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diff --git a/78214-0.txt b/78214-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a391bc --- /dev/null +++ b/78214-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5232 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78214 *** + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "I'll give each of you three guesses."] + + + + + JUBILEE HALL; OR, + + "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME." + + BY HON. MRS. GREENE + + + + THOMAS NELSON AND SONS + LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN + AND NEW YORK + + + + + _CONTENTS._ + + I. _Joyful News_ + II. _The Journey to the Hall_ + III. _Jubilee Hall_ + IV. _A Bad Beginning_ + V. _Berry-picking_ + VI. _The Winner of the Prize_ + VII. _The Voice of Conscience_ + VIII. _Covering the Jam_ + IX. _Aunt Marian's Store-room_ + X. _A Discovery_ + XI. _Watching his Opportunity_ + XII. _At Dead of Night_ + XIII. _From Bad to Worse_ + XIV. _Gloomy Forebodings_ + XV. _A Contrast_ + XVI. _Fighting with Self_ + XVII. _The Mischief Discovered_ + XVIII. _A Full Confession_ + XIX. _Home, Sweet Home_ + + + + +_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._ + +_"I'll give each of you three guesses" ... Frontispiece_ + +_Fred threw his arms around his mother's neck_ + +_Kathleen ducked down as she was told_ + +_"I am so glad I have met you"_ + +_"Another pot of strawberry, if you please"_ + +_The flame of the candle flickered horribly_ + +_"Fred, here is mother come to see you"_ + +_Supper was laid in the bright parlour_ + + + + +JUBILEE HALL. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JOYFUL NEWS. + +"Joy! joy! joy!" cried Kathleen Malcomson, as she burst into the +schoolroom where her two brothers were at work preparing their +lessons for school; "oh, boys, I've just heard such a grand piece of +news. I'll give each of you three guesses what it is, and only this +one hint, that it's the most glorious thing you could possibly +imagine." + +"You must tell us first," cried Fred, "does it concern us boys as +well as you? Otherwise it would not be worth the bother of guessing." + +"Of course it does; that's one guess for you, Fred." + +"Humbug! you said we were each to have three guesses, and mine was +only a simple remark; besides, I know what it is already, so you need +not make such a row about it." + +"Why, who told you?" asked Kathleen, her face falling several degrees +from its original brightness. "I am almost certain you cannot have +guessed it." + +"Father is going to have the bagatelle board newly covered, and buy +fresh balls; I heard him saying so this morning,--eh? Miss Katy." + +"Eh? Miss Katy," repeated Harry in a still more decisive tone; "how +wise you are with your three guesses." + +"It's as much about the bagatelle board as it's about--about your +head," cried Kathleen, glancing around the room for some withering +simile; "do you think I'd make such a fuss about an old bagatelle +board? No; it's something a thousand times better than that." + +"Well, then, tell us it out at once," cried both the boys, roused to +real interest by Kathleen's words and manner; "what's the use of +bottling up your news, instead of giving us the benefit of it? Pour +it all out quick, that's a good old Kat." + +"Well, I'll only ask you to give one guess each," said Kathleen, +recovering the bright expectant glance of pleasure as she drew +nearer. "Now, Fred, you go ahead first, and Harry shall have his +afterwards." + +"Well, I guess--I guess, humph; you said it was awfully grand, did +you not?" + +"I did." + +"Well, then, I guess, that my new suit has come home from the +tailor's." + +"Nonsense, Fred; that's no real guess. Who cares about your suit? +You did not really try to think." + +"I did, 'pon my word; but my head is nothing but a brick-bat over +this horrid Euclid. Let Harry have his shot now." + +"I have known what it was all along," said Harry calmly; "the +midsummer holidays are to begin a week earlier than we thought, for I +heard mother saying so this morning; at least she told Leonard that +the pony might begin to cart gravel after the end of this week, as we +should not want it any more for the croydon, and I twigged at once +that there would be no school after that week." + +"You are just a shade right in your guess, and nothing more," cried +Kathleen triumphantly; "you will not want the croydon for going to +school after the end of this week, but only because you are going +somewhere else." + +"Where?" cried both the boys, springing up from their chairs in great +excitement; "not--not to Jubilee Hall, surely." + +"Yes, to Jubilee Hall for the whole midsummer holidays. There was a +letter from Aunt Marian last night, asking us to spend the whole +midsummer holidays there." + +The wild whoop of joy and chorus of shouting, dancing, flinging about +of lesson-books, and pounding recklessly on the piano, showed that +Kathleen had not exaggerated the rapturous quality of her news, nor +over-rated the warmth of its reception. The boys proceeded to hug +their sister enthusiastically, and to kick each other ignominiously, +till at length, lessons having been hopelessly abandoned, they all +leaped out through the open window, and rushed off with their news to +pour it into the sympathetic bosom of Mrs. Duffy, the dairywoman; or +failing her, into the somewhat obtuse ear of Quin, the gardener. But +they were both kindly souls, and always received the children's +intelligence with the full amount of surprise or joy expected from +them. + +The dairy came first, being situated at the foot of the lawn, and +shaded from the house by a plantation of young firs and laurustinus +bushes; and besides, they were always sure of finding "old Mother +Duffy" at home, for she never left the precincts of her own place +except at milking-time, and it was now only four o'clock in the +afternoon. + +"Well, bless my heart," cried the good old soul, coming to the door +of her dairy as she heard the loud hurrahs and yells of the children, +and saw them come flying over the sunk fence and down the meadow +towards her, "there must be some rare piece of news up now;--I'd +better turn the key on the dairy-room, or Master Harry will be +playing some of his wild tricks with the cream, or putting salt in +the milk, as he did the other day." And Mrs. Duffy, moving aside to +carry out her precautionary measure, had only just turned the key in +the lock when the trio burst headlong into the room with a clatter +and a row that brought several of the panikins and wooden butter +moulds tumbling off the dresser upon the flagged floor of the dairy. + +"Now, Master Harry, and you, Master Fred, couldn't you come a trifle +easier into the house, without knocking all my little goods and +chattels about the place! What bee have you got in your bonnet this +morning, Miss Kathleen, that makes you so flighty and wild?" + +"She has got the biggest bee that ever was born," cried Fred, quite +breathless from his quick race; "and we've all come down to see what +you'll think of it. Only fancy, Mother Duffy, there has been a +letter from Aunt Marian, and we are all going to spend the midsummer +holidays at Jubilee Hall." + +"The jolliest place you ever were in," broke in Harry, who, having +seen at a glance that the dairy door was locked, was searching behind +every cup and platter for the key; "no end of good things to eat and +drink, and no stint of milk and butter as there is in some places; +nor locks on the doors either." + +"Then she must be a rare simple lady to ask such folks as you down to +her place, and keep nought under lock and key. Wait till the first +day she finds a frog swimming in the milk-pail or a hedgehog at the +bottom of the churn, and see whether she'll turn the key in her dairy +door or not. She'll be a sillier lady than I take her for, or she'll +soon send you packing home again to your own place." + +"Oh, will she? that's your view of the question, Mother Duffy, but +not mine," retorted Harry, who with his back turned, was busily +employed pouring some ink out of a small stone jar into Mother +Duffy's empty tea-pot; "Aunt Marian is the jolliest cove in all +England." + +"I don't understand anything about 'coves,'" replied Mrs. Duffy, +shaking her head ominously; "but if you get on with the same tricks +at Jubilee Hall as you do here, it's the short holidays you'll have +there, I promise you. Not but I'm glad you have such a treat before +you; though how folks with such a fine place to live in as this +should set so much store by another house, is a matter I don't quite +come to see the sense of." + +"Oh, but don't you see," cried Kathleen, "there is every kind of fun +going on there from morning till night,--archery, and croquet, and +lawn tennis, and ponies to ride. Arthur Jackson spent one day there +last year, and he says it's the most splendid place he ever was in." + +"Splendid is no word for it," cried Fred enthusiastically; "from what +he said, it must be a--a--gollumptious place. The gooseberry bushes +there are so large and full of fruit, you could stay a whole day +under one of them, and leave it none the worse for the picking." + +"I'm thinking you'll be a trifle the worse for such a picking," said +Mrs. Duffy, laughing good-humouredly, "Do you remember the day you +ate all the cherries, and the doctor had to be sent for in the +evening." + +"Pooh! that was ages ago, when I was quite young," replied Fred, who +had only just passed out of his fourteenth year. "You would not +catch me making such a fool of myself again." + +"I hope not," said Mrs. Duffy; "but I'd be sorry to be the +cherry-tree that should come in your way, old as you are and wise. +But what's Master Harry at that he's so quiet yonder in the corner?" + +"Oh, nothing," cried Harry, gliding away from the dresser, where he +had just poured some vinegar into a jug of new milk. "I was looking +at that grand picture that you've stuck up on the wall since I was +here last." + +Harry's face looked so innocent, and his remark was so plausible a +one, that Mrs. Duffy, who was only too easily imposed upon, allowed +the excuse to pass muster, and continued,--"On what day are you going +to leave us, Master Fred? I'll be lonesome enough without you, bad +as you are with your tricks and treacherous ways." + +"We are going on this day week," replied Kathleen. "I was the first +to hear it all, and the boys knew nothing about it until I told them." + +"Phew! how grand you are!" cried both the boys contemptuously. "Why +should you have been told before either of us, I should like to know? +You happened to go into the drawing-room first, and that was all." + +"No, it was not all; I was sent for," replied Kathleen proudly. +"Mamma had to get me some new clothes made before I went on a visit, +and so she told me all about it then. And what was more, she said +that although I was the youngest, she hoped I would try to prevent +you boys from being too wild or playing practical jokes while you +were away; for there are to be lots of other visitors at the Hall, +and mamma was afraid you might get into some scrape, and perhaps have +to be sent home." + +[Illustration: Fred threw his arms around his mother's neck.] + +"Oh, dear! so we are to be under your thumb, Miss Wiseacre, are we?" +cried Fred, pointing contemptuously with his finger at his sister, +whose heightened colour betrayed her vexation. "We must do nothing, +and say nothing, and think nothing even, without coming to ask your +leave or advice; ain't it likely just? that's all I say," and Fred +whistling, turned on his heel and stepped over the threshold of the +dairy door. + +"You might do worse than follow Miss Kathleen's advice," cried Mrs. +Duffy, seeing the ready tears in the little girl's eyes, and always +prepared to take the part of the weak; "for she's a good girl, and +always tries to do what her mamma tells her, and that's more than I +can say for either of you. For if a bit of a spree turns up in your +paths, it's little you think of who likes it or dislikes it either; +and as I said before, I just think it more than likely we'll be +having you home here before you've been half a week away." + +"Bosh," cried Fred, leaping over the gravel walk and turning off +towards the garden. + +"Gammon," cried Harry, as he also left the dairy and followed in his +brother's wake. + +"That last idea is a trifle too rich, ain't it, now?" said Fred, as +he linked his arm in that of his younger brother, in the shady +shrubbery path leading to the front garden; "that a couple of big +fellows like us are to be under the guidance of a little +scrap-o'-my-thumb of a child like Katy. Why, I look on the very fact +that we shall have no one over us to say, 'do this, or do that,' is +the very cream of the whole joke; don't you?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Father always looks so grave if a fellow does anything the least out +of the common run, and mother is so--" + +"Mother is awfully jolly, I think, and father too," replied faithful +Harry, who, under all his madcap ways, had a loyal, loving heart. + +"Well, I should rather think they were. I ain't the one to run down +mother, I should think, or father either, for that matter; but I mean +it will be an awfully jolly sensation to be entirely one's own +master, and no one to pull a long face if one happens to do or say +anything not exactly laid down by rule. You see what I mean, don't +you, Harry?" + +"Oh yes; of course, it will be grand sport and no mistake." + +"I hope Kathleen won't really be poking her nose into all our +doings," said Fred meditatively; "there are heaps of larks which are +perfectly harmless in themselves which might throw her into fits of +terror. I'm sorry mother ever put such a silly notion into her head." + +"O Fred!" + +"My dear fellow, don't 'oh' and 'ah' at every word I say. One would +think I was running mother down, by the way you bounce up whenever I +mention her name. But ain't it a silly notion, now, for a little +meawy kitten like Kathleen to be set to watch over our actions?" + +"I expect she will be so nervous when she gets there, she will have +enough to do to look after herself," replied Harry evasively; and +having reached the garden gate, their talk and walk ended in the ever +entrancing operation of gooseberry-picking. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE JOURNEY TO THE HALL. + +At length the day arrived for the journey of the children to Jubilee +Hall. It had seemed as if it would never come, so ardently did they +look forward to the visit; and now it was a picked day, so gloriously +sunshiny and fine, and with just enough breeze to prevent the heat +from being too oppressive. + +The carriage, or rather the pony phaeton, stood already at the door, +and the children, impatient of delay, listened to the last words and +injunctions of their mother with somewhat less attention than was +their wont; for though they were often disobedient and wild, and +extraordinarily foolish, still they loved their mother with all their +heart; and when she pointed out their faults to them, they made +ardent resolutions of amendment, and determined to make their future +conduct so good and faultless, that all past errors or mischief +should be forgotten. But this morning their thoughts were busy with +the pleasures of Jubilee Hall and its thousand and one enjoyments, so +that their mother's words fell like hailstones on a glass roof, which +touch the surface for a moment only to rebound and fall at a greater +distance. + +"Harry, love, you will be sure not to play any practical jokes while +you are away." + +"Oh, mother!" + +"Well, you know what I mean; not jokes which are either unkind or +mischievous: some jokes are quite innocent, while others do untold +harm." + +"Oh, of course, mother; but the carriage has been at the door such +ages, and the horse is awfully fidgety." + +"The horse is not half so fidgety as I am," replied their mother +smiling, "sending such a set of wild creatures into a strange house +full of company. But, Fred darling, you are the eldest of all, and +therefore I am sure you will try to behave well;--and don't burst +through any of Aunt Marian's rules so as to follow up your own fancy; +promise me that." + +"I'll burst through nothing, I promise you, mother, unless it's my +clothes, and that I can't answer for, as Tracy has made all my +garments an inch smaller than usual." + +"And above all, Fred," said Mrs. Malcomson, lowering her voice so as +only to be heard by her eldest son, "above all, Fred, you'll not +touch anything or go any place where you are forbidden, nor take +anything which is not strictly your own." + +"Oh, mother, I never do so now." + +"I know you have been much better lately, Fred, but still we have had +trouble more than once on that point; and though in this house things +may readily be forgiven and forgotten, in a strange house you might +lose your character and all your promised pleasure by one act of this +kind. Aunt Marian is ever so good-natured and generous, but she is +very particular about truth and honesty and uprightness; so you'll +remember all I have said, will you not, Fred?" + +"I'll remember every word as right as a trivet, see if I won't. +Good-bye, old mother;" and with these words human endurance came to +an end, and Fred, throwing his arms around his mother's neck, rushed +out into the hall, and from thence with one bound was seated in the +phaeton outside. + +Mrs. Malcomson hurried after her children to see that they were +safely stowed away, and that the coachman had the reins; for Fred was +not a particularly good whip, and Harry was too good a whip, for he +generally whipped the horse up into a furious gallop: and as Mrs. +Malcomson lifted Kathleen up into the hind seat of the phaeton beside +Harry, she whispered, "You'll remember, darling, all I said, and +remind the boys each night about their prayers." + +"I will," nodded Kathleen, with rather tearful eyes; for now that the +moment for parting had come, she did not like leaving her mother's +side, to whom, when at home, she always clung like a shadow. + +"You'll take great care of your sister, boys," cried she as the pony, +raising himself high in the air on his hind legs, made a plunge +forward, "and you'll not let her do anything foolish." + +"Oh yes; we'll wallop her well if she does anything wrong, I'll +promise you. Good-bye once again, and write us awful long budgets of +home news," cried Fred. + +"And tell old Mother Duffy to send us a stave to say particularly how +she liked her last cup of tea," shouted Harry as the phaeton turned +round the curve of the avenue and disappeared from sight. + +Mrs. Malcomson also turned away with the good-bye smile still +lingering about her lips, and re-entered the porch. But ere she had +crossed the hall the smile had quite faded away from her face; for +dim misgivings began already to fill her heart, lest, after all, +instead of the pleasures so much anticipated by the boys, some +trouble might arise, either from their thoughtlessness or impatience +of restraint, which would make the visit end in disappointment and +distress; and, above all, her heart misgave her about Fred, whose +conscience was the most pliable of the three, and who sometimes, to +gain a desired end, would turn aside from the obstacle of truth, and +gain by crooked ways what he could never attain by straight. + +But no misgivings of coming evil dimmed the brightness of the boys' +pleasure. On the contrary, their spirits rose at every fresh turn of +the road, which brought them nearer to their destination; and Brien, +the coachman, had by no means an easy time of it trying to keep their +hilarity within bounds. + +Harry amused himself for some time in making the most appalling +grimaces at the passers-by, until a very irate old gentleman on +horseback rode up to the side of the phaeton and threatened to +horsewhip him if he went on with such tricks. Kathleen was so +frightened she burst out crying, which seemed to appease the old +gentleman's wrath, for he rode on without making any further remark; +and for some time Harry only confined his attentions to Brien, +pushing his hat suddenly down on his eyes, or snatching it off and +rattling his stick inside of it, which set the pony off at a furious +pace, and terrified all the passers-by. + +"I shall have a nice story to tell your mamma when I get home," said +Brien grimly, as he re-adjusted his hat, and gave it one solemn +sideways shake. "It's likely she'll be sending me back again to +fetch you to-morrow when she hears the tricks you are up to." + +"Pooh," replied Harry, "I'd like to see you tell her anything about +it. Had you never a bit of a spree when you were young yourself, eh? +But you're such an old land-crab, I don't suppose you ever were +young: at the same time, I'm awfully fond of you, in fact I love you +like my own child;" and Harry, stretching forward, threw his arms +round the old man's neck and leaned his head in an attitude of mock +affection on his shoulder. + +"Now, Master Harry, keep off with you, and let me drive straight. +You nearly made me run the pony against that wall; do be easy, that's +a good lad." + +"Then you won't tell mother about that old cross-cat on horseback?" + +"Not a word of it, if you'll leave me in peace." + +So with this and other equally judicious management, Brien managed to +convoy his noisy troop along the road until they reached the little +village of Drummond, where they were to rest the pony, and get some +refreshment at the inn. + +Here Fred and Harry were in their element; for, having no one to +overlook them (Brien being busy with the pony), they both adjourned +to the farmyard followed by Kathleen, who did not like remaining in +the inn by herself, and who vainly tried to induce them to remain +indoors; but the loud and furious gobble of a turkey-cock had caught +the boys' ears, and they rushed in, eager for the fray, waving their +canes, and gobbling aloud in imitation of the angry bird. + +Kathleen, who, unfortunately, had on a little scarlet cloak, no +sooner became aware of the turkey's presence than she dashed into a +cowshed and cried loudly for help; but the boys were too excited to +think of her, and they prodded the bird with their canes, and worried +him so successfully, that at last they actually drove him straight +into the shed where their sister had rushed for shelter. The +turkey-cock, with every feather on end and his crimson neck inflated +to the full, charged in his anger and fright at the red cloak and its +owner. Poor Kathleen shrieked with terror, and having nothing but +her parasol to defend herself with, beat with all her force at the +bird, much oftener missing it and striking the hard paving-stones of +the cowshed, until at last the stick of her new parasol snapped +suddenly in two, and the pretty silk cover, with its glossy fringe, +flew aside into a pool of dirty water on the ground. This was a real +misfortune, and the boys, somewhat appalled by the consequences of +their "lark," hunted the animal back into the yard, and tried to +console Kathleen for the sad fate which had happened to her new and +most precious belonging. But Kathleen's tears flowed fast; for not +only was her mother's parting gift destroyed, but the front of her +pretty new print dress was all spotted and streaked with the mud +which, in lifting her parasol out of the dirt, had fallen upon it; +and the anguish of having to make her appearance in such a plight was +almost more than she, with all her sweet temper, could endure. + +The landlady at the hotel was, however, exceedingly kind and +forgiving; and although she scolded the boys heartily, and threatened +to write to their father, still she brought Kathleen into the +kitchen, and sponged her dress and took out the stains, and then she +devoted herself to the unhappy parasol, which she cleaned +wonderfully, and got her husband to splice and mend, so that +Kathleen's tears were soon dried up, and by the time luncheon was +over, she was as cheerful and pleasant as ever, and had quite +forgiven the boys for their share in her trouble. + +When they remounted and were all settled in the carriage, Fred made a +desperate attempt to get possession of the reins; but Brien knew that +he would be held responsible for the safe conduct of his charge and +the safety of the phaeton, and he refused positively to give them out +of his own hands. And though Fred first sulked and afterwards abused +him roundly, it was all no use; and Brien, as well as Kathleen, who +was growing almost sick with nervousness and apprehension, felt no +small relief when they entered by a handsome turreted gate the long +avenue of Jubilee Hall, and, a few minutes later, found themselves +opposite the large iron-clamped door which guarded the entrance of +the Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +JUBILEE HALL. + +Jubilee Hall stood on the summit of a not very high hill, which, +however, commanded a splendid view of both sea and mountain. It was +a large and handsome building, with a turret at each end; and as all +the windows of the principal rooms faced the south, it was a +peculiarly warm and sunny residence. It was not an old castle or +hall, so it had not the small many-paned windows which generally +deprive the inhabitants of light and warmth; on the contrary, the +windows, which were remarkably large and handsome, opened down to the +very ground, and, protected in the inside by light and unobtrusive +bars, allowed those within to get the most uninterrupted view of the +landscape outside, and admitted the most delicious scent from the +flowers in the ornamental garden beneath. + +Harry and Fred stood entranced at the view from their bedroom window, +when, their luggage having been carried upstairs, and their first +meeting with their aunt being over, they had had time to look about +them a little. Their bedroom and their sister's opened off each +other, which was a great comfort to Kathleen, who had felt very +nervous at the thought of having to sleep alone at a distance from +her brothers; but the rooms, with their pretty chintz curtains and +bright wall-paper, looked so cozy and cheerful, it would have been +difficult to feel either lonely or timorous, and the boys agreed +that, splendid as they had thought the place would be, it was ten +times more splendiferous and jolly than they had expected. + +And as the day wore on, and they grew acquainted with all the other +young guests at the Hall, and they had been introduced to the +unlimited beds of strawberries and raspberries, and the actual acres +of gooseberry-bushes in the garden, they could find no words even in +their school vocabulary (which was extraordinarily large and ample +enough) to express the fulness of their happiness. Aunt Marian was a +stunner, the jolliest cove in England; she was Al; she was no end of +a brick; while Kathleen gave her, perhaps, the greatest praise of all +when she said she was nearly as nice as her own mamma. And when at +last the first happy day came to an end, the boys rejoiced to think +that the long mid-summer holidays lay stretched out before them, and +that for seven long weeks this wonderful fairy-tale life of enjoyment +was to last. + +Aunt Marian, or Lady Brinsley, as she was known to the world in +general, was the widow of a very wealthy officer and baronet, who had +died many years ago when engaged on active service in India, and who +had left four young children for his wife to look after and educate. +This trust Lady Brinsley had carried out with the most zealous love +and watchfulness, and her children well repaid all her care, for they +were quite devoted to their mother, and made her wishes their law. +It was only within the last two years they had come to live at +Jubilee