Sentinels relocatedHEADmain

1 files changed, 9863 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/58047-0.txt b/58047-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89eab36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/58047-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9863 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58047 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+     1. Page scan source:
+        https://books.google.com/books?id=QKYxAQAAMAAJ
+        (Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+COLLECTION
+OF
+BRITISH AUTHORS
+
+
+TAUCHNITZ EDITION.
+
+=============
+
+VOL. 966.
+
+THE RED COURT FARM.
+
+BY
+MRS. HENRY WOOD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. 2.
+
+
+
+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. 966.
+---------
+THE RED COURT FARM BY MRS. HENRY WOOD.
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+RED COURT FARM.
+
+A NOVEL.
+
+BY
+MRS. HENRY WOOD,
+AUTHOR OF "EAST LYNNE," "TREVLYN HOLD," ETC.
+
+
+_COPYRIGHT EDITION_.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+LEIPZIG
+BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ
+1868.
+
+_The Right of Translation is reserved_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+OF VOLUME II.
+
+CHAP.
+      I. At School in London.
+     II. Captain Copp.
+    III. Isaac Thornycroft's Stratagem.
+     IV. In Love.
+      V. Wilful Disobedience.
+     VI. The Half-moon Beach.
+    VII. My Lady at the Red Court.
+   VIII. A Last Interview.
+     IX. The Crowd in the Early Morning.
+      X. Shot down from the Heights.
+     XI. The Coroner's Inquest.
+    XII. Robert Hunter's Funeral.
+   XIII. Curious Rumours.
+    XIV. Robert Hunter's Ghost.
+     XV. In the Churchyard Porch.
+    XVI. In the Dog-cart to Jutpoint.
+   XVII. Ladies disputing.
+  XVIII. Disclosing it to Justice Thornycroft.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RED COURT FARM.
+
+
+
+PART THE THIRD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+At School in London.
+
+
+Two years have gone by, and it is June again.
+
+A good, substantial house in one of the western suburbs of the
+metropolis--Kensington. By the well-rubbed brass plate on the iron
+gate of the garden, and the lady's name on it--"Miss Jupp"--it may be
+taken for a boarding-school. In fact, it is one: a small select school
+(as so many schools proclaim themselves now; but this really is such);
+and, kept by Miss Jupp, once of Katterley. That is, by Miss Jupp and
+two of her sisters, but she wisely calls it by her own name singly,
+avoiding the ugly style of the plural "Miss Jupp's establishment."
+
+Fortune changes with a great many of us; every day, every hour of our
+lives, some are going up, others down. When death removed old Mr. Jupp
+(an event that occurred almost close upon poor Mrs. Lake's), then his
+daughters found that they had not enough to get along in the world.
+Wisely taking time and circumstances by the forelock, the three elder
+ones, Mary, Margaret, and Emma, removed to London, took a good house
+at Kensington, and by the help of influential friends very soon had
+pupils in it. Dorothy and Rose were married; Louisa remained at
+Katterley with her widowed mother. They professed to take ten pupils
+only: once or twice the number had been increased to twelve; the terms
+were high, but the teaching was good, and the arrangements were really
+first-class. It was with the Miss Jupps that Mary Anne Thornycroft had
+been placed. And she did not run away from them.
+
+Quite the contrary. The summer holidays have just set in, and she is
+to go home for them; as she did the previous midsummer; but she is
+expressing a half wish, now as she stands before Miss Margaret Jupp,
+that she could spend them where she is, in London. Long and long ago
+has she grown reconciled to the regularity of a school life, and to
+regard Miss Jupp's as a second and happy home. She spent the first
+Christmas holidays with them; the second Christmas (last) at
+Cheltenham with her stepmother; she and her brother Cyril.
+
+Lady Ellis (retaining still the name) is in very ill health now.
+Almost simultaneously with quitting the Red Court after her marriage,
+a grave inward disorder manifested itself. Symptoms of it indeed had
+been upon her for some time, even before leaving India; but--as is the
+case with many other symptoms--they had been entirely disregarded,
+their grave nature unsuspected. Instead of leading a gay life at the
+gay inland watering-place, flaunting her charms and her fashion in the
+eyes of other sojourners, Lady Ellis found herself compelled to live a
+very quiet one. She has a small villa, an establishment of two
+servants only; and she does not wish for more. In heart, in nature,
+she is growing altered, and the refining, holy influence that very
+often--God be praised!--changes the whole heart and spirit with a
+change which is not of this world, is coming over her. Two visits only
+has she paid to the Red Court Farm, staying about six weeks each time,
+and Mr. Thornycroft goes to Cheltenham two or three times a year. Miss
+Thornycroft and her stepmother are civil to each other now, not to say
+friendly; and when she invited the young lady and her brother Cyril
+for the holidays last Christmas, they went. The previous midsummer
+they had spent together at Coastdown, it having been one of the
+periods of my lady's two visits. Fortune had contrived well for Lady
+Ellis, and her marriage with the wealthy master of the Red Court Farm
+enabled her to enjoy every substantial comfort in her hour of need.
+
+Two other young ladies connected in a degree with this history are at
+Miss Jupp's this evening; the rest of the pupils have left. One of the
+two we have met before, one not. They are in the room now, and you may
+look at them. All three, including Miss Thornycroft, are about the
+same age--between eighteen and nineteen. She, Mary Anne, is the same
+tall, stately, fair, handsome, and (it must be owned) haughty girl
+that you knew before; the fine face is resolute as ever, the cold blue
+eyes as honest and uncompromising. She had been allowed to dress as
+expensively at Miss Jupp's as her inclination leads: to-day she wears
+a rich pale-blue silk; blue ribbons are falling from her fair hair.
+She is standing doing nothing: but sitting in a chair by her side,
+toying with a bit of fancy-work, is a plain, dark, merry-looking girl
+in a good useful nut-brown silk, Susan Hunter. She is the sister of
+Robert Hunter, several years his junior, and has been sent up from
+Yorkshire by her aunt, with whom she lives, to have two years of
+"finish" at a London school. Accident--not their having once known
+something of her brother--led to the school fixed on being Miss
+Jupp's. And now for the last.
+
+In a grey alpaca dress, trimmed with a little ribbon velvet of the
+same hue, her head bent patiently over a pile of drawings that she is
+touching up, sits the third. A very different footing in the school,
+hers, from that of the other two; _they_ pay the high, full terms;
+_she_ pays nothing, but works out her board with industry. Have you
+forgotten that pale, gentle face, one of the sweetest both in feature
+and expression ever looked upon, with the fine silky chestnut hair
+modestly braided round it, and the soft brown eyes that take all the
+best feelings of a genuine heart by storm? The weary look telling of
+incessant industry, the pile of work that she does not look up from,
+the cheap holiday-dress (her best) costing little, all proclaim
+sufficiently her dependent position in the house--a slight, graceful
+girl of middle height, with a sort of drooping look in her figure, as
+if she were, and had been all her life, in the habit of being pushed
+into the background?
+
+It is Anna Chester. Her life since we saw her has been like that
+of a dray horse. Mrs. Chester placed her at an inferior school as
+pupil-teacher, where she had many kinds of things to do, and the
+mistress's own children to take care of in the holidays. For a year
+and a half she stayed at it, doing her best patiently, and then the
+Miss Jupps took her. She has to work very much still, and her health
+is failing. Captain and Mrs. Copp have invited her to Coastdown for a
+change, and she goes down to-morrow with Miss Thornycroft. Miss Hunter
+spends the holidays at school.
+
+Mrs. Chester? Mrs. Chester quitted Guild, to set up a fashionable
+boarding-house in London. It did not answer; the mass of people
+remained cruelly indifferent to its advertisements; and the few who
+tried it ran away and never paid her. She then removed to Paris, where
+(as some friends assured her) a good English boarding-house was much
+wanted; and, if her own reports are to be trusted, she is likely to do
+pretty well at it.
+
+There remains only one more person to mention of those we formerly
+knew; and that is Robert Hunter. Putting his shoulder to the wheel in
+earnest, as only a resolute and capable man can put it; I had almost
+said as one only who has some expiation to work out; his days are
+spent in hard industry. He is the practical energetic man of business;
+never spending a moment in waste, never willingly allowing himself
+recreation. The past folly, the past idleness of that time, not so
+very long gone by, recurs to his memory less frequently than it used,
+but ever with the feeling of a nightmare. He is still with the same
+firm, earning a liberal salary. Since a day or two only has he been in
+London, but there's some talk of his remaining in it now. Nothing
+seems to be further from his thoughts than any sort of pleasure: it
+would seem that he has one vocation alone in life--work.
+
+These three young ladies were going out this afternoon. To a grand
+house, too: Mrs. Macpherson's. The professor, good simple man, had
+been content, socially speaking, with a shed on the top of Aldgate
+pump: not so madam. As the professor rose more and more into
+distinction, _she_ rose; and the residence in Bloomsbury was exchanged
+for a place at Kensington. Possibly the calling occasionally on the
+Miss Jupps, had put it into her head. A house as grand as its name
+in the matter of decoration; but not of undue size: Mrs. Macpherson
+had good common sense, and generally exercised it. A dazzling white
+front with a pillared portico and much ornamentation outside and
+in--"Majestic Villa." The professor had wanted to change the name, but
+madam preferred to retain it. It was not very far from Miss Jupp's,
+and these young ladies were going there to spend the evening.
+
+In all the glory of her large room, with its decorations of white and
+gold, its mirrors, its glittering cabinets, its soft luxurious carpet,
+its chairs of delicate green velvet, sat Mrs. Macpherson, waiting for
+these young guests. In all her own glory of dress, it may be said, for
+that was not less conspicuous than of yore, and that of to-day looked
+just as if it were chosen to accord with the hangings--a green satin
+robe with gold leaves for trimmings, and a cap that could not be seen
+for sprays and spangles. In her sense of politeness--and she possessed
+an old-fashioned stock of it--Mrs. Macpherson had dressed herself
+betimes, not to leave the young ladies alone after they came. Thus,
+when they arrived, under the convoy of Miss Emma Jupp, who left them
+at the door, Mrs. Macpherson was ready to receive them.
+
+It was the first time they had been there for many weeks; for the
+professor had been abroad on a tour in connexion with some of the
+ologies, as his wife expressed it, in which she had accompanied him.
+The result of this was, that Mrs. Macpherson had no end of Parisian
+novelties, in the shape of dress, to display to them in her chamber.
+
+"I know what girls like," she said, in her hearty manner, "and that
+is, to look at new bonnets and mantles, and try 'em on."
+
+But Mary Anne Thornycroft--perhaps because she could indulge in such
+articles at will--cared not a jot for these attractions, and said she
+should go down to see the professor.
+
+He had some rooms at the back of the house, where his collection of
+scientific curiosities--to call things by a polite name--had been
+stowed. And here the professor, when not out, spent his time. Mary
+Anne quite loved the man, so simple-minded and yet great-minded at one
+and the same time, and never failed to penetrate to his rooms when
+occasion offered. Quickly wending her way through the passages, she
+opened the door softly.
+
+It was not very easy to distinguish clearly at first, what with the
+crowd of things darkening the windows, and the mass of objects
+generally. At a few yards' distance, slightly bending over a sort of
+upright desk, as if writing something, stood a gentleman; but
+certainly not the professor. His back was towards her; he had
+evidently not heard her enter, and a faint flush of surprise dawned on
+Mary Anne's face, for in that first moment she thought it was her
+brother Cyril. It was the same youthful, supple, slender figure; the
+same waving hair, of a dark auburn, clustering round the head above
+the collar of the coat. Altogether, seen in this way, there was a
+certain resemblance; and that was the first primary link in the chain
+that attracted Mary Anne to him. The door, which she had left open,
+closed with a slight bang, and the gentleman spoke, without lifting
+his head.
+
+"I have worked it out at last. You were right about its being less
+than the other."
+
+"Is Dr. Macpherson not here?"
+
+He turned sharply at the words, a pencil in his hand, surprise on his
+face. A good face; for its old gay careless look had departed for
+ever, and the dark blue eyes--darker even than of yore--wore a serious
+gravity that never left them, a gravity born of remorse. The face was
+older than the figure, and not in the least like Cyril Thornycroft's;
+it looked fully its seven-and-twenty years--nay, looked nearer thirty;
+but all its expression was merged in surprise. No wonder; to see a
+beautiful girl in blue silk, with blue ribbons in her fair hair,
+standing there; when he had only expected the professor, in his old
+threadbare coat and spectacles. It was Robert Hunter.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, coming forward. "Can I do anything for
+you?"
+
+"I thought Dr. Macpherson was here. I came to see him."
+
+Never losing her calm self-possession on any occasion, as so many
+young ladies do on no occasion at all, Miss Thornycroft stepped up to
+the side glass cases to examine the curiosities, talking as easily to
+him as though she had known him all her life. Without being in the
+least free, there was an openness of manner about her, an utter
+absence of tricks and affectation, a straightforward independence,
+rather remarkable in a young lady. For Robert Hunter it possessed a
+singular charm.
+
+Before the professor came in, who had forgotten himself down in his
+cellar, where he had gone after a cherished specimen in the frog line;
+before Mr. Hunter had pointed out to her a quarter of the new
+acquisitions in the glass cases--animal, vegetable, and mineral--they
+knew all about each other: that he was Susan Hunter's brother, and
+that she was Miss Thornycroft of Coastdown. At mention of her name, a
+brief vision connected with the past floated across Robert Hunter's
+brain--of a certain summer evening when he was returning to Guild with
+his poor young wife, and saw the back of a high open carriage bowling
+away from his sister's gate, which he was told contained Mr. and Miss
+Thornycroft. Never since that had he heard the name or thought of the
+people.
+
+"Do you know, when I came into the room just now, and you were
+standing with your back to me, I nearly took you for one of my
+brothers. At the back you are just like him."
+
+Robert Hunter smiled slightly. "And not in the face?"
+
+"Not at all--except, perhaps, a little in the forehead. Cyril has
+hazel eyes and small features. The hair is exactly like his, the same
+colour, and grows just as his does in front, leaving the forehead
+square. If you were to hide your face, showing only the top of the
+forehead and the hair, I should say you were Cyril."
+
+The professor appeared, and they went into the more habitable part of
+the house. Robert had not seen his sister since she was a little girl;
+he had not seen Anna since they parted at Guild. It was altogether an
+acceptable meeting; but he looked at Anna's face somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Have you been working very much, Anna?" he took occasion to ask,
+drawing her for a moment aside.
+
+"I am always working very hard," she answered, with her sweet smile of
+patient endurance. "There is a great deal to be done in schools, you
+know; but I am well off at Miss Jupp's compared to what I was at the
+other place. They are very kind to me."
+
+"You have a look upon you as if you felt tired always. It is a curious
+impression to draw though, perhaps, considering I have seen you but
+for ten minutes."
+
+"I do feel tired nearly always," acknowledged Anna. "The Miss Jupps
+think London does not agree with me. I am going to Coastdown for a
+change for the holidays; I shall get better there."
+
+He thought she would require a longer change than a few holiday weeks.
+Never in the old days had it struck him that Anna looked _fragile_;
+but she certainly did now.
+
+"And now, Robert Hunter, you'll stay with us, as these young ladies
+are here?" said hospitable Mrs. Macpherson.
+
+He hesitated before replying. Very much indeed would he have liked to
+remain, but he had made an appointment with a gentleman.
+
+"Put it off," said Mrs. Macpherson.
+
+"There's no time for that. Certainly--if I am not at the office when
+he comes, one of the partners would see him. But--"
+
+"But what?" asked the professor. "Would not that be a solution of the
+difficulty?"
+
+"A way out of the mess," put in the professor's wife.
+
+Mr. Hunter laughed. "I was going to say that I have never put away any
+business for my own convenience since--since I took to it again."
+
+The attraction, or whatever it might be, however, proved too strong
+for business this afternoon, and Robert Hunter remained at the
+professor's. When he and Miss Thornycroft parted at night, it seemed
+that they had known each other for years.
+
+It was very singular; a thing of rare occurrence. We have heard of
+this sudden mutual liking, the nameless affinity that draws one soul
+to another; but believe me it is not of very frequent experience. The
+thought that crossed Robert Hunter's mind that evening more than once
+was--"I wish that girl was my sister." Any idea of another sort of
+attachment would be a very long while yet before it penetrated to him
+as even a possibility.
+
+In the evening, when they got home, at an early hour--Miss Jupp had
+only given them until eight o'clock, for there was packing to do--Mary
+Anne Thornycroft went into a fever of indignation to think that no
+message had been left by or from any of her brothers.
+
+"It is so fearfully careless of them! That is just like my brothers.
+Do they expect we are to travel alone?"
+
+"My dear, do not put yourself out," said Miss Jupp. "Two young ladies
+can travel alone very well. You will get there quite safely."
+
+"So far as that goes, ma'am, I could travel alone fearlessly to the
+end of the world," spoke Mary Anne. "But that is not the question;
+neither does it excuse their negligence. For all they know, I might
+have spent all my money, and have none to take me down."
+
+Miss Emma Jupp laughed. "They would suppose that we should supply
+you."
+
+"Yes, Miss Emma, no doubt. But they had no business to send me word
+that one of them would be in London to-day to take charge of me home,
+unless--"
+
+The words were brought to a sudden standstill by the opening of the
+door. One of the maids appeared at it to announce a guest.
+
+"Mr. Isaac Thornycroft."
+
+There entered the same noble-looking young man, noble in his towering
+height and strength, that we knew two years ago at Coastdown; he came
+in with a smile on his bright face--on its fair features, in its blue
+eyes. Miss Emma Jupp's first thought was, what a likeness he bore to
+his sister; her second that she had never in her whole life seen any
+one half so good-looking. It happened that she had never seen him
+before. Mary Anne began to reproach him for carelessness. He received
+it all with the most ineffable good humour, the smile brightening on
+his sunny face.
+
+"I know it is too late, quite wrong of me, but I missed the train at
+Jutpoint, and had to come by a later one. Which of these two young
+ladies is Miss Chester?" he added, turning to the two girls who stood
+together. "I have a--a trifle for her from Captain Copp."
+
+"You shall guess," interposed Mary Anne. "One of them _is_ Anna
+Chester. Now guess."
+
+It was not difficult. Miss Hunter met his glance fearlessly in a merry
+spirit; Anna blushed and let fall her eyes. Isaac Thornycroft smiled.
+
+"This is Miss Chester."
+
+"It is all through your stupid shyness, Anna," said Mary Anne in a
+cross tone. Which of course only increased her confusion. Isaac
+crossed the room, his eyes bent on the sweet blushing face, as he held
+out the "trifle" forwarded by Captain Copp.
+
+"Will you accept it, Miss Chester? Captain Copp charged me to take
+particular care of it, and not to touch it myself."
+
+It was a travelling wickered bottle, holding about a pint. Anna looked
+at it with curiosity, and Emma Jupp took it out of her hand.
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"Take out the cork and smell it," suggested Mr. Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+Miss Emma did so; giving a strong sniff. "Dear me! I think it is rum."
+
+"Rum-and-water," corrected Isaac. "Captain Copp begged me to assure
+Miss Chester that it was only half-and-half, she being a young lady.
+It is for her refreshment as she goes down to-morrow."
+
+"If that's not exactly like Sam Copp!" exclaimed Miss Jupp with some
+asperity, while the laugh against Anna went round. "He will never
+acquire an idea beyond his old sea notions; never. _I_ remember what
+he was before his leg came off."
+
+"He came all the way to Jutpoint in the omnibus after me when I had
+driven over, to make sure, I believe, that Mrs. Copp should not be
+privy to the transaction. It was through his injunctions as to the
+wicker bottle that I missed my train," concluded Isaac--his eyes, that
+were bent on Anna Chester, dancing with mirth. At which hers fell
+again.
+
+If all of us estimated people alike, especially in regard to that
+subtle matter of "liking" or "disliking" on first impression, what a
+curious world it would be! Miss Emma Jupp considered Isaac Thornycroft
+the best-looking, the most attractive man she had ever seen. Mary Anne
+Thornycroft, on the contrary, was thinking the same of somebody else.
+
+"I never saw anybody I liked half so much at first sight as Robert
+Hunter," she softly said to herself, as she laid her head on her
+pillow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+Captain Copp.
+
+
+Captain Copp was a true sailor, gifted with more good nature than
+common sense. On the rare occasion of receiving a young lady visitor
+under his roof, his hospitality and his heart alike ran riot. Anna
+Chester, the pretty, friendless girl whom he had heard of but never
+seen, was coming to him and his wife to be nursed into strength and
+health, and the captain anticipated the arrival as something to be
+made a fête of.
+
+A feast too, by appearances. It was a bright summer morning, with a
+fresh breeze blowing from the sea; and the captain was abroad betimes
+with some flowing purple ribbons fastened round his glazed hat.
+Greatly to the grievance of Mrs. Copp: who had ventured to say that
+Anna was not a captured prize-ship, or a battle won, or even a
+wedding, that she should be rejoiced over to the extent of streamers.
+All of which Captain Copp was deaf to. He started by the ten o'clock
+omnibus for Jutpoint, having undertaken first of all to send home
+provisions for dinner. A pair of soles and two pounds of veal cutlet
+had been meekly suggested by Mrs. Copp.
+
+The morning wore on. Sarah, the middle-aged, hard-featured,
+sensible-looking, thoroughly capable woman-servant, who was bold
+enough to dispute with her master, and not in the least to care at
+being likened to pirates and other disrespectful things, stood in the
+kitchen making a gooseberry pudding, when the butcher-boy came in
+without the ceremony of announcing himself; unless a knocking and
+pushing of his tray against the back-door posts, through awkwardness,
+could be called such.
+
+"Some dishes, please," said he.
+
+"Dishes!" retorted Sarah, who had one of the strongest tongues in
+Coastdown. "Dishes for what?"
+
+"For this here meat. The captain have just been in and bought it, and
+master have sent it up."
+
+He displayed some twelve or fifteen pounds of meat--beef, veal,
+lamb. Sarah's green eyes--good, honest, pleasant eyes in the
+main--glistened.
+
+"Then your master's a fool. Didn't I tell him not to pay attention to
+the captain when he took these freaks in his head?" she demanded.
+"When he goes and buys up the whole shop--as he did one day last
+winter because he was expecting a old mate of his down--your master's
+not to notice him no more nor if he was a child. An uncommon soft
+_you_ must be, to bring up all them joints! Did you think you was
+supplying the Red Court? Just you march back with 'em."
+
+There was an interruption. While the boy stood staring at the meat,
+hardly knowing what to do, and rubbing his fingers amidst his shining
+black hair, Mrs. Copp entered the kitchen, and became acquainted with
+the state of affairs. She wore a pale muslin gown, as faded as her
+gentle self, with pale green ribbons.
+
+"Dear me," she meekly cried, "all that meat! We could not get through
+the half of it while it was good? Do you think, James, your master
+would have any objection to take it back?"
+
+"Objection! He'll take it back, ma'am, whether he has any objection or
+not," cried the positive Sarah. "Now then! who's this?"
+
+Somebody seemed to be clattering up in clogs. A woman with the fish:
+three pairs of large soles and a score or two of herrings, which the
+captain had bought and paid for. Mrs. Copp, fearing what else might be
+coming, looked inclined to cry. The exasperated Sarah, more practical,
+took her hands out of the paste, wiped the flour off them on her check
+apron, and went darting across the heath without bonnet to the
+butcher's shop, the boy and his tray of rejected meat slowly following
+her. There she commenced a wordy war with the butcher, accusing him of
+being an idiot, with other disparaging epithets, and went marching
+home in triumph carrying two pounds of veal cutlet.
+
+"And that's too much for us," she cried to her mistress, "with all
+that stock of fish and the pudding. What on earth is to be done with
+the fish, I don't know. If I fry a pair for dinner, and pickle the
+herrings, there'll be two pair left. _They_ won't pickle. One had need
+to have poor folk coming here as they do at the Red Court. Master's
+gone off with purple streamers flying from his hat; I think he'd more
+need to put on bells."
+
+Scarcely had she got her hands into the flour again, when another
+person arrived. A girl with a goose. It was in its feathers, just
+killed.
+
+"If you please, ma'am," said she to Sarah, with a curtsey, "mother
+says she'll stick the other as soon as ever she can catch him; but
+he's runned away over the common. Mother sent me up with this for
+'fraid you should be waiting to pluck him. The captain said they was
+to come up sharp."
+
+Sarah could almost have found in her heart to "stick" her master. She
+was a faithful servant, and the waste of money vexed her. Mrs. Copp,
+quite unable to battle with the petty ills of life, left the
+strong-minded woman to fight against these, and ran away to her
+parlour.
+
+The respected cause of all this, meanwhile, had reached Jutpoint, he
+and his streamers. There he had to wait a considerable time, but the
+train came in at last, and brought the travellers.
+
+They occupied a first-class compartment in the middle of the train.
+There had been a little matter about the tickets at starting. Isaac
+Thornycroft procured them, and when they were seated, Anna took out
+her purse to repay him, and found she had not enough money in it. A
+little more that she possessed was in her box. Accustomed to travel
+second-class, even third, the cost of the ticket was more than she had
+thought for. Eighteenpence short!
+
+"If you will please to take this, I will repay you the rest as soon as
+I can get to my box," she said, with painful embarrassment--an
+embarrassment that Isaac could not fail to notice and to wonder at.
+Reared as she had been, money wore to her an undue value; to want it
+in a time of need seemed little short of a crime. She turned the
+silver about in her hands, blushing painfully. Miss Thornycroft
+discerned somewhat of the case.
+
+"Never mind, Anna. I dare say you thought to travel second-class. You
+can repay my brother later."
+
+Isaac's quick brain took in the whole. This poor friendless girl, kept
+at the Miss Jupps' almost out of charity, had less money in a year for
+necessities than he would sometimes spend in an hour in frivolity.
+Anna held out the silver still, with the rose-coloured flush deepening
+on her delicate cheeks.
+
+"What is it, Miss Chester?" he suddenly said. "Why do you offer me
+your money?"
+
+"You took my ticket, did you not?"
+
+"Certainly," he answered, showing the three little pieces of card in
+his waistcoat. "But I held the money for yours beforehand. Put up your
+purse."
+
+"Did you," she answered, in great relief, but embarrassed still. "Did
+Mrs. Copp give it you?--or--Miss Jupp?--or--or the captain?" Isaac
+laughed.
+
+"You had better not inquire into secrets, Miss Chester. All I can tell
+you is, I had the money for your ticket in my pocket. Where is that
+important article--the wicker bottle? Captain Copp will expect it
+returned to him--empty."
+
+"It is empty now; Miss Jupp poured out the rum-and-water," she
+answered, laughing. "I have it all safe."
+
+She put up her purse as she spoke, inquiring no further as to the
+donor in her spirit of implicit obedience, but concluded it must have
+been Miss Jupp. And she never knew the truth until--until it was too
+late to repay Isaac.
+
+At the terminus, side by side with the captain and his streamers,
+stood Justice Thornycroft. Anna remembered him well; the tall, fine,
+genial-natured man whom she had seen three years before in the day's
+visit to Mrs. Chester. All thought of her had long ago passed from his
+memory, but he recognised the face--the pale, patient, gentle face,
+which, even then, had struck Mr. Thornycroft as being the sweetest he
+had ever looked upon. It so struck him now.
+
+"Where have I seen you?" he asked. And Anna told him.
+
+The carriage, very much to the displeasure of Mary Anne, had not come
+over for her. Mr. Thornycroft explained that one of the horses he
+generally drove in it was found to be lame that morning. They got into
+the omnibus, the captain preferring to place himself with his ribbons
+and his wooden leg flat on the roof amidst the luggage. On the
+outskirts of Jutpoint, in obedience to his signal, the driver came to
+a standstill before the door of the "White Cliff" public-house, and
+the captain's head appeared at the back window, in a hanging position,
+inquiring whether brandy or rum would be preferred; adding, with a
+somewhat fierce look at Mr. Thornycroft and Isaac, that _he_ should
+stand glasses round this time. Very much to the captain's
+discomfiture, the young ladies and the gentlemen declined both; so the
+only order the crestfallen captain could give the White Cliff was for
+two glasses of rum, cold without; that were disposed of by himself and
+the driver.
+
+"Mind, Anna! I feel three-parts of a stranger in this place, and have
+really not a friend of my own age and condition in it, so you must
+supply the place of one to me during these holidays," said Miss
+Thornycroft, as the omnibus reached its destination--the Mermaid.
+"Part of every day I shall expect you to spend at the Red Court."
+
+"I beg to second that," whispered Isaac, taking Anna's hand to help
+her out. And she blushed again that day for about the fiftieth time
+without knowing why or wherefore.
+
+Not upon these summer holidays can we linger, because so much time
+must be spent on those of the next winter. _On those of the next
+winter!_ If the inmates of the Red Court Farm could but have foreseen
+what those holidays were to bring forth for them! or Mary Anne
+Thornycroft dreamt of the consequences of indulging her own self-will!
+Just a few words more of the present, and then we go on.
+
+Anna Chester's sojourn at Coastdown was passing swiftly, and she
+seemed as in a very Elysium. The days of toil, of servitude, of
+incessant care for others were over, temporarily at any rate, and she
+enjoyed comfort and rest. The hospitable, good-hearted sailor-captain,
+with his tales of the sea-serpent, the mermaid he had seen, and other
+marvels; the meek, gentle, ever-thoughtful Mrs. Copp, who caused Anna
+to address her as "aunt," and behaved more kindly to her than any aunt
+did yet; the most charming visits day by day to the Red Court Farm,
+and the constant society of Isaac Thornycroft. Ah, there it lay--the
+strange fascination that all things were beginning to possess around
+her--in the companionship of _him_. To say that Isaac Thornycroft,
+hitherto so mockingly heart-whole, had fallen in love with Anna the
+first evening he saw her at Miss Jupp's, would be going too far, but
+he was certainly three-parts in love before they reached Coastdown the
+following day. To watch her gentle face became like the sweetest music
+to Isaac Thornycroft. To see her ever-wakeful attentions to her
+entertainers, her gratitude for their kindness, her prompt help of
+Sarah when extra work was to be done, her loving care for the
+friendless and poor, was something new to Isaac, altogether out of his
+experience. Come weal, come woe, he resolved that this girl should be
+his wife. People, in their thoughtless gossip, had been wont to
+predict a high-born and wealthy bride for the attractive second son of
+Justice Thornycroft; this humble orphan, the poor daughter of the many
+years poor and humble curate, was the one he fixed upon, with all the
+world before him to choose from. How Fate changes plans! "L'homme
+propose, mais Dieu dispose," was one of the most solemn truisms ever
+penned. Long ere the six weeks of holidays had passed, Isaac
+Thornycroft and Anna Chester had become all in all to each other: and
+he, a man accustomed to act upon impulse, spoke out.
+
+It was during an evening walk to the Red Court Farm. Anna was going to
+tea there; Isaac met her on the heath--no unusual thing--and turned to
+walk by her side. Both were silent after the first greeting: true love
+is rarely eloquent. With her soft cheeks blushing, her pale eyelids
+drooping, her heart wildly beating, Anna sought--at first in vain--to
+find some topic of conversation, and chose but a lame one.
+
+"Has Mary Anne finished her screen?"
+
+Isaac smiled. "As if I knew!"
+
+"She has the other one to do; and we shall be going back in a week."
+
+"Not in a week!"
+
+"The holidays will be up a week to-morrow."
+
+A vista of the miserable time after her departure, when all things
+would be dark and dreary, wanting her who had come to make his heart's
+sunshine, cast its foreshadowing across the brain of Isaac. He turned
+to her in his impulse, speaking passionately.
+
+"Anna, I cannot lose you. Rather than that, I must--I must--"
+
+"Must what?" she asked, innocently.
+
+"Keep you here on a visit to myself--a visit that can never
+terminate."
+
+Insensibly, she drew a little from him. Not that the words would have
+been unwelcome had circumstances justified them; how welcome, the
+sudden rush of inward joy, the wild coursing on of all her pulses,
+told her. But--loving him though she did; conscious or half-conscious
+of his love for her--it never occurred to the mind of Anna Chester
+that a union would be within the range of possibility. She--the poor
+humble slave--be wedded by a great and wealthy gentleman like Isaac
+Thornycroft!
+
+"Would you object to the visit, Anna--though it were to be for life?"
+
+"It could not be," she answered, in a low tone, not affecting to
+misunderstand him.
+
+"Oh, couldn't it!" said Isaac, amused, and taking up rather the wrong
+view of the words. "But if you and I say it shall?"
+
+"Halloa! Is it you, Isaac? How d'ye do, Miss Chester?"
+
+Richard Thornycroft, coming suddenly into the path from a side
+crossing, halted as he spoke. Isaac, put out for once in his life, bit
+his lips.
+
+"I want you, Isaac. I was looking for you. Here's some bother up."
+
+"What bother?" testily rejoined Isaac.
+
+"You had better come down and hear it. Tomlett--Come along."
+
+Seeing plainly that his walk with Anna was over for the time, Isaac
+Thornycroft turned off with his brother, leaving Anna to go on alone
+to the gate, which was in sight.
+
+"Good-day for the present, Anna," he said, with apparent carelessness.
+"Tell Mary Anne not to wait tea for me. I may not be in."
+
+More forcibly than ever on this evening, when she sat in the spacious
+drawing-room surrounded by its many elegancies, did the contrast
+between the Red Court and her own poor home of the past strike on the
+senses of Anna Chester. Nothing that moderate wealth could purchase
+was _here_ wanting. Several servants, spacious and handsome rooms,
+luxuries to please the eye and please the palate. Look at the
+tea-table laid out there! The delicately-made Worcester china, rich
+in hues of purple and gold; the chased silver tea and coffee service
+on their chased silver stands; small fringed damask napkins on the
+purple and gold plates. Shrimps large as prawns, potted meats, rolled
+bread-and-butter, muffins, rich cake, and marmalade, are there; for it
+is Justice Thornycroft's will that all meals, if laid, shall be laid
+well. Sometimes a cup of tea only came in for Miss Thornycroft, as it
+used to do for my lady when she was there. It almost seemed to Anna
+Chester as if she were enacting a deceit, a lie, in sitting at it, its
+honoured guest, for whom these things were spread, when she thought of
+the scrambling meals in her former home with Mrs. Chester's children.
+The odd teacups--for as one got broken it would be-replaced by another
+of any shape or pattern, provided it were cheap; saucers notched;
+cracked cups without handles; the stale loaf on the table; the scanty,
+untidy plate of salt butter, of which she had to cut perpetual slices,
+like Werther's Charlotte; the stained table without a cover, crumbs
+strewing it. Look on this picture and on that. Anna did, in deep
+dejection; and the thought which had faintly presented itself to her
+mind when Isaac Thornycroft spoke his momentous words, grew into grim
+and defined shape, and would not be scared away--that she could be no
+fit wife for Isaac. She resolved to tell him of these things, and of
+her own unfitness; how very poor she was, always had been, always
+(according to present prospects) would be; and beg him to think no
+more of her; and she did not doubt he would unsay his words of his own
+accord when he came to know of it. It is true she winced at the task:
+but her conscience told her it must be done, though her heart should
+faint at it. She could imagine no fate so bright in the wide world as
+that of becoming the wife of Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+"What makes you so silent this evening?"
+
+Anna started at Miss Thornycroft's words. That young lady was eyeing
+her with curiosity.
+
+"I was only thinking," she answered, with a vivid blush. "Oh, and I
+forgot: your brother wished me to ask you not to wait tea for him."
+
+"My brother! Which of them?"
+
+"Mr. Isaac."
+
+"Very considerate, I'm sure! seeing that I never do wait, and that if
+I did he would probably not come in."
+
+There was a mocking tone in her voice that Anna rather winced at as
+applied to Isaac. She went on explaining where she saw him; that he
+and Richard had walked away together--she fancied to Tomlett's.
+
+"They are a great deal too intimate with Tomlett," spoke Miss
+Thornycroft, curling her lip. "He is no better than a boatman. My
+belief is, they go and drink gin-and-water with him. They ought to
+have more pride."
+
+"Mr. Richard said there was some 'bother.'"
+
+"Oh! of course; any excuse before you. I tell you, Anna, they are just
+a couple of loose young men."
+
+The "loose young men" came in shortly; Richard to go away again, Isaac
+to remain. He had told Mrs. Copp he would see her home safely. "Let it
+be by daylight, if you please," answered that discreet lady.
+
+Not by daylight, but under the stars of the sweet summer's night, they
+went out. There was no one to see; the way was lonely; and Isaac drew
+Anna's hand within his arm for the first time, and kept it a prisoner.
+
+"I must take care of you, Anna, as you are to become my own property."
+
+"But I--I am not to become that; I wish I could, but it is
+impossible," she stammered, setting about her task in hesitating
+perplexity.
+
+"Anna, do you understand me? I am asking you to be my wife."
+
+"Yes, I--I believe I understood; and I feel very grateful to you, all
+the same."
+
+"All the same!" Isaac Thornycroft released her hand and turned to face
+her.
+
+"Just tell me what you mean. Don't you care for me?"
+
+Agitated, embarrassed, she burst into tears. Isaac took both her hands
+now, holding them before him. They had reached the churchyard, and its
+graves were distinct in the twilight; the stars looked down on them
+from the blue sky above; the sound of the surging sea came over with a
+faint murmur.
+
+"I thought you loved me, Anna. Surely I cannot have been steering on a
+wrong tack?"
+
+As the soft eyes glanced at him through their tears, he saw enough to
+know that she _did_ love him. Reassured on that score, he turned and
+walked on again, her arm kept within his.
+
+"Now, tell me what you mean," he said, quietly. "There can be no other
+bar."
+
+"I do not know how to tell you," she answered. "I do not like to tell
+you."
+
+"Nonsense, Anna. I shall keep you out here pacing the heath until you
+do tell, though it be until morning, which would certainly send Mrs.
+Copp into a fit."
+
+Not very awkwardly when she had fairly entered upon it, Anna told
+her tale--her sense of the unfitness, nay, the impossibility of the
+union--of the wide social gulf that lay between them. Isaac met the
+communication with a laugh.
+
+"Is that all! It is my turn now not to understand. You have been
+reared a gentlewoman, Anna."
+
+"Papa was a clergyman. I have been reared, I think, to nothing but
+work. We were so very poor. My home--ah! if you could see, if you
+could imagine the contrast it presented to this of yours! As I sat in
+your drawing-room to-night I could not help feeling the difference
+forcibly."
+
+If Isaac Thornycroft had not seen what she spoke of, he had seen
+something else--that never in his whole life had he met any one who
+gave him so entirely the idea of a gentlewoman--a refined, well-bred
+gentlewoman--as this girl now speaking with him, Anna Chester. He
+continued in evident amusement.
+
+"Let us see how your objections can be refuted. You play and sing?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"You draw?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"You can dance?"
+
+"Yes; I can dance."
+
+"Why, then--not to enter on other desirable qualities--you are an
+accomplished young lady. What _do_ you mean about unfitness?"
+
+"I see you are laughing at me," she said, the tears struggling to her
+eyes again. "I am so very poor; I teach for the merest trifle: it
+barely finds me in the cheapest clothes. I only looked forward to a
+life of work. And you are rich--at least Mr. Thornycroft is."
+
+"If we have a superfluity of riches, there's all the more cause for me
+to dispense with them in a wife. Besides, when I set up my tent, it
+will not be on the scale of my father's house. Anna, my darling!" he
+added, with a strange gravity in his eye and tone, "we are more on an
+equality than you may deem."
+
+She made no reply, having enough to do to keep her tears from falling.
+
+"I have sufficient for comfort--a sort of love-in-a-cottage
+establishment," went on Isaac; "and I am heartily sick of my
+bachelor's life. It leads me into all sorts of extravagances, and is
+unsatisfactory at the best. You must promise to be my wife, Anna."
+
+"There are the lights in Captain Copp's parlour," said she, with
+singular irrelevance.
+
+"Just so. But you do not go in until I have your promise."
+
+"They were saying one day, some of them--I think it was Mrs.
+Connaught--that you would be sure to marry into one of the good county
+families," murmured Anna.
+
+"Did they? I hope the disappointment won't be too much for them. I
+shall marry you, Anna, and none other."
+
+"But what would your family say? Your father--your sister?"
+
+"Just what they pleased. Anna, pardon me, I am only teasing you.
+Believe me, they will only be too glad to hear of it; glad that the
+wild, unsteady (as Mary Anne is pleased to call me on occasion) Isaac
+Thornycroft should make himself into a respectable man. Anna! can you
+not trust me?"
+
+She had trusted all her life, yielded implicitly to the sway of those
+who held influence over her; little chance was there, then, that she
+could hold out now. Isaac Thornycroft received the promise his heart
+hungered for, and sealed it.
+
+Her face gathered against his breast; her slight form shrinking in his
+strong arms; he kept her there a prisoner; his voice breathing soft
+love-vows; his blue eyes bent greedily on her blushing face; his
+kisses, the only honest kisses his life had known, pressed again and
+again upon her lips.
+
+"Who on earth _is_ that? Avast, thieves! Bea serpents! pirates!"
+
+The gallant Captain Copp, his night-glass pushed out at the open
+window to an acute angle, had been contemplating these puzzling
+proceedings for some time. Fortunately he did not distinguish very
+clearly, and remained ignorant of the real matter. Ill-conditioned
+people, tipsy fishermen and else, their brains muddled with drink,
+found their way to the heath on occasion, and the captain considered
+it a duty to society to order them off. Sweeping the horizon and the
+nearer plain to-night, his glass had shown him some object not easy to
+make out. The longer Captain Copp waited for it to move, the longer it
+stayed stationary; the more he turned his glass, the less chance did
+it appear to give of revealing itself. Naturally, two people in close
+proximity, the head of the taller one bent over the other so as to
+leave no indication of the human form, would present a puzzling
+paradox when viewed through a night-glass: the captain came to the
+conclusion that it was the most extraordinary spectacle ever presented
+to his eyes since they had looked on that sea serpent in the Pacific;
+and he raised his voice to hail it when suspense was becoming quite
+unbearable.
+
+Isaac Thornycroft, adroitly sheltering his companion, glided up the
+little opening by Mrs. Connaught's. In a few minutes, when the captain
+had drawn his head and glass in for a respite, he walked boldly up to
+the door by the side of Anna.
+
+"Good evening, captain."
+
+"Good evening," blithely responded the captain. "Sorry you should have
+the trouble of bringing her home. Come in, Anna. I say, did you meet
+any queer thing on the heath?"
+
+"Queer thing?" responded Isaac.
+
+"A man without a head, or anything of that light sort?"
+
+"No. There's a strange horse browsing a bit lower down," added Isaac.
+"Some stray animal."
+
+The captain considered, and came to the conclusion that it could not
+well have been the horse. What it really was he did not conjecture.
+
+Meanwhile Anna Chester had gone upstairs to the pleasant little room
+she occupied, and took off her bonnet in a maze of rapture. The world
+had changed into a heavenly Elysium.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+Isaac Thornycroft's Stratagem.
+
+
+A still evening in October. The red light in the west, following on a
+glorious sunset, threw its last rays athwart the sea; the evening star
+came out in its brightness; the fishing boats were bearing steadily
+for home.
+
+Captain Copp's parlour was alight with a ruddy glow; not of the sun
+but of the fire. It shone brightly on the captain's face, at rest now.
+He had put down his pipe on the hearth, after carefully knocking the
+smouldering ashes out, and gone quietly to sleep, his wooden leg laid
+fiat on an opposite chair, his other leg stretched over it. Mrs. Copp
+sat knitting a stocking by fire-light, her gentle face rather
+thoughtful; and, half-kneeling, half-sitting on the hearth-rug,
+reading, was Anna Chester.
+
+She was here still. When Mary Anne Thornycroft returned to school
+after the summer holidays, Captain Copp had resolutely avowed Anna
+should stay with him. What was six weeks, he fiercely demanded, to get
+up a lady's health: let her stop six months, and then he'd see about
+it. Mrs. Copp hardly knew what to say, between her wish to keep Anna
+and her fear of putting the Miss Jupps to an inconvenience.
+"Inconvenience be shot!" politely rejoined the captain; and Mary Anne
+Thornycroft went back without her, bearing an explanatory and
+deprecatory letter.
+
+It almost seemed to the girl that the delighted beating of her
+heart--at the consciousness of staying longer in the place that
+contained _him_--must be a guilty joy,--guilty because it was
+concealed. Certainly not from herself might come the first news of her
+engagement to Isaac Thornycroft: she was far too humble, too timid, to
+make the announcement. Truth to say, she only half believed in it: it
+seemed too blissful to be true. While Isaac did not proclaim it, she
+was quite content to let it rest a secret from the whole world. And so
+the months had gone on; Anna living in her paradise of happiness;
+Isaac making love to her privately in very fervent tenderness.
+
+In saying to Anna Chester that his family would be only too glad to
+see him married, Isaac Thornycroft (and a doubt that it might prove so
+lay dimly in his mind when he said it) found that he had reckoned
+without his host. At the first intimation of his possible intention,
+Mr. Thornycroft and Richard rose up in arms against it. What they said
+was breathed in his ear alone, earnestly, forcibly; and Isaac, who saw
+how fruitless would be all pleading on his part, burst out laughing,
+and let them think the whole a joke. A hasty word spoken by Richard in
+his temper as he came striding out of the inner passage, caught the
+ear of Mary Anne.
+
+"Isaac, what did he mean? Surely you are not going to be married?"
+
+"They thought I was," answered Isaac, laughing. "I married! Would
+anybody have me, do you suppose, Mary Anne?"
+
+"I think Miss Tindal would. There would be heaps of money and a good
+connexion, you know, Isaac."
+
+Miss Tindal was a strong-minded lady in spectacles, who owned to
+thirty years and thirty thousand pounds. She quoted Latin, rode
+straight across country after the hounds, and was moreover a baronet's
+niece. A broad smile played over Isaac's lips.
+
+"Miss Tindal's big enough to shake me. I think she would, too, on
+provocation. She can take her fences better than I can. That's not the
+kind of woman I'd marry. I should like a meek one."
+
+"A meek one!" echoed Mary Anne, wondering whether he was speaking in
+derision. "What do you call a meek one?"
+
+"A modest, gentle girl who would _not_ shake me. Such a one as--let me
+see, where is there one?--as Anna Chester, say, for example."
+
+All the scorn the words deserved seemed concentrated in Miss
+Thornycroft's haughty face.
+
+"As good marry a beggar as _her_. Why, Isaac, she is only a working
+teacher--a half-boarder at school! She is not one of _us_."
+
+He laughed off the alarm as he had done his father's and brother's a
+few minutes before, the line of conduct completely disarming all
+parties. She would not tolerate Miss Chester, they would not tolerate
+his marriage at all: that was plain. Isaac Thornycroft did not care
+openly to oppose his family, or be opposed by them: he let the subject
+drop out of remembrance, and left the future to the future. But he
+said not a word of this to Anna; she suspected nothing of it, and was
+just as contented as he to let things take their course in silence. To
+her there seemed but one possible calamity in the world; and that lay
+in being separated from him.
+
+Sitting there on the hearth-rug, in the October evening, her eyes on
+the small print by the firelight, getting dim now, Anna's heart was
+a-glow within her, for that evening was to be spent with Isaac
+Thornycroft. A gentleman with his daughter was staying for a couple of
+days at the Red Court, and Anna had been asked to go there for the
+evening, and bear the young lady company.
+
+"My dear," whispered Mrs. Copp, in the midst of her knitting, "is it
+not getting late? You will have the daylight quite gone."
+
+Anna glanced up. It was getting late; but Isaac Thornycroft had said
+to her, "I shall fetch you." Still the habit of implicit obedience
+was, as ever, strong upon her, and she would fain have started there
+and then, in compliance with the suggestion.
+
+"What a noise Sarah's making!"
+
+"So she is," assented Mrs. Copp, as a noise like the bumping about of
+boxes, followed by talking, grew upon their ears. Another moment, and
+Sarah opened the door.
+
+"A visitor," she announced, in an uncompromising voice, and the
+captain started up, prepared to explode a little at being aroused.
+Which fact Sarah was no doubt anticipating, and she spoke again.
+
+"It is your mother, sir."
+
+"Yes, it's me, Sam;" cried an upright wiry lady, very positive and
+abrupt in manner. Her face looked as if weather-beaten, and she wore
+large round tortoiseshell spectacles.
+
+"Who's that?" she cried, sitting down on the large sofa, as Anna stood
+up in her pretty silk dress, with the pink ribbons in her hair. "Who?
+The daughter of the Reverend James Chester and his first wife! You are
+very like your father, child, but prettier. Where's my sea-chest to
+go, Sam?"
+
+"I am truly glad to see you, dear mother," whispered Amy Copp, in her
+loving way. "The best bedroom is not in order, but----"
+
+"And can't be put in order before to-morrow," interposed Sarah, who
+had no notion of being taken by storm in this way. "The luggage had
+better be put in the back kitchen for to-night."
+
+"Is there much luggage?" asked the captain.
+
+"Nothing to speak of," said Mrs. Copp; who, being used to the
+accommodation of a roomy ship, regarded quantity accordingly. Sarah
+coughed.
+
+"My biggest sea-chest, four trunks, two bandboxes, and a few odd
+parcels," continued the traveller. "I am going to spend Christmas with
+some friends in London, but I thought I'd come to you first. As to the
+room not being in apple-pie order, that's nothing I'm an old sailor;
+I'm not particular."
+
+"Put a pillow down here, if that's all," cried the captain, indicating
+the hearthrug. "Mother has slept in many a worse berth, haven't ye,
+mother?"
+
+"Ay, lad, that I have. But now I shall want some of those boxes
+unpacked to-night. I have got a set of furs for you, Amy, somewhere; I
+don't know which box they were put in."
+
+Amy was overpowered. "You are too good to me," she murmured, with
+tears in her eyes.
+
+"And I have brought you a potato-steamer; that's in another," added
+Mrs. Copp. "I have taken to have mine steamed lately, Sam; you'd never
+eat them again boiled if you once tried it."
+
+In the midst of this bustle Isaac Thornycroft walked in. Anna, in a
+flutter of heart-delight, but with a calm manner, went upstairs, and
+came down with her bonnet on, to find Isaac opening box after box
+in the back kitchen, under Mrs. Copp's direction, in search of the
+furs and the potato-steamer, the captain assisting, Amy standing by.
+The articles were found, and Isaac, laughing heartily in his gay
+good-humour, went off with Anna.
+
+"What time am I to fetch you, Miss Anna?" inquired Sarah, as they went
+out.
+
+"I will see Miss Chester home," answered Isaac: "you are busy
+to-night."
+
+Mrs. Copp, gazing through her tortoiseshell spectacles at the
+potato-steamer, as she pointed out its beauties, suddenly turned to
+another subject, and brought her glasses to bear on her son and his
+wife.
+
+"Which of the young Thornycrofts _is_ that? I forget."
+
+"Isaac; the second son."
+
+"To be sure; Isaac, the best and handsomest of the bunch. You must
+take care," added Mrs. Copp, shrewdly.
+
+"Take care of what?"
+
+"They might be falling in love with each other. I don't know whether
+he's much here. He is as fine a fellow as you'd see in a day's march;
+and she's just the pretty gentle thing that fine men fancy."
+
+Had it been anybody but his mother, Captain Copp would have shown his
+sense of the caution in strong language. "Moonshine and rubbish,"
+cried he. "Isaac Thornycroft's not the one to entangle himself with a
+sweetheart; the young Thornycrofts are not marrying men; and if he
+were, he would look a little higher than poor Anna Chester."
+
+"That's just it, the reason why you should be cautious, Sam," rejoined
+Mrs. Copp. "Not being suitable, there'd be no doubt a bother over it
+at the Red Court."
