I cannot say when +he will come back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will come back, Kitty, whenever you want me," said the young fool.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shut your mouth, sir," I shouted. "Now, Kitty, attend to me. What is +it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ask him--to whom he gave his photograph at Frome!" she said, in a +breathless sort of way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"His photograph? Why, that is just what we were talking about +yesterday," I replied sharply. "I thought it did not interest you, my +girl, when I told you all about it last night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That photograph!"--with withering contempt--"I do not mean <i>that!</i> Do +you think I suspect him of <i>that?</i>" She stepped forward as though to +go to him, and her face altered wonderfully. Then she recollected +herself and fell back. "No," she said coldly, "to what woman, sir, did +you give your photograph at Frome?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To no woman at all," he said emphatically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then look at this!" she retorted. She held out as she spoke a +photograph, which I identified at once as the portrait we had seen at +Gold's, or a copy of that one. I snatched it from Jim. "Where did you +get this, my girl?" I asked briskly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It came this morning--with another letter from that woman," she +murmured.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think she began to feel ashamed of herself; and in two minutes I got +the letter from her. It was written by the same hand as the letter of +the day before, and was, like it, unsigned. It merely said that the +writer, in proof of her good faith, enclosed a photograph which Master +Jim--that gay Lothario!--had given her. We were still looking at the +letter, when the Colonel came in. I explained the matter to him, and I +will answer for it, before he understood it, Kitty was more ashamed of +herself than ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This photograph and the one at Gold's are facsimiles," said he +thoughtfully. "That is certain. And both come from Frome. Doesn't it +seem probable that the gentleman who obtained Jim's photograph for his +own purpose last year--to send to Gold--printed off more than one +copy? And having this one by him, and wishing to cause mischief +between Kitty and Jim, thought of this and used it? The sender is, +therefore, some one who passed his examination last year and is still +at Frome."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he passed, sir, he would not be at Bulcher's now," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On second thoughts he may not be," the Colonel replied. "He may have +sent the two letters to Frome to a confidential friend with orders to +post them. Wait--wait a minute," my old chum added, looking at me with +a new light in his eyes. "Where have I seen a letter addressed to +Frome--within the last day or two? Eh? Wait a bit."</p> + +<p class="normal">We did wait; and presently the Colonel announced his discovery in a +grim voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have it," he said. "It is that scoundrel, Farquhar!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Farquhar!" I said. "What do you mean, Colonel?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just that, Major, just that. Do you remember him knocking against you +in the hall at the club the day before yesterday? He dropped a letter, +and I picked it up. It was addressed--I could not help seeing so +much--to Frome."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," Jim said slowly, "he was at Bulcher's, and he passed last +year."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the letter," continued the Colonel in his turn, "was in a large +envelope--an envelope large enough to contain a cabinet photograph."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was silence in the room. Kitty's face was hidden. Jim moved at +last--towards her? No, towards the door. He had his hand on it when +the Colonel observed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stop!" he said sharply. "Come back, my boy. None of that. The Major +and I will deal with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim lingered with his hand on the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, sir," he said, "I will only----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come back!" roared the Colonel, but with a smile in his eyes as he +looked at his boy. "You will stop here, you lucky dog, you. And I hope +this will be a lesson to you not to give your photograph to young +ladies at Frome!"</p> + +<p class="normal">If Kitty squirmed a little at that, she deserved it. I said before +that a woman's faith is a wonderful thing. But when there is another +woman in the case--umph!</p> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Farquhar, sir? Yes, sir, he is in the house," the club porter +said, turning in his glass case to consult his book. "I believe he +went upstairs to the drawing-room, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," the Colonel replied, and he glanced at me and I at him; +and then, fixing our hats on tightly, and grasping our sticks, we went +upstairs.</p> + +<p class="normal">We were in luck, as it turned out, for not only was Farquhar in the +drawing-room, but there was no one else in the long, stiff, splendid +room. He looked up from his writing, and saw us piloting our way +towards him between the chairs and tables. And I think he turned +green. At any rate, my last doubt left me at the sight of his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A word with you, Mr. Farquhar," the Colonel said grimly, keeping a +tight hand on my arm, for I confess I had been in favour of more +drastic measures. "It is about a photograph."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A photograph?" the startled wretch exclaimed, his mouth ajar.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, perhaps I should have said two photographs," the Colonel +replied gravely; "photographs of my son which are lying, one in the +possession of Major Bratton, and one in the album of a friend of +yours, Mr. Isaac Gold."</p> + +<p class="normal">He tried to frame the words, "A friend of mine!" and to feign +astonishment and stare us down. But it was a pitiable attempt, and his +eyes sank. He could only mutter, "I do not know--any Gold. There is +some mistake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps so," the Colonel answered smoothly. "I hope there is some +mistake. But let me tell you this, Mr. Farquhar. Unless you apply +within a week for leave to resign your commission, I shall lay certain +facts concerning these photographs before the Commander-in-Chief and +before the mess of your regiment. You understand me, I am sure. Very +well. That is all I wish to say to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently he had nothing to say to us in return. And we were both +glad to turn our backs on that baffled, spiteful face, in which the +horror of discovery strove with the fear of ruin. It is ill striking a +man when he is down, and I was glad to get out of the house and +breathe a purer air.</p> + +<p class="normal">We had no need to go to the Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant Farquhar +applied for leave to resign within the week, and Her Majesty obtained, +I think, a better bargain in Private Isaac Gold, who, following the +Colonel's advice, enlisted about this time. He is already a corporal, +and, aided by an education rare in the ranks, bids fair to earn a +sergeant's stripes at an early date. He has turned over a new +leaf--the Colonel always maintained that he had a keen sense of +honour; and I feel little doubt that if he ever has the luck to rise +to Farquhar's grade, and bear the Queen's commission, he will be a +credit to it and to his friend and brother officer--the Colonel's boy. +Not, mind you, that I think he will ever be as good a fellow as Jim! +No, no.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The clock of St. Martin's was striking ten as Archdeacon Yale, of +Studbury, in Gloucestershire, who had taken breakfast at the Athenæum, +walked down the club steps, eastward bound. He was a man of fresh +complexion and good presence; of tolerable means and some reputation +as the author of a curiously morbid book, "Timon Defended." As he +walked the pavement briskly, an unopened letter which peeped from his +pocket seemed--and rightly--to indicate a man free from anxieties: a +man without a care.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before he left the dignified stillness of Pall Mall, however, he found +leisure to read the note. "I enclose," wrote his wife, "a letter which +came for you this morning. I trust, Cyprian, that you are not fretting +about the visitation question and that you get your meals fairly well +cooked." The Archdeacon paused at this point and smiled as at some +pleasant reminiscence. "Give my love to dear Jack. Oh--h'm--I do not +recognise your correspondent's handwriting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor do I!" the Archdeacon said aloud; and he opened the enclosure +with a curiosity that had in it no fear of trouble. After glancing at +the signature, however, he turned into a side street and read the +letter to the end. He sighed. "Oh dear, dear!" he muttered. "What +can I do? I must go! There is no room for refusal. And yet--oh +dear!--after all these years. Number 14, Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn +Road? What a place!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a shabby third-rate lodging-house place, as perhaps he knew. +But he called a cab and had himself driven thither forthwith. At the +corner of the street he dismissed the cab and looked about him +furtively. For a man who had left his club so free from care, and +whose wife at Studbury and son at Lincoln's Inn were well, he wore an +anxious face. It could not be--for he was an Archdeacon--that he was +about to do anything of which he was ashamed. Bishops, and others of +that class, may be open to temptations, or have pages of their lives +folded down, which they would not wish turned. But an Archdeacon?</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet when he was distant a house or so from No. 14 he started guiltily +at a very ordinary occurrence; at nothing more than the arrival of a +hansom cab at the door. True, a young woman descended from it, and let +herself into the house with a latchkey. But young women and latchkeys +are common in London, as common as--as dirt. It could hardly be that +which darkened his face as he rang the bell.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the hall, where a dun was sitting, there was little to remove the +prejudice he may have conceived; little, too, in the dingy staircase, +cumbered with plates and stale food; or in the first-floor rooms, +from which some one peeped and another whispered, and both giggled; +or in that second-floor room, at once smart and shabby, and remarkable +for many photographs of one young girl, where he was bidden to +wait--little or nothing. But when he had pished and pshawed at the +tenth photograph, he was called into an inner room, where a strange +silence prevailed. Involuntarily he stepped softly. "It was kind of +you to come," some one said--some one who was lying in a great chair +brought very near to the open window that the speaker might breathe +more easily--"very kind. And you have come so quickly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have been in London some days," he answered gently, the fastidious +expression gone from his face. "Your daughter's letter followed me +from the country and reached me an hour ago. It has been no trouble to +me to come. I am only pained at finding you so ill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" she answered. Doubtless her thoughts were busy; while his flew +back nearly thirty years to a summer evening, when he had walked with +her under the trees in Chelsea Gardens and heard her pour into his +ear--she was a young actress in the first blush of success--her hopes +and ambitions. There was nothing in the memory of which he had need to +be ashamed. In those days he had been reading for orders, and, having +lodgings in a respectable street, had come by chance to know two of +his neighbours--her mother and herself. The two were living a quiet +domestic life, which surprised and impressed him. The girl's talent +and the contrast between her notoriety and her simple ways had had a +charm for him. For some months the neophyte and the actress were as +brother and sister. But there the feeling had stopped; and when his +appointment to a country curacy had closed this pretty episode in his +life, the exchange of a few letters had but added grace to its ending.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now old feelings rose to swell his pity as he traced the girl's +features in the woman's face. "You have a daughter. You have been +married since we parted," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. It is for her sake I have troubled you," was her answer. "She is +a good girl--oh, so good! But she has no one in the world except me, +and I am leaving her. Poor Grissel!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is on the stage?" he inquired gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; and she has succeeded young, as I did. We have not been unhappy +together. You remember the life my mother and I had? I think it has +been the same over again."</p> + +<p class="normal">She smiled ever so little. He remembered something of the quiet pathos +of that life. "Your husband is dead?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead! I wish he were!" she answered bitterly, the smile passing from +her face. "My girl had better be alone than with her father. Ah, you +do not know! When he went to America years ago--with another woman--I +thanked God for it. Dead? Oh, no! There is no chance that he is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Yale was shocked. "You have not got a divorce?" he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. After he left me I fell ill, and there were expenses. We were +very poor until last year, when Grissel made a good engagement. That +is why we are here. Now that her name is known he will come back and +find her out. She plays as Kittie Latouche, but the profession know +who she is, and--and what can I do? Oh, Mr. Yale! tell me what I can +do for her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her anxiety unnerved him. Her terror of the future, not her own, but +her child's, wrung his heart. He had a presentiment whither she was +leading him; and he tried to escape, he tried to murmur some +commonplace of encouragement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may yet recover," he urged. "At any rate, there will be time to +talk of this again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There will not be time," she entreated him. "I have scarcely three +days to live, and then my child will be alone. Oh, Mr. Yale! help me. +She is young and handsome, with no one to guide her. If her father +return, he will be her worst enemy. There is some one, too--some +gentleman--who has fallen in with her, and been here. He may be a +friend--what you were to me--or not! Don't you understand me?" she +cried piteously. "How can I leave her unless you--there is no one else +whom I can ask--will protect her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He started and looked round for relief, but found none. "I? It is +impossible!" he cried. "Oh dear, dear! I am afraid that it is +impossible, Mrs. Kent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not impossible! I do not ask you to give her a home or money! Only +care. If you will be her guardian--her friend----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was a woman dying in sore straits. He was a merciful man. In the +end he promised to do what she wished. Then he hastened to escape her +gratitude, unconscious, as he passed down the stairs, of the +whispering and giggling, the slatternliness and dirt, which had been +so dreadful to him on his entrance.</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked along Oxford Street in a reverie, "Poor thing!" falling from +him at intervals, until he reached the corner of Tottenham Court Road, +and his eye rested upon a hoarding--at the first idly, then with a +purpose, finally with a sidelong glance. The advertisement which had +caught his attention was a coarse engraving of half a dozen heads, +arranged in a circle, with one in the centre. Under this last, which +was larger and more staring, and less to be evaded than the others, +appeared the words, "Miss Kittie Latouche." He went on with a shiver, +crossing here and there to avoid the hoardings, but only to fall in +with a string of sandwich-men bearing the same device. He plunged into +the haven of Soho as if he were a political conspirator.</p> + +<p class="normal">The portrait and the name of his ward! In a few days he would be left +in charge of an actress whose name was known to all London--guardian, +<i>in loco parentis</i>, what you will, of the closest and most +responsible, to a giddy girl of unknown antecedents, and too +well-known name! He wondered whether Archdeacon had ever been in such +a position before, a position which it would be hard to acknowledge +and impossible to explain. He could talk of his old friendship for her +mother, the actress, and his duty to a dying woman. But would the +world believe him? Would even his wife believe him? Would not she read +much between the lines, though the space were white as snow? He, a man +of nearly sixty, grew red and white by turns as he thought of this.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will tell Jack the story," was his first resolve. "I will tell it +him at dinner to-night," he groaned. But would he have the courage? He +had much respect for his son's practical nature. He had heard him +called "hard as nails." And when he found himself opposite to him, and +eyed the close-shaven young lawyer, who looked a decade older than his +years, he resorted to a subterfuge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack," he said, "I want your opinion for a friend of mine."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is at your service, sir," his son said, his hand upon the +apricots. "What is the subject? Law?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not precisely," the Archdeacon replied, clearing his throat. "It is +rather a question of knowledge of the world. You know, my boy," he +went on, "that I have a very high opinion of your discretion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very good," said Jack. And he did that which was unusual with +him. He blushed; but the other did not observe it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My friend, who, I may say, is a clergyman in my archdeaconry," the +elder gentleman resumed, "has been appointed guardian--it is a +ridiculous thing for a man in his position--to a--a young actress. She +is quite a girl, I understand, but of some notoriety."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed," said Jack drily. "May I ask how that came about? Wards of +that kind do not fall from heaven--as a rule."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon winced. "He tells me," he explained, "that her mother +was an old friend of his, and when she died, some time back, she left +the girl as a kind of legacy, you see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A legacy to him, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To him, certainly," the elder man said in some distress. "You follow +me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite so," said Jack. "Oh, quite so! A common thing, no doubt. Did +you say that your friend was a married man, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," the Archdeacon replied faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so! just so!" his son said, in the same tone, a tone that was so +dreadful to the Archdeacon that it needed Jack's question, "And what +is the point upon which he wants advice?" to induce him to go on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What he had better do, being a clergyman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He should have thought of that earlier--ahem!--I mean it depends a +good deal on the young lady. There are actresses <i>and</i> actresses, you +know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose so," the Archdeacon admitted grudgingly. He was in a mood +to see the darkest side of his difficulty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course there are!" Jack said, for him quite warmly. And indeed +that is the worst of barristers. They will argue in season and out of +season if you do not agree with them quickly. "Some are as good--as +good girls as my mother when you married her, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well, she may be a good girl--I do not know," the elder man +allowed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You always had a prejudice against the stage, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon looked up sharply, thinking this uncalled for; unless, +horrible thought! his son knew something of the matter, and was +chaffing him. He made an effort to get on firmer ground. "Granted she +is a good girl," he said, "there are still two difficulties. Her +father is a rascal, and there is a man, probably a rascal too, hanging +about her, and likely to give trouble in another way."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack nodded and sagely pondered the position. "I think I should advise +your friend to get some respectable woman to live with the girl," he +suggested, "and play the duenna--first getting rid of your second +rascal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how will you do that? And what would you do about the father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Buy him off!" said Jack curtly. "As to the lover, have an interview +with him. Say to him, 'Do you wish to marry my ward? If you do, who +are you? If you do not, go about your business.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if he will not go," the Archdeacon said, "what can my friend do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, indeed," replied Jack, looking rather nonplussed, "I hardly +know, unless you make her a ward of court. You see," he added +apologetically, "your friend's position is a little--shall I say a +little anomalous?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon shuddered. He dropped his napkin and picked it up +again, to hide his dismay. Then he plunged into a fresh subject. When +his son upon some excuse left him early, he was glad to be alone. He +had now a course laid down for him, and acting upon it, he next day +saw the landlady in Sidmouth Street and requested her to take charge +of the young lady in the event of the mother's death and to guard her +from intrusion until other arrangements could be made. "You will look +to me for all expenses," the Archdeacon added, seizing with eagerness +the only ground on which he felt himself at home. To which the +landlady gladly said she would, and accepted Mr. Yale's address at the +Athenæum Club as a personal favour to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the Archdeacon, free for the moment, went down to Studbury, and +as he walked about his shrubberies with the scent of his wife's +old-fashioned flowers in the air, or sat drinking his glass of +Leoville '74 after dinner while Vinnells the butler, anxious to get to +his supper, rattled the spoons on the sideboard, he tried to believe +it a dream. What, he wondered, would Vinnells say if he knew that +master had a ward, and that ward a play-actress? Or, as Studbury would +prefer to style her, a painted Jezebel? And what would Mrs. Yale say, +who loved lavender, and had seen a ballet--once? Was Archdeacon ever, +he asked himself, in a position so--so anomalous before?</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear," his wife remarked when he had read his letters one morning, +a week or two later, "I am sure you are not well. I have noticed that +you have not been yourself since you were in London."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense," he replied tartly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not nonsense. There is something preying on your mind. I +believe," she persisted, "it is that visitation, Cyprian, that is +troubling you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Visitation? What visitation?" he asked incautiously. For indeed he +had forgotten all about that very important business, and could think +only of a visitation more personal to himself. Before his wife could +hold up her hands in astonishment, "What visitation! indeed!" he had +escaped into the open air. Mrs. Kent was dead.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes, the blow had fallen; but the first shock over, things were made +easy for him. He wrote to his ward as soon after the funeral as seemed +decent, and her answer pleased him greatly. Ready as he was to scent +misbehaviour in the air, he thought it a proper letter, a good girl's +letter. She did not deny his right to give advice. She had not, she +said, seen the gentleman he mentioned since her mother's death, +although Mr. Charles Williams--that was his name--had called several +times. But she had given him an appointment for the following Tuesday, +and was willing that Mr. Yale should see him on that occasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this in a formal and precise way; but there was something in the +tone of her reference to Mr. Williams which led the Archdeacon to +smile. "She is over head and ears in love," he thought. And in his +reply, after saying that he would be in Sidmouth Street on Tuesday at +the hour named, he added that if there appeared to be nothing against +Mr. Charles Williams he, the Archdeacon, would have pleasure in +forwarding his ward's happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am going to London to-morrow, my dear, for two nights," he said to +his wife on the Sunday evening. "I have some business there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Yale sat silent for a moment, as if she had not heard. Then she +laid down her book and folded her hands. "Cyprian," she said, "what is +it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon was fussing with his pile of sermons and did not turn. +"What is what, my dear?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why are you going to London?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"On business, my dear; business," he said lightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but what business?" replied Mrs. Yale with decision. "Cyprian, +you are keeping something from me; you were not used to have secrets +from me. Tell me what it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">But he remained obstinately silent. He would not tell a lie, and he +could not tell the truth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it about Jack?" with sudden conviction. "I know what it is; he has +entangled himself with some girl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon laughed oddly. "You ought to know your son better by +this time, my dear. He is about as likely to entangle himself with a +girl as--as I am."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Mrs. Yale shook her head unconvinced. The Archdeacon was a +landowner, though a poor one. It was his ambition, and his wife's, +that Jack should some day be rich enough to live at the Hall, instead +of letting it, as his father found it necessary to do. But while the +Archdeacon considered that Jack's way to the Hall lay over the +woolsack, his wife had in view a short cut through the marriage +market; being a woman, and so thinking it a small sin in a man to +marry for money. Consequently she lived in fear lest Jack should be +entrapped by some penniless fair one, and was not wholly reassured +now. "Well, I shall be sure to find out, Cyprian," she said warningly, +"if you are deceiving me."</p> + +<p class="normal">And these words recurred disagreeably to the Archdeacon's mind on his +way to town and afterwards. They rendered him as sensitive as a mole +in the sunshine. He found London almost intolerable. He could not walk +the streets without seeing those horrid placards, nor take up a +newspaper without being stared out of countenance by the name "Kittie +Latouche." While his conscience so multiplied each bill and poster and +programme that in twenty-four hours London seemed to him a great +hoarding of which his ward was the sole lessee.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally he shrank into himself as he passed down Sidmouth Street +next day. He pondered, standing on the steps of No. 14, what the +neighbours thought of the house; whether they knew that "Kittie +Latouche" lived there. He was spared the giggling and dirty plates on +the stairs, but looking round the room at the ten photographs, and +thinking what Mrs. Yale would say could she see him, he shuddered. +Nervously he picked up the first pamphlet he saw on the table. It was +a trifle in one act: "The Tench," Lacy's edition, by Charles Williams. +He set it down with a grimace, and a word about birds of a feather. +And then the door by which he had entered opened behind him, and he +turned.</p> + +<p class="normal">One look was enough. The kindly expression faded from his handsome +features. His face turned to flame. The veins of his forehead swelled +with passion, and he strode forward as though he would lay hands on +the intruder. "How dare you," he cried when he could find his +voice--"how dare you follow me? How dare you play the spy upon me, +sir? Speak!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Jack--for Jack it was--had no answer ready. He seemed to have lost +for once (astonished at being taken in this way, perhaps) his presence +of mind. "I do not--understand," he said helplessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Understand? You understand," the Archdeacon cried, his son's very +confusion condemning him unheard, "that you have meanly followed me +to--to detect me in--in----" And then he came to a deadlock, and, +redder than before, thundered, "Are you not ashamed of yourself, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought I saw a back I knew," Jack muttered, looking everywhere but +at his father, which was terribly irritating. "I was coming through +the street."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were coming through the street? I suppose you often pass through +Sidmouth Street!" retorted the Archdeacon with withering sarcasm. But +his wrath was growing cool.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very often," said Jack so sturdily that his father could not but +believe him, and was further sobered. "I saw a back I thought I knew, +and I came in here. I had no intention of offending you, sir. And now +I think I will go," he added, looking about him uneasily, "and--and +speak to you another time."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Archdeacon's anger was quite gone now. A wretched +embarrassment was taking its place as it dawned upon him that after +all Jack might by pure chance have seen him enter and have followed +innocently. In that case how had he committed himself by his +outbreak--how indeed! "Jack," he said, "I beg your pardon. I beg your +pardon, Jack. I see I was mistaken. Do not go, my boy, until I have +explained to you why I am here. It is not," he went on, smiling a +wretched smile at the pretty faces round him, "quite the place in +which you would expect to find me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is certainly not the place in which I did expect to find you," +Jack said bluntly. And he looked about him, also in a dazed fashion, +as if the Archdeacon and the photographs were not a conjunction for +which he was prepared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no," assented the Archdeacon, wincing, however. "But it is the +simplest piece of business in the world which has brought me here." +And he recalled to his son's memory their talk at the club.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, I understand!" Jack said, as if he did, too. "You have come about +your friend's business."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon could not hide a spasm. "Well, not precisely. To tell +you the truth, there never was a friend, Jack. But," he went on +hurriedly, holding up a hand of dignified protest, for Jack was +looking at him queerly, very queerly, "you know me too well to doubt +me, I hope, when I say there is no ground for doubt?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The son's keen eyes met the father's for an instant, and then a rare +smile softened them as the men's hands met. "I do, sir. You may be +sure of that!" he said brightly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Archdeacon cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said; "now I think +you will understand the position. Miss Kent, the young lady in +question, lives here; and I have called to-day to see her by +appointment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The dickens you have! It is like your impudence!" cried some +one--some one behind them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Both men swung round at the interruption. In the doorway, holding the +door open with one hand, while with the other set against the wall he +balanced himself on his feet, stood a smart Jewish-looking man. "The +dickens you have!" this gentleman repeated, leering on the two most +unpleasantly. "So that is your game, is it? Ain't you ashamed of +yourself," he continued, addressing himself to the shuddering +Archdeacon--and how far away seemed Vinnells and the lavender, and the +calm delights of Studbury at that moment!--"ain't you ashamed of +yourself, old man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is a private room," Jack said sternly, anticipating his father's +outburst. "You do not seem to be aware of it, my friend."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A private room, is it?" the visitor replied, closing one eye with +much enjoyment. "A private room, and what then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"This much, that you are requested to leave it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ho, ho!" the man replied; "so you would put me out of my daughter's +room, would you--out of my own daughter's room? I daresay that you +would like to do it." Then, with a sudden change to ferocity, he +added, "You are bragging above your cards, young man, you are! Dry up, +do you hear? Dry up."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Jack did dry up, falling back against the table with a white face. +The Archdeacon, even in his own misery--misery which far exceeded his +presentiments--saw and marvelled at his son's collapse. That Jack, +keen, practical, hard-headed, should be so completely overwhelmed by +collision with this creature, so plainly scared by his insinuations, +infected the Archdeacon with a kind of terror. Yet, struggling against +the feeling, he forced himself to say, "You are Mr. Kent, I presume?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am, sir; yours to command," swaggered the wretch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I may tell you that your daughter," the Archdeacon continued, +resuming something of his natural self-possession, "was left in my +charge by your wife, and that I am here in consequence of that +arrangement."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gammon!" Mr. Kent replied, distinctly, putting his tongue in his +cheek. "Gammon! Do you think that that story will go down with me? Do +you think it will go down with any one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the truth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right; but look here, when did you see my wife? On her death-bed. +And before that--not for twenty years. Well, what do you make of it +now? Why," he exclaimed, with admiration in his tone, "you have the +impudence of the old one himself! Fie on you, sir! Ain't you ashamed +of hanging about stage doors, and following actresses home at your +age? But I know you. And your friends shall know you, Archdeacon Yale, +of the Athenæum Club. You will hear more of this!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are an insolent fellow!" the clergyman cried. But the +perspiration stood in great beads upon his brow, and his quivering +lips betrayed the agony of his soul as he writhed under the man's +coarse insinuations. The awkwardness, the improbability of the tale he +would have to tell in his defence flashed across his mind while the +other spoke. He saw how cogently the silence he had maintained about +the matter would tell against him. He pictured the nudge of one +friend, the wink of another, and his own crimsoning cheeks. His son's +unwonted silence, too, touched him home. Yet he tried to bear himself +as an innocent man; he struggled to give back look for look. "You are +a madman and a scoundrel, besides being drunk!" he said stoutly. "If +it were not so, or--or I were as young as my son here----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not see him," the man answered curtly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack!" the Archdeacon cried, purple with indignation. "Jack! if you +have a voice, speak to him, sir!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It won't do," Mr. Kent replied, shaking his head. "Call him Charley, +and I might believe you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Charley?" repeated the Archdeacon mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, Charley--Charley Williams. Oh I know him, too," with vulgar +triumph. "I have not been hanging about this house for two days for +nothing. He has been here heaps of times! What you two are doing +together beats me, I confess. But I am certain of this, that I have +caught you both--killed two birds with one stone."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the Archdeacon's turn to fall back, aghast. The light that +shone upon him with those words so blinded him that every spark of his +anger paled and dwindled before it. His son, Charles Williams? He +sought in that son's eyes some gleam of denial. But Jack's eyes +avoided his; Jack's downcast air seemed only too strongly to confirm +the charge. The shock was a severe one, taking from him all thought of +himself. The why and wherefore of his presence there could never again +be questioned. A real sorrow, a real trouble, gave him courage. +"Jack!" he said, "we had better go from here. Come with me. For you, +sir," he continued, turning to the actor, "your suspicions are natural +to you. Nothing I can say will remove them. So be it. They affect me +not one whit. It is enough for me that I came here in all honour, and +with an honourable purpose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed," replied Mr. Kent mockingly. "Indeed? And your son, Mr. +Charles Jack Williams Yale, Archdeacon? No doubt you will answer for +him, as he has not got a word to say for himself? He, too, came with +an honourable purpose, I suppose? Oh yes, of course; we are all +honourable men!"</p> + +<p class="normal">For an instant the Archdeacon quailed. He saw the pitfall dug before +him. He knew all that his answer would imply of disappointed hopes and +a vain ambition. He recognised all that might be made of it by his +listeners, friend or foe, and he blenched. But the cynical eye and +sneering lip of the wretch recalled him to himself. Nay, he seemed to +rise above himself, as he replied more sternly, "Yes, sir; I <i>will</i> +answer for my son, as for myself! I will answer for him that he came +here in all honour."</p> + +<p class="normal">The man sneered still. But he knew better things if he did not ensue +them, and he stood aside with secret respect and let the two go +unmolested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir," Jack said, when they had walked halfway down the street in +silence, which his father showed no sign of breaking, "you are +thinking more ill of me than I deserve."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You gave a false name," the Archdeacon snarled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not in a sense--not wilfully, I mean. I wrote a play some time ago, +and, as is usual for professional men, I submitted it under a <i>nom de +plume</i>. I was known as Charles Williams at the theatre, and I had no +more idea of doing wrong when I was introduced to Grissel in that name +than I have now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope not," the Archdeacon said grimly. He was not a man to go back +from an engagement. "I trust not," he added with a bitterness. "You +may break your word to the girl if you please, but I will not break +mine to the mother. So help me Heaven!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sir," Jack said, his utterance a little husky, "God bless you! She is +a good girl, and some day she will honour you as I do."</p> + +<p class="normal">They parted without more words. The Archdeacon, hardly master of his +thoughts, walked on until he reached the corner of Oxford Street. +There he paused, and seeing girls pass, young, graceful, soft-eyed, +leaning back in carriages with parcels round them, ay, and thinking +that Jack might have chosen out of all these, while he had chosen +in Sidmouth Street--Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn Road--he could not +stifle a groan. He plunged recklessly across and found himself +presently in St. James' Square, and round and round this he walked, +fighting the battle with himself. His poor wife, that was the burden +of his cry. His poor wife, and the shock it would be to her, and the +downfall of hopes! He knew that she a woman would recoil from such a +daughter-in-law far more than he did, who had known Grissel's mother, +and knew that actresses may be good and true women. It would be +dreadful for her, with her old-world notions; the Archdeacon knew it. +But he valued one thing above even the peace of his home, and that was +his honour. It was not in sarcasm we called him a good man. To break +his word to the dead woman who had trusted him; to leave this girl, +whom it behooved him to protect, in the hands of her wretched father, +and so to leave her with her faith in goodness shattered--this he +could not do.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he was tempted to think hard things of Jack, to think that Jack, +who had never given him the heartache before, had better not have been +born than bring this trouble on them. It went no farther than +temptation; and he was marvellously thankful next morning that +he had not framed the thought in words; for, as he entered the +breakfast-room, looking a year older than he had looked, chipping his +egg yesterday, the hall-porter put a telegram into his hands. "Come at +once--Jack," were the words that first made themselves intelligible to +him; and then, a few seconds later, the address "St. Thomas's +Hospital."</p> + +<p class="normal">How swiftly does a great misfortune, a great loss, a great pain, expel +a less! I have known a man lose his wife and go heavily for a month, +and then losing a thousand pounds become as oblivious of her as if she +had never been born. But the Archdeacon was not such a man, and +rattling towards Westminster in a cab he felt not only that a thousand +pounds would be a small price to pay for his son's safety, but that, +if Providence should take him at his thought, he might have worse news +for his wife than those tidings which had almost aged him in a night.</p> + +<p class="normal">His son, however, met him at the great gates, whole and sound, but +with a grave face. "You are too late, sir," he said quietly. But he +flushed a little at the grasp of his father's hand, and a little more +when the Archdeacon told him to pay the cabman a double fare. "I have +brought you here for nothing. He died a quarter of an hour ago, +sinking very rapidly after I sent to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who? Who died?" the Archdeacon asked, pressing one hand heavily on +the other's shoulder, as they walked back towards the bridge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Kent."</p> + +<p class="normal">The elder man said nothing for a while--aloud at least. But presently +he asked Jack to tell him about it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is little to tell. After we left him he went out. Going home +late last night, and not I fear sober, he was run down by a road-car. +When they brought him to the hospital he was hopelessly injured, but +quite sensible. They fetched his daughter, and then he asked for +me--as your son. He did not know my address, but the assistant-surgeon +happened to be a friend of mine, and did, and he sent a cab for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">And really that seemed all. "It is very, very sudden; but--Heaven +forgive me!--I cannot regret his death," the clergyman said. "It is +impossible."</p> + +<p class="normal">They had reached the corner of the bridge. "There is something else I +should tell you," Jack said nervously. "When he had sent for me he had +a lawyer brought, and made his will."</p> + +<p class="normal">"His will!" the Archdeacon repeated, somewhat startled. "Had he +anything to leave?" He asked the question, rather in pity for so +wretched a creature as the man seemed to him, than out of curiosity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If we may believe him," Jack said slowly, "and I think he was telling +the truth, he was worth thirty thousand pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Impossible!" the Archdeacon cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know," replied Jack. "But we shall learn. He said he had +made it in oil, and had come home a poor man to see how his wife and +child would receive him. I do not think he was all bad," Jack +continued thoughtfully. "There must have been a streak of romance in +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I fear," the Archdeacon muttered very sensibly, "that it is all +romance!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But it was not all romance; there is oil in the States yet, and Mr. +Kent, of whom since he is dead we all speak with respect, by hook or +crook had got his share. The thirty thousand pounds were discovered +pleasantly fructifying in Argentine railways, and proved as many +reasons why Mrs. Yale, when Jack's fate became known to her, should +smile again. The Archdeacon put it neatly: To marry an actress is a +grave offence because a common one, and one easily committed; but to +marry an actress with thirty thousand pounds! Such ladies are not +blackberries, not do they grow on every bush.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. and Mrs. John Yale have not yet established themselves at the +Hall. They live at Henley, and their house is the summer resort of all +kinds of people, among whom the Archdeacon is a very butterfly. An +idea prevails--though a few of us are in the secret--that Mrs. Jack +comes, in common with so many pretty women, of an old Irish family; +and the other day I overheard an amusing scrap of conversation at her +table. 'Mrs. Yale,' some one said, 'do you know that you remind me, I +if may say it without offence, of Miss Kittie Latouche, the actress?'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed?" the lady replied with a charming blush. "But do you know +that you are on dangerous ground? My husband was in love with that +lady before he knew me. And I believe that he regrets her now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tit for tat!" cried Jack. "Let us all tell tales. If my wife was not +in love with one Mr. Charles Williams a month--only a month--before +she married me, I will eat her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Jack!" the lady exclaimed, covered with confusion. But this story +would not be believed in Studbury, where Mrs. John passes for being a +little shy, a little timid, and not a little prudish.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BAB</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">BAB</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> +<br> +<h4>HER STORY</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss +which clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the +Sogne Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +there, nor in all the Sogne district, I often thought, so deep and +soft, and of so dazzling an orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +gigantic grey boulders peeping through the moss here and there, very +fit to break your legs if you were careless. Little more than a mile +above us was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope towards +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother--who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny green-backed fishlets--and instead, came +down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and faster, and +deeper and wider, and full, too, of red-speckled yellow trout all +half-a-pound apiece, and very good to eat.</p> + +<p class="normal">But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is, you greedy little chit?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you know," she answered. "Don't you wish you had your grey plush +here, Bab?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which father says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got up +and went down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish the +cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the grey plush--and follow +or not as I liked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to father, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how little truth +there is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and +fished all day and had no one to run her errands--he meant Jack and +the others--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. As if I wanted +to grow an inch! An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a half high, +and father, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst measurer in the +world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her inches for my eyes. +So there!</p> + +<p class="normal">After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the grey plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me. I had filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat with a view to that particular +place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our river--pleased to be so young, I suppose--did the oddest things +hereabouts. It was not a great churning stream of snow water foaming +and milky, such as we had seen in some parts, streams which affected +to be always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder +and clearing their paths even while you watched them with your fingers +in your ears. Our river was none of these; still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools.</p> + +<p class="normal">To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge on +which the water was shallow, yet deep enough to cover my boots. But I +was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, and as +pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily that I +hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its mouth +as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one time +to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by father at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red tackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered what I had done with it, and was certain it was mine--which +was nothing less than dishonest of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish; and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of a +reinforcement was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" some one cried briskly. +"That is better!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep up +my heart. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" as I watched the top of my rod jigging up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, it will not," he cried bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a little +line with your fingers when he pulls hardest."</p> + +<p class="normal">We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I don't know," I answered, wildly.</p> + +<p class="normal">What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. Then he +waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he reached +me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands benumbed, +while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon us with a +sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, were +mottling my face all kinds of unbecoming colours. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by-and-by. You must be chilled +through."</p> + +<p class="normal">Quickly as I looked at him, I only met a good-humoured smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face; it was trickling from his chin, +and turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his +hands, they looked red and knuckly, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the manlier and nicer +for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for them not a whit. What +I looked like myself I dared not think. My skirts were as short as +short could be, and they were soaked; most of my hair was unplaited, +my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were out of shape. I was +forced, too, to shiver and shake with cold, which was provoking, for I +knew that it made me seem half as small again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr. ----, Mr. ----?" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Herapath. And to whom have I the honour of speaking?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am Miss Guest," I said, miserably. It was too cold to be frigid +with advantage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not soundproof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't," I said, obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes, you can," he answered, with intolerable good temper. "You +shall take your rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are +now."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretence of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath, that +it would have been more--more----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. And now it +will be wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hand and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her; and I had +to find comfort in promising myself, that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fräulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Father was in the plot against me, too. What +right had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home +safe? He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and he is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one, who +did not contradict. It is in their parents, I believe.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see any one but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy--whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest; and once at least during the evening he dubbed me plain +Bab. I tried to freeze him with a look then, and father gave him a +taste of his pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I +seemed. But it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all +down to the grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it +might have opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too +proud for that.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was a chance. I was going to say that that no doubt was the +reason why I had never met him, when father ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," he replied. "I am in the London Fire Brigade."</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and his host seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. +The moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our +guest, but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was +dining with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as +surprise would let me with, "Oh, dear, what fun! Do tell me all about +a fire!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face that he had looked for their +astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager remark to +childish ignorance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some time I will," he said with a quiet smile <i>de haut en bas</i>; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am the Chief's private +secretary, aide-de-camp, and general factotum."</p> + +<p class="normal">It turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so that +father lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. Not for a +long time had I been used to young men talking politics to him, when +they could talk--politics--to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of course--was +always on the spot fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy father's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of +the pass to get a glimpse of the Sultind peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with colour, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the +dark ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the +drawing-room in Bolton Gardens with a cosy fire burning, and afternoon +tea coming up. The tears came to my eyes, and he saw them before I +could turn away from the view; and said to father that he feared his +little girl was tired as well as cold--and so spoiled all my pleasure. +I looked back afterwards as father and I drove down; he was walking +beside Clare's cariole and they were laughing heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth together viciously and vowed that if ever we met in London--but +what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered nothing to me +what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so rudely familiar. +That was all; but it was quite enough to make me dislike him.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt that I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had, before +his coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hillsides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed when I came upon him fishing; and fishing where he +had no right to be. Father had spoken to him about the danger of it, +and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet he was there, +thinking, I daresay, that we should not know. It was a spot where one +bank rose into a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at the foot of some +falls. Close to the cliff the water ran with the speed of a mill race. +But on the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water so +promising that it had tempted some one to devise means to fish it, +which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above the water +was a ledge, a foot wide, which might have served only it did not +reach the nearer end of the cliff. However, the foolhardy person had +espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the latter with a bit of +plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, in either case +leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who fished there must have learned to +curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were short +for me. I thought of this as I watched him, and I laughed, and was for +going on. But when I had walked a few yards, meaning to pass round the +rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all sorts of foolish things might +happen. I felt sure that I should have no more peace or pleasure if I +left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I would. I would go down, and ask +him to leave the place; and, of course, he would do it.</p> + +<p class="normal">I lost no time, but ran down the slope. My way lay over loose shale +mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It is wonderful how +swiftly a thing that cannot be undone is done, and we are left +wishing--oh, so vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in +it, back by a few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when +a big stone on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip +in a mass, and the stone to roll. It was done in a moment. I stayed +myself, that was easy, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board which only rested lightly at either end, and +before I could take it in the little bridge plunged end first into the +current, which swept it out of sight in an instant.</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw up his hands, for he had turned, and we both saw it happen. +He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but that was impossible. +Then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his arm to me in the +direction of home--again and again. The roar of the falls drowned what +he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not help him myself, but I +could fetch help. It was three miles to Breistolen, rough rocky ones, +and I doubted whether he could keep his cramped position with that +noise deafening him, and the endless whirling stream before his eyes, +while I was going and coming. But there was no better way; and even as +I wavered, he signalled to me again imperatively. For an instant +everything seemed to go round with me, but it was not the time for +that, and I tried to collect myself, and harden my heart. Up the bank +I went steadily, and once at the top set off at a rim homewards.</p> + +<p class="normal">I cannot tell how I did it; how I passed over the uneven ground or +whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning father made +afterwards. I only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I panted +uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, breathless and +half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I slipped and +dropped down places from which I should at other times have shrunk, +and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I thought +nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on for his +life, the clamour of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted over the +bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, father's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand that +Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I knew; and then I +seized a great pole which was leaning against the porch, and climbed +into the car. Father was not slow either; he snatched a coil of rope +from the luggage, and away we went, a man and boy whom he had hastily +called running behind us. We had lost very little time, but so much +may happen in a little time.</p> + +<p class="normal">We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from the river, +and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even father, as I had +never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he uttered when +I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one and we all looked. +The ledge was empty. Mr. Herapath was gone. I suppose I was tired out. +At any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way, and cry +without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men shouted to +one another in strange hushed voices and searched about for any sign +of his fate--"James Herapath!" So he had written his name only +yesterday in the travellers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, to hear him say "Bab" +once more!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Safe and sound! Yes, when I turned he was there, safe, and strong, and +cool, rod in hand, and a smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen him +yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab" +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me +answering a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of +Norse and English, and something that was neither yet both, set in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how is this?" my father objected, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The matter! Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" father +asked, bewildered by the new aspect of the case.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Every one looked at me for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I asked feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure. Of course I had to +walk back round the hill; but I did not mind. I was thankful that it +was the plank and not you that fell in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me; +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous. It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But, when he laughed too--and he did until the tears came +into his eyes--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I had cut +my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me one-half +as much. Surely he might have seen another side to it. But he did not; +and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and father drove +me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to bed, and +petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next day, +with an ache in every part of me, he was gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met."</p> + +<p class="normal">So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly, "he did not say that; he said 'the bravest +little girl.'" For indeed, lying upstairs with the window open I had +heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsören. As for father he +was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and wholly at a +loss to think how I could have made the mistake.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've generally some common-sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man was in danger, I--can--not--imagine!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father," Clare put in suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt."</p> + +<p class="normal">And as I had to move my seat at that moment to avoid the glare of the +stove which was falling on my face, we never thought it out.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h4>HIS STORY</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and partly because I cared little for it. But +these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, the +children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. All +three had a holiday flavour about them wholesome to recall in Scotland +Yard; and as I had expected that, playtime over, I should see no more +of them, I was pleased to find that Mr. Guest had not forgotten me, +and pleased also--foreseeing that we should kill our fish over +again--to regard his invitation to dine at a quarter to eight as a +royal command.</p> + +<p class="normal">But if I took it so, I was wanting in the regal courtesy to match. +What with one delay owing to work which would admit of none, and +another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was fifteen +minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton Gardens. A stately +man, so like the Queen's Counsel, that it was plain upon whom the +latter modelled himself, ushered me into the dining-room, where Guest +greeted me kindly, and met my excuses by apologies on his part--for +preferring, I suppose, the comfort of eleven people to mine. Then he +took me down the table, and said, "My daughter," and Miss Guest shook +hands with me and pointed to the chair at her left. I had still, as I +unfolded my napkin, to say, "Clear, if you please," and then I was +free to turn and apologise to her--feeling a little shy, and being, as +I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and, of course, some differences. Miss Guest could not be +more than nineteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, +and with the same child-like innocent look in her face. She had the +big, grey eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but hers were more +tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. Her hair +too was brown and wavy; only, instead of hanging loose or in a +pig-tail anywhere and anyhow in a fashion I well remembered, it was +coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that looked Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose was quite unlike +Bab's. Her dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest +white throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and these, of +course, no more recalled my little fishing mate than the sedate +self-possession and dignity of the girl, as she talked to her other +neighbour, suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the +landlady's children in her wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not Bab +in fact: and yet it might have been: an etherealised, queenly womanly +Bab, who presently turned to me--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork half-way to her +pretty mouth and her attitude one of questioning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab."</p> + +<p class="normal">She dropped her fork on the plate with a great clatter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I should say Miss Clare and Miss Bab."</p> + +<p class="normal">I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her colour rose, and she looked +me in the face in an odd way as if she resented the inquiry. It was a +relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, she faltered, "Oh, +yes, I beg your pardon, of course they were! How very foolish of me. +They are quite well, thank you," and so was silent again. But I +understood now. Mr. Guest had omitted to mention my name, and she had +taken me for some one else of whose holiday she knew. I gathered from +the aspect of the table and the room that the Guests saw much company, +and it was a very natural mistake, though by the grave look she bent +upon her plate it was clear that the young hostess was taking herself +to task for it: not without, if I might judge from the lurking smile +at the corners of her mouth, a humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps +of the difference between myself and the gentleman whose part I had +been unwittingly supporting. Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at +her unchecked; and thought of Dresden china, she was so dainty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not real to dignify her heroism."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was like her," she answered in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tom-boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">While she was speaking there came one of those dreadful lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried, "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, father," she answered, +archly. "It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath--" I had murmured my +name as she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now tell me, did you not +think so?" she murmured, leaning the slightest bit towards me, and +opening her eyes as they looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little thing, +rather careless as children are, but likely to grow into a charming +girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful +neighbour. Her tone when she spoke of her sister seemed to import no +great goodwill.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You think so?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," with a +laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I answered, gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who +have seen you both and am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has beautiful eyes"--she lowered hers +swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style are different. +I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture you, Miss +Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after occasions," +I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at the queer +little figure I conjured up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," she replied--and for some reason she blushed to her ears. +"That, I think, must be enough of compliments for to-night--as you are +not an old friend." And she turned away, leaving me to curse my folly +in saying so much, when our acquaintance was in the bud, and as +susceptible to over-warmth as to a temperature below zero.</p> + +<p class="normal">A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek lingered, as she swept past me with a wondrous show of dignity +in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, and we +talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, while the +rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from time to +time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies.</p> + +<p class="normal">I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why, they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a charm in a lady's drawing-room, and +there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind. A charm and a +subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing-room--a +room rich in subdued colours and a cunning blending of luxury and +comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt myself alone. Mr. Guest had +passed on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of +these people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I +had been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at +the piano, the centre of a circle of soft light, which showed up a +keen-faced, close-shaven man leaning over her with the air of one used +to the position. Every one else was so fully engaged that I may have +looked, as well as felt, forlorn; at any rate, meeting her eyes I +could have fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost with +triumph. It must have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for +the next moment she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier--</p> + +<p class="normal">"There, Jack, Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fräulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything."</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favour in the face of other +guests. That young man's manner as he left her, and the smile of +intelligence which passed between them, were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled any one. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not speak; and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up, saw what I meant, and stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearances so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble. And the coincidence struck me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I remember," she answered, looking at me I thought with a +certain suspicion, as though she were not sure that I was giving the +right motive. "I did this in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't +it a hateful disfigurement?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of conquest +it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement--had she known what +the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood looking +shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she asked him +twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing for that soft, +scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added another to the +number of her slaves. I don't know now why the blemish should have so +touched me any more than I could then guess why, being a commonplace +person, I should fall in love at first sight and feel no surprise at +my condition, but only a half-consciousness that in some former state +of being I had met my love, and read her thoughts, and learned her +moods; and come to know the womanly spirit that looked from her eyes +as well as if she were an old friend. But so vivid was this sensation, +that once or twice, then and afterwards, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound.</p> + +<p class="normal">After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmace's dance?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered her, humbly. "I go out so little."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed?" with an odd smile not too kindly. "I wish--no I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you called her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes, Bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and suddenly +she cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a terrific +discord and laughing at my start of discomfiture. Every one took it as +a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to meet her next day, +or the day after that. They engaged her for dances, and made up a +party for the play, and tossed to and fro a score of laughing +catch-words, that were beyond my comprehension. They all did this, +except myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet I went away with something before me--the call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied that I should see her alone. +And so when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the +drawing-room, and heard voices and laughter behind it, I was hurt and +aggrieved beyond measure. There was a party, and a merry one, +assembled; who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I +caught sight of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, +and striving by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed +cheeks. The close-shaven man was there, and two men of his kind, and a +German governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, as bright and fair and graceful as I had been +picturing her each hour since we parted.</p> + +<p class="normal">She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you be blindfold, or will you +play the part of Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, +while I say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with this +gentleman--he is neighbour Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? +Clare does not so misbehave every day, only it is a wet afternoon and +so cold and wretched, and we did not think there would be any more +callers--and tea will be up in five minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a simple game, and not likely, one would say, to afford much +risk of that burning of the fingers, which gave a zest to the Vicar of +Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blindfolded, while the rest +disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one by +one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming the +speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn heard +things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's health. +The <i>rôle</i> presently fell to me, and proved a heavy one, because I was +not so familiar with the others' voices as were the rest; and Miss +Guest--whose faintest tones I thought I should know--had a wondrous +knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's voice, and now--after the +door had been opened to admit the tea--her father's. So I failed again +and again to earn my relief. But when a voice behind me cried with +well-feigned eagerness--</p> + +<p class="normal">"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!"--then, though no fresh +creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been given of an +addition to the players, I had no doubt who spoke, but exclaimed at +once, "That is Bab! Now I cry you mercy. I am right this time. That +was Bab!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked for a burst of applause such as had before attended a good +thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my words so odd a +silence fell upon the room that it was clear that something was wrong. +And I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, repeating, "That was Bab, I +am sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">But if it was, I could not see her. And what had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were bent upon +sniggering. Clare looked startled, and grandmamma gently titillated, +while Miss Guest, who had risen and turned away towards the windows, +seemed to be annoyed with some one. What was the matter?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg every one's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way; "but have I said anything wrong?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, dear no," cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologise to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack, how dare you?" Miss Guest exclaimed, stamping her foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded natural, I am sure. Well done, +I thought."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare? Mr. +Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was Barbara."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare the friend's privilege of being rude. I +forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you shall come off +the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since you are the +greatest stranger. It is a stupid game after all!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and so excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me no opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out; by +what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help Jack to +muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him! How slow I was to find +hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I turned +my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience an +acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. And +so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but the door-handle +was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid, as I fumbled with it. "We +are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. Herapath," +she murmured carelessly--and I found myself in the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">So carelessly she had said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of other fellows parading their favour? With the babble of +that society chit-chat, which I had often scorned, and--still scorned, +and had no part or concern in. They were not people to suit me, or do +me good. I would not go, I said, and I repeated it firmly on Monday +and Tuesday; on Wednesday I so far modified it that I thought at some +distant time I would leave a card--to avoid discourtesy. On Friday I +preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on Saturday I +walked shame-faced down the street and knocked and rang, and went +upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next Saturday +too, and the next, and the next; and that one when we all went to the +theatre, and that other one when Mr. Guest kept me to dinner. Ay, and +on other days that were not Saturdays, among which two stand high out +of the waters of forgetfulness--high days indeed--days like twin +pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to reach, as did the +seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown lands stretching +away under the setting sun. First that Wednesday on which I found +Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to wish to +make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or badly--told my +tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath. +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are under a delusion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will not take +an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise you +nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly. And she fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly, as I might.</p> + +<p class="normal">I longed for a great fire that evening, and failing one, I tired +myself by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach +myself that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a +sentiment, a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the +want and toil of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that +opened to right and left. In the main, I failed; but the effort did me +good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I were +going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work-basket, the music upon the piano, the table-easel, her +photograph. And I wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that grew into a conviction, +a certainty that the girl standing before me in the short-skirted +brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was the Bab I had +known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not mistake them now, +no matter what unaccustomed look they might wear--were Barbara +Guest's!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a toy, and a plaything, with which you might be as +intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day, and hour by hour?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not," she retorted. "Don't say you have offered love to me, +who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes, and my pearls and my maid's work! +not with me. You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old are you?" I said, hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I begin to understand now," I answered as soon as I could conquer +something in my throat. "Long ago when I hardly knew you, I hurt your +woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you have tricked yourself!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is more complete than +you are able to understand. I loved you this morning above all the +world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell you this that +you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-bye."</p> + +<p class="normal">With that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so that +the little hands she raised as though they could ward off my words +were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I could +hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not all with +her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat and +go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which my +eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Bab, I love you so! Let us part friends."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine, "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I told you only that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She learned long ago, poor girl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting-place.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Bab blushed. I believe she did.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>GERALD</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">GERALD</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and <i>bizarre</i>. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that some one would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path round the oval garden; +which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in London. This +part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged from it and +recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of Fitzhardinge +Street, I had an advantage over persons on the pavement. They were +under the lamps, while I, coming from the shadow under the trees, was +invisible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and standing at it was an elderly man-servant out of livery, who +looked up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement beside him. My surprise was great when he +uttered an exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if he +would retreat; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew so +pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely at +his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood, returning his +gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, and +his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, he cried, +"Oh! Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" in a tone that rang in the stillness +more like a wail than an ordinary cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">My name, my surname I mean, is George. For a moment I took the address +to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger; and my heart began +to beat more quickly with fear of what might have happened. "What is +it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I pulled from the lower part of my +face the silk muffler I was wearing. The evening was close, but I had +been suffering from a sore throat.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came nearer and peered more closely at me and I dismissed my fear; +for I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning upon him. His +pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable, seeing that +his plump features were those of a man with whom the world went well, +regained some of its lost colour, and a sigh of relief passed his +lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of escape from +whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place to his previous state +of expectancy of something.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my immense astonishment, +he did not. With a visible effort he said "No!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Watching his shuffling indeterminate manner I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me. There was an almost desperate +deliberation in his manner. "My master wishes to see you, sir," was +what he said, "if you will kindly walk in for five minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But often the mind when it is +spurred by an emergency over-runs the more obvious course to adopt a +worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure? Have you not made a mistake, my +man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">With a sullenness that was new in him, he said, No, he had not. Would +I please to walk in? He stepped forward as he spoke, and induced me by +a kind of urgency to enter the house, taking from me with the ease of +a trained servant my hat, coat, and muffler. Finding himself in the +course of his duties he gained composure; while I, being thus treated, +lost my sense of the strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to +a full consciousness of my position when he had shut the door behind +us and was putting up the chain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I confess I looked round, alarmed at my easiness. But I found the +hall spacious, lofty, and dark-panelled, the ordinary hall of an old +London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants in flower. +There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with painted +crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, its poles +upright against the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">No other servants were visible. But apart from this all was in order, +all was quiet, and the notion of violence was manifestly absurd.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he hang about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show the excitement, even the terror, which I had witnessed? Why +should he introduce a stranger?</p> + +<p class="normal">I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a Venus of white Parian marble. They were not common +reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a Hercules and a +Meleager, and delicately tinted draperies and ottomans that under the +light of a silver hanging-lamp--a gem from Malta--changed a mere lobby +to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me with a certain suspicion; +which was dispelled, however, when my hand rested for an instant upon +the pedestal that supported one of the statues. The cold touch of the +marble was enough. The pillars were not of composite; as they +certainly would have been in a gaming-house, or worse.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway by +which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon him +again. His impatience was so ill-concealed that I was not surprised, +though I was taken aback, when he dropped the mask. As I passed +him--it being now too late for me to retreat undiscovered, if the room +were occupied--he laid a trembling hand on my arm and thrust his face +close to mine. "Ask how he is!" he whispered, trembling. "Say +anything, no matter what, sir! Only, for the love of Heaven, stay five +minutes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave me a gentle push as he spoke--pleasant all this!--and +announced in a loud quavering voice, "Mr. George!"--which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long dimly-lighted room, fell with a brisk +rattling sound. This was followed by the scuffling noise of a person, +still hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore grey moustaches and would have seemed in place at +a service club, was still seated. He regarded me with a perfectly +unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +he was as good-looking in a different way. But his face was white and, +unless I was mistaken, was distorted by the same terror--ay, and a +darker terror than that which I had surprised in the servant's +features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He looked as a +man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an outsider--and +done it twice. In that quiet drawing-room by the side of his placid +companion, with nothing in their surroundings to account for his +emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me inexpressibly.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess-table, its +men in disorder. Almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if but for its support he would have fallen.</p> + +<p class="normal">To add one more fact; I had never seen either of them in my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Or wait; could that be true? If so, I must be dreaming. For the elder +man broke the silence by addressing me in a quiet ordinary tone that +matched his face. "Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I +did not expect you this evening." He held out his hand, without rising +from his chair, and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you +were in Liverpool. How are you?" he continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold. It is nothing worse, my boy, is it?" with +anxiety.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, pleasure!