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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-07 09:48:17 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-07 09:48:17 -0800 |
| commit | f8cb05d68edd005c4fd975d2d75f67fd29987461 (patch) | |
| tree | 3888860fb89e6a48be8ac77801d1f59ec06fd269 /old/54901-h/54901-h.htm | |
| parent | 9dfb338d5750cb5bf6791fb28d6b094d47d9a2d0 (diff) | |
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} - div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; - border:1px solid silver; margin:1em 5% 0 5%; text-align: justify; } - .blackletter { font-family: "Old English Text MT", Gothic, serif; } - .epubonly {visibility: hidden; display: none; } - @media handheld { .epubonly { visibility: visible; display: inline; } } - .htmlonly {visibility: visible; display: inline; } - @media handheld { .htmlonly { visibility: hidden; display: none; } } - ins.correction { text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray; } - span.floatright { text-align: right; float: right; width: 9em; min-width: 9em; - max-width: 9em; } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kitty Alone (vol. 3 of 3), by S. Baring Gould - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Kitty Alone (vol. 3 of 3) - A Story of Three Fires - -Author: S. Baring Gould - -Release Date: June 13, 2017 [EBook #54901] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KITTY ALONE (VOL. 3 OF 3) *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, David Edwards and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber’s Note:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s <a href='#endnote'>note</a> at the end of this text -for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered -during its preparation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The cover image has been enhanced to include the volume number and, as -amended, is added to the public domain.</p> -<div class='htmlonly'> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_I'>I</span><span class='xlarge'>KITTY ALONE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_II'>II</span>MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_III'>III</span> - <h1 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>KITTY ALONE</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='large'>A STORY OF THREE FIRES</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>BY</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'>S. BARING GOULD</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='small'>AUTHOR OF</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>“IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA” “THE QUEEN OF LOVE”</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>“MEHALAH” “CHEAP JACK ZITA” ETC. ETC.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='sc'>In Three Volumes</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='sc'>Vol. III</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>METHUEN & CO.</div> - <div>36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.</div> - <div>LONDON</div> - <div>1894</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS OF VOL. II</h2> -</div> - -<hr class='c006' /> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='13%' /> -<col width='76%' /> -<col width='9%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='small'>CHAP.</span></td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c009'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XXXVII.</td> - <td class='c008'>THE ANSWER OF CAIN</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XXXVIII.</td> - <td class='c008'>WANTED AT LAST</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XXXIX.</td> - <td class='c008'>ONE FOR THEE AND TWO FOR ME</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XL.</td> - <td class='c008'>A GREAT FEAR</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLI.</td> - <td class='c008'>TAKING SHAPE</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_45'>45</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLII.</td> - <td class='c008'>AN UGLY HINT</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLIII.</td> - <td class='c008'>MUCH CRY AND A LITTLE WOOL</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLIV.</td> - <td class='c008'>PUDDICOMBE IN F</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLV.</td> - <td class='c008'>DAYLIGHT</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLVI.</td> - <td class='c008'>A TRIUMPH</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLVII.</td> - <td class='c008'>PARTED</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLVIII.</td> - <td class='c008'>A SHADOW-SHAPE</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XLIX.</td> - <td class='c008'>FLAGRANTE DELICTO</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_118'>118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>L.</td> - <td class='c008'>THE THIRD FIRE</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>LI.</td> - <td class='c008'>THE PASS’N’S PRESCRIPTION</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>LII.</td> - <td class='c008'>IN COURT</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_145'>145</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>LIII.</td> - <td class='c008'>JASON’S STORY</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>LIV.</td> - <td class='c008'>CON AFFETTUOSO CAPRIZIO</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_165'>165</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span><span class='xlarge'>KITTY ALONE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXVII <br /> <span class='fss'>THE ANSWER OF CAIN</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The accommodation of the little inn was not extensive, -so Pasco had to be put into the same room with -the lawyer, and Kitty slept with the innkeeper’s daughter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco would have greatly preferred a room to himself. -He was in a condition of unrest. As it was not possible -for him to return to Coombe Cellars that night, he was in -ferment of mind, uncertain whether it were advisable that -he should return there that week, whether he should not go -with Mr. Squire to Tavistock to make provision for the -burial of his uncle, and to see after his estate. He had -added crime to crime to save his credit as a man of -substance, and all had been in vain. The succession to -his uncle’s estate supplied him with what he required. -Why had not the old man died a day earlier? Why, but -that fate had impelled him into crime only then to mock -him. If fate could play such malicious tricks with him, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>might it not pursue its grim joke further, lift the veil, -disclose what he had done, and just as the property of his -relative came to him, just as the money from the insurance -company was due–strike him down, drive him into penal -servitude, if not send him to the gallows? He tossed on -his bed; he could not sleep.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At one moment he resolved to go with the solicitor to -Tavistock, and remain there till the funeral, or till he -received news of what had taken place at home. But a -devouring desire to know what had happened, what was the -extent of his crime, to know whether Jason had escaped, -whether the fire had been put out, what his wife thought, -what was the general opinion relative to the fire,–all this -drew him homewards.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, his sprained ankle and arm were painful, and -he could lie on one side only. In the night he put out -his hand for his coat, drew it to him, and groped for the -box of lucifer matches. He desired to light a candle, rise, -and bind a wet towel round his foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the box was missing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Alarmed, he started from bed and explored the pockets -of his trousers and of his waistcoat, and then again went -through all those of his coat, but in vain. He had lost -the box.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here was fresh cause for uneasiness. Where had he lost -it? Surely not at Coombe Cellars. With a sigh of relief, -he recalled having struck a light in the linhay in Miller -Ash’s field, and that it had excited the interest of Kate. -He had then slipped it back into his pocket, as he believed. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>In all likelihood it had fallen out when he was thrown from -the cart on the moor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Towards morning he dropped into broken sleep, from -which he started every few moments in terror, imagining -that a constable was laying hold of him, or that he saw -Jason Quarm leaping upon him enveloped in flames.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When he woke, he saw the lawyer dressing himself and -shaving. His face was lathered about chin and neck -and upper lip. He turned towards Pepperill and said, -“You are a nice fellow to have as a comrade in a -bedroom.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Am I? Well, I daresay I am,” answered Pasco, always -prepared for a recognition of his merits.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I was speaking ironically, man,” said Mr. Squire. “By -George! how you did toss and tumble in the night. If I -had had an uneasy conscience, you would have kept me -awake. What was the matter with you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With me? Nothing. I never slept sounder.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then you must give your wife bad nights at home. I -thought it might have been your spill.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh yes, to be sure it was that. I suffered in my arm -and foot; and look, I’m all black and yellow this morning. -I shall go back at once to Coombe Cellars.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You will? Why, man alive, we want you at Tavistock. -There is your poor uncle’s funeral, you know, to see to. I -say, if we are to travel together, you won’t cry over-much, -will you? I love tears, but in moderation.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I must return to the Cellars, if only for an hour. I -wish to tell Zerah’that’s my wife’our piece of good -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>fortune’I mean, our sad bereavement. And I must put -together my black clothes and get my hat.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If it must be, it must. I wish you had been communicated -with earlier.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Earlier? Was that possible?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course it was; the old gentleman died two days -ago.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Two days ago? Why, to-day is Wednesday.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, his decease took place at five in the morning of -Monday.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why did you not tell me at once?” almost shrieked -Pasco, swinging from his bed, and then collapsing on his -crippled foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Bless you, man, it was not my place to do so. I knew -nothing of you; the housekeeper was the person he trusted. -I came to know of it, as I managed your uncle’s affairs. -When I inquired about relatives, then I heard of you, or -rather got your address, and came off. You see, as he died -on Monday, it won’t do for you to be away long. The -housekeeper has instructions, and is a sensible woman, but -you are the proper person to be on the spot.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is she honest? Will she make away with things?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Squire shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will run to Coombe; we will go in the chaise, and -return to Tavistock directly I have been there. Kitty shall -be driven by the boy to Brimpts in my trap.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco would not have his niece at Coombe for some -time if he could help it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as he was dressed he was impatient to be off. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>He hurried breakfast, and hardly ate anything himself. He -gave instructions that Kate was to be sent on at once, and -was not content till he had seen her off. He had not deemed -it prudent to warn her again not to speak of his return to -the Cellars after leaving Coombe. To do so might excite -her suspicions. Besides, she would be at Brimpts, where -there was no one interested in the affairs of Coombe’no -one who belonged to it. It would suffice to caution -her when she came back to the Cellars, and that return he -would delay on one excuse or another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Pasco seated himself in the chaise beside the -solicitor, an expression of satisfaction came over his face. -He was returning to Coombe as a man of consequence, and -in good society. How the villagers would stare to see him -in a carriage drawn by post-horses. An April weather -reigned in his heart, now darkening with apprehension, -then brightening with pride and self-satisfaction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ever and anon the ghastly figure of his brother-in-law in -the sack, burning, rose before his mind’s eye, but he put it -from him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the chaise entered Ashburton, Pepperill said to his -companion’“Will you accommodate me with a sum of -money till I come in for my inheritance?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With the greatest pleasure, but I have not much loose -cash about me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You have your cheque-book. The circumstances are -these’I owe money for wool to a fellow named Coaker, -and gave him a bill’unfortunately, I could not meet it, the -bank returned it, only a few days ago, and this has made -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>me very angry. I should like to show the bank and Coaker -that I am not the moneyless chap that they choose to -consider me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I shall be happy to assist you. Let us go to the bank -at once; I’ll settle that little matter with them. Shall I do -it for you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I shall be obliged, but I think I must go also.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was possible that the tidings of what had taken place -might have reached Ashburton’possible, though hardly -probable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His uneasiness was relieved when he entered the bank. -No allusion was made to any fire. The banker was profuse -in his apologies. He could not help himself. There were -certain rules in his affairs that he was bound to follow. He -had no doubt it was an oversight of Mr. Pepperill not to -pay in the sum required, but a man so full of business as -he was reputed to be was liable to such slips of memory. -The banker knew Mr. Squire by reputation, was quite sure -all was as it should be. He would at once communicate -with Coaker’indeed, Coaker was sure to be in Ashburton -that day, and let him have the money of the bill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For some distance Pasco held up his head, and talked -boastfully. He had taught that banker what he really was. -Everyone else knew he was a man of his word and a man -of substance. The solicitor was glad of this change in his -companion’s mood, and talked chirpily.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the change in Pepperill’s manner did not last long. -As he neared Newton, he leaned back in the carriage. He -did not desire to be recognised and saluted with the news -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>of the fire. The chaise drew up for the horses to be -watered at the inn which had been rebuilt after a fire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Will you have a drop of something?” asked the solicitor. -“I shall descend for a minute. I suppose we have not got -far to go now?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He left the chaise, and left the door open. Pasco closed -it, and being affected with sneezing, opened his pocket-handkerchief -and buried his face in the napkin, as the -landlord came to the door.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He did not lower the kerchief, he listened from behind -it to the host conversing with Mr. Squire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Fine morning, sir’come from far?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, nothing very great to-day. Off the moor and -through Ashburton.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Going on to Teignmouth, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, only to a place called Coombe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Coombe-in-Teignhead? You haven’t many miles -more. Nice place. Just heard there has been a fire there.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Indeed. Insured?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Can’t say, sir. My little place was burnt down. A -tramp slept in the tallat over the pigs and set it ablaze with -his pipe. Happily, I was insured, and now I have a very -respectable house over my head. What will you please to -take, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Some rum and milk, I think.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Mr. Squire and the landlord went within, and -Pasco lowered his kerchief. He wished he had heard more’that -the man had entered into particulars, and yet he -dared not inquire.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>Presently the lawyer stepped into the carriage. The -host attended him, and in shutting the door, caught sight -of Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Halloo!” he exclaimed. “Mr. Pepperill, have you -heard the news?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“News’what news?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why, rather bad for you. There’s been a terrible fire -at your place.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The house?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I really don’t know particulars. They say it’s been -dreadful. I’m sorry to have to say it, but I hope there’s no -lives lost, and that you are insured.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Drive on!” shouted Pasco to the postilion. “Drive -on’lose no time. There is a fire at my house.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The horses whirled away, and Pasco no longer disguised -his nervousness. It was natural that he should be uneasy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You needn’t trouble yourself,” said Mr. Squire. “If -lives had been lost you would have heard, and if you are -insured to full value, well”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>On reaching the summit of the hill whence Coombe was -visible, a sickly scented smoke was wafted into the carriage -windows.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“By George, I can smell it!” exclaimed the solicitor. -“It is a sort of concentrated essence of burnt wool.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then my stores are gone!” cried Pepperill. “And all -the fleeces for which I have just borrowed two hundred -pounds of you to pay’all lost. I’m a ruined man.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Not a bit,” answered the lawyer. “You are insured.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The postilion needed no urging; he cracked his whip, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>and the horses flew down hill, the chaise rattled through -the village, past the church and the inn, whence the host -came out to see whether a distinguished guest was coming, -and drew up at the entrance to the paddock before the -Cellars.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A crowd of villagers, men, women, and children, was -assembled round the wreck of the storehouse, from which -volumes of smoke still ascended. Every now and then -stones and bricks exploded, and the children shouted or -screamed if a hot cinder flew out and fell near them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco burst out of the carriage and rushed towards his -house, pushed his way through the assembled crowd, and -ran to his door.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There stood Zerah, ghastly in her pallor, her usually well-ordered -hair dishevelled, with clenched hands held to her -breast, a look of despair in her face. Directly she saw her -husband, she shrank from him, and when he put out his -hands to her, she thrust him away, with an expression of -horror.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will not be touched by you,” she said hoarsely. -“Where is Jason?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Jason? Am I his keeper?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The answer of Cain,” retorted Zerah. “This is your -doing. I knew it would come, when you insured. And -you have destroyed my brother also. O my God! my -God! Would that I had never seen this day!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXVIII <br /> <span class='fss'>WANTED AT LAST</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_4 c010'>Pasco thrust his wife within and shut the door behind. -Zerah had returned early in the morning, and had -found that her husband and Kate were away, and the house -locked, whilst the stores were in conflagration. Half the -parish was present. The fire had broken out some time -after nightfall’at least, it had been observed about nine -o’clock by a boy connected with the mill, who ran to the -alehouse and roused the village orchestra, which was -practising there, and in ten minutes nearly everyone in the -little place was at the Cellars. The fire was pouring in -dense sheets of flame out of the windows. It had apparently -begun below, the wool above dropped into it as the rafters -and boards gave way. Nothing could be done to arrest it, -but precautions were adopted to prevent the fire communicating -with a little rick of straw that Pepperill had for litter -near the stables. The flames and smoke were carried -inland, and no apprehensions were entertained of the house -becoming ignited.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much comment was made on the absence of Pasco, his -wife, and niece. But that which excited most uneasiness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>was the presence of Jason Quarm’s cart and donkey in the -yard. If they were at the Cellars, then Jason could not be -far distant. Was it possible that, finding the house locked -up, and his relatives absent, he had made his way into the -store-shed and perished there? This was the question hotly -debated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Mrs. Pepperill arrived from the other side of the -river, and saw the conflagration, and heard that there was a -probability that her brother had fallen a victim, she was -driven frantic with terror and grief. In her mind connecting -her husband with the occurrence, she charged him with the -firing of the stores and with the death of her brother.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill endeavoured to pacify her. He protested his -innocence; he declared that he had left the house soon -after herself, and by entreaty, remonstrance, and threat -urged Zerah to hold her tongue and not recklessly put him -in peril by rousing against him suspicion which was without -grounds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As to Jason, he knew nothing about him. He had -probably left his trap at the Cellars and crossed the water -on some business of his own. He would return shortly. -The fact of his cart and ass being there was not sufficient -to cause alarm for his safety. If anything transpired more -grave, Pasco would be the first to take the necessary steps -to investigate what had become of him. Meanwhile, let -Zerah moderate her transports and listen to the news he had -to tell. He must leave her, and that immediately, to go -with the lawyer to Tavistock, and make provision for his -uncle’s interment and for securing his property.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>Pepperill was unable to get away as soon as he wished. -He was forced to show himself among the crowd, to give -expression to consternation, to answer questions as to his -surmises about the origin of the fire, to explain how he had -left the place before it broke out, and to offer suggestions as -to the whereabouts of Quarm. He scouted the idea of his -brother-in-law having been burnt in the stores; he said he -suspected the fellow Redmore of having set fire to his -buildings. Redmore was at large still; he, Pasco, had given -him occasion of resentment by sending the workmen at -Brimpts in pursuit of him. The man was a bitter hater -and revengeful, as was proved by his having burned the -stack of Farmer Pooke. What more likely than that he -had paid off his grudge against himself’Pepperill’in like -manner?</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as ever Pasco was able to disengage himself from -the crowd, he re-entered the chaise and departed with the -lawyer, glad to escape the scene. When the chaise had -got outside Coombe, he leaned back with a puff of relief and -said, “That is now well over.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I should hardly say <em>that</em>,” observed the lawyer, “till -you have the insurance money clinking in your pocket. -Now look here, Mr. Pepperill; it may be you will have a -hitch about the same. If so, apply to me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among those looking on upon the mass of glowing, -spluttering combustible material was the rector, with his -hands behind him, and his hat at the back of his head. -He was touched on the arm, and, turning, saw the pretty -face of Rose Ash looking entreatingly towards him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is it, my child?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>“Please, sir, do you think anything dreadful has happened -to Kitty’s father?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rector paused before he answered. Then he said -leisurely, “I do not know what reply to make. I saw him -last night about seven. I was at my garden-gate when he -drove by, and we exchanged salutations.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The neddy is in the stable here, and there is his cart,” -said Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He may have crossed the water.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But, sir, Mrs. Pepperill had the boat.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“True’is there no other?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; the old boat. I did not think of that. I’ll run -and see if her be in place.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose left, and returned shortly, discouraged, and -said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The old boat be moored to the landing-stage as well as -the new boat. And, sir, I do not think he could have got -across the water after seven by any boat. The tide was out. -By nine, when it was flowing, the people were running about -here because of the fire.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will go and see Mrs. Pepperill.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“May I come with you, sir? Kitty is my very dear -friend.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty?’I thought she had no friends?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is only quite lately we have become friends. I -would do anything for her. I am not happy. I think she -ought to know what has taken place, and yet I wouldn’t -frighten and make her miserable without reason. That is -why I so much wish to know what is really thought about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>poor Mr. Quarm. It would be too dreadful if he had come -by his end here, and it will break Kitty’s heart.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You shall come with me, certainly, Rose.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On entering the house, they found Mrs. Pepperill moving -restlessly about the kitchen. Her mood had gone through -a change since the visit of her husband. The wildness of -her first terror and grief had passed away, and given place -to great nervous unrest. She had smoothed her hair as -well as she could with her trembling fingers; her lips -quivered, her eye was unsteady, and she could not remain -in one posture or in one place for more than half a minute.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She had hitherto appeared a hard, iron-natured woman -without sympathy, but now the shock had completely -broken her down. She had rushed to the conclusion that -her husband had deliberately set fire to his warehouse, and -without scruple had sacrificed her brother. The horror of -the death Jason had undergone, and the greater horror to -her of the thought that this was the callous act of her own -husband, had shaken the woman out of all her self-restraint -and rigidity of nerve. She was morally as well as physically -broken down. A woman stern, uncompromising, strictly -honest and upright, harsh and unpitying in her severity, -she found herself involved in a terrible crime that touched -her in the most sensitive part. It was the conceit mingled -with stupidity in Pasco, his recklessness in speculation, and -his obstinacy in refusing to listen to her voice, which had -hardened and embittered the woman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Something he had said, something in his manner, had led -her to fear he contemplated an escape from his difficulties -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>by dishonest means, and it was to avert the necessity of his -having recourse to these that she had produced her little -store, the savings of many years. When she returned from -Teignmouth to find that her husband, notwithstanding, had -carried out his purpose, and in doing so had swept her -own brother out of his path’then all her fortitude gave -way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After the first paroxysm of resentment and despair had -passed, she felt the need of using self-control, and of concealing -what she thought, of endeavouring to avert suspicion -from falling on Pasco. Now also, for the first time in her -life, did this stern woman crave for sympathy, and her -heart turned at once instinctively to the girl she had -disregarded and despised. Dimly she had perceived, -though she had never allowed it to herself, that there was -a something in her niece of a strong, noble, and superior -nature to her own. And in this moment of terrible -prostration of her self-respect and weakness of nerve, her -heart cried out with almost ravenous impatience for Kate. -To Kitty alone could she speak her mind, in Kitty’s breast -alone find sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When, therefore, the door opened and the rector entered -with a girl at his side, her eyes, dazzled by the sunlight -behind them, unable to distinguish at the moment through -the haze of tears that formed and dried in her eyes, she -cried out hoarsely’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is Kitty! I want you, Kitty!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am not Kitty,” said Rose. “I am only her dear -friend. If you want Kitty, I will fetch her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>“I do want her. I must have her,” said Zerah vehemently. -“I have no one. My brother is dead, my husband is gone. -My Kitty’where is she? I do not know if it is true that -she is on the moor. She may be burning yonder, along wi’ -her father.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The woman threw herself into the settle, and burst into -a convulsion of tears.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Fielding spoke words intended to console her. She -must not rush to a conclusion so dreadful without sufficient -cause; it was possible enough that in the course of the day -something might transpire which would give them reason to -believe that Mr. Quarm was safe. Then, to divert her mind -from this point to one less distressing, as he thought, he -inquired whether she had any idea as to how the fire had -originated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He could hardly have asked a question more calculated -to agitate her. Zerah sprang from the settle, walked -hurriedly about the room, hiding her eyes with her hand, -and crying’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I know nothing. I cannot think. I want Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Mr. Fielding put forth his arm, stayed her, and -said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mrs. Pepperill, remember, however dear to you your -brother may be, he must be dearer to Kitty, as he is her -father. You are advanced in life, have had your losses and -sorrows, and have acquired a certain power to sustain a loss -and command sorrow, but Kitty’s is a fresh young heart, -that has never known the cutting blows to which yours has -been subjected. Spare her what may be unnecessary. Let -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>us wait over to-day, and if nothing happens to relieve our -minds of the terrible fear that clouds them, we will send to -Dart-meet for the child. Indeed, she must be brought here’if -our fears receive confirmation. All I ask is, spare her -what, please God, is an unnecessary agony.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Rose Ash came up close to the bewildered woman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mrs. Pepperill, I will go after Kitty, I promise you, if -you will wait over to-day. I am Kitty’s friend, as I was -once the friend of your Wilmot, and if you will suffer me, I -will remain in the house with you, to relieve you, all day, -and do what work you desire.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, no!” gasped Zerah; “I must be alone. I will have -no one here but Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You consent to the delay?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The woman did not refuse; she shook herself free from -Rose and the rector, retreated to the window, and cast herself -on the bench in it, and cried and moaned in her hands -held over her face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Rose proposed to Mrs. Pepperill that she should -go to Brimpts to fetch Kate, a scheme had formed itself in -her brain. She would ask Jan Pooke to drive her. At the -time of our story two-wheeled conveyances, gigs, buggies, -tax-carts, were kept only by the well-to-do, and there were -but three in all Coombe’the parson’s trap, and those of -Pasco Pepperill and yeoman Pooke. Her own father, the -miller, though a man of substance, had not taken the step -of providing himself with a trap; to have done so would -have been esteemed in the parish an assertion of wealth and -importance that would have provoked animadversion, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>might have hurt his trade. The miller is ever regarded -with mistrust. His fist is said to be too much in the meal-sack, -and had he dared to start a two-wheeled conveyance, -it would at once have been declared that it was maintained, -as well as purchased, at the expense of those who sent their -corn to be ground at his mill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But now that Rose considered her scheme at leisure, it -did not smile on her as at first. At the moment she proposed -it, the prospect of a long drive by Jan’s side, of union -in sympathy for Kitty, had promised something. Now that -she reviewed her plan, she foresaw that it might be disastrous. -Kate, when she heard the tidings of the fire and the news -of the disappearance of her father, would be thrown into -great distress, and a distressed damsel is proverbially irresistible -to a swain. It might undo all that Kate had done, -make Jan more enamoured than ever, and he as a comforter -might gain what he had failed to win when he -approached as a lover. Rose was a good-hearted, if a -somewhat wayward girl. She desired to do a kind thing to -Kitty, but not at such a cost to herself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She turned the matter over in her head, and finally -reached a compromise. She would ask Jan to drive her to -Brimpts so as to fetch Kate, but lay the injunction on him, -for Kitty’s sake, not to say a word relative to the loss of her -father. Grieved Kate would be to hear of the burning of -the storehouse, but not heart-broken. The consumption of -so much coal would not extort tears. A sorrowful girl is -only interesting’a heart-broken one is irresistible.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span> - <h2 class='c005'>XXXIX <br /> <span class='fss'>ONE FOR THEE AND TWO FOR ME</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Rose and Ja by side in the trap that -belonged to the Pookes. In his good-nature and -readiness to do whatever was kind, Jan had promptly -acceded to Rose’s request that he should help her to -bring Kitty home. It was not right, she said, that the -child should be left on the moor, when her father was dead, -and her aunt in despair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You know, Jan,” she said, pressing against the driver’s -side, and speaking low and confidentially, “I am dear -Kitty’s very, very best friend,’I may say, her only real -friend,’and have to fight her battles like a Turk.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I did not know that,” observed Jan in surprise, ill-disguised, -for his mind ran to the incidents of the Ashburton -fair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You boys don’t know everything. I love Kitty dearly, -and I believe she loves me. We have no secrets from each -other, and now that she is in trouble, my heart flies out to -she, and I want to be with her, and break the news to her -very, very gently.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I thought”’began Jan, then paused.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>Rose looked up in his dull, kindly face, and said roguishly, -“Oh, Jan, a penny for your thoughts. No, really; I will -give half a crown’a thought with you must be <em>so</em> precious, -because so rare.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A little nettled, Jan said, “I thought this, Rose: from -your treatment of Kate the other day at the fair, that you -were her enemy rather than her friend.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is because you are an old buffle-head. Of course -we are bosom friends, but I’m full of fun, and we tease one -another’we girls’just as kids gambol. You are so heavy -and solemn and dull, you don’t understand our gambols. -You are like a great ox looking on at kids and lambs, and -wondering what it all means when they frisk, and you take -it for solemn earnest.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But about the quarrel at the stall’the kerchief?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That was play.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And the workbox that Noah knocked from under her -arm? Was that play?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Purely. Jan, I had a much better workbox which I -wanted to give Kate, and you went and spoiled my -purpose by giving her that trumpery affair. I am not -ashamed to own it. I told Noah to strike it from under -her arm, that I might give her the box I had put aside for -her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And she has it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; oh dear, yes!’of course she has it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jan shook his head; he was puzzled, but supposed all -was right’supposed, because he was too straightforward -and good-hearted to mistrust the girl who spoke so frankly, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>with great eyes looking him full in the face, and smiling. -Impudence is more convincing than innocence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Rose said, “How good you are, Jan’how -tremendously good! Really, it is a privilege to live in -the same parish, and drive in the same buggy beside so -excellent a Christian.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What are you at now?” was Jan’s outspoken response.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I mean what I say, Jan. Considering how you’ve been -treated, I declare that by your conduct you do a lot more -good to me than any number of sermons.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How so? You are making game of me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Not a bit; I’m serious. How is it you show your goodness? -Why, by driving me to Brimpts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, I have nothing else to do, and I like a drive.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“With me?’or perhaps I just spoil the pleasure,” -Rose asked, with a roguish look out of the corners of her -eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The young yeoman was unaccustomed to making gallant -speeches, and he let slip the opportunity thus adroitly offered -him. Rose curled her lip, as he replied’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is always pleasanter to have someone to talk to than -to be alone, especially for a long drive.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But it is so good, so <em>very</em> good of you to fetch <em>her</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why should I be such a churl as not to go when -asked?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“After what has occurred, you know. What a fellow you -are! In the orchard, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pooke turned blood-red. A fly was tickling him; he -raised the butt-end of his whip and rubbed his nose with it.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>“Get along, Tucker!” he shouted. Tucker was the -horse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I hope I shall profit better from your example than I -have from all the parson’s sermons,” pursued Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What are you at?” asked Pooke uneasily, conscious -that some ulterior end was in his companion’s view, as she -thus lavished encomiums on him, and then dug into his -nerves a needlepoint of sharp remark.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What am I at? Oh, Jan! nothing at all, but sitting -here with my hands in my lap, so happy to have a drive’and -in such excellent company’company so good.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t understand what you mean.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is not every man would lend his cart, nay, drive -himself, to do a favour to a girl who had treated him -outrageously.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“When did you treat me so?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’oh, Jan’not I! I could not have done that. A -thousand times no”’ Rose spoke in pretty agitation, and -fluttered at his side. “I mean Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty? Get along, Tucker!’it’s no use your trying to -scratch yourself with your hind hoof, and run at the same -time.” He addressed the horse, which was executing -awkward gymnastics. “Excuse me, Rose; I must dismount. -There is a briar stinging Tucker.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jan drew up, descended, and slapped with his open -hand where a horse-fly was engaged sucking blood. The -fly was too wide awake to be killed; it rose, and sailed -away. Then young Pooke mounted again.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Get along, Tucker!” he said, and applied the whip.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>“I mean,” pursued Rose, as if there had ensued no -interruption. “I mean, after you had been treated so -shamefully.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I didn’t know it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Really, Jan! Everyone knows that Kitty refused you. -It is the village talk, and everyone says it was scandalous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Drat it! there is that fly again at Tucker.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, if you can think of nothing but Tucker, I’ll be -silent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Don’t be cross, Rose, I must consider Tucker, as I am -driver. There might be accidents.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Not for the world. Of course you must consider -Tucker, and poor little I must be content to come into -your mind in the loops and gaps not took up by the -horse and the gadfly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What do you suppose Tucker cost father?” asked -Pooke, clumsily endeavouring to change the topic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I really don’t know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Eight pounds, and he is worth twenty. That was a -piece of luck for father.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Luck comes to those who desarve it,” said Rose. “I -am not surprised at you and your family being prosperous -in all you undertake. There’s no knowing, Jan,”’she spoke -solemnly,’“you may feel low and discouraged at being, -so to speak, kicked over the orchard hedge by Kate, but -it may be a blessing in disguise, who can tell? but Providence -may have in view someone for you much better -suited’<em>much</em> in every way, than Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Drat it! there is that fly again.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>“Mr. Puddicombe’what a good soul he is!’has been -about the place spreading the news.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What news?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“About Kitty and the schoolmaster.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty and the schoolmaster?” echoed Pooke. His brows -went up, his jaw dropped, and his cheek became mottled.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Haven’t you heard? Why, poor dear Jan, she went -helter-skelter away from the orchard where she had -trampled on you to fling herself into the arms of Mr. -Thingamy-jig. I cannot tell his name’I mean the new -schoolmaster.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How do you know?