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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40672 ***
+
+The White Virgin
+By George Manville Fenn
+Published by Chatto & Windus, London.
+This edition dated 1894.
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+BY A THREAD.
+
+It was a long, thin, white finger, one which had felt the throbbing of
+hundreds and thousands of pulses, and Doctor Praed, after viciously
+flicking at a fly which tried persistently to settle upon his
+ivory-white, shiny, bald head, hooked that finger into Clive Reed's
+button-hole, just below the white rosebud Janet had given him a little
+earlier in the evening.
+
+"Mind the flower."
+
+"All right, puppy.  Come here.  I want to talk to you."
+
+"About Janet?"
+
+"Pish! mawkish youth.  Great ugly fellow like you thinking of nothing
+else but Janet.  Wait till you've been her slave as I have for eighteen
+years."
+
+"Pleasant slavery, Doctor," said the young man, smiling, as he allowed
+himself to be led out on to the verandah just over the gas-lamp which
+helped to light up Great Guildford Street, W.C.
+
+"Is it, sir?  You don't know what a jealous little she-tartar she is."
+
+"I warn you I shall tell her every word you say, Doctor.  But it's of no
+good.  I shall not back out.  Look at her dear face now."
+
+Reed caught the little Doctor by the shoulder, and pointed to where his
+daughter sat with the light of one of the shaded lamps falling upon her
+pretty, animated face, as she laughed at something a sharp-looking,
+handsome young man was saying--an anecdote of some kind which amused the
+rest of the group in old Grantham Reed's drawing-room.
+
+"Oh yes, she's pretty enough," said the Doctor testily.  "I wish she
+weren't.  Don't let that brother of yours be quite so civil to her, boy.
+I don't like Jessop."
+
+"Nor me?" said the young man, smiling.
+
+"Of course I don't, sir.  Hang it all! how can a man like the young
+scoundrel who robs him of his child's love?"
+
+"No, sir," said Clive Reed gravely; "only evokes a new love that had
+lain latent, and offers him the love and respect of a son as well."
+
+Doctor Praed caught the young man's hand in his and gave it a firm
+pressure.  Then he cleared his throat before he spoke again, but his
+voice sounded husky as he said--
+
+"God bless you, my dear boy."
+
+And then he stopped, and stood gazing through the window at the pleasant
+little party, as two neatly-dressed maids entered and began to remove
+the tea-things, one taking out the great plated urn, while the other
+collected the cups and saucers.
+
+"The old man hasn't bad taste in maids," he said, with his voice still a
+little shaky, and as if he wanted to steady it before going on with
+something he wished to say.  "Why don't he have men?"
+
+"He will not.  He prefers to have maids about."
+
+"Then he ought to have ugly ones," continued the Doctor, who keenly
+watched the movements of the slight, pretty, fair girl who was
+collecting the cups, and who exchanged glances with Jessop Reed as she
+took the cup and saucer he handed her.  "A man who has two ugly
+scoundrels of sons has no business to keep damsels like that."
+
+"This ugly scoundrel is always out and busy over mining matters; that
+ugly scoundrel is living away at chambers, money-making at the Stock
+Exchange," said Clive, smiling.
+
+"Humph!  Mining and undermining.  Well, young men like to look at pretty
+girls."
+
+"Of course, Doctor," said Clive.  "I do.  I'm looking now at the
+prettiest, sweetest--"
+
+"Don't be a young fool," cried the Doctor testily.  "I can describe
+Janet better than you can.  Now, look here, boy; I've got two things to
+say to you.  First of all, about this `White Virgin'."
+
+"Yours?" said Clive, still glancing at Janet, over whom his brother was
+now bending, as the maid who carried the tray made the cups dash as she
+opened the door, and then hurried out as if to avoid a scolding.
+
+"No, young idiot; yours--your father's," said the Doctor, rather
+sharply.  "Hang that organ!"
+
+"Yes, they are a nuisance," said the younger man, as one of the popular
+tunes was struck up just inside the square.
+
+"Well, what about the mine, sir?"
+
+"Only this, my lad: I've got a few thousands put aside; you know that."
+
+"Yes, sir; I supposed you had."
+
+"Oh, you knew," said the Doctor suspiciously.
+
+"Yes; I think I heard something of the kind."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"There, Doctor, don't take up that tone.  Give me Janet, and leave your
+money to a hospital."
+
+"No; hang me if I do!  I haven't patience with them, sir.  The way in
+which hospitals are imposed upon is disgraceful.  People who ought to be
+able to pay for medical and surgical advice go and sponge upon hospitals
+in a way that--Oh, hang it, that's not what I wanted to say.  Look here,
+Clive, if this new mine--"
+
+"No, sir: very old mine."
+
+"Well, very old mine--is a good thing, I should like to have a few
+thousands in it.  Now, then, would it be safe?  Stop, confound you!  If
+you deceive me, you shan't have Janet."
+
+"If ever I'm ill, I shall go to another doctor," said Clive quietly.
+
+"Yes, you'd better, sir!  He'd poison you."
+
+"Well, he wouldn't insult me, Doctor."
+
+"Bah! nonsense; I was joking, my dear boy.  Come, tell me.  Here, feel
+the pulse of my purse, and tell me what to do."
+
+"I will," said the younger man.  "Wait, sir.  I don't know enough about
+it yet to give a fair opinion.  At present everything looks wonderfully
+easy.  It's a very ancient mine.  It was worked by the Romans, and
+whatever was done was in the most primitive way, leaving lodes and veins
+untouched, and which are extending possibly to an immense depth, rich,
+and probably containing a very large percentage of silver."
+
+"Well, come, that's good enough for anything."
+
+"Yes, but I am not sure yet, Doctor.  I'm not going to give you advice
+that might result in your losing heavily, and then upbraiding me for
+years to come."
+
+"No, dear boy.  You would only be losing your own money; for, of course,
+it will be Janet's and yours."
+
+"Bother the money!" said the young man shortly.  "Look here, Doctor; as
+a mining engineer, I should advise every one but those who want to do a
+bit of gambling, and are ready to take losses philosophically, to have
+nothing to do with mines.  If, however, I can help you with this, I will
+tell you all I know as fast as I learn it."
+
+"That'll do, boy.  Now about the other matter.  You know I make use of
+my eyes a good deal."
+
+"Yes," said the young man anxiously.
+
+"Then, to put it rather brutally and plainly, boy, I don't like the look
+of the old dad."
+
+"Doctor Praed!" cried the young man in a voice full of agony, as he
+turned and gazed anxiously into the drawing-room, where Grantham Reed,
+one of the best known floaters of mining projects in the City, sat back
+in his chair, holding Janet Praed's hand, and patting it gently, as he
+evidently listened to something his elder son was relating.  "Why, what
+nonsense!  I never saw him look better in my life."
+
+"Perhaps not--you didn't," said the Doctor drily.
+
+"I beg your pardon.  But has he complained?"
+
+"No; he has nothing to complain of, poor fellow; but all the same, we
+doctors see things sometimes which tell us sad tales.  Look here, Clive,
+my boy.  I speak to you like a son, because you are going to be my son.
+I can't talk to your brother, though he is the elder, and ought to stand
+first.  I don't like Jessop."
+
+"Jess is a very good fellow when you know him as I do," said Clive
+coldly.
+
+"I'm very glad to hear it, boy," said the Doctor.  "But look here; your
+father's in a very bad way, and he ought to be told."
+
+"But are you sure, sir?" said Clive, in a hoarse whisper.
+
+"Yes, I am sure," said the Doctor.  "I have been watching him for the
+past six months in doubt.  Now I know.  Will you tell him, or shall I?"
+
+"Tell him!" faltered Clive.
+
+"Yes; a man in his position must have so much to do about his money
+affairs--winding up matters, while his mind is still strong and clear."
+
+"But he is well and happy," said Clive.  "How could I go to him and
+say--"
+
+"Here, where's that Doctor?" came from within, in a strong voice.  "Oh,
+there you are!  It's going on for ten, and I must have one rubber before
+you start."
+
+Five minutes later four people were seated at a card-table, one of whom
+was Clive Reed, whose hands were cold and damp, as he felt as if he were
+playing for his father's life in some great game of chance, while in the
+farther drawing-room Janet Praed was singing a ballad in a low, sweet
+voice, and Clive's sharp-looking, keen-eyed brother was turning over the
+music leaves and passing compliments, at which his sister-in-law elect
+uttered from time to time in the intervals of the song a half-pained,
+half-contemptuous laugh.
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+ARCH-PLOTTERS.
+
+"Hullo, my noble! what brings you here?"
+
+Jessop Reed took off his glossy, fashionable hat, laid a gold-headed
+malacca cane across it as he placed it upon the table, and then shot his
+cuffs out of the sleeves of his City garments, cut in the newest style,
+and apparently fresh that day.  Tie, collar, sleeve-links, pin, chain,
+tightly-cut trousers, spats, and patent shoes betokened the dandy of the
+Stock Exchange, and the cigar-case he took out was evidently the last
+new thing of its kind.
+
+"Cigar?" he said, opening and offering it to the dark, sallow, youngish
+man seated at an office table, for he had not risen when his visitor to
+the office in New Inn entered.
+
+"Eh?  Well, I don't mind.  Yours are always so good."
+
+He selected one, declined a patent cutter, preferring to use a very keen
+penknife which lay on the table, but he accepted the match which his
+visitor extracted from the interior of a little Japanese owl, and deftly
+lit by rubbing it along his leg.  The next minute the two men sat
+smoking and gazing in each other's eyes.
+
+"Well, my brilliant, my jasper and sardine stone, what brings you
+through grimy Wych Street to these shades?"
+
+"You're pretty chippy this morning, Wrigley.  Been doing somebody?"
+
+"No, my boy; hadn't a chance.  Have you come to be done?"
+
+"Yes; gently.  Short bill on moderate terms."
+
+"What!  You don't mean to say that you, my hero on 'Change, who are
+turning over money, as it were, with a pitchfork, are coming to me?"
+
+"I am, though, so no humbug."
+
+"'Pon my word!  A fellow with a dad like a Rothschild and a brother
+that--here, why don't you ask the noble Clive?"
+
+"Hang Clive!" snapped out Jessop.
+
+"Certainly, my dear fellow, if you wish it," said John Wrigley.  "Hang
+Clive!  Will that do?"
+
+"I don't care about worrying the old man, and there's a little thing on
+in Argentines this morning.  I want a hundred at once."
+
+"In paper?"
+
+"Look here, Wrigley, if you won't let me have the stuff, say so, and
+I'll go to some one else."
+
+"And pay twice as much as I shall charge, my dear boy.  Don't be so
+peppery.  Most happy to oblige you, and without consulting my friend in
+the City, who will have to sell out at a loss, eh?  A hundred, eh?"
+
+"Yes, neat."
+
+"All right!"
+
+A slip of blue stamped paper was taken out of a drawer, filled up,
+passed over for signature, and as Jessop now took up a pen he uttered a
+loud growl.
+
+"Hundred and twenty in four months!  Sixty per cent.  Bah! what a
+blood-sucker you are!"
+
+"Yes, aren't I?" said the other cheerily.  "Don't take my interest
+first, though, and give you a cheque for eighty, eh?"
+
+He took the bill, glanced at it, and thrust it in a plain morocco case,
+which he replaced in a drawer, took out a cheque-book, quickly wrote a
+cheque, signed it, and looked up.
+
+"Cross it?" he said.
+
+"Yes.  I shall pay it in.  Thanks!"
+
+"There you see the value of a good reputation, my dear Reed; but you
+oughtn't to be paying for money through the nose like that."
+
+"No," said the visitor, with a snarl, "I oughtn't to be, but I do.  If
+the dear brother wants any amount, there it, is; but if I want it--cold
+shoulder."
+
+"So it is, my dear fellow; some are favourites for a time, some are not:
+Let me see.  He's engaged to the rich doctor's daughter, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh yes, bless me," said Jessop.  "All the fat and gravy of life come to
+him."
+
+The young lawyer threw one leg over the other and clasped his hands
+about his knee.
+
+"Ah! yes," he said seriously, "the distribution of money and honour in
+this world is very unequal.  Clive is on that mine, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh, yes; consulting engineer and referee scientific, and all the
+confounded cant of it.  As for a good thing--well, I'm told not to
+grumble, and to be content with my commission and all the shares I can
+get taken up."
+
+"Does seem hard," said Wrigley.  "Only for a year or two, eh?  And then
+a sale and a burst up?"
+
+"Don't you make any mistake about that, old man," said Jessop sulkily.
+"It's a big thing."
+
+"Then why wasn't it taken up before?"
+
+"Because people are fools.  They've been so awfully humbugged, too, over
+mines.  This is a very old mine that the governor has been trying to get
+hold of on the quiet for years, but he couldn't work it till old Lord
+Belvers died.  It has never been worked by machinery, and, as you may
+say, has only been skinned.  There are mints of money in it, my boy, and
+so I tell you."
+
+Wrigley smiled.
+
+"What is your commission on all the shares you place?"
+
+"Precious little.  Eh?  Oh, I see; you think I want to plant a few.  Not
+likely.  If you wanted a hundred, I couldn't get them for you."
+
+"No, they never are to be had."
+
+"Chaff away.  I don't care.  You know it's a good thing, or else our
+governor wouldn't have put his name to it and set so much money as he
+has."
+
+"To come up and bear a good crop, eh?  There, I won't chaff about it,
+Jessop, boy.  I know it's a good thing, and you ought to make a rare
+swag out of it."
+
+"So that you could too, eh?"
+
+"Of course; so that we could both make a good thing out of it.  One is
+not above making a few thou's, I can tell you.  Lead, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, solid lead.  None of your confounded flashy gold-mines."
+
+"But they sound well with the public, Jessop.  Gold--gold--gold.  The
+public is not a Bassanio, to choose the lead casket."
+
+"It was a trump ace, though, my boy."
+
+"So it was.  But you are only to get a little commission out of sales
+over this, eh?"
+
+"That's all; and it isn't worth the candle, for there'll be no more to
+sell.  The shares are going up tremendously."
+
+"So I hear--so I hear," said Wrigley thoughtfully; "and you are left out
+in the cold, and have to come borrowing.  Jessop, old man, over business
+matters you and I are business men, and there is, as the saying goes, no
+friendship in business."
+
+"Not a bit," said Jessop, with an oath.
+
+"But we are old friends, and we have seen a little life together."
+
+"Ah! we have," said Jessop, nodding his head.
+
+"And, as the world goes, I think we have a little kind of pleasant
+feeling one for the other."
+
+"Humph!  I suppose so," said Jessop, watching the other narrowly with
+the keen eye of a man who deals in hard cash, and knows the value of a
+sixteenth per cent, in a large transaction.  "Well, what's up?"
+
+"I was thinking, my dear fellow," said the young lawyer, in a low voice,
+"how much pleasanter the world would be for you and me if we were rich.
+But no, no, no.  You would not care to fight against your father and
+brother."
+
+"Perhaps before long there will only be my brother to fight against,"
+said Jessop meaningly.
+
+The lawyer looked at him keenly.
+
+"You should not say that without a good reason, Jessop."
+
+"No, I should not."
+
+"Well, I don't ask for your confidence, so let it slide.  It was
+tempting; but there is your brother."
+
+"Curse my brother!" cried Jessop savagely.  "Is he always to stand in my
+light?"
+
+"That rests with you."
+
+"Look here, what do you mean?"
+
+"Do you wish me to state what I mean?"
+
+"Yes," said Jessop excitedly.
+
+"Then I meant this.  Your father is very rich, and knows how to protect
+his interests."
+
+"Trust him for that."
+
+"Your brother is well provided for, and can make his way."
+
+"Oh, hang him, yes.  Fortune's favourite, and no mistake."
+
+"Then what would you say if--But one moment.  You tell me, as man to
+man, to whom the business would be vital, that the `White Virgin' mine
+is really a big thing?"
+
+"I tell you, as man to man, that it will be a tremendously big thing."
+
+"Good!" said the lawyer slowly, and in a low voice.  "Then what would
+you say if I put you in the way of making a few hundred thousand
+pounds?"
+
+"And yourself too?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then never mind what I should say.  Can you do it?"
+
+"Yes.  You and I are about the only two men who could work that affair
+rightly; and as the whole business is to others a speculation, if they
+lose--well, they have gambled, and must take their chance."
+
+"Of course.  But--speak out."
+
+"No, not out, Jessop; we must not so much as whisper.  I have that
+affair under my thumb, and there is a fortune in it for us--the
+stockbroker and the lawyer.  Shall we make a contract of it, hand in
+hand?"
+
+"Tell me one thing first--it sounds impossible.  What would you do?"
+
+"Simply this," said Wrigley, with a smile.  "I tell you because you will
+not go back, neither could I.  There's my hand on it."
+
+Jessop eagerly grasped the extended hand.
+
+"It means being loss to thousands--fortune to two."
+
+"Us two?" said Jessop hoarsely.
+
+"Exactly!  It is in a nutshell, my boy.  All is fair in love, in war,
+and money-making, eh?  Here is my plan."
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+ANOTHER.
+
+"Come, I say, my dear, what's the good of being so stand-offish.  It's
+very nice and pretty, and makes a man fonder of you, and that's why you
+do it, I know!  I say!  I didn't know that the pretty Derbyshire lasses
+in this out-of-the-way place were as coy and full of their little games
+as our London girls."  Out-of-the-way place indeed!  Dinah Gurdon knew
+that well enough, as, with her teeth set fast and her eyes dilated, she
+hurried along that afternoon over the mountain-side.  The path was an
+old track, which had been made hundreds of years before, so that ponies
+could drag the little trucks up and down, and in and out, but always
+lower and lower to the smelting-house down in the dale, a mere crack in
+the limestone far below, whose perpendicular jagged walls were draped
+with ivy, and at whose foot rushed along the clear crystal trout-river,
+which brought a stranger into those solitudes once in a way.  But not on
+this particular afternoon, for Dinah looked vainly for some
+tweed-clothed gentleman with lithe rod over his shoulder and
+fishing-creel slung on back, to whom she could appeal for protection
+from the man who followed her so closely behind on the narrow,
+shelf-like path.
+
+Two miles at least to go yet to the solitary nook in the hills just
+above the bend in the stream, where the pretty, romantic, flower-clothed
+cottage stood; and where only, as far as she knew, help could be found.
+And at last, feeling that she must depend entirely upon herself for
+protection, she drew her breath hard, and mastered the strong desire
+within her to cry aloud and run along the stony track as fast as her
+strength would allow.
+
+But she only walked fast, with her sunburned, ungloved fingers tightly
+holding her basket, her face hidden by her close sun-bonnet, and her
+simply made blue spotted cotton dress giving forth a peculiar ruffing
+sound as she hurried on with "that man" close behind.
+
+She had seen that man again and again for the past two months, and he
+had spoken to her twice, and each time she had imagined that he was some
+stranger who was passing through, and whom one might never see again.
+She knew better now.
+
+He was not a bad-looking fellow of five-and-thirty; and an artist, who
+could have robed him as he pleased, instead of having him in ordinary
+clothes, could not have wished for a better model for a picturesque
+ruffian than Michael Sturgess, a man born in London, but who had passed
+the greater part of his time in Cornwall and in Wales.  A good workman,
+but one who had a kind of notoriety among his fellows for divers little
+acts of gallantry, real and imaginary.  He was not a man of strong
+perceptions or experiences out of mines, and he judged womankind, as he
+called them, by their faces and their clothes.  Silk and fashionable
+bonnets suggested ladies to him; cotton dresses and pretty faces, girls
+who enjoyed a bit of flirtation, and who were his lawful prey.
+
+"I say, you know," he cried, "what's the good of rushing on like that,
+and making yourself so hot?  Hold hard now; you've done the coy long
+enough.  Sit down and rest, and let's have a good long talk.  You need
+not look round; there's nobody about, and it's a good two miles to the
+cottage where your old dad lives."
+
+Dinah started and increased her pace.
+
+"You see I know.  I've seen the old boy in his brown alpaca and straw
+hat; I've watched him, same as I have you--you pretty little bright-eyed
+darling.  Come, stop now; I want to make love to you."
+
+As Michael Sturgess said these last words, he bent forward and caught
+hold of the folds of the dress, and tried to stop the girl, who sprang
+round in an instant, striking the dress from the man's hand, and facing
+him with her handsome face flashing its indignation.
+
+"How dare you!" she cried.  "Such insolence!  You forget yourself, sir,
+and if my father were here--"
+
+"Which he isn't, dear.  But bravo!  That's very nice and pretty, and
+makes you look ten times as handsome as ever.  I like it.  I love to see
+a girl with some pluck in her.  But come now, what's the good of going
+on like that and pretending to be the fine lady, I know what you are,
+and who you are, and where you live, as I told you."
+
+"I desire you to leave me instantly, sir.  My father is a gentleman, and
+you will be severely punished if you dare to interrupt me like this."
+
+"Go on," said the man, with a laugh.  "I know the old boy, and have
+talked to him twice.  It's all right, dear, don't be so proud.  I mean
+the right thing by you.  I'm down here to take charge of the `White
+Virgin' yonder, behind where you live, and want to take charge of this
+little white virgin too.  See?  I shall have a grand place of it, and
+I'll make quite the lady of you.  There now, you see it's all right.
+Let me carry the basket; it's too big and heavy for your pretty little
+hands."
+
+He made a snatch at the creel she was carrying, but she drew back
+quickly, and hurried on once more, fighting hard to keep back the
+hysterical tears, and vainly looking to right and left for help or a
+means of escape from the unwelcome attentions forced upon her.  But she
+looked in vain.  The hillside sloped off too rapidly for any one but a
+most able climber to mount, and to have attempted to descend meant doing
+so at great risk to life and limb.
+
+There was nothing for it but to hurry on, and this she did with her
+breath coming faster--faster from excitement and exertion, as she
+recalled his words.
+
+What did he say?  He was in charge of the "White Virgin" mine--the old
+disused series of shaft and excavation down the narrow chasm which ran
+like a huge ragged gash into the mountain, and from which hundreds of
+thousands of tons of stone and refuse had been tilted down the
+mountain-side to form the moss-grown ugly cascade of stones which stood
+out from the hill-slope forming a prominent object visible for miles.
+
+The shelf she was following led past the narrow ravine, with its many
+pathways cut in the steep sides all running towards the great shaft,
+fenced in with blocks of stone.  She had been there several times with
+her father, bearing him company during his walks in search of minerals,
+so that the way was perfectly familiar to her, though it was a place not
+to be approached without a feeling of dread.  Country superstition had
+made it the home of the old miners, who now and then revisited the
+glimpses of the moon; two people had been, it was said, murdered there,
+and their bodies hidden in the dark, wet mazes of the workings; and
+within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant an unhappy forsaken
+maiden, who feared to face the reproaches of her relatives, had sought
+oblivion in the water at the bottom of the principal shaft, and her body
+had never been found.
+
+It was an uncanny place on a bright sunny day--after night a spot to be
+avoided for many reasons; but Dinah Gurdon approached it now with
+feelings of hope, for she felt that the man who was in charge would
+leave her there if she only maintained her firmness.
+
+"Why, what a silly little thing it is!" he said, in a low, eager voice,
+his words sounding subdued and confidential as he uttered them close to
+her ear.  "What are you afraid of?  Why, bless your pretty heart, it's
+plain to see you haven't been troubled much by the stupid bumpkins about
+here.  Running away like that just because a man tells you he loves you.
+And I do, my pretty one, and have ever since I came down here.  Soon as
+I clapped eyes on you, I says to myself, `That's the lass for me.'  Why,
+I've done down here what I haven't done since I left Sunday-school--I've
+come three Sundays running to church, so as to see your bonny face.  I
+saw you come by this morning when I was yonder leaning over the fence.
+`Going to market,' I says.  `Wonder whether she'd bring me an ounce of
+tobacco from the shop, if I asked her?'  But I was just too late, so I
+sat down and waited for you.  `She won't want me to be seen with her in
+the village,' I said.  `Girls like to keep these things quiet at first.'
+So do I, dear.  I say, it's pretty lonesome for me down here till they
+begin working, but I've got plenty of time for you, so let's make good
+use of it while we can."
+
+Dinah paid no heed to his words in her alarm, but they forced themselves
+upon her unwilling ears, as she hurried through the solitary place,
+feeling that every step took her nearer home, and toward the entrance to
+the mine gap, where this man would leave her.
+
+"I say, you know, aren't you carrying this on a bit too hard?" he
+half-whispered.  "Isn't it time you gave way just a little bit?  You see
+how nice and gentle I am with you, dear.  Some fellows would be rough
+and lay hold of you, but I'm not that sort.  I like to be tender and
+kind with a girl.  Just because one's big and strong, one don't need to
+be a regular brute.  I say, come now, that's enough.  Let's look at your
+pretty face.  Take off your sun-bonnet.  It's a darned ugly one, and
+I'll go over to Derby some night and buy you the prettiest that there is
+in the shops.  I will, 'pon my soul!  There's no humbug about me, my
+dear.  Why, you've made this old wilderness look quite cheerful, and if
+it hadn't been for knowing that you lived down there by the river, I
+don't believe I should have stopped it out.  I should have just written
+off to the governor and said, `I'm coming back to London.'  I say,
+wouldn't you like to go up to London, my dear?  I'll take you and pay up
+like a man.--I mean it."
+
+Dinah's heart gave a great leap, for not fifty yards farther on there
+was the narrow natural gateway in the side of the hill, leading right
+into the deep, zigzag rift which clave the mountain from the top far
+down into the bowels of the earth, and spread in secondary maze-like
+chasms farther and farther in here through the limestone, where the
+dirty grey lead ore was found in company with masses of crystalline
+growth glittering with galena.  Here, too, was the wondrous conglomerate
+of lily encrinite, once animated flowers of stone, forming the mountain
+masses of Derbyshire marble, where a calm sea once spread its deep
+waters in the days when the earth was young.  Here were the beds and
+veins of the transparent violet spar, locally known as the "Blue John,"
+which glistened here and there in the natural caves, side by side with
+stalactite and stalagmite, wherever water filtered through the strata,
+and came out charged with the lime which had gone on cementing spar and
+shell together into solid blocks.
+
+A weird, strange place to any one save the lovers of the strange, and
+then only explored in company by the light of chemical and wick.  A
+place generally shunned, and only to be sought or chosen as a sanctuary
+by one who was pursued.  But circumstances alter cases, and matters
+happen strangely and influence our lives in unexpected ways.
+
+Dinah Gurdon, Major Gurdon's only child, paying no heed to her
+follower's words, kept hurrying on, for she had nearly reached the
+ragged entrance to the mine gap, feeling that at last she would be free,
+and then the insolent, self-satisfied ruffian would not dare to pursue
+her farther, for he had said that this was the place he had in charge.
+But if he did, another quarter of a mile would take her round the great
+limestone buttress formed by the mine spoil; and then she would be on
+the south slope of the Tor, in full view of the narrow valley, up out of
+which her father would probably be coming, and he would see her, as he
+came to meet her, a mile away.
+
+She had kept to her steady, quick walk as long as she could; but now the
+exultation produced by the sight of freedom reassured her, and unable to
+control herself, she started off running past the natural gateway in the
+rocky wall on her right.
+
+But Michael Sturgess was too quick for her.
+
+"No, you don't, my pretty one," he cried, as he dashed in pursuit,
+overtook her in a few yards, and caught her by the dress, which tore
+loudly in his hand.  The next moment he had his arm round her waist, but
+she struck at him wildly as he now held her and blocked her way.  There
+was a momentary struggle, and she was free once more.  She turned as if
+about to leap down the steep slope at her side; but the attempt was too
+desperate, and she ran back a few yards, with the man close behind, and
+then turned again and dashed frantically between the two natural
+buttresses, down the steep path leading to the mazes and gloomy passages
+of the ancient mine.
+
+Michael Sturgess stopped short for a moment, burst into a coarse laugh,
+and gave his leg a slap.
+
+"I knowed it," he cried.  "Oh, these girls, these girls!"
+
+The next minute he was in full pursuit, and ten minutes later, faint,
+wild, and echoing up the walls of the shadowy solitude, there was a
+piercing cry.
+
+A great bird rose slowly, circling higher about the dismal gap, and then
+all was still.
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+JESSOP'S WEAKNESS.
+
+"I don't care.  I will speak, and if master gets to know, so much the
+better."
+
+"Will you hold your silly tongue?"
+
+"No, I won't.  I've held it too long.  It's disgraceful, that's what it
+is, and I'll tell Mr Clive of your goings-on with his sweetheart."
+
+"Look here, Lyddy, do you want me to poison you, or take you out
+somewhere and push you into a river?"
+
+"Yes," cried the girl addressed, passionately.  "I wish you would, and
+then there'd be an end of the misery and wretchedness.  And as for that
+Miss Janet Praed--"
+
+"Hold your tongue, you silly, jealous little fool!"
+
+"Oh yes, I know I'm a fool--fool to believe all your wicked lies.  And
+so would you be jealous.  I saw it all last time she was here--a slut
+engaged to be married to your brother, and all the time making eyes at
+you, while you are carrying on with her shamefully, and before me, too.
+It's cruel and disgraceful.  I may be only a servant, but I've got my
+feelings the same as other people, and I'd die sooner than behave as she
+did, and you did, and--and--I wish I was dead, I do--that I do."
+
+"Will you be quiet, you silly little goose.  Do you want everybody in
+the house to know of our flirtation?"
+
+"Flirtation!" cried the girl, wiping her streaming eyes.  "You regularly
+proposed and asked me to be your wife."
+
+"Why, of course.  Haven't I promised that I would marry you some day?"
+
+"Yes--some day," said the girl bitterly; "but some day never comes.  Oh,
+Jessop, dear Jessop! you made me love you so, and you're breaking my
+heart, going on as you do with that Miss Praed."
+
+She threw her arms about his neck, and clung to him till he roughly
+forced her to quit her hold.
+
+"Are you mad?" he said angrily.
+
+"Yes, very nearly," cried the girl, with her pretty, fair, weak face
+lighted up with rage.  "You've made me so.  I'll tell Mr Clive as soon
+as he comes back from Derbyshire--see if I don't!"
+
+"You'd better," said Jessop grimly.  "You dare say a word to a soul, and
+I'll never put a ring on your finger, my lady--there!"
+
+"Yes, you will--you shall!" cried the girl passionately.  "You promised
+me, and the law shall make you!"
+
+"Will you be quiet?  You'll have my father hear you directly."
+
+"And a good job too."
+
+"Oh, you think so, do you?"
+
+"Yes, I do.  Master's a dear, good gentleman, and always been nice and
+kind.  I'll tell him--that I will!"
+
+"Not you.  There, wipe those pretty little blue eyes, and don't make
+your dear little puggy nose red, nor your cheeks neither.  I don't know,
+though," whispered Jessop, passing his arm round the girl and drawing
+her to him; "it makes you look very sweet and attractive.  I say, Lyddy,
+dear, you are really a beautiful girl, you know."
+
+"Do adone, Jessop," she whispered, softening directly, and yielding
+herself to his touch.
+
+"I couldn't help loving you, darling, and I love you more and more every
+day, though you will lead me such a life with your jealousy.  I never
+find fault with you when I see you smiling at Clive."
+
+"But it is not as I do at you, dear.  Mr Clive was always quite the
+gentleman to me, and it hurts me to see you trying so hard to get Miss
+Janet away from him."
+
+"There you go again, little silly.  Isn't she going to be my
+sister-in-law?"
+
+"It didn't look like it."
+
+"Pish!  What do you know about such things?  In society we are obliged
+to be a bit polite, and so on."
+
+"Oh, are we?  I know; and if I told Mr Clive, he'd think as I do.  I
+won't have you make love to her before my very eyes--there!"
+
+"Why, what an unreasonable little pet it is!" he cried, disarming the
+girl's resentment with a few caresses.
+
+"And the sooner master knows you are engaged to me the better," she
+said, with a sob.
+
+"And then you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that my father has
+quarrelled with me, and altered his will, so that everything goes to my
+brother.  He may marry you then, for I couldn't.  I shouldn't have a
+penny to help myself.  Oh yes; go and tell.  I believe you want to get
+hold of him now."
+
+The girl gave him a piteous look, and tried to catch his hand, but he
+avoided her touch, and laughed sneeringly.
+
+"I don't want to be hard and bitter," he said, "but I'm not blind."
+
+She looked up at him reproachfully.
+
+"You don't mean what you are saying," she whispered sadly, "so I shan't
+fret about that."
+
+"You don't believe me," he said, in a low voice, as he fixed the girl
+with his eyes, glorying in the knowledge that he had thoroughly subdued
+her, and that she was his to mould exactly as he willed, to obey him
+like a slave.  "Then you may believe this, that I have told you before.
+All that has passed between us is our secret, and if you betray it and
+ruin my prospects, and make me a beggar, you may go and drown yourself
+as you threatened, for aught I care, for you will have wilfully cut
+everything between us asunder.  Now we understand each other, and you
+had better go before any one comes."  The girl stood gazing at him
+piteously now, with every trace of anger gone out of her eyes, and her
+tones, when she spoke, were those of appeal.
+
+"But, Jessop, dear."
+
+"Be quiet, will you," he said angrily.
+
+"Don't speak to me like that, dear," she whispered.  "Only tell me you
+don't care for Miss Praed."
+
+"I won't answer such a baby's stupid questions.  You know I only care
+for you."
+
+There was a sob, but at the same moment a look of hope to lighten a good
+deal of despair.
+
+"You are not angry with me, Jessop, dear?"
+
+"Yes, I am, very."
+
+"But you will forgive me, love?"
+
+"Anything, if you'll only be the dear, good, sensible little woman you
+used to be."
+
+"I will, dear--always," she whispered.
+
+"And fight for me, so that I may not lose."
+
+"Yes, dear, of course."
+
+"Can I trust you, Lyddy?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Then, whatever happens, you will, for my sake, hold your tongue till I
+tell you to speak?"
+
+"Yes, if I die for it," she said earnestly.
+
+"I thought you would be sensible," he said, nodding at her.  "Come,
+that's my pretty, wise little woman.  Now go about your business, and
+wait for the bright days to come, when I shall be free to do as I like."
+
+"Yes, Jessop," she whispered, and after a sharp glance at the door she
+bent forward and kissed him quickly.  "But there isn't anything between
+you and Miss Janet?"
+
+"Of course not," he cried.  "As if there could be while you live."
+
+She nodded to him smiling, laid her finger on her lips to show that they
+were sealed, and then hurried out of the room.
+
+"Poor little fool!" said Jessop Reed to himself, as soon as he was
+alone; "you are getting rather in the way."
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE TREASURE HOUSE.
+
+Clive Reed stood up like a statue on a natural pedestal, high on the
+precipitous slope.  It was a great ponderous block of millstone grit,
+which had become detached just at the spot where, high up, mountain
+limestone and the above-named formation joined.  And as he looked about
+him, it seemed wonderful to a man fresh from London that he could find
+so great a solitude in central England.  Look where he would, the
+various jumbled together eminences of the termination of the Pennine
+range met his eye; there was hardly a tree in sight, but everywhere hill
+and deeply cut dale, the down-like tops of the calcareous, and the
+roughly jagged crags of the grit, while, with the exception of a few
+white dots on a green slope far away, representing a flock of sheep,
+there was no sign of life, neither house, hut, nor church spire.
+
+"Yes, there is something alive," said the young man, "for there goes a
+bee wild-thyme hunting, and whir-r-r-r!  Think of that now, as somebody
+says; who would have expected to see grouse out here in these hills?"
+
+There they were, sure enough, a pair which skimmed by him as he stood at
+the very edge of the great gash in the mountain-side, at the bottom of
+which the track ran right into the mine he had come down to inspect for
+the third time, after walking across from the town twelve miles distant,
+where he had left the train on the previous evening.
+
+"Wild, grand, solitary, on a day like this," said Reed to himself; "but
+what must it be when a western gale is blowing.  Come, Master Sturgess,
+you're behind your time again."
+
+He glanced at his watch.
+
+"No; give the devil his due," he muttered.  "I'm half an hour too soon,
+and, by George, not so solitary as I thought.  Behold! two travellers
+wending their way across the desolate waste, as the novel-writers say.
+Now what can bring a pair of trousers and a petticoat there?"
+
+The young man shaded his eyes and looked across the gap to where, far
+away, the two figures he had seen moved so slowly that they seemed to be
+stationary.  Then they separated a little, and the man stooped and then
+knelt down.
+
+"Can't be flower-gatherers out here.  I know: after mushrooms.  But
+let's see."
+
+Clive Reed dragged the strap which supported a tin case slung from his
+shoulder, forced it aside, and tugged at another strap so as to bring a
+little binocular into reach; and adjusting this, he followed his natural
+instinct or some strange law of affinity, and brought the little lenses
+to bear upon the female in place of the male.
+
+"Not a gentle shepherdess fair, with tously locks and grubby hands and
+face, though she has a dog by her side," he said to himself.  "Looks
+like a lady--at a distance.  Phyllis and Corydon, eh?  No," he added,
+after an alteration of the glass; "long white hair and grey beard, and--
+hullo! old chap's got a candle-box.  Botanist or some other -ist.  Hang
+it, he's after minerals for a pound, and the lady--in white?  Humph, it
+can't be the `White Virgin' who gave the name to the mine.  Let's--Hands
+off, old gentleman, or keep your own side.  Hah! there goes the dog:
+after a rabbit, perhaps."
+
+Clive Reed was ready to ask himself directly after, why he should stand
+there taking so much interest in these two figures, so distant that even
+with the help of the glass he could not distinguish their features.  But
+watch them he did till they disappeared round a shoulder of the hill.
+
+"Tourists--cheap trippers, I suppose," said the young man, replacing the
+glass in its sling case.  "I wonder where they have come from?" and then
+with a half laugh, as he took out a cigarette-case and lit up, "I wonder
+why I take so much interest in them?"
+
+"Answer simple," he continued, with a half laugh; "because they are the
+only living creatures in sight.  Man is a gregarious beast, and likes to
+greg.  I feel ready to go after them and talk.  Hallo! here we are!
+Master Sturgess and two men with a stout ladder, coils of rope, and--if
+he hasn't brought a crowbar and a lanthorn, woe."
+
+He shaded his eyes again to watch a party of three men toiling up a
+slope, half a mile away, and began to descend from his coign of vantage
+to reach the pathway at the entrance to the gap, seeing as he did that
+he would not arrive there long before the others.
+
+A glance at his watch showed him that it was still only ten o'clock, for
+he had started on his mountain tramp at daybreak, and as he walked and
+slid downward, he calculated that he would have time after the mine
+examination to make for one of the villages in the neighbourhood of
+Matlock to pass the night, so as to see as much of the country as he
+could.
+
+"Morning, Sturgess; you got my letter then?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, yesterday morning," said the man, as Reed nodded at his
+two sturdy followers--rough-looking men of the mining stamp, both of
+whom acknowledged his salute with a half-sneering smile.
+
+"Brought two different chaps this time.  Got enough tackle?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir; ropes, hammer, spikes, and crowbar."
+
+"Lanthorn?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  Shouldn't come on a job like this without a light."
+
+"Then come along."
+
+He led the way through the narrow entrance, where the rock had once upon
+a time been picked away to allow room for the passage of horses or rough
+trucks, but now all covered with lichen and the marks of the eroding
+tooth of Time; and then up and down and in and out along the side of the
+chasm, which grew more gloomy at every step, deeper into the
+mountain-side, while the bottom of the gully grew narrower and closer,
+till it resembled the dried-up bed of a stream which had become half
+blocked up with the great masses of stone, which had fallen from above.
+
+Clive Reed's eyes were everywhere as they went on--now noticing spots
+where the sloping walls of rock had been worked for ore, others where
+trials had been made, honeycombing the rock with shallow cells, but
+always suggesting that this working must have been ages ago, and in a
+very superficial primitive fashion.  This suggested plenty of prospect
+for the engineer who would attack the ancient mine with the modern
+appliances and forces which compel Nature to yield up her hidden
+treasures, buried away since the beginning of the world.
+
+Clive Reed saw pretty well everything on his way to the dark end, and,
+after making a few short, sharp, business-like remarks, he said
+suddenly--
+
+"The plans say there is no way out whatever, beside the entrance."
+
+He turned to Sturgess as he spoke, and a curious look came over the
+countenance of the guardian of the mine, but before he could speak one
+of the men behind said--
+
+"Man as didn't mind breaking his neck might get up yonder," and he
+nodded towards the precipitous side.
+
+"Which means that a rough staircase might easily be made if wanted,
+and--"
+
+He did not finish speaking, but sprang up on to a block of stone,
+climbed to another, drew himself on to a third, and extricated something
+from a niche which had caught his observant eye, and with which he
+sprang down.
+
+It was a fine cambric handkerchief, which he turned over as Sturgess
+looked on stolidly and with the same peculiar look in his countenance.
+
+"Here, somebody may make inquiries about this.  You had better take it,
+Sturgess.  Visitors to the old mine perhaps, but they have no business
+here now.  You will keep the place quite private for the present."
+
+The man took the handkerchief, and a keen observer would have thought
+that he put it out of sight rather hurriedly.
+
+"Blowed in," said one of the others with a laugh.  "Wonderful windy up
+here sometimes."
+
+Reed had started again, and plunging farther and farther into the
+natural cutting in the mountain-side, soon after reached the end of the
+_cul de sac_, where, partly obliterated by time, there were abundant
+traces of the old workings, notably the shafts with their crumbling
+sides, one going down perpendicularly, and into which the young engineer
+pushed over a stone.  This fell down and down for some time before it
+struck against a projection with such force that it sent up a hollow
+reverberating roar, and directly after came the dull, sullen sound of
+its plunge into the water which had gathered in the huge well-like
+place.
+
+"She's pretty deep, sir," said one of the men, with a laugh.
+
+"Yes," said Reed, with a nod, and he went on climbing over the blocks of
+stone fallen from above, and which cumbered the place, to one of the
+other two shafts, both of which had been made following a lode running
+raggedly down at an angle of about seventy degrees.
+
+"We'll try this," said Reed sharply.
+
+"Want me to go down and chip off a few bits that seem most likely?" said
+Sturgess roughly.
+
+"No.  Now, my lads, drive the crowbar well in here," said the engineer,
+indicating a rift close to where they stood, a crevice between two
+immense blocks of limestone.
+
+"This here one's handier," said one of the men, pointing to a crack
+close to the opening.
+
+"Yes, and when you have loosened it by driving in that bar, more likely
+to be pulled down into the shaft.  In here, please."
+
+The man inserted the sharp edge of the bar, and his companion made the
+great chasm echo as he began to drive the iron in with strokes of the
+heavy hammer he carried, till it was deemed safe.
+
+"Hold a ridgement o' sojers now, sir," said the hammerman.
+
+"Yes, that's safe enough," said Reed; and after carefully examining the
+ropes, he knotted two together, and formed a loop at the end of one.
+
+"Shall we two go down, sir?"
+
+"No; I am going," replied Reed quietly.
+
+"Find it precious dirty and wet, sir.  Best let us."
+
+"No, thank you.  Let me down.  How far is it to the first level?"
+
+"'Bout two hundred foot, I should say, p'raps more; but I dare say it
+don't go down so straight far, but works out'ard like.  I d'know,
+though.  I've never been down, and nobody as I ever heard of ever did
+go."
+
+"No," said the other with a laugh, "and strikes me as you won't find
+nothing worth your while when you do go.  The old folks got out all the
+good stuff from here hundreds o' years ago."
+
+"You will be ready to haul up when I signal," said Reed quietly.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir.  You may trust us.  We don't want to make an inquess on
+you."
+
+"Light the lanthorn," said Reed to Sturgess, and taking off the flat tin
+case he carried slung under his left arm, he took from it a cold chisel
+and a geologist's hammer; stripped off his coat, rolled up his sleeves
+over his white muscular arms, and then secured the lanthorn to his waist
+with the strap of his binocular.
+
+"You'll be careful about the loose stones, my men," he said in quick,
+decisive tones.  "You, Sturgess, will follow me as soon as I have sent
+up the rope."
+
+The men nodded as Reed slipped the loop over his head, and then sat in
+it, and without a moment's hesitation, after the men had passed the rope
+round the upright bar, he lowered himself over the rugged side of the
+shaft, and was rapidly allowed to descend past the rough stones which
+formed the bottom of the slope, and showed traces still of how it had
+been ground away for ages by the passage over it of the freshly
+extracted ore.
+
+It was a primitive way of descending, but in all probability the old
+manner had been as rough, and there was little to trouble a cool man
+with plenty of nerve, one accustomed to depend upon mine folk, and make
+explorations in shaft, tunnel, and boring, deep down in the earth.
+Besides, Clive Reed's brain was too busy as he looked around him, noting
+some fifty feet down that a great vein of lead ore had been extracted
+from the solid rock, leaving a narrow passage going off at right angles.
+Another ran in an opposite direction, and soon after he passed another,
+just as if they were branches of some great root which he was tracing to
+its end.
+
+About a hundred feet down, where the light shone now clearly, he
+dislodged a loose stone, which went on before him with a rushing,
+rumbling sound, ending in a sullen plunge into the water far below.
+
+"All right?" came from above, the words descending the shaft, and
+sounding like a strange whisper magnified and uttered close to his ear.
+
+"Yes; lower away."
+
+The rope glided on round the bar; and Reed went on down and down, noting
+the differences in the formations as well as the crumbling, dripping
+stone would allow, and mentally planning out fresh drifts here and
+there, where he expected to find paying ore, till he found himself
+opposite to a great cavernous opening, black and forbidding-looking
+enough to repel any one wanting in nerve, while from far below came a
+gleam of light, apparently reflected from the water.
+
+"Hold hard!  Haul up four feet!"
+
+Reed's words went echoing to the surface, and were promptly attended to.
+
+"Now hold fast!"
+
+The next minute he gave himself a swing, and obtained foothold in the
+great cave whose bottom was worn hollow by the trickling of a tiny
+stream which drained into the lower part of the shaft, and after
+throwing off the rope and shouting to the men to haul up, he stood
+holding the light above his head, examining the roof and sides, while he
+waited for the descent of his companion; but here the ore seemed to have
+been chipped and picked out to the last fragment.
+
+Sturgess joined him at the end of a few minutes, took the lanthorn,
+opened it so as to get as much light as possible, and then turned to
+Reed.
+
+"Same way again, sir?"
+
+"No; we'll try that gallery off to the left.  That third one I noticed
+last time."
+
+"Why, that's right half a mile away, and goes to nowhere.  That's never
+been worked."
+
+Reed faced round to him sharply.
+
+"Do you object to your job, my man?" he said; "because if so, speak at
+once, and send down one of the others."
+
+"Oh, I don't object," said the man surlily.  "I'll go where you won't
+get them to venture.  I was thinking about you."
+
+"Then don't think about me, but about your duties."
+
+"That's all right enough, sir; only if a regular consulting engineer
+came down, he'd chip off a bit here, and a bit there, and know directly
+what a mine's worth.  I took stock of this old place last time, and can
+tell you now without your troubling yourself to go a step farther.
+'Sides, I've been down since."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Oh yes.  I'd nothing to do, so it was natural I should come down and
+have a look of the property I was to take care of."
+
+"Well, and what estimate did you set on it--as to value?" said Reed,
+with a smile.
+
+"Oh, about the usual figure," said the man, with a peculiar laugh.
+"It's worth just as much as you can get out of your shareholders."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"That's it, sir; I've not been busy over mines ten years for nothing.
+Not a penny more.  The old folks cleared it out clean enough, all but
+the patch to the right down yonder."
+
+"Then you think the whole thing is a swindle, Mr Sturgess, eh?"
+
+"Oh no, sir.  I don't say that," replied the man, with a chuckle.  "I
+only say it's a mine as will show up well when it has got all its new
+machinery.  Ought to make a good job for a couple of years for a few
+people.  Shall I show you where you can get a few good specimens?  I
+know of some bits as are pretty rich."
+
+"No, thank you," said Reed quietly.  "I'm not a regular consulting
+engineer, my man, and we came down to do a good day's exploring.  I want
+to see the whole of the workings."
+
+"Then it'll take you a week, sir."
+
+"Very well, then, let it take me a week.  Now, then, let's waste no more
+time."
+
+Michael Sturgess uttered a sound something like a grunt, and holding the
+lantern before him led on along the rocky cavernous passage, which was
+wonderfully free from fallen stones, the rock having formed endless
+pillar buttresses and arch-like processes of stalactitic growth,
+cementing and holding all firmly together.
+
+But there was a wonderful sameness as they went on, following the course
+of what had once been a lode of ore, which had finally been cleared out,
+leaving its shape in the rock, and forming a tunnel as the ancient
+miners worked their way.
+
+Far down the main gallery of the mine Sturgess paused by a narrow rift
+four or five feet across, and running up to nothing some fifteen feet
+overhead.  The rock was different here, being a mass of cemented
+together fragments of the old geological stone lilies, and looked as if
+some modern shock had riven the place in two, for the lines on either
+side suggested that if compressed they would still fit together.
+
+"Mean to go along here, sir?" said Sturgess, holding up the lanthorn, so
+as to display the stone of which the sides were formed.
+
+"Yes; go on," said Reed shortly.
+
+"There's been no working here, sir; this is all natural split in the
+rock."
+
+"I am perfectly aware of that, and we are wasting time."
+
+"Oh, all right, sir," said the man surlily, and he strode in through the
+opening, walking as fast as he could, like a sulky, offended schoolboy,
+for a few dozen yards; but this soon came to an end, for in place of a
+regular beaten well-used way, they were now compelled to pick their path
+over broken marble, loose angular masses, and the accumulated debris
+which had fallen from above, while in places they had to stride from
+side to side of a narrow crevice which ran straight down.
+
+But the place attracted Clive Reed as they went on and on, with the rift
+they traversed growing wider, and opening out into a cavern now, or
+contracting again, till in places their passage was so narrow that they
+had to squeeze through into curious-looking chambers in the rock.  Then
+the way split and branched off into different passages, suggestive of
+endless labyrinths leading right away through the untrodden bowels of
+the earth.  Below them in one place ran a good-sized stream, unseen as
+it threaded its way among the broken stones, but making its presence
+known by its musical gurgling, till, after they had been walking above
+it for about ten minutes, Sturgess stood still, holding up the light at
+the edge of a gulf, down which the water plunged with a dull, hissing
+roar.
+
+"Won't go no farther this way, I suppose, sir?" he said, rather
+mockingly.
+
+Reed made no reply, but stepped forward close to the man's side, shaded
+his eyes, and peered into darkness, which he could not pierce.
+
+He stooped to pick up a stone and hurl it outward, and listened till it
+fell and splintered, and the fragments went rattling down for some
+distance, before the noise they made was overcome by the roar of the
+water.
+
+"Along here," said Reed at last, and he pointed to his left.
+
+Sturgess hesitated for a few moments, and then began to move cautiously
+along the side of the vast cavern, a place apparently untouched, and
+very rarely, if ever, visited by man.
+
+At last he stopped short.
+
+"I don't want to show no white feathers, Mr Reed, sir," he said, "but
+our candles'll only last a certain time, and we've got to get back."
+
+"I have matches and three candles in my pocket," said the young engineer
+quietly.
+
+"But I don't know whether I can find my way back, sir, now; whilst if we
+go any farther, I'm sure I can't."
+
+"I have it all perfectly impressed on my brain," said Reed quietly.
+"But I do not want to go much farther.  I only want to examine the rock
+here and there.  Take care, man: mind!"
+
+He darted out his right hand, caught the miner by the coat and saved him
+from plunging down into the black abyss beneath them, for in taking a
+step forward, Sturgess had trodden on a piece of loose shell marble,
+which gave way and one foot went down.
+
+He dropped the lanthorn, though, and it went below, to hang in a crevice
+upon its side, threatening to go out; but as soon as Sturgess had a
+little recovered himself and sat down to start wiping his forehead, Reed
+began to descend.
+
+"Don't do that, sir," cried Sturgess hoarsely.  "Light your candle."
+
+"No; I can get the lanthorn," said Reed quietly; and he went on
+descending cautiously till, getting well hold of the nearest projecting
+fragment with his left hand, he bent down lower and lower to try and
+reach the handle of their lamp.
+
+But, try how he would, it was always a few inches beyond his reach; and
+at last, with the candle within guttering, flaring, and blackening the
+glass, threatening to crack it and then go out, Reed drew himself up
+again to try and get a fresh footing upon the side of the chasm.
+
+He looked up to see, faintly, a white face gazing down at him, and, as
+their eyes met, the man said hoarsely--
+
+"Don't do that, sir.  Come up and light a fresh bit.  If you slip, I
+shall be all in darkness.  It's horrid to have to come to one's end in a
+place like this."
+
+"Sympathy for himself, and not for me," thought Reed.  "I have the
+lights."
+
+Just at that moment he noted something just level with where he stood,
+where there was a plain demarcation between two kinds of stone; and,
+whereas on the left all was shelly fossil, on his right it was
+limestone; and again, with a sparkling and gem-like vein of quartz full
+of great crystals of galena.
+
+"Do you hear, sir?  Come back here, and let's get out of this," cried
+Sturgess again.  "It arn't fair to a man to bring him into such a hole.
+This isn't a mine."
+
+"My good fellow," said Reed quietly, "you are alarming yourself about
+nothing.  I can get the lanthorn directly, and it is a pity to leave it
+here."
+
+The miner uttered a hoarse sigh which was almost a groan, and crouched
+on the rugged shelf, looking down with starting eyes, as Reed glanced
+quickly once more at the face of the rock, and then, taking fast hold of
+another projection, he tried again to get a little lower, and had looked
+beyond the lanthorn, to see that he was on a very rapid slope, going
+down to unknown depths for aught that he could tell; for all below the
+dim light was black--a terrible void, out of which came the splash and
+roar of falling water.
