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diff --git a/58046-0.txt b/58046-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..385fbaa --- /dev/null +++ b/58046-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10080 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58046 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + 1. Page scan source: + https://books.google.com/books?id=JKYxAQAAMAAJ + (Cornell University) + + + + + + +COLLECTION +OF +BRITISH AUTHORS + + +TAUCHNITZ EDITION. + +============= + +VOL. 965. + +THE RED COURT FARM. + +BY +MRS. HENRY WOOD. + +IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I. + + + +LEIPZIG: BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ. +PARIS: C. REINWALD & CIE, 15, RUE DES SAINTS-PÈRES. +PARIS: THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY, 224, RUE DE RIVOLI, + AND AT NICE, 48, QUAI ST. JEAN BAPTISTE. + + +_This Collection is, published with copyright for Continental +circulation, but all purchasers are earnestly requested not to +introduce the volumes into England or into any British Colony_. + + + + + + +COLLECTION +OF +BRITISH AUTHORS. + +VOL. 965. + +--------- +THE RED COURT FARM BY MRS. HENRY WOOD. +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + + + + + + +TAUCHNITZ EDITION. +By the same Author, + +EAST LYNNE 3 vols. +THE CHANNINGS 2 vols. +MRS. HALLIBURTON'S TROUBLES 2 vols. +VERNER'S PRIDE 3 vols. +THE SHADOW OF ASHLYDYAT 3 vols. +TREVLYN HOLD 2 vols. +LORD OAKBURN'S DAUGHTERS 2 vols. +OSWALD CRAY 2 vols. +MILDRED ARKELL 2 vols. +ST. MARTIN'S EVE 2 vols. +ELSTER'S FOLLY 2 vols. +LADY ADELAIDE'S OATH 2 vol. +ORVILLE COLLEGE 1 vol. +A LIFE'S SECRET 1 vol. +ANNE HEREFORD 2 vols. +ROLAND YORKE 2 vols. + + + + + + +THE +RED COURT FARM. + +A NOVEL. + +BY +MRS. HENRY WOOD, +AUTHOR OF "EAST LYNNE," "TREVLYN HOLD," ETC. + + +_COPYRIGHT EDITION_. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + + + +LEIPZIG +BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ +1868. + +_The Right of Translation is reserved_. + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF VOLUME I. + + +CHAPTER + +CHAP. + I. Introduction. + II. Robert Hunter and his Wife. + III. Clara Lake's Dream. + IV. The Accident. + V. Red or Green. + VI. Justice Thornycroft's Visit. + VII. Going Fishing. + VIII. Catching a Chill. + IX. Colour Blindness. + X. Mary Jupp's Explosion. + XI. The Dream worked out. + XII. Coastdown. + XIII. What was the Fear? + XIV. Superstitious Tales. + XV. The New Mistress of the Red Court. + + + + + + +THE RED COURT FARM. + + + +PART THE FIRST. + +CHAPTER I. +Introduction. + + +On a certain portion of the English coast, lying sufficiently +convenient to that of France to have given rise to whispers of +smuggling in the days gone by, there is a bleak plateau of land, +rising high above the sea. It is a venturesome feat to walk close +to its edge and gaze down the perpendicular cliffs to the beach +below--enough to make a strong man dizzy. A small beach just there, +called the Half-moon from its shape, nearly closed in by the +projecting rocks, and accessible only from the sea at high water; at +low water a very narrow path leads from it round the left projection +of rock. It was a peculiar place altogether, this spot; and it is +necessary to make it pretty clear to the imagination of those who read +the story connected with it. The Half-moon itself was never under +water, for the tide did not reach it, but the narrow path winding +round to the left _was;_ and that rendered the half-circular beach +unapproachable by land at intervals in the four-and twenty hours. A +few rude steps shelved down from this Half-moon to a small strip of +lower beach underneath, whose ends were lost in the sea. The +projecting rocks on either side, forming as may be said the corners of +the Half-moon, went right into the sea. Those on your right hand +(standing face to the sea) cut off all communication with the shore +beyond, for a depth of water touched them always. Those on the left +extended less far out, and the narrow path winding round them was dry +when the tide was down. It thus arose that the Half-moon could be +gained by this one narrow path only, or by a boat from the sea. + +For all practical purposes it might just as well have been +unattainable. Not once in a month--nay, it might be said, not once in +twelve months--would any human being stray thither. Not only was there +no end to be answered in going to it, but the place was said to be +haunted; and the simple villagers around would sooner have spent +the night watching in the church's vaults than have ventured to the +Half-moon beach between sundown and cockcrow. The most superstitious +race of men on the earth's surface are sailors; and fishermen partake +of the peculiarity. + +Turning round on the plateau now--it is called the plateau just as the +beach below is called the Half-moon--with our backs to the sea, we +look inland It is only the plateau that is high; the coast itself and +the lands around lie rather low. On the left hand (remember that our +hands have been reversed) a long line of dreary coast stretches +onwards, not a habitation to be seen; on the right lies the +village--Coastdown. Fishermen's huts are built on the side and top of +the cliffs, not there so perpendicular; small cottages dot the +low-lying grass lands; and an opening in the one poor street (if it +can be called such) of the village, shows the real useable beach and +the few fishing craft moored to it. + +Standing still on the plateau, our backs to the sea, the eye falls on +a landscape of cultivated plains, extending out for miles and miles. +The only house near to the plateau is exactly opposite to it--a large +redbrick house built in a dell. It may be a quarter of a mile distant +from the edge of the plateau where we stand, but the gradual descent +of the grassy land causes it to look very much nearer. This is the Red +Court Farm. It is a low, long house, rather than a high one, and has +been built on the site of an ancient castle, signs of whose ruins may +be seen still. The plateau itself is but as wide as about a good +stone's throw; and on its lower part, not far from where it joins the +lands of the Red Court Farm, and the descent is rather abrupt, rises a +dilapidated circular stone wall, breast high, with a narrow opening +where the door used to be. This is called the Round Tower, and is +supposed to have been the watch-tower of the castle. + +The Red Court stands alone, the last house of the colony, some +distance removed from any; its gates and door of entrance are at the +end of the house, looking to the village. The nearest building to it +is the small old church, St. Peter's, standing in the midst of a large +graveyard dotted with graves; with its portico-entrance, and its +square belfry, grey with age, green with patches of moss. The high +road, advancing from the open country behind--it's hard to say whence, +or from what bustling cities--comes winding by the entrance gates of +the Red Court Farm with a sharp turn, and sees two roads branching off +before it. It takes the one to the right, bearing round to the +village, passes through it, and goes careering on to Jutpoint, a small +town, some four or five miles distant, having the sea on the right all +the way. The other branching road leads past the church to the heath, +or common, on which are situated the handful of houses, all of +moderate size, inhabited by the gentry of the place. + +The only good house was the Red Court Farm. Thornycroft was the name +of the family living in it. Mr. Thornycroft owned the Red Court and +some of the land around it; and he rented more, which he farmed. Many +years ago a gentleman had come down to look at the place, which was +for sale, and bought it. He was named Thornycroft. His two sons, +Richard and Harry, were fine powerful young men, but wild in their +habits, and caused some scandal in the quiet place. Previous to the +purchase, the house had been known as the Red Court, it was supposed +from the deep red of the bricks of which it was built. Mr. Thornycroft +at once added on the word "Farm"--the Red Court Farm. A right good +farmer he proved himself to be, the extent of the land being about +three hundred acres, comprising what he rented. Within a very few +years of the purchase Mr. Thornycroft died, and Richard, the eldest +son, came into possession. In the following year Richard also died, +from the effects of an accident in France. Both the brothers were fond +of taking continental trips, Richard especially. + +Thus the place came into the hands of Harry Thornycroft, and he +entered upon it with his wife and little son. His ostensible residence +since his marriage had been in London; but he had stayed a great deal +at the Red Court Farm. A second son was soon after born, and some five +or six years later another boy and a girl. Mrs. Thornycroft, a gentle, +ladylike, delicate woman, did not enjoy robust health. Something in +her face and manner seemed to give the idea that she had an inward +care--that skeleton in the closet from which so few of us are quite +free. Whether it was so or not in her case none could tell. That Harry +Thornycroft made her a fond and indulgent husband--that they were much +attached to each other--there could be no doubt of. Her look of care +may have arisen solely from her state of health; perhaps from the +secret conviction that she should be called away early from her +children. Years before she died Coastdown said she was fading away. +Fade away she did, without any very tangible disorder, and was laid to +rest in a corner of the churchyard. To those who know where to look +for it, her large white tombstone may be distinguished from our +standing-place on the plateau. That grief had been long over, and the +Red Court itself again. + +Mr. Thornycroft was a county magistrate, and rode in to Jutpoint, when +the whim took him, and sat upon the bench there. There was no bench at +Coastdown; but petty offenders were brought before him at the Red +Court--partly because he was the only gentleman in the commission of +the peace living at Coastdown, partly from the fact that he was more +wealthy and influential than all the other residents put together. A +lenient justice was he, never convicting when he could spare: many a +fine, that he himself had imposed from the bench at Jutpoint, was +mysteriously conveyed out of his pocket into the poor offender's to +save the man from prison. To say that Justice Thornycroft--the title +generally accorded him--was beloved in Coastdown, would be a poor word +to define the feeling of the poorer people around. He had a liberal +hand, an open heart; and no person carried a tale of trouble to him in +vain. His great fault, said the small gentry around, was unreasonable +liberality. Never was there a pleasanter companion than he, and his +brother magistrates chuckled when they got an invitation to the Red +Court dinners, for they loved the hearty welcome and the jolly cheer. + +The two elder sons, Richard and Isaac, were fine towering men like +himself--rather wild both, just what Harry Thornycroft and his elder +brother had been in their young days. Richard was dark, stern, and +resolute; but he would unbend to courtesy over his wine when guests +were at table. The few who remembered the dead elder brother said +Richard resembled him much more than he did his father, as is +sometimes seen to be the case. Certainly in countenance Richard was +not like the justice. Isaac was. It was his father's fair and handsome +face over again, with its fine features, its dark-blue eyes, and its +profusion of light curling hair. There was altogether a great charm in +Isaac Thornycroft. His manners were winning; his form, strong and tall +as Richard's, had a nameless grace and ease that Richard's lacked; and +his heart and hand were open as his father's. The young one, Cyril, +was less robust than his brothers--quiet, gentle, very much like his +dead mother. Cyril's taste was all for books; to the out-of-door life +favoured by Richard and Isaac he had never been given. Richard called +him a "milksop;" Isaac would pet him almost as he might a girl; all +indulged him. To Richard and Isaac no profession was given; as yet +none was talked of for Cyril. The two elder occupied themselves on the +land--ostensibly, at any rate; but half their time was spent in +shooting, fishing, hunting, according to the seasons. "A thriving farm +the Red Court must be," quoth the neighbours given to gossip, "for the +old man to keep all his sons to it." But it was well known that Mr. +Thornycroft must possess considerable private property; the style of +living would alone prove that. + +A broad gravel drive led straight from the gates to the entrance door. +There were different gates and entrances at the back of the house, +serving for farm vehicles, for servants, and for people on business +generally. The kitchens and other domestic apartments were at the +back, looking on to the various buildings behind--barns, stables, and +such like. The further end of the stables joined some of the old ruins +still standing--in fact, it may be said that part of the ruins were +used as such. The young men kept their dog-cart there--a large, +stylish affair, capable of containing no end of dogs--and the fleet, +strong, fine horse that usually drew it. The front of the house (as +already seen) faced the plateau and the sea--a wide handsome frontage +enclosing handsome rooms. And it is quite time we entered them. + +Through the portico, level with the ground, and up the two steps into +the long but somewhat narrow hall--very narrow at the back, and shut +in by a door--doors opened on either side of it. The first room on the +right was the dining-room--a spacious apartment, warm and comfortable, +bright pictures on its dark wainscoted walls, a rich Turkey carpet +giving luxury to the tread. The windows were at the end, looking +towards the village and the church belfry; and the fireplace was +opposite the door. Passing up the hall, the next room was called +familiarly the justice-room. Here Mr. Thornycroft sat when offenders +were brought before him, and here he saw his farming people and kept +his papers. Beyond this was the staircase, and a door, still on the +right, opening on the passage leading to the domestic apartments. On +the left-hand side of the entrance-hall was the large drawing-room, +its windows facing the front; beyond it a smaller and plainer one, +always in use. A snug little parlour adjoined this, in which Miss +Thornycroft took her lessons: all these three faced the front. The +door at the back of the hall opened on a passage and to some rooms +used only by the gentlemen. The passage ran through to a side +entrance, which was just opposite that portion of the stables built on +the old ruins--this was convenient, since the young men, who had a +habit of coming in at all hours of the day and night, could put up +their horse and dog-cart and let themselves in with their latch-keys +without sound or movement penetrating to the family and household. + +It is with the study, or Miss Thornycroft's parlour, that we have to +do today. Its window is thrown open to the hot July sun--to the green +lawn and the shrubs underneath--to the bare plateau beyond, on whose +edge a coastguardsman was pacing on duty--to the sparkling sea in the +distance. The paper of the room was of white and gold, pretty drawings +and landscapes in water-colours adorning it. Some of them had been +done by Miss Thornycroft, some by her late mother. The carpet and +chairs were green; the piano, cabinets, and other furniture were +handsome; the white curtains waved in the gentle breeze--altogether it +was a room pleasant to look upon. + +Seated on the music-stool, her face to the door, was a little +middle-aged, brown woman, unmistakably French, without her tongue, +which was going fluently, a look of reproach on her naturally placid +face. It was Mademoiselle Derode, the governess, resident now some +five years at the Red Court. A simple-minded woman, accomplished +though she was--good as gold, and timid as her own nature. Richard +Thornycroft had related to her some of the ghostly tales connected +with the Red Court--or rather with its immediate environs--and she +would not have stirred out at night alone for the world. Her chamber +window when she first came faced the plateau; after hearing the +stories she begged and prayed to be removed into another. Mrs. +Thornycroft, alive then, complied with a sad smile, and reproved +Richard in her gentle manner for saying anything. If whispers were to +be believed, these same ghostly rumours were even then helping to kill +Mrs. Thornycroft. + +Mademoiselle Derode was _en colère_ this morning with her pupil. +French, German, English; good music, harp, and piano; drawing and +painting; she was thoroughly versed in all, and had as thoroughly +taught. For her age, Miss Thornycroft was an exceedingly well-educated +girl, but apt at times to be a rebellious one. In fact she was growing +quite beyond the control of the little governess. + +The young lady stood by the table facing the window--a tall, very +handsome girl of nearly sixteen, with her brother Isaac's fair skin +and bright features, and a suspicious look of Richard's resolute lip. +She wore a blue muslin dress, blue ribbons in her fair hair; her +pretty hands were tossing, not in play but petulance, a large white +rose, broken short off from its stalk; her well-shaped head was thrown +back; her light clear blue eyes looked out defiantly. + +"As if there could be reason in it!" spoke mademoiselle in her quaint +but well-pronounced English. "You did but the little half of your +lessons yesterday; the other day before it you went out without saying +to me the one word; and now this morning you want to go out again. You +will not do any one little thing! I say, Miss Mary Anne, that it has +not reason in it." + +"I promised Captain Copp I would go, mademoiselle. Mrs. Copp will be +waiting for me." + +"And I promise you that you cannot go," returned the governess, +decisively. "My faith! you go, you go, you go; yesterday, today, +tomorrow; and where are your studies? I might as well take my +departure; I am of no longer use." + +"I wish I was that douanier," spoke the young lady with an angry +stamp, looking out at the preventive man pacing the edge of the +plateau. + +"I wish you were--for one day; you would soon wish yourself back again +into yourself, Miss Thornycroft. Will you sit down and begin your +studies?" + +"No; it is too hot to work. German would give me the headache today, +mademoiselle." + +"I wish your papa, Monsieur the Justice, was at home. I would appeal +to him." + +"So would I. I wish he was! Papa would not make me do lessons against +my will." + +"Will you come into the other room to your harp, then?" + +"No," reiterated Miss Thornycroft. "When I don't want to work, I can't +work; and, excuse me, mademoiselle, but I _won't_. There! I am invited +out today, and I want to go. Mrs. Sam Copp is going to Jutpoint, and +she is to take me." + +Mademoiselle got up in despair. Day by day, she saw it well, her +authority was getting less. + +"Miss Mary Anne, hear me! _I will not have you go_. I defend you to +quit the house." + +Mary Anne laughed disobediently. + +"I shall go if Captain Copp comes for me, mademoiselle." + +Mademoiselle wrung her hands. + +"I will go and find Mr. Richard. He is master here when the justice is +not. I will lay the case before him and say, 'What am I to do with +this rebellions child?'" + +She quitted the room on her search. Miss Thornycroft went to the +window and leaned out, wishing herself once more the preventive man, +or anybody else who had not a governess. At that moment she saw her +brother Isaac go running on to the plateau from the direction of the +village, stand a minute talking with the coastguardsman, and then come +vaulting down towards the house. It has not been mentioned that a line +of light railings enclosed the plateau below the round tower--a +boundary line between it and the Red Court grounds. Isaac Thornycroft +leaped the railings, and saw his sister. She called to him in a voice +of earnestness; he came round to the front entrance and entered the +room. + +Handsome in his careless grace, and bright as the summer's morning. He +wore light cool clothes, his linen was curiously white and fine; +looking altogether, as he always did, a noble gentleman. Richard would +be in coarse things, unbrushed and shabby, for a week together; the +brothers had quite opposite instincts. + +Mary Anne went up to him with a pleading voice and tears in her eyes, +all her assumption of will gone. + +"Oh, Isaac!--dear Isaac! won't you help me? You are always kind." + +"My little dove! what is it?" + +She told her tale. Her engagement with Captain and Mrs. Copp, and +mademoiselle's cruel hardheartedness. Isaac laughed outright. + +"Cruel hardheartedness, indeed! worse than that of Barbara Allen. My +pretty one!" he whispered, stooping until his lips touched her cheek. + +"Well, Isaac?" + +"Put on your things, and I'll smuggle you off. Quick" + +She needed no second warning. In two minutes, down she was again, a +white mantle on her shoulders, a straw hat with its blue ribbons +shading her fair bright face. Isaac took her out at the front door, +just before Mademoiselle Derode got back again. + +"I have sent for your brother, Mr. Richard, Miss Mary Anne, +and----_Ella n'est pas ici?_" + +Mademoiselle called, and looked in this room and that. She had not +finished when Richard strode in, his face dark and stern as usual, his +shoes and gaiters dusty, his velveteen waistcoat buttoned close up, +his coat soiled. He had been helping to fill in a pond. + +"Lessons! of course she must learn her lessons. Where is she, +mademoiselle?" + +Mademoiselle was arriving at the conclusion that she was nowhere. One +of the housemaids had seen her dress herself, and go downstairs. Of +course she had gone. Gone in disobedience! Richard went back to his +pond, and mademoiselle sat down and folded her arms. + +In the course of an hour Mr. Thornycroft came in. A handsome man +still, upright and grand; his features fair and pleasant, his smile +rather free, no grey as yet mingling with his still luxuriant hair. +Mademoiselle carried her grievance to him; as she had been obliged to +do more than once of late. + +"It is not to complain of her, monsieur; I'm sure you know that, I +love her too well; but in her own interest I must speak. She is at the +age when she most needs guidance and control; and she is showing that +she has a will of her own, and will exercise it! It was always there." + +"I suppose it was," said the justice. "I have a will myself. Richard +and Isaac have wills." + +"If I can no longer be obeyed, monsieur, better that I should go back +to my little home in France, and make a place for a governess who will +have control." + +"No, no," said Mr. Thornycroft, very quickly. "That would not do. I'll +have no fresh governess here." + +"But what is to be done, monsieur?" + +"I'll think of it," said Mr. Thornycroft. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +Robert Hunter and his Wife. + + +In the midst of the pretty and exclusive village of Katterley, an +inland spot, from twenty to thirty miles away from the sea, there +stands a charming residence, half-cottage, half-villa, called +Katterley Lodge. Its rooms are warm in winter, cool in summer; it +rises in the midst of a lovely garden, in view of magnificent scenery; +and the sweetest roses and honeysuckles entwine themselves on its +walls. + +The evening August sun--July had just past--shone full on its entrance +gate; on a lady, young and fair, who was leaning over it. She may have +been about three-and-twenty, and she was dressed in white, with +ribbons in her hair. There was a remarkable refinement and delicacy in +her face, her manners, in her appearance altogether; and her soft dark +eyes had a sad expression. Did you, who may be reading this, ever +observe that peculiar, sad look--not a passing sadness, or one caused +by present care--but a fixed mournful look, implanted in the eyes by +nature? It is not a common expression, or one often seen; rely upon +it, when you do see it, it is but an index that the spirit is, or will +be, sad within. + +Sauntering up the road towards the gate, encumbered with a basket, a +rod, and other apparatus pertaining to the fishing art, strode a +gentleman, carelessly switching the hedge as he passed it. No sad +expression was there about him; rather the contrary. He was of middle +height, very slender, with a frank pleasant face given to laughing, +and dark auburn hair; his manner was light, his speech free and +careless. Her face sparkled, at his approach, and she opened the gate +long before he had gained it. + +"What sport, Robert? What have you brought?" + +"Brought you myself," was the gentleman's reply, as he passed in at +the gate she held wide. "Thank you. How much is the toll?" + +As he bent to take the "toll," a kiss, she glanced shyly in his face +and blushed--blushed brightly; although she was his wife of nearly +three years' standing. In a retiring, impassioned earnest nature such +as hers, it takes a great deal ere love can die out--a convulsion +sometimes. With her it had not begun to die. + +His name was Robert Frederick Hunter. His wife liked the second name +best, and generally called him by it, but as other people adhered to +the first it may be best to do so here. His career already, young +though he was, had seen changes. Reared in middle-class life in the +North of England, practically educated, rather than fashionably, he +had served his articles to a civil engineer. Ere they were quite out, +and he free, a small fortune came to him through a relative. Mr. +Robert Hunter thought he could not do better than take to a red-coat, +and he purchased a lieutenancy in a home corps. Nearly simultaneously +with this, he met with Clara Lake, of Katterley. He fell in love with +her; at least he fancied so; she most unmistakably did with him, and +the preliminaries for a marriage were arranged. Her father made it a +proviso that he should quit the army; and that they should live with +him after the marriage at Katterley Lodge. Robert Hunter assented, +sold out, and the marriage took place. When his wife's father died +shortly after, it was found that Katterley Lodge and money amounting +to four or five hundred a year were left to her, with a condition that +Mr. Hunter should take the name of Lake. So he was mostly called in +Katterley, Lake, or Hunter-Lake; elsewhere he was as before Hunter. +Just for the present we will call him Lake, but it must not be +forgotten that Hunter was his real name. + +Mr. Lake opened his basket as he got in and displayed the +contents--some fine trout. Two were ordered to be dressed, and served +with the tea. On the days of these fishing expeditions, Mrs. Lake +dined early. Occasionally she went with him. Not very often. The sport +wearied her, and but for him at whose side she sat, it would never +have been endurable. "Sport, indeed!" she used laughingly to say, "I'd +as soon be at a funeral." + +"What have you been doing all the afternoon, Clara?" + +"Oh, reading and working; and wishing it was time for you to come +home." + +"Silly girl!" laughed he, as he played with her curls. "Suppose I +should be brought home to you some day fished out of the stream +myself; drowned and dead." + +"Don't joke, please," was her reply, given in a low voice. + +"It had like to have been no joke this afternoon. I all but +overbalanced myself. But for a friendly tree I should have been in; +perhaps done for." + +"Oh, Robert!" she exclaimed, the bright rose fading out of her cheeks. + +"And there's a fierce bit of current there, and the river is at its +deepest, and the mill-wheel a stone's throw lower down," he continued, +as if he enjoyed the sport of teasing her; which perhaps he did. "I +was an idiot never to learn to swim." + +"Did you slip?" she asked in a half-whisper. + +"No; I was leaning too forward and lost my balance. Oh, Clary! you are +a little coward at best. Why your heart is beating fast; a vast deal +faster than mine did, I can tell you. And where have your roses gone?" + +She looked up with a faint smile. + +To be affected in this manner, to agitation, merely at the recital of +the possible danger, now past, was what Mr. Lake did not understand +Neither did he understand the depth of her love, for no sentiment in +his own heart echoed to it; the time for love, with him, had not come. + +"It is simply foolish, child, to feel alarm now," he said, looking at +her gravely. + +"You must not go again, Robert." + +The remark called forth a hearty laugh. "Not go again! What am I to +do, then, until shooting comes in?" + +What, indeed? Robert Lake was an idle man. One of those whose unhappy +lot it is (the most unhappy lot on earth) to be obliged to "kill" +time, or else find it hang on their hands with a heavy weight. To a +man born to idleness, cradled in the lap of luxury, it is bad enough; +but to Robert Lake, brought up to industry, it was simply unbearable. +He was skilled and clever in his profession, and he loved it; the +misfortune of his life was having the money left to him; the great +mistake his quitting his profession. He saw it now; he had seen it +nearly ever since. Another mistake, but a smaller one, was his +retiring from the army; as he had entered it, he ought to have kept in +it. That fault was not his, but old Mr. Lake's. Lieutenant Hunter was +on a visit at his sister's when he met Clara Lake, also staying there, +the heiress in a small way. They fell in love with each other; he, +after his temperament, carelessly and lightly, a species of love that +he had felt for others, and would feel for more; she with all the +fervour, the lasting depth of an impassioned and poetic nature. When +he came to speak of marriage, and the father--an old-fashioned man who +had once worn a pig-tail--said "Yes, upon condition that you quit +soldiering and settle down with me--I cannot part with my daughter," +Robert Hunter acquiesced without a word of murmur. Nay, he rather +liked the prospect; change of all sorts bears its charm of magic for +the young. And he was very young; but a year or so older than his +wife. They settled down in Katterley Lodge; he to idleness, and it +brings danger sometimes; she to happiness, which she believed in as +real, as a bliss that would last for ever. If there were a man more +perfect than other men on earth, she believed her husband to be that +man. A charming confidence, a safeguard for a wife's heart; but +sometimes the trust gets rudely awakened. One great grief had come to +Clara Lake--she lost her baby; but she was getting over that now. + +How intolerable idleness had been to Robert Hunter at first, none save +himself ever knew. Over and over again visions of resuming his work as +a civil engineer, came pressing on him. But it was never done. In the +first year of their marriage came old Mr. Lake's long illness and +death; in the second year came the baby and a prolonged illness for +Clara; in the third year, this, the idleness had grown upon him, and +he cared less to exchange it for hard work. It is of all evils nearly +the most insidious. + +All the year long, from January to December, living at Katterley Lodge +with nothing to do! And he was really beginning not to feel the +sameness. Their income, about six hundred a year in all, was not +sufficient to allow of their mixing in the great world's fair, the +London season; and one visit only had they paid the seaside. The +pretty cottage, with its roses and its honeysuckles for a bower, and +fishing for recreation in the summer season! It had a monotonous +charm, no doubt; but the young man's conscience sometimes warned him +that he was wasting his life. + +The tea and the fish came in, and they sat down to it, Mrs. Lake +remarking that she had forgotten to mention his sister had been there. + +"What has she come over for?" + +"To see the Jupps. Some little matter of business, she said." + +"Business with the Jupps! Gossiping, rather, Clary." + +"She said she should remain to tea with them. I wanted her to come +back and take it with us; I told her there would be some fish. The +fish was a great temptation, she said, but she must stay at the +Jupps'! Who's this?" continued Mrs. Lake as the gate was pushed open +with a hasty hand "Why, here she is!" + +"And now for a clatter." He alluded to his sister's voluble tongue, +but he got up and went out to greet her, table-napkin in hand It was +Mrs. Chester, his half-sister. She was ten years older than he, twenty +times older in experience, and rather inclined to be dictatorial to +him and his gentle wife. Her husband, a clergyman, had died a few +months back, and she was not left well-off in the world. She had just +taken a house at Guild, a place about seven miles from Katterley; +though how she meant to pay expenses in it, she scarcely knew. + +"Well, Clara! here I am back again!" she exclaimed as she came in; +"like a piece of bad money returned." + +"I am so glad to see you!" returned Mrs. Lake, in her warmth of +courtesy, as she rose and brought forward a chair and rang the bell, +and busied herself with other little signs of welcome. + +Mrs. Chester threw off her widow's bonnet and black silk mantle. Her +well-formed face was pale in general, but the hot August sun made it +red now. + +She was a little, restless woman, inclined to be stout, with shrewd +grey eyes and brown hair, and a nose sharp at the end. The deep crape +on her merino gown looked worn and shabby; her muslin collar and cuffs +were tumbled. She told everybody she was twenty-eight; Mr. Lake knew +her to be four-and-thirty. + +"Such a mess it makes of one, travelling in this heat and dust!" she +exclaimed rather fretfully, as she shook out her skirts and pulled her +collar here and there before the chimney-glass. "I've nothing but my +bonnet-cap here; you won't mind it." + +It was a bit of plain muslin with a widow's gauffered border. Mrs. +Chester untied the black strings of it as she turned round and fanned +herself with her handkerchief. + +"Did the fish bring you back, Penelope?" asked Mr. Lake. + +"Not it. When I got to the Jupps' I found they were going to have a +late dinner-party. They wanted me to stay for it. Fancy! in this dusty +guise of a costume. How delicious those fish look!" + +"Try them," said Mr. Lake, passing some to her. "I have not caught +finer trout this season. Clara has some cold fowl in the house, I +think, if you have not dined." + +"I dined before I came over--that is, had a scrambling sort of +cold-meat meal, half dinner, half lunch. Robert, I should like you to +catch fish for me always." + +"How are you getting on with the house, Penelope?" he asked. "Are you +straight yet?" + +"Oh, we are getting on. Anna's worth her weight in gold at that sort +of thing. She has been used to contrive and work all her life, you +know." + +"She might be used to worse things," said Mr. Lake. + +"I have got a--visitor coming to stay with me," resumed Mrs. Chester, +making a pause before the word visitor, and then going on with a +cough, as if a fish-bone had stuck in her throat. + +"Who is it?" + +"Lady Ellis." + +"Lady Ellis!" echoed Mr. Lake, unaware that his sister had any one of +the name on her visiting list. "Who on earth is Lady Ellis?" + +"Well, she is a friend of the Jupps'." + +"Oh. And why is she going to visit you?" + +"Because I choose to ask her," returned Mrs. Chester, in a reproving +tone meant for the public benefit, while she gave her brother a +private kick under the table. "She is a widow lady, just come home +from India in the depth of her sorrow; and she wants to find some +quiet country seclusion to put her poor bereaved head into." + +Mr. Lake concluded that the kick was intended as a warning against +asking questions. He put a safe one. + +"Is she staying with the Jupps?" + +"Oh dear, no. She went to India a mere child, I fancy. She was very +pretty, and was snapped up by some colonel, a K.C.B., and dreadfully +old." + +"Ellis by name, I presume?" carelessly remarked Mr. Lake, as he looked +for another nice piece of fish for his sister's plate. + +"Colonel Sir George Ellis," spoke Mrs. Chester, in a grandly reproving +tone, as if the title were good for her mouth. "He is dead, and Lady +Ellis has come home." + +"With a lac of rupees?" + +"With a _lack_ of rupees," retorted Mrs. Chester, rubbing her sharp +nose. "Sir George's property, every shilling of it, was settled on his +first wife's children. Lady Ellis has money of her own--not very +much." + +"And why is she coming to you?" + +"I have told you. She wants quiet and country air." + +"Will she pay you?" + +"Pay me! Good gracious, Robert, what mercenary ideas you have! Do you +hear him, Clara? Oh, thank you; don't heap my plate like that, though +I think I never did taste such fish. The Jupps have been praising her +to the skies, one trying to out-talk the rest. Never were such talkers +as the Jupp girls." + +"Except yourself," put in Mr. Lake. + +Mrs. Chester lifted her eyes in surprise. + +"Myself! Why, I am remarkably silent. Nobody can say I talk." + +He glanced at his wife as he suppressed a smile. The matter in regard +to Lady Ellis puzzled him--at least, the proposed residence with Mrs. +Chester; but he supposed he might not inquire further. + +"Should you like to take home some trout, Penelope?" + +"That I should. Have you any to give?" + +"I'll have them put up for you, the fellow brace to these. Mind the +youngsters don't get the bones in their throats." + +"They must take their chance," was the philosophical reply. "Children +were never sent for anything but our torment. I am going to pack the +two young ones off to school." + +"Have you further news from the Clergy Orphan School about James?" + +"News! Yes. It is all cross together. There's not the least chance for +him, they write me word, at the election in November; I must try again +later. And now, Clara, I want you and your husband to come to me for +Sunday and Monday. Will you promise? I came over purposely to ask +you." + +Mrs. Lake did not immediately answer. + +"You can come on Sunday morning in time for church, and remain until +Tuesday. I don't ask you to come on Saturday evening; we shall be busy +until late. The Jupps are coming." + +"All of them?" asked Mr. Lake. + +"Not all. I don't know where I should put them. Some of the girls: +Mary and Margaret for two; and Oliver. I have three spare bedrooms +nearly ready." + +"Three spare bedrooms? And you grumbling about the purse's +shallowness!" + +"Allow me to manage my own affairs," said Mrs. Chester, equably. "You +will say 'Yes,' will you not, Clara? I want to show you my house; you +have never seen it." + +Clara Lake did say "Yes;" but at the same time there was a feeling in +her heart prompting her to say "No." She neither listened to it nor +gave way to it; and yet she was conscious that it was there, as she +well remembered afterwards. + +"And now I must be going," said Mrs. Chester, putting on her bonnet +and mantle. "You will come with me to the station, Robert?" + +They started together: he carrying the basket of fish: and walked +slowly. As he remarked, they had plenty of time. + +"I know it," she said. "I came on early to talk to you." + +"About Lady Ellis and her projected visit?" he quickly rejoined. "I +thought there was some scheme agate by the kick you gave me." + +"Robert, I must scheme to live." + +"I think you must if you are to keep three spare bedrooms for +visitors." + +"I am left a widow, Robert, with a fair amount of furniture, and a +wretched pittance of two hundred a year. How am I to live like a lady +and educate the children?" + +"But why need you have taken so large a house?" + +"What am I to do? How am I to eke out my means? I cannot lose caste. I +can't go and open a shop; I can't turn Court milliner; I can't begin +and speculate in the funds; I can't present myself to the Government +or the Bank of England directors, and make a curtsey, and say, +'Please, gentlemen, double my income for me, and then perhaps I can +manage to get along.' _Can_ I?" added Mrs. Chester, fiercely. + +"I never said you could." + +"No; I have only got my own resources to look to, and my own headpiece +to work upon. It has been ransacked pretty well of late, I can tell +you. The first idea that suggested itself to me was to educate Fanny +at home with Anna Chester's help, and to get half-a-dozen pupils as +well, on the plan of a private family. But I hated the thought of it. +I have no nerves and no patience; and I knew I should be worried out +of my very existence. Besides, education gets more fantastical every +day, and I am not up to the modern rubbish they call requirements: so +I said, 'That won't do.' Next I thought of getting three or four +gentlewomen to live with me, on the plan of a private family. Quite as +visitors, you know; and the longer I dwelt on the scheme the better I +liked it. I thought it would be a pleasant, social way of getting on; +and I determined to carry it out. Now you know why I have taken a +large house, and am putting it into good order." + +"That is, you are going to take boarders?" + +"If you choose to put it in that plain way. You are so very downright, +Robert. Lady Ellis is the first coming." + +"How did you hear of her?" + +"Never you mind," returned Mrs. Chester, who did not choose to say she +had advertised. "Friends are looking out for me in London and +elsewhere. I have had some correspondence with Lady Ellis, and she +comes to me the middle of next week. She wants quiet, she says--quiet +and country air. A most exquisite little hand she writes, only you +can't read it at sight." + +"Have you references?" + +"Of course. She referred me to some people in London, and also in +Cheltenham, where she is now staying. In her last letter she mentioned +that the Jupps of Katterley knew her, and that's the chief thing that +brought me over today. Mind, Robert, I did not tell the Jupps she was +coming to me as a boarder: only as a visitor. 'She writes me that you +know her,' I carelessly said to the girls, and they immediately began +to tell all they did know, as I knew they would." + +"What did they say?" + +"Well, the whole of it did not amount to much. At first they persisted +they had never heard of her, till I said she was formerly a Miss +Finch, having lost sight of her when she went to India. They are +charmed to hear she has come back Lady Ellis, and think it will be +delightful for me to have her with me." + +"Unless you can get more boarders, Lady Ellis will prove a source of +expense to you, Penelope, instead of a profit." + +"You can't teach me," retorted Mrs. Chester. "I mean to get more." + +"What is she to pay you?" + +"Well, you know, Robert, I can't venture upon much style at first, +wanting the means. I am unable to set up men-servants, and a service +of plate, and a pony carriage, and that sort of thing: so at present +my terms must be in accordance with my accommodation. Now what should +you think fair?" + +"I? Oh, nonsense! Don't ask me." + +"Lady Ellis is to pay me a hundred pounds if she stays the year; if +not, ten pounds per month. Now you see if I get four at that rate, +permanent inmates," went on Mrs. Chester, rapidly, "it will bring my +income up to six hundred pounds, which will be comfortable, and enable +one to live." + +"I suppose it will." + +"You suppose it will!" snapped Mrs. Chester, who was resenting his +indifferent demeanour. "It is as much as you and Clara possess. You +live well." + +"We have none too much. We spend it--all." + +"And more imprudent of you to spend it all! as I have often thought of +telling you, Robert Hunter. I wonder you can reconcile yourself to +live up to the last penny of your income, and do nothing to increase +it. How will it be when children come?" + +"Ah, that's a question," said he, giving the fish-basket a twirl. + +"You may have a large family yet; you are both young. What sort of a +figure would your six hundred a year cut when everything had to come +out of it? A dozen children to keep at home, and find in clothes, and +doctors, and sundries, and a dozen children to provide for at school, +would make your money look foolish." + +"Let's see," cried he, gravely; "twelve at home and twelve at school +would make twenty-four. Could you not have added twelve more while you +were about it, and said thirty-six?" + +"Don't be stupid! You know I meant twelve in all. They may come, for +all you can tell; and they'll require both home expenses and school +expenses, as you will find. It is a sin and a shame, Robert, for a +young capable man like you, to live an idle life." + +"I tell myself so every other morning, Penelope." + +She glanced at him, uncertain whether he spoke in jest or earnest. His +dark-blue eyes had a serious look in them, but there was a smile on +his pleasant lips. + +"If you don't think well to take up civil engineering again, try +something else. There's nothing like providing for a rainy day; and a +man who lives up to his income cannot be said to do it. You cannot be +altogether without interest; perhaps you might get a post under +Government." + +"I'll apply for the lord-lieutenancy," said he. "The place is vacant." + +"I know you always turn into ridicule any suggestion of mine," again +retorted Mrs. Chester. "You might get into the board of works, and +leave the lord-lieutenancy for your betters. There's the train, +shrieking in the distance. Don't forget Sunday. I wish you and Clara +to see how nice the house looks." + +"All right, Penelope; we will not forget. But now I want to know why +you could not have given your explanation before my wife." + +"Her pride would have taken alarm." + +"Indeed you cannot know Clara if you think that." + +"I know her as well as you," returned Mrs. Chester. "I shall acquaint +neither her nor the Jupps of the terms on which Lady Ellis is coming." + +He said no more. To keep the fact from the clear-sighted, sensible +Jupps would be just an impossibility; and he meant to tell his wife as +soon as he got home. They passed through the waiting-room to the +platform. Mrs. Chester took her seat in one of the carriages; he +handed in the basket of trout, and stood back. Just before the train +started, she suddenly beckoned to him. + +"Robert," she began in a low voice, putting her head out at the window +to speak, "I'm going to give you a caution. Don't you carry on any of +that nonsensical flirting with Rose Jupp, should you ever happen to be +together in the presence of Lady Ellis. You make yourself utterly +ridiculous with that girl." + +He looked very much amused. "A couple of sinful scapegoats! I am +astonished you ever have us at your house!" + +"There you are, mocking me again. You may think as you please, Robert, +but it is excessively absurd in a married man. I saw you kiss Rose +Jupp the other day." + +He broke into a laugh. + +"Anything of that before Lady Ellis would be an awful mistake. It +might frighten her away again." + +"Oh, we will both put on our best behaviour for the old Begum. Do not +let doubts of us disturb your sleep, Penelope." + +"She is not old, but I daresay she knows what propriety is," sharply +concluded Mrs. Chester as the train puffed off. And Mr. Lake, quitting +the station, went home laughing. + +He found his wife in a reverie. The feeling, that she had done wrong +to promise to go to Mrs. Chester's, was making itself unmistakably +heard, and Clara tried to analyse it. Why should it be wrong? It was +difficult to say. Sunday travelling? But she had gone several times +before to spend Sunday with Mrs. Chester, gone and returned the same +day; for Guild Rectory, where Mrs. Chester had lived, was short of +bedrooms. No, it was not the idea of Sunday travelling that disturbed +her, and she could find no other reason. Finally she gave up the +trouble of guessing, and her husband came in. + +"Were you not too early for the train, Robert?" + +"I should think so. Penelope confessed that she wiled me out to talk +of her plans. I'll tell you about them directly. What do you think she +wound up with, Clara, just as the train was starting?" + +He had sat down in a large armchair, and was holding his wife before +him by the waist. + +"With an injunction not to flirt so much with Rose Jupp! Which is +absurd in itself, she says, and might frighten away the grand Indian +Begum." + +Clara Lake laughed. She was accustomed to witness her husband's free +rattling manners with others, but not a shadow of jealousy had yet +arisen. She believed his _love_ to be hers, just as truly and +exclusively as hers was his; and nothing as yet had shaken the belief. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +Clara Lake's Dream.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The dream is not fiction: it is but transcribed, even to +the minutest particular.] + + +It was certainly a singular dream, well worthy of being recorded. +Taken in conjunction with its notable working out, few dreams have +been so remarkable. At least, if it may be deemed that subsequent +events did work it out. The reader must judge. + +Mr. and Mrs. Lake retired to rest as usual, eating no supper. When +they had fish or meat with tea, supper was not served. On this evening +he drank some wine-and-water before going to bed; she touched nothing. +Therefore it cannot be thought she suffered from nightmare. + +It was a singular dream; let me repeat the assertion. And it was in +the earlier part of the night that it visited her. How soon after she +went to sleep, how late, there were no means of knowing. + +Part of the evening's doings came to her again in her sleep. She +thought that Mrs. Chester called, went on to the Jupps' house, +returned to drink tea, and gave the invitation to go to her house at +Guild on the Sunday--all just as it had been in reality. Clara also +thought that she felt an insuperable objection to go, in spite of +having accepted the invitation. Not the vague idea that had presented +itself to her awake, the half-wish that she had not made the +engagement, but a strong, irrepressible conviction that the going +would bring her evil--but accompanied with a conviction, a knowledge, +so to say, that she should go, that it was her fate to go, and that +she could not avoid it. She dreamt that Mrs. Chester had departed, and +that she was discussing the point with her husband They were in a +kitchen, a large kitchen quite strange to her, and were standing by a +small, round, dark-coloured table in its middle. The fireplace, as +Clara stood, was behind her; the window, a wide one, with an ironing +board underneath it, was in front; a dresser with shelves was on her +left hand; and there were several doors, leading she did not know +where. Altogether, the kitchen looked large and bleak, something like +those we see in farm-houses: and, seated on a chair to the right, +apparently engaged in sewing, and taking no notice of them, Clara +suddenly saw Mrs. Chester. She and her husband were discussing +earnestly--to go, or not to go. It appeared that both felt some evil +was impending, but yet both knew they _should_ go and encounter it, in +spite of the hesitation: and yet Clara seemed to feel that her husband +could have helped her to remain if he would. "What excuse can we make +for declining?" she seemed to say to him, and then they both thought +over various pleas, but none appeared to answer, and they came to the +final conclusion that go they must; which they both had known +throughout would be the conclusion. All the time they spoke, Mrs. +Chester was sitting in her chair, listening, but taking no notice; and +upon arriving at the decision Clara and her husband parted, he going +towards one of the kitchen doors, she towards the window; but so sharp +was the conviction that she was rushing upon evil, that she awoke. + +Clara thought it a curious dream--curious because it represented what +had actually occurred, and the bent of her own feelings; curious also +because it was so unusually vivid, so like reality. She got out of bed +quietly, not to disturb her husband, struck a wax match, and looked at +the hanging watch. It was exactly three o'clock. + +But the dream was not yet over. She went to sleep again, taking up the +thread almost at the point where she had left it. She remembered all +that had passed, _both of dream and reality_; she remembered that she +awoke in the certainty that she could not go beside the dreaded +expedition; all _that_ was plain in this, her second sleep, but she +now began making strenuous exertions to escape. She did not see her +husband again, but Mary Ann and Margaret Jupp had joined Mrs. Chester, +and the three seemed to be forcing her to go. Not by force of +violence, but of argument, of persuasion; and she still seemed to know +that they must prevail, that to withstand at the last would be beyond +her power. + +The time appeared to change to the morning of departure: or rather, +with that inconsistency peculiar to dreams, it appeared to be the +morning of the departure without having changed. Still she strove +against it; not saying why, not hinting that she feared evil; of that, +she had only spoken with her husband; but striving, not to go, by +every possible argument, and by _passive_ resistance. And--strange +inconsistency!