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course I know. Mr. Puddicombe is brimming -with the news. They went like a pair of turtle-doves -cooing and billing to Mr. Puddicombe, and he has -nearly run his legs down to stumps since. The schoolmaster”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But I don’t mean about the schoolmaster.” Pooke -spoke with a tremble in his voice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh! about that affair, that comical affair in the -orchard? Half the village, I reckon, was out behind the -hedges looking and listening. There was Betsy Baker, -and there was Jenny Jones, and that sprig of a chap, -Tommy Croft’I won’t be sure they heard, but I fancy -so’anyhow, everyone has been talking of it, and pitying -you that you were made ridiculous; and then to go off, -right on end, and accept a schoolmaster.” In a tone of -infinite contempt, Rose added, “A schoolmaster! It -takes ten tailors to make a man, and ten schoolmasters -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>to make a tailor; Puddicombe excepted’that was a man, -and was so highly respected, he knew how to make himself -looked up to, and folk forgave him his profession for his -own sake. But this new whipper-snapper! And to be -rejected for <em>him</em>!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jan Pooke writhed. He had not heard the news of -Kate’s engagement. Somehow it had been kept from, or -had not reached, him. The fire had distracted men’s and -women’s thoughts from the affairs of Kate, Bramber, and -himself. His colour changed, and he flushed purple. He -shared the prejudice entertained by farmers and labourers’by -all who were semi-educated and wholly uneducated’for -the man of culture that was striving to enlighten dull -minds and wake torpid intelligences. Parsons and schoolmasters -are in the same category. The heavy soul resents -being raised to spiritual life, and the heavy mind -resents being wakened to intellectual life. It ever will -be so, and it ever has been so. A man going along a road -found a sodden toper lying in a ditch. He tried to pull -him out. “Leave alone!” roared the drunken man. “I -likes it, I enjoys it. I’ll knock you down if you don’t let -me lie in my ditch. There are effets there, and slugs -there, and frogs and toads; get along your own way and -leave me where I am.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pooke and Rose Ash had imbibed the views of their -parents and companions, and the prevailing atmosphere in -a country parish. They had not risen above it, and their -ideas took colour from it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was scandalous conduct, was it not, Jan?” asked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>Rose. “If I were you, I wouldn’t stand it, not half an -hour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But what can I do?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What’? do’? Oh, lots!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can do lots. I do not see it. If Kitty chooses”’His -lips quivered, and he gulped down something.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If Kitty chooses a beggarly schoolmaster instead of -you, you must not let the neighbours see you are crestfallen. -It will never do in coming out of church for -everyone to point at you and say, ‘Poor chap! There he -goes, Jan Pooke, whom Kitty Alone would not have; and -here comes Mr. Thingamy-jig, whom she prefers so highly, -looking like the cock of the walk.’ It would be very -shaming, Jan, and I don’t think your dear father would -like it terrible much.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can do nothing,” said Jan, looking wistfully at the -horse’s ears: “if Kitty likes Mr. Bramber, and don’t care -for me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And if the story of the silver peninks gets about?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Don’t, Rose!” His face expressed pain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t wish to hurt you, I wish you well, Jan, you know. -I was anxious that you should not be the laughing-stock -of Coombe and the neighbourhood. That would be too -dreadful. I have such a regard for you. Mind you, I -love dear Kitty, but I cannot blind my eyes that her has -made a mistake’a happy mistake for you, because, dear, -good girl as she is, I do not think that she could ha’ -made you happy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why not?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>“She would have been eternally axin’ questions which -you could never answer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is something in that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She’d have been wanting to take you to the bottoms -of wells, you know, so as to see the stars by day. You would -not like that, Jan?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No’there is something in that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And to make you read that stupid book’Wordsworth, -her calls it’in the evening, whilst she knitted. You -couldn’t have stood that, Jan?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Horrible!’I should ha’ died.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then you may rejoice that Providence has ordained -that she should go after the schoolmaster. Now you must -look out and see what step you can take to recover the -respect of the parish.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How can I do that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, there be more fishes in the sea than come out -of it, I reckon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jan remained in meditation, speechless. Rose pressed -close to his side.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Have you no room?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, ’tisn’t that altogether; my feelings overcame me. -I do so, so pity you, you dear, poor Jan.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Presently, as he continued silent, she said, “If I were -you, when shortly you meet Kitty, and when she will -be in my place at your side, and I ride behind, I would -not look like an apple that has gone under the rollers, nor -hang my ears like a whipped dog, but laugh and joke and -whistle and be jolly, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>“That don’t seem right, with her father burned to -death.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She knows nothing of that, and is to know nothing -of it from us. The proper person to tell her is Mrs. -Pepperill. So mind, Jan, not a word about Mr. Quarm. -Understand, not a word. So look cheerful and whistle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What shall I whistle? Jackson’s ‘Tee-dum’?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course not, something lively. The ‘Green -Bushes.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why the ‘Green Bushes’?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, silly Jan!” Then she began to sing’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’The old lover arrived, the maiden was gone;</div> - <div class='line'>He sighed very deeply, he stood all alone,</div> - <div class='line'>“She is on with another, before off with me,</div> - <div class='line'>So adieu ye green bushes for ever!” said he.‘</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>“Green bushes’that is the orchard, Jan, where grow the -silver peninks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Drat that fly!” exclaimed Jan, flicking with his whip. -“Her’s at it again.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XL <br /> <span class='fss'>A GREAT FEAR</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Kate was among the felled timber at Brimpts, skipping -about the logs, stooping, then rising again, -and withal singing merrily, when Jan and Rose, having -put up the horse at Dart-meet, came up the valley to join -her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The peeled trunks lay white as bones on the surface of -the moor, and a fresh and stimulating odour was exhaled -from them. The bark was piled up in stacks at intervals. -The whortleberry was flowering in the spring sun. The -heather was still dead. Horns of ferns, brown, and curled -like pastoral staves, stood up between the trunks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After the first greetings had been exchanged, Rose -asked Kitty, “What in the world are you doing here’bobbing -about? In search of long cripples (vipers)?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No; I do not want them. I have started some -basking in the hot sun, but they slip away at once and do -no harm. I am counting the rings on the trees.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What for?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To learn their age.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Who cares how old the trees are?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>“I do; and thus one can find out in what years -the trees grew fast, and which summers were wet and -cold.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Really, Kitty, you are going silly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is interesting,” pursued Kate; “and then, Rose, -I do not altogether believe in the rings telling the age -truly. I think the oaks are much older than they pretend -to be.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Like old maids?” suggested Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, Rose; after a certain age they cease to grow’cease -to swell, they just live on as they were, or go back -in their hearts, then they make no rings. The rings tell -you for how many years they went on expanding, but say -nothing about those when they were at a standstill. Then, -look here: the rings are on one side much thicker than on -the other, and that is because of a cold and stormy wind. -They thicken their bark against the wind, just as I might -put on a shawl.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh,’by the way’touching a shawl”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Kate was too eager and interested in her subject -to bear interruption.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have the oddest and most wonderful thing to show -you, Rose. You do not care about the rings, but this you -will be truly pleased to see.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Follow me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate skipped among the prostrate oaks till she reached -one large trunk. As she skipped, she sang merrily’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’All in the wood there grew a fine tree.‘”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>“What song is that, Kate?” asked Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is one that the head woodcutter taught me.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>’All in the wood there grew a fine tree,</div> - <div class='line'>The finest tree that ever you might see,</div> - <div class='line'>And the green leaves flourished around.‘</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>All on this tree there grew a fine bough, and all on this -bough there grew a fine twig. Then it goes on to tell how -on this twig there was a fine nest, and how in this nest -there was a fine bird, the finest bird that ever you did see; -and on this bird there grew a fine feather, and out of the -feather was made a fine bed, and on this fine bed was laid -a fine babe, and out of the babe there grew a fine man, -and the man put an acorn into the earth, and out of the -acorn there grew a fine tree, and the tree was of the acorn, -and the acorn of the man, and the man was from the babe, -and the babe was on the bed, and the bed was of the -feather, and the feather of the bird, and the bird was in -the nest, and the nest was on the twig, and the twig was -on the bough, and the bough was on the tree, and the tree -was in the wood.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>’And the green leaves flourished around’around’around,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the green leaves flourished around.‘”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>“What nonsense, Kate!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is not nonsense. There is a great deal in it. The -song goes on without an end, always the same; just as at -the end of the psalm, ’As it was in the beginning, is now, -and ever shall be.‘ See!’this is what I have to show -you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>She pointed to some lettering that ran round the white -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>peeled trunk, brown as coffee; somewhat large and strained -the characters seemed, and Rose was not able to decipher -them, but she said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“However came letters to be there, under the bark?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is the great curiosity,” answered Kate. “Someone -cut them in the bark with his knife when the tree was -young, two hundred years ago. The tree has grown big -since then, and has healed up its wounds, but still bears -the scars; and it has drawn its bark round it, and for -years upon years has hidden what was written from the -eyes of man. Only now that the dear old oak is hewn -down, and the bark stripped away, is the writing revealed -which was cut on it two hundred years ago.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What are the words?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Listen’I have spelled them out.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>’O Tree defying Time</div> - <div>Witness bear</div> - <div>That two loving Hearts</div> - <div>1643</div> - <div>Did meet here.‘</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/038.jpg' alt='hearts' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>Is not this wonderful? The tree was trusted, and it has -fulfilled its trust, and would have done so till it died. Two -hundred years ago, two young lovers met here, and the -youth cut this on the bark. Two hundred years after, it -gives up its witness. If it had not been cut down, two -hundred years hence it would have done the same.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>Rose looked at Jan, and took his hand and sighed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Jan, let us sit down on this tree. This touches me; -does it not you, Jan?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What’your hand?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, silly; I mean this about the lovers.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Kate began to sing’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘All in the wood there grew a fine tree,</div> - <div class='line'>The finest tree that ever you did see,</div> - <div class='line'>And the green leaves flourished around.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>Then Kate said, clapping her hands’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is there not a great deal in that song of the tree in -the wood? I suppose in paradise that Adam stood by the -tree of life and felt happy when he held Eve by the hand -and looked into her eyes. If he could have written, he -would have cut these same words in the bark of the tree -of life. And years went by, and it was always and ever the -same story: the young grew old, and then others came in -their places, and loving hearts met, and again and again -in an endless whirl, and an ever-returning tide, and a -perpetual circling of the stars in heaven, and the new -flowers coming after the old have died’‘As it was in the -beginning, is now, and ever shall be.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Jan started up, drew his hand from Rose, and -said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We have come for you, Kitty. As soon as the horse -has had a feed, we must be off.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is there such a terrible hurry?” asked Rose with a -tone of reproach in her voice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We have no time to lose.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>“Lose, Jan?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To waste, I mean.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Waste, Jan?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I mean’bother it!’we must be off as soon as the -horse is a bit rested. We have a long journey to take, up -and down, and little trotting ground. We have come for -Kitty. You must return with us,” looking at Kate. “There -has been something”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Let me speak,” interrupted Rose, afraid lest Pooke -should let out too much. “Kitty, your uncle and aunt -have met with a great loss. The stores have been burnt, -and Mrs. Zerah does nothing but sob and cry after you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Auntie cry for me?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes. She will not be at rest till you return.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll go at once,” said Kate, flushing with pleasure. -“When did this happen?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Tuesday night.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is the night we came here. Is my father at the -Cellars?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have not seen him. Now, Jan”’Pooke was about -to speak. Rose stopped his mouth. “Leave me to speak. -You are a blunderer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But I know he passed us going to Coombe,” said Kate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Passed you’where?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“On the hill. We were in the linhay.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose held out a shawl.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty, is this yours?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; it is. I lost it on my way here. Where did you -find it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“In the linhay in Furze Park. I went there with our cow, -Buttercup. The calf is taken from her. There I found it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We turned into the field, and I remained a long time -in the linhay,” said Kate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And your uncle?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, he went back to the Cellars.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What, by the road?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No; by the waterside. I was tired, and the time was -long, or I thought it was; so I folded my shawl to keep -the prickles from my head,’there is so much furze there,’and -I lay down and slept.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I found this also,” said Rose, extending a match-box. -“I don’t understand what it is.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is a lucifer-box. My uncle had it. He pulled a -match across something, and it blazed up. I suppose he -dropped it in the linhay, also, whilst getting the horse and -cart out.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What! you had horse and cart there?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And your uncle went back to the Cellars?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; just before. Indeed, as we turned into the -field, I heard my father go by; I heard him speak to -Neddy. He always talks to the donkey as he goes along.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You did not speak to your father?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No. Uncle was impatient, and father was rattling -along at a fine pace, and you know from that place it is all -down hill to Coombe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Your uncle returned to the Cellars after that; you -are quite sure of it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>“Yes; certain. He told me he had forgotten to -lock up.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why did he not go by the road?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I cannot tell’perhaps he thought the other way -shortest.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is not that. Was he long away?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I cannot tell. I fell asleep. Have you not anything -to tell me of father? I know he went to Coombe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have told you’I have not seen him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Where can he be?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Neither answered that question.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even into Jan’s dull brain there penetrated an idea that -some mystery connected with Pasco Pepperill was involved’that -it was singular that he, his wife, and niece should -have all left the Cellars before the fire broke out, and that -Pasco should have returned there secretly after having -left. He said nothing. If he tried to think, his thoughts -became entangled, and he saw nothing clearly. An uneasy -feeling pervaded him, which he was unable to explain to -himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>During the first part of the journey back to the Cellars, -Kate talked. She sat beside Jan Pooke. Rose was behind, -keeping a ready ear to hear what was said, and interfere -should she deem it expedient.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Where can my father be?” asked Kitty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As no answer was given to her query, she said -further’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is very strange, and I cannot understand how he is -not there. He must have been at Coombe just before the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>fire broke out. I know he passed along the road. Where -are the donkey and cart?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“They are at the Cellars,” answered Jan.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then my father must be there. He cannot be far off. -He cannot get about easily, as he is so lame.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose he must be somewhere,” was the wise -observation of Pooke.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Hasn’t my aunt seen him?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nor anyone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jan hesitated, and presently said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I did hear something about the parson having spoke -with her, but I don’t know the rights of it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He must be there. He cannot be far off. We shall -see him when we arrive. I daresay he had some business -that took him off; but if he heard of the fire, he would come -back at once. He will be a loser by it as well as my -uncle.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Folk say there will be no loss, as Mr. Pepperill insured -so terrible heavy. They do tell that he has insured for -two thousand pounds, and that only about fifty pounds -worth of goods is burnt.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate shrank together. Rose touched Pooke significantly -to hold his tongue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After that Kitty remained very silent. A feeling of -unrest took possession of her, even of alarm, at some impending -catastrophe. That her uncle had been in difficulty -she knew. That he was in want of money to pay for the -timber before he could realise on it, and to meet his dishonoured -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>bill for the wool, she knew. A chill ran through -her veins.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After a long period of silence Rose said to her’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty, is it true that you and the schoolmaster went to -old Mr. Puddicombe about being engaged?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes,” answered the girl addressed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He took it as a mark of proper respect?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Jan, dear,” said Rose, touching Pooke, “as soon as we -get to Coombe, you and I will go and call on Mr. Puddicombe. -It will please him. He was the first who heard -about your engagement, Kitty?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Not quite that’we told Mr. Fielding.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, the parson! But everyone respects Mr. Puddicombe -<em>so</em> much, that I think Jan and I will go to him -first. You know, Kitty, we have settled it between us’I -mean, Jan and I’on our way to Brimpts, and Mr. -Puddicombe ought to know.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLI <br /> <span class='fss'>TAKING SHAPE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>It was evening when Kate was driven up to the Cellars, -yet not so dark but that she could see the donkey in -the paddock, and dark enough to make the glow of the -still smoking heap visible, here and there, in red seams and -yellow sparks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is Neddy,” exclaimed Kate. “My father must -be here.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As she was descending from the cart, she said, “Why, he -may have crossed the Teign in the boat.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, Kitty,” answered Jan; “I don’t think that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why not?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pooke was afraid of answering lest he should involve -himself; and Rose had jumped down at the mill, and -so was not there to prevent him from committing an -error.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Before entering the house, in her anxiety about her -father, Kate ran to the mooring-place of the boats, and -came back in some exultation to Jan. “I said so. He -has crossed. The old boat is gone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was there yesterday. It was there all the night of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>the fire and next day. It has been taken since,” answered -Pooke.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate was downcast. She held out her hand to Jan, -took her little bundle, and entered the house. Her aunt -had not come out to meet her. That she had not expected. -No one in that house had shown her graciousness and -desire for her presence, and she had ceased to expect it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When she entered, it was with a hesitating foot. She -thought that Rose, out of good nature and desire to please, -had represented her aunt as more desirous to have her -than she really was. Having never met with affection on -the part of Zerah, hardly with recognition of her services, -she did not anticipate a complete change in demeanour. -She was surprised to find that her aunt had not lighted a -candle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She called to her, when Zerah replied, with a cry that -thrilled Kate to her heart’s core, “Is that my Kitty? My -child come back to me?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In another moment aunt and niece were locked in each -other’s arms, and sobbing out their hearts,’Kate, through -joy, dashed with dread of evil; Zerah, through joy at -seeing her niece again, a joy that sprang out of despair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A singular relation now developed itself between them. -After a very short while, Kitty perceived that there was -something on her aunt’s mind, that Zerah was weighed -down with a sense of some calamity far exceeding that of -the loss of so many tons of coal and so many fleeces of -wool. The woman was suddenly become timid and apprehensive. -It gave her pain to speak of what had taken -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>place, and she avoided by every kind of subterfuge expressing -an opinion as to the cause of the fire, and as to the -extent of the damage done. She had for some years faced -the prospect of financial ruin, and if this had come upon -her, Kate was sure she would have met it, not indeed with -equanimity, but with sullen assurance that it was inevitable, -and have prepared herself to accept the new position of -poverty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But that which occupied and disorganised the heart of -Zerah was something else, something more tearful. Kate -saw that she shrank not only from allusion to the fire, but -from inquiries as to the fate of her brother, and whenever -Jason was named or referred to, the woman caught her -niece to her bosom and covered her with kisses, wept, -trembled, but said nothing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mrs. Pepperill took Kate from her little attic-room to -share her bed during the absence of Pasco, and the girl -found that the trouble which weighed on her aunt during -the day haunted and tortured her during the night. Zerah -slept little, tossed in her bed; and if she slept, broke into -moans and exclamations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Meanwhile, Kitty did not rest from making inquiries -relative to her father. She visited the rector, and ascertained -from his lips that he had seen and exchanged words -with Jason Quarm on the evening of the fire, in fact, only -an hour or two before the fire must have broken out.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But where was her father? The old boat was gone, that -was true; but it was in its place on the morning after the -fire, as well as all that night. It had been taken later; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>and there was, perhaps, not much to marvel at in this, -when the Cellars were crowded with all conditions of sightseers -and mischief-doers pervading the precincts. Dishonest -men might have taken advantage of the confusion -to purloin the boat, or mischievous boys to have loosed the -cable and let her drift with the tide where it chose to sweep -her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Inevitably Kate became aware of the opinion prevailing -in the village, that her father was burned to death in the -storehouse, and it was hard for her to come to any other -conclusion. She went to Mrs. Redmore to inquire whether -he had been to his old cottage, but the timid, not very -bright woman nervously denied any knowledge of him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Her distress was very great, but she sought to conceal -it from her aunt, who wanted nothing to augment her own -trouble.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hitherto the fire had smouldered on in the ruins, but it -became less, and though the charred masses still gave out -gusts of heat, there was no more smoke rising from them, -only a quivering of the air above the ashes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fire was naturally the main topic of conversation in -the neighbourhood. Minds as well as tongues were -exercised. Comments were made on the absence of Pasco, -which were rendered hardly more favourable by the knowledge -that he had gone to a funeral. He knew nothing of -his uncle’s illness and death when he started. Why had -he sent his wife away? Why had he carried his niece back -to Dartmoor, from which she had been recently brought?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Incautious exclamations of Zerah, when first made aware -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>of the fire and of her brother’s disappearance, together with -her reticence since, were discussed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Prowlers came round the house, peering into this part, -then another. An agent from the insurance office suddenly -presented himself, listened to and noted down the various -rumours in circulation, and threw out a hint that his office -would consider before it paid the sum for which the storehouse -and its contents were inscribed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rector called on Mrs. Pepperill, and without -appearing to intrude on her troubles, endeavoured to gain -from her something which might elucidate the mystery of -Quarm’s disappearance. Her mouth remained shut, and -her eyes scrutinised him with suspicion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Pooke senior was constable, and he considered it -his duty to intervene. He owed a grudge, nay, two, to -Pasco Pepperill, and this fire was an opportunity for paying -it off. He was angry with Pepperill because he had not -shown him the deference that Pooke considered his due, -and had wrested from him the office of churchwarden. A -triumph indeed would it prove were he to be able to make -Pepperill amenable to the law. Moreover, Pepperill was -uncle to the chit who had dared’positively dared!’to -refuse his son. He had not desired the engagement’he -had disliked the idea of it’he would have vastly preferred -his son’s union with the miller’s daughter. But that -Pepperill’s niece’the daughter of that donkey-driver, Jason -Quarm’should have the temerity to refuse his son was a -fact he could not stomach; it was a spot in his mantle -of pride.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>When he heard the talk about Pepperill, he considered -himself justified’nay, called upon by virtue of his office’to -make himself acquainted with all the facts, and, if -possible, to get his rival into difficulties. A rival Pepperill -was. Pooke regarded himself as a sort of king in Coombe, -where his family had held lands for centuries; never, -indeed, extending the patrimony; never suing for a grant -of arms, but holding on to the paternal acres as yeomen’substantial, -self-esteeming, defiant of new-comers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco was not exactly in this latter category, but he was -a man who gave himself great airs, who showed the yeoman -no deference, and took a delight in thwarting him, and heading -a clique against him at vestry, and generally in the parish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pooke listened attentively to all that was said relative to -the fire, and prejudice against the man induced him to -believe that Pasco had fired his own stores in order to -obtain the insurance money; by what means Quarm was -made the victim he could not tell. If he could prove -Pepperill to be a rascal, it would be great satisfaction, but -if he proved him to be a villain guilty of murder, that would -be ecstasy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Without warning given to Mrs. Pepperill, Mr. Pooke -made a descent on the Cellars, attended by four of his -men armed with shovels and picks. He did not even ask -her leave to overturn the ruins and search among the heaps -of ash for the remains of the man who, it was surmised, -had perished in the fire. With an imperious voice and a -consequential air he gave his orders; and when the men -were engaged in testing the cinders to find whether they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>were cool, and might safely be turned over, and in hacking -and removing the beams charred and menacing a fall, he -betook himself to the outhouse, where was the cart, so as -to examine that.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He returned speedily, carrying a bundle fastened in a -handkerchief, and this he proceeded to open. It contained -a clean shirt, stockings, a razor, and other articles such as -a man would be likely to take with him when about to stay -abroad a night or two.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There!” exclaimed Pooke. “I have found at once -what no one else saw’indubitable evidence not only that -Jason Quarm came here, but that he never left this place. -If he is not under these cinders, I ask, where else can -he be?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate and her aunt looked out at the door timidly. -They knew that Mr. Pooke was constable, and they had no -idea of any limit to his authority. He came towards them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I must know all about it’the ins and outs; the ups -and downs. No blinking with me’no rolling of the -matter up in blather. What do you know of Jason -Quarm?” He turned to Mrs. Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nothing at all,” she answered. “I do not even know -that he came here.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Come here he did,” said Pooke. “Here is the donkey’here -the cart’here his bundle of clothes. Now, did he -go away?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I was not here; I was at Teignmouth. I know -nothing,” said Zerah in nervous terror.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The girl’the girl who had the impudence’to’to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>refuse my son’she knows something about this! She was -with her uncle. Why did he ask Mr. Ash, the miller, to -not only date his receipt of a trifle by the day of month, -but by the hour of the evening? That is not ordinarily -done. And why did he sneak back to the Cellars, after -he had got a little way along the road, putting his trap -up, and leaving it with the girl? I want to know all -that!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Here is my uncle; he will answer you himself,” gasped -Kitty, perplexed and alarmed at the string of questions, -and then relieved to see Pasco arrive.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is the meaning of this?” shouted Pepperill, -jumping out of a hired conveyance. He was in profound -mourning, very new and glossy. “What is this you are -doing, Pooke? Where is your authority?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am constable.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A constable without a warrant! Off!’leave my -ground at once! I’ll communicate with my solicitor, and -have a summons taken out against you. My solicitor is -not a man to understand jokes’nor am I.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You may be in the right for the moment,” said Pooke, -becoming purple with vexation at being caught going -beyond his powers, and with anger at being sent off, when -he had come to the spot with such blare and blaze of -authority. “But I’ll tell you what it is, Master Pepperill, -there are queer tales abroad about you and this fire, and -we want to know, where is Jason Quarm?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Quarm?’gone to Portsmouth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To Portsmouth?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>“Of course; we are in treaty with the dockyard for our -timber at Brimpts.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t believe it! He is burnt!’here!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Burnt? Fudge! He said he was going to Portsmouth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He said that? When did you see him?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I mean I heard from him to that effect. Now be off! -I’ll have no overhauling of my premises! I’ll have no -cross-questioning here! I have a solicitor of my own now, -and he shall know the reason of everything. Get you gone!’and -be blowed!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLII <br /> <span class='fss'>AN UGLY HINT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Talking loudly, laughing noisily, boisterously -threatening proceedings against all trespassers, -Pasco Pepperill came in at his door.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“For heaven’s sake, what are you doing?” was his first -salutation from his wife. “How dare you behave as you -do? You’you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He saw at once that she believed in his guilt, and -designed to caution him against overacting his part.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A great transformation had taken place in Pepperill. -Now that he had done the deed, all dread of the consequences -seemed to have been swept away; he must assume -an innocent part, look people full in the face, and resent -suspicion as an insult. The fact that he had come in for -a handsome legacy assisted him to shake off the consciousness -of guilt. He was now a man worth three or four -thousand pounds, and when the assurance was paid he -would be worth an additional thousand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What could be proved against him? Nothing. Suspicion -might be entertained, but what was suspicion when it had -nothing substantial as a basis?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>“Give me a jug of cider,” he commanded, and Zerah -hastened to obey. She put a tumbler on the table beside -the jug.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco leisurely poured out a glass, and held it up between -himself and the light, and was pleased to observe -how steady his hand was.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Zerah! come and look here. There is rope in the -liquor’it is turning sour.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate looked fixedly at her uncle’s face. The child was -in distress and doubt. Was her father alive, or had he -died a death of the worst description? Was he away on -his business, carrying out some risky speculation, or did -his bones lie resolved to ash in the great cinder-heap -that had smouldered on so long, and was but just -extinct?</p> - -<p class='c001'>She had not met with anything in her uncle’s character -which would justify her in attributing to him so deliberate -and desperate a crime as firing his own warehouse, and -sacrificing, intentionally or accidentally, the life of his -brother-in-law; and yet his wife, who ought to know him -best, had arrived at the worst conclusion, and though she -said nothing, Kate saw by her manner that she was for ever -estranged from her husband, and regarded him as guilty of -the crime in its worst form.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah had retained Kitty in her room, and had more than -once said to her that after the return of Pasco she would -make him occupy Kate’s old attic; she would no longer -treat Pasco other than as a stranger. Her reception of him -now showed repugnance and restraint; the shrinking of an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>upright nature from one tainted with dishonesty, and exhibiting -restraint from saying all that was felt.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate looked on her uncle with his self-satisfied expression, -holding the glass between him and the light with a -steady hand, concerning his mind about the ropiness of the -cider, and in her simple mind, ignorant of evil, direct, -with no trickiness or dissimulation in it, she felt vast relief. -She could not believe that Pasco had done wrong, nor -that he had any misgivings as to the well-being of her -father.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She drew a long sigh, and passed her hand across her -brow, as though to brush away the cloud that had hung -over it and darkened all her thoughts.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the new confidence established between herself and -her aunt, Kate had whispered to her that she was engaged -to Walter Bramber, but the news seemed to make as little -impression on Zerah as it had on Pasco, and for the same -reason, that each mind was engrossed in other more immediately -interesting matters. The girl submitted with that -resignation which characterised her. She made little account -of herself, and did not suppose that what concerned her could -excite lively emotions in the hearts of her uncle and aunt. -Even Mr. Puddicombe had shown more sympathy and -pleasure. But then, Kate could make allowance for the -preoccupation of her aunt’s mind consequent on the fire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate now timidly approached her uncle, keeping her -eyes riveted on his face, and, standing on the other side -of the little round table on which was his jug, she asked’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Are you quite sure my dear father is all right?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>Pasco looked sharply at her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Questions again?” he said hastily, and a flush came -into his cheek.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have a right to ask this question,” said Kate firmly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His eye fell under hers; he set down the glass unsteadily -and upset the cider.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Hang it! why have you a right?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I want to know that my father is alive.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I say he’s gone to Portsmouth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But how did he go?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That was his affair, not mine; the Atmospheric, I -suppose.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He could not cross during that night’at least, not till -near dawn, and so must have been here when the warehouse -was burnt.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t see that; there are other ways of getting away. -He went on to Shaldon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>That was certainly possible. Quarm might have pursued -the right bank of the river to where it could be crossed at -any tide, but this was not probable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An interruption was occasioned by the entry of the -rector. After the usual salutations, he at once turned to -the topic which had been engaging thoughts and tongues -before he appeared.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have no desire to intrude,” said he, “but I have come -to prevent a scandal, if possible, and perhaps a quarrel. -Mr. Pooke is in a great heat, and vows he will have a search-warrant -to turn over the heaps, as you have refused him to -explore them. You are churchwarden, Mr. Pepperill, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>I not only desire to prevent unpleasantness on your own -account, but on that of the Church. You have, I believe, -sent Mr. Pooke off?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But why so? He may have acted irregularly, but it -was with good intentions, and you were absent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He had no right to touch what was mine.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No doubt he erred, but you were absent, consider; and -your wife, your niece, the whole village, were in excitement -and alarm. He did what seemed fit to allay this unrest; to -find out whether Mr. Quarm had been here or not.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is no good. He’ll get no warrant, unless magistrates -be fools. He has no case’not a ghost of a case. Jason -went to Shaldon, and so over the water.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You are sure?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I fancy he did. I heard he wanted to reach Portsmouth, -and the tide was out when he got here, so he could not -cross in the ferry. He went on. At Teignmouth he would -get into the Atmospheric.