+
+He could not help a shudder as his mind raised up horrors in connection
+with that black darkness, and the possibility of his falling and going
+down and down into some rushing water which was waiting to bear him
+away.
+
+But it was only a momentary nervousness.  Then he smiled to himself, and
+thought of home and of Janet Praed--how horrified she would be if she
+could see him then.
+
+"And nothing whatever to mind but imaginary fears," he said to himself.
+
+"Stop a minute, sir," came in a hoarse whisper from above.  "Give me the
+matches and candles, and I'll strike another light."
+
+"And then I go to perdition for aught you care," thought Clive Reed.
+"No, hang me if I do."
+
+He took no notice of the appeal, but lowered one foot, got a fresh hold,
+bent towards the lanthorn, extending his arm to the utmost, touched the
+handle, but it moved an inch, a stone broke from where he was standing,
+to go down with a rattle, and then, to the young man's dismay, the
+lanthorn began to glide.
+
+It was all in a moment.  He bent down lower and made a sudden snatch,
+his left hand slipped from its hold, and he was falling, but in that
+brief instant he grasped the lanthorn.  The next it was beneath him, the
+light was out, and with a rush of dislodged stones he felt himself
+rushing rapidly down the cavern side with the water roaring loudly in
+his ears, but pierced by a cry that robbed him of all power as
+thoroughly | as if he had received a paralytic stroke.
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE LEAD OF LEAD.
+
+"Ahoy there!  Sturgess!  Are you hurt?"
+
+"Hurt, sir?  No."
+
+"Then don't make that noise, man.  Any one would think you were a child,
+frightened at the dark."
+
+"But where are you, sir?"
+
+"Down here, of course."
+
+"I thought you were killed, sir, and--and--"
+
+"That you were left alone in the dark, man.  There, wait till I get a
+light."
+
+Michael Sturgess muttered an oath, and leaned forward over the sharp
+slope, as he wiped the great drops of fear-born perspiration from his
+face.  "Child, am I?" he muttered.  "I'll let him see.  Enough to scare
+anybody--place like this."
+
+He gazed downward as Reed, after a little manipulation of the damaged
+lanthorn, struck a light, which gleamed out some sixty feet below.  Then
+the candle was relit, giving the man a faint glimpse of the
+horrible-looking slope, and lastly Reed began to climb up, slowly
+talking the while.  "Of course it's an ugly-looking place," he said;
+"these underground limestone caverns always are, but it's of no use to
+lose your nerve at the first emergency."
+
+There was a good-humoured contempt in the young engineer's tones which
+enraged the big strong man above him as he stood looking down at the
+light.
+
+"Like to scare him!" he muttered, as Reed climbed higher, rested when
+about half-way up, and raised the lanthorn above his head to gaze at the
+rock face before him, as if seeking for a good hand or foot hold.
+
+"I daresay this place goes down for far enough," he said, as he
+continued his climb, and kept on talking as if to take his companion's
+attention; "it would be interesting to try and plumb the depth."
+
+"Shall I take the lanthorn?" said Sturgess, a minute or two later.
+
+"No, thanks, I'll carry it," replied Reed, as he made his way to where
+Sturgess stood.  "I shall want to look at the walls here and there as we
+go back.  There! might have been worse.  A bit scratched, and my clothes
+a little torn.  I will go back to the regular old workings now.  There
+has evidently never been anything done here."
+
+"No, sir; what I told you.  No good here."
+
+"No good!" said Reed, with a laugh.  "I think there's a great deal of
+good."
+
+"What, workable stuff, sir?" said the man sharply.  "Perhaps; but what I
+meant was this tremendous hole and the water.  Why, Sturgess, man, it's
+worth thousands."
+
+"Don't see it, sir," said the man roughly.
+
+"I do.  A natural drainage of the mine.  No expenditure for keeping the
+workings dry."
+
+"Oh, yes, that's right enough, sir," said the man, with a laugh, "if
+you've got anything to work."
+
+"I'm afraid Mr Sturgess and I will not get on together," said Reed to
+himself, as he led the way on, examining the wall from time to time, and
+now and then chipping off a piece for a specimen.
+
+"If this cockney jockey's going to be over me," muttered Sturgess, "he's
+got to be tough; but he don't know everything."
+
+They reached the entrance to the grotto-like portion of the mine, where
+Reed halted, took out a sandwich-box and flask, and began to refresh
+himself, handing both to his companion first; and as Reed ate, he lifted
+the lanthorn from time to time, and examined the neighbouring walls,
+roof, and floor.
+
+"All pretty well cleared out, sir," said Sturgess, with a grin.
+
+"Yes--clean," replied Reed quietly; and soon after they resumed their
+exploration, following the track of the old veins here and there through
+an almost interminable maze of passages, and going farther and farther
+into the depths of the mountain.  But it was always the same, passage
+after passage through the limestone, following the old lode of lead ore
+which had been diligently quarried and picked out any time during,
+probably, the past two thousand years, and there was no plan, no special
+arrangement in driving the various tunnels.  Where nature had run her
+mineral in veins, there the old miners had followed; and, as Reed had
+noticed before, there was scarcely a passage that had water lying about,
+the drippings from the roof and cracks in the walls having worn for
+themselves little channels, which found their way into others, and then
+by degrees went to swell the fall by whose side he had stood some hours
+before.
+
+At last, with his bag growing heavy with specimens, and the supply of
+candles getting less, and after the termination of the workings had been
+found and examined in several places, Reed stopped.
+
+"Back now," he said.
+
+"Satisfied, sir?"
+
+"Oh yes, for to-day.  I shall follow the other leads, of course, till I
+have well examined all, and mapped it out."
+
+"And settled where you shall begin work, sir," said the man, with a
+grin.
+
+"Oh, I have settled that," replied Reed.
+
+Sturgess stared.
+
+"Been a lot of good stuff got out of here, sir, no doubt."
+
+"Evidently."
+
+"More than there ever will be again."
+
+"That's more than we can say, Sturgess.  Take the lanthorn now, and lead
+on straight for the mouth.  Good heavens!  Why, it's five o'clock."
+
+"Yes, sir, I thought it must be," said the man.
+
+"Time goes when one is interested.  There, have a cigar.  Light up.  We
+have not done a bad's day work.  Can you lead back pretty straight?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, I can manage that," said the man confidently; but he had
+been trudging along, sending his and the young man's shadows grotesquely
+dancing upon the roof for quite an hour and a half before the end of the
+main artery of the mine was reached, with the sloping shaft up to the
+daylight--"to grass," Sturgess termed it--but here there was no response
+to their hails for nearly an hour, the men having gone.
+
+"The scoundrels!"  Reed cried at last.  "Well, it's risky work, but we
+can't stop down here.  We must either go back into the mine, try for the
+other shaft, which may be climbable, or you or I must go up that rope."
+
+"Who's to climb a rope like that, sir?" growled Sturgess; "and how do we
+know that the end's properly fastened?--There they are!"
+
+For a faint murmur of voices was heard from far above, and now an answer
+came to their hail, and a minute later a voice shouted--
+
+"All right below?"
+
+"Yes," cried Reed.  "Get in the loop, my man.--Ahoy there! haul up."
+
+The rope tightened and Sturgess was raised from his feet and went up
+slowly, leaving Reed below in the darkness.
+
+But it was all light to the young engineer, whose tired face shone with
+joy and excitement.
+
+"The blind cavern lizards," he said, half aloud.  "I knew it.  God bless
+the old dad, what a brain he has!  He'll be delighted with my report;
+and Janet, my darling, you shall have a home that will be the envy of
+all we know, and make the old Doctor proud of us.  My darling!" he said
+softly, as, with his eyes half closed, he raised up her fair young face
+before him.  "Hah! poor old Jessop, too.  He must have a bit of the
+luck.  I'll tell the old man bygones must be bygones.  We'll have a
+clean slate.  Jess isn't a bad fellow after all.  I might have gone down
+the wrong road a bit if it hadn't been for Janet.  Hang it all! the love
+of a dear sweet girl does keep a weak fellow straight."
+
+He glanced down at his hands and tweed suit, daubed with limestone mud,
+and showing a couple of tears in the stout cloth.
+
+"Delightful party for a drawing-room, and--hullo! here's the loop."
+
+He secured the rope, which came dangling down, felt that his specimens
+and tools were safe, and then slipped the loop over his head, sat in it
+as nonchalantly as if it had been a swing, uttered a loud "All right,"
+and the next minute he was being steadily hauled up towards the surface.
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+MAKING FRIENDS.
+
+"Hallo, my lads!" cried Reed, as he reached terra firma and gazed
+around.  "I didn't know there was a public-house handy."
+
+"No, no, don't blame the poor lads," said a well-dressed, elderly man,
+smiling.  "They were alarmed at your long absence, sir, and came on to
+me for help.  We came round, and picked up these two brave fellows, and
+were ready for a search, but, thank heaven, it was a false alarm."
+
+"Oh, that was it?" cried Reed; "then I beg your pardon, my lads, and
+thank you, sir, heartily.  Whom have I the pleasure of addressing?"
+
+"Major Gurdon, at your service, sir," and there was a swift military
+drawing up of the spare figure, the soft dark eyes brightened up, and
+the speaker threw back his grey head and gave his long white beard a
+shake to settle it upon his breast.
+
+"Mr Reed, I believe, the new engineer of the mine?"
+
+"Yes, sir, but at this present moment more like one of the miners," said
+Reed, with a deprecating glance at his besmirched garments.  "Excuse me
+one moment."
+
+He turned to the men with his hand in his pocket--a hand that did not
+come back empty, and the new-comers went off slowly, smiling as Reed
+turned now to the Major, who had stepped forward, eager to speak.
+
+"You look thoroughly exhausted," he said quickly.  "I live quite a
+cottage life out here with my garden and fishing-rod, but if you will
+accept my hospitality, such as it is--"
+
+"Really, I could not trouble you--and in this condition," began Reed, as
+Sturgess changed colour, and an unpleasant scowl came upon his face.
+
+"You will be conferring a favour, my dear sir," said the Major.  "One
+does not often have the society of a gentleman out in this wild place;
+and," he added laughingly, "the hospitality will embrace soap and water
+and a clothes-brush."
+
+"Then I accept willingly," said Reed, holding out his hand, but
+withdrawing it directly as he noted its condition, covered with dried
+limestone mud, and streaked in two places with blood.
+
+"Nonsense!" said the Major, taking the hand.  "I understand these
+things, my dear sir.  I often go prowling about with a geologist's
+hammer, and have gone home like this.  Come along.  My high tea will be
+about ready."
+
+"Well, this is most unexpected," said Reed warmly.  "Here, Sturgess, I
+shall come over again to-morrow about eleven.  Be here with the men, and
+you had better bring a couple of lanthorns."
+
+"Hadn't I better come on to put you in the right road?"
+
+"What!  Oh, no!  I shall manage.  That will do."  The man turned away
+with the look upon his countenance intensifying; but it was not
+observed, for Reed walked off in company with his new acquaintance, the
+pair chatting away as if they had known each other for years.
+
+"Quite gave me a scare," said the Major.  "Life here is so uneventful.
+Very beautiful, but lonely, especially in the winter."
+
+"But you do not stay here in the winter?"
+
+"Oh yes; I have lived here ten years now."
+
+"No accounting for taste," thought Reed; and he glanced sidewise at his
+companion, but learned nothing.  He only saw a quiet-looking country
+gentleman, whose sun-browned face told of an open-air life.
+
+Sturgess followed them to the great natural gateway at the end of the
+chasm, where he had stood some days before, but not alone; and he now
+remained watching them as they went on westward along the narrow path,
+and round by the huge buttress formed by the refuse of the mine, carried
+and cast down there for hundreds upon hundreds of years.  Then as they
+passed on out of sight, the man raised one of his fingers to his lips,
+and began gnawing roughly at the side of the nail, till he seemed to
+make up his mind, and took a step or two forward after them, next
+stopped short again, for a hail came from behind.
+
+"Coming on down to the village, Mr Sturgess?"
+
+He turned and faced one of the two men, and nodded, walking away with
+him in the other direction, taciturn and strange, answering his
+companion in monosyllables, and with his thoughts evidently far away.
+Not so very, though, for they were with Clive Reed, and promised him no
+good.
+
+"So you have been examining the old `White Virgin' mine, eh?" said Major
+Gurdon.  "I heard it was sold.  A new company, eh?"
+
+"Yes," said Reed, smiling; "a new company--a solid one."
+
+"Eh?  I hope so.  But if I had to go in for a mining adventure, I think
+I should begin here with the material the old miners cast away as
+rubbish."  He pointed to the great buttress they were skirting.  "There
+it is, already extracted from the mountain, and though poor, rich
+enough, I should say, to pay a company if worked with modern
+appliances."
+
+"You understand these things?" said Reed, looking at his elderly
+companion searchingly, and noting how deeply lined his brow seemed, and
+that care and sorrow more than age had given him his hollow-cheeked,
+anxious air.
+
+"A man who likes geology, mineralogy, and who always lives among these
+hills, cannot help picking up a little mining lore," said the Major,
+with a smile.  "I have searched and toiled, my dear sir--much loss and
+little gain.  I hope yours may prove to be a successful venture."
+
+"Let's hope so," said Reed quietly.  "All mining is speculative, and in
+speculative matters there must be losses as well as gains."
+
+"And after all, what does it amount to, my young friend?  The chase of a
+will o' the wisp who bears a golden lamp not worth the winning, you will
+say when you grow as old as I.  But there, I shall bore you with this
+twaddle.  What do you say to that for a view?  Derbyshire in front;
+broad, honest, hardworking old Yorkshire away to your right; at your
+feet the Swirl--my river, I call it."
+
+"A lovely prospect, but rather wild," said Reed, smiling.
+
+"Say savage, and you will be nearer the truth; but I can show you
+something a little less stern;" and, chatting away pleasantly, he led on
+along first one slope and then another, till at last they came down upon
+a narrow track beside a rippling stream, shut in between two
+perpendicular walls of rock, draped with ivy, and with every cleft and
+crevice green and bright with trailing birch, moss, and clustering fern.
+
+The water of the little river ran swiftly babbling here among the rocks,
+there swirling round, eddying and forming whirlpools, one of which,
+across the river where it washed the perpendicular rock, was evidently
+very deep, for the water gradually subsided there and grew still and
+glassy, reflecting the ivy-curtained walls as it slowly glided round.
+
+"Ah! this is delightful," cried Reed, as he stopped to gaze at the
+glancing waters, where the sun made the ripples dazzling to the eye, and
+then turned to the deep shadows.  "Eden may have been lovely, but this
+would be good enough for a poor commonplace nineteenth-century fellow
+like myself."
+
+"You like it?" said the Major, smiling.
+
+"It's glorious.  Is there much of it like this?"
+
+"About a mile.  I call it my river here, and the mining men respect my
+rights generally--that is, unless the trout they catch sight of in some
+pool is a very fat one indeed."
+
+He said this with a peculiar smile, as he met Reed's eye.
+
+"Not bad fellows, the miners, but I don't quite take to your guardian of
+the mine."
+
+"I suppose not," said Reed.  "He is rather a rough customer, but he was
+recommended to my father for his knowledge of underground work.--You
+have plenty of trout here, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh yes, and I take toll of them all along this stretch of river.
+Possession is nine points of the law, but I really have only my right on
+one side as far as my bit of property extends."
+
+"Ah! you have an estate along here?"
+
+"Yes, and I am glad to meet my neighbours, sir.  My rough piece of
+mountain is bounded by the river along here from the corner we just
+passed, and on another side by the mine land of your Company--the old
+`White Virgin' estate.  A worthless stretch of barren rock and ravine;
+but I bought it for the sake of this piece of river fifteen years ago.
+A place to retire to, my dear sir, suitable for a man weary of the
+world, and one of whom the world had had enough."
+
+His face was overcast as he spoke, and he frowned heavily, while Reed
+noticed the sad, careworn aspect of the man, who looked as if he had
+suffered from some terrible trouble--that which had so deeply lined his
+face.  But it brightened up again directly, as Reed hung back to admire
+the lovely meandering stream.
+
+"You do like it?" said the Major.
+
+"Like it, my dear sir!  If I were not a busy man, bound to go on carving
+my way, it is just the place where I should like to come and dream away
+my days."
+
+"Do you care for fishing?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+"Then, as we are neighbours, if you come much to the mine, I shall at
+any time be glad to show you a few good places where you can throw a
+fly."
+
+"Some day I shall certainly ask you," said Reed frankly; "not often, I
+have no time."
+
+"Whenever you like, and you will be welcome, Mr Reed; for--excuse me--I
+like you."
+
+"So soon," said Reed, raising his eyebrows.
+
+"The liking of one man for another comes at once, sir, I think, and
+seldom errs," said the Major gravely.  "You will be welcome if you can
+content yourself with cottage fare and our simplicity.  This is my
+little home."
+
+Reed stopped short astonished, for they had turned a sharp corner of the
+rugged wall of rock which towered up, and came suddenly upon a sheltered
+nook, which ran from the river-side right up into the mountains.  There
+was but one level space of about half an acre; the rest was knoll, crag,
+mound, and rift, a natural garden full of waving birch, shrubs,
+evergreens, and flowers all growing in wild luxuriance, with myrtle,
+fuchsia, hydrangea, and geranium, developing into trees more than
+plants, showing how sheltered the place must be, how warm and suited to
+their lives.  There was no ugly fence, but moss and ivy covered walls of
+rugged stone, placed here and there as a protection from wandering
+sheep, while on the level patch, quaintly built of limestone, thatched,
+porched with rugged wood, its windows embayed, and the whole covered
+with wistaria, myrtle, and creeping plants, which fought for a hold upon
+the walls, stood a cottage, out of whose porch Dinah Gurdon, pale of
+face, anxious-looking, and troubled, came slowly down.
+
+"Welcome to the wilderness, Mr Reed," said the Major, smiling sadly, as
+he noted the young man's enthusiastic look of admiration; and then
+frowning slightly as he saw a wondering look when the figure in white
+came toward them from the porch.  "My daughter, sir.  Dinah, my child, I
+bring a guest to partake of our poor hospitality this evening.  Don't
+look so pale and frightened, my dear.  Mr Reed is, I am glad to say, a
+deceiver.  There was no cause for alarm, and his aspect is only due to a
+long journey underground.  He is not hurt."
+
+"I--I am very glad," said Dinah, holding out her hand, which was eagerly
+taken, and then shrinking as she encountered Clive Reed's eager look.
+"The men brought such startling news."
+
+"That we were prepared to turn your bedroom into a cottage hospital, Mr
+Reed, and send off twelve miles for a doctor," said the Major, as he saw
+his child's large dark eyes sink beneath their visitor's gaze, and a
+couple of red spots begin to glow in her pale cheeks.  "Now, Dinah, my
+child, Mr Reed must be shown to his room, and let's have your colour
+back.  My daughter is a little unwell, Mr Reed.  She was crossing the
+mountain the other day, coming back from Bedale, and as she passed over
+one of the ragged pieces by your mine, she had an ugly fall."
+
+"Not serious, I hope?" said Reed, with a look of interest, and his
+searching eyes once more met those of the pale, intense countenance
+before them, eyes so full of shrinking horror and fear, that though he
+could not read them, Clive Reed wondered at their expression, as a flow
+of crimson suffused the cheeks, rising right up to the forehead, and
+then died out, leaving the girl deadly pale.
+
+The Major waited, as if expecting that his child would speak, but as she
+remained silent, he said gravely--
+
+"No; she assures me that it was not serious, but she came back looking
+horribly startled.  It was quite a shock to the system, from which she
+has not quite recovered yet.  Now, Mr Reed, Martha will show you your
+room."
+
+Reed took a step forward, to find Martha, the hardest-looking,
+harshest-faced woman of forty he had ever seen, waiting to lead the way.
+
+"A fall," he said, as he stood alone in the prettily furnished bedroom:
+"alone in the mountains, and no one by to help.  I wish I had been
+there--with Janet, too, of course."
+
+Dinah Gurdon was at that moment indulging in similar thoughts--naturally
+omitting Janet--and as she stood nearly opposite a glass, she became
+aware of her face reflected there, when she turned away with a shiver.
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+UNDERMINING.
+
+"Hallo, Jess, you here?" cried Clive, as he suddenly encountered his
+brother at Dr Praed's door in Russell Square.
+
+Jessop Reed started, and in spite of his man-about-town confidence, he
+looked for the moment confused, but recovered himself directly.
+
+"Might say the same to you," he retorted.  "I thought you were down some
+hole in the Midlands."
+
+"But I've come up again.  Just got here from St Pancras now.  I say,
+though, what is it?  Out of sorts--been to see the Doctor?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh no.  I'm all right.  But I'm in a hurry.  See you at dinner."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with him?" thought Clive, as his brother hurried
+away.  "Fast life, I suppose.  I'll run in and ask the Doctor before I
+go up."
+
+He rang; the Doctor's confidential man opened the door, and stood back
+for him to enter.
+
+"Patient with the Doctor, Morgan?"
+
+"No, sir; past his time.  Gone on to the hospital.  Back soon."
+
+Clive stared.
+
+"Miss Praed's in the drawing-room, sir."
+
+"Oh, all right.  I'll go up," said Clive; and he began to ascend two
+steps at a time.  "I hope Jess isn't ill.  Disappointed, I suppose, at
+finding the old man out."--"Ah, Janet, darling," he cried, as he entered
+the drawing-room, to find his fiancee standing with a bouquet in her
+hand, looking dreamy and thoughtful.
+
+She flushed up as he caught her in his arms and kissed her tenderly, and
+then frowned slightly, and put on the pouting look of a spoiled child.
+
+"Why, what a bonnie bunch of roses!" he cried.  "Let's have one for a
+button-hole."
+
+"No, no," she said hastily, and a pained look of perplexity crossed
+Clive's countenance as she held the bouquet from him.  Then with forced
+playfulness, "Mustn't be touched."
+
+"All right," he cried merrily.  "I came round this way so as to see you
+first, pet.  Raced up by the early train this morning."
+
+"Indeed!" said Janet, raising her eyebrows; "been in Derbyshire, have
+you not?"
+
+"My darling!"
+
+"Well, one knows so little of your movements now."
+
+"Oh, I say, Janet dear, don't be hard upon a poor busy fellow.  You know
+why I am away so much.  All for your sake, pet," he whispered earnestly;
+"to make ourselves thoroughly independent, and you a home of which you
+may be proud."
+
+There was a slight catching in Janet Praed's breath, as she said
+jerkily, and with a show of flippancy, to hide the emotion from which
+she suffered, for self-accusation was busy with her just then, and a
+pang or two shot through her as she contrasted the frank, honest manner
+of her betrothed, and his words, so full of simple honest affection,
+with others to which she had in a foolish, half-jealous spirit listened
+again and again--
+
+"Oh yes, I know," she said, curling up her pretty lip, and speaking
+hastily to hide her feelings; "but you might have called."
+
+"Now, Janet, love, don't tease me.  How could I, dear?"
+
+"Well, then, you might have written.  A whole week away and not a line."
+
+"Gently, my own darling, judge, guide, and counsellor in one," he cried
+warmly.  "I might have written, and ought to have written, but I have
+been, oh so busy all day, and when I got back to quarters, there was the
+Major to talk to me, and I could not slight Miss Gurdon."
+
+"The Major--Miss Gurdon?  May I ask who these people are?"
+
+"Oh, a very jolly old sort of fellow, who lives close to the mine, with
+an only daughter.  He insisted upon my staying there while I was down,
+and I wasn't sorry; for--O Janet! let me whisper it in your lovely
+little shell of an ear," he continued playfully--"the miner's cottage I
+slept at one night was not comfortable; it was grubby, and oh, those
+fleas!  If it had not been for my stout walking-stick--"
+
+"What sort of a person is Miss Gurdon?" said Janet, interrupting him
+quickly.
+
+"Oh, very nice and ladylike."
+
+"Pretty?"
+
+"Pretty!  Well, you would hardly call it pretty.  A sad, pensive face,
+very sweet and delicate, and with the look of one who had known trouble.
+There seemed to be some secret about father and daughter."
+
+"Oh!" said Janet softly, and the colour came into her cheeks very
+warmly.  "And you were very comfortable there?"
+
+"Yes, very," said Clive emphatically.
+
+"Too comfortable to remember me and write, of course."
+
+"O Janet, my darling!" he said tenderly, as he passed his arm about her
+waist, "how can you be such a jealous little thing!  As if I could think
+of any one but you.  You were with me night and day.  It was always what
+is Janet doing? how does she look? and is she thinking of me?  Whether I
+was scrambling about down in the mine like a mud-lark, or more decent
+and talking to Miss Gurdon of an evening in their tiny drawing-room."
+
+"About me, of course," said Janet coldly.
+
+"No, dear," said Clive innocently, "I never mentioned your name.  I
+dared not, pet, for fear they should laugh at me, and think what a great
+goose I was.  For I am, pet.  Once I begin talking to any one about you,
+I can't leave off."
+
+"Indeed!" she said sarcastically.
+
+"Why, Janet, dear," he said earnestly, and he tried to take her hand,
+"what have I said or done?  Surely you don't think--Oh, my love, my dear
+love!" he cried, with his voice growing deep and earnest, "how can you
+be so ready to take pique over such trifles!  Janet, I love you with all
+my heart, dear.  I have not a thought that is not for my own darling."
+
+"No, no; don't touch me," she panted, as he drew her towards him.
+
+"I will--I will, darling wifie to be; but you must master these little
+bits of uncalled-for jealousy, dear.  They are not fair to me, and next
+time I am away I will at any cost write to you, even if the business
+fails, and--"
+
+"Scoundrel! ruffian! how dare you put your arm around my daughter, sir?
+She is not your wife yet."
+
+The words came so fiercely and suddenly that Clive started away, and
+Janet hurriedly escaped to the other side of the chair.  For the Doctor
+had bustled in just as Clive was trying to take the kiss withheld from
+him, and now stood there with a terrific frown upon his heavy grey brow.
+
+The next moment he had burst into a hearty roar of laughter.
+
+"Nice guilty pair you look," he cried.  "Ah! you may well turn red, you
+unblushing puss!  Eh?  No, that won't do, it's a bull.  And you, sir,
+how dare--Well, how are you, Clive, my boy?  Came round here first, eh?
+I called at Guildford Street as I went to the hospital, and they hadn't
+heard of you."
+
+"Yes, I was obliged to come here first," said Clive.
+
+"Of course.  That's right.  Janet has been looking pale since you went.
+Come and dine to-night, and don't let me come in here and catch you
+behaving in that rude way again."
+
+"Papa, for shame!" cried Janet, and she hurried out of the room.
+
+The Doctor laughed.
+
+"Well," he cried eagerly, "what about the mine?--is it good?"
+
+"For your ears only, Doctor," said Clive, "in confidence?"
+
+"On my honour, my dear boy," said Dr Praed gravely.
+
+"Then you may invest as much as you like, sir."
+
+"Not a company dodge?"
+
+"The mine teems with ore, sir.  I have thoroughly examined it, and found
+out a new, enormously rich lode."
+
+"Then it's quite safe?"
+
+"Safe as the Bank of England, sir, and the dad will be a millionaire."
+
+"Ah!  I wish he would be a healthy man, instead of a wealthy," said the
+Doctor.
+
+"Oh, you don't think--you have not found him worse?"
+
+"I don't like his looks, Clive, my boy," said the Doctor; "and I beg
+that you will try to save him from all emotion.  This great accession of
+wealth will do him no good, and--yes; what?--I didn't ring."
+
+"Messenger, sir," said the Doctor's man, with grave earnestness and a
+sharp glance at Clive.  "From Mr Reed's, sir--sudden attack, and will
+you come at once."  Then in a hurried whisper, "Dying!"
+
+But it sounded in trumpet-tones in Clive Reed's ear, as with a sharp cry
+he sprang to his feet.
+
+"Good heavens!" he said, "and I came on here!"
+
+"Hush!" said the Doctor sternly.  "Here, Morgan, the carriage?"
+
+"At the door, sir."
+
+The Doctor nodded as he drew Clive's arm through his own.
+
+"Do not fear the worst," he whispered; "I may save him yet."
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+TWO DAYS EARLIER.
+
+"Well, what news?" said Wrigley, as Jessop Reed entered his gloomy
+office.  "Bah! what a dandy you are!  Why, you spend enough on barbers
+and buttonholes to keep you from borrowing money."
+
+"And you spend enough on ballet-girls to keep you from making profits by
+lending," retorted Jessop.  "All right, my Jonathan," said Wrigley.
+
+"All right, my David," replied Jessop.  "Let me see: David was a Jew."
+
+"Whilst I am not," said Wrigley sharply.
+
+"Oh, of course not.  No one would suppose Wrigley to be an Israelitish
+name.  There, don't set up all your feathers, man, and look so indignant
+because I suggested that you belonged to the chosen race.  There are
+good Jews."
+
+"And precious bad Christians," said Wrigley sourly.
+
+"Awfully!  But I say, don't be so ruffled, man.  Lucky I didn't come for
+some hard coin this morning."
+
+"It is; and hang me if I ever lend you money again if I've to have blood
+thrown in my face."
+
+"Bah! you shouldn't be so sensitive about it.  I don't mind about your
+descent."
+
+"Enough to make any man sensitive.  Gad, sir, any one would think we
+were lepers, seeing the treatment we receive."
+
+"Yes, it's too bad," said Jessop soothingly; "but you do have your
+recompense, old man.  Nice refined revenge your people have had for the
+insult and contempt they have met with.  There, let's talk business."
+
+"Yes, let's talk business.  Now, then, what about the hole in the earth
+down which people throw their money?"
+
+"Well, it's a big hole."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but is it a big do after all?"
+
+"No.  As I told you, the old man wouldn't have gone in for it if it
+hadn't been right."
+
+"Then he really does hold a great deal in it?"
+
+"More than half, that I know of."
+
+"You've carefully made sure of that."
+
+"Yes, carefully.  It's all right, I tell you."
+
+"Good!  And what about the dear brother?"
+
+"He's still down there."
+
+"Surveying the mine?"
+
+"Surveying?  He has been down it every day for nearly a week, examining
+every crack and corner--adit, winze, shaft, driving, all the whole lot
+of it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He sends reports to the old man every night."
+
+"And what does he say?  Do you know?"
+
+"Yes; the old man reads them to me."
+
+"Fudge!  Flams to rig the market.  Chatter for you to spread on the
+Stock Exchange and make the shares go up."
+
+"No," said Jessop quietly, as he sat on a corner of the lawyer's table,
+and swung his cane and one leg to and fro.  "The dad and I don't hit it,
+and we've had more quarrels than I can count about money and--other
+little matters; but he's always straightforward with me over business,
+and I'd trust his word sooner than any man's in London."
+
+"Good son."
+
+"Ah! you needn't sneer; you'd only be too glad to get his name to a bit
+of paper."
+
+"True, O king!  He is a model that way.  But then he is pretty warm, and
+can afford to lose."
+
+"Yes; but it would be the same if he were hard up.  The old man's dead
+square."
+
+"Then you believe your brother's reports are all that are read to you?"
+
+"Implicitly."
+
+"No garbling, you think?"
+
+"I'm sure there isn't.  No, old fellow, I hate my fortunate brother most
+bitterly, and I don't love my father; but I'd sooner take their word
+than that of any one I know."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the lawyer.  "Well, then, the mine is not quite
+played out!"
+
+"Played out!  Pish!  It has never been worked properly.  Only scratched
+and scraped.  There's plenty of ore to pay by following on the old
+workings with modern tackle, and a little fortune in re-smelting the old
+refuse that has been accumulating for fifteen hundred or two thousand
+years."
+
+"Yes, it is very old," said Wrigley thoughtfully.
+
+"Old!  Why, no one knows how old it is.  The Romans worked it, and I
+daresay the Phoenicians had a finger in it before them."
+
+"Go on, old fellow," said Wrigley, laughing.  "Can you prove that pigs
+of lead were got from it to ballast the ark?"
+
+"Well, you needn't believe it without you like."
+
+"But I do believe a great deal of it.  There'll be quite enough for us,
+if you mean business."
+
+"If I mean business!  Why, of course I do.  Do you suppose I am going to
+sit still and let my brother have all the cream of life?  He'll get all
+the old man's money.  Plenty without that.  I'm not blind.  Precious
+little for me there."
+
+"Then what is going to be done?"
+
+"They are going to set to work directly.  My brother has laid his
+reports before the board.  I did not tell you that he has discovered a
+new untouched lode that promises to yield wonderfully."
+
+"Indeed!" said Wrigley--"a new lode?" and he looked searchingly at his
+companion.
+
+"Yes; an important vein of ore that promises to be of immense value."
+
+"Hah! that sounds well," said Wrigley.
+
+"For the shareholders?"
+
+"No; for us.  Have you forgotten?"
+
+"No," said Jessop gloomily, "but will it work?"
+
+"Work?  You, an old hand, and ask that.  My dear Jessop, if we cannot
+work that between us it is strange."
+
+"Yes, but the money necessary.  It will be enormous."
+
+"Pretty well, my dear boy," said Wrigley, with quiet confidence; "but
+don't you fidget about that.  Millions are to be had for a safe thing,
+so we need not be scared about thousands.  Yes; that new vein will do.
+Jessop, my lad, you and I must work that vein.  The idea of the great
+lode is glorious and makes our task easy in that direction; but there is
+a stumbling-block elsewhere--a difficulty in the way."
+
+"I don't understand you," said Jessop testily.  "Hang it, man!  Don't be
+so mysterious.  Now then, please, what do you mean?"
+
+"Let me take my own pace, my dear Jessop, as the inventor of our
+fortune."
+
+"Anyhow you like, but let me see how we are going."
+
+"Well, then, you shall.  Now, then, we want an enemy.  Clive Reed's or
+your father's enemy.  Has your brother any?"
+
+"Yes; here he is, confound him!"
+
+"And you will not do, my dear boy!  Besides, it would not be your work.
+I meant some man who dislikes him so consumedly that he would not stick
+at trifles for the sake of revenge--and hard cash.  What is more,"
+continued Wrigley, as Jessop shook his head, "it must be some one
+connected with the mine."
+
+"Bah!  How can it be, when the mine is not started?"
+
+"Then it must be as soon as possible after the mine has been started.
+Some workman under him in a position of trust, whom he has injured:
+struck him, taken his wife or sweetheart, mortally injured in some way."
+
+Jessop burst into a coarse laugh, and Wrigley looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"My dear boy," said the stockbroker, "I thought this was to be a matter
+of finessing and making a few thousands."
+
+"It is, and of making a good many thousands."
+
+"And you talk as if it were a plot for an Adelphi drama.  My dear
+fellow, my brother Clive is a sort of nineteenth-century saint--not the
+cad in a play.  Clive doesn't drink, bet, nor gamble in any way.  He is
+a good boy, who is engaged, and goes to church regularly with the lady."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's as far as you know now."
+
+"I do know," cried Jessop.  "Clive has never run away with any one's
+wife, nor bullied men, nor gone to the--your friends for coin.  If you
+can't hit out a better way than that, we may pitch the thing up."
+
+"At the first difficulty?" said Wrigley, smiling.  "No, my boy.  We want
+such a man as I have described--a man whose opinion about the mine will
+be worth taking.  He must, as I say, hate your brother sufficiently to
+give that opinion when we want it, so as to say check to your brother
+and be believed."
+
+"Well, then, there isn't such a man," said Jessop sourly.
+
+"Indeed!  When do you expect your brother back?"
+
+"At any time now.  To-morrow or next day, to meet the directors at the
+board and report again upon his inspection."
+
+"Again?"
+
+"Yes; he has been down twice before."
+
+"Who is down there?"
+
+"Only the man in charge of the mine."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Some fellow my father got hold of in connection with other mine
+speculations."
+
+"Well, wouldn't he do?"
+
+"Pooh!  He is, I should say, out of the question."
+
+"At a price?"
+
+"At a price!"  Jessop started and looked keenly at the solicitor.
+
+"Every man they say has his price, my dear Jessop.  We want the kind of
+man I describe.  You say there is no such man.  I say there are in the
+market, and I should say this is the very chap."
+
+"But surely you would not bribe him to--"
+
+"Don't use ugly terms.  If I saw my way to make a hundred thousand
+pounds I should not shrink from giving a man five hundred to help me
+make it."
+
+"No, nor a thousand," said Jessop.
+
+"My dear boy, I would get him for five hundred if I could, but if I
+could not, I would go higher than you say; in fact, I would go up to
+ninety-five thousand sooner than lose five.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, I understand.  Anything to turn an honest penny."
+
+"Exactly!  So now then, as soon as possible, we must begin to feel our
+way, so as to secure our man."
+
+"But if there is not such a man to be had?"
+
+"Then we must make one."
+
+"Wrigley, I thought I was sharp," said Jessop, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"But you find there is always a sharper."
+
+"Was that a _lapsus linguae_, Wrigley?"
+
+"If you like to call it so," said the lawyer coldly.  "But to business.
+Let me know the moment your brother gets back."
+
+"Yes, but why?"
+
+"I am going down to see what I think of the mine."
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+THE GRIM VISITOR.
+
+"The game's up, then, Doctor, eh?  There, man, don't shuffle.  This
+isn't whist, but the game of life, and nature wins."
+
+The Doctor stood holding his old friend's hand, and gazing sadly down in
+the fine manly face, which looked wonderfully calm and peaceful as he
+lay back on the white pillow.
+
+"That's right; don't say medical things to me--clap-trap: you never did.
+We always understand each other, and I shouldn't like it now I'm dying.
+For that's it, Praed; the game's up.  I haven't read so plainly how
+many trumps you held in your hand for all these years, old man, without
+being able to judge your face now."
+
+"Reed, old fellow," said the Doctor, in a voice full of emotion, "God
+knows I have done my best.  Let me send for--"
+
+"Tchah!  What for?" said the old man.  "You know more than he does.
+It's of no use fighting against it.  Nature says the works must stop
+soon.  Very well; I shall meet it as I have met other losses in my time.
+Do you hear, Clive--Jessop?"
+
+A murmur came from the other side of the bed, where the two young men
+were standing, and then all was still again, save the rumble of a
+vehicle in the street.
+
+"It's disappointing just now, when I had made the _coup_ of my life, and
+meant to settle down in peace; but it wasn't to be, and I'm going to
+meet it like a man.  Clive, boy, come here."
+
+The young man came to the bedside and knelt down.
+
+"Ah!  I like that," said the old father.  "Good lad!" and he laid his
+hand gently upon his son's head.  "I'm not a grand old patriarch," he
+sighed.  "What, Doctor?--not talk?  Yes, I must have my say now, while
+there's time.  Not a good old patriarch, Clive--not a religious man;
+made too much of a god of money; but I said my wife and sons should
+never know the poverty from which I had suffered, and I think it was
+right; but I overdid it, boy.  Don't follow my example; there's no need.
+There--my blessing for what it's worth, boy.  Now go: I want Jessop."
+
+Clive rose, and his brother came and stood where he had knelt.
+
+"Well," said the dying man, in a firm voice, "I have little to say to
+you, Jessop.  Shake hands, my boy, and God forgive you, as I do--
+everything."  Jessop was silent, and after a few moments the old man
+went on--
+
+"I have settled everything, my lad.  The Doctor here is one of my
+executors, and he will see that Clive does his duty by you; though he
+would without."
+
+Jessop winced, for these words were very pregnant of meaning, and showed
+only too well the place he would take after his father's death.
+
+"There," said his father, pressing his hand, "that is all.  I know your
+nature, boy, so I will not ask you to promise things which you cannot
+perform.  Go now."
+
+"Not stay with you, father?" said the young man, speaking for the first
+time.
+
+"No; go now.  I've done my duty by you, boy; now go and do yours by your
+brother.  Good-bye, Jessop."  There was dead silence, and the old man
+spoke again as he grasped his son's hand, "Good-bye, Jessop, for the
+last time."
+
+"Good-bye, father," was the reply; and then, with head bent, the young
+man walked slowly out.
+
+"Hah! that's over!" sighed the dying man.  "He will not break his heart,
+Doctor; and if I had left him double, it would do him no good.  Now
+then, Praed, I want to see little Janet.  Where is she?"
+
+"Downstairs in the drawing-room."
+
+"That's right.  Go and fetch her.  Tell her not to be frightened.  She
+shan't see me die, for it won't be yet."
+
+The Doctor left the bedroom, and the old man was alone with his younger
+son.
+
+"Take hold of my hand, Clive.  Sit down, my lad.  That's right.  There,
+don't look so cut up, my boy.  I'm only going to sleep like a man
+should.  It's simply nature; not the horror fanatics teach us.  Now I
+want to talk business to you for a few minutes, and then business and
+money will be dead to me for ever."
+
+"You wish me to do something, father?"
+
+"Yes, boy.  You will find everything in my will--you and the Doctor.
+He's a good old friend, and his counsel is worth taking.  Marry Janet,
+and make her a happy wife.  She has some weaknesses, but you can mould
+her, my lad; and it will make her happy, and the Doctor too, for he
+loves you like a son."
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"That's good.  You're a fine, strong, clever man, Clive, but that was
+the dear, good, affectionate boy of twenty years ago speaking.  Now
+then, about money matters.  You'll be enormously rich over that mine, so
+for heaven's sake be a true, just man with it, and do your duty by all
+the shareholders.  Stick to it through thick and thin.  I remember all
+you told me when I recovered from my fit.  I could repeat your report.
+But I was convinced before, when all the London world thought I was
+getting up a swindle.  There! that's enough about the mine--save this.
+You'll be thinking of sharing with your brother.  I forbid it.  Keep to
+your portion as I have left it to you, and do good with it.  To give to
+Jessop is to do evil.  I am sorry, but it is the truth.  He cannot help
+it perhaps, but he is not to be trusted, and you are not to league
+yourself with him in any way.  You understand?"
+
+"Yes, father!"
+
+"I have made him a sufficiently rich man.  Let him be content.  You are
+not to trust him.  I know Jessop by heart, and I can go from here
+feeling that I have done my duty by him."
+
+At that moment the Doctor returned with his daughter, and the old
+speculator's face lit up with pleasure.
+
+"Come here, Pussy," he said.  "I'm not very dreadful yet, my dear."
+
+"Dear Mr Reed--dear Mr Reed!" cried Janet, running sobbing to his
+side; "don't, pray, talk like that."
+
+The old man smiled with content as the girl fell upon her knees by the
+bed, and embraced him tenderly, "Ah! that's right.  That's like my
+little darling," he said, and he stroked her cheek.  "Don't cry any
+more, my dear.  There! you two go farther away; Janet and I have a few
+words to say together."
+
+Clive and the Doctor moved to the window and stood with their backs to
+the bed, the old man watching them intently for a few moments, and then
+smiling at Janet as he held and fondled her hand.
+
+"There!" he said, "you are not to fret and be miserable about it, and
+when I'm gone it is not to interfere with your marriage."
+
+"Oh, Mr Reed!" she cried passionately.
+
+"No, no, no," he continued quietly; "not a bit.  Life is short, my dear;
+enjoy it, and do your work in it while you can.  And mind, there is to
+be no silly parade of mourning for me.  I'm not going to have your
+pretty face spoiled with black crape, and all that nonsense.  Mourn for
+me in your dear little heart, Janet: not sadly, but with pleasant, happy
+memories of one who held you when you were a baby, and who has always
+looked upon you as his little daughter."  Janet's face went down on the
+old man's hands with the tears flowing silently.
+
+"Now, just a few more words, my dear," he almost whispered.  "Your
+father and I have rather spoiled you by indulgence."
+
+"Yes, yes," she whispered quickly.  "I have not deserved so much."
+
+"Never mind; you are going to be a dear good girl now, and make Clive a
+true, loving wife."
+
+"Yes, I'll try so hard."
+
+"It will not take much trying, Janet, for he loves you very dearly."
+
+She raised her head sharply, and there was an angry look in her eyes.
+
+"No, no, you are wrong," said the old man.  "Always the same, my pet.  I
+can read you with these little jealous fits and fancies.  I tell you, he
+loves you very dearly, and I'm going to say something else, my pet, my
+last little bit of scolding, for I've always watched you very keenly for
+my boy's sake."
+
+"Mr Reed!" she whispered, shrinking from him and glancing towards the
+window; but he held her hands tightly.
+
+"They cannot hear us, little one," he said, "and I want you to listen.
+For your own happiness, Janet, my child.  It is poor Clive who ought to
+have been jealous and complained."
+
+Janet hid her burning face.
+
+"It was not all your fault, little one, but I saw a great deal.
+Innocent enough with you; but Jacob has always been trying to win Esau's
+heritage, and even his promised wife."
+
+The girl sobbed bitterly now, and laid her burning face close to the old
+man's, hiding it in the pillow.
+
+"Oh, don't, don't," she whispered.  "I never liked him, but he was
+always flattering me and saying nice things."
+
+"Poison with sugar round them, my dear.  But that's all past.  You are
+to be Clive's dear honoured wife.  No more silly, girlish little bits of
+flirtation.  You are not spoiled, my dear, only petted a little too
+much.  That's all to be put behind us now, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, dear--yes, dear Mr Reed," she whispered, with her arms about his
+neck; and it was as if years had dropped away, and it was the little
+child the old man had petted and scolded a hundred times, asking
+forgiveness, as she whispered, "I will be good now, and love him very
+dearly."
+
+"That's like my own child," said the old man.  "Now let's hear the true
+woman speak."
+
+"And do always what you wish," she said, looking him full in the eyes.
+
+"That's right--try," he said, drawing her down to kiss her, and then
+signing to her to go.
+
+"I'm tired," he said wearily.  "Clive, take your little wife downstairs
+for a bit.  Your hand, my boy.  God bless you!  Now, Doctor, I'll have
+an hour's sleep."
+
+The Doctor signed for the young people to go down; and as he took a
+chair by the bed's head, Grantham Reed turned his head away from the
+light, and went off into the great sleep as calmly as a tired child.
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+JESSOP PLAYS TRUMPS.
+
+Jessop Reed, when he left his father's bedroom, had gone straight down
+to the study, with his brow contracted and his heart full of bitterness,
+without seeing that he was closely watched, and that a pale, troubled
+face was raised over the top balustrade, which looked very dull and
+gloomy in the yellow light which streamed through the soot-darkened
+skylight panes.
+
+"So that's it," he said to himself, as he closed the door and threw
+himself into his father's great morocco-covered chair.  "I'm nobody at
+all.  The new king is to reign, and his name is Clive.  I'm not even
+executor.  No voice in anything; only the naughty boy to be punished.
+If I could only see that will!"
+
+His eyes wandered about the dark room with its conventional cases of
+books that were never read, and he looked at the cabinets and
+writing-table as if he expected to see some drawer open with the key
+already in it, so that he could take out the will and read it at his
+ease.
+
+But he shook his head, for he knew that his father was too business-like
+a man to be careless over so important a document.
+
+"At the lawyer's," he said to himself; "and there is no need.  I know
+the old man too well; but I wonder what he has said.  A few hundred a
+year for his naughty boy, and the dear, good, industrious youth, who
+always did as father wished, nearly everything."
+
+"I know," he said, half aloud, as he sat back in the chair and took out
+his cigar-case to open it and select a strong, black roll of the weed,
+bit off the end savagely, and spat it upon the carpet.
+
+"I suppose I may smoke here now without getting into grief.  Poor old
+boy! his game's over; but, curse him, he might have played fair."
+
+He lit the cigar, and began to smoke and muse with his eyes half closed.
+
+"I know," he thought, and he laughed bitterly.  "To my dear old friend,
+Peter Praed, M.D., my cellar of wine, the Turner picture, and one
+hundred pounds to buy a mourning ring and as recompense for acting as my
+executor.  To my servants fifty pounds each and six months' wages.  To
+my son Jessop the interest on bank-stock to produce five hundred pounds
+per annum, paid in quarterly dividends.  To my beloved son, Clive Reed,
+the whole of my remaining property in bank-stock, shares, and my
+interest in the `White Virgin' mine in the county of Derby.  Hah! yes,"
+he said aloud, "and it is good, or the old man would not have taken it
+up as he has.  Yes, it is no balloon business puffed into a state of
+inflation, but a genuine, solid affair.  All to him, and he is
+co-executor with the Doctor.  He said he had made him so months ago; I
+am nowhere.  And that's my father!"
+
+He bit off a piece of the end of his cigar and spat it out angrily, but
+started up as a thought struck him.
+
+"No, that's not all," he muttered, as his eyes flashed,--"Janet!"
+
+"Of course," he said, with a long-drawn breath, full of satisfaction,
+"he would not forget her.  He worshipped the girl, and he would leave
+her quite independent of Clive.  A hundred thousand, if he has left her
+a penny.  The artful little jade: she played her cards right with the
+old man."
+
+He started from the chair, threw the cigar-end into the fireplace, and
+hurried up to the drawing-room, to find it empty, and rang the bell.
+
+"Where is Miss Praed?" he asked, as the servant appeared.
+
+"She was fetched up into poor master's room, sir."
+
+Jessop Reed went back to the study, and shut himself in, his brow
+contracted more and more, and lighting another cigar, he lay back
+smoking and thinking intently, but with his face less clouded by anger,
+as he felt more and more satisfied that he was right about his father's
+disposition of his property, and over his own plans and those of his
+friend Wrigley.
+
+"There is such a thing as salvage when there is a fire," he said, with a
+laugh which disfigured his handsome features; "and it comes in too after
+a wreck.  Well, we shall see, my dear brother; matters may balance
+themselves fairly after all."
+
+He started almost out of his chair just then, for a hand was laid upon
+his shoulder, and there stood pretty, fair-haired Lyddy, with her eyes
+red and swollen with weeping.
+
+"How did you get here?" cried Jessop angrily.
+
+"I opened the door, dear, and came in softly; didn't you hear me?"
+
+"Hear you?  No; and how many more times am I to tell you not to call me
+dear?"
+
+"Oh, Jessop, don't, don't!" cried the poor girl, bursting into tears.
+"Poor master! he's dying fast, they say, and there'll be no need to hide
+anything from him now."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"I was on the staircase watching for you, dear, and you were shut up
+here so long, instead of being with master, that I was afraid you were
+ill."
+
+"Well, I'm not; so now go, there's a good girl; and wait a bit till I've
+settled something about you."
+
+"Settled something about me, dear!  Why, as soon as poor dear master's
+dead you'll be master then, and can do as you like.  You won't be the
+first gentleman who has married a servant."
+
+"Oh no, of course not," he replied, with a bitter sarcasm in his tone.
+
+"And you will make me happy then, won't you, dear?  For I am so
+miserable when I see you courting Miss Janet, I could find it in my
+heart to go some night to the Serpentine and end it all."
+
+"Will you hold your tongue?" he cried, with a shiver.  "Do you think I
+haven't enough to worry me as it is?  Now, my good girl, is this a time
+for you to come bothering me?"
+
+"I'm not a good girl," she replied with spirit; "and it's cruel of you,
+in your man's selfishness, to talk of my bothering you.  No, no, no, I
+won't be angry with you," she cried, hurriedly changing her tone.  "And
+now, dear, that you can do as you like, you will not think of Miss Janet
+any more."
+
+"Wait," he said sullenly; "and now go.  Do you think I want the servants
+to be tattling about your being shut up here?"
+
+"Let them tattle," cried the girl proudly.  "Let them, if they dare.
+They shall soon find that I'm their mistress.  Tattle, indeed!"
+
+"You heard what I said.  Now, then, go away from here at once.  There's
+a ten-pound note.  Don't bother about your pay, but get away from here,
+for your dignity's sake.  Your box can be fetched at any time.  Go down
+home."
+
+"Go down home!" said the girl in a low voice, full of suppressed anger;
+"home, eh? so as to be out of your way now?  No," she cried, flashing
+out into a fit of passion; "it's to get rid of me.  I'm in your way now
+that you are going to be master, and you don't mean to marry me, as
+you've promised a hundred times.  I know: it's Miss Janet."
+
+"Lyddy, don't be a fool," cried Jessop, in a tone full of suppressed
+passion.  "Now, go, there's a good girl.  It's all for the best.  Hush!
+you will be heard."
+
+"Then every one shall hear me," she cried, tearing up the note he had
+placed in her hand and flinging it in his face.  "No; I won't be a fool
+any longer.  You're as good as master now; you've promised to marry me,
+and I will not be packed off in disgrace.  You're master here, Jessop,
+and I'm mistress; and come what may, I will not stir."
+
+She flung her arms round him as she spoke, and in his rage he raised his
+doubled fist to strike her down, but it fell to his side.
+
+"Mr Jessop Reed is not master here," said a stern voice at the door,
+"and you are not the mistress."
+
+Jessop flung the girl from him, so that she staggered, and would have
+fallen heavily, had not Clive, who had opened the door softly to come
+and sit with his brother, caught her in his arms.
+
+"Jessop," he said coldly, "have you not done enough to insult our father
+without this miserable disgraceful episode, now while he is lying
+upstairs almost at his last."
+
+"The woman's mad," cried Jessop.  "Crazy with grief or drink, I suppose.
+I don't know what she means."
+
+"I'm not, I'm not, Mr Clive," cried the girl, bursting into a violent
+fit of weeping.
+
+"Lyddy," cried Jessop.
+
+"I don't care; I must, I will speak.  He has promised to marry me again
+and again, and now that master is dying and he is going to be free to do
+as he likes, he is trying to pack me off--to send me home, and I'd
+sooner go and jump off the bridges at once."
+
+"Jessop!" cried Clive, "how can you be such a scoundrel?"
+
+"Scoundrel yourself!" shouted Jessop furiously.  "The woman's an
+impostor; it's a hatched-up breach of promise case to get money--a
+fraud."