--it appeared that if she could have told them the +reason of her reluctance, her dread of evil, all would have been well; +but it was precisely to them she must not and dared not tell it. + +To any who may fancy the description of the dream unnecessarily spun +out, the small details too much dwelt upon, I would say just a word. +It is difficult to shorten that real dream of midnight sufficiently +for it to be told within reasonable bounds. No pen can trace its +particulars as they appeared; no power of language describe them as +they were pictured. And now to resume it. + +Mrs. Chester and the Miss Jupps urged her to depart; were waiting for +her. Clara Lake resisted. "There!" she suddenly exclaimed to them, "we +cannot go. It is past ten: we have let the hour go by, and the train +is gone." "Oh!" said Mrs. Chester, "we can get a carriage and overtake +it." She went out with them--resistance appeared to be over; she +_felt_ that it was over, and that she could not help herself--went out +to look for a carriage. They ran about, down lanes and in the open +fields, and could not see one; but a butcher's cart came up in the +lane; one of them said that would do as well as a carriage, and they +all got into it. They seemed to fly, going along at a fearful pace, +but through a most dreary-looking country, the skies gloomy, the +scenery barren, and the road muddy, so muddy that it splashed up upon +them as they sat: there were also shallow, dismal ponds through which +they drove. All this haste seemed to be to catch the train, but +suddenly a noise was heard behind them, and it was known that it was +the train: they had gone so fast as to outstrip it. Their cart stopped +to wait, and Clara, when the noise came close, looked behind, but +could only distinguish something black which whirled by them, turned +round, came back, turned again, and pulled up. "Why, it is a hearse!" +she screamed out (but in surprise, not fear), to Mrs. Chester. Yes, it +was a hearse, all black, and two men sat upon the box. Clara looked +out, expecting to see the rest of their party _on_ it, but there was +no one but the two men: the one she could not see, for he seemed to +hide his face; but she caught, fixed upon her, the strangely black +eyes of the driver, the blackest eyes she ever saw in her life: of the +rest of his face she remembered nothing. "Come," said he, "there's no +time to lose;" and they all four descended from the cart. Clara got on +to the hearse first, and was settling her cloak around her, when she +heard the cart drive off, taking the road home again; and, seated in +it as before, were Mrs. Chester and Mary and Margaret Jupp. "Why don't +you come with me?" she called out; "why are you going back?" "No," +said Mrs. Chester, "that hearse is for you, not for us;" and they +drove off. The hearse also drove off the contrary way, and Mrs. Lake +found herself sinking into its interior. She was calm enough for a +moment, but suddenly she knew that she had been entrapped into it, and +that she was being taken to her burial. + +With a dreadful scream she awoke. + +The scream awoke Mr. Lake. She was bathed in perspiration, and shaking +as in an ague fit. In vain he asked what was the matter, whether she +was ill: she could not speak to tell him, and it was several minutes +before she was able in any degree to overcome the fright, or relate it +to him. + +Robert Lake had no belief in dreams; was given to scoff at them; but +he had too much regard for his wife to attempt to scoff then, in her +extremity of distress and agitation. He got up and lighted a lamp, for +though morning was glimmering it could not be said to be yet light. + +"I am quite certain that it is sent to me as a warning," she +exclaimed; "and I will not go on Sunday to Guild." + +"I never knew before that you could believe in dreams," he answered. + +"I do not believe in dreams; I have never had any particular dreams to +believe in. But you must acknowledge, Robert, that this one is beyond +common. I cannot describe to you how vivid, how _real_ everything +appeared to me. And it was not one dream; it was two: that at least is +unusual. The second dream was a continuation of the first." + +"The one induced the other. I dare say you saw a hearse pass +yesterday?" + +"I have not seen a hearse for ever so long," she answered, still +shivering. "But, go to your sister's, I will not. Thank heaven! though +the power to refuse was not mine in the dream, it is in reality." + +But that it was not the time to do it, he could have laughed outright +at the superstitious folly. He spoke pleasant, loving words to her, +almost as one would to a frightened child, trying to soothe her back +to tranquillity. + +"Clara; consider! the very fact of your being able to act as you +please, which it seems you could not do in the dream, ought to +convince you how void of meaning it was." + +"I will not go to Mrs. Chester's," was all she reiterated, with a +strange sigh of relief--a sense of thanksgiving that the option was +assuredly hers. + +"Wait for the morning sun," said he. "You will be in a different mood +then." + +She did not rise so soon as usual. She had got to sleep again at last, +first of all making a firm inward resolution that no persuasion, no +ridicule, no "morning sun"--in whose cheery rays things indeed wear a +different aspect from what they do in the dark and weird night should +suffice to alter her determination. The warning against going she +fully believed to have been sent to her, and she would abide by it. + +Mr. Lake waited breakfast for his wife. She came down in her delicate +muslin dress, looking as pretty as usual. At first she made no +allusion to the past night; neither did he--he hoped it was at an end; +but when breakfast was about half over, she glanced up at him in her +rather shy manner, speaking in a low tone. + +"I have a request to beg of you, Robert--that you will not mention +this dream to any one. I will make some other excuse for not going to +Guild." + +"Dream!" cried he, speaking with his mouth full. "Why, Clary, I had +already forgotten it. And so will you before the day shall be over." + +She shook her head. + +"I shall send word to Penelope that I cannot go." + +Mr. Lake put down his knife and fork and gazed at her in astonishment. +To his sober, practical mind, his careless nature, this in truth +savoured of the ridiculous. + +"Clara, you will never be so foolish! I gave you credit for better +sense. Dreams are all very well in their places--to amuse old women +and children--but in these days they should not be allowed to +influence actions. You can see the bright sunshine, the busy +work-a-day world around you, and yet you can retain remembrance of +a ridiculous dream! I thought dreams passed away with the night." + +"Of course a great part of the vivid impression has passed with the +night," she replied, confessing what was the actual fact; "but I will +abide by the night's impression, nevertheless. I look at it in this +light--my remaining at home can hurt no one, it cannot bring harm in +any way, while my going may bring me harm; we cannot tell. I am fully +decided," she continued, in a firm tone; "and do you eat your +breakfast and cease staring at me." + +"Perhaps you fear the train will come to grief, and pitch us all into +coffins made to fit your hearse." + +"Well, I don't know," returned Clara. "If I did get into the train on +Sunday morning, I should be unusually pleased to find myself safe out +of it again." + +Mr. Lake said no more; in this frame of mind reasoning was useless. +But he felt persuaded the fancy would wear away, and his wife go +contentedly enough with the rest of them. + +Nothing more was said that day, which was Friday. On the next day, +Saturday, two of the Miss Jupps called on Clara, full of the following +morning's excursion. A large family was that of the Jupps--six sons +and six daughters, all living. The sons were out in the world--one in +the army, one in the navy, one in the church, one reading for the bar, +one here, one there; Oliver, the youngest of them, was just now at +home. The six daughters were all at home, and marrying men seemed to +fight shy of so large a host. Social, pleasant, chatty girls were +they, the youngest two-and-twenty, the age of the eldest locked up in +the church's register. Mr. and Mrs. Jupp were a quiet, inoffensive +couple, completely eclipsed by their sons and daughters; not that any +were undutiful, but the old people belonged to a bygone age, and were +scarcely equal to the innovations of this. Mr. Jupp had once been high +sheriff of the county: it was the one great event of the Jupps' life, +imparting to them an importance which their pride never quite lost +sight of. They lived in a large house abutting on the street of +Katterley, about five minutes' walk from Mr. Lake's. + +Mary Ann and Margaret Jupp had come to gossip about the proposed +Sunday excursion. They were pleasant, voluble girls (to pay them +the compliment of still calling them girls), with light hazel eyes +and reddish hair. The sisters were all much alike--these two, the +eldest; Louisa and Rose, the youngest. They had on flimsy skirts, +nankeen-coloured jackets, and straw hats. They sat in the shady room +open to the trailing honeysuckles, talking to Clara. + +"Our plans are changed," spoke Mary. "Oliver, Louisa, and Rose go +tomorrow, returning home to sleep, and I and Margaret go over the +next day." + +"We think it would be so truly unconscionable to inflict four of us on +Mrs. Chester at once, with her few servants, that we have written to +tell her we will divide ourselves," interrupted Margaret, who liked to +have her share of tongue. "Mamma says she wondered at our +thoughtlessness when she heard us making the bargain." + +"Mrs. Chester would not have made a trouble of it," answered Clara. +"She is not one to put herself out of the way." + +"No, she is very good; but it would have been imposing on +hospitality," said Mary Jupp. "For that very reason, as mamma +observed, we ought to spare her. So Louisa and Rose spend Sunday with +her; I and Margaret Monday; Oliver goes both days." + +"But you will remain for Tuesday?" + +"No. Until she has her house in complete order it would be unfair to +trouble her with night guests. You and Mr. Lake of course will remain +the whole time. And now to deliver Louisa's message. Shall they call +for you here tomorrow morning, or will you be at the train?" + +"I am not going," replied Mrs. Lake. + +"Not going!" echoed Mary Jupp. "Good gracious! Why not?" + +"It is not quite convenient. Mrs. Chester does not expect me." + +"But she did expect you!" exclaimed Mary, in wonder. "Oliver saw Mr. +Lake that night after he had taken Mrs. Chester to the train, and he +told him you were going. Did you not?" she added, appealing to +Mr. Lake, who sat perched on a side table doing something to a +fishing-line. + +"All right," nodded he. + +"Yes, we did promise; but since then I have altered my mind, and have +written to Mrs. Chester," said Clara. "I shall go later, when she is +more settled." + +"Well, I never heard of such a thing!" cried Margaret Jupp. "Oliver +and the girls will be in a way! I don't think they care to go but for +the pleasure of your company. Mr. Lake, why have you changed your +minds?" + +"Ask Clara," returned he, without looking up. "It's her affair, not +mine." + +The delicate pink in Clara Lake's cheeks grew a shade brighter as the +two ladies looked at her and awaited the explanation. Not choosing to +mention the dream, she was at a loss for any sound plea to make. + +"I seem to have a prejudice against going tomorrow," she said, feeling +how lame were the words. "And--and I wrote to Mrs. Chester, telling +her not to expect me." + +"How very odd!" cried Margaret Jupp. They were keen-sighted, those +girls, and felt sure there was some suppressed reason. + +"The truth is, my wife has taken it into her head that Sunday +travelling is sinful," cried Mr. Lake, partly to help Clara out of her +dilemma, partly in the indulgence of the mocking spirit he liked so +well. "If we do venture to go tomorrow, in the teeth of the sin, she +thinks the engine will infallibly burst and blow us up." + +Mrs. Lake felt vexed. It was precisely the fear her imagination +induced her to take. Unable to conceive any other probable danger, she +was unconsciously casting doubts on the safe convoy of the train. But +she had not confessed it to him. + +"Do not talk nonsense," she said to her husband; and Mary and Margaret +Jupp looked from one to the other, not knowing what to think. + +"My dear Mrs. Lake, they get to Guild for morning service, you know," +spoke Margaret. "I don't see any great harm in going just that little +way on a Sunday morning." + +"Robert is very stupid to say such things," returned Mrs. Lake, driven +into a corner. "I did not think anything about its being a sin. The +sin is not my objection." + +"The train runs whether we passengers go in it or not; so that our +staying away is not of the least benefit in a religious point of +view," logically argued Mary Jupp. "Do pray go, Mrs. Lake." + +"Not tomorrow," Clara gently said, shaking her head. + +"Can't you induce her, Mr. Lake?" + +"I! I have wasted all my powers of oratory; I have tried persuasion; I +have hinted at an illegitimate application of my riding-whip, and all +in vain. She's harder than a brickbat." + +The young ladies laughed. "Dear Mrs. Lake, you must go, if only to +oblige us. Think of the disappointment to Louisa and Rose." + +Clara remembered her dream: how Mary Ann and Margaret (the very two of +the sisters now present) had striven in it to persuade her. The +recollection only served to render her more firm. They began to fear +that there would be no prevailing, and felt half inclined to be +offended. "And yourself, Mr. Lake? Do you also remain at home?" + +"Not I. I don't live in fear of the boiler's treachery." + +"Of course I do not wish to prevent my husband's going," said Mrs. +Lake, hastily. + +"Though you know you would rather I did not," he rejoined. + +"Well, of course, if there is to be--as you say, though I don't--a +bursting of the boiler, it would be as bad for you to be in it as for +me," she said, affecting a light laugh. The truth was, she did wish he +would not go; she knew that she should feel more easy; though she +would not ask him to remain, lest it might seem selfish. The Miss +Jupps rose to leave. + +"I hope you will think better of it," said Margaret. "Louisa was +saying this morning how glad she was Mrs. Lake was going. She has been +counting on you." + +"Ah, well--she had better count upon me instead," cried Mr. Lake, as +he left his seat to attend them to the gate. "And mind you give my +love to Rose, and tell her I shall be a bachelor for the day." + +"Don't forget that," put in Clara. + +The two ladies walked away, commenting on what had passed. Clara Lake +was a poor actor, and her manner had betrayed that the true reason had +not been spoken. Margaret said she should put it down to "caprice;" +but both acknowledged that they had never known Mrs. Lake capricious +before. + +Never did a more lovely day dawn than that Sunday in August. Not +another word upon the subject had been exchanged between Mr. Lake and +his wife since the visit of the Miss Jupps; she shunned it, feeling +half ashamed of herself for her persistent folly; he had given the +matter up for a bad job. After breakfast they stood together, looking +from the open window. The church bells rang out; Mr. Lake's time for +departure was drawing near. + +"I must not miss the train," he carelessly observed. "'Twould be a +pity to lose the excursion such a morning as this." + +"It is a most beautiful day," she sighed. "I almost envy you." + +"Clara," he said, turning to her with a sudden seriousness of manner, +"I ask you to be yourself. Lay aside this folly, and act as a +reasonable woman ought. Put on your things and come with us." + +She moved closer to him and spoke deprecatingly, "Do not be angry with +me, Robert; I believe I am doing right to remain away. I must remain." + +"Well, of all the simpletons that ever walked, you are about the +worst," was his complimentary rejoinder as he caught up his gloves. +"Good-bye, Clary," he added, stooping to kiss her. + +"Oh, Robert, I hope you will come back safely!" she said, clinging to +him as if she feared he was going away for ever; and the tone of her +voice, full of mournful wailing, struck upon the ear of her husband. + +Nevertheless he went off laughing, telling her not to fear--that he'd +come back with all his legs and wings about him. + +On the platform he met Louisa and Rose Jupp under the convoy of their +brother. "Then actually Mrs. Lake is _not_ coming!" exclaimed Louisa. + +"And I have only come to see you off," was Mr. Lake's response. "I am +not going on to Guild." + +"Oh, you barbarous deceiver!" quoth Rose. "Where are you going?" + +"To church, as a respectable individual of modern society ought." + +"I tell you what, Lake," interrupted Oliver Jupp, a dark, short young +man, quiet and sensible, "this is not fair. These girls entrapped me +into taking them, on the strength that you were to be one of the +party, and it's too bad to shuffle off it." + +"So it is," returned Mr. Lake. "But you must talk to my wife about it. +I am the most hopelessly henpecked husband your worst fancy ever +pictured; Caudle was nothing to it." + +The train went smoothly off, and Mr. Lake returned home. His wife was +leisurely attiring herself for church. She started when she saw him. +"Why, Robert, what has happened?" + +"Nothing. The boiler has not gone up yet; that calamity is expected to +take place midway between here and Guild." + +"Why have you come back?" + +"I came back because I have got a silly child for my wife," he said, +standing in front of her, and speaking half tenderly, half severely. +"One who would have worried her foolish heart into a fever, had I +gone, believing I should never come back alive." + +She wound her arms round him and pulled his face down to hers in her +fervent love, her tears falling upon it. "Oh, my darling! my dearest! +you don't know how happy you have made me!" she passionately +whispered. "How shall I thank you for giving way to my foolishness? I +_should_ have been in unhappy suspense all day long." + +"I shan't give way to it the next time," cried he, as he kissed away +her tears. "And I have told the girls what a henpecked husband I am, +the slave of a capricious tyrant. Jupp won't be in a hurry to marry +after my warning example before his eyes." + +"The next time!" she repeated, with a sad smile. "Robert, there will +be no next time. I shall never have such a dream again." + +The Jupps went grumbling all the way to Guild. That is, the young +ladies grumbled, and their brother listened. The disappointment was +really great. Mr. and Mrs. Lake were great favourites with everybody; +just those people that make society brighter for their presence. + +"Margaret says Clara Lake was taken with a capricious fit." + +"Nonsense, Louisa!" spoke Oliver, at length. "She has too much innate +good feeling for caprice. Mrs. Chester has been at her domineering +ways, I expect, and frightened her poor little sister-in-law." + +Guild reached, they found their way to Mrs. Chester's house, which was +just outside the town, some ten minutes' walk from the station. It was +a pretty place--old-fashioned but commodious; standing in the midst of +a productive garden, with windows opening to a large lawn. It used to +be called Guild Farm; Mrs. Chester had already changed that, and +rechristened it "Guild Lawn." She had it at a cheap rent. There were +two houses on the farm, and the farmer who rented the land lived in +the other: to let this was so much gain to him. Guild Rectory, where +Mrs. Chester had hitherto lived, was at the opposite end of the town. + +The Reverend James Chester, her late husband, had been a poor curate +for the greater portion of his life. He, his first wife (who was a +cousin of the Jupps), and their only child, Anna, had lived on his +country curacy of one hundred a year. He had no residence; and none, +save themselves, knew the shifts they had been put to--the constant +scheming and contriving they had been forced to exercise to live as +gentlepeople and keep up appearances out of doors. His wife died; and, +close upon it, the bishop gave him the living of St. Thomas, at Guild. +Its emoluments were a small house and three hundred a year--great +riches, in the eyes of the Reverend James Chester. He next married +Penelope Hunter, who had two hundred a year of her own. Three children +were subsequently born, Fanny, Thomas, and James. When the girl was +ten years old and the youngest boy six, Mr. Chester died; and Mrs. +Chester was left with Anna and her own children on her hands, a little +good furniture and her two hundred a year to bring them up upon. +So--as she told her half-brother--she had to scheme to live: she took +this house, and hoped that would help her to do it. + +"Well, and now what's the reason that Robert and Clara have not come?" +began Mrs. Chester, without any other greeting, as she stood, bonnet +and mantle on, to receive her guests. "I should like to know what +Clara means by it! I had the coolest letter from her!--just putting +off her visit to a future time, without saying with your leave or by +your leave." + +Fine nuts for the Miss Jupps to crack! They hastily recounted what had +passed at their sisters' interview with Mrs. Lake, and her husband's +words at the train in the morning. There was no time for more. + +"If you ask my opinion," said Louisa Jupp, as they hurried off to the +nearest church, "I should say that Mrs. Lake has acquired an objection +to Sunday travelling." + +"What a crotchet!" concluded Mrs. Chester. "I never quite understood +my brother's wife." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +The Accident. + + +It was a fine night, though not unusually light, for there was no +moon, and the heavens looked a little misty, as they do sometimes +following on a hot August day. + +The nine o'clock train dashed into Guild, received its waiting +passengers, and dashed on again. + +Amidst others, the Miss Jupps and their brother entered it, having +finished their day's visit to Mrs. Chester. They took their seats in +the middle compartment of a first-class carriage, and happened to have +it to themselves. The young ladies sat with their backs to the engine, +he with his face to it. + +"The Lakes would have had a pleasant day had they come," remarked +Louisa. "You may rely upon it her objection lay in its being Sunday. +Perhaps she is growing religious." + +"What an awful lookout for Lake!" spoke up Mr. Jupp, from his corner. + +"Oliver!" reproved the young ladies. + +"She'll stop his liberty and his cigars," persisted Mr. Oliver: "there +are no such martinets under the sun as your religious wives. Talking +about cigars, would it affect your bonnets, girls, if I lighted one +now?" + +They screamed out together. They would not have their loves of new +bonnets poisoned and blackened with cigar smoke; they'd never be fit +to go on again. "And you must not smoke in these carriages," added +Louisa: "we are near Coombe Dalton station, and the guard would see +you." + +"Pretty wives you'll make when you are married," remarked Oliver. +"Afraid of cigar smoke!" + +The caution, or the bonnets, caused Oliver Jupp to keep his cigar-case +in his pocket. Coombe Dalton station, an insignificant one, was about +midway between Guild and Katterley. The train did not stop at it. +Oliver leaned from the window to take a survey of the route. + +"We are close to it," said he; "yonder are the lights. Halloa! what's +the red light flashing up and down for? That ought to be a green." + +"If a red light is waving in the green's place, there must be danger," +said Rose, quickly. "Red is the danger signal." + +"There's no danger. If the light indicated danger the train would come +to a standstill; it is going on at the same speed." + +Scarcely had the words quitted Oliver Jupp's mouth when--they scarcely +knew what occurred. There was a shriek from the whistle, a shock; and +a shriek, not from the whistle, but from human beings in their terror. +The train came to a standstill and they with it: they and their +carriage were not hurt or inconvenienced; the carriages behind them +were not hurt, nor the carriages immediately before them, but the +foremost carriages---- What had happened? + +Unstopped, and dashing on in its speed and recklessness, the engine +had dashed into some obstruction on the line, a little past Coombe +Dalton station. It ran up a bank, gave a dance, and was forced back on +the line, falling sideways, and the three foremost carriages, next to +the break van, were dragged with it. The two first, third-class ones, +were greatly injured; the third, a second class, less so. Oliver Jupp, +with other male passengers, was speedily out of his carriage, running +forward to see what assistance he could render to those, his ill-fated +fellow-creatures, some of whom were groaning in the death agony. + +What a scene it was! The dark night; the hissing engine, mad +instrument of death, but harmless now; the torches brought forward +from the station to throw light upon the calamity; the figures, some +dead, some dying, lying in the midst of the wreck; the scalded, the +wounded, the bleeding; the silent and the still, the moaning and the +helpless, the shrieking and the terrified! Not here, gratuitously to +harrow feelings and sympathies, will the worst details be given; and, +adding no little to the distress and confusion prevailing, was the +uncontrollable alarm of the uninjured passengers, escaping from their +carriages and running hither and thither, uncertain where to go or +what to do. Katterley (as well as other stations) was telegraphed to +for medical assistance. + +Meanwhile Robert Lake and his wife had spent an exceedingly sober day. +With the passing of the chance of danger, Clara's opinion experienced +a sort of revulsion; and she began to think--not so much of how +foolish she had been, but of how foolish she must appear in the eyes +of her practical husband She said nothing; it was the wisest plan; and +he had not alluded to it in any way. Quietly the day dragged on, and +they sat down to supper in the evening; the dinner hour on Sunday +being two o'clock. + +It was at this juncture that Mary Jupp burst in without any ceremony +whatever, neither bonnet on her head nor shawl on her shoulders. The +news of the accident had spread like wildfire and penetrated to the +house of the Jupps. Of course it had lost nothing in carrying; and +Mary Jupp fully believed she should never see her sisters or brother +again alive. + +"Oh, Mr. Lake!--and you to be sitting here quietly at supper! Have you +not heard the news?" + +They rose up: they saw the state of alarm and agitation she was in. +Clara caught the infection, and looked as frightened as her impromptu +visitor. Mr. Lake was calm, cool; man in general is so. + +"What news?" he asked. "What is it?" + +"There has been an awful accident to the train at Coombe Dalton. No +particulars positively known, that we can learn, but people are saying +half the train's killed and the other half wounded." + +"Sit down, sit down," said Mr. Lake, taking her trembling hands. "What +train? How did the news come?" + +"Why, our train!" returned the excited girl, bursting into tears. "The +train that Oliver and Louisa and Rose must be in. Oh, Mrs. Lake! was +it true that you had a presentiment of evil happening to it?--was that +really your reason for declining to go?" + +Clara, deathly pale, had sought the eyes of her husband She was +overwhelmed with astonishment and dismay; with a feeling that she +could not describe and had never yet experienced. Had they really +escaped danger, accident, perhaps death, from that strangely vivid +dream of warning? Her faculties seemed bewildered. + +"How has the news reached Katterley?" repeated Mr. Lake, drowning the +words about the dream, for he was conscious that a thoughtless slip of +his had given the clue to Miss Jupp. + +"By telegraph," she answered; "and one of the porters ran up to our +house to tell it, knowing Oliver and the girls went to Guild this +morning and took return tickets. The station here is already besieged +by a crowd. Poor papa is pushing his way through it." + +Mr. Lake caught up his hat, when at the same moment who should come in +but Oliver Jupp. Mary seized upon him with a cry. + +"Now don't smother me," cried he to her. "First of all, we are all +right; you see I am, and Rose and Louy are safe and well inside Coombe +Dalton Station. My father sent me in to tell you; he said you were +here; and he is gone home to reassure them." + +"But, Jupp, how did you get to Katterley?" questioned Mr. Lake. + +"I came on a stray engine. I thought they would all be in fits +together at home, and I took the opportunity offered, of coming on to +stop the alarm. The first person who laid hold of me at the station +was the poor old governor, pretty nearly in a fit himself. It's an +awful accident, though." + +"How was it?" "Are many hurt?" "Did the boiler really burst?" + +"If you all reiterate questions at me at once, how am I to answer? +Very few are hurt, comparatively speaking. The engine went into +something, a truck or trucks I believe, and there was a smash. The two +first carriages, both third-class, are--nowhere, and the passengers I +won't tell you about, Lake, before these two girls, for it would spoil +their night's rest. The next carriage, a second-class, was damaged, +and its inmates are bruised, but not much, I think." + +"And what of the rest of the train?" breathlessly inquired Clara. + +"Nothing. The carriages came to a standstill on the line, and we got +out of them." + +"Are you sure there is no first-class carriage injured?" she +continued. + +"Certain. So to speak, there has been no accident to the rest of the +train, beyond the delay and fright." + +Mr. Lake looked at his wife and smiled. "So you would not have been +one of the injured, Clary, had you been in the train." + +She shook her head. "We have not the full particulars yet. Oliver may +be deceived." + +"It is exactly as I tell you, Mrs. Lake," said Oliver Jupp. "There is +no further damage." + +"Are you going back to Coombe Dalton?" + +"Yes, as soon as I can. But I thought it well to come on and let you +know the best and worst. Lake, will you go with me?" + +"Of course," he answered. + +The two young men went out together. Mary Jupp ran home, and Clara +waited the return of her husband. + +It was long past midnight when he came in. They sat up talking over +the accident; the details which he had learnt, and seen. Oliver Jupp +had been quite correct in his limit of the damage. Mrs. Chester +(taking up the suggested notion that Clara Lake had stayed away +because it was Sunday) had sent a very pressing invitation for her and +her husband to come on the following day, Monday, with the two elder +Miss Jupps. Mr. Lake delivered it to her. + +"Will you go, Clara?" + +"Will _they_ go?" she rejoined. "Will they venture?" + +"Venture!" + +"After this accident?" + +"I do not see why they should not. An accident two days running would +be something remarkable. What about your dream?" + +"Oh, I will go, Robert. Yes. The dream has done its office and I shall +be ever thankful for it." + +She spoke the last words reverently. Mr. Lake looked at her with +surprise. + +"Clara, don't encourage that fancy of yours," he gravely said, his +voice taking almost a stern tone. "To be superstitious at all argues a +want of common sense; but to be _foolishly_ superstitious is a great +deal worse. No reasonable being, wife of mine, would indulge _that_." + +"What do you call being foolishly superstitious?" + +"The remark you have just made--that the dream had done its office, +and you should ever feel thankful for it--is an illustration. Had you +gone to Guild this morning, you know quite well that we were not to +have returned until Tuesday, therefore should not have been in the +train to-night." + +"Something might have occurred to cause us to return," she +interrupted. + +"Granted--for the sake of the argument. We should have travelled in a +first-class carriage, as you know; and there is no first-class +carriage injured." + +He paused and looked at her. She could not deny anything he said, and +kept silence. + +"Therefore, what possible bearing that dream could have had upon the +accident, or where could be the utility of the warning, which, as you +declare, it conveyed to you, not to go to Guild, I cannot see." + +Neither, it must be confessed, did Clara herself see it; but she did +not lose her faith in the dream. Rather believed in it all the more +firmly, in what her husband would have called a manner void of all +reason. + +The dream, as she looked at it and expressed it, had "done its work;" +and she anticipated the excursion on the morrow with renewed pleasure, +springing from a sense of relief. + +Alas, alas! Poor short-sighted mortals that we are! The working out of +the ill, shadowed forth, was only just beginning. + +The morning rose brilliantly; rather too much so, taken in conjunction +with the heat; and the day, as it wore on, promised to be one of the +hottest on record. + +Katterley station was in a bustle not often experienced at the quiet +little place. People, idlers and others, crowded it, bent on a journey +of curiosity to Coombe Dalton. The deaths from the accident now +numbered several, and excitement was rife. Report came that the real +cause of the calamity was giving rise to dispute: on the one hand it +was said that the driver of the train had dashed through Coombe Dalton +station, regardless of the warning red light, held up as a signal that +he should stop; on the other it was maintained that no red light had +so been held. + +The twelve o'clock train came steaming into the Katterley station, +where it would stay its accustomed three minutes, and those going by +it looked alive. A very few passengers got out; a vast many rushed up +to take their places. People were flocking to Coombe Dalton _en +messe_; and would be flocking there until public curiosity was sated. + +A porter held open the door of a first-class carriage for a party who +were struggling on to the platform, one running before another; it +consisted of two gentlemen, three ladies, and a maid-servant. The +porter knew them well and touched his cap; Mr. and Mrs. Lake, Oliver +Jupp, and his two eldest sisters. + +"Let us have the compartment to ourselves, if you can manage it, +Johnson," said Oliver in an undertone. "The day is too hot for +crowding." + +"Very well, sir," replied the man. "I dare say I can contrive it." + +"But now whereabouts _is_ this carriage?" called out one of the +ladies, in a hasty and rather shrieking voice, as she looked to the +right and left; "because, if it's not just in the middle, I won't get +in. I'll never put myself towards either end of a train again as long +as I live." + +"Step in, step in," cried Oliver to her. "You are all right." + +"Make haste, miss," added the porter. "The time's up." + +"Of course it's up," repeated the young lady, who was no other than +Mary Ann Jupp; "and I wonder it wasn't up before we reached it. This +comes of putting off things till the last moment. I told you all the +clocks were slow and we should be late. If there's one thing I hate +more than another, it's the being obliged to rush up and catch a train +at the last moment! No time to choose your carriage--no time to see or +do anything; they may put you in the guard's van if they please, and +you not know it until you are off. I dare say we have come without our +tickets now. Has anybody thought of them?" + +In reply, Oliver Jupp held up the six bits of cardboard for his +sister's satisfaction, and the party settled themselves in their +seats; the maid-servant, who was Mrs. Lake's, entering last. + +"Why, Elizabeth, is that you?" exclaimed Miss Jupp. "I declare I never +saw you." + +"Didn't you, miss?" replied the girl, who was very tall and thin. "I +walked behind you from our house." + +"I thought it better to bring Elizabeth," interposed Clara Lake, who +was looking unusually lovely in her summer dress--white muslin with a +blue sprig upon it. "Mrs. Chester's servants will be glad of help with +so many of us to wait upon." + +"Mrs. Chester is the best manager of a house I ever saw," cried the +Miss Jupps in a breath. They wore alpaca gowns of very light green, +and hats trimmed with velvet. "Fancy!" added Margaret, "only two +servants, and one of those you may almost call a nurse, for the +children require plenty of attending to, and yet things seem to go on +smoothly. I can't think how she contrives it." + +"Trust to Mrs. Chester for contriving," said Mr. Lake. "She has to do +it. Besides, you forget Anna." + +The carriage held eight. Elizabeth sat at the farther end, the seat +next to her and the seat opposite to her being empty. She kept her +head close to the open window, looking out. Railway travelling was +rare in her experience. The rest chatted eagerly, giving themselves up +to the pleasure of the moment. Something was said about the previous +day's sojourn at Guild. + +"I hear it was a delightful party," Mrs. Lake remarked to Oliver Jupp. + +"We wanted you and Lake to complete it," he answered. "It was too bad, +Mrs. Lake, to declare off, after having promised to go. There was an +uncommon nice girl spending the day there. She's to be there again +today, I fancy." + +"Who was that?" inquired Mr. Lake, briskly, who had a propensity for +liking "nice girls." + +"Don't know who she was, or anything about her," replied Oliver. "Your +sister called her Lydia, and I did the same." + +"It was a Miss Clapperton," interrupted Margaret Jupp. "Louisa and +Rose were telling me about her this morning; they took an immense +fancy to her." + +"Clapperton?--Clapperton?" repeated Mr. Lake. "Oh, I know; a fresh +family who have come lately to Guild. Penelope said she was getting +intimate with them. You shall not pick out nice girls for me, Jupp, if +you call her one. I saw her once: a young Gorgon in spectacles, with +prominent eyes." + +"That's Nancy Clapperton, the near-sighted one," corrected Mary Jupp, +who was one of those ladies who like to put the world to rights. "It +was her sister who was there yesterday, and she is a charming girl. +Louy and Rose both say so." + +"I hope she'll be there today, then," said Mr. Lake. + +"She is to be there; but don't you and Oliver quarrel over her. He +monopolized her yesterday, I hear." + +"We'll go snacks," said Mr. Lake. "Or else draw lots: which shall it +be, Jupp? When does the old Indian Begum make her entry?" + +"For shame, Mr. Lake! You do turn everything and everybody into +ridicule," exclaimed Margaret. "I'm sure I think she will be a +delightful acquisition; so pleasant for your sister to have a +visitor." + +"Well, when does she come? Nobody says she won't be an +acquisition--for those who can stand Begums. I knew one once, and she +was awful. She had gold teeth." + +Margaret Jupp turned to Clara. + +"Why don't you keep your husband in better order? He is incorrigible." + +"I fear he is," was the answer, given with a gay smile. + +"Very strange!" cried Mr. Lake. "I can't get an answer to +my question: I think it's somebody else that's incorrigible. +When--does--the--Begum--arrive? I hope that's plain enough." + +"Mrs. Chester was talking of her yesterday to me," interposed Oliver +Jupp. "The Begum is expected to make her entrance on Wednesday or +Thursday." + +"When the house shall have been cleared of us sinful people," added +Mr. Lake. "We are not good enough for an Indian Begum. What do you +know of this one?" + +"As good as nothing," answered Margaret Jupp. "That is, of late years. +Papa and mamma used to know old Mr. and Mrs. Finch. He was a lawyer +somewhere in London, and Angeline was the daughter." + +"Angeline!" + +"That's her name. Isn't it a fine one?" + +"Very," said Mr. Lake. "The baptismal people must have foreseen she +was destined to be a Begum." + +The arrival at Coombe Dalton interrupted the conversation. Slackening +its speed, the train came to a standstill. They inquired of a porter +how long it stayed, and understood him to say "ten" minutes. So they +got out, and heard almost immediately the train puff on again. The man +had said "two." Looking at each other in consternation, a laugh +ensued. The next train came up at three o'clock, and they could only +wait. + +Plenty of time now to examine the scene of the accident. They were not +the only spectators. The battered engine, the _débris_ of the +carriages were there still--not on the line, but drawn away from it. + +"In shunting some trucks on to the other line, one of them broke down, +and could not be got off before our train came up," explained Oliver +Jupp. "The engine ran into it, and--we were done for." + +"But how dreadfully careless of the people at the station to allow +your engine to run into it!" exclaimed Margaret. "They ought to have +signalled your train to stop." + +"They did signal it," interrupted a strange voice at her elbow, and +Margaret turned to see the stationmaster, who was known to her brother +and Mr. Lake. "The red lights were exhibited at the station, and a +switchman waved the red signal light up and down, all to no purpose. +You observe that post," he added, pointing to an iron post or pillar +close to them, for he perceived she looked as if she scarcely +understood him: "that is the night signal-post. When the line is +clear, a green light is exhibited on it, as a notice that the trains +may pass; but when it is not clear, a red light is substituted, and no +train must proceed when the red light is there. Not only was the red +light shown there last night, but the switchman, alarmed at the +train's coming on so quickly, seized it, and waved it to enforce +attention. The driver took no notice, and came dashing on to +destruction." + +"Was he killed?" inquired one of the bystanders, a knot of whom had +gathered round. + +"No," replied the stationmaster; "and his escape is regarded as next +door to a miracle. He was flung from the engine, lay motionless, and +was carried off for dead; but it appears he was only stunned, and is +nearly well this morning. He'll have to stand his trial, of course; +and a good thing for him if they don't bring it in 'Wilful +Murder'--for that's what some of these careless engine-drivers will +come to one day." + +The official spoke with a good deal of acrimony. If the blame did not +lie with the driver, it lay with _him_, and some hot dispute had been +going on already that morning. + +"Does the driver deny that the red light was up?" asked Mr. Lake. + +"He denies it, and stands to it," said the aggrieved stationmaster. +"He says the green lights were up as usual. The man's a fool." + +"He had taken something to obscure his vision, possibly?" + +"Well, no. I don't think he had done that. He is a sober man. It is a +case of carelessness: nothing else. They go driving on, full pelt, +never looking at the signals. On these quiet lines of rail, where +there's not much traffic, the danger signal is not exhibited for weeks +together. They get accustomed to see the other, and it becomes to them +so much a matter of course that it must be there, that they forget to +look at it at all. That, in my opinion, must have been the cause of +last night's work, and I see no other possible way of accounting for +it." + +He turned back to the station as he spoke, and a gentleman, who had +drawn near, held out his hand to greet the Lakes and the Jupps. It was +Colonel West, an acquaintance who resided at Coombe Dalton. + +"Oh, colonel," exclaimed one of the young ladies, "what a shocking +accident this has been!" + +"Ay, it has. Seven picked up dead, and four more gone this morning; +besides legs, and arms, and backs broken. It is awful to think of." + +"And all from one man's recklessness!" added Mr. Lake, with more +severity, more feeling, than he generally suffered himself to display. +"As the stationmaster says, they'll not be brought to their senses, +these drivers, until some of them are convicted of wilful murder. I +hope the man who drove the train last night will get his deserts." + +The spectators generally, including Oliver Jupp, had strolled off in +the wake of the stationmaster, he being the one from whom most news +was to be expected, and their curiosity was craving for it. Colonel +West, a keen, sensible man of fifty, brought himself to an anchor +before Mr. Lake, touching him on the waistcoat to command attention. + +"Let me disabuse your mind, at any rate. I hear they are putting the +blame on the driver; but he does not deserve it, and they must be +doing it to screen themselves. I know nothing of the man; I never saw +him in my life until this morning; but I shall stand between him and +injustice." + +"In what way? what do you mean?" Mr. Lake inquired. + +"They say at the station here that they exhibited the danger signal, +red, and that the train dashed on regardless of it," said Colonel +West. "I went to the inn this morning where some of the wounded are +lying, and there I found the driver--as they told me he was--on a +mattress on the floor. 'How did this happen?' I said to him. 'I don't +know how it happened, sir,' he replied; 'but I declare there was no +red signal up to stop me; the green light was up as usual.' That was +the first I had heard about the red light," continued the colonel; +"but I find the man said true, and that the whole blame is laid upon +him. Now it happens that I was in my garden last night when the smash +came, just over on the other side of the line, and I can bear the +man's assertion out. It was the green light that was up, and not the +red." + +"Shameful!" exclaimed Mr. Lake, rising up at once against the +injustice in his impulsive way. "I hope, colonel, you will stand by +the man." + +"You may be sure of that. I'd transport a reckless driver for life, if +I could, but I would never see an innocent man falsely accused." + +Having nothing to do with themselves, they strolled into the village, +such as it was, the colonel with them. At the door of the small inn, +whose floors had been put into requisition the previous night, on the +green bench running under the windows, sat the driver of the engine, +his head tied up with a white cloth and his arm in a sling. Colonel +West introduced him: "Cooper, the driver." Cooper was a man of +notoriety that day. + +"Why, Cooper!" cried Mr. Lake in surprise the moment he saw the +patient, "was it you who drove the engine last night?" + +"Yes, sir, it was me," replied Cooper, standing up to answer, but +sinking back at once from giddiness. "And I can only say I wish it had +been somebody else, if they are going to persist in accusing me of +causing the accident wilfully." + +Mr. Lake knew him well. He was a young man, a native of Katterley, of +very humble origin, but of good natural intelligence and exemplary +character. It was only about a month that he had been promoted to be a +driver; before that he was a stoker. "I need not have speculated on +whether the driver was overcome by strong liquor, had I known who it +was," said Mr. Lake. + +"He tells me he never drinks," interposed Colonel West. + +"Never, sir," said Cooper. "Water, and tea, and coffee, and those sort +of things but nothing stronger. I had a brother, sir, who drank +himself to death before he was twenty, and it was a warning for me. +This gentleman and these ladies knew him." + +Mr. Lake nodded acquiescence. "So they say the red light was up, do +they, Cooper, and you would not see it?" + +"I hear they are saying so at the station, sir; but it's very wrong. +There was no other light up but the one that is generally up, the +green. Should I have gone steaming on, risking death to myself and my +passengers, if the danger light had been up? No, sir, it's not +likely." + +"Did you look at the signal light?" inquired Mary Jupp, who was always +practical. "Perhaps you--you _might_, you know, Cooper--have passed it +without looking just for once." + +"I did look, miss; and I couldn't have been off seeing it last night, +for it was being swung about like anything. 'What's up now,' I said to +myself, 'that they are swinging the lamp about like that?' and I +thought whoever it was doing it, must have had a drop too much." + +"But don't you think you might from that very fact have suspected +danger?" questioned Mr. Lake. + +"No, sir, not from the green lamp. If they had wanted to warn me of +danger, they should have swung the red. Any way, I'd rather have given +my own life than it should have happened when I was driver." + +"Cooper, I saw the green light swung as well as you; and I shall be +happy to bear my testimony in your favour at the proper time and +place," said Colonel West. "It is quite a providential thing that I +happened to be in my garden at the time." + +"Thank you, sir," said the man, earnestly, the tears of relief and +emotion rising to his eyes. + +Whiling away the time in the best way they could, they got back to the +station a few minutes before the train for Guild was expected. The +accident was the topic of conversation still. + +"I have seen the driver," remarked Mr. Lake to the stationmaster. "I +know him well, a sober, steady man. He persists still that the red +signal was not exhibited; that it was the green." + +"Oh, he does, does he?" returned the stationmaster. "He had better +prove it. Of course, when they are at their wit's end for an excuse, +they invent anything, probable or improbable." + +"Cooper is not a man to invent. I am sure he is truthful." + +"Let him wait till the inquest," was the significant reply. + +The train came in, and they were taken on to Guild station. From +thence they found their way to Mrs. Chester's, losing Oliver Jupp on +the road. + +"You disagreeable, tiresome things! what brings you here at this late +hour?" was the greeting of Mrs. Chester, as she stood at the door, in +no amiable mood, to receive her guests. "You knew we were to have +dined at three o'clock, and taken dessert and tea on the lawn, I have +been obliged to order the dinner to be put back." + +"It was the train's fault," said Mr. Lake. "It deposited us halfway +and left us." + +"Of course you must put in your nonsense, Robert, or it wouldn't be +you," retorted Mrs. Chester, who could be objectionably cross when put +out, especially to him. "Come along with me, girls, and take your +things off. Dinner will be on the table in twenty minutes." + +She led the way to the staircase with scant ceremony. Mr. Lake touched +her arm. + +"A moment, Penelope, just to answer me a question. Is Lydia Clapperton +here today?" + +"Yes," was Mrs. Chester's answer, delivered impatiently. "Why?" + +"Where is she?" + +"In the garden, I think--or perhaps with the children. What do you +want to know for?" + +"Only to get the start of Oliver. He monopolized her yesterday, I +hear." + +"Where _is_ Oliver?" demanded Mrs. Chester, suddenly remembering that +he had not come. + +"Oh! he went into the town to buy cigars, or something of the sort," +responded Mr. Lake, as he turned to the garden, glad perhaps to get +out of the reach of his sister's anger. That something besides their +late arrival had put out Mrs. Chester was self-evident. + +Across lawns, over flower-beds, behind trees, went Robert Lake, in +search of the beauty that to him was as yet a vision--Lydia +Clapperton. Good chance--or ill chance, just as the reader may +deem--took him to a small summer-house at the end of a shady +shrubbery, and in it he discerned a lady sitting; young and pretty, he +decided in the semi-light. The lattice was trellised with the green +leaves of summer flowers; roses and clematis clustered at the door. + +He thought, looking at her in the subdued shade, that she must be four +or five-and-twenty. Her dress was young--young for daylight. A rich +black silk with a low body and short sleeves, edged by a ruche of +white crape, a jet chain on her white neck, and jet bracelets. She had +very decided aquiline features, thin and compressed lips. Her eyes +were such that would have been called beautiful or hideous, according +to the taste or fancy of the spectator: they were large, bold, and +intensely black. Her hair _was_ beautiful: a smooth purple black, very +luxuriant, and disposed in an attractive manner round the head. + +Mr. Lake took a private view through the interstices of the green +stalks across the lattice. + +"It is Lydia Clapperton," he said to himself; "and a fine girl!" + +"There she is!" he began aloud, in his free and somewhat saucy +manner--a manner that women like, when displayed by an attractive +man--as he bared his head to enter the summer-house, and held out his +hand with an _abandon_ of all ceremony. + +That she was surprised into the putting forth her hand in return, was +indisputable. She had been intently bending over some fancy-work, +netting; and she lifted her head with a start at the greeting, and let +fall the work. + +Mr. Lake took her hand; she looked up at him and saw a gay fascinating +man, gentlemanly in the midst of his freedom. Drawing back her hand +she sat down again, perfectly self-possessed. + +"I told Mrs. Chester I should come and look for you," he said, in +explanation. "I have the pleasure of knowing your sister, so we need +not wait for a formal introduction." + +"And you?" cried the lady, looking puzzled. + +"You have heard, no doubt, of Mrs. Chester's brother, the scapegrace. +She never gives me too good a word. I am out of her books again, +through keeping her and the dinner waiting." + +It happened that the young lady had never heard of Mr. Lake, as a +scapegrace or otherwise. She did not say so, and went on with her +netting work. + +"Mrs. Chester has been wondering at the non-arrival of some friends +she was expecting." + +"And fuming at it too," returned Mr. Lake, with a light laugh. "We had +an adventure. Getting out at Coombe Dalton in the supposition that +there was plenty of time, the train went on without us. I am really +sorry, though, for it has delayed your dinner." + +"Oh that is nothing," was the answer, spoken in a spirit of +politeness. "I would rather not dine at all than dine alone." + +Mr. Lake sat down on the bench, took up her scissors, and seemed +inclined to make himself at home. She glanced at his bright blue eyes, +dancing with light gaiety and with admiration of her fair self. + +"I think nothing is more pleasant than a country-house filled with +visitors," she observed, tying a sudden break in the silk of her work, +and holding out her hand for the scissors to cut the ends off. + +"When they can do as they like," added Mr. Lake. "We shall remain +until tomorrow night or Wednesday morning, I believe, and must make +the most of it. And you--do you remain long?" + +"My stay is quite uncertain." + +"At least I hope you will be here until Wednesday. After that there'll +be nothing to stay for; all the pleasure and the freedom must end; +liberty will be replaced by restraint." + +His tone had become serious. She paused again in her work, and lifted +her eyes to speak. + +"What restraint?" + +"Mrs. Chester has sold her liberty to a Begum. Surely you must have +heard of it! An old Indian Begum, who is coming to stay here, and +takes possession the middle of the week. We must all be upon our good +behaviour before her. No fun to go on then." + +"An Indian Begum!" uttered the young lady, staring at him. + +"Nothing less formidable, I assure you. She is expected to make the +journey from town on an elephant. I shall draw a sketch of her after +dinner for private circulation: shawls, fans, woolly hair, and +propriety. She's a widow; the relict of a Sir George Ellis; we must +not so much as whisper before her." + +The lady laughed. + +"Mrs. Chester has laid down rules for our conduct," he went on, in a +rattling sort of fashion. "The last time I was at Guild she saw me +snatch a kiss from a pretty girl who was staying with her; and a few +days ago she appeared at my house with an inquiry of what I supposed +my Lady Ellis would think of such conduct. You have no conception what +a nightmare this Begum is to me--this old relict of a K.C.B." + +"Really I don't wonder. Shawls, fans, woolly hair, and, an elephant! +Old and ugly! Did you say ugly?" + +"As if a Begum could be anything else! Not that her ugliness or +beauty could affect one; but her interfering with the liberty of a +fellow--that does it." + +"But--according to your version--it is Mrs. Chester who seems to be +interfering; not the Begum." + +"It is all the same; excepting that, for Mrs. Chester we should not +care, and for the Begum, I suppose, we must. I did think of getting a +few days' fishing here this charming weather, but that's over now. I +shall never stand that Begum--twirling one's thumbs before her; and +speaking in measured monosyllables." + +The young lady bent over her netting; she had made a long stitch. +Glancing up, she saw those attractive eyes fastened on her. "Mrs. +Chester seems to wish to keep you in order," she remarked, bending +them again. + +"She does. It is her vocation. I listen to her pretty dutifully, and +when her back's turned have a good laugh over it. Allow me to try and +get that knot undone for you; it is giving you trouble." + +"Why, what do you know about netting?" she asked, gaily. + +"A great deal. I netted a boy's fishing-net once. Those long stitches +are the very plague." + +"A fishing-net!" she laughed. "Well, perhaps you did; but what do you +think you could do to this fine silk: you, with your man's fingers?" + +"I can try, so as to save the trouble to you." He bent as he spoke, +and attempted gently to draw the work from her. She kept it tight. It +really looked as though they had no objection, either of them, to +lapse into a flirtation, when at that moment voices were heard, and +Mr. Lake looked up. Passing across the shrubbery, by an intersecting +walk, was Oliver Jupp, with a young lady by his side. She turned her +head, and stood still for a moment, calling out to Mrs. Chester's +children, who were behind, so that Mr. Lake had a view of her face. + +"Who the deuce has Jupp picked up now?" murmured Mr. Lake, in a +half-whisper. "She's an uncommon pretty girl." The lady also looked at +them, letting her netting fall on her lap. + +"Do you know who that young lady is?" he asked. + +She disengaged the string from her foot, got up, and looked from the +door. Mrs. Chester's children ran across the shrubbery with fleet feet +and noisy tongues, and the sound of their voices faded away in the +distance. + +"It is a Miss Clapperton. Mrs. Chester introduced her to me by that +name. Lydia Clapperton, I think, she called her." + +Mr. Lake stared in his surprise. "_That_ Lydia Clapperton!" + +"Mrs. Chester certainly called her so." + +"Why, then--who are you?" + +"I? Oh, I am the Indian Begum; but I did not come on an elephant." + +His pulses stood still for a moment. But he thought she was playing a +joke upon him. + +"You are not--you cannot be--Lady Ellis!" + +"I am indeed. The old relict of Colonel Sir George Ellis, K.C.B." + +Never in all his life had Robert Lake been so taken to, never had he +felt more thoroughly confused and ashamed. The hot crimson mounted to +his temples. Lady Ellis had sat down again, and was quietly going on +with her work. + +"I humbly beg your pardon, Lady Ellis," he said, standing before her +as shamefaced as any convicted schoolboy. "I cannot expect you to +accord it to me, but I most sincerely beg it." + +"I think I must accord it to you," she answered, in a pretty +tantalizing sort of manner. "Your offence was not against _me_, but +against some fabled monster of your fancy. You shall sketch her still +after dinner for private circulation." + +The sound of a gong as she spoke gave notice that dinner was ready. +Mr. Lake held out his hand with hesitation. + +"Will you ratify your pardon, Lady Ellis? Will you promise to forget +as well as forgive? I shall never forget or forgive myself." + +She frankly put her hand into his as she rose. "I have forgiven; I +will promise to forget. But then, you know, you must not convert me +into a nightmare." + +"You a nightmare!" he impulsively cried, some of his old lightness +returning to him. "If you are, it will be one of a different kind: a +nightmare of attraction," he gallantly added, as he offered her his +arm. "What did you think of me? Did you take me for a wild animal just +arrived from the savage islands?" + +"No," said Lady Ellis; "that is what you took the Begum for. I found +you were under a mistake as soon as you spoke of my sister. I have no +sister. But what about your intention of fishing here? I am sorry that +I should frustrate it." + +He bit his lip; he could not conceal his annoyance. "I thought you +promised to forget," he softly whispered. + +"And so I will." + +"When did you arrive?" + +"Only an hour or so ago. Just in time to dress for dinner." + +Leaving Lady Ellis in the drawing-room, he ran upstairs in search of +his wife, and found her in the chamber which had been assigned them--a +pleasant room, looking towards the lawn. She was at work: making a +doll's frock for Fanny Chester. + +"How hot you look!" she exclaimed, as her husband entered. "Your face +is crimson." + +"My brain is also," he replied. "What do you think?