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is readily ascertained. We have but to send to -Shaldon and inquire. The boatman who took him across -can be found. If he crossed the wooden bridge, then the -man who takes toll will be able to say something.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He may have gone round the head of the estuary.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Not likely, if he left his cart and donkey here.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill was unable to answer. He was a heavy-headed -man, not quick at invention.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then,” continued the rector, “the warehouse did not -catch fire of itself; someone must have fired it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>“Of course,” said Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I may as well tell you,” continued Mr. Fielding, “that -Mr. Bramber, the schoolmaster, came to the Cellars the -evening of the fire”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The deuce he did!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Just after dusk.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And what brought him here, the puppy?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He came,” answered Mr. Fielding, “because he wished -to see Kitty and you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Pray what did he want with Kitty?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Surely, Mr. Pepperill, you know that the two young -people have come to an understanding.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco shrugged his shoulders. “I may have heard something -of the sort, but I have other things more important -to interest and occupy my mind. I gave it no heed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, he desired to speak with you, as her father was -away, and you stood in a semi-parental relation to her, -living as she did in your house.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, he found no one here,” observed Pasco, with some -uneasiness of manner.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“As he approached the Cellars he heard an altercation, -and then the house door violently slammed. Then, thinking -the occasion unpropitious, he turned back.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was fancy. No one was here. My wife was over the -water, and I on my way to Brimpts. If you doubt my word, -ask Mr. Ash, he receipted my bill, and I had a talk as well -with the landlord.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is true, Mr. Pepperill, but Jason Quarm was here. -I saw him drive past my gate, and I cast a good-even to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>him. If an altercation took place here, he was probably -one of those engaged in it. I took it for granted that you -were the other.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’I’I?” stuttered Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, because you returned to the Cellars after you had -got to the head of the hill.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Who said that? It is a lie!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty, I understand, said as much to John Pooke.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty said it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty told Jan and Rose as she was being driven home -from the moor’so I have been informed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s a lie!” roared Pasco, glaring round at the girl with -a curl up of his thick lips, showing his teeth like a dog -about to bite. “It’s a ’–– lie!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mr. Pepperill!” said the rector, rising in dignified anger -from the seat that had been accorded him, “I will not suffer -you to use such an expression in my presence, even in your -own house. You do not add one jot to the force of your -repudiation’to your charge against Kate’by burdening it -with an oath.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s like that beggarly schoolmaster’s impudence to come -poking his snout here, where he’s not wanted, where”’with -some energy’“I won’t have him! I’ll have the law of him -for trespass!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He did not trespass. It is free to anyone to approach -a house door.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t care; I’ll shoot him if he shows his face here -again.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You are branching away from the matter in immediate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>consideration. There seems to be a conflict of testimony. -Kitty, whom I have always found true and direct as a -needle, has made one statement,’not indeed to me, but -to others,’and this you contradict.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’m churchwarden’I’m a man of means and in a good -business. I should think my word was worth more than -that of a sly, chattering, idle minx.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Sly, chattering, that my little Kitty is not; I have ever -found her straightforward and reserved. As to her work in -the house, her aunt is better qualified to express an opinion -than you, Mr. Pepperill.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t see that you’ve any call to come here, poking -into matters and axin’ questions like another Kitty, if I may -make so bold as to say so,” said Pasco, defiant and then -qualifying his defiance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“As I told you at the outset, Mr. Pepperill, I have come -here not to make an official inquiry, but to prevent one. -There is a mistake somewhere. My wish was to clear it -up before matters grew to a head. You and Mr. Pooke are -both stubborn men, and may knock heads and crack skulls -over nothing. A word will probably lighten what is now -dark, and dissipate a growing mistrust. I cannot, and I -will not, believe half of what is being said relative to you. -I have come to your house as a peacemaker, to entreat you -to so account for little matters which puzzle the good people -here, before what is now whispered may be brayed, what is -now a conjecture may be crystallised into a conviction. As -far as is known, the matter stands thus: Mr. Quarm came -here, and here have been found his donkey and cart and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>his little bundle of clothes. If he had crossed the water, -he would have taken the latter with him. Two persons -were heard in altercation here shortly after his having passed -through Coombe, and the door was shut violently. Next -morning the door was locked, and Mrs. Pepperill when she -came found the key in a hiding-place known, as she then -said, only to herself and you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Don’t you suppose Kitty knew it also?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I daresay she did. Your wife’s words, when she -arrived, found the stores burnt, and the house locked, and -the key in a certain place’her words were, ‘Pasco has put -the key where I have found it.’ It was of course surmised -that before you left you had locked the door, but Kitty told -young Pooke that when you reached the top of the hill you -returned to the Cellars, saying that you had forgotten to -lock the house. It, therefore, seemed to me probable that -on your return, you and Quarm came to high words about -something.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nothing of the sort I never came back.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, uncle!” escaped Kate’s lips.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He turned his menacing eyes on her, with the same snarl -on his mouth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but -the truth,” said he. “That is, if you will insist on having it, -and you can make of it what you like, pass’n. When I got -to the top o’ the hill, where is Ash’s linhay, it is true that -I remembered I’d not locked up the dwelling-house. Then -I sent Kitty back and told her to lock and put the key where -her aunt would find it, and I’d stay and mind the hoss.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>“Uncle!” Kitty turned white and rigid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And, dash it! if someone must ha’ set fire to the old -place,’and I reckon there was someone, them things don’t -do themselves,’it must ha’ been either she or Jason, or -both together. And I reckon he’s run away to escape the -consequences.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rector stood up. He had reseated himself after his -protest. His face was very grave.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I see,” said he, taking his hat, and moving to the door. -“This affair wears a different colour from what I supposed. -It must be elucidated irrespective of me. My part is done. -It must be taken up and investigated by the proper -authorities.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLIII <br /> <span class='fss'>MUCH CRY AND A LITTLE WOOL</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>“Aunt!” exclaimed Kitty, blank and trembling, turning -to Zerah, the moment the rector had left the -house. “Oh, auntie dear, this is not true’this that Uncle -Pasco says. I did not go back. I was left in the linhay -with the cart. What does he mean?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He means to shelter himself,” answered Mrs. Pepperill. -Then the woman stepped in front of her husband, and, in -her harshest tones and hardest manner, said, “Pasco! A -yea or nay from Kitty is, as pass’n said, worth a thousand -of your protestations, though bolstered up wi’ oaths.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course Kitty is everything to you and the pass’n, and -I am nothing. I know that very well. I’ve had enough -of your violence o’ tongue-lash these twenty years; and let -me tell you, Zerah, I’ve got hard to it and don’t care a snap -for it.” And he suited the action to the word, with an -insolence of expression and manner that would have made -the woman blaze forth into fury at any other time. Now -she passed his rudeness with disregard.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Pasco!” she said in metallic tones, “there has been a -load o’ lead crushing down my heart. I’ll shake it off and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>run it into bullets against you now, and every word shall be -a bullet. Now, before Kitty, I will say what I have had -on my mind. It is you who have lied. I have known for -some time what you were thinking of. I’ve seen you -hovering like a hawk, and the moment I was gone’had -crossed the water’you dropped. You durstn’t do it whilst -I was here. You feared me because I feared God. There’s -no bigger coward on earth than the man who fears his -fellow because that fellow has God before his eyes. No -sooner was I out of the way than you at once seized the -chance offered; and I’I had gone with all my little lay-by -to get you out of your difficulties and prevent you doing -what I feared was in your intent. You’d never spoke a -word to me of that purpose of yourn, you durst not do it; -but I saw it formin’ in you; I saw it, looking into your eyes, -just as you may see the sediment settlin’ in dirty water. -When I was out of the way, then you thought you could do -it. You took Kitty away’who was but just home from -the moor, and all for no reason save that you didn’t want -any witness. Then you left her with the cart and hoss at -Ash’s linhay in Furze Park, and came back here to carry -out your purpose. So far I can see. Then my sight -becomes thick, a mist is over my eyes, and all the rest is -doubtful. What happened when you came back here’what -passed between you and Jason’what became of my -brother? All that I know not’but know I must and -will.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco’s face grew more sullen, and his demeanour dogged -to defiance. He could not look his wife in the face, he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>kept his eyes on the ground, and with his boot scratched -the floor in fantastic figures.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can see all that passes in your heart,” pursued Zerah. -“It’s like as if I were outside a window, and see’d shadows -on the blind as this and that went by and this and that rose -up or sat down. Now the folk begin to talk and to suspect -you, and say how that you insured for a big sum, and when -the goods weren’t paid for, burnt ’em all to secure the -insurance; then you try and throw the suspicion off on to -Kitty or Jason, or both together. It is like you, you black -coward. But it shall not be. I will stand betwixt you and -Kitty, and no harm from you shall hurt her. What I and -Kitty want to know is’What has become of Jason? -Where is he? If you will not answer, we will work out the -answer for our own selves’she with the heable (fork), I -with the phisgie (pick). We have strong arms, and we will -ourselves root about in the ruins, till we learn something -to satisfy our minds.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t know how you’ve the face to talk to me like this, -Zerah,” said Pasco surlily. “I’ve come into something like -four thousand pounds through my uncle, and there’ll be -another thousand and more from the insurance. On five -thousand pounds’Lord! I’m a Christian and a gentleman.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Bank-notes won’t plaster sore consciences,” retorted -Zerah. “You think money is everything, and no matter -how it be come by. So it has ever been with you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Am I like to be a villain,” queried Pasco in exasperation, -“when I knew my uncle was worth a pot o’ coin that -was sure to come to me?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>“You did not know he was dead.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I knew he was sickening and worn out. A man of -means don’t do criminal acts; that’s the perquisite of -beggars and labouring men.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not ask for excuses and evasions. I ask’where -is my brother?” persisted Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At that moment the door was thrown open, a hand was -thrust in, waving a paper, and a voice shouted’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There you be, Pasco Pepperill. I’ve got my warranty. -I said I would, and I’m the man o’ my word. I went full -gallop up to Squire Carew. None can stand agin me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill went to the door, saw the back of Mr. Pooke -as he walked away, and the faces of a number of workmen -with pick and crowbar and shovel, backed by a -crowd of all descriptions of persons from the village and -neighbourhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He hesitated for some moments. He stood irresolute, -holding the door-posts and working his nails at the paint, -picking it off in flakes. His heart turned sick within him. -If the heaps of cinders were thrown back, then surely the -remains of Jason Quarm would be discovered, and with the -discovery there would ensue an inquest, and much unpleasantness -if not danger to himself. With low cunning -he resolved to make the best of the inevitable. He shouted -to his wife’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Zerah! bring out cider for the good fellows. They are -working for us, as you know. If you have saffron cake, out -with that too. I daresay I shall find a shilling apiece as -well.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>He went behind Pooke, slapped him on the back, and -said boisterously’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well done, old man! That is what I wanted. If a -thing has to be executed, let all be above-board and legal. -That’s my doctrine. I don’t like no hole-and-corner proceedings. -Meddlin’ wi’out authority makes the end a -botch. If you hadn’t begun, I would have done it myself.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the house Zerah restrained Kitty with one hand and -closed the door with the other. The woman was labouring -for breath, so great was her excitement. Her face was -now flushed, then became wan as death.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty, my darling,” she said, “I reckon I’ve been hard -and exactin’ in the past. The old pass’n were right, though -I wouldn’t believe him, and said he was insultin’ of me to -say it. ’Twas love, he told, as you wanted, and I didn’t -give it you. Love, the very air of heaven, wi’out which the -little maid couldn’t thrive. I wi’held it from you’so he -told’and I shut my ears and hardened my heart. But in -the end he were right. When I found out what had been -done, then it broke me down. I cannot respect and love -<em>him</em> no longer. I tried my best when he was foolish and -unfortunate. But now he’s guilty, I cannot’I cannot, and -then all my love turns to you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kitty threw herself into her aunt’s arms and sobbed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There’s no time now for tears,” said Zerah, with a gulp -in her throat. “We cannot tell what is coming on us. It -may be that the remains of your poor father will be found. -If so, then’” Zerah shivered as if frost-smitten. “God -bless us! It will be too horrible’to live under the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>roof, to eat at the same table, to see the face, hear the -voice of the man’” She was unable to conclude her -sentence. After a long pause and a hug of Kitty, she -continued: “I cannot say how it all came about. Bad as -he may be, I hardly think he did it of purpose. ’Twas -some accident. I don’t mean the burning the stores’but -of your father. No; he was not so bad as that, please -God! I hope, I trust not! Now, Kitty, you and I must -make up our minds to whatever happens. And I reckon -there is but one thing us can do.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is that, dear auntie?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Hold our tongues.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>After a long pause, whilst the girl clung to her, she -added, “No good can come of us speaking what we know, -and what we fancy. It can but heap up a great pile of -misery and shame. If it comes to an inquiry in court’that’s -another matter. They won’t call on me, as I am -Pasco’s wife, but they will on you, and you must up and -speak the truth at any cost. But if there be no such -inquiry, then hold your tongue, as I will mine. The mischief, -so far, has come from what we have said. We can -do no good; we may make the affair worse for ourselves if -we talk. Leave him in the hands of God, to do wi’ him as -He wills.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate kissed her aunt and promised silence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then both went forth, and reached the crowd about the -ruins and piles of ashes, as Pepperill was saying in a loud -tone, “I don’t say you won’t find bones. I believe now I -had a pile, but all mutton and beef bones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>“Why, what were you doing wi’ bones?” asked Pooke.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Collecting of ’em for dressing,” answered Pepperill -promptly. “I’ve been in the hide line some while, and -lately I took a fancy to bones also; but I didn’t do much, -just begun on it, so to speak’all ox and sheep bones’nothing -else. Pound bones up wi’ a hammer, they’re fine -for turnips. Jason put me up to speculating in bones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The mass of crumbling wall, charred beam, and cinder -was speedily attacked by the workmen under the direction -of the constable, who had much difficulty in keeping the -curious at a distance; men, women, and children were -eager to assist with their hands, or advise with their -tongues. They ran into danger by approaching tottering -walls. They trampled down the ashes; they got in the -way of the workmen; and occasionally a scream and an -objurgation was the result of a labourer casting his shovelful -of cinders in the face of an inquisitive spectator who -got in his way. Mr. Pooke protested and stormed, but -with little avail; all were too interested to attend to his -orders, and he was without assistants to enforce them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill bustled about, vociferating, driving spectators -back, encouraging workmen, running after cakes and cider, -and making the confusion greater. Kate sat on a fallen -beam, chin in hand, watching intently every spade as it -turned the ashes, wincing at every pick driven into the -cinder heaps. The tears were trickling down her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Walter Bramber, who had just arrived, went up to -Farmer Pooke and asked leave to run a cord across from -one rail to another, and volunteered with the assistance of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>Noah Flood and John Pooke to keep the people from -interference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why should they be kept back? Don’t they want to -find what has become of Mr. Quarm every whit as much as -me? Let ’em come on,” shouted Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the constable saw the advantage of the proposal, and -gave the order. In ten minutes the scene of the conflagration -was freed from sightseers, who were confined at a -distance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Bramber went to Kitty and said in a low tone, -“You do not think it is hopeless, I trust?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not know what to think,” she answered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is it true what I have heard, that your uncle returned -here after dark and left you at the top of the hill?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate did not answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That is what is said. Jan Pooke told me he had heard -it from your own lips.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>She continued silent.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I should like to know, Kitty, the truth in this matter.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can say nothing,” she answered, and hung her head -lower.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bramber was surprised, but he had not time to expend -in conversation: he had undertaken to keep off the crowd, -and some were diving under the rope, others attempting to -stride over it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An hour was expended in turning about the refuse. All -the coal had been consumed, but, singularly and inexplicably, -not all the fleeces. Bundles of wool were found’not -many, indeed, but some, singed, not consumed, which, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>when exposed, exhaled a sickening odour. The dangerous -portions of tottering walls had been thrown down, the slate -flooring exposed. Not a trace of Jason Quarm could be -found.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco, who had been nervous, watching all the operations -of the excavators in deadly fear of a revelation of the -charred remains of his brother-in-law, breathed freely, -recovered all his audacity and boisterousness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I said as much, but none believed me. Jason is -gone; he was not the man to sit quiet in a fire. How -the fire came about is a question we won’t go into too -close.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The bones you spoke of,” said Pooke, “we ha’n’t come -on them. They’ve been consumed’perhaps poor Quarm -as well. The fire must have been deadly hot.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It didn’t burn those fleeces,” answered Pasco triumphantly. -“I’ll tell you what; Jason made off for reasons well -known to himself. If we don’t hear of him again, I sha’n’t -wonder; but burned here he certainly was not, as any fool -can see. He was not the man to let himself burn. Cripple -though he was, he could hop out of danger.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco turned to Bramber. “What is that you have -been saying to the parson about hearing Mr. Quarm and -his daughter argyfying at my door the night of the -fire?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Walter Bramber was taken aback.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, you said you had heard them in hot dispute.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I said,” answered Bramber in surprise and indignation, -“something very different from that. I said”’</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>His hand was caught by Kate, who looked pleadingly -into his face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“A word alone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is it, Kitty?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Say nothing to anyone of what you saw and heard that -night.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLIV <br /> <span class='fss'>PUDDICOMBE IN F</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The mystery of the disappearance of Jason Quarm -was not cleared up; on the contrary, it had become -more profound. The excavation of the ruins had revealed -nothing. It had disclosed no remains of the lost man, and -opinions were divided. Some contended that the intense -heat of the mass of coals, a heat which had split the flooring -slates and burnt the soil beneath them to the depth of six -inches, reddening it like brick, that this heat had completely -consumed the unhappy man. On the other hand, -others asked, How could that be? Some of the wool was -scorched, not burnt; a man would make his way from fire; -he had eyes and arms, and though Quarm was crippled, -yet he could extricate himself from danger, or at all events -use his powerful lungs so as to call for help. Moreover, -Quarm wore brass buttons. Even if his body had been -resolved to ashes, the molten buttons would be found; -but no metal of any sort had been discovered on the -floor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To this responded the first: If Quarm were not burnt, -how was it that he had not put in an appearance? His -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>bundle of clothes was found in the cart. If he had -escaped, he would surely either have made known his -escape, or have gone off with his parcel of necessaries. -Some hinted that, finding the Cellars locked, he had made -his way into the warehouse, there to spend the night, and -had gone to sleep with his pipe alight, and the pipe had -set fire to combustibles in the place. But then, supposing -this, why was his body not found if he had been smothered -by smoke? and if he had escaped, why had he not gone -off with donkey, and cart, and bundle? There was the -puzzle.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Others hinted that Pasco Pepperill was the gainer by the -fire, and that he had had a finger in setting the stores -alight. It was suspicious that he had sent away his wife, -and had gone away with his niece just before the conflagration -broke out. There was an ugly rumour afloat, that he -had returned secretly to the Cellars, and had there met -and quarrelled with his brother-in-law. This rumour was -constructed out of the reported admission of Kate, and -something, it was believed, that the schoolmaster had said. -But neither of these, on being interrogated by the inquisitive, -would say a word. The schoolmaster, with the cheek -of a stuck-up creature, had answered all inquiries with the -question, “Who has authorised you to catechise me? If -the matter is brought into court, I will say what little I -know on oath before the magistrate. I will say nothing to -self-constituted inquisitors.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Whenever this answer of the schoolmaster was repeated, -and it was so a hundred times in the course of a week, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>never failed to elicit an indignant remark, generally couched -thus: “Them schoolmasters want setting down. They’re -owdacious cocky monkeys. But they’re a low lot’they -must be taught their place, which is under our heels. They -gives theirselves airs, as if they was parsons and knew -everything, but they lives on our voluntary subscriptions, -and unless they come to eat humble-pie, we’ll withdraw our -farthing-in-the-pound rate. ’Tisn’t for our pleasure or profit -they exist, but just because of a fad o’ the pass’n. Mr. -Puddicombe was the man for us. Him we could respect. -And now they sez that Mr. Puddicombe is compoging a -Tee-dum which will cut out even Jackson.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The minds and hearts of Kitty and her aunt were -sensibly relieved. The girl had watched the exploration of -the cinder heaps with quivering nerves and brooding fear. -What might not each spade disclose? Into what an object -of horror might not her poor father be reduced? But, as -the floor of the warehouse was cleared, and every mass of -ash turned over, and nothing revealed, her heart swelled, -and the blood began again to pulsate in her arteries. She -covered her face with her hands, and lifted her heart half -in thanksgiving and half in prayer. And yet, what had -become of him? How was it that, if he were alive, he had -given no signs of life?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was ascertained that Jason Quarm had not crossed the -estuary, either by the bridge or by boat, at Shaldon. It was -inconceivable that he had traced the creek up to its head, -below Newton Abbot, to cross the water there, as there was -no path along the water-side, and he must have come into -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>the road and made such a circuit as was not possible for a -man in his crippled condition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At one moment Kitty was sanguine, at the next her -spirits fell. It was to be hoped’nay, believed’that he -had not perished in the fire; but was it not possible’nay, -probable’that he had died by some other means, that he -may have fallen into the mud, and been smothered therein? -That mud would swallow up the man that sank in it and -never restore him again. If he had come by his end thus, -had he fallen in, or had he been cast in?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, with a chill, as if pierced by an icicle, came the -thought of her uncle. Undoubtedly, he could explain all if -he chose. He had returned to the Cellars and found her -father there. The altercation which Walter had imperfectly -heard must have taken place between her father and her -uncle. It could not have occurred at that time, in that -place, between any others. Her father had passed by the -road as the cart entered the linhay, her uncle had gone -home immediately after. Therefore, these two had met at -the Cellars. What had been the occasion of the quarrel? -and what the result of that quarrel? The result was the -disappearance of her father. How had he disappeared? -That, she felt convinced, her uncle could answer, and he -alone. But for motives which she dared not investigate, he -remained silent; nay, worse, he endeavoured, by denial of -his having returned to the Cellars, to cast the suspicion of -having fired the storehouse from himself on other shoulders. -These questions turned and twisted in Kitty’s brain without -rest. They occupied her by day, they tortured her by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>night. She did not venture to express them to her aunt. -She knew that the same thoughts, the same questions, were -working in her mind; and she knew also that her aunt -could not endure their discussion. Meanwhile, the work -of the house must be carried on, and Mrs. Pepperill called -in the assistance of Mrs. Redmore. With their preoccupied -minds, neither she nor Kitty was capable of doing all that -had been done as in days gone by.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco grumbled at the introduction of this woman into -his house’the wife of the wretch who had set fire to the -rick of Farmer Pooke, and who had escaped pursuit. But -Mrs. Pepperill did not yield. There were no other women -disengaged in Coombe, and of girls she would have none -to break dishes, and throw away spoons, and melt the blades -out of the handles of knives.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco acquiesced, with a growl, and a malicious look at -Kate, and a mutter that some folk were mighty fond of -incendiaries and their belongings, backing them up, helping -them to escape, providing for their families; to which neither -Kate nor her aunt made reply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco found that he was not comfortable at home; his -wife would not unbend, and Kate kept out of his way. To -his boisterous mirth, to his boastfulness, they made no -response; when he stormed, they withdrew. He was -uneasy in himself, suspicious of what men said of him, and -alarmed when he heard from his lawyer, Mr. Squire, that -the insurance company refused to pay the sum for which -he had insured. Society, distraction, were necessary for -him. As he could find none at home, he wandered to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>the village tavern, the Lamb and Flag, to seek both -there.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first occasion was the evening of the practice of the -village orchestra, and it was attended by every member of -the same, not only because all desired to say something -relative to the matter exercising all minds, but also because -the score of a new Te Deum had been placed before them, -the composition of the ex-schoolmaster. Puddicombe in -F was to be rehearsed by the instruments before the vocalists -were called in. Puddicombe in F was expected to be a -huge success, and to make Puddicombe known through the -wide world of music, and to render Coombe-in-Teignhead -famous in after generations, just as Exeter was known as -the place which had produced Mr. Jackson, who had won -such a fame with his Te Deum.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Each instrumentalist had his separate sheet of music, and -each devoted himself to his score with seriousness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Puddicombe in F began with a movement slow and -stately, with all the harmonies in thirds and fifths, and a -solemn tum-tum bass. Then, precipitately, it transformed -itself into something headed <em>Fugg</em>. If it had been entitled -<em>fugue</em>, no one would have understood what was meant. But -“fugg” signified that the instruments were to perform a -sort of musical leap-frog, to go higgledy-piggledy, one after -the other, like children tumbling out of school, with the -master behind them threatening to whack the hindermost.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And, verily, never was a fugue more of a higgledy-piggledy -devil-take-the-hindermost character than this one of Puddicombe -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>in F, never such a caterwauling of cats that could -surpass it in discords, with random gruntings in and out -of the violoncello.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A villager, standing breathless outside, listening, ventured -to say to the landlord, who was smoking complacently at -his door, “There don’t seem to be much tune in it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No; but there’s tremendous noise.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The landlord drew whiffs, blew out the smoke in a long -column, and said, smiling, “Wait till we come to the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo -molto tranquillo con affettuoso caprizio</em></span>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What’s that?” asked the bumpkin, in an awestruck -tone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s something writ on the music by the hand of Mr. -Puddicombe. The Lord knows what it means!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The hubbub of the “fugg” came to an end, and the -instruments paused, drew a sort of sigh, and, with stately -tread, marched in unison <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto tranquillo con affettuoso -caprizio</em></span>, and stalked through it to the end.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There’s tune there now, and be blowed,” said the landlord -triumphantly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s the tune of ‘Kitty Alone and I,’” retorted the -irreverent countryman, and he began to sing’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘There was a frog lived in a well,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Crock-a-mydaisy, Kitty alone;</div> - <div class='line'>And a merry mouse lived in a mill,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Kitty alone and I.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>The instruments behind the lighted window-curtains were -hushed. They had heard the rustic song.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>“It is that, ain’t it?” pursued the man. “I’ll sing -another verse, and make sure’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘So here’s an end to the lovers three,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Crock-a-mydaisy, Kitty alone,</div> - <div class='line'>The Rat, the Mouse, and the little Frogee,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Kitty alone and I.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>Within, the instrumentalists looked at each other. None -spoke for a minute, and then the ’cello said, in a deep voice, -as from a tomb, “Puddicombe han’t riz to the theme. He’s -forgot and worked in that frog and mouse tune. Not but -what it’s a good ’un, only unsootable.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s easy set right,” observed the first violin. “If you’ll -wait, brothers, I’ll clap on my hat and run up to his house, -and get him to titch it up a bit, and git the Kitty tune out -of it altogether. The fugg was famous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes,” said the second violin; “it’s only to stir it about -a bit and shuffle as you do cards. Cut along with all your -legs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>At that moment Pasco Pepperill came up, puffing, -looking about him half suspiciously, half defiantly. “How -are ye, gents?” said he. “What! practising? I don’t -mind if I sit a bit and listen to you. I’m fond of music, -especially sacred music, as I’m churchwarden.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLV <br /> <span class='fss'>DAYLIGHT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The musicians looked at each other. They could -hardly continue to practise Puddicombe in F till the -little awkwardness of the passage <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto con affettuoso -caprizio</em></span> was set to rights. It would be half an hour before -this was done. Meanwhile, the orchestra might as well -work their tongues as well as their arms and fingers, and -blow questions and puff opinions in place of musical notes. -They had assembled that evening with a double intent: the -excuse for their meeting was the rehearsal; the real object, -the airing of their views on the fire at the Cellars, its -probable origin, and what had become of Jason Quarm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the gathering of information on such matters, what -was more fortunate than the presence in their midst of -Pasco Pepperill, the man of all others best qualified to give -information relative to the matters troubling all hearts? It -was true that a good many’the bassoon and the ophicleide -among the orchestra’entertained grave views relative to -the conduct of Pepperill. Well! there the man was. They -might prove him with keen questions, catch him off his -guard with sly hits, entangle him in a net of incautious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>admissions into which they had lured him, and then sit in -judgment on him and the whole case, after he had withdrawn.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Gents and neighbours, and friends all,” said Pasco, -seating himself, “as churchwarden, my place is among you, -and allow me to stand treat of rum and water all round’no, -better than that, a grand bowl of punch, and we’ll -spoon it out with our good host’s whalebone ladle, and the -Queen Anne shilling in the bottom. Landlord, don’t spare -the rum; thanks to my uncle, I’m a man of means, and can -pay my way.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Marvellous as a solvent is punch. The mere mention of -a bowl began to melt and break up prejudice and fixed -opinions. The bassoon had been persistent in insisting on -the criminality of Pepperill; he had urged every point -against him, he had turned aside every argument that -tended to exonerate him. As a man of strict integrity, he -was now placed in a difficult position. Either he must -hold to his opinion, rise, bow stiffly, and decline to drink -out of the bowl, to wet his lips with the generous liquor the -churchwarden provided, or else his judgment must undergo -modifications, then a complete <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><em>volte face</em></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The popping of a cork was heard. At once the bassoon -acknowledged that he had been precipitate in forming his -conclusions. A waft of rum and lemons entered the room. -He began to see that there were weighty considerations -which had escaped him hitherto, and which undermined -his convictions. Then came the clink of the ladle in the -bowl, as the bowl was being brought in. The bassoon’s -preconceptions went down like a pack of cards. The whole -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>room was redolent with a fragrant steam, as the great iron-stoneware -bowl was planted on the table. The bassoon -was converted into an ardent, enthusiastic believer in the -churchwarden.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wondrous is the power of conscience. It may lie asleep, -it may remain for long inert, but a little something comes, -unexpectedly touches it, and it springs up to full energy, -and resolves amidst much self-reproach to make amends -for the past. So was it in the interior of the bassoon. -The sniff of punch was to his conscience what “Hey, rats!” -is to the dozing dog. It was alive, it was stinging him, it -had brought him metaphorically in penitence to his knees -before Pasco Pepperill. He could not think, say, show -himself, sufficiently convinced that that man who provided -and paid for the punch was the embodiment of all virtues, -with a character unstained as is the lily. He trampled on -his own base self, he spurned at it, for having for a while -thought evil of so admirable a man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Peter Squance bain’t here. ’Tis a pity’our first fiddle,” -said the second violin. “He’ll be mazed when he comes -back with the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>molto largo</em></span>, and finds the punch all -gone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Gone?” exclaimed Pepperill. “Not a bit of it. When -this bowl is done, we will have another.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Pepperill stood up and stirred the steaming sea -before him, in which floated yellow islets of lemon. All -eyes were on the bowl, all nostrils were dilated and sniffing, -all mouths watering.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco filled each glass, and then ensued a nodding all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>round; eyes were turned up, lips smacked, and the precious -liquor allowed to trickle down the throats in thin rills over -the tongue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Presently the clarionet put down his glass and said, “It -was a lucky job, Pasco, that your rick o’ straw escaped -t’other night.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ay, ’twas a first-rate chance,” said the landlord, who -had come and remained to taste his own brew and hear -encomiums on it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You see the wind was t’other way,” said the ’cello.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And ’twasn’t insured,” added the clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All the rest looked round, and frowned, and reared -their chins. The clarionet shrank together. What had he -said? Something stupid or uncivil? He was too dull to -see where his error lay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That had nothing to do with it. ’Twas water chucked -over it as saved it,” threw in the bassoon, flying to the rescue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My straw rick suffered more from well-intentioned -assistants than from anything else,” said Pepperill. “The -wind was direct away from it, and so it couldn’t hurt.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was coorious, though, the fire taking place when -everyone was away from home,” said the clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again all looked indignantly at him. That instrument -had a way of always sounding out of key.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There was nothing coorious at all in it,” answered the -churchwarden, with promptitude. “It was just because -everyone was away that the fire got the upper hand.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There’s something in that,” said the hautboy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is everything,” answered Pasco. “If I or my -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>wife had been at the Cellars, we would have speedily called -help and had the fire extinguished before it could take -hold. No one was there, so it was allowed freedom to get -the mastery, and then, no one could do nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s true,” said the second violin.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s true,” said the rest of the instruments in unison, -looking into each other’s faces; “it couldn’t be truer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You don’t happen to know how the fire came about?” -asked the clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t <em>know</em>,” answered the churchwarden.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You don’t know,” repeated the violoncello, “but you -guess.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I have my ideas,” observed Pasco. “Gents! let me -fill your glasses again.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And if I might make so bold to ask?” pursued the -clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My mouth is shut,” answered Pasco. “I don’t want -to hurt nobody, least of all a relation. Just fancy, gents -all! the insurance company have refused payment.