Hall, the family place, as Lady Brinsley, by her husband's +dying wish, had taken the children abroad to receive a good foreign +education, and also to give time for the Hall to be put into the most +thorough state of repair and finish, for under its former owner it +had fallen into a partial state of rum. So the whole place was now +in the most perfect order and beauty; and it was Lady Brinsley's +delight and pride to keep it in this state, and to make the house +thoroughly sociable and comfortable. + +"I say," cried Fred, after they had come into their own room at +night, and were preparing for bed, "this is a regular palace of a +house. Did you see all the wonderful places there are +downstairs--cellars, and china-closets, and dairies, and store-rooms +by the dozen?" + +"No," replied Harry; "I don't even know whereabouts they are. How +did you manage to come across them?" + +[Illustration: Kathleen ducked down as she was told.] + +"Simply by using my eyes and my legs and a trifle of brains into the +bargain. I was cutting down one of the passages this afternoon when +we were playing hide-and-seek, when I came across a funny little +round staircase going down from outside Aunt Marian's boudoir right +into the lower part of the house; so I just crept quietly down it, to +see where it led to, and it was just like the Tower of London, with +all sorts of dark rooms, and some extraordinary great iron doors, +with huge bars across them, and three or four locks on each. And +right under the last flight of steps, just where it stops going round +and round in a circumbendibus sort of way, and finishes off like any +other flight of steps, there is one of the jolliest store-rooms you +ever saw. It runs right away under the stairs, and has a window +looking out into the passage; and, my eyes! if you only saw the rows +of shelves, and all the jolly things on them--boxes and boxes of +preserved fruit, and actual pyramids of lump-sugar, and figs, and +raisins, and crackers, and plum-cake, and a thousand other rare and +delicious things. I'd give a good deal to have the run of the +premises for an hour, and have leave to grub whatever I liked." + +"So should I," joined in Harry. "You must show me to-morrow where it +is. I'd like awfully to have a squint at it." + +"All square; I'll show you the way. But it will make your mouth +water, I can tell you; and all to no good, as the door is shut as +tight as wax, and there is a wire fence inside of the window that a +gnat couldn't squeeze through, so I would not have you try it on, old +boy." + +"My dear fellow, what humbug you are talking; as if I should want to +squeeze into any such place. A nice cowardly trick it would be, when +Aunt Marian's so awfully good to us, and gives us every jolly thing +to eat or drink which we could possibly want to have." + +"Well, and who said they wanted to get into it?" + +"You did." + +"No, I didn't." + +"You said something very like it then." + +"I said nothing within a hundred miles of it." + +"Well, have it your own way." + +"I'll have my own way, and no thanks to you, you may be sure of +that." said Fred, his voice waxing louder as his anger grew. "A +fellow can't say it's a fine day without your finding--" + +Here the door between the two rooms opened, and Kathleen put in her +little grave face, which looked very white and frightened. "Boys, +what is the matter?" + +"Nothing; go to bed." + +"You are not quarrelling, are you?" + +"Quarrelling, humbug; shut the door, and cut." + +"Mamma told me to be sure and remind you both to say your prayers +before you got into bed." + +"Shut the door this instant, or I'll shy a book at your head!" +shouted Fred, losing all command over his temper. So Kathleen shut +the door, and after a little time, as all remained silent in her +brothers' room, she closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A BAD BEGINNING. + +The next morning was just as bright and pleasant a one as its +predecessor had been, and the boys, forgetful of last night's row, +got up in very good humour both with themselves and everybody else. +They chatted, and planned, and whistled, and threw bolsters at each +other, and played off several innocent tricks on Kathleen, until it +was nearly time for breakfast, when Fred, seeing a squirrel dart up a +tree just beside the house, declared he would "go out and nabble the +crittur" as sure as his name was Frederick; and as his toilet was +just completed, he bolted out of the room in hot chase, forgetting to +read his morning verses or to say his prayers, and leaving Harry to +follow or not as he chose. + +What Harry would have done--whether he would have followed his +brother as soon as his boots were drawn on and his collar and tie +neatly fastened in front, who can say; but, opening the door of +Kathleen's room with exceeding gentleness and care, so as to be able +to send a large hassock at her head, he saw her kneeling reverently +beside her bed, her hands clasped and her head bent forward on the +counterpane. Harry did not shy the hassock as he had intended, but +instead, when he had closed the door softly, he knelt down and said +his morning prayers; and when Kathleen entered the room all ready for +breakfast, he asked her to read him out a chapter while he was +finishing his dressing. + +Just as the gong for breakfast was sounding, Fred burst into the +bedroom, his coat all covered with the green powder off the bark of +the trees, and a large rent across the knee of his trousers. + +"I say," he cried breathlessly, "the little brute was nimbler than I +thought, and gave me such a chivy as I haven't had this year--up one +tree and down another, skipping and jumping like a good un. One time +I crept up so dogeously, I had my hand almost on his bushy tail +before he caught sight of me. I was certain of nabbing him, for the +tree was broken off at the top, and there were no branches long +enough for him to get beyond my reach, when all at once the little +beggar saw me, and, instead of rushing out on the branch, as I +thought he would, he made one bound on my shoulder, rushed down my +back, and away out of sight before I could say Jack Robinson. But I +say, Kathleen, out with your needle and thread, and sew up this tear +I have got right across my knee. It's such a straight one, it won't +be seen if you do it properly." + +"But the gong has rung, Fred, and I shall be quite late for +breakfast." + +"Never mind; I shall be late too. You would not have one go +downstairs like this, would you?" + +"No; but could you not put on another pair?" + +"Fiddlesticks! that would be too much bother. If I change one thing, +I must change all, for they would not match; so be quick, and you'll +set it right in no time." + +Kathleen got out her needle and thread, and made the best speed she +could; but before the rent was drawn together many minutes had +elapsed, and when Kathleen, all covered with blushes, followed her +brother into the large dining-hall, morning prayers were over, and +all the guests were assembled around the breakfast-table, and Aunt +Marian, though she said nothing, looked somewhat grave and put out. + +Aunt Marian was a very punctual person herself, and she wished others +to be the same, and above all she disliked people being late for +prayers; besides which, she thought young persons ought from the very +first to learn habits of order and regularity, and her own children +were brought up in strict accordance with these ideas. But, +nevertheless, she was exceedingly kind-hearted, and had a large +measure of human pity; and as she noticed the distress only too +visible on Kathleen's face when she entered the room--a distress +which seemed to increase when she took her place at the table in the +only vacant space immediately opposite the large bay-window--Aunt +Marian called out to her in a very pleasant voice,-- + +"Kathleen, my dear, you will get sick if you sit with your back so +close to that fire. Bring up your chair beside mine, and I will make +room for you at the head of the table." + +Oh, how Kathleen thanked her aunt in her heart; for now, in the +process of changing her place at the table, the cruel blushes (which, +in the full light of the large window, and in view of her friends +opposite, were fast bringing hot tears into her eyes) would have time +to go down, or, at least, to begin to go down; and now that her aunt +had spoken kindly to her, the sense of disgrace was dispelled, and +she could look her companions in the face. + +When she took her place beside her aunt, she found already a nice hot +cake and a roll of fresh butter deposited upon her plate added; to +which, her aunt kissed her very affectionately as she said "Good +morning," and bade her eat a good breakfast, as they had a busy day +before them; but Kathleen, full of gratitude, did not know until long +afterwards that Harry had been her champion on this trying occasion, +and had taken the opportunity of the changing of places to come to +her rescue and whisper across his next neighbour to his aunt,--"It is +not Kathleen's fault that she is late. She was quite ready when the +gong sounded, but she waited to mend Fred's clothes." And now that +all the company were present, and every one seemed thoroughly happy +and enjoying themselves, Aunt Marian only waited for the first pause +in the clatter of plates and tongues to make a proposal as to how she +thought the day might be spent so as to combine a great amount of +amusement with a certain amount of usefulness. + +"I am going to make a proposal to the company at large," she said +pleasantly; "and let those who approve of my plan hold up their right +hand." + +"Hear, hear," cried several voices amongst the party, headed by Aunt +Marian's own sons. + +"I am going to have a grand brewing of jam this week, and I shall +want strawberries and raspberries, and currants, black, white, and +red, and gooseberries and cherries, gathered in large quantities for +this purpose; and so I propose to make you all useful as well as +ornamental, and ask you to work in my service, the payment to be +deducted on the spot in the form of the fruit most liked, to be eaten +on the premises--that is to say, during the process of gathering; but +I also propose to give the one who shall have gathered the largest +measure of fruit in proportion to the time a prize, which prize shall +not be declared until the time of presentation, and that the winner +of the said prize shall for the rest of the day be looked on as the +head of the company, and select the games or pleasures on which the +remainder of the day is to be spent. Now let all who approve of this +plan hold up their right hands." + +It is scarcely necessary to say that every right hand in the room was +extended to its full length, and that cheers and hurrahs loud and +long greeted this suggestion of Aunt Marian's; and after this, until +the end of breakfast, the hilarity seemed involuntarily on the +increase, until at length Aunt Marian deemed it wise to give the +signal for rising, and all the company, starting to their feet, made +a rush towards the nearest door like a flock of thirsty sheep +thronging through a gate to the water. + +In about half an hour from this time the whole party were standing +ready dressed and watching in front of the house for Aunt Marian, who +had promised to meet them at that place and furnish them each with +the necessary receptacles for holding the gathered fruit; nor did she +keep them long waiting, as she appeared a moment or two later +followed by the housekeeper and a couple of footmen, all laden with +tin cans of a uniform size and shape, and lined with fresh green +cabbage leaves. These she proceeded to dispose of, giving one to +each member of the picking force, and which measure was to be filled +by them with the fruits named on a label attached to the handle of +the can; only those to whom gooseberries were apportioned, and +cherries, received cans of a larger size, as they would of course +take far less time to pick; and so the whole matter was arranged with +a strict view to justice and equity. Nor were those who gathered the +fruit named on their labels bound to eat only of that kind. Both +gardens, with all their contents, were free to their ingress and +egress, and no one was bound to continue his or her labour longer +than they liked: but then, whoever was the most steady and +industrious was to reap a reward, the nature of which was not yet +declared; but Aunt Marian was very generous, and her presents and +prizes were always worth having, so the whole party started for the +gardens in tip-top spirits, their tin cans glittering in the +brilliant sunshine, and the ring of their joyous voices resounding +through the morning air. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BERRY-PICKING. + +It would be tedious to recount who ate the most fruit on the occasion +of Aunt Marian's grand garden-party, while it is our duty and +pleasure to give the name of the one who gathered the most, and of +the one who became also the happy possessor of Aunt Marian's prize. + +All the morning it seemed doubtful who would be the winner, as all +hands seemed to work with an almost equal zeal, and only those whose +fingers were smaller, and whose skins were more susceptible to +thorns, had less in their cans than the others; but as luncheon time +drew near, and hunger began to assert itself, there was a visible +diminution of work, and some of the cans even grew less full, as +their owners found it more convenient and satisfactory to help +themselves from the gathered fruit. It was about this time that +Harry found himself close to Kathleen, having deserted his own class +of fruit for a very promising bush of gooseberries, which bade fair +to satisfy his hunger at a greater rate than any of the others. + +"How have you got on, Katy?" he asked, with his mouth full of large +amber gooseberries, while he knelt down under the tree the better to +enjoy his meal. "Pooh, is that all?" craning his neck across the +bush and looking into his sister's can; "I expect you have been +devouring largely." + +"You expect wrong, then," she answered rather hotly; "I have not +tasted a single one. I made a promise to myself that I would not +taste one until I had filled my can up to that mark, and I want ages +of reaching it still;" and, as Kathleen spoke, she pointed to a line +scratched round the middle of the can, so as to divide the inside +into two equal portions. + +"My eyes, do you mean to say you have not tasted any fruit at all, +all this time?" + +"Not one pick." + +"And you have only gathered that little dab at the bottom of the can?" + +"It is not a little dab; it's a whole lot." + +"Well, all I can say is the others have gathered twice as much: you +must have been star-gazing, or perhaps you went to sleep." + +"I did nothing of the kind, but it's so awfully hard to gather +raspberries: they all go squash the moment you take hold of them, and +they look so awfully flat when you put them into the can; and +besides, there are so few really ripe. I have gone round and round +the bushes, and could scarcely find any." + +"Because, you little donkey, you have chosen nearly the worst spot in +the whole garden: if you will come with me I'll give you a share of +my bushes, and they are the most golliferous ones in the place; not a +soul has found them out but myself, and it's such a rare good plant +my can is half full already." + +"Where is your can?" + +"It is hidden under a lot of cauliflowers; I only came here for a +graze, and I'm going back at once." + +"Are you sure there are enough for us both?" + +"Millions and billions." + +"Oh, delightful!" sighed poor Kathleen, whose little flushed face and +scratched hands showed how hard she had worked. "It's awfully kind +of you, Harry." + +"Humbug; but sit down, I say, and have a grub with me at these +ambers. They are the grandest chaps in all creation; not a bone in +their bodies, and bursting with delicious juice. They are rare +fellows, I can tell you, if you only tried them." + +"No," said Kathleen, shaking her head; "I promised not to take any." + +"Promised your fiddlesticks," cried Harry contemptuously, while he +filled his mouth with five or six yellow monsters; "whom did you +promise?" + +"I promised myself." + +"Ha, ha, ha! promised yourself," roared Harry; "why, you ought to +know by this time, I should think, that you are nobody, and therefore +if you promised nobody you are not bound to keep your word. Here, +taste this one--it's a real beauty, a savoury morsel, I can tell +you;" and Harry held up an amber through which the sun shone +temptingly. + +"No, thank you; I'd rather not." + +"Well, have it your own way," cried Harry. "I made no promise to +myself or any one else, so here goes;" and he transferred the +gooseberry to his own mouth. "Do you know these are filling animals +at the price; I've nearly had as much as I care for, and the wasps +are all buzzing about me like mad." + +"Then come on, that's a good boy, and show me where I am to go on +gathering." + +"All serene;" and Harry rose from his position underneath the bush, +leaving a mound of empty skins to mark out to future comers the +halting-place of a hungry spirit; and then, taking Kathleen's can in +one hand, and thrusting the other through his sister's arm, he walked +leisurely on towards the "rare good plant" he had told her of. + +"We had better dodge a bit as we go past the walks," he whispered; +"for if the other chaps scented our trail they would be down on us +like winkin. Here, duck down beyond these bushes, and we shall be +past the whole lot of them in a minute." + +Kathleen ducked down as she was told, and following in her brother's +footsteps, soon found herself in quite a grove of raspberry bushes, +every one of which was covered with ripe red fruit, and on which even +Harry's ravages had not as yet made themselves visible. + +"Here we are now," he cried, "in a perfect paradise of rasps. Ain't +I a knowing dog to have found out such a choice spot for work?" + +"Indeed you are," said Kathleen gratefully. "I'm awfully obliged to +you for showing it to me." + +"Nonsense; you just go ahead now and pick away like fun, and I'll +tell you what I'll do. I'll just put a few of my rasps into your +can, so as to give you a good start." + +"Oh no, please don't;" but Harry was too excited to hear her refusal, +and was already busy searching among the tall cauliflowers for his +hidden can. + +"Well, that's the rummest thing I ever saw!" he cried presently in +great surprise. "I left my can under this very white-headed chap +here, and it's gone now. I counted him down from the wall, and he +was number six on the first left-hand row; and now it's nowhere to be +found." + +"Let me help you. I am sure it is somewhere," cried Kathleen, +instantly deserting her can to come to her brother's help. "Are you +certain it was under the cauliflowers you hid it?" + +"Just as certain as that you are standing there. I marked this +particular 'cauli' because I thought it looked the image of a white +nigger's pate; and what's more, there is the mark of the can in the +soft clay; look for yourself." + +Kathleen, who was at the distance of some rows, came jumping over +them quickly to see the confirmation of Harry's assertion; but as she +leaped over the last row her foot struck against something hard, +which gave a sharp metallic ring. + +"That's it," cried Kathleen. "I'm certain that was your can I +knocked against there. It was very well I did not upset it and all +the fruit into the bargain." + +It was Harry's can, and no mistake; he knew it by its label, on the +back of which, to avoid mistakes, he had scratched his own name. + +"Well, how on earth did the beggar get there?" said he meditatively. +"I am as certain as ever I was of anything in my life that I did not +put it there. Let's see," he added with a curious whistle, which +expressed better than words the dawning of some new idea--"let's see +if any one has been poaching on my preserves;" and he raised the two +green leaves which covered the gathered fruit. "Ay, just so--just +what I suspected; somebody has been prigging out of my can. It was +up to this mark here when I left it"--and he pointed to a little +cross which he had scratched with a stone--"and now it's down below +zero. I do say it's a howling shame." + +"Who could have done it?" asked Kathleen, with widely-opened eyes of +horror. + +"That's more than I can tell. There was not a soul saw me go up this +path except Fred, who had found a splendid 'plant' for himself. +Well, come along--life's too short for getting into passions; and, +besides, I am too like the fat boy in Punch to be up for much +fighting, for I do feel uncommonly as if my jacket were buttoned. +Here"--he added, taking up the can and carrying it over to the +raspberry bushes--"let me shy all I've got into your can, and I'll +give up the chivy altogether." + +"Indeed you must not; you've a splendid lot there. Go on, and it +will soon be quite full." + +"Not I; it's too much bother. Of course, whoever helped themselves +out of my can will win the day; unless, indeed, you let me fill yours +up with what remains of mine, and we'll outwit the dishonest old +fellows with their own weapons. I'd like to see him, or her, whoever +it was, well thrashed. Here, hold your can." + +"No; I would much rather go on gathering for myself." + +"Why?" asked Harry, holding his can already poised over his sister's. + +"Oh! because it would be awfully unfair. We were each to fill our +own,--Aunt Marian said so; and, besides, you'll lose the prize if you +do." + +"But suppose I want you to win it. I don't care a straw whether I +get it or not, and I'd like you awfully to have it." + +"I know you would, and it's tremendously good-natured of you, Harry; +but, indeed, indeed, it would not be fair. I would much rather +gather them all myself." + +"Well, if you ain't the greatest stickler about trifles I ever met! +However, I think myself you're pretty near right for all that. So do +you pick away as hard you can, and I'll gather a few more; for I +should not quite like Aunt Marian to think I was too greedy to care +about her jam." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE WINNER OF THE PRIZE. + +Aunt Marian found it very difficult to decide who was to have the +prize; for though many had brought home very sorry portions of fruit, +others had clearly gathered with a right good-will, and two of the +company had so well filled their cans, that not only was the fruit +quite up to the rim but it was piled up in the centre as well, so as +to make the vessel carry as much as possible. + +Aunt Marian was reduced at last to weighing the cans, and thus +testing to an ounce who had gathered the most; and in this manner the +question was at once and definitely set at rest, for one can weighed +a whole pound more than the others. And this can, having been held +up for general inspection, was claimed by Fred, who was consequently +proclaimed the winner of the prize, and the king of the afternoon +revels. + +All the company shouted and cheered, and loud huzzas sounded through +the housekeeper's room, as Fred, blushing over head and ears, came +forward at Aunt Marian's request. + +"I had two prizes prepared," she said, in a pleasant voice, "in case +any two cans had proved of the same exact weight, and my little +friend Kathleen bade fair, I thought, until I weighed the two +vessels, to have claimed the second one; but the difference of a +whole pound in weight must, of course, be a decisive proof of +victory. So, Master Frederick Malcomson, allow me to present to you, +in the name of the illustrious jam-picking and preserving company, +this bow, arrow, and quiver, made of the best wood, well seasoned, +and with these padded guards for your arms and fingers. They have +only just arrived from London; and the case in which you are to keep +them is over there on the side-table in the window." + +Again the shout rose loud and long, and again Fred blushed until the +hot tears actually stood in his eyes; but so confused was he that he +uttered no word of thanks, but simply took the gift out of his aunt's +hand, and walked away towards the door. + +"Before you go, Fred," said Aunt Marian, "I have a few more words to +say." Fred turned back, and the blush having died out of his face, +it now looked almost deadly white. "To-morrow I am going to give you +all another chance of winning the second prize." + +"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted a chorus of voices. + +"The cook is going to make all the preserves this afternoon, or at +least a great part of them, and to-morrow morning she will finish the +remainder, so that after luncheon all will be ready for the various +pots to be covered. In this I am again going to claim all your +assistance; and whoever should have neatly covered the largest number +of pots by the time the first gong sounds for dinner, shall have a +prize fully as handsome as the one given to-day; and if there should +be more than one winner, a prize of the same value shall be given to +each." + +Once more the vaulted roof of the housekeeper's room rang with +acclamations; and Aunt Marian having added that of course no one need +enter into the competition who did not like the occupation, left the +room with her fingers tightly pressed over her ears, that she might +not hear the deafening shouts of her grateful and admiring guests. + +Having once taken possession of the housekeeper's room, the children +proceeded to have all kinds of fun and jollification. They induced +the good-natured old dame to give them raisins and figs, and nuts and +almonds; they ducked for apples, and played blind-man's-buff, +prisoners' base, family coach, &c., until the housekeeper's patience +began to flag, when one of the party espying a bottle of spirits of +wine in one of the multitudinous presses around the room, he +proceeded to take it down, and having fetched some salt from the +kitchen, he proposed to make a ghost. This suggestion was hailed +with acclamation; so, pouring the spirits of wine over a large dish +full of salt, he set fire to it, and having got possession of a long +white table-cloth, and a carpet-twig, he enveloped himself in the +cloth, and raising it to an immense height by the stick and the head +of the twig, which was also secured within the cloth, he seized on +the burning dish, the lurid fumes of which gave him the most +supernatural appearance, and, followed by all the rest of the party +on tip-toe, he suddenly burst open the door of the still-room, and +with a loud yell displayed himself to the maid who was at work inside. + +The trick was perhaps a trifle too successful, as the unfortunate +girl went off into a violent fit of hysterics, and Aunt Marian had +finally to be summoned; at which suggestion the whole party instantly +dispersed, and, dropping the twig and cloth in their flight, hurried +away to the garrets of the Hall, where a sort of gloomy and +unfurnished room offered them a good space for expanding and +exercising their hilarious spirits. + +It was not till the gong sounded the half hour before dinner that the +riots upstairs ended, and the noisy troop came clattering down, each +turning off aside to their own rooms on the various corridors to +dress and to make themselves tidy and neat for dinner; while Harry +and Fred, quite out of breath, hurried to their room also, for they +were nearly tired out with all the racing and chasing of the day, and +they wanted to have ten minutes' rest before they began the arduous +work of dressing. But Kathleen, whose toilet was more a work of art, +and who found it difficult enough to put on all her clothes without +the assistance she usually received at home, went straight to her own +room, and began the tedious task of rearranging her hair, which had +become sadly tossed in the romping and fun upstairs. + +The door, however, between the two rooms stood slightly ajar; and +presently Kathleen heard, to her dismay, the following colloquy +taking place between the two brothers:-- + +"I say, Fred," cried Harry, who had evidently just approached the +dressing-table to smooth his hair,--"I say, Fred, here's a note +addressed to you pinned on the pin-cushion. What a rum idea! I +wonder who it can be from?" + +"A note for me!" cried Fred, springing up from the bed on which he +had been lounging. "Why, who on earth could have written to me? +It's some trick some of the fellows have been playing off on me. +Here, chuck it across to me, Harry." + +"I doubt its being a trick, for it's uncommonly like Aunt Marian's +handwriting; ain't it? In fact, I'm sure it is; for I know her F's +and M's as well as I know my own. What can she want to write to you +for, Fred, when you are in the house and nothing to do but speak to +you?