--Lady Ellis is +here." + +"Mrs. Chester told us so. She had a note from her this morning, and +she herself arrived at two o'clock." + +"Clary, I called her the Begum to her face." + +"Oh!" + +"I don't know what else I didn't call her: old and ugly, and a +nightmare; and said she was coming on an elephant. In short, I did +nothing but ridicule her. You see, I took her for that Lydia +Clapperton." + +Mrs. Lake's face turned red in its turn. She was of a refined, +deeply-sensitive temperament, ever considerate of the feelings of +others. + +"What apology can you possibly offer, Robert? How can you make your +peace?" + +"I have made it already. She seems thoroughly good-natured, and saw +the thing as it was--a misapprehension altogether. I'd rather have +given a hundred pounds, though, than it should have happened. Why +couldn't Penelope open her mouth and tell me she had come and was in +the garden?" + +He was splashing away at the water, having turned up his cuffs and his +wristbands to wash his hands, evidently not on very good terms with +himself. His wife put the doll's frock into her little ornamental +basket and stood up to wait, watching him brush his hair. Then they +were ready to go down. + +"Clara." + +"What?" she asked, turning round to him. + +"Don't speak of this to any one, my darling. It really has annoyed me. +I do not suppose Lady Ellis will." + +"Of course I will not." And he bent his hot face over his wife's, and +kissed it by way of thanks. "What is she like?" asked Clara. + +"Young, and very good-looking." + +A knock at the door. Mr. Lake opened it. There stood a fair girl of +fifteen or sixteen, with soft brown eyes and a pale gentle face. Her +hair, of a bright chestnut-brown, was worn plain, and her voice and +manners were remarkably sweet and gentle. It was Anna Chester, Mrs. +Chester's step-daughter. There was a sort of patient weary look about +the girl, as if she had long had to do battle with care; her black +merino dress, rather shabby, was only relieved by a bit of quilled +white net round the throat, and plain stitched linen bands at the +wrists. + +"Mrs. Chester sent me to tell you that dinner is being taken in." + +"We are ready for it. Here, Anna, wait a moment," added Mr. Lake, +drawing her in and shutting the door. "What brings that Lady Ellis +here? I thought she was not to come until Wednesday or Thursday." + +"Neither was she," answered Anna. "It put us out very much this +morning when we got her letter, because things were not ready. But we +did the best we could." + +"That accounts for Penelope's sharpness," remarked Mr. Lake. "But she +could not have come from Cheltenham this morning, Anna!" + +"No, from London. She left Cheltenham on Saturday, she told, us, and +wrote from London yesterday." + +"Now then, you people!" called out Mrs. Chester's voice from the foot +of the stairs. + +"Come along, Anna," said Mr. Lake. + +"Oh, I am not going to dine with you," was the girl's answer. "There +would be nobody to see that things went on properly, and to wash the +forks and spoons." + +For Mrs. Chester had not sufficient forks and spoons to serve for all +her courses without washing. The dinner was made more elaborate than +it need have been, in honour of the first appearance of Lady Ellis at +table. Anna Chester spoke cheerfully, with patient meekness, as if it +were her province to be put upon; and Robert Lake muttered an angry +word in his wife's ear about Mrs. Chester's selfishness. + +In the corridor they encountered Mary and Margaret Jupp, and all +descended together. The party was going into the dining-room; Mrs. +Chester had momentarily disappeared; Oliver was laughing with Lydia +Clapperton; Mr. Lake went up to him and claimed to be introduced; the +Miss Jupps seized upon Lady Ellis with greetings and reminiscences of +old times; and altogether there was some confusion. Clara Lake, +naturally retiring, slipped into the dining-room behind the rest, and +took her seat unobtrusively by the side of Fanny Chester. So that it +happened she was not introduced to Lady Ellis. That Indian widow, +casting her roving eyes around, heard her called "Clara" once or twice +by Mrs. Chester, and took her for the governess. A young curate in a +straight coat down to his heels, made the tenth at table. + +"Mamma said I was to dine here," whispered Fanny, confidentially to +Mrs. Lake, "or else there would have been an odd number." + +Mr. Lake took the foot of the table, and had Lady Ellis on his right. +They talked together a great deal. Altogether it was a very social +dinner, plenty of laughing. Anna Chester washed up spoons and forks +outside the door, kept the little boys in order, and saw to things +generally. + +Dinner over, they went on the lawn, where a table was set out with +wine and fruit and cakes. But none of them seemed inclined to sit down +to it at first; preferring to disperse in groups, and flit about +amidst the walks and flowers. Oliver Jupp appropriated Lydia +Clapperton, and Mr. Lake was perfectly content that it should be so. +For himself he was everywhere; now with Mary Jupp; now with Margaret; +now with his sister; and now, and now, and now with Lady Ellis. +Chiefly with her: and she by no means objected to the companionship. +In short it was a delightful, unceremonious, laisser-aller sort of +gathering, with Mrs. Chester seated in her weeds to play propriety, +whilst her young boys, left to themselves, got into as much mischief +as they possibly could. + +"And so you found yourself restless at Cheltenham?" remarked Mr. Lake, +as he and Lady Ellis emerged once more in the open ground from some +one of the many side walks. + +"I get restless everywhere. India suited me best. It may be different, +perhaps, when once I settle down." + +"I never saw Cheltenham. It is a charming place, according to report." + +"At this season it is nothing but heat and dust. I did intend to stay +there until the middle of this week; but I couldn't do it. I could +not, Mr. Lake. So I went up to London on Saturday night, and wrote +word to your sister that she must expect me on Monday." + +They were crossing the lawn. Seated now near Mrs. Chester, at the +table, was Clara Lake, who had been beguiled indoors by Fanny Chester +to the doll's frock. That important work being accomplished, Clara had +come out again. Lady Ellis--her black lace shawl draped artistically +round her shoulders, and her very brilliant black eyes darting their +glances here and there, fixed their light upon Clara. + +"Who _is_ that young lady, Mr. Lake?" + +He looked surprised, and then smiled. "Don't you know?" + +"I don't know who she is. I know that she is one of the very boldest +girls I ever saw." + +"_She_ bold!" returned Mr. Lake, in marked astonishment, while a flush +darkened his cheek. "You are mistaken, Lady Ellis." + +"Bold; and unseemly bold," repeated Lady Ellis. "I speak of that young +lady who is now sitting by Mrs. Chester. Some of them called her +'Clara' at dinner. I thought she might be the governess, but she seems +to take too much upon herself for that." + +"I understand of whom you speak. But why do you call her bold?" + +Lady Ellis was silent for a moment, and then lifted her head. "When we +have lived in India, have travelled--in short, have rubbed off the +reserve and rusticity which experience of the world only can effect, +we like to speak out our opinion, and call things by their right +names. Half an hour ago you were with her in that walk, talking to +her; she held your arm, and she suddenly clasped her other hand over +it, and kept it there, turning her face up to yours with what looked +very like ardent admiration. It struck me as being not--not seemly." + +Mr. Lake coughed down a laugh. "She has a legal right to look in my +face as ardently as she pleases: and you may fully believe me when I +assure you that from her you will never witness aught unseemly. That +young lady is my wife." + +"Your--wife!" echoed Lady Ellis, taken utterly by surprise. + +"My own wife." His saucy blue eyes gazed into those amazed black ones, +enjoying their confusion with an exceedingly saucy expression. Lady +Ellis burst into a laugh. + +"Well, I suppose I must beg your pardon now. We all seem to be letting +ourselves in for mistakes and blunders. I thought she was a young +girl, and I did not know you were married." + +"She does look young," he answered, his eyes following his wife's +pretty figure, as she went towards the house with Mrs. Chester; +"nevertheless she has been my wife these three years." + +"You must have married early. Is it wise, think you, of a man to do +so?" + +"Wise?--In what respect?" + +"Repentance might come. Men scarcely know their own minds before +thirty." + +"A great many of us risk it." + +They sat down at the dessert-table, and Mr. Lake helped her to some +wine and fruit. One of the little boys ran up and clamoured for good +things in the absence of his mother. Lady Ellis privately thought that +children did not improve the social relations of the world. + +Mrs. Chester had taken Clara to look at what she called the domestic +arrangements, which in reality meant the kitchens and back premises in +general. Encountering Miss Jupp as they went, she turned to accompany +them. + +"Had you come at the time you ought, I should have shown you over the +house before dinner," grumbled Mrs. Chester, who could not forget the +upsetting of her plans. + +"Of course we were very sorry," spoke Mary Jupp. "It is so tiresome to +put back one's dinner after it is at the fire. I should have been more +cross than you, Mrs. Chester." + +"What with one thing and another, I have been cross enough today," +confessed Mrs. Chester, giving a jerk to her widow's cap, which never +kept on two minutes together, wanting strings. "First of all, this +morning, came Lady Ellis's letter to upset me, and with nothing ready +for her!" + +"Why did she come today?" + +"Some whim, I suppose. It was a courteous letter of excuse--hoping I +should pardon her, and begging me not to treat her as a stranger. How +very handsome she is!" + +"Her features are handsome," rejoined Mary Jupp; "but their +expression's bad." + +"Bad!" cried Mrs. Chester. + +"I think so. There's nothing good or kind in them; and she's eaten up +alive with vanity. You must take care of your husband, Clara, for she +seems to covet his admiration." + +Clara Lake, who was in advance, looked back and laughed merrily. + +"How can you put such notions in her head?" spoke Mrs. Chester, +severely. "Robert Lake's manners with women are in the highest degree +absurd; but there's no need for his wife to be reminded of it to her +face." + +"I don't mind being reminded of it, Mrs. Chester. It means nothing." + +"Of course it does not. I only hope Lady Ellis will not take offence +at him. What age is she, I wonder--five-and-twenty?" + +"Five-and-thirty, if she's a day!" spoke Mary Ann Jupp, in her strong +decision. "She is made-up, you know--cosmetics and that, and dresses +to look young. But just look quietly at her when the sun is on her +face." + +"But she cannot be that age." + +"I think she is. I will ask mamma when I get home: she knows." + +The subject dropped. Mrs. Chester took them round the house, and in at +the back door, showing one thing, explaining another. The larder and +the dairy were first entered. + +"That is what was once the dairy," observed Mrs. Chester. "Of course, +I want nothing of the sort, not possessing cows. It will do to keep +herbs and pots and pans in. This is the kitchen," she continued, +turning into a large, convenient room on the right of the boarded +passage. + +"Why, it is like print!" exclaimed Mary Jupp, in her hasty way. +"There's not a speck of dirt about it; everything is in its place. How +in the world have they got it into this order so soon after dinner?" + +"This is the best kitchen," explained Mrs. Chester; "they cook in the +other. Don't you see that there's no fire? We shall use this in +winter, but while the weather is so hot, I like the cooking done as +far from the sitting-rooms as possible. Farm-houses generally have two +kitchens, you know. The other is in the yard. You can come and see +it." + +They went out of the room, but Clara did not. She stood rooted to the +spot, like one in a trance, rather than a living, breathing woman. She +glanced here, she glanced there; at the doors, the large window, the +fireplace; at the furniture, and position of everything. Her breathing +came softly; she pressed her brow to make sure she was awake. + +Mrs. Chester and Mary Jupp came back, and she had not stirred: her +cheek was pale, her hands were clasped, she looked very like a statue. +Mrs. Chester began explaining where the several doors led to: one down +to the cellar, one to the coal-house, one to the dairy, and one to a +china closet; four in all, besides the entrance door. Both of them +were too busy to notice her. + +"Are you coming, Clara?" asked Miss Jupp, as they went out. + +"Directly," she replied, speaking quietly. "Mary, I wish you would +find my husband, and tell him I want him here for a minute." + +"You want to show him what a model place it is," cried Mrs. Chester, +complacently. "Do so, Clara. _He_ will never have such a kitchen in +his house." + +Mary Jupp delivered the message to Mr. Lake, who was still at the +table, and peeling a pear for Lady Ellis. The objectionable boy had +disappeared. He came away when he had finished his job, leaving the +two ladies together. Mrs. Chester had hastened in dire wrath after the +other of her mischievous young sons, who was climbing up a prickly +tree, to the detriment of his clothes. + +"I had no idea until just now that Mr. Lake was a married man," +observed Lady Ellis to Mary Jupp, as she leisurely eat her pear. + +"No! Then whom did you suppose Mrs. Lake was?" + +"I did not suppose anything about it; I did not know she was Mrs. +Lake. Have they been married long?" + +"About three years." + +"Ah, yes; I think he said so. Any children?" + +"There was one. A beautiful little child; but it died. Do you not +think her very lovely? It is so sweet a face!" + +Lady Ellis shrugged her shoulders. "She has no style. And she seems as +much wrapt up in her husband as though they had been married +yesterday." + +"Why should she not be?" bluntly asked Miss Jupp. "I only hope when I +am married--if ever that's to be--that I and my husband shall be as +happy and united as they are." + +"As _she_ is," spoke Lady Ellis. "I would not answer for him." + +Mary Jupp felt cross. It occurred to her that somebody might have been +whispering tales about Mr. Lake's nonsensical flirtation with her +sister Rose: and purely innocent nonsense, on both sides, she knew +that to be. "Young Lake is one of those men who cannot live without +flirtation," she observed, "who admire every woman they meet, and take +care to let her know it. His wife can afford to laugh at it, knowing +that his love is exclusively hers." + +Lady Ellis drew down the corners of her mouth and coughed a little +cough of mocking disbelief; for which Mary Jupp, upright and +high-principled, could have scolded her for an hour. + +"So very old-fashioned, those notions, my dear Miss Jupp. Love!" + +"Old-fashioned, are they?" fired Mary. + +"A woman hazards more than she perhaps bargains for, when she ties +herself, for better or for worse, to one of these attractive men: but +of course she must put up with the consequences." + +"What consequences?" exclaimed Mary Jupp, feeling herself puzzled by +the speech altogether. + +"The seeing herself a neglected wife: the seeing others preferred +before her--as she must inevitably do when her own short reign is +over." + +"Had you to experience that?" sharply asked Mary Jupp, intending the +question as a sting. + +"I!" equably returned Lady Ellis. "My husband had nothing attractive +about him, and was as old as Adam. I spoke of the wives of fascinating +men: others may humdrum on to their graves, and be at peace." + +"I don't see what there is to fascinate in young Lake. He is +light-headed and careless, if that means fascination." + +"Ah," superciliously remarked Lady Ellis, playing with her jet chain. + +They were interrupted by Margaret Jupp, who came up with Mrs. Chester. +The young lady, hearing of the expedition to the kitchens, was not +pleased to have been omitted, so Mrs. Chester was going to do the +honours again. + +"I think there's nothing so nice as looking over a house," said +Margaret. "Kitchens have great interest for me." + +"I suppose I may not ask to be of the party?" interposed Lady Ellis, +looking at Mrs. Chester. + +"Certainly you may: why not?" And they slowly strolled across the lawn +on the expedition. + +Meanwhile Mr. Lake, in obedience to the summons, had found his wife in +the large kitchen. She was still standing in the middle of the floor, +just as though she had been glued to it. + +"Did you want me, Clara?" + +"Do come here," she whispered, in quite an awestruck tone. And Mr. +Lake, wondering a little, stepped up and stood beside her. Clara, +touching his arm, pointed to different features of the room, turning +about to do it. + +"Do you see them, Robert? Do you remember?" + +"I have not been in the kitchen before," was his answer, after a +pause, looking curiously at the room and then at her. + +"It is the kitchen of my dream!" + +"The what?" exclaimed Mr. Lake. + +"The kitchen I saw in my dream." + +He barely stopped an irreverent laugh. What he saw upon her face +arrested it. + +"It is," she whispered, her voice sounding strangely hollow, as though +some great physical change had taken place within. "I described its +features to you that night, and now you may see them. We--we are +standing in the same position!" she burst forth more eagerly, as if +the fact had but that moment occurred to her. "See! I was here, you on +that side me, as you are now; here was the small round dark table +close to us; there is the large window, with the ironing-board +underneath it; there, to the left, are the dresser and the shelves, +and even the very plates and dishes upon them--" + +"Of the precise willow pattern," put in Mr. Lake. + +"There, behind us, is the fireplace; and around are the several doors, +in the very self-same places that I saw them," she continued, too +eager to notice or heed the mocking interruption. "I told, you it +looked like a farm-house kitchen, large and bleak: you may see that it +does, now." + +"I shall begin to think that you are dreaming still," he returned. + +"I wish I was! I wish I had never seen in reality the kitchen of that +dream. I did not at the first moment recognise it. When I came in with +Mrs. Chester and Mary Jupp, the place struck me as being familiar, and +I was just going to say to them, 'I must have been here before,' when +my dream flashed upon me, like a chill. I felt awestruck--sick; I +feel so yet." + +"This beats spirit-rapping," said Mr. Lake. "Let us lay hold of the +table, and see whether it won't turn." + +"_Why_ will you turn it into mockery?" she resumed, her tone one of +sharp pain. "You know that dream seemed to foretel my death." + +"I declare to goodness, Clara, you will make me angry!" was his +retort, his voice changing to severity. "What has come over you these +last few days?" + +"That dream has come over me," she replied, with a shiver. "I thought +it was done with; done with by the accident of last night; and now the +sight of this kitchen has renewed it in all its horror. If you could, +only for one minute, feel as I am feeling, you would not wonder at +me." + +Her state of mind appeared to him most unaccountable: not foolish; +that was not the word; far worse than foolish--obstinate and +unreasonable. Never in his life had he spoken so sharply to her as he +spoke now. Perhaps his recent intercourse with that equable woman of +the world, Sir George's relict, had given him new ideas. "I should be +sorry to feel it, even for a minute; I should be ashamed to do so: and +I feel ashamed for you. What did you want with me?" + +"To show you the kitchen. To tell you this." + +He gave vent to an impatient word, and turned angrily to the door. +She, her heart bursting, went forward to the window. Just so had it +been in the dream; just so had they seemed to part, he going to the +door and she to the window; just so had been her sharp conviction of +coming evil. Mr. Lake looked back at her; she had laid her head +against the wall near the window: her hands drooped down; in her whole +air there was an utter agony of abandonment. His better nature +returned to him, and he walked across the kitchen. As he drew her face +from the wall he saw that it was white, and the tears were running +down her cheeks. + +"Clara," he exclaimed, as he took her to himself, "must I treat you +and soothe you as I would a child?" + +"No, treat me as your wife," she passionately answered, breaking into +a storm of sobs. + +He suffered her to sob for a few moments, until the paroxysm had spent +itself, and then spoke; in a tone of remonstrance, it is true, but +with deep tenderness. "Is it possible that you can allow a foolish +superstition, a dream, to cause this wild grief?" + +"It is not the dream that is causing the _grief_. You are causing +that: you never so spoke to me: when I said it might foretel my death, +you turned my words into ridicule. It is as if you do not care whether +I live or die." + +"Clara, you know better. What can I do for you? How can I soothe you?" + +"Do not speak to me in that tone again." + +"My dearest, I will do anything you wish in reason; you know I will, +but you must not ask me to put faith in a dream. And if my voice +sounded harsh--why, it would vex any man to find his wife so foolish." + +"Well, well, it shall pass; I will not vex you with it again. If any +ill does come, it must; and if not--" + +"If not, you will acknowledge what a silly child you have been," he +interrupted, kissing the scalding tears from her face. + +"Silly, and superstitious, if you will," she whispered, "but not a +child. I think I am less a child at heart than many who are older. +Robert, if you ever grew unkind to me, I should die." + +"That I never shall, my darling." + +Standing outside the half-open door, taking a leisurely survey through +the chink, was Lady Ellis, having come noiselessly along the passage +matting; not purposely to deceive, she was not aware there was +anything to see, but her footsteps were soft, her movements had mostly +something cat-like about them. She saw his face bent on his wife's, +and heard his kisses, all but heard his sweet words; heard quite +enough to imagine them. An ugly look of envy, or something akin to it, +rose momentarily to her pale features. Legitimate love such as this +had never been hers. Mr. Lake was what she had called him, an +attractive man. He had that day paid her attentions, said sentimental +nothings to her in a low voice; and there are some women who would +fain keep such men to themselves, whether they may have wives or not; +nay, their having a wife is only an inducement the more. Was Lady +Ellis one? + +The smile changed its character for that of mockery. It flashed into +my lady's mind that this little domestic scene was one of +reconciliation after dispute, and that the dispute must have had its +natural rise in those recent attentions paid to herself. The voices of +Mrs. Chester and Margaret Jupp were heard approaching, and she made +her safe way back to them. + +"Let it pass, let it pass, Clara," Mr. Lake said hastily to his wife, +hearing the voices also. "My dear, there is no _reason_ in your fear. +What harm do you suppose can arise from your visit here? There is no +chance of a breakdown again as we go home." + +"It is just that--that I cannot see any probability of harm. But I +gave you my word just now to say no more about the matter, and I will +keep it." + +"Come and walk in the air, it will do you good. Your eyes are as red +as if you had been crying for a day, Clara." + +Lady Ellis pushed the door open and came in, followed by the others. +Mrs. Chester began expatiating upon the conveniences of the kitchen, +its closets and cupboards, and Mr. Lake and his wife slipped away. My +lady, looking from the window, saw him pass it towards the kitchen +garden, his wife upon his arm. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +Red, or Green? + + +The inquest on those killed by the railway accident took place on the +Tuesday morning. Numbers were attracted to the spot, impatient to hear +the evidence. Reports had been busy as to the conflicting nature of +the testimony expected to be given, and excitement was at its height. +While one party openly asserted that Cooper, the driver, was falsely +trying to "whiten" himself, and so avoid punishment for his +carelessness; the stationmaster was less loudly accused of having +been the one in fault, and with "taking away the man's character." + +Amidst the crowd, meeting at Coombe Dalton, were Mr. Lake and Oliver +Jupp: the one went from Guild, the other from Katterley. Oliver Jupp, +with his sisters, said adieu to Mrs. Chester on the Monday evening, +and returned home: Mr. Lake and his wife stayed at Guild. Curiosity or +interest in the proceedings, or opposition in their own opinions, took +them both. Mr. Lake felt certain that Cooper spoke truth in saying the +green light was exhibited, not the red; would have been ready to stake +his life upon it. Oliver Jupp, relying upon his own eyesight, upheld +the side of the stationmaster. Each one had maintained tenaciously +his own opinion when discussing the affair at Mrs. Chester's; and they +would not have missed the inquest for the world. + +In the largest room that the small inn at Coombe Dalton could afford, +the coroner and jury assembled, and proceedings commenced. About the +cause of death there could be no doubt; and it needed not the +testimony of old Dr. Marlow, of Katterley, who had been the first +doctor to arrive at the spot on the Sunday night, to prove it. +However, the requirements of law must be obeyed, and he was there with +sundry of his brethren. Next came the evidence as to the cause of the +accident. + +The stationmaster, one porter, and a "switchman," comprised the +officials who had been at the station on the Sunday night. They all +gave their testimony in a very positive and unequivocal manner: that +the red lights were exhibited to give warning of danger, and that the +train, in reckless defiance of the red, came dashing on, and so caused +the catastrophe. + +"What was the danger?" officially inquired the coroner. + +"Some trucks were on the line just beyond the station, and had to be +shunted," replied the stationmaster. "Three minutes would have done +it; and the train would not have been kept waiting longer than that, +had it only stopped." + +"What brought the trucks on the line just as the train was expected to +pass?" + +"They couldn't be shunted before, because the coal waggons were in the +way." + +"Why were the coal waggons there just then?" + +"Because an engine had gone on and left them there." + +And so on; and so on--engine, and coal waggons, and shunting, and +trucks. It was like "the house that Jack built." Nobody had been in +fault, apparently, or done anything wrong, except the miserable train +that had dashed on to its destruction, and its still more miserable +driver, Matthew Cooper. + +Cooper came forward and asked leave to give his evidence. The coroner +cautioned him; he thought he had better not; it might be used against +him. But Cooper persisted; and he stood there to say what he had to +say, his pale face, surrounded by its bandages, earnest and anxious. + +"I'll say nothing but the truth, sir. If that is to be used against +me, why I can't help it. I'd not tell a lie even to screen myself." + +He took his own course, and gave his evidence. It was to the effect +that the green lights were exhibited as usual that night, not the red. +The coroner felt a little staggered. He knew Cooper to be a steady, +reliable, truth-telling man. One of the witnesses observed, as if in +continuation of what Cooper had just said, that "Mat Cooper wouldn't +tell a lie to screen himself from nothing." The coroner had hitherto +believed the same. + +"Did you look at the lights?" he asked of Cooper. + +"I looked at both, sir. The lamp that was at the near end of the +station, and the lamp on the signal-post beyond it." + +"And you say they were the green lights?" + +"That they were, sir. The same green lights that are always up. He had +taken the light off the post, and was swaying it about, and I couldn't +conceive what he was doing it for." + +"But here are three witnesses, the stationmaster and the two men, who +have sworn that the red signals were up, and not the green," persisted +the coroner. "It is very strange that you should maintain the +contrary." + +"The three may be in a league together to say so, and hide their own +negligence," audibly interposed the voice of some zealous partisan +from the most crowded part of the room. Upon which the coroner +threatened to commit anybody so interrupting, for contempt of himself +and the court. + +"All I can say is, sir, that there was no difference, that night, in +the lights from those exhibited on other nights," returned Cooper. +"They were the green lights, and not the red; and if I had to die next +minute, I'd say it." + +Which was altogether unsatisfactory to the coroner and puzzling to the +jury. Most of them knew Cooper well, and would have trusted him; his +voice and face, now as he spoke, bore their own testimony to his +truth. On the other side, the three station people, who were not to be +discredited, gave him the lie direct. + +"Did you see the red light swung about?" continued the coroner. + +"No, sir. I saw the green; and I couldn't think what it was being +swung about for." + +Cooper held to this, and nothing more could be got from him--that is, +nothing to a different effect. He would have descanted on its being +the green light until night, had the coroner allowed him. When he was +done with, a gentleman presented himself for examination. It was +Colonel West. + +"Can you state anything about this matter, Colonel?" asked the +coroner, when he had exchanged bows with the voluntary witness. + +"Yes, I can, if you will allow me to be sworn." And sworn he was. + +"In anxiety to see justice done to the driver, I have come here to +offer my testimony," began the colonel, addressing the coroner and +jury. "I am enabled to state that the light exhibited on the +signal-post, and which the man took down and swayed about, was green. +When the driver asserts that it was not red, he speaks the truth." + +Some excitement. The coroner drew in his lips, the jury put their +heads together. Colonel West stood bolt upright, waiting to be +questioned. + +"Were you at the station?" inquired the coroner of the witness. + +"No; I was in my garden, which is precisely opposite the signal-post +on the other side of the line. I was walking about in it, smoking a +cigar. I heard the train approaching, and I saw the man take the lamp +off the post, lean forward, and swing it about, evidently to attract +attention. A minute afterwards the accident happened." + +"And you say this was not the red light?" + +"It was not. It was the light that is generally up, the green." + +The coroner gave an expressive look at the stationmaster, which spoke +volumes, and the latter looked red and indignant. Colonel West +reiterated his assertion, as if willing that all should be impressed +with the truth, and with the injustice attempted to be dealt to +Cooper. Then he stood down. + +There ensued a commotion: at least, if numerous tongues can constitute +it. The coroner interposed to stop it and restore order. When the +noise had subsided, Oliver Jupp was standing by the table in Colonel +West's place. One of the jury inquired of him why he was put forward. + +"I don't know," returned Oliver. "Somebody pushed me up. I happened to +mention that I saw the light in question exhibited and swayed about: I +suppose it is for that." + +"Oh, you saw it, did you," said the coroner. "Swear this witness." + +Oliver Jupp took the oath accordingly, and the coroner began. + +"Which light was it, the red or the green?" + +"The red." + +There was a pause. Perhaps more than one present thought of the old +fable of the chameleon. The room fixed its eyes on Oliver Jupp. + +"From whence did you see it?" demanded the coroner. + +"I was in the train returning from Guild. As we got to Coombe Dalton +station I looked out at the window, and saw a red light being waved +about. I remarked it to my sisters, who were in the carriage with me, +and one of them observed that if it was the red light there must be +danger. The accident occurred almost as she spoke." + +"Are you sure it was the red light, sir?" inquired one of the jury, +all of whom had been so particularly impressed with Colonel West's +evidence. + +"Certain." + +"And of course he could have no motive in saying anything but the +truth," remarked the juryman to another, who seemed in a state of +perplexity. + +"I a motive!" haughtily observed Oliver, taking up the words. "I am +put here simply to state what I saw, I expect; neither more nor less. +I am sorry to give evidence that may tell against Cooper, who is +respected in Katterley, but I am bound to say that it was the red +light." + +"Don't you think you might have been mistaken, sir?" came the next +query; for Oliver Jupp's word, a young and little man, bore less +weight than Colonel West's, who counted five-and-fifty years, and +stood six feet two in his stockings. + +"I was not mistaken. It was the red light." + +Colonel West was recalled. What else could they do in the dilemma? He +stood forward, and Oliver Jupp hid his head amid the ignoble crowd +close behind. + +With an apology for the apparent doubt, the same question was put to +him. Did he think _he_ could have been mistaken in supposing the light +was the green. + +"Not a bit of it," the colonel answered, with good-humoured +equanimity. The lights exhibited that night were the same that always +were exhibited--green. The light he saw swayed about was the green. + +"Well," exclaimed the coroner, "there's hard swearing somewhere." + +And hard swearing there certainly appeared to be. As a spectator +audibly remarked, "one could not find an end out of it." The coroner +got impatient. + +"It is impossible at the present stage to come to any satisfactory +conclusion, gentlemen of the jury," he observed; "and I think we had +better adjourn the inquiry, when other witnesses may be forthcoming." + +Adjourned it was accordingly for a fortnight. + +"But for Colonel West they'd have had it all against me," remarked +Cooper, who was feeling himself wronged. + +"But for Colonel West there'd have been no further bother," cried the +aggrieved stationmaster, who thought Cooper ought to have been +committed for trial on the spot. + +It was certainly singular that the only two witnesses, apart from +those interested, should testify so positively in exact opposition to +each other. As the spectators poured out of the inquest-room, they +formed into knots to discuss it. Neither the one nor the other had any +interest to favour the station people or to screen Cooper; and, +indeed, both were above suspicion of anything of the sort. Colonel +West had never before heard of Cooper; Oliver Jupp knew him, and was +evidently sorry to give evidence against him. On the other hand, +Oliver Jupp did not know the stationmaster, while Colonel West was +friendly with him. + +"Will you go back with me to Guild, and stay the rest of the day?" +asked Mr. Lake, putting his arm within Oliver Jupp's. + +"Can't," returned Oliver. "Promised them at home to get back with the +verdict as soon as it was over." + +"But there is no verdict." + +"All the same; they'll want to know the why and the wherefore." + +"As if you could not keep the girls waiting for once!" + +"It's not the girls, it's the old folks; and Guild has no charms for +me today. Lydia Clapperton's gone." + +Mr. Lake laughed. "I say, Jupp, how could you swear so hard about the +lights?" + +"They swore me. I didn't ask for it." + +"I mean against Cooper." + +"You would not have me say the light was green when it was red?" + +"Colonel West says it was green; he was close to it." + +"Moonshine," quietly repeated Oliver. "What on earth causes him to say +it I can't make out. Look there"--holding out the end of the cigar he +had lighted, and was smoking--"what colour do you call that?" + +"Red. All the world could tell that." + +"Why don't you say it's green?" + +"Because it is not green." + +"Just so. Neither was the red lamp." + +"Cooper is a reliable man; I don't believe the poor fellow would tell +a lie to save himself from hanging; and Colonel West is of known +honour; both of them assert that the lights were green." + +"I swear that the light exhibited and swung about was _red_," retorted +Oliver Jupp. "There; let it drop. Are you and Mrs. Lake coming home +to-night?" + +"No. It was uncertain what time I might reach Guild after the inquest, +and Mrs. Chester seized upon it as a plea for urging us to remain +another night. She wants us to stay for the week, but I don't think we +shall. Clara seems rather averse to it." + +They parted at the station. Oliver Jupp taking the train for +Katterley: and with him we have nothing more to do at present. Mr. +Lake got into the train for Guild. + +Upon arriving at Mrs. Chester's he found the house empty. Going from +room to room in search of them, he at length came upon Anna Chester, +mending socks and pinafores. + +"Where are they all?" + +"I think they have gone to see the late rose show," she said; "there's +one in the town today." + +He stood by while she folded some pinafores she had finished. Her +hands were quick; her sweet face was full of patient gentleness. + +"It is not the right thing for you, Anna." + +"It is pleasant work. I have been obliged to be useful all my life, +you know." + +"I don't mean that. Why should you be left at home, while they all go +to a flower-show?" + +A bloom, bright as any rose in the famous show, shone in the girl's +cheeks. She loved flowers, and looked up with a happy expression. + +"Perhaps time will be found for me to go tomorrow; mamma said so. It +will be only sixpence then." + +"And today it's a shilling, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +Mr. Lake nodded his head once or twice in a rather marked manner, but +did not give utterance to his thoughts, whatever they might be. Anna +resumed. + +"I do all the work I can--of sewing and other kinds. It has cost mamma +so much to get into this house, with the new things she has been +obliged to buy, that she says she is nearly ruined. With Lady Ellis +here, and only two servants, we could not get along at all but for my +looking to everything." + +Mr. Lake went off muttering something about Penelope's selfishness. +That Anna was put upon quite like another Cinderella he had long +known, and his sense of fairness rose up against it. + +"If the girl was a tyrant she'd not have stood it for a day," he +cried, as he flung himself down on a bench and raked the gravel with +his cane. "A meek temper is a misfortune." + +A short while, and he heard the keys of the piano touched in the +drawing-room; a soft, sweet, musical voice broke out gently in song. +He knew it for Anna's. She had finished her work, and was snatching a +moment for music, having come in to get the table ready for tea. The +open piano tempted her. Mr. Lake listened through the song--an old +one; and put his head in at the window as she was rising. + +"Sing another for me, Anna." + +She started round with a blush. To believe you are singing for +yourself, and then to find you have an audience, is not agreeable. + +"Oh, Mr. Lake! I did not know you were there." + +"Just another, Anna." + +"I cannot sing for you. I know only old songs." + +"They are better than the new ones. The one you have just sung, 'Ye +banks and braes,' is worth any ten that have been issued of late +years." + +"I feel quite ashamed to sing them before people; I am laughed at when +I do. Lady Ellis stopped her ears this morning. Papa loved the old +songs, and he did not care that I should sing new ones; so I never +learnt any." + +He took up a book of music much worn, "Old songs," as Anna called +them. Her mother used to sing them in her youth, and the Reverend +James Chester had learnt to love them. "Robin Adair," "The Banks of +Allan Water," "Pray Goody," "The Baron of Mowbray," "She never blamed +him," "The Minstrel-boy," and many others. + +It was in his hand, and Anna stood looking over his shoulder, laughing +at what Mrs. Chester sometimes called the "ancient bygones." On the +table lay a drawing that Anna had done, betraying talent; the more +especially when it was remembered that she could never sit to that, or +anything else, for five minutes at a time. Up and down continually: +called by Mrs. Chester, called by the children, called by the +servants. She had never had a lesson in drawing in her life, she had +never learnt to sing; what she did do was the result of native +aptitude for it. + +Mr. Lake had the drawing in his hand when the party entered, trooping +in unceremoniously through the window, the children first. Lady +Ellis's black-lace shawl was draped around her in its usual artistic +fashion, and she wore a bonnet that could not by any stretch of +imaginative politeness be construed into a widow's. Clara was with +her, her refined face bright and radiant. The two were evidently on +good terms with each other. + +Mrs. Chester did not enter with them. Her household cares worried her, +now that things must wear a good appearance for the new inmate, Lady +Ellis. She came in presently from the hall, a cross look on her face, +and spoke sharply to Anna. Selfish naturally, made intensely so by her +struggle to get along, Mrs. Chester appeared to think that for her +step-daughter to be in the drawing-room and not in the kitchen, though +it were but for a few minutes in the day, was a heinous crime. + +"Robert," she said, addressing her brother, "I wish you'd come up to +my room while I take my bonnet off. I have a letter to show you." + +He followed her dutifully, just as he used when he was a little boy +and she a woman grown. Mrs. Chester's room, which she shared with +Fanny, was small and inconvenient. Sweeping a host of things off a +chair to the floor in her untidy way, she graciously told him he might +sit there, but he preferred to perch himself on a corner of the +dressing-table. + +"I'm torn to pieces with indecision and uncertainty," she began, +taking a letter from a drawer. "I begin to think now it might have +been better had I adhered to my first thought--that of taking pupils. +Only look at the thing I have missed!" + +He held out his hand for the letter, which she struck as she spoke. In +her dictatorial manner she preferred to read it to him, and waved his +hand away. + + + "The Red Court Farm, Coastdown. + +"MADAM, + +"I have been advised to write to you by my friends here, Captain +and Mrs. Copp. They think you are making arrangements to receive +half-a-dozen first-class pupils to educate with your own daughter. I am +in search of something of the sort for my daughter, Miss Thornycroft, +and it is possible that your house may be found suitable. She will +require the best advantages, for which I shall expect to pay +accordingly. + +"With your permission I will drive over one of these first days and +see you. + + "And I am, madam, + + "Your obedient servant, + + "HARRY THORNYCROFT. + +"Mrs. Chester." + + +"Who is Harry Thornycroft?" were Mr. Lake's first words when her voice +ceased. + +"I should have been as much at fault to know as you, but for a note +Anna has had from Mr. Copp, giving a little explanation. Mr. +Thornycroft is the great man of Coastdown, it seems; a county +magistrate, very influential, and very rich. Mrs. Copp thinks he would +pay quite two hundred a year with his daughter." + +"And Mrs. Copp--who is she?" repeated Mr. Lake. "And where in the name +of geography is Coastdown?" + +"We shall never get on if you bother like this," returned Mrs. +Chester, irascibly. "Mrs. Copp and Anna's mother were related, and +Coastdown is a little place on the sea, about two-and-twenty miles +from here. Only fancy--only _think_--two hundred a year with the first +pupil! If I only got three others at the same terms there'd be eight +hundred a year at once--a thousand with my own income. It would be +quite delightful." + +"But that's reckoning your chickens before they are hatched." + +"I might have known that you'd throw some mocking slight upon it," was +the angry retort. + +"No mocking slight at all, Penelope. I do not mean it as such. Of +course, if you could get four or six pupils at two hundred a year +each, it would be a jolly good thing. Only--I fancy pupils on those +terms are not so readily picked up." + +"_One_, at any rate, seems ready to drop into my hands. Should Miss +Thornycroft not be placed with me after this, I shall look upon life +as very hard." + +"Can't you take her, should they offer her to you, and trust to good +luck for finding others?" + +"Then what am I to do about Lady Ellis?" + +"Keep her also, if she will stay." + +"But she would not. I sounded her this morning. Not as if I had a +personal interest in the question. Anything like a school was her +especial abhorrence, she said. She'd not enter a house where teaching +was carried on for the world." + +"So that you have to choose between the young lady with her two +hundred a year and Lady Ellis?" + +"In a sense, yes. But I have a difficult game to play. It strikes me +that at the very first mention of a _probable_ pupil Lady Ellis would +take fright and leave. Now, you know, Robert, I have not got Miss +Thornycroft yet, or even the promise of her; and it might happen that +the negotiation would drop through. Where should I be in that case, +with Lady Ellis gone?" + +"On the ground, fallen between two stools," was Mr. Robert Lake's +irreverent answer. + +It angered Mrs. Chester; but she had an end to serve, and let it pass. + +"I want you and your wife to do me a favour, Robert. Stay here for a +week or two with us, paying me, of course; you know what my +circumstances are. My heart would be good to keep you, but my pocket +is not. I am so afraid of Lady Ellis finding the place dull. She has +come for a month to see how she likes it. I forget whether I told you +this yesterday. On Monday, when we were talking together after her +arrival, she said to me, 'You will allow me to stay a month to see if +the place will suit me: if it does, we will then make our agreement.' +What could I say?" + +"And you fear it may not suit her?" + +"I fear she will find it dull. She said this morning she thought the +house would be triste but for the presence in it of Mr. and Mrs. Lake. +Now, you do me a good turn, and stay a week or two." + +"I'd stay fast enough, Penelope--there's the fishing; but I don't know +about Clara. You must talk to her." + +"You must talk to her," returned Mrs. Chester. "Nobody else has a +tenth of the influence over her that you have." + +"I'll see," said Mr. Lake, alighting from the dressing-table. "We'll +stay a day or two longer, at any rate: I know I can promise that." + +Mr. Lake went straight to his wife, and recounted to her, word for +word as nearly as he could recollect, what Mrs. Chester had said. +There was nothing covert in his disposition: his fault, if it was a +fault, was undisguised openness. But he did not urge the matter one +way or the other. Clara looked grave at the proposition, and he left +it to her. + +"I said we would remain a day or two longer, Clara. I thought you +would not object to that, as it is to do her, as she fancies, good." + +"I don't mind staying to the end of the week, Robert, now we are here. +We will go home on Saturday, if you like." + +"All right." And Mr. Lake strolled away in his careless lightness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +Justice Thornycroft's Visit. + + +The days passed pleasantly enough: Lady Ellis made herself agreeable, +Mr. Lake was always so; and Clara nearly forgot her dream. On the +Friday morning, a hot but cloudy day, Mr. Lake went out to fish. Lady +Ellis and Fanny Chester strolled after him; and Mrs. Chester took the +opportunity to--as she phrased it to herself--"tackle" Clara. That +estimable and managing matron beguiled the young lady into the quiet +and secluded nursery--a room above, that the children were never +in--and there burst into a flood of tears over her work, the darning +of a tablecloth, and laid her unhappy case bare in the broad light of +day. + +"Only another week after this, my dear Clara! If you would but consent +to stay! Think what my position will be should Lady Ellis quit me!" + +Clara hesitated. Just the same instinct arose within her against +staying at Guild, that in the first instance, the evening before the +dream, had arisen against going to it. But she was gentle, young, +pliable; it seemed to her that refusal would be an unkind thing, and +she could not form her lips to say it. + +"Would another week's stay make so very much difference to Lady Ellis, +think you, Mrs. Chester?" + +"My dear good soul, it would make all the difference. She'll have +become accustomed to the place then, and will not care to leave it." + +"Well--I will talk to Robert when he comes in." + +"Of course--if you wish. But you know, Clara, the decision lies +entirely with you. He will do what you suggest. Now, my dear, do +picture to yourself the difference in our positions, yours and mine, +and be hard-hearted if you can. You with your happy home to return to, +your three servants, and your six-hundred a year; and I with my poor +pittance, my toiling life, and my heap of children!" + +Mrs. Chester showered tears upon the tablecloth in her lap, and Clara +Lake felt that she was in for it. + +"If you and Robert will remain two weeks with me from the day you +came, I shall be thankful.--My goodness me! who's that?" + +Mrs. Chester alluded to the clatter of some steps on the stairs, and +the entrance of two ladies. Unfortunately for Clara Lake, they were +Mary and Margaret Jupp. In high spirits, and with their usual +volubility, they explained that they had a commission to execute at +Guild for their mother, which gave them the opportunity of paying a +flying call at Mrs. Chester's. + +Not so very flying; for the young ladies took off their bonnets and +made themselves comfortable for an hour or two. Mrs. Chester--craftily +foreseeing what valuable allies these would prove--melted into tears +again, and renewed her request to Mrs. Lake. Abandoning pride and its +reticence, she openly explained what a boon to her, poor distressed +woman, it was that she was craving for, and avowed her poverty, and +the terms on which Lady Ellis had come to her. The Miss Jupps had +known all about it before, as Mrs. Chester knew, but she took +advantage of the situation. + +They did the same. In their open good nature, and they had no other +motive, they urged Clara to the promise. On the one hand, there would +be the service to Mrs. Chester; on the other, a delightful holiday for +Mr. and Mrs. Lake. Borne along on the stream of persuasion, assailed +on all sides, Clara Lake felt that all power of resistance was taken +from her, and she yielded to the stream. + +Yielded to the stream, and gave the promise. + +The Miss Jupps were clapping their hands at the victory, when Mr. Lake +entered. Mrs. Chester explained the applause, by saying that dear +Clara had promised to remain a fortnight at Guild. + +"Have you?" he asked, turning to his wife. + +"Yes; I have been over-persuaded," she replied, with rather a sickly +smile. + +The Miss Jupps applauded again, and a happy thought struck Mr. Lake; +or an unhappy one. You can decide which as the history goes on. + +It had been in contemplation to throw out a bay window in their +dining-room at Katterley. A dark room and rather small, Mr. Lake and +his wife had both decided that it should be altered. This, as it +seemed to him, was the very time to set about the alteration. They had +thought of deferring it until spring, but it would be a good thing +over; and he intended to have some of his Yorkshire friends up for +Christmas. Approaching his wife, he spoke to her in a low tone. + +"Begin the alteration now!--while we are here!" she exclaimed, in +surprise. "But, Robert! how long will they be over it?" + +"About a fortnight. They may begin and end it in that time." + +"Do you think so?" + +"I'm sure so," he answered, carelessly and confidently. "I'll make +Peters put it in his contract. Why, Clara, what is it? just the +throwing out of a window? They might do it in a week if they chose. +But just as you like, my dear." + +Again, hearing the conversation, Mrs. Chester and the Miss Jupps +joined in, taking wholly Mr. Lake's view of the matter. The only one +who spoke with an interested motive was Mrs. Chester: the others were +as honest as the day in what they said--honest in their inexperience. + +And Clara was borne down once more in this as in the last, and agreed +to the alteration being begun. + +"It won't be much more than putting in a fresh window frame," decided +Margaret Jupp. + +No more shilly-shallyings now, no more questions of whether they +should go or not. Mr. Lake went over that same afternoon to Katterley, +in attendance on the Miss Jupps; saw the builder, Peters, and had the +work put in hand On the Saturday he and his wife both went over, to +return in the evening. + +It was a sultry midday. Lady Ellis sat on the lawn under the shelter +of a spreading lime-tree, whose branches had been more redolent of +perfume a month or two ago than they were now. + +The sky was cloudless, of a dark hot blue; the summer petals, +clustering on the flower-beds, opened themselves to the blistering +sun. Lady Ellis was alone with her netting. She wore a black silk gown +and little cap of net, all the more coquettish for its simplicity, its +plain lappets hanging behind. Her work proceeded slowly, and finally +she let it fall on her knee as one utterly weary. + +"What a life it is here!" she murmured in self-commune. "Say what they +will, India is the paradise of women. Where means are in accordance; +servants, dress, carriages, horses, incessant gaiety, it may be +tolerable here; but where they are lacking--good heavens! how do +people manage to exist?" + +"The world has gone hard with me," she resumed after a pause. "Two +years of luxury to be succeeded by stagnation. I'd never have married +Colonel Ellis--no, though he did give me a title--had I supposed his +money would go to his children and not to me." + +Another pause, during which she jerked the netting-silk up and down. + +"And this house? shall I stay in it? But for that young man, who is +rendering it bearable, I don't think I could. This managing +clergyman's widow, with her flock of young ones, she is a study from +nature--or art. Ah well, well! a month or two of it, and I shall go on +the wing again." + +Closing her eyes, as if weary with the world's view, Lady Ellis +remained perfectly still, until the sound of rapidly advancing wheels +aroused her. Looking up, she saw a very handsome carriage, a sort of +mail phaeton, dash up to the gate. The gentleman driving got out and +assisted down a girl of fair beauty, who had sat by his side; the +groom having sprung round to the horses' heads from the seat behind. + +They came up the path, and Lady Ellis looked at them. An exceedingly +fine man, of middle age, tall and upright, with a handsome face still, +and clear blue eyes. The girl was handsome too, she wore a beautiful +dress of training silk, and a hat with blue ribbons. We have met them +before--Mr. and Miss Thornycroft. + +Looking about, as if seeking for the door of entrance, or for some one +to receive them, their eyes fell upon Lady Ellis. She could do nothing +less than advance to the rescue. Missing the turning that led by a +shady path to the door, they could see only windows. Mr. Thornycroft +raised his hat. + +"I have the honour of speaking to Mrs. Chester?" + +Lady Ellis laughed slightly at the supposition, and threw back her +head, as much as to say it was a ridiculous and not flattering +mistake. + +"No, indeed. I am only staying here." + +Mr. Thornycroft bowed in deprecation; Miss Thornycroft turned her head +slightly aside and took a look at the speaker. There was a slight +contraction on that young lady's queenly brow as she turned it back +again. + +Out of an upper window, surveying the new guests, surveying the +carriage being driven away by the groom to the nearest inn, was the +head of Mrs. Chester; her cap off, her hair untidy, a cross look in +her wondering eyes. Who were they, these people, interrupting her at +that unseasonable hour? Strange to say, the truth did not strike her. +They were underneath the windows, and she could take her survey at +leisure. + +Lady Ellis, quite capable of doing the honours of reception, ushered +them into the drawing-room through the open window. At the same moment +Anna Chester came forward in her poor frock and with her sweet face. +Mr. Thornycroft had laid a card on the table, and she glanced at it in +passing. Her manners were calm, self-possessed, gentle; an essentially +ladylike girl in spite of the frock. + +"I will tell mamma that you are here," she said, when they were +seated; and she quitted the room again. + +"Had I seen that young lady first, I should not have committed the +mistake of taking you for Mrs. Chester," spoke Mr. Thornycroft in his +gallantry. + +Lady Ellis smiled. "That young lady is not Mrs. Chester's daughter, +however. Mrs. Chester's children are considerably younger." + +Anna meanwhile was going upstairs. Mrs. Chester, doing something to +the inside of a bed, had her black dress covered with fluff, and her +hair also. She turned sharply round when Anna entered. + +"Mamma, it is Justice Thornycroft." + +What with the startling announcement--for Mrs. Chester took in the +news at once--and what with the recollection of her own state of +attire, Mrs. Chester turned her irritability upon Anna. It was +provoking thus to be interrupted at her very necessary work. + +"_Justice_ Thornycroft! What in the world possesses you to call the +man that, Anna Chester?" + +"Mrs. Copp called him so in her letter to me, mamma." + +"Mrs. Copp's a fool," retorted the bewildered lady. "Justice +Thornycroft! One would think you had been bred in a wood. Who do you +suppose uses those obsolete terms now? What brings him here today?" + +She put the question in a sharp, exacting tone, just as if it were +Anna's business to answer it, and Anna's fault that he had come. Anna +quietly went to a closet and took out Mrs. Chester's best gown. + +"To come on a Saturday! Nothing was ever so unreasonable," groaned +Mrs. Chester. "Here's all the flock and the down out of the bed, and I +covered with it. Look at my crape! Look at my hair! I took off my cap +because those bothering lappets got in my way." + +"You will have your gown changed in two minutes, mamma, and I will +smooth your hair." + +Mrs. Chester jerked the gown out of Anna's hands. One of those active, +restless women, who cannot bear to be still while anything is done for +them, was she; and began to put it on herself, grumbling all the +while. + +"Nothing in the world ever happened so contrary. Of all things, I +wanted, if these Thornycrofts did come over, to keep them from Lady +Ellis. Once let her get an inkling of their business, and she'd be off +the next day. And there they are, shut up with her. I dare say she +knows it all by now." + +"Oh, mamma, it is not likely Mr. Thornycroft would speak of it to +her." + +"Indeed! That's your opinion, is it? Give me the hair-brush." + +She brushed away at her hair, Anna standing meekly by with a clean cap +ready to put on. Mrs. Chester continued her catalogue of grievances. + +"It is the worst day they could have come. All things are at sixes and +sevens on a Saturday. The children are dirty, and the plate's dirty, +and the servants are dirty. They must have luncheon, I suppose--or +dinner, for that's what it will be to them, coming this long drive. +Mr. Thornycroft can possess no sense to take me by storm in this +manner. Anna, I hope you did not proclaim to them that you were a +daughter of the house," she added, the thought suddenly striking her. + +Anna's face flushed. She had spoken of Mrs. Chester as "mamma," and +when she went in Lady Ellis had said, "This is Miss Chester." Under +the stern gaze now bent upon her, poor Anna felt as if she had +committed some not-to-be-atoned-for crime. + +"In that wretched frock of yours! You have not the least sense of +shame in you, Anna. Over and over again I have said you were born to +disgrace me. Why could you not have passed yourself off for an upper +maid or nursery governess, or something of that sort? Or else kept out +of the way altogether." + +It never struck Anna Chester that the reproach was unmerited; it did +not occur to her to petition for a better frock, since that one was so +shabby. She had a better, kept for Sundays and rare holidays; to put +it on on a week-day, unless commanded to do so, would have been an +astounding inroad on the order of things. Reared to self-sacrifice and +privation, that sacrifice and privation that a poor clergyman--a good, +loving, but needy gentleman, must practise who has the care of those +poorer than himself--Anna Chester had lived but to love and obey. When +her father gained his living (that looked so wealthy in prospect), and +the new wife--this present Mrs. Chester, now bending her eyes +condemningly upon her--came home close upon it, Anna's habit of +submission was but slightly changed. Formerly she had yielded wholly +to her father in her intense respect and love; now she, had to yield +to her stepmother in exacted, unquestioning obedience. She never +thought of repining or rebelling. Brought up to think herself of no +earthly consequence, as one whose sole mission in life it was to be +useful to others, doing all she could for every one and ignoring self, +it may be questioned if any young girl's spirit had ever been brought +to the same state of perfect discipline. Never in her whole life had +Anna rebelled at a request or resisted a command; to be told to do a +thing was to obey. But for her naturally sweet temper, her utter want +of selfishness, and the humble estimation imparted to her of herself, +this could hardly have been. She stood there now, listening +repentantly to the reproaches, the disparaging words of her second +mother, and accepted them as her right. That lady, a very pharisee in +her own opinion, gave a finishing twitch to her widow's cap, to her +collar, to the "weepers" on her wrists, took the broad hem-stitched +handkerchief that Anna held in readiness for her, and turned to leave +the room. + +"What shall I do now, mamma?" came the meek question. + +"Do?