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diff --git a/41553-0.txt b/41553-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bd2932 --- /dev/null +++ b/41553-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4390 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41553 *** + + THE WEIRD SISTERS. + + A Romance. + + BY RICHARD DOWLING, + + AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERY OF KILLARD." + + + In Three Volumes. + VOL. II. + + + 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--_continued_. + + + XII.--THE SHADOW OF THE TOWER OF SILENCE 1 + + XIII.--ON BOARD THE STEAMSHIP RODWELL 26 + + XIV.--ON THE RIVER 42 + + XV.--THE FUTURE AS IT SEEMED 59 + + XVI.--THE PRESENT AS IT WAS 80 + + XVII.--THE ASCENT OF THE TOWER OF SILENCE 95 + + XVIII.--ON THE TOP 113 + + + Part II.--The Towers of Silence. + + + I.--A STRANGER AT THE CASTLE 127 + + II.--THE READING OF THE WILL 148 + + III.--"COUSIN MAUD"--"NO; MAUD" 173 + + IV.--THE TWO GUARDIANS 200 + + V.--THE INDEFINITE PRESENT 216 + + VI.--THE TYRANNICAL PAST 235 + + + + +THE WEIRD SISTERS. + + + + +PART I. A PLAIN GOLD GUARD. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE SHADOW ON THE TOWER OF SILENCE. + + +After giving way to the feelings which had overwhelmed him in the +passage, and which had almost betrayed him at the bedside, Grey, by a +great effort, collected himself and walked soberly and deliberately +until he found the grand staircase of the Castle. This he descended, and +when he reached the bottom hastily sought the courtyard, and from the +courtyard the grounds. + +"I thought it would have killed me in that room. I wish it had," he +whispered to himself, as he passed aimlessly over the short dry grass. +"No, no, no, no, no! I must not think of it. I must think of something +else." + +He was now beyond the range of the Castle windows, in a little fern-clad +hollow above a miniature cove. + +"Who said I was a coward?" he demanded, in a loud harsh voice, looking +fiercely round on the cool silver river that lisped soft whispers at his +feet and made low melodious concord of its rippling surge, filling the +ear with memories of the far-off sea. + +"Who said I was a coward?" He repeated the question to the grave oaks +standing above him, motionless and voiceless against the opal ocean of +the unclouded sky. + +"No coward. I never quailed. I never winced. I held up my head as +fearlessly as any undaunted soldier kneeling upon his coffin facing the +firing-party. I was not afraid of anything. I only thought I should die +there and then. I am sorry I did not die." + +He seemed to imagine himself in a dock, and the huge oaks the grave and +grey jury empanelled to try him, and the sweet low voice of the river +the indictment that never ceased to sound. + +"I own I quailed when I heard his first words from the threshold, but +that was when he accused me of what I have done." He had once more +dropped his voice to a cautious whisper. + +"Who would not, being a thief, quake at being called a thief for the +first time by the man he had stolen from, and in the presence of her for +whom the vast savings of a lifetime had been laid by? No man could have +helped quailing at that. But when the old man showed his confidence in +me unbroken, when he swore me to take care of her property and of his +child, when he kissed, Oh, God! when he kissed my hand, did I quail? No. +I stood it like a man. _That_ was the vulgar end of the coarse objective +tragedy. That was the poison-bowl, the dagger-thrust. That was the +breaking of the last bone on the wheel. I am dead since then. But _that_ +was only the bell for the curtain to go up on the other tragedy, the +subjective play. I am enrolled among the immortals. I play the chief +part in a tragico-farce by the Angel of Night. I play the leading part. +The stage is in the nether depth. I play to an audience of everlasting +Outcasts. The audience are assembled, the curtain is up. I forget my +cue, and the prompter is asleep. Judas, I forgot my cue, and the +prompter is asleep. What am I to say? What am I to do, comrade Judas?" + +"Mr. Grey, I have been looking for you, sir. You are wanted at the +Castle, please, sir." + +Mr. Grey turned round and saw just above him, on the edge of the little +hollow, Sir Alexander's old servant, Michael. + +"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, Michael, is it you?" Mr. Grey laughed and asked. + +"Yes, sir," answered Michael promptly, as though he were accustomed to +finding his identity doubted. + +"I was rehearsing a part I am going to take in an amateur play, Michael, +just to get the memory of poor Sir Alexander out of my mind. Well, am I +wanted at the Castle?" + +"Yes, please, sir; and you will please to come at once. Mrs. Grant wants +to see you. The doctors have been, and I am afraid there is bad news +about Sir Alexander." + +"I hope not, Michael. I shall run. You can take your time." + +And with these words the banker started off at a quick pace. + +He found Mrs. Grant sobbing violently, and for a while quite unable to +command her voice. At length, after a few reassuring and encouraging +words from the banker, she spoke through her sobs. + +"Oh, Mr. Grey! Oh, my poor darling Maud! Oh, Mr. Grey, what are we to +do?" + +"It will be kindest and wisest," said he, in a conciliatory voice, "if +we all try to keep as calm as we can under the circumstances. Michael +told me the doctors had been here, and that the news is bad; but I do +not know yet what the news is." + +"Oh, my poor child! Mr. Grey, you can't tell how I feel. I, who have +been with her now more than six years, until I have grown to look upon +her as a daughter. Oh, Mr. Grey, this is dreadful!" + +"There is nothing the matter with Miss Midharst, I trust. She is quite +well?" + +"Quite well." + +"In health, I mean?" + +"Oh, yes. But think of her thrown out of her father's place without a +home or a relative, and so young and so simple." + +"But, Mrs. Grant, Miss Midharst is enormously rich, and can make a most +handsome home anywhere she pleases." + +"But think of an upstart younger son of a whole lot of no-good younger +sons turning my darling out into the cold, bleak, cheerless world, +turning her out of the house of her forefathers, this grand old place. I +never knew how grand it was or how I had grown to love it until now." + +The poor woman, in her great sympathy for Maud, could not dissociate the +ideas of leaving the home-tree and poverty. When her husband died, and +the instable home-tree under which soldiers sling their hammocks had to +be abandoned, there were narrow ways and the friendless world that wait +on narrow ways to be encountered and endured. In her anxious sympathy +she thought the heiress of a rich baronet would have the same hardship +and privation to encounter as the widow of a penniless captain in a +marching regiment. + +The banker placed his hand firmly, though lightly, on the shoulder of +Mrs. Grant, and said, in an impressive voice: + +"We are all, I am sure, very sorry Sir Alexander is so ill; but we must +not add to our grief for him the fear that Miss Midharst will be +unprovided for. There will be few richer heiresses, and she and her +fortune shall be well taken care of. I wish you would be kind enough to +tell me what the doctors said about Sir Alexander." + +"Oh, Mr. Grey, I hope you will excuse me. I am so fearfully troubled and +excited. I know what trouble is myself. I have had my own sad +experience----" + +"And the doctors said, Mrs. Grant?" interrupted the banker gently. + +"Oh, Mr. Grey, I hope you will forgive me. They are in the +banqueting-room, and said they would be glad to see you there." + +"Thank you; I will go to them instantly. Dear Mrs. Grant, do try and +keep up your spirits, for Miss Midharst's sake." + +With these words he left, and walked quickly in the direction of the +great room. + +As he did so, the river passenger steamboat _Rodwell_ went past on the +outer or northern side, in front of the great archway leading to the +courtyard of the Island Castle. + +Mr. Grey approached the dreary state dining-room, and having entered +found the three doctors seated by the open narrow windows, and looking +out upon the silent peaceful scene beneath. He approached them quietly, +gravely. + +Dr. Hardy rose to receive him. The doctor and the banker bowed to one +another; then Mr. Grey bowed to the other two doctors, and they returned +his salutation with respectful inclinations of the head and in silence. + +The banker broke the silence: + +"Mrs. Grant informs me that you wish to see me, and I understand that +you desire to communicate something very important concerning the health +of Sir Alexander. I trust nothing very serious is to be told." + +For a moment the three doctors stood admiring Grey, and no one of them +answered him. There was such a soothing and reassuring air of capable +responsibility about him at the instant, they could not withhold their +respect, and it was displayed in silence. + +At last Dr. Hardy found his voice: + +"We are informed that you, Mr. Grey, had an interview with Sir Alexander +Midharst this evening. Are we correctly informed that during the +interview Sir Alexander's head was quite clear and his mind quite free +from delusion?" + +"Quite clear and quite free from delusion," answered the banker, as +carefully as though he were sworn, and the life of a fellow-being hung +on his words. + +"In that interview did he seem to apprehend any disastrous ending to +his illness?" asked Dr. Hardy, with weight and impressiveness. + +"I cannot go so far as to say that," answered Grey, with the most +circumstantial conscientiousness; "but from the nature of what occurred, +I am convinced he regarded what he said as of the very highest +importance." + +"You are aware that he has made his will?" + +"I am." + +"Did what occurred between you and him this evening bear in any way upon +his will? Observe, we do not want you to trouble yourself with detail; +but what we want to know is this: Are you satisfied in your own mind +that Sir Alexander has arranged his worldly affairs as fully as you, +being a man of the world, could desire?" + +Dr. Hardy put this question with all the gravity he could import into +his manner. + +Throughout the interview the banker could in no way satisfy himself as +to what Dr. Hardy was driving at. He, therefore, framed his answers so +that they might be the least discursive and most easy of corroboration. +But the present question disturbed him greatly. Was all that had +hitherto been on this day but the prelude to the springing of an awful +mine under his feet? Did the three men now in front know what he knew? +Were they a kind of lay inquisition--a species of infernal council of +three--the advocate, judge, and jury destined to cause the lead to +overtake the gold? But he had already endured a worse ordeal that +evening, and he was not to be cowed by this. He answered in the same +self-collected tone as before: + +"So far as I know of Sir Alexander's affairs they are in perfect order; +and in the interview which I had with him this evening, I think I am +justified in assuming he added by word of mouth, and in the presence of +Miss Midharst and Mrs. Grant, such matters as may not be embodied in his +will, or such additions to what may be in his will as he desired to +make." + +The three doctors looked significantly at one another, and Grey awaited +with perturbation of mind, although he preserved an indifferent +exterior, the next move in this strangely shifting drama. + +The doctors then nodded to one another that they had agreed to some +course understood between them, and Dr. Hardy said, in a tone of relief: + +"You are fully in possession, we know, of the business position of Sir +Alexander's affairs. The medical position is this: A development of +symptoms has occurred since you saw the patient; his mind has sunk into +complete darkness, from which, in the natural course of the disease, it +never emerges between this and death----" + +"This is most sad," interrupted Grey. + +"_But_," said Dr. Hardy, taking note of the interruption with the +emphasis on the conjunction, "an operation which might accelerate death +would in all likelihood give the patient a few minutes of consciousness +to-night. If to-night passes without the operation it would be useless +to-morrow. The question, then, is: Are you of opinion there is any need +to run the risk of that operation in the hope of getting some final +instruction for the disposal of the worldly affairs of Sir Alexander +Midharst?" + +"That is a very grave question indeed." + +"A very grave question. Observe, it consists of two parts. 1. The +business portion. 2. The medical portion. You are not expected to answer +both responsibly. You are responsible for the business portion; we for +the medical. The portion of the question you have to answer is this: Do +you know of any business reason for restoring to consciousness at some +risk Sir Alexander Midharst?" + +"I do not." + +"Then we may go. We can do no more. Good evening, Mr. Grey; you have +been most admirably careful and conscientious in this matter." + +The doctors bowed and withdrew. + +Once more Grey found himself alone. He could not remain indoors. He felt +oppressed, suffocated. He hastened into the courtyard. Having gained the +grounds he turned his face to the east, and walked slowly onward with +his hands clasped behind him and his chin sunk upon his breast. + +How that brief interview with the doctors had altered the whole aspect +of his affairs, he thought. In that terrible scene at the bedside, he +had sworn to take charge of Miss Midharst's fortune; a light +responsibility that was now. In that same interview he had sworn to take +care of Miss Midharst; a grave responsibility that was now. And yet last +night he had been thinking of the most intimate and responsible form of +guardianship for her. He had been thinking if he were a widower he might +marry Miss Midharst, and so cover up the great scandal. If he married +her now, he should be in the best position to keep his oath to the old +man. + +Last night he had been affrighted by the notion of being left a widower, +lest it might enter Sir Alexander's mind a second man should be +associated with him in the guardianship of a great heiress. + +All this had almost miraculously changed to meet his position. The old +man was likely to live some time, but never again to possess his senses; +never again to have sufficient recollection to make any change in that +will in which his, Grey's, fortune and fate were wholly wound up. That +was a tremendous relief. + +He was becoming calmer. The memory of that scene by the bedside was +gradually growing less troublesome, less insistent, less oppressive. He +breathed more freely if it was for nothing else but the knowledge the +repetition of such a scene had become impossible. + +His thoughts ran on: + +Sir Alexander might live days, weeks, months, and then after his death +he, Grey, would have a whole year. Yes, a whole year! Of course he had +no shadow of hope of replacing the money; but then, in, say a year and +three or four months, something might happen. + +He might be free. + +The burden might be lifted off his shoulders and he might be free. Who +could say but-- + +He had turned round and was looking west. + +"By Jove," he exclaimed, "I have missed the boat! There she goes past +the tail of the Island." + +The _Rodwell_ had just got round the end of the Island, and was steaming +west in the broad river, full in the light of the setting sun. + +The air was still. Now and then the lonely notes of a lamenting thrush +enriched the silence. In the whole vast arc of the heavens from the +violet-purple brooding east to the full crimson activity of the splendid +west, not a cloud broke the chromatic scale. There was something fierce +and warlike and fine in the sun; something wasted and desolate and +forlorn in the deserted realms of the east. It seemed as though the +sun, that general of Time, were celebrating in the west his triumph over +another day; while the eastern fields of the empyrean lay broken in hope +abandoned, fit region for the reign of dusky night, for ghosts of noble +hopes, and flitting phantoms of human joys. The northern plains of the +heavens were pale grey blue. To the south the sky was green. Overhead a +pulse of liquid pink seemed breaking through the fair soft blue, like +the pink that steals into a mother's blue eyes when she hears her baby +praised and stoops to kiss it, thinking "Their praises are sweet, but +they are only drops of sweetness falling into the ocean of my love." + +Although Grey knew there was no chance of his overtaking the boat, he +now walked west, keeping on the high ground of the island. He passed the +Castle; still the boat was in view. The sight of it distracted his +thoughts, and any distraction was better than the subject-matter thrust +upon his attention by his mind. + +From the tail of Warfinger Island to the bend of the river which would +completely conceal the steamer was about two miles. The sun now lay +level with the horizon. Against the blazing orb the boat steamed on. The +edge of the sun had already touched the low horizon when Grey paused at +the top of the high ground and looked west. + +"I shall drive from the Ferry to Seacliff. It is only six miles by the +road, and I can be there before the boat. + +"There go my wife and five thousand pounds of--of the money I laid my +hands on in an accursed hour. How strange it is that a few minutes ago +when I thought of my position I never thought of that! What a whimsical +thing chance is! There are Miss Midharst's five thousand pounds helping +to carry my wife from Daneford to Seacliff; and here am I, who owe a +hundred times that sum, and with no way out of the thing except I should +chance to be at liberty to marry within a few months. + +"Ah, well, let me try and think of something that's probable. Trying to +square the circle is an elegant and harmless and profitable way of +spending one's time; it pays much better than trying to see the way out +of my mess. Possibly in a short time I may go mad. That would be a +capital way out of it, particularly if my madness took the form of going +over that bedside scene for ever. Bah! I am giddy already. I _must_ +think of something else. Let me get back. That drive to Seacliff will +freshen me. Anyway I ought to be very well satisfied with the +substantial events of this evening." + +He turned around and began slowly retracing his steps. As he did so, he +raised his eyes to the Castle. + +Already the walls of the pile were steeped in the shadows of night. But +the Witch's Tower--the Tower of Silence--had just caught the fierce +gleam of light from the river. + +He paused, looked up, and thought: + +"How simple the people were long ago! They had no idea of cause and +effect. They saw that this tower blazed red after all the rest of the +building was laid in shadow. But the poor idiots never thought of the +light on the river. I can hardly believe it. An evening like this, when +there wasn't a cloud in the heavens, someone must have noticed that the +light on the tower first appeared when the sun caught the river and +remained steady until the sun had gone altogether. It is incredible that +people were ever such fools." + +He stopped. + +"I will wait until it fades," he thought, by way of honouring his scorn +for the past. + +Presently and quickly the red glow faded from the tower. + +"Now," he cried, "the sun is set, and no witchcraft can rekindle that +glow for four-and-twenty----What! The light again! Am I mad already?" + +Once more, beyond all doubt, the blood-red glare burnt on the summit of +the Tower of Silence. + +Grey turned quickly round, and looked in surprise and horror west. He +shaded his eyes with his hands. He rushed forward a few paces, shaded +his eyes again and looked. He swung himself into the branches of a tree, +climbed up, and having reached the highest branches that would sustain +his weight, glared into the west, into the track of crimson fire that +shot the red shaft at the Tower. + +Then he descended heavily, drowsily, as though half asleep. + +When on the ground he threw himself on his face, and muttered in a thick +voice: + +"What is this? What is this? I have not been thinking murder, have I? I +have not been thinking wife-murder? Have I? No, no, no, Grey! Not so bad +as that." + +Then a sudden change passed over him. He became inspired with superhuman +energy and strength. He sprang to his feet, and winding his arms wildly +about his head rushed towards the Castle, shouting: + +"Help! help!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ON BOARD THE STEAMSHIP RODWELL. + + +The passenger steamboat _Rodwell_ left Daneford on that evening of the +17th of August, 1866, at the usual time, with an average number of +passengers for the season and her ordinary crew. She was a saloon boat, +and licensed to carry three hundred and fifty passengers between +Daneford and Seacliff. As a matter of fact she never, except on very +rare occasions, had more than half that number on board. Her crew, all +told, were fifteen; and on the evening of the 17th of August, 1866, she +carried about one hundred and twenty passengers. + +The saloon-deck was abaft the paddle-boxes, and after-deck passengers +had access to the saloon and bridge as well as the after-deck; the +fore-deck passengers were confined to the fore-deck and the fore-cabin, +the latter being a dull, cheerless, dreary place, where no one ever +thought of going, unless in bad weather. + +Smoking was allowed on the fore-deck to the second-class passengers, but +not in the fore-cabin. On neither the saloon-deck, nor in the saloon +itself, was smoking permitted; but all smoking Daneford declared that, +in the whole world, there could be found no place or circumstances under +which a cigar might be tasted with such plenteous peace and enjoyment as +upon the bridge of the _Rodwell_, while she steamed down the broad +placid Weeslade of a fine summer's evening. + +Although Daneford was not a straitlaced city, there was a good deal of +solid propriety in the character of its people. Judged by criminal +statistics, it was rather worse than the average city of its size; but +if a little prodigal in its crimes, it was discreet and prudent in its +sins. If it cheated, it cheated in a legitimate and business-like +manner. If it got drunk, it did not brawl. Whatever wicked thing it did, +it kept under the rose. So that it enjoyed the double advantage of being +highly estimated for its virtue, without allowing itself the unpleasant +deprivations which the pursuit of virtue requires. + +As regards smoking, Daneford observed one rule in the year 1866, and of +that rule a single breach could not be proved against a single resident +of the city. The rule was that no man should, while walking through the +streets of Daneford in company with a lady, give the death-blow to +chivalry and light a cigar. + +The mere fact that on the bridge of the _Rodwell_ smoking was allowed +secured it against the remotest chance of female incursion. The most +respectable maiden ladies, who had ceased to be giddy with youth, made +it a practice to look as little as possible at that bridge, and, if they +could, to sit with their backs to it. + +Just forward of the bridge, on the main deck, were the steward's pantry +and the cook's galley. The passage between the forward house on deck and +the paddle-boxes being very narrow, the view from the fore to the after +deck was so much interrupted as practically to be cut off. + +Under the bridge, amidships, were the engines; aft of the engines, the +engine-room and stoke-hole, all in one; and farther aft still, the +furnaces and boilers. + +All first-class lady passengers, whether escorted by men or alone, +confined themselves to the after-deck and the saloon. + +The defect which had been discovered in the boiler had not become a +matter of general knowledge. No one in either Daneford or Seacliff knew +anything about it, except a few persons connected with the steamer and +the company's office. + +There was no railway from the city to the little town, but an omnibus +and a coach went daily in and out, the distance between the two places +being, by road, not half the distance by water. + +The road was no longer a rival of the river as a highway between the two +places; but if public faith got cool in the riverway, people might fall +back upon