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Fred, who had now evidently got +possession of the letter, for Kathleen could hear the crackling of +the note-paper as he opened out its folds; and then there followed a +prolonged silence, which was ultimately broken by Harry. + +"Well, Fred, will you never have done reading that stuff? What is it +about?" + +"It's simply the greatest piece of humbug I ever heard of in my +life," said Fred in a husky voice, which evidently betokened both +vexation and dismay. "Because I put five or six stones at the bottom +of my can, to keep the cabbage-leaves in their places, she says I +have not fairly won the prize, and that Kathleen ought to have it +instead of me." + +At this Kathleen drew a sharp breath of surprise, and her lace +flushed with the sudden distress of the moment, while she hesitated +painfully whether to go in and disclaim any wish to rob Fred of his +prize, or to risk the chance of Fred's anger at her appearance. +Harry, however, broke in on her thoughts with another question. + +"And why on earth did you not tell Aunt Marian the stones were in +your can, Fred, when you knew she was going to weigh it? I think it +was a trifle shabby, I must say." + +"Who cares what you think? But it's just the image of you to come +down on a fellow when he's in a fix." + +"Why, what fix are you in?" + +"Simply this, that Aunt Marian says if I put the stones in without +thinking of the probability that the fruit might have to be weighed, +she will allow me to keep the bow and arrow for myself; but that if I +can't answer this question with a clear conscience--'clear +conscience,'--rubbish! interpolated Fred angrily--"she would rather I +put them back in the boudoir where she could find them, and that no +more would be said to me on the subject; but that in any case she +thinks Kathleen ought to get a prize, as, without the stones, her can +weighed half a pound more than mine." + +"Well, I must say that sounds as fair as fair can be," cried Harry, +when his brother had ended his complaint. "Of course, if you didn't +put the stones in on purpose, it's all right; and if you did, why, it +was simply cheating, and you have no right whatever to the prize." + +"I'd like to see how you make that out," cried Fred hotly. + +"Why, just this way: When you put the stones in your can this +morning, did it come into your head that the fruit might be weighed +afterwards, or not?" + +"That's a simply absurd question. How can I tell what came into my +head? I might have thought a thousand things and never remembered +them afterwards." + +"But did you recollect, when you saw Aunt Marian taking the cans into +the larder to be weighed, that you had put the stones into yours?" + +"Well, suppose I did; what then?" + +"Why, there is no more to be said about it If you did know the stones +were in it, and yet made no remark, it was simply cheating and +nothing else." + +"Oh, what a wonderfully honest fellow you are, to be sure! You did +not offer to put some of your own raspberries into Kathleen's can +this morning, did you? because you did not care about the prize +yourself, and you wanted her to have it. That would have been 'as +fair as fair could be,' of course; but to help to fill mine with +stones is cheating." + +"I know I was wrong," cried Harry, speaking confusedly in his turn. + +"Oh yes! of course you can say that now." + +"I knew it then, and confessed it too, when Kathleen said she would +not do it; and, what's more, unless you had been hiding somewhere you +could never have heard what we said. I had a pretty sharp guess +before now who it was helped himself out of my can of rasps, but now +I know it." + +"Oh, boys!" cried Kathleen, opening the door with tearful eyes, and +flushed, anxious face. "The gong will sound in a moment, and you +will not be dressed; and as to the prize--indeed--indeed, Fred, I +don't want it, and I would much rather you had it." + +"Don't say that to him; he ought to put it back," cried Harry +hurriedly, dragging on his evening jacket; but before Fred could +utter his indignant reply, the gong did sound, and there was no time +for more words. + +The three children all looked uncomfortable and nervous enough when +they entered the dining-room; while heavy tears of wounded pride +shone far back in Fred's eyes; but in the general clatter and bustle +of the meal, their appearance attracted little attention. + +Aunt Marian said nothing to Fred, but immediately after dinner she +went out by the far door leading into her boudoir, and remained away +some time. When she returned, she seemed, Kathleen thought, rather +distressed and unhappy; but, with her usual good-nature, she +immediately set about entertaining and amusing her guests, and, +according to the morning's agreement, made Fred the director and +promoter of all the fun. + +Fred, however, was not in his customary spirits, and Harry was +decidedly out of sorts, so the evening flagged a little, and the +games had not their usual zest for the company. Thus all seemed +equally glad when the revels were pronounced over for the night, and +that the time for bed had come. + +Kathleen, on whose eyelashes the tears had been hanging all the +evening, slipped up nearly the first, and hid herself in the darkness +of her own room, that she might cry out the trouble that was +oppressing her. But when she did at length light her candle, and had +set it down on the table, quite a sharp cry burst from her lips; for +there, almost under her very fingers, lay a spacious parcel directed +to herself, with "First Prize" printed on its cover in large letters. + +Poor Kathleen! At another time her heart would have throbbed with +ecstatic joy at the sight of the beautiful rosewood desk, completely +and elaborately furnished with every sort of handsome writing +materials; but as it was, she only closed the lid with a sob, and +wished with all her heart that the day's trial had ended, as it had +promised to do in the forenoon, in Fred's victory and triumph instead +of his discomfiture and disgrace. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE. + +Kathleen did not venture to show her desk to Fred the following +morning, especially as she could hear from the tone of his voice in +speaking to his brother that he was in no pleasant frame of mind. +But when breakfast was over, and Fred had gone out for a stroll, she +called Harry into her room, and exhibited to him, with a mixture of +pride and distress, the beautiful prize which her aunt had so +generously given her. + +"It's without any exception the most gorgeous thing of the kind I +ever saw!" cried Harry, raising up the flaps and surveying the paper +and envelopes, the pencils, pens, knives, scissors, india-rubber, +sealing wax, &c., &c., with which it was filled. "It is simply A1, +and I am delighted you got it!" + +"Yes; but I am not quite sure whether I ought to keep it." + +"Ought to humbug! I can't for the life of me see why you need feel +any scruple about it. You won the prize fairly, and Fred did not." + +"Yes, that's the very thing; for, don't you see, Harry, if I keep the +desk, then Aunt Marian will either feel sure Fred put the stones in +on purpose, or she will think I,"--here Kathleen hesitated, suddenly +perceiving she had no real ground of argument to put forward. + +"Well, she'll think what?" asked Harry magisterially. "You girls +have as much idea of explaining things clearly as a frog has of +flying. I know perfectly well what the fix is that you are in. You +think it will appear greedy in you to accept a prize as well as Fred, +when there was such a small difference in the weight of the two cans; +and, besides, you are just shaking in your two shoes at the thought +of Fred's anger when he finds out that Aunt Marian has given the +first prize to you instead of to him,--now, is not that it, old girl?" + +"It is; at least it's nearly that," murmured Kathleen, nervously; +"only I wish,"--here a painful blush covered all her face,--"I wish, +Harry, if you could see Fred, you would tell him that if he will go +and put back the bow in Aunt Marian's boudoir, I will give him this +desk as soon as ever we go home." + +"Indeed, you'll do nothing of the kind." + +"Please, please, Harry." + +"Gammon! I never heard such rubbish. You won your prize as fairly +as you could, and he has not the faintest right to it in any way. He +crammed himself with fruit the whole time the others were hard at +work. He then supplied his can out of mine, which was awfully shabby +of him; and then he put five large stones into the bottom of his, so +as to make it weigh more than the others. I think he was an awful +sneak to do such a mean thing, and I told him so this morning; but he +turns on me every time I speak to him. He says I was as bad as he +was, and that I wanted to fill your can out of mine, which was quite +as sneaky if not worse. I don't think it would have been quite fair +of me to do it, I must say, but still there is a difference somewhere +between the two things if I could put it into words." + +"You wanted to help me, and he only wanted to help himself," +suggested Kathleen, meditatively; "and besides, you gave up your +chance of the prize in my favour. But for all that, if I had won it +I should not have kept it, for I should have known it was not mine +fairly, and I could never have explained it all to Aunt Marian." + +"Well, you have expressed yourself clearly for once in your life. +And now let us think what is best to be done, for I can't bear the +idea of Fred's chousing Aunt Marian out of that splendid bow; and +besides, if he lets himself do a thing like that once, he'll be ten +times as likely to do the same kind of thing again, and perhaps get +into a worse scrape. Suppose you and I go down and have a +_parlez-vous_ with him--eh, Kathleen?" + +"Very well, whatever you like; but he never minds what I say." + +"Doesn't he though? I can tell you what, old lady, bad as you are, +whenever you tell me a thing is not right which I'm doing, it sticks +there like a bone in my throat; and though I often swallow it down in +a rage, and take my own way, still I generally do turn it over in my +mind, and give over whatever it was that was wrong. And Fred's just +the same, only he has a way of telling himself that things aren't +wrong which I don't understand; or, even supposing they are wrong, he +thinks if you aren't found out it's no matter, and that to my mind is +the worst of all." + +"Yes," replied Kathleen, "much the worst." + +"And now, what do you think he says?" + +"What?" asked Kathleen. + +[Illustration: "I am so glad I have met you."] + +"Why, that very likely he did put the stones in to keep down the +leaves,--that he does not exactly know why he put them in. And at +the beginning, you remember, he never denied that he put them in on +purpose. But that's just it, he can persuade himself to think +anything he likes, and then he grows to believe in what he has made +himself think. But, I say, let us go out and try to find him; and if +we can only catch him in a good humour, we might coax him to put back +the bow. The best thing to put it on will be poor mother; for, you +know, if it ever came to her ears, she'd simply never get over it." + +The children found Fred strolling in the sycamore walk. He was +sauntering along with his hands in his pockets, and kicking little +pebbles in front of him, as he went along, with the toe of his boot; +but he was neither whistling nor singing, as was his wont, and his +gait had a certain air of depression about it that both Kathleen and +Harry instinctively recognized. + +"Well, what are you following me for?" he asked, as he turned at the +sound of their footsteps, and saw them coming rather nervously +forward to meet him. + +"We guessed you were dodging about somewhere in these diggings," said +Harry, speaking first, "and we wanted to see you before we began the +jam-covering." + +"What for?" asked Fred, kicking another large pebble along the walk, +and his brow darkening. "I should think you and I had had enough of +each other's company this morning." + +"Come along, Fred, old boy, and don't be so cranky," cried Harry, +taking his brother by the shoulder and thrusting his hand through his +arm. "I want awfully to pal up with you, and make things straight if +we can. You see Katy and I have been thinking what an awful thing it +will be if mother comes to hear about this tin-can affair; and she'll +be so cut up about it that I don't think she'll ever get over it, and +the whole thing could be set straight so easily." + +"Oh ay, I daresay it's an awfully easy thing, is it not, to go and +say, 'I did cheat, and you found me out, and so I can't help making a +clean breast of it'? I tell you now, Harry, once for all, if you and +Kathleen have come down here to wheedle me into putting the bow back, +I'll see you further first before I'll do it, and that's an end of +it." + +"But, Fred, only think." + +"Think! I've thought until I'm blue in the face with thinking, and +the more I think the more certain I am I did nothing but what was +quite fair, or, at least, no worse than any one else; so if you've no +more to say you had better cut off about your business." + +"You'll come in for the jam-covering, won't you?" asked Kathleen +anxiously. + +"Not I. I've just as much idea of pasting on old jam covers as I +have of putting a cover on myself. Besides, I am not going to run +the risk of another affectionate note from my aunt, telling me that I +cheated, or, perhaps, accusing me of taking a little out of each pot +I covered. No, no; once is enough for that kind of thing." + +"If you don't come in, Aunt Marian will think you are afraid, or +ashamed." + +"Afraid! If you think there is any danger of that, I'll go in this +very instant and give them such a piece of my mind that I'll pull the +whole house down about their ears. Afraid, indeed!" and Fred pushed +on before them with great strides of anger. + +"We had better leave him alone," whispered Harry. "He's in a stunner +of a temper." + +"But he won't go in and say anything to Aunt Marian, will he?" + +"Not he; he has just as much idea of doing so as I have. He is just +blustering all round the compass because he knows he's in the wrong. +Oh, how I wish mother were here. Two words from her would set him as +right as a trivet; but I'm such an ass, I always manage to make +things worse. See, he has turned in exactly the opposite direction +to the Hall. I would not be inside his jacket for a great deal." + +Harry was quite correct in all his surmises. Fred had not the +smallest intention of going to beard his aunt in her own home; on the +contrary, his own desire was to escape from her sight. Although he +tried to force his conscience into the belief that he had not acted +dishonestly, or at least not more dishonestly than Harry had also +tried to do, still he felt a guilty tremor rush all over and through +every fibre of his body when he thought of coming face to face with +his aunt, and foresaw the conversation which would most probably +ensue; and thus he bad brought himself to the cowardly determination +to absent himself altogether from the afternoon's employment. But oh +the longing he had that he could see his mother,--that he could have +just a few moments' conversation with her, and tell her all. She was +so kind, so easy to speak to, he could confess all to her without +trouble or fear, and could ask her for help and advice. She would +explain to Aunt Marian how all had happened, and return the bow to +the boudoir, which he had not the courage to do, and which he was too +proud to allow his brother or sister to do for him; and Fred, when +well out of sight of the others, in the sombre shade of the +close-growing pines, threw himself down on the grass and cried, +bitterly exclaiming between every sob, "Oh, mother, why are you not +here; why, why are you not here, and then all would be well?" + +In his grief and utter misery of mind Fred's heart rushed out +spontaneously to the mother who had been all to him in his life. He +had been in his childhood a delicate boy, and therefore of necessity +his mother had watched over him with a peculiar care, and had +shielded him from the troubles and sorrows of boyhood with a zealous +watchfulness; and now that he had outgrown his former delicacy, and +had to push his way through the rough world like the others, he +turned at every rude breath to the shelter of her side, and still +tried to draw the strength of his character from hers. + +But those who choose willingly to lean all their weight on a human +friend, must some time or other come to find that the reed, though it +may bend and bow almost to the ground with its willingness to endure +and be leaned upon, must give way some time, and then the fall is all +the more helpless and hopeless. And this Fred's mother had many a +time pointed out to her son, imploring of him in his troubles, which +were many, to go to a higher and more certain Friend, and to draw +help and succour from Him. She knew how frail her own life was, and +she knew equally well the weakness of Fred's nature,--a nature keenly +susceptible to pain and terribly open to the attacks of +temptation,--and she had hesitated long and long before she consented +to accept the invitation to Jubilee Hall; but in the end she and her +husband had felt that it was well to give Fred the opportunity of +acting and thinking for himself, and for testing how far his strength +of character could be relied on. + +Could Fred only have listened to the pleading voice that had been +urging him on to the easy and silent confession of his guilt demanded +from him by his aunt, how immeasurably better it would have been for +him: for conscience, once rudely thrust aside with a resolute hand, +lies often silent and crushed, and allows perhaps a worse error to +creep in unnoticed and unopposed; the truth of which terrible danger +Fred was also but too soon to experience. But for the present, blind +as he was to the future and the temptation creeping silently at his +heels, he only thought of the trouble which oppressed him, and not of +the guilt which stood as yet unrepented of and unforgiven before the +throne of God. + +Fred, with his face on the grass and his hands pressed on his ears, +did not hear in his trouble the sound of footsteps approaching slowly +and lightly over the moss-covered ground, nor did the fear of any +one's stumbling accidentally upon his retreat enter into his +calculations for a moment. It was therefore in no low or suppressed +accents of pain or entreaty that he called on his mother for help and +assistance, and sobbed out his grief into the ferns and creeping ivy +leaves. + +Once a sound had startled him, and he had raised his head in terror, +but it was only a cock pheasant calling to his mate; and in the +intense stillness of all around him the rabbits were eating +peacefully close by, or stroking the muffled down on their faces with +their velvety and heathery paws. + +But beyond this wild copse, where in the autumn the gun of the +gamekeeper often made sad havoc, ay Aunt Marian's dairy-farm, in +which she took a warm interest, and which, when time allowed, she +personally superintended. This morning she had gone down to see the +calves fed, and to doctor a poor heifer which had leaped a wire fence +and hurt itself severely, and the time had glided so quickly by that +she had not noticed it was nearly luncheon time until the farmyard +bell had sounded for the workmen's dinner, and she knew that only ten +minutes intervened between this bell and the gong which announced to +the assembled guests that luncheon was on the table. She chose, +therefore, the short cut through the wood, walking quickly though +lightly, and arousing at every footstep some wild inhabitant of the +copse; but when she had traversed about half the way she paused for a +moment, hearing a cry of pain which seemed to come somewhere from the +ground close by. She fancied at first that it was a wounded cat +which had crawled somewhere among the ferns to die; for the +gamekeeper had no compassion on these semi-wild animals, which ate +his young rabbits and rifled the nests of the young game fledgelings, +and from many a branch in the wood depended the dead bodies of three +or four of these marauders. But as she paused, Aunt Marian caught +distinctly the sound of a human voice, and approaching a few steps +nearer heard, with pain and self-reproach, Fred's piteous +lamentations and the cry for his mother's help, which brought quick +and hot tears to her eyes, and for a moment made her irresolute +whether to pass on noiselessly, or to stop and proffer her assistance +and comfort to the boy. + +Aunt Marian had a very soft heart, especially towards boys, and boys' +tears could move her into an almost foolish weakness; and now Fred's +sobbing appeal for his mother's love suddenly and effectually melted +her heart from a kind of growing dislike and distrust of her nephew +to a feeling of tender sympathy and compassion. + +She paused, however, a moment before making known her presence, to +settle in what manner she should address him. She feared increasing +his distress, and her whole anxiety at the moment was how but to +reassure and encourage him. + +"Fred," she said presently, in a somewhat low but very cordial voice +as she advanced to meet him, "I am so glad I have met you." + +Fred started up, his cheeks blotched with tears and his eyes dazed +and misty; but the moment he recognized his aunt a rush of crimson +blood covered every inch of his face, and the expression of shame and +alarmed surprise seemed to intensify the confusion and awkwardness of +the meeting. + +But Aunt Marian had looked for confusion and awkwardness of manner at +so unexpected a rencounter, and in her sudden flow of sympathy she +did not recognize the look of guilt and shame. + +"Fred," she continued kindly, stretching out her hand to the boy, who +now stood embarrassed and blushing before her, "I have just found you +in the nick of time, for the workmen's bell has rung, and I shall +certainly be late for luncheon, unless you can take this heavy basket +from my hand and allow me to walk free." + +"Of course I will, aunt," said Fred, his natural politeness of manner +coming to his aid, though he shrank nervously from the thought of the +long _tête à tête_ walk home together to the Hall. + +"May I take your arm," she continued in a peculiarly soft and +pleasing voice; "for I have been standing so long in the dairy fields +I am quite tired. I always make my own boys my walking-sticks," she +added, with a short laugh, "and as they are not here, I must enlist +you in my service." + +"Certainly, aunt," replied Fred, growing much more at ease under the +healing influence of Lady Brinsley's kindness. + +She took his arm, and they walked on through the copse, Aunt Marian +keeping the conversation going with descriptions of the wild cats and +their thieving propensities, and telling him the quaint sayings of +the head gamekeeper, an Irishman, who was quite a character and full +of genuine wit and humour. She also promised him a day's shooting +with the same gamekeeper, if his father had no objection to his +handling a gun; and Fred, by the time they had come within sight of +the Hall, felt comparatively at his ease and very grateful for his +aunt's kindness and good-natured tact. + +It was not until they were within a few paces of the massive oak door +of the Hall that the dreaded topic was touched on, and Fred was so +comparatively off his guard, that his aunt was in the thick of the +subject before he almost understood what she was saying. + +"You'll come, of course, and give a helping hand in the jam-covering +this afternoon," she said, taking the basket from his arm and moving +a little forward. + +"Oh yes, of course." Fred felt so much at his ease with his aunt +now, that he had no fear or dislike to the occupation, and he +answered without hesitation or reserve. + +"I'm glad of that," she said quickly and without looking round; "for +I'm afraid,"--here feeling her own cowardice she turned and looked +Fred full in the face,---"for I fear I have acted very ungenerously +towards you, and accused you of a fault which I fully believe now you +had no intention of committing. We all of us," she added kindly, +tears springing up into her eyes, "make mistakes sometimes, and judge +hastily and without sufficient grounds; but I know, Fred, you will +believe me when I say how truly sorry I am for having given you so +much pain, and that I beg of you not to think of the subject any +more." + +"Oh, Aunt Marian, please don't, don't say such things," cried Fred, +his heart leaping up into his throat and his eyes also filling with +impetuous tears. "You, you--Aunt Marian, don't go into the house, +please; I--I--" + +But Aunt Marian had said what she had been struggling to gather +courage for during the last ten minutes; and she was now inside the +doorway and hurrying up the stairs to take off her out-door clothes +before the gong should summon the guests to luncheon. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +COVERING THE JAM. + +When Fred entered the luncheon-room a few minutes after the gong had +sounded, with bright face, easy manner, and a general air of +satisfaction, Kathleen and Harry could scarcely believe the testimony +of their eyes; and when further, in reply to a question of their +aunt, he undertook to marshal the whole bevy of jam-coverers to the +housekeeper's room as soon as luncheon should be ended, their +amazement almost amounted to disbelief, and many glances, expressive +of surprise and curiosity, were exchanged between them, with mutual +elevations of the eyebrows, to explain that neither party was in the +secret of this great and unlooked-for change. + +"I say," said Harry, getting close to his brother as they went out +into the passage preparatory to going downstairs, "have you done it +after all? I guess you have; and if so, you're no end of a brick." + +"Done what?" said Fred testily, as he pushed Harry aside with his +elbow; "of course I haven't; but it's all as right as a trivet, and +aunt and I are the best of friends." + +"Then you have told her?" + +"Do be quiet, will you, Harry? and not call every one's attention to +me and my affairs. I tell you I have done nothing of the kind, and +don't intend either. Aunt Marian has been awfully good-natured to +me, and she says it's all right; and I suppose if she says so, you +need not trouble yourself about it." + +Harry was hustled away from his brother's side and his hopes and +fears made light of; but still, though Fred said he need not trouble +himself about the matter, he could not help doing so. He drew +Kathleen aside into the shadow of the coal-vault, and there they +stood and argued the whole question backwards and forwards in timid +whispers and in much anxiety on Fred's account, as they both felt the +whole thing would come to light some day or other, and that then his +case would be even more desperate than it seemed now; and besides, +Kathleen could not imagine Fred looking so happy and buoyant if he +still had the heavy weight of deception and guilt hanging round his +neck. + +"I do believe he has brought himself to think that he has done +nothing either wrong or shabby, else he could never look so sprag," +said Harry with a parting sigh; "and I'm afraid there ain't much use +in our trying to undeceive him. He only gets into awful waxes when I +go in at him, and says even worse things than he feels. What do you +think, Katy?" + +"I think--I hope," she whispered, "that when we go home he will tell +mamma all about it, and she will be able to speak to him so much +better than we can; and besides, she can explain everything to Aunt +Marian, and perhaps things may come right in the end." + +"Well, we must just hope so," said Harry; "but I can't bear to see +Aunt Marian imposed on. I see perfectly well, by all she says and +does, that she thinks she has accused Fred unjustly; and it's awfully +shabby of him to act up to it. Not but that I might do the same +myself if I were in his place," he added humbly. "But I say, Katy, +there are rats in this cellar. I hear something rustling in the +corner. Oh, I see something white; let's cut and run;" and in +another moment, with somewhat grimy hands and white faces, the two +children took their places at the long deal table where the process +of covering the jam had already begun. + +Fred was seated at the head of the table, busily engaged in +dispensing paper, gum, and innumerable pairs of scissors to his subs; +and not a lingering cloud of trouble seemed to overshadow his +good-humoured affability. When he chose to be amusing and pleasant, +there was no one who could make himself more generally agreeable; and +"Bravo, Fred!" "That's a good fellow, Fred!" might be heard at +intervals from various admirers round the table as he laid down some +maxims couched in the most absurd language, or made some buffoonish +grimace. And thus the afternoon wore on in the most peaceful and +perfect harmony; and whenever Aunt Marian looked in on her guests, +she saw with genuine delight all the heads busily bent over their +work, and heard the peals of laughter at each fresh pun or joke +perpetrated by one of the company. + +"I say, Harry," she said, kindly laying her hand on her nephew's +shoulder, "what's gone wrong with you this evening? I see all the +rest laughing and as merry a& crickets, but I don't think you and +Kathleen have smiled once. You are not ill, are you?" + +"Oh no, thank you, aunt, I am quite well. It's awfully jolly work +this jam-covering, and I like it awfully; really I do." + +Poor Harry's confusion was evident to the whole table, and Aunt +Marian good-naturedly desisted from asking any further question. + +"When the jam is all covered, I must ask for your assistance in +putting it by," she said presently, addressing the assembled company; +"some of the shelves are too high for me to reach up to, and besides +I think you would like to see my store-room, which I consider is one +of the most comfortable rooms in the house." + +Of course, the boys and girls around the table were loud in their +acquiescence, and the snipping and snapping of the various pairs of +scissors seemed to proceed even more rapidly than before. + +"I say, what a regiment of jam pots that brother of yours has managed +to cover with all his tomfoolery and joking. I never saw such a +fellow for being first in at everything," said young Maurice +Brinsley, looking across the table at Fred, whose row of neatly +covered preserves certainly seemed more numerous than any of the +others. "He won the prize for the jam-picking, and now he's going to +bag this one as well. How does he manage it, I wonder?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Harry, not raising his head from +his own work; "I have been so busy looking after my own affairs, I +never saw how fast he had got on." + +"I can't imagine how he managed to get his can filled so quickly +yesterday," continued Maurice innocently, "for he and I went in for a +grub of black currants that lasted till we were both fairly done; and +though I picked hard for the rest of the time, I had not half filled +my can, so I could scarcely believe my eyes or my ears when I saw his +tin handed in, and afterwards heard he had got first prize." + +"But he did not get first prize," replied Harry, forgetting for the +moment what might be the result of his confidence. "It was Kathleen +who really won it; for--for there was a mistake somewhere, but Aunt +Marian set it all right afterwards." + +"How! a mistake! I don't quite understand." + +"Oh, nothing; it was only some stones which Fred had put at the +bottom of his can to keep the leaves down. At least, that's to say, +there were some stones, and of course that made his can weigh heavier +than hers." + +"You don't mean to say that Fred put stones into his can after all?" + +"Why 'after all'?" asked Harry open-mouthed. + +"Why, because when he and I were grubbing at the currants, I said for +fun, 'What a lark it would be to fill one's can with stones and put +only a layer of fruit at the top, and then to see mother's face of +surprise when she came to weigh the fruit;' but--" + +"Then he did think she would weigh it?" said Harry again, speaking +more in accordance with his own thoughts than with the prudence his +brother might have expected from him. + +"Of course we knew she would have to weigh the cans, or at least, we +felt more or less certain of it. But I say, Harry," here Maurice +sunk his voice suddenly to a whisper, "Fred's got his eyes fixed on +us, and he don't seem to like our conversation." + +"Pooh! who cares?" replied Harry hotly. But for all that he went on +with his work, and after this a general lack of conversation seemed +to fall over all the company, Fred setting them the example by a +stony and somewhat sullen silence. + +"I expect you'll catch it by-and-by," whispered Maurice into Harry's +ear. + +"Of course you'll not repeat anything I have said to you?" replied +Harry nervously. He was beginning to think he had perhaps inculpated +his brother, and yet he possessed no certainty of his guilt. + +"I! of course not; it would only drag you into a row, and do no +good;--but I must say, if he did put stones in his can after all the +talk we had about it, it was a howling shame, and no mistake." + +When the first gong sounded and the time for dressing for dinner had +arrived, Aunt Marian entered the housekeeper's room to adjudge the +prize; and again on this occasion, without any doubt or even loophole +for suspicion, Fred's quick and neat fingers had gained the day. He +had covered a round dozen more than any of the others, with five +minutes allowed to him for dispensing the necessary materials; and +this time the prize was a box containing a complete set of +lawn-tennis, all beautifully packed into different compartments, and +the whole case of a portable size, and fitted with a good lock and +key. + +Fred was more than satisfied with his aunt's choice. He had wished +every day since he came to Jubilee Hall that they had lawn-tennis at +The Cedars; and he had even planned in his own mind whereabouts the +game could be best played, and the shady spots where garden-seats +could be placed for lookers on; and now his aunt had forestalled his +wishes, and when he went home he would be able to set it up at once, +and have capital games in the autumn. He thanked his Aunt Marian +again and again in the most grateful and enthusiastic manner, and not +a few of the company envied him the possession of such a prize. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AUNT MARIAN'S STORE-ROOM + +"Now, Fred, listen to me," observed Harry the following morning, +when, breakfast being over, they all sallied out in front of the +house for a stroll, "if you are going to come it over me in this way +I won't stand it, and that's an end of it." + +"How come it over you?" said Fred slowly and indifferently, as he +pretended to follow the flight of a distant wood-pigeon. + +"I mean sticking me into Coventry, and riding your high horse." + +"I'll ride any horse I like, high or low, without asking your leave." + +"Very well, ride away, and do just as you like; but if you go on with +these airs to Kathleen and me which you have kept up all yesterday +afternoon and this morning, I'll go my way, that's all." + +"Well, and what's your way, may I ask?" + +"Simply, I shall go straight to Aunt Marian's boudoir and let her +hear the whole matter out, every word and syllable from beginning to +end; for, to tell you the truth, I am getting dog-tired of this kind +of life. When we came here first I was as jolly as a sand-boy, and +now I'm sick of the place, and of everybody and everything." + +"Well, that's not my fault." + +"It is your fault, it's altogether your fault; for every atom of this +wretchedness has come out of that odious heap of stones which you put +into your can." + +"Humbug! how on earth can that harm you? If it hurts any one it's +me, and that's my own affair." + +"How can a thing be only your affair, when it has made, and does +make, so many people miserable?" + +"You are talking simple rubbish, Harry, and I defy you to prove one +word of what you say, except, indeed, so far as concerns yourself and +Kathleen; and as any one with two eyes in his head can see what a +pleasure it is to you both to be miserable, I don't see how you can +blame me for it." + +Harry's face and eyes perfectly flamed with indignation at Fred's +justification of his conduct, and a host of passionate words came +rushing hotly to his lips, but Maurice's voice being heard in the +shrubbery-walk close at hand, he constrained himself to silence, and +walking a step or so forward he picked some pebbles from the +gravelled walk and began slinging them at random across the lawn. + +"And what's more," cried Fred, roused to a sudden recollection by the +sound of his cousin's voice, "I don't see what right you have to call +me a sneak and a cheat, and all that, when you go peaching on me +behind my back to Maurice, and setting all kinds of suspicions afloat +about me, when you may be quite as wrong as--as--" + +"As you are," replied Harry shortly. "But as I said before, I'm sick +of this sort of life, and of this house and this place; and jolly and +delightful as I thought it at first, I'd a million times rather be at +home now; and if things don't change from what they are soon, I'll +write and ask father and mother to come over for us." + +"Bosh!" said Fred, "as if father or mother would come even if you did +write. Of course they wouldn't, unless there was some good reason +for bringing them over, and I'd like to know where you'd find that." + +"Easily enough," murmured Harry beneath his breath; and then, having +remained a long ten minutes looking at the beds of flowers all about +and around him, he turned towards his brother, and, with quite +another tone of voice and expression of face, exclaimed,--"Fred." + +"Well." + +"Listen; I'll say it all for you, if you like." + +"Say what?" + +"I'll go now and see Aunt Marian, and make everything straight, +you'll see, when I have told her all; and how at the beginning you +didn't mean--at least--well, never mind, I'll promise you I'll say it +the best way it can be said; and then we shall both be so awfully +glad when it's off our minds, shan't we, Fred?" + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Fred, swinging his long legs +backwards and forwards beneath the iron chair on which he had seated +himself; "you always make such mountains out of mole-hills, a fellow +never knows what your opinion is worth. I can't for the life of me +see that I've done anything so very wrong; in fact, I should never +have thought of it a second time, only you and Kathleen pulled such +awfully long faces at me, that you turned me sour and cross whether I +would or not; and for all I know, if you had left me alone I might +have set the whole thing straight in a jiffy." + +Fred had a way of putting things that often puzzled Harry sorely, and +made him feel for the time as if wrong were right and right wrong; +and as Fred now sought to shove the burden of his fault on Harry's +shoulders, so Harry began to wonder and question himself if it might +not be quite true what his brother said, and that, if he had only +left him alone, he would have seen the right course to take, and have +followed it. "I know I always do bungle things," replied he humbly; +"and I know people hate being bothered into things." + +It was Fred's turn now to grow distressed and uneasy. He made no +reply for some minutes to Harry's last speech, but kept his eyes +fixed on a large fuchsia in a neighbouring bed, evidently thinking +anxiously on some subject. At last he said, with a nervous effort to +appear quite at his ease, "I'll tell you, Hal, what I'll do. As you +seem to take it so much to heart, as soon as ever I go home I'll have +a talk with mother on the whole affair, and tell her exactly how the +land lies; and if she thinks I oughtn't to keep the prize, I'll give +it up, or I'll get her to return it, which comes to the same thing, +and that will set all to rights, won't it, Harry?" + +"Are you really in earnest?" asked Harry, his whole face glowing from +the sudden and unlooked-for relief; "for if you are, I'll say you're +a brick, and no mistake." + +"Of course I'm in earnest; I'm not quite such a hypocrite as you take +me for." + +"Indeed, Fred, I don't take you for a hypocrite or anything the least +like it; only, I'm so awfully glad you're going to do it: for mother +will be sure to know what's right; and I'm such a gaby, I daresay it +is I who have been making a great fuss about nothing all the time." + +"Well, at any rate, let's all try to be jolly for the rest of the +time we are here; Aunt Marian will think we are a set of prigs with +the way we have been going on, looking glum, and morose, and stupid, +when all the others were bursting their sides with laughter. You'll +cheer up now, Harry, won't you?" + +"Cheer up? why, I feel as if I could make one good flying leap over +sun, moon, and stars, and the equator into the bargain;" and Harry, +to prove the truth of his words, made one good flying leap over the +end of the iron seat, alighting somewhat ignominiously on the other +side, with face, hands, and knees in close contact with the sharp +gravel on the pathway. + +"I say, Hal, old boy, that's what one might call a cropper of the +first water," cried a cheery voice in our fallen hero's ears, as he +raised himself up and shook himself free from the gravel and dust +which adhered to both hands, and to the knees of his trousers; "if +you make such a bad shot at the equator, you'll be likely to come to +grief, and get impaled on the North Pole, or something of the kind. +But I've been looking for you everywhere, for don't you remember you +and I were to have a game at chess to-day, and as we can't have it in +the afternoon on account of the jam having to be put away, I thought +we might as well have a shy at it now." + +"All square," replied Harry cheerfully. "I'm game for any fun going, +from pitch and toss to manslaughter, only I warn you, you'll get the +worst of it; for I feel as if I could fight Goliath this morning, I'm +so sprag and hearty in myself." + +"If you make as good a shot at the game as you did at the iron chair +a moment ago, I'm afraid I shall get the worst of it," replied +Maurice laughing, "especially as I'm by no means in a serene temper. +I've been worriting at the old mother for the last hour to give me +out the Japanese chess-men which she has locked up in her store-room; +but she won't do it, for she says the old wooden ones are quite good +enough for us younkers; and though I coaxed, and bullied, and teased, +it was all no good, so we must put up with what we have got, and be +satisfied." + +"They must be awfully precious men," said Harry open-eyed, for he had +never heard his aunt refuse Maurice anything before. + +"Precious is no word for it. They are all of the most exquisite +carved ivory. Every piece is a curiosity in itself: the castles are +all on elephants' backs, and the king and queen are the grandest old +coves going; and as to the knights, they are simply A1, all of them +mounted on horseback, and with banners in their hands. Oh, I do wish +I could even have shown them to you, but mother didn't seem to like +my asking her." + +"I wonder why; I confess I for one would have given a good deal to +have a peep at them," said Fred, who, having a lathe of his own at +home, and being a decided genius in the art of carving, took delight +in looking at anything new and curious in his favourite art. + +Maurice scarcely looked at Fred or noticed his remark, but addressing +himself to Harry, cried, "I am sorry, now that I think of it, that I +nagged at mother so much about them; for it's dawning on me that +these very chess-men were a present from my poor father, which +arrived at home just after mother heard of his death, and I am sure +that is why she does not like to have them knocked about." + +"But we need not knock them about, need we?" asked Fred, again +seeking to obtain a hearing. + +"If you mean that you wish me to ask mother for them again, I'm going +to do no such thing," Maurice answered, with scarcely the amount of +politeness in his tone due to one's guest, and especially as Fred +fancied he heard him add in a lower tone, "least of all for you." + +"I am sure I don't care whether you do or not," replied Fred in +sudden heat at the tone and words of his cousin. "I dare say I have +seen finer chess-men than any you could show me, so you need not +trouble yourself to be any ruder than you are by nature." + +Maurice merely turned round and stared Fred full in the face with an +expression of contempt and unbelief which did not tend to allay the +rising fire in his cousin's breast, and, without addressing another +word to him, he moved nearer to Harry, who had been standing by, an +unhappy spectator of the scene. + +"Come along and let's begin our game," he said, "or we shall only +have got well into the heat of it all when it will be time to stop. +Come along, I say;" and Maurice, taking Harry under his arm without +casting another glance in Fred's direction, walked off with him +towards the Hall, and through the oak doorway into the house. + +Fred remained seated outside for a considerable time longer, and the +reverie which he fell into in his solitude was of no very amiable +kind. + +"What on earth does the fellow mean by treating me in that way?" he +growled angrily as the two figures disappeared in the doorway; "he +has as much manners as a bear. I'll soon let Aunt Marian hear, if he +goes on with any more of his cocksputtiness. It was not to have us +spoken to and stared at as if we were a set of Yahoos, that she +invited us here. No, no; my fine Master Maurice, I'll not stand such +humbug from any one, least of all from you; so you'd better not try +it on with me again, that's all." And while Fred vented his anger in +such-like idle threats, he raked the path to and fro with his +walking-cane, until he had scarred the evenly strewed gravel with +unseemly lines and bars. + +Nor when luncheon time arrived, and all the party assembled once more +in the dining-room, did matters seem more agreeable or promising for +Fred. Aunt Marian, who, as usual, presided at the head of the table, +seemed preoccupied and out of spirits. Now and then, when Fred +looked furtively up, he fancied her eyes were fixed uneasily on him; +but the instant their looks met she started, blushed, and turned her +head another way. Could it be that the affair about the chess-box +was weighing on her mind, or what? But why then need she look so +anxiously at him? And Fred tried, as he could not reason the matter +out, to push it from his mind altogether, and determined not to look +again in her direction. + +After luncheon Aunt Marian made a decided effort to brighten up, and, +calling all her guests together, she invited them to follow her to +the store-room, that she might give them directions where the various +jams were to be stored away; and also, she wished to show them some +curiosities which she had packed away down there for greater safety, +until a wonderful Chinese cabinet which she was expecting from London +should arrive to hold them. + +All those who did not know the downstairs region of the left wing of +the Hall, were enchanted and surprised with the immense rows of +dungeon-like rooms which branched off in all directions from the +landing under Lady Brinsley's boudoir; and much interest was excited +when she came to a full stop opposite a door at the foot of, or +rather underneath the flight of stairs which led from the underground +region to the upper world. + +"I have had my store-room built here purposely," she said putting a +large key into the key-hole; "because the flue of the kitchen chimney +runs parallel to the shelves along the wall, and thus everything on +them is kept dry and free from must. You must not all crowd into the +store-room at once, but come in six or seven at a time, and I will +show you whatever there is worth seeing; and I must only trust to the +honour of the company at large, that, when I am no longer here to +superintend the proceedings, anything any of you wish to see you will +look at with your eyes, and not with your fingers; for some of my +curiosities are of a very fragile kind, and a rough touch or an +awkward hand might entirely destroy them. You will be careful all of +you, won't you?" she said looking around; "and you, Maurice, and you, +Harry Malcomson, I leave you both as my aides-de-camp to see that +nothing on my curiosity-shelf is touched or meddled with." + +There was a general clamour of assent to Lady Brinsley's wishes, and +loud assurances were given by those gathered round her that nothing +should be stirred or injured in any way; and then the key was turned +in the door, and as many as the room could hold were admitted. + +Once inside, what a delicious odour there was of good +things,--oranges, figs, raisins, biscuits, gingerbread, plum-cake; +and how the dishes and open boxes of preserved fruits glanced from +out the darker corners of the shelves! + +The stairs overhead were so broad that the store-room was an +unusually wide one, and by degrees, most of the party squeezed in so +as to be able to catch a view of the case which Lady Brinsley had +just lifted from the shelf overhead, and which Maurice, in a voice of +superior knowledge, declared to be the gem of the peep-show. + +And a most curious and wonderful affair it was when it was placed on +the shelf in the window, and the light from the passage outside fell +full upon it. + +"This," said Aunt Marian, as she took a gold key from her watch-chain +and placed it in the lock of the outside case, "this is a Japanese +miniature barrel organ, and when I lift off this cover you will see +what a strange piece of mechanism it is. Here, Maurice, give me a +helping hand," and, assisted by her son, Lady Brinsley removed the +outside sandalwood box, and revealed a most perfect and beautiful +representation of a mimic stage, on the boards of which several +figures in Japanese costume were standing, while a wonderfully +painted and enamelled woodland scene at the back made everything +appear strangely real and life-like. + +Lady Brinsley, having given all the children time to see the stage +and its occupants, pushed back a round silver peg at the side of the +box, and at once, to the sound of a curious tinkling and somewhat +unmusical music, the figures began moving about the stage, extending +their arms in entreaty, throwing back their heads in haughty +attitudes of refusal or pride, and, in fact, imitating in excellent +style the effects of an operatic scene. + +Fred pressed forward and gazed with a rapt eagerness at the toy. It +was a thing after his own heart, and all troubles and doubts were for +the moment forgotten, as he sought to puzzle out the mechanism of the +wonderful Japanese automaton. + +When every one had been given a full view of the theatre, it was +packed up in its box and replaced with some difficulty by Maurice on +an upper shelf. Fred followed it with longing eyes as it was +returned to the safe keeping of the store-room and its surroundings; +and as he did so his glance chanced to fall on another and smaller +case close beside it, on which he could see painted in black letters +the word "fragile." + +"What is in that other box?" he asked curiously; "may we have a look +at it also?" + +"No, dear; I never open that box," replied Lady Brinsley, in a +nervous and somewhat hesitating voice; "its contents are very +brittle, and, besides, I have other reasons." + +"But what are the contents?" cried Fred, so anxious to satisfy his +curiosity, that his aunt's hesitation and distress did not affect him +as it would otherwise probably have done. + +"Chess-men," she answered shortly, "ivory chess-men. + +"Oh!" sighed Fred, "these are the men I suppose Maurice wanted so +much to show Harry. Might we not even take one look into the box? we +were all so much disappointed." + +"Speak for yourself, please," cried Maurice angrily; "neither Harry +nor I care a straw whether we see them or not." + +"You said you did care very much this morning," retorted Fred, in +newly kindled wrath at Maurice's words and manner. "You were quite +vexed that you had not been allowed to have them, and you grumbled +precious loud about it." + +"Shut up, will you. If you had the tact or the good taste of a +hen-sparrow, you would know when to leave off a disagreeable subject." + +"Maurice, Maurice," said Lady Brinsley reprovingly.--"Suppose now, +you all set about the jam and its arrangement," she added cheerfully. +"You will find a little wooden ladder in the passage by the pantry +which will enable you to pack away a good deal on the high shelves." + +Thus the subject of the chess-men dropped for the present; but Fred +and Maurice regarded each other with no friendly eyes, and Harry was +consequently uneasy and distressed. He felt inclined to take his +brother's side in this argument, for he thought Maurice had spoken +very roughly to Fred before such a large company, and yet he could +not but fear it was his own insinuations on the occasion of the jam +covering that had set Maurice so much against Fred. However, in the +general laughter, and fun, and jollity which went on, the carrying +down the trays of jam, and arranging them in order on the shelves, +Harry soon forgot his trouble, and amused himself in playing off a +series of his own peculiar style of practical jokes, which were of a +very harmless nature, and seldom were pushed sufficiently far to give +occasion for offence or anger. + +Fred was so absorbed in gazing at the varied contents of the +store-room, that he gave but small assistance in the labours of the +afternoon; the dark nooks of this mysterious apartment, running, as +they did, far up beneath the stairs, had a charm for his inquisitive +nature which the more playful of his companions could scarcely have +understood. And besides all this, Fred had a longing, amounting +almost to misery, to raise the lid of the white box labelled +"fragile," and take one glimpse at the rare carving of the Chinese +chess-men; and, like a true descendant of our first parents, the more +he was hindered from prying, the more intense grew the desire for the +forbidden pleasure. + +But Maurice seemed to have an inkling of this weakness of Fred, and +kept constantly within the sombre precincts of the store-room. He +sent the others for the jam and remained himself perched on the +ladder, the top of which was propped against the very shelf on which +stood the box containing the chess-men; and while Maurice kept firm +to his post, Fred had but small chance of the much longed-for peep. + +"Why aren't you trying for the prize this afternoon, eh? you are so +lucky at winning prizes," asked Maurice of his cousin, in a tone +which savoured only too little of politeness; "or perhaps you intend +to try your old dodge of making a rush for it in the end, and winning +in a hand gallop." + +"It's a pity," replied Fred, from some dark corner of the store-room, +"that twopence was not charged at your school for good manners; but, +I suppose, because you're king of your own castle, you may cheek a +fellow as much as you like." + +"Humph! 