--ay to be sure," continued Mrs. Chester, recalled by the words; +"why, you must go to the kitchen and see what sort of a lunch can be +sent up. I had ordered the cold fowl and ham with salad, and the cold +mutton for you and the children. The mutton must be hashed now; very +nicely, mind; you can cut it up yourself: and the veal cutlet that was +intended in for dinner, must be dressed with herbs, tell Nanny; and +some young potatoes. The tart can come in and the cream, and--and that +will do. I shall make it our dinner, apologizing privately to Lady +Ellis for the early hour, and call it luncheon to the Thornycrofts." + +"Are the children to be at table?" + +"Certainly not. What are you thinking of? You must keep them with you. +The miserable thing is that Elizabeth went back with the Lakes this +morning; she's so respectable a servant to be seen behind one's chair +in waiting. Tell Dinah to put on her merino gown, and make herself +tidy." + +Away went Mrs. Chester to the drawing-room, the cares of the many +orders and contrivances on her shoulders, and away went Anna to the +kitchen to see to the execution of them, to aid in their preparation, +to keep in quietness by her side (an exceedingly difficult task) the +noisy children. Little did Mr. Thornycroft, bowing to the comely and +well-dressed widow lady who introduced herself as Mrs. Chester, think +of the trouble the advent of himself and his daughter was causing. + +Mrs. Chester had accused him of possessing no sense. He possessed +plenty, and also tact. As Mrs. Chester remained silent as to the +object of his visit, ignoring it apparently altogether; rather +boasting of how glad she was to make their acquaintance, to see them +there for a day's change; he said nothing of it either. Mrs. Chester +was on thorns though all the while, and talked rather at random. Lady +Ellis was content to sit displaying her charms, and to put in a word +or a smile here and there. Mr. Thornycroft said something about going +to the hotel for luncheon. + +"Oh, but surely you will remain and take luncheon with me?" said Mrs. +Chester, with as much _empressement_ as though she had a larder full +of good things to send up. + +"Would you prefer that we should do so?" asked Mr. Thornycroft. + +He put the question quite simply. Luncheon and other meals were +provided for so munificently in his own house, it did not occur to him +that his remaining could cause embarrassment in Mrs. Chester's. That +lady answered that it would give her great pain if they departed, and +Mary Anne Thornycroft took off her hat. Turning to place it on a +side-table, she saw a very fine piece of coral there, shaped something +like a basket. + +"Oh, papa, look at this!" she exclaimed. "It must be the fellow-piece +to the one at Mrs. Connaught's." + +"What Connaughts are those?" asked Lady Ellis, briskly. "I knew a Mrs. +Connaught once." + +This Mrs. Connaught, who had lived about two years at Coastdown, +proved to be the same. Lady Ellis noted down the address in her pocket +case. + +Later, when all had dispersed, Mrs. Chester seized on her opportunity. + +"I think we can have a few minutes alone now, Mr. Thornycroft, if you +wish to speak to me. May I flatter myself that your visit today is to +make arrangements for placing your daughter under my charge?" + +"Madam, I came today not to make arrangements,--that would be +premature,--but to ascertain if possible whether such arrangements +would be suitable," he replied in his open manner. "I do wish very +much to find an eligible home for my daughter, where she may complete +her education and be happy. Captain and Mrs. Copp,--some connexion of +yours, I believe?" + +"Of my late husband's," interposed Mrs. Chester, quickly, as though +not willing to claim connexion with Captain and Mrs. Copp; "that is, +of his first wife's. I don't know them at all." + +"Ah, indeed; very worthy people they are. Well, madam, Mrs. Copp spoke +to me of you; The widow, she said, of the Reverend James Chester, of +Guild. I had some slight knowledge of him in early days. You were +intending to take some pupils on the plan of a private family, Mrs. +Copp said, and she thought it might suit Miss Thornycroft." + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Chester, scarcely knowing what to reply in her +uncertainty of plans, "I did think of it." + +"And do you wish still to carry it out?" + +"Yes, oh yes; if I could get the pupils." + +"I had better tell you what I require for my daughter," observed Mr. +Thornycroft. "She must be in a family where the habits and +arrangements are essentially good; not the scanty, coarse provision +generally pertaining to a school. She must be well waited on, well +fed, well treated; her companions must be the daughters of gentlemen; +her education must be continued on the same liberal scale as that on +which it has been hitherto conducted. And I should wish her to get +from the lady principal that good, conscientious, careful training +that is rarely given except by a mother." + +"Is she well advanced for her age? In music, for instance?" asked Mrs. +Chester, after a pause. + +"Very well. She plays the harp and piano, sings, and has begun +harmony. German and French she speaks well; but, all that you can +inquire into yourself. In saying that her education must be liberal, +the word is sufficiently comprehensive." + +"And for these advantages what sum would you be prepared to pay?" + +"Whatever was asked me, madam, in reason--in reason, of course. I am +at my ease in the world in regard to money, and shall certainly not +spare it on my only daughter." + +Mrs. Chester's mouth watered. She was sure she had heard of such a +thing as _three_ hundred a year being asked in a case like this, and +given. Time enough for terms, though, yet. + +"Miss Thornycroft has hitherto been educated at home, I believe?" + +"She has; but she is getting beyond the control of her governess, Miss +Derode, and I think she would be better at school for the next year or +two. A good soul, poor Miss Derode, as ever lived, and thoroughly +accomplished; but Mary Anne has begun to laugh at her instead of +obeying her. That won't do, you know." + +Mrs. Chester sat twirling the crape of her dress between her fingers +in thought. Presently she looked at Mr. Thornycroft. + +"Have you thought of any sum that might be suitable--for the +advantages you require?" + +"I should think about two hundred a year. I would give that." + +"Very fair," murmured Mrs. Chester. "Of course, any little extras--but +that can be left for the present. I should like much to take her." + +"For this sum I should expect commensurate advantages," continued Mr. +Thornycroft, in his straightforward, candid way. "At present I do not +see--you will forgive me, madam--that you are at all prepared for such +a pupil. You have no pupils, I think?" + +"Not yet." + +"And I should wish my daughter to have companions, young ladies of her +own age--just three or four, to reconcile her to being away from home, +the notion which she does not at all relish. A resident governess +would also be essential--unless indeed the lady superintendent devoted +her whole time to them." + +"Yes, yes; a resident governess, of course," mechanically answered +Mrs. Chester. + +What more might have been said was arrested by the entrance of the +youngest child, his pinafore and mouth smeared with treacle. +Clamouring for bread and treacle, Anna had given him a slice to keep +him quiet. In the midst of eating it he had broken away, ungrateful +boy, and rushed into the presence of Mrs. Chester. Dinah, who had not +got on her merino gown yet, or made herself tidy, came and carried +him, kicking, away again. Mrs. Chester was depressed by the accident, +and sat subdued. + +"I think, madam, that if you carry your intention out, the better way +will be for you to write to me as soon as you are ready to receive +pupils," said Mr. Thornycroft. "I will then consider the matter +further, and decide whether or not to send you my daughter. There is +no great hurry; Miss Derode has not left us." + +"You will not promise her to me?" + +"I cannot do that, Mrs. Chester," was the answer, given with prompt +decision. "Until I see that arrangements would be suitable, that the +home would be in all respects desirable, I can say no more." + +Mrs. Chester sighed inwardly, and felt from that moment she must +resign hope--Miss Thornycroft and her liberal pay would not be for +her. But she suffered nothing of this to appear, some latent +aspiration might be lingering yet, and she rose up gaily and shook Mr. +Thornycroft's hand in a warmth of satisfaction, and said the matter, +left so, was all that was to be desired. + +And then they took the luncheon--Mrs. Chester, Lady Ellis, Mr. and +Miss Thornycroft. Some fruit was set out on the lawn afterwards, and +coffee was to follow. Lady Ellis did the honours of the garden to Mr. +Thornycroft, nothing loth; walking up this path with him, down that; +halting to sit on this rustic bench, entering that shady bower. A very +charming woman, thought Justice Thornycroft. + +Miss Thornycroft was left to the companionship of Mrs. Chester. And +that young lady, with the freedom she was accustomed to make known her +wishes at home, asked that Anna Chester might join them. + +"I promised Mrs. Copp to take word back of her welfare, and what sort +of a girl she was," said Mary Anne. "How can I do so unless I see +her?" + +With outward alacrity and inward wrath, Mrs. Chester disappeared for a +moment, and sent a private telegram to Anna that she was to dress +herself and come out. In five minutes the girl was with them. She came +with the coffee. Her black silk dress (made out of one of Mrs. +Chester's old ones) was pretty; her face was flushed with its refined, +delicate colour, her brown eyes sparkled with their soft brilliancy, +her chestnut hair was smooth and pretty. Essentially a lady was Anna +now. Justice Thornycroft, coming up then for the coffee with Lady +Ellis, took her hands in his and held her before him. + +"My dear, I can trace in you a great likeness to your father. It is +just the same refined, patient face." + +Ere the words were well spoken, the brown eyes were wet, the sweet +lips were quivering. The loss of her father, so intensely loved, had +been Anna's great grief in life. A chance reminiscence, such as this, +was more than she could bear. + +"Did you know papa, sir?" she asked, looking bravely up through the +tears. + +"I knew a little of him many years ago, and I once or twice saw your +mother. You must come and pay us a visit at Coastdown." + +A glad light in the gentle face. + +"I should like it very much, sir. Mrs. Copp has already invited me to +go to them; but I cannot be spared." + +"You must be spared; I should like you to come," spoke Mary Anne, +imperiously, with the tone of one who is not accustomed to have her +slightest wish disputed. But the waiting coffee and Mrs. Chester +turned off the subject. + +The clock was striking five when the punctual groom appeared with the +carriage. Down it came with grand commotion, its fine horses fresh +after their rest, and stopped at the gate. The whole party escorted +Mr. and Miss Thornycroft to it: Mrs. Chester and Anna, the children, +tidy now and on tolerable behaviour, Lady Ellis and her fascination. +Promises of future friendly intercourse were exchanged. Mr. +Thornycroft gave a positive undertaking to drive over again and spend +another day, and they took their places in the carriage. Away went the +horses in a canter, rather restive; the justice, restraining them, had +enough to do to raise his hat in farewell salutation; the groom had a +run ere he could gain his seat behind. And they started on their long +drive of three-and-twenty miles. + +At the same moment, appearing from an opposite quarter, came Mr. and +Mrs. Lake and Elizabeth on their return from Katterley. They were near +enough to see the carriage go swiftly off, but not to distinguish its +inmates. Mrs. Chester and the rest waited for them at the gate. + +"Have you had visitors, Penelope?" asked Mr. Lake. + +"Yes. And very cross and contrary I felt it that you were not here," +continued Mrs. Chester, who was proud of her good-looking brother. "It +is Mr. Thornycroft and his daughter--they have been with us ever since +twelve o'clock. To think that you were away! I am sure Clara would +have liked Miss Thornycroft." + +To think that they were away!--that the two ladies spoken of did not +meet! One of them at least would deem it a chance missed, a singular +fact, in the years to come. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +Going Fishing. + + +A chilly evening. The hot days of August have passed away; this is +October, and the night is turning out raw and misty. But in Mrs. +Chester's house warmth and light reign, at least in the inhabited +rooms of it. + +In one of them, a moderate-sized, comfortable apartment, whose windows +opened to the ground, the large fire had burned down to a red glow, +after rendering the atmosphere unpleasantly warm; and a lady, seated +in a lounging chair, had pushed it quite back, so that she was in the +shade both from the light and the fire. A look of perplexity, of care, +sat on her face, young and lovely though it was; even in her hands, as +they lay listless on her lap, there was an air of abandonment. But +that the room was growing dusk and dim in the autumn twilight, that +sadness might not have been suffered to show itself, although she was +alone. + +It was Clara Lake. Her thoughts were buried in a painful +retrospect--the retrospect of only the two past months. They had +brought grief to her: as the summer did to the unhappy girl, told of +in that beautiful ballad Anna Chester sometimes sung, "The Banks of +Allan Water." + +Had any one warned Clara Lake the previous August, when she came to +Mrs. Chester's for a two days' visit, that the sojourn would not be +one of days but months, she had simply disbelieved it. Even when the +term was extended to a proposed fortnight--a fortnight in all--she +would have laughed at the idea of staying longer. But she had stayed. +She was here still. Nevertheless, things had so turned out; all easily +and naturally, as it seemed, to look back upon. As it seemed to her +now, sitting in her chair, and tracing the course of past events. + +The alteration in their house at Katterley, as proposed by Mr. Lake, +and which was to be completed in ten days or a fortnight, was begun in +due course--the throwing out of the dining-room by means of a bay +window. He and his wife went over one day to see the progress of the +work. It was then suggested--whether by the builder, by her husband, +by herself, or by all three jointly, Clara could not to this hour +recollect--that, to make a complete job of it, the window in the +chamber above should also be thrown out. The additional expense would +be comparatively little, the improvement great; and it was agreed to +on the spot. Orders were also given for the drawing-room and their own +chamber to be painted, repapered, and decorated. + +"Won't it take a long time?" Clara suddenly asked. + +"About a month, if they work well; certainly not more," replied Mr. +Lake. + +He must have known little of workmen, to speak so confidently. +Builders, carpenters, painters, decorators, are not famous for working +themselves thin through over-hurry. The popular saying, "If once you +get them into your house, you never get them out," seemed to be +exemplified in this one instance. Here was October come in, and +Katterley Lodge was as far off being ready for reception as ever. + +It would have been a slight grievance, the detention, to Mr. and Mrs. +Lake--not any, in fact, to him--for Mrs. Chester's house was an +agreeable one, and they had no home ties; but Lady Ellis was making +the stay insupportable to Mr. Lake's wife. + +Tolerably young, showy, very handsome according to the taste of many, +exacting attention, living but in admiration, and not scrupulous how +she obtained it provided she got it, Lady Ellis had begun to cast her +charming toils on the careless and attractive Robert Lake in the very +first hour of their meeting. Not to eat him up; not intending +certainly to be eaten herself; only to be her temporary slave, pour +faire passer le temps. In that dull country house, where there was no +noise or excitement but what arose from its children, Lady Ellis +wanted something to make the time pass. + +Mr. Lake was perfectly ready to meet her halfway. One of those men +who, wife or no wife, consider a flirtation with a pretty woman--and +with one not pretty, for the matter of that--a legitimate occupation +in their idle life, he responded to her advances gallantly. Neither of +them had any idea of plunging into shoals and quicksands; let us so +far give both their due. A rather impressive clasp of the hand; a +prolonged walk in the glowing beauty of the summer's day; an +interchange of confidential talk, meaning nothing--that was the worst, +thought of by either. But then, you see, the mischief is, that when +once these things are fairly embarked in, the course entered upon and +its midway post reached, down you glide, swimmingly, unwittingly; and +it is an exceedingly difficult matter to turn back. Good chance (to +call it so here), generally sends the opportunity, but it is not +always seized upon. + +The flirtation began. There were walks in the morning sun, shady +garden chairs for rest at noontide, lingerings in the open air by +twilight, that grateful hour after a sultry day. There were meetings +indoors, meetings out; singing, talking, netting, idling. Mr. Lake +went fishing, his favourite pastime just now, and my Lady Ellis would +carry his luncheon to him; or stroll down later, wait until the day's +sport was at an end, and stroll home with him. One or other of the +children was often with her, serving to satisfy the requisites of +propriety, had friends been difficult. + +None were so. For a whole month this agreeable life went on, and +nobody gave it a care or a thought. Certainly Clara did not. She was +accustomed to see her husband's light admiration given to others; +never yet had a suspicion crossed her mind that he had more than +admiration to give. That his love was exclusively hers, to be hers for +ever, she believed in as fully as she believed in heaven. + +Well, the month passed, August; and September was entered upon. The +flirtation (to call it so for want of a better word), had grown pretty +deep. The morning walks were frequent; the noontide restings were +confidential, the twilight lingerings were prolonged to starlight. The +songs became duets, the conversation whispers; the netting was as +often in his hands as hers, and the silk purse did not progress. Mr. +Lake drove Lady Ellis out in the stylish little open carriage, +conveniently made for two persons and no more, that he was fond of +hiring at Guild. One day Fanny Chester went with them; my lady's dress +got crushed, and of course the inconvenience could not be allowed to +occur again. Twice a week she rode with him, requiring very much of +his care in the open country, for she said she was a timid horsewoman. +In short, they had plunged into a whirligig round of days that was +highly agreeable to the two concerned. + +Sharp-eyed Mrs. Chester--nearly as sharp as Lady Ellis herself, but +more honest--saw quite well what was going on. "Don't you go and make +a fool of yourself with that woman, Robert!" she said to him one day, +which sent Mr. Lake into a fit of laughter. He thought himself just +the last man to do it. And on went the time again. + +Imperceptibly--she could not remember how or when it first arose--a +shade of annoyance, of vexation, stole upon Mrs. Lake. Her husband was +always with Lady Ellis; except at meals and at night, he was never +with her; and she began to think it was not quite right that it should +be so. Crafty Mrs. Chester--honest enough in the main, but treacherous +in this one matter--was on thorns lest Clara should take alarm and +cause an outbreak; which would not have done at all. She did what she +could to keep alarm off, and would have to reconcile it to her +conscience in later days. Mr. and Mrs. Lake paid her well, and that +was also a consideration. + +"Clara, dear, it is so good of your husband to help me," she would +say, or words similar. "He has never been a true brother to me until +now. Were it not for him I am sure Lady Ellis would die of ennui in +this place. He keeps her amused for me, doing what he can to make her +days pass pleasantly. I shall be ever thankful to him." + +Once, and once only, Clara went to the fishing stream after them. It +was a mile and a half away, the one they had gone fishing in that day. +They! Lady Ellis had a costly little rod now, bought for her by Mr. +Lake, and went with him. Clara, having nothing better to do in the +afternoon, uneasily conscious of the advent of incipient jealousy +arising in her heart, thought she would join the party. Her husband +had never asked her to do so at any time; upon her hinting that she +should like to fish too, he had stopped the idea at once: "No, she +would be too fatigued." Mrs. Lake, it was true, was not strong; heat +and fatigue knocked her up. Mrs. Chester had been crafty from the +first. One day in the early stage of the affair, seeing her husband +and Lady Ellis sitting together in the shade at noontide, Clara was +innocently stepping out at the window to sit too, when Mrs. Chester +interposed to prevent it. "Good gracious, Clara! don't go stealing out +like that. They may think you want to hear what they are saying--out +of jealousy." And the word "jealousy" only caused an amusing laugh to +Clara Lake then; but she remained indoors. Well, on this afternoon, +she started for the stream, taking Master James Chester in her hand +Master James abandoned her _en route_, going off on his own devices, +and she was alone when she reached them. A deliciously shady place she +found it; the chance passers-by beyond the trees at the back few and +far between. Both were sitting on the bank, attending to their lines, +which were deep in the water. They looked round with surprise, and +Lady Ellis was the first to speak. + +"Have you come to look after us, Mrs. Lake?" + +Innocent words, sufficiently courteous in themselves, but not in the +tone with which they were spoken. There was a mocking undercurrent in +it, implying much; at least, Clara fancied so, and it brought the red +flush of shame to her cheeks. Open, candid, ultra-refined herself, to +spy upon others would have been against her very nature. It seemed to +her that in that light she was looked upon, as a spy, and inwardly +resolved not to intrude again. + +James Chester made his appearance in the course of time, and Clara set +off home with him. They asked her to stay until the sport was at an +end; her husband pressed it; but she could not get over that tone, and +said she would walk very quietly on, that they might overtake her. +Master James went off as before, and Clara thought of the interview. +"There was no harm; there can be none; they were only fishing," she +murmured to herself. "What a stupid thing I was!" + +"Where's Jemmy?" asked Mrs. Chester, coming forth to meet her. + +"I'm sure I can't tell. He ran away from me both in going and +returning. It was not my fault. He does not mind anybody a bit, you +know." + +"Why did you not wait to come home with Robert and Lady Ellis?" + +"I don't know. I wanted to get back, for one thing; I was tired. And I +don't much think Lady Ellis liked my going." + +"My dear Clara, you must not take up vague fancies," spoke Mrs. +Chester, after a pause. "One would think you were growing jealous, as +the boys and girls do. Nothing can be in worse taste for a lady, even +when there may be apparent grounds for it. In this case the very +thought would be absurd; Lady Ellis is ten years older than your +husband." + +And so, what with one thing and another, Clara was subdued to passive +quietness, and Mr. Lake and Lady Ellis had it all their own way. But +her suspicions that they were growing rather too fond of each other's +company had been aroused, and she naturally, perhaps unconsciously, +watched, not in the unfounded fancy of an angry woman, a jealous wife, +but in the sick fear of a loving one. She saw the flirtation (again I +must apologize for the name) grow into sentiment, if not to passion; +she saw it lapse into concealment--which is a very bad sign. And now +that October had come in and was passing, Clara Lake's whole inward +life was one scene of pain, of conflict, of wild jealousy preying upon +her very heartstrings. She had loved her husband with all the fervour +of a deeply imaginative nature; had believed in him with the perfect +trustingness of an innocent-hearted, honest English girl. + +She sat in her chair there in the drawing-room, drawn away from the +fire's heat, her eyes fixed on vacancy, her pretty hands lying weary. +What was that heat compared to the heat that raged within, the mind's +fever? + +"If it could but end!" she murmured to herself; "if we could but go +back to our home at Katterley!" + +Strange to say--and yet perhaps not strange, for the natural working +out of a course of events is often hidden to the chief actor in +it--the dream and its superstitious dread had faded away from Clara's +memory. Of course she had not forgotten the fact; whenever she thought +of it, as she did at odd times, its features presented themselves to +her as vividly as ever. But the dread of it was gone. When day +succeeded day, week succeeded week, bringing no appearance of any +tragic end for her, accident or else, that could put her into a +hearse, the foreboding fear quite subsided. Besides, Clara Lake looked +upon the accident to the railway-train that Sunday night as the one +that would have killed her had she only been in it. So the dream and +its superstition had become as a thing of the past. + +Lonely, dispirited, unusually low, felt she this afternoon. Mr. Lake +had gone over in the morning to Katterley to see how their house was +progressing, and she began to wonder that he was not back. They had +taken dinner early that day, and Lady Ellis had disappeared after it. +When Mr. Lake was away she would invariably go up to her room after +dinner, saying she had letters to write. Shrewd Fanny Chester, taking +after her quick mother, said my lady went up to get a nap, not to +write. Mrs. Chester was in the nursery, where she had a dressmaker at +work, making clothes for her children; Anna was helping; and Clara was +alone. + +It may as well be mentioned that the mystery attaching to the cause of +the railway accident had not been solved yet. The coroner and jury had +met regularly once a fortnight since, and as regularly adjourned the +inquest. In the teeth of Colonel West's most positive testimony, it +was impossible to bring in a verdict against Cooper, the driver; in +the teeth of Oliver Jupp's, it was equally impossible to exonerate +him. No other witnesses, save the parties interested, appeared to have +seen the lights that night. The public were fairly nonplussed, the +coroner and jury sick to death of the affair. The young person now +working for Mrs. Chester was Cooper's sister. + +The red embers were fading down nearly to blackness, when Fanny +Chester came bursting into the room to Clara in her rather boisterous +manner. Clara aroused herself, glad perhaps of the interruption to her +thoughts. + +"Is it you, Fanny? Where are they all, dear?" + +"Mamma's at work in the nursery. She's running the seams, and showing +Miss Cooper how she wants the bodies cut. Anna's there too. Have you +seen Uncle Robert?" + +"Uncle Robert is not back yet, Fanny." + +"Yes, he is," replied the young lady, who at all times was fond of her +own opinion. + +"You are mistaken," said Clara. "He would have come in to me the first +thing." + +"But I saw him. I saw him in the garden ever so long ago. Lady Ellis +was with him. They were at the back there, walking towards the +shrubbery." + +Indisputable testimony; and Clara Lake could have bitten her tongue +for saying "He would have come to me the first thing," although her +audience consisted only of a child. Mr. Lake was to have brought her +some book from home that he had forgotten the previous time; she was +ardently longing for it, and thought he would at least have come +straight to her and delivered it. + +"Will you please reach me one of those old newspapers up there," +proceeded Fanny. "Mamma sent me for it. She wants to cut a pattern." + +Giving the child the newspaper she asked for, Mrs. Lake shut the door +after her and drew to the window, her heart beating rebelliously. "So +he was back ever so long ago, and solacing himself with the sweet +companionship of Lady Ellis." As she stood there, looking out on the +darkening gloom--fit type of the gloom within--Clara asked herself the +serious question, Was this constant seeking of each other's society +but the result of accident; of a nonsensical liking which meant really +nothing, and would pass away; or was it that they were really in love +with each other, and _she_ losing her place in her husband's heart? + +An impulse--a wild impulse--which she could not restrain, and perhaps +did not try to, led her to open the glass doors and step out: some +vague feeling in her unhappy mind, making itself heard amidst the +inward tumult of wishing to see with her own eyes whether the child's +information was true. It might _not_ have been her husband; it might +have been the curate, or Oliver Jupp, or that big Mr. Winterton, all +of whom were fond of coming and of walking with Lady Ellis when they +got the chance; and she would go and see. Pretty sophist! Poor Clara +knew in her inmost heart that it was Robert Lake, and no other: +instinct told her so. Had she given herself a moment's time for +reflection, she would probably not have gone. To an honourable +nature--and Clara Lake's was essentially such--the very idea of +looking after even a recreant husband is abhorrent. But jealousy is +the strongest passion that can assail the human heart, whether of man +or woman. Under its influence we do not stop to raise questions of +expediency. + +The raw fog pervading the air struck upon her with a chill as she came +out of the heated room. She had nothing on but a thin muslin body, and +shivered quite unconsciously. What cared she for the cold or the heat? +Had she been plunged into a bath of ice she would not have felt it +then. On she went, sweeping round the lawn in the dusky twilight; for +it was not dark yet--keeping close to the trees, that their friendly +shade might shelter her from chance eyes. Fanny Chester's words, +"Going towards the shrubbery," serving for her guide unconsciously, +she made for the same place. + +Well, what did she find or see? Nothing very dreadful, taking it in +the abstract; but quite enough to fan the jealous indignation of a +wife, especially of one who _loves_ her husband. + +The shrubbery appeared to be empty; and Clara had, gone half way down +it, past one of its cross openings, when, from that very opening, +sounds of voices and footsteps advancing struck upon her ear. Retreat +was not expedient: they might see her pass; and she darted into a deep +alcove the shrubs had been trained to make, before which ran a bench. +Cowering almost into the very laurels, she stood there in sick fear. +Never had she intended to get so near, and almost wished for the earth +to open and bury her alive rather than she should be seen. Her heart +beating with a wild shame, as if she had been caught in some great +crime, there she had to stay. + +On they came in their supreme unconsciousness, turning into the +shrubbery, and alas! towards the verdant alcove. Clara's eyes were +strained to look, and her poor breath came in gasps. + +They were arm-in-arm; and Mr. Lake held one of my lady's hands, +lightly toying with its fingers. He was speaking in low, tender +tones--the same tones which had been given to _her_ before their +marriage, and had won her heart for ever. What he was saying she could +not in her agitation tell, but as they were passing her, going from +the house, you understand, not to it, Lady Ellis spoke. + +"Robert, it is getting dark and cold." + +Robert! Had she known his wife was listening! It might have made no +difference. + +"The dark will not hurt you," he said, louder. "You are with me." + +"But it is damp also. Indeed, since I returned from India, I feel both +the damp and cold very much." + +She spoke in a timid, gentle tone: as different from her natural +tones, as different from those she used to any _but_ him, as can well +be imagined. That she had set herself out to gain his love seemed a +sure fact. How far Lady Ellis contemplated going, or Mr. Lake either, +and what they may have anticipated would be the final upshot, how or +where it was to end, was best known to themselves. Let it lie with +them. + +"There's a shawl of yours, I think, Angeline, in the summer-house. Sit +you there while I get it." + +He left her on the bench, behind which his wife was standing: they +touched each other within an inch or two. Clara drew in her breath, +and wished the earth _would_ open. Lady Ellis began a scrap of a song, +as if she did not like being alone in the darkness. Her voice, whether +in singing or speaking, was loud and shrill, though she modified it +for Mr. Lake. An antediluvian sort of song: goodness knows where she +could have picked it up. Perhaps the stars, beginning to twinkle +above, suggested its recollection to her. + + + "As many bright stars as appeared in the sky, + As many young lovers were caught by my eye; + And I was a beauty then, oh then, + And I was a beauty then. + + "But now that I'm married, good what, good what! + I'm tied to a proud and fantastical fop, + Who follows another and cares for me not. + + "But when I'm a widow I'll live at my ease, + I'll go all about, and I'll do as I please, + And take care how I marry again, again; + And take care how I marry again." + + +She had time to sing the three stanzas through, repeating the last +line of the first and third verses as a refrain. + +Mr. Lake came back swinging the shawl on his arm--a warm grey woollen +one. "All right at last, Angeline. I could not find it, and had to +strike a fusee for a light. It had slipped behind the seat. I began to +think you must have carried it away today." + +"I did not know it was there," she answered. + +"Don't you remember throwing it off last evening when we were sitting +there, saying you felt hot? Now be quiet: I'll wrap you up myself. +Have you any pins?" + +She had risen, and he put the shawl on her head and shoulders; then +turned her round and pinned it under her chin, so that only her face +was visible. With such care!--oh, with such care! + +"You are taking as much trouble as though I were going to stay out for +an hour!" + +"I wish we were." + +"Do you? What would your wife say?" + +"Nothing. And if she did--what then? There, you can't feel the cold +now." + +"No; I don't think I can." + +"But what am I to have for my pains?" + +She made no answer. In truth, he did not wait for it. Bending his own +face on the one he held up, he left a kiss and a loving word upon it: +"My dearest!" A long and passionate kiss, as it sounded in his wife's +ear. + +Lady Ellis, perhaps not prepared for so demonstrative a proceeding, +spoke a rebuke. He only laughed. They moved away; he retaining his arm +around her for a lingering moment, as though to keep the shawl in its +place; and their voices were dropped again to a soft sweet whisper, +that scarcely disturbed the stillness of the murky autumn night. + +Very different from the tone of that wail--had any been near to note +it--when Clara Lake left her hiding-place; a low wail, as of a +breaking heart, that came forth and mingled with the inclement evening +air. + +Some writer has remarked--and I believe it was Bulwer Lytton, in his +"Student"--that to the vulgar there is but one infidelity in love. It +is perfectly true; but I think the word "vulgar" is there misplaced, +unless we may apply it to all, whether inmates of the palace +or the cottage, whose temperament is not of the ultra-refined. +_Ultra_-refined, mind! they of the sensitive, proud, impassioned +nature, whose inward life, its thoughts, its workings, can never be +betrayed to the world, any more than they themselves can be understood +by it. Alas for them! They are hardly fit to dwell on this earth, to +do battle with its sins and its cares; for their spirit is more +exalted than is well: it may be said, more etherealized. The gold too +highly refined, remember, is not adapted for general use. That the +broad, vulgar idea conveyed by the word infidelity, is not their +infidelity, is very certain. It is the unfaithfulness of the spirit, +the wandering of the heart's truth to another, that constitutes +infidelity for them; and where such comes, it shatters the heart's +life as effectually as a blast of lightning shatters the tree it falls +on. _This_ was the infidelity that wrought the misery of Clara Lake: +that other infidelity, whether it was or was not to have place in the +future, she barely glanced at. Her husband's love had left her: it was +given to another; and what mattered aught else? The world had closed to +her; never again could she have, as it seemed, any place in it. +Henceforth life would be a mockery. + +She returned shivering to the house--not apparently with the cold from +without, but from the chill within--entering by the glass doors. The +fire was nearly out; it wanted stirring and replenishing. She never +saw it, never noticed it; but crept upstairs to her own room to hide +herself. We cannot follow her; for you may not doubt that the quarter +of an hour she stopped in it she had _need_ to be alone, away from the +wondering eyes of men. + +Only a quarter of an hour. Clara Lake was not one of your loud women, +who like their wrongs to be proclaimed to the world, and punished +accordingly. In her sensitive reticence, she dreaded their betrayal +more than any earthly thing. So she rose from her knees, and lifted +her head from the chair, where it had lain in utter abandonment of +spirit, and smoothed her hair, and went out of her room again to +disarm suspicion, and was her calm self once more. At that same +moment, though she knew it not, Mr. Lake and Lady Ellis were slowly +strolling across the grass to enter by the same glass doors, their +promenade, which they had been taking up and down the broad walk since +quitting the shrubbery, having come to a decorous end. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +Catching a Chill. + + +The warm light from the open nursery door flashed across Clara Lake's +path in the corridor, and she went in. Mrs. Chester was running some +slate-coloured breadths together, the lining for a black frock for +Fanny. Miss Cooper sat at the table equally busy. She was a steady, +industrious young woman, as well-conducted as her brother, the +unfortunate engine-driver; and many ladies employed her at their +houses by day. + +"Is it you, Clara?" cried Mrs. Chester, looking up. "I'm coming down. +I suppose you are all wondering what has become of me? Is tea on the +table?" + +"I--I don't know; I have been in my room," replied Mrs. Lake, taking a +low chair near the fire. + +Anna, with her quick ear of discernment--at work apart from the rest, +with very little benefit of the candles' light--turned round and +looked at Clara, as if something in the tone were unnatural; +disguised. But she said nothing. Clara seemed absorbed in the fire. + +Light, quick steps were heard on the stairs, and Robert Lake dashed +in, a gay smile on his face. "Pretty housekeepers you are! The +drawing-room fire's gone out." + +"The fire gone out!" repeated Mrs. Chester, in consternation. "What +will Lady Ellis say? Clara, dear, what could you have been thinking +of? You should have rung for coals." + +"It was a good fire when I left it," murmured Clara, believing she +spoke in accordance with the truth. + +"And the fire was all red coals, and the room as hot as could be when +I went in for that newspaper," put in Fanny Chester. + +"Run, Fanny, and tell them to make up the fire again, and to put in +plenty of sticks," said Mrs. Chester. "Has Lady Ellis not been sitting +with you this afternoon, Clara?" + +"In her own room, no doubt, writing letters. I hope she is there +still. So you have got back, Robert," Mrs. Chester added, turning to +her brother. + +"Safe and sound," was Mr. Lake's response, as he stood surveying the +table and the work going on. "What are you so busy over, all of you?" + +Mrs. Chester, bending her eyes and fingers on a complicated join, +inserted from consideration of economy, did not take the trouble to +answer. Mr. Lake went round to his wife. + +"How are you by this time, Clary?" he lightly said; as, standing +between her and the table, he bent down to the low chair where she +sat, and kissed her forehead. + +It was a cold kiss; a careless matter-of-fact sort of kiss à la +matrimony. She made no response in words, or else; but the hot crimson +dyed her cheeks, as she contrasted it with a certain other kiss +bestowed by him on somebody else not long before; _that_ was +passionate enough; rather too much so. Had he noticed, he might have +seen his wife press her hand sharply upon her bosom; as if she might +be trying to hide its tumultuous throbbing. + +"And how does the house get on, Robert?" asked Mrs. Chester, lifting +her head to speak. + +"Slower than ever. You'll have us here until Christmas, Penelope, +according to the present lookout." + +"I hope I shall; although Clara"--turning towards her--"does seem in a +fidget to get back." + +Clara seemed in a fidget about nothing, just then; she was sitting +perfectly still, her face and her eyes cast down. Robert Lake ran on, +in his own fashion, turning his attention upon the dressmaker now. + +"Working for your life as usual, Miss Cooper! What is that you are +cutting out? A pair of pantaloons for me?" + +"It's a pair of sleeves, sir." + +"Oh, sleeves; I feared they'd hardly be large enough. By the way, when +is that inquest to be brought to an end?" + +"I wish I knew, sir," she answered. + +"And nothing has been decided in regard to your brother yet!" + +"No, sir. It is very hard." + +"It is very strange," returned Mr. Lake--"strange there should be this +contradiction about the lights. Each side is so positive." + +"I am quite certain, sir, that Matthew would not say what was untrue, +even to save himself; therefore, when he says it was the green light +up, I know it was the green." + +"Precisely the same thing that I tell everybody. I have unlimited +faith in Cooper." + +"And there's Colonel West to bear out what he says, you know, sir. The +colonel would not say the green light was up, if it was not." + +"No. But then, again, Oliver Jupp and the station people maintain it +was the red," said Mr. Lake, remarking upon the fact that had puzzled +him all along. "For my part, I think there was a little sleight of +hand going on. Some conjurors must have been there in disguise. Now +gentlemen and ladies, walk up; the performance is just going to begin. +The celebrated Signor Confusiani has taken his place, and is entering +on his mysteries. He transforms colours by the help of his magic wand +In looking at the green, you perceive it change to red; in looking at +the red, it at once passes into blue." + +They all laughed, except Clara. She sat still as before, her eyes +fixed on the fire. + +"You see, sir, the worst of it is that Matthew is kept out of +employment all this time," said Miss Cooper. "They have suspended him. +He and his poor young wife are at their wits' end nearly, over it. Two +months now, and not a shilling coming in." + +"Yes, it is very bad," returned Mr. Lake, speaking seriously for once. +"There's a baby too, is there not?" + +"Yes, sir. Three weeks old." + +"I suppose you give them your earnings." + +"I give them what I can, sir; but I have my mother to keep." + +"Ah," concluded Mr. Lake, abandoning the subject. "Have you been for a +walk today, Clara?" + +"No." + +"You ought to take her, Robert; she scarcely ever goes out now. You +might have come back earlier and done it. Lady Ellis did not have a +walk today, failing you. Why did you not come sooner?" + +"Couldn't manage it, Mrs. Chester." + +"But--when _did_ you come?" suddenly resumed Mrs. Chester, after a +pause of thought. "You must have come back in the afternoon. There's +no train at this hour." + +"Oh, they put on a special one for me." + +"Don't be stupid," retorted Mrs. Chester. "You must have been back +some time." + +"Have it your own way, Penelope, and perhaps you'll live the longer." + +"Uncle Robert, you know you were back ever so long ago," interposed +Fanny Chester, who had just come into the room. "You have been staying +in the garden with Lady Ellis." + +"What's that?" cried Mr. Lake. + +"I saw you. You were both of you going towards the shrubbery." + +He caught hold of the little speaker by the waist, and swung her +round. "That's the way you see ghosts, is it, Miss Fanny! Take care +they don't run away with you! How could you see me in the shrubbery, +pray, if I was not there." + +"Be quiet, Uncle Robert; put me down. Mamma there's a good fire in the +parlour now, and the tea-tray is carried in. And Miss Cooper, I was to +tell you they are waiting tea for you in the kitchen." + +Mrs. Chester, shaking the threads from her black gown, left the room, +Fanny went with her, and Miss Cooper followed. Tea was a thankful boon +to the weary, hard-worked dressmaker. Anna never quitted her work +until the last minute, and sat on, drawing one of the candles a little +nearer to her. Robert Lake began speaking to his wife of the progress +of their house; or rather, the non-progress. Clara--the one dreadful +certainty giving rise to other suspicions--wondered whether he had +bribed the men to retard it. He had not done that, however; he was not +one to commit wrong deliberately. + +"Seriously speaking, Clara, I do think we shall not get back before +Christmas." + +She had determined upon saying something; what, she hardly knew. But +when she tried to speak, the violent agitation that the effort +brought, impeded all utterance. And perhaps the presence of Anna +Chester acted as a restraint. She glanced up at him and opened her +lips; but no words came; her throat was beating, her breath troubled. + +"Clara! you have turned quite white. Are you ill?" + +"I--I feel cold," was all she could say. + +"It is a cold, nasty night," remarked Mr. Lake, giving no further +thought to the matter, or supposing that there was cause to give it. +"The tea is ready, I think; that will warm you." + +He took one of the candles off the table and went to his room to wash +his hands. Anna Chester laid down her work and approached Clara. + +"Dear Mrs. Lake, something is troubling you," she said in her gentle +manner, as her sweet eyes glanced deprecatingly at that care-betraying +face. "Can I do anything for you--or get you anything? Shall I bring +you some tea up here?" + +"Hush, Anna! No, it is nothing--only that I am cold. Thank you all the +same." + +"You are looking so pale. Pale and sad." + +"I don't think I have been very well lately, Anna. Let me be quiet, my +dear, for a few minutes, will you? my head aches." + +Anna Chester, with the delicacy innate in her, quitted the room, +setting things a little straight on the work-table in passing it. When +Mr. Lake came back, Clara was sitting just as he had left her. Putting +down the candle, he came close up, making some trifling remark. + +She would have given the world to be able to say a word to him; to ask +whether she was to be _second_ in his heart; second to that woman; but +she simply dared not. Her agitation would have become unbearable, and +ended in an hysterical scene. + +"Are you not coming to tea, Clara?" + +"Presently." + +He looked at her with a keen eye. She was odd, he thought. + +"What's the matter, Clara? You seem dull this evening." + +There was no answer. Mrs. Lake had her hand pressed upon her throat +and chest, striving, though he knew it not, to still the agitation +that all but burst its bounds. + +"Where is the book?" she presently asked. + +"What book?" + +"The one you were to bring for me; that you forgot last time." + +"Oh, to be sure; here it is," he said, taking it from his coat pocket. +"I did not forget it this time, you see." + +"You might have brought it to me when you first got back," she +reproachfully said. + +"Well, I have not been back long. You are shivering; what makes you so +cold?" + +"Oh, I don't know." + +"Perhaps you have been asleep; one does shiver sometimes on waking. +Come along, Clara; tea will do you good." + +She rose and followed him down. Mrs. Chester was pouring out the tea, +and Lady Ellis, in her black silk gown with its low body and short +sleeves, and the ruche of white crape, causing her to look girlish, +years younger than she was, sat on the sofa. She had several evening +dresses, but they were all black, and all made in the same simple +style. Sir George had not been dead twelve months yet; but she had +never worn a regular widow's cap--it would have spoilt her hair, she +told them. The pretty white net things she wore in a morning were but +an apology for one. Very fine, very silky and beautiful did her +purple-black hair look that night, and Robert Lake playfully touched +it as he sat down beside her. + +The children's meal-table, at which Anna Chester used to preside in a +little room, was done away with, the two boys having gone to school, +so that Anna and Fanny were present as usual this evening. There +was plenty of talking and laughing, and Clara's silence was not +noticed--save perhaps by Anna Chester. + +After tea, when Anna and Fanny were gone away again, Mr. Lake and Lady +Ellis began chess: in one way or other they generally monopolized each +other's evenings. Sometimes it would be with music; sometimes at +écarté, which she had taught him; often at chess. The small table was +drawn out, and they sat at it apart. Mrs. Chester was doing some +embroidery-work this evening; Clara sat alone by the fire reading; or +making believe to read. + +But when she was unobserved the book dropped on her lap. Nobody was +looking at her. Mrs. Chester's profile was towards her, but she was +fully engrossed with her work; her husband's back was turned. Only +Lady Ellis was in full view, and Clara sat studying her face and the +glances of her large and flashing eyes. + +How long silence had reigned, except for the remarks exchanged now and +again between the chess-players, perhaps none of them could have told, +when one of those subtle instincts, alike unaccountable and +unexplainable, caused Mrs. Chester to turn suddenly to Clara Lake. +What she saw made her start. + +"Clara! What is the matter?" + +Mr. Lake turned quickly round and regarded his wife. The book lay on +her knee, her cheeks were scarlet as with incipient fever, her whole +frame was shaking, her eyes were wild. That she was labouring under +some extraordinary attack of terror appeared evident to all. He rose +and came up. + +"You are certainly ill, my dear!" + +Ill, agitated, frightened--there could be no question of it. Not at +once did she speak; she was battling with herself for calmness. Mrs. +Chester took her hand Lady Ellis approached with dark and wondering +eyes. Clara put her hands before her own. + +"It is a nervous attack," said Mrs. Chester. "Go and get some wine, +Robert, or some brandy." + +He was going already, before she told him, and brought back both. +Clara would take neither. Awfully vexed at having caused a scene, the +mortification enabled her to throw off the symptoms of illness, except +the shivering. Lady Ellis, with extreme bad taste, slipped her hand +within Mr. Lake's arm as they stood watching her. He moved forward to +speak, and so dropped it. + +"You must have caught cold, I fear, Clara. Had you not better take +something warm and go to bed?" + +She lifted her eyes to his, and answered sharply--sharply for her. + +"I shall not go to bed. I am well now." + +"Colds are sooner caught than got rid of, Clara. If you have take +one--" + +"If I have, it will be gone in the morning," came the sharp +interruption. "Pray do not let me disturb your game." + +Contriving to repress the shivering by a strong effort of will, she +took up her book again. They returned to the chess-table, Mrs. Chester +went on with her embroidery, and so the night went on: Clara, +outwardly calm, reading sedulously--inwardly shaking as though she had +an ague-fit. Even to herself it was evident that she had caught a +violent cold. + +"I shall send you a glass of white-wine whey," spoke Mrs. Chester, +when Clara at length rose to go upstairs, declining to partake of the +refreshments brought in. "And mind you lie in bed in the morning. +There's no mistake about the cold." + +"How _could_ she have caught it?" exclaimed Lady Ellis, with a vast +display of sympathy; and Clara bit her tongue to enforce silence, for +she could scarcely forbear telling her. My lady, taking her unawares, +gave her a kiss on the cheek. + +"Drink the whey quite hot, my dear Mrs. Lake." + +Clara, her mind full of Judas the false and _his_ kiss, went upstairs +alone; she preferred to do so, she told them, and shut-herself in her +own chamber. When Elizabeth appeared with the white-wine whey, and +left it, she noticed that her mistress had not begun to undress. + +Neither had she when Mr. Lake came up, nearly an hour afterwards. They +had lingered in the dining-room--he, Mrs. Chester, and Lady Ellis. He +was very much surprised. She sat by the fire, wrapped in a shawl, with +her feet on the fender. + +"Why, Clara, I thought you were in bed and asleep!" + +There was no answering remark. Mr. Lake, thinking her manner more and +more strange, laid his hand kindly on her shoulder. + +"Clary, what ails you to-night?" + +She shrank away from his hand, and replied to his question by another. + +"Why is it that our house is not ready?" + +"That is just what I asked of the workmen today, lazy dogs!" + +"We can go back to it as it is. Some of the rooms are habitable. Will +you do so?" + +"What in the world for?" he demanded. "We are very comfortable here, +Clara; and, between ourselves, it is a help to Penelope." + +"We must go back. I cannot stay." + +"But why? Where's the motive?" + +She drew her shawl closely round her as if she shivered again, and +spoke the next words with a jerk, for to get them out required an +effort of pain. What it had taken to nerve her to this task so far, +she alone knew. + +"What is there between you and Lady Ellis?" + +"Between me and Lady Ellis!" echoed Mr. Lake, with all the +carelessness in life. "Nothing at all. What should there be?" + +She bent towards him and whispered. + +"Which is it--which is it _to be_, I or she?" + +"To be--for what?" rejoined Mr. Lake, really at a loss. + +"Which of us is it that you love?" she wailed forth; and indeed the +tone of her voice could be called little else than a wail. + +"Clara, you are growing foolish." + +"Don't put me off in this false way," she vehemently uttered, roused +to passion by his indifference. "Why are you always with her, stealing +walks and interviews?