+
+Amy, saying something about looking to the state of the spare room,
+left them in the parlour. Truth to say, the hint had scared her. Down
+deep in her mind, for some short while past, had a suspicion lain that
+they were rather more attached to each other than need be. She had
+only hoped it was not so. She did not by any means see her way clear
+to hinder it, and was content to let the half fear rest; but these
+words had roused it in all its force. They had somehow brought a
+conviction of the fact, and she saw trouble looming. What else could
+come of it? Anna was no match for Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+"Sam," began Mrs. Copp, when she was alone with her son, "how does Amy
+continue to go on? Makes a good wife still?"
+
+Captain Copp nodded complacently. "Never a better wife going. No
+tantrums--no blowings off: knits all my stockings and woollen
+jerseys."
+
+"You must have a quiet house."
+
+"Should, if 'twere not for Sarah. She fires off for herself and Amy
+too. I'm obliged to keep her under."
+
+"Ah," said Mrs. Copp, rubbing her chin. "Then I expect you get up some
+breezes together. But she's not a bad servant, Sam."
+
+"She's a clipper, mother--A 1; couldn't steer along without her."
+
+What with the boxes, and what with the exactions of the spare bed-room
+to render it habitable for the night, for Mrs. Copp generally chose to
+put herself into everybody's business, and especially into her own,
+the two ladies had to leave Captain Copp very much to his own society.
+Solitude is the time for reflection, we are told, and it may have been
+the cause of the captain's recurring again and again to the hint his
+mother had dropped in regard to Isaac Thornycroft. That there was
+nothing in it _yet_ he fully assumed, and it might be as well to take
+precautions that nothing should be in it for the future. Prevention
+was better than cure. Being a straightforward man, one who could not
+have gone in a roundabout or cautious way to work, it occurred to the
+captain to say a word to Mr. Isaac on the very first opportunity.
+
+It was the first evening Anna had spent at the Red Court since
+Miss Thornycroft left it. The walk there, the sojourn, the walk
+home again by moonlight, all seemed to partake of heaven's own
+happiness--perfect, pure, peaceful. There had been plenty and plenty
+of opportunities for lingering together in the twilight on the heath
+in coming home from the seashore, but this was the first long
+legitimate walk they had taken; and considering that they were sixty
+minutes over it, when they might have done it in sixteen, it cannot be
+said they hurried themselves.
+
+The captain was at the window, not looking on the broad expanse of
+heath before him, but at the faint light seen now and again from
+some fishing vessel cruising in the distance. It was his favourite
+look-out; and, except on a boisterous or rainy night, the shutters
+were rarely closed until ten o'clock.
+
+"Come in and have a glass of grog with me," was his salutation to
+Isaac Thornycroft as he and Anna came to the gate. "'Twill be a
+charity," added the captain. "I'm all alone. Mother's gone up to bed
+tired, and Amy's looking after her."
+
+Isaac came in and sat down, but wanted to decline the grog. Captain
+Copp was offended, so to pacify him he mixed some. As Anna held out
+her hand to the captain to say good night he noticed that her soft
+eyes were full of loving light; her generally delicate cheeks were a
+hot crimson.
+
+"Hope it hasn't come of kissing," thought the shrewd and somewhat
+discomfited sailor.
+
+"How well your mother wears!" observed Isaac.
+
+"She was always tough," replied Captain Copp, in a thankful accent.
+"Hope she will be for many a year to come. Look here, Mr. Isaac, I
+meant to say a word to you. Don't you begin any sweethearting with
+that girl of ours, or talking nonsense of that sort. It wouldn't do,
+you know."
+
+"Wouldn't it?" returned Isaac, carelessly.
+
+"Wouldn't it! Why, bless and save my wooden leg, _would_ it? A pretty
+uproar there'd be at the Red Court. I'd not have such a thing happen
+for the best three-decker that was ever launched. I'd rather quarrel
+with the whole of Coastdown than with your folks."
+
+"Rather quarrel with me, captain, than with them, I suppose," returned
+Isaac, stirring his grog.
+
+Captain Copp looked hard at him. "I should think so."
+
+By intuition, rather than by outward signs, Isaac Thornycroft saw that
+the obstinate old sailor would be true to the backbone to what he
+deemed _right_; that he might as well ask for Amy Copp as for Anna
+Chester, unless he could produce credentials from his father. And so
+he could only temporize and disarm suspicion. Honourable by nature
+though he was, he considered the suppression of affairs justifiable,
+on the score, we must suppose that "All stratagems are fair in love
+and war."
+
+"Good health, captain," said he, with a merry laugh--a laugh that
+somehow reassured Captain Copp. "And now tell me what wonderful event
+put you up to say this."
+
+"It was mother," answered the simple-minded captain. "The thought
+struck her somehow--you were both of you good-looking, she said. _I_
+knew there was no danger; 'the young Thornycrofts are not marrying
+men,' I said to her. But now, look here, you and Anna had not better
+go out together again, lest other people should take up the same
+notions."
+
+With these words Captain Copp believed he had settled the matter, and
+done all that was necessary in the way of warning. He said as much to
+Amy, confidentially. Whether it might have proved so, he had not the
+opportunity of judging. On the following morning that lady received a
+pressing summons to repair to London. One of her sisters, staying
+there temporarily, was seized with illness, and begged the captain's
+wife to come and nurse her. By the next train she had started, taking
+Anna.
+
+"To be out of harm's way," she said to herself. "To help me take care
+of Maria," she said to the captain.
+
+Mrs. Wortley was a widow without children. So many events have to be
+crowded in, and the story thickens so greatly, that nothing more need
+be said of her. The lodgings she had been temporarily occupying were
+near to old St. Pancras Church, and there Mrs. Sam Copp and Anna found
+her--two brave, skilful, tender nurses, ever ready to do their best.
+
+Never before had Anna found illness wearisome; never before thought
+London the most dreary spot on earth. Ah, it was not in the locality;
+it was not in the illness that the ennui lay; but in the absence of
+Isaac Thornycroft. He called to see them once, rather to the chagrin
+of the captain's wife, and he met Anna the same day when she went for
+her walk. Mrs. Sam Copp did not suspect it.
+
+They had been in London about a month, the invalid was better, and
+Mrs. Copp began to talk of returning home again; when one dark
+November morning, upon Anna's returning home from her walk--which Mrs.
+Copp, remembering her past weak condition, the result of work and
+confinement, insisted on her taking--Isaac Thornycroft came in with
+her. He put his hat down on the table, took Mrs. Copp's hands in his,
+and was entering upon some story, evidently a solemn one, when Anna
+nearly startled Mrs. Copp into fits by falling at her feet with a
+prayer for forgiveness, and bursting into tears.
+
+"Oh, aunt, forgive, forgive me! Isaac over-persuaded me; he did
+indeed."
+
+"Persuaded you to what?" asked Mrs. Copp.
+
+"To become my wife," interposed Isaac. "We were married this morning."
+
+The first thing Mrs. Copp did was to sink into a chair, her hair
+rising up on end; the next was to go into hysterics. Isaac, quiet,
+calm, gentlemanly as ever, sent Anna away while he told the tale.
+
+"I thought it the best plan," he avowed. "When I met Anna out
+yesterday--by chance as she thought--I got a promise from her to meet
+me again this morning, no matter what the weather might be. It turned
+out a dense fog, but she came. Through the fog I got her into the
+church door, and took her to the clergyman, waiting at the altar for
+us, before she well knew what was going to be."
+
+Mrs. Copp threw up her hands, and screamed, and cried, and for once in
+her life called another creature deceitful--meaning Anna. But Anna--as
+he hastened to explain--had not been deceitful; she had but yielded to
+his strong will in the agitation and surprise of the moment.
+Calculating upon this defect in her character--if it could be called a
+defect, brought up as she had been--Isaac Thornycroft had made the
+arrangements at St. Pancras church without saying a word to her; and,
+as it really may be said, surprised her into the marriage at the time
+of its taking place.
+
+"There's the certificate," he said; "I asked the clergyman to give me
+one. Put it up carefully, dear Mrs. Copp."
+
+"To be married in this way!" moaned poor Mrs. Copp. "My husband had
+liqueur glasses of rum served out in the vestry at our wedding, but
+that was not half as bad as this. Not a single witness on either side
+to countenance it!"
+
+"Pardon me; my brother Cyril was present," answered Isaac. "I
+telegraphed for him last night, and he reached town this morning."
+
+Isaac Thornycroft had sent for his brother out of pure kindness to
+Anna, that the ceremony might so far be countenanced. It had turned
+out to be the most crafty precaution he could have taken. Seeing
+Cyril, Anna never supposed but that the Thornycroft family knew of it;
+otherwise, yielding though she was in spirit, she might have withstood
+even Isaac. Cyril gave her away.
+
+"And now," said Isaac, in an interval between the tears and moans, "I
+am going to take Anna away with me for a week."
+
+Little by little Mrs. Copp succeeded in comprehending Mr. Isaac's
+programme. To all intents and purposes he intended this to be a
+perfectly secret marriage, and to remain so until the horizon before
+them should be clear of clouds. When Mrs. Copp went back home, Anna
+would return with her as Miss Chester, and they must be content with
+seeing each other occasionally as ordinary acquaintances.
+
+Mrs. Copp could only stare and gasp. "Away with you for a week! and
+then home again with me as Miss Chester? Oh, Mr. Isaac! you do not
+consider. Suppose her good name should suffer?"
+
+A slight frown contracted the capacious brow of Isaac Thornycroft. "Do
+you not see the precautions I have taken will prevent that? On the
+first breath of need my brother Cyril will come forward to testify to
+the marriage, and you hold the certificate of it. Believe me, I
+weighed all, and laid my plans accordingly. I chose to make Anna my
+wife. It is not expedient to proclaim it just yet to the world--to
+your friends or to mine; but I have done the best I could do under the
+circumstances. Cyril will be true to us and keep the secret; I know
+you will also."
+
+Mrs. Sam Copp faintly protested that she should never get over the
+blow. Isaac, with his sunny smile, his persuasive voice, told her she
+would do so before the day was out, and saw her seal the certificate
+in a large envelope and lock it up.
+
+Then he started with his bride to a small unfrequented fishing village
+in quite the opposite direction to Coastdown. And Anna had been
+married some days before she knew that her marriage was a secret from
+her husband's family, Cyril excepted, and to be kept one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+In Love.
+
+
+Robert Hunter sat in his chambers--as it is the fashion to call
+offices now. They were in a good position in Westminster, and he was
+well established; he had set up for himself, and was doing fairly--not
+yet making gold by shovelfuls, as engineers are reputed to have done
+of late years, but at least earning his bread and cheese, with every
+prospect that the gold was coming.
+
+Plans were scattered on the desk at which he sat; some intricate
+calculations lay immediately before him. He regarded neither. His eyes
+were looking straight out at the opposite wall, a big chart of some
+district being there, but he saw it not; nothing but vacancy. Very
+unusual indeed was it for Robert Hunter the practical to allow his
+thoughts to stray away in the midst of his work, as they had done now.
+
+During the past few months a change had come over his heart. It was of
+a different nature from that which, some two or three years before,
+after the death of his wife, had changed himself--changed, as it
+seemed, his whole nature, and made a man of him. Even now he could not
+bear to look back upon the idle, simple folly in which his days had
+been passed; the circumstances that had brought this folly home to his
+mind, opened his eyes to it, as it were, had no doubt caused him to
+acquire a very exaggerated view of it; but this did no harm to others,
+and worked good for himself.
+
+With the death of his wife, Robert Hunter had, so to say, put aside
+the pleasant phase, the ideal view of life, and entered on the hard,
+the stern, the practical--as he thought for ever. He had not
+calculated well in this. He forgot that he was still a young and
+attractive man (though his being attractive or the contrary was not at
+all to the purpose); he forgot that neither the feelings nor the heart
+can grow old at will. It might have been very different had his heart
+received its death-blow; but it was nothing but his conscience; for he
+had not loved his wife. But of that he was unconscious until lately.
+
+Love--real love--the sweet heart's dream that can never but once visit
+either man or woman, had come stealing over Robert Hunter. Never but
+once. What says a modern poet?
+
+
+     "Few hearts have never loved; but fewer still
+        Have felt a second passion. None a third.
+      The first was living fire; the next, a thrill;
+        The weary heart can never more be stirred:
+        Rely on it, the song has left the bird."
+
+
+Truer words were rarely said or sung. The one only glimpse of Paradise
+vouchsafed to us on earth--a transitory glimpse at the best--cannot be
+repeated a second time. When it flies away it flies for ever.
+
+Ah, how different it was, this love, that was making a heaven of
+Robert Hunter's life, from that which had been given to his poor dead
+wife--the child-wife, who had been so passionately attached to him!
+He understood her agony now--when she had believed him false to her;
+when he, her heart's idol, had apparently gone over to another's
+worship--he did not understand it then. When inclined to be very
+self-condemnatory, to bring his sins and mistakes palpably before him,
+he would ask himself, looking back, what satisfaction he had derived
+from my Lady Ellis's society, taking it at its best. A few soft
+glances; a daily repetition of some sweet words; a dozen kisses--they
+had not been more--snatched from her face; and some hand pressing when
+they met or parted. Literally this was all: there had been nothing,
+nothing more; and Mr. Hunter had not even the poor consolation of
+knowing now that any love whatever on his side, or hers, had entered
+into the matter from the beginning to the ending. It was for this his
+wife had died; it was for this he had laden his conscience with a
+weight that could never wholly leave it. He was not a heathen; and
+when, close upon the death, remorse had pressed sorely upon him, an
+intolerable burthen of sin grievous to be borne, he had, in very pity
+for his own miserable state, carried it where he had never before
+carried anything. Consolation came in time, a sense of mercy, of help,
+of pardon; but the _recollection_ could never be blotted out, or the
+sense of too late repentance quit him.
+
+He remembered still; he repented yet. Whenever the past occurred to
+him, it brought with it that terrible conviction--a debt of atonement
+owing to the dead, which can never be rendered--and Robert Hunter
+would feel the most humble man on the face of the earth. This sense of
+humiliation was no doubt good for him; it came upon him at odd times
+and seasons, even in the midst of the new passion that filled his
+heart.
+
+"Shall I ever win her?" he was thinking to himself, seated at his for
+once neglected desk. "Nay, must I ever dare to tell her of my love? A
+flourishing engineer, with his name up in the world, and half a score
+important undertakings in progress, might be deemed a fitting match
+for her by her people at the Red Court; but what would they say to me?
+I am not to be called flourishing yet; my great works I must be
+content to wait for; they will come; I can foresee it; but before then
+some man with settlements and a rent-roll may have stepped in."
+
+It was not a strictly comforting prospect certainly, put in this
+light; and Mr. Hunter gave an impatient twist to some papers. But he
+could not this morning settle down to work, and the meditations began
+again.
+
+"I know she loves me; I can see it in every turn of her beautiful
+face, hear it in every tone of her voice. This evening I shall see
+her; this evening I shall see her! Oh, the----"
+
+"Mr. Barty is here, sir."
+
+The interruption came from a clerk; it served to recal his master to
+what he so rarely forgot, the business of every-day life. Mr. Barty
+was an eminent contractor, and Robert Hunter's hopes went up to
+fever-heat as he welcomed him. One great work entrusted to him from
+this great man, and the future might be all plain sailing.
+
+He was not wholly disappointed. Mr. Barty had come to offer him
+business; or rather, to pave the way for it; for the offer was not
+positively entered on then, only the proposed work--a new line of
+rail--discussed. There was one drawback--it was a line abroad--and
+Robert Hunter did not much like this.
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft had not many friends in London; nearly all her
+holidays during the half-year had been passed at Mrs. Macpherson's.
+Susan Hunter invariably accompanied her; and what more natural than
+that Robert should (invited, or uninvited, as it might happen) drop in
+to meet his sister? There had lain the whole thing--the intercourse
+afforded by these rather frequent meetings--and nothing more need be
+said; they had fallen in love with one another.
+
+Yes. The singular attraction each had seemed to possess for the other
+the first time they met, but increased with every subsequent
+interview. It had not needed many. Mary Anne Thornycroft, who had
+scarcely ever so much as read of the name of love, had lost her heart
+to this young man, the widower Robert Hunter, entirely and hopelessly.
+That he was--at any rate at present--no suitable match for her, she
+never so much as glanced twice at: the Thornycrofts were not wont
+to regard expediency when it interfered with inclination. Not a word
+had been spoken; not a hint given; but there is a language of the
+heart, and they had become versed in it. Clever Mrs. Macpherson, so
+keen-sighted generally in the affairs of men and women, never so much
+as gave a thought to what was passing under her very eyes; Miss
+Hunter, who had discernment too, was totally blind here. As to the
+professor, with his spectacled eyes up aloft in the sky or buried in
+the earth, it would have been far too much to suspect him of seeing
+it. A very delightful state of things for the lovers.
+
+When Robert Hunter reached Mrs. Macpherson's that dark December
+evening, he saw nobody in the drawing-room. He had been invited to
+dinner; five o'clock sharp, Mrs. Macpherson told him; for the
+professor had an engagement at six which would keep him out, and she
+did not intend that he should depart dinnerless.
+
+This was Miss Thornycroft's farewell visit; in two days she was going
+home for Christmas, not again to return to school. She had invited
+Susan Hunter (who would remain at school until March), to come down
+during the holidays and spend a week at the Red Court Farm; and her
+brother was to accompany her.
+
+It wanted a quarter to five when Mr. Hunter entered. The drawing-room
+was not lighted, and at first he thought no one was in it. The large
+fire had burnt down to red embers; as he stood before it, his head and
+shoulders reflected in the pier-glass, he (perhaps unconsciously) ran
+his hand through his hair--hair that was darker than it used to be;
+the once deep auburn had become a reddish-brown, and--_and_--some grey
+threads mingled with it.
+
+"How vain you are!"
+
+He started round at the sound--it was the voice he loved so well. Half
+buried in a lounging chair in the darkest corner was she. She came
+forward, laughing.
+
+"I did not see you," he said, taking her hand "You are here alone!"
+
+A conscious blush tinged her cheeks; she knew that she had stayed in
+the room to wait for him.
+
+"They have gone somewhere, Susan and Mrs. Macpherson--to see a new cat
+of the professor's, I think. I have seen so many of those stuffed
+animals."
+
+"When do you go down home?"
+
+"The day after to-morrow. Susan has fixed the second week in January
+for her visit. Will that time suit you?"
+
+"The time might suit," he replied, with a slight stress on the word
+"time," as if there were something else that might not. "Unless,
+indeed--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless I should have left England, I was going to say. An offer has
+been made me to-day--or rather, to speak more correctly, an intimation
+that an offer is about to be made me--of some work abroad. If I accept
+it, it will take me away for a couple of years."
+
+She glanced up, and their eyes met. A yearning look of love, of dire
+tribulation at the news, shone momentarily in hers. Then they were
+bent on the carpet, and Mr. Hunter looked at the fire--the safest
+place just then.
+
+"Are you obliged to accept it?" she inquired.
+
+"Of course not. But it would be very much to my advantage. It would
+pave the way for--for----" He hesitated.
+
+"For what?"
+
+"Wealth and honours. I mean such honours (all might not call them so),
+as are open to one of my profession."
+
+A whole array of sentences crowded into her mind--begging him not to
+go; what would the days be without the sunshine of his presence? They
+should be far enough apart as things were; he in London, she at home;
+but the other separation hinted at would be like all that was good in
+life dying out. This and a great deal more, lay in her thoughts; what
+she said, however, was cold and quiet enough.
+
+"In the event of your remaining at home, then, the second week in
+January would suit you? It is Susan who has fixed it."
+
+Not immediately did he reply. Since the first intimation of this visit
+to Coastdown, a feeling of repugnance to it had lain within him; an
+instinct, whenever he thought of it, warning him against accepting it.
+Ah! believe me, these instinctive warnings come to us. They occur
+oftener than we, in our carelessness, think for. Perhaps not one in
+ten of them is ever noticed, still less heeded; we go blindly on in
+disregard; and, when ill follows, scarcely ever remember that the
+warning voice, if attended to, would have saved us.
+
+Just as Robert Hunter disregarded this. But for his visit, destined to
+take place at the time proposed, the great tragedy connected with the
+Red Court Farm had never taken place.
+
+Stronger than ever was the deterring warning on him this evening. He
+said to himself that his repugnance lay in the dislike to be a guest
+in any house that Lady Ellis was connected with; never so much as
+thinking of any other cause. He fully assumed there would be no chance
+of meeting herself: he knew she lived in Cheltenham. Miss Thornycroft
+had once or twice casually mentioned her stepmother's name in his
+presence, but he had not pursued the topic; and the young lady did not
+know that they had ever met.
+
+"You do not reply to me, Mr. Hunter. Would the time be inconvenient
+for you?"
+
+"It is not that," he answered, speaking rather dreamily. "But--I am a
+stranger to your father: would he like me to intrude, uninvited by
+himself?"
+
+"It would be a strange thing if I could not invite a dear school
+friend, as Susan is, down for a week, and you to accompany her,"
+returned Miss Thornycroft, rather hotly. "You need not fear; papa is
+the most hospitable man living. They keep almost open house at home."
+
+"You have brothers," returned Mr. Hunter, seeking for some further
+confronting argument. At which suggestion a ray of anger came into
+Miss Thornycroft's haughty blue eyes.
+
+"As if my brothers would concern themselves with me or my visitors!
+They go their way, and I intend to go mine."
+
+"Your stepmother--"
+
+"She is nobody," quickly interposed Miss Thornycroft, mistaking what
+he was about to say. "Lady Ellis lives in Cheltenham. She is ill, and
+Coastdown does not suit her."
+
+"Why does she still call herself Lady Ellis?" he asked, the question
+having before occurred to him.
+
+"It is her whim. What does it signify? She is one of the most
+pretentious women you can imagine, Mr. Hunter--quite a parvenu, as I
+have always felt--and 'my lady' is sweeter to her ears than 'madam.'"
+
+"What is it that is the matter with her?"
+
+"It is some inward complaint; I don't quite understand what. The last
+time I saw my brother Cyril, he told me she was growing worse; that
+there was not the least hope of her cure."
+
+"She does not come to the Red Court?"
+
+"No, thank fortune! She has not been there at all during this past
+year. I believe she is now too ill to come."
+
+Mr. Hunter glanced at the speaker with a smile. "You do not seem to
+like her."
+
+"Like her! Like Lady Ellis! I do not think I could pretend to like her
+if she were dead. You do not know her."
+
+A flush of remembrance darkened the brow of Robert Hunter. Time had
+been when he knew enough of her.
+
+"She is a crafty, wily, utterly selfish woman," pursued Miss
+Thornycroft, who very much enjoyed a fling at her stepmother. "How
+ever papa came to be taken in by her--but I don't care to talk of
+_that_."
+
+She seized the poker and began to crack the fire into a blaze. Mr.
+Hunter took it from her, and he adroitly kept her hand in his.
+
+"Had she been a different woman, good and kind, she might have won me
+over to love her. The Red Court wanted a mistress at that time, as
+papa thought; and, to confess it, so did I. A little self-willed,
+perverse girl I was, rebellious to my French governess, perpetually
+getting into scrapes, running wild indoors and out."
+
+Entirely unconscious was Miss Thornycroft how mistaken was one of her
+assumptions--"papa thought the Red Court wanted a mistress." Mr.
+Thornycroft had been rather too conscious that it did _not_ want one,
+looking at it from his point of view; though his daughter did.
+
+"Ah, well; let bygones be bygones. You will promise to come, Mr.
+Hunter?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, in teeth of the voice that seemed to haunt him.
+"If I have not gone away from England on this expedition, I will
+come."
+
+"Thank you," she said, with a soft flush.
+
+He turned and looked fully at her. Her hand was in his, for he had not
+relinquished it. Only about half a minute had he held it; it takes
+longer to tell these things than to act them. The poker was in his
+other hand, and he put it down with a clatter, which prevented their
+hearing the footsteps of Mrs. Macpherson on the soft carpet outside.
+That discreet matron, glancing through the partially open door, took
+the view of what she saw with her keen brain, and stood transfixed.
+
+"My heart alive, is there anything between _them?_" ran her surprised
+thoughts. "Well, that would be a go! Robert Hunter ain't no match for
+her father's child. Hand in hand, be they! and his eyes dropped on her
+face as if he was a-hungering to eat it. Not in this house, my good
+gentleman."
+
+With a cough and a shuffling, as if the carpet had got entangled with
+her feet, Mrs. Macpherson made her advent known. When she advanced
+into the room the position of the parties had changed: he was at
+one corner of the fire-place, she at the other, silent, demure,
+innocent-looking both of them as two doves.
+
+Not a word said Mrs. Macpherson. Miss Hunter came in, the professor
+followed, the announcement of dinner followed him. And somehow there
+arose no further opportunity for as much as a hand-shake between the
+suspected pair. But on the next day Mrs. Macpherson drove round to
+Miss Jupp's, and made to that lady a communication.
+
+"I don't say as it is so, Miss Jupp; mind that; their fingers might
+have got together accidental. I am bound to say that I never noticed
+nothing between 'em before. But I'm a straightforward body, liking to
+go to the root o' things at first with folks, and do as I'd be done
+by. And goodness only knows what might have become of us if I'd not
+been, with the professor's brain a-lodging up in the skies! I'll go to
+Miss Jupp, says I to myself last night; and here I am."
+
+"I think--I hope that it is quite unlikely," said Miss Jupp;
+beginning, however, to feel uncomfortable.
+
+"So do I. I've told you so. But it was my place to come and put you on
+your guard. I declare to goodness that never a thought of such a thing
+struck me, or you may be sure I'd not have had Robert Hunter to my
+house when she was there. 'When the steed's stole, one locks the
+stable door."
+
+"Miss Hunter tells me that she and her brother are going to spend a
+week at Coastdown."
+
+"And so much the better," said Mrs. Macpherson, emphatically. "If
+there _is_ anything between 'em, her folks won't fail to see it, and
+they can act accordingly. And now that I've done my duty, and had my
+say, I'll be going."
+
+"Thank you," said Miss Jupp. "Is the professor well?"
+
+"As well as getting up at three o'clock on a winter's morning and
+starting off in the dark and cold'll let him be," was the response.
+"I told him last night he shouldn't go; there's no sense in such
+practices; but he wouldn't listen. It's astronomicals this time."
+
+Watching her departure, remaining for a few minutes in undecisive
+thought, Miss Jupp at length made up her mind to speak, and sent for
+Mary Anne Thornycroft. No prevision was on the young lady's mind of
+the lecture in store; upright, elegant, beautiful, in she swept and
+stood calmly before her governess. Miss Jupp spoke considerately,
+making light of the matter, merely saying that Mrs. Macpherson thought
+she and Mr. Hunter were rather fond of "talking" together. "I thought
+it as well just to mention it to you, my dear; school-girls--and you
+are but one as yet, you know--should always be reticent."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft's haughty blue eyes, raised in general so
+fearlessly, drooped before Miss Jupp's gaze, and her face turned to a
+glowing crimson. Only for a moment: the next she was looking up again,
+_meeting_ the gaze and answering with straightforward candour.
+
+"Nothing has ever passed between me and Mr. Hunter that Mrs.
+Macpherson might not have heard and seen. I like Mr. Hunter very much.
+I have frequently met him there; but why should Mrs. Macpherson seek
+to make mischief out of that?"
+
+"My dear girl, she neither seeks to make mischief nor has she made
+any. All I would say to you--leaving the past--is a word of caution.
+At your age, with your good sense, you cannot fail to be aware that it
+is advisable young ladies should be circumspect in their choice of
+acquaintances. A mutual inclination is sometimes formed, which can
+never lead to fruition, only to unhappiness."
+
+Mary Anne did not answer, and the eyes dropped again.
+
+"I have a great mind to tell you a little episode of my life," resumed
+poor Miss Jupp, her cheeks faintly flushing. "Such an inclination as I
+speak of arose between me and one with whom, many years ago when out
+on a visit, I was brought into daily contact. We learnt to care for
+each other as much as it is possible for people to care in this world.
+So much so, that when it was all past and done with, and I received an
+excellent proposal of marriage, I _could_ not accept it. That early
+attachment was the blight of my life, Mary Anne. Instead of being a
+poor school-mistress, worried with many anxieties--a despised old
+maid--I should now have been a good man's wife, the mistress of a
+prosperous home."
+
+Miss Jupp kept her rising tears down; but Mary Anne Thornycroft's eyes
+were glistening.
+
+"And that first one, dear Miss Jupp: could you not have married him?"
+
+"No, my dear. Truth to tell, he never asked me. He dared not ask me;
+it would have been quite unsuitable. Believe me, many an unmarried
+woman could give you the same history nearly word for word. Hence you
+see how necessary it is to guard against an intimacy with unsuitable
+acquaintances."
+
+"And you put Mr. Hunter into the catalogue?" returned Miss
+Thornycroft, affecting to speak lightly.
+
+"Most emphatically--as considered in relation to you," was Miss Jupp's
+answer. "Your family will expect you to marry well, and you owe it to
+them to do so. Mr. Hunter is in every respect unsuitable. Until
+recently he was only a clerk; he has his own way to carve yet in the
+world; he is much older than you; and--he has been already married."
+
+"Of course I know all that," said Miss Thornycroft, with the deepest
+colour that had yet come over her. "But don't you think, ma'am, it
+would have been quite time to remind me of this when circumstances
+called for it?"
+
+"Perhaps not. At any rate, my dear, the warning can do you no harm. If
+unrequired in regard to Mr. Hunter--as indeed I believe it to be--it
+may serve you in the future."
+
+Miss Jupp said no more. "I have put it strong," she thought to
+herself, as the young lady curtsied and left the room. "It was well to
+do so."
+
+"Engineers rise to honours, as he said, and I know he is going on for
+them," quoth Mary Anne Thornycroft, with characteristic obstinacy,
+slowly walking along the passage. "I should never care for anyone else
+in the world. As to money, I daresay I shall have plenty of that; so
+will he when he has become famous."
+
+They travelled to Coastdown together--Isaac Thornycroft and his
+sister, Mrs. Copp and Anna Chester, as we must continue to call
+her--by a pleasant coincidence, as it was deemed by Miss Thornycroft.
+Mrs. Copp, living upon thorns--but that is a very faint figure of
+speech to express that timid lady's state of mind was ready some days
+before, but had to await the arrival of Anna. Isaac kept her out
+longer than the week, getting back just in time to take charge of his
+sister.
+
+As they sat in the carriage together, what a momentous secret it was
+that three of them held, and had to conceal from the fourth! If Anna's
+eyes were bright with happiness, her cheeks looked pale with
+apprehension; and Mrs. Copp might well shiver, and lay it upon the
+frost. Not so Isaac. Easy, careless, gay, was he--"every inch a
+bridegroom." After all, there was not so very much for _him_ to dread.
+It was expedient to keep his marriage secret, if it could be kept so;
+if' not, why he must face the explosion at home as he best could: the
+precautions he had taken would ward off reproach from his wife.
+
+"Here's Jutpoint!" exclaimed Mary Anne Thornycroft. "How glad I am to
+come back!"
+
+"How glad I should be if I were going away from it!" thought poor Mrs.
+Copp.
+
+As they were getting out of the carriage, Isaac contrived to put his
+arm before Anna, an intimation that he wanted to detain her. The
+others were suffered to go on.
+
+"What makes you look so pale?"
+
+"Oh, Isaac! can you ask? Your father--my uncle--may be here waiting
+for us. I feel sick and faint at the thought of meeting them."
+
+"But there's no reason in the world why you should. One minute after
+seeing them the feeling will wear off. Ce n'est quo le premier pas qui
+coute."
+
+"If they should suspect!--if they should have heard! It seems to me
+people need only look in my face to learn all. I have never once met
+your sister's eyes freely in coming down."
+
+He laughed lightly. "Reassure yourself, my darling. There's no fear
+that it will be known one hour before we choose it should be."
+
+"I am remembering always that stories may get abroad about me."
+
+"What you have to remember is that you are my honest wife," gravely
+returned Isaac. "I told Mrs. Copp--I have told you--that on the
+faintest breath of a whisper, I should avow the truth. You cannot
+doubt it, Anna; nothing in the world can be so precious to me as my
+wife's fair fame. They are looking back for us. God bless you, my
+darling, and farewell. For the present, you know--and that's the worst
+of the whole matter--you are not my wife, but Miss Chester."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+Wilful Disobedience.
+
+
+Mary Ann Thornycroft sat in the large, luxurious, comfortable
+drawing-room of the Red Court Farm. The skies without were grey and
+wintry, the air was cold, the sea was of a dull leaden colour; but
+with that cheery fire blazing in the grate, the soft chairs and sofas
+scattered about, the fine pictures, the costly ornaments, things were
+decidedly bright within. Brighter a great deal than the young lady's
+face was; for something had just occurred to vex her. She was leaning
+back in her chair; her foot, peeping out from beneath the folds of her
+flowing dress, impatiently tapping the carpet: angry determination
+written on every line of her countenance. Between herself and Richard
+there had just occurred a passage at arms--as is apt to be the case
+with brother and sister, when each has a dominant and unyielding will.
+
+At home for good, Miss Thornycroft had assumed her post as mistress
+of the house in a spirit of determination that said she meant to
+maintain it. The neighbours came flocking to see the handsome girl, a
+woman grown now. She had attained her nineteenth year. They found a
+lady-like, agreeable girl, with Cyril's love for reading, Isaac's fair
+skin and beautiful features, and Richard's resolute tone and lip. Very
+soon, within a week of her return, the servants whispered to each
+other that Miss Thornycroft and her brothers had already begun their
+quarrelling, for both sides wanted the mastery. They should have said
+her brother--very seldom indeed was it that Isaac interfered with
+her--Cyril never.
+
+She had begun by attempting to set to rights matters that probably
+never would be set right; regularity in regard to the serving of the
+meals. They set all regularity at defiance, especially on the point of
+coming in to them. They might come, or they might not; they might sit
+down at the appointed hour, or they might appear an hour after it.
+Sometimes the dinners were simple, oftener elaborate; to-day they
+would be alone, to-morrow six or eight unexpected guests, invited on
+the spur of the moment, would sit down to table; just as it had been
+in the old days. Mr. Thornycroft's love of free-and-easy hospitality
+had not changed. To remedy _this_, Mary Anne did not attempt--it had
+grown into a usage; but she did wish to make Richard and Isaac pay
+more attention to decorum.
+
+"They cannot be well-conducted, these two brothers of mine,"
+soliloquized Miss Thornycroft, as she continued to tap her impatient
+foot. "And papa winks at it. I think they must have acquired a love
+for low companions. I hear of their going into the public-house, and,
+if not drinking themselves, standing treat for others. Last night they
+came in to dinner in their velveteen coats, and gaiters all mud--after
+keeping it waiting for five-and-forty minutes. I spoke about their
+clothes, and papa--papa took their part, saying it was not to be
+expected that young men engaged in agriculture could dress themselves
+up for dinner like a lord-in-waiting. It's a shame!"
+
+Richard and Isaac did indeed appear to be rather loose young men in
+some things; but their conduct had not changed from what it used to
+be--the change lay in Miss Thornycroft. What as a girl she had not
+seen or noticed, she now, a young woman come home to exact propriety
+after the manner of well-conducted young ladies, saw at once, and put
+a black mark against. Their dog-cart, that ever-favourite vehicle,
+would be heard going out and coming in at all sorts of unseasonable
+hours; when Richard and Isaac lay abed till twelve (the case
+occasionally) Miss Thornycroft would contrive to gather that they had
+not gone to it until nearly daylight.
+
+The grievance this morning, however, was not about any of these
+things: it concerned a more personal matter of Miss Thornycroft's.
+While she was reading a letter from Susan Hunter, fixing the day of
+the promised visit, Richard came in. He accused her of expecting
+visitors, and flatly ordered her to write and stop their coming. A few
+minutes of angry contention ensued, neither side giving way in the
+smallest degree: she said her friends should come, Richard said they
+should not. He strode away to find his father. The justice was in the
+four-acre paddock with his gun.
+
+"This girl's turning the house upside down," began Richard. "We shall
+not be able to keep her at home."
+
+"What girl? Do you mean Mary Anne?"
+
+"There's nobody else I should mean," returned the young man, who was
+not more remarkable for courtesy of speech, even to his father, than
+he used to be. "I'd pretty soon shell out anybody else who came
+interfering. She has gone and invited some fellow and his sister down
+to stay for a week, she says. We can't have prying people here just
+now."
+
+"Don't fly in a flurry, Dick. That's the worst of you."
+
+"Well, sir, I think it should be stopped. For the next month, you
+know--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," interposed the justice. "Of course."
+
+"After that, it would not so much matter," continued Richard. "Not but
+that it would be an exceedingly bad precedent to allow it at all. If
+she begins to invite visitors here at will, there's no knowing what
+the upshot might be."
+
+"I'll go and speak to her," said Mr. Thornycroft. "Here, take the gun,
+Dick."
+
+Walking slowly, giving an eye to different matters as he passed,
+speaking a word here, giving an order there, the justice went on after
+the fashion of a man whose mind is at ease. It never occurred to him
+that his daughter would dispute his will.
+
+"What is all this, Mary Anne?" he demanded, when he reached her.
+"Richard tells me you have been inviting some people to stay here."
+
+Miss Thornycroft rose respectfully.
+
+"So I have, papa. Susan Hunter was my great friend at school; she is
+remaining there for the holidays, which of course is very dull, and I
+asked her to come here for a week. Her brother will bring her."
+
+"They cannot come," said Mr. Thornycroft.
+
+"Not come!"
+
+"No. You must understand one thing, Mary Anne--that you are _not at
+liberty_ to invite people indiscriminately to the Red Court I cannot
+sanction it."
+
+A hard look of resentment crossed her face; opposition never answered
+with the Thornycrofts, Cyril excepted: he was just as yielding as the
+rest were obstinate.
+
+"I have invited them, papa. The time for the visit is fixed, the
+arrangements are made."
+
+"I tell you, they cannot come."
+
+"Not if Richard's whims are to be studied," returned Miss Thornycroft,
+angrily, for she had lost her temper. "Do you wish me to live on in
+this house for ever, papa, without a soul to speak to, save my
+brothers and the servants? And cordial companions _they_ are," added
+the young lady, alluding to the former, "out, out, out, as they are,
+night after night! I should like to know where it is they go to.
+Perhaps I could find out if I tried."
+
+A fanciful person might have thought that Mr. Thornycroft started.
+"Daughter!" he cried, in a hoarse whisper, hoarse with passion, "hold
+your peace about your brothers. What is it to you where they go or
+what they do? Is it seemly for you, a girl, to trouble yourself about
+the doings of young men? Are you going to turn out a firebrand amongst
+us? Take care that you don't set the Red Court alight."
+
+The words might have struck her as strange, might indeed have imparted
+a sort of undefined fear, but that she was so filled with anger and
+resentment as to leave no room for other impressions. Nevertheless,
+there was that in her father's face and eye which warned her it would
+not do to oppose him now, and her rejoinder was spoken more civilly.
+
+"Do you mean, papa, that you will never allow me to have a visitor?"
+
+"I do not say that. But I must choose the times and seasons. This
+companion of yours may come a month later, if you wish it so very
+much. Not her brother. We have enough young men in the house of our
+own. And I suppose you don't care for him."
+
+Miss Thornycroft would have liked to say that he was the one for whom
+she did care--not the sister--but that was inexpedient. A conscious
+flush dyed her face; which Mr. Thornycroft attributed to pain at her
+wish being opposed. He had not yet to learn how difficult it was to
+turn his daughter from any whim on which she had set her will.
+
+"Write to-day and stop their coming. Tell Miss--what's the name?"
+
+"Hunter," was the sullen answer.
+
+"Tell Miss Hunter that it is not convenient to receive her at the time
+arranged, but that you hope to see her later. And--another word, Mary
+Anne," added Mr. Thornycroft, pausing in the act of leaving the room;
+"a word of caution; _let your brothers alone_; their movements are no
+business of yours, neither must you make it such. Shut your eyes and
+ears to all that does not concern you, if you want to live in peace
+under my roof."
+
+"Shut my eyes and ears?" she repeated, looking after him, "that I
+never will. I can see how it is--papa has lived so long under the
+domineering of Richard that he yields to him as a habit. It is less
+trouble than opposing him. Richard is the most selfish man alive. He
+thinks if we had visitors staying at the court, he must be a little
+more civilized in dress and other matters, and he does not choose to
+be so. For no other reason has he set his face against their coming;
+there can be no other. But I will show him that I have a will as well
+as he, and as good a right to exercise it."
+
+Even as Miss Thornycroft spoke, the assertion, "there can be no
+other," rose up again in her mind, and she paused to consider whether
+it was strictly in accordance with facts. But no; look on all sides as
+she would, there appeared to be no other reason whatever, or shadow of
+reason. It was just a whim of Richard's; who liked to act, in small
+things as in great, as though he were the master of the Red Court
+Farm--a whim which Miss Thornycroft was determined not to gratify.
+
+And, flying in the face of the direct command of her father, she did
+not write to stop her guests.
+
+The contest had not soothed her, and she put on her things to go out.
+The day was by no means inviting, the air was raw and chill, but Miss
+Thornycroft felt dissatisfied with home. Turning off by the plateau
+towards the village, the house inhabited by Tomlett met her view. It
+brought to her remembrance that the man was said to have received some
+slight accident, of which she had only heard a day or two ago. More as
+a diversion to her purposeless steps than anything else, she struck
+across to inquire after him. Mrs. Tomlett, an industrious little woman
+with a red face and shrill voice, as you may remember, stood at the
+kitchen table as Miss Thornycroft approached the open door, peeling
+potatoes. Down went the knife.
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, Mrs. Tomlett. I hear your husband has met
+with some hurt. How was it done?"
+
+For a woman of ordinary nerve and brain, Mrs. Tomlett decidedly showed
+herself wanting in self-possession at the question. It seemed to scare
+her. Looking here, looking there, looking everywhere like a frightened
+bird, she mumbled out some indistinct answer. Miss Thornycroft had
+seen her so on occasions before, and as a girl used to laugh at her.
+
+"When did it happen, Mrs. Tomlett?"
+
+"Last week, miss; that is, last month--last fortnight I meant to say,"
+cried Mrs. Tomlett, hopelessly perplexed.
+
+"What _was_ the accident?" continued Miss Thornycroft. "Well, it was
+a--a--a pitching of himself down the stairs, miss."
+
+"Down which stairs? This house has no stairs."
+
+Mrs. Tomlett looked to the different points of the room as if to
+assist her remembrance that the house had none.
+
+"No, miss, true; it wasn't stairs. He got hurted _some_ way," added
+the woman, in a pang of desperation. "I never knowed clear how. When
+they brought him home--a carrying of him--his head up, as one might
+say, and his legs down, my senses was clean frightened out o' me: what
+they said and what they didn't say, I couldn't remember after no more
+nor nothing. May be 'twas out o' the tallet o' the Red Court stables
+he fell, miss: I think it was."
+
+Miss Thornycroft thought not; she should have heard of that. "Where
+was he hurt?" she asked. "In the leg, was it not?"
+
+"'Twas in the arm, miss," responded Mrs. Tomlett. "Leastways, in the
+ankle."
+
+The young lady stared at her as a natural curiosity. "Was it in both,
+Mrs. Tomlett?"
+
+Well, yes, Mrs. Tomlett thought it might be in both. His side also had
+got grazed. Her full opinion was, if she might venture to express it,
+that he had done it a climbing up into his boat. One blessed thing
+was--no bones was broke.
+
+Miss Thornycroft laughed, and thought she might as well leave her to
+the peeling of the potatoes, the interruption to which essential duty
+had possibly driven her senses away.
+
+"At any rate, whatever the hurt, I hope he will soon be about again,"
+she kindly said, as she went out.
+
+"Which he is a'most that a'ready," responded Mrs. Tomlett, standing on
+the threshold to curtsey to her guest.
+
+No sooner was the door shut than Tomlett, a short, strong, dark man,
+with a seal-skin cap on, and his right arm bandaged up, came limping
+out of an inner room. The first thing he did was to glare at his wife;
+the second, to bring his left hand in loud contact with the small
+round table so effectually that the potatoes went flying off it.
+
+"Now what do _you_ think of yourself for a decent woman?"
+
+Mrs. Tomlett sat down on a chair and began to cry. "It took to me,
+Ben, it did--it took to me awful," she said, deprecatingly, in the
+midst of her tears; "I never knowed as news of the hurt had got
+abroad."
+
+"Do you suppose there ever was such a born fool afore as _you?_" again
+demanded Mr. Tomlett, in a slow, subdued, ironical, fearfully telling
+tone.
+
+"When she come straight in with the query--what was Tomlett's hurt and
+how were it done?--my poor body set on a twittering, and my head went
+clean out o' me," pleaded Mrs. Tomlett.
+
+"A pity but it had gone clean _off_ ye," growled the strong-minded
+husband; "'tain't o' no good _on_."
+
+"What were I to say, took at a pinch like that? I couldn't tell the
+truth; you know that, Tomlett."
+
+"Yes, you could; you might ha' told enough on't to satisfy her:--'He
+was at work, and he fell and hurt hisself.' Warn't that enough for any
+reasonable woman to say? And if she'd asked where he fell, you might
+ha' said you didn't know. Not you! He 'throwed hisself down the
+stairs,' when there ain't no stairs to the place; he 'fell out o' the
+tallet;' he 'done it a climbing up into his boat!' Yah!"
+
+"Don't be hard upon me, Tomlett, don't."
+
+"'And the hurt,' she asked, 'was that in the leg?'" mercilessly
+continued Mr. Tomlett. "'No, it weren't in the leg, it were in the
+arm, leastways, in the ankle,' says you; and a fine bobbin o'
+contradiction that must ha' sounded to her. Yah again! Some women be
+born fools, and some makes theirselves into 'em."
+
+"It were through knowing you'd get a listening, Tomlett. Nothing never
+scares the wits out o' me like that. When I see the door open a
+straw's breadth, I knew your ear was at it; and what with her afore me
+talking, and you ahind me listening, I didn't know the words I said no
+more nor if it wasn't me that spoke 'em. Do what I will, I'm blowed
+up."
+
+"Blowed up!" amiably repeated Mr. Tomlett; "if you was the wife o'
+some persons, you'd get the blowing up and something atop of it. Go on
+with them taturs."
+
+Leaving them to their domestic bliss and occupations--though from the
+above interlude Tomlett must not be judged: he made in general a good
+husband, only he had been so terribly put out--we will go after Miss
+Thornycroft. As she struck into the road again she saw Anna Chester
+talking to one of her two elder brothers, it was too far off to
+distinguish which; and indeed Richard and Isaac were so much alike in
+figure, that the one was often taken for the other. That it was the
+latter, Miss Thornycroft judged; there appeared to be a sort of
+intimacy--a friendship--between Isaac and Anna that she by no means
+approved of, and Isaac had taken to go rather often to Captain Copp's.
+
+Anna came on alone; her gentle face beaming, her pretty lips breaking
+into smiles. But Miss Thornycroft was cold.
+
+"Which of my brothers were you talking to?"
+
+"It was Isaac," answered Anna, turning her face away, for the trick of
+colouring crimson at Isaac's name, acquired since her return, was all
+too visible.
+
+"Ah, yes, I knew it must be Isaac. What good friends you seem to be
+growing!"
+
+"Do you think so?" returned Anna, stooping to do something or other to
+her dainty little boot, and speaking as lightly as the circumstances
+permitted. "He stopped me to say that Captain Copp was going to dine
+at the Red Court this evening, and so asked if I would accompany him."
+
+"Oh, it's to be one of their dinner gatherings this evening, is it?"
+replied Mary Anne, alluding to her brothers with her usual scant
+ceremony. "Well, I hope you will come, Anna; otherwise I shall not go
+in."
+
+"Thank you. Yes."
+
+"But look here. If you get telling Isaac things again that I tell you,
+you and I shall quarrel. What is he to you that you should do it?"
+
+Not for a long while had Anna felt so miserably bewildered. She began
+ransacking her memory for all she had said. At these critical moments,
+discovery seemed very near.
+
+"This morning, Richard chose to question me about Susan Hunter's
+coming down. He had heard of it from Isaac. Now I had not mentioned it
+to Isaac, or to any one else at home: time enough for that when the
+day was fixed; and Isaac could only have learnt it from you."
+
+"I--I am not sure--I can't quite tell--it is possible I did mention it
+to him," stammered poor Anna. "I did not think to do harm."
+
+"I dare say not. But it _has_ done harm; it has caused no end of
+mischief and disturbance at home, and got me into what my brothers
+politely call a 'row.' Kindly keep my affairs to yourself for the
+future, Anna."
+
+She turned away with the last words, and the poor young wife, in a sea
+of perplexity and distress, continued her way. The life she was
+leading was exceedingly unsatisfactory; never a moment, save in some
+chance and transitory meeting in the village or on the heath, did she
+obtain one private word with Isaac. Isaac was rather a frequent
+dropper-in now at Captain Copp's; but the cautious sailor, remembering
+the warning hint of his mother, took care to afford no scope for
+private talking; or, as he phrased it, sweethearting; and Mrs.
+Copp--her terror of discovery being always fresh upon her guarded Anna
+zealously. Could she have had her way, they would have passed each
+other with a formal nod whenever they met.
+
+"Never again," murmured Anna. "I must never again speak to him
+about his home--unless it be of what the whole world knows. How
+I wish this dreadful state of things could terminate! I have heard
+of secrets--concealments--wearing the life away; I believe it now."
+
+The former resident superintendent of the coastguard, Mr. Dangerfield,
+had left Coastdown, and been replaced by Mr. Kyne. Private opinion ran
+that Coastdown had not changed for the best; Mr. Supervisor
+Dangerfield (the official title awarded him by Coastdown) having been
+an easy, good-tempered, jolly kind of man, while Mr. Supervisor Kyne
+was turning out to be strict and fussy on the score of "duty." Justice
+Thornycroft, the great man of the place, had received him well, and
+the new officer evidently liked the good cheer he was made welcome to
+at the Red Court Farm.
+
+On this same morning Mr. Thornycroft, strolling out from his home, saw
+the supervisor on the plateau, and crossed the rails to join him. Mr.
+Kyne, a spare man of middle age, with a greyish sort of face and hair
+cut close to his head, stood on the extreme edge of the plateau,
+attentively scanning the sea. He slowly turned as Mr. Thornycroft
+approached.
+
+"Looking out for smugglers?" demanded the justice, jestingly. For this
+new superintendent had started the subject of smuggling soon after he
+came to Coastdown, avowing a suspicion that it was carried on; the
+justice had received it with a fit of laughter, and lost no
+opportunity since of throwing ridicule on it.
+
+"Shall I tell him, or not?" mentally debated Mr. Kyne. "Better not,
+perhaps, until we can get hold of something more positive. He would
+never believe it; he would resent it as a libel on Coastdown."
+
+The fact was, Mr. Kyne had received information some short while
+before, from what he considered a reliable source, that smuggling to a
+great extent _was_ carried on at Coastdown, or on some part of the
+coast lying nearly contiguous to it. He was redoubling his own
+watchfulness and his preventive precautions: to find out such a thing
+would be a great feather in his cap.
+
+"You won't ridicule me out of my conviction, sir."
+
+"Not I," said the justice; "I don't want to."
+
+"I shall put a man on this plateau at night."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft opened his eyes. "What on earth for?"
+
+"Well--I suspect that place below."
+
+"Suspect that place below!" repeated the justice, advancing to the
+edge and looking down. "What is there on it to suspect?"
+
+"Nothing--that's the truth. But if contraband things are landed,
+that's the most likely spot about. There is no other at all that I see
+where it _could_ be done."
+
+"And so you look at it on the negative principle," cried the justice,
+curling his lip. "Don't be afraid, Kyne. If the Half-moon had but a
+bale of smuggled goods on it, there it must be until you seized it. Is
+there a corner to hide it in, or facility for carrying it away?"
+
+"That's what I say to myself," rejoined Mr. Kyne. "It's the only thing
+that makes me easy."
