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diff --git a/41552-0.txt b/41552-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67f97b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/41552-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4146 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41552 *** + + THE WEIRD SISTERS. + + A Romance. + + BY RICHARD DOWLING, + + AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERY OF KILLARD." + + + In Three Volumes. + VOL. I. + + + LONDON: + TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. + 1880. + + [_All rights reserved._] + + CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, + GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON. + + + + + TO + EDMOND POWER, ESQ., + OF SPRINGFIELD, + Whose kindness to Mine and to Me + I SHALL NEVER FORGET + WHILE I AM. + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Part I.--A Plain Gold Guard. + + + I.--A CONSCIENTIOUS BURGLAR 1 + + II.--A GENEROUS BANKER 24 + + III.--THE MANOR HOUSE 47 + + IV.--AN UNSELFISH MOTHER 69 + + V.--AN UNSELFISH FATHER 99 + + VI.--"TO THE ISLAND OR TO ----" 123 + + VII.--TRUSTEE TO CANCELLED PAGES 148 + + VIII.--WAT GREY'S ROMANCE DIES OUT 174 + + IX.--A FLASK OF COGNAC 194 + + X.--ON THE THRESHOLD OF DEATH 216 + + XI.--BY THE STATE BED 235 + + + + +THE WEIRD SISTERS. + +PART I. A PLAIN GOLD GUARD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A CONSCIENTIOUS BURGLAR. + + +Mr. Henry Walter Grey sat in his dining-room sipping claret on the +evening of Monday, the 27th August, 1866. His house was in the suburbs +of the city of Daneford. + +Mr. Grey was a man of about forty-five years of age, looking no more +than thirty-eight. He was tall, broad, without the least tendency to +corpulency, and yet pleasantly rounded and full. There was no +angularity or harshness in his face or figure. The figure was active +looking and powerful, the face open, joyous, and benignant. The hair had +begun to thin at his forehead; this gave his face a soothing expression +of contented calm. + +His forehead was broad and white; his eyes were constant, candid, and +kindly; his nose was large, with quickly-mobile sensitive nostrils; and +his mouth well formed and full, having a sly uptwist at one corner, +indicating strong sympathy with humour. He wore neither beard nor +moustache. + +His complexion was bright without being florid, fair without being +white. His skin was smooth as a young girl's cheek. He stood six feet +without his boots. He was this evening in the deepest mourning for his +wife, whom he had lost on Friday, the 17th of that month, August. + +Although he occupied one of the most important positions in Daneford, no +person who knew him, or had heard of him from a Danefordian, ever +called him either Henry or Walter. He was universally known as Wat Grey. +Daneford believed him to be enormously rich. He was the owner of the +Daneford Bank, an institution which did a large business and held its +head high. + +Indeed, in Daneford it was almost unnecessary to add the banker's +surname to his Christian name; and if anyone said, "Wat did so-and-so," +and you asked, "Wat who?" the purveyor of the news would know you for an +alien or a nobody in the city. + +The young men worshipped him as one of themselves, who, despite his +gaiety and lightheartedness, had prospered in the world, and kept his +youth and made his money, and was one of themselves still, and would +continue to be one of them as long as he lived. + +Elder men liked him for the solid prudence which guided all his +business transactions, and which, while it enabled him to be with the +young, allowed him to exercise over his juniors in years the influence +of an equal combined with the authority of experience. Lads of twenty +never thought of him as a fogey, and men of thirty looked upon him as a +younger man, who had learned the folly of vicious vanities very much +sooner than others; and consequently they confided in him, and submitted +themselves to him with docility. Young men assembled at his house, but +there were no orgies; elder men came, and went away cheered and +diverted, and no whit the less rich or wise because discussions of +important matters had been enlivened with interludes of gayer discourse. + +Wat Grey was one of the most active men in Daneford. He was Chairman of +the Chamber of Commerce, of the Commercial Club, and of the Harbour +Board. + +He was Vice-chairman of the Daneford Boat Club, and Treasurer of the +Poor's Christmas Coal Fund. + +If he was rich, he was liberal. He subscribed splendidly to all the +local charities, but never as a public man or as owner of the Daneford +Bank. What he thought it wise to give he always sent from "Wat," as +though he prized more highly the distinction of familiarity his town had +conferred upon him than any conventional array of Christian and +surnames, or any title of cold courtesy or routine right. It was not +often he dropped from his cheerful level of high-spirited and rich +animal enjoyment into sentimentalism, but on one occasion he said to +young Feltoe: "I'd rather be 'Wat' to my friends than Sir Thingumbob +Giggamarigs to all the rest of the world." + +There was nothing Daneford could have refused him. He had been mayor, +and could be Liberal member of Parliament for the ancient and small +constituency any time he chose when the Liberal seat was vacant. +Daneford was one of those constituencies which give one hand to one side +and the other hand to the other, and have no hand free for action. +Walter Grey had always declined the seat; he would say: + +"I'm too young yet, far too young. As I grow older, I shall grow wiser +and more corrupt. Then you can put me in, and I shall have great +pleasure in ratting for a baronetcy. Ha, ha, ha!" + +Of late, however, it had been rumoured the chance of getting the rich +banker to consent to take the seat (this was the way everyone put it) +had increased, and that he might be induced to stand at the next +vacancy. Then all who knew of his personal qualities, his immense +knowledge of finance, and his large fortune, said that if he chose he +might be Chancellor of the Exchequer in time; and after his retirement +from business, and purchase of an estate, the refusal of a peerage was +certain to come his way. + +As he sat sipping his claret that Monday evening of the 27th of August, +1866, his face was as placid as a secret well. Whether he was thinking +of his dead wife and sorrowing for her, or revolving the ordinary +matters of his banking business, or devising some scheme for the +reduction of taxation in the city, or dallying mentally with the sirens +who sought to ensnare him in parliamentary honours, could no more be +gathered from his face than from the dull heavy clouds that hung low +over the sultry land abroad. + +It was not often he had to smoke his after-dinner cigar and sip his +after-dinner claret alone; men were always glad to dine with him, and +he was always glad to have them; but the newness of his black clothes +and of the bands on his hats in the hall accounted for the absence of +guests. He was not dressed for dinner. One of the things which had made +his table so free and jovial was that a man might sit down to it in a +coat of any cut or colour, and in top-boots and breeches if he liked. +Before his bereavement he would say: + +"Mrs. Grey--although she may not sit with us--has an antiquated +objection to a man dining in his shirt-sleeves. I have often +expostulated with her unreasonable prejudice, but I can't get her to +concede no coat at all. You may wear your hat and your gloves if you +like, but for Heaven's sake come in a coat of some kind. If you can't +manage a coat, a jacket will do splendidly." + +Mrs. Grey never dined out. In fact, she saw little company; tea was +always sent into the dining-room. + +Mr. Grey had not got more than half-way through his cigar on that +evening of the 27th of August when a servant knocked and entered. + +The master, whose face was towards the window, turned round his head +slowly, and said in a kindly voice: + +"Well, James, what is it?" + +"A man, sir, wants to see you." + +James was thick-set, low-sized, near-sighted, and dull. He had been a +private soldier in a foot regiment, and had been obliged to leave +because of his increasing near-sightedness. But he had been long enough +in uniform to acquire the accomplishment of strict and literal attention +to orders, and the complete suspension of his own faculties of judgment +and discretion. Although his master was several inches taller than +James, the latter looked in the presence of the banker like a clumsy +elephant beside an elegant panther. + +"A man wants to see me!" cried Mr. Grey, in astonishment, not unmixed +with a sense of the ridiculous. "What kind of a man? and what is his +business." + +He glanced good-humouredly at James, but owing to the shortness of the +servant's sight the expression of the master's face was wasted in air. + +James, who had but a small stock of observation and no fancy, replied +respectfully: + +"He seems a common man, sir; like a man you'd see in the street." + +"Ah," said Mr. Grey, with a smile; "that sort of man, is it? Ah! Which, +James, do you mean: the sort of man you'd see walking in the streets, or +standing at a public-house corner?" + +Again Mr. Grey smiled at the droll dulness and droller simplicity of +his servant. + +A gleam of light came into James's dim eyes upon finding the description +narrowed down to the selection of one of two characteristics, and he +said, in a voice of solemn sagacity: + +"The back of his coat is dirty, sir, as if he'd been leaning against a +public-house wall." + +"Or as if he had been carrying a sack of corn on his back?" demanded the +master, laughing softly, and brushing imaginary cigar-ashes off the +polished oak-table with his white curved little finger. + +For a moment James stood on his heels in stupefied doubt and dismay at +this close questioning. He was a man of action, not of thought. Had his +master shouted, "Right wheel--quick march!" he would have gone out of +the window, through the glass, without a murmur and without a thought +of reproach; but to be thus interrogated on subtleties of appearance +made him feel like a blindfold man, who is certain he is about to be +attacked, but does not know where, by whom, or with what weapon. He +resolved to risk all and escape. + +"I think, sir, it was a public-house, for I smelt liquor." + +"That is conclusive," said the master, laughing out at last. "That is +all right, James. I am too lazy to go down to see him. Show him up here. +Stop a moment, James. Let him come up in five minutes." + +The servant left the room, and as he did so the master laughed still +more loudly, and then chuckled softly to himself, muttering: + +"He thought the man had been leaning against a public-house because he +smelt of liquor! Ha, ha, ha! My quaint James, you will be the death of +your master. You will, indeed." + +When he had finished his laugh he dismissed the idea of James finally +with a roguish shrug of his shoulders and wag of his head. + +Then he drew down the gasalier, pushed an enormous easy-chair in front +of the empty fire-place, pulled a small table between the dining-table +and the easy-chair, and placed an ordinary oak and green dining-room +chair at the corner of the dining-table near the window; then he sat +down on the ordinary chair. + +When this was done he ascertained that the drawer of the small table +opened easily, closed in the drawer softly, threw himself back in his +own chair and began smoking slowly, blowing the smoke towards the +ceiling without taking the cigar from his lips, and keeping his legs +thrust out before him, and his hands deep in his trousers-pockets. + +Presently the door opened; James said, "The man, sir!" the door closed +again, and all was still. + +"Come over and sit down, my man," said the banker, in a good-natured +tone of voice, without, however, removing his eyes from the ceiling. + +To this there was no reply by either sound or gesture. + +Mr. Grey must have been pursuing some humorous thought over the ceiling; +for when he at last dropped his eyes and looked towards the door, he +said, with a quiet sigh, as though the ridiculous in the world was +killing him slowly: "It's too droll, too droll." Then to the man, who +still stood just inside the door: "Come over here and sit down, my man. +I have been expecting a call from you. Come over and sit down. Or would +you prefer I should send the brougham for you?" + +As he turned his eyes round, they fell on the figure of a man of forty, +who, with head depressed and shoulders thrust up high, and a battered, +worn sealskin-cap held in both hands close together, thumbs uppermost, +was standing on one leg, a model of abject, obsequious servility. + +The man made no reply; but as Mr. Grey's eyes fell upon him he +substituted the leg drawn up for the one on which he had been standing, +thrust up his shoulders, and pressed down his head in token of +unspeakable humility under the honour of Mr. Grey's glance, and of +profound gratitude for the honour of Mr. Grey's speech. + +"Come, my man; do come over and sit down. The conversation is becoming +monotonous already. Do come over, and sit down here. I can't keep on +saying 'come' all the evening. I assure you I have expected this call +from you. Do come and sit down." + +Mr. Grey motioned the man to the large easy-chair in front of him. + +At last the man moved, stealthily, furtively, across the carpet, +skirting the furniture cautiously, as though it consisted of +infernal-machines which might go off at any moment. His dress was ragged +and torn; his face, a long narrow one, of mahogany colour; his eyes were +bright full blue, the one good feature in his shy unhandsome +countenance. + +"Sit in that chair," said Mr. Grey blandly, at the same time waving his +hand towards the capacious and luxurious easy-chair. + +"Please, sir, I'd rather stand," said the man, in a low sneaking tone. + +The contrast between the two was remarkably striking: the one, large +and liberal of aspect, gracious and humorous of manner, broad-faced, +generous-looking, perfectly dressed, scrupulously neat; the other, drawn +together, mean in form, narrow of features, with avaricious mouth and +unsteady eye, with ragged and soiled clothes. + +"Sit down, my good man; sit down. I assure you the conversation will +continue to be very monotonous until you take my advice, and sit down in +that chair. You need not be afraid of spoiling it. Sit down, and then +you may at your leisure tell me what I can do for you." + +Mr. Grey may have smiled at the whim of Nature in forging such a +counterfeit of human nature as the man before him, or he may have smiled +at the obvious dislike with which his visitor surveyed the chair. The +smile, however, was a pleasant, cordial, happy one. He drew in his legs, +sat upright, and, leaning his left elbow on the small table before him, +pointed to the chair with his right hand, and kept his right hand fixed +in the attitude of pointing until the man, with a scowl at the chair and +a violent upheaval of his shoulders and depression of his head, sank +among the soft cushions. + +"Now we shall get on much more comfortably," said Mr. Grey, placing what +remained unsmoked of his cigar on the ash-tray beside him, clasping his +hands over his waistcoat, and bending slightly forward to indicate that +his best attention was at the disposal of his visitor. "What is your +name?" + +"Joe Farleg." + +"Joe Farleg, Joe Farleg," mused, half aloud, Mr. Grey. "An odd name. Why +am I fated always to meet people with odd ways or odd names? Well, never +mind answering that question, Joe," he said, more loudly, in an +indulgent tone, as though he felt he would be violating kindliness by +insisting on a reply which had little or nothing to do with Farleg. He +continued, "I don't think I have ever seen you or heard your name +before; and although I did not think it improbable you, or someone like +you, would call, I could not know exactly whom I was to see. Before we +go any farther, I ask you: Haven't I been good to you without even +knowing who you were?" + +"Good to me, sir!" cried the man, in surprise. + +"Yes; I have been very good to you in not setting the police after you." + +The man tried to struggle up out of the chair, but, unused to a seat of +the kind, struggled for a moment in vain. At last he gained his feet, +and with an oath demanded: "How did you know I did it? Are you going to +set them after me now?" His blue eyes swiftly explored the room to find +if the officers had sprung out of concealment, and to ascertain the +chances of his escape. + +With a kindly wave of his hand, Mr. Grey indicated the chair. "I have +not even spoken to the police about the matter, and I do not intend +speaking to them. Sit down in your chair, Joe, and let us talk the +matter over quietly." + +"I'm d----d if I sit in that chair again. It smothers me." + +He regarded the banker with uneasiness and the chair with terror. + +Mr. Grey laughed outright. The laughter seemed to soothe Farleg a +little. He cast his large blue eyes once more hastily round the room, +then regarded the banker for an instant, and dropped his glance upon the +chair. + +Nothing could have been more reassuring than the brilliantly-lighted +dining-room, the good-natured, good-humoured face of its master, and +the harmlessly seductive appearance of the chair. Farleg was ashamed of +his fears; upon another invitation, and an assurance that nothing +farther would be said by his host until he had returned to his former +position, he threw himself once more into the comfortable seat. + +"And now, Joe, that we are in a position to go on smoothly, what can I +do for you?" + +"You remember, sir, the night of the robbery, sir?" + +"Yes; you broke into my house, into one of the tower-rooms, on the +evening of the 17th of this month, and you carried off a few things of +no great value." + +"And you're not going to send the police after me?" + +"No." + +Farleg leaned forward in his chair until his elbows rested on his +knees. + +"You missed the things. You said a while ago you expected me, or whoever +did the robbery; was that a true word? Did you expect whoever did the +robbery to come and see you?" + +"I did. I could not be sure you would come, but when I missed the things +I thought you might call. There was, of course, the chance you might +not." + +"That's it. Well, I have come, you see. I found some rings, and I kept +three; but I thought you might like to have this one, and I brought it +to you, as I am about to leave the country. Look at it. It's a plain +gold guard." + +As Farleg said these words his eyes, no longer wandering, fixed +themselves on the face of Mr. Grey. + +For an instant the face of the banker puckered and wrinkled up like a +blighted leaf. Almost instantly it smoothed out again; and, with a bland +smile, he said: + +"Thank you very much. It was my poor wife's guard ring. You were very +kind to think of bringing it back to me." + +As he spoke he began softly opening the drawer of the little table that +stood between him and the burglar. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A GENEROUS BANKER. + + +The ring lay on the little table. Mr. Grey did not take it up, but left +it where Farleg had placed it. + +When the banker had pulled out the drawer half-a-dozen inches, he looked +up from the ring, and, with a glance of kindly interest, said: + +"So you intend leaving the country. Why? And where do you purpose +going?" + +Farleg looked down at his boots, and thrust up his shoulders as he +answered: + +"Well, sir, things are getting hot, and the place is getting hot. It +isn't every one has so much consideration as you for a man who has to +live as best he can----" + +"Poor fellow!" + +"And if I and the old woman don't clear out of this soon, why, they'll +be sending me away, 'Carriage paid: with care.'" + +He paused, raised his head, and turned those prominent blue eyes on the +face of the banker. The latter was drawing small circles on the table in +front of him with the white forefinger of his left hand, his eyes +intently followed his finger, his white right hand rested on the edge of +the partly open drawer. + +Mr. Grey said, softly and emphatically: "I understand, I understand. Go +on, and don't be afraid to speak plainly, Joe. May I ask you what you +were before you devoted yourself to your present--profession? Your +conversation and way of putting things are far above the average of men +of your calling;" with a smile of sly interest. + +"I was a clerk, sir," answered the man meekly. + +"In a bank?" demanded the banker, looking up brightly. + +"No, sir; in a corn-store." + +"Ah, I thought it couldn't have been in a bank. We are not so fortunate +as to have men of your talents and enterprise in banks. But I +interrupted you. Pray, proceed. You were about to say----" The +invitation was accompanied by a gracious and encouraging wave of the +left hand. + +"I was thinking, sir, that it would be best if I went away of my own +accord; and I thought I'd just mention this matter to you when I called +with the guard ring of your good lady that's dead and gone." + +"Quite right, quite right. And naturally you thought that I might be +willing to lend you a hand on your way, partly out of feeling for you +in your difficult position, and partly out of gratitude to you for your +kind thoughtfulness in bringing me back the guard ring of poor Mrs. +Grey." + +The white forefinger of the white left hand went on quietly describing +the circles, but the circles were one after the other increasing in +circumference. The white right hand still rested on the edge of the +partly-open drawer. + +"That's it," said Farleg, with a sigh of relief. It was such a comfort +to deal with a sensible man, a man who did most of the talking and +thinking for you. "You know, sir, I found the rings----" + +"Quite so, quite so." + +Mr. Grey gave up describing circles, and for a while devoted himself to +parallelograms. When he had finished each figure he regarded the +invisible design for a while as though comparing the result of his +labour with an ideal parallelogram. Then, becoming dissatisfied with +his work, he began afresh. + +"Quite so," he repeated, after a silence of a few moments. "You need not +trouble yourself to go into detail. In fact, I prefer you should not, as +my feelings are still much occupied with my great loss. Will you answer +a few questions that may help to allay and soothe my feelings?" + +He ceased drawing the parallelograms, and looked up at the other with a +glance of friendly enquiry. + +Farleg threw himself back in his chair, and replied gravely: "I'll +answer you, sir, any question it may please you to put." + +"At what hour on the evening of the 17th did you break into this house?" + +"Eight o'clock." + +"By Jove, Joe, you were an adventurous fellow to break into a house in +daylight! I do think, in the face of such an enterprising spirit, you +ought to seek a new country, where you would be properly appreciated. +You have no chance here. Go to some place where the telegraph has not +yet struck root. And yet for a man of your peculiar calling a dense +population and civilisation are requisite. Your case, Joe, interests me +a good deal, and, rely upon it, I shall always be glad to hear of your +welfare and prosperity. I feel for you in your little difficulty, and I +applaud your boldness. Fancy, breaking into a man's house at eight +o'clock of an August evening! And how did you get in, Joe? I suppose by +a ladder the workman had left against the wall?" + +"Yes, sir. It was seeing a ladder against the wall that put the idea +into my head." + +The banker looked at Farleg with an expression of unlimited admiration. + +"What a general you would make, Joe!" cried Mr. Grey, in pleasant +enthusiasm. "You would use every bulrush as cover for your men! And so, +when you saw the ladder against the wall, you thought to yourself you +might as well slip up that ladder and have a look round? What a pushing +man of business too! And you were alone?" + +"Yes." + +"You entered the tower first-floor, and gathered up a few things, this +ring of my poor wife among the rest. But I don't think you went into any +other room?" + +"No, sir." + +"And I don't think you could have been very long in the room; now, about +how long?" + +"Short of an hour. I heard you coming back, and I cleared out then." + +"Ah! You heard me coming back, and you cleared out then. Quite so. No +doubt it was inconsiderate of me to come back and disturb you. But, you +know, I was in a great state of anxiety and alarm--anxiety and alarm +which were unfortunately only too well founded, as you, no doubt, have +heard; we need not dwell on that painful event now. May I ask you if you +have spoken of this affair to anyone?" + +"No." + +"Not to a soul?" + +"Not to a soul." + +"What a discreet general you would make! Upon my word I think you ought +to go to California. San Francisco is the place for one so daring and so +cautious. What a dashing cavalry leader you would make! And yet it would +be a pity to throw you away on cavalry. Your natural place would be in +the engineers." + +Mr. Grey half closed his eyes, and gazed dreamily for a few seconds at +the reclining figure of the man before him. Then hitching his chair a +few inches nearer to the small table standing between him and Farleg, he +said, in a drawling tone, as he softly slipped his hand into the drawer: + +"I admire you for your ingenuity in availing yourself of that ladder, +and for your boldness in entering the house in daylight. But I am +completely carried away with enthusiasm when I think of your coming here +to me, telling me this tale, and preserving the admirable calmness which +you display. Indeed, Joe, I am amazed." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"Now, how much money did you think I'd be likely to give to help you out +of this scrape, and out of this country?" + +"Mr. Grey, you're a rich man." + +The banker bowed and smiled. + +"And that ring ought to be worth a heap of money to you." + +"A guinea, or perhaps thirty shillings. At the very most I should say +two pounds." + +"But, sir, considering that it was your wife's, and that she wore it on +the very day----" + +"Quite so. On the very day of her wedding----" + +"That is not what I meant----" + +"But that is the aspect of the affair which endears the ring to me. Pray +let us keep to the business in hand. You bring me a ring which I own I +should not like you to have kept from me. You make me a present of this +ring, and you ask me to help you out of the country. Now, how much would +be sufficient to help you out of the country, and settle you and your +wife comfortably in a new home?" + +"A thousand pounds." + +"A thousand pounds! My dear Joe, if you were about to represent the +majesty of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland at a foreign court, +you could ask little more for travelling-expenses and commencing +existence. A thousand pounds! What a lucrative business yours must have +been to make you hope you could get a thousand pounds for the goodwill +of it!" + +"But it is not every day a thing like this turns up. You have a lot of +waiting before you get your chance. In fact, my chance did not belong to +the ordinary business at all." + +"Quite so. It was a kind of perquisite. Well, now, Joe, don't you think +if I gave you twenty-five pounds as a present it would fully provide for +your outward voyage?" Mr. Grey made the proposal with a winning and an +enticing gesture of his left hand. + +Farleg looked down at his boots again, and said very slowly, and with an +accent that left no doubt of his earnestness and determination: + +"It isn't often a chance of this kind turns up, and I can't afford to +let it pass; no honest man could afford to let it pass, and I have a +wife looking to me. You have no one looking to you, not even a wife--not +even a wife." + +"Quite so." + +"Well, I want the money. I want to try and get an honest start in life, +and I think I shall buy land----" + +"Out of the thousand pounds?" queried Mr. Grey, with a look of amused +enjoyment. + +"Out of the thousand pounds you are going to give me. Can't you see," +added Farleg, sitting up in his chair, leaning both his elbows on the +small table between them, "can't you see it's to your advantage as well +as mine to give me a large sum?" + +"Candidly I cannot," answered Mr. Grey, tapping Farleg encouragingly on +the shoulder with his white left hand. "Tell me how it is. I am quite +willing to be convinced." + +"Well, if I take your five-and-twenty, I spend it here, or I spend it +getting there, and then I'm stranded, don't you see, sir?" + +"Go on." With two soft appreciative pats from the left white hand. + +"Of course, as soon as I find myself hard up I come to you, or I write +to you for more, and that would only be wasting your time." + +"But," said Mr. Grey, with a sly look and a sly wag of his head, "if you +got the thousand you might spend it here or there, and then you might +again be applying to me. Ah, no! Joe, I don't think it would do to give +you that thousand. You can have the twenty-five now, if you like." + +"Well, sir, I've looked into the matter deeper than that. When you give +me the thousand, I and my wife will leave this country, go to America, +out West, and buy land. There we shall settle down as respectable +people, and it would be no advantage to me to rake up the past, once I +was settled down and prosperous. So, sir, if you please, I'll have the +thousand." + +There was respectful resolution in Farleg's voice as he spoke. The faces +of the two men were not more than a foot apart now. They were looking as +straight into one another's eyes as two experienced fencers when the +play begins. Mr. Grey's face ceased to move, and took a settled +expression of gracious badinage. + +"I think, Joe," said he, "that I can manage the matter more economically +than your way." + +"What is that way, sir?" + +"As I told you before, I look on you as a very enterprising man. First, +you break into a man's house in daylight, and then you come and beard +the lion in his den. You come to the man whose house you honoured by a +visit through a window, and you say to him--I admit that nothing could +have been in better taste than your manner of saying it----" + +"Thank you, sir, but you took me so kindly and so gentleman-like." + +"Thank _you_, Joe; but I mustn't compliment you again, or we shall get +no farther than compliments to-night. As I was saying, you ask him for +no less than a thousand pounds to help you out of the country and into +a respectable line of life. Indeed, all my sympathy is with you in your +good intention, but then I have to think of myself----" + +"But you're a rich man, sir, and to you a thousand pounds isn't much, +and it's everything to me. It will make me safe, and help me out of a +way of life I never took to until driven to it," pleaded Farleg. + +"Well put, very well put. Now, this is my position. This is my plan; let +me hear what you think of it: On the night or evening of the 17th you +break into my house; on the night or evening of the 27th you visit me +for some purpose or other----" + +"To give you back your dead wife's ring." + +"Quite so. You may be sure I am overlooking no point in the case. Let me +proceed with my view. You and I don't get on well together, and you +attack me. You are clearly the burglar, and I am attacked by you, and I +defend myself with force. You kill me; that is no good to you. You won't +make a penny by my death. But suppose it should unhappily occur that the +revolver, on the trigger of which, Joe, I now have my finger, and the +muzzle of which is about a foot from your heart, suppose it should go +off, what then? You can see the accident would be all in my favour." + +Farleg uttered a loud whistle. + +For a second no word was spoken. No movement was made in that room. + +All at once, apparently from the feet of the two men, a wild alarmed +scream of a woman shot up through the silence, and shook the silence +into echoes of chattering fear. + +As though a blast had struck the banker's face, it shrivelled up like a +withered leaf. Something heavy fell from his hand in the drawer, and he +rose slowly, painfully, to his feet. + +Farleg rose also, keeping his face in the same relation, and on the same +level as the banker's, until the pinched face of the banker stole slowly +above the burglar's. + +The hands of Grey rested on the table. His eyes were fixed on vacancy. +He seemed to be listening intently, spellbound by some awful vision, +some distracting anticipation intimately concerned with appalling +voices. + +Slowly from his lips trickled the whispered words: "What was that?" + +"_My_ wife's voice," whispered Farleg. "You thought it was _yours_. When +I told you no one knew, I meant I had no pal. But my wife knows _all_, +and if anything came amiss to me she'd tell all." + +"I understand," the banker answered, still in a whisper. The dread was +slowly descending from his face, and he made a hideous attempt at a +smile. + +"I, too," pursued Farleg, "was afraid we might quarrel, and left her +there. For one whistle she was to scream out to show she was on the +watch. For two whistles she was to run away and call help. Do you see, +sir?" + +"Very clever. Very neat. You have won the odd trick." + +"And honours are divided." + +"Yes. How is that money to reach you?" + +"I'd like it in gold, sir, if you please. You can send it in a large +parcel, a hamper, sir, or a large box, so that no one need be the wiser. +I'm for your own good as well as my own in this matter." + +"You shall have the money the day after to-morrow at four o'clock. It +will reach you from London. Now go." + +"Well, after what has been done, and our coming to a bargain, shake +hands, Wat," said the man, in a tone of insolent triumph. + +"Go, sir. Go at once!" + +"Honours are not divided; I hold three to your one. Give me your hand, +old man. Joe Farleg will never split on a pal." + +With a shudder of loathing the banker held out his hand. + +As soon as he was alone, the moment the door was shut, he took up the +claret-jug, poured the contents over his right hand to cleanse it from +the contamination of that touch, and then walked hastily up and down the +room, waving his hand through the air until it dried. + +"A thousand isn't much to secure him. But will it secure him? That is +the question. Yes, I think it will. I think the coast is now clear. With +prudence and patience I can do all now," he whispered to himself, with +his left hand on his forehead. "Wat Grey, you've had a close shave. +Nothing could have been closer. Had you pulled that trigger all would +have been lost. Now you have a clear stage, and must let things take +their course. The old man can't live for ever; and until he dies you +must keep quiet and repress all indication of the direction in which +your hopes lie. Maud does not dream of this." + +A knock at the door. + +"Come in." + +James, the servant, entered, holding a slip of paper in his hand. + +"What is it, James?" asked the master. + +"That man that's gone out, sir, said he forgot to give his address, and +as you might want it he asked me to take it up to you." + +Mr. Grey was standing by the low gasalier as the servant handed him the +piece of paper. + +Mr. Grey took the address in his right hand; as he did so the purblind +footman sprang back a pace. + +"What's the matter?" demanded Mr. Grey with an amused smile. + +"Ex--excuse--me--sir," the man faltered, "but your hand----" + +"Well, what about it?" + +"It's all over blood!" + +"What! What do you say?" shouted the master, in a tone of dismay. "Do +_you_ want a thousand too?" + +"Indeed, no, sir; and I beg pardon; but do look at your hand." + +Mr. Grey held up his hand, examined it, and then burst out into a loud +shout of laughter. When he could speak he cried: + +"You charming idiot! You will kill me with your droll ways. That dirty +wretch who went out touched my hand. I had no water near me, so I poured +some claret over my hand and forgot to wipe it." + +He approached James and held out his hand, saying, "Look." Then added, +in a tone of solemn amusement: "James, there was once a man who died of +laughing at seeing an ass eat. I do think I shall die of laughing at +hearing a donkey talk. Bring me the coffee. Go." + +And as the servant was leaving the room, Mr. Grey broke out into a laugh +of quiet self-congratulation on the fact of his possessing such a +wonderful source of amusement in his servant, James. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MANOR HOUSE. + + +The house occupied by Mr. Grey was very old. It had been the Manor +House, and was still called the Manor House, or the Manor, although it +had long ago ceased to be the property of the original owner's +descendants. For years before Mr. Grey bought it the house had been +uninhabited. + +It bore a bad name--why, no one could tell. The fortunes of the lords of +the manor had gradually mouldered away, and the old house had been +allowed to fall into decay and dilapidation. + +During the time it was shut up people spoke of it as a kind of phantom +house; some regarded it as a myth, and others treated it with a +superstitious respect as a thing which might exercise an evil influence +over those who fell under the shadow of its displeasure. + +Sunken deeply from the road, surrounded by a wild tangle of rugged oaks, +its grounds girt with walls ten feet high, there were few points open to +the public from which a glimpse of it could be caught, and no spot from +which a full view could be obtained. + +Boys had scaled the walls and penetrated into the tangled mazes of the +neglected undergrowth. But the briars and brambles and bushes were too +rough even for boys, and they came away soon. + +No boy of Daneford--and there were high-hearted, brave, adventurous boys +there--could say he had penetrated as far as the house. Although those +who had once been boys of Daneford had faced the enemies of their +country in every clime, by day and by night, on land and sea, and +although the boys of that city, at the time spoken of, were made of as +stout stuff and inspired by as gallant hearts as the boys who had fought +and fallen in Spain, India, America, Belgium, Egypt, where you will, not +one of all of them would dare, alone and by night, to break through that +jungle, and penetrate to that house. + +The soil of the Manor Park was low and full of rich juices, and fertile +with long rest, so the vegetation beneath the gnarled boughs of the +interlacing oaks could hold the moisture well when the sun was hot, and +from that ground to the sun they never saw clearly rose huge green and +red and yellow slimy weeds among the brambles and the shrubs. + +From the nests of many generations of birds which had built in those +distorted trees seeds of all things that grow on this land had fallen, +and taken root and prospered in the rich ground of the sultry glens and +caverns formed by the scraggy arms and foliage of the oaks; year after +year this disorderly growth had burst up out of the fat, greasy soil in +unwholesome profusion, unclean luxury, and had rotted down again into +the over-lush earth. So that the spring-root and ground-fruit, and all +manner of green things, jostled and crushed one another, and the weaker +were strangled and eaten up by the stronger. + +Thousands of birds yearly built in the trees of the Manor Park; for here +came no guns to kill or scare, no boys to pilfer the eggs or young ones; +and this republic of birds overhead was a source of great profit to the +soil below. + +Often birds fell from the trees dead of cold in the winter nights, and +when the sun shone out the industrious mole came and buried them +decently, and their bones were of service to the soil. + +The mole, too, was useful in another way, for he turned up the clay now +and then, here and there, and opened avenues into the earth for water +burdened with fructifying juices. + +And here, too, was that ever-active sexton of the vegetable world, the +fungus. In the vast winds of the winters, when the oaks gored one +another, and tore off the fangs of their antlers, great boughs fell with +shrieks to the earth. Later the sexton fungus crept over to the +shattered limbs and lodged on them, and ate them up silently and slowly, +and then the fungus itself melted into the earth. + +Here were worms of enormous growth, and frogs and toads, and snails and +lizards, and all other kinds of slimy insects and reptiles, and the boys +said snakes, but snakes were put forward in excuse of fear on the part +of the boys. There were no hares, no rabbits, no deer, no cows, no +sheep, no goats, nor any of the gentle creatures that put grass and +green things to uses profitable to man. + +Here in those vaults of sickly twilight vegetable nature held high +saturnalia, undisturbed save by the seasons and worms and snails and +caterpillars and slugs. This was not a prosperous field, a prudent +grove, a stately wood, a discreet garden; it was a robber's cave of the +green world, in which the plunder of all the fields lay heaped without +design, for no good or useful end. + +At night the darkness was thick and hot in these blind alleys and +inexplorable aisles. When the foot was put down something slipped +beneath it, a greasy branch, a viscous fruit, a reptile, or the fat +stalk of some large-leafed ground-plant. + +The trunks of the trees and the branches of the shrubs were damp with +gelatinous dews. If there was a moon, something might always be seen +sliding silently through the grass or leaves and pulpy roots. + +Strange and depressing odours of decay came stealthily upon the sense +now and then, and filled the mind with hints of unutterable fears. If in +the branches above a sleeping bird chirped or fluttered, it seemed as +though the last bird left was stealing away from the fearful place. The +fat reptiles that glided and slipped in the ghostly moonlight were +fleeing, and leaving you alone to behold some spectacle, encounter some +fate, too repulsive for the contemplation of reason. + +Within this belt of rank vegetation and oaks the Manor House stood. The +house had a plain stone front with small narrow windows, three on each +side of the main door. At the rear was a large paved courtyard, with a +pump and horse-trough in the middle. + +The chief building consisted of a ground-floor, on which were the +reception-rooms; a first floor of bedrooms; and a second floor, the +windows of which were dormar, intended for the servants of the +establishment. + +The walls of the house were of great thickness and strength. On the +ground and first floors most of the doorways into the passages had +double doors. Owing to the great thickness of the walls, and the double +doors, and the massive floorings and partition walls, sounds, even the +loudest, travelled with great difficulty through that house. + +In front of the house stretched a broad gravelled drive, which narrowed +into a gravelled road as it set off to the main road, a considerable +distance farther on. This carriage-road wound in and out through the +oaks of the Park. Between the gravelled open in front of the house and +the trees stretched a narrow band of shaven grass. This narrow band of +grass followed the carriage-road up to the lodge-gate. + +Around the paved yard in the rear stood the coach-house, stables, +kitchen, laundry, scullery, larder, and other offices, and still farther +to the rear of the house, behind the yard, were the flower and kitchen +gardens. To the rear of all, surrounding all, and binding all in like +suffocating bondage, was the Park of gnarled oaks and rank lush +undergrowth and slimy soil. + +In looking at the house you were not conscious of anything uncanny or +repulsive. At the left-hand end--that is, the end of the house nearest +to Daneford--there rose a tower, mounting only one storey above the +dormar floor. + +Upon the top of this tower was a huge iron tank, corroded into a +skeleton of its former self. Looking at that weather-battered and rusted +tank, with the undergrowth in the Park behind you, the former resembled +the decay of the indomitable natives of America, who perished slowly in +opposing themselves to fate; the overripe prosperity of the latter +looked like the destruction of the Romans, who ate and drank and slept +their simplicity and their manhood away. + +One peculiarity of this house was that no green plant or creeper could +get a living out of its dry walls. Neither on the house nor on the tower +had ever been seen one leaf native to the place. Here was another thing +in strong contrast to the teeming vegetation environing this house. + +It was not while looking at the Manor you felt its unpleasant influence. +In sunshine nothing disturbed your peace while you contemplated its dry, +cold front. But when you had gone away; when you were sitting in your +own bright room; when you were walking along a lonely road; when you +awoke in the middle of the night, and heard the torrents of the storm +roar as they whirled round your window; then, if the thought of that +house came up before your mind, you shrank back from its image as from +an apparition of evil mission. In your mental vision the house itself +seemed scared and afeared. + +The intense green life that dwelt beneath those oaks stood out in +startling contrast with the absolute nudity of those unapparelled +stones. The house seemed to shrink instinctively from any contact with +verdure, as though it felt assured of evil from moss or leaf or blade. +It appeared to dread that the oaks would creep up on it and overwhelm it +in their portentous shadows, beat it down with their giant arms. + +That tower stood out in the imagination like an arm uplifted in appeal; +that shattered tank became a tattered flag of distress. The windows +looked like scared eyes, the broad doorway a mouth gaping with terror. +The whole building quivered with human horror, was silent with frozen +awe. + +In the year 1856 Henry Walter Grey's father died, and the son became +sole proprietor of the Daneford Bank. Up to that time the son had lived, +with his wife, to whom he had then been married six years, in the +Bank-house as manager under his father. There were only a few years' +lease of his father's suburban residence, to run, and a likelihood arose +that the landlord would not renew, so young Grey had to look out for a +home, as he intended appointing a manager and living away from the +office. + +At that time the Manor House was in the market, and Mr. Grey bought it +for, as he said, "a song, and a very poor song, too," considering the +extent of the Park, the value of the timber, and the spacious old house. +As a matter of fact, no one valued the dwelling at a penny beyond what +the sale of its stones would bring; for the impression of the seller was +that, owing to its uncanny aspect and bad name, no one would think of +buying it to live in. + +All Daneford was taken by surprise when it heard that young Grey, Wat +Grey, Wat had bought the fearful Manor House in which no family had +lived for generations, and from which even the furniture and servants +had been long since withdrawn. Did he mean to take it down, build a new +house, and effect a wholesome clearance of those odious groves? + +No, he had answered, with a light laugh, he harboured no intention of +knocking down the old house to please the neighbours; of course he was +going to repair the house, and when it was fully restored he would ask +his friends to come and try if beef and mutton tasted worse, or wine was +less cheering, under that roof because nervous people had been pleased +to frighten themselves into fits over the Park and the Manor House. + +In a year the house had been put into thorough order, and even the tower +had not been wholly neglected, for one room of it, that on a level with +Mr. Grey's own bedroom, had been completely renovated into a kind of +extra dressing-room to Mr. Grey's bedroom, from which a short passage +led to it. + +Nothing was done to the ground-floor of the tower; nothing was done to +the floor on a level with the dormar; nothing was done with the floor +above the dormar. + +Nothing was done to the unsightly tank on the top of the tower. + +With respect to the rooms of the tower, Mr. Grey said he had no need of +more than the one. + +With respect to the tank, he said he would in no way try to diminish the +unprepossessing aspect of the exterior of the house; he would rely upon +the interior, the good cheer and the welcome beneath the roof, to +countervail the ill-omened outer walls. + +There was another reason, too, Mr. Grey said, why he had made up his +mind to alter nothing in the surrounding grounds or outward aspect of +the house--he wanted to see whether that house was going to beat him, or +he was going to beat that house. + +So when all was in order, he set about house-warming on a prodigious +scale--a scale that was a revelation to the people of Daneford. + +He filled all the bedrooms with guests, and had a couple of dozen men to +dine with him every day for a fortnight. + +He told his servants, as long as they did their work punctually and +satisfactorily, they might have friends to see them, and might make +their friends welcome to the best things in the servants' hall every day +for a fortnight. + +There were bonfires in the courtyard, and fiddlers and dancing. A barrel +of beer was placed on the horse-trough, and mugs and cans appeared in +glittering rows on a table beside the cask, and painted on the butt-end +of the cask the words, "Help yourself." + +When he lived in town his establishment had consisted of three servants. +For the fête a dozen additional servants were engaged and a French cook. +There were a lodge and gate to the Manor Park, but there was no +lodge-man or woman; and during the festivities the gate always stood +open until midnight, and all passersby were free to come in and join the +dancers and partake of the ale. + +One day he had all the clerks of his own bank to dine with him; and +while they were over their wine and cigars he informed them their +salaries were from that hour advanced twenty per cent. + +He was then a simple member of the Chamber of Commerce; he