'king of my own castle.' Your head seems to be running very +much this morning on the chess-line; you'd give a good deal, I dare +say, to get one squint inside of this box;" and Maurice laid his +great schoolboy hand on the lid of the white case and smiled, it must +be confessed in no very pleasant way, at his cousin. + +Maurice had such a loathing for a mean or ungenerous action, he could +not conceal his contempt for the boy whose conduct circumstances had +led him to distrust; and being the eldest son, and having been, in +consequence of his father's death, placed in an unusually prominent +position, he had not, perhaps, learned to exercise as much +self-control on certain occasions as would have been more fitting and +becoming at his age; and he saw the red fire leap into his cousin's +eye in the gloom of the dark corner where he stood, though it did not +make him desist from his uncourteous conduct. + +Fred was an eldest son also, and a somewhat spoiled and petted boy, +and he was as little prepared to bear with Maurice's contemptuous +treatment as Maurice was to bear with him; so words waxed high +between them, and the other guests, abashed and frightened, stood +aloof from the scene of action and listened with awe not unmixed with +dismay to the passionate tones rising higher and higher within the +citadel whose closely barred window showed only the shadowy outlines +of the combatants within. + +Harry alone ventured to draw near enough to the scene of action to +catch some of the voluble words of anger and reproach which passed +from the lips of both the boys, and his heart burned with a sudden +flame of passion when he heard the words "sneak, cheat, robber," +hurled at his brother's head by Maurice, who, still standing on the +ladder, kept guard over the box marked "fragile." + +"Fred, come out; don't listen to him," cried Harry, driven by the +force of his feelings to mingle in the fray; "a fellow who calls +another a cheat and a sneak, is no gentleman, I don't care who he is." + +"I repeat it," cried Maurice. "I say he is a vile, dastardly sneak, +and a liar into the bargain; and no one knows it better than +yourself." + +At these words there was a crash. Impelled at the same moment by an +uncontrollable burst of anger, both brothers had rushed upon the +occupant of the ladder, and, pushing it violently aside, had sent +Maurice head foremost into a trayful of jam pots, and finally +sprawling on the floor. + +But a couple of sacks broke Maurice's fall, and he only rose with +redoubled fury to continue the fray. Harry he merely thrust out into +the passage with one lurch of his great strong arm; but Fred he sent +whirling back into the darkness with a blow planted right in the +middle of his chest, and an accompanying kick which raised him for a +moment from the ground only to fall the more heavily on his back, +which struck against something sharp protruding from the wall, and he +finally rested upon a shelf raised about a foot or so from the +ground, and which extended far back to the very end of the store-room +floor, and which was, in fact, only a kind of low platform at the +further end of the room. + +At this moment there was a cry raised somewhere that Lady Brinsley +was coming; and Maurice, ashamed and confused, picked up the ladder, +and having placed it against the shelf, began arranging the jam pots, +in a somewhat irregular manner, it must be confessed, but still it +helped to carry off what would have been otherwise a very unpleasant +position. + +Fred, meantime, who was smarting all over from the fall, and whose +shoulder-blade was cruelly bruised by the blow he had received in his +descent, sat down moodily on the shelf or step on which he had +fallen, and sulkily awaited the issue of his aunt's arrival. + +But Lady Brinsley had no wish just now to enter into this embroilment +between her son and her nephew, for, to tell the truth, she would +have been sorely puzzled what to say; so she merely looked in at the +store-room door for a moment and murmured anxiously, "Maurice, dear, +do not let there be such a noise downstairs any more. You know I +don't dislike a pleasant row, but the sounds which I heard just now +were anything but that. Do try to remember that it is our business +to make our guests happy, no matter how they have behaved, and even +though Fred has--" + +"Fred is here to answer for himself," cried Maurice hastily; for he +guessed the gloom of the room had concealed his cousin's presence, +and he had no wish to mix up his mother unpleasantly in the business. + +"What is all this about, Fred?" asked Lady Brinsley, peering +anxiously through the darkness for the figure crouched on the step. + +"I am sure I don't know," replied Fred in a sullen tone. + +"It's all about this confounded--;" Maurice stopped a moment and then +continued nervously, "it's all about this unfortunate chess-box, +which Fred is determined to have a look at, and which he says as sure +as he's alive he'll see some way or other,--and I'm just as +determined that he shan't. I wish you would take it upstairs, +mother, and lock it up somewhere; for he's such a fellow he would +manage to sneak in through a mouse-hole to gain his purpose." + +"Maurice, Maurice, indeed I cannot allow you to speak so," said his +mother gravely. "You know well I would far rather, whatever pain it +might have cost me, have taken down the box and shown it to Fred, +than have had this most unpleasant discussion." + +"I don't want to see it," said Fred proudly; "only I won't be bullied +by him." + +"You swore a moment ago you'd see it if you tore the whole window out +of its socket," cried Maurice, growing hot and indignant at Fred's +denial. + +"And so I would, if you tried to stop me from seeing it." + +"Then all I can say is, I'll stop you as long as I have hands on my +arms or feet on my legs, and not the most distant vision of one of +the men shall you ever see,--at least while you are in this house; +unless, indeed, mother chooses to show them to you, and that's no +business of mine." + +"Maurice, let there be an end of this at once," cried Lady Brinsley, +in a tone which her son never dared to oppose. "Whatever else you +may be doing, you are not behaving like a gentleman, nor will you by +your example be likely to influence your cousin for good. If this +most unseemly noise continues, I will just lock the store-room door +and break up the whole afternoon, which, I think, would be scarcely +fair to our other guests." + +"All serene," cried Maurice hoarsely; he was not accustomed to being +reproved so sharply by his mother, and before Fred, too. "I'll not +say another word," he added in a lower voice; "but I'll balk his +sneaking tricks for all that." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A DISCOVERY. + +Maurice was as good as his word. He never uttered another syllable +to Fred, nor did he relax his guard over the shelf where stood the +coveted box, but still kept his position on the ladder, arranging in +order the various trays of jams, carried down by the others; and +after a time, as Fred also remained perfectly silent and inactive in +the corner, the "row" was partially forgotten, and jokes and laughter +began again to be heard in the halls and passages. + +Meantime Fred, who had sat in a kind of gloomy abstraction for nearly +half an hour, only showing that he was not asleep by the occasional +red gleam from his eyes which shone strangely out of the sombre +obscurity of his retreat, suddenly awoke to a strange and thrilling +discovery which made his heart beat quick and loud against his side, +and which almost tempted him to doubt the evidence of his senses. + +And this discovery was brought about in the following manner:--His +shoulder, which had been so sorely bruised in the fall, ached +terribly for a long time after the other effects of his misfortunes +had passed away, till at length, in a vexed and sullen spirit, he +searched about and around the place to see against what sharp thing +he could have struck when falling, or what accident could have caused +the wound which kept on aching so wearily. + +For a long time he could see nothing; for the corner where he sat was +so dark that objects only revealed themselves slowly to his sight, +and it was not for many minutes after he had sat down that he even +found out that the platform on which he was seated was used evidently +for drying candles and soap, as many squares of the latter were +spread out on it, and bundles of candles in orderly rows side by side +were also arranged with the same neatness and method; and the roof of +the store-room being formed by the stairs overhead it was of +necessity a sloping one, and over the shelf on which Fred sat it came +slanting down so low as almost to touch his head, so that to rise +upright would have been impossible. At some distance behind him the +room ended in a dark angle where nothing taller than a cat or a rat +could creep along, and as well as Fred's eye could discern, this low +nook was used only as a receptacle for old sacks, files of bills, +mouse traps and so forth. But so great was Fred's natural curiosity +that he longed to pry into its depths, and had he been alone he would +certainly have crept on hands and knees along the platform and +examined minutely all there was to be seen there; but as it was, he +had a character for proud indifference to keep up just now, so he +found sufficient interest in searching for the origin of his present +suffering, wondering vaguely how it could have been caused. + +At length his shoulder became so painful and his back ached so badly, +he shoved himself along the wooden platform on which he was seated to +the nearest wall of the store-room, so that he might lean his side +against it for support, and it was then he awoke suddenly to the +discovery which caused him so much surprise and excitement; for as he +pressed his head forward toward the wall he again came in contact +with something hard and cold protruding from the wooden partition +which formed one side of the store-room, and the blow which it gave +him, coming, as it did, on the side of his head, caused him almost to +cry aloud from pain. + +Fred rubbed his wounded ear for a moment or so with his finger and +muttered angrily to himself; then, feeling all up the wall with the +palm of his hand, he sought to discover the knob or nail which had, +as it seemed to him, purposely wounded him. + +And he was not long in coming on it. It was an iron knob protruding +from the wall, very hard and cold and round, and evidently fastened +to the wooden panelling by screws or clamps of some kind or other. +Fred turned and fixed his eyes narrowly on the spot; his curiosity +was fully aroused, and he determined to get at the root of the +matter. As he gazed, it seemed to him as if a silver rod ran down +the whole length of the wall beside him, shining quite brightly, and +almost glowing in the surrounding darkness. + +Fred now ran his fingers down this rod, but found to his surprise +that it was nothing tangible; only a long seam of light, which, +entering by a crack or fissure in the panels of the wall, gave the +appearance of a metal bar; for when some one passed by outside in the +passage, the silver bar disappeared, but again returned when the +obstruction had moved on. + +Once more he ran his fingers up the crack, to ascertain its width, +and this time his knuckles came in contact with another knob similar +in shape and size to the one he had discovered below, only so high +was it placed as to be but an inch or so below the slanting roof of +the store-room. + +Fred paused for a moment, and with his eyes still eagerly peering +into the darkness, drew a long breath. It was just then his heart +gave the first great throb, and that the blood tingled so curiously +down to his finger-tips. + +"Could it be?" he murmured, almost aloud; and then he took a furtive +glance towards the stalwart figure of Maurice, who stood with his +back turned, and perched on the top of the ladder. He ran his +fingers no longer up the wall, but across it; and then he paused +again, while the throbbing at his heart became more violent and +uncomfortable. "Yes, it was what he suspected it to be." Quite far +back he could feel hinges, one above and one below, corresponding +exactly to the knobs on the opposite side of the panel. And these +knobs, what were they? what could they be? Why, bolts of course; +which, closing tightly on the silvery bar of light, kept this hidden +egress from the room safe from the visits of intruders. + +This was a discovery; as great and significant at the moment to Fred +as if he had stumbled on a treasure of pure gold hidden away in some +nook or cranny of the wall. + +Then came the next question,--could the bolts move, or had long +disuse rendered them stiff, and cramped, and useless? That they had +not been opened for a long time, the cobwebs which stuck closely over +them could testify; sticky gray cobwebs which clung to Fred's fingers +and the knees of his trousers, and made him feel as if spiders were +running down the back of his neck. + +He must try whether the bolts would stir at his bidding or not; but +oh! how cautiously must this essay be made, lest Maurice, ever on the +alert, should look round and catch him in the act. Fred leaned his +head once more in an attitude of weariness against the wall, and with +one hand and arm thrust behind him, took the knob in his fingers and +pressed, first gently, then a little harder; but no, it would not +move, he must push more strongly still. But supposing it were to fly +suddenly back, the door might leap open--oh! what a triumph for +Maurice, what bitterness of defeat for him. + +So Fred continued to push, ever so gently and gingerly, yet at the +same time firmly, till at last there was a sharp creak and a grating +squeak which could be heard all over the store-room. + +Maurice turned hastily round and peered into the darkness; but there +was Fred still sitting disconsolately on the step with his head +against the wall. Maurice knew nothing of this secret door, so he +only remarked, as if in answer to his own thoughts, "Rats," and +turned away again carelessly to resume his work. + +[Illustration: "Another pot of strawberry, if you please."] + +Meanwhile, Fred's eye had become riveted on a dish, on which lay +heaped one on the top of the other sundry pounds of butter, evidently +fresh from the churn. It had been placed on the same shelf where he +sat, only at a safe distance from the aroma of the soap and candles; +but a quick movement, now that Maurice's back was turned, would +easily reach it; and Fred, stretching out his hand, like a flash of +lightning removed a small piece from off the nearest roll, and +conveying it to his other fingers, cautiously rubbed the rusty lock +with the oily but most opportune "find." + +This operation was decidedly successful; the next time he tried the +bolt it moved, and no creak followed to betray him. The upper lock +was greased in the same way, and it also moved, though a slight groan +issued from its iron-moulded joints, which caused Maurice once again +to turn his head, and murmur "Rats," while he wondered vaguely how +such a cowardly fellow as Fred could be content to sit quietly over +there in the dark, in such close proximity to rats and other vermin. +Perhaps it was the weary dejected position in which Fred sat, with +his head resting against the wall, that caused a momentary gleam of +contrition and remorse in Maurice's bosom; for presently, in a voice +which betrayed an evident struggle between pride and pity, he said, +turning towards his cousin,-- + +"I advise you strongly not to take up your position in that corner, +Fred; for the place is alive with cockroaches, and they will be +crawling up your leg if you don't take care." + +"I have not seen one," replied Fred shortly and sullenly. + +"They are there for all that: it was only a few nights ago, when I +came down here to fetch up some night-lights for mother, that I came +on one as large as a cow, with horns that could have tossed me into +the middle of next week. I never saw such a brute; he was more like +an old stag cantering along the wall than a human being." + +"I never knew cockroaches were human beings before," laughed one of +Maurice's sisters, who was standing patiently at the foot of the +table with a heavy load of jam in her extended arms, waiting for her +brother to arrange them on the shelf above. + +"My dear child, who ever supposed you did? But for all that I'm not +so far out, for all men are animals, ain't they? and if a cockroach +is not an ugly beast of an animal, what else is it? therefore _a +fortiori_ it follows, that if both are animals, there is no +difference between them." + +"All men are animals, but all animals are not men," replied Alice +Brinsley, quoting somewhat sententiously from one of her well-read +lesson books. + +"And all girls are donkeys, though all donkeys aren't girls. I +declare, Alice, I think you are the most assified old cockroach in +the whole place; for a fellow can't make the most simple and natural +observation in the world, but you thrust out your horns and pin him +to the wall, while every scrap of knowledge that you have in your +shallow pate could be found bound up between the two covers of +Mangnall's Questions, beginning at the date when William the +Conqueror threw the famous bucket of cold water over his brother +Robert le Diable, down to the chap who found out how to square the +circle, and make lemon pudding out of pigs' whiskers. There take +that;" and Maurice concluded his exordium by seizing a large ball of +cord from the shelf beside him, and flinging it right at his sister's +uplifted nose, from which it sprang aside and rolled into the dark +corner where Fred still sat with his head against the wall, +apparently gloomy and abstracted. + +But oh! how his face and attitude belied his real feelings, +especially now he beheld the ball of cord, which for the last ten +minutes he had been gazing at with covetous eyes, actually rolling +forward to his very feet. Surely Maurice must have read his +thoughts, and fathomed the scheme by which his cousin hoped to +retrieve his vantage ground, and make good his angry boast. He must +have caught a glimpse of the hungry eyes fixed on the coil of cord +above his head, and putting two and two together, must have resolved +to aid and abet his enemy, by conniving at his plans, and only +planning the more completely and fatally to overthrow and destroy him. + +These doubts made Fred hesitate for some minutes whether to avail +himself of the unlooked-for assistance, during which time he watched +his cousin closely, and narrowly scanned the fluctuating expression +of his face; an expression all the more difficult to decipher, as +Maurice, having lighted on a jar of French plums, had crammed about a +dozen of them into his mouth at one time, and was now making the most +frightful grimaces, struggling to eat them without choking or +swallowing any of the stones. + +But Maurice was perfectly innocent of any plan or plot being laid to +undermine his pride; and as soon as he could find room to move his +tongue, he again resumed his attack upon his sister, whose arms ached +from the weight of the jam pots she still held in her hands, and from +which he seemed in no hurry to relieve her. + +"Here, Alice, are some rare seeds for you; or as Mangnall would call +them, umbelliferous stones," cried Maurice, removing some of the +kernels from his mouth, and placing them on the tray before her; "if +you plant them in some good farinaceous kind of earth, and water them +four times an hour, for fifteen minutes at a go, you'll have in the +course of time a magnificent French-plum forest, similar in size and +appearance to the famous forest of Ardennes, where Henry the Eighth +killed the horrible wild boar, and was afterwards horribly bored to +death himself by, I forget how many wives, with patent reversible +heads, which could be taken off and on without any trouble; and +which, according to Mangnall, was the origin of the penny stamp +movement, which was called ever after Anne Boleyn's tragic end, a +Queen's head.--Another pot of strawberry, if you please, and then the +upper row will be quite full; and give us another handful of French +plummers at the same time, that's a good girl, and then I shall be +quite full also." + +"My dear Maurice, you will really make yourself ill; and besides, you +will certainly swallow some of the stones." + +"And if I do, what harm? for if you have studied page 40 of +Mangnall's 'Internal Economy,' you will find that a stone or apple +allowed to fall inside a given circle, proves the gravitation of the +Earth. But, good gracious, did you hear those rats again? I say, +Fred, have you cheese-parings or what in your pockets, that you seem +to be tempting them out of their holes at this time of day?" + +To this Fred did not deign a reply, or, if he spoke, the answer was +uttered in such a low voice that no one heard him; and Maurice, with +a nod of his head, indicative of careless contempt, turned away for +good from his cousin, and made no further effort to draw him into +conversation. + +Fred, meantime, had not been idle; he had, with his penknife, cut off +two pieces of cord from the ball which lay, apparently still +untouched, at his feet. At the end of each piece of cord he had made +a running knot, and this knot he had skilfully placed like a noose +over the neck of each bolt, and then drawn the knot tightly with his +hands; but the greatest difficulty remained still unsurmounted. The +bolts could, of course, be easily withdrawn by any one within the +store-room, even without the aid of the cord; but the point which +Fred was now eagerly debating in his mind was, how to get the ends of +the cord on the other side of the panel, and thus give the power to +an outsider to enter at any time he pleased. + +The bolts, he had definitely discovered, were screwed to the door, +and shot into iron clamps on the wall; so, in order to draw them back +from the outside, the ends of the string would have to be passed +through some aperture behind the head of the bolt; and how to make +this opening without exciting suspicion, was the present +stumbling-block in Fred's path. But as he moved himself a little +further back on the shelf to get a clearer view of the door, he +observed that just beneath the hinges there was also a faint glimmer +of daylight, and this discovery solved the problem so satisfactorily, +that in a few moments, with the aid of his penknife, he had thrust +the end of the cord nearest to him out through the chink into the +passage beyond, and he had only to wait patiently for a favourable +opportunity to secure the other in the like manner. + +Nor had he to wait long, as Maurice had begun to grow tired of his +elevated position, and presently, coming down off the ladder, he +began arranging the jam on some of the lower shelves, and in this +work became so occupied and interested, that he temporarily forgot +Fred and his corner, and only paused in his work to make some absurd +remarks to his friends. + +Fred seized a favourable opportunity when Maurice's back was turned, +and no one else was in the store-room, to rise slightly from the +shelf, and thrust the second piece of cord through the upper hinge; +which effort was so successful, that he felt quite elated, and sat +down quietly for a few moments to think out the probable result of +his plot. + +That he could enter the store-room secretly at some future time, and +there and then make good his boast to Maurice, there seemed now no +doubt, and Fred glanced up triumphantly at the two pieces of cord +securely fastened to the knobs or handles of the bolt and stretching +out to the hinges; but how, when he had got in, he was to get out +again, without the open door betraying his ingress and egress, was +the subject now uppermost in his mind. Was there no plan by which he +could shut the door as well as open it? He almost thought there must +be; and in order to consider this point thoroughly, he leaned his +elbows on his knees, and his head on his hands, and to a speculative +eye looked, if possible, even more disconsolate and inscrutable than +ever. + +Maurice gave one or two side glances towards his cousin, but thought +it wiser not to break the unpleasant silence, but to allow Fred's +sulky mood to pass over without remark, as all interference seemed +only to increase his gloom and reticence; but he determined, at the +same time, that when once it had passed over, it would not be his +fault if he quarrelled with Fred again, or allowed any guest in his +house to feel as uncomfortable and depressed as he had caused Fred to +be all the afternoon. And as Maurice made these good resolutions, he +whistled softly to himself; and a better and much pleasanter light +came into his eyes, as he put aside a box of candied fruit with a +beautiful picture on the top of it, as a peace-offering for his +cousin, whenever the favourable moment for presenting it should +arrive. Little he knew what burning thoughts were passing through +Fred's mind, or what a fire of revengeful feelings was smouldering +under the quiet attitude and dispirited appearance of his cousin. + +Fred meanwhile had not only thought out his new plan, but had +actually begun to carry it into execution. Once more, unseen, he had +picked up the ball of cord, and cut two pieces from it; and now he +was busy, while Maurice's back was turned, making slip knots on these +also. And when Maurice leaned across the shelf to take down the +prettiest box of preserved fruits for the proposed gift, Fred quickly +drew these second loops over the two bolts, and with the ends hanging +down beside him, only waited for a further opportunity of pushing +them through the hinge of the large door which stood conveniently +near its neighbour, and on the very side which would enable him to +draw the bolts of the latter securely back into their places. + +The gong sounding for dressing soon afforded him the desired moment +for action, and when the store-room was nearly full of the guests +assembling around Maurice, preparatory to their departure upstairs, +Fred stood up, and drawing into the shadow of the large door, which +opened inwardly, he thrust the cords carefully through the slit +beneath the hinges, and then passing out almost unobserved into the +passage, he delayed just sufficiently long to see that they were all +well out, and ready for action, and also to assure himself that they +would be quite invisible to the eye of a passer-by, as the light +painting of the wood corresponded so nearly in shade to the colour of +the cord, that unless a person had intentionally sought for the +strings, they would never have their attention drawn to the spot. + +At any rate, Fred reasoned with himself, the afternoon was already +fast closing in, and