+
+"Don't, for humanity's sake, leave your poor men here on a winter's
+night; it would be simply superfluous in the teeth of this
+impossibility! The cold on this bleak place might do for some of them
+before morning, or a false step in the dark send them over the cliff.
+Not to speak of the ghost," added the justice, with a grim smile.
+
+The supervisor gave an impromptu grunt, as if the latter sentence had
+jarred on his nerves.
+
+"That ghost tale is the worst part of it!" cried he. "Cold they are
+used to, danger they don't mind; but there's not one of them but
+shudders at the thought of seeing the ghost. I changed the men when I
+found how it was; sent the old ones away, and brought fresh ones here;
+well, will you believe me, justice, that in two days after they came
+they were as bad as the old ones? That fellow, Tomlett, with two or
+three more that congregate at the Mermaid, have told them the whole
+tale. I can hardly get 'em on here since, after nightfall--though it's
+only to walk along the plateau and back again."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft looked straight out before him. The supervisor noticed
+the grave change that had come to his face; and remembered that this,
+or some other superstitious fear, was said to have killed the late
+Mrs. Thornycroft. What with this story, what with the other deaths
+spoken of, taking their rise remotely or unremotely in the ghost, what
+with the uncomfortable feeling altogether that these things left on
+the mind in dark and lonely moments, Mr. Supervisor Kyne might have
+confessed, had he been honest enough, to not caring to stay himself on
+the plateau at night. But for this fact, the place would have been
+better guarded, since his men, in spite of the ghost, must have
+remained on duty.
+
+"Do you happen to know a little inlet of a spot lying near to
+Jutpoint?" asked Mr. Thornycroft. "They say that used to be famous for
+smuggling in the old days. If any is carried on still--a thing to be
+doubted--there's where you must look for it."
+
+"Ay, I've heard before of that place," remarked the supervisor. "They
+say it's quiet enough now."
+
+"I should have supposed most places were," said the justice, a mocking
+intonation again in his tone, which rather told on the ears it was
+meant for. "We revert to smuggling now as a thing of the past, not the
+present. What fortunes were made at it!"
+
+"And lost," said the supervisor.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft shrugged his shoulders. "Were they? Through bad
+management, then. Before that exposure of the custom-house frauds,
+both merchants and officers lined their pockets. And do still, no
+doubt."
+
+They were slowly walking together, side by side on the brow of the
+plateau, as they talked. Mr. Thornycroft stole a glance at his
+companion. The supervisor's face was composed and cold; nothing to be
+gathered from it.
+
+"It has its charms, no doubt, this cheating of the revenue," resumed
+the justice. "Were I a custom-house officer, and had the opportunity
+offered me, I might be tempted to embrace it. Look at the toil of
+these men--yours, for example--work, work, work and responsibility
+perpetually; and then look at the miserable pittance of pay. Why, a
+man may serve (and generally does) until he's fifty years of age,
+before he has enough salary doled out to him to keep his family in
+decent comfort."
+
+"That's true," was the answer; "it keeps many of us from marrying. It
+has kept me."
+
+"Just so. One can't wonder that illegitimate practices are considered
+justifiable. The world in its secret conscience exonerates you, I can
+tell you that, Mr. Supervisor."
+
+Mr. Supervisor walked along, measuring his steps, as if in thought;
+but he did not answer.
+
+"Why, how can it be otherwise?" continued the magistrate, warming with
+his subject and his sympathy. "Put the case before us for a moment as
+it used to be put. A merchant--Mr. Brown, let us say--has extensive
+dealings with continental countries, and imports largely. Every
+ship-load that comes for him must pay a duty of four hundred pounds,
+more or less, to the customs. Brown speaks to the examining officer'
+'You wink at this ship-load, don't see it; and we'll divide the duty
+between us; you put two hundred in your pocket, and I'll put two.' Who
+is there among us that would not accede? Not many. It enables the
+poor, ill-paid gentleman to get a few comforts; and he does it."
+
+"Yes; that is how many have been tempted."
+
+"And I say we cannot blame them. No man with a spark of humanity
+within his breast could give blame. Answer for yourself, Kyne: were it
+possible that such a proposal could be made to you in these days,
+would _you_ not fall in with it?"
+
+"No," said the officer, in a low but decisive tone "I should not."
+
+"No?" repeated Mr. Thornycroft, staring at him.
+
+"It killed my father."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft did not understand. The supervisor, looking straight
+before him as if he were seeing past events in the distance,
+explained, in a voice that was no louder than a whisper.
+
+"He was tempted exactly as you have described; and yielded. When the
+exposures took place at the London Customs, he was one of the officers
+implicated, and made his escape abroad. There he died, yearning for
+the land to which he could not return. The French doctors said that
+unsatisfied yearning killed him; he had no other discoverable malady."
+
+"What a curious thing!" exclaimed Mr. Thornycroft.
+
+"There were some private, unhappy circumstances mixed with it. One
+was, that his wife would not share in his exile. I could not; I had
+already a place in the Customs. Just before he died I went over, and
+he extorted a solemn promise from me never to do as he had done. I
+never shall. No inducement possible to be offered would tempt me."
+
+"It is a complete answer to the supposititious case propounded," said
+the justice, laughing pleasantly.
+
+"Supposititious, indeed!" remarked Mr. Kyne. "It could not occur in
+these days."
+
+"Certainly not. And _therefore_ your theory of present smuggling must
+explode. I must be going. Will you come in to-night and dine with us,
+Kyne? Copp is coming, and a few more. We've got the finest turbot, the
+finest barrel of natives you ever tasted."
+
+Inclination led Mr. Supervisor Kyne one way, duty another. He thought
+he ought not to accept it; the dinners at the Red Court were always
+prolonged until midnight at least, and his men would be safe to go off
+the watch. But--a prime turbot! and all the rest of it! Mr. Kyne's
+mouth watered.
+
+"Thank you, sir; I'll come."
+
+The evening dinner-gathering took place. Mr. Kyne and others, invited
+to attend it, assembled in the usual unceremonious fashion, and were
+very jolly to a late hour. Miss Thornycroft and Anna sat down to
+table, quitting the gentlemen as soon as dinner was over. Ladies, as a
+rule, were never invited to these feasts, but if Miss Thornycroft
+appeared at table, the justice had no objection to her asking a
+companion to join her. Generally speaking, however, her dinner on
+these occasions was served to her alone.
+
+"My darling, I am unable to take you home tonight; I--I cannot leave
+my friends," whispered Isaac, finding himself by a happy chance alone
+with Anna. Going into the drawing-room for a minute, he found his
+sister had temporarily left it to get a book.
+
+"Sarah is coming for me."
+
+"Yes, I know."
+
+His arms pressed jealously round her for the first time since they
+parted, his face laid on hers, he took from her lips a shower of
+impassioned kisses. Only for a moment. The sweeping trail of Miss
+Thornycroft's silk dress was even then heard. When she entered, Anna
+sat leaning her brow upon her raised fingers; Isaac was leaving the
+room, carelessly humming a scrap of a song. Yes, it was an
+unsatisfactory life at best--a wife and no wife; a heavy secret to
+guard; apprehension always.
+
+The days went on. Miss Thornycroft, defiantly pursuing her own will,
+directly disobeying her father's command, did not write to stop the
+arrival of her guests; and yet an opportunity offered her of doing so.
+I fully believe that these opportunities of escape from the path of
+evil are nearly always afforded once at least in every fresh
+temptation, if we would but recognise and seize upon them.
+
+It wanted but two days to that of the expected arrival, when a hasty
+note was received from Miss Hunter saying she was prevented coming; it
+concluded with these words: "My brother is undecided what to do; he
+thinks you will not want him without me. Please drop him just one
+line; or if he does not hear he will take it for granted that you
+expect him."
+
+_There_ was an opportunity!--"Just one line," and Mary Anne
+Thornycroft would have had the future comfort of knowing that she had
+(in substance at least) obeyed her father.
+
+But she did not send it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+The Half-moon Beach.
+
+
+Dodging about between the village and the Red Court Farm, went Miss
+Thornycroft. Her mind was not at rest. The day on which she had
+expected her guests--or rather, one of them--had passed. It was on
+Saturday; here was Monday passing, and nobody had come. Each time the
+omnibus had arrived from Jutpoint, the young lady had not been far
+off. It had not brought anybody in whom she was interested. Forty-five
+minutes past three now; ten minutes more, and it would be in again.
+She was beginning to feel sick with emotional suspense.
+
+But, for all this dodging, Miss Thornycroft was a lady; and when the
+wheels of the omnibus were at length heard, and it drew up at the
+Mermaid, she was at a considerable distance, apparently taking a cold
+stroll in the wintry afternoon. One passenger only got out; she could
+see that; and--_was_ it Robert Hunter?
+
+If so, he must be habited in some curious attire. Looking at him from
+this distance, he seemed to be all white and black. But, before he had
+moved a step; while he was inquiring (as might be inferred) the way to
+the Red Court Farm; the wild beating of Mary Ann Thornycroft's heart
+told her who it was.
+
+They met quietly enough, shaking hands calmly while he explained that
+he had been unable to get away on Saturday. Miss Thornycroft burst
+into a fit of laughter at the coat, partly genuine, partly put on to
+hide her tell-tale emotion. It was certainly a remarkable coat; made
+of a smooth sort of white cloth, exceedingly heavy, and trimmed with
+black fur. The collar, the facings, the wrists and the back pockets
+had all a broad strip. He turned himself about for her inspection,
+laughing too.
+
+"I fear I shall astonish the natives. But I never had so warm a coat
+in my life. I got it from the professor."
+
+"From the professor!"
+
+Mr. Hunter laughed. "Some crafty acquaintance of his, hard up,
+persuaded him into the purchase of two, money down, saying they had
+just come over from Russia--latest fashion. Perhaps they had; perhaps
+they are. The professor does not go in for fashion, but he cannot
+refuse a request made to him on the plea of unmerited poverty, and all
+that. I happened to be at his house when he brought them home in a
+cab. You should have heard Mrs. Mac."
+
+"I should have liked to," said Mary Anne.
+
+"First of all she said she'd have the fellow taken up who had beguiled
+the professor into it; next she said she'd pledge them. It ended in
+the professor making me a present of one and keeping the other."
+
+"And you are going to sport it here!"
+
+"Better here than in London; as a beginning. I thought it a good
+opportunity to get reconciled to myself in it. I should like to see
+the professor _there_ when he goes out in his."
+
+"They must have taken you for somebody in the train."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Hunter. "I and an old lady and gentleman had the
+carriage to ourselves all the way. She evidently took me for a lord;
+her husband for a card-sharper. But I think I shall like the coat."
+
+Opinions might differ upon it--as did those of the old couple in the
+train. It was decidedly a handsome coat in itself, and had probably
+cost as much as the professor gave for it; but, taken in conjunction
+with its oddity, some might not have elected to be seen wearing it.
+Mr. Hunter had brought no other; his last year's coat was much worn,
+and he had been about to get another when this came in his way.
+
+"And what about Susan?" Miss Thornycroft asked.
+
+"Susan is in Yorkshire. Her aunt--to whom she was left when my mother
+died--was taken ill, and sent for her. I do not suppose Susan will
+return to London."
+
+"Not at all?"
+
+Mr. Hunter thought not. "It would be scarcely worth while; she was to
+have gone home in March."
+
+Thus talking, they reached the Red Court Farm. When its inmates saw
+him arrive, his portmanteau carried behind by a porter, they were
+thunderstruck. Mr. Thornycroft scarcely knew which to stare at most,
+him or his coat. Mary Anne introduced him with characteristic
+equanimity. Richard vouchsafed no greeting in his stern displeasure,
+but the justice, a gentleman at heart, hospitably inclined always,
+could do no less than bid him welcome. Cyril, quiet and courteous,
+shook hands with him; and later, when Isaac came in, he grasped his
+hand warmly.
+
+There is no doubt that the learning he was a connexion of Anna
+Chester's (it could not be called a relative) tended to smooth
+matters. As the days passed on, Mr. Hunter grew upon their liking; for
+his own sake he proved to be an agreeable companion; and even Richard
+fell into civility--an active, free, pleasant-mannered young fellow,
+as the justice called him, who made himself at home indoors and out.
+
+Never, since the bygone days at Katterley, had Robert Hunter deserved
+the character; but in this brief holiday he could but give himself up
+to his perfect happiness. He made excursions to Jutpoint; he explored
+the cliffs; he went in at will to Captain Copp's and the other houses
+on the heath; he put out to sea with the fishermen in the boats; he
+talked to the wives in their huts: everybody soon knew Robert Hunter,
+and especially his coat, which had become the marvel of Coastdown; a
+few admiring it--a vast many abusing it.
+
+Miss Thornycroft was his frequent companion, and they went out
+unrestrained. It never appeared to have crossed the mind of Mr.
+Thornycroft or his sons as being within the bounds of possibility that
+this struggling young engineer, who was not known to public repute as
+an engineer at all, could presume to be thinking of Mary Anne, still
+less that she could think of him; otherwise they had been more
+cautious. Anna Chester was out with them sometimes, Cyril on occasion;
+but they rambled about for the most part alone in the cold and frost,
+their spirits light as the rarefied air.
+
+The plateau and its superstition had no terror for Mr. Hunter, rather
+amusement: but that he saw--and saw with surprise--it was a subject of
+gravity at the Red Court, he might have made fun of it. Mary Anne
+confessed to him that she did not understand the matter; her brothers
+were reticent even to discourtesy. That some mystery was at the bottom
+of it Mr. Hunter could not fail to detect, and was content to bury all
+allusion to the superstition.
+
+He stood with Miss Thornycroft on the edge of the plateau one bright
+morning--the brightest they had had. It was the first time he had been
+so far, for Mary Anne had never gone beyond the railings. Not the
+slightest fear had she; for the matter of that, nobody else had in
+daylight; but she knew that her father did not like to see her there.
+In small things, when they did not cross her own will, the young lady
+could be obedient.
+
+"I can see how dangerous it would be here on a dark night," observed
+Robert Hunter in answer to something she had been saying, as he drew a
+little back from the edge, over which he had been cautiously leaning
+to take his observations. "Mary Anne! I never in all my life saw a
+place so convenient for smuggling as that Half-moon below. I daresay
+it has seen plenty of it."
+
+Before she could make any rejoinder Mr. Kyne came strolling up to them
+in a brown study, and they shook hands. Robert Hunter had dined with
+him at the Red Court.
+
+"I was telling Miss Thornycroft that the place below looks as if it
+had been made for the convenience of smuggling," began Robert Hunter.
+"Have you much trouble here?"
+
+"No; but I am in hopes of it," was the reply. And it so completely
+astonished Mr. Hunter, who had spoken in a careless manner, without
+real meaning, as we all do sometimes, that he turned sharply round and
+looked at the supervisor.
+
+"I thought the days of smuggling were over."
+
+"Not yet, here--so far as I believe," replied Mr. Kyne. "We have
+information that smuggling to an extent is carried on somewhere on
+this coast, and this is the most likely spot for it that I can
+discover. I heard of this suspicion soon after I was appointed to
+Coastdown, and so kept my eyes open; but never, in spite of my
+precautions, have I succeeded in dropping on the wretches. I don't
+speak of paltry packets of tobacco and sausage-skins of brandy, which
+the fishermen, boarding strange craft, contrive to stow about their
+ribs, but of more serious cargoes. I would almost stake my life that
+not a mile distant from this place there lies hidden a ton-load of
+lace, rich and costly as ever flourished at the Court of St.
+James."[2]
+
+
+[Footnote 2: This was just before the late alteration in the Customs'
+import laws, when the duty on lace and other light articles was large:
+making the smuggling of them into England a clever and enormously
+profitable achievement, when it could be accomplished with impunity.]
+
+
+Robert Hunter thought the story sounded about as likely as that of the
+ghost. The incredulous, amused light in his eye caused Mary Anne to
+laugh.
+
+"Where can it be hidden?" she asked of the supervisor. "There's no
+place."
+
+"I wish I could tell you where, Miss Thornycroft."
+
+Anything but inclined to laugh did he appear himself. The fact was,
+Mr. Kyne was growing more fully confirmed in his opinion day by day,
+and had come out this morning determined to do something.
+Circumstances were occurring to baffle all his precautions, and he
+felt savage. His policy hitherto had been secrecy, henceforth he meant
+to speak of the matter openly, and see what that would do. It was very
+singular--noted hereafter--that Robert Hunter and this young lady
+should have been the first who fell in his way after the resolution to
+speak was taken. But no doubt the remark with which Mr. Hunter greeted
+him surprised him into it.
+
+"But surely you do not think, Mr. Kyne, that boat-loads of lace are
+really run here!" exclaimed Robert Hunter.
+
+"I do think it. If not in this precise spot,"--pointing with his
+finger to the Half-moon beach underneath--"somewhere close to it.
+There's only one thing staggers me--if they run their cargoes there,
+where can they stow it away? I have walked about there"--advancing to
+the edge cautiously and looking down--"from the time the tide went off
+the narrow path, leading to it round the rocks, until it came in
+again, puzzling over the problem, and peering with every eye I had."
+
+"Peering?"
+
+"Yes. We have heard of caves and other hiding-places being concealed
+in rocks," added the supervisor, doggedly; "why not in these? I cannot
+put it out of my head that there's something of the sort here; it's
+getting as bad to me as a haunting dream."
+
+"It would be charming to find it!" exclaimed Mary Anne. "A cave in the
+rocks! Ah, Mr. Kyne, it is too good to be true. We shall never have so
+romantic a discovery at Coastdown."
+
+"If such a thing were there, I should think you would have no
+difficulty in discovering it," said Mr. Hunter.
+
+"I have found it difficult," returned Mr. Kyne, snappishly, as if
+certain remembrances connected with the non-finding did not soothe
+him. "There's only one thing keeps me from reporting the suspicions at
+head quarters."
+
+"And that is--?"
+
+"The doubt that it may turn out nothing after all."
+
+"Oh, then, you are not so sure; you have no sufficient grounds to go
+upon," quickly rejoined Mr. Hunter, with a smile that nettled the
+other.
+
+"Yes, I have grounds," he returned, somewhat incautiously perhaps, in
+his haste to vindicate himself. "We had information a short time
+back," he continued after a pause, as he dropped his voice to a low
+key "that a boat-load of something--_my_ belief is, it's lace--was
+waiting to come in. Every night for a fortnight, in the dark age of
+the moon, did I haunt this naked plateau on the watch, one man with
+me, others being within call. A very agreeable task it was, lying
+_perdu_ on its edge, with my cold face just extended beyond!"
+
+"And what was the result?" eagerly asked Mr. Hunter, who was growing
+interested in the narrative.
+
+"Nothing was the result. I never saw the ghost of a smuggler or a boat
+approach the place. And the very first night I was off the watch, I
+have reason to believe the job was done."
+
+"Which night was that?" inquired Miss Thornycroft.
+
+"This day week, when I was dining at the Red Court. I had told my men
+to be on the look-out; but I had certainly told them in a careless
+sort of way, for the moon was bright again, and who was to suspect
+that they would risk it on a light night? They are bold sinners."
+
+The customs officer was so earnest, putting, as was evident, so much
+faith in his own suspicions, that Robert Hunter insensibly began to go
+over to his belief. Why should cargoes of lace, and other valuable
+articles, not be run? he asked himself. They bore enough duty to tempt
+the risk, as they had borne it in the days gone by.
+
+"How was it your men were so negligent?" he inquired.
+
+"There's the devil of it!" cried the supervisor. "I beg your pardon,
+young lady; wrong words slip out inadvertently when one's vexed. My
+careless orders made the men careless, and they sat boozing at the
+Mermaid. Young Mr. Thornycroft, it seems, happened to go in, saw them
+sitting there with some of his farm-labourers, and, in a generous fit,
+ordered them to call for what drink they liked. They had red eyes and
+shaky hands the next morning."
+
+"How stupid of my brother!" exclaimed Mary Anne. "Was it Richard or
+Isaac?"
+
+"I don't know. But all your family are too liberal: their purse is
+longer than their discretion. It is not the first time, by many, they
+have treated my fellows. I wish they would not do so."
+
+There was a slight pause. Mr. Kyne resumed in a sort of halting tone,
+as if the words came from him in spite of his better judgment.
+
+"The greatest obstacle I have to contend with in keeping the men to
+their duty on the plateau here, is the superstition connected with
+it. When a fellow _is_ got on at night, the slightest movement--a
+night-bird flying overhead--will send him off again. Ah! _they_ don't
+want pressing to stay drinking at the Mermaid or anywhere else. The
+fact is, Coastdown has not been kept to its duty for a long while. My
+predecessor was good-hearted and easy, and the men did as they liked."
+
+"How many men do you count here?"
+
+"Only three or four, and they can't be available all together; they
+must have some rest, turn on, turn off. There's a longish strip of
+coast to pace, too; the plateau's but a fleabite of it."
+
+"And your theory is that the smugglers run their boats below here?"
+continued Robert Hunter, indicating the Half-moon beach.
+
+"I think they do--that is, if they run them anywhere," replied Mr.
+Kyne, who was in a state of miserable doubt, between his firm
+convictions and the improbabilities they involved. "You see, there is
+nowhere else that privateer boats can be run to. There's no
+possibility of such a thing higher up, beyond that point to the right,
+and it would be nearly as impossible for them to land a cargo of
+contraband goods beyond the left point, in the face of all the
+villagers."
+
+There was a silence. All three were looking below at the scrap of
+beach over the sharp edges of the jutting rocks, Miss Thornycroft held
+safe by Mr. Hunter. She broke it.
+
+"But, as you observe, Mr. Kyne, where could they stow a cargo there,
+allowing that they landed one? There is certainly no opening or place
+for concealment in those hard, bare rocks, or it would have been
+discovered long ago. Another thing--suppose for a moment that they do
+get a cargo stowed away somewhere in the rocks, how are they to get it
+out again? There would be equal danger of discovery."
+
+"So there would," replied Mr. Kyne. "I have thought of all these
+things myself till my head is muddled."
+
+"Did you ever read Cooper's novels, Mr. Kyne?" resumed Miss
+Thornycroft. "Some of them would give you a vast deal of insight into
+these sort of transactions."
+
+"No," replied the officer, with an amused look. "I prefer to get my
+insight from practice. I am pretty sharp-sighted," he added with
+complacency.
+
+Robert Hunter had been weighing possibilities in his mind, and woke up
+as from sudden thought, turning to the supervisor.
+
+"I should like to go down there and have a look at these rocks. My
+profession has taken me much amidst such places: perhaps my experience
+could assist you."
+
+"Let us walk there now!" exclaimed the supervisor, seizing at the
+idea--"if not taking you out of your way, Miss Thornycroft."
+
+"Oh, I should be delighted," was the young lady's reply. "I call it
+quite an adventure. Some fine moonlight night I shall come and watch
+here myself, Mr. Kyne."
+
+"They don't do their work on a moonlight night. At least," he hastened
+to correct himself; with a somewhat crestfallen expression, "not
+usually. But after what happened recently, I shall mistrust a light
+night as much as a dark one."
+
+"Are you sure," she inquired, standing yet within them on the plateau,
+"that a cargo was really landed the night you speak of?"
+
+"I am not sure; but I have cause to suspect it."
+
+"It must be an adventurous life," she remarked, "bearing its charms,
+no doubt."
+
+"They had better not get caught," was the officer's rejoinder,
+delivered with professional gusto; "they would not find it so charming
+then."
+
+"I thought the days of smuggling were over," observed Mr. Hunter:
+"except the more legitimate way of doing it through the very eyes and
+nose of the custom-house. Did you know anything personally of the
+great custom-house frauds, as they were called, when so many officers
+and merchants were implicated, some years ago?"
+
+"I did. I held a subordinate post in the London office then, and was
+in the thick of the discoveries."
+
+"You were not one of the implicated?" jestingly demanded Mr. Hunter.
+
+"Why, no--or you would not see me here now. I was not sufficiently
+high in the service for it."
+
+"Or else you might have been?"
+
+"That's a home question," laughed Mr. Kyne. "I really cannot answer
+for what might have been. My betters were tempted to be."
+
+He spoke without a cloud on his face; a different man now, from the
+one who had betrayed his family's past trouble to Justice Thornycroft.
+Not to this rising young engineer, attired in his fantastic coat,
+which the supervisor always believed must be the very height of _ton_
+and fashion in London; not to this handsome, careless, light-hearted
+girl, would he suffer aught of that past to escape. He could joke with
+_them_ of the custom-house frauds, which had driven so many into
+exile, and _one_--at least, as he believed--to death. On the whole, it
+was somewhat singular that the topic should have been again started.
+Miss Thornycroft took up the thread with a laugh.
+
+"There, Mr. Kyne! You acknowledge that you custom-house gentlemen are
+not proof against temptation, and yet you boast of looking so sharply
+after these wretched fishermen!"
+
+"If the game be carried on here as I suspect, Miss Thornycroft, it is
+not wretched fishermen who have to do with it; except, perhaps, as
+subordinates."
+
+"Let us go and explore the Half-moon beach below," again said Robert
+Hunter. Mr. Kyne turned to it at once: he had been waiting to do so.
+The engineer's experience might be valuable. He had had somewhat to do
+with rocks and land.
+
+It was a short walk as they made their way down to the village, and
+thence to the narrow path winding round the projection of rock. The
+tide was out, so they shelved round it with dry feet, and ascended to
+the Half-moon beach. They paced about from one end of the place to the
+other, looking and talking. Nothing was to be seen; nothing; no
+opening, or sign of opening. The engineer had an umbrella in his hand,
+and he struck the rocks repeatedly: in one part in particular, it was
+just the middle of the Half-moon, he struck and struck, and returned
+to strike again.
+
+"What do you find?" inquired Mr. Kyne.
+
+"Not much. Only it sounds hollow just here."
+
+They looked again: they stooped down and looked; they stood upon a
+loose stone and raised themselves to look; they pushed and struck at
+the part with all their might and main. No, nothing came of it.
+
+"Did you ever see a more convenient spot for working the game?" cried
+the supervisor. "Look at those embedded stones down there, rising from
+the lower beach: the very things to moor a boat to."
+
+"Who do you suspect does this contraband business?" inquired Robert
+Hunter.
+
+"My suspicions don't fall particularly upon any one. There are no
+parties in the neighbourhood whom one could suspect, except the
+boatmen, and if the trade is pushed in the extensive way I think, they
+are not the guilty men. A week ago (more or less) they ran, as I tell
+you, one cargo; I know they did; and may I be shot this moment, if
+they are not ready to ran another! That's a paying game, I hope."
+
+Ready to run another! The pulses of Mr. Kyne's hearers ran riot with
+excitement. This spice of adventure was intensely charming.
+
+"How do you know they are?" asked Robert Hunter.
+
+"By two or three signs. One of them, which I have no objection to
+mention, is that a certain queer craft is fond of cruising about here.
+Whenever I catch sight of her ugly sides, I know it bodes no good for
+her Majesty's revenue. She carries plausible colours, the hussey, and
+has, I doubt not, a double bottom, false as her colours. I saw her
+stern, shooting off at daybreak this morning, and should like to have
+had the overhauling of her."
+
+"Can you not?"
+
+"No. She is apparently on legitimate business."
+
+"I thought that her Majesty could search any vessel, legitimate or
+illegitimate."
+
+Again Mr. Kyne looked slightly crestfallen. "I boarded her with my men
+the last time she was here, and nothing came of it. She happened by
+ill-luck to be really empty, or we were not clever enough to unearth
+the fox."
+
+The reminiscence was not agreeable to Mr. Kyne. The empty vessel had
+staggered him professionally; the reception he met with insulted him
+personally. Until the search was over, the captain, a round, broad
+Dutchman, had been civil, affording every facility to the revenue
+officers; but the instant the work was done, he ordered them out of
+the ship in his bad English, and promised a different reception if
+they ever came on it again. That was not all. The mate, another
+Dutchman, was handling a loaded pistol the whole time on full cock,
+and staring at the superintendent in a very strange manner. Altogether
+the remembrance was unpleasant.
+
+The tide was coming up, and they had to quit the strip of beach while
+the road was open. Mr. Kyne wished them good morning and departed on
+his own way. Robert Hunter turned towards the plateau again, which
+surprised Miss Thornycroft. "Just for a minute or two," he urged.
+
+They ascended it, and stood on the brow as before, Robert Hunter in
+deep thought. His face, now turned to the sea, now to the land, wore a
+business-like expression.
+
+"We are now standing exactly above the middle of the rocks on the
+Half-moon beach below," he remarked presently, "just where they had a
+hollow sound."
+
+"Yes," she replied.
+
+"And the Red Court, as you see, lies off in a straight line. It is a
+good thing your father lives there, Mary Anne."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because if suspicious persons inhabited it, I should say that house
+might have something to do with the mystery. If Kyne's conclusions are
+right--that smuggled goods are landed on the beach below, they must be
+stowed away in the rocks; although the ingress is hidden from the
+uninitiated. Should this be really the case, depend upon it there is
+some passage, some communication, in these rocks to an egress inland."
+
+"But what has that to do with our house?" inquired Mary Anne,
+wonderingly.
+
+"These old castles, lying contiguous to the coast, are sure to have
+subterranean passages underneath, leading to the sea. Many an escape
+has been made that way in time of war, and many an ill-fated prisoner
+has been so conducted to the waves, and put out of sight for ever.
+Were I your father, I would institute a search. He might come upon the
+hoarding-place of the smugglers."
+
+"But the smugglers cannot get to their caverns and passages through
+our house!"
+
+"Of course not. There must be some other opening. How I should like to
+drop upon the lads!"
+
+Mr. Hunter spoke with animation. Such a discovery presented a tempting
+prospect, and he walked across the plateau as one who has got a new
+feather stuck in his cap. In passing the Round Tower, he turned aside
+to it, and stepped in through the opening. He found nothing there that
+could be converted into suspicion by the most lively imagination. The
+worn grass beneath the feet was all genuine; the circular wall,
+crumbling away, had stood for ages. Satisfied, so far, they crossed
+the railings on their way home.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft was in the dining-room writing a note; Richard, who
+had apparently just stepped in to ask a question, held a gun; Cyril
+lay back in an easy-chair, reading. When Mary Anne and their gentleman
+guest burst in upon them with eager excitement, the one out-talking
+the other, it was rather startling.
+
+"Such an adventure! Papa, did you know we probably have smugglers on
+the coast here?"
+
+"Have you ever explored underneath your house, sir, under the old
+ruins of the castle? There may be a chain of subterranean passages and
+vaults conducting from here to the sea."
+
+"Not common smugglers, papa, the poor tobacco-and-brandy sailors, but
+people in an extensive way. Boat-loads of lace they land."
+
+"If it be as the man suspects, there may be often a rare booty there.
+There may be one at this very moment; I would lay any money there is,"
+added Robert Hunter, improving upon the idea in his excitement. "Mr.
+Richard, will you bet a crown with me?"
+
+The words had been poured forth so rapidly by both, that it would seem
+their hearers were powerless to interrupt. Yet the effect they
+produced was great. Cyril started upright, and let his book drop on
+his knees; Mr. Thornycroft pushed his glasses to the top of his brow,
+an angry paleness giving place to his healthy, rosy colour; while
+Richard, more demonstrative, dashed the gun on the carpet and broke
+into an ugly oath. The justice was the first to find his tongue.
+
+"What absurd treason are you talking now? You are mad, Mary Anne."
+
+"It is not treason at all, sir," replied Mr. Hunter, regarding Richard
+with surprise. "It is a pretty well ascertained fact that contraband
+goods are landed and housed in the rocks at the Half-moon. It will be
+loyalty, instead of treason, if we can contrive to lay a trap and
+catch the traitors."
+
+Richard Thornycroft moved forward as if to strike the impetuous
+speaker. It would seem that one of the fits of passion he was liable
+to was coming on. Cyril, calm and cool, placed himself across his
+brother's path.
+
+"Be quiet, Richard," he said, in a tone that savoured of authority;
+"stay you still. Where did you pick up this cock-and-bull story?" he
+demanded with light mockery of Robert Hunter.
+
+"We had it from the supervisor. He has suspected ever since he came,
+he says, that this station was favoured by smugglers, and now he is
+sure of it. One cargo they landed a few days ago, and there's another
+dodging off the coast, waiting to come in. He intends to drop upon
+that."
+
+"It is a made-up lie!" foamed Richard. "The fellow talks so to show
+his zeal. I'll tell him so. Smuggled goods landed here!"
+
+"Well, lie or no lie, you need not fly in a passion over it," said
+Mary Anne. "It is not our affair."
+
+"Then, if it is not our affair, what business have you interfering in
+it?" retorted Richard. "Interpose your authority, sir, and forbid her
+to concern herself with men's work," he added, turning sharply to his
+father. "No woman would do it who retains any sense of shame."
+
+"Miss Thornycroft has done nothing unbecoming a lady," exclaimed Mr.
+Hunter, in a tone of wonder. "You forget that you are speaking to your
+sister, Mr. Richard. What can you mean?"
+
+"Oh, he means nothing," said Mary Anne, "only he lets his temper get
+the better of his tongue. One would think, Richard, you had something
+to do with the smugglers, by your taking it up in this way," she
+pursued, in a spirit of aggravation. "And, indeed, it _was_ partly
+your fault that they got their last cargo in."
+
+"Explain yourself," said Cyril to his sister, pushing his arm before
+Richard's mouth.
+
+"It was a night when we had a dinner party here," she pursued. "Mr.
+Kyne was here; the only night he had been off the watch for a
+fortnight, he says. But he left orders with his men to look out, and
+Richard got treating them to drink at the Mermaid, and they never
+looked. So the coast was clear, and the smugglers got their goods in."
+
+Cyril burst into a pleasant laugh. "Ah, ha!" said he, "new brooms
+sweep clean. Mr. Superintendent Kyne is a fresh hand down here, so he
+thinks he must trumpet forth his fame as a keen officer--that he may
+be all the more negligent by-and-bye, you know. None but a stranger,
+as you are, Mr. Hunter, could have given ear to it."
+
+"I have given both ear and belief," replied Robert Hunter, firmly;
+"and I have offered Mr. Kyne the benefit of my engineering experience
+to help him discover whether there is or is not a secret opening in
+the rocks."
+
+"You have!" exclaimed Justice Thornycroft. He glared on Robert Hunter
+as he asked the question. From quite the first until now he had been
+bending over his note, leaving the discussion to them.
+
+"To be sure I have, sir. I have been with him now, on the Half-moon,
+sounding them; but I had only an umbrella, and that was of little use.
+We are going to-morrow better prepared. It strikes me the mystery lies
+right in the middle. It sounds hollow there. I will do all I can to
+help him, that the fellows may be brought to punishment."
+
+"Sir!" cried the old justice, in a voice of thunder, rising and
+sternly confronting Robert Hunter, "I forbid it. Do you understand? _I
+forbid it_. None under my roof shall take act or part in this."
+
+"But justice demands it," replied Mr. Hunter, after a pause. "It
+behoves all loyal subjects of her Majesty to aid in discovering the
+offenders: especially you, sir, a sworn magistrate."
+
+"It behoves me to protect the poor fishermen, who look to me for
+protection, who have looked to me for it for years; ay, and received
+it," was the warm reply, "better than it behoves you, sir, to presume
+to teach me my duty! Richard, leave me to speak. I tell you, sir, I do
+not believe this concocted story. I am the chief of the place, sir,
+and I will not believe it. The coast-guard and the fishermen are at
+variance; always have been; and I will not allow the poor fellows to
+be traduced and put upon, treated as if they were thieves and rogues.
+Neither I nor mine shall take part in it; no, nor any man who is under
+my roof eating the bread of friendliness. I hope you hear me, sir."
+
+Robert Hunter stood confounded. All his golden visions of discoveries,
+that should make his name famous and put feathers in his cap, were
+vanishing into air. But the curious part was the justice's behaviour;
+that struck him as being very strange, not to say unreasonable.
+
+"It is not the first time, sir, that the coast-guard have tried it
+on," pursued Mr. Thornycroft. "When the last superintendent was
+appointed, Dangerfield, he took something of the sort in his head, and
+came to me to assist him in an investigation. 'Investigate for
+yourself,' I said to him. '_I_ shall not aid you to tarnish the
+characters of the fishermen.' It may be presumed that his
+investigation did not come to much," was the ironical conclusion;
+"since I heard no more about the smugglers from him all the years he
+was stationed here."
+
+"And you think, sir, that Mr. Kyne is also mistaken?" cried Robert
+Hunter, veering round.
+
+"What I think, and what I do not think, you may gather from my words,"
+was the haughty reply. "I tell you that no man living under my roof
+shall encourage by so much as a word, let alone an act, anything of
+the sort. Mr. Kyne can pursue his own business without us."
+
+"If it were one of my own brothers who did so, I would shoot him
+dead," said Richard, with a meaning touch at his gun. "So I warn him."
+
+"And commit murder?" echoed Robert Hunter, who did not admire this
+semi-threat of Richard's.
+
+"It would not be murder, sir; it would be justifiable homicide,"
+interposed the justice, rather to Robert Hunter's surprise. "When I
+was a young man, a guest abused my father's hospitality. My brother
+challenged him. They went out with their seconds, and my brother shot
+him. That was not murder."
+
+"But, papa, that must have been a different thing altogether," said
+Mary Anne, who had stood transfixed at the turn the conversation was
+taking. "It----"
+
+"To your room, Miss Thornycroft! To your room, I say!" cried the
+passionate justice, pushing her from him. "Would _you_ beard my
+authority? Things are coming to a pretty pass."
+
+It was a stormy ending to a stormy interview. Confused and terrified,
+Mary Anne Thornycroft hastened up  and burst into tears in her
+chamber. Richard strode away with his gun; Cyril followed him; and the
+justice bent over his writing again quietly, as though nothing had
+happened.
+
+As for Robert Hunter he felt entirely amazed. Of course, putting it as
+the justice had put it, he felt bound in honour not to interfere
+further, and would casually tell Mr. Kyne so on the first opportunity,
+giving no reason why. Pondering over the matter as he strolled out of
+doors uncomfortably, he came to the conclusion that Mr. Thornycroft
+must be self-arrogant, both as a magistrate and a man: one of the
+old-world sort, who jog on from year's end to year's end, seeing no
+abuses, and utterly refusing to reform them when seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+My Lady at the Red Court.
+
+
+At the end window of the corridor, looking towards the church and
+village, stood Mary Anne Thornycroft. Not yet had she recovered the
+recent stormy interview, and a resentful feeling in regard to it was
+rife within her. The conduct of her father and eldest brother appeared
+to have been so devoid of all reason in itself, and so gratuitously
+insulting to Robert Hunter, that Mary Anne, in the prejudice of her
+love for _him_, was wishing she could pay them off. It is the province
+of violent and unjust opposition to turn aside its own aim, just as it
+is the province of exaggeration to defeat itself; and Miss
+Thornycroft, conning over and over again in her mind the events of the
+day, wilfully persuaded herself that Mr. Kyne was right, her father
+wrong, and that smuggling of lace, or anything else that was valuable,
+_was_ carried on under (as may be said) the very face and front of
+their supine house.
+
+Cyril came up the stairs--his book in his hand--saw her standing
+there, and came to her side. The short winter's day was already
+verging towards twilight, and the house seemed intensely still.
+
+"Is it not a shame?" exclaimed Mary Anne, as Cyril put his arm about
+her.
+
+"Is what not a shame? That the brightness of the day is gone?"
+
+"_You know!_" she passionately exclaimed. "Where's the use of
+attempting subterfuge with me, Cyril? Cyril, on my word I thought for
+the moment that papa and Richard must have gone suddenly mad."
+
+In Cyril Thornycroft's soft brown eyes, thrown out to the far
+distance, there was a strange look of apprehension, as if they saw an
+unwelcome thing approaching. Something was approaching in fact, but
+not quite in sight yet. He had a mild, gentle face; his temper was of
+the calmest, his voice sweet and low. And yet Cyril seemed to have a
+great care ever upon him;--his mother, whom he so greatly resembled,
+used to have the same. He was the only one of her children who, as
+yet, had profited much by her counsel and monition. In the last few
+years of her life her earnest daily efforts had been directed to draw
+her children to God, and on Cyril they had borne fruit.
+
+In the German schools, to which he had been sent, in the Oxford
+University life that succeeded, Cyril Thornycroft had walked unscathed
+amidst the surging sea of surrounding sins and perils. Whatever
+temptation might assail him, he seemed, in the language of one
+who watched his career, only to come out of them more fit for God.
+Self-denying, walking not to do his own will, remembering always that
+he had been bought with a price and had a Master to serve, Cyril
+Thornycroft's daily life was one of patient endurance of a great
+inward suffering, and of active kindness. Where he could do good he
+did it; when others were tempted to say a harsh word he said a kind
+one. He had been brought up to no profession; his inclination led him
+to go into the Church; but some motive, of which he never spoke,
+seemed to hold him back. Meanwhile Mr. Thornycroft appeared quite
+content to let him stay on at the Red Court in idleness--idleness as
+the world called it. Save that he read a great deal, Cyril did no
+absolute work; but many in Coastdown blessed him. In sickness of body,
+in suffering of mind, there by the bed-side might be found Cyril
+Thornycroft, reading from the Book of Life--talking of good things
+in his low, earnest voice; and sometimes--if we may dare to write
+it--praying. Dare! For it is the fashion of the world to deride such
+things when spoken of--possibly to deride them also in reality.
+
+And now that is all that will be said. It was well to say it for the
+satisfaction of the readers, as will be found presently, even though
+but one of those readers may be walking in a similar earnest path, the
+world lying on one hand, heaven on the other.
+
+"Courtesy is certainly due to Mr. Hunter, and I am sorry that my
+father and Richard forgot it," resumed Cyril. "When does he leave?"
+
+"On Saturday," she answered, sullenly.
+
+"Then--endeavour to let things go on peaceably until that time. Do not
+excite him by any helping word on your part to oppose home prejudices.
+Believe me, Mary Anne, my advice is good. Another such scene as there
+was to-day, and I should be afraid of the ending."
+
+"What ending?"
+
+"That Richard might turn him out of the house."
+
+Miss Thornycroft tossed her head. "Richard would be capable of it."
+
+"Let us have peace for the rest of his sojourn here, forgetting this
+morning's episode. And--Mary Anne--do not ask him to prolong his visit
+beyond Saturday."
+
+He looked with kindly earnestness into her eyes for a moment as if
+wishing to give impression to the concluding words, and then left
+her to digest them: which Miss Thornycroft was by no means inclined
+to do pleasantly. She was picking up the notion that she would be
+required to give way to her brothers on all occasions; here was even
+Cyril issuing his orders now! Not ask Robert Hunter to stay over
+Saturday!--when her whole heart had been set upon his doing it!
+
+Playing with her neck-chain, tossing it hither and thither, she at
+length saw Robert Hunter come strolling home from the village, his air
+listless, his steps slow; just like a man who is finding time heavy on
+his hands.
+
+"And not one of them to be with him!" came her passionate thought. "It
+_is_ a shame. Bears! Why! who's _this?_"
+
+The exclamation--cutting short the complimentary epithet on her
+brothers, though it could not apply with any sort of justice to
+Cyril, who had been prevented by his father from following Robert
+Hunter--related to a Jutpoint fly and pair. Driving in at the gates,
+it directly faced Mary Anne Thornycroft; she bent her eyes to peer
+into it, and started with surprise.
+
+"Good gracious! What can bring _her_ here?"
+
+For she recognised Lady Ellis; with a maid beside her. And yet, in
+that pale, haggard, worn woman, who seemed scarcely able to sit
+upright, there was not much trace of the imperious face of her
+who had made for so brief a period the Red Court her home.
+Illness--long-continued illness, its termination of necessity
+fatal--changes both the looks and the spirit.
+
+The chaise had passed Robert Hunter at right angles: had my lady
+recognised him?
+
+But a moment must be given to Cyril. On descending the stairs, he saw
+Richard striding out at the front door, and hastened after him.
+
+"Where are you going, Richard?"
+
+"Where am I going?" retorted Richard. "To Tomlett's, if you must know.
+Something must be done."
+
+Cyril laid his calm hand on his brother's restless one, and led him
+off towards the plateau.
+
+"Do nothing, Richard. You are hasty and incautious. They cannot make
+any discovery."
+
+"And that fellow talking of going to sound the rocks, with his boasted
+engineering experience?"
+
+"Let him go. If the square sounds as hollow as his head, what then?
+They can make nothing else of it. No discovery can be made from the
+outside; you know it _can not_; and care must be taken that they don't
+get in."
+
+"Perhaps you would not care if they did," spoke Richard in his unjust
+passion.
+
+"You know better," said Cyril, sadly. "However I may have wished that
+certain circumstances did not exist, I would so far act with you now
+as to ward off discovery. I would give my life, Richard, to avert pain
+from you all, and disgrace from the Red Court's good name. Believe me,
+nothing bad will come of this, if you are only cautious. But your
+temper is enough to ruin all--to set Hunter's suspicions on you. You
+should have treated it derisively, jokingly, as I did."
+
+Richard, never brooking interference, despising all advice, flung
+Cyril's arm aside, and turned off swearing, meeting Isaac, who was
+coming round by the plateau.
+
+"Isaac, we are dropped upon."
+
+"What?"
+
+"We are dropped upon, I say."
+
+"How? Who has done it?"
+
+"That cursed fellow Mary Anne brought here--Hunter. He and Kyne have
+been putting their heads together; and, by all that's true, they have
+hit it hard. They had got up a suspicion of the rocks; been sounding
+the square rock, and found it hollow. Kyne has scented the cargo
+that's lying off now."
+
+The corners of Isaac Thornycroft's mouth fell considerably. "We must
+get _that_ in," he exclaimed. "It is double the usual value."
+
+"I wish Hunter and the gauger were both hanging from the cliffs
+together!" was Richard's charitable conclusion, as he strode onwards.
+"It was a bad day's work for us when they moved Dangerfield. I'm on my
+way now to consult with Tomlett; will you come?"
+
+Isaac turned with him. Bearing towards the plateau, but leaving it to
+the right--a road to the village rarely taken by any but the
+Thornycroft family, as indeed nobody else had a right to take it, the
+waste land belonging to Mr. Thornycroft--they went on to Tomlett's,
+meeting Mr. Kyne en route, with whom Isaac, sunny-mannered ever,
+exchanged a few gay words.
+
+Cyril meanwhile strolled across the lawn as far as the railings, and
+watched them away. He was deep in thought; his eyes were sadder than
+usual, his high, square brow was troubled.
+
+"If this incident could but turn out a blessing!" he half murmured.
+"Acted upon by the fear of discovery through Kyne's suspicions, if my
+father would but make it a plea for bringing things to a close, while
+quiet opportunity remains to him! But for Richard he would have done
+so, as I believe, long ago."
+
+Turning round at the sound of wheels, Cyril saw the fly drive in.
+Reaching it as it drew up to the door, he recognised his stepmother.
+Mary Anne came out, and they helped her to alight. Hyde, every atom of
+surprise he possessed showing itself in his countenance, flung wide
+the great door. She leaned on Cyril's arm, and walked slowly. Her
+cheeks were hollow, her black eyes were no longer fierce, but dim; her
+gown sat about her thin form in folds.
+
+"My dears, I thought your father would have had the carriage waiting
+for me at Jutpoint."
+
+"My dears!" from the once cold and haughty Lady Ellis! It was spoken
+in a meek, loving tone, too. Mary Anne glanced at Cyril.
+
+"I am sure my father knew nothing of your intended arrival," spoke
+Cyril; "otherwise some of us would certainly have been at Jutpoint."
+
+"I wrote to tell him; he ought to have had the letter this morning. I
+have been a little better lately, Cyril; not really better, I know
+that, but more capable of exertion; and I thought I should like to
+have a look at you all once again. I stayed two days in London for
+rest, and wrote yesterday."
+
+She passed the large drawing-rooms, and turned of her own accord into
+the small comfortable apartment that was formerly the school-room, and
+now the sitting-room of Mary Anne. Cyril drew an easy-chair to the
+fire, and she sat down in it, letting her travelling wraps fall from
+her. Sinnett, who had come in not less amazed than Hyde, picked them
+up.
+
+"You are surprised to see me, Sinnett."
+
+"Well--yes, I am, my lady," returned Sinnett, who did not add that she
+was shocked also. "I am sorry to see you looking so poorly."
+
+"I have come for a few days to say good-bye to you all. You can take
+my bonnet as well."
+
+Sinnett went out with the things. It was found afterwards that the
+letter, which ought to have announced her arrival, was delayed by some
+error on the part of the local carrier. It was delivered in the
+evening.
+
+As she sat there facing the light, the ravages disease was making
+showed themselves all too plainly in her wasted countenance. In
+frame she was a very skeleton, her hands were painfully thin, her
+black silk gown hung in folds on her shrunken bosom. Mary Anne put a
+warm foot-stool under her feet, and wrapped a shawl about her
+shoulders; Cyril brought a glass of wine, which she drank.
+
+"I have to take a great deal of it now, five or six glasses a day, and
+all kinds of strengthening nourishment," she said. "Thank you, Cyril.
+Sometimes I lie and think of those poor people whose case is similar
+to mine, and who cannot get it."
+
+How strange the words sounded from her! Thinking for others! Miss
+Thornycroft, remembering her in the past, listened in a sort of amused
+incredulity, but a light as of some great gladness shone in the eyes
+of Cyril.
+
+As he left the room to search for his father, who had gone out, Robert
+Hunter entered it. Seeing a stranger there, an apparent invalid, he
+was quitting it again hastily when Mary Anne arrested him.
+
+"You need not go, Robert; it is my stepmother, Lady Ellis. Mr.
+Hunter."
+
+At the first moment not a trace could he find of the handsome,
+haughty-faced woman who had beguiled him with her charms in the days
+gone by. Not a charm was left. She had left off using adjuncts, and
+her face was almost yellow; its roundness of contour had gone; the
+cheeks were hollow and wrinkled, the jaws angular. Only by the eyes,
+as they flashed for a moment into his with a sort of dismayed light,
+did he recognise her. Bowing coldly, he would have retreated, but she,
+recovering herself instantly, held out her hand.
+
+"No wonder you have forgotten me; I am greatly changed."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft looked on with astonishment. Had they ever met
+before?
+
+"Yes," said Lady Ellis; "but he was mostly called Mr. Lake then."
+
+A flush dyed Robert Hunter's brow. "I threw off the name years ago,
+when I threw off other things," he said.
+
+"What other things did you throw off?" quickly asked Mary Anne.
+
+"Oh, many," was the careless answer; "frivolity and idleness, amidst
+them."
+
+Perhaps he remembered that his manner and words, in the view of that
+wasted face and form, were needlessly ungracious, for his tone
+changed; he sat down, and said he was sorry to see her looking ill.
+
+"I have been ill now for a long while; I must have been ill when I
+knew you," she said; "that is, the disease was within me, but I did
+not suspect it. Had I taken heed of the symptoms, slight though they
+were and for that cause entirely unheeded, perhaps something might
+have been done for me; I don't know. As it is, I am slowly dying."
+
+"I hope not," he said, in his humanity.
+
+"You cannot hope it, Mr. Hunter. Look at me!"
+
+Very true. Had she been all the world to him--had his whole happiness
+depended on his keeping her in life, he could not have hoped it. With
+her wan face, and eyes glistening with that peculiar glaze that tells
+of coming death; with her thin frame and deep, quick breath, that
+seemed to heave the body of her gown as though a furnace-bellows were
+underneath, there could be no thought of escape from the portals that
+were opening for her. As she sat before him leaning in the chair, the
+shawl thrown back from her chest, Robert Hunter looked at her and knew
+it.
+
+There ensued a silence. He did not answer, and Mary Anne was much
+wondering at this suddenly-discovered past intimacy, never spoken of
+by either to her, and resenting it after the manner of women. The fire
+flickered its blaze aloft; the twilight deepened; but it was not yet
+so dark but that the plateau was distinct, and also the figure of the
+preventive man at the edge, pacing it. Lady Ellis suddenly broke the
+stillness.