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You don’t say so! Well! what is the world coming -to? But it all stands in prophecy, in the Book o’ Dan’l,” -said the hautboy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is one of them beasts in Revelation!” said the -second fiddle. “The question only is which.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But,” pursued Pepperill, “I’ve set my solicitor at ’em. -He’ll make ’em dance a Halantow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Very glad to hear it,” said the bassoon. “I drink to -his and your success.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We’re going to institute proceedings,” continued Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>“What is proceedings?” asked the clarionet under his -hand of the hautboy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s a sort of blister o’ Spanish fly,” was the answer, also -in confidence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then it will make ’em dance, no mistake,” said the -clarionet. “Do you think, churchwarden, it will draw?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Draw?” Pasco rubbed his hands and looked round. -“It’ll draw getting on for fifteen hundred pound. If that -bain’t drawin’, show me what is!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This announcement produced a great effect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To go back to the p’int,” said the clarionet. “It would -be a comfort to us all if you’d give us your ideas on the -matter of the fire. You see, we’re all abroad.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I wouldn’t hurt nobody’not a fly. I was always -tender-hearted,” said Pasco. “Besides, you’d talk.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We are all friends,” urged the bassoon. “You see, -coals don’t as a rule set alight to themselves, nor wool, nor -hides neither.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s what I’ve said all along,” observed the second -fiddle. “Someone must ha’ done it. The question is’who?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll have another thimbleful of punch,” said the bass viol. -“It’s uncommon good, and does credit to all parties’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Come let’s drink, and drown all sorrow,</div> - <div class='line'>For perchance we may not’</div> - <div class='line'>For perchance we may not meet here to-morrow.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>Then the hautboy trolled out’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘He that goes to bed, goes to bed sober</div> - <div class='line'>Falls as the leaves does’</div> - <div class='line'>Falls as the leaves does’in October.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>“Someone must ha’ done it,” observed the clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course some one did,” said Pepperill, “and when folk -begin yarnin’ lies, you ain’t got to go far to find the evil-doer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s true,” was the chorus.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And no one was at the Cellars at the time but one or -two persons,” said the clarionet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“One was Jason Quarm,” said Pasco; “and burnt he -was not, as was proved by the constable.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t know,” said the second fiddle. “The fire was -so tremendous hot, and lasted so tremendous long, it would -ha’ burned a fatter man nor Jason Quarm.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Jason’s not burnt. He’s runned away.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Runned away?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes,” pursued Pasco; “’cos he didn’t want to have to -give evidence as to what he knew.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What wor that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He comed to the Cellars, and found someone there -doin’ of the wickedness, and he runned away so as not to -have to say what he didn’t want to be forced to say.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What was that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s not for me to speak!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Someone did it! who could ha’ done it?” said the -clarionet. “I thought it wor proved, if I may be so bould, -that you, Mr. Churchwarden, comed back to the Cellars.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I?” exclaimed Pasco, becoming purple in the face. -“It suited somebody’s convenience to say so, but I was in -the linhay minding the hoss, and I put it to the company’no -one can be in two places at once, can they?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There’s something in that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>“I was minding the hoss, but I sent somebody back to -lock up. I name no names, and she’s gone and put it on -me to clear herself.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The eyebrows of all the instrumentalists went up.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty? What! Kitty Alone?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I name no names,” said Pasco; “but I must say this -to clear myself. I’ve borne hard words too long for the -sake of sheltering she. The schoolmaster heard her father -lecturing of her for what she’d done.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But she wouldn’t do it out of pure wickedness,” urged -the clarionet; “and what reason had she?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There it is,” answered Pasco. “I see I’m among -friends, and it won’t go no farther. I’d been speaking to -her rather sharp for her goings-on with young men, drawin’ -on Jan Pooke, then kicking him over, then Noah Flood, -and same with he. Noah, poor fellow, was took cruel bad -along of she’ever since Ashburton fair had a pain in the -stomach; if that ain’t love, show me what love is. Then -she took up with that schoolmaster chap, and when I said -I wouldn’t have it, and I wasn’t going to have the family -disgraced wi’ bringing schoolmasters into it, she cut rusty, -and sulked, and I believe it were naught but spite.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But,” observed the clarionet, “the tale I was told of -what the schoolmaster said wasn’t quite that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You are right there,” said Pasco. “He’d alter his tale -when he found what she’d been about. As is nat’ral. I put -it to the company, if you was sweetheartin’, and you found -your love had been up to wickedness, you wouldn’t tell -tales of her, but would do all you could to screen her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>“That’s true,” was the general opinion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And you think Jason see’d her, and made off?” said -the bassoon.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That explains everything,” observed the violoncello.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I begin to see daylight,” remarked the hautboy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At that moment, in rushed the first violin, waving the -score above his head.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ve got it!” he said. “Nothing easier. It wasn’t no -fault o’ Puddicombe, he said it were our stoopidity. -‘What does <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto con affettuoso caprizio</em></span> mean?’ he -asked. ‘<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>Largo molto</em></span>, turn the score upside down, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>con -affettuoso caprizio</em></span>, and go ahead like blazes!’”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLVI <br /> <span class='fss'>A TRIUMPH</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The fumes of the punch had been dissipated, not only -from the room of the Lamb and Flag, but also from -the brain of the orchestra.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The bassoon’s scruples revived; he was still grateful -for the punch, but resentful for the headache it had -produced.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The several points brought out by the clarionet, that -provoking advocate for Pasco, who asked awkward questions -and propounded awkward suggestions, stood twinkling like -sparks in tinder. The bassoon thought that punch, good -thing though it might be, did but momentarily overflow, -and did not drown, doubts. It darkened the burning -questions, but did not quench them. The disappearance -of Quarm was not satisfactorily explained. The coincidence -of the voiding of the Cellars conveniently for the fire, was -not explained. The contradiction between the statements -made by the uncle and the niece was unsifted. The -bassoon grunted in his bed a grunt of dissatisfaction with -himself for having yielded his opinions, a grunt of resentment -against Pasco for having obfuscated his clear -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>judgment, a grunt of resolve never again to allow his -opinions to give way before punch. Conscience, that -capricious factor, which had pricked him in one direction -last night, pricked him in another this morning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The hautboy, also, was out of tune. On review of the -events of the past night, he considered that the entry of -Pasco was an unwarrantable intrusion. The rule was well -known that during a practice of the orchestra no one -should be admitted. Pepperill had entered uninvited, had -forced himself into their society, and he must have done -that for a purpose. For what purpose but to cajole, to -hoodwink them?</p> - -<p class='c001'>In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. The -hautboy was a very wideawake and watchful bird, and he -saw the meshes clearly. In vain is the hook cast in clear -water; and the medium was so transparent that the -hautboy plainly saw the hook. He resolved to maintain -an independent, observant attitude, to form his own -opinion, not accept ready-made views served up to him -with punch. When before had the churchwarden favoured -the village orchestra with punch? Never’since Pasco had -been churchwarden. Never when in a private capacity. -Only when popular feeling became suspicious or hostile, did -he show himself free-handed. His present liberality told -against him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The violoncello also entered into commune with himself. -Was there any chance of another brew? Would another -bowl of punch be produced to keep up the favourable -opinion formed on the preceding evening, or would a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>mistrustful attitude act as a stimulant to excite greater -liberality? One brew of punch was not much, it prepared -the soil, a second would sow the seed, a third make it -germinate, a fourth develop, and only a fifth fructify conviction -in the integrity of the provider.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The words spoken by Pepperill relative to Kate had -spread. The orchestra confided them to their spouses, and -the wives whispered them to their intimates. There arose -in Coombe-in-Teignhead two rival factions. One party -contended that Pasco was guilty, the other argued that -Kitty had fired the storehouse. The advantage of the -latter view was that it explained what was otherwise inexplicable’the -disappearance of Quarm. The story was -worked into shape; it was elaborated in detail. Kitty, of -a morose and vindictive nature, had been exasperated -because her uncle had forbidden her engagement to the -schoolmaster. Kitty had never been as other girls were. -Her reserve was slyness, her bashfulness sulkiness. Her -schoolfellows had disliked her. Their mothers shared the -feelings of their daughters. As the proverb says, “Still -waters run deep,” and of the stillness of Kitty there could -be no question.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The dislike entertained of Kitty had been vague and -unreasonable. Now a reason was supplied, and consistency -given to what had been shapeless.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was suspicious that Kitty had volunteered the statement -relative to her being left in the linhay before she had -been asked questions relative to her whereabouts. Why -should she have blurted this out to Jan Pooke and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>Rose Ash, but for the purpose of throwing dust in their -eyes?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kitty had been unwarrantably forward in telling her tale, -and the schoolmaster unwarrantably reticent relative to his -experience. Why did the schoolmaster refuse to speak out -what he had seen and heard at Coombe Cellars, on that -eventful night. The reason was plain enough. He did -not desire to compromise Kitty. But it was clear what -had occurred. She had been sent back to the Cellars by -her uncle, and there her malignant spirit had induced her, -out of revenge, to set fire to her uncle’s stores. Her father -had come on her red-handed, and had rebuked her sharply. -That was what the schoolmaster had overheard. Then -Quarm, finding it too late to undo the mischief done by -his daughter, afraid to call in neighbours to his aid, lest -Kitty should be compromised, had made his escape. -There were a thousand other ways by which he might get -away besides crossing the Teign. No one had thought of -that. Every one had considered only whether he had -crossed by ferry or by bridge. There were a score of lanes -at the back of Coombe by which he might get away -unperceived. All attention and investigation had been -devoted to the water, and every other means of evasion -left unconsidered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus was the case worked out against Kitty. It assumed -deeper colouring when it was remembered that she had -allowed Roger Redmore to escape when entrusted with the -charge of him by Jan Pooke, and Jan had said that as he -left Roger he could not free himself, without Kate’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>consent. It was noted, also, that she had, as her uncle -had told, deliberately and of <em>malice prepense</em>, frustrated the -efforts he made to catch the incendiary at Dart-meet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She had, moreover, induced her father to give up his -house to Jane Redmore. Birds of a feather flock together’and -surely fireflies are actuated by mutual sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, the party that held Pepperill to be -guilty were not silent. Who was the gainer by the fire? -Pasco, to the amount of twelve hundred pounds. Was it -not certain that he had been greatly embarrassed for money? -that a bill of his had just been dishonoured? Was it not -just as probable that his story was false as that of Kate? -Was it she who sent away Zerah across the water? Who -persuaded Pasco to drive in the direction of Newton? Did -not all his proceedings on that eventful evening show a -deep-laid plan? And so on.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The pros and cons were thrashed and re-thrashed over -the tavern table and the ale-mugs, and over the tea in -private houses. Hardly any other topic occupied men’s -minds and women’s mouths, till suddenly something -happened which silenced everyone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The insurance company had refused payment, and the -solicitor of the company sent down an agent to Coombe -that he might collect information which might justify them -in their refusal. At once all became mum. No one knew -anything, no one suspected anybody. Nothing had happened -but what was natural and easily accounted for. This change -was due to the fact that there is, and more than half a -century ago there was, a strong <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><em>esprit de corps</em></span> in a secluded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>village, that resented any intrusion of a stranger into its -affairs. The rural mind is naturally suspicious, and naturally -mistrusts anyone not intimately known, and regards any -questions asked as something to be evaded, and on no -account to be answered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When, accordingly, the agent came among the Coombe-in-Teignheadites, -and busied himself in cross-examining the -people, they snapped their mouths as an oyster snaps before -a lobster; or they may be likened to hedgehogs that rolled -themselves up and presented nothing but prickles to the -inquirer intruding in their midst. Never in his life had the -man come among people like these; they neither saw with -their eyes, nor heard with their ears, nor thought with what -they called their brains.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco took no measures to protect himself. He knew his -fellow-villagers well enough to be sure that they would say -nothing against him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After a week spent in unprofitable investigation, the agent -retired. At once the whole place woke up. Everyone -uncoiled, every mouth opened, and every brain worked -again. The rival factions recommenced their warfare, and -the difference in opinion became poignant.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In due course the case of Pepperill against the insurance -company came off, or rather, was announced to come off.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill was full of consequence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He had felt acutely that suspicion hung about him like a -cloud which he could not dissipate. Men who had hitherto -courted his society now avoided him. The rector was -especially cold in demeanour towards him. The orchestra -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>remained divided in opinion, agreed only in desire for more -punch. When, after church, he approached a group at the -graveyard gate that was in eager conversation, his approach -silenced the talkers and broke up the conclave. He was -certain that he had been their topic. Hands that had -formerly been extended to him now remained buried in -trousers-pockets. Voices that had given him the good-day -now withheld salutations. Customers were reluctant to deal -with him. His appearance in the bar of the Lamb and Flag -induced a hasty rise, a payment of shot, and a departure of -all save sodden topers. By no other means were they to -be retained save by the offer of drink at his expense. When -he bragged, his boasts fell flat; when he joked, none laughed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In ill-humour and uneasy, Pasco departed for Exeter. -The case, however, never got into court. At the last -moment the Company, convinced it had no grounds to go -upon, agreed to pay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This was a triumph for Pepperill. He deferred his return -to Coombe for a week, that the news might be carried to -everyone there, and have time to ripen in the somewhat -sluggish brains of the natives, and produce the effect he -anticipated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The triumph of Pepperill was more than his own individual -triumph. When the tidings had well soaked in, then Coombe -awoke to the knowledge that the entire parish had achieved -a victory, and that over an influential, moneyed, and powerful -society. Whether Pepperill was guilty or not guilty was -immaterial. The fact remained that a little parish like -Coombe, by its representative, Pasco, its churchwarden, had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>stood up face to face with the capital of the county, represented -by the insurance company, and that the latter had -cringed and acknowledged defeat without daring to measure -arms. That was something unheard of heretofore. If -Coombe-in-Teignhead were not proud of its doughty -champion, then it would cover itself with disgrace. The -situation was discussed in the bar of the Lamb and Flag, -and a self-constituted committee formed to celebrate this -momentous achievement. The rector was to be solicited -to have a special service, at which Puddicombe in F would -be performed and a sermon preached. The rector had a -service on Saints’ Day, attended only by a few old women. -Who cared for the saints? But Pepperill’who had extorted -one thousand two hundred pounds from the insurance company’that -was the sort of man to honour, and the service -in his honour would be attended by all Coombe. The bells -should be rung. There had been a disturbance with the -parson about the right to the belfry on the occasion of -Puddicombe’s return. The parish must assert and maintain -its right to ring the bells when it chose, and defy the rector -if he objected.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As was feared, Mr. Fielding raised objections to both the -thanksgiving service and to the peal of bells. Thereupon -ensued another meeting in the bar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now Mr. Pooke, senior, came forward. He had been -opposed to Mr. Pepperill; he had disapproved of his -conduct. But when it came to a matter of ringing of -bells, he felt that a principle was involved. If once the -parishioners yielded that point, they might as well yield -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>everything, and be priest-ridden. There were two church-wardens; -Pasco Pepperill was one, Mr. Ash, the miller, was -the other, having succeeded at Lady-Day to Whiteaway, the -grocer. Let Mr. Ash insist on the bells being rung, and -if the rector withheld the key, then let him authorise the -blacksmith to break open the door. He, Yeoman Pooke, -would back him up.</p> - -<p class='c001'>They could not force Mr. Fielding to preach a sermon, -but that didn’t matter; they’d have music, and have it in -the road, and escort Pasco Pepperill home to the strains of -Puddicombe in F.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Carried by acclamation.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLVII <br /> <span class='fss'>PARTED</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>If anything had been needed to clinch in Pasco Pepperill -the sense of his conduct being irreproachable, the ovation -on his return to Coombe-in-Teignhead would have -served this purpose; but nothing was necessary after that -the insurance office had thrown up the ball. The retirement -of the Company from the contest, and the payment of -the money for which his stores were insured, acted on his -conscience as much as would a plenary papal absolution on -that of a Roman Catholic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Previous to this his conscience had given occasional -twitches, now it glowed with conscious sense of righteousness. -It was vexed with neither qualm nor scruple. He -held his head higher, boasted louder, strutted with more -consequence, and became impatient and offended at his -wife’s maintaining her distance. He might deceive himself, -deceive the world, but he could not blind her, and this -made him angry. He was slighted in his home, where he -had best claims for recognition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He was, moreover, disappointed that there was so little -real enthusiasm for himself at the back of the demonstration, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>which was organised rather in honour of the parish -than of himself. The same suspicion attended him, the -same reluctance to deal with him, and the same indifference -to his society.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The demonstration was destined not to pass without -leaving some unpleasant consequences.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the urgency of Farmer Pooke, Miller Ash, the second -churchwarden, had forced the belfry door and admitted the -ringers, and authorised them to give a peal of welcome to -the returning conqueror.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Fielding was of a mild and kindly disposition, but he -was a stickler in matters of discipline, and he could not -suffer this high-handed conduct to pass unquestioned. Ash -was cited before the archdeacon, and legal proceedings were -instituted to establish the sole right of the incumbent to -order when and by whom the bells should be rung. Ash -was dismayed at the prospect of a suit. He attempted to -fall back on Pooke, but found that Pooke was by no means -inclined to find money for the defence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Fielding was reluctant to proceed against a parishioner -and a churchwarden, and a man eminently worthy, but he -considered that it would be a neglect of duty not to do so. -Twice had he been defied, and twice had the bells been -rung on improper occasions. He was aware that his action -must produce ill-feeling against himself, but he was too -conscientious a man to allow this consideration to weigh -with him. Nothing is easier than for a man in authority -to court popularity by giving way at every point. Mr. -Fielding did not desire popularity, and he did not believe -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>that in discharging a duty he would interfere with his -ministerial influence in the place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And, in fact, Ash did not so much resent the action of -the rector as the unreliability of Pooke’a man who had -urged him to act, and had promised to take the responsibility -on himself for such action; a man whose son was -about to marry his own daughter. Ash was bitter at heart, -in the first line with Pooke, and the second with Pepperill, -for having occasioned this affair. If Pepperill had never -insured, never had allowed his warehouse to be burnt, -never had confronted the Company, this unpleasantness -would not have arisen; and only in the third line did his -resentment touch the rector. Moreover, Pooke was discontented -and uncomfortable. He was well aware that he -was morally responsible for the infraction of the belfry, -but he would not admit it, lest it should cost him money. -Pooke was a man ready to admit a moral obligation up -to ten-and-six; not a penny beyond. He allowed that the -parson was in the right to stick out for his authority, and -if the law gave him command of the bell-ropes’well, -he was justified in trying to obtain it. But it was -Pasco Pepperill who was really to blame. He ought not -to have delayed his return from Exeter. Why did he stick -at that city for seven whole days after he had got what he -wanted? Had he come flying home by the Atmospheric -the day he received payment, there would have been no -demonstration. By dawdling in Exeter, he allowed time -for the organisation of a demonstration, and he did not -deserve one, Heaven knew! So Pooke’s self-reproach -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>converted itself into anger against Pepperill. In the -physical world all forces are correlated, and it is so in -the world of feeling. Love becomes hate, and joy turns -into grief, and, as we have seen, compunction glances -away from self and converts itself into a sting aimed at -another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kitty’s position in the place became one full of discomfort. -Not only was she regarded as guilty of the fire -by one body of the inhabitants, but she had given offence -to others by her engagement to the schoolmaster.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Walter Bramber was not merely a pleasant-looking man, -but a good-looking one as well, and several young and -middle-aged women in the place had set their caps at -him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of these was the distorted milliner, designed for -him by his landlady, and encouraged by her in hopes of -exchanging her condition of maid without a home for wife -in the schoolhouse. This person went about to all the -farmhouses making garments for the farmers’ wives and -daughters, and was able, without allowing it to transpire -that she had aspired to Bramber, to stir up a good deal -of ill-feeling against Kitty, who had been lucky where she -had failed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another was a good-looking wench with a flaw in her -reputation, who had hoped that the new-comer would be -ignorant of her past history, and would succumb to her -charms, and enable her to repair her faulty character out -of the respectability of the position she would acquire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another, a damsel of erratic ecclesiasticism, who became -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>a Particular Baptist or an Anglican Churchwoman, according -as desirable young men attended chapel or church.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The last was a widow on a nice income of her own, -some twenty years Bramber’s senior, who had made up her -mind to marry again, and marry a young man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco was subjected to passive suspicions, Kate to active -hostility. The art of ingeniously tormenting is one that -men are too dull to acquire, and too clumsy to exercise. -It is an art easily exercised and rapidly perfected by -women. In a hundred ways Kate was annoyed by those -of her own sex in Coombe; and these were ways skilfully -contrived to excite the maximum of pain. She endeavoured -to keep entirely to herself, but this was beyond -her power. No mosquito curtains have been contrived -which a person can draw about himself as a protection -against malignant and poisonous tongues.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Without malicious interest’on the contrary, with the -kindest desire for Kate’s welfare’Rose Ash interfered -and caused her the greatest distress.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose had set her mind on matching Kate with Noah; -she by no means approved of the engagement to Walter -Bramber. A girl like Kate, enjoying her friendship, might -look higher, do better than throw herself away on a two-penny-ha’penny -schoolmaster, of whose origin nobody knew -anything; and when Rose took an idea into her head, she -left no stone unturned till she had carried it out.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She visited Kate, she assured her that a union with -Bramber was out of the question. There was so strong a -feeling against her in the place that, were she to marry the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>schoolmaster, it would damage his prospects. The farmers -would withdraw their subscriptions from the school, and -the parents refuse to send their children to be educated -there.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course,” said Rose, “I don’t believe you burnt the -warehouse, but a lot of people in the place do. Some say -you did it out of spite, because your uncle wouldn’t let -you have the schoolmaster; others say he sent you back -to set the wares alight, being too much of a coward to do -it himself. I know better’but folks won’t listen to me. -I don’t see how you can put the notion out of them but -by marrying Noah. He’s related to nearly everyone in -the place, and if you became his wife, you see, all the -relations of Noah would take your part; they’d be bound -to do it. Noah is a good fellow, and he’s terribly in love’got -a pain under his ribs, and walks bent’all along of -love. You’d best chuck over the schoolmaster and stop -their mouths with Noah. There’s no other way of doin’ -it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You really think that my engagement to Walter -Bramber will injure him?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If it goes on, he may as well leave the place. It -would be made too hot to hold him. You see, Kitty, the -Coombites ha’ never taken much to him’he bain’t like -Mr. Puddicombe in nothing. But they might get used -to him and put up wi’ him. If you go on holding him -to his engagement, then’what everyone says is’he -must go.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah, moreover, sought to influence her niece. She -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>was a selfish woman, and now that she had opened her -heart to Kitty, she was jealous of anyone else claiming a -share in the girl. Moreover, she could not endure to live -at the Cellars if left there alone with Pasco, of that she -was convinced. She therefore extorted a promise from -Kate not to leave her.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kitty had become more than ever thoughtful, and was -nervous and depressed in spirits. She could not clear -herself of this suspicion that attached to her without -incriminating her uncle, and she greatly doubted whether -her word would avail against his. She could not hear -anything of her father, the same mystery enveloped his -fate unrelieved. She would have liked to pour her troubles -into the ear of Walter, but her uncle had forbidden his -coming to the house, and she would not go and seek -him, observed, watched by all, and everything she did -subject to misconstruction. Kate’s time was more at -her disposal than formerly, as Jane Redmore came in -charing. This was a disadvantage to her, so far that -it allowed her time to brood over her troubles and annoyances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>After Rose had gone, she went on the water side -of the house and seated herself on the parapet above -the rippling inflowing tide, with her head sunk on her -bosom.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Presently the tears began to course down her cheeks. -She had not been seated there long before the timid, feeble -Jane Redmore came fluttering out to her, looking over -her shoulder as she came. The woman touched her: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>“I wouldn’t take on so,” she said. “You ain’t sure -Jason Quarm’s dead, you know. He wasn’t found, and -for why?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate looked at the poor woman with tear-filled eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can’t say nothin’,” said Mrs. Redmore hastily. -“Only’there’it makes me bad to see you cry, it do, and -I reckon there’s no reason.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then she slipped back in the same wavering, timid -manner to the kitchen, without another word.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But Kate’s distress of mind was not due solely, as the -woman believed, to her anxiety concerning the fate of her -father. She had been debating in her heart whether she -ought to continue her engagement with Bramber, and, -perhaps, never had Kitty felt how truly she was “alone” -as now, when she had satisfied herself that for his sake it -were well for her to release him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She stood up, when her purpose was formed, and walked -quietly, firmly, to the Rectory. One friend she had there, -ever faithful’the parson. He knew that she was innocent, -he alone could appreciate her difficulties, and he would -approve her determination.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She entered the study where he was at work on a sermon. -He smiled, and his face brightened when he saw her, and -he signed to a chair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate, direct, clear, and firm in all she said and did, told -the rector of her intention. She informed him of what he -knew already, that a body of feeling was engaged against -her, that she was incapable of establishing her innocence. -That, under the circumstances, it was out of the question -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>her holding Walter Bramber to his promise. She had, -furthermore, passed her word to her aunt not to leave her. -Mr. Fielding, though disappointed, saw that under the -circumstances nothing could be done; and he felt that -Kate was acting honourably and in accordance with her -conscience. He knew, therefore, he must not dissuade -her from obedience to that inner voice. He took a more -hopeful view than did she, and this he expressed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“If things change, then no harm has been done,” said -Kate. “I have to say what is in my mind as made up on -things as they are. Will you be so kind, sir, as to speak -to Walter?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I see him coming in at the gate,” said Mr. Fielding. -“He is with me about this time every day for a Greek -lesson’a bit of New Testament in the original -tongue.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate stood up.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes,” said he. “You go to meet him at the mulberry -tree.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The girl left quietly and composedly, as she had entered, -and, crossing the lawn, came on the young man just as he -reached the bench under the mulberry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Walter,” she said, “I want a word with you. Have you -a knife?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; why?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Will you cut this in the mulberry bark? Mr. Fielding -will not object’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘O Tree, defying time, witness bear,</div> - <div class='line'>That two’”’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>She hesitated, slightly coloured’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“‘That two friends met and parted here.’”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>“What do you mean, Kitty?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ask the rector’he will tell you all.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then hastily, unable further to control herself, she passed -him, and left the garden.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>CHAPTER XLVIII</p> - -<p class='c001'>A SHADOW-SHAPE</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate walked at once to the house of Mr. Puddicombe, -and, without giving any reasons, announced to him -that the engagement to Walter Bramber was at an end. -She calculated on his publishing the fact, but she had not -calculated on his inventing and promulgating reasons of his -own supposition for explaining the rupture. According to -him, she had formed a preference for Noah Flood, and -regarded an alliance with Noah more to her advantage -than one with a person of whose origin nothing was known, -and whose prospects were uncertain. One of the first to -hear the news was Rose Ash, and she made an excursion -immediately to the house of the Floods, where Noah lived -with his mother, a widow. The Floods were a well-to-do -yeoman family, with land of their own. The father of Noah -had died three years previous to the events recorded in this -tale. Noah was the only child, and had been the idol of his -mother. That he should seek a wife, she admitted, was -natural. She would greatly have preferred his taking someone -of more position and means, and in greater favour than -Kitty Alone, but she was accustomed to regard everything -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>her son did as right, and she would not offer any opposition -to what he determined on. As Rose Ash was not to be -won, he might take Kitty; though she would have vastly -preferred Rose. The old woman was, it is true, made -uneasy by the reports relative to Kitty and the fire at the -Cellars, but her son knew how to set her mind at rest, by -ridiculing them as idle and baseless, bred of malice or -stupidity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose was really energetic on behalf of Kitty. She did -brave battle for her, and combated every adverse opinion. -She was thoroughly resolved to forward the match between -Noah and Kate, and now that the field was cleared of the -schoolmaster, she hurried to the house of the Floods to spur -on Noah to immediate action.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The evening was already closing in, and the house of the -Floods was at some distance out of Coombe; but Rose was -impulsive, and what she did was done in impulse. She was -generous, so far as did not interfere with her own prospects -and wishes and comforts. Mrs. Flood was her aunt, -and with her she was ever welcome. Noah was happily at -home when Rose arrived. She was not the girl to beat -about the bush, and she rushed at once upon the topic -uppermost in her mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You must put on your hat at once, Noah, and come -with me. I’m going to the Cellars, and going to make all -right between you and Kitty. The time has arrived. The -door is ajar, and you must thrust your shoulder in before -it is shut. It’s off with the schoolmaster, and must be on -with you at once.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>“Noah hasn’t been hisself of late,” said Mrs. Flood. -“I don’t think he ought to be out with the dew falling -heavy.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nonsense, Aunt Sally! it’s love,” said Rose. “The dew -won’t hurt. It’s his disappointment has upset him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He’s been off his feed terrible,” said the mother; -“there is a nice piece of boiled bacon I’ve had cold, but he -don’t seem to relish it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s love,” said Rose; “and I heard Mr. Pepperill -say that Noah had a pain under his ribs.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It’s like a hot pertater lodged here,” said Noah; “I can’t -get no rest at all from it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s love also; I know it. I’ve had the same till Jan -came to his senses.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And I don’t seem to take no interest in the farm; do -I, mother?” asked Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Indeed you don’t, Noah.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That also is love,” said Rose; “we’ll soon put that to -rights.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I thought it was liver,” observed the mother; “and -that blue pill”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, nothing of the sort,” interrupted Rose. “I know -all the symptoms: hot potato, distaste for biled bacon, and -indifference to farm affairs’it’s love; I had it all badly till -Jan came round. Love turns heavy on the chest, if disappointed. -That’s what Noah feels under his ribs. Come -on, Noah, take your hat, and we will go to the Cellars -together.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Noah complied with as much alacrity as he was capable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>of displaying. He was a docile youth; he had fallen in -love with Kitty, partly at Rose’s bidding, partly out of compunction -at his conduct at the fair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That evening had closed in rapidly. There were dense -clouds overhead, so that the twilight was cut off, also all -danger of dew, as Rose at once pointed out to Mrs. Flood. -As, however, the mother feared her dear boy might get -wet in the event of rain, Noah was induced to take a -greatcoat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The young man was shy and timid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You know, Rose, I treated her terrible bad at Ashburton, -when I knocked away the workbox from under her -arm.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She will like you all the better for it,” answered the girl. -“Young maidens like a lad of spirit, and you may be sure -it gave her pleasure to see you and Jan punching each -other’s heads. That schoolmaster! he ain’t up to nothing -but whacking childer with a cane. If you like, I’ll try and -egg him on to fight you, and then you can knock him all to -pieces; and there’s nothing surer for finding your way to -Kitty’s heart. If she’s like me, she’ll like to see lads -fighting about her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You don’t think, Rose, she really had anything to do -wi’ the fire?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The fire?” snapped the girl. “No more than you or I. -Her uncle did it. He wanted the insurance money. That’s -a fine tale’that she set fire to the warehouse, because her -uncle wouldn’t hear of her marrying the schoolmaster’and -now, of her own accord, she throws the fellow over. If she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>had been so set on him, she wouldn’t have done <em>that</em>. Can’t -you see, Noah, or are you stupid, that her giving up Mr. -Bramber is the best answer to that story? It shows it -could not have been. And then, as to that other tale,’that -Mr. Pepperill sent her back to set the place in a blaze,’no -one who knows Kitty can believe <em>that</em>. She’s not the -girl to do a wrong thing at anyone’s bidding. Besides, what -good would it have been to her?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Noah did not answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You can’t do better than go right up to her and ask her -to be yours’now. Everything is in your favour. Folk -talk a pass’l of nonsense and spiteful lies about her. It -makes her cruel unhappy. She’s been doing little else but -cry for some days. You show her you don’t mind one snap -what folks say, and you don’t believe a word o’ the lies -against her, and I tell you she’d jump into your arms. It’s -my belief that the schoolmaster turned nasty’that he -began to show her he thought there might be something in -it, that he knew people said they’d take away their subscription -if he married her, and he made it so unpleasant -for Kitty that she gave him up. And now you march in -and conquer.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll do so,” said Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And,” pursued Rose, “you must begin by making -Kitty cry; that’s the preparing of the ground.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How am I to do that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Talk about her father. Ask if she has heard any news -of him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why? it don’t seem kind to make her cry.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>“What a noodle you are, Noah! Nothing is more profitable -for what you intend than to get her into a crying -mood, regular soft and tender, and then pity her about her -father, and so out with it when she is in tears. That’s the -way to win her!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Noah mused awhile, walking by the side of Rose, in -silence. After a minute he said, “What is your notion, -Rose? I mean about Jason Quarm. Is he dead or not?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course he is. Burnt to ashes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But the ashes were not found.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My dear Noah, you saw the fire as well as I; you know -with what fury it burnt, and how it lasted three days. He -was no Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego all pounded into -one.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You really think he is dead?