the road, which of old had enjoyed the monopoly. Nothing could +more effectually shake public faith in the water-way than a suspicion +that weakness or defect existed in the steamer. Therefore the fact that +the boilers of the _Rodwell_ exhibited unfavourable symptoms had been +kept a profound secret, and on the 17th of August no passenger on board +the boat had the shadow of a suspicion anything was wrong. + +Steadily the steamboat held her course down the Weeslade that lovely +August evening. + +A man with a fiddle at the bow struck up a lively air, and in a few +minutes some of the younger and gayer of the forward passengers stood up +and began to dance. + +The men smoking on the bridge drew near the rail, and looked down with +smiles of quiet cordiality upon the dancers. + +Then a man with a large white hat, blackened face, huge white +shirt-collar, blue-and-white calico coat, red waistcoat, and check-linen +trousers approached the fiddler; and having whispered to the fiddler, +the latter brought the dance-music to a stop, and the nigger minstrel +stepped out into the open space just quitted by the dancers, and sang a +pathetic song. + +This won great applause, and caused some of the women to weep. + +Then the fiddler changed the tune into one of sly and artful purport; +and the nigger, assuming an attitude and a manner of audacious drollery, +sang a song of such comical force that all the forward passengers +greeted the end of each verse with roars of laughter, forgetting, in +their own enjoyment, to applaud the singer: a form of commendation doing +much more homage to the performer than all the cool and calculating +approval that accepts and adopts the dry formula of hand smiting hand as +a mark of satisfaction. So successful was this song that some of the +critical loungers on the bridge turned to others and said, "Not half so +bad," in a tone indicating the possession of responsible critical +discernment and chivalric honour in the interests of truth. + +Among the men on the bridge was a merchant of Daneford accompanied by a +nephew, a young lad from the country who had come on a first visit to +the city; to him the merchant was indicating the various objects of +interest they passed on the way down. + +"This," said the merchant, pointing, "is the Foundery. Although it is +called the Foundery, it is in reality, as you see, a dockyard fer +building iron steamers. The last one launched was 2,500 tons register. + +"That is the Cove, and there bathing is allowed all day long. The water +is not clear, and the bottom is very muddy; but in the hot weather +city-folk of the lower order are not nice in such matters. We haven't +any clear streams or mill-ponds such as you have in the country. + +"That is the Glashouse over there, and this part of the river is called +Glashouse Reach. + +"Farther down you see a windmill on a headland; that headland is called +Windmill Head, and that large white house in the glen there is Windmill +Hall, the residence of Colonel Wood Maitland, who distinguished himself +in the Crimean War. A Cossack thrust at Maitland's colonel, who was +wounded and propped up against a dead trooper's dead horse. Captain Wood +Maitland (he was only a captain then) lifted the Cossack's lance with an +up-cut. The Cossack wheeled, thrust at the captain; the lance caught the +captain in the left forearm, and the shaft being wounded by the up sword +cut, broke off two feet from the head, and stuck in the captain's +forearm. The captain was borne down. The Cossack wheeled again and +drew. Captain Maitland had lost his sword in the fall. The Cossack rode +up, brandishing his sword and making again for the wounded colonel, who +lay helpless against the belly of the dead horse. Captain Maitland was +now unarmed and wounded. A few paces in advance of the captain was a +large fragment of a shell; he rose, picked this up, and, at the moment +the Cossack was within a few yards of the wounded colonel, threw the +piece of the shell with all his force, and struck the horse on the head, +causing the horse to swerve and the rider to lose his cut. As the +Cossack swept by Captain Maitland pulled the lance-head out of his left +forearm, and thrust it through the bowels of the Cossack, who rode on a +little and then tumbled out of his saddle. But that was only one of a +dozen or more brave things Maitland did. + +"That snug little cottage under the slope on the other shore is where +Samuel Sholl, the richest merchant in Daneford, lives. He is a Quaker, +and many men of five hundred a year have finer houses. But this one is +the most beautifully kept in the neighbourhood. + +"If you look right ahead now you will see the Island. Its name is +Warfinger. On the top of the hill in the Island is the Castle. Sir +Alexander Midharst lives there. He has a fine property, worth more than +twenty thousand a year; but he is a miser, and saves up nineteen out of +every twenty pounds of his income. + +"Wat Grey, the banker, a very rich man too, takes care of all Sir +Alexander's money. The Castle is old, as you see, and has a deserted, +lonely look. + +"Wat Grey lives at the Manor, in the Manor House, another queer house, +and he has called the two houses the Weird Sisters. You see that round +tower. Now you can see it better as we come in front of the archway to +the Castle-yard, the western tower. Well, they used to say it was +haunted by the ghost of one of the wives of the family which owned it +before the Midharsts came into the property. There's a tower on the +Manor also, and no doubt you have heard or read of places in the +East--China, I think, or maybe Rangoon--where they put their dead on the +top of towers, called the Towers of Silence. The carrion birds eat off +the flesh, and the bones fall through a grating. Well, Wat Grey calls +these two towers the Towers of Silence. + +"That level plain of grass-land between the river and these hills is +called the Plain of Spears. A great number of spear-heads have been +found there from time to time, and until quite lately it was supposed a +battle must have been fought there. But although bones of cows and +sheep have been discovered, no human bones ever turn up, and no one has +been able to account for the spear-heads. You shall see many of those +spear-heads in the rooms of the Weeslade Scientific Institute to-morrow. + +"In that little creek there, Glastenbury Cove, three boys were drowned +last year. A boat capsized in a squall of wind, and none of the three +boys could swim; so they were all drowned. + +"That large yellow house at the top of the dip of land is the Hon. +Skeldemere Istelshore's. He is the brother of an earl, and a violent +Radical. He has a large property hereabouts, and farms two thousand +acres himself. + +"The sun is getting down now. Twilight is the pleasantest time on the +river at this season. Now, if you look back, you will see as pretty a +view as there is on the whole of the Weeslade, Don't the pasture and +park lands look well with the hills behind them, and dead astern, in the +throat of the river, Warfinger Island with its hill, and on the top of +the hill the old Castle standing out sharp against the sky, with the +Tower of Silence highest of all? + +"By-the-way, in a moment you will see why people got a superstitious +feeling about that tower. Right in our wake is the Castle, and we are +steering right into the sun. We could not be better placed to see the +witch's fire dance on the tower. The sun is just dipping. Now watch the +tower. There! Did you see that? That flash on the top of the tower? +That's what the people call the witch's fire. There it is again, now. I +never saw it brighter--never. Look again. The boat is right in the track +of the sun, and the wash of the paddles makes the light flicker. I never +saw----" + +At that instant he ceased to speak--for ever. An iron bar struck him at +the throat, severing the head from the body, and killing also a man who +stood behind him. + +The after end of the bridge was flung upward, and all upon it, the +living and the dead, were shot down upon the fore-deck. + +Coal and planks and wreck of the saloon, and bodies of those who had +been on the after-deck and in the saloon, toiled upward a moment in a +dense cloud of steam and water, hung a moment suspended in air, while a +dull groaning sound spread abroad from the steamer. Then all descended +again, falling upon the ruined boat, upon the placid water, with thud +and hiss and shriek. + +For a second all was still. + +Then a dull groan from those forward. Then screams and yells when it was +plain the shell of the boat could not float more than a few seconds. + +About fifty people were still alive. + +The wreck made a drive astern. The water washed over the fore-deck, and, +striking the forward bulwark, laid the steamer on an even keel for a +breath's space. + +Then the water rushed aft once more, and in a stern-board the stern went +under water, the boat fell over to star-board, swung half-way back +again, and then heeled steadily over and went down. + +The boiler of the _Rodwell_ had burst, and the steamer _Rodwell_ had +gone down before any one who still survived had had time to jump +overboard. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +ON THE RIVER. + + +Still calling out for help, Grey reached the Castle. When he got in +front of the chief gateway he paused a moment, and pressed his hand over +his forehead, trying to collect his thoughts. + +The _Rodwell_ had blown up. Yes, that was clear. And all the people who +had not been killed or drowned were now struggling in the water, and his +wife had been aboard. + +No good purpose could be served by alarming the people at the Castle. +They could render no assistance, and they had trouble enough there just +now. The best thing to do was to dash across the Island, tell the +ferryman to hasten to the scene of the wreck (he could not have seen the +steamer from the northern shore of the Island), jump into a boat, and +pull rapidly towards the fatal spot. + +Grey crossed the Island at the top of his speed; paused a moment to +recover his breath; then shouted to the ferryman the news of the +disaster, and, bidding him row with all his might to the place, jumped +into another boat himself and pulled rapidly down the river. + +Under the circumstances nothing could have been better for him than the +exertion necessary for driving the boat forward. + +He was a powerful man and a skilful oarsman. He bent forward and flung +himself back with swift and weighty regularity, that made the boat fly. +He deliberately kept his mind free from thought. He concentrated all his +attention upon the physical work. When a young man he had often pulled +in local amateur races, but never before with such strictly undivided +attention. + +"Get all way on the boat! Make her go through the water!" were the +thoughts that filled his mind. Gradually as he warmed to his work he +felt his power increase. He felt conscious of great skill and enormous +strength. + +As he drove onward muscle after muscle of his body seemed to come into +sympathy with those in his legs and back and arms, to increase his +force. While the muscles came into play their action stole the sluggish +blood from his head, sent up his pulse, cooled his forehead, and cleared +his mind. + +"There is no use in thinking now. No use in my thinking until I am there +and know all. _Now_ I have only to make this boat fly." + +As he swung himself backward and forward, and plucked the blades through +the hissing water, he felt all things possible to man were possible to +him then. + +"I could crush this wherry flat in my arms, or command a burning ship, +or lead a forlorn hope to certain victory at this moment," he thought. +"But I must be careful not to break an oar. To break an oar now would be +fatal. How they bend! They are the twisted ropes of the catapult, and +the wherry is the bolt, and we are going almost as fast as a flying +bolt. + +"That's the tail of the Island at last. There is no use in my looking +round; it might disturb me. All I have to think of now is, Eyes in boat, +a clean wake, and give way with a will. + +"Half ebb, by the marks. Give her a sheer out into mid-stream, and get +the crawl of the ebb under her. It's only a crawl compared to what +we're doing, although it's a five-knot ebb." + +He was out of training, and his mouth became dry, his tongue parched, +and his breathing short; his muscles, under the unaccustomed strain, +tingled and grew heated, and his joints fiery hot. But he felt all the +better pleased for this. He took a fierce delight in squandering the +magnificent resources of his strength. + +"My will," he thought, "is stronger than my body and my arms and my +legs, and if they fancy they are to get the better of my will I'll show +them their mistake. On you go! ay, faster." And he tore the blades +hissing from the water, and feathered, and switched the blades into the +water without a sound or a splash. + +"Already," he continued, "the Island dead astern. The Black Rock and +the Witches' Tower, my Tower of Silence, in a line, and I out in +mid-stream. This means I am near." + +"Where are you going? Eh? Where are you going with that wherry?" Grey +was hailed from ahead. + +Backing water with his right hand and pulling with his left he swung the +boat round, bringing her gunwale under. + +He had almost run into a four-oared river fishing-boat that had a +variety of floating objects in tow, and a few small things in the boat. +Four or five other boats were pulling slowly hither and thither, with a +man standing up in the bow of each. + +When Grey ceased to pull it was growing dusk. For a moment he sat with +his oars peaked, staring around him. Then he tried to speak, but when he +opened his mouth his tongue rattled like a bone against his teeth, and +his throat felt dusty dry. Notwithstanding that the water here was +strong and brackish he leaned out of the boat, and filled his right hand +and drank. Then his tongue became flexible again, and although his voice +was hoarse and ragged, he could speak. + +"You were here soon after it happened; how long is it now?" + +Notwithstanding the gloom the men in the fishing-boat recognised him, +and their manner turned to civility at once. + +"Close upon an hour ago, sir. I did not know your back, Mr. Grey; and +you were running right into us, and with such way on too." + +"One, two, three, four, five, six," counts Grey. "Six boats?" + +"Yes, sir, six boats. It's the awfullest thing ever happened on the +river in my time; and I'm on the Weeslade, man and boy, upwards of forty +year." + +"An hour ago. I did not think it was so long. I came as quickly as I +could." + +"I saw you pull a punt-race twenty-five years ago, sir, and you'd have +beaten your pulling in the punt then by your pulling in the wherry this +evening. Ay, sir, you'd have pulled that wherry round the punt." + +"How many were saved?" + +"About forty." + +"Were they landed at one or both sides of the river?" + +"They were all landed at Asherton's Quay over there." + +"Do you know--did you see any of the saved?" + +"Most of them. I helped to bring in some thirteen." + +"There is, if it is an hour since she blew up, no chance of any more +being alive in the water, even clinging on to anything." + +"No, Mr. Grey." + +"Do you know----" His tongue was dry again, and he dipped his hand into +the brackish water and drank out of his palm. + +The fisherman shuddered at this. "It's brackish at best," thought the +man; "but after what has happened--ugh! He must be drunk or queer in his +head." + +Grey drew in both oars before completing the question, "Do you +know--Mrs. Grey--my wife?" + +"Yes, sir, I know her well. I often sold her salmon, and saw her with +you on the _Rodwell_. I humbly hope, sir, she wasn't aboard this +evening?" + +"You did not see her among the saved?" + +"Mr. Grey, I may be mistaken----" + +"Answer me, man, or----" He suddenly sprang up in the boat, and, +whirling an oar in his hands, threatened the fisherman in the other +boat. "Answer, man, or I'll brain you, d'ye hear? And if you tell me a +lie I'll come back and brain you when I find it out. Is my wife saved?" + +"I did not see her," answered the man, shoving off the wherry. + +But Grey hooked the fishing-boat to the wherry with his foot, and, +brandishing the oar aloft, whirled it over the head of the cowering man, +and shouted out in a voice that crossed the waters and crept up the +hushed shores: "Damn you, man, don't you see I mean to brain you if you +won't speak?" + +"She was not saved. No one on the after-deck or in the saloon was saved. +It was the boilers blew up, and all aft were killed or drowned." + +Grey unhooked his foot from the fishing-boat, and with his foot pushed +off from her. Then throwing down the oar in the boat, he folded his arms +tightly across his chest, and, still standing, drifted down the river, +his large figure standing out in black against the fading purple of the +west, his face turned towards the blackening east. + +"Only that he lost his reason with his wife," said the fisherman, "I'd +take the law of him." + +"Ay," answered another man in the boat, "it's an excuse for a man to do +any wild thing to lose his wife like this." + +They had drifted a bit, and were now pulling back towards the spot where +they had first hailed Grey. + +"He's standing up still in that wherry. With a big man like him standing +up in a cockleshell of a craft like that, the swell of a steamboat +wouldn't think much of twisting her from under his feet," said the first +speaker. + +"And maybe he wouldn't much mind if it did, poor gentleman," in kindly +tone, said the man whom Grey had threatened. + +The wherry drifted on, but for a time Grey never altered his position. +He was without his coat, without his hat; his white sleeves were rolled +up above the elbows, and his powerful arms tightened across his wide +chest. Gradually the boat, as it drifted, swung round, and brought his +face to the fading east. + +There was not a ripple on the river, not a murmur in the trees; a faint +thin rustle of the water where it touched the shore was the only sound. +Night was coming, with its healing dew and spacious silence for +universal sleep. + +Upright he stood still. The boat began to swing round once more. He did +not move. Again his face was towards the darkening east. + +At length the wherry gave a sudden lurch; it had encountered something, +and had almost capsized. + +He instinctively brought the boat on an even keel by throwing the weight +of his whole body on the rising side. In a few moments the boat was +still as of old. With a sudden shake and shudder he came back to a +consciousness of where he was. + +"That is the red No. 4 Buoy I ran foul of; it nearly capsized me," he +thought. + +Then shading his eyes with his open right hand, he stared back into the +eastern gloom long and fixedly. + +"My wife and the _Rodwell_ are both gone," he whispered. "Bee and my +five thousand. My wife and my five thousand pounds are gone. She brought +me about five thousand when she came to me, long ago. It was to have +gone to her children, if she had any, and away from me if she had none. +Now she is gone, and that five thousand and another five: and I am +saved! Saved! + +"Saved!" + +He sat down in the boat, and, keeping his legs wide apart, rested his +elbows on his knees and his head on his hands. His shirt-collar was +open, and yet he felt his throat tighten, and put his hand to it. When +he found it free he muttered: + +"It is only the hangman untying the knot; for in spirit I was a +murderer. And yet I remember the day I saw her first. I can tell you all +about the day I told her I loved her. I could show you the way she +looked; pretty, and with her head this way. Then I knew she was mine. +She was small, Bee was small; and I lifted her up and kissed her--not +often, but once; once, and I felt weak for joy at that kiss; and +something happened in my head or heart, and I saw all my life before +me, and felt her always on my arm. And after that I was calm. It seemed +we had known one another always, and had been married years. + +"And I remember the first thing I said after that was not anything wild +or romantic; it was: + +"'In the back of the Bank-house there is a bay-window like this, but +there are creepers on it.' And she asked me what kind the creepers were; +and I laughed and said I did not know. 'But,' I said, a kind of foolish +pun, 'my Bee shall come and tell me, won't she?' And Bee said, 'Maybe +so.' + +"And I remember when I bought the engaged ring, and how she kissed me +then the first time of her own accord. + +"And I remember how when we were married first she clung to me, and +seemed to grudge her eyes for anything but me. And I remember how I +used to walk around her and about her through the streets, if anything +seemed to threaten her with disturbance--a dog, or a draught, or a cab, +or a----" + +"He suddenly threw up his face to the deep purple sky, and cried out, in +a hoarse whisper: + +"And to-night, by God, I am not man enough to weep that she is dead! I +am not man enough to wish her back again!" + +He looked around the water, as though he expected to see some form of +temporal or eternal vengeance approaching him. + +As his eyes fell upon the water, something came very slowly floating +towards him. Something which was almost wholly submerged, and, owing to +that fact, drifted more quickly than the boat. As the thing drew nearer +it gradually settled down in the water, and, before he could touch it, +sank. + +"It looked like a cloak," he whispered. "What have I been doing here? I +must get ashore, and see if the----" He could not bring himself to say +"body," and without thought sat down, and began rowing rapidly towards +Asherton's Quay. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FUTURE AS IT SEEMED. + + +When Grey's boat came alongside the little quay he jumped out, and went +hastily to a crowd of people assembled round the bodies and wreckage +landed already. + +His manner was highly excited, and the questions put by him came in such +an incoherent torrent the people did not know where to begin the +answers. + +Some of the survivors, some of those who had been on the fore-deck, +stood near: these he asked if they knew Mrs. Grey. + +Yes, some of them knew Mrs. Grey. + +Had they seen her either before or after the boat went down? Did they +see her go aboard? She was to have been on board, and he was to have +gone too, but he had been called away. Then he was to have joined the +steamer off the Island; but she slipped him by, and he was not able to +go on board. Could it be possible no one had seen his wife, Mrs. Grey? +Could no one give him any tale or tidings of his wife? + +No. No one could tell him anything about her. No one had seen her; but +then that was not to be wondered at, for all the people who survived had +been on the fore-deck, and from the fore-deck it was impossible, or +nearly impossible, to see the people on the after-deck. + +But surely some of those who had been saved knew whether his wife had or +had not gone on board at Daneford? That was simple enough. + +They could not say; they only knew they had neither seen her nor heard +of her that evening on the _Rodwell_, or in connection with the +_Rodwell_. + +Among that sad group on the shore, Grey was the first who came enquiring +for friend or relative, and those who knew him pitied him with all their +hearts; for they recollected his marriage had been the result of a +love-match, and that he was reputed to be the kindest, most generous, +and most loyal husband in the city. His constant good-humour and kindly +actions, his generosity, and his great importance and usefulness to the +people of Daneford, added in no slight way to increase the sympathy and +respect of those who stood on the little quay that night and heard his +excited questions, and answered him back gently and with tears in their +hearts. + +For his own part he had not yet been able to bring the results of the +disaster sharply before his mind. The fact that the disaster had +occurred was never clearly with his apprehension. As soon as he removed +his eyes from the salvage and the dead, and looked out upon the broad +peaceful river, it seemed impossible that at the very spot he had +recently rowed over scores of people lay dead, and among the dead his +wife. + +The news of the catastrophe spread quickly, and gradually the crowd +gathered and swelled. From the neighbourhood, some who had friends in +the unlucky boat came, and found their friends alive in houses around +the landing-place. Others found friends or relatives beneath the cloths +which had been spread over the dead. Others were in a condition similar +to Grey: could find no trace of those whom they supposed to be in the +boat at the time she blew up. + +Among the last-named searchers was a man who lived on the banks of the +river, and had heard the explosion and hastened to the spot. He had +reason to fear his only son had been in the boat, but he could not to be +certain, as the young man lived at Daneford, and often, though not +invariably, took the boat on a Friday evening. The father was +distracted, and at last came to Grey, whom he knew slightly, and, under +the impression that the banker had been a passenger, asked for tidings +of his son. + +After a few half-incoherent replies from Grey, the father gathered the +facts of the latter's case, and found they were both circumstanced in +the same way. For a moment the old man felt utterly helpless and +desperate. Then his mind seemed to clear up suddenly, and, turning to +Grey, he said: + +"Neither of us is sure he is a sufferer by this awful calamity, nor can +we be certain as long as we stay here unless our worst fears come true." +He pointed to the river and shuddered. "They have already begun +dragging, but it will be days before all are found, if all are ever +found. Each of us may hope still. Suppose, instead of this sickening +waiting here, we drive back to the city? There we may find those whom we +fear to find here. Is not that better than watching each boat, and +bending over each poor body that is landed?" + +"You are right!" cried Grey eagerly, all his faculties suddenly starting +into life, and his mind for the first time seizing upon the idea of +getting certain knowledge speedily. The torpor which had fallen upon his +intellectual faculties at the moment of the explosion left him, and he +not only warmly seconded the old man's plan, but before the other could +speak, had secured and was seated in one of the many flys which had +already begun to arrive with helpers and friends at the scene of the +wreck. + +In a few seconds the fly was spinning along in the direction of +Daneford. Both the men in the vehicle were too much occupied with their +own concerns for conversation. Grey's thoughts ran on: + +"She is dead. Beyond all doubt she is dead. Poor Bee! poor Bee! I wonder +did she think of me with her last thought. I wonder was she glad or +sorry to go. And now that she is gone, my poor Bee, I don't know how I +feel. + +"Poor Bee, I shall miss her. I have been unkind and unjust to her. I +have treated her cruelly, cruelly. My being unkind and scornful to her +did no one any good. It hurt her, and it hurt me. Poor thing! + +"The house will be strange now. The rooms where she has been will feel +so quiet, so useless. What is a house for but a woman? A man does not +want a house of many rooms. Least of all does he want a house of many +rooms haunted by a memory. A man wants only two rooms, one to eat in and +one to sleep in. When a childless man's wife dies he ought to give up +housekeeping. What is the use of hollow rooms all round a man's head? +They are only chilling storehouses of recollection." + +Here his mind halted a long time. When he resumed at the point where he +had left off, he added but one more thought: + +"I'll sell the Manor." + +He paused much longer, said to himself, as though he were familiarising +himself with the whole situation by repeating the words forming the key +to it: + +"I'll sell the Manor." + +After going over the words so often that they began to lose their +meaning, he started suddenly: + +"No. I cannot sell the Manor. I cannot sell the Manor House. A man in my +position must have a house. A man in my position---- + +"My position! My position! My position! + +"Curse it, why can't I keep my head clear? I am not going mad, I should +hope. What an amusing maniac I should make just now! The people would +gather from all sides to hear honest Wat raving about stealing the +property of the baronet. It would be town talk. Never was mad-mad so +mad, they would say. But let me get on---- + +"Of course a man in my position ought to have a house. I must have a +place to see my friends in. I must entertain a little and----" + +His thoughts paused again a while, and then he abandoned thinking on +the line he had been following with the mental exclamation: "No, no! I +must not think of that now. I must not think of that--over the open +grave of poor Bee!" + +He shook himself and endeavoured to fix his mind on matters of the hour, +and to keep it free of the future: + +"How the purely business aspect of things has altered within these awful +twenty-four hours! Sir Alexander has become powerless to alter that +will, and still lives. The longer he lives now, the better for me. While +he retained his faculties there was always great danger he might make +some change. Now there is no longer any fear of that. + +"What a terrible scene that was at the bedside! If I had known anything +of the kind was about to occur, I don't think I should have had the +courage to face it. I fear I would have gone the fatal length before I +would have knowingly encountered it. It was so awful to hold her hand +and swear such things in the face of the facts. But it is all over, and +I am well out of it. Perhaps, after all, it is better the scene should +have taken place. + +"I suppose I shall be much at the Castle now. In fact, I don't know who +is to give any orders now if I do not. It will be all thrown on me, I +can plainly see that. Often at the Castle means meeting her often, and +meeting her often means that we shall be good friends. + +"How long did we stand hand-in-hand this evening? Not long. I did not +note her beauty then, but now I can call back the face and change the +surroundings---- + +"No, no! I must not sell the Manor. A man in my position must have a +house for--I may marry again." + +He set his teeth and clenched his hands, and drove the nails of his +fingers into his palms. Then he faced the position resolutely: + +"A while ago I shirked looking into the future across an open grave. But +my own grave is open too. Can I fill it up? I think I can. +Self-preservation is the first law. I cannot get back my five thousand +pounds from the _Rodwell_. I cannot get back my wife from the Weeslade: +can I get back my life? That is the question of questions, and it is +idle out of feeble sentimentalism to defer looking at such grave +business in a straightforward and candid way. + +"I must marry, and I must marry this girl. Nothing else can save me, and +I think nothing can prevent my doing it. I hold the winning cards in my +hand at last, and I mean to win." + +The old gentleman here broke in upon the banker's reverie with: "We are +passing your house, Mr. Grey." + +"Ah, so we are; thank you. Drop me here; I'll walk up, and you take the +fly on. I hope you will find your son all safe." + +"God grant it! I hope you will find your wife at the house." + +"Thank you; good-night." + +"Good-night." + +Grey turned into the Park, and walked slowly in the direction of his +house. + +Twice he paused and faced round, as though the place were new to him, +and he wished to fix indelibly on his memory what could be seen in the +dim light. Or was it that he now looked at the Park in a new aspect, +from a new standpoint? Or was it that he wanted to gain time and +composure before reaching the house? He could not have told himself why +he stopped, in fact he was perfectly unconscious of having ceased to +move forward; and although his eyes passed deliberately from tree to +tree, and seemed to be dissatisfied with the want of light, he was not +aware his thought was occupied with the scene. The pause in his walk +indicated merely a pause in his thought. While he moved towards the +house he had but one idea. + +"I must marry, and I must marry this girl. Nothing else can save me." + +With this thought beating through his brain he shook himself, +straightened his figure, and collected his faculties for meeting the +servants and formally ascertaining his wife had left the house and taken +passage in the ill-fated _Rodwell_. + +With a steady stride, and head erect, he walked up to the front door and +into the hall. + +He looked round hastily, and then asked: + +"James, where is your mistress?" + +The man blinked in surprise at seeing his master and being asked such a +question. Mrs. Grey had told the servants that morning she and Mr. Grey +were going to Seacliff that evening, and now here was his master come +back alone, and asking in a startling manner where the mistress was. He +had better be guarded in his reply. "I don't know, sir," was his answer. + +"Is she in the house, James?" + +"No, sir." + +"Are you quite sure?" + +"Quite sure." + +"When did she go out?" + +"I did not see her go out, sir; but at luncheon she said she was going +out, and I have not seen her since." + +"Did she say where she was going?" + +"Yes, sir. She said if anyone called I was to tell them she had gone to +Seacliff with you this evening." + +"Are you quite sure of all this?" + +"Quite sure, sir. The cook was in the dining-room at the time, and heard +the mistress tell me. Mistress had the cook up to give her orders about +to-morrow." + +"James, you will never see your poor mistress again. The _Rodwell_ blew +up, and she was not among the saved." + +"Good God!" exclaimed the old soldier, starting back and involuntarily +bringing his hand to his forehead, as though he found himself thrust +into the presence of the general of the enemy. He fell back two paces, +and, dropping his hand to his mouth, uttered a sob. "Good God!" +exclaimed the near-sighted servant, whose heart was full of dumb +gratitude and desolate sense of loss. "The last words she said to me +were, 'Thank you for the flowers, James; I know it was you put them +fresh in the vases. Thank you, James.' That's what she said to me as she +went down the passage to her own room. When she was in the passage she +turned back, and said so that I shouldn't forget it, 'Thank you, James; +and recollect if anyone calls I'll be back to-morrow.' And now to think +that she is dead!" He had forgotten the presence of his master, who +stood irresolute a moment, and then with a heavy sigh walked into the +inner hall and disappeared up the gloomy unlit staircase. + +Neither master nor mistress having been expected home, there was no +light in any of the rooms or passages on the first floor. With heavy +slow step Mr. Grey proceeded to his own bedroom and lit the gas. + +How cold and dreary and desolate it looked! + +He poured out some water and bathed his face. This revived and +invigorated him. Then he rang the bell. The chambermaid answered it. + +"Jane, I suppose you have heard the awful news from James?" + +"Yes, sir." The girl burst out crying. + +"Do you know the exact time at which your poor mistress left the house +for the boat?" + +"No, sir. None of us saw her go; but none of us were in the front of the +house after luncheon. We dined at three, just after the mistress had her +luncheon; and we all think she must have gone out while we were sitting +down." + +"That will do, Jane, thank you." + +"Thank you, sir; and if you please, sir, we're all very sorry for her +and for you," crying. "She was a good kind mistress, and never took any +of us up short, or refused us anything in reason." + +"She was a good kind mistress, Jane. I am very much obliged to you and +to them. Tell all of them below that." + +The girl withdrew, weeping bitterly. + +Once more he was alone. + +Until now there had lingered in his mind a haunting doubt. He could not +believe the evidence before him. Now all was simple and intelligible. + +He commenced to pace the room. At first his step was firm and slow. He +was weighing mighty thoughts. + +Gradually the past seemed to fall from him like a cope of lead. He +folded his arms on his breast. He threw up his head into the air, as in +fancy he stepped across the threshold of his new life. The colour came +into his cheeks and the sparkle into his eye. He strode beneath +triumphal arches, and heard the shouts of surging multitudes in his +ears. + +Yes, the past was now vanished into the darkness, which need never again +be explored, be visited, be contemplated. Let the past bury its dead. +Let him look at the future. + +It was brighter now than ever. The position of the Bank was secure above +all chances of assault. He should marry that girl, and by that marriage +cover up for ever the crime he had committed. The reputation of her +fortune would enormously increase the security and business of the Bank. + +Then--long-deferred ambition--then he might enter Parliament. The best +society would gradually open to him. He should be successful in the +House; he should possibly rise to place; if this happened, considering +he should have the reputation of great wealth, and for a wife the +beautiful daughter of a baronet, of a race that went back to the +Conquest, what more possible than that there should in a few years, in +Debrett, be the name of Sir Henry Walter Grey, Bart.? + +The prospect was not unreasonable. What intoxicating probabilities were +these! + +He would like a little brandy now. He did not care to go downstairs for +it, or to ring again. There was some, no doubt, in the tower cupboard. +Yes, that would do. Here was the key in his pocket. + +With a radiant face and an elastic step he left the room, carrying a +lighted candle in his hand. + +He stalked back in a few minutes, holding the candle out at arm's length +before him. + +"The other key is at the other side of the door. The door is locked on +the inner side, and my wife is there!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE PRESENT AS IT WAS. + + +He put the candle on the dressing-table, and sat down in front of the +glass. He placed one elbow on the table, bent his head low, and catching +his hair, softly rested his head on the ball of his hand. + +His brows were knit. His eyes, bent on the toilet-cover, were vacant, +rayless; they carefully explored the pattern of the cloth. His mind was +a blank. It showed nothing. It was as incapable of reflection as the +waters of the middle sea battered by the winds beneath the tawny clouds. +His reason was not with him, and the machinery of his mind had stopped. +There were no ideas in his imagination. His mind floated free in +unoccupied space. + +For a while he sat thus. Then he raised his head and looked firmly into +the glass. + +"What has happened to me?" he thought, with his eyes fixed on the eyes +in the glass. "A moment ago, when I discovered she still lived, I felt +in despair; and now I am calm. What has happened to me? + +"What has happened to me? + +"Here is the situation: + +"The servants think she went to that boat. She knew on such occasions I +always took charge of whatever little luggage we required. They have not +seen her since luncheon. They believe she was in the _Rodwell_. It is +scarcely possible anyone can say she was not in the _Rodwell_; all the +people and crew who were on the after-deck are dead. Any one who heard +of my visit to Asherton's Quay, or met one of the servants, would regard +me as a widower. I _was_ a widower at Asherton's Quay. I _was_ a widower +while I drove up from Asherton's Quay to this. My servants assure me I +am a widower. + +"To-morrow all Daneford will regard me a widower. + +"To-morrow morning Maud Midharst will think of me as a widower--Maud +Midharst, who will one day own that chest, which, when opened, will be +found to contain the bones of a thief and a suicide, not the fortune of +a great heiress. + +"To-morrow morning Maud Midharst will think of me as a widower; _what +will she think of me as--at night_?" + +Suddenly the fixed expression left his face. A thought that sent the +blood tingling through his veins had rushed in upon him. + +"Perhaps," he said, breathless, "I am a widower! She may be dead!" + +He rose nimbly, and, taking up the candle, once more went into the +passage leading to the first-floor room of the Tower of Silence. + +He looked carefully round, and then going to the end of the passage +further from the tower, closed the two doors and locked the inner one. + +He proceeded cautiously back to the door leading into the tower. This +was a single door. He held the candle in his left hand, knocked with his +right, and bent his ear towards the door. + +No reply. + +He knocked again, this time more loudly. + +Still no reply. + +Holding the candle behind him, he bent low and looked into the keyhole. + +Undoubtedly there was the end of the shaft of the key shining against +his eye. + +He paused a while in deep thought; then shaking himself up, knocked more +loudly, battering with his clenched fist. + +No answer. + +He looked at the candle he carried. It was wax, and in his moving to and +fro the wax had overflowed the flame-pan and run down the side, making a +long thin ridge. He took a piece of pencil from his pocket, stripped off +the ridge of wax, softened the wax at the flame, and stuck a lump the +size of a pea on the end of the pencil. + +Then he heated the free end of the wax, and when it had just begun to +run thrust it cautiously into the keyhole, and pressed the wax against +the shaft of the key in the lock. He held the pencil steadily thus for +a few minutes. With great caution he tried it. All was well. The wax +adhered firmly to the end of the pencil and the shaft of the key. + +With elaborate care he twisted the pencil slightly one way, then the +other. The key moved slowly in the lock. He tried it four or five times +right and left, and holding the candle behind him and his eye on a level +with the keyhole. At last the hole was completely blocked up by the body +of the key. Forcing the pencil in firmly, the key slipped through the +hole and fell on the floor within. + +He straightened himself, leaned against the wall for a moment, and wiped +his forehead. Then drawing his keys out of his pocket, he inserted one +in the lock, turned the lock softly, and entered. + +As he did so the head of a man disappeared below the window-sill. Grey +did not see this head, nor did he at that time know of the man's +presence. + +The room was one of medium size, but it was dark in colour, and the one +candle was almost lost in it, and revealed little or nothing. + +Holding the light above his head Grey peered around. + +He approached a couch, on which could be dimly seen the prostrate figure +of a woman. The figure did not move as he drew near. + +He stood over the couch and looked down upon his wife. She was lying on +her back. Her mouth was slightly open, and her face very pale. Her eyes, +too, were partly open. + +He waved the candle across the eyes. No sign of consciousness. He called +"Bee" softly two or three times. No answer. + +Could it be she was really dead? Really dead after all? + +He stooped down and put his ear over her mouth. + +No, this was not death. This was--brandy. + +He shook her slightly. He caught her by the shoulder and shook her more +strongly, calling her name into her ear. + +She responded by neither sound nor motion. + +Then putting the candle down on the floor he stood up, folded his arms, +and reflected intently with his eyes fixed on her. + +Not death but brandy, and yet how like death, and how near death! How +near death! And still in the interval between this and death lay his +ruin, his destruction. A blanket thrown on that face would bridge over +the interval between this state and death, and give him a golden road to +happiness and glorious prosperity. + +His wife! This his wife here, degraded thus! This woman whom he had +loved with all the love he had ever given woman! This woman, whom he had +married in defiance of his father's wish and all worldly wisdom! Great +God, was this to be borne? + +She had brought herself nigh death. She was nigh death now. It might be +she would never awake. It was quite possible she might never awake. But +then the hideous scandal! The coroner's jury found that Mrs. Grey, wife +of Henry Walter Grey, Esq., died of excessive drink! Intolerable! + +And yet this wretched woman lying here had made such a thing not only +possible but probable. Suppose she should never wake, what an +unendurable position for him! He could not live through that odious +inquest, never survive that degrading verdict. He should throw himself +into the Weeslade, or blow out his brains first. + +Any time she might get into such a condition and never awake! Great God! +this was a view of the case he had never taken until now. He had always +had the dread of disclosure before his mind, but now he should have the +infinitely more appalling horrors of a coroner's jury and a coroner's +verdict. This was insupportable. Abominable! + +Any time in the future she might die as she was now. Then no doubt he +should be a widower, but a widower under what a terrible shadow! Suppose +she should die now, and by any means it should come out that he had +deliberately placed the brandy in her way, he had better leave Daneford +at once. They would look on him as a murderer. + +As a murderer! + +They would _know_ he had put a fatal temptation in his wife's path. The +discovery was what he dreaded. + +Suppose she never woke again--ah! + +Suppose she never got up alive off that couch! + +Never got up from where she lay! + +That was a royal thought? Now to make all right, all secure. Now! What a +royal thought! A thought worthy of the prince regnant of the Nether +Depths. + +He stooped, took up his candle, and crossed the room with rapid steps. +He locked the door of the tower-room, and, having reached his own room, +rang the bell. + +James answered the bell. + +"James," he said, "I cannot rest. I cannot believe this dreadful thing. +I wish you and the other servants to search the house thoroughly from +garret to cellars. Mind, a room is not to be omitted. When every room +has been examined let me know. I have been in the tower." + +James left, and for an hour the banker sat alone in his bedroom. At the +end of the hour James came back with the report that every room had +been examined and no trace found. + +"We can do no more, James. I shall want no one to-night. You may all go +to bed as soon as you like. Good-night." + +Again he was alone. Alone for the night. Alone save for the proximity of +his wife in the next room. Alone with his royal idea and the easy means +of carrying it out. + +He braced himself, and began walking up and down the room firmly. + +Yes, this was a golden opportunity, which would have been utterly +worthless but that in the mid-centre and at the right moment his great +thought had burst in upon him. + +It was most likely his wife would never wake. In fact, the chances were +in favour of her not waking. It would be almost a miracle if ever she +returned to consciousness. + +Why should there ever be an inquest? + +Supposing she had died in her sleep, it would have done no one any good +to hold an inquest. + +Then, if she did die in this sleep, what would Maud Midharst regard him +as to-morrow night? + +As a widower, of course. + +And what should he regard himself as? + +As a man doubly delivered from a wife who was the slave of an odious +vice, and from ruin, disgrace, and suicide. + +She was sleeping still, he supposed. He would go and try. + +He stole cautiously out into the passage, and, opening the door into the +tower-room, crept towards the couch. He did not carry a candle this +time. He stumbled over something hard and metallic which he had seen +when last in the room. He recovered himself rapidly. He paused, +balanced himself on the balls of his feet, leaned forward, and listened +intently. + +The sound had not roused her. + +It was as dark as a vault. A faint blue square, like the bloom under +trees in summer, showed the situation of the one window. All the rest +was as much out of view as if the solid earth intervened. + +He crossed the room and approached the couch, with his head thrust +forward, and all the faculties of his mind bent on his hearing; he +stooped over the couch and listened, as though he would pierce remotest +silence to reach what he sought. + +Yes, there was a low, faint sound of breathing, but so low it seemed to +come from a long distance. + +He knelt down beside the couch, and called softly in her ear, "Bee." + +No answer. + +"Bee." + +No answer. + +"Bee." + +No answer. + +A long pause followed, during which no sound stirred in the intense +darkness. The husband still leant over the wife, the wife still breathed +faintly. + +Then---- + +In ten minutes from that strange sound Grey was back in his bedroom, +standing before the glass with set resolute lips and a rigid white +face. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE ASCENT OF THE TOWER OF SILENCE. + + +"There need be no inquest," he thought. "There need be no inquest _now_. +To-morrow morning every one in Daneford will believe that she is dead, +and every one will be--right. Her name will be included in the list of +the dead, there will be a reference to my broken-hearted behaviour at +Asherton's Quay, and there will be expressions of sympathy with me. + +"I shall wear mourning. + +"What o'clock is it?" He looked at his watch. "Too soon yet. I must wait +until all are asleep. + +"I shall wear mourning and receive the condolences of my friends. I +shall pass through avenues of faces cast in sorrow for my grief. They +will hush their voice when I enter the Daneford Bank. They will +unanimously vote resolutions of sympathy at most of the public bodies to +which I belong. And I--I--how shall I receive their greetings? + +"How shall I receive them? Shall I quail and tremble and jabber of +to-night's work? Shall I become hysterical or gloomy? No, no, no. I +shall be as bold at least as the thief whom they crucified on the Left +Hand. + +"The oath I took by that bedside this evening was my swearing into the +army of the everlasting damned, and no one shall ever say I quailed or I +faltered. + +"What o'clock is it? Yet too soon. This is all I need be careful about. +Once it is there, I shall be free and blithe--free and blithe! + +"I shall meet them all and never show a sign. It is a pity I did not go +on the stage. I feel quite confident I can play out this part to the +end, and carry my audience with me so thoroughly that not one of them +will know I am playing a part. No living man shall find out I do not +speak my own words. It is only comrade Judas and his friends know who +the real author of the play is." + +He turned away from the glass and began pacing the room quickly. He was +thinking with fierce pride of the brave front he should show to the +world, and motion stimulated his mind and gave reality to his mental +action. + +Yes, he should never waver. In fact he felt stronger now than before. He +had lived under the shadow of her fault; now he faced his own crime. All +depended on himself, and he knew he was equal to the situation and its +contingencies. + +He could face them all. All the people of Daneford and Seacliff. Every +one of---- + +He shivered, drew his body together, and leaned for a moment against the +wall. The cold sweat oozed from his white forehead, and he gasped for +breath. In a while he shook himself, threw up his arms, and wound them +round his head, as if to protect himself against the blows of a +merciless enemy, and moaned out, in a tone of craven misery: + +"No, no! Not you? Go away! I cannot look at you; you must not come near +me. I have ceased to be your son. I am not the child you suckled. I am +not the son you taught to pray. I am not the man you inspired with +respect and love. I am not the son you always tried to make do his duty. +Mother, let me call you mother darling once again; to call you my angel, +mother, seems to purge me of my crime. I am a strong man, mother, but I +cannot look at you. Bee is dead, and I have killed her. Now, will you +not fly from me? Think of your son as dead, and fly this murderer. What! +you will not! You see the brand of Cain, and you will not go! Oh, +invincible love! Intolerable devotion! Supreme disciple of Christ, you +drive me mad. I am mad already. Go, woman; go, woman, or I may kill you +too." + +He dropped his arms from his head, and glared round the room with the +fire of madness in his eyes. The neck-ribbon his wife had worn last +night at dinner hung on the glass; a pair of her slippers, soft slippers +for comfort, were under the dressing-table. His eyes lighted on the +ribbon, then on the slippers. + +With an idiotic laugh he staggered across the room, and, sitting down on +the side of the bed, remained in a torpor for a long time. The last +vision conjured up by him had stunned his imagination and baffled his +intellect, and his mind, while he sat thus, was blank as the viewless +wind. + +It was a long time before he roused himself, and even then he had to +employ considerable effort to bring himself up to the point of action. +He knew he had yet something of the last importance to do. He looked at +his watch. + +"Eleven. All is quiet. I may safely go now." + +He arose, and, taking the candle with him, walked heavily into the +passage, and having opened the other door passed into the tower-room, +and locked the door of that room, leaving his own key in the lock. + +Remembering the second key, he lowered the candle and looked for it on +the dark oak floor. He saw it and picked it up. As he did so his eyes +caught another metallic glitter on the floor, and stepping towards it he +took up something. + +Holding the metallic object next the light, he seemed for a moment +perplexed. + +"What brings a burglar's jemmy here? How can it have come here?" + +He looked very cautiously and slowly round the room. + +"I did not notice until now," he thought, "those open drawers. Why, the +place has been broken into." + +His first impulse was to rush to the window. But he curbed that. It +would be just as well not to be seen at that window now. Suppose by any +chance the burglar happened to be lurking in the neighbourhood, in the +Park. No part of the house or grounds commanded this room, and so long +as he did not go near the window all would be well. + +He had stumbled over that jemmy before--before he had added to the +perfidy of Judas the sin of Cain. + +He approached the couch. All was quiet there. Not a sound, not a breath. + +He went still nearer. Now for the first time he noticed close by the +couch an empty decanter, the one into which James had poured brandy, and +by it a glass. + +He noticed something else too; the left hand of the figure on the couch +lay on the breast, and from the third finger all the rings were gone. + +"All the rings gone!" he thought, in dismay. "The place broken into and +all the rings gone! This room broken into and the rings taken off the +finger! She never removed the wedding-ring, and scarcely ever the guard. +She must have been asleep when he came in; and he, no doubt, seeing the +decanter and the glass, and observing she took no notice of sounds, +went about his work. A bold man, a very bold man." + +When had that man been there? He had no means of determining the time at +which the burglar had been in the room. It was clear, however, he had +been there while she was alive. + +Had he been there after the sailing of the steamboat _Rodwell_ from +Daneford that evening? If so, that burglar could hang him, Grey. + +Out with the candle. + +He extinguished it. + +A profound quiet brooded abroad. Not a leaf stirred. The trees were as +motionless and the air as mute as if the air was solid crystal. No sound +from the city or the road intruded upon the voiceless darkness of that +tower-room. + +Grey stood a while looking at the square of dim blue bloom indicating +where the window was. Then he stooped and touched what lay on the +couch, and pulled himself upright with a jerk. + +He stooped down his head once more, and listened intently. Last time he +had so stooped he had heard a low faint breathing. Now nothing reached +his ears, but beyond the reach of human ears he heard the deep roll of +the Eternal Ocean on the shores of Everlasting Night. + +The ocean of everlasting silence, where her voice had been, was more +awful than the clangour of war, or the shouts of a burning town. + +"It will not do to think now. I must make thought drunk with action. She +is not heavy. I have often carri----No, no; that sort of thing would be +the worst of all. Now for it!" + +He stooped once again, rose more slowly than at any former time, and +walked down the room with heavy footfall, carrying a burden. + +The room had two doors--one between it and the passage leading to the +bedroom; the other between it and the landing of the tower-stairs. + +The staircase down from the landing was boarded off, so that egress from +the tower-room by that staircase was impossible. + +The upward way was unimpeded. The staircase had not been used once for +years. There was nothing in either of the upper rooms, and no one had +ever been in either of them since Grey himself, when he had gone over +the house before buying it. + +The staircase was as dark and silent as a grave. A thin carpet of dust +deadened the footfalls, and, clinging to the boot-leather, muffled the +feet. Now and then his foot crushed a small piece of plaster which had +fallen from the ceiling. This made a sound like a wild beast crunching +bones. + +The paper had parted from the walls in many places, and hung in damp +festoons from the ceiling here and there. + +Now and then long slimy arms of paper stretched out to him from the +walls and held him back. This made him stagger against the balustrade to +steady himself. The balustrade upon which he laid his hand was rickety, +and covered with a damp spongy dust, that clung to his hand and worked +up between his moist fingers, and stuck his fingers together as with +blood. When he had got clear of the paper that, hanging from the walls, +had seized him, and had pushed himself away from the slimy balustrade, +he toiled upward. + +But the day had been a terribly exhausting one, and his progress was +very slow. + +He held his burden with his right arm on his right shoulder, and +steadied himself against the wall with his right elbow, against the +balustrade with his left hand. + +Owing to the inviolate darkness and his small acquaintance with the way, +he was obliged to feel carefully with his foot each step before +advancing. + +He gained the first landing. The darkness was so complete, it pressed +with weight upon his eyeballs, and thickened the air in his lungs. He +had already begun to breathe heavily, and he paused for breath. Only +about a sixth of his upward way had been accomplished, and yet he felt +fatigued. The stifling sultry air of the tower made him languid and +drowsy. + +The sooner this was done, the better. + +He recommenced the ascent. + +On reaching the next landing, that of the second-floor room, he paused +again. + +His breathing had by this time become more laboured, and he felt as if +his chest would burst. No fresh air had entered that loathsome place for +years. In winter the walls wept, the paper hung off, and fungus covered +the walls and the woodwork. + +In summer the walls dried up, and from the dead fungi rose the stifling +vapours exhaled when decay feeds on decay. These odious vapours enriched +the walls with new growing powers, and so the process went on. The tower +rotted inwardly. Damp came first, and later mildew, and then fungus. The +fungus lived its life and finally fell to pieces, yielding inodorous +fibre and mephitic spirit. The spirit fed the later growth of fungus. + +Here nitre clung in crystals to the walls, and there were incomplete +stalagmites under the stone window-sills. + +Huge spiders wove gigantic nets from balustrade to wall, from roof to +wall, from window-sash to floor. But no flies ever came to these webs, +and the spiders spread needless snares, and lived at ease on lesser +game. + +In summer all the dust upon the floor moved continually with worm and +maggot of extraordinary size, and obscene ugliness of form and colour. +Neither beetle nor cockroach, earwig nor cricket, found a home here. +Nothing moved swiftly, not even the spider, for he found food without +pursuit or strife. Here was no contention among individuals. As in all +earliest forms of life, nearly everything was done for the individual by +heat and moisture. The unseemly inside of that tower was fretting and +rotting slowly away, being slowly devoured by the worm and the maggot +and the fungus. + +Through the warm vapours of that polluted tower the man staggered +upward. His breathing had now become stertorous, and beat in the hollow +staircase and against the sounding boards furnished by the empty rooms +like the snorting of a hunted monster. + +The air grew thicker in his lungs, and his heart tingled and throbbed as +though it would burst. The arteries in his neck appeared at each beat of +his pulse about to jump from their places. His gullet was dry, and the +air rushing through his windpipe seemed burdened with sand that tore the +skin of his parched throat. The arteries in his temple twanged against +the bone with noises that made him giddy. The uproar of strangulation +was in his head. His knees were sinking under him, and he felt he should +faint or fall down in a fit if he did not do something. + +He resolved to shift his burden from the right shoulder to the left. + +How heavy! Ugh! + +Cold already! + +Oh, great God! the lips had touched his forehead, and they were cold! +The lips he had a thousand times---- + +With a howl that made the hollow chambers and the invisible staircase +shake, he clasped his burden to his left shoulder and dashed wildly up +the stairs. + +Now he ran against the wall in front, now against the balustrade. He +took a step too many, and plunged headforemost against the wall. He took +a step too few, and fell headlong upon a landing. + +What was all that to him now? What was all that to him, who had loved +her once, her whose cold lips--cold of his own chilling--had touched his +forehead as he shifted his murdered darling from one shoulder to +another? + +Oh, God! the lips he had lingered on lovingly long ago! The lips he had +sought with all his soul and won to his own exclusive use! How often had +they told his name! How often had they told her love to him, when all +else in the world sank into nothingness compared with the august +privilege of knowing she loved him! How often when she slept had he +heard those lips breathe his name with terms of endearment! And now, oh +God! + +On! On! There is a clamour of memories worse than demons at his back. + +On! Out of this place! Away from these memories! + +The roof at last! + +The roof, with cool air and a wide view, and--This! + +He placed his burden softly on the roof of the tower; then throwing +himself down at full length, rolled over on his face, and, putting one +forearm under the other, rested his forehead on the upper arm, and, +excepting the heavy heaving of his chest, lay still. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +ON THE TOP. + + +The top of the tower was flat. It was reached through a hooded doorway +resembling a ship's companion. A parapet about two and a half feet high +ran round the tower on all sides, and in the left-hand angle of the +parapet, looking towards the grounds in front of the house, stood the +tall, battered, dilapidated, rusted tank. + +This tank had been of substantial make. Four upright bars of iron still +stood showing where the four angles of the elevation of the tank had +been. Binding the top of these four uprights together had been a +substantial rail. The inner side of that rail had disappeared; the three +other sides remained. Half-way down the uprights had been four girders +binding the uprights together. Of these girders three were entire, the +one on the outside having succumbed to violence of time. A few of the +plates clung to the uprights in the upper section of the tank. In the +lower section only one plate was missing, and that on the back of the +tank. The base of the tank was eight feet square, the height of the +uprights ten feet. Once in it had been stored the water-supply. More +than fifty years ago it had been superseded by a tank put up in the main +building. Since then not a dozen times had any one visited the top of +the tower. + +That night of the 17th of August was dark; there were neither stars nor +moon. No wind had arisen to disturb the intense calm. + +At length Grey rose from the ground somewhat refreshed and quieted. +There was no use in being foolhardy, and although a person standing on +the avenue below could not possibly see a human figure on the top of the +tower, still all means caution could suggest ought to be employed. So he +stepped into the dilapidated tank through the opening, and having, +except on the inner side, a complete bulwark around him five feet high, +there was no chance of any one seeing him. He did not care to face yet +the descent through that stifling tower. + +He would wait a while until he should be fully restored. + +He had eaten nothing since luncheon, and the physical and mental ordeals +through which he had since passed reduced the activity of his mind, and +made his thoughts move slowly, and dimmed the ideas in his imagination. +Still in a dull way he sought to review his position. + +There to the right lay Daneford, his town, the city of which he was +dictator, which would do anything, everything he asked. You could not +see the city from this, but there it reposed under that red-yellow stain +upon the sky. + +The people of that town, if they had seen him take that old man's gold, +would not have believed the evidence of their senses. They would have +placed their opinion of him against the evidence of their eyes, and his +reputation would turn the balance as though nothing was in the other +scale. He was sure of that. + +To the left was the Island. The old man probably still lived and would +live for some time, but the will was now safe. Maud was still unmarried, +and he--was free! Free in a double sense: free to marry again, and free +from the clutches of the law--so far. + +In front of him lay the Manor Park with its stifling groves and alleys, +whose lush, rank vegetation and loathsome reptiles and insects kept +curious boy and prying man at bay. + +By his side stood the Manor House, upon which no green thing would grow, +and which had an evil name. + +Beneath him was that repulsive tower, up which no one would care to go +except upon dire compulsion. + +Behind him---- + +Yes, behind him lay--It. + +The question was, Would his reputation in the town, the fact that by +noon to-morrow everyone in Daneford would believe he had lost his wife +in the _Rodwell_, the unpopular Park, the uncanny house, the foul tower, +the parapet, the remains of this tank (perfect five feet from the roof, +except for one eighteen-inch plate, which, owing to its position at the +back, could not be even missed from any standpoint but the top of the +tower itself), keep It from discovery? be an effectual and life-long +barrier between detection and crime, so that he might marry and live +once more in----? Well, never mind in what. Anyway, might live? + +It was a long question. He put it to himself many times, and could +arrive at no answer. His reason answered Yes. His imagination answered +No; and according as his reason or his imagination dominated he hoped or +he despaired. + +The hours advanced. It would be well to get this all over and go down. +He had locked the door on the passage, and there was no need for fear or +hurry. But staying here did no good, and he had now sufficiently +recovered to go down. + +He stepped out of the tank and approached the burden. + +He raised it, and bending low carried it to the tank. There was +difficulty in getting it through the narrow opening, but at last all was +accomplished. + +He stepped out of the tank, and stood on the open part of the top of the +tower for a few moments to recover his breath. + +"Hah! I am all right now. I shall grope my way down very well; it will +not take half so long to go down as it did to come up." + +He placed his hand on the hood of the doorway and stooped to descend; he +paused and drew back, thinking: + +"If I have killed her, that is no reason why I should add brutality to +crime. I did not cover her face, and the birds might----" + +He crept back to the tank, leaving the thought unfinished. + +He entered it and stooped. + +All at once something happened in his mind. Just as he stooped to cover +the face of his dead wife, he fell upon his knees beside her, and cried +out: + +"Almighty God, I have killed her. Almighty God, be merciful if Thou +wilt, and let me die." + +Burying his face in his hands he burst into hysterical sobs that shook +him and would not be uttered without racking pains. They were too big +for his chest, too big for his throat, too big for his mouth. While a +sob was bursting from his labouring chest he felt the weight of ten +thousand atmospheres pressing down his throat. When the sob burst forth, +he shuddered and shivered and winced as if a scourge wielded by a +powerful arm had fallen on his naked shoulders. + +The violence of this outburst had one alleviating effect: while it +racked the physical it annihilated the mental man. He was sobbing +because he knew he had most excellent cause for inarticulable sorrow. +But the sorrow itself made no image in his mind. It was with him as with +the player of an instrument, who, coming upon a well-known passage of +great mechanical difficulty, finds when the passage is passed small +memory of the music and strong memory of each flexion of the fingers, +but can, when he needs it, hear all the passage again note for note as +it had flown from beneath his fingers. + +The wife of his middle life had been murdered by some one long ago. He +thought nothing of that. But now he was kneeling by the corpse of the +wife of his youth, the bride-sweetheart of his stronger years. + +All the trouble, all the cark, all the memory of her faults, of her odd +ways, were gone. He was not the middle-aged husband penitent by the +body of the middle-aged wife he had murdered. He was the young +enthusiastic husband-lover by the side of his dead young wife. + +He had not killed the Beatrice he had married long ago. But, O woe, woe, +incommunicable agony, he had slain all the faults of his middle-aged +wife, he had slain all the years of his life during which his +indifference had sprouted and blossomed, and was now by the side of the +woman dead whose existence had been to him the sunshine and the rapture +of his life. + +In a moment of madness he had sought to kill a faulty wife, but by +terrible decrees of Heaven he had killed, instead, all the faults of his +faulty wife and the sweetheart of his youth. Almighty Maker, did his +crime deserve this! + +Gradually the physical agony left him, only to be followed by the mental +anguish. + +"Bee," he moaned, "Bee, won't you get up and walk with me? We shall not +go far, for it is late. I want to tell you what we shall do with the +back drawing-room in the summer. Don't you remember how I told you once, +love, and you were pleased and kissed me, Bee? It is about building the +little conservatory for you. You will get up and walk with me a little +way. Do, Bee. Let me lift you up." + +He stretched out his hand and caught something. + +"Cold! + +"Cold!" + +Then he shuddered and drew back. A third and final change came with the +touch of that dead woman's hand. All illusion left him, and, covering +the face of the dead, he crawled out of the tank--the murderer of his +wife. + +Still overhead hung the black sky, still abroad brooded the unbroken +stillness. + +He looked deliberately around him. What had been done could not be +undone, and he had now only to make the best of the situation. Already +he felt one good result from his greater crime; it had dwarfed the other +to insignificant proportions. The theft now seemed a trifle. + +But what had happened to Daneford and the country round, and the grounds +about his house, and the tower upon which he stood? Some strange change +had come over the relations between him and them. What was it? Daneford, +and the country round, and the ground at his feet had receded, gone back +from him. He was farther from them than he had been that day. What a +strange sensation! + +The sensation was very peculiar. He had never felt anything like it +before. What had that morning seemed most important to him had now sunk +into insignificance. Nothing was of consequence--save One; namely, the +chance of a stranger coming to the top of that tower while It remained +there. + +The feeling was new to Grey, for he was new to the situation he had that +night created. The solitude of a vast desert of sand under the pale +stars, the solitude of the topmost frozen peaks of the Himalaya, the +solitude of an ice-locked Arctic sea, the solitude for a hunted man of +an unknown city, is profound and awful; but all combined and intensified +a hundred-fold are nothing compared with the appalling solitude upon +which man enters when over one shoulder, he knows not which, peers for +ever the face of a murdered victim. + +That face had not yet come to Grey, but as he descended the muffled +stairs of the Tower of Silence he felt her cold lips touch his forehead +once again; and once again he plunged forward on his way, caring little +for life. + + + + +PART II. THE TOWERS OF SILENCE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A STRANGER AT THE CASTLE. + + +"Maud, darling," said Mrs. Grant, "a gentleman dressed in black, who +will not give his name, and says he wants to see you most particularly, +has arrived. What message do you wish to send him? Will you see him?