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was otherwise with his companion. He had made no advances to me, +spoken no word, scarcely altered his position. His eyes he had never +taken from me. Yet there was a change in him. He had discovered his +mistake, as the butler had discovered his. The terror was gone from +his face, and a malevolence not much more pleasant to witness had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in an active form was part +of the mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise from glances +which he cast from time to time towards the door, and from the +occasional creaking of a board in that direction, that his +self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The inconsequences +of dreamland ran through it all. Why the elder man remained in error; +why the younger with that passion on his face was tongue-tied; why the +great house was so still; why the servant should have mixed me up with +the business at all--these were questions as unanswerable, one as the +other.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him. "Now, Gerald!" he cried in sharp tones, "have you put those +pieces back? Good heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves like +yours! Don't remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to me!" With a +hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass over the +board, he sat down the half-dozen pieces with a rapid tap! tap! tap! +which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no doubt of +their various positions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, in a voice more genial than that which he +had used to Gerald. "I suppose you are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the enclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the other to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! Ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gerald made a hurried move, the piece rattling upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--now behind the screen listening--have read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his--Ah! That +much was disclosed. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind!</p> + +<p class="normal">I began to see more clearly now. And from this moment I took up, in my +own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant who had impelled +me into the middle of the scene had had good reasons for doing so, as +I began to discern. But with a clue to the labyrinth in my hand I +could no longer move passively. I must act for myself. For a while I +sat still and made no sign. But my suspicions were presently +confirmed. The elder man more than once scolded his opponent for +playing slowly; in one of the intervals caused by his opponent's +indecision he took from an inside pocket of his waistcoat a small +packet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are +originals in it, they will be more safe with you than with me. You can +tell me all about it, now you are here. Gerald will leave us +presently."</p> + +<p class="normal">He held the papers towards me. To take them was to take an active part +in the imposture, and I hesitated, my hand half outstretched. But my +eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, and my +scruples took themselves off. He was eyeing the packet with an intense +greed, with a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers, to +fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I took the papers. +With a quiet, but I think a significant, look in his direction, I +placed them in the breast-pocket of my coat. I had no safer receptacle +about me, or into that they would have gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, sir," I said. "There is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So much the better. You ought not to be out with such a cold, my +boy," he continued. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon? The servants are all at the theatre--Gerald begged a +holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself, while they played.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I was out in my reckoning. "I will have mine also now," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gerald jumped up to do it with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself, when he should have attended to his +father--if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those +papers in my pocket. The more I thought of it, the more certain I +became that they were the object of whatever deviltry was on foot; and +that possession of them gave me the whip-hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps I was a little too confident; a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the whip-hand. A creak of +the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It fell upon +my ear trumpet-tongued: it contained, I know not what note of warning. +I glanced up with a conviction that I was napping, and looked +instinctively towards the young man. He was busy at the tray, his back +to me. Relieved of my fear of something--perhaps a desperate attack +upon my pocket, I was removing my eyes, when I caught sight of his +reflection in a small mirror beyond him.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless--I could fancy him breathless also--a +listening expression on his face; which seemed to me to have faded to +a greyish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled tumbler; the +other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during perhaps a +second, a small lamp upon the tray before him illumining his handsome +figure; then his eyes, glancing up, met the reflection of mine in the +mirror. Swiftly as thought could pass from brain to limb, the hand +which had been resting in the pocket flashed with a clatter among the +glasses; and turning as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the +chess-table, and set it down unsteadily.</p> + +<p class="normal">What had I seen! Actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been doing. +Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a losing crew. +I rose abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass, "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. The +young man's colour, though he faced me hardily, shifted, and he seemed +to be swallowing a succession of oversized fives-balls. But his eyes +met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was not without its gleam of +triumph. I was persuaded that all was right before his father said so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you have mixed for me?" I suggested pleasantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back towards me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blind man's ear recognized the tone. "I wish you boys would agree +better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon play +chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the game if +you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came in, you +have not made a move which any one save an imbecile would make. Go to +bed, boy! Go to bed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I had stepped to the table while he spoke. One of the glasses was +full. I lifted it with seeming unconcern to my nose. There was whisky +in it as well as water. Then <i>had</i> Gerald mixed for me? At any rate, I +put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set the glass +down--and empty, my mind was made up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir," I said quietly, "so I +will. I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it will +suit you. To-night I feel inclined to get to bed early."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +to-morrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a colour which does not go well with a black moustache--I +walked out of the room, which looked so peaceful, so cosy, so softly +lighted, I went downstairs. I hoped that I had paralysed the young +fellow, and might leave the house without molestation.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as I gained the foot of the stairs he tapped me on the shoulder. I +saw then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace of +the defiance which had marked his manner upstairs was gone. His face +was still pale, but it wore a smile as we confronted one another under +the hall lamp. "I have not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me +thank you for your help," he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of +frank spontaneity. "Barnes' idea of bringing you in was a splendid +one, and I am greatly obliged to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't mention it," I answered, proceeding with my preparations for +going out, as if he were not there. Although I must confess that this +complete change in him exercised my mind no little.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as the cold is yours and not my brother's, +you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow instead of +keeping you from your bed to-night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will do equally well--indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat, and buttoning it across my chest, while I affected to be +looking with curiosity at the sedan chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed to the place where the packet lay. "You are forgetting the +papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the answer, "To be +sure!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But I had made up my mind, and I answered instead, "Not at all. They +are quite safe, thank you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you don't--I beg your pardon----" He opened his eyes very wide as +he spoke, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind +and he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so!" was all I said. And I took a step towards the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean to take them?" he asked seriously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do; unless you can explain the part I have played this evening. And +also make it clear to me that you have a right to the possession of +the papers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Confound it! If I must do so to-night, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honour, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I +bowed, and he went on: "My elder brother and I are in business +together. Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely +that a day or two ago we decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and +ask his help. George did so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes +of our liabilities. You ask why he did not make such a statement by +word of mouth? Because he had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice +to make a last effort to arrange the matter. As for me," with a +curious grimace, "my father would as soon discuss business with his +dog! Sooner!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was nicking the blossoms off the +geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket-handkerchief, looking +moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I can see it now. It had a red border, and was +heavily scented with white rose. "Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing, and this morning his doctor made him see Bristowe. He is an +authority on heart-disease, as you know; and his opinion is," he added +in a lower voice and with some emotion, "that even a slight shock may +prove fatal."</p> + +<p class="normal">I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade; and my first impulse was to get these papers from him. +All day I have been trying in vain to effect it. I took Barnes, who is +an old servant, into my confidence, but we could think of no plan. My +father, like many people who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I +was at my wits' end when Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he +added, looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into +my head, I fancy. Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you +announced--for a moment I thought that you were George."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in.</p> + +<p class="normal">He coloured, but answered immediately, "I was afraid that he would +assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out something. +Good lord! if you knew the funk in which I have been all the evening +lest my father should ask me to read the letter!" He gathered up his +handkerchief with a sigh, and wiped his forehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly over what he +had told me. To tell the truth, I was in no slight quandary what I +should do, or what I should believe. Was this really the key to it +all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had constructed was a +mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest? For the life of me I +could not tell!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, sir?" he said, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ask on," he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in your +waistcoat pocket?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began to stammer. +Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will be frank +with you, Mr. Mr.----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"George," I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to administer to my father--without his +knowledge, if possible--should he grow excited. I did not think that +you had seen it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, while +he gave this explanation his breath came and went so quickly that my +former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point blank.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You cannot give them to me?" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. Moreover the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that the packet is out of your father's +hands--by keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your +brother, from whom it came."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">He considered the offer, eyeing me the while with the same disfavour +which he had exhibited in the drawing-room. At last he said +slowly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you will do that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +North-Western Hotel, Liverpool," and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good night on either +side--and little liking--the clocks striking midnight, and the +servants coming in as I passed into the cool darkness of the square.</p> + +<p class="normal">Late as it was, I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar-box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution, merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some days passed during which it may be imagined that I thought no +little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and the +Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives--at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence which +did not lend itself freely to explanation. Or I might disbelieve his +story, plausible in its very strangeness as it was, in favour of my +own vague suspicions. Which was I to do?</p> + +<p class="normal">I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, notwithstanding +that I had to some extent committed myself by withholding the papers. +But with each day that passed without bringing an answer from +Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the other side. I began to pin my +faith to the tiger, adding each morning a point to the odds in the +animal's favour. So it went on until ten days had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I declare, because I thought +it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George Ritherdon. I +had no difficulty in learning where he could be found. I turned up the +firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), cotton-spinners and +India merchants, in the first directory I consulted. And about noon +the next day I called at their place of business, and sent in my +card to the senior partner. I waited five minutes--curiously scanned +by the porter, who without doubt saw a likeness between me and his +employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's room.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a tall man with a fair beard, not a whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good-looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +greyer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving-glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed to be +in ill-health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only +noticed his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and +the young one's tale was true after all!" George Ritherdon was in deep +mourning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at my card, which he held in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think not," he said slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and North-Western +Hotel, at Liverpool."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was stepping to his writing-table, but he stopped. "I was in +Liverpool," he answered in a different tone, "but I was not at that +hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you had better explain," he suggested, speaking in the weary +tone of one returning to a painful matter, "what was the subject of +your letter. I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may +well have been overlooked."</p> + +<p class="normal">I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the story of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to occasional +exclamations, until I came to the arrangement I had made with his +brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Enough!" he said. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some stranger. I +understand it all now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said, warmly, "that your brother is +a----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand. "He is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you not seen it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he said +wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at Liverpool, +at the hotel you have named, and the day after you saw him."</p> + +<p class="normal">And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them, the one being as cold, business-like, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempt +failed; then he planned with Barnes' cognisance to get possession of +the packet by drugging my father. Barnes' courage deserted him at the +last; he called you in, and--you know the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool."</p> + +<p class="normal">George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not in it. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot was in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, re-sealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said?</p> + +<p class="normal">It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that which +leads through Fitzhardinge Square.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>JOANNA'S BRACELET</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">JOANNA'S BRACELET</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">On a morning early in the spring of last year, two men stood leaning +against the mantelpiece of a room in one of the Government offices. +The taller of the two--he who was at home in the room--was a slim, +well-dressed man, wearing his hair parted in the middle, and a diamond +pin in the sailor knot of his tie. He had his frock-coat open, and his +thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat. The attitude denoted +complacency, and the man was complacent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, the funny part of it is," he said lightly, his shoulders +pressed against the mantelpiece, "that I am dining at the Burton +Smiths' this evening!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah?" his companion answered, looking at him with eyes of envy. "And +so you will see her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course. She is to come to them to-day. But they do not know of our +engagement yet, and as she does not want to blurt it out the moment +she arrives--why, for this evening, it is a secret. Still I thought I +would tell you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped away as he spoke, to straighten a red morocco-covered +despatch-box, which stood on the table behind him. It bore, in +addition to the flaunting gilt capitals "I.O.," a modest plate with +the name "Ernest Wibberley"--his name.</p> + +<p class="normal">The other waited until he resumed his place. Then, holding out his +hand, "Well, I am glad you told me, old boy," he said. "I congratulate +you most heartily, believe me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, Jack," Wibberley replied. "I knew you would. I rather feel +myself that 'Fate cannot harm me. I have dined to-day.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Happy dog!" said Jack; and presently he took himself off.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Burton Smiths, of whom we've heard them speak, are tolerably well +known in London. Burton Smith himself is a barrister with money and +many relations--Irish landlords, Scotch members, Indian judges, and +the like. His wife is young, gracious, and fond of society. Their +drawing-rooms, though on the topmost flat of Onslow Mansions--rooms +with sloping ceilings and a dozen quaint nooks and corners--are seldom +empty during the regulation hours.</p> + +<p class="normal">This particular dinner-party had been planned with some care. "Lady +Linacre will come, no doubt," Mrs. Burton Smith had said one day at +breakfast, conning a list she held in her hand; "and Mr. May."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Burton Smith objected to May. "He will talk about nothing but +India," he protested, "and the superiority of Calcutta to London. A +little of these Bombay ducks goes a long way, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, James," Mrs. Burton Smith replied placidly--the Hon. Vereker +May is a son of Lord Hawthorn--"he will take me in, and I do not mind. +Only I must have Mr. Wibberley on the other side to make conversation +and keep me alive. Let me see--that will be three. And Joanna +Burton--she comes that afternoon--four. Do you know, James, when we +were at Rothley for Christmas I thought there was something between +your cousin and Mr. Wibberley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then, for goodness' sake, do not let them sit together!" Burton Smith +cried, "or they will talk to one another and to no one else."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," Mrs. Smith assented. "They shall sit facing one another, +and Mr. Wibberley shall take in Mrs. Galantine. She will be sure to +flirt with him, and we can watch Joanna's face. I shall soon see if +there is anything between them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Wibberley was a young man of some importance, if only in his +capacity of private secretary to a Minister. He had a thousand +acquaintances, and two friends--perhaps three. He might be something +some day--was bound to be. He dressed well, looked well, and talked +well. He was a little presumptuous, perhaps a trifle conceited; but +women like these things in young men, and he had tact. At any rate, he +had never yet found himself in a place too strait for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">This evening as he dressed for dinner--as he brushed his hair, or +paused to smile at some reflection--his own, but not in the glass--he +was in his happiest mood. Everything seemed to be going well with him. +He had no presentiment of evil. He was going to a house where he was +appreciated. Mrs. Burton Smith was a great ally of his. And then there +would be, as we know, some one else. Happy man!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lady Linacre," said his hostess, as she introduced him to a stout +personage with white hair, a double chin, and diamonds. Wibberley +bowed, making up his mind that the dowager was one of those ladies +with strong prejudices, who drag their skirts together if you prove to +be a Home Ruler, and leave the room if you mention Sir Charles Dilke. +"Mr. May, you have met before," Mrs. Smith continued; "and you know +Miss Burton, I think?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He murmured assent, while she--Joanna--shook hands with him frankly +and with the ghost of a smile, perhaps. He played his part well, for a +moment; but halted in his sentence as it flashed across his mind that +this was their first meeting since she had said "Yes." He recovered +from his momentary embarrassment, however, before even Mrs. Burton +Smith could note it, and promptly offered Mrs. Galantine his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was an old friend of his--as friends go in society. He had taken +her in to dinner half a dozen times. "Who is that girl?" she asked, +when they were seated; and she raised her glasses and stared through +them at her <i>vis-à-vis</i>. "I declare she would be pretty if her nose +were not so short."</p> + +<p class="normal">He seized the excuse to put up his glass too, and take a long look. +"It is rather short," he admitted, gazing with a whimsical sense of +propriety at the deficient organ. "But some people like short noses, +you know, Mrs. Galantine."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! And theatres in August!" she replied incredulously. "And +drawing-room games! But, seriously, she would be pretty if it were not +for that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would she?" he questioned. "Well, I think she would, do you know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">And certainly Joanna was pretty, though her forehead was too large, +and her nose too small, and her lips too full. For her eyes were +bright and her complexion perfect, and her face told of wit, and good +temper, and freshness. She had beautiful arms, too, for a chit of +nineteen. Mrs. Galantine said nothing about the arms--not out of +modesty, but because her own did not form one of her strong points. +Wibberley, however, was thinking of them, and whether a bracelet he +had by him would fit them. He saw Joanna wore a bracelet--a sketchy +gold thing. He considered whether he should take it for a pattern, or +whether it might not be more pleasant to measure the wrist for +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Mrs. Galantine returned to the charge. "She is a cousin, is she +not?" she asked, speaking so loudly that Joanna looked across and +smiled. "I have never met her before. Tell me all about her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Tell her all about her! Wibberley gasped. He saw a difficulty in +telling "all about her," the more as the general conversation was not +brisk, and Joanna must bear a part. For an instant, indeed, his +presence of mind failed him, and he cast an appalled glance round the +table. Then he bent to his task. "Mrs. Galantine," he murmured +sweetly, "pray--pray beware of becoming a potato!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady dropped her knife and fork with a clatter. "A potato, Mr. +Wibberley? What do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What I say," he answered simply. "You see my plate? It is a picture. +You have there the manly beef, and the feminine peas, so young, so +tender! And the potato! The potato is the confidante. It is insipid. +Do you not agree with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bravo, Mr. Wibberley! But am I to apply your parable?" she spoke +sharply, glancing across the table, with her fork uplifted, and a pea +upon it. "Am I to be the potato?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The choice is with you," he replied gallantly. "Shall it be the +potato? or the peas?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Burton Smith, seeing him absorbed in his companion, was +puzzled. Look as she might at Joanna, she saw no sign of jealousy or +self-consciousness. Joanna seemed to be getting on perfectly with her +partner; to be enjoying herself to the full, and to be as much +interested as any one at table. Mrs. Burton Smith sighed. She had the +instinct of matchmaking. And she saw clearly now that there was +nothing between the two; that if there had been any philandering +at Rothley neither of the young people had put out a hand--or a +heart--beyond recovery.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this success of Wibberley's with Mrs. Galantine had its +consequences. After the ladies had withdrawn he grew a trifle +presumptuous. By ill-luck, the Hon. Vereker May had reached that +period of the evening when India--as seen through the glasses of his +memory--was accustomed to put on its rosiest tints; and the two facing +one another fell to debating on a subject of which the returned +Civilian had seen much and thought little, and the private secretary +had read more and thought not at all. They were therefore on a par as +to information, and what the younger man lacked in obstinacy he made +up in readiness. It was in vain the Nabob blustered, asserted, +contradicted--finally grew sulky, silent, stertorous. Wibberley pushed +his triumph, and soon paid dearly for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">It happened that he was the last to enter the drawing-room. The +evening was chilly, and the ladies had grouped themselves about the +fire, protected from assault, by a couple of gipsy-tables bearing +shaded lamps. The incomers, one by one, passed through these +outworks--all but Wibberley. He cast a glance of comic despair at +Joanna, who was by the fireplace in the heart of the citadel; then, +resigning himself to separation, he took a low chair by one of the +tables, and began to turn over the books which lay on the latter. +There were but half a dozen. He scanned them all, and then his eyes +fell on a bracelet which lay beside them; a sketchy gold bracelet, +with one big boss--Joanna's.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at the party--himself sitting a little aside, as we have +said. They were none of them facing his way. They were discussing a +photograph on the overmantel, a photograph of children. He extended +his hand and covered the bracelet. He would take it for a pattern, and +to-morrow Joanna should ransom it. He tried, as his fingers closed on +it, to catch her eye. He would fain have seen her face change and her +colour rise. It would have added to the charm which the boyish, +foolish act had for him, if she had been privy to it--yet unable to +prevent it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she would not look; and he was obliged to be content with his +plunder. He slid the gold trifle deftly under the fringe of the table, +and clasped it round his arm--not a lusty arm--thrusting it as high as +it would go that no movement of his shirt-cuff might disclose it. He +had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and he would not for the world +that any besides Joanna should see the act: that doddering old fossil +May, for instance, who, however, was safe enough--standing on the rug +with his back turned, and his slow mind forming an opinion on the +photograph.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then--or within a few minutes, at any rate--Wibberley began to find +the party dull. He saw no chance of a private word with Joanna. Lady +Linacre, his nearest neighbour, was prosing on to Mrs. Burton Smith, +his next nearest. And he himself, after shining at dinner, had fallen +into the background. Hang it, he would go! It was ten o'clock.</p> + +<p class="normal">He rose, and was stooping across the table, murmuring his excuses to +Mrs. Burton Smith, when Lady Linacre uttered an exclamation. He was +leaning across her between her head and the lamp, and he fancied he +had touched her head-dress. "Pray pardon me, Lady Linacre!" he cried +gaily. "I am just going--I have to leave early. So the encroachment +will be but for a moment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not that," the old lady replied. "But where is my bracelet?" +She was feeling about the table as she spoke, shifting with her white, +podgy hands the volumes that lay on it.</p> + +<p class="normal">No one on the instant took in the situation. Mrs. Burton Smith had +risen, and was listening to Wibberley. The others were talking. But +Lady Linacre was used to attention; and when she spoke again her voice +was shrill, and almost indecently loud. "Where is my bracelet?" she +repeated. "The one with the Agra diamond that I was showing you, Mrs. +Burton Smith. It was here a moment ago, and it is gone! It is gone!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Wibberley was still speaking to his hostess. He heard the old lady's +words, but did not at once apply them. He finished his leave-taking at +his leisure, and only as he turned recollected himself, and said, with +polite solicitude, "What is it, Lady Linacre? Have you dropped +something? Can I find it for you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He stooped as he spoke; and she drew her skirt aside, and both peered +at the floor, while there was a chorus from those sitting nearest of, +"What is it, Lady Linacre? Dear Lady Linacre, what have you lost?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My Agra diamond!" she replied, her head quivering, her fingers +groping about her dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No?" some one said in surprise. "Why, it was here a moment ago. I saw +it in your hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old lady held up her wrists. "See!" she said fussily, "I have not +got it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But are you sure it is not in your lap?" Burton Smith suggested. Lady +Linacre had rather an ample lap. By this time the attention of the +whole party had been drawn to the loss, and one or two of the most +prudent were looking uncomfortable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," she answered; "I am quite sure that I placed it on the table by +my side. I am sure I saw it there. I was going to put it on when the +gentlemen came in, and I laid it down for a minute, and--it is gone!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was quite clear about it, and looked at Wibberley for +confirmation. The table stood between them. She thought he must have +seen it; Mrs. Burton Smith being the only other person close to the +table.</p> + +<p class="normal">Burton Smith saw the look. "I say, Wibberley," he said, appealing to +him, half in fun, half in earnest, "you have not hidden it for a joke, +have you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I? Certainly not!"</p> + +<p class="normal">To this day Ernest Wibberley wonders when he made the disagreeable +discovery of what he had done--that he had taken the wrong bracelet! +It was not at once. It was not until the aggrieved owner had twice +proclaimed her loss that he felt himself redden, and awoke to the +consciousness that the bracelet was on his arm. Even then, if he had +had presence of mind, he might have extricated himself. He might have +said, "By Jove! I think I slipped it on my wrist in pure absence of +mind," or, he might have made some other excuse for his possession of +it--an excuse which would have passed muster, though one or two might +have thought him odd. But time was everything; and he hesitated. He +hated to seem odd, even to one or two; he thought that presently he +might find some chance of restoring the bracelet. So he hesitated, +peering at the carpet, and the golden opportunity passed. Then each +moment made the avowal more difficult, and less ordinary; until, when +his host appealed to him--"If you have hidden it for a joke, old +fellow, out with it!"--madness overcame him, and he answered as he +did.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked up, indeed, with well acted surprise, and said his "I? +Certainly not!" somewhat peremptorily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half a dozen of the guests were peering stupidly about as if they +expected to find the lost article in a flower-vase, or within the +globe of a lamp. Presently their hostess stayed these explorations. +"Wait a moment!" she said abruptly, raising her head. "I have it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"John must have moved it when he brought in the tea. That must be it. +Ring the bell, James, and we will ask him."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was done. John came in, and the question was put to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir," he said readily; "I saw a bracelet. On the table by the +lamp." He indicated the table near Lady Linacre.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you move it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Move it, sir?" the man repeated, surprised by the question, the +silence, and the strained faces turned to him. "No, sir; certainly +not. I saw it when I was handing the tea to--to Mr. Wibberley, I think +it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, very well," his master answered. "That is all. You may go."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not possible to doubt the man's face and manner. But when he +had left the room, an uncomfortable silence ensued. "It is very +strange," Burton Smith said, looking from one to another, and then, +for the twentieth time, he groped under the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is very strange," Wibberley murmured. He felt bound to say +something. He could not free himself from an idea that the others, and +particularly the Indian Civilian, were casting odd looks at him. He +appeared calm enough, but he could not be sure of this. He felt as if +he were each instant changing colour, and betraying himself. His very +voice sounded forced to his ear as he repeated fussily, "It is very +odd--very odd! Where can it be?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It cost," Lady Linacre quavered--irrelevantly, but by no means +impertinently--"it cost fourteen thousand out there. Indeed it did. +And that was before it was set."</p> + +<p class="normal">A hush as of awe fell upon the room. "Fourteen thousand pounds!" +Burton Smith said softly, his hair rising on end.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no," said the old lady, who had not intended to mystify them. +"Not pounds; rupees."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand," he replied, rubbing, his head. "But that is a good +sum."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is over a thousand pounds," the Indian Civilian put in stonily, +"at the present rate of exchange."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, good gracious, James!" Mrs. Burton Smith said impatiently, "why +are you valuing Lady Linacre's jewellery--instead of finding it for +her? The question is, 'Where is it?' It must be here. It was on this +table fifteen minutes ago. It cannot have been spirited away."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If any one," her husband began seriously, "is doing this for a joke, +I do hope----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For a joke!" the hostess cried sharply. "Impossible! No one would be +so foolish!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I say, my dear," he persisted, "if any one is doing this for a +joke, I hope he will own up. It seems to me that it has been +carried far enough." There was a chorus of assent, half-indignant, +half-exculpatory. But no one owned to the joke. No one produced the +bracelet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well!" Mrs. Burton Smith exclaimed. And as the company looked at one +another, it seemed as if they also had never known anything quite so +extraordinary as this.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really, Lady Linacre, I think that it must be somewhere about you," +the host said at last. "Would you mind giving yourself a good shake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose, and was solemnly preparing to agitate her skirts, when a +guest interfered. It was the Hon. Vereker May. "You need not trouble +yourself, Lady Linacre," he said, with a curious dryness. He was still +standing by the fireplace. "It is not about you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then where in the world is it?" retorted Mrs. Galantine. "Do you +know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you do, for goodness' sake speak out," Mrs. Burton Smith added +indignantly. Every one turned and stared at the Civilian.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better," he said, "ask Mr. Wibberley!"</p> + +<p class="normal">That was all. But something in his tone produced an electrical effect. +Joanna, in her corner--remote, like the Indian, from the centre of the +disturbance--turned red and pale, and flashed angry glances round her. +For the rest, they wished themselves away. It was impossible to +overlook the insinuation. The words, simple as they were, in a moment +put a graver complexion on the matter. Even Mrs. Burton Smith was +silent, looking to her husband. He looked furtively at Wibberley.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Wibberley? So far he had merely thought himself in an unpleasant +fix, from which he must escape as best he could, at the expense of a +little embarrassment and a slight loss of self-respect. Even the +latter he might regain to-morrow, if he saw fit, by telling the truth +to Mrs. Burton Smith; and in time the whole thing would become a +subject for laughter, a stock dinner-party anecdote. But now, at the +first sound of the Indian's voice, he recognised his danger; and saw +in the hundredth part of a second that ruin, social damnation, perhaps +worse, threatened him. His presence of mind seemed to fail him at +sight of the pit opening at his feet. He felt himself reeling, +choking, his head surcharged with blood. The room, the expectant faces +all turned to him, all with that strange expression on them, swam +round before him. He had to lay his hand on a chair to steady himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he did steady himself; to such an extent that those who marked his +agitation did not know whether it proceeded from anger or fear. He +drew himself up and looked at his accuser, holding the chair suspended +in his hands. "What do you mean?" he said hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should not have spoken," the Civilian answered, returning his gaze, +and speaking in measured accents, "if Mr. Burton Smith had not twice +appealed to us to confess the joke, if a joke it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, only this," the other replied. "I saw you take Lady Linacre's +bracelet from that table a few moments before it was missed, Mr. +Wibberley."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You saw me?" Wibberley cried. This time there was the ring of honest +defiance, of indignant innocence, in his tone. For if he felt certain +of one thing it was that no one had been looking at him when the +unlucky deed was done.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did," the Civilian replied dispassionately. "My back was towards +you. But my eyes were on this mirror"--he touched an oval glass in a +Venetian frame which stood on the mantelpiece--"and I saw quite +clearly. I am bound to say that, judging from the expression of your +face, I was assured that it was a trick you were playing."</p> + +<p class="normal">Ernest Wibberley tried to frame the words, "And now?"--tried to force +a smile. But he could not. The perspiration stood in great beads on +his face. He shook all over. He felt himself--and this time it was no +fancy--growing livid.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To the best of my belief," the Civilian added quietly, "the bracelet +is on your left arm now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wibberley tried to master, but could not, the impulse--the traitor +impulse?--which urged him to glance at his wrist. The idea that the +bracelet might be visible--that the damning evidence might be plain to +every eye--overcame him. He looked down. Of course there was nothing +to be seen; he might have known it, for he felt the hot grip of the +horrible thing burning his arm inches higher. But when he looked up +again--fleeting as had been his glance--he found that something had +happened. He faltered, and the chair dropped from his hands. He read +in every face save one suspicion or condemnation. Thief and liar! He +read the words in their eyes. Yet he would, he must, brazen it out. +And though he could not utter a word he looked from them to--Joanna.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl's face was pale. But her eyes answered his eagerly, and they +were ablaze with indignation. They held doubt, no suspicion. The +moment his look fell on her, she spoke. "Show them your arm!" she +cried impulsively. "Show them that you have not got it, Ernest!" she +repeated with such scorn, such generous passion that it did not need +the tell-tale name which fell from her lips to betray the secret to +every woman in the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Show them your arm!" Ah, but that was just what he could not do! And +as he comprehended this he gnashed his teeth. He saw himself +entrapped, and his misery was so plainly written in his face that the +best and most merciful of those about him turned from him in pity. +Even the girl who loved him shrank back, clutching the mantelpiece in +the first spasm of doubt, and fear, and anguish. Her words, her +suggestion, had taken from him his last chance. He saw that it was so. +He felt the Nemesis the more bitterly on that account; and with a wild +gesture, and some reckless word of defiance, he turned blindly and +hurried from the room, seized his hat, and went down to the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">His feelings when he found himself outside were such as it is +impossible to describe in passionless sentences. He had wrecked his +honour and happiness in an hour. He had lost his place among men +through a thoughtless word. We talk and read of a thunderbolt from the +blue; still the thing is to us unnatural. Some law-abiding citizen +whom a moment's passion has made a murderer, some strong man whom a +stunning blow has left writhing on the ground, a twisted cripple--only +these could fitly describe his misery and despair as he passed through +the streets. It was misery he had brought on himself; and yet how far +the punishment exceeded the offence! How immensely the shame exceeded +the guilt! He had lied in careless will, with no evil intent; and the +lie had made him a thief!</p> + +<p class="normal">He went up to his rooms like one in a dream, and, scarcely knowing +what he did, he tore the bauble from his arm and flung it on the +mantel-shelf. By his last act--by bringing it away--he had made his +position a hundred times more serious. But he did not at once remember +this. After he had sat a while, however, with his head between his +hands, wondering if this really were himself--if this really had +happened to himself, this irrevocable thing!--he began to see things +more clearly. But he could not at once make up his mind what to do. +Beyond a hazy idea of returning the bracelet by the first post, and +going on the Continent--of course, he must resign his employment--he +had settled nothing, when a step mounting the staircase made him start +to his feet. Some one knocked at the door of his chambers. He stood +pallid and listened, struck by a sudden fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The police!" he said to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">A moment's thought satisfied him that it was improbable, if not +impossible, that they could be on his track so soon; and he went to +the door listlessly and threw it open. On the mat stood Burton Smith, +in a soft slouched hat, his hands thrust into the pockets of his +overcoat. Wibberley glanced at him, and saw that he was alone; then +leaving him to shut the door, he returned to his chair, and sat down +in his old attitude, with his head between his hands. He looked +already a broken man.</p> + +<p class="normal">Burton Smith followed him in, and stood a moment looking at him +uncomfortably enough. It is bad to have had such a scene as has been +described in your house; it is worse, if a man be a man, to face a +fellow-creature in his hour of shame. At any rate, Burton Smith felt +it so. "Look here, Wibberley," he said at length, as much embarrassed +as if he had been the thief. "Look here, it will be better to hush +this up. Give me the d----d bracelet to hand back to Lady Linacre, and +the thing shall go no farther."</p> + +<p class="normal">His tone was suggestive both of old friendship and of present pity. +But when he had to repeat his question, when Wibberley gave him no +answer, his voice grew more harsh. Even then the man with the hidden +face did not speak, but pointed with an impatient gesture to the +mantel-shelf.</p> + +<p class="normal">Burton Smith stepped to the fire-place and looked. He was anxious to +spare the culprit as far as possible. Yes, there was the bracelet. He +took possession of it, anxious to escape from the place with all +speed. But he laid it down the next instant as quickly as he had taken +it up; and his brows came together as he turned upon his companion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is not the bracelet!" he said. There was no smack of affection +in his tone now; it was wholly hostile. His patience was exhausted. +"Lady Linacre's was a diamond bracelet of great value, as you know," +he said. "This is a plain gold thing worth two or three pounds. For +Heaven's sake, man!" he added with sudden vehemence, "for your own +sake, don't play the fool now! Where is the bracelet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless despair had benumbed Wibberley's mind, for he did not reply, +and Burton Smith had to put his question more than once before he got +an answer. When Wibberley at last looked up it was with a dazed face. +"What is it?" he muttered, avoiding the other's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is not Lady Linacre's bracelet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; certainly not."</p> + +<p class="normal">Still confused, still shunning the other's look, Wibberley rose, took +the bracelet in his hand, and frowned at it. Burton Smith saw him +start.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is of the same shape," the barrister repeated, ice in his +voice--he thought the exchange a foolish, transparent artifice--worse +than the theft. "But Lady Linacre's has a large brilliant where that +has a plain boss. That is not the bracelet."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wibberley turned away, the thing in his hand, and went to the window, +and stood there a long moment looking out into the darkness. The +curtains were not drawn. As he stood, otherwise motionless, his +shoulders trembled so violently that a dreadful suspicion seized his +late host, who desisted from watching him and looked about, but in +vain, for a phial or a glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the end of the minute Wibberley turned. For the first time he +confronted his visitor. His eyes were bright, his face very pale; but +his mouth was set and firm. "I never said it was!" he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was what?" the other cried impatiently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never said it was Lady Linacre's. It was you who said that," he +continued, his head high, a change in his demeanour, an incisiveness +almost harsh in his tone. "It was you--you who suspected me! I could +not show you my arm because I had that bracelet on it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And whose bracelet is it?" Burton Smith murmured, shaken as much by +the sudden change in the man's demeanour as by his denial.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is your cousin's--Miss Burton's. We are engaged," Wibberley +continued sternly--so entirely had the two changed places. "She +intended to tell you to-morrow. I saw it on the table, and secreted it +when I thought that no one was looking. I needed a pattern--for a +bracelet I am giving her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it was Joanna's bracelet that Vereker May saw you take?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely."</p> + +<p class="normal">Burton Smith said a word about the Civilian which we need not repeat. +Then, "But why on earth, old fellow, did you not explain?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"First," Wibberley replied with force, "because I should have had to +proclaim my engagement to all those fools; and I had not Joanna's +permission to do that. Secondly--well, I did not wish to confess to +being such an idiot as I was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" said Burton Smith, slowly, an odd light in his eyes. "I think +you were a fool, but--I suppose you will shake hands?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly, old man." And they did so, warmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now," continued the barrister, his face becoming serious again, "the +question is, where is Lady Linacre's bracelet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't care a d----n," Wibberley answered. "I am sure you will +excuse me saying so. I have had trouble enough with it--I know +that--and, if you do not mind, I am going to bed."</p> + +<p class="normal">But though his friend left him, Wibberley did not go to bed at once. +Burton Smith hurrying homeward--to find when he reached Onslow +Mansions that Lady Linacre's bracelet had been discovered in a flounce +of her dress--would have been surprised, very much surprised indeed, +could he have looked into Wibberley's chambers a minute after his +departure. He would have seen his friend down on his knees before a +great chair, his face hidden, his form shaken by hysterical sobbing. +For Wibberley was moved to the inmost depths of his nature. It is not +given to many men to awake and find their doom a dream. Only in +dreams, indeed, does the cripple get his strength again, and the +murderer his old place among his fellow-men. Wibberley was fortunate.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the lesson? Did he take it to heart? Well, lessons and morals are +out of fashion in these days. Or stay--ask Joanna. She should know.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His body-birds?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" With which he +looked at me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had +learned it in part from books; hence the curious mixture I presently +noted of Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light +trap in which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat +that was lightening that journey; which lay through a part of +Carnarvonshire usually traversed only by wool-merchants and +cattle-dealers--a country of upland farms swept by the sea-breezes, +where English is not spoken at this day by one person in a hundred, +and even at inns and post-offices you get only "<i>Dim Sassenach</i>" for +your answer. "Do you not say," he went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, +but to be sure, it is in the Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his +self-esteem.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain; and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine men +there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honour--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's wife +was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a stone +into the boat. They do say that before that she was pining at +Court--it was bleak, and lonesome, and cold in the winters, and she +had been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up +her head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then, of all at Court, there were left only Robert +Evans and the child, Peggy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old was the child then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +to the front, thoughtfully, striving, it would seem, to make the +situation clear to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right; it was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But who----"</p> + +<p class="normal">By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips; and then there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us the sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were seagulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterwards they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now, to be sure. Besides, there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and +the three Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, +and many more who were all forward to visit Court, and be friendly +with old Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look +black at one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the +foreign child should be sent away; and at times one and another would +give her the rough word."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She must have had a bad time," I observed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy <i>bach</i> grew up like +them, free and open and up-standing, though she lived on land. When +she was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +colour of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the seagulls, or else sitting with her +books in the cove where the farm-people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh yes, indeed +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; and Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength here; and the minister lent +her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that once, +when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to them +so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but led +the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Requiescat in pace</i>," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be at Court once or twice a week, so +that all the neighbourhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees's lobster-pots. +He was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up +his pots--oh, it might be two or three times a week. So it happened +one day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was +steering, that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loth to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gaily, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes,' Peggy answered, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he +had not determined that she was old Rees's daughter he would have +taken notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used +for the fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat moreover.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said; and with that +he put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which +to fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks +were scarlet, and by-and-by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or +three times more--not roughly, but just offhand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You mustn't be speaking that fashion to her,' he said gruffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What?' said the gentleman looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon,' he said, taking off his hat +grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by any one until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But two things came of this; first, that every one began to call her +Miss McNeill Court which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then, that whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy <i>bach</i> to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who, to be sure, did not +seem to be unhappy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that any one should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking every one for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such-like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that, though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make.</p> + +<p class="normal">"However, one day towards winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then, without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'No relation! And I +am not going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing +but a fortune-catcher!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money, he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house-place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Do you mean it?' he asked sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes,' said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was not to +be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No,' the old woman answered very short. 'It is just that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all they would tell her. +'You will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, +as if he had been thinking about it. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house-room for you, and make no charge whatever. To-morrow +you will take this packet to the address upon it, and the next day a +packet will be returned to you, which you will bring back to me. I am +not well to-day, and I want to have the matter settled, yes, indeed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But could not some one else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, she was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure +for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. She had +not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been despatched +in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big town was +strange to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was dead. After +ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc to smooth his +pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting. She was stepping into it when Mr. +Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said, and he +spoke nicely, for he was a kind man, and, what with the shock and the +long journey, she was looking very pale.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes,' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for every one in the +neighbourhood had learned about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I understood that I was not to be in +the will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young lady turned very red, and her voice was hard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked. "'The three families who +divide the estate,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'And are they obliged to do so?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well--no,' he allowed. 'I am not sure that they are exactly obliged. +But no doubt----"</p> + +<p class="normal">'"I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, and besides a lad or two in the kitchen +there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and it was little +they seemed to have to tell her about the death. When she had heard +what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, 'Gwen,' +she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, <i>bach</i>, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' she answered with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that now?' +But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, indeed, <i>bach</i>,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back to-night. And about the will moreover.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. When she turned to say good night, the girl was at her side, +her eyes shining in the light of the two candles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered, 'didn't he say anything?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Not a word, <i>bach</i>,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Peggy, I am believing, went into her room much in the same way. +No doubt she would be telling herself a great many times over before +she slept that he would come and see her in the morning: and in the +morning she would be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon'; and in +the afternoon, 'He will come in the evening.' But evening came, and +darkness, and still he did not appear. Then she could endure it no +longer. She let herself out of the front door, which there was no one +now to use but herself, and with a shawl over her head she ran all the +way to the shop. There was no light in the window upstairs; but at the +back door stood Mrs. Campbell, looking after some one who had just +left her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The girl came, shrinking at the last moment, into the ring of light +about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, starting at +sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you alone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' the good woman said +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I am supposing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yesterday? At what time, please?' the young lady asked. There was a +fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was getting a +footing now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night-wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel!' which +broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that night +at all I am not able to say. Only when it was dawn she was out upon +the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The fishermen who +were up early going out with the ebb saw her at times walking fast, +and then again standing still and looking seaward. But I do not know +what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she returned +and came down into the parlour at Court for the funeral, there were +none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a grey beard like a bird's nest, and thick lips--was +sitting with his wife on the horse-hair sofa. The Evanses of Nant, who +were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upwards, were by +the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were others, +besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when she +entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He rose and shook hands with her, marking the dark hollows under her +eyes, and fixing it in his mind to get her a settlement. Then he +hesitated, looking doubtfully at the others. 'We are going to read the +will before the funeral instead of afterwards,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for she had forgotten all about the +will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come later.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you will be doing well, +whatever, to hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But at that Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with an air of +importance. 'Maybe some one,' she said in a low voice, 'would like to +take a last look at the master?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes, briskly, when the +door was closed again. And every one nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very fair,' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans. 'He was a very clever man, our +old friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a +word went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for +it. Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at +Court now, said it was time to be going to church.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three portions of the property in +favour of Miss McNeill.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' Llewellyn cried sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law whatever?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, no,' Mr. Hughes assented grudgingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and anxious to do the +best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith--forthwith," so that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he would say no other. Nor was it to any purpose that the lawyer +looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and feeling +the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could make +nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, indeed!' to +what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he turned to +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young lady +has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Bevan fidgeted, but his wife answered the lawyer as bold as +brass. 'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes,' she said. 'If it were twenty +pounds now, once for all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my +nephews would say the same--I think we might manage that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word, whatever!' he answered. 'Let +the girl go to service. It is what we have wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They will be liking a young housekeeper.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers, looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a penny for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed by +an outcry overhead and quick running upon the stairs. The legatees +looked uncomfortably at the carpet; the lawyer was blacker than +before. He said to himself, 'It is that poor child that has fainted!' +The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was opened, +not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose, they were +thankful to see her; to their surprise she passed by Llewellyn, and +with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What!' he cried starting back a pace, and speaking so that the +wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It is true,' she answered, half-crying, 'and no fault of mine +neither.' Gwen added more in short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to them to make +room for her to pass out. Then he turned to them, a queer look upon +his face; it was not triumph altogether, for there was some doubt and +some alarm in it as well. 'You will believe me,' he said, 'that I am +as much taken aback as yourselves--that till this moment I have been +as much in the dark as any one. It seems--so I am told--that our old +friend is not dead.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What are you meaning!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'It is not +possible!' and he raised his black-gloved hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What I say,' Mr. Hughes replied patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however it +comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans is +spared to us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"With that he was glad to escape from the room. When he was gone, I am +told that their faces were very strange to see. There was a long +silence. Llewellyn was the first to speak. He swore a big oath and +banged his great hand upon the table. 'I do not believe it!' he cried. +'I do not believe it! It is a trick!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and they all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt form of Robert +Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one side and of +Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt alive. Behind him +were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and three or +four women, half frightened, half wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears, and they could find +not a word to say either of joy or grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ho, ho!' he exclaimed, +as his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the +table. 'That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I'm thinking?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged, whatever.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Llewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at Robert +Evans' elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What!' the old man cried sharply. 'How was that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do, we were going to do, sir.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert, bitterly; 'for that +was nothing. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn Evans gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself towards the Evan Bevans who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, eagerly, 'we did indeed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will set you down for +just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, <i>bach</i>,' he +continued, turning from the lady, who was looking very queer, and +putting into the girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, +'tear up this rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in +the other room. What, Llewellyn Evans, no appetite!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking amongst them, as they went, of +a conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes as they drove away +after dinner were very merry together--which may have been only the +home-brewed--at any rate all that came of Llewellyn's talking and +inquiries was that every one laughed very much, and Robert Evans' name +for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But towards five o'clock the +place grew quiet. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, and her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be +really glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls +screamed in the afternoon stillness that made it seem home each +minute, was hers still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, +nor poor. Maybe she was striving not to think of the thing which had +been taken from her and could not be given back. Whatever her +thoughts, she was roused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot +tears, through which she could see that the old man was awake and +looking at her with a strange expression which disappeared as she +became aware of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that your eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Please don't speak of +him,' she pleaded in a low tone. 'Let us forget him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he said, as if he were summing up the case in his own mind, +and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven him, and +I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, yes, yes!' the girl sobbed, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, indeed! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated, as, surprised in the midst of her grief, she +wavered and hesitated, 'sit here;' and he pointed to the settle +opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had written, and +that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come somehow to +my hands? Now don't get excited, girl!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' Peggy cried, her lips parted, her eyes wide and frightened, her +whole form stiff with a question.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you stand by it? Remember, he must have much +to explain. Would you be guided by me, my girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter, to remember her lover's flight, the lack of word or +message for her, and her misery. She nodded, and held out her hand, +for she could not speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short. He watched her while she thrust it +from her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed +it again and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he, testily. 'Now let me see it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She turned upon him, holding it away behind her, as if it were some +living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet me at the +junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He was going to +London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And he will be +here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and suddenly +remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him the +letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You said you would be led by me, you know,' said the old man +gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You promised,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands. 'No +one shall come between us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I will not be speaking for +nothing! But you had better tell Owen to take the trap to the station +to meet your man.'"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE VICAR'S SECRET</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">THE VICAR'S SECRET</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The windows at the rear of Acton Chase, an old house in +Worcestershire, look on a quaint bowling-green flanked by yew hedges, +and backed by a stream of good size, on the farther side of which a +sparsely timbered slope leads up to the home farm. It leads also to +half a dozen smaller farms, which once formed the Chase. Zigzag up +this slope runs a track--probably it has so run for centuries, for at +the foot of it is a ford--which in spring is almost invisible, but in +autumn is brown and rutty. The Chase has long been a Roman Catholic +house, and up this track dead-and-gone squires, debarred from converse +with their neighbours, have ridden a-hunting, mornings innumerable; so +that to-day people sitting in the garden towards evening are apt to +see them come trailing home, their horses jaded, and themselves +calling for the black-jack.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our story is not of these, but of two men who strolled down this +path on an evening no farther back than last August. They seemed, +outwardly at least, ill-matched. The one, a young fellow under thirty, +fair-haired, pink-cheeked, prim-looking, was of middle size. He was +dressed as a clergyman, but more neatly and trimly than the average +country clergyman dresses. The other was one of the tallest and +thinnest men ever seen outside a show--a man whose very clothes, his +worn jacket and shrunken knickerbockers, had the air of sharing his +attenuation. He looked like a gamekeeper, and was, in fact, the +squire's son-in-law, Jim Foley.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I really cannot make you out," he said, as the two sighted the house; +and, shifting his gun to the other shoulder, he took occasion to +glance at his companion. "What do you do, old boy? You never kill +anything, unless it is a trout now and then. Now I could not live +without killing. Must kill something every day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And do you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Seldom miss," the long man rejoined cheerfully, "except on a hunting +day when we draw blank. Rats, rabbits, otters, pike, sometimes a hawk, +sometimes, as to-day, a brace of wood-pigeons. And game and foxes in +their season. Must kill something, my boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">His companion glanced at him, looked away again, and sighed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, what is that for?" Foley asked, in the tone of an aggrieved +man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was only thinking," the other replied drily, "what a lucky fellow +you were to have nothing to do but kill."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tall man whistled. "I say," he said, "for a man who is to be +married in a week or so, you are in roaring spirits, ain't you? I tell +you what it is, my boy; you do not take very kindly to your bliss. I +can see Patty flitting about in the garden like a big white moth, +waiting, I have no doubt, for a word with her lord; and your step +lags, and your face is grave, and you try to be cynical! What is up?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The younger man laughed, but not merrily; and there was a tinge of +sullenness in his tone as he answered, "Nothing! A man cannot always +be grinning."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; but <i>pâti de foie gras</i> is not a man's ordinary meat," Jim +retorted imperturbably. "Jones!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" the other said snappishly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are in a mess, my boy--that is my opinion! Now, don't take it +amiss," Jim continued drily. "I am within my rights. I am one of the +family, and if the squire is blind and Patty is young, I am neither. +And I am not going to let this go on until I know more, my boy. You +have something on your mind of which they are ignorant."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young clergyman turned his face to his companion, and Jim Foley, +albeit of the coolest, was taken aback by the change which anger or +some other emotion had wrought in it. Even the clergyman's voice was +altered. "And what if I have?" he said, stopping so suddenly that the +two confronted one another. "What if I have, Mr. Foley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim deliberately shut his eyes and opened them, to make sure that the +tragic spirit, so suddenly infused into the pleasant landscape, with +its long shadows and its distant forge-note, was no delusion. +Satisfied, he rose to the occasion. "This," he said, outwardly +unmoved. "You must get rid of it. That is all, Jones."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I cannot?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will not, you mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, cannot!" the clergyman replied with vehemence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then," Jim drawled--"I am not a moral man, don't mistake me, but I +belong to the family--your majesty must go elsewhere for a wife! And a +little late to do so!" he continued, harshness in his tone. "What! you +are not coming to the house?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" the other cried violently. And, without a word of farewell, he +turned his back on his companion, and strode away through the lush +grass to a point a little higher up the stream, where a plank-bridge +gave access to the Chase outbuildings, and through them to the +village.</p> + +<p class="normal">Foley stood awhile, looking after him. "Well," he said, speaking +gently, as if rallying himself on some weakness, "I am afraid--I +really am afraid that I am a little astonished. I should know men +by now, yet I did think that if any one could show a clean bill of +health it was the vicar. He is smug, he is next door to a prig. The +old women swear by him, the young ones dote on him. They say he is on +foot from morning till night, and not one blank day in a fortnight! +And now--pheugh! I wonder whether I ought to have knocked him down. +Poor little Patty! There is not a better girl in the country--except +the Partridge!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked pathetically at the gardens below him; then, seeing that the +chimneys of the house were smoking briskly, he bethought him of +dinner, and strode down to the gate with his usual air of +<i>insouciance</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the young clergyman gained the side avenue, and walked +rapidly towards the village, his eyes dazzled by the low beams of the +sun which shone in his face, and his mind confounded by the tumult of +his thoughts. A crisis which he had long foreseen, often dreaded, and +as often postponed, was now imminent, the power to control it gone +from his hands. He looked on the past with regret, and forward with +shame. That which had once been feasible--nay, as it seemed to him +now, easy--time and his cowardice had rendered impossible. He stood +aghast at his own feebleness; not considering that the routine of +parish work and the satisfaction derived from small duties done, had +weakened his moral fibre; even as the peace of the life about him, and +the transparent truthfulness of those, with whom his lot was cast, had +made the task of disclosure more formidable. He had fallen--no, he had +not fallen; but he had put off the act which honour demanded so long +that, though the day of grace was still his, there could be no grace +in the doing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rooks, streaming homeward in some order of their own, were cawing +overhead as he opened the gate and entered the vicarage garden, where +the great hollyhocks stood in rows, and the peaches, catching the last +rays of the sun aslant, were glowing against the southern gable. To +the stranger--to the American, in particular--who looked in as he +passed, it seemed a paradise, that garden. But--for peaches are not +peace, nor hollyhocks either--its owner passed through it with +compressed lips and tingling cheeks. He entered the porch, where one +or two packing-cases told of coming changes; then he stood irresolute +in the cool hall, remembering that he had intended to dine at the +Chase, and that there was nothing prepared for him here. Not that he +had an appetite, but dinner was a decent observance, and it seemed to +him that not to dine would be to lose his hold on life and fall into +abysses before his time.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is well, when we are unfortunate, to consider how much worse a +minute, a few seconds, may see us. A faint sound at his elbow caused +him to turn. The door of the dining-room was ajar, and through the +opening a face peered at him. The young vicar did not start, but he +drew a deep breath, and stiffened as he gazed. A minute, and his +lips--while the other face, with a shifty smile, half mockery, half +shame, returned his look--formed the word "Father!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not audible two paces away. But as it fell the clergyman +glanced round with a gesture of alarm, and at a single stride he +was in the dining-room, and had shut the door behind him. The other +man--a shambling creature, grey-haired and blear-eyed and unwashed, +with a beard of a week's growth--fell back to the table and leaned +against it. His rusty black clothes and his broken boots seemed to +share, rather than to impart, the look of decay which marked his +person. The vicar, with his back against the door, looked at him and +shuddered, and then looked again, his face hard and his eyes gloomy. +"Well," he said, in a low stern voice, "what is the meaning of this? +You know our agreement. Why have you broken it, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man pursed up his lips, and, with his head on one side, +contemplated his questioner in silence. Then he said suddenly, "Blow +the agreement!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicar winced as if he had been struck. But he found words again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you can do without the money," he said, "so much the better. +But----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blow the money!" cried the old man, with the same violence. +Notwithstanding his words, he stood in awe of his son, and was trying +to gain courage by working himself into a passion. "What is money?" he +continued. "I want no money! I am coming to live with you. You are +going to be married. I heard of it, though you kept it close, my boy! +I heard of it, and I said to myself, 'Good! I will go and live with my +boy. And his wife shall take care of my little comforts.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">The younger man shivered. He thought of Patty, and he looked at the +old man before him, sly, vicious, gin-sodden--and his father! "You do +not want to live with me," he answered coldly. "You could not bear to +live with me for one week, and you know it. Will you tell me what you +do want, and why you have left Glasgow?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To congratulate you!" his father answered, with a drunken chuckle. +"Walter Jones and Patty Stanton--third time of asking! Oh, I heard of +it! But not through you. Why," he continued, with a quick change to +ferocity, "would you not ask your own father to your wedding, you +ungrateful boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," the vicar replied sternly, "he being such as he is, I would +not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you are ashamed of him, are you? You have kept him dark, I +fancy?" the old man replied, grinning with wicked enjoyment as he saw +how his son winced at each sentence, how his colour went and came. +"Well, now you will have the pleasure of introducing me to the squire, +and to daughter Patty, and to all your friends. It will be a pleasant +surprise for them. I'll be bound you said I was dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have not said you were dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you wish I was?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"God keep me from it!" the vicar groaned.</p> + +<p class="normal">On that, the two men stood looking at each other, the one neat, +clean-shaven, conventional, the other vile with the degradation of +drink. Though the windows stood open, the room was full of the smell +of spirits, and seemed itself soiled and degraded. Suddenly the +younger man sat down at the table, and, burying his face between his +hands, fell into a storm of weeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">His father shifted his feet, and licking his lips nervously, looked at +him in maudlin shame; then from him to the sideboard, in search of his +supporter under all trials. But the sideboard was bare, the doors +closed, the key invisible. Mr. Jones grew indignant. "There, stop that +foolery!" he said brutally. "You make me sick."</p> + +<p class="normal">The rough adjuration restored the young man's nerve, and he looked up, +his cheeks wet with tears. Tears in a man are shameful; but this +tragedy was one not to be evaded by manliness, or, indeed, by any help +of men. "Tell me what it is you want," he said wearily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"More money," his father snarled. The liquor with which he had primed +himself was losing its effect. "I cannot live on what you give me. +Glasgow is a dear place. The money ought to be mine; all of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have had two hundred a year--one-half of my mother's money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know. I want three."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, you cannot have it," the son answered languidly. "If you must +know, I have agreed to settle one-half of my income on my wife now, +and the other half at your death. Therefore it will not be in my power +to allow you more. You have spent your own fortune, and you have no +claim on my mother's money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," Mr. Jones answered, his head trembling with rage and +weakness. "Then I stay with you. I stay here. Your father-in-law that +is to be will be glad to meet his old friend again--I have no doubt. +We were at college together. I dare say he will acknowledge me, if my +own son is too proud to do so. I shall stay here until I am tired of +the country."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man looked at him in despair. Supplication he knew would +avail him nothing, and the only threat he could use--that he would +stop his father's allowance--would have no terrors, for he could not +execute it. To let his father go to the workhouse would increase the +scandal a hundred times. He rose at last and went out. His housekeeper +had come in, and he told her, keeping his burning face averted, to +prepare a bed and get supper for two. He shrank--he whose life in +Acton had been so full of propriety--from saying who his guest was. +Let his father proclaim himself if he would; that would be less +painful. The truth must out. Once before, at his first curacy, the +young man, younger then and more hopeful, had tried the work of +reformation. He had made a home for his father, and done what he +could. And the end had been hot, flaming shame, and an exposure which +had driven him to the other end of England.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he left the house next morning, though his mind was made up to go +to the squire and tell him all, he lingered on the white dusty road. +The sunlight fell about him in dazzling chequers, and, save for the +humming of the bees overhead and the whirr of a reaping-machine in a +neighbouring field, the stillness of the August noon hung with the +haze over the landscape. His heart, despite his resolution, grew hot +within him, as he looked around, and contrasted the peacefulness of +nature with the tumult of shame and agitation in his own breast. There +was the school which he opened with prayers four times a week. Between +the trees he caught a grey glimpse of the church--his church. As he +looked his secret grew more sordid, more formidable.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned at last with an effort to enter the gates, and saw Patty and +her sister, Mrs. Foley, coming down the avenue. They were still a long +way off, their light frocks and parasols flitting from sunlight to +shadow, and shadow to sunlight, as they advanced. The young man +halted. Had Patty been alone, he would have gone to her and told her +all; and surely, surely, though he doubted it at this moment, he would +have won comfort--for love laughs at vicarious shame. But the +Partridge's presence frightened him. Mrs. Foley, round and small and +plump, in all things the antithesis of her husband, had yet imbibed +something of Jim's dryness. The vicar feared her under the present +circumstances, and he turned and fled down the road. He would let them +pass--probably they were going to the vicarage--and he would then step +up and see the squire.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was right in supposing that the ladies were going to the vicarage. +As they went in that direction, they came upon a strange dissolute old +man whom they eyed with wondering dislike, and to whom they gave a +wide berth as they passed. They had not gone by long before a third +person came through the lodge gates and sauntered after them. This was +Jim Foley, come out, with his hands in his pockets and a one-eyed +terrier at his heels, to smoke his morning pipe. He, too, espied the +old toper, and at sight of him took his pipe from his mouth and stood +in the middle of the road, an expression of surprise on his features; +while Mr. Jones, becoming aware of him too late--for his faculties +were not of the sharpest in the morning--also stood by some instinct +and looked, with a growing sense of unpleasant recognition, at his +lanky figure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo!" said Jim. Mr. Jones did not answer, but stood blinking in the +sunshine. He looked more blear-eyed and shabby, more hopelessly gone +to seed, than he had looked in the vicarage dining-room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo!" said Foley again. "My old friend Wilkins, I think!