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Sure of it. Would he not have turned up and let folk -know he was alive, if he had not <a id='corr115.17'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='perished'>perished?</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_115.17'><ins class='correction' title='perished'>perished?</ins></a></span> Would he -have allowed Kitty to go on’and not Kitty only, his sister -Zerah as well’all this long time, suffering and miserable, -because they believe he died a terrible death, if he could -relieve their minds by a letter, or, better still, by appearing?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Suddenly Rose started, caught her cousin by the arm, -and drew back.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is the matter?” asked the young man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is something there’moving’in the hedge.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>They were in a true Devonshire lane, with the hedges -high on each side, planted with trees that extended their -branches overhead, almost interlocking. Through the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>boughs and leaves the grey sky glimmered, and the soil in -the lane here and there showed in the light from above, but -all was indistinct and dark. A turn in the lane, and a fork -beyond the turn, lay before them, and through one of the -lanes the light of the estuary reflecting the sky made a -partial gleam, as though that lane were a tube with ground -glass at the end.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Both remained motionless and listened.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Hark!” whispered Rose; “did you hear something?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I heard you speaking.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Before I spoke’a clitter, as of a foot on stones.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, what of that? This is a road, and people may -go along it, I reckon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Look’look!” gasped Rose, pointing down the funnel-like -lane, at the end of which was the light of the steely -water.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose maintained her grasp of Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The young man looked in the direction indicated, and -both saw a figure in the vista, lurching as it went along, as -though lame; a thickset figure, as far as they could make -out in the uncertain light. In another moment it had -disappeared.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Go after it!” said Rose, relaxing her hold.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It? What do you mean?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s just like Jason Quarm.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But he’s dead. You said so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I know he is, but that’s his ghost. Run, Noah, and -force it to speak. It’s walking, because it can’t rest wi’out -burial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>“I won’t!” said Noah. “Go yourself.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You are a man. It’s vanished now. That’s the way to -the cottage he had, which Kitty gave up to the Redmores. -Oh, Noah, do run!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll do nothing o’ the sort. Come on, Rose’we are -going along t’other lane, thanks be. Lord, that we should -ha’ seen a ghost! I shan’t be able to propose. I shall be -so terrible took aback.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nonsense, Noah!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But consider’it’s terrible frightening to propose right -on end to a ghost’s daughter.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XLIX <br /> <span class='fss'>FLAGRANTE DELICTO</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Noah and Rose reached the Cellars just as Pasco and -his family were about to seat themselves to supper. -Pepperill somewhat boisterously welcomed them, and insisted -on their sharing the evening meal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You see,” said he, “it is dull here. Zerah ain’t much -in the way of entertainment, and Kitty be just as heavy. -Stupid place this, and stupid people; I shall get away as -soon as possible.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Going to leave the Cellars, Mr. Pepperill?” asked Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t find this place lively enough for me, now I’m a -man of independent means. I want amusement, and can -get none here; society, and here no one can talk of anything -but bullocks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t know that,” said Noah; “there is the fire, everyone -is talking of that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose cast a reproachful glance at her cousin. His -remark made Pasco wince, and Zerah look down into her -plate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You see,” pursued Pepperill, “having come in for a -little property”’</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>“The insurance money?” asked the blundering Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My uncle’s little fortune,” answered Pasco hastily. -“There’s no occasion for me to toil and drudge like a slave -selling coals, and wool, and hides, and the like; so I think -I’ll take a little box somewhere near Exeter, somewhere -where I can amuse myself, and have agreeable neighbours.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as opportunity offered, Rose drew Kate aside -and said to her cheerily, “I have brought you Noah.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Noah! Why?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I heard you were off with the schoolmaster.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, I am.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then it is high time you were on with another.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I want no one.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, that’s nonsense! You must have Noah. He’s a -nice fellow and has a good property; besides, he is cruel -sweet on you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Indeed, indeed, Rose, I wish to be left alone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It won’t do, Kate. When the circus girl goes round -driving two horses, she skips off one back and on to another. -You can’t skip off one saddle wi’out another saddle to skip -into, that ain’t reason.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am not a circus girl.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We all are going round and round in one ring, and -then comes a fool and holds up the hoop for us to go -through. Jack has been my clown, and Noah shall be -yours.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not wish it,” said Kate hastily. “I desire only to -be let alone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“My dear, I know what is best for you. I’ll call Noah.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>Kate sprang up. “I have to wash up after supper with -Mrs. Redmore,” she said, and hastened into the kitchen.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose was vexed. She returned to the others, and gave -Noah a sign to follow the girl; and he obeyed with his -usual docility. Then Rose began to propound her scheme -to the uncle and aunt, to explain Noah’s prospects and -dilate on his attachment for Kate. The aunt alone raised -objections, which Rose combated in the most airy manner. -Zerah doubted whether Kate felt any regard for Noah; -Rose was positive that this would come as a matter of -course, now that she was free from entanglement with -Bramber.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pepperill said he would be glad, after what had happened, -to have Kate married and out of his house. Whereupon -Zerah caught him up and asked his meaning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Before he could answer, Kitty came in trembling, and, -standing before Rose, asked, “What does he mean? Noah -says he has seen my father.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose tossed her head, and cast an angry glance over -Kate’s shoulder at the stupid young man who was following.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Noah is a blundering fellow,” she said, “and does not -know what he says. Your father! Do you think that if -we had seen him we would not at once have made him -come on here with us?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You told me”’began Noah apologetically.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Whatever I may have said, you are too dull to understand, -and you turn everything cat-in-the-pan.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Apparently satisfied, Kate prepared to go back into the -kitchen, and Noah would have followed her; but she stood -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>in the doorway and said firmly, “No, I do not wish to -have you in the kitchen. If you persist in following, I shall -pin a dish-clout to your back. Jane Redmore wants to get -home to her little ones, the night is dark as pitch. I must -help her to clean up, and we can have no one to interfere -with us; you nearly made me break a dish with what you -said just now.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Come here,” said Rose. “You are a duffer, and don’t -know how to manage”; and Noah obeyed, and seated himself -in the settle. Kate shut the kitchen door.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What was that you said about my brother Jason?” -asked Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was nonsense,” answered Rose sharply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“But Noah meant something, when he said he had seen -him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Noah is a fool: are you not, Noah?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose you know,” answered the young man -meekly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Tell me what it was that made Kate nigh on drop the -dish,” persisted Zerah, always a resolute woman to have -her way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was nought but a parcel of nonsense,” said Rose -evasively.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There must have been something,” persisted Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, I don’t mind saying,” Rose replied,’“that is, if -you will hear’but it was fancy, I reckon.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What was fancy?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Thinking we saw him. I had told Noah to propose to -Kate, and to get her into proper humour for accepting, first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>by making her cry, and then I told him he could make her -cry by speaking in a sort of sympathising way about her -father; and like an old buffle-head he went and said he -had seen his ghost.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“His ghost?” exclaimed Zerah, and Pasco drew back -in the settle with a scared expression on his face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We were coming down the road from Noah’s, and -before us was the fork of the lane,” said Rose. “Well, -then, if you will hear all, Noah and me, us thought us see’d -someone in the lane as went towards Jane Redmore’s -cottage. The night was dark, but there was light at the -end of the lane because of the Teign, which was full of the -tide; and there was, sure enough, someone walking down -that road. Us see’d him, whoever he was. He walked like -a lapwing.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“’Twas Jones Maker, the roadman,” said Pasco in a -voice that was not firm. “He’s lame.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“He goes on a crutch,” answered Rose. “What we saw -was different, was it not so, Noah?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes,” assented the young man. “He walked lop o’ -this side like, just the same as Jason Quarm.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“’Twas Jonas Maker,” persisted Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It can’t ha’ been Jonas,” answered Rose; “Jonas is -tall, and this we saw was stout and thickset.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Did he speak?” asked Zerah breathlessly. Pasco fidgeted -in his seat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, he did not; us weren’t very near, and I axed Noah -to run on and catch him up, and ax him questions why he -walked, but he wouldn’t.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>“I reckon Mr. Pepperill would ha’ been shy to do that,” -growled Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then a dead silence fell on all; and in that dead silence -a sound like the tread of a man with a limp was audible, -coming up the steps to the door. Next as if a hand were -laid on the door-hasp, and all saw that the latch was -raised, and cautiously lowered, without the door being -opened. Then ensued the halting hobble down the steps -again.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No one stirred. Every face was blank. Possibly one of -those present would have started up and gone to the door -to look forth into the black night, but at this moment Kate -entered, and, going up to a crook, took down a lantern.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Jane Redmore is going home,” she said, “and she’s -axed me just to show her off the premises and into the -lane, with a light; it’s too dark to find the way at once, -when one has been in the room with plenty of light.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate opened the lantern and looked in.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is a candle,” she said, and proceeded to -ignite it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rose looked at Noah, and Noah at Rose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I think,” said the girl, “we will ask you, Kate, to -show us a light on our way presently, after you have put -Jane Redmore into hers.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will do so cheerfully,” answered Kitty, and went -back with the lighted lantern into the kitchen to fetch -Jane. Then the two passed through the room where the -rest sat, and Mrs. Redmore wished them all a good-night.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Silence ensued after the door was shut. The glitter of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>the lantern was visible through the window for a moment, -and then disappeared.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco looked uneasily at the door. He was the first -to break silence. “I wish you to know,” said he, “that -if you marry Kitty, Noah, you do not take a beggar. On -the contrary, you take an heiress.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How do you make that out?” asked Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty is not of my blood,” said Pasco, gaining firmness, -“but I have no relations of my own, and I intend to treat -Kitty as my child. Noah, you marry an heiress.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What will you give her?” asked Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Great expectations,” answered Pasco pompously.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t count much on expectations,” said his wife -contemptuously. “Give her something down.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll do better than that,” said Pasco. “I’ll make my -will and constitute her my heir.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That’s moonshine and tall talk,” scoffed Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is nothing of the sort,” said Pasco. “Here you are, -Rose and Noah, and I’ll make my will before you, and you -shall witness it. Then Noah will know what he takes, -when he takes Kitty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah looked at her husband with surprise. This was -the first intimation she had received that he intended to -do anything for his niece. She did not see deep enough -into his heart to read his reasons. At that moment he -was alarmed and uneasy at the story of the apparition of -Jason Quarm, whom he knew to be dead, and then at the -mysterious tread and the raising of the hasp of the door. -He was not a superstitious man, but the guilt on his soul -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>made him subject to terrors. He thought that the spirit -of the man he had brought to his death might be walking, -and would trouble him, not only on account of the wrong -done to him, but also to his daughter. In his mean mind -Pasco hoped that by constituting Kitty heir to all he -possessed, he might lay the troubled spirit of her father.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will do it at once,” said Pepperill, opening his desk -and drawing forth ink and pen and paper, and laying them -on the table.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will show you that I understand legal forms,’I keep -a solicitor of my own,’and that I am the man who can -deal generously and with a free hand. I, Pasco Pepperill -of Coombe Cellars, being in sound condition of mind and -body”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>He wrote the words, then looked round complacently -and added, “I bequeath to my niece, Kate Quarm, the -sum of three thousand pounds. Three thousand pounds,” -repeated Pasco, looking round. “Also to my wife Zerah, -two thousand pounds and my house at Coombe Cellars, -and my house property at Tavistock, inherited from my -uncle,”’he turned his head consequentially to look at -Noah, then at Rose,’“during the term of her natural life.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What do you mean by natural life?” asked Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is an expression always used,” answered Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is nonsense,” said Zerah, “If there be a natural life, -there must be one which is unnatural.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It means, plain as Scripture,” replied Pasco, “that you -may have my house as long as your nat’ral life lasts, and -after that lie quiet in your grave, and not walk and bother -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>people. Your right to the house is tied up to your nat’ral -life. That’s the meaning o’ that there legal term. It stops -and prevents all after unpleasantness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now I understand,” said Zerah. “But you need not -get hot over it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’m not hot, but some folk be stupid and understand -nothing. Now I will proceed. After my wife’s decease,’that’s -the legal term for death,’then all goes to my niece, -or reputed niece, the aforesaid Kate Quarm. This is my -last will and testament, and true act and deed. Here you -see me sign it. Now then, Rose Ash, and you, Noah -Flood, witness my signature. You, Zerah, cannot, because -you are beneficially affected.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Pepperill had completely recovered his self-consequence -and his courage. He had shown Noah that he -was a man of means, a man with house property, a man -of capital as well, and he had eased his conscience by -making satisfaction for the wrong he had done to Kate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as Pasco had seen the young people witness -his signature, he handed the will to Zerah. “There, wife, -keep it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>At that moment the door was thrown open, and Kate -entered, and stood by the table, with changes of expression -flying over her countenance, like flaws of wind on the face -of a pool.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She put down the lantern on the board.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Why, Kitty, the light is out!” said Zerah, and opened -the horn door. “Why, Kitty, where be the candle to? -She’s gone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>At that moment, a flare that illumined the entire room, -a sheet of light, entering by door and window.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Good heavens!” exclaimed Pasco, springing up. “My -rick.” Then with a scream of triumph, as he pointed with -one hand to Kate, with the other to the lantern, “I told -you so, now you will believe me. Caught in the act.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER L <br /> <span class='fss'>THE THIRD FIRE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The light poured into the room like a flood, yellow as -sunlight, and more intense in brilliancy. Kitty -standing at the table had her face in shadow. Pasco -opposite was as a mass of gold. The fire glittered in his -eyeballs, it flashed in the new heavy gold watch-chain that -he had purchased in Exeter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now’now I shall be believed. Now’now the world -will know how falsely I have been judged. Now’now is -revealed what a viper I have nu’ssed at my hearth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We had best go and put out the fire,” said Noah, and -he went to the door, to see that no possibility existed of -arresting the flames. The rick was all but enveloped as in -a blazing sheet that was drawing round it to meet at the -only side which was dark. Little wind blew, so that the -flame poured up in one tongue.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Voices could be heard, loud shouts in the village, where -the conflagration had attracted attention, and had broken -up the session of the orchestra. The bassoon was braying -a loud note, prolonged and hideous, to rouse such as were -behind curtains, and did not observe the glare.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>“How did this come about?” asked Rose, catching -Kate by the arm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’I cannot say. I cannot say,” answered the girl -addressed; “but, indeed, I am not guilty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is it insured?” asked Noah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, it is not insured,” answered Pasco triumphantly. -“I hope now you won’t go and say <em>I</em> did it’and that I did -it to get money out of a company.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Except the words recorded, nothing further was spoken. -The little party was too dismayed at the occurrence, and at -the prospect of what must spring from it, to stir, to speak. -It was in vain to think of doing aught to the rick. No -outbuilding was endangered. An attempt to tear down the -stack would result in spreading the fire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then in at the door burst the constable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Halloo! what is the meaning of this?” he shouted. -“Insured again?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am not insured,” answered Pepperill. “If you want -to arrest the culprit’there she is.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How came this about?” asked Pooke. “I’m not going -to arrest nobody without a cause.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There is cause enough,” said Pasco. “Kitty is the -person who has set fire to my rick. I have plenty of -evidence for that. And now that I have, you’ll all see I’m -innocent’white as driven snow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is the meaning of this?” asked the constable, -turning Kitty about that the blaze might illumine her face. -In the yellow glare it could be seen that she was deathlike -in complexion, and that her eyes were wide distended in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>terror. She trembled, and seemed unable to stand without -the support of the table.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll tell you all,” said Pasco majestically, “and then, -perhaps, Mr. Pooke, you’ll believe my word in preference -to that of such as she.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is it?” asked Pooke. “I’ll not arrest nobody -without good cause shown, as satisfies my judgment. I -said so before.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Look at that lantern,” said Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, I sees it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Open it. There’s no candle in it’is there? But -there was’a quarter of an hour ago.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Numerous voices were now audible around the burning -rick. The constable looked out, and hesitated whether to -go forth and ensure order without, or to hear what had to -be said within.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He saw that there was not much chance of further -mischief, the intensity of the fire kept everyone at a distance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Go on,” said he. “What have you to say against the -girl?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She was in the kitchen with Jane Redmore. And Jane -Redmore asked her to go along with she on her way home, -wi’ a lantern, because of the pitch darkness. Was it not so, -Zerah?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can’t say. I wasn’t in the kitchen,” answered Mrs. -Pepperill reluctantly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Was it as he says?” asked the constable, turning to Kate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes.” Then suddenly, she woke out of a condition of -almost stupefaction; and throwing herself on her knees -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>before her uncle, she entreated, “Do not say that I -did it!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I leave that to the magistrate, when he tries, and -commits you to prison.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, no, you will not send me there!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I shall certainly have you tried and punished.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Uncle! I beseech you! Let me speak to you alone. -I did not do it. I must have a word with you, where no -one can see, no one can hear.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Indeed, I shall not consent. You want to induce me -not to prosecute. I know what you will say. I know how -you will appeal to my feelings. You know well enough -what a lovin’ and tender and feelin’ heart I’ve always shown. -But this won’t do. It won’t do. I’ve borne the slights and -the slanders because o’ the last fire, and folk cried out again’ -me’I did it for the insurance; and now’now I hope I’ll -make all believe I’m not the guilty party. They must look -elsewhere. Take her in charge as an incendiary, constable. -Do your duty.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Uncle! I beseech you! For my sake, for your own, -go no further in this.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I must proceed, if only to clear myself.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Uncle!” In her anxiety she held him. “You do not -know my reasons. I pray you, I pray you on behalf of me -and dear aunt, as well as yourself’some terrible thing will -happen otherwise!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll look to that’that no more terrible things happen. -Now, constable, she’s threatenin’ to burn the house down -over my head, to burn me and my missus in our beds. You -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>heard her. You all heard her threaten us. I call you to -witness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I will do no harm to anyone. I entreat a word, a -word in private,” urged Kate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’ll have no word in private,” said Pepperill. “What -you have to say, say out; lies, lies all it will be,” he added.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I cannot say it before all. I must speak it in your -ear.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I won’t listen to nothing,” said Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And I,” said Pooke, “I won’t allow of no tamperin’ wi’ -justice, no persuadin’ not to prosecute. We’ve had enough -of these little games here. This is the third fire, and we’ll -have someone punished for this if I can manage it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You do not know what you are doing, uncle,” gasped -Kitty, staggering to her feet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I reckon I know pretty well,” he answered coldly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You do not. You will bitterly, bitterly rue it. Do not -rush on what must happen, and then tear yourself in grief -and dismay that you did not listen to me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Listen how she threatens. Tell’e what, Mr. Pooke, -there’ll be no safety for none i’ the parish so long as she’s -at large. Silence, Kitty! Neither the constable nor I will -hear another word but what concerns this fire, and what will -serve to convict you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Did you go with the lantern all along wi’ Jane -Redmore?” asked Pooke.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate recovered her composure, and, with a despairing -action of the hands, dashed the tears from her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Answer me,” said Pooke; “no prevarication.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>“I went out with Jane.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Did you accompany her home?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, only a little way.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How far?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“To the gate.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What! not into the lane even?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How long was she absent?” asked Pooke.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Long enough for me to draw up a document,” said -Pepperill. “What should you say, Zerah? Half an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah was in no condition to answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And why did you not go on with Jane Redmore?” -asked the constable of Kitty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Because’I cannot say.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh, you cannot say? Mind, what you speak now may -be used again’ you at your trial. I’m bound to tell you that, -and you ain’t obliged to answer. Nevertheless, if you can -give a reasonable account of yourself, I’m not called on to -think you guilty, and arrest you. What was you a-doing of -yourself all that half an hour, when you wasn’t with Jane -Redmore, a-seeing of her home?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He paused for an answer, and received none.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Am I to understand you won’t say? You ain’t forced -to do so, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I had rather not say,” replied Kate in a low voice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose there was a candle in the lantern when you -went out?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Was it burnt out?” Pooke looked into the socket in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>the lantern. “No,” he said; “it has illicitly been removed. -There is no guttering of grease. How do you account for -that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate made no answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We know very well how your rick was fired,” said -Pepperill. “It seems to me, Mr. Pooke, that mine was -set alight to in much the same way.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“How do you account for the candle being gone?” -asked the constable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again no answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now, look here,” said he. “You’re a little maid, and -I don’t want to deal hard with you. If you can give me an -explanation of your conduct as will satisfy, why, I’ll not -proceed to extremities. But I must say that things look -ugly. If you was innocent, you could say so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am innocent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then how came the rick to be fired?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate made no reply. She was trembling, and nervously -plucking at her light shawl, tearing away and unravelling -the fringe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You alone had the lantern. It wasn’t Mrs. Redmore -now’eh?’or her husband?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh no, no!” replied Kate eagerly. “She had nothing -to do with it. She had gone away along the lane, some -time before”’She halted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh! you know how the fire arose?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate gave no reply.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I’m afraid it’s a bad case, and I must do my duty, and -convey you to the lock-up.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>“Oh, aunt!” cried the girl, turning towards Zerah, who -stood cowed, speechless, in the background. “Oh, aunt! -let me speak with you alone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No! it is of no use,” said Pasco, stepping between the -girl and his wife. “Nothin’ that she can say to Zerah will -avail, and certainly nothin’ that Zerah can say will persuade -me. Remove her at once.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The constable laid his hand on Kate’s shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“One question more. Mind, I caution you not to -answer unless you choose. If Mrs. Redmore was not with -you, she had gone on. Were you alone, Kitty, in the stackyard -after she left; and how was it you were there so long? -Say, was there anyone with you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Aunt, let me speak to you!” in a despairing cry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah made a movement towards her niece, but Pepperill -intercepted her, and, catching her by the shoulders, rudely -thrust her back. “You shall not speak with her.” Then, -turning his head, with a coarse laugh, “So, someone with -her! The schoolmaster, I suppose. She had given him -up, and was inclined to take him on again. Women change -like weathercocks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mr. Bramber was not there,” said Kate, a flush mantling -her brow.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then who was it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Dead silence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Come, Kate Quarm, with me. I must do my duty,” -said the constable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Stay!” said the rector, who had entered unperceived. -“Trust her with me. I solemnly promise that I will keep -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>her secure. Let her go with me to the parsonage, and do -not, in pity, take the frightened, innocent child”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Innocent?” in a mocking tone from Pasco.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Innocent child,” repeated the rector, with his eye on -Pepperill, who dropped his at once. “Mr. Pooke, rely on -me to produce her when you require. In pity, do not -frighten her; she may be able easily to clear herself. That -she is innocent, I stake my word. Trust her to me.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The constable hesitated. The lock-up was in a bad -condition. It had not been occupied for years, and had -been turned into a poultry-house.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Come, Kitty,” said the rector. “I have made myself -answerable for you. And I am proud to do so.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER LI <br /> <span class='fss'>THE PASS’N’S PRESCRIPTION</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Not a word on that evening would the old rector -allow himself to speak to Kitty relative to the fire, -nor would he suffer her to speak about it. He saw that she -was in a condition of nervous excitability, and that she -must be tranquillised. But, indeed, she made hardly an -attempt to speak about the rick, and how it was set on fire; -and directly the rector put up his hand to indicate that the -topic was taboo, she submitted with a sense of relief.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Fielding had a kind, motherly housekeeper, with -tact, and, at a word from him, she understood how that -Kate was to be treated. The rector was, indeed, alarmed -lest the fright and mental excitement he found the girl -labouring under might throw her into fever. He knew that -she was not strong in constitution, and that she was endowed -with high-strung and sensitive nerves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Walter Bramber, having heard of the fire, of the threatened -arrest of Kate, of her having been taken to the -Rectory, hastened to the parsonage in the hope of seeing -her. But this Mr. Fielding would not allow. The young -man was greatly agitated, grievously distressed. He entreated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>to be permitted an interview, but the rector was -peremptory in refusing it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Remember, all is off between you, at all events for a -time. That she likes you, has not ceased to like you, I am -convinced. In her present trouble the sight of you would -but increase her distress. There is something behind all -this’something of mystery, which I do not fathom. Kitty -cannot justify herself; not that she is guilty, that neither -you nor I credit. There is something that ties her tongue. -She is, perhaps, afraid of compromising another, and who -that is I do not know.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I believe,” said Walter impetuously, “that this is a -wicked conspiracy against Kitty. Mr. Pepperill, to clear -himself of the suspicion that he caused the burning down -of his stores, painfully laboured to spread the report that -Kitty had done it, and done it out of revenge because he -refused to allow of my suit. And now he has contrived, by -some means or other, to get his rick fired’which is not -insured’in such a manner as to make it appear that Kitty, -and Kitty alone, could have done it. It is a vile plot to -ruin her, and she is innocent as a lamb.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That she is innocent I am assured,” said the rector. -“How this last fire has come about I cannot even venture -to guess. The material for forming an opinion is not to -hand. Till Kitty speaks we probably shall not know, and -I do not know what will induce her to speak. Of one -thing be confident, Walter: whatever Kitty believes is right, -that she will do. I would not urge her to speak, because her -sense of duty, her conscience, tells her to be silent. I have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>that perfect, unshaken trust in her, that I simply leave -matters alone, and all I seek is to relieve her of unnecessary -trial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am a poor man,” said Bramber, “but I will give -every penny I have,’I will sell my books, ay, and my violin, -to secure the best counsel for her defence, if it comes to -that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You need not trouble yourself on that score,” said Mr. -Fielding, with a smile. “Kitty has other friends besides -you. There is her aunt, who loves her, and there is her -pastor, who watches over her with much care.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Bramber moved in restless unhappiness. The rector -saw how wretched the young man was, and he said gently, -“Bramber, do you not see that the case is taken almost -completely out of our hands?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose it is’to some extent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Almost entirely. I will not urge Kitty to say what she -thinks should be withheld. There is but one thing you -and I can do, and that is what I shall advise Kitty, before -she goes to bed, that which will be better than any sleeping -draught, that which alone will strengthen her to bear what -is to come, that will cool the fevered heart, and calm the -working brain.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is that? I have tried my violin’music will not -ease my mind.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No, it is something else. A prescription I had long -ago from a Great Physician: one I have often tried, and -never found to fail.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>“Cast all your care upon God, for He careth for -you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Walter clasped the old rector’s hand, he could not speak, -something rose in his throat. He turned away, and found -that the prescription availed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Before Kitty went to bed that night, the rector sought -her. She had been standing for an hour at a window, -looking in the direction of the Cellars.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the few hours that had passed she had become whiter, -more sunken under the eyes, more tremulous in her limbs -and mouth. It was with her as the rector surmised. Her -mind was torn with doubt as to what course she should -pursue. If she were to save herself, it must be at the cost -of others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mr. Fielding, is it possible to prevent my being brought -before the magistrates? that is, can I see my uncle in private -here, and induce him to withdraw what he has said?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not think it is possible.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I could tell him something which would make him -most anxious to hush the matter up.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nevertheless, he cannot withdraw. He has made a -charge against you. It has gone beyond the stage at which -a recall is possible. Remember, Kitty, this is not a mere -prosecution for injury done; it is a criminal charge, and -your uncle dare not now hold back without making himself -guilty of compounding a felony. I am nothing of a lawyer, -but I fancy such is the law. Even if your uncle did not -take the matter up, Mr. Pooke would be bound to do so. -You must make up your mind to that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>“Then something dreadful will happen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Kitty,” said the rector, “you will have to take my -prescription’not mine, but one given by the Greatest of -physicians. Unless you do that, you will have no rest for -mind or body, no sleep, and you will be worn out before -the trial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He told her. “The matter, you see, is taken out of -your hands. You can do nothing by torturing your brain -with thoughts how to avoid this, how to modify that.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then cast all your care upon God, for He careth for -you. Now go to sleep, and be fresh to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rector left his house and visited the Cellars. The -rick was resolved into a huge glowing ember, from which -fell avalanches of fiery powder. Above the mass flickered -ghost-like blue flames, not in touch with the incandescent -heap below.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the door of the house the rector encountered Pasco -Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“There’see how I am served by the public!” exclaimed -Pasco. “When a misfortune happens, there are always -some wanton rascals to do mischief above and beyond what -is the main loss.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What has happened to you now, Mr. Pepperill?” asked -the rector.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Some idle vagabonds have been at my boat again,” -answered Pasco. “It was so when my stores were burnt’not -the same night, but soon after’out of sheer wickedness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>they cut my old boat adrift, and I lost her. She was carried -out by the tide, and never have I heard of her from that -day to this.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, and now?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And now they’ve gone and done the same’or worse. -Before it was my old boat, and now it’s the new one’cut -the rope, and away she’s gone. It’s wickedness. Oh my! -You should preach and pray against it. There be such a -lot of it in the world’and cost me six guineas did that -boat.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am very sorry to hear of this additional loss,” said the -rector.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose the next thing they will say is, I cut my own -boat away and let her go out to sea, because I had insured -her. But you may tell everyone, pass’n, that I hadn’t -insured my boat no more than I had my rick o’ straw. Oh -dear! the wickedness there is in the world!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I wish to see your wife for a moment.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Zerah’s inside, in a fine take-on. She’s gone about like -a weathercock lately, and can’t make enough of Kitty. -And now that Kitty is proved to ha’ done all these horrible -crimes, she’s in a bad way, I can assure you.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rector entered the house and found the poor woman. -Her former hardness had given way under the troubles she -had undergone; her pride had been broken down beneath -the burden of the knowledge that her husband had been -guilty of setting fire to his stores for the sake of the insurance -money, and of the gnawing suspicion that her brother -had died in the flames; that he had been remorselessly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>sacrificed by Pasco to conceal his own guilt. And now -that this new conflagration had occurred, and that Kitty -was apparently implicated in it, she was nigh in -despair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mrs. Pepperill,” said the rector, “I have come to you -after having dismissed Kitty to rest.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Rest?” echoed Zerah. “Can she sleep? That is -more than I can.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes; so also will you when you have taken the same -prescription.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I want no medicine.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You will take this. You can do nothing for your niece, -can you?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nothing but fret,” said Mrs. Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That will not help her. You believe her to be innocent?” -asked the rector.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I am sure of it.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nothing you can say or do will prove it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Nothing; but if I’m called to bear witness, and I must -speak the truth, then what I say may go against her. That -troubles me, terrible. I’m mazed wi’ the thought. You -see, I looked, and there was a can’l-end in the lantern -when she took it; and I saw there was none at all when -she brought back the lantern. I don’t want to say it, as it -may go against her; but I can’t go against my oath and -against the truth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Of course not. Speak out what is true.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And I can’t have no rest thinkin’, and thinkin’, and -frettin’ about it all.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>“No, Mrs. Pepperill; but you will rest and sleep peacefully -after you have taken my prescription’a sovereign -one, as many a vexed soul has found’the only one possible -in many a case’‘Cast all your care upon God, for He -careth for you.’”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER LII <br /> <span class='fss'>IN COURT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The day of the petty sessions at Newton followed -closely in the same week, within two days, and -whilst excitement was at its height. The court-house was -packed, there was hardly standing room; and there was a -full bench of magistrates.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Kate was brought in, looking pale; her broad white -forehead like ivory, with the dark hair drawn back on either -side; the dark eyebrows and long dusky lashes showing -conspicuously on account of her pallor; and the lustrous -blue eyes, so full of light, alone giving brightness to her -face. Though pale, she was composed. She no longer -trembled, and her lips were closed and firm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The transparent purity, the innocent modesty of her -bearing and appearance, impressed the court.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She wore a black dress, as she had been accustomed to -wear since the fire at the Cellars, in which it was supposed -her father had died, but the black was spotted with white, -as a sort of concession to the supposition that he might be -still alive.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Fielding was present. He had been courteously -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>accommodated with a chair within the precincts of the -bench; he caught Kitty’s eye, and raised his finger, pointing -upwards. She understood him, and smiled reassuringly.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Far more anxious than Kitty was Walter Bramber, who -had given a holiday to the school, with the rector’s consent, -and had come into Newton to hear the case. He was not -able to master his agitation; his pain to see Kitty in so -conspicuous a position, and in such danger, labouring -under an accusation which he was certain was unfounded.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco Pepperill was present; he would have to appear in -the witness-box. He had sent for his solicitor to conduct -the prosecution.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as the case was called, Mr. Squire stood up. -He had, he said, a painful task imposed on him, and none -felt it more deeply than his client, the plaintiff, who -naturally shrank from taking a step of so grave a character, -against one who was his wife’s niece, young in age, and -who had been for many years an inmate of his house, and -one for whom hitherto he had entertained an almost fatherly -regard. Indeed, so deeply did the plaintiff feel this, that if -possible he would have held back altogether, and have -borne his loss in silence. But there were attendant -circumstances which precluded him from adopting this -course. He acted in the matter solely from a sense of -duty he owed to himself and to the neighbourhood, and -he might add, of humanity towards the unhappy individual -placed before the bench under the grave charge of arson.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was no secret’it could be no secret’that the most -serious and damaging reports had been circulated relative -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>to his client in connection with a recent fire at Coombe -Cellars, reports most wounding to a man of high integrity -and irreproachable character, peculiarly distressing to one -of so sensitive and scrupulous a conscience as Mr. Pasco -Pepperill, who was churchwarden of his parish, and had -served in several important parochial offices, as guardian of -the poor, waywarden and overseer, always to the satisfaction -of everyone, and had borne, in all his dealings, the character -of a straight and upright man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Pepperill had formed his own opinions relative to -the fire that had occurred on his premises previous to this -last, but with them, he, Mr. Squire, would not trouble the -bench. Suffice it to say that his view relative to the origin -of that fire had impelled him to act with promptitude on -the present occasion, not merely to bring to justice the -perpetrator of this last atrocious deed, but also to exhibit -to the neighbourhood the fact that he had harboured in his -house one who was capable of such acts, for which he -himself had been most unjustly and cruelly charged by the -popular voice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, in consideration of the fact that three cases of -malicious burning had taken place within a twelvemonth in -the parish of Coombe, Mr. Pepperill had thought himself -morally bound, in the interest of the public, to prosecute -in this last instance, where the criminal had been taken, so -to speak, red-handed. And, lastly, he acted in her interest; -for he felt, and felt with the most sincere conviction, that it -was for the young girl’s own good in this world and in the -next that a career so badly begun should be checked; and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>that by wholesome correction she might be induced to -enter into her own heart and root out from it all malice -and resentfulness which had been allowed, as it would -appear, to harbour there and drive her to the commission -of crime. In conclusion, Mr. Squire hoped to produce -such witnesses’all most reluctant to speak’as would -place the matter clearly before their worships, and leave -them no choice but to refer the case to the Quarter -Sessions. The case being one of felony, they were precluded -from dealing with it as in a case of summary -jurisdiction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Mr. Squire proceeded to call Mrs. Zerah Pepperill -into the witness-box. Zerah cast an appealing glance at -Kitty, who acknowledged it gently, with a faint smile.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The solicitor then questioned Mrs. Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You are, I believe, the aunt of the accused?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And you are greatly attached to her?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Very greatly. I have known her from a babe.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then we may be quite satisfied that you are most -unwilling to say anything to her prejudice; and that only -an overwhelming sense of duty and responsibility induces -you to give witness’and true witness?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now, Mrs. Pepperill, will you look towards the Bench -and tell their worships, in order, the events of the evening -of the 16th ultimo.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah was silent for a while.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Do not be afraid; speak out,” said the chairman.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>“Well, sir,” began Zerah, “it was supper’we mostly -has our supper at seven, or thereabout. Sometimes we -can’t be exact. That clock of ours ain’t over partic’lar to -a minute, and us sets it by the Atmospheric, and the -Atmospheric is most irregular of all. Then us took the -clock to Mr. Ford, to Newton, to have ’n put to rights, -and us paid ’n seven and six, and he sent ’n home worse -than he was afore. He used to go, reg’lar, right on end -till he runned down, tho’ he didn’t always keep time -exact-ly. But after Mr. Ford took ’n in hand, then he -began to stand still, after he wor winded up, out o’ pure -wickedness; and if you gentlemen would make Mr. Ford -pay me back that there seven and six”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>The chairman interrupted her. “Come to the point, -please, Mrs. Pepperill.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is it the leg o’ pork you mean?” asked Zerah. “I’m -comin’ to her direct-ly. You see, sirs, ’twern’t cured -proper, not as I likes it, and so the maggots got to the -bone. Which do your worships like, gentlemen’rubbin’ -in the salt dry, or soakin’ in brine? I hold to the dry -rubbin’’that is, if it be well done; but to have a thing -well done you must do it yourself. You can’t trust nobody -now. And so the maggots”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Never mind the maggots, my good woman.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“So I sed to Pasco. Us can’t waste thickey leg o’ -pork; us must eat ’n, and so I’ll get ’n out as well as I can, -and you go and take plenty o’ exercise and work up a -cruel strong appetite, and you won’t make no count o’ -there having been maggots in the leg o’ pork.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>The chairman again intervened, and requested Mr. -Squire to extract what was necessary to be known from this -good woman by interrogation. If allowed her own course, -she would not know where to stop, like the clock before -taken in hand by Mr. Ford, and run clean away, as was -threatened by the leg of pork.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Mrs. Pepperill,” said Mr. Squire, “you seem to be -diffusive in your evidence. However engrossing may be -the interest attaching to your clock and leg of pork, still -we are not concerned, thank goodness, with either’specially, -thank goodness, we are not here to discuss that -same leg of pork.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“The leg ought to ha’ been turned in the brine twice a -day, and her wasn’t. If her had been, her’d ha’ been famous.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I rather think, Mrs. Pepperill, this leg of pork is likely -to become famous now, as I see a local reporter present, -and it will appear in the paper. But this leg is blocking -our way; let us lay it on the shelf and proceed, as the -French say, to our mutton. Where were you at seven, or, -may be, half-past seven, on the evening of the 16th -ultimo?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t think I was nowhere.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What! nowhere three days ago?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That wor the 16th August.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, I said so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Beg pardon, sir, you asked for the 16th of Ultimo, and -I never heered tell o’ that month. It ain’t in the calendar.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Come; on the evening of the 16th last, were you at -supper with your husband and others?”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>“Yes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And those others were”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Rose Ash and Noah Flood. They came in”’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Never mind that. Answer shortly my questions. -Where was Kate Quarm?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She had her supper, too.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And when she had done, did she go into the back -kitchen to clean up?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Was anyone with her then?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir; Jane Redmore.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And when Jane Redmore went home, did your niece -accompany her?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She said she was going with her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Did your niece take a lantern?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“And did you see there was a candle in the lantern?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Sufficient to burn for an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t know that exactly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well, three-quarters of an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Perhaps so. I didn’t notice exactly how long the -candle was.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Anyhow, it would have burnt for more than a quarter -of an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Oh yes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Or for half an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I daresay it would.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You know it would. Now be careful as to your statements, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>Mrs. Pepperill. You are quite sure it would have -burnt for three-quarters of an hour, if not an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Perhaps’I cannot say.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You can say it would have lasted three-quarters, but -are not sure it would last an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It is not the way of candles, like legs of pork, to run -away of themselves, is it?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I don’t understand you, sir!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I mean, that if you put a candle into a lantern, it will -remain in the lantern till it is burnt out.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Unless someone takes it out.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Exactly! and when the lantern was brought back by -Kate Quarm, was the candle there?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“N’n’o.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It was not there. It was not burnt out, and it had -not run away, eh?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then someone must have removed the candle. This -is a point, your worships, I wish to establish, and that you -should observe. Kate Quarm went out with a lantern in -her hand, in which was a piece of candle that would -certainly last three-quarters of an hour, if not an entire -hour. When she returned, no candle was in the socket. -I shall call other witnesses to establish this, and the fact -that there were no signs of the candle having melted away; -indeed, the lantern is here. Constable, please to produce -it. If the Bench will kindly look at it, your worships will -perceive that the candle was put in with a piece of brown -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>paper wrapped about it. The paper is still there. The -candle is gone. It was taken out. I will call the constable -presently to testify that he took charge of the lantern -immediately after the event, and that it has not been -tampered with since. I now proceed to ask Mrs. Pepperill -how long a time Kate Quarm was absent after she went -out with Mrs. Jane Redmore. Now, Mrs. Pepperill, pray -concentrate your mind and exercise your memory. How -long was Kate absent?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What’washing up?” asked Zerah.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“No’we have nothing to do with the washing up. -After that, when she went out with Jane Redmore.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I didn’t look at the clock.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“About how long?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I can’t say.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Do you think it was half an hour?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“It might be so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Or less.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I really can’t tell.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Then she was absent for half an hour at the outside, -possibly.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I suppose so.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“You may go now. I shall want you again. I proceed -to summon Jane Redmore.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This poor woman was in such a nervous condition -that she would have fainted, had she not been provided -with a chair. Nothing but what was of absolute -importance could be drawn from her; which was that -Kitty had not accompanied her beyond the gate from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>the Coombe premises, a distance of hardly three hundred -yards.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“This,” said the solicitor, “is what I require. I will -not trouble this feeble and timorous creature any longer. -We have ascertained that the defendant, Kate Quarm, -went out with Mrs. Redmore, under the pretext that she -was going to accompany her home.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I do not think this point was established,” said the -chairman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I beg your worship’s pardon. You are right. The -next witness I shall call will establish the pretext without a -doubt. I summon Pasco Pepperill!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Stay a moment’what is this noise, this disturbance in -the court?” called the chairman. “It is not possible for -me or my brother magistrates to hear what is said. Unless -the disturbance be allayed instantly, I shall give orders for -the court to be cleared.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The requisite stillness ensued.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now then, Mr. Pepperill, stand forward, take the book, -and such answers,” etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again there ensued a movement among the crowd outside -the rails’exclamations, mutterings, and heaving and -tossing, as though the mass of mankind there densely -packed was boiling up from below.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I insist on order in the court!” called the chairman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Pasco, having kissed the Bible, turned his face to -the Bench. He was elate, had spread his breast, and -tossed back his head, a self-complacent smirk was on his -countenance.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>“I have felt it my duty,” he said, “to speak’to clear -my own self, and to cut short the career of crime of the -girl I have regarded as my niece.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again the agitation among the public; and now through -the mob came a man, elbowing his way, till he had forced -himself to the front, and stood face to face with Pasco -Pepperill.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Pasco, disturbed in his pompous address, turned and -saw before him’Jason Quarm!</p> - -<p class='c001'>He put his hand to his head with a gasp, staggered back, -and fell senseless to the ground.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER LIII <br /> <span class='fss'>JASON’S STORY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>The court was full of commotion. Pasco Pepperill -had fallen, as though struck down by a hammer, -and was insensible. He was carried out with difficulty, and -with the crowd rushing about him and his bearers, unable to -realise what had taken place, anxious to see if he were -dead.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He was not dead: a doctor was hastily summoned to the -house into which he was taken, and he pronounced the case to -be one of apoplexy brought on by sudden and violent emotion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Meantime, inside the court order was gradually restored.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The chairman made a feeling allusion to the sudden -illness which had fallen on the most important witness in -the case’which was the less to be wondered at, since the -case was one that must deeply move Mr. Pepperill, as he -had to appear against a member of his own family.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Mr. Pooke, with a mottled face, pushed up to the -Bench, and whispered something in the ear of the chairman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I beg pardon, I do not understand,” said he.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Sir,” said Mr. Pooke, “the real culprit has come to -deliver himself up’Jason Quarm, who set fire to the rick, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>for which his daughter stands here accused wrongfully by -the biggest rascal that ever breathed.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Call Jason Quarm!” said the magistrate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jason at once hobbled forward and pushed himself in -beside Kate, who was trembling with emotions of the most -varied nature. Jason cleared his throat and said’</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I, your worships, I, and none but I, set fire to the rick -at Coombe Cellars, and I did it by inadvertence. Please -you to remove my daughter from this dock, and hear her -presently as witness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Let us hear first what you have to say. We cannot -discharge her till we know that she is innocent.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“She is innocent, as innocent as the day. May it please -your worships to hear what I have to relate. It’s a main -long story,” said Jason.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What is to the point we will listen to. So you surrender -yourself as having fired the rick.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I did it, your worship. This is how it came about’you -may put me on oath if you will.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Stay a moment. I have to caution you that you are -not obliged to say anything, unless you desire to do so; -but whatever you say will be taken down in writing, and -may be given in evidence against you upon your trial.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I quite understand that,” said Quarm. “If I may be -allowed a seat, I shall be obliged. I’ve got one leg a bit -shorter than the other, and it’s rayther a trouble for me to -stand long, and I’ve a goodish long tale to tell.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“I again remind you that what you say must be to the -point.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>“I shan’t wander,” answered Jason. “But I shall have -to begin some way back, and that in March last, when Mr. -Pooke’s rick was set a-blazin’. That were thought to ha’ -been the doin’ of Roger Redmore, and there was a warrant -out agin him, but he wor niver ketched.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Does this concern the case before the court?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Ay, it do’intimate like.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Very well, then, proceed. We have ordered you to -be accommodated with a chair, and your daughter likewise.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Roger Redmore, he runned away, and the constables -never ketched he. My daughter Kitty, her took on terrible -over the poor wife as was turned out of house and home by -Mr. Pooke, and her persuaded me to let the woman have -my cottage, for she and the little ones. I didn’t mind, as I -was away on the moor busy about Brimpts oak wood, and -when I comed back to Coombe, I wor mostly at the Cellars. -My sister Zerah, she be that rapscallion Pasco’s wife, you -understand, your worship.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Is this really to the point? You are speaking of the -fire at Mr. Pooke’s, not of that at Mr. Pepperill’s.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“One fire hangs on to the other. You’ll find that out, -gents, when you’ve heard my tale.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Proceed, then.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Well’it seems that Roger Redmore felt mighty -grateful because of what Kitty and I had done. I was -agent for an insurance company, and I persuaded my -brother-in-law to insure in it, but I must say he rather -astonished me at the figure at which he insured, and made -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>me a bit uneasy; I hadn’t such a terrible high opinion of -him as to think he might not be up to tricks.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What do you mean by tricks?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Doin’ something to his insured goods that weren’t -worth much, and gettin’ for ’em payment as if they was -gold. But, your worship, that you’ll say ain’t to the point. -No more it is’we come to facts, not opinions, don’t us? -Well, I had been to Brimpts about the oak we was fellin’ -and barkin’, and I wanted to tell my brother-in-law as how -I thought we could deal with the dockyard at Portsmouth. -So I left the moor and drove down in my conveyance,’which -is nothing but a donkey cart and a jackass to draw’n,’and -when I came in the dark o’ the evening to my -cottage, there I found Roger Redmore in the bosom of his -family, so to speak. ’Twas awk’ard for he and awk’ard for -me, as there was a warrant out again’ him, and so I drove -right on and on to the Cellars. I found Pasco there in the -house all by hisself, which was coorious. He had sent his -wife, my sister Zerah, away somewhere, and Kitty, my -daughter, away somewhere else, and he was in a pretty take-on -because I turned up unexpected. I didn’t quite understand -why he was in so poor a temper, and why he should -turn me out of the house as he did’and I had got nowhere -to go to for a night’s lodgin’. You see, your -worships, I couldn’t go home, what wi’ all the beds and -every hole and corner chockfull o’ childer as thick as fleas -in a dog’s back, not to mention the woman and that chap -Roger in hiding, who didn’t want to be found. But -Pasco, he wouldn’t listen to reason, and he was that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>suspicious and that queer in all his goings-on, that I -thought some mischief wor up, and that I’d bide handy -and keep an eye on him. Well, gentlemen, when he jostled -me out o’ the house door, I went to the warehouse, and it -wasn’t locked, so I stepped in and found the ladder and -clambered up that. Thinks I to myself, if Pasco don’t -mean no wickedness, well, I can sleep here comfortable -enough, anyhow. There were plenty o’ fleeces’they -weren’t over clean and sweet, but in such a case one can’t -be partic’lar. I hadn’t been there a terrible long time -before I heard the door open and I see’d a light. So I -went to the ladder head and looked down, and there sure -enough wor Pasco! I watched him awhile to see what -May-games he wor up to, and at last I spied what it wor. -He were arranging and settling shavings among the coal -knobs, so as to make up grand fires, and he was gettin’ -everything ready to burn down the whole consarn, coals -and fleeces and building, and me in it, if I were that jack -fool to bide where I was. So I hollered out to he, and -let ’n understand who was there, and that I marked his little -game. I were on the ladder. He looked towards me, and -came at me, and shook the ladder, and shook me down, and -I fell on my head, I reckon, and remember nothing more -till I came to myself, bound hand and foot in a sack, and -throwed a-top of a heap o’ coal, that were afire and fizzing -out in flame and smoke, and a’most stifled I were, and -didn’t know ’xactly where I were, whether I’d got to the -wrong place down below. I cried out, and I tried to get -free, but couldn’t move, and then I rolled myself down over -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>fire and coals, and scorched I were a bit; but what’d -been the end I cannot tell, if it had not been for Roger -Redmore, who broke open the door and came in, and -dragged me out of the smoke and smother, and cut the -bands and got me out o’ the sack, and helped me off to -where his missis were, that is to say, my cottage.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jason paused and looked about him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“That, I reckon, is the first chapter. Now to go on. -When I came there, I thought it all over, and I got Roger -to put me in the outhouse, where none of the children -might see, and himself he dursn’t bide more than the night -lest he should be took, but he told Jane to mind me and -let me have what I wanted. Well, I turned the matter well -over in my head, and I thought as how Pasco were my -brother-in-law, and if all came out, I’d bring trouble on -Zerah, and on my own child; I’d have to say as how Pasco -had fired his own building so as to get the insurance -money, and tried to kill me too, ’cause I see’d what he were -up to. So I didn’t like to do that, and I thought it ’ud be -best for all parties if I got out o’ the way. I dursn’t stir all -the day that followed. But at night I got out when I -knowed the tide was suitable, and I took the old boat at -the Cellars and I made off wi’ that, and I rowed out to sea, -and rowed along the coast to Torquay, and I landed there, -and there I ha’ been, unbeknown to the Coombe folk’there -or in London. When I’d been a bit to Torquay, I -seemed to smell money. I see’d as how a lot o’ fortune -could be got there by building and making a great place of -it for invalids and such folk; and I went up to London to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>start a company, and get a building firm to take the matter -up. I’ve been off and on about this idee, and a fine idee -it is like to turn out’so I reckon. I did hear as how -Pasco, he’d dra’ed twelve hundred pounds out o’ the insurance -company. Blessed if I knowed ’xactly what I should -do. On the one side, I were agent for the company; on the -other, I were brother-in-law to Pasco, and if I peached on -Pasco, I might just as well ha’ stuck a knife into my sister’s -heart. And then I owed him something for having reared -my daughter in his house since she wor a baby. And -Pasco and me, us got on famous together about speculations, -and taken in the lump he weren’t a bad chap till he began -to look to gettin’ money by burning down his warehouse.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Jason stood up, stretched his limbs, sat down again, and -proceeded’after a word of cheer to his daughter, who had -risen and was standing speechless, looking at him with dismayed -eyes. She knew that her uncle was false, but Jason -had revealed a depth of wickedness in the man which she -had not conceived to be possible.</p> - -<p class='c001'>She had been satisfied that he had set fire to his magazines -for the sake of the insurance, and she knew that, basely, he -endeavoured to throw the guilt of the act on her. She had -feared that her father had been sacrificed when the warehouse -was burned, but had never supposed that her uncle -had done this deliberately.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Now,” continued Quarm, “I reckon I come to the third -chapter. After a bit, I thought I’d come back to Coombe, -but not openly, and see how Kitty were getting along. So I -came unbeknown to everyone, and went to Mrs. Redmore, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>and her put me in the same old outhouse as I were in -before, and I told her, as she worked at the Cellars, to say -nothing about it to Kitty, but find an excuse for getting her -out from the house after dark. That is what Jane Redmore -did, and I met Kitty at the rick, and us went together -behind the rick, so as the light might not be seen from the -house whilst we talked. Well, I’d been wi’out my bacca-pipe -for some time, and seein’ as how Kitty had a light, -I told her to open the lantern, and I’d have a bit o’ a -smoke for comfort. Her opened the lantern door’but Lor’! -gentlemen, I han’t told you how struck wi’ amaze and main -glad the little maid was to see her father, whom she had -believed to be dead, come to life again, hearty and wi’ -fine prospects of makin’ money out of building speculations -to Torquay. But you must imagine all that, your worships; -it ain’t, as you may say, to the point; but this here little -affair o’ the pipe and lightin’ it is. Well, when she opened -the lantern door, I took out the bit end of a candle as was -therein, and I put it to my pipe to kindle my ’baccy. She -was talkin’ and tellin’ of me all as had happened, and -when her said as how Pasco Pepperill had tried to lay the -firing of his warehouse on she, then I were that angry I -burnt my fingers wi’ the candle-end, not thinking what I -were about, and throwed it down right among the straw, -and afore I could say Jack Robinson, there was a blaze as -no stamping would put out. The first thing Kate did was -to run in, and the first thing I did was to tumble into the -boat and make off. I didn’t know what the consequences -might be, and I first thought I’d consider it, and learn what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>came of it all before I stirred. If Pasco didn’t make a fuss, -why, it might pass and no harm come of it; if he made a -stir, why, all must come out. The little maid, I reckon, she -would say nothing, because her knowed it was my doing the -stack catching alight, and thought she’d bring me into -trouble; and then there was that other fire behind; she -didn’t know what might come if it were examined into, and -I made my appearance as one returned from the dead. -But I heard of it all. Jane Redmore sent to tell me. And -now, your worships, I reckon I’m the guilty one of the fire, -but it was accident, and she’s innocent and may be discharged. -That is my story.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Bench withdrew for a few minutes. When the magistrates -returned, the buzz of voices in court ceased at once.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“We have decided,” said the chairman, “that the case -against Kate Quarm be dismissed. She leaves the court -without an imputation against her character. You, Mr. -Jason Quarm, must stand security in yourself and find two -others to stand bail for you to reappear before the court -when required.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER LIV <br /> <span class='fss'>CON AFFETTUOSO CAPRIZIO</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_4 c010'>Pasco Pepperill did not recover. The shock had -been too great’it had sent the blood rushing to his -head, and his consciousness never returned. By midnight -he was a dead man.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now that he was gone, the will’made partly in a moment -of scare, partly out of compunction, partly also out of boastfulness’came -into force, and Kitty was provided with a -small income of her own. The first thing done by her and -her aunt, as soon as the will was proved, was to refund to -the insurance company the whole of the money paid by -them to Pasco on account of the burned stores.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Cellars belonged now to Zerah for her life. It was -not long before an understanding was reached between -Walter Bramber and Kitty, the purport of which was that -next spring Kitty should cease to be Alone. No inscription, -such as the girl had desired, had been cut in -the bark of the mulberry tree, and now, were one to be -traced there, it would be of a different nature’a legend -of two who met and parted, and met again never more -to part.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>Jason Quarm for once had succeeded in a speculation. -The Torquay building society promised to be a prosperous -company, and to pay good dividends. Jason was not able -to contribute much in capital, but as promoter of the scheme -he received certain shares. He was occupied, his mind engrossed -in carrying out the plans of the company, in making -contracts, in buying materials, in supervising, in altering, in -scheming terraces and detached villas, in planting Belle -Views and Sea Prospects, and Rosebank Cottages, and -Lavender Walks, and Marine Parades, and he could afford -no time to be at Coombe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Zerah was wrapped up in her niece. She could not -have loved her more dearly had Kitty been her own child. -The hardness in the woman’s character gave way; the -trouble she had undergone had softened and sweetened a -nature really good and kind, but ruffled and soured by -adverse circumstances and uncongenial associations. A -great change had taken place in the opinion of the public -in Coombe-in-Teignhead relative to Kitty. The general -feeling was, that she had been hardly treated, in having a -crime attributed to her of which she had been guiltless; -that if she had been reserved in her manner, it was her -way, and all folk were not constituted alike; that if she -asked questions, no one was bound to answer them unless -he liked, and if he couldn’t give the required information. -Kitty was quiet’she harmed nobody. She had done -Rose Ash a great favour in stepping out of the way when -Jan Pooke was inclined to “make a fool of himself wi’ -her.” She was worth three thousand pounds for certain, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>and it was said that her father was piling up a fortune in -Torquay. Coombe Cellars would ultimately be hers, as well -as the little bit of ground about it’or rather, at the back of -it, which was what remained of the farm. And she had -been grown in Coombe, she had foothold there, and “all -knew the worst o’ her, and that weren’t so cruel bad.” -Finally, and conclusively, Mr. Puddicombe pronounced in -her favour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So public opinion veered round, and was prepared to -make much of Kate. The worst that could be spoken -of her was that she had taken up with that schoolmaster -again. But then, just as Scripture said that the believing -wife might sanctify the heathen husband, so it was reasoned -that the indigenous Kitty might naturalise the foreign -Walter, and that because she belonged to the place, he -might be accepted as a strange plant, given room to root -in at Coombe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was very well known that sometimes a stray cat came -to a house from nobody knew where, and meeowed, -entreating to be fed and harboured, and few housewives -would shut it out. They would take in the stranger, give -it milk and a place by the fire, and domesticate it. Even -so came this Walter Bramber into Coombe out of space; -whom he had belonged to, and from what sort of -habitation, no one knew. He asked to be domiciled -in Coombe, and Kitty took him in. What was allowable -to a cat was surely not to be refused to a schoolmaster.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If Walter Bramber was afflicted with superior education, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>it was probably no more his fault than is water on the brain -in a rickety child. And if he was a schoolmaster by -profession, perhaps it was not his fault, but his misfortune. -He’d been bred to it by his unfeeling and unnatural parents, -just as in London some boys were brought up to be thieves -and pickpockets. Mr. Puddicombe, indeed, had taken up -schoolmastering, but that was a different matter; he had -not been reared to anything of the sort, and had adopted -it rather as a pastime than a profession, and had never -allowed it to interfere with his robust and intelligent -pleasures, such as cock-fighting; and Mr. Puddicombe -drank and smoked and swore sometimes, and all that -showed he was a man. On the whole, Coombe-in-Teignhead -agreed to accept Walter Bramber and Kitty -as his wife, with the proviso that it would kick them over -should they attempt to give themselves airs.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for the rector, he was radiant with happiness. Now at -last he saw some prospect of making an impression for -good on his parishioners, if not of elevating the existing -generation, of greatly raising the moral and intellectual -tone of that which would follow. He had striven hard -for years in isolation and with absolutely no success. -Now, with the aid of a peculiarly well-qualified schoolmaster, -and with Kitty at that master’s side to direct -the girls as Bramber guided the minds of the boys, he -was sanguine of success, not of much that he would see -himself, but of a success in the far future. Of no profession -can that be said more truly than of that of the pastor, -“One soweth’another reapeth.”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>“Walter,” said he to his schoolmaster, “I was not sent -here to blow Sunday soap-bubbles, sometimes iridescent -emptiness, sometimes emptiness without the iridescence. -Soap-bubbles please for the moment, but they do not -satisfy. No father, the gospel says, when asked for bread, -will give his children a stone, but a stone has in it substance, -whereas a soap-bubble has but emptiness. But the children -will not ask for bread unless they be hungry, and will -always be pleased to see soap-bubbles sail over their heads. -I believe the apostles were sent forth to be the salt of the -earth. Their successors are self-satisfied if they be but -insipid carbonate of soda. I have striven to feed, not to -amuse, but nothing can avail till the hunger come. You -find that in the school, I find it in the church. Some -Indians chew clay, because they have not bread. Our -people have quite a fancy for this stodgy substance; we -have to rectify their appetites, so that they may come to -desire nourishing diet, and not what is merely stuffing’to -seek for instruction, and not amusement. You in your -sphere, I in mine, have a similar office, and similar obligations -weighing on us, and similar difficulties to encounter. -If you seek for popularity, make Puddicombe your model; -take the level of the people among whom you are set, and -do not stir to cure them of clay-chewing. If you seek to -do your duty, then do not expect to have a path of soft -herbage to tread, but one of thorns. If I had been -indefinite, flowery, hollow in my teaching here, I should -have been the most popular man in the parish, and -after forty years’ ministration would have passed away -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>with a smile of self-satisfaction that I had given no -offence to anyone’only to awake in the vast beyond to -the startling conviction that I had done no good to -anyone!</p> - -<p class='c001'>“Cast your bread on the waters, and you will find it after -many days; cast chaff, and it will be blown, washed, rotted -away. Many a man in my profession and in yours’we -are both teachers’is like the cuckoo-spittle-insect, which -throws out a great froth bubble about it. So do some of -my profession surround themselves with a copious discharge -of words’words without substance. Avoid that in your -school, Bramber. Teaching must be definite, or it is -trifling, not teaching; and in sacred matters trifling is a -guilty desertion of a duty. We are sent to feed, not -befool our flocks. Form a clear conception in your mind -of what you want to teach, and then impress it sharply, well -defined, on the minds given you to act upon. So only will -you rear a generation in advance of that to which we belong. -But you will get no praise for so doing, save from your own -conscience.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Roger Redmore had surrendered to justice, by the advice -of Jason, and he had been sentenced to a nominal punishment -of two months’ imprisonment. Mr. Pooke had readily -pleaded for him, had frankly acknowledged that the man -had been greatly aggravated, and was perhaps hardly sensible -of what he <em>was</em> doing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On leaving prison, Roger was taken, along with his wife, -into the service of the Cellars, and gave promise of being a -faithful and energetic workman.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>The spring arrived in course, and with the warm May air -and flowers came the day of Kitty’s marriage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There had been grave discussions among the instrumentalists -of the village orchestra previous to the event, -as to how it was to be honoured by their performance. In -compliment to the ex-schoolmaster, who took a lively interest -in the marriage, it was unanimously decided that Puddicombe -in F should be performed, if not in its entirety, at all events -in part. The “fugg,” it was thought, might be omitted, as -only a critical and scientific musician could appreciate its -merits and disentangle the chaos of sounds. But there was -the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto con affettuoso caprizio</em></span> at their disposal. As -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto</em></span> meant, Turn the score upside down, then if the -score were not inverted, it would flow in the melody of -“Kitty Alone and I.” Mr. Puddicombe was approached -with the demand whether it were permissible to execute -this movement without the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto</em></span>, <em>i.e.</em> the inversion -of the score. Puddicombe at once assented. That, as he -pointed out, was the magnificent brilliancy of the composition, -that it could be turned about anyhow, and played right -off, and the effect was superb any way. Let them disregard -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>largo molto</em></span> and simply play <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>con affettuoso caprizio</em></span>’which -meant, go ahead with the score upright’and there you -are.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Accordingly, after the ceremony, when bride and bridegroom -issued from the church, the orchestra, which was -in readiness, struck up the movement of Puddicombe in -F, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><em>con affettuoso caprizio</em></span>; and most certainly as it so stood -in the score, and so was performed, the air was none other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>than “The Frog and the Mouse’Crock-a-mydaisy, Kitty -alone.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Forward marched the band, playing hautboy, clarionet, -first fiddle, second fiddle, the bass labouring along as best -he could, tumbling over his viol, throwing out a grunt and -a growl when he was able.