+
+"No, no, no," cried Lyddy wildly, as she flung herself at Clive's feet,
+and caught and clung to his hands.  "It's true--all true.  Dear Mr
+Clive, don't, don't you forsake me.  Don't you turn against me now."
+
+"Doctor! you here!" cried Clive, as he became conscious of the fact that
+they were not alone; and he made a step to cross the room to where
+Doctor Praed was standing with his child's arm locked in his.  But, at
+the first movement, Lyddy uttered a piteous cry, clung to him wildly,
+and suffered herself to be dragged over, and half lie sobbing
+hysterically on the carpet.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am here," said the Doctor gravely.
+
+"But my father?" cried Clive excitedly.
+
+"Is spared this fresh trouble, sir," said the Doctor coldly.
+
+"Dead!" cried Clive, in a voice fall of agony, and he turned to his
+brother.
+
+Jessop was drawing Janet's arm through his as she gazed with flashing
+eyes at her betrothed.
+
+"Come away," Jessop whispered.  "Janet, dearest, this is no place for
+you."
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+IN RUSSELL SQUARE.
+
+"But surely, Doctor, you don't believe I could be such a scoundrel?"
+
+"My dear Clive, I should be sorry to think ill of any one, but you see I
+am a student of man's nature."
+
+"Then you believe it?"
+
+"That you are a scoundrel, my dear boy?  Oh, dear no; I think you one of
+the best of fellows, or I would not have allowed that engagement to take
+place; and as I said to Janet, we must be a bit lenient; there was every
+excuse."
+
+"What!" roared Clive, leaping from his seat in Doctor Praed's
+consulting-room the morning after his father's death.
+
+"Now, now, be calm, and listen to what I have to say."
+
+Clive sank back with his face flushed and hands clenched, while the
+Doctor continued gravely--
+
+"She was hot-headed and angry as could be when I got her home.  You see,
+my dear boy, women are different in their nerve forces to men.  There
+had been a great drain upon her during the interview with your poor
+father, and then the sad surprise with that woman and the shock of your
+father's death combined were sufficient to completely disturb the nerve
+centres."
+
+Clive Reed looked at the Doctor, as though he would have liked to shake
+him, but he only waited.
+
+"I told her, as I have said, that she must not be too severe."
+
+Clive drew his breath hard.
+
+"That, speaking as her father and a man of the world of a few
+experiences, a young lady was in error if she expected to find the man
+to whom she was betrothed quite perfect."
+
+"Doctor, you'll drive me mad," said Clive.
+
+"No, I am going to teach you to be a little philosophical and to be
+patient, for of course she will come round.  I am angry, terribly angry
+with you; I think it disgraceful--"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Hear me out, boy, or, confound you, I'll have you shown the door,"
+cried the Doctor angrily.  Then calming down: "It is most unfortunate,
+coming at such a time, too.  The old writer may well have said that
+about our pleasant vices and the rods, or whatever it was, to scourge
+us.  Be silent, sir: you shall speak when I have done.  I know there was
+every excuse, living in the same house with a pretty gentle young girl
+who looked above her station, but was not in her manners.  I have known
+lots of cases.  Bit of vanity--good-looking young master--thinks she'll
+be a lady--flings herself literally at young fellow's head.  Yes, a
+young man needs to be superhuman, I may say, under the circumstances."
+
+"Have you done, Doctor?"
+
+"No, sir, I have not.  You will have to go through a kind of probation
+with Janet--and with me, of course; and in time the matter may perhaps
+be patched up.  Now we will set that aside, and talk about the business
+matters connected with your father's decease.  Poor old Grantham!  It's
+a gap out of my life, Clive.  We were chums for thirty years.  Thank God
+he did not know of this, poor fellow, for he thought so highly of you,
+my boy."
+
+"Would to God he were here now!" cried Clive passionately.
+
+"Amen!"
+
+"To hear his son defend himself.  I swear to you, Doctor Praed, by all
+that is holy, by my dead father lying there at home, and who from the
+spirit-world may hear my words, I am perfectly innocent.  For years I
+have not had a thought that Janet might not know--that has not been
+hers.  It was all a mistake--a misconception, and in her hurry and
+readiness to jump at conclusions she believed it."
+
+"But, my dear boy, do you mean to deny that the unhappy girl, whose
+words I heard as she knelt by you, has not had a promise of marriage?"
+
+"No, sir--unfortunately no."
+
+"Then what do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, Doctor," cried Clive passionately, "why is it in this, world that
+one man may go on adding blot after blot to his bespattered scutcheon,
+and at each revelation people smile and shrug their shoulders; while
+another who has tried to make his life blameless and keep the shield of
+his honour bright is doubted at the first blur that is cast upon it;
+every one seems to rejoice, sets him down as a hypocrite, and cries `Ah!
+found out at last!'"
+
+"Well, my boy, it is human nature.  I must confess to feeling something
+like that yesterday myself."
+
+"Then shame upon you, sir!--Doctor, you've known me from a boy, and
+ought to be better able to judge me."
+
+"Well, you see, my boy, the circumstances," said the Doctor--"the
+temptations.  You suddenly lifted up to a position of great wealth and
+influence, she a poor servant."
+
+"Doctor, she is a gentle woman, and my nature would not let me forsake
+her like a brute.  Damn you, sir!" cried Clive, leaping from his seat,
+"how dare you believe it of me--that I could come here ready to swear
+fidelity to Janet, kiss her sweet pure lips, and tender her my love,
+while I frankly offered you--her father--my hand?  It is a shame, a
+disgrace, a blot upon your own nature, to think it of your old friend's
+son."
+
+"I--I--beg your pardon, Clive, humbly, my boy," said the Doctor, rising
+and catching the young man by the shoulders.  "I was wrong, I ought to
+have known you better.  I am as hasty and jealous as Janet.  Forgive me.
+I was angry for my child's sake.  Things looked so against you.  There,
+there! curse me again, my dear boy, I deserve it, I do indeed."
+
+"Then you do not believe it now?" cried Clive, as the Doctor got hold of
+his hands and shook them warmly.
+
+"Believe it?  No, not a word of it, nor shall Janet neither--a silly
+little jealous baby.  Then it was that scoundrel Jessop, and the poor
+girl was appealing to you for help?"
+
+"I am not going to be my brother's accuser," said Clive bitterly.
+
+"And he played the hypocrite, and took Janet away home here out of the
+scene.  Here! say damn again to me, Clive, my boy, for I am about the
+most idiotic old fool that ever lived.  But why--why the deuce didn't
+you speak out?"
+
+"I was literally stunned, sir."
+
+"But the girl--why didn't you make her?"
+
+"You saw, sir; she ran sobbing out of the room."
+
+"Then you must make her speak now.  No, no: not now; let's set this
+aside till after the funeral.  We cannot enter into such matters with my
+poor old friend lying there."
+
+"No, sir, not there; and there is a hindrance: the poor girl has gone."
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"Yes; she disappeared last night.  But I cannot go on living like this,
+Doctor.  Take me up to Janet now; I must clear myself in her eyes."
+
+"I would, my boy, but she is not here."
+
+"Not here?" cried Clive excitedly.
+
+"No; she left this letter and went out again within an hour."
+
+The Doctor took a note from his breast-pocket and handed it to Clive to
+read.
+
+"Cannot stay at home and hear about that shame and disgrace--gone away
+to be at peace, and try to forget it--with one of her aunts or a
+schoolfellow--will write," stammered Clive, as he hastily read the
+letter.
+
+"Yes, my dear boy, you know what a creature of impulse she is; and I
+don't know that we can wonder under the circumstances."
+
+"But tell me--where do you think she will be?  I must follow her."
+
+"Heaven only knows," said the Doctor.  "Since my poor wife died she has
+been mistress here, and naturally very independent and womanly--a
+strange girl, my dear boy.  I have been so wrapped up in my profession,
+that I have lost the habit of guiding her."
+
+"But the servants--what do they say?"
+
+"That your brother saw her to the door, and she went straight up to her
+bedroom and shut herself in.  When I came back she had gone out again,
+leaving this letter.  I am afraid, my boy, you will have to wait.  But
+there! it will be all right.  Poor child! she will be as humble to you
+as I am.--Yes!"
+
+This was to the Doctor's confidential servant, who brought in
+half-a-dozen cards with pencilled appeals.
+
+"Dear me! dear me!" said the Doctor, taking the cards.  "Any one else?"
+
+"Room's packed, sir."
+
+"Clive, my dear boy, I must see my poor patients.  There, there! go and
+wait patiently.  I'll come on to-night.  You will see to matters, and
+perhaps I shall have a letter from Janet, and you will be able to write
+to her or go and see her.  There, there!  We are all straight again?"
+
+"My dear old friend!" cried Clive.
+
+"That's right!  I did see the lawyer last night.  Go and be patient;
+matters are mending fast.  One moment though.  Clive, my dear boy, angry
+passions rise; you will not go and see your brother."
+
+"No, sir; he is keeping out of my way, or--"
+
+"Eh? yes--or what?"
+
+"I believe I should kill him."
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+THE RICH MAN'S WILL.
+
+Jessop Reed took good care that his brother should have no opportunity
+for meeting him to bring him to book, and during the interval before
+Grantham Reed's funeral the only news Clive heard of Janet was that she
+would be back to accompany her father to old Mr Reed's burial.
+
+"There! my dear boy," said the Doctor; "I can do no more.  You see she
+does not even give me her address.  I believe, though, that she is down
+at Weymouth with the Hartleys."
+
+This was on the day before the funeral, and Clive had to exercise a
+little more patience till after all was over.
+
+He was calmer now.  There was that awful presence in the gloomy old
+house, and he felt that it was no time to think of his own troubles or
+to attack his brother.  These matters, in spite of the suffering they
+caused him, were put aside, and he sat in the study thinking of all that
+had passed with the stern, kindly-hearted old man lying above there in
+his last sleep.  Of how he had fought the world to amass wealth, and of
+this his last speculation, whose success he had been fated not to
+witness, cut off as he was just after his son's announcement of the
+wealth it must of a certainty produce.
+
+It seemed to Clive to be a hard lesson in the vanity of human hopes; but
+he did not flinch from his task.
+
+"It was his wish," he said to himself, "that the mine should come out
+triumphant, and it shall, for all our sakes."
+
+As he mused, he thought of different business friends who had embarked
+in the speculation upon the base of his father's credit, but mainly upon
+the reports which he had sent home, his father having made these
+announcements to him during his absence in the replies to letters, the
+last being that the Doctor had bought heavily just before the shares
+bounded up and were still rising.
+
+"Poor old father!" he said to himself; "he shall find that I will do my
+duty by it to the end, for I suppose he will leave me the management--
+perhaps fully to take his place."
+
+These business matters would intrude, and he did not cavil at them, for
+he knew that he was carrying out the old man's wishes.
+
+Then came the thoughts of Janet again, and they were mingled with a
+bitter feeling of indignation against her for her readiness to think
+evil of one whose every thought had been true.  But he knew that the
+reconciliation would be very sweet, and told himself that she was still
+but a girl, and that her character would ripen by and by.
+
+"And be full of trust," he muttered.
+
+Then the scene of her leaving that room, angry, jealous, and proud,
+leaning upon his brother's arm, came back, and a sensation of fierce
+anger thrilled him.
+
+"A coward!" he muttered, "a base, miserable coward!  Well, we shall meet
+to-morrow, and afterward the less we see one another in the future the
+better for both."
+
+Then he hurriedly devoted himself to his father's papers, so as to
+change the current of his thoughts and try to check the throbbing of his
+brain.
+
+The next day broke gloomy and chill, well in accordance with the solemn
+occasion.  Grantham Reed had instructed that his funeral should be
+perfectly quiet, and that few people should be asked, but many came
+unbidden to show their respect for a business friend whose name had been
+a power in the City, his word as good as any bond.
+
+Jessop came late, and took his place in the darkened drawing-room
+without a word; and, nearly the last, Doctor Praed arrived with Janet,
+in deep mourning, and her face hidden behind a thick crape veil, without
+a word passing between her and either of the brothers, from both of whom
+she seemed to shrink.
+
+A few of the oldest friends went up to see the dead; then Janet placed
+her hand upon her father's arm, and went to the solemn chamber, staying
+some time, and being led back hanging heavily upon her father's arm,
+sobbing bitterly and covering her face beneath her veil as she sank down
+in her seat.
+
+Clive's heart throbbed and his eyes grew dim.
+
+"God bless her!" he murmured to himself; "she did love him dearly."
+
+He felt softened, and as if he could rush across the room, clasp her to
+his heart, and whisper that he was true, as staunch as steel to her, the
+darling of his heart, his first and only love.
+
+But it was neither time nor place for such an action, and turning to his
+brother, he signed to him to come, and, in the midst of a silence broken
+only by Janet's sobs, they two went out and upstairs without a word, to
+stand by the open coffin where their father lay calmly as if in sleep.
+
+"How can I feel enmity now!" thought Clive, "as we stand here before
+you, father, whom I shall see no more on earth?  Am I to forgive him and
+wipe away the past?"
+
+As the young man bent down in that solemn moment, the words of the old
+prayer came to him, and he breathed out, "As we forgive them that
+trespass against us," and tenderly kissed the broad forehead.
+
+Then half-blinded he went out, conscious that his brother followed him
+closely down to the drawing-room, to listen, as Janet's sobs still rose
+from time to time, to the heavy footsteps overhead, the hurried rustling
+on the stairs, and then to rise when the door was opened, and pass out
+with his brother to the mourning-coach.
+
+Two hours, and the party were back in the long, gloomy dining-room, well
+filled now, for of the many who followed, those most intimate had
+entered to hear the reading of the deceased's will.
+
+The brothers were widely separated now, while the Doctor, who looked old
+and careworn, was seated near the family lawyer, who sat there at a
+table with a tin despatch-box by his elbow, the most important personage
+present.  Janet was by her father's side, clinging to his hand, still
+closely veiled, but trembling and weak, while a faint, half-suppressed
+sob escaped from her lips at intervals.
+
+A few remarks were made by old friends, but the importance of the
+occasion acted as a check, and there was a sigh of relief as the
+deceased's old legal friend cleared his throat, put on his glasses, and
+took them off again twice to rub away imaginary blurrings which obscured
+his sight.
+
+Then he began to read the various clauses of the will, which was
+singularly free from repetition, being concise, business-like, and clear
+in the extreme.
+
+Clive, as he sat back in his chair, half closed his eyes, for to him it
+was as if his father were speaking, and all sounded so matter-of-fact
+that he felt that he had nothing to learn at first.  Everything nearly
+was as he expected to hear; while Jessop, who kept his eyes rigidly
+fixed upon the lawyer's lips, smiled in a peculiar way as he found how
+prophetic he had been.
+
+There were the minor bequests to servants of small sums and six or
+twelve months' wages; a snuff-box to this old friend, a signet ring to
+another, the watch and chain "to my dear trusty old friend Peter Praed,
+doctor of medicine; also one hundred pounds as a slight remuneration for
+his services as co-executor."  And so on, and so on, till the lawyer
+turned over a sheet and paused for a few moments before beginning again,
+amidst profound silence now, for the more interesting portion of the
+will was to come.
+
+In brief.  "To my son Jessop Reed, the interest of twenty-one thousand
+pounds, two and a half per cent, bank-stock, to be paid to him during
+the term of his life quarterly by my executors, the aforesaid Peter
+Praed and Clive Reed, the capital sum of twenty-one thousand pounds
+reverting at the death of my said son Jessop Reed to my estate."
+
+"Exactly what I expected," said Jessop, with a smile of indifference.
+"Five hundred a year, eh?"
+
+"About, sir," said the old lawyer gravely.  Then, after sitting attent,
+as if expecting another question, he coughed again, and went on.
+
+"I give and bequeath to my son, Clive Reed, the whole of my interest in
+the `White Virgin' mine, together with everything of which I die
+possessed in shares, bank-stocks, freehold and leasehold property,
+begging him that he will act in his possession thereof as a true and
+just man, and the steward of a large estate committed to his charge.  I
+do this believing that he will carry out my wishes in connection with
+the said property for his own benefit, as well as for that of many
+friends who have embarked their money in my last enterprise, the
+aforesaid `White Virgin' mine."
+
+The lawyer read the few remaining words connected with the signature
+amidst a murmur of congratulations, in the midst of which Jessop started
+up, black with fury and disappointment.
+
+"Shame!" he cried.  "I protest!" and a dead silence fell.
+
+"May I ask why, sir?" said the lawyer coldly.  "My deceased friend has
+done more than his duty by you."
+
+"Your words are uncalled-for and insolent, sir," cried Jessop.
+"Recollect that you are only a paid professional man."
+
+"And Grantham Reed's trusted confidential friend, sir.  Dr Praed and I
+were the two men to whom he opened his heart--eh, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes, in all things."
+
+"I was not speaking about my own beggarly, tied-up legacy," cried
+Jessop, who was now deadly pale, "but of the cruel, disgraceful way in
+which my father has behaved to a young lady whom he professed to love as
+a daughter, and led to expect that she would stand high in his will."
+
+Janet's hands were extended deprecatingly toward the speaker, and Clive
+half rose in his chair, but sank back as the lawyer said coldly--
+
+"Perhaps Mr Jessop Reed will listen to the codicil before he adds to a
+long list of injuries by casting aspersions upon the generosity of my
+dear dead friend."
+
+"What! is there a codicil?" cried Jessop.
+
+The lawyer bowed his head.
+
+"Then why have you kept it back, sir?"
+
+"Because it comes last," said the lawyer, with a faint smile, "and also
+because I have had no opportunity to read it on account of
+interruptions."
+
+A dead silence fell once more, and Clive darted a glance across to
+Janet, whose eyes, as far as he could see, appeared to be directed at
+his brother.
+
+"The codicil," began the lawyer, "is dated six months before our
+lamented friend's death."
+
+He paused, and then read on, after the customary preliminaries--
+
+"I give and bequeath to Janet Praed, daughter of my old friend, Peter
+Praed, the sum of one hundred thousand pounds, standing in Bank of
+England and Government of India stock, free of legacy duty."
+
+"Hah!" cried Jessop, in a triumphant tone; and unable to contain
+himself, he rose and crossed to Janet to take her hands, which she
+resigned to him, while Clive felt as if he had received a thrust from a
+knife, as the old lawyer raised his head and gazed curiously at the
+group before him.
+
+Then, as a low murmur once more arose, the lawyer coughed loudly, and
+went on; every ear being again attent to his words, as he raised his
+voice and sent a galvanic shock through the semicircle of his listeners.
+
+"Conditionally--"
+
+He paused, and Jessop dropped Janet's hands, while his lips parted,
+displaying his white teeth.
+
+"Conditionally," repeated the lawyer, "upon her becoming the wife of my
+son, Clive Reed.  In the event of her refusing to fulfil these my
+wishes, the above legacy of one hundred thousand pounds to become null
+and void."
+
+Jessop muttered an oath beneath his breath as he literally staggered at
+this announcement.
+
+Then, recovering himself--
+
+"Stop!" he cried hoarsely; "there is another codicil."
+
+"No, sir," said the old lawyer gravely; and he began slowly to double up
+the will.
+
+"Wait a minute, sir," cried Jessop, whose hand, as he stretched it out
+in the midst of a painful silence, was trembling visibly.
+
+"Jessop--dear Jessop," said Janet faintly, as she tore off her veil, "be
+calm;" and she took a step or two towards the infuriated man, while
+Clive felt sick, as if from some terrible blow, and sat gazing at the
+shrinking girl as, with her face drawn with misery and white as ashes,
+she touched his brother on the arm.
+
+"Silence, woman!" he cried.  "Here you!" and he turned to the lawyer,
+"give me that will."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the lawyer gravely.  "I have read the
+document."
+
+"Give it to me, I say.  I want to see for myself."
+
+"It is not customary, sir," replied the lawyer.  "You have heard its
+contents, and I am custodian, the representative of every one whose name
+is mentioned there."
+
+"Give it to me, I say," cried Jessop, stepping forward.  "I will read it
+aloud again--myself."
+
+There was a dull sound, a snap, and the rattle of a key being withdrawn.
+
+"No, sir," said the lawyer, placing the key in his pocket.  "In your
+excited state, and as the elder son, I would not trust that document in
+your hand a moment."
+
+"And quite right," said Dr Praed firmly.
+
+Quick as lightning Jessop made a dash at the lawyer; but a strong hand
+was upon his arm, and he was swung aside by Clive.
+
+"Are you mad--and at a time like this!"
+
+"Call it what you like," cried Jessop, "but don't you think I am going
+to be cheated and juggled out of my--of her rights.  You have your share
+and are out of court.  I'll have that will and read it over again."
+
+"You will do nothing of the kind," said Clive, "and you will not make a
+scene in this--in my house."
+
+"Indeed!  Oh, yes, I know it is your house, but you've got too strong a
+man to deal with."
+
+"Mr Jessop," said the old lawyer gravely, "you have the remedy in your
+hands.  There is no underhand work possible with a will like that.  If
+you are dissatisfied, go and consult your own legal adviser.  The will
+of course has to be proved, and in a very short time you will find it
+accurately copied at Somerset House.  Under all the circumstances, as my
+deceased friend's trusted adviser, I cannot let it pass from my hands
+into yours.  I think, gentlemen, the executors, you agree with my
+action."
+
+"Quite!" came in unison, in company with a murmur of approval from the
+old friends present.
+
+"Then my duties are at an end," said the solicitor, while Jessop stood
+panting, speechless, and biting his lips.  "Clive Reed, my dear sir, I
+have made many wills in my time--"
+
+"And you influenced the old man in this," said Jessop.
+
+The lawyer shook his head and looked at the disappointed man tolerantly.
+
+"No, my dear sir.  Your worthy, father was too strong-minded a man to be
+influenced.  You have listened to his own clear, concise words and
+well-thought-out intentions.  As I was going to say, my dear Clive Reed,
+I never made a will with whose principles I could more thoroughly
+coincide.  God bless you, my dear boy!  I congratulate you, and I know
+how well you will carry out poor old Grantham's wishes.  Ah!  Doctor,"
+he continued sadly, "one dear old companion gone.  Many's the good
+bottle of port we three cracked together in this room, and many's the
+sterling hour of enjoyment, rational and social, we had together."
+
+"Ay," said the Doctor, with tears in his eyes, "and our turn must come
+before long."
+
+"Yes!  He half apologised to me for not putting you down for a big lump
+sum; but he said you did not want it, and he was favouring you in your
+children."
+
+"God bless me!  I didn't want his money," said the Doctor warmly.
+"What's the use of money to me?  But a hundred thousand pounds to Janet.
+Great heavens, what a sum!"
+
+"Yes, and in her husband's trust," said the old lawyer, with a tender,
+paternal smile, as he advanced to Janet, held out his hands, and she
+nestled with a sob to him, the old family friend, upon whose knee she
+had sat as a child scores of times.  "Hah!" sighed the old man, patting
+her shoulder gently, "a woman grown, Janet, but still only the little
+girl to me.  Bless you, my dear!  May you be very happy!"
+
+"Happy!" she moaned, as Jessop engaged fiercely in conversation with
+some of the old family friends, and Clive stood silent and watchful,
+fighting against the horrible despair in his breast.
+
+"Yes, happy, my dear--eh, Doctor?  We old fellows grow to think that
+death when it comes is not a horror, but a restful ending to a busy
+life, if we go down to the quiet grave loving and beloved, honoured,
+too, by all our friends."
+
+There was a subdued murmur of approval here, for the old lawyer had
+looked round as he spoke.
+
+"Come, come, wipe those pretty eyes."
+
+"I tell you I will," cried Jessop fiercely; and he wrenched himself away
+from an elderly man who tried to restrain him.
+
+"Oh, Jessop, Jessop," sighed Janet, as she shrank from the lawyer's
+arms, and then hurriedly turned her head away as she met Clive's
+searching eyes.
+
+"But I tell you, you haven't a leg to stand on, man."
+
+"Then, curse it!" cried Jessop, "I'll fight on crutches.  It's a false
+will, got out of the old man when he was imbecile.  He would never have
+invented it himself."
+
+"What!" cried the Doctor warmly; and Janet burst into tears.
+
+"I say it's all a made-up, blackguardly concoction, schemed by my smug,
+smooth brother, who has always been fighting against me.  Miner--
+underminer he ought to be called.  But it shan't stand.  I'll throw the
+whole thing into Chancery, and fight it year after year till there isn't
+a penny left."
+
+"And you have been shut up in a lunatic asylum, and the best place for
+you," said the Doctor angrily.
+
+"Oh, now you've begun," cried Jessop, with quite a snarl.  "You think
+your child's going to have a hundred thousand, do you, and that you will
+be able to have your coin all to yourself."
+
+"Jessop," began Clive excitedly.
+
+"No, no, my dear boy," said the lawyer, "there must be no brotherly
+quarrel.  It is so unseemly at a time like this.  Let me try and settle
+it."
+
+"What, make terms?" cried Jessop.  "No; those are for me to make, for
+I've got the whip hand of you, and you shall beg to me if all the old
+man's cursed money is not to go to the lawyers.  Now, then, what have
+you to say?"
+
+"Oh, Jessop, Jessop," whispered Janet, laying her hand upon his arm.
+
+"Will you be silent, fool!" cried Jessop, seizing her by the wrist, and
+giving her a rough shake.
+
+He had gone too far.  Clive uttered a cry of rage, and flew to save the
+woman he loved from this indignity, but, as he dashed forward, his
+brother, with a mocking laugh, full of triumphant pride, snatched the
+yielding girl to his breast, and held her there.
+
+"No, you don't," he said coolly: "not you, my clever schemer.  You can't
+hit a man through his wife."
+
+"What!" cried Clive wildly.
+
+"Yes, father-in-law," said Jessop, turning to the Doctor.  "I am
+fighting for our legacy.  Janet and I were married three days ago, and
+this is part of our honeymoon."
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+AT DINNER.
+
+"Hold your tongue, boy!  Don't contradict me.  You're not to think
+because your father is dead that you are going to do just as you like.
+Try some more of that claret; it's very good.  There were only fifty
+dozen of it, and your father and I shared the lot.  I suppose you've got
+some of it left in the cellar--your cellar.  Dear, dear! poor old
+Grantham, what a change!  There, fill up your glass.  That won't hurt
+you.  I say it as a medical man.  That's wine that maketh glad the heart
+of man; and one needs it now, for homes desolate enough.  The miserable
+jade!"
+
+"It was not her fault," said Clive sadly.
+
+"What!  I say it was her fault, so don't you defend her.  Confound you,
+sir, I know you've grown into a big, ugly, consequential fellow; but
+recollect this, sir, I consider I take your father's place now he's
+gone.  I'm the first man who ever held you in his hands.  Didn't I
+vaccinate you, and bring you through half-a-dozen miserable little baby
+disorders?  You are Clive Reed, mine-owner and rich man to the world;
+but you are only the squalling brat and scrubby boy, sir, to me."
+
+The Doctor tossed off a glass of his rich claret, and then swung himself
+round in his chair.
+
+"Don't take any notice of what I say, boy.  I'm not myself."
+
+Clive rose from his chair and went and laid his hand upon the Doctor's
+shoulder, to have it seized and held.
+
+"My dear old friend!" he said, in a low voice.
+
+"Thank you, my boy, thank you.  God bless you!  I seem to have no one
+but you--now she's gone.  Clive, my lad, I'll tell you.  I came back
+here after the funeral and went into the drawing-room, and I turned her
+picture with its face to the wall, after I'd cursed her like old fathers
+used to do in the plays when I was a boy.  I said I cast her off for
+ever; and then I sat down in my chair, and did what I hadn't done since
+her mother, my poor dear wife, died.  I cried, boy, like a little child.
+For it seemed as if she was dead too--dead and gone--and I had suddenly
+turned into a disappointed, lonely old man."
+
+"And then you turned the picture back, and owned to yourself that you
+loved her very dearly still, as I do, sir.  For we cannot tear our
+affections up by the roots like that."
+
+"I did, Clive, my boy, I did; for you are right.  I know too now that
+it's my own fault, for I spoiled and indulged her.  She was left to me
+almost a child, motherless, and I began to treat her at once as a woman.
+I let her have her own way in everything, and she grew up pettish and
+jealous, and ready to resent every check.  Times and times, when I've
+offended her, has she gone right off on a visit, just to annoy me, and
+show how independent she was.  But there! it's all over now."
+
+"Yes," said Clive softly, "it's all over now."
+
+"And how I used to reckon upon it all!" continued the Doctor.  "You two
+married, and the little children springing up--hers and yours, boy, to
+make my old life young again.  But it's all over.  I won't say I'll
+never see her again, but I've done with her; and as for that miserable,
+cunning, unprincipled scoundrel, how long will it be before he's laid up
+with D.T., or something worse--if there is anything worse?  I'll go and
+attend him gratis, and pay for his funeral afterwards with pleasure."
+
+"No, no, not you," said Clive quietly.
+
+"I will, sir; I shall consider it a duty to that poor girl to make her a
+widow as soon as possible, so that she may live in peace and repent."
+
+Clive shook his head.
+
+"The man she loves," he said softly.
+
+"She doesn't; she can't love such a scoundrel.  The brainless, little,
+thoughtless idiot!  She believed all that of you directly, and ran off
+to marry the blackguard who has been trying for weeks to undermine you,
+so as to get my money.  Why, I find he has been constantly coming here
+to see her, and she in her vanity played with him--a little coquette--
+played with the confounded serpent, till he wound round and stung her."
+
+Clive hung his head.
+
+"And all the time you and I would have been ready to knock the man down
+who had dared to suggest that she was trifling with you.  Bah! they're a
+poor, weak, pitiful lot, the women, Clive.  I've doctored enough of them
+to know all their little weaknesses, my lad.  A poor, pitiful lot!"
+
+"Do you think so?" said Clive quietly.
+
+"Well, some of them.  But, by jingo, boy, what a punishment for the
+designing scoundrel.  He had heard poor old Grantham let drop that he
+had put Janet--I mean that girl--down for a big sum, and he played for
+it--gambled.  He meant that.  By jingo! his face when he found he had
+lost!  I'm going to let you know, too, what I have done."
+
+"What have you done?" said Clive, rather anxiously.
+
+"Made a new will, sir, and had the old one burned before my eyes.  I've
+gone on saving for that girl, and the money's hers, and she shall have
+it when I die; but he shan't.  I went to old Belton, told him what I
+wanted, and he went into it _con amore_, for he dislikes Master Jessop
+consumedly.  He says it's a natural reversion--the harking back to a bad
+strain that once got into the Reed blood."
+
+"But what did you do?" said Clive.
+
+"Do, boy! tied the money up as tight as the law can tie it.  My little
+bit is to be in the hands of trustees, and she will get the dividends,
+but she cannot sell out and give the money to your blackguard of a
+brother; and in a very short time he'll know it, begin to ill-use her,
+and go on till she shows that she has some spirit, and then she'll turn
+upon him, there'll be a row, and she'll come home."
+
+Clive sat frowning.
+
+"It will be my revenge upon the scoundrel.  I say, by the way, that
+little parlour-maid, Lyddy, what about her?"
+
+"I know nothing," said Clive sadly.
+
+"The scoundrel has spirited her away somewhere, I suppose.  Ah! well,
+they'll make him suffer for it in the long-run, and you and I will have
+a pretty revenge.  There now, not another word about either of them.
+You told me you were going down to Derbyshire again."
+
+"Yes, to-morrow."
+
+"That's right!  Go and work, my lad.  You won't do it merely for the
+money, but to carry out my poor old friend's wishes.  You've got to make
+that mine a very big success.  I've put a lot in it, my boy, so you
+mustn't let me lose.  I mean to take up what Byron calls a good old
+gentlemanly vice--avarice.  Don't be down-hearted, boy.  Have another
+glass of claret, and we'll drink to your success.  One of these days I
+shall come and drink your bride's health.  Some true, sweet girl, whom I
+can call daughter.  Ah! you shake your head now, because you have just
+been to the funeral of your coming hopes.  But wait a bit, my boy.  The
+world turns round, and after the winter the summer comes again."
+
+Clive Reed sighed, and at that hour, sick and sore at heart, and
+despairing, as much on account of the woman he loved as upon his own,
+everything ahead looked black but the prospect of his late father's
+venture, and over this he now set himself to work; not to make money,
+for he had plenty, but to dull the gnawing pain always busy at his
+heart.
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+THE UNDERCURRENT.
+
+"Hah!  I nearly had you that time, my fine fellow," said Major Gurdon,
+as he stood deep in the shade, where twilight was falling fast, and ever
+and anon he deftly threw a fly with his lissome rod right across to the
+edge of the black water, where the deep suddenly grew shallow, and a
+sharp rippling was made by the swiftly flowing stream.
+
+"Feel it chilly, my dear?" he said, as he made the brass winch chirrup
+as he drew out more line.
+
+"No, dear," said Dinah, with her pale, troubled face lighting up, as she
+stood there holding a landing-net.  "It is very beautiful and cool and
+pleasant now."
+
+"Ah! that sounds better," said the Major, as he made his fine line whish
+through the air and sent the fly far away down-stream.  "You have been
+fidgeting me, my dear."
+
+"I, papa?" said the girl hurriedly.
+
+"Yes.  You haven't seemed the same since you had that fall."
+
+"Oh, it was nothing much, dear."
+
+"But it was a good deal to make you look so white and upset ever
+since.--Missed him!--Do you know, my dear," continued the Major, making
+another throw, "I lay awake half last night thinking that I ought to
+take you up to London to see some clever physician."
+
+"Oh, no, no, no," said the girl hurriedly.  "You shouldn't fidget about
+that.  I am better.  I am, indeed."
+
+"Then impossibilities have come to pass, and your little face is
+deceitful."
+
+"You take too much notice of things, dear," said Dinah, shrinking a
+little behind her father, so as to hide the fresh shade of trouble in
+her countenance.
+
+"Oh no, I don't," said the Major, as he threw his fly again.  "I have
+not studied your face since you were a baby, Diny, for nothing.  Do you
+know, my dear," he continued, as his child stood with her lips pressed
+so firmly together that they formed a thin white line, "I really think
+that fish have more gumption than we give them credit for.  They really
+do get to be educated and know when they are being fished for."
+
+"Well, what wonder that they should refuse to take a tiny patch of hair
+and feathers hiding a hook?"
+
+"But it's a lovely black gnat I am trying, my dear.  I couldn't tell it
+in the water from the real; and there: look at that," he cried, in a
+tone full of vexation, as a big trout suddenly sucked down an
+unfortunate fly floating close by the Major's cunningly made lure.  "I
+knew that fellow was there, and I hereby register a vow that I mean to
+have him wrapped in buttered writing-paper and grilled for my breakfast
+before I have done.  What a--ah! that's a good throw, right above him.
+That ought to tempt any natural fish.  Got him!--Be ready with the net,"
+he cried.  "Not yet," as there was a wallow, a boil in the water, a
+splash, and an ejaculation as the Major's rod, which had bent nearly
+double, became straight again.
+
+"Lost him, papa?"
+
+"Lost him!  Of course.  My usual luck.  Lightly hooked in the lip.--
+Eh?--No.  A badly-tempered hook snapped short off.  I wish the scoundrel
+who made it--Dinah, my dear, would you mind walking just out of hearing.
+There are a few good old trooper's oaths just suitable to this
+occasion, and I should like to let them off."
+
+Dinah did not stir, but a sad smile crossed her features, and she stood
+waiting while her father selected a fresh fly, straightened the gut, and
+began to fasten it to the collar of his line.
+
+"Such a pity!  Just as I had hooked him too.  I wonder whether he will
+try again.  I was going to say what a deal of trouble one does take, and
+what an amount of time one does waste in fishing.  And so you think that
+I need not take you up to town?"
+
+"Oh, no, no," cried Dinah quickly.  "I am quite well."
+
+"Ahem!"
+
+"Well, nearly well again, dear.  Don't fidget about me, pray."
+
+"Oh, no.  You are of no consequence whatever, not the slightest; and I
+am to take no interest in you of any kind.  Ah! you are a strange girl,
+Di, but you make my life bearable, only it seems brutally selfish to
+keep you down here in this wilderness."
+
+"You know I am very happy here."
+
+"No, I do not," said the Major, whipping the stream rather viciously.
+"You have looked miserable for a month past."
+
+"No, no, dear, you exaggerate," said Dinah, with a smile that was
+piteous.  "There!  I am going to be as cheerful as can be now, and you
+shall hear me singing about the place again."
+
+"Hah! at last!" cried the Major, striking sharply.  "Home this time, Di.
+I believe it's that big trout with the distorted tail-fin.  That's
+right, my fine fellow; run, but I think I have you.  No more lovely
+May-flies to be sucked down your capacious gullet.  I have you, my
+tyrant of the waters.  I'll bring him in ten yards lower down, my dear.
+Mind and get your net well under him, and don't touch him with the
+ring."
+
+There followed five minutes' playing of the gallant fish, which leaped
+twice out of the water in its desperate efforts to escape, and then it
+was gently reeled in and lifted out on the stones.
+
+"Best this season, my dear.  A beauty," said the Major, transferring the
+speckled beauty to his creel, and preparing for another throw.  It was
+suppertime with the trout in the twilight, and they were feeding eagerly
+now, as the Major began once more--casting his line, and chatting the
+while to his child, who stood just beside him on his left.
+
+"They're pretty busy bringing the machinery over to the mine, I see."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Yes; and the men told me that Mr What's-his-name, Reed, is down
+again."
+
+Dinah drew a faint breath and exhaled it in something like a sigh.
+
+"Reed--bad name for a man of trust.  I say, Dinah, I don't like that
+other fellow, that man Sturgess, at all."
+
+Dinah's hands grasped the landing-net handle convulsively.
+
+"He is offensive.  A coarse, overbearing, brutal sort of fellow.  I
+don't like the way he looks at me.  I suppose in his eyes a man living
+down here in a cottage cannot be a gentleman.  I shall have to give him
+a setting down.  He is not coming to lord it over us.  I saw him fishing
+below here the other day."
+
+"No, no, don't speak to him," cried Dinah hastily.
+
+"Nonsense!  I have commanded bigger and uglier fellows than he, my dear.
+The fellow's insolent, and I saw him twice over clambering round the
+rocks and staring into the garden.  I won't have it.  He shall respect
+my boundaries, and--Ah! good evening, Mr Reed.  Down again, then!  What
+is the last news in London?"
+
+Clive Reed had come upon them suddenly from behind one of the angles of
+the perpendicular rock which rose up from the narrow pathway beside the
+river, and was quite unnoticed until he was close at hand.
+
+Dinah turned pale as death as she uttered a low gasp, and for the moment
+looked as if she were about to turn and run.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Gurdon," said Clive.
+
+He took off his hat to the Major's daughter as he spoke; and then, as
+the fisherman released the hand which had been warmly grasped, the young
+man stood hesitating; but as Dinah made no sign, he let it fall to his
+side.
+
+"I have been expecting to see something of you," continued the Major.
+"Have you been to the cottage?"
+
+"No," said Clive, in a quiet, constrained tone, and to Dinah's great
+relief he did not look her way, but seemed to stare about him strangely.
+"I did not call.  I did not expect to meet you here."
+
+"Ah! well, never mind; we are glad to see you, but--Good heavens!--Mr
+Reed!  You've been ill or something.  My dear sir, have you had some
+accident up at the mine?"
+
+"No," said Clive, smiling faintly.  "The trouble is past.  I have lost
+my father, Major Gurdon, since I was here.  He died suddenly."
+
+"God bless me!" cried the Major, in a tone full of sympathy, as he threw
+his rod aside, and laid his hand with a sympathetic movement upon the
+young man's arm.  "And I was thoughtlessly amusing myself here while you
+were in trouble.  In the midst of life--dear, dear me!  I am deeply
+grieved, sir--we are deeply grieved.  Mr Reed, you have suffered much.
+Dinah, my child, I am sure Mr Reed will give us his company to-night."
+
+Dinah bent her head, and, in spite of herself, gave their companion a
+commiserating glance, their eyes meeting, and his resting upon hers with
+a sad, wistful look as if he were grateful for their kindly sympathy.
+Then he turned to the Major.
+
+"I thank you warmly," he said, "but not this evening.  I have been down
+in the mine all day, and chose this path for the sake of the cool,
+sweet, moist air."
+
+"The more need for a little rest and quiet communion with others, my
+dear young friend," said the Major.  "You will give us pain if you do
+refuse, Mr Reed.  I too have known trouble, perhaps greater than yours.
+Don't say no, sir.  You will come?"  Dinah stood with her lips apart,
+listening, as she mentally prayed that her father's hospitality might be
+refused.
+
+"You wish it?" said Clive.
+
+"My dear sir," paid the Major, speaking rather stiffly, "I very rarely
+ask a visitor to my little hermitage.  I have many failings, but my
+daughter here will endorse my words when I tell you that insincerity is
+not one."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Major Gurdon," said Clive, more warmly, "I beg Miss
+Gurdon's.  I am not a society man, and--and trouble and anxiety have
+made me rather boorish, I am afraid."
+
+"Suppose we set aside attack and defence, my dear sir," said the Major
+gravely.  "I too am no society man, a mere hermit living in this
+desolate--no, not desolate spot.  Dinah here makes my home a place of
+happiness and rest."
+
+It was on Clive Reed's lips to say coldly that he was sure that was the
+case, but he was in no mood for passing empty compliments, and he
+remained silent.
+
+"Let me be frank, Mr Reed.  I look back upon the time you spent with
+us, sir, as a bright little spot in rather a dark existence.  You
+impressed me favourably, sir.  This is a very unconventional admission,
+but I am eccentric.  Let me tell you openly that you impressed me very
+favourably, and when you do have a leisure evening, you will be
+conferring a kindness upon me by coming across to the cottage, where we
+will do our best to make your stay such as would be acceptable to a busy
+man--restful and calm.  There, Dinah, what do you say to that for a long
+complimentary speech."
+
+Dinah murmured something, but her eyes did not endorse her father's
+words, for they fell, and the nerves about the corners of her lips
+twitched slightly as she listened to their visitor's reply.
+
+"This is very good and kind of you, Major Gurdon," he said; "and I
+should be ungrateful if I did not accept your hospitality.  Let me be
+frank, though, with you, sir.  I came down here to try and forget my
+troubles in hard work.  My mission is to make this mine a successful
+venture for the sake of those who have embarked in the scheme, and my
+thoughts run upon the work, and that alone.  I shall prove to be a very
+dreary guest."
+
+"Let me have my opinion about that," said the Major, smiling.  "You have
+done wisely, sir.  Hard work in these solitudes will restore your tone.
+I came down years ago in despair, to die forgotten; but I soon found out
+that `there is a divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we
+may.'  I was not to die, sir.  Life began to have attractions once more.
+I found that there was something to live for besides self.  Here we
+are, then, and, Mr Reed, you are very welcome."
+
+He drew back for his guest to enter, and he in turn made place for
+Dinah, who raised her eyes to thank him in silence for his courtesy,
+when he saw a sudden change come over her countenance, which in an
+instant was full of a painful look of utter despair, as she seemed to
+have caught sight of something over his shoulder.
+
+The next moment she had hurried in, and Clive Reed followed, feeling a
+new interest in his host's child, and at the same moment asking himself
+whether she were not suffering from some mental trouble, which was
+eating away the hopefulness of a life so young as hers.
+
+There was something very restful and calm about that evening at the
+cottage.  Dinah hardly spoke a word, but after the pleasant meal sat
+engaged upon some piece of work, over which her white fingers passed
+hastily to and fro, as the guest sat back in his chair and watched them,
+while the Major smoked his cigar at the window, and chatted at times
+about London and India, where he had gone through some service at the
+time of the Mutiny.
+
+But there were many lapses into silence, and the whole tone of the
+evening was grave and still, according wonderfully with Clive Reed's
+state of mind, as he felt a kind of sympathy for the lady before him,
+and found himself working out her career, without female companionship,
+saving that of the stern-looking elderly servant.  Dinah Gurdon, he
+thought, must have gone through some terrible time of anguish to wear
+such an aspect as he had noticed more than once, and he pitied her, as
+he saw the busy hands, utterly devoid of any ornament but their natural
+beauty of form and whiteness, still going to and fro the needlework in
+the light cast upon them by the shaded lamp.
+
+And then all at once it was late, and time for him to go; but he did not
+care to stir--all was truly calm, there was such a sweet repose about
+the place that life had suddenly grown dreamy, and he lay back in his
+chair listening to the Major, and still watching those hands that were
+as beautiful as--more beautiful than--Janet's.
+
+Her face came into his mind with that, like a painful jarring discord in
+the midst of some soft, dreamy symphony, and he started up.
+
+"Eh?  What is the matter?" cried the Major suddenly.
+
+"It is late, sir.  I am keeping you up far beyond your usual time, I am
+sure."
+
+"Yes, and thank you for doing so," said the Major.  "It is a pleasant
+change.  Early to bed is good, but not too early.  Why, you do not
+suppose, Mr Reed, that we are going to let you tramp across the bleak
+mountain-side to-night, and have inquiries made for you in the morning,
+because you have not gone to the mine."
+
+"But really, Major Gurdon," protested Reed.
+
+"My dear sir, after all these years in this solitude, I know the place
+by heart, and there are dozens of spots--old shafts and the like--where
+a man may lose his life."
+
+"But indeed--"
+
+"You are a new-comer.  Yes, my dear sir, and we must take care of you.
+See how dark it is.  Look, Dinah, my child.  Go and see what the night
+is like."
+
+Dinah trembled as she went to the open French window, stepped into the
+verandah, and came back looking ghastly, just as the dog began to bark
+fiercely from somewhere at the back.
+
+"Poachers after the grouse," said the Major decisively.  "I hope, Mr
+Reed, you will use your influence to keep your men from trespassing and
+going after the game--and my trout."
+
+"Of course, sir, but--"
+
+"Well, Dinah?" said the Major, without noticing her agitated face.
+
+"It is very dark," she said huskily.
+
+"Exactly!  Too dark for you to go, my dear sir.  Stay!  We will have an
+early breakfast, and you can walk across to the mine.  I will not have
+my peace of mind destroyed by being summoned to sit on a jury at an
+inquest upon my late guest."
+
+There was a mingling of mirth and seriousness in the Major's words, and
+Reed hesitated.
+
+"Well, sir," he said, involuntarily glancing across at Dinah, and
+meeting her troubled gaze.
+
+"I insist," cried the Major.  "What do you say, my dear?"
+
+Dinah started, and her voice sounded strange as she said hurriedly--
+
+"It would be very imprudent of Mr Reed to go back--on so dark a walk."
+
+"Exactly!  There, my dear sir, you are a prisoner for to-night."
+
+"Mr Reed will excuse me now," said Dinah quietly.  "Good-night," and
+she held out her hand.
+
+"Good-night," he replied, with a grave sympathy in his tone; and he
+stood gazing at the door through which she had passed with the touch of
+her cold, moist, trembling hand still lingering in his, till the Major
+spoke again, after walking to the window, and shouting to the dog to lie
+down.
+
+"Been madness to have gone," he said.  "Why, even in broad daylight the
+way across the mountain needs care.  My poor darling there had that
+nasty slip some little time ago, and she has not been the same since.
+You noticed, perhaps, that she looks pale and quite hysterical?"
+
+"I had noticed--I did on my first visit too--that Miss Gurdon looked
+very pale and ill."
+
+"Exactly!  She gives me a great deal of concern about her health.  I
+shall be obliged to take her up to town for good advice.  But come, sit
+down; I will not trouble you about my cares."
+
+"It is very late, sir."
+
+"It is.  But only a few minutes, Mr Reed.  I wish to say something to
+you."
+
+Reed seated himself.
+
+"Only a few words, sir, and I shall begin by asking you to pardon a much
+older man for his frankness."
+
+"Pray speak, sir."
+
+"Well, Mr Reed, I like you, and therefore I say, as a man whose life
+and hopes were blasted when he was young, and who would see with pain
+another suffer a defeat, be careful."
+
+"Over what, sir?" said Clive sadly.
+
+"That mine.  Don't think me impertinent; but I would say to you, as a
+young man to whom the income you receive as engineer or manager may be
+of importance, don't put too much faith in that `venture.'"
+
+"May I ask why, sir?"
+
+"Because mining is very treacherous, and you might be bitterly
+disappointed.  I have seen so many failures.  There, my dear sir, that
+is all.  To put it in plain English, don't put all your hopes or eggs
+into one basket.  I don't believe in that `White Virgin' at all.  There!
+forgive me:--good-night."
+
+"I forgive you, sir," said Clive warmly, as he clasped the hand extended
+to him, "and thank you, too.  Good-night."
+
+Half-an-hour later Clive Reed was lying in the pretty little bedroom,
+thinking again how restful and calm it all was, and that instead of
+lying mentally feverish, and tossing restlessly in turn, a pleasant
+drowsiness was coming over him.
+
+Then he was wide awake and attent, for, from somewhere close at hand, he
+could hear the sound of a woman sobbing gently, evidently in her
+despair, and after a time it came to him that the wall on one side of
+his room was merely a papered over partition, and the sobs that came so
+faintly to his ears must be those of Dinah Gurdon, suffering from some
+terrible mental burden of which her father was possibly not aware.
+
+The sobbing ceased, but in spite of the peacefulness of the place, Clive
+Reed did not drop off to sleep, but lay thinking of the mine.  Then came
+thoughts of Janet and of his brother--his father's wishes--of the
+Doctor, and then, by a natural sequence, of the Major and his child.
+
+What was the Major?  Of course his name would be in old Army Lists, but
+why was he down there leading so retired a life?  He had hinted at some
+trouble.  Then there was his child!  Sweet, ladylike, with a charm and
+dignity that were strange in such a cottage as that.  What was her great
+trouble?  It was evidently mental, and her father was in ignorance, and
+attributed it to bodily infirmity; and that being so, she must have some
+secret hidden from him, possibly too from her father.
+
+So restful the minute before, now Clive Reed felt as if a hot iron had
+seared him, and he turned angrily on his couch.
+
+"What is it to me?" he said to himself.  "She is like the rest of them--
+pleasant to the eye and good for food, but once plucked, no more
+paradise.  The old story!  Pater in profound ignorance, and there is a
+lover.  Well, I did not come here to play the spy upon Mademoiselle's
+love affairs.  I have had my stab, and it has been sharp.  I suppose now
+that I ought to turn cynic and look on.  No; I am too busy even for
+that.  I have my betrothed--my `White Virgin'--to whom I must be
+faithful.  Hang the girl! why couldn't she go and cry at the bottom of
+the garden--top, I ought to say--or down by the river, and not where I
+could hear her?  Mademoiselle Dinah Gurdon, you and I will never be
+friends, but I like the old man, and I should like to know what his
+secret has been.  Has no faith in the mine, hasn't he?  `Don't trust it,
+young man'--`Don't place all your eggs in one basket.'  I suppose he
+thinks I am a regular employe.  Well, I look it, coming fresh out of it
+covered with limestone mud.  Well meant, old gentleman, and I like you
+all the better for it.  I know that you are not civil to me because I
+happen to be well off, and don't ask me here because I might prove to be
+an eligible party for your daughter."
+
+"Rubbish!" he muttered; "don't be an idiot.  If I thought that, I'd stay
+away.  But it is not that.  The old man is a thorough gentleman, and the
+girl is ladylike and nice enough."
+
+She proved to be nice enough to make Clive Reed lie wakeful still, with
+his mind running upon her pale, care-marked face, and begin to wonder
+who the man might be who troubled her rest.
+
+"Some one at a distance," he thought; "and the fellow doesn't write.
+That's it.  Poor lassie!  These women do not monopolise all the
+deception.  It is on the other side here.  Little Phyllis is left
+neglected in this out-of-the-way place, quite forgotten perhaps, while
+Corydon has gone up to London, and plunged into all the gaieties of
+life--and so the world runs on."
+
+Suddenly it struck him that there was a photograph over the mantelpiece
+of a fine, handsome fellow in undress uniform.  He noted it when he came
+into the room, but thought no more of it.  Now it came strongly to his
+mind, and suggested a fresh train of thought.
+
+That was it!  The portrait of the gentleman.  The father was an old
+soldier: the more likely for the lover to be military, and he was either
+away on foreign service, or leading a giddy life in some barrack town.
+
+"Why, by Jove!" thought Clive, raising himself upon his elbow.  "This is
+a tiny cot of a place, without a spare room, I should say.  The old man
+would be too Spartan and military to have anything but the simplest of
+accommodation, and the best is given to the guest.  I am in my lady's
+chamber.  Of course.  The place is feminine and full of knick-knacks.
+So that is the cavalier's portrait, and I have the key to the Pandora's
+box of troubles.  Poor girl!  But what a shame for me to turn her out.
+What's that?"
+
+The endorsement of one set of Clive Reed's musings, the overturning of
+others, and a glimpse into Dinah Gurdon's secret care.  For, sharp and
+clear, there was the rattle of a few shot against the lattice panes of
+the window.
+
+Then in the stillness that instantly followed there was a movement on
+the other side of the partition, and directly after the ringing, echoing
+report of a gun fired from a room on the other side of the cottage.
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+STURGESS SHOWS HIS TEETH.
+
+The loud barking of a dog followed the shot, and directly after Reed
+heard a sharp, light tap on a neighbouring door, and the Major's voice--
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my dear.  I thought I heard steps in the garden; my
+window was open.  Some prowling tramp, I expect.  Lie down and go to
+sleep."
+
+"Rather a military order," thought Reed; "as if the poor girl could go
+to sleep under the circumstances, with her lover being shot at--Yes!"
+
+"Don't be startled, Mr Reed," said the Major, who had tapped at his
+door.  "We don't have policemen here to go their rounds.  Some scoundrel
+was after my chickens, I expect; and the dog was asleep, so I just fired
+a cartridge at random as a warning to my visitor.  Good-night."