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My name is Jones," the man muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, Jones is it? Jones <i>vice</i> Wilkins resigned," Jim replied, with +ironical politeness. "Come down to Acton upon a little matter of +business, I suppose. Now look here, Jones <i>vice</i> Wilkins," he +continued, pointing each sentence with a wave of his pipe, "I see your +game. You have come down here to screw out a ten-pound note, by +threatening to tell the squire some old story of my turf days. That is +it, isn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Jones opened his mouth to deny the charge but thought better of +it; either because of the settled scepticism which Foley's face +expressed, or because he saw a ten-pound note in the immediate future. +He remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so," Foley went on with a nod, replacing his pipe in his mouth +and his hand in his pocket. "Well, it won't do. It won't do, do you +understand? Because, do you see, you have not accounted for the last +pony I sent you to put on Paradox for the Two Thousand. And I will +just trouble you for it and three to the back of it. Three to one was +the starting price, I think, Mr. Jones."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Jones's face fell abruptly, and he glared at Foley. "It never +reached me," he muttered huskily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean that you are not going to refund it," Jim retorted. "Well, +you don't look as if you had it. But I'll tell you what you'll do. You +will go back whence you came within three hours--there is a train at +two-forty, and you will go by it. You have caught a Tartar, do you +see?" Jim continued sternly, "and though you may, if you stay, give me +an unpleasant hour with the squire, I shall give you a much more +unpleasant hour with the policeman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the squire----" the old man began; "the squire----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, the policeman!" Foley retorted sharply. "Never mind the squire. +Keep your mind steadily on the policeman, and you will be the more +certain to catch the train. Now mind," Jim added, pausing to say +another word after he had turned away, "I am serious, my man. If I +find you here after the two-forty train has left, I give you in +charge, and we will both take the consequences."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim strolled on towards the vicarage, congratulating himself on his +presence of mind and chuckling over the skill with which he had foiled +this attempt on his pocket; while Mr. Jones, though his appetite for a +country walk was spoiled by the meeting, tottered onwards too, in the +opposite direction, rather than seem, by turning, to be dogging Foley, +who had inspired him with a very genuine terror. The consequence was +that the next turn in the road brought the old man face to face with +his son.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Walter, I am going back," he said, quavering piteously. The interview +had shaken him. He seemed less offensive, less of a blot on the +landscape; on the other hand, more broken and older. It is not without +a sharp pang that the man who has once been a gentleman finds himself +threatened with the handcuffs, and forced to avoid the policeman.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicar had been for passing him in silence, but the statement +brought him to a standstill. What if his father should indeed go? To +explain him in his absence seemed an easy, almost a normal, task. Yet +he feared a trap, and he only answered, "I am glad to hear it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am going by the two-forty train," the old man whined. "But I must +have a sovereign to pay my fare, Walter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shall have it," the vicar said, his heart bounding.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give it me now! Give it me now!" his father repeated eagerly. "I tell +you I am going by the two-forty. Do you think I am a liar?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Reluctantly--not because he grudged the money, but because he feared +that, the coins once obtained, his father would prove a liar, the +clergyman took out two pounds and handed them to him. The old man +gripped them with avidity, and, thrusting them and his hands into his +pocket, turned his back on the donor, and hobbled away, mumbling to +himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicar remained where he was, standing irresolute at the turn of +the road, which brought the lodge gates into view. He found it was a +quarter past twelve. He wondered what Patty was thinking of him, and +his strange avoidance of her. And what his housekeeper was thinking of +his guest, and whether many people had observed him. He began to feel +himself at a loose end in the familiar scene. He should have been +moving to and fro about his business; instead, he was here, hovering +stealthily upon the outskirts of the village, dreading men's eyes, and +prepared to fly from the first comer. By going straight to the squire +he might put an end to this intolerable position. But the temptation +to postpone his explanation until his father had left overcame him, +and he turned and walked from the village.</p> + +<p class="normal">He long remembered that tramp in the heat and dust. Throughout it he +was weighed down by the feeling that he was an outcast, that people +who met him looked strangely at him, that while he roamed aimlessly +his duty called him home. Presently a new fear rose to vex his +soul--that his father would not keep his word; the consequence of +which was that half an hour before the train started he was lurking +about the fir-plantation at the back of the station-house, peeping at +the platform, which lay grilling in the sunshine, and tormenting +himself with the suspicion that his watch was wrong.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently the station woke up. One or two people arrived, and took +seats on a barrow in a shady place. The station-master labelled a +hamper and gave out a ticket. Then some one who was by no means +welcome to the vicar appeared--Jim Foley. He did not enter the +station, but the vicar caught sight of him standing on the bridge +which carried the road over the railway. What was more, Jim Foley at +the same moment discovered the vicar.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim looked elsewhere, but he had his suspicions. "Hallo!" he muttered. +"Friend Jones grows more of a riddle than ever. I suppose he has had +dealings with Master Wilkins, and has an equal interest with me in +seeing him off. I hope he has got rid of him as cheaply! But it is +odd! I shall tell the Partridge, and hear what she says. She likes +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">He forgot his wife a few minutes later, when the train had steamed +slowly in, and stood, and steamed out again, and the two people who +had come by it had passed him, and even the vicar, slowly and +perforce, had crawled up to him on the bridge. Foley by that time had +found something else to consider. "I say," he exclaimed on the impulse +of the moment, meeting the clergyman open-mouthed, "this won't do, you +know."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jones was dazed, struck down and prostrated by his disappointment. +"What," he said feebly--"what won't do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has not gone!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old buffer! I guessed what was up when I saw you hanging about. +Did he get anything out of you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The question sounded brutal, but the clergyman answered it. "Yes," he +said, his cheek dark--and he looked down at the end of his stick and +wondered how the other had found it out. "Two sovereigns."</p> + +<p class="normal">"By Jove! Well, what is to be done now--that is the question?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall go to the squire," Jones said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What? And tell him this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, after a pause in which he +tried to see if this would hurt him, "I dare say it is the best thing +you can do. While you are telling other things, perhaps you may as +well throw this in."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim strolled towards the Acton Arms, after making this handsome +concession, much puzzled in his mind by the new light which events +were shedding on the character of Jones. The discovery that his future +brother-in-law had done a little betting did not surprise him. But, in +conjunction with the entanglement to which the vicar had owned the day +before, it seemed to indicate a character so different from the model +of propriety he had hitherto known, that he was staggered. "And he +never kills a thing," Jim thought, turning it over. "You would not +think that he knew what sport meant!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The village policeman was loitering outside the inn, and Foley, who +had a word for every one, invited him to come in and have a glass of +ale. The road in front of the Acton Arms is separated from the Chase +only by a sunk fence; and Jim, casting a glance behind him as he +entered, could see the windows of the great house flashing in the +sunlight, and the vicar pounding along the avenue towards them. He +went in, the constable at his heels, and turned into the cool fireless +taproom, which he took to be empty. His stick had scarcely rung on the +oak table, however, before a man who had been sitting on the settle, +his head on his hands and his senses lost in a drunken stupor, leapt +up and, supporting himself by the table, glared at the two intruders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" the squire's son-in-law said drily, "so you are here, Master +Jones <i>vice</i> Wilkins, are you? I might have known where to find you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It is probable that the wretched man, recognising him, and seeing the +policeman with him, thought that they had come to arrest him. Roused +thus abruptly from his slumbers, bemused and drink-sodden, he saw in a +flash the hand of the law stretched out to grasp him, and an old and +ungovernable terror seized upon his shattered nerves. "Keep off! keep +off!" he gasped, clawing at the two with his trembling hands. "You +shall not take me! I will not be taken! Don't you see I am a +gentleman?"--this last in a feeble scream.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Easy, easy, old fellow," Jim said, surprised by his violence, "or you +will be doing yourself a mischief."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the words only confirmed the poor man in his mistake. "I won't be +taken!" he cried, waving them off. "My son will pay you, I tell you," +he cried, his voice rising in a shriek which rang in the road outside, +and startled the house-dog sleeping in the sunshine--"I tell you my +son will pay you!" One of his hands as he spoke overturned the empty +glass, and it rolled off the table--on such trifles life rests. For +the policeman instinctively started forward to catch it, and the old +man misunderstood the movement. He fell in a fit on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course there was a great commotion. The inn was roused from its +afternoon slumber, and the policeman was sent for the doctor; with one +thing and another half an hour elapsed before Foley left the house and +slowly made his way to the Chase. He was thinking a great deal more +seriously than was his wont. As hard as nails, some of his friends +called him; but there is a soft spot in these men who are as hard as +nails, if one can find it. Approaching the house, he caught sight of +his sister-in-law, and shrugged his shoulders and shook himself to get +rid of unpleasant thoughts. Patty was a favourite with him, and, +seeing her loitering round the sweep before the house, he guessed that +she was waiting to intercept her betrothed and learn the cause of his +conduct. Jim said a naughty word under his breath and went to her, as +if he had something to say. But, reaching her, he listened instead--as +a man must when a woman has a mind to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it, Jim?" she broke out. Her eyes were full of trouble and +her pale complexion was a shade paler than usual. "What is the matter +with Walter? He did not dine here last night, though he meant to do +so. And when we went to learn the reason this morning he was out. He +was away at luncheon-time, and the school had never been visited. And +now, when he appeared at last, he told Robert not to call me, and said +he would wait in papa's study until he came in."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stopped. "He is here now?" Jim asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; papa has come in, and they are in the bowling-green."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will go to them," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Jim, what is it?" she repeated, speaking with a little quaver in +her voice; and laying her hand on his arm, she detained him. "Tell me, +is there anything the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim looked down at her. She was one of those soft plump feminine women +who seem made to be protected--whom to hurt seems as wicked as to harm +a child. "The matter?" he said. "Nothing that I know of. What should +be the matter? I will go and see them."</p> + +<p class="normal">He escaped from her and, entering the hall, of which both the front +and back doors were open, he found that she was right. The young +vicar, the dust on his shoes and an unwonted shade of depression +darkening his face, was walking up and down the sward with the +squire--a little man as choleric as he was kind-hearted, who passed +two-thirds of his waking hours in breeches and gaiters. Jim Foley +strode towards them, a purpose in his mind. The vicar, just embarked +on his confession, found it interrupted and made a thousand times more +difficult. "Jones has come to explain matters, I hope, sir," Jim said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The clergyman winced. "He has come to turn my brain, I think," the +squire cried, angry and suspicious. "I cannot make out what he would +be at."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was telling you, sir," the vicar answered with some +impatience--"that my father----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better leave your father alone, I think!" Foley struck in +with a manner like the snapping of a trap. "And explain to Mr. Stanton +the matter you mentioned to me yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was explaining it!" the clergyman rejoined. "I was saying that my +father--he was at school with you, sir, you remember?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," the squire said, his grey whiskers curling with +impatience as he looked from one to the other. "And at college."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He lost money after my mother's death," the young man continued, "and +went to live in Glasgow." In his shrinking from the disclosure he had +to make his voice took a rambling tone as he added, "I think I told +you that, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure! Twice!</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I did not tell you," the clergyman replied, driving his +stick into the ground and working it about while his face grew +scarlet--"and I take great shame to myself that I did not, Mr. +Stanton--that my father was much----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good heavens, Jones!" Jim broke out, his patience exhausted. "What on +earth has your father to do with it? Yesterday you gave me to +understand that you had some entanglement which weighed on your mind. +And I thought that you had come here to make a clean breast of it. +Instead of which--for Heaven's sake man, don't make me think that you +are not running straight!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicar glared at him, while the squire gazed at both. "But that old +man," Jones said at last, almost at choking point by this time, "whom +you saw this afternoon was----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jim struck in again savagely. "We do not want to know anything about +him either. As for him, he is----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is dead," Jim persisted, raising his hand for silence, and +determined to keep his man to the point and to have things +straightened out. "We do not want to hear anything about him. He is +dead. We want----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is dead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The question was the vicar's. He wheeled round as he put it, his face +white, his voice changed. The squire, who, like most listeners, had +learned more than the talkers, saw his tremendous agitation, and, +grasping some idea of the truth, tried to intercept Foley's answer. +But he was too late. "The old fellow we went to see off," Jim said, +almost lightly. "He is dead. Died in a fit half an hour ago, I tell +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, dead. At least the doctor says so."</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicar put his hands to his face, and turned away, his back +shaking. The others looked at him. "He was--he was my father!" he +murmured--almost under his breath. And even Jim, his eyes as wide as +saucers, understood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fetch some wine, you fool" the squire muttered, giving him a nudge. +And he put his arm round the clergyman, and led him to a seat in the +shade. There, I think, Walter Jones prayed that he might not be +thankful. Man is weak. And conventional man very weak.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Once a gentleman always a gentleman, was the squire's motto. There was +no attempt at concealment. The poor man, whose life had been so +unlovely, lay at peace at last in the best room at the vicarage, and +was presently, with some tears of pity shed by gentle eyes, laid in a +quiet corner of the churchyard. There was talk, of course, but the +talk was confined to the village, where the possession of a drunken +father was not uncommon, or uncharitably considered. The worst of the +dead man was known only to Jim Foley, and he kept it even from his +wife; while any Spartan thoughts which the squire might otherwise have +entertained, any objections he might have raised to his daughter's +match, were rendered futile and quixotic by the strange mode in which +the denouement had been reached in his presence. He consented, and +all--after an interval--went well. But the vicar will sometimes, I +think, in the days to come, when prosperity laps him round, wander to +the churchyard and recall the hot noon when he walked the roads +haunted by that strange sense of forlornness and ruin.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"You are English, I take it, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was clear to me that the speaker was. I was travelling alone, and +had not fallen in with three Englishmen in as many weeks. I turned to +inspect the new-comer with a cordiality his smudged and smutty face +could not wholly suppress. "I am," I answered, "and I am glad to meet +a fellow-countryman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are a stranger here?" He did not take his eyes from me, but he +indicated by a gesture of his thumb the busy wharf below piled high +with hundreds and thousands of crates full of oranges. From the upper +deck of the <i>San Miguel</i> we looked down upon it, and could see all +that came or went in the trim basin about us. The <i>San Miguel</i>, a +steamer of the Segovia Quadra and Company's line, bound for several +places on the coast southward, was waiting to clear out of El Grao, +the harbour of Valencia, and I was waiting impatiently to clear out +with her. "You are a stranger here?" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; I have been in the town four or five days, but otherwise I am a +stranger," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not in the trade?" he continued. He meant the orange trade.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not. I am travelling for pleasure," I answered readily. "You +will understand that, though it is more than a Frenchman or Spaniard +can." I smiled as I spoke, but he was not very responsive.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a queer place to visit for pleasure," he said, looking from me +to the busy throng about the orange crates.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all," I retorted. "It is a lively town and quaint, and it is +warm and sunny. I cannot say as much for Madrid, from which I came two +or three weeks back."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come straight here?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was growing tired of his curiosity, but I answered, "No. I stayed a +short time at Toledo and Aranjuez, and at several other places."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You speak Spanish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not much. <i>Muy poco de Castellano</i>," I laughed, calling to mind the +maddening grimace by which the Spanish peasant indicates that he does +not understand, and is not going to understand you. He is a good +fellow, is Sancho Panza, but having made up his mind that you do not +speak Spanish, the purest Castilian is not Spanish for him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are going some way with us--perhaps to Carthagena?" the +inquisitor persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laid some stress on the last word, and with it shot a sly glance at +me--a glance so unpleasantly suggestive that I did not answer him at +once. Instead, I looked at him more closely. He was a wiry young +fellow, rather below than above the middle height, to all appearance +the chief engineer. Everything about him, not excluding the +atmosphere, was greasy and oily, as if he had come straight from the +engine-room. The whites of his eyes showed with unlovely prominence. +Seeing him thus, I took a dislike for him. "To Carthagena!" I answered +brusquely. "I am not going to stay at Carthagena. Why should you +suppose so? Unless, indeed," I added, as another construction of his +words occurred to me, "you think I want to see some fighting? No, I +fancy the fun might grow too furious."</p> + +<p class="normal">I should say that three days before there had been a mutiny among the +troops at Carthagena. An outlying fort had been captured, and the +governor of the city killed before the attempt was suppressed. The +news was in every one's mouth, and I fancied that his question +referred to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">My manner or my words disconcerted him. Without saying more he turned +away, not going below at once, but standing on the main deck near the +office in the afterpart. There was a good deal of bustle in that +quarter. The captain, the second officer, and clerk were there, giving +and taking receipts and what not. He did not speak to them, but leaned +against the rail close at hand. I had an uncomfortable feeling that he +was watching me; and this gave rise to a shrinking from the man, which +did not affect me always, but returned from time to time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently the dinner-bell rang, and simultaneously the <i>San Miguel</i> +moved out to sea. We were to spend the next day at Alicante, and the +following one at Carthagena.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dinner was not a cheerful meal. The officers of the ship did not speak +English or French, and were not communicative in any language. Besides +myself there were only three first-class passengers. They were ladies, +relatives of the newly appointed Governor of Carthagena, and about to +join him there. I have no doubt that they were charming and +fashionable people, but their partiality for the knife in eating +prejudiced them unfairly in English eyes. Consequently, when I came on +deck again, and the engineer--he told me his name was Sleigh--sidled +up to me, I received him graciously. He proffered the omnipresent +cigarette, and I provided him with something to drink. He urged me to +go down with him and see the engine-room, and after some hesitation I +did so. It was after dinner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have pretty much my own way," he boasted. "They cannot do without +English engineers. They tried once, and lost three boats in six +months. In harbour, my time is my own. I have seven stokers under me, +all Spaniards. They tried it on with me when I first came aboard! But +the first that out with his knife to me I knocked on the head with a +shovel. I have had none of their sauce since!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was he much hurt?" I asked, scanning my companion. He was not big, +and he slouched. But there was an air of swaggering dare-devilry about +him that gave colour to his story.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know," he answered. "They took him to the hospital, and he +never came aboard again. That is all I know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose your pay is good?" I suggested. To confess the truth, I +felt myself at a disadvantage with him down there. The flaring lights +and deep shadows, the cranks and pistons whirling at our elbows, the +clank and din, and the valves that hissed at unexpected moments, were +matters of every hour to him; they imbued me with a desire to +propitiate. As my after-dinner easiness abated, I regretted that it +had induced me to come down.</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed harshly. "Pretty fair," he said, "with my opportunities. Do +you see that jacket?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is my shore-going jacket," with a wink. "Here, look at it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I complied. It appeared at first sight to be an ordinary sailor's +pea-coat; but, looking more closely, I found that inside were dozens +of tiny pockets. At the mouth of each pocket a small hook was fixed to +the lining.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are for watches," he explained, when he saw that I did not +comprehend. "I get five francs over the price for every one I carry +ashore to a friend of mine--duty free, you understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded to show that I did understand. "And which is your port for +that?" I asked, desiring to say something as I turned to ascend.</p> + +<p class="normal">He touched me on the shoulder, and I found his face close to mine. His +eyes glittered in the light of the lamp that hung by the steam-gauge; +they had the same expression that had perplexed me before dinner. "At +Carthagena!" he whispered, bringing his face still closer to mine. "At +Carthagena! Wait a minute, mate, I have told you something," he went +on. "I am not too particular, and, what is more, I am not afraid! +Ain't you going to tell me something?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have nothing to tell you!" I answered, staring at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ain't you going to tell me something, mate?" he repeated. His voice +was low, but it seemed to me that there was a menace in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have not an idea what you mean, my good fellow," I said, and, +turning abruptly, my eye discovered a shovel lying ready to his +hand--I ran as nimbly as I could up the steep ladder, and gained the +deck. Once there, I looked down. He was still standing by the lamp, +staring up at me, chagrin plainly written on his face. Even as I +watched him he rounded his lips to an oath; and then seemed to hold it +over until he should be better assured of its necessity.</p> + +<p class="normal">I thought no worse of him for his revelations. In a country where the +head of the custom-house lives like a prince on the salary of a +beggar, smuggling is no sin. But I was angry with him, and vexed +with myself for the haste with which I had met his advances. I +disliked and distrusted him. Whether he was mad, or took me for +another smuggler--which seemed the most probable hypothesis--or had +conceived some false idea of me, whatever the key to the enigma of his +manner might be, I felt that I should do well to avoid him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like should mate with like, and I am not a violent man. I should not +feel at home in a duel, though the part were played with the most +domestic of fire shovels, much less with a horrible thing out of a +stoke-hole.</p> + +<p class="normal">About half-past ten the <i>San Miguel</i> began to roll, and I took the +hint and went below. The small saloon was empty, the lamp turned down. +As I passed the steward's pantry I looked in and begged a couple of +biscuits. I am a tolerable sailor, but when things are bad my policy +is comprised in "berth and biscuits." With this provision against +misfortune, I retired to my cabin, happy in the knowledge that it was +a four-berth one, and that I was its sole occupant.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth I came near to chuckling as I looked round it. I did not need +the experience I had had of a cabin three feet six inches by six feet +three, shared with a drunken Spaniard, to lead me to view with +contentment my present quarters. A lamp in a glass case lighted at +once the cabin and the passage outside, and gave assurance that it +would burn all night. On my right hand were an upper and lower berth, +and on my left the same, with standing room between. A couch occupied +the side facing me. The sliding door was supplemented by a curtain. +What joy--to one who had known other things--to arrange this and stow +that, and fearlessly to place in the rack sponge and tooth-brush! What +wonder if I blessed the firm of Segovia Quadra and Company as I sank +back upon my well-hung mattress.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sleep well at sea. The motion suits me. A slight qualm of +sea-sickness does but induce a pleasant drowsiness. I love a snug +berth under the porthole, and to hear the swish and wash of the water +racing by, and the crisp plash as the vessel dips her forefoot under, +and the complaint of the stout timbers as they creak and groan in the +bowels of the ship.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cosy and warm, I fell asleep, and dreamed that I was again in the +engine-room, seated opposite to the other Englishman. "Haven't you +something to tell me? Haven't you something to tell me?" he droned +monotonously, wagging his head from side to side, with the perplexing +smile on his face which had distressed me waking. "Haven't you +something to tell me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I strove to say that I had not, because I knew that if I did not +satisfy him, he would do some dreadful thing, though I did not know +what. But I could not utter the words, and while I struggled with this +horrible impotency, the thing was done. I was bound hand and foot to +the crank of the engine, and was going up and down with it, up and +down! I wept and prayed to be released, but the villain took no heed +of my prayers. He sat on, regarding my struggles with the same +impassive smile. In despair I strove to think what it was he +wanted--what it was--what----</p> + +<p class="normal">How the ship was rolling! Thank Heaven I was awake! Thank Heaven I was +in my berth, and not in that horrible engine-room. But how was this? +The other Englishman was here too, standing by the lamp, looking at +me. Or--was it the other Englishman? It was some one who had a smudged +and smutty face. All the wonder in my mind had to do with that. I lay +for a while, between sleeping and waking, watching him. Then I saw him +reach across my feet to a little shelf above the berth. As he drew +back, something that was in his hand--the hand that rested on the edge +of my berth--glittered as the light fell upon it; and, wide awake, I +sprang to a sitting posture in my berth, and cried out for fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was gone on the instant, and in the same second of time I was out +of bed and on the floor. A moment's hesitation, and I drew aside the +curtain, which still shook. The passage was still and empty. But +opposite my cabin and separated from it by the width of the passage +was the door of another cabin, which was, or had been when I went to +bed, unoccupied. Now the curtain, drawn across the doorway, was +shaking, and I did not doubt that the intruder was behind it. But +behind it also was darkness, and I was unarmed, whereas the thing upon +which the light had fallen in the man's hand was either a knife or a +pistol.</p> + +<p class="normal">No wonder that I hesitated, or that discretion seemed the better part +of valour. To be sure I might call the steward and have the cabin +searched; but I feared to seem afraid. I stood on tiptoe listening. +All was still; and presently I shivered. The excitement was passing +away, I began to feel qualms. With a last glance at the opposite +cabin--had I really seen the curtain shake? might it not have been +caused by the motion of the ship?--I closed my sliding door, and +climbed hastily into my bunk. Robber or no robber I must be still. In +a short time, what with my qualms and my drowsiness, I fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">I slept until the morning light filled the cabin, and I was roused by +the cheery voice of the steward, bidding me "Buenos dias." The ship +was moving on an even keel. Overhead the deck was being swabbed. I +opened my little window and looked out--and the night's doings rose in +my memory. But who could think of dreams of midnight assassins with +the sea air in his nostrils, and before his eyes that vignette of blue +sea and grey rocks--grey, but sparkling, gemlike, ethereal under the +sun of Spain? Not I. I was gay as a lark, hungry as a hunter. Sallying +out before I was dressed, I satisfied myself that the opposite cabin +was empty, and came back laughing at my folly.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when I found that something else was empty, I thought it no +laughing matter. I wanted a snack to stay my appetite until the +steward should bring my <i>café complet</i>, and I turned to the little +shelf over my berth where I had placed the biscuits. They were not +there. Curious! And I had not eaten them. Then it flashed upon my mind +that it was with this shelf my visitor had meddled.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that I did not lose a moment. I examined my luggage and the +pockets of my clothes; the result relieved as much as it astonished +me; nothing was missing. My armed apparition had carried off two +captain's biscuits, and nothing else!</p> + +<p class="normal">I passed the morning puzzling over it. Sleigh did not come near me. +Was he conscious of guilt, I wondered, or offended by the abruptness +of my leave-taking the night before? Or was he engaged about his work?</p> + +<p class="normal">About noon we came to our moorings at Alicante. The sky was unclouded. +The shabby town and the barren hills that rose behind it--barren to +the eye, since the vines were not in leaf--looked baking hot. I had +found a cool corner of the ship, and was amusing myself with a copy of +"Don Quixote" and a dictionary, when the engineer approached.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not going ashore?" he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the twentieth time I wondered what it was in his manner that made +everything he said a gibe. Whatever it was, I hated him for it; and I +gave my feelings vent by answering sullenly, "No, I am not." And +forthwith I turned to my books again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought you travellers for pleasure wanted to see everything," he +said. "Maybe you know Alicante?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered snappishly. "And in this heat I don't want to know +it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right, governor, all right!" he replied. "Think it might be too +hot for you, perhaps?" And with a hoarse laugh that lasted him from +stem to stern, and brought the blood to my cheeks, he left me. But I +could see that he did not lose sight of me, and at intervals I heard +him chuckling at his own wit for fully half an hour afterwards. But +where the joke came in I could not determine.</p> + +<p class="normal">Towards evening I went ashore, slipping away at a time when he had +gone below for a moment. I found a public walk in an avenue of +palm-trees which ran beside the sea. The palms were laden with +clusters of yellow dates, that were more like dried sea-weed than +fruit. As darkness fell, and with it coolness, I sat here, and watched +the vessels in the port fade one by one into the gloom, and little +sparks of light take their places. A number of people were still +abroad, enjoying the air, but these sauntered in the indolent southern +fashion, so that when I heard the step of a man approaching in haste, +I looked up sharply. To my surprise, it was Sleigh, the engineer!</p> + +<p class="normal">He passed close to me. I could not be mistaken, though he had put off +his slouching, shambling air, and was keenly on the alert, glancing +from this side to that, as if he were searching for some one. For +whom? I was one of half a dozen on a seat in deep shadow. If I were +the person he wanted, he overlooked me, and went on. I sat some time +after his step had died away in the distance, my thoughts not pleasant +ones. But he did not return, and I went up to the Hôtel Bossio +prepared to eat an excellent dinner.</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>table d'hôte</i> in the big whitewashed room was half finished. I +was late; and perhaps for this reason the waiters eyed me, as I took +my seat, with odd attention; or possibly it was because the English +were not numerous at Alicante, or not popular; or, again, it was +possible that some one--Sleigh, for example--had been there making +inquiries for a foreigner--blond, middle-sized, and speaking very +little Spanish. Their notice made me uncomfortable. It seemed as if I +could nowhere escape from my Old Man of the Sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nowhere indeed, for I was to have another rencontre that night, with +which my mind mixed him up, and which must be told because of the +light afterwards thrown upon it. Returning to my ship along the dark +wharf, I came upon figures loafing in the shadow of bales or barrels, +and, passing them, clutched my loaded stick more tightly. I got by +all, however, in safety and reached the spot where the ship lay. "San +Miguel! Bota!" I shouted in the approved fashion of that coast. "San +Miguel! Bota!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The words had scarcely left my lips when there was a rustling close to +me. A single footstep sounded on the pebbles, and the light of a +lantern was flashed in my face. I recoiled. As I did so two or three +men sprang forward. Dazzled by the light, I had only an indistinct +view of figures about me, and was on the point of fighting or running, +or making an attempt at both, when by good luck the clink of steel +fell upon my ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">By good luck! For they were police who had stopped me; and it is ill +work resisting the police in Spain. "What do you require, gentlemen?" +I asked in my best Spanish. "I am English."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perdone usted, señor," replied the leader, who held the light. "Will +you have the goodness to show me your papers?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Con mucho gusto!" I answered, delighted to find that things were no +worse. I was for producing my passport on the spot, but the sergeant, +with a polite but imperative "This way!" directed me to follow him. I +did so for a short distance, a door was flung open, and I found myself +in a well-lighted office, which I guessed was a custom-house. The +officer took his place behind a desk, and by a gesture of his cocked +hat signified his readiness to proceed.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had had to do with the police before, but I was aware of a +suppressed excitement in the group, of strange glances which they cast +at me, of a general drawing round their chief as he bent over my +passport, which seemed to indicate that this was no ordinary case of +passport examination. Singular, too, was the disappointment they +evinced when they found that my passport bore, besides the ordinary +<i>vise</i>, the signatures of the Vice-Consul and Alcalde at Valencia. As +their faces fell my spirits rose. Full conviction took possession of +them after I had answered half a dozen questions; and the interview +ended with the same "Perdone usted, señor," with which it had begun. I +was bowed out; a boat was instantly procured for me, and in two +minutes I was climbing the ladder which hung from the <i>San Miguel's</i> +quarter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first person I saw on board was Sleigh. He was lolling on a bench +in the saloon--confound his impudence!--drinking aguardiente and +staring moodily at the table. I tried to pass by him and reach my +cabin unnoticed, but on the last step of the companion I slipped. With +an oath at the interruption he looked up, and our eyes met.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never did I see a man more astonished. He gazed at me as if he could +not trust his sight. "Well, I never!" he cried, slapping his thigh +with an oath, and speaking in a jubilant tone. "Well, I am blest, +governor! So you did not go ashore after all! Here's a lark!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I saw that he had been drinking. "I have been ashore," I answered, my +dislike increased tenfold by his condition.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Honour bright?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have told you that I have been ashore," I replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">He whistled. "You are a cool hand," he said, looking me over with a +new expression in his face. "I might have known that, precious mild as +you seemed! Dined at the Hôtel Bossio, I warrant you did, and took +your walk in the Alameda like any other man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you did! O Lord! O Lord! So you did!" Again he contemplated me at +arm's length. I could construe his new expression now--it was one of +admiration. "So you did, governor! And came aboard in the dark, as +bold as brass!"</p> + +<p class="normal">That thawed me, for I thought that I had done rather a plucky thing in +coming on board alone at that time of night. But I told him nothing of +the affair with the police. I merely answered, "I do not understand +why I should not, Mr. Sleigh. And as I am tired, I will bid you good +night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait a bit, governor," he said, in a lower tone, arresting me by a +gesture as I turned away. "Don't you think you are playing it a bit +high? You are a cool one, I swear, and fly--there is nothing you are +not fly to, I'll be bound! But two heads are better than one--you take +me?--letting alone that it is every one for himself in this world. Do +you rise to it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I don't rise to it," I answered, drawing back from his spirituous +breath and leering eyes. He was more drunk than I had fancied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You don't? Think again, mate," he said, almost as if he pleaded with +me. "Don't play it too high."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk such confounded nonsense!" I retorted angrily.</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me a moment, a scowl darkening his face and not improving +it. Then he answered, "All right, governor! All right! Pleasant +dreams! and a pleasant waking at Carthagena!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no doubt I shall enjoy both," I replied, "if you will have the +goodness not to disturb me as you did last night!" He should not think +he had escaped detection.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is your turn now," he replied more soberly. "I don't know what you +are up to now. I didn't disturb you last night."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some one did! And some one uncommonly like you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did he do?" he asked, eyeing me with suspicion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I startled him," I answered, "or I do not know what he would have +done. As it was he did not do much. He took some biscuits."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Took some biscuits!" He pretended that he did not believe me, and he +did it so well that I began to doubt. "You must have been dreaming, +mate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could not dream the biscuits away," I retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stroke went home. He stood thinking, drawing patterns on the table +with his finger and a puddle of spilled water. Guilty or innocent, he +did not seem ashamed, but puzzled and perplexed. Once or twice he +glanced cunningly at me. But whether he wished to see how I took it, +or suspected me of fooling him, I could not tell.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good night!" I cried, losing patience at last; and I went to my +cabin. The last I saw of him, he was still standing at the table, +drawing patterns on it with his finger.</p> + +<p class="normal">I turned in at once, satisfied that after what had passed between us +there would be no repetition of last night's disturbance. In a +pleasant state between waking and sleeping I was aware of the tramp of +feet overhead as the moorings were cast off. The first slow motion of +the engines was followed by the familiar swish and wash of the water +sliding by. The ship began to heel over a little. We had reached the +open sea. After that I slept.</p> + +<p class="normal">I awoke suddenly, but in full possession of my senses. The cabin was +still lit by the lamp. I guessed that it was a little after midnight; +and "<i>O utinam!</i>" I sighed, "that I had not taken that cup of coffee +after dinner!" My portmanteau too had got loose. I could hear it +sliding about the floor, though, as I lay in the upper berth, I could +not see it. I must set that to rights.</p> + +<p class="normal">I vaulted out after my usual fashion. But instead of alighting fairly +and squarely on the floor, my bare feet struck something soft, a good +distance short of it, and I came down on my hands and knees--to form +part of the queerest tableau upon which a cabin-lamp ever shone. +There was I, lightly clothed in pyjamas, glaring into the eyes of a +dingy-faced man, who was likewise on his hands and knees on the floor, +but with more than half the breath knocked out of his body by my +descent upon him. I do not know which was the more astonished.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallo! how do you come here?" I cried, after we had stared at one +another for some seconds.</p> + +<p class="normal">He raised his hand. "Hush!" he whispered: and obeying his gesture I +crouched where I was, while he listened. Then we rose to our feet as +by one motion. I had not time to feel afraid, though it was far from a +pretty countenance that was close to mine. Terror was written too +plainly upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are English?" he said sullenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">I nodded. I saw that he had a pistol half-hidden behind him, but +somehow I felt master of the position. His fear of being overheard +seemed so much greater than my fear of his pistol; and it is not easy +to do much with a pistol without being overheard. "You are English, +too," I added, below my breath. "Perhaps you will kindly tell me what +you are doing in my cabin?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not betray me?" he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Betray you, my man!" I replied, with a prudent remembrance of his +weapon and the late hour of the night. "If you have taken nothing of +mine, you may go to the deuce for me, so long as you don't pay me +another visit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taken anything!" he retorted, almost forgetting his caution, "do you +take me for a thief? I will be bound----" he went on with a pride that +seemed to me very pitiable when I understood it--"that you are about +the only man in Spain who would not know me at sight. There is a +price upon my head! There are two thousand pesetas for whoever takes +me--dead or alive! There are bills of me in every town in Spain! Ay, +of me! in every town from Irun to Malaga!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I knew now who he was. "You were at Carthagena," I said sternly, +thinking of the old grey-headed general who had died at his post.</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded. The momentary excitement was gone from his face, leaving +him what he was, a man, dirty, pallid, half famished. About my height, +he wore clothes, shabby and soiled, but like mine in make and +material. In his desperate desire for sympathy, for communion with +some one, he had already laid aside his fear of me. When I asked him +how he came to be in my cabin he told me freely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I intended to ship from Valencia to France, but they watched all the +boats. I crept on board this one in the night, thinking that as she +was bound for Carthagena she would not be searched. I was right; they +did not think I should venture back into the lion's jaws."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what will you do when we reach Carthagena?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stay on board and, if possible, go with this ship to Cadiz. From +there I can easily get over to Tangier," he answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">It sounded feasible. "And where have you been since we left Valencia?" +I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Behind this sailcloth." He pointed to a long roll of spare canvas +which was stowed away between the floor and the lower berth. I opened +my eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay!" he added, "they are close quarters, but there is room behind +there for a man lying on his face. What is more, except your two +biscuits I have had nothing to eat since the day before yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it was you who took the biscuits?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded; then he fell back against my berth, all his strength gone +out of him. For from behind us came a more emphatic answer. "You may +take your oath to that, governor!" it ran; and briskly pushing aside +the door and curtain, Sleigh the engineer stood before us. "You may +bet upon that, I guess!" he added, an ugly smile playing about his +mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">The refugee's face changed to a sickly white. His hand toyed feebly +with the pistol, but he did not move. I think that we both felt we +were in the presence of a stronger mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better put that plaything away," Sleigh said. He showed no +fear, but I observed that he watched us narrowly. "A shot would bring +the ship about your ears. There is no call for a long tale. I took the +governor here for you, but when he told me that some one was stealing +his biscuits, I thought I had got the right pig by the ear, and five +minutes outside this door have made it a certainty. Two thousand +pesetas! Why, hang me," he added brutally, "if I should have thought, +to look at you, that you were worth half the money!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The other plucked up spirit at the insult. "Who are you? What do you +want?" he cried, with an attempt at bravado.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Precisely. What do I want?" the engineer replied with a sneer. +"You are right to come to business. What do I want? A hundred pounds. +That is my price, mate. Fork it out and mum's the word. Turn rusty, +and----" He did not finish the sentence, but grasping his neck in both +hands, he pressed his thumbs upon his windpipe and dropped his jaw. It +was a ghastly performance. I had seen a garotte and I shuddered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would not give the man up? Your own countryman?" I cried in +horror.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would I not?" he answered. "You will soon see, if he has not got the +cash!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A hundred pounds!" the wretched fellow moaned. Sleigh's performance +had completely unmanned him. "I have not a hundred pesetas with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">As it happened--alas, it has often happened so with me!--I had but +three hundred pesetas, some twelve pounds odd, about me, nor any hope +of a remittance nearer than Malaga. Still, I did what I could. "Look +here," I said to Sleigh, "I can hardly believe that you are in +earnest, but I will do this. I will give you ten pounds to be silent +and let the man take his chance. It is no good to haggle with me," I +added, "because I have no more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ten pounds!" he replied derisively, "when the police will give me +eighty! I am not such a fool."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Better ten pounds and clean hands, than eighty pounds of blood +money," I retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look here, Mister," he answered sternly; "do you mind your own +business and let us settle ours. I am sorry for you, mate, that is a +fact, but I cannot let the chance pass. If I do not get this money +some one else will. I'll tell you what I will do." As he paused I +breathed again, while the miserable man whose life was in the balance +looked up with renewed hope. "I will lower my terms," he said. "I +would rather get the money honestly, I am free to confess that. If you +will out with two thousand pesetas, I will keep my mouth shut, and +give you a helping hand besides."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If not?" I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If not," he answered, shrugging his shoulders--but I noticed that he +laid his hand on his knife--"if you do not accept my terms before we +are in port at Carthagena, I go to the first policeman and tell him +who is aboard. Those are my terms, and you have time to think about +them."</p> + +<p class="normal">With that he left the cabin, keeping his face to us to the last. +Hateful and treacherous as he was, I could not help admiring his +coolness and courage, and his firm grasp of the men he had to do with.</p> + +<p class="normal">For I felt that we were a sorry pair. I suppose that my companion, bad +as his position seemed, had cherished strong hopes of escape. Now he +was utterly unmanned. He sat on the couch, his elbows on his knees, +his head on his hands, the picture of despair. The pistol had vanished +into some pocket, and although capture meant death, I judged that he +would let himself be taken without striking a blow.</p> + +<p class="normal">My own reflections were far from being comfortable. The man grovelling +before me might deserve death; knowing the stakes, he had gambled and +lost. Moreover, he was a complete stranger to me. But he was an +Englishman. He had trusted me. He had spent an hour--but it seemed +many--in my company, and I shrank from the pain of seeing him dragged +away to his death. My nature revolted against it; I forgot what the +consequences of interference might be to myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look here," I said, after a long interval of silence, "I will do what +I can. We shall not reach Carthagena until eight o'clock. Something +may turn up before that. At the worst I have a scheme, though I set +little store by it, and advise you to do the same. Put on these +clothes in place of those you wear." I handed to him a suit taken from +my portmanteau. "Wash and shave. Take my passport and papers. It is +just possible that if you play your part well they may not identify +you, and may arrest me--despite our friend upstairs. For myself, once +on shore I shall have no difficulty in proving my innocence."</p> + +<p class="normal">Not that I was without misgivings. The Spanish civil guards give but +short shrift at times, and at the best I might be punished for +connivance at an escape. But to some extent I trusted to my +nationality; and for the rest, the avidity with which the hunted +wretch at my side clutched at the slender hope held out to him drove +hesitation from my mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">As long as I live I shall remember the scene which ensued. The grey +light was beginning to steal through the port-hole, giving a sicklier +hue to my companion's features, as I helped him with trembling fingers +to dress. The odour of the expiring lamp hung upon the air. The +tumbled bed-clothes, the ransacked luggage, the coats swaying against +the bulkheads to the music of the creaking timbers, formed +surroundings deeply imprinted on the memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">About seven o'clock I procured some coffee and biscuits and a little +fruit, and fed him. Then I gave him my papers, and charged him to +employ himself about the cabin. My plan was to be out of the way, +ashore, or elsewhere, when Sleigh fired his mine, and to trust my +companion to return my luggage and papers to my hotel at Malaga; until +I reached which place I must take my chance. In reality I played no +fine and magnanimous part, for, looking back, I do not think I +believed for a moment that the police would be deceived.</p> + +<p class="normal">A little after eight o'clock I went on deck, to find that the ship was +steaming slowly between the fortified hills that frown upon the +harbour of Carthagena; a harbour so spacious that in its amphitheatre +of waters all the navies of the world might lie. For a time the +engineer was not visible on deck. The steward pointed out to me +some of the lions--the deeply embayed arsenal, the distant fort, +high-perched on a hill, which the mutineers had seized, the governor's +house over the gateway where the wounded general had died; and we were +within a cable's length of the wharf, crowded with idlers and flecked +with sentinels, when Sleigh came up from below.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the morning was fine, he was wearing the heavy pea-jacket +which I had seen in the engine-room. He cast a spiteful glance at me, +then, turning away, he affected to busy himself with other matters. +Bad as he was, I think that he was ashamed of the work he had in hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do we stay here all day?" I asked the steward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, señor, no. Only until ten o'clock," I understood him to say. It +was close upon nine already. He explained that the town was still so +much disturbed that business was at a standstill. The <i>San Miguel</i> +would land her passengers by boat and go at once to Almeria, where +cargo awaited her. "Here is the police-boat," he added.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the time had come. I was quivering with excitement--and with +something else--a new idea! Darting from the steward's side, I flew +down the stairs, through the saloon and to my cabin, the door of which +I dragged open impatiently. "Give me my papers!" I cried, breathless +with haste. "The police are here!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The man--he was pretending to pack, with his back to the door, but at +my entrance he rose with an assumption of ease--drew back. "Why? will +you desert me too?" he cried, his face blanched. "Will you betray me? +Then, my God! I am lost!" and he flung himself upon the sofa in a +paroxysm of terror.</p> + +<p class="normal">Every moment was of priceless value. This a conspirator! I had no +patience with him. "Give them to me!" I cried imperatively, +desperately. "I have another plan. Do you hear?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He heard, but he did not believe me. He was sure that my courage had +failed at the last moment. But--and let this be written on his side of +the account--he gave me the papers; it may be in pure generosity, it +may be because he had not the spirit to resist.</p> + +<p class="normal">Armed with them I ran on deck as quickly as I had descended. I found +the position of things but slightly changed. The police-boat was now +alongside. The officer in command, attended by two or three +subordinates, was mounting the ladder. Close to the gangway Sleigh was +standing, evidently waiting for him. But he had his eye on the saloon +door also, for I had scarcely emerged before he stepped up to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you changed your mind, governor? Are you going to buy him off?" +he muttered, looking askance at me as I moved forward with him by my +side.</p> + +<p class="normal">My answer took him by surprise. "No, señor, no!" I exclaimed loudly +and repeatedly--so loudly that the attention of the group at the +gangway was drawn to us. When I saw this, I stepped in front of +Sleigh, and before he guessed what I would be at, I was at the +officer's side. "Sir," I said, raising my hat, "do you speak French?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Parfaitement, monsieur," he answered, politely returning my salute.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am an Englishman, and I wish to lay an information," I said, +speaking in French, and pausing there that I might look at Sleigh. As +I had expected, he did not understand French. His baffled and +perplexed face assured me of that. He tried to interrupt me, but the +courteous official waved him aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The man who is trying to shut my mouth is a smuggler of foreign +watches," I resumed. "He has them about him, and is going to take them +ashore. They are in a number of pockets made for the purpose in the +lining of his coat. I am connected with the watch trade, and my firm +will give ten pounds reward to any one who will capture and prosecute +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I understand," the officer replied. And, turning to Sleigh, who, +ignorant of what was going forward, was fretting and fuming in a fever +of distrust, he addressed some words to him. He spoke in Spanish and +quickly, and I could not understand what he said. That it was to the +point, however, the engineer's face betrayed. It fell amazingly, and +he cast a vengeful glance at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">That which followed was ludicrous enough. My heart was beating fast, +but I could not suppress a smile as Sleigh, clasping the threatened +coat about him, backed from the police. He poured out a torrent of +fluent Spanish, and emphatically denied the charge; but, alas! he +cherished the coat--at which the police were making tentative +dives--overmuch for an innocent man with no secret pockets about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">His "No, señor, no!" his "Por dios!" and "Madre de Dios!" and the rest +were breath wasted. At a sign from the grim-looking officer, two of +the policemen seized him, and in a twinkling, notwithstanding his +resistance, had the thick coat off him, and were probing its recesses. +It was the turn of the by-standers to cry, "Madre de Dios!" as from +pocket upon pocket came watch after watch, until five dozen lay in +sparkling rows upon the deck. I could see that there were those among +the ship's company besides the culprit who gazed at me with little +favour; but the eyes of the police officer twinkled with gratification +as each second added to the rich prize. And that was enough for me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still I knew that all was not done yet, and I stood on my guard. +Sleigh, taken into custody, had desisted from his prayers and oaths. I +saw, however, that he was telling a long story, of which I could make +out little more than the word "Inglese" repeated more than once. It +was his turn now. If he had not understood my French, neither could I +understand his Spanish. And I noticed that the officer, as the story +rolled on, looked at me doubtfully. I judged that the crisis was near, +and I interfered. "May I beg to know, sir, what he says?" I asked +courteously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He tells me a strange story, Mr. Englishman," was the answer; and the +speaker eyed me with curiosity. "He says that Morrissey, the +villainous Englishman--your pardon--who was at the bottom of the +affair of last Sunday, has had the temerity to return to the scene of +his crime, and is on this vessel."</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders. "A strange story!" I answered. "But it is for +Monsieur to do his duty. I am the only Englishman on board, as the +steward will inform you; and for me, permit me to hand you my papers. +Your prisoner wishes, no doubt, to be even with me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded as he took the papers. And that upon which I counted +happened. The engineer in his rage and excitement had not made his +story plain. No one dreamt of the charge being aimed against another +Englishman. No one knew of another Englishman. The steward sullenly +corroborated me when I said that I was the only one on board; and all +who heard Sleigh--befogged, perhaps, by his Spanish, which, good +enough for ordinary occasions, may have failed him here--did not doubt +that his was a counter-accusation preferred <i>en revanche</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For one thing, the improbability of Morrissey's return had weight with +them; and my credentials were ample and in order. Among these, too, a +note for two hundred and fifty pesetas had slipped, which had +disappeared when they were returned to me. Need I say how it ended? Or +that while the police officer bowed his courteous "Adios" to me, and +his men gathered up the watches, and the crew scowled, the prisoner +was removed to the boat, foaming at the mouth, and screaming to the +last threats which my ears were long in forgetting. I walked up and +down the deck, brazening it out, but very sick at heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, the <i>San Miguel</i>, despite her engineer's mishap, duly left in +half an hour--a nervous half-hour to me. With a thankful heart I +watched the fort-crowned hills about Carthagena change from brown to +blue, and blue to purple, until at length they sank below the horizon.</p> + +<p class="normal">But officers and men looked coldly on me; and that evening, at +Almeria, I took up bag and baggage and left the <i>San Miguel</i>. I had +had enough of the thanks, and more than enough of the company, of my +cabin-fellow, whom I left where I had found him--behind the sailcloth. +I believe that he succeeded in making his escape. For fully a month +later a friend of mine staying at the Hôtel de la Paz, at Madrid, was +placed under arrest on suspicion of being Morrissey; so that the +latter must at that time have been at liberty.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Upon arriving at the middle of the Close the Dean stopped. He had been +walking briskly, his chin from custom a little tilted, but his eyes +beaming with condescension and goodwill, while an indulgent smile +playing about the lower part of his face relieved its massive +character. His walking-stick swung to and fro in a loose grasp, his +feet trod the pavement of the precincts with the step of an owner, he +felt the warmth of the sun, the balminess of the spring air, and +somewhere at the back of his mind he was conscious of a vacant +bishopric, and that he was the husband of one wife. In fine he +presented the appearance of a contented, placid, unruffled dignitary, +until he reached the middle of the Close. There, alas! the ferrel of +his stick came to the ground with a thud, and the sweetness and light +faded from his eyes as they rested upon Mr. Swainson's plot. The +condescension and goodwill became conspicuous only by their absence. +The Dean was undisguisedly angry; he disliked opposition as much +as lesser men, and met with it more rarely. For Bicester is +old-fashioned, and loves both Church and State, but especially the +former, and looks up to principalities and powers, and even now, on +account of a mistake he made, execrates the memory of a recreant +Bicestrian, otherwise reputable. It was at a public dinner. "I +remember," said this misguided man, "going in my young days to the old +and beautiful cathedral of this city. (Great applause.) I was only a +child then, and my head hardly rose above the top of the seat, but I +remember I thought the Dean the greatest of living men. (Whirlwinds of +applause.) Well (smiling), perhaps, I do not think quite that now." +(Dead silence.) And so dull at bottom may a man be whose name is known +in half the capitals of Europe, that this degenerate fellow never +guessed why the friends of his youth during the rest of the day turned +their backs upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is the faith of Bicester, but even in Bicester there are +heretics. To say that the Dean rarely met with opposition is to say +that he rarely met with Mr. Swainson, and that he seldom saw Mr. +Swainson's plot. As a rule, when he crossed the Close he averted his +eyes by a happy impulse of custom, for he did not like Mr. Swainson, +and as for the latter's plot, it was <i>anathema maranatha</i> to him. The +Dean was tall, Mr. Swainson was taller; the Dean was stubborn, Mr. +Swainson was obstinate; so that there arose between them the +antagonism that is born of similarity. On the other hand the Dean was +stout and Mr. Swainson a scarecrow; the Dean was comely and clerical, +but not over-rich, Mr. Swainson was pallid, lantern-jawed, wealthy, +and a lawyer, and hence the dislike born of difference. Moreover, +years ago, when Mr. Swainson had been Mayor of Bicester, there had +been a little dispute between the Chapter and the Bishop, and he had +shown so much energy upon the one side as to earn the nickname of the +"Mayor of the Palace." Finally Mr. Swainson delighted in opposition as +a cat in milk, and cared as little to have a good reason for his +antagonism as puss in the dairy about a sixty years' title to the +cream-pan.</p> + +<p class="normal">But a sixty years' title to his plot was the very thing which Mr. +Swainson did claim to have. Exactly opposite his house--his father's +and grandfather's house in which, said his enemies, they have lived +and grown fat upon cathedral patronage--lay this debatable land. His +front windows commanded it, and on such a morning as this he loved to +stand upon his doorstep and gaze at it with the air of a dog watching +the spot where his bone lies buried. But if Mr. Swainson was right, +that was just what was not buried there; there were no bones there. +True, the smoothly shorn surface of the little patch was divided from +the green turf round the cathedral only by a slight iron railing, but, +said Mr. Swainson, ponderously seizing upon his opponent's weapon and +using it with effect, it was of another sort altogether; of a very +different nature. It had never been consecrated, and close as it lay +to the sacred pile, being separated from it on two sides but by a sunk +fence, it did not belong to it, it was not of it; it was private +property, the property of Erasmus John Swainson, and the appanage of +his substantial red-brick house just across the Close.</p> + +<p class="normal">And no one could refute him, though several tried their best, to his +delight. It cannot now be computed by how many years the discovery of +his rights prolonged his life--but certainly by some. His liver +demanded activity, namely a quarrel, and what a coil this was! If he +had been given the choice of all possible opponents, he would have +selected the Dean and Chapter, they were so substantial, wealthy, and +formidable. And such a thorn in the side of those comfortable +personages as these rights of his were like to prove he could hardly +have imagined in his most sanguine dreams, or hoped for in his +happiest moments.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was great fun stating his claim, flouting it in their faces, +displaying it through the city, brandishing it in season and out of +season; but when it came to making a hole in the smooth turf hitherto +so sacred, and setting up an unsightly post, and affixing to it a +board with "Trespassers will be prosecuted. E. J. Swainson," the fun +became furious. So did the Dean, so did the Chapter, so did every +sidesman and verger. Bicester was torn in pieces by the contending +parties, but Mr. Swainson was firm. The only concession which could be +wrung from him was the removal of the obnoxious board. Instead he set +a neat iron railing round his property, enclosing just thirty feet by +fifteen. Such was the <i>status in quo</i> on this morning, and with it the +Dean had for some time been forced to rest content.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet, sooth to say, the greatest pleasure of the very reverend +gentleman's life was gone with this accession to the roundness and +fulness of Mr. Swainson's. No more with the thorough satisfaction of +the past could he conduct the American traveller through the ancient +crypt, or dilate to the Marquis of Bicester's visitors upon the beauty +of the quaint gargoyles. No; that railed-in spot became a plague-spot +to him, ever itching, an eyesore even when invisible, a thing to be +evaded and dodged and given the slip, as a Dean who is a Dean should +scorn to evade anything. He winced at the mere thought that the +inquisitive sightseer might touch upon it, and probe the matter with +questions. He hurried him past it with averted finger and voluble +tongue, nor recovered his air of kindly condescension, or polished +ease (as the case might be), until he was safe within his own hall. +Only in moments of forgetfulness could the Dean now walk in his Close +of Bicester with the grace of old times.</p> + +<p class="normal">But on this particular morning the sunshine was so pleasant, the wind +so balmy, that he walked halfway across the Close as if the river of +Lethe flowed fathoms deep over Mr. Swainson's plot. Then it chanced +that his eyes in a heedless moment rested upon the enclosure: and he +saw that a man was at work in it, and he paused. The Dean knew Mr. +Swainson too well to trust him. What was this? By the man's side lay a +small heap of greyish-white things, and he was holding a short-handled +mallet, which he was using to drive one of the greyish-white things +into the ground. From him the Dean's eyes travelled to a couple of +parti-coloured sticks, one at each end of the plot. What was this? A +thing so terrible that the Dean stood still, and that change came over +him which we have described.</p> + +<p class="normal">Great men rise to the occasion. It was only a moment he thus stood and +looked. Then he turned and walked to a house. A tall thin man was +standing upon the steps of the house, with the ghost of a smile upon +his face. For a moment the Dean could only stammer. It was such a +dreadful outrage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that," he said at last, "is that, sir, being done by your +authority?" With a shaking finger he pointed to Mr. Swainson's plot. +The tall man in a leisurely way settled a pair of eye-glasses upon his +nose and looked in the direction indicated. "Ah, I see what you mean," +he said at last. "Certainly, Mr. Dean, certainly!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you aware, sir, what it is?" gasped the clergyman; "it is +sacrilege!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing of the kind, I assure you, my dear sir. It's croquet!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The tone was one of explanation, and the words were uttered with so +transparent an air of frankness, that the veins in the Dean's temples +swelled and his face grew, if possible, redder than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I won't stay to bandy words with you!" he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bandy!" returned the tall man, intensely amused. "Ha, ha, ha! you +thought it was hockey! Bandy! Oh, no, you play it with hoops and a +mallet. Drive the balls through--so!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And to the intense delight of the Close people, many of whom were at +their windows, Mr. Swainson executed an ungainly kind of gambado upon +the steps. "Disgusting," the Dean called it afterwards, when talking +to sympathetic ears. Now he merely put it away from him with a wave of +the hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will not discuss it now, Mr. Swainson," he said. "If your feelings +of decency and of what is right and proper do not forbid this--this +profanity--I can call it nothing else--I have but one word to add. The +Chapter shall prevent it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Chapter!" replied the other, in a tone of contempt, which gave +place to temper as he continued, "you are well read in history, Mr. +Dean, they tell me. Doubtless you remember what happened when King +Canute bade the tide come no further. I am the tide, and you and the +Chapter--sit in the chair of Canute."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean, it must be confessed, was no little taken aback by this +defiance. He was amazed. The two glared at one another, and the +clergyman was the first to give way; baffled and disconcerted, yet +swelling with rage, he strode towards the Deanery. His antagonist +followed him with his eyes, then looked more airily than ever at his +plot and the progress made there, considered the weather with his chin +at the decanal angle, finally with a flirt of his long coat-tails he +went into the house, a happy man and the owner of a vastly improved +appetite.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Dean had more to suffer yet. At the door of his garden he ran +in his haste against some one coming out. Ordinarily, great man as he +was, he was also a gentleman. But this was too much. That, when the +father had insulted him, the son should collide with him on his own +threshold, was intolerable; at any rate at a moment when he was +smarting under a sense of defeat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good morning, Mr. Dean," said the young fellow, raising his hat with +an evident desire to please that was the antipodes of his father's +manner--only the Dean was in no mood to discriminate--"I have just +been having a delightful game of croquet."</p> + +<p class="normal">It is to be regretted, but here a short hiatus in the narrative +occurs. The minor canons, than whom no men are more wanting in +reverence, say that the Dean's answer consisted of two words, one of +them pithy and full of meaning, but in the mouth of a Dean, however +choleric, impossible. Accounting this as a gloss, we are driven to +conjecture that the Dean's answer expressed mild disapprobation of the +game of croquet. Certain it is that young Swainson, surprised by so +novel and original a sentiment, answered only--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hem!" the Dean exclaimed. "I mean to say that I do not approve of +this. I will come to the point. I must ask you to discontinue your +visits at my house." The young man stared as if he thought the excited +divine had gone mad; the Deanery was almost a home to him. "Your +father," the Dean went on more coherently, "has taken a step so +unseemly, so--so indecent, has used language so insulting to me, sir, +that I cannot, at any rate at present, receive you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Young Swainson was a gentleman; moreover, for a very good reason, the +Dean failed to anger him. He raised his hat as respectfully as before, +bowed in token of acquiescence, and went on his way sorrowfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had a singularly pleasant smile, this young man, though this was +not a time to display it. Mrs. Dean had once pronounced him a pippin +grafted on a crab-stock, and thereafter in certain circles he had +become known as King Pepin. He was tall and straight and open-eyed, +with faults enough, but of a generous youthful kind, easily overlooked +and more easily forgiven. Doubtless Mr. Swainson would have had his +son more practical, cool-headed, and precise, but the shoot did not +grow in the same way as the parent tree. Old Swainson would not have +been happy without an enemy, nor young Swainson as happy with one; and +if, as the former often said, the latter's worst enemy was himself, he +was likely to have a prosperous life.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a space of time inconceivably short, the doings of the old +lawyer and the Dean's remonstrance were all over Bicester. Nay, fast +as the stone rolled, it gathered moss. It was asserted by people who +rapid-grew to be eye-witnesses, that Mr. Swainson had danced a +hornpipe in the middle of his plot, snapping his fingers at the Dean, +while the latter prodded him as well as he could through the railings +with his umbrella; finally that only the arrival of Mr. Swainson's son +had put an end to this disgraceful exhibition.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither side wasted time. The Dean, the Canon in residence, and the +Præcentor, an active young fellow, consulted their lawyer, and talked +largely of ejectment, title, and seisin. Mr. Swainson, having nine +points of the law in his favour, and as well acquainted with the tenth +as his opponent's legal adviser, devoted himself to the fighter +pursuit of the mallet and hoop. In a state of felicity undreamt of +before, he played, or affected to play, croquet, his right hand +against his left, the former giving the latter two hoops and a cage. +He played with a cage and a bell; it was more cheerful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course all Bicester found occasion to pass through the Close and +see this great sight, while every window in the precincts was raised, +that visitors might hear the tap, tap of the sacrilegious mallet. The +Cathedral lawyer, urged to take some step, and well versed in the +strength of the enemy's position, was fairly nonplussed. While he +pondered, with a certain grim amusement, over Mr. Swainson's crotchet, +which did not present itself to his legal mind in so dreadful a light +as to the mind clerical, some unknown person took action, and made it +war to the knife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who did it?" Bicester asked when it rose one morning, to find Mr. +Swainson in a state of mind which seemed to call for a padded room and +a strait waistcoat. Some one during the night had thrown down the iron +railing, taken up and broken the hoops, crushed the bell, and snapped +the pegs; all this in the neatest possible manner, and with no damage +to the turf. War to the knife indeed! Mr. Swainson, like the famous +Widdrington, would have fought upon his stumps on such a provocation.</p> + +<p class="normal">He expressed his opinion with much heat that this was the work of +"that arrogant priest," and that he should smart for it. A clergyman +in this kind of context becomes a priest.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean said, if hints went for anything, that it was a more or less +direct interposition of Providence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Young Swainson said nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vergers followed his example, but smiled broadly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean's lawyer said it was a very foolish act, whoever did it. Mrs. +Dean said that she should like to give the man who did it five +shillings. Perhaps her inclination mastered her.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean's daughter sighed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Bicester said everything except what young Swainson said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I have not mentioned the Dean's daughter before. It is the popular +belief that she was christened Sweet Clive, and if people are mistaken +in this, and the name "Sweet" does not appear upon the favoured +register, what of it? It is but one proof the more of the utter want +of foresight of godfathers and godmothers. They send into the world +the future lounger in St. James's handicapped with the name of Joseph +or Zachary, and dub the country curate Tom or Jerry. No matter; Clive, +whatever her name, could be nothing but sweet. She was not tall nor +short; she was just as tall and just as short as she should have been, +with a well-rounded figure and a grave carriage of the head. Her hair +was wavy and brown, and sometimes it strayed over a white brow, on +which a frown came so rarely that its right of entry was barred +by the Statute of Limitations. There were a few freckles about her +well-shaped nose. But these charms grew upon one gradually; at first +her suitors were only conscious of her grey wide-open eyes, so kind +and frank and trustful, and so wise, that they filled every young man +upon whom she turned them with a certainty of her purity and goodness +and lovableness, and sent him away with a frantic desire to make her +his wife without loss of time. With all this, she overflowed with fun +and happiness--except when she sighed--and she was just nineteen. Such +was Sweet Clive. If her picture were painted to-day, there would be +this difference: she is older and more beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to Mr. Swainson's enclosure. Bicester watched with bated +breath to see what Mr. Swainson would do. No culprit was forthcoming, +and it seemed as if the day were going against him. He made no sign; +only the broken hoops, the cage and battered bell, so lately the +instruments and insignia of triumph, were cleared away and, at the +ex-mayor's strenuous request, taken in charge by the police. Even +the iron railing was removed. The excitement in the Close rose high. +Once more the Cathedral vicinage was undefiled by lay appropriation, +but the Dean knew Mr. Swainson too well to rejoice. The ground +was cleared, but only, as he foresaw, that it might be used for +some mysterious operations, of which the end and aim--his own +annoyance--were clear to him, but not the means. What would Mr. +Swainson do?</p> + +<p class="normal">The strange unnatural calm lasted several days. The Cathedral +dignitaries moved in fear and trembling. At length the dwellers in the +Close were aroused one night by a peculiar hammering. It was frequent, +deep, and ominous, and it came from the direction of Mr. Swainson's +plot. To the nervous it seemed as the knocking of nails into an +untimely coffin; to the guilty--and this was near the Cathedral--like +the noise of a rising scaffold, to the brave and those with clear +consciences, such as Clive, it more nearly resembled the erection of a +hoarding. Indeed, that was the thing it was, and round Mr. Swainson's +plot.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what a hoarding! When the light of day discovered it to waking +eyes, the Dean's fearful anticipations seemed slight to him, as the +boy's vision who dreaming he is about to be flogged, awakes to find +his father standing over him with a strap. It was so unsightly, so +gaunt, so unpainted, so terrible; the stones of the Cathedral seemed +to blush a deeper red at discovering it, and the oldest houses to turn +a darker purple. Had the Dean possessed the hundred tongues of Fame +(which in Bicester possessed many more) and the five hundred fingers +of Briareus, he could not hope to prevent the Marquis's visitors +asking questions about <i>that</i>, nor to divert the attention of the +least curious American. He recognised the truth at a glance, +and formed his plan. Many generals have formed it; before; it +was--retreat. He despatched his butler to borrow a continental +Bradshaw from the club, and he shut himself up in his study. The truly +great mind is never overwhelmed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vergers alone inspected the monster unmoved. They eyed it with +glances not only of curiosity, but of appreciative intelligence. Not +so, later in the day. Then Mr. Swainson appeared, leading by a strong +chain a brindled bull-dog, of the most ferocious description and about +sixty pounds dead weight. The animal contemplated the nearest verger +with satisfaction, and licked his chops; it might be at some grateful +memory. The verger, who was in a small way a student of natural +history, pronounced it a lick of anticipation, and appeared +disconcerted. Mr. Swainson entered with the dog by a small door at the +corner, and came out without him. The other vergers left.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their coming and going was nothing to Mr. Swainson. It was enough for +him that he stood there the cynosure of every eye in the Close; even +Mrs. Dean was watching him from a distant garret window. In slow and +measured fashion he walked to the steps of his own house, and, taking +thence a board he had previously placed there, he returned to the +entrance of his plot, now enclosed to the height of about ten feet +by his terrible hoarding. Above the door he hung the board and drew +back a few feet to take in the effect. Mrs. Dean sent down for her +opera-glasses, but there was no need of them. The legend in huge black +letters on a white ground ran thus: "No Admittance! Beware of the +Dog!!!" A smile of content crept slowly over Mr. Swainson's face, and +he said aloud--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Trump that card, Mr. Dean, if you can."</p> + +<p class="normal">As he turned--Mrs. Dean saw it distinctly and declared herself ready +to swear to it in a court of justice--he snapped his fingers at the +Deanery. And the dog howled!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the first of many howls, for he was a dog of great width of +chest; not even the surgeon of an insurance company, if he had lived +twenty-four hours in Bicester Close, would have found fault with his +lungs. Why he howled during the night, for it was not the time of full +moon, became the burning question of each morning. That he joined in +the Cathedral services with a zest which rendered the organ +superfluous, and drove the organist to the verge of resignation, was +only to be expected. There was nothing strange in that, nor in his +rivalry of the Præcentor's best notes, whose voice was considered very +fine in the Litany. The voluntary, Tiger made his own; of the sermon +he expressed disapproval in so marked a manner that it was hard to say +which swelled more with rage, the Dean within or the dog without. +Their rage was equally impotent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Things went so far that the Dean publicly wrung his hands at the +breakfast-table. "You could not hear the benediction this morning?" he +wailed, with tears in his eyes. "And I was in good voice too, my +dear!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You should appeal to the Marquis," his wife suggested. It must be +explained that the Marquis in Bicester ranks next to and little +beneath Providence. But the Dean shook his head. He put no faith in +the power even of the Marquis to handle Mr. Swainson. "I will lay it +before the Bishop, my dear," he said humbly. And then, then indeed, +Mrs. Dean knew that the iron had entered into his soul, and that the +hand of the Mayor of the Palace was very heavy upon him; and her good, +wifely heart grew so hot that she felt she could have no more patience +with her daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Clive's sympathies were no longer to be trusted. She was not the +Sweet Clive of a month ago, but a sadder and more sedate young woman, +who had a way of defending the absent foe, and of sighing in dark +corners, that was more than provoking. Duty demanded that she should +be an ocean, into which her father and mother might pour the streams +of their indignation and meet with a sympathising flood-tide. And lo! +this unfeeling girl declined to make herself useful in that way, and +instead sent forth a "bore" of light jesting that made little of the +enemy's enormities and a trifle of his outrages. More, she showed +herself for the first time disobedient; she refused to promise not to +speak to King Pepin if opportunity served, and, clever girl as she +was, laughed her father out of insisting upon it, and kissed her +mother into a not unwilling ally. A wise woman was her mother and +clear-sighted; she saw that Clive had a spirit, but no longer a heart +of her own. Yet at such a time as this, when her husband was wringing +his hands, Clive's insensibility to the family grievance tried Mrs. +Dean sorely. It was hard that the Canon's sleepless night, the +Præcentor's peevishness, the singing man's influenza, and all the +countless counts of the indictment against Mr. Swainson should fail to +awaken in the young lady's mind a tithe of the indignation felt by +every other person at the Deanery, from the Dean himself to the +scullery-maid. But then, love is blind, for which most of us may thank +Heaven.</p> + +<p class="normal">Day after day went by and the hoarding still reared its gaunt height, +and the unclean beast of the Hebrews still made night hideous, and the +day a time for the expression of strong feelings. At length the Dean +met his lawyer in the Close, within a few feet of the obnoxious +erection. He kept his back to it with ridiculous care, while they +talked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We have come to something like a settlement at last," the lawyer said +briskly. "Con-fusion take the dog! I can hardly hear myself speak. We +are to meet at the Chapter House at five, Mr. Dean, if that will suit +you; Mr. Swainson, the Bishop, Canon Rowcliffe, and myself. I think he +is inclined to be reasonable at last."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean shook his head gloomily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will see it turn out better than you expect," the lawyer assured +him. "Let me whisper something to you. There is an action begun +against him for shutting up a road across one of his farms at +Middleton and it will be stoutly fought. One suit at a time will +satisfy even Mr. Swainson."