had not yet +been elected chairman. He entertained the whole Chamber another evening, +and then told the members he had that day written to their secretary, +declaring his resolution not to charge interest on the money advanced by +his bank--three thousand pounds--for the completion of the new building +in course of construction by the Chamber. + +A third evening he asked all the members of the Harbour Board, and told +them that he had made up his mind to abandon the old claim for interest +on their overdraughts set up by his father. + +Then he gave a Commercial Club evening, to which were bidden all his +friends and acquaintances, who were also members of the club. After +roast beef came two large silver dishes, on one of which was, plainly +enough, plum-pudding; on the other, something that was plainly not +plum-pudding. The host nodded to the servants, and both dishes burst +into flame; the dish that contained the plum-pudding standing opposite +the treasurer of the club, at the foot of the table; the thing that was +not plum-pudding standing opposite the banker. Whatever had been before +him was, when the brandy ceased to burn, all consumed, except a little +black matter that floated about on the surface of the fluid in the dish. + +"Everyone must have some of my new sauce. I invented it myself, and I +will take it as a favour if all will taste it with the pudding." + +All partook of it and praised it highly, and many said they had never +tasted its like before, and several began elaborate analyses of it, and +minute comparisons between it and a hundred of well-known sauces. + +After a while he said: "The roast beef and plum-pudding of Old England +for ever!" Then pointing to the dish containing the floating black +matter before him, "And the ashes of my mortgage on the club property +once!" + +The Boat Club were his guests another evening, and a large gold +loving-cup was brought in and carried about with a rich compound of dark +wines and stimulating spices, and out of this all were to drink. When +all had tasted and toasted in the common cup the object of their common +solicitude, the last man after drinking called out that there was +something which rattled and jingled and slid about in the bottom of the +cup. The master of the house seemed more inquisitive than any of the +others, bade the finder spill out the contents of the cup on a salver, +and, behold, one hundred and five new sovereigns fresh from the Mint! +Upon this discovery the host rose and said that love was the rarest of +alchemy, and that the touch of a score of loyal lips, all having the one +interest at heart, had changed the liquor into gold for the good of the +club, and that the gold and the cup must go together to the club. + +When he had the organisers and directors of the Poor's Christmas Coal +Fund to dinner, each member found, folded up in his napkin, twenty +orders, each order for five shillings' worth of coal. + +Such generous and kindly deeds, and such cordial hospitality, could not +but endear him to the people of Daneford; and by reason of his knowing +so many men intimately, and each one of these men being more or less +proud of the acquaintance, they all called him "Wat," to show how very +intimate they were with him, and to show that in the best commercial set +in Daneford there was no one else known by the name of Wat. They called +him Wat in preference to Henry or Harry, because there is not perhaps +among all the Christian names one which admits of such an intimately +familiar contraction as Walter. + +But all the banqueting and largess did not disenchant the ominous +mansion. + +Those who had been at the prodigal house-warming always remembered the +exterior aspect of the house when the revels were at their height as +even worse than the ordinary appearance; for the small red windows in +the thick dark walls looked at night like the eyes of a desperate man +who had drank deeply to keep up his courage in some supreme ordeal. And +by day ever afterwards, to those who had been in the house at the +festival, it seemed as though the house looked more aghast than ever, +like the face of one who, having slept off the artificial courage, had +awaked to reduced resources and increased dangers. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AN UNSELFISH MOTHER. + + +All the parties given by Mr. Grey at the Manor House were men's parties. +Mrs. Grey rarely or never was to be found in the drawing-room after +dinner; and, indeed, the drawing-room was seldom lighted up. + +Mrs. Grey was a pretty, low-sized, dark-eyed, nervous woman, a few years +the junior of her husband. He had met her first in London, in a house +where she was staying on a visit with friends. She was alone in the +world, had a small fortune, which, while it made her no object of +pursuit in the circle she frequented, kept her independent. + +There was a little mystery and a little doubt about her, and while +neither the mystery nor the doubt was sufficient to disquiet anyone, it +served to keep interest in her alive, and the more prudent and +calculating of suitors from love-making. Individually she was popular; +but while those who knew her spoke well of her in her absence, the good +things said of her always began in superlatives, and, as the +conversation went on, diminished to positives, and the talk usually +ended with a vague "but" and an unfinished sentence. + +Perhaps she was a little odd, they said. Perhaps she had French blood in +her veins. Perhaps the strange blood was Spanish. She had a look not +wholly English--a look denoting no close kinship with any other people. +Her name was Muir, which seemed to indicate that she came of a stock +north of the Tweed. Yet she had never been in Scotland, nor her father +before her, nor anyone of his side, as far as he could trace back. Her +mother had been the daughter of a Truro solicitor, her father a member +of the Equity bar of London. Those who had known her father and mother +declared that she resembled neither in her face nor her manner. She was +dark, low-sized, and odd; they had both been tall, fair, and models of +conventional insipidity. + +When Henry Walter Grey married Miss Muir she was twenty-four years of +age, he twenty-nine. The women judged her to be thirty-four, the men +allowed that she might be twenty-seven; but all agreed that young Grey, +with his prospects, might have done much better as far as money went. + +But among the young and the chivalric of Daneford, young Grey helped +forward his nascent popularity by marrying a poor wife and risking his +father's displeasure for his sweetheart's sake. The young and chivalric +of Daneford were never tired of pointing to the pleasantest and most +prosperous man in the city as one who had made his love paramount above +all other considerations in the selection of a wife. + +From the time he won his wife until he lost her his manner towards her +gained him daily increase of respect among the people of the city. Every +indulgence and luxury which his position could afford were lavished upon +her. Wives who had cause of displeasure or dissatisfaction with their +husbands always cited Mr. Grey as a shining contrast to their own too +economical or exacting lords. It was not alone that she was never denied +anything for which she could reasonably care, but, notwithstanding the +clubs and the institutions and the boards of which Mr. Grey was a +member, no more domestic man lived in Daneford. He always dined at home, +except on occasions of great public interest; and when he had no guests +he sat reading or conversing with her, or they both went for a stroll in +the fine twilight, or visited the theatre, or any other form of public +amusement afforded by the town. + +As the years of their married life glided by, and no child came to make +an endearing interruption to the smooth course of wedded sweethearts, +the attachment between the husband and wife seemed to borrow a greater +depth from the soft melancholy arising out of their childless condition. +It was, the town said, a thousand pities the rich, amiable, amusing, +good-looking Wat Grey had no one to leave his fine business and his vast +fortune to. + +If a friend alluded to the fact of his childlessness he always put the +subject aside with as little humour and as much gentleness as the +character of the speaker allowed of. To his wife, who often made tearful +allusions to the circumstance, he replied with cheerful hopefulness, and +bade her set her grief for him away, as he was quite content and happy +with the blessings Heaven had already sent him, chief among which was a +wife he loved. + +Although Mrs. Grey did not go into society, and had no ladies to dinner, +she had a few visiting friends upon whom she called in turn, and who +learned from her the uniform kindliness of her husband, and the great +gentleness with which he accepted the absence of an heir or heiress. + +In fact, the more people heard of Mr. Grey, the more he grew in popular +esteem, and behind all this amiability on his part there was a factor +which hugely multiplied its value. At first, when he brought his wife +home to Daneford, and the people of his set began to know her a little, +they all declared that she was pretty, very pretty, and a trifle odd. + +Time went on, and although she lost none of her prettiness with her +years--hers being the beauty that depends on bone and outline, and not +on surface and colour--her peculiarities gained upon her; and whether, +the Daneford folk said, it was the foreign blood that darkened her eyes +and her hair and her ways, or a slight strain of madness, they could not +decide, but she was, beyond all doubt, not in manner like the average +English-woman of her class. + +At first her peculiarities defied definition. People said she was very +nice, but a little queer, cracked, crazy. She was very impulsive, and +sometimes incoherent. No action of hers seemed the result of forethought +or preparation. She ordered the servants to bring this, that, or the +other thing, and when they came with it she told them they might take it +away again, as she had changed her mind. She ordered the brougham for +four, went out walking at a quarter to four, and stayed out till six, +without countermanding the brougham. + +About the time that Mr. Grey bought the Manor House, Mrs. Grey had a +difference with her cook, and her cook left her in a violent temper. The +cook had been with her ever since Mrs. Grey had first come to Daneford, +and was the confidential servant of her mistress. Soon after the cook +had left it reached the ears of a few acquaintances of Mr. Grey that a +dreadful spectre had appeared in his household. The fact that Mrs. Grey +had now been married some years and was still childless had preyed very +deeply on her excitable temperament, and, dreadful to say, she not +unfrequently took more wine than was good for her. + +Those who heard this now saw a reason, unguessed by others, why the +banker bought that odious house swathed round with that fearful wood. +There his wife would be secluded, free from prying eyes and guarded +against any close daily contact with neighbours. How had it been kept +secret so long? The cook, now discharged, had obtained for the unhappy +woman what she wanted, and the poor lady was wonderfully discreet and +cautious, and until that servant went no one but the cook and the +afflicted husband ever dreamed of such a thing. It was dreadful. + +But the most intimate friend of Grey never knew from him, by even the +faintest hint, there was a single cloud over his domestic happiness. + +He always spoke of his wife in terms of the most tender consideration +and kindliness. He was by no means weak or uxorious; but there was a +loyal trust, an ever-active sympathy in him towards her, that won +greatly on the young and old men and women of Daneford. + +The evil circumstance under which Mrs. Grey laboured was never an open +scandal in the town. In the first place, owing to her own great prudence +and circumspection, no one had any suspicion of the melancholy fact from +herself. If she was the victim of a debasing weakness, she never +betrayed herself publicly, and those who heard of it through indirect +ways had kept the secret closely, out of respect to the man whose fame +and name and popularity stood so high among his fellow-citizens. Indeed, +some who heard the rumour disbelieved it wholly, and declared their +conviction that it was the malicious invention of a discharged servant, +based on the eccentric habits and unfamiliar ways of the poor lady. + +But the fact remained that, even to the spacious Manor House, no lady +guests were invited to dinner; no lady guests stayed for twenty-four +hours; and, beyond a few afternoon callers, no ladies visited the house +at all. But perhaps in Daneford there were not a dozen families in +possession of the fact that would account for the strict retirement in +which the mistress of the Manor lived, and the young and the chivalric +continued to look on Grey and his wife as not only the most prosperous, +but also the most happy, couple in the whole county. + +Very soon after Henry Grey's marriage with Miss Muir, he found out that +she did not possess the solid good sense and grave discernment essential +in the confidant of a banker. + +She not only lacked the golden faculty of silence, but dealt with facts +communicated to her in a most imaginative and injudicious manner. He +told her that a substantial and solvent merchant of the town had +overdrawn his account five hundred pounds. Shortly after, the merchant's +wife called on Mrs. Grey, and the latter, in a moment of +communicativeness, said to the former that business was in a bad way, +and that she understood the former's husband owed the Bank, over and +above ordinary business, no less a sum than five thousand pounds. The +merchant's wife related this to her husband, and he came in great +indignation to Grey. Mr. Grey said his wife's talk had been only woman's +gossip, and that he had most certainly never told his wife or any one +else the merchant owed the Bank five thousand pounds over-draught. + +The merchant said he was quite sure Mr. Grey had not, but urged that +something of the over-draught must have been communicated to Mrs. Grey, +and that a woman's gossip was quite capable of ruining a solvent man. + +On another occasion the banker told her the Bank had not made as much +money that year as the year before, and she informed some chance callers +that the Bank was losing heavily. This rumour might have shaken the +credit of an institution less solidly established than the Daneford +Bank; but in the city and country surrounding the city the Bank was +looked upon as much more safe than the Bank of England, insomuch as the +Threadneedle Street concern had a paper currency, and the Daneford did +not mortgage any of its capital by such an issue, and stood in no +temptation to diminish its stock of gold or overstep safety. + +These two experiences of Grey's, coupled with a few others of less +importance but similar nature, convinced him that the more general and +abstract his statements of business matters to his wife the better, and +from the moment he arrived at this conclusion he carried it into effect. +She, having no talent for the particular, did not seem to miss his +confidence, and remained perfectly content with commonplace generalities +as to business matters. Indeed, having very little of the highly +feminine virtue of inquisitiveness, she was not much interested in +business statements of any kind. + +Most men will talk more freely to a woman whom they trust than to any +man, no matter how near to them by ties of nature or affection. Henry +Grey was no exception to the rule, and when he found he durst no longer +confide important secrets to his wife, he unburdened himself to another +woman, a widow, now past seventy, but still straight and intelligent, +and sympathetic and hale, a woman who had won and retained a most +powerful hold upon his esteem, affection, and confidence--his mother. + +Whilst all the world of Daneford was calculating the enormous fortune +the Daneford Bank must be making for its owner, and was bemoaning the +fact that Wat Grey had no child to leave his fine business and his vast +savings to, there were two people the nature of whose anxiety about Mr. +Grey's affairs did not take the same course. + +These two people were the only beings possessing knowledge of the +condition of Mr. Grey's private fortune and the bank. + +For years he had kept the true state of affairs from his mother, but at +length, as blow succeeded blow, he could no longer bear the burden of +his secret, and he unfolded it to her. He did not trouble her with +detail, but informed her briefly that he had backed the South in the +American wars--that not only had he lost all his own private fortune, +but of the depositors' money as well. + +At first she was overwhelmed with surprise and horror to think the +splendid business and reputation made for the Bank by her dead husband +and his father before him should be ruined by her son, and that not only +had the Bank been ruined and her son's fortune and position destroyed, +but the moneys of the clients had also been included in the horrible +disaster. + +But, despite her seventy years, she was a brave old lady, full of honour +and spirits and courage. Once the first shock was over, she set all her +faculties at work to try and sustain the drooping energies of her only +son. + +She know he was not free from troubles at home; she knew he gave none +of his business confidences to his wife. Though she deplored these +facts, she felt there was no help for them; and if at first reluctant to +assist him in councils which ought to be held between him and his wife, +in the end she saw it would be the wisest course for her to listen, to +encourage him to speak, and to aid him with any advice she might think +it wise to give. + +Apparently, however, the affairs of the Bank were beyond the aid of +advice. At every interview between mother and son he assured her he saw +no opening in the clouds; that, in fact, they got blacker and blacker as +time wore on. + +Towards the beginning of 1866 things had, the son told the mother, come +to the worst. + +"All is lost," he said; "all is lost. I have been staving off and +staving off until everything has got into a hopeless tangle, out of +which I can find but one thing--ruin!" + +"Then, Henry, I suppose you must shut the door; and as you see nothing +else for it, the sooner you stop up the better." + +"Mother, the day I shut the Bank door I'll open another door." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I'll open the door into the other world with a charge of gunpowder." + +"Don't say such a foolish, dreadful thing! You are not, I hope, such a +coward as to fly from the consequences of your own act. If you have lost +the money in fair trading you need not be ashamed to meet them all; +others beside you lost by that unfortunate South. Your father would have +stood his ground and faced the city," said the old woman, with spirit +and pride. + +"No doubt, mother, no doubt my father would have had the manliness to +stand and face the break; but he was a man of great endurance and nerve; +you know I am not. I would do anything rather than meet such a crash and +live after it. You know I have been much more out in the world than my +father. I am mixed up with such a number of things, am closely connected +with such a number of institutions and men, that nothing, no +consideration, could induce me to outlive bankruptcy. The people would +not believe facts; they would not credit any statement, however plain, +that I was insolvent. They would say that I had appropriated the money +of the depositors, made a fraudulent pretence of bankruptcy, and +concealed the money for my own use. I know the world better than you, +mother; I know the world, and what it would say. I may be popular now; +but if I fell, the street-boys might kick me through the gutter and no +one would take my part, or try to get me fair play." + +He dropped his head into his hands and shuddered. + +The old woman looked at him with a sad sympathy, which was not wholly +destitute of reproach. + +"You know, Henry, thousands of men have had to face such things, and +have come out of their difficulties without a stain or a hard word----" + +"In my case that is impossible. I tell you, mother, they would have no +more mercy on me than on a snake. The Bank is a private one, the +property of one person, and on that one person all the wrath would fall. +It is not like a joint stock, or a limited liability, where many are +concerned as principals or shareholders or directors. It would be a case +between an individual and his creditors. It would look as if I had +borrowed money privately of all the people I knew, and spent it or +gambled in dangerous foreign speculations, until I had dissipated their +last pennies and left the people beggars. No, mother; the day I shut the +Bank door I open the gate of Eternity with a bullet." + +He was walking up and down his mother's drawing-room, with his hands +clasped behind his coat, his eyes bent on the ground, and a look of +concentrated thought upon his usually placid and beaming features. + +"I will not hear you say that again, Henry," cried the mother, stamping +her foot impatiently on the floor. "Listen to me. You know my two +thousand a year is clear of the Bank----" + +"Thank Heaven and my father for that!" cried Grey earnestly. + +"Can't you shut up the Bank, and you and Bee"--Beatrice, his wife--"come +and stay with me for a while? We could leave England and live on a +thousand a year in the south of France, or anywhere you like, and save +up a thousand a year to start you again----" + +"I would die ten thousand deaths, dear mother, rather than touch your +money," he cried fervently, catching her hand and holding it in both +his, and opening his hands now and then to kiss the shrivelled hand +which had once, when soft and full, joined his--then softer and +fuller--in prayer, and now, when he was strong and she was weak, tried +to shield and succour him as in the days when he was a little child. + +"Don't be sentimental at such a crisis," cried his mother petulantly. +"You shall do as I say; or if you like, when the Bank affair is settled, +we can sell the annuity. I know I'm old, and it's not worth many years' +purchase; but we should get a few thousand for it, and that would give +you a fresh start in some other business. Now I tell you this is what +_shall_ happen. Do you hear me? I will not wait for your consent; this +very day I will see about selling the annuity--what do you call it? +capitalising it? Go, Henry, and no more nonsense about gunpowder and +bullets. Such things are only fit for the stage or the Continent, and +are quite beneath the notice of a sensible English man of business." + +He rose to his feet and cried: "You shall not, you must not, mother. I +have been making out things worse than they really are. I am depressed +and ill. Believe me, there is no need for doing what you say. There is +one venture of mine, in no way connected with the late war, the greatest +of all my ventures; and although I do not look on it as a very safe or +sound venture, it may come all right yet. I shall know in a fortnight. +You must promise me to do nothing until then. Promise me, my dear +mother!" + +He spoke eagerly, passionately; and as he uttered the final words he +caught both her hands in his, and looked beseechingly into her eyes. + +"And in a fortnight you will tell me?" she asked, looking searchingly +into his face. + +"In a fortnight I will tell you." + +"And between this and then you will not, in my presence or in your own +secret mind, speak or think about such nonsense as daggers or +poison-bowls, or gunpowder or bullets?" she asked scornfully. + +"I promise I will not." + +"Very well," she said; "I will do nothing till I hear from you at the +end of a fortnight. Let us shake hands, Henry, and part friends." + +"Friends!" he exclaimed, as tears of love and sorrow came into his +eyes. "Mother, you are the only one on earth I love now." + +"Hush, sir! How dare you say such a thing!" + +"I swear it!" he cried vehemently. "I would do anything, dare anything, +for you, mother----" + +"And for your wife," she added, as if reminding him of an omission made +in carelessness. + +He paid no attention to her suggestion. + +"You are the only one in the world who knows me really." + +"And longest," she added, with a bright smile. "There--go now, Henry; +this scene is growing theatrical or Continental, and unbecoming the +drawing-room of an English mother. There--go." + +And she hustled him to the door, opened the door, thrust him out, and +closed the door upon him. + +As soon as she was sure he had left the vicinity of the door she threw +herself down on a couch and burst into tears, exclaiming softly to +herself between the sobs: + +"My Wat! my poor Wat! my darling child, is it come to this with you?" + +Then after a while she dried her eyes and sat up. "Perhaps all may go +well with him after all. Perhaps this venture of his may come right. It +was lucky I got him out of the room so soon. Another moment and I should +have broken down, and been more dramatic and Continental than he, and +that would never do. No son respects or relies on a mother who weeps on +his bosom, and causes him to remember she is not his earliest and +strongest friend." + +In the strong-room of the Daneford Bank all the money and securities +held by the bank were kept. The last duty of Mr. Aldridge, manager of +the Daneford Bank, each day, was to return the cash, bills, books, &c., +to this strong-room. To this strong-room there were three keys in the +possession of the staff of the bank, one held by the manager, one by the +accountant, and one by the teller. + +The door could not be opened save by the aid of the three keys. Thus no +officer of the Bank could commit a larceny in the strong-room without +the countenance of two others. + +Mr. Grey had duplicates of the keys held by the accountant and teller. +But the key held by the manager was unique, and even Mr. Grey himself +could not enter the strong-room without the manager's key. + +In this strong-room were kept not only the valuables of the bank, but +cases and chests containing all kinds of highly portable and extremely +precious substances and papers belonging to customers of the Bank. Here +were iron plate-chests, iron deed-boxes, jewel-caskets in great numbers, +left for safe keeping, not being part of the Bank's property, and +against which there was no charge by the Bank but an almost nominal one +for storage. + +The evening after Mr. Grey had that interview with his mother, he called +at the Bank, found the manager in, and having told Mr. Aldridge that a +secret report had reached him to the disadvantage of a customer whose +name he was not allowed to disclose, he wished to borrow the manager's +key for half an hour, as he wanted to turn over the suspected man's +account. + +He got the key and a candle, and went down to the strong-room. In half +an hour he returned, and handing back the key to Mr. Aldridge, said: "I +am glad to say that the account I spoke of is quite satisfactory, and +that it will not be necessary to make any alteration in our dealings +with the customer I alluded to." + +The next day Mr. Grey went to London, and returned the evening after. A +few days later, among the letters was an advice from Mr. Grey's London +correspondents to the effect that Messrs. Barrington, Ware, & Duncan had +lodged twenty thousand pounds with them to Mr. Grey's credit. + +That day Mr. Grey called upon his mother, and told her some of the +expected good luck had come--not all, but still twenty thousand out of +the fire. + +"I told you, Henry, you had only to wait and face it, and you would win. +If you did any of those romantic and foolish things with daggers and +poison-bowls, they would say you were little better than a thief." + +"Now they could not even say as much," he said softly to himself. + +"What _are_ you dreaming about now!" his mother cried, in exasperation. + +He looked up with one of his best and brightest smiles, and said: +"Dreams, madam! nay, it is. I know not dreams;" and kissing his mother +to punctuate his parody, he smiled again, and added: "I was only joking, +just to enjoy the sight of your anger now that things are looking +better. Good-bye." + +And so he left her. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +AN UNSELFISH FATHER. + + +The city of Daneford, on the river Weeslade, is about eighteen miles +from the small watering-town, Seacliff, which stands in a little bay at +the mouth of the river. Between Daneford and Seacliff the width of the +river varies, but is never less than a mile. + +At a distance of less than four miles from the city the river widens +considerably into a loop, and in the loop is the island of Warfinger. +The island, which rarely is called by its particular name, but is spoken +of as "The Island," measures a mile long by half a mile broad. It rises +gradually from the shores to the centre, and on the highest point of it +stands Island Castle, the seat of the Midharsts for generations. In the +neighbourhood the title of Island Castle is cut down also, and no one at +all familiar with the locality ever calls it anything but "The Castle." + +In the early part of the year 1866 the tenant for life of Island Castle +was old Sir Alexander Midharst, a widower, who lived in the Castle in +great retirement and the meanest economy. His wife had then been dead +twenty years. She had died in giving birth to her only child, Maud, now +rapidly approaching her majority; a girl of such gentle beauty and +simple childlike manners that all who met her spoke of her beauty and +her grace with tender respect and ready enthusiasm. + +Maud Midharst did not need any adventitious aid to make her beauty +apparent and her presence acceptable, but her delicate complexion, her +dark sweet eyes, her pleasant smile, all came out in strong contrast +with her surroundings at the Castle. + +In the building everything, including the structure itself, seemed +hastening to decay. The walls, the floor, the furniture, the servants, +the master, all were old. She formed the one exception to the general +appearance of approaching dissolution. The outer walls of the pile were +seamed and lined, the water had eaten into the stone, the frost had +cracked the mortar, and unsightly yellow stains lay upon the masonry, +like long skeleton fingers pointing to the earth into which the walls +were hastening. + +When castles were places of defence as well as of residence, Island +Castle was well known. It had stood two sieges, and had been a famous +place of meeting among the Jacobites. Its insular position, the wide +prospect it commanded, the fact that it could not be invested on all +sides at once except by a whole army, the facilities it afforded to +approach and flight of friends, and the difficulty, amounting almost to +an impossibility, of reaching it by surprise except under the favour of +night or a fog, all added together made it a place of great importance +once upon a time. + +The Castle had not always been in the Midharst family. It had come to +them early in the eighteenth century, upon the failure in heirs male of +the great Fleurey family, by which failure the historic earldom of +Stancroft was lost to the blood for ever. The Midharsts had some of the +female Fleurey blood in their veins, but it was of distant origin; and +title to the fine castle and property was declared to Sir John Midharst, +the first of his name who laid claim to it, only after long and +expensive litigation and much scandal. + +Up to that time the Midharsts had been poor baronets. The property +accompanying the Island in the year 1866 brought in a rental of more +than twenty-two thousand pounds a year. + +It was a very singular fact that from the first baronet who sat as +master in Warfinger Island Castle down to old Sir Alexander, no son +succeeded a father. It was always a grandson or a nephew, or a +grand-nephew or some remote cousin. Now matters were worse than ever. +Sir Alexander was upwards of seventy years of age, with an only child, a +daughter, and the closest male was a direct descendant of the youngest +son of the baronet, the lucky Sir John who came in for the property that +had supported the extinct earldom of Stancroft. + +No doubt this remote cousin was a Midharst in name and blood, but +somehow it was hard for Sir Alexander to feel very cordial or friendly +towards one so remote from him, one who was going to take the property +and the title away from his immediate family. + +At the time Lady Midharst died Sir Alexander was but a little over fifty +years of age, and many thought he would marry again. But even then he +was ailing, and doctors told him that between asthma and valvular +derangement of the heart his chance of living even a few years was +slight. Of course, they said, he might live fifty years, but he was +heavily handicapped. + +As long as his wife, who had been much younger than he, lived he +continued to hope for an heir; but upon the death of Lady Midharst, +having ascertained the precise nature and import of the diseases from +which he suffered, he made up his mind to give up all thought of an +heir, and devote himself wholly to making a suitable provision for his +daughter Maud, who was healthy and well-grown, and promised to be strong +and long-lived. + +And now began with Sir Alexander Midharst the practices by which he +disgraced his order, and made himself a byword for all who knew his +habits and his name. + +He shut up his London house and advertised it to be let. A rich +distiller took it furnished at two hundred pounds a month during the +season, and a manufacturing jeweller for eighty pounds a month during +the unfashionable periods of the year. + +He sold his horses and carriages, all save one old state coach, which he +could not sell for two reasons; first, because its preservation and +"maintenance" were provided for by his predecessors; and secondly, +because no one would pay haulage for it from the Island to the city. + +He dismissed all his servants but the housekeeper, one maid, and one +man, allowing, however, a nurse and "governess" for the baby, who yet +lacked of three months. He resigned the membership of his two London +clubs, of the three county clubs he belonged to, and intimated to all +institutions or bodies or guilds to which he was patron, chairman, +subscriber, or member, that his connection in any way with them must +cease. + +He discharged his steward, and resolved upon collecting his own rents +and superintending his own property. + +Up to this anyone who chose might go over his fine old Castle. Anyone +still might go over the Castle, but an entrance fee of one shilling was +now demanded from each sightseer. + +As time advanced, and he became more imbued with avarice, more expert in +meanness, he cut and shaved and clipped here and there and everywhere, +until he had reduced his expenditure to about a thousand a year. + +But he did not rest content with cutting down his own expenses; he was +fully as careful to increase his income by every means in his power. + +When leases expired they were renewed only on payment of heavy fines. +His care was not so much to inflate the rent-roll as to get in all the +ready-money he could. He had, he calculated, only a few years, if so +long, to live, and the rent-roll would then be the concern of that +William Midharst whom he had never seen and whom he wished never to see. + +He cut down and sold all the timber as far as his right to do so +extended; and all the trimming and underwood, which had previously been +allowed to go as perquisites to the men or as gleaning among the poor, +he took possession of and sold. + +He let the right of shooting over his land and the right of fishing in +his streams and rivers. He sold off all he might of the more modern +furniture at the Castle. + +He sold all his personal plate and jewels, and all the pictures he had +acquired in his lifetime. When he was young he had made a collection of +coins; this, too, he converted into cash. + +At one time he contemplated letting one wing of the Castle to a rich +tallow-chandler of the city, and was absolutely in treaty with him, when +with a shudder of shame he drew back and broke off the negotiations. + +When he commenced his scheme of economy and exactions, he had said to +himself that if he pursued it for one year, and sold off all the things +he then contemplated, he should be able to leave his baby-girl close on +forty thousand pounds. At the end of twelve months he found he had put +more money together than he had anticipated. There was no new cause of +anxiety with regard to his health, and he made up his mind to continue +upon the track he had adopted. He might live a year, ay, two years yet; +if he lasted two years more the leases of Garfield estate would fall in, +and he should reap a harvest out of renewals. Give him two years more, +that is, three from the beginning, and he should be able to leave his +only child close upon one hundred thousand pounds. + +At the end of the three years he found he had not come within several +thousand pounds of his limit; so he resolved to complete the hundred +thousand before he changed his manner of living or of dealing with the +property. + +When the end of the fourth year was reached he had saved more than the +hundred thousand pounds. By this time he had become accustomed to the +loss of all his old associations, had grown to love the new, and, above +all, had become the slave of avarice, that most inflexible and enduring +of all the passions. Therefore, he threw all idea of change to the +winds, and resolved as long as he lived, whether for a week or twenty +years, to save all the money he could, in order that the descendants of +his side of the family might be able to hold up their heads hereafter. + +At the death of his wife Sir Alexander Midharst closed his London +banking account and transferred all his business to the Daneford Bank, +where he had had an account when he came into the property, and where +his predecessor in the title had also kept his account. + +Now in money matters Sir Alexander may have been a good sergeant, or +even on occasions a trustworthy captain; but he was no general, and he +knew it. He accordingly resolved to consult with Mr. Grey, father of +Wat. He explained the whole scheme to the banker, and the purpose for +which the money was being saved, and said that in the first place he +wanted to invest the money safely, and in the second of course he wanted +some interest for it. + +The banker suggested that for the present the money should be invested +in the Three per Cent. Consols, which could be realised readily should +any more desirable form of investment offer itself, and where it would +be as safe as in land. + +After some consideration Sir Alexander agreed to follow the banker's +advice, on the condition that Mr. Grey would buy the stock, keep the +account of it, with the heirloom jewels and plate of Island Castle, but +that in this case Mr. Grey was to retain the key of the chest containing +the valuables and transact all the business connected with the Consols, +such as receiving dividends, crediting the amount, and buying in more +Consols with the interest of the Consols themselves, and any money Sir +Alexander should lodge to the Midharst (Consols) account. + +"I shall save the money," said the baronet, "and you will take care of +it." + +And so it was arranged. Sir Alexander gave the banker power-of-attorney +with regard to these Consols and all the money lodged to their account +for the future; all communications from the Bank of England, of +solicitors, or anyone else, were to be addressed to Sir Alexander +Midharst, Daneford Bank, Daneford. These letters were to be opened and +attended to by Mr. Grey, who was to make a reasonable charge for the +trouble. + +Things went on thus until the elder Mr. Grey's death, when the son +succeeded to the banking business and a considerable private fortune in +1856. + +Young Mr. Grey, as soon as he came into the business, at once waited +upon Sir Alexander Midharst, and said he would advise that some new plan +should be adopted with regard to the baronet's business and accounts. + +The baronet, who knew young Grey very well, and liked him exceedingly, +told him that his father had managed the business excellently, and that +the son ought to be able to do as well. + +Young Grey said the responsibility was very great, the sum being now +more than two hundred thousand pounds over which Grey had complete +power. + +The baronet took him by the hand and said: + +"You are a younger man than your father, and ought not to be more timid. +Our family have known your bank before now; for my part, I am not able +to take charge of these things. I prefer your guardianship to that of my +lawyer's or of anybody else. If your father charged too little for the +trouble, you may charge more. You know the money is for my little +daughter: the estates go to a stranger after my death; and this money is +the fortune of my child, that no man shall say she, a Midharst--the last +of the direct line, I may say--was left penniless and portionless, +though she may be left homeless, on the world." + +"As you put it now I cannot refuse," answered young Grey. + +"Look around you." They were in the gateway leading to the courtyard, +with their faces turned towards the slope of the hill. "Look around you. +I have shorn the land close for my child. I work night and day for her, +as though her daily bread depended on my arms and my brain. I may die +any time. I have no friend, no relative. I am alone with my child. +Everyone seems against me. That greedy, rapacious young scoundrel who is +to follow me is looking with hungry eyes upon Warfinger Island, and +nightly praying for my death. All my old friends have given me up. I am +not of them now, because I have striven to make provision for my child. +They call me a sordid miser, a stain upon the order I share with them. +Let them rave. I will do what I think right by my child. Let them do as +they choose. I do not ask their help. I only ask them to let me alone. +But you I ask to help me; and you will, for you are not ennobled by the +accident of your birth, but by the generosity of your nature." + +If any power of wavering had remained in young Grey, this appeal would +have overcome it. So the matter was finally settled: the son was to act +for the baronet precisely as the father had acted before. + +During the year 1856 Mr. Grey the younger was a frequent visitor to +Island Castle. He liked boating; and often in the fine evenings pulled +down the river Weeslade to the Island, had a consultation with Sir +Alexander, and then pulled back to Daneford in the sweet fresh twilight. + +Often when it was growing dusk, and he was about to start from the +Island for the city, he pushed off his boat into mid-stream, and rested +on his oars, looking up at the mouldering Castle standing out clear +against the darkening sky. + +There was something desolate and forlorn about that vast pile, +inhabited by that ageing man and that young girl. + +In front, facing the wider water-passage, it stood high above him, its +blind gateway looking down upon him, a lonely round tower at the right +of the archway catching the strange gleams of light reflected from the +Weeslade as the river glided silently towards the sea. + +Winter and summer, when there was sunshine at sunset, the top of that +tower caught the reflection of the last red streak that flickered on the +polished surface of the river. This fact affected long ago the +superstitious feelings of the people. There was a tradition in the +neighbourhood that in times gone by the wicked mother of a Lord +Stancroft used abominable witchcraft against her daughter-in-law, her +son's bride, newly brought home from the kingdom of Spain, a country far +away, and near the sun, and full of gallant men and fine ladies, whose +eyes it were a marvellous fine feast to see, but who were--the +ladies--treacherous and light of love. + +The abominable and damnable exercises practised by the wicked dowager +caused the dark-eyed Lady Stancroft, who had come among strangers out of +the far-away kingdom of Spain, to wither up and grow old and loathsome +in a year. So that the young lord turned away from her, and cared +nothing for her any more. And the poor young lady, gap-toothed and +wrinkled and foul-looking as she had been made by devilish witchcraft, +was still young in her mind and her affections, and doated on the lord, +who would not as much as come nigh the Castle while she was there, but +took to wine and evil ways. + +So at last the poor young wife, who looked eighty, was lost, and could +be found nowhere. It was long after, and in the time of the next lord, +that, in the topmost chamber of the round gate-tower, a chamber never +used save in war-time, they discovered the skeleton of the young wife, +and words written in a strange tongue, the language of Spain, saying how +she had stolen up there to die, as she could not win back the love of +her husband, the young lord. Ever after that the topmost chamber of the +tower was red at sunset. Some thought this red gleam came from the fire +where the wicked dowager Lady Stancroft suffered for her great sin; +others thought this was the reflection from the wreath of glory worn by +the poor young wife. But all agreed it had to do with the deed of the +wicked Lady Stancroft; and so they called the tower the Witch's Tower, a +name it bore until Walter Grey gave it another. + +The year 1856 was one full of remarkable events in the life of Mr. Grey. +In it his father died; he came into a considerable fortune; he +purchased a house; and grew to be a frequent visitor at Island Castle. +It often struck him as a peculiar coincidence that in the same year he +should have become owner of the most remarkable house near Daneford, and +caretaker to the fortune of the owner of the most remarkable house in +the whole district. + +About that time he read an account of a certain tree said to be in +sympathy with a certain tower. The idea was fresh to him, and seemed to +open up a new field of speculation, and he dwelt upon it a good deal. + +One evening, as he was rowing from the Castle to his own home, a thought +flashed into his mind. There was a striking coincidence in the fact of +his being connected so closely with two such houses. Each was unpopular, +each was weird, strange; there were queer stories about each, each had a +tower. The tower of one had an unpleasant history connected with the +skeleton of that poor Spanish lady; the tower on his house had that +rusty framework of a tank that looked like a skeleton. "Might not," he +thought, with a smile at the absurdity, "there be some sympathy between +these two houses?" + +He ceased to row, and looked at the vast pile that brooded over the dark +waters of the Weeslade. He rested upon his oars. + +"It looks, if like anything human, like a witch charming the river. My +house, too, looks like a witch sitting at bay within her magic circle of +grove. It wouldn't be bad to name them both The Weird Sisters. They are +uglier than the crones in 'Macbeth.'" + +He pulled a few strokes and mused again, resting on his oars. + +"They don't use that tower. I don't use my tower. They found the +skeleton of the Spanish Lady Stancroft in the top of that tower. There's +the skeleton of that old tank on the top of mine. Towers and skeletons +suggest Bombay and the Parsees. By Jove, the Towers of Silence would not +be a bad name for those two." + +Next day he told several people the names he had given the two houses +and the two towers. All who heard of the new nomenclature smiled, and +admired the cleverness; and from that time forth in Daneford the two +houses were known as the Weird Sisters, and the two towers as the Towers +of Silence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"TO THE ISLAND OR TO----." + + +Early in the year 1866 the Midharst (Consols) account-book with the +Daneford Bank showed that, after deducting all charges and paying all +expenses, the principal and interest reached the enormous sum of five +hundred and fifty thousand pounds, enough to buy such a property as the +old baronet enjoyed. + +By this time Sir Alexander had passed out of middle life into age. He +was now thin and bent to one side, and very weak, but still firm of +purpose. He had defeated the doctors by living so long; he had defeated +"that ungrateful whelp," as he called his heir-presumptive. Of this +distant cousin he had no knowledge whatever; he declined to listen to +anything about him. Why he called him ungrateful no one ever knew; he +called him a whelp because he was young. It was believed that Sir +Alexander had never in all his life set eyes upon him, or even got an +account of the young man from one who knew him. + +At the time of his wife's death, the baronet made outline enquiries +through his solicitor as to the age and descent of the boy. In the year +of Lady Midharst's death, the boy, whose father had been a poor naval +officer, was aged eight, having been born in 1838. The boy's father had +died at sea. There could not be the shadow of a doubt that this William +Midharst was heir-presumptive, and, if he lived, would inherit the +title and the property, should Sir Alexander die without leaving a son. + +Little of the baronet's time was spent with his daughter; often a whole +week went by, and he did not pass more than an hour of the whole time +with her. She had a suite of rooms for herself, where she lived with +Mrs. Grant, an officer's widow, who knew much of the world, and was now +glad to accept the position of lady's companion to the baronet's only +child. + +Owing to the eccentric life led by Sir Alexander, the facts that he saw +no company and had no intercourse with any of the county families, Maud +never went into society, and was wholly dependent on good sympathetic +little Mrs. Grant for any knowledge she might gain of the great outside +world. Mrs. Grant, who was of a gay and pleasure-loving disposition, +had no patience with the whims and meannesses of the old man. + +"You know, my