--why do you give to her your impassioned kisses, +and call her by endearing names? Robert, you will kill me!" + +He put the heel of his boot on the bars to push down a piece of +refractory coal, probably debating with himself what he should answer. + +"Considering that you are my wife, Clara, and that Lady Ellis is but a +chance acquaintance, I think you might be above this nonsense." + +"Have you forgotten my dream?" she resumed, in a low tone. "Have you +forgotten that my coming to this house seemed to shadow forth my +death?" + +"That dream again, of all things!" exclaimed Mr. Lake in open +surprise, involuntary sarcasm in his tone. "I thought it was done with +and dismissed." + +"I have been thinking of it all the evening." + +"Then I'd not confess it," he said, dropping either by accident or in +temper the hair-brush he had taken in his hand "And the notion +of my kissing Lady Ellis! and calling her--what did you phrase +it?--endearing names? That's the best joke I have heard lately." + +She fixed her gaze steadfastly upon him; there was something in it +which seemed to say she could convict him of falsehood, if she chose; +and his eyes fell beneath hers. + +"What has come over you, Clary? You must be turning jealous! I never +knew you so foolish before." + +"No," she answered, in a tone of pain, "never before, never before." + +"And why now? There's no occasion for it." + +"I will not descend to explanation or reproach," she said, after a +pause; "you may ask your own conscience how much of the latter you +merit. I shall go home tomorrow; I dare not stay in this house with +that woman. Do you understand me, I _dare not_. You can accompany me +if--if---- Robert, you must choose between us." + +He did not speak for a minute or two; and when he did, it was in a +careless tone, as though he wished to make light of the matter +altogether. + +"Of course if you have made up your mind to return to an uncomfortable +home, half pulled down, we must do so. I am sorry for the caprice, for +we shall be choked with paint and dust." + +"Very well. We go tomorrow. I will send Elizabeth over early in the +morning, to get things straight for us." + +She rose as she spoke, and began to undress. His eyes fell upon the +tumbler. Taking it up he held it to the light. + +"I do believe this is your whey! It is quite cold. To drink it like +this would do you no good." + +"Oh, what does it signify?" she answered; as if that and all things +else were utterly indifferent to her. + +Mr. Lake quitted the room without speaking. By and by he came back +with another glassful, quite hot. + +"Now, Clara, drink this." + +She refused at first; it would do her no good, she said; but Mr. Lake +insisted upon it. He was her husband still, and could exact obedience. + +But the morrow brought no journey for Mrs. Lake. It brought illness +instead. With early morning Mr. Lake got up and aroused the house, +saying that his wife was ill. She had awoke so exceedingly +suffering--her breath impeded, her face and eyes hot and wild--as to +alarm him. Mrs. Chester hastened to her bedside, and the nearest +doctor was summoned in haste and brought to the house. He pronounced +the malady to be inflammation of the chest and lungs, and forbade her +to attempt to leave her bed. He inquired of Mrs. Lake if she knew how +she had taken it, and she told him, after a pause of hesitation, that +she had gone out of doors from a warm room the previous evening +without putting anything on, and the damp cold must have struck to +her. + +Yes; it was so. As the sight she had gone out to witness struck a +chill to her heart, so did the cold and damp strike a chill to her +frame. Once before, five or six years ago, she had caught a similar +chill, and inflammation had come on in the same rapid manner. The +doctor observed that she must be especially predisposed to it, and +privately inquired of Mrs. Chester whether any of her relatives had +died of consumption. "Yes," was the answer, "her mother and her +brother." + +Mr. Lake went to Katterley and brought back the gentleman who had +attended her from infancy, Dr. Marlow, an old man now. He was a +personal friend of theirs as well as medical attendant. He saw no +cause for anxiety, he said to Mr. Lake; that she was very ill there +was no doubt, but not, he thought, ill unto danger. + +"She has a good constitution, she has a good constitution," urged Mr. +Lake, his tone of anxiety proving that he wished to be reassured upon +the point. + +"For all I have ever seen to the contrary," replied Dr. Marlow. "She +must be more prudent for the future, and not subject herself to sudden +changes of temperature." + +"She found the drawing-room very hot, and went from it into the cold +night-air. It opens with glass doors. And if you remember, doctor, +last night was raw and foggy. At least, it was so here; I don't know +what it may have been at Katterley." + +So spoke Mr. Lake. But it never entered into his +carelessly-constituted mind to wonder _why_ his wife had gone out; or +whether, having gone out, she might by some curious chance have come +unsuspected across the path of himself and another. + +For three weeks Mrs. Lake never left her bed. The inflammation had +taken strong hold upon her. A nice time of it those two must have had +downstairs! Robert Lake, genuinely sorry for her illness in itself, +for her prolonged seclusion, was quite an exemplary attendant, and +would pass half an hour together in the sick-chamber, indemnifying +himself by several half-hours with somebody else. Mrs. Chester of +course saw nothing; nobody on earth could be more conveniently blind +where her interest was concerned, and it would be unprofitable to her +to lose or to offend Lady Ellis. Clara lay and _imagined_ all that +might be taking place, the sweet words, the pretty endearments, the +confidential interchange of feeling and thought: it was not precisely +the way to get better. + +The maid Elizabeth was her chief attendant; Anna Chester sat with her +often. Mrs. Chester, bustling and restless in a sick room as she was +elsewhere, was better out of the chamber than in it. To none of these +did Clara speak of her husband; but when Fanny ran in, as she did two +or three times a day, Clara would ask questions if nobody was within +hearing. + +"Where's Mr. Lake, Fanny?" + +"Oh! he's downstairs in the drawing-room." + +"What is he doing?" + +"Talking to Lady Ellis." + +The answers would vary according to circumstances; and Fanny, too +young for any sort of suspicion, was quite ready and willing to give +them. "He is reading to Lady Ellis;" or "He is out with Lady Ellis;" +or "He and Lady Ellis are sitting together by the fire-light;" just as +it might chance to be. Twice Lady Ellis went with him to Katterley, +and gave Mrs. Lake on her return a glowing account of how quickly the +house was getting on now. + +Well, the time wore away somehow, and Mrs. Lake got better and took to +sit up in her room. The first time she went downstairs was an evening +in November. She did not go down then by orders; quite the contrary. +"Not just yet," the doctor had, told her in answer to an inquiry; "in +a few days." But she felt very, very dull that afternoon, sitting +alone in her chamber. Mrs. Chester and Anna were busy downstairs, +making pickles--in the very kitchen that Clara had seen so minutely in +her dream; Elizabeth had gone on an errand to Katterley, taking Fanny +Chester, and Robert did not come up. She knew he was at home and sat +feverishly expecting him, but he never came. Very lonely felt she, +very dispirited; tears filled her eyes repeatedly, uncalled for; and +so it went on to dusk. Had everybody abandoned her? she thought, +sitting there between the lights. + +The shadows of the room, only lighted by its fire, threw their sombre +darkness across, taking curious shapes. A long narrow box, containing +ferns and seaweed, stood on a stool in front of the hearth; as the +shadow of it grew deeper on the opposite wall in the rapidly fading +daylight, it began to look not unlike a coffin. As this fancy took +possession of her, the remembrance of her dream with all its +distressing terror suddenly flashed into her mind; she grew nervous +and timid; too frightened to remain alone. + +Wrapping herself up in a grey chenille shawl, as warmly as her husband +had wrapped another that recent bygone night, she prepared to descend. +She was fully dressed, in a striped green silk, and her pretty hair +was plainly braided from her brow. The lovely face was thin and pale; +the dark eyes were larger and sadder than of yore; and she was very +weak yet. + +Too weak to venture down the staircase alone, as she soon found. But +for clinging to the balustrades, she would have fallen. This naturally +caused her movements to be slow and quiet. She looked into the +dining-room first; it was all in darkness; then she turned to the +drawing-room, and pushed open the half-closed door. Little light was +there, either; only what came from the fire, and that was low. +Standing over it she discerned two forms, which, as she slowly +advanced with her tottering steps, revealed themselves as those of her +husband and Lady Ellis. She was in her usual evening attire: the black +silk gown with the low body and short sleeves, and some black ribbons +floated from her hair. Mr. Lake's hand was lightly resting on her +neck; ostensibly playing with the jet chain around it, and touching +her fair shoulder. Talking together, they did not hear her entrance. + +"You know, Angeline," were the first words audible--when at that +moment he seemed to become conscious that some one had entered to +disturb the interview, and turned his head. Who was it? Some muffled +figure. Mr. Lake strained his eyes as it came nearer, and sent them +peering through the semidarkness. The next moment he had sprung at +least five yards from "Angeline." + +"Clara! How could you be so imprudent? My dear child! you know you +ought not to have left your room." + +Pushing aside Lady Ellis with, it must be confessed, little ceremony, +he dragged a couch to the warmest corner of the hearth, and took his +wife in his sheltering arms. Placing her upon it, he snatched up a +cloth mantle of Mrs. Chester's that happened to be near, and fenced +her in with it from the draught, should there be any. Then he sat down +on the same sofa, edging himself on it, as if he would also be a fence +for her against the cold. That his concern and care were genuine, +springing right from his heart, there could be no question. My Lady +Ellis, standing on the opposite side to recover her equanimity, after +having stirred the fire into a blaze, and looking on with her great +black eyes, saw that. + +He bent his head slightly as he gazed on his wife, waiting in silence, +not saying a word further until her breath was calmer. Very laboured +it was just then, perhaps with the exertion of walking down, perhaps +with mental emotion. + +"Now tell me why you ventured out of your room," said he, making a +prisoner of one of her hands, and speaking in a tender tone. + +"I was dull: I was alone," she panted. + +"Alone! dull! Where's Penelope? where's Anna? I thought they were with +you. Elizabeth, what is she about?" + +She did not explain or answer. She lay back quietly as he had placed +her, her eyes closed, and her white face motionless. For the first +time Robert Lake thought he saw a look of DEATH upon it, and a strange +thrill of anguish darted through him. "What a fool I am!" quoth he to +himself, the next moment; "it's the reflection of that fire." + +"My dear Mrs. Lake, I should only be too happy to sit with you when +you feel lonely," spoke Lady Ellis, as softly as her naturally harsh +voice would allow. "But you never will let me, you know." + +Clara murmured some inaudible answer about not giving her trouble, and +lay quiet where her husband had placed her. He kept her hand still; +and she let him do it. He stole quick glances at her wasted features, +as if alarm had struck him. She never lifted her eyes to either of +them. + +The announcement of dinner and Mrs. Chester came together. When that +lady saw who was in the drawing-room lying on the sofa, like a picture +of a ghost more than a living woman, she set up a commotion. What did +Clara mean by it? Did she come out of her room on purpose to renew her +illness? She must go back to it again. Clara simply shook her head by +way of dissent, and Mr. Lake interposed, saying she should stay if she +wished: she would get no harm in the warm room. + +They went in to dinner. Not Clara; what little solid food she could +take yet was eaten in the middle of the day. There was a fowl on the +table; and Mr. Lake, leaving his own dinner to get cold, prepared to +carry a piece of it to his wife. + +"It will be of no use," said Mrs. Chester to him, in rather a cross +tone, as if she thought the morsel was going to be wasted; but he +quitted the room, paying no attention. + +He found his wife in a perfect paroxysm of tears, sobbing wildly. Left +alone, her long pent-up feelings had given way. Putting the plate on +the table, he bent over her-- + +"My dearest, this will never do. Why do you grieve so? What is the +matter?" + +"Oh, you know! you know!" she answered. + +There was a dead pause. She employed it in smothering and choking down +her sobs; he in any reflection that might be agreeable to him. + +"I want to go home." + +"The very instant that you may go with safety, you shall go," he +readily assented. "If the doctor says you may go tomorrow, Clara, why +we will. I must not have my dear little wife grieve like this." + +No response. She seemed quite exhausted. + +"I have brought you a bit of fowl, Clara; try and eat it." + +She waved it away, briefly saying she could not touch it: she could +not eat. She waved him away, telling him to go to his dinner. Mr. Lake +simply put the plate down again, and stood near her. + +"I must go home. I shall die if I stay here." + +"Clara, I _promise_ that you shall go. What more can I say? The house +is sufficiently habitable now; there's nothing to detain us. Settle it +yourself with the doctor. If he says you may travel tomorrow, so be +it." + +She closed her eyes--a sign that the contest was over. Mr. Lake +carried the plate of fowl back to the dining-room, not feeling +altogether upon the best terms with himself. For the first time he was +realizing the fact that his wife's full recovery might be a more +precarious affair than he had suspected. + +"I knew she'd not touch it," said Mrs. Chester; "though I think she +might eat it if she would." + +"Surely she is not sulky!" spoke Lady Ellis, in an undertone, to Mr. +Lake, turning her brilliant and fascinating eyes upon him, as he sat +down in his place beside her. + +He was not quite bad. He cared for his wife probably as much as he had +ever done, although he had become enthralled by another, according to +his light and unsteady nature. A haughty flush darkened his brow, and +he pointedly turned from Lady Ellis without answering. + +"It is the breast of the fowl wasted," cried thrifty Mrs. Chester, in +her vexation. + +It was not wasted. Mr. Lake took it upon his own plate, and made his +dinner off it, never speaking a word all the while to anybody. + +What of that? With her wiles and her sweet glances, my lady won +him round again to good-humour; and before the meal was over he +was as much her own as ever. But when the dessert was put on the +table--consisting of a dish of apples and another of nuts--Mr. Lake +left them to it, and went back to his wife. + +She lay on the sofa all the evening. Mrs. Chester grumbled at the +imprudence; but Clara said it was a change for the better: she was so +tired of her bedroom. Her husband waited upon her at tea--a willing +slave; and Clara really said a few cheerful words. Lady Ellis +challenged him to chess again afterwards. Mrs. Chester and Anna sat by +Clara. + +"Very shortly," said the doctor, the following morning, in answer to +the appeal which Mr. Lake himself made. "Yearning for home, is she? I +fancied there was something of the sort. Not today: perhaps not +tomorrow; but I think you may venture to take her the following one, +provided the wind's fair." + +"All right," was the answer. "Tell her so yourself, will you, my good +sir?" + +Clara was told accordingly. And on the third day, sure enough, the +wind being fair and soft for November, Mr. and Mrs. Lake terminated +their long sojourn at Guild, and returned to Katterley. + +Home at last! In her exhilaration of spirit, it seemed just as though +she had taken a renewed lease of happy life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +Colour Blindness. + + +The difference of opinion touching the lights at the railway station +on the night of the fatal accident, continued to create no small +sensation. The jury turned nearly rampant; vowing they'd not attend +the everlastingly adjourned inquest, and wanting every time to return +no verdict at all, say they could not, and have done with it. The +coroner told them that was impossible; though he avowed that he did +not see his way clearly out of it. But for being the responsible +party, he would have willingly pitched the whole affair into the sea. + +Over and over again did the public recount the circumstances one with +another. When anybody could get hold of a stranger, hitherto in happy +ignorance, he thought himself in luck, and went gushingly into all the +details. It was a stock-in-trade for the local newspapers; and two of +them entered on a sharp weekly controversy in regard to it. In truth, +the matter, that is the conflict in the evidence, was most remarkable. +That one party should stand to it the lights were red, and that the +other should maintain they were green, was astonishing from the simple +fact that both sides were worthy of credit. In the earlier stage of +the enquiry the coroner had significantly remarked upon the "hard +swearing somewhere:" it seemed more of a mystery than ever on which +side that reproach could attach to. The jury could arrive at no +decision, and thus the inquest had been adjourned time after time, and +now the county was getting tired of it. Cooper, meanwhile suspended +from employment, stood a chance of being reduced to straits if it +lasted much longer. The colonel and Oliver Jupp, who had become +intimate, made rather merry over it when they met, each accusing the +other of having "seen double;" but neither would give way an inch. The +lawyers were confounded, and knew not which side to believe; neither +of the two gentlemen had the slightest personal interest in the +matter; they spoke to further the ends of justice alone, and the one +and the other were alike worthy of credit. + +Affairs were in this unsatisfactory state, when a gentleman arrived in +the neighbourhood on a short sojourn, a Dr. Macpherson, LL.D., F.R.S., +and so on; about seventeen letters in all he could put after his name +if he chose to do it. He was a man great in science, had devoted the +most part of his life to it, no branch came amiss to him; he had +travelled much and was renowned in the world. Amidst other +acquirements he had phrenology at his fingers' ends, being as much at +home in it as we poor unlearned mortals are in reading a newspaper; or +as Mr. Lake was in making himself agreeable to a pretty woman. + +They were staying at the "Rose Inn," at Guild, this learned gentleman +and his wife. Professor Macpherson (as he was frequently called) had +come down on some mission connected with geology. He was a very wire +of a man, tall and thin as a lamp-post, exceedingly near-sighted, even +in his silver-rimmed spectacles that he constantly wore; a meek, +gentle, simple-minded man, whose coats and hats were threadbare, a +very child in the ways of the world; as these excessively abstruse +spirits are apt to be. + +Mrs. Macpherson was in all respects his opposite: stout in figure, +fine in dress, loud in speech; and keen in the affairs of common life. +Good-hearted enough at the main, but sadly wanting in refinement, +Mrs. Macpherson rarely pleased at first; in short, not to mince the +matter, she was undeniably vulgar. Mrs. Macpherson's education had not +been equal to her merits; her early associations were not of the +silver-fork school. She was a very pretty girl when Caleb Macpherson +(not the great man he was now) married her; habit reconciles us to +most things, and he had discovered no fault in her yet. That she made +him a good wife was certain, and a very capable one. + +This was the second visit Professor Macpherson had made to Guild. The +first took place about half a dozen years ago, when he had come on a +question of "pneumatics." He had then become acquainted with the +Reverend Mr. Chester, not himself unlearned in science, and had spent +several hours of three separate days at the rectory. James Chester had +gone now where science probably avails not; Mrs. Chester had quitted +the rectory; and it might have chanced that the acquaintanceship would +never have been renewed but for an accidental meeting. + +Mrs. Chester was walking quickly into Guild on an errand when she met +him. He would have passed her; her style of dress was altered--and for +the matter of that he always went (as his wife put it) mooning on, his +head in the skies and looking at nobody. But Mrs. Chester stopped him. +Except that he looked taller and thinner, and his coat a little more +threadbare than of old, and his spectacles staring out straighter up +at the clouds or at the far-off horizon, he was not altered. + +"Have you forgotten me, Dr. Macpherson?" + +It took the doctor some few minutes to bring himself and his thoughts +down to the level of passing life. Mrs. Chester had to tell him who +she was, and that she was now alone in the world. He took both her +hands in his then, and spoke a few words of genuine sympathy, with the +sorrowful look in his kind eyes, and the tone of true pity coming from +his ever-open heart. + +"You will come and call on me, will you not?" she asked, after telling +him where she lived. + +"I'll come this evening," he said, "and bring my wife. She's with me +this time." + +So Mrs. Chester went home and told Lady Ellis of the promised visit. +That lady, who had been fit to die of weariness since the departure of +Mr. Lake, welcomed it eagerly; on the principle that even an old +professor with seventeen letters beyond his name was of the man +species, and consequently better than nobody. + +"I don't know his wife," spoke Mrs. Chester. "She is rather exclusive, +most likely. The wife of a man who has made so much noise in the world +may look down upon us." + +Lady Ellis raised her black eyebrows and had a great mind to tell Mrs. +Chester to speak for herself; _she_ was not accustomed to be looked +down upon. + +"Does the wife wear a threadbare gown?" she asked, having heard the +description of the professor's coats. + +"Very likely," said Mrs. Chester. "She need not, you know; they are +rich." + +"Rich, are they?" + +"Very rich--now. In early life they had to pinch and screw, and live +without a servant. Dr. Macpherson told us about it." + +"He is not above confessing it, then?" + +"He!" Mrs. Chester laughed. The simple professor, being "above" +confessing anything of that sort, was a ludicrous idea. She attempted +to describe him as he was. + +"My dear Lady Ellis, you can have no notion of his simplicity--his +utter unworldliness. In all that relates to learning and that sort of +thing he is of the very keenest intellect; sharp; but in social life +he is just a child. He would respect a woman who has to wash up her +dishes herself just as much as he would if she kept ten servants to do +it for her. I don't believe he can distinguish any difference." + +"Oh!" concluded Lady Ellis, casting a gesture of contempt on the +absent and unconscious professor. + +Dr. Macpherson meanwhile, immediately after parting with Mrs. Chester, +put his hand in his pocket for his case of gradients--or whatever the +name might be--and found he had not got it. To go geologizing or +botanizing without it would have been so much waste of time, and he +turned back to the "Rose." It was well for the evening visit that he +did so; but for telling his wife at once while it was fresh in his +head, they had never paid it; for the professor would have forgotten +all about it in half an hour. + +Mrs. Macpherson sat fanning herself at the window. She was a stout +woman, comely, red-faced, and jolly; and the fire was large, throwing +out a great heat. Her face and that of her pale thin husband's +presented a very contrast. She wore a bright green silk gown, +garnished with scarlet, and scarlet bows in her rich lace cap. + +"I forgot my case, Betsy," said he, on entering. + +"'Twouldn't be you, prefessor, if you didn't forget some'at," returned +she, equably. "For a man who has had his head filled with learning, +you be the greatest oaf I know." + +Accustomed to these compliments from his wife--meekly receiving them +as his due--Dr. Macpherson took up his case, a thick pocket-book +apparently, the size of a small milestone. He then mentioned his +meeting with Mrs. Chester, and the promised evening visit, which was +received favourably. + +"It'll be a godsend," said Mrs. Macpherson. "With you over them +writings of yours, and me a-nodding asleep, the evenings here is +fearful dull. Is the invite for tea and supper?" + +Rather a puzzling question. Tea and supper were so little thought of +by the professor, that but for his wife he might never have partaken +of either; and he had to consider for some moments before he could hit +upon any answer. + +"I don't think it is, Betsy; I only said I'd call." + +"Oh!" returned Mrs. Macpherson, ungraciously, for she liked good +cheer,--"It'll hardly be worth going for. It's not a party, then?" + +The professor supposed not. On these matters of social intercourse his +ideas were always misty. He remembered that Mrs. Chester said she had +a Lady Ellis visiting her, and mentioned the fact. + +Mrs. Macpherson brightened up. "A _Lady_ Ellis! Are you sure?" + +"Yes; I think I'm sure." + +"Well now, Caleb, you look here. We must go properly," said Mrs. +Macpherson. "I never was brought into contract with a real live lady +in my life; I haven't never had the chance of saying 'your ladyship,' +except in sport. We'll have out a chaise and pair, and, drive up in +it." + +Had she proposed to drive up in a chaise and eight, it would have been +all one to the professor. Conscious of his own deficiency on the score +of sociality (not sociability) and fashion, he had been content this +many a year to leave these things to her. + +They arrived at Mrs. Chester's about seven. The chaise and pair +rattled up to the gate; but as it was dark night, the pomp of the +arrival could not be seen from within, and the gilt was taken off the +gingerbread. It happened that Mr. Lake had come over that afternoon--a +rather frequent occurrence--and Mrs. Chester had asked him to stay and +see the strangers. He and Lady Ellis were at their usual game, chess, +and Mrs. Chester was at work close by, when the visitors were +announced by Nanny, the names having been given her by the lady-- + +"Professor and Mrs. Macpherson." + +He came in first--the long, thin, absorbed, self-denying man, in his +threadbare frock-coat. Mrs. Macpherson had left off fighting against +these coats long ago. She ordered him in new ones in vain. As soon as +one came home, he would put it on unconsciously, utterly unable to +distinguish between that and his old one, and go to his work in it: +"his chemical tests, and his proofs, and all that rubbish," as she was +in the habit of saying. Somehow he had a knack of wearing his coats +out incredibly quick, or else the poisons and the fires did it for +him. In a week the new one would be as bad as the rest--shabby and +threadbare. Mrs. Macpherson grew tired at last. "After all, it don't +much matter," was her final conclusion, in pardonable pride. "Good +coat or bad coat, he's Prefessor Macpherson." His scanty dark hair was +brushed smoothly across his head, his brown eyes, shining through his +spectacles, went kindly out in search of Mrs. Chester, who advanced to +receive him. + +"My wife, ma'am; Mrs. Macpherson." + +Mrs. Macpherson came in--a ship in full sail. She had dressed herself +to go into the presence of a real live lady. _She_ did not travel +without her attire, if he did. The forgetful man was apt to start on a +journey with nothing but what he stood up in; she took travelling +trunks. + +An amber satin gown with white brocade flowers on it, white lace +shawl, and small bonnet with nodding bird-of-paradise feather, white +gloves, flaxen hair. Lady Ellis simply stared while the introductions +were gone through and seats were taken. Mrs. Macpherson was free and +unreserved in her conversation with strangers, concealing nothing. + +"I was as glad as anything when the prefessor said we were coming here +for a call this evening," she remarked to Mrs. Chester. "Not knowing a +soul in the place, it's naturally dull for me; and we shall have to +stop a week at it, I b'lieve." + +"You were not with Dr. Macpherson last time, when I and my late +husband had the pleasure of making his acquaintance," observed Mrs. +Chester, surreptitiously regarding the bird-of-paradise. + +"Not I," answered Mrs. Macpherson. "If I went about always with him, I +should have a life of it. What with his geographies, and his botanies, +and his astronomies, and his chemistries, and his social sciences, and +the meetings he has to attend in all parts of the globe, and the +country excursions the societies make in a body, he is not much at +home." + +"This is only the second visit he has paid to Guild, I think?" + +"That's all. It's geology this time; last time it was--Prefessor, +what's the name of the thing you were down here for last?" broke off +Mrs. Macpherson. + +"Pneumatics," he answered, looking lovingly at the child, Fanny +Chester, and a bit of heath she was showing him. + +"Eumatics," repeated Mrs. Macpherson. "Not that I can ever understand +what it means. The name's hard enough, let alone the thing itself." + +Perhaps the other ladies were in the same blissful ignorance. Mr. Lake +checkmated his adversary, left her to put up the men, and went over to +the professor. + +Before tea came in they were out in the garden peering about by +starlight, the remains of an old Roman wall there, that Mr. Lake +happened to mention, keenly exciting the interest of the professor. +Mrs. Macpherson was invited to take off her things, and she threw +the handsome white shawl aside; but having brought no cap, the +bird-of-paradise retained its place. This much might be said for her, +that though addicted to very gay clothes, they were always rich and +good. Mrs. Macpherson would have worn nothing poor or tawdry. + +"How fond they are of these miserable bits of things--pieces of an old +wall, strata of earth, wild plants, and such rubbish!" exclaimed Lady +Ellis, with acrimony, inwardly vexed that Mr. Lake should have gone +out a-roving. + +"Rubbish it is--your ladyship's right," spoke Mrs. Macpherson. +"Leastways, so it seems to us: but when folks have gifted minds, as +the prefessor has, why perhaps they can see beauties in 'em that's hid +to us others." + +Not very complimentary on the whole; but Lady Ellis did not choose to +see it. + +"Of course," she said, "your husband is wonderfully clever; he has a +world-wide fame. I heard of him in India." + +"Clever on one side, a gander on t'other," said Mrs. Macpherson. + +"A gander?" + +"Well, you'd not say a goose, I suppose. In his sciences and his +ologies, and his chemicals and his other learnings, why he's uncommon; +there's hardly his equal, the public says. But take him in the useful +things of life, your ladyship, and see what he's good for. Law bless +me!" + +"Not for much, I suppose," laughed Mrs. Chester. + +"I'd be bound that any child of seven would have more sense. But for +me helping him to it, he'd never have a meal; no, I don't believe, as +I'm an honest woman, that he'd recollect to sit down to one. When he's +away from me, he, as I tell him, goes in for trying to live upon air." + +"Do you mean that he really tries to see if he can live upon it?" + +"Bless you, no. He must know he couldn't. What I mean is, that he +neglects his food--either forgets it out and out, or does not find +time to sit down to it. And then his clothes! Look at the coat he has +got on now." + +Neither of the two ladies having particularly noticed the coat, they +could not make much answering comment. Mrs. Macpherson, fond of +talking, did not wait for any. + +"I wonder sometimes what would become of him, and how long he would +wear a coat, but for being looked after. Why, till it dropped off his +back. I have to put every earthly thing ready for him--even to a +pocket-handkercher--and then he can't see them. I used to let him have +a chest of drawers to himself, handkerchers in one, gloves and collars +in another, shirts in a third, and so on. He'd want, let's say, a +necktie. Every individual thing would be taken out of every drawer, +nicked over, thrown on the floor, and he in quite a state of +agitation. Up I'd go, and show it to him. There it would be, staring +him in the face, right under his very eyes." + +"And he not seeing it?" + +"Never. I soon left off letting him have the control of his own +drawers. I give him one now, and lock up the rest, so that he has to +call me when he wants things. He'll have his spectacles on his nose +and be looking after them; his hand might be touching the ink, and +he'd not see it. Ah! One might wonder why such useless mortals were +born." + +"But the professor is so kind and good," observed Mrs. Chester. + +"I didn't say he wasn't; I'm not complaining of him," returned the +professor's lady, giving a nod to the bird-of-paradise. "One tells +these things as one would tell stories of a child that's not +responsible for its actions. His brains are too clever, you know, for +ordinary life. Thank ye, ma'am; I like it pretty sweet. There again, +in the small matter of sugar: put the cup half full, or put in none at +all, and it's all one to the prefessor; he'd never notice the +difference." + +"I once knew a very clever but very absent man who went to a wedding +in his slippers," said Lady Ellis, leaning back in her armchair and +speaking languidly for the benefit of the lady opposite. "He had +forgotten to put his boots on." + +"That's nothing; your ladyship should live for a month with Prefessor +Macpherson. I've quaked in fear before now of seeing him go out +without----worse things than boots." + +Mrs. Chester laughed; and what further revelations might have been +made were put an end to by the entrance of the professor himself and +Mr. Lake. They came in talking eagerly, not of the Roman wall, but of +the late fatal railway accident. Mr. Lake was giving him the details, +and especially those relating to the conflicting nature of the +evidence. As soon as Dr. Macpherson had mastered the particulars, he +gave it as his opinion that it must be a case of colour-blindness. + +"Of colour-blindness?" echoed Mr. Lake. + +"Rely upon it, it is a case of colour-blindness on one side or the +other," continued the professor, who was now showing himself in his +element, the keen man of science, the sensible, sound-judging +reasoner. And so well did he proceed to argue the matter, so aptly and +clearly did he lay the case before them, that Mr. Lake was half +converted; and it was decided that the theory should be followed up. + +On the next day the professor was brought into contact with Colonel +West and Oliver Jupp, Mr. Lake having arranged a meeting at his own +house. One or two friends were also present. The subject was entered +upon, and the professor's opinion given. Oliver Jupp believed he might +be right; the colonel was simply astonished at the assertion. + +"Not know colours!" cried he. "Not able to tell white from black! Why, +what have our eyes been about all our lives, Mr. Professor? My sight +is keen and clear; I can answer for that; and I've not heard that +there's anything amiss with Mr. Oliver Jupp's." + +"It has nothing whatever to do with a keen sight--in the way you are +thinking of," returned Dr. Macpherson. "Nay, it frequently happens +that those who are afflicted with colour-blindness possess a +remarkably good and clear sight. The defect is not in the vision: it +lies in the absence of the organ of colour." + +"That's logic," laughed the colonel, who had never heard of such a +theory, and did not believe many others had. + +"Look here," said the professor, endeavouring to put the case in an +understandable light "You will allow that men are differently endowed. +One man will have the gift of calculation in an eminent degree; he +will go through a whole ledger swimmingly, while his friend by his +side is labouring at a single column of it: another will possess the +organ of music so largely that he will probably make you a second +Mozart; but his own brother can't tell one tune from another, and +could not learn to play if his very life depended on it: this man will +draw you, untaught, plans and buildings of wondrous and beautiful +design; that one, who has served his stupid apprenticeship to the art, +cannot accomplish a pigsty fit for a civilized pig to live in--and so +I might go on, illustrating examples all. Am I right or wrong?" he +concluded, turning his spectacles full on his attentive listeners. + +"Right," they all said, including Colonel West. + +"Very well," resumed the professor. "Then I would ask you, gentlemen, +why should colour be an exception? I mean the capability of perceiving +it; the faculty of distinguishing one shade from another?" + +There was no immediate answer. The professor went on. + +"This brain is totally deficient in the organ of tune; that one is +deficient in some other faculty; a third in something else: why should +not the organ of colour sometimes fail?" + +"I thought everybody possessed the organ of colour," observed Mr. +Lake. + +"The greater portion of people do possess it; but there are many who +do not." + +Colonel West, unconvinced, was rather amused than otherwise. "And you +think, sir, that I and Mr. Oliver Jupp do not possess it," he said, +laughing. + +"Pardon me," replied the professor, laughing also, "I never said you +both did not. Had that been the case, you probably would not have been +in opposition to each other. But I have been using my own eyes since +we stood here, and I see which of you has the defect. One of you +possesses the organ of colour (as we call it) in a full degree; the +other does not possess it at all. It lies here." + +Dr. Macpherson raised his fingers to his eyebrow, and pointed out a +spot near its middle. The colonel and Oliver Jupp immediately passed +their fingers over their eyebrows, somewhat after the manner of a +curious child. Oliver's eyebrows were prominent; the colonel's +remarkably flat. + +"You can testify by experiment whether I am right or wrong, Colonel +West; but I give it as my opinion that you are not able to distinguish +colours." + +For some moments the colonel could not find his tongue. "I never heard +of such a thing in all my life!" cried he. "Do you mean to say that I +can see the blue sky" (turning his face upwards), "and not know it's +blue?" + +"You know it is blue, and call it blue, because you have heard it so +called all your life," returned the undaunted professor. "But, if half +the sky were blue and half green, you would not be able to say which +was the green half and which the blue." + +"That caps everything," retorted the colonel, in high good-humour. +"It's a pity my wife can't hear this; she'd shake hands with you at +once. She has, you must know, a couple of garden parasols: one green, +the other blue. If she sends me indoors for the green, she says I +bring her the blue; and if for the blue, I bring the green. She sets +it down to inattention, and lectures me accordingly." + +"You could not have given us a better confirmation that my opinion is +correct," said Professor Macpherson, glancing at the group around. +"Your wife has set this down to inattention, you say, colonel. May I +ask what you have set it down to?" + +"I? Not to anything. I never troubled myself to think about it." + +The learned gentleman rubbed his hands with satisfaction. "What you +acknowledge is so true to nature, colonel! Those who, like you, are +affected with colour-blindness, can rarely be brought to believe in +their own defect. It is a fact that the greater portion of them _are +not conscious of it_; they really don't know that they cannot +distinguish colours. Some few have perhaps a dim idea that they are +not so quick in that particular as others, but they never think of +questioning the cause. To use your own expression, it does not trouble +them. I understand you maintain that on the night of the accident the +usual light was up--green?" + +"Yes," said the colonel. "They exhibit the green light always at +Coombe Dalton station, to enforce caution, on account of the nasty +turning just after passing it. I maintain, as you say, that the +customary green light was shown that night." + +"Now I will tell you how to account for that belief;" said the +professor. "It was not so much that you could be sure the _green_ +light was up, as that you could not distinguish any difference between +the one you saw, and the one you were accustomed to see. You could not +discern the difference, I say, and therefore you maintained it to be, +as you believed, the same one--the green." + +"This seems plausible enough, as you state it," acknowledged Colonel +West, at length. "But pray why should it not be my young friend, Jupp, +who was mistaken--and not I?" + +The professor shook his head. "I am quite sure that this +gentleman"--indicating Oliver Jupp--"can never be mistaken in colours +or in their shades, so long as he retains his eyesight to see +anything: he has the organ very largely developed. I am right, +colonel," he added, nodding. + +"But what do you say to Cooper, the driver?" returned the colonel. "He +says the light was green: and everybody agrees that he would only +assert what was true." + +"What he thought was true," corrected Dr. Macpherson. "There is little +doubt, in my mind, that Cooper's case will turn out to be like your +own--a fact of colour-blindness. He could not distinguish the +difference in the light from the ordinary light, and therefore +believed it to be the same." + +"_Both_ of us blind!" exclaimed the colonel, with wide-open eyes. +"That would be too good, Mr. Professor." + +"I said only colour-blind," corrected the professor. "There is not the +least doubt that it will turn out to be so." + +And he carried the opinions of nearly all present with him. It seemed, +indeed, to be the only feasible solution of the difficulty; and so the +gentlemen said to each other as they dispersed. + +"I promised to take you in to see my wife," whispered Mr. Lake to the +man of science, arresting him as he was departing. + +Clara was sitting in an easy-chair, a shawl on her shoulders; but she +looked up brightly when the professor entered. If the old feeling of +secure happiness had not come back again, a portion of it had; and she +said to everybody that she was getting well. Mary Jupp was with her. +They had felt half scared at the thought of encountering familiarly so +renowned a man. He turned out to be a very shy and simple one--in +manners, at least; and Miss Jupp, in the revulsion of relieved +feeling, nearly talked him deaf. + +"She's a pretty thing, that young man's wife," observed the professor +to Mrs. Macpherson, when he had got back to Guild. "But I'd not like +to take an insurance on her life." + +"I never knew you had turned doctor, prefessor." + +"It does not require a doctor's eye to see when a blossom's delicate, +Betsy. And those delicate blossoms want a vast deal of care." + +The strange opinion avowed by Dr. Macpherson, that the matter which +had been puzzling the world so long, would turn out to be a case of +colour-blindness, excited the wonder of the simple country people. In +these rural districts men are content to live without science, and +cannot well understand it when it is brought home to them. This +opinion, nevertheless, coming from so great an authority, obtained +weight with all, causing some commotion; and it was resolved to test +the sight of the unfortunate driver, Cooper. Colonel West proposed, +half jokingly, half seriously, that his own eyes should also be +tested. It would set the matter at rest in his mind, he said. Mrs. +West devoutly wished she could be present, and see the solution of +what had been hitherto inexplicable. "I'd used to tell that husband of +mine he couldn't see colours," she exclaimed to a select audience, +"but I didn't really suppose it was so; I thought he was careless and +stupid." + +On the evening fixed for the test, those concerned in it assembled at +the station of Coombe Dalton. Matthew Cooper came from Katterley in +obedience to the summons sent for him. Colonel West, Mr. Lake, Oliver +Jupp, the coroner, and some of the jury were present: and others also +with whom we have had nothing to do. + +The instant that Professor Macpherson cast his eyes on Cooper's face, +he found his anticipation verified. The man laboured under the defect +of colour-blindness, in even a greater degree than Colonel West. + +They proceeded to the trial. Lamps of various colours were in +readiness, and the Professor was constituted master of the ceremonies. +He commenced his task by running up a light to the signal-post. +Colonel West and Cooper stood a little forward; the coroner and other +interested people, official and otherwise, behind; the mob behind +them; all at a convenient distance from the lights. + +"What light is that?" asked Dr. Macpherson of the two who were on +trial, amidst breathless silence. + +A momentary pause. Colonel West and Cooper turned their eyes up to the +raised lamp; the crowd turned theirs. + +"It's green," said the colonel. + +"It's red," said Cooper. + +And there arose a general laugh. For the lamp was blue. + +Two lamps were next run up. + +"What are they?" was the demand + +A dead silence ensued. _Neither Cooper nor the colonel could tell_. + +"I ask what are the colours of these two lamps?" repeated the +professor. + +"I think they are green and white," hazarded Cooper, at length. + +"And I say they are red and blue," cried the colonel. + +They were white and blue. + +Then the four lamps were exhibited, green, red, white, and blue, and +the mistakes made by both essayists kept the platform in a roar. The +colonel did tell which was the white--but it was probably more of a +guess than a certainty. They could distinguish a "difference," they +said, between two or more colours when exhibited at once, but were +unable to state what that difference was. Both of them were honestly +anxious that the test should be fully carried out, and answered to the +utmost of their ability. Various colours were exhibited, sometimes two +of nearly the same shade: it all came to the same. Long before the +experiment came to an end, the fact had been fully established that +both Colonel West and Matthew Cooper laboured under the defect of +colour-blindness. + +"Cooper," said Oliver Jupp, in a good-natured tone, "they must never +make an engine-driver of you again." + +"Well, I don't know, sir," returned Cooper, who seemed very +chapfallen, "if it's true what this strange gentleman says, why--I +suppose it is true. But I hope they'll make something else of me; I +know I am keen enough at most things. If a man is deficient in one +line, he may be all the quicker in another." + +"Now you have given utterance to a truism, without perhaps knowing +it," interposed the professor, cheerily. "Be assured that where a +defect does exist, it is amply made up for by the largeness of some +other gift. Never fear that an intelligent man, like you, will want +employment, because you are found not suited to the one they placed +you on." + +"About the worst they could have given him, as it turns out," remarked +Oliver Jupp, as he stood aside with the professor out of the hearing +of others. "An engine-driver ought, of all men, to be able to +distinguish colours." + +"There are some of our engine-drivers who do not, though," was the +reply, as the professor cautiously lowered his voice. "Several of our +worst accidents have occurred from this very fact." + +"Do you think so?" + +"I know it. It is a more frequent defect than would be thought, this +absence of the organ of colour, but it is one to which little +attention has been hitherto given; a subject that with some excites +ridicule. A company engaging an engine-driver would as soon think of +testing his capacity for eating a good dinner, as that of being able +to distinguish signal lights. Most essentially necessary is it, +though, that drivers, present or future, should undergo the +examination." + +"It seems so to me," said Oliver. "And always will seem so--after this +night's experiment." + +"And until such examination is made general, I should change the form +of the signal lamps," remarked Dr. Macpherson. "Let the safety signal +be of one uniform shape, and small; let the red, or danger signal, be +of as different a shape as can be made, and large; so different that +it could never fail to catch the eye. For, look you, a head deficient +in the organ of colour will usually have that of form very much +developed: and if a driver could not see the light, he might the form: +and so save his train." + +"Quite right," said. Oliver. + +"In many of the railway calamities we read of, you find that a +difference of testimony exists as to the colour of the signal +exhibited. One side or the other is supposed to swear falsely; just as +it has been in this case. But for the testimony of Colonel West, the +jury would have returned a verdict against Cooper at once, and +convicted him of falsehood. But rely upon it, the cause, generally +speaking, of these conflicting and painful cases lies not in false +swearing, but in colour-blindness." + +So concluded the professor. And so was concluded the long-adjourned +puzzle that had set Coombe Dalton together by the ears. Once more the +inquest was called for the last time; and the jury returned a verdict +of "Accidental death." In the face of the proved defect in Cooper's +capacity for distinguishing the different signals, how could they with +justice punish him? He was sent forth, a free man so far, but +discharged from his employment to begin the world again. + +Now, my friendly readers, the above is a bit of honest truth; a +fact from the past. It may be that you will not believe it; may +feel inclined to cavil at it. But search cases out and mark for +yourselves. Blindness to colour is a far more common defect than the +world suspects: it has existed--and does exist--in some of the +railway-engine guards and drivers. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +Mary Jupp's Explosion. + + +A frosty day in December. Time had gone on, winter had come in: the +seasons go their round, whatever the world may be doing. + +How grew Clara Lake? Better? Well, she did not seem to grow much +better; at any rate, she was not well, and the old doctor at +Katterley, who had known her constitution from infancy, appeared +puzzled. She dressed, as in her days of health, and went about the +house: on fine days would go out for a walk in the sunshine: but she +remained weak and debilitated, and could not get rid of her cough. + +Compared to the dangerous attack she had at Guild, of course her +present state seemed to be a vast improvement. On first coming home, +the change for the better appeared to be marvellous; and Mr. Lake, +never seeing anything but the bright side of things, congratulated +himself that she was well again. The improvement did not go on as it +ought to have gone; but the falling off was so gradual, the increasing +degrees of weakness were so imperceptible, that he neither saw nor +suspected either. Had any one told him his wife was in a bad way, he +had simply stared in amazement. Latterly the inertness, the seeming +debility had certainly made itself apparent to him, but only as a dim +idea; so little importance did he attach to it, that he set it all +down to apathy on his wife's part, and chided her for not "rousing +herself." He did not mean to be unkind; never think that of him; for +his wife he would have gone through fire and water, as the saying +runs; but he was light, unobservant by nature, and careless. + +He was enjoying himself immensely. Chiefly dividing his leisure time +between Katterley and Guild. To-day he would be at home with his wife, +tomorrow with Lady Ellis; the affectionate husband to the one, saying +soft nothings (it must be supposed) to the other. Of course he never +went for the sake of seeing my lady; certainly not; there was an +excuse ever ready. Mrs. Chester had given him this commission, and he +must go and report to her; or Mrs. Chester had given him the other; or +she wanted to consult him on her affairs, which were going downwards; +or he went over to escort some of the Jupps; or he had business with +his tailor; for he had fallen into a freak to employ one who lived at +Guild. On one plea or another, a plausible excuse for taking him to +Guild never failed. + +The fault of this lay partially with Mrs. Chester. Nearly at her wits' +end lest Lady Ellis, wearied with the monotony of the house, should +leave her; plainly seeing that Mr. Lake's visits were the sole +attraction that kept her, Mrs. Chester invented demands upon him to +draw him over to Guild. That the confidential footing on which he and +Lady Ellis continued was scarcely seemly for a married man, Mrs. +Chester completely ignored. She shut her eyes to it; just as she had +shut them in the days when Clara was at Guild. I am telling the simple +truth of the woman, and things took place exactly as I am relating +them. What mattered it to Mrs. Chester whether the wife's feelings +were pained, outraged, so long as her own ends were served? Clara was +at a safe distance, seeing nothing; and, after all, it was but a bit +of passing nonsense between them--there was no real wrong, reasoned +Mrs. Chester in her sophistry. "What the eye does not see the heart +cannot rue." + +"But Mr. Lake ought not to have given way to her," remonstrates the +upright reader. Of course he ought not, everybody knows that; but +he liked the pastime. Lady Ellis made herself uncommonly attractive +to him, and it never occurred to him to see that she ought not to +have done so. She was exacting now; saying to him "You must come +tomorrow," or "You must come the next day." They rode together and +walked together as before; not so much, because it was winter weather; +and they strolled out in the wide gardens in the dim afternoons, and +sat alone very much in the drawing-room by twilight. + +Unfortunately these pleasant arrangements were not kept from Clara. If +she had partially forgotten her jealousy upon returning home, her +husband's constant visits to Guild, and the whispers reaching her from +thence, brought it back in all its unhappy force. She was not told +purposely. Of the Jupps, the only one whose eyes were open to the +flirtation going on--that is, to a suspicion that it was deeper than +it ought to be, considering that Mr. Lake had a wife--was the eldest +of them, Mary. She held her tongue. But the others, after a day spent +at Guild, would jokingly allude in Clara's hearing to the soft hours +spent together by him and Lady Ellis, and tell her she ought to keep +her husband in better order. They meant nothing. Had Clara been there +she might have thought far less of it than she was doing; incertitude +always increases suspicion, just as jealousy makes the food it feeds +on. So Mrs. Lake sat at home with her cough, and her increasing +weakness, and her miserable torture; conscious of little save one +great fact, that her husband was perpetually at Guild. Had he gone +more openly, as it were, without framing (as he invariably did) some +plausible plea for the journey, she had thought less. What could Clara +do? Could she descend to say to him, you shall not go there? No; she +suffered in silence; but it was killing her. + +A bright December morning, clear and frosty, Mrs. Lake was seated at +the window in their comfortable room, making tiny little flannel +petticoats. There was a good deal of distress in Katterley, and she +was intending to give warm garments to sundry poor half-naked +children. Stooping over the work, her cheeks had acquired their hectic +tinge, seen frequently now, otherwise the face was pale and thin; the +fingers were attenuated. Mr. Lake, who had been looking at the +newspaper, reading occasional scraps of news from it to his wife, rose +from his chair by the fire and stretched himself. + +"How busy you are, little wife! Who on earth are all those small +things for?" + +"The poor children in the cottages by the brick-fields. They are so +badly off, Robert," she added, glancing up, with a pleading look. "I +could not help doing something for them." + +"All right, my dear; do whatever you like. Only, don't over-work +yourself." + +"There's no fear of that. Elizabeth will do part of them; and Mary +Jupp is coming to help me." + +"What a lovely day it is for December!" he added, looking at the +sparkling sunlight. + +"Very. It almost tempts me to go out." + +"I will take you tomorrow, Clara; I must go to Guild today." + +Mrs. Lake resumed her work with trembling fingers. "Penelope's watch +is at Van Buren's. I promised faithfully to take it to her today." + +"Are there no watchmakers at Guild, that Mrs. Chester should send her +watch to Katterley?" + +"I don't know. I brought it to him at her request a fortnight ago. Van +Buren has a great name in his trade, you know." + +As he spoke he looked at his own watch; it was time to depart. + +"Shall you be home to dinner, Robert?" + +"No. But I shall to tea. I shall be in by the seven train. Good-bye, +Clary." + +She raised her face with its crimson hectic colour, the result of +emotion, to receive his farewell kiss. Its loveliness could but strike +him. + +"How well you are getting to look, my darling," he said, tenderly. + +And it would no doubt have astonished Mr. Lake excessively could he +have glanced back at his wife through the garden and the walls of the +house as he went off, gaily whistling. Dropping her work on the floor, +she fell into a storm of sobs in her utter self-abandonment. Miss Jupp +came in, and so found her. + +"Clara! _Clara!