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You don't say so? This is good news!" the Dean cried, with +unmistakable pleasure. "Certainly, I will be there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And--I am sure I need not doubt it--you will be ready to meet Mr. +Swainson halfway?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean looked gloomy again. But at this moment a long howl, more +frenzied, more fiendish than any which had preceded it, seemed to +proclaim that the dog knew that his reign was menaced, and, like +Sardanapalus, was determined to go out right royally. It was more than +the Dean could stand. With an involuntary movement of his hands to his +ears, he nodded and fled in haste to a place less exposed, where he +could in a seemly and decanal manner relieve his feelings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The best-laid plans even of lawyers will go astray, and when they do +so, the havoc is generally of a singularly wide-spread description. +The meeting in the Chapter-house proved stormy from the first. Whether +it was that the writ in the right-of-way case had not yet reached Mr. +Swainson, so that he clung to his only split-straw, or that the Dean +was soured by want of sleep, or that the Bishop was not thorough +enough--whatever was the cause, the spirit of compromise was absent; +and the discussion across the Chapter-house table threatened to make +matters worse and not better. Whether the Dean first called Mr. +Swainson's enclosure the "toadstool of a night," or Mr. Swainson took +the initiative by styling the Dean the "mushroom of a day" (the Dean +was not of old family), was a question afterwards much and hotly +debated in Bicester circles. Be that as it may, the high powers rose +from the table in dudgeon and much confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was behind the Dean at the end of the Chapter-house a large +window. It looked immediately-upon what he, in the course of the +discussion, had termed "The Profanation," and since the eventful day +of Mr. Swainson's match at croquet it had been, by the Dean's order, +kept shuttered, that he might not, when occupied in the Chapter-house, +have the Profanation directly before his eyes. At the meeting the +shutter remained closed; it may be that this phenomenon had weakened +Mr. Swainson's doubtful inclination towards peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dean was a choleric man. As the party rose, he stepped to this +shutter and flung it back. He turned to the others and cried with +indignation--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look, sir; look, my lord! Is that a sight becoming the threshold of a +cathedral? Is that a thing to be endured on consecrated ground?"</p> + +<p class="normal">They stepped towards the window, a wide low-browed Tudor casement, +and looked out. The Dean himself stood aside, grasping the shutter +with a hand which shook with passion. His eyes were on the others' +faces. He expected little show of shame or contrition on that of Mr. +Swainson, but he did wish to bring this hideous thing home to the +Bishop, who had not been as thorough in the matter as he should have +been. Yet surely, as a bishop, he could not see that thing in its +horrid reality and be unmoved!</p> + +<p class="normal">No, he certainly could not. Slowly, and as if reluctantly, his +lordship's face changed; it broke into a smile that broadened and +rippled wider and wider, second by second as he looked. His colour +deepened, until he became almost purple! And Mr. Swainson? His face +was the picture of horror; there could not be a doubt of that. +Confusion and astonishment were stamped on every feature. The Dean +could not believe his eyes. He turned in perplexity to the lawyer, who +was peeping between the others' heads. His shoulders were shaking, and +his face was puckered with laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Bishop stepped back. "Really, gentlemen, I think it is hardly fair +of us to--to use this window. This is no place for us." He was a +kindly man; there never was a more popular bishop in Bicester, and +never will be.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this the Canon and the lawyer lost all control over themselves, and +their laughter, if not loud, was deep. The Dean was puzzled--confused, +perplexed, wholly angry. He did at last what he should have done at +first, instead of striking that attitude with the shutter in his hand. +He looked through the window. It was dusty, and he was somewhat +nearsighted, but at length he saw; and this was what he saw.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the further comer of the enclosure, a couple of lovers billing and +cooing; about and round them Mr. Swainson's big dog cutting a hundred +uncouth gambols. Bad enough this; but it was not all. The ingenuous +couple were Frank Swainson and--the Dean's daughter. Frank's arm was +around her, and as the Dean looked, he stooped and kissed her, and +Clive, raising her face, returned his gaze with eyes full of love, and +scarcely blushed.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the Dean turned he was alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it very wrong of them? There was nowhere else, since this +miserable fracas had begun, where freed from others' eyes, they could +steal a kiss. But into Mr. Swainson's plot no window, save a shuttered +one, could look; the door, too, was close to one of the side doors of +the cathedral, and they could pop in and out again unseen, and as for +the big dog, Frank and Tiger were great friends. So if it was very +wrong, it was very easy and very sweet and--<i>facilis descensus +Averni</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">For one hour the Dean remained shut up in his study. At the end of +that time he put on his hat and walked across the Close. He knocked at +Mr. Swainson's door, and, upon its being opened, went in, and did not +come out again for an hour and five minutes by Mrs. Canon Rowcliffe's +watch. I have not the slightest idea of what passed between them. More +than two score different and distinct accounts of the interview were +current next day in Bicester, but no one, and I have examined them all +with care, seems to me to account for the undoubted results. First the +disappearance next day from Mr. Swainson's plot of the famous +hoarding, which was not replaced even by the old iron railing. +Secondly, the marriage six weeks later of King Pepin and Sweet Clive.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>FAMILY PORTRAITS.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">FAMILY PORTRAITS.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a +shoe-lace, having taken advantage for that purpose of the step of a +corner house in St. James's Square, when a man passing behind me +stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well!" said he, after a short pause during which I wondered--I could +not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk is +disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be ashamed +to own a house and leave it like that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby too--a little +red-nosed man wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And your hat?" I asked with winning politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cannot afford it? But my good man, you ought to think of the public."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was about to go mine, but was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener; a thin, grey-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he +observed, with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we +are very much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now, might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States."</p> + +<p class="normal">I could have fancied that he sighed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began. "I was wrong. It is +curious how much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. Now +I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was inclined to humour the old fellow's mood. "I like a good +picture, I admit," I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then perhaps you would not be offended," he suggested timidly, +"if I asked you to step inside and look at one or two. I would not +take the liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in +the dining-room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; +and there is no one in the house but my wife and myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason why I should not accept it, and I followed him into the hall. +It was spacious, but sparely furnished. The matted floor had a cold +look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a fixture, and +boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. As I passed +a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room well furnished +with prints and water-colours on the walls. But these were of a common +order. A dozen replicas of each and all might be seen in a walk +through Bond Street. So that even this oasis of taste and comfort told +the same story as had the bare hall and dreary exterior; and laid, as +it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly as I followed my guide +along the strip of matting towards the rear of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out at the back, as a state dining-room or +ball-room. At present it resembled the latter, for it was without +furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully touching +my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider your labour +lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the second Lord +Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one of the +finest specimens of his style in existence."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upwards to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved as he spoke a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted."</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Walter, Lord Wetherby, and Anne, his +wife, grew into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; +and it was with a heart full of wonder and pity that I accompanied the +old man, in whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, +round the walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in +Holland, the Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very +Barmecide feast of art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the +pictures; but I saw only bare walls.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, though the house is not what it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very fine pictures," I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said, "I suppose that he is +not in London?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But this is the Wetherby's town house," I persisted. I knew so much.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterwards, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That is +how it is. And the present peer, who was only a second cousin--well, I +say nothing about him." A reticence which was calculated to consign +his lordship to the lowest deep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He did not help?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there, it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like."</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman wearing an apron +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked much astonished. "I have +been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was still +occupied with the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">A flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have been +very much interested, madam," I said softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her gaze left me to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord a mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to retire into one of the side +passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"About the pictures?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blind?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and been so +proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his own, why +it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to do it, +and he thinks they are there to this day."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea, +and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall and +a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, that, +it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left, might find home in +them. "Your mistress," I said presently, when the sounds had died away +upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but has not something +annoyed her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper; who was, I daresay, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should notice it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied. And then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him in five minutes; +and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, turning +towards the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a better +man than you has waited longer at that door."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush, John. Do you not see the gentleman?" his wife interposed, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands. But though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while I listened to John parleying +with some one at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire +which would have been strange in another man, to see this thing to the +end--conceived it and acted upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigrams's sitting-room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the visitor by +one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced myself behind a +screen, which I seemed to know would mask it. I was going to listen. +Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what matter? As a fact, +I listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">The room was spacious but sombre, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank back +behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of the +most formal; but, though the room was still, I failed to hear it, and +when I recovered myself he was speaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he said, +with an effort at gallantry which sat ill upon him. "Although I think +it would have been better if we had left the matter to our +solicitors."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. I thought you were aware of my opinion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby," she replied, with +a coldness which did not hide her dislike for him, "your preference +for that course. You naturally shrink from telling me your terms face +to face."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Business!" she retorted. "Does that mean wringing advantage from my +weakness?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a-year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a-year for the house. What can be more fair?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for fifteen hundred."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are not acting a play," he answered doggedly, but I could see that +her words stung him. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing but my +rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favour. You +have my offer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Try me," he rejoined, drumming with his fingers upon the table. "Try +me, and you will see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If my husband had lived----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment she seemed about to break down, but, her pride coming to +the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no choice," she said with dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is doubtless in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not think that he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should +know if he were here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not here!" he answered angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease; it is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take twenty minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the servants."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you. You are very good," he said smoothly, adding, when she had +left the room, "and the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a-year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." With that, now +grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk, and now congratulating +himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat down to his task.</p> + +<p class="normal">A hansom cab, on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and, under cover of the noise, I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt the desire to raise my hand +and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in his life +experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and as it was I +put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of sunshine, +piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on the Wetherby coat +of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, and so created the one +bright spot in the bare, dismantled room; which had once, unless the +tiers of empty shelves and the lingering odour of Russia lied, been +lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord had taken the +furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had taken--nothing but +his rights.</p> + +<p class="normal">Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed to gain his attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room was natural; but +possibly also there was something in the atmosphere of that house +which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he cried in a +tone which matched his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan and +Poole that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret +that some delay has been caused."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk."</p> + +<p class="normal">Involuntarily I glanced aside, and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and moustaches, grey eyes, and an ugly +scar seaming the face from nose to ear. "Yet I hope to give you +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better +late than never; and after all it may be better that you should be +here and see it executed. Only you will not forget," he continued, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, for which an allowance must be made. But +there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favour that was no favour from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion, +saw as he thought nothing unusual; nor had any presentiment--how +should he?--of the strange scene which the room with the dingy windows +was about to witness.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had been writing for five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped in his +passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eyeglasses fell, touching my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere! And lately, too. Where, I wonder?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed." There was both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now."</p> + +<p class="normal">His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and on the instant +retreated to the window. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued with transparent carelessness. "A +strange coincidence. And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At that time?" I answered, looking him full in the face. "Upon a +will, my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him credit for +possessing. My shot had not struck where I had looked to place it; +and, finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, while I +pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think he was +busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower orders--if +he would go through the instrument. And he took my seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and; neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield, +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned swiftly, and saw where I was. "What the deuce are you doing +there, sir?" he cried in astonishment, rising to his feet and coming +towards me, the pen in his hand and his face aflame with anger. "You +forget----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave it alone, sir!" he cried furiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke too late. The shield had swung outwards on a hinge, +door-fashion; and where it had been, gaped a small open safe lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large envelope which +lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been put there that +morning. No doubt the safe was air-tight. I laid my hand upon it. "My +lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed exultation, +"here is a paper--I think, a will!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +had been dark with the rush of blood. But his anger died down at sight +of the packet. He regained his self-control, and a moment saw him pale +and calm, all show of resentment confined to a wicked gleam in his +eye. "A will?" he repeated, with a certain kind of dignity, though the +hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. "Indeed, then it is +my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and I am within my +rights, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take, when +instead he carried the envelope to the table by the window, and tore +off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your handwriting?" were +his first words. And he looked at me with a distrust that was almost +superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, my ominous talk, and my +discovery seemed to him to savour of the devil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I replied unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood awhile staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth, dashing the back of his hand against +the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The unjust provisions of this will?" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fifty thousand pounds to a woman who had not a penny when she married +his son! And the interest on another fifty thousand for her life! Why, +it is a prodigious income, an abnormal income--for a woman! And out of +whose pocket? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is monstrous! I say +it is! How am I to support the title on the income left to me, I +should like to know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I marvelled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked in a low voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">So low--for under certain conditions a tone conveys much--that he shot +a stealthy glance towards the door before he answered, "John +Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blind," I replied in the same low tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"William Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is dead. He was Mr. Wigram's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"True. I fancy that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And the +handwriting is Lord Wetherby's."</p> + +<p class="normal">I assented.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then for fully a minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, +and I stood behind him looking down at him with thoughts in my mind +which he could no more fathom than the senseless wood upon which I +leaned. Yet I mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; +and--so he was--but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting "<i>quem Deus vult perdere</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">My words startled him. He answered hurriedly, "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he concluded slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make."</p> + +<p class="normal">I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would not need to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap residence as +well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the latter loss he +had resigned himself; but he could not bear to forego the petty gain +for which he had schemed. "I think I understand, my lord," I replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier."</p> + +<p class="normal">He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not in +that event get my good word," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A hundred pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay? Which will do no one any +harm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted drily. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you know, +will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have Wetherby +House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are an impertinent fellow!" he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you have said before, my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a hint of power in my tone, beyond the defiance which the words +expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a thoughtful +gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at Poole and Duggan's," he said +slowly. "How was it that they did not search this cupboard, with which +you were acquainted?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not a member of the firm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, if I knew those +respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord in +this for ten times a hundred pounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">He seemed satisfied, and taking out a note-case laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. To-morrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan and Poole, or to Mrs. Wigram, as +you please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be +good enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am +waiting?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," some one said. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement at twelve. Do I understand that you are ready? If +so, I will summon Mrs. Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back to the end of the room. "Be good enough to ring the bell if Mrs. +Wigram permit it," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with surprise. But when I had regained my position +and looked towards her, she was standing near the window gazing +steadily into the square, an expression of disdain rendered by face +and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her head so +high, and to read even in the outline of her form a contempt which I, +and I only, knew to be so justly based? For myself, I leant against +the edge of the screen by the door, and perhaps my hundred pounds lay +heavily on my heart. As for him, he fidgeted with his papers, although +they were all in order. He was visibly impatient to get his bit of +knavery accomplished. Oh! he was a worthy man! And Welshman!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have seen +it in the draft."</p> + +<p class="normal">She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting! I saw her eyes grow large, and fear leap into them, +as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer to +the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly! Who wrote this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was nervous on his own account, wrapt in his own piece of scheming, +and obtuse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Think! Think! no! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she repeated, +her voice hysterical with excitement. "This? This?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his evil +conscience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan and Poole's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?" she cried breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?" he repeated in querulous surprise. "Why, here, of +course; where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was little of signatures I recked at that moment. I was praying to +Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; and that my lightly planned +vengeance might not fall on my own head. "Joy does not kill," I said +to myself, repeating it over and over again, and clinging to it +desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But oh! was it true? in face of that +white-lipped woman!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here!" She did not say more, but she gazed at me with dazed eyes, she +raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to obey; +to go nearer to her, out into the light.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me as a whisper, +"I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face from which +all colour had passed peered into mine, and searched it in infinite +hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need of +physical lips? "Good news?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me----" I cried, pleased that the tidings had +come by his lips--"to go to her? That she will see me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Laid up in Lavender, by Stanley J. Weyman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAID UP IN LAVENDER *** + +***** This file should be named 38989-h.htm or 38989-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/9/8/38989/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + +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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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: Laid up in Lavender + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 26, 2012 [EBook #38989] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAID UP IN LAVENDER *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=EII1AAAAMAAJ + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + + + BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + * * * + + THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF + THE NEW RECTOR + THE STORY OF FRANCIS CLUDDE + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE + THE MAN IN BLACK + UNDER THE RED ROBE + MY LADY ROTHA + THE RED COCKADE + A MINISTER OF FRANCE + SHREWSBURY + THE CASTLE INN + SOPHIA + COUNT HANNIBAL + IN KINGS' BYWAYS + THE LONG NIGHT + THE ABBESS OF VLAYE + STARVECROW FARM + CHIPPINGE + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + AUTHOR OF +"A GENTLEMAN OP FRANCE," "THE CASTLE INN," "UNDER THE RED ROBE," ETC. + + + + + + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 91 and 98 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + 1907 + + + + + + + Copyright, 1907, By + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + * * * + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + NOTE + + +The Author desires to record his gratitude to the late Mr. James Payn +and to Mr. Comyns Carr, under whose fostering care these stories came +into existence; and to Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and to Messrs. +Smith, Elder and Co., whose enterprise found for them a first opening +in life. + +_July_, 1907. + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION. + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST. + + THE COLONEL'S BOY. + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA. + + BAB. + + GERALD. + + JOANNA'S BRACELET. + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT. + + THE VICAR'S SECRET. + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN. + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + + + + + + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + + + + + LADY BETTY'S INDISCRETION + + +"Horry! I am sick to death of it!" + +There was a servant in the room collecting the tea-cups; but Lady +Betty Stafford, having been reared in the purple, was not to be +deterred from speaking her mind by a servant. Her cousin was either +more prudent or less vivacious. He did not answer on the instant, but +stood gazing through one of the windows at the leafless trees and +slow-dropping rain in the Mall. He only turned when Lady Betty +pettishly repeated her statement. + +"Had a bad time?" he vouchsafed, dropping into a chair near her, and +looking first at her, in a good-natured way, and then at his boots, +which he seemed to approve. + +"Horrid!" she replied. + +"Many people here?" + +"Hordes of them! Whole tribes!" she exclaimed. She was a little woman, +plump and pretty, with a pale, clear complexion, and bright eyes. "I +am bored beyond belief. And--and I have not seen Stafford since +morning," she added. + +"Cabinet council?" + +"Yes!" she answered viciously. "A cabinet council, and a privy +council, and a board of trade, and a board of green cloth, and all the +other boards! Horry, I am sick to death of it! What is the use of it +all?" + +"Don't do it," he said oracularly, still admiring his boots. "Country +go to the dogs!" + +"Let it!" she retorted, not relenting a whit. "I wish it would. I wish +the dogs joy of it!" + +He made an extraordinary effort at diffuseness. "I thought," he said, +"that you were becoming political, Betty. Going to write something, +and all that." + +"Rubbish! But here is Mr. Atlay. Mr. Atlay, will you have a cup of +tea?" she continued, addressing the new-comer. "There will be some +here presently. Where is Mr. Stafford?" + +"Mr. Stafford will take a cup of tea in the library, Lady Betty," the +secretary replied. "He asked, me to bring it to him. He is copying an +important paper." + +Sir Horace forsook his boots, and in a fit of momentary interest +asked, "They have come to terms?" + +The secretary nodded. Lady Betty said "Pshaw!" A man brought in the +fresh teapot. The next moment Mr. Stafford himself came into the room, +an open telegram in his hand. + +He nodded pleasantly to his wife and her cousin. But his thin, dark +face wore--it generally did--a preoccupied look. Country people to +whom he was pointed out in the street called him, according to their +political leanings, either insignificant, or a prig, or a "dry sort"; +or sometimes said, "How young he is!" But those whose fate it was to +face the Minister in the House knew that there was something in him +more to be feared even than his imperturbability, his honesty, or his +precision--and that was a sudden fiery heat, which was apt to carry +away the House at unexpected times. On one of these occasions, it was +rumored, Lady Betty Champion had seen him, and fallen in love with +him. Why he had thrown the handkerchief to her--that was another +matter; and whether the apparently incongruous match would +answer--that, too, remained to be seen. + +"More telegrams?" she cried. "It rains telegrams! how I hate them!" + +"Why?" he said. "Why should you?" He really wondered. + +She made a face at him. "Here is your tea," she said abruptly. + +"Thank you; you are very good," he replied. He took the cup and set it +down absently. "Atlay," he said, speaking to the secretary, "you have +not corrected the report of my speech at the Club, have you? No, I +know you have had no time. Will you run your eye over it, and see if +it is all right, and send it to the _Times_--I do not think I need to +see it--by eleven o'clock at latest? The editor," he continued, +tapping the pink paper in his hand, "seems to doubt us. I have to go +to Fitzgerald's now; so you must also copy Lord Pilgrimstone's terms, +if you please. I proposed to do it myself, but I shall be with you +before you have finished." + +"What are the terms?" Lady Betty asked. "Lord Pilgrimstone has not +agreed to----" + +"To permit me to communicate them?" he replied, with a grave smile. +"No. So you must pardon me, my dear. I have passed my word for +absolute secrecy. Indeed, it is as important to me as to Pilgrimstone +that they should not be divulged." + +"They are sure to leak out," she retorted. "They always do." + +"Well, it will not be through me, I hope." + +She stamped her foot on the carpet. "I should like to get them, and +send them to the _Times!_" she cried, her eyes flashing--he was so +provoking! "And let all the world know them! I vow I should!" + +He looked his astonishment, while the other two laughed, partly to +avoid embarrassment, perhaps. She often said these things, and no one +took them seriously. + +"You had better play the secretary for once, Lady Betty," said Atlay, +who was related to his chief. "You will then be able to satisfy your +curiosity. Shall I resign _pro tem.?_" + +She looked eagerly at her husband for the third part of a second--for +assent, perhaps. But she read no playfulness in his face, and her own +fell. He was thinking about other things. "No," she said, almost +sullenly, dropping her eyes to the carpet. "I should not spell well +enough." + +Soon after that they dispersed; this being Wednesday, Mr. Stafford's +day for dining out. At that time Ministers dined only twice a week in +session--on Wednesday and Sunday; and Sunday was often sacred to the +children where there were any, lest they should grow up and not know +their father by sight. At a quarter to eight Lady Betty came into the +library, and found her husband still at his desk, a pile of papers +before him awaiting his signature. As a fact, he had only just sat +down, displacing his secretary, who had gone upstairs to dress. + +"Stafford!" she said. + +She did not seem quite at her ease; but his mind was troubled, and he +failed to notice this. "Yes, my dear," he answered politely, shuffling +the papers before him into a heap. He knew that he was late, and he +could see that she was dressed. "Yes, I am going upstairs this minute. +I have not forgotten." + +"It is not that," she said, leaning with one hand on the table, "I +want to ask you----" + +"My dear, you really must tell it me in the carriage." He was on his +feet now, making some hasty preparations. "Where are we to dine? At +the Duke's? Then we shall have a mile to drive. Will not that do for +you?" He was working hard while he spoke. There was an oak post-box +within reach, and another box for letters which were to be delivered +by hand, and he was thrusting a handful of notes into each of these. +Other packets he swept into different drawers of the table. Still +standing, he stooped and signed his name to half a dozen letters, +which he left open on the blotting-pad. "Atlay will see to these when +he is dressed," he murmured. "Would you oblige me by locking the +drawers, my dear--it will save me a minute--and giving me the keys +when I come down?" + +He went off then, two or three papers in his hand, and almost ran +upstairs. Lady Betty stood a while on the spot on which he had left +her, looking in an odd way--just as if it were new to her--round the +grave, spacious room, with its sombre Spanish-leather-covered +furniture, its ponderous writing-tables and shelves of books, its +three lofty curtained windows. When her eyes at last came back to the +lamp, and dwelt on it, they were very bright, and her face was +flushed. Her foot could be heard tapping on the carpet. Presently she +remembered herself and fell to work, vehemently slamming such drawers +as were open, and locking them. + +The private secretary found her doing this when he came in. She +muttered something--stooping with her face over the drawers--and +almost immediately went out. He looked after her, partly because there +was something odd in her manner--she kept her face averted; and partly +because she was wearing a new and striking gown, and he admired her. +He noticed, as she passed through the doorway, that she had some +papers held down by her side. But, of course, he thought nothing of +this. + +He was hopelessly late for his own dinner-party, and only stayed a +moment to slip the letters last signed into envelopes prepared for +them. Then he made for the door, opened it, and came into collision +with Sir Horace, who was strolling in. + +"Beg pardon!" said that gentleman, with irritating placidity. "Late +for dinner?" + +"Rather!" the secretary cried, trying to get round him. + +"Well," drawled the other, "which is the hand-box, old fellow?" + +"It has been cleared. Here, give it me. The messenger is in the hall +now." + +Atlay snatched the letter from his companion, the two going into the +hall together. Marcus, the butler, a couple of tall footmen, and the +messenger were sorting letters at the table. "Here, Marcus," said the +secretary, pitching his letter on the slab, "let that go with the +others. And is my hansom here?" + +In another minute he was speeding one way, and the Staffords in their +brougham another; while Sir Horace walked at his leisure down to his +club. The Minister and his wife drove in silence; he forgot to ask her +what she wanted. And, strange to say, Lady Betty forgot to tell him. +At the party she made quite a sensation; never had she seemed more +gay, more piquant, more audaciously witty, than she showed herself +this evening. There were illustrious personages present, but they +paled beside her. The Duke, with whom she was a favorite, laughed at +her sallies until he could laugh no more; and even her husband, her +very husband, forgot for a time the country and the crisis, and +listened, half-proud and half-afraid. But she was not aware of this; +she could not see his face where she sat. To all seeming she never +looked that way. She was quite a model society wife. + +Mr. Stafford himself was an early riser. It was his habit to be up by +six; to make his own coffee over a spirit lamp, and then not only to +get through much work in his dressing-room, but to take his daily ride +before breakfast. On the morning after the Duke's party, however, he +lay later than usual; and as there was much business to be done--owing +to the crisis--the canter in the park had to be omitted. He was still +among his papers--though expecting the breakfast-gong with every +minute, when a hansom cab driven at full speed stopped at the door. He +glanced up wearily as he heard the doors of the cab flung open with a +crash. There had been a time when the stir and bustle of such arrivals +had been sweet to him--not so sweet as to some, for he had never been +deeply in love with the parade of office; but sweeter than to-day, +when they were no more to him than the creaking of the mill to the +camel that turns it blindfold and in darkness. + +Naturally he was thinking of Lord Pilgrimstone this morning, and +guessed, before he opened the note which the servant brought him, who +was its writer. But its contents had, nonetheless, an electrical +effect upon him. His brow reddened. With a most unusual display of +emotion he sprang to his feet, crushing the fragment of paper in his +fingers. "Who brought that?" he cried sharply. "Who brought it?" he +repeated in a louder tone, before the servant could explain. + +The man had never seen him so moved. "Mr. Scratchley, sir," he +answered. + +"Ha! Then, show him into the library," was the quick reply. And while +the servant went to do his bidding, the Minister hastily changed his +dressing-gown for a coat, and ran down a private staircase, reaching +the room he had mentioned by one door as Mr. Scratchley, Lord +Pilgrimstone's secretary, entered it through another. + +By that time he had regained his composure, and looked much as usual. +Still, when he held up the crumpled note, there was a brusqueness in +the gesture which would have surprised his ordinary acquaintances, and +did remind Mr. Scratchley of certain "warm nights" in the House. + +"You know the contents of this?" he said without prelude, and in a +tone which matched his gesture. + +The visitor bowed. He was a grave middle-aged man, who seemed +oppressed and burdened by the load of cares and responsibilities which +his smiling chief carried jauntily. People said that he was the proper +complement of Lord Pilgrimstone, as the more volatile Atlay was of his +leader. + +"And you are aware," continued Mr. Stafford, almost harshly, "that +Lord Pilgrimstone gives yesterday's agreement to the winds?" + +"I have never seen his lordship so deeply moved," replied the discreet +one. + +"He says: 'Our former negotiation was ruined by premature talk. But +this disclosure can only be referred to treachery or the grossest +carelessness.' What does it mean? I know of no disclosure, Mr. +Scratchley. I must have an explanation. And you, I presume, are here +to give me one." + +For a moment the other seemed taken aback. "You have not seen the +_Times_, sir?" he murmured. + +"This morning's? No. But it is here." + +He took it, as he spoke, from a table at his elbow, and unfolded it. +The secretary approached and pointed to the head of a column--the most +conspicuous, the column most readily to be found in the paper. "They +are crying it at the street corners I passed," he added with +deference. "There is nothing to be heard in St. James's Street and +Pall Mall but 'Detailed Programme of the Coalition.' The other dailies +are striking off second editions to include it!" + +Mr. Stafford's eyes were riveted to the paper. There was a long pause, +a pause on his part of dismay and consternation. He could scarcely--to +repeat a common phrase--believe his eyes. "It seems," he muttered at +length,--"it seems accurate--a tolerably precise account, at least." + +"It is a verbatim copy," the secretary said dryly. "The question +is, who furnished it. Lord Pilgrimstone, I am authorised to say, +has not permitted his note of the agreement to pass out of his +possession--even to the present moment." + +"And so he concludes"--the Minister said thoughtfully--"it is a fair +inference enough, perhaps--that the _Times_ must have procured its +information from my note?" + +With deference the secretary objected. "It is not a matter of +inference, Mr. Stafford. I am directed to say that. I have inquired, +early as it is, at the _Times_ office, and learned that the copy came +directly from the hands of your messenger." + +"Of my messenger!" Mr. Stafford cried, thunderstruck. "You are sure of +that?" + +"I am sure that the sub-editor says so." + +Again there was silence. "This must be looked into," said Mr. Stafford +at length, controlling himself by an effort. "For the present I agree +with Lord Pilgrimstone, that it alters the position--and perhaps +finally." + +"Lord Pilgrimstone will be damaged in the eyes of a large section of +his supporters--seriously damaged," Mr. Scratchley said, shaking his +head and frowning. + +"Possibly. From every point of view the thing is to be deplored. But I +will call on Lord Pilgrimstone," the Minister continued slowly, "after +lunch. Will you tell him so?" + +A curious embarrassment showed itself in the secretary's manner. He +twisted his hat in his hands, and looked suddenly sad--as if he were +about to join in the groan at a prayer-meeting. + +"Lord Pilgrimstone," he said in a voice he vainly strove to render +commonplace, "is going to the Sandown Spring Meeting to-day." + +The tone was really so lugubrious--to say nothing of a shake of the +head with which he could not help accompanying the statement--that a +faint smile played on Mr. Stafford's lips. + +"Then I must take the next possible opportunity," he said. "I will see +him to-morrow." + +Mr. Scratchley assented to this, and bowed himself out, after another +word or two, looking more gloomy and careworn than usual. The +interview had not been altogether to his mind. He wished that he had +spoken more roundly to Mr. Stafford; even asked for a categorical +denial of the charge. But the Minister's manner had overawed him. He +had found it impossible to put the question. And then the pitiful +confession which he had had to make for Lord Pilgrimstone! That had +put the copingstone to his dissatisfaction. + +"Oh!" the secretary sighed, as he stepped into his cab. "Oh, that men +so great should stoop to things so little!" + +It did not occur to him that there is a condition of things even more +sad: when little men meddle with great things. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Stafford stood at the window deep in unpleasant +thoughts, from which the entrance of the butler, who came to summon +him to breakfast, first aroused him. "Stay a moment, Marcus!" he said, +turning, as the man prepared to leave the room after doing his errand. +"I want to ask you a question. Did you make up the messenger's bag +last evening?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Did you notice a letter addressed to the _Times_ office?" + +The servant prepared himself to cogitate. But he found it unnecessary. +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Two." + +"Two?" Mr. Stafford repeated, dismay in his tone; though this was just +what he had reason to expect. + +"Yes, sir. There was one I took from the hand-box, and one Mr. Atlay +gave me in the hall at the last moment," the butler explained. + +"That will do. Thank you. Ask Mr. Atlay if he will come to me. No +doubt he will be able to tell me what I want to know." + +The words were commonplace, but the speaker's anxiety was so plain +that Marcus when he delivered the message--which he did with +haste--added a word or two of warning. + +"It is about a letter to the _Times_, sir, I think. Mr. Stafford seems +a good deal put out," he said, confidentially. + +"Indeed?" Atlay replied. "I will go down." And he started. But before +he reached the library he met some one. Lady Betty looked out of the +breakfast-room, and saw him descending the stairs with the butler +behind him. + +"Where is Mr. Stafford, Marcus?" she asked impatiently, as she stood +with her hand on the door. "Good morning, Mr. Atlay," she added, her +eyes descending to him. "Where is my husband? The coffee is getting +cold." + +"He has requested me to go to him," Atlay answered. "Marcus tells me +there is something in the _Times_ which has annoyed him, Lady Betty. I +will send him up as quickly as I can." + +But Lady Betty had not stayed to receive his assurance. She had drawn +back and shut the door quickly; yet not so quickly but that the +private secretary had seen her change colour. "Hallo!" he ejaculated +to himself--the lady was not much given to blushing--"I wonder what is +wrong with _her_ this morning. She is not generally rude--to me." + +It was not long before he got light on the matter. "Come here, Atlay," +his employer said, the moment he entered the library. "Look at this!" + +The secretary took the _Times_, and read the important matter. +Meanwhile the Minister read the secretary. He saw surprise and +consternation on his face, but no trace of guilt. Then he told him +what Marcus had said about the two letters which had gone the previous +evening from the house addressed to the _Times_ office. "One," he +said, "contained the notes of my speech. The other----" + +"The other----" the secretary replied, thinking while he spoke, "was +given to me at the last moment by Sir Horace. I threw it to Marcus in +the hall." + +"Ah!" his chief said, trying very hard to express nothing by the +exclamation, but not quite succeeding. "Did you see that that letter +was addressed to the editor of the _Times?_" + +The secretary reddened, and betrayed unexpected confusion. "I did," +he said. "I saw so much of the address as I threw the letter on the +slab--though I thought nothing of it at the time." + +Mr. Stafford looked at him fixedly. "Come," he said, "this is a grave +matter, Atlay. You noticed, I can see, the handwriting. Was it Sir +Horace's?" + +"No," the secretary replied. + +"Whose was it?" + +"I think--I think, Mr. Stafford--that it was Lady Betty's. But I +should be sorry, having seen it only for a moment--to say that it was +hers." + +"Lady Betty's?" + +Mr. Stafford repeated the exclamation three times, in surprise, in +anger, a third time in trembling. In this last stage he walked away to +the window, and turning his back on his companion looked out. He +recalled his wife's petulant exclamation of yesterday, the foolish +desire expressed, as he had supposed in jest. Had she been in earnest? +And had she carried out her threat? Had she--his wife--done this thing +so compromising to his honour, so mischievous to the country, so mad, +reckless, wicked? Impossible. It was impossible. And yet--and yet +Atlay was a man to be trusted, a gentleman, his own kinsman! And +Atlay's eye was not likely to be deceived in a matter of handwriting. +That Atlay had made up his mind he could see. + +The statesman turned from the window, and walked to and fro, his +agitation betrayed by his step. The third time he passed in front of +his secretary--who had riveted his eyes to the _Times_ and appeared to +be reading the money article--he stopped. "If this be true--mind I say +if, Atlay--" he cried jerkily, "what was Lady Betty's motive? I am in +the dark! blindfold! Help me! Tell me what has been passing round me +that I have not seen. You would not have my wife--a spy?" + +"No! no! no!" the other cried, as he dropped the paper, his vehemence +showing that he felt the pathos of the appeal. "It is not that. Lady +Betty is jealous, if I dare venture to judge, of your devotion to the +country--and to politics. She sees little of you. You are wrapped up +in public affairs and matters of state. She feels herself neglected +and--set aside. And--may I say it?--she has been married no more than +a year." + +"But she has her society," the Minister objected, compelling himself +to speak calmly, "and her cousin, and--many other things." + +"For which she does not care." returned the secretary. + +It was a simple answer, but something in it touched a tender place. +Mr. Stafford winced and cast an odd startled look at the speaker. +Before he could reply, however--if he intended to reply--a knock came +at the door, and Marcus put in his head. "My lady is waiting +breakfast, sir," he suggested timidly. What could a poor butler do +between an impatient mistress and an obdurate master? + +"I will come," Mr. Stafford said hastily. "I will come at once. +For this matter, Atlay," he continued when the door was closed again, +"let it rest for the present where it is. I know I can depend upon +your"--he paused, seeking a word--"your discretion. One thing is +certain, however. There is an end of the arrangement made yesterday. +Probably the Queen will send for Templetown. I shall see Lord +Pilgrimstone to-morrow, and--that will be the end of it." + +Atlay retired, marvelling at his coolness; trying to retrace the short +steps of their conversation, and to discern how far the Minister had +gone with him, and where he had turned off upon a resolution of his +own. He failed to find the clue, however, and marvelled still more as +the day went on and others succeeded it; days of political crisis. Out +of doors the world, or that small piece of it which has its centre at +Westminster, was in confusion. The newspapers, morning or evening, +found ready sale, and had no need to rely on murder-panics or prurient +discussions. The Coalition scandal, the resignation of Ministers, the +sending for Lord This and Mr. That, the certainty of a dissolution, +provided matter enough. In all this Atlay found nothing at which to +wonder. He had seen it all before. That which did cause him surprise +was the calm--the unnatural calm, as it seemed to him--which prevailed +in the house in Carlton Terrace. For a day or two, indeed, there +was much running to and fro, much closeting and button-holing; for +rather longer the secretary read anxiety and apprehension in one +countenance--Lady Betty's. Then things settled down. The knocker began +to find peace, such comparative peace as falls to knockers in Carlton +Terrace. Lady Betty's brow grew clear as her eye found no reflection +of its anxiety in Mr. Stafford's face. In a word the secretary looked +long but could discern no faintest sign of domestic trouble. + +The late Minister indeed was taking things with wonderful coolness. +Lord Pilgrimstone had failed to taunt him, and the triumph of old foes +had failed to goad him into a last effort. Apparently he was of +opinion that the country might for a time exist without him. He was +standing aside with a shade on his face, and there were rumours that +he would take a long holiday. + +A week saw all these things happen. And then, one day as Atlay sat +writing in the library--Mr. Stafford being out--Lady Betty came into +the room for something. Rising to supply her with the article she +wanted, he held the door open for her to pass out. She paused. + +"Shut the door, Mr. Atlay," she said, pointing to it. "I want to ask +you a question." + +"Pray do, Lady Betty," he answered. "It is this," she said, meeting +his eyes boldly--and a brighter, a more dainty creature than she +looked had seldom tempted man. "Mr. Stafford's resignation--had +it anything, Mr. Atlay, to do with"--her face coloured a very +little--"something that was in the _Times_ this day week?" + +His own cheek coloured violently enough. "If ever," he was saying to +himself, "I meddle or mar between husband and wife again, may I----" +But aloud he answered quietly, "Something perhaps." The question was +sudden. Her eyes were on his face. He found it impossible to +prevaricate. "Something perhaps," he said. + +"My husband has never spoken to me about it," she replied, breathing +quickly. + +He bowed, having no words adapted to the situation. But he repeated +his resolution (as above) more furiously. + +"He has never appeared aware of it," she persisted. "Are you sure that +he saw it?" + +He wondered at her innocence, or her audacity. That such a baby should +do so much mischief. The thought irritated him. "It was impossible +that he should not see it, Lady Betty," he said, with a touch of +asperity. "Quite impossible!" + +"Ah," she replied, with a faint sigh. "Well, he has never spoken to me +about it. And you think it had really something to do with his +resignation, Mr. Atlay?" + +"Most certainly," he said. He was no longer inclined to spare her. + +She nodded thoughtfully, and then with a quiet "Thank you" she went +out. + +"Well," muttered the secretary to himself when the door was +fairly shut behind her, "she is--upon my word, she is a fool! And +he"--appealing to the inkstand--"he has never said a word to her about +it. He is a new Don Quixote! a modern Job! a second Sir Isaac Newton! +I do not know what to call him!" + +It was Sir Horace, however, who precipitated the catastrophe. He +happened to come in about teatime that afternoon, before, in fact, my +lady had had an opportunity of seeing her husband. He found her alone +and in a brown study, a thing most unusual with her and portending +something. He watched her for a time in silence: seemed to draw +courage from a still longer inspection of his boots, and then said, +"So the cart is clean over, Betty?" + +She nodded. + +"Driver much hurt?" + +"Do you mean, does Stafford mind?" she replied impatiently. + +He nodded. + +"Well, I do not know. It is hard to say." + +"Think so?" he persisted. + +"Good gracious, Horry!" my lady retorted, losing patience, "I say I do +not know, and you say, 'Think so!' If you want to learn so +particularly, ask him yourself. Here he is!" + +Mr. Stafford had just entered the room. Perhaps she really wished to +satisfy herself as to the state of his feelings. Perhaps she only +desired in her irritation to put her cousin in a corner. At any rate +she turned to her husband and said, "Here is Horace wishing to know if +you mind being turned out?" + +Mr. Stafford's face flushed a little at the home-thrust which no +one else would have dared to deal. But he showed no displeasure. +"Well, not so much as I should have thought," he answered, pausing to +weigh a lump of sugar, and, as it seemed, his feelings. "There are +compensations, you know." + +"Pity all the same--those terms came out," Sir Horace grunted. + +"It was." + +"Stafford!" Lady Betty asked on a sudden, speaking fast and eagerly, +"is it true, I want to ask you, is it true that that led you to +resign?" + +Naturally he was startled, and he showed that he was. She was the last +person who should have put that question to him, but his long training +in self-control stood him in good stead. + +"Well, yes," he said quietly. + +It was better, he thought, indeed it was only right, that she should +know what she had done. But he did not look at her. + +"Was it only that?" she asked again. + +This time he weighed his answer. He thought her persistency odd. But +again he assented. + +"Yes," he said gravely. "Only that, I think. But for that I should +have remained in--with Lord Pilgrimstone of course. Perhaps things are +better as they are, my dear." + +Lady Betty sprang from her seat with all her old vivacity. "Well!" she +cried, "well, I am sure! Then why, I should like to know, did Mr. +Atlay tell me that my letter to the _Times_ had something to do with +it!" + +"Did not say so," quoth Sir Horace. "Absurd!" + +"Yes, he did," cried Lady Betty, so fiercely that the rash speaker, +who had returned to his boots, fairly shook in them. "You were not +there! How do you know?" + +"Don't know," Sir Horace admitted, meekly. + +"But stay, stay a moment!" Mr. Stafford said, getting in a word with +difficulty. It was strange if his wife could talk so calmly of her +misdeeds, and before a third party too. "What letter to the _Times_ +did Atlay mean?" + +"My letter about the Women's League," she explained earnestly. "You +did not see it? No, I thought not. But Mr. Atlay would have it that +you did, and that it had something to do with your going out. Horace +told me at the time that I ought not to send it without consulting +you. But I did, because you said you could not be bothered with it--I +mean you said you were busy, Stafford. And so I thought I would ask if +it had done any harm, and Mr. Atlay---- What is the matter?" she +cried, breaking off sharply at sight of the change in her husband's +face. "Did it do harm?" + +"No, no," he answered. "Only I never heard of this letter before. What +made you write it?" + +Lady Betty coloured violently, and became on a sudden very shy--like +most young authors. "Well," she said, "I wanted to be in the--in the +swim with you, don't you know." + +Mr. Stafford murmured, "Oh!" + +Thanks to his talk with Atlay he read the secret of that sudden +shyness. And confusion poured over him more and more. It caused him to +give way to impulse in a manner which a moment's reflection would have +led him to avoid. + +"Then it was not you," he exclaimed unwarily, "who sent Pilgrimstone's +terms to the _Times?_" + +"I?" she exclaimed in an indescribable tone, and with eyes like +saucers. "I?" she repeated. + +"Gad!" cried Sir Horace; and he looked about for a way of escape. + +"I?" she continued, struggling between wrath and wonder. "I betray you +to the _Times!_ And you thought so, Stafford?" + +There was silence in the room for a long moment during which the cool +statesman, the hard man of the world, did not know where to turn his +eyes. "There were circumstances--several circumstances," Mr. Stafford +muttered at last, "which made--which forced me to think so." + +"And Mr. Atlay thought so?" she asked. He nodded. "Oh, that tame cat!" +she cried, her eyes flashing. + +Then she seemed to meditate, while her husband gazed at her, a prey to +conflicting emotions, and Sir Horace made himself as small as +possible. "I see," she continued in a different tone. "Only--only if +you thought that, why did you never say anything? Why did you not +scold me, beat me, Stafford? I do not--I do not understand." + +"I thought," he explained in despair--he had so mismanaged +matters--"that perhaps I had left you--out of the swim, as you call +it, Betty. That I had not treated you very well, and after all it +might be my own fault." + +"And you said nothing! You intended to say nothing?" He nodded. + +"Gad!" cried Sir Horace very softly. + +But Lady Betty said nothing. She turned after a long look at her +husband, and went out of the room, her eyes wet with tears. The two +men heard her pause a moment on the landing, and then go upstairs and +shut her door. But her foot, even to their gross ears, seemed to touch +the stairs as if it loved them, and there was a happy lingering in the +slamming of the door. + +They looked, when she had left them, anywhere but at one another. Sir +Horace sought inspiration in his boots, and presently found it. +"Wonder who did it, then?" he burst out at last. + +"Ah! I wonder," replied the ex-minister, descending at a bound from +the cloudland to which his thoughts had borne him. "I never pushed the +inquiry; you know why now. But they should be able to enlighten us at +the _Times_ office. We could learn in whose handwriting the copy was, +at any rate. It is not well to have spies about us." + +"I can tell you in whose handwriting they say it was," Sir Horace said +bluntly. + +"In whose?" + +"In Atlay's." + +Mr. Stafford did not look surprised. Instead of answering he thought. +As a result of which he presently left the room in silence. When he +came back he had a copy of the _Times_ in his hand, and his face wore +a look of perplexity. "I have read the riddle," he said, "and yet it +is a riddle to me still. I never found time to read the report of my +speech at the Club. It occurred to me to look at it now. It is full of +errors; so full that it is clear the printer had not the corrected +proof Atlay prepared. Therefore I conclude that Atlay's copy of the +terms went to the _Times_ instead of the speech. But how was the +mistake made?" + +"That is the question." + +It happened that the private secretary came into the room at this +juncture. "Atlay," Mr. Stafford said at once, "I want you. Carry your +mind back a week--to this day week. Are you sure that you sent the +report of my speech at the Club to the _Times?_" + +"Am I sure?" the other replied confidently, nothing daunted by +being so abruptly challenged. "I am quite sure I did, sir. I remember +the circumstances. I found the report--it was type-written you +remember--lying on the blotting-pad when I came down before dinner. I +slipped it into an envelope, and put it in the box. I can see myself +doing it now." + +"But how do you know that it was the report you put in the envelope?" + +"You had indorsed it 'Corrected speech.--W. Stafford,'" Atlay replied +triumphantly. + +"Ah!" Mr. Stafford said, dropping his hands and eyes and sitting down +suddenly, "I remember! My wife came in, and--yes, my wife came in." + + + + + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST + + + + + THE SURGEON'S GUEST + + + CHAPTER I. + +"To be content," said the carrier, "that is half the battle. If I have +said it to one, I have said it to a hundred. You be content," says I, +"and you will be all right." + +For the first time, though they had plodded on a mile together, the +tall gentleman turned his eyes from the sombre moorland which +stretched away on either side of the road, and looked at his +companion. There had been something strange in the preoccupation of +his thoughts hitherto; though the carrier, lapped in his own +loquacity, had not felt it. And, to tell the truth, there had been +something still more strange in the tall gentleman's behaviour before +their meeting. Now he had raced along the road and now he had +loitered; sometimes he had stood still, letting his eyes stray over +the dark groups of heather, which lay islanded in a sea of brown +grass; and again he had sauntered onwards, his hat in his hand and his +face turned up to the sky, which hung low over the waste, and had yet +the breadth of a fen cloudscape. Whatever the eccentricity of his +lonely movements, his tall hat and fluttering frock-coat had +exaggerated it. + +At length on the summit of one of the ridges over which the road ran +he had made a longer halt, and had begun to look about him to right +and left, seeking, it seemed, for a track across the moss. Then he had +caught sight of the carrier plodding up the next ridge at the tail of +his cart, and he had started after him. But having almost overtaken +him, he had reduced his pace and loitered as if his desire for human +company had faded away. He had even paused as though to return. But a +glance at the desolate waste had determined him. He had walked on +again, and had overtaken and fallen to talking with the carrier. The +latter on his part had been glad to have a companion, and had readily +set down what was odd in the stranger's bearing to the cause which +accounted for his costume. The tall gentleman was a Londoner. + +"'You be content,' says I," quoth the old fellow again, his +companion's tardy attention encouraging him to repeat his statement, +"'and you will be all right.' I have told that to hundreds in my +time." + +"And you practise it yourself?" The tall gentleman's voice was husky. +His eyes, now that they had found their way to the other's face, +continued to dwell on it with a gleam in their depths which matched +the pallor of his features. His forehead was high, his face long and +thin, and lengthened by a dark brown beard which hid the working of +his lips. A nervous man meeting his gaze might have had strange +thoughts. But the carrier's were country nerves, and proof against +anything short of electricity. + +"Oh yes, I am pretty well content," Nickson answered sturdily. "I have +twenty acres of land from the duke, and I turn a penny with the +carrying, going into Sheffield twice a week, rain and shine. Then I +have as good a wife as ever kissed her man, and neither chick nor +child, and no more than three barren ewes this lambing." + +"My God!" said the stranger. + +The words seemed wrung from him by a twinge of mental pain, but +whether the feeling was envy of the man's innocent joys, or disgust at +his simplicity, did not appear. Whatever the impulse, the tall +gentleman showed an immediate consciousness that he had excited his +companion's astonishment. He began to talk rapidly, even gesticulating +a little. "But is there no drawback?" he said--"no bitter in your +life, man? This long journey--ten--eleven miles?--and the same journey +home again? Do you never find it cold, hot, dreary, intolerable?" + +"It is cold enough some days, and hot enough some days," the carrier +replied heartily. "But dreary?--never! And cold and heat are but skin +deep, you know." + +The tall gentleman let his head fall on his breast, and for some +distance walked on in silence. The carrier whistled to his horse, the +cry of a peewit came shrilling across the moor, one wheel of the cart +squeaked loudly for grease. The evening was grey and still, and rain +impended. + +"It is all downhill after this," Nickson said presently, pointing to +the sky-line, now less than a hundred yards ahead. "You see that stone +there, sir?" he continued, and pointing with his whip to a stone lying +a little off the road. "There was a man died in the snow there. Three +years back it would be. I went by him myself for a month and more, and +took him for a dead sheep. At last a keeper passing that way turned +him over with his foot, and--well, he was a sad sight, poor chap, by +that time." + +The carrier should have been pleased with the effect his story +produced; for the stranger shuddered. His face even seemed a shade +paler, but this might be the effect of the evening light. He did not +make any comment, however, and the two stepped out until they gained +the summit of the ridge. Here the moor fell away on every side--a dark +sweep of waste bounded by uncouth round-backed hills, which rose +shapeless and grey, with never a graceful outline or soaring peak to +break the horizon. + +"You will take a lift down the hill, sir?" the carrier asked, +gathering up his reins and preparing to mount. "I am light to-day." + +"No, I think not--I thank you," the stranger answered jerkily. + +"You are welcome, if you will," persisted the carrier. + +"No, I think not. I think I will walk," the tall gentleman answered. +But he still stood, and watched the other's preparations with strange +intentness. Even when Nickson, having wished him good day, drove +briskly off, he continued to gaze after the cart until a dip in the +descent--not far below--swallowed it up. Then he heaved a sigh, and +looked round at the grey sky and darkening heath. He took off his hat. + +"Hold up! what is the matter with the mare?" the carrier cried, coming +to a stop as soon, as it chanced, as the dip in the road hid him from +the other's eyes. "She has picked up a stone, drat it!" + +He got down stiffly, and taking his knife from his pocket went to the +mare's head. Having removed the stone he dropped the hoof, and stood a +second while he closed the knife. In this momentary pause there came +to his ear a sharp report like that of a gun, but brisker and less +loud. It was difficult to suppose it the sound of a snapping stick; or +of one stone struck against another. It puzzled Master Nickson, who +climbed hastily to his seat again and drove on until he was clear of +the dip. Then, swearing at himself for an old fool, he looked +anxiously back at the top of the ridge, which had come into view +again. He was looking for the tall gentleman. But the latter was not +to be seen, either standing against the sky-line or moving on the +intervening road. "Lord's sakes!" the carrier muttered uneasily, "what +has become of him? He cannot have gone back!" + +He continued to stare for some moments at the place where the stranger +should have been. At last giving way to a sudden conviction, he got +down from his cart, and, leaving it standing, hurried back through the +dip, and so to the top of the ridge. The ascent was steep, and he was +breathing heavily when he reached the summit and cast his eyes round +him. No, the tall gentleman was not to be seen. The brown grass and +heather stretched away on this side and that, broken by no human +figure. Not even a rabbit was visible on the long white strip of road +that in the far distance grew hazy with the fall of night. + +"The devil!" the carrier said, shuddering, and feeling more lonely +than he had ever felt in his life. "Then he has gone, and----" + +He stopped. His eyes were on a dark bundle of clothes that lay a +little aside from the road between two clumps of heather. Just a +bundle of clothes it seemed, but Master Nickson drew in his breath at +sight of it. The peewits and curlews had gone to rest. There was not a +sound to be heard on the wide moor, save the beating of his heart. + +He would have given pounds to drive on with a clear conscience, yet he +forced himself to go up to the huddled form, and to turn it over until +the face was exposed. There was a pistol near the right hand, and +behind the ear there was a small, a very small hole, from which the +blood welled sluggishly. Round this the skin was singed and blackened. +The eyes were closed, and the pale face, thoughtful and placid, was +scarcely disfigured. + +Suddenly Master Nickson fell on his knees. "Dang me, if I don't think +he is alive!" he whispered. "For sure, he breathes!" + +Convinced of it, the carrier sprang to his feet a different man. He +lost not a moment in bringing his cart to the spot and lifting the +insensible form into it. Then he led the horse to the road, and +started gingerly down the hill. "It is a mercy it happened right at +the doctor's door," he muttered, as he turned off the road into a +track which seemed to lead through the heather to nowhere in +particular. "If he lives five minutes longer he will be in good +hands." + +A stranger would have wondered where the doctor lived; for there was +no signs of a house to be seen. But when the wheels had rolled +noiselessly over the sward a hundred yards a faint curl of smoke +became visible, rising from the ground in front. A few more paces +brought the tops of trees to view, and nestling among them the gables +of an old stone house, standing below the level of the moor in a gully +or ravine, that here began to run down from the watershed towards +Bradfield and the Loxley. The track Nickson was following led to a +white gate, which formed the entrance to this lonely demesne. + +The carrier found assistance sooner than he had expected. Leaning +against the inner side of the gate, with her back to him, was a tall +girl. She was bending over a fiddle, drawing from it wailing sounds +that went well with the waste behind her and the fading light. Her +head swayed in time, her elbow moved slowly. She did not hear the +wheels, and he had to call, "Whisht! Miss Pleasance, whisht!" before +she heard and turned. + +He could see little of her face, for in the hollow the light was +almost gone, but her voice as she cried, "Is that you, Nickson? Have +you something for us?" rang out so cheerily that it strung his nerves +anew. + +"Yes, miss," he answered. "But it is your father I want. I have got a +man here who has been hurt----" + +"What? In the cart?" she cried. She stepped forward and would have +looked in. But he was before her. + +"No, miss, you fetch your father!" he said sharply. "It is just a +matter of minutes, maybe. You fetch him here, please." + +She understood now, and turned and sped through the shrubbery, and +across the little rivulet and the lawn. In five minutes the grey +house, which had stood gaunt and lifeless in the glooming, was +aroused. Lights flitted from window to window, and servants called to +one another. The surgeon, a tall, florid, elderly man, with drooping +white moustaches, came out, after snatching up one or two necessary +things. The groom hastened behind him with a candle. Only Pleasance, +the messenger of ill, whom her father had bidden stay in the house, +had nothing to do in the confusion. She laid down her violin and bow, +and stood in the darkness of the outer room--it was half hall, half +parlour--listening and wondering. + +The sound of heavy footsteps crunching the gravel presently warned her +that the man was to be brought into the house. She heard her father +direct the other bearers to make for his room, which was on the left +of the hall, and her face grew a shade paler as the men stumbled with +their burden through the doorway. There is something monstrous to the +unaccustomed in limbs which fall lifeless, or stick out stiff and +stark in ghastly prominence. She averted her face as the group passed +her, and yet managed to touch the groom's sleeve. "What is it, +Daniel?" she whispered. + +"He has been shot, miss," the servant answered. He was enjoying +himself hugely, if the truth be told. + +She had no time to ask more. The door was shut upon her, and she was +left alone with her curiosity. She wondered how it had happened, for +this was not the shooting season, and Nickson had spoken of the man as +a stranger. She pondered over the problem until the maids, who were +too much upset to stay in their own quarters, came into the room with +lights. Then she stepped outside, and stood on the gravel listening to +the murmur of the brook, and looking at the old sundial which gleamed +white on the lawn. + +She had been there no more than a minute when the doctor--as every one +in those parts called him--came out with Nickson. Carefully closing +the door behind him--an extraordinary precaution with one who was +usually the most easy-going of men--he laid his hand on his +companion's shoulder. "Why did he do it, Nickson?" he asked in a low +voice, which was not free from tremor. "Can you tell me? Have you any +idea? He is dressed as a gentleman, and he has a gold watch and money +in his pockets." + +Their eyes were new to the darkness, and they did not see her, though +she was within earshot, and was listening with growing comprehension. +"It beats me to say, sir," was Nickson's answer--"that it does. If you +will believe me, sir, he was talking to me, just before he did it, as +reasonably as ever man in my life." + +"Then what the devil was it?" + +"That is what I think, sir," the carrier answered, nodding. + +"What?" + +"It was just the devil, sir." + +"Pshaw!" the doctor returned pettishly. "You are sure that he did it +himself?" + +"As sure as I can be of anything!" the carrier answered. "There was +not a human creature barring myself within half a mile of him when the +pistol went off--no, nor could have been." + +"Well," the doctor said, after a pause, and in a tone of vexation, "it +is no good bringing in the police unless he dies, and I don't think he +will. He has had a wonderful escape. I suppose you will not go +blabbing it about, Nickson?" + +"Heaven forbid!" the carrier replied. And after a few more words took +his leave. + +They went without discovering the listener, and she slipped into the +lighted hall and stood there shivering. The darkness outside +frightened her. It seemed to hold some secret of despair. Even in the +familiar room, in which every faded rug and dusty folio and framed +sampler had its word of everyday life for her, she looked fearfully at +the closed door which led to her father's room. She shrank from +turning her back upon it. She kept glancing askance at it. When her +father came to supper, she could not meet his eye; and he must have +noticed her strangeness had he not been absorbed in the riddle +presented to him, in thoughts of his patient's case, and perhaps in +some painful train of meditation induced by it. Such questions as his +daughter put he answered absently, and he ate in the same manner, +breaking off once to visit his charge. It was only when the +preparations for the night were complete, when the maids had retired, +and Pleasance was waiting, candlestick in hand, to say good night, +that he spoke out. + +"When is Woolley coming back?" he asked with a sigh. + +"The twenty-eighth, father," she answered. She betrayed no surprise at +the question, though it was one he could have answered for himself. +Woolley was his assistant, and was absent on a holiday tour. + +He was silent a moment. His tone was querulous, his eye wandered when +he spoke next. "I thought--I did think that we should have this little +bit to ourselves, Pleasance," he complained. And he seemed shrunken. +His fierce moustaches and his florid colour no longer hid his weakness +of moral fibre. He looked years older than when he had bent with +professional alertness over his patient. Something in that patient's +strange case had come home to him and unmanned him. "This little bit," +he continued, looking at her wistfully, "though it be the last, girl." + +"It will not be the last, father," she answered, meeting his look +without flinching. "We shall stay together whatever happens." + +"Ay, but where, child?" he cried with passion, throwing out his hands +as though he appealed to the dumb things around him--"where? Do you +think to transplant me? I am too old. I have lived here too long--I +and my fathers before me for six generations, though I am but a broken +country apothecary--for me to take root elsewhere! Why, girl"--his +voice rose higher--"there is not a stone of this old place, not a +tree, that I do not know, that I do not love, that I would not rather +own than a mile of streets!" + +To her surprise he broke down and turned away to hide the tears in his +eyes--tears which it pained her deeply to see. She knew how weak he +was, and what cause she had to blame him in this matter. But his tears +disarmed her, and she laid her hand on his and stroked it tenderly. +"How much do you owe Mr. Woolley, father?" she asked, when he had +recovered himself. + +"Three thousand pounds," he answered, almost sullenly. + +He had never told her before, and she was appalled. "It is a large +sum," she said, looking at the faded cushions on the window-seats, the +fly-blown prints, the well-worn furniture, which made the room +picturesque indeed, but shabby. "What can have become of it?" + +He made a reckless movement with his hand--he still had his back +towards her--as though he flung something from him. + +She sighed. She had not intended to reproach him, for economy was not +one of her own strong points; and she remembered bills owing as well +as bills paid, and many a good intention falsified. No, she could not +reproach him; and she chose to look at the matter from another side. +"It is a great deal of money," she repeated. "Would he really let all +that go if--just to marry me?" + +"To be sure!" her father said briskly. "That is," he continued, his +conscience pricking him, "it would be the same thing then. The place +would come to him anyway." + +"I see," she answered dryly. She was always pale--though hers was a +warm paleness--but now there were dark shadows under her eyes. They +were grey eyes, frank and resolute, now sad and scornful also. As she +sat upright in a high-backed chair, with the forgotten candle in her +hand and her gaze fixed on vacancy, she seemed to be gazing at the +Skeleton of the House. It was a skeleton which she and her father kept +for the most part locked up. Possibly it had never been brought so +completely to view before. + +"You will think of it?" the doctor presently ventured, stealing a +glance at her. + +"I may think till Doomsday," she answered wearily. "I shall never do +it." + +"Why not?" he persisted. "What have you against him?" + +"Only one thing." + +"What is it?" A gleam of hope sparkled in his eyes as he put the +question. A definite accusation he might combat and refute; even a +prejudice he might overcome. He prepared himself for the effort. "What +is it?" he repeated. + +"I do not love him, father," she said. "I think I hate him." + +"So do I!" the doctor sighed, sinking suddenly into himself again. +Alas for his preparations! + + + CHAPTER II + +It was characteristic of both Pleasance and her father--and +particularly characteristic of the latter--that when they met at +breakfast next morning they ignored the trouble which had seemed so +overwhelming at midnight. The doctor was constitutionally careless. It +was his nature to live from day to day, plucking the flowers beside +his path, without giving thought to the direction in which the path +was leading him. Pleasance was careless too, but with a difference. +She did not shut her eyes to the prospect; but she was young and +sanguine, and she was confident--of a morning at any rate--that a way +of escape would be found. So the doctor gazed through the window as +cheerfully as if his title-deeds had been his own; and if Pleasance +felt any misgivings, they related rather to the man lying in the next +room than to her own case. + +"How is he, father?" she asked. "Have you been kept awake much?" The +doctor had spent the night on a sofa in order that he might be near +the stranger. + +"He is not conscious," Doctor Partridge answered, "but I think that +the brain is recovering from the shock, and if all goes well he will +come to himself in a few hours." Pleasance shuddered. Her father, +without noticing it, went on: "But he ought not to be left alone, and +I must see my patients. It is useless to ask the servants to stay with +him--they are as nervous as hares. So you must sit with him for an +hour or two after breakfast, Pleasance. There is no help for it." + +"I?" she said. + +"Yes, to be sure; why not?" he answered lightly. "You are not afraid, +I suppose? There is nothing to be done, and Daniel can be within +call." + +She gulped down her fears and assented. She was a good girl, +though she could not keep the housekeeping bills--nor her own bills, +for the matter of that--within bounds. She was used to a lonely +life--Sheffield lay nine miles away, and there were few neighbours on +the moorland; and her nerves had been braced by many a long ramble +over the ling and bracken, where the hill sheep were her only +companions. + +Yet she might have answered otherwise had she known that, while the +words were on her father's lips, he questioned the wisdom of his +proposal. The man might on coming to his senses--the doctor did not +think he would--but he might repeat his attempt. And then---- + +Her answer, however, clenched the matter. When they rose from +breakfast the doctor said, "Now my dear, come, and I will put you in +charge." + +She followed him. It was a relief to her to discover--from the +threshold of the room--that the bed had been moved, so that the light +might not fall on the patient's face. In its new position a curtain +hid him. The doctor set a chair for her behind the curtain, and she +sat down outwardly calm, inwardly trembling. He went himself to the +bedside, and stood for a moment gazing with a critical eye. Then he +nodded to her and went softly out. + +He left the door ajar, and she heard him ride away. She heard too +Daniel's clumsy footsteps as he came back through the house, and the +clatter of the china as Mary washed it in the kitchen. But these +homely sounds served only to heighten her dislike for her task. She +was not afraid. She no longer trembled. But she shrank almost with +loathing from contact with her wretched companion. She conjured +up a dreadful picture of him--ghastly and disfigured--defiant and +hopeless--self-doomed. + +He lay perfectly still. The curtain too on which her eyes dwelt hung +motionless. And presently there began to grow upon her a feeling and a +fear that he was dead. She fought with it, and more than once shook it +off. But it returned. At length she could bear it no longer, and she +rose in the silence, her breath coming quickly. She took a step +towards the bed, paused, stepped on, and stood where her father had +stood. + +"Water!" + +Before the faintly whispered word had ceased to sound she was halfway +to the carafe. Where was the loathing now? She brought a little water +in the tumbler, and held it to his lips. "Do not speak again," she +said softly. "You are in good hands. The doctor will return in a few +minutes." + +She watched the weary dazed eyes close; then she went back to her +chair as though she had been a trained nurse and this the most +ordinary case in the world. But she was immensely puzzled. The picture +of the patient as he really was remained with her, causing her to +wonder exceedingly how such a man had come to attempt his life. The +face handsome despite its bandages and pallor, the eyes kindly even in +stupor, were features the very opposite of those which she had +ascribed to the dark creature of her fancy. + +When her father returned she flew to tell him what had happened. He +entered and saw the patient, and came out again. "Yes," he said in his +professional tone, "if he can be kept quiet for forty-eight hours he +will do. Fever is the only thing to be feared. But he must not be left +alone, and I have to go to Ashopton. Do you mind being with him?" + +"Not at all." + +This time the easy-going doctor did not hesitate. He muttered +something about Daniel being within call, and, snatching a hasty meal, +got to horse again. + +The case at Ashopton proved to be serious. It led to complications, +and even to a consultation with a London physician. And so it happened +that that day, and the next, and the next, Pleasance was left in +charge at home. The stranger, as his senses returned to him--and with +them Heaven knows what thoughts of the past and the future, what +thankfulness or remorse--grew accustomed to look to her hands for +tendance. A woman can scarcely perform such offices without pitying +the object of them; and Pleasance after the first morning came to wait +upon the stranger's call and minister to his wants without the +disturbing remembrance that his own act had brought him to this. Away +from the bedside she shuddered; beside it she forgot. In the mean time +the tall gentleman, who at first lay gazing upwards, taciturn and +still, came more and more to follow her with his eyes as she moved to +and fro in his service. None the less he remained grave and smileless, +speaking little even when he began to sit up, and saying nothing from +which the current of his thoughts could be judged. + +"Father," she said one morning, when they had gone on in this way for +several days, "do you think that he is quite sane?" + +"Sane? yes, as sane as any of us," was the uncompromising answer. +"Indeed," the doctor continued, looking at her sharply, "more sane +than you will be if you stop in the house so much, my girl. Leave him +to himself this morning and go out. Walk till lunch." + +She assented, and, the weather being soft and bright, she started in +excellent spirits. As she climbed she thought that the moorland had +never looked more beautiful, the distance more full of colour. But +this mood proved less lasting than the May weather. Reaching the brow +of the hill, she turned to look down on the Old Hall, and the sudden +reflection that it must pass to strangers fell on her like a cold +shadow. The tears rushed to her eyes, the walk was spoiled. She came +back early, wondering at her own depression. + +As she emerged from the shrubbery she saw with surprise two figures +standing on the lawn. One was her father. The other--could it be Edgar +Woolley come back before his time? No; this man was taller and paler, +with an air of distinction which the surgeon lacked. She drew near, +and her father, not seeing her, went into the house; while the other +sank into an arm-chair which had been set for him, and turned and saw +her. He rose with an effort, and raised his hat as she approached. It +was the tall gentleman. + +The fact annoyed the girl. It was one thing, she thought, to nurse him +when he lay helpless, another to associate with him. She made up her +mind to pass him with a frigid bow. But at the last moment the sight +of his weakness melted her, and she paused on the threshold to tell +him that she was glad to see him out. + +"Thank you," he answered. He spoke very quietly; but a slight flush +came and went on his brow. Probably he understood her hesitation. + +Within doors a fresh surprise awaited her. She found the table laid +for lunch, and laid for three. "Father!" she cried, in a tone of +vexation, "is he going to take his meals with us?" + +"Where else is he to take them?" the doctor answered gruffly, looking +up from the old bureau at which he was writing. "Would you send him to +the servants? If he is left alone in his room, he will go mad in +earnest." + +He spoke gruffly because he knew he was wrong. He knew no more of the +tall gentleman, or of his reason for doing what he had done, than he +knew of the man in the moon. That the stranger dressed and spoke like +a gentleman, that there was no mark on his linen, that he had a watch +and money in his pockets, and that he had tried to take his life--this +was the sum of the doctor's knowledge; and he could not feel that +these matters rendered the stranger a fit companion for his daughter. +But the doctor had not strength of mind to grapple with the +difficulty, and he let things slide. + +Pleasance would not discuss the question, but at the meal she sat +silent and cold. The doctor was uncomfortable, and talked jerkily. A +shadow--but it seemed more than temporary--darkened the stranger's +face. At the earliest possible moment Pleasance withdrew. + +When she came down she found that the tall gentleman had retired to +his room, and she saw nothing more of