+
+"Shall I get up and go round with you?" said Reed.
+
+"My dear sir, no.  He's over the hills and far away by now.
+Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, sir," said Reed, who was half-dressed; and once more
+stillness reigned in the mountain solitude.
+
+"No business of mine," he thought, as he quietly returned to bed; "I've
+enough to do to-morrow, and want rest.  Chickens, eh?  Poor old fellow!
+for chickens read little ewe lamb.  Who'd have thought it of the pretty,
+ladylike girl?  And I might have married, and eighteen or twenty years
+hence have had a daughter like these two in the narrow circle of my
+acquaintance--a child whom I had tenderly nursed in infancy, trained as
+she grew up, believed in, trusted, and fancied that I shared her inmost
+thoughts.  Then the revelation would probably have come.  No; I don't
+think I shall marry now; and--well, how strange!  I feel as if I can
+sleep--that engine ought to be fixed in a week, and we'll begin at once.
+I'll have the smelting-house where I settled, and the furnaces here
+shall be utilised for supplying additional steam.  I must send a
+telegram off to-morrow to hurry on that tubing.  Bah!  I'll let all that
+go to-night, and--"
+
+"Would you like a little hot water, sir?"
+
+Clive Reed started up.
+
+"Eh?  No, thanks.  I don't shave.  Can I have a canful of cold, fresh
+from the river?"
+
+"I have brought one up, sir.  Breakfast in half an hour."
+
+Clive Reed was dressed and out in half that space of time, to find the
+Major busily tying up some beautiful carnations, one of which he cut and
+presented, dew wet, to his guest.
+
+"The most aromatic of our plants, Mr Reed," he said.  "I'm sorry I
+disturbed you in the night, but it was no false alarm.  Look!  I would
+not rake them out till you had seen them."
+
+He pointed to the couple of heavy footprints in the soft soil, and to
+one of his carnations crushed by a boot heel.
+
+"Nothing missing," continued the Major.  "Our friend was startled; but
+don't say anything about the footprints at breakfast."
+
+"Certainly not.  But are you much troubled in this way?"
+
+"Well, no," replied the Major, smiling grimly.
+
+"The fact is, never.  I'm afraid the news of the reopening of the mine
+has brought some roughs down into the neighbourhood.  When you get your
+men all at work, they'll be too tired of a night to go wandering about."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Reed.
+
+"Oh, don't say a word about it, my dear sir.  I am not blaming you.  I
+cannot expect to have Derbyshire reserved to me.  There! those are
+smoothed out, and a man who finds that there are firearms upon premises,
+with people who mean to use them, will think twice before he comes
+again."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Reed, looking thoughtfully at the fine old
+soldierly fellow as he ceased raking his bed.  "How will Mademoiselle
+look this morning?  Paler and more startled.  A deceitful little minx!"
+
+"We've ten minutes yet," said the Major.  "Care to walk up to the top of
+the garden?  I can show you where my boundary runs, and yours touches
+it.  Fair play, Mr Engineer.  Keep your own side, and don't come
+burrowing under me.  Hang your rooting and mining!  I don't want to have
+my garden under-drained and my cottage come toppling about my ears."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, sir.  I shall keep rigorously within the limits of
+the mapped-out estate."
+
+"Of course you will, my dear sir.  I have no fear.  It is fascinating
+work, that mining, though.  If I were a young man I might be tempted to
+begin myself.  As you saw indoors, I do dabble a bit in mineralogy and
+metallurgy.  Dinah, too, is quite an expert."
+
+"Indeed!  I was noticing your collection of ores.  Some of them very
+rich."
+
+"Yes; bits I have chipped here and there during the long years of my
+stay.  There we are.  Your estate runs--"
+
+A shrill whistle arrested him as he stood on the top of a rugged mass of
+stone, high above the cottage, where luxuriant ferns clustered in every
+niche; and placing a little silver call which hung by his watch-chain to
+his lips, he blew an answer.
+
+"One is obliged to have something of this kind," he said smilingly, "to
+keep our Martha from going mad.  That was the breakfast-bell, or answers
+for it.  Fine place this for your appetite, Mr Reed."
+
+"Yes, one does get ready for one's meals," replied the guest, as he
+walked slowly back down the glen-like garden, toward the open window of
+the room in which they had been seated on the previous evening, and from
+which Dinah, simply dressed, but looking, with her large eyes and pale
+creamy cheeks, ten times as interesting as on the previous night, came
+out to meet them.
+
+"A guilty conscience needs no accuser," thought Reed, as they drew near,
+but to his intense surprise she held out her hand to him with a sweet,
+winning frankness, and bade him good morning.  Then turning to the
+Major, a sensation as of a sob rising in his throat affected Reed at the
+tender affection that seemed to exist between the pair, as Dinah raised
+her lips to her father's while he embraced her.
+
+"What a brute I am!" thought Clive; and in spite of the sharp rattle of
+the shot seeming to ring in his ears, he told himself that he must have
+been wrong.
+
+"A girl like that could not be deceitful," he thought; and when a few
+minutes later they were seated at the table, and Martha came in, bearing
+a dish of fried ham, he looked hard at the stern robust woman, and
+wondered whether she was responsible for the nocturnal visitor.
+
+"Impossible!" he said to himself one moment, and the next he owned that
+it might be so.  "Fifty if she's a day," he said mentally.  "Well,
+perhaps so, and the lover has come at last."
+
+Two hours later Clive Reed was back in the great shallow gap, where a
+couple of teams of horses had just dragged up heavy loads of machinery
+and materials, Sturgess looking morose and speaking in a surly voice,
+busy ordering the men about the shaft to look sharp and help to unload.
+The click of hammer and pick was making the place echo.  Masons were
+busy erecting a stone building; and already the place was beginning to
+look business-like, and as if waking up from its long, long sleep of
+years.
+
+The cottage and its occupants were soon as if they were non-existent to
+Clive, who went at once into the temporary office which he had had
+erected, wrote and sent off two telegrams to the nearest town for
+despatch, several letters, and then, after changing his clothes, went
+out to descend the mine.
+
+He had accidentally arranged his time so that he met Sturgess, who had
+just ascended.
+
+"Ah!  Sturgess," he said, "I wanted to see you.  Those rails ought to
+have been taken down first thing this morning, so that a line might be
+begun for the small trucks."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know," said the man roughly.
+
+The engineer looked at him wonderingly.
+
+"Then see about it at once."
+
+"Plenty of time, sir; plenty of time," said Sturgess insolently.
+
+"There is not plenty of time, sir," said Clive, in a tone of voice which
+rather startled the man; "and have the goodness to understand this:--My
+late father engaged you on the strength of your recommendations, but I
+am in supreme authority here, and I submit to insolence from no person
+in my employ."
+
+"I didn't mean to be insolent," grumbled the man.
+
+"Then please understand that you were, and don't venture upon it again,
+or we part at once.  Now go and see that those rails are taken down
+directly, and that a gang of men begin to lay them at once toward the
+opening to the great cavern where the water flows."
+
+"No use to lay 'em down there," grumbled Sturgess.
+
+"You heard my orders, sir.  I shall be in that direction before long."
+
+Sturgess went out without a word, but with an ugly look upon his
+countenance.
+
+"All right!" he muttered.  "Make much of it.  People who get up very
+high have the farther to fall.  Curse him!  I'll let him see."
+
+"He must have been drinking," thought Clive, as soon as he was alone.
+
+The next minute he was wrapt in the management of the mine, and giving
+orders to different men, ending by going to the bucket to be let down,
+and noting that Sturgess was looking at him searchingly as he rose from
+bending over the labourers who were lifting the rails.
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+MAJOR GURDON'S VENTURE.
+
+"My dear boy, you are quite a glutton at work," said the Major one day
+when a miner had shown him into Clive's office.
+
+"Ah!  Major," cried the engineer, looking up from a plan he was making,
+"glad to see you;" and he shook hands.  "Hope Miss Gurdon is better."
+
+"Who is to believe that, when you never come near us.  Eh?  My daughter!
+Yes, thank heaven, I think that she is a little better.  She is
+gradually losing that scared, frightened look.  Nerves growing
+stronger."
+
+"I am very glad, sir.  You must forgive my neglect.  You know what calls
+are made upon my time.  If I am absent, the work stands still, and I
+have been forced to run up to town four times since I saw you, to hunt
+up the machinists.  I am coming some day for a few hours' rest and a bit
+of trout-fishing."
+
+"Do.  Pray come.  I shall be delighted.  But, my dear sir, what a change
+you have made here in a month.  It is wonderful.  You have turned a
+desert into a beehive."
+
+"Well, we are progressing," said Clive, with a smile of pride, as he let
+his eyes follow the Major's over engine and boiler houses, furnace, and
+smelting sheds; tramway and lifting machinery finished and in progress.
+"We shall begin raising ore very shortly."
+
+"And making money for your shareholders, I hope."
+
+"Oh, yes, I hope so," said Clive, with a confident smile.
+
+"I see you are sanguine," said the Major.
+
+"Oh, yes, fairly so, my dear sir."
+
+"I sincerely hope that you will not be disappointed, Mr Reed; but you,
+as an experienced mining engineer, know what mines are.  Don't burn your
+fingers."
+
+"Oh, no, sir, I'll take care.  Have you any money to invest?  Would you
+like a few shares?"
+
+"I!  No, no, Mr Reed.  I have my little income, and I will be content.
+Too old to speculate, sir."
+
+"There is no speculation in it, Major.  The matter is a certainty, and
+you might double your income easily," said Clive.
+
+"No, sir, I have enough," said the Major shortly.
+
+"Pray forgive me," cried Clive hastily.  "I thought perhaps for Miss
+Gurdon's sake--"
+
+"Ah! there you touch me to the quick," cried the Major.  "But no, no!
+Avaunt, tempter: I will run no risks."
+
+"I will not tempt you," said Clive, smiling.  "That's right.  But, my
+dear sir, you must not deprive yourself of all rest.  This struggle to
+grow rich is one of the evils of the day."
+
+"But I am not struggling to grow rich," said Clive quietly, "only to
+make others who have trusted me wealthy."
+
+"Then I beg your pardon; but really I think you are over-doing it."
+
+"Don't be afraid for me.  I am better and happier with my mind fully
+occupied.  But would you like to look round?"
+
+"Very much indeed," said the Major.
+
+"And go down?"
+
+"Of course.  You will take care of me, I know."
+
+"Oh, yes; you shall come `back to grass,' as we say, safe and sound.
+Not much grass, though, by the way."
+
+He touched a gong, and upon a boy answering it, sent a message for Mr
+Sturgess to come to the office.
+
+In a few minutes the foreman presented himself, and receiving the
+manager's orders, he led the way to the entrance to the mouth, newly
+fitted with a strong engine-house and wire rope, with a cage which ran
+down the nearly perpendicular slope into the depths of the mine, where a
+trolly bore them along with their lights for half a mile.
+
+Then followed a walk, made easy now by the levelling which had gone on
+through the passages that ran maze-like through the mine.  Finally, when
+the Major was growing weary, Clive led him into the natural cavernous
+part, and along over the falling water, to stop at length at the bottom
+of a slope, newly cut, with a platform in front of the discovery made on
+the day when the lanthorn fell.
+
+"You were asking me," he said, "whether the old workings would pay, and
+I told you yes.  But here is my mainstay: this great vein of ore.  I
+have tested fair specimens of this, and found that not only is it very
+rich in lead, but the lead, in turn, is rich in silver."
+
+The Major turned from inspecting the dull bluish-looking stone against
+which Sturgess held up a lanthorn.
+
+"You amaze me," he said.  "This is indeed a find.  I had no idea that
+our hills contained anything so good.  Yes; I know enough of metallurgy
+to see that what you say is correct.  I congratulate you, Mr Reed.  And
+to think that this mine should have been lying barren all these years
+for want of a little enterprise and money!"
+
+"There, you have seen enough for to-day, I think," said Clive, smiling;
+and they returned to the daylight, Sturgess leaving them at the mouth of
+the shaft.
+
+"Your foreman?" said the Major, as they walked to the office.
+
+"Yes; a very useful man.  Not polished or refined."
+
+"Well, no; I--But there; I'm prejudiced."
+
+"Think so?" said Clive, with a grave smile.  "He does not impress you
+favourably?"
+
+"To be frank, no, he does not.  I had a great deal to do with men in the
+army, and as a rule I was pretty good at the study of physiognomy."
+
+"Indeed!" said Clive, smiling.
+
+"Yes, sir.  I should say that man was sensual, of a violent temper, and
+not to be trusted."
+
+"It may be you are about right," said Clive, "but the man is a good
+worker, has special knowledge, and is very useful.  He wants driving
+with the curb, and with a strong hand at the rein.  Now, then, a glass
+of sherry and a biscuit.  But you would like to wash your hands."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Major, as he discussed his biscuit and sherry, "it
+is quite absurd for me, an old waif cast aside by the stream of busy
+life, to try and teach a keen business man like you.  Of course, you
+know how to manage these people, and yes, yes, there was a time when
+mine was a smart regiment, Mr Reed, and--Ah! that's past.  I am out of
+the world now.  But that really is a very fine glass of sherry, Mr
+Reed.  Old East India brown.  One does not often taste such wine
+now-a-days."
+
+"I am glad you like it," said Clive, filling a wine-glass and pouring it
+into a tumbler, and then brimming it with cold water from a carafe.  "It
+is some of my late father's wine.  I am glad to see it appreciated."
+
+"It is remarkably fine, my dear sir," said the Major, making a grimace;
+"but you'll pardon me: really, my dear Mr Reed, it is sacrilege to pour
+water into wine like this."
+
+"You think so?" said Clive, smiling.  "My walk underground has made me
+thirsty.  I am no connoisseur of wine."
+
+The Major sat sipping from his glass, looking thoughtful and frowning,
+while Clive began to wish that he would go, for the afternoon was
+gliding by, and he felt that he had a dozen things to do.
+
+But the visitor did not budge, and readily accepted a second glass of
+sherry.
+
+"Very shocking, my dear sir, and at such a time, but I have not tasted
+wine like that for years."
+
+The Major sipped and sipped again, and in despair Clive forced himself
+to think of the hospitality he had received from his new friend, and
+giving up all thought of work for the day, unlocked a cupboard and took
+out a broad flattish cigar-box.
+
+"Try one, sir," he said, as he opened the box, and displayed a row of
+spindle-shaped rolls carefully wrapped in foil.
+
+"Well, really," said the Major, with his eyes glistening as he glanced
+at the brand and the box, "I--I cannot refuse, Mr Reed.  Dear me, I
+cannot offer you hospitality like this--the finest of wine, the choicest
+brand of cigars.  Hah!" he sighed, after lighting up, and exhaling a few
+whiffs of thick smoke, "exquisite!  Mr Reed, one has always been taught
+to be suspicious of strangers.  I believe I have been of you--you of me.
+But somehow you impressed me very favourably as a plain straightforward
+English gentleman; and I hope--there, I find a difficulty in expressing
+myself."
+
+"You hope, Major Gurdon, that I was as favourably impressed.  I proved
+it, sir, when I offered to procure for you some shares in this mine."
+
+"Ah!  I was coming to that, for I have repented, Mr Reed."
+
+"Then you would like to be a holder, sir?"
+
+"One moment, Mr Reed," said the Major warmly.  "You have been my guest;
+you have seen my child.  Mr Reed, my one thought in life is to be ready
+to feel at death that I have left her modestly independent of the world,
+single, married, according to her wishes.  I ask you, then, as an
+English gentleman--a man of honour, shall I be safe in taking up some
+shares pretty largely in this venture?"
+
+"My dear sir," said Clive quietly, "no man can be perfectly certain
+about a mine.  It may grow richer, it may fail, but this was my father's
+pet scheme; he was a man of great insight and experience, and I believe
+in the mine to such an extent, that I am ready to trust it and recommend
+it to my friends."
+
+"Then you think it will pay large dividends?"
+
+"After what you have seen to-day, can you doubt it?"
+
+"No," said the Major, after a few moments' thought, "I cannot doubt
+either you or the mine, Mr Reed, and this evening I shall write to my
+broker to get me--a--a--few--"
+
+Clive Reed smiled.
+
+"You will write in vain, sir.  I doubt very much whether you could get
+any."
+
+"Indeed!  Too late?"
+
+"They never went upon the market, sir, but were distributed amongst a
+few friends of my father.  You might get some, but only at an exorbitant
+price, which I would not advise you to give; but I could let you have
+some of mine."
+
+"At what price?" said the Major, with a searching look which was not
+lost by Clive, and he smiled slightly.
+
+"At par, of course."
+
+"My dear sir, this is very good of you.  I--I should much like to hold
+five hundred shares."
+
+"So many, sir?"
+
+"Yes.  You think it a good venture?"
+
+"I believe in it perfectly, sir, and I would not have suggested the
+matter if I had not possessed perfect faith."
+
+"That is enough, Mr Reed, and I thank you warmly, sir, and beg you to
+forgive the slightest shade of distrust.  Now will you confer one more
+favour upon me?"
+
+"Certainly, if I can."
+
+"Let the shares be transferred at once, so that I may get the matter off
+my mind."
+
+"I will," said Clive, smiling.  "Is that all?"
+
+"No; I want you to come back with me, and let me give you a cheque."
+
+"You could send it," said Clive, hesitating.
+
+"Ah! yes.  You business men who deal with large sums, what a little you
+think of a few thousands.  Can't you favour me, Mr Reed?  You have had
+a long spell of work: a few hours' rest will do you good."
+
+"I'll come," said the young man, rising; but he did not add, "You have
+broken my day, so I may as well finish it in idleness."
+
+"That's right," cried the Major; "and of course you will stay till
+morning."
+
+"And turn Miss Gurdon out of her room?"
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"Oh, dear, no.  That is not her room.  She occupies it sometimes for--I
+don't much understand these things--airing purposes, I believe;
+sometimes our old maid Martha.  Don't let that idea get into your head,
+my dear sir.  There! you will come?"
+
+"Yes, I'll come," said Reed again; and, after summoning Sturgess, and
+giving him a few instructions, which the man received with scowling brow
+and a surly "Yes," Clive walked away along the tram-rails toward the
+gateway of the mine gap, turning once to see that Sturgess was watching
+them off the road; but he forgot the incident directly, and they turned
+out on the shelf-like path under a projecting rock, which gave a
+cavern-like aspect to the place; then round the bastion-like spoil heap,
+to which Clive pointed.
+
+"There, brother shareholder," he said, with a smile, "I believe there is
+enough ore in that to keep us working for years, and pay a modest
+dividend."
+
+"I believe there is," said the Major frankly; and then they went
+chatting on, descending toward the track by the river, with the view
+increasing in beauty as they passed down toward the vale.
+
+"I believe you are right," said Reed suddenly.  "I have been working
+rather too closely.  This walk does one good.  The air is invigorating,
+like champagne, and one's spirits rise."
+
+"Yes, it is not good to give all one's thoughts to making money.  What
+do you say to having a try for the trout this evening?"
+
+"No," said Clive thoughtfully; "another time.  I must, after all, be
+back this evening."
+
+"Mr Reed!"
+
+"Yes; excuse me, I must plead business.  Let me come for an hour or
+two's chat in the garden, a cup of tea, and then let me return."
+
+"Of course, if you really wish it."
+
+"I do, this time, sir.  We can easily finish the little bit of business
+first."
+
+"My dear Mr Reed, I wish to treat you as a welcome guest," said the
+Major; and they went on till he struck out away from the path.
+
+"A short cut," he said, with a nod and a smile; and five minutes later
+he pointed, smiling, to a figure standing by one of the high masses of
+grit.  "Expected, you see," he said.
+
+"Did she know I was coming back?" thought Clive; and, quick as light,
+thought after thought of his last visit came to him, with the adventure
+in the night, and his unworthy suspicions about the summons at the
+window, thoroughly cleared up now by the Major's words.
+
+Two minutes later he was shaking hands, and noting that the object of
+his thoughts was not so pale.  The scared, painful look was gone, and a
+faint blush rose to her cheeks as she endorsed her father's words that
+they were glad to see their guest.
+
+"But Mr Reed will not stay the night, my dear, and--What?"
+
+"There is a gentleman here," said Dinah, rather hurriedly.
+
+"A gentleman to see me?"
+
+"No, a stranger.  He was crossing the mountain.  He has walked from
+Matlock, and he came up and asked if he might rest and have some
+refreshment."
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"Come," he cried, "you are opening up the country, Mr Reed.  A visitor
+to you, I should say.  Well, he has had a long walk.  You let Martha
+take in tea, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, dear.  Here he is," whispered Dinah, as the visitor came slowly
+out of the porch, lighting a cigar, and looking round as though in
+search of something.
+
+The something of which he was in search was within a dozen yards, but
+not alone, and Clive gave a violent start, for the visitor was slowly
+approaching him, and now held out his hand.
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+SOME ONE IN EDEN.
+
+"Jessop!" cried Clive, in a voice full of astonishment and anger.
+
+"Yes, old fellow, Jessop.  How are you?  Quite a coincidence; Miss--Miss
+Gurdon, I think?" said the visitor, turning to Dinah.  "I called here by
+accident on my way to find my brother, and he comes to me.  Clive, old
+fellow, will you introduce me to this gentleman?"
+
+"Major Gurdon--my brother," said Clive coldly.
+
+"Gurdon?  Then you are papa," cried Jessop boisterously.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am papa," said the Major coldly.
+
+"Then I have to thank you, sir, as well as this young lady, for your
+kindly hospitality to a tired traveller.  I had no idea that it was so
+far across from Matlock to the mine, or I would not have attempted to
+walk."
+
+"Mr Clive Reed's brother is quite welcome to any hospitality I can
+afford him," said the Major, rather stiffly.  "Pray make this your home
+during your stay."
+
+Clive winced, and noticed as he changed his position that Dinah's eyes
+were fixed upon him.
+
+"Oh, thank you.  It is very good of you," cried Jessop.  "You see my
+brother is so much down here, that one can't get a glimpse of him in
+town; so having a little business matter to settle with him, and wanting
+a bit of change, I thought I would run down for a day or two."
+
+"A very wise proceeding," said the Major quietly.  "Our Derbyshire hills
+and dales are worth a good look.  Dinah, my dear, these gentlemen have a
+little business to transact.  The drawing-room is at your disposal.
+After you have done, we can have our chat, Mr Reed."
+
+"Eh?" said Jessop.
+
+"I meant your brother," said the Major, smiling; and, taking Dinah's
+arm, he went slowly into the house, with Jessop watching them till they
+were out of sight.
+
+"By George, Clive, old fellow, you have good taste," he said, with an
+unpleasant little laugh and a peculiar look.
+
+"You said that you had business with me, which brought you down.  What
+is it?" cried Clive sternly.
+
+"Oh, come, that will do," said Jessop.  "Recollect that we're brothers.
+What's the good of your cutting up rough?"
+
+"What is your business?"
+
+"I'll tell you directly.  But look here, old fellow, aren't you a bit
+greedy?  You can't have everything, you know.  You've got all the old
+man's money, and I knew that you were to have it, so wasn't it natural
+that I should play for Janet?"
+
+"Will you state your business, sir?"
+
+"Sir?  Oh, come, I say, isn't it time to forget and forgive?  I wanted
+Janet, and I won.  You didn't care much, or you wouldn't have so jolly
+soon consoled yourself with another girl.  I say, though, do they grow
+many wenches like that here?"
+
+Clive's eyes blazed, and he felt as if he could strike his brother down
+where he stood; for he fancied him going back to his young wife, and
+sneeringly telling her of what he had seen.  The thought of this made
+Clive's blood boil; and his looks were so ominous that Jessop glanced
+covertly toward the door where the Major had entered.
+
+"Now, sir, if you please," said Clive, in low and angry tones, "your
+business--what is it?"
+
+"Why, you know, old fellow," cried Jessop, "Janet and I have been
+talking it over, and she is upset and shocked that we two, with our
+father only just cold in his grave, should be at enmity.  She agreed
+that I ought to come down and make it up with you, so that we could meet
+like brothers again."
+
+"Leave Janet's name out of everything which you have to say to me," said
+Clive, in a husky voice which betrayed how he was moved.  "Man, have you
+no respect for your wife?"
+
+"Respect!  Of course I have.  Come, I say, when a fellow acts like a
+brother and comes down on purpose to make it up--"
+
+"You lie, sir," said Clive, in a hoarse whisper, as he moved closer to
+his brother.  "I have known you from a boy, Jessop, and I never found
+you suffer from pangs of fraternal affection.  You have come down here
+for some purpose of your own--as a spy; but you will get no information
+from me, and under pain of dismissal no man will give you the
+information you seek."
+
+"Well, of all--" began Jessop in an injured tone; but he said no more.
+
+"That will do, and I warn you that if you get speculating in any way
+over the shares of this company, it will be on your own knowledge.  Take
+my advice, Jessop: leave me and my affairs alone, and, above all, leave
+this place to-morrow.  If you do not, I shall be compelled to tell Major
+Gurdon that he is harbouring a treacherous scoundrel beneath his roof."
+
+"Two can play at that game, Master Clive.  What if I give the Major a
+few words of warning concerning his daughter?"
+
+"As many as you please, sir.  He will choose between us," said Clive
+sternly.
+
+"Not gammoning the poor old man into taking shares, are you?"
+
+Clive, gave so sudden a look that his brother laughed.
+
+"All right!  I thought as much, my lad.  Then you won't shake hands?"
+
+Clive turned his back and walked into the cottage, gazing at Dinah with
+a newly awakened interest aroused by his brother's words.
+
+Yes, she was very beautiful--it was the sad, pensive beauty of one who
+had known trouble, and a curious sensation attacked Clive as he listened
+to the Major, and then felt angry and ready to oppose.  For the Major
+said--
+
+"Go and talk to our visitor, my dear.  Show him the garden while Mr
+Clive Reed and I settle a little business."
+
+Dinah smiled and went out.  The next minute she walked by the window
+with Jessop, making the blood flush up into Clive's face, as he now felt
+a shrinking regarding the taking of the money for the shares.
+
+It was all like a dream.  The Major kept on talking, and Clive took the
+cheque given to him and placed it dreamily in his pocket, wondering the
+while whether his brother would try to depreciate the mine in his new
+friend's eyes.
+
+And all the time he was listening for voices in the garden, and
+suffering agony at his brother's presence near Dinah, till, making a
+savage effort over self, he forced himself to finish the business, and
+mastered the intense desire to go and watch the pair.
+
+"From what?" he asked himself.  "Her father can protect her, and she is
+nothing to me."
+
+Then he was seated, as if in a continuance of his dream, at the pleasant
+evening meal, noting his brother's conversation as he tried to make
+himself agreeable, Dinah listening the while.  But she met his eyes from
+time to time with a sweet, pleasant look of innocency; and it was only
+after making a fresh effort that he said good-night, and then suffered
+from a fresh pang.  For the Major said he would walk half a mile with
+him, and did.
+
+"Dinah alone with my brother!" thought Clive, as he tried to grasp what
+the Major said, but did not comprehend a word.
+
+Then at parting--
+
+"I have been very rude to your brother," said the Major.  "Let me have
+my shares as soon as you can."
+
+"Yes; he shall have his shares, and they shall double his income,"
+thought Clive.
+
+Walking as swiftly as he could, he soon reached the mine, and found
+Sturgess standing by the new cottage he occupied in his capacity of
+foreman and guardian of the place.
+
+The man seemed to be scowling savagely at him, or else it was the shadow
+cast by the porch as he stood listening to his chief's words, nodding
+from time to time.
+
+"You understand: no one is to inspect the mine without my permission.
+No one is to have any information given to him whatever."
+
+"Yes, I understand," growled Sturgess.
+
+"I shall hold you accountable."
+
+The man made no reply, and Clive continued his walk of two miles more
+over the hills, to the farmhouse where he lodged temporarily.
+
+"Hold me accountable, eh?" muttered Sturgess; and he went in and shut
+the door, to throw himself into a chair and sit gnawing portions of his
+thick beard.
+
+That night, when the mine gap was dark and still, a lanthorn was visible
+swinging here and there as it was borne towards the mouth of the pit,
+where it disappeared in the cage, and a dark shadowy figure followed it.
+
+"Sit fast!"
+
+"Stop!" came in a husky whisper; "how are we to get back?"
+
+"I can manage that.  Not afraid, are you?"
+
+"Afraid!" was the scornful reply.
+
+"All right, then.  Now, down."
+
+The ingenious mechanism was started, and the two men, with their
+lanthorn, descended swiftly into the bowels of the earth, while a
+perfectly-balanced empty cage rose to take its fellow's place.
+
+"Any one likely to come and surprise us?" said the man who had been told
+to sit fast.
+
+"Not likely.  There! you shall see for yourself.  But that's it.  You
+can't better it.  A blind lead."
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+JESSOP AND CO.  AT HOME.
+
+"No, my dear, I'm not going to play the tragedy parent and talk about
+cursing and all that sort of thing.  I'm only a plain matter-of-fact
+Englishman, leading too busy a life to be bothered.  You write to me,
+and call me my dear father and talk of affection--my affectionate
+daughter; but how do I know that you are not still under the influence
+of the man whom you have chosen for your husband?  How do I know that he
+has not said to you that you had better try and make it up with the old
+man, because the old man's money may be useful one of these days?  Mind,
+I don't say that you have so base and sordid an idea; but I give him the
+credit of being moved in this spirit.  I am glad to hear that you are
+well, and of course I wish you to be perfectly happy; but you proved to
+me that you thought you could run alone, so I feel that my
+responsibility as a father has ceased.  I can't reproach myself with any
+lapses.  I did my duty by you; with your liking to the front.  I chose
+you a husband--a good fellow, who would have made you happy; but you
+chose to flirt with a scoundrel and let him delude you even to making a
+disgraceful elopement, so you must take your course.  Let him see this
+letter by all means, and thoroughly gauge my opinion of him.  If he
+amends, and behaves well to you, perhaps some day I may accede to what
+you propose, and receive you both here.  But he will have to alter a
+good deal first.  I have no enmity against you, Heaven forbid! for I do
+not forget that you are my child; but, once for all, I will not have him
+here, and you may let him know at once that, as to what little money I
+have, that goes to my hospital, unless Clive Reed happens to want it,
+and that will alter the case.
+
+"There; this is a very long letter, but as it is the first I have
+written to you since your marriage, I may as well say in it all I have
+to say, and this is one very particular part, so keep it in mind.  If in
+the future Jessop Reed behaves badly to you--that is to say, more badly
+than you can bear, come home.  There is your bedroom, and your little
+drawing-room, too, just as you left them.  They shall be kept so, ready
+for you, and I shall cut all the past out of our lives again as of old;
+but mind this, Jessop Reed does not have you back again, lord or no
+lord.  I'll buy a yacht first and live upon the high seas.
+
+"There! that is all I have to say as your father."
+
+Janet let the letter fall in her lap, and sat in her commonly-furnished
+room at Norwood, hot and red of eye.  No tears came to her relief, for
+their source seemed to have long been dried-up.  Every word had combined
+with its fellows to form for her the old saying in the ballad: "As you
+have made your bed, so on it you must lie."
+
+Her father had been correct enough.  She had fought against making any
+advances in her great despair; but Jessop had insisted, and actually
+brutally used the very words about the old man's money, with the
+addition that he had been trapped into marrying a beggar, and he must
+make the best of it.
+
+"I must have been mad," she sighed, as she laid the letter on the table
+and looked at the clock on the chimney-piece; but it was a cheap French
+affair under a glass shade, and one which doubtless considered that so
+long as it looked attractive its duty was done.  The hour hand pointed
+to six, and the minute hand to three.
+
+Janet sighed, and looked at her watch, but she had not wound it up.
+
+At that moment a sleepy-looking servant-girl entered the room.
+
+"Want me to sit up any longer, ma'am?"
+
+"No; you can go to bed."
+
+"I don't think master means to come home to-night, ma'am, again.  He
+took his best clothes with him o' Chewsday."
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Janet quietly.  "He is very busy now."
+
+"I'll sit up if you like, mum.  I don't think it's no use for both to
+sit up again to-night."
+
+"No.  Go and get a good long night's rest, Mary."
+
+"Yes, mum, thankye, mum," said the girl, with a yawn.  "But won't you
+come, too?"
+
+"Presently.  I'll sit up till twelve."
+
+"Twelve, mum?" said the girl, staring.  "Why, it's 'most one now."
+
+"Then go to bed.  I'll come soon."
+
+"Don't ketch me gettin' married and settin' up for no husbands,"
+muttered the girl.  "I'd soon let my gentleman know what the key of the
+street meant."
+
+Left alone, Janet again read the letter she had received from her
+father, though she hardly needed this, for she pretty well knew it by
+heart.  Then, laying it on the table again for her husband to see, she
+sat thinking of what might have been, and contrasted the brothers, her
+brow wrinkling up as she felt that day by day she was sounding some
+deeper depth, and finding but a fresh meanness in Jessop's nature.
+
+"But it was only right after all," she told herself; and she went over
+again the scene in Guildford Street, the hot jealous blood rising to her
+cheeks, as she thought of Lyddy and her acts and words.
+
+"I could never have forgiven that.  Poor father does not believe he was
+guilty, or else looks upon the offence with the eyes of a man."
+
+She started up listening, for a cab had stopped at the gate, and her
+first impulse was to go to the door; but she sank back wearily, and
+listened for the clang of the gate and the rattle of the latch-key in
+the door.
+
+She had not long to wait, and she was preparing herself for her
+husband's coming, when the door was shut loudly.  There was a scuffling
+sound in the little hall, and as she turned pale with alarm, dreading
+some new trouble, there was a strange voice.  The door was flung open,
+and, supported by his friend Wrigley, Jessop Reed staggered into the
+room.
+
+Both men were in evening dress, Wrigley's faultless, his glass in his
+eye, and the flower in his button-hole unfaded, while Jessop's shirt
+front was crumpled and wine-stained, and his flushed face told of the
+number of times the glass had been raised to his lips.  As he entered
+the little drawing-room he made a staggering lurch towards a chair, and
+would have fallen, as his hat did, but for the tight hold which Wrigley
+kept of his arm.
+
+"Now, then," he cried resentfully; "what's the matter?  Don't get
+hauling a man all over the room like that."
+
+"Really I am very sorry," said Wrigley, guiding Jessop into the chair
+and taking off his hat, "but the fact is, Mrs Reed, Jessop here was
+quite out of order when I met him this evening to attend a dinner at the
+Crystal Palace."
+
+"Yes.  Dinner at Crystal Palace.  But that'll do.  You leave my wife
+alone, Mr Solicitor."
+
+"Yes, yes, dear boy.  Let me get you up to bed."
+
+"What for?  I'm all right."
+
+"You will be after a night's rest, my dear Jessop.  There's nothing much
+the matter, Mrs Reed.  Pray don't be alarmed.  The wine was rather bad,
+too.  I really think I drank more of it than he did."
+
+Janet was standing looking from one to the other with her eyes full of
+the misery and despair in her breast.  Miserable as her life had been,
+full of bickering and quarrel, reproach and neglect, she had never yet
+seen her husband like this; and for a few moments she was ready to
+believe in his companion's words.
+
+"Have you a little soda-water in the house?" said Wrigley.
+
+"Yes; bring some soda-water and the brandy," cried Jessop, with an
+idiotic laugh which contradicted all that his friend had said.
+
+Janet's anger was rising now.
+
+"We have no soda-water or brandy," she replied.
+
+"Never mind, Mrs Reed.  Let me get him up to his room."
+
+"You sit down and hold your tongue," cried Jessop, with tipsy sternness.
+"I'm master of my own house."
+
+"Of course, dear boy.  I beg your pardon, I'm sure."
+
+"Granted!  I'll let you see I'm not going to be dictated to by haughty,
+ill-tempered women.  Madam, my friend wants some soda and brandy.  Get
+it at once."
+
+Wrigley gave Janet a nod and a smile, as if to say, "Better humour him."
+
+"All right, dear boy," he said; "I won't have any now."
+
+"I say you shall, sir.  Sit down.  Think I'm going to let her show her
+airs to you."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, nonsense!"
+
+"Hold your tongue.  I know what I'm talking about.  She's got Clive on
+the brain.  Always throwing my brother at me.  Scoundrel about poor
+Lyddy Milsom, but she can't let him drop."
+
+"Mr Wrigley, I will see to my husband," said Janet coldly.  "You will
+excuse me; it is getting late."
+
+"Really, I beg your pardon," said Wrigley, speaking with gentlemanly
+deference.  "Yes, it will be better.  Good-night, Mrs Reed.  I am very
+sorry he should have been so affected, but it is really nothing.
+Believe me."
+
+"Hold your tongue, will you?  Mind your own business," cried Jessop
+sharply.  "I know what you're saying."
+
+"All right, old fellow.  Get up to bed now.  Good-night."
+
+Jessop made a dash at his wrist and held it fast.
+
+"Sit down.  Not going yet.  I'm master here.  Won't go and fetch the
+soda and brandy, won't she?  Very well; then she shall hear something
+she won't like.  Look here, madam, what do you say to our dear brother
+now?  On the stilts, is he?  Well, then, he has got to come down."
+
+"Here, that will do, my dear Jessop," said Wrigley, with a hurried
+laugh.  "Don't take any notice, Mrs Reed."
+
+"You hold your tongue, I say again," cried Jessop, gripping Wrigley's
+wrist so tightly that, without a struggle, there was no escape.  "She
+has to hear it."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense!"
+
+"Is it?" cried Jessop, sitting bolt upright now.
+
+"We shall see about that.  She's always at me about him."
+
+"Now, my dear old Jessop, friend of all these years, do you think I want
+you to insult Mrs Reed before me?"
+
+"Insult, is it?  You should hear how she insults me."
+
+"And I daresay you deserve it, just as you do now."
+
+"No, you don't.  Want to make friends at court, do you?"
+
+"There, there! let me help you to bed, old fellow."
+
+"I'm going up to bed when I like, and when you're gone."
+
+"All right, then, I'll go now.  I should have been rattling off to town
+in the cab if you hadn't stopped me.  There! good-night."
+
+"Sit down.  She's got to hear it.  Do you hear, you Janet?  He's a fine
+boy, our Clive.  Sort of Abel, he is, and I'm a kind of Cain, am I?  But
+we shall see.  Cries about him, she does, and before her lawful husband.
+Jealous of him.  Do you hear, Janet?"
+
+"Mr Wrigley, pray go," she cried indignantly.
+
+"My dear madam, I really am trying to go, but you see."
+
+"A blackguard with his pretty mistress down in Derbyshire.  Nice saint!"
+
+Janet turned and her eyes flashed, while Jessop burst into a jeering
+laugh.
+
+"That bites her.  Nobody must look at a pretty girl.  She's everybody,
+Wrigley.  Do you hear?  Old Bob Wrigley--I say, wasn't it Ridley,
+though?"
+
+"Yes, all the same; but come now, be a good boy, and go to bed.  You're
+hurting my wrist."
+
+"Serve you right."
+
+"But you're driving the sleeve-links into the flesh."
+
+"Serve you right.  You've driven sleeve-links into plenty of people's
+flesh.  Sit still.  And you, Madam Janet, do you hear?  We're going to
+ruin him."
+
+"Reed!  Don't make an ass of yourself.  He doesn't know what he is
+saying, Mrs Reed."
+
+"Ha, ha!  Don't I?  Ruined, I tell you.  Play Jacob to me, would he?
+Down upon his knees he comes."
+
+Janet looked sharply from one to the other, and Wrigley, who made no
+effort to go now, uttered an uneasy laugh.
+
+"I've been down and found out all about him and his nice little ways.
+Do you hear, madam?  Pretty mistress.  Beats you all to fits.  Dark.
+Large eyes.  Juno sort of a girl.  He's got fine taste, our Clive.  He
+knows a pretty girl when he sees one.  This isn't a white-faced Lyddy,
+but dark, I tell you; skin like cream, teeth of pearls, and a red, full,
+upturned lip.  A beauty!"
+
+"'Pon my word, my dear Jessop, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,"
+said Wrigley.
+
+"I am, to be here, and not down there, trying--bah! it wouldn't want any
+trying--cutting the blackguard out."
+
+"Really, Mrs Reed, I feel quite ashamed to be here listening to such
+nonsense, but pray don't take any notice; it is all said in a teasing
+spirit, and to-morrow morning he will not know what occurred."
+
+Janet looked at him searchingly, but she made no reply.  In fact, she
+had no time, for Jessop chuckled.
+
+"Won't I?" he cried.  "Don't you make any mistake, lawyer.  Sharper
+fellow than you think for.  I'm drunk, am I?  Only my legs, old man.
+Head's sober as a judge.  You think you are making me your tool, do you?
+All right: perhaps so; but I'm a very sharp tool, old man, and if you
+don't use me properly I may cut your fingers."  Wrigley coughed.
+
+"There!" he said; "you have had a good long talk, and you can let me
+go."
+
+"Wait a minute.  You hear, madam--bring him to the dogs if I like.
+Schemed against me.  Time I schemed against him."
+
+"So you shall, my dear boy," said Wrigley.  "Now am I to see you to
+bed?"
+
+"I don't want you for a valet," said Jessop.  "I want you to do my dirty
+work."
+
+Wrigley gave him an angry look, but turned the spiteful remark off with
+a laugh.
+
+"All right, old fellow; you shall.  Now may I go?"
+
+"Yes, be off."
+
+"Good-night, then."
+
+"No: stop and help me up to bed."
+
+"I will, with pleasure," said Wrigley, giving Janet an encouraging look.
+"Now then."
+
+Jessop rose, took his friend's arm, offered with a smile, and suffered
+himself to be led to the door.
+
+"Which room, Mrs Reed?" said Wrigley.
+
+"Come along, I know," snarled Jessop.
+
+"All right, dear boy.  You shall show me, then.  Good-night, Mrs Reed.
+The cabman is waiting; and as soon as I've seen him in bed, I'll slip
+off."
+
+"Thank you," said Janet coldly, as she gazed searchingly at the smooth,
+well-dressed, polished man, and felt a strong repellent force at work.
+
+Then the door closed, and she sank in a chair, helpless, hopeless,
+listening to the steps upon the stairs, and thinking of her husband's
+words.
+
+"And I let myself be led to believe that this man loved me," she
+thought, in her bitterness,--"this man, who could degrade me as he has
+to-night before his companion."
+
+But her thoughts changed from her own misery to Jessop's threats against
+his brother.
+
+"What does he mean?" she asked herself.  "Ruin him?"
+
+She sat gazing before her wildly, her heart throbbing at the thought of
+the man she had told herself she loved coming to harm; but directly
+after Jessop's other utterances flooded her mind, and swept the thought
+of trouble befalling Clive right away.
+
+For was this true?  So soon after his fathers death!  Was there some one
+whom he had met, some one beautiful--fair to see?
+
+"What is it to me?" she said scornfully.  "He is not worthy of a second
+thought.  Better Jessop's wife, even if he sinks lower still."
+
+She listened and heard steps, then the front door closed, and lastly the
+sound of wheels.  Then lying back in the chair, she prepared to rest
+there for the night, while Jessop sat up in bed, waiting for her to
+come, thoroughly sobered now.
+
+For as soon as Wrigley had helped him up to and across the chamber,
+Jessop had felt two nervous hands seize him by the throat, and he was
+flung quickly and silently back on the bed.
+
+"Look here, you miserable, brainless idiot!" whispered Wrigley savagely,
+as he held him down.
+
+"Here, what are you doing?"
+
+"Silence, fool! or I'll choke the miserable life out of you.  Now are
+you sober enough to understand?  Mind this; if by any words of yours--
+any of your cursed blabbings, this business comes to grief, I warn you
+to run for your life."
+
+"What?"
+
+"For there are those in it now who would not scruple much about making
+you pay."
+
+"Pay?" faltered Jessop, as he gazed in the fierce face so close to his.
+
+"Yes, my dear friend, and so that the world would be none the wiser when
+you were dead."
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+DINAH SEEKS SAFETY.
+
+Clive Reed crossed the spoil bank one evening after a busy day at the
+mine, leaving a black cloud of smoke still rising where the furnaces
+were hard at work, turning the grey stone ore into light silvery metal,
+which was run off into the moulds ready for stamping there as ordinary
+soft lead; then, after several purifyings, as hard solid ingots of
+silver.
+
+For the place had rapidly developed, gang after gang of men had been set
+on, miners, artificers, smelters; and in the eyes of the mining world
+the far-seeing man now sleeping calmly in his grave was loudly praised,
+and his son and the shareholders envied for their good fortune over a
+property that a couple of years before no one would have touched; even
+when Grantham Reed had acquired it, they had been ready to ask whether
+he was mad.
+
+And now, day by day, the new lode which Clive had discovered was giving
+up such great wealth that the shares were of almost fabulous value, and
+not to be had at any price.
+
+For the original scheme of continuing the old working and profiting by
+the clumsy way of production in the past, with its immense waste, had as
+yet not been touched.  The "White Virgin" was rendering up her hidden
+treasures contained in the new lode, and it looked as if these were
+inexhaustible.
+
+It had been a long, harassing experience for Clive to get everything in
+perfect going order, for the work--administrative and executive--had all
+fallen upon his shoulders.  But it had been a labour which had brought
+him rest and ease of mind.  When the hours of toil, too, were over, a
+sweet feeling of peace had gradually grown up, till the wild moorland
+had become to him a place of beauty; the river deep down in its narrow
+valley a home of enchantment, from which he tore himself at the rare
+times when he was compelled to visit London and attend the board
+meetings of his company.
+
+At first he did not know why it was that his father's death and the
+discovery of Janet's weakness had grown to seem so far back in the past.
+When he first came down to the ruined mine, he felt old and careworn;
+he walked with his head bent, his eyes fixed upon the ground, but their
+mental gaze turned inward upon the misery in his heart.  Now, after
+these few months, he was himself again, and Janet, his brother, and all
+that agony and despair, were misty and fading fast away.
+
+"It's the work," he used to say, "the work.  Nothing like action for a
+diseased mind."  Then by slow degrees after his brother's visit the
+truth began to dawn upon him.  At first he doubted, and ridiculed the
+idea; then he began to wonder, and lastly to ask himself what manner of
+man he really was.  He had believed himself to be strong and determined
+of purpose, and now he told himself that he must be weak as water, and
+that, in spite of the past, he had never thoroughly felt a strong man's
+genuine love.
+
+"Yes," he said, as he walked slowly along that narrow shelf-like path
+towards the Major's house, "it is the truth--the simple truth."
+
+The evening was closing in, and the darkness gathered fast in the
+shadowy valley where the river rippled, so that by the time he reached
+the spot where the perpendicular side of the mountain had been cut away,
+forming the sides of a tunnel, with here and there a gap forming a
+cavernous niche, it was quite obscure for some fifty yards.  But the
+thoughtful man was so wrapped up in the mission he had on hand, that he
+did not notice the faint odour of a cigar, as if some one had lately
+passed there smoking; neither did he turn his head to the right and look
+up when a small stone came rattling down from above; but, as if Fate was
+leading him into a temptation, he suddenly stopped and stood gazing off
+to his left at where, in the south-east, a bright star was rising out of
+the mists.
+
+Had he turned and looked up, he would have seen a man's face peering
+over a rugged block of stone which effectually hid the watcher's body,
+and that between the face and him a piece of rock was balanced and held
+by two hands, either occupied in retaining it, or ready to send it
+crashing down.
+
+It would have been a perilous position for a man to have walked close
+under that stone where the track was most worn, for the other part
+skirted the edge of the precipice, which fell sheer two hundred feet,
+and hence was bad for those who had not a steady nerve.
+
+But Clive Reed's nerve was once again steady, and he had chosen to walk
+to the edge and then to stop and gaze down into the gathering darkness.
+
+For a few moments he did think of how easily any one might fall there,
+and what a fate it would be if the stones which had been left roof-like
+by the old workers who had made that path should come crumbling down.
+But the thought passed away, thrust out by others, some pleasant and
+full of delight, others serious of import, and connected with the
+purpose of that night.
+
+He passed on directly after, and a faint rustling sound was heard from
+the narrow rift which led upward behind the loosened stone.  The face
+had disappeared, but a bright light flashed up from behind the rock, and
+once more the odour of tobacco began to be diffused in the cavernous
+gloom of the place.
+
+But it was bright and clear where Clive Reed walked on, and his mind too
+was quite clear, his purpose determined, as he strode on now at a rapid
+pace till he reached the path down by the river, and then turned up
+suddenly in front of the cottage, where he stopped short once more to
+look up at the light shining out of the little drawing-room window.
+
+It was open, and he could see that Dinah was seated at work; and, as if
+irresistibly attracted by her, he advanced quickly two or three steps to
+enter by the window; but he suddenly turned off by the path leading to
+the door.
+
+"Yes; far better, Reed," said a low voice at his elbow.
+
+"Major Gurdon!"
+
+"Yes.  It was cool and pleasant out here.  How plainly a man's features
+sometimes show his intentions.  Will you have a cigar?  I am going to
+smoke another."
+
+"Not now," said Clive huskily, as he followed his host up the garden to
+some seats.  "You are right, sir, and it was an unwarrantable liberty.
+I am glad I did not take it."
+
+"So am I," said the Major drily.  "But I thought it possible that you
+might come over this evening."
+
+"And I have come, sir, for I have grave news to communicate."
+
+"Great heavens!" cried the Major, starting from his garden-seat in a
+nook of the ferny rocks, "don't tell me, sir, that there is anything
+wrong about the mine."
+
+Clive was silent for a few moments as he gazed at the dimly seen,
+agitated face before him, and saw that the Major hurriedly wiped his
+brow.
+
+"Tell me, then," he said hoarsely, "the worst."
+
+"I have no worst to tell, sir," said Clive quietly.  "You have been
+anxious, then, about the mine?"
+
+"Yes; I couldn't help it, my dear sir," said the Major nervously.  "This
+sort of thing is new to me, and it means so much.  But there is
+something wrong about it."
+
+"Nothing whatever, sir."
+
+"Thank God," muttered the Major.
+
+"So far from there being anything wrong, sir, I had a letter this
+evening announcing, on the basis of our success here, that in a few days
+the shareholders will receive an interim dividend of twenty per cent,
+which means, sir, one-fifth of your investment returned already."
+
+"My dear Reed, you amaze me.  It is marvellous.  But never mind that
+now.  You said you came upon grave business."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Clive, after a pause, "very grave business to me."
+
+"Yes.  Pray speak.  You are in want of a little money?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not want money; I want time."
+
+"What is the matter, then?  Your voice is quite changed."
+
+Clive was silent again for a few moments, and then, after glancing at
+the window, he said in a low voice--
+
+"Major Gurdon, the time has come for me to know whether I am to visit
+here again."
+
+"Come here again?  I do not quite understand you, sir.  Pray speak out."
+
+"I will, sir," said Clive earnestly.  "I love your child."
+
+"We all do, sir," said the Major coldly.  "Who could help it?"
+
+"Yes, who could help it?" said Clive, in a tone of voice which told how
+deeply he was moved.  "And now, as an honourable man, I ask you, sir,
+whether I am still to visit here, or my visits are to cease?"
+
+"Have you told Dinah what you have told me?"
+
+"Not a word, sir."
+
+"That's right!"
+
+"How could I without your leave?"
+
+"True!  Well, Mr Reed, I will be frank with you.  A short time back I
+had not thought of such a thing.  I welcomed you here selfishly, as a
+visitor who would relieve some of the monotony of my existence.  Then,
+sir, I began to like you, and then by slow degrees I began to see that I
+had either made a great error, or else fate was working, as she always
+does, silently.  I have been much exercised in my mind as to what I
+should do, and ended by acting on the defensive, leaving the enemy to
+declare his plans."
+
+"And am I the enemy of your peace, sir?"
+
+"Mr Reed, you are, I fear, the enemy of my daughter's peace, and I say
+to you, sir, as one who has shown himself to be a man of honour, if
+there is anything likely to militate against my child's happiness, for
+heaven's sake, sir, speak out, and let this end at once."
+
+"You say you will be frank with me, sir; I will be frank with you.  Not
+many months back I was engaged to be married."
+
+"And broke it off?" said the Major sharply.
+
+"No, sir; I was a poor weak lover, I suppose.  Too much immersed in
+business.  The lady chose again, or, poor girl, was tricked into another
+engagement, and is married.  I came down here, half mad with despair, to
+forget my cares in work; and instead I have awakened to the fact there
+is still happiness for me if I can win it."
+
+"Ah!" said the Major.  "In plain English, then, sir, you wish to speak
+to Dinah?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are aware, I suppose, that she has nothing but her own sweet nature
+with which to endow a man."
+
+"I never asked myself that question, sir."
+
+"Of course, at my death she will have a few thousands, upon whose
+interest we live."
+
+"Will she?" said Clive quietly.
+
+"Yes; and you, Mr Reed, it is my duty as a father to ask you a question
+or two.  Will your position as manager of this mine enable you to keep
+her, not in affluence, but modest comfort?"
+
+"I think so, sir," said Clive, smiling.
+
+"That's well.  But there, if--I say if this goes on, she shall have half
+my shares at once.  A fair white virgin shall go to the altar with so
+many `White Virgins' in her train."
+
+"My dear Major Gurdon," said Clive, grasping the old officer's hand,
+"don't you know?"
+
+"Know--know, sir!  What?"
+
+"That exactly one-third of the `White Virgin' shares are mine, beside a
+great deal of property my father left.  I suppose I am what people call
+a very rich man."
+
+"What!" cried the Major, literally dazed, "and you work like you do?"
+
+"And why not?  It is for myself--for the shareholders--for you.  It was
+my father's wish, sir, that this mine should prove to be a great
+success, and it is my sacred duty to make it so."