_" + +Up she got: but to affect indifference was an impossibility. Mary +Jupp, greatly shocked, took the sorrowful face in her sheltering arms. + +"Tell me what it is, Clara. Open your poor little heart to me, my +dear. I am older than you by many years, and have had trouble myself. +Where's your husband?" + +"Gone to Guild." + +"Oh," said Miss Jupp, shortly, who had her private opinion on many +things. "Well, dear, he has got a nice day for it." + +Clara dried her eyes and stifled her sobs, and sat down to work again. + +"I am so stupid," she said, in a tone of apology. "Since my illness I +don't feel strong; it makes me cry sometimes." + +Mary Jupp said no more, perhaps wisely. She took her things off and +remained the day. And Mr. Lake got home, not by seven at night, but by +the last train. + +Christmas approached, and Mrs. Lake got thinner and weaker. Still her +husband suspected nothing amiss. She rose in the morning, went through +her duties, such as they were, and had a bright colour. How was he, an +unobservant man by nature and habit, to detect that it was all wrong? +Had he suspected the truth, none would have been more anxiously +troubled than he. + +It was in Clara Lake's nature to conceal what was amiss. With these +reticent temperaments, a great grief touching the heart, a grief unto +death, never can be spoken of. At the last, perhaps, when hours are +numbered, but not always then. _He_ saw no signs of it: the low +spirits, the nervous weakness were given way to when alone: never +before him. Except that she had grown strangely still and quiet, he +saw no alteration. She tried to be cheerful, and succeeded often. + +So the days, as I have said, glided on, bringing the end nearer and +nearer. Mr. Lake went on his heedless way, and she sat at home and did +silent battle with the anguish that was killing her. Her history is +drawing to a close. The world, going round in its hard, matter-of-fact +reality, is apt to laugh at such stories; but they are taking place, +for all that, in some of its nooks and corners. + +One day, when it wanted but three or four to Christmas, Mr. Lake +tempted his wife into the greenhouse to see his winter plants. She was +more cheerful than customary--talked more; an artificial renovation +had brought back some of the passing strength. + +"Clary, I have promised to spend Christmas-day with Penelope." + +A sudden rush of colour to her wasted cheeks, a pause, and a response +that came forth faintly. + +"Have you?" + +"She said how dull it would be for us at home, and would not take a +denial. You will be able to go?" + +"I go!" She glanced at him in surprise, and shook her head. + +"Why not?" + +"I am too ill." + +Mr. Lake felt annoyed. The proposed expedition had been presenting +itself to his mind in a very agreeable light: for his wife to set her +face against it, whether on the plea of ill-health or any other plea, +would be especially provoking. + +"My dear, I tell you what it is," he said in a voice that betrayed his +temper, "you will fancy yourself ill and lie-by and stay at home, +until it ends in your being ill." + +"Do you think I am well?" + +"You are not strong; but if you would rouse yourself, and go more out, +and shake off fancies, you would soon become so. An illness, such as +yours was in the autumn, leaves its weakening effects behind it as a +matter of course; but there's no sense in giving way to them." + +"I go out sometimes." + +"Just for a walk or so; that does little good. What you want is +cheerful society; change. You have not been once to Guild since we +came home." + +"You make up for it, then; you are there often enough." + +She could not help the retort; it seemed to slip from her tongue +unguided. Mr. Lake kicked out at a broken pot. + +"Something or other is always happening to take me there. Mrs. Chester +loads me with commissions, and I don't like to refuse to execute +them." + +They went in. Mr. Lake returned to the charge. + +"You will go on Christmas-day, Clary, won't you? Penelope is preparing +for us." + +"No; I am not well enough. And if I were, I should prefer to be at +home. Say no more," she added almost passionately interrupting what he +was about to urge. "You ought not to wish me to go there." + +A long silence. "I shall go. I must. I can't get off it." + +She did not speak. + +"What is to be done, Clara? It will never do for me to spend +Christmas-day there, and you to spend it at home." And he finished the +clause by breaking out, half-singing, half muttering, with the lines +of a popular ditty that our childhood was familiar with-- + + + "To-morrow is our wedding-day, and all the world would stare + If wife should dine at Edmonton, and I should dine at Ware." + + +She sat with her hands folded before her, and did not immediately +answer. If _he_ could not tell what was to be done, or what ought to +be done, she would not. Mr. Lake looked at her and waited. + +"You must do as you think _right_," she said, laying a slight stress +upon the word. "I am too unwell to be anywhere but at home on +Christmas-day." + +Mr. Lake left the room, whistling to hide his anger. Had he possessed +the worst wife in the world he had never reproached or quarrelled with +her. Some men _cannot_ be actively unkind to women, and he was one. He +thought her very obstinate, unreasonably so, and said to himself that +he would go to Guild. If Clara did not come to her senses beforehand +and accompany him, his going without her would bring her to them +after. Not another word was said between them; each seemed to avoid +the subject. + +Christmas-day dawned, cloudy but tolerably fine. Mr. Lake was going to +Guild. Not doing exactly as he thought _right_, for his conscience was +giving him a sharp twinge or two, but following the bias of his +inclination, which urged him into the sunshine of my Lady Ellis's +smiles. Clara felt worse that morning, dreadfully weak and languid, +but she put on her things to attend church. Mr. Lake went with her, +and they sat out the service together. At its termination he rose to +quit the church; she remained. + +"Shall you not be too tired with the long service, Clara?" he +whispered. "You had better leave it until another opportunity." + +"Please don't! let me stay." + +There was something in the pleading words--in the pleading up-turned +glance of the wan face, that struck upon him as being strange, leaving +a momentarily unpleasant impression. He never stayed the sacrament +himself, and went out. + +She gathered herself into the corner of their high, broad, +old-fashioned pew, and knelt down, leaning her arms and head on the +seat. An intense weariness was upon her frame and spirit; she did not +feel things as keenly as she used--it was as if the world were +drifting away from her. Her soul was longing for the comfort of the +approaching rite--for its _comfort_. Ah, my friends, we kneel +periodically at the altar, and take the bread and wine, and hope that +we return comforted and refreshed. Believe me, it is but those from +whom the comfort of this world has utterly departed who can indeed +realize what that other comfort is, and how great our need of it. Only +when earth and its interests fail us, when the silver cord is loosed, +the golden bowl broken--in that hour do we desire the rest from +travail, as a yearning longing. That hour had come for Clara Lake: she +knelt there, feeling that earth had no longer a place for her,--the +home above was ready for her,--the Redeemer at hand to welcome her, +and take her to God. + +She walked home quietly, a dim consciousness upon her that it might be +the last time she should partake of the sacrament here. It was not far +off two o'clock, and Mr. Lake was walking about, all impatience, for +his train started at five minutes past. She had thought he would be +gone. + +"I waited for you, Clary. _Won't_ you come with me?" + +"Indeed I cannot." + +"Then it's a case of Johnny Gilpin." + +With a farewell to his wife, full of paraded affection, Mr. Lake took +himself off to the station, telling his wife to be sure and eat a good +dinner and drink everybody's health in champagne, including his and +her own. + +In spite of the inward peace that was hers, she was feeling terribly +dispirited. A fond thought had delusively whispered that, after all, +perhaps he might not go. She remembered the epoch of her dream; how he +had stayed at home then in tender consideration of her wishes. Things +were altered now. + +At three o'clock she sat down to dinner, cutting herself a small slice +from the turkey placed before her. When the sauces were brought round +she simply shook her head. She had no appetite: an oppressive feeling +of bitter grief sat on her spirit; the tears dropped on her plate +silently, and she could not control them. + +Presently she laid down her knife and fork, the little bit of meat +only half eaten. Elizabeth ventured to remonstrate. + +"I can't swallow it; it is like dry chips in my throat." + +"And no wonder, ma'am: the meat's dry by itself. And such delicious +bread-sauce and gravy that's here." + +Sauce or no sauce, gravy or no gravy, Mrs. Lake could not eat. They +brought in the pudding. She cut it, eat a mouthful, and, sent it away +again. + +Leaving her to her solitary dessert--for her a mere matter of +form--the servants sat down to their own dinner. Some short time +had elapsed, when Elizabeth thought she heard a noise in the +dining-parlour, and went in to see if her mistress wanted anything. A +cry of alarm burst from the girl as she opened the door: Mrs. Lake was +lying on the carpet. + +Whether she had fainted--whether she had been crossing the room and +fell over anything--could not then be ascertained. As the servants +raised her, a thin stream of blood issued from her mouth. Nearly +beside themselves with terror, they laid her on the sofa, and +Elizabeth ran for the doctor. She had to pass Mr. Jupp's house, and on +her return it occurred to Elizabeth to call and ask to see Miss Jupp. +That young lady came out to her from the dining-room, her mouth full +of turkey. + +"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, half petrified at the news. "Burst a +blood-vessel! Dying! Is any one with her besides Mr. Lake?" + +"He is not with her--there's nobody with her," answered Elizabeth. +"That's why I made bold to disturb you, miss. He is gone off to dine +at Mrs. Chester's." + +Catching up a garden hat and woollen shawl that hung close at hand, +Mary Jupp flung them on without a moment's pause for consideration, +and started at a gallop down the street. The worthy shopkeepers, +standing at their sitting-room windows, saw the transit with +amazement, and thought the eldest Miss Jupp had gone suddenly mad. She +was in the house before Dr. Marlow: his old steps were slow at the +best--hers fleet. Mrs. Lake had broken a vessel on the chest or lungs. + +"There is no immediate danger, as I hope," said the old doctor in Miss +Jupp's ear; "but her husband ought to be here." Mary looked at her +watch, and found that she had just time to catch a train. + +But that Mary Ann Jupp was a strong-minded female, she might not have +cared to go a journey on Christmas-day in the guise she presented. It +may be questioned if she as much as gave a thought to her attire, +except to remember that there was no time to go home and change +it. In addition to being strong-minded, she was also an exceedingly +upright-minded, right-feeling young woman, and had for a long while +past greatly condemned what was going on--the absurd intimacy between +Mr. Lake and Lady Ellis, and his consequent neglect of his wife. _Her_ +eyes had been open to it if nobody else's had; and Mary Jupp, in her +impulsive way, had threatened herself that she should "one day have it +out with the lot." That day had come. + +Very considerably astonished was Mr. Lake to find himself burst in +upon by Mary Jupp. Mrs. Chester and Lady Ellis looked up in amaze. +They had dined together, a family party, and Mrs. Chester's children, +with Anna and the two Clapperton girls, who were guests that day, had +retired to another room to make what noise they pleased, leaving the +trio round the comfortable fire, wine and good things on the table +behind them. Miss Jupp walked in without notice or ceremony. Her old +red woollen shawl had jagged ends and a slit; her brown hat, white +once, was vastly disreputable, and had a notch in the brim. Excited +and out of breath, having run all the way from Guild station, she +walked straight up to Mr. Lake and spoke. "Would you see your wife +before she dies?" + +He had risen and stood in consternation. Mrs. Chester rose. _She_ sat +still, calmly equable, listening and looking. Mr. Lake's lips turned +white as he asked Miss Jupp for an explanation. + +It was given in a sharp, ringing tone. Mrs. Lake had been found on the +floor in her solitary dining-room, and when they lifted her up blood +issued from her mouth. A vessel of some sort had given way. Dr. Marlow +was with her, and said that Mr. Lake ought to be found. "Will you go +to her?" asked the young lady as she finished her recital; "or shall I +go back and take word that you will not?" + +"Why do you say that to me?" he asked with emotion. + +"My dear Miss Jupp!" struck in Mrs. Chester, in a voice of +remonstrance. + +"Why do I say it to you?" retorted Mary Jupp, in her storm of angry +indignation. "It is time some one said it to you. You have been +killing her by inches: yes, I speak to all of you," she added, turning +about upon them. "You have been killing his wife by inches: you, +Angeline Ellis, with your false and subtle snares; and you, Penelope +Chester, with your complacent winking at sin. He is weak and +foolish--look at him, as he stands there in his littleness!--but he +would scarcely have been wicked, had not you drawn him to it. You +wonder that I can thus speak out"--drowning some interrupted words of +Mrs. Chester's--"is it right for me to be silent, a hypocritical +glosser over of crime, when she is dying? I am an English gentlewoman, +with a gentlewoman's principles about me, and I hope some Christian +ones: it behoves such to speak out sometimes." + +"You are mad," gasped Mrs. Chester. + +"_You_ have been mad, to allow this conduct in your house--folly, +frivolity, much that is bad going on under your very eyes. Had your +brother been a single man, it might have been deemed excusable by +some: never by me: but he had a fair young wife, and you deliberately +set to work to injure her. You did, Penelope Chester: you knew quite +well what you were doing: and to encourage ill by winking at it, is +the same thing as committing it. I say nothing more to _you_," she +added, turning upon Lady Ellis with ineffable scorn. "You may remember +certain words you said to me regarding Mr. Lake and his wife, the +first afternoon you came here: I did not understand them then; I do +now; and I know that, in that first hour of your meeting, you were +laying your toils around him to gain his admiration and wean him from +his wife. If you retain a spark of feeling, of conscience, the +remembrance of Clara Lake, when the grave shall have closed on her, +will be as a sharp iron, ever eating into it." + +Lady Ellis rose, her jet-black eyes flashing. "Who are you, that you +should dare thus insult me?" + +Mary Jupp dropped her tone to one of calmness--mockingly calm it was, +considering the scorn that mingled with it. "I have told you who I am: +an English gentlewoman amidst gentlewomen: and with such I should +think you will never henceforth presume to consort." + +Mr. Lake had made no further retort, good or bad. While they were +speaking, he took out his watch, saw that he had time, too much of it, +to catch the next train, and quitted the room. Mary Jupp was +following. Up started Mrs. Chester. + +"If Clara is in the sad state you describe, Mary Jupp, I ought to go +to her." + +Mary Jupp turned short round and faced them. "I do not pretend to any +right of control over your actions; but, were I you, I would at least +allow my brother to be alone with his wife in her last hours. You have +come between them enough, as it is, Mrs. Chester. The sight of you +cannot be pleasant to her." + +She quitted the room, condescending to give no farewell to either of +those she left in it, and followed in the steps of Mr. Lake, who was +already on his way to the station, buttoning his coat as he went, +taking care not to catch him up. On the platform, as the train was +dashing in, he spoke to her. + +"Your accusations have been harsh, Mary." + +"What has your conduct been?" she sharply retorted. "I loved your +wife, and I feel her unhappy fate as keenly as though it had fallen on +one of my own sisters. The world may spare you; it may flatter and +caress you, for it is wonderfully tender to these venial sins of +conduct; but you cannot recall to life her whom you vowed before God to +love and to cherish." + +"Step in. The train is going." + +"Not into that carriage--with you. Others are in it, and I might be +saying things that they would stare at. My temper is up, today." + +"First class, miss?" cried an impatient porter "There's only that +there one first-class carriage on." + +And Mary Jupp walked away; opened the door of another, which was a +third-class, and took her seat in it. + +Thus they reached Katterley. Mr. Lake came to the carriage to assist +her out, but she simply put his arm away. Her face looked awfully +severe as the gaslights fell upon it. + +"One moment," he said, arresting her as she was passing. "I do not +know what turn your suspicions can have taken; a very free one, as it +seems to me. Let me assure you that you are mistaken. On my word of +honour as a man there has been nothing; nothing wrong. In justice to +Lady Ellis I am bound to say this." + +"Justice to Lady Ellis! Don't talk to me about justice to Lady Ellis," +was the young lady's retort. Her temper, as she said, was up, that +day. "Think of justice to your wife, rather. You are either a fool or +a knave, sir." + +"Thank you, Miss Jupp." + +"Nothing wrong!" she repeated, returning to the charge. "I don't know +what you mean. What do you call wrong? You have been tied to that +woman's skirts these five months; lavishing your money and your time +upon her; and leaving your wife alone to die. If that's not wrong, I +should like to know what is." + +He made no reply; almost too confounded to do it. + +"I don't blame you, Robert Lake, as much as I blame them," she took +occasion to say as they were parting. "You are a vain, thoughtless, +empty-headed fellow, made so, I believe, by your enforced idleness; +and they, those two women, are old and crafty. Mrs. Chester was +serving her self-interest; the other her unjustifiable woman's vanity. +You yielded yourself a willing prisoner to the birdlime spread under +your feet, and now your folly has come home with interest. _I_ saw +your wife was dying of the pain, if you did not." + +Without another word, whether of adieu or apology, she brushed past +him up the street; and Mr. Lake turned to his home, something like a +beaten dog that dare not lift its tail from between its legs. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +The Dream worked out. + +Mrs. Lake was better. The bleeding was stopped, the doctor gone, and +she seemed comfortable. There was less danger than Miss Jupp had +supposed, for the blood-vessel which had broken proved to be only a +small one on the chest--not the lungs. To her husband it appeared +incomprehensible that she should be in any danger at all: his mind had +never admitted the possibility of it. + +He was all alive to it now. As long as she lay in bed he scarcely left +her chamber. To talk with her much was not allowed, but he sat there, +holding her hand, looking into her eyes with the old love in his. What +his reflections were, or how great his self-reproaches, was best known +to himself. When these men, essentially kind and tender by nature, +have to indulge in such remorse, be assured it is not very light. He +could not bring himself to believe that any conduct of his had +contributed to his wife's illness; still less that he had caused it. +That was a flight of fancy not easy to him to understand; but he saw +now how ill she must have been all along, and bitterly regretted that +he had left her so much alone. Rather than have _wilfully_ ill-treated +her, he would have forfeited his life. His love had come back to him, +now that it was too late--it may be more appropriate to say his senses +had come back to him. + +In a day or two she grew so much better that she was allowed to leave +her bed for a small sitting-room on the same floor, carried into it by +him. Late in the afternoon, he left her comfortably lying back in the +easy chair, and inclined to sleep. Taking his hat, he walked out. + +His errand was to the doctor. His wife seemed to assume that she +should not recover; Miss Jupp and the servants the same; for all he +saw, she might be well in a week or two: and he went to put the +question. Dr. Marlow had said nothing particular to him of her state, +one way or the other, and he could not question him before his wife. + +Dr. Marlow was at home, and came to him at once. The two families had +been very intimate; on familiar terms one with the other. Mr. Lake +plunged into the matter at once, speaking of the danger other people +seemed to apprehend, and of his own inability to see it. + +"Is she, or is she not, in peril?" he asked. "Tell me the plain +truth." + +The old man laid his hand upon the speaker's shoulder. "What if the +truth should be painful? Will you hear it--the whole of it?" + +"I am come to hear it." + +"Then I can only tell you that she is in danger; and I fear that a +little time will see the end." + +Very rapidly beat his pulses as he listened. Repentant pulses. A whole +lifetime of repentance seemed, in that moment, to be in every one of +them. + +"But what is killing her? What is it?" + +"The primary cause is of course that cold she caught at Guild. It laid +hold of her system. Still, I think she might have rallied: many a +time, since she came home, I have deemed her all but well again. You +ought to know best, Master Robert, but to me it appears as though she +had some grievance on her mind, and that it has been working mischief. +I hope you have been a good husband to her, as Joan says to Hodge," +added the doctor, turning from Mr. Lake to take a pinch of snuff. +"Your wife has possessed one of those highly sensitive, rarely-refined +temperaments, that, when joined to a fragile body, an unkind blow +would shatter. I once told you this." + +He made no comment; he was battling with his pain. Dr. Marlow +continued. + +"The body was a healthy body; there was no inherent disease, as I have +always believed, and I cannot see why it should not have recovered; +but the mind seemed to pull it back; two powers, one working against +the other. Between them they have conquered, and will lay her low." + +"Do you call it consumption?" Mr. Lake jerked out. And really the +words were jerked out, rather than fairly spoken. + +"Decidedly not. More of a decline: a waste of the system." + +"Those declines are cured sometimes." + +"Not often: when they fairly set in." + +"Oh, doctor," he cried, clasping the old man's hand, and giving vent +to some of the anguish that was rending him, "try and save her! Save +her for my sake! You don't know the cause I have to ask it." + +"I wish I could--for both your sakes. She is beyond earthly aid." + +They stood looking at each other. Dr. Marlow, willing if possible to +soothe in a degree the blow, resumed. + +"I suppose I must, after all, have been mistaken in her constitution. +When consumption showed itself in her brother, and he died of it, I +watched her all the closer. But I could detect nothing wrong: though +she was always one of those blossoms that a sharp wind would blow +away. The disease was there, we must assume, and I failed to detect +it." + +"You say--you said but now--that it is not consumption," returned Mr. +Lake, speaking sharply in his pain. + +"Neither is it. But when unsoundness is inherent in the constitution +it does not always show itself in the same form. Sometimes it comes +out in one shape, sometimes in another." + +There was no more to be said; nothing further to be learnt. Mr. Lake +returned home with his burden of knowledge, wondering how much of this +dread fiat Clara suspected, how much not. The shades of evening were +on the room when he entered it, imparting to it a semi-gloom, but the +rays of the fire-light fell on his wife's wasted face. Stirring the +coals into a bright blaze, he sat down by her chair, and took her hand. +Her wasted fingers entwined themselves fondly with his. + +"I know where you have been, Robert. And I guess for what purpose." + +"Ah. You are wise, my little wife. I went out to get a breath of fresh +air." + +"You have been to Dr. Marlow's. Margaret Jupp called, and she said she +saw you turn into his house. You went to ask him whether I should get +well. He told you No: for he knows I shall not. Was it not so?" + +She leaned a little forward to look at him. He suddenly clasped her to +his breast with a gush of passionate tenderness, and his hot tears +fell upon her face. + +"Oh, my darling! my darling!" + +"It must be," she softly whispered. "There is no appeal against it +now." + +"Clara, if we are indeed to part, at least let perfect confidence be +restored between us," he resumed, controlling his emotion with an +effort. "What is the trouble that has been upon you?" + +"The trouble?" + +"Some of them are hinting at such a thing," he said, thinking of the +doctor and of Miss Jupp: "I must know from you what it is." + +"Need you ask?" + +"Yes. For I cannot comprehend it. My darling, you must tell me." + +"If _she_ had never come between us, I do not think I should have been +ill now." + +"I _cannot_ understand it," he repeated, a wailing sound in his +emphasized words. "I have been foolish, thoughtless, wrong: though not +to the extent you may possibly have imagined. But surely, taking it at +its worst, that was not cause sufficient to bring you to death." + +"Your love left me for another. It seemed to me--it seemed to me--more +than I could bear." + +Partly from the agitation the topic called up, partly that she was in +hesitation how to frame her words, the pauses came. It was as if she +would fain have said more. + +"My love? oh no. It was but a passing--" the word at his tongue's end +was "fancy," but he substituted another--"folly. Clara! do not give me +more than my share of blame; that will be heavy enough, Heaven knows. +The old man says that the violent cold you caught at Guild, was the +primary cause of decay: surely that cannot be charged upon me." + +She was silent a few moments--but, as he had said, there ought to be +full confidence between them now--and she had been longing to tell him +the whole unreserved truth; a longing that had grown into a sick +yearning. + +"I will tell you now how I caught that cold. Do you remember the +night?" + +"Not particularly." He was of a forgetful nature, and the events of +the night had only been those of many another. + +"_Don't_ you remember it? When you were walking with--her--in the +shrubbery in the raw twilight.--" + +Mr. Lake slightly shook his head in the pause she made. Twilight +shrubbery walks were lying in numbers on his conscience. + +"She complained of cold, and you went to get her shawl out of the +summer-house, leaving her seated on the bench in front of the green +alcove. She sang a song to herself: I think I could repeat its words +now. You brought the shawl and folded it lovingly around her, and +kissed her afterwards, and called her--" + +In great astonishment he raised his wife's face to gaze into it. Where +had she learnt that little episode? Had she dreamt it? He did not ask: +he only stared at her. + +She bent down her head again to its resting-place, and folded her arm +round him in token of forgiveness. "And called her '_My dearest_.' I +was standing there, Robert, behind the bench. I saw and heard all." + +Not a word spoke he. He hardly dared to accept the loving sign of +pardon, or to press her to him. Had she glanced up she would have seen +his face in a hot glow. These little private episodes may be very +gratifying in the passing, but it is uncommonly disagreeable to find +out that your wife has made a third at them. + +"It was very thoughtless of me to run out from the heated room on that +cold damp night without anything on," she resumed hastily, as if +conscious of the feeling and wishing to cover it "But oh! I was so +unhappy--scarcely, I think, in my senses. I thought you had not +returned from Guild: Fanny came in and said you had been home a long +while and were with her. An impulse took me that I would go and see: I +never did such a thing in my life; never, never, before or since: and +I opened the glass doors and went out. I was half way down the +shrubbery when I heard you coming into it from a cross walk, and I +darted into the green alcove, and stood back to hide myself; not to +spy upon you." + +She paused, but was not interrupted. Mrs. Lake began to hurry over her +tale. + +"So you see that, in a measure, she was the cause of the cold which +struck to me. And then I was laid up; and many a time when you deemed +I should fancy you were out shooting, or had gone to Guild, or +something or other, you were with her. I knew it all. And since we +came home, you have been ever restless to go to her--leaving me +alone--even on Christmas-day." + +Ay: even on Christmas-day. He almost gnashed his teeth, in his +self-condemnation. She, with her impassioned and entire love for him, +with her rare and peculiar temperament that, as the doctor had +observed, a rude blow would destroy! The misery of mind reacting upon +a wasted frame! He no longer wondered why she was dying. + +"Why could you not speak out and tell me this?" + +"But that the world seems to have nearly passed away from me, and that +earthly passions--pride, self-reticence, shame, I mean the shame of +betraying one's dearest feelings, are over--I could not tell you now." + +"But don't you see the bed of remorse you have made for me? Had I +suspected the one quarter of what you tell me you felt, the woman +might have gone to the uttermost ends of the earth, for me. I wish you +had spoken." + +"It might not have prevented it. My belief is that it would not. It +was to be." + +Mr. Lake looked at her. + +"You remember the dream: how it shadowed forth that I was to meet, in +some way, my death through going to Mrs. Chester's." + +"Child! Can you still dwell upon that dream?" + +"Yes. And so will you when the hearse comes here to take me away. +Never was a dream more completely worked out. Not quite yet: it will +be shortly. I have something else to tell you; about it and her." + +Mr. Lake passed his hand across his brow. It seemed to him that he had +heard enough already. + +"The very first moment, when I met Lady Ellis at your sister's, her +eyes puzzled me: those strange, jet-black eyes. I could not think +where I had seen them. They seemed to be familiar to my memory, and I +thought and thought in vain, even when the weeks went on. On this same +night that we are speaking of, I alarmed you by my looks. Mrs. Chester +happened to look at me as I sat by the fire; she called out; and you, +who were at chess with--with her, came up. You all came round me. I +was shaking, and my cheeks were scarlet, somebody exclaimed: I believe +you thought I was seized with an ague-fit. Robert, I was shaking with +fear, with undefined dread: for an instant before, as I sat looking at +her eyes, it flashed into my mind whose eyes they were." + +"Well, whose?" he asked, for she paused. + +"They were those of the man who drove the hearse in my dream," she +whispered in an awestruck tone. "The very same. You must recollect my +describing them to you when I awoke: 'strangely black eyes, the +blackest eyes I ever saw,' though of his face I retained no +impression. It was singular it should have struck upon me then, when I +had been for weeks trying unsuccessfully to get the thread of the +mystery." + +"Oh Clara, my darling, these superstitious feelings are very sad!" he +remonstrated. "You ought not to indulge them." + +"Will you tell me how I could have avoided them? It was not my fault +that the dream came to me: or that the eyes of the driver were _her_ +eyes: or that my death had been induced through going to Mrs. +Chester's. Both you and Mrs. Chester seemed to help me on to it in my +dream: and as surely as the man appeared to drive me to the grave in +the hearse, so has she driven me to it in reality. I wrote out the +dream in full at the time, and you will find the paper in my desk. +Read it over when I am gone, and reflect how completely it has been +fulfilled." + +He was silent. A nasty feeling of superstition was beginning to creep +over himself. + +"Will you let me ask you something?" she whispered, presently. + +He bent his tearful face down upon hers. "Ask me anything." + +"When--I--am--no longer here, shall you marry her?" + +Robert Lake darted up with a tremendous word, almost flinging his +wife's face from him. His anger bubbled over for a few moments: not at +his wife's question, but at the idea it suggested. For remorse was +very strong upon him then; the image of Lady Ellis in consequence +distasteful. + +"Mary _her!_ Her! I would rather take a pistol, and shoot myself +through the heart--and--sin that it implies--I assert it before my +Maker." + +Clara gave utterance to a faint sigh of relief, and unclasped her +arms. "Then you do not love her as you have loved me?" + +He flung himself on his knees before her, and sobbed aloud in his +repentant anguish. She leaned over him endearingly, stroking his face +and his hair. + +"I only wanted to know that. The misery is over now, darling. For the +little while we have to be together, let us be as happy as we used to +be." + +Emotion shook him to the very centre as he listened. Scarcely twice in +a lifetime can a man give way to such. For the little while they had +to be together! Ay. As Mary Jupp had said, he could not recall her back +to life: he could not keep her here to make reparation. + +Mrs. Lake lay back in her chair exhausted. Her husband stood by the +mantelpiece gazing at her with his yearning eyes, hot and feverish +after their tears. Silence had succeeded to the interview of +agitation: these strong emotional storms always bring their reaction. + +A knock at the room door, followed by the entrance of Elizabeth. She +came to say that Mrs. Chester was below, asking if she might come up. +A moment's pause, and Mrs. Lake answered "yes." The impulse to deny it +had been upon her, but she wished to be at peace with all the world. +Mr. Lake, less forgiving than his wife, did not care to meet Mrs. +Chester, and quitted the room to avoid her. In his propensity to blame +somebody else for the past as well as himself, he felt very much +inclined to curse Mrs. Chester. + +But she had been very quick, and encountered him outside the door, +inquiring after his wife in a whisper. Mr. Lake muttered some +unintelligible answer, and passed on. + +"There's a friend in the drawing-room waiting to see you, Robert," she +called after him. + +Now, strange though it may seem, the thought of who the "friend" +really was, did not occur to Mr. Lake. After the explosion of +Christmas-day, brought about by Miss Jupp, he had never supposed that +Lady Ellis would show herself at his house. He went downstairs +mechanically, expecting to see nobody in particular; some acquaintance +might have called. In another moment he stood face to face with +her--Angeline Ellis. The exceeding unfitness of her visit, the bad +taste which it displayed after that public explosion, struck him with +dismay. Perhaps the recent explanation with his wife, their +reconciliation, and his own bitter repentance helped the feeling. He +bit his angry lips. + +She extended to him her delicately-gloved hand, lavender, sewn with +black, and melted into her sweetest smile. But the smiles had lost +their power. He glanced at her coal-black eyes, as they flashed +in the rays of the lamp, remembered the eyes of his wife's dream, +and--shuddered. + +"You have become a stranger to Guild," she said. "Has that mad woman, +Mary Jupp, persuaded you that you will be poisoned if you come?" + +He did not choose to see her proffered hand "I can no longer spare +time from my wife, Lady Ellis: I have spared too much from her." + +The resentful tone struck her with wonder; the cold manner chilled her +unpleasantly: but she smiled yet. + +"Is it really true that your wife is so very ill?" she asked. "The +maid says so. We had news that she was better, recovering fast; and of +course treated Miss Jupp's assertion for what it was worth--as we did +the rest she said." + +Had he been covered with quills like a porcupine every one of them +would have bristled up on end in defence of his wife. Surely her +ladyship should have exercised better judgment an' she wished to win +him back to her. + +Never again! Never again! + +"She is dying," he hoarsely answered; "dying through our folly. I beg +your pardon, my lady," he added, speaking the two last words in, as it +struck her, the refinement of mockery, "it had been better perhaps +that I had said my folly." + +"Folly? Oh!" + +"It has been a folly that will entail upon me a lifetime of +repentance. Were my whole days to be spent in striving to work it off, +as we work off a debt, they could not make atonement. There are +follies that leave their results behind them--a heavy burthen to be +borne afterwards throughout life. Take a seat, I beg, while you wait +for Mrs. Chester." + +He quitted the room; and she compressed her thin lips, which had +turned white, for she fully understood him to imply that he had +quitted herself and the "folly" for ever. Rarely had her ears heard +such truths spoken, and they set on to glow with resentment. She saw +Mr. Lake walk out at the garden gate and up the road, all to avoid +her. Why? She had committed no wrong--as she counted wrong, as the +world counts it: never a woman less likely to commit that than Lady +Ellis. She had but amused herself, and he the same; and she really +could not understand why Mrs. Lake should make a fuss over it. + +Mrs. Chester, meanwhile, seated with Clara, was in her most amiable +mood. That the episode of Christmas-day had taken her aback far more +than it had taken Lady Ellis, was indisputable; but she was one of +those easy-going women who never retain unpleasant impressions long. +Besides, she had her way to make in the world. Before Mr. Lake had +left her house many minutes, Miss Jupp in his wake, she had recovered +her equanimity, and was laughing over the matter with my lady, +assuring her that Mary Jupp was taken with these fits sometimes, and +tried to set the world to-rights--the result of bile. Anything rather +than that Lady Ellis should quit her now, in the depth of winter. They +had come over today, my lady fully understanding and tacitly falling +into her plans, hoping to patch up a reconciliation. He was but a +light-headed fellow at best--turned about any way, as the wind turns a +feather, mentally argued Mrs. Chester; and he was safe not to have +said anything to his wife. + +"You are looking so very much better than I expected, dear Clara. All +you want is complete rest, with good nursing; as I remarked to Anna +Chester the day after Christmas-day, when she came over to inquire +about you. I was glad you saw her. I couldn't come myself--I had one +of my wretched sick-headaches." + +She spoke quickly, running one sentence into another. Clara sat back +in her chair, meek, quiet, calm, a smile of peace upon her face. + +"I should not have asked your husband to dine with us that day without +you," spoke Mrs. Chester, deliberating how to heal breaches--"we +should never have cared to see him at any time unaccompanied by you, +but that you were not able to come." + +Mrs. Lake made no reply. + +"Clara, I must speak out. There's poor Lady Ellis downstairs wanting +to see you. She says she has talked and laughed with Mr. Lake, and is +terribly afraid now that you might not have liked it. She meant +nothing. He is ten years younger than she is. Goodness me, child! you +could never have thought ill of it. Surely you will see her?" + +"I could not talk with her about--about the past," murmured poor +Clara, the hectic cheeks becoming crimson. + +"Good gracious me! who said anything of talking about it with her?" +exclaimed Mrs. Chester. "My dear Clara, she'd not speak of it for the +world. She has not spoken of it to me; but I can see what she feels. +She's so afraid you should reproach her in your heart; she would so +like to be reconciled in spirit. Oh! my dear, there's nothing like +peace." + +With the peace on her own spirit; with the fresh love of her husband +in her heart; with the consciousness that she should soon be with Him +who has enjoined love and peace on earth if we would inherit Heaven, +Clara did not hesitate. Lady Ellis could do her no harm with her +husband now: and a sudden wish for at least a tacit proof of the full +forgiveness she accorded, arose within her. But she did not speak +immediately; and Mrs. Chester was impatient. + +"You would not bear malice, Clara?" + +"I will see Lady Ellis. As to bearing malice, if you only knew how +different it is! All that kind of feeling has passed away from me. I +wish you would note what I say now, Mrs. Chester, and--and repeat it, +should you think it might be acceptable after I am dead. Should +anybody in the world have injured me, intentionally or unintentionally, +I give them my free and full forgiveness, as I hope to be myself +forgiven. I trust we shall meet in Heaven; you, and I, and Lady Ellis, +and all the world, and live together in happy bliss for ever. There's +a great joy upon me when I say this." + +The words were a little different from any anticipated by Mrs. +Chester. She rubbed her face with her handkerchief and stared; and her +tone, as she rejoined, partook in a degree of the solemnity of that +other one. + +"After you are dead, Clara! You are not surely going to die?" + +Mrs. Lake did not answer in words. She looked full at Mrs. Chester +with her clear brown eyes, and the wan face from which the hectic was +fading. + +"Good patience me!" thought that lady, "I hope I shan't dream of her +as she looks now." + +Elizabeth entered with a cup of tea on a waiter. "Here comes my tea," +said Clara. "Would you like some?" + +"Indeed I should: my mouth is quite parched. And poor Lady Ellis? You +will let her drink one, too, here with us, Clara? It will be the seal +of peace." + +"Bring two cups of tea and some bread and butter," said Clara to the +maid in a low tone. Certainly she had not intended to invite the lady +downstairs to tea with her; but Mrs. Chester had put it in a point of +view scarcely rejectable. + +Now Mrs. Chester, crafty and clever, had been drawing largely upon her +own active imagination. It had never occurred to Lady Ellis to wish +for the kiss of peace, or for any token of reconciliation whatsoever. +Therefore when Mrs. Chester brought her up and introduced her to the +room, the two--her ladyship and the dying woman--were inwardly at +cross purposes. + +Nothing of which was betrayed, or likely to be. Lady Ellis's +delicately-gloved hand met that attenuated one in a moment's greeting, +and she sat down with calm composure. A few remarks passed upon +indifferent topics between the three, and Elizabeth came in with the +tea. The next moment another visitor appeared on the scene--Mary Jupp, +shown in by Mr. Lake. To describe their faces of astonishment at +seeing the ladies there, would take the pen of a great artist in +words. Not seeing Lady Ellis downstairs, he thought they had left. +Miss Jupp stood with a stony stare; and her companion bit his annoyed +lips. + +"Come in, Mary; come in." + +Mrs. Lake's invitation bore a hurried pleading sound to Miss Jupp's +ear, as if she had been uneasy in her company, and welcomed the +relief. But for that, the strong-minded lady had turned away again +without leaving behind her so much as a word. She came forward and sat +down. + +"Elizabeth shall bring you some tea." + +"Tea for me!" cried Miss Jupp, bluntly. "I couldn't drink a drop. It +would choke me." + +"Is your throat bad, Mary Jupp?" asked Mrs. Chester. + +"No; only my temper." + +A frightened look in Clara's eyes, a pleading gaze that went right +into Mary Jupp's. The young lady, doing violence to her inclinations, +shut up her month resolutely, and folded her hands upon her lap, and +spoke not another word, good, bad, or indifferent. + +The curious meeting came to an end, brought to a summary close by Mrs. +Chester. That lady, not altogether liking the aspect of affairs, and +privately wishing Miss Jupp at the antipodes, thought it good to take +herself away, and leave, so to say, well alone. Lady Ellis and Clara +Lake shook hands for the last time in life. + +"I wish you well," Clara whispered. + +"Thanks," airily answered my lady. + +Mr. Lake, in the very commonest politeness, went down with them. As +they stood in the garden Mrs. Chester went back to get her muff, and +they waited for her. + +"Are you reconciled to me, Mr. Lake?" asked Lady Ellis. + +"I wish to beg your pardon for aught I may have said that was +unwarrantable," he rejoined. "I had no right to reproach you when the +fault of the past was mine." + +Mrs. Chester came forth, and he held the gate open for them. But my +lady noticed that he did not choose to see her hand when she held it +out. + +My lady gave a little toss to her head. If this was to be the end of +platonic friendships, keep her from them in future. + +And Robert Lake, a whole world of self-condemning bitterness in his +face, leaned on the gate, and looked after them. + + + + + +PART THE SECOND. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +Coastdown. + +Rushing through the streets of London, as if he were rushing for his +life, went a gentleman in deep mourning. It was Robert Hunter. Very +soon after we last saw her, he had followed the hearse that conveyed +his wife to her long home in Katterley churchyard. + +Putting aside his grief, his regret, his bitter repentance, her death +made every difference to him. Had there been a child, the house and +income would have remained his; being none, it all went from him. Of +his own money but little remained: he had been extravagant during the +brief period when he was Lieutenant Hunter, had spent right and left. +One does not do these things without having to pay for it. Mrs. +Chester, going over to offer a condoling visit, heard this, and spoke +out her opinion with her usual want of reserve. She looked upon him as +a man lost. "No," said he, "I am _saved!_ I shall go to work now." +"Hoping to redeem fortune?" she rejoined. "Yes," he said, "and +something else besides." + +Heavily lay the shadow of the past upon Robert Hunter. The drooping +form of his loving and neglected wife, bright with hope once, +mouldering in her grave now, was in his mind always; the years that he +had wasted in frivolity, the money he had recklessly spent. Oh, the +simpleton he was--as he thought now, looking back in his repentance. +When he had become master of a good profession, why did he abandon it +because a little money was left him? To become a gentleman amongst +gentlemen, forsooth; to put away the soiling of his hands; to live a +life of vanity and indolence. Heaven had recompensed him in its own +just way: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. His soldiership +was gone; his wife was gone; money, the greater portion of it, was +gone. Nothing left to him but remembrance, and the ever-present, +bitter sense of his folly. He was beginning life anew: he must go back +to the bottom of the tree of his engineering profession, lower than +where he had left off: he would so begin it and take up his work +daily, and untiringly persevere in it, so as--Heaven helping him--to +atone for the past. Not all the past. The wasted years were gone for +ever; the gentle wife, whom he had surely helped to send to the grave, +could not be recalled to earth. Not so much on his wife were his +musings bent as on the career of work lying before him. He had so +grieved for her in the days before and immediately after her death, +that it seemed as though the sorrow had, in a degree, spent itself, +and reaction set in. If his handicraft's best skill, indifference to +privation, unflagging industry, could redeem the past idleness, he +would surely redeem that. Not in a pecuniary point of view, it was not +of that he thought, but in the far graver one of wasted life. His eyes +were opening a little; he saw how offensive on High must be a life of +mere idle indulgence; a waste of that precious time, short at the +best, bestowed upon him to use. This, this was what he had resolved to +atone for: Heaven helping him, he once more aspirated in the sad but +resolute earnestness of his heart. + +Making an end of his affairs at Katterley, he came to London, +presented himself at the office of the firm where he was formerly +employed, and said he had come to ask for work. They remembered the +clever, active, industrious young man, and were glad to have him +again. And Robert Hunter--dropping his easy life, just as he dropped +the name he had borne in it--entered on his career of toil and +usefulness. + +The spring was growing late when his employers intimated to him that +he was going to be sent to Spain, to superintend some work there. +Anywhere, he answered; he was quite ready, let them send him where +they would. + +On this morning that we see him splashing through the mud of London +improvised by the water carts, he was busy making his preparations for +departure, and was on his way to call on Professor Macpherson. He +wanted some information in regard to the locality for which he was +bound, and thought the professor could supply it. The previous night, +sitting alone in his lodgings, he had been surprised, and rather +annoyed, by the appearance of Mrs. Chester. That lady was in town on +her own business, and found him out. Incautiously he let slip that he +was going on the morrow to Dr. Macpherson's. She seized upon the +occasion to make a visit also. + +At this very moment Mrs. Chester was en route also. Pushing her way +along, inquiring her road perpetually, getting into all sorts of odd +nooks and turnings, she at length emerged on the more open squares of +Bloomsbury, and there she saw her brother, who had been calling at +places on his way, in front of her. + +"You might have waited for me, Robert, I think." + +"I did wait twenty minutes. I came on then. My time is not my own, you +know, Penelope." + +"Have you seen anything of Lady Ellis since you came to London?" +inquired Mrs. Chester, as they walked on together. + +"No, I should not be likely to see her." + +"She is staying in London; she came to it direct when she left me. At +least, she was staying here, but in a letter I had from her she said +she thought of going on a visit to Coastdown. Her plans----" + +"Excuse me, Penelope, I don't care to hear of Lady Ellis's plans." + +"You have grown quite a bear, Robert! That's what work's doing for +you." + +He laughed pleasantly. "I think it is hurry that is doing it for me +this morning, I feel as if I had no time for anything. Number fifteen. +Here we are!" + +It was a commodious house, this one in Bloomsbury, steps leading up to +the entrance. He sent in his card, "Mr. Robert Hunter," and they were +admitted. + +"Lawk a' mercy! Is it you?" exclaimed Mrs. Macpherson, looking first +at the card and then at its owner, as they were shown into a handsome +room, and the professor's lady, in sky-blue silk, and a scarlet +Garibaldi body elaborately braided with black, advanced to receive +them. She did not wear the bird-of-paradise feather, but she wore +something equivalent to it: some people might call it a cap and some a +turban, the front ornament of which, perching on the forehead, was an +artificial bird, with shining wings of green and gold. + +Mrs. Macpherson took a hand of each, shaking them heartily. "And so +you have put away your name?" she said. + +"Strictly speaking, it never was my name," he answered. "It was my +wife's. I had to assume it with her property, but when the property +left me again, I thought it time to drop the name." + +The professor came forward in his threadbare coat, with (it must be +owned) a great stream of some sticky red liquid down the front of it, +for they had fetched him from his experimenting laboratory. But his +smile was bright, his welcome genial. Mrs. Macpherson, whose first +thoughts were always of hospitality, ordered luncheon to be got ready. +Robert Hunter, sitting down between them, quietly told them he had +become a working man again, and where he was going, and what to do. +Mrs. Macpherson heard him with a world of sympathy. + +"It's just one o' them crosses in life that come to a many of us," +remarked she. "Play first and work afterwards! it's out o' the order +of things. But take heart. You've got your youth yet, and you'll grow +reconciled." + +"If you only knew how glad I am to be at work again!" he said, a faint +light of earnestness crossing his face. "My years of idleness follow +me as a reproach--as a waste of life." + +"But for steady attention to my work and studies, I should never have +been able to contribute my poor mite to further the cause of science," +said the professor, meekly, speaking it as an encouragement to Robert +Hunter. + +"If he hadn't stuck at it late and early--burning the candle at both +ends, as 'twere--he'd not have had his ologies at his fingers' tips," +pursued Mrs. Macpherson, who often deemed it necessary to explain more +lucidly her husband's meaning. + +"And so you are about to migrate to Spain?" said the professor. +"You----" + +"He says he's going off to it by rail," interposed Mrs. Macpherson. +"What are the people there? Blacks?" + +"No, no, Betsy; they are white, as we are." + +"I knew a Spanish man once, professor, and he was olive brown." + +"They are dark from the effects of the sun. I thought you alluded to +the race. The radiation of heat there is excessive; and----" + +"That is, it's burning hot in the place," corrected Mrs. Macpherson. +"I wish you joy of it, Mr. Hunter. You'll catch it full, a-laying down +of your lines of rail." + +"I think you have been in Spain?" observed Mr. Hunter to the doctor. + +"I once stayed some months there. What do you say?