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Grant, I can't see any one. How can any one be so unreasonable +as to think I can see him to-day! Such a day for a stranger to call!" + +Both ladies were in the deepest new mourning. + +"Mr. Grey has also come. He sends word that he could not think of +intruding upon you, but that if you wish to see him he is at your +service." + +"Oh, no, Mrs. Grant! Dear Mrs. Grant, do save me! Tell them all that I +am too wretched to see any one. Thank them all for me, dear Mrs. Grant, +and save me from them. Pray, save me from them!" The girl threw her arm +round the widow and sobbed helplessly. + +"No, no, my child, they shall not come near you. I only brought you the +messages. I do not ask you to see any one. You shall, my darling Maud, +do just as you please. A number of other people have come too. Many of +Sir Alexander's old friends. But you hardly know these. My only thought +was, might you wish to see Mr. Grey, who is doing everything; and I +wondered if you might not wish to say something to him. I wondered if +you might not like to tell him some last wish, for they will start +presently--in less than an hour." + +The girl made a strong effort, and succeeded in calming herself. + +"Dear Mrs. Grant, try to forgive me. I am too selfish. But I am +distracted. I never knew till now how fond I was of--of my father, and +it would be rude and ungrateful in me not to see Mr. Grey after all his +care and trouble. What should we have done without him? Not a soul +belonging to us near us. Dear Mrs. Grant, will you go to him and +say--don't send a servant, he deserves all the courtesy we can show +him--say to him I would go to him myself, but the house and place is +so--so crowded, and I am not very--strong. Say I should like to see him, +if only for a moment, to thank him. Go, please go. I would not for the +world have him think that I did not feel gratitude for all his +kindness." + +This was on Wednesday, 31st of October, 1866, ten weeks after the +blowing up of the steamship _Rodwell_, on her way from Daneford to +Seacliff, and a few days more than eight weeks after the visit of Joe +Farleg to the banker Grey at the banker's residence, the Manor, +Daneford. + +On the preceding Saturday--that is to say, October the 27th--Sir +Alexander Midharst had passed quietly away. The doctors had foretold +correctly; and from the 17th of August to the 27th of October Sir +Alexander Midharst had never had a lucid moment. + +While the baronet lay insensible Grey was, as he had foretold, much at +the Castle, but in that time nothing of importance arose. Grey had +gradually fallen into the position to be occupied by him of right when +the old man died, and was consulted on all matters of moment connected +with the estate and the Island. In fact, after the first few weeks of +Sir Midharst's complete unconsciousness, the direction of affairs fell +almost wholly into his hands. He originated all matters of consequence, +and, having asked and obtained Miss Midharst's approval, saw them +carried out. + +This bright, crisp, last day of October was the day of the funeral. For +this ceremony Grey had made the arrangements. Only personal friends of +the late baronet and twenty of the principal tenants were to go to the +Island for the purpose of carrying the body from the Castle to the slip, +and accompanying it across the water. The remainder of the tenants, and +all others desirous of attending the funeral, were to assemble on the +mainland and await the body. When the coffin had been landed, the +procession would proceed in a certain determined order; and as the +deceased had no near relative, and no relative near or distant was to be +present, Mr. Grey, in virtue of his long connection with Sir Alexander, +and of the relations in which the will would place him to Sir +Alexander's child, was to occupy the place of chief mourner. + +Mrs. Grant found the banker in the library, and gave him, in a somewhat +modified form, the message Miss Midharst had sent to him. Without saying +a word he left the room, following the lady. + +"Where is the strange gentleman who wanted to see Miss Midharst, and +would not give his name?" asked the lady, as they passed down the +corridor leading to the staircase. "I did not see him in the library. +Oh, here he is." + +They encountered a tall, slight, sad-faced man clad in black. + +Mrs. Grant stopped, Mr. Grey fell back a few paces, and the widow said: + +"I am sorry Miss Midharst is so much distressed just now that she does +not feel equal to seeing you. You will of course understand that the +circumstances are very trying upon her." + +The stranger bowed, and answered in a low, quiet, full voice: + +"I am deeply grieved by Miss Midharst's trouble. I would not think of +seeking to intrude upon her but for good reasons. There is no absolute +necessity for my seeing her at this moment. Later I hope to have an +opportunity of expressing personally to her my sympathy, and of saying +what further I wish to say. I am much indebted to you for the effort you +have made in my behalf." + +He indicated that he had nothing to add, and by keeping bowed showed +that he did not desire to detain Mrs. Grant longer. + +When she and the banker were out of the stranger's hearing, she said to +Grey: + +"Do you know who that gentleman is? I have never seen his face before." + +"I do not know who he is. Nor have I seen his face before." + +It was well for Grey they were in the dimly-lighted corridor, because he +blenched and staggered for a moment. + +"Who can this man be?" he thought, "who has such urgent business with +Miss Midharst? Can this swarthy solemn man be here on _official_ +business connected with--with Miss Midharst's money? He looks a +gentleman, but talks too like a book for one. A detective? That would be +a nice finale to this ceremony. + +"Dear Miss Midharst, here is Mr. Grey come to see you," said Mrs. Grant, +opening the door of the little drawing-room and ushering in the banker. + +Grey entered with a calm, sympathetic face. + +Maud had collected herself, and was now much less distressed than when +Mrs. Grant left her a little while before. She held out her hand, and +said, in a tone, under the transient sadness of which could be felt the +steady current of grave gratitude, + +"Mr. Grey, you will add to all your great kindness if you consider my +inexperience and how little I know the way to tell you my thanks. I feel +ashamed I am not able to express them; but I know you will understand my +gratitude even though I cannot put it in words. Mrs. Grant and you are +the only friends I have in the world; and if it were not for you two, I +think I should die." + +He took her hand respectfully, and retained it a moment. + +"Mrs. Midharst, I beg of you not to trouble yourself about such matters. +I know Mrs. Grant is invaluable; but as to me--you are aware what I +promised Sir Alexander about you, and if you trouble yourself to thank +me I shall begin to suspect you imagine I find it irksome to do towards +the living what I have sworn to the dead." + +"Oh, no, no, no! Forgive me! I only meant to tell you I am very +grateful, and don't know how to say it. Indeed, you must think nothing +of the kind, Mr. Grey. Tell me you forgive me!" She stretched impetuous +appealing hands to him, and looked out of soft tear-dimmed eyes into +his. + +For a moment his admiration of her delicate beauty overcame everything +else, and he remained gazing silently into that sweet young pleading +face--that face pleading to him to believe she felt grateful to him. +Then he came back to the circumstances and the time, and said, + +"There is only one thing I shall never forgive you." + +"And what is that?" + +"If you discover any way in which I can be of use to you and fail to let +me know." + +"You are too good, Mr. Grey. How shall I ever thank you?" + +He waved her speech aside with a deprecating gesture and a faint smile. +"I have come merely to know if I can be of use to you? Is there anything +you wish done you did not mention to me yesterday?" + +"No, nothing. Only I cannot meet any one. If I must go to the library by +and by, that will be more than I should like to see of people. Some +gentleman, who did not give his name, and whom I do not know and can't +see, has asked me to meet him. If you speak to him you will explain and +apologize for me." + +"I will, most assuredly," and, bowing once more, the banker retired. + +"Who can this man be who has come to the Island uninvited, and seeks to +thrust himself upon Miss Midharst such a day as this? Can it be anything +has been discovered? I have no assurance but Farleg's word that he did +not tell some one besides his wife what he saw in the Tower-room that +evening after the blowing up of the _Rodwell_. But then, if he did tell, +it is not to this place the owner of such news would come, but to me at +the Bank or at the Manor. If this man is here for any unpleasant +purpose, it must be in connection with the Consols. There is nothing +else to cause the dangerous presence of such a man. If he is here about +the Consols, what does he know?" + +By this time Grey had reached the library-door, and stood a moment with +his hand on the handle. Suddenly his face cleared, as, with a sigh of +relief, he thought, + +"What right have I to assume he is here for an unpleasant or disastrous +purpose? His gloomy face has put a gloomy notion into my head, that is +all." + +He entered the room, and found the tall, sad-faced stranger alone; the +others, those who had been invited, were now assembling in the great +hall, where the body of the baronet lay beneath a black velvet pall, +under the eyes of his painted ancestors, who stared at the crowd from +their gilded frames on the walls. + +Mr. Grey approached the stranger with a bland face and conciliatory +carriage, saying, "You find us, sir, in very great confusion to-day, and +I must apologize to you for any want of courtesy you may have felt. I am +sure, however, you will make allowances for us under the melancholy +circumstances." + +The stranger bowed gravely, and said, in a deep, full voice, "I have +experienced no want of courtesy; on the contrary, every one I met has +been most polite." + +"I feel," Grey went on, with a graceful and urbane gesture of the +hand,--"I feel myself more or less responsible for the good treatment of +all guests here to-day. My name is Grey. I have just come from Miss +Midharst. I understand you wish to see her, and, I am sorry to say, she +does not feel herself equal to an interview; but if you will favour me +with any communication for her, or let me know the nature of your +business, I shall be happy to do anything I can for you." Grey spoke in +a kind and winning manner. "There is no knowing what facts he may be in +possession of, and nothing can be lost by politeness to him," was +Grey's reflection. + +"I am very much obliged to you," answered the stranger, with a slight +inclination of the head; "but I shall reserve what I have to say until +I have an opportunity of saying it later in the day to Miss Midharst +herself." + +There was in the manner of the speaker a profound and imperturbable +self-possession most disquieting to the banker. The latter rejoined, + +"But, indeed, I greatly fear she will not be able to see you any time +to-day." + +The stranger smiled faintly, waved the point aside with an air of +perfect assurance, and asked, "Will you be good enough to tell me when +and where the will is to be read? I am told it is to be read." + +"May I know why you ask?" + +"Because I intend to be present?" + +"In what capacity?" + +"I shall explain then." + +"The will is to be read in this room to-day, when we have returned from +the funeral. Such was Sir Alexander's wish." + +"Thank you. I shall be here. When does the funeral start?" + +Grey looked at his watch. "In quarter of an hour." + +"I will not detain you further, Mr. Grey. I know your time is fully +occupied to-day;" and with a bow which indicated the interview was over, +he withdrew towards the window. + +Grey was completely confounded between dread of the knowledge this man +might possess and the disagreeable sensation awakened by the sense, for +the first time experienced in his life, of having met a man, foot to +foot and eye to eye, who was a more able fencer than himself. + +As Grey took his way from the library to the hall, he felt far from +easy. He did not want men near him, and he did not want strange men; he +did not want strange men more than a match for him in fence; and, above +all, he did not want this man, who was not only a stranger and a better +master of the foils, but who, moreover, had matter of importance to +communicate to Miss Midharst, and displayed a plain conviction he should +that day have an opportunity of speaking to Miss Midharst, +notwithstanding her denials. + +And now he had declared his intention of being present at this +old-fashioned reading of the will. What could that mean? Who could he be +that thus insisted upon thrusting himself upon this house of mourning? + +Then a terrible fear rushed in upon Walter Grey's mind. Could it be +that at the last moment the old man had altered his will and appointed +a second trustee, one to act in conjunction with him, Grey, and that +this cool self-possessed man was that second trustee? If it were so, the +alteration in the will was Grey's death-warrant. + +But much remained to be done in little time; so Grey hastened to the +hall, and was soon lost in the business of getting the funeral under +way. + +As the funeral was about starting from the Castle to the Ferry, and just +as Mr. Grey had placed himself immediately behind the coffin, the +stranger stepped up to the banker's left side, and saying, "Pardon me," +slipped his right arm under the left arm of the other. + +Grey looked hastily over his shoulder. + +"You will let me walk with you. I assure you I have ample authority." + +Grey staggered, so that the other had to steady him. "Authority! ample +authority!" thought the banker in dismay. "What can the nature of that +authority be? Has he a warrant in his pocket to arrest me for the murder +of my wife? Does he defer putting it into execution just now, so as to +avoid making a scene; and has he thus taken my arm to prevent the chance +of my escape?" + +Or had he come down with a warrant in his pocket to arrest him the +moment the will had been read? It might be that someone at the Bank had +discovered the Midharst Consols had been sold; and the only evidence +wanting in the chain would be supplied by a reference in the will to the +stock, thereby showing that Sir Alexander, at the time of his death, was +under the impression the stock was still his, thus proving it had not +been disposed of with the baronet's knowledge. + +Grey felt himself powerless to resist. He thought it best to raise no +question, make no demur. The cold sweat broke out on his forehead; he +knew his voice would tremble if he essayed to speak. He bowed his head +in token of acquiescence, and the funeral proceeded to the Ferry. + +"Can it be," thought Grey in an agony of fear--"Can it be, while I am +walking after the body of him whom I have robbed, they are gazing on the +body of her I have murdered." + +They reached the boats, and were ferried across to the main land. + +They re-formed, and were joined by a vast gathering of tenants, +labourers, and others. The procession set off once more. + +During all this time the stranger remained silent. He did not address a +single word to Grey, nor Grey to him. + +During all this time Grey was suffering the agony of the rack. He felt +confident he was about to be attacked, but he did not know whence the +attack would come, or what the nature of it might be. A successful +attack of any kind upon him could have but one result--Destruction. + +On the way back to the Castle the stranger seemed plunged in still +deeper reverie; and beyond a few of the most ordinary common-places, not +a word passed between Grey and him. + +All throughout the stranger kept on the left-hand side of Grey. + +All throughout Grey saw at his left shoulder the Nemesis of his fate, +and over the right the pallid face of his murdered victim. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE READING OF THE WILL. + + +"Now, Maud darling, do try to bear up. Drink this wine to give you +strength. Come, they are all waiting for us in the library. Drink this +for my sake. Well, half; drink half of it for my sake, my dear, dear +child. It was your father's direct order the will should be read and you +should be present. Mr. Shaw tells me this is not usual, but must be +done." + +"I cannot drink the wine. It will not take long, I suppose?" + +"Mr. Grey says that it is not likely to take more than quarter of an +hour. The will is very short." + +"Is Mr. Grey in the library?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Please, put away that wine; I am ready to go now. You will come with +me?" + +"Of course, Maud. My place is at your side, poor darling." + +Mrs. Grant's words touched some chord in the girl's heart, and she burst +into tears, crying: + +"Oh, Mrs. Grant, I never felt lonely before. I don't know what I should +do, only for you and Mr. Grey." + +"Thank you, love. You know I'll stay with you all my life. I have no one +of my own to live for; they are all gone. I have no father or mother, or +brother or sister, or husband or child. I am as lonely as you, Maud; +only you have lost a father and this home, and by and by you will marry +and have a new home, a husband, and little ones at your knee; but for +me the world is over. Every day I live keeps me further off from my +husband; every day you live brings you nearer to yours. Ah, Maud, women +have but poor lives of it, and the poor childless widow is worse than +the dead." She burst into tears. + +"Mrs. Grant," cried the girl, throwing her arms round the woman, "pray, +pray forgive me! I have been cruelly selfish, thinking only of my own +sorrow and never of yours. Dear Mrs. Grant, do forgive my selfishness!" + +The widow wound her arms around the weeping girl, and crushing back her +own grief, said passionately: + +"Selfish, Maud! you selfish! Why, my darling never thinks there is such +a person as herself until she finds she can be of use to some one. No, +love, not selfish. There, love, love, don't cry; we shall be the best of +friends all our lives. We are both friendless and alone; that is all +the more reason why we should be good friends all our lives, Maud +darling. I'll never leave you if you will let me stay. There now, +there's a dear child; dry your eyes and drink the wine, and let us go +and get this matter over." + +"Put away the wine; I am ready. We shall never, never part, Mrs. Grant +dear." + +The two left the little drawing-room. Mrs. Grant put one arm +affectionately round the girl's waist; Maud held one of Mrs. Grant's +hands in hers. + +As they drew near the library-door they found Mr. Grey awaiting them in +the passage. Placing himself on her right side, he offered her his arm. +Mrs. Grant dropped to the rear, and, preserving this order, they reached +the library-door. + +Here Mr. Grey paused for a moment, and said to his partner in a low +voice: + +"The strange gentleman who would not give his name is within. He says he +has authority to be present. He may be a solicitor on behalf of some of +the smaller legatees. I do not wish to be rude to him or to say he must +give me his authority. He says he will speak to you some time to-day. Do +you wish me to tell him to go, or do you prefer that I should merely +request him to give up all hope of an interview to-day?" + +"I cannot, I cannot see him," cried the girl, clinging to his arm, and +looking up appealingly into his face. + +"Protect her," he thought, "against this unknown man, who seems to +threaten my safety and her peace, of course I shall. This is the first +time she has sought my protection, and by a fortunate chance it is +against one whom I have reason to dislike. How lucky! How lucky I have +been in everything connected with this Castle--about the will, about +the old man's illness, about the confidence! All has turned out exactly +as I wished. Her arm is now in mine. She is calling out to me for help. +I feel already as if I had won her; as if she leaned upon my arm as +my--wife." + +Then he whispered to her, + +"Rest assured this man shall not intrude upon you. If he keeps quiet he +may remain until the will has been read. Then I shall be officially +installed as your guardian, Miss Midharst, and I shall know how to act +towards him if he dares to interfere with you." + +Drawing himself up to his full height, he walked slowly into the library +with Miss Midharst on his arm, and Mrs. Grant following a few paces +behind. His face was calm and firm; in his tread and gait there was +conscious power. He felt he could have faced any danger then. She, upon +whose good regard towards him and final acceptance of him as a suitor +all depended, hung on his arm and clung to him for protection. The +chance that the Tower of Silence would in his lifetime give up its +secret was one to a million. He had a single reasonable cause of dread, +and that was lest she, Maud Midharst, might turn away from him--might +finally reject him. With her arm on his, and the memory of her confiding +glance, he felt like a great captain, who, having in secret prepared a +crushing attack, throws up his head and pants at hearing the great bay +of the signal-gun which is to shake out the standards and let loose the +thunders of prodigious war. + +No more than a dozen people were present. The servants stood at the end +of the room remotest from the one large window. + +With its back to the window, at the head of the table, was the baronet's +great straight-backed oak chair, empty. Mr. Grey led Miss Midharst to a +chair on the right of this. As she moved up through the room, half a +dozen gentlemen, seated round the room and at the table, rose and bowed. +The stranger, whose chair was at the foot of the table, rose with the +rest, and bowed more profoundly than any of the others. + +As soon as Miss Midharst was seated, Mr. Grey crossed at the back of the +vacant chair and sat down upon the left of it. Upon Grey's left sat Mr. +Shaw, the deceased baronet's lawyer. On Miss Midharst's right sat Mrs. +Grant. Dr. Hardy, who had attended the funeral, was present by +particular request. The old lawyer, whose hands were tremulous, closed +his eyes up firmly first, pulled his white whiskers, shook his white +hair, and, looking at Grey, demanded in a feeble shaky voice: + +"Is everything now ready for reading the last will and testament of Sir +Alexander Midharst, deceased, as by him desired?" + +For a moment there was no reply. Then Grey cleared his throat and said, +in soft gentle accents: + +"As the heir to the baronetcy and property did not reply to my +notification of the late Sir Alexander's death, and therefore was not to +be here at the reading of the will, or represented by a solicitor, he +being, I understand, in Egypt, I have taken it upon myself to nominate a +solicitor to be present on his part. I have therefore asked Mr. +Barrington to be good enough to favour us with his presence, and watch +the interests of the heir." + +An excessively fat and prosperous-looking young man stood up and bowed +deeply all round, saying, in a rich oily voice: + +"I am proud to represent the heir to this noble house, this lordly +property, and the glorious family of Midharst." + +Having bowed all round again, he sat down. + +Then Mr. Shaw opened