him that evening. Next day, the +post brought a letter from Woolley, postponing his return for a day or +two, and this sent the doctor on his rounds in high spirits. Pleasance +herself, moving upstairs about her domestic business, felt more +charitable. There might be something in what her father said about +leaving the poor man to himself. She would go down presently, and talk +to him, preserving a due distance. + +She had scarcely made up her mind to this when she chanced to look +through the window, and saw the stranger walking slowly across the +lawn. She watched him for a moment in idle curiosity, wondering in +what class he had moved, and what had brought him to this. Then she +noticed the direction he was taking, and on the instant a dreadful +fear flashed into the girl's mind, and made her heart stand still. +Below the lawn the rivulet formed a pool among the trees He was going +that way, glancing sombrely about him as he went. + +Pleasance did not stay to think--to add up the chances. She flung the +door open, and ran down the stairs. She reached the lawn. He was not +to be seen, but she knew which way he had gone, and she darted down +the path that led to the water. She turned the corner--she saw him! He +was standing gazing into the dark pool, his back towards her, in an +attitude of profound melancholy. She ran on unfaltering until she +reached him, and laid her hand on his arm. + +"What are you doing?" she cried, on the impulse of her great fear. + +He turned with a violent start, and found the girl's pale face and +glowing eyes close to his. He looked ghastly enough. There was a +bandage round his head, under the soft hat which the doctor had lent +him; and in the surprise of the moment the colour had fled from his +face. "Doing?" he muttered, trembling in her grasp. And his eyes +dilated--his nerves were still suffering from the shock of his wound, +and probably from some long strain which had preceded it. "Doing? Yes, +I understand you." + +He uttered the last words with a groan and a distortion of the +features. "Come away!" she cried, pulling at his arm. + +He let her lead him away. He was so weak that apparently he could not +have returned without her help. Near the upper end of the walk there +was a rustic seat, and here he signed to her to let him sit down, and +she did so. When he had somewhat recovered himself he said faintly, +"You are mistaken; I came here by chance." + +She shook her head, looking down at him solemnly. She was still +excited, taken out of herself by her terror. + +"It is true," he said feebly. "I swear it." + +"Swear that you will not think of it again," she responded. + +"I swear," he answered. + +She gazed at him awhile. Then she said, "Wait!" She went quickly back +to the house, and returned with some wine. "Perhaps I startled you +without cause," she said, smiling on him. He had not seen her smile +before. "I must make amends. Drink this." + +He obeyed. "Now," she said, "you must take my arm and go back to your +chair." + +He assented as a child might, and when he reached the chair he sank +into it with a sigh of relief. She stood beside him. The back of his +seat was towards the house, and before him an opening in the shrubbery +disclosed a shoulder of the ravine rolling upwards, the gorse on one +rugged spur in bloom, the sunshine everywhere warming the dull browns +and lurking purples into brilliance. + +"See!" she said, with an undertone of reproach in her voice, "is not +that beautiful? Is not that a thing one would regret?" + +"Yes, beautiful now," he replied, answering her thought rather than +her words. "But I have seen it under another aspect. Stay!" he +continued, seeing she was about to answer. "Do not judge me too +hastily. You cannot tell what reason I had--what----" + +"No!" she retorted, "I cannot. But I can guess what grief you would +have caused to others, what a burden you would have shifted to weaker +shoulders, what duties you would have avoided, what a pang you would +have inflicted on friends and relations! For shame!" She stopped for +lack of breath. + +"I have no relatives," he answered slowly, "and few friends. I have no +duties that others would not perform as well. My death would cause +sorrow to some, joy to as many. My burden would die with me." + +She glanced at him with compressed lips, divining that he was reciting +arguments he had used a score of times to his own conscience. But she +was puzzled how to answer him. "Take all that for granted," she said +at last. "Are there no reasons higher than these which should have +deterred you?" + +"It may be so," he replied. "Perhaps I think so now." + +She felt the admission a victory, and, seeing he had recovered his +composure, she left him and went into the house. But the incident had +one lasting effect. It broke down the wall between them. She felt that +she knew him well--better than many whom she had owned as +acquaintances for years. The confidence surprised in a moment of +emotion cannot be recalled. It seemed idle for her to affect to keep +him at arm's length when she knew, if she did not acknowledge, that he +had confessed his sin, and been forgiven. + +So when she saw him walking feebly from the house next day she went +with him, and showed him where he could rest and where obtain a view +without climbing. Afterwards she fell naturally into the habit of +going with him; and little by little, as she saw more of him, she +owned the spell of a new perplexity. Who was he? He talked of things +in a tone novel to her. He seemed to have thought deeply and read +much. He spoke of visits to this country, to that country. One day her +father found him reading their day-old _Times_, and took it from him. +"You must not do that yet," the doctor said. "My daughter can read to +you, if you like, but not for long." + +She asked what she should read. He chose a review of a historical +work, and gently rejected the passing topics--even a speech by Lord +Hartington. This gave her an idea, and she privately searched the back +numbers of the paper, but could not find that any one who resembled +him was missing. Yet he had been with them almost three weeks; he had +received no letters, he had sent none. How could such a man pass from +his circle and cause no inquiry? Here at the Old Hall they knew no +more of him than on his coming. He had not offered to disclose his +name, and his host, who had fallen under his spell, had not plucked up +courage to ask for it, or for an explanation--had come, indeed, to no +understanding with him at all. + +It is possible that of himself the doctor might have gone on +unsuspicious to the last. But one afternoon, as he made up his books +at the old bureau in the hall--the door being open and a flood of +sunshine pouring through it--he was aware on a sudden of a shadow cast +across the boards. He looked up. A middle-sized fair man, with a +goatee beard and a fresh complexion, was setting down a bag on the +floor and beginning to take off his gloves. "Why, Woolley!" exclaimed +the doctor, gazing at him feebly, "is it you? We did not expect you +until Monday." + +"No, but you see I have come to-day," the traveller answered. It +was a peculiarity of this young man--he was not very young, say +thirty-eight--that when he was not well pleased he smiled. He smiled +now. + +The doctor rubbed his hands to hide a little embarrassment. "Yes, I +see you have come," he said. "But how? Did you walk from Sheffield?" + +"I came with Nickson." + +The doctor stopped rubbing, then went on faster, as his thoughts flew +from Nickson to the tall gentleman, and for some mysterious reason +from the tall gentleman to Pleasance. He had never consciously traced +this connection before, but something in his assistant's face helped +him to it now. + +"He tells me," Woolley continued, making a neat ball of his gloves and +smiling at the floor, "that you had a strange case here, a case he was +mixed up with, and that you made a cure of it." + +"Yes." + +"The fellow has cleared out, I suppose?" + +"Well, no," the doctor stammered, feeling warm. How odd it was that he +had never seen into what a pit of imprudence he was sinking! He had +been harbouring a lunatic, or one who had acted as a lunatic--a +criminal certainly; in no light a person fit to associate with his +daughter. "No, he is still here," he stammered. "I think--I suppose he +will be leaving in a day or two!" + +"Here still, is he?" Woolley said with a sneer. "A queer sort of +parlour-boarder, sir. May I ask where he is at present?" + +"I think he is out of doors somewhere." + +"Alone?" + +When the doctor thought over the scene afterwards he whistled when his +memory brought him to that "Alone." He knew then that the fat was in +the fire. He saw that Woolley had pumped the carrier--who had been to +the house several times since the affair--and drawn his own +conclusions. "I rather think," he ventured, "I am not sure, but I +think----" + +"I do not think," the other said dryly, "I see." + +He pointed through the open door, and alas! the tall gentleman and +Pleasance were visible approaching the house. They had that moment +emerged from the shrubbery, and were crossing the lawn. The girl was +carrying a basket full of marsh marigolds, the man had a great bush of +hawthorn on the end of his stick. They were both looking at the front +of the house without a thought that other eyes were upon them. +Pleasance's face, on which the light fell strongly, was far from gay, +her smile but a sad one; yet there was a tenderness in the one and the +other which was not calculated to reassure a jealous onlooker. + +"So!" Woolley muttered, his fingers closing like a vise on the +doctor's arm. "Let me deal with this." + + + CHAPTER III + +The walk which roused so much indignation in Edgar Woolley's breast +had been one of more than common interest; as perhaps something in the +faces of the returning couple assured him. There is a point in the +journey towards intimacy at which one or other of the converging pair +turns the conversation inwards, disclosing his or her hopes, fears, +ambitions. Pleasance in the purest innocence had reached this stage +to-day; arriving at it by the road of that silence which is tolerable +only when some progress has been made towards friendship, and which +even then invites attack. The tall gentleman, having lopped and picked +at her bidding, gathered up the last scraps of the hawthorn which he +had ruthlessly broken from the tree. He turned to find his companion +gazing into distance with a shadow on her face. "Your thoughts are not +pleasant ones, I fear," he said, half lightly, half seriously. "A +penny were too much for them." + +"I was thinking of Mr. Woolley," she answered simply. + +"Indeed!" he said, surprised. He was more surprised when she poured +out of a full heart the story of her father's debt to his assistant, +and of the mortgage on the old house which the Partridges had owned +for generations, and which was to her father as the apple of his eye. +She let fall no word of Woolley's position in regard to herself. But +the voice has subtle inflections, and men's apprehensions are quick +where they are interested--and he was interested here. Her story +omitted little which he could not conjecture. + +"I am sorry to hear this," he said, after a pause. "But money +troubles--after all, money troubles are not the worst troubles." He +raised his hat and walked for a moment bareheaded. + +"But this is not merely a money trouble," she answered warmly. She was +wrapped up in her own distresses, and did not perceive at the moment +that he had reverted to his. "We shall lose _that_." + +They had reached the crown of the hill, and as she spoke she pointed +to the Old Hall lying below them, its four gables, its stone front, +its mullioned windows warmed into beauty by lichens and sunlight. "We +shall lose that!" she repeated, pointing to it. + +"Yes," the stranger said, with a quick glance at her. "I understand. +And I do not wonder that it grieves you. It has always been your home, +I suppose?" She nodded. "And your father thinks it must go?" he +continued, after a pause given to deep thought, as it seemed. + +"He thinks so." + +"Something should be done!" he replied, in a tone of decision. "I +conclude from what you say that Mr. Woolley is pressing for his +money?" + +She nodded again. Her eyes were full of tears, which the sight of the +house had brought to them, and she could not trust herself to speak. +His sympathy seemed natural to her, so that she saw nothing at this +minute strange in his position. She forgot that only a few days or +weeks earlier he had been in the blackness of despair himself. He +talked now as if he could help others! + +They were close to the house, and he had referred to the mouldering +shield over the doorway, and she was telling its story when she +checked herself and stood still. Edgar Woolley had emerged, and was +standing before them with a flush of triumph on his check. The tall +gentleman could scarcely be in doubt who he was; nor could Woolley +well take Pleasance's involuntary cry for a sign of gladness--though +he strove to force the smile which was habitual to him. + +"Miss Pleasance," he said, "will you step inside? Your father is +asking for you." + +"Where is he?" she asked. He had used no form of greeting, neither did +she. Something--perhaps not the same thing in each--was at work, +kindling the one against the other. + +"He is in the hall," he answered, chafing at her delay. + +She turned to her companion. "I will take your flowers in, if you +please," she said. She held out her arms as she spoke, and he laid the +pile in them, Woolley looking on the while. The assistant's gaze was +bent on her, and he did not see what she saw--that some strong emotion +was distorting the tall gentleman's face. He turned a livid white, his +nostrils twitched, and a little pulse in his cheek beat wildly. + +She changed her mind, seeing that. "No, do you take them in," she +said. "Will you take them in, please?" she repeated peremptorily; and +she pushed the hawthorn into his arms, and held out her basket. The +stranger took the things with reluctance, but without demur, and went +into the house. + +"Now," she said, turning rapidly upon Woolley, "what do you want?" + +"My answer?" he retorted, with answering curtness. + +A second before he had not intended to say that. He had meant to carry +the war into the stranger's country. But his temper mastered him for a +second, and he found himself staking all, when he had planned an +affair of outposts. "Wait, Miss Pleasance," he added desperately, +seeing in a moment what he had done, and that he had committed +himself. "I beg you not to give it me without thought--without thought +of others, of me, of your father, as well as of yourself! Do not +judge me hastily! Do not judge me," he continued passionately, for her +face was icy, "by myself as I am now, Pleasance, wild with love of +you, but----" + +"By what then, Mr. Woolley?" she asked, her lip curling. "By what am I +to judge you if not by yourself?" + +"By----" + +"Well?" she said mercilessly. He had paused. He could not find words. +In truth, he had made a mistake. If he had ever had a chance of +winning her his chance was gone now; and, recognising this, he let his +fury grow to such a pitch that he could not wait for the answer he had +requested. He was mad with love of her, with rage at his own mistake, +with shame at being so outgeneralled. "I will tell you, Miss +Partridge!" he cried, his eyes sparkling with passion; "Judge me by +the future! That fellow who was with you, do you know who he is? Do +you know that I can put him in gaol any day?--ay, in goal!" + +"What has he done?" she asked. "Tell me." + +It was a pity he could not say, "He is a thief--a forger--a swindler!" +The charge he could bring against the stranger was heavy enough; and +yet he found it difficult to word it so that it should seem heavy. +"You thought he was shot?" he said at last. "Bah! he shot himself." + +"I know it," she answered, without the movement of a muscle. + +He stared at her. How was it? he wondered. Before his departure he had +been the Old Hall's master. He had wound the poor doctor round his +finger, and Pleasance had been civil to him at least. Now all this was +altered. And why? "Ah, well! He shall go to gaol, d----n him!" he +said, putting his conclusion into words. "He shall go to gaol! and if +you have a fancy for him you must go there to see him!" + +She lost her self-possession under the insult, and her face turned +scarlet. "You coward!" she said, with scorn. "You would not dare to +say to his face what you have said behind his back. Let me pass!" + +She swept into the house and left him standing in the sunlight. As she +hurried through the hall, which to her dazzled eyes seemed dusky, she +caught a glimpse of the tall gentleman leaning over the bureau with +his back to her. Had he heard? The door was open, and so was one +window. She could not be sure, but the suspicion was enough. Her face +was on fire as she ran up the stairs. How she hated, oh, how she hated +that wretch out there! She thought that she had never known before +what it was to hate. + +For there was something in what he had said. There was the sting. How +had she come to be so intimate with one who had done what the tall +gentleman had done? She tried to trace the stages, but she could not. +Then she tried to think of him with some of the horror, some of the +distaste which she had felt at the time of his arrival, when he lay +ghastly and blood-stained behind the closed door. But she could not. +The face we have known a year can never put on for us the look it wore +when we saw it first. The hand of time does not move backward. +Pleasance found this was so, and in the solitude of her own room hid +her face and trembled. Could anything but evil come of such a--a +friendship? + +Meanwhile Woolley's state of mind was even less enviable. Hitherto +his way in the world had been made by the exercise of tact and +self-control; and he valued himself upon the possession of those +qualities. He could not understand why they had failed him at this +pinch, or why the advantage he had so far enjoyed had deserted him +now. Yet the secret was not far to seek. He was jealous; and when +jealousy attacks him, the man who lives by playing on the passions of +others falls to the common level. Jealousy undermines his judgment as +certainly as passion deprives the fencer of his skill. + +Though Woolley did not allow that this was the cause of his defeat, he +knew that he could not command himself at present, and before seeking +the doctor he took a turn to collect his thoughts and arrange his +plans. When he returned to the house he found the hall empty. He +passed through it and down a short passage to a small room at the +back, which Dr. Partridge used--especially in times of trouble, when +bills poured in and he mediated a fresh loan--as a kind of sanctum. +Woolley rapped at the door. + +To his surprise no "Come in!" answered his knock, but some one rising +hastily from his chair came to the door and opened it to the extent of +a few inches. It was the doctor. He squeezed himself through. His face +was agitated--but then the passage was ill lit, even on a summer +afternoon--his manner nervous. "You want to see me, my dear fellow?" +he said, holding the door close behind him and speaking effusively. +"Do you mind coming back in a quarter of an hour or so? I am--I shall +be disengaged then." + +"I would prefer," Woolley said doggedly, "to see you now." + +"Wait ten minutes, and you shall," the doctor replied, taking him by +the button with his disengaged hand, as though he would bespeak his +confidence. "At this moment, my dear fellow--excuse me!" + +There was an odd tone in the doctor's voice--a tone half wheedling, +half hostile. But Woolley concluded that Pleasance was with +him--making a complaint in all probability; and this satisfied him. He +thought that he could still depend on the doctor. With a sulky nod he +gave way and returned to the lawn, and there he paced up and down, +prodding the daisies with his stick. Things had gone badly with him. +So much the worse for some one. + +When he returned he found the doctor alone in the dingy little room, +into which one plumped down two steps, so that it was very like a +well. "Come in, come in," the elder man said fussily. "What is it, +Woolley? What can I do for you?" As he spoke his hands were busy with +the papers on the table. Moreover, after one swift glance, which he +shot at his assistant's face on his entrance, he avoided looking at +him. "What is it?" + +"First," Woolley rejoined with acidity, "I should like to know whether +you propose to keep that fellow in your house as a companion for your +daughter?" + +"The tall gentleman?" + +"Precisely." + +"He is gone!" was the unexpected answer. "He is gone already. If you +doubt me, my dear fellow," the doctor added hastily, "ask the +servants--ask Daniel." + +"Gone, is he?" Woolley said gloomily, considering the statement. + +"Yes, he quite saw the propriety of it," the doctor continued. "He +gave me no trouble." + +"And paid you no fees, I suppose?" + +"Well, no, he did not." + +"Then now to my second question, sir," Woolley went on, tapping with +his fingers on the table. But try as he might, he could not quite rise +to the old level of superiority, he could not drive the flush from his +cheek or still his pulse. "What is your daughter's answer? From +something which has passed between us I conclude it to be unfavourable +to me." + +"Indeed?" the doctor said, looking at him blankly. + +"But, favourable or unfavourable," Woolley continued, "I must have it +betimes. You bade me go away and give her a month to think over it. I +have done so, and I am back. Now I ask, What is her answer?" + +"Well," the doctor said, rubbing his hands in great perplexity, "I +have not--I am not sure that I am prepared to say. You must give me a +little more time--indeed you must. Let us say until the day after +to-morrow. I will sound her and give you a decisive answer then--after +breakfast, and here if you like." + +The suitor restrained himself. He longed to reject the proposal. But +he did love her in his way, and at the sound of her father's uncertain +utterance hope began to tell her flattering tale. "Very well!" he +said. "But you understand, I hope," he continued, his manner curiously +made up of shame and defiance, "the alternative, sir? If I am not to +be allied to you, it will no longer suit me to have my money tied up +here, and I must have it--the sooner the better." + +"Well, well," the poor doctor said testily, "we will talk about that, +Woolley, when the time comes." + +There seemed to be nothing more to say. Yet Woolley lingered by the +table, fingering the things on it without looking up. Perhaps an +impulse to withdraw his threat and end the interview more kindly was +working in him. If so, however, he crushed it down, and presently he +took himself off. When his step ceased to sound in the passage the +doctor drew a sigh of relief. + +It has been said that travellers along the moorland road which passes +near the Old Hall--a road once frequented, but now little trodden, +save by tramps--that travellers along it see nothing of the house. The +house lies below the surface. In like manner a visitor arriving at the +Old Hall itself during the next thirty-six hours would have observed +nothing strange, though there was so much below the surface. The +assistant contrived to be abroad at his work during the greater part +of the intervening day. He judged that love-making would help him +little now. The doctor rubbed his hands and talked fast to preserve +appearances; and Pleasance as well as her suitor seemed to regret +their joint outbreak. She was civil to him, if somewhat cold. So that +when he knocked at the door of the little room--after a sleepless +night in which he had pondered long how he should act at the coming +interview--he had some hopes. He was feeling almost amiable. + +The doctor was seated behind his table, Pleasance on a chair in the +one small window recess. With three people in it the room looked more +like a well than ever. With three people? Nay, with four. Woolley shut +the door behind him very softly and set his teeth. For behind the +doctor stood the tall gentleman. + +The assistant smiled viciously. He was not prepared for this, but his +nerves were strung to-day. "A trick?" he said, looking from one to +another. "Very well. I know what to do. I can guess what my answer is +to be, doctor, and need scarcely stay to hear it. Shall I go?" + +"No! no!" the doctor replied, hurriedly. He was distressed and +perturbed, perhaps by the menace which underlay the other's words. As +for the tall gentleman, he gazed gravely over his beard, while +Pleasance looked through the window, her face hot. "No, no, I have +something to say which affects you. And this gentleman here----" + +"Has he anything to say?" the assistant retorted, eyeing his +antagonist. "I am ready to hear it--before I take out a warrant +against him for attempting to commit suicide. It is punishable with a +considerable imprisonment, my friend!" + +"I am no friend of yours," was the stranger's reply, given very +gravely. "You do not know me, Edgar Woolley." + +The assistant started. It was the first time he had heard the tall +gentleman's voice, and for a breathing space, while the looked two on +one another, he seemed to be racking his memory. But he got no result, +and he retorted with a bitter laugh, "No, I do not know you. Nor you +me--yet!" + +"Yes, I do," was the unexpected answer. "Too well!" + +"Bah!" Woolley exclaimed, though it was evident that he was ill at +ease. "Let us have an end of these heroics! If you have anything to +say, say it." + +"I will," the tall gentleman answered. He was still quiet, but there +was a glitter in his eyes. "I have already outlined my story, now I +must ask Dr. Partridge to hear it more at length. Many years ago there +was a young man, almost a boy, employed in the offices of a great firm +in Liverpool--a poor boy, very poor, but of a good and an old family." + +Woolley's smile of derision became fixed, so to speak. But he did not +interrupt, and the other after a pause went on. "This lad made the +acquaintance of a medical student a little older than himself, and was +led by him--I think he was weak and sensitive and easily led--into +gambling. He lost more than he could pay. His mother was a widow, +almost without means. To meet the debt, small as it was, would have +ruined her." + +The stranger paused again, overcome, it seemed, by painful memories. +There was a flush on Woolley's brow. The girl sitting in the window, +her hands clasped on her knees, turned so as to see more of the room. +"Now listen," the speaker continued, "to what happened. One day this +clerk's friend, to whom the greater part of the money was due, came to +the office at the luncheon hour and pressed him to pay. The other +clerks were out. The two were alone together, and while they were +alone there came in a client of the firm to pay some money. The lad +took the money and gave a receipt. He had power to do so. The man left +again, after telling them that he was starting to South America that +evening. When he was gone"--here his voice sank a little--"the friend +made a suggestion. I think you know what it was." + +No one spoke. + +"He suggested to the clerk to take this money and pay his debts with +it--to steal it. The boy resisted for a time, but in the end, still +telling himself he did not intend to steal it, he put it away in his +desk and locked it up, and gave in no account of it. After that the +issue was certain. A day came when, the other still pressing him and +tempting him, he took the money and used it, and became a thief." + +The silence in the little room was deep indeed. On Woolley a spell had +fallen. He would have interrupted the man, but he could not. + +"Immediately after this," the speaker continued, "those two parted. +Within a week--for the man had not gone to South America--the theft +was discovered. The boy's employers were merciful--God reward them! +They declined to prosecute; nay, they kept the matter secret, or as +secret as it could be kept, and even found him work in their foreign +office. He did not forget. He served them faithfully, and in the +course of years he repaid the money with interest. Then--God's ways +are not our ways--strange news reached this clerk. Three distant +kinsmen whom he had never seen had died within three months, and +the last of them had left him a large property. The name and the +honour"--for the first time the tall gentleman's voice faltered--"of a +great family had fallen upon his shoulders to wear and to uphold! And +he was a thief!" + +"_You_," he went on--and from this point he directly addressed the man +who gazed at him from beyond the table--"_you_ cannot enter into his +feelings, nor understand them! It were folly to tell _you_ that the +remembrance that he had stained the honour and disgraced the name of +his family poisoned his whole life. He tried--God knows he did--to +make amends by a life of integrity, and while his mother lived he led +that life. But he found no comfort in it. She died, and he lived on +alone in the house of his family, and it may be"--again his voice +shook--"that he brooded overmuch on this matter, and came to take too +morbid a view of it, to let it stand always between him and the sun." +He stopped, and looked uncertainly about him. + +"Yes, yes!" the doctor said. Pleasance had turned to the window, and +was weeping softly. "He did, indeed!" + +"Be that as it may, he met one day the manager of the firm he had +robbed, and he read in the man's eyes that he remembered. And if he, +why not others? He went out then, and he formed a resolution. You can +guess what that was. It was a wild, mad, perhaps a wicked resolution. +But such as it was--an ancestor in sterner times, writing in a book +which this man possessed, had said, 'Blood washes out shame!'--such as +it was he made it, and Heaven used it, and frustrated it in its own +time. The lad, now a man, following blind chance, as he thought, was +brought within a mile of this house--this one lonely house, of all +others in England, in which you live. But it was not chance which led +him, but Heaven's own guiding, to the end that his, Valentine Walton's +life, might be spared, and that you might be punished." + +Woolley struggled to reply. But the thought which the other's words +expressed was in his mind also, and held him dumb. How had Walton been +led to this house of all houses? Why had this forgotten sin risen up +now? He stood awhile speechless, glaring at Walton; aware, bitterly +aware, of what the listeners were thinking, and yet unable to say a +word in his defence. Then with an effort he became himself again. + +"That is your version, is it?" he said, with a jeering laugh which +failed to hide the effect the story had produced upon him. "You say +you are a thief? It is not worth my while to contradict you. And now, +if you please, we will descend from play-acting to business. You have +been very kind in arranging this little scene, Dr. Partridge, and I am +greatly obliged to you. I need only say that I shall take care to +repay you to the last penny." + +"First," the doctor said mildly, yet with dignity, "I should repay you +what I owe you--if you really want your money now, that is." + +"Want it? Of course I do!" was the fierce rejoinder. The man's nature +was recovering from the shock, and in the rebound passion was getting +the upper hand. + +"Very well," said the doctor firmly. "Then here it is." He pushed +aside a paper, and disclosed a small packet of notes and a pile of +gold and silver. "You will find the amount on that piece of paper, and +it includes your salary for the next quarter in lieu of notice. When +you have seen that it is correct I shall be glad to have your receipt, +and we will close our connection." + +The trapped man had one wish--to see them dead before him. But wishes +go for little, and in his rage and chagrin he clung to a shred of +pride. He would not own that he had been outgeneralled. He sat down +and wrote the quittance. The first pen--it was a quill--would not +write. He jabbed it violently on the table, and flung it with an oath +into the fireplace. But the next served him. + +"You have lent this money, I suppose," he said, looking at Walton as +he rose. "More fool you! You will never be repaid." + +He did not turn to Pleasance or look at her. He had come into the room +hoping to win her in spite of all. He went out--a stranger. Not even +their eyes had met. He had lost her, and revenge, and everything, save +his money. + + + CHAPTER IV + +Within doors a bedroom, littered and dismantled, showed a pile of +luggage stacked in the middle of the floor. Without was a grey cloudy +sky, such as we sometimes have in June, and a nipping east wind that +blew roughly; a wind almost visible to the man moodily gnawing his +nails at the window. He found no comfort within or without, in the +past or the future. Behind him he had a retrospect of humiliation, of +vain hopes and ambitions; before him no prospect but that dreary one +of starting afresh in a new place among new people, unfriended, save +by three thousand and odd pounds. It had come to this. + +"D----n him!" he whispered between his clenched teeth. It was no +formal expletive. He meant it--every letter of it. + +By and by he turned from the window, and his eyes fell on a small +article lying on the dressing-table. It was almost the only thing, +save a stout walking-stick, which he had not packed up. It was a +pistol. He had hit on it the day before in a dark nook behind the +medicine bottles in the surgery; and finding it in good condition, +with one barrel of the two undischarged, he had had no difficulty in +conjecturing whose it was and how it came there. No doubt it was +Walton's, the pistol with which he had shot himself--as indeed it was. +Nickson had brought it to the doctor, and the latter with a natural +distaste had thrust it into the first out-of-the-way place which lay +ready to his hand. + +This piece of evidence Woolley presently put in his pocket, and taking +his stick left the room; leaving it, as he knew, for good, and not +without a last bitter glance round the place where he had slept, and +schemed, and hoped for two years. He went down the stairs, and through +the house to the back door, seeing no one except Daniel, who was +rubbing down the mare in the yard. To the surgeon's fancy the house, +as he passed through it, seemed abnormally still; as if in the hush +and silence which fall upon a house in the afternoon it awaited +something--as if it knew that something strange was in the air, and +all the stones were saying "Hist!" + +Shaking off this feeling, the surgeon took a back path, which, passing +through the shrubbery, came into the main drive near the white gate. +From that point the track mounted between the bracken-covered flanks +of the ravine until it emerged on the crown of the moor. In one place +both path and glen turned at a sharp angle, and Woolley at this corner +happened to lift his eyes. He stopped short with an exclamation. +Before him, strolling slowly along in the same direction as himself, +with his hands behind him and his eyes on the path, was the tall +gentleman--Walton. + +"Ah!" Woolley whispered to himself, hating the other the more for +falling in his way now, "the devil take you for a mooning lunatic! I +would like to give you in charge here, and this minute, and swear you +were going to try it again!" + +He laughed grimly at this, his first thought; a natural thought +enough, since his intention at starting had been to swear an +information against Walton, and get him locked up if possible; at any +rate, to cause him as much vexation as he could. But that first +natural thought led to another which drove the blood from his cheek +and kindled an unholy fire in his eyes. That revenge was a poor one. +But was there not another within his grasp? What if Walton were found +lying on the path shot and dead, his own pistol beside him? + +Ah! what then? What would people say? Would they not say--would not +Nickson be ready to swear that the madman had done it again, and with +more thoroughness? Woolley's hand closed convulsively on the butt of +the weapon in his pocket. One barrel of it was still loaded. No one +had seen him take it. No one knew that he knew of its existence. Would +not even the doctor conclude that Walton had repossessed himself of +it, and in some temporary return of his moody aberration had used +it--this time with fatal effect? + +The perspiration stood on the tempted man's brow. Though the wind was +blowing keenly, and a wrack of white clouds was sweeping over his +head, the glen seemed to grow close and confined, roofed in by a +leaden sky. "It is a devil's thought!" he muttered, his eyes on the +figure before him, "a devil's thought!" At that moment there could be +no question with him of the existence of a devil. He felt him at his +elbow tempting him, promising revenge and impunity. + +"No! Not that!" He rather gasped the words than said them, yet gasped +them aloud, the more thoroughly to convince himself that he did reject +the idea. "Not that!" + +No, not that. Yet he began to walk on at a pace which must bring him +up with the other. His brain too dwelt on the ease and safety with +which he might carry out the scheme. He remembered that before he +turned the corner he had looked back and seen no one. Therefore for +some minutes he was secure from interruption from behind. All round +the ravine he could command the sky-line. There was one no visible. He +and Walton were alone. And he was overtaking Walton. + +The latter heard him walking behind him, and turned and stopped. He +showed no surprise on discovering who his follower was, but spoke as +if he had eyes in his back, and had watched him drawing gradually +nearer. "I have been waiting for you, Woolley," he said. "I thought I +should meet you." + +"Did you?" Woolley said softly, eying him in a curious fashion, and +himself very pale. + +"Yes, I wanted to say this to you." There the tall gentleman paused +and looked down, prodding the turf with his stick. He seemed to find a +difficulty in going on. "It is this," he continued at last. "I have +done you a mischief here, acting honestly, and doing only what seemed +to me to be right. But I have harmed you--that is the fact--and I am +anxious to know that you will not leave here a hardened man--a worse +man than I found you." + +"Thank you," the other said. His lips were dry, and he moistened them +with his tongue. But he did not take his eyes from Walton's face. + +"If you will let me know," the tall gentleman continued haltingly--he +was still intent upon the ground--"what your plans are, I will see if +I can further them. Until lately I thought you had spoiled my life, +and I bore you malice for it. I would have done you what harm I could. +Now----" + +"Yes?" + +"I think--I trust it may not be so. I have dwelt too much on that old +affair. I hope to begin a new life now." + +"With her?" + +The tall gentleman looked up, as if the other had struck him. There +was menace in the tone, and menace more dreadful in the face and +gleaming eyes which he found confronting him. "You fool!" Woolley +hissed--passion in the calmness of his voice--and he took a step +nearer to the other. "You fool, to come and tell me this!--to come and +taunt me! _You_ help me! _You_ pardon me! _You_ will not leave me +worse than you found me! Ay, but you will!" His voice rose. A wicked +smile nickered on his lips. His eyes still dwelling on the other's +face, he drew the pistol slowly from his pocket and levelled it at +Walton's head. "You will, for I--am going--to kill you." + +Walton heard the click of the hammer as it rose. For a second, during +which his tongue refused obedience, he tasted of the bitterness of the +cup which he had held to his own lips. It flashed across him, as his +heart gave a bound and stood still, that this was his punishment. Then +he recovered himself. + +"Not before that child!" he said coolly. He forced his eyes to quit +the dark muzzle which threatened him and to glance aside. + +There was no one there, but Woolley turned to look, and in an instant +Walton sprang upon him, and, knocking up the pistol with his stick, +closed with him. The one loaded barrel exploded in the air, and the +men went writhing and stumbling to and fro, Woolley striking savagely +at the other's face with the muzzle of the pistol. The taller man +contented himself with parrying these attacks, while he clutched +Woolley's left wrist with his disengaged hand. + +Presently they were down in a heap together. Then they rose and drew +apart, breathless and dishevelled, but there remained unnoticed on the +ground between them a tiny white object, a small packet about the size +of a letter. It was very light, for in the twinkling of an eye the +wind turned it over and over, and carried it three or four paces away. + +"You villain!" Walton gasped, trembling with excitement. His nerves +were shaken as much by the narrowness of his escape as by the +struggle. "You would have murdered me!" + +"I would!" the other said, with vengeful emphasis, and the two men +stood a moment glaring at one another. Meanwhile the wind, toying with +the white packet, rolled it slowly along the path; then, getting under +it at a place where a break in the ridge produced an eddy, it began to +hoist it merrily up the slope. At this point Walton's eye, straying +for a second from his opponent, alighted on it. + +Just then Woolley spoke. "You have had a lucky escape!" he said, with +a reckless gesture, half menace, half farewell. "Good-bye! Don't come +across my path again, or you will fail to come off so easily. And +don't--don't, you fool!" he added, returning in a fresh fit of anger +when he had already turned his back, "pat a man on the head when you +have got him down, or he will----" + +He stopped short, his hand at his breast pocket. For a moment, while +his face underwent a marvellous change, he searched frantically in the +pocket, in other pockets. "My notes!" he panted. "They were here! +Where are they?" Then a dreadful expression of rage and suspicion +distorted his features, and he advanced on Walton, his hands +outstretched. "What have you done with them?" he cried, scarcely able +to articulate. "Where are they?" + +"There!" the other answered sternly. He pointed to a little space of +clear turf halfway up the slope. On this the white packet could be +seen fluttering gently over and over. "There! But if you are not +pretty quick, you villain, you will pay a heavy price for this +business!" + +With an oath Woolley turned and started up the hill, the tall man +watching his exertions with grim satisfaction. The pursuer speedily +overtook the notes, but to gain possession of them was a different +matter. Three times he stooped to clutch them, and three times a +mischievous gust swept them away. Then he tripped and fell, and his +hat tumbled off, and his oaths flew freely on the breeze. + +Altogether it was not a dignified retreat, but it was a very +characteristic one. The last time Walton got a glimpse of him, he was +on the crown of the hill. He was still running, bent double with his +face to the ground, and his hand outstretched. Walton never saw him +again. + +The latter, getting back to the house unnoticed, said nothing for the +time of what had happened. But at night before he went to bed he told +the doctor. "He ought to go to prison!" the latter said sternly. He +was shocked beyond measure. + +"So ought I," said Walton, "if it is to come to prisons." + +"Pish!" + +A little word, but it cheered the tall gentleman, who, notwithstanding +his escape, stood in need of cheering. He had not seen Pleasance since +she had escaped from the room after hearing his explanation. She might +have taken his story in many different ways, and he was anxious to +know in which way she had taken it. But all day she had not shown +herself. Even at dinner the doctor apologised for her absence. "She is +not very well," he said. "She was a little upset this morning." And of +course the tall gentleman accepted the excuse with a heavy heart, and +presaged the worst. + +But dressing next morning he caught sight of Pleasance on the lawn. +She was walking with her father--talking to him earnestly, as Walton +could see. Apparently she was urging him to some course of action, and +the doctor, with his hands under his coattails, was assenting with a +poor grace. + +When Walton descended, however, they were already seated at breakfast, +and nothing was said during the meal either of this prelude or of what +was in their minds. But presently, when the doctor rose, he had +something to say. It was something which it went against the grain to +say; for he walked to the door--they were breakfasting in the hall, +and it stood open--and looked out as if he had more mind to fly than +speak. But he returned suddenly, and sat down with a bump. + +"Mr. Walton," he said, his florid face more florid than usual, "I +think there is something I ought to tell you. I do not think that I +can repay you the money you have advanced. And the place is not worth +it. What am I to do?" + +"Do?" the other said, looking up. "Take another cup of tea, as I am +doing, and think no more about it." + +"That is impossible," Pleasance cried impulsively. She turned red the +next instant, under the tall gentleman's eyes. She had not meant to +interfere. + +"Indeed!" he said, rising from his chair. "Then please listen to me. +There came to a certain house a man who had been a thief." + +"No!" she said firmly. + +"A man hopeless and despairing." + +"No." + +"Alas! yes," he answered, shaking his head soberly. "These are facts." + +"No, no, no!" she cried. There were tears in her eyes. "I do not want +to hear. I care nothing for facts!" + +"You will not hear me?" + +"No!" + +Something in her face, her voice, the pose of her figure told him the +truth. "If you will not listen to me," he said, leaning with both +hands on the table and speaking in a voice scarcely audible to the +doctor, "I will not say what I was going to propose. If I must be +repaid, I must. But you must repay me, Pleasance. Will you?" + +The doctor did not wait to hear the answer. He found the open door +very convenient. He got away and to horse with a lighter heart than he +had carried under his waistcoat for months. He felt no great doubt +about the answer; and indeed all that June morning, which was by good +luck as fine as the preceding one had been gloomy, while he rode from +house to house with an unprofessional smile on his lips and in his +eyes, the two left at home walked up and down the lawn in the +sunshine, planning the life which lay before them, and of which every +day was to be as cloudless as this day. A hundred times they passed +and repassed the old sundial, but it was nothing to them. Lovers count +only the hours when the sun does _not_ shine. + + + + + + THE COLONEL'S BOY + + + + + THE COLONEL'S BOY + + +A stranger, coming upon the Colonel as he sat in the morning-room of +the club and read his newspaper with an angelic smile, would have +sought for another copy of the paper and searched its columns with +pleasant anticipations. But I knew better. I knew that the Colonel, +though he had put on his glasses and was pretending to cull the news, +was only doing what I believe he did after lunch and after dinner, and +after he got into bed, and at every one of those periods when the old +campaigner, with a care for his digestion and his conscience, selects +some soothing matter for meditation. He was thinking of his boy; and I +went up to him and smacked him on the shoulder. "Well, Colonel," I +said, "how is Jim?" + +"Hallo! Why, it's Jolly Joe Bratton!" he replied, dropping his +glasses, and gripping my hand tightly--for we did not ride and tie at +Inkerman for nothing. "The very man I wanted to see." + +"And Jim, Colonel? How is the boy?" I asked. + +"Oh, just as fit as a--a middy on shore!" he answered, speaking +cheerfully, yet, it seemed to me, with an effort; so that I wondered +whether anything was wrong with the boy--a little bill or some small +indiscretion, such as might be pardoned in as fine a lad as ever +stepped, with a six-months'-old commission, a new uniform, and a +station fifty minutes from London. "But come," the Colonel continued +before I could make my comment, "you have lunched, Joe? Will you take +a turn?" + +"To be sure," I said; "on one condition--that you let Kitty give you a +cup of tea afterwards." + +"That is a bargain!" he answered. And we went into the hall. Every one +knows the "Junior United" hall. I had taken down my hat, and was +stepping back from the rack, when some one coming downstairs two +at a time--that is the worst of having any one under field rank in a +club--hit me sharply with his elbow. Perhaps my coat fits a bit +tightly round the waist nowadays, and perhaps not; any way, I +particularly object to being poked in the back--it may be a fad, or it +may not--and I turned round and cried "Confound----" + +I did not say any more, for I saw who had done it. My gentleman +stammered a confused apology, and taking a letter which it seemed I +had knocked out of his hand, from the Colonel, who had politely picked +it up, he passed into the morning-room with a red face. "Clumsy +scoundrel!" I said, but not so loudly that he could hear. + +"Hallo!" the Colonel exclaimed, standing still, and looking at me. + +"Well?" I said, perhaps rather testily. "What is the matter?" + +"You are not on very good terms with young Farquhar, then?" + +"I am not on any terms at all with him," I answered grumpily. + +The Colonel whistled. "Indeed!" he said, looking down at me with a +kind of wistfulness in his eyes; Dick is tall, and I am--well, I was +up to standard once. "I thought--that is, Jim told me--that he was a +good deal about your house, Joe. And I rather gathered that he was +making up to Kitty, don't you know." + +"You did, did you?" I grunted. "Well, perhaps he was, and perhaps he +wasn't. Any way, she is not for him. And he would not take an answer, +the young whipper-snapper!" I continued, giving my anger a little +vent, and feeling all the better for it. "He came persecuting her, if +you want to know. And I had to show him the door." + +I think I never saw a man--certainly on the steps of the "Junior +United"--look more pleased than the Colonel looked at that moment. +"Gad!" he said, "Then Jim will have a chance?" + +"Ho! ho!" I answered, chuckling. "The wind sets in that quarter, does +it? A chance? I should think he would have a chance, Colonel!" + +"And you would not object?" + +"Object?" I said. "Why, it would make me the happiest man in the +world, Dick. Are we not the oldest friends? And I have only Kitty and +you have only Jim. Why, it is--it is just Inkerman over again!" + +Really it was, and we stumped down the steps in great delight. Only I +felt a little anxious about Kitty's answer, for though I had a +suspicion that her affections were inclined in the right direction, I +could not be sure. The young soldier might not have won her heart as +he had mine: so that I was still more pleased when the Colonel +informed me that he believed Jim intended to put it to the test this +very afternoon. + +"She is at home," I said, standing still. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" he responded, taking my arm to lead me on. + +But I declined to move. "I'll tell you what," I said--"it is a quarter +to four; if Jim has not popped the question by now, he is not the man +I think him. Let us go home, Colonel, and hear the news." + +He demurred a little, but I had him in a hansom in the time it takes +to blow "Lights out," and we were bowling along Piccadilly in two +minutes more. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation, and, following the +direction of his hand, I was in time to catch a glimpse of Jim's +face--no other's--as he shot past us in a cab going eastwards. It left +us in no doubt, for the lad's cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, and as he swept by and saw us, he raised his hat with a +gesture of triumph. + +"Gad!" the Colonel exclaimed, "I'll bet a guinea he has kissed her! +Happy dog!" + +"Tra! la! la!" I answered. "I dare swear we shall not find Kitty in +tears." + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth when the cab swerved to one +side, throwing me against my companion. I heard our driver shout, and +caught sight of a bareheaded man mixed up with the near shaft. The +next moment we gave a lurch and stopped, and a crowd came round us. +The Colonel was the first out, but I joined him as quickly as I could. +"I do not think he is much hurt, sir," I heard the policeman say. "He +is drunk, I fancy. Come, old chap, pull yourself together," he +continued, giving a shake to the grey-haired man whom he and a +bystander were supporting. "There, hold up now. Here is your hat. You +are all right." + +And sure enough the man, whose red nose and shabby attire lent +probability to the policeman's charge, managed when left to himself to +keep his balance; but with some wavering. "Hallo!" he muttered, +looking uncertainly upon the crowd round him. "Is my son here to take +me home? Isaac? Where is Isaac?" + +"He's one part shaken," the policeman said, viewing him with an air of +experience. "And three parts drunk. He had better go to the station." + +"Where do you live?" the Colonel asked. + +"Greek Street, Soho, number twenty-seven, top floor"--this was +answered glibly enough. "And I'll tell you what," the man added with a +drunken hiccough and a reel which left him on the policeman's +shoulder--"if any gentleman will take another gentleman home, I will +make him rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I'll present him his +weight in gold. That I will. His weight in gold!" + +"I think----" the Colonel began, turning and meeting my eye. + +"His weight in gold!" murmured the drunken man. + +"Quite so!" I said, accepting the Colonel's unspoken suggestion. "We +will see him home, policeman." And paying our cabman, I hailed a +crawling four-wheeler, into which the officer bundled our man. We got +in, and in a moment were jolting eastwards at a snail's pace. + +"Perhaps we might have sent some one with him," the Colonel said, +looking at me apologetically. + +"Not at all!" I answered. I have no doubt that we both had the same +feeling, that, happy ourselves, it behooved us to do a good turn to +this poor wretch, whose shaking hands and tattered clothes showed that +he had almost reached the bottom of the hill. I have seen more than +one brother officer, once as gallant a lad as Jim, brought as low; +and, perhaps, but for Providence, old Joe Bratton himself---- But +there, it may have been some such thought as this, or it may have been +an extra glass of sherry at lunch, made us take the man home. We did +it; and the Lord only knows why fellows do things--good or bad. + +Hauling out our charge at the door of twenty-seven, we guided him up +the dingy stairs, the gibberish which he never ceased to repeat about +the dreams of avarice and our weight in gold sounding ten times as +absurd on the common stairs of this dirty tenth-rate lodging-house. +The attic gained, he straightened himself, and, winking at us with +drunken gravity, he laid his hand upon the latch of one of the doors. +"You shall see--what you shall see!" he muttered, and throwing open +the door he stumbled into the room. The Colonel raised his eyebrows in +a protest against our folly, but entered after him, and I followed. + +We found only one person in the garret, which was as miserable and +poverty-stricken as a room could be; and he rose and faced us with an +exclamation of anger. He was a young fellow, twenty years old perhaps, +of middle size, sallow and dark-eyed; to my thinking half-starved. The +drunken man seemed unaware of his feelings, however; for he balanced +himself on the floor between us, and waved his hand towards him. + +"Here you are, gentlemen!" he cried. "I'm a man of my word! Let me +introduce you! My son, Isaac Gold. Did not I tell you? Present +you--your weight in gold--or nearly so!" + +"Father!" the lad said, eyeing him gloomily, "go and lie down." + +"Great joke! Your weight in gold, gentlemen!" + +"Your father was knocked down by a cab," the Colonel said quietly, +"and finding that he was not able to take care of himself we brought +him home." + +The young man looked at us furtively, but he did not answer. Instead, +he took his father by the arm and forced him gently to a mattress +which lay in one corner, half hidden by a towel-rail--the latter +bearing a shirt, evidently home-washed and hung out to dry. Twice the +old fool started up muttering the same rubbish; but the third time he +went off into a heavy sleep. There was something pitiful to my eyes in +the boy's patience with him: so that when the lad turned to us at +last, and, with eyes which resented our presence, bade us begone if we +had satisfied our curiosity, I was not surprised that the Colonel held +his ground. "I am afraid you are badly off," he said gently. + +"What's that to you?" was the other's insolent reply. "Do you want to +be paid for your services?" + +"Steady! steady, my lad!" I put in. "You get nothing by that." + +"I think I know you," the Colonel continued, regarding him steadily. +"There was a charge preferred against you, or some one of your name, a +few weeks ago, of personating a candidate at the examination for +commissions in the army. The charge failed, I know." + +The young man's colour rose as the Colonel spoke. But his manner +indicated rather triumph than shame, and his dark eyes sparkled with +malice as he retorted: "It failed? Yes, you are right there. You have +been in the army yourself, I dare say?" + +"I have," the Colonel said gravely. + +"An honourable profession, is it not?" the lad continued in a tone of +mockery. "How many of your young friends, do you think, pass in +honestly? It is a competitive examination, too, mind you. And how many +do you think employ me--me--to pass for them?" + +"You should be ashamed to boast of it," the Colonel replied, "if you +are not afraid." + +"And what should they be? Tell me that!" + +"They are mean fellows, whoever they are." + +"So! so! You think so!" the young man laughed triumphantly. And then +all at once the light seemed to die out of his clever face, and I saw +before me only a half-starved lad, with his shabby clerk's coat +buttoned up to his throat to hide the want of a shirt. The same change +was visible, I think, to the Colonel's eye; for he looked at me and +muttered something about the cab. Understanding that he wanted a word +with the young fellow alone, I went to the window and for a moment or +so pretended to gaze through its murky panes. When I turned, the two +men were talking by the door; the drunken father was snoring behind +his improvised screen; and on a painted deal table beside me I +remarked the one and only article of luxury in the room--a small +soiled album. With a grunt I threw it open. It disclosed the portraits +of two lads, simpering whiskerless faces, surmounting irreproachable +dog-collars and sporting pins. I turned a page and came on two more +bearing a family resemblance in features, dog-collars, and pins to the +others. I turned again with a pish! and a pshaw! and found a vacant +place, and opposite it--a portrait of Jim! + +I stared at it for a moment in unthinking wonder, and then in a +twinkling it flashed across me what these portraits were, and above +all, what this portrait of Jim, placed in this scoundrel's album +meant. I remembered how anxious the Colonel had been as the lad's +examination drew near; how bitterly he had denounced the competitive +system, and vowed a dozen times a day that, what with pundits and +crammers and young officers who should have been girls and gone to +Girton, the service was going to the dogs. "To the dogs, do you hear +me, sir!" And then I recalled his great relief when the boy came out +quite high up; and the change which had at once taken place in his +sentiments. "We must move with the times, sir; it is no good running +your head against a brick wall! We must move with the times, begad!" +and so forth. And--well, I let fall a pretty strong word, at which the +Colonel turned. + +"What is it, Major?" he said. But, seeing me standing motionless by +the window, he turned again and spoke to the young man beside him. +"Well, think about it, and let me know at that address. Now," he +continued, advancing towards me, "what is it, Joe?" + +"What is what?" I said. I had shut the album by this time, and was +standing between him and the table on which it lay. I do not know +why--perhaps it came of the kindness he had been doing--but I noticed +in a way I had never noticed before what a fine figure of a man, tall +and straight, my old comrade still was. And a bit of a dimness, such +as I have experienced once or twice lately when I have taken a third +glass of sherry at lunch, came over my sight. "Confound it!" I said. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"Something in my eye!" + +"Let me get it out," he said--always the kindest fellow under the sun. + +"No! I'll get it out myself!" I snarled like a bear with a sore head. +And, without stopping to explain I plunged out of the room and down +the stairs. The Colonel, wondering no doubt what was the matter with +me, followed more at his leisure, after pausing to say a last word to +the young rascal at the door, whom I had not had the patience to speak +to: so that I had already closed a warm dispute with the cabman, by +sending him off with a flea in his ear and his fare to a sixpence, +when the Colonel overtook me. + +"What is up, Joe?" he asked, laying his hand on my shoulder. + +"That d----d dizziness came over me again. But there, I have always +said the '73 sherry at the club is not sound. I do not feel quite up +to the mark," I continued with truth. "I think I will go home alone, +Colonel--for to-day, if you do not mind." + +"I do mind," he said stoutly. "You may want an arm." But somehow I +made it clear to him that I would rather go alone, and that the walk +would do me good, and he got into a hansom at last and drove off, his +grey moustache and fine old nose peering at me round the side of the +cab, until a corner hid him altogether. + +I walked on a few paces, waving my umbrella cheerfully. Then I +stopped, and, retracing my steps, I mounted the staircase of +twenty-seven, and without parley opened the door. The young fellow we +had left was pacing the floor, turning over in his mind, I fancied, +what the Colonel had said to him. He stood still on seeing me, and +then glanced round the room. "Have you forgotten anything?" he said. + +"Nothing, young man," I answered. "I want to ask you a question." + +"You can ask," he replied, eyeing me askance. + +"That album," I said, pointing to it--"it contains, I suppose, the +photographs of the people you have been employed to personate?" + +"Possibly." + +"But does it?" + +"I did not know," he said slowly, the most provoking manner, "that I +had to do with a detective. What is the charge?" + +"There is no charge," I answered, keeping my temper really admirably. +"But I have seen the face of a friend of mine in that book, and I'll in +a word, I'll be hanged, young man, if I don't learn all about it!" I +continued. "All--do you hear? So there! Now, out with it, and do not +keep me waiting, you young rascal!" + +He only whistled and stared; and finding I was getting a little warm, +I took out my handkerchief, and wiping my forehead, sat down, the +thought of the Colonel's grief taking all the strength out of me. +"Look here," I said in a different tone, "I'll take back what I have +just said, and I give you my word of honour I do not want to harm +the--the gentleman. But I have seen his portrait, and, if I know no +more, must think the worse. Now I will give you a ten-pound note if +you will answer three questions." + +He shook his head; but I saw that he wavered. "I did not show you the +portrait," he said. "If you have seen it, that is your business. I +will name no names." + +"I want none," I answered. I threw open the album at the tell-tale +photograph, and laid my shaky finger on the face. "Was this sent to +you that you might personate the original?" + +He nodded. + +"From what place?" + +He considered a moment. Then he said reluctantly: "From Frome, in +Somerset, I believe." + +"Last year?" + +He nodded. Alas! Jim had been at a crammer's near Frome. Jim had +passed his examination during the last year. I took out the money and +gave it to the man; and a minute later I was standing in the street +with a sentence common enough at mess in the old days, ringing in my +ears: "Refer it to the Colonel! He is the soul of honour." + +The soul of honour! Ay! And what would he think of this? The soul of +honour! And his son, his son Jim, had done this! I walked through the +streets, lost in amazement. I had loved the boy right well myself, and +was ready to choke on my own account when I thought of him. But his +father--I knew that his father was wrapped up in him. His father had +been a mother to him as well, and that for years--had bought him toys +as a lad, and furnished his quarters later with things of which only a +mother would have thought. It would kill his father. + +I wiped my forehead as I thought of this and put my latchkey into the +door in Pont Street. I walked in with a heavy sigh--I do not know that +I ever entered with so sad a heart--and the next moment, with a +flutter of skirts, Kitty was out of the dining-room, where I do not +doubt she had been watching for me, and in my arms. Before Heaven! +until I saw her I had not thought of her--I had never considered her +at all in connection with this matter! No, nor how I should deal with +her, until I heard her say, with her face on my shoulder, and her eyes +looking into mine: "Oh, father, father, I am happy! Be the first to +wish me joy." + +Wish her joy! I could not. I could only mutter, "Wait, girl--wait, +wait!" and lead her into the dining-room, and, turning my back on her, +go to the window and look out--though for all I saw I might have had +my head in a soot-bag. She was alarmed of course--but to save her that +I could not face her. She came after me and clung to my arm, asking me +again and again what it was. + +"Nothing, nothing," I said. "There--wait a minute; don't you know that +I shall lose you?" + +"Father," she said, trying to look into my face, "it is not that. You +know you will not lose me! There is something else the matter. There +is something you are hiding from me! Ah! Jim went in a cab, and----" + +"Jim is all right." I answered, feeling her hand fall from my arm. "In +that way at any rate." + +"Then I am not afraid," she answered stoutly, "if you and Jim are all +right." + +"Look here, Kitty," I said, making up my mind, "sit down, I want to +talk to you." + +And she did sit down, and I told her all. With some girls it might not +have been the best course; but Kitty is not like most of the girls I +meet nowadays--of whom one half are blue stockings, with no more +fitness for the duties of wives and mothers than the statuettes in a +shop window, and the other half are misses in white muslin, who are +always giggling pertly or sitting with their thumbs in their mouths. +Kitty is a companion, a helpmeet, God bless her! She knows that +Wellington did not fight at Blenheim, and she does not think that +Lucknow is in the Crimea. She knows so much, though she knows no Greek +and she loves dancing--her very eyes dance at the thought of it. But +she would rather sit at home with the man she loves than waltz at +Marlborough House. And if she has not learned a little fortification +on the sly, and does not know how many men stand between Jim and his +company--I am a Dutchman! Lord! when I see a man marry a doll with a +pretty face--not that Kitty has not a pretty face, and a sweet one +too, no thanks to her father--I wonder whether he has considered what +it will be to sit opposite my lady at, say, twenty thousand nine +hundred meals on an average! That is the test, sir. + +So I told Kitty all, and the way she took it showed me that I was +right. "What?" she exclaimed, when I had finished the story, to which +she had listened, with her face turned from me, and her arm on the +mantelpiece, "is that all, father?" + +"My dear," I said sadly, "you do not understand." I remembered how +often I had heard--and sometimes noticed--that women's ideas of honour +differ from men's. + +"Understand!" she retorted, turning upon me, fiery hot. "I understand +that you think Jim has done this mean, miserable, wretched thing. +Father," she continued, with sudden gravity, and she laid both her +hands on my shoulders, so that her brave eyes looked into my eyes, "if +three people came to you and told you that I had gone into your +bedroom and taken money from the cash-box in your cupboard to pay a +bill of mine, and that when I had done it I had kept it from you, and +told stories about it--if three, four, five people told you that they +had seen me do it, would you believe them?" + +"No, Kitty," I said, smiling against my will, "not though five angels +told me so, my dear. I know you too well." + +"And, sir, though five angels told me this, I would not believe it! Do +you think I do not know him--and love him?" + +And the foolish girl, who had begun to waltz round the room like a mad +thing, stopped and looked at me with tears in her eyes and her lips +quivering. + +I could not but take some comfort from her confidence. + +"True," I said. "The Colonel brought him up, and it seems hardly +possible that the lad should turn out so bad. But the photograph, my +girl--the photograph? What do you say to that? It was Jim, I swear. I +could not be mistaken. There could not be another so like him." + +"There is no one like him," she said softly. + +"Very well. And then I have noticed that he has been in bad spirits +lately. I'm afraid--I'm afraid a bad conscience, my dear." + +"You dear old donkey!" she answered, shaking me with both her hands. +"That was about me. He has told me all that. He thought Mr. +Farquhar--Mr. Farquhar, indeed!" + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" I said. "Well, that may account for his +depression. But look you here, Kitty; was he not rather nervous about +his examination?" + +"A little," she answered with reluctance. + +"And, nonetheless, did he not come out pretty high?" + +"Seventeenth. Thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty-six marks," +Kitty replied glibly. + +"Just so! And if he had failed he would have suffered in your eyes?" + +"Not a scrap. And, besides, he did not fail," she retorted. + +"But he may have thought he would suffer," I answered, "if he failed. +That would be a sharp temptation, Kitty." + +She did not reply at once. She was busy rolling up a ribbon of her +frock into the smallest possible compass, and unrolling it again. At +last--it was clear I had made her think-- + +"I know he did not do it," she said, "but that is all I do know. I +cannot prove to you that white is not black; but it is not, and I know +it is not." + +"Well, my dear, I hope you are right," I answered. And it cheered me +to find that she held him worthy of confidence. + +She promised readily to let me have the first word with the lad +when he called next day. And as for undertaking to have nothing more +to do with him if the charge proved to be true, she made nothing of +that--because, as she said, it meant nothing. + +"A Jim who had done that would not be my Jim at all," she explained +gaily, "but quite a different Jim--a James, sir." + +Certainly, a girl's faith is a wonderful thing. And hers so far +affected me that I regretted I had not taken a bolder course, and, +showing the photograph to the Colonel, had the whole thing threshed +out on the spot. Possibly I might have saved myself a very wretched +hour or two. But no; on second thoughts I could not see how the boy +could be innocent. I could not help piecing the evidence together--the +damning evidence, as it seemed to me; the certain identity of Jim with +the original of the photograph, the arrival of the latter from Frome, +where the lad had spent the last weeks previous to his examination, +the fears he had expressed before the ordeal, and his success beyond +his hopes at it; these things seemed almost conclusive. I had only the +boy's character, his father's training, and his sweetheart's faith, to +set against them. + +His sweetheart's faith, did I say? Ah, well! when I came down to +breakfast next morning, whom should I find in tears--and she, as a +rule, the most equable girl in the world--but Kitty. + +"Hallo!" I said. "What is all this?" + +At the sound of my voice she sprang to her feet. She had been +kneeling by the fireplace groping with her hands inside the fender. +Her cheeks were crimson, and she was crying--yes, certainly crying, +although she tried by a hasty dab of the flimsy thing she calls a +pocket-handkerchief to remove the traces. + +"Well!" I said, for she was dumb. "What is it, my dear?" + +"I have--torn up a letter," she answered, a little sob dividing the +sentence into two. + +"So I see," I answered dryly. "And now, I suppose, you are sorry for +it." + +"It was a horrid letter, father," she cried, her eyes shining like +electric lamps in a shower--"about Jim." + +"Indeed," I said, with a very nasty feeling inside me. "What about +Jim? And why did you tear it up, my dear? One half of it, I should +say, has gone into the fire." + +"It was from--a woman!" she answered. + +And presently she told me that the letter, which was unsigned, +asserted that Jim had played with the affections of the writer, and +warned Kitty to be on her guard against him, and not to be a party to +the wrong he was doing an innocent girl. + +"Pooh!" I said, with a contemptuous laugh. "That cock will not fight, +my dear. It has been tried over and over again. You do not mean to say +that that has made you cry? Why, if so, you are--you are just as big a +fool as any girl I know." + +In truth, I was surprised to find Kitty's faith in her lover, which +had been proof against a charge made on the best of evidence, fail +before an unsigned accusation--because, forsooth, it mentioned a +woman. "What postmark did it bear?" I asked. + +"Frome," she murmured. + +That was certainly odd--very odd. Pretty devilments I knew those +fellows at crammers' were up to sometimes. Could it be that we were +mistaken in Master Jim, as I have once or twice known a lad's family +to be mistaken in him? Was he all the time an out-and-out bad one? Or +had he some enemy at Frome plotting against his happiness? This seemed +most unlikely and absurd besides; since we had lit upon Isaac Gold by +a chance, and on the portrait by a chance within a chance, and no +enemy, however acute--not Machiavelli himself--could have foreseen the +_rencontre_ or arranged the circumstances which had led me to the +photograph. Therefore, though the anonymous letter might be the work +of an ill-wisher, I did not see how the other could be. However, I +gathered up the few fragments of writing which had escaped the fire, +and put them aside, to serve, if need be, for evidence. + +On one thing I was making up my mind, however--I must put an end to +the matter between Jim and my girl unless he could clear himself of +these suspicions--when what should I hear but his voice, and his +father's, in the hall. There is something in the sound of a familiar +voice which so recalls our knowledge of the speaker that I know +nothing which pierces the cloud of doubt more thoroughly. At any rate, +when the two came in, I jumped up and gave a hand to each. Behind +Jim's back one might suspect him: confronted by his open eyes, and his +brown, honest, boyish face--well, by the Lord! I could as soon suspect +my old comrade, God bless him! + +"Jim," I found myself saying, his hand in mine, and every one of my +prudent resolutions gone to the wind, "Jim, my boy, I am a happy man. +Take her and be good to her, and God bless you! No, Colonel, no," I +continued in desperate haste, "I do not ask a question. Let the lad +take her. If your son cannot be trusted no one can. There, I am glad +that is settled." + +I verily believe I was almost blubbering; and though I said only what +I should have said if this confounded matter had never arisen, I let +drop, it seems, enough to set the Colonel questioning, for in five +minutes I had told him the whole story of the photograph. + +It was pleasant to observe his demeanour. Though he never for a moment +lost his faith in Jim--mind, he had not seen the portrait--and his +eyes continued to shoot little glances of confidence at his son, he +drew back his chair and squared his shoulders, and assumed a judicial +air. + +"Now, sir," he said, with his hands on his knees, "this must be +explained. We are much obliged to the Major for bringing it to our +notice. You will be good enough to explain, my lad." + +Jim did explain; or, rather, he answered frankly that he had never +heard Isaac Gold's name before and certainly had never given him a +photograph, and I believed him. Then he jumped up with his usual +impetuosity and proposed to go at once to Gold's house and see the +photograph, and I was delighted. In half a minute we were all three in +a cab, and in twenty more had the good luck to discover old Gold alone +at home. A five-shilling piece slipped into the drunkard's hand +sufficed to obtain for us the view we desired. + +"I suppose it _is_ a likeness of me," Jim murmured, looking hard at +the photograph. + +"Certainly it is!" the Colonel replied rather curtly. Up to this +moment he had thought me deceived by a chance resemblance. + +"Then let us see who took it, and where it was printed," Jim answered +in a matter-of-fact tone. "I do not believe I have ever been taken in +this dress. See, it bears no photographer's name; so an amateur has +taken it. Let me think." + +While he thought, old Gold pottered about the open door of the room on +the watch for Isaac's return. "Yes," Jim said at last, "I think I have +it. I was photographed in this dress as one of a group before a meet +of the hounds at Old Bulcher's. + +"At Frome?" + +"Yes. And this has been enlarged, I have no doubt, from the head in +the group. But why, or who has done it, or how it comes to be here, I +give you my honour, sir, I know no more than you do." + +At this moment young Gold's footsteps were heard ascending. He seemed +to have some suspicion that his secrets were in danger, for he came up +the stairs three at a time, and bounced into the room--looking for a +moment, as his eyes alighted on us and the open album, as if he would +knock us down. When his glance fell on Jim, however, a change came +over him. It was singular to see the two looking at one another, Jim +eyeing him with the supercilious stare of the boy-officer, and young +Gold returning the look with a covert recognition in his defiant eyes. +"Well," said Jim, "do you know me?" + +"I have never seen you before, to my knowledge." + +"Perhaps you will explain how you came by this photograph?" + +"That is my business!" said Gold sternly. + +"Oh, is it?" retorted Jim with fire. "We will see about that." I think +it annoyed him, as it certainly did me, to detect in the other's +glance and tone a subtle meaning--a covert understanding. "If you do +not explain, I'll--I will call in the police, my man." + +But here the Colonel interfered. He told me afterwards that he felt +some sympathy for Gold. He silenced Jim, and, telling the other that +he should hear from him again, he led us downstairs. I noticed that, +as we passed into the street, he slipped his arm through his son's, +and I have no doubt he managed to convey to the young fellow as +plainly as by words that his faith was unshaken. + +Very naturally, however, Jim was not satisfied with this or with the +present position of things; which was certainly puzzling. "But, look +here!" he said, standing still in the middle of the pavement, "what is +to be done, sir? That fellow believes or pretends to believe, though +he will not say a word, that I have used him to do my dirty work. And +I have not! Then why the deuce does he parade my photograph? Do you +think--by George! I believe I have got it--do you think it is a case +of blackmail?" + +"No," the Colonel said with decision, "it cannot be. We came upon the +photograph by the purest accident. It was not sent to us, or used +against you. No! But see here!" The Colonel in his turn stopped in the +middle of the pavement and struck the latter with his stick. He had +got his idea, and his eyes sparkled. + +"Well?" we said. + +"Suppose some other fellow employed Gold to pass the examination, and, +having this very fear--of being blackmailed--in his mind, got a +photograph of a friend tolerably like himself? And sent it up instead +of his own? What then?" + +"What then? Precisely!" I said. And we all nodded at one another like +so many Chinese mandarins, and the Colonel looked proudly at his son, +as though saying, "Now what do you think of your father, my boy?" + +"I think you have hit it, sir!" Jim said, answering the unspoken +question. "There were nearly thirty fellows at Bulcher's." + +"And among them there was one low rascal--a low rascal, sir," replied +the Colonel, his eyes sparkling, "who did not even trust his companion +in iniquity, but arranged to have an answer ready if his accomplice +turned upon him! 'I suborned him?' he resolved to say--'I deny it. He +has my name pat enough, but has he any proof? A photograph? But that +is not my photograph!' Do you see, Major?" + +"I see," I said. "And now come home with me, both of you, and we will +talk it over with Kitty." + +By this time, however, it was two o'clock. Jim, who had only come up +for an hour or two, found he must resign the hope of seeing Kitty +to-day, and take a cab to Charing Cross if he would catch his train. +The Colonel had a luncheon engagement--for which he was already late. +And so we separated then and there in something of a hurry. When I got +back the first question Kitty--who, you may be sure, met me in the +hall--asked was: "Where is Jim, father?" The second: "And what does he +say about the letter?" + +"God bless my soul!" I exclaimed, "I never gave a thought to the +letter! I am afraid I never mentioned it, my dear. I was thinking +about the photograph. I fancy we have got to something like the bottom +of that." + +"Pooh!" she said. And, she pretended to take very little interest in +the explanation I gave her, though--the sly little cat!--when I +dropped the subject, she was quite ready to take it up again, rather +than not talk about Jim at all. + +I am sometimes late for breakfast; she rarely or never. But next +morning on entering the dining-room I found the table laid for one +only, and Matthews, the maid, waiting modestly before the coffeepot. +"Where is Miss Bratton?" I said grumpily, taking the _Times_ from the +fender. "Miss Kitty had a headache," was the answer, "and is taking a +cup of tea in bed, sir." "Ho, ho!" thought I, "this comes of being in +love! Confound the lads! Sausage? No, I won't have sausage. Who the +deuce ordered sausages at this time of year? Bacon? Seems half done. +This coffee is thick. There, that will do! That will do. Don't rattle +those cups and saucers all day! Confound the girl!--do you hear? You +can go!" The way women bully a man when they get him alone is a +caution. + +When I returned from my morning stroll, I heard voices in the +dining-room, and looked in to see how Kitty was. Well, she was--in +brief, there was a scene going on. Miss Kitty, her cheeks crimson and +her eyes bright, was standing with her back to the window; and facing +her, half angry and half embarrassed, was Jim. "Hoity, toity, you +two!" I said, closing the door behind me. "These are early times for +this kind of thing. What is up?" + +"I'll be hanged if I know, sir!" Jim answered, looking rather foolish. + +"What have you got there, my dear?" I continued, for Kitty had one +hand behind her, and I was not slow to connect this hand with the +expression on her pretty face. + +"He knows," she said, trembling with anger--the little vixen. + +"I know nothing!" Jim returned sheepishly. "I came in, and when +I--Kitty flew out and attacked me, don't you see, sir?" + +"Very well, my dear," I answered, "if you do not feel able to explain, +Jim had better go. Only, if he goes now, of course I cannot say when +he will come back." + +"I will come back, Kitty, whenever you want me," said the young fool. + +"Shut your mouth, sir," I shouted. "Now, Kitty, attend to me. What is +it?" + +"Ask him--to whom he gave his photograph at Frome!" she said, in a +breathless sort of way. + +"His photograph? Why, that is just what we were talking about +yesterday," I replied sharply. "I thought it did not interest you, my +girl, when I told you all about it last night." + +"That photograph!"--with withering contempt--"I do not mean _that!_ Do +you think I suspect him of _that?_" She stepped forward as though to +go to him, and her face altered wonderfully. Then she recollected +herself and fell back. "No," she said coldly, "to what woman, sir, did +you give your photograph at Frome?" + +"To no woman at all," he said emphatically. + +"Then look at this!" she retorted. She held out as she spoke a +photograph, which I identified at once as the portrait we had seen at +Gold's, or a copy of that one. I snatched it from Jim. "Where did you +get this, my girl?" I asked briskly. + +"It came this morning--with another letter from that woman," she +murmured. + +I think she began to feel ashamed of herself; and in two minutes I got +the letter from her. It was written by the same hand as the letter of +the day before, and was, like it, unsigned. It merely said that the +writer, in proof of her good faith, enclosed a photograph which Master +Jim--that gay Lothario!--had given her. We were still looking at the +letter, when the Colonel came in. I explained the matter to him, and I +will answer for it, before he understood it, Kitty was more ashamed of +herself than ever. + +"This photograph and the one at Gold's are facsimiles," said he +thoughtfully. "That is certain. And both come from Frome. Doesn't it +seem probable that the gentleman who obtained Jim's photograph for his +own purpose last year--to send to Gold--printed off more than one +copy? And having this one by him, and wishing to cause mischief +between Kitty and Jim, thought of this and used it? The sender is, +therefore, some one who passed his examination last year and is still +at Frome." + +Jim shook his head. + +"If he passed, sir, he would not be at Bulcher's now," he said. + +"On second thoughts he may not be," the Colonel replied. "He may have +sent the two letters to Frome to a confidential friend with orders to +post them. Wait--wait a minute," my old chum added, looking at me with +a new light in his eyes. "Where have I seen a letter addressed to +Frome--within the last day or two? Eh? Wait a bit." + +We did wait; and presently the Colonel announced his discovery in a +grim voice. + +"I have it," he said. "It is that scoundrel, Farquhar!" + +"Farquhar!" I said. "What do you mean, Colonel?" + +"Just that, Major, just that. Do you remember him knocking against you +in the hall at the club the day before yesterday? He dropped a letter, +and I picked it up. It was addressed--I could not help seeing so +much--to Frome." + +"Well," Jim said slowly, "he was at Bulcher's, and he passed last +year." + +"And the letter," continued the Colonel in his turn, "was in a large +envelope--an envelope large enough to contain a cabinet photograph." + +There was silence in the room. Kitty's face was hidden. Jim moved at +last--towards her? No, towards the door. He had his hand on it when +the Colonel observed him. + +"Stop!" he said sharply. "Come back, my boy. None of that. The Major +and I will deal with him." + +Jim lingered with his hand on the door. + +"Well, sir," he said, "I will only----" + +"Come back!" roared the Colonel, but with a smile in his eyes as he +looked at his boy. "You will stop here, you lucky dog, you. And I hope +this will be a lesson to you not to give your photograph to young +ladies at Frome!" + +If Kitty squirmed a little at that, she deserved it. I said before +that a woman's faith is a wonderful thing. But when there is another +woman in the case--umph! + + + * * * * * + + +"Mr. Farquhar, sir? Yes, sir, he is in the house," the club porter +said, turning in his glass case to consult his book. "I believe he +went upstairs to the drawing-room, sir." + +"Thank you," the Colonel replied, and he glanced at me and I at him; +and then, fixing our hats on tightly, and grasping our sticks, we went +upstairs. + +We were in luck, as it turned out, for not only was Farquhar in the +drawing-room, but there was no one else in the long, stiff, splendid +room. He looked up from his writing, and saw us piloting our way +towards him between the chairs and tables. And I think he turned +green. At any rate, my last doubt left me at the sight of his face. + +"A word with you, Mr. Farquhar," the Colonel said grimly, keeping a +tight hand on my arm, for I confess I had been in favour of more +drastic measures. "It is about a photograph." + +"A photograph?" the startled wretch exclaimed, his mouth ajar. + +"Well, perhaps I should have said two photographs," the Colonel +replied gravely; "photographs of my son which are lying, one in the +possession of Major Bratton, and one in the album of a friend of +yours, Mr. Isaac Gold." + +He tried to frame the words, "A friend of mine!" and to feign +astonishment and stare us down. But it was a pitiable attempt, and his +eyes sank. He could only mutter, "I do not know--any Gold. There is +some mistake." + +"Perhaps so," the Colonel answered smoothly. "I hope there is some +mistake. But let me tell you this, Mr. Farquhar. Unless you apply +within a week for leave to resign your commission, I shall lay certain +facts concerning these photographs before the Commander-in-Chief and +before the mess of your regiment. You understand me, I am sure. Very +well. That is all I wish to say to you." + +Apparently he had nothing to say to us in return. And we were both +glad to turn our backs on that baffled, spiteful face, in which the +horror of discovery strove with the fear of ruin. It is ill striking a +man when he is down, and I was glad to get out of the house and +breathe a purer air. + +We had no need to go to the Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant Farquhar +applied for leave to resign within the week, and Her Majesty obtained, +I think, a better bargain in Private Isaac Gold, who, following the +Colonel's advice, enlisted about this time. He is already a corporal, +and, aided by an education rare in the ranks, bids fair to earn a +sergeant's stripes at an early date. He has turned over a new +leaf--the Colonel always maintained that he had a keen sense of +honour; and I feel little doubt that if he ever has the luck to rise +to Farquhar's grade, and bear the Queen's commission, he will be a +credit to it and to his friend and brother officer--the Colonel's boy. +Not, mind you, that I think he will ever be as good a fellow as Jim! +No, no. + + + + + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA + + + + + A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA + + +The clock of St. Martin's was striking ten as Archdeacon Yale, of +Studbury, in Gloucestershire, who had taken breakfast at the Athenaeum, +walked down the club steps, eastward bound. He was a man of fresh +complexion and good presence; of tolerable means and some reputation +as the author of a curiously morbid book, "Timon Defended." As he +walked the pavement briskly, an unopened letter which peeped from his +pocket seemed--and rightly--to indicate a man free from anxieties: a +man without a care. + +Before he left the dignified stillness of Pall Mall, however, he found +leisure to read the note. "I enclose," wrote his wife, "a letter which +came for you this morning. I trust, Cyprian, that you are not fretting +about the visitation question and that you get your meals fairly well +cooked." The Archdeacon paused at this point and smiled as at some +pleasant reminiscence. "Give my love to dear Jack. Oh--h'm--I do not +recognise your correspondent's handwriting." + +"Nor do I!" the Archdeacon said aloud; and he opened the enclosure +with a curiosity that had in it no fear of trouble. After glancing at +the signature, however, he turned into a side street and read the +letter to the end. He sighed. "Oh dear, dear!" he muttered. "What +can I do? I must go! There is no room for refusal. And yet--oh +dear!