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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 *** |