--that you want some +information that you think I can supply? I hope I can. What is it? +Please to step into my room." + +The professor passed out of the door by which he entered, Mr. Hunter +following him. A short passage, and then they were in the square back +room consecrated to the professor and his pursuits. It was not a +museum, it was not a laboratory, it was not a library, or an aviary of +stuffed birds, or an astronomical observatory; but it was something of +all. Specimens of earth, of rock, of flowers, of plants, of weeds, of +antiquarian walls; of animals, birds, fish, insects; books in cases, +owls in cages; and a vast many more odd things too numerous to +mention. Mrs. Macpherson thought it well to follow them. + +"Law!" said she to Mrs. Chester, "did living mortal ever see the like +o' the place?" + +"What a confused mass of things it is!" was the answer, as Mrs. +Chester's eyes went roving around in curiosity. + +"_He_ says it isn't. He has the face to tell me everything is in its +place, and he could find it in the dark. The great beast there with +its round eyes, is a owl that some of 'em caught and killed when they +went out moralizing into Herefordshire." + +"Not moralizing, Betsy. One of the excursions of the Geological +Society----" + +"It's all the same," interrupted Mrs. Macpherson; and the professor +meekly turned to Mr. Hunter and continued an explanation he was giving +him, a sort of earthenware pipe in his hand. The ladies drew near. + +"You perceive, Mr. Hunter, there is a small aperture for the passing +in of the atmospheric air?" + +"That is, there's a hole where the wind goes out," explained the +professor's wife. + +"By these means, taking the precautions I have previously shown you, +the pressure on the valve may be increased to almost any given extent! +As a natural consequence----" + +"Oh, bother consequences!" cried Mrs. Macpherson; "I'm sure young +Robert Hunter don't care to waste his time with that rubbish, when +there's cold beef and pickled salmon waiting." + +"Just two minutes, Betsy, and Mr. Hunter shall be with you. Perhaps +you and Mrs. Chester will oblige us by going on." + +"Not if I know it," said the lady, resolutely. "I've had experience of +your 'two minutes' before today, prefessor, and seen 'em swell into +two mortal hours. Come! finish what you've got to say to him, and +we'll all go together." + +Dr. Macpherson continued his explanations in a low voice, possibly to +avoid more interruptions. Five minutes or so, and they moved from the +table, the doctor still talking in answer to a question. + +"Not yet. I grieve to say we have not any certain clue to it, and +opinions are much divided among us. It needs these checks to remind us +of our finite nature, Mr. Hunter. So far shalt thou go, but no +farther. That is a law of the Divine Creator, and we cannot break it." + +Robert Hunter smiled. "The strangest thing of all is to hear one of +you learned men acknowledge as much. The philosopher's stone; +perpetual motion; the advancing and receding tides--do you not live in +expectation of making the secret of these marvels yours?" + +Professor Macpherson shook his head. "If we were permitted: but we +never shall be. _If_. That word has been the arresting point of man in +the past ages, as it will be in the future. Archimedes said he could +move the world, you know, if he had but an outward spot to rest the +fulcrum of his lever on." + +"It's a lucky thing for us that Archimy didn't," was the comment of +Mrs. Macpherson. "It wouldn't be pleasant to be swayed about +promiscous, the earth tossing like a ship at sea." + +Robert Hunter declined the luncheon; he had many things to do still, +and his time in England was growing very short; so he said adieu to +them both then, and to his sister. + +"Now remember, Robert Hunter," said Mrs. Macpherson, taking both his +hands, "when you visit England temporay, and want a friendly bed to +put yourself into, come to us. Me and the prefessor took to you when +we first saw you at Guild. You remember that night," she added, +turning to Mrs. Chester: "we come up in a carriage and pair; I wore my +orange brocade and my bird-o'-paradise; and there was a Lady Somebody +there, one o' those folks that put on airs and graces; which isn't +pretty in a my lady, any more than it is in a missis. You took our +fancies, Mr. Hunter--though it does seem odd to be calling you that, +and not Lake--and we'll look upon it as a favour if you'll come to us +sometimes. The prefessor knows we shall, but he's never cute at +compliments. He was born without gumption." + +The professor's lingering shake of the hand, the welcoming look in his +kindly eyes, said at least as much as his wife's words; and Robert +Hunter went forth, knowing that they wished to be his friends. + +So they sat down to their luncheon and he departed; and the same night +went forth on his travels. + + +Coastdown lay low in the light of the morning sun. The skies were +clear, the rippling sea was gay with its fishing boats. Spring had +been very late that year, but this was a day warm and bright. The +birds were singing, the lambs were sporting in the fields, the hedges +were bursting into buds of green. + +Swinging through the gate of the Red Court Farm, having been making a +call there to fetch a newspaper, came Captain Copp: a sailor with a +wooden leg, a pea jacket, and a black glazed hat. Captain Copp had +been a merchant captain of the better class, as his father was before +him. After his misfortune--the loss of his leg in an encounter with +pirates--he gave up the sea, and settled at Coastdown on his small but +sufficient income. + +The captain's womenkind--as he was in the habit of calling the inmates +of his house--consisted of his wife and a maid servant. The former was +meek, yielding, gentle as those gentle lambs in the field; the latter, +Sarah Ford, worth her weight in gold for honest capability, liked to +manage the captain and the world on occasions. There were encounters +between them. He was apt to call her a she-pirate and other +affectionate names. She openly avowed her disbelief in his marvellous +reminiscences, especially one that was a standing story with him +concerning a sea-serpent that he saw with his own eyes in the Pacific +Ocean. He had also seen a mermaid. Like many another sailor, the +captain was a simple-minded man in land affairs, only great at sea and +its surroundings; with implicit faith in all its marvels. + +On occasions the captain's mother honoured him with a visit; a +resolute, well-to-do lady, who used to voyage with her husband, and +had now settled in Liverpool. When she came she ruled the house and +the captain, for she thought him (forty, now) and his wife little +better than children yet. In solid sense, if you believed herself, +nobody could approach her. + +Captain Copp came forth from his call at the Red Court Farm, letting +the gate swing behind him, and stumped along quickly, his stout stick +and his wooden leg keeping time on the ground. The captain's face was +beaming with satisfaction, for he had contrived to lay hold of young +Cyril Thornycroft, and recount to him (for the fiftieth time) the +whole story of the sea-serpent from beginning to end. He was a short, +wiry man, with the broad round shoulders of a sailor. The road +branched off before him two ways, like an old-fashioned fork; the way +on the right led direct to the village and the common beach; the way +on the left to his home. + +The captain halted. Sociably inclined, he was rather fond of taking +himself to the Mermaid; that noted-public house where the sailors and +the coastguard men congregated to watch the omnibus come in from +Jutpoint. It must be getting near to the time of its arrival, +half-past eleven, and the captain's leg moved a step forward in the +direction; on the other hand, he wanted to say a word to that +she-serpent Sarah (with whom he had enjoyed an encounter before coming +out) about the dinner. The striking of the clock decided him, and he +bore on for home, past the churchyard. Crossing part of the heath, he +came to the houses, red brick, detached, cheerful, his own being the +third. At the window of the first sat an old lady. Captain Copp went +through the little gate and put his face without ceremony against the +pane, close to Mrs. Connaught's. + +"How's the master this morning?" he called out through the glass. + +She answered by drawing aside and pointing to the fire. An asthmatical +old gentleman, just recovering from a fit of the gout, sat there in a +white cotton nightcap and dressing-gown made of yellow flannel. + +"He's come down for the first time, Captain Copp. He looks brave this +morning," was Mrs. Connaught's answer. + +"Glad to see ye, comrade; I'll come in later," cried the captain +through the window, flourishing his stick in token of congratulation. +And old Mr. Connaught, who had not heard a word, nodded the tassel of +the white cap by way of answer. + +In the parlour at home, when Captain Copp entered it, sat his wife at +work, a faded lady with a thin and fair face. Taking out the newspaper +he had brought, he began to open it. + +"Did you see the justice, Sam?" asked his wife in her gentle, loving +tones. + +"No, he was out. I only saw Cyril. There'll be a fine row when he +comes home. Mary Anne has run away." + +Mrs. Copp dropped her work. "Run away! oh, Sam! Run away from where?" + +"From where?--why, from school," said the choleric captain, who was +just as hot as his wife was calm. "She came bursting in upon them this +morning at breakfast, having run home all the eight miles. And she +says she won't go back." + +Mrs. Samuel Copp, who had never in her life presumed to take a walk +without express permission given for it, lifted her hands in dismay. +"I feared she would never stay at school; I feared she would not." + +"Old Connaught is downstairs today, Amy," observed the captain to her +after a long interval of silence, as he turned his paper. + +"I am glad of that. He suffers sadly, poor man." + +"Well, he's getting old, you see; and he's one that has coddled +himself all his life, which doesn't answer. I say! who's this?" + +A vision of something bright had flashed in at the little garden gate, +on its way to the door. Mrs. Copp started up, saying that it was Mary +Anne Thornycroft. + +"Not a bit of it," said the captain. "Mary Anne Thornycroft would come +right in and not stand knocking at the door like a simpleton." + +The knocking was very load and decisive, such as, one is apt to fancy +in a simple country place, must herald the approach of a visitor of +consequence. Sarah appeared showing in the stranger. + +"Lady Ellis, ma'am," she said to her mistress. + +A dress of rich black silk, a handsome India shawl, a girlish straw +bonnet, with a great deal of bright mauve ribbon about it, a white +veil, and delicate lavender gloves. My lady had got up herself well +for her journey; stylish, but not too fine to travel. She had +discarded her mourning, but it was convenient to wear her black silks. +The captain and his wife rose. + +Yes, it was Lady Ellis. But she had mistaken the direction given her, +and had come to Captain Copp's instead of Mrs. Connaught's. When the +explanation came, the gallant captain offered to take her in. + +"Old Connaught is better today," observed he, volunteering the +information. "He's downstairs in a nightcap and flannel gown." + +Another minute, and Lady Ellis had the opportunity of making +acquaintance with the articles of attire mentioned, and the old +gentleman they adorned. Captain Copp, with his nautical disregard to +ceremony, went into his neighbour's house as usual, without knocking, +opened the sitting-room door, and sent the visitor in. Mrs. Connaught +was not there, and he went to the kitchen in search of her. They were +primitive-mannered, these worthy people of Coastdown, entering each +others' kitchens or parlours at will. + +Mr. Connaught, very excessively taken aback at the unexpected +apparition, did nothing but look up with a stolid stare, as unable +mentally to comprehend what the lady did there, and who she might be, +as he was physically to rise and receive her. Lady Ellis lost her +ready suavity for a moment, struck out of it by the curious old figure +before her. + +Mrs. Connaught was preparing some dainty little dish for her husband; +sick people have fancies, and he liked her cooking better than the +cook's. She heard the wooden leg coming along the passage. + +"Here!" said the captain, "some lady wants you. Came by the omnibus +from Jutpoint, I gather; got a white figure-head." + +He stumped out the back way as he spoke, and Mrs. Connaught entered +the parlour. When Lady Ellis was a girl of fifteen, twenty years +before, and she an unmarried woman getting on for forty, they had seen +a good deal of each other. Not having met since, each had some little +difficulty in making the recognition of the other; but it dawned at +last. + +"I could not stay any longer from coming to see you," said Lady Ellis. +"You seem to be the only link left of my early home and my dear +parents. Forgive me for intruding on you today; had I waited longer I +might not have been able to come at all." + +She sat down and untied her bonnet, and laid hold of Mrs. Connaught's +hand and kept it, letting fall some tears. Old Connaught stared more +than ever; Mrs. Connaught, not a demonstrative woman, but simple and +kindly, answered in kind. + +"How long it seems ago! And you must have grown grand since then, Lady +Ellis! But I never knew your people very much, you know." + +"Ah, you forget! _I_ grand!"--she went on, with a cheery laugh; "you +will soon see how different I am from that. I came home to find nearly +all those I cared for dead; you only are left, and I thought I must +come down and find you out. Dear Mrs. Connaught, dear old friend, the +longing for it got irrepressible." + +Lady Ellis, it may be remembered, had pencilled down Mrs. Connaught's +address at Mrs. Chester's, as supplied by Mr. Thornycroft. It might +prove useful, she thought, on some future occasion. And the occasion +had come. + +The world, as she thought, had not dealt bountifully with her; quite +the opposite. Not to mince the matter, she had to scheme to live, just +as much as Mrs. Chester had, only in a different way. She liked good +clothes, she liked ease and good living. Never, save for those few +short days of her Indian marriage, had she known what it was to be +free from care. Her father had liked play better than work; he and her +mother, both, had a propensity to live beyond their income, to get +into society that was above them, for they were not altogether +gentlepeople. Extravagance, struggles, debts, pinching; all sorts of +contrivances and care, outside show, meanness at home--such had been +the experience of Angeline Finch, until some lucky chance took her to +India as companion to a lady, and a still luckier introduced her to +Sir George Ellis, an old man in his dotage. Two years of her reign as +my lady--two blessed years; show, ease, life. Looking back upon them +now, they seemed like a very haven. But Sir George died; it came to an +end; and she home to Europe again, where she found herself a little +embarrassed how to get along in the world. + +Whether she had lost sight of her European acquaintances during her +stay in India, or whether she had originally not possessed many, +certain it was they seemed scarce now. + +The vision, coming and going almost like a flash of lightning, of Mr. +Thornycroft and his daughter, the gentleman's evident admiration of +her, the tales she heard (perhaps exaggerated) of the style of living +and the wealth at the Red Court, had set her mind a-longing. She +thought often how desirable would be a visit there: what might it not +lead to? The determination to effect it grew into a settled hope. It +might almost have been called a prevision, as you will find from what +came of it. Of all the ills that can possibly befal this life, Lady +Ellis, perhaps from the circumstances of her early experience, +regarded poverty as the most fatal. She had grown to dread it awfully. +After that short interval of ease and luxury, the thought of having to +relapse back to contrivances, debts, duns, difficulties, turned her +sick. Ah, what a difference it is!--what a wide gap between!--a +shoulder of mutton for dinner one day, cold the next, hashed the +third, beer limited, a gown turned and turned again, shabby at the +best; and a good dinner of three courses and wines, and the toilette +of Madame Elise! + +And so, Lady Ellis, working out her own plans, had come swooping down +today on Coastdown and Mrs. Connaught. + +She went up to Mr. Connaught and took his hand; she looked admiringly +at him, as if a yellow flannel gown and cotton nightcap were the most +charming articles of attire that fashion could produce; she expressed +her sorrow for his ailments with a gentle voice. Certainly she did her +best to win his heart and his wife's, and went three-parts of the way +towards doing it. + +Meanwhile things were in a commotion at the Red Court Farm. On the +departure of Miss Derode at Christmas the justice had put his daughter +to school, an eligible place eight miles only away. She had gone +rebelliously; stayed rebelliously; and now finished up by running home +again. + +As the justice found when he got home. Mary Anne flatly refused to go +back. She refused altogether to leave home. + +Mr. Thornycroft, privately not knowing in the least what to do with +his self-willed daughter, sat in his magisterial chair, the young lady +carpeted before him. All he could say, and he said a great deal, did +not move her in the least; back to school she would not go. It seemed +that she had resumed at once old habits; had fed her birds, sang her +songs to the grand piano, danced gleefully in and out amid the +servants, and finally put on a most charming silk dress of delicate +colour, that she would never have been permitted to wear at school, +and was too good to have been taken there. + +"I shall drive you back in an hour, Mary Anne." + +"I will not go, papa." + +"What's that, girl? Do you mean to tell me to my face you will not go +when I say you shall? That's something new." + +"Of course if you make me get into the carriage and drive me there +yourself, I cannot help it; but I should ran away again tomorrow." + +"It is enough disgrace to you to have run away once." + +Mary Anne stood, half in contrition, half in defiance. Nearly +seventeen now, tall and fair, very handsome, she scarcely looked one +to be coerced to this step. Her clear blue eyes met those of her +father; the very self-same eyes as his, the self-same will in them. + +"As to disgrace, papa, I did nothing more than come straight home. It +was the same thing as a morning walk, and I have often gone out for +_that_." + +"What do you suppose is to become of you?" questioned Mr. Thornycroft, +the conviction seating itself within him that she would not be forced +from home again. He ran away from school himself, and his father had +never been able to get him back to it. Mary Anne had inherited his +self-will. + +"I can learn at home. Oh, papa, I will be very good and obedient if +you let me stay." + +"You are too old now to be at home alone. And you would not obey +mademoiselle, you know." + +"If you had wanted to place me at school, you should have done it when +I was young, papa. I am too old to be sent there now, for the first +time." + +Inwardly the justice acknowledged the truth of this. He began thinking +that he must keep her, and engage some strict governess. But he did +not want to do this; he objected to having governesses at the Red +Court Farm. + +"You don't believe me perhaps, papa. Indeed, I will be good and +obedient; but you must not send me away!" + +He supposed it must be so. He did not see his way clearly out of the +dilemma; she had been indulged always, she must be indulged still. +Some signs of relenting in the blue eyes--handsome still as his +daughter's--Mary Anne saw it, and flew into his arms with a shower of +tears. + +What an opportunity for Lady Ellis! She stayed on at Mrs. Connaught's, +and went daily to the Red Court, and read with Mary Anne and saw to +her studies; and was her charming companion and indulgent governess. +Excursions abroad in plenty! Going to Jutpoint in Mr. Thornycroft's +high carriage; sailing to sea in Tomlett's boat; here, there, +everywhere! The young men happened to be away at this period, and Lady +Ellis had the field open. + +There were some weeks of it. My lady had made a private arrangement +with Mrs. Connaught, insisting upon paying for herself while she +stayed. The sea air was doing her so much good, she said. The sea air! +My lady would have taken up her permanent abode in old Betts's boat +rather than have removed herself to a distance from that desirable +pile of buildings, the Red Court Farm. Looking at it from her little +chamber window, that is, at its chimneys, and imagining the charming +life underneath, it appeared to her as a very haven of refuge. + +And Justice Thornycroft was becoming fascinated. He began to think +there was not such another woman in the world. + +Perhaps there was not. Let Harry Thornycroft be assured of one +thing--that when these clever women set their minds to lay hold of a +man, to bend him to their will, in nine cases out of ten they will +carry it out, surrounding circumstances aiding and abetting. + +One day when she was dining at the Red Court Farm, she suggested to +Mr. Thornycroft that he should take a dame de compagnie for Mary Anne. +She always appeared to have that young lady's best interest on her +mind and heart and tongue. Mary Anne, accustomed to do what she liked, +went out with the cheese. + +"It is the only thing, as you will not have a governess. Believe me, +my dear sir, it is the only thing for that dear child," she urged, her +dark eyes going straight out to the honest blue ones of Harry +Thornycroft. + +He made no reply. He was thinking that a dame de compagnie might be +more troublesome at the Red Court than even a governess. + +"Mary Anne wants now some one who will train her mind and form her +manners, Mr. Thornycroft. It is essential that it should be done. +Wanting a mother, wanting a stepmother, I see only one alternative--a +gentlewoman, who will be friend, governess, and companion in one. It +is a pity, for her sake, that you did not marry again." + +Mr. Thornycroft put out a glass of wine with a sudden movement, and +drank it. Lady Ellis resumed, piteously. + +"Ah, forgive me! I know I ought not to be so free; to say these +things. I was but thinking of that dear child. You will forgive me?" + +"There's nothing to forgive," said the justice. "I am exceedingly +obliged for the interest you take in her, and for any suggestion you +may make. The consideration is--what to do for the best? I don't see +my way clear." + +He sat with his fine head a little bent, the light of the wax +chandelier falling on his fair, and still luxuriant, hair; his blue +eyes went out to the opposite wall, seeing nothing; his fingers played +with the wine glass on the table. Evidently there were considerations +to be regarded of which Lady Ellis knew nothing. + +"It has been partly out of love to my daughter that I have never given +her a stepmother," said he, coming out of his reverie. "Second wives +are apt to make the home unhappy for the first children; you often see +it." + +She smiled sweetly on him. "Dear Mr. Thornycroft! Make the home +unhappy! Ah, then, yes, perhaps so! Women with a hard selfish nature. +Still I do not see how even _they_ could help loving Mary Anne. She is +so----" + +What she was, Mr. Thornycroft lost the pleasure of hearing. Sinnett +the housekeeper came in at this juncture, and said the landlord of the +Mermaid, John Pettipher, had come up, asking to see the justice. +"Tomlett has been quarrelling with him, he says, sir," added Sinnett, +"and he wants to have the law of him." + +"Tomlett's a fool!" burst impulsively from the lips of Mr. +Thornycroft. "Show him into the justice room, Sinnett." + +He went out with a brief word of apology, and he never came back +again. My lady sat and waited, and looked and hoped, but he did not +return to gladden her with his presence. At length Sinnett came in +with some tea. + +"Is Mr. Thornycroft gone out?" she asked. + +"Yes, my lady. He went out with John Pettipher." + +She almost crushed the fragile cup of Sèvres china in her passionate +fingers. Had Mr. John Pettipher heard the good wishes lavished upon +him that evening, he might have stared considerably. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +What was the Fear? + + +The early buds had gone, the flowers of May were springing. Richard +and Isaac Thornycroft were at home again, and the old profuse, +irregular mode of life reigned at the Red Court Farm. + +The skies are grey this afternoon; there is a chillness in the early +summer air. Mr. Thornycroft, leaning lightly on the slender railings, +that separate his grounds from the plateau, looks up to see whether +rain will be falling. + +There was trouble at home with Mary Anne. Uncontrolled as she was just +now, no female friend to watch over her, she went her own way. Not any +very bad way; only a little inexpedient. Masters came from the nearest +town for her studies, taking up an hour or two each day; the rest of +it she exercised her own will. The fear of school had subsided by this +time, and she was growing wilful again--careering about on the heath; +calling in at Captain Copp's and other houses; seated on some old +timber on the beach, talking to the fishermen; riding off alone on her +pony; jolting away (she had done it twice) in the omnibus to Jutpoint, +without saying a word to anybody. Only on the previous day she had +gone out in old Betts's tub of a boat, with the old man and his little +son, got benighted, and frightened them at home. Clearly this was a +state of things that could not be allowed to continue; and Mr. +Thornycroft, leaning there on the railings, was revolving a question: +should he ask Lady Ellis to come to the Red Court as dame de +compagnie?--or as his wife? + +"Of the two, a wife would be less dangerous than a companion," thought +Justice Thornycroft, giving the light railings a shake with his strong +hand "I'm not dying for either; but then--there's Mary Anne." + +Almost as if she had heard the word, his daughter came out of the +house and ran up to him. The justice put his hand on hers. + +"What are you doing here, papa?" + +"Thinking about you." + +"About me?" + +"Yes, about you. You are getting on for seventeen, Mary Anne; you have +as much common sense as most people; therefore--listen, I want to +speak to yon seriously." + +She had turned her head at the ringing of the bell of the outer gate. +But the injunction brought it round again. + +"Therefore you must be quite well aware, without my having to +reiterate it to you, that this kind of thing cannot be allowed to go +on." + +"I do no harm," said Mary Anne, knowing well to what the words tended. + +"Harm or no harm, it cannot go on; it shall not. Now, which will you +do--go to school again, or have a governess?" + +"I don't want either," she answered, with a pout of her decisive lips. + +"Or would you like--it is the one other alternative--a lady to come +here as your friend and companion?" + +"Frankly speaking, papa, I don't see what the difference would be +between a companion and a governess. Of course, of the two I'd rather +have a companion. To school I will not go. Lady Ellis was talking to +me of this. I think she was fishing to be the companion herself." + +"Fishing!" echoed the justice. + +"Well, I do." + +"Would you like her?" + +"Not at all, papa." + +"Who is it that you would like?" asked the justice, tartly. + +"I should _like_ nobody in that capacity. I might put up with it; but +that is very different from liking." + +"For my own part, if we decide upon a companion, there's no one I +would so soon have as Lady Ellis," remarked Mr. Thornycroft. "Would +you?" + +"La la, la la!" sang Mary Anne, her eyes following a passing bird. + +"Answer me without further trifling," sternly resumed Mr. Thornycroft, +putting his hand on her shoulder. + +The tone sobered her. "Of course, papa; if some one must come, why, +let it be Lady Ellis." + +Heaving a sort of relieved sigh, he released her, and she went away +singing to herself a scrap of a pretty little French song, the refrain +of which was, rendered in English--"If you come today, madam, you go +tomorrow." + +The misapprehension that arises in this world! None of us are +perfectly open one with the other. Between the husband and the wife, +the parents and the children, the brothers and the sisters, +involuntary deceit reigns. Mr. Thornycroft assumed that Lady Ellis +would be more acceptable to his daughter as a resident at the Red +Court than any one else that could be found: had Miss Thornycroft +spoken the truth boldly, she would have said that my Lady Ellis was +her _bête noire_; the person she most disliked of all others on earth. + +But the chief question was not solved yet in the mind of Justice +Thornycroft. Should it be wife, or should it be only companion? He was +quite sufficiently taken with my lady's fascinations to render the +first alternative sufficiently agreeable in prospective; he deemed her +a soft-hearted, yielding gentlewoman; he repeated over again to +himself the mysterious words, "As a wife she would be less dangerous +than a companion." But still, there were considerations against it +that made him hesitate. And with good cause. + +He went strolling towards the village, turning down the waste land, a +right of way that was his own, past the plateau. The first house, at +the corner of the street, was the Mermaid. He passed the end of it, +and struck across to a low commodious cottage on the cliffs, whose +rooms were all on the ground-floor. Tomlett lived in it; he was called +the fishing-boat master, and was also employed occasionally on the +farm of Mr. Thornycroft, as he had leisure. Mrs. Tomlett, a little +woman with a red face and shrill voice, was hanging out linen on the +lines to dry. + +"Where's Tomlett today?" asked the justice. "He has not been to the +farm." + +Mrs. Tomlett turned sharply round, for she had not heard the approach, +and dropped a curtsey to the justice. "He have gone to Dartfield, +sir," she answered, lowering her voice to the key people use when +talking secrets. "Mr. Richard he come in the first thing this morning +and sent him." + +Mr. Thornycroft nodded, and went away, muttering to himself +exclusively something to the effect that Richard might have mentioned +it. Passing round by the Mermaid again, he went towards home. + +And he was charmingly rewarded. Standing on the waste land near the +plateau, in her pretty and becoming bonnet of delicate primrose and +white, her Indian shawl folded gracefully round her, her dress looped, +was Lady Ellis. + +"Do you know, Mr. Thornycroft," she said, as he took her hand, "I have +never been on the plateau. Will you take me?" + +Mr. Thornycroft hesitated visibly. "It is not a place for a lady to go +to," he said, after a pause. + +"But why not? Mary Anne told me one day you objected to her going on +it." + +"I do. The real objection is the danger. The cliff has a treacherous +edge just there, and you might be over before you were aware. A sharp +gust of wind, a footing too near or not quite secure, and the evil is +done. Some accidents have occurred there; one, the last of them, was +attended by very sad circumstances, and I then had these railings put +round." + +"You said the _real_ objection was the danger; is there any other +objection?" resumed Lady Ellis, who never lost a word or its emphasis. + +"There are certain superstitious fancies connected with the plateau," +answered Mr. Thornycroft, and very much to her surprise his face took +a solemn look, his voice a subdued tone, just as if he himself +believed in them: "a less tangible fear than the danger, but one that +effectually scares visitors away, at night especially." + +They were walking round towards the Red Court now, to which he had +turned, and Mr. Thornycroft changed the subject. She could not fail to +see that he wished it dropped. At the gates of the farm she wished him +good afternoon, and took the road to the heath. + +Justice Thornycroft did not enter the gates, but went round to the +back entrance. Passing by the various outbuildings, he gained the +yard, just as a man was driving out with a waggon and team. + +"Where are you going?" asked the justice. + +"After the oats, sir. Mr. Richard telled me." + +"Is Mr. Richard about?" + +"He be close to his own stables, sir." + +Mr. Thornycroft went on across the yard, not to the house but to the +stables at its end. This portion of the stables (as may be remembered) +was detached from the rest, and had formed part of the old ruins. It +was shut in by a wall. The horses of the two elder sons were kept +there, and their dog-cart. It was their whim and pleasure that Hyde, +the man-servant (who could turn his hand to anything indoors or out), +should attend to this dog-cart and the horses used in it, and not the +groom. Richard was sitting on the frame of the well just on this side +the wall, doing something to the collar of his dog. + +"Dicky," said the justice, without any sort of circumlocution, "I +think I shall give the Red Court a mistress." + +Richard lifted his dark stern face to see whether--as he verily +thought--his father was joking. "Give it a what?" he asked. + +"A mistress. I shall take a wife, I think." + +"Are you mad, sir?" asked Richard, after a pause. + +"Softly, softly, Dick." + +Richard lifted his towering form to its full height. Every feeling +within him, every sense of reason rebelled against the notion of the +measure. A few sharp words ensued, and Richard went into a swearing +fit. + +"I knew it would be so; he was always hot and hasty," thought the +justice to himself. "What behaviour do you call this?" he asked aloud. +"Perhaps if you'll hear what I have to say you may cool down. Do you +suppose I should be intending to marry for my own gratification?" + +"I don't suppose you'd be marrying for that of anybody else," said the +undaunted Richard. + +"It is for the sake of Mary Anne. Some one _must_ be here with her, +and a wife will be less--less risk than a crafty, inquisitive +governess." + +"For the sake of Mary Anne!" ironically retorted Richard. "Send Mary +Anne to school." + +"I did send her; and she cane back again." + +"I'd keep her there with cords. I said so at the time." + +"Unfortunately she won't be kept. She has a touch of the Thornycroft +will, Dick." + +"Hang the Thornycroft will!" was Dick's angry answer. Not but what it +was a stronger word he said. + +"When you have cooled down from your passion I'll talk further with +you," said the justice, some irritation arising in his own tone. "You +have no right to display this temper to me. I am master here, +remember, Dick; though sometimes, if appearances may be trusted, you +like to act as if you forgot that." + +Richard bit his dark lip. "You must know how inexpedient the measure +would be, sir. Give yourself a wife!--the house a mistress! Why, the +place might no longer be our own." + +"Do you suppose I have not weighed the subject on all sides? I have +been weeks considering it, and I have come to the conclusion that of +the two--a wife or a governess--the former will be the less risk." + +"No," said Richard; "a governess may be got rid of in an hour; a wife, +never." + +"But a governess might go out in the world and talk; a wife would +not." + +Richard dashed the dog's collar on the ground which he had held all +the while. "Mark me, father"--he said, his stern eyes and resolute +lips presenting a picture of angry warning rarely equalled--"this +step, if you enter on it, will lead to what you have so long lived in +dread of,--to what we are ever scheming to guard against. Mary Anne! +Before that girl's puny interests should lead me to--to a measure that +may bring ruin in its wake, I'd send her off to the wilds of Africa." + +He strode away, haughty, imperious, rigid in his sharp condemnation. +Mr. Thornycroft, one of those men whom opposition only hardens, turned +to the fields, thinking of his brother Richard; Dick was so like him. +There he found Isaac, stretched idly on the ground with a book. The +young man rose at once in his respect to his father. His handsome +velveteen coat, light summer trousers and white linen, his tall form +with its nameless grace, his fair features, clear blue eyes and waving +light hair, presenting as fine a picture as man ever made. + +"That's one way of being useful," remarked Mr. Thornycroft. + +Isaac laughed. "I confess I am idle this afternoon: and there's +nothing particular to do." + +"Isaac--" Mr. Thornycroft came to a long pause, and then went on +rapidly, imparting the news that he had to tell. And it was a somewhat +curious fact, that an embarrassment pervaded his manner in making this +communication to his second son, quite contrasting with the easy +coolness shown to his eldest. A bright flush rose to Isaac's fair +Saxon face as he listened. + +"A wife, sir! Will it be well that you should introduce one to the Red +Court?" + +"Don't make me go over the ground again, Isaac. I repeat that I think +it _will_ be well. Some lady must be had here--a wife or a governess, +and the former in my judgment will be the lesser evil." + +"As you please, of course, sir," returned Isaac, who could not forget +the perfect respect and courtesy due to his father, however he might +deplore the news. "I have heard you say--" + +"Well? Speak out, Ikey." + +"That had the time to come over again you would not have married my +mother. I think it killed her, sir." + +"My marrying her?" asked the justice in a joke. Isaac smiled. + +"No, sir. You know what I mean; the constant state of fear she lived +in." + +"She was one of those sensitive, timid women that fear works upon; +Cyril is the only one of you like her," said the justice, his thoughts +reverting with some sadness to his departed wife. "But the error +committed there, Isaac, lay in my disclosing it to her." + +"In disclosing what, sir?" asked Isaac, rather at sea. + +"The secret connected with the Red Court Farm," laconically answered +Mr. Thornycroft. + +There ensued a pause. Isaac put a straw in his lips and bit it like a +man in pain. He had loved his mother with no common love; to hear that +her place was to be occupied fell on him like a blow, putting aside +other considerations against it. + +"It is a _great_ risk, sir." + +"I don't see it, Isaac. But for an accident your mother would never +have suspected. I then disclosed the truth to her, and I cursed myself +for my folly afterwards. But for that she might have been with us now. +As to risk, we run the same every day with Mary Anne. Ah me! your poor +mother was too sensitive, and the fear killed her." + +Isaac winced. He remembered how his mother had faded visibly, day by +day; he could see, even now, the alarm in her soft eyes that the +twilight often brought. + +Mr. Thornycroft went away with the last words. Richard, who appeared +to have been reconnoitring, came striding up to his brother, and let +off a little of his superfluous anger, talking loud and fast. + +"He is going out of his senses; you know it must be so, Isaac. Who is +the woman? Did he tell you?" + +"No," replied Isaac; "but I can give a pretty shrewd guess at her." + +"Well?" + +"Lady Ellis." + +"Who?" roared Richard, as if too much surprised to hear the name +distinctly. + +"Lady Ellis. I have seen him walking with her two or three times +lately." + +"The devil take Lady Ellis!" + +"So say I; rather than she should come into the Red Court." + +"Lady Ellis!" repeated Richard, panic-stricken. "_That_ beetle-browed, +bold-eyed woman--with her soft, false words, and her stealthy step! +'Ware her, Isaac. Mark me, 'ware her, all of us, should she come home +to the Red Court!" + + +----------------- + + +The June roses were in bloom, and the nightingales sang in the green +branches. Perfume was exhaled from the linden trees; butterflies +floated in the air; insects hummed through the summer day. Out at sea +the fishing-boats lay idly on the sparkling waves that gently rippled +in the sun. And in this joyous time the new mistress came home to the +Red Court Farm. + +Lady Ellis had departed for London. Some three weeks afterwards Mr. +Thornycroft went up one day, and was married the next, having said +nothing at all at home. It came upon Mary Anne like a thunderbolt. She +cried, she sobbed, she felt every feeling within her outraged. + +"Isaac, I _hate_ Lady Ellis!" + +In that first moment, with the shock upon her, it was worse than +useless to argue or persuade, and Isaac wisely left it. The mischief +was done; and all that remained for them was to make the best of it. +Mary Anne, with the independence of will that characterized her, wrote +off a pressing mandate to France, which brought Mademoiselle Derode +back again. In the girl's grief she instinctively turned to the little +governess, her kind friend in the past years. + +And now, after a fortnight's lapse, the mature bridegroom and bride +were coming home. The Red Court had made its preparations to receive +them. Mary Anne Thornycroft stood in the large drawing-room, in use +this evening, wearing a pale blue silk of delicate brightness. Her +hard opposition had yielded. Isaac persuaded, mademoiselle reasoned, +Richard came down upon her with a short, stern command--and she stood +ready, if not exactly to welcome, at least to receive civilly her +father's wife. Richard appeared to have fallen in with Isaac's +recommendation--that they should "make the best of it." At any rate he +no longer showed anger; and he ordered his sister not to do it. So, +apparently, all was smooth. + +She stood there in her gleaming silk, with blue ribbons in her hair, +and a deep flush in her fair face. Little Miss Derode, her dark brown +eyes kindly and simple as ever, her small face browner, sat placidly +working at a strip of embroidery. It was striking six, the hour for +which Mr. Thornycroft had desired dinner to be ready. + +Wheels were heard, the signal of the approach. They were pretty +punctual, then. Isaac went out; it was evident that he at least +intended to pay due respect to his father's wife. Presently Hyde, +who had worn a long face ever since the wedding, threw open the +drawing-room door. + +"The justice and Lady Ellis." + +The man had spoken her old name in his sore feeling, little thinking +that she intended to retain it, in defiance of good taste. She +approached Mary Anne, and kissed her. That ill-trained young lady +submitted to it for an instant, and then burst into a passionate fit +of angry sobs on her father's breast. + +"Don't be a goose," whispered the justice, fondly kissing her. +"Halloa! why, is it _you_, mademoiselle?" he cried out, his eyes +falling on the governess. "When did you come over?" + +"She came over because I sent for her, papa; and she has been here +nine or ten days." + +A few minutes and they went in to dinner. Richard's place was vacant. + +"Where's your brother, Isaac?" asked the justice. "I believe he had to +go out, sir." + +Lady Ellis wondered a little at the profuseness of the dinner, but +supposed it was in honour of herself, and felt gratified. It was, in +fact, the usual style of dining at the Red Court, except at those +quiet times (somewhat rare) when the two elder sons were away from +home. But Lady Ellis did not suspect this. + +Vastly agreeable did she make herself. Isaac, seated at her left +elbow, was the most attractive man she had come in contact with since +the advent of Mr. Lake, and Lady Ellis liked attractive men, even +though they could be nothing more to her than step-sons. But she had +come home to the Court really intending to be cordial with its +inmates. And, as it has been already hinted, Richard and Isaac saw the +policy of making the best of things. + +If ever Mademoiselle Derode had been fascinated with a person at first +sight, it was with Lady Ellis. The delicate attentions of that lady +won her heart. When they crossed the hall to the drawing-room after +dinner, and my lady linked her arm within that of her unwilling +step-daughter, and extended the other to take the poor little withered +hand of the Frenchwoman, mademoiselle's heart went out to her. Very +far indeed was it from the intention of Lady Ellis to undertake the +completion of Mary Anne's education, whatever might be the private +expectation of Mr. Thornycroft: in the visit of the ex-governess she +saw a solution of the difficulty--mademoiselle should remain and +resume her situation. To bring this about by crafty means, her usual +way of going to work, instead of open ones, my lady set out by being +very charming with the governess. The very fact of mademoiselle's +having been prejudiced by Miss Thornycroft against the stepmother who +was coming home, served to augment within her the feeling of +fascination. "A dark, ugly woman, poor and pretentious, who has not an +iota of good feeling or of truth within her whole composition," spoke +Miss Mary Anne, judging of her exactly as Richard did. Great was +mademoiselle's surprise to see the handsome, fascinating, superbly +dressed lady, who came in upon them with her soft smile and suave +manners. She thought Miss Thornycroft had spoken in prejudice only, +and almost resented it for the new lady's sake. + +It was daylight still, and Lady Ellis stood for a minute at the +window, open to the evening's loveliness. The sun had set, but some of +its golden brightness lingered yet in the sky. Lady Ellis leaned from +the window and plucked a rose from a tree within reach. Mademoiselle +stood near; Mary Anne sat down on the music stool, her back to the +room and her eyes busied with an uninteresting page of music, striking +a bar of it now and again. + +"Are you fond of flowers, miladi?" asked the simple little +Frenchwoman. "I think there's nothing so good hardly in the world." + +"You shall have this rose, then. Stay, let me place it in your +waistband. There!--you will have the perfume now until it fades." + +Mademoiselle caught the delicate hand and imprinted a kiss upon it. +Single-minded, simple-hearted, possessing no discernment at the best +of times, artless as a child, she took all the sweet looks and kind +tones for real. Lady Ellis sat down on an ottoman in front of the +window, and graciously drew mademoiselle beside her. + +"Do you live in Paris?" + +"I live in Paris now with my mother. We have a sweet little +appartement near the Rue Montagne--one room and a cabinet de toilette +and a very little kitchen, and we are happy. We go to the Champs +Elysées with our work on fine days, to sit there and see the +world:--the fine toilettes and the little ones at play. It was long +to be separated from her, all the years that I was here." + +"How many were they?" + +"Seven. Yes, miladi, seven! But what will you? I had to gain. My +mother she has a very small rente, and I came here. Mr. Thornycroft he +was liberal to me--he is liberal to all,--and I saved enough to have +on my side a little rente too. I went home when it was decided I +should leave my pupil, and took my mother from the pension where she +had stayed: and now we are happy together." + +A thought crossed Lady Ellis that the charming apartment near the Rue +Montague, and the mother in it, might prove some impediment to her +scheme. Well--it would require the greater diplomacy. + +"Is your mother old?" + +"She will be sixty-five on the day of the All-Saints; and I was forty +last month," added mademoiselle, with the candour as to age that is +characteristic of a Frenchwoman. Suddenly, just as Lady Ellis was +clasping the withered brown hand with a sweet smile, mademoiselle, +without intending the least discourtesy, started up, her eyes fixed +upon the plateau. + +"Ah, bah," she said, sitting down again. "It is but the douanier--the +preventive man." + +Lady Ellis naturally looked out, and saw a man pacing along the border +of the plateau. The superstition said to be connected with the place +came into her mind, but did not stay there. + +"You were here in the time of Mrs. Thornycroft, mademoiselle?" + +"Ah, yes; she did not die for a long while after I came." + +"She had years of ill health, I have heard. What was the matter with +her?" + +"It was but weakness, as we all thought," answered the Frenchwoman. +"There was nothing to be told; no disease to be found.. She got +thinner every week, and month, and year; like one who fades away. The +doctor he came and came, and said the lungs were wrong; and so she +died. Ah, she was so gentle, so patient; never murmuring, never +complaining. Miladi, she was just an angel." + +"What had she to complain of?" asked miladi. + +"What to complain of? Why, her sickness; her waste of strength. +Everything was done for her that could be, except one--and that was to +go from home. It was urged upon her, but she would not listen; she +used to shudder at the thought." + +"But why?" wondered Lady Ellis. + +"I never knew. My pupil, Miss Mary Anne, never knew. She would kneel +at her mamma's feet, and beg her to go anywhere, and to take her; but +the poor lady would shake her head, or say quietly, no; and that would +end it." + +Mademoiselle Virginie Derode was a capable woman in her vocation. She +could do a vast many things useful, good, necessary to be done in +the world. But there was one thing that she could not do, and that +was--hold her tongue. Some people are born with the bump of reticence; +my Lady Ellis was a case in point: some, it may be said, with the bump +of communicativeness, though I don't know where it lies. Mademoiselle +was an exemplification of the latter. + +"There was some _secret_--some trouble on Madame Thornycroft's mind," +said good mademoiselle in her open-heartedness. "Towards the last, +when the weakness grew to worse and worse, she would--what do you +call it?--wander a little; and I once heard her say that it had killed +her. Mr. Isaac, he was in the room at the time, and he shook his +mother--gently, you know, he loved her very much; and told her she was +dreaming, and talking in her sleep. That aroused her; and she laid her +head upon his shoulder, and thanked him for awaking her." + +"And was she talking in her sleep?" + +"Ah, no; she was not asleep. But I think Mr. Isaac said it because of +me. I saw there was something, always from the time I first came; she +used to start at shadows; if the window did but creak she would turn +white, and stare at it; if the door but opened suddenly, she would +turn all over in a cold sweat. It was like a great fear that never +went away." + +"But what fear was it?" reiterated Lady Ellis. + +"I used to repeat to myself that same question--'What is it?' One day +I said to Hyde, as I saw him watching his mistress, 'She has got some +trouble upon her mind?' and he, that polite Hyde called me a French +idiot to my face, saying she had no more trouble on her mind than he +had on his. I never saw Hyde fierce but that one time. Ah, but yes; +she certainly said it; that it had killed her." + +"That _what_ had killed her?" still questioned Lady Ellis, +considerably at sea. + +"I had to guess what; I knew it quite well as I listened; the secret +trouble that had been upon her like a fright perpetual." + +Lady Ellis threw her piercing eyes upon the soft and simple ones of +the little Frenchwoman. All this was as food for her curious mind. "A +perpetual fright!" she repeated musingly. "I never heard of such a +thing. What was it connected with?" + +"I don't know, unless it was connected with that horror of the +plateau. Miladi, I used to think it might be." + +Casting her thoughts back some few weeks, Lady Ellis remembered the +little episode of her proposing to go on the plateau, and Mr. +Thornycroft's words as he opposed it. She turned this to use now with +mademoiselle in her clever way. + +"Mr. Thornycroft was speaking to me about this--this mystery connected +with the plateau, but we were interrupted, and I did not gather much. +It is a mystery, is it not, mademoiselle?" + +"But, yes; it might be called a mystery," was the answer. + +"Will you recite it to me?" + +Mademoiselle knew very little to recite; but that little she +remembered with as much distinctness as though it had happened +yesterday. One light evening in the bygone years, shortly after she +came to the Red Court, she went out in the garden and strolled on to +the plateau. There were no preventive railings round it then. It was +fresh and pleasant there; the sea was calm, the moonbeams fell across +the waves; and a vessel far away, lying apparently at anchor, showed +its cheery white light. Mademoiselle strolled back towards the house, +and was about to take another turn, when she saw a figure on the edge +of the plateau, seemingly standing to look at the sea. To her sight it +either wore some white garment, or else the rays of the moon caused it +to appear so. At that moment Richard Thornycroft came up. In turning +to speak to him mademoiselle lost sight of the plateau, and when she +looked again, the figure was gone. "Was it a shadowy sort of figure?" +Richard asked her, in a low voice, when she expressed her surprise at +the disappearance; and mademoiselle answered after a moment's +consideration that she thought it _was_ shadowy. Mr. Richard looked up +at the sky, and then down at her, and then far away; his countenance +(it seemed to mademoiselle that she could see it now) wearing a +curious expression of care and awe. "It must have been the ghost," he +said; "it is apt to show itself when strangers appear at night on the +plateau." The words nearly startled mademoiselle out of her seven +senses; "ghosts" had been her one dread through life. She put her poor +trembling fingers on Richard's coat sleeve, and humbly begged him to +walk back with her as far as the house. Richard did so; giving her +scraps of information on the way. He had never seen the figure +himself, perhaps because he had specially looked for it, but many at +Coastdown had seen it; nay, some even then living at the Red Court. +Why did the ghost come _there?