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The people of Coombe-in-Teignhead were at their doors -wishing happiness to the young couple. The children -strewed flowers, and every now and then broke out into -chorus’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Crock-a-mydaisy, Kitty alone.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>The ploughmen whistled the air and waved their caps. -The church bells burst out into clamour and drowned it. -The rooks in the elms of the churchyard poured forth -volleys of “Caw, caw, caw,” introducing a new element -into the musical medley.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Through the street went the little procession, headed by -children, who danced and sang before the band; then came -the musicians, and lastly the married young people. They -were on their way to the Cellars, where Zerah was waiting -for them, and had brought forth cake and ale in -abundance, to feast children, musicians, well-wishers’everyone -who would drink the health of bride and bridegroom.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then, when the regaling was over, and thundering cheers -had been given for the schoolmaster, for Kitty, for Zerah’Walter -Bramber and Kitty appeared at the door, and -half singing, with a smile on his face, to the strain of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>“The Frog and the Mouse,” Walter thus tendered his -thanks’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Curtsey, Kitty, and say with me’</div> - <div class='line'>Neighbours, thanks for company;</div> - <div class='line'>On all the world we will shut the door:</div> - <div class='line'>In all the world I need nothing more</div> - <div class='line'>Than Kitty, my wife, and Kitty Alone,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Kitty Alone and I.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div>THE END</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='small'>MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a1'>a1</span><span class='large'>A LIST OF NEW BOOKS</span></div> - <div>AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF</div> - <div>METHUEN AND COMPANY</div> - <div>PUBLISHERS: LONDON</div> - <div>36 ESSEX STREET</div> - <div>W.C.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>CONTENTS</div> - </div> -</div> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='88%' /> -<col width='11%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c009'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>FORTHCOMING BOOKS,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a1'>2</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>POETRY,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a13'>13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>GENERAL LITERATURE,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a15'>15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>THEOLOGY,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a17'>17</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>LEADERS OF RELIGION,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a18'>18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>WORKS BY S. BARING GOULD,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a19'>19</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>FICTION,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a21'>21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>NOVEL SERIES,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a24'>24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>THE PEACOCK LIBRARY,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a26'>26</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a28'>28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a29'>29</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>COMMERCIAL SERIES,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a29'>29</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>WORKS BY A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A.,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a30'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>SCHOOL EXAMINATION SERIES,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a32'>32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'>PRIMARY CLASSICS,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_a32'>32</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='large'>OCTOBER 1894</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a2'>a2</span>October 1894.</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c016'> - <div><span class='xlarge'><span class='sc'>Messrs. Methuen’s</span></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'>ANNOUNCEMENTS</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c017' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>Poetry</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><span class='floatright'>[<em>May</em> 1895.</span> -<b>Rudyard Kipling.</b> BALLADS. By <span class='sc'>Rudyard Kipling</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The announcement of a new volume of poetry from Mr. Kipling will excite wide -interest. The exceptional success of ‘Barrack-Room Ballads,’ with which this -volume will be uniform, justifies the hope that the new book too will obtain a -wide popularity.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Henley.</b> ENGLISH LYRICS. Selected and Edited by <span class='sc'>W. E. Henley</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 30 copies on hand-made paper <em>Demy 8vo. £1, 1s.</em></div> - <div class='line'>Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. <em>Demy 8vo. £2, 2s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Few announcements will be more welcome to lovers of English verse than the one -that Mr. Henley is bringing together into one book the finest lyrics in our -language. Robust and original the book will certainly be, and it will be produced -with the same care that made ‘Lyra Heroica’ delightful to the hand and -eye.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>“Q”</b> THE GOLDEN POMP: A Procession of English Lyrics -from Surrey to Shirley, arranged by <span class='sc'>A. T. Quiller Couch</span>. <em>Crown -8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 40 copies on hand-made paper. <em>Demy 8vo. £1, 1s.</em></div> - <div class='line'>Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. <em>Demy 8vo. £2, 2s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Mr. Quiller Couch’s taste and sympathy mark him out as a born anthologist, and -out of the wealth of Elizabethan poetry he has made a book of great attraction.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Beeching.</b> LYRA SACRA: An Anthology of Sacred Verse. -Edited by <span class='sc'>H. C. Beeching</span>, M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c021'>Also 25 copies on hand-made paper. <em>21s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This book will appeal to a wide public. Few languages are richer in serious verse -than the English, and the Editor has had some difficulty in confining his material -within his limits.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Yeats.</b> AN ANTHOLOGY OF IRISH VERSE. Edited by -<span class='sc'>W. B. Yeats</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a3'>a3</span><span class='xlarge'>Illustrated Books</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES retold by <span class='sc'>S. -Baring Gould</span>. With numerous illustrations and initial letters by -<span class='sc'>Arthur J. Gaskin</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 75 copies on hand-made paper. <em>Demy 8vo.</em> £1, 1<em>s.</em></div> - <div class='line'>Also 20 copies on Japanese paper. <em>Demy 8vo.</em> £2, 2<em>s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Few living writers have been more loving students of fairy and folk lore than Mr. -Baring Gould, who in this book returns to the field in which he won his spurs. -This volume consists of the old stories which have been dear to generations of -children, and they are fully illustrated by Mr. Gaskin, whose exquisite designs -for Andersen’s Tales won him last year an enviable reputation.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND -RHYMES. Edited by <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, and illustrated by the -Students of the Birmingham Art School. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c021'>Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. <em>4to. 21s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A collection of old nursery songs and rhymes, including a number which are little -known. The book contains some charming illustrations by the Birmingham -students under the superintendence of Mr. Gaskin, and Mr. Baring Gould has -added numerous notes.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Beeching.</b> A BOOK OF CHRISTMAS VERSE. Edited -by <span class='sc'>H. C. Beeching</span>, M.A., and Illustrated by <span class='sc'>Walter Crane</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 75 copies on hand-made paper. <em>Demy 8vo.</em> £1, 1<em>s.</em></div> - <div class='line'>Also 20 copies on Japanese paper. <em>Demy 8vo.</em> £2, 2<em>s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A collection of the best verse inspired by the birth of Christ from the Middle Ages -to the present day. Mr. Walter Crane has designed some beautiful illustrations. -A distinction of the book is the large number of poems it contains by modern -authors, a few of which are here printed for the first time.</span>.</p> -<p class='c018'><b>Jane Barlow.</b> THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE, -translated by <span class='sc'>Jane Barlow</span>, Author of ‘Irish Idylls’ and pictured -by <span class='sc'>F. D. Bedford</span>. <em>Small 4to. 6s. net.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. <em>4to. 21s. net.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This is a new version of a famous old fable. Miss Barlow, whose brilliant volume -of ‘Irish Idylls’ has gained her a wide reputation, has told the story in spirited -flowing verse, and Mr. Bedford’s numerous illustrations and ornaments are as -spirited as the verse they picture. The book will be one of the most beautiful -and original books possible.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c023'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a4'>a4</span><span class="blackletter"><span class='large'>Devotional Books</span></span></div> - <div><em>With full-page Illustrations.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By <span class='sc'>Thomas À Kempis</span>. -With an Introduction by <span class='sc'>Archdeacon Farrar</span>. Illustrated by -<span class='sc'>C. M. Gere</span>. <em>Fcap. 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. 15<em>s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By <span class='sc'>John Keble</span>. With an Introduction -and Notes by <span class='sc'>W. Lock</span>, M.A., Sub-Warden of Keble College, -Author of ‘The Life of John Keble,’ Illustrated by <span class='sc'>R. Anning -Bell</span>. <em>Fcap. 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. 15<em>s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>These two volumes will be charming editions of two famous books, finely illustrated -and printed in black and red. The scholarly introductions will give them -an added value, and they will be beautiful to the eye, and of convenient size.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>General Literature</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Gibbon.</b> THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN -EMPIRE. By <span class='sc'>Edward Gibbon</span>. A New Edition, edited with -Notes and Appendices and Maps by <span class='sc'>J. B. Bury</span>, M.A., Fellow of -Trinity College, Dublin. <em>In seven volumes. Crown 8vo.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The time seems to have arrived for a new edition of Gibbon’s great work—furnished -with such notes and appendices as may bring it up to the standard of recent historical -research. Edited by a scholar who has made this period his special study, -and issued in a convenient form and at a moderate price, this edition should fill -an obvious void.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Flinders Petrie.</b> A HISTORY OF EGYPT, <span class='sc'>from the -Earliest Times to the Hyksos</span>. By <span class='sc'>W. M. Flinders Petrie</span>, -D.C.L., Professor of Egyptology at University College. <em>Fully Illustrated. -Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This volume is the first of an illustrated History of Egypt in six volumes, intended -both for students and for general reading and reference, and will present a complete -record of what is now known, both of dated monuments and of events, from -the prehistoric age down to modern times. For the earlier periods every trace of -the various kings will be noticed, and all historical questions will be fully discussed. -The volumes will cover the following periods;—</span></p> -<p class='c024'><span class='small'>I. Prehistoric to Hyksos times. By Prof. Flinders Petrie. II. xviiith to xxth -Dynasties. III. xxist to xxxth Dynasties. IV. The Ptolemaic Rule. -V. The Roman Rule. VI. The Muhammedan Rule.</span></p> -<p class='c025'><span class='small'>The volumes will be issued separately. The first will be ready in the autumn, the -Muhammedan volume early next year, and others at intervals of half a year.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a5'>a5</span><b>Flinders Petrie.</b> EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART. By -<span class='sc'>W. M. Flinders Petrie</span>, D.C.L. With 120 Illustrations. <em>Crown -8vo. 3s. 6d.</em> -<span class='small'>A book which deals with a subject which has never yet been seriously treated.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Flinders Petrie.</b> EGYPTIAN TALES. Edited by <span class='sc'>W. M. -Flinders Petrie</span>. Illustrated by <span class='sc'>Tristram Ellis</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. -3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c025'><span class='small'>A selection of the ancient tales of Egypt, edited from original sources, and of great -importance as illustrating the life and society of ancient Egypt.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Southey.</b> ENGLISH SEAMEN (Howard, Clifford, Hawkins, -Drake, Cavendish). By <span class='sc'>Robert Southey</span>. Edited, with an -Introduction, by <span class='sc'>David Hannay</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This is a reprint of some excellent biographies of Elizabethan seamen, written by -Southey and never republished. They are practically unknown, and they deserve, -and will probably obtain, a wide popularity.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Waldstein.</b> JOHN RUSKIN: a Study. By <span class='sc'>Charles Waldstein</span>, -M.A., Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. With a Photogravure -Portrait after Professor <span class='sc'>Herkomer</span>. <em>Post 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 25 copies on Japanese paper. <em>Demy 8vo.</em> 21<em>s.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c025'><span class='small'>This is a frank and fair appreciation of Mr. Ruskin’s work and influence—literary -and social—by an able critic, who has enough admiration to make him sympathetic, -and enough discernment to make him impartial.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Henley and Whibley.</b> A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE. -Collected by <span class='sc'>W. E. Henley</span> and <span class='sc'>Charles Whibley</span>. <em>Cr. 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<div class='lg-container-l c020'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also 40 copies on Dutch paper. 21<em>s.</em> <em>net.</em></div> - <div class='line'>Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. 42<em>s.</em> <em>net.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c025'><span class='small'>A companion book to Mr. Henley’s well-known ‘Lyra Heroica.’ It is believed that -no such collection of splendid prose has ever been brought within the compass of -one volume. Each piece, whether containing a character-sketch or incident, is -complete in itself. The book will be finely printed and bound.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Robbins.</b> THE EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART -GLADSTONE. By <span class='sc'>A. F. Robbins</span>. <em>With Portraits. Crown -8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c025'><span class='small'>A full account of the early part of Mr. Gladstone’s extraordinary career, based on -much research, and containing a good deal of new matter, especially with regard -to his school and college days.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> THE DESERTS OF SOUTH CENTRAL -FRANCE. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, With numerous Illustrations by -<span class='sc'>F. D. Bedford</span>, <span class='sc'>S. Hutton</span>, etc. <em>2 vols. Demy 8vo. 32s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This book is the first serious attempt to describe the great barren tableland that -extends to the south of Limousin in the Department of Aveyron, Lot, etc., a -country of dolomite cliffs, and canons, and subterranean rivers. The region is -full of prehistoric and historic interest, relics of cave-dwellers, of mediæval -robbers, and of the English domination and the Hundred Years’ War. The -book is lavishly illustrated.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a6'>a6</span><b>Baring Gould.</b> A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG: -English Folk Songs with their traditional melodies. Collected and -arranged by <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span> and <span class='sc'>H. Fleetwood Sheppard</span>. -<em>Royal 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>In collecting West of England airs for ‘Songs of the West,’ the editors came across -a number of songs and airs of considerable merit, which were known throughout -England and could not justly be regarded as belonging to Devon and Cornwall. -Some fifty of these are now given to the world.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Oliphant.</b> THE FRENCH RIVIERA. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Oliphant</span> -and <span class='sc'>F. R. Oliphant</span>. With Illustrations and Maps. <em>Crown 8vo. -6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A volume dealing with the French Riviera from Toulon to Mentone. Without falling -within the guide-book category, the book will supply some useful practical -information, while occupying itself chiefly with descriptive and historical matter. -A special feature will be the attention directed to those portions of the Riviera, -which, though full of interest and easily accessible from many well-frequented -spots, are generally left unvisited by English travellers, such as the Maures -Mountains and the St. Tropez district, the country lying between Cannes, Grasse -and the Var, and the magnificent valleys behind Nice. There will be several -original illustrations.</span></p> -<p class='c026'><b>George.</b> BRITISH BATTLES. By <span class='sc'>H. B. George</span>, M.A., -Fellow of New College, Oxford. <em>With numerous Plans. Crown -8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>This book, by a well-known authority on military history, will be an important -contribution to the literature of the subject. All the great battles of English -history are fully described, connecting chapters carefully treat of the changes -wrought by new discoveries and developments, and the healthy spirit of patriotism -is nowhere absent from the pages.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Shedlock.</b> THE PIANOFORTE SONATA: Its Origin and -Development. By <span class='sc'>J. S. Shedlock</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This is a practical and not unduly technical account of the Sonata treated historically. -It contains several novel features, and an account of various works little -known to the English public.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Jenks.</b> ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. By <span class='sc'>E. Jenks</span>, -M.A., Professor of Law at University College, Liverpool. <em>Crown -8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A short account of Local Government, historical and explanatory, which will appear -very opportunely.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a7'>a7</span><b>Dixon.</b> A PRIMER OF TENNYSON. By <span class='sc'>W. M. Dixon</span>, -M. A., Professor of English Literature at Mason College. <em>Fcap. 8vo. -1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This book consists of (1) a succinct but complete biography of Lord Tennyson; -(2) an account of the volumes published by him in chronological order, dealing with -the more important poems separately; (3) a concise criticism of Tennyson in his -various aspects as lyrist, dramatist, and representative poet of his day; (4) a -bibliography. Such a complete book on such a subject, and at such a moderate -price, should find a host of readers.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Oscar Browning.</b> THE AGE OF THE CONDOTTIERI: A -Short History of Italy from 1409 to 1530. By <span class='sc'>Oscar Browning</span>, -M.A., Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. <em>Crown 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This book is a continuation of Mr. Browning’s ‘Guelphs and Ghibellines,’ and the -two works form a complete account of Italian history from 1250 to 1530.</span></p> -<p class='c026'><b>Layard.</b> RELIGION IN BOYHOOD. Notes on the Religious -Training of Boys. With a Preface by <span class='sc'>J. R. Illingworth</span>. -by <span class='sc'>E. B. Layard</span>, M.A. 18<em>mo.</em> 1<em>s.</em></p> -<p class='c026'><b>Hutton.</b> THE VACCINATION QUESTION. A Letter to -the Right Hon. <span class='sc'>H. H. Asquith</span>, M.P. by <span class='sc'>A. W. Hutton</span>, -M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. 1s.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c028'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Leaders of Religion</span></div> - <div><em>NEW VOLUMES</em></div> - <div><em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c026'>LANCELOT ANDREWES, Bishop of Winchester. By <span class='sc'>R. L. -Ottley</span>, Principal of Pusey House, Oxford, and Fellow of Magdalen. -<em>With Portrait.</em></p> -<p class='c026'>St. AUGUSTINE of Canterbury. By <span class='sc'>E. L. Cutts</span>, D.D. -<em>With a Portrait.</em></p> -<p class='c026'>THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Oliphant</span>. <em>With a -Portrait. Second Edition.</em></p> -<p class='c026'>JOHN KEBLE. By <span class='sc'>Walter Lock</span>, Sub-Warden of Keble -College. <em>With a Portrait. Seventh Edition.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c028'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a8'>a8</span><span class='xlarge'>English Classics</span></div> - <div>Edited by <span class='sc'>W. E. Henley</span>.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>Messrs. Methuen propose to publish, under this title, a series of the masterpieces of -the English tongue.</span></p> -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>The ordinary ‘cheap edition’ appears to have served its purpose: the public has -found out the artist-printer, and is now ready for something better fashioned. -This, then, is the moment for the issue of such a series as, while well within the -reach of the average buyer, shall be at once an ornament to the shelf of him that -owns, and a delight to the eye of him that reads.</span></p> -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>The series, of which Mr. William Ernest Henley is the general editor, will confine -itself to no single period or department of literature. Poetry, fiction, drama, -biography, autobiography, letters, essays—in all these fields is the material of -many goodly volumes.</span></p> -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>The books, which are designed and printed by Messrs. Constable, will be issued in -two editions—</span></p> -<p class='c026'>(1) A small edition, on the finest Japanese vellum, limited in most -cases to 75 copies, demy 8vo, 21<em>s.</em> a volume nett;</p> -<p class='c027'>(2) The popular edition on laid paper, crown 8vo, buckram, 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> a -volume.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c029'> - <div><span class='small'>The first six numbers are:—</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY. -By <span class='sc'>Lawrence Sterne</span>. With an Introduction by <span class='sc'>Charles -Whibley</span>, and a Portrait. 2 <em>vols.</em></p> -<p class='c030'>THE WORKS OF WILLIAM CONGREVE. With an Introduction -by <span class='sc'>G. S. Street</span>, and a Portrait. 2 <em>vols.</em></p> -<p class='c030'>THE LIVES OF DONNE, WOTTON, HOOKER, HERBERT, -and SANDERSON. By <span class='sc'>Izaak Walton</span>. With an Introduction -by <span class='sc'>Vernon Blackburn</span>, and a Portrait.</p> -<p class='c030'>THE ADVENTURES OF HADJI BABA OF ISPAHAN. -By <span class='sc'>James Morier</span>. With an Introduction by <span class='sc'>E. S. Browne</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c030'>THE POEMS OF ROBERT BURNS. With an Introduction -by <span class='sc'>W. E. Henley</span>, and a Portrait. 2 <em>vols.</em></p> -<p class='c030'>THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS. By <span class='sc'>Samuel -Johnson</span>, LL.D. With an Introduction by <span class='sc'>James Hepburn -Millar</span>, and a Portrait. 3 <em>vols.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c028'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Classical Translations</span></div> - <div><em>NEW VOLUMES</em></div> - <div><span class='small'><em>Crown 8vo. Finely printed and bound in blue buckram.</em></span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>LUCIAN—Six Dialogues (Nigrinus, Icaro-Menippus, The Cock, -The Ship, The Parasite, The Lover of Falsehood). Translated by <span class='sc'>S. -T. Irwin</span>, M.A., Assistant Master at Clifton; late Scholar of Exeter -College, Oxford. 3<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> -<p class='c030'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a9'>a9</span>SOPHOCLES—Electra and Ajax. Translated by <span class='sc'>E. D. A. -Morshead</span>, M.A., late Scholar of New College, Oxford; Assistant -Master at Winchester. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> -<p class='c030'>TACITUS—Agricola and Germania. Translated by <span class='sc'>R. B. -Townshend</span>, late Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> -<p class='c030'>CICERO—Select Orations (Pro Milone, Pro Murena, Philippic II., -In Catilinam). Translated by <span class='sc'>H. E. D. Blakiston</span>, M.A., Fellow -and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. 5<em>s.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c028'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>University Extension Series</span></div> - <div><em>NEW VOLUMES. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c027'>THE EARTH. An Introduction to Physiography. By <span class='sc'>Evan -Small</span>, M.A. <em>Illustrated.</em></p> -<p class='c026'>INSECT LIFE. By <span class='sc'>F. W. Theobald</span>, M.A. <em>Illustrated.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c028'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Social Questions of To-day</span></div> - <div><em>NEW VOLUME. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c030'>WOMEN’S WORK. By <span class='sc'>Lady Dilke</span>, <span class='sc'>Miss Bulley</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Miss Whitley</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Cheaper Editions</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c030'><b>Baring Gould.</b> THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS: The -Emperors of the Julian and Claudian Lines. With numerous Illustrations -from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, -Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. <em>Third Edition.</em> <em>Royal 8vo.</em> 15<em>s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying interest. The great -feature of the book is the use the author has made of the existing portraits of the -Caesars, and the admirable critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing with this -line of research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are supplied on a -scale of profuse magnificence.’—<em>Daily Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Clark Russell.</b> THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. -By <span class='sc'>W. Clark Russell</span>, Author of ‘The Wreck -of the Grosvenor.’ With Illustrations by <span class='sc'>F. Brangwyn</span>. <em>Second -Edition. 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of -every boy in the country.’—<em>St. James’s Gazette.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a10'>a10</span><span class='xlarge'>Fiction</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> KITTY ALONE. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, -Author of ‘Mehalah,’ ‘Cheap Jack Zita,’ etc. <em>3 vols. Crown 8vo.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A romance of Devon life.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Norris.</b> MATTHEW AUSTIN. By <span class='sc'>W. E. Norris</span>, Author of -‘Mdle. de Mersai,’ etc. <em>3 vols. Crown 8vo.</em> -in 4 -<span class='small'>A story of English social life by the well-known author of ‘The Rogue.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Parker.</b> THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. By <span class='sc'>Gilbert -Parker</span>, Author of ‘Pierre and his People,’ etc. <em>2 vols. Crown 8vo.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A historical romance dealing with a stirring period in the history of Canada.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Anthony Hope.</b> THE GOD IN THE CAR. By <span class='sc'>Anthony -Hope</span>, Author of ‘A Change of Air,’ etc. <span class='sc'>2 vols. Crown 8vo.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of modern society by the clever author of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Mrs. Watson.</b> THIS MAN’S DOMINION. By the Author -of ‘A High Little World.’ <em>2 vols. Crown 8vo.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of the conflict between love and religious scruple.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Conan Doyle.</b> ROUND THE RED LAMP. By <span class='sc'>A. Conan -Doyle</span>, Author of ‘The White Company,’ ‘The Adventures of Sherlock -Holmes,’ etc. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This volume, by the well-known author of ‘The Refugees,’ contains the experiences -of a general practitioner, round whose ‘Red Lamp’ cluster many dramas—some -sordid, some terrible. The author makes an attempt to draw a few phases of life -from the point of view of the man who lives and works behind the lamp.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Barr.</b> IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS. By <span class='sc'>Robert Barr</span>, -Author of ‘From Whose Bourne,’ etc. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of journalism and Fenians, told with much vigour and humour.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Benson.</b> SUBJECT TO VANITY. By <span class='sc'>Margaret Benson</span>. -With numerous Illustrations. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A volume of humorous and sympathetic sketches of animal life and home pets.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>X. L.</b> AUT DIABOLUS AUT NIHIL, and Other Stories. -By X. L. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A collection of stories of much weird power. The title story appeared some years -ago in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine,’ and excited considerable attention. The -‘Spectator’ spoke of it as ‘distinctly original, and in the highest degree imaginative. -The conception, if self-generated, is almost as lofty as Milton’s.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Morrison.</b> LIZERUNT, and other East End Idylls. By -<span class='sc'>Arthur Morrison</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A volume of sketches of East End life, some of which have appeared in the ‘National -Observer,’ and have been much praised for their truth and strength and pathos.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>O’Grady.</b> THE COMING OF CURCULAIN. By <span class='sc'>Standish -O’Grady</span>, Author of ‘Finn and his Companions,’ etc. Illustrated -by <span class='sc'>Murray Smith</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The story of the boyhood of one of the legendary heroes of Ireland.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a11'>a11</span><span class='xlarge'>New Editions</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>E. F. Benson.</b> THE RUBICON. By <span class='sc'>E. F. Benson</span>, Author -of ‘Dodo.’ <em>Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Mr. Benson’s second novel has been, in its two volume form, almost as great a -success as his first. The ‘Birmingham Post’ says it is ‘<em>well written, stimulating, -unconventional, and, in a word, characteristic</em>’: the ‘National Observer’ -congratulates Mr. Benson upon ‘<em>an exceptional achievement</em>,’ and calls the -book ‘<em>a notable advance on his previous work</em>.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Stanley Weyman.</b> UNDER THE RED ROBE. By <span class='sc'>Stanley -Weyman</span>, Author of ‘A Gentleman of France.’ With Twelve Illustrations -by R. Caton Woodville. <em>Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A cheaper edition of a book which won instant popularity. No unfavourable review -occurred, and most critics spoke in terms of enthusiastic admiration. The ‘Westminster -Gazette’ called it ‘<em>a book of which we have read every word for the sheer -pleasure of reading, and which we put down with a pang that we cannot forget -it all and start again</em>.’ The ‘Daily Chronicle’ said that ‘<em>every one who reads -books at all must read this thrilling romance, from the first page of which to the -last the breathless reader is haled along</em>.’ It also called the book ‘<em>an inspiration -of manliness and courage</em>.’ The ‘Globe’ called it ‘<em>a delightful tale of chivalry -and adventure, vivid and dramatic, with a wholesome modesty and reverence -for the highest</em>.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring -Gould</span>, Author of ‘Cheap Jack Zita,’ etc. <em>Second Edition. -Crown 8vo, 6s.</em>.in 2</p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The scenery is admirable and the dramatic incidents most striking.’—<em>Glasgow -Herald.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Strong, interesting, and clever.’—<em>Westminster Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘You cannot put it down till you have finished it.’—<em>Punch.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Can be heartily recommended to all who care for cleanly, energetic, and interesting -fiction.’—<em>Sussex Daily News.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Mrs. Oliphant.</b> THE PRODIGALS. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Oliphant</span>. -<em>Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Richard Pryce.</b> WINIFRED MOUNT. By <span class='sc'>Richard Pryce.</span> -<em>Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The ‘Sussex Daily News’ called this book ‘<em>a delightful story</em>’, and said that the -writing was ‘<em>uniformly bright and graceful</em>.’ The ‘Daily Telegraph’ said that the -author was a ‘<em>deft and elegant story-teller</em>,’ and that the book was ‘<em>an extremely -clever story, utterly untainted by pessimism or vulgarity</em>.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Constance Smith.</b> A CUMBERER OF THE GROUND. -By <span class='sc'>Constance Smith</span>, Author of ‘The Repentance of Paul Wentworth,’ -etc. <em>New Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a12'>a12</span><span class='xlarge'>School Books</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>A VOCABULARY OF LATIN IDIOMS AND PHRASES. -By <span class='sc'>A. M. M. Stedman</span>, M.A. 18<em>mo.</em> 1<em>s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>STEPS TO GREEK. By <span class='sc'>A. M. M. Stedman</span>, M.A. 18mo. -1<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>A SHORTER GREEK PRIMER OF ACCIDENCE AND -SYNTAX. By <span class='sc'>A. M. M. Stedman</span>, M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>SELECTIONS FROM THE ODYSSEY. With Introduction -and Notes. By <span class='sc'>E. D. Stone</span>, M.A., late Assistant Master at Eton. -<em>Fcap. 8vo. 2s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>THE ELEMENTS OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. -With numerous Illustrations. By <span class='sc'>R. G. Steel</span>, M. A., Head Master -of the Technical Schools, Northampton. <em>Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>THE ENGLISH CITIZEN: <span class='sc'>His Rights and Duties</span>. By -<span class='sc'>H. E. Malden</span>, M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d.</em> -<span class='small'>A simple account of the privileges and duties of the English citizen.</span></p> -<p class='c018'>INDEX POETARUM LATINORUM. By <span class='sc'>E. F. Benecke</span>, -M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.</em> -<span class='small'>A concordance to Latin Lyric Poetry.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Commercial Series</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>A PRIMER OF BUSINESS. By <span class='sc'>S. Jackson</span>, M.A. <em>Crown -8vo. 1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>COMMERCIAL ARITHMETIC. By <span class='sc'>F. G. Taylor</span>. <em>Crown -8vo. 1s. 6d.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a13'>a13</span><span class="blackletter"><span class='large'>New and Recent Books</span></span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'>Poetry</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Rudyard Kipling.</b> BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And -Other Verses. By <span class='sc'>Rudyard Kipling</span>. <em>Seventh Edition. Crown -8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c024'>A Special Presentation Edition, bound in white buckram, with -extra gilt ornament. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Kipling’s verse is strong, vivid, full of character.... Unmistakable genius -rings in every line.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the world; for a -man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, beyond all cavilling, that in -its way it also is a medium for literature. You are grateful, and you say to -yourself, half in envy and half in admiration: “Here is a <em>book</em>; here, or one is a -Dutchman, is one of the books of the year.”’—<em>National Observer.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘“Barrack-Room Ballads” contains some of the best work that Mr. Kipling has -ever done, which is saying a good deal. “Fuzzy-Wuzzy,” “Gunga Din,” and -“Tommy,” are, in our opinion, altogether superior to anything of the kind that -English literature has hitherto produced.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they are vigorous in -their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the English language more -stirring than “The Ballad of East and West,” worthy to stand by the Border -ballads of Scott.’—<em>Spectator.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We read them -with laughter and tears; the metres throb in our pulses, the cunningly ordered -words tingle with life; and if this be not poetry, what is?’—<em>Pall Mall Gazette.</em></span></p> - -<p class='c018'><b>Henley.</b> LYRA HEROICA: An Anthology selected from the -best English Verse of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. By -<span class='sc'>William Ernest Henley</span>, Author of ‘A Book of Verse,’ ‘Views -and Reviews,’ etc. <em>Crown 8vo. Stamped gilt buckram, gilt top, -edges uncut. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike for poetry and for -chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and even unerringly, right.’—<em>Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Tomson.</b> A SUMMER NIGHT, AND OTHER POEMS. By -<span class='sc'>Graham R. Tomson</span>. With Frontispiece by <span class='sc'>A. Tomson</span>. <em>Fcap. -8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'>An edition on hand-made paper, limited to 50 copies. 10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> <em>net.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mrs. Tomson holds perhaps the very highest rank among poetesses of English birth. -This selection will help her reputation.’—<em>Black and White.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a14'>a14</span><b>Ibsen.</b> BRAND. A Drama by <span class='sc'>Henrik Ibsen</span>. Translated by -<span class='sc'>William Wilson</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to “Faust.” “Brand” -will have an astonishing interest for Englishmen. It is in the same set with -“Agamemnon,” with “Lear,” with the literature that we now instinctively regard -as high and holy.’—<em>Daily Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>“Q.”</b> GREEN BAYS: Verses and Parodies. By “Q.,” Author -of ‘Dead Man’s Rock’ etc. <em>Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The verses display a rare and versatile gift of parody, great command of metre, and -a very pretty turn of humour.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>“A. G.”</b> VERSES TO ORDER. By “A. G.” <em>Cr. 8vo. 2s.6d. -net.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A small volume of verse by a writer whose initials are well known to Oxford men.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A capital specimen of light academic poetry. These verses are very bright and -engaging, easy and sufficiently witty.’—<em>St. James’s Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Hosken.</b> VERSES BY THE WAY. By <span class='sc'>J. D. Hosken</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. 5s.</em></p> - -<p class='c031'>A small edition on hand-made paper. <em>Price 12s. 6d. net.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A Volume of Lyrics and Sonnets by J. D. Hosken, the Postman Poet. Q, the -Author of ‘The Splendid Spur,’ writes a critical and biographical introduction.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Gale.</b> CRICKET SONGS. By <span class='sc'>Norman Gale</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. -Linen. 2s. 6d.</em></p> - -<p class='c031'>Also a limited edition on hand-made paper. <em>Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. -net.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘They are wrung out of the excitement of the moment, and palpitate with the spirit -of the game.’—<em>Star.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘As healthy as they are spirited, and ought to have a great success.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Simple, manly, and humorous. Every cricketer should buy the book.’—<em>Westminster -Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Cricket has never known such a singer.’—<em>Cricket.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Langbridge.</b> BALLADS OF THE BRAVE: Poems of Chivalry, -Enterprise, Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the -Present Day. Edited, with Notes, by Rev. <span class='sc'>F. Langbridge</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. Buckram 3s. 6d.</em> School Edition, <em>2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A very happy conception happily carried out. These “Ballads of the Brave” are -intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit the taste of the great majority.’—<em>Spectator.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The book is full of splendid things.’—<em>World.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a15'>a15</span><span class='xlarge'>General Literature</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Collingwood.</b> JOHN RUSKIN: His Life and Work. By -<span class='sc'>W. G. Collingwood</span>, M.A., late Scholar of University College, -Oxford, Author of the ‘Art Teaching of John Ruskin,’ Editor of -Mr. Ruskin’s Poems. <em>2 vols. 8vo. 32s. Second Edition.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This important work is written by Mr. Collingwood, who has been for some years -Mr. Ruskin’s private secretary, and who has had unique advantages in obtaining -materials for this book from Mr. Ruskin himself and from his friends. It contains -a large amount of new matter, and of letters which have never been published, -and is, in fact, a full and authoritative biography of Mr. Ruskin. The book -contains numerous portraits of Mr. Ruskin, including a coloured one from a -water-colour portrait by himself, and also 13 sketches, never before published, by -Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Arthur Severn. A bibliography is added.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘No more magnificent volumes have been published for a long time....’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘This most lovingly written and most profoundly interesting book.’—<em>Daily News.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘It is long since we have had a biography with such varied delights of substance -and of form. Such a book is a pleasure for the day, and a joy for ever.’—<em>Daily -Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Ruskin could not well have been more fortunate in his biographer.’—<em>Globe.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A noble monument of a noble subject. One of the most beautiful books about one -of the noblest lives of our century.’—<em>Glasgow Herald.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Gladstone.</b> THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES -OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes -and Introductions. Edited by <span class='sc'>A. W. Hutton</span>, M.A. (Librarian of -the Gladstone Library), and <span class='sc'>H. J. Cohen</span>, M.A. With Portraits. -<em>8vo. Vols. IX. and X. 12s. 6d. each.</em></p> -<p class='c030'><b>Clark Russell.</b> THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. -By <span class='sc'>W. Clark Russell</span>, Author of ‘The Wreck -of the Grosvenor.’ With Illustrations by <span class='sc'>F. Brangwyn</span>. <em>Second -Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A really good book.’—<em>Saturday Review.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of -every boy in the country.’—<em>St. James’s Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Clark.