--after all these years. Number 14, Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn +Road? What a place!" + +It was a shabby third-rate lodging-house place, as perhaps he knew. +But he called a cab and had himself driven thither forthwith. At the +corner of the street he dismissed the cab and looked about him +furtively. For a man who had left his club so free from care, and +whose wife at Studbury and son at Lincoln's Inn were well, he wore an +anxious face. It could not be--for he was an Archdeacon--that he was +about to do anything of which he was ashamed. Bishops, and others of +that class, may be open to temptations, or have pages of their lives +folded down, which they would not wish turned. But an Archdeacon? + +Yet when he was distant a house or so from No. 14 he started guiltily +at a very ordinary occurrence; at nothing more than the arrival of a +hansom cab at the door. True, a young woman descended from it, and let +herself into the house with a latchkey. But young women and latchkeys +are common in London, as common as--as dirt. It could hardly be that +which darkened his face as he rang the bell. + +In the hall, where a dun was sitting, there was little to remove the +prejudice he may have conceived; little, too, in the dingy staircase, +cumbered with plates and stale food; or in the first-floor rooms, +from which some one peeped and another whispered, and both giggled; +or in that second-floor room, at once smart and shabby, and remarkable +for many photographs of one young girl, where he was bidden to +wait--little or nothing. But when he had pished and pshawed at the +tenth photograph, he was called into an inner room, where a strange +silence prevailed. Involuntarily he stepped softly. "It was kind of +you to come," some one said--some one who was lying in a great chair +brought very near to the open window that the speaker might breathe +more easily--"very kind. And you have come so quickly." + +"I have been in London some days," he answered gently, the fastidious +expression gone from his face. "Your daughter's letter followed me +from the country and reached me an hour ago. It has been no trouble to +me to come. I am only pained at finding you so ill." + +"Ah!" she answered. Doubtless her thoughts were busy; while his flew +back nearly thirty years to a summer evening, when he had walked with +her under the trees in Chelsea Gardens and heard her pour into his +ear--she was a young actress in the first blush of success--her hopes +and ambitions. There was nothing in the memory of which he had need to +be ashamed. In those days he had been reading for orders, and, having +lodgings in a respectable street, had come by chance to know two of +his neighbours--her mother and herself. The two were living a quiet +domestic life, which surprised and impressed him. The girl's talent +and the contrast between her notoriety and her simple ways had had a +charm for him. For some months the neophyte and the actress were as +brother and sister. But there the feeling had stopped; and when his +appointment to a country curacy had closed this pretty episode in his +life, the exchange of a few letters had but added grace to its ending. + +Now old feelings rose to swell his pity as he traced the girl's +features in the woman's face. "You have a daughter. You have been +married since we parted," he said. + +"Yes. It is for her sake I have troubled you," was her answer. "She is +a good girl--oh, so good! But she has no one in the world except me, +and I am leaving her. Poor Grissel!" + +"She is on the stage?" he inquired gravely. + +"Yes; and she has succeeded young, as I did. We have not been unhappy +together. You remember the life my mother and I had? I think it has +been the same over again." + +She smiled ever so little. He remembered something of the quiet pathos +of that life. "Your husband is dead?" he asked. + +"Dead! I wish he were!" she answered bitterly, the smile passing from +her face. "My girl had better be alone than with her father. Ah, you +do not know! When he went to America years ago--with another woman--I +thanked God for it. Dead? Oh, no! There is no chance that he is dead." + +Mr. Yale was shocked. "You have not got a divorce?" he said. + +"No. After he left me I fell ill, and there were expenses. We were +very poor until last year, when Grissel made a good engagement. That +is why we are here. Now that her name is known he will come back and +find her out. She plays as Kittie Latouche, but the profession know +who she is, and--and what can I do? Oh, Mr. Yale! tell me what I can +do for her." + +Her anxiety unnerved him. Her terror of the future, not her own, but +her child's, wrung his heart. He had a presentiment whither she was +leading him; and he tried to escape, he tried to murmur some +commonplace of encouragement. + +"You may yet recover," he urged. "At any rate, there will be time to +talk of this again." + +"There will not be time," she entreated him. "I have scarcely three +days to live, and then my child will be alone. Oh, Mr. Yale! help me. +She is young and handsome, with no one to guide her. If her father +return, he will be her worst enemy. There is some one, too--some +gentleman--who has fallen in with her, and been here. He may be a +friend--what you were to me--or not! Don't you understand me?" she +cried piteously. "How can I leave her unless you--there is no one else +whom I can ask--will protect her?" + +He started and looked round for relief, but found none. "I? It is +impossible!" he cried. "Oh dear, dear! I am afraid that it is +impossible, Mrs. Kent." + +"Not impossible! I do not ask you to give her a home or money! Only +care. If you will be her guardian--her friend----" + +She was a woman dying in sore straits. He was a merciful man. In the +end he promised to do what she wished. Then he hastened to escape her +gratitude, unconscious, as he passed down the stairs, of the +whispering and giggling, the slatternliness and dirt, which had been +so dreadful to him on his entrance. + +He walked along Oxford Street in a reverie, "Poor thing!" falling from +him at intervals, until he reached the corner of Tottenham Court Road, +and his eye rested upon a hoarding--at the first idly, then with a +purpose, finally with a sidelong glance. The advertisement which had +caught his attention was a coarse engraving of half a dozen heads, +arranged in a circle, with one in the centre. Under this last, which +was larger and more staring, and less to be evaded than the others, +appeared the words, "Miss Kittie Latouche." He went on with a shiver, +crossing here and there to avoid the hoardings, but only to fall in +with a string of sandwich-men bearing the same device. He plunged into +the haven of Soho as if he were a political conspirator. + +The portrait and the name of his ward! In a few days he would be left +in charge of an actress whose name was known to all London--guardian, +_in loco parentis_, what you will, of the closest and most +responsible, to a giddy girl of unknown antecedents, and too +well-known name! He wondered whether Archdeacon had ever been in such +a position before, a position which it would be hard to acknowledge +and impossible to explain. He could talk of his old friendship for her +mother, the actress, and his duty to a dying woman. But would the +world believe him? Would even his wife believe him? Would not she read +much between the lines, though the space were white as snow? He, a man +of nearly sixty, grew red and white by turns as he thought of this. + +"I will tell Jack the story," was his first resolve. "I will tell it +him at dinner to-night," he groaned. But would he have the courage? He +had much respect for his son's practical nature. He had heard him +called "hard as nails." And when he found himself opposite to him, and +eyed the close-shaven young lawyer, who looked a decade older than his +years, he resorted to a subterfuge. + +"Jack," he said, "I want your opinion for a friend of mine." + +"It is at your service, sir," his son said, his hand upon the +apricots. "What is the subject? Law?" + +"Not precisely," the Archdeacon replied, clearing his throat. "It is +rather a question of knowledge of the world. You know, my boy," he +went on, "that I have a very high opinion of your discretion." + +"You are very good," said Jack. And he did that which was unusual with +him. He blushed; but the other did not observe it. + +"My friend, who, I may say, is a clergyman in my archdeaconry," the +elder gentleman resumed, "has been appointed guardian--it is a +ridiculous thing for a man in his position--to a--a young actress. She +is quite a girl, I understand, but of some notoriety." + +"Indeed," said Jack drily. "May I ask how that came about? Wards of +that kind do not fall from heaven--as a rule." + +The Archdeacon winced. "He tells me," he explained, "that her mother +was an old friend of his, and when she died, some time back, she left +the girl as a kind of legacy, you see." + +"A legacy to him, sir?" + +"To him, certainly," the elder man said in some distress. "You follow +me?" + +"Quite so," said Jack. "Oh, quite so! A common thing, no doubt. Did +you say that your friend was a married man, sir?" + +"Yes," the Archdeacon replied faintly. + +"Just so! just so!" his son said, in the same tone, a tone that was so +dreadful to the Archdeacon that it needed Jack's question, "And what +is the point upon which he wants advice?" to induce him to go on. + +"What he had better do, being a clergyman." + +"He should have thought of that earlier--ahem!--I mean it depends a +good deal on the young lady. There are actresses _and_ actresses, you +know." + +"I suppose so," the Archdeacon admitted grudgingly. He was in a mood +to see the darkest side of his difficulty. + +"Of course there are!" Jack said, for him quite warmly. And indeed +that is the worst of barristers. They will argue in season and out of +season if you do not agree with them quickly. "Some are as good--as +good girls as my mother when you married her, sir." + +"Well, well, she may be a good girl--I do not know," the elder man +allowed. + +"You always had a prejudice against the stage, sir." + +The Archdeacon looked up sharply, thinking this uncalled for; unless, +horrible thought! his son knew something of the matter, and was +chaffing him. He made an effort to get on firmer ground. "Granted she +is a good girl," he said, "there are still two difficulties. Her +father is a rascal, and there is a man, probably a rascal too, hanging +about her, and likely to give trouble in another way." + +Jack nodded and sagely pondered the position. "I think I should advise +your friend to get some respectable woman to live with the girl," he +suggested, "and play the duenna--first getting rid of your second +rascal." + +"But how will you do that? And what would you do about the father?" + +"Buy him off!" said Jack curtly. "As to the lover, have an interview +with him. Say to him, 'Do you wish to marry my ward? If you do, who +are you? If you do not, go about your business.'" + +"But if he will not go," the Archdeacon said, "what can my friend do?" + +"Well, indeed," replied Jack, looking rather nonplussed, "I hardly +know, unless you make her a ward of court. You see," he added +apologetically, "your friend's position is a little--shall I say a +little anomalous?" + +The Archdeacon shuddered. He dropped his napkin and picked it up +again, to hide his dismay. Then he plunged into a fresh subject. When +his son upon some excuse left him early, he was glad to be alone. He +had now a course laid down for him, and acting upon it, he next day +saw the landlady in Sidmouth Street and requested her to take charge +of the young lady in the event of the mother's death and to guard her +from intrusion until other arrangements could be made. "You will look +to me for all expenses," the Archdeacon added, seizing with eagerness +the only ground on which he felt himself at home. To which the +landlady gladly said she would, and accepted Mr. Yale's address at the +Athenaeum Club as a personal favour to herself. + +So the Archdeacon, free for the moment, went down to Studbury, and +as he walked about his shrubberies with the scent of his wife's +old-fashioned flowers in the air, or sat drinking his glass of +Leoville '74 after dinner while Vinnells the butler, anxious to get to +his supper, rattled the spoons on the sideboard, he tried to believe +it a dream. What, he wondered, would Vinnells say if he knew that +master had a ward, and that ward a play-actress? Or, as Studbury would +prefer to style her, a painted Jezebel? And what would Mrs. Yale say, +who loved lavender, and had seen a ballet--once? Was Archdeacon ever, +he asked himself, in a position so--so anomalous before? + +"My dear," his wife remarked when he had read his letters one morning, +a week or two later, "I am sure you are not well. I have noticed that +you have not been yourself since you were in London." + +"Nonsense," he replied tartly. + +"It is not nonsense. There is something preying on your mind. I +believe," she persisted, "it is that visitation, Cyprian, that is +troubling you." + +"Visitation? What visitation?" he asked incautiously. For indeed he +had forgotten all about that very important business, and could think +only of a visitation more personal to himself. Before his wife could +hold up her hands in astonishment, "What visitation! indeed!" he had +escaped into the open air. Mrs. Kent was dead. + +Yes, the blow had fallen; but the first shock over, things were made +easy for him. He wrote to his ward as soon after the funeral as seemed +decent, and her answer pleased him greatly. Ready as he was to scent +misbehaviour in the air, he thought it a proper letter, a good girl's +letter. She did not deny his right to give advice. She had not, she +said, seen the gentleman he mentioned since her mother's death, +although Mr. Charles Williams--that was his name--had called several +times. But she had given him an appointment for the following Tuesday, +and was willing that Mr. Yale should see him on that occasion. + +All this in a formal and precise way; but there was something in the +tone of her reference to Mr. Williams which led the Archdeacon to +smile. "She is over head and ears in love," he thought. And in his +reply, after saying that he would be in Sidmouth Street on Tuesday at +the hour named, he added that if there appeared to be nothing against +Mr. Charles Williams he, the Archdeacon, would have pleasure in +forwarding his ward's happiness. + +"I am going to London to-morrow, my dear, for two nights," he said to +his wife on the Sunday evening. "I have some business there." + +Mrs. Yale sat silent for a moment, as if she had not heard. Then she +laid down her book and folded her hands. "Cyprian," she said, "what is +it?" + +The Archdeacon was fussing with his pile of sermons and did not turn. +"What is what, my dear?" he asked. + +"Why are you going to London?" + +"On business, my dear; business," he said lightly. + +"Yes, but what business?" replied Mrs. Yale with decision. "Cyprian, +you are keeping something from me; you were not used to have secrets +from me. Tell me what it is." + +But he remained obstinately silent. He would not tell a lie, and he +could not tell the truth. + +"Is it about Jack?" with sudden conviction. "I know what it is; he has +entangled himself with some girl!" + +The Archdeacon laughed oddly. "You ought to know your son better by +this time, my dear. He is about as likely to entangle himself with a +girl as--as I am." + +But Mrs. Yale shook her head unconvinced. The Archdeacon was a +landowner, though a poor one. It was his ambition, and his wife's, +that Jack should some day be rich enough to live at the Hall, instead +of letting it, as his father found it necessary to do. But while the +Archdeacon considered that Jack's way to the Hall lay over the +woolsack, his wife had in view a short cut through the marriage +market; being a woman, and so thinking it a small sin in a man to +marry for money. Consequently she lived in fear lest Jack should be +entrapped by some penniless fair one, and was not wholly reassured +now. "Well, I shall be sure to find out, Cyprian," she said warningly, +"if you are deceiving me." + +And these words recurred disagreeably to the Archdeacon's mind on his +way to town and afterwards. They rendered him as sensitive as a mole +in the sunshine. He found London almost intolerable. He could not walk +the streets without seeing those horrid placards, nor take up a +newspaper without being stared out of countenance by the name "Kittie +Latouche." While his conscience so multiplied each bill and poster and +programme that in twenty-four hours London seemed to him a great +hoarding of which his ward was the sole lessee. + +Naturally he shrank into himself as he passed down Sidmouth Street +next day. He pondered, standing on the steps of No. 14, what the +neighbours thought of the house; whether they knew that "Kittie +Latouche" lived there. He was spared the giggling and dirty plates on +the stairs, but looking round the room at the ten photographs, and +thinking what Mrs. Yale would say could she see him, he shuddered. +Nervously he picked up the first pamphlet he saw on the table. It was +a trifle in one act: "The Tench," Lacy's edition, by Charles Williams. +He set it down with a grimace, and a word about birds of a feather. +And then the door by which he had entered opened behind him, and he +turned. + +One look was enough. The kindly expression faded from his handsome +features. His face turned to flame. The veins of his forehead swelled +with passion, and he strode forward as though he would lay hands on +the intruder. "How dare you," he cried when he could find his +voice--"how dare you follow me? How dare you play the spy upon me, +sir? Speak!" + +But Jack--for Jack it was--had no answer ready. He seemed to have lost +for once (astonished at being taken in this way, perhaps) his presence +of mind. "I do not--understand," he said helplessly. + +"Understand? You understand," the Archdeacon cried, his son's very +confusion condemning him unheard, "that you have meanly followed me +to--to detect me in--in----" And then he came to a deadlock, and, +redder than before, thundered, "Are you not ashamed of yourself, sir?" + +"I thought I saw a back I knew," Jack muttered, looking everywhere but +at his father, which was terribly irritating. "I was coming through +the street." + +"You were coming through the street? I suppose you often pass through +Sidmouth Street!" retorted the Archdeacon with withering sarcasm. But +his wrath was growing cool. + +"Very often," said Jack so sturdily that his father could not but +believe him, and was further sobered. "I saw a back I thought I knew, +and I came in here. I had no intention of offending you, sir. And now +I think I will go," he added, looking about him uneasily, "and--and +speak to you another time." + +But the Archdeacon's anger was quite gone now. A wretched +embarrassment was taking its place as it dawned upon him that after +all Jack might by pure chance have seen him enter and have followed +innocently. In that case how had he committed himself by his +outbreak--how indeed! "Jack," he said, "I beg your pardon. I beg your +pardon, Jack. I see I was mistaken. Do not go, my boy, until I have +explained to you why I am here. It is not," he went on, smiling a +wretched smile at the pretty faces round him, "quite the place in +which you would expect to find me." + +"It is certainly not the place in which I did expect to find you," +Jack said bluntly. And he looked about him, also in a dazed fashion, +as if the Archdeacon and the photographs were not a conjunction for +which he was prepared. + +"No, no," assented the Archdeacon, wincing, however. "But it is the +simplest piece of business in the world which has brought me here." +And he recalled to his son's memory their talk at the club. + +"Ah, I understand!" Jack said, as if he did, too. "You have come about +your friend's business." + +The Archdeacon could not hide a spasm. "Well, not precisely. To tell +you the truth, there never was a friend, Jack. But," he went on +hurriedly, holding up a hand of dignified protest, for Jack was +looking at him queerly, very queerly, "you know me too well to doubt +me, I hope, when I say there is no ground for doubt?" + +The son's keen eyes met the father's for an instant, and then a rare +smile softened them as the men's hands met. "I do, sir. You may be +sure of that!" he said brightly. + +The Archdeacon cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said; "now I think +you will understand the position. Miss Kent, the young lady in +question, lives here; and I have called to-day to see her by +appointment." + +"The dickens you have! It is like your impudence!" cried some +one--some one behind them. + +Both men swung round at the interruption. In the doorway, holding the +door open with one hand, while with the other set against the wall he +balanced himself on his feet, stood a smart Jewish-looking man. "The +dickens you have!" this gentleman repeated, leering on the two most +unpleasantly. "So that is your game, is it? Ain't you ashamed of +yourself," he continued, addressing himself to the shuddering +Archdeacon--and how far away seemed Vinnells and the lavender, and the +calm delights of Studbury at that moment!--"ain't you ashamed of +yourself, old man?" + +"This is a private room," Jack said sternly, anticipating his father's +outburst. "You do not seem to be aware of it, my friend." + +"A private room, is it?" the visitor replied, closing one eye with +much enjoyment. "A private room, and what then?" + +"This much, that you are requested to leave it." + +"Ho, ho!" the man replied; "so you would put me out of my daughter's +room, would you--out of my own daughter's room? I daresay that you +would like to do it." Then, with a sudden change to ferocity, he +added, "You are bragging above your cards, young man, you are! Dry up, +do you hear? Dry up." + +And Jack did dry up, falling back against the table with a white face. +The Archdeacon, even in his own misery--misery which far exceeded his +presentiments--saw and marvelled at his son's collapse. That Jack, +keen, practical, hard-headed, should be so completely overwhelmed by +collision with this creature, so plainly scared by his insinuations, +infected the Archdeacon with a kind of terror. Yet, struggling against +the feeling, he forced himself to say, "You are Mr. Kent, I presume?" + +"I am, sir; yours to command," swaggered the wretch. + +"Then I may tell you that your daughter," the Archdeacon continued, +resuming something of his natural self-possession, "was left in my +charge by your wife, and that I am here in consequence of that +arrangement." + +"Gammon!" Mr. Kent replied, distinctly, putting his tongue in his +cheek. "Gammon! Do you think that that story will go down with me? Do +you think it will go down with any one?" + +"It is the truth." + +"All right; but look here, when did you see my wife? On her death-bed. +And before that--not for twenty years. Well, what do you make of it +now? Why," he exclaimed, with admiration in his tone, "you have the +impudence of the old one himself! Fie on you, sir! Ain't you ashamed +of hanging about stage doors, and following actresses home at your +age? But I know you. And your friends shall know you, Archdeacon Yale, +of the Athenaeum Club. You will hear more of this!" + +"You are an insolent fellow!" the clergyman cried. But the +perspiration stood in great beads upon his brow, and his quivering +lips betrayed the agony of his soul as he writhed under the man's +coarse insinuations. The awkwardness, the improbability of the tale he +would have to tell in his defence flashed across his mind while the +other spoke. He saw how cogently the silence he had maintained about +the matter would tell against him. He pictured the nudge of one +friend, the wink of another, and his own crimsoning cheeks. His son's +unwonted silence, too, touched him home. Yet he tried to bear himself +as an innocent man; he struggled to give back look for look. "You are +a madman and a scoundrel, besides being drunk!" he said stoutly. "If +it were not so, or--or I were as young as my son here----" + +"I do not see him," the man answered curtly. + +"Jack!" the Archdeacon cried, purple with indignation. "Jack! if you +have a voice, speak to him, sir!" + +"It won't do," Mr. Kent replied, shaking his head. "Call him Charley, +and I might believe you." + +"Charley?" repeated the Archdeacon mechanically. + +"Ay, Charley--Charley Williams. Oh I know him, too," with vulgar +triumph. "I have not been hanging about this house for two days for +nothing. He has been here heaps of times! What you two are doing +together beats me, I confess. But I am certain of this, that I have +caught you both--killed two birds with one stone." + +It was the Archdeacon's turn to fall back, aghast. The light that +shone upon him with those words so blinded him that every spark of his +anger paled and dwindled before it. His son, Charles Williams? He +sought in that son's eyes some gleam of denial. But Jack's eyes +avoided his; Jack's downcast air seemed only too strongly to confirm +the charge. The shock was a severe one, taking from him all thought of +himself. The why and wherefore of his presence there could never again +be questioned. A real sorrow, a real trouble, gave him courage. +"Jack!" he said, "we had better go from here. Come with me. For you, +sir," he continued, turning to the actor, "your suspicions are natural +to you. Nothing I can say will remove them. So be it. They affect me +not one whit. It is enough for me that I came here in all honour, and +with an honourable purpose." + +"Indeed," replied Mr. Kent mockingly. "Indeed? And your son, Mr. +Charles Jack Williams Yale, Archdeacon? No doubt you will answer for +him, as he has not got a word to say for himself? He, too, came with +an honourable purpose, I suppose? Oh yes, of course; we are all +honourable men!" + +For an instant the Archdeacon quailed. He saw the pitfall dug before +him. He knew all that his answer would imply of disappointed hopes and +a vain ambition. He recognised all that might be made of it by his +listeners, friend or foe, and he blenched. But the cynical eye and +sneering lip of the wretch recalled him to himself. Nay, he seemed to +rise above himself, as he replied more sternly, "Yes, sir; I _will_ +answer for my son, as for myself! I will answer for him that he came +here in all honour." + +The man sneered still. But he knew better things if he did not ensue +them, and he stood aside with secret respect and let the two go +unmolested. + +"Sir," Jack said, when they had walked halfway down the street in +silence, which his father showed no sign of breaking, "you are +thinking more ill of me than I deserve." + +"You gave a false name," the Archdeacon snarled. + +"Not in a sense--not wilfully, I mean. I wrote a play some time ago, +and, as is usual for professional men, I submitted it under a _nom de +plume_. I was known as Charles Williams at the theatre, and I had no +more idea of doing wrong when I was introduced to Grissel in that name +than I have now." + +"I hope not," the Archdeacon said grimly. He was not a man to go back +from an engagement. "I trust not," he added with a bitterness. "You +may break your word to the girl if you please, but I will not break +mine to the mother. So help me Heaven!" + +"Sir," Jack said, his utterance a little husky, "God bless you! She is +a good girl, and some day she will honour you as I do." + +They parted without more words. The Archdeacon, hardly master of his +thoughts, walked on until he reached the corner of Oxford Street. +There he paused, and seeing girls pass, young, graceful, soft-eyed, +leaning back in carriages with parcels round them, ay, and thinking +that Jack might have chosen out of all these, while he had chosen +in Sidmouth Street--Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn Road--he could not +stifle a groan. He plunged recklessly across and found himself +presently in St. James' Square, and round and round this he walked, +fighting the battle with himself. His poor wife, that was the burden +of his cry. His poor wife, and the shock it would be to her, and the +downfall of hopes! He knew that she a woman would recoil from such a +daughter-in-law far more than he did, who had known Grissel's mother, +and knew that actresses may be good and true women. It would be +dreadful for her, with her old-world notions; the Archdeacon knew it. +But he valued one thing above even the peace of his home, and that was +his honour. It was not in sarcasm we called him a good man. To break +his word to the dead woman who had trusted him; to leave this girl, +whom it behooved him to protect, in the hands of her wretched father, +and so to leave her with her faith in goodness shattered--this he +could not do. + +But he was tempted to think hard things of Jack, to think that Jack, +who had never given him the heartache before, had better not have been +born than bring this trouble on them. It went no farther than +temptation; and he was marvellously thankful next morning that +he had not framed the thought in words; for, as he entered the +breakfast-room, looking a year older than he had looked, chipping his +egg yesterday, the hall-porter put a telegram into his hands. "Come at +once--Jack," were the words that first made themselves intelligible to +him; and then, a few seconds later, the address "St. Thomas's +Hospital." + +How swiftly does a great misfortune, a great loss, a great pain, expel +a less! I have known a man lose his wife and go heavily for a month, +and then losing a thousand pounds become as oblivious of her as if she +had never been born. But the Archdeacon was not such a man, and +rattling towards Westminster in a cab he felt not only that a thousand +pounds would be a small price to pay for his son's safety, but that, +if Providence should take him at his thought, he might have worse news +for his wife than those tidings which had almost aged him in a night. + +His son, however, met him at the great gates, whole and sound, but +with a grave face. "You are too late, sir," he said quietly. But he +flushed a little at the grasp of his father's hand, and a little more +when the Archdeacon told him to pay the cabman a double fare. "I have +brought you here for nothing. He died a quarter of an hour ago, +sinking very rapidly after I sent to you." + +"Who? Who died?" the Archdeacon asked, pressing one hand heavily on +the other's shoulder, as they walked back towards the bridge. + +"Mr. Kent." + +The elder man said nothing for a while--aloud at least. But presently +he asked Jack to tell him about it. + +"There is little to tell. After we left him he went out. Going home +late last night, and not I fear sober, he was run down by a road-car. +When they brought him to the hospital he was hopelessly injured, but +quite sensible. They fetched his daughter, and then he asked for +me--as your son. He did not know my address, but the assistant-surgeon +happened to be a friend of mine, and did, and he sent a cab for me." + +And really that seemed all. "It is very, very sudden; but--Heaven +forgive me!--I cannot regret his death," the clergyman said. "It is +impossible." + +They had reached the corner of the bridge. "There is something else I +should tell you," Jack said nervously. "When he had sent for me he had +a lawyer brought, and made his will." + +"His will!" the Archdeacon repeated, somewhat startled. "Had he +anything to leave?" He asked the question, rather in pity for so +wretched a creature as the man seemed to him, than out of curiosity. + +"If we may believe him," Jack said slowly, "and I think he was telling +the truth, he was worth thirty thousand pounds." + +"Impossible!" the Archdeacon cried. + +"I do not know," replied Jack. "But we shall learn. He said he had +made it in oil, and had come home a poor man to see how his wife and +child would receive him. I do not think he was all bad," Jack +continued thoughtfully. "There must have been a streak of romance in +him." + +"I fear," the Archdeacon muttered very sensibly, "that it is all +romance!" + +But it was not all romance; there is oil in the States yet, and Mr. +Kent, of whom since he is dead we all speak with respect, by hook or +crook had got his share. The thirty thousand pounds were discovered +pleasantly fructifying in Argentine railways, and proved as many +reasons why Mrs. Yale, when Jack's fate became known to her, should +smile again. The Archdeacon put it neatly: To marry an actress is a +grave offence because a common one, and one easily committed; but to +marry an actress with thirty thousand pounds! Such ladies are not +blackberries, not do they grow on every bush. + + +"Mr. and Mrs. John Yale have not yet established themselves at the +Hall. They live at Henley, and their house is the summer resort of all +kinds of people, among whom the Archdeacon is a very butterfly. An +idea prevails--though a few of us are in the secret--that Mrs. Jack +comes, in common with so many pretty women, of an old Irish family; +and the other day I overheard an amusing scrap of conversation at her +table. 'Mrs. Yale,' some one said, 'do you know that you remind me, I +if may say it without offence, of Miss Kittie Latouche, the actress?'" + +"Indeed?" the lady replied with a charming blush. "But do you know +that you are on dangerous ground? My husband was in love with that +lady before he knew me. And I believe that he regrets her now." + +"Tit for tat!" cried Jack. "Let us all tell tales. If my wife was not +in love with one Mr. Charles Williams a month--only a month--before +she married me, I will eat her." + +"Oh, Jack!" the lady exclaimed, covered with confusion. But this story +would not be believed in Studbury, where Mrs. John passes for being a +little shy, a little timid, and not a little prudish. + + + + + + BAB + + + + + BAB + + + + + CHAPTER I + + HER STORY + + +"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure." + +And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss +which clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the +Sogne Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +there, nor in all the Sogne district, I often thought, so deep and +soft, and of so dazzling an orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +gigantic grey boulders peeping through the moss here and there, very +fit to break your legs if you were careless. Little more than a mile +above us was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope towards +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother--who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny green-backed fishlets--and instead, came +down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and faster, and +deeper and wider, and full, too, of red-speckled yellow trout all +half-a-pound apiece, and very good to eat. + +But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch! + +"Who is, you greedy little chit?" + +"Oh, you know," she answered. "Don't you wish you had your grey plush +here, Bab?" + +I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which father says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got up +and went down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish the +cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the grey plush--and follow +or not as I liked. + +Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to father, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how little truth +there is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and +fished all day and had no one to run her errands--he meant Jack and +the others--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. As if I wanted +to grow an inch! An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a half high, +and father, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst measurer in the +world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her inches for my eyes. +So there! + +After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the grey plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me. I had filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat with a view to that particular +place. + +Our river--pleased to be so young, I suppose--did the oddest things +hereabouts. It was not a great churning stream of snow water foaming +and milky, such as we had seen in some parts, streams which affected +to be always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder +and clearing their paths even while you watched them with your fingers +in your ears. Our river was none of these; still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools. + +To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge on +which the water was shallow, yet deep enough to cover my boots. But I +was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, and as +pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily that I +hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its mouth +as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one time +to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by father at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red tackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered what I had done with it, and was certain it was mine--which +was nothing less than dishonest of her. + +I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish; and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of a +reinforcement was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river. + +"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" some one cried briskly. +"That is better!" + +The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep up +my heart. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" as I watched the top of my rod jigging up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man. + +"No, it will not," he cried bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a little +line with your fingers when he pulls hardest." + +We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness. + +"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I don't know," I answered, wildly. + +What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. Then he +waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he reached +me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands benumbed, +while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon us with a +sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, were +mottling my face all kinds of unbecoming colours. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain. + +"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by-and-by. You must be chilled +through." + +Quickly as I looked at him, I only met a good-humoured smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face; it was trickling from his chin, +and turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his +hands, they looked red and knuckly, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the manlier and nicer +for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for them not a whit. What +I looked like myself I dared not think. My skirts were as short as +short could be, and they were soaked; most of my hair was unplaited, +my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were out of shape. I was +forced, too, to shiver and shake with cold, which was provoking, for I +knew that it made me seem half as small again. + +"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr. ----, Mr. ----?" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with-- + +"Herapath. And to whom have I the honour of speaking?" + +"I am Miss Guest," I said, miserably. It was too cold to be frigid +with advantage. + +"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not soundproof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way." + +"I can't," I said, obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he? + +"Oh yes, you can," he answered, with intolerable good temper. "You +shall take your rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are +now." + +He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretence of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath, that +it would have been more--more----" + +"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. And now it +will be wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!" + +And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hand and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation. + +A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home. + +"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!" + +And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her; and I had +to find comfort in promising myself, that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fraeulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Father was in the plot against me, too. What +right had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home +safe? He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and he is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one, who +did not contradict. It is in their parents, I believe. + +Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see any one but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy--whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest; and once at least during the evening he dubbed me plain +Bab. I tried to freeze him with a look then, and father gave him a +taste of his pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I +seemed. But it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all +down to the grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it +might have opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too +proud for that. + +When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening." + +Here was a chance. I was going to say that that no doubt was the +reason why I had never met him, when father ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?" + +"No," he replied. "I am in the London Fire Brigade." + +I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and his host seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. +The moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our +guest, but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was +dining with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as +surprise would let me with, "Oh, dear, what fun! Do tell me all about +a fire!" + +It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face that he had looked for their +astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager remark to +childish ignorance. + +"Some time I will," he said with a quiet smile _de haut en bas_; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am the Chief's private +secretary, aide-de-camp, and general factotum." + +It turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so that +father lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. Not for a +long time had I been used to young men talking politics to him, when +they could talk--politics--to me. + +Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of course--was +always on the spot fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy father's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of +the pass to get a glimpse of the Sultind peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with colour, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the +dark ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the +drawing-room in Bolton Gardens with a cosy fire burning, and afternoon +tea coming up. The tears came to my eyes, and he saw them before I +could turn away from the view; and said to father that he feared his +little girl was tired as well as cold--and so spoiled all my pleasure. +I looked back afterwards as father and I drove down; he was walking +beside Clare's cariole and they were laughing heartily. + +And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth together viciously and vowed that if ever we met in London--but +what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered nothing to me +what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so rudely familiar. +That was all; but it was quite enough to make me dislike him. + +However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt that I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had, before +his coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hillsides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed when I came upon him fishing; and fishing where he +had no right to be. Father had spoken to him about the danger of it, +and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet he was there, +thinking, I daresay, that we should not know. It was a spot where one +bank rose into a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at the foot of some +falls. Close to the cliff the water ran with the speed of a mill race. +But on the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water so +promising that it had tempted some one to devise means to fish it, +which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above the water +was a ledge, a foot wide, which might have served only it did not +reach the nearer end of the cliff. However, the foolhardy person had +espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the latter with a bit of +plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, in either case +leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise. + +And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who fished there must have learned to +curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were short +for me. I thought of this as I watched him, and I laughed, and was for +going on. But when I had walked a few yards, meaning to pass round the +rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all sorts of foolish things might +happen. I felt sure that I should have no more peace or pleasure if I +left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I would. I would go down, and ask +him to leave the place; and, of course, he would do it. + +I lost no time, but ran down the slope. My way lay over loose shale +mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It is wonderful how +swiftly a thing that cannot be undone is done, and we are left +wishing--oh, so vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in +it, back by a few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when +a big stone on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip +in a mass, and the stone to roll. It was done in a moment. I stayed +myself, that was easy, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board which only rested lightly at either end, and +before I could take it in the little bridge plunged end first into the +current, which swept it out of sight in an instant. + +He threw up his hands, for he had turned, and we both saw it happen. +He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but that was impossible. +Then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his arm to me in the +direction of home--again and again. The roar of the falls drowned what +he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not help him myself, but I +could fetch help. It was three miles to Breistolen, rough rocky ones, +and I doubted whether he could keep his cramped position with that +noise deafening him, and the endless whirling stream before his eyes, +while I was going and coming. But there was no better way; and even as +I wavered, he signalled to me again imperatively. For an instant +everything seemed to go round with me, but it was not the time for +that, and I tried to collect myself, and harden my heart. Up the bank +I went steadily, and once at the top set off at a rim homewards. + +I cannot tell how I did it; how I passed over the uneven ground or +whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning father made +afterwards. I only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I panted +uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, breathless and +half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I slipped and +dropped down places from which I should at other times have shrunk, +and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I thought +nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on for his +life, the clamour of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted over the +bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, father's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand that +Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I knew; and then I +seized a great pole which was leaning against the porch, and climbed +into the car. Father was not slow either; he snatched a coil of rope +from the luggage, and away we went, a man and boy whom he had hastily +called running behind us. We had lost very little time, but so much +may happen in a little time. + +We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from the river, +and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even father, as I had +never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he uttered when +I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one and we all looked. +The ledge was empty. Mr. Herapath was gone. I suppose I was tired out. +At any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way, and cry +without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men shouted to +one another in strange hushed voices and searched about for any sign +of his fate--"James Herapath!" So he had written his name only +yesterday in the travellers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, to hear him say "Bab" +once more! + +"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?" + +Safe and sound! Yes, when I turned he was there, safe, and strong, and +cool, rod in hand, and a smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen him +yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab" +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me +answering a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of +Norse and English, and something that was neither yet both, set in. + +"But how is this?" my father objected, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?" + +"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?" + +"The matter! Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" father +asked, bewildered by the new aspect of the case. + +"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so." + +Every one looked at me for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I asked feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it. + +"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure. Of course I had to +walk back round the hill; but I did not mind. I was thankful that it +was the plank and not you that fell in." + +"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me; +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous. It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But, when he laughed too--and he did until the tears came +into his eyes--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I had cut +my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me one-half +as much. Surely he might have seen another side to it. But he did not; +and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and father drove +me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to bed, and +petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next day, +with an ache in every part of me, he was gone. + +"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met." + +So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly, "he did not say that; he said 'the bravest +little girl.'" For indeed, lying upstairs with the window open I had +heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsoeren. As for father he +was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and wholly at a +loss to think how I could have made the mistake. + +"You've generally some common-sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man was in danger, I--can--not--imagine!" + +"Father," Clare put in suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt." + +And as I had to move my seat at that moment to avoid the glare of the +stove which was falling on my face, we never thought it out. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + HIS STORY + + +I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and partly because I cared little for it. But +these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, the +children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. All +three had a holiday flavour about them wholesome to recall in Scotland +Yard; and as I had expected that, playtime over, I should see no more +of them, I was pleased to find that Mr. Guest had not forgotten me, +and pleased also--foreseeing that we should kill our fish over +again--to regard his invitation to dine at a quarter to eight as a +royal command. + +But if I took it so, I was wanting in the regal courtesy to match. +What with one delay owing to work which would admit of none, and +another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was fifteen +minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton Gardens. A stately +man, so like the Queen's Counsel, that it was plain upon whom the +latter modelled himself, ushered me into the dining-room, where Guest +greeted me kindly, and met my excuses by apologies on his part--for +preferring, I suppose, the comfort of eleven people to mine. Then he +took me down the table, and said, "My daughter," and Miss Guest shook +hands with me and pointed to the chair at her left. I had still, as I +unfolded my napkin, to say, "Clear, if you please," and then I was +free to turn and apologise to her--feeling a little shy, and being, as +I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out. + +I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and, of course, some differences. Miss Guest could not be +more than nineteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, +and with the same child-like innocent look in her face. She had the +big, grey eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but hers were more +tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. Her hair +too was brown and wavy; only, instead of hanging loose or in a +pig-tail anywhere and anyhow in a fashion I well remembered, it was +coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that looked Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose was quite unlike +Bab's. Her dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest +white throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and these, of +course, no more recalled my little fishing mate than the sedate +self-possession and dignity of the girl, as she talked to her other +neighbour, suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the +landlady's children in her wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not Bab +in fact: and yet it might have been: an etherealised, queenly womanly +Bab, who presently turned to me-- + +"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear. + +"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well." + +"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork half-way to her +pretty mouth and her attitude one of questioning. + +"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab." + +She dropped her fork on the plate with a great clatter. + +"Perhaps I should say Miss Clare and Miss Bab." + +I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her colour rose, and she looked +me in the face in an odd way as if she resented the inquiry. It was a +relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, she faltered, "Oh, +yes, I beg your pardon, of course they were! How very foolish of me. +They are quite well, thank you," and so was silent again. But I +understood now. Mr. Guest had omitted to mention my name, and she had +taken me for some one else of whose holiday she knew. I gathered from +the aspect of the table and the room that the Guests saw much company, +and it was a very natural mistake, though by the grave look she bent +upon her plate it was clear that the young hostess was taking herself +to task for it: not without, if I might judge from the lurking smile +at the corners of her mouth, a humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps +of the difference between myself and the gentleman whose part I had +been unwittingly supporting. Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at +her unchecked; and thought of Dresden china, she was so dainty. + +"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others. + +"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not real to dignify her heroism." + +"That was like her," she answered in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tom-boy." + +While she was speaking there came one of those dreadful lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried, "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion." + +"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, father," she answered, +archly. "It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath--" I had murmured my +name as she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now tell me, did you not +think so?" she murmured, leaning the slightest bit towards me, and +opening her eyes as they looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating. + +"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little thing, +rather careless as children are, but likely to grow into a charming +girl." + +I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful +neighbour. Her tone when she spoke of her sister seemed to import no +great goodwill. + +"You think so?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," with a +laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?" + +"Yes," I answered, gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who +have seen you both and am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has beautiful eyes"--she lowered hers +swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style are different. +I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture you, Miss +Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after occasions," +I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at the queer +little figure I conjured up. + +"Thank you," she replied--and for some reason she blushed to her ears. +"That, I think, must be enough of compliments for to-night--as you are +not an old friend." And she turned away, leaving me to curse my folly +in saying so much, when our acquaintance was in the bud, and as +susceptible to over-warmth as to a temperature below zero. + +A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek lingered, as she swept past me with a wondrous show of dignity +in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, and we +talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, while the +rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from time to +time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies. + +I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why, they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a charm in a lady's drawing-room, and +there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind. A charm and a +subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing-room--a +room rich in subdued colours and a cunning blending of luxury and +comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt myself alone. Mr. Guest had +passed on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of +these people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I +had been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at +the piano, the centre of a circle of soft light, which showed up a +keen-faced, close-shaven man leaning over her with the air of one used +to the position. Every one else was so fully engaged that I may have +looked, as well as felt, forlorn; at any rate, meeting her eyes I +could have fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost with +triumph. It must have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for +the next moment she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier-- + +"There, Jack, Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fraeulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything." + +There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favour in the face of other +guests. That young man's manner as he left her, and the smile of +intelligence which passed between them, were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled any one. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know. + +She did not speak; and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it?" + +She looked up, saw what I meant, and stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearances so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble. And the coincidence struck me." + +"Yes, I remember," she answered, looking at me I thought with a +certain suspicion, as though she were not sure that I was giving the +right motive. "I did this in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't +it a hateful disfigurement?" + +It was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of conquest +it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement--had she known what +the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood looking +shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she asked him +twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing for that soft, +scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added another to the +number of her slaves. I don't know now why the blemish should have so +touched me any more than I could then guess why, being a commonplace +person, I should fall in love at first sight and feel no surprise at +my condition, but only a half-consciousness that in some former state +of being I had met my love, and read her thoughts, and learned her +moods; and come to know the womanly spirit that looked from her eyes +as well as if she were an old friend. But so vivid was this sensation, +that once or twice, then and afterwards, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound. + +After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmace's dance?" she asked. + +"No," I answered her, humbly. "I go out so little." + +"Indeed?" with an odd smile not too kindly. "I wish--no I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you called her?" + +"Bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable. + +"Oh, yes, Bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and suddenly +she cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a terrific +discord and laughing at my start of discomfiture. Every one took it as +a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to meet her next day, +or the day after that. They engaged her for dances, and made up a +party for the play, and tossed to and fro a score of laughing +catch-words, that were beyond my comprehension. They all did this, +except myself. + +And yet I went away with something before me--the call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied that I should see her alone. +And so when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the +drawing-room, and heard voices and laughter behind it, I was hurt and +aggrieved beyond measure. There was a party, and a merry one, +assembled; who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I +caught sight of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, +and striving by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed +cheeks. The close-shaven man was there, and two men of his kind, and a +German governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, as bright and fair and graceful as I had been +picturing her each hour since we parted. + +She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you be blindfold, or will you +play the part of Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, +while I say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with this +gentleman--he is neighbour Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? +Clare does not so misbehave every day, only it is a wet afternoon and +so cold and wretched, and we did not think there would be any more +callers--and tea will be up in five minutes." + +She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot. + +It was a simple game, and not likely, one would say, to afford much +risk of that burning of the fingers, which gave a zest to the Vicar of +Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blindfolded, while the rest +disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one by +one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming the +speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn heard +things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's health. +The _role_ presently fell to me, and proved a heavy one, because I was +not so familiar with the others' voices as were the rest; and Miss +Guest--whose faintest tones I thought I should know--had a wondrous +knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's voice, and now--after the +door had been opened to admit the tea--her father's. So I failed again +and again to earn my relief. But when a voice behind me cried with +well-feigned eagerness-- + +"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!"--then, though no fresh +creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been given of an +addition to the players, I had no doubt who spoke, but exclaimed at +once, "That is Bab! Now I cry you mercy. I am right this time. That +was Bab!" + +I looked for a burst of applause such as had before attended a good +thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my words so odd a +silence fell upon the room that it was clear that something was wrong. +And I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, repeating, "That was Bab, I +am sure." + +But if it was, I could not see her. And what had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were bent upon +sniggering. Clare looked startled, and grandmamma gently titillated, +while Miss Guest, who had risen and turned away towards the windows, +seemed to be annoyed with some one. What was the matter? + +"I beg every one's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way; "but have I said anything wrong?" + +"Oh, dear no," cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologise to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!" + +"Jack, how dare you?" Miss Guest exclaimed, stamping her foot. + +"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded natural, I am sure. Well done, +I thought." + +"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare? Mr. +Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was Barbara." + +"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!" + +"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare the friend's privilege of being rude. I +forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you shall come off +the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since you are the +greatest stranger. It is a stupid game after all!" + +She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and so excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me no opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out; by +what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help Jack to +muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him! How slow I was to find +hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I turned +my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience an +acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. And +so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but the door-handle +was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid, as I fumbled with it. "We +are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. Herapath," +she murmured carelessly--and I found myself in the street. + +So carelessly she had said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of other fellows parading their favour? With the babble of +that society chit-chat, which I had often scorned, and--still scorned, +and had no part or concern in. They were not people to suit me, or do +me good. I would not go, I said, and I repeated it firmly on Monday +and Tuesday; on Wednesday I so far modified it that I thought at some +distant time I would leave a card--to avoid discourtesy. On Friday I +preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on Saturday I +walked shame-faced down the street and knocked and rang, and went +upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next Saturday +too, and the next, and the next; and that one when we all went to the +theatre, and that other one when Mr. Guest kept me to dinner. Ay, and +on other days that were not Saturdays, among which two stand high out +of the waters of forgetfulness--high days indeed--days like twin +pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to reach, as did the +seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown lands stretching +away under the setting sun. First that Wednesday on which I found +Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to wish to +make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or badly--told my +tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside. + +"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath. +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are under a delusion." + +"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried. + +"It is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will not take +an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise you +nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly. And she fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly, as I might. + +I longed for a great fire that evening, and failing one, I tired +myself by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach +myself that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a +sentiment, a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the +want and toil of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that +opened to right and left. In the main, I failed; but the effort did me +good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I were +going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial. + +"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work-basket, the music upon the piano, the table-easel, her +photograph. And I wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting. + +"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that grew into a conviction, +a certainty that the girl standing before me in the short-skirted +brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was the Bab I had +known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not mistake them now, +no matter what unaccustomed look they might wear--were Barbara +Guest's! + +"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?" + +"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a toy, and a plaything, with which you might be as +intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day, and hour by hour?" + +"But surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now!" + +"You are not," she retorted. "Don't say you have offered love to me, +who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes, and my pearls and my maid's work! +not with me. You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value." + +"How old are you?" I said, hoarsely. + +"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent. + +"I begin to understand now," I answered as soon as I could conquer +something in my throat. "Long ago when I hardly knew you, I hurt your +woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----" + +"No, you have tricked yourself!" + +"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is more complete than +you are able to understand. I loved you this morning above all the +world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell you this that +you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone." + +"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face. + +"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-bye." + +With that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so that +the little hands she raised as though they could ward off my words +were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I could +hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not all with +her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat and +go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which my +eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all. + +Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried-- + +"Oh, Bab, I love you so! Let us part friends." + +For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine, "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I told you only that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love." + +"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl. + +"She learned long ago, poor girl!" + +The fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting-place. + +"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir." + +"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose." + +And Bab blushed. I believe she did. + + + + + + GERALD + + + + + GERALD + + +I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and _bizarre_. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that some one would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play. + +Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people. + +I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path round the oval garden; +which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in London. This +part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged from it and +recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of Fitzhardinge +Street, I had an advantage over persons on the pavement. They were +under the lamps, while I, coming from the shadow under the trees, was +invisible. + +The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and standing at it was an elderly man-servant out of livery, who +looked up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement beside him. My surprise was great when he +uttered an exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if he +would retreat; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew so +pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely at +his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood, returning his +gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, and +his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, he cried, +"Oh! Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" in a tone that rang in the stillness +more like a wail than an ordinary cry. + +My name, my surname I mean, is George. For a moment I took the address +to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger; and my heart began +to beat more quickly with fear of what might have happened. "What is +it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I pulled from the lower part of my +face the silk muffler I was wearing. The evening was close, but I had +been suffering from a sore throat. + +He came nearer and peered more closely at me and I dismissed my fear; +for I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning upon him. His +pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable, seeing that +his plump features were those of a man with whom the world went well, +regained some of its lost colour, and a sigh of relief passed his +lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of escape from +whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place to his previous state +of expectancy of something. + +"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my immense astonishment, +he did not. With a visible effort he said "No!" + +"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two. + +"No, sir." + +"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?" + +Watching his shuffling indeterminate manner I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me. There was an almost desperate +deliberation in his manner. "My master wishes to see you, sir," was +what he said, "if you will kindly walk in for five minutes." + +I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But often the mind when it is +spurred by an emergency over-runs the more obvious course to adopt a +worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure? Have you not made a mistake, my +man?" + +With a sullenness that was new in him, he said, No, he had not. Would +I please to walk in? He stepped forward as he spoke, and induced me by +a kind of urgency to enter the house, taking from me with the ease of +a trained servant my hat, coat, and muffler. Finding himself in the +course of his duties he gained composure; while I, being thus treated, +lost my sense of the strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to +a full consciousness of my position when he had shut the door behind +us and was putting up the chain. + +Then I confess I looked round, alarmed at my easiness. But I found the +hall spacious, lofty, and dark-panelled, the ordinary hall of an old +London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants in flower. +There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with painted +crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, its poles +upright against the wall. + +No other servants were visible. But apart from this all was in order, +all was quiet, and the notion of violence was manifestly absurd. + +At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he hang about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show the excitement, even the terror, which I had witnessed? Why +should he introduce a stranger? + +I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a Venus of white Parian marble. They were not common +reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a Hercules and a +Meleager, and delicately tinted draperies and ottomans that under the +light of a silver hanging-lamp--a gem from Malta--changed a mere lobby +to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me with a certain suspicion; +which was dispelled, however, when my hand rested for an instant upon +the pedestal that supported one of the statues. The cold touch of the +marble was enough. The pillars were not of composite; as they +certainly would have been in a gaming-house, or worse. + +Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway by +which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon him +again. His impatience was so ill-concealed that I was not surprised, +though I was taken aback, when he dropped the mask. As I passed +him--it being now too late for me to retreat undiscovered, if the room +were occupied--he laid a trembling hand on my arm and thrust his face +close to mine. "Ask how he is!" he whispered, trembling. "Say +anything, no matter what, sir! Only, for the love of Heaven, stay five +minutes!" + +He gave me a gentle push as he spoke--pleasant all this!--and +announced in a loud quavering voice, "Mr. George!"--which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long dimly-lighted room, fell with a brisk +rattling sound. This was followed by the scuffling noise of a person, +still hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet. + +Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore grey moustaches and would have seemed in place at +a service club, was still seated. He regarded me with a perfectly +unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +he was as good-looking in a different way. But his face was white and, +unless I was mistaken, was distorted by the same terror--ay, and a +darker terror than that which I had surprised in the servant's +features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He looked as a +man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an outsider--and +done it twice. In that quiet drawing-room by the side of his placid +companion, with nothing in their surroundings to account for his +emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me inexpressibly. + +They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess-table, its +men in disorder. Almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if but for its support he would have fallen. + +To add one more fact; I had never seen either of them in my life. + +Or wait; could that be true? If so, I must be dreaming. For the elder +man broke the silence by addressing me in a quiet ordinary tone that +matched his face. "Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I +did not expect you this evening." He held out his hand, without rising +from his chair, and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you +were in Liverpool. How are you?" he continued. + +"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically. + +"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold. It is nothing worse, my boy, is it?" with +anxiety. + +"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life. + +"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, pleasure! + +It was otherwise with his companion. He had made no advances to me, +spoken no word, scarcely altered his position. His eyes he had never +taken from me. Yet there was a change in him. He had discovered his +mistake, as the butler had discovered his. The terror was gone from +his face, and a malevolence not much more pleasant to witness had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in an active form was part +of the mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise from glances +which he cast from time to time towards the door, and from the +occasional creaking of a board in that direction, that his +self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The inconsequences +of dreamland ran through it all. Why the elder man remained in error; +why the younger with that passion on his face was tongue-tied; why the +great house was so still; why the servant should have mixed me up with +the business at all--these were questions as unanswerable, one as the +other. + +And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him. "Now, Gerald!" he cried in sharp tones, "have you put those +pieces back? Good heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves like +yours! Don't remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to me!" With a +hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass over the +board, he sat down the half-dozen pieces with a rapid tap! tap! tap! +which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no doubt of +their various positions. + +"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, in a voice more genial than that which he +had used to Gerald. "I suppose you are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the enclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the other to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her." + +"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering. + +"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! Ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service." + +Gerald made a hurried move, the piece rattling upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--now behind the screen listening--have read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his--Ah! That +much was disclosed. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind! + +I began to see more clearly now. And from this moment I took up, in my +own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant who had impelled +me into the middle of the scene had had good reasons for doing so, as +I began to discern. But with a clue to the labyrinth in my hand I +could no longer move passively. I must act for myself. For a while I +sat still and made no sign. But my suspicions were presently +confirmed. The elder man more than once scolded his opponent for +playing slowly; in one of the intervals caused by his opponent's +indecision he took from an inside pocket of his waistcoat a small +packet. + +"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are +originals in it, they will be more safe with you than with me. You can +tell me all about it, now you are here. Gerald will leave us +presently." + +He held the papers towards me. To take them was to take an active part +in the imposture, and I hesitated, my hand half outstretched. But my +eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, and my +scruples took themselves off. He was eyeing the packet with an intense +greed, with a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers, to +fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I took the papers. +With a quiet, but I think a significant, look in his direction, I +placed them in the breast-pocket of my coat. I had no safer receptacle +about me, or into that they would have gone. + +"Very well, sir," I said. "There is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow." + +"So much the better. You ought not to be out with such a cold, my +boy," he continued. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon? The servants are all at the theatre--Gerald begged a +holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a minute." + +"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself, while they played. + +But I was out in my reckoning. "I will have mine also now," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?" + +Gerald jumped up to do it with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself, when he should have attended to his +father--if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those +papers in my pocket. The more I thought of it, the more certain I +became that they were the object of whatever deviltry was on foot; and +that possession of them gave me the whip-hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him. + +Perhaps I was a little too confident; a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the whip-hand. A creak of +the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It fell upon +my ear trumpet-tongued: it contained, I know not what note of warning. +I glanced up with a conviction that I was napping, and looked +instinctively towards the young man. He was busy at the tray, his back +to me. Relieved of my fear of something--perhaps a desperate attack +upon my pocket, I was removing my eyes, when I caught sight of his +reflection in a small mirror beyond him. + +What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless--I could fancy him breathless also--a +listening expression on his face; which seemed to me to have faded to +a greyish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled tumbler; the +other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during perhaps a +second, a small lamp upon the tray before him illumining his handsome +figure; then his eyes, glancing up, met the reflection of mine in the +mirror. Swiftly as thought could pass from brain to limb, the hand +which had been resting in the pocket flashed with a clatter among the +glasses; and turning as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the +chess-table, and set it down unsteadily. + +What had I seen! Actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been doing. +Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a losing crew. +I rose abruptly. + +"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass, "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it." + +He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. The +young man's colour, though he faced me hardily, shifted, and he seemed +to be swallowing a succession of oversized fives-balls. But his eyes +met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was not without its gleam of +triumph. I was persuaded that all was right before his father said so. + +"Perhaps you have mixed for me?" I suggested pleasantly. + +"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back towards me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before. + +The blind man's ear recognized the tone. "I wish you boys would agree +better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon play +chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the game if +you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came in, you +have not made a move which any one save an imbecile would make. Go to +bed, boy! Go to bed!" + +I had stepped to the table while he spoke. One of the glasses was +full. I lifted it with seeming unconcern to my nose. There was whisky +in it as well as water. Then _had_ Gerald mixed for me? At any rate, I +put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set the glass +down--and empty, my mind was made up. + +"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir," I said quietly, "so I +will. I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it will +suit you. To-night I feel inclined to get to bed early." + +"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +to-morrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?" + +"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?" + +"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club." + +"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a colour which does not go well with a black moustache--I +walked out of the room, which looked so peaceful, so cosy, so softly +lighted, I went downstairs. I hoped that I had paralysed the young +fellow, and might leave the house without molestation. + +But as I gained the foot of the stairs he tapped me on the shoulder. I +saw then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace of +the defiance which had marked his manner upstairs was gone. His face +was still pale, but it wore a smile as we confronted one another under +the hall lamp. "I have not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me +thank you for your help," he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of +frank spontaneity. "Barnes' idea of bringing you in was a splendid +one, and I am greatly obliged to you." + +"Don't mention it," I answered, proceeding with my preparations for +going out, as if he were not there. Although I must confess that this +complete change in him exercised my mind no little. + +"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as the cold is yours and not my brother's, +you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow instead of +keeping you from your bed to-night?" + +"It will do equally well--indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat, and buttoning it across my chest, while I affected to be +looking with curiosity at the sedan chair. + +He pointed to the place where the packet lay. "You are forgetting the +papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the answer, "To be +sure!" + +But I had made up my mind, and I answered instead, "Not at all. They +are quite safe, thank you!" + +"But you don't--I beg your pardon----" He opened his eyes very wide as +he spoke, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind +and he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?" + +"Certainly." + +"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George." + +"Just so!" was all I said. And I took a step towards the door. + +"You mean to take them?" he asked seriously. + +"I do; unless you can explain the part I have played this evening. And +also make it clear to me that you have a right to the possession of +the papers." + +"Confound it! If I must do so to-night, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honour, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I +bowed, and he went on: "My elder brother and I are in business +together. Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely +that a day or two ago we decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and +ask his help. George did so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes +of our liabilities. You ask why he did not make such a statement by +word of mouth? Because he had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice +to make a last effort to arrange the matter. As for me," with a +curious grimace, "my father would as soon discuss business with his +dog! Sooner!" + +"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was nicking the blossoms off the +geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket-handkerchief, looking +moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I can see it now. It had a red border, and was +heavily scented with white rose. "Well?" + +"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing, and this morning his doctor made him see Bristowe. He is an +authority on heart-disease, as you know; and his opinion is," he added +in a lower voice and with some emotion, "that even a slight shock may +prove fatal." + +I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket. + +"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade; and my first impulse was to get these papers from him. +All day I have been trying in vain to effect it. I took Barnes, who is +an old servant, into my confidence, but we could think of no plan. My +father, like many people who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I +was at my wits' end when Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he +added, looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into +my head, I fancy. Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you +announced--for a moment I thought that you were George." + +"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in. + +He coloured, but answered immediately, "I was afraid that he would +assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out something. +Good lord! if you knew the funk in which I have been all the evening +lest my father should ask me to read the letter!" He gathered up his +handkerchief with a sigh, and wiped his forehead. + +"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly over what he +had told me. To tell the truth, I was in no slight quandary what I +should do, or what I should believe. Was this really the key to it +all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had constructed was a +mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest? For the life of me I +could not tell! + +"Well, sir?" he said, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?" + +"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said. + +"Ask on," he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed. + +"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in your +waistcoat pocket?" + +He flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began to stammer. +Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will be frank +with you, Mr. Mr.----" + +"George," I said. + +"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to administer to my father--without his +knowledge, if possible--should he grow excited. I did not think that +you had seen it." + +Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, while +he gave this explanation his breath came and went so quickly that my +former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said-- + +"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?" + +"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point blank. + +"You cannot give them to me?" he repeated. + +"No. Moreover the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that the packet is out of your father's +hands--by keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your +brother, from whom it came." + +"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way. + +"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once." + +He considered the offer, eyeing me the while with the same disfavour +which he had exhibited in the drawing-room. At last he said +slowly-- + +"If you will do that?" + +"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately." + +He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +North-Western Hotel, Liverpool," and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good night on either +side--and little liking--the clocks striking midnight, and the +servants coming in as I passed into the cool darkness of the square. + +Late as it was, I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar-box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution, merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt. + +Some days passed during which it may be imagined that I thought no +little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and the +Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives--at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence which +did not lend itself freely to explanation. Or I might disbelieve his +story, plausible in its very strangeness as it was, in favour of my +own vague suspicions. Which was I to do? + +I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, notwithstanding +that I had to some extent committed myself by withholding the papers. +But with each day that passed without bringing an answer from +Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the other side. I began to pin my +faith to the tiger, adding each morning a point to the odds in the +animal's favour. So it went on until ten days had passed. + +Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I declare, because I thought +it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George Ritherdon. I +had no difficulty in learning where he could be found. I turned up the +firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), cotton-spinners and +India merchants, in the first directory I consulted. And about noon +the next day I called at their place of business, and sent in my +card to the senior partner. I waited five minutes--curiously scanned +by the porter, who without doubt saw a likeness between me and his +employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's room. + +He was a tall man with a fair beard, not a whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good-looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +greyer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving-glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed to be +in ill-health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only +noticed his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and +the young one's tale was true after all!" George Ritherdon was in deep +mourning. + +"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago." + +He looked at my card, which he held in his hand. + +"I think not," he said slowly. + +"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and North-Western +Hotel, at Liverpool." + +He was stepping to his writing-table, but he stopped. "I was in +Liverpool," he answered in a different tone, "but I was not at that +hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?" + +"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there." + +"Perhaps you had better explain," he suggested, speaking in the weary +tone of one returning to a painful matter, "what was the subject of +your letter. I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may +well have been overlooked." + +I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the story of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to occasional +exclamations, until I came to the arrangement I had made with his +brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain. + +"Enough!" he said. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some stranger. I +understand it all now." + +"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?" + +He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said, warmly, "that your brother is +a----" + +"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand. "He is dead." + +"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed. + +"Have you not seen it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he said +wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at Liverpool, +at the hotel you have named, and the day after you saw him." + +And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them, the one being as cold, business-like, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous. + +"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempt +failed; then he planned with Barnes' cognisance to get possession of +the packet by drugging my father. Barnes' courage deserted him at the +last; he called you in, and--you know the rest." + +"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool." + +George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not in it. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot was in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, re-sealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!" + +"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said? + +It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that which +leads through Fitzhardinge Square. + + + + + + JOANNA'S BRACELET + + + + + JOANNA'S BRACELET + + +On a morning early in the spring of last year, two men stood leaning +against the mantelpiece of a room in one of the Government offices. +The taller of the two--he who was at home in the room--was a slim, +well-dressed man, wearing his hair parted in the middle, and a diamond +pin in the sailor knot of his tie. He had his frock-coat open, and his +thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat. The attitude denoted +complacency, and the man was complacent. + +"Well, the funny part of it is," he said lightly, his shoulders +pressed against the mantelpiece, "that I am dining at the Burton +Smiths' this evening!" + +"Ah?" his companion answered, looking at him with eyes of envy. "And +so you will see her?" + +"Of course. She is to come to them to-day. But they do not know of our +engagement yet, and as she does not want to blurt it out the moment +she arrives--why, for this evening, it is a secret. Still I thought I +would tell you." + +He stepped away as he spoke, to straighten a red morocco-covered +despatch-box, which stood on the table behind him. It bore, in +addition to the flaunting gilt capitals "I.O.," a modest plate with +the name "Ernest Wibberley"--his name. + +The other waited until he resumed his place. Then, holding out his +hand, "Well, I am glad you told me, old boy," he said. "I congratulate +you most heartily, believe me." + +"Thank you, Jack," Wibberley replied. "I knew you would. I rather feel +myself that 'Fate cannot harm me. I have dined to-day.'" + +"Happy dog!" said Jack; and presently he took himself off. + +The Burton Smiths, of whom we've heard them speak, are tolerably well +known in London. Burton Smith himself is a barrister with money and +many relations--Irish landlords, Scotch members, Indian judges, and +the like. His wife is young, gracious, and fond of society. Their +drawing-rooms, though on the topmost flat of Onslow Mansions--rooms +with sloping ceilings and a dozen quaint nooks and corners--are seldom +empty during the regulation hours. + +This particular dinner-party had been planned with some care. "Lady +Linacre will come, no doubt," Mrs. Burton Smith had said one day at +breakfast, conning a list she held in her hand; "and Mr. May." + +But Burton Smith objected to May. "He will talk about nothing but +India," he protested, "and the superiority of Calcutta to London. A +little of these Bombay ducks goes a long way, my dear." + +"Well, James," Mrs. Burton Smith replied placidly--the Hon. Vereker +May is a son of Lord Hawthorn--"he will take me in, and I do not mind. +Only I must have Mr. Wibberley on the other side to make conversation +and keep me alive. Let me see--that will be three. And Joanna +Burton--she comes that afternoon--four. Do you know, James, when we +were at Rothley for Christmas I thought there was something between +your cousin and Mr. Wibberley?" + +"Then, for goodness' sake, do not let them sit together!" Burton Smith +cried, "or they will talk to one another and to no one else." + +"Very well," Mrs. Smith assented. "They shall sit facing one another, +and Mr. Wibberley shall take in Mrs. Galantine. She will be sure to +flirt with him, and we can watch Joanna's face. I shall soon see if +there is anything between them." + +Mr. Wibberley was a young man of some importance, if only in his +capacity of private secretary to a Minister. He had a thousand +acquaintances, and two friends--perhaps three. He might be something +some day--was bound to be. He dressed well, looked well, and talked +well. He was a little presumptuous, perhaps a trifle conceited; but +women like these things in young men, and he had tact. At any rate, he +had never yet found himself in a place too strait for him. + +This evening as he dressed for dinner--as he brushed his hair, or +paused to smile at some reflection--his own, but not in the glass--he +was in his happiest mood. Everything seemed to be going well with him. +He had no presentiment of evil. He was going to a house where he was +appreciated. Mrs. Burton Smith was a great ally of his. And then there +would be, as we know, some one else. Happy man! + +"Lady Linacre," said his hostess, as she introduced him to a stout +personage with white hair, a double chin, and diamonds. Wibberley +bowed, making up his mind that the dowager was one of those ladies +with strong prejudices, who drag their skirts together if you prove to +be a Home Ruler, and leave the room if you mention Sir Charles Dilke. +"Mr. May, you have met before," Mrs. Smith continued; "and you know +Miss Burton, I think?" + +He murmured assent, while she--Joanna--shook hands with him frankly +and with the ghost of a smile, perhaps. He played his part well, for a +moment; but halted in his sentence as it flashed across his mind that +this was their first meeting since she had said "Yes." He recovered +from his momentary embarrassment, however, before even Mrs. Burton +Smith could note it, and promptly offered Mrs. Galantine his arm. + +She was an old friend of his--as friends go in society. He had taken +her in to dinner half a dozen times. "Who is that girl?" she asked, +when they were seated; and she raised her glasses and stared through +them at her _vis-a-vis_. "I declare she would be pretty if her nose +were not so short." + +He seized the excuse to put up his glass too, and take a long look. +"It is rather short," he admitted, gazing with a whimsical sense of +propriety at the deficient organ. "But some people like short noses, +you know, Mrs. Galantine." + +"Ah! And theatres in August!" she replied incredulously. "And +drawing-room games! But, seriously, she would be pretty if it were not +for that." + +"Would she?" he questioned. "Well, I think she would, do you know?" + +And certainly Joanna was pretty, though her forehead was too large, +and her nose too small, and her lips too full. For her eyes were +bright and her complexion perfect, and her face told of wit, and good +temper, and freshness. She had beautiful arms, too, for a chit of +nineteen. Mrs. Galantine said nothing about the arms--not out of +modesty, but because her own did not form one of her strong points. +Wibberley, however, was thinking of them, and whether a bracelet he +had by him would fit them. He saw Joanna wore a bracelet--a sketchy +gold thing. He considered whether he should take it for a pattern, or +whether it might not be more pleasant to measure the wrist for +himself. + +But Mrs. Galantine returned to the charge. "She is a cousin, is she +not?" she asked, speaking so loudly that Joanna looked across and +smiled. "I have never met her before. Tell me all about her." + +Tell her all about her! Wibberley gasped. He saw a difficulty in +telling "all about her," the more as the general conversation was not +brisk, and Joanna must bear a part. For an instant, indeed, his +presence of mind failed him, and he cast an appalled glance round the +table. Then he bent to his task. "Mrs. Galantine," he murmured +sweetly, "pray--pray beware of becoming a potato!" + +The lady dropped her knife and fork with a clatter. "A potato, Mr. +Wibberley? What do you mean?" + +"What I say," he answered simply. "You see my plate? It is a picture. +You have there the manly beef, and the feminine peas, so young, so +tender! And the potato! The potato is the confidante. It is insipid. +Do you not agree with me?" + +"Bravo, Mr. Wibberley! But am I to apply your parable?" she spoke +sharply, glancing across the table, with her fork uplifted, and a pea +upon it. "Am I to be the potato?" + +"The choice is with you," he replied gallantly. "Shall it be the +potato? or the peas?" + +Mrs. Burton Smith, seeing him absorbed in his companion, was +puzzled. Look as she might at Joanna, she saw no sign of jealousy or +self-consciousness. Joanna seemed to be getting on perfectly with her +partner; to be enjoying herself to the full, and to be as much +interested as any one at table. Mrs. Burton Smith sighed. She had the +instinct of matchmaking. And she saw clearly now that there was +nothing between the two; that if there had been any philandering +at Rothley neither of the young people had put out a hand--or a +heart--beyond recovery. + +But this success of Wibberley's with Mrs. Galantine had its +consequences. After the ladies had withdrawn he grew a trifle +presumptuous. By ill-luck, the Hon. Vereker May had reached that +period of the evening when India--as seen through the glasses of his +memory--was accustomed to put on its rosiest tints; and the two facing +one another fell to debating on a subject of which the returned +Civilian had seen much and thought little, and the private secretary +had read more and thought not at all. They were therefore on a par as +to information, and what the younger man lacked in obstinacy he made +up in readiness. It was in vain the Nabob blustered, asserted, +contradicted--finally grew sulky, silent, stertorous. Wibberley pushed +his triumph, and soon paid dearly for it. + +It happened that he was the last to enter the drawing-room. The +evening was chilly, and the ladies had grouped themselves about the +fire, protected from assault, by a couple of gipsy-tables bearing +shaded lamps. The incomers, one by one, passed through these +outworks--all but Wibberley. He cast a glance of comic despair at +Joanna, who was by the fireplace in the heart of the citadel; then, +resigning himself to separation, he took a low chair by one of the +tables, and began to turn over the books which lay on the latter. +There were but half a dozen. He scanned them all, and then his eyes +fell on a bracelet which lay beside them; a sketchy gold bracelet, +with one big boss--Joanna's. + +He looked at the party--himself sitting a little aside, as we have +said. They were none of them facing his way. They were discussing a +photograph on the overmantel, a photograph of children. He extended +his hand and covered the bracelet. He would take it for a pattern, and +to-morrow Joanna should ransom it. He tried, as his fingers closed on +it, to catch her eye. He would fain have seen her face change and her +colour rise. It would have added to the charm which the boyish, +foolish act had for him, if she had been privy to it--yet unable to +prevent it. + +But she would not look; and he was obliged to be content with his +plunder. He slid the gold trifle deftly under the fringe of the table, +and clasped it round his arm--not a lusty arm--thrusting it as high as +it would go that no movement of his shirt-cuff might disclose it. He +had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and he would not for the world +that any besides Joanna should see the act: that doddering old fossil +May, for instance, who, however, was safe enough--standing on the rug +with his back turned, and his slow mind forming an opinion on the +photograph. + +Then--or within a few minutes, at any rate--Wibberley began to find +the party dull. He saw no chance of a private word with Joanna. Lady +Linacre, his nearest neighbour, was prosing on to Mrs. Burton Smith, +his next nearest. And he himself, after shining at dinner, had fallen +into the background. Hang it, he would go! It was ten o'clock. + +He rose, and was stooping across the table, murmuring his excuses to +Mrs. Burton Smith, when Lady Linacre uttered an exclamation. He was +leaning across her between her head and the lamp, and he fancied he +had touched her head-dress. "Pray pardon me, Lady Linacre!" he cried +gaily. "I am just going--I have to leave early. So the encroachment +will be but for a moment." + +"It is not that," the old lady replied. "But where is my bracelet?" +She was feeling about the table as she spoke, shifting with her white, +podgy hands the volumes that lay on it. + +No one on the instant took in the situation. Mrs. Burton Smith had +risen, and was listening to Wibberley. The others were talking. But +Lady Linacre was used to attention; and when she spoke again her voice +was shrill, and almost indecently loud. "Where is my bracelet?" she +repeated. "The one with the Agra diamond that I was showing you, Mrs. +Burton Smith. It was here a moment ago, and it is gone! It is gone!" + +Wibberley was still speaking to his hostess. He heard the old lady's +words, but did not at once apply them. He finished his leave-taking at +his leisure, and only as he turned recollected himself, and said, with +polite solicitude, "What is it, Lady Linacre? Have you dropped +something? Can I find it for you?" + +He stooped as he spoke; and she drew her skirt aside, and both peered +at the floor, while there was a chorus from those sitting nearest of, +"What is it, Lady Linacre? Dear Lady Linacre, what have you lost?" + +"My Agra diamond!" she replied, her head quivering, her fingers +groping about her dress. + +"No?" some one said in surprise. "Why, it was here a moment ago. I saw +it in your hand." + +The old lady held up her wrists. "See!" she said fussily, "I have not +got it!" + +"But are you sure it is not in your lap?" Burton Smith suggested. Lady +Linacre had rather an ample lap. By this time the attention of the +whole party had been drawn to the loss, and one or two of the most +prudent were looking uncomfortable. + +"No," she answered; "I am quite sure that I placed it on the table by +my side. I am sure I saw it there. I was going to put it on when the +gentlemen came in, and I laid it down for a minute, and--it is gone!" + +She was quite clear about it, and looked at Wibberley for +confirmation. The table stood between them. She thought he must have +seen it; Mrs. Burton Smith being the only other person close to the +table. + +Burton Smith saw the look. "I say, Wibberley," he said, appealing to +him, half in fun, half in earnest, "you have not hidden it for a joke, +have you?" + +"I? Certainly not!" + +To this day Ernest Wibberley wonders when he made the disagreeable +discovery of what he had done--that he had taken the wrong bracelet! +It was not at once. It was not until the aggrieved owner had twice +proclaimed her loss that he felt himself redden, and awoke to the +consciousness that the bracelet was on his arm. Even then, if he had +had presence of mind, he might have extricated himself. He might have +said, "By Jove! I think I slipped it on my wrist in pure absence of +mind," or, he might have made some other excuse for his possession of +it--an excuse which would have passed muster, though one or two might +have thought him odd. But time was everything; and he hesitated. He +hated to seem odd, even to one or two; he thought that presently he +might find some chance of restoring the bracelet. So he hesitated, +peering at the carpet, and the golden opportunity passed. Then each +moment made the avowal more difficult, and less ordinary; until, when +his host appealed to him--"If you have hidden it for a joke, old +fellow, out with it!"--madness overcame him, and he answered as he +did. + +He looked up, indeed, with well acted surprise, and said his "I? +Certainly not!" somewhat peremptorily. + +Half a dozen of the guests were peering stupidly about as if they +expected to find the lost article in a flower-vase, or within the +globe of a lamp. Presently their hostess stayed these explorations. +"Wait a moment!" she said abruptly, raising her head. "I have it!" + +"Well?" + +"John must have moved it when he brought in the tea. That must be it. +Ring the bell, James, and we will ask him." + +It was done. John came in, and the question was put to him. + +"Yes, sir," he said readily; "I saw a bracelet. On the table by the +lamp." He indicated the table near Lady Linacre. + +"Did you move it?" + +"Move it, sir?" the man repeated, surprised by the question, the +silence, and the strained faces turned to him. "No, sir; certainly +not. I saw it when I was handing the tea to--to Mr. Wibberley, I think +it was." + +"Ah, very well," his master answered. "That is all. You may go." + +It was not possible to doubt the man's face and manner. But when he +had left the room, an uncomfortable silence ensued. "It is very +strange," Burton Smith said, looking from one to another, and then, +for the twentieth time, he groped under the table. + +"It is very strange," Wibberley murmured. He felt bound to say +something. He could not free himself from an idea that the others, and +particularly the Indian Civilian, were casting odd looks at him. He +appeared calm enough, but he could not be sure of this. He felt as if +he were each instant changing colour, and betraying himself. His very +voice sounded forced to his ear as he repeated fussily, "It is very +odd--very odd! Where can it be?" + +"It cost," Lady Linacre quavered--irrelevantly, but by no means +impertinently--"it cost fourteen thousand out there. Indeed it did. +And that was before it was set." + +A hush as of awe fell upon the room. "Fourteen thousand pounds!" +Burton Smith said softly, his hair rising on end. + +"No, no," said the old lady, who had not intended to mystify them. +"Not pounds; rupees." + +"I understand," he replied, rubbing, his head. "But that is a good +sum." + +"It is over a thousand pounds," the Indian Civilian put in stonily, +"at the present rate of exchange." + +"But, good gracious, James!" Mrs. Burton Smith said impatiently, "why +are you valuing Lady Linacre's jewellery--instead of finding it for +her? The question is, 'Where is it?' It must be here. It was on this +table fifteen minutes ago. It cannot have been spirited away." + +"If any one," her husband began seriously, "is doing this for a joke, +I do hope----" + +"For a joke!" the hostess cried sharply. "Impossible! No one would be +so foolish!" + +"I say, my dear," he persisted, "if any one is doing this for a +joke, I hope he will own up. It seems to me that it has been +carried far enough." There was a chorus of assent, half-indignant, +half-exculpatory. But no one owned to the joke. No one produced the +bracelet. + +"Well!" Mrs. Burton Smith exclaimed. And as the company looked at one +another, it seemed as if they also had never known anything quite so +extraordinary as this. + +"Really, Lady Linacre, I think that it must be somewhere about you," +the host said at last. "Would you mind giving yourself a good shake?" + +She rose, and was solemnly preparing to agitate her skirts, when a +guest interfered. It was the Hon. Vereker May. "You need not trouble +yourself, Lady Linacre," he said, with a curious dryness. He was still +standing by the fireplace. "It is not about you." + +"Then where in the world is it?" retorted Mrs. Galantine. "Do you +know?" + +"If you do, for goodness' sake speak out," Mrs. Burton Smith added +indignantly. Every one turned and stared at the Civilian. + +"You had better," he said, "ask Mr. Wibberley!" + +That was all. But something in his tone produced an electrical effect. +Joanna, in her corner--remote, like the Indian, from the centre of the +disturbance--turned red and pale, and flashed angry glances round her. +For the rest, they wished themselves away. It was impossible to +overlook the insinuation. The words, simple as they were, in a moment +put a graver complexion on the matter. Even Mrs. Burton Smith was +silent, looking to her husband. He looked furtively at Wibberley. + +And Wibberley? So far he had merely thought himself in an unpleasant +fix, from which he must escape as best he could, at the expense of a +little embarrassment and a slight loss of self-respect. Even the +latter he might regain to-morrow, if he saw fit, by telling the truth +to Mrs. Burton Smith; and in time the whole thing would become a +subject for laughter, a stock dinner-party anecdote. But now, at the +first sound of the Indian's voice, he recognised his danger; and saw +in the hundredth part of a second that ruin, social damnation, perhaps +worse, threatened him. His presence of mind seemed to fail him at +sight of the pit opening at his feet. He felt himself reeling, +choking, his head surcharged with blood. The room, the expectant faces +all turned to him, all with that strange expression on them, swam +round before him. He had to lay his hand on a chair to steady himself. + +But he did steady himself; to such an extent that those who marked his +agitation did not know whether it proceeded from anger or fear. He +drew himself up and looked at his accuser, holding the chair suspended +in his hands. "What do you mean?" he said hoarsely. + +"I should not have spoken," the Civilian answered, returning his gaze, +and speaking in measured accents, "if Mr. Burton Smith had not twice +appealed to us to confess the joke, if a joke it was." + +"Well?" + +"Well, only this," the other replied. "I saw you take Lady Linacre's +bracelet from that table a few moments before it was missed, Mr. +Wibberley." + +"You saw me?" Wibberley cried. This time there was the ring of honest +defiance, of indignant innocence, in his tone. For if he felt certain +of one thing it was that no one had been looking at him when the +unlucky deed was done. + +"I did," the Civilian replied dispassionately. "My back was towards +you. But my eyes were on this mirror"--he touched an oval glass in a +Venetian frame which stood on the mantelpiece--"and I saw quite +clearly. I am bound to say that, judging from the expression of your +face, I was assured that it was a trick you were playing." + +Ernest Wibberley tried to frame the words, "And now?"--tried to force +a smile. But he could not. The perspiration stood in great beads on +his face. He shook all over. He felt himself--and this time it was no +fancy--growing livid. + +"To the best of my belief," the Civilian added quietly, "the bracelet +is on your left arm now." + +Wibberley tried to master, but could not, the impulse--the traitor +impulse?--which urged him to glance at his wrist. The idea that the +bracelet might be visible--that the damning evidence might be plain to +every eye--overcame him. He looked down. Of course there was nothing +to be seen; he might have known it, for he felt the hot grip of the +horrible thing burning his arm inches higher. But when he looked up +again--fleeting as had been his glance--he found that something had +happened. He faltered, and the chair dropped from his hands. He read +in every face save one suspicion or condemnation. Thief and liar! He +read the words in their eyes. Yet he would, he must, brazen it out. +And though he could not utter a word he looked from them to--Joanna. + +The girl's face was pale. But her eyes answered his eagerly, and they +were ablaze with indignation. They held doubt, no suspicion. The +moment his look fell on her, she spoke. "Show them your arm!" she +cried impulsively. "Show them that you have not got it, Ernest!" she +repeated with such scorn, such generous passion that it did not need +the tell-tale name which fell from her lips to betray the secret to +every woman in the room. + +"Show them your arm!" Ah, but that was just what he could not do! And +as he comprehended this he gnashed his teeth. He saw himself +entrapped, and his misery was so plainly written in his face that the +best and most merciful of those about him turned from him in pity. +Even the girl who loved him shrank back, clutching the mantelpiece in +the first spasm of doubt, and fear, and anguish. Her words, her +suggestion, had taken from him his last chance. He saw that it was so. +He felt the Nemesis the more bitterly on that account; and with a wild +gesture, and some reckless word of defiance, he turned blindly and +hurried from the room, seized his hat, and went down to the street. + +His feelings when he found himself outside were such as it is +impossible to describe in passionless sentences. He had wrecked his +honour and happiness in an hour. He had lost his place among men +through a thoughtless word. We talk and read of a thunderbolt from the +blue; still the thing is to us unnatural. Some law-abiding citizen +whom a moment's passion has made a murderer, some strong man whom a +stunning blow has left writhing on the ground, a twisted cripple--only +these could fitly describe his misery and despair as he passed through +the streets. It was misery he had brought on himself; and yet how far +the punishment exceeded the offence! How immensely the shame exceeded +the guilt! He had lied in careless will, with no evil intent; and the +lie had made him a thief! + +He went up to his rooms like one in a dream, and, scarcely knowing +what he did, he tore the bauble from his arm and flung it on the +mantel-shelf. By his last act--by bringing it away--he had made his +position a hundred times more serious. But he did not at once remember +this. After he had sat a while, however, with his head between his +hands, wondering if this really were himself--if this really had +happened to himself, this irrevocable thing!--he began to see things +more clearly. But he could not at once make up his mind what to do. +Beyond a hazy idea of returning the bracelet by the first post, and +going on the Continent--of course, he must resign his employment--he +had settled nothing, when a step mounting the staircase made him start +to his feet. Some one knocked at the door of his chambers. He stood +pallid and listened, struck by a sudden fear. + +"The police!" he said to himself. + +A moment's thought satisfied him that it was improbable, if not +impossible, that they could be on his track so soon; and he went to +the door listlessly and threw it open. On the mat stood Burton Smith, +in a soft slouched hat, his hands thrust into the pockets of his +overcoat. Wibberley glanced at him, and saw that he was alone; then +leaving him to shut the door, he returned to his chair, and sat down +in his old attitude, with his head between his hands. He looked +already a broken man. + +Burton Smith followed him in, and stood a moment looking at him +uncomfortably enough. It is bad to have had such a scene as has been +described in your house; it is worse, if a man be a man, to face a +fellow-creature in his hour of shame. At any rate, Burton Smith felt +it so. "Look here, Wibberley," he said at length, as much embarrassed +as if he had been the thief. "Look here, it will be better to hush +this up. Give me the d----d bracelet to hand back to Lady Linacre, and +the thing shall go no farther." + +His tone was suggestive both of old friendship and of present pity. +But when he had to repeat his question, when Wibberley gave him no +answer, his voice grew more harsh. Even then the man with the hidden +face did not speak, but pointed with an impatient gesture to the +mantel-shelf. + +Burton Smith stepped to the fire-place and looked. He was anxious to +spare the culprit as far as possible. Yes, there was the bracelet. He +took possession of it, anxious to escape from the place with all +speed. But he laid it down the next instant as quickly as he had taken +it up; and his brows came together as he turned upon his companion. + +"This is not the bracelet!" he said. There was no smack of affection +in his tone now; it was wholly hostile. His patience was exhausted. +"Lady Linacre's was a diamond bracelet of great value, as you know," +he said. "This is a plain gold thing worth two or three pounds. For +Heaven's sake, man!" he added with sudden vehemence, "for your own +sake, don't play the fool now! Where is the bracelet?" + +Doubtless despair had benumbed Wibberley's mind, for he did not reply, +and Burton Smith had to put his question more than once before he got +an answer. When Wibberley at last looked up it was with a dazed face. +"What is it?" he muttered, avoiding the other's eyes. + +"This is not Lady Linacre's bracelet." + +"That's not?" + +"No; certainly not." + +Still confused, still shunning the other's look, Wibberley rose, took +the bracelet in his hand, and frowned at it. Burton Smith saw him +start. + +"It is of the same shape," the barrister repeated, ice in his +voice--he thought the exchange a foolish, transparent artifice--worse +than the theft. "But Lady Linacre's has a large brilliant where that +has a plain boss. That is not the bracelet." + +Wibberley turned away, the thing in his hand, and went to the window, +and stood there a long moment looking out into the darkness. The +curtains were not drawn. As he stood, otherwise motionless, his +shoulders trembled so violently that a dreadful suspicion seized his +late host, who desisted from watching him and looked about, but in +vain, for a phial or a glass. + +At the end of the minute Wibberley turned. For the first time he +confronted his visitor. His eyes were bright, his face very pale; but +his mouth was set and firm. "I never said it was!" he answered. + +"Was what?" the other cried impatiently. + +"I never said it was Lady Linacre's. It was you who said that," he +continued, his head high, a change in his demeanour, an incisiveness +almost harsh in his tone. "It was you--you who suspected me! I could +not show you my arm because I had that bracelet on it." + +"And whose bracelet is it?" Burton Smith murmured, shaken as much by +the sudden change in the man's demeanour as by his denial. + +"It is your cousin's--Miss Burton's. We are engaged," Wibberley +continued sternly--so entirely had the two changed places. "She +intended to tell you to-morrow. I saw it on the table, and secreted it +when I thought that no one was looking. I needed a pattern--for a +bracelet I am giving her." + +"And it was Joanna's bracelet that Vereker May saw you take?" + +"Precisely." + +Burton Smith said a word about the Civilian which we need not repeat. +Then, "But why on earth, old fellow, did you not explain?" he asked. + +"First," Wibberley replied with force, "because I should have had to +proclaim my engagement to all those fools; and I had not Joanna's +permission to do that. Secondly--well, I did not wish to confess to +being such an idiot as I was." + +"Ah!" said Burton Smith, slowly, an odd light in his eyes. "I think +you were a fool, but--I suppose you will shake hands?" + +"Certainly, old man." And they did so, warmly. + +"Now," continued the barrister, his face becoming serious again, "the +question is, where is Lady Linacre's bracelet?" + +"I don't care a d----n," Wibberley answered. "I am sure you will +excuse me saying so. I have had trouble enough with it--I know +that--and, if you do not mind, I am going to bed." + +But though his friend left him, Wibberley did not go to bed at once. +Burton Smith hurrying homeward--to find when he reached Onslow +Mansions that Lady Linacre's bracelet had been discovered in a flounce +of her dress--would have been surprised, very much surprised indeed, +could he have looked into Wibberley's chambers a minute after his +departure. He would have seen his friend down on his knees before a +great chair, his face hidden, his form shaken by hysterical sobbing. +For Wibberley was moved to the inmost depths of his nature. It is not +given to many men to awake and find their doom a dream. Only in +dreams, indeed, does the cripple get his strength again, and the +murderer his old place among his fellow-men. Wibberley was fortunate. + +And the lesson? Did he take it to heart? Well, lessons and morals are +out of fashion in these days. Or stay--ask Joanna. She should know. + + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF COURT + + +"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said. + +"Yes, indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?" + +"His body-birds?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" With which he +looked at me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had +learned it in part from books; hence the curious mixture I presently +noted of Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light +trap in which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat +that was lightening that journey; which lay through a part of +Carnarvonshire usually traversed only by wool-merchants and +cattle-dealers--a country of upland farms swept by the sea-breezes, +where English is not spoken at this day by one person in a hundred, +and even at inns and post-offices you get only "_Dim Sassenach_" for +your answer. "Do you not say," he went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, +but to be sure, it is in the Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his +self-esteem. + +"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?" + +"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain; and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine men +there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honour--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's wife +was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a stone +into the boat. They do say that before that she was pining at +Court--it was bleak, and lonesome, and cold in the winters, and she +had been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up +her head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then, of all at Court, there were left only Robert +Evans and the child, Peggy." + +"How old was the child then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +to the front, thoughtfully, striving, it would seem, to make the +situation clear to himself. + +"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right; it was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will." + +"But who----" + +By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips; and then there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us the sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were seagulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterwards they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now, to be sure. Besides, there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and +the three Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, +and many more who were all forward to visit Court, and be friendly +with old Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look +black at one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the +foreign child should be sent away; and at times one and another would +give her the rough word." + +"She must have had a bad time," I observed. + +"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy _bach_ grew up like +them, free and open and up-standing, though she lived on land. When +she was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +colour of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the seagulls, or else sitting with her +books in the cove where the farm-people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh yes, indeed +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; and Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength here; and the minister lent +her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that once, +when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to them +so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but led +the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral." + +"_Requiescat in pace_," said I. + +"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be at Court once or twice a week, so +that all the neighbourhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees's lobster-pots. +He was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up +his pots--oh, it might be two or three times a week. So it happened +one day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was +steering, that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden. + +"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy. + +"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees. + +"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well. + +"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loth to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers. + +"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gaily, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?' + +"'Yes,' Peggy answered, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he +had not determined that she was old Rees's daughter he would have +taken notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used +for the fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat moreover. + +"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said; and with that +he put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which +to fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks +were scarlet, and by-and-by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or +three times more--not roughly, but just offhand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling. + +"'You mustn't be speaking that fashion to her,' he said gruffly. + +"'What?' said the gentleman looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man. + +"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.' + +"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon,' he said, taking off his hat +grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.' + +"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by any one until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time. + +"But two things came of this; first, that every one began to call her +Miss McNeill Court which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then, that whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy _bach_ to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who, to be sure, did not +seem to be unhappy. + +"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that any one should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking every one for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such-like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that, though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make. + +"However, one day towards winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then, without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?' + +"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.' + +"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?' + +"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.' + +"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.' + +"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns. + +"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'No relation! And I +am not going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing +but a fortune-catcher!' + +"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again. + +"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money, he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!' + +"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house-place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.' + +"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.' + +"'Do you mean it?' he asked sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a time. + +"'Yes,' said she. + +"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him. + +"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was not to +be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door. + +"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.' + +"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?' + +"'No,' the old woman answered very short. 'It is just that.' + +"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all they would tell her. +'You will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, +as if he had been thinking about it. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house-room for you, and make no charge whatever. To-morrow +you will take this packet to the address upon it, and the next day a +packet will be returned to you, which you will bring back to me. I am +not well to-day, and I want to have the matter settled, yes, indeed.' + +"'But could not some one else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.' + +"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.' + +"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, she was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure +for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. She had +not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been despatched +in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big town was +strange to her. + +"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was dead. After +ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc to smooth his +pillow. + +"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting. She was stepping into it when Mr. +Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak. + +"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said, and he +spoke nicely, for he was a kind man, and, what with the shock and the +long journey, she was looking very pale. + +"Oh, yes,' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.' + +"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for every one in the +neighbourhood had learned about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.' + +"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I understood that I was not to be in +the will.' + +"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out.' + +"The young lady turned very red, and her voice was hard. + +"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked. "'The three families who +divide the estate,' he said. + +"'And are they obliged to do so?' + +"'Well--no,' he allowed. 'I am not sure that they are exactly obliged. +But no doubt----" + +'"I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage. + +"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, and besides a lad or two in the kitchen +there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and it was little +they seemed to have to tell her about the death. When she had heard +what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, 'Gwen,' +she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.' + +"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, _bach_, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face. + +"'Oh!' she answered with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that now?' +But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly. + +"'Yes, indeed, _bach_,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back to-night. And about the will moreover.' + +"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. When she turned to say good night, the girl was at her side, +her eyes shining in the light of the two candles. + +"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered, 'didn't he say anything?' + +"'Not a word, _bach_,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.' + +"Miss Peggy, I am believing, went into her room much in the same way. +No doubt she would be telling herself a great many times over before +she slept that he would come and see her in the morning: and in the +morning she would be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon'; and in +the afternoon, 'He will come in the evening.' But evening came, and +darkness, and still he did not appear. Then she could endure it no +longer. She let herself out of the front door, which there was no one +now to use but herself, and with a shawl over her head she ran all the +way to the shop. There was no light in the window upstairs; but at the +back door stood Mrs. Campbell, looking after some one who had just +left her. + +"The girl came, shrinking at the last moment, into the ring of light +about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, starting at +sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you alone?' + +"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?' + +"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' the good woman said +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I am supposing.' + +"'Yesterday? At what time, please?' the young lady asked. There was a +fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was getting a +footing now. + +"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----' + +"'But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night-wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel!' which +broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that night +at all I am not able to say. Only when it was dawn she was out upon +the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The fishermen who +were up early going out with the ebb saw her at times walking fast, +and then again standing still and looking seaward. But I do not know +what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she returned +and came down into the parlour at Court for the funeral, there were +none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort. + +"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a grey beard like a bird's nest, and thick lips--was +sitting with his wife on the horse-hair sofa. The Evanses of Nant, who +were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upwards, were by +the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were others, +besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when she +entered. + +"He rose and shook hands with her, marking the dark hollows under her +eyes, and fixing it in his mind to get her a settlement. Then he +hesitated, looking doubtfully at the others. 'We are going to read the +will before the funeral instead of afterwards,' he said. + +"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for she had forgotten all about the +will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come later.' + +"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you will be doing well, +whatever, to hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.' + +"But at that Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with an air of +importance. 'Maybe some one,' she said in a low voice, 'would like to +take a last look at the master?' + +"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman. + +"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes, briskly, when the +door was closed again. And every one nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs. + +"'Very fair,' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans. 'He was a very clever man, our +old friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a +word went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for +it. Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at +Court now, said it was time to be going to church. + +"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three portions of the property in +favour of Miss McNeill.' + +"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' Llewellyn cried sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?' + +"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer. + +"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law whatever?' + +"'Well, no,' Mr. Hughes assented grudgingly. + +"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.' + +"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and anxious to do the +best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith--forthwith," so that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.' + +"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.' + +"And he would say no other. Nor was it to any purpose that the lawyer +looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and feeling +the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could make +nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, indeed!' to +what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he turned to +them. + +"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young lady +has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.' + +"Mr. Bevan fidgeted, but his wife answered the lawyer as bold as +brass. 'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes,' she said. 'If it were twenty +pounds now, once for all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my +nephews would say the same--I think we might manage that?' + +"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word, whatever!' he answered. 'Let +the girl go to service. It is what we have wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They will be liking a young housekeeper.' + +"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers, looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a penny for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.' + +"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed by +an outcry overhead and quick running upon the stairs. The legatees +looked uncomfortably at the carpet; the lawyer was blacker than +before. He said to himself, 'It is that poor child that has fainted!' +The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was opened, +not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose, they were +thankful to see her; to their surprise she passed by Llewellyn, and +with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear. + +"'What!' he cried starting back a pace, and speaking so that the +wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?' + +"'It is true,' she answered, half-crying, 'and no fault of mine +neither.' Gwen added more in short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear. + +"'I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to them to make +room for her to pass out. Then he turned to them, a queer look upon +his face; it was not triumph altogether, for there was some doubt and +some alarm in it as well. 'You will believe me,' he said, 'that I am +as much taken aback as yourselves--that till this moment I have been +as much in the dark as any one. It seems--so I am told--that our old +friend is not dead.' + +"'What are you meaning!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'It is not +possible!' and he raised his black-gloved hands. + +"'What I say,' Mr. Hughes replied patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however it +comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans is +spared to us.' + +"With that he was glad to escape from the room. When he was gone, I am +told that their faces were very strange to see. There was a long +silence. Llewellyn was the first to speak. He swore a big oath and +banged his great hand upon the table. 'I do not believe it!' he cried. +'I do not believe it! It is a trick!' + +"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and they all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt form of Robert +Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one side and of +Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt alive. Behind him +were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and three or +four women, half frightened, half wondering. + +"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears, and they could find +not a word to say either of joy or grief. + +"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ho, ho!' he exclaimed, +as his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the +table. 'That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?' + +"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn. + +"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I'm thinking?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged, whatever.' + +"Llewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at Robert +Evans' elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage. + +"'What!' the old man cried sharply. 'How was that?' + +"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----' + +"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!' + +"But they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do, we were going to do, sir.' + +"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert, bitterly; 'for that +was nothing. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn Evans gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself towards the Evan Bevans who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.' + +"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, eagerly, 'we did indeed.' + +"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will set you down for +just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, _bach_,' he +continued, turning from the lady, who was looking very queer, and +putting into the girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, +'tear up this rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in +the other room. What, Llewellyn Evans, no appetite!' + +"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking amongst them, as they went, of +a conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes as they drove away +after dinner were very merry together--which may have been only the +home-brewed--at any rate all that came of Llewellyn's talking and +inquiries was that every one laughed very much, and Robert Evans' name +for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon. + +"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But towards five o'clock the +place grew quiet. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, and her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be +really glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls +screamed in the afternoon stillness that made it seem home each +minute, was hers still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, +nor poor. Maybe she was striving not to think of the thing which had +been taken from her and could not be given back. Whatever her +thoughts, she was roused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot +tears, through which she could see that the old man was awake and +looking at her with a strange expression which disappeared as she +became aware of it. + +"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that your eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.' + +"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Please don't speak of +him,' she pleaded in a low tone. 'Let us forget him.' + +"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he said, as if he were summing up the case in his own mind, +and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven him, and +I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written.' + +"'Oh, yes, yes!' the girl sobbed, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!' + +"'Yes, indeed! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated, as, surprised in the midst of her grief, she +wavered and hesitated, 'sit here;' and he pointed to the settle +opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had written, and +that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come somehow to +my hands? Now don't get excited, girl!' + +"'Oh!' Peggy cried, her lips parted, her eyes wide and frightened, her +whole form stiff with a question. + +"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you stand by it? Remember, he must have much +to explain. Would you be guided by me, my girl?' + +"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter, to remember her lover's flight, the lack of word or +message for her, and her misery. She nodded, and held out her hand, +for she could not speak. + +"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously. + +"'Oh yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short. He watched her while she thrust it +from her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed +it again and again. + +"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he, testily. 'Now let me see it.' + +"She turned upon him, holding it away behind her, as if it were some +living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet me at the +junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He was going to +London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And he will be +here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and suddenly +remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him the +letter. + +"'You said you would be led by me, you know,' said the old man +gravely. + +"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!' + +"'You promised,' he said. + +"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands. 'No +one shall come between us.' + +"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I will not be speaking for +nothing! But you had better tell Owen to take the trap to the station +to meet your man.'" + + + + + + THE VICAR'S SECRET + + + + + THE VICAR'S SECRET + + +The windows at the rear of Acton Chase, an old house in +Worcestershire, look on a quaint bowling-green flanked by yew hedges, +and backed by a stream of good size, on the farther side of which a +sparsely timbered slope leads up to the home farm. It leads also to +half a dozen smaller farms, which once formed the Chase. Zigzag up +this slope runs a track--probably it has so run for centuries, for at +the foot of it is a ford--which in spring is almost invisible, but in +autumn is brown and rutty. The Chase has long been a Roman Catholic +house, and up this track dead-and-gone squires, debarred from converse +with their neighbours, have ridden a-hunting, mornings innumerable; so +that to-day people sitting in the garden towards evening are apt to +see them come trailing home, their horses jaded, and themselves +calling for the black-jack. + +Our story is not of these, but of two men who strolled down this +path on an evening no farther back than last August. They seemed, +outwardly at least, ill-matched. The one, a young fellow under thirty, +fair-haired, pink-cheeked, prim-looking, was of middle size. He was +dressed as a clergyman, but more neatly and trimly than the average +country clergyman dresses. The other was one of the tallest and +thinnest men ever seen outside a show--a man whose very clothes, his +worn jacket and shrunken knickerbockers, had the air of sharing his +attenuation. He looked like a gamekeeper, and was, in fact, the +squire's son-in-law, Jim Foley. + +"I really cannot make you out," he said, as the two sighted the house; +and, shifting his gun to the other shoulder, he took occasion to +glance at his companion. "What do you do, old boy? You never kill +anything, unless it is a trout now and then. Now I could not live +without killing. Must kill something every day!" + +"And do you?" + +"Seldom miss," the long man rejoined cheerfully, "except on a hunting +day when we draw blank. Rats, rabbits, otters, pike, sometimes a hawk, +sometimes, as to-day, a brace of wood-pigeons. And game and foxes in +their season. Must kill something, my boy." + +His companion glanced at him, looked away again, and sighed. + +"Well, what is that for?" Foley asked, in the tone of an aggrieved +man. + +"I was only thinking," the other replied drily, "what a lucky fellow +you were to have nothing to do but kill." + +The tall man whistled. "I say," he said, "for a man who is to be +married in a week or so, you are in roaring spirits, ain't you? I tell +you what it is, my boy; you do not take very kindly to your bliss. I +can see Patty flitting about in the garden like a big white moth, +waiting, I have no doubt, for a word with her lord; and your step +lags, and your face is grave, and you try to be cynical! What is up?" + +The younger man laughed, but not merrily; and there was a tinge of +sullenness in his tone as he answered, "Nothing! A man cannot always +be grinning." + +"No; but _pati de foie gras_ is not a man's ordinary meat," Jim +retorted imperturbably. "Jones!" + +"Well?" the other said snappishly. + +"You are in a mess, my boy--that is my opinion! Now, don't take it +amiss," Jim continued drily. "I am within my rights. I am one of the +family, and if the squire is blind and Patty is young, I am neither. +And I am not going to let this go on until I know more, my boy. You +have something on your mind of which they are ignorant." + +The young clergyman turned his face to his companion, and Jim Foley, +albeit of the coolest, was taken aback by the change which anger or +some other emotion had wrought in it. Even the clergyman's voice was +altered. "And what if I have?" he said, stopping so suddenly that the +two confronted one another. "What if I have, Mr. Foley?" + +Jim deliberately shut his eyes and opened them, to make sure that the +tragic spirit, so suddenly infused into the pleasant landscape, with +its long shadows and its distant forge-note, was no delusion. +Satisfied, he rose to the occasion. "This," he said, outwardly +unmoved. "You must get rid of it. That is all, Jones." + +"And if I cannot?" + +"Will not, you mean." + +"No, cannot!" the clergyman replied with vehemence. + +"Then," Jim drawled--"I am not a moral man, don't mistake me, but I +belong to the family--your majesty must go elsewhere for a wife! And a +little late to do so!" he continued, harshness in his tone. "What! you +are not coming to the house?" + +"No!" the other cried violently. And, without a word of farewell, he +turned his back on his companion, and strode away through the lush +grass to a point a little higher up the stream, where a plank-bridge +gave access to the Chase outbuildings, and through them to the +village. + +Foley stood awhile, looking after him. "Well," he said, speaking +gently, as if rallying himself on some weakness, "I am afraid--I +really am afraid that I am a little astonished. I should know men +by now, yet I did think that if any one could show a clean bill of +health it was the vicar. He is smug, he is next door to a prig. The +old women swear by him, the young ones dote on him. They say he is on +foot from morning till night, and not one blank day in a fortnight! +And now--pheugh! I wonder whether I ought to have knocked him down. +Poor little Patty! There is not a better girl in the country--except +the Partridge!" + +He looked pathetically at the gardens below him; then, seeing that the +chimneys of the house were smoking briskly, he bethought him of +dinner, and strode down to the gate with his usual air of +_insouciance_. + +Meanwhile the young clergyman gained the side avenue, and walked +rapidly towards the village, his eyes dazzled by the low beams of the +sun which shone in his face, and his mind confounded by the tumult of +his thoughts. A crisis which he had long foreseen, often dreaded, and +as often postponed, was now imminent, the power to control it gone +from his hands. He looked on the past with regret, and forward with +shame. That which had once been feasible--nay, as it seemed to him +now, easy--time and his cowardice had rendered impossible. He stood +aghast at his own feebleness; not considering that the routine of +parish work and the satisfaction derived from small duties done, had +weakened his moral fibre; even as the peace of the life about him, and +the transparent truthfulness of those, with whom his lot was cast, had +made the task of disclosure more formidable. He had fallen--no, he had +not fallen; but he had put off the act which honour demanded so long +that, though the day of grace was still his, there could be no grace +in the doing. + +The rooks, streaming homeward in some order of their own, were cawing +overhead as he opened the gate and entered the vicarage garden, where +the great hollyhocks stood in rows, and the peaches, catching the last +rays of the sun aslant, were glowing against the southern gable. To +the stranger--to the American, in particular--who looked in as he +passed, it seemed a paradise, that garden. But--for peaches are not +peace, nor hollyhocks either--its owner passed through it with +compressed lips and tingling cheeks. He entered the porch, where one +or two packing-cases told of coming changes; then he stood irresolute +in the cool hall, remembering that he had intended to dine at the +Chase, and that there was nothing prepared for him here. Not that he +had an appetite, but dinner was a decent observance, and it seemed to +him that not to dine would be to lose his hold on life and fall into +abysses before his time. + +It is well, when we are unfortunate, to consider how much worse a +minute, a few seconds, may see us. A faint sound at his elbow caused +him to turn. The door of the dining-room was ajar, and through the +opening a face peered at him. The young vicar did not start, but he +drew a deep breath, and stiffened as he gazed. A minute, and his +lips--while the other face, with a shifty smile, half mockery, half +shame, returned his look--formed the word "Father!" + +It was not audible two paces away. But as it fell the clergyman +glanced round with a gesture of alarm, and at a single stride he +was in the dining-room, and had shut the door behind him. The other +man--a shambling creature, grey-haired and blear-eyed and unwashed, +with a beard of a week's growth--fell back to the table and leaned +against it. His rusty black clothes and his broken boots seemed to +share, rather than to impart, the look of decay which marked his +person. The vicar, with his back against the door, looked at him and +shuddered, and then looked again, his face hard and his eyes gloomy. +"Well," he said, in a low stern voice, "what is the meaning of this? +You know our agreement. Why have you broken it, sir?" + +The old man pursed up his lips, and, with his head on one side, +contemplated his questioner in silence. Then he said suddenly, "Blow +the agreement!" + +The vicar winced as if he had been struck. But he found words again. + +"If you can do without the money," he said, "so much the better. +But----" + +"Blow the money!" cried the old man, with the same violence. +Notwithstanding his words, he stood in awe of his son, and was trying +to gain courage by working himself into a passion. "What is money?" he +continued. "I want no money! I am coming to live with you. You are +going to be married. I heard of it, though you kept it close, my boy! +I heard of it, and I said to myself, 'Good! I will go and live with my +boy. And his wife shall take care of my little comforts.'" + +The younger man shivered. He thought of Patty, and he looked at the +old man before him, sly, vicious, gin-sodden--and his father! "You do +not want to live with me," he answered coldly. "You could not bear to +live with me for one week, and you know it. Will you tell me what you +do want, and why you have left Glasgow?" + +"To congratulate you!" his father answered, with a drunken chuckle. +"Walter Jones and Patty Stanton--third time of asking! Oh, I heard of +it! But not through you. Why," he continued, with a quick change to +ferocity, "would you not ask your own father to your wedding, you +ungrateful boy?" + +"No," the vicar replied sternly, "he being such as he is, I would +not." + +"Oh, you are ashamed of him, are you? You have kept him dark, I +fancy?" the old man replied, grinning with wicked enjoyment as he saw +how his son winced at each sentence, how his colour went and came. +"Well, now you will have the pleasure of introducing me to the squire, +and to daughter Patty, and to all your friends. It will be a pleasant +surprise for them. I'll be bound you said I was dead." + +"I have not said you were dead." + +"Don't you wish I was?" + +"God keep me from it!" the vicar groaned. + +On that, the two men stood looking at each other, the one neat, +clean-shaven, conventional, the other vile with the degradation of +drink. Though the windows stood open, the room was full of the smell +of spirits, and seemed itself soiled and degraded. Suddenly the +younger man sat down at the table, and, burying his face between his +hands, fell into a storm of weeping. + +His father shifted his feet, and licking his lips nervously, looked at +him in maudlin shame; then from him to the sideboard, in search of his +supporter under all trials. But the sideboard was bare, the doors +closed, the key invisible. Mr. Jones grew indignant. "There, stop that +foolery!" he said brutally. "You make me sick." + +The rough adjuration restored the young man's nerve, and he looked up, +his cheeks wet with tears. Tears in a man are shameful; but this +tragedy was one not to be evaded by manliness, or, indeed, by any help +of men. "Tell me what it is you want," he said wearily. + +"More money," his father snarled. The liquor with which he had primed +himself was losing its effect. "I cannot live on what you give me. +Glasgow is a dear place. The money ought to be mine; all of it!" + +"You have had two hundred a year--one-half of my mother's money." + +"I know. I want three." + +"Well, you cannot have it," the son answered languidly. "If you must +know, I have agreed to settle one-half of my income on my wife now, +and the other half at your death. Therefore it will not be in my power +to allow you more. You have spent your own fortune, and you have no +claim on my mother's money." + +"Very well," Mr. Jones answered, his head trembling with rage and +weakness. "Then I stay with you. I stay here. Your father-in-law that +is to be will be glad to meet his old friend again--I have no doubt. +We were at college together. I dare say he will acknowledge me, if my +own son is too proud to do so. I shall stay here until I am tired of +the country." + +The young man looked at him in despair. Supplication he knew would +avail him nothing, and the only threat he could use--that he would +stop his father's allowance--would have no terrors, for he could not +execute it. To let his father go to the workhouse would increase the +scandal a hundred times. He rose at last and went out. His housekeeper +had come in, and he told her, keeping his burning face averted, to +prepare a bed and get supper for two. He shrank--he whose life in +Acton had been so full of propriety--from saying who his guest was. +Let his father proclaim himself if he would; that would be less +painful. The truth must out. Once before, at his first curacy, the +young man, younger then and more hopeful, had tried the work of +reformation. He had made a home for his father, and done what he +could. And the end had been hot, flaming shame, and an exposure which +had driven him to the other end of England. + +When he left the house next morning, though his mind was made up to go +to the squire and tell him all, he lingered on the white dusty road. +The sunlight fell about him in dazzling chequers, and, save for the +humming of the bees overhead and the whirr of a reaping-machine in a +neighbouring field, the stillness of the August noon hung with the +haze over the landscape. His heart, despite his resolution, grew hot +within him, as he looked around, and contrasted the peacefulness of +nature with the tumult of shame and agitation in his own breast. There +was the school which he opened with prayers four times a week. Between +the trees he caught a grey glimpse of the church--his church. As he +looked his secret grew more sordid, more formidable. + +He turned at last with an effort to enter the gates, and saw Patty and +her sister, Mrs. Foley, coming down the avenue. They were still a long +way off, their light frocks and parasols flitting from sunlight to +shadow, and shadow to sunlight, as they advanced. The young man +halted. Had Patty been alone, he would have gone to her and told her +all; and surely, surely, though he doubted it at this moment, he would +have won comfort--for love laughs at vicarious shame. But the +Partridge's presence frightened him. Mrs. Foley, round and small and +plump, in all things the antithesis of her husband, had yet imbibed +something of Jim's dryness. The vicar feared her under the present +circumstances, and he turned and fled down the road. He would let them +pass--probably they were going to the vicarage--and he would then step +up and see the squire. + +He was right in supposing that the ladies were going to the vicarage. +As they went in that direction, they came upon a strange dissolute old +man whom they eyed with wondering dislike, and to whom they gave a +wide berth as they passed. They had not gone by long before a third +person came through the lodge gates and sauntered after them. This was +Jim Foley, come out, with his hands in his pockets and a one-eyed +terrier at his heels, to smoke his morning pipe. He, too, espied the +old toper, and at sight of him took his pipe from his mouth and stood +in the middle of the road, an expression of surprise on his features; +while Mr. Jones, becoming aware of him too late--for his faculties +were not of the sharpest in the morning--also stood by some instinct +and looked, with a growing sense of unpleasant recognition, at his +lanky figure. + +"Hallo!" said Jim. Mr. Jones did not answer, but stood blinking in the +sunshine. He looked more blear-eyed and shabby, more hopelessly gone +to seed, than he had looked in the vicarage dining-room. + +"Hallo!" said Foley again. "My old friend Wilkins, I think!" + +"My name is Jones," the man muttered. + +"Ah, Jones is it? Jones _vice_ Wilkins resigned," Jim replied, with +ironical politeness. "Come down to Acton upon a little matter of +business, I suppose. Now look here, Jones _vice_ Wilkins," he +continued, pointing each sentence with a wave of his pipe, "I see your +game. You have come down here to screw out a ten-pound note, by +threatening to tell the squire some old story of my turf days. That is +it, isn't it?" + +Mr. Jones opened his mouth to deny the charge but thought better of +it; either because of the settled scepticism which Foley's face +expressed, or because he saw a ten-pound note in the immediate future. +He remained silent. + +"Just so," Foley went on with a nod, replacing his pipe in his mouth +and his hand in his pocket. "Well, it won't do. It won't do, do you +understand? Because, do you see, you have not accounted for the last +pony I sent you to put on Paradox for the Two Thousand. And I will +just trouble you for it and three to the back of it. Three to one was +the starting price, I think, Mr. Jones." + +Mr. Jones's face fell abruptly, and he glared at Foley. "It never +reached me," he muttered huskily. + +"You mean that you are not going to refund it," Jim retorted. "Well, +you don't look as if you had it. But I'll tell you what you'll do. You +will go back whence you came within three hours--there is a train at +two-forty, and you will go by it. You have caught a Tartar, do you +see?" Jim continued sternly, "and though you may, if you stay, give me +an unpleasant hour with the squire, I shall give you a much more +unpleasant hour with the policeman." + +"But the squire----" the old man began; "the squire----" + +"No, the policeman!" Foley retorted sharply. "Never mind the squire. +Keep your mind steadily on the policeman, and you will be the more +certain to catch the train. Now mind," Jim added, pausing to say +another word after he had turned away, "I am serious, my man. If I +find you here after the two-forty train has left, I give you in +charge, and we will both take the consequences." + +Jim strolled on towards the vicarage, congratulating himself on his +presence of mind and chuckling over the skill with which he had foiled +this attempt on his pocket; while Mr. Jones, though his appetite for a +country walk was spoiled by the meeting, tottered onwards too, in the +opposite direction, rather than seem, by turning, to be dogging Foley, +who had inspired him with a very genuine terror. The consequence was +that the next turn in the road brought the old man face to face with +his son. + +"Walter, I am going back," he said, quavering piteously. The interview +had shaken him. He seemed less offensive, less of a blot on the +landscape; on the other hand, more broken and older. It is not without +a sharp pang that the man who has once been a gentleman finds himself +threatened with the handcuffs, and forced to avoid the policeman. + +The vicar had been for passing him in silence, but the statement +brought him to a standstill. What if his father should indeed go? To +explain him in his absence seemed an easy, almost a normal, task. Yet +he feared a trap, and he only answered, "I am glad to hear it." + +"I am going by the two-forty train," the old man whined. "But I must +have a sovereign to pay my fare, Walter." + +"You shall have it," the vicar said, his heart bounding. + +"Give it me now! Give it me now!" his father repeated eagerly. "I tell +you I am going by the two-forty. Do you think I am a liar?" + +Reluctantly--not because he grudged the money, but because he feared +that, the coins once obtained, his father would prove a liar, the +clergyman took out two pounds and handed them to him. The old man +gripped them with avidity, and, thrusting them and his hands into his +pocket, turned his back on the donor, and hobbled away, mumbling to +himself. + +The vicar remained where he was, standing irresolute at the turn of +the road, which brought the lodge gates into view. He found it was a +quarter past twelve. He wondered what Patty was thinking of him, and +his strange avoidance of her. And what his housekeeper was thinking of +his guest, and whether many people had observed him. He began to feel +himself at a loose end in the familiar scene. He should have been +moving to and fro about his business; instead, he was here, hovering +stealthily upon the outskirts of the village, dreading men's eyes, and +prepared to fly from the first comer. By going straight to the squire +he might put an end to this intolerable position. But the temptation +to postpone his explanation until his father had left overcame him, +and he turned and walked from the village. + +He long remembered that tramp in the heat and dust. Throughout it he +was weighed down by the feeling that he was an outcast, that people +who met him looked strangely at him, that while he roamed aimlessly +his duty called him home. Presently a new fear rose to vex his +soul--that his father would not keep his word; the consequence of +which was that half an hour before the train started he was lurking +about the fir-plantation at the back of the station-house, peeping at +the platform, which lay grilling in the sunshine, and tormenting +himself with the suspicion that his watch was wrong. + +Presently the station woke up. One or two people arrived, and took +seats on a barrow in a shady place. The station-master labelled a +hamper and gave out a ticket. Then some one who was by no means +welcome to the vicar appeared--Jim Foley. He did not enter the +station, but the vicar caught sight of him standing on the bridge +which carried the road over the railway. What was more, Jim Foley at +the same moment discovered the vicar. + +Jim looked elsewhere, but he had his suspicions. "Hallo!" he muttered. +"Friend Jones grows more of a riddle than ever. I suppose he has had +dealings with Master Wilkins, and has an equal interest with me in +seeing him off. I hope he has got rid of him as cheaply! But it is +odd! I shall tell the Partridge, and hear what she says. She likes +him." + +He forgot his wife a few minutes later, when the train had steamed +slowly in, and stood, and steamed out again, and the two people who +had come by it had passed him, and even the vicar, slowly and +perforce, had crawled up to him on the bridge. Foley by that time had +found something else to consider. "I say," he exclaimed on the impulse +of the moment, meeting the clergyman open-mouthed, "this won't do, you +know." + +Jones was dazed, struck down and prostrated by his disappointment. +"What," he said feebly--"what won't do?" + +"He has not gone!" + +"No!" + +"The old buffer! I guessed what was up when I saw you hanging about. +Did he get anything out of you?" + +The question sounded brutal, but the clergyman answered it. "Yes," he +said, his cheek dark--and he looked down at the end of his stick and +wondered how the other had found it out. "Two sovereigns." + +"By Jove! Well, what is to be done now--that is the question?" + +"I shall go to the squire," Jones said. + +"What? And tell him this?" + +"Yes." + +Jim shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, after a pause in which he +tried to see if this would hurt him, "I dare say it is the best thing +you can do. While you are telling other things, perhaps you may as +well throw this in." + +Jim strolled towards the Acton Arms, after making this handsome +concession, much puzzled in his mind by the new light which events +were shedding on the character of Jones. The discovery that his future +brother-in-law had done a little betting did not surprise him. But, in +conjunction with the entanglement to which the vicar had owned the day +before, it seemed to indicate a character so different from the model +of propriety he had hitherto known, that he was staggered. "And he +never kills a thing," Jim thought, turning it over. "You would not +think that he knew what sport meant!" + +The village policeman was loitering outside the inn, and Foley, who +had a word for every one, invited him to come in and have a glass of +ale. The road in front of the Acton Arms is separated from the Chase +only by a sunk fence; and Jim, casting a glance behind him as he +entered, could see the windows of the great house flashing in the +sunlight, and the vicar pounding along the avenue towards them. He +went in, the constable at his heels, and turned into the cool fireless +taproom, which he took to be empty. His stick had scarcely rung on the +oak table, however, before a man who had been sitting on the settle, +his head on his hands and his senses lost in a drunken stupor, leapt +up and, supporting himself by the table, glared at the two intruders. + +"Ah!" the squire's son-in-law said drily, "so you are here, Master +Jones _vice_ Wilkins, are you? I might have known where to find you!" + +It is probable that the wretched man, recognising him, and seeing the +policeman with him, thought that they had come to arrest him. Roused +thus abruptly from his slumbers, bemused and drink-sodden, he saw in a +flash the hand of the law stretched out to grasp him, and an old and +ungovernable terror seized upon his shattered nerves. "Keep off! keep +off!" he gasped, clawing at the two with his trembling hands. "You +shall not take me! I will not be taken! Don't you see I am a +gentleman?"--this last in a feeble scream. + +"Easy, easy, old fellow," Jim said, surprised by his violence, "or you +will be doing yourself a mischief." + +But the words only confirmed the poor man in his mistake. "I won't be +taken!" he cried, waving them off. "My son will pay you, I tell you," +he cried, his voice rising in a shriek which rang in the road outside, +and startled the house-dog sleeping in the sunshine--"I tell you my +son will pay you!" One of his hands as he spoke overturned the empty +glass, and it rolled off the table--on such trifles life rests. For +the policeman instinctively started forward to catch it, and the old +man misunderstood the movement. He fell in a fit on the floor. + +Of course there was a great commotion. The inn was roused from its +afternoon slumber, and the policeman was sent for the doctor; with one +thing and another half an hour elapsed before Foley left the house and +slowly made his way to the Chase. He was thinking a great deal more +seriously than was his wont. As hard as nails, some of his friends +called him; but there is a soft spot in these men who are as hard as +nails, if one can find it. Approaching the house, he caught sight of +his sister-in-law, and shrugged his shoulders and shook himself to get +rid of unpleasant thoughts. Patty was a favourite with him, and, +seeing her loitering round the sweep before the house, he guessed that +she was waiting to intercept her betrothed and learn the cause of his +conduct. Jim said a naughty word under his breath and went to her, as +if he had something to say. But, reaching her, he listened instead--as +a man must when a woman has a mind to speak. + +"What is it, Jim?" she broke out. Her eyes were full of trouble and +her pale complexion was a shade paler than usual. "What is the matter +with Walter? He did not dine here last night, though he meant to do +so. And when we went to learn the reason this morning he was out. He +was away at luncheon-time, and the school had never been visited. And +now, when he appeared at last, he told Robert not to call me, and said +he would wait in papa's study until he came in." + +She stopped. "He is here now?" Jim asked. + +"Yes; papa has come in, and they are in the bowling-green." + +"I will go to them," he said. + +"But, Jim, what is it?" she repeated, speaking with a little quaver in +her voice; and laying her hand on his arm, she detained him. "Tell me, +is there anything the matter?" + +Jim looked down at her. She was one of those soft plump feminine women +who seem made to be protected--whom to hurt seems as wicked as to harm +a child. "The matter?" he said. "Nothing that I know of. What should +be the matter? I will go and see them." + +He escaped from her and, entering the hall, of which both the front +and back doors were open, he found that she was right. The young +vicar, the dust on his shoes and an unwonted shade of depression +darkening his face, was walking up and down the sward with the +squire--a little man as choleric as he was kind-hearted, who passed +two-thirds of his waking hours in breeches and gaiters. Jim Foley +strode towards them, a purpose in his mind. The vicar, just embarked +on his confession, found it interrupted and made a thousand times more +difficult. "Jones has come to explain matters, I hope, sir," Jim said. + +The clergyman winced. "He has come to turn my brain, I think," the +squire cried, angry and suspicious. "I cannot make out what he would +be at." + +"I was telling you, sir," the vicar answered with some +impatience--"that my father----" + +"You had better leave your father alone, I think!" Foley struck in +with a manner like the snapping of a trap. "And explain to Mr. Stanton +the matter you mentioned to me yesterday." + +"I was explaining it!" the clergyman rejoined. "I was saying that my +father--he was at school with you, sir, you remember?" + +"To be sure," the squire said, his grey whiskers curling with +impatience as he looked from one to the other. "And at college." + +"He lost money after my mother's death," the young man continued, "and +went to live in Glasgow." In his shrinking from the disclosure he had +to make his voice took a rambling tone as he added, "I think I told +you that, sir." + +"To be sure! Twice! + +"But I did not tell you," the clergyman replied, driving his +stick into the ground and working it about while his face grew +scarlet--"and I take great shame to myself that I did not, Mr. +Stanton--that my father was much----" + +"Good heavens, Jones!" Jim broke out, his patience exhausted. "What on +earth has your father to do with it? Yesterday you gave me to +understand that you had some entanglement which weighed on your mind. +And I thought that you had come here to make a clean breast of it. +Instead of which--for Heaven's sake man, don't make me think that you +are not running straight!" + +The vicar glared at him, while the squire gazed at both. "But that old +man," Jones said at last, almost at choking point by this time, "whom +you saw this afternoon was----" + +Jim struck in again savagely. "We do not want to know anything about +him either. As for him, he is----" + +"My father!" + +"He is dead," Jim persisted, raising his hand for silence, and +determined to keep his man to the point and to have things +straightened out. "We do not want to hear anything about him. He is +dead. We want----" + +"Who is dead?" + +The question was the vicar's. He wheeled round as he put it, his face +white, his voice changed. The squire, who, like most listeners, had +learned more than the talkers, saw his tremendous agitation, and, +grasping some idea of the truth, tried to intercept Foley's answer. +But he was too late. "The old fellow we went to see off," Jim said, +almost lightly. "He is dead. Died in a fit half an hour ago, I tell +you." + +"Dead?" + +"Yes, dead. At least the doctor says so." + +The vicar put his hands to his face, and turned away, his back +shaking. The others looked at him. "He was--he was my father!" he +murmured--almost under his breath. And even Jim, his eyes as wide as +saucers, understood. + +"Fetch some wine, you fool" the squire muttered, giving him a nudge. +And he put his arm round the clergyman, and led him to a seat in the +shade. There, I think, Walter Jones prayed that he might not be +thankful. Man is weak. And conventional man very weak. + + +Once a gentleman always a gentleman, was the squire's motto. There was +no attempt at concealment. The poor man, whose life had been so +unlovely, lay at peace at last in the best room at the vicarage, and +was presently, with some tears of pity shed by gentle eyes, laid in a +quiet corner of the churchyard. There was talk, of course, but the +talk was confined to the village, where the possession of a drunken +father was not uncommon, or uncharitably considered. The worst of the +dead man was known only to Jim Foley, and he kept it even from his +wife; while any Spartan thoughts which the squire might otherwise have +entertained, any objections he might have raised to his daughter's +match, were rendered futile and quixotic by the strange mode in which +the denouement had been reached in his presence. He consented, and +all--after an interval--went well. But the vicar will sometimes, I +think, in the days to come, when prosperity laps him round, wander to +the churchyard and recall the hot noon when he walked the roads +haunted by that strange sense of forlornness and ruin. + + + + + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN + + + + + THE OTHER ENGLISHMAN + + +"You are English, I take it, sir?" + +It was clear to me that the speaker was. I was travelling alone, and +had not fallen in with three Englishmen in as many weeks. I turned to +inspect the new-comer with a cordiality his smudged and smutty face +could not wholly suppress. "I am," I answered, "and I am glad to meet +a fellow-countryman." + +"You are a stranger here?" He did not take his eyes from me, but he +indicated by a gesture of his thumb the busy wharf below piled high +with hundreds and thousands of crates full of oranges. From the upper +deck of the _San Miguel_ we looked down upon it, and could see all +that came or went in the trim basin about us. The _San Miguel_, a +steamer of the Segovia Quadra and Company's line, bound for several +places on the coast southward, was waiting to clear out of El Grao, +the harbour of Valencia, and I was waiting impatiently to clear out +with her. "You are a stranger here?" he repeated. + +"Yes; I have been in the town four or five days, but otherwise I am a +stranger," I answered. + +"You are not in the trade?" he continued. He meant the orange trade. + +"No, I am not. I am travelling for pleasure," I answered readily. "You +will understand that, though it is more than a Frenchman or Spaniard +can." I smiled as I spoke, but he was not very responsive. + +"It is a queer place to visit for pleasure," he said, looking from me +to the busy throng about the orange crates. + +"Not at all," I retorted. "It is a lively town and quaint, and it is +warm and sunny. I cannot say as much for Madrid, from which I came two +or three weeks back." + +"Come straight here?" he asked. + +I was growing tired of his curiosity, but I answered, "No. I stayed a +short time at Toledo and Aranjuez, and at several other places." + +"You speak Spanish?" + +"Not much. _Muy poco de Castellano_," I laughed, calling to mind the +maddening grimace by which the Spanish peasant indicates that he does +not understand, and is not going to understand you. He is a good +fellow, is Sancho Panza, but having made up his mind that you do not +speak Spanish, the purest Castilian is not Spanish for him. + +"You are going some way with us--perhaps to Carthagena?" the +inquisitor persisted. + +He laid some stress on the last word, and with it shot a sly glance at +me--a glance so unpleasantly suggestive that I did not answer him at +once. Instead, I looked at him more closely. He was a wiry young +fellow, rather below than above the middle height, to all appearance +the chief engineer. Everything about him, not excluding the +atmosphere, was greasy and oily, as if he had come straight from the +engine-room. The whites of his eyes showed with unlovely prominence. +Seeing him thus, I took a dislike for him. "To Carthagena!" I answered +brusquely. "I am not going to stay at Carthagena. Why should you +suppose so? Unless, indeed," I added, as another construction of his +words occurred to me, "you think I want to see some fighting? No, I +fancy the fun might grow too furious." + +I should say that three days before there had been a mutiny among the +troops at Carthagena. An outlying fort had been captured, and the +governor of the city killed before the attempt was suppressed. The +news was in every one's mouth, and I fancied that his question +referred to it. + +My manner or my words disconcerted him. Without saying more he turned +away, not going below at once, but standing on the main deck near the +office in the afterpart. There was a good deal of bustle in that +quarter. The captain, the second officer, and clerk were there, giving +and taking receipts and what not. He did not speak to them, but leaned +against the rail close at hand. I had an uncomfortable feeling that he +was watching me; and this gave rise to a shrinking from the man, which +did not affect me always, but returned from time to time. + +Presently the dinner-bell rang, and simultaneously the _San Miguel_ +moved out to sea. We were to spend the next day at Alicante, and the +following one at Carthagena. + +Dinner was not a cheerful meal. The officers of the ship did not speak +English or French, and were not communicative in any language. Besides +myself there were only three first-class passengers. They were ladies, +relatives of the newly appointed Governor of Carthagena, and about to +join him there. I have no doubt that they were charming and +fashionable people, but their partiality for the knife in eating +prejudiced them unfairly in English eyes. Consequently, when I came on +deck again, and the engineer--he told me his name was Sleigh--sidled +up to me, I received him graciously. He proffered the omnipresent +cigarette, and I provided him with something to drink. He urged me to +go down with him and see the engine-room, and after some hesitation I +did so. It was after dinner. + +"I have pretty much my own way," he boasted. "They cannot do without +English engineers. They tried once, and lost three boats in six +months. In harbour, my time is my own. I have seven stokers under me, +all Spaniards. They tried it on with me when I first came aboard! But +the first that out with his knife to me I knocked on the head with a +shovel. I have had none of their sauce since!" + +"Was he much hurt?" I asked, scanning my companion. He was not big, +and he slouched. But there was an air of swaggering dare-devilry about +him that gave colour to his story. + +"I don't know," he answered. "They took him to the hospital, and he +never came aboard again. That is all I know." + +"I suppose your pay is good?" I suggested. To confess the truth, I +felt myself at a disadvantage with him down there. The flaring lights +and deep shadows, the cranks and pistons whirling at our elbows, the +clank and din, and the valves that hissed at unexpected moments, were +matters of every hour to him; they imbued me with a desire to +propitiate. As my after-dinner easiness abated, I regretted that it +had induced me to come down. + +He laughed harshly. "Pretty fair," he said, "with my opportunities. Do +you see that jacket?" + +"Yes." + +"That is my shore-going jacket," with a wink. "Here, look at it!" + +I complied. It appeared at first sight to be an ordinary sailor's +pea-coat; but, looking more closely, I found that inside were dozens +of tiny pockets. At the mouth of each pocket a small hook was fixed to +the lining. + +"They are for watches," he explained, when he saw that I did not +comprehend. "I get five francs over the price for every one I carry +ashore to a friend of mine--duty free, you understand." + +I nodded to show that I did understand. "And which is your port for +that?" I asked, desiring to say something as I turned to ascend. + +He touched me on the shoulder, and I found his face close to mine. His +eyes glittered in the light of the lamp that hung by the steam-gauge; +they had the same expression that had perplexed me before dinner. "At +Carthagena!" he whispered, bringing his face still closer to mine. "At +Carthagena! Wait a minute, mate, I have told you something," he went +on. "I am not too particular, and, what is more, I am not afraid! +Ain't you going to tell me something?" + +"I have nothing to tell you!" I answered, staring at him. + +"Ain't you going to tell me something, mate?" he repeated. His voice +was low, but it seemed to me that there was a menace in it. + +"I have not an idea what you mean, my good fellow," I said, and, +turning abruptly, my eye discovered a shovel lying ready to his +hand--I ran as nimbly as I could up the steep ladder, and gained the +deck. Once there, I looked down. He was still standing by the lamp, +staring up at me, chagrin plainly written on his face. Even as I +watched him he rounded his lips to an oath; and then seemed to hold it +over until he should be better assured of its necessity. + +I thought no worse of him for his revelations. In a country where the +head of the custom-house lives like a prince on the salary of a +beggar, smuggling is no sin. But I was angry with him, and vexed +with myself for the haste with which I had met his advances. I +disliked and distrusted him. Whether he was mad, or took me for +another smuggler--which seemed the most probable hypothesis--or had +conceived some false idea of me, whatever the key to the enigma of his +manner might be, I felt that I should do well to avoid him. + +Like should mate with like, and I am not a violent man. I should not +feel at home in a duel, though the part were played with the most +domestic of fire shovels, much less with a horrible thing out of a +stoke-hole. + +About half-past ten the _San Miguel_ began to roll, and I took the +hint and went below. The small saloon was empty, the lamp turned down. +As I passed the steward's pantry I looked in and begged a couple of +biscuits. I am a tolerable sailor, but when things are bad my policy +is comprised in "berth and biscuits." With this provision against +misfortune, I retired to my cabin, happy in the knowledge that it was +a four-berth one, and that I was its sole occupant. + +In truth I came near to chuckling as I looked round it. I did not need +the experience I had had of a cabin three feet six inches by six feet +three, shared with a drunken Spaniard, to lead me to view with +contentment my present quarters. A lamp in a glass case lighted at +once the cabin and the passage outside, and gave assurance that it +would burn all night. On my right hand were an upper and lower berth, +and on my left the same, with standing room between. A couch occupied +the side facing me. The sliding door was supplemented by a curtain. +What joy--to one who had known other things--to arrange this and stow +that, and fearlessly to place in the rack sponge and tooth-brush! What +wonder if I blessed the firm of Segovia Quadra and Company as I sank +back upon my well-hung mattress. + +I sleep well at sea. The motion suits me. A slight qualm of +sea-sickness does but induce a pleasant drowsiness. I love a snug +berth under the porthole, and to hear the swish and wash of the water +racing by, and the crisp plash as the vessel dips her forefoot under, +and the complaint of the stout timbers as they creak and groan in the +bowels of the ship. + +Cosy and warm, I fell asleep, and dreamed that I was again in the +engine-room, seated opposite to the other Englishman. "Haven't you +something to tell me? Haven't you something to tell me?" he droned +monotonously, wagging his head from side to side, with the perplexing +smile on his face which had distressed me waking. "Haven't you +something to tell me?" + +I strove to say that I had not, because I knew that if I did not +satisfy him, he would do some dreadful thing, though I did not know +what. But I could not utter the words, and while I struggled with this +horrible impotency, the thing was done. I was bound hand and foot to +the crank of the engine, and was going up and down with it, up and +down! I wept and prayed to be released, but the villain took no heed +of my prayers. He sat on, regarding my struggles with the same +impassive smile. In despair I strove to think what it was he +wanted--what it was--what---- + +How the ship was rolling! Thank Heaven I was awake! Thank Heaven I was +in my berth, and not in that horrible engine-room. But how was this? +The other Englishman was here too, standing by the lamp, looking at +me. Or--was it the other Englishman? It was some one who had a smudged +and smutty face. All the wonder in my mind had to do with that. I lay +for a while, between sleeping and waking, watching him. Then I saw him +reach across my feet to a little shelf above the berth. As he drew +back, something that was in his hand--the hand that rested on the edge +of my berth--glittered as the light fell upon it; and, wide awake, I +sprang to a sitting posture in my berth, and cried out for fear. + +He was gone on the instant, and in the same second of time I was out +of bed and on the floor. A moment's hesitation, and I drew aside the +curtain, which still shook. The passage was still and empty. But +opposite my cabin and separated from it by the width of the passage +was the door of another cabin, which was, or had been when I went to +bed, unoccupied. Now the curtain, drawn across the doorway, was +shaking, and I did not doubt that the intruder was behind it. But +behind it also was darkness, and I was unarmed, whereas the thing upon +which the light had fallen in the man's hand was either a knife or a +pistol. + +No wonder that I hesitated, or that discretion seemed the better part +of valour. To be sure I might call the steward and have the cabin +searched; but I feared to seem afraid. I stood on tiptoe listening. +All was still; and presently I shivered. The excitement was passing +away, I began to feel qualms. With a last glance at the opposite +cabin--had I really seen the curtain shake? might it not have been +caused by the motion of the ship?