the will, and began reading it in a weak and +quavering voice. + +The will was brief, and the language straightforward and plain. + +The baronet left small legacies to his servants, and expressed a desire +that Michael might remain in his daughter's service, until he chose to +retire, upon which he was to receive an annuity of forty pounds a year, +in addition to the five hundred pounds, payable within one year from the +opening of the will. + +The few other servants kept by the baronet were left legacies on this +scale in proportion to their positions. + +To Mrs. Grant he left a thousand pounds, coupled with a request that she +would continue to stay with Miss Midharst as her companion as long as +Miss Midharst might wish. + +Upon hearing this Mrs. Grant wept, and put her hand on the girl's hand +and caught the hand, and looked at the girl with eyes that swore, +"Never, never, will I leave you while I live." + +To Dr. Hardy he left two hundred and fifty, and to each of the other two +physicians who had attended, one hundred pounds over and above their +proper fees. + +To Mr. Shaw he bequeathed five hundred pounds, over and above his proper +fees, and expressed a hope that any legal business which had to be done +in connection with his will, his daughter, or the money, would be +intrusted to Mr. Shaw. + +To Henry Walter Grey he bequeathed the gross sum of five thousand +pounds, over and above all his just claims against the estate. Two +thousand five hundred of this was to be paid within twelve months of the +opening of the will, and the other two thousand five hundred upon the +expiration of Grey's guardianship. This was bequeathed in grateful +remembrance of many years of careful guardianship of the testator's +fortune in the past, and in consideration of the duties and obligations +imposed upon the legatee by the will. + +The next clause announced that he left and devised and bequeathed to his +daughter Maud, absolutely and for ever, the residue of his property of +all kinds, sorts, and descriptions whatever, subject to the bequests +above mentioned; and the payment of all just debts and demands for which +the testator was liable at the time of his death; and the cost of his +funeral, which latter he desired to be simple and unostentatious, and +yet not unbecoming the house of which he was head. The residue was not +to be paid over to the legatee, but held in trust for her until she had +attained the full age of twenty-two. It was the testator's wish that his +daughter should not marry until she had attained the full age of +twenty-two: but married or single, to her the residue was to go when she +attained her twenty-second year. With regard to her marriage, the +testator would make no restrictions. He felt sure his daughter would +make no unworthy selection, and she would remember that although the +title and estates were passing away to a younger branch of the family, +she was the only representative of the elder branch now surviving. The +testator desired that, should she not marry before her twenty-second +year, she should lean upon her guardian for advice at any time later +than her twenty-second year. The testator desired it to be clearly +understood that the guardian's power extended absolutely only to the +property of the residuary legatee; and that she, being at the time of +executing this will and testament, full twenty years of age, in all her +personal movements, and in the marrying or not marrying, or in the +choice of a husband, was free from the greetings of these presents. That +is to say, the guardianship of the residuary legatee, as constituted +herein, was that of administering her fortune, and of looking after her +welfare, without, except in the matter of the property, power of +constraint or interference in matters personal to the residuary legatee. +The testator, however, reposed the most unlimited confidence in the +guardian, and advised the residuary legatee to be largely guided in +matters personal by the advice of the aforesaid guardian. + +Following this paragraph came one reciting the property of the deceased +man, the most important passage of it being this: + +"And such Consols as may be found registered in my name in the books of +the Bank of England, an account of which, and the Consols themselves, +are in the custody of Henry Walter Grey aforenamed, to the value at this +date of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling." + +Then came the final paragraph: + +"And I hereby elect and appoint Henry Walter Grey, of the Manor House, +Daneford, banker (hereinbefore described as Henry Walter Grey), executor +and trustee to this my last will and testament, to hold authority, and +to act in all matters connected with my property at his own sufficient +discretion, with the limitations herein aforesaid. And I hereby elect +and appoint the same Henry Walter Grey, of the Manor House, Daneford, +banker, to be and to act as the sole guardian, with the limitations +hereinbefore set forth, of my only daughter Maud, hereinbefore described +as of the Castle of Warfinger, the residuary legatee in this my last +will and testament. And to the aforesaid Henry Walter Grey I leave the +burden of the safe guarding of my daughter's fortune, and the care of +her orphanhood. I leave to his charge the savings of half a lifetime, +and the last of a noble house. I pray that, as Henry Walter Grey may do +by them and me, the God Almighty may do by him. Amen." + +The old solicitor then read out the formal ending of the will, looked +up, shut his eyes, and said: + +"That is the only will which has been found of the late Sir Alexander +Midharst, Baronet, of Warfinger Castle." + +He opened his eyes for a moment, and then shut them again, adding while +they were closed: + +"The will is in my handwriting. I drew it at the late baronet's +dictation, using almost his identical words." + +He turned over the document, and scrutinised it closely. + +"There is no codicil or addition of any kind," bowing to Miss Midharst. + +There was a moment's silence, during which every one present looked +down. + +It was only by the most powerful effort Grey could prevent himself from +shouting aloud under the intolerable relief. Although he had expected +the will to be in some such terms, he could scarcely believe that, after +his days and nights of agonised dread, all had come right. He felt like +one who, after long durance in a dim and choking cave, is lifted into a +sunlit flowery valley, over which larks are singing, and through which +flows a bright silver stream, along which he may wander with +unquestioned feet. + +Now all was secure. This girl and her whole fortune had, within the past +half-hour, been signed and sealed into his possession. True, he had no +control over her personal actions. But he soon should have control, the +most potent of all--the control of husband over wife. According to the +will, she might marry as soon as she pleased. There was nothing now in +the world to prevent her being his wife in twelve months. + +Nothing to interfere with his marrying this girl and blotting out the +trace of his crime. Already she liked him. As they came into that room +to hear that will read, by which he became sole executor, trustee, and +guardian, did she not lean on him? Already she liked him. Soon she +should love him. Soon she should marry him. + +Considering her position, the world would approve of her marrying; for +she had no one to protect her but a guardian, no kin near enough to take +any interest in her. In her solitary situation, every one would approve +of her marrying soon. + +There was a rustle, and all the men rose to their feet upon perceiving +Miss Midharst in the act of rising. + +Grey looked across for a moment at her, as she stood upon the right hand +of the vacant chair. + +"She mine!" he thought. "She will be my salvation! There is nothing now +to keep her from me! Nothing between her and me!" + +"Miss Midharst," said a deep grave voice at the other side of the table, +"I fear there is no one here who can introduce me to you, so that I +shall be obliged to introduce myself." + +Grey started, and looking across the table, saw the stranger advancing +towards Miss Midharst. + +The banker threw one glance around, by which he plainly told the other +men that he intended resenting so unwarrantable an intrusion on the +grief and privacy of the occasion. All his fears had vanished into air. +The only feeling he now experienced was that a pushing stranger was +seeking to occupy the unwilling attention of his legally constituted +ward, and the woman who was to be his wife. + +Grey crossed the room rapidly at the back of the vacant chair, and +placing himself beside Miss Midharst, bowed and offered her his arm. + +She took it, and for a second no one moved. + +Maud looked up and saw in front of her a tall, broad, dark-visaged, +black-haired, sad-featured man, with dark and dreamy eyes. + +She shrank back slightly, and clung to the stalwart arm on which her +small white hand lay. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said the banker blandly, "I shall be happy to +place myself at your disposal when I have led Miss Midharst to her +private apartment. May I request you to take a seat until then?" + +"Thank you, sir. Your name is Grey." + +"It is. And as you have heard the will, you know I am in a position to +tell you that anything you have to say to Miss Midharst may, under +present circumstances, be more reasonably said to me." The banker +advanced his foot, and Maud, still clinging to him, moved to go. + +Again the stranger bowed low to Miss Midharst. It was impossible, +without downright rudeness, for Grey to move until the stranger should +have recovered an erect attitude, as evidently there was something else +he wished to say. + +"Miss Midharst," at last the stranger said, "I am William Midharst, your +cousin;" he held out his hand to her. + +"The new baronet!" murmured the servants, in whispers. All the men +looked keenly at the tall dark young man, who with a grave smile stood +holding out a brown right hand to the fair, shrinking, timid, pale, +beautiful girl. + +She took her white trembling hand off the banker's arm and held it out +to him. She was cold and trembling, and she felt as though she should +faint. + +He took the fingers of her white hand respectfully between the fingers +and thumb of his own brown hand, and bending low with the homage of a +chivalric age, and the simple sincerity of our own, kissed the white +hand he held. Then, inclining his head towards the banker, he said +gravely: + +"Will you, sir, upon this occasion of my first meeting my cousin, forego +your privilege, and allow me to take her to her apartment?" + +The mind of the banker was dazed and paralysed, and in silence he +signified his assent. + +Placing the hand on the black sleeve of his left arm, Sir William +Midharst, of Warfinger Castle, led his orphan cousin Maud down the room, +and through the doorway. + +As they disappeared Grey's face shrivelled up. Fortunately for him all +present were too much occupied with the new baronet's arrival to notice +him. + +The whole fabric of Grey's rearing seemed to topple over and tumble +into dust as these two figures went through the doorway. He was +guardian it was true, but his power did not extend to his forbidding her +to take that arm, to go through that doorway with that young man, to +walk up to the altar-rails with any man whatever. + +"Idiot that you have been, Alexander Midharst; you deserve nothing +better than that your daughter's fortune should be lost!" + +Then he stood a long time immovable. + +At last the thought of the stake he had put down in this game rushed in +upon his mind, and he was once more on the top of that Tower of Silence, +under the dull sky with the Dead. + +He now stood in the awful solitude of blood. He strode on through a +realm of endless silence and limitless sand. For him there could never +be any change here; always that maddening silence--always those +unconquerable leagues of sand. Never any variety except---- + +He suddenly started and shouted. There had been a change in the +monotony; for over his shoulder--not the one at which Maud had +stood--over the right shoulder suddenly peered the face of his murdered +victim. + +With a pang of apprehension he became alive to his situation, and looked +suddenly round. He was alone. All the others had left, and it was +growing dark. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +"COUSIN MAUD----" "NO; MAUD." + + +When the young baronet reached the corridor he said in a grave sedate +voice: + +"I knew your name was Maud; and I knew your poor father did not like me. +I am sure you will believe me when I tell you I never saw him in all my +life, never saw you until to-day, and never gave him any reason I know +of to dislike me. It so happened I was heir to the property; it so +happened I was poor. I could not help the former; I tried to do all I +could to help the latter, and took an appointment in Egypt. It was such +an appointment as a gentleman might take. You, Cousin Maud, had no +feeling against me because I happened to be next to the title and +estates?" + +"Oh, no," answered the girl quickly, in a tremulous half-frightened +voice, without looking up. + +"And now that I have come to see you, cousin, you have no feeling +against me?" + +"Not the least. Why should I?" + +"When you did not know who I was, you refused to see me to-day. Now that +you know I am your cousin, the nearest relative you have on earth, will +you do me a favour?" + +"If I can, I will." + +"Walk with me a while in the grounds; I have much to say to you. The air +will do you good, and what I have to say will keep your mind off the sad +business of to-day. Grant me this favour, if you do not feel too weak." + +"I do not feel weak; only--only confused and frightened. I will go with +you." + +They had both halted at the foot of the grand staircase. She looked up +into his face as she spoke. She had never seen one of her house but her +father before. It was strange to think this man should be so unlike her +father and yet related to her. He spoke as if he meant to be kind, and +in any case she ought not to refuse so slight a favour to the only +member of her father's family now living. As a child she had stood in +mortal terror of this cousin--this cousin whom her father never lost an +opportunity of abusing. But when she had grown older, she knew the young +man did not, because he happened to be heir-presumptive to the property +and title, deserve on that account solely to be vilified. Her father had +always led her to think that towards her this cousin William would +behave brutally, simply because her father had racked the property to +the very uttermost penny. It had seemed natural that the next tenant for +life would regard the acts of her father with strong resentment; and, +taking into account the object for which the property had been swept +clean, she felt William Midharst, when he came to be Sir William, could +not look on her in a friendly spirit. But now that the worst had +arrived, and he as a factor in the worst, it did not seem that he should +have received such elaborate consideration, or have been the cause of +any great dread. He was dark and gloomy-looking, but then he had been +very polite. + +While these thoughts were jostling one another in Maud Midharst's head, +she was in her own room, preparing for that stroll with her cousin. The +young baronet was walking softly up and down the great hall, and Wat +Grey was standing transfixed by a new terror in the library the two +young people had just left. + +Presently Maud came down the great staircase. The young baronet looked +up and saw a sweet, white, childish face, full of sadness in the midst +of crape, and beneath that face a lithe graceful figure, moving as +though the ground had nothing to do with her movements, her step was so +free and light. + +"My cousin Maud," thought the young man, "is too fair for health. Little +cousin Maud--lonely little orphan cousin Maud--looks as if she and her +father will not be long separated. I hope she is sufficiently clad. But +then I must not forget I am used to swarthy faces and warmer skies. My +little cousin Maud may live to wear a brighter look and gayer colours." + +She was at his side now. All the other women in the world were nothing +to him. She was his cousin. Back to the first litigious Sir John they +both traced their lines--the great family of Midharst, which had come +down through the noble house of Stancroft. His cousin Maud. They two +were the last of the great house, they two. She, the pale, fragile, +griefful lady, with the wonderful soft eyes, and shy half-frightened air +and the pure young beauty. Good Heavens, how she sanctified the place! +How she illumined the past! All the ladies of the Midharst house but her +were dead: their portraits hung here and there upon the walls of this +old historic castle. There was on the walls no lady of the Midharst line +as beautiful as Maud. They were all dead and passed away. Around the +walls hung the extinguished lamps of beauty in the Midharst house; here +by his side stood the lamp clear and burning bright, the most beautiful +and the only burning lamp in the house of Midharst--his beautiful +cousin Maud. + +"Cousin Maud," he said. + +She looked up into his swarthy face, into his deep dark eyes, to show +that she was attending, but did not speak. + +"When I touched your hand first in all my life, a little while ago, +there were many present, and you gave me your hand; it may have been +merely to show those around us that you recognised me as the head of the +family--the family of two. Will you now give me your hand as a private +sign that you know of no reason why we should not be friends?" + +She held out her hand to him. Not only was he not to be unfriendly, but +he was going to be very kind, she thought. + +He took her hand, and bending over it kissed the glove, and once more +placing that hand on his arm, led her into the open air of the +courtyard, under the great brown archway, and out into the shrubless +bare grounds. + +When they had got a little distance from the castle he broke silence: + +"That tall good-looking gentleman, your guardian, Mr. Grey, was very +nearly right in saying I was in Egypt; I have just returned. I have been +only a few days in England. Upon my arrival I heard what had taken +place, and came on as soon as possible. I got to Daneford last night, +and put up at the Warfinger Hotel. It was then too late to call upon +you, Cousin Maud. I did not send up my name to-day, because I feared, if +you knew my name, you might, out of respect to the old feeling, refuse +to see me." + +He paused a moment as if to arrange his thoughts. + +She, without raising her eyes from the ground, murmured, + +"You were very kind." + +She did not in saying this mean he had displayed kindness in his past +action, but that he was displaying kindness to her now. + +He understood her, and went on: + +"I shall have to go back to Egypt immediately, and I cannot possibly +return to England for some months. I shall be here again as soon as I +can. Before I go away I want to establish a great friendship with you. I +want you to make up your mind to disregard anything you have ever heard +to my disadvantage, and look upon me as the head of the family of two, +and your best and truest friend. I want you to promise me that at once, +to-day--before I leave you--now." + +His manner was very fervid and intense as he came towards the end. At +the word "now" he ceased to walk. + +She looked up. What a change had taken place in that placid, grave, sad +face of a few moments before! The dark eyes were full of fire, the +delicate nostrils moved, and the swarthy cheek was flushed. He rose up +over her, tall and broad and fierce and strong. She trembled, but could +not take her eyes from his. She had never met any man like this before. +He fixed her attention upon him and upon his words beyond the power of +her control. She was frightened and surprised. + +"What am I to do?" she asked fearfully. + +"You are always to look on your cousin William Midharst as your best +friend. Will you promise me that here and now?" + +"Yes." + +"You promise." + +"I promise." + +"Very well, that is settled," he said in a quick way. "Let us move on. +Now I have other things to say to you of as great importance. You must +listen to me very patiently. When you do not understand what I say, you +are to stop me and ask me to explain. Won't you?" + +"Yes," very timidly. + +"Now, from the little I have seen of your guardian, I like him very +well, and I have no doubt no wiser selection could have been made. Those +people I met in Daneford had something to say about events here, and +every one who spoke said good things of him; when every one says good +things of a man he must be a good man. Do you like your guardian? I +believe you know him some time?" + +"I know him since I was a child and I like him very much. No one could +have been more kind or considerate than he; and I know my poor father +had the greatest confidence in him." + +She said this with more animation and earnestness than she had yet +shown. Her gratitude to Grey was profound, and she did not wish her +cousin should be for a moment in doubt of her feelings in the matter. + +"That is all right: I am delighted to hear you say so. Now Mr. Grey has +full and complete control of your fortune; that is a mere trifle." + +She looked up at him in some surprise and said, + +"I understood that Mr. Grey had a large sum." + +"I did not mean that your fortune is a mere trifle, but that the fact of +its being in his hands rather than any other honest man's is a mere +trifle. What I wished to do was to draw a contrast between the +comparatively triviality of the guardianship of your money compared with +that of another thing." + +His eyes were now fixed, staring ahead; and although she looked up into +his face, he did not glance down, and she could gather no information +through her eyes. + +She said, in a tone of faint wonder: + +"I do not know what you mean. My father always told me I should have +nothing but the money." + +Still keeping his eyes fixed ahead, he said, in a dull, slow, dreamy +way: + +"Well, there was one thing in your father's gift, for a time at all +events, and the will gives it to no one. Supposing the guardianship of +that thing were in your gift now, would you, considering that I am the +only relative you have alive, and that you have agreed to look on me as +your best friend,--would you, I ask, give me the guardianship of that +thing?" + +"But is there any such thing? I certainly never heard of it," she said, +in greater wonder. + +"There is such a thing." + +"And it is in my power to give you the guardianship?" she asked. + +"Absolutely, Cousin Maud." + +"And you really wish to take the troublesome care of this, whatever it +may be?" + +"I do." + +"Then I give it to you freely." + +"And you will give me as absolute control over it as if it had been +formally made over to my care by the will of your dead father?" + +He had now paused in his walk once more, and was standing looking down +on her, not with the fiery eyes of a few moments ago, but with deep, +careful, anxious eyes, as though matter of great moment depended on her +answer. + +Under his steady glance she felt her head grow confused and hot. She did +not know quite clearly what was passing, but she knew he had asked her +to do something, and she must do it. "I promise," she said, very +faintly. + +This time he spoke with the most elaborate clearness of articulation, +slowly and with emphasis: + +"You promise to make over to me the guardianship of the thing to which I +allude as absolutely as though it had been made over to me by your +father's will." + +"I do." + +"Then it is the guardianship of my cousin, Maud Midharst." + +"The guardianship of me! But Mr. Grey is my guardian!" + +"Yes and no. He is the guardian of your fortune absolutely. But with +respect to your own personal action you are left free. You are +recommended by your father to apply to him for advice, but you are not +bound to do any one thing he asks you, or to accept his advice beyond +money matters. In all matters except money you are to consult me. You +have promised, and you will do so?" + +"I will keep my promise, but it is strange." She dropped her eyes, and +again the two moved forward. + +His face gradually lost its intense expression, and