+
+"Do the people believe in the ghost still, Mary Anne?"
+
+"I suppose so. There has been no change that I know of."
+
+"I meant--has anything been discovered?"
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft lifted her eyes. "How do you mean, discovered?
+What is there to discover?"
+
+"Not anything, I dare say," she said. "But it used to strike me
+as very singular--this superstitious belief in these enlightened
+times--and a feeling was always on my mind that something would occur
+to explain it away. Have you heard of it?" she asked, directing her
+eyes to Robert Hunter.
+
+"Somewhat. There is a difficulty, I hear, in keeping the preventive
+men on the plateau after dusk. What it is they precisely fear, I do
+not know."
+
+"Neither did I ever know," she observed, dreamily. "The curious part
+of it to me always was, that Mr. Thornycroft and his sons appeared to
+fear it."
+
+Before Miss Thornycroft, who sat in silence, the subject was not
+pursued. Lady Ellis started a more open one, and inquired after Mrs.
+Chester.
+
+"She is living in Paris," said Robert Hunter. "At least--she has been
+living there; but I am not sure that she is still. A few days ago I
+had a letter from her, in which she said she was about to change her
+residence to Brussels."
+
+He did not add that the letter was one of Mrs. Chester's usual
+ones--complaining grievously of hard times, and the impossibility of
+"getting along." Somehow she seemed not to be able to do that
+anywhere. She had two hundred a year, and was always plunging into
+schemes to increase her income. They would turn out well at first,
+according to her report, promising nothing less than a speedy fortune;
+and then would come a downfall. In this recent letter, she had
+implored of Robert Hunter to "lend" her fifty pounds to set her going
+in Brussels, to which capital she was on the wing, with an excellent
+opportunity of establishing a first-class school. He sent the money,
+never expecting to see it again.
+
+"Are her children with her?" questioned Lady Ellis.
+
+"Only Fanny. The boys are at school in England. And Anna--you remember
+Anna?"
+
+"I should think I do, poor girl. The slave of the whole house."
+
+"Anna is here on a visit."
+
+"_Here!_"
+
+"I mean at Coastdown. She is staying with a Captain and Mrs. Copp, who
+are some slight relatives of hers."
+
+"I have thought of Anna as teacher in a school. Mrs. Chester said she
+should place her in one."
+
+"She is a teacher. This visit is only a temporary one, prolonged on
+account of Anna's health. She was with Miss Jupp."
+
+With the last word, all the reminiscences, as connected with that
+lady's name and the past, rose up in the mind of Robert Hunter--of a
+certain Christmas-day, when Mary Jupp had brought some shame home to
+him: perhaps also to her of the faded face sitting opposite. It
+brought shame to him still; but, seeing that faded face, he was vexed
+to have inadvertently mentioned it.
+
+"Mary Anne, I think I will go to my room. The fire must have burnt up
+now. No, don't come with me; I would be quiet for a little while."
+
+As she got up from the chair, she staggered. Robert Hunter, who was
+crossing the room to open the door for her, stopped and offered his
+arm. He could do no less in common pity: but the time had been when he
+registered a mental vow that never again should the arm of that woman
+rest within his.
+
+"Thank you: just to the foot of the stairs. I have but little strength
+left, and the journey to-day has temporarily taken away that. Are you
+getting on well in your profession, Mr. Hunter?"
+
+"Oh, yes. My prospects are very fair."
+
+Sinnett happened to be in the hall; her mistress called to her, took
+her arm, and quitted that of Robert Hunter. He returned to Mary Anne,
+who was rather sulky still. What with the scene in the afternoon, with
+the unexpected and not over-welcome appearance of her stepmother, and
+with this mysterious acquaintanceship, about which nothing had been
+said to her, the young lady was not in so amiable a mood as usual.
+
+"When did you know Lady Ellis?" she abruptly began after an interval
+of silence. "And where?"
+
+"Some years ago; she was staying, for a few months with my half-sister,
+Mrs. Chester, at Guild."
+
+"At Guild; yes, I know; I saw her there when I went over with papa.
+But I was not aware that you were intimate there."
+
+Robert Hunter had never spoken of that past time in any way to Mary
+Anne. It happened that Anna Chester had not.
+
+"I went over to Guild sometimes. I was living at Katterley, seven
+miles off."
+
+"Was that in your wife's time?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It is strange you never told me you knew my stepmother."
+
+"It never occurred to me to tell you. Business matters have so
+entirely occupied my thoughts since, that those old days seem
+well-nigh blotted out of them."
+
+"Were she and your wife great friends?"
+
+"No. My wife did not like her."
+
+Robert Hunter was standing at the window, looking out in the nearly
+faded twilight. He could not fail to perceive by the tone of her voice
+that Mary Anne was feeling displeased at something. But her better
+nature was returning to her, and she went and stood by him. He held
+out his arm, as he had done once or twice before when they were thus
+standing together: and she slipped her hand within it. The fire had
+burnt down to dulness, emitting scarcely any light: the preventive man
+could no longer be seen on the plateau.
+
+"How dark it is getting, Robert!"
+
+"Yes; but I think it will be a fine night. There's a star or two
+twinkling out."
+
+Very, very conscious was each, as they stood there. In these silent
+moments, with the semi-darkness around, love, if it exists, must make
+itself felt. Love within, love around, love everywhere; the atmosphere
+teeming with it, the soul sick to trembling with its own bliss. It
+seemed to them that the beating of their own hearts was alone heard,
+and that too audibly. Thus they stood; how long it was hard to say.
+The room grew darker, the stars came out clearer. The softness of the
+hour was casting its spell on them both; never had love been so
+present and so powerful. In very desperation Mary Anne broke the
+silence, her tone sweet and low, her voice sunk to a half-whisper.
+
+"Robert, how is it you have never spoken to me of your wife?"
+
+"I did not know you would like it. And besides----"
+
+"Besides what?"
+
+"I have not cared to speak of her since her death. A feeling has been
+upon me that I never should speak of her again, except perhaps to one
+person."
+
+"And that person?"
+
+"My second wife. Should I be fortunate enough ever to marry one."
+
+He turned involuntarily and looked at her. And then looked away again
+hastily. It might be dangerous just now. But that look, brief as it
+was, had shown him her glowing, downcast countenance.
+
+"What was her name?"
+
+"Clara. She was little more than a child--a gentle, loving child,
+unfit to encounter the blasts of the world. One, ruder than ordinary,
+struck her and carried her away."
+
+"Did you love her very much?"
+
+He paused, hesitated, and then turned to her again. "Am I to tell you,
+Mary Anne?"
+
+"As you like," she whispered, the blushes deepening. "Of course not,
+if it be painful to you."
+
+"I did not love her; taking the word in its truest extent. I thought I
+did, and it is only within a few months--yes, I may as well tell you
+all--that I have learnt my mistake."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft glanced at him in surprise. "Only within a few
+months! How is that?"
+
+"Because I have learnt to love another. To love--do you understand,
+Mary Anne?--to _love_. With my very heart and soul; with my best and
+entire being. Such love cannot come twice to any man, and it teaches
+him much. It has taught me, amidst other knowledge, that I liked my
+wife as one likes a dear child, but not otherwise."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft's hand trembled as it lay upon his arm. In her
+bewilderment of feelings, in the tumultuous sensation born of this
+great love that was filling all her mind, she nearly lost command of
+her words, and spoke at random.
+
+"But why should this be told only to your second wife?"
+
+"Because I should wish to show her that my true love is hers; hers
+only in spite of my early marriage. The rest of the world it concerns
+not, and will never be spoken of to them."
+
+"You assume confidently that you will feel this love for your second
+wife?"
+
+"I shall if I marry her. _That_ is by no means sure. Unless I marry
+_her_, the one to whom my love is given, I shall never marry at all."
+
+Ah, where was the use of keeping up this farce? It was like children
+playing at bo-peep with the handkerchief over the face. The other is
+there, but we pretend to know it not. With their hearts wildly beating
+in unison--with her hand shaking visibly in its emotion--with the
+consciousness that concealment was no longer concealment but full and
+perfect knowledge, stood they. Mary Anne rejoined, her words more and
+more at random, her wits utterly gone a-woolgathering.
+
+"And why should you not marry her?"
+
+"I am not in a position to ask for her of her father."
+
+It was all over in a moment. Save that he turned suddenly to look at
+her, and laid his hand on hers as if to still its trembling, Mary Anne
+Thornycroft doubted ever after if she had not made the first movement.
+Only a moment, and her head was lying on his breast, his clasped arms
+were holding her there, their pulses were tingling with rapture, their
+lips clinging together in a long and ardent kiss.
+
+"Dare I speak to you, Mary Anne?" he asked, hoarsely.
+
+"You know you may."
+
+"Oh, my love--my love! It is you I would, if possible, make my wife.
+None other. But I may not ask for you of Mr. Thornycroft. He would not
+deem my position justified it."
+
+"I will wait for you, Robert."
+
+Only by bending his head could he catch the low words. His cheek lay
+on hers; he strained her closer, if that were possible, to his beating
+heart.
+
+"It may be for years!"
+
+"Let it be years and years. I ask no better than to wait for you."
+
+The stars shone out brighter in the sky; the fire in the room went
+quite down; and nothing more could be heard from those living in their
+new and pure dream, but snatches of the sweet refrain--
+
+"My love, my love!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+A Last Interview.
+
+
+The week went on to its close. Mary Anne Thornycroft, following out
+her own will and pleasure, despising her brother Cyril's warning,
+asked Robert Hunter to prolong his visit. He yielded so far as to
+defer his departure to the Sunday evening. Originally it had been
+fixed for the Saturday morning: business required his presence in
+London. Swayed by her, and by his own inclination--by his own love, he
+yielded to the tempting seduction of staying two further days. Alas,
+alas!
+
+Peace had been established at the Red Court Farm; or, rather, the
+unpleasantness had been allowed to die away. Nothing further had come
+of the outbreak; it was not alluded to again in any way. Robert
+Hunter, meeting the superintendent, mentioned in a casual manner that
+he could not help him again in sounding the rocks, adding something
+about "want of time." It is probable that the surprise caused by the
+very unexpected arrival of Mr. Thornycroft's wife tended more than
+aught else to smooth matters. A stranger in our household keeps down
+angry tempers. Isaac and Cyril were courteous as ever; the justice was
+courteous also, though a little stiff; Richard sternly civil. Robert
+Hunter responded cordially, as if willing to do away with the
+impression left by his interference, and took things as he found them.
+
+Not a word was said of the newly-avowed love. Any sort of concealment
+or dishonour was entirely against the nature of Mary Anne Thornycroft;
+but love was all-powerful. That Robert Hunter was not in a condition
+to propose for her yet, he knew; but if this project of going abroad
+were carried out, he thought he might speak before starting. And so
+they mutually decided to wait--at least, for a few weeks, or until
+that should be decided. But, though Mr. Thornycroft had not a
+suspicion of any attachment, the brothers were sharper sighted. They
+saw it clearly, and showed disapproval in accordance with their
+several dispositions. Richard resented it; Isaac told his sister she
+might do much better; Cyril said a word to her of concealment never
+bringing any good. It was rather singular that a dislike of Robert
+Hunter should exist in the breast of all three. Not one, save Richard,
+acknowledged it even to himself; not one could say whence or wherefore
+it arose, except perhaps that they had not taken cordially to him at
+first. And of course the outbreak did not tend to improve the feeling.
+
+The arrival of Lady Ellis at the Red Court made no difference whatever
+to the routine of its daily life, since she was not well enough to
+come down and mix in it. The artificial excitement imparted by the
+journey was telling upon her now, and her available strength seemed to
+have gone. Not tracing this fact--the increased weakness--to its true
+source, she laid the blame on the atmosphere of Coastdown. It never
+had agreed with her, she said; she supposed it never would; and she
+already began to speak of getting back to Cheltenham. Not rising until
+nearly mid-day, she went afterwards into the dressing-room, or
+boudoir, adjoining her chamber--we saw her in it once in the old
+days--and there sat or lay for the rest of the day, watching the
+mysterious plateau and the sea beyond it, or reading between whiles.
+They went up and sat with her by turns--Mr. Thornycroft, Cyril, and
+Mary Anne; Isaac rarely, Richard never, except for a brief moment of
+civil inquiry. None of them remained with her long. It wearied her to
+converse, and she thought she was best with her maid, who was in part
+companion. Robert Hunter she neither saw nor asked after. And so the
+week came to an end.
+
+Sunday--and the day of Mr. Hunter's departure. They attended church at
+St. Peter's in the morning, all except Mr. Thornycroft and Richard.
+The justice remained with his wife, and Richard was lax at the best of
+times in attendance on public worship. Mr. Richard spent the morning
+in a desultory manner at home, a short pipe in his mouth, and lounging
+about the stables with Hyde.
+
+What Richard did with himself in the afternoon nobody knew; it was not
+usual to inquire into his movements; but the rest went over to
+Jutpoint to attend the church of St. Andrew's, where there was a
+famous afternoon preacher, whom they liked to hear. Anna Chester was
+with them. Captain Copp, confined to the house by a temporary
+indisposition, was indoors that day, and his wife remained in
+attendance on him; so that Anna appeared at church in the morning
+alone. The Red Court people took her home and kept her to luncheon;
+and she accompanied them afterwards to Jutpoint.
+
+The omnibus conveyed them, and was to bring them home again. Never,
+when he could avoid it, did Mr. Thornycroft take out his own horses
+on Sunday: he chose that they and his servants should, so far, have
+rest. They had a large circle of acquaintances at Jutpoint, and on
+coming out of church the justice and Isaac laid hands on two and
+conveyed them back to dinner. The strangers liked these impromptu
+invitations--possibly laid themselves out to get them, and the omnibus
+had a merry freight back to Coastdown.
+
+"If they are going to have one of their dinner-gatherings to-night,
+you must come home and sit down to it with me, Anna," spoke Miss
+Thornycroft, as they quitted the omnibus at the Mermaid.
+
+Anna was nothing loth. She had sat in the omnibus by Isaac's side, her
+hand in his, under cover of the closely-packed company and the
+approaching darkness, happy for the time. Hastily answering that she
+would be glad to come, but must run on first of all to the heath and
+tell Mrs. Copp, she sped away fast. Isaac, having waited until the
+others should disperse before he followed, overtook her just as she
+was entering.
+
+Captain Copp, up now, sat by the fire, groaning, and drinking some
+strong tea. The captain was occasionally afflicted with an intense
+sick-headache, never a worse than that he had to-day. He always laid
+the blame on the weather; it was the heat, or it was the cold; or it
+was the frost, or the rain. Mrs. Copp agreed with him, but Sarah in
+the kitchen thought the cause lay in rum-and-water. The groans were
+suspended when they went in, and Mrs. Copp, dutifully waiting on him,
+put down the cup and saucer.
+
+"Aunt, may I dine at the Red Court?"
+
+Mrs. Copp made no answer. Whenever she saw Isaac and Anna together,
+she was taken with a fit of inward shivering. Captain Copp spoke up:
+his opinion was that Anna had better not. Isaac laughed.
+
+"She must," he said; "I am come to run away with her. Otherwise Mary
+Anne will not sit down to table with us."
+
+"Is it a party?" cried the captain.
+
+"Just two or three. My father has brought them over from Jutpoint; and
+I think Kyne is coming in. I was in hopes you could have come,
+captain."
+
+Several dismal groans from Captain Copp. He said it was the pain in
+his head; in reality they sprung from pain at his heart. One of those
+glorious dinners at the Red Court, and he unable to be at it!
+
+"Are you ready, Anna?" whispered Isaac.
+
+She ran upstairs to get something she wanted in the shape of dress,
+and was down again in a minute, wishing them good evening. Captain
+Copp, who did not altogether approve of the proceeding, called out
+that he should send Sarah for her at eight o'clock.
+
+Taking her arm within his, Isaac walked on in silence. At the close of
+the heath, instead of continuing his way down by the side of the
+churchyard, he turned into it by the small side gate.
+
+"Just a minute, Anna," he said, sitting down on the narrow bench. "I
+want to say a word to you."
+
+But before he began to say the word he enclosed her face in his loving
+arms, and took the kisses from it he had been longing for all the way
+from Jutpoint.
+
+"What I want to say is this, Anna, that I do not think I can let the
+present state of things go on."
+
+"No!"
+
+"It is so unsatisfactory. My wife, and not my wife. I living at the
+Red Court, you secluded at Captain Copp's. Meeting once in a way in a
+formal manner, shaking hands and parting again, nothing more. Why, I
+have only twice I think had you for a moment to myself since we
+parted, now and that evening at the Red Court. And what was
+_that?_--what is _this?_ I can't stand it, Anna."
+
+"But what would you do?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Isaac, looking straight forward at the
+gravestones, as if they could tell him what. "I would brave my
+father's anger in a minute if it were not for--for--if I were sure
+nothing would come of it. But it might."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"I may tell you some time; not now. If Captain Copp would but be
+reasonable, so that I might entrust him with the secret, and--"
+
+"He would go straight off with it to Mr. Thornycroft, Isaac."
+
+"Precisely," said Isaac, answering her interruption; "and the time has
+hardly arrived for that. Besides, the information must come from
+myself. Do you think--"
+
+"Hush, Isaac!"
+
+The softly-breathed warning silenced him. On the other side the hedge
+was a sound of footsteps--slow steps passing towards the heath. Isaac
+held her to him in perfect silence until they were lost in the
+distance.
+
+"Let us go, Isaac."
+
+It certainly would not be expedient to be seen there, and Isaac rose,
+snatching as he did so his farewell kisses from her lips. Passing down
+the side path of the churchyard, they went out at its front entrance,
+and popped upon Mr. Kyne.
+
+He was evidently coming from the heath. It might have been his
+footsteps they had heard going towards it. Mr. Kyne looked full at
+them, and Anna coloured in the night's darkness to the very roots of
+her hair. To be caught at that hour stealing out of the churchyard
+with Isaac Thornycroft!
+
+"Is it you, Mr. Supervisor?" cried Isaac, gaily. "A fine evening! Take
+care, Miss Chester: you had better take my arm."
+
+"It's very fine," answered the supervisor; "the weather seems to have
+cleared up. I've been taking a stroll before my tea. We shall have a
+frost to-night, Miss Chester."
+
+"Safe to," rejoined Isaac, looking up at the clear sky.
+
+"How is my lady?" asked Mr. Kyne; "I heard she had come."
+
+"She has only come to go again. Coastdown never seems to suit her. She
+is very unwell indeed, and keeps her room."
+
+The churchyard past, Mr. Kyne, without any warning whatever, turned
+off on the cross path towards his home, saying good-night. Isaac
+looked after him in a sort of surprise.
+
+"Then Richard _has_ left it to me," he said, half aloud.
+
+"Isaac! Isaac! what will Mr. Kyne think of me?" murmured Anna.
+
+Isaac laughed. "The most he can think is that we are sweethearts," he
+answered in his light manner.
+
+"Oh, Isaac, have you considered? If scandal should arise!"
+
+"My darling, I have told you why that cannot be. At the first breath
+of it I should avow the truth. Scandal! how is it possible, when we
+are living here but as common acquaintances?"
+
+At the gate of the Red Court he let her enter alone, and ran back in
+search of Mr. Kyne. That functionary lodged at a cottage just beyond
+the village, and Isaac found him poking up his small fire to make the
+little tin kettle boil, preparatory to making his tea.
+
+"I have come to carry you off to dinner," said Isaac. "We have got a
+friend or two dropped in from Jutpoint, and the parson's coming.
+There's a brave codfish and turkey."
+
+Weak tea and bread-and-butter at home in his poor small room; and the
+handsome dinner table, the light, the warmth, the social friends at
+Justice Thornycroft's. It was a wide contrast, making Mr. Kyne's mouth
+water. He had dined at one o'clock off a mutton chop, and was hungry
+again. Codfish and turkey!
+
+"I'll come with pleasure, Mr. Isaac. I must just say a word to Puffer
+first, if there's time."
+
+"All right; I'll go with you," said Isaac.
+
+Mr. Puffer, the coastguard-man for the night, was on the plateau,
+speculating upon how long it would be before daylight was quite gone,
+for a streak or two of yellow lingered yet in the west, when he was
+surprised by the sight of his superior, and began to pace the edge
+zealously, his eyes critically peering out to sea. The supervisor
+approached alone.
+
+"Any news, Puffer?"
+
+"None, sir," answered Mr. Puffer, saluting his master. "All's quiet."
+
+"Very good. Keep a sharp look-out. I shall be up here again at seven
+or eight o'clock."
+
+He had taken to say this to his men of late, by way of keeping them to
+their duty; he had also taken to pop upon them at all kinds of
+unpromised times: and, between the cold and the superstition, his men
+wished him at Hanover.
+
+The party sat down to dinner at six. Richard came in with Mr. Hopley,
+from Dartfield, who was wont to come over to buy oats; the parson of
+the parish, Mr. Southall, was there; the gentlemen from Jutpoint, and
+Mr. Kyne. A jolly parson, Mr. Southall, who enjoyed the good cheer of
+the Red Court Farm on Sunday just as much as he did on week days, and
+made no scruple over it.
+
+The only two in strict evening dress were Robert Hunter and Cyril
+Thornycroft; but they wore black neckties. The rest were dressed well,
+as befitted the day, even Richard, but they did not wear dress coats.
+Anna was in a gleaming blue silk. It had been bought for her by Isaac,
+as had a great many other things during their brief period of married
+life; and poor Mrs. Copp had to invent no end of stories to the
+captain on their return to Coastdown, saying they were presents from
+her sick sister. Altogether there were twelve at table.
+
+The housekeeping at the Red Court proved itself just as well
+prepared for these impromptu guests as it ever had been, save in the
+one memorable instance marked by the interference of Lady Ellis.
+After-circumstances caused the items of the bill of fare to be
+discussed out of doors, and, indeed, every other detail, great and
+small, of the eventful night. Mock-turtle soup, a fine codfish, a
+round of beef boiled, a large roast turkey and tongue, side dishes, a
+plum pudding, sweets, and macaroni. All these were cooked and served
+in the best manner, with various vegetables, rich and plentiful
+sauces, strong ale, and the best of wines. Mr. Kyne thought of his
+solitary tea at home, and licked his lips.
+
+On the withdrawal of the cloth, for Justice Thornycroft preserved that
+old-fashioned custom, and Mr. Southall had said grace, the young
+ladies retired. The gentlemen closed round the table to enjoy their
+wine. A merry party. By-and-by, spirits, cigars, and pipes were
+introduced--the usual practice on these occasions at the Red Court.
+The only one who did not touch them was Cyril Thornycroft.
+
+It had been Mr. Kyne's intention to retire at eight o'clock precisely
+(he emphasised the word to himself), and go on the watch; or, at any
+rate, see that his subordinate was there. But the best of officers are
+but mortal; Mr. Kyne felt very jolly where he was; and, as common
+sense whispered him, the smuggling lads were safe not to attempt any
+bother on a Sunday night; they would be jollifying for themselves. So
+the officer sat on, paying his respects to the brandy-and-water, and
+getting rather dizzy about the eyes.
+
+Another who stayed longer than he ought; at least, longer than he had
+intended; was Robert Hunter. Seduced into taking a cigar--and never
+were such cigars smoked as Justice Thornycroft's--he sat on, and let
+the time slip by unheeded. On ordinary evenings the omnibus left
+Coastdown at half-past nine o'clock to convey passengers to the last
+train, that passed through Jutpoint at midnight. On Sunday nights the
+omnibus left at half-past eight, some dim notion swaying the minds of
+the authorities that the earlier hour implied a sort of respect to the
+day. The convenience of the passengers went for nothing; they had to
+wait at Jutpoint where and how they could. It had been Robert Hunter's
+intention to go by this omnibus, and it was only by seeing Isaac
+Thornycroft look at his watch that he remembered time was flying. He
+pulled out his own.
+
+"By Jove, I've missed the omnibus," he whispered to Cyril, who sat
+next him. "It is half-past eight now."
+
+"What shall you do?"
+
+"Walk it. I must be in London for to-morrow morning."
+
+Rising as he spoke, he quietly said farewell to Mr. Thornycroft,
+Richard, Isaac and Mr. Kyne, and stole from the room, not to disturb
+the other guests, who were seated round the fire now in a cloud of
+tobacco smoke. Cyril went out with him. Miss Thornycroft and Anna were
+in the drawing-room drinking coffee. A cup was passed to Robert
+Hunter.
+
+"What a sad thing--to have to walk to Jutpoint!" exclaimed Mary Anne.
+
+He laughed at the words. "I shall enjoy it far more than I should the
+omnibus."
+
+"Ah, I think you must have stayed on purpose, then. But what of the
+portmanteau?"
+
+"It can come by train to-morrow, if one of your servants will take it
+to the Mermaid," was his answer. "My address is on it."
+
+As he was speaking, Lady Ellis's maid came into the room and delivered
+him a small bit of twisted paper. Holding it to the light, he read the
+faintly-pencilled words:--
+
+
+"I hear you are leaving. Will you come up for a minute, that I may
+wish you well?"
+
+
+"What is it?" asked Mary Anne.
+
+"Lady Ellis wishes to say farewell to me," he answered. "I will go to
+her now."
+
+The maid led the way, and showed him up to the small sitting-room.
+Lady Ellis was leaning back in her easy-chair, but she sat upright
+when he entered. Even more than before was he struck with the white,
+hollow, skeleton look of the face, on which death had so unmistakably
+set his seal; but the disorder had arrived at that stage now when each
+day made a perceptible change. The black eyes, once glistening so
+fiercely with their vain passions, lighted up with a faint pleasure.
+
+"I am glad you came up: so glad! I thought you did not intend to see
+me at all."
+
+He answered that he did not know she was well enough to be seen,
+speaking cordially. With that dying face and form before him,
+three-parts of his cherished enmity to the woman died out. Not his
+dislike of her.
+
+"I would bid you farewell, Mr. Hunter. I would wish you--an' you will
+permit me--God-speed. The next time we meet, both of us will have
+entered on a different world from this."
+
+"Thank you," he said, in allusion to the wish, "but are you sure
+nothing can be done for your recovery?"
+
+"Nothing whatever. And the end cannot be very far off now. Mr.
+Thornycroft is going back with me to Cheltenham, and I am glad of it.
+I should like him to see the last of me."
+
+She was looking at the fire as she spoke. He, standing at the opposite
+side of the mantelpiece, looked at her. What a change from the vain,
+worldly, selfish woman of the past! Raising her eyes suddenly, she
+caught his gaze, perhaps divined somewhat of his thoughts.
+
+"You cannot think me to be the same, can you?"
+
+"Scarcely." He glanced at the timepiece. At best the interview was not
+pleasant to him, neither did he care to prolong it.
+
+"You fear to lose the omnibus?"
+
+"I have lost it. Your clock is slow. I am now about to start on foot
+to Jutpoint."
+
+"Could they not send you in the dog-cart?"
+
+"Thank you; I prefer to walk. The night is fine, and the road good.
+And I suppose I must be going."
+
+She stood up as he moved, and held out her hand, her silk gown falling
+in folds from her shrunken form. He shook hands.
+
+"God bless you; God prosper you here and hereafter!" she said with
+some emotion.
+
+He hardly knew what to answer. To express a wish for her continued
+life was so palpable a fallacy, with those signs of decay before him:
+so he murmured a word of thanks, and gave the thin hand a friendly
+pressure as he released it.
+
+But she did not release his. "It was not quite all I wished to say,"
+she whispered, looking up to him with her sad eyes, in which stood a
+world of repentance. "I want to ask your forgiveness."
+
+"My forgiveness?"
+
+"For the past. For your lost wife. But for me she might not have died.
+My long illness has brought reflection home to me, and--and
+repentance: as I suppose hopeless illness does to most people: showing
+me things in their true light; showing me the awful mistakes and sins
+the best and the worst of us alike commit. Say that you forgive me."
+
+"Lady Ellis," he said, his countenance assuming a solemn aspect as he
+looked straight at her, "I have far more need of forgiveness myself
+than any other can have: I saw that at the time; I see it always. My
+wife was mine; it was my duty to cherish her, and I failed; no one
+else owed obligation to her. The chief blame lay with me."
+
+"Say you forgive me! I know _she_ has, looking down from heaven."
+
+"I do indeed. I forgive you with my whole heart, and I pray that we
+may, as you say, meet hereafter--all our mistakes and sins blotted
+out."
+
+"I pray it always. Cyril knows I do. He was the first to lead me--ah,
+so kindly and imperceptibly!--to the remembrance that our sins needed
+blotting out. It was during a six weeks' visit he paid me with his
+sister. Few in this world are so good and pure and loving as Cyril
+Thornycroft. Fare you well, Robert Hunter! fare you well for ever."
+
+"For ever on earth," he added. Another pressure of the poor weak hand,
+a warm, earnest look, a faint thought of the Heaven that might be
+attained to yet, and Robert Hunter turned away, and woke up to the
+world again.
+
+His cold coffee stood in the drawing-room when he got back. He sat a
+short while with the two young ladies, very quiet and absorbed. Cyril
+was not there. Mary Anne inquired what was the matter with him.
+
+"That poor woman upstairs," he briefly answered; "she seems so near to
+death, but I think she is prepared for it."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft simply looked at him in reply; the manner and
+look were alike strange. Robert Hunter sipped the cold coffee by
+spoonfuls, evidently unconscious what it was he was doing.
+
+"But I must be going!" he suddenly cried, starting up. "It would not
+do to miss the train as I have the omnibus. Good bye, Anna; you will
+be coming back to Miss Jupps's, I suppose, when school begins?"
+
+The vivid blush went for nothing. She, Mrs. Isaac Thornycroft, a
+schoolteacher again! "Good-bye, Robert," she softly said. "I wish
+you safe to Jutpoint, but I should not like your walk. Give my love to
+the Miss Jupps if you see them, and to Mrs. Macpherson."
+
+Mary Anne went out with him to the door. As they crossed the hall,
+sounds of talking came from the dining-room, and there was a sudden
+burst of laughter. Evidently the party were enjoying themselves. He
+took his remarkable coat from a peg and flung it over his arm.
+
+"You must say good-bye to Cyril for me, Mary Anne."
+
+"I will. But perhaps you will see him outside. Why don't you put your
+coat on?"
+
+"Not yet; I am hot. By-and-by, when the air shall strike cool to me."
+
+They stood just outside the door, in the shade of the walls, and he
+wound his arms round her for a last embrace. _A last?_ "God bless you,
+Mary Anne!" he whispered; "the time will come, I trust, when we need
+not part."
+
+She stood looking after him, the outline of his retreating form being
+very distinct in the bright night.
+
+The stars were clear and the air was frosty. Mary Anne Thornycroft
+watched him pass through the gate, and then saw that instead of going
+straight on, he turned short off to the waste land skirting the side
+of the plateau.
+
+She wondered. It was the farthest way to the village, and moreover the
+private way of Mr. Thornycroft. Another moment and she saw him running
+up the plateau, having crossed the railings.
+
+"Why, what in the world!--he must be dreaming," she mentally
+concluded. "Perhaps he wants to take a farewell view of the sea. He
+would see enough of it between here and Jutpoint."
+
+However, Miss Thornycroft found it cold standing there, and went
+indoors, meeting Sinnett in the hall.
+
+"Sinnett, Mr. Hunter's portmanteau must go by the early omnibus. See
+that it is sent to the Mermaid in time."
+
+"Very well, miss," replied Sinnett. And it may be here mentioned that
+she obeyed the order by sending it that night.
+
+Very shortly after Robert Hunter had left the dining-room, Richard and
+Isaac Thornycroft also withdrew from it, one by one, and unperceived.
+That is, the guests and the justice were too agreeably engaged with
+their pipes and drink, their talk and laughter, to pay heed to it. One
+of the gentlemen from Jutpoint--a magistrate--was relating a story
+that convulsed the parson with laughter and sent the rest almost into
+fits. Altogether they were uncommonly jolly, and the lapse of one or
+two of the party counted for nothing. Mr. Kyne had nearly ceased to
+care whether his subordinate was on the watch, or off it.
+
+As it happened, he was _on_ it. With the promised visit of his
+superior before his eyes, Mr. Puffer had not dared to leave his post.
+He stood close to the bleak edge of the cold plateau, wishing himself
+anywhere else, and bemoaning the hard fate that had made him a
+coastguard-man. Unpleasant thoughts of ghosts, and such like
+visitants, intruded into his thoughts now and then: he entirely
+disbelieved Mr. Kyne's theory that there were smugglers; and the only
+cheering ray in his solitude, was the sight of the cheery lights in
+the Red Court Farm. Tomlett, the fishing-boat master, who had
+recovered his accident, suddenly hailed him.
+
+"Cold work, my man," said he, sauntering up the plateau.
+
+"It just is that!" was Mr. Puffer's surly answer.
+
+"But it's a bright night: never saw a brighter when there was no moon:
+so you run no danger of making a false step in the dark and pitching
+over. There's consolation in that."
+
+"Ugh!" grunted the shivering officer, as if the fact afforded little
+consolation to him.
+
+"What on earth's the use of your airing yourself here?" went on
+Tomlett. "You coastguard fellows have got the biggest swallows! As
+if any smugglers would attempt the coast to-night! My belief is--and I
+am pretty well used to the place, and have got eyes on all sides of
+me--that this suspicion of Master Kyne's is all moonshine and empty
+herring-barrels. I could nearly take my oath of it."
+
+"So could I," said the man.
+
+"Let us go on to the Mermaid, and have a glass," continued Mr.
+Tomlett, persuasively. "I'll stand it. Johnson and Simms, and a lot
+more, are there."
+
+"I wish I dare," cried the aggravated Puffer. "But Kyne will be up
+presently."
+
+"No he won't. He is round old Thornycroft's fire, in a cloud of smoke
+and drink. There's a dinner-party at the Red Court, and Kyne and the
+rest are half-seas over."
+
+"Are you sure of this?"
+
+"I'll swear it if you wish me; I have just come from there. I went
+down to try and get speech of the justice about that boat loss: it
+comes on at Jutpoint to-morrow, and he is to be on the bench. But it
+was no go: they are all fixed in that dining-room; and will be there
+till twelve o'clock to-night, and then they'll reel off to bed with
+their boots on."
+
+Tomlett was not in the habit of deceiving the men; he showed himself
+their friend on all occasions; and Mr. Puffer yielded to the
+seduction. Seeing him comfortably settled at the Mermaid, with what he
+liked best steaming before him, and some good fellows around, Tomlett
+withdrew, leaving him to enjoy himself.
+
+From the Mermaid, Tomlett steered his course to the Red Court Farm,
+tearing over the intervening ground as if he had been flying from a
+mad bull. He took the liberty of crossing the lawn before the front
+windows (the shortest way), and went round by the unused path at the
+far end of the house, which led to the stables and to the young men's
+apartments. Carefully pushing open the small door in the dead wall, he
+encountered Richard Thornycroft.
+
+"It is all right, sir," he panted, out of breath with running; "I have
+got the fellow in. We must lose no time."
+
+"Very well," whispered Richard. "Find Hyde, and come down."
+
+"I suppose _he's_ safe, sir?" said Mr. Tomlett, jerking his head in
+the supposed direction of the dining-room.
+
+"Couldn't be safer," responded Richard. "He had enough wine before he
+began at the brandy."
+
+Isaac Thornycroft came up, a lighted lantern under his coat. Scarcely
+could either of the brothers be recognised for those who had so
+recently quitted the dining-room; they wore small caps; gaiters were
+buttoned over their legs; their dinner coats were replaced by coarse
+ones of fustian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+The Crowd in the Early Morning.
+
+When Richard and Isaac Thornycroft left the dining-room, so
+unobtrusively as not to draw attention to the fact, they passed
+through the small door at the further end of the hall. Isaac, the
+last, silently locked it, thereby cutting off all communication with
+the busy part of the house. Swiftly ascending to Richard's chamber,
+they changed their clothes for others which were laid out in
+readiness. Hyde, his clothes also changed, was in waiting at the foot
+of the stairs when they came down, and he crossed with Isaac to the
+coach-house opposite, built, as must be remembered, on a portion of
+the old ruins. Richard undid the door in the wall looking to the
+front, and stayed there until joined by the breathless Tomlett--as
+above seen.
+
+The dog-cart was in its place in the coach-house; the broken old cart
+and the bundles of straw were in the corner; all just as usual.
+Tomlett and Hyde removed the cart and the straw from their resting
+place (whence, by all appearance, they never were removed), and the
+brothers Thornycroft lifted a trap-door, invisible to the casual
+observer, that the straw had served to conceal. A flight of steps
+stood disclosed to view, which Isaac and Richard descended. The steps
+led to a subterranean passage; a long, long passage running straight
+under the plateau and terminating in a vault or cavern, its damp sides
+glistening as the light of the lantern flashed upon it. Traversing
+this passage to the end, Isaac put the lantern down: then they unwound
+a chain from its pulley, and a square portion of the rock, loose from
+the rest, was _pulled in_ and turned aside by means of a pivot: thus
+affording an ingress for goods, smuggled or otherwise, to come in. No
+wonder Robert Hunter had thought the rock sounded hollow just there!
+
+Ah, Mr. Kyne had scented the fox pretty keenly. But not the huntsmen
+who rode him to earth.
+
+It took longer to do all this than it has to relate it. When Richard
+had helped Isaac to remove the rock, he returned along the passage on
+his way to the plateau. It was customary for one of the two brothers
+to stand on the plateau on the watch during these dangerous feats,
+with his descending signal of warning in case of alarm. Richard took
+that post to-night. Oh, that it had been Isaac! But it was marvellous
+how lucky they had hitherto been. Years had gone on, and years, and
+never a check had come. One great reason for this was that the late
+supervisor, Mr. Dangerfield--let us only whisper it!--had allowed
+himself to be bribed. What with that, and what with the horror the
+preventive men had of the plateau, the daring and profitable game had
+been carried on with impunity. Richard Thornycroft went on his way,
+little knowing the awful phantom that was pursuing him.
+
+Midway in the passage he met Hyde and Tomlett, tried and true men, on
+their way to join Isaac. Mr. Tomlett's accident had occurred during
+one of these night exploits--hence his wife's terrified consternation
+at being questioned by Miss Thornycroft. A strange chance had led,
+some years ago, to Mrs. Tomlett's discovery of what her husband was
+engaged in at intervals: the woman kept the secret, but never was free
+from fear.
+
+Isaac Thornycroft, left alone, proceeded with his necessary movements.
+By help of a long pole, thrust through the hole, he held forth a
+blazing flambeau, which for two minutes would light up the half-moon
+beach and the rocks behind it. It was the signal for the boats to put
+off from that especial vessel that was the object of the worthy
+supervisor's abhorrence. And so the night's secret work was fairly
+inaugurated. Isaac Thornycroft held his signal for the approach of the
+boats, laden with their heavy spoil; Richard was speeding back to
+assume his watch overhead; and it was just about this time that Mr.
+Hunter had taken his departure from the Red Court Farm.
+
+It is quite useless to speculate, now, _why_ Robert Hunter went on the
+plateau. Some power must have impelled him. These things, bearing
+great events in their train, do not occur by chance. Had he been
+questioned why, he probably could not have told. The most likely
+conjecture is, speaking according to human reason, that he intended to
+stand a few moments on its brow, and sniff the fresh breeze from the
+sea, so grateful to his heated senses. He had taken more wine than
+usual; certainly not to anything like intoxication, for he was by
+habit and principle a sober man. He had dined more freely; the hot
+room, the talking, all had contributed to heat him; and, following on
+it, came the interview with Lady Ellis. Whatever the cause, certain it
+is that, instead of pursuing the straight course of his road, like a
+sensible man, he turned off it and went on the plateau.
+
+It was a remarkably light night--as already said--clear, still,
+frosty, very bright. The clouds, passing occasionally over the face of
+the clear sky, seemed to be moved by an upper current that did not
+stir the air below. The sea was like silver; no craft to be seen on it
+save one vessel that was hove-to close in-shore--a dark vessel, lying
+still and silent. Robert Hunter, at the very edge of the plateau,
+stood looking on all this: a peaceful scene; the broad expanse of sea
+stretching out, the half-moon beach lying cold and solitary below.
+
+Suddenly a bright sheet of light shot out from underneath, illumining
+the half-moon, the rocks, and his own face, as he bent over to look.
+Was he dreaming?--was his brain treacherous, causing him to see things
+that were not? There, half-way down the rocks, shone a great flame, a
+flickering, flaring, blazing flame, as of a torch; and Robert Hunter
+rubbed his eyes, and slapped his chest, and pinched his arms, to make
+sure he was _not_ in a dream of wine.
+
+He stood staring at it, his eyes and mouth open; stared at it until,
+by some mysterious process, it steadily lowered itself, and
+disappeared inside the rocks. Light--not of the torch--flashed upon
+him.
+
+"The smugglers!" he burst forth: and the clear night air carried the
+words over the sea. "The smugglers are abroad to-night! That must be
+their signal for the booty to approach. Then there _is_ an opening in
+the rocks! I'll hasten and give word to Kyne."
+
+Flying back straight towards the Red Court, he had leaped the railings
+when he encountered Richard Thornycroft, who seemed to be flying along
+with equal speed towards the plateau. Hunter seized his arm.
+
+"Richard Thornycroft! Mr. Richard! the smugglers are at work! I have
+dropped upon them. Their signal has been hoisted beyond the rocks
+underneath."
+
+"What?" roared Richard.
+
+"It is true as that we are breathing here," continued Hunter. "I went
+on the plateau, and I saw their light--a flaming torch as big as your
+head. They are preparing to run the goods. It struck me there must be
+an opening there. I am going to fetch Kyne. Mr. Thornycroft, if he
+will come out, may be convinced now."
+
+He would have resumed his way with the last words, but Richard caught
+him. The slight form of Robert Hunter was whirled round in his
+powerful grasp.
+
+"Do you see this?" he hoarsely raved, his face wearing an awfully
+livid expression, born of anger, in the starlight. "It is well
+loaded."
+
+Robert Hunter did see it. It was the bright end of a pistol barrel,
+pointed close to his head. He recoiled, as far as he could, but the
+grasp was tight upon him.
+
+"What, in Heaven's name, do you mean?"
+
+"_You_ talk of Heaven, you treacherous cur!" panted Richard. "Down
+upon your knees--down, I say! You shall talk of it to some purpose."
+
+By his superior strength, he forced the younger and slighter man to
+his knees on the waste ground as he would a child. The fur coat fell
+from Robert Hunter's arm, and lay beside him, a white heap streaked
+with black, in the starlight.
+
+"Now, then! Swear, by all your hopes of Heaven, that what you have
+detected shall never pass your lips; shall be as if you had not seen
+it."
+
+"I swear," answered Robert Hunter. "I believe I guess how it is. I
+will be silent; I swear it."
+
+"Now and hereafter?"
+
+"Now and hereafter."
+
+"Get up, then, and go your way. But, another word, first of all,"
+interrupted Richard, as if a thought struck him. "This must be kept
+secret from my sister."
+
+"I swear that it shall be, for me."
+
+Holding Robert Hunter still in his fierce grasp, he dictated to him
+yet another oath, as if not satisfied with the last one. In cooler
+moments neither of them might have acted as they were doing: Richard
+had been less imperative, the other less blindly yielding. Robert
+Hunter was no coward, but circumstances and Richard's fury momentarily
+over-mastered him.
+
+He swore a solemn oath--Richard dictating it--not to hold further
+communication with Mary Anne at present, either by word or letter; not
+to do it until Richard should of his own will voluntarily give
+permission for it. He swore not again to put foot within the Red Court
+Farm; he swore not to write to any one of its inmates, failing this
+permission. The determination not to be pestered with letters perhaps
+caused Richard to insist on this. Any way, the oaths were taken, and
+were to hold force for six months.
+
+"Now, then, go your way," said Richard. "Your path for departure lies
+_there_," and he pointed to the open highway leading from the entrance
+gates of the Red Court. "But first hear _me_ swear an oath that I
+shall surely keep: If you do not go straight away; if you linger on
+this spot unnecessarily by so much as a few minutes; if you, having
+once started, return to it again I will put this bullet through your
+body. Cyril! See him off; he was turning traitor."
+
+Cyril Thornycroft had come strolling towards them, somewhat at a
+distance yet; he did not catch the sense of his brother's concluding
+words, but he saw that some explosion of anger had occurred. Picking
+up the coat, Hunter put it on as he walked to join Cyril; while
+Richard, as if under the pressure of some urgent errand, flew off
+across the lawn and flower-beds towards the coach-house ruins and the
+secret passage leading from it.
+
+"What is all this? What does Richard mean?" inquired Cyril as they
+commenced their walk along the high road. "He said something about a
+traitor."
+
+"I was not a traitor; your brother lies. Would I turn traitor to a
+house whose hospitality I have been accepting? I saw, accidentally, a
+light exhibited from the Half-moon rocks, and I guessed what it meant.
+I guess more now than I will repeat, but the secret shall be safe with
+me."
+
+"Safe now, and after your departure?"
+
+"Safe always. I have sworn it."
+
+"I am sorry this should have happened," said Cyril, after a pause.
+
+"And so am I," returned Robert Hunter. "Circumstances, not my own
+will, led to it. It is a pity I missed the omnibus."
+
+"Yes," said Cyril, speaking abstractedly, as if his thoughts were far
+away. "But if you step out well you may be at Jutpoint by half-past
+ten."
+
+"Scarcely so," thought Robert Hunter. Cyril, perhaps, did not know the
+hour now.
+
+"What! Have you missed the omnibus, sir?"
+
+The question came from a woman who met them, Captain Copp's servant
+Sarah. She was coming along without her bonnet in the frosty night.
+
+"Yes, I have; and must walk it for my pains," answered Mr. Hunter.
+
+"Are you going to the Red Court, Sarah?" asked Cyril.
+
+"I am, sir; I'm going there to fetch Miss Chester," returned Sarah in
+her hardest tone. "And a fine tantrum master's in over it, roaring out
+that I ought to have come a good hour ago. Why didn't they tell me,
+then?"
+
+Saying good night to the woman, who wished Mr. Hunter a pleasant
+journey, they continued their way, striking into the village; a silent
+village to-night. In the windows of the Mermaid above, lights were no
+doubt gleaming, but they were not near enough to that hospitable
+hostelry to see. Everybody else seemed abed and asleep, as was
+generally the case at Coastdown by nine o'clock on a Sunday night.
+
+Cyril had fallen into thought. Should he offer Hunter any apology or
+excuse for these practices of his house, so inopportunely discovered,
+and which had always been so distasteful to him? Better not, perhaps.
+What excusing plea could he justly offer? And besides, he knew not how
+far the discovery went, or what Richard had said. A feeling of
+resentment against Robert Hunter rose up in his heart, in his anxiety
+to ward off ill from his father and brothers, in his jealous care for
+the fair fame of the Red Court Farm. Good though he was, striving ever
+to follow in his Master's footsteps of love and peace, Cyril
+Thornycroft was but human, with a human heart disposed by its original
+nature to passion and sin.
+
+"Let me advise you, at any rate for the present, not to hold
+communication with our house or its inmates," he said, gently breaking
+the silence. "In this I include my sister."
+
+"I have promised all that. Your brother was not satisfied with
+exacting a simple promise; he made me swear it. I was to have written
+to Mary Anne on my arrival in town. Will you explain to her the reason
+why I do not?"
+
+"I thought you and my sister did not correspond," interrupted Cyril.
+
+"Neither do we. It was only to notify my safe arrival."
+
+"I will explain sufficient to satisfy her. I suppose I must not ask
+you to give her up?"
+
+"My intention is to win her if I can," avowed Robert Hunter. "She
+would share my fortunes tomorrow, but for the fear that my position
+would not be acceptable to Mr. Thornycroft."
+
+"I see; it is decided. Well, in your own interest, I would advise you
+to break off all present relations with our house. What has occurred
+to-night will not tend to increase Richard's favour to you, and his
+opinion very greatly sways my father. Your visit here, taking it on
+the whole, has not been pleasant, or productive of pleasant results.
+Give us time to forget it and you _for the present_. Give Richard time
+to forget the name and sojourn of Robert Hunter."
+
+"You say you suggest this in my own interest?"
+
+"I do indeed," answered Cyril, his good, calm face turning on the
+speaker with a kindly light. "In yours and my sister's jointly. She
+will be true to you, I make no doubt; and things may come about after
+a short while. If you have decided to take each other, if your best
+affections are involved, why should I seek to part you? But I know
+what Richard is; you must give him time to get over this."
+
+"True," answered Robert Hunter, his heart responding to the evident
+kindness. "At any rate, there can be no question of my holding
+communication with the Red Court Farm for six months, even by letter.
+It was a rash oath, no doubt; I was not quite myself when I took it;
+but I have undertaken not to write to any one of you until Richard
+shall give me leave. At the end of the six months I suppose I shall
+hear from him; if not, I shall consider myself at liberty to write--or
+to come."
+
+"You will surely hear from him if he has implied that you shall.
+Richard never breaks a promise. And now that I have seen you thus far
+on your way, I'll wish you well, and turn back again."
+
+"They had reached the end of the village, and he grasped Robert
+Hunter's hand with a warm and friendly pressure. The other was loth to
+part with him so soon.
+
+"You may as well go with me as far as the Wherry."
+
+Robert Hunter spoke not of a boat or of any landing for one, but of a
+lone and dismantled public-house, standing about a couple of hundred
+yards farther. Its sign swung on it still, and rattled in the wind.
+Cyril acquiesced, and they went down into the bit of lonely road
+leading to it.
+
+We must go back for a moment to Richard Thornycroft. He gained the
+ruins, and lifted the trap-door with, as it seemed, almost superhuman
+strength, for it took of right two to do it. Completely upset by what
+had occurred, Richard was like a man half mad. He went thundering down
+the steps to the subterranean passage, his errand being to give'
+warning to Isaac, and assist in hoisting _two_ lights, which those on
+board the vessel would understand as the signal _not_ to advance. He
+had reached the cavern at the end, when his alarm began to subside, to
+give place to reason; and his steps came to a sudden standstill.
+
+"Why stop the boats?" he demanded of himself. "If Hunter has cleared
+himself off--of which there can be no doubt--where is the danger?"
+
+Where, indeed? He thought--Richard Thornycroft did think--that Hunter
+was not one to play false after undertaking to be true. So, after a
+little more deliberation, somewhat further of counsel with himself, he
+resolved to let things go on, and turned back again without warning
+Isaac.
+
+
+          *          *          *          *          *          *
+
+
+What mattered it that the contraband cargo was safely run? What reeked
+the guilty parties concerned in it of the miserable deed of evil it
+involved, while the valuable and double valuable booty got stowed away
+in silence and safety? One was lying outside the Half-moon, while they
+housed it, with his battered face turned up to the sky--one whose
+departed soul had been worth all the cargoes in the world. The body
+was bruised, and crushed, and murdered--the body of Robert Hunter!
+
+How did it come there?
+
+Coastdown woke lazily up from its slumbers with the dawn--not very
+early in January--and only got roused into life and activity by the
+startling piece of news that a shocking murder had been committed in
+the night. Hastening down to its alleged scene, the Half-moon beach,
+as many as heard it, shopkeepers, fishermen, and inhabitants
+generally, they found it to be too true. The poor man lay in the
+extreme corner of the strip of beach, right against the rocks, and was
+recognised for the late guest at the Red Court Farm, Robert Hunter.
+
+Not by his face; for that was disfigured beyond possibility of
+recognition; but by the clothes, hair, and appearance generally. He
+had been shot in the face, and, in falling from the heights above, the
+jagged edges of the rocks had also disfigured that poor face until not
+a trace of its humanity remained.
+
+The tide was low; it present the passage to the beach was passable,
+and stragglers were flocking up. The frosty air was crisp, the sea
+sparkled in the early morning sun. Amidst others came Justice
+Thornycroft, upright, portly, a smile on his handsome face. He did not
+believe the report; as was evident by his greeting words.