+
+"But--but, my dear Reed, you must be a millionaire!"
+
+"I suppose so," said Clive quietly.
+
+"Then it will be impossible.  My poor child could not marry so wealthy a
+man."
+
+"Then I must make myself poor," said Clive.  "Bah! what has money to do
+with it?  Major Gurdon, I came down here to find rest and peace; let me
+find happiness as well, and that the world is not all base."
+
+"I hardly dare give consent," faltered the Major.  "You are the first,
+sir, who has ever approached her in this way, and I could not help
+seeing how day by day she has brightened and seemed to grow more restful
+and content.  It has been as if she felt that with you near she could be
+at rest, that you were at hand to protect her, and that the poor old
+father was growing to be nobody now.  Ah!  Reed, she has ceased to care
+for me as she used."
+
+"Father!"
+
+"You there, Dinah?  You heard what we said?"
+
+"I heard you tell Mr Reed something that you cannot mean."
+
+"You heard no more?"
+
+"No, dear; but why?"
+
+She stopped short, with the colour flushing to her cheeks, and her heart
+beating heavily, for Clive gently took her hand.  His voice was very
+low, and there, in the soft darkness of the autumnal evening, he said
+earnestly--
+
+"Miss Gurdon--Dinah--I have dared to tell your father that I love you
+with all my heart, and begged him to let me speak to you.  Not as a
+dramatic lover, but as an earnest man, who would have but one thought,
+dear, if you gave him the right, to make your life peaceful and happy to
+the end.  Dinah--my own love--can you give me that right?"
+
+Her hand struggled in its prison for a moment, and then lay trembling
+there, as if too firmly held by the strong fingers which formed its
+cage.
+
+"I--I fear--I ought not--I--"
+
+She faltered these words painfully; and then, with an hysterical cry,
+she nestled to him.
+
+"Yes, yes," she cried; "take me, and protect me, Clive.  I do love you,
+and will love you to the end."
+
+"My darling!" he whispered, as he clasped her passionately to his heart,
+just as the dog burst out into a furious volley of growls and barks,
+mingled with sounds as if he were struggling hard to tear away his
+chain.
+
+Dinah nestled to him more closely, and the start she had given at the
+dog's barking gave place to a feeling of safety in those two strong
+arms.
+
+"Are you content, sir?" said Clive, turning at last, as he drew Dinah's
+arm through his with a sense of possession which made his heart beat
+against it heavily.
+
+But there was no reply, for the Major had gone off to see what had
+alarmed the dog.
+
+"Nothing that I can see," he said, upon his return.  "Why, of course!
+Clever dog!  He scented a thief."
+
+"A thief?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, a scoundrel come to try and steal away my darling girl."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+A low sigh and a shiver of horror, as Dinah shrank away to flee into the
+house; but as she felt Clive's arm tighten about her, she clung to him
+once more.
+
+"Why, you silly child, don't you understand a joke?" cried the Major.
+"I mean this fellow who is holding you fast; and you not shrinking in
+the least.  But there! it is a time to be serious now.  God bless you,
+Clive Reed!  You have solved one difficulty in a declining life.  I have
+often said to myself, `What is to become of my darling when I go?'  Now
+I know, and can go in peace."
+
+Two hours later, with the kisses of love moist upon his lips, Clive Reed
+started for his lonely walk back over the mountain-side.
+
+End of Volume One.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+ALARM NOTES.
+
+Dinah Gurdon sat near the shaded lamp with her eyes directed toward the
+open window, and her face transformed by the thoughts within her breast.
+For the love-light burned brilliantly in those softened eyes, and the
+happy, satisfied look of one restful and content was there.
+
+The Major sat back watching her, with his brow wrinkled and perplexed by
+his troubled thoughts as the clouds floated by, now shadowing the
+sunshine of his life, now making it look the brighter as they passed
+away and left it clear.
+
+For there were thoughts within that were quite new.  Naturally he had
+felt that the time would some day come when a man would step between
+them and take away his child's love; but this had seemed to be something
+belonging to the future, and when the new manager of the mine crossed
+his path, and the friendly feeling had increased, he, the father, had
+gone on blindly, never thinking of the possible result, or, at most,
+giving the idea but a passing thought as something too absurd to retain.
+And now the true facts of the case had come upon him like a
+thunder-clap, and he sat thinking over the events of the evening and
+watching his child.  Now he was happy, rejoicing and satisfied that her
+choice should have fallen upon so frank and manly a fellow; now his
+selfish feelings were aroused and mingled with a kind of petty jealousy
+that made him sigh with discontent, and then task himself mentally in
+his annoyance that he could be so unfair.
+
+He spoke at last, after waiting to see whether Dinah would awaken from
+her pleasant dream to the present, and it was in a teasing,
+half-malicious strain that he said--
+
+"I hope that fellow will not go making short cuts to-night, and break
+his neck down one of the old shafts.--Dinah, my own darling!  Don't,
+pray, look like that," he cried, as he sprang from his seat and caught
+her in his arms.  For she had started up with her hands to her heart,
+pale as death, her eyes wild and strange, and her lips apart and
+blanched.
+
+"There, there!" he whispered, as he held her to his breast.  "I was only
+teasing you.  It was all nonsense.  No, no; don't sob like that.  Why,
+my pet, you are weak still, and as nervous as can be.  It was only a
+joke.  He is too keen and clever to make a mistake."
+
+She clung to him, fighting hard to suppress her hysterical sobs, till
+she grew calmer, but she clung to him still.
+
+"Ah! that's better," he said tenderly, as he stroked her face and kissed
+her forehead.  "That's right.  It was very brutal of me, but I never
+thought you would take my idle words amiss."
+
+He held her tightly to him, and felt the throbbing heart and heaving
+breast gradually calm down.
+
+"Then you love him very dearly, Dinah?"
+
+She raised her pale face, and looked full in his eyes, gazing at him in
+silence for a few minutes before she replied simply--
+
+"Yes, father, I love him very dearly."
+
+The Major drew a long breath as he nodded his head slowly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "and it is a different love to that of a child for her
+father.  It will not make any difference, dear?  I know; you need not
+tell me.  I shall not grow to be a lonely, desolate old man."  Dinah's
+arms stole round his neck, and she laid her cheek to his.
+
+"You know that, dear," she whispered.  "How could it make any difference
+to us?"
+
+"No; it can make no difference, my darling, save make me the happier.
+But only to think of it.  Which of us could have said a few months ago
+that our quiet life here would be changed as it has been, I turning into
+a greedy speculator and holder of mining shares, the most ephemeral of
+property, and you giving your treasure to this base intruder--no, no, I
+mean this prince in disguise, who came to the castle to ask for my
+hospitality.  Ah! we can't see into the future."
+
+"Why did you buy those shares, dear?" asked Dinah, as she rested her
+head upon his shoulder.
+
+"Hang the shares! they are an excitement and worry.  No, no, they are
+not.  It's quite right.  I'll tell you: I bought them because I wanted
+my darling to be independent and far above want when I go away on the
+long journey!"
+
+"Father!" cried Dinah wildly.
+
+"Hush, my pet.  Nervous again: I can feel your heart beating.  Why, of
+course I must go some day.  And now this Clive Reed has somehow got hold
+of my confidence as well as yours.  I trust him, you see, just as you
+do, my darling, and--and, Dinah, he's a fine fellow, a fine,
+true-hearted, manly fellow, and--and I won't be a miserable, selfish old
+man, but happy and contented, and glad that my darling's choice has
+fallen upon so genuine a man.  There! do you hear, my pet?  I am
+heartily glad, for I like him.  God bless him!  God bless you both!"
+
+The arms clung more tightly round the Major's neck, and a shower of
+kisses fell upon his cheeks and lips.
+
+"It's quite right, Di--quite right.  You are growing strong and well
+again.  He has done you good.  There is no reason whatever why you
+should not love him, and make him the best of wives."
+
+Dinah's arms relaxed a little, and her cheeks, which had begun to flush,
+once more turned deadly pale.
+
+"There is no just cause or impediment why you should not love him and be
+loved.  But not yet, Di, not yet."
+
+The Major did not see the frightened look at that moment as it
+intensified in his daughter's eyes, but he did directly after as the
+dog's chain was heard to rattle and it burst into a furious baying.
+
+"Confound it! there must be some one about," said the Major angrily.
+"There, there! don't turn white like that."
+
+"No, no, don't, don't go," whispered Dinah, clinging to him.
+
+"Not go?  Why, you little coward, I must go.  Where's my stick?  It's
+one of those mining scamps."  Dinah shuddered.
+
+"After eggs or chickens, for a sovereign."
+
+"Don't--don't go, father," whispered Dinah again, as she clung to him
+tightly.
+
+"Not go?  Why, what has come to you, Dinah?  This will not do, little
+one.  I have only to hurry out and scare anybody who is there into fits.
+Guilty conscience, you know."
+
+She stared at him wildly.
+
+"Why, my darling, I thought you were getting over this nervousness," he
+said tenderly.  "You used not to be like this.  Well, I will not go; but
+I must do something to scare him, whoever it is."  She made no answer,
+but clung to him half fainting, and he helped her to a chair, noticing
+the while that she was gazing excitedly towards the open window.
+
+The dog was silent now, but as the Major went and shouted a few angry
+words it responded with a sharp, clear bark or two, and its master
+returned.
+
+"Scared away without my help," said the Major, coming back again, and
+speaking lightly.  "Come, come, this will not do!  I shall have to tell
+Reed what a little coward you have grown.  Why, you look as if you had
+seen a ghost.  It's all right now.  Whoever it was has gone, or the dog
+would not have calmed down.  Nothing stolen this time, I'll venture to
+swear.  There," he cried, as he shut the window and closed the shutters
+before turning to where Dinah sat fighting hard to be calm, and noticing
+that she uttered a sigh as if of relief, "if you turn like this, my
+dear, I shall begin to think that we are living in a lonely spot too
+secluded for you, and look out for a place in town."
+
+"No, no, I'm better now," she said, turning to her father with a smile.
+
+"Of course you are, my dear.  There's a sturdy protector, too, for us
+now, eh?  There, there," he cried, bending down to kiss her.  "Go to
+bed; you're a bit overdone, my darling; this has been an exciting
+evening--enough to upset any one's nerves.  I'm off my balance too.
+First, I have had to deal with one marauder who comes to steal my little
+ewe lamb, and I get rid of him to be permitted to keep her a little
+longer; and then comes another would-be thief.  Dinah! my darling
+child!" he cried, as she rose to fling herself into his arms and cling
+to him more agitated and overcome than ever.  "There, there, I must play
+doctor.  Dose for soothing the nerves; eight hours' sound sleep.  The
+medicine to be taken instantly.  Off with you.  Good-night."
+
+Dinah passionately returned his embrace, and hurried to her room, but
+not to sleep.  The nervous excitement kept her wakeful hour after hour,
+with the intense longing to shelter herself in her lover's arms; and all
+the time a fierce lurid pair of eyes seemed to be watching her, and, as
+plainly as if the words had been spoken by her ear, she heard a rough,
+deep voice whispering, "It's no use, little one.  No one is coming
+betwixt us two."
+
+As she lay in her bed, too, she fancied she could hear the man's firm
+step patrolling the paths about the place.
+
+But Michael Sturgess was a couple of miles away, though he had been down
+to the cottage, and so close that he could look in and see that his
+chief was not there still.  For there were bounds to the man's patient
+doggedness, and he had grown wearied out at last, when Clive Reed had
+taken a short cut over the mountain, home, and did not return by the
+spoil bank and the shelf-like path.
+
+Still Dinah Gurdon could not know this as she lay there, torn by the
+mental fever which made her temples throb.
+
+Loved--loved by one who idolised her, and who had made her heart awaken
+and unfold to the true meaning of the great passion of human life.  He
+loved her as she loved him, and she had let him press her in his arms;
+she had thrilled beneath his kisses, and all as in a dream of joy and
+delight.  Safe, too, with him near to cherish and protect.  Then he had
+left her, and the old cloud of horror and dread had come back, and with
+it the still small voice of conscience out of the darkness of her heart.
+Ought she not to have spoken?  Ought she not to have whispered to her
+father, or failing him, to have confided in their old servant--the only
+woman near--the terror of that day, and how she had been haunted since?
+
+Always the same reply as her woman's heart rebelled and shrank from the
+confession.  How could she?  She dared not.  She would sooner have died
+than made the avowal, while there before her, looming up, the precursors
+of a storm, were the black clouds of the future, and Michael Sturgess's
+words vibrating always in her ears.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+BAD OMENS.
+
+"No insolence, sir!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I say no insolence, sir.  I am aware of the fact that you are an
+excellent workman and valuable to me here, but you are presuming on
+those facts, and I warn you that if ever you dare to answer me in that
+way again, we part on the instant."
+
+"What way?"
+
+"As you addressed me a short time back.  Michael Sturgess, I have long
+noticed your insolent, overbearing ways with the men.  They are
+beginning to resent it.  I have had several complaints from them, and
+all this must end, if you are to stay here."
+
+"If I'm to stay here, eh?  I daresay if the company is tired of the way
+in which I have made this old mine pay, I can soon get another
+engagement."
+
+"My good man," said Clive Reed coldly and dispassionately, "prosperity
+is making you lose your head, and it is an act of kindness to
+disillusionise you before you go too far and lose a valuable
+appointment."
+
+The man glared at him as they stood together in one of the dark passages
+of the mine, close to an old shaft which descended to a lower line of
+workings.
+
+"Let me tell you, once for all, that, though you have worked well, you
+are in no wise answerable for the success of the mine, and that it would
+have been quite as prosperous if Michael Sturgess had not been here."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said the man insolently; and Reed flushed angrily, but
+controlled his rising temper, and went on calmly enough.
+
+"Secondly, let me disabuse your mind of the idea that it is open to you
+to appeal to the company against any decision of mine.  Understand this,
+sir: my power here is supreme, and, though I should be reluctant to
+exercise that power against a good workman, the trouble of obtaining a
+successor in your post would not be great, and I should exercise that
+power sharply and firmly, if I had just cause."
+
+"Oh, I don't know so much about that, Mr Reed.  You are chief here at
+the mines."
+
+"And at the board in town, my man.  You are insolent and angry still.
+Go about your work, and when you are calm and have had an opportunity
+for thinking all this over, come to me and apologise as a
+straightforward man should."
+
+"Oh, there's no time like the present," said the man roughly.
+
+"Yes, there is, and I decline to quarrel with you, sir.  That will do
+now.  I leave you to think over what has passed, as I don't wish to be
+angry and do anything to injure an honest man's prospects."
+
+"But--"
+
+"I said that will do," said Reed firmly; and turning his back, he began
+to walk away without seeing the ominous shadow cast by the lanthorn he
+carried, as Michael Sturgess took a step forward with his hands cramped
+like a bird's claws.
+
+It would have been so easy, too; a sharp side-wise thrust and nothing
+could have saved the man who was touched.  There was a slight rail by
+the side of that old shaft, but a man who slipped must have been
+precipitated headlong down the stony pit seventy or eighty feet, to the
+rocky floor below, and mutilation was certain--death more than a
+probable event.
+
+But the man did not stir, and the shadow grew more and more faint, as
+Clive Reed strode along the gallery till he passed round a corner and
+disappeared.
+
+Michael Sturgess stood listening to his chief's steps till they died
+out, and then taking out a box of matches, he struck one and lit a
+lanthorn which he took from a niche in the wall, the glow lighting up
+his savage features.
+
+He muttered an oath as he stood closing the lanthorn door.  Then he
+burst out into a strange laugh.  "Make much of it, my lad, while it
+lasts.  It's hard to bear, but I don't want to be hung for the sake of a
+lass, specially when there's another way."
+
+He went off in the other direction, and Clive Reed made his way to the
+cage and ascended to daylight and his books in the office, where he
+busied himself till evening, fully expecting a visit from his foreman;
+but the day passed, and at last he left the place, and made his way to
+the cottage over the mountain side where Dinah stood waiting, flushed
+and hopeful; and as his eyes met hers, the mine with its petty troubles
+and anxieties passed away, and he was in the land of love and hope and
+joy.
+
+There was the usual walk among the flowers; and how bright those
+blossoms were! then the pleasant evening meal, and the adjournment to
+the tiny drawing-room, where, after a little music, to Clive's disgust,
+the Major turned the conversation to the very subject the visitor wished
+to avoid.  He asked him questions about the output, and the likeliness
+of increased yield, all of which questions Reed good-humouredly
+answered, feeling vexed, but at the same time amused by the love of
+money the Major had of late developed; while Dinah sat and listened,
+meeting her betrothed's eyes from time to time.
+
+"Capital--capital!" said the Major, rubbing his hands.  "I feel as if I
+am quite a mine proprietor.  Dinah, my dear, this does me good, and
+makes me feel as if I had been a slug all these years.  I wish I had
+begun sooner."
+
+"Congratulate yourself, my dear sir, that you did not.  You are gaining
+here, but this mine is one in ten thousand.  You might have ruined
+yourself."
+
+"True; so I might, my boy, without your clear head to put me right.  But
+the shares, how do they stand?"
+
+"They are up ten since last week, sir, and steadily rising."
+
+"Then I ought to sell now and realise a big profit, oughtn't I?"
+
+Clive was silent, for he was hearing the Major's words, and listening
+still to the echoes of Dinah's sweet voice, and repeating to himself the
+lines of the songs she sang, as she now sat in the shadow, silent and
+waiting till her lover spoke again.
+
+And how jarring the Major's words were.  Clive had come over that
+evening weary with the noise and worry of the mine, and annoyed by
+Sturgess's insolent manner.  All he wanted was peace and rest, not the
+talk about money and shares.
+
+The Major spoke again.
+
+"Eh! oughtn't I to realise?"
+
+"What, sell for the sake of a little present profit that which will go
+on, in all probability, yielding you an increasing income, sir.  Surely
+that would be short-sighted."
+
+"Of course.  But all this is so new to me, my dear boy.  There!  I shall
+leave myself in your hands; and trust to you to know what is best.  You
+see what a child I am over money matters.  Really there are times when I
+almost wish that I had not begun to dabble in these shares."
+
+"Why fidget about them, sir?" said Reed, smiling.  "The amount is not
+large."
+
+"Not large?  Do you hear him, my dear?  He says the amount is not large
+when it is my poor all.  One can see that you have been accustomed to
+deal with pretty heavy amounts, and--There, I will not continue this
+hateful topic.  Let's have something else to think about.  Dinah, shall
+I be selfish if I challenge this man to a game of chess?"
+
+For answer she rose and fetched the board and men, set out the pieces,
+and then took her seat by Clive and watched the game, which proved to be
+a long one, ending at last in the Major checkmating his adversary, who
+was quite a knight stronger, but he had been simply on his defence all
+through, listening the while to the soft breathing from the lips by his
+side, as from time to time it caressed his hand, or sounded like a
+suppressed sigh.  No words passed between them, but they were needless.
+It was enough that they could be side by side, feeling each other's
+presence, happy yet saddened by an indescribable portent of something
+coming to ruffle the placid stream of their existence.
+
+As for the Major, he was happy and triumphant.  It was a genuine
+pleasure to him, a man who had exiled himself from the world, to live in
+seclusion, to find that he was a match for this clever, keen man of
+business, and he showed his delight in many ways.
+
+"What!" he cried, as his visitor rose to go.  "You are not going to run
+off without your revenge.  Eh!  What?" he said, as Reed quietly took out
+his watch, and held the face toward him.  "Oh, absurd!  That thing must
+be wrong!  Eh!  No.  Mine says the same.  Eleven; and I thought it was
+not near ten.  But you will stay now?"
+
+"Don't tempt me, sir.  I have a busy day to-morrow."
+
+"But you could leave here early."
+
+"Not so early as I could wish, sir.  There is a special reason, too, for
+my being at the mine early.  I have a sort of quarrel on the way with my
+principal man, Sturgess."
+
+Dinah turned pale, while there was a strange, fixed look in her eyes.
+
+"The man has been very strange of late, and I had to take him severely
+to task to-day.  I want to meet him when he first comes to the mine.
+There cannot be two masters there."
+
+He looked smilingly at Dinah, and saw the trouble in her face.
+
+"Nothing to alarm you," he said, taking her hand to hold in his, while
+the Major suddenly recollected that he had a letter he should like to
+send, so that one of the men could take it on in the morning.
+
+"You are nervous again about my crossing the hills so late.  Why should
+you be, dearest?"
+
+He drew her toward him, and she yielded to his embrace.
+
+"It was not that," she said faintly.  "You talked of a quarrel with--
+with--"
+
+"My foreman, Sturgess.  Hardly a quarrel, but the sharp talking to,
+necessary to be given by a master."  At that moment the dog began to
+bark violently, and Dinah caught Clive's arm and clung to him in dread
+lest he should go possibly into danger.
+
+"It is nothing, dearest," he whispered, proud of the way in which she
+clung to him for protection, while she listened with her eyes dilated,
+as there was the sound of the window in the Major's den being opened,
+and his voice challenging.
+
+"Is Mr Reed here, sir?" came from the garden.
+
+"My clerk--Robson, from the mine," said Reed, rather excitedly.
+"Whatever brings him here?"
+
+"Your man, my dear boy," said the Major, entering.  "He has brought you
+a despatch."
+
+"It must be important," said Reed quickly; and he passed his hand across
+his forehead.  "I was half afraid there was some accident.  Come in,
+Robson," he continued, as he stepped into the little passage.  "What is
+it?"
+
+"A telegram, sir, from London.  The postmaster sent it over at once by
+special messenger."
+
+Reed took the missive and went back into the little drawing-room, where
+Dinah stood pale and anxious, while the Major sat writing his letter
+there.
+
+"Come, little wifie to be," whispered Reed tenderly, "I have no secrets
+from you.  This cannot be business, and you must share my troubles as
+well as joys."
+
+The Major glanced at them with a sigh full of regrets for the past, and
+smiled sadly as he saw his child pass her arm through Reed's, and lean
+on him while he opened the envelope, and held it so that she could
+peruse the telegram at the same time.  It was very brief:--
+
+"For heaven's sake, come at once and help me.  I am half mad.--Praed."
+
+Dinah looked up in her lover's anxious face, as it clouded over, her own
+full of eagerness and sympathy.
+
+"From Janet Praed's father, dearest," he said softly.  "You know
+everything--my brother's wife.  There must be some terrible trouble on
+the way.--Major, I must go up to town at once.  Here is a telegram from
+my dear old godfather, Doctor Praed.  You will take care of my darling
+till I return?"
+
+"Not--not dead?" said the Major anxiously.
+
+Clive Reed started, as a spasm shot through him.
+
+"I pray God, no," he said hoarsely, as for a moment he turned ghastly
+and wild-looking.  Then he was the prompt man of business decision
+again.
+
+"We must not jump at conclusions," he said gravely.  "Good-bye, dearest.
+I will telegraph the news as soon as I know it.  God bless you,
+darling," he whispered, as he embraced her.  "Let's hope for the best.--
+Good-bye, sir."
+
+"One moment, my boy, would it not be better to sleep here, and go on
+from Chapel in the morning?"
+
+"My dear sir, I must be in London in the morning.  If I run to the mine
+and get one of the horses, there will be just time to gallop over to
+Blinkdale and catch the up mail.  Good-bye."
+
+The next minute, with the dog barking loudly, the Major and his daughter
+stood in the garden, listening to the regular beat-beat of feet as the
+two men went along the stony path, the sounds growing fainter and
+fainter, dying away, coming again, and finally dying out for good.
+
+"Poor lad!  I hope it is nothing very serious," said the Major.  "Good
+heavens! what is the matter with the dog?"
+
+For suddenly as they stood there, the animal gave vent to a piteous,
+heartrending cry, which sent a thrill through the hearers.  It was
+followed by another less wild and strange, and then came a quick
+scuffling sound, and the noise of the rattling of the chain.
+
+"Back directly, my dear," said the Major, and he hurried round to the
+other side of the cottage, leaving Dinah standing on the little lawn.
+
+She took a step to follow, but at that moment there was a slight
+rustling sound from the bushes close at hand, and she stood as if
+petrified.
+
+But only for a few moments, for directly after her father's voice came
+loudly--
+
+"Dinah!  Quick!  Bring a light."
+
+Before she could reach the little drawing-room a light flashed out from
+the door, and Martha, who had heard the words, appeared bringing a lamp.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Miss Dinah," she said, as her arm was caught, and
+they hurried on together to where the dog's piteous whines could be
+heard; "the poor thing must be in a fit."
+
+She was quite right, but it was a fit of agony--the last, for as they
+reached the kennel where the Major knelt on one knee, the poor dog
+uttered one short gasping bark, as it stretched itself out more and
+more, and then there was a sudden snatching, quivering motion, and it
+seemed to be drawn backward till it formed a curve.
+
+"Father!  Oh, poor Rollo!" cried Dinah, going down upon her knees by her
+old companion's side; "he is dying."
+
+"No, my child," said the Major sternly; and he drew in his breath with a
+low hiss, and bent down and softly patted the poor beast's head,
+smoothing the long silky ears, "he is dead."
+
+"Dead!" cried Dinah wildly, as she sank upon her knees, and lifted the
+dog's head into her lap.  "Impossible!"
+
+But the heavy, motionless weight endorsed the Major's words.  There was
+no joyous movement, no nestling toward her, no gladsome, whining bark;
+Rollo had had his last gambol over the mountain side, and lay slowly
+stiffening out, with eyes glazing and seeming to gaze mournfully up at
+her he had loved so well.
+
+"Oh, sir," cried Martha piteously, "I have been so careful, but he would
+take them.  I always felt sure he would be choked by some bone."
+
+"Choked!" cried the Major angrily; "the poor brute has been poisoned for
+doing his duty too well."
+
+"Poisoned!" cried Martha, as Dinah looked up wildly at her father.
+"Impossible, sir.  I've kept it in a bottle tied down and locked up
+where no one could find it but myself."
+
+"Kept what?" cried the Major.
+
+"The arsenic for the rats, sir."
+
+"But this is something worse, woman.  There is no doubt about it.  There
+are the signs.  Some scoundrel has given him strychnia, and it must be
+one of those ruffians from the mine."
+
+A low, piteous sigh escaped from Dinah's lips, as she softly laid the
+dog's head on the stones, and then with a quick glance of apprehension,
+she rose and took hold of her father's arm.
+
+"Yes, my dear," he said.  "Poor Rollo was too true a servant, and
+watched for the pitiful purloiner.  Now let him beware of my gun, for,
+by Jove, if I find any marauding scoundrel within shot, he shall
+certainly have the contents."
+
+Dinah said no word, but as Martha stood there holding the lamp, the
+light shone upon her dilated eyes, and lit up her white, contracted
+face, which seemed to have grown suddenly hard and stern.  It was as if
+her father's words had sent a sense of satisfaction through her, and she
+was looking out into the darkness of the night for the cowardly wretch
+who had robbed her of another friend, that he might come on once more
+and meet his fate.
+
+She shivered the next moment, and clung to her father's arm.
+
+"I mean it," he said fiercely.  "I am a peaceful, quiet man, but I can
+be roused to action, and then--"
+
+He looked at Martha with his eyes flashing, and a fierce glow in his
+face that transformed him at once into the old man of war.
+
+"Master!" whispered the old servant, with a low sob, and there was an
+appeal in her tones which seemed to calm him.
+
+"Yes," he said, as he gazed straight away into the darkness.  "Whoever
+did this deed is mistaken in his man."
+
+A sigh escaped from Dinah's lips, and she drew herself up as she clung
+more tightly to her father.  Two of her protectors gone that night, but
+there was still a third, and a feeling of confidence strengthened her
+heart as she gripped her father's arm.
+
+"Sooner or later I shall square accounts with this man," said the Major,
+as he walked slowly toward the door.  "Oh, if I only knew!"
+
+"If I only knew.  If I only knew!"  The words kept on repeating
+themselves in Dinah's brain as she sought her room that night, till she
+found herself repeating them--"If he only knew--if he only knew!"
+
+She had not commenced undressing, and in her agitated, nervous state
+every sound about the house attracted her attention, so that she
+listened eagerly as she suddenly heard a light tapping sound, followed
+by--"Yes, sir, what is it?"
+
+"I didn't want to disturb you, Martha; but have you moved my gun?"
+
+"No, sir.  It's in the corner of your study between the window and the
+bookcase."
+
+"No, it is not there, but I am certain it was this afternoon."
+
+"I'm sure it was there to-night, sir, just before Mr Reed went away."
+
+"Very well, good-night," said the Major; and he went back into the
+little study, and looked carefully round again.
+
+"Why, of course!" he exclaimed, "I must have stood it in my room."
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+THE TARE SOWING.
+
+A man was going through the street with his pole extinguishing the gas
+lamps, as the hansom cab bearing Clive Reed went along at a sharp trot
+toward Russell Square.  The waning light looked ghastly and strange, and
+well in keeping with his anxious state of mind, for in spite of all his
+genuine love for Dinah, it was impossible not to feel a thrill of misery
+akin to despair when reminded of one with whom so much of his boyhood
+and the later past had been mingled.
+
+"Poor, passionate, weak girl!" he said to himself again and again, as he
+journeyed on, and his heart was full of sympathy for her and indignation
+against his brother, whom he connected with the trouble, whatever it
+might be.
+
+"Sick unto death," he muttered.  "Heartbroken and despairing after
+finding him out.  Oh, how can a man be so base?"
+
+Then all kinds of projects had flashed across his mind as to what might
+be done.  Janet would certainly separate sooner or later from Jessop,
+and when she did, as the Doctor had intimated, she would return to her
+old home, and then why should not Dinah help him to soften her hard lot?
+
+"No," he said, directly after.  "It would be madness--impossible.
+Janet's is not the nature to assimilate with Dinah's.  I am not so weak
+and blind to all her faults as I was then.  Poor girl!  Poor girl!  Her
+life wrecked, and by my own brother too."
+
+At last!
+
+The cab drew up at the great blank-looking door of the Doctor's house,
+and Clive leaped out, paid the man, and hurried up the broad steps in
+the cold, grey morning.  How many times, full of expectation and
+delight, he had hurried to that door bearing presents or bouquets; and
+now he was there once more--to hear what news of the bright, handsome
+girl whom he had made his idol from a boy?
+
+His hand was upon the heavy knocker, but it dropped to his side, and he
+rang the night-bell, and then stood listening to the distant wheels of
+the cab in which he had come.
+
+"Who is it?" came in a husky whisper from the mouth of the
+speaking-tube, and he answered back--
+
+"I: Clive Reed."
+
+"Down directly."
+
+Five minutes later the door was opened by the Doctor himself, and quite
+at home there, Clive Reed sprang in to face his old friend standing in
+dressing-gown and slippers.
+
+"How is she?" he cried, in a low excited whisper.  "How is she?"
+repeated the Doctor, as he closed the door.  "Here, come this way."
+
+He took a chamber candlestick from where he had set it down on the hall
+table, and led on into his consulting-room, with its walls adorned with
+grim-looking engravings of medical magnates, and its table with books
+and inkstand, two stethoscopes standing upright on the chimneypiece like
+a pair of very ancient attenuated vases.
+
+"You came up at once, then?" said the Doctor grimly.
+
+"Of course.  I caught the mail; but don't keep me--in suspense," Clive
+was about to say, but he checked himself, for positions had altered now,
+and he had no right to be in suspense, so he used the word "waiting."
+
+"Waiting!" said the Doctor.  "What do you mean?"
+
+"Your telegram--about Janet.  Is she very bad?"
+
+"Confound Janet for a weak-minded idiot!" cried the Doctor testily.
+"Nothing of the kind.  I wired to you to come up about this cursed
+mine."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Clive, with a feeling of relief.  "Your telegram
+explained nothing, and I thought the poor girl was ill."
+
+"Ill!  No: I wish she were.  Be a lesson to her--a hussy.  Now, then,
+what am I to do?  Nice business this, sir.  Here, on the strength of
+your representations, I put a life's savings in that cursed mine, and
+they're pretty well all swept away."
+
+Clive looked at him, as if doubting his old friend's sanity.
+
+"Don't stand staring at me like a confounded stock-fish, sir.  You've
+got me into this scrape, now tell me how to get out of it.  Hang it all,
+Clive, I've been like a second father to you, and the least you could
+have done would have been to give me fair warning, so that I might
+have--have--hedged--yes, that's the word my lovely son-in-law would have
+used.  Now, then, before it is too late.  I daresay I could get them
+back from him, as I only saw him to-night.  Can you help me to make a
+better price?"
+
+Clive seated himself, for he was weary, and the Doctor, after setting
+down his candlestick, was walking up and down the room as he talked.
+
+"My dear Doctor," said Clive, "will you explain what you mean?  Cursed
+mine--too late--get them back from him.  To begin with, who is `him'?"
+
+"Who is `him'?" cried the Doctor furiously.  "Why, that confounded
+brother of yours.  After all that has passed, I was obliged to go to him
+hat in hand, and humble myself so as to try and save what I could out of
+the fire."
+
+"In heaven's name, what fire, sir?" cried Clive, who, after his
+sleepless night and anxiety, was growing more and more confused.
+
+"For," continued the Doctor, without heeding the question, "I said to
+myself: He's cursedly knowing on 'Change, and for the sake of Janet and
+his expectations of what he may get from me, he'll do his best, and he
+may know where to get a good price."
+
+"My dear sir, have you taken leave of your senses?"
+
+"Almost, you scoundrel.  Money spoils all men.  Sucks all the honesty
+out of them.  You're as bad as the rest.  But I didn't think you would
+put me in such a hole.  Now then: shall I leave them in Jessop's hands
+or place them in yours, to cheat somebody else with the cursed rubbish.
+I'm a bit reckless now, for it's ruin nearly, and drudgery to the end of
+my days."
+
+"Look here," said Clive excitedly; "do I understand that you have given
+your shares in the `White Virgin' to Jessop to sell?"
+
+"Of course you do, sir.  Was I to wait till they were worth nothing?"
+
+"Look here, Doctor: speak plainly.  Are you all right?"
+
+"Confound you, no: I'm all wrong."
+
+"But explain yourself.  Those shares are worth double what you gave for
+them."
+
+"I tell you they're hardly worth their weight as waste-paper," roared
+the Doctor.  "Don't stare at me with that miserable assumption of
+innocency about your cursed bankrupt old mine."
+
+Clive burst out laughing.
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Doctor?  What precious mare's nest have you been
+discovering in the dark?"
+
+"Mare's nest?" cried the Doctor, snatching up a heap of newspapers from
+a side table, and throwing them in the young man's lap, "look at that,
+sir, and that, and that.  Four days now has this been going on.  I was
+down in the country at a consultation, and I came back to find myself a
+ruined man."
+
+"What!" roared Clive, as his eyes fell upon a notice with a full
+heading--"`Collapse of the "White Virgin" scheme--bubble cleverly
+inflated--burst at last--serious loss.'  Good heavens!"
+
+"Good other place!" growled the Doctor.  "Oh, Clive Reed!  You are a
+broken Reed indeed to lean on, and enter into a poor man's hand.  But
+there, don't stop over those papers; they are alike, and the price has
+gone down to nothing.  Tell me; can you sell my shares better than
+Jessop can?  I must have a little back for my outlay."
+
+"What did Jessop tell you?"
+
+"What does every man tell you when he has you at his mercy?  That the
+paper was worthless, but he might get some speculative fool to buy them;
+and if I waited there at his office he would try, but I must expect the
+merest trifle for them."
+
+"Well?" said Clive, frowning.
+
+"Don't take it so confoundedly cool, sir.  I was obliged to do the best
+I could, and I put myself in his hands."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And he went out and brought the speculative person--a Mr Wrigley, a
+solicitor."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well!  Ill, man, ill!"
+
+"But what did my worthy brother's friend say?"
+
+"Shrugged his shoulders--said it was throwing money away--mere gambling.
+He did not want them, but to oblige his old friend, Mr Jessop Reed, he
+would take them at a pound apiece, and the chance of making an eighth
+out of them."
+
+"And you laughed at him?"
+
+"Laughed?  I nearly cried at him, and was only too glad to get the
+little bit of salvage from a man who bought as a speculation, and would
+not care so much if he lost."
+
+"But you said you had let Jessop have them to try and sell."
+
+"Did I?  Yes, I think I did."
+
+"And asked me if you got them back, whether I could deal better with
+them."
+
+"Yes, I suppose I did, but I don't want to swindle any one into buying
+worthless stock."
+
+"Look here, Doctor, you are not yourself."
+
+"Not myself?  How can a man be himself under such circumstances.
+Suppose, though, that I could get them back from the man.  He only took
+them as a favour."
+
+"Did he pay you?" said Clive eagerly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A cheque?"
+
+"No," said the Doctor.  "I was not going to run any more risks.  No
+cheque: for the residue I insisted upon Bank of England notes and gold."
+
+"And you were paid like that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you have gone too far to retreat."
+
+"Oh no, not if we offer the man what he said he would be content with--
+an eighth.  That's half-a-crown to the hundred pounds, isn't it?"
+
+"Half-a-crown to the hundred pounds!" said Clive furiously.  "Why, as
+soon as the truth's known--"
+
+"They won't be worth that, eh?" said the Doctor dolefully.
+
+"Oh, Doctor Praed!" cried Clive furiously.  "You telegraph to me to come
+and help you when you have thrown your money into the gutter, and it has
+been picked up and is gone.  It is a swindle--an imposition."
+
+"Yes, I've found out that," said the Doctor bitterly.  "But what are the
+shares worth then, really?"
+
+"What I told you, sir--double the price they were when so many were
+apportioned to you.  This is some cursed jugglery: a trick--a scare--a
+false alarm to influence the price of the `White Virgin' shares in the
+market."
+
+"What!"
+
+"There isn't a word of truth in the report."
+
+"Not a word of truth in the report?"
+
+"No, sir.  The mine is exceeding my greatest hopes.  She teems with ore
+which grows richer in silver every day.  In six months' time the shares
+will be worth four times what they are now."
+
+"But--but--the papers!--look at the papers," cried the Doctor.
+
+"What for?  They only give the reports on 'Change--the facts that the
+mine is reported to be in a state of collapse, and that consequently
+every one has rushed to realise, and make what little he could for what
+is supposed to be nearly worthless paper."
+
+"But--tell me again--are you sure that the report is false?"
+
+"Who could know better than I, who have been down every day, who have
+watched every working, examined each skep of ore that came up, and
+assayed every pig of lead and ingot of silver.  Doctor, I should have
+thought that you could have trusted me."
+
+The Doctor sank down into his patients' chair, and stared at his visitor
+aghast.
+
+"Clive Reed--Clive, my boy--is--is this true?"
+
+"You know it is true, sir!" cried the young man savagely, as he now took
+up the Doctor's role of patrolling the room.  "Do you, who have known me
+from a boy, ask me whether I would have deliberately swindled you into
+putting your savings into a worthless venture?"
+
+"No, no, not wilfully, my boy, but by a mistake."
+
+"Mistake!  There was no mistake.  Doctor, an enemy hath done this thing,
+and people are only too ready to believe the evil instead of the good.
+Well, I'm glad I know.  But how is it that no report has reached me at
+the mine?  Why, of course: I have seen no paper for days.  I am so busy
+that I often do not open them when they come over from the town."
+
+"Then--then this really is a false report, Clive?"
+
+"Literally false, sir, and you have thrown your thousands away."
+
+The Doctor groaned.
+
+"No, no: not yet.  There is hope.  Look here.  I must buy those shares
+back at once."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Clive.  "Look here, Doctor: if I were dangerously ill I
+would sooner trust you than any man in London; but in money matters I
+think just as my poor father thought."
+
+"That I was a mere baby?  Yes, he always told me so," said the Doctor,
+with a sigh.  "But I made a lot of money, too."
+
+"Yes, sir, but couldn't keep it," cried the young man angrily.
+
+"Don't--don't jump on me now I'm down, Clive, my boy," cried the Doctor
+piteously.  "I have been an old fool.  I ought to have trusted you that
+you would warn me.  But you were away; all London was ringing with the
+business, and in my rage and disappointment I thought I was doing
+right."
+
+"I suppose so," said Clive bitterly.
+
+"But it is not too late.  We'll go up to your brother at once."
+
+"My brother will only be too glad to triumph over you."
+
+"But this Mr Wrigley?"
+
+"Knew perfectly well what he was about, or he would not have bought."
+
+"But I must buy again, if not from him--from some one else."
+
+"You cannot.  As soon as the truth is known the shares will go back to
+their old place at a bound, and then in the reaction rise rapidly, for
+the public will grasp that the mine must be as it is, exceedingly
+valuable."
+
+"But before the truth is known."
+
+"I shall go and get it made known on 'Change the moment it is open,
+sir."
+
+"But--but if you waited a little while, Clive, to give me time, I--"
+
+"My old friend--my father's trusted companion would not ask me to wait
+an instant before crushing a blackguardly conspiracy, sir.  I cannot
+wait, and if I can trace this business to the source, I'll do it, if it
+costs me thousands."
+
+"You--you don't think that Jessop--"
+
+"No!" cried Clive fiercely.  "I don't--I won't think such a thing of my
+own brother.  He ousted me in one great aim of my life; he is a
+spendthrift, and dishonourable enough; but, hang it, no, I won't give
+him the credit for this."
+
+There was a tap at the door.
+
+"Yes.  Come in."
+
+The Doctor's quiet, grave servant in spotless black, looking as if he
+had been up for hours, entered with a tray, bearing hot tea and dry
+toast, placing it upon the table without a word, and leaving at once.
+
+"Take some tea, Clive, my boy," said the Doctor, going quietly now to
+his visitor, placing his hands upon his shoulders, and pressing him down
+into a chair.  "Forgive me, my dear boy.  No; of course, you could not
+do such a dishonourable act.  I beg your pardon."
+
+"Granted, Doctor."
+
+"Confound the money, my boy!  It's my savings, but I should never have
+spent a penny on myself.  Let it go, I won't stir a peg about it, and
+I'll never try to save again.  I can always earn guineas enough to pay
+my way, and that must do for the while I live.  There; I'm better now,"
+he continued, as he took a seat and helped himself to some tea.--"Hah!
+capital cup this.  I'm very particular about my tea.  And so you're
+doing well down in Derbyshire?"
+
+"Wonderfully, sir."
+
+"That's right.  I'm very glad of it.  Clive, my boy, I've been studying
+up the digestive functions a good deal, and I've had to read a paper
+upon it.  I'm getting honourable mention."
+
+Clive looked at him wonderingly, and the Doctor saw it.
+
+"It's all right, my boy.  I have no business to dabble in money affairs.
+That's all over now.  I have too much to do in assuaging human ills to
+think any more about my losses; but I'm afraid that some people among
+your father's old friends will be very hard hit."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Clive, starting up.
+
+"What is the matter?"
+
+"I have a friend down at the mine, who has bought pretty largely--for
+him--and if this cursed rumour reaches his ears,--here, I must go back
+by the next train.  No, I cannot.  I must stop in town, and have this
+report thoroughly contradicted by letters in the papers, and
+advertisements, as well as by personal visits to our old friends.  Have
+you a telegram form?"
+
+"Yes, plenty, my dear boy.  There: in the drawer."
+
+Clive hastily wrote a telegram for the Major, telling him that if any
+report reached him, or he saw anything in the papers respecting the
+stability of the "White Virgin" mine and its shares, he was to pay no
+heed whatever.
+
+"Can your man take this for me?"
+
+"Of course," cried the Doctor, ringing, and the quiet, grave-looking
+servant appeared.
+
+"Take a cab and go to the Charing Cross Post Office.  That is open all
+night.  You will pay for a special messenger to ride or drive over with
+it at once.  The town is ten miles from Major Gurdon's cottage.  Quick,
+please: it is important."
+
+He handed the man some money, and in two minutes the front door was
+closed.
+
+"Hah!  That is a relief," said Clive, with a sigh.  "A quiet old officer
+who lives retired there, Doctor.  He too has put his all into the mine.
+We have become very intimate."
+
+"And has he a pretty daughter, too, like this old fool?"
+
+Clive started, and his cheeks flushed as he remained silent for a few
+moments.
+
+"Yes, Doctor, he has a daughter."
+
+Doctor Praed held out his hand, and shook Clive's warmly.
+
+"I'm very glad, my boy," he said gently.  "The wisest thing.  I hope she
+is very nice.  There, I will not ask you.  It is quite right--quite
+right."
+
+They sat sipping their tea for a few minutes, the Doctor looking
+perfectly content now, Clive thoughtful; and the black marble clock on
+the chimneypiece struck six.
+
+"Doctor," said Clive at last, "I am bitterly grieved about this
+business: more so than I can express."
+
+"Then now throw it over as far as I am concerned.  It was an error.  I
+committed it, and I am punished.  I have too much to think about to
+worry any more; so have you."
+
+"But I must make it up to you, sir."
+
+"What!  Give me the money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Rubbish, boy!  It is of no use to me.  I should only go and lose that
+too."
+
+"But I feel to blame."
+
+"More fool you, sir.  There, not another word.  The money has gone.
+Jolly go with it.  I should like you to read my pamphlet."
+
+"But, my dear sir--"
+
+"Clive Reed, I will not have another word.  Look here.  I tell you
+what," he said, with a chuckle; "have you made your will?"
+
+"No, sir; not yet."
+
+"Make it then, and leave me to be paid at your death the amount I have
+lost.  I won't poison you to get it, my lad.  There, no more talk about
+money.  Now then, go upstairs and have three hours' good sleep.
+Breakfast at nine."
+
+"No: I could not sleep," said Clive.  "I'll go on now to Guildford
+Street.  They will be getting up there by this time.  Then I'm in for a
+busy day."
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+ALONE.
+
+Breakfast-time at the cottage, and as a step was heard upon the stony
+path, Dinah rose quickly from her seat, then coloured and resumed her
+place, for she knew that it was impossible for her to receive letters so
+soon.
+
+Then as the steps were heard receding, Martha entered bearing a packet
+of newspapers and a letter.
+
+"Hallo! what a budget!" cried the Major.  "Who can have sent these?"
+
+He opened the letter first, a business-like looking document, and
+read:--
+
+"Draper's Buildings, E.C., August 18--.
+
+"To Major Gurdon, The Cottage, Blinkdale Tor.
+
+"Dear Sir,--As we have frequently done business for you, we esteem it
+our duty to let you know of the very great fall which has taken place in
+the mining shares which--as you will remember in opposition to our
+advice--were bought by you a short time since.  We send herewith seven
+of the daily papers that you may see how serious the business is, and we
+should strongly advise you either to come up and confer with us, or to
+telegraph your instructions.
+
+"Of course there may be nothing in these reports, but we felt that an
+old client residing in so remote a part of England, where he might not
+hear of the rumour, ought to be advised.
+
+"We are, your obedient servants,--
+
+"Caley and Bland."
+
+The Major groaned.
+
+"Father, dear, is it very bad news?" cried Dinah, rising to go to his
+side.
+
+"No, no, my dear," he said bitterly.  "Not so very bad.  Read."
+
+"What--what does this mean?" cried Dinah, changing colour.
+
+"Only ruin once more, my darling," he said bitterly.  "Bankrupt in
+honour and reputation, now I am a bankrupt in pocket."
+
+"Oh, father!  But--but surely it is not through this mine."
+
+"Yes, my dear, through my folly in believing in a stranger.  Bah, I have
+always been a fool, and as age creeps on I grow more foolish."
+
+"But I don't understand, dear," cried Dinah piteously.  "A stranger!
+You do not mean Mr Reed?"
+
+"Yes," he said angrily, "I mean Mr Clive Reed.  I have let him inveigle
+me into this speculation, and now nearly every penny I have is swept
+away."
+
+"Oh, impossible!" cried Dinah, flushing now.  "Clive would never have
+advised you but for your good."
+
+"Pish!" cried the Major, tossing the letter upon the table; "here is a
+proof of it.  Caley and Bland, the experienced brokers, who sold for me,
+and advised me not to put money in the speculation, show me that it is
+hopeless."
+
+"But Clive told me it meant fortune, dear; and he could not err."
+
+The Major laughed harshly.
+
+"Of course not--in your eyes, child.  There, I am not going to be a
+brute to you, my dear.  He has deceived us both."
+
+"He has not deceived us both," cried Dinah, drawing herself up proudly.
+"Clive is incapable of deceit."
+
+"No, not quite--self-deceit, then.  He meant well, perhaps, but, like
+all these mining adventurers, he was too sanguine."
+
+"Oh, but, father, it is impossible.  It must be a false report."
+
+"False!" cried the Major, with a mocking laugh, as he glanced at a
+paper.  "Look here--ruin--collapse--a bogus affair, got up to sell
+shares in an exhausted mine.  You can read the opinions of the press, my
+dear, and the letters of indignant, ruined shareholders."
+
+"It is a false report," cried Dinah indignantly.  "Let them say this--
+let the whole world say it.  Clive Reed is my betrothed husband, and he
+is an honourable gentleman.  I say it is false from beginning to end."
+
+"Hah!" sighed the Major, as he gazed sadly at the flushed, defiant face
+before him; and taking his child's hand, he drew her to him, and kissed
+her tenderly.
+
+"Your mother's child, my darling," he said huskily.  "Eighteen years ago
+she stood up like that in my defence, when the world said that I was a
+dishonourable scoundrel.  She fought the fight upon my side, and fell
+wounded to the death, Dinah, true to her convictions that I was an
+innocent man; but it killed her, dear."
+
+Dinah laid her hands upon her father's shoulders, and gazed into his
+eyes, but he met her fixed, inquiring look without a quiver, and his
+face grew proud and stern.
+
+"Yes, dear; she was right," he cried, drawing himself up.  "I was--I
+am--an honourable man.  But the world has never cleared me, and I have
+lived a recluse, waiting for the time to come when it should confess the
+wrong it did me.  But it never will, Dinah--it never will."
+
+"It shall, father, some day," she cried passionately, as she flung her
+arms about his neck and kissed him again and again.  "Yes, my dear,
+noble, self-denying father shall stand in his high place amongst men,
+and they shall be as proud of him as I am of Clive.  For this, too, is
+all false, father.  He could not have deceived us."
+
+"Well, perhaps not willingly, dear," said the Major sadly.
+
+"No, no, no.  It is a false report."
+
+"But it has ruined me, my child.  Well, fate has worked her worst.  She
+can do no more," he added bitterly, "unless my child deceives me too."
+
+Dinah sprang from him as if he had struck her a deadly blow, and stood
+there white as ashes, her eyes dilated and lips quivering till he caught
+her in his arms.
+
+"No, no," he said huskily.  "Forgive me, my darling.  My words were too
+cruel.  Nothing could come between us two.  Forget what I said.  The
+words were wrung from me by my sufferings.  It is so hard, dear, to find
+one's all swept away through my greedy folly, and at my time of life."
+
+Dinah uttered a low piteous sigh, and her face went down upon her
+father's shoulder, while her lips moved as she said the words in her
+shame, misery, and despair, the words which she had long wished to
+confide to him.  But they were inaudible--he did not hear, and at last,
+after a tender, passionate embrace, he placed her in a chair.
+
+"Well," he said firmly, "I must act like a man."
+
+"What are you going to do?" she said, looking up now excitedly.
+
+"Go up to town, and save what I can out of the wreck."
+
+"But, father, it must be a false report.  Wait till we hear from Clive.
+He will be back soon."
+
+The Major shook his head.
+
+"Perhaps not."
+
+"But I am sure.  What evidence have you but this letter--these reports?"
+
+"The telegram last night.  His agitation on receiving these guarded
+words.  I'll agree, my dear, that the poor fellow meant honourably by
+us, but he is ruined as well as I.  Dinah, my dear, you must be firm.
+So must I."
+
+"And you will go?"
+
+"Directly."
+
+"Take me too, father," said Dinah excitedly.
+
+"Impossible.  No; wait patiently.  I must go and see the brokers at
+once, you see, you know there is no other course open."
+
+"But you will go straight to Clive, dear."
+
+"No," said the Major firmly.  "A man in my frame of mind, and with my
+hot temper, must not meet him for some time to come.  It will be better
+not."  Dinah drew in a long deep breath, and remained silent as the
+Major hurriedly swallowed a little breakfast, and ten minutes later
+stood by the river path, bidding his child farewell.
+
+"God bless you!" he said.  "I'll believe that Clive Reed is honest, but
+the money has gone.--Good-bye."
+
+Dinah stood watching him till he disappeared over the shoulder of the
+mountain slope on his ten-mile walk to the Blinkdale station, and then
+returned to the cottage, cold and shivering, as a sense of loneliness
+and want of protection crept over her.
+
+Martha was waiting at the door.
+
+"Oh, my dear, I hope there is no more trouble.  Is it about money?"
+
+Dinah bowed gravely.
+
+"Dear, dear!  What a nuisance money is.  But I have a little saved up,
+master can have.  I wish I'd told him before he went.  He won't be very
+long gone, will he, my dear?  I mean he will be back to-night?"
+
+"No, Martha," said Dinah, with the chilly sensation increasing.
+"Perhaps not to-morrow night."
+
+"And us alone!" cried Martha, "and no Rollo."
+
+Dinah shuddered slightly.
+
+"And I don't want to frighten you, my dear, but I've seen that big dark
+man from the mine come about here sometimes of a night.  Why, my dear
+child, it must have been him who poisoned that poor dog."
+
+The cold shiver ran through Dinah again, but she made a spasmodic effort
+to master her feelings.
+
+"Don't--don't say that," she said hoarsely.  "Martha, dear, we must bury
+poor Rollo to-day.  Will you help me?"
+
+"Poor fellow! yes.  I always hated him, my dear, but I'm very sorry he's
+dead.  There, we must make the best of it.  Come and finish your
+breakfast, lovey, and then we'll get a spade, and bury him under one of
+the trees."