dear," she said to Maud, as they sat over their tea in +Maud's little drawing-room, "it's all very well for Sir Alexander to go +on saving up money for you, so that you may be a great heiress one of +these days; but that isn't all. He treats you as if you were a girl of +twelve yet. Why, my dear, I had been out three years before I was your +age, and had refused three or four offers. I had, indeed. I know you +don't want offers, my dear; but I did; for I was only a poor rector's +daughter, and hadn't even beauty to help me." + +"Indeed I am sure you must have been wonderfully pretty. You don't know +now nice you look now," replied the girl softly. + +"Ah, well, my dear, after a few seasons you get to know all about your +good looks; and then, my dear, after a few seasons more you get to know +what is of a great deal more consequence, all your defects, or at least +a good many. I don't suppose any woman ever found out all the weak +points in her appearance, and that's a mercy. But as I was saying--what +was I saying?" + +"I think," said Maud, with an expression of great innocence, "that you +were blaming papa for never having given me an opportunity of finding +out the weak points in my personal appearance." + +"Yes, that's it. That is, not quite it. Maud, I won't have you twist +things I say in that way. You know I am always for your good; indeed I +am." + +"I am quite sure of it, dear Mrs. Grant," returned the girl gratefully, +and with a trace of moisture in her large soft eyes, as though she +relented having taken advantage of the other's impetuosity. + +The woman took her hand, and stroked it briskly, and said: + +"There, there, Maud, don't be silly. Look at this very case in point. +Why, you turn sentimental over a few words from an uninteresting +middle-aged woman! Now is that a proper thing in an heiress of twenty? +Why, my dear, you'd have no account to give of offers refused if once +_you_ went out. You'd marry the first booby who asked you, rather than +disoblige him or cause him pain." + +"I shall never marry anyone I do not love," said Maud, with an air of +quiet decision. + +"Maud, be silent; you are only a school-girl, with a lot of sound rules +in your head, and not the least idea of how they are applied, or where. +I tell you _I_ know something of the world and girls and love and +marriage. I tell you, you'd marry the first stupid lout who said to +you: Maud, I love you!" + +"Was the first who proposed to you a stupid lout?" asked the girl +simply. + +"No, he wasn't; at least I did think he was then, but I afterwards knew +that he was the best of them all; and I was often sorry I did not take +him." + +"And did he marry?" + +"Yes; he married a fool." + +"Who had just come out--her first season?" asked Maud, with her hands +folded serenely on her lap. + +"Yes. But how did you guess?" + +"Well, you see, you told me I should marry the first stupid lout who +asked me, and I thought it likely a girl only just out did marry the +stupid lout who proposed first to you." + +"But, dear, I told you he wasn't a stupid lout; then I thought he was +stupid, and was often sorry afterwards--of course I mean before I +married--that I did not accept him." + +"This gives me more hope for my own case. You see, the girl who had only +just come out took the man you thought was a stupid lout, and was right +in taking him." + +Maud looked up and smiled. + +For a moment Mrs. Grant tapped her foot impatiently on the carpet; +looked hither and thither, rose a little hastily, and cried: "Well, +Maud, if you don't think I have a very serious interest in what I say, I +will say----" She paused, and looked at the sweet, half-frightened face +of the girl. All at once her manner underwent a change. She drew near +the girl, and putting her arm round her waist, "I will say," she +continued, "that whoever gets you cannot help loving you. Men are often +bad, Maud darling; but I don't think there is one such a villain and a +fool as to be unkind to you." + +As April of 1866 grew into May, the asthmatic affection from which the +old baronet suffered abated; but the valvular defect of heart increased. +He had fainted three or four times in the month of April, and in May his +debility became so great that he was unable to leave his bed. Other +symptoms now showed themselves, and complicated the case, and so +embarrassed the action of the heart that the doctors declared he must +expect a speedy termination. Towards the end of May the doctors declared +he would never rise from his bed. + +The old man, whose spirit was in arms against these doctors, would not +believe them. Twenty years ago they had told him the same thing. + +They said: No, the circumstances were different. They had then said he +_might_ go at any moment; things were worse than that now. There was no +longer any chance of recovery, and the dread was things would grow +worse. + +The doctors found it necessary to be almost brutally candid with him, +for they had learned he had not yet made his will. + +Insecure as was the tenure upon which he had for the past twenty years +held his life, he had gone on from day to day deferring the arrangement +of his affairs on the grounds that he was too busy, and that if he made +his will now he should have to add codicils according as his savings +increased. His lawyer assured him no such thing was necessary, because, +after all bequests had been mentioned, he could leave his daughter +residuary legatee absolutely or with any provisions and restrictions he +liked to impose. + +As the lawyer had failed in the old time the doctors failed now. But +they were resolved to leave no stone unturned in their attempt to get +him to settle his affairs. The dying man's daughter was too young, and +too timid, and too closely interested in the execution of the document +to think of asking her aid; so they resolved to summon Mrs. Grant, and +request her to press the matter home to the mind of the invalid. + +In the great banqueting-room the three physicians in attendance sat when +it was resolved to invoke Mrs. Grant. + +The vast apartment had been allowed to fall almost into ruins. It was +the finest room in the house, and few houses in either county that +claimed the banks of the Weeslade at this point could boast so noble a +chamber. + +But twenty years of neglect had defiled and defaced the room. The +curtains were faded and worn, the hair grinned through the torn covers +of the fine old oak chairs. Damp had attacked the moulding of the +picture frames, and here and there the moulding had fallen off, leaving +the bones of the discoloured frames exposed to view. The ceiling, formed +of oak cross-beams, with flowers and fruit pieces in the panels, had +felt the corroding touch of wilful Time. Here and there the canvas +bulged off the panel, and hung in loose flabby blisters from the roof. +The fine oak floor had grown dull and woolly for want of use and care. +Sir Alexander kept no servants to look after the apartments he did not +make use of, and refused to allow even beeswax for the floors. + +The dog-irons, which had stood watch over the home-fire of generations +of his name and blood, were rusted. The tapestries hanging across the +doors, here and there torn from their hooks, hung in neglected disorder +from the rods. The hospitable greeting "Welcome," in blue enamel in the +wreath of carved vine-leaves round the top of the huge sideboard, had +lost some of its letters. The glasses of the lamps held by the bronze +Nubian slaves at the doors were reduced to half their number. The +leather thongs lacing the suits of armour that held the groups of +candles at either end of the sideboard had rotted and parted, and the +helmets and back and breast plates gaped at the sutures. + +The chamber smelt like a vault just opened, and, although the weather +was bright and fine, all the furniture, the walls, the floor, felt damp +and slimy. + +As soon as the doctors had finished luncheon, Mrs. Grant was sent for. +She arrived in a state of great agitation; she feared that Sir Alexander +was in the last extremity. + +Dr. Hardy, the senior physician, a pale, soft-voiced, self-contained man +of few words, was the spokesman. He said: + +"You will be glad to hear, and you will be kind enough to inform Miss +Midharst, that there is no cause for any alarm on account of the present +condition of Sir Alexander." + +Mrs. Grant looked infinitely relieved. Strange and unsympathetic a +father as the invalid had been, she did not like the thought of having +to tell anything dreadful about him to Maud. + +"I am glad to hear it. Shall I go at once and tell Miss Midharst the +good news?" + +Dr. Hardy held up his hand with a gesture which said quite plainly: "If +you will be so kind as to confine your attention to me, you may rest +assured of knowing explicitly what I wish to have done in this matter." +Having allowed the gesture a little while to sink into the mind of Mrs. +Grant, he went on with his lips: + +"_But_," he said, with strong emphasis on the conjunction, to show Mrs. +Grant that she had interrupted him, and that he regarded the +interruption as frivolous, "the case has now arrived at that state of +progress when almost at any time the patient's head may be attacked. +Should the head be attacked, Sir Alexander will lose the possession of +those mental gifts and powers which he now possesses undiminished and +unimpaired." + +"Poor child!" cried the widow, thinking of the guileless daughter of the +stricken man. + +"_And_," continued Dr. Hardy, with the same resolute emphasis on the +conjunction, "we consider that he should be at once induced to make his +will, and we have resolved to request you will use your influence with +him. We have tried and failed. May we count on you?" + +Mrs. Grant looked up with a half-amused, half-astonished air. As soon as +she had somewhat recovered from her surprise, she said very earnestly: + +"There is nothing in this world I would not try to do for Miss Midharst; +but there is no more chance of Sir Alexander listening to me on any +business matter than of his asking advice of the wind. He believes women +can and ought to know nothing about business. It would only vex him if I +spoke of anything of the kind to him." + +The poor little woman looked quite distressed and helpless. + +The three men glanced from one to the other in despair. In a few seconds +Dr. Hardy spoke again to the little widow. + +"Is there no friend of the patient's whom you could suggest as likely +to have influence on him? Do you think his lawyer would have weight? We +know how he has secluded himself from the world and his own class, and +that we are not to look among those who would naturally be his friends +for the assistance we now want. Do you think his lawyer would be likely +to succeed with him in this?" + +"I am greatly afraid not. I have heard that--although he has a high +opinion of Mr. Shaw, his lawyer--he would never in any way accept advice +in his affairs beyond legal matters. I understand Sir Alexander has no +personal liking for Mr. Shaw. And he won't speak to any clergyman." + +Again the three men looked at one another in doubt and difficulty. Again +Dr. Hardy spoke: + +"This is a matter of the utmost importance to those who come after Sir +Alexander, and we are most anxious it should be settled, and at once. If +we thought it was a disinclination to make a will, or a determination +not to make one, that kept him back, we should feel no responsibility in +the matter. But he refuses to settle his worldly affairs solely upon the +ground that we are deceived as to his condition of health. Now we are +confident we are right. He will never rise from his bed again. Already +dropsy has made its appearance; at any moment that may, directly or +indirectly, affect the head; in his case it is almost sure to do so at +some time." + +Dr. Hardy paused a moment; then proceeded with more decision than +heretofore: + +"Perhaps you, Mrs. Grant, would be kind enough to ask Miss Midharst if +she could give you the name of anyone on whose advice Sir Alexander +would be likely to rely in an important business affair? You need not +distress Miss Midharst with anything more explicit." + +Mrs. Grant rose with prompt willingness, and hurried away in the +sustaining hope that Maud might be able to solve the difficulty. + +When Mrs. Grant had gone, the three men drew near one of the tall narrow +windows that looked west along the Island and commanded the beautiful +valley of the broad river, and the broad, blue, bright Weeslade itself. + +An everlasting Sabbath filled that luxuriant valley with a peace which +seemed too fine for earth. Because of the height on which the Castle +stood, and its distance from the nearest shore beyond the western end of +the Island, all detail was subdued and lost; nothing was left to trouble +the eye or excite enquiry. The eye could see nothing but broad green +pasturages and vast expanses of emerald grainshoots reaching down to the +river's brink, and sloping softly inward towards the quiet hills that +stood up apart, clad in purple and blue wood, and crowned with violet +uplands lying secure against the azure sky. + +The tide was full; the winds were still; from the trees around through +the open window came the fragrant spices of the may. Above, the lark +took up where all human voices end the praises of the spring. The glory +of inextinguishable youth was in his song, the wild rapture of a +regenerated soul. Below, the sad-throated thrush piped of the mellow +melancholy of a ripe old world that had borne a thousand generations of +men, who had moved all their days through the same narrow and +unsatisfying avenues of desire and passion and final failure to the +richly padded grave. The thrush sang to the earth of those who had died; +the lark sang to the skies of those who shall live for ever. + +Around the three men as they stood by the open window was the mouldering +chamber of an ancient house. On one side lay the decayed old man of a +noble race. On the other side the maiden daughter of that man, who had +smothered up his affectionate visitings under piles of gold, scraped +together for her, for the pride of his lineage. + +Beyond there in the city was ruin. A great bank which had a branch in +Daneford had stopped payment to-day. The three men by the window were +talking of that while they awaited the return of the woman. + +"Dreadful! I am told that the poor Mainwarings are completely ruined by +it." + +"Completely. Fancy old John Musgrave put four thousand pounds into it on +deposit this day week. It will kill him. He had sold out Turks, and was +going to buy United States." + +"Poor old fellow! I do pity him." + +"There was a rumour of one of the local banks being in a bad way. Did +either of you hear it?" + +"Not the Daneford?" + +"No; Grey is safe. Bless me, his father left him a couple of hundred +thousand clear of the business, and he's been making money ever since." + +"Is it the Weeslade Valley?" + +"I don't like to say. It is so dangerous to speak. But there _is_ a +rumour of a local bank, and it's _not Grey's_." + +"No. I should think Grey could stand anything. They say it was always +Grey's system to keep the money near home. It's a commercial and +customers' bank, and not a gad-about among foreign speculations and +bubble manufacturers." + +At that moment Mrs. Grant re-entered the room. + +The three men turned round and went to her. + +"I have seen Miss Midharst, and she says she thinks the person most +likely to have influence with Sir Alexander is Mr. Grey the banker." + +"A most excellent man," said Dr. Hardy, turning to the other two. "What +do you think?" + +"Capital!" + +"No one could be better." + +Dr. Hardy spoke to Mrs. Grant for the last time on that occasion. "Send +a note by express to Mr. Grey, requesting him to come immediately. +Explain to him what our views are, and ask him to do his best to induce +Sir Alexander to make his will." + +In less than an hour and a half Mr. Grey received Mrs. Grant's letter. +It merely said that his presence was urgently desired at the Castle at +once, and that by hurrying he would greatly oblige Sarah Grant. + +He was in his private room at the Bank when he read the letter. He +opened his private black bag. Bank proprietors do not always carry +firearms, in fact rarely, almost never. Clerks in charge of money often +do. Grey always carried a revolver--now. + +"He can't have heard of his Consols? In that case he would have written +himself or come. What can this be?--so sudden, so urgent, and from Mrs. +Grant! Perhaps the failure of the St. George's has frightened him. If he +asks me to give up the money now! Ah, I can't face that! No, no! This +first," and he took a revolver out of his bag. + +Again he thought awhile, and ended with a question: "Shall I go to the +Island or to----?" He poised the revolver. + +As he did so there was a knock at the door. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TRUSTEE TO CANCELLED PAGES. + + +"Come in," said the banker mechanically, and his mother entered. + +With a start Mr. Grey's mother cried out "Henry!" then crossed the room +hastily, and, putting her hand on his arm, looked up into his face with +alarm. + +With an amused smile he glanced down at her, and said simply, "Mother?" +in a tone of badinage, as if paying her off in her own coin by replying +to her with a single word. + +"What was that you held in your hand and dropped into the bag as I came +in?" she asked with reproachful earnestness, looking up fixedly into +his eyes, as though she would pierce to his innermost thoughts. + +He put his hand on her shoulder playfully, and smoothed one of the black +silk strings of her black bonnet with his thumb and finger, returning +her steady gaze with a steady eye and a free smile. "That, mother," he +answered, "is the countersign for thieves." + +"The countersign for thieves! What do you mean, Henry; you ought not to +bandy words with your mother." + +"Indeed, I am not playing with words. I am only describing the weapon +and its use as briefly as possible. I was looking at my revolver, for I +was just about to set out on a journey. You see, if a thief comes up to +a man armed with a revolver, and demands the man's purse, the man +produces that revolver, and the thief says, "Pass on, friend." If a +thief who has stolen money meets the man he stole it from, or a +policeman, and can pull out a revolver, then he can say to the man or +the policeman, "Let me pass, or I will shoot you down;" or suppose the +thief finds the odds are against him, he can put the barrel to his own +temple, and pass the foe in spite of numbers. Now, mother, don't you +think my explanation is very clever and very exhaustive?" + +He placed his two hands on the widow's shoulders, and pushed her back +arm's length, dropped his head roguishly over his shoulder, and laughed +a soft laugh, which seemed to invite her to enjoy his cleverness and be +amused at the humour of the explanation. + +Mrs. Grey did not smile. For a moment her face grew puckered and +perplexed. In her eyes shone the light of a mental conflict between +anger and tears. The conflict ended in a few moments. She threw herself +into a chair and covered her face with her hands. She neither stormed +nor wept. + +He hastened to her with compunctious solicitude. He knelt on one knee by +her side, and put his powerful arm round her emaciated shoulders, and +with the hand of his other arm gently drew down her hands from her face. + +"Mother! mother!" he pleaded, in a tone of passionate tenderness. "I did +not mean to annoy or trouble you. I was only a little wilfully following +out a fancy, a conceit. It was a foolish vanity that made me seem to +play with your questions. You know, my own mother, I would not give you +any pain I could help, for all the world. Forgive me, and let us drop +the nonsense. Forgive me, and let us speak of something else." + +All the earnestness of this man's nature went into these words, and +there was in them and the manner attending them a fervid pathos which +stirred the heart of the woman so deeply it almost killed her to keep +from crying out, and throwing her arms round her son, and weeping on his +breast. But by a superhuman effort, an effort no created being could +make but a mother for the salvation of a child, she held her passionate +love within her own heart; for, according to her theory, so must all +women who wish to rule their children; and she wanted to rule, not for +the love of power, but for the love of love and the preservation of her +son. + +She gave one quick glance at him out of those sharp eyes, and then +throwing down the eyes on the ground, said in a constrained voice: + +"The St. George's Banking Company has failed. There is a run on the +Daneford. You are unable to meet that run, and you were thinking of +getting away from the run and the closing of the doors with----that." +She shuddered, raised her hand, and pointed to the black bag into which +he had dropped the revolver. + +"No! no! no! mother!" he cried imploringly. "I pledge you my word--if +you like I will prove to you--that we are able to meet any run that may +come upon us in consequence of this failure. If you like I will call in +Aldridge to corroborate my words." + +"Corroborate your word, Henry!" she cried scornfully. "Do you think I +could doubt my son's word, and believe the word of any other man alive! +Never while I live, I hope, shall you fall so pitifully low as to need +another man's word to help your word to my belief." She laid hold of the +imputed question of her son's word as a point on which to rally her +disordered feelings and overcome the tendency she felt to break down. + +"Well, mother, rest assured this run threatens us with no danger +whatever. On the contrary, as we are able to meet it without the least +inconvenience, the position of the Bank ought to be very materially +improved when all becomes quiet again." He rose and left her as he +spoke, and locked the two doors of the room, observing: "We don't want +anyone to come in and interrupt us now." + +By the time he returned to his seat she had recovered her composure. +"Then what do you mean by 'setting out on a journey?' Those words helped +me into the fear." + +As a reply to that question, he pushed the note he had just received +from Mrs. Grant across the table to her, and said: "Read that, and you +will understand." + +She adjusted her tortoiseshell spectacles and read the note +deliberately. When she had finished she looked up quickly. + +He was standing at the window looking out. His back was towards her, and +she could not see his face. It was wrinkled and drawn up like a yellow +leaf. + +"Do you know what you are wanted for at the Castle?" she asked briskly. + +"No." + +"What has happened to your voice?" she asked, in a tone of anxiety and +surprise. He had spoken as though his windpipe was almost closed in a +gripe. + +"Nothing; or at least something has gone against my--breath. What am I +wanted for at the Castle?" Still he spoke as if half suffocated. Still +he kept his face to the window. Still his face was wrinkled and yellow +and withered up. + +"I met Dr. Hardy as I came in. He had just driven straight back from the +Castle. There has been a consultation of doctors to-day, and they have +little or no hope of Sir Alexander getting better. He has not yet made +his will, and they all agreed you were the only person likely to have +any influence with him. They could get him to do nothing about it." + +Grey's face cleared as if by magic. He turned round suddenly, threw up +both his hands, and burst into a loud and continuous shout of laughter. + +His mother started to her feet, and looked at him aghast. "Henry!" she +cried, in great alarm; "Henry, what is the matter?" + +"Nothing, mother, nothing," he said between his laughter; "I thought it +was something serious." + +She regarded him in a stupor of amazement for a few seconds. "You +thought it was something serious," she whispered, as if she questioned +her hearing. + +"Yes, something very serious." + +"But it is very serious. He is in danger of death, and has not yet made +his will. Surely that, Henry, is no subject for laughter." + +He was composed now. His face was radiant, and he smiled apologetically +as he said: "You must really forgive me, dear mother. The fact is, for +the past quarter of an hour I have been on such a stretch in the +interview between us that to hear of anything else but my own affairs +relieved me, and I could not help laughing. I did not, indeed, laugh at +the thought of poor Sir Alexander being ill; I pity him with all my +heart. But what you said touched some spring of my mind, and I could no +more have forborne to laugh than to breathe for an hour. Well, I think I +had better start for the Island at once. You now feel all right about +the Bank? You feel quite comfortable about it, mother, don't you?" + +"Yes, but do not be so odd, Henry; you frighten me to death with your +strange ways of late." + +"I have a good deal of anxiety, and perhaps am too abrupt. More of my +abruptness: I can't wait another moment. Good-bye, mother." + +And in a few seconds he had gone. + +When she found herself