assumed its usual +dreamy far-away look. In a few moments he spoke: + +"Yes, it is strange, and to me, Cousin Maud, very sweet, that I should +be able to do the least thing for you. You must now rely on me wholly. +You must take no important step without consulting me. You are as much +under my charge now as if you were my daughter. My only regret in the +matter is that I am compelled to leave England almost immediately, but I +shall be back in as short a time as possible; in the meanwhile you may +look to Mr. Grey for the advice you want from day to day. But if +anything of importance should arise, you must write and tell it to me, +and I will write back and tell you what to do. You understand?" + +"Yes. You are very good to one you know so little of." + +"Know so little of! Know so little of! Do I not know you through the +history of our house? Is it because we never met, and I never set foot +on the Island before, that we do not know much of one another? When I +look at those old walls; when I think of the great house of Fleurey from +which we are both come; when I think that you and I bear the one name, +and that the very walls which protected your infancy and girlhood are +mine in my manhood; when I learned that my cousin Alexander had died, +and left my cousin Maud alone in the world with a huge fortune and no +natural guardian but myself; when I saw my cousin Maud, and found her +pale and timid and tearful--I knew her through the past and in the +present; and, Cousin Maud, with the help of Heaven and a resolute will, +I shall know her in the future, to the last hour I can be of the least +service to her. Why, child, I was horrified to think of you all alone +and unfriended, save for the friendship of a middle-aged busy man, who +had no natural claim upon the privilege of your safe-guarding. I feared +something might come between you and me to prevent my getting close to +you as I am now, in your confidence, and in the consequence of your +promise." + +She had raised her eyes to his after the first few sentences. She had +noted again the flush in the swarthy cheek, again the fire in the large +dark eye. She caught the voice of passionate chivalry that rang out +through his words, clear and sharp as the voice of the cornet when it +alone holds up the theme to the melodious confluence of harmonious +strains flowing from orchestra and stage. + +"Cousin Maud----" + +"No; Maud." + +"Maud." + +They paused again. He was still in thought, and looked into her eyes, +not with the sight of intelligence, but with the sight of the physical +eye merely. + +He had aroused her confidence, her gratitude, her interest. She was +looking at him with as much astonishment as though, upon turning her +back, she found not the Weeslade and the Plain of Spears, but the +streams and fertile land that lie around Damascus, and the long low line +of the city's ruined walls against the northern sky. + +Mutely she held out her hand to him. He took it in silence, shook off +his absorbed manner, smiled softly on her, then the two resumed their +walk. From that moment, from that hand-pressure, from that smile, from +the soft sigh which greeted that smile, and the firm breathing and +measured step with which he resumed the walk, it was plain their +friendship had been sealed. He knew he had inspired her with confidence, +and she knew she felt faith in this new cousin-friend, who had been a +source of disquiet to her in her childhood, and was destined to be a +source of sustentation and strength to her in her maiden years. + +For a while they walked on in silence. + +"And now, Maud, there is some detail I wish to speak to you about." + +"Yes." + +"You will of course continue to live here----" + +"But I am no longer----" she interrupted. + +"You will, _of course_, continue to live here. I shall not set out for +Egypt for a few days, and in that time I will see that all things are +put in order for you here. I understand that the lady who sat upon your +right is the Mrs. Grant alluded to in the will?" + +"Yes. She is my only friend----" + +"Maud, your only friend!" + +"I mean, of course, William, after you." + +"That's a good child. Call me William always, and learn to think of Mrs. +Grant as your _second_ friend. I hope she will continue to stay with +you. Do you think she will?" + +"Oh, yes; she has promised. She is and has been a great and a good +friend to me. I do not know what I should have done all through the last +few months but for her. She has promised to stay with me as long as I +like, and I know I shall like her to stay with me always." + +He looked fixedly at the slender graceful figure by his side, the figure +of the only woman in the world in whom he felt interest--the interest of +blood. The idea that he was head of the family felt new to him. He had +often tried to realise it before, but never until now did he know what +it was to have any one dependent upon his protection; and the person so +depending being his beautiful cousin Maud, the feeling was not only new, +but sweet and purifying as well. + +At length he said: "I wish I had not to go abroad; but, Maud, when I +came away from Egypt I had intended to return, and left matters in such +a state that my not going back would cause the greatest confusion, and I +must not, because I have now become rich, treat badly the office so +useful to me when I was poor. But I will be back to see that you are +all right as soon as ever I can. Has your guardian, Mr. Grey, any sons?" + +"No. He has no child. He never had a child." + +"He is married, of course?" + +"Yes, but he lost his wife in a dreadful accident that happened to a +river steamboat some months ago." + +"Then he is a widower?" + +"Yes." + +Sir William's brows fell, and he bent his eyes on the ground for a few +seconds. He raised his head, and, partly closing his lids, looked dead +ahead for a few seconds more. + +"Your father's will was dated the 9th of June in this year. Had Mr. Grey +lost his wife then?" + +"No. Not, I think, for some months after. Now I remember, Mr. Grey was +here at the moment the steamboat, on which his wife was, blew up. I +remember now. That day we sent for Mr. Grey; Sir Alexander was raving +about him and other things, and Mr. Grey was on the Island when the +vessel blew up. That night father became delirious finally. I now +recollect it all." + +"So that your father, while in possession of his senses, did not hear +Mr. Grey had lost his wife?" + +"No. Does it make any difference? Cannot a widower be guardian in a +will?" She dreaded to lose the protection she had been taught to rely +on. + +"Oh, indeed, he can. It makes not the least difference in the eyes of +the law whether a man has a wife or not, as far as his appointment of +guardian in a will goes. I was asking merely for information's sake. And +now, Maud, I think you had better go in. It is getting dark already, and +I should like to have a little conversation with your guardian--your +other guardian--before I leave. By the way, at first I was puzzled to +think why Sir Alexander did not leave yourself under the absolute +control of Mr. Grey, but I think I guess the reason. When the will was +made you were old enough to take care of yourself in all ordinary +everyday matters, and his feelings would not allow a daughter of his, a +daughter of this house, to be under the control of a banker. I know that +your father was a little peculiar, and had no friends or associates of +his own rank. He made Mr. Grey guardian of Miss Midharst's fortune, but +not of Miss Midharst herself. It is my lucky chance to occupy the latter +flattering position. Good-bye, now, Maud. I am staying at the +"Warfinger," in Daneford. I shall come over every day of the few I am in +this place to see you." + +They had now arrived at the library-door. It opened slowly, and a man +appeared on the threshold, and stood still as if transfixed. Neither of +the others noticed the presence of the man in the doorway. + +Sir William went on: "Our meeting was very formal, and our greetings +were very formal too. But we are good friends now, and loyal cousins. +Cousins may be more affectionate, Maud, than strangers in blood. +Good-day, Maud," said he, stooping and kissing her white forehead +lightly. "Good-bye; and remember to take great care of yourself, and +rely on me." + +She moved slowly away. + +He turned briskly to the library-door, and seeing the man on the +threshold, said gravely: + +"Mr. Grey, I am glad to have met you, and shall feel much obliged if +you will favour me with a few moments' conversation." + +Without saying a word Grey re-entered the library; the baronet followed +him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE TWO GUARDIANS. + + +When the two men found themselves in the library it was quite dusk +outside, and a deep gloom filled the room. There was no one else in the +place, and no candle or lamp illumed the dark and cavernous recesses of +shadows lying here and there remote from the great window. + +"I will not detain you long, Mr. Grey. Do you wish for lights?" + +"Not at all, Sir William." + +This man, who had come in the morning as a stranger, and whom he, Grey, +promised himself he would quickly eject if he made himself unpleasant +or pushed himself upon Miss Midharst after the reading of the will, was +now treating him, Grey, as a guest in that house! And not only that, but +he had pushed himself upon Miss Midharst, and seemed to have got on very +well with her, judging from the parting which had just taken place +between them. The tables were turned on him, Grey, and the less light +there was to expose his discomfiture the pleasanter for him. The gold +was still leading, still leading, but only by a head; and the lead was +gaining, hair's-breadth by hair's-breadth, every minute. + +"Suppose we sit near the window, where the most light is," said Sir +William. + +They both moved towards the window, and, having taken chairs, the +younger man began: + +"In the first place, Mr. Grey, let me thank you most cordially for all +your great kindness and care shown to Miss Midharst during this +troublesome time. I assure you I shall never forget the debt of +gratitude I owe you for your generosity and devotedness under the trying +circumstances." + +"I feel greatly flattered by your approval, Sir William. I have tried in +my humble way to do my duty, and if I have failed I have failed through +no want of desire to do my duty by the child of--if I may be permitted +to call him so--my old friend Sir Alexander Midharst." + +There was a strange mixture of emotions in Grey's voice as he spoke. +Sarcasm and fear mingled freely, and the young man was for a moment in +doubt as to how he should proceed. Mr. Grey, now alone and in the dark, +did not impress him quite so favourably as earlier in the day, when +others were present, and when the man's face and figure could be seen. + +The young man paused a while, and made up his mind not to inquire into +the constituents of that tone if it were not repeated. + +"It," he thought, "may have been accidental." + +Aloud he said, "I did not come into this neighbourhood until last night, +and since then every one I met seems to have done nothing but sing your +praise. All the people at the "Warfinger Hotel" have spoken in unstinted +terms of respect. You must not think they knew who I was, for I gave no +name. I was and am greatly delighted at this, for I hope from it you and +I may get on well together, out of consideration to my cousin's +comfort." + +"I sincerely trust we may always get on well together. I certainly will +not deliberately risk losing your good opinion." + +This time there was nothing unusual or disquieting in the tone. Grey had +himself caught the import of his own voice in his previous reply, and +felt he had made a great mistake. It was very hard though for him, Grey, +a man of his position and standing, to sit there and be blandly approved +of by this young man--by this young man who seemed to take his own +success in all things as a foregone conclusion. He, Grey, must play his +cards carefully, and above all things he must not show the direction in +which it was necessary for him to force the game. But he was in the +dark; and if denied the expression of his feelings to his voice, he +might allow them to run riot over his face, and it was a relief to frown +and scowl and sneer in silence. + +"I have first of all a favour to ask you, Mr. Grey." + +"I am sure, Sir William, if it is in my power to grant it, I shall be +only too happy to do so." This was said in the banker's most urbane +accents. + +"Well, I understand that your bank has kept the Midharst account for a +long time; will you be kind enough to accept the keeping of mine?" + +"The Midharst has been the most important of all our accounts for a long +time, and we shall feel honoured and delighted if you will favour us +with yours." + +There was nothing very dreadful about this. It seemed as if the young +baronet would turn out as confiding and uninquisitive as the old one. So +far this looked promising. + +"And now," said Sir William, "will you do me another favour?" + +"If," returned the banker, in a gay tone of badinage, "the second +_favour_ at all resembles the first, I think I could go on granting you +such favours all the night." + +This young man was not only simple and confiding, but downright amiable +and sociable. + +"You must not think I am extravagant when I have said what I am going to +say." + +"My dear Sir William, if you want any money, you draw on us, as a matter +of course, for any sum you may require. That is an affair of ordinary +business, not favour; and it was quite unnecessary for you to say +anything about it." + +Things were growing more comfortable as they got along. + +"Why, I should not wonder," thought Grey, with a smile that almost +developed into a laugh,--"I should not wonder if he gave away the +bride." + +"But the sum I require is large." + +"Draw on us for it in the morning." + +"I don't think you would say so if you knew the sum." + +"Try us. Draw on us to-morrow." + +"Twenty thousand?" + +"Only? I thought the sum was a serious one! You really must not think of +attaching any importance to such a matter. My dear Sir William, you can +draw on us for fifty thousand without notice. If you have the least +occasion for more than fifty, just tell me four days before you draw, so +that there may be no chance of a disappointment to you." + +Grey thought, "Clearly this young man is in debt. How lucky! When a man +is in debt and wants money badly he will do----" He paused, thought of +his own case, shuddered, and whispered in the innermost solitude of the +desert of crime where he and his spectre dwelt,--"he will do +anything--murder!" + +"You must not think I am in debt. I do not owe a shilling. I never did." + +"That is highly creditable in a young man of your expectations," said +Grey, in a tone of high admiration. To himself he said, "I'm sorry it +isn't for debts he wants the money. What can he want the money for? +Nothing good, I'll swear." + +"You see, Mr. Grey, I may seem abrupt to you, but I do not mean to be +so." + +"I assure you I cannot guess why you for a moment imagine I could find +reason to think you abrupt." + +"Ah, well, yes! What I said about abruptness has rather to do with what +I am about to say than with anything I have yet said. I am very quick to +decide upon things, and very prompt to act, and I may say without +boasting that once I take a thing in hand I usually make it turn out as +I wish; I like to do things that seem difficult; but I never undertake +anything when I do not clearly see my way to realisation." + +"Most useful, positively invaluable qualities," said Grey, in a tone of +admiration; mentally he thought, "If what this man says of himself is +true, my life depends upon the direction this cursed activity of his +takes." + +"I have to leave the country for a time. I must go back to Egypt for +some months." + +"Indeed!" ejaculated Grey. He could scarcely repress a cry of joy. To be +rid, and rid quickly, of this dreamy energetic man was a mercy for which +he did not dare to hope. "Do you leave England soon?" Grey asked in a +tone of gentle sorrow. + +"In a few days. Ten days at the outside, and before I leave I want the +money, and to put the thing I have decided upon in trim." + +"Can I be of any further assistance to you than financially?" + +"Yes, I think you can, if you will be kind enough. You take a great +interest in Miss Midharst?" + +"Aha!" exclaimed Grey, as though he had been struck. The question of the +young man caused the terrible importance of Miss Midharst to present +itself suddenly to his mind. He saw at one glance the stakes he had put +down, and the prize for which he was playing; and thus coming suddenly +upon a bird's-eye view of his position, he received a violent shock, +which forced the exclamation from him. + +"What's the matter?" cried the young man, rising quickly and approaching +the banker. "Are you hurt?" + +"Pray excuse me. It is nothing, Sir William. Do be seated. I am very +sorry for having alarmed you. Some little time ago I injured my knee--as +I thought at the time, slightly; but it often gives me a single pang of +most acute pain, and in crossing my legs just as you spoke that pang +came, and I could not but cry out, if my life depended on not doing so. +I know you will excuse me, Sir William; the pain is all gone. I think +you were saying, when I so unhappily interrupted you, that you and I +take a deep interest in Miss Midharst." + +"You are sure you are all right?" + +"Yes, quite sure." + +"Did you ever hear the death-scream of a horse?" + +"No, never." + +"Your shout frightened me; it was like that. Well, as I was saying, we +both take an interest in Miss Midharst. You know the way Sir Alexander +treated this place. I heard of it, and to-day I see it." + +"Yes; it is naked enough." + +"Well, it is not a fit place for Miss Midharst to reside in now." + +"I have been thinking, of course, of getting a suitable house for her +until we are able to buy or build one." + +"Oh, I don't mean anything of that kind. She is to stay here." + +"Stay here! You do not know that from me, Sir William. It is not my +intention. My intention was to place my own house at her disposal, and +live in my town house." + +"Oh, but it is all settled: she is to stay here." + +"All settled! All settled, Sir William, and by whom?" + +"By Miss Midharst and me." + +"But--but--" Grey was trembling all over now, he knew not why--"but, Sir +William, one would think Miss Midharst's guardian might have been +consulted on the matter before all was settled." + +"I assure you he was." + +"But I pledge you my word, Sir William, this is the first I have heard +of it." + +"My dear Mr. Grey, there is some mistake. You surely do not imagine you +are Miss Midharst's guardian?" + +"Then, in the name of Heaven," cried Grey feebly, "if I am not, who is?" + +"I." + +"_You!_ But the will does not mention your name!" + +"Nor yours, as guardian of her person. You will take charge of Miss +Midharst's fortune, as by will appointed. I will take charge of Miss +Midharst herself, by position as head of the house. You did not catch +the full drift of the meaning of the will. I paid particular attention +to that paragraph." + +"No doubt you are right, Sir William. I did not pay particular attention +to that paragraph. I gathered that I was the only guardian named, and I +concluded the conditions were the usual ones." + +It was with the utmost difficulty Grey could prevent himself from +betraying his conflicting passions. Now came personal anger against the +young and determined baronet; now despair at the thought of having Maud +removed from his personal custody. Sir Alexander had certainly given him +to understand that he, Grey, was to be guardian to the girl; and here +was he, after all he had done and risked, after he had died his hands in +blood----Bah! that kind of thing would drive him mad. He must keep calm +now if he did not wish to hang next month. + +The young man continued: "That twenty thousand I want for putting this +place to rights. I see already what I wish done to the grounds; before I +leave I shall know what I want done to the building and furniture." + +"By-and-by, I daresay," thought Grey, "you will find out what you want +done with me." + +The interview lasted little longer, and nothing of importance followed. +As Grey went home that night he thought: + +"He will be months away. I will be all these months here. Before he can +be back she shall be mine. I know it, I feel it. I am not now very nice +in the means I employ. She shall be mine before he returns by--some +means or other." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE INDEFINITE PRESENT. + + +The morning after the funeral Mrs. Grant and Maud walked up and down one +of the long, silent corridors for an hour. The evening before, when the +widow and the young girl sat together in the firelight, Maud had told +the other the main features of the facts in the interview between +herself and Sir William. Beyond expressing a guarded and general +approval of the baronet, Mrs. Grant said little. She had been too tired, +and Maud too exhausted from fretting and anxiety, to allow of close +inquiry or elaborate statement. Now they were less fatigued, the worst +day of the bereavement had passed, and they were quietly discussing +matters. + +"You know, Maud, my dear, no matter how kind Sir William may be to you, +it will not do for you to forget Mr. Grey," said Mrs. Grant, very +gravely. "You must not think of defying him or going to law with him, or +anything of that sort." + +"Indeed, Mrs. Grant, I am thinking of nothing of the kind," replied the +girl, looking with troubled eyes and anxious face at her only female +friend. + +"Because you know," continued the woman, without heeding the +interruption or the appealing face--"you know very well the Greys have +served the family faithfully for many years; and now the present Mr. +Grey has sworn to serve you, and to take care of you, and to be good and +kind to you; and I am sure he will; for though he is not such a +gentleman by birth as your father or Sir William, still he's a most +respectable man." + +The widow had the feminine trick of taking the bit in her teeth and +going straight on, no matter who pulled right or who pulled left. + +"You may rely on my doing nothing of the kind. How can you think I +would!" cried the girl fervently. + +"Yes, but you mustn't," repeated the widow vehemently. "You must not +throw over the friend of years for a man you never saw until yesterday." + +"You ought not to say I am going to do anything so wicked--indeed you +ought not. But remember that the man I met for the first time yesterday +was my cousin, and the head of the Midharsts." + +"But your father never liked him." + +"My poor father never knew him." + +"But he could have known him if he liked, and he didn't." + +"That was prejudice." + +"Maud!" cried the widow, in a tone of reproach. + +The girl burst into tears. + +"I did not mean to say anything disrespectful; but I can't bear to think +my cousin insincere." + +Mrs. Grant pressed the girl in her arms, and said: + +"You must not cry; you must not weep, my love. I did not mean you had +been disrespectful to your father's memory. Heaven forbid! But you must +not be too hasty, and like everyone at first sight. That will never do +for a young heiress who has no right guardian." + +The girl ceased to weep, and said in an unsteady voice: + +"But I never told you I liked him." + +"You do like him, Maud; you know you do." + +"How could I like him in one meeting?" + +"But, Maud, you do like him, and that is why I feel so uneasy." + +"Indeed I don't like him. I am afraid of him: he makes me feel smaller +and helpless. I never feel helpless when Mr. Grey is near me, for he can +always tell me what to do; but I feel as if I must do what my cousin +says, and after only one meeting too. I was ashamed to confess this +until you made me." + +Her luminous candid spirit looked out of the large soft eyes into the +eyes of the woman. + +Mrs. Grant stole her arm round Maud's waist, and for a while both walked +on in silence. At length Mrs. Grant spoke: + +"I am glad to hear that." + +"To hear what?" asked Maud, in a tone of abstraction. + +"That you take no interest in Sir William." + +"What!" with a start. The eyes of the girl were once more fixed on the +eyes of the widow. "I did not say that. On the contrary, he _does_ +interest