+
+Dinah went in dreamy and thoughtful, but no breakfast passed her lips;
+and as, about an hour and a half later, the poor dog was being carried
+to his last resting-place, there was the sound of hoofs on the
+bridle-path, and five minutes later she received a telegram for her
+father, brought over from the town on the other side of the mine.
+
+She hesitated a moment, but the case was so urgent, and she opened the
+message to read Clive's reassuring words.
+
+"I knew it," she cried, as a flood of bright hope sent joy into her
+heart.
+
+But it was too late to try and overtake the Major, who was miles away in
+the other direction, and the messenger was dismissed.
+
+"He will know as soon as he reaches town, and telegraph," thought Dinah,
+but the day wore away without news, and the night closed in dark and
+stormy, with the girl's fancy conjuring up strange sounds about the
+house of so startling a nature in her nervous state, that at last she
+could bear them no longer.  Again and again she had imagined that faces
+were peering through the window, and though she drew blind and curtain,
+there was the fancy still.  And in this spirit she at last, about nine
+o'clock, determined to go and sit with their old servant in the kitchen.
+
+"It will be company for us both," she said, and hurriedly gathering
+together her work, she left the little room, and entered the kitchen to
+find all dark.
+
+"Martha--Martha!" she cried, but there was no reply, and hurrying back
+for a lamp, she found that the candle had burned out, the tea things
+were still on the table, and the woman was seated there with her head
+down upon her hands, apparently fast asleep.
+
+"Martha!" she cried, shaking her; but there was no reply, only a heavy
+stertorous breath, and as the old chill came back, Dinah's eyes lit upon
+the cup and saucer by the woman's side.
+
+A flash of light illumined her brain, and instinctively she raised the
+tea-cup, and smelt, and then tasted the tea at the bottom.
+
+It was unmistakable.  A peculiar, heavy, clammy taste was evident.  The
+cup fell from her hand, and she looked wildly round, as her position
+came with tenfold horror.  Alone there in that solitary dale, far from
+help.  Even her old friend the dog taken from her side--quite alone, for
+Martha was beyond rousing for hours to come, plunged as she was in a
+deep stupor, the result of a drug.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+ANOTHER PIGEON PLUCKED.
+
+"Major Gurdon?  Show him in."
+
+The Major was shown in to the business-like-looking little grey man in
+his office at Drapers Buildings, but he did not take the seat offered.
+
+"Now then, Mr Caley, I've come up.  It is all a scare, is it not?"
+
+The stockbroker shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Scare, sir?  Perhaps; but everybody who holds these shares is realising
+for anything he can get."
+
+"But I heard such excellent reasons for buying them on the best
+authority," cried the Major.  "It promised to be almost a fortune."
+
+"My dear sir," said the stockbroker; "most people who invest in mining
+shares do so on the best authority, and anticipate fortunes."
+
+"Yes, yes, but--"
+
+"And then, to use the old simile, sir, find that they have cast their
+money down a deep hole."
+
+"Tut-tut-tut-tut!" ejaculated the Major.  "But the latest news of the
+mine?"
+
+"The latest news on 'Change, sir, is worse than that which we wired to
+you.  It is disastrous, and seems to me like the bursting of a bubble.
+But it may not be so bad.  We are quiet men, Major Gurdon, and deal with
+old-fashioned investors in government and corporation stocks.  Two and a
+half, three, three and a half, and debentures.  We do nothing with
+speculative business."
+
+"No, I know.  You advised me strongly against what I did."
+
+"Yes, sir.  We felt it our duty.  But this, as I have before said, may
+only be a scare."
+
+"But money means so much to me, Mr Caley.  Now tell me this: what would
+you do if you were in my place?"
+
+"You wish for my advice, Major Gurdon?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+Mr Caley touched the table gong and a clerk appeared.
+
+"My compliments to Mr Bland, and ask him to step here."
+
+"I think he's out, sir," said the man.  "I'll see."  He left the office,
+and a minute later a thin, dark, anxious-looking man entered.
+
+"Major Gurdon, I think?  We met once before."
+
+"Bland, Major Gurdon wants our advice about `White Virgin' shares.  What
+would you do if you held any?"
+
+"Give them away at once if they are not fully paid up."
+
+"Only a pound a share on call," said Mr Caley.  "What would you do?"
+
+"Sell them at once for anything they would fetch; but there would be no
+buyers."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr Caley.  "You hear, Major Gurdon?  I quite endorse
+my partner's views."
+
+"But they may recover," said the Major piteously.  Mr Caley shrugged
+his shoulders.  "Things could not look worse, sir; but as you cannot
+lose much more, and the call that will follow will not be heavy, you
+might speculate a little and hold on."
+
+"But I cannot afford to pay the call, gentlemen," cried the Major.  "It
+is ruin to me."
+
+"Then sell, sir," said Mr Bland, "and get what you can out of the
+fire."
+
+"Sell?  When?"
+
+"At once, sir."
+
+"I--I think I will see the gentleman first through whom I bought them."
+
+"As you will, sir, but time is money," said Mr Bland.  "We might be
+able to place them to-day, as I hear rumours of some one buying up a
+few.  In a couple of hours' time it may be too late."
+
+"But surely, gentlemen, they will be saleable at some price?" cried the
+Major.
+
+The partners shook their heads.  And in a fit of desperation, the Major
+decided to sell, and was shown into a room, to wait while the
+preliminary business went on, Mr Caley himself going out to dispose of
+the shares.
+
+Hours passed, during which the Major sat vainly trying to compose
+himself to read the papers on the table, but they seemed to be full of
+nothing else save adverse money market news; and at last he could do
+nothing but pace the room.
+
+The door opened at last and the stockbroker entered, followed by his
+partner.
+
+"I have done the best I could for you, sir," said Mr Caley.  "Here is
+an open cheque, which I would advise you to cash at once.  There will be
+the necessary signature required by-and-by for the transference of the
+shares to the buyer, but that will occupy some days.  Shall we send and
+get the cheque cashed?"
+
+"Yes," said the Major, as he caught up a pen, and glanced at the amount
+and signature.  "Not a tenth of what I paid for them.  Humph, `R.
+Wrigley.'"
+
+"Yes, sir, a gentleman who has bought two or three lots, I believe.--
+Thank you."
+
+The Major threw himself back in his chair, and waited while the cheque
+was cashed, and then, shaking hands with his brokers, he took a cab and
+ordered the man to drive to Guildford Street.
+
+"I hope we have given him good advice, Bland."
+
+"The best we could give.  It was a chance of chances to get rid of them
+at all."
+
+"Let me see: that scheme was floated by old Grantham Reed, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes, and he did very wisely in dying and getting out of the way.  What
+a vast amount of money has been thrown down mines."
+
+Yes: Mr Clive Reed was in, and the Major entered, and felt a little
+staggered at the solid, wealthy look of his prospective son-in-law's
+house, as he was shown into the library, where Clive was busy writing.
+
+"Ah, Major," he cried, "then you had my telegram?"
+
+"Your telegram, sir, no."
+
+"Tut-tut-tut!  I'm sorry.  But I need not ask you any questions.  Your
+face shows that you have heard the rumour."
+
+"Heard the cursed rumour?  Yes, sir," cried the Major indignantly.  "How
+can you have the heart to take the matter so lightly?"
+
+"Lightly?  Why not?  I am only sorry that it should worry my friends."
+
+"Clive Reed!" cried the Major, bringing his fist down so heavily upon
+the table that the pens leaped out of the tray; "this may be a slight
+matter to a mining adventurer who lives by gambling, but do you grasp
+the fact that it is utter ruin to me and my child?"
+
+"My dear sir, no, I do not; and as soon as I found out what was the
+matter, I sent off a telegram, and paid for a horse messenger to ride
+over and set you at your ease."
+
+"Set me at my ease!" cried the Major, tugging the end of his great
+moustache into his mouth and gnawing it.  "How can a man, sir, be at his
+ease who has lost his all--who sees his child brought to penury?"
+
+"My dear sir," began Clive.
+
+"Silence, sir!" cried the Major, giving vent to the pent-up wrath which
+had been gathering.  "Silence!  Hear what I have to say.  I received you
+at my home, believing you to be an honourable man--a gentleman.  I did
+not draw back when I found that my poor child had been won over by your
+insidious ways, and I was weak enough to let you draw me into this
+cursed whirlpool, and persuade me to embark my little capital to be
+swept down to destruction."
+
+"Did I, sir?" said Clive quietly.
+
+"No: I will be just, even in my despair.  That was my own doing, for I
+was blinded by your representations of wealth to come.  I know: I was a
+fool and a madman, and I am justly punished: but I did think, sir, that
+you would have met me differently to this.  It is a trifle perhaps to
+you speculators, you mining gamblers.  Your way of living here in this
+house shows that a few thousands more or less are not of much
+consequence to you."
+
+There was a look of grave sympathy in Clive's face as he listened
+patiently to the angry visitor's words: and twice over he made an effort
+to speak, but the Major furiously silenced him.
+
+"Let me finish, sir," he cried, speaking now almost incoherently, his
+face flushed, and the veins in his temples knotted.  "I came here, sir,
+meaning to speak a few grave words of reproach--to tell you of the
+contempt with which you have inspired me; but--but--I--but I--oh, curse
+it all, sir, how could you let me fall into this pit--how could you come
+to me and win my confidence--my poor child's confidence, and behave like
+a scoundrel to one who met you from the beginning as a friend?"
+
+He ceased, and Clive rose from his chair, crossed to where he had thrown
+himself down, and laid a hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"Major Gurdon--father,--what have I ever done to make you think me such
+a scoundrel?"
+
+"Don't--don't speak to me," cried the Major hoarsely.
+
+"I must,--I shall," said Clive quietly.  "You are terribly upset by this
+news; but did I not send you a message--have I not told you that there
+is no cause for anxiety?"
+
+"What, sir, when all London is ringing with the collapse of your scheme,
+and people are selling right and left for anything they can get."
+
+"Poor fools! yes," said Clive calmly.  "They will smart for it
+afterwards."
+
+"What!" cried the Major, trying to rise from his seat, but Clive pressed
+him back.  "I tell you all London is ringing with the bursting of the
+bubble."
+
+Clive smiled.
+
+"With the miserable, contemptible rumour put about by some scheming
+scoundrel to make money out of the fears of investors."
+
+"What!  There, sir, it is of no use.  I know what you will say--that the
+shares will recover shortly.  Bah!  Nonsense!  Some of you have made
+your money by your speculation; and poor, weak, trusting fools like me,
+as you say, must smart for it."
+
+"Major Gurdon," said Clive sadly, "you ought to have had more confidence
+in the man you made your friend."
+
+"Confidence!  I gave you all my confidence, and you have ruined me."
+
+"No."
+
+"Then stood by calmly and seen me ruined."
+
+"No."
+
+"What, sir?"
+
+"My dear Major, life among the Derby Dales has made you extremely
+unbusiness-like."
+
+"Yes, sir, an easy victim," cried the Major angrily.  "To panic: yes.
+There, let us end this painful business."
+
+"Yes, sir, I understand," cried the Major, springing up; "let us end
+this painful business.  I understand, and I am going.  God forgive you,
+Clive Reed, for I never can."
+
+"You have nothing to forgive," said Clive gravely, as he met the Major's
+angry gaze with his clear, penetrating eyes.  "Once for all, believe me;
+this is a rumour set about by schemers.  The `White Virgin' is
+immaculate and growing richer day by day."
+
+"But my brokers assured me that the case was hopeless."
+
+"Your brokers, sir, derived their information on 'Change.  I, who speak
+to you from my own experience, and from that of my dear dead father,
+give you my opinion based upon something tangible--the mine itself.
+Does poor Dinah know of all this?"
+
+"Sir, I have no secrets from my child."
+
+"What did she say?"
+
+"Say?  What would a weak woman say?" cried the Major contemptuously.
+"You have done your work well there."
+
+"She trusted me and told you to believe?"
+
+The Major's brows knitted tightly.
+
+"God bless her!" cried Clive, with his face lighting up, and his eyes
+softening.  "I knew she would; and come, sir, you will trust me too.  I
+am so sorry.  One of my dearest old friends has ruined himself over the
+wretched business."
+
+"You are right, sir," said the Major.  "I have."
+
+"I did not mean you," said Clive, smiling; "but Doctor Praed.  He
+actually accepted the news as true, let himself be swept along on the
+flood of the panic, and sold out to some scheming scoundrel who, for
+aught I know, may be at the bottom of all this."  The angry flush began
+to die out of the Major's face, leaving it in patches of a clayey white.
+
+"If I could only bring it home to the scoundrel--but it would be
+impossible.  I hear that he has been buying heavily and for a mere
+nothing.  But I'm glad you came to me first.  Stop--you said you had
+heard from your brokers."
+
+"Yes, sir; I went to my brokers at once."
+
+"Major!" cried Clive excitedly, as a sadden thought flashed through his
+brain.  "Good Heavens!  Surely you have not sold your shares?"
+
+The Major was silent, for at last the younger man's tones had carried
+conviction.
+
+"You have?"
+
+The Major nodded, and looked ghastly now.
+
+"Then you have thrown away thousands," cried Clive angrily.  "There was
+not a share to be had when you bought.  They were mine--my very own,
+that no other man in England should have had at any price.  Why didn't
+you come to me?  How could you be so mad?"
+
+"Then--then it really is a false report?" faltered the Major.
+
+"False as hell," cried Clive, who now strode up and down the room in
+turn, his brow knit, and eyes flashing.  "How could you be so weak--how
+could you be so mad?  The scoundrels!  The cowardly villains.  Oh,
+Major, Major, you should have trusted me."
+
+There was a tap at the door, and the Major took out his handkerchief,
+and made a feint to blow his nose loudly, as he surreptitiously wiped
+the great drops from his brow.
+
+"Come in," cried Clive; and the servant entered with a number of
+newspapers.
+
+"The evening papers, sir."
+
+Clive caught them up one by one, and pointed out letter and
+advertisement denying the truth of the rumour, and denouncing it as a
+financial trick to depreciate the value of the shares.
+
+"But it will not stop the panic," said Clive sadly.  "People will
+believe the lie, and turn away from the truth.  I have given
+instructions to buy up every share that is offered, but I find that a
+Mr Wrigley is buying up all he can get."
+
+"Yes," said the Major faintly.  "I believe he is the man who bought
+mine."
+
+"Tchah!" ejaculated Clive.  "Yes, it is a conspiracy for certain.
+There: write a message and send off at once to Dinah.  Tell her it is as
+she believed, only a rumour, and that everything is right."
+
+"Everything wrong, you mean," groaned the Major.  "How can I write
+that?"
+
+"Because everything will be all right, sir.  You do not think I am going
+to let my dearest wife's father suffer for an error of judgment?"
+
+"No, no," groaned the Major, "I cannot lower--I cannot--God in Heaven!
+how could I have been such a fool."
+
+"Because, my dear sir," said Clive, patting his shoulder affectionately,
+"you are not quite perfect.  There, send the message at once.  Poor
+darling!  She must be in agony."
+
+The Major's face went down upon his hands.
+
+"Send it--you--you can write--"
+
+"It shall be in your name then," said Clive, and he dashed off the
+missive.  "There."  Turning to the Major, he took his hands.  "Come,
+sir, look me in the eyes, and tell me you believe now that I am an
+honest man."
+
+"I--I cannot look you in the face, Clive," murmured the Major huskily.
+"For Heaven's sake, don't humble me any more."
+
+"Humble you, sir? not I.  There, that is all past.  Never mind the
+shares.  Why, my dear sir, I have never made any boast of it, but my
+poor father left me immensely rich, and my tastes are very simple.  I am
+obliged to work for others, and, as I told you, it was his wish that the
+mine should stand high, and stand high it shall.  There, our darling
+will soon be at rest.  You and I will have dinner together here, and
+enjoy a bottle of the father's claret.  To-morrow morning you shall go
+down home again.--Yes, what is it?"
+
+"Mr Belton, sir."
+
+"Show him in directly."
+
+"A moment.  Let me go," cried the Major.
+
+"No, no, I want you to know Mr Belton, my father's old solicitor and
+friend."
+
+"Here I am, Clive, my boy," cried the old gentleman, entering mopping
+his face.  "Oh, I thought you were alone."
+
+"Better than being alone," said Clive; "this is a very dear friend of
+mine--Major Gurdon.  I want you to know each other."
+
+"Any friend of Clive Reed's, sir, is my friend," said the old lawyer
+rather stiffly; but there was a look of pleasure in his eyes, as he
+shook hands with the Major, who greeted him with this touch, for he
+could not trust himself to speak.
+
+"Sit down, Belton," said Clive eagerly now.  "What news?"
+
+"Shall I--er--"
+
+"Yes, of course.  I have no secrets from Major Gurdon."
+
+The old lawyer passed his silk handkerchief over his forehead, glanced
+keenly at the Major, and then went on.
+
+"Well, there is no doubt about one thing: a Mr Wrigley, a scheming,
+money-lending solicitor--rather shady in reputation, but a man who can
+command plenty of capital--has been buying up every share he could get
+hold of."
+
+"Then it is a conspiracy," cried Clive.
+
+"Not a doubt about it."
+
+"Then, what to do next.  Surely we can have a prosecution."
+
+"Humph!  What for?  Sort of thing often going on in the money market, I
+believe.  What have you got to prosecute about?"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes; you haven't lost.  Poor old Praed now, he has something to shout
+about."
+
+"But scandal, libel, defamation of the property."
+
+"Let those who have lost risk a prosecution if they like.  So long as I
+am your legal adviser, my dear boy, I shall devote myself to keeping you
+out of litigation."
+
+"But surely you would advise something."
+
+"Yes.  Go back to your mine and make all you can, and be careful not to
+get into trouble over any underground trespassing."
+
+"Well, if I go to the west, here is my neighbour.  You'll forgive me,
+sir?"
+
+"Of course, of course, my boy," said the Major hurriedly.
+
+Mr Belton looked at him searchingly as he went on.
+
+"The shares will recover their position in time, and the sellers will be
+pretty angry then, of course.  There's no doubt about the conspiracy, my
+boy, but don't you meddle in the matter.  We have done all that was
+necessary to restore confidence.  You saw, I suppose, that the letters
+and advertisements were in the evening papers?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+"They'll be in all the morning papers, of course."
+
+"And how long will it be before confidence is restored?"
+
+"Not for long enough, but that will not affect your returns from the
+mine.  But the poor old Doctor; I am sorry that he should have let
+himself be bitten."
+
+"A great pity," said Clive drily; "but never mind that.  You will
+continue to make inquiries."
+
+"Eh? about the conspiracy?  Of course.  I have a good man at work--a man
+who is pretty intimate with the stockbroking set, and I daresay I shall
+hear more yet."
+
+"There: now let's change the subject.  You will dine with us to-night,
+Belton?"
+
+"Well, you see, my dear boy, I--er--"
+
+"You must," said Clive decisively.  "I go back into the country again
+directly.  I have some letters to write now.  Seven punctually."
+
+"Seven punctually," said the old lawyer, rising.  He was punctual to the
+minute, and he and the Major got on famously as they chatted over old
+times, but somehow or other the old gentleman would keep reverting to
+the losses over the shares sustained by Doctor Praed, with the result
+that the Major did not enjoy his dinner.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+AT BAY.
+
+Dinah Gurdon stood for a time grasping the back of a chair, battling
+with a fit of trembling and the strange sense of dread, which rapidly
+increased till in the enervation it produced, her eyes half-closed, the
+light upon the table grew dull, and a soft, many-hued halo spread round
+the flame as she was about to sink helpless upon the floor.
+
+Then mind mastered matter, and with an effort she drew a long catching
+breath, her eyes opened widely with the pupils dilated in the now clear
+light.  Then she looked wildly at the door and window, whose panes seen
+against the darkness merely reflected the comfortable kitchen interior,
+where she stood.  But all the same she felt sure that there was a face
+looking in at her--a face she knew only too well.
+
+Then, tearing away her eyes from where they had rested upon the lower
+corner, fascinated and held for a time in spite of her will, she turned
+and gazed at the door, which she now saw was unfastened, while the bolts
+at top and bottom showed plainly in the light, waiting to be shot into
+their sockets.
+
+Four steps would have taken her there; but that face was watching her,
+and she felt fixed to the spot, her heart beating with heavy throbs, and
+something seeming to force the conviction upon her that the moment she
+stirred to go to that door, her watcher would spring to it, fling it
+open, and seize her.
+
+So strong was this feeling upon her that for minutes she could not stir.
+Then fresh imaginings crowded in upon her brain, and she saw that the
+face she had conjured up was no longer there at the window, but there
+was a faint rustling outside, and a low sighing, whistling noise, and a
+regular pat--pat--pat as of footsteps.
+
+The feeling of enervation came back, and the light grew dim and obscured
+by dancing rays, while the latch of the door appeared to quiver, slowly
+rise up and up, to stop at the highest point, and the door slowly moved
+towards her.
+
+"Imagination!" she exclaimed, and in an instant she had darted to the
+door, thrust in both bolts, and then drawn down the window-blind, to
+stand now breathing heavily but feeling master of herself, and ready to
+act again in any way which she might find necessary.
+
+The pallor had gone now from her cheeks, which became flushed by a
+couple of red spots, as she felt irritated and indignant at her childish
+fears.  But all the same she could not conceal from herself the fact
+that there was peril; and now, full of energy, she went quickly from
+room to room and made sure that every window and door was really secure,
+before hurrying up to the different chambers and examining the casement
+fastenings.  She then descended to the lower floor of the little
+fortress to stand and think, asking herself whether her alarms were
+childish and only the effect of imagination after all.
+
+But she was fain to confess that they were not.  She had too strong
+grounds in fact for her dread, and the incidents of the previous night
+and that evening showed her that the man she dreaded was as unscrupulous
+as he was daring.
+
+At last came bitter repentance for her weakness.  Had she summoned up
+the courage to speak, and told all to her father, he would have taken
+steps to guard her from future danger.
+
+She shuddered at the thought, and the colour in her cheeks deepened as
+she conjured up scenes such as she had heard of in the past.
+
+Too late now; and she felt this, but that if the trouble were repeated
+she could not have acted otherwise.  And now it was of the present that
+she had to think.  There was no help to be expected from Martha, but, in
+the energy of despair, she went to the woman's side, shook her, and
+spoke loudly with lips close to her ear.  Then fetching water, she
+bathed the sleeper's temples, for, rid of the sensation that her acts
+were watched, she worked with spirit.
+
+But all was in vain; Martha slept heavily, her breathing sounding
+regular and deep.
+
+Two or three times over Dinah ceased her efforts, and stood listening,
+startled by the different sounds of the storm gathering in the
+mountains.  But she grew firmer now minute by minute, and quietly
+analysed each sound she heard.  This was only the drip of the rain from
+the eaves on the stones below, although it resembled wonderfully the
+fall of feet.  That was no rustling of a body forcing a way through the
+shrubs, but the work of a gust of wind bending down the little cypress,
+and making the clematis stream out upon the black darkness.
+
+There was every token of a rough night in the hills, for ever and anon
+after a lull, the wind hissed and whistled at the windows, and rumbled
+in the chimneys after the fashion familiar in winter.  But as she told
+herself, there was nothing in this to fear.
+
+Feeling that Martha must be left to finish her heavy sleep, and after
+seeing that she could not injure herself if alone, Dinah went back with
+the light to the little drawing-room, where, after an uneasy glance at
+the window, she satisfied herself that she could not, by any
+possibility, be watched, and sat down to read.
+
+The effort was vain: not a line of the page was understood, but scenes
+and faces were called up.  Clive's looking lovingly into her eyes, with
+that frank, manly gaze, before which her own fell and her cheeks
+reddened.  Then that meeting on the mountain path, when on her way home
+and alone, for the dog had left her and gone off in pursuit of a hare.
+
+She shuddered as she recalled it all, and hurriedly forced herself to
+think of her father and his anger that morning against Clive, who was,
+of course, all that was true and just--her lover--her protector--to whom
+some day she could tell everything--some day when safe in his arms and
+quite at rest.  It was impossible now.
+
+Her thoughts went to him more and more persistently, as she wondered
+where he then was--whether he was thinking about her--when he would be
+back.
+
+The book fell into her lap and glided to the carpet with a loud rap, and
+quick as thought her hand was extended to the lamp.  The next moment she
+sat in darkness, listening, and half repentant of her act.  For though
+she had sought the enveloping cloak of darkness, she shivered as it
+closed her in.
+
+For that was not wind or rain, neither was it the effect of imagination.
+She could not be deceived this time.  The latch of the kitchen door had
+been raised, and had given forth that click with which she had been
+familiar from childhood.  True, it had sounded faintly, but it was
+unmistakable.  The room door was open, so was that leading from the
+little passage into the kitchen, for she had left both wide, that she
+might hear if Martha stirred.
+
+She drew a breath of relief the next moment, for she felt that she had
+not heard their servant stir, but all the same she must have risen, and
+gone to try whether the door was fast.
+
+Quickly and silently she stole into the kitchen, and felt the way to the
+table.  "Martha!" was on her lips, but she did not utter the word, only
+extending her hand as she heard a deep, low, sighing breath.  The next
+instant her fingers rested upon the woman's shoulder, and she knew that
+there had been no change in position.  A feeling of suffocation attacked
+her, as she held her breath, and listened to a repetition of the sound,
+for the latch was softly raised now, and the door creaked as it was
+evidently pressed from outside.
+
+This was repeated, and then all was black darkness and silence once
+more, while poor Rollo, who would only a few hours before have loudly
+given warning of danger and torn at his chain to come to the protection
+of his mistress, lay sleeping his last beneath the newly-turned earth.
+
+Would he dare to break in?
+
+She was alone.
+
+A question and answer which sent a chill through her: but despair gave
+her courage, and she stood there pondering as the door creaked heavily
+once more.
+
+Where would he try to force an entrance? she asked herself, and then,
+feeling how frail were the fastenings, she silently made for the foot of
+the staircase, closed the door, bolted it, and ascended to the little
+landing.
+
+The next moment, her hand was upon her bedroom latch, but altering her
+mind she passed into her father's room, and closed and locked the door,
+to stand listening, her mind fixed upon the drawing-room window beneath
+where she stood.
+
+It would be there, beneath the little verandah, she thought; and
+extending her hand to touch the wall and guide herself to the window,
+her fingers encountered something which sent a thrill through her, for
+she touched the Major's double gun standing in the corner formed by a
+little cabinet, where he had stood and forgotten it; and in the drawer
+of that cabinet there were cartridges, for she had seen him place them
+there only a week or two before.
+
+Continuing her way, she crept to the window to listen, feeling sure that
+she would hear if any attempt was made below in the verandah, but
+clinging to the hope that the nocturnal visitor would go on finding that
+his plan was checkmated.
+
+She was not long left in doubt, for a rustling sound told her that the
+clematis was being torn away from one of the rough fir-posts which
+supported the verandah roof; and the next minute she was conscious by
+the sound that some one had reached the thatch, and was drawing himself
+up the yielding slope.
+
+For a moment Dinah was giddy once more with dread and despair.  The next
+she was strong again in the wild desire to protect herself--for her own,
+and for Clive Reed's sake; and stepping softly back, she drew out the
+drawer of the cabinet and felt that the cartridges were there.  Then
+catching up the gun, she rapidly opened the breech and inserted a couple
+of the charges, closed it, and fully cocked the piece, to stand with it
+at the ready, its muzzle directed to the window, which showed darker in
+the middle where a grating sound was heard.
+
+She knew it at once; a knife was forcing back the leadwork, so that a
+diamond-shaped pane might be taken out by the man who believed this room
+to be empty.
+
+She could see nothing, but it was all plain enough; the grating ceased,
+the pane was eased out by the knife, a rustling told that there was a
+hand being thrust in, and she heard the fastening yield, and the iron
+frame of the casement creak as it was drawn outward.  Then followed a
+heavy breath, the sound of some one drawing himself up, and strong now,
+at bay in her own defence, Dinah Gurdon's finger pressed the trigger, as
+she still held the gun at the ready with its butt beneath her arm.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+FOR CLIVE'S SAKE.
+
+"For Clive's sake," she said to herself, as the charge exploded, and the
+recoil of the loosely held gun rent the bodice of her dress and jerked
+her violently backward.
+
+There was a savage snarl, mingled with the report of the piece, and
+followed instantly by the tinkling of falling glass, a crushing sound of
+a gliding body, and then a dull concussion upon the stones beneath,
+where there was a panting and struggling, accompanied by a hissing as of
+breath drawn in agony; and then the rushing of the wind as it tore round
+the house, while within all was silence, as if of the dead.
+
+Dinah stood in the chamber holding the gun, motionless and with a cold
+perspiration bedewing her face as she breathed the dank, clinging,
+hydrogenous fumes of the burnt powder.  Every sense was on the strain,
+and her fingers rested now upon the second trigger as she waited, firm
+and determined to fire again in her defence should her would-be
+assailant climb up.
+
+It was for Clive's sake.  She was his now--his very own; and in her
+excited, nerve-strung state she was ready to defend herself to the last,
+and die sooner than that man, her horror and despair, should again clasp
+her in his arms.
+
+But no fresh sound arose as she waited in the black darkness grasping
+everything now.  How that Sturgess must have deeply laid his plans, and
+in revenge for a savage seizure made by the dog, as she remembered with
+a shudder, first poisoned the poor brute, and then somehow have
+contrived to drug the tea of which Martha had partaken that evening.
+
+She shivered again, as she thought of how closely this man must have
+watched everything that went on at the cottage, and how often he must
+have been near at hand at times when she knew it not.  Then he must, in
+the knowledge of her father's absence, have selected the Major's chamber
+as a place where he could obtain entrance unheard, little thinking that
+Fate would inspire his child to select that as a place of safety.
+
+And all the while Dinah stood there motionless, a yard farther from the
+open window, drawing her breath at intervals, her heart beating, and
+every sense still upon the strain, as she waited ready to repel the next
+attack.
+
+Twice over a pang shot through her, and she felt that the time had come,
+for there was a rustling sound below, and in imagination she saw the
+dark opening grow more dark.  But the sound died away again, and she
+knew that it was only a sudden gust of wind sweeping the rain-drops
+before it.  And at last a new horror assailed her.  That man--Sturgess,
+she was sure--had been in the act of climbing to the room and she had
+fired.
+
+Of course she knew all that, but somehow in her excitement--her
+exaltation of spirit in her defence of all that was dear to her in
+life--it seemed part of a horrible dream, a something which could not
+have been true.
+
+But it was true!  She had fired and heard the cry of agony, the crushing
+of the thatch, and the heavy fall, and writhing on the stones beneath,
+followed by that awful silence during which she had waited in
+expectation for it to be broken by his coming on again.
+
+But it had not been broken, and she knew why now.  The thought came to
+her like a revelation--Michael Sturgess was lying there, beneath that
+window, either grievously wounded or dead.
+
+A vertigo seized her, and she nearly dropped the gun.  But Dinah's
+nerves had been too tightly strung to give way now; and once more
+mastering her weakness, she walked bravely to the window, hesitated and
+then leaned out, starting back in horror, for she was touched.
+
+But it was only the edge of the iron frame of the casement swung to by
+the wind; and as she leaned out and looked down, she held her breath and
+listened, expecting to hear some movement--some slight stir.  But there
+below in the dense darkness all was perfectly still; no movement, no
+hard-drawn breath as of one in agony, but a silence so horrible that she
+staggered back to throw the gun upon the bed, and press her hand down to
+try and allay the laboured breathing of her heart.
+
+She could bear it no longer.  She felt that she must go down and see.
+Evil as the man was, he might be still alive, and she might save him.
+If not, she must know whether he was dead, for the suspense was
+infinitely worse than the knowledge could possibly be.
+
+In a state of maddening excitement now, she unfastened the door, and
+went down the dark stairs, pausing for a brief moment in the kitchen,
+where a heavy breathing told her that Martha still slept her drugged
+sleep; and then going to the front door she softly and quickly drew back
+the bolts, and turned the key, when the door yielded, as she grasped the
+handle, with a faint cracking sound.
+
+Then, nerved by her excitement, she stepped through the porch into the
+outer darkness, stooping down and peering before her in her endeavour to
+make out the prostrate body she expected to see lying prone.
+
+But nothing was visible, and gathering courage and calmness she went
+farther, walking to and fro over the spot where he must have fallen,
+without result, till, satisfied that the worst had not happened, and
+full of hope that he had fled after the shot, she hurried back to
+re-enter the house, stepping quickly over the stones to the little
+porch, and right into a pair of arms.
+
+With a wild cry of horror she struck at the man with all her might, with
+the result that there arose a yell of rage and pain.  A brief struggle
+followed, and in her frantic efforts to free herself, Dinah tore herself
+away.  Then turned and fled blindly, anywhere, so as to escape.
+
+But Sturgess was close behind.
+
+"Stop!" he cried hoarsely.  "It's of no use now, little one.  Hah, I
+have you at last."
+
+She was rushing up the rocky garden, and he was close behind and caught
+her by the shoulders, but with a cry of despair she flung herself
+side-wise, and he stumbled past her, and fell heavily, uttering an angry
+oath.
+
+She turned and fled downward toward the river, tripping again and again
+over the scattered stones and bushes, and making such bad progress that
+Sturgess had time to gather himself up, hear where she was forcing her
+way along, and followed wildly in pursuit.
+
+But, mad now with fear and horror, weak too from her exertions and the
+enervation caused by the dread of being overtaken, Dinah sped on,
+meaning to run to left or right, along the river edge, but taking
+neither way; for in her despair, she ran straight into the river, wading
+right out, so as to try and gain the shelter of the rocks on the further
+side.
+
+It was shallow where she waded, but she knew that beneath the rocks
+there were deep holes, where the great trout lay; and she felt that she
+might step right into one of these.  But the cold clinging embraces of
+the water were better than the clasp of this ruffian, and without a
+moment's hesitation she pressed on to gain her haven of safety, and then
+stopped short with the water nearly to her waist, and pressing softly
+against her, to bear her away: for she heard a loud ejaculation from the
+path she had left, and then her pursuer's heavy steps, as he ran for a
+few yards downwards, and then came back and ran upward, and returned.
+
+"Curse her!  Which way has she gone?" came plainly to her ears, followed
+by the rippling sound of the river, as it ran swiftly on.
+
+She knew that Sturgess could not see her, for he was evidently
+listening, and the slightest movement would have betrayed the fact that
+she was standing there only a few yards away.
+
+Two or three times the force of the river was so great that she felt as
+if she must yield to it; but she stood firm and then felt a fresh chill,
+for the man snarled out an oath, and the lapping and splashing sound
+made her turn and wade a little farther, for she felt that her enemy had
+made her out, and was wading in.  But in another moment a savage
+ejaculation of pain made the truth known, for Sturgess was kneeling down
+and bathing the wound he had received.
+
+She grasped it all plainly enough now, for from time to time he uttered
+a low groan, and then rose up and staggered away over the stones, while
+her heart leaped for joy, as she knew that he was growing weak and faint
+from exertion.
+
+From this moment everything became plain to her--made known in the
+darkness by the sounds.  She could see nothing, but she knew as well as
+if she had been by his side that the man was painfully staggering up the
+stony slope along by the river edge, as if making for the mine.  But she
+dared not move, only try to stand firm against the pressure of the
+water, and wait till the last sound had reached her ear.  Then, and then
+only, did she stir, but only to wade upward a little into shallower
+water, where the pressure was not so great.  For the river was her
+protector, and she knew that Sturgess might come back.
+
+A full hour must have passed before, stiff and chilled, she waded slowly
+out, and crept up the path to the cottage, the water streaming from her
+as she walked, till she reached the porch, crept in trembling and
+secured the door, and then did not rest till she had reached her own
+room to throw herself upon her knees in thankfulness for her escape.
+
+But there was no rest that night.  Just at daybreak she went down to
+find that Martha still slept, and shuddering, lest the events of the
+night should be known, she went into her father's chamber and replaced
+the gun in its old corner; looked out in the cold grey morning, and saw
+that it was possible for the absent pane of glass to be attributed to
+the work of the wind blowing about a loosened casement.  Lastly, there
+was something else for which she sought in the cold grey light of
+morning--traces of the gun-shot wound.
+
+There were none visible.  If there had been, a sufficiency of rain had
+fallen to wash all away, and leaving the window ajar, Dinah was in the
+act of turning back, pondering upon her position and shrinking from
+telling her father more than ever.  She determined that Martha must know
+nothing, when she caught a glimpse of her pale, troubled face in the
+glass, and then uttered a faint cry of horror, for her light dress was
+horribly stained about the breast and shoulder, showing plainly that
+Sturgess must have received a severe wound, whose traces had been
+transferred to her when he had seized her in his arms.
+
+"How can I speak!--how can I tell all!" she moaned, as she hurried
+guiltily back to her own room to remove the still damp and draggled
+garments.  "It is too horrible.  Oh," she cried, fiercely now in her
+desperation, "if he would but die!"
+
+"Oh, my dear, how pale and white you do look," said Martha at
+breakfast-time; and Dinah gazed at her wildly, as if in dread lest she
+knew all.  "I feel as sure as sure that we both had something that
+didn't agree with us yesterday, though I can't say for the moment what.
+Yes, my dear, I didn't really know how it was, but I felt poorly all day
+yesterday, and grew so drowsy at last that I went off fast asleep.  Did
+you come and find me then?"
+
+"Yes, I came and found you," said Dinah dreamily, as the whole scene of
+the previous night came back.
+
+"Of course it was very strange, but it was so kind of you not to wake
+me.  But I'm better now--all but a headache.  Does yours ache too?"
+
+"Yes, Martha, badly," said Dinah, with a sigh, as for a moment she
+pondered about taking the old woman into her confidence.
+
+"I thought it did.  There; have a good cup of tea.  You'll be better
+then.  Will master be back to-day?"
+
+"I hope so, Martha," said Dinah, with a sigh; and then hope came to
+revive her once more.  For he would come and bring news of Clive, who
+must know all, and then there would be safety--protection, and no more
+of this abject fear.
+
+In the afternoon news reached the cottage that there had been an
+accident at the mine, where early that morning Mr Sturgess, the
+foreman, had fallen down one of the lower shafts, and severely cut and
+injured his left shoulder.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A NEW HORROR.
+
+Letters reached the cottage at frequent intervals after the Major's
+return, in which as he breathed in every line his intense affection,
+Clive fretted at the chain which still bound him to London.
+
+For, as he explained at length, a heavy blow had been struck at the
+mining company, bringing ruin upon those who had shown a want of faith,
+though the stability of the property was not really stirred.  The rumour
+which had so rapidly spread had had its influence though, and time would
+be needed before many people would believe in the truth, and it was for
+the protection of the property, and to save other shareholders from
+following the panic-stricken party, that Clive felt compelled to be in
+town.
+
+Then, too, he sent a shiver through Dinah, as he wrote to her about his
+troubles at the mine.
+
+"Misfortunes never come singly," he said.  "As I daresay you have heard,
+my foreman Sturgess has met with a nasty accident, and Robson, my clerk,
+sends me word that he has been delirious and wandering a good deal.  He
+fell down one of the inner shafts where he could have no business, and
+ought to be thankful that he escaped with his life.  Now I do not want
+to be exacting, darling, but if you could do any little thing to soften
+the man's misfortune, I should be glad.  He is an ill-conditioned
+fellow, but he is my employe, and I want to do my duty by him as far as
+I can."
+
+Dinah, in her agony of spirit, wanted to rush off to her own room and
+hide herself from the sight of all.  For this appeal seemed more than
+she could bear; but the Major was present, and at that moment spoke
+about the contents of his own letter.
+
+"Reed wants us to see and help his foreman, who is lying at one of the
+cottages ill from a fall.  We must do all we can, my dear.  He's a good
+fellow, is Clive.  Very thoughtful of others.  Dear, dear, if I had only
+been a little more strong-minded."
+
+"Have you suffered so very heavily, father?" said Dinah, who forced
+herself to be calm and speak.
+
+"Suffered!  Oh, yes, my dear, in mind as well as pocket.  You were
+right, my child; he is all that is honourable and true.  But it is very
+humiliating--very lowering to the spirit of an old soldier."
+
+"To find that you have mistrusted him, father?"
+
+"Er--er--yes, my dear; but--but--there I will be frank with you.  I did
+not mean that."
+
+"Father, you are keeping something from me."
+
+"Yes, my dear, I am," said the Major hurriedly; "but Dinah, my dear, I
+have not accepted yet.  The fact is, I have lost all, my dear--at least
+all but a beggarly pittance saved out of the wreck; and Clive--God bless
+him for a true gentleman!"
+
+Dinah's arms were round her father's neck, as the love-light shone in
+her eyes, and she laid her cheek upon his shoulder.
+
+"Well, yes, my dear, he is; and I suppose with all his simplicity and
+want of ostentation he is very rich.  His house in town is--ah, well,
+never mind that!  He insists upon giving me as many shares in the mine
+as I fooled away."
+
+"But you cannot accept them from him, dear father," cried Dinah, raising
+her head, and looking at him anxiously.
+
+"No, my darling, I told him so; that it would be a cruel humiliation;
+and that I would never accept them."
+
+"Yes; that was quite right, dearest," said Dinah, with her eyes
+flashing.
+
+"But he said--"
+
+"Yes, what did he say?"
+
+"That I was foolishly punctilious, that I was going to give him
+something of more value than all the riches in the world, and that I
+refused to take a fitting present from him."
+
+The warm blood glowed in Dinah's cheeks, and there was a look of pride
+and happiness in her eyes which were gradually softened by the gathering
+tears.
+
+"Yes, but you cannot take this, father dear!" she said softly.  "It
+would be humiliation to us both.  If we are very poor, and Clive loves
+me, he will love my dear father too.  You must not take this, dear.  It
+would be doubly painful after mistrusting him as you did."
+
+"Then I have done right," cried the Major cheerfully.
+
+"You have refused."
+
+"Yes.  I was sorely tempted, my darling, for I felt how I was bringing
+you down to poverty; that I was no longer in a position to--to--Oh, hang
+it, Dinah," cried the old man, with the tears in his eyes, "I would
+sooner march through a storm of bullets than go through this."
+
+"Clive loves me for myself, dearest father," said Dinah, drawing his
+convulsed face down upon her bosom, to hide the weak tears of
+bitterness; "and it is not as if you were living in London.  Our wants
+are so few here, and there are the few hundred pounds which you have
+often told me came from my dearest mother."
+
+"No, no; that could not be touched," cried the Major, very firmly now.
+"That was to be your wedding portion, child."
+
+"There is no question of money between us, father," said Dinah proudly.
+"I tell you again Clive loves me for myself, and there is a wedding
+portion here within my heart that can never fail.  No, dearest, you
+cannot take this gift from my husband.  You are rich in yourself as an
+English gentleman, and with your honourable name."
+
+A spasm shot through the Major, and his face contracted and looked
+older.
+
+"There," continued Dinah, "that is all at an end.  Only we will
+economise, and live more simply, dear.  But tell me I am right."
+
+"Always right, my darling," cried the Major.  "There, you have taken a
+heavy load from my breast.  Hang it, yes, pet.  We have our home and
+garden, and there is my preserve.  A bit of bread of old Martha's best,
+and a dish of trout of my own catching, or a bird or two.  Bah! who says
+we're poor?"
+
+"Who would not envy us for being so rich?" cried Dinah, smiling.
+
+"To be sure.  And when my lord of the mines comes down," cried the Major
+merrily, "we'll be haughty with him, and let him see that it is a favour
+to be allowed to partake of our hermitage fare, eh?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Dinah, with childlike glee, though her eyes were still
+wet with tears.  "But, father dear," she faltered, "there is one thing I
+want to say."
+
+"Yes, my darling?"
+
+"This man who is lying ill."
+
+"Yes, yes.  We must do all we can."
+
+"No, father," she said, speaking more firmly now.  "We cannot go to
+him."
+
+"Eh!  Why not?"
+
+"Because--because," faltered Dinah, with her voice sounding husky.  Then
+growing strong, and her eyes looking hard and glittering, "Soon after he
+came down here, he began to follow me about."
+
+"What!  The scoundrel!" roared the Major.
+
+"And one day he spoke to me--and insulted me."
+
+"The dog--the miserable hound.  But--here, Dinah--why was I not told of
+this?"
+
+"Because, dear--I thought it better--I felt that I could not speak--I--"
+
+"Ah, but Clive shall know of this.  But you have told him?  Why has he
+not dismissed the hound?"
+
+"No, I have not told Clive, father--not any one.  Some day I must tell
+him--but not now."
+
+"Really, my darling!" cried the Major, whose face was flushed, and the
+veins were starting in his forehead.
+
+"Father, this is very, very painful to me, your child," she pleaded;
+"and I beg--I pray that you will say no more."
+
+"What! not have him punished?"
+
+"No; not now.  He is punished, dearest.  But we cannot go to his help."
+
+"Help," cried the Major furiously.  "I should kill him."
+
+Dinah laid her hands upon his breast, and at last he bent down and
+kissed her.
+
+"May I tell Clive when he comes?"
+
+"No, dearest," said Dinah, in quite a whisper, and with her face very
+pale now, while her voice was almost inaudible; "that must come from
+me."
+
+The Major frowned, and kissed his child's pale face, prior to making
+another grievous mistake in his troubled life.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE EXPLOSION.
+
+There was joy in the little cottage by the swiftly running river one day
+about a fortnight later, when a shadow was cast across the window; and
+with a cry of delight Dinah looked up from her work and saw that Clive
+Reed had approached silently, and was gazing in.
+
+The next moment she was nestling in his strong arms, responding to his
+kisses, and feeling once more safe, protected, and that there was
+nothing more to fear or wish for in life.
+
+"Don't laugh at me," she whispered, as she drew him farther in with the
+blood flushing in her cheeks, and her hands trembling, lest her
+abandonment in her ecstasy of delight had been seen.
+
+"Why not?" cried Clive.  "I feel as if I could melt away into smiles and
+laughter--there's a beautiful idea, pet--in the joy I feel at being
+back--at holding you in these great rough arms, at feeling safe, and
+that you had not forgotten me and run away with some fine handsome
+fellow while I was gone."
+
+"Clive!"
+
+"Well, I do.  I'm quite boyish--childish--oh, my darling, have I got you
+here in my arms once more?"
+
+There was no doubt of it, for timid and shrinking now, Dinah kissed him
+gravely upon the forehead, and then gently and firmly shrank from his
+strong embrace.
+
+"Where is the Major?" he cried.
+
+"He has taken his satchel and geological hammer, and gone for a long
+walk."
+
+"Without you?"
+
+"Yes; that is why I said, don't laugh at me, and you stopped me from
+saying more.  Clive--I felt that you would come this morning."
+
+"Ah, and how much sooner I should have been, but for the miserable worry
+of the company's affairs.  There, I will not worry you about that, and I
+am glad to say that I found Sturgess rapidly getting well.  But he had a
+nasty accident.  And how's dear old Martha?"
+
+"Quite well.  She has been talking about you and longing to see you
+every day."
+
+"Bless her.  And you.  Oh, my darling, you look more beautiful than
+ever!"
+
+"Clive!"
+
+"You do.  More sweet, more lovable.  Oh, Dinah, there was never such a
+happy fellow before.  This place is a paradise after grimy old London,
+and--oh, here is the Major, I can hear his step."
+
+Dinah turned pale.
+
+"That is not his step," she said, as she looked excitedly toward the
+window.
+
+Clive rose, went to it, and looked out.
+
+"Why, it's Robson," he cried.  "Hang it!  I hope there is nothing wrong.
+I'll go and meet him."  Before he was outside Dinah was after him, and
+she hurriedly placed her hand upon his arm.
+
+"Eh?  Well, come with me then, pet.  I have no secrets from you.--Well,
+Robson, what's the matter?  Sturgess worse?"
+
+"No, sir, but you are wanted over yonder directly."
+
+"Wanted?"
+
+"Yes, sir, there's a party of gentlemen come down."
+
+"What--visitors?  Oh, hang them; they want to see the mine, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir.  They say they've come to take possession."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I suppose they're bailiffs, sir."
+
+"And I suppose you're a confounded fool!" cried Clive angrily.  "That
+mine does not owe a penny!"
+
+"One of the gentlemen said he was a shareholder, sir, the principal
+shareholder, and he gave me his card."
+
+Clive snatched it, and Dinah read the name thereon--
+
+"Mr Wrigley, New Inn, Strand."
+
+"Wrigley?" cried Clive excitedly.
+
+"Yes, sir; and he said he must see you at once."
+
+"All right; I'll come.  Wait for me yonder at the corner, Robson; and I
+beg your pardon for speaking so roughly just now."
+
+"That's nothing, sir.  You were cross," said the clerk, smiling; and he
+walked back down the garden to go and stand watching the trout in the
+river.
+
+"Don't look so scared, dearest," said Clive tenderly; "there is nothing
+wrong.  I'll tell you briefly what it is.  You know there was a scare
+about the mine--a panic."
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Well, a lot of foolish old friends were frightened--oh, dear me!  I'm
+accusing the Major.  Well, there, I can't help it.  He did act
+foolishly.  A lot of them, I say, instead of coming to me went and sold
+their shares, and these were bought up by speculators who have since
+then been interfering at our board meetings, and wanting to meddle over
+the management of things.  In fact, I was so wroth that I would not go
+to yesterday's meeting, but determined to come down here and see how
+things were, and--you know why I came.  Now I must go on.  I suppose
+they had their meeting yesterday, and passed some resolution or another;
+but I'm too big a shareholder to be trifled with, and I'm going to meet
+these people now and have a row.  For they shall have their big
+dividends, but I'm not going to have any meddlesome fools down here."
+
+"But you will keep your temper, dear, and be calm."
+
+"I'll take your sweet face with me, love, and--why, here's the Major.
+Ah, my dear old dad, how are you?  Good-bye, Dinah.  Come over to the
+mine with me, sir, and help me to keep my temper; well talk as we go."
+
+"Of course," cried the Major.  "But look here, my boy--so glad to see
+you down--I saw a party going to the mine, and I hurried back trusting
+that one of them might be you."
+
+"Come along," cried Clive; and after a quick, tender farewell, he
+hurried away along the path to the mine, explaining matters to the Major
+as he went.
+
+On reaching the gate in the hill side, and entering the busy little hive
+of industry, it was plain that something important was on the way; for
+the men were all up from the workings, and were evidently listening to
+one of a party of well-dressed men, who was addressing them, and a buzz
+of voices arose as Clive, looking very stern now, walked up to the front
+of the office with his two companions.
+
+"Oh, good morning, Mr Reed," said the speaker, getting down from a pile
+of lead pigs.
+
+"Good morning, Mr Wrigley.  Well, Jessop, you here?"
+
+The latter gentleman nodded, and Sturgess, who had his arm in a sling,
+stood close behind him.
+
+"I have been telling the men, Mr Reed, that in consonance with the
+resolution passed at the board yesterday--"
+
+"In my absence, Mr Wrigley."
+
+"You had the proper notices, sir," said the lawyer coldly.  "I say in
+accordance with the resolution passed yesterday, it was determined, in
+the interests of the `White Virgin Mine,' to have a complete change of
+management."
+
+"Indeed!" said Clive.  "But I, as the greatest shareholder, object."
+
+"You cannot, sir.  I and my friends are greater shareholders, and have
+the majority with us.  Out of respect to your late father's memory we
+have made a concession to your brother."
+
+"Jessop!" cried Clive.
+
+"Yes, sir.  You will give up everything into his hands, for he will
+reside here and take the management, helped and counselled by Mr
+Sturgess, who now becomes co-manager of the property."
+
+"And I?" said Clive, who was perfectly aghast at the petard sprung
+beneath his feet.
+
+"Will clear out at once."
+
+It was Jessop Reed who said these words brutally; and, as the brother's
+eyes met in a long piercing gaze, Clive Reed knew that his enemies had
+him firmly by the hip, and that the next minute he must fall.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+AFTER THE ENCOUNTER.
+
+"But, my dear boy, why not have made a fight for it?" cried the Major,
+as he perspired profusely in his efforts to keep up with Clive, who was
+striding about the garden.
+
+"I'm going to fight for it, sir," cried Clive impatiently; "but these
+matters are not settled by brute force and bayonets."
+
+"Well, well, no," cried the Major; "but you gave up almost without a
+word."
+
+"Everything was against me, sir.  Come: you, as a soldier, know that I
+was beaten by a clever bit of strategy, and that I must meet the
+position by something of the same kind."
+
+"Yes, but you were in possession."
+
+"I was, sir, but a majority of the shareholders decided that my
+management was bad, and appointed another man, so I am bound to give
+up."
+
+"But not without a struggle."
+
+"I am going to struggle, sir, but carefully.  I cannot afford to fight
+against what is partly my own property."
+
+"But you had a great number of shares, my dear boy."
+
+"I did hold nearly half, sir, and I felt it my duty to help friends who
+had lost, and--"
+
+"You have ruined yourself to help me!" cried the Major passionately.
+
+"Nonsense! there is no question of ruin in this case, sir.  It is only a
+business of the management.  I ought to have known that my brother would
+never sit down quietly under his disappointment; but I never thought he
+would be partner in such a scheme as this."
+
+"Then you think it was your brother who was the man that set the rumour
+afloat?" cried the Major.
+
+"From his connection with, and knowledge of stocks, I now feel convinced
+it was."
+
+"The man whom I made my guest."
+
+"Yes," said Clive.  "He was down here, evidently as a spy, and this
+fellow--this solicitor, Wrigley, seems to be an old friend of his.  Nice
+way to speak of my own brother, sir."
+
+"Your own brother!" cried the Major, in a towering passion; "he is a
+scoundrel, sir; I'd disown him, sir.  He's my enemy, sir.  He has ruined
+me as well as you."