alone, she sat down to recover and to reflect. +"Every day," she thought, "he becomes less like his old self, and more +of a riddle." + +Her eyes caught something on the table. + +"When I came in he told me he was examining that dreadful thing because +he was going on a journey, and now he's gone off and left it behind him +in the bag on that table. Can it be he is losing his reason?" + +When Mr. Grey found himself outside the Bank-door he hailed the nearest +fly, jumped in, and cried cheerily to the driver: + +"Island Ferry, and I lay you a half-crown to a whip-lash you don't do it +under half an hour. Take the time and drive on." + +With a chuckle of grave satisfaction, the banker threw himself back in +the fly, and as they drove rapidly through the town he waved his hand or +doffed his hat at every twenty yards. There was cordiality in every look +that greeted him, and many who saw him go by turned and gazed with +admiration and envy after the fine rich jovial banker. + +No wonder he looked pleased. An hour ago, less than an hour ago, he had, +upon reading that note, almost come to the conclusion Sir Alexander +Midharst had discovered he, Grey, had "borrowed" every penny of the +immense sum confided to his charge by the baronet. Such a discovery +would have been to him simply and literally fatal. + +Early in this year, when he disclosed the secret of the Bank to his +mother, he and it were bankrupt, and all the depositors' money was gone. +Pressure after pressure had come upon him after that, and all such +demands had been met by "borrowing" the baronet's savings without the +baronet's consent. + +Three months ago he was a bankrupt, now he was a bankrupt and a thief. +He had no more right to sell those Consols than to put his hand into any +customer's pocket and take his purse. He had glided into the thing +gradually, beginning by borrowing twenty thousand pounds, which he +caused to be lodged to his own credit at his London agents in the name +of Barrington, Ware, and Duncan, an imaginary firm of Boston merchants, +who remitted the money through their London agent on account of +supposititious dealings in hides on the western coast of the United +States. + +The twenty thousand had only stopped the gap for a few days. Then +heavier and heavier bills came to maturity, and before there was any +general uneasiness in the commercial world, one hundred thousand pounds +of the baronet's savings had been "borrowed." + +Then came ugly rumours of certain banking establishments; and although +the Daneford Bank was always spoken of with the highest esteem in the +district, the city, and in such quarters of London as it was known, the +accommodation market had got very much straitened, and the Daneford +Bank's London agents not only hinted they did not care to make any +additional advances, but sounded Grey as to the possibility of their +being able to get a little advance from him. Could he let them have +fifty thousand for six weeks on Argentines they did not want to sell? + +Here was a chance of showing the stability of his own concern and +helping a friendly firm which might be of incalculable use to him +another time. Now that he had dipped into the Midharst fund, why not go +deeper? He could make something out of this transaction; and it was for +the good of Sir Alexander as well as himself that he should try to pull +back all the money he could, and keep the name of the Bank at the very +highest level. He lent the money. + +Then came other pressures because of those old speculations, a quarter +of million at least; and last, more uneasy rumours in the financial +world, and the possibility of a run on the Bank. At all risks the Bank +must stand; for on its stability depended not only the life of Henry +Walter Grey, but all chance of winning back any portion of the baronet's +money. + +When the moment of this decision arrived Grey put down his last stake; +sold the last hundred thousand of Sir Alexander's half a million +Consols, and bought the revolver. As he put the matter to himself in his +figurative way, the situation now was a race between gold and lead. +Would the gold, in the form of profits and deposits, come back to him in +such quantities as to prevent the necessity for the outgoing of the +lead? + +It was on Wednesday, the 30th of May, 1866, he got that note from Mrs. +Grant. He had just been calculating his chances of falling in for some +of the business of the St. George's Bank. He had even put down a few +figures to please and flatter his sight. It might be that if he could +hold on and get--say, half the business of the Daneford branch of the +St. George's Bank, the chance of the gold overtaking the lead would be +enormously increased. All this was of course contingent upon Sir +Alexander remaining in ignorance of the "borrowing." If that came to his +ears in any way, nothing could prevent the lead overtaking the gold. + +That note almost precipitated the crisis. In the usual way when he was +wanted at the Castle Sir Alexander wrote a line himself, or called and +asked the banker down for the evening. This note did not come from Sir +Alexander, but from Miss Midharst's companion. At the moment when his +mother entered a straw might have turned his resolution in favour of +giving the lead a walk-over. But with the news brought by his mother all +was changed, and the gold had taken a good lead. + +As he sat back in the fly and reviewed his position he could hardly +restrain his exultation within the bounds of mere facial joy. He would +have liked to get out and run through the streets, and shout. + +A few minutes ago he held all black cards to a red trump. Now the whole +pack seemed to have been put before him face up, with liberty to select +his own hand and turn a trump of his own choosing. + +No run could injure the Daneford Bank; other banks might fail, but his +was secure for the time; and by the aid of its good substantial name the +Daneford would get strong while others were crumbling, and the future +success of the Bank would be assured beyond the reach of his highest +hope of years ago. + +Only two possible chances were against him, and if neither of these +chances turned up within twelve months he might laugh at fate. + +The former was that in the will there should be introduced anything +adverse to him. The latter was that the old man should die in less than +twelve months, and leave it incumbent on the banker to render an account +and deliver up the money before the end of twelve months. + +Grey had fully made up his mind as to the necessity for a will. Without +a will there would in all likelihood be Chancery proceedings; and while +no one in Daneford would dream of suspecting Grey, or ask details of the +account, much less verification of the items, the Chancery folk will go +through the whole affair as a matter of routine, and not as a matter of +precaution, or because of any suspicion. + +Let there be a will, by all means. + +It was fine to drive through the bright sunlight of that glorious May +weather, and feel that the gold was overtaking the lead. It was better +than recovering from a long illness; it was coming back, to life and +green fields and the voices of birds and the pressure of hands we love, +out of the dark, damp, noisome tomb. + +When Mr. Grey arrived at Island Ferry he alighted, told the driver of +the fly to wait for him, and took the boat to the Island. + +As soon as he arrived at the Castle he was shown into the dreary +deserted banquet-room. + +Here he found irrepressible little Mrs. Grant waiting for him. After +some time he gathered from her how matters stood, and sent up his name +to the sick man. + +Sir Alexander would see Mr. Grey. + +When the banker reached the room where the baronet lay, he was greatly +shocked at the change which had taken place in the latter since the last +time they had met, although that was only a few days ago. + +There had always been a bright bloom, the bloom of old age heightened +and deepened by the malady which afflicted him chronically, on the old +man's face. Now the cheeks were puffed and purple, and the eyes, once so +keen and cold, were dull and restless and impatient. + +The long thin sinewy hands lay outside the counterpane, and the voice of +the sufferer when he spoke was tremulous, querulous, making a painful +contrast to the firm, clear, thin, biting speech of other days. + +After the usual greetings and Grey's expression of sorrow for his +indisposition, the old man spoke quickly, and in an unsteady voice. + +"These doctors have been worrying me to-day, Grey, and I am very glad +you have come. I want to talk to you. Pull that curtain a little across +the window; I hate the sunlight. Thank you, Grey. Sit down now, where I +can see you. It's a comfort to look at a man like you after those false +prophets and hoarse ravens. The doctors have been with me, Grey; and +they tell me I should make my will. Now I'm not talking to you as a +medical man, but as a man of business. What do you say?" + +"Have you spoken to Mr. Shaw about the matter?" asked the banker softly. + +"No; I have not spoken to Shaw about it. I hate lawyers," cried the old +man pettishly. + +"If I hated lawyers," returned Grey, with a shy smile, "I should not be +without a will for four-and-twenty hours." + +"Why?" demanded the old man, with a contraction of the brows and a +glance of suspicion directed at an imaginary group of lawyers. + +"You know, Sir Alexander, lawyers have a special prayer, asking for the +management of intestate estates." He raised his eyebrows and smiled +archly at the prostrate man. + +"I don't understand you, Grey. These doctors, with their fears and their +jargon, have confused me. What do you mean?" + +For a moment the banker looked at the baronet uneasily. Could it be that +already his mind was becoming clouded or torpid? After a moment's +observation and thought, Grey decided that the old man was only dazed +and tired. + +"What I mean, Sir Alexander, is, that in cases where there is no will, +the law-costs often consume the whole estate, and _always_ eat up +enormously more money than where there is a sound will." + +The old man reflected awhile. + +"Have you made your own will?" he asked. + +"Certainly. I could not rest if I thought what little fortune I may have +should, instead of going to my wife, be scattered about in this and that +court, in this and that litigation. As I go home the ferry-boat may +overturn and I may be drowned, the horse may run away and I may be +killed. Making a will has with me no connection with good or bad health. +It is a business thing which ought, on the principle of economy, to be +done in time. In nothing more than in making a will is it true that a +stitch in time saves nine?" + +There was a long pause. + +"Grey!" + +"Yes, Sir Alexander." + +"You helped me to put this fortune together for my daughter." + +A bow of deprecation. + +"You have been ten years now taking care of it for her." + +"Yes, Sir Alexander." What was coming now? Could all this be a _ruse_? +Was this serene interview to end in a storm of intolerable ruin? Had +this old man been leading up with deceiving equanimity to some +prodigious burst, some unendurable tempest of reproach? + +"Will you go still farther?" + +"In what way?" + +"Will you act as one of the executors, the chief--no, as the sole, as +sole trustee and guardian?" + +"What! Sir Alexander, Sir Alexander, are you--are you trifling with me? +If you are, give it up. I cannot, I will not, be trifled with." His +face shrivelled up, and he covered it in his hands. For that brief space +he thought all had been discovered. + +"What I say I mean. Why should I trifle with you? If I am to die or be +killed, let me die with the knowledge that the fortune of my child will +be as safe when I am dead as it is now. Will you do this, Grey, for me?" + +"I will." + +"Then you may tell Shaw to come. Go to him at once. I wish to make my +will." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WAT GREY'S ROMANCE DIES OUT. + + +Mr. Grey's drive to Castle Ferry had been an excursion to meet victory; +his return to Daneford was a triumphant progress. + +Now it seemed to him nothing short of a conspiracy between fate and +accident could wreck him. The two chances which had threatened him with +ruin had melted into thin air. Nothing adverse to him would be in the +will, and not only that, but from the day of Sir Alexander's death until +the coming of age of Miss Midharst he would have absolute control of +affairs, and every chance of making good the sum he had abstracted. The +gold was going to beat the lead at a walk. + +The financial world was now in a state of deplorable despondency, but +that condition of things could not last for ever. There was of course no +prospect of his making a tenth part of the half a million profit during +the twelve months; but the St. George's Bank was gone, and deposits +would come flowing in, and having obliged his London agents in their +need, they could not refuse him anything in reason by-and-by. After +riding out the bad times his credit would be so firmly established that +he could get money on the best terms to build up the horrible gap he had +made. He could borrow to replace what he had stolen. + +"I shall win now, and I shall win easily," he thought, as he drove +through the bright fresh air towards Daneford; "and by the time there is +another dissolution, who can tell but I may take one of the seats for +the city, if it is offered to me." + +He went straight to Mr. Shaw, and told that gentleman how Sir Alexander +Midharst desired to see him with a view to making his will, and how the +client, although in no immediate danger of death, was nevertheless in a +state of health which made it highly desirable his worldly affairs +should be put in order as quickly as possible. + +Mr. Shaw visited the Castle that evening, wrote from the baronet's +dictation, and on Monday, the 4th of June, 1866, the will was signed by +Sir Alexander in the presence of two competent witnesses, who, in the +presence of the testator and of one another, affixed their signatures. + +A few days afterwards Mr. Gray met the lawyer. + +"Well," said the banker, with one of his easiest smiles, "did you do +what was required at the Castle?" + +"Yes," answered the white-haired solicitor, who was tremulous, and had a +disconcerting way of shutting his eyes and consulting imaginary internal +Acts of Parliament when he spoke. He was not by nature communicative, +and he held in rigid regard all professional etiquette; but Mr. Henry +Walter Grey was a very exceptional man, and, moreover, the testator had +told him Mr. Grey had consented to act as guardian and trustee; +therefore he did not feel he committed any impropriety in adding: "Sir +Alexander appears to share public feeling in your favour, and to place +unlimited confidence in our most careful banker." + +"You are very kind," returned Mr. Grey, with his most cordial smile. "As +you know, our establishment has been a long time connected with the +Castle, and when Sir Alexander asked me to act, it would look +ungracious in me to refuse." + +"It's a heavy responsibility." + +"Oh, as far as the responsibility goes----" He did not finish the +sentence in words, but with a shrug of his shoulders, as much as to say: +"We bankers are accustomed to grave responsibilities." Then the two +parted. + +From this conversation Grey not only gathered that the will had been +made, but also that under it he had been appointed executor and trustee +to the document and the estate, and guardian to the heiress. + +What more could he require to put his mind at rest? + +And yet as the days went on he was far from easy. Many things caused him +trouble and made him anxious. The gloom over the financial world +deepened instead of lifting. The ordinary depositors grew shyer and +shyer, as crash followed crash, and house followed house, in the awful +ruin of the time. + +No one breathed a word against the Daneford Bank; all who spoke of it +acknowledged its position unassailable; still its business showed no +vast increase, no such increase as would help Grey out of the whirlpool +into which he had been drawn, although the Bank's borrowing power had +been secured. + +From bad, things went to worse. As the year wore on, some of his best +customers began to feel the pressure of the times. Instead of finding +funds flowing into the Bank in unexampled abundance, money ran out. + +Old respectable firms now came to him and asked to be helped over the +disastrous period. They brought this security and that, and begged for +advances. If the name and fame of the Bank were to be magnified, this +was the time to do it. He had still funds enough to make the Bank proof +against contingency; over and above this he had a little margin, not +much, but most useful. + +About the middle of June the Weeslade Steamship Company quarrelled with +their bankers, the Weeslade Valley Bank. The Steamship Company wanted an +advance of five thousand pounds on the river steamboat _Rodwell_, which +carried passengers between Daneford and Seacliff. The Weeslade Valley +Bank refused. The Steamship Company withdrew their account from the +Valley Bank, and offered their business to the Daneford Bank. The +account was opened in the Daneford, and the advance was made by mortgage +on the _Rodwell_, the Steamship Company paying interest on the advance, +and depositing with the mortgage a policy of insurance against total +loss by water or weather. + +Towards the end of June the Daneford Bank's London agent failed, by +which the Bank lost a clear twenty thousand pounds, besides losses by +delay in getting a dividend. This was very serious. It caused a run on +the Daneford Bank. In three days thirty thousand pounds were withdrawn +in excess of average draughts. + +On the morning of the third day the Daneford Bank issued a circular +which took the town by storm. The circular was brief, and ran as +follows: + + "Thursday, 28th June, 1866. + + "THE DANEFORD BANK. + + "Take notice, owing to the fact that a run has begun on the + Daneford Bank, the offices of that Bank will be opened every + morning at eight instead of nine, and will be closed at seven + instead of four p.m., until this run has ceased. + + "HENRY WALTER GREY." + +This circular was town talk the next day. The admirers of Wat were more +enthusiastic than ever in their praises of his boldness and wisdom. This +circular killed the panic, and on Saturday of the same week the drawings +had shrunk back to an average. Yet for another week the Bank was kept +open from eight in the morning till seven in the evening. + +On Monday, the 9th of July, a second circular was issued from the Bank, +saying that as the run had ceased for a week the office hours for the +future would be as of old, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. + +But, although the run had ceased, upwards of thirty thousand pounds had +been withdrawn, and only five thousand found its way back again, and +that was decidedly bad. The Bank was not in the least jeopardy. Sir +Alexander Midharst's half a million had saved it; but the baronet's +money was not only not returning, but the balance of it in hand began +to run low. + +Notwithstanding all this business pressure and the perilous position in +which Grey stood, no one could detect in his face or manner a clue to +the anxiety which consumed him. Still he was the same joyous companion, +the same jovial host, the same considerate employer, the same liberal +patron. + +To his mother he displayed the best view of his position. He showed her +how the steamship business had fallen in to him because he was in funds +and could give accommodation beyond the power of his local rival. He +admitted the loss in London, but pointed out how the loss and the run, +taken together, must end in great advantage to his Bank. + +She heard not only his story, but, from all who spoke to her on the +subject, congratulations upon the Bank's position and his great +prudence and good sense. He told her the money from Boston had not only +saved him, but had so improved his resources that the Bank was now in +fully as good a position as at any time during his father's lifetime. + +Hard as the business affairs of Mr. Grey pressed upon him, and difficult +as he felt the burden, they were not all the troubles he had to endure. + +In order to prevent bankruptcy he had committed fraud. Up to this time +he had carried on that fraud without exciting a hint of suspicion. The +man whose money he had appropriated to his own use not only felt no +misgivings as to the safety of his vast hoard, but had recently lavished +upon him, Grey, the last proofs of implicit confidence when placing +practically all that fortune and the care of the heiress in his hands. + +But, as well as the pressure of his business and the weight of his +crime, he had other difficulties to endure. He still entertained his +friends with his usual hospitality and good grace, but the condition of +the inner circle of his domestic life grew daily harder and harder to +bear. + +The eccentricity of Mrs. Grey developed with time, and, still more +unfortunately, the terrible infirmity to which she had given way +increased upon her with the years. + +She was childless; she was alone all day in that great strange house; +few people called upon her, and she rarely went out. Her husband was +always kind in manner towards her, and she could ask for nothing he +would not get her. But she knew he and she were not one, that they never +had been one, that they never could be one. + +Mr. Grey did not lunch at home, so that Mrs. Grey usually had luncheon +by herself, except upon the rare occasions when one of her few +acquaintances called and stayed. + +Seldom Mr. Grey dined out; often he had someone to dine with him, and +often he gave parties. All this caused Mrs. Grey to be much by herself, +and solitude was, for one of her disposition and tendency, fatal. + +By little and little the disastrous habit grew. It was most carefully +concealed from the servants. At first Grey had tried to effect a cure; +then, despairing of that, he strove with all his skill to avoid a +scandal. + +With that view he had a little cupboard fitted up in the only room +furnished in the Tower. For this cupboard he got two keys--one for +himself, and one for his wife. In giving her the key he had said +quietly: + +"In future you will find the wine for ordinary purposes in the new +cupboard; so that you may not have the trouble of sending to the cellar +for it, or in case I am out and you want more than is decanted, you can +get it there. You will always have some there without sending to the +cellar for it." + +"But we don't want any more than is decanted--so few people call," said +the wife tremulously. + +"I know, I know. But someone may call, and as I keep the key of the +cellar you might find yourself in a difficult position. Take this key of +the cupboard, and here is the key of the room itself; there is only one +other key, and I have that. The room is the quietest in the whole house. +_The door locks on either the in or the outside._ The room is +comfortably done up, and you can make any use you please of it. If you +feel worried, or not very well, and wish to get away from the annoyance +of the servants, you can go and lie down a while there." + +These precautions were deplorable and degrading. All the love he had +once borne this woman had died; and although he carefully concealed his +feelings towards her, he had at last come to regard her with loathing. + +She was in no way responsible for the disasters which had fallen on his +business; she furnished no excuse for the crime he had committed, but +she was one of the elements in his misfortune; and now that she had +fallen into an odious fault, he resolved to put no impediment in her +downward career, so long as her descent did not become apparent or +public. + +It was a sad development of the romantic and chivalric story of Wat +Grey's wooing. But then, so long as Daneford knew nothing of the decay +of that romance or the decline of that chivalry, the fact that both +were going--gone, was of little moment to Wat Grey. + +His embezzlement of the money had taught him that damaging facts had +no injurious influence with the public--so long as the facts were +carefully concealed. He found crime an easier burden than he had +expected, and in place of his old dread of crime itself he had now a +dread of disclosure only. If he had grown to hate his wife, what +then--so long as no one knew of it. + +Up to this point Fate seemed to have played deliberately into his hands. +He had ruined himself in Southern expectations, Fate had put more than +half a million of money into his power, and he had extricated his +fortune. An unlucky turn of the die might have betrayed him, and given +him up to worse destruction than the former, but all came round as +though he had the ordering of events. Not only was there to be no +immediate call for that money, no immediate investigation into accounts +with a checking of documents and an examination of affairs, but he was +appointed supreme custodian of the whole property, and, for upwards of a +year from the old man's death, no enquiry disadvantageous to him could +be set on foot. + +Suppose the old man were to die soon, and business were to keep on the +disastrous lines it had adopted of late? What then? + +What then? + +Many and many a day he put that question to himself in the morning +before he broke his fast; and again at night before he went to bed he +repeated this terrible question--unanswered. + +And the more he pondered over this question the less he liked to look at +the answer. Not that the simple and direct answer appalled him, for +that had been familiar to his mind for some time; the simple answer was, +Ruin--Self-imposed Death. + +That was the positive answer to the question; but that did not affright +him _now_, though it had terrified him at first. + +He was still what might be called a young man, for he carried his +five-and-forty years more easily than many another man carried thirty. +He was not a whit insensible to the many physical and social personal +advantages he possessed. He knew he was a favourite wherever he went. He +knew he was good-looking. He knew he was clever. + +He knew he was married. + +His wife had brought him nothing worth speaking of--not position, +happiness. He had been everything to her, and how poorly had she +requited him! It was only by the utmost care he avoided a damning +scandal alighting upon his name through her. + +Fortune had favoured him up to this. Would Fortune be his friend still +further? Was it too much to hope that another great piece of good luck +might await him? + +There was one sure way out of all his danger and difficulties, if he had +only been a single man: there was Maud. + +If, when Sir Alexander died, he were a bachelor, he might marry Maud. +She knew nothing of the world, and he knew she liked him. There would be +no need for his ruin if he were only a bachelor. + +It was beyond the power of Fate to make him a bachelor; but suppose Fate +should take away that unloved wife, that great danger to his name, that +great stumbling-block in the way of his successful progress? + +_Then?