_ Well, it was said that a murder had +been committed on that very spot, the edge of the plateau, and the +murderer, stung with remorse, killed himself within a few hours, and +could not rest in his grave. Mademoiselle was too scared to hear all +he said; she heard quite enough for her own peace; and she went into +the presence of Mrs. Thornycroft, bursting into tears. When that lady +heard what the matter was, she chided Richard in her gentle manner. +"Was there _need_ to have told her this?" she whispered to him with a +strange sorrow, a great reproach, in her sad brown eyes. "I am sorry +to have said it if it has alarmed mademoiselle," was Richard's answer. +"It need not trouble her; let her keep off the plateau at night; it +never comes in the day." That Richard believed in it himself appeared +all too evident, and she remarked it to Mrs. Thornycroft as she left +the room. That good lady poured a glass of wine out for her with her +own hand, and begged her, in accents so imploring as to take a tone of +wildness, never again to go on the plateau after dusk had fallen. No +need of the injunction; mademoiselle had scuttered onwards ever since +with her head down, if obliged to go abroad at night in attendance on +Miss Thornycroft. + +To hear her tell this in a low earnest whisper, her brown hands +clasped, her scared eyes strained on the opposite plateau, whose edge +stood out defined and clear against the line of sea beyond and the sky +above, was the strangest of all to Lady Ellis. + +"If there is one thing that I have feared in life it is a revenant," +confessed mademoiselle. "Were I to see one, knowing it was one, I +think I should die. There was a revenant in the convent where they put +me when I was a little child; a white-faced nun who had died +unshriven; and we used to hear her in the upper corridors on a windy +night. Ah, me! I was sick with fear when I listened; I was but a poor +little weak thing then, and the dread of revenants has always rested +with me." + +Lady Ellis suppressed her inclination to smile, and pressed the +trembling brown fingers in her calm ones. With the matter-of-fact +plateau lying there before her, with her own matter-of-fact mind so +hard and real, the ghost story sounded like what it must be, simple +delusion. But that something strange was connected with the plateau, +she had little doubt. + +"And what more did you hear of it?" she asked. + +"Nothing--nothing more after that night. In a day or two, when my +courage came to me, and I would have asked details, Mr. Thornycroft, +who happened to be in the room, went into great anger. He told me to +hold my tongue; never to speak or think of the subject again, or he +should send me back to France. I obeyed him; I did not speak of it; +even when there was talk in the village because of the accident, and +he had the railings put up, I kept myself silent. I could not obey him +in the other thing--not to think of it. I tried not; and I got dear +Mrs. Thornycroft to put my bed in a back room, so that I did not see +the plateau from my window. Well, to go back, miladi: I think it must +have been this cause, or something connected with it, that brought the +fear in which she lived to Mrs. Thornycroft." + +Lady Ellis was silent. She could not think anything of the sort. +Unless, indeed, the late Mrs. Thornycroft was of a kindred nature to +mademoiselle; timorous and weak-minded. + +"The preventive men pace there, do they not?" + +"By day, yes; they walk on to it from their beat below, but not much +at night. Ah, no! not since the accident; they do not like the ghost." + +Mademoiselle rose; she was going to Mrs. Wilkinson's, on the heath, +for the rest of her stay in Coastdown. Saying good night to my lady, +she went in search of Mary Anne, and could not find her. + +Mary Anne was with her brother Isaac. She had flown to him after +quitting the presence of her stepmother, having had much ado to +repress all the feelings that went well-nigh to choke her. With a +crimson face and heaving bosom, with wild sobs, no longer checked, she +threw herself on his neck. + +"Now, Mary Anne!" + +"It has been my place ever since mamma died. It is not right that she +should take it." + +He found she was speaking of the seat at table. Every little incident +of this kind, that must inevitably occur when a second wife is brought +home, did but add to the feeling of bitter grief, of _wrong_. Not for +the place in itself did she care, but because a stranger had usurped +what had been their mother's. + +Letting the burst of grief spend itself, Isaac Thornycroft then sat +down, put her in a chair near him, and gave her some wise counsel. It +would be so much happier for her--for all of them--for papa--that they +should unite in making the best of the new wife come amidst them; of +her, and for her. + +All he said was of little use. Anger, pain, bitter, bitter +self-reproach sat passionately this night on the heart of Mary Anne +Thornycroft. + +"Don't talk, Isaac. I hope I shall not die of it." + +"Die of it?" + +"The fault is mine. I can see it well. Had I been obedient to Miss +Derode; had I only stayed quietly at school, it never would have +happened. Papa would not have brought her home, or thought of bringing +her home, but for me." + +That was very true. Mary Anne Thornycroft, in her strong good sense, +saw the past in its right light. She could blame herself just as much +as she could others when the cause of blame rested with her. Isaac +strove to still her emotion; to speak comfort to her; but she only +broke out again with the words that seemed to come from a bursting +heart. + +"I hope I shall not die of it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +Superstitious Tales. + + +With the morning Lady Ellis assumed her position as mistress of the +Red Court. She took her breakfast in bed--a habit she favoured--but +came down before ten, in a beautiful challi dress, delicate roses on a +white ground, with some white net lace and pink ribbons in her hair. +The usual breakfast hour was eight o'clock, at least it was always +laid for that hour; and Mr. Thornycroft and his sons went out +afterwards on their land. + +Looking into the different rooms, my lady found no one, and found her +way to the servants' offices. + +The kitchen, a large square apartment, fitted up with every known +apparatus for cooking, was the first room she came to. Its two sash +windows looked on the side of the house towards the church. It had +been built out, comparatively of late years, beyond the back of the +dining-room, a sort of added wing, or projecting corner. But +altogether the back of the house was irregular; a nook here, a +projection there; rooms in angles; casements large or small as might +happen. The sash windows of the kitchen alone were good and modern, +but you could not see them from the back. Whatever the irregularity of +the architecture, the premises were spacious; affording every +accommodation necessary for a large household. A room near the kitchen +was called the housekeeper's room; it was carpeted, and the servants +sat in it when they pleased; but they were by no means fashionable +servants, going in for style and ceremony, and as a rule preferred the +kitchen. There were seven servants indoors; Sinnett being the +housekeeper. + +My lady--as she was to be called in the house--was gracious. The cook +showed her the larder, the dairy, and anything else she chose to see, +and then received the orders for dinner--a plain one--fish, a joint, +pudding, and cream. + +It was the intention of my lady to feel her way, rather than assume +authority hurriedly. She saw, with some little surprise, that no +remnant was left of the last day's dinner; at least none was to be +seen. Not that day would she inquire after it, but keep a watchful eye +on what went from table for the future. To say that her rule in the +house was to have one guiding principle--economy--would be only +stating the fact. There had been no marriage settlements, and my lady +meant to line her pocket by dint of saving. + +The rooms were still deserted when she returned to them. My lady stood +a moment in the hall, wondering if everybody was out. The door at the +end, shutting off the portion of the house used by the young men, +caught her eye, and she resolved to go on an exploration tour. Opening +the door softly, she saw Richard Thornycroft in the passage talking to +Hyde. He raised his hat, as in courtesy bound; but his dark stern face +never relaxed a muscle; and somehow it rather daunted her. + +"My father's wife, I believe," said Richard. "To what am I indebted +for the honour of this visit?" + +Just as if the rooms at this end of the house were his! But my lady +made the best of it. + +"It is Mr. Richard, I am sure! Let us be friends." She held out her +hand, and he touched the tips of her fingers. + +"Certainly. If we are not friends the fault will lie on your side," he +pointedly said. "I interfere with no one in the house. I expect no one +to interfere with me. Let us observe this rule to each other, and I +dare say we shall get on very well." + +She gently slid her hand within his, encased in its rough coat. Hyde, +recovering from his trance of amazement, touched his hat, and went out +at the outer door. + +"I have not been in this portion of the house. Will you show it to +me?" + +"I will show it to you with pleasure: what little there is of it to +see," replied Richard. "But--once seen, I must request you to +understand that these rooms are for gentlemen only. Ladies are out of +place in them." + +She had a great mind to ask why; but did not. Very poor rooms, as +Richard said--one on either side the passage. Small and plain in +comparison with the rest of the house. A strip of thick cocoa-nut +matting ran along the passage to the outer door. It was open, and my +lady advanced to it. + +Looking at the most confined prospect she ever saw; in fact, at no +prospect at all. A wall, in which there was a small door of egress, +shut out all view of the sea and the plateau. Another wall, with wide +gates of wood, hid the courtyard and the buildings beyond. Opposite, +in almost close proximity, leaving just space for the dog-cart or +other vehicles to come in and turn, was the room used as a +coach-house, formerly part of the stables when the house was a castle. +My lady walked across the gravel, and entered it. A half-smile crossed +Richard's face. + +"There's not much to see here," he said. + +Certainly not much. The dog-cart stood in one corner; in another were +some trusses of straw, and a dilapidated cart turned upside down. +Adjoining was a stable for the two horses alternately used in the +dog-cart. My lady stepped back to the house door, and took a +deliberate survey of the whole. + +"It strikes me as being the dreariest-looking spot possible," she +said. "A dead wall on each side, and a shut-in coach-house opposite!" + +"Yes. Those who planned it had not much regard to prospect," answered +Richard. "But, then, prospect is not wanted here." + +She turned into the rooms; the windows of both looking on this +confined yard. In the one room, crowded with guns, fishing-rods, +dog-collars, boxing gloves, and other implements used by the young +men, she stood a minute, scanning it curiously. In the other, on the +opposite side the passage, was a closed desk-table, a telescope and +weather-glass, some armchairs, pipes, and tobacco. + +"This is the room I have heard Mr. Thornycroft call his den," said +she, quickly. + +"It is. The other one is mine and my brother's." + +A narrow twisting staircase led to the two rooms above. My lady, +twisting up it, turned into one of the two--Richard's bed-chamber. The +window looked to the dreary line of coast stretching forward in the +distance. + +"Who sleeps in the other room?" she asked. + +"Hyde. This part of the house is lonely, and I choose to have him +within call." + +In her amazement to hear him say this--the brave strong man, whom no +physical fear could daunt--a thought arose that the superstition +obtaining at the Red Court, whatever it might be, was connected with +these shut-in-rooms; shut in from within and without. Somehow the +feeling was not pleasant to her, and she turned to descend the stairs. + +"But, Mr. Richard, why do you sleep here yourself?" + +"I would not change my room for another; I am used to it. At one time +no one slept here, but my mother grew to think it was not safe at +night. She was nervous at the last." + +He held the passage-door open, and raised his hat, which he had worn +all the while, as she went through it, then shut it with a loud, +decisive click. + +"A sort of intimation that I am not wanted there," thought she. "He +need not fear; there's nothing so pleasant to go for, rather the +contrary." + +In the afternoon, tired of being alone, she put on her things to go +out, and met Mr. Thornycroft. She began a shower of questions. Where +had he been? What doing? Where were all of them--Isaac--Mary Anne? Not +a soul had she seen the whole day, except Richard. Mr. Thornycroft +lifted his finger to command attention, as he answered her. + +It would be better that they should at once begin as they were to go +on; and she, his lady wife, must not expect to get a categorical +account of daily movements. He never presumed to ask his sons how +their days were spent. Farmers--farming a large tract of land--had to +be in fifty places at least in the course of the day; here, and there, +and everywhere. This applied to himself as well as to his sons. When +Cyril came home he could attend upon her; he had nothing to do with +the out-door work, and never would have. + +"Hyde said you rode out this morning." + +"I had business at Dartfield: have just got home." + +"Dartfield! where's that?" + +"A place five or six miles away: with a dreary road to it, too," added +the justice. + +"Won't you walk with me?" she pleaded, in the soft manner that had, so +attracted him before marriage. + +"If you like. Let us go for a stroll on the heath." + +"Where is Mary Anne?" she inquired, as they went on. + +"Mary Anne is your concern now, not mine. Has she not been with you?" + +"I have not seen her at all today. When I got down--it was before +ten--all the world seemed flown. I found Richard. He took me over the +rooms at the end of the passage; to your bureau (he called the room +that, as the French do), and to his chamber and Hyde's, and to the +place filled with their guns and things." + +The justice gave a sort of grin. "That's quite a come-out for Dick. +Showing you his chamber! You must have won his heart." + +My lady's private opinion was that she had not won it; but she did not +say so. Gracefully twitching up her expensive robe, lest it should +gather harm in its contact with the common, she tripped on, and they +reached the heath. Mr. Thornycroft proposed to make calls at the +different houses in succession, beginning with Captain Copp's. She +heard him with a little shriek of dismay. "It was not etiquette." + +"Etiquette?" responded the justice. + +"I am but just married. It is their place to call on me first." + +Mr. Thornycroft laughed. Etiquette was about as much understood as +Greek at Coastdown. "Come along!" cried he, heartily. "There's the +sailor and his wooden leg opening the door to welcome us." + +The sailor was doing it in a sailorly fashion,--flourishing his wooden +leg, waving his glazed hat round and round, cheering and beckoning. +The bride made a merit of necessity, and went in. Here they had news +of Mary Anne. Mrs. Copp, Mademoiselle Derode, and Miss Thornycroft had +gone to Jutpoint by omnibus under Isaac's convoy. + +"And the women are coming back here to a tea-fight," said the plain +sea-captain; "cold mackerel and shrimps and hot cakes; that she-pirate +of ours is baking the cakes in the oven; so you need not expect your +daughter home, justice." + +Mr. Thornycroft nodded in answer. His daughter was welcome to stay. + +The dinner-party at the Red Court that evening consisted of five. Its +master and mistress, the two sons, and a stranger named Hopley from +Dartfield, whom Richard brought in. He was not much of a gentleman, +and none of them had dressed. My lady thought she was going in for a +prosy sort of life--not exactly the one she had anticipated. + +Very much to her surprise she found the dinner-courses much augmented; +quite a different dinner altogether from that which she had ordered. +Boiled fowls, roast ducklings, tarts, ice-creams, macaroni--all sorts +of additions. My lady compressed her lips, and came to the conclusion +that her orders had been misunderstood. There is more to be said yet +about the dinners at the Red Court Farm; not for the especial benefit +of the reader, he is requested to take notice, but because they bear +upon the story. + +At its conclusion she left the gentlemen and sat alone at the open +window of the drawing-room;--sat there until the shades of evening +darkened; the flowers on the lawn sent up their perfume, the evening +star came twinkling out, the beautiful sea beyond the plateau lay calm +and still. She supposed they had all gone out, or else were smoking in +the dining-room. When Sinnett brought her a cup of tea, presenting it +on a silver waiter, she said, in answer to an inquiry, that the +gentlemen as a rule had not taken tea since the late Mrs. +Thornycroft's time. Miss Thornycroft and her governess had it served +for themselves, with Mr. Cyril when he was at home from his tutor's. + +"That is it," muttered my lady to herself, as Sinnett left the room. +"Since their mother's death there has been no one to enforce order in +the house, and they have had the run like wild animals. It's not +likely they would care to be with the girl and that soft French +governess." + +It was dull, sitting there alone, and she wound an Indian shawl round +her shoulders, went out across the lawn, and crossed the railings to +the banned plateau. + +It was very dreary. Not a soul was in sight; the landscape lay still +and grey, the sea dull and silent. A mist seemed to have come on. This +plateau, bare in places, was a small weary waste. Standing as near to +the dangerous edge as she dared, my lady stretched her neck and saw +the outline of the Half-moon underneath, surrounded by its waters, for +the tide was nearly at its height. The projecting rocks right and left +seemed to clip nearly round it, hiding it from the sea beyond. The +cliff, as she looked over, was almost perpendicular, its surface +jagged, altogether dangerous to look upon, and she drew back with a +slight shudder--drew back to find Richard Thornycroft gazing at her +from the plateau's railings, on which he leaned. They met halfway. + +"Were you watching me, Mr. Richard?" + +"I was," he gravely answered. "And not daring to advance or make the +least sound, lest I should startle you." + +"It is a dangerous spot. Mr. Thornycroft was saying so to me one day. +But I had never been here, and I thought I would have a look at it; it +was lonely indoors. So I came. Braving the ghost," she added, with a +slight laugh. + +Richard looked at her, as much as to ask what she knew, but did not +speak. + +"Last evening, when we were sitting in the drawing-room, the plateau +in view, your sister's governess plunged into the superstitious, +telling me of a 'revenant' that appears. I had heard somewhat of it +before. She thinks you believe in it." + +Richard Thornycroft extended his hand to help her over the railings. +"Revenant, or no revenant, I would very strongly advise you not to +frequent the plateau at night," he said, as they walked on to the +house. "Do not be tempted to risk the danger." + +"Are you advising me against the ghostly danger or the tangible?" + +"The tangible." + +"What is the other tale? What gave rise to this superstition?" + +Richard Thornycroft did not answer. He piloted her indoors as far as +the drawing-room, all in silence. The room was so dusk now that she +could scarcely see the outline of the furniture. + +"Will you not tell it me, Mr. Richard? Mademoiselle's was but a lame +tale." + +"What was mademoiselle's tale?" + +"That she saw a shadowy figure on the plateau, which disappeared +almost as she looked at it. You gave her some explanation about a +murderer that came again as a revenant, and she had lived in dread of +seeing it ever since." + +If my lady had expected Richard Thornycroft to laugh in answer to her +laugh, she was entirely mistaken; his face remained stern, sad, +solemn. + +"I cannot tell you anything, Lady Ellis, that you might not hear from +any soul at Coastdown," he said presently. "People, however, don't +much care to talk of this." + +"Why don't they?" + +Richard lifted his dark eyebrows. "I scarcely know: a feeling +undoubtedly exists against doing so. What is it you wish to hear?" + +"All the story, from beginning to end. Was there a murder?" + +"Yes; it took place on the plateau. I can give you no particulars, I +was but a little fellow at the time, except that the man who committed +the deed hung himself before the night was out. The superstition +obtaining is, that he does not rest quietly in his unconsecrated +grave, and comes abroad at times to haunt the plateau, especially the +spot where the deed was done." + +"And that spot?" + +Richard extended his hand and pointed to the edge as nearly as +possible in a line with the window. + +"It was there; just above the place they call the Half-moon. The +figure appears on the brink, and stands there looking out over the +sea. I should have said is reported to appear," he corrected himself. + +"Did you ever see it yourself?" + +"I cannot tell you." + +"Not tell me!" + +"I have undoubtedly seen a figure hovering there; but whether ghostly +or human it has never given me time to ascertain. Before I could well +cross the railings even, it has gone." + +"Gone where?" + +"I never could detect where. And to tell you the truth, I have thought +it strange." + +"Have you seen it many times?" + +"Three or four." + +He was standing close against the side of the window as he spoke, his +profile stern as ever, distinct in the nearly faded light. My lady sat +and watched him. + +"The superstition has caused an accident or two," he resumed. "A poor +coastguard-man was on his beat there one moonlight night and discerned +a figure coming towards him walking on the brink of the cliff, as he +was. What he saw to induce him to take it for the apparition, or to +impart fear, was never explained. With a wild cry he either leaped +from the cliff in his fright, or fell from it." + +"Was he killed on the spot?" + +"So to say. He lived but a few minutes after help came: the tide was +up, and they had to get to him in boats: just long enough to say some +nearly incoherent words, to the effect of what I have told you. A +night or two after that a man, living in the village, went on the +plateau looking for the ghost, as was supposed, and he managed to miss +his footing, fell over, and was killed. It was then that my father had +the railings put; almost a superfluous caution, as it turned out, for +the impression made on the neighbourhood by these two accidents was so +great, and the plateau became so associated in men's minds with so +much horror, that I think nobody would go on it at night unless +compelled." + +"Lest they should see three ghosts instead of one," interrupted a +light, careless voice at the back of the room. My lady started, +Richard turned. + +It came from Isaac Thornycroft. He had come in unheard, the door was +but half closed, and gathered the sense of what was passing. + +"Quite an appropriate atmosphere for ghostly stories," he said; "you +are all in the dark here. Shall I ring for lights?" + +"Not yet," interposed my lady, hastily; "I want to hear more." + +"There's no more to hear," said Richard. + +"Yes there is. You cannot think how this interests me, Mr. Richard; +but I want to know--I want to know what was the cause of the murder. +_Can't_ you tell me?" + +Isaac Thornycroft had perched himself on the music-stool, his fair, +gay, open face a very contrast just now to his brother's grave one. In +the uncertain light he fancied that my lady looked to him with the +last question, as if in appeal, and he answered it. + +"Richard can tell it if he likes." + +But it seemed that Richard aid not like. He had said the neighbourhood +cared not to speak of this; most certainly _he did not_. It was +remembered afterwards, when years had passed; and the strange fact was +regarded as some subtle instinct lying far beyond the ken of man. But +there was my lady casting her exacting looks towards him. + +"They were two brothers, the disputants, and the cause was said to be +jealousy. Both loved the same woman, and she played them off one on +the other. Hence the murder. Had I been the Nemesis I should have +slain the woman after them." + +"Brothers!" repeated Lady Ellis. "It was a dreadful thing." + +Richard, quitting his place by the window, left the room. Isaac, who +had been softly humming a tune to himself, brought it to a close. A +broad smile sat on his face: it appeared evident to my lady that the +superstition was regarded by him as fun rather than otherwise. She +fell into thought. + +"You do not believe in the ghost, Mr. Isaac?" + +"I don't say that. I do not fear it." + +"Did you ever see it?" + +"Never so much as its shadow; but it is currently believed, you know, +that some people are born without the gift of seeing ghosts." + +He laughed a merry laugh. My lady resumed in a low tone. + +"Is it not thought that your mother feared it? That it--it helped to +kill her?" + +As if by magic, changed the mood of Isaac Thornycroft. He rose from +the stool, and stood for a moment at the window in the faint rays of +the light; his face was little less dark than his brother's, his voice +as stern. + +"By your leave, madam, we will not bring my mother's name up in +connexion with this subject." + +"I beg your pardon; but--there is one thing I should like to ask you. +Do not look upon me as a stranger, but as one of yourselves from +henceforth; come here, I hope, to make life pleasanter to all of us," +she continued, in her sweetest tone. "Those rooms at the end of the +house, with the high walls on either side--is there any superstition +connected with them?" + +Isaac Thornycroft simply stared at her. + +"I cannot tell _why_ I fancy it. To-day when Mr. Richard was showing +me those rooms, the thought struck me that the superstition said to +obtain at the Red Court Farm must be connected with them." + +"Who says that superstition obtains at the Red Court Farm?" questioned +Isaac sharply. + +"I seem to have gathered that impression from one or another." + +"Then I should think, for your own peace of mind, you had better +ungather it--if you will allow me to coin a word," he answered. "The +superstition of the plateau does not extend to the Red Court." + +She gave a slight sniff. "Those rooms looked dull enough for it. And +your brother--your strong, stern, resolute brother--confessed to +feeling so lonely in them that he had Hyde to sleep in the chamber +near him. There's not so much space between them and the plateau." + +Isaac turned from the window and faced her; voice, eye, face resolute +as Richard's. + +"Mrs. Thornycroft--or Lady Ellis, whichever it may please you to be +called--let me say a word of advice to you in all kindness. Forget +these things; do not allow yourself to recur to them. For your own +sake I would warn you never to go on the plateau after daylight; the +edge is more treacherous than you imagine; and your roving there could +not be meet or pleasant. As to the rooms you speak of, there is no +superstition attaching to them that I am aware of; but there may be +other reasons to render it inexpedient for ladies to enter them. They +belong to me and my brother; to my father also, when he chooses to +enter; and we like to know that they are private to us. Shall I ring +for lights now?" he concluded, as he turned to quit the room. + +"Yes, please. I wonder where Mr. Thornycroft can be?" + +"Probably at the Mermaid," he stayed to say. + +"At the Mermaid? Do you mean the public-house?" + +"Yes. A smoking bout takes place in its best parlour occasionally. My +father, Mr. Southall, Captain Copp, Dangerfield the superintendent of +the coastguard, old Connaught, and a few other gentlemen, meet there." + +"Oh!" she answered. "Where are you going?" + +"To fetch my sister from Mrs. Copp's." + +In the short interval that elapsed before the appearance of the +lights, my lady took a rapid survey of matters in her mind. The +conclusion she arrived at was, that there were some items of the +recent conversation altogether curious; that a certain mysterious +atmosphere enveloped the present as well as the past; not the least of +which was Richard Thornycroft's manner and his too evident faith in +mystery. Take it for all in all, the most incomprehensible place she +had ever come in contact with was the Red Court Farm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +The New Mistress of the Red Court. + + +My lady was up betimes in the morning. Remembering the previous day's +dinner, she went to seek the cook, intending to come down upon her +with a reprimand. The servants were only just rising from breakfast, +which afforded my lady an opportunity of seeing the style of that meal +as served in the kitchen of the Red Court Farm. + +Tea and coffee; part of a ham, cold; toasted bacon, hot; eggs boiled; +watercress and radishes; a raised pie; cold beef; shrimps; hot rolls; +toast and butter. The sight of all this so completely took Lady Ellis +aback, that she could only stare and wonder. + +"Is this your usual breakfast table?" she asked of the cook when the +rest had left the kitchen. + +"Yes, my lady." + +"By whose permission?" + +"By--I don't understand," said the cook, a stolid sort of woman in +ordinary, with a placid face, though very great in her own department. + +"Who is it that allows all this?" + +Still the woman did not quite comprehend. The scale of living at the +Red Court Farm was so profuse, that the servants in point of fact +could eat what they pleased. + +"Sometimes the eatables is varied, my lady." + +"But--does Mr. Thornycroft know of this extravagance going on? Is he +aware that you sit down to such a breakfast?" + +Cook could not say. He did not trouble himself about the matter. Yes, +now she remembered, the justice had come in when they were at +breakfast and other meals. + +"Who has been the manager here?--who has had the ordering of things?" +inquired my lady, in a suppressed passion. + +"Sinnett, chiefly. Once in a way the justice would give the orders for +dinner; a'most never," was the reply. + +Compressing her lips, determining to suppress all this ere many days +should be over, my lady quitted the subject for the one she had +chiefly come to speak upon. + +"And now, cook, what did you mean by flying in the face of my orders +yesterday?" + +"Did I fly in the face of 'em?" asked the cook, simply. + +"Did you! I ordered a plain dinner--fish, a joint, and pudding. You +sent up--I know not what in addition to it." + +"Oh, it's them extra dishes you mean. Yes, my lady, Sinnett ordered +'em." + +"_Sinnett!_" echoed my lady. "Did you tell her I had desired the +dinner should be plain--that I had fixed on it?" she asked after a +pause. + +"Sinnett said that sort of dinner wouldn't do for the justice, and I +was to send up a better one." + +My lady bit her thin lips. "Call Sinnett here if you please." + +Sinnett, about her work upstairs, came in obedience to the summons. +She was a little, pale-faced, dark woman, of about thirty-five, given +to wear smart caps. My lady attacked her quietly enough, but with a +manner authoritative. + +"I beg you to understand at once that I am mistress here, Sinnett, and +must be obeyed. When I give my orders, whether for dinner or for +anything else, they are not to be improved upon." + +"My lady, in regard to adding to the dinner yesterday, I did it for +the best; not to act in opposition to you," replied Sinnett, +respectfully. "A good dinner has to be sent in always: those are the +general orders. The young gentlemen are so much in the habit of +bringing in chance guests, that the contingency has to be provided +for. I have known a party of eight or ten brought in before now, and +we servants quite unaware of it until about to lay the cloth." + +"Yes," said my lady, hastily, "that might be all very well when there +was no controlling mistress here. Mr. Thornycroft's sons appear to +have been allowed great license in the house; of course it will be +different now. Remember one thing, if you please, Sinnett, that you do +not interfere with my orders for dinner today." + +"Very well, my lady." + +Catching up her dress--a beautiful muslin that shone like gold--my +lady turned to the larder, telling the cook to follow her. She had +expected to see on its shelves the dishes that left the table +yesterday; but she saw very little. + +"What has become of the ducks, cook? They were scarcely touched at +table." + +"We had 'em for our suppers, my lady." + +My lady had a wrathful word on the tip of her tongue; she did not +speak it. + +"Ducks for supper in the kitchen! Are you in the habit of taking your +supper indiscriminately from the dinner dishes that come down?" + +"Yes, my lady. Such is master's orders." + +"It appears to me that a vast quantity of provisions must be +consumed," remarked my lady. + +"Pretty well," was the cook's answer. "It's a tolerable large family; +and Mr. Thornycroft has a good deal given away." + +"Provisions?" + +"He do; he's a downright good man, my lady. Not a morning passes, but +some poor family or other from the village comes up and carries home +what's not wanted here." + +"I wonder you don't have them up at night as well," said my lady, in +sarcasm. + +The cook took it literally. + +"That's one of the few things not allowed at the Red Court Farm. Mr. +Thornycroft won't have people coming here at night: and for the matter +of that," added the woman, "they'd not care to come by the plateau +after dark.--About today's dinner, my lady?" + +Yes; about today's dinner. As if in aggravation of the powers that +had been, my lady ordered soles, a piece of roast beef, the tart that +had not been cut yesterday, and the remainder of the lemon cream. + +As she went sailing away, the cook returned into the kitchen to +Sinnett. The woman was really perplexed. + +"I say, Sinnett, here's a start! A piece of ribs of beef, and nothing +else. What's to be done?" + +"Send it up," quietly replied Sinnett. + +"But what on earth will the justice and the young masters say?" + +"We shall see. I wash my hands of interfering. Exactly what she has +ordered, cook, and no more, mind: she and the master must settle it +between them." + +Mary Anne Thornycroft had hoped she "should not die of it." Of that +there was little chance; but that the girl had received a great blow, +there was no disputing. Mr. Thornycroft had said a word to her that +morning after breakfast in his authoritative manner, to remind her +that she was not to run wild, now there was some one at home to be her +friend, mother, companion. Smarting under the sense of wrongs that in +her limited experience, her ignorance of the woes of the world, she +believed had never fallen on anybody's head before, Mary Anne when +left alone burst into a flood of tears; and Isaac surprised her in +them. Half in vexation, half in pride, she dried them hastily. Isaac +drew her before him, and stood holding her hands in his, looking down +gravely into her face. + +"What did you promise me, Mary Anne?" + +No answer. + +"That you would, for a time at least, make the best of things. That +you would _try_ the new rule before rebelling against it." + +"But I can't. It is too hard, Isaac. Papa's beginning to interfere +now." + +"Interfere! Is that the right word to use?" + +She looked down, pouting her pretty lips. It was a good sign, as Isaac +knew. + +"There was no harm in my walking to Mrs. Copp's after breakfast +yesterday; or in my staying there; or in my going with you to +Jutpoint." + +"Did papa say there was harm?" + +"He told me I was not to run wild now. He told me that I had a"--the +poor chest heaved piteously--"a mother. A mother to control me!" + +"Well!" said Isaac. + +"She is not my mother--I will never call her so. Oh, Isaac! why can't +the old days come back again, when mademoiselle was here?" + +"Hush! don't cry. Richard or she may be coming in. There; be your +own calm self, while I say a word to you. Listen. This calamity has +been--" + +"There!" she interrupted. "You say yourself it is a calamity." + +"I have never thought it anything else; but it cannot be averted now, +and therefore nothing remains but to try and lighten it. It has been +brought about by you; by you alone, Mary Anne; and if I revert to that +fact for a moment, my dear, it is not to pain you, but to draw an +inference from it for the future. Do not rebel at first to the control +of my lady. It would be unjust, ungracious, altogether wrong; it might +lead to further trouble for you; we know not of what sort. Promise +me," he added, kissing her lips, "that you will not be the one to make +first mischief. It is for your own good that I urge it." + +Her better judgment came to her, and she gave Isaac a little nod in +answer. + +My lady reaped the benefit of this lecture. Coming in from her +somewhat unsatisfactory visit to the cook, she found the young lady +dutifully practising the Moonlight sonata. My lady looked about the +room, as if by good luck she might find something to avert weariness. +Miss Thornycroft had hoped she should not die of _her_; my lady was +beginning to hope she should not die of ennui. + +"Do you never have any books here? Novels?" + +"Sometimes," replied Mary Anne, turning round to speak. "We get them +from the library at Jutpoint. There are some books upstairs in the +book-case that used to be mamma's--Walter Scott's, and Dickens's, and +others." + +The Moonlight sonata went on again. My lady, who had no soul for +music, thought it the most wofully dull piece she had ever listened +to. She sat inert on the sofa. Life--this life at the Red Court +Farm--was already looking indescribably dreary. And she had pictured +it as a second Utopia! It is ever so; when anticipation becomes lost +in possession, romance and desire are alike gone. + +"How long has Sinnett lived here?" she suddenly asked, again +interrupting Miss Thornycroft. + +"Ever so long," was the young lady's reply. "She came just before +mamma died." + +"What are her precise functions here?--What does she call herself?" + +"We don't call her anything in particular. She is a sort of general +servant, overlooking everything. She is housekeeper and manager." + +"Ah! she has taken a great deal of authority on herself, I can see." + +"Has she?" replied Mary Anne. "I have heard papa say she is one of the +best servants we ever had; thoroughly capable." + +My lady gave her head a little defiant nod: and relapsed into silence +and ennui. + +Somehow the morning was got through. In the afternoon they set out to +walk to the heath; it was rather late, for my lady, lying on the sofa +in her bedroom, dropped off to sleep after luncheon. The dinner hour +had been postponed to eight in the evening in consequence of a message +from Mr. Thornycroft. + +Winding round the churchyard, Mary Anne stood a moment and looked over +the dwarf quickset hedge, on that side not much higher than her knee. +My lady observed that her hands were clasped for a moment, that her +lips moved. + +"What are you doing, Mary Anne?" + +"I never like to go by mamma's grave without staying a moment to look +at it, and to say a word or two of prayer," was the simple answer. + +My lady laughed, not kindly. "That comes of having a Roman Catholic +governess." + +"Does it!" answered the girl quietly, indignant at the laugh. +"Mademoiselle happens to be a Protestant. I did not learn it from her, +or from any one; it comes from my heart." + +Turning abruptly on to the heath, Mary Anne saw Mademoiselle Derode +coming towards them, and sprung off to meet her with a glad step. + +Disappointment was in store for my lady's private dream of keeping +Miss Derode as governess. Mademoiselle was then on her way to the Red +Court to tell them she was leaving for France in two days. + +"You cannot go," said Mary Anne, with the decisively authoritative +manner peculiar to the Thornycrofts. "You must come and spend some +weeks with me at the Red Court." + +Mademoiselle shook her little brown head. It was not possible, she +said; happy as she could be at the Red Court; much as she would have +liked to stay again with her dear Miss Mary Anne. Her mother wanted +her, and she must go. + +Turning about and about, they paced the heath while she repeated the +substance of her mother's letter. Madame, said she, was suffering from +a cold, from the separation, from loneliness, and had written for her. +The Champs Elysées had no charms without her dear daughter; the +toilettes were miserable; the playing children hustled her, their +bonnes were not polite. Virginie must return the very first hour it +would be convenient to do so. The pot-au-feu got burnt, the +appartement smoked; madame had been so long en pension that she had +forgotten how to manage things; never clever at household affairs, the +craft of her hand appeared to have gone from her utterly. She had not +had a dinner, so to say, since Virginie left; she had not slept one +whole night. While Monsieur and Madame--her pupil's parents--had been +away on their wedding tour, she had said nothing of this, but now that +they were home again she would no longer keep silence. Virginie must +come; and her best prayers would be upon her on the journey. + +A sort of mocking smile, covered on the instant by a sweet word, +crossed my lady's lips. + +"It was all very well," she said, "just what a good mother would +write; but mademoiselle must write back, and explain that she was +wanted yet for some weeks at the Red Court Farm." + +"I cannot," said mademoiselle; "I wish I could. Miladi is very good to +invite me; but my mother is my mother." + +"You left your mother for seven years; she did well then." + +"But, yes; that was different. Miladi can picture it. We have our +ménage now." + +"I have set my heart upon your coming to us, mademoiselle," was +miladi's rejoinder, showing for a moment her white teeth. + +"I should not need the pressing, if I could come," was the simple +answer. "It is a holiday to me now to be at the Red Court Farm; but +some things are practicable and others are not practicable, as miladi +knows." + +And the poor little governess in the cause of her mother was hard as +adamant. They walked about until my lady's legs were tired, and then +prepared to return. + +"Of course you will come back with us, and dine for the last time?" +said Mary Anne. + +On any other occasion my lady might have interposed with an intimation +that Mary Anne Thornycroft had no longer licence to invite whom she +pleased to the table of the Red Court Farm. Without waiting for her to +second the invitation, mademoiselle at once accepted it. + +"For the last time," she repeated; "I shall be making my baggage +tomorrow." + +My lady did not change her dress for dinner. The odds and ends of what +we are pleased to call full dinner-dress did not seem to be +appreciated at the Red Court. Yesterday Richard and Isaac had sat down +in their velveteen clothes. A moment before dinner Mr. Thornycroft +came into the drawing-room, and said his sons had brought in two or +three friends. My lady, meeting them in the hall, stared at their +appearance and number. + +"What is it? who are they?" she whispered to Mary Anne. + +"Oh, it is only one of their impromptu dinner parties," carelessly +replied Mary Anne. "I guessed they were thinking of it by their +delaying the dinner. They have supper parties instead sometimes." + +My lady thought she had never seen so rough a dinner party in her +life, in the matter of dress. Richard and Isaac wore thin light +clothes, loose and easy; the strangers' costume was, to say the least +of it, varied. Old Connaught, temporarily abroad again, was wrapped in +a suit of grey flannel; the superintendent of the coastguard wore +brown; and Captain Copp had arrived in a pea-jacket. Mary Anne shook +hands with them all; Miss Derode chattered; and Mr. Thornycroft +introduced the superintendent by name to his wife--Mr. Dangerfield. + +"Only six today," whispered Mary Anne to her stepmother. "Sometimes +they have a dozen." + +Quite enough for the fare provided. Before Mr. Thornycroft began to +help the soles, he looked everywhere for a second dish--on the table, +on the sideboard, on the dumb waiter. "There's more fish than this, +Sinnett?" he exclaimed, hastily. + +"No, sir. That's all." + +Mr. Thornycroft stared his servants severally in the face, as if the +fault were theirs. Three of them were in waiting: Sinnett, a maid, and +Hyde. He then applied himself to the helping of the fish, and, by dint +of contrivance, managed to make it go round. + +Well and good. Some ribs of beef came on next, fortunately a large +piece. Mr. Thornycroft let it get cold before him; he could not +imagine what the hindrance meant. Presently it struck him that the +three servants stood in their places waiting for the meat to be +served. The guests waited. + +"Where are the other things, Hyde?" + +"There's only that, sir." + +The justice looked up the table and down the table; never in his whole +life had he felt ashamed of his hospitality until now. But by this +time the curious aspect of affairs had penetrated to Richard. + +"Is this all you have to give us for dinner?" he asked of Sinnett, in +his deep, stern tones; and he did not think it necessary to lower his +voice. + +"Yes, sir." + +"_This!_ That piece of beef?" + +"There's nothing else, sir." + +"By whose management?--by whose fault? Speak, woman." + +"My lady gave the orders, sir." + +Richard turned his dark face on my lady, as if demanding whether +Sinnett was not telling a lie; and Mr. Thornycroft began to cut the +beef as fast as he could cut it. + +"I did not anticipate that we should have friends with us," murmured +the new mistress. She felt truly uncomfortable, really sorry for the +contretemps; all eyes were turned upon her, following the dark +condemning ones of Richard. + +"We must make the best of our beef; there are worse misfortunes at +sea," said Isaac, his good-natured voice breaking the silence. "You +will judge of our appetites better when you get more used to us," he +added to my lady with a kind smile. + +"I should think there is worse misfortunes at sea," observed Captain +Copp, forgetting his grammar in his wish to smooth the unpleasantness. +"Bless and save my wooden leg! if us sailors had such a glorious piece +of beef to sit down to of a day on the long voyages, we should not +hear quite so much of hardships. I remember once--it was the very +voyage before the one when I saw that sea-serpent in the Pacific--our +tins of preserved meat turned bad, and an awful gale we met washed +away our live stock. Ah, you should have been with us then, Mr. +Richard; you'd never despise a piece of prime beef again." + +Richard vouchsafed no answer: he had been thoroughly vexed. Captain +Copp, seated at my lady's right hand, asked her to take wine with him, +and then took it with the table generally. + +My lady got away as soon as she could: hardly knowing whether to +resent the advent of the visitors, the free and easy hospitality +that appeared to prevail at the Red Court, or her own mistake in not +having provided better. With that dark resolute face of power in her +mind--Richard's--instinct whispered her that it would not answer to +draw the reins too tight. At any rate, she felt uncomfortable at the +table, and quitted it. + +Leaving Miss Thornycroft and mademoiselle to go where they pleased, +she went up at once to her chamber: a roomy apartment facing the sea. +By its side was a small dressing-room, or boudoir; with a pleasant +window to sit at on a summer's day. It was night now, but my lady +threw up the window, and remained at it. A mist was arising out at +sea: not much as yet. She was musing on the state of affairs. Had she +made a mistake in coming to the Red Court for life? Early days as yet +to think so, but a doubt of it lay upon her spirit. + +The subdued tones of the piano underneath were echoing to the +beautiful touch of Mademoiselle Derode; the soft, light touch that she +had not been able to impart to her pupil. Mary Anne Thornycroft's +playing, though clear, brilliant, and good, was, like herself, firm +and decisive. You never heard the low melodious music from her that +charms the heart to sweet sadness, rather than wins the ear and the +admiration. + +Suddenly, as my lady stood listening and musing, a figure, very dim +and shadowy, appeared on the edge of the plateau, and she strained +her eyes on it with a start. + +Not of fear; she had no superstition in her hard composition, and all +she felt was curiosity--surprise. Mademoiselle Derode might have given +utterance to a faint scream, and scuttered away where she could not +see the plateau, in dread belief that the ghost was walking. My lady +had the good sense to know that a figure, shadowy by this light, might +be very substantial by daylight. All in a moment she lost sight of it. +It appeared to be standing still on the plateau's edge, whether +looking this way or over the sea, her far sight, remarkably keen, +could not tell her, but as she looked the figure disappeared. It was +gone, so, far as she could see; certainly it did not walk either to +the right or the left. For a brief instant my lady wondered whether it +had fallen over the cliff--as the poor coastguard-man had once done. + +Footsteps underneath. Some one was crossing the garden, apparently +having come from the direction of the plateau, and making for the +solitary door in the dead wall at the unused end of the house; the end +that she had been warned could not welcome ladies. TO her intense +surprise she recognised her husband, but dressed differently from what +he had been at dinner. The black frock coat (his usual attire) was +replaced by one of common velveteen, the gaiters were buttoned over +the pantaloons, the customary hat by a disreputable wide-awake. Where +could he have been?--when she had thought him busy with his guests! + +The mist was extending to the land very rapidly; my lady shut down the +window in haste and descended the stairs. The drawing-room windows +were open, and she rang the bell for them to be closed. In those few +moments the mist had increased so greatly that she could not see +halfway across the garden. It was almost like an instantaneous cloud +of blight. + +"Mr. Thornycroft has left the dining-room," she observed to Hyde, as +he was shutting the windows. "Have the people gone?" + +"No, my lady. I have just taken in the pipes and spirits." + +"Pipes and spirits! Do they smoke at these impromptu dinner +gatherings--and drink spirits?" + +"Generally," answered Hyde. + +"But Mr. Thornycroft is not with them? I saw him out of doors." + +Hyde, his windows and shutters closed, turned round to face her, and +spoke with emphasis. + +"The justice is in the dining-room, my lady. He does not quit it when +he has friends with him." + +Believing the man told her a lie, for her own sight was perfectly +reliable sight--at least it had been so hitherto--she determined to +satisfy herself. Waiting until he had gone, she crossed the hall, +opened the dining-room door an inch and peeped in. Hyde was right. +There sat Mr. Thornycroft in his place at the foot of the table, +almost close to her, in the same dress he had worn at dinner, a long +churchwarden's pipe in his mouth, and a steaming glass of something +hot before him. + + +---------- + + +"What will you allow me for housekeeping, Mr. Thornycroft?" she asked +in the morning. + +"Nothing." + +"Nothing?" + +"Nothing," repeated the justice in his firmest tone, decisive as +Richard's. She was taking her breakfast languidly in her room. It +was eleven o'clock, but she had a headache, she said: the truth +being that my lady liked to lie in bed. Mr. Thornycroft, coming in, +condoled with her in his hearty manner, never believing but the plea +was genuine--the straightforward country gentleman would as soon have +believed Captain Copp's wooden leg to be a real one, as a headache +false. He entered on the matter he came to speak of, the dinner of +yesterday. Kindly enough, but very emphatically, he warned her that +such a thing must not occur a second time. It had been altogether a +mistake. + +"Any money you may wish for yourself, for your own purposes, is yours +heartily," he resumed; "but in the housekeeping you must not +interfere. The cost is my care, and Sinnett sees to it: she has been +in the house so long as to know perfectly well how to provide. I would +have given ten pounds out of my pocket rather than have had that +happen last night," added the justice, giving a flick to his trousers' +right-hand pocket in momentary irritation at the recollection. + +"But to provide such dinners is most unreasonable," she remonstrated. +"It is only for the servants to eat. I don't think you can have an +idea of the extravagance that goes on in the kitchen." + +"Pooh! Extravagance! I can afford it. The servants only eat what goes +down from our table; and what they can't eat is given away to those +who want food. It was my father's plan before me, and it is mine." + +"It is sinful waste," retorted my lady. "If you choose to sit down to +an outrageously profuse table yourself, the servants ought not to +follow suit." + +"What would you have done with the superfluous victuals?" demanded the +justice. "Put up for auction of a morning and sold?" + +"As you ask me what I would have done, I will answer--do not provide +them. The housekeeping is altogether on too liberal a scale." + +Mr. Thornycroft, who had been looking from the window over the sea, +lying hot and clear and beautiful this morning, turned and stood +before her; his fair, handsome face grave, his towering form raised to +its full height, his voice, as he spoke, impressive in its calm +decision. + +"Lady Ellis, understand one thing--that this is a matter you must not +interfere in. The housekeeping at the Red Court Farm that you are +pleased to find cause of fault with--is an established rule; so to +say, an institution. It cannot be changed. Sinnett will conduct it as +hitherto without trouble to or interference from yourself. Whenever it +does not please you to sit down to table, there are other rooms in +which you can order your dinner served." + +"And suppose I say that I must exert my right of authority--my +privilege of controlling the dinners?" she rejoined, her voice getting +just a little harsh with the opposition. + +"You cannot say it. I am master of my own house and my own table." + +"You have made me the mistress!" + +"Just so; but not to alter the established usages." + +Lady Ellis tapped her foot on the soft carpet. "Do you consider that +there is any _reason_ in keeping so large a table?" + +"There may or may not be. My pleasure is that it shall be kept. My +sons have been brought up to it; they would not have it curtailed." + +"I think your sons have been brought up to a great deal that is +unfitting. One would think they were lords." + +"Handsome, noble fellows!" aspirated the justice, with perhaps a +little spice of aggravation. "There are not many lords that can match +them." + +My lady bit her thin lips, a sure sign of rising temper. "It seems to +me to be my duty, Mr. Thornycroft, exercising the authority you have +vested in me by making me your wife, to control the extravagance +hitherto running riot. Opposition, ill-feeling, in the house will not +be seemly." + +"Neither will I have it," put in the justice. + +"I do not see that it can be avoided. I give certain orders. Sinnett, +acting under you, opposes them. What can the result be but unseemly +contention? How would you avoid it, I ask?" + +"By going to live in one of the cottages on the heath, and leaving +Isaac--I mean Richard--master of the Red Court Farm." + +He spoke promptly--like a man whose mind is fully made up. The +prospect of living in a cottage on the heath nearly took my lady's +breath away. + +"Mr. Thornycroft!" she passionately exclaimed, and then her tone +changed to one of peevish remonstrance: "why do you bring up +impossibilities? A cottage on the heath!" + +Mr. Thornycroft brought down his hand, not in anger but emphasis, on +the small breakfast table. + +"Were the order of the Red Court upset by unnecessary interference on +your part--were I to find that I could be no longer master of it +without being subjected to continual opposition, I should surely +_quit_ it. If a cottage on the heath were distasteful to you I would +take lodgings at Jutpoint." + +Lady Ellis sipped her coffee. It did not appear safe to say more. A +cottage on the heath, or lodgings at Jutpoint! + +"I only wished to put a stop to unnecessary extravagance," she said, +in a tone of conciliation. + +"No doubt. I give you credit for good motives, of course; but these +things must be left to me. The same gentlemen who dined here yesterday +evening are coming to supper this. I have made out the bill of fare +myself, and given it to Sinnett." + +"Coming again to-night!" she could not help exclaiming. + +"To atone for the shortcomings of yesterday's dinner," spoke the +justice. "I never had occasion to feel ashamed of my table before." + +"I cannot think what possible pleasure you can find in the society of +such men," she said, after a pause. "Look at them, coming out to +dinner in those rough coats!" + +Mr. Thornycroft laughed. "We don't go in often for evening dress at +Coastdown. As to the pleasure, they have been in the habit of sitting +at my table for some years now, madam, and I enjoy the companionship." + +"I fancied you left them early; I thought I saw you cross the garden, +as if coming from the plateau," she said, resolving to speak of the +matter which had so puzzled her. + +"We did not leave the dining-room until eleven o'clock." + +"Well--it was very strange. I was standing at this window, and +certainly saw some one exactly like you; the same figure, the same +face; but not in the same dress. He seemed to have on gaiters and a +velveteen coat, and a low broad-brimmed hat, very ugly. What should +you say it could have been?" + +"I should say that you were dreaming." + +"I was wide awake. It was just before that mist came on," she added. + +"Ah, the fault must have lain in the mist. I have known it come as a +mirage occasionally, bringing deception and confusion." + +Did he really mean it? It seemed so, for there was seriousness on his +face as he spoke. Quitting the room, he descended the stairs, and made +his way to the fields. In the four-acre mead--as it was called in +common parlance on the farm--he came upon Richard watching the +hay-makers. Richard wished him good morning; abroad early, it was the +first time he had seen his father that day. + +"What was the failure, Dick?" asked the justice. "Fog," shortly +answered Richard. "Couldn't see the light." + +Mr. Thornycroft nodded. + +"Are we to have a repetition, sir, of yesterday's dinner table?" +resumed Richard. "If so, I think the sooner your wife is requested to +take up her residence somewhere else, the better." + +"You will not have it again. Sinnett holds my orders, and my wife has +been made aware she does. There's no need for you to put yourself +out." + +With the injunction, spoken rather testily, Mr. Thornycroft left him. +But a little later, when he met Isaac, he voluntarily entered on the +subject; hinting his vexation at the past, promising that it would +never again occur, almost as if he were tendering an apology for the +accident. + +"I'm afraid I made a mistake, Ikey; I'm afraid I made a mistake; but I +meant it for the best." + +It was ever thus. To his second son Mr. Thornycroft's behaviour was +somewhat different from what it was to his eldest. It could not be +said that he paid him more deference: but it was to Isaac he generally +spoke of business, when speaking was needed; if an opinion was +required, Isaac's was sought in preference to Richard's. It was just +as though Isaac had been the eldest son. That Richard had brought this +on himself, by his assumption of authority, was quite probable: and +the little preference seemed to spring from the justice involuntarily. + +The evening supper took place, and the guests were consoled by the +ample table for the scantiness of the previous dinner. My lady was not +invited to join it; nothing appeared further from Mr. Thornycroft's +thoughts than to have ladies at table. She spent a solitary sort of +evening; Mary Anne was at Mrs. Wilkinson's, taking leave of Miss +Derode. + +Was it, she asked herself, to go on like this always and always? Had +she become the wife of Justice Thornycroft only to die of the dreary +life at the Red Court Farm? Let us give her her due. When she married +him she did intend to do her duty as an honest woman, and send +ridiculous flirtations, such as that carried on with Robert Lake, to +the winds. But she did _not_ expect to be done to death of ennui. + +A short while went on. Nearly open warfare set in between Mary +Anne and her stepmother. To-day my lady would be harsh, exacting, +almost cruel in her rule; tomorrow the girl would be wholly +neglected--suffered to run wild. Mr. Thornycroft saw that things could +not continue thus, and the refrain of the words he had spoken to Isaac +beat ever on his brain, day by day bringing greater force to them: "I +fear I made a mistake; I fear I made a mistake." + +One morning Mary Anne astonished the justice by appearing before him +in his bureau, in what she was pleased to call the uncivilized rooms. +He sat there with Mr. Hopley, of Dartfield, some account books before +them. Her dress, a beautiful muslin with a raised blue spot, was torn +out at the gathers and trailed behind her. My lady had done it in a +passion. + +"Holloa! what do you do _here?_" cried the justice, emphatically; and +Mr. Hopley went out whistling, with his hands in his pockets, and +crossed over to stare at the idle dog-cart in the coach-house, as if +to give privacy for the explanation. + +She had come with one of her tales of woe. She had come to beg and +pray to be sent to school. What a change! Mr. Thornycroft was nearly +at his wits' end. + +Ere the day was over, his wife brought a complaint to him on her own +score: not altogether of Mary Anne. She simply said, incidentally, +that ill-trained young lady was getting quite beyond her control, and +therefore she must wash her hands of her. The complaint was of her own +health; it appeared to be failing her in a rather remarkable manner, +certainly a sudden one. This was true. She had concluded that the air +of Coastdown was inimical to her, she wished it might be managed for +her to live away--say Cheltenham, or some other healthy place. + +How eagerly Mr. Thornycroft caught at the suggestion, he felt +afterwards half ashamed to think of. In matters involving money he was +always liberal, and he at once named a handsome sum per month that she +might enjoy, at Cheltenham, or anywhere else that pleased her. + + + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Court Farm (Vol. 1 of 2), by +Mrs. Henry Wood + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58046 *** |