+
+"What's all this hullabaloo about a murder?" began he, as he shelved
+round the narrow ledge and put his foot upon the beach. "How d'ye do,
+Kyne?--How d'ye do, Copp--How d'ye do, all? When Martha brought up my
+shaving-water just now, she burst into my room, her hair and mouth all
+awry with a story of a man having been murdered in the night at the
+Half-moon. Some poor drowned fellow, I suppose, cast on the banks by
+the tide. What brings him so high up?"
+
+"I wish it was drowning, and nothing worse, for that's not such an
+uncivilized death, if it's your fate to meet it," returned Captain
+Copp, who was brisk this morning after his headache, and had stumped
+down on the first alarm. "It's a horrible land murder; nothing less;
+and upon a friend of yours, justice."
+
+"A friend of mine!" was the somewhat incredulous remark of Mr.
+Thornycroft. "Why, good Heaven!" he added, in an accent of horror, as
+the crowd parted and he caught sight of the body, "it is my late
+guest, Robert Hunter!"
+
+"It is indeed," murmured the crowd; and the justice stood gazing at it
+with horror as he took in the different points of recognition. The
+face was gone--that is the best term for one so utterly
+unrecognisable--but the appearance and dress were not to be mistaken.
+
+"He's buttoned close up in his fur coat, sir," one of the crowd
+remarked.
+
+Just so. He was buttoned up in his remarkable fur coat--as the village
+wrongly called it, for the coat was of white cloth, as we know, and
+its facings only of fur. It had stains on it now, neither white nor
+black, and one of its sleeves was torn, no doubt by the rocks. The hat
+was nowhere to be found: it never was found: but the natural
+supposition was, that in the fall it had rolled down to the lower
+beach, and been carried away by the tide.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft stooped, and touched one of the cold hands, stooped to
+hide the tears which filled his eyes, very unusual visitors to the
+eyes of the justice.
+
+"Poor, poor fellow! how could it have happened? How could he have come
+here?"
+
+"He must have been shot on the heights, and the shot hurled him over,
+there's no doubt of that," said Captain Copp. "Must have been standing
+at the edge of the plateau."
+
+"But what should bring him on the plateau at night?" cried Tomlett,
+who made one of the spectators.
+
+"What indeed!" returned the captain. "_I_ don't know. A bare, bleak
+place even in daylight, with as good as no expanse of sea-view."
+
+"I cannot understand this," said Justice Thornycroft, lifting his face
+with a puzzled expression on it. "Young Hunter took leave of us last
+night, and left for London. He missed the omnibus to Jutpoint and set
+off to walk. One of my sons saw him part of the way. What brought him
+back on the plateau?"
+
+"Yes, he contrived to lose the omnibus," interrupted Supervisor Kyne;
+who, however, what with the wine and the brandy he had consumed, had a
+very confused and imperfect recollection of the events of the previous
+evening, but did not choose to let people know that, and chose to put
+in his testimony. "Mr. Hunter shook hands with me in the dining-room
+at the Red Court, and I wished him a pleasant journey. That must have
+been--what time, Mr. Justice?"
+
+"Getting on for nine. And one of my boys saw him go."
+
+"It's odd what could have spirited him back again," exclaimed Captain
+Copp. "Which of them steered him off?"
+
+"I forget which," returned the justice. "I heard Isaac say that
+one of them did. To tell you the truth, captain, I sat late in the
+dining-room last night, and my head's none of the clearest this
+morning. How do you find yours, Kyne?"
+
+"Oh, mine's all right, sir," answered the supervisor hastily. "A man
+in office is obliged to be cautious in what he takes."
+
+"Ah, there's no coming over you," cried the justice, with a side wink
+to Captain Copp.
+
+"There's Mr. Isaac hisself, a coming round the point now," exclaimed
+one of the fishermen.
+
+The crowd turned and saw him. Isaac Thornycroft was approaching with a
+rapid step.
+
+"They say Hunter is murdered!" he called out. "It cannot be."
+
+"He is lying here, stiff and cold, Isaac, with a bullet in his head,"
+was the sad reply of the justice. "Shot down from the heights above."
+
+Isaac stooped in silence. His fair complexion and fine colour,
+heightened by the morning air, were something bright to look upon.
+But, as he gazed at that sadly disfigured form, yesterday so animate
+with life and health, a paleness as of the grave overspread his face;
+a shudder, which shook him from head to foot, passed through his
+frame.
+
+"What brought him here--or on the plateau?" he asked. Almost the same
+words his father had used.
+
+"What indeed!" repeated Mr. Thornycroft. "Did you tell me you saw him
+off, Isaac? Or was it Richard?"
+
+"It was Cyril. I did not see him at all after he wished us good-bye on
+leaving the dining-room. But Richard, when he joined me later in the
+evening, said he had been--had been," repeated Isaac, having rather
+hesitated at these words, "saying a parting word to Hunter, and that
+Cyril was walking part of the way with him."
+
+Throwing a pocket handkerchief lightly over the disfigured face, Isaac
+Thornycroft turned from it towards the sea. The justice spoke.
+
+"I wonder where Cyril left him?"
+
+To wonder it was only natural, but Mr. Thornycroft's remembrances of
+the matter, as to what he had heard, were altogether hazy. Shut up so
+long in the dining-room with his guests--for they had not parted until
+past midnight--doing his part as host at the pipes and grog, though
+not very extensively, for it was rare indeed that Mr. Thornycroft took
+too much, he was in a tired, sleepy state when Isaac had come to him
+after their departure to say that the work was done, the cargo safely
+in. Isaac had added that he understood from Richard there had been
+some trouble with Hunter; who had seen the torch-light exhibited on
+the Half-moon beach, and Richard had been obliged to swear him to
+secrecy, and had sent Cyril to see him safe away. Of all this, the
+justice retained an indistinct remembrance.
+
+"Yes," he said slowly, "I recollect now; it was Cyril that you said,
+Isaac. We must go and find Cyril, and ascertain where he parted with
+Hunter."
+
+"Why!" suddenly exclaimed a young fisherman of the name of East, "I
+saw them both together last night; the gentleman and Mr. Cyril. I'd
+been down at my old mother's and was coming out to go home, when they
+passed, a walking in the middle of the road. I'd never have noticed
+'em, may be, but for the fur coat, for they'd got some way ahead. I
+see them stop and stand together like, and shake hands as if they was
+about to part; and then they went on again."
+
+"Both of them went on again?" questioned Isaac. "Yes, sir, both. They
+went on into the hollow, and I came away."
+
+This young man's mother lived in a solitary hut at the end of the
+village: in fact, just where Cyril had proposed to leave Hunter, and
+East must have come out at the same moment.
+
+"We'll go at once and see what Cyril says," resumed the justice,
+moving away. "Hunter must have come back with him."
+
+"What is to be done with Mr. Hunter, sir?" questioned Tomlett, who had
+some sort of authority in the place. It did seem like a mockery to
+call that poor mass of death lying there "Mr. Hunter."
+
+He must be taken to the Mermaid, was the reply of Justice Thornycroft,
+as he left the beach with his son and three or four friends. "You had
+better come up and see Pettipher: he'll know what's right to be done.
+Don't be all the morning about it, Tomlett, or you will have the tide
+over the path."
+
+Anything for more excitement in a moment like the present! Tomlett,
+following closely on the steps of Justice Thornycroft, went away with
+a fleet foot on his errand to the Mermaid, and the whole lot of
+hearers went racing after him: leaving Captain Copp, who could not
+race, and Mr. Supervisor Kyne to keep guard over the dead. Her
+Majesty's officer might have gone with the rest, but that he was in a
+brown study.
+
+"There's more in this than meets the eye, captain," he began, rousing
+himself "If this has not been the work of smugglers, my name's not
+John Kyne."
+
+"Smugglers be shivered!" returned Captain Copp, who it was pretty well
+suspected in the village obtained his spirits and tobacco without any
+trouble to her majesty's revenue: as did others. "There are no
+smugglers here, Mr. Officer. And if there were, what should they want
+with murdering Robert Hunter?"
+
+"I have been on the work and watch for weeks, captain, and I know
+there _is_ smuggling carried on; and to a deuced pretty extent."
+
+"We are rich enough to buy our own brandy and pay duty on it, Mr.
+Supervisor," wrathfully retorted the offended captain.
+
+"Oh, psha! I am not looking after the paltry dabs of brandy they bring
+ashore," returned the customs' officer. "One may as well try to wash a
+blackamoor white as to stop that. I look after booty of more
+consequence. There are cargoes of dry goods run here; foreign lace at
+a guinea a yard."
+
+"My eye!" ejaculated Captain Copp in amazement, who was willing enough
+to hear the suspicions, now he found they did not point to anything
+likely to affect his comfort. "Where do they run them to?"
+
+"They run them here, as I believe; here on the Half-moon; and I
+suspect they must have a hiding-place somewhere in these rocks."
+
+To describe the intense wonder depicted on the face of the ex-merchant
+captain would be impossible. It ended in a laugh of incredulity,
+anything but flattering to his hearer.
+
+"I could swear it," persisted the supervisor. "There! Only a few days
+ago, I was telling my suspicions to this poor fellow"--glancing over
+his shoulder--"and he offered to help me ferret out the matter. He
+came down with me here, examined the rocks, sounded them (he was an
+engineer, as perhaps you know), and appointed a further hunt for the
+next day. I never saw a man more interested, or more eager to pounce
+on the offenders. But before the next day arrived I happened to meet
+him, and he said he must apologize for not keeping his promise, but he
+preferred not to interfere further. When I pressed him for his reason
+he only hemmed and ha-ed, and said that, being a stranger, the
+neighbourhood might deem his doing so an impertinence. Which of course
+was sheer rubbish."
+
+Captain Copp, rather slow at taking in ideas, began considering what
+his own opinion was. The supervisor went on, his tone impressive.
+
+"Now, captain, it is my firm belief that this sudden change and Mr.
+Hunter's constrained manner, were caused by his having received some
+private hint from the smugglers themselves not to aid me in my search;
+and that it is nobody but they who have put it out of his power to do
+so."
+
+"Whew!" whistled the staggered captain. "I could make more of a
+sinking ship than of what you say. Who are the smugglers? How did they
+find out he was going to interfere--unless he or you sent 'em word?"
+
+"I don't know how they found it out. The affair is a mystery from
+beginning to end. Nobody was present at the conversation except Miss
+Thornycroft. And she cannot be suspected of holding communication with
+smugglers."
+
+"This young fellow was a sweetheart of hers--eh?" cried the shrewd
+captain.
+
+"I don't know anything about that. They seemed intimate. I could
+almost swear Old Nick has to do with this smuggling business," added
+the supervisor, earnestly. "A fortnight ago there was a dinner at the
+Red Court--you were there, by-the-way."
+
+"A jolly spread the old justice gave us! Prime drink and cigars,"
+chimed in the salt tar.
+
+"Well--I was there: and one can't be in two places at once. That very
+evening they managed to run their cargo; ran it on, as I suspect, to
+this identical spot, sir," cried the disconcerted officer, warming
+with his grievance. "Vexed enough I was, and never once have I been
+off the watch since. Every night have I took up my station on that
+cursed damp plateau overhead, my stomach stretched on the ground, to
+keep myself dark, and just half an eye cocked out over the cliff--and
+all to no purpose. Last night, Sunday, I went in again to dine with
+the hospitable justice, and I'll be--I'll be shivered, sir, as you
+sometimes say, if they did not take advantage of it, and run another
+cargo!"
+
+Never, since the memorable time of his encounter with the pirates
+which resulted in the disabling him for life, had Captain Copp been so
+struck--dumb, as it were. Nothing was left of him but amazement.
+
+"Bless and save my wooden leg!" he exclaimed, when his tongue was
+found--"it is unbelievable. How do you know it?"
+
+"I know it, and that's enough," replied Mr. Kyne, too much annoyed to
+stand upon politeness, or to explain that his boasted knowledge was
+assumed; not proved. "But, here's the devil of the thing," he
+continued--"how did the smugglers know I was off the watch those two
+particular nights? If it got wind the first night that I should be
+engaged at the Red Court--though I don't believe it did, for I can
+keep my own counsel, and did then--it could not have got wind the
+second. Five minutes before I went there last night, I had no notion
+whatever of going. Mr. Isaac looked into my rooms just before six, and
+_would_ walk me off with him. I had had my chop at one o'clock, and
+was going to think about tea. Now how could the wretches have known
+last night that I was not on duty?"
+
+"It's no good appealing to me, how," returned the captain. "I never
+was 'cute at breaking up marvels. Once, in the Pacific, there was a
+great big thing haunted the ship, bigger than the biggest sea-serpent,
+and--"
+
+"Depend upon it we have traitors in the camp," unceremoniously
+interrupted the supervisor; for he knew by experience that when once
+Captain Copp was fairly launched upon that old marvel of the Pacific
+ocean, there was no stopping him. "Traitors round about us, at our
+very elbows and hearths, if we only knew in which direction to look
+for them."
+
+"Well, I am not one," said the captain, "so you need not look after
+me. A pretty figure my wooden standard would cut, running smuggled
+goods! Why didn't you tell all this to Justice Thornycroft? He's the
+proper person. He's a magistrate."
+
+"I know he is. But if I introduce a word about smugglers he throws
+cold water on it directly, and ridicules all I say. Once he quite rose
+up against me, all his bristles on end, in defence of the poor
+fishermen. Upon that, I hinted that I was not alluding to poor
+fishermen, but to people and transactions of far greater importance.
+It stirred up his anger beyond everything; he was barely civil, and
+turned away telling me to find the people and catch 'em, if I could
+find 'em; but not to apply to him."
+
+"Well, that's reasonable," said Captain Copp. "Why _don't_ you find
+'em?"
+
+"Because I _can't_ find 'em," deplored the miserable officer. "There's
+the aggravation. I don't know in what quarter to look for them. The
+thing is like magic; it's altogether shrouded in mystery. I don't
+choose to speak of it publicly, or I might defeat the chance of
+discovery; the only time I did speak of it, was to Mr. Hunter, and got
+sympathy and aid offered and returned to me. You see what has come of
+that."
+
+It was only too evident what _he_ thought had come of it. And perhaps
+he was not far wrong. But for that recent morning's unlucky
+conversation between him and Robert Hunter, no dead man might have
+been lying on the Half-moon beach, with Isaac Thornycroft's
+handkerchief covering his face.
+
+"Yes, that's the difficulty--where to look for them," resumed the
+mortified supervisor. "I cannot suspect any of the superior people in
+the neighbourhood. It's true I do not know much of those Connaughts.
+But they don't seem like smugglers either."
+
+"The Connaughts!" roared out the captain, taking up their cause as a
+personal offence. "Why don't you say it's me? Why don't you say it's
+yourself? The Connaughts! Who next, Mr. Supervisor? Why, old Connaught
+is bedridden half his time, and the son has got his eyes strained on
+books all day, learning to be a parson."
+
+"That's true," grumbled the officer, in his miserable incertitude.
+"All I know is, I can't fathom the affair, worry over it as I will."
+
+"Here comes the plank," interrupted the captain. "I shan't stop to see
+_that_ moved: so good morning to you, sir."
+
+He stumped off, mortally offended; and met Tomlett and the landlord of
+the Mermaid inn, with the long queue of curious idlers behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+Shot down from the Heights.
+
+
+In the breakfast-room at the Red Court Farm, seated at its well-laid
+morning-table, was Richard Thornycroft. Seated at it only: not eating:
+his plate was unsupplied, his coffee stood cold before him. He seemed
+to be in some unpleasant meditation, every line of his dark face
+speaking of perplexity.
+
+To be broken in upon by the irruption of numerous visitors, evidently
+astonished him not a little. The attendants on Mr. Thornycroft had
+gathered on the way from the Half-moon beach, just as some balls
+gather in rolling, and six or seven friends followed in on the tail of
+the master of the Red Court Farm. Isaac, on the contrary, seemed to
+have fallen away from it, for he did not enter with the rest. Richard
+rose to welcome them, with scant courtesy.
+
+"Where's Cyril?" began the justice. "Is he down yet?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Richard, taking out his watch and glancing at
+it. "I have not seen him. It is early yet."
+
+"And Cyril never is very early," added the justice, quickly assuming
+that his youngest son was in his bed still. "Have you heard the news,
+Richard?"
+
+"Yes," was Richard's laconic answer.
+
+"What do you think of it? How do you suppose it could have happened?"
+
+"I don't think about it," returned Richard. "I conclude that if he did
+not shoot himself, he must have got into some quarrelling fray. He
+drank enough wine last evening to heat his brain, and we had proof
+that he was fond of meddling in what did not concern him. The
+extraordinary part of the business is, what brought him back on the
+plateau, after he had once started on his journey."
+
+"I'll go up and arouse Cyril, and know where he left Hunter.
+Gentlemen, if you will sit down and take some breakfast, we shall be
+glad of your company. There's a capital round of beef. Hallo you
+girls!" called out the justice, striding away in the direction of the
+kitchen, "some of you come in here and attend. Sinnett, let some more
+ham and eggs be sent in."
+
+Nothing loath, the gentlemen responded at once to the invitation: most
+of them had not breakfasted. The Rev. Mr. Southall made one. The round
+of beef was capital, as its master said; the game pies looked
+tempting, the cold ham, the hot rolls, the fresh eggs, the toasted
+bacon, all were excellent. Apparently, the Red Court Farm kept itself
+prepared for an impromptu public breakfast, just as well as it did for
+an impromptu dinner.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft ascended the stairs, and presently his voice was heard
+on the landing, calling to Cyril. But it died away in the echoes of
+the large house, and there was no answer; unless the opening of the
+door of his wife's room by her maid could be called such.
+
+"Did you want anything, sir?" she asked, looking out.
+
+"Nothing particular. How is your lady this morning?"
+
+"Much the same, sir, thank you."
+
+The maid shut the door again, and Mr. Thornycroft went on to Cyril's
+chamber. He found it empty. It was so unusual for Cyril to be up and
+out early, that he felt a sort of surprise. That he had not gone far,
+however, was evident, as his watch and purse lay on the chest of
+drawers. The justice crossed the corridor and knocked at his
+daughter's room.
+
+"Are you up, Mary Anne?"
+
+"Yes," responded a faint and hurried voice within. "What do you want,
+papa?"
+
+"I want you. Open the door."
+
+But Miss Thornycroft did not obey. The justice, never remarkable for
+patience, when his behests were disregarded, laid hold of the handle
+and shook it with his strong hand.
+
+"Open the door, I say, Mary Anne. What, girl! are you afraid of me?"
+
+Miss Thornycroft slowly opened the door, and presented herself. She
+was in a handsome grey silk dress, but it looked tumbled, as if she
+had lain down in it, and her hair was rough and disarranged. It was
+the gown she had worn the previous evening, and it would almost seem
+as if she had done nothing to herself since going upstairs to bed. The
+signs caught her father's eye, and he spoke in astonishment.
+
+"Why--what in the world, girl? You have never undressed yourself!
+Surely, you did not pay too much respect to the wine, as some of the
+men did!"
+
+"You know better than that, sir. I was very tired, and threw myself on
+the bed when I came up: I suppose sleep overtook me. Do not allude to
+it, papa, downstairs. I will soon change my dress."
+
+"Sleeping in your clothes does not seem to agree with you, Mary Anne:
+you look as white as if you had swallowed a doctor's shop. Do you know
+anything of Cyril?--that's what I wanted to ask you."
+
+"No," she replied, "I have neither seen nor heard him."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft came to the conclusion that Cyril had heard of the
+calamity, and gone out to see about it in his curiosity. He returned
+to the breakfast-room and said this. Sinnett, who was there, turned
+round and spoke.
+
+"Mr. Cyril did not sleep at home last night, sir."
+
+"Nonsense," responded the justice.
+
+"He did _not_, sir," persisted Sinnett, in as positive a tone as she
+dared to use.
+
+"Not sleep at home!" cried Mr. Thornycroft, ironically. "You must be
+mistaken, Sinnett. Cyril is not a night-bird," he continued, turning
+his fine and rather free blue eyes on the company: "he leaves late
+hours to his brothers."
+
+"When Martha took up his hot water just now, and knocked, there was no
+reply," returned Sinnett, quietly. "So she went in, fearing he might
+be ill, and found the bed had not been slept in."
+
+For Cyril, who had never willingly been guilty of loose conduct in his
+whole life, to sleep out from home secretly, was as remarkable a fact
+as the going regularly to bed at ten o'clock would have been for his
+brothers. Mr. Thornycroft not only felt amazement, but showed it.
+
+"I cannot understand this at all. Richard, do you know where he can
+be?"
+
+"Not in the least. I was waiting for him to come down that I might
+question him where he parted with Hunter."
+
+"When did you see him last?"
+
+"When he was going off last night with Hunter. I have not seen him
+since. He will turn up by-and-by," continued Richard, carelessly. "If
+a fellow never has stopped out to make a night of it, that's no reason
+why he never may. Perhaps he came to an anchor at the Mermaid."
+
+Clearly there was reason in this. Cyril Thornycroft might have
+remained out from some cause or other, though he never had before, and
+the gentlemen fell to their breakfast again. But for the strange and
+unhappy fact of Hunter's having come back to Coastdown, Mr.
+Thornycroft had concluded that Cyril must have walked with him to
+Jutpoint, and taken a bed there.
+
+"Go up to Miss Thornycroft, Sinnett," said the justice. "She does not
+seem well. Perhaps she would like some tea."
+
+Giving a look round the table first to see that nothing more was
+wanted (for the housekeeper liked to execute orders at her own time
+and will), she proceeded to Miss Thornycroft's room. The young lady
+then had her hair down and her dress off, apparently in the legitimate
+process of dressing.
+
+"My goodness me, Miss Mary Anne, how white you look!" was the
+involuntary exclamation of the servant. "It is a dreadful thing, miss,
+but you must not take it too much to heart. It is worse for poor Mr.
+Hunter himself than it is for you."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft, who had made a vain effort to hide her emotion
+and her ghastly face from the servant, opened her lips to speak, and
+closed them again, unable to utter a syllable.
+
+"What a _gaby_ the justice must have been to make such haste to tell
+her!" thought the woman. For it never occurred to Sinnett that Miss
+Thornycroft could have gained the information from any other source;
+or, rather, it may be more correct to say that she knew it could not
+have been gained from any other. Sinnett, standing in the hall
+underneath at the moment, had heard her master's knock for admission
+at his daughter's door, and the colloquy that ensued--not the words,
+only the sound of the voices.
+
+"The whole village is up in arms," continued Sinnett. "It is an awful
+murder. Hyde--"
+
+"Don't talk of it," came the interrupting wail; "I cannot bear it yet.
+Is he found?"
+
+"Poor wretch, yes! with no look of a human face about him, they say,"
+was Sinnett's answer.
+
+"Shot down on to the Half-moon?" shuddered Miss Thornycroft, evidently
+speaking more to herself than to Sinnett.
+
+"In the fur corner of it. I'll go and bring you a cup of tea, miss.
+You are shaking all over."
+
+Mary Anne put out her hand to arrest her, but she was weak, feeble,
+suffering, and Sinnett went on, totally regardless. In the woman's
+opinion there was no panacea for ills, whether mental or bodily, like
+a cup of strong tea, and she hastened to bring one for her young lady.
+The shortest way of doing this was to get it from the breakfast-room,
+and in went Sinnett. She was not disposed to stand on too much
+ceremony at the best of times, especially when put out. Occupying her
+position for many years as mistress of the internal economy of the Red
+Court Farm, she felt her sway in it, and she was warmly condemning her
+master for having spoken. For Sinnett was one who liked on occasion to
+set those about her to rights. The large silver teapot was before the
+justice. Sinnett, a breakfast cup in her hand, went up and asked him
+to fill it.
+
+"What a pity it is, sir, that you told Miss Thornycroft so soon;
+before she was well out of her bed!" began Sinnett in an undertone, as
+she stood waiting. "Time enough for her to have heard such a horrid
+thing, sir, when she had taken a bit of breakfast. There she is,
+shaking like a child, not able to dress herself."
+
+"I did not tell her," returned. Mr. Thornycroft aloud. "What are you
+talking of?"
+
+"Yes, you did, sir."
+
+"I did _not_, I tell you."
+
+"You must have told her, sir," persisted Sinnett. "The first thing she
+asked me was, whether the body was found on the Half-moon, and said it
+was shot down on to it. Nobody else has been to the room but
+yourself."
+
+"Take up the tea to your mistress, and don't stand cavilling here,"
+interposed Richard, in a tone of stern command.
+
+Justice Thornycroft brooked not contradiction from a servant.
+Moreover, he began to think that his daughter must have got her
+information from Cyril. He rose from table and strode upstairs after
+Sinnett, following her into his daughter's room.
+
+"Mary Anne"--in a sharp tone--"did you tell that woman I disclosed to
+you what had happened to Hunter?"
+
+"No," was the reply.
+
+"Did I tell you that anything had happened to him?"
+
+"No, papa, you did not."
+
+"Do you hear what Miss Thornycroft says?" continued the magistrate,
+turning to the servant. "I advise you not to presume to contradict me
+again. If the house were in less excitement, you should come in before
+them all, and beg my pardon."
+
+A ghastly look of fear had started to the features of Miss
+Thornycroft. "I--I heard them talking of it outside," she murmured,
+looking at Sinnett.
+
+"Outside!" exclaimed Sinnett.
+
+"Underneath, in the herb-garden," faintly added Miss Thornycroft,
+whose very lips were white as ashes.
+
+"Then you did not hear of it from Cyril, Mary Anne?"
+
+"No, papa, I have not seen Cyril at all."
+
+Justice Thornycroft strode downstairs again. Sinnett, who did not like
+to be rebuked--and, in truth, rarely gave occasion for it--looked
+rather sullen as she put down the cup and saucer.
+
+"Nobody has been in the side garden since I got up," cried Sinnett.
+
+"Oh, it was before that," too hastily affirmed Miss Thornycroft. "They
+were strange voices," she hurriedly added, as if afraid of more
+questions.
+
+Sinnett shut the door on Miss Thornycroft, and went away ruminating.
+Something like fear had arisen to the woman's own face.
+
+"What does it all mean?" she asked herself, unconsciously resting the
+small silver waiter on the window-seat, as she stood looking out. "She
+_could not_ have heard anything outside in the herb-garden, for nobody
+has had the key of it this morning; and as to people having been up
+here talking of it before I was up, the poor man had not then been
+found."
+
+That some dreadful mystery existed, something that would not bear the
+light of day, and in which Miss Thornycroft was in some way mixed up,
+Sinnett felt certain. And, woman-like, she spoke out her thoughts too
+freely: not in ill-nature; not to do harm to Miss Thornycroft or
+anyone else; but in the love of talking, in the wish to get her own
+curiosity satisfied. How _had_ she learnt the news? Sinnett wondered
+again and again. What was it that had put her into this unnatural
+state of alarm and fear? Regret she might feel for Robert Hunter;
+horror at his dreadful fate--but whence arose the _fear?_ Shrewd
+Sinnett finally descended, her brain in full work.
+
+When the party in the breakfast-room had concluded their meal, which
+they did not spare, in spite of the sight their eyes had that morning
+looked on, they departed in a body, each one privately hoping he
+should be the first to alight on Mr. Cyril. In the present stage of
+the affair, Cyril Thornycroft was regarded as the one only person who
+could throw light upon it. It did not clearly appear where he could
+be. Richard's suggestion of the Mermaid was an exceedingly improbable
+one. He was not there; he seemed not to be anywhere else; nobody
+appeared to have seen him since the previous night, when he was
+starting to walk a little way with Robert Hunter.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft sat down in the justice room to write to the coroner,
+and was interrupted by his eldest son. He looked up in expectation.
+
+"Has Cyril turned up, Richard?"
+
+"No, sir. Cyril's not gone far. His porte-monnaie and watch are in his
+room."
+
+"Yes, I caught a sight of them myself. It is strange where he can be.
+I am rather uneasy."
+
+"There's no occasion for that," returned Richard. "He must have gone
+on to Jutpoint. There's not a doubt of it."
+
+"Well, I suppose it is so. The curious part is, what brought Hunter
+back again when he was once fairly on the road? They have been
+suggesting at the breakfast-table that he might have forgotten
+something; and I suppose it was so. But what took him to the plateau?"
+
+Richard had his theory on that point. "Curiosity, unjustifiable
+curiosity; possibly a wicked, dishonourable resolution to betray us,
+after all," were the words rising so persistently in his mind that he
+had some difficulty not to speak them. He did not, however; he wished
+to spare unpleasantness to his father so far as might be. The only one
+to whom he gave the history of what took place on the previous night
+before parting with Hunter, was Isaac; and Isaac, as we know, had
+repeated just a word to his father. Mr. Thornycroft recurred to it
+now.
+
+"What was it Isaac said about you and Hunter, Richard? I almost
+forget. That Hunter went on the plateau and saw the signal-light?"
+
+"Hunter saw it. When he first quitted the house some devil's instinct
+took him to the plateau. I met him as he was running down, made him
+promise to hold his tongue, and sent him off with Cyril. I could have
+staked my life--yes, my life," added Richard, firmly--"that he would
+not have come back again."
+
+"Was that all that passed?"
+
+"Oh yes, that was all," carelessly returned Richard, who thought it
+well not to give the details of the unpleasant interview. "He and
+Cyril walked away together, and I fully assumed we had seen the colour
+of his ugly face for the last time."
+
+"And East saw them down at the Hollow, so they must have gone that
+far. Well, it's very odd; but I suppose Cyril will clear it up."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft drew down his spectacles before his eyes--they had
+been lifted while he talked--and went on with his note to the coroner.
+Again Richard broke in, speaking abruptly.
+
+"Sir, this affair of Hunter's must be kept dark."
+
+"Kept dark!" echoed the justice. "When a man's found murdered, one
+can't keep it dark. What do you mean, Dick?"
+
+"I mean, kept as dark as the legal proceedings will allow. Don't make
+more stir in it, sir, than is absolutely necessary. It would have been
+well to keep secret his having gone on the plateau at all; but it's
+known already, and can't be helped now. Hush it up as much as you
+can."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"_Hush it up_," impressively repeated Richard, his dark face working
+with some inward agitation. "_I_ shall know what to say in regard to
+his having gone on the plateau before departure; you and Isaac had
+better be silent. Hush it up--hush it up! You will be at the coroner's
+right hand, and can sway him imperceptibly. It is essential advice,
+father."
+
+"What the deuce!" burst forth the magistrate, staring at his son; "you
+do not fear Cyril was the murderer of Hunter?"
+
+"No, thank God!" fervently answered Richard. "Cyril would be the last
+in the world to speak an unkind word, let alone shoot a man. But,
+don't you see, sir--too minute enquiries may set them on the track of
+something else that was done on the Half-moon last night, and it would
+not do. That confounded Kyne has got his eyes and ears open enough, as
+it is."
+
+"By George! there's something in that," deliberated the justice. "My
+sympathy for Hunter put that out of my mind. All right, Dicky, now I
+have the cue."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft sealed his note to the coroner, despatched it, and
+went upstairs to Lady Ellis's room. She was up, and sitting on the
+sofa. He shook hands and enquired how she had rested. For a long
+while, in fact since the beginning of her illness, their relations
+with each other had been but those of common acquaintance. He was
+wondering whether it would be well to tell her of the catastrophe; but
+she had already heard of it, and sat, paler than usual, gazing at the
+idlers who were crowding the edge of the plateau, leaning over it in
+their curiosity. That unusual sight would alone have told her
+something was the matter.
+
+"Is it _possible_ that this can be true?" she asked, in a low tone of
+distress. "Is Robert Hunter really murdered?"
+
+"It is too true, unfortunately," he answered; "at least, that he is
+dead. Whether murdered--as everybody has been in haste to say and
+assume or whether accidentally shot, remains to be proved."
+
+"And what are the particulars? What is known?"
+
+But here Mr. Thornycroft would not satisfy her, or could not stay to
+do it. His carriage was at the door to take him to Jutpoint, where he
+had magisterial business that could not be postponed. Mentioning just
+a fact or two, he quitted the room, and found Isaac talking rather
+sharply to Sinnett in the hall below.
+
+Sinnett had not allowed her doubts or her tongue to slumber. First of
+all she had talked to Hyde--of Miss Thornycroft's curious demeanour,
+of her incautious avowal, of her remarkable state of alarm and of
+fear; and Hyde replied by telling her to "hold her peace if she
+couldn't talk sense." She next, as it chanced, mentioned it to
+Tomlett, and he retorted that Sinnett was a fool. Sinnett felt
+wrathful; and in some way or other the matter penetrated to the ears
+of Isaac. He did not believe it; he felt sure that his sister knew
+nothing, and was taking Sinnett to task when Mr. Thornycroft
+descended.
+
+A few hasty words from the three, and Mr. Thornycroft opened the door
+of his daughter's parlour, where he understood she now was. Rather to
+his surprise, Richard was shut in with her. It was an unusual thing
+for him to be indoors in the day-time. She wore a morning dress now,
+and looked much as usual, except that her face was pale and her hands
+trembled. Richard went out as they entered.
+
+"Now, then," said the justice, "we will have this cleared up. Where
+and from whom did you hear of this matter, Mary Anne?"
+
+She answered briefly, leaning her forehead on her hand, that she had
+heard people talking of it early in the morning below her window.
+Sinnett, anxious to justify herself, and very vexed that this should
+have come to the ears of her masters, said this could not be; the key
+of the herb-garden was in her pocket, and nobody could have got into
+it.
+
+The plot of ground on the side of the house, under Miss Thornycroft's
+window, where the herbs were grown, was enclosed. A small glass shed
+(it was not half large enough to be called a green-house) was at one
+corner of it, in which Sinnett had some plants. Three or four of these
+had been stolen one night, and since then Sinnett had kept the gate
+locked.
+
+Miss Thornycroft, her hand held up still as if to hide her face,
+persisted. She had heard voices underneath in the early morning,
+strange voices; it was so unusual that she quietly opened her window
+to listen. They spoke of Mr. Hunter, and she caught distinctly the
+words "murder," and "shot down from the heights to the Half-moon." "It
+was as if one man was telling another," faintly concluded Miss
+Thornycroft. "I could only hope it was not true; it frightened me
+terribly. As to how they could have been in the herb-garden, I suppose
+they must have got over the palisades."
+
+"Nothing more likely, that they might talk at leisure without
+interruption," cried the justice, turning angrily on his housekeeper.
+"Let the subject be dropped: do you hear, Sinnett? How dare you
+attempt to raise a cabal! What's the matter with you to-day? One would
+think _you_ shot him down."
+
+Striding across the hall, the justice went out to his restive horses,
+prancing and pawing the ground in their impatience. Isaac followed
+him.
+
+"If you will allow me, sir, I should like to accompany you."
+
+"All right, Isaac; get up."
+
+The justice drove away, his son by his side his groom sitting behind,
+as he had once, years ago, driven away from the gate of Mrs. Chester;
+but his daughter was with him then. Isaac's errand to Jutpoint,
+unavowed, was to look after Cyril. Why it should have been so he could
+not have told, then or later, but an uneasy prevision lay on his mind
+that something or other was wrong, more than met the eye.
+
+Sinnett, nettled beyond everything at her master's concluding
+reproach, spoken though it was in irony, and at the turn of affairs
+altogether, flounced off to her kitchen, leaving Miss Thornycroft
+alone. She--Mary Anne Thornycroft--had made her explanation almost
+glibly, after the manner of one who has learnt a part by heart, and
+recites it. That some most awful dread was upon her--apart from
+the natural grief and horror arising from the murder, if it was
+murder--was indisputable, and Sinnett felt sure of it still.
+
+Her face buried in her hands; her body swaying backwards and forwards
+in her chair; her whole aspect evincing dire agony now she was alone,
+sat Mary Anne Thornycroft. In that one past night she seemed to have
+aged years. The knock of a visitor aroused her; some curious gossip
+come to inquire and chatter and comment; and she escaped upstairs,
+crossing Hyde in the hall.
+
+"I cannot see anyone, Hyde; my head aches too much."
+
+The door of her step-mother's room was open, and Lady Ellis called to
+her. One single moment of rebellion, of wish to escape, and then she
+remembered that she had not been in at all that morning, and also that
+it was well to avoid observation just now. Lady Ellis sat as Mr.
+Thornycroft had left her; her dark hair drawn simply from her wasted
+face, her purple morning-gown tied at the waist with a cord and
+tassel, its lace ruffles falling over her thin white hand.
+
+"I was just going to ring and ask you to come up, Mary Anne. I _must_
+hear the particulars of this dreadful mystery; I cannot rest until
+they are told. Look at them!"
+
+She pointed to the heights. Dotting the plateau, peeping in at the
+round tower, holding hands and waists for security as they bent
+forward over the edge to look at the scene of the tragedy below, were
+the idlers. Mary Anne sat down near the table, her elbow on it, her
+head leaning on her hand, her eyes bent on the carpet, and told the
+particulars that the world knew. Lady Ellis heard them to the end
+without comment.
+
+"But why should he have gone on the plateau at all?" she questioned.
+
+"I don't know. He did go. As I stood at the door watching him off, he
+turned from the road to the plateau. I saw him. I saw him cross the
+railings."
+
+"And your brother Richard saw him?"
+
+"Yes, as he was coming off. They stood talking for a minute or two,
+Richard says. Cyril came up then, and he started to walk a little way
+with Robert Hunter."
+
+"But what does Cyril say? Where is he?"
+
+"He has not been home since. They suppose he went on to Jutpoint and
+slept there. Nothing more except this is known."
+
+"But Mr. Hunter must have come back again?"
+
+"Of course he must. It is his coining back that is so unaccountable."
+
+"And why--why should Cyril walk to Jutpoint, unless he walked with Mr.
+Hunter?" resumed Lady Ellis after a pause.
+
+Miss Thornycroft shook her head. It was in truth so much involved in
+doubt and mystery from beginning to end, that she felt unable to cope
+with it, even by conjecture, she said faintly. "The terrible point in
+it all seems to be in his having come back again."
+
+"Nay, the terrible point is the attack upon him," dissented her
+step-mother. "It might have been an accidental shot, after all. At
+what hour was it supposed to take place?"
+
+Miss Thornycroft could not say. "Of course--yes--it might have been
+only accidental," she assented with whitening lips.
+
+"Mary Ann, how ill you look!"
+
+"Do I? It frightened me, you see. And I have a dreadful headache," she
+added, rising to escape those eyes bent on her with so much curiosity.
+"I must go and lie down on the bed, if you will spare me."
+
+"Lie on my sofa," said Lady Ellis.
+
+"No, thank you. Shut in by myself, I may get to sleep."
+
+"Tell me one thing," and Lady Ellis laid her hand on her
+step-daughter's arm. "Is any one suspected?"
+
+"No; oh no."
+
+"I suppose, Mary Ann, it is quite sure that he is _dead?_"
+
+A faint cry at the mockery of the almost suggested hope escaped Mary
+Anne's lips. When the surgeon saw him at eight o'clock that morning,
+he thought he must have been dead about ten hours.
+
+Lady Ellis leaned back in her chair when she was left alone, her eyes
+closed, her wan hands clasped meekly on her bosom.
+
+"Ah! was he fit to go? was he fit to go?" she murmured, the thought
+having lain on her as a great dream of agony. "Had it been Cyril
+Thornycroft, there could be no doubt. But _he_--? Perhaps he was
+changed, as I am," she resumed after a long pause. "Oh! yes, yes, it
+might have been so; Robert Hunter might have been READY. Thank God
+that he gave me his forgiveness last night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+The Coroner's Inquest.
+
+
+The coroner's inquest was held on the Wednesday. Nothing could exceed
+the state of ferment that Coastdown was in: not altogether from the
+fact of the murder itself--for murder it was universally assumed to
+be, and _was_--but also from one or two strange adjuncts that
+surrounded it. The first of these was the prolonged and unaccountable
+absence of Cyril Thornycroft; the second arose from sundry rumours
+rife in the town. It was whispered on the Tuesday that two or three
+witnesses had been present when the deed was committed; that they had
+seen it done; and the names of these, scarcely breathed at first, but
+gathering strength as the day wore on, were at length spoken freely:
+Miss Thornycroft, Miss Chester, and Captain Copp's maidservant, Sarah
+Ford.
+
+Whether the reports arose, in the first place, in consequence of
+Sinnett's talking; whether Sarah Ford had spoken a hasty word on the
+Monday morning, in her surprise and shock at what she heard; or
+whether the facts had gone about through those strange instincts of
+suspicion that do sometimes arise in the most extraordinary manner,
+nobody can tell how or whence, was not yet known. But the rumours
+reached the ear of the summoning officer, and at ten o'clock on the
+Tuesday night that functionary delivered his mandates--one at the Red
+Court Farm, two at Captain Copp's, for these witnesses to attend the
+inquest. Speaking afterwards at the Mermaid of what he had done, the
+excitement knew no bounds.
+
+Speculation was rife in regard to the most strange absence of Cyril
+Thornycroft. But not quite at first--not, in fact, until the Wednesday
+morning--was any unpleasant feeling connected with it. It might have
+been in men's minds--who could say it had not?--but on the Wednesday
+it began to be spoken. Was Cyril the guilty man? Had _he_, in a
+scuffle or else, fired the shot that killed Hunter?
+
+The taint was carried in a whisper to the Red Court Farm. It staggered
+Mr. Thornycroft; it drove Isaac speechless; but Richard, in his usual
+fashion, went into a white heat of indignation. Cyril, who was one of
+the best men on the face of the earth!--who lived, as everybody knew,
+a gentle and blameless life, striving to follow, so far as might be,
+the example his Master set when He came on earth!--who would not hurt
+a fly, who was ever seeking to soothe others battling with the world's
+troubles, and help them on the road to Heaven!--_he_ kill Robert
+Hunter! Richard's emotion overwhelmed him, and his lips turned white
+as he spoke it.
+
+All very true: if ever a man strove to walk near to God, it was
+certainly Cyril Thornycroft; and Richard's hearers acknowledged it.
+But--and this they did not say--good men had been overtaken by
+temptation, by crime, before now; and, after all, this might have been
+a pure accident. If Cyril Thornycroft were innocent, argued Coastdown,
+why did he run away? Of course, his prolonged absence, if voluntary,
+was the great proof against him: even unprejudiced people admitted
+that. Mr. Thornycroft and his sons had another theory, and were not
+uneasy. It was not convenient to speak of it to the world; but they
+fully believed Cyril would return home in a week or two, safe and
+sound; and they also, one and all, implicitly believed that he was not
+only guiltless of the death of Robert Hunter, but ignorant of its
+having taken place. The fact of his having no money with him went
+for nothing--it has been mentioned that his purse was left in his
+room,--if Cyril had gone where they suspected, he could have what
+money he pleased for the asking.
+
+In this state of excitement and uncertainty, Wednesday morning dawned.
+As the hour for the coroner's inquest drew near, all the world
+assembled round the Mermaid: to see the coroner and jury go in
+would be something. Captain Copp stumped about in a condition of wrath
+that promised momentary explosion, arising from the fact that his
+"women-kind" should be subp[oe]naed to give evidence on a land murder.
+What they might have to say about it, or what they had not to say, the
+captain was unable to get at; his questioning had been in vain: Sarah
+was silent and sullen; Anna Chester white and shivering, as if some
+great blow had fallen on her: and this unsatisfactory state of things
+did not tend to increase the captain's equanimity. He had been
+originally summoned to serve on the inquest, but when the officer came
+to the house at ten on the Tuesday night, he told him he had perhaps
+better not serve. All this was as bitter aloes to the merchant
+captain.
+
+The inquest took place in the club-room of the Mermaid, the coroner
+taking his seat at the head of its long table covered with green
+baize, while the jury ranged themselves round it. Justice Thornycroft
+was seated at the right hand of the coroner. They had viewed the body,
+which lay in an adjoining room, just as it had been brought up.
+
+The first witness called was Mr. Supervisor Kyne, he having been the
+first to discover the calamity. With break of day on the Monday
+morning he went on the plateau. Happening to look over as far as he
+could stretch, he saw what he thought to be Mr. Hunter asleep: the
+face was hidden from him as he stood above, but he knew him by his
+coat. Going round to the Half-moon beach, having been joined on his
+way by one or two fishermen, they discovered that the poor gentleman
+was not asleep, but dead: in fact that he had been killed, and in a
+most frightful manner.
+
+The surgeon who had been called to examine the body spoke next. The
+cause of death was a shot, he said. The bullet had entered the face,
+gone through the brain, and passed out at the crown of the head. Death
+must have been instantaneous, he thought: and the face had also been
+very much defaced by the jagged points of the rock in falling. In
+answer to the coroner, the surgeon said he should think it had been
+many hours dead when he was called to see it at half-past seven in the
+morning: nine or ten at least.
+
+The next witness was Mr. Thornycroft, who stood up to give his
+evidence. He spoke to the fact of the young man's having been his
+guest for a short while at the Red Court: that he had intended to
+leave on the Sunday night by the half-past eight omnibus for Jutpoint,
+to catch the train; but had missed it. He then said he would walk it,
+wished them good-bye, and left with that intention. He knew no more.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft sat down again, and Richard was called. He confirmed
+his father's evidence, and gave some in addition. On the Sunday night
+he quitted the dining-room soon after the deceased, and went outside
+for a stroll. There he saw Hunter, who appeared to have been on the
+plateau. They stood together a few moments talking, and just as they
+were parting Cyril came up. He, Cyril, said he would walk a little way
+with Hunter, and they turned away together.
+
+"To walk to Jutpoint?" interposed the coroner.
+
+"Yes: speaking of Hunter. Of course I supposed my brother would turn
+back almost immediately."
+
+"Were they upon angry terms one with the other?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"And you never saw either of them afterwards?"
+
+"No," replied Richard, in a low tone--which the room set down to
+uneasiness on the score of Cyril's absence. "I went indoors then."
+
+"You are sure that the deceased was then starting, positively
+starting, on his walk to Jutpoint?"
+
+"I am quite certain. There is no doubt of it whatever."
+
+"What, then, caused him to come back again?"
+
+"I am quite unable to conjecture. It is to me one of the strangest
+points connected with this strange business."
+
+Cause, indeed, had Richard Thornycroft to say so! He, of all others,
+he alone, knew of the oath taken by Hunter _not_ to come back; of the
+danger Hunter knew he would run in attempting it. To the very end of
+Richard's life--as it seemed, to him now--would the thing be a mystery
+to his mind: unless Cyril should be able to throw light upon it.
+
+Richard Thornycroft had no further testimony to offer, and Isaac was
+next examined. He could say no more than his father had said; not
+having seen Hunter at all since the latter quitted the dining-room. Of
+the subsequent events of the night, he said he knew personally
+nothing: he was not out of doors. The fisherman, East, next appeared,
+and testified to having seen Cyril Thornycroft and Mr. Hunter
+together, as before stated.
+
+"Were you looking out for them?" asked a sapient juryman.
+
+"Looking out for 'em?" repeated East. "Lawk love ye, I warn't
+a-looking out for nobody. I'd not have noticed 'em, maybe, but for Mr.
+Hunter's white coat that he'd got buttoned on him. One couldn't be off
+seeing _that_."
+
+"Call Cyril Thornycroft," said the coroner.
+
+The calling of Cyril Thornycroft was a mere form, as the coroner was
+aware. He had learnt all the unpleasant rumours and suspicions
+attaching to Cyril's absence; had no doubt formed his own opinion on
+the point. But he was careful not to avow that opinion; perhaps also
+not to press for any evidence that might tend to confirm it, out of
+regard to his old friend, Justice Thornycroft.
+
+"Have you any suggestion to offer as to your son's absence?" he asked
+in a considerate tone of the magistrate.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft stood up to answer. His countenance was clear and
+open, his fine upright form raised to its full height: evidently _he_
+attached no suspicion to his son's non-return.
+
+"I think it will be found that he has only gone to see some friends
+who live at a distance, and that a few days will bring him home again.
+My reasons for this belief are good, though I would rather not state
+them publicly; they are conclusive to my own mind, and to the minds of
+my two elder sons. And I beg to say that I affirm this in all honour,
+as a magistrate and a gentleman."
+
+Again the coroner paused. "Do you consider, Mr. Thornycroft, that your
+son premeditated this visit?"
+
+"No; or he would have spoken of it. I think that circumstances must
+have caused him to depart on it suddenly."
+
+Mr. Thornycroft was thinking of one class of "circumstances," the
+coroner and jury of another. _They_ could only connect any
+circumstances, causing sudden departure, with the tragedy of the
+night, with a sense of guilt. Mr. Thornycroft knew of another outlet.
+
+"Is it usual for him to leave his watch and purse on the drawers,
+sir?" asked a juror.
+
+"It is not unusual. He does so sometimes when changing his coat and
+waistcoat for dinner: not intentionally, but from forgetfulness. He is
+absentminded at the best of times: not at all practical as his
+brothers are."
+
+"But what would he do without money on a journey?" persisted the
+gentleman.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft paused for a moment, considering his answer. It was
+exceedingly unfortunate that he could not speak out freely: Cyril's
+reputation had suffered less.
+
+"The fact of his having left his purse at home does not prove he has
+no money with him," said the justice. "In fact, I believe he keeps his
+porte-monnaie in his pocket from habit more than anything else, and
+carries his money loose. Most men, so far as I know, like to do so. I
+examined the porte-monnaie this morning, and found it empty."
+
+There was a slight laugh at this, hushed immediately. Mr. Thornycroft,
+finding nothing farther was asked him, sat down again.
+
+"Call Sarah Ford," said the coroner.
+
+Sarah Ford came in, and Captain Copp, who made one of the few
+spectators, struck his wooden leg irascibly on the floor of the room:
+a respectable, intelligent-looking woman, quietly attired in a straw
+bonnet, a brown shawl with flowered border, with a white handkerchief
+in her gloved hands. She did not appear to be in the least put out at
+having to appear before the coroner and jury, and gave her evidence
+with the most perfect independence.
+
+The coroner looked at his notes; not of the evidence already given,
+which his clerk was taking down, but of some he had brought to refresh
+his memory.
+
+"Do you recollect last Sunday evening, witness?" he asked, when a few
+preliminary questions had been gone through.
+
+"What should hinder me?" returned the witness, ever ready with her
+tongue. "It's not so long ago."
+
+"Where did you go to that evening?"
+
+"I went nowhere but to Justice Thornycroft's."
+
+"For what purpose did you go there?"
+
+"To fetch Miss Chester. She was to have been sent for at eight
+o'clock, but master and mistress forgot it. When it was on the stroke
+of nine they told me to go for her."
+
+"Which you did?"
+
+"Which I did, and without stopping to put anything on."
+
+"Did you meet anybody as you went?"
+
+"Yes; nearly close to the Red Court gates I met Mr. Hunter and young
+Cyril Thornycroft."
+
+"Walking together towards the village?" interposed the coroner.
+
+"Walking on that way. Mr. Hunter was buttoning himself up tight in
+that blessed fine coat of his."
+
+"Did they seem angry with each other?"
+
+"No, sir; they were talking pleasantly. Mr. Cyril was saying to the
+other that if he stepped out he would be at Jutpoint by half-past ten.
+That was before they came close, but the air was clear and brought out
+the sound of their voices."
+
+"Did they speak to you?"
+
+"I spoke to them. I asked Mr. Hunter if he had lost the omnibus, for,
+you must understand, Miss Chester had said in the afternoon that he
+was going by it, and he said 'Yes, he had, and had got to walk it.' So
+I wished him a good journey."
+
+"Was that all?"
+
+"All that he said. Mr. Cyril asked me was I going to the Court, and I
+said 'Yes, I was, to fetch Miss Chester,' and that 'master was in a
+tantrum at its being so late.' (An irascible word from Captain Copp.)