every moment the hall and staircase would be +growing darker; the gas jet in the passage was purposely fixed so as +to throw its light in through the window of the store-room, and thus +the outside walls lay in comparative shadow; and there was no need to +think of to-morrow, for what could be done at once without danger +ought not to be deferred until suspicion might be aroused; and Fred, +full of a deep and earnest purpose, walked slowly up to his own room +and began to dress for dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WATCHING HIS OPPORTUNITY. + +For a long time Fred debated with himself whether to make Harry a +confederate in his scheme or not. He knew that Harry's affectionate +spirit had been sorely ruffled and tried that afternoon by Maurice's +conduct towards him; and he knew also he had only to show the large +purple bruise on his shoulder to call forth a burst of bitter anger +in his brother's breast. Harry, too, had a keen enjoyment in +following up any scheme which savoured of danger and mystery; and +there would be something almost too seductive in the thought of +outwitting Maurice, with all his pride and hauteur, for Harry to be +able to refuse his aid. + +And, after all, what harm was there in the whole affair? He was not +going to steal or even touch anything in the store-room, except to +raise the lid of the box marked "Fragile," and take one glimpse at +the carved ivory men; just sufficient to be able to describe them +faithfully to Maurice, and leave him in all the perplexity of a +secret and undiscoverable defeat. + +It was only a fair revenge for the uucourteous conduct of his +cousin,--the epithets hurled on him in the presence of all the +guests, and the cruel blow which had sent him reeling back into the +darkness of the store-room. "At least I can sound Harry on the +subject, and see how he likes the look of it. If he jumps at the +fly, all serene; if not, then mum's the word, and all the danger and +glory will be my own." So thought Fred as he slowly walked up the +stairs leading to the landing where their room was situated, and his +face was grave and abstracted when he opened the door and walked in. + +"Well, Fred, old man," cried Harry's sympathizing voice as he +entered, "I hope you are not much hurt. I was just saying to +Kathleen, as you came in, what a shame it was of Maurice to turn on +you the way he did, and to knock you down and call you names before +every one!" + +"Yes, you may say so; and if you only saw the bruise on my +shoulder-blade, you'd open your eyes a bit. I am sure it's as large +as a plate this moment, and as black and blue as your shoe; and all +for what, I'd like to know. Nothing but his confounded pride and +ill-temper." + +"I can't think why he should have grown so suddenly cold to you," +said Harry uneasily. "Sometimes I think perhaps it is all my fault." + +"Your fault! Rubbish! how could it be?" + +"Well, because I know I said something to him yesterday about the +stones you had put in your can, and he flared up at once, and said if +you had done it, it was a howling shame, and all that kind of thing. +But, somehow or other, I think," pleaded Harry humbly, "something +more must have happened to vex him, or he could not be so frightfully +waxy." + +"I'll wax him before I've done with him," said Fred angrily. +"Whether I put the stones in the can or not, what business is it to +him? He has no right to set himself up for a judge and put me in +Coventry before all the others. However, he'll be sorry for it +before all's over. I'll promise you that much for your consolation." + +The consolation appeared scarcely to affect Harry as much as might +have been anticipated; he glanced nervously towards his brother, and +ended a rumination of full five minutes' length with a prolonged sigh. + +"Heigh ho, I wish we had never left home. I know I, for one, shall +never be in a hurry to leave it again." + +"Nor I either," cried Fred, with a certain hoarse sound in his voice +which betrayed no small amount of emotion. "However, in for a penny, +in for a pound, is my maxim; and I'd rather stick here all my life +than leave the place without giving Maurice a Roland for his Oliver." + +"You'll never be able to do it. Remember he is in his own house, and +we are only visitors." + +"All the same, I will do it; and what's more, the trap is set and the +hook baited, and I'll be even with him before this time to-morrow, +you'll see." + +"Why, what are you going to do?" + +"If you had the spirit of a mouse I'd tell you; but I know once you +heard the whole scheme, you'd never stop till you'd put your foot in +it somehow." + +"Fred!" + +"Oh yes, it's all very well. I know you'd stand by me, and have +stood by me in lots of things; but this is a plan which will require +the coolness of a cucumber and the courage and calmness of--well, +anything you like, to carry it out; and one of your unhandy scruples +would just put me off the whole thing, and make me far too nervous to +succeed." + +"But what do you want to do?" + +"I want to outwit Maurice." + +"In what way?" + +"Well, I'll just tell you this much. Maurice has as good as sworn +that he won't let me get a glimpse of those wonderful chess-men he's +so ridiculously proud of, and I'm determined that I will see them; +and there is the long and the short of the whole thing." + +"But--" + +"Never mind 'buts;' there are no 'buts' in the affair at all. I'm +going to do it, and that's all." + +"But, Fred, if they are locked up in Aunt Marian's store-room, how +can you?" + +"Ay, there's the rub; but since you know so much, I may as well just +tell you I can get in and out of that store-room as easily as I could +get in and out of Kathleen's room over there." + +At this moment Kathleen opened the very door towards which Fred was +pointing and walked in. "Were you calling me?" she asked. + +"No, no; go back into your own room and dress for dinner. I was only +talking to Harry." + +"But I am dressed for dinner and you are not, and the gong is just +going to sound." + +"You don't say so," cried Harry.--"Look at your watch, Fred, and see." + +Fred drew out his watch, and found it wanted but six minutes of the +dinner-hour; so further conversation had to be indefinitely +postponed, and it was with great difficulty the boys accomplished +their feat of dressing in six minutes so as to be down in the +drawing-room with the rest of the guests before the gong actually +sounded. + +Fred usually took his place at the end of the dining-room table close +to Maurice, who sat at the foot and carved; but to-night the +brothers, by a kind of intuition, exchanged places, and Harry took +the vacant chair beside his cousin, while Fred sat high up, and +comparatively close to his aunt. + +Lady Brinsley noticed, with considerable anxiety of mind, the extreme +pallor of Fred's face, and the nervous distress which seemed to +overpower him so that he ate almost nothing of the various viands +which were offered him, and addressed scarcely a word to those around +him. However wrong Fred had been, and however dishonourable his +conduct might appear, Maurice, she felt, had no right to behave in +the way he had done, and to treat his cousin with such harshness; and +Lady Brinsley, whose heart was peculiarly susceptible towards boys of +Fred's age, felt once again a strong pity rise in her heart for the +lad whose unhappiness was too plainly pictured on his face. But as +the dinner-time wore on Fred's demeanour changed curiously; and by +the time the meal was over, Lady Brinsley observed with surprise a +certain look almost of triumph which glowed in Fred's eye, especially +when he turned it in Maurice's direction. Nor was the tone of +defiance lost upon her when Fred was suddenly called upon to answer +some question addressed to him by his cousin, and to which he replied +with a confidence and a sangfroid which were in strong contrast with +his former nervousness of manner. + +The fact was that Lady Brinsley had proposed that the remainder of +the evening, which was deliciously soft and balmy, should be devoted +to a grand game of "I Spy," among the laurels and thick-growing +shrubs of the pleasure-ground; and that the whole party should +adjourn outside the Hall after dinner, and have their tea spread +afterwards in the tent on the archery ground, with strawberries and +cream to refresh themselves after their races and fatigue. + +This idea was hailed with unmixed delight by all the party, and by no +one with more zeal than Fred, who saw in this suggestion a grand +opportunity for carrying out his scheme; for as all the party would +be busily employed outside, he could easily seize on a moment to slip +away downstairs and invade undisturbed the sacred precincts of the +store-room. + +But matters did not turn out so propitiously as Fred had imagined. +Lady Brinsley, who felt uneasy and restless in her mind both about +the boy and the results which might be anticipated from his wounded +pride, made it her special charge to look after him, and to see that +he was not left out of the game or otherwise coldly treated by +Maurice. So Fred, though he watched eagerly for an auspicious moment +for flight, had to wait long before the favourable opportunity +presented itself. + +At last there did come a time when Fred thought he could slip away +without notice. Two of the party had gone off to hide as hares in +the cover of the far-off evergreens; and Maurice and his mother had +gone down to the archery ground to look after the fixing of some pole +in the tent, which the butler had brought them word was in rather a +shaky condition, and required looking after before the rush of hungry +hares into its recesses might bring the whole affair tumbling down +about their heads. + +Fred now watched his opportunity, and seeing the coast clear, edged +slowly off from the group of hounds, which were gathered under a +large beech tree, awaiting the shrill whistle from the plantation +which would announce that the hares were in safe hiding, and convey +also some slight notion as to their whereabouts. + +"Where are you going? You are not allowed to leave bounds until the +hares are hid," cried several voices as Fred moved out of their ranks. + +"Humbug! what harm can I do out here? I can't catch a glimpse of the +hiding-ground from this place, and I'm sick of sticking all in a lump +under this tree like a swarm of bees." + +"It is not fair, for all that," cried the same voices again; "we said +we would not go further than this tree." + +"I said nothing of the kind; besides, I am tired of the game, and I +am going to take a stroll until supper is ready." + +"Fred, you are not going really to leave the game?" cried Harry, +coming up to him anxiously from under the shadow of the tree. "Do +come back,--there's a good fellow; it will be no fun without you." +And as Harry spoke he eagerly sought to scan his brother's face, half +suspecting he had something more weighty on his mind than a mere +stroll about the place. + +"Bosh! you'll do twice as well without me," cried Fred, attempting a +laugh. But seeing the look in Harry's eyes, he changed his mind, and +added in a low voice, "Cannot you take a hint and keep them all quiet +there for a few minutes, and draw their attention off me, for I've +been watching for this opportunity the whole evening." + +"What for?" gasped Harry. + +"Why, what I told you before." + +"But you did not tell me." + +"Well, never mind; the whole thing won't take five minutes, and I'll +come back and tell you then." + +"O Fred! I know you will get yourself into some awful scrape. +Please don't go and do anything rash." + +"I tell you I'm in for it now, and, scrape or no scrape, I'll carry +it through." + +"Would there be less danger if I were to help you?" + +"No, no; there is the whistle: if we both went off together, we +should only draw suspicion on ourselves. Go, go, I tell you, and +hunt with the others; this is the moment of all others for me." And +Harry, sorely against his will, went off to search among the +evergreens and under the low-growing shrubs for the missing hares, +while Fred turned his steps with apparent nonchalance towards the +house. + +But the moment for success which he had so confidently looked for had +not yet come. Just as Fred turned through a low gate in the +pleasure-ground leading by a shrubbery walk towards the Hall, he saw +Maurice coming round from an opposite path, and also making his way +in the direction of the house. + +Both the boys caught sight of each other at the same moment, and both +paused for an instant, hesitating what course to pursue. Fred was +the first to act. He turned deliberately on his heel, and retraced +his steps through the dark shrubbery walk; and then Maurice's +resolution seemed also taken, for Fred heard hasty steps behind him +and some one calling him by his name. + +"Fred, Fred! turn back and listen; I want to say something to you." + +Fred walked on, his head held proudly in the air, and his ears +apparently deaf to Maurice's words. + +"Fred, listen to me,--stop; I want awfully to have a few words with +you. Don't go on to where the others are, or I can't say them." + +But Fred still walked on till he reached the small iron gate, having +passed which, he swung it back resolutely in his cousin's face, +almost snapping it on his extended hand. Then Maurice halted in his +pursuit with a muttered growl of anger and disappointment, and +turning also on his heel, he walked gloomily towards the Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +AT DEAD OF NIGHT. + +Great was Harry's amazement, when rushing in hot pursuit after the +discovered hare, to meet Fred walking leisurely back towards the +play-ground. He stopped breathless from his chase, and looked with +the most painful suspense into his brother's eyes. + +"For goodness' sake," cried Fred angrily, "don't stare at me in that +horrid way! With your great fishy eyes you look exactly like a +boiled haddock." + +"But, Fred, have you done it?" + +"Of course I knew you were going to ask me that ganderish question. +One would think I was a centipede, to be able to reach the house and +be back again here in less than five minutes. Don't be a tomfool." + +Harry saw the angry light in Fred's eye, and though he sorely longed +to know the cause of his brother's speedy return, he feared to ask +any further questions; and when Fred turned away a moment afterwards, +and made a sudden short cut down one of the terraces towards the +archery-ground, Harry gave up all idea of following him or hearing +his news, and repaired again to the beech tree on the +pleasure-ground, under which the hounds and hares had once more +assembled preparatory to a fresh start. + +The supper in the tent was, however, announced to be ready, and both +parties gave up the chase, and repaired harmoniously together to feed +under the same canvas roof. + +The table was quite a sight, it was so beautifully and tastefully +decorated with fruits, flowers, and variegated leaves. Lady Brinsley +and her daughter made the art of table decoration almost a study; and +the effects they produced were generally considered to be perfect. + +The tempting odour of the ripe fruit lavishly heaped in dishes around +the table was most agreeable to the noses of the hounds, who crowded +pell-mell into the tent; and as each plate and chair was labelled +with the name of its owner, there was no difficulty or confusion in +finding room at the table. Fred was surprised, on taking his seat, +to find not only his plate labelled with his own name, but also a +very pretty French bon-bon box, beneath whose fretted paper coverings +could be seen peeping out the most delicious preserved fruits and +sweetmeats. + +He looked hastily up at his aunt, and scanned her face curiously, to +see if this unexpected gift had come from her. But no: when their +eyes met, it there was any peculiar expression visible there, it was +one of grave, almost distressed anxiety; and Fred relapsed into a +miserable state of mind, which had of late become a constant habit +with him. + +Once he glanced at Maurice, as a quick, uneasy question, flashed +through his mind; but the moment Maurice met his gaze, his cheek +flushed, and his eyes hastily sought his plate: so Fred, whose heart +was just now wound up to the pitch when tears were very close, sought +no further to disentangle the riddle. But his pride would not permit +him to appropriate the gift; and when supper was over, he rose from +the table with a swelling heart, and, with his head still held +proudly in the air, he left the tent, and wandered about the grounds +until the gong sounded for evening prayers, after which all the +guests dispersed to their respective apartments. + +Harry, however, had watched Fred's exit from the tent with anxious +eyes: for he knew well, from the compressed muscles of his mouth, the +effort made to hide the tell-tale quivering of the lips, and the +fixed, stony look in the eye which held back the rising tears; and, +had he dared, he would have followed his brother out into the shadows +of the sycamore alley, and away down the darker paths of the pine +plantation, where once before Fred had sobbed out the burden of his +guilt; but he knew that to follow Fred in his present mood could only +serve to aggravate his temper, so he waited patiently for his return, +hoping that in the solitude of his ramble his vexation might have +time to cool down, and his project, whatever it might have been, +might be temporarily relinquished. + +When they all assembled in the Hall for prayers, Fred made his +appearance in the house, and took his usual seat; but his face was +perfectly impassive, and, save for the extreme pallor of his cheeks +and the red circles round his eyes, Harry could not have suspected +that any unusual disturbance had been at work within him. + +When they went up to bed, Harry made one or two feeble efforts to +draw the conversation into the channels of thought which were +occupying his own attention so much. But Fred was moody and +reserved, and only answered in monosyllables, not vouchsafing even a +hint whether he had relinquished his project or was still intent on +carrying it into execution. + +So Harry was fain to relapse into silence also; and being very tired +from all the racing after the hares and all the previous anxiety of +the day, he was glad to hurry into bed and try to forget in sleep all +the anxieties and worries which were oppressing him. + +He had scarcely placed his head on the pillow ere the sleep he had so +eagerly sought began to overpower him; and his mind had already +wandered off into a strange dreamland, when some one shook him rather +roughly by the shoulder, and Fred in a hoarse whisper exclaimed, +"Harry, confound you, can't you wake up? What on earth have you done +with the matches? I have been hunting for them all over the room, +and can't find them." + +"Matches! Why--why--oh yes; of course they are hiding behind the +bee-hives," gasped Harry, whose imagination was once more busily +engaged in chasing the hares. + +"Behind the bee-hives! What on earth are you talking about, you +gabby?" + +"I--I'm positive I saw them there." + +"Where, you jackass?" + +"In between the garden wall and the water-butt." + +"For goodness' sake wake up, Harry, and tell me where are the +matches!" + +"The matches! Why, what do you want them for?" and Harry, sitting up +in his bed, rubbed his eyes furiously, and then stared in blank +wonder at his brother, who, with a lighted candle in his hand, stood +by the bedside, still dressed in his evening clothes, and with a face +as white as the white paper on the wall behind him. + +"Fred, why on earth aren't you in bed? What is it you want?" + +"The matches, you ass." + +"Matches! I don't think there are any in the room; I used the last +one in the box this morning." + +"What on earth did you do that for?" + +"To seal up a parcel of garden seeds for mother." + +"It's just like you. Where is the box, and let me see if there ain't +another to be found in it?" + +"The box is in the drawer of my washing-stand; but there is no use at +all looking into it; you'll find nothing there but a nice little toad +I picked up in a ditch this morning, and which I'm keeping to tease +Mother Duffy with." + +"I never knew any one like you," grumbled Fred savagely as he turned +away from the bed; "as sure as ever a fellow wants a thing, you are +certain to have been beforehand with him; and if I make a mull of the +whole thing now, it will be your fault." + +"Perhaps there are matches in Kathleen's room." + +"Pooh, I've no notion of bringing the house down about my ears by +rousing up everybody in it. Just you go to sleep and mind your own +business." + +"I can't go to sleep when I know you are going to do some awfully +risky thing." + +"Risky, my dear fellow! the only risk there can be about it, is the +danger of the candle going out. If I were to stumble in the dark and +come a cropper on my head, ten to one but the house might be roused, +and then I might shut up shop, and no mistake." + +"But what's the use of making such a dangerous experiment? what can +you gain even if you do succeed?" + +"I can gain my point, and that's about as much to me just now as--as +anything you need care to mention. But if you are so chicken-hearted +as not to take any interest in the matter, tuck your little head +under your little wing and go to sleep." + +"Fred, you know it's only for your sake." + +"Gammon,--my sake! go to sleep, I tell you." + +"Remember if you do come to grief it's no fault of mine," cried +Harry, hoarsely, as he rolled himself round in the blankets, and +turned his face towards the wall. + +"All serene; and if I don't come to grief, all the honour and glory +will be mine. And now, as I said before, you'd better shut up and go +to sleep as fast as you can; for until I know that every living soul +in the house is as sound as a top, I'll not budge one foot from the +place." + +So Harry, thus admonished, lay perfectly still; though had Fred +leaned over his brother's bed, he might have heard his teeth +chattering together in his head, and the loud throbbings of his +heart, which the dangerous project about to be carried out had +excited to no common degree. + +But as it was, Fred's own heart beat so loud, and his teeth chattered +to such an unusual extent, it never occurred to him to think that +another person could be suffering the same pangs of uneasiness as +himself. Once or twice he had almost relinquished his perilous +undertaking; for as the night wore on, and a great stillness took +possession of the Hall, familiar objects assumed such strange and +goblin-like shapes, that a more courageous nature than Fred's might +well have been deterred from venturing amongst them. But Fred had a +curiously tenacious spirit, and a project once undertaken and thought +over, and, above all, boasted of to his friends, he would go through +fire and water to carry out; and his pride rose up stronger than all +the ghosts and goblins in the world, to strengthen him against +weakly, or at least as he thought weakly, yielding to the promptings +of a childish and puerile fear. + +As the clock therefore struck one, and perfect silence reigned, Fred +opened his door and stole quietly out on the broad landing. The +hall, which lay beneath, and into which he could peer by leaning over +the banisters, was perhaps the most ghostly spot in the whole place +to visit at such a time: for as Fred held the light of his one +solitary candle over the dark gulf beneath, shadowy figures, draped +in white, seemed to be gathered in the space below; some robed in +sheets, with drooping heads and disconsolate figures; and others with +white arms stretched imploringly out into the surrounding gloom. +These figures gave a terribly spectral appearance to the hall, and +sent another thrill of uncertainty and irresolution through the brain +of our unfortunate hero. + +"Pooh, what folly; had not he often walked about in that very hall, +and touched those very statues with his hands, which now looked so +unearthly and goblin like? There was no real difference between +walking among them in the night or the day; and if he gave way to +such humbugging fancies, he might as well give up the whole plan." + +Thus Fred reasoned with himself, and did battle with his fears, just +as if they were the voices of opposing friends who sought to put him +off from his project; and in his vexation with himself, he almost +spoke aloud, and gripped the top of the banisters defiantly, as if +they too had tried to balk his fancy. + +"If only he had some matches,"--this was the great weight on his +mind; for if the candle went out in some unexpected draught from some +dark and winding passage, what was he to do? While he deliberated +thus, he remembered having seen, in the inside hall, a box fixed +against the wall for the convenience of those who wished to light +their bed-candles downstairs: and this thought comforted him not a +little, and encouraged him at least to descend so far as the inner +room; for even were he to be discovered, no exception could be taken +to his making a raid from his own room in search of matches, none +being to be had upstairs. + +So leaving the door of his own apartment slightly ajar, that he might +the more speedily and noiselessly re-enter it, he slowly and +cautiously crept down the first flight of stairs, having previously +taken off his slippers, that no sound of a footfall might rouse any +of the more wakeful inhabitants of the house. + +As he placed his foot on the last step of the first flight, he heard +a sound as of some one stirring in the passage above, and with much +greater haste than he had hitherto used, he descended the remaining +flights, till he found himself at the foot of the main staircase of +the Hall, and in the immediate vicinity of two grim warriors in rusty +armour, who, each with a halberd in his gloved hand, kept watch at +either side of the ascent. Indeed, so nervous was Fred that he +forgot the existence of these mail-clad giants altogether, and +turning hastily round the corner, he came against one of them with +such force that it swayed ominously to and fro on its wooden stand, +and finally dropped the halberd from its hand! For one instant Fred +thought that all was lost; that the noise of the falling weapon +resounding through the hall must alarm the whole household; but +happily for him, instead of tumbling on the polished oaken floor of +the hall, it fell into the soft flaxen mat at the foot of the +staircase, and except for a slight clinking of metal, and a dull +sound just as it reached the floor, nothing followed to betray the +presence of a midnight intruder. + +Had Fred raised his head at this moment and looked above him, to see +from whence the noise which had first startled him had proceeded, he +would indeed have seen a ghostly visage looking at him, with ashy +face and large eyes full of an almost unearthly anxiety; but as it +was, he hurried blindly on into the inner hall, that, if pursued, he +might be found in the vicinity of the match-box, whose contents, he +might truthfully say, he wished to rifle. + +[Illustration: The flame of the candle flickered horribly.] + +But no further sound as of pursuers reached his ears, and having +snatched a handful of matches out of the tin box as he passed on, he +proceeded with more courageous steps towards the back passages of the +house, from whence the staircase descended to the lower regions and +subterraneous quarters, in close contiguity to which stood the +store-room, within whose walls and upon whose shelves lay the box +marked "Fragile." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +FROM BAD TO WORSE. + +The stillness of a large house at dead of night has something at all +times very oppressive in it, but more especially when the intruder on +this silence is in a highly wrought state of nerves, and acutely +watchful of any sound which may arise to alarm him, or interfere with +the project he has in hand. + +Fred felt this oppression to a painful degree as he passed out of +ear-shot of the great pendulum in the main hall, whose loud ticking +might be heard over the greater part of the house; but the passages +into which he must turn his steps, in order to reach the store-room, +were in a wing all to themselves, and separated from the main +building by walls thick and massive enough to deaden even a more +penetrating sound than the metallic click, click of the old +time-piece. + +Even the wind, which all night long had kept up a monotonous wail +round the Hall, did not seem to make itself heard in those dark and +out-of-the-way lobbies; and the chirp, chirp of the cricket, which +Fred detested so much to hear in his own home, would have been a +welcome intrusion now on the overpowering feeling of utter loneliness +and isolation. + +Had Fred not made himself master of a whole handful of matches, his +fears at this moment would have been almost enough to have conquered +every other feeling; for at each turn of the way the flame of the +candle flickered horribly, sometimes dying out to a thin blue line +and then reviving again as the unseen draught was left behind, and +making Fred's heart suddenly leap up into his throat with each fresh +terror, leaving him more and more unfit to cope with the dangerous +task which he had undertaken. + +It was a green baize door leading into the further-most passage of +all which first brought him to a complete standstill, and made him +actually shudder with disgust and horror at the thought of having to +pass through its tightly closed portals. + +For as Fred stretched forth his hand to push it inwards on its +spring, and in so doing brought his candle close to its nail-dotted +covering, he beheld the whole surface of the baize one moving mass of +black and horny animals; some creeping rapidly to and fro with +shining spiky legs; and others, with huge demon-like horns and +palpitating antennae, slowly and leisurely inspecting the green +woollen fabric on which they had taken up a temporary position. + +"What diabolical monsters! how on earth can anybody face such a host +of dirty black brutes!" muttered Fred between his teeth, as he +lowered the candle sufficiently to see that the whole ground at his +feet was in possession of the same uncanny creatures, and that one +monster with great stag-like horns was already in occupation of the +toe part of his stocking. + +Fred uttered a faint scream, and shook his foot to and fro, hoping to +dislodge the enemy, but all in vain; its black claws were fastened +firmly into the wool, and until he struck it two or three times with +the edge of the silver candlestick, he did not succeed in ridding +himself of his enemy. + +In despair he now pushed his way through the door, only to find the +passage beyond in possession of the same hideous invaders; so he +determinedly closed his eyes and hurried forward, every now and then +shuddering from head to foot as he felt himself crushing down some +horny and unpleasant substance. Nor did he venture to look around +him until he had arrived at the head of the private flight of stairs +leading immediately from his aunt's own boudoir to the store-room +beneath; but at the foot of which also lay certain ghostly +subterranean passages with their iron-clamped doors, and dark and +dismal surroundings. + +This was the moment which, from the beginning, Fred had dreaded the +most: for even in the daylight he had felt a certain amount of +nervousness in penetrating any distance into these underground +places, and especially since one of the grooms had told him of a +white figure which might be seen there occasionally at night time, +wandering about dim and ghostly, with its right hand mournfully +extended as if in search of some one or something it had lost; and an +access of almost childish terror overpowered Fred as he felt he must +now either encounter these supernatural horrors quite alone and +unprotected, or retire from a certain victory just at the moment when +its fulfilment was actually within his reach. + +But at this juncture the mocking face and voice of Maurice came so +vividly before his mind, that he felt quite a new and sudden rush of +courage; and the desire to be equal with the boy who had kicked him +so ignominiously aside in the store-room beneath, made for the moment +every other feeling but that of revenge sink into utter nothingness; +and shading the flame of the candle carefully with his hand so as to +secure its light in this most dreary and darksome region, he +descended cautiously step by step until he stood at the foot of the +stone flight, within a few paces of which was the goal of all his +hopes. + +He resolutely determined not to look around him until he should reach +the door of the store-room, so as not to conjure up imaginary +terrors; and turning round at the foot of the stairs, in another +moment he stood in front of the panelling, from which, in the bright +light of the candle, he could already see the ends of the cord +depending through the slits in the store-room wall. + +At first, in his nervous haste, Fred tugged at the wrong strings, and +thus only succeeded in riveting the bolts tighter, and for a few +minutes his distress of mind and disappointment were so great, that +beads of perspiration started out upon his forehead, and his knees +bent and trembled beneath him. + +Almost in despair, and without realizing that his failure was all +owing to his own mistake, Fred seized one of the other cords and +chucked it violently, the result of which proved almost as terrifying +in its own way; for the bolt, thus suddenly appealed to, started back +from its socket with such a noisy screech that Fred leaped back +against the wall and thrust his fingers into his ears, with some +foolish thought that, in doing this, he would deaden the ears of the +rest of the world as well. For a few minutes he waited and watched +anxiously to see if any one had been roused by the noise, holding the +flame of the candle close to his lips, so as to blow it out at a +moment's warning, and so shroud himself in the security of darkness; +but no movement or stir of any kind followed, and, somewhat +reassured, Fred set to work with more caution to loosen the companion +bolt at the foot of the secret door. + +Fortunately for him it glided from its socket freely, without even +the grating sound which might have been anticipated, for the grease +which had been applied in the afternoon had done its work most +effectually; and Fred, with a joy not unmixed with fear, saw the slit +in the panel open yawningly before him, revealing sundry ghostly +shapes within, the exact outlines of which it was impossible for him +as yet to distinguish by the one dim and flickering light which +trembled in his guilty hand. + +To enter by this secret door, Fred had to stand on a low broad step +in the passage outside; a fact which he had not noticed in the haste +and flurry of the previous evening, and on which if he had paused now +to reason, he might have saved himself from the disaster which almost +immediately followed. + +But full of eagerness to gain his object, and yet more desirous of +regaining the peace and security of his own room, Fred stooped low +down, and holding the light in front of him, entered in a cat-like, +stealthy manner, by the half open door. + +His first sensation, which, unhappily for him, was of short duration, +was that of treading on some soft and peculiarly yielding substance, +first with one foot and then with the other; and a most unpleasant +sensation it was, as of something adhesive and horribly clammy +sticking to the soles of his stockings, and he hastened to extricate +himself from his position as quickly as he could, to do which he +stepped forward boldly with the lighted candle in his hand. + +Too boldly, alas, for him, as, forgetful that the inner step or shelf +on which he had entered was higher by many inches than the ground, he +fell headlong on the floor, extinguishing the candle in his fall and +scattering the matches in hopeless confusion over jars, and shelves, +and jam-pots, emitting at the same time a loud yell of terror, enough +in itself to alarm all the people both within and without the +building, and to apprise them of his whereabouts. + +For a few moments all was darkness, confusion, and misery; and Fred, +in a wild kind of hopelessness, tried to force himself to believe +that it was all a dream of horror, from which he would awake +presently, and rejoice in the knowledge of his safety. But no such +relief came to him; and presently, with a sinking heart, he began to +free himself from the cramped position in which he lay, when, to his +inexpressible disgust, he found it was a dish of honey into which he +had stepped a moment before, for his stockings and the legs of his +trousers were sticky and clammy to a pitiable degree. And to add to +his discomfiture, as he stood in the dark, and strove to wipe off +with his handkerchief some of the adhesive stuff, a half-dead bee +(the honey having been taken from the hive only that afternoon) stung +him in the arm, and forced him to stamp on the floor with rage and +vexation. + +Fred's one idea now was to find a match somewhere, and strike a +light; the darkness in itself was intolerable. What if he were to +see the figure, clothed all in ghostly white, come down the passage +now in search of its lost companion! A shudder passed over him at +the bare idea. + +It would be too disappointing if he had to return without having +gained the object for which he had risked so much. His scream had, +fortunately, not aroused any of the inmates of the house: it would be +well to make one last and decisive effort to carry out his scheme; +and Fred, rubbing his elbows, which had suffered severely in the +fall, searched over the ground for the candlestick, which had fallen +from his hand. + +But the candlestick had rolled off behind a chest of tea; and when at +length, after much stooping and groping, he had found it, the candle +itself was missing, having been jerked forward in quite an opposite +direction. + +This new search lasted fully five minutes, for the candle had got +wedged between a box of raisins and the back of a shelf; and when at +last he actually had it in his hand, it was broken quite in two, and +refused to sit up straight in the candlestick. + +But the greatest disappointment was yet to come; for now that the +candle was found, and so little remained between him and the +accomplishment of his object, the matches, dozens of which he +discovered lying upon the floor at his feet, all positively refused +to light! He struck them against the wall, the door, the shelves; +all in vain. He stamped on them, he kicked them, he called them by +every bad name in his calendar of epithets; but in vain. The matches +only lighted on their own box; and Fred, forgetful once more of the +dish of honey, actually sat down on the step in the store-room and +cried--cried with sheer mortification and disappointment--while in +the pauses of his grief he still hurled at Messrs. Bryant and May all +the furious expletives of which he was master. How was he ever to +get back again to his own room! It would be impossible without a +light to find his way through the intricate passages of the Hall, to +say nothing of the black and horny beasts which had possession of +those silent corridors. There was, alas! no help, no refuge from +this misfortune; unless, indeed, he chose to wait patiently where he +was till the early morning light should come to his aid. But oh what +an insufferable time to spend all alone in this dungeon of a +store-room! a place Fred now wished with all his heart he had never +seen or heard of. + +His grief and utter misery became every moment more and more +overwhelming: the loneliness and silence of the place sent cold +shivers chasing each other down his back, while the hideous darkness +of all around and about him was almost beyond the strength of mind, +and endurance of body of a lad of his age. + +At length he was driven most unwillingly to the conclusion that his +only chance of safety or success lay in patiently abiding in this den +of horrors until the first gray of the dawning should yield him +sufficient light to effect his escape; and having thus decided, Fred, +still unconsciously seated on a dish of honey, closed his eyes +tightly, and thrust his fingers into his ears, that no ghostly +apparition might startle him, nor sounds of supernatural footsteps +moving about and around him might rob him of the small stock of +self-command and courage which still existed within his breast. + +How long he sat thus he did not know, or whether kindly sleep came to +his aid for a few minutes; but when next he uncovered his eyes, +although at first all seemed as dark as ever, he gradually became +aware that dawn was on the approach, for the closely-barred grating +which looked out on the passage began to make itself visible, though +after a horribly dread and mysterious fashion, giving to the newly +awakened eyes within the impression of some dim. far-off dungeon +window, and raising a thousand new and strange thoughts within the +over-tired and over-excited brain of the unfortunate self-made +prisoner. + +Slowly, very slowly, however, other objects began to shape themselves +out of the darkness--the shelves, the sacks, the chests, the white +jam-pots. Fred gazed and gazed, till, with the very force of gazing, +he conjured up strange shapes out of the surrounding gloom. But what +was that tall object standing by the back row of shelves? Fred +leaned forward and looked so intently that small sparks of fire +seemed to pass over the surface of his eyeballs. It was horribly +like the height and figure of a man--the figure of some one dressed +in white, and standing in silent guard beside the long row of shelves! + +Fred actually felt his hair rise up on end on his head, and, with one +hand pressed on the step on which he sat, he rose to fly--ay, +cowardly as the act might appear, Fred's one thought now was of +flight. But to effect his escape by the door, he must climb upon the +step where he had been seated; and this was awkward, for the ceiling +was low, and in order to mount he must move a step or so nearer the +white and motionless figure which so filled his heart with fear. + +He stealthily stretched out one foot, and then cautiously advanced +the other; but with all his care he could not escape contact. His +heel touched the draped outline of the figure, and as it did so, to +his intense horror and surprise the white robes in which it had been +enveloped instantly glided from the body and fell upon the floor. + +Another piercing scream rang through the Hall, only to be cut short +by a quick gasp of relief, as Fred, with the cold sweat on his +forehead, recognized the skeleton form of the ladder on which his +cousin Maurice had remained perched for so many hours the day before; +while the white garments which had filled him with such awe were none +other than the folds of the long pantry-apron which Maurice had tied +round his neck whilst assisting in the store-room. + +Fred did not know he had screamed. The instantaneous change from +intense fear to a calm comprehension of his surroundings had so taken +up all his thoughts as to render him unaware that he had again risked +discovery; and now with the remembrance of Maurice had come back the +hot sting of anger and the desire for revenge. Ay, and he would have +it too. It was not for nothing he had gone through such a terrible +night; it was within his grasp now, and all the world should not +prevent him from tasting the pleasure of so complete a victory. + +As these thoughts kindled furiously, and fanned themselves into a +blaze in Fred's mind, he actually made a movement forward, and laid +his hands on the still indistinct rungs of the ladder. All was still +so dark and shadowy he could not distinguish the box which he had +sworn to rifle, or rather into whose depths he was determined to +investigate, and the word "Fragile" was as yet invisible to his eye: +but time was precious, and the servants in the Hall were early +risers; who could tell that, although so gloomy and obscure in these +underground regions, sunlight might not be shining in the windows +above, and that the house was already alive with busy workers. + +These reflections decided Fred upon immediate action. He did not +delay a moment, but laid a hand on each side of the ladder, which +tottered not a little as he moved it from its first position and +placed it more towards the centre of the wall, and pressing at the +same time its topmost rung against the highest range of shelves. + +The ladder was by no means a very steady one, especially as its left +foot stood on the ball of string which had played such an important +part in the drama of the evening before; but Fred knew nothing of +this, and went very cautiously to work, so as not to overbalance +himself, and perhaps come to some fresh grief. + +It was even yet so dark that though Fred knew he must be within a few +inches of the shelf on which the chess-box stood, he could not trace +the form nor even the faintest outline of any of the packages which +he remembered the night before to have noticed in close proximity to +the coveted case. So, still poised on the top rung but one of the +ladder, Fred stared with all his might straight before him, hoping by +the dint of earnest looking to see the word "Fragile" rise up out of +the darkness and greet his eyes with the glad promise of success. + +And suddenly, as if by magic, and almost as it seemed to him as if a +fairy's wand had touched the space before him, the shelf grew +curiously and unexpectedly luminous, and the long-watched-for +chess-box started out of the gloom actually in front of him, and +within a couple of inches of the place where his right hand was +resting! + +A sudden shaft of daylight had found its way down the obscure +passage; at least so Fred surmised, for he dared not turn round on +the ladder to look, and now or never was the moment to carry out his +project. He loosened his grip of the ladder, and stretched out his +right hand to the chest. In order to secure it, he had to put his +arm quite round it and draw it nearer to him, for he durst not let go +of the ladder with his other hand lest he might fall headlong from +his perch. But the box was much heavier than he had anticipated; and +having drawn it over towards the edge of the shelf, he leaned one +side of it against his chest, and still clasping it with his right +hand prepared for his descent; for it would be impossible to look +into its contents poised so insecurely on the ladder, and when once +carefully examined, in the security of the room beneath, he could +replace it in its original position. + +But how was this? The whole room was becoming strangely bright; even +the printed labels on the sauce bottles and mustard-tins on the +shelves in front of him were becoming startlingly visible; neither +could it be the pale gray of dawn which was creeping in through the +window, but a yellow, tremulous light. He must turn his head a +little to see what it all could mean, and not allow a sudden and +terrible panic to overpower him and snatch away his victory just in +the moment of triumph. + +And Fred did turn his head, while the blood rushed in a sickening +speed back upon his heart; for it was not daylight which was outside +yonder in the passage, but a flickering, advancing flame, which was +throwing shadows over the passage-wall, and casting into profound +darkness the nooks and angles where a faint dawn had only a moment +before been busy chasing the gloom away. + +If only his heart would not thump so, then he could listen for +footsteps. Hark! yes, there were footsteps, he could hear them now; +stealthy, creeping footsteps, drawing nearer and nearer. If he could +only reach the bottom of the ladder and lie down on the ground, no +one could see him; but poised as he was in mid-air, the next turn of +the passage, and his figure must be revealed to the eyes of the +intruders outside. + +Only for this miserable box marked "Fragile," he could slide down the +ladder in a trice; but now, unless he let it fall purposely from his +grasp, he must go down carefully and cautiously to the very ground. +If he could but know who and what they were that were approaching; +robbers perhaps, or some one startled by the noise of his fall, and +seeking through the Hall for its cause--or, or could it be-- + +The rungs of the ladder trembled under Fred's terrified steps, and +the wood creaked ominously. "Hush! good heavens, what was that?" +Fred's eyeballs almost leaped from their sockets, and he grasped the +sides of the ladder more firmly as a flutter of some white drapery +showed itself for a moment in the passage beyond. + +"It is the ghost," gasped Fred, while the suspense which had thrilled +every fibre of his body up till now turned to a cold and deadly +faintness. "I--I saw--saw--" Fred felt his hand relaxing on the +chest and the sudden sway of the ladder, and in the agony of this new +terror he gave a quick short cry of fear. + +At this moment a white-clothed figure with a light in its hand +appeared distinctly at the end of the passage; and Fred, with a +consciousness that the ladder was swinging completely round, and that +the chest marked "Fragile" was gliding from his hand, felt or knew +nothing more, save one sharp sting of pain behind his ear, and then +all was darkness about and around him, without either the light of +dawn or of candle to break its obscurity and silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +GLOOMY FOREBODINGS. + +When Fred came back to himself again after he had, as it seemed to +him, gone through ages of time, and lived in scenes and places +remotely apart from his present uncomfortable position, he found +himself lying on some cold flagging oil-cloth in a dimly lighted +passage, with his head supported on some one's knees, and two eager, +anxious eyes, glaring into his face with a scrutiny which, though it +was awestruck and terrified, yet had no threatening or sinister +expression. + +"Fred, Fred, old fellow, are you better? do say you're better," cried +a voice whose anxious tones corresponded with the anxious gaze above +him; but the dizziness was so great and the faintness so oppressive, +Fred could not respond, and closed his eyes again with a shuddering +sigh. + +"I do believe he's off again; what are we to do? I say, Kathleen, +has that place stopped bleeding yet?" + +"Not quite," replied a very sorrowful voice behind his head; and then +Fred felt that some one was stanching a wound behind his ear with a +handkerchief. + +"If he does not come round soon, we must rouse up some one or other: +it's awful having him here, perhaps dying, all by ourselves in the +middle of the night;" and Fred heard distinctly the dry sob which +finished this hopeless remark. + +"Wait a minute," he managed to say, while he tried to raise his head +a little from his sister's knee. "If you give me time I shall be all +right." A fearful remembrance was beginning to dawn on his mind, and +a rising sense of jeopardy and danger close at hand. He moaned aloud. + +"There, then, don't hurry, and you'll soon be all right, old man. +There is no good trying to sit up until you are able, so lie still a +bit longer." + +"But we shall have the whole place about our ears if we don't hurry?" +and Fred looked up inquiringly at his brother. + +"Not a fear of it; it is only four o'clock, and there won't be a soul +stirring for another hour and a half." + +Then Fred drew a deep sigh and closed his eyes, lying back heavily on +his sister's arm till they thought he had almost fallen asleep; but +by-and-by he asked, in a tremulous, anxious voice, "Harry, I suppose +I made an awful smash of it." + +"Of what?" + +"Of the chess-box and everything." + +"To tell you the truth I don't know, for I just hauled you out the +best way I could; and precious hard work it was too, to get you over +that brutal shelf, and the whole place a mess of honey and bees-wax." + +"Did you close the door after you even?" + +"How could I, when I had you in my arms?" + +"And you left it standing wide open for every one to know what has +happened!" and Fred covered his face with his hands in the misery of +his recollections. + +"It's not too late to shut it now, if that's all you want," said +Harry, leaping to his feet. + +"And cut off the ends of the string while you are about it, like a +good fellow," moaned Fred. + +"What string?" + +"The string fastened to the bolts." + +"I have not a notion what you mean; but I suppose I shall find out." +And Harry soon disappeared round the corner of the passage which led +to the store-room door. + +He was a long time away, and when he came back Fred was sitting up +and watching for him anxiously. + +"There!" he cried, tossing three or four ends of cord on his +brother's knees. "It took me a good ten minutes to gnaw these +ruffians across. If they were the ropes of a four-master, they could +not be tougher or harder to break." + +"Did you chink the bolts back again into their place?" asked Fred +uneasily. + +"Ay did I; and one fellow squeaked like blue murder. But I say, +Fred, if you are all right now, we had better peg on, for I thought I +heard a stir in the lower regions, and the place will soon be alive +with housemaids and besoms." + +Thus admonished, Fred rose from the ground, and with the assistance +of Harry and Kathleen stood straight up on his feet. + +"How do you feel now?" + +"Just a little shaky in the upper story. But never mind; once I am +in bed I shall be all right." + +Harry blew out his candle, as the dawn was now on the increase; and +the three slowly and cautiously made their way along passages and +through doorways, until at last they stood in the main hall, with its +statues and grim warriors keeping guard at the foot of the staircase. +Fred's knees were shaking beneath him, and his heart sickened at the +sight of the numerous steps before him. + +"Gather up all your courage, and you'll be there before you know +where you are," whispered Harry, whose brotherly eyes read every +thought of Fred's heart. + +"I know I wish I never had come down them," murmured Fred +despondingly; and, leaning heavily on the supporting arms held out to +him, he wearily plodded on to the top, when, with one more almost +despairing effort, he staggered forward to the door of his own room, +which Harry pushed open, and Fred, stretching out his hand in the +gloom of the closely darkened room, sank helplessly on the nearest +chair, with closed eyes and a gray pallor spreading over all his face. + +"Safe at last!" gasped Harry, as he felt his way over to the window, +and turned back one leaf of the shutter to admit some light. "But oh +what an awful night it has been! I would not go through it again for +twenty pounds!" + +"Yes; and what will happen to us to-morrow, when Aunt Marian finds it +all out?" continued Kathleen, in a dolorous whisper-- + +"For goodness' sake, do stop talking!" cried Fred piteously. "Don't +you see how miserable I am already! Could not you lend me an arm one +of you to help me into bed?" + +Harry instantly came forward and gave his brother his arm, assisting +him across the room, and laying him down tenderly in the bed, where +he covered him up with the clothes; and having examined the wound +behind his ear, to see that it was no longer bleeding, he moved +quietly away. + +"Kathleen, go to your bed now," he said, turning round to his sister, +who stood trembling