+
+"No, no, no, my dear sir.  I tell you there is no question of ruin in
+the matter.  There is the mine, and it is so enormously rich that the
+shareholders cannot suffer.  The annoyance is, being kicked out of one's
+position in the management; but, as we school-boys used to say,--`two
+can play at that game;' and perhaps at the next board meeting I shall be
+able to overset Mr Jessop.  Why, the scoundrel must have been in league
+with Sturgess, and that accounts for this fellow's insolence to me on
+several occasions."
+
+"Of course; and a nice diabolical scheme they have hatched between them.
+But you shall overthrow them, Clive, my boy, that you shall.  Oh, I see
+it all now, unbusiness-like as I am.  They had that report spread,
+frightened the shareholders into a panic, and then bought up
+everything."
+
+"Yes, sir, that was their _modus operandi_."
+
+"And they caught all the fools, including my stupid old self," growled
+the Major.  "But wait a bit.  I daresay I shall have a settlement with
+Master Jessop Reed one of these days, and when that day does come, let
+him look out."
+
+"No, Major, you will leave this to me," said Clive quietly.  "Now, then,
+I'm going to throw over this piece of worry, and have a calm quiet day
+with our darling.  As I tell you, it does not interfere with my monetary
+position in the least, and it will save me a great deal of hard work;
+but to-morrow morning I must go back to town and see the other
+shareholders, for this state of affairs ought not to continue, though I
+must own that Sturgess is a clever manager, and does his work well."
+
+The Major unslung a satchel from his shoulder at the door.
+
+"Why, you have been carrying that heavy lot of specimens all the time,"
+said Clive, smiling.
+
+"Yes, I forgot all about them," said the Major; and he tossed the
+contents out into a basket in the tiny hall.
+
+"Lead ore," said Clive, looking curiously at a little block of dull grey
+stone.
+
+"Yes, there's plenty of that stuff on my wild bit of mountain land.  It
+all interests me, and of course much more since I have been a
+shareholder in the mine--I mean," said the Major hastily, "since I was
+once."
+
+"You are, Major.  Once for all, no more words about that.  A certain
+number more shares have been transferred to you, and they stand as yours
+in the company's books.  Not another word.  Ah, Dinah!  I seem to have
+neglected you sadly.  Now, no more business; the whole day is ours.
+To-morrow morning I must be off back to town."
+
+The parting was sad enough the next morning quite early, for, to Dinah,
+it was as if she were losing her protector for many days to come, and
+she could not drive away the forebodings of looming troubles as she
+clung to Clive after accompanying him with the Major for some distance
+along the mountain track leading to Blinkdale.  But Clive was cheerful
+and bright, and at last he tore himself away, insisting upon their
+returning, as he would have to hasten on.
+
+"Take care of her, Major," he cried, "and I'll send you plenty of
+letters.  Keep a good heart--it will all come right in the end.  Now--
+goodbye."
+
+He sprang away, and they stood watching him as he stopped from time to
+time to wave his hand before plunging down into a hollow, and
+disappearing from their sight.
+
+They turned then, and walked back in silence to the cottage, each too
+much occupied with painful thoughts to attempt to speak, for a shadow
+seemed to have fallen over their lives which was gradually darkening;
+and there were moments when Dinah looked forward, and then clung
+spasmodically to her father's arm, for he broke out into angry
+mutterings from time to time, and as she looked in his face she could
+see that it was black with suppressed passion.
+
+At last they reached the river path, and the Major broke out:
+
+"I see it all plainly enough," he cried.  "Clive was right; that
+scoundrel of a brother was down here as a spy, and, curse him, I
+entertained him for his sake.  He has won round that fellow Sturgess,
+and they think they are going to do as they like; but if I am to be a
+shareholder, confound them! they shall find that I can be a sharp one
+too, so let them beware."
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+FOX AND WOLF.
+
+The days went by slowly and sadly.  Letters came regularly enough, but
+they were not hopeful, for Clive told how he was hemmed in by
+difficulties which prevented his stirring: and, as he said, it would be
+madness to do anything which would involve legal proceedings and injure
+the prospects of the mine.  There was nothing for it but to wait: for
+Wrigley had laid his plans only too well, and he and Jessop had
+everything in their own hands.
+
+To the Major he said emphatically that as far as money matters were
+concerned there was nothing to mind, for the new management was bound
+for their own sake to do their best, as any lapse and falling off of the
+returns would be fatal to their position.
+
+To Dinah there were tender breathings of devotion, and the assurance
+that though absent he was with her always in spirit; and at the first
+opportunity he would run down.
+
+Ten days had passed, and one afternoon the Major had encountered Robson,
+whom he was passing with a short nod; but, after glancing round to see
+whether they were observed, the young man followed the Major and said
+quickly--
+
+"I'm kept on at the mine, sir, because I know so much of the books, and
+they can't very well get along without me; but you looked at me so
+differently to what you used, sir, that I thought I'd speak."
+
+"Yes, sir: you belong to the enemy's camp," said the Major sharply.
+
+"No, I don't, sir, though I'm there, and I wish to goodness Mr Clive
+Reed was back, for Sturgess is unbearable with his bullying ways; and as
+for Mr Jessop, he's no more like his brother than chalk's like cheese.
+Think there's any chance of Mr Clive coming back?"
+
+"Yes, my lad, every chance, if we're true to him," cried the Major; "and
+I beg your pardon, Mr Robson, I thought you were one of the scoundrels.
+I'm very glad to find you are not."
+
+"I thank you, sir," cried the young man; "and if you write to Mr Clive
+Reed, please tell him so long as I'm in the mine office the books shall
+be kept just as he wished, so that any one can see at a glance how
+matters stand."
+
+"And I thank you too, Mr Robson.  I, as a shareholder, am very glad
+that we have so good a man in your administrative post.  But tell me,
+how are the returns?"
+
+"Wonderful, sir.  They increase every day.  The profits will be
+enormous."
+
+"And is this man Sturgess doing his duty?"
+
+"Oh! yes, sir, splendidly," said Robson, laughing.  "By his new
+agreement he is to get a percentage upon the metal smelted.  I don't
+like him, but there's no mistake in his working."
+
+"Humph, that's right," growled the Major.
+
+"And now, sir, if you'll excuse me, I'll go, for if it was known that I
+talked about the mine affairs, I should be packed off; and for Mr Clive
+Reed's sake I want to stay."
+
+"Right: good day.  I daresay we shall run up against each other again."
+
+They parted, and none too soon, for, hammer in hand, the Major had just
+plunged down into a gully when Robson caught sight of a tiny cloud of
+smoke rising above a ridge before him.
+
+Quick as thought he threw himself down among the heather, and lay
+peering between two tufts, till Jessop came into sight directly after,
+puffing away at a big cigar as he walked sharply along the track,
+passing the spot where the clerk lay, and evidently going in the
+direction of the cottage.
+
+Robson looked uneasy, and his forehead began to wrinkle with the
+thoughts which entered his brain.  He was puzzled at first; then
+suspicious; and at last determined.
+
+He waited until Jessop was well out of sight, and with his mind made up,
+he was about to scramble to his feet, but he dropped down again, feeling
+sure he must have been seen, for he was conscious of a figure higher up
+the slope, coming slowly towards him; and soon after Sturgess, with his
+arm still in a sling, came close by, went down to the shelf-track, and
+there seated himself in a nook amongst some ferns.  This forced the
+young clerk to slowly worm himself along among the heath and
+whortleberry tufts for a couple of hundred yards before the rising
+ground was well between them, when he went off at a sharp walk in the
+direction taken by the Major.
+
+Meanwhile Jessop had gone on smoking heavily till he reached the river
+side, where he stopped gazing down into the sparkling water, evidently
+thinking deeply, and drawing hard at his cigar, till it was nearly done,
+when he threw it to fall with a loud hiss into the stream.
+
+Then, with a quiet, satisfied aspect he went on for a few steps, and
+turned up the tiny gully hard by the Major's garden.
+
+Fortune favoured him, for Dinah was seated in the shady porch working;
+and she started up in alarm as he came close up.
+
+"Don't be frightened," he said, with a smile, and holding out his hand.
+"Surely you have not forgotten me?"
+
+"No," said Dinah, recovering herself, though her heart beat heavily from
+apprehension.  "You called here once before."
+
+"To be sure I did; but you will shake hands?"
+
+"As a friend of Mr Clive Reed, under the present circumstances, surely,
+sir, it is better not," she replied with dignity.
+
+"Sir--under the present circumstances," he cried bitterly.  "The old
+story.  Blackguard again.  Ah," he said, with a stamp of the foot, "is
+that man to go through the whole of his life spreading malicious
+slanders about his brother?"
+
+Dinah was silent.
+
+"Then you will not shake hands with one who spared no effort to get
+himself appointed to stay down here--whose sole thought has been of her
+whom he met once--only once--but whose impression was fixed so deeply
+upon his heart that ever since he has thought of her night and day."
+
+Dinah rose and drew back into the doorway, looking at him with contempt.
+
+"Is this part of some melodrama, Mr Jessop Reed?" she said, "or do you
+imagine that you are speaking to a weak rustic girl?"
+
+"I am speaking the truth--blunderingly, perhaps," he cried excitedly,
+"but in the best way I can.  I wonder that I am not dumb before you.
+How can you be so cruel.  You must have seen how you impressed me when I
+was down here before.  That feeling has grown into an overpowering
+passion.  Dinah Gurdon," he cried, catching her hand, "I came down
+hereto live--to love you.  I cannot help it."
+
+"And you know that I am your brother's betrothed," she said wildly.
+
+"I know that without doubt he has taken advantage of his position here
+to try and delude you, as he has deluded other poor girls again and
+again; but you must know the truth.  He is not fit to touch your hand--
+no, not even to stand in your presence.  Hush! let me speak.  I know all
+this is cruelly sudden, but you would forgive me if you knew what I have
+suffered since I saw you last.  Dinah, dearest Dinah, give me some
+little ray of hope to take away with me.  You are too beautiful to be
+cruel--too gentle to send me away despairing.  Ah, you are relenting!  A
+word only, and I will go away patiently, and ready to wait till you know
+me better."
+
+"I never could know you better than I do at present," said Dinah firmly,
+and quietly withdrawing her hand.
+
+"Ah, then I may hope?" he cried.
+
+"For what, sir?--an increase in my feeling of contempt?  Your brother
+spared you, but I formed my own estimate of your nature, and it is
+true."
+
+"I--I don't understand you," he whispered, "only that your words give me
+intense pain."
+
+"I know, too, my father's estimate of your character.  Shall I tell you
+what he said?"
+
+"If you will.  It is joy to hear you speak," he cried, as he tried to
+catch her hand again.
+
+"He said, sir, that you were a scoundrel."
+
+"Of course," cried Jessop, with a bitter laugh, "from my brother's
+slanders."
+
+"Did your brother slander you when he told me that you married his
+betrothed?" cried Dinah indignantly, her eyes speaking her disgust.
+"Should I slander you, sir, if I told you that your words to me--words
+from a married man, to one whom you know to be his promised wife, are an
+insult?  Have the goodness to go, sir, before my father returns, or I
+will not be answerable for the consequences.  Ah!"
+
+She rushed past Jessop, forcing him on one side, for the Major, warned
+by Robson, had hurried back, and was coming up the path with his stick
+quivering in his grasp.
+
+"Don't--don't, father," she panted in her excitement, "for my sake.  I
+have said enough."
+
+The Major's face was purple with anger, but he did not speak, only
+raised his quivering stick, and pointed down toward the pathway, while
+Dinah clung to his arm.
+
+Jessop shrugged his shoulders, uttered a contemptuous laugh, and calmly
+took out his case, selected and lit a cigar, closed the case with a
+snap, pocketed it, and walked by them smoking, insultingly contriving to
+send a puff of tobacco into the Major's face as he passed.
+
+The next minute he was on the shelf path with his face convulsed with
+fury; and he walked on backward toward the mine, biting off pieces of
+the cigar, and spitting them out savagely.
+
+"That's it, is it?" he snarled.  "Well, we can soon tame all that.  He
+won't come back here, and all that is vapour.  Pretty indignation; but a
+woman is weak.  She knows I want her, and she'll dream about it, and
+grow softer till the siege comes to an end.  For it shall come to an
+end, and in my way, my lady.  I never fairly attacked a girl yet without
+winning; and my pretty, sweet darling shall go on her knees to me yet,
+and what do you mean by that?"
+
+"I want to talk to you, guv'nor," said Sturgess, who had suddenly
+clapped him roughly on the shoulder.
+
+"What is it, then?  And, confound you, don't you forget your place,
+sir."
+
+"No fear.  I've done your dirty work, and helped you to get your
+position here."
+
+"And your own," cried Jessop, with a sneer.
+
+"Oh yes, that's all right; but I'm not going to have you ride roughshod
+over me in every way."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"That you've got to keep away from the cottage yonder.  I'm not going to
+have you poaching on my preserves."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That Dinah Gurdon's mine--my lass; and that I'd break the neck of any
+man who came between us two."
+
+Jessop looked at the man in astonishment for a few minutes, and then
+burst into a mocking laugh.
+
+"You!" he cried.  "Oh, this is too rich."
+
+"What!" cried Sturgess, who was black with fury.
+
+"You be damned!" cried Jessop; and rudely thrusting the man aside,
+making him wince as he touched his wounded arm, strode away.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+IN A FLASH.
+
+It was a curious blending of the bitter and the sweet when Clive Reed
+came down to the Blinkdale Moor.  To a man of his temperament, it was
+maddening to find himself completely supplanted at the mine--where
+Jessop reigned supreme, when Wrigley did not come down; and in spite of
+the past the young engineer would have insisted upon frequent inspection
+of the place and statements as to the proceedings, but he dared not go,
+for at his next visit the Major had excitedly told him of all that had
+taken place with Jessop, and also of Dinah's complaint of insult
+received from Sturgess.
+
+"I promised her that I would leave it to her to tell, my dear boy, but
+it's like going into action--one does not care to begin, but the moment
+one's blood is up, one doesn't know where to stop."
+
+"No," said Clive, with his brow contracting.  "The scoundrel, the
+scoundrel!"
+
+"And that brother of yours is the worst.  Why, good heavens, is he mad
+with conceit as well as brazen wickedness?  What does he take my darling
+for--some silly country wench to whom he has only to throw the
+handkerchief for her to fall on her knees at his feet?"
+
+"Don't talk about it, please, sir!" cried Clive huskily.  "I find that
+my bad passions are stronger than I thought, for I dare not go over to
+the mine for fear of the scene which would be sure to follow."
+
+"No: you mustn't go, Clive, or you'd half kill him--though he's your own
+brother.  If I had known all when I came back that day, thanks to that
+young fellow, Robson, I'd have thrashed him till he couldn't stand.
+Thirty years older, my boy, but I'm a better man than he is: a
+miserable, flushed-faced sot!  He drinks.  I know he does, and he must
+have been half drunk when he came here that day."
+
+"He will not dare to come again."
+
+"No.  Let him take the consequences if he does--him or that black-haired
+scoundrel, I'll give either of them a charge of shot, I swear."
+
+Still there was the sweet as well as the bitter, during his stays at the
+cottage; and Clive often asked himself why he, with the large property
+left to him by his father, should trouble about the mine, when there was
+a dreamy life of simple, idyllic happiness and joy.  No allusion was
+made to Jessop or Sturgess by either Dinah or her lover, for it was
+enough that they could be together in that little paradise the Major had
+in the course of years contrived, wandering hand in hand beside the
+clear sparkling river which ran on laughing in the sunshine, so stern
+and calm in the deep shades beneath the rocks.  They said little save in
+the language of the eye, and though Dinah had again and again determined
+to speak and tell Clive everything--some day when he was seated at her
+feet holding her hand in his, and say to him, "I dared not tell you lest
+you should despise me," those words never passed her lips.  "I cannot
+tell him now," she sighed to herself.  "I am so happy--he looks at me so
+full of joy and trust.  Some day I will, some day when he is holding me
+tightly in his arms, and I feel so safe.  I will tell him then.  How can
+I make him unhappy now?"
+
+So she went on dreaming; happy in the present.  The little river valley
+had never looked so beautiful before, nor her father so restful and
+content.  It was life's summer, a golden time with nothing to wish for
+more.  The storms were hushed to sleep, and like the beautiful
+streamlet, they two were gliding onward in that mystic peace that
+softens down the passion of a strong first genuine love.
+
+"Bah!  I wish there was no London, my boy.  No work, no worry, no
+struggle," cried the Major, one evening, when he was alone with Clive,
+who had been looking curiously at Martha, and recalling that night when
+he had first slept at the cottage.  He was wondering how it all was.
+Whether the sturdy elderly woman had some love affair.  Then he had, in
+spite of himself, thought of Sturgess, whom he had that day seen
+crossing one of the hills at a distance.  He recalled the Major's words
+and asked himself whether he, as a man, ought not in his resentment to
+have taken some step to punish the scoundrel.  But with the idea within
+his mental grasp, he had let it slide again.  For why, he asked himself,
+should he strike and jar the gentle, harmonious life of her who was so
+happy.
+
+Though the mine was so near, he had only seen his brother and the new
+deputy manager from time to time, at a distance, and his knowledge of
+the progress there came either from London or from Robson, who wrote
+occasionally, always to say that things were miserable, for Jessop and
+Sturgess were at daggers drawn, but the profits of the mine still rose.
+
+And now a letter had come down from the old lawyer--Mr Belton--
+endorsing the clerk's announcements, and saying that an extraordinary
+meeting was to be held through a movement on the part of Wrigley, and in
+connection with the advance of the mine under the new management.
+
+"I don't know what plans the man is going to propose, but you had better
+come up, my dear boy, and be present.  I daresay you will do more good
+here than by staying down there watching and keeping those people up to
+their work."
+
+So wrote the old family solicitor, and Clive's conscience smote him, as
+he recalled how little he had done, and how very small was the credit he
+deserved.  For his days had been spent in that dreamy pleasure at the
+cottage, and for the most part the mine was forgotten.
+
+But this letter had roused him to a sense of his duties, and, commending
+Dinah to her father's care, Clive departed once more for town, in happy
+unconsciousness of the fact that his every step was watched; while as
+his figure grew less and less as she watched him along the moorland
+track, Dinah's heart sank, and the old dread crept back at first like a
+faint mist, then growing more and more dense, until it was a black
+shadow between her and the sunshine of her life.
+
+"But it will not be long--he will not be long, he said," she whispered
+to herself.  "He will come back to-day."
+
+That was on the following morning.  But there was no Clive, and on the
+second morning she rose hopeful, saying the same words--"He will come
+to-day;" and she waited eagerly till toward evening, when the Major said
+suddenly--
+
+"No message from Clive, pet.  I thought we should have a telegram."
+
+Dinah looked at him wistfully, and then her face brightened up.
+
+"That means," said the Major, "that he is coming back to-night.  Look
+here, my dear, I'll take the rod and get a brace or two of trout for his
+supper.  There are four or five fine fellows in the lower pool, where I
+haven't been for months.  You had better stop in case Clive comes."
+
+Dinah's face clouded over again.
+
+"Nothing to mind, my dear.  I saw Robson this morning, and he told me
+that Jessop and that black scoundrel went up to town to the meeting the
+same day as Clive.  I suppose they didn't meet in the train.  If they
+did, I hope my dear boy turned them both out in the first tunnel they
+went through.  There, I'm off."
+
+The autumn evenings were upon them, and the sun dipped behind the crags
+of the millstone grit earlier now; and that evening, to prove the truth
+of the Major's prophecy, Clive Reed trudged over the hill track leading
+from Blinkdale past the `White Virgin' mine, where the roadway had been
+widened and fresh tram-lines laid, to meet the necessities of the vastly
+increased traffic.  He frowned when he saw all this, for it jarred upon
+him that so much advance should have been made under other management;
+but the cloud passed away, for he met a group of men returning from
+their work, to the cottages down in the valley--men for whom there was
+not room in the new buildings, or who preferred their old homes.  These
+were for the most part known to him, and they greeted him with a
+friendly smile or touch of the cap as they passed.
+
+Clive longed to stop them and ask questions, but he felt that he could
+not stoop to a meanness, and he went on in the soft evening glow
+watching the golden-edged purple clouds in the west, across which the
+boldly marked rays of the sun struck up, growing fainter till they died
+away high up towards the zenith.  There was a pleasant scent of dry
+thyme from the banks, and the familiar odour of the bracken as he
+crushed it beneath his feet, or brushed through it and the heather and
+gorse.  Only a couple of miles farther and he would be passing the spoil
+bank, and going along the rock shelf in the tunnel-like cutting, along
+by the perpendicular buttress which stood out from the lead hills like a
+bold fortification.  Then half a mile down and down to the river, where
+the lights from the cottage would strike out suddenly from the ravine
+garden, and he could steal up, and announce his coming.
+
+He knew he would see the light, for it would be dark before he passed
+the spoil bank, almost before he reached the entrance to the gap--the
+natural gateway to the `White Virgin' mine.
+
+And how prosperous the place had proved!  How correct the dear old dad
+had been!  But how bitterly he would have resented Jessop's
+interference!
+
+Clive laughed almost mockingly, as he thought of the vote of thanks to
+Mr Jessop Reed, carried at the meeting with acclaim, for the vast
+improvements he had made, and the increasing prosperity, all of which
+were, of course, the natural growth of his own beginnings.
+
+"Never mind," he said directly after; "let the poor wretch enjoy the
+satisfaction of having tricked me.  Better be Esau than Jacob, after
+all.  But I knew that lode must prove of enormous value, and I get my
+share of the prosperity."
+
+He walked on more rapidly, but with a free, easy swing, enjoying the
+fresh mountain air, so bracing after the stuffy heat of the sun-baked
+London streets.  The heavens had grown grey in the west, and it was as
+if a soft dark veil were being drawn over the sky, where from time to
+time a pale star twinkled, disappeared, and came into sight again.
+
+Then the gap was reached, and a strong desire came over him to go down
+and look about to see how the place appeared, for the chances were that
+he would not be heeded.  But no: he resisted the desire.  His brother
+and Sturgess might be back, and staying late at the office, when a
+meeting would probably lead to a fierce quarrel.
+
+"Just when I want to be calm and happy, ready to take my darling in my
+arms," he said softly.  "Poor Janet!  I thought I loved you very dearly,
+but I did not know then that my fancy for the poor, weak, unhappy girl
+was not love."
+
+He walked faster, for it was as if there was a magnet at the cottage,
+and its attractive power was growing stronger as he went along the shelf
+path, round by the spoil bank, and on in the darkness to the path
+notched in the perpendicular side of the rugged hill.
+
+"Just the time for a cigarette," he said; and he took one, replaced his
+case, and then taking advantage of the sheltered tunnel close by the
+cavernous part where Sturgess had watched and waited for his return, he
+prepared to light up in the still calm air away from the brisk breeze
+outside.
+
+The box was in his hand; he had taken out a little wax match to strike,
+when he stopped short as if turned to stone, for there, close by him, he
+heard in a low murmur--
+
+"Yes, I knew that you would come."
+
+Dinah's voice; and as he struck the match and it flashed out into a
+vivid glare, there, within two yards, she stood clasped tightly in his
+brother Jessop's arms.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+DIVIDED.
+
+Jessop started aside in abject fear, and made a rush to escape by
+passing his brother in the narrow path, but, with a cry of rage, Clive
+struck at him.
+
+The blow was ineffective to a certain extent, but was sufficient to make
+Jessop stumble and fall forward heavily.  Before, however, his brother
+could seize him, he had scrambled up and ran along that shelf-like path
+as if for his life, while, as Clive started in pursuit, mad almost with
+despair and rage, a low, piteous, sobbing cry arrested him, and he
+turned back into the dark tunnel with his temples throbbing, his eyes
+feeling as if on fire, and a strange mad desire to kill thrilling every
+nerve.
+
+"Clive, Clive! what have I done!" came out of the darkness; and quick as
+lightning his arms went out, and he caught the speaker savagely by the
+shoulders, his hands closing violently upon the soft yielding muscles,
+and then falling helplessly to his sides, as if that touch had
+discharged every particle of force with which he was throbbing.
+
+"Clive," she cried; "I thought--your message--oh, speak to me."
+
+"Silence!" he cried, in a low harsh voice, which made her tremble.  But
+the next moment, wild with excitement--and as they stood there in the
+darkness, face to face, but invisible one to the other--she stepped
+towards him, and caught his arm in turn.
+
+"Clive, dear," she cried wildly.  "Oh, for God's sake, speak to me!  You
+don't think--"
+
+"Think!" he cried, with a furious, mocking laugh.  "Yes, I think all
+women are alike--a curse to the man who is idiot enough to believe."
+
+She drew a long, sobbing breath as she shrank from him now, the words of
+explanation which had leaped to her lips checked on the instant by the
+shame and indignation with which she was filled; and the next moment she
+was like stone in her despair.
+
+"I am sorry that I returned so soon," he said, in a bitter, sneering
+tone; "but I have some respect for the poor old Major--even now.  Come
+back."
+
+She did not speak, but he could hear her breath come in a short, quick,
+catching way.
+
+"You hear me?" he said harshly.  "Come back to your father now; but
+don't speak to me, or the mad feeling may rise again.  I cannot answer
+for myself."
+
+"Take me home," she said, in tones that he did not recognise as hers,
+and once more the furious rage within him flashed up like fire, as in
+his wild, jealous indignation he cried--
+
+"And him of all men.  Quick!  Back to the cottage first."
+
+He caught her wrist now so fiercely that the pain was almost unbearable,
+but she did not shrink.  The suffering seemed to clear her brain, and in
+a flash she saw a horror that made her tremble.
+
+"Clive," she cried excitedly, "what are you going to do?"
+
+He laughed bitterly.
+
+"Perhaps what you think," he said.  "Likely enough.  What should the man
+do to one who robs him twice.  Why not?  There is not room for two such
+brothers upon earth."
+
+She panted to speak, but no words came for a time, as with her wrist
+prisoned with a grasp of iron, she let him lead her back toward the
+cottage half a mile away--out now from the rock cutting, to where the
+stars shone down upon them with their calm, peaceful glimmer, as if
+there were no such thing as human passion upon earth.
+
+At last she spoke.
+
+"Clive, you will not hear me," she pleaded now, as her womanly
+indignation was swept away by the great horror she saw looming up before
+her.
+
+"No," he said, "I will not hear you.  I know enough.  Are you trembling
+for your lover's life?"
+
+"Oh!" she ejaculated, and she made an effort to snatch away her wrist;
+but the ring around it grew tighter as they walked on now in silence,
+till in her dread, as the icy perspiration gathered upon her forehead,
+she stopped short and faced him.
+
+"I would not speak," she said, in a low hurried voice.  "You should go
+on thinking me everything that was false and bad.  I would not say a
+word to show how you are misjudging me."
+
+He laughed scornfully.
+
+"But I will not have you go in your mad anger and ignorance to commit
+some act for which you would repent to your dying day."
+
+"Only a short time of suffering, perhaps," he said mockingly.
+
+"Oh, Clive! you of all men to misjudge me so," she moaned.  "Let me tell
+you all."
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated, as he fiercely swung her round and continued his
+walk, half dragging her beside him as if she were a prisoner.
+
+"You do not know, dear--there: I call you dear," she whispered, in her
+sweet, soft, caressing voice.  "You are hurting me terribly with your
+cruel grasp, but it is nothing to the agony you make me suffer by
+believing I could be so deceitful and base."
+
+He laughed mockingly again, and she drew in her breath with a low sigh,
+as a wave of hot indignation mastered her once more, and closed her
+lips.
+
+But love prevailed once more.  She stopped, and tried to fling herself
+upon his breast, clinging wildly to him with the arm that was free.
+
+"No, no; Clive, my own love, my hero, I would rather that you killed me
+than believed all this."
+
+He repulsed her with a cry of disgust, and again there was the low
+sighing sound of her breath, but she went on again--
+
+"I forgive you, dear," she said hurriedly.  "You are my own; I am yours.
+I gave myself heart and soul to you, Clive, and you shall hear me."
+
+He tried to drag her onward along the path, but she would not stir, and
+nothing but the most cruel violence would have moved her then, as she
+went on.
+
+"Something tries to make me say `Go on in your disbelief, for you are
+cruel, and do not deserve my love!' but I must, I will speak.  Kill me,
+then, if you will not believe.  It would be so easy.  There," she cried;
+and she took a step before him right to the edge of the path where the
+precipice went perpendicularly down to the rough stones among which the
+river gurgled three hundred feet below.
+
+He made a snatch to drag her back, but she resisted him and stood firm.
+
+"I was sitting at home--alone," she said hurriedly, "when the man
+brought your message."
+
+"My message!" he cried, with a mocking laugh.
+
+"Yes; your telegram with its few words which sent joy to my weary heart,
+as I waited for news of him I loved."
+
+"My telegram!" he said, with the same low, harsh laugh.  "There, back
+home to your father, woman.  I believed, but I am awake now, and can be
+fooled no more."
+
+She struggled with herself again, and panted wildly.
+
+"You must, you shall believe me, dear.  I forgive you all this because I
+know it is your great love for me, and you think I have deceived you.
+Yes; I know what you must feel, dear, and so I beat down all my cruel
+anger, and humble myself like this in my pity for you and despair.  I
+read your dear words."
+
+"My words!  I sent no telegram.  I came down hurrying to be once more at
+the side of the woman who in my folly I believed to be a saint.  I come
+and I find her clasped in the arms of my greatest enemy--my own
+brother--and you talk to me like this."
+
+She uttered a low, piteous wail, and the struggle within her was
+intense.
+
+"Yes, it is true; you sent me that message--`Coming down by the three
+six train to Blinkdale.  Meet me along the high path.'"
+
+"It is false," he cried hastily.
+
+"No, no," she cried, as her hand went to the bosom of her dress, and she
+snatched out a crumpled-up piece of paper.  "Take it and read."
+
+He made a fierce clutch at the paper she held out in the darkness, half
+to take it, half to strike it from her hand, as only part of some
+miserable deceit, and the latter act was successful, for it fell down
+the side of the precipice--down toward the river surging on its way.
+
+She muttered a wild cry, and then went on quickly.
+
+"It was late--my father had gone out, but I would not disappoint you,
+Clive; and I came on, shivering as I found it would soon be dark; but I
+knew that your strong arms would soon be round me to protect me, and I
+hurried on, till there in the darkest part I felt that you were waiting
+for me, and--that is all."
+
+Her hurried, passionate words ceased, and she ended her explanation with
+those three feeble, lame, to him inconclusive, words.  Then yielding
+herself to his pressure, she walked on by his side, broken, exhausted by
+her emotion, dumb now, as she waited for him to speak.  She waited in
+vain till the river side was reached, and from lower down in the
+darkness there came a cheery whistle as the Major was returning from the
+long walk into which he had been drawn by his ill success.
+
+Clive Reed's nerves twitched, but he turned rapidly through the garden
+with Dinah half fainting, and ready to cling to one of the supports of
+the porch as he at last set her free.
+
+"What--Clive--dearest," she whispered faintly--"tell me--what are you
+going to do?"
+
+He bent down with his lips close to her ear, and whispered sharply--
+
+"Kill him--or he shall me."
+
+Then, with a hurried step he sprang up through the higher part of the
+garden in and out among the shrubs and bushes, climbed on to the very
+top, and struck out over the mountain slopes.
+
+Dinah listened till the rustling sounds he made died away, and then, hot
+and trembling, she went up slowly to her room, and sat down with her
+face buried in her hands; but there was no relief--the source of her
+tears was dry.
+
+Clive took a short cut across the rugged moorland, and twice over he
+narrowly escaped death.  The first time he was pulled up short by coming
+violently in the darkness against the rough, unmortared wall built up
+round an ancient shaft on the mine land; and as he checked himself by
+grasping the loose stones, one of them fell over and went down and down,
+striking once against the side, and sending a chill through him as a
+reverberating roar came up, followed at a short interval by a dull
+echoing splash, after which he could hear the water hiss and suck
+against the sides, sending up strange whisperings, which sounded to his
+disturbed imagination like demoniacal confidences about Dinah Gurdon and
+his brother.
+
+He hurried away, as another stone was dislodged, and the sullen plunge
+came to his ear when he was yards distant, tearing along in the most
+reckless way, to trip at last over a stone and fall headlong down one of
+the deep gully-like ravines with which the mountain land was scored.
+
+He caught at a rough projection, against which he struck, and held on
+while a little avalanche of stones continued falling; then half-stunned
+and trembling from the shock, crept back again to proceed more
+cautiously along the edge of the gully, making for the path once more,
+fully awake now to the fact that it was utter madness to attempt to
+cross that region in the darkness.
+
+"Not yet," he muttered, with a savage laugh, "I must square accounts
+with brother Jessop first."
+
+Then he laughed as he wiped away the blood which had trickled down like
+perspiration from a cut in the forehead, and which came like a blessing
+in disguise, relieving, as it bled freely, the tension upon his
+overcharged brain; for if ever man was on the border-line which
+stretches between sanity and utter madness, Clive Reed was then.
+
+"Of course," he said, "I am a fool, a pitiful, childlike fool, ever to
+imagine that a light-hearted girl would care for such a dreamy student
+as I--a man whose whole conversation is about mines and shares, and
+money.  I had my lesson with Janet, who tolerated me, as long as she
+could, for her father's sake; but I would not take it, and went on in my
+folly once more.  Jessop again!  Of course: the good-looking,
+well-dressed, plausible scoundrel.  They always said he was a ladies'
+man, and the more infidelities proved against such a one, the more
+attractive he becomes, I suppose."
+
+"Ah!" he ejaculated savagely, "what is it to me?  It shall not be for
+that, but for the money.  If I want an idol, it shall be gold, and he is
+trying to rob me of it."
+
+He struggled on, stumbling in the darkness over stones and tufts of
+heather, till he reached a rift which led sloping to the pathway close
+by the tunnel-like notch, and as he let himself down on to the firm,
+level way, he ran through the dark part with his hands holding his head
+as if to keep it from bursting with the agonising memories of what he
+had witnessed that night, a scene photographed upon his brain by that
+sharp flash of light before all was black darkness--a darkness which now
+enshrouded his soul.
+
+"But I must be cool and strong," he muttered, as he subsided into a walk
+once more, and went steadily on toward the entrance to the mine gap with
+a confused idea in his head that he would hunt down his brother, bring
+him to bay, and then--
+
+Yes--and then?  His brain carried him no farther.  Something was to
+happen then to one of them; and he only muttered an insane, mocking
+laugh, and either could not or would not try to plunge into the future.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+ANOTHER STROKE.
+
+"Where's your mistress, Martha?" said the Major, as he entered the
+cottage, and handed the old servant the creel.  "What--has Mr Reed
+come?"
+
+"No, sir," said the old woman, shaking her head, as she opened the
+basket, and looked at the three brace of handsome trout lying in a bed
+of freshly-plucked heather.  "Poor girl! she has been wandering about in
+the garden and in the path this hour past, and only came in when it was
+quite dark.  I heard her go up into her bedroom and lock the door, and I
+could hear her sobbing as if her heart would break."
+
+"Tut--tut--tut!" ejaculated the Major, as he glanced at his watch.
+"Humph, too late for him to get here this evening."
+
+"Shall I cook the trout, sir?" asked Martha.
+
+"Cook them?  Yes, two, woman, of course.  I'm starving.  I've been miles
+and miles to get them.  I want some supper as soon as you can.  Dear,
+dear!" he said softly, as the servant went out, "what a nuisance this
+love is!  I shall be glad when they're married."
+
+"No, I shall not," he said to himself after a pause.  "Poor child!  She
+was reckoning so on seeing him to-night."
+
+He took a turn up and down his little room, and then sought for and
+filled his pipe.
+
+"Finest lot of trout I've caught for months.  I should have liked the
+boy to be here.--Poor little lassie!" he sighed, "how she loves him.
+Well, he's a fine fellow and worthy of her."
+
+He struck the match, raised it to his pipe, and threw it down again,
+placed his newly-filled pipe on the chimneypiece, and went softly into
+the passage and upstairs to the door of Dinah's room, where he tapped,
+and again before his child answered.
+
+"Coming down, my darling?  Supper will be ready directly."
+
+"Don't ask me, dear," she said.  "I am so unwell to-night."
+
+"Her voice is quite changed," thought the Major.  "She must have been
+crying bitterly."  Then aloud--
+
+"But, Dinah, my dear, don't, pray don't take on like this.  Come, come,
+be a dear, strong-minded little woman.  Business has stopped him.  He'll
+be here to-morrow I daresay.  Come, I say.  I shall be so lonely without
+your dear face at the table."
+
+The door was opened softly, a little white hand stole out through the
+narrow crack, and played about his face for a few minutes caressingly
+before it was withdrawn.
+
+"I cannot--indeed I cannot come down," she whispered tenderly; and the
+hand stole out again, and its back was laid against his lips, for him to
+kiss it lovingly.  "Indeed I am unwell and must lie down again.  My head
+is unbearable."
+
+"Very well, my dear," said the Major sadly.  "But, Dinah, my little one,
+don't--try not to give way like this.  Silly girl," he continued, as he
+kissed the little white cold hand he held, and laughed.  "I've a good
+mind to tell him what a love-sick little goose it is."
+
+The Major did not hear the piteous, broken-hearted sob which followed
+his words, for the door was closed, but went down and ate his supper
+alone: nor did he know of the sleepless night his child passed as she
+went over the events of the evening again and again till her head grew
+confused, her brain wild, and as she sank upon her knees with uplifted
+hands it was in a rebellious spirit, to ask what had she done that the
+love time of her young life should be turned to one of misery and
+despair.
+
+Dinah's pale drawn face and the dark rings about her eyes when she
+appeared at breakfast the next morning raised a feeling akin to
+resentment in the Major's heart; but he said nothing, only kissed her
+tenderly, and making an effort to rouse her from her state of
+despondency, chatted pleasantly about his fishing adventures on the
+previous evening, and the cunning displayed by trout at that time of the
+year.
+
+"I declare, my dear, that I was ready to give up over and over again.
+Their eyes are as sharp as a needle, and it was not until it was almost
+dark that I could get them to look at a fly, and then it was only at the
+very smallest gnat I could put on.  Come," he cried, as he tapped the
+plate upon which he had placed one of the broiled trout, "don't let my
+poor fish spoil.  They're good for nervous headache, puss, and Master
+Clive has missed a treat."
+
+It was hard work to preserve her composure and gratify the old man by
+eating a little, but Dinah tried, and succeeded, saying to herself the
+while--"He will come soon and ask me to forgive him for all his cruel
+thoughts and words, and I ought to hold back and refuse, but I cannot.
+For, poor love, what he must have suffered.  I should have been as mad
+and cruel had I seen him holding another to his heart.  I could not bear
+it--I should die."
+
+She brightened up a little then, as the Major chatted on, but she did
+not hear a word, for she was fighting a feeling of resentment against
+her betrothed and beating it down, her eyes losing their dull, filmy
+look as she thought of that meeting to come when he would be asking her
+to forgive him, and she told him that she had never had a thought of
+love that was not his, never could have one that was not loyal and true
+to the man who had first increased the beating of her pulses.
+
+Then, all at once, she gave a violent start, and dropped the cup she
+held into its saucer.
+
+"Why, what is the matter now, darling?" cried the Major, as he saw her
+eyes half close and her pale face flush to the very temples.
+
+She made a quick gesture toward the open window.
+
+"Well, what does that mean?" cried the Major.  "You are as nervous as an
+old woman.  There is nothing there.  By George, there is.  What ears you
+have!  How has he managed it?  Here, quick!  Ring and tell Martha to
+bring a cup and saucer, and to broil another trout.  He'll be as hungry
+as a hunter after his morning's walk."
+
+For steps were perfectly audible now coming along the stony path; but
+Dinah did not spring from her chair to hurry out and meet their visitor,
+but sank back, with the flush dying out once more, leaving her face
+almost ghastly, as her heart told her that Clive was not coming to ask
+her forgiveness.  It was not his quick, impatient step; and the
+endorsement of her thoughts came directly from just outside the window,
+through which the Major had hurriedly stepped.
+
+"Morning, Mr Robson," he cried.  "I thought it was Mr Reed.  Good
+heavens, man, what's wrong?"
+
+"I hardly know, sir," said the young man hastily.  "Two of our men
+coming to work this morning found him in a cleft, bruised and bleeding
+from a cut on the head."
+
+"A fall?" cried the Major.
+
+"No, sir.  Been set upon and half murdered, I'm afraid.  Ah, Miss
+Gurdon!  I'm very sorry, I didn't know you were there."
+
+For Dinah had just made her appearance at the window, having heard every
+word.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+WITH THEIR OWN PETARD.
+
+"Go on," cried the Major excitedly; "she must hear it now.  Hold up, my
+child, only an accident--a slip: trying to make some short cut in the
+dark.  Now, then," he continued, with military promptitude, "when did
+they find him?"
+
+Dinah listened with her head held forward, lips white and trembling, and
+her nostrils dilated, hearing her father's words, and all the time
+picturing, in imagination, a desperate encounter between two brothers on
+the dark hillside.  Then the one misjudging, bitter, and mad about her,
+struck down, to lie through the night half dead, with upbraidings
+against her upon his lips.
+
+It was like a flash: she saw the whole scene while the young clerk went
+on in answer to the Major.
+
+"Just off the path, sir."
+
+"And what have you done?"
+
+"Had him carried directly to my rooms at the office, sir."
+
+"Where his brother is seeing to him?"
+
+"No, sir; Mr Jessop Reed has gone off in haste to London on business.
+Left a letter for Mr Sturgess.  He's ill too, sir.  Half delirious with
+his bad shoulder, which has broken out again."
+
+"Tut--tut--tut!" ejaculated the Major.  "Well?  You did something more?"
+
+"Yes, sir, sent off directly to Blinkdale for the doctor, bathed and
+bound up Mr Reed's head, and then came on to you."
+
+"Good!" cried the Major sharply, clapping the young man on the shoulder,
+and drawing him into the room.  "Sit down and swallow a cup of coffee,
+my lad.  You've had no breakfast.  Dinah, my child, be a woman.  We'll
+go over at once.  No.  You and Martha make a bed for him in my study.
+I'll have him carried here.  He cannot stay at that noisy mine."
+
+"Yes--yes," said Dinah, in a whisper, as with trembling hands she
+hurriedly placed the coffee before the messenger.  "Martha will get that
+ready, father.  I must come too."
+
+"No, no, my child!--well, yes, you may be of use.  Be quick, then.  In a
+minute we must be off."  Then, as Dinah ran up to her room, he went to
+the study and returned hastily, placing something in his breast.
+
+"Old soldiers know a little about surgery, Mr Robson," he said.  "It
+will be a couple of hours before the doctor can get to the mine."
+
+"Three, sir."
+
+"Perhaps, and I may be of use."
+
+"I thought you would come, sir," said Robson, as he hurriedly appeased
+his hunger.  "There's something wrong, too, at the mine, so one of the
+principal men says, but I didn't stop to hear what it was, for I was
+coming on here."
+
+"Curse the mine!" roared the Major; "let's think of poor Mr Reed.  Ah,
+that's right, my dear," he cried sharply, as Dinah came into the room,
+looking very white, but firm and determined.  "Ready, Mr Robson?"
+
+"Quite, sir," said the messenger, starting up.
+
+"Tell Martha, my dear?"
+
+Dinah nodded.  She could not speak, and the next minute they were down
+by the river, and then ascended the mountain path, walking quickly along
+the narrow shelf, with thrill after thrill passing through the girl, as
+she went by the spot where Clive had struck the paper she had offered
+him from her hand; and this was supplemented by a suffocating feeling of
+despair as they reached the cool, dark, shady cutting, tunnelled out in
+the precipitous cliff.  Here she glanced wildly at the spot where she
+had flown, as she believed, to her lover's arms, and rested in them for
+a moment, murmuring her delight that he had come.
+
+There was a heavy dull pulsation in her brain, as she passed on with her
+father out into the sunshine once again, deafening her to the words he
+spoke from time to time, while the mountain side seemed to swim around
+before her and the purple heather to rise and fall in waves till the gap
+was reached.  That pathway to the mine chasm with all its host of
+terrible recollections brought her back to the present with a shock, and
+she walked down it clinging to her father's arm.
+
+She shivered and felt cold now as she gazed wildly before her.  It was
+wonderfully changed, but the salient points were the same, and she
+hardly noted the many buildings which had sprung up, but gazed excitedly
+round, expecting moment by moment that her eyes would light upon the
+fierce mocking face of Sturgess; while by a strange confusion of ideas,
+the beating of her heart seemed to form itself into the heavy steps of
+the man from whom she fled panting with horror, coming in rapid pursuit.
+
+She started nervously again and again, as the figure of some sturdy
+workman passed before them, coming or going from different portions of
+the busy hive, where a steam-engine was panting heavily, or a huge pump
+toiled on tossing out the water from the depths of the mine to run
+gurgling along by the side of the path they followed.
+
+At last the new-looking offices were reached, and a group of workmen
+drew away to let them pass, while Dinah gazed round nervously, clinging
+more tightly now to her father's arm, feeling sure that in another
+moment or two she must face the man she feared.
+
+A spasm shot through her, as Robson exclaimed sharply--
+
+"How is he?"
+
+And she strained her ears for the answer from a man in the doorway.
+
+"Just the same, sir.  He hasn't moved."
+
+The next question turned her giddy.
+
+"Where is Sturgess--in his room?"
+
+"No, sir.  He got up when they told him, and went down the mine."
+
+"Why, he wasn't fit to stir!  This way, sir."
+
+Robson led them into his room; and there Dinah fell upon her knees
+beside a mattress, upon which, pale and stern, with his head enveloped
+in a broad bandage, lay Clive Reed, his eyes half-closed, and his lips
+moving as he went on muttering incoherently; while as Dinah bent down
+over him, she heard her name faintly whispered.
+
+For a moment she believed that it was in recognition of her presence,
+and her heart gave one great leap of joy.  But it sank down directly
+into a slow, feeble beat, as she grasped only too truly that the speaker
+was delirious, and there was a look in his face which sent a terrible
+foreboding to her heart.
+
+"Let him not die, O God, without knowing that I was his very own," she
+moaned to herself, as an intense longing came over her to clasp him
+tightly to her heart.
+
+Then she gave way, and rose with a low sigh, as her father said
+sternly--
+
+"Let me come, my child.  Minutes are precious.  At all costs we will get
+him away from here."
+
+What followed was like a dream, but she heard the Major's sharp military
+voice as he gave decisive commands.  She saw him remove the bandage and
+replace it with another well saturated with water, and then as she stood
+back, she saw four sturdy, willing men stoop down at her father's order,
+each take a corner of the thin, narrow mattress upon which Clive lay,
+and keeping step, bear him out of the place and along the path toward
+the entrance of the gap.  Then she was conscious that she was walking
+behind in the little procession, with the Major grasping her arm, and
+carrying a large bottle of water.
+
+"It is the best way," he said, "and he will see the doctor all the
+sooner, for he must pass us on his way from Blinkdale."
+
+The little procession went steadily on, Robson leaving them now, and
+Dinah's breath came more freely as they reached the mouth of the gap,
+and turned round on to the path without Sturgess having been seen.  In
+this fashion they made their way steadily on to the cottage, the Major
+calling a halt, so that he could saturate the bandage from time to time.
+But the little ambulance party had hardly passed out of sight of the
+mine entrance, when in answer to the signal the engine gear began to
+work, the wire rope ran over the wheel as it revolved rapidly, till with
+a sudden clang the ascending cage reached the platform and Sturgess
+stepped out, with his arm and shoulder roughly bound up, and with a wild
+look in his eyes as they burned feverishly above his hollow, pallid
+cheeks.
+
+The captain of one of the underground gangs stepped out after him, and
+laying a hand upon his arm, said quietly--
+
+"You take my advice, Mr Sturgess; that place is turning ugly.  You go
+and lie down again, and let the doctor see it when he comes."
+
+"You hold your tongue for a fool," said Sturgess savagely; and then he
+made a lurch as if he had turned giddy, but he recovered himself
+directly.  "Here, some of you: where's Mr Jessop Reed?"
+
+"I told you," said Robson, who came up just then, "he has gone to town."
+
+"It's a lie!" said Sturgess.  "He wouldn't have gone without telling
+me."
+
+"Then he told it himself on paper," said Robson coolly.  "I read you
+what he said."
+
+"And it's a lie, and so is what Smithers says like a fool."
+
+"Ah! you told me there was something wrong below just as I was off this
+morning," said Robson eagerly.  "Nobody hurt, Smithers?"
+
+"Nobody hurt?" said the man, with a coarse laugh; "well, I suppose
+everybody concerned.  It's a general burst up, Mr Robson."
+
+"A lie.  All a lie," said Sturgess, stretching out his hands and groping
+as if to save himself from falling.  "All a big flam."
+
+"Is it? you'll see," muttered the captain.
+
+"A lie, I say!" growled Sturgess, half-deliriously, as he looked round
+from one to the other, pressing his hand to his heated shoulder all the
+while.  "A lie, I say, to frighten the people into selling their shares,
+and they did, the fools.  Bah!  The `White Virgin's' the richest mine in
+England, and I'll break the neck of any one who says it arn't!"
+
+"No, you won't break anybody's neck," said the man gravely, "unless it's
+your own, Mr Sturgess, and unless you take care you're going to be very
+badly.  It's all true, Mr Sturgess.  I thought that lode couldn't go on
+yielding like it did."
+
+"In Heaven's name, man, what do you mean?" cried Robson.
+
+"Only this, sir: we've come upon a blind lead."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The lode has stopped dead in the rock, and we can't find any more trace
+of it.  Nothing but the stone, and I don't believe there'll be another
+scrap of ore ever found."
+
+"A blind lead," cried Robson, astounded.
+
+"Yes, sir, that's it; and if Mr Clive Reed holds any shares still it's
+a cruel bit of news for him.  As for the other chaps--well, they can
+take their chance.--Ah, I thought so!"
+
+For Sturgess had reeled and nearly fell, to be lowered down by the man,
+breathing stertorously, evidently insensible to all that passed around.
+
+The news was true.  The rumour Wrigley and Jessop Reed had set afloat
+for their own nefarious ends had proved prophetic.  Hoist with their own
+petard, they had yet to learn that they were ruined men.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+THE DAYS OF PERIL.
+
+"Live, my own dearest, live," murmured Dinah, as she knelt beside
+Clive's couch, listening to his never-ending mutterings, as the fever
+ran its course, and mingled with the incessant babblings about the mine,
+his brother's trickery and deceit, she heard him burst into torrents of
+reproaches against him who was slandering his character.  Then would
+come appeals and declarations of his innocency, and Dinah's tears fell
+softly as he rambled on about Lyddy.
+
+"Shame on you, Janet!" he would cry.  "How could you think it of me?
+That I came telling you of my love fresh from the embraces of that weak
+creature.  Poor Lyddy!  A cruel betrayal of a weak, easily flattered
+girl.  I swear it was all false.  To save himself.  Yes: false as hell!
+But I pity you, dear.  You are my sister now; and I pity you."
+
+He would calm down for a while, and then begin again, mingling his
+troubles in so confused a fashion, that Dinah would grow puzzled.  But
+she could not tear herself away, and listened eagerly as the sick man
+rambled on, and laid bare the whole of his troubled life.
+
+Then she would writhe in her agony, as from out of the tangle her own
+name would come, and he grew excited as he wandered on, going back to
+hearing her sobbing in the next room, the shots pattering on the window,
+and on and on to the surprise in the tunnelled pathway.
+
+"All, all the same.  So gentle and loving, but all so weak.  Poor little
+sweet: so beautiful.  Her words would ring like music, and yet she could
+throw herself into his arms.  Forgive her?  Yes, I must forgive her.  So
+weak, so hard to trust."
+
+And then, sobbing gently, Dinah would bend over, and lay her cheek
+against his aching forehead, and whisper to him to believe in her.  That
+there was nothing to forgive--that she was his own, and that he must
+live to learn the truth or she would die.
+
+But her tender appeals were to one who could not understand.  Still they
+were a solace to her, as she hung about his bed.  She had him with her,
+the man who loved her so tenderly, and in those secret moments, when
+they were alone, often enough in the silent watches of the night, she
+could fall into an ecstasy of joy, as in the abandonment of her love,
+with none to know, she could draw the dear head upon her throbbing
+breast, and cover his face with her kisses.
+
+"My own, my loving husband!" she would coo softly in the midst of her
+caresses, at first with burning cheeks, later on with her pulses
+undisturbed, her heart suffused by a sweet placid joy which made her
+beam upon him as a mother over her babe.
+
+"Some day he will know all, and I can wait till then," she sighed, as
+even in the midst of her agony of doubt as to his recovery, she revelled
+in the joy of having him there insensible, ignorant of her caresses, but
+still all her own.
+
+The doctor had reached them soon after they arrived at the cottage, two
+of the bearers having been stationed upon high points to intercept him
+should he take any other track, and after his examination he had removed
+one horror from Dinah's breast.  For he declared the injury to be the
+result of a fall, and hence it was not through some furious encounter
+between brothers--a fratricidal strife.
+
+But the fall, he declared, was not the sole trouble.  There was fever,
+brain fever, and when pressed as to the result, he only shook his head,
+wisely, and said--
+
+"We shall see--we shall see."
+
+Then in obedience to a letter from the Major, Doctor Praed had come
+down, to enter the cottage fussy, tired, and irritable.
+
+"Most unreasonable, Major Gurdon, to bring me down to this
+out-of-the-way desert to see Clive Reed.  Hang him, and his brother too.
+They've been the curse of my life.  Dozens of important patients
+waiting for me, and I leave them to come down here to see this boy.
+Hang him, and his father too, sir.  I wish I had never seen them.