+With that they went their way and I went mine."
+
+"After that, you reached the Red Court?"
+
+"Of course I reached it."
+
+"Well, what happened there? Relate it in full."
+
+"Nothing particular happened that I know of, except that the servants
+gave me some mulled wine."
+
+"While you were waiting?"
+
+"Yes, while I was waiting; and a fine time Miss Chester kept me,
+although I told her about the anger at home. She--"
+
+"Stay a moment, witness. How long do you think it was?"
+
+"A quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Quite that."
+
+"And now go on. We know the details, witness," added the coroner,
+significantly. "I tell you this, that you may relate them without
+being questioned at every sentence; it will save time."
+
+Sarah looked at him. That he was speaking the truth was self-evident;
+and she prepared to tell her story consecutively, without any
+suppression. The coroner was impatient.
+
+"Speak up, witness. Miss Thornycroft went out with you. What induced
+her to go?"
+
+"I suppose it was a freak she took," replied the witness. "When they
+said Miss Chester was ready I went into the hall, and Miss
+Thornycroft, in a sort of joke (I didn't think she meant it) said she
+would come out with her. Miss Chester asked her how she would get back
+again, and she answered, laughing, that she'd run back, to be sure,
+nobody was about to see her. Well, she put on her garden-bonnet, which
+hung there, and a shawl, and we came away, all three of us. In going
+out at the gates they both turned on the waste land, towards the
+plateau. I saw 'em stop and stare up on it, as if they saw something;
+and I wished they'd just stare at our way home instead, for I was not
+over warm, lagging there. Presently one of them said to me--for I had
+followed--'Sarah, do look, is not that Robert Hunter walking about
+there?' 'My eyes is to chilled to see so far, young ladies,' says I;
+'what should bring Robert Hunter there, when I met him as I came
+along, speeding on his journey to Jutpoint?' 'I can see that it _is_
+Robert Hunter,' returned Miss Thornycroft; 'I can see him quite
+distinct on that high ground against the sky.' And with that they told
+me to wait there, and they'd just run up and frighten him. Precious
+cross I was, and I took off my black stuff apron and threw it over my
+head, shawl fashion, thinking what a fool I was to come out on a cold
+frosty night without----"
+
+"Confine yourself to the evidence," sternly interrupted the coroner.
+
+"Well," proceeded Sarah, who remained as cool and equable before the
+coroner and jury as she would have been in her own kitchen, "I doubled
+my apron over my head, and down I sat on that red stone which rises
+out of the ground there like a low milestone. In a minute or two
+somebody comes running on to the plateau, as if following the young
+ladies----"
+
+"From what direction, witness?"
+
+"I think from that of the Red Court Farm. It might have been from that
+of the village, but I think it was the other; I am not sure either
+way. You see, I had got my apron right over me, and my head bent down
+on my knees, afeard of catching the face-ache, and I never heard
+anything till he was on the plateau. When I saw him he was near the
+Round Tower, going straight up to it, as it were; so he might have
+come from either way."
+
+"Did you recognise him?"
+
+"No; I didn't try to. I saw it was a man, through the slit I had left
+in my apron. He was going fast, but stealthily, hardly letting his
+shoes touch the ground, as if he was up to no good. And I was not
+sorry to see him go there, for thinks I, he'll hurry back my young
+ladies."
+
+"Witness--pay attention--were there no signs by which you could
+recognise that man? How was he dressed? As a gentleman?--as a
+sailor?--as a----"
+
+"As a gentleman, for all I saw to the contrary," replied the witness,
+unceremoniously interrupting the coroner's question. "If I had known
+he was going on to the plateau to murder Mr. Hunter, you may be sure
+I'd have looked at him sharp enough."
+
+"For all you saw to the contrary," repeated the coroner, taking up the
+words; "what do you mean by that?"
+
+"Well, what I mean is, I suppose, that he might have been a gentleman
+or he might not. The fact is, I never noticed his dress at all. I
+think the clothes were dark, and I think he had leggings on--which are
+worn by common people and gentlemen alike down here. The stars was
+rather under a cloud at the time, and so was my temper."
+
+"Honestly acknowledged," said the coroner. "What sized man was
+he?--tall or short?"
+
+"Very tall."
+
+"Taller than--Mr. Cyril Thornycroft, for instance?"
+
+"A great deal taller."
+
+"You are sure of this?"
+
+"I am sure and certain. Why else should I say so?"
+
+"Go on with your evidence."
+
+"A minute or so afterwards, as I sat with my back to the plateau and
+my head in my lap, I heard a gun go off behind me."
+
+"Did that startle you?" asked an interrupting juryman.
+
+"No, I am not nervous. If I had known it was let off on the plateau it
+might have startled me, on account of the young ladies being there;
+but I thought it was only from some passing vessel."
+
+"It is singular you should have thought so lightly of it. It is not
+common to hear a gun fired on a Sunday night."
+
+"You'd find it common enough if you lived here, sir. What with rabbit
+and other game shooters, and signals from boats, it is nothing in this
+neighbourhood to hear a gun go off, and it's what nobody pays any
+attention to."
+
+"Therefore you did not?"
+
+"Therefore I did not. And the apron I had got muffled over my ears
+made the sound appear further off than it really was. But close upon
+the noise came an awful cry; and that was followed by a shrill scream,
+as if from a woman. That startled me, if you like, and I jumped up,
+and threw off my apron, and looked on to the plateau. I could not see
+anything; neither the man nor the young ladies; so I thought it time
+to go and search after them. I had got nearly up to the Round Tower,
+that ruined wall, breast high, which is on the plateau----"
+
+"You need not explain," said the coroner, "we know the place."
+
+"When a man darted out from the shade of it," continued the witness.
+"He cut across to the side of the plateau next the village, and
+disappeared down that dangerous steep path in the cliffs, which nobody
+afore, I guess, ever ventured down but in broad daylight."
+
+"Was it the same man you saw just before running on to the plateau?"
+
+"Of course it was."
+
+"By what marks did you know him again?"
+
+"By no marks at all. I should not know the man from Adam. My own
+senses told me it was the same, because there was no other man on the
+plateau."
+
+"Your own senses will not do to speak from. Remember, witness, you are
+on your oath."
+
+"Whether I am on my oath or off it, I should speak the truth," was the
+response of the imperturbable witness.
+
+"What next?"
+
+"I stood looking at the man; that is, at where he had disappeared;
+expecting he was pitching down head foremost and getting half killed,
+at the pace he was going, when Miss Thornycroft laid hold of me,
+shaking and crying, almost beside herself with terror. Then I found
+that Miss Chester had fainted away, and was lying like one dead on the
+frosty grass inside the Round Tower."
+
+"What account did they give of this?"
+
+"They gave none to me. Miss Chester, when she came to herself, was too
+much shook to do it, and Miss Thornycroft was no better. I thought
+they had been startled by the man; I never thought worse; and I did
+not hear of the murder till the next morning. They told me not to say
+anything about it at home, or it would be known they had been on the
+plateau. So Miss Thornycroft ran back to the Red Court, and I went
+home with Miss Chester."
+
+"What else do you know about the matter?"
+
+"I don't know any more myself. I have heard plenty."
+
+The witness's "hearing" was dispensed with, and Captain Copp was
+requested to stand up and answer a question. The captain's face, as he
+listened to the foregoing evidence, was something ludicrous to look
+upon.
+
+"What account did Miss Chester and your servant give you of this
+transaction?" demanded the coroner.
+
+"What account did they give me?" spluttered Captain Copp, to whom the
+question sounded as the most intense aggravation. "They gave me none.
+This is the first time my ears have heard it. I only wish I had been
+behind them with a cat-o'-nine-tails"--shaking his stick in a menacing
+manner--"I'd have taught them to go gampusing on to the plateau at
+night, after sweethearts! I'll send my niece back to whence she came;
+her father was a clergyman, Mr. Coroner, a rector of a parish. And
+that vile bumboat-woman, Sarah, with her apron over her head, shall
+file out of my quarters this day; a she-pirate, a----"
+
+The coroner interposed. But what with Captain Copp's irascibility and
+his real ignorance of the whole transaction, nothing satisfactory
+could be obtained from him, and the next witness called was Miss
+Chester. A lady-like, interesting girl, thought those of the
+spectators who had not previously seen her. She gave her evidence in a
+sad, low tone, trembling the whole of the time with inward terror. To
+a sensitive mind, as hers was, the very fact of having to give her
+name as Anna Chester when it was Anna Thornycroft, would have been
+enough alarm. But there was worse than that.
+
+Her account of their going on to the plateau was the same as Sarah's.
+It was "done in the impulse of the moment," to "frighten," or "speak
+to," Robert Hunter, who was at its edge. (A groan from Captain Copp.)
+That they halted for a moment at the Round Tower, and then found that
+a man was following them on to the plateau, so they ran inside to hide
+themselves.
+
+"Who was that man?" asked the coroner.
+
+"I don't know," was the faint reply. "I am nearsighted."
+
+"Did you look at him?"
+
+"We peeped out, round the wall. At least, Miss Thornycroft did. I only
+looked for a moment."
+
+"Proceed, witness, if you please."
+
+"He had come quite close when I looked, and--then----"
+
+"Then what?" said the coroner, looking searchingly at the witness, who
+seemed unable to continue. "You must speak up, young lady."
+
+"Then I saw him with a pistol--and he fired it off--and I was so
+terrified that I fainted, and remembered no more. It all passed in a
+moment."
+
+"A good thing if he had shot off your two figureheads!" burst forth
+Captain Copp, who was immediately silenced.
+
+"Was he tall or short, this man?"
+
+"Tall."
+
+"Did you know him?" proceeded the coroner.
+
+"Oh no, no," was Anna's answer, putting up her hands, as if to ward
+off the approach of some terror, and she burst into a fit of
+hysterical crying.
+
+She was conducted from the room. Isaac Thornycroft advanced to give
+her his arm, but she turned from him and took that of the doctor, who
+was standing by. An impression was left on the mind of one or two of
+the listeners that Miss Chester could have told more.
+
+With the subsiding of the hubbub, the coroner resumed his business.
+
+"Call Mary Anne Thornycroft."
+
+Miss Thornycroft appeared, led in by her brother Richard. She wore a
+rich black silk dress, a velvet mantle, and small bonnet with blue
+flowers. Her face was of a deadly white, her lips were compressed; but
+she delivered her evidence with composure (unlike Miss Chester), in a
+low, deliberate, thoughtful tone. Her account of their going on to the
+plateau, and running inside the Round Tower at the approach of some
+man, who appeared to be following them, was the same as that given by
+the last witness. The coroner inquired if she had recognised Robert
+Hunter.
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "I saw the outline of his face and figure
+distinctly, and knew him. I recognised him first by the coat he had
+on; it was quite conspicuous in the star-light. He was standing on the
+brink, apparently looking out over the sea.
+
+"That was before you saw the man who came running on to the plateau?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who was that man?"
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft laid her hand upon her heart, as if pressing
+down its emotion, before she answered.
+
+"I cannot tell."
+
+"Did you not know him?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Upon your oath?"
+
+Miss Thornycroft again pressed her hands, both hands, upon her bosom,
+and a convulsive twitching was perceptible in her throat; but she
+replied, in a low tone, "Upon my oath."
+
+"Then, he was a stranger?"
+
+She bowed her rigid face in reply, for the white strained lips refused
+to answer. Motions are no answers for coroners, and this one spoke
+again.
+
+"I ask you whether he was a stranger?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"From what direction did he come?"
+
+"I do not know. He was near the Round Tower before I saw him."
+
+"You saw him draw the pistol and fire?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now, young lady, I am going to ask you a painful question, but the
+ends of justice demand that you should answer it. Was that man your
+brother, Cyril Thornycroft?"
+
+"No," she answered, in the sharp tone of earnest truth, "I swear it
+was not--I swear it before Heaven. The man bore no resemblance
+whatever to my brother Cyril; he was at least a head taller."
+
+"Did he aim at Robert Hunter?"
+
+"I cannot say. Robert Hunter was standing with his face towards us
+then, and I saw him fall back, over the precipice."
+
+"With a yell, did he not?"
+
+"Yes, with a yell."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I cannot tell what, I believe I shrieked--I cannot remember. I next
+saw the man running away across the plateau."
+
+"The witness Sarah Ford's evidence would seem to say that he lingered
+a few moments after firing the pistol--before escaping," interposed
+the coroner.
+
+"It is possible. I was too terrified to retain a clear recollection of
+what passed. I remember seeing him run away, and then Sarah Ford came
+up."
+
+"Should you recognise that man again?"
+
+Miss Thornycroft hesitated. The room waited in breathless silence for
+her answer. "I believe not," she said; "it was only starlight. I am
+sure not."
+
+At this moment, an inquisitive juryman spoke up. He wished to know how
+it was that Miss Thornycroft and the other young lady had never
+mentioned these facts until to-day, when they had been drawn from
+them, as it were, by their oath.
+
+"Because," Miss Thornycroft replied, with, if possible, a deeper shade
+of paleness arising to her face--"because they did not care that their
+foolish freak of going on to the plateau should come to the knowledge
+of their friends."
+
+"Glad they have some sense of shame left in them," cried Captain Copp.
+
+The inquisitive juryman was not quite satisfied. He asked to have the
+maid-servant recalled; and, when she appeared, put the same question
+to her. "Why had _she_ not told of it?"
+
+Why didn't she tell! was the independent retort. Did the gentlemen
+think she was going to bleat out to the world what the young ladies
+had seen, when they did not choose to tell of it themselves, and so
+bring 'em here to be browbeat and questioned, as they had all been
+this day? Not she. She was only sorry other folks had ferreted it out,
+and told.
+
+Very little evidence was forthcoming, none of consequence to the
+general reader. Supervisor Kyne volunteered a statement about
+smuggling, which nobody understood, and Justice Thornycroft at once
+threw ridicule upon. The coroner cut it short, and proceeded to charge
+the jury. Primarily remarking that, if the evidence was to be
+believed, Cyril Thornycroft must be held exempt from the suspicion
+whispered against him, he went on: If they thought a wicked,
+deliberate act of murder had been committed, they were to bring in a
+verdict to that effect; and if they thought it had not, they were not
+to bring it in so. Grateful for this luminous advice, the jury
+proceeded to deliberate--that is, they put their heads together, and
+spoke for some minutes in an undertone; and then intimated that they
+had agreed upon their verdict.
+
+"Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+Robert Hunter's Funeral.
+
+
+Filing out of the room in groups, came the crowd who had filled it.
+The day had changed. The brightness of the morning was replaced by a
+wintry afternoon of grey sky; the air blew keen; snow began to fall.
+The eager spectators put up their umbrellas, if they happened to
+possess any, and stood to talk in excited whispers.
+
+Crossing to the waste land, the roundabout road she chose to take on
+her way home, was Anna Chester. Sarah had gone striding up the nearest
+way; Captain Copp had been laid hold of by Supervisor Kyne, whose
+grievance on the score of the smugglers was sore; and Anna was alone.
+Her veil drawn over her white face, her eyes wearing a depth of
+trouble never yet seen in their sweetness, went she, looking neither
+to the right nor left, until she was overtaken by Miss Thornycroft.
+
+"Anna!"
+
+"Mary Anne!"
+
+For a full minute they stood, looking into each other's faces of fear
+and pain. And then the latter spoke, a rising sob of emotion catching
+her breath.
+
+"Thank you for what you have done this day, Anna! I was in doubt
+before; I did not know how much you had seen that night; whether you
+had not mercifully been spared all by the fainting fit. But now that
+you have given your evidence, I see how much I have to thank you for.
+Thank you truly. We have both forsworn ourselves: you less than I; but
+surely Heaven will forgive us in such a cause."
+
+"Let us never speak of it again," murmured Anna. "I don't think I can
+bear it."
+
+"Just a word first--to set my mind at rest," returned Miss
+Thornycroft, as she stood grasping Anna's hand in hers. "How much did
+you see? Did you see the pistol fired?"
+
+"I saw only that. It was at the moment I looked out round the wall.
+The flash drove me back again. That and the cry that broke from Robert
+Hunter: upon which I fainted for the first time in my life."
+
+"And you--recognised him--him who fired the pistol?" whispered Miss
+Thornycroft, glancing cautiously round as the words issued from her
+bloodless lips.
+
+"Yes, I fear so."
+
+It was quite enough. Qualified though the avowal was, Mary Anne saw
+that she could have spoken decisively. The two unhappy girls, burdened
+with their miserable secret, looked into each other's faces that
+sickness and terror had rendered white. Anna, as if in desperation to
+have her fears confirmed where no confirmation was needed, broke the
+silence.
+
+"It--was--your--brother."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Isaac."
+
+Miss Thornycroft opened her lips to speak, and closed them again. She
+turned her head away.
+
+"You will not betray him--and us, Anna? You will ever be
+cautious--silent?"
+
+"I will be cautious and silent always; I will guard the secret
+jealously."
+
+A sharp pressure of the hand in ratification of the bargain, and they
+parted, Anna going on her solitary way.
+
+"Will I guard the secret! Heaven alone knows how much heavier lies the
+obligation on me to do so than on others," wailed Anna. "May God help
+me to bear it!"
+
+Quick steps behind her, and she turned, for they had a ring that she
+knew too well. Pressing onwards through the flakes of snow came Isaac
+Thornycroft. Anna set off to run; it was in the lonely spot by the
+churchyard.
+
+"Anna! Anna! Don't you know me?"
+
+Not a word of answer. She only ran the faster--as if she could hope to
+outstep him! Isaac, with his long, fleet strides, overtook her with
+ease, and laid his hand upon her shoulder.
+
+Like a stag brought to bay, she turned upon him, with her
+terror-stricken face, more ghastly, more trembling than it had yet
+been; and by a dexterous movement freed herself.
+
+"Why, Anna, what is the matter? Why do you run from me?"
+
+"There's my uncle," she panted. "Don't speak to me--don't come after
+me."
+
+And sure enough, as Isaac turned, he distinguished Captain Copp at a
+distance. Anna had set off to run again like a wild hare, and was
+half-way across the heath. Isaac turned slowly back, passed the
+captain with a nod, and went on, wondering. What had come to Anna? Why
+did she fly from him?
+
+He might have wondered still more had he been near her in her flight.
+Groans of pain were breaking from her; soft low moans of anguish;
+sighs, and horribly perplexing thoughts; driving her to a state of
+utter despair.
+
+For, according to the testimony of her own eyes that ill-fated night,
+Anna, you see, believed the murderer to be her husband Miss
+Thornycroft had now confirmed it. And, not to keep you in more
+suspense than can be helped, we must return to that night for a few
+brief moments.
+
+When Richard Thornycroft darted into the subterranean passage with the
+intention of warning his brother Isaac, before he reached its end the
+question naturally occurred to him, _Why_ stop the boats, now Hunter
+is off? and he turned back again. So much has been already said. But
+half-way down the passage he again vacillated--a most uncommon thing
+in Richard Thornycroft, but the episode with Hunter had well-nigh
+scared his senses away. Turning about again, he retraced his steps and
+called to Isaac.
+
+A private conference ensued. Richard told all without reserve, down to
+the point where he had watched Hunter away, under the surveillance of
+Cyril. "Will it be better to stop the boats or not?" he asked.
+
+"There is not the slightest cause for stopping them, that I see,"
+returned Isaac, who had listened attentively. "Certainly not. Hunter
+is gone; and if he were not, I do not think, by what you say, that he
+would attempt to interfere further; he'd rather turn his back a mile
+the other way."
+
+"Let them come on then," decided Richard.
+
+"They are already, I expect, putting off from the ship."
+
+Isaac Thornycroft remained at his work; Richard went back again up the
+passage. Not quickly; some latent doubt, whence arising he could not
+see or trace, lingered on his mind still--his better angel perhaps
+urging him from the road he was going. Certain it was: he remembered
+it afterwards even more vividly than he felt it then: that a strong
+inclination lay upon him to stop the work for that night. But it
+appeared not to hold reason, and was disregarded.
+
+He emerged from the subterranean passage, lightly shut the
+trap-door--which could be opened from the inside at will, when not
+fastened down--and took his way to the plateau to watch against
+intruders. This would bring it to about the time that the two young
+ladies had gone there, and Sarah, her apron over her head, had taken
+her place on the low red stone. In her evidence the woman had said it
+might be a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes since she met Robert
+Hunter starting on his journey; it had taken Richard about that time
+to do since what he had done; and it might have taken Robert Hunter
+about the same space (or rather less) to walk quickly to the wherry,
+_and come back again_. And come back again! Richard Thornycroft could
+have staked his life, had the question occurred to him, that Hunter
+would not come back: he never supposed any living man, calling himself
+a gentleman, could be guilty of so great treachery. But the doubt
+never presented itself to him for a moment.
+
+What then was his astonishment, as he ran swiftly and stealthily
+(escaping the sight of Sarah Ford, owing, no doubt, to her crouching
+posture on the stone, and the black apron on her head) up the plateau,
+to see Robert Hunter? He was at its edge, at the corner farthest from
+the village; was looking out steadily over the sea, as if watching for
+the boats and their prey. Richard verily thought he must be in a
+dream: he stood still and strained his eyes, wondering if they
+deceived him; and then as ugly a word broke from him as ever escaped
+the lips of man.
+
+Thunderstruck with indignation, with dismay, half mad at the fellow's
+despicable conduct, believing that if any in the world ever merited
+shooting, he did; nay, believing that the fool must court death to be
+there after his, Richard's, warning promise; overpowered with fury,
+with passion, Richard Thornycroft stood in the shade of the Round
+Tower, his eyes glaring, his white teeth showing themselves from
+between the drawn lips. At that same moment Robert Hunter, after
+stooping to look over the precipice, turned round; the ugly fur on the
+breast of his coat very conspicuous. May Richard Thornycroft be
+forgiven! With a second hissing oath, he drew the pistol from his
+breast-pocket, pointed it with his unerring hand, and fired; and the
+ill-fated man fell over the cliff with a yelling cry. Another shriek,
+more shrill, arose at Richard's elbow from the shade of the Round
+Tower.
+
+"So ye cursed sea-bird," he muttered. "_He_ has got his deserts. I
+would be served so myself, if I could thus have turned traitor!"
+
+But what was it seized Richard's arm? Not a seabird. It was his sister
+Mary Anne. "_You_ here!" he cried, with increased passion. "What the
+fury!--have you all turned mad to-night?"
+
+"You have murdered him!" she cried, in a dread whisper--for how could
+she know that Anna Chester had fallen senseless and could not hear
+her?--"you have murdered Robert Hunter!"
+
+"I have," he answered. "He is dead, and more than dead. If the shot
+did not take effect, the fall would kill him."
+
+"Oh, Richard, say it was an accident!" she moaned, very nearly bereft
+of reason in her shock of horror. "What madness came over you?"
+
+"He earned it of his own accord; earned it deliberately. I held my
+pistol to his head before, this night, and I spared him. I had him on
+his knees to me, and he took an oath to be away from this place
+instantly, and to be silent. I told him if he broke it, if he lingered
+here but for a moment, I would put the bullet into him. I saw him off;
+I send Cyril with him to speed him on his road; and--see!--the fool
+came back again. I was right to do it."
+
+"I will denounce you!" she fiercely uttered, anger getting the better
+of other feelings. "Ay, though you are my brother, Richard
+Thornycroft! I will raise the hue and cry upon you."
+
+"You had better think twice of that," he answered, shaking her arm in
+his passion. "If you do, you must raise it against your father and
+your father's house!"
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked, quailing, for there was a savage
+earnestness in his words which told of startling truth.
+
+"Girl! see you no mystery? can't you fathom it? You would have aided
+Hunter in discovering the smugglers: see you not that _we_ are the
+smugglers? We are running a cargo now--now"--and his voice rose to a
+hoarse shriek as he pointed to the Half-moon, "and he would have
+turned Judas to us! He was on the watch there, on the plateau's edge,
+doing traitor's work for Kyne."
+
+"He did not know it was you he would have denounced," she faintly
+urged, gathering in the sense of his revelation to her sinking heart.
+
+"He did know it. The knowledge came to him tonight. He was abject
+enough before me, the coward, and swore he would be silent, and be
+gone from hence there and then. But his traitor's nature prevailed,
+and he has got his deserts. Now go and raise the hue and cry upon us!
+Bring your father to a felon's bar."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft, with a despairing cry, sank down on the grass
+at her brother's feet. He was about to raise her, rudely enough it
+must be confessed, rather than tenderly, when his eye caught the form
+of some one advancing; he darted off at right angles across the
+plateau, and descended recklessly the dangerous path.
+
+The intruder was Sarah. Miss Thornycroft, passing off her own emotion
+as the effect of fear at the shot, though scarcely knowing how she
+contrived not to betray herself, remembered Anna. She lay within the
+walls in a fainting-fit. Only as they went in was consciousness
+beginning to return to her. It must be mentioned that at this stage
+Sarah did not know any one had been killed.
+
+"Who was the man?" asked Sarah of Miss Thornycroft.
+
+"Did you see him?" was the only answer.
+
+"Not to know him, miss; only at a distance. A regular fool he must be
+to fire off guns at night, to frighten folks! Was it a stranger?"
+
+"Yes." Mary Anne wiped the dew from her cold brow as she told the lie.
+
+They took their departure, Sarah promising not to say they had been on
+the plateau--to hold her tongue, in short, as to the events of the
+night, shot and all. But a chance passer-by who had heard the report,
+saw them descend. It might have been through him the news got wind.
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft went in. Sounds of laughter and glee proceeded
+from the dining-room as she passed it, and she dragged her shaking
+limbs upstairs to her chamber, and shut herself in with her dreadful
+secret. Anna Chester with _her_ secret turned to the heath, even one
+more dreadful; for in the momentary glimpse she caught of the man who
+drew the pistol, as he stood partly with his back to her, she had
+recognised, as she fully believed, her husband Isaac. Had the
+impression wanted confirmation in her mind--which it did not--the
+tacit admission of his sister, now alluded to, supplied it. Miss
+Thornycroft had opened her lips to correct her, "not Isaac, but
+Richard;" and closed them again without saying it. Thought is quick;
+and a dim idea flew through her brain, that to divert suspicion from
+Richard might add to his safety. It was not _her_ place to denounce
+him; nay, her duty lay in screening him. Terribly though she detested
+and deplored the crime, she was still his sister.
+
+And the poor dead body had lain unseen where it fell, in the remote
+corner of the plateau. The smugglers ran their cargo, passing within a
+few yards of the dark angle where it lay, and never saw it.
+
+The funeral took place on the Friday, and Robert Hunter was buried
+within sight of the place from whence he had been shot down. Any one
+standing on that ill-fated spot could see the grave in the churchyard
+corner, close by the tomb of the late Mrs. Thornycroft.
+
+None of his friends had arrived to claim him. It would have been
+remarkable, perhaps, if they had, since they had not been written to.
+Of male relatives he had none living, so far as was believed. His
+sister Susan was in a remote district of Yorkshire, and it was a
+positive fact that her address was unknown to both Anna Chester and
+Miss Thornycroft. Of course, the Miss Jupps could have supplied it on
+application, but nobody did apply. His half-sister, Mrs. Chester, was
+also uncertain in her domicile, here to-day, there to-morrow, and Anna
+had not heard from her for some months. The old saying that "Where
+there's a will there's a way," might have been exemplified, no doubt,
+in this case; but here there was no _will_. To all at Coastdown
+interested in the unfortunate matter, it had been a blessed relief
+could they have heard that Robert Hunter would lie in his quiet grave
+unclaimed for ever, his miserable end not inquired into. Richard
+Thornycroft had only too good personal cause to hope this, his sister
+also for his sake; and Mr. Thornycroft, acting on the caution Richard
+gave him as to the desirability of keeping other things quiet that
+were done on that eventful night, tacitly acquiesced in the silence.
+And Anna Chester--the only one besides who could be supposed to hold
+interest in the deceased--shuddered at the bare idea of writing to
+make it known; rather would she have cut off her right hand.
+
+"They will be coming down fast enough with their inquiries from his
+office in London, when they find he does not return," spoke Richard
+gloomily the evening previous to the funeral. "No need to send them
+word before that time."
+
+It was a snowy day. Mary Anne Thornycroft stood at the corridor
+window, from which a view of the path crossing from the village to the
+churchyard, could be obtained. Only for a few yards of it; but she
+watched carefully, and saw the funeral go winding past. The sky was
+clear at the moment; the snow had ceased; but the whole landscape, far
+and near, presented a sheet of white, contrasting strangely with the
+sombre black of the procession. Such a thing as a hearse was not known
+in Coastdown, and the body was carried by eight bearers. The
+clergyman, Mr. Southall, walked first, in his surplice--it was the
+custom of the place--having gone down to the Mermaid with the rest.
+Following it were Justice Thornycroft and his son Isaac, Captain Copp
+and Mr. Kyne, who acted as mourners; and a number of spectators
+brought up the rear. Richard had gone out to a distance that day; he
+had business, he said. Cyril had not been heard of. Mr. Thornycroft
+bore the expenses of the funeral. Some money had been found in the
+pockets of the deceased, a sovereign in gold and some silver; nothing
+else except a white handkerchief.
+
+Mary Anne strained her eyes, blinded by their tears, upon the short
+line, as its features came into view one by one, more distinctly than
+could have happened at any time but this of snow. All she had cared
+for in life was being carried past there; henceforth the world would
+be a miserable blank. Dead! Killed! Murdered!--murdered by her
+brother, Richard Thornycroft! Had it been done by anybody not
+connected with her by blood, some satisfaction might have been derived
+by bringing the crime home to its perpetrator. Had it been brought
+home to Richard--and of course she could not move to bring it--he
+would have battled it out, persisting he was justified. He called it
+justifiable homicide; she called it murder.
+
+The distant line of black has passed now, and colours follow: men and
+women, boys and girls; displaying, if not all the tints of the
+rainbow, the shades and hues, dirt included, that prevail in the
+every-day attire of the great unwashed. Mary Anne glided into her
+room, and sank down on her knees in the darkest corner.
+
+Some time after, when she thought they might be coming home, for the
+mourners would return to the Red Court, not the Mermaid, she came out
+again, her eyes swollen, and entered her step-mother's room. My lady,
+looking worse and worse, every day bringing her _palpably_ nearer the
+grave, sat with her prayer-book in her hand She had been reading the
+burial service. Ah, how changed she was; how changed in spirit!
+
+"I suppose it is over," she said, in a subdued tone, as she laid the
+book down.
+
+"Yes; by this time."
+
+"May God rest his soul!" she breathed, to herself rather than to her
+companion.
+
+Mary Anne covered her face with her hand, and for some moments there
+was perfect silence.
+
+"I shall be going hence to-morrow, as you know," resumed Lady Ellis,
+"never to return, never perhaps to hold further communication with the
+Red Court Farm. I would ask you one thing first, Mary Anne, or the
+doubt and trouble will follow me: perhaps mix itself up with my
+thoughts in dying. What of Cyril?"
+
+"Of Cyril?" returned Miss Thornycroft, lifting her face, rather in
+surprise. "We have not heard from him."
+
+"Of course I know that. What I wish to ask is--what are the
+apprehensions?"
+
+"There are none. Papa and my brothers seem perfectly at their ease in
+regard to him."
+
+"Then whence arises this great weight of care, of tribulation, that
+lies on you?--that I can see lies on you, Mary Anne?"
+
+"It is not on Cyril's account. The events of the last few days have
+frightened me," she hastened to add. "They have startled others as
+well as me."
+
+"Ah, yes; true. And it seems to me so sad that you did not know the
+man who fired the pistol," continued Lady Ellis, who had no suspicion
+that Miss Thornycroft had not told the whole truth. "But to return to
+Cyril. If it be as you say, that they are easy about him, why, they
+must know something that I and others do not. I have asked your papa,
+but he only puts me off. Mary Anne, you might tell _me_."
+
+Mary Anne made no immediate reply. She was considering what to do.
+
+"The thought of Cyril is troubling me," resumed Lady Ellis. "As I lay
+awake last night, I thought _how much_ I owed him. Were he my own son,
+his welfare could not be dearer to me than it is. Surely, Mary Anne,
+whatever you may know of him, I may share it. The secret--if it be a
+secret--will be sacred with me."
+
+"Yes, I am sure it will," spoke Mary Anne impulsively. "Not that it is
+any particular secret," she added, with hesitation, framing the
+communication cautiously; "but still, papa has reasons for not wishing
+it to be known. He thinks Cyril has gone to Holland."
+
+"To Holland?"
+
+"Yes; we have friends there. And a ship was off lying o here on
+Sunday night with other friends on board. Some of them, subsequent
+to the--the accident--came on shore in a little boat, and papa and
+Richard feel quite certain that Cyril went on board with them when
+they returned. But there are reasons why this must not be told to the
+public."
+
+"What a relief!" cried the invalid. "My dear, it is safe with me. Dear
+Cyril! he will live to fulfil God's mission yet in the world. I shall
+not see him for a last farewell here, but we shall say it in heaven.
+Not a _farewell_ there--a happy greeting."
+
+A sort of muffled sound downstairs, and Mary Anne quitted the room to
+look. Yes, they were coming in in their black cloaks and hatbands,
+having left Robert Hunter in the grave in St. Peter's churchyard.
+
+For all that could be seen at present he seemed likely to lie there at
+rest, undisturbed, uninquired after. And the name of his slayer with
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+Curious Rumours.
+
+
+April. And a fine spring evening.
+
+The weeks have gone on since that miserable January time, bringing but
+little change to Coastdown or to those in it. Robert Hunter rested in
+his grave, uninquired for--though as to the word "rested" more
+hereafter--and Cyril Thornycroft had never returned. Lady Ellis had
+died in Cheltenham only a week after she went back to it.
+
+That Cyril's remaining away so long and his not writing was singular
+in the extreme, no one doubted. Mr. Thornycroft grew uneasy, saying
+over and over again that some accident must have happened to him.
+Richard, however, had his private theory on the point, which he did
+not tell to the world. He believed now that Cyril and Hunter had
+returned that night together; that Cyril had witnessed the deliberate
+shot, had put off to the ship, and in his condemnation of the act
+would not come home to the Red Court so long as he, Richard, was in
+it.
+
+But Richard could not tell this to his father, and Mr. Thornycroft one
+morning suddenly ordered his son Isaac abroad--to France, to Holland,
+to Flanders--to every place and town, in fact, where there was the
+least probability of Cyril's being found. The illicit business they
+had been engaged in caused them to have relations with several places
+on the Continent, and Cyril might be at any one of them. Isaac had but
+now returned--returned as he went, neither seeing nor hearing aught of
+Cyril. It was beginning to be more than singular. Surely if Cyril were
+within postal bounds of communication with England, he would write!
+
+The supposition, held from the first that he had gone off in the
+smuggling boats to the ship that night, and sailed with her on her
+homeward voyage, was far more probable than it might seem to
+strangers. Richard and Isaac had each done the same more than once;
+as, in his younger days had Mr. Thornycroft, thereby causing no end of
+alarm; to his wife. Cyril, it is true, was quite different in
+disposition, not at all given to wild rovings; but they had assumed
+the fact, and been easy. Richard, unwillingly, but with a view to ease
+her suspense, imparted the theory he had recently adopted to his
+sister; and she thought he might be right. As Mary Anne observed to
+her own heart, it was a miserable business altogether, looked at from
+any point.
+
+No direct confidence had been reposed in Isaac. Richard shrank from
+it. Isaac had many estimable qualities, although he helped to cheat
+Her Majesty's revenue, and thought it glorious fun. But he could not
+avoid entertaining suspicions of his brother, and one day he asked a
+question. "Never mind," shortly replied Richard; "Hunter got his
+deserts." It was no direct avowal, but Isaac drew his own conclusions,
+and was awfully shocked. He was as different from Richard in mind, in
+disposition, in the view he took of things in general, as light is
+from dark. The blow to Isaac was dreadful. He could not, so to say,
+lift up his head from it; it lay on him like an incubus. _Now_, the
+coldness with which Anna had ever since treated him was explained,
+satisfactorily enough to his own mind. As a murderer's brother, her
+avoidance of him was only natural. No doubt she was overwhelmed with
+horror at being tied to him. If he could but have divined that she
+suspected _him!_ But they were all going in for mistakes; Isaac
+amongst the rest.
+
+As if the real sorrow, the never-ceasing apprehension under which some
+of them lived, were not enough to bear, rumours were about to arise of
+an unreal one.
+
+On this evening, in early April, Miss Thornycroft was alone. As she
+paced her parlour, in the stately mourning robes of black silk and
+crape, ostensibly worn for her stepmother, the blight that had fallen
+on her spirit and her heart might be traced in her countenance. The
+untimely and dreadful fate of Robert Hunter, to whom she had been so
+passionately attached, was ever present to her; the false part she had
+played at the inquest reddened her brow with shame; the guilt of her
+brother Richard haunted her dreams. She would start up in fright from
+sleep, seeing the officers of justice coming to apprehend him; she
+would fancy sometimes she saw her _father_ taken, preparatory to the
+illicit practices he had carried on being investigated before a
+criminal tribunal. Mingling with this--worse, if possible, than the
+rest--was the keenest weight of self-reproach. She could not hide from
+herself, and no longer tried to do it, that her own deliberate
+disobedience had brought it all about--all, all! But for flying in the
+face of her father's express commands, in not stopping the visit of
+Robert Hunter, he had been living now, and Richard's hand guiltless.
+
+All this was telling upon Mary Anne Thornycroft. You would scarcely
+know her, pacing the lonely drawing-room, pale and sad, for the
+blooming, high-spirited, haughty girl of two months before. Her father
+and Richard had gone to London on business, Isaac was out, she knew
+not where, and she was alone. Her thoughts were dwelling on that fatal
+night--when were they ever absent from it?--and were becoming, as they
+sometimes did, unbearable. A nervous feeling came creeping over her;
+it had done so at times of late, fearless though she was by nature: a
+horror of being alone; a dread of her own lonely self; of the lonely
+room and its two candles; an imperative demand for companionship. She
+opened the door, and glided across the hall and lighted passages to
+the kitchen, framing an excuse as she went.
+
+"Sinnett, will you--where's Sinnett?"
+
+The maids, three of whom were present, stood up at her entrance. They
+had been seated at the table making household linen.
+
+"Sinnett is upstairs, miss. Shall I call her?"
+
+"No; she will be down directly, I dare say. I'll wait."
+
+At that moment a sort of wild noise, half shriek, half howl,
+long-continued and ever-recurring, arose from without--at a distance
+as yet. Mary Anne Thornycroft turned her ear to listen, her face
+blanching with dread fear; the least thing was sufficient to excite
+fear now.
+
+The sounds approached nearer: they seemed to come from one in the very
+extremity of terror, and, just then Sinnett entered the kitchen.
+Perhaps it has not been forgotten that the windows, of modern date,
+looked on the side walk, and thence towards the church and village.
+The shutters were not yet closed, the blinds not drawn down. In
+another instant, as the frightened women stood together in a group,
+one window was flung up, and a form propelled itself in, smashing a
+pane of glass. It proved to be Joe, the carter's boy; a sensitive,
+delicate lad, who had recently lost his mother, and was a favourite at
+the Red Court Farm. He lay for a moment amidst the shivers of glass,
+then rose up and clasped tight hold of Sinnett, his white face and
+shivering frame betokening some extraordinary cause of terror.
+
+They put him in a chair, and held him there, he clinging to them. Miss
+Thornycroft authoritatively stopped all questions until he should be
+calmer. Sinnett brought him some wine, and the boy tried to sip it;
+but he could not keep his teeth still, and _he bit a piece out of the
+glass_. He looked over his shoulder at the window perpetually in
+ghastly fear, so one of the servants closed and barred the shutters.
+By degrees, he brought out that he had "seen a ghost."
+
+Ghosts were rather favourite appendages to Coastdown, as we have read.
+They were not less implicitly believed in by the lower classes (not to
+bring in others) than they used to be, so the maids screamed and drew
+nearer Joe. This ghost, however, was not the old ghost of the plateau;
+as the boy is explaining, sobbing between whiles; but--Robert
+Hunter's.
+
+"Nonsense!" reproved Sinnett. "Don't you be a coward, Joe, but just
+speak up and tell your tale sensibly. Come!"
+
+"I went for the newspaper to Captain Copp's, as sent," answered the
+boy, doing his best to obey. "Mrs. Copp couldn't find it, and thought
+the captain had took it in his pocket to the Mermaid. Coming back here
+to say so, I see a figure in the churchyard hiding, like, behind a
+tombstone. I thought it were old Parkes, a-taking the short cut over
+the graves to his home, and I stood and looked at him. Then, as he
+rose himself a bit higher, I see him out and out. It were Mr. Hunter,
+with his own face and his own coat on--that black and white thing."
+
+"His own coat!"
+
+"It were," groaned the lad. "I never were thinking of anybody but
+Parkes, but when I once saw the coat and the face, I see it were Mr.
+Hunter."
+
+Joe's hearers did not know what to make of this. Miss Thornycroft
+privately thought she must fall in a fit, too, she felt so sick and
+ill.
+
+"Was the face--" began one of the maids, and stopped. Remembering Miss
+Thornycroft's presence, she substituted another word for the one she
+had been about to speak. "Was the face _red?_"
+
+"No. White. It--"
+
+At this juncture there came a sharp knock at the window, as if the
+ghost were knocking to come in. The boy howled, the women shrieked;
+and the ghost knocked again.
+
+"Who's there?" called out Sinnett through the shutters.
+
+"It's me," answered a voice, which they recognised for that of Sarah
+Ford. "Is the kitchen a-fire?"
+
+Sinnett went to the entrance-door and called to her to come in. On
+occasions, when pressed for time, Sarah would give her messages at the
+kitchen-window, to save going round. She had brought the newspaper,
+one lent by the Red Court to Captain Copp: Mrs. Copp had found it
+after Joe's departure.
+
+"He have seen a ghost," lucidly explained one of the maids, pointing
+to Joe.
+
+"Oh," said Sarah, who had a supreme contempt for such things,
+regarding them as vanities, akin to hysterics and smelling salts.
+
+"I see it in the churchyard, close again his own grave," said the boy,
+looking helplessly at Sarah.
+
+"See a old cow," responded she, emphatically. "That's more likely.
+They strays in sometimes."
+
+"It were Mr. Hunter's ghost," persisted Joe. "He wore that there fur
+coat, and he stared at me like anything. I see his eyes a-glaring."
+
+"The boy has been dreaming," cried Sarah, pityingly, as she turned to
+Sinnett. "I should give him a good dose of Epsom salts."
+
+Which prescription Joe by no means approved of. However, Sarah could
+not stay to see it enforced; and we must go out with her.
+
+Her master had come in when she reached home. It was supper time, and
+she began to lay the cloth. Old Mrs. Copp was there: she had arrived
+the previous day (after spending the winter in London) on another long
+visit. Peering through her tortoiseshell spectacles at Sarah, she told
+her in her decisive way that she had been twice as long taking home
+the newspaper as she need have been.
+
+"I know that," answered Sarah, with composure. "A fine commotion I
+found the Red Court in: the maids screeching fit to deafen you, and
+young Joe in convulsions. I thought the kitchen-chimbly must be
+a-fire, and they were trying whether noise would put it out."
+
+The captain looked up at this. He was in an easy-chair at the corner
+of the hearth-rug, a glass of rum-and-water on a small stand at his
+elbow: old Mrs. Copp sat in front of the fire, her feet on the fender;
+Amy was putting things to rights on a side-table near the sofa, and
+Anna Chester sat back on a low stool in the shade on the other side of
+the fire-place, a book on her knee, which she was making believe to
+read.
+
+"Was the chimney on fire?" snapped Mrs. Copp.
+
+"Just as much as this is," answered Sarah, making a rattle with the
+knives and forks. "Joe was telling them he had just seen Robert
+Hunter's ghost. They screeched at that."
+
+The captain burst into a laugh: he had no more faith in ghosts than
+Sarah had. Sea-serpents and mermaids were enough marvel for him. Anna
+glanced up with a perceptible shudder.
+
+"By the way," said Mrs. Copp, taking her feet off the fender and
+turning round to speak, "I should like to come to the bottom of that
+extraordinary business. You slipped out of my questioning this
+morning, Anna; I hardly knew how. Who _was_ the man that fired the
+pistol on the plateau? As to saying you did not see him properly, you
+may as well tell it to the moon. My belief is you are screening him,"
+concluded shrewd Mrs. Copp, watching the poor girl's gradually
+whitening face.
+
+"If I thought that; if I thought she could screen him, I'd--I'd--send
+her back to Miss Jupp's," roared Captain Copp, who was still very sore
+in regard to the part his women-kind had played in the transaction.
+"Screen a land murderer!"
+
+Anna burst out crying.
+
+"My impression is, that it was Cyril Thornycroft," resumed Mrs. Copp.
+"If he had not got something bad on his conscience why should he run
+away, and keep away."
+
+Sarah took up the word, putting a tray of tumblers down to do it. "He
+may have his reasons for staying away, and nobody but himself know
+anything about them. But truth's truth, all the world over, and I'll
+stand to it. I don't care whether it was the King of England, or
+whether it was old Nick--it was not Cyril Thornycroft."
+
+"She is right," nodded the captain. "He'd be the least likely in all
+Coastdown to rush on to the plateau at night, armed like a pirate, and
+shoot a man. It was no more Cyril Thornycroft did that than it was me,
+mother."
+
+"But, Sarah, what about poor Joe and the ghost?" interposed her
+mistress gently, upon whom the tale had made an unpleasant impression.
+
+"Some delusion of his, ma'am: as stands to reason. I don't believe the
+boy has been right since his mother died; he has had nothing but a
+down, scared look about him. He is just the one to see a ghost, he
+is."
+
+"Where did he see it?"
+
+"In the churchyard, _he_ says, with its fur coat on."
+
+"Fur coat!" broke in Captain Copp, his face aglow with merriment. "He
+meant a white sheet."
+
+"Ah, he made a mistake there," said Sarah. And it was really something
+laughable to see how she as well as her master (mocking sceptics!)
+enjoyed the ghost in their grim way. In the midst of it, who should
+come in but Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+He had not been a frequent visitor of late, rather to the regret of
+the hospitable captain. Set at rest on the score of any surreptitious
+liking for him on Anna's part--for it was impossible not to note her
+continual avoidance of him now--the captain would have welcomed him
+always in his pride and pleasure. Isaac Thornycroft was a vast
+favourite of his, and this was only the second visit he had paid since
+his return from abroad. Isaac looked as if he would like to join in
+the merriment, utterly unconscious what the cause might be.
+
+"It's the best joke I've heard this many a day," explained the
+captain. "Your boy up at the Red Court--that Joe."
+
+"Yes," said Isaac, the corners of his mouth relaxing in sympathy with
+the sailor's. "Well?"
+
+"He went flying through the air, bellowing enough to arouse the
+neighbourhood, and tumbled in at your kitchen window in a fit, saying
+he had seen Robert Hunter's ghost."
+
+"Breaking the glass and setting the maids a-screeching like mad," put
+in Sarah. "He saw it in the churchyard, he says, in its fur coat."
+
+A troubled expression passed across Isaac's countenance. Captain Copp,
+attempting to drink some rum-and-water while he laughed, began to
+choke.
+
+"What absurd story can they be getting up?" cried Isaac, sternly.
+"Some rumour of this sort--that Hunter had been seen in the
+churchyard--was abroad yesterday."
+
+"You never saw a boy in such a state of fright, sir," observed Sarah.
+"Whether he saw anything or nothing, he'll not get over it this many a
+week."
+
+"Saw anything or nothing! What d'ye mean?" fiercely demanded Captain
+Copp, suspending his laughter for the moment. "What d'ye suppose he
+saw?"
+
+"Not a ghost," independently retorted Sarah. "I'm not such a
+simpleton. But some ill-disposed fellow may have dressed himself up to
+frighten people."
+
+"If so, he shall get his punishment," spoke Isaac Thornycroft, with
+the imperative authority of a magistrate's son.
+
+Captain Copp broke into laughter still. He could not forget the joke;
+but somehow all inclination for merriment seemed to have gone out of
+Isaac. He sat silent and abstracted for a few minutes longer, and then
+took his leave, declining to partake of supper.
+
+"Where's Miss Anna gone?" cried the Captain to Sarah, suddenly missing
+her. "Tell her we are waiting."
+
+Isaac lingered unseen in the little hall until she appeared, and took
+her hand in silence.
+
+"Anna, this--"
+
+But she contrived to twist it from him and turned to the parlour. He
+drew her forcibly to him, speaking in a whisper.
+
+"Are you going to visit upon me for ever the work of that miserable
+night?"
+
+"Hush! they will hear you."
+
+But there was no other answer. Her face grew white, her lips dry and
+trembling.
+
+"Don't you know that you are my wife?"
+
+"Oh, heaven, yes! I would rather have died. I would die now to undo
+that night's work."
+
+She seemed bewildered, as if unconscious of her words; but there was
+always the struggle to get from him. Had he been an ogre who might eat
+her, she could not have evinced more terror. Sarah opened the kitchen
+door, and Anna took the opportunity to escape. Isaac looked after her.
+If ever misery, horror, despair, were depicted on a human countenance,
+they were on Anna's.
+
+"I did not think she was one to take it up like this," he said, as he
+let himself out. And in the tone of his voice, despairing as her face,
+there was a perfectly hopeless sound, as if he felt that he could not
+combat fate.
+
+By the next day the story of the ghost, singular to say, had spread
+all over Coastdown; singular, because the report did not come from
+Joe, or from any of Joe's hearers. It appeared that a young fellow of
+the name of Bartlet, a carpenter's apprentice, in passing the
+churchyard soon after poor Joe must have passed it, saw the same
+figure, which he protested--and went straight to the Mermaid and
+protested--was that of Mr. Hunter. He was a daring lad of sixteen, as
+hardy as Joe was timid. The company at the Mermaid accused him of
+having got frightened and fancied it; he answered that he feared
+"neither ghost nor devil," and persisted in his story with so much
+cool equanimity, that his adversaries were staggered.
+
+"It is well known that the ghosts of murdered people have been seen to
+walk," decided Mrs. Pettipher, the landlady, "and that of poor Mr.
+Hunter may be there. But as to the fur-coat, that can't be. It must
+have been a optical delusion of yours, Tom Bartlet. The coat's here;
+we have held possession of it since the inquest; for the ghost to have
+it on in the churchyard is a moral impossibility."
+
+"I'll never speak again if it hadn't got the coat upon it," loudly
+persisted young Bartlet. "But for that white coat, staring out in the
+moonlight, I might never have turned my head to the churchyard."
+
+"Had it got that there black fur down it, Tom?" demanded a gentleman,
+taking his long pipe from his mouth to speak.
+
+"In course it had. I tell ye it was _the coat_, talk as you will."
+
+This was the tale that spread in Coastdown. When the additional
+testimony of Joe and the maids at the Red Court Farm came to be added
+to it, something like fear took possession of three-parts of the
+community. The ghost of the plateau, so long believed in, was more a
+tradition than a ghost, after all; latterly, at any rate, nobody had
+been frightened by it; but this spirit haunting the churchyard was
+real--at least in one sense of the word. An uncomfortable feeling set
+in. And when in the course of a day or two other witnesses saw it, or
+professed to see it, people began to object to go abroad after
+nightfall in the direction of the churchyard. A young man in the
+telegraph office at Jutpoint brought over a message for Isaac
+Thornycroft. He was a stranger to Coastdown, and had to inquire his
+way to the Red Court Farm: misunderstanding the direction, he took at
+first the wrong turning, which brought him to the churchyard.