me." + +Mrs. Grant looked bewildered, and glanced helplessly around her, as if +seeking someone to bear out what she was about to say. + +"Why, child, you told me a moment ago that you did not like him, and +that he frightens you!" + +"That is true, but a lion frightens me, and I can't say that I like +lions; but they interest me more than a King Charlie." + +Maud smiled at the bewilderment of the other. + +"But, my dear," said Mrs. Grant, with a look of grave trouble in her +eyes, "what you say about lions and King Charlie is all nonsense. When +you have a King Charlie you play with him, and feed him out of your +hand. When you have a lion, you look at him through the bars of a cage. +Besides, Maud, it is absurd and romantic to think of an English baronet +as a lion. Suppose he was a lion, and he got loose, what should you do?" + +"Run away as fast as I could," answered the girl, with a faint laugh. + +"But if he caught you?" + +"Oh, if he caught me I don't think I could do much." + +"There now, Maud, I told you so." + +Mrs. Grant had not told Maud anything about her chance of not being +able, single-handed, to defend herself against a lion. When she said, "I +told you so," she had suddenly lost sight of the monarch of the forest, +and come upon the mental image of the baronet of the Island, in whom +this girl had admitted she took an interest, which, in the illustration +afforded by the lion, proved to be full of the gravest danger. + +Miss Midharst had forgotten the baronet in the allegory, and was +thinking only of the lion; so that when Mrs. Grant triumphantly said, "I +told you so," Maud believed Mrs. Grant was contemplating the same image +as herself--that is, her own disappearance down the lion's throat. So +that Maud smiled and said: + +"Fortunately there are very few lions in this part of the world, and one +very seldom gets loose." + +"On the contrary, there are very many lions in this part of the country, +and they all go about seeking whom they may devour." + +Michael the servant entered, and announced, "Sir William Midharst and +Mr. Grey." + +"You will see Mr. Grey first, of course, Maud?" said Mrs. Grant, in a +low voice. + +Miss Midharst looked perplexed, and by way of reply said: + +"Why?" + +"Oh, you will surely see your guardian before a man you met only +yesterday?" + +"Don't you think it would look strange, Mrs. Grant, if I did not see my +cousin before Mr. Grey?" + +"Certainly not. Mr. Grey was appointed to take care of you. He has known +you since you were a child, and you owe him every respect," said Mrs. +Grant, speaking so low that Michael could not hear. Her manner was very +earnest. + +"But Sir William is my kinsman, and, Mrs. Grant, you and I are his +guests in this place. You really would not have the owner of this place +wait while I, his guest, received even my guardian? No; my cousin must +come first. Michael, ask Sir William to walk this way." + +As soon as the door closed on the servant, the girl turned to Mrs. +Grant, and said: "Will you see Mr. Grey and apologise for delaying him? +Please do, Mrs. Grant." + +As the new owner of Island Castle entered the room he met Mrs. Grant +going out. + +When greetings and ordinary formalities had been disposed of, and the +cousins were alone, the man spoke. + +"I had an interview with Mr. Grey yesterday evening, and I am glad to +say that I found him most reasonable and agreeable. I had two things to +speak to him about, neither of which was likely to please him, and he +behaved admirably." + +"I am sure the more you meet him the more you will like him," said Maud, +looking up thankfully to her cousin's face. She felt herself under a +personal obligation to her cousin for his frank approval of so old and +valuable a friend of her father and herself. The desire to be governed, +common to all women, had suddenly sprung up in her nature when her +cousin spoke to her last evening of his claims upon the guardianship of +his only cousin, and she was now greatly relieved to find respect to the +wishes of her father's successor did not clash with fealty to her +father's only friend, one on whom she looked as having a strong claim +upon her regard and attention. + +Sir William did not seem to hear her words. He was standing at the +window looking down on the Weeslade with dreamy inattentive eyes. + +She was seated on a low chair at the other side of the window. Her eyes +were timidly fixed on his face. He had come from Egypt, the land of the +inexplicable Pyramids and the inscrutable Sphynx. To her this cousin +William's inner life was as dark a mystery as the riddle of the +Pyramids, and his face as baffling as the face of the Sphynx. Until now +she had heard men speak, and had attended to their words. When he spoke +now she regarded less the words than the unuttered thoughts attending +upon them. The "How d'ye do?" of other men required only a +straightforward answer, without thought beyond the scope of the +question. The "How d'ye do?" of her cousin came to her attended by +veiled figures of strange aspect, that gave the simple question a volume +and depth the mightiest questions never had before. + +Was it because he who had been the ogre of her younger years had become +the protector of her orphan maidenhood, and the air of the ogre still +hung vaguely around him in her mind? Was it the influence of remote +consanguinity operating, as blood does, between those of the same stock +who have met for the first time when grown up? Was it the background +afforded by the Nile and the sacred crocodile, and the mysterious barren +silent rows of the Pyramids, with those features of men and women lying +hid in folds of linen and layers of asphaltum, with, save the eyes, all +the features, the lips that were kissed by lover or mother, still +unchanged, still the same lip, the same dimple in the cheek, the same +curve in the temple as when Thebes and Memphis conned the stars, the +Paris and the London of three thousand years ago, and taught the world +all the world knew? + +Then before her mind rolled forth the plains of purposeless white sand, +overhung by the plains of unbroken blue sky, and, blazing in the blue +sky, the fierce sun. And here, against the homely sash of that old +familiar window, that commonplace sash and frame, down which she had +seen the dreary rain of weary winter days slide to the sodden ground, he +leaned; on his face and hands the brown harvest of Egyptian suns, in his +dark eyes the strange knowledge of awful arts and rites wrought in +labyrinth and in cave by Egypt's ancient priests, and in his tones the +softness of a land where no waves beat and no winds blow loudly enough +to drown the timid whispers of a maid. + +"Are you thinking of Egypt?" she asked in a low voice. + +"No. I am thinking of Maud," he answered, without moving. Then, rousing +from his reverie, he said: "Yes, Mr. Grey was most agreeable last night, +and I am sure we shall get on very well together. One of the things I +had to speak to him about was a matter of business detail. The other, +Maud, was of the first moment, the arrangement you and I came to +yesterday about my acting as your personal guardian." + +"What did he say about that?" asked Maud aloud. She thought he had not +been thinking of Egypt. His mind had not been far away, as she had +supposed, but close at home, near where they were, busy with thoughts of +her. Was it strange a man who had that dark sad face, and those deep +eyes, and those mystic memories, and so short a knowledge of her, +should, while looking so out of that old familiar window, think of her, +who knew nothing of the world and was so commonplace? Was that strange? +No doubt, in her, in this secluded place, and with her humdrum life, the +objects entering into which were all around her clad in the threadbare +interest of daily use, it was not strange that, being who he was, and +coming as he did, she felt a great interest in him. But that he should +concern himself so much about her was inexplicable. Egypt had been to +her, since first she knew how to hold a book, the land of her dreams. +Her only wish for travel sprang from a desire to see the site and +monuments of the race which gave the arts and sciences to Europe. And +here was her cousin William come back from that land, and, while lost in +a reverie which looked proper to the country of the Nile, thinking of +her, Maud. + +The young man paused awhile before answering her question. Still his +face wore the same abstracted look as he replied: + +"At first Mr. Grey seemed surprised and shocked. I think it appeared to +him as if he had been slighted. I intended no slight to him, and I don't +think my manner showed anything of the kind. At all events, all went +well, and he seemed quite satisfied once the first surprise had passed. +How did he hurt his knee, Maud?" + +"I do not know. I am very sorry to hear he has hurt himself. When did it +happen?" + +"He said some time ago. It gave him dreadful pain last evening. I never +shall forget the shout it wrung from him. It was like the shout I once +heard of a man who awoke in the jaws of a crocodile." + +"I never heard anything about it. I hope it is not serious, and that all +he has been doing for us of late has not made it worse." + +"I hope not. By-the-way, he is waiting to see you, Maud. Shall I tell +him he may come up? I have told some tradesmen to be here about this +time. When you have finished with Mr. Grey come into the courtyard. I +shall be there. I am going to have vases for flowers put up, and I want +to consult you about them." + +He turned round and glanced down at her. The vacant look faded from his +eyes, a deep gentleness stole into them, and from them spread like light +over the rest of his features as he took her hand, and said, in tone of +deep solicitude: + +"Are you always so white, Maud? Are you sure you are well?" + +"I am quite well," she answered. + +"You must not fret, dear Maud. I will send Mr. Grey to you. You are more +used to him than me. But you will get used to me some day very soon, +won't you, child?" + +"Yes." + +"Mr. Grey and I will take great care of you. He shall act as my deputy +while I am away, and when I come back I will take care of you. I will go +now; I do not intend letting those tradespeople disturb anything for +some time; I only want to show them what I mean to have done. For my +sake, Maud, you will not brood? Promise me that." + +"I promise." + +"And you will show me where you would like the vases placed?" + +"Yes." + +He kissed her hand first and then her forehead, and left her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TYRANNICAL PAST. + + +When Mrs. Grant went out of the drawing-room she sought and found Mr. +Grey in the waiting-room off the grand entrance-hall. She closed the +door, and going up to the banker in haste said: + +"I want to have a few private words with you, Mr. Grey." + +"I am completely at your service, Mrs. Grant," answered the banker, in +his most amiable manner. + +He looked worn and haggard to-day. The strain was telling on him. He now +knew what sleepless nights were, and days haunted by the phantoms of +memory, and slight rustling sounds of hideous import. He had learned to +start suddenly and look hastily over his shoulder. It was not the dread +of the hangman disordered his peace, but the faint rustle of a woman's +dress, and the plunge into the darkness and the sense of suffocation +under a burden, and the strange twanging of the arteries in his temples. + +"You know," began Mrs. Grant in an excited manner, "that I love Miss +Midharst, and would do anything I could for her." + +Mrs. Grant had been very much shocked and excited by what had passed +between Maud and her about Sir William, and the excitement still +survived. + +"I am quite confident of that," answered the banker, with a grave look. +He saw Mrs. Grant had something serious to say. + +"Will you promise me to keep what I say to yourself?" she asked quickly. + +He paused awhile and looked down. + +"My position is peculiar," he said. "Although I am not Miss Midharst's +guardian in the usual signification of the word, I really feel bound by +my promise to Sir Alexander to do all I can for her, and that being so I +could not undertake to keep to myself anything which it might be to her +advantage to disclose." + +He said this in his most deliberate manner, and with his eyes fixed +solemnly on the face of the widow. + +"I know I may trust you, Mr. Grey. My only reason for asking you not to +speak is, that if you mentioned my name in the matter I should be in an +awkward position." + +"I promise you not to mention your name in connection with anything you +may say to me." + +"That will do. I want to speak about Sir William Midharst." + +"The new baronet!" cried Mr. Grey, with a start and suddenly intensified +interest. + +"Yes. Do you know anything of him?" + +"No. Nothing. He has not yet established his identity, but there can be +no doubt he is the right man. As what you have to say concerns him, and +as I am under no pledge to guard his interests (though of course I +should not sit still and see them injured), you may speak quite freely. +I promise to mention what you say to no one." + +They were sitting by the table. As Mr. Grey spoke he drew his chair +closer to his companion's, and, by his manner, showed he had sincerely +resolved to respect her confidence, and attend most carefully to +anything she might say. + +"Have you any idea that Sir William is in want of money?" + +Mr. Grey started. A more unexpected or disquieting question could hardly +have been addressed to him. This was the first time Mrs. Grant had +mentioned the word money to him, and now she uttered it in connection +with this young man who had already to a great extent come between him +and the heiress. He answered: + +"I may tell you in strict confidence he has applied to me for a large +sum of money, and of course I promised it. May I know your reason for +asking?" + +"I'll tell you my reason by-and-by. The money he asked you for is not to +come out of Miss Midharst's fortune?" + +Again Grey started. Then he knit his brows and braced himself together, +and, fixing his eyes resolutely on the carpet, answered in a firm voice: + +"No; I could not think of touching Miss Midharst's money for anyone but +Miss Midharst herself." + +He did his best to control himself, still at the words "but Miss +Midharst herself" he shuddered. Had Mrs. Grant discovered anything about +the Midharst Consols? She was the last person of his acquaintance he +would imagine likely to come upon a clue to the fact. But no one could +tell who might pick up the thread. If he had known matters would take +turns like these he should never have touched those Consols. He would +have shut the door first. What a fool, what a poor fool he had been not +to have taken his mother's advice and shut the door. + +"But if he wants money he must be poor?" + +"He will have a fine income now." + +"Miss Midharst has a large fortune, Mr. Grey." + +"Very large." + +"And you are the guardian of it." + +"Yes." What on earth was she driving at? + +"Well, I think it only right to tell you that if Sir William is now in +want of money which is not Miss Midharst's fortune, he will very soon be +in want of the money which _is_." She rose and fixed her excited eyes +upon him. + +He rose too, passed his hand absently across his brow, grew pale, and +said in a voice of perplexity: + +"I forget part of it. I forget part of it. But you know I was looking at +the Witch's Tower of the Castle, the Tower of Silence, when the +steamboat blew up." + +"So I have heard," whispered Mrs. Grant in a tone of awe. The change in +his face was terrible. + +"And they never found the body of Bee. They never looked in the right +place. It is on the top of the Tower of Silence, blown there when the +boiler of the _Rodwell_ burst. I saw the body blown up there through the +smoke and steam." + +"Mr. Grey! Mr. Grey! are you ill?" said Mrs. Grant, when she could find +her voice. + +Gradually the fixed look left his eyes. The hands, which had been feebly +beating on the table, ceased to move, the sensation of tightness left +his forehead, and pale and with a gentle sigh he sank on a chair. + +"Are you ill, Mr. Grey?" asked Mrs. Grant, in a less alarmed tone now +that she saw his mind was clear again. + +He answered feebly: + +"I have not been very well, and of late I suffer from sleeplessness, a +very bad thing for a business man, because when he lies awake at night +he is always thinking of his business, and that wears one greatly. Did +I faint?" + +"No." + +"Pray do not ring. I am all right now. I do not want anything. I feel +quite well again. It was only a passing weakness. You would greatly +oblige me if you will not speak of what has occurred to Miss Midharst, +or to any one else. Did I say anything?" + +"Something I did not catch. You spoke of the sad death of Mrs. Grey in +the _Rodwell_. You said, I think, that you saw the _Rodwell_, in which +your wife was, blow up. Really, I was too much alarmed for yourself to +think of what you said." + +"Ah," sighed Grey in a tone of profound relief. "You were telling me +something that interested me very much when I had the misfortune to +interrupt you. Let me see. What was it?" + +His face was gradually regaining its ordinary look; the haggard aspect +of a while ago did not come back so strongly marked, still he looked +worn. + +"Perhaps you are not quite well enough to-day to be troubled with what +may after all be only a wrong guess of mine. But I feel it strange, when +I come to think of it, that Miss Midharst should accept a man Sir +Alexander did not like as a guardian, when all knew Sir Alexander wished +you to have all the power he would give to any one. I spoke to Miss +Midharst, and she certainly means to take the advice of Sir William in +matters regarding herself. Well, then, I thought, Sir Alexander has +stripped the land and the town house and this place, and has rack-rented +and injured the estates, and saved up the money, with your help, for his +daughter. Then I wondered to myself if Sir William was in want of +money; for if he is in want of money, what could be better for him than +to make himself agreeable to Miss Midharst, insist upon her staying in +this place, become her guardian and--marry her." + +"Aha!" exclaimed Mr. Grey in a half cough, half groan. "But do you think +there is a likelihood of such a thing occurring?" + +"Do you, Mr. Grey, believe in love at first sight?" + +"Yes; that is, I believe in something which may grow into love." + +"Well, this may be a case of it." + +"But have you any reason for thinking Miss Midharst has conceived a--a +tender feeling towards her cousin in so short a time?" + +"No, no. I don't say Miss Midharst is in love with her cousin, but she +told me this morning he interests her, and that is a good beginning. +You know she has never met a young man of her own rank closely. Beyond a +bow and half-hour's chat once a month when she and I slipped into town, +she has met no one but you and her father. She has a craze about Egypt, +and this cousin is just home from Egypt--that's another thing in his +favour. I don't want any one to marry Maud for her money only, and this +is the reason I speak to you. She's too good and beautiful to be married +for anything but her own amiable lovely self, and I hope you will +prevent any fortune-hunter from snatching her up before the grave is +closed over her father." + +"I--I--I," stammered Mr. Grey, "I do not feel quite well. I fear I am +growing dizzy again." + +The door opened. + +"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Grant. Good-day, Mr. Grey, I may not meet you +again to-day. You are not looking very well. Miss Midharst will be +delighted to see you. She told me to tell you so. Go to her. You will +find her in her own little drawing-room; the Lancaster room I think they +call it. I hope your knee is better. By the way, when and how did you +hurt it?" + +"I--I am a little tired." + +"The leg?" + +"Yes." + +"How did you do it?" + +"Strained it." + +"Long ago?" + +"The night my wife was lost." He shuddered and leaned upon the back of +the chair. + +"It is his head that troubles him and not his knee," whispered Mrs. +Grant. + +"Take my arm and come into the air. The air will do you good," said the +young man in a voice of grave solicitude and kindness. + +"Thank you," said Grey, accepting the offer. + +The two left the room together, the banker upon the baronet's arm. + +Neither the knee nor the head of Grey was suffering at that moment; but +he felt a deadly faintness come over him when Mrs. Grant made the appeal +to him to protect Miss Midharst against fortune-hunters. + +"The blows come too quickly and too heavily; too quickly and too +heavily; too quickly and too heavily for me." + +The open air and soothing landscape calmed Grey. He always felt better +out of doors now than between walls. Rooms had furniture, and furniture +cast shadows, and no matter what part of a room you sat in you could +not command a view of the whole. The atmosphere indoors was heavy, +depressing, and often laden with scents a man's wife might use, had used +once; and these perfumes, coming suddenly upon the sense of smell, +brought memories of long ago and half-awakened expectation of seeing a +certain woman of pleasing aspect the love-bearer of one. But with the +dying breath of the perfume the loved familiar figure of the olden time +faded away, and in its place came a ghastly face with open dead eyes and +open dead lips, and temples dark with the blue veins of suffocation. + +When that thing came in the house no one could avoid it. It seemed in +all places at the same time, and if one raised eyes no matter to what, +that thing met the eyes somewhere. Even when it had not followed the +dying perfume of the musk, so long as one was in the house one might +come upon it anywhere, leaning against the wall in the darkness between +the double doors, huddled in the shadow of the great oak chimney-piece +in the hall, lying across the mat on one's bedroom-door when one was +retiring for the night. + +Across the threshold of that bedroom-door this jaw-dropped thing never +came. That room was one's only sanctuary. The old love of the long ago +never left that place with the dying of the perfume. Here one's wife +moved about the room and stood by the bedside as God had made her, +comely, and as love had made her, happy; not as indifference had made +her, wretched, and the devil's agent had made her, dead. + +And yet to live in that sanctuary for happy memories was almost worse +than wandering with a dim light through corridors against the walls of +which stood shrouded indictments for the intolerable crime. It was hard +to wake and smell the musk, and find one's young wife standing at the +glass, with the golden-topped vial in her hand, and a smile upon her +face, then to see her fade slowly away, to spring up, ask why she was +taken from young and loving arms, and to be able to get no answer; until +one opened the door, and found there one's own middle age, and that +terrible thing across the threshold. + +Yes; the open air was much better than the house. Out of doors one could +keep at a distance from shadows, and, when there is the rustle of a +dress, soon find out it is not hers. Then, when the worst comes to the +worst, one, when out of doors, could run. Indoors, you cannot run any +distance, and jumping through a window would attract attention and +inquiry, neither of which could be endured now. + +Leaning heavily on the arm of the young baronet, Grey walked up and down +the terrace in front of the northern face of the Castle. In about a +quarter of an hour he said: + +"I am very much obliged to you, Sir William. You have been exceedingly +kind to me. May I ask you to do one more little favour for me?" + +"Certainly." + +"Will you kindly make my excuses to Miss Midharst, and say that I will +not intrude upon her to-day. I--I--I do not feel quite equal to it. I am +unstrung a little. I shall drive home; and a drive always does me good." + +His voice was unsteady and his manner restless. + +The baronet saw the banker safely into the ferry-boat, and then +returned to the Castle with the message. + +Wat Grey got into his fly, thinking, "I'll go to see my mother." + + +END OF VOL. II. + + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Weird Sisters, Volume II (of 3), by +Richard Dowling + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41553 *** |