+Ruined me--almost, and I'm very glad the mine has turned out a failure,
+after all."
+
+"I am afraid you are a little tired with your journey, sir!" said the
+Major stiffly.
+
+"Tired, sir!  I don't seem to have a bone left.  Of course, I'm tired.
+How a sane man could ever come and live in such an out-of-the-way spot,
+I don't know."
+
+"A very peaceful spot, sir, for a heart-sore man," said the Major
+coldly.  "I will ask you to come and see the patient as soon as you feel
+refreshed."
+
+At that moment the door opened, and Dinah, looking pale, subdued, and
+anxious, appeared.
+
+The Doctor started from his seat.
+
+"Dinah, my child," said the Major, "Clive Reed's godfather, Doctor
+Praed.  Can he come up now?"
+
+The Doctor advanced, and took her hands, raised them one by one to his
+lips, and then letting them fall, he took her in his arms and kissed her
+forehead reverently.
+
+"God bless you, my dear!" he said, in a softened voice.  "So you are his
+tender nurse.  It is you whom he spoke of as her who had made him think
+the world was not all bad.  Hah, yes," he continued, looking at her
+curiously, "the face of an angel.  Major Gurdon, forgive my petulance.
+Getting old, sir.  Tired and worried.  I'm very glad you sent for me.
+Clive is my own dear boy.  I always looked upon him as a son.  There,
+I'm only an ignorant man, my dear," he continued, turning to Dinah with
+a pitiful smile on his face, "but with God's help and yours, he shall
+ask me to his wedding yet.  I'll come and claim the first kiss from her
+who is going to help me try and save his life.  Hah! now I feel ready to
+go to work.  As for the other patients, Major, there are plenty of
+doctors in town.  I'm going to stop here with my boy Clive."
+
+The tears coursed rapidly down Dinah's cheeks as she listened, while
+Doctor Praed patted the hand he held, and smiled.
+
+"Ah," he said, "you have no faith in me.  You think I am a prattling old
+man, who talks instead of acts.  Come along, and let's see my patient,
+only really, according to etiquette, I ought to be meeting your regular
+attendant in consultation."
+
+"He is twelve miles away, sir," said the Major rather coldly, "and
+unable to get over here much.  He said it was a case for nursing."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt," said the Doctor; and he followed Dinah to the
+patient's couch, and then drew up the blind and sat down by the pillow.
+
+"Poor boy!" he said tenderly, as he took Clive's hand and noted his
+hollow cheeks, large burning eyes, and the restless muttering he kept
+up.  "No doubt about it, my dear.  That injury is nothing.  Bled a good
+deal, you say?"
+
+"Terribly," whispered Dinah, with a suppressed sob.
+
+"Weakened him, but on the whole I should say it was favourable.  This is
+all brain, my child.  Overwork and anxiety.  He must have had some
+mental shock.  He must have known that his fathers pet scheme had failed
+before any one else had suspected the fact."
+
+Dinah looked at him piteously, as she felt that it was her doing, as
+much so as if her acts had been intentional instead of the work of
+others.
+
+"Well, this will not do," said the Doctor, replacing a tiny clinical
+thermometer in its case.  "His head is far too hot, and I suppose you
+have no ice here.  All this must come off."
+
+He pointed to the sufferer's hair, and Dinah's face contracted with
+horror.
+
+"I can't help it, my child.  Come; we must save his life.  Where are
+your scissors?  It will be a task for you.  Pooh! don't look like that,
+my dear.  It will all grow again."
+
+A few minutes later, with the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks,
+Dinah sat, carefully cutting off lock after lock, the Doctor looking on
+impatiently.
+
+"There," he cried at last, "you must let me do it, child.  You are
+snipping little bits off as if they were more precious than gold.  I
+tell you it must all come off at once.  His head ought, to be shaved.--
+Scissors."
+
+"No, no, please.  Let me," pleaded Dinah, hurriedly placing the scissors
+behind her.
+
+"Very well, then, will you cut close?"
+
+"But must it all be cut off?"
+
+"Every scrap, and at once.  It will relieve his poor burning head.  You
+can save a nice curly bit.  Save it all if you like."
+
+Dinah coloured, and darted at him a resentful look, then the sound of
+the scissors went on--snip, snip, as they closely sheared away the thick
+hair, the fall of every lock giving the operator a sharp pang.
+
+"Ah, that's better.  Closer by the temples.  The doctor you had ought to
+have insisted upon all that coming off at once."
+
+"He did," sighed Dinah; "but I pleaded so hard for it to be left that he
+gave way."
+
+"And you nearly killed the poor fellow--because you were so proud of
+him, eh?  But I will not reproach you.  Ah, no evasion, please.  Once
+for all I want that hair all removed, and possibly then I may think it
+necessary to operate with your father's razor--that is, if you do not do
+your work well."
+
+Dinah sighed, and went on, shivering slightly as she saw how she was
+disfiguring the poor fellow, but steeling herself now to her task, till
+it was thoroughly done.  Then she stood back full of remorse, and
+feeling that at last she had really done something which would make
+Clive hate her.
+
+"Now, we can give him a chance.  The cold bandages to his head will be
+of some service.  The wind can blow upon them, and the evaporation will
+take away a great deal of heat from the poor fellow's brain."
+
+To Dinah's great delight their patient soon grew calmer, and the low
+mutterings and tossing of the head from side to side partially subsided.
+
+"Well, sir," said the Major that evening, after patiently waiting for
+the Doctor to give him some report, "can you tell us that we may hope?"
+
+"I will not say that," replied the Doctor.  "Give me another twenty-four
+hours.  A fever like this is slow.  I must own that he is in a very
+critical condition; but do not tell your daughter that."
+
+The Major groaned.
+
+"If he dies it will kill her."
+
+"He shall not die if medical knowledge can save him," said the Doctor
+firmly.
+
+"And you will stay, sir?"
+
+"Stay?  Great heavens, man, his father and I were school-fellows.  His
+mother was like a dear sister to me; and as for this boy, I could not
+have thought more of him if he had been my own son.  Stay?  I sent a
+message back from the station to say that the date of my return was
+indefinite, and to place an old friend in charge of my practice.  I
+presume that you will find me an easy-chair and a crust of bread while I
+am here, and I shall not go till I feel that I can leave him safely to
+his nurse, or it has pleased God to take him into His rest."
+
+The Major's breast heaved, and he held out his hand, which was firmly
+grasped.
+
+"God bless you for those words," he said, with emotion.  "We must save
+him for her sake."
+
+Doctor Praed's forehead grew more wrinkled day by day; and there was a
+hard, stern look in his eyes as the time slowly glided on, and the fever
+fought stoutly against all the medical skill which could be brought to
+bear.
+
+And all the time he was haunted by the piteous, almost upbraiding, look
+of Dinah, which wistfully followed every movement, paining the old man
+so that at last he avoided it when he spoke to her; and in his ignorance
+inflicted stab after stab.
+
+"It is the great trouble which is killing him.  I never could have
+thought that he would care so much for money, my child.  But I suppose
+he felt that his honour was at stake after all that he said to his
+friends who took shares in the mine.  I wish you were not here."
+
+"Why, Doctor Praed?" said Dinah faintly, as she recalled her last
+parting from Clive, and thought how little the visitor knew.
+
+"Because I should like to let my tongue run loose and say all manner of
+evil things concerning that wretched mine.  But I suppose I must not."
+Dinah rose and laid her hand upon his arm.
+
+"You do not talk to me about Clive," she whispered.  "You cannot think
+of the agony I suffer."
+
+"I do not speak because to one like you it would be cruel to talk in the
+slow, hopeful twaddle used by some of my weak brethren.  My dear child,
+there is nothing to say.  His life is not in my hands.  We can only
+wait."
+
+"But, Doctor, think, for pity's sake, think--is there nothing that can
+be done?  It is maddening to stand here helpless and see him gliding
+slowly away from us.  For he is weaker.  I did hope that the quiet which
+has come over him was a change for the better.  I know now that it is
+all increasing weakness."
+
+"May I come in?" said the Major at the door.
+
+The Doctor hurriedly moved to him, glad of an excuse to escape from
+those pleading eyes, and followed the Major into the adjoining room.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+THE TURNING-POINT.
+
+"There is a messenger from the mine," the Major whispered.
+
+"Don't talk of it," said the Doctor angrily.  "Who is down there now?"
+
+"Mr Jessop Reed and that Mr Wrigley.  They are trying everything to
+discover a continuation of the lost lode."
+
+"Bah! let them.  Well, what do they want?  Do they expect me to operate
+on the vein and make it bleed again?"
+
+"No, no.  There is a man there, one Sturgess, the foreman, grievously
+ill, and this Mr Wrigley, knowing that you are here, has sent their
+clerk Robson over with a message begging you to see him."
+
+"I?  No: impossible.  Let him see the local man.  I am engaged solely to
+watch my old friend's son."
+
+This was said so decisively that the Major walked away, but stopped by
+the door and returned.
+
+"I don't like this man, Doctor," he said; "he once insulted my child."
+
+"What? insulted Dinah--the girl my poor boy worshipped!" cried the
+Doctor angrily; "then let him die."
+
+He added something respecting Michael Sturgess's future, as he angrily
+turned away.
+
+"Think again, Doctor," said the Major.  "They say the man is in a
+dangerous state.  He has been bad for some time.  It was from a fall, I
+believe, down one of the shafts."
+
+"That mine again.  Why, Major Gurdon, it has been a curse to every one
+who has had dealings with it.  Well, it's of no use to profess to be a
+Christian if one does not act up to it.  I'll just go in and see how
+Clive seems, and whether he can be left."
+
+"And then you will go?"
+
+"Oh yes, I suppose I must.  That's the worst of being a Christian.  One
+cannot hate or curse a man conscientiously.  Yes; I'll go and see the
+fellow, and I hope I shall not be tempted to give him too strong a
+dose."
+
+He went into the next room, bent over Clive for a few minutes, and rose
+as if satisfied.
+
+"You will not leave him," he said.
+
+"You think there is fresh danger?"
+
+"No, my child, the danger has always been great enough.  They want me to
+go and see a man at the mine--one Sturgess."
+
+Dinah started and shuddered.  The Doctor noticed it, and thought of her
+father's words.
+
+"You would rather I did not go."
+
+"I don't like you leaving me, but if it is urgent--"
+
+"They fear the man is dying."
+
+"As we forgive them that trespass against us," rose to Dinah's brain.
+"Yes, Doctor, you must go," she said softly; and he nodded his head.
+
+"Good girl," he said, and he left her.--"Ah, Janet, my child, why were
+you not like that?  My training, I suppose.--Now, sir, I am ready."
+
+Robson started from his seat in the porch, and led the way toward the
+mine, relating all he knew of the case to the Doctor as they went.
+
+"He was alone in the mine one morning, sir, and had a nasty fall.  He
+injured his shoulder a good deal, and refused to have any medical advice
+till it had all gone bad.  He said the doctors were fools, and that a
+bandage and cold water were all that was necessary."
+
+"And found out that some one was a bigger fool than the doctors, eh?"
+said the old man drily.
+
+"Yes, sir, I suppose so," replied the clerk, smiling.  "This way,
+please."
+
+He led the Doctor down to the little house apportioned to the foreman;
+and as they approached it, Jessop and Wrigley came out, the former, who
+looked haggard and careworn, seeming disposed to hurry away, but he
+mastered his shrinking and stood firm.
+
+"How do?" said the Doctor, with a short nod.  "Janet quite well?"
+
+"Yes, Doctor," cried Jessop eagerly, "and--"
+
+"Stand aside, please," said the old man testily.  "I want to talk to
+this gentleman.  Are you Mr Wrigley?"
+
+"I am, and I am very grateful to you for coming, sir.  I am very anxious
+about our man."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"This way, please."
+
+The Doctor followed into a bedroom where the man lay, hollow of cheek
+and half delirious, while one of the miners' wives was playing the part
+of nurse.
+
+"Mr Jessop Reed, I can dispense with your company, sir.  I want to be
+alone.  You can go too, my good woman, and you, Mr What's your name?
+Robson.  No, you stay, Mr Wrigley.  I may want to ask some questions."
+
+Jessop went out scowling.
+
+"A brute!" muttered the Doctor.  "Knows his brother is, perhaps, on his
+deathbed, and has never sent to ask how he is."
+
+The next minute he was examining the patient, who lay perfectly still,
+while a hideous wound in the shoulder, which was evidently of long
+standing, was bared.
+
+"Curious kind of hurt!" said the Doctor.  "Here's something within which
+irritates it."
+
+"Piece of rock splinter, perhaps," suggested Wrigley.
+
+"Very likely; but he will never get well with that in his flesh.--Don't
+groan, man.  It's to do you good.  Humph, look here.  I thought it was a
+singular injury."
+
+He held out a piece of green metal with some fine-looking letters upon
+it, and Wrigley examined them.
+
+"Eley!" he said.  "Why, it is a piece of a brass cartridge."
+
+"That's right.  The man has been shot.  Hallo!  That makes him wince.
+Why, he is hurt here, too, in this leg.  No doubt about this.  The bite
+of some animal.  Dog, I suppose.  Are you sure that our friend here is
+not a poacher?"
+
+"I never heard of anything of the kind," replied Wrigley.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the Doctor, "just the sort of case I should expect
+to meet with where men went out after game, and then lay in hiding after
+a fight with the keepers."
+
+"I can do no more now," he said, after a busy pause.  "I'll come and see
+him to-morrow, and dress the places again.  They will not kill him.  I
+daresay the wound in the shoulder will heal now; the bite, too, for a
+time--may break out again, though."
+
+Just then Wrigley's hand went to his pocket, and the Doctor frowned.
+
+"Never mind that, sir," he said.  "This was done out of charity.  If all
+I hear is right, we are fellow-sufferers."
+
+"You lost, then, by the mine," said Wrigley eagerly.
+
+"Yes, sir, heavily, when some confounded scoundrel put about that
+report, and made me join in the panic.  But the fellow who bought up the
+shares has been nicely trapped--and--why, hang it all, are you the Mr
+Wrigley?"
+
+"At your service, sir," said the solicitor coldly, but looking rather
+white.
+
+"Then, Mr Wrigley, I have the pleasure of telling you that you are a
+confounded scoundrel, and I'm glad you've lost by your scheme.  Stop!
+one word! what about Jessop Reed?"
+
+"He is outside, sir; you can speak to him."
+
+"Not I.  The pair of you hatched the swindle, I'll be bound.  Take care
+of this man, and he is to have no spirits or meat yet, but I'll come in
+and see him again."
+
+Wrigley said no more, and the Doctor marched out with his head up, gave
+Jessop a short nod, and strode back to continue his watching by Clive
+Reed's couch; but, on entering the room, he gave a start, for his
+patient's eyes turned to him directly.
+
+Dinah suppressed a cry, and the Doctor made her a sign to be silent,
+while he quickly sat down and took his patient's hand, which closed
+softly upon his fingers.  Then, as the eyes still gazed in his in a
+dreamy way, there was a faint smile of recognition.  Soon after the lids
+dropped softly, like those of a weary infant; and as the Doctor bent
+lower, there was a sigh, and the regular rise and fall of his breath.
+
+Dinah stood back with her hands clasped, her pupils widely dilated, and
+a beseeching look of agony in her eyes, as the Doctor slowly rose.
+Then, seeing the dread and horror painted in her face, he smiled, took
+her hand, and led her, trembling with hope and apprehension, out of the
+room.
+
+"Dying?" she cried, in a low, piteous, wailing tone.
+
+"Yes: we've killed the fever, and he is sleeping as peacefully as a
+child."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+One low, piteous sigh, and Dinah would have fallen to the floor had not
+the Doctor caught her in his arms, for she fainted dead away.
+
+The Major, who was, in his dread, always upon the _qui vive_, joined
+them on the instant, and helped to bear his child to a couch.
+
+"Overcome?" he whispered.
+
+"With joy.  Yes: our poor boy will live."
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+THE RUPTURED VEIN.
+
+"He's my father-in-law, Wrigley, but he's an old beast," said Jessop, in
+a low snarling tone, as the Doctor's steps died away in the distance.
+
+"I daresay he is," replied Wrigley; "but this is no time for pouring
+your domestic troubles on my head.  What did you mean by telling me that
+this man, Sturgess, fell down a shaft?"
+
+"That's what he told me--a brute!  I've no sympathy with him whatever,
+but I don't, want it to be said that we neglected him, in case he dies.
+We've got troubles enough."
+
+"Rather.  It's about as near utter ruin as a man can get.  Stockbroker?
+You're lucky if you don't turn stone-broker."
+
+"Mind what you're talking about.  You'll have that fellow Robson hear
+you."
+
+"Doesn't seem to matter to me who hears me now.  The game's up."
+
+"No, no, wait till that fellow comes and makes his examination."
+
+"Oh yes.  I'll wait.  Here by twelve, won't he?  But I'm not going to
+pin my faith to his coming.  To me as good an idea as ever man put upon
+the market has gone dead."
+
+"Yes, curse you, and ruined me," growled Jessop.  "You always were so
+cursed clever."
+
+"Come, I like that; ruined you, eh?  Ruin the ruined.  Why, for years
+past you've never been worth a rap, and have had to come to me to keep
+you going."
+
+"And pretty dearly I've had to pay for it."
+
+"Yes; a man who wants his bills discounted, and who is known to be stone
+broke, does have to pay pretty smartly for the risk that is run.  But
+never mind, Jessop, we must try something else.  I say, though, that
+father-in-law of yours is a tartar.  You don't expect to get anything
+out of him, do you?"
+
+"He must leave his daughter his money."
+
+"No, he mustn't.  There are plenty of hospitals and charities about.
+He'll never let you have a sou."
+
+"Can't you find some other cursedly nasty thing to tell me, Wrig,"
+snarled Jessop.  "It's infernally cowardly of you, that's what it is.
+Thank goodness, here's the engineer."
+
+"Then now we shall get out of our difficulties or plunge deeper in.  Why
+couldn't you know something about mining engineering, and so have saved
+this expense?"
+
+"Mr Wrigley?" said a quiet, solid-looking man, riding up to the office
+door.
+
+"My name is Wrigley, sir.  Are you Mr Benson?"
+
+"Yes; and I came as soon as I could, after I heard from the Woden Mine
+Company's secretary.  What is the question, gentlemen.  Deeper sinking?
+Troubled with water?"
+
+"No," said Jessop eagerly.  "The lode we have been working has suddenly
+come to an end in the solid stone."
+
+"I see.  A blind lead," said the newcomer, dismounting.
+
+"And we want advice as to what is best to do so as to hit again upon the
+ore," said Wrigley.  "I hear that you stand at the top of the tree in
+such matters."
+
+"Very kind of people to say so, sir," replied the mining engineer.  "I
+do my best.  But you used to have a first-class man here--Mr Clive
+Reed."
+
+"Yes; but he is dangerously ill, or I should have called him in," said
+Wrigley; and Jessop's countenance cleared.  "Well, sir, shall we go down
+the mine?"
+
+"Better let me go alone, sir," said the engineer.  "I cannot tell you
+what you want to know in a minute.  Perhaps it will take me a week."
+
+"Take your time, only get to work, and let's have the full truth, as
+soon as you can," said Wrigley, and the engineer nodded, had himself put
+into communication with the underground foreman, and passed the whole of
+the following week in the mine.  At the end of that time he announced
+that he was ready with his report, and an adjournment was made to the
+little office, where Wrigley threw himself into a chair, and Jessop lit
+a cigar which kept going out, and had to be re-lit again and again, as
+the expert began to read his carefully written report of his work from
+day to day.
+
+"My dear sir," said Wrigley at last, impatiently, "we do not want to
+hear what time you went into the mine each day, or when you came out,
+nor yet about how you tested the surroundings of the great lode in
+different places.  Let's have your final decision, and the position."
+
+"Very good, gentlemen.  I'll give you both together.  The lode ends dead
+against the barren rock."
+
+"Which we had already discovered," said Wrigley sarcastically.
+
+"Through a geological fault," continued the engineer; "and I have tried
+hard to make out whether the vein of silver lead, where it was snapped
+off in some convulsion, or gradual sinking, went down or up."
+
+"Down or up," said Jessop, who was listening eagerly, trying with
+nervous fingers to re-light his cigar from time to time.
+
+"If it went downward, by constant search and sinking--"
+
+"Money?" interrupted Wrigley.
+
+"I mean shafts, sir," said the engineer, smiling; "but you may include
+money; you might perhaps hit upon the lode again; but I am inclined to
+think, from the conformation of the strata, that the vein was snapped in
+two and thrust upward."
+
+"What!" cried Jessop, "then it must be close to the surface?"
+
+"I should say, sir, it was on the surface, and all cleared away hundreds
+upon hundreds of years ago."
+
+"But you would sink shafts to try if it had gone down?" said Wrigley,
+eyeing the engineer keenly.
+
+"No, sir; if it were my case I would be content with the money I had got
+out of the mine."
+
+"General burst up, Jessop, my lad," said Wrigley coolly.  "The `White
+Virgin's' reputation is smirched, and she is not immaculate after all.
+Thank you, Mr Benson, I am quite satisfied with your judgment.  There,
+you must have your cheque.  There will not be many more for any one."
+
+Just about the same time, after a week's trembling in the balance, Clive
+Reed had taken a turn which filled all at the cottage with hope.  His
+senses returned upon that day a week earlier; but after some hours' calm
+sleep, he woke in so enfeebled a state that it required all the efforts
+of nurse and doctor to keep him from sinking calmly away into the great
+sleep of all.
+
+Now he was undoubtedly amending, and getting better hour after hour,
+though still so weak that he was unconscious of who it was who tended
+him night and day.  Nothing seemed to trouble him.  Nature had
+prescribed utter rest so that she might have time to rebuild the waste,
+and the Doctor's chief efforts were directed towards keeping him free
+from the slightest trouble which might ripple the placid lake of his
+existence.
+
+"There now," he said, "let him sleep all he can.  That is the best."
+
+He walked over to the mine, arriving there soon after the engineer had
+gone, and avoiding Jessop, went straight into the room occupied by
+Sturgess, who lay waiting for him eagerly.
+
+"Better, arn't I, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes; getting stronger fast.  The festering wound looks healthy now."
+
+"What festering wound?" said the man, with a stare.
+
+"The one in your shoulder, which you said was caused by a fall."
+
+Sturgess scowled.
+
+"Lucky for you I was fetched to you in time, and then dressed the wound
+in your leg.  Your flesh was in a bad way, my man.  You should never
+neglect the bite of a dog."
+
+"Fear he should go mad?" said Sturgess grimly.  "No fear o' that one
+going mad now."
+
+"Shot him, I suppose."
+
+"Yes," said Sturgess, smiling.  "I shot him, Doctor.  When may I get
+about again?"
+
+"Oh, not for a week or two yet--perhaps three.  You mustn't hurry."
+
+"Can't you get me up in a week, sir?" said the man anxiously.  "I have
+got a good deal to do."
+
+"Not in the mine.  That's at an end."
+
+"Yes, I heard that.  But no, it arn't that.  It's business I want to
+settle about some one I know."
+
+"Ah, well, we shall see," said the Doctor.  "Be patient."
+
+He walked back to the cottage, and not seeing either the Major or his
+child, hung up his hat, and went to Clive's chamber, where he stopped
+short at the door, startled by the scene within.  For Dinah was in the
+act of advancing to the bed just as Clive lay half dozing.
+
+The sharp crack of a floor board roused him into wakefulness, and he
+opened his eyes wonderingly, so that they fell upon Dinah's sweet, sad
+face.
+
+The result was startling to the Doctor, and filled Dinah with agonising
+despair.  For as the light of recognition came into the suffering man's
+countenance, his features contracted, his brow wrinkled and twitched,
+and he turned his eyes away with a look of disgust and horror, while
+Dinah uttered a low moan, covered her face with her hands, and fled from
+the room, her whole attitude and every movement suggesting utter
+despair.
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+AFTER A LAPSE.
+
+"Why, my dear child, it is one of the commonest of things.  I've known
+plenty of cases of this kind, and I daresay your father has."
+
+Dinah looked at the Doctor wistfully, with her face growing old and
+careworn; but she said nothing, only turned to her father, as he took
+and held her hand.
+
+"Come, come, this will not do," continued the Doctor.  "I don't want to
+have you upon my hands as a patient.  Now, look here; I promise you that
+all will come right, and it is not the physic-monger speaking now, but
+your father's friend."
+
+The Major darted a grateful look at the speaker, while Dinah did not
+stir, but sat hardly hearing him, alone with her despair.
+
+"They do not know all," she said to herself; "they do not know all."
+
+"You see, my dear," continued the Doctor, "he is rapidly mending, and he
+knows us all, and speaks sensibly; but he is not quite _compos mentis_
+yet his brain had a nasty shock, from which it is recovering, but it
+must have time.  You feel it bitterly, of course, but it is a natural,
+though only temporary, outcome of this ailment.  Over and over again we
+doctors find that the one the invalid loves best--wife, mother,
+betrothed--is the one against whom he takes an unaccountable dislike,
+and in endless cases this is the one who has devoted herself to constant
+nursing.  Ah, they re an ungrateful lot, patients, when they are a bit
+off their heads.  I had one to whom I was administering nothing but beef
+tea, and water just flavoured with syrup of aurantia--orange and sugar,
+you know.  Well, that ruffian swore that I was slowly poisoning him."
+
+"But Reed has quite recovered his senses," said the Major uneasily; "it
+is six weeks to-day since he turned like this."
+
+"He has not quite recovered his senses, or he would be upon his knees,
+asking pardon of an angel, sir.  No, my dear, I'm not flattering you,
+for if ever woman displayed devotion and love for sinful man, you have
+done so for my boy Clive.  Come, promise me that you will try and hold
+up, for your father's sake.  Yes, and Clive's.  He is rapidly growing
+stronger, but he wants your help to console him for his losses.  That is
+what we want to get off his brain.  Once he can bear that
+philosophically all will be well."
+
+The Doctor's long speeches were cut short by a visitor in the shape of
+Wrigley, who was shown in by Martha, Dinah at the same moment escaping
+to her room, where, on approaching the window, she became aware of the
+fact that Jessop had accompanied the visitor.  He was waiting at the
+bottom of the garden down by the river, and she shrank away in horror
+and dread as she trembled lest Clive should see him and it might bring
+on a fresh attack.
+
+For a few moments she thought of going to Clive's room and telling him.
+But the dread of meeting his cruel searching eyes, and experiencing
+another of those shrinking looks of horror and disgust, kept her away,
+and she sank wearily into a chair, shivering, and with the feeling of
+utter despair growing upon her more and more.
+
+Meanwhile a scene was taking place in the little dining-room below,
+where the Major had made a sign toward a chair.
+
+"Thank you," said Wrigley.  "I will not detain you long."
+
+"What is it, sir?  Sturgess worse?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Oh, no!  The fellow is, thanks to you, Doctor, growing stronger and
+more impudent every day.  The fact is, gentlemen, I have come over to
+see Mr Clive Reed.  His brother is waiting down by the river.  He would
+not come in, as they are not on good terms."
+
+The Major frowned.
+
+"As I am Mr Clive Reed's doctor, sir, I have a right to ask you what
+you want with him."
+
+"Simple matter of business, sir.  I want him to come over and inspect
+the mine."
+
+"Not fit, sir.  Too weak," said the Doctor sternly.  "Bless my soul! my
+dear boy, are you mad?"
+
+"I hope not, Doctor," said Clive, as he entered the room, looking very
+white, but quite able to dispense with the stick he held in his hand.
+
+"Glad to see you about again, Mr Reed," said Wrigley at once, and he
+held out his hand; but it was not taken.  "Mr Reed, I have come on
+behalf of the shareholders in the `White Virgin' mine."
+
+"Including yourself, sir, and Mr Jessop Reed?" said Clive coldly.
+
+"Of course," said Wrigley, with an assumption of frankness.  "We stand
+to be heavy losers over the mine if the lost lode is not discovered.
+But perhaps you don't know that the rich vein has ended suddenly?"
+
+"I know everything in connection with the mine, sir," said Clive, as the
+Doctor watched him anxiously; but to his intense gratification saw
+nothing to cause him uneasiness.
+
+"That's well, sir.  Then I will be quite plain with you, and ask you to
+let bygones be bygones, for I am sure that you, as an English gentleman,
+and one of our principal shareholders, wish for nothing but what is fair
+and right by all concerned."
+
+He ceased and waited for Clive to speak, but the engineer remained
+silent, and Wrigley went on--
+
+"I should tell you, sir, that our foreman, Sturgess, has made the most
+careful investigations, both before his illness and since.  He is hardly
+fit to be about."
+
+"Not fit," said the Doctor.
+
+"Exactly, sir; but he has insisted upon going down the mine during the
+past four days, and testing in different directions.  Then, too, we have
+had the advice of an eminent mining engineer, Mr Benson, and
+unfortunately both give a decidedly adverse report.  Well, sir, this is
+bad, but for my part I have great faith in your knowledge."
+
+"Which you showed, sir, by scheming with my brother to get me ousted
+from the post!"
+
+"An error in judgment, Mr Reed, due to an eager desire to make money.
+I made the mistake of choosing the wrong brother.  I apologise, and you
+know that I have suffered for my blunder.  But let us repair all the
+past for the sake of everybody concerned.  Mr Clive Reed, in perfect
+faith that you will restore the `White Virgin' to her former prosperity,
+I, as a very large holder of shares, ask you to resume your position as
+manager and engineer.  Tell me that you will do this, and I will at once
+go back to town, call an extraordinary meeting, and get your
+reappointment endorsed."
+
+A slight flush came into Clive's pale cheeks as he sat listening to
+Wrigley's words, and the latter took hope therefrom.
+
+"I see that you feel that there is hope for the mine, sir," he said
+eagerly; "and that you will sink the past and join us in working heart
+and soul for every one's benefit."
+
+The Major looked curiously at Clive, whom the excitement of the
+interview seemed to be rousing from his despondent state, but drawing
+himself up, the latter said quietly--
+
+"I am sorry, of course, sir, for the innocent shareholders in the mine,
+but the interim dividends that they have received prevent them from
+being heavy losers.  As to the speculators, they must thank fate that
+their losses are not greater."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course, Mr Reed, but you will soon set all that right.
+Take a month at sea, sir, at the company's expense, and come back strong
+as a lion, ready to go to work again, and make the `White Virgin' richer
+than ever."
+
+"No, sir," said Clive coldly.  "I lose more heavily than any one, and I
+am prepared to stand by my losses."
+
+"Yes, yes, but you will soon recoup--there will be no losses.  I know
+that you must naturally feel a jealousy of my friend, Jessop Reed."
+
+Clive's face darkened.
+
+"But he shall not be in your way, my dear sir.  You can take it for
+granted that he will in future have no part in the management.  You
+shall stand at the head, and your judgments shall be unquestioned."
+
+"I thank you, sir, for this great display of confidence," said Clive
+coldly; "but I have ceased to take any interest in the mine--I may say
+in anything whatever in life.  No, sir, I will have no dealings whatever
+with you and your partner in the cowardly scheme by which I was
+overthrown.  I can only thank you for arranging that this collapse
+should not occur during my management.  All right, Doctor; I have done.
+I am not going to be excited, and this interview is at an end."
+
+"Yes, this one," said Wrigley, rising.  "You are still weak, Mr Reed,
+and I will not bother you more to-day.  I shall stay at the mine, and be
+happy to run over on receiving a message, for that you will come round
+to my wishes I am convinced.  Good morning, gentlemen, and I should
+advise you both to invest heavily in the mine shares, for this second
+panic has sent them down almost to zero."
+
+He smiled pleasantly and went out to join Jessop, who was waiting
+impatiently, but with his eyes fixed upon Dinah's open window all the
+time.
+
+"A smooth, deceitful scoundrel!" said Clive contemptuously, and he held
+out a hand to the Doctor, who laid a finger upon his pulse.  "Quite
+calm, Doctor," he continued.  "Yes, I'm about well now.  I only want
+rest and peace.  As soon as you will let me, I will go right away.  On
+the Continent, I think."
+
+"Yes; do you a great deal of good, my dear boy," said the Major.  "We
+must have a change too.  Poor Dinah is very pale."
+
+Clive was silent for a few moments, and then said coldly--
+
+"Yes, Miss Gurdon looks very white.  I am most grateful to you, Major
+Gurdon, for the care and attention I have received in this house."
+
+"Then prove it, sir," said the Major sternly.
+
+"I will," said Clive, with not a muscle moving.  "I will do so by
+releasing your daughter from an engagement which has become irksome and
+painful to her."
+
+"What!"
+
+"From any ties which held her to a kind of bankrupt--to a man broken in
+health, pocket, and his belief in human nature."
+
+"Mr Clive Reed," began the Major haughtily.  "No: Clive, my dear boy,
+you are sick and look at things from a jaundiced point of view.  Don't
+talk nonsense.  You will think differently in a week."
+
+"Never," said Clive firmly.  "All that, sir, is at an end."
+
+"And pray why?" cried the Major.  "When that attachment sprang up we
+believed you to be a poor man.  Do you suppose Dinah's love for you came
+from the idea that you were well-to-do?"
+
+"We will not argue that, sir.  Your daughter wishes the engagement to be
+broken off."
+
+"Indeed!  I'll soon prove that to be false," cried the Major, springing
+up.
+
+"No, sir," cried the Doctor; "there has been enough for one day."
+
+But he was too late, for the Major had flung open the door, called
+"Dinah," loudly, and her foot was already upon the stairs.
+
+"You want me, father?" she said as she entered, looking wan and thin,
+but perfectly quiet and self-contained.
+
+"Yes, my child," cried the Major, taking her hand.  "Our patient is
+better, and wants to go away for a change."
+
+"Yes, father dear," she said, without glancing at Clive, who kept his
+eyes averted; "it would be better as soon as he can bear a journey."
+
+"But he says that you wish the engagement to be at an end."
+
+She bowed her head.
+
+"Yes, dear," she said gently, "it is better so."
+
+"For the present," cried the Doctor quickly.
+
+"For the present that lasts till death," said Clive sternly.
+
+And Dinah in acquiescence bowed her head without uttering sob or sigh,
+but to herself--
+
+"It is the end."
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+THE TELEGRAM.
+
+"Go on, Doctor, say what you like.  I cannot defend myself."
+
+"I will go on, sir; I will say what I like, and I will risk its hurting
+you, for I feel towards you as a father, and it maddens me to see my old
+friend Grantham's son behaving like a scoundrel towards as sweet and
+lovable a girl as ever lived."
+
+Clive drew a deep breath as they walked slowly along the shelf path
+towards the mine.
+
+"Yes, sir, you may well shrink.  I brought you out here for a walk to
+make you wince.  I can talk to you, and say what I like out here without
+expecting the poor girl and her father to come back and interrupt.  Look
+here, Clive; I'm a cleverish sort of old fellow in my way, and
+experience has put me up to a good many wrinkles in the treatment of
+disease, but I tell you frankly it was not I, but Dinah Gurdon, who
+saved your life by her nursing."
+
+"I suppose so," said Clive, with a sigh.
+
+"Then why the deuce, sir, do you go on like this and break the poor
+girl's heart?"
+
+"I cannot explain matters," said Clive sadly.  "You saw for yourself
+that Miss Gurdon accepted the position."
+
+"Of course she did, sir; so would any girl of spirit if she found a man
+playing fast and loose with her.  Now look here, Clive, my boy, surely
+you are not throwing her over because you have lost all this money?
+Hang it, man! she would be just as happy if you hadn't a penny.  Now,
+then, out with it; was it because of the money?"
+
+"The money!  Absurd!" cried Clive, with an angry gesture.
+
+"Then it must be due to some silly love quarrel.  Look here, Clive, my
+boy, for your honour and your father's honour, I'm going to take you
+back to the cottage, and when they return this evening, you will have to
+show them by your apology that if there is a scoundrel in the Reed
+family his name is not Clive.  What do you say to that?"
+
+"Impossible, sir.  Doctor, you do not know, and I cannot tell you, the
+reasons why I act as I do."
+
+"You're mad; that's what's the matter with you."
+
+"I wish your words were true, sir," said Clive despondently, and
+stretching out his hand, he rested against the rock, and then let
+himself down to sit upon a rough stone.  "I'm very weak, I find," he
+continued apologetically; and then he shuddered as he noted that they
+were in the spot where Dinah had turned upon him and handed him the
+paper which he struck from her hand.
+
+"Yes, my boy, you are weak, and I oughtn't to press you; but I cannot
+stand it.  Come, be frank to me.  What have you done to make that poor
+girl throw you over?"
+
+"I? nothing," said Clive sternly.
+
+"What! then you accuse her?  Hang it, I won't believe a word of it, sir.
+That girl could no more do anything to justify your conduct than an
+angel could out of heaven.  Look here, sir, I constitute myself her
+champion.--What's that noise?"
+
+"I don't know.  I heard it twice before.  Some shepherd calling his
+sheep, I suppose."
+
+The Doctor looked up at the bold precipitous bulwark of rock above their
+heads, and then downward toward the far-stretching vale below the
+shelf-like path, where a flock of sheep dotting the bottom by the river,
+endorsed the suggestion that the sound might be a call.
+
+"Never mind that," said the Doctor.  "Come, I say that Dinah has given
+you no reason for behaving as you have."
+
+"Doctor, I resent all this," cried Clive angrily.  "I make no charge
+against Miss Gurdon, and I tell you that you have no right to attack me
+as you do.  A man is helpless in such a case.  Hush!  No more.--Major
+Gurdon."
+
+For the old officer came round an angle of the steeply-scarped rock
+above them, walking fast, and descended agilely to where they stood.
+
+"You here, gentlemen?" he said; "have you seen my daughter?"
+
+"No, but we have been no farther than this," said the Doctor.
+
+"I'm growing uneasy about her," said the Major; and a curious sensation
+of mingled dread and jealousy attacked Clive.
+
+"Did she go out--come this way?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Yes.  Martha told me she struck off over the mountain in this
+direction."
+
+He looked sharply about him, but the path curved suddenly before toward
+the mine, and backward in the direction of the river, forming out there
+a natural terrace in the huge rampart of limestone.
+
+"Perhaps you have missed her," said the Doctor.  "She may have returned
+home another way, without she has gone on toward the mine."
+
+A spasm shot through Clive, who stood up firmly now, nerved by the
+bitter thoughts which suggested to his jealous mind Dinah seeking his
+brother once more.
+
+"She would not go there," cried the Major angrily.  "Ah, what's that?"
+
+For at that moment the cry they had before heard came faintly to their
+ears.
+
+The Major stepped quickly to the edge of the path, protected only by a
+rough parapet of loose stones, looked over, and then, leaping back,
+threw off his coat, leaped over the rough protection, and began to lower
+himself down the steep precipice.
+
+For a moment or two Clive could not stir; then, weak, trembling, and
+with his mouth hot and dry, he walked to the edge, and looked down to
+see, quite two hundred feet below, a portion of a woman's dress, and
+directly after, as she clung there desperately, Dinah Gurdons white
+upturned face; and he knew now whence came the wailing sound.
+
+"Clive! what are you going to do?"
+
+"Get down to help," he said hoarsely.
+
+"Madness!  You have no strength.  You could not hold on for a minute."
+
+Clive groaned, for even as he stood there a sensation of faintness came
+over him, to teach him that he was helpless as an infant.
+
+"Good heavens! what a place!" cried the Doctor.  "I cannot--I dare not
+go down.  It would be madness at my age."
+
+Then he stood speechless as his companion; and they craned over, and
+watched the Major, active still as a young man from his mountain life,
+descending quickly from block to block, making use of the rough growth
+of heather for hand hold, and now quite fifty feet below where they
+knelt, while the look of agony in Dinah's eyes as she clung there,
+apparently unnerved and helpless, was as plain through the clear air as
+if she were close at hand.
+
+"Your work, Clive," cried the Doctor furiously, but in a low whisper.
+"The poor girl in her misery and despair has thrown herself over, and
+lodged where she is.  Thank God, I am down here.  I can be of use when
+we get her home.  If we get her home alive," he added to himself.
+
+Clive made no reply, but knelt down panting and enraged against the
+weakness which kept him there supine, when, in spite of all, he would
+have given a dozen years of his life to have been able to descend and
+bear the poor girl up to a place of safety.
+
+But he could only gaze down giddily with heart beating as he watched the
+Major slowly and carefully descending, now making good progress, now
+slipping or sending down a loose stone.  Once they saw him hanging only
+by his hands, again losing his footing and seeming to be gone.  The next
+minute, though, he was still descending, and in the silence of the
+mountain side, they could hear his words, short, sharp, and decisive, as
+he called to his child, bidding her be of good heart, for he would be
+with her directly; and that she would be safe.
+
+Then, to Clive's horror and despair, he saw the starting eyes which had
+looked up so wildly, gradually close, and the sun gleamed on them no
+more.  He knew only too well what it meant; that Dinah was turning faint
+and weak; and once more unable to bear the agony, he made a rapid
+movement to descend.
+
+"Madman!" cried the Doctor, and he flung himself upon Clive, mastering
+him directly, for the sudden strength flickered away at once.  "Don't
+you see," he panted, "you cannot do it, and your fall would be
+destruction to them both.  Keep still and silent.  The Major will reach
+her directly.  Yes: look: he is as active as a goat.  Ah! great God!
+No: saved--he has her!"
+
+The Doctor shrank away unable to bear it, for as they stared below with
+dilated eyes they saw Dinah begin to glide downward just as her father
+was steadying himself, holding on by one hand to a tough root.  Then he
+seemed to make a dart with the other, and his child suddenly became
+stationary while he shifted his position, got his feet against a piece
+of rock, and they saw him draw her up to his side and hold her there.
+
+The rest of that scene was dreamlike to Clive, as he lay with his breast
+over the edge looking down, till nerved and urged on by her father's
+strong will, Dinah seemed to recover, and began to climb up under his
+directions and with his help, step by step, and inch by inch, till at
+last she was so close that Clive stretched out his hands to help her,
+while the Major supported her from below.  But their eyes met, and she
+did not touch those hands, but gave her wet and bleeding fingers to the
+Doctor, who drew her into safety on the path, where she rose now to
+stand shivering while the Major sprang to her side.
+
+"I did not think I could have done it," he panted.  "Oh, Dinah, my
+child, don't say you threw yourself down there."
+
+"No," she said, giving him a piteous look, and then turning slowly to
+face Clive.  "I went down to fetch this--to give to Clive Reed before he
+left us for ever.  I thought it must be there."
+
+She took from her breast, where it had evidently been thrust, a stained
+scrap of reddish paper, made more ruddy where she held it, for her
+fingers bled freely.
+
+"A telegram," cried the Doctor.
+
+"Yes.  Take it, Clive," said Dinah slowly, but evidently rapidly
+recovering her strength.  "It is the message I received from you that
+day."
+
+"I sent no message," he cried, as he hastily read the stained slip, and
+caught the words "come"--"meet me"--some figures "P.M.," and his name in
+full--"Clive Reed."
+
+"A forgery!" he cried wildly, as the truth flashed upon him.  "There is
+no postal mark upon it.  I did not send this lie."
+
+"No?" said Dinah faintly, as the look of despair grew more marked in her
+eyes.  "I have thought since that I had been deceived, but I felt that I
+would sooner die than you should not know the truth."  Then she turned
+pale and shrank to her father's side, as a spasm of rage shot through
+Clive Reed.
+
+"Jessop again!" he whispered hoarsely to the Doctor; and his fingers
+crooked, and he held out his hands as if about to spring at another's
+throat.  Then he reeled, but recovered himself with an exultant cry, for
+a voice came loudly to their ears from round the buttress toward the
+mine.
+
+"Curse you!  I will.  The police shall stop that."
+
+"No; you don't get away," cried another voice; and Dinah turned of a
+sickly white.  "Stop, you! and let's have it out, or I'll heave you down
+below.  Blast you!  I tell you she was my lass--before you and your
+cursed brother came in the way.  Mine, I tell you.--Ah! just in time!"
+
+Sturgess uttered a savage laugh, and he stopped short facing the little
+group upon the shelf, and holding on by Jessop's collar, in spite of the
+latter's struggles to get free.
+
+"Look here, all of you.  This man, my servant--you are witnesses--he has
+threatened my life.  I go in fear of him.  I'll have him in charge.  I
+go in fear, I tell you."
+
+"Yes, so much," cried Sturgess, with a mocking laugh, "that he was off
+down again to the cottage to see pretty little Miss Gurdon here, only I
+stopped him, for I've had enough of it.  Master or no, he don't go
+poaching on my estate.  I'd sooner break his cursed neck."
+
+"Silence, sir!" roared the Major.
+
+"Silence yourself!" cried Sturgess savagely.  "Who are you?"
+
+"The father of the lady you insulted, and but for her sake you would
+have been sent to gaol."
+
+"For courting a pretty girl," cried Sturgess, with a mocking laugh.
+"But I'll have no more of it.  Do you hear, both of you--you too, Clive
+Reed?  You call yourselves my masters.  I'm yours.  Keep off, both of
+you, if you value your necks.  I tell you she's my girl--my lass--my
+very own to marry or leave as I please."
+
+Dinah uttered a piteous moan, and turned her agonised face to Clive, who
+stood there with jaw dropped and the paper trembling in his hand.
+
+"Yes.  You see.  She don't deny it."
+
+"Dinah!" cried Clive wildly, and there was so agonising an appeal in his
+voice, that his cry thrilled her, and sent the blood flushing into her
+pale cheeks, as she now stood up unsupported.
+
+"Yes, all of you; it's all right.  I used to meet her on the hill side,
+and we used to go courting among the heather before these white-faced
+hounds came down.  She don't deny it.  She daren't.  Dinah, my lass,
+come here."
+
+Clive made a movement to fling himself upon the ruffian, but the Doctor
+passed a hand across his chest.
+
+"Too weak, boy," he whispered.  "Give the scoundrel rope."
+
+"I do deny it," said Dinah at last, as she drew herself up, a true woman
+now, her honour at stake, and all listening for her refutation of her
+pursuer's words.
+
+"There, what's the good of lying, little one," cried Sturgess, with a
+mocking laugh.  "It's all nature, and there's nothing to be ashamed of
+in a strong man's love."
+
+"I do deny it," said Dinah again, more firmly now.  "Father, dear--Clive
+Reed--this man lies.  It is not true."
+
+"What!" cried Sturgess.  "There, what's the good of hiding it all,
+pussy?  I'm an honest man, and I love you.  I'll marry you to-morrow if
+you like."
+
+"Must I speak again?" said Dinah proudly, as she looked round, letting
+her eyes rest last on Clive's deadly white face; and then she uttered a
+gasp, for she saw his cheeks flush, and his eyes brighten, as they met
+hers, for she knew that she was believed.  "It is an insult, father, and
+a lie."
+
+"What!" cried Sturgess, as the Major caught her to his breast; "didn't
+you meet me that afternoon yonder, and go with me down the mine gap?
+Before there was any one there but me, gentlemen all."
+
+"Yes--wretch!" cried Dinah fiercely, "coward!  You did pursue me down
+there; I, a poor defenceless girl--you, a strong, savage man.  I must
+speak now, father, Clive; God, who is my judge, hear me too.  Faint and
+exhausted, he seized me at last, and I was at his mercy, till my poor
+old faithful Rollo came and set me free."
+
+"Yah, nonsense!" cried Sturgess triumphantly.  "Perhaps you will say I
+did not come to your window night after night.  What about that time
+when your father had gone up to town?"
+
+"The wound upon your shoulder is my answer, my witness to the truth.
+Father, my only protector lay helpless in a drugged sleep.  Poor Rollo
+was poisoned by this miscreant's hand.  I was alone, and at his mercy,
+till I fired!"
+
+"What, this?" cried Sturgess mockingly; "this was a fall."
+
+"Yes," said the Doctor, "when the shot had entered in.  Major, it was a
+gun-shot wound, and the marks of the dog's teeth are in his leg.  I'll
+swear to that."
+
+"Liar and hound," cried the Major, dashing at him, but he was too late,
+for, nerving himself for one blow, Clive Reed threw himself upon the
+ruffian, and the next moment he lay quivering on the ground, with the
+young man's foot upon his chest.
+
+"Dinah, my child," cried the Major reproachfully, "why was I not told
+all this?"
+
+"Because I was a woman, and shame closed my lips," she said softly.
+"Take me home, father.  Silence has been my only sin."
+
+"One word before you rise, my good fellow," said Doctor Praed, as he
+drew his patient from where Sturgess lay; "whether the law deals with
+you or no is not my affair; but I, as a doctor, tell you this: mad or
+only enraged there's sometimes a deadly poison in the tooth of a dog.
+You have had a long taste of delirium from that gun-shot wound.  Mind
+what you're about, or I wouldn't give sixpence for your life; and if
+you're bad again you may die before I'll run a step to save you.  Here,
+Jessop.  Those of a feather flock together; take this bird of prey back
+to his cage.  You're not wanted here."
+
+He stood watching as Sturgess rose and staggered away like a drunken
+man, while Jessop, after a vain effort to speak, walked rapidly off in
+turn.
+
+Then the Doctor turned to where the Major stood with Dinah in his arms,
+her face buried in his breast.
+
+"You will not fear to be alone, Major?" he said quietly.
+
+"Afraid, sir," said the Major, with an angry look.  "No."
+
+"Then I will leave you now, and take my patient back to town.  Good day,
+my dear sir, and God bless you.  I must come and see you again.  Dinah,
+an old man wants to say good-bye."
+
+She turned her wild eyes to his, and his look was sufficient.  She left
+her father and the next moment rested in his arms.
+
+"Good-bye, and I need not say God bless you, my darling," said the
+Doctor, with his voice quivering a little.  "There, _au revoir_.  Clive
+will ask your pardon another time.  Not now."
+
+The next morning Clive Reed had to be helped up the steps into Doctor
+Praed's house in Russell Square, a relapse having prostrated him; and by
+the time he was about again the `White Virgin' mine was a solitude once
+more.  It was waiting for orders to go forth about the sale of the
+valuable engines and other machinery, Robson now having the property in
+charge, and going over four or five times a week to see that the place
+was uninjured, though the weather had already begun to make its mark.
+
+One day he met the Major, and was ready enough to become communicative,
+and tell how Sturgess had been taken bad the day he returned to the
+mine, and how he had been fetched at last by friends who came all the
+way from Cornwall.
+
+"Death's mark was on him, safe enough, sir.  I shouldn't be at all
+surprised to hear that he had gone."
+
+"And those gentlemen?" said the Major, clearing his throat, and speaking
+still huskily, for he did not like his task.
+
+"Mr Jessop Reed and Mr Wrigley, sir?  Oh, they haven't been down
+again.  Don't suppose they will come, for the poor mine's played out."
+
+Two months more had passed away before Clive Reed visited those parts
+again.  He was thin and worn, but there was a bright look in his eyes,
+as he breasted the hills from Blinkdale and plunged down into the deep,
+chasm-like vales.  For he knew that the past, with its cruel doubting,
+was forgiven, and that the woman he loved more than life was ready to
+take him to her breast.
+
+It was down the deep valley by the side of the rushing river that Dinah
+did take him to her throbbing heart, and hold him as tightly as his arms
+grasped her; for in that solitary place, where the glancing sunbeams
+shot from the silver river, there were only the trout to tell tales, and
+the tales they told never reached the air.
+
+She had gone to meet him, and when they had sauntered on another half
+mile there was the Major whipping a dark pool under the shadow of the
+rocks.
+
+"Ah, Clive, my boy," he cried, winding in his line and speaking as if
+they had only parted the previous day, after a glance at Dinah's eyes
+where the love-light burned brightly.  "Glad to see you down again.  Why
+didn't you bring the Doctor?"
+
+"He is rather in trouble about his daughter?"
+
+"Ill?"
+
+"Well, mentally more than bodily, sir.  She is back home, and he will
+hardly leave her for a moment."
+
+"Home, eh?  And her husband?"
+
+"He is in New Zealand, and not likely to return."
+
+"So much the better for old England, my boy.  Come along, you must be
+like me, hungry."
+
+They walked through the old wild garden, which looked more beautiful
+than ever; and Martha was ready to smile a welcome; while to Clive, as
+he let himself sink back in his old seat, it was as if he had at last
+found rest.
+
+It was during a walk next morning with the Major, who took Clive round
+by the `White Virgin' mine, that the old officer suddenly turned to him
+and said--
+
+"Clive, my lad, the machinery here is to be sold next week."
+
+"I know it," said the young man, frowning slightly.
+
+"You must buy it, and start afresh.  I can't have you turn rusty for
+want of work."
+
+"No, sir, it is useless.  The chances are too great against the old lode
+being found again."
+
+"Not at all, boy; it is found close to the surface."
+
+"What!" cried Clive excitedly.  "Where?"
+
+"On the patch of old waste of limestone that I bought all those years
+ago, when, for a fault I never committed, I had to exile myself and come
+to live down here--to rot in despair, as I thought, but to find a
+lasting peace."
+
+"Oh, impossible!" cried Clive.  "Are you sure?"
+
+"As sure as a man can be who has dabbled over minerals for twenty years.
+There it is--a foot beneath the surface, and as rich as it was in the
+`White Virgin' mine.  The White Virgin--my dearest child--gives it to
+you as her dowry, the day you call her wife."
+
+The Major held out his hands; and as they were taken a white dress was
+seen fluttering on the hill side a few hundred yards away, and the Major
+said softly--
+
+"She does not know it.  I have left the news for you to tell.  One
+moment: I have a stipulation to make."
+
+"That you never leave us, sir."
+
+"No; but you may throw that in, boy, and not rob me of all.  Let the new
+vein still be called the `White Virgin' mine."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The White Virgin, by George Manville Fenn
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40672 ***