+Afterwards, the despatch at length delivered, he turned into the
+Mermaid for a glass of ale, saying incidentally, not in any fear, he
+had seen "sum'at" in the churchyard, a queer fellow that seemed to be
+dodging about behind the upright gravestones. He had never seen or
+heard of Robert Hunter; he knew nothing of the report of the ghost;
+but his description of the "sum'at" tallied so exactly with the
+appearance expected, and especially with the remarkable coat, that
+no doubt remained. Upon which some ten spirits, well warmed with
+brandy-and-water, started off arm-in-arm to the churchyard, there and
+then--and saw nothing for their pains but the tombstones. Captain Copp
+heard of the expedition, and went into a storm of indignation at grown
+men showing themselves to be so credulous.
+
+"Go out to a churchyard to look for a ghost! Serve 'em right to put
+'em into irons till their senses come to 'em!"
+
+Thus another day or two passed on, Mr. Thornycroft and Richard being
+still absent from home. Fears were magnified; fermentation increased;
+for, according to popular report, the spirit of Robert Hunter appeared
+nightly in St Peter's churchyard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+Robert Hunter's Ghost.
+
+
+It was a gusty night; the wind violently high even for the seaside;
+and Miss Thornycroft sat over the fire in her own sitting-room,
+listening to it as it whirled round the house and went booming away
+over the waste of waters.
+
+Anna Chester was with her. Anna had shunned the Red Court of late; but
+she could not always refuse Miss Thornycroft's invitations without
+attracting notice; and she had heard that Isaac was to be away from
+home that day.
+
+They had spent the hours unhappily. Heavy at heart, pale in
+countenance, subdued in spirit, it seemed to each that nothing in the
+world could bring pleasure again. Anna was altered just as much as
+Miss Thornycroft; worn, thin, haggard-eyed. Captain Copp's wife,
+seeing the change in Anna, and knowing nothing of the real cause, set
+it down to one that must inevitably bring discovery of the marriage in
+its train, and was fretting herself into fiddle-strings. Dinner was
+over; tea was taken; the evening went on. Quite unexpectedly Mr.
+Thornycroft and his eldest son arrived; Anna saw also, to her dismay,
+that Isaac was in; but none of them approached the sitting-room. Hyde,
+coming in later to replenish the fire, said the justice was not very
+well, and had retired to rest; Mr. Richard and Mr. Isaac had gone out.
+And the two girls sat on together, almost hearing the beating of each
+other's hearts.
+
+"I wonder if the ghost is abroad this windy night!" exclaimed Anna, as
+a wild gust dashed against the windows and shook the frames.
+
+"Don't joke about that, Anna," said Miss Thornycroft, sharply.
+
+Anna looked round in surprise: nothing had been further from her
+thoughts than to joke; and indeed she did not know why she said it.
+"Of course the report is a very foolish one," she resumed "I cannot
+think how any people can profess to believe it."
+
+"Isaac saw it last night," said Mary Anne, quietly.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Anna.
+
+"Ah! so I have answered when others said they saw it. But Isaac is
+cool and practical; entirely without superstition; the very last man I
+know, save perhaps Richard, to be led away by fear or fancy. He was
+passing the churchyard when he saw--if not Robert Hunter, some one
+dressed up to personate him; but the features were Robert Hunter's
+features, Isaac says; they were for a moment as distinct as ever he
+had seen them in life."
+
+"Did he tell you this?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Could he have been deceived by his imagination?"
+
+"I think not. When a cool, collected man, like my brother Isaac,
+dispassionately asserts such a thing, in addition to the terrified
+assertions of others, I at least believe that there must be some
+dreadful mystery abroad, supernatural or otherwise."
+
+"A mystery?"
+
+"Yes, a mystery. Putting aside all questions of the figure, how is it
+that the _coat_ can appear in the churchyard, when it remains all the
+while in safe custody at the Mermaid?"
+
+Anna sat down, overwhelmed with the confusion of ideas that presented
+themselves. The chief one that struggled upwards was--how should she
+ever have courage to pass the churchyard that night?
+
+"Mary Anne! why did he not speak to it?"
+
+"Because some people came up at the time, and prevented it. When he
+looked again the figure was gone."
+
+Precisely so. All this, just as Mary Anne described it, had happened
+to Isaac Thornycroft on the previous night. Robert Hunter, the hat
+drawn low on his pale face, the unmistakeable coat buttoned round him,
+had stood there in the churchyard, looking just as he had looked in
+life. To say that Isaac was not staggered would be wrong--he was--but
+he recovered himself almost instantly, and was about to call out to
+the figure, when Mr. Kyne came past with young Connaught, and stopped
+him. Isaac and his family had to guard against certain discoveries
+yet; and in the presence of the superintendent of the coastguard,
+whose suspicions were already too rife, he did not choose to proceed
+to investigation.
+
+Silence supervened. The young ladies sat on over the fire, each
+occupied with her sad and secret thoughts. The time-piece struck
+half-past eight.
+
+"What can have become of Sarah?" exclaimed Anna. "Mrs. Copp was not
+well, and my Aunt Amy said she should send for me early."
+
+Scarcely had the words left her lips, when that respectable personage
+entered head foremost. Giving the door a bang, she sank into an
+arm-chair. Anna stood up in wonder; Miss Thornycroft looked round.
+
+"You may well stare, young ladies, but I can't stand upon no forms nor
+ceremonies just now. I don't know whether my senses is here or yonder,
+and I made bold to come in at the hall door, as being the nearest, and
+make straight for here. There's the ghost at this blessed moment in
+the churchyard."
+
+Anna, with a faint cry, drew near to Miss Thornycroft, and touched her
+for company. The latter spoke.
+
+"Your fancy must have deceived you, Sarah."
+
+"If anything has deceived me, it's my eyes," returned Sarah, really
+too much put out to stand on any sort of ceremony whether in speech or
+action--"which is what they never did yet, Miss Thornycroft. When it
+struck eight my mistress told me to go for Miss Chester. I thought I'd
+finish my ironing first, which took me another quarter of an hour; and
+then I put my blanket and things away to come. Just as I was opening
+the house door I heard the master's voice singing out for me, and went
+into the parlour. 'Is it coals, sir?' I asked. 'No, it's not coals,'
+says he; and I saw by his mouth he was after some nonsense. 'It's to
+tell you to take care of the ghost.' 'Oh, bran the ghost,' says I; 'I
+should give it a knock if it come anigh me.' And so I should, young
+ladies."
+
+"Go on, go on," cried Mary Anne Thornycroft.
+
+"I come right on to the churchyard, and what we had been saying made
+me turn my eyes to it as I passed. Young ladies," she continued,
+drawing the chair closer, and dropping her voice to a low, mysterious
+key, "if you'll believe me, there stood Robert Hunter. He was close by
+that big tombstone of old Marley's, not three yards from his own
+grave!"
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft seemed unwilling to admit belief in this, in
+spite of what she had herself been relating to Miss Chester. "Rely
+upon it, Sarah, your fears deceived you."
+
+"Miss, I hadn't got any fears; at any rate, not before I saw him.
+There he was: his features as plain as ever they'd need be, and that
+uncommon coat on, which I'm sure was never made for anybody but a Guy
+Fawkes."
+
+"Were you frightened then?"
+
+"I was not frightened, so to say, but I won't deny that I felt a
+creepishness in my skin; and I'd have given half-a-crown out of my
+pocket to see any human creature come up to bear me company. I might
+have spoke to it if it had give me time: I don't know: but the moment
+it saw me it glided amid the gravestones, making for the back of the
+church. I made off too as fast as my legs would carry me, and come
+straight in here. I knew my tongue must let it out, and I thought it
+better for you to hear it than them timorous servants in the kitchen."
+
+"Quite right," murmured Miss Thornycroft.
+
+"I never did believe in ghosts," resumed Sarah; "never thought to do
+it, and I'm not going to begin now. But after to-night, I won't mock
+at the poor wretches that have been frightened by Robert Hunter's."
+
+What now was to be done? Anna Chester would not attempt to go home and
+pass the churchyard with no protector but Sarah. Hyde was not to be
+found; and there seemed nothing for it but to wait until Richard or
+Isaac came in.
+
+But neither came. Between nine and ten Captain Copp made his
+appearance in hot anger, shaking his stick and stamping his wooden leg
+at Sarah.
+
+Had the vile hussey taken up her gossiping quarters at the Red Court
+Farm for the night? Did she think--
+
+"I could not get Miss Chester away," interposed Sarah, drowning the
+words. "The ghost is in the churchyard. I saw it as I came past."
+
+The sailor-captain was struck dumb. One of _his_ women-kind avow
+belief in a ghost? He had seen a mermaid himself; which creatures were
+known to exist; but ghosts were fabulous things, fit for nothing but
+the fancies of marines. Any sailor in his fo'castle that had confessed
+to seeing ghosts, would have got a taste of the yardarm. "Get your
+things on this minute," concluded the captain, angrily, to Anna. "I'll
+teach you to be afraid of rubbishing ghosts! And that vile bumboat
+woman! coming here with such a tale!"
+
+"It's my opinion ghosts _is_ rubbish, and nothing better; for I don't
+see the good of 'em; but this was Robert Hunter's for all that," spoke
+the undaunted "bumboat-woman." "I saw his face and his eyes as plain
+as ever I see my own in the glass, and that precious white coat of his
+with the ugly fur upon it. Master, you can't say that I gave as much
+as half an ear to this talk before to-night."
+
+"You credulous sea-serpent!" was the captain's retort. "And that same
+coat lying yet in the tallet at the Mermaid with the blood upon it,
+just as it was taken off the body! Ugh! fie upon you!"
+
+"If there's apparitions of bodies, there may be apparitions of coats,"
+reasoned Sarah, between whom and her choleric but good-hearted master
+there was always a fight for the last word. "If it hadn't been for
+knowing his face, I should say some ill-conditioned jester had
+borrowed the coat from the Mermaid and put it on."
+
+Away pegged the captain in his rage, scarcely allowing himself to say
+good-night to Miss Thornycroft; and away went Sarah and Miss Chester
+after him, as close as circumstances permitted.
+
+As they neared the churchyard Anna ventured to lay hold of the
+captain's arm, and bent her head upon it, in spite of his mocking
+assurances that a parson's daughter ought to be on visiting terms with
+a churchyard ghost; trusting to him to guide her steps. The captain
+was deliberating, as he avowed afterwards, whether to guide her into
+the opposite ditch, believing that a ducking would be the best panacea
+for all ghostly fears; when Sarah, who was a step in the rear, leaped
+forward and clung violently to his blue coat-tails.
+
+"There!" she cried in a shrill whisper, before the astonished
+gentleman could free his tails or give vent to proper indignation,
+"there it is again, behind old Marley's tomb! Now then, master, is
+that the coat, or is it not?"
+
+The captain was surprised into turning his eyes to the churchyard;
+Anna also, as if impelled by some irresistible fascination. It was too
+true. Within a few yards of them, in the dim moonlight--for the cloudy
+moon gave but a feeble light--appeared the well-known form of the
+ill-fated Robert Hunter, the very man whose dead body Captain Copp had
+helped to lay in the grave, so far as having assisted as a mourner at
+his funeral.
+
+The captain was taken considerably aback; had never been half so much
+so before an unexpected iceberg; his wooden leg dropped submissively
+down and his mouth flew open. He had the keen eye of a seaman, and he
+saw beyond doubt that the spirit before him was indeed that of Robert
+Hunter. Report ran in the village afterwards that the gallant captain
+would have made off, but could not rid himself from the grasp of his
+companions.
+
+"Hallo! you sir!" he called out presently, remembering that in that
+vile Sarah's presence his reputation for courage was at stake, but
+there was considerable deference, not to say timidity, in his tone,
+"what is it you want, appearing there like a figure-head?"
+
+The ghost, however, did not wait to answer; it had already
+disappeared, vanishing into air, or behind the tombstones. Captain
+Copp lost not a moment, but tore away faster than he had ever done
+since the acquisition of his wooden leg, Anna sobbing convulsively on
+his arm, and Sarah hanging on to his coat-tails. A minute afterwards
+they were joined by Isaac Thornycroft, coming at a sharp pace from the
+direction of the village.
+
+"Take these screeching sea-gulls home for me," cried the sailor to
+Isaac. "I'll go down to the Mermaid, and with my own eyes see if the
+coat is there. Some land-lubber's playing a trick, and has borrowed
+Hunter's face and stole the coat to act it in."
+
+"Spare yourself the trouble," rejoined Isaac. "I have come straight
+now from the Mermaid, and the coat is there. We have been looking at
+it but this instant. It is under the hay in the room over the stable,
+doubled up and stiff, having dried in the folds."
+
+"I should like to keelhaul that ghost," cried the discomfited captain.
+"I'd rather have seen ten mermaids."
+
+Isaac Thornycroft, with an imperative gesture, took Anna on his own
+arm, leaving the captain to peg on alone, with Sarah still in close
+proximity to the coattails. He did not say what he had been doing all
+the evening, or why he should have come up at that particular
+juncture.
+
+Upon the return of Richard to the Red Court an hour or two earlier,
+Isaac drew him at once out of the house to impart to him this curious
+fact of Hunter's ghost--as Coastdown phrased it--making its appearance
+nightly in the churchyard. Truth to say, the affair was altogether
+puzzling Isaac, bringing him trouble also. He had seen it himself the
+previous evening. Who was it? what did it want? whence did it come?
+That it wore Hunter's face and form was indisputable. What then was
+it? His ghost?--a kind of marvel which Isaac had never yet believed
+in,--or a man got up to personate him? Of course what Isaac feared
+was, that it might lead to discovery of various matters connected with
+the past.
+
+He imparted all this to Richard. Richard scorned the information at
+first, ridiculed the affair, would not believe in the fear. Isaac
+proposed that they should go together to the churchyard, conceal
+themselves behind a convenient tombstone, watch for the appearance,
+and pounce upon it. Richard mockingly refused; if he went at all to
+the place he'd go by himself and deal with the "ghost" at leisure. At
+present he had business with Tomlett.
+
+They went together to Tomlett's cottage, and sat there talking. The
+baker's boy came up on an errand; and as Mrs. Tomlett answered the
+door they heard him tell her that "the ghost was then--then--in the
+churchyard, his face and his coat awful white."
+
+"The coat has been stolen from the Mermaid," spoke Richard in his
+decisive tones.
+
+"That fact was easy to be ascertained," Isaac answered. And, rising at
+once from his seat, he went to the Mermaid there and then. Calling
+Pettipher, they went up the ladder to the tallet, and Isaac convinced
+himself that there the coat lay, untouched, and in fact unusable. From
+thence he went his way to the churchyard, intending to see what he
+could do with the ghost himself, and thus overtook Captain Copp and
+his party.
+
+Nothing of this did he say to Anna. Leaving the ghost for the time
+being, he went on to Captain Copp's. She held his arm, not daring to
+let it go; her mind in a state of extreme distress. Trembling from
+head to foot went she; a sob breaking from her now and again.
+
+"What can it be looking for?" burst from her in her grief and
+perplexity. "For you?"
+
+For the thought, the fear that had been beating its terrible refrain
+in her brain was, that Robert Hunter's spirit, unable to rest, had
+come to denounce his destroyer. Such tales had over and over again
+been told in the world's history: why should not this be but another
+to add to them?
+
+"Anna!" answered Isaac in a tone of surprise and remonstrance, "you
+cannot seriously believe that it is Hunter's spirit. Why talk
+nonsense?"
+
+Which reply she looked upon as an evasive one. "Can you solve the
+mystery then?" she asked. "That thing in the churchyard wears as
+surely Hunter's face and form as you wear yours or I mine. It is not
+himself: he is dead and buried; what then is it?"
+
+"Not his ghost," spoke Isaac. Whether he, the cool-headed, practical,
+worldly man, who believed hitherto in ghosts just as much as he did in
+fairies, felt perfectly sure himself upon the point now, at least he
+deemed it right to insist upon it to his wife.
+
+No more was said. But for Captain Copp's turning back to converse with
+Isaac (having in a degree recovered his equanimity) he might have
+striven to get an explanation with his wife there and then.
+
+"Come in, come in, and take a sup of brandy," cried the hospitable
+captain when they arrived at his house. "That beast of a ghost!"
+
+"Oh, Sarah, what can have kept you!" exclaimed the captain's wife, in
+as complaining a tone as so gentle a woman could use. "I have had
+everything to do myself; the gruel to make for Mrs. Copp, the hot
+water to take upstairs; the--"
+
+"It is not my fault, ma'am," interrupted the subdued Sarah, as she
+rubbed her shoes on the mat. "Miss Chester was afraid to come home
+with me alone. There's Robert Hunter in the churchyard."
+
+Amy Copp glanced at her husband, expecting an explosion of wrath at
+the words. To her surprise, the captain heard them in patient silence,
+his face as meek as any lamb's.
+
+"Bring some hot water, Sarah, and get out the brandy," said he.
+
+Mixing a stiff glass for himself, Isaac declining to take any, he
+passed another in silence to Sarah. Anna had escaped upstairs: her
+usual custom when Isaac was there.
+
+"Much obliged, sir, but I don't care for brandy," was Sarah's answer.
+"My courage is coming back to me, master."
+
+Amy looked from one to the other, not knowing what to make of either.
+"Have you really seen anything?" she asked.
+
+"Seen Hunter, coat and all," gravely replied the captain. "Shiver my
+wooden leg, if we've not! I say, mother," he called out, stumping to
+the foot of the stairs. "Mother!"
+
+"What is it, Sam?" called back Mrs. Copp, who was beginning to
+undress, and had not yet taken her remedies for the cold.
+
+"Mother, you know that mermaid in the Atlantic--the last voyage you
+went with us? You wouldn't believe that I saw it; you've only laughed
+at me ever since: well, I've seen the ghost to-night; so don't you
+disbelieve me any more."
+
+Captain Copp returned to the parlour, and in a minute his mother
+walked in after him. She wore black stockings, fur slippers, a
+petticoat that came down to the calves of her legs; a woollen shawl,
+and an enormous night-cap. Isaac Thornycroft smothered an inclination
+to laugh, but Mrs. Copp stood with calm equanimity, regardless of the
+defects of her costume.
+
+"What's that about the ghost, Sam?"
+
+"I saw it to-night, mother. It stood near its own grave in the
+churchyard. And I hope you won't go on at me about that mermaid, after
+this. It had got long bright green hair, as I've always said, and was
+combing it out."
+
+"The ghost had?"
+
+"No, the mermaid. The ghost was Hunter's. It looked just as he'd used
+to look."
+
+Mrs. Copp stood rubbing her nose, and thinking the captain's
+conversion a very sudden one.
+
+"Is this a joke, Sam?"
+
+"A joke! Why, mother, I tell ye I saw it. Ask Sarah. I called out to
+know what it wanted, and why it came; but it wouldn't answer me."
+
+"Well, it's strange," observed Mrs. Copp. "Sam's a simpleton about
+mermaids, but I'd have backed him as to ghosts. But now: you may have
+observed perhaps, all of you, that I've not said a syllable to
+ridicule this ghost of poor dead Mr. Hunter, and I'll tell you why.
+Last June, in Liverpool, a friend of mine was sitting up with her
+father, who was ill, when her sister's spirit appeared to her. It was
+between twelve and one at night--twenty minutes to one, in fact, for
+there was a clock in the room, and she had looked at it only a minute
+before; the candle--"
+
+"Oh, mother, don't; pray don't!" implored poor Amy Copp, going into a
+cold perspiration, for she held a firm belief in things supernatural.
+"This one ghost is enough for us without any more. I shall never like
+to go up to bed alone again."
+
+"The candle gave as good as no light, for the snuff was a yard long
+a'most, with a cauliflower on the top," continued Mrs. Copp, who
+persisted in telling her tale, supremely indifferent to her
+daughter-in-law's fears and her own robes. "Emma Jenkins, that was her
+name, heard a rustle in the room; it seemed to come in at the door,
+which was put open for air, flutter across, and stir the bed-curtains.
+(Don't you be foolish, Amy!) Naturally, Emma Jenkins looked up, and
+there she saw her sister, who had died a year before. The figure
+seemed to give just a sigh and vanish. Now," said Mrs. Copp, applying
+the moral, "if that was a ghost, this may be."
+
+"You always said, you know, mother, that you didn't believe in
+ghosts."
+
+"Neither did I, Sam But Emma Jenkins is not one to be taken in by
+fancy; as stands to reason, considering that she has gone thirteen
+voyages with her husband, short and long. Sea-going people are not
+liable to see ghosts where there's no ghosts to see; they have
+got their wits about them, and keep their eyes open. What are you
+smiling at, Mr. Thornycroft? Mrs. Jenkins had taken a glass of
+brandy-and-water, perhaps? Well, I don't know; sitting up with the
+sick is cold work, especially when they are too far gone to have
+anything done for 'em. But she always liked rum best."
+
+The story over, Captain Copp plunged into a full account of the
+night's adventures, enlarging on the questions he asked with the view
+of bringing the ghost to book, and what he would have done had it only
+stayed. Sarah gave her version of the sight, both in going and coming.
+Mrs. Copp, forgetting her cold, plunged into another story of a man
+who died at sea the first time she sailed with her husband, and the
+belief of the sailors that he haunted the ship all the while it lay in
+Calcutta harbour; all to the shivering horror of poor Amy Copp; and
+Isaac Thornycroft, waking up from his reverie by fits and starts, sat
+on until midnight, like a man in a miserable dream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+In the Churchyard Porch.
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft had remained at home in a state of mind
+bordering on distraction. Look where she would, there was no comfort.
+Surely the death of Robert Hunter had been enough, with all its
+attendant dreadful circumstances, without this fresh rumour of his
+"coming again!" Like Mrs. Copp, until impressed with her friend Emma
+Jenkins's experiences, Miss Thornycroft had never put faith in ghosts.
+She was accustomed to ridicule those who believed in the one said to
+haunt the plateau; but her scepticism was shaken now.
+
+She had paid little attention to the first reports, for she knew how
+prone the ignorant are in general, and Coastdown in particular, to
+spread supernatural tales. But these reports grew and magnified.
+Robert Hunter was dead and buried: how then reconcile that fact with
+this mysterious appearance said to haunt the churchyard? Her mind
+became shaken; and when, on the previous night, her brother Isaac
+imparted to her the fact that he had seen it with his own sensible,
+dispassionate eyes, a sickening conviction flashed over her that it
+was indeed Robert Hunter's spirit. And now, to confirm it, came the
+testimony of the matter-of-fact Sarah. Possibly, but for the sad
+manner in which her nerves had been shaken, this new view might not
+have been taken up.
+
+"What does it want?" she asked herself, sitting there alone in the
+gloomy parlour: and certain words just spoken by Sarah recurred to
+her, as if in answer. "It may want to denounce its murderer." Stronger
+even than the grief and regret she felt at his untimely fate, at the
+abrupt termination of her unhappy love, was the lively dread of
+discovery, for Richard's sake. That must be guarded against, if
+it were possible; for what might it not bring in its train? The
+betrayal of the illicit practices the Red Court Farm had lived
+by; the dishonour of her father and his house; perhaps the
+trial--condemnation--execution of Richard.
+
+Sick, trembling, half mad with these reflections, pacing the room in
+agony, was she, when Richard entered. Had he seen the ghost? He looked
+as if he had. His damp hair hung about in a black mass, and his face
+and lips were as ghastly as Hunter's. His sister gazed at him with
+surprise: the always self-possessed Richard!
+
+"Have you come from the village?" she asked.
+
+"From that way."
+
+"Did you happen to turn to the churchyard?"
+
+"Yes," was the laconic reply.
+
+"You know what they say: that _his_ spirit appears there."
+
+"I have seen it," was Richard's unexpected answer.
+
+Miss Thornycroft started. "Oh, Richard! When?"
+
+"Now. I went to look, and I saw it. There's no mistake about its being
+Hunter, or some fool made up to personate him."
+
+"It has taken away your colour, Richard."
+
+Richard Thornycroft did not reply. He sat with his elbow on his knee,
+and his chin resting on his hand, looking into the fire. The once
+brave man, brave to recklessness, had been scared for the first time
+in his mortal life. The crime lying heavily on his soul had made a
+coward of him.
+
+He said nothing of the details, but they must be supplied. Shortly
+after Isaac had quitted Tomlett's, Richard also left, intending to go
+straight home. As he struck across to the direct road--not the one by
+the plateau--a thought came to him to take a look at the churchyard;
+and he turned to it.
+
+There was Robert Hunter. As Richard's footsteps sounded on the night
+air, nearing the churchyard, the head and shoulders of the haunting
+spirit appeared, raising themselves behind old Marley's high
+tombstone. Richard stood still. "There was no mistake," as he observed
+to his sister, "that it was Hunter." And the eyes of the two were
+strained, the one on the other. Suddenly the ghost came into full view
+and advanced, and Richard Thornycroft turned and fled. An arrant
+coward he at that moment, alone with the ghost and his own awful
+conscience.
+
+Whether the apparition would have pursued him; whether Richard would
+have gathered bravery enough to turn and face it, could never be
+known. The doctor's boy, having been to the heath with old Connaught's
+physic, ran past shouting and singing; "the whistling aloud to keep
+his courage up," as Bloomfield (is it not?) so subtly says, was not
+enough now for those who had to pass the churchyard at Coastdown. The
+ghost vanished, and Richard strode on to the Red Court Farm.
+
+But he did not tell of all this. Mary Anne, who had been bending her
+head on the arm of the sofa, suddenly rose, resolution in her face and
+in her low, firm tone.
+
+"Richard, if you accompany me for protection, I will go and see this
+spirit. I will ask what it wants. Let us go."
+
+"You!" he somewhat contemptuously exclaimed.
+
+"I will steel my nerves and heart to it. I have been striving to do so
+for the last half hour. Better for me to hold communion with it than
+any one else, save you. You know why, Richard."
+
+"Tush!" he exclaimed. "Do nothing. You'd faint by the way."
+
+"It is necessary for the honour and safety of--of--this house," she
+urged, not caring to speak more pointedly, "that no stranger should
+hear what it wants. I will go now. If I wait until to-morrow my
+courage may fail. I _go_, Richard, whether with you or alone. You are
+not afraid?"
+
+For answer, Richard rose, and they left the room. In passing through
+the hall, Mary Anne threw on her woollen shawl and garden-bonnet, just
+as she had thrown them on the night of Hunter's murder; and they
+started.
+
+Not a word was spoken by either until they reached the corner of the
+churchyard. The high, thickset hedge, facing them as they advanced,
+prevented their seeing into it, but they would soon come in front,
+where the shrubs grew low behind the iron railings. Miss Thornycroft
+stopped.
+
+"You stay here, Richard. I will go on alone."
+
+"No," he began, but she peremptorily interrupted him.
+
+"I will have it so. If I am to go on with this, I will be alone. You
+can keep me within sight." And Richard acquiesced, despising himself
+for his cowardice, but unable to overcome it. He could not--no, he
+_could_ not face the man whose life he had taken.
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft opened the gate and went in. In his place (he
+seemed to have specially appropriated to himself) behind old Marley's
+tomb, stood Robert Hunter. _How_ she contrived to advance--contrived
+to face him and keep her senses, Mary Anne Thornycroft could never
+afterwards understand.
+
+Is it of any use to go on mystifying you, my reader? Perhaps from the
+first you have suspected the truth. Any way, it may be better to solve
+the secret, for time is growing limited, as it was solved that night
+to Mary Anne and Richard Thornycroft. The ghost, prowling about still,
+was looking out for Richard, its sole object all along; but it was
+Robert Hunter himself and not his ghost. For Robert Hunter was not
+dead.
+
+He had been in London all the while they mourned him so, as much alive
+as any of his mourners, quite unconscious that he was looked upon as
+murdered, and that the county coroner had held an inquest on his body.
+A week since, he had come down from London to Coastdown, had come in
+secret, not caring to show himself in the neighbourhood, and not
+daring to show himself openly to the Thornycrofts. He wanted to obtain
+an interview with Mary Anne; but to want it was a great deal easier
+than to get it, in consequence of that extravagant and hasty oath
+imposed upon him by Richard. According to its terms, he must not write
+to any one of the inmates of the Red Court Farm; he must not enter it;
+he must not show himself at Coastdown; and he could only hit upon the
+plan of coming down en cachette, keeping himself close by day, and
+watching for Richard at night. Not a very brilliant scheme, but he
+could think of no better; and, singular perhaps to say, there was no
+bar to his speaking to Richard if he met him; if the spirit of the
+oath provided against that, the letter did not; and Robert Hunter's
+business was urgent. So he came down to Jutpoint, walked over at
+night, and took up his quarters in a lonely hut that he knew of behind
+the churchyard, inhabited by a superannuated fisherman, old Parkes.
+The aged fisherman, of dim sight and failing memory, did not know his
+guest; he was easily bribed not to tell of his sojourn; and the
+rumours of the ghost had not penetrated to him. In that hut Hunter lay
+by day, and watched from the churchyard by night, as being a likely
+spot to see Richard, who used often to pass and repass it on his way
+to and from the heath, and an _un_likely one to be seen and recognised
+by the public. With that convenient tomb of old Marley's to shelter
+behind whenever footsteps approached, he did not fear. Unfortunately,
+it was necessary that he should look out to see whether the footsteps
+were not Richard's; and this looking out had brought about all the
+terror. His retreating place, when people had intruded into the
+churchyard, Isaac for one, was under a shelving gravestone at the back
+of the church, where none would think of looking. And there he had
+been on the watch, never dreaming that he was being mistaken for his
+own ghost, for he knew nothing of his supposed murder.
+
+In little more than half-a-dozen sentences this was revealed to Mary
+Anne Thornycroft. It was the last night that he could stay: and he had
+resolved, in the fear of having to go back to London with his errand
+unexecuted, to accost any one of the Thornycroft family that might
+approach him, although by so doing the oath was infringed. As their
+voices were borne on the night air to the ear of Richard, sufficient
+evidence that Hunter was a living man, a load fell from his heart. In
+the first blissful throb of the discovery, the thought that surged
+through him, turning darkness into light, was, "If he is alive, I am
+no murderer." He ran forward, gained the spot where they stood,
+grasped Hunter's hand and well-nigh embraced him. He, the cold, stern,
+undemonstrative Richard Thornycroft! he, with all his dislike of
+Hunter!
+
+Do you consider well what that joy must be--relief from the supposed
+committed crime of murder? The awful nightmare that has been weighing
+us down: the sin that has been eating away our heartstrings! Some of
+us may have faintly experienced this in a vision during sleep.
+
+"I do not understand it, Hunter," whispered Richard, his words taking
+a sobbing sound as they burst from his heaving breast in the intensity
+of his emotion. "It is like awaking from some hideous dream. If I shot
+you down, how is it that you are here?"
+
+"You never shot me down. Old Parkes has been driving at some obscure
+tale about young Hunter being shot from the heights; but I treated it
+as a childish old man's fancies. Mary Anne, too, is wearing mourning
+for me, she says, though ostensibly put on for Lady Ellis, and came
+here to have speech of my ghost. I thought ghosts had gone out with
+the eighteenth century."
+
+All three felt bewildered; idea after idea crowding on their minds:
+not one of them as yet clear or tangible. Mary Anne could not so soon
+overcome the shivering sensation that, had been upon her, and caught
+hold of her brother's arm for support. There was much of explanation
+to be had yet.
+
+"Let us go and sit down in the church porch," she said; "we shall be
+quiet there."
+
+They walked round the narrow path towards it. It was on the side of
+the church facing the Red Court. The brother and sister placed
+themselves on one bench: Hunter opposite. The moonlight streamed upon
+them, but they were in no danger there of being observed by any chance
+passer-by; for the hedge skirting the ground on that side was high and
+thick.
+
+"That night," began Richard, "after you had gone away, what brought
+you back again?"
+
+"Back where?" asked Hunter.
+
+"Back on the plateau. Watching the fellows from the boats."
+
+"I was not there. I did not come back."
+
+The assertion sounded like a false one in the teeth of recollection.
+Mary Anne broke the silence, her low tone rather an impatient one.
+
+"I _saw_ you there, Robert--I and Anna Chester. We were coming up to
+speak to you, and got as far as the Round Tower--"
+
+"What was worse, _I_ saw you," hoarsely broke in Richard. "After what
+had passed between us, and your solemn oath to me, I felt shocked at
+your want of faith. I was maddened by your bad feeling, your obstinate
+determination to spy upon and betray us; and I stood by that same
+Round Tower and shot you down."
+
+"I do not know what you are talking of," returned. Robert Hunter. "I
+tell you I never came back; never for one moment I got to Jutpoint by
+half-past ten or a quarter to eleven, so you may judge that I stepped
+out well."
+
+"Did Cyril go there with you?"
+
+"Cyril! Of course not. He left me soon after we passed the village. He
+only came as far as the wherry. I have been looking for Cyril while
+dodging about in this churchyard. I'd rather have seen him than you.
+He would not have been violent, you know, and would have carried you
+my message."
+
+"We have never seen Cyril since that night," said Miss Thornycroft.
+
+"Not seen Cyril!" echoed Hunter. "Where is he?"
+
+"But we are not uneasy about him," said Richard, dropping his voice.
+"At least, I am not. We expect he went off in the boats with the
+smugglers when they rowed back to the ship that night after the cargo
+was run. Indeed, we feel positive of it. My father once did the same,
+to the terror of my mother. I believe she had him advertised. Cyril is
+taking a tolerably long spell on the French coast; but I think I can
+account for that. He will come home now."
+
+"Still you have not explained," resumed Hunter. "What gave rise to
+this report that I was shot down?"
+
+"Report!" cried Richard, vehemently, his new-found satisfaction
+beginning to fade, as sober recollection returned to him. "Somebody
+was shot, if you were not. We had the coroner's inquest on him, and he
+lies buried in this churchyard as Robert Hunter."
+
+"But the features could not have been mine," debated Hunter.
+
+"The face was not recognisable; but the head and hair were yours, and
+the dress was yours--a black dinner suit; and---- By the way," broke
+off Richard, "what is this mystery? This coat, which you appear now to
+have on, is at this moment in the stables at the Mermaid, and has been
+ever since the inquest."
+
+Does the reader notice that one word of Richard
+Thornycroft's--"Appear?" _Appear_ to have on! Was he still doubting
+whether the man before him could be real?
+
+"Oh, this is Dr. Macpherson's," said Hunter, with a brief laugh. "They
+were fellow coats, you know, Mary Anne. You did not send me my own--at
+least, I never received it; and one cold day, when I happened to be
+there, the professor surreptitiously handed me his out of a lumber
+closet, glad to get rid of it, hoping madame would think it was
+stolen. She could not forget the grievance of his having bought them.
+Why did not mine come with the portmanteau?"
+
+More amazement, more puzzle, and Richard further at sea than ever.
+
+"When you left that night, you had your coat with you, Hunter. I saw
+you put it on."
+
+"But I found it an encumbrance. I had taken more wine than usual. I
+had had other things to make me hot, and I did not relish the prospect
+of carrying it, whether on or off, for five or six miles. So I took it
+off when we got to the wherry, and begged Cyril to carry it back with
+him, and send it with the portmanteau the following morning."
+
+A pause of thought; it seemed they were trying to realize the sense of
+the words. Suddenly Mary Anne started, gasped, and laid her face down
+on her brother's shoulder, with a sharp, low moan of pain. _He_ leaned
+forward and, stared at Hunter, a pitiable expression of dread on
+his countenance, as the moonlight fell on his ghastly face and
+strained-back lips.
+
+"Cyril said, he was glad of it, and put it on, for he had come out
+without one, and felt cold," continued Hunter, carelessly. "He has not
+been exposed to all weathers, as I have. It fitted him capitally."
+
+A cry, shrill and, wild as that which had broken from the dying man in
+his fall, now broke from Richard Thornycroft.
+
+"Stop!" he shouted, in the desperation of anguish; "don't you see?"
+
+"See what?" demanded the astonished Hunter.
+
+"_That I have murdered my brother!_"
+
+Alas! alas! As they sat gazing at each other with terror-stricken
+faces, you might have heard their hearts beat. Poor Richard
+Thornycroft! Had any awakening to horror been like unto his!
+
+"Murdered your brother?" slowly repeated Hunter.
+
+It was too true. The unfortunate Cyril Thornycroft, arrayed in
+Hunter's coat; had been mistaken by them for him in the starlight, and
+Richard had shot him dead. In returning home after parting with Hunter
+at the wherry, there could be no doubt that he had gone straight to
+the heights to see whether the work which had been planned for that
+night with the smugglers was being carried on, or whether the
+discovery made by Hunter had checked it. It was the coat, the
+miserable coat, that had deceived them. And there was the general
+resemblance they bore to each other, as previously mentioned. In
+height, in figure, in hair, they might have been taken for one
+another, and had been, even in the daylight, during Hunter's stay
+at Coastdown. But it was not all this that had led to the dreadful
+error--it was the fatal and conspicuous coat.
+
+Everything had contributed to the delusion, before life and after
+death. The face might have been anybody's for all the signs of
+recognition left in it. They wore, and only they, each a black dress
+dinner-suit, and Cyril, in his forgetfulness had put away his purse
+and watch. His money--he generally carried it so--was loose in his
+pockets: how were they to know that the same custom was not followed
+by Hunter? The white pocket-handkerchief happened to bear no mark, and
+his linen was not disturbed. Nothing was taken off him but his upper
+clothes, the coat and the above-said dinner-suit. It was an
+exceptional death, you see, not a pleasant one to handle, and they
+just put a shroud over the under clothes, and so buried him. But for
+that would have been seen on the shirt the full mark--"Cyril
+Thornycroft."
+
+Who shall attempt to describe the silence of horror that fell on the
+church porch after the revelation? Richard quitted his seat and stood
+upright, looking out, as it seemed; and his sister's head then sought
+a leaning-place against the cold trellis-work.
+
+"How was it you never wrote to me?" at length asked Robert Hunter, in
+a low voice. "Had you done so, this mystery would have been cleared
+up."
+
+"Wrote to _you?_" wailed Richard. "Do you forget we thought you were
+here?" stamping his foot on the sod of the churchyard.
+
+"I can hardly understand it yet," mused Robert Hunter.
+
+Richard Thornycroft turned and touched his sister. "Let us go home,
+Mary Anne. We have heard enough."
+
+Without a word of dissent or approval, she rose and put her arm within
+Richard's; her face white and rigid as it had been at the coroner's
+inquest. Hunter spoke then.
+
+"But, Mary Anne--what I wanted to say to you--I have not yet said a
+word of it."
+
+"I cannot talk to-night," she shuddered. "I cannot--I cannot."
+
+"Then--I suppose--I must stay another day," he rejoined, wondering
+privately what would be said and thought of him in London. "May I come
+to the Red Court to-morrow?"
+
+"If you will," answered Richard. "No necessity for concealment now. I
+absolve you from your oath."
+
+But Mary Anne saw further than either of them; saw that it would not
+do. Richard walked forward, but she remained, and touched Mr. Hunter
+on the arm.
+
+"No, Robert, it must not be. You must still be in this neighbourhood--
+for a time at any rate--as dead and buried."
+
+"Why? Far better to let them know I have not been murdered: and set
+their suspicions at rest."
+
+"That you have not, but that another has," she returned, resentfully.
+"Would you have them rake up the matter, and hold a second inquest,
+and so set them upon my unfortunate brother Richard? His punishment,
+as it is, will be sufficiently dreadful and lasting."
+
+"Do not speak to me in that tone of reproach," was the pained
+rejoinder. "You may be sure that I deeply sympathize and grieve with
+you all. I will continue to conceal myself: but how shall I see you?
+One more day, and business will enforce my return to London."
+
+"I will see you here, in this place, to-morrow night."
+
+"At what hour?"
+
+"As soon as dusk comes on. Say seven."
+
+"You will not fail, Mary Anne?"
+
+"Fail!" she repeated, vehemently. Then, in a quieter tone, as she
+would have walked away, "No; I will be sure to come."
+
+Robert Hunter grasped her hand, as if to draw her towards him for a
+fond embrace, but Miss Thornycroft wrenched her hand away with a half
+cry, and went on to join her brother. "Good night, dear Robert," she
+presently called out, in a gentle voice, as if to atone for her abrupt
+movement: but oh! what a mine of anguish that voice betrayed!
+
+In the midst of the same silence that they had come, they went back
+again, walking side by side in the road, but not touching each other.
+Ah! what anguish it was that lay on both of them! We never know; in
+great affliction we are so apt to think that we can bear nothing
+worse, and live. It had seemed to Richard Thornycroft and his sister,
+when they went down to the churchyard, that no heavier weight of
+misery could be theirs than that lying on them; it seemed now in going
+back, as if that had been light, compared with this.
+
+"Richard," she whispered, in her great pity, as they passed through
+the entrance gates of the Red Court Farm, "he is better off; he was
+fit to go. You know it must be so. Cyril is in heaven with God; it
+seems now as if he had been living on for it."
+
+Richard hardly heard the words. He was thinking his own thoughts. "The
+death must have been a painless one."
+
+
+She was true to her promise. The following evening, when dark fell and
+before the moon was up, Robert Hunter and Miss Thornycroft sat once
+more in the church porch. The night was very cold, sharp, raw; but
+from a feeling of considerate delicacy, which she understood and
+mentally thanked him for, he was without a great-coat. He rightly
+judged that the only one he had with him could in her eyes be nothing
+but an object of horror.
+
+What a day that had been at the Red Court! Mr. Thornycroft had sat on
+the magisterial bench at Jutpoint, trying petty offenders, unconscious
+that there was a greater offender at his own house demanding
+punishment. Richard Thornycroft felt inclined to proclaim the truth
+and deliver himself up to justice. The remorse which had taken
+possession of him was greater than he knew how to bear; and it seemed
+that to expiate his offence at the criminal bar of his country, would
+be more tolerable than to let it thus prey upon him in silence, eating
+away his heart and his life. Consideration for his father and sister,
+for their honourable reputation, alone withheld him. He and Cyril had
+been fond brothers. Cyril, of delicate health and gentle manners, had
+been, as it were, the pet of the robust justice and his robust elder
+sons. The home, so far as Richard was concerned, must be broken up: he
+would go abroad, the farther distant the better. But for his sister,
+he had started that day. Something of this she told Mr. Hunter, in an
+outburst of her great suffering.
+
+"Oh, Robert! even allowing that he shall escape, what a secret it will
+be for me and my brother Isaac to carry through life!"
+
+"Time will soften it to you. You are both innocent."
+
+"Time will never soften it to me. My dear brother Cyril!--so loving to
+us all, so _good!_"
+
+Her hands were before her face as if she would conceal its tribulation
+from the dark night. Robert Hunter, who had been standing, drew her
+hands within his, sat down beside her on the narrow bench, and kept
+them there.
+
+"Time is wearing on, Mary Anne, and I must be at Jutpoint to-night.
+May I say what I came down from town to say? Though it pains me to
+enter upon it now you are in this grief."
+
+"What is it, Robert?"
+
+"You have not forgotten that there was a probability of my going
+abroad? Well, the arrangements are now concluded, and I start in the
+course of a few days. I did not think of being off before the summer,
+but it has been settled differently."
+
+"Yes. Well?"
+
+"This alters my position altogether in a pecuniary point of view, and
+I shall now rest at ease, the future assured. The climate is
+excellent; the residence out all that can be wished for. In a week
+from this I ought to take my departure."
+
+"Yes," she repeated, in the same tone of apathy as before. "What else?
+Make haste, Robert--I must begone; I am beginning to shiver. I have
+these shivering fits often now."
+
+"I want you to go with me, my love," he whispered, in an accent of
+deep tenderness. "I came down to urge it; but now that this
+unfortunate affair has been made known to me, I would doubly urge it.
+As my wife, you will forget----"
+
+"Be quiet, Robert!" she impetuously interrupted, "you cannot know what
+you are saying."
+
+"Yes, I do; I wish you to understand I may be away for five years."
+
+"So much the better. You and I, of all people in the world, must live
+apart. Was this what you had to say?"
+
+"I thought you loved me," he rejoined, quite petrified at her words.
+
+"I did love you; I do love you; if to avow it will do any good now.
+But this dreadful sorrow has placed a barrier between us."
+
+There ensued a bitter pause. Robert Hunter was smarting with a sense
+of injustice.
+
+"Mary Anne! Surely you are not laying on _me_ the blame of that
+terrible calamity!"
+
+"Listen, Robert," she returned. "I am not so unjust as to blame you
+for the actual calamity, but I cannot forget that you and I have been
+the cause of it."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Yes, I. When my father heard that I had invited you down, he came to
+me, and forbid me to let you come. I see now why. They did not want
+strangers in his house, who might see more than was expedient. He
+commanded me to write and stop you. I disobeyed; I thought papa spoke
+but in compliance with a whim of Richard's; and I would not write. Had
+I obeyed him, all this would have been spared. Again, when you and I
+told what the supervisor said, that there were smugglers abroad, my
+father ordered us, you especially, not to interfere. Had you observed
+his wishes to the letter, Cyril would have been alive now. These
+reflections haunt me continually; they will be mine for ever. No,
+Robert, you and I must live apart. If I were to marry you, I should
+expect Cyril to rise reproachfully before me on our wedding-day."
+
+"Oh, Mary Anne! Believe me you see matters in a false light. If----"
+
+"I will not discuss it," she peremptorily interrupted, "it would be of
+no avail, and I shudder while I speak. Spare me argument."
+
+"I think you are forgetting that I have a stake in the matter as well
+as yourself," he quietly said, his tone proving how great the pain
+was. "Do you not know what, deprived of you, my future life will be?
+At least, I have a right to say a few words."
+
+"Well--yes, that's true. I suppose I did forget, Robert."
+
+"Forgive me then for reminding you that the sole and immediate cause
+of Cyril's death, is _Richard_. I did nothing whatever to help it on;
+my conscience is clear; the most prejudiced man could not charge me
+with it. And you? It is certainly a pity--I am speaking plainly--that
+you disobeyed Mr. Thornycroft in allowing me to come to the Red Court;
+it was very wrong; but still you did it not with any ill intention,
+and certainly do not merit the punishment of being condemned to live a
+lonely life."
+
+"But Richard is my brother. See what it has brought on _him_."
+
+"What he has brought upon himself," corrected Mr. Hunter. "I do not
+see that his being your brother throws, or should be allowed to throw
+any bar upon your marriage with me. You would not say so had he been a
+stranger."
+
+"Where is the use of arguing?" she broke in. "I cannot bear it; I will
+not hear it. All is at an end between us. Do you forgive me, Robert,
+if I cause you pain? Nothing in the world, or out of it, shall ever
+induce me to become your wife."
+
+"Is this your fixed determination?"
+
+"Fixed and unalterable. Fixed as those stars above us. Fixed as
+Cyril's grave."
+
+"Then it only remains for me to return the way I came," he gloomily
+said. "And the sooner I start the better."
+
+They stood up; looking for a moment each into the other's face. There
+was no relenting in hers. "Fare you well, Mary Anne."
+
+She put her hand into his, and, overcome by the dead anguish at her
+heart, burst into tears. He drew her to his breast. None can know what
+that anguish was to her, even of the parting. He held her to him and
+soothed her sobs, now with a loving look, now with a gentle action;
+and then he broke into words of passionate entreaty, that she would
+retract her cruel determination, and suffer him to speak to her
+father. But he little knew Mary Anne Thornycroft if he thought that
+she would yield.
+
+"Say no more; it is quite useless. Oh, Robert, don't you see it is as
+bitter for me as for you?"
+
+"No; or you would not inflict it."
+
+"Strive to forget me, Robert," she murmured. "We have been very dear
+to each other, but you must find some one else now. Perhaps we may
+meet in after life--when you are a happy man with wife and children!"
+
+He went with her to the churchyard gates, and watched her as she
+turned to her home. And so they parted. Robert Hunter retraced his
+steps up the churchyard, and from behind a gravestone, where he had
+laid them out of sight, took up his little black travelling-bag, and
+the rolled-up coat, the counterpart of which had proved so unlucky a
+coat for the Red Court Farm. He never intended to put it on again--at
+least in the neighbourhood of Coastdown. Then he set off to walk to
+Jutpoint, avoiding the road by means of a bypath, as he had set off to
+walk that guilty night some weeks before.
+
+The night had clouded over, the stars disappeared, the moon was not
+seen. Drops of rain began to fall, threatening a heavy shower. On it
+came, thicker and faster; wetter and wetter got he; but it may be
+questioned whether he gave to it one single thought.
+
+His reflections were buried quite as much in the past as in the
+present. He murmured to himself the word "RETRIBUTION." He asked how
+_he_ could ever have dreamt of indulging a prospect of happiness; he
+almost laughed at the utter mockery of the hope. As he had blighted
+his wife's life, so had Mary Anne Thornycroft, his late and only love,
+now blighted his. She--poor Clara--had died of the pain; he, of
+sterner stuff, must carry it along with him. Amid his days of labour,
+through his nights of perhaps broken rest, it would, lie upon him--a
+well-earned recompense! No murmur came forth from his heart or lips;
+he simply bowed his head in acknowledgment of the justice. God was
+ever true. And Robert Hunter lifted his hat in the pouring rain, and
+raised his eyes to heaven in sad thankfulness that the pain his sin
+had caused was at length made clear to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+In the Dog-cart to Jutpoint.
+
+
+But there's something yet to tell of the evening. It was getting
+towards dusk when Isaac Thornycroft went his way to Captain Copp's
+intending boldly to ask Miss Chester to take a walk with him, should
+there be no chance of getting a minute with her alone at home.
+
+The state in which he was living, touching his wife's estrangement
+(not their separation, that was a present necessity), was getting
+unbearable; and Isaac, who had hitherto shunned an explanation, came
+to the rather sudden resolution of seeking it. Although his brother
+had shot Robert Hunter, it could not be said to be a just reason for
+Anna's resenting it upon _him_. Not a syllable did Isaac yet know of
+the discovery that had taken place, or that Cyril was the one lying in
+the churchyard.
+
+In the free and simple community of Coastdown, doors were not kept
+closed, and people entered at will. Rather, then, to Isaac's surprise,
+as he turned the handle of Captain Copp's, he found it was fastened,
+so that he could not enter. At the same moment his eyes met his
+wife's, who had come to the window to reconnoitre. There was no help
+for it, and she had to go and let him in.
+
+"At home alone, Anna! Where are they all? Where's Sarah?"
+
+Anna explained: bare facts only, however, not motives. It appeared
+that the gallant captain, considerably lowered in his own estimation
+by the events of the past night, and especially that he should be so
+in the sight of his "womenkind," proposed a little jaunt that day to
+Jutpoint by way of diverting their thoughts, and perhaps his own, from
+the ghost and its reminiscences. His mother--recovered from her
+incipient cold--she was too strong-minded a woman for diseases to
+seize upon heartily--agreed readily, as did his wife. Not so Anna. She
+pleaded illness, and begged to be left at home. It was indeed no false
+plea, for her miserable state of mind was beginning to tell upon her.
+They had been expected home in time for tea, and had not come. Anna
+supposed they had contrived to miss the omnibus, which was in fact the
+case, and could not now return until late. How Mrs. Sam Copp would be
+brought by the churchyard was a thing easier wondered at than told. As
+to Sarah, she had but now stepped out on some necessary errands to the
+village.
+
+In the satisfaction of finding the field undisturbed for the
+explanation he wished entered on, Isaac said nothing about his wife
+being left in the house alone, which he by no means approved of. It
+was not dark yet, only dusk: but Anna said something about getting
+lights.
+
+"Not yet," said Isaac. "I want to talk to you; there's plenty of light
+for that."
+
+She sat down on the sofa; trembling, frightened, sick. If her husband
+was the slayer of Robert Hunter--as she believed him to be--it was not
+agreeable to be in the solitary house with him; it was equally
+disagreeable to have to tell him to go out of it. Ah, but for that
+terrible belief, what a happy moment this snatch of intercourse might
+have been to them! this sole first chance for weeks and weeks of
+being alone, when they might speak together of future plans with a
+half-hour's freedom.
+
+She took her seat on the sofa, scarcely conscious what she did in her
+sick perplexity. Isaac sat down by her, put his arm round her waist,
+and would have kissed her. But she drew to the other end of the large
+sofa with a gesture of evident avoidance, and burst into tears. So he
+got up and stood before her.