</b> THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD: Their History and -their Traditions. By Members of the University. Edited by <span class='sc'>A. -Clark</span>, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. <em>8vo. 12s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Whether the reader approaches the book as a patriotic member of a college, as an -antiquary, or as a student of the organic growth of college foundation, it will amply -reward his attention.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A delightful book, learned and lively.’—<em>Academy.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the standard book on -the Colleges of Oxford.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a16'>a16</span><b>Wells.</b> OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of -the University. Edited by <span class='sc'>J. Wells</span>, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of -Wadham College. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This work contains an account of life at Oxford—intellectual, social, and religious—a -careful estimate of necessary expenses, a review of recent changes, a statement -of the present position of the University, and chapters on Women’s Education, -aids to study, and University Extension.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘We congratulate Mr. Wells on the production of a readable and intelligent account -of Oxford as it is at the present time, written by persons who are, with hardly an -exception, possessed of a close acquaintance with the system and life of the -University.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Perrens.</b> THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM THE -TIME OF THE MEDICIS TO THE FALL OF THE -REPUBLIC. By <span class='sc'>F. T. Perrens</span>. Translated by <span class='sc'>Hannah -Lynch</span>. <em>In Three Volumes. Vol. I. 8vo. 12s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This is a translation from the French of the best history of Florence in existence. -This volume covers a period of profound interest—political and literary—and -is written with great vivacity.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘This is a standard book by an honest and intelligent historian, who has deserved -well of his countrymen, and of all who are interested in Italian history.’—<em>Manchester -Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Browning.</b> GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES: A Short History -of Mediæval Italy, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1250-1409. By <span class='sc'>Oscar Browning</span>, Fellow -and Tutor of King’s College, Cambridge. <em>Second Edition. Crown -8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A very able book.’—<em>Westminster Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A vivid picture of mediæval Italy.’—<em>Standard.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>O’Grady.</b> THE STORY OF IRELAND. By <span class='sc'>Standish -O’Grady</span>, Author of ‘Finn and his Companions.’ <em>Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Novel and very fascinating history. Wonderfully alluring.’—<em>Cork Examiner.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Most delightful, most stimulating. Its racy humour, its original imaginings, its -perfectly unique history, make it one of the freshest, breeziest volumes.’—<em>Methodist -Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A survey at once graphic, acute, and quaintly written.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Dixon.</b> ENGLISH POETRY FROM BLAKE TO BROWNING. -By <span class='sc'>W. M. Dixon</span>, M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> - -<p class='c031'>A Popular Account of the Poetry of the Century.</p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Scholarly in conception, and full of sound and suggestive criticism.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The book is remarkable for freshness of thought expressed in graceful language.’—<em>Manchester -Examiner.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Bowden.</b> THE EXAMPLE OF BUDDHA: Being Quotations -from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled -by <span class='sc'>E. M. Bowden</span>. With Preface by Sir <span class='sc'>Edwin Arnold</span>. <em>Third -Edition. 16mo. 2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a17'>a17</span><b>Flinders Petrie.</b> TELL EL AMARNA. By <span class='sc'>W. M. Flinders -Petrie</span>, D.C.L. With chapters by Professor <span class='sc'>A. H. Sayce</span>, D.D.; -<span class='sc'>F. Ll. Griffith</span>, F.S.A.; and <span class='sc'>F. C. J. Spurrell</span>, F.G.S. With -numerous coloured illustrations. <em>Royal 4to. 20s. net.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Massee.</b> A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By -<span class='sc'>George Massee</span>. With 12 Coloured Plates. <em>Royal 8vo. 18s. net.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A work much in advance of any book in the language treating of this group of -organisms. It is indispensable to every student of the Myxogastres. The -coloured plates deserve high praise for their accuracy and execution.’—<em>Nature.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Bushill.</b> PROFIT SHARING AND THE LABOUR QUESTION. -By <span class='sc'>T. W. Bushill</span>, a Profit Sharing Employer. With an -Introduction by <span class='sc'>Sedley Taylor</span>, Author of ‘Profit Sharing between -Capital and Labour.’ <em>Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>John Beever.</b> PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING, Founded on -Nature, by <span class='sc'>John Beever</span>, late of the Thwaite House, Coniston. A -New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author by <span class='sc'>W. G. Collingwood</span>, -M.A. Also additional Notes and a chapter on Char-Fishing, by A. -and <span class='sc'>A. R. Severn</span>. With a specially designed title-page. <em>Crown -8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A little book on Fly-Fishing by an old friend of Mr. Ruskin. It has been out of -print for some time, and being still much in request, is now issued with a Memoir -of the Author by W. G. Collingwood.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Theology</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Driver.</b> SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH -THE OLD TESTAMENT. By <span class='sc'>S. R. Driver</span>, D.D., Canon of -Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of -Oxford. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A welcome companion to the author’s famous ‘Introduction.’ No man can read these -discourses without feeling that Dr. Driver is fully alive to the deeper teaching of -the Old Testament.’—<em>Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Cheyne.</b> FOUNDERS OF OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM: -Biographical, Descriptive, and Critical Studies. By <span class='sc'>T. K. Cheyne</span>, -D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at -Oxford. <em>Large crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>This important book is a historical sketch of O.T. Criticism in the form of biographical -studies from the days of Eichhorn to those of Driver and Robertson Smith. -It is the only book of its kind in English.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The volume is one of great interest and value. It displays all the author’s well-known -ability and learning, and its opportune publication has laid all students of -theology, and specially of Bible criticism, under weighty obligation.’—<em>Scotsman.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A very learned and instructive work.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a18'>a18</span><b>Prior.</b> CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by <span class='sc'>C. H. Prior</span>, -M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A volume of sermons preached before the University of Cambridge by various -preachers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Westcott.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A representative collection. Bishop Westcott’s is a noble sermon.’—<em>Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Full of thoughtfulness and dignity.’—<em>Record.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Beeching.</b> BRADFIELD SERMONS. Sermons by <span class='sc'>H. C. -Beeching</span>, M.A., Rector of Yattendon, Berks. With a Preface by -<span class='sc'>Canon Scott Holland</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Seven sermons preached before the boys of Bradfield College.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>James.</b> CURIOSITIES OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY PRIOR -TO THE REFORMATION. By <span class='sc'>Croake James</span>, Author of -‘Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.’ <em>Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘This volume contains a great deal of quaint and curious matter, affording some -“particulars of the interesting persons, episodes, and events from the Christian’s -point of view during the first fourteen centuries.” Wherever we dip into his pages -we find something worth dipping into.’—<em>John Bull.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Kaufmann.</b> CHARLES KINGSLEY. By <span class='sc'>M. Kaufmann</span>, -M.A. <em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his achievements in social reform.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The author has certainly gone about his work with conscientiousness and industry.’—<em>Sheffield -Daily Telegraph.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Leaders of Religion</span></div> - <div>Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A. <em>With Portraits, crown 8vo.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c032'><span class='floatright'><span class='xxlarge'>2/6 & 3/6</span></span> -A series of short biographies of the most prominent -leaders of religious life and thought of -all ages and countries.</p> - -<p class='c032'>The following are ready— <b>2s. 6d.</b></p> -<p class='c018'>CARDINAL NEWMAN. By <span class='sc'>R. H. Hutton</span>. <em>Second Edition.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful insight it displays -into the nature of the Cardinal’s genius and the spirit of his life.’—<span class='sc'>Wilfrid -Ward</span>, in the <em>Tablet</em>.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in criticism. We regard it -as wholly admirable.’—<em>Academy.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>JOHN WESLEY. By <span class='sc'>J. H. Overton</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘It is well done: the story is clearly told, proportion is duly observed, and there is -no lack either of discrimination or of sympathy.’—<em>Manchester Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a19'>a19</span>BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By <span class='sc'>G. W. Daniel</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>CARDINAL MANNING. By <span class='sc'>A. W. Hutton</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>CHARLES SIMEON. By <span class='sc'>H. C. G. Moule</span>, M.A.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div>3s. 6d.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>JOHN KEBLE. By <span class='sc'>Walter Lock</span>, M.A. <em>Seventh Edition.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Oliphant</span>. <em>Second Edition.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c034'> - <div><span class='small'>Other volumes will be announced in due course.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Works by S. Baring Gould</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by -<span class='sc'>W. Parkinson</span>, <span class='sc'>F. D. Bedford</span>, and <span class='sc'>F. Masey</span>. <em>Large Crown -8vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, 10s. 6d. Fourth and Cheaper -Edition. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘“Old Country Life,” as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and movement, -full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be -published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to the core.’—<em>World.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. <em>Third -Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful -reading.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>FREAKS OF FANATICISM. <em>Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has -chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perfectly -fascinating book.’—<em>Scottish Leader.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional Ballads and Songs of -the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected -by <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, M.A., and <span class='sc'>H. Fleetwood Sheppard</span>, -M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts (containing 25 -Songs each), <em>Parts I., II., III., 3s. each. Part IV., 5s. In one -Vol., French morocco, 15s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy.’—<em>Saturday -Review.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. -<em>Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a20'>a20</span>STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. With -Illustrations. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. Second Edition. -6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A book on such subjects as Foundations, Gables, Holes, Gallows, Raising the Hat, Old -Ballads, etc. etc. It traces in a most interesting manner their origin and history.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘We have read Mr. Baring Gould’s book from beginning to end. It is full of quaint -and various information, and there is not a dull page in it.’—<em>Notes and Queries.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><em class='gesperrt'>THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS</em>: The -Emperors of the Julian and Claudian Lines. With numerous Illustrations -from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>, -Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. <em>Third Edition. Royal 8vo. 15s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying interest. The great -feature of the book is the use the author has made of the existing portraits of the -Caesars, and the admirable critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing with this -line of research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are supplied on a -scale of profuse magnificence.’—<em>Daily Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The volumes will in no sense disappoint the general reader. Indeed, in their way, -there is nothing in any sense so good in English.... Mr. Baring Gould has -presented his narrative in such a way as not to make one dull page.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c034'> - <div><span class='large'><em>MR. BARING GOULD’S NOVELS</em></span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c026'><span class='small'>‘To say that a book is by the author of “Mehalah” is to imply that it contains a -story cast on strong lines, containing dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic -descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery.’—<em>Speaker.</em></span></p> -<p class='c027'><span class='small'>‘That whatever Mr. Baring Gould writes is well worth reading, is a conclusion that -may be very generally accepted. His views of life are fresh and vigorous, his -language pointed and characteristic, the incidents of which he makes use are -striking and original, his characters are life-like, and though somewhat exceptional -people, are drawn and coloured with artistic force. Add to this that his -descriptions of scenes and scenery are painted with the loving eyes and skilled -hands of a master of his art, that he is always fresh and never dull, and under -such conditions it is no wonder that readers have gained confidence both in his -power of amusing and satisfying them, and that year by year his popularity -widens.’—<em>Court Circular.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c035'> - <div><b>SIX SHILLINGS EACH</b></div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1 c000'> - <li>IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA: A Tale of the Cornish Coast. - </li> - <li>MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. - </li> - <li>CHEAP JACK ZITA. - </li> - <li>THE QUEEN OF LOVE. - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c036'> - <div><b>THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE EACH</b></div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1'> - <li>ARMINELL: A Social Romance. - </li> - <li>URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. - </li> - <li>MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. - </li> - <li>JACQUETTA, and other Stories. - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c037'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_a21'>a21</span><span class='xlarge'>Fiction</span></div> - <div class='c000'>SIX SHILLING NOVELS</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><b>Corelli.</b> BARABBAS: A DREAM OF THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. By <span class='sc'>Marie Corelli</span>, Author of ‘A Romance of Two -Worlds,’ ‘Vendetta,’ etc. <em>Eleventh Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Miss Corelli’s new romance has been received with much disapprobation by the -secular papers, and with warm welcome by the religious papers. By the former -she has been accused of blasphemy and bad taste; ‘a gory nightmare’; ‘a hideous -travesty’; ‘grotesque vulgarisation’; ‘unworthy of criticism’; ‘vulgar redundancy’; -‘sickening details’—these are some of the secular flowers of speech. -On the other hand, the ‘Guardian’ praises ‘the dignity of its conceptions, the -reserve round the Central Figure, the fine imagery of the scene and circumstance, -so much that is elevating and devout’; the ‘Illustrated Church News’ styles the -book ‘reverent and artistic, broad based on the rock of our common nature, and -appealing to what is best in it’; the ‘Christian World’ says it is written ‘by one -who has more than conventional reverence, who has tried to tell the story that it -may be read again with open and attentive eyes’; the ‘Church of England -Pulpit’ welcomes ‘a book which teems with faith without any appearance of -irreverence.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Benson.</b> DODO: A DETAIL OF THE DAY. By <span class='sc'>E. F. -Benson</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. Fourteenth Edition. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of society by a new writer, full of interest and power, which has attracted -by its brilliance universal attention. The best critics were cordial in their -praise. The ‘Guardian’ spoke of ‘Dodo’ as <em>unusually clever and interesting</em>; -the ‘Spectator’ called it <em>a delightfully witty sketch of society</em>; the ‘Speaker’ -said the dialogue was <em>a perpetual feast of epigram and paradox</em>; the -‘Athenæum’ spoke of the author as <em>a writer of quite exceptional ability</em>; -the ‘Academy’ praised his <em>amazing cleverness</em>; the ‘World’ said the book was -<em>brilliantly written</em>; and half-a-dozen papers declared there <em>was not a dull page -in the book</em>.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA: A Tale of -the Cornish Coast. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>. <em>New Edition. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. -By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>. <em>Third Edition. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of Devon life. The ‘Graphic’ speaks of it as <em>a novel of vigorous humour and -sustained power</em>; the ‘Sussex Daily News’ says that <em>the swing of the narrative -is splendid</em>; and the ‘Speaker’ mentions <em>its bright imaginative power</em>.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> CHEAP JACK ZITA. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>. -<em>Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A Romance of the Ely Fen District in 1815, which the ‘Westminster Gazette’ calls -‘a powerful drama of human passion’; and the ‘National Observer’ ‘a story -worthy the author.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring -Gould</span>. <em>Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The ‘Glasgow Herald’ says that ‘the scenery is admirable, and the dramatic incidents -are most striking.’ The ‘Westminster Gazette’ calls the book ‘strong, -interesting, and clever.’ ‘Punch’ says that ‘you cannot put it down until you -have finished it.’ ‘The Sussex Daily News’ says that it ‘can be heartily recommended -to all who care for cleanly, energetic, and interesting fiction.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a22'>a22</span><b>Norris.</b> HIS GRACE. By <span class='sc'>W. E. Norris</span>, Author of -‘Mademoiselle de Mersac.’ <em>Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The characters are delineated by the author with his characteristic skill and -vivacity, and the story is told with that ease of manners and Thackerayean insight -which give strength of flavour to Mr. Norris’s novels. No one can depict -the Englishwoman of the better classes with more subtlety.’—<em>Glasgow Herald.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Norris has drawn a really fine character in the Duke of Hurstbourne, at once -unconventional and very true to the conventionalities of life, weak and strong in -a breath, capable of inane follies and heroic decisions, yet not so definitely portrayed -as to relieve a reader of the necessity of study on his own behalf.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Parker.</b> MRS. FALCHION. By <span class='sc'>Gilbert Parker</span>, Author of -‘Pierre and His People.’ <em>New Edition. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Mr. Parker’s second book has received a warm welcome. The ‘Athenæum’ called -it <em>a splendid study of character</em>; the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ spoke of the writing as -<em>but little behind anything that has been done by any writer of our time</em>; the -‘St. James’s’ called it <em>a very striking and admirable novel</em>; and the ‘Westminster -Gazette’ applied to it the epithet of <em>distinguished</em>.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Parker.</b> PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By <span class='sc'>Gilbert -Parker</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Stories happily conceived and finely executed. There is strength and genius in Mr. -Parker’s style.’—<em>Daily Telegraph.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Parker.</b> THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. By <span class='sc'>Gilbert -Parker</span>, Author of ‘Pierre and His People,’ ‘Mrs. Falchion,’ etc. -<em>Crown 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c030'><span class='small'>‘The plot is original and one difficult to work out; but Mr. Parker has done it with -great skill and delicacy. The reader who is not interested in this original, fresh, -and well-told tale must be a dull person indeed.’—<em>Daily Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c030'><span class='small'>‘A strong and successful piece of workmanship. The portrait of Lali, strong, dignified, -and pure, is exceptionally well drawn.’—<em>Manchester Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c030'><span class='small'>‘A very pretty and interesting story, and Mr. Parker tells it with much skill. The -story is one to be read.’—<em>St. James’s Gazette.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Anthony Hope.</b> A CHANGE OF AIR: A Novel. By -<span class='sc'>Anthony Hope</span>, Author of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ etc. -<em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A bright story by Mr. Hope, who has, the <em>Athenæum</em> says, ‘a decided outlook and -individuality of his own.’</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A graceful, vivacious comedy, true to human nature. The characters are traced -with a masterly hand.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Pryce.</b> TIME AND THE WOMAN. By <span class='sc'>Richard Pryce</span>, -Author of ‘Miss Maxwell’s Affections,’ ‘The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,’ -etc. New and Cheaper Edition. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Pryce’s work recalls the style of Octave Feuillet, by its clearness, conciseness, -its literary reserve.’—<em>Athenæum.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a23'>a23</span><b>Marriott Watson.</b> DIOGENES OF LONDON and other -Sketches. By <span class='sc'>H. B. Marriott Watson</span>, Author of ‘The Web -of the Spider.’ <em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘By all those who delight in the uses of words, who rate the exercise of prose above -the exercise of verse, who rejoice in all proofs of its delicacy and its strength, who -believe that English prose is chief among the moulds of thought, by these -Mr. Marriott Watson’s book will be welcomed.’—<em>National Observer.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Gilchrist.</b> THE STONE DRAGON. By <span class='sc'>Murray Gilchrist</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. Buckram. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The author’s faults are atoned for by certain positive and admirable merits. The -romances have not their counterpart in modern literature, and to read them is a -unique experience.’—<em>National Observer.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><b>THREE-AND-SIXPENNY NOVELS</b></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> ARMINELL: A Social Romance. By <span class='sc'>S. -Baring Gould</span>. <em>New Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c030'><b>Baring Gould.</b> URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring -Gould</span>. <em>Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The author is at his best.’—<em>Times.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘He has nearly reached the high water-mark of “Mehalah.”’—<em>National Observer.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. -By <span class='sc'>S. Baring Gould</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> JACQUETTA, and other Stories. By <span class='sc'>S. Baring -Gould</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Gray.</b> ELSA. A Novel. By <span class='sc'>E. M’Queen Gray</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. -3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c030'><span class='small'>‘A charming novel. The characters are not only powerful sketches, but minutely -and carefully finished portraits.’—<em>Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Pearce.</b> JACO TRELOAR. By <span class='sc'>J. H. Pearce</span>, Author of -‘Esther Pentreath.’ <em>New Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A tragic story of Cornish life by a writer of remarkable power, whose first novel has -been highly praised by Mr. Gladstone.</span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>The ‘Spectator’ speaks of Mr. Pearce as <em>a writer of exceptional power</em>; the ‘Daily -Telegraph’ calls the book <em>powerful and picturesque</em>; the ‘Birmingham Post’ -asserts that it is <em>a novel of high quality</em>.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Edna Lyall.</b> DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By -<span class='sc'>Edna Lyall</span>, Author of ‘Donovan,’ etc. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Clark Russell.</b> MY DANISH SWEETHEART. By <span class='sc'>W. -Clark Russell</span>, Author of ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor,’ etc. -<em>Illustrated. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a24'>a24</span><b>Author of ‘Vera.’</b> THE DANCE OF THE HOURS. By -the Author of ‘Vera.’ <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Esmè Stuart.</b> A WOMAN OF FORTY. By <span class='sc'>Esmè Stuart</span>, -Author of ‘Muriel’s Marriage,’ ‘Virginié’s Husband,’ etc. <em>New -Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘The story is well written, and some of the scenes show great dramatic power.’—<em>Daily -Chronicle.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Fenn.</b> THE STAR GAZERS. By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>, -Author of ‘Eli’s Children,’ etc. <em>New Edition. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A stirring romance.’—<em>Western Morning News.</em></span></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Told with all the dramatic power for which Mr. Fenn is conspicuous.’—<em>Bradford -Observer.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Dickinson.</b> A VICAR’S WIFE. By <span class='sc'>Evelyn Dickinson</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Prowse.</b> THE POISON OF ASPS. By <span class='sc'>R. Orton Prowse</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Grey.</b> THE STORY OF CHRIS. By <span class='sc'>Rowland Grey</span>. -<em>Crown 8vo. 5s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Lynn Linton.</b> THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON, -Christian and Communist. By <span class='sc'>E. Lynn Linton</span>. Eleventh -Edition. <em>Post 8vo. 1s.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><b>HALF-CROWN NOVELS</b></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c031'><span class='floatright'><span class='xxlarge'>2/6</span></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><em>A Series of Novels by popular Authors, tastefully bound in cloth.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1'> - <li>1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By <span class='sc'>F. Mabel Robinson</span>. - </li> - <li>2. DISENCHANTMENT. By <span class='sc'>F. Mabel Robinson</span>. - </li> - <li>3. MR. BUTLER’S WARD. By <span class='sc'>F. Mabel Robinson</span>. - </li> - <li>4. HOVENDEN, V.C. By <span class='sc'>F. Mabel Robinson</span>. - </li> - <li>5. ELI’S CHILDREN. By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>. - </li> - <li>6. A DOUBLE KNOT. By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>. - </li> - <li>7. DISARMED. By <span class='sc'>Betham Edwards</span>. - </li> - <li>8. A LOST ILLUSION. By <span class='sc'>Leslie Keith</span>. - </li> - <li>9. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By <span class='sc'>W. Clark Russell</span>. - </li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_a25'>a25</span>10. IN TENT AND BUNGALOW. By the Author of ‘Indian Idylls.’ - </li> - <li>11. MY STEWARDSHIP. By <span class='sc'>E. M’Queen Gray</span>. - </li> - <li>12. A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By <span class='sc'>J. M. Cobban</span>. - </li> - <li>13. A DEPLORABLE AFFAIR. By <span class='sc'>W. E. Norris</span>. - </li> - <li>14. JACK’S FATHER. By <span class='sc'>W. E. Norris</span>. - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><span class='small'>Other volumes will be announced in due course.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Books for Boys and Girls</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'><b>Baring Gould.</b> THE ICELANDER’S SWORD. By <span class='sc'>S. -Baring Gould</span>, Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. With Twenty-nine -Illustrations by <span class='sc'>J. Moyr Smith</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 6s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A stirring story of Iceland, written for boys by the author of ‘In the Roar of the Sea.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Cuthell.</b> TWO LITTLE CHILDREN AND CHING. By -<span class='sc'>Edith E. Cuthell</span>. Profusely Illustrated. <em>Crown 8vo. Cloth, -gilt edges. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>Another story, with a dog hero, by the author of the very popular ‘Only a Guard-Room -Dog.’</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Blake.</b> TODDLEBEN’S HERO. By <span class='sc'>M. M. Blake</span>, Author of -‘The Siege of Norwich Castle.’ With 36 Illustrations. <em>Crown -8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>A story of military life for children.</span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Cuthell.</b> ONLY A GUARD-ROOM DOG. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Cuthell</span>. -With 16 Illustrations by <span class='sc'>W. Parkinson</span>. <em>Square Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'> -‘This is a charming story. Tangle was but a little mongrel Skye terrier, but he had a -big heart in his little body, and played a hero’s part more than once. The book -can be warmly recommended.’—<em>Standard.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Collingwood.</b> THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By <span class='sc'>Harry -Collingwood</span>, Author of ‘The Pirate Island,’ etc. Illustrated by -<span class='sc'>Gordon Browne</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘“The Doctor of the Juliet,” well illustrated by Gordon Browne, is one of Harry -Collingwood’s best efforts.’—<em>Morning Post.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a26'>a26</span><b>Clark Russell.</b> MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S VOYAGE. By -<span class='sc'>W. Clark Russell</span>, Author of ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor,’ etc. -Illustrated by <span class='sc'>Gordon Browne</span>. <em>Second Edition, Crown 8vo. -3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Mr. Clark Russell’s story of “Master Rockafellar’s Voyage” will be among the -favourites of the Christmas books. There is a rattle and “go” all through it, and -its illustrations are charming in themselves, and very much above the average in -the way in which they are produced.’—<em>Guardian.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'><b>Manville Fenn.</b> SYD BELTON: Or, The Boy who would not -go to Sea. By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>, Author of ‘In the King’s -Name,’ etc. Illustrated by <span class='sc'>Gordon Browne</span>. <em>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the sight of the old -combination, so often proved admirable—a story by Manville Fenn, illustrated -by Gordon Browne? The story, too, is one of the good old sort, full of life and -vigour, breeziness and fun.’—<em>Journal of Education.</em></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>The Peacock Library</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c039'><span class='floatright'><span class='xxlarge'>3/6</span></span> -<em>A Series of Books for Girls by well-known Authors, -handsomely bound in blue and silver, and well illustrated. -Crown 8vo.</em></p> - - <ul class='ul_2'> - <li>1. A PINCH OF EXPERIENCE. By <span class='sc'>L. B. Walford</span>. - </li> - <li>2. THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Molesworth</span>. - </li> - <li>3. THE SECRET OF MADAME DE MONLUC. By the Author of ‘Mdle Mori.’ - </li> - <li>4. DUMPS. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Parr</span>, Author of ‘Adam and Eve.’ - </li> - <li>5. OUT OF THE FASHION. By <span class='sc'>L. T. Meade</span>. - </li> - <li>6. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By <span class='sc'>L. T. Meade</span>. - </li> - <li>7. HEPSY GIPSY. By <span class='sc'>L. T. Meade</span>. <em>2s. 6d.</em> - </li> - <li>8. THE HONOURABLE MISS. By <span class='sc'>L. T. Meade</span>. - </li> - <li>9. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. <span class='sc'>Leith Adams</span>. - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>University Extension Series</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c031'><span class='small'>A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, suitable -for extension students and home reading circles. Each volume is complete -<span class='pageno' id='Page_a27'>a27</span>in itself, and the subjects are treated by competent writers in a -broad and philosophic spirit.</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div>Edited by J. E. SYMES, M.A.,</div> - <div>Principal of University College, Nottingham.</div> - <div class='c000'><em>Crown 8vo. Price (with some exceptions) 2s. 6d.</em></div> - <div class='c000'><em>The following volumes are ready</em>:—</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By <span class='sc'>H. de -B. Gibbins</span>, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden -Prizeman. <em>Third Edition.</em> With Maps and Plans. <em>3s.</em></p> -<p class='c019'><span class='small'>‘A compact and clear story of our industrial development. A study of this concise -but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader a clear insight into the principal -phenomena of our industrial history. The editor and publishers are to be congratulated -on this first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant -interest for the succeeding volumes of the series.’—<em>University Extension Journal.</em></span></p> -<p class='c018'>A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY. By -<span class='sc'>L. L. Price</span>, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon.</p> -<p class='c018'>PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial -Conditions of the Poor. By <span class='sc'>J. A. Hobson</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>VICTORIAN POETS. By <span class='sc'>A. Sharp</span>.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By <span class='sc'>J. E. Symes</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>PSYCHOLOGY. By <span class='sc'>F. S. Granger</span>, M.A., Lecturer in Philosophy -at University College, Nottingham.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE: Lower Forms. By -<span class='sc'>G. Massee</span>, Kew Gardens. With Illustrations.</p> -<p class='c018'>AIR AND WATER. Professor <span class='sc'>V. B. Lewes</span>, M.A. Illustrated.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By <span class='sc'>C. W. -Kimmins</span>, M.A. Camb. Illustrated.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By <span class='sc'>V. P. Sells</span>, M.A. -Illustrated.</p> -<p class='c018'>ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. <span class='sc'>H. de B. Gibbins</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH -CENTURY. By <span class='sc'>W. A. S. Hewins</span>, B.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE CHEMISTRY OF FIRE. The Elementary Principles of -Chemistry. By <span class='sc'>M. M. Pattison Muir</span>, M.A. Illustrated.</p> -<p class='c018'>A TEXT-BOOK OF AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. By <span class='sc'>M. C. -Potter</span>, M.A., F.L.S. Illustrated. <em>3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a28'>a28</span>THE VAULT OF HEAVEN. A Popular Introduction to -Astronomy. By <span class='sc'>R. A. Gregory</span>. With numerous Illustrations.</p> -<p class='c018'>METEOROLOGY. The Elements of Weather and Climate. -By <span class='sc'>H. N. Dickson</span>, F.R.S.E., F.R. Met. Soc. Illustrated.</p> -<p class='c018'>A MANUAL OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. By <span class='sc'>George -J. Burch</span>, M.A. With numerous Illustrations. <em>3s</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Social Questions of To-day</span></div> - <div class='c000'>Edited by <span class='sc'>H. de B. GIBBINS</span>, M.A.</div> - <div class='c000'><em>Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d</em>.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c031'><span class='floatright'><span class='xxlarge'>2/6</span></span> -A series of volumes upon those topics of social, economic, -and industrial interest that are at the present moment foremost -in the public mind. Each volume of the series is written by an -author who is an acknowledged authority upon the subject with which -he deals.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><span class='small'><em>The following Volumes of the Series are ready:</em>—</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>TRADE UNIONISM—NEW AND OLD. By <span class='sc'>G. Howell</span>, -M.P., Author of ‘The Conflicts of Capital and Labour.’ <em>Second -Edition</em>.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY. By <span class='sc'>G. J. -Holyoake</span>, Author of ‘The History of Co-operation.’</p> -<p class='c018'>MUTUAL THRIFT. By Rev. <span class='sc'>J. Frome Wilkinson</span>, M.A., -Author of ‘The Friendly Society Movement.’</p> -<p class='c018'>PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial -Conditions of the Poor. By <span class='sc'>J. A. Hobson</span>, M.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By <span class='sc'>C. F. Bastable</span>, -M.A., Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE ALIEN INVASION. By <span class='sc'>W. H. Wilkins</span>, B.A., Secretary -to the Society for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE RURAL EXODUS. By <span class='sc'>P. Anderson Graham</span>.</p> -<p class='c018'>LAND NATIONALIZATION. By <span class='sc'>Harold Cox</span>, B.A.</p> -<p class='c018'>A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By <span class='sc'>H. de B. Gibbins</span> -and <span class='sc'>R. A. Hadfield</span>, of the Hecla Works, Sheffield.</p> -<p class='c018'>BACK TO THE LAND: An Inquiry into the Cure for Rural -Depopulation. By <span class='sc'>H. E. Moore</span>.</p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a29'>a29</span>TRUSTS, POOLS AND CORNERS: As affecting Commerce -and Industry. By <span class='sc'>J. Stephen Jeans</span>, M.R.I., F.S.S.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE FACTORY SYSTEM. By <span class='sc'>R. Cooke Taylor</span>.</p> -<p class='c018'>THE STATE AND ITS CHILDREN. By <span class='sc'>Gertrude -Tuckwell</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Classical Translations</span></div> - <div class='c000'>Edited by H. F. FOX, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose</div> - <div>College, Oxford.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c031'>Messrs. Methuen propose to issue a New Series of Translations from -the Greek and Latin Classics. They have enlisted the services of some -of the best Oxford and Cambridge Scholars, and it is their intention that -the Series shall be distinguished by literary excellence as well as by -scholarly accuracy.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><em>Crown 8vo. Finely printed and bound in blue buckram.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>CICERO—De Oratore I. Translated by <span class='sc'>E. N. P. Moor</span>, M.A., -Assistant Master at Clifton. <em>3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>ÆSCHYLUS—Agamemnon, Chöephoroe, Eumenides. Translated -by <span class='sc'>Lewis Campbell</span>, LL.D., late Professor of Greek at St. -Andrews. <em>5s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>LUCIAN—Six Dialogues (Nigrinus, Icaro-Menippus, The Cock, -The Ship, The Parasite, The Lover of Falsehood). Translated by -<span class='sc'>S. T. Irwin</span>, M.A., Assistant Master at Clifton; late Scholar of -Exeter College, Oxford. <em>3s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>SOPHOCLES—Electra and Ajax. Translated by <span class='sc'>E. D. A. -Morshead</span>, M.A., late Scholar of New College, Oxford; Assistant -Master at Winchester. <em>2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>TACITUS—Agricola and Germania. Translated by <span class='sc'>R. B. -Townshend</span>, late Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. <em>2s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>CICERO—Select Orations (Pro Milone, Pro Murena, Philippic <span class='fss'>II.</span>, -In Catilinam). Translated by <span class='sc'>H. E. D. Blakiston</span>, M.A., Fellow -and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. <em>5s.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Methuen’s Commercial Series</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>BRITISH COMMERCE AND COLONIES FROM ELIZABETH -TO VICTORIA. By <span class='sc'>H. de B. Gibbins</span>, M.A., Author -of ‘The Industrial History of England,’ etc., etc. <em>2s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_a30'>a30</span>A MANUAL OF FRENCH COMMERCIAL CORRESPONDENCE. -By <span class='sc'>S. E. Bally</span>, Modern Language Master at -the Manchester Grammar School. <em>2s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY, with special reference to Trade -Routes, New Markets, and Manufacturing Districts. By <span class='sc'>L. D. -Lyde</span>, M.A., of The Academy, Glasgow. <em>2s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>COMMERCIAL EXAMINATION PAPERS. By <span class='sc'>H. de B. -Gibbins</span>, M.A. <em>1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>THE ECONOMICS OF COMMERCE. By <span class='sc'>H. de B. Gibbins</span>, -M.A. <em>1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>A PRIMER OF BUSINESS. By <span class='sc'>S. Jackson</span>, M.A. <em>1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>COMMERCIAL ARITHMETIC. By <span class='sc'>F. G. Taylor</span>, -M.A. <em>1s. 6d.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c022'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Works by A. M. M. Stedman, M.A.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>INITIA LATINA: Easy Lessons on Elementary Accidence. -<em>Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 1s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>FIRST LATIN LESSONS. <em>Fourth Edition Crown 8vo. 2s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>FIRST LATIN READER. With Notes adapted to the Shorter -Latin Primer and Vocabulary. <em>Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>EASY SELECTIONS FROM CAESAR. Part 1. The Helvetian -War. <em>18mo. 1s.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>EASY SELECTIONS FROM LIVY. Part 1. The Kings of -Rome. <em>18mo. 1s. 6d.</em></p> -<p class='c018'>EASY LATIN PASSAGES FOR UNSEEN TRANSLATION. -<em>Third Edition. 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Liddell</span>, M.A. <em>1s. 6d.</em></p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<p class='c031'><a id='endnote'></a></p> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c033'> - <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Note</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c031'>Only one error was deemed most likely to be the printer’s and it -has been corrected, as noted here. The minor errors in the section -of advertisments have been corrected with no further notice.</p> - -<p class='c031'>The reference is to the page and line in the original.</p> - -<table class='table2' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='69%' /> -<col width='18%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_115.17'></a><a href='#corr115.17'>115.17</a></td> - <td class='c008'>if he had not perished[?]</td> - <td class='c041'>Added.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Kitty Alone (vol. 3 of 3), by S. 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