_ What then? Answer: He should marry Maud, and so wipe out the +history of his crime. + +Would chance or accident, would Heaven or Hell, or whatever else he +might call it, take away from him this woman who was a curse and burden, +and give him that woman who would bring him deliverance? + +Such thoughts had long haunted his mind before he had heard on that 17th +of August the voices which assailed and tempted him in tremendous tones; +that day on which the fate of the steamboat _Rodwell_ and of Beatrice +his wife, of the Weird Sisters and the Towers of Silence, became sealed +together for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A FLASK OF COGNAC. + + +When the Weeslade Valley Bank declined to advance five thousand pounds +on the Weeslade Steamship Company's river passenger-boat the _Rodwell_, +they had two reasons for the refusal: first, they were not prepared to +lock up money at the time; second, a report reached them that the +_Rodwell_ was in bad condition. + +In the winter of the year 1865 the _Rodwell_ had lain up, undergoing +repairs, and then the discovery was made that her condition was far from +satisfactory. Many of her plates were no thicker than brown-paper, and +just at the bends aft the point of a scraper had absolutely gone +through a plate. + +The boilers, too, were found to be in an unsatisfactory condition, and +the machinery needed thorough overhauling. + +But they wanted the boat for the summer traffic, and had no time to get +all she required done before the fine weather; so she was patched for +the time, the intention being to lay her up the following autumn and put +her in good repair; in the meantime one new boiler was to be made for +her. + +Towards the middle of April she began running as usual with passengers +between Daneford and Seacliff. + +On her third trip she broke down; something went wrong with her +machinery, and she had to be towed into Seacliff by another steamer. + +As this accident occurred early in the season there were few passengers, +and little excitement arose from the circumstance. + +Almost the whole trade of the _Rodwell_ consisted of carrying seaside +folk from Daneford to Seacliff and back again. She sailed every week-day +of the season from Seacliff to Daneford at half-past seven in the +morning, and from Daneford to Seacliff at half-past six in the +afternoon. Many of the business men of the city kept their families all +the season at Seacliff, they themselves coming and going between the +little town and the city daily, and enjoying the advantages of sleeping +in sea-freshened air and two bright pleasant sails of a couple of hours +each in the day. + +When, in overhauling the _Rodwell_ in 1865, they found the boilers in +not a satisfactory condition, they took off five pounds of steam. +"Better to be sure than sorry," they said. This reduction of steam made +the _Rodwell_ slower in 1866 than in previous years. + +On Tuesday, the 14th of August, 1866, the engineer of the _Rodwell_ made +a report to the owners, and was directed to work her at another five +pounds' reduction of pressure. + +When Grey advanced the five thousand pounds on the mortgage he made no +enquiry into her condition. He knew the boat very well, had many times +travelled by her between Daneford and Seacliff. He knew she was worth +more than the money asked for, and as no mortgage existed upon her he +felt he should be quite secure if the company ensured her, and handed +him a policy for five thousand pounds. His position was that if the +company did not pay the interest on his money and his money itself, +ultimately he could seize the _Rodwell_; and if the steamboat were lost +by any chance of wind or water he should get his money from the +insurance company. + +Mr. Grey was as familiar with the steamboat _Rodwell_ as any man in +Daneford. He had often spent the summer months with his wife at +Seacliff, and had been a passenger in the boat hundreds of times. He +knew all the men employed on her; he knew every exterior brass plate and +hinge and bolt. He could go about her blindfold, and steer her up or +down the river. He didn't understand machinery, but often said he could +command, steer, and attend to the engines all by himself, and save the +wages of the crew. + +Daneford was proud of all its institutions, and after Wat there were few +it felt more complaisant about than the pretty town and picturesque +scenery of Seacliff and the faithful _Rodwell_, the town being regarded +as the country sweetheart, the milkmaid lover of the city, and the +steamboat as the Mercury of the love-making. + +It was Grey's intention to spend the month of September, 1866, at +Seacliff. He did not own a house there. It had been his custom to rent a +small white cottage that hung half-way down a red cliff surrounding one +of the blue bays clustering around the high headland on which the white +town was built. + +He did not regard his sojourn at Seacliff with any lively anticipations. +It was pleasant to steam up and down the blue river between the sunlit +green shores, through the sweet odours from the woods and hedges +freshened and spiritualised by the full broad river. The morning swim in +the strong sea-water brought the sense of health and vigour and power +into his frame. The breakfast, ample, well cooked, appetising, with +blithe company, full of inspiriting talk and resolute happiness, in the +steamer's cabin, would cure a misanthrope and buoy the heart of a cynic. +The joyous solemnity of that cigar on deck afterwards would reconcile an +anchorite to comfort. Yet for all these advantages Henry Walter Grey did +not like his season at Seacliff. + +The evening voyage was no less to be enjoyed. After the dust and worry +of the city's day it was good to feel the moist winds blowing through +your hair, against your forehead; to hear the cooling swirl of the water +at the bow, and the far-off wash of the steamer's swells upon the +shadowy shore; to watch the crimson sunset, and the coming of the +pale-blue stars, and the red moon that, slowly rising from the hot earth +to the limpid sky, grew mild and fair, while under it the white earth +sailed silent down the ocean of the dark; to feel the hallowed peace of +night ascending from earth to God. + +But it ruined all to know in that cottage above the bay on the ledge of +red cliff one waited who was no companion, yet bound to him for life; to +know year by year the chasm between them widened; and that above that +chasm hung a spirit of evil, the bad angel of a terrible weakness, which +might at any moment become visible to all those standing by, and ruin +her, and bring on him pity--pity, that boneless scorn more unendurable +than contempt or loathing. + +In the deep seclusion of the Manor, Grey felt the skeleton in his house +was pretty safely hidden; here in Seacliff there were innumerable +chances of discovery. It is more than likely he would not have gone to +Seacliff in the summer if by any possibility he could safely avoid it. +But all the well-off people of Daneford went every year to the little +town, and to depart from the custom would be to attract a dangerous +attention to himself and his household. It had been his custom of former +years to stay at Seacliff for three months of summer; but in the year +1866 he resolved to limit his stay to one month--the month of September. + +When he and she were at home in the Manor House, she was more directly +under his control, immediately under his observation. But on leaving +Seacliff in the morning he was always weighed down by the dread that in +this little town of much gossip something might leak out while he was +away. She might go into the town, and in some incautious way betray her +fault, and destroy all the respect people felt for her--all the respect +they felt for his wife. + +What an awful millstone to carry about with one! Fancy the men at the +street-corners chatting together, or groups standing at the Chamber of +Commerce windows, or the members of the Club, or his own staff at the +Bank, looking after him with compassionate eyes, and saying: "Poor Wat! +How sad and worn and broken-down he looks! What a wretched thing! What a +dreadful thing when a man's wife is a--drunkard!" + +The last word was always haunting his ears, always booming in the hollow +caverns through which his fears followed him during sleep; and although +the habit of Mrs. Grey had not yet become so confirmed as to justify the +application of such an odious epithet, her case was growing no better, +growing rather worse with time. + +All the Midharst money was gone. Her fault was at most a vice; but he +had committed a crime. He lay between two fears; he was threatened by +two discoveries. Someone might find out about her, and blast the fame +of the Manor House; someone might find out about him, and blast the +Daneford Bank, and lock him up in jail, and brand the name he bore with +ignominy. + +In such a state of mind was Grey when the 16th of August arrived and +evening brought him home. The husband and wife sat down alone to dinner, +sat down alone to the last dinner they were ever to eat together. + +"Bee," said Grey to his wife, when the dessert had been brought in and +the servants had gone, "do you think you could go down to Seacliff in +the _Rodwell_ to-morrow evening, and look up the cottage? I saw the +estimable and penurious landlord of it to-day. It's not occupied this +month, and he wanted me to take it from the 20th. I'm half inclined to +accept his offer. He says we can have it from the 20th of this month to +the end of September for a month's rent. It would be almost worth while +to take him at his word, and hear how he'd whine if I gave him a cheque +for the month's rent only. What are those two famous items out of last +year's bill?" + +"Brunswick varnish, for the kitchen coal-scuttle, 2_d._; and a pair of +brass stair-eyes, one lost and one damaged, 2_d._," quoted Mrs. Grey +seriously, as if the imposition was intolerable. + +"Yes, yes. That's it. Brunswick varnish and stair-eyes," laughed Grey. +"And at the end of all the items for damage was the general observation: +'The same being in excess of reasonable wear and tear.' Didn't he make +us whiten all the ceilings, too, on the grounds that we stopped far into +the season and blackened them with the lamps?" + +"Yes, Wat." + +"Is it three or four times we have paid, Bee, for cracking that +soup-tureen? The old crack, you know." + +"We've paid, I think, Wat, only twice for that crack, but he has charged +us with the ladle every year, although we never had one." + +"Why, this old Parkinson is much more amusing than a state-jester of +old, and not half so impudent or expensive." Mr. Grey smiled, and rubbed +his smooth cheek with his white hand. After a moment's enjoyment of his +recollections of Parkinson, he returned to the question. "Well, Bee, +will you go down in the _Rodwell_ with me to-morrow evening? We can have +a breath of sea-air, a look at Parkinson and the cottage, and come back +by the boat in the morning." + +"Very well, Wat. Of course I'll go with you." + +"Now let me see. The best plan will be for you to go from this to the +boat. Be on board at a quarter-past six, and stay there until I come. +You won't forget?" + +"No, Wat." + +"You're quite sure you won't forget?" Of late Mrs. Grey's memory had +shown signs of giving way. + +"I'll be there, certainly," she answered, a little hotly. "You don't +think my memory is so bad I am likely to forget anything that gives me a +chance of getting out of this dull house." + +"Because," he said, holding up his finger to quiet her displeasure, "I +may not be able to get away from the office until just half-past six. I +shall be at the boat in time. You will go aboard and sit down aft, and +wait for me." + +Having thus arranged for the following evening, Grey lapsed into +silence, and his wife withdrew. + +Those after-dinner hours, which, to the prosperous man are the most +placid and full of content, were now to Grey full of fears and subtle +agonies when he had no company. The necessity all through the day for +showing a fair front to the world and keeping up his reputation for +cordial joviality no longer existed when he found himself alone in his +own dining-room. + +Then he exposed his imagination to all the dangers and difficulties in +his path. Here, this 16th of August, was he safe over all the wreck of +that awful month of May, but at what a cost? The commission of a +disgraceful crime and the perpetual dread of a damning discovery. + +The financial crisis had shattered trade, dispersed confidence, and +ruined enterprise. The last penny of the baronet's money had been taken, +and was gone; and yet no remarkable prosperity, nothing in the meanest +way approaching what he had calculated upon, had set in towards him. +Even in the recent days of over-trading, when money was dear, the +deposits in the Daneford Bank had been more than during the past few +months. Things were not likely to mend in time for him. At the present +rate twenty years could not bring in half the sum he wanted, and he +might be called to disgorge within eighteen months, within a much less +time should the old baronet suddenly die and matters take a turn +unfavourable to his interest with regard to the guardianship of the +heiress--his care over her not reaching, he supposed, beyond her +twenty-first birthday. Merciful Heavens! what could deliver him? + +And then followed the invariable reply: There is nothing to save you +from infamy but marriage with Maud Midharst. + +Then the memory of his wife's faults came up before him like an +indictment seeking her life. She was flighty, unwise, dull, +uncompanionable--intemperate. + +She was no pleasure to him. She seemed to be the source of no pleasure +to herself. If the Powers of good would only take her, what a blessed +relief to him! + +If the Powers of any denomination whatever would only take her and leave +him free! + +He rose, and strode up and down the long room, his face puckered and +pinched, his hands clutched, his eyebrows dragged down over his eyes +until the eyes disappeared, those eyes wont to be so free and open. + +If the Powers of any denomination whatever----His thoughts paused a +while, his brows relaxed, his whole face changed character, put on +holiday attire. With a light foot and a pleasant smile he approached +the chimney-piece and pulled the bell. + +"James," he said, when the man entered, "bring me a flask of cognac." + +While the servant was going to the cellar he said to himself, with a +gentle smile, "I have been very thoughtless about that press in the +Tower of Silence. I have left claret and port and sherry there, but +until now I never remembered brandy! How careless I have been." + +In a few minutes James returned with the bottle, drew the cork, decanted +the brandy, and left. + +Grey took up the decanter with a cordial smile on his face, walked +towards the tower-room, the first-floor room in the Tower of Silence +upon the top of which the wasted skeleton of the huge tank stood out +clear against the quiet summer stars. + +It was now past eleven o'clock. No profounder silence reigned by night +in deserted mine deep in the bowels of the earth, in Asian desert open +to the glittering stars and the pale radiance of the moon, on the dark +peaks of mighty alp that reaches upward into the thin windless air, than +in the chambers and passages of the fearful Manor House. + +As he draws near the door of the tower-room he carries the decanter of +brandy in one hand, a lighted candle in the other. When only a few feet +separate him from the door he pauses suddenly, and looks earnestly +forward. There are two keys for that door, one is on his ring, the other +is in the possession of his wife. He holds the lamp high above his head, +and listens intently. Yes; there is someone inside. + +While he waits he hears a lock shot. Presently the door opens, and with +a cry of surprise and fear his wife confronts him. + +"Bee," he says, without allowing the smile to relax, "is this you? I +thought you were gone to bed." + +"I went to my room," says the unhappy woman, trembling and looking down, +"but I could not sleep. I was very nervous and--and, Wat, I thought a +glass of port might do me good." + +"Of course it will. Of course it will," he says, in a soft voice. "I was +just going to put this in the cupboard." He holds up the decanter. + +"What is that?" she asks, in a voice full of uneasiness and fear. + +"Only a little brandy. It's not a rattlesnake or a petard that you need +be afraid of, Bee," he replies, in a bantering tone. + +"No, no, Wat," she cries, drawing back a pace and holding up her hands +as though she saw some fearful object in her way. "We don't want any +brandy here. Indeed we don't." + +"What nonsense!" he laughs. "But, seriously, Bee, you know we must have +some brandy here. Suppose one of the servants, or any chance caller were +to become suddenly faint, what could you do without brandy?" + +"Don't put it there, Wat! For my sake, for God's sake, don't put it +there!" She covers her face with her hands, and trembles again. + +"There now, Bee, go to bed, and don't be silly. I should never be able +to forgive myself if any harm came of there being no brandy that could +be readily got at." + +With slow heavy steps the woman passes him, and, as she reaches the end +of the short corridor, throws up her hands to heaven, sobs out, "God be +merciful to me!" and bursts into tears. + +He waits until she is out of the passage, then shrugs his shoulders, +and, with the old, genial smile upon his face deposits the decanter of +cognac in the cupboard of the room on the first floor of the tower, of +that tower which, in a moment of grim humour, he had called the Tower of +Silence. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ON THE THRESHOLD OF DEATH. + + +Mr. Grey breakfasted early, Mrs. Grey late. Nothing was said by either +to the other on the night of the 16th. On Friday morning, the morning of +the 17th of August, 1866, Mrs. Grey was still sleeping when her husband +left the house. + +The morning was bright and clear, and as the banker strode on briskly to +the city he hummed an air to keep him company. His voice was +indifferent, his ear was indifferent, and yet it was more invigorating +to hear him blundering out wild approximations to a tune than to listen +to a moderately accomplished drawing-room vocalist. The banker seemed +unable to keep the natural gladness of his nature within bounds; the +accomplished vocalist follows an everyday handicraft or trade with the +tools of which he is familiar and expert. + +As Grey walked to his office that bright Friday morning he met many +friends and acquaintances. He had a nod, a wave of the hand, a cheerful +word, a kind enquiry, a jovial wish, a congratulation for each, +according to person and circumstances. + +He carried his black bag in his hand. In the black bag were some books, +some papers, and the revolver. Nothing particular occurred to him on the +way to the Bank. Nothing particular awaited him upon his arrival at the +office. All was going on smoothly and prosperously--but very slowly, +very slowly towards bringing back the baronet's money. + +Two was his luncheon hour, and at two he went out. He lunched at his +club, and then strolled down to the Chamber of Commerce to see the +latest Exchange telegrams, and have a chat with some of the merchants +and traders and shipowners of Daneford. He got back to the office at a +little after three. + +Nothing particular had occurred during his absence. He went into his +private room and disposed of some routine affairs. Then, having no +business to do, he threw up the window, and looking out, began to +whistle softly a recitative of his own invention. + +After a little while he stopped whistling, and thought: "I shall be here +two hours by myself this evening. I don't think I could do anything +better than burn that book." In a little while more he made up his mind. +"Yes; I will burn it. It would tell against me in any case. Even suppose +by any miracle I am able to get that money together again, the dates +would betray me. Then it is better to have neither book nor Stock than a +tell-tale book only. Dead men and burnt books tell no tales. Yes; up the +chimney it shall go. If I am able to replace that money, the making of a +new book will be an easy task, a graceful amusement." + +Mr. Grey had always kept the Midharst (Consols) account in his own +handwriting, and in a book to which none but himself had access. This +was a small book bound in rough calf, having a patent lock and key. +Before the Bank closed at four o'clock he went down to the strong-room +and took up this book to his private office. + +By about half-past four all the clerks had left the office, and Mr. +Aldridge had gone out to pick up an appetite for dinner. Grey locked the +two doors that led into his office, opened the little ledger, and +having cut the book out of the cover, he locked up the cover in a safe +in the wall of his own office. There were two reasons for doing this: 1. +The cover was, with the appliances at his command, indestructible. 