--I closed my sliding door, and +climbed hastily into my bunk. Robber or no robber I must be still. In +a short time, what with my qualms and my drowsiness, I fell asleep. + +I slept until the morning light filled the cabin, and I was roused by +the cheery voice of the steward, bidding me "Buenos dias." The ship +was moving on an even keel. Overhead the deck was being swabbed. I +opened my little window and looked out--and the night's doings rose in +my memory. But who could think of dreams of midnight assassins with +the sea air in his nostrils, and before his eyes that vignette of blue +sea and grey rocks--grey, but sparkling, gemlike, ethereal under the +sun of Spain? Not I. I was gay as a lark, hungry as a hunter. Sallying +out before I was dressed, I satisfied myself that the opposite cabin +was empty, and came back laughing at my folly. + +But when I found that something else was empty, I thought it no +laughing matter. I wanted a snack to stay my appetite until the +steward should bring my _cafe complet_, and I turned to the little +shelf over my berth where I had placed the biscuits. They were not +there. Curious! And I had not eaten them. Then it flashed upon my mind +that it was with this shelf my visitor had meddled. + +After that I did not lose a moment. I examined my luggage and the +pockets of my clothes; the result relieved as much as it astonished +me; nothing was missing. My armed apparition had carried off two +captain's biscuits, and nothing else! + +I passed the morning puzzling over it. Sleigh did not come near me. +Was he conscious of guilt, I wondered, or offended by the abruptness +of my leave-taking the night before? Or was he engaged about his work? + +About noon we came to our moorings at Alicante. The sky was unclouded. +The shabby town and the barren hills that rose behind it--barren to +the eye, since the vines were not in leaf--looked baking hot. I had +found a cool corner of the ship, and was amusing myself with a copy of +"Don Quixote" and a dictionary, when the engineer approached. + +"Not going ashore?" he said. + +For the twentieth time I wondered what it was in his manner that made +everything he said a gibe. Whatever it was, I hated him for it; and I +gave my feelings vent by answering sullenly, "No, I am not." And +forthwith I turned to my books again. + +"I thought you travellers for pleasure wanted to see everything," he +said. "Maybe you know Alicante?" + +"No," I answered snappishly. "And in this heat I don't want to know +it!" + +"All right, governor, all right!" he replied. "Think it might be too +hot for you, perhaps?" And with a hoarse laugh that lasted him from +stem to stern, and brought the blood to my cheeks, he left me. But I +could see that he did not lose sight of me, and at intervals I heard +him chuckling at his own wit for fully half an hour afterwards. But +where the joke came in I could not determine. + +Towards evening I went ashore, slipping away at a time when he had +gone below for a moment. I found a public walk in an avenue of +palm-trees which ran beside the sea. The palms were laden with +clusters of yellow dates, that were more like dried sea-weed than +fruit. As darkness fell, and with it coolness, I sat here, and watched +the vessels in the port fade one by one into the gloom, and little +sparks of light take their places. A number of people were still +abroad, enjoying the air, but these sauntered in the indolent southern +fashion, so that when I heard the step of a man approaching in haste, +I looked up sharply. To my surprise, it was Sleigh, the engineer! + +He passed close to me. I could not be mistaken, though he had put off +his slouching, shambling air, and was keenly on the alert, glancing +from this side to that, as if he were searching for some one. For +whom? I was one of half a dozen on a seat in deep shadow. If I were +the person he wanted, he overlooked me, and went on. I sat some time +after his step had died away in the distance, my thoughts not pleasant +ones. But he did not return, and I went up to the Hotel Bossio +prepared to eat an excellent dinner. + +The _table d'hote_ in the big whitewashed room was half finished. I +was late; and perhaps for this reason the waiters eyed me, as I took +my seat, with odd attention; or possibly it was because the English +were not numerous at Alicante, or not popular; or, again, it was +possible that some one--Sleigh, for example--had been there making +inquiries for a foreigner--blond, middle-sized, and speaking very +little Spanish. Their notice made me uncomfortable. It seemed as if I +could nowhere escape from my Old Man of the Sea. + +Nowhere indeed, for I was to have another rencontre that night, with +which my mind mixed him up, and which must be told because of the +light afterwards thrown upon it. Returning to my ship along the dark +wharf, I came upon figures loafing in the shadow of bales or barrels, +and, passing them, clutched my loaded stick more tightly. I got by +all, however, in safety and reached the spot where the ship lay. "San +Miguel! Bota!" I shouted in the approved fashion of that coast. "San +Miguel! Bota!" + +The words had scarcely left my lips when there was a rustling close to +me. A single footstep sounded on the pebbles, and the light of a +lantern was flashed in my face. I recoiled. As I did so two or three +men sprang forward. Dazzled by the light, I had only an indistinct +view of figures about me, and was on the point of fighting or running, +or making an attempt at both, when by good luck the clink of steel +fell upon my ear. + +By good luck! For they were police who had stopped me; and it is ill +work resisting the police in Spain. "What do you require, gentlemen?" +I asked in my best Spanish. "I am English." + +"Perdone usted, senor," replied the leader, who held the light. "Will +you have the goodness to show me your papers?" + +"Con mucho gusto!" I answered, delighted to find that things were no +worse. I was for producing my passport on the spot, but the sergeant, +with a polite but imperative "This way!" directed me to follow him. I +did so for a short distance, a door was flung open, and I found myself +in a well-lighted office, which I guessed was a custom-house. The +officer took his place behind a desk, and by a gesture of his cocked +hat signified his readiness to proceed. + +I had had to do with the police before, but I was aware of a +suppressed excitement in the group, of strange glances which they cast +at me, of a general drawing round their chief as he bent over my +passport, which seemed to indicate that this was no ordinary case of +passport examination. Singular, too, was the disappointment they +evinced when they found that my passport bore, besides the ordinary +_vise_, the signatures of the Vice-Consul and Alcalde at Valencia. As +their faces fell my spirits rose. Full conviction took possession of +them after I had answered half a dozen questions; and the interview +ended with the same "Perdone usted, senor," with which it had begun. I +was bowed out; a boat was instantly procured for me, and in two +minutes I was climbing the ladder which hung from the _San Miguel's_ +quarter. + +The first person I saw on board was Sleigh. He was lolling on a bench +in the saloon--confound his impudence!--drinking aguardiente and +staring moodily at the table. I tried to pass by him and reach my +cabin unnoticed, but on the last step of the companion I slipped. With +an oath at the interruption he looked up, and our eyes met. + +Never did I see a man more astonished. He gazed at me as if he could +not trust his sight. "Well, I never!" he cried, slapping his thigh +with an oath, and speaking in a jubilant tone. "Well, I am blest, +governor! So you did not go ashore after all! Here's a lark!" + +I saw that he had been drinking. "I have been ashore," I answered, my +dislike increased tenfold by his condition. + +"Honour bright?" he exclaimed. + +"I have told you that I have been ashore," I replied. + +He whistled. "You are a cool hand," he said, looking me over with a +new expression in his face. "I might have known that, precious mild as +you seemed! Dined at the Hotel Bossio, I warrant you did, and took +your walk in the Alameda like any other man?" + +"I did." + +"So you did! O Lord! O Lord! So you did!" Again he contemplated me at +arm's length. I could construe his new expression now--it was one of +admiration. "So you did, governor! And came aboard in the dark, as +bold as brass!" + +That thawed me, for I thought that I had done rather a plucky thing in +coming on board alone at that time of night. But I told him nothing of +the affair with the police. I merely answered, "I do not understand +why I should not, Mr. Sleigh. And as I am tired, I will bid you good +night." + +"Wait a bit, governor," he said, in a lower tone, arresting me by a +gesture as I turned away. "Don't you think you are playing it a bit +high? You are a cool one, I swear, and fly--there is nothing you are +not fly to, I'll be bound! But two heads are better than one--you take +me?--letting alone that it is every one for himself in this world. Do +you rise to it?" + +"No, I don't rise to it," I answered, drawing back from his spirituous +breath and leering eyes. He was more drunk than I had fancied. + +"You don't? Think again, mate," he said, almost as if he pleaded with +me. "Don't play it too high." + +"Don't talk such confounded nonsense!" I retorted angrily. + +He looked at me a moment, a scowl darkening his face and not improving +it. Then he answered, "All right, governor! All right! Pleasant +dreams! and a pleasant waking at Carthagena!" + +"I have no doubt I shall enjoy both," I replied, "if you will have the +goodness not to disturb me as you did last night!" He should not think +he had escaped detection. + +"It is your turn now," he replied more soberly. "I don't know what you +are up to now. I didn't disturb you last night." + +"Some one did! And some one uncommonly like you." + +"What did he do?" he asked, eyeing me with suspicion. + +"I startled him," I answered, "or I do not know what he would have +done. As it was he did not do much. He took some biscuits." + +"Took some biscuits!" He pretended that he did not believe me, and he +did it so well that I began to doubt. "You must have been dreaming, +mate." + +"I could not dream the biscuits away," I retorted. + +The stroke went home. He stood thinking, drawing patterns on the table +with his finger and a puddle of spilled water. Guilty or innocent, he +did not seem ashamed, but puzzled and perplexed. Once or twice he +glanced cunningly at me. But whether he wished to see how I took it, +or suspected me of fooling him, I could not tell. + +"Good night!" I cried, losing patience at last; and I went to my +cabin. The last I saw of him, he was still standing at the table, +drawing patterns on it with his finger. + +I turned in at once, satisfied that after what had passed between us +there would be no repetition of last night's disturbance. In a +pleasant state between waking and sleeping I was aware of the tramp of +feet overhead as the moorings were cast off. The first slow motion of +the engines was followed by the familiar swish and wash of the water +sliding by. The ship began to heel over a little. We had reached the +open sea. After that I slept. + +I awoke suddenly, but in full possession of my senses. The cabin was +still lit by the lamp. I guessed that it was a little after midnight; +and "_O utinam!_" I sighed, "that I had not taken that cup of coffee +after dinner!" My portmanteau too had got loose. I could hear it +sliding about the floor, though, as I lay in the upper berth, I could +not see it. I must set that to rights. + +I vaulted out after my usual fashion. But instead of alighting fairly +and squarely on the floor, my bare feet struck something soft, a good +distance short of it, and I came down on my hands and knees--to form +part of the queerest tableau upon which a cabin-lamp ever shone. +There was I, lightly clothed in pyjamas, glaring into the eyes of a +dingy-faced man, who was likewise on his hands and knees on the floor, +but with more than half the breath knocked out of his body by my +descent upon him. I do not know which was the more astonished. + +"Hallo! how do you come here?" I cried, after we had stared at one +another for some seconds. + +He raised his hand. "Hush!" he whispered: and obeying his gesture I +crouched where I was, while he listened. Then we rose to our feet as +by one motion. I had not time to feel afraid, though it was far from a +pretty countenance that was close to mine. Terror was written too +plainly upon it. + +"You are English?" he said sullenly. + +I nodded. I saw that he had a pistol half-hidden behind him, but +somehow I felt master of the position. His fear of being overheard +seemed so much greater than my fear of his pistol; and it is not easy +to do much with a pistol without being overheard. "You are English, +too," I added, below my breath. "Perhaps you will kindly tell me what +you are doing in my cabin?" + +"You will not betray me?" he cried. + +"Betray you, my man!" I replied, with a prudent remembrance of his +weapon and the late hour of the night. "If you have taken nothing of +mine, you may go to the deuce for me, so long as you don't pay me +another visit." + +"Taken anything!" he retorted, almost forgetting his caution, "do you +take me for a thief? I will be bound----" he went on with a pride that +seemed to me very pitiable when I understood it--"that you are about +the only man in Spain who would not know me at sight. There is a +price upon my head! There are two thousand pesetas for whoever takes +me--dead or alive! There are bills of me in every town in Spain! Ay, +of me! in every town from Irun to Malaga!" + +I knew now who he was. "You were at Carthagena," I said sternly, +thinking of the old grey-headed general who had died at his post. + +He nodded. The momentary excitement was gone from his face, leaving +him what he was, a man, dirty, pallid, half famished. About my height, +he wore clothes, shabby and soiled, but like mine in make and +material. In his desperate desire for sympathy, for communion with +some one, he had already laid aside his fear of me. When I asked him +how he came to be in my cabin he told me freely. + +"I intended to ship from Valencia to France, but they watched all the +boats. I crept on board this one in the night, thinking that as she +was bound for Carthagena she would not be searched. I was right; they +did not think I should venture back into the lion's jaws." + +"But what will you do when we reach Carthagena?" I asked. + +"Stay on board and, if possible, go with this ship to Cadiz. From +there I can easily get over to Tangier," he answered. + +It sounded feasible. "And where have you been since we left Valencia?" +I asked. + +"Behind this sailcloth." He pointed to a long roll of spare canvas +which was stowed away between the floor and the lower berth. I opened +my eyes. + +"Ay!" he added, "they are close quarters, but there is room behind +there for a man lying on his face. What is more, except your two +biscuits I have had nothing to eat since the day before yesterday." + +"Then it was you who took the biscuits?" + +He nodded; then he fell back against my berth, all his strength gone +out of him. For from behind us came a more emphatic answer. "You may +take your oath to that, governor!" it ran; and briskly pushing aside +the door and curtain, Sleigh the engineer stood before us. "You may +bet upon that, I guess!" he added, an ugly smile playing about his +mouth. + +The refugee's face changed to a sickly white. His hand toyed feebly +with the pistol, but he did not move. I think that we both felt we +were in the presence of a stronger mind. + +"You had better put that plaything away," Sleigh said. He showed no +fear, but I observed that he watched us narrowly. "A shot would bring +the ship about your ears. There is no call for a long tale. I took the +governor here for you, but when he told me that some one was stealing +his biscuits, I thought I had got the right pig by the ear, and five +minutes outside this door have made it a certainty. Two thousand +pesetas! Why, hang me," he added brutally, "if I should have thought, +to look at you, that you were worth half the money!" + +The other plucked up spirit at the insult. "Who are you? What do you +want?" he cried, with an attempt at bravado. + +"Precisely. What do I want?" the engineer replied with a sneer. +"You are right to come to business. What do I want? A hundred pounds. +That is my price, mate. Fork it out and mum's the word. Turn rusty, +and----" He did not finish the sentence, but grasping his neck in both +hands, he pressed his thumbs upon his windpipe and dropped his jaw. It +was a ghastly performance. I had seen a garotte and I shuddered. + +"You would not give the man up? Your own countryman?" I cried in +horror. + +"Would I not?" he answered. "You will soon see, if he has not got the +cash!" + +"A hundred pounds!" the wretched fellow moaned. Sleigh's performance +had completely unmanned him. "I have not a hundred pesetas with me." + +As it happened--alas, it has often happened so with me!--I had but +three hundred pesetas, some twelve pounds odd, about me, nor any hope +of a remittance nearer than Malaga. Still, I did what I could. "Look +here," I said to Sleigh, "I can hardly believe that you are in +earnest, but I will do this. I will give you ten pounds to be silent +and let the man take his chance. It is no good to haggle with me," I +added, "because I have no more." + +"Ten pounds!" he replied derisively, "when the police will give me +eighty! I am not such a fool." + +"Better ten pounds and clean hands, than eighty pounds of blood +money," I retorted. + +"Look here, Mister," he answered sternly; "do you mind your own +business and let us settle ours. I am sorry for you, mate, that is a +fact, but I cannot let the chance pass. If I do not get this money +some one else will. I'll tell you what I will do." As he paused I +breathed again, while the miserable man whose life was in the balance +looked up with renewed hope. "I will lower my terms," he said. "I +would rather get the money honestly, I am free to confess that. If you +will out with two thousand pesetas, I will keep my mouth shut, and +give you a helping hand besides." + +"If not?" I said. + +"If not," he answered, shrugging his shoulders--but I noticed that he +laid his hand on his knife--"if you do not accept my terms before we +are in port at Carthagena, I go to the first policeman and tell him +who is aboard. Those are my terms, and you have time to think about +them." + +With that he left the cabin, keeping his face to us to the last. +Hateful and treacherous as he was, I could not help admiring his +coolness and courage, and his firm grasp of the men he had to do with. + +For I felt that we were a sorry pair. I suppose that my companion, bad +as his position seemed, had cherished strong hopes of escape. Now he +was utterly unmanned. He sat on the couch, his elbows on his knees, +his head on his hands, the picture of despair. The pistol had vanished +into some pocket, and although capture meant death, I judged that he +would let himself be taken without striking a blow. + +My own reflections were far from being comfortable. The man grovelling +before me might deserve death; knowing the stakes, he had gambled and +lost. Moreover, he was a complete stranger to me. But he was an +Englishman. He had trusted me. He had spent an hour--but it seemed +many--in my company, and I shrank from the pain of seeing him dragged +away to his death. My nature revolted against it; I forgot what the +consequences of interference might be to myself. + +"Look here," I said, after a long interval of silence, "I will do what +I can. We shall not reach Carthagena until eight o'clock. Something +may turn up before that. At the worst I have a scheme, though I set +little store by it, and advise you to do the same. Put on these +clothes in place of those you wear." I handed to him a suit taken from +my portmanteau. "Wash and shave. Take my passport and papers. It is +just possible that if you play your part well they may not identify +you, and may arrest me--despite our friend upstairs. For myself, once +on shore I shall have no difficulty in proving my innocence." + +Not that I was without misgivings. The Spanish civil guards give but +short shrift at times, and at the best I might be punished for +connivance at an escape. But to some extent I trusted to my +nationality; and for the rest, the avidity with which the hunted +wretch at my side clutched at the slender hope held out to him drove +hesitation from my mind. + +As long as I live I shall remember the scene which ensued. The grey +light was beginning to steal through the port-hole, giving a sicklier +hue to my companion's features, as I helped him with trembling fingers +to dress. The odour of the expiring lamp hung upon the air. The +tumbled bed-clothes, the ransacked luggage, the coats swaying against +the bulkheads to the music of the creaking timbers, formed +surroundings deeply imprinted on the memory. + +About seven o'clock I procured some coffee and biscuits and a little +fruit, and fed him. Then I gave him my papers, and charged him to +employ himself about the cabin. My plan was to be out of the way, +ashore, or elsewhere, when Sleigh fired his mine, and to trust my +companion to return my luggage and papers to my hotel at Malaga; until +I reached which place I must take my chance. In reality I played no +fine and magnanimous part, for, looking back, I do not think I +believed for a moment that the police would be deceived. + +A little after eight o'clock I went on deck, to find that the ship was +steaming slowly between the fortified hills that frown upon the +harbour of Carthagena; a harbour so spacious that in its amphitheatre +of waters all the navies of the world might lie. For a time the +engineer was not visible on deck. The steward pointed out to me +some of the lions--the deeply embayed arsenal, the distant fort, +high-perched on a hill, which the mutineers had seized, the governor's +house over the gateway where the wounded general had died; and we were +within a cable's length of the wharf, crowded with idlers and flecked +with sentinels, when Sleigh came up from below. + +Although the morning was fine, he was wearing the heavy pea-jacket +which I had seen in the engine-room. He cast a spiteful glance at me, +then, turning away, he affected to busy himself with other matters. +Bad as he was, I think that he was ashamed of the work he had in hand. + +"Do we stay here all day?" I asked the steward. + +"No, senor, no. Only until ten o'clock," I understood him to say. It +was close upon nine already. He explained that the town was still so +much disturbed that business was at a standstill. The _San Miguel_ +would land her passengers by boat and go at once to Almeria, where +cargo awaited her. "Here is the police-boat," he added. + +Then the time had come. I was quivering with excitement--and with +something else--a new idea! Darting from the steward's side, I flew +down the stairs, through the saloon and to my cabin, the door of which +I dragged open impatiently. "Give me my papers!" I cried, breathless +with haste. "The police are here!" + +The man--he was pretending to pack, with his back to the door, but at +my entrance he rose with an assumption of ease--drew back. "Why? will +you desert me too?" he cried, his face blanched. "Will you betray me? +Then, my God! I am lost!" and he flung himself upon the sofa in a +paroxysm of terror. + +Every moment was of priceless value. This a conspirator! I had no +patience with him. "Give them to me!" I cried imperatively, +desperately. "I have another plan. Do you hear?" + +He heard, but he did not believe me. He was sure that my courage had +failed at the last moment. But--and let this be written on his side of +the account--he gave me the papers; it may be in pure generosity, it +may be because he had not the spirit to resist. + +Armed with them I ran on deck as quickly as I had descended. I found +the position of things but slightly changed. The police-boat was now +alongside. The officer in command, attended by two or three +subordinates, was mounting the ladder. Close to the gangway Sleigh was +standing, evidently waiting for him. But he had his eye on the saloon +door also, for I had scarcely emerged before he stepped up to me. + +"Have you changed your mind, governor? Are you going to buy him off?" +he muttered, looking askance at me as I moved forward with him by my +side. + +My answer took him by surprise. "No, senor, no!" I exclaimed loudly +and repeatedly--so loudly that the attention of the group at the +gangway was drawn to us. When I saw this, I stepped in front of +Sleigh, and before he guessed what I would be at, I was at the +officer's side. "Sir," I said, raising my hat, "do you speak French?" + +"Parfaitement, monsieur," he answered, politely returning my salute. + +"I am an Englishman, and I wish to lay an information," I said, +speaking in French, and pausing there that I might look at Sleigh. As +I had expected, he did not understand French. His baffled and +perplexed face assured me of that. He tried to interrupt me, but the +courteous official waved him aside. + +"The man who is trying to shut my mouth is a smuggler of foreign +watches," I resumed. "He has them about him, and is going to take them +ashore. They are in a number of pockets made for the purpose in the +lining of his coat. I am connected with the watch trade, and my firm +will give ten pounds reward to any one who will capture and prosecute +him." + +"I understand," the officer replied. And, turning to Sleigh, who, +ignorant of what was going forward, was fretting and fuming in a fever +of distrust, he addressed some words to him. He spoke in Spanish and +quickly, and I could not understand what he said. That it was to the +point, however, the engineer's face betrayed. It fell amazingly, and +he cast a vengeful glance at me. + +That which followed was ludicrous enough. My heart was beating fast, +but I could not suppress a smile as Sleigh, clasping the threatened +coat about him, backed from the police. He poured out a torrent of +fluent Spanish, and emphatically denied the charge; but, alas! he +cherished the coat--at which the police were making tentative +dives--overmuch for an innocent man with no secret pockets about him. + +His "No, senor, no!" his "Por dios!" and "Madre de Dios!" and the rest +were breath wasted. At a sign from the grim-looking officer, two of +the policemen seized him, and in a twinkling, notwithstanding his +resistance, had the thick coat off him, and were probing its recesses. +It was the turn of the by-standers to cry, "Madre de Dios!" as from +pocket upon pocket came watch after watch, until five dozen lay in +sparkling rows upon the deck. I could see that there were those among +the ship's company besides the culprit who gazed at me with little +favour; but the eyes of the police officer twinkled with gratification +as each second added to the rich prize. And that was enough for me. + +Still I knew that all was not done yet, and I stood on my guard. +Sleigh, taken into custody, had desisted from his prayers and oaths. I +saw, however, that he was telling a long story, of which I could make +out little more than the word "Inglese" repeated more than once. It +was his turn now. If he had not understood my French, neither could I +understand his Spanish. And I noticed that the officer, as the story +rolled on, looked at me doubtfully. I judged that the crisis was near, +and I interfered. "May I beg to know, sir, what he says?" I asked +courteously. + +"He tells me a strange story, Mr. Englishman," was the answer; and the +speaker eyed me with curiosity. "He says that Morrissey, the +villainous Englishman--your pardon--who was at the bottom of the +affair of last Sunday, has had the temerity to return to the scene of +his crime, and is on this vessel." + +I shrugged my shoulders. "A strange story!" I answered. "But it is for +Monsieur to do his duty. I am the only Englishman on board, as the +steward will inform you; and for me, permit me to hand you my papers. +Your prisoner wishes, no doubt, to be even with me!" + +He nodded as he took the papers. And that upon which I counted +happened. The engineer in his rage and excitement had not made his +story plain. No one dreamt of the charge being aimed against another +Englishman. No one knew of another Englishman. The steward sullenly +corroborated me when I said that I was the only one on board; and all +who heard Sleigh--befogged, perhaps, by his Spanish, which, good +enough for ordinary occasions, may have failed him here--did not doubt +that his was a counter-accusation preferred _en revanche_. + +For one thing, the improbability of Morrissey's return had weight with +them; and my credentials were ample and in order. Among these, too, a +note for two hundred and fifty pesetas had slipped, which had +disappeared when they were returned to me. Need I say how it ended? Or +that while the police officer bowed his courteous "Adios" to me, and +his men gathered up the watches, and the crew scowled, the prisoner +was removed to the boat, foaming at the mouth, and screaming to the +last threats which my ears were long in forgetting. I walked up and +down the deck, brazening it out, but very sick at heart. + +However, the _San Miguel_, despite her engineer's mishap, duly left in +half an hour--a nervous half-hour to me. With a thankful heart I +watched the fort-crowned hills about Carthagena change from brown to +blue, and blue to purple, until at length they sank below the horizon. + +But officers and men looked coldly on me; and that evening, at +Almeria, I took up bag and baggage and left the _San Miguel_. I had +had enough of the thanks, and more than enough of the company, of my +cabin-fellow, whom I left where I had found him--behind the sailcloth. +I believe that he succeeded in making his escape. For fully a month +later a friend of mine staying at the Hotel de la Paz, at Madrid, was +placed under arrest on suspicion of being Morrissey; so that the +latter must at that time have been at liberty. + + + + + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + + + + KING PEPIN AND SWEET CLIVE. + + +Upon arriving at the middle of the Close the Dean stopped. He had been +walking briskly, his chin from custom a little tilted, but his eyes +beaming with condescension and goodwill, while an indulgent smile +playing about the lower part of his face relieved its massive +character. His walking-stick swung to and fro in a loose grasp, his +feet trod the pavement of the precincts with the step of an owner, he +felt the warmth of the sun, the balminess of the spring air, and +somewhere at the back of his mind he was conscious of a vacant +bishopric, and that he was the husband of one wife. In fine he +presented the appearance of a contented, placid, unruffled dignitary, +until he reached the middle of the Close. There, alas! the ferrel of +his stick came to the ground with a thud, and the sweetness and light +faded from his eyes as they rested upon Mr. Swainson's plot. The +condescension and goodwill became conspicuous only by their absence. +The Dean was undisguisedly angry; he disliked opposition as much +as lesser men, and met with it more rarely. For Bicester is +old-fashioned, and loves both Church and State, but especially the +former, and looks up to principalities and powers, and even now, on +account of a mistake he made, execrates the memory of a recreant +Bicestrian, otherwise reputable. It was at a public dinner. "I +remember," said this misguided man, "going in my young days to the old +and beautiful cathedral of this city. (Great applause.) I was only a +child then, and my head hardly rose above the top of the seat, but I +remember I thought the Dean the greatest of living men. (Whirlwinds of +applause.) Well (smiling), perhaps, I do not think quite that now." +(Dead silence.) And so dull at bottom may a man be whose name is known +in half the capitals of Europe, that this degenerate fellow never +guessed why the friends of his youth during the rest of the day turned +their backs upon him. + +Such is the faith of Bicester, but even in Bicester there are +heretics. To say that the Dean rarely met with opposition is to say +that he rarely met with Mr. Swainson, and that he seldom saw Mr. +Swainson's plot. As a rule, when he crossed the Close he averted his +eyes by a happy impulse of custom, for he did not like Mr. Swainson, +and as for the latter's plot, it was _anathema maranatha_ to him. The +Dean was tall, Mr. Swainson was taller; the Dean was stubborn, Mr. +Swainson was obstinate; so that there arose between them the +antagonism that is born of similarity. On the other hand the Dean was +stout and Mr. Swainson a scarecrow; the Dean was comely and clerical, +but not over-rich, Mr. Swainson was pallid, lantern-jawed, wealthy, +and a lawyer, and hence the dislike born of difference. Moreover, +years ago, when Mr. Swainson had been Mayor of Bicester, there had +been a little dispute between the Chapter and the Bishop, and he had +shown so much energy upon the one side as to earn the nickname of the +"Mayor of the Palace." Finally Mr. Swainson delighted in opposition as +a cat in milk, and cared as little to have a good reason for his +antagonism as puss in the dairy about a sixty years' title to the +cream-pan. + +But a sixty years' title to his plot was the very thing which Mr. +Swainson did claim to have. Exactly opposite his house--his father's +and grandfather's house in which, said his enemies, they have lived +and grown fat upon cathedral patronage--lay this debatable land. His +front windows commanded it, and on such a morning as this he loved to +stand upon his doorstep and gaze at it with the air of a dog watching +the spot where his bone lies buried. But if Mr. Swainson was right, +that was just what was not buried there; there were no bones there. +True, the smoothly shorn surface of the little patch was divided from +the green turf round the cathedral only by a slight iron railing, but, +said Mr. Swainson, ponderously seizing upon his opponent's weapon and +using it with effect, it was of another sort altogether; of a very +different nature. It had never been consecrated, and close as it lay +to the sacred pile, being separated from it on two sides but by a sunk +fence, it did not belong to it, it was not of it; it was private +property, the property of Erasmus John Swainson, and the appanage of +his substantial red-brick house just across the Close. + +And no one could refute him, though several tried their best, to his +delight. It cannot now be computed by how many years the discovery of +his rights prolonged his life--but certainly by some. His liver +demanded activity, namely a quarrel, and what a coil this was! If he +had been given the choice of all possible opponents, he would have +selected the Dean and Chapter, they were so substantial, wealthy, and +formidable. And such a thorn in the side of those comfortable +personages as these rights of his were like to prove he could hardly +have imagined in his most sanguine dreams, or hoped for in his +happiest moments. + +It was great fun stating his claim, flouting it in their faces, +displaying it through the city, brandishing it in season and out of +season; but when it came to making a hole in the smooth turf hitherto +so sacred, and setting up an unsightly post, and affixing to it a +board with "Trespassers will be prosecuted. E. J. Swainson," the fun +became furious. So did the Dean, so did the Chapter, so did every +sidesman and verger. Bicester was torn in pieces by the contending +parties, but Mr. Swainson was firm. The only concession which could be +wrung from him was the removal of the obnoxious board. Instead he set +a neat iron railing round his property, enclosing just thirty feet by +fifteen. Such was the _status in quo_ on this morning, and with it the +Dean had for some time been forced to rest content. + +Yet, sooth to say, the greatest pleasure of the very reverend +gentleman's life was gone with this accession to the roundness and +fulness of Mr. Swainson's. No more with the thorough satisfaction of +the past could he conduct the American traveller through the ancient +crypt, or dilate to the Marquis of Bicester's visitors upon the beauty +of the quaint gargoyles. No; that railed-in spot became a plague-spot +to him, ever itching, an eyesore even when invisible, a thing to be +evaded and dodged and given the slip, as a Dean who is a Dean should +scorn to evade anything. He winced at the mere thought that the +inquisitive sightseer might touch upon it, and probe the matter with +questions. He hurried him past it with averted finger and voluble +tongue, nor recovered his air of kindly condescension, or polished +ease (as the case might be), until he was safe within his own hall. +Only in moments of forgetfulness could the Dean now walk in his Close +of Bicester with the grace of old times. + +But on this particular morning the sunshine was so pleasant, the wind +so balmy, that he walked halfway across the Close as if the river of +Lethe flowed fathoms deep over Mr. Swainson's plot. Then it chanced +that his eyes in a heedless moment rested upon the enclosure: and he +saw that a man was at work in it, and he paused. The Dean knew Mr. +Swainson too well to trust him. What was this? By the man's side lay a +small heap of greyish-white things, and he was holding a short-handled +mallet, which he was using to drive one of the greyish-white things +into the ground. From him the Dean's eyes travelled to a couple of +parti-coloured sticks, one at each end of the plot. What was this? A +thing so terrible that the Dean stood still, and that change came over +him which we have described. + +Great men rise to the occasion. It was only a moment he thus stood and +looked. Then he turned and walked to a house. A tall thin man was +standing upon the steps of the house, with the ghost of a smile upon +his face. For a moment the Dean could only stammer. It was such a +dreadful outrage. + +"Is that," he said at last, "is that, sir, being done by your +authority?" With a shaking finger he pointed to Mr. Swainson's plot. +The tall man in a leisurely way settled a pair of eye-glasses upon his +nose and looked in the direction indicated. "Ah, I see what you mean," +he said at last. "Certainly, Mr. Dean, certainly!" + +"Are you aware, sir, what it is?" gasped the clergyman; "it is +sacrilege!" + +"Nothing of the kind, I assure you, my dear sir. It's croquet!" + +The tone was one of explanation, and the words were uttered with so +transparent an air of frankness, that the veins in the Dean's temples +swelled and his face grew, if possible, redder than before. + +"I won't stay to bandy words with you!" he cried. + +"Bandy!" returned the tall man, intensely amused. "Ha, ha, ha! you +thought it was hockey! Bandy! Oh, no, you play it with hoops and a +mallet. Drive the balls through--so!" + +And to the intense delight of the Close people, many of whom were at +their windows, Mr. Swainson executed an ungainly kind of gambado upon +the steps. "Disgusting," the Dean called it afterwards, when talking +to sympathetic ears. Now he merely put it away from him with a wave of +the hand. + +"I will not discuss it now, Mr. Swainson," he said. "If your feelings +of decency and of what is right and proper do not forbid this--this +profanity--I can call it nothing else--I have but one word to add. The +Chapter shall prevent it." + +"The Chapter!" replied the other, in a tone of contempt, which gave +place to temper as he continued, "you are well read in history, Mr. +Dean, they tell me. Doubtless you remember what happened when King +Canute bade the tide come no further. I am the tide, and you and the +Chapter--sit in the chair of Canute." + +The Dean, it must be confessed, was no little taken aback by this +defiance. He was amazed. The two glared at one another, and the +clergyman was the first to give way; baffled and disconcerted, yet +swelling with rage, he strode towards the Deanery. His antagonist +followed him with his eyes, then looked more airily than ever at his +plot and the progress made there, considered the weather with his chin +at the decanal angle, finally with a flirt of his long coat-tails he +went into the house, a happy man and the owner of a vastly improved +appetite. + +But the Dean had more to suffer yet. At the door of his garden he ran +in his haste against some one coming out. Ordinarily, great man as he +was, he was also a gentleman. But this was too much. That, when the +father had insulted him, the son should collide with him on his own +threshold, was intolerable; at any rate at a moment when he was +smarting under a sense of defeat. + +"Good morning, Mr. Dean," said the young fellow, raising his hat with +an evident desire to please that was the antipodes of his father's +manner--only the Dean was in no mood to discriminate--"I have just +been having a delightful game of croquet." + +It is to be regretted, but here a short hiatus in the narrative +occurs. The minor canons, than whom no men are more wanting in +reverence, say that the Dean's answer consisted of two words, one of +them pithy and full of meaning, but in the mouth of a Dean, however +choleric, impossible. Accounting this as a gloss, we are driven to +conjecture that the Dean's answer expressed mild disapprobation of the +game of croquet. Certain it is that young Swainson, surprised by so +novel and original a sentiment, answered only-- + +"I beg your pardon." + +"Hem!" the Dean exclaimed. "I mean to say that I do not approve of +this. I will come to the point. I must ask you to discontinue your +visits at my house." The young man stared as if he thought the excited +divine had gone mad; the Deanery was almost a home to him. "Your +father," the Dean went on more coherently, "has taken a step so +unseemly, so--so indecent, has used language so insulting to me, sir, +that I cannot, at any rate at present, receive you." + +Young Swainson was a gentleman; moreover, for a very good reason, the +Dean failed to anger him. He raised his hat as respectfully as before, +bowed in token of acquiescence, and went on his way sorrowfully. + +He had a singularly pleasant smile, this young man, though this was +not a time to display it. Mrs. Dean had once pronounced him a pippin +grafted on a crab-stock, and thereafter in certain circles he had +become known as King Pepin. He was tall and straight and open-eyed, +with faults enough, but of a generous youthful kind, easily overlooked +and more easily forgiven. Doubtless Mr. Swainson would have had his +son more practical, cool-headed, and precise, but the shoot did not +grow in the same way as the parent tree. Old Swainson would not have +been happy without an enemy, nor young Swainson as happy with one; and +if, as the former often said, the latter's worst enemy was himself, he +was likely to have a prosperous life. + +In a space of time inconceivably short, the doings of the old +lawyer and the Dean's remonstrance were all over Bicester. Nay, fast +as the stone rolled, it gathered moss. It was asserted by people who +rapid-grew to be eye-witnesses, that Mr. Swainson had danced a +hornpipe in the middle of his plot, snapping his fingers at the Dean, +while the latter prodded him as well as he could through the railings +with his umbrella; finally that only the arrival of Mr. Swainson's son +had put an end to this disgraceful exhibition. + +Neither side wasted time. The Dean, the Canon in residence, and the +Praecentor, an active young fellow, consulted their lawyer, and talked +largely of ejectment, title, and seisin. Mr. Swainson, having nine +points of the law in his favour, and as well acquainted with the tenth +as his opponent's legal adviser, devoted himself to the fighter +pursuit of the mallet and hoop. In a state of felicity undreamt of +before, he played, or affected to play, croquet, his right hand +against his left, the former giving the latter two hoops and a cage. +He played with a cage and a bell; it was more cheerful. + +Of course all Bicester found occasion to pass through the Close and +see this great sight, while every window in the precincts was raised, +that visitors might hear the tap, tap of the sacrilegious mallet. The +Cathedral lawyer, urged to take some step, and well versed in the +strength of the enemy's position, was fairly nonplussed. While he +pondered, with a certain grim amusement, over Mr. Swainson's crotchet, +which did not present itself to his legal mind in so dreadful a light +as to the mind clerical, some unknown person took action, and made it +war to the knife. + +"Who did it?" Bicester asked when it rose one morning, to find Mr. +Swainson in a state of mind which seemed to call for a padded room and +a strait waistcoat. Some one during the night had thrown down the iron +railing, taken up and broken the hoops, crushed the bell, and snapped +the pegs; all this in the neatest possible manner, and with no damage +to the turf. War to the knife indeed! Mr. Swainson, like the famous +Widdrington, would have fought upon his stumps on such a provocation. + +He expressed his opinion with much heat that this was the work of +"that arrogant priest," and that he should smart for it. A clergyman +in this kind of context becomes a priest. + +The Dean said, if hints went for anything, that it was a more or less +direct interposition of Providence. + +Young Swainson said nothing. + +The vergers followed his example, but smiled broadly. + +The Dean's lawyer said it was a very foolish act, whoever did it. Mrs. +Dean said that she should like to give the man who did it five +shillings. Perhaps her inclination mastered her. + +The Dean's daughter sighed. + +And Bicester said everything except what young Swainson said. + +I have not mentioned the Dean's daughter before. It is the popular +belief that she was christened Sweet Clive, and if people are mistaken +in this, and the name "Sweet" does not appear upon the favoured +register, what of it? It is but one proof the more of the utter want +of foresight of godfathers and godmothers. They send into the world +the future lounger in St. James's handicapped with the name of Joseph +or Zachary, and dub the country curate Tom or Jerry. No matter; Clive, +whatever her name, could be nothing but sweet. She was not tall nor +short; she was just as tall and just as short as she should have been, +with a well-rounded figure and a grave carriage of the head. Her hair +was wavy and brown, and sometimes it strayed over a white brow, on +which a frown came so rarely that its right of entry was barred +by the Statute of Limitations. There were a few freckles about her +well-shaped nose. But these charms grew upon one gradually; at first +her suitors were only conscious of her grey wide-open eyes, so kind +and frank and trustful, and so wise, that they filled every young man +upon whom she turned them with a certainty of her purity and goodness +and lovableness, and sent him away with a frantic desire to make her +his wife without loss of time. With all this, she overflowed with fun +and happiness--except when she sighed--and she was just nineteen. Such +was Sweet Clive. If her picture were painted to-day, there would be +this difference: she is older and more beautiful. + +To return to Mr. Swainson's enclosure. Bicester watched with bated +breath to see what Mr. Swainson would do. No culprit was forthcoming, +and it seemed as if the day were going against him. He made no sign; +only the broken hoops, the cage and battered bell, so lately the +instruments and insignia of triumph, were cleared away and, at the +ex-mayor's strenuous request, taken in charge by the police. Even +the iron railing was removed. The excitement in the Close rose high. +Once more the Cathedral vicinage was undefiled by lay appropriation, +but the Dean knew Mr. Swainson too well to rejoice. The ground +was cleared, but only, as he foresaw, that it might be used for +some mysterious operations, of which the end and aim--his own +annoyance--were clear to him, but not the means. What would Mr. +Swainson do? + +The strange unnatural calm lasted several days. The Cathedral +dignitaries moved in fear and trembling. At length the dwellers in the +Close were aroused one night by a peculiar hammering. It was frequent, +deep, and ominous, and it came from the direction of Mr. Swainson's +plot. To the nervous it seemed as the knocking of nails into an +untimely coffin; to the guilty--and this was near the Cathedral--like +the noise of a rising scaffold, to the brave and those with clear +consciences, such as Clive, it more nearly resembled the erection of a +hoarding. Indeed, that was the thing it was, and round Mr. Swainson's +plot. + +But what a hoarding! When the light of day discovered it to waking +eyes, the Dean's fearful anticipations seemed slight to him, as the +boy's vision who dreaming he is about to be flogged, awakes to find +his father standing over him with a strap. It was so unsightly, so +gaunt, so unpainted, so terrible; the stones of the Cathedral seemed +to blush a deeper red at discovering it, and the oldest houses to turn +a darker purple. Had the Dean possessed the hundred tongues of Fame +(which in Bicester possessed many more) and the five hundred fingers +of Briareus, he could not hope to prevent the Marquis's visitors +asking questions about _that_, nor to divert the attention of the +least curious American. He recognised the truth at a glance, +and formed his plan. Many generals have formed it; before; it +was--retreat. He despatched his butler to borrow a continental +Bradshaw from the club, and he shut himself up in his study. The truly +great mind is never overwhelmed. + +The vergers alone inspected the monster unmoved. They eyed it with +glances not only of curiosity, but of appreciative intelligence. Not +so, later in the day. Then Mr. Swainson appeared, leading by a strong +chain a brindled bull-dog, of the most ferocious description and about +sixty pounds dead weight. The animal contemplated the nearest verger +with satisfaction, and licked his chops; it might be at some grateful +memory. The verger, who was in a small way a student of natural +history, pronounced it a lick of anticipation, and appeared +disconcerted. Mr. Swainson entered with the dog by a small door at the +corner, and came out without him. The other vergers left. + +Their coming and going was nothing to Mr. Swainson. It was enough for +him that he stood there the cynosure of every eye in the Close; even +Mrs. Dean was watching him from a distant garret window. In slow and +measured fashion he walked to the steps of his own house, and, taking +thence a board he had previously placed there, he returned to the +entrance of his plot, now enclosed to the height of about ten feet +by his terrible hoarding. Above the door he hung the board and drew +back a few feet to take in the effect. Mrs. Dean sent down for her +opera-glasses, but there was no need of them. The legend in huge black +letters on a white ground ran thus: "No Admittance! Beware of the +Dog!!!" A smile of content crept slowly over Mr. Swainson's face, and +he said aloud-- + +"Trump that card, Mr. Dean, if you can." + +As he turned--Mrs. Dean saw it distinctly and declared herself ready +to swear to it in a court of justice--he snapped his fingers at the +Deanery. And the dog howled! + +It was the first of many howls, for he was a dog of great width of +chest; not even the surgeon of an insurance company, if he had lived +twenty-four hours in Bicester Close, would have found fault with his +lungs. Why he howled during the night, for it was not the time of full +moon, became the burning question of each morning. That he joined in +the Cathedral services with a zest which rendered the organ +superfluous, and drove the organist to the verge of resignation, was +only to be expected. There was nothing strange in that, nor in his +rivalry of the Praecentor's best notes, whose voice was considered very +fine in the Litany. The voluntary, Tiger made his own; of the sermon +he expressed disapproval in so marked a manner that it was hard to say +which swelled more with rage, the Dean within or the dog without. +Their rage was equally impotent. + +Things went so far that the Dean publicly wrung his hands at the +breakfast-table. "You could not hear the benediction this morning?" he +wailed, with tears in his eyes. "And I was in good voice too, my +dear!" + +"You should appeal to the Marquis," his wife suggested. It must be +explained that the Marquis in Bicester ranks next to and little +beneath Providence. But the Dean shook his head. He put no faith in +the power even of the Marquis to handle Mr. Swainson. "I will lay it +before the Bishop, my dear," he said humbly. And then, then indeed, +Mrs. Dean knew that the iron had entered into his soul, and that the +hand of the Mayor of the Palace was very heavy upon him; and her good, +wifely heart grew so hot that she felt she could have no more patience +with her daughter. + +For Clive's sympathies were no longer to be trusted. She was not the +Sweet Clive of a month ago, but a sadder and more sedate young woman, +who had a way of defending the absent foe, and of sighing in dark +corners, that was more than provoking. Duty demanded that she should +be an ocean, into which her father and mother might pour the streams +of their indignation and meet with a sympathising flood-tide. And lo! +this unfeeling girl declined to make herself useful in that way, and +instead sent forth a "bore" of light jesting that made little of the +enemy's enormities and a trifle of his outrages. More, she showed +herself for the first time disobedient; she refused to promise not to +speak to King Pepin if opportunity served, and, clever girl as she +was, laughed her father out of insisting upon it, and kissed her +mother into a not unwilling ally. A wise woman was her mother and +clear-sighted; she saw that Clive had a spirit, but no longer a heart +of her own. Yet at such a time as this, when her husband was wringing +his hands, Clive's insensibility to the family grievance tried Mrs. +Dean sorely. It was hard that the Canon's sleepless night, the +Praecentor's peevishness, the singing man's influenza, and all the +countless counts of the indictment against Mr. Swainson should fail to +awaken in the young lady's mind a tithe of the indignation felt by +every other person at the Deanery, from the Dean himself to the +scullery-maid. But then, love is blind, for which most of us may thank +Heaven. + +Day after day went by and the hoarding still reared its gaunt height, +and the unclean beast of the Hebrews still made night hideous, and the +day a time for the expression of strong feelings. At length the Dean +met his lawyer in the Close, within a few feet of the obnoxious +erection. He kept his back to it with ridiculous care, while they +talked. + +"We have come to something like a settlement at last," the lawyer said +briskly. "Con-fusion take the dog! I can hardly hear myself speak. We +are to meet at the Chapter House at five, Mr. Dean, if that will suit +you; Mr. Swainson, the Bishop, Canon Rowcliffe, and myself. I think he +is inclined to be reasonable at last." + +The Dean shook his head gloomily. + +"You will see it turn out better than you expect," the lawyer assured +him. "Let me whisper something to you. There is an action begun +against him for shutting up a road across one of his farms at +Middleton and it will be stoutly fought. One suit at a time will +satisfy even Mr. Swainson." + +"You don't say so? This is good news!" the Dean cried, with +unmistakable pleasure. "Certainly, I will be there." + +"And--I am sure I need not doubt it--you will be ready to meet Mr. +Swainson halfway?" + +The Dean looked gloomy again. But at this moment a long howl, more +frenzied, more fiendish than any which had preceded it, seemed to +proclaim that the dog knew that his reign was menaced, and, like +Sardanapalus, was determined to go out right royally. It was more than +the Dean could stand. With an involuntary movement of his hands to his +ears, he nodded and fled in haste to a place less exposed, where he +could in a seemly and decanal manner relieve his feelings. + +The best-laid plans even of lawyers will go astray, and when they do +so, the havoc is generally of a singularly wide-spread description. +The meeting in the Chapter-house proved stormy from the first. Whether +it was that the writ in the right-of-way case had not yet reached Mr. +Swainson, so that he clung to his only split-straw, or that the Dean +was soured by want of sleep, or that the Bishop was not thorough +enough--whatever was the cause, the spirit of compromise was absent; +and the discussion across the Chapter-house table threatened to make +matters worse and not better. Whether the Dean first called Mr. +Swainson's enclosure the "toadstool of a night," or Mr. Swainson took +the initiative by styling the Dean the "mushroom of a day" (the Dean +was not of old family), was a question afterwards much and hotly +debated in Bicester circles. Be that as it may, the high powers rose +from the table in dudgeon and much confusion. + +There was behind the Dean at the end of the Chapter-house a large +window. It looked immediately-upon what he, in the course of the +discussion, had termed "The Profanation," and since the eventful day +of Mr. Swainson's match at croquet it had been, by the Dean's order, +kept shuttered, that he might not, when occupied in the Chapter-house, +have the Profanation directly before his eyes. At the meeting the +shutter remained closed; it may be that this phenomenon had weakened +Mr. Swainson's doubtful inclination towards peace. + +The Dean was a choleric man. As the party rose, he stepped to this +shutter and flung it back. He turned to the others and cried with +indignation-- + +"Look, sir; look, my lord! Is that a sight becoming the threshold of a +cathedral? Is that a thing to be endured on consecrated ground?" + +They stepped towards the window, a wide low-browed Tudor casement, +and looked out. The Dean himself stood aside, grasping the shutter +with a hand which shook with passion. His eyes were on the others' +faces. He expected little show of shame or contrition on that of Mr. +Swainson, but he did wish to bring this hideous thing home to the +Bishop, who had not been as thorough in the matter as he should have +been. Yet surely, as a bishop, he could not see that thing in its +horrid reality and be unmoved! + +No, he certainly could not. Slowly, and as if reluctantly, his +lordship's face changed; it broke into a smile that broadened and +rippled wider and wider, second by second as he looked. His colour +deepened, until he became almost purple! And Mr. Swainson? His face +was the picture of horror; there could not be a doubt of that. +Confusion and astonishment were stamped on every feature. The Dean +could not believe his eyes. He turned in perplexity to the lawyer, who +was peeping between the others' heads. His shoulders were shaking, and +his face was puckered with laughter. + +The Bishop stepped back. "Really, gentlemen, I think it is hardly fair +of us to--to use this window. This is no place for us." He was a +kindly man; there never was a more popular bishop in Bicester, and +never will be. + +At this the Canon and the lawyer lost all control over themselves, and +their laughter, if not loud, was deep. The Dean was puzzled--confused, +perplexed, wholly angry. He did at last what he should have done at +first, instead of striking that attitude with the shutter in his hand. +He looked through the window. It was dusty, and he was somewhat +nearsighted, but at length he saw; and this was what he saw. + +In the further comer of the enclosure, a couple of lovers billing and +cooing; about and round them Mr. Swainson's big dog cutting a hundred +uncouth gambols. Bad enough this; but it was not all. The ingenuous +couple were Frank Swainson and--the Dean's daughter. Frank's arm was +around her, and as the Dean looked, he stooped and kissed her, and +Clive, raising her face, returned his gaze with eyes full of love, and +scarcely blushed. + +When the Dean turned he was alone. + +Was it very wrong of them? There was nowhere else, since this +miserable fracas had begun, where freed from others' eyes, they could +steal a kiss. But into Mr. Swainson's plot no window, save a shuttered +one, could look; the door, too, was close to one of the side doors of +the cathedral, and they could pop in and out again unseen, and as for +the big dog, Frank and Tiger were great friends. So if it was very +wrong, it was very easy and very sweet and--_facilis descensus +Averni_. + +For one hour the Dean remained shut up in his study. At the end of +that time he put on his hat and walked across the Close. He knocked at +Mr. Swainson's door, and, upon its being opened, went in, and did not +come out again for an hour and five minutes by Mrs. Canon Rowcliffe's +watch. I have not the slightest idea of what passed between them. More +than two score different and distinct accounts of the interview were +current next day in Bicester, but no one, and I have examined them all +with care, seems to me to account for the undoubted results. First the +disappearance next day from Mr. Swainson's plot of the famous +hoarding, which was not replaced even by the old iron railing. +Secondly, the marriage six weeks later of King Pepin and Sweet Clive. + + + + + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + + + + FAMILY PORTRAITS. + + +On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a +shoe-lace, having taken advantage for that purpose of the step of a +corner house in St. James's Square, when a man passing behind me +stopped. + +"Well!" said he, after a short pause during which I wondered--I could +not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk is +disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be ashamed +to own a house and leave it like that!" + +The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby too--a little +red-nosed man wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order." + +"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public." + +"And your hat?" I asked with winning politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?" + +"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage. + +"Cannot afford it? But my good man, you ought to think of the public." + +"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary. + +I was about to go mine, but was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener; a thin, grey-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke. + +"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he +observed, with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we +are very much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir." + +"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too." + +"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now, might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?" + +"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States." + +I could have fancied that he sighed. + +"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began. "I was wrong. It is +curious how much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. Now +I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures." + +I was inclined to humour the old fellow's mood. "I like a good +picture, I admit," I said. + +"Then perhaps you would not be offended," he suggested timidly, +"if I asked you to step inside and look at one or two. I would not +take the liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in +the dining-room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; +and there is no one in the house but my wife and myself." + +It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason why I should not accept it, and I followed him into the hall. +It was spacious, but sparely furnished. The matted floor had a cold +look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a fixture, and +boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. As I passed +a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room well furnished +with prints and water-colours on the walls. But these were of a common +order. A dozen replicas of each and all might be seen in a walk +through Bond Street. So that even this oasis of taste and comfort told +the same story as had the bare hall and dreary exterior; and laid, as +it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly as I followed my guide +along the strip of matting towards the rear of the house. + +He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out at the back, as a state dining-room or +ball-room. At present it resembled the latter, for it was without +furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully touching +my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider your labour +lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the second Lord +Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one of the +finest specimens of his style in existence." + +I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upwards to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically. + +"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved as he spoke a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted." + +Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Walter, Lord Wetherby, and Anne, his +wife, grew into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; +and it was with a heart full of wonder and pity that I accompanied the +old man, in whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, +round the walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in +Holland, the Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very +Barmecide feast of art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the +pictures; but I saw only bare walls. + +"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, though the house is not what it was." + +"Very fine pictures," I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said, "I suppose that he is +not in London?" + +"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here." + +"But this is the Wetherby's town house," I persisted. I knew so much. + +"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterwards, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him." + +He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?" + +"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That is +how it is. And the present peer, who was only a second cousin--well, I +say nothing about him." A reticence which was calculated to consign +his lordship to the lowest deep. + +"He did not help?" I asked. + +"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there, it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like." + +By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman wearing an apron +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked much astonished. "I have +been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was still +occupied with the door. + +A flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have been +very much interested, madam," I said softly. + +Her gaze left me to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord a mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs." + +"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to retire into one of the side +passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand. + +In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?" + +"About the pictures?" + +"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see." + +"Blind?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and been so +proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his own, why +it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to do it, +and he thinks they are there to this day." + +Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea, +and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall and +a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, that, +it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left, might find home in +them. "Your mistress," I said presently, when the sounds had died away +upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but has not something +annoyed her?" + +"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper; who was, I daresay, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should notice it!" + +"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily. + +"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied. And then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion. + +"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him in five minutes; +and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, turning +towards the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a better +man than you has waited longer at that door." + +"Hush, John. Do you not see the gentleman?" his wife interposed, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute." + +"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands. But though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while I listened to John parleying +with some one at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire +which would have been strange in another man, to see this thing to the +end--conceived it and acted upon it. + +The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigrams's sitting-room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the visitor by +one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced myself behind a +screen, which I seemed to know would mask it. I was going to listen. +Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what matter? As a fact, +I listened. + +The room was spacious but sombre, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank back +behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of the +most formal; but, though the room was still, I failed to hear it, and +when I recovered myself he was speaking. + +"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he said, +with an effort at gallantry which sat ill upon him. "Although I think +it would have been better if we had left the matter to our +solicitors." + +"Indeed." + +"Yes. I thought you were aware of my opinion." + +"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby," she replied, with +a coldness which did not hide her dislike for him, "your preference +for that course. You naturally shrink from telling me your terms face +to face." + +"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business." + +"Business!" she retorted. "Does that mean wringing advantage from my +weakness?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a-year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a-year for the house. What can be more fair?" + +"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for fifteen hundred." + +"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not." + +"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!" + +"We are not acting a play," he answered doggedly, but I could see that +her words stung him. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing but my +rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favour. You +have my offer." + +"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction." + +"Try me," he rejoined, drumming with his fingers upon the table. "Try +me, and you will see." + +"If my husband had lived----" + +"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?" + +For a moment she seemed about to break down, but, her pride coming to +the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness. + +"I have no choice," she said with dignity. + +"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!" + +She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them." + +"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is doubtless in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven." + +"I do not think that he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should +know if he were here." + +"Not here!" he answered angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease; it is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take twenty minutes." + +"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the servants." + +"Thank you. You are very good," he said smoothly, adding, when she had +left the room, "and the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a-year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." With that, now +grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk, and now congratulating +himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat down to his task. + +A hansom cab, on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and, under cover of the noise, I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt the desire to raise my hand +and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in his life +experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and as it was I +put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of sunshine, +piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on the Wetherby coat +of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, and so created the one +bright spot in the bare, dismantled room; which had once, unless the +tiers of empty shelves and the lingering odour of Russia lied, been +lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord had taken the +furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had taken--nothing but +his rights. + +Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed to gain his attention. + +He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room was natural; but +possibly also there was something in the atmosphere of that house +which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he cried in a +tone which matched his face. + +"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan and +Poole that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret +that some delay has been caused." + +"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk." + +Involuntarily I glanced aside, and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and moustaches, grey eyes, and an ugly +scar seaming the face from nose to ear. "Yet I hope to give you +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk." + +"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better +late than never; and after all it may be better that you should be +here and see it executed. Only you will not forget," he continued, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, for which an allowance must be made. But +there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for itself." + +I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favour that was no favour from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion, +saw as he thought nothing unusual; nor had any presentiment--how +should he?--of the strange scene which the room with the dingy windows +was about to witness. + +I had been writing for five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped in his +passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eyeglasses fell, touching my shoulder. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere! And lately, too. Where, I wonder?" + +"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby." + +"Indeed." There was both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?" + +"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now." + +His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and on the instant +retreated to the window. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued with transparent carelessness. "A +strange coincidence. And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?" + +"At that time?" I answered, looking him full in the face. "Upon a +will, my lord." + +He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him credit for +possessing. My shot had not struck where I had looked to place it; +and, finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, while I +pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think he was +busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower orders--if +he would go through the instrument. And he took my seat. + +Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and; neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield, +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----" + +He turned swiftly, and saw where I was. "What the deuce are you doing +there, sir?" he cried in astonishment, rising to his feet and coming +towards me, the pen in his hand and his face aflame with anger. "You +forget----" + +"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob." + +"Leave it alone, sir!" he cried furiously. + +He spoke too late. The shield had swung outwards on a hinge, +door-fashion; and where it had been, gaped a small open safe lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large envelope which +lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been put there that +morning. No doubt the safe was air-tight. I laid my hand upon it. "My +lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed exultation, +"here is a paper--I think, a will!" + +A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +had been dark with the rush of blood. But his anger died down at sight +of the packet. He regained his self-control, and a moment saw him pale +and calm, all show of resentment confined to a wicked gleam in his +eye. "A will?" he repeated, with a certain kind of dignity, though the +hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. "Indeed, then it is +my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and I am within my +rights, sir." + +I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take, when +instead he carried the envelope to the table by the window, and tore +off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your handwriting?" were +his first words. And he looked at me with a distrust that was almost +superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, my ominous talk, and my +discovery seemed to him to savour of the devil. + +"No," I replied unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one." + +"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood awhile staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth, dashing the back of his hand against +the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?" + +"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I. + +"The unjust provisions of this will?" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered. + +"Fifty thousand pounds to a woman who had not a penny when she married +his son! And the interest on another fifty thousand for her life! Why, +it is a prodigious income, an abnormal income--for a woman! And out of +whose pocket? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is monstrous! I say +it is! How am I to support the title on the income left to me, I +should like to know?" + +I marvelled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds." + +"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!" + +What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked in a low voice. + +So low--for under certain conditions a tone conveys much--that he shot +a stealthy glance towards the door before he answered, "John +Williams." + +"Blind," I replied in the same low tone. + +"William Williams." + +"He is dead. He was Mr. Wigram's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time." + +"True. I fancy that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And the +handwriting is Lord Wetherby's." + +I assented. + +Then for fully a minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, +and I stood behind him looking down at him with thoughts in my mind +which he could no more fathom than the senseless wood upon which I +leaned. Yet I mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; +and--so he was--but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me. + +I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting "_quem Deus vult perdere_." + +My words startled him. He answered hurriedly, "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he concluded slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make." + +I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would not need to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap residence as +well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the latter loss he +had resigned himself; but he could not bear to forego the petty gain +for which he had schemed. "I think I understand, my lord," I replied. + +"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me." + +"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier." + +He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not in +that event get my good word," he said. + +"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered. + +"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?" + +"A hundred pounds." + +"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay? Which will do no one any +harm?" + +"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted drily. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you know, +will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have Wetherby +House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it." + +"You are an impertinent fellow!" he cried. + +"So you have said before, my lord." + +I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a hint of power in my tone, beyond the defiance which the words +expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a thoughtful +gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at Poole and Duggan's," he said +slowly. "How was it that they did not search this cupboard, with which +you were acquainted?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined." + +"You are not a member of the firm?" + +"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, if I knew those +respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord in +this for ten times a hundred pounds. + +He seemed satisfied, and taking out a note-case laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. To-morrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan and Poole, or to Mrs. Wigram, as +you please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be +good enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am +waiting?" + +There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," some one said. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement at twelve. Do I understand that you are ready? If +so, I will summon Mrs. Williams." + +"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back to the end of the room. "Be good enough to ring the bell if Mrs. +Wigram permit it," he said. + +As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with surprise. But when I had regained my position +and looked towards her, she was standing near the window gazing +steadily into the square, an expression of disdain rendered by face +and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her head so +high, and to read even in the outline of her form a contempt which I, +and I only, knew to be so justly based? For myself, I leant against +the edge of the screen by the door, and perhaps my hundred pounds lay +heavily on my heart. As for him, he fidgeted with his papers, although +they were all in order. He was visibly impatient to get his bit of +knavery accomplished. Oh! he was a worthy man! And Welshman! + +"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have seen +it in the draft." + +She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting! I saw her eyes grow large, and fear leap into them, +as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer to +the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly! Who wrote this?" + +He was nervous on his own account, wrapt in his own piece of scheming, +and obtuse. + +"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----" + +"Think! Think! no! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she repeated, +her voice hysterical with excitement. "This? This?" + +He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his evil +conscience. + +"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan and Poole's." + +"Where is he?" she cried breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him. + +"Where is he?" he repeated in querulous surprise. "Why, here, of +course; where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature." + +It was little of signatures I recked at that moment. I was praying to +Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; and that my lightly planned +vengeance might not fall on my own head. "Joy does not kill," I said +to myself, repeating it over and over again, and clinging to it +desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But oh! was it true? in face of that +white-lipped woman! + +"Here!" She did not say more, but she gazed at me with dazed eyes, she +raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to obey; +to go nearer to her, out into the light. + +"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me as a whisper, +"I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news." + +"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face from which +all colour had passed peered into mine, and searched it in infinite +hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need of +physical lips? "Good news?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----" + +"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her?" + +"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!" + + +An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me----" I cried, pleased that the tidings had +come by his lips--"to go to her? That she will see me?" + +"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied. + +"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?' + +"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time." + + + + + THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Laid up in Lavender, by Stanley J. 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