+
+"Anna, this must end, one way or the other; it is what I came here
+to-night to say. The separated condition in which we first lived after
+our return was bad enough, but that was pleasant compared to what it
+afterwards became. It is some weeks now since you have allowed me
+barely to shake you by the hand; never if you could avoid it. Things
+cannot go on so."
+
+She made no reply. Only sat there trembling and crying, her hands
+before her face.
+
+"What have I done to you? Come, Anna, I must have an answer. What have
+I done to you?"
+
+She spoke at last, looking up. In her habit of implicit obedience,
+there was no help for it; there could be none when the order came from
+_him_.
+
+"Nothing----to me."
+
+"To whom, then? What is it?"
+
+"Nothing," was all she repeated.
+
+"Nothing! Do you repent having married me?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+The answer seemed to pain him. He bent his handsome face a little
+towards her, pushing back impatiently his golden hair, as if the fair
+bright brow needed coolness.
+
+"I thought you loved me, Anna?"
+
+"And you know I did. Oh, that is it! The misery would be greater if I
+loved you less."
+
+"Then why do you shun me?"
+
+"Is there not a cause why I should?" she asked in a low tone, after a
+long pause.
+
+"_I_ think not. Will you tell me what the cause may be?"
+
+She glanced up at him, she looked down, she smoothed unconsciously the
+silk apron on which her nervous hands rested, but she could not
+answer. Isaac saw it, and, bending nearer to her, he spoke in a
+whisper.
+
+"Is it connected with that unhappy night--with what took place on the
+plateau?"
+
+"I think you must have known all along that it is."
+
+"And you consider it a sufficient reason for shunning me?"
+
+"Yes, do not _you?_"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+Great though her misery was, passionately though she loved him still,
+the cool assertion angered her. It gave her a courage to speak that
+nothing else could have given.
+
+"It was a dark crime; the worst crime that the world can know. Does it
+not lie on your conscience?"
+
+"No; I could not hinder it."
+
+"Oh, Isaac! Had it been anything else; anything but _murder_, I could
+have borne it. How you can bear it, and live, I cannot understand."
+
+"Why should I make another's sin mine? No one can deplore it as I do;
+but it is not my place to answer for it. I do not understand you,
+Anna."
+
+_She_ did not understand. What did his words mean?
+
+"Did you not kill Robert Hunter?"
+
+"_I_ kill him! You are dreaming, Anna! I was not near the spot."
+
+"Isaac! ISAAC?"
+
+"Child! have you been fearing _that?_"
+
+"For nothing else, for nothing else could I have shunned you. Oh,
+Isaac! my dear husband, how could the mistake arise?"
+
+"I know not. A mistake it was; I affirm it to you before God. I was
+not on the plateau at all that night."
+
+He opened his arms, gravely smiling, and she passed into them with a
+great cry. Trembling, moaning, sobbing; Isaac thought she would have
+fainted. Placing her by his side on the sofa, he kept still, listening
+to what she had to say.
+
+"As I looked out of the Round Tower in the starlight, I caught a
+momentary glimpse of--as I thought--you, and I saw the hand that held
+the pistol take aim and fire. I thought it _was_ you, and I fainted. I
+have thought it ever since. Mary Anne, in a word or two that we spoke
+together, seemed to confirm it."
+
+"Mary Anne knew it was not I. It is not in my nature to draw a pistol
+on any man. Surely, Anna, you might have trusted me better!"
+
+"Oh, what a relief!" she murmured, "what a relief!" then, as a sudden
+thought seemed to strike her, she turned her face to his and spoke,
+her voice hushed.
+
+"It must have been Richard. You are alike in figure."
+
+"Upon that point we had better be silent," he answered, in quite a
+solemn tone. "It is a thing that we are not called upon to inquire
+into; let us avoid it. I am innocent: will not that suffice?"
+
+"It will more than suffice for me," she answered. "Since that night I
+have been most wretched."
+
+"You need not have feared me in any way, Anna," was the reply of Isaac
+Thornycroft. "Were it possible that my hand could become stained with
+the blood of a fellow-creature, I should hasten to separate from you
+quicker than you could from me. Whatever else such an unhappy man may
+covet, let him keep clear of wife and children."
+
+"Forgive me, Isaac! Forgive me!"
+
+"I have not been exempt from the follies of young men, and I related
+to you the greater portion of my share of them, after we married," he
+whispered. "But of dark crime I am innocent--as innocent as you are."
+
+"Oh, Isaac! my husband, Isaac!"
+
+He bent his face on hers, and she lay there quietly, her head nestling
+in his bosom. It seemed to her like a dream of heaven after the past;
+a very paradise.
+
+"You will forgive me, won't you?" she softly breathed.
+
+"My darling!"
+
+But paradise cannot last for ever, as you all know; and one of them at
+any rate found himself very far on this side it ere the night was much
+older. As Sarah let herself into the house with her back-door key,
+Isaac quitted it by the front, and bent his steps across the heath.
+
+In passing the churchyard, he stood and looked well into it. But there
+was no sign of the ghost, and Isaac went on again. How little did he
+suspect that at that very selfsame moment the ghost was seated round
+in the church porch, in deep conversation with his sister! Having an
+errand in the village, he struck across to it; and on his final return
+home a little later, he was astonished to overtake his sister at the
+entrance gates of the Red Court Farm, her forehead pressed upon the
+ironwork, and she sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+"Mary Anne! what is the matter? What brings you here?"
+
+"Come with me," she briefly said. "If I do not tell some one, I shall
+die."
+
+Walking swiftly to one of the benches on the lawn, she sat down on it,
+utterly indifferent to the rain that was beginning to fall. Isaac
+followed her wonderingly. Poor thing! the whole of the previous day
+and night she had really almost felt as if she should die--die from
+the weight of the fearful secret, and the want of some one to confide
+in. Richard was the only one who shared it, and she was debarred by
+pity from talking to him.
+
+There, with the fatal plateau in front of him, and the rain
+coming down on their devoted heads, Isaac Thornycroft learnt the
+whole--learnt to his dismay, his grief, his horror, that the victim
+had been his much-loved brother Cyril; and that Robert Hunter was
+still in life.
+
+He took his hat off, and wiped his brow; and then held his hat before
+his face, after the fashion of men going into church--held it for some
+minutes. Mary Anne in her own deep emotion did not notice his.
+
+"Isaac, don't you pity me?"
+
+"I pity us all."
+
+"And there will be the making it known to papa. He must be told."
+
+"Richard will leave Coastdown for ever. He could not remain in it, he
+says. I am not competent to advise him, Isaac. You must."
+
+"Richard has never yet taken any advice but his own."
+
+"Ah! but he is changed to-day. He has been changed a little since that
+dreadful night. I suppose you have known all along that it was Richard
+who--who did it?"
+
+"Not from information: I saw that you knew; that you were in his
+confidence. Of course I could not help being sure in my own mind that
+it must have been Richard. I fancy"--he turned and looked full at his
+sister--"that Miss Chester thought it was I."
+
+"Yes, I know she did," was the assured answer. "It was better to let
+her think so. Safer for Richard, better for you."
+
+"Why better for me?"
+
+"Because--it is not a moment to be reticent, Isaac--Anna Chester once
+appeared too much inclined to like you. That would never do, you
+know."
+
+He turned his head away; a soft remembrance parting his lips, a look
+of passionate love, meant for his absent wife, lighting his eyes.
+
+"You will get wet sitting here, Mary Anne."
+
+She arose, and they went indoors. Isaac was passing straight through
+to the less-used rooms when his sister stopped him.
+
+Rooms that would never have been closed to the rest of the house, but
+for the smuggling practices so long carried on by the Thornycroft
+family. In the rooms themselves there was absolutely nothing that
+could have led to betrayal, or any reason why they might not have been
+open to all the household: but it was necessary to keep that part of
+the house closed always, except to Mr. Thornycroft and his sons, lest
+it should have been penetrated to at the few exceptional times when
+the cargo was being run, or the dog-cart laden subsequently with the
+spoil. When once the cargo was safely lodged in the cavern within the
+rocks, it might remain there in security to some convenient time for
+removing it. This was always done at night. Richard and Isaac
+Thornycroft, Tomlett and Hyde, brought up sufficient of the parcels to
+fill the dog-cart, which one of the sons, sometimes both, would then
+drive away with and deposit with Hopley, their agent at Dartfield,
+whose business it was to convey the booty to its final destination.
+The next night more would be taken away, and so on. Sometimes so large
+was the trade done, so swift were the operations, that one cargo would
+not be all sent away before another was landed. At another period
+perhaps three months elapsed and no boat came in. With this frequent
+going out by night with the dog-cart, no wonder the young Thornycrofts
+got the credit of being loose in their habits, and that the justice
+encouraged the notion.
+
+The sumptuous dinners at the Red Court Farm (or suppers, according to
+the convenience and time of year) were kept up as a sort of covering
+to the illicit doings. When the gentlemen of the neighbourhood,
+including the superintendent of the coastguard, had their legs under
+the hospitable board, or the servants subsequently under theirs in the
+kitchen, they could not be wandering about out of doors, seeing
+inexpedient things. It was not often of late years Mr. Thornycroft
+aided in the run; he left it to Richard and Isaac, and stayed with his
+guests. On the night Lady Ellis saw him he had gone out, found there
+was a sea fog, and came in again; denying it afterwards to her (as
+faithful Hyde had done) lest she should next question why he changed
+his coat and put on leggings.
+
+The late superintendent, Mr. Dangerfield, had allowed rule to get lax
+altogether, but he had, of course, a certain amount of watching kept
+up. On the occasion of a dinner or supper at the Red Court (always
+given when a cargo was waiting to be run), Mr. Dangerfield would
+contrive to let his men know that he was going to it; as a matter of
+fact, not a man troubled himself to go near the plateau that night;
+the Mermaid had them instead; and all too often it happened that one
+of the young Mr. Thornycrofts would go in and stand treat. No fear of
+the men's stirring any more than their master. But from the fact of
+the Half-moon beach being visible only from the plateau, and for the
+supernatural tales connected with the latter, they had never escaped
+being seen so long as they did.
+
+The ghostly stories--not of Robert Hunter--had done more than all to
+prevent discovery. It could not be said that the Thornycrofts raised
+them in the first place; they did not; but when they perceived how
+valuable an adjunct they were likely to prove, they took care to keep
+them up. Report went that the late Mrs. Thornycroft had died from the
+fears induced by superstition. It was as well to keep up that belief
+also; but she had died from nothing of the sort. What she had really
+died of--so to say--was the smuggling. When the discovery came to her
+at first, through an accident, of the practices carried on by her
+husband and sons--as they had been by her husband's brother and his
+father before him--it brought a great shock. A timid, right-minded,
+refined woman, the dread of discovery was perpetually upon her
+afterwards; she lived in a state of inward fear night and day; and
+this most probably induced the disorder of which she died--a weakness
+that got gradually worse and worse, and ended in death. When she was
+dying, not before, she told them it had killed her. Had Mr.
+Thornycroft known of it earlier, he might have given it up for her
+sake, for he was a fond husband. But he had not known of it; and her
+death and its unhappy cause left upon them a great sorrow: one that
+could not be put away. The same grief at the practices, and dread of
+what a persistence in them might bring forth, had likewise lain on
+Cyril, and been the secret of his declining to take Orders so long as
+they should be carried on. Mr. Thornycroft himself was getting
+somewhat tired of it, as he told Cyril; he had made plenty of money,
+but Richard would not hear of their being given up.
+
+Perhaps from habit more than anything else, Isaac was passing on to
+the back rooms, but Mary Anne arrested him. "Stay with me a little
+while, Isaac; you do not know how lonely it is for me now."
+
+He acquiesced at once. He was ever good-natured and kind, and they
+turned into the sitting-room, she calling a servant to take her shawl
+and bonnet. Not empty, as she had anticipated, was the parlour, for
+Richard was there.
+
+"I have told Isaac all," said Mary Anne, briefly. And Isaac, in his
+great compassion, went up to his brother and laid his hand on him
+kindly.
+
+Poor Richard Thornycroft! His eyes hollow, his brow fevered, his hands
+burning, he paced there still in his terrible remorse. A consuming
+fire had set in, to prey upon him for all time. He spoke a few
+disjointed words to Isaac, as if in extenuation.
+
+"I felt half maddened at Hunter's duplicity of conduct that night. I
+had warned him that I would shoot him if he went again on the plateau,
+and I thought I was justified in doing so. _Why_ did Cyril put the
+coat on?"
+
+"Let this be a consolation to you, Richard--that you did not intend,
+to harm your brother," was all the comfort Isaac could give.
+
+"Had it been any one but my brother! had it been any but my brother!"
+was the wailing answer. "The curse of Cain rests upon me."
+
+Walking about still in his restlessness as he said it! He had never
+sat, or lain, or rested since leaving the churchyard the previous
+night, but paced about as one in the very depths of despair. Mary Anne
+slipped the bolt of the door, and they began to consult as to the
+future. At this dread consultation, every word of which will linger in
+the remembrance of the three during life, Richard decided upon his
+plans. To remain in the neighbourhood of the fatal scene, ever again
+to look upon the Half-moon beach where the dead had lain, he felt
+would drive him mad. In Australia he might in time find something like
+rest.
+
+"I shall leave to-night," said he.
+
+"To-night!" echoed Isaac, in great surprise. Richard nodded. "You will
+drive me to Jutpoint, won't you, Isaac?"
+
+"If you must really go."
+
+"And when shall we see you again?" inquired Mary Anne.
+
+"Never again."
+
+"Never again! never again!" she repeated, with a moan. "Oh Richard,
+never again!"
+
+It was a shock to Mr. Thornycroft, when he drove home an hour later
+from Jutpoint, to find his eldest and (as people had looked upon it)
+his favourite son waiting to bid him farewell for ever. They did not
+disclose to him the fearful secret--either that it was Cyril who had
+died, or that it was Richard who had shot him--leaving that to be
+revealed later. They said Richard had fallen into a serious scrape,
+which could only be kept quiet by his quitting the place for a few
+years, and begged him not to inquire particulars; that the less said
+about it the better. Justice Thornycroft obeyed in his surprise, for
+the communication had half stunned him.
+
+And so they parted. Once more in the middle of the night--in the
+little hours intervening between dark and dawn--the dog-cart was
+driven out from the Red Court Farm: not bearing this time a quantity
+of valuable lace or other booty, but simply a portmanteau of
+Richard's, with a few articles of clothing flung hastily into it. He
+sat low down in the seat, his hat over his brows, his arms folded, his
+silence stern. And thus Isaac, on the high cushion by his side, drove
+him to Jutpoint to catch the early morning train.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+Ladies Disputing.
+
+
+The next matter to be disclosed was the marriage of Isaac. It was not
+done immediately. As the reader may have surmised, the sole cause for
+his keeping it secret at all had its rise in the smuggling. So long as
+they ran cargoes into the vaults of the Red Court Farm, so long did
+Mr. Thornycroft lay an embargo, or wish to lay it, on his sons
+marrying. The secret might be no longer safe, he said, if one of them
+took a wife.
+
+With the departure of Richard the smuggling would end. Without him,
+Mr. Thornycroft would not care to carry it on: and Isaac felt that
+_he_ could never join in it again, after what it had done for Cyril.
+There was no need: Mr. Thornycroft's wealth was ample. But some weeks
+went on before Isaac considered himself at liberty to speak.
+
+For the fact was this: Richard Thornycroft on his departure had
+extracted a promise from Isaac _not_ to disclose particulars until
+they should hear from him. Isaac gave it readily, supposing he would
+write before embarking. But the days and the weeks went on, and no
+letter came: Isaac was at a nonplus, and felt half convinced, in his
+own mind, that Richard had repented of his determination to absent
+himself, and would be coming back to Coastdown. With the disclosure
+of his marriage to the justice, Isaac wished to add another
+disclosure--that _he_ had done with the smuggling for ever; but a fear
+was upon him that this might lead to a full revelation of the past;
+and, for Richard's sake, until news should come that he was safe away,
+Isaac delayed and delayed. His inclination would have been less
+willing to do this, but for one thing, and that was, that he could not
+have his wife with him just yet. Mrs. Sam Copp, poor meek Amy, had
+been seized with a long and dangerous illness. Anna was in close
+attendance upon her; Mrs. Copp stayed to domineer and superintend; and
+until she should be better Anna could not leave. Thus the time had
+gone on, and accident brought about what intention had not.
+
+May was in, and quickly passing. Pretty nearly two months had elapsed
+since Richard's exit. One bright afternoon when Amy was well enough to
+sit up at her bed-room window, open to the balmy heath and the sweet
+breeze from the sparkling sea, Sarah came up and said Mr. Isaac
+Thornycroft was below. Anna sat with her; the captain and his mother
+were out.
+
+"May I go down?" asked Anna, with a bright blush.
+
+"I suppose you must, dear," answered Mrs. Sam Copp, with a sigh, given
+to the long-continued concealment that ever haunted her.
+
+Away went Anna, flying first of all up to her own room to smooth her
+hair, to see that her pretty muslin dress with its lilac ribbons
+looked nice. Isaac, under present circumstances, was far more like a
+lover than a husband: scarcely ever did they see each other alone for
+an instant. This took her about two minutes, and she went softly
+downstairs and opened the parlour door.
+
+Isaac was seated with his back to it, on this side the window. Anna,
+her face in a glow with the freedom of what she was about to do,
+stepped up, put her hands round his neck from the back, and kissed his
+hair--kissed it again and again.
+
+"Halloa!" roared out a stern voice.
+
+Away she shrunk, with a startled scream. At the back of the room,
+having thrown himself on the sofa, tired with his walk, was Captain
+Copp, his mother beside him. The two minutes had been sufficient time
+for them to enter. The captain had not felt so confounded since the
+night of the apparition, and Mrs. Copp's eyes were perfectly round
+with a broad stare.
+
+"You shameless hussey!" cried the gallant captain, finding his tongue
+as he advanced. "What on earth--"
+
+But Isaac had risen. Risen, and was taking Anna to his side, holding
+her up, standing still with calm composure.
+
+"It is all right, Captain Copp. Pardon me. Anna is my wife."
+
+"Your--what?" roared the captain, really not hearing in his flurry.
+
+"Anna has been my wife since last November. And I hope," Isaac added,
+with a quiet laugh, partly of vexation, partly of amusement, "that you
+will give me credit for self-sacrifice and infinite patience in
+letting her remain here."
+
+Anna, crying silently in her distress and shame, had turned to him,
+and was hiding her face on his arm, A minute or two sufficed for the
+explanation Isaac gave. Its truth could not be doubted, and he
+finished by calling her a little goose, and bidding her look up.
+Captain Copp felt uncertain whether to storm or to take it quietly.
+Meanwhile, he sat down rather humbly, and joined Mrs. Copp in staring.
+
+"A ghost one week; a private marriage the next! I say, mother, I wish
+I was among the pirates again!"
+
+This discovery decided the question in Isaac's mind, and he went
+straight to the Red Court to seek a private interview with his father.
+But he told only of the marriage: leaving other matters to the future.
+Rather to his surprise, it was well received: Mr. Thornycroft did not
+say a harsh word.
+
+"Be it so, Isaac. Of business I am thinking we shall do no more. And
+if I am to be deprived of two of my sons--as appears only too
+probable--it is well that the third should marry. As to Anna, she is a
+sweet girl, and I've nothing to say against her, except her want of
+money. I suppose you considered that you will possess enough for
+both."
+
+"We shall have enough for comfort, sir."
+
+"And for something else. Go and bring her home here at once, Isaac."
+
+But to this, upon consideration, was raised a decided objection at
+Captain Copp's. What would the gossips say? Isaac thought of a better
+plan. He wanted to run up to London for a few days, and would take his
+wife with him. After their departure, Sarah might be told, who would
+be safe to go abroad at once and spread the news everywhere: that Miss
+Chester, under the sanction of her mistress, the captain's wife, had
+been married in the winter to Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+Mrs. Copp, whose visit had grown to unconscionable length, announced.
+her intention of proceeding with them to London. The captain's wife
+was quite sufficiently recovered to be left: to use her own glad
+words, she should "get well all one way," now that the secret was
+told. So it was arranged, and the captain himself escorted them to
+Jutpoint.
+
+A gathering at Mrs. Macpherson's. On the day after the arrival in
+London, that lady had met the three in the crowd at the Royal Academy,
+and invited them at once to her house in the evening. Isaac, who had
+seen her once or twice before introduced Mrs. Copp, and whispered the
+fact that Anna was no longer Miss Chester, but Mrs. Isaac Thornycroft.
+
+"You'll come early, mind," cried, the hospitable wife of the
+professor. "It's just an ordinary tea-drinking, which is one of the
+few good things that if the world means to let die out, _I_ don't; but
+there'll be some cold meat with it, if anybody happens to be hungry.
+The Miss Jupps are coming, and they dine early. Tell your wife, Mr.
+Thornycroft--bless her sweet face! there's not one to match it in all
+them frames--that I'll get in some wedding cake."
+
+Isaac laughed. The jostling masses had left him behind with Mrs.
+Macpherson, who was dressed so intensely high in the fashion, that he
+rather winced at the glasses directed to them. However, they accepted
+the invitation, and went to Mrs. Macpherson's in the evening.
+
+Miss Jupp had arrived before them; her sisters were unable to come.
+She was looking a little more worn than usual, until aroused by the
+news relating to Anna. Married! and Miss Jupp had been counting the
+days, as it were, until she should return to them, for they could not
+get another teacher like her for patience and work.
+
+Ah, yes: Anna's teaching days were over; her star had brightened. As
+she sat there in her gleaming silk of pearl-grey, in the golden
+bracelets, Isaac's gift, with the rose-blush on her cheeks, the light
+of love in her sweet eyes, Mary Jupp saw that she had found her true
+sphere.
+
+"But, my dear child, why should it have been done in secret?" she
+whispered.
+
+"There were family reasons," answered Anna, "I cannot tell you now."
+
+"Since last November! Dear me! And was the marriage really not known
+to any one? was it quite secret?"
+
+"Not quite. One of Isaac's brothers was present in the church to give
+me away, and Captain Copp's wife knew of it."
+
+"Ah, then you are not to be blamed; I am glad to hear that," sighed
+Mary Jupp.
+
+"And now tell me, how is my dear Miss Thornycroft?" cried Mrs.
+Macpherson, as the good professor, in his threadbare coat (rather
+worse than usual) beguiled Isaac away to his laboratory. "I declare I
+have not yet asked after her."
+
+"Had Mrs. Macpherson been strictly candid, she might have acknowledged
+to having purposely abstained from asking before Isaac. The fact of
+the young lady's having got intimate with Robert Hunter at _her_
+house, and of its being an acquaintance not likely, as she judged, to
+be acceptable to the Thornycrofts, had rather lain on her mind.
+
+"She looks wretched," answered Mrs. Copp.
+
+"Wretched?"
+
+"She has fretted all the flesh off her bones. You might draw her
+through the eye of a needle."
+
+"My patience!" ejaculated Mrs. Macpherson. "The prefessor 'ill be
+sorry to hear this. What on earth has she fretted over?"
+
+"That horrible business about Robert Hunter," explained Mrs. Copp.
+"The justice has not looked like himself since; and never will again."
+
+"Oh," returned the professor's lady in a subdued tone, feeling
+suddenly crestfallen. Conscience whispered that this could only apply
+to the matter she was thinking of, and that the attachment had arisen
+through her own imprudence in allowing them to meet. She supposed (to
+use the expressive words passing through her thoughts) that there had
+been a blow-up.
+
+"It wasn't no fault of mine," she said, after a pause. "Who was to
+suspect they were going to fall in love with each other in that
+foolish fashion? She a schoolgirl, and he an old widower! A couple of
+spoonies! Other folks as well as me might have been throwed off their
+guard."
+
+Since Mrs. Macpherson had mixed in refined society she had learnt to
+speak tolerably well at collected times and seasons. But when flurried
+her new ideas and associations forsook her, and she was sure to lapse
+back to the speech of old days.
+
+"Then there _was_ an attachment between him and Mary Anne
+Thornycroft!" exclaimed Mrs. Copp, in a tone of triumph. "Didn't I
+tell you so, Anna? You need not have been so close about it."
+
+"I do not know that there was," replied Anna "Mary Anne never spoke of
+it to me."
+
+"Rubbish to speaking of it," said Mrs. Copp. "You didn't speak about
+you and Mr. Isaac." Anna bent her head in silence.
+
+"And was there a blow-up with her folks?" inquired Mrs. Macpherson,
+not quite courageously yet. "Miss Jupp! _you_ remember--I come right
+off to you with my suspicions at the first moment I had 'em--which was
+only a day or so before she went home."
+
+"I don't know about that; there might have been or there might not,"
+replied Mrs. Copp, alluding to the question of the "blow-up." "But I
+have got my eyes about me, and I can see how she grieved after him.
+Why, if there had been nothing between them, why did she put on
+mourning?" demanded the captain's mother, looking at the assembled
+company one by one.
+
+"She put it on for Lady Ellis," said Anna.
+
+"Oh, did she, though! Sarah told me that that mourning was on her back
+before ever Lady Ellis died. I tell you, I tell you also, ladies, she
+put on the black for Robert Hunter."
+
+"Who put on black for him?" questioned Mrs. Macpherson, in a puzzle.
+
+"Mary Anne Thornycroft."
+
+"I never heard of such a thing! What did she do that for?"
+
+"Why _do_ girls do foolish things?" returned Mrs. Copp. "To show her
+respect for him, I suppose."
+
+"A funny way of showing it!" cried Mrs. Macpherson. "Robert Hunter is
+doing very well where he's gone."
+
+Mrs. Copp turned her eyes on the professor's wife with a prolonged
+stare.
+
+"It is to be hoped he _is_, ma'am," she retorted, emphatically.
+
+"He is doing so well that his coming back and marrying her wouldn't
+surprise me in the least. The Thornycrofts won't have no need to set
+up their backs again him if he can show he is in the way of making his
+fortune."
+
+"Why, who are you talking of?" asked Mrs. Copp, after a pause and
+another gaze.
+
+"Of Robert Hunter. He has gone and left us. Perhaps you did not know
+it, ma'am?"
+
+"Yes, I _did_," said Mrs. Copp, with increased emphasis. "Coastdown
+has too good cause to know it, unfortunately."
+
+This remark caused Mrs. Macpherson to become meek again. "I had a note
+from him this week," she observed. "It come in a letter to the
+prefessor: he sent it me up from his laborory."
+
+The corners of Anna's mouth were gradually lengthening, almost--she
+could not help the feeling--in a sort of fear. It must be remembered
+that she knew nothing of the fact that it was not Robert Hunter who
+had died.
+
+"Perhaps you'll repeat that again, ma'am," said Mrs. Copp, eyeing Mrs.
+Macpherson in her sternest manner. "You had a note from _him_, Robert
+Hunter?"
+
+"Yes, I had, ma'am. Writ by himself."
+
+"Where was it written from?"
+
+Mrs. Macpherson hesitated, conscious of her defects in the science of
+locality. "The prefessor would know," said she; "I'm not much of a
+geographer myself. Anyway it come from where he is, somewhere over in
+t'other hemisphere."
+
+To a lady of Mrs. Copp's extensive travels, round the world a dozen
+times and back again, the words "over in t'other hemisphere," taken in
+conjunction with Robert Hunter's known death and burial, conveyed the
+idea that the celestial hemisphere, and not the terrestrial, was
+alluded to. She became convinced of one of two things: that the
+speaker before her was awfully profane, or else mad.
+
+"I know the letters were six weeks reaching us," continued Mrs.
+Macpherson. "I suppose it would take about that time to get here from
+the place."
+
+Mrs. Copp pushed her chair back in a heat. "This is the first time I
+ever came out to drink tea with the insane, and I hope it will be the
+last," she cried, speaking without reserve, according to her custom.
+"Ma'am, if you are not a model of profanity, you ought to be in
+Bedlam."
+
+Mrs. Macpherson wiped her hot face and took out her fan. But she could
+give as well as take. "It's what I have been thinking of you, ma'am.
+Do you think _you_ are quite right?"
+
+"I right!" screamed Mrs. Copp in a fury. "What do you mean?"
+
+"What do _you_ mean?--come!--about me?"
+
+"_That's_  plain. I never yet heard of a man who is dead and gone
+writing back letters to his friends. Who brings them? How do they
+come? Do they drop from the skies or come up through the graves?"
+
+"Lawk a mercy!" cried Mrs. Macpherson, not catching the full import of
+the puzzling questions. "They come through the post."
+
+Mrs. Copp was momentarily silenced. The answer was entirely practical:
+it was not given in anger; nor, as she confessed to herself, with any
+indication of insanity. Light dawned upon her mind.
+
+"It's the spirits!" she exclaimed, coming to a sudden conviction.
+"Well! Before I'd go in for that fashionable rubbish! A woman of any
+pretension to sense believe in _them!_"
+
+"Hang the spirits!" returned Mrs. Macpherson with offended emphasis.
+"I'm not quite such a fool as that. You should hear what the prefessor
+says of them. Leastways, not of the spirits, poor innocent things,
+which is all delusion, but of them there rapping mediums that make
+believe to call 'em up."
+
+"Then, ma'am, if it's not the spirits you allude to as bringing the
+letters, perhaps you'll explain to me what does bring them."
+
+"What _should_ bring them but the post?"
+
+Mrs. Copp was getting angry. "The post does not bring letters from
+dead men."
+
+"I never said it did. Robert Hunter's not dead."
+
+"Robert Hunter _is_."
+
+"Well, I'm sure!" cried Mrs. Macpherson, fanning herself.
+
+"Robert Hunter died last January," persisted Mrs. Copp, in excitement.
+"His unfortunate body lies under the sod in Coastdown churchyard, and
+his poor restless spirit hovers above it, frightening the people into
+fits. My son Sam saw it. Isaac Thornycroft saw it."
+
+"Robert Hunter is not dead," fired Mrs. Macpherson, who came to the
+conclusion that she was being purposely deceived; "he is gone to the
+East to make a railroad. Not that I quite know where the East is,"
+acknowledged she, "or how it stands from this. I tell you all, I got
+a letter from him, and it was writ about six weeks ago."
+
+"If that lady is not mad, I never was so insulted before," cried Mrs.
+Copp. "I----"
+
+"There must be some mistake," interposed Mary Jupp, who had listened
+in great surprise. Of herself she could not solve the question, and
+knew nothing of the movements of Mr. Hunter. But she thought if he
+were dead that she should have heard of it from his sister Susan.
+"Perhaps it only requires a word of explanation."
+
+"I don't know what explanation it can require," retorted Mrs. Copp.
+"The man is dead and buried."
+
+"The man is not," contended Mrs. Macpherson; "he is alive and kicking,
+and laying down a railroad."
+
+"My son, Captain Copp, was a mourner at his funeral."
+
+"He wrote me a letter six weeks ago, and he wrote one to the
+prefessor; and he said he was getting on like a house on fire,"
+doggedly asserted the professor's wife.
+
+"Stay, stay, I pray you," interposed Miss Jupp. "There must be some
+misunderstanding. You cannot be speaking of the same man."
+
+"We are!" raved both the ladies, losing temper. "It is Robert Hunter,
+the engineer, who met Mary Anne Thornycroft at my house; and the
+two--as I suspected--fell in love with each other, which made me very
+mad."
+
+"And came down to see her at Coastdown, and Susan Hunter was to have
+come with him, and didn't. Of course we are speaking of the same."
+
+"And I say that he come back from that visit safe and sound, and was
+in London till April, when he went abroad," screamed Mrs. Macpherson.
+"He dined here with us the Sunday afore he was off; we had a lovely
+piece o' the belly o salmon, and a quarter o' lamb and spring cabbage,
+and rhubub tart and custards, and a bottle of champagne, that we might
+drink success to his journey. Very down-hearted he seemed, I suppose
+at the thoughts of going away; and the next day he started. There! Ask
+the professor, ma'am, and contradict it if you can."
+
+"I won't contradict it," said Mrs. Copp; "I might set on and swear if
+I did, like my son Sam. You'll persuade me next there's nothing real
+in the world. Anna Chester--that is, Anna Thornycroft--do you tell
+what you know. Perhaps they'll hear you."
+
+"Oh, I'll hear the young lady," said Mrs. Macpherson fanning herself
+violently; "but nobody can't persuade me that black's white."
+
+Anna quietly related facts, so far as her knowledge extended: Robert
+Hunter had come to Coastdown, had paid his visit to the Red Court
+Farm, and on the very night he was to have left for London he was shot
+as he stood at the edge of the cliffs, fell over, and was not found
+until the morning--dead!
+
+Her calm manner, impressive in its truth, her minute relation of
+particulars, her unqualified assertion that it was Robert Hunter, and
+could have been no one else, staggered Mrs. Macpherson.
+
+"And he was shot down dead, you say?" cried that lady, dropping the
+fan, and opening her mouth very wide.
+
+"He must have died at the moment he was shot. It was not
+discovered"--here her voice faltered a little--"who shot him, and the
+jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or
+persons unknown."
+
+"Was there a inquest?" demanded the astonished Mrs. Macpherson, "on
+Robert Hunter?"
+
+"Certainly there was. He was buried subsequently in Coastdown
+churchyard. His grave lies in the east corner of it, near Mrs.
+Thornycroft's."
+
+"Now you have not told all the truth, Anna," burst forth Mrs. Copp,
+who had been restraining herself with difficulty. "You are always
+shuffling out of that part of the story when you can. Why don't you
+say that you and Miss Thornycroft saw him murdered? Tell it as you had
+to tell it before the coroner."
+
+"It is true," acknowledged Anna.
+
+"And Miss Thornycroft put on mourning for him, making believe it was
+for Lady Ellis, who died close upon it," cried Mrs. Copp, too
+impatient to allow Anna to continue. "And the worst is, that he can't
+rest in his grave, poor fellow, but hovers atop of it night after
+night, so that Coastdown dare not go by the churchyard, and the
+folks have made a way right across the heath to avoid it, breaking
+through two hedges and a stone fence that belongs to Lord
+What's-his-name--who's safe, it's said, to indict the parish for
+trespass. Scores of folks saw the ghost. Anna saw it. My son Sam saw
+it, and he's not one to be taken in by a ghost; though he did think
+once he saw a mermaid, and will die, poor fellow, in the belief.
+Robert Hunter not dead, indeed! He was barbarously murdered, ma'am."
+
+"It is the most astounding tale I ever heard," cried the bewildered
+Mrs. Macpherson. "What was the ghost like?"
+
+"Like himself, ma'am. Perhaps you knew a coat he had? An ugly white
+thing garnished with black fur?"
+
+"I had only too good cause to know it!" shrieked out Mrs. Macpherson,
+aroused at the mention. "That blessed prefessor of mine bought it and
+gave it him; was _took in_ to buy it. He's the greatest duffer in
+everyday life that ever stood upright."
+
+"Then it always appeared in that coat. For that was what he had on
+when he was murdered."
+
+"Well, I never! I shall think we are in the world of departed spirits
+next. This beats table-rapping. Why, he brought that very coat on his
+arm when he came on the Sunday to dine with us! The nights were cold
+again."
+
+"And the real veritable coat has been lying ever since at the
+public-house where he was carried to. It's there now, stiff in its
+folds," eagerly avowed Mrs. Copp. "Ma'am, what you saw at your house
+here must have been a vision--himself and the coat too."
+
+Mrs. Macpherson began to doubt her own identity. The second coat never
+crossed her mind. It happened that she had not looked into the lumber
+closet after it, and could have been upon her oath, if asked, that it
+was there still. Her hot face assumed a strange look of dubious
+bewilderment.
+
+"It never surely could have been his ghost that came here and dined
+with us!" debated she. "Ghosts don't eat salmon and drink champagne."
+
+"I don't know what they might do if put to it," cried Mrs. Copp,
+sharply. "One thing you may rely upon, ma'am--that it was not
+himself."
+
+"The prefessor doesn't believe in ghosts. He says there is no such
+things. I'm free to confess that I've never seen any."
+
+"Neither did I believe before this," said Mrs. Copp. "But one has to
+bend to the evidence of one's senses."
+
+How the argument would have ended, and what they might have brought it
+to, cannot be divined. Miss Jupp had sat in simple astonishment. That
+Robert Hunter had died and been buried at Coastdown in January, and
+that Robert Hunter had dined in that very house in April, appeared
+absolutely indisputable. It was certainly far more marvellous than any
+feat yet accomplished by the "spirits." But Isaac Thornycroft solved
+it.
+
+He came in alone, saying the professor was staying behind to finish
+some experiment. Upon which the professor's wife went to see, for she
+did not approve of experiments when there was company to entertain.
+Mrs. Copp immediately began to recount what had passed, making
+comments of her own.
+
+"I have come across many a bumboat woman in my day, Mr. Isaac, and I
+thought they capped the world for impudent obstinacy, for they'll call
+black white to the face of a whole crew. But Mrs. Mac beats 'em.
+Perhaps you will add your testimony to mine--that Robert Hunter is
+dead and buried. Miss Jupp here is not knowing what to think or
+believe."
+
+Isaac Thornycroft hesitated. He went and stood on the hearth-rug in
+his black clothes. His face was grave; his manner betrayed some
+agitation.
+
+"Mrs. Copp, will you pardon me if I ask you generously to dismiss that
+topic; at least for to-night?"
+
+"What on earth for?" was the answer of Mrs. Copp.
+
+"The subject was, and is, and always will be productive of the utmost
+pain to my family. We should be thankful to let all remembrance of it
+die out of men's minds."
+
+"Now I tell you what it is, Mr. Isaac; you are thinking of your
+brother Cyril. Of course as long as he stays away, he'll be suspected
+of the murder, but I've not said so----"
+
+"Be silent, I pray you," interrupted Isaac, in a tone of sharp pain.
+"Hear me, while I clear your mind from any suspicion of that kind. By
+all my hope of heaven--by all _our_ hope," he added, lifting solemnly
+his right hand, "my brother Cyril was innocent."
+
+"Well, we'll let that pass," said Mrs. Copp, with a sniff. "Many a
+pistol has gone off by accident before now, and small blame to the
+owners of it. Perhaps you'll be good enough to bear me out to Miss
+Jupp that Robert Hunter was shot dead."
+
+Isaac paced the room. Mrs. Macpherson had come in and was listening;
+the professor halted at the door. Better satisfy them once for all, or
+there would be no end to it.
+
+"It came to our knowledge afterwards--long afterwards--that it was not
+Robert Hunter," said Isaac, with slow distinctness. "The mistake arose
+from the face not having been recognisable. Hunter is alive and well."
+
+"The saints preserve us!" cried Mrs. Copp in her discomfiture. "Then
+why did his ghost appear?"
+
+A momentary smile flitted across the face of Isaac. "I suppose--in
+point of fact--it was not his ghost, Mrs. Copp."
+
+Mrs. Copp's senses were three-parts lost in wonder at the turn affairs
+were taking. "Who, then, was shot down? A stranger?"
+
+Isaac raised his handkerchief to his face. "I dare-say it will be
+known some time. At present it is enough for us that it was not Robert
+Hunter."
+
+"I knew a ghost could never eat salmon!" said Mrs. Macpherson, in a
+glow of triumph.
+
+"But what about the coat?" burst forth Mrs. Copp, as that portion of
+the mystery loomed into her recollection. "If that is lying unusable
+in the stables at the Mermaid, Robert Hunter could not have brought it
+with him when he came here to dinner."
+
+Clearly. And the ladies looked one at another, half inclined to plunge
+into war again. The meek professor, possibly afraid of it, spoke up in
+his mild way from behind, where he had stood and listened in silence.
+
+"Mr. Hunter's coat was to have been sent after him from Coastdown; but
+it did not come, and I gave him mine. He supposed it must have been
+lost on the road."
+
+It was the professor's wife's turn now. She could not believe her
+ears. Give away the other coat--when visions had crossed her mind of
+having that disreputable fur taken off and decent buttons put on, for
+his wear the following winter when he went off to the country on his
+ologies!
+
+"Professor! do you mean to tell me to my face that that coat is not in
+the lumber-closet upstairs where I put it?"
+
+"Well, my dear, I fear you'd not find it there."
+
+Away went Mrs. Macpherson to the closet, and away went the rest in her
+wake, anxious to see the drama played out. Isaac Thornycroft alone did
+not stir; and his wife came back to him. Her face was white and cold,
+as though she had received a shock.
+
+"Isaac! Isaac! this is frightening me. May I say what I fear?"
+
+He put his hands upon her shoulders and gazed into her eyes as she
+stood before him, his own full of kindness but of mourning.
+
+"Say as little as you can, my darling. I can't bear much to-night."
+
+"Cyril! It--was----"
+
+"Oh, Cyril! Cyril! could he not be saved?"
+
+His faint cry of anguish echoed hers, as he bent his aching brow
+momentarily upon her shoulder.
+
+"I would have given my own life to save his, Anna. I would give it
+still to save another the remorse and pain that lie upon him. He put
+on Hunter's coat that night, the other not wanting it, and was
+mistaken for him."
+
+"I understand," she murmured. "Oh, what a remorse it must be!"
+
+"Now you know all; but it is for your ear alone," he said, standing
+before her again and speaking impressively. "From henceforth let it be
+to us a barred subject, the only one that my dear wife may not mention
+to me."
+
+She looked an assent from her loving eyes, and sat down again as the
+company came trooping in, Mrs. Macpherson openly demanding of her
+husband how long it would be before he learnt common sense, and why he
+did not cut off his head and give _that_ away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+Disclosing it to Justice Thornycroft.
+
+
+Back at Coastdown. Isaac and his wife were staying at the Red Court.
+Mr. Thornycroft wished them to remain at it altogether; but Isaac
+doubted. If his sister were to marry, why then he would heartily
+accede; and Anna could take up her position as its mistress--in
+anticipation of the period when she would legally be entitled to it.
+At present he thought it would be better for them to rent a small
+house near.
+
+Mary Anne had received the news of the marriage with equanimity--not
+to say apathy. In the dreadful calamities that had overwhelmed her,
+petty troubles were lost. Cordially indeed did she welcome her brother
+and his wife home, and hoped they would remain. To be alone there was,
+as she truly told them, miserable.
+
+A ship letter had been received from Richard, written when he was
+nearly half way on his voyage. It appeared that he had written on
+embarking, just a word to tell the name of his ship, and whither it
+was bound, and had sent it on shore by the pilot. Isaac could only
+suppose that the man had forgotten to post it.
+
+His destination was New Zealand. Some people whom he knew had settled
+there, he said, and he intended to join them. He should purchase some
+land and farm it; but he would never again set foot on European soil.
+He supposed he should get on; and he hoped in time some sort of peace
+would return to him.
+
+"I would advise your telling my father the whole, if you have not
+already done so," the letter concluded. "It is right that he should
+know the truth about Cyril, and that I shall never come home again.
+Tell him that the remorse lies very heavily upon me; that I would have
+given my own life ten times over--given it cheerfully--to save my
+brother's. Had it been any one but a brother, I should not feel it so
+deeply. I think of myself always as a second Cain. I will write you
+again when we arrive. Meanwhile, address to me at the post-office,
+Canterbury. I suppose you will not object to correspond with me.
+Perhaps my father will write. Tell him I should like it."
+
+Before the arrival of this letter to Isaac, he had been consulting
+with his sister about the expediency of enlightening their father. His
+own opinion entirely coincided with Richard's--that it ought to be
+done. Mr. Thornycroft was in a state of doubt about Cyril; and also as
+to the duration of Richard's exile, and restlessly curious always in
+regard to what had led to it.
+
+One balmy June day, when the crop of hay was being got in, Isaac told
+his father. They were leaning upon a gate in the four-acre mead,
+watching the haymakers, who were piling the hay into cocks at the
+farther end of the field.
+
+Mr. Thornycroft was like a man stunned.
+
+"Hunter not dead! Cyril lying there, and not Hunter! It can't _be_,
+Isaac!"
+
+Isaac repeated the facts again, and then went into details. He
+concluded by showing Richard's last letter. "Poor Dicky! Poor Dicky!"
+cried the justice, melted to compassion. "Yes, as you say, Isaac,
+Cyril is in a happier place than this--gone to his rest. And
+Dick--Dick sent him there in cruelty. I think I'll go in if you'll
+give me your arm."
+
+Wonderingly Isaac obeyed. Never had the strong, upright Justice
+Thornycroft sought or needed support from any one. The news must have
+shaken him terribly. Isaac went with him across the fields, and saw
+him shut himself in his room.
+
+"Have you been telling him?" whispered Mary Anne.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And how has he borne it? Why did he lean upon you in coming in?"
+
+"He seemed to bear it exceedingly well. But it must have had a far
+deeper effect upon him than I thought, or he would not have asked for
+my arm."
+
+Mary Anne Thornycroft sighed. A little pain, more or less, seemed to
+her as nothing.
+
+On the following morning Mr. Thornycroft sent for his son. Isaac found
+him seated before his portable desk; some papers upon it. The crisis
+of affairs had prompted the justice to disclose certain facts to his
+children, that otherwise never might have been disclosed. Richard
+Thornycroft was not his own son, though he had been treated as such.
+Isaac listened in utter amazement. Of all the strange things that had
+lately fallen upon them, this appeared to him to be the strangest.
+
+"I have been writing to Richard," said Mr. Thornycroft, taking up some
+closely-written pages. "You can read it; it will save me going over
+the details to you."
+
+Isaac took the letter, and read it through. But his senses were
+confused, and it was not very clear to him.
+
+"It seems that I cannot understand it now, sir."
+
+"Not understand it?" repeated the justice, with a touch of his old
+heat. "It is plain enough to be understood. When my father died, he
+left this place, the Red Court Farm, to my elder brother, your uncle
+Richard--whom you never knew. A short while afterwards, Richard met
+with an accident in France, and I went over with my wife, to whom I
+was just married. We found him also with a wife, which surprised me,
+for he had never said anything of it; she was a pretty little
+Frenchwoman; and their child, a boy, was a year old. Richard, poor
+fellow, was dying, and of course I thought my chance of inheriting the
+Red Court was gone--that he would naturally leave it to his little
+son. But he took an opportunity of telling me that he had left it to
+me; the only proviso attached to it being that I should bring up the
+boy, as my son. He talked with me further: things that I cannot go
+into now: and I promised. That is how the Red Court came to me."
+
+"But why should he have done this, sir?" interrupted Isaac, who liked
+justice better than wrong. "The little boy had a right to it."
+
+"No," said Mr. Thornycroft, quietly. "Richard had not married his
+mother."
+
+Isaac saw now. There was a pause.
+
+"He said if time could come over again he would have married her, or
+else not have taken her. He was dying, you see, Isaac, and right and
+wrong array themselves in very distinct colours then. Anyway, it was
+too late now, whatever his repentance; and he prayed me and my wife to
+take the boy and not let it be known for the child's own sake that he
+was not ours. We both promised; at a moment like that one could not
+foresee inconveniences that might arise later, and it almost seemed as
+if we owed the compliance, in gratitude for the bequeathal of the Red
+Court Farm. He died, and we brought the boy with us to London--he who
+has been looked upon as your brother Richard. When people here used to
+say that he was more like his uncle Richard than his father Harry, my
+wife would glance at me with a smile."
+
+"And his mother?"
+
+"She died in France shortly afterwards. She had parted with the boy
+readily, glad to find he would have so good a home. Had she lived, the
+probabilities are that the secret could not have been kept."
+
+"Did you intend to keep it always, father?"
+
+"Until my death. Every year as they went on, gave less chance of our
+disclosing it. When you were all little, my wife and I had many a
+serious consultation; for the future seemed to be open so some
+difficulty; but we loved the boy, and neither of us had courage to
+say, He is not ours; he has no legitimate inheritance. Besides, as
+your mother would say to me, there was always our promise. It must
+have been disclosed at my death, at least to Richard, to explain why
+you, and not he, came into the Red Court."
+
+"Perhaps his father, my uncle Richard, expected it would be left to
+him?"
+
+"No, Isaac. We talked of that. Only in the event of my having no
+children of my own would the property have become his. Richard will
+take his share as one of my younger children. _You_ are the eldest.
+I shall at once settle this money upon him; you have read to that
+effect in the letter; so that he will have enough for comfort whatever
+part of the world he may choose to remain in."
+
+Isaac mechanically cast his eyes on the letter, still in his hand.
+
+"I have disclosed these facts to him now for his own comfort," resumed
+Mr. Thornycroft. "It may bring him a ray of it to find Cyril was not
+his brother."
+
+Isaac thought it would. He folded the letter and returned it to his
+father.
+
+"There is one thing I wished to ask you, sir, and I may as well ask it
+now. You do not, I presume, think of running more cargoes."
+
+"Never again," said Mr. Thornycroft. "Richard was the right hand of
+it, and he is gone. That's over for ever. But for him it would have
+been given up before. And there's Kyne besides."
+
+Isaac nodded, glad to have the matter set at rest. "May I tell Mary
+Anne what you have disclosed to me?"
+
+"Yes, but no one else. She may be glad to hear Richard is not her
+brother."
+
+How glad, the justice little thought. It seemed to Mary Anne as if
+this news removed the embargo she had self-imposed upon her marriage
+with Robert Hunter. Perhaps she had already begun to question the
+necessity of it--to think it a very utopian, severe decision. In the
+revulsion of feeling that came over her, she laid her head down on
+Isaac's shoulder with a burst of tears, and told him all. Isaac
+smiled.
+
+"You must tell him that you have relented, Mary Anne."
+
+"He will not be back for five years."
+
+"He will be back in less than five months; perhaps in five weeks."
+
+She sat upright, staring at him.
+
+"Isaac!"
+
+"He will, indeed. Anna had a letter from him yesterday. It came to
+Miss Jupp's, addressed to 'Miss Chester.' Business matters are
+bringing him home for a short while; personal things, he says, that
+only himself can do. I wonder if he wrote to her in the hope that the
+information would penetrate to Coastdown?"
+
+She sat in silence, her colour going and coming, rather shrinking from
+the merriment in Isaac's eye. Oh, would it be so?--would it be so?
+
+"In that case--I mean, should circumstances bring him again to the Red
+Court Farm--we shall have to disclose publicly the truth about Cyril,
+Mary Anne. As well that it should be so, and then a tombstone can be
+put. But it can wait yet."
+
+As she sat there, looking out on the sparkling sea, a prevision came
+over her that this happiness might really come to her at last, and a
+sobbing sigh of thankfulness went up to heaven.
+
+Coastdown went on in its ordinary quiet routine. The mysteries of the
+Red Court Farm were at an end, never again to be enacted. Long and
+perseveringly did Mr. Superintendent Kyne look out for the smugglers;
+many and many a night did he exercise his eyes and his patience on the
+edge of that bleak plateau; but they came no more. Old Mr.
+Thornycroft, deprived, he hardly knew how, of his sons, lived on at
+the Red Court, feeling at times a vacancy of pursuit: he had loved
+adventure, and his occupation was gone. But the land got a better
+chance of being tilled to perfection now than it ever had been.
+
+Meanwhile the whole neighbourhood remained under a clear and immutable
+persuasion that the ghost still "walked" in the churchyard. The new
+right of road had come to a hot dispute; but Coastdown persisted in
+using it after nightfall, to avoid the graves and their ominous
+visitor. While Captain Copp, taking his glass in the parlour at
+the Mermaid, did not fail to descant upon the marvels of that night,
+when he and that woman-servant of his, who (he would add in a
+parenthesis) was undaunted enough for a she-pirate, saw with their
+own eyes the spirit of Robert Hunter. And then the parlour would fall
+into a discussion of the love of roving inherent in the young
+Thornycrofts--Cyril lingering away still; Richard also perhaps gone to
+look after him; and speculate upon how long it would be before they
+returned, and the glorious dinners were resumed at the Red Court Farm.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Court Farm (Vol. 2 of 2), by
+Mrs. Henry Wood
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58047 ***