2. He +could get new paper bound into the old cover; and those of his staff who +were familiar with the outside of the book would not be able to detect +any difference between the original and the counterfeit. + +When the cover of the book had been concealed under lock and key he sat +down in front of the grate, and began tearing up the book into single +leaves, and burning each one separately in the empty grate. + +As the record of the baronet's twenty years of grinding, exaction, and +penurious living changed into flame and smoke and ashes, Grey's thoughts +were busy with the awful aspects of his position, and now, for the +first time, a new element of fear entered into the case. + +He suddenly stopped in his work and looked round him with a ghastly +smile. Last night he had been calculating that his only way of avoiding +exposure lay through the freedom of himself to marry Maud. But suppose +anything were to happen to his wife _now_. Suppose she died that very +day; suppose she had died a week ago, a month ago; what would have +occurred? He should then be a childless widower, younger in appearance +and in manner than in years, and even young enough in years to be the +suitor of any girl. Was it likely if he were so circumstanced Sir +Alexander might not think of altering the will, of introducing into it +another guardian, executor, or trustee? True, Sir Alexander was not an +ordinary man, and had unlimited confidence in him, Grey; but surely he +could not be such a fool as to leave his daughter and his daughter's +fortune in the hands solely of a popular, good-looking, and an agreeable +widower of forty-five? + +The thought flurried him, and he gasped and covered his face with his +handkerchief, and leaned upon the mantelpiece. + +Last night it had appeared to him nothing more advantageous to his +fortune could arise than the death of his wife. Now that event seemed +the most disastrous which could befall him. The more he looked at the +whole situation the more hopeless his position appeared. What last night +he regarded as the gateway to deliverance now was the cavern of ruin. +Well, he had begun burning this book, and he might as well finish it. +Destroying this could have no important influence for evil on the case, +and might be beneficial or have a mitigating influence. + +At last the whole book lay in a mass of black and blue ashes at his +feet. He stood in front of the pile for a few moments thinking. "Between +that book and me there is great similarity. It was once truthful, then +it recorded a lie, and now it is burnt and black. I was once honest; I +fell; and now my position, my prospects, and my hopes are in ashes. +There is no chance of escape." + +It was after five o'clock. He rang the bell; as he did so, he heard the +street-bell ring also. + +"Aldridge coming back from his constitutional." Then, correcting +himself, he thought: "Of course, Aldridge doesn't ring." + +He unlocked the doors, and in a few minutes the servant knocked and +entered. + +"I want you to tidy up that grate; I've been burning some old letters," +said Grey. + +"Yes, sir; a letter for you, sir, just come." + +"All right; leave it on my table." + +"Beg pardon, sir, but it's from the Castle, and marked immediate." + +The banker took it and glanced at the superscription as the servant +withdrew. + +"From Mrs. Grant," he muttered. "What can it be now?" + +He tore open the envelope and read the contents hastily. The note was +very brief. Sir Alexander had had a bad night, and was rather worse this +morning. He particularly wanted to see Mr. Grey _at once_. Would Mr. +Grey be so good as to come _instantly_ upon receipt of this? The words +in italics were underlined heavily three or four times. + +"What can this be?" he thought. "The last time I got a note from Mrs. +Grant asking me to go to the Castle I was in the final extremity of +apprehension, and all came much better than I could have dared to hope. +There seems no possibility of a favourable solution of the present +situation. If the old man is sinking, that will give me only a year--and +that is the least terrible thing can cause this hasty summons. Well, go +I must, and at once." + +He leaped lightly down the stairs, carrying his bag in his hand, and was +soon driving rapidly towards Island Ferry. + +Two miles lay between him and the city before he remembered his +appointment with his wife on board the _Rodwell_. + +"Never mind," he thought, "I'll board the steamboat as she passes the +Island; that will make it all right." + +By six o'clock he had reached Island Ferry. Without the loss of a moment +he crossed over to the Island and ascended towards the Castle. + +A servant at once conducted him to Mrs. Grant, who was waiting for him +in the hall-room off the grand entrance-hall. + +"O Mr. Grey, I am so glad you have come; we are in such fearful anxiety. +Poor Sir Alexander has got worse and worse ever since I wrote to you. +The doctors say this is what they have been dreading all along." + +The little woman was in a state of the greatest excitement, and had +completely lost all sense of proportion. The standards of her feelings +had been broken by her agitation, and everything that went wrong seemed +of equal importance and mischief. + +"What is the matter now?" the banker asked, in a soft sympathetic voice. +"I hope Miss Midharst," he added, before he gave the little widow time +to answer, "is kept as free as possible from these sad and depressing +scenes. + +"Oh, yes; that is, I mean the poor child is fearfully distressed. She +has been with her father all day. It's not good for her, but then she +wouldn't come away. I think if you spoke to her it would do her good. +She used to mind a good deal what I said to her, but all this day she +sits there, staring as if the room was full of ghosts. I fear there's +something bad the matter with the whole place; and only for darling +Maud, I'm sure I shouldn't stop an hour. And to listen to him is +something dreadful. He talks of nothing but his money and you and +robbery----" + +"What!" exclaimed Grey, loudly and sharply. + +"Now," she cried, "you are offended with me just because I am nervous +and excitable. Maybe _you'd_ be excited yourself, Mr. Grey, if he was +turning to you every minute and saying you were a wolf in sheep's +clothing, and that you wanted to rob his child of the fortune he had +laid by for her. You wouldn't like to be called a robber, and you're a +man, and I am only a nervous woman; and men are more used to that kind +of language than women, although, until now, I did not know that +gentlemen ever used such words." + +Here Mrs. Grant broke down completely, and sobbed. + +By this time Grey had recovered from the appalling shock caused by Mrs. +Grant's association of himself with theft. He went up to the sobbing +woman, and in his gentlest accents, having placed his hand reassuringly +on her shoulder, said: + +"Mrs. Grant, I am exceedingly sorry if my hasty exclamation has caused +you any annoyance. Believe me, nothing was further from my intention +than to disturb you under the distressing circumstance you describe, and +in the very shattered condition in which your nerves must be. Forgive +me, pray. Do say that you forgive me." + +He pleaded in his most winning voice and manner; he looked upon the +friendliness of Mrs. Grant towards him as of great importance. + +"It wasn't your fault, Mr. Grey," said Mrs. Grant, quieting her sobs. "I +know I am not fit for anything of this kind; it always knocks me up." + +"No wonder. Of course, as you say, such expressions are never heard +among gentlemen----" + +She interrupted him. + +"I hope I didn't say anything unbecoming to you; if I did, I didn't mean +it. I am so worried and confused I don't know what I'm saying." By this +time she had forgotten the cause of her tears. What Grey said made her +believe she herself had uttered something offensive to the banker. "I +wonder can it be that I have caught the fever from Sir Alexander, and +am not in my right mind?" + +"No, no, no," laughed Grey reassuringly. "You need not be afraid of +that." He had no desire to recall to her memory the words which had +drawn from him the abrupt and disconcerting exclamation. "And so," he +said, in a bland voice, "poor Sir Alexander's head is wandering." + +"Oh, yes. He began to be queer last night, and got worse all the night. +This morning we sent for the doctors, and they came again in the +afternoon. At the latter visit they said I had better send for you, as +you were so much in Sir Alexander's mind, both when he was raving and +when he wasn't." + +"Then he has lucid intervals?" + +"Oh, yes--or, at least, not quite lucid. There are times when he is less +wild than others; but I think his mind is not quite free at any time. I +have been keeping you here instead of taking you direct to him, as I +should have done. You will excuse me; my poor head is quite gone too. +Will you come with me to him now?" + +"Yes," he answered, with a profound bow. + +As he followed her through the dull stately passages that, although it +was still full daylight, were dim and funereal, he tried to pierce the +veil of the future. How would this sudden development of the old man's +disease affect him? Was the old man in his comparatively lucid moments +capable of altering his will? What was the cause of the old man's desire +to see him? And, above all, how had this idea of theft come upon him? + +So far as he could now form an opinion of the case, he did not feel +reassured. + +Suppose Mrs. Grant's account of the baronet's condition of mind in the +less excited moments was overdrawn, and that while in his periods of +delirium he was haunted by goblin fears of robbers, in his more +collected phases he might be troubled with reasonable dread of theft or +misappropriation or fraud. Did the old man desire to destroy or alter +his will? That was the vital question. If he did, then surely the lead +would overtake the gold. + +The gold! That gold could never be won back, not in as many years as it +took the baronet to save it up. Not in twice as many years, and he might +have no more than one year. The gold could never overtake the lead +now--that is, the gold, the Consols. + +But the gold of a wedding-ring for Miss Midharst would balance the +five-tons weight of the baronet's. Little over half an ounce of gold +would outweigh five tons; a ring that cost no more than three guineas +would balance a deficit of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds! + +Mrs. Grant softly opened the door of the sick chamber, and motioning +someone inside to come near, she said, as Miss Midharst approached: + +"Maud, dear, here is Mr. Grey; he came at once." + +The girl offered him her hand, and Grey took it respectfully, tenderly, +and held it, saying: + +"I am deeply grieved, Miss Midharst, at what Mrs. Grant tells me. I hope +this may be only a temporary affection. How is Sir Alexander now?" + +"Oh, he's very, very bad!" sobbed the girl, in a whisper. "It was kind +of you to come. He talks of you always." + +"I am, believe me, Miss Midharst, deeply grieved for him, and--you." + +Nothing could be more kind and sympathetic than his voice and manner. + +"He talks of nothing but you and the money," whispered the girl, through +her tears. + +At that moment a shrill shout came from the bed, followed by the words: + +"Ah, Grey, is that you? You thieving scoundrel! Do you dare to come into +my house, under my roof, after stealing my darling's fortune! Bring me +my pistols, I say--some one bring me my pistols! I will shoot this +miscreant banker Grey. My pistols, I say!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BY THE STATE BED. + + +For a moment Grey paused irresolutely on the threshold of the sick room. +This was the most alarming ordeal to which he had been subjected. Could +it be that by any untoward circumstance of disastrous fate the old man +had discovered the truth? + +To be loudly, violently accused of the crime he had committed by the man +whose money he had stolen, and in the presence of that man's daughter! + +He had often in his worst moments imagined the position he now occupied, +but had never dared to think of, it had never entered his moments of +wildest fear to realise, such a scene conducted in the presence of Miss +Midharst and Mrs. Grant. And now to the horrors of hearing such words +from the defrauded man's lips, was added the awful question, the +appalling uncertainty in the questions: Did the baronet know anything? +Did he know all? + +His name for honour, for honesty, the existence of the respectable old +institution which had been handed down to him by his father unsullied, +his very life, hung upon these two questions. There was only one chance +between him and ruin, between him and death. At these thoughts he made a +prodigious effort, and turning to the two distracted woman with a forced +smile, and a lip he could not keep from trembling, said: + +"I fear my presence only excites Sir Alexander. Had I not better retire +until he is more calm?" + +"Oh, Mr. Grey," said Maud through her tears, "you must not mind his +words. He does not know what he says. He does not understand what is +said to him. He does not even know who is in the room when he is in this +state. My poor father, oh, my poor father!" She covered her face with +her hands and sobbed out. + +Grey began to breathe more freely. He whispered, as though the weight of +a mountain were rolling off him, "He does not know what he says. He does +not know who is in the room. Poor gentleman! Poor Sir Alexander! I am +profoundly sorry for him and for you, Miss Midharst. You can understand +how much I was surprised to hear him, who has so long relied upon me, +use such words to me. It was, you must admit," he looked from the woman +to the girl in deferential appeal, "rather startling." + +"We know what he thinks of you when he is in his right senses, Mr. +Grey," said Mrs. Grant. "We know he has the greatest confidence in you." + +The banker bowed deeply, and when he had straightened himself once more, +regarded the widow with profound and sorrowful attention. + +Mrs. Grant continued: "In his lucid moments he asked for you, and seemed +anxious to see you on business, as of old; but when he raved as he did +just now, he accused us all of taking his money." + +"What a sad and distracting form of delusion!" murmured the banker. He +could scarcely contain himself. He would at that moment have forfeited +the five thousand pounds advanced on the mortgage of the _Rodwell_ if he +might throw his arms into the air and shout out and laugh and dance. + +The sick man spoke of everyone as a thief in his frenzy, but in his +clear moments spoke of him, Grey, as of old! He did not suspect him +exclusively; the indictment to which he had listened in paralysed terror +had been by accident preferred against him; by accident it might have +been preferred against any other human being with whose name Sir +Alexander was familiar! + +The weight of earth had rolled back from his breast, and he was +breathing more freely than for many a long day. + +The three now left the door and walked into the room. At best the vast +chamber was gloomy, but now all light but a faint dim glow that clung to +the inside of the curtains was excluded. + +Grey placed himself at the side of the vast bedstead. Sir Alexander had +sold off all his personal furniture; he occupied one of the state rooms +and slept in one of the enormous state bedsteads; these bedsteads were +in the deeds he could not alter, and had to go down to the next heir. +The first look the banker cast at the face of the sick man gave him a +shock. + +The old baronet had always had a colour in his cheeks; now all the +colour was gone from the cheeks and gathered into the temples and +forehead. The wrinkled forehead was of a dull brick colour. The great +forked dark vein of the forehead stood up out of the dry red skin like +the forked mullion of a gothic window, against whose crimson panes the +west is red. In the temples of the old man the rugged veins were swollen +and knotted, and in the purple hollows between the dark blue knots a +quick feeble pulse fluttered and hurried forward like a frightened +hunted beast. Through the counterpane the thin form showed sharply. The +breathing was quick and unquiet, the eyes staring and fixed upon the +carved oak ceiling. Apparently the delirious paroxysm had passed, and +the patient was suffering from modified collapse. + +"He will be better presently, and may recognise you," whispered Mrs. +Grant into Grey's ear. She stood by his side. At the foot stood Maud, +weeping softly, silently. For a while no one moved. + +Gradually the breathing of the sick man grew more steady, and the +fluttering pulse in the hollow temples more regular. + +"In a few minutes," whispered the widow, "he will be quite collected." + +As she had foretold, his eyes descended from the ceiling and began +running over the room and those present, as if trying to recover memory. +At length they were fixed on Grey and did not move from him. Although +the eye was dull and clouded, there was a look of intelligence in it. It +was the eye of a weakened intellect rather than of a disordered one. + +"Ah, Grey, is that you?" + +"Yes, Sir Alexander. I hope you feel better?" + +"I am quite well. I have been greatly troubled about that money, those +Consols. They tell me they have been sold. Is it true that my Consols +have been sold? I ask you in the presence of my daughter, for whom they +were saved, have they been sold?" The sick man's eyes were filmy; but +while they were dull to the perception of surrounding objects, they +seemed to be partly closed against objects of natural vision only that +they might be partly opened to unascertainable forms and figures of +supernatural view. + +Grey's heart quailed. Who were "they" that had informed him of the +fraud? What did the sick man know of the fraud? What did he surmise? Was +there anything but imagination to account for these fears, these hideous +questions, this awful ordeal? He was sorry he had left his bag below in +the little room where Mrs. Grant had received him. Nothing could save +him now but a calm exterior and intrepid audacity. He cleared his throat +to make sure his voice was obedient to his will, and answered boldly, +but softly: + +"No one has sold the Consols, Sir Alexander. I answer you faithfully, in +your presence and in the presence of Miss Midharst, for whose benefit +they have been acquired and put by." + +He was amazed himself at the firmness and clearness of his voice. If it +had been merely repeating the words of another man, his voice could not +have been less open to suspicion; if he had been pronouncing a most +consoling truth, his manner could not have been more benignly +reassuring. Instead of the words being those of another, they were so +intimately his own that his existence depended upon their utterance; +instead of being true, they contained a lie so monstrous under the +circumstances that they were as false and wicked as a blasphemous false +oath. He thought to himself grimly, as he rapidly reviewed the words and +the import of his voice: "I am acting in a play of the Devil's writing, +and must do honour to the character I represent and credit to the +author." + +The eyes of the old man were fixed on the banker's face as he said: +"What you tell me of my money, _her_ money, is quite true? It is quite +safe? No one has sold out?" + +"It is quite true; no one has sold out." + +"Swear it!" + +"I swear it." + +"Mrs. Grant, get the Book. I am a magistrate, and you shall swear the +formal oath, so that you may be punished if you are hiding the truth +from an old helpless man." + +Mrs. Grant placed a Testament on the bed beside Mr. Grey. The latter +took up the Book. He did not care to question the legality of such an +oath. He thought he would humour the old man. A crime or two more were +nothing to him now, particularly when these crimes helped to cover up +the other crime of embezzlement, theft, fraud--call it what you will. + +Mr. Grey took up the Testament, and Sir Alexander, in a confused way, +repeated words which could not be clearly heard, but ended with the +clause usual to the ending of a formal oath. + +Mr. Grey kissed the Book reverentially, and murmured the final words. As +he uttered the words, he could not avoid the reflection that if he were +acting in a play of the Devil's writing, some of the words to be +uttered had a peculiar aspect as coming from the Master of Evil. + +Mr. Grey put the Book on the bed, and looked with reassuring glance at +both the women. The old baronet muttered to himself indistinctly for a +few seconds. "Bad dreams, bad dreams," he said distinctly at last; "they +were only dreams." + +Mr. Grey looked round again at the women and inclined his head +significantly to them, as though he would say: "Poor Sir Alexander! His +dreams must have been bad indeed, if he fancied anyone had taken his +money." + +By this the great flush had disappeared from the old man's forehead, the +veins had subsided, and a deadly pallor covered his features from +forehead to chin. During the paroxysms of his delirium, it seemed as +though his head was in danger of bursting from too great a supply of +heated blood; now it looked as if the walls of his skull and the flesh +of his face were about to crumble and fall in for want of fluid +sufficient to sustain their weight. But in the eye still lingered the +heat and flickered the fire of the fever. He lay still for a while, and +seemed to be about to fall asleep. Presently, however, all were startled +to hear his voice ring out clear and firm, high above their notion of +his present strength, clear above their notion of his intellectual +capacity: + +"Henry Grey, take her hand, my daughter's hand, and lead her here--no +the other hand--give her your left hand, Henry Grey." + +Mr. Grey walked to where the girl stood, now pale and tearless, at the +foot of the bed, and offered her his right hand; then his left, and led +her to the side of the bed, where he had been standing. + +"Now, Henry Grey, take the Testament in your right hand. I am going to +make you swear--I am a deputy-lieutenant--to guard with all your power +and wiles, my only daughter, Maud Midharst, herself and her fortune and +her happiness. Say the words after me." + +"Herself and her fortune and her happiness to guard with all my power," +he repeated. + +"All your power and wiles," insisted the old man, in a tone of +exasperation. + +"My power and--wiles," repeated Mr. Grey, after a slight hesitation. + +"To act as executor of my will, trustee to her fortune, and guardian of +my child. So help me, God." + +Mr. Grey repeated the words with solemn deliberation. + +"Kiss the Book." + +Mr. Grey bent his head reverentially over the sacred volume and kissed +it devoutly. + +"Kiss the Book, my child. Take it in your own right hand and kiss it. It +is the history of the life and sufferings and death of our Lord, and +something of great moment is conducting." + +"Kiss the Book, you also," looking towards Mrs. Grant. + +She did as he desired. + +"Now, my daughter, and you, Henry Grey, both together hold that Book, +which is the history of the life and sufferings and death of our Lord, +to my lips, for I am weak and unable, and I will kiss it last of all." + +They placed the Book against his lips, and when he had kissed it they +drew it back, and placed the Testament on the bed. + +Mr. Grey folded his arms tightly across his chest; he had a feeling that +his chest would burst if he did not shout out and relieve it. + +"My daughter," said the sick man, "if I should never get off this bed +again--and I feel that something great is conducting--when I am dead you +will look to him for all advice and guidance. He will be your friend, +your only friend, who can be of aid to you when I am dead. You will lean +upon him. He will guard your money and see that no one does you ill or +cheats you. He is an honest man, Maud. He has taken care of your fortune +for me until now; he will take care of it for you when I am dead. You +will have no one else but him; no friend in all the world but Henry +Grey." + +"Oh, my God!" burst from the banker. If the hangman were in the room, +and any word spoken by him, Grey, was to be the signal for his death, he +could not restrain himself. + +For a moment they all three looked at him in grave surprise. His words +were not perhaps improper to the grave occasion, but his manner of +uttering them had something startling in it. There was in his tone a cry +of wild appeal against an inexorable decree of prodigious woe. His voice +had more the sound of a brute's inarticulate cry of despair than any +human agony fitted to human words. It was a death-cry, the death-cry of +some fine instinct of the human soul. It was a cry the like of which no +man utters twice in a lifetime. + +The old man regarded the banker for a moment with a look of surprise. +Then the expression of the old man's face softened, and he said: "Grey, +my arm is weak. I cannot raise it. Take my hand. You will be good to her +when I am dead. I know what the world may say. It may say, Grey, that +you and I are not equals; that I might have bestowed the guardianship of +my daughter's fortune among houses such as the Fleureys' or the +Midharsts'. But I know what you are and what your father was, and I am +placing what I value above all earthly things in your keeping. I am an +old man, and the doctors may be right this time. I am old and weak, +Henry Grey, and I want you to be her friend when I am dead. The world +may say what it pleases about you as guardian. I am firm in my faith in +you. No orphan, friendless--the last, I may say, of her house--had ever +a more careful or prudent or wise guardian than you. I am old and weak. +There is one more favour I would ask of you before you go--for I have +said all. You will not refuse an old man on his death-bed, Henry Grey?" + +"No," in a faint thin whisper. + +"I am weak, and cannot do it myself. Raise up my hand held in yours, and +place your hand against my lips, that I may kiss the hand which is to +shield my daughter when I am gone." + +"Oh, Sir Alexander!" in a tone of agonized protest. + +"I am very old and very weak. You will not, because I am old and weak +and cannot raise your hand, deny me this pleasure." + +The banker did as he was asked. + +When he had placed the cold thin hand back again on the bed, the baronet +sighed and murmured: "I am tired. I will try to sleep awhile. You may +go, Henry Grey. God bless you, Henry Grey! Now I am at rest!" + +With a deep bow to the ladies, Mr. Grey left the room. He went down a +passage and then turned into another. Here he was alone, out of sight +and earshot. He threw his arms heavily up, straight above his head, and +flung himself against the wall with a groan, beat his arms and hands +against the wall, and struck his forehead against the wall. + +"Do I live?" he cried; "or am I already among the damned?" + + +END OF VOL. I. + + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Weird Sisters, Volume I (of 3), by +Richard Dowling + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41552 *** |