in her night-dress and bare feet in the centre of +the room. "I am afraid you will have caught your death of cold in +these passages. Roll yourself up as warmly as you can in the +blankets, and the first person I hear stirring in the house I'll send +and get you a hot cup of tea." + +Kathleen lingered, however, a few minutes, just to see that Fred was +all right, and settling comfortably for sleep; and as there was no +movement, and his breathing sounded tolerably easy and regular, she +presently turned away, and with a glance cast towards Harry, +expressive of the most gloomy forebodings, she opened the door of her +own room and retired to bed. + +Harry, however, could not think of rest: he drew his chair over +beside the open shutter, and looked out over the parterre beneath, +with its still sleeping flowers, on to the gray and drowsy world +beyond. + +Even the crows in the rookery were not stirring yet; only the +sentinels on the outermost branches gave an occasional "caw," and +flapped their black wings ominously. + +But the daylight was close at hand, for all that; and he had not sat +there long before the sun rose up behind the hills, and with it the +whole face of nature grew bright and beautiful. The birds began to +sing vigorously, and the gloom and mystery of the twilight +disappeared. + +Yet somehow this glow and cheerful sunlight brought no comfort to +Harry's mind. On the contrary, in exact proportion to the increased +glory and beauty of the outside world the darkness and despair of his +heart deepened, and the consequences of the last night's adventure +assumed every moment more terrible proportions. + +Oh what a jolly time they might have had if things had not gone +wrong! How beautiful and grand and splendid a place it was, with its +gardens, and fountains, and woods, and gymnasium, and every pleasure +that could be thought of! And Harry's eyes roamed over all the +demesne with an overpowering melancholy, as he thought of the +leave-taking which his heart told him only too surely was close at +hand. + +And how had all this misery come about, which for the last few days +had been hedging them in closer and closer, round and round, and +which now seemed to hide out all that was peaceful and bright. It +was a subject for deep thought and consideration, and the +disentangling of all the wretchedness of the last few days was by no +means an agreeable or lively task; and Harry's sighs followed so +quickly and unconsciously one upon the other, that at length there +was a stir in the far-off bed, and Fred cried out in a voice of +anguish,-- + +"Harry, do stop groaning and sighing over there at the window! If +you were as miserable as I am, you might sigh till your heart burst, +and it would do you no good in the end." + +"You cannot be more miserable than I am," said Harry quickly, while +he bent his head down upon his folded arm on the window-sill. + +"Why, what have _you_ to be unhappy about, I'd like to know? _You_ +have done nothing wrong: you have not got into a single row since you +came into the house, while I have been plunging out of one only to +fall into another twice as bad. I'd give all I have in the world +this moment to be safe at home, and awake in the morning and find the +whole thing had been a beastly nightmare. If mother had been here, +that's all: but there is no use in thinking of 'ifs;' only what a +difference it would have made! And yet," added Fred; and then +followed a long pause, during which time his face grew unusually +grave and thoughtful, and undeniable tears came up into his eyes. + +"And yet what?" asked Harry timidly, for Fred did not always like +having his thoughts "fished up into the light," as he called it; but +this time he only stretched out his arms kindly towards his brother, +and said in a softened voice:-- + +"I remember when I was first revelling in the thought of coming here +and staying with Aunt Marian, I thought nearly the best of the whole +thing, if not quite, was, that neither father nor mother would be +with us, and that we should be able to have everything and to do +everything just as we liked ourselves; and now I feel exactly the +opposite way. If you only knew the longing I have this moment--the +actually cruel longing--for mother to come and sit beside my bed, +you'd pity me. I fell asleep a moment ago, just for a second, and +dreamt she was going over my Delectus with me outside in the dear old +verandah at home; and when I awoke, and saw the corner of the wall +paper beside my bed, and knew I was here instead of with her, I +actually writhed under the clothes with misery and wretchedness." +And as he spoke, Fred threw himself suddenly back in the bed, and +covered up his head with the clothes, and Harry could see by the +heaving of the counterpane that once more his brother was seeking in +his despair to smother down the grief which oppressed him. + +At length the time came when it was necessary to think of washing and +dressing. The footman came in with hot water, and carried down their +clothes to be brushed; nor did Harry discover that he was still +partially dressed in his evening costume until John asked him +politely if he would not like his black trousers to be taken down to +be cleaned. And then he remembered with a start of horror how he had +drawn on the first pair that came to his hand the night before; and +now, as he gave them up into the man's keeping, he felt convinced +that soon the whole affair would be known and talked of downstairs, +and that these very garments, which he so reluctantly yielded, would +become, as it were, proofs of his complicity. It was impossible, +however, to defer the ordeal of breakfast and prayers; and he slowly +began to draw on his stockings and clothes, wondering all the time +whether he ought to rouse Fred, who seemed to have fallen asleep, or +at least to be in a more composed and tranquil frame of mind. + +Fred, however, needed no reminder of the hour. It was only a +question of sickness and faintness which had kept him so still and +silent; and now that this was beginning to pass off he slowly raised +himself up in his bed, and began with evident effort to look matters +in the face, and make up his mind what course of conduct he ought to +pursue. + +"Harry, throw me over one of my suspenders,--there's a good fellow," +he said presently. "I must get up and dress and go down and face +them all, or they'd be suspecting something, and getting wind of the +whole affair before I've had time to think the matter out, and settle +what's best to be done. My own idea is, that the moment breakfast is +over I'll just cut and run and make the best of my way home somehow. +I don't care how, so as I can bolt before the thing is discovered, +and my name turned into a laughing-stock for the amusement of the +company at large." + +"Fred, you are only humbugging; you would not really do such a +cowardly thing." + +"Cowardly! how do you mean? It's not a bit cowardly. I just ask +you, now, is a fellow supposed to sit down quietly on a barrel of +gunpowder and wait till it explodes? Nonsense; of course not. 'He +who fights and runs away, will live to fight another day;' and on +that principle I shall certainly cut and run. But oh, I say, Harry, +shove us over a chair; I'm so dead sick I cannot stand. Ugh!" and +Fred sank down on the top of a portmanteau and closed his eyes, while +the deadly paleness crept again over his face. + +At this moment there was a knock at the bedroom door, and Harry, +scarcely conscious of what he was saying or doing, so engrossed was +he by Fred's sudden faintness, cried out, "Come in." The door +accordingly opened, and Maurice walked in. + +"Well, Fred, old fellow," he cried heartily, "I just came to look +after you, as I heard from John you weren't quite the thing--but--;" +here Maurice stood quite still in the centre of the room, aghast at +the pallor of Fred's face, and the evident distress and anxiety +depicted in his cousin's countenance. "Good gracious, Fred, what's +the matter with you? you do look ill, and no mistake." + +"It's nothing, nothing in the least to signify," cried Fred +nervously, and waving back his cousin. "I don't want anything, I +assure you: please go downstairs and never mind me; I'll follow +presently." + +"Nonsense, man, you must not think of coming downstairs when you're +so ill; get back into bed, and I'll bring you up a cup of coffee. +Do, that's a good fellow; indeed, you are not well enough to be up +and going about." + +"Yes, do go back to bed," urged Harry. "You know you are as faint as +ever you can be; and even if you did make your way downstairs, you +would have to come up again." + +Thus urged, and feeling himself too miserable to argue, Fred +consented to return to the bed; but he utterly refused to lean on +Maurice's extended arm, not through pride or vexation, but because he +feared Maurice might see the wound behind his ear, and question him +about it. + +"I say, what a smell of honey there is everywhere," observed Maurice, +as he stood by the chair on which Fred had cast his socks. "I have +noticed it over the whole place ever since I got up this morning." + +No one replied to this remark. Harry was assisting Fred into bed, +and pale as was Fred's face, it was well for him it was turned +towards the wall, or the shudder caused by a sudden renewal of his +fears must have been apparent even to his unsuspecting cousin. + +The gong for prayers happily sounding at this moment came to the +relief of all parties, and Harry, with many promises of a speedy +return, left the room in company with Maurice, who, not understanding +the restraint and gravity of his cousin's manner, felt uneasy and +constrained. + +As they went down the broad staircase, Maurice once more spoke about +the strong odour of honey through the hall and along the passages, +and expressed some curiosity and surprise about the matter; but even +these apparently innocent remarks seemed unfortunately chosen, for +Harry coloured crimson, and freeing his arm from his cousin, pushed +his way down the stairs in front of him. + +Lady Brinsley greeted Harry very affectionately on his entrance; and +only thinking that Fred was a little late, made no remark on his +absence until prayers were finished, when Maurice having told her of +Fred's illness, she inquired most anxiously about him, and offered, +when breakfast was over, to go up and see him, and then, if +necessary, to send for advice to the neighbouring town. + +Harry listened to her kind and thoughtful suggestions in almost total +silence; only a stray "Thank you," or, "I am sure you are very kind, +aunt," dropping from his lips like so many stones instead of words. +Not till Lady Brinsley paused and questioned him whether he was ill +himself did he rouse himself up sufficiently to give a definite +answer. + +He assured her he was quite well; he had not slept much, that was +all, and that after breakfast they would both be as right as trivets. +And so anxious was he to take his place at the table, and thus avoid +further questioning, that he became entirely oblivious of Fred and +his breakfast, and unobservant of the fact that Maurice had already +poured out the coffee and carried the tray up to his cousin's room. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A CONTRAST. + +"Now, Fred, old fellow, open your eyes and turn round; here is your +breakfast for you," cried Maurice cheerily, as he laid the tray with +the smoking coffee and other viands on his cousin's bed. + +Fred started round, and, quite unprepared for this act of kindness, +uttered some hasty but most confused words of thanks. + +"I knew you preferred coffee to tea, and so I brought it up without +asking," continued Maurice in the same easy and genial voice. "Sit +up and eat a little,--do; I am sure you will feel pounds better when +you have taken something." + +"I cannot eat, I am too sick," said Fred dolorously. + +"I wonder what on earth can have made you sick; did you eat anything +yesterday, or what?" + +Fred shook his head, but made no reply. + +"I should not be a bit surprised if it were the beastly smell of +honey which is all through the house that has knocked you up. Some +people can't stand the smell of it, you know, and the whole place is +reeking like a bee-hive." + +Again Fred was silent, at least his lips uttered no sound; but his +face, which a moment before was even a shade whiter than the pillow, +now crimsoned painfully, telling plainer than words that some painful +thoughts had possession of his mind. + +"Fred," said Maurice, sitting down at the foot of the bed, and +keeping his eyes averted until the blush had cooled down from his +cousin's face, "Fred, listen to me, and tell me the truth; it was not +the blow I gave you yesterday in the store-room which has made you so +ill? Do say 'No;' for ever since the thought first came into my head +I have been utterly miserable." + +Fred shook his head, and with his knife sliced a hot roll in two, but +he durst not look up, or the tears which were in his eyes would +indubitably have rolled down his face. + +"If I did hurt you I'm awfully sorry," continued Maurice humbly. + +"It's nothing; I'm scarcely hurt at all," replied Fred, drawing his +hand suddenly across his eyes,--"but I'm such a fool;" and for +further refuge he bent his head over the coffee-cup and tried to +drink. + +As he did so, Maurice uttered a kind of short cry and leaned forward. +"Fred, you are hurt, fearfully hurt. I saw an awful cut behind your +ear that time you leaned forward; I am certain now I did do it, or +you would never try to hide it so." + +"No, no, no, I--I--it's not really a bad hurt; please don't say +anything about it. I shall be quite right very soon, I am almost +well now," gasped Fred pushing aside his almost untasted breakfast, +and leaning back on his pillow. "It's only when I sit up I feel so +queer and donkeyish. There, please go down and take your breakfast; +thinking about it at all makes me ten times as miserable." + +"But please, Fred, before I go down do tell me, did you get that hurt +in the store-room?" + +"I don't know how I got it,--at least not exactly," hesitated Fred, +in painful embarrassment. + +"But was it in the store-room? I cannot go away until I know." + +"It was," said Fred, anxious at any cost to get rid of his +questioner; "and now you promised to go." + +"O Fred, I am so awfully sorry! How can I ever forgive myself? But +I have always been the same passionate, headstrong bully, ever since +I can remember." + +"You promised you would go down," urged Fred, "and now you are +sticking there still, and killing me with things you are saying. +Please go back to your breakfast; you'll know all about it soon +enough." + +Maurice got up from the bed where he had been seated, and looking at +his cousin with remorseful eye, said gravely, "At least you'll +believe I never intended to hurt you so, Fred." + +"I tell you you did not hurt me; I don't know how it happened myself. +If you only would do as you promised, and leave me alone. Breakfast +will be over before you get back to them all." + +Maurice was pained and puzzled by his cousin's manner and evident +anxiety to be rid of him, and yet he could not bear to leave him +without convincing him of his sorrow and concern. He lifted the tray +from the bed and placed it on a table close by, and then he turned +once more to pour his regret into his cousin's ear; but Fred's eyes +were closed, and there was such an expression of pain upon his face +that he did not venture any further remonstrance, but left the room +sorrowfully, and went down to sit at the breakfast-table, though +certainly not to enjoy the meal. + +It must have been evident to the rest of the assembled company that +something had gone very wrong in the house that morning. Harry and +Kathleen sat like two ghosts at the table; Lady Brinsley appeared +unusually silent and grave; while Maurice was absent the greater part +of the meal, and even when he did return he said little and ate less. +It was quite a relief when the meal was over and they were all free +to go out into the open air to enjoy themselves as they liked; and as +no particular occupation or amusement had been proposed for the day, +the party broke up into groups of two and three, who sauntered about +through the pleasure-grounds and held secret council with one another +as to what mischance had occurred within doors, to give the air of +pre-occupation and distress which was so visible on the faces of +their hosts and their hosts' relations. + +Harry and Kathleen also separated themselves from the rest of the +party, and wandered off arm-in-arm to hold council together over +their miserable plight, and to try to sketch out some plan of action +by which to shield Fred from the disgrace which only too plainly lay +before him. + +"We must not stay too long away," whispered Kathleen, as her brother +drew her on into the shade of the sycamore walk, "for we cannot tell +how soon Aunt Marian will find everything out; and then if she goes +up to Fred and finds him all alone, it will be terrible." + +"Terrible indeed!" groaned Harry. "It certainly is the most awful +thing that has ever happened to us in our lives; and if Fred has +really smashed the chess-box, the harm done can never be undone. O +Kathleen, if we were only safe at home with mother and father, what a +glorious thing it would be!" + +"Yes," murmured Kathleen; "too glorious to think of." + +Then they walked on for some time without speaking, each of their +minds being too full to speak, till presently Harry said, more to +himself than addressing any one, "He must confess--yes, he must +confess it all; there is nothing else for him." + +"He will never do that," said Kathleen, hopelessly. + +"We must try to make him. It will be a tough job, but there is no +help for it. If he does not confess now, he can never hold up his +head again." + +"Yes; and only think what papa and mamma will say when they hear it +all." + +"I have been tormenting myself with that thought all the morning, and +I am not sure whether I ought not to write to mother and tell her +all, before she hears it from any one else." + +"Not without speaking to Fred first." + +"Oh, of course not, though I am sure Fred would give his eyes to have +her here. Just to think it is only four days since we left home so +jolly and in such wild spirits, with the whole midsummer holidays +stretched out before us; and we thought we were going to have no end +of fun and jollification;--and now here we are, breaking our hearts +with misery and dread, and only dead sick with the wish to be home +again. Who ever could have guessed how it would all end?" + +"Maurice seems very unhappy too this morning," said Kathleen, +thoughtfully. + +"Yes; I cannot make him out at all. I wonder what it was that set +him so dead against Fred all yesterday; and now he seems just as +anxious to make friends again with him. But hush! I hear some one +coming behind us. Look back--look back and see who it can be, +Kathleen." + +"It is Maurice." + +"Maurice!" + +"Yes; he is hurrying after us. Perhaps all has been found out. Let +us push on as hard as we can." + +"No," cried Harry; "it's awfully cowardly to try to escape in that +way. I will go back, for one." And with a great effort over +himself, Harry turned round and came face to face with Maurice. + +Maurice was quite out of breath, he had walked so quickly, and his +face was anxious and pale. + +"Harry, I have been looking for you everywhere, and I only discovered +a moment ago where you had gone. I wanted to say something to you." + +"What?" asked Harry, with an awkward attempt to appear free from +embarrassment. + +"I was upstairs with Fred and saw the great cut behind his ear, and +I'm in such an awful state at the thought that I did it, and the +brutal way I behaved to him yesterday. I want mother to allow me to +ride over to your home and tell your mother all about it, for I shall +be perfectly miserable until she knows it." + +Harry and Kathleen involuntarily looked at each other. The contrast +between Fred's conduct and Maurice's could not but force itself upon +them, and neither of them knew what to reply. + +"You see," continued Maurice, "I am so hasty and reckless a fellow, I +act almost without thinking; and just because Alice told me she +overheard you two talking something about Fred the other day in the +coal vault where she was hiding from one of the other girls for fun, +I took it into my head Fred had been behaving shabbily, and then +afterwards I got into a temper with him about the chess-men for no +earthly reason, and you know what a fool I made of myself in the +store-room afterwards; and now I am well punished for it all. But I +only wanted to ask you whether you would have any objection to my +riding over to your place and perhaps bringing aunt back with me; for +I am afraid Fred is more hurt than any of us know." + +"Oh, do bring mother back with you, if you can," cried Harry, +eagerly; "there would be some chance of things coming right if she +were here." + +"Then you have no objection?" + +"Objection!--if you only knew how Kathleen and I were longing to have +her here! She is so awfully kind, and always knows what is best to +be done;" and the tears rose heavily in Harry's eyes as he spoke. + +At these words Maurice coloured deeply, and a look of pain passed +over all his face. "I am afraid I have proved but a bad host," he +said bitterly; "but all I can say is, both mother and I, and all of +us, wished more than I can tell to make you all happy; and only for +my unhappy temper--;" here Maurice stopped and turned away. + +"Maurice, you must not say such things," cried Harry, interrupting +his cousin and catching him by the coat-sleeve. "You don't +understand one single thing that has happened. If you did, you would +see how different everything is from what you think." + +"I understand quite enough," said Maurice, hoarsely. + +"No, no, you don't, because you could not; heaps and lots of things +have happened since we came here; of which you know nothing at +all;--haven't there, Kathleen?" + +"Yes," replied Kathleen, almost inaudibly, while she continued +feverishly tearing off some leaves from a young sycamore branch which +she held in her hand. + +"What things?" asked Maurice incredulously. + +"Don't ask me to tell you just now; wait till I go in and see Fred, +and then I will tell you everything--at least if he allows me. I +will go in this moment and ask him, for I would like you to know +everything before you see poor mother;" and Harry, without venturing +to add another word, pushed past his cousin towards the Hall, while +Kathleen followed closely in his wake. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +FIGHTING WITH SELF. + +Meantime Fred had remained upstairs in a state of as utter +restlessness as it was possible for any boy to be in. Fear, remorse, +shame, pride, and even contrition, were at work within him, each +fighting their own fight, and loudly asserting their right to a first +place in his mind: but fear had the strongest position, for at any +moment, Fred knew, the door might open, and his accusers rush in; and +then what would be left for him but disgrace and punishment. + +A thousand times he turned his glances towards the doorway, while his +heart beat fast and furiously, thinking each step in the passage was +the footfall of an enemy or the advent of a foe; and when at length +he did hear his aunt's voice in the passage outside, and knew that +she was coming to see him, he feigned sleep, and that so +successfully, that she withdrew from the room with noiseless steps, +and closed the door softly behind her. + +"If I had only had the courage to tell Maurice when he brought me up +my breakfast, I should be all right now, or rather the worst would +have been over; but I am the veriest coward living," he murmured to +himself reproachfully, as he tossed to and fro on his bed, his head +aching painfully at every turn. "Why do not Harry and Kathleen come +up to see me; they must know what misery I am in. I wonder whether +Harry would tell it all for me? I will ask him when he comes in." +And Fred planned feverishly the words of confession which he would +dictate to his younger brother, so as to palliate his acts, and make +them appear as little criminal as possible. + +But again better thoughts would have temporary sway, and then the +voice of conscience would whisper painfully into his ear, "You ought +to make this confession of your guilt yourself, with your own lips +and in your own words, and not lay the burden of your fault on the +shoulders of another." And then he would writhe and groan under the +pressure of this warning voice; for he knew well whose voice it was +that pleaded with him thus, and that its words were the words of +truth, and ought not to be thrust aside. + +While he thus argued, and murmured, and fretted, and feared, the door +opened again, and Harry, followed by Kathleen, came in, with heated +face, and anxious, eager manner. + +"Well," cried Fred, starting up in his bed angrily, "so you have come +in at last, have you! A precious long time you have left me by +myself, I must say! But I suppose it was because you knew I was so +happy and comfortable up here that you stayed away so long." + +"No indeed; we were walking outside, and thinking what was best to be +done; and afterwards we met Maurice, who was in an awful state about +you, and said all sorts of things. And now we have come up to see if +we could persuade you, Fred, to tell him all; for it's not right that +he should think it was his fault, and blame himself so awfully." + +"Why, what did he say?" asked Fred with an air of sullenness, which +even Harry could see was only put on to cover his painful anxiety and +fear. + +"He said how it was all his bad temper, and the way he treated you, +which had made everything go wrong; and that he had wished, and so +had they all, to make us so awfully happy, and now he had only made +us miserable." + +"And what did you say?" asked Fred with increasing uneasiness. + +"I am sure I don't know what I said." + +"Did you tell him anything,--did you even give him a hint?" + +"No; I only said I would go up and see you, and ask you to explain +all to him, for there were heaps of things he did not know." + +"You did?" gasped Fred. + +"Yes." + +"Then you have actually pinned me into confessing." + +"No, not pinned you; for I do not think Maurice believes there is +anything to confess. But surely, Fred, you would not like to be such +an utter coward; and, besides, in a little while he must find it all +out." + +"I'd give all the world not to be such an utter coward, as you call +me!" cried Fred, dropping the mask completely from his feelings; "but +the fact is, I feel as if I could never make up my mind to confess. +I have been fighting with myself all this time up here, and I'm not a +bit nearer doing what's right than I was." + +"Don't fight with yourself any longer, but do it." + +"How should I begin to tell him, Harry?" asked Fred almost piteously. + +[Illustration: "Fred, here is mother come to see you."] + +"Oh, don't plan beforehand what you'll say. When once you have +started off, you'll see the right words will come into your head. I +know they will," said Harry earnestly. + +"How can you know? You have never been in such an awful fix as this." + +"I have been in other fixes though, and I have got out of them--I +mean I have been helped to get out of them." + +"Helped?" questioned Fred, opening his eyes wide, and staring at his +brother in amazement "Who helped you? Was it mother?" + +Harry shook his head, and remained silent, though sudden nervous +blushes covered his face. + +"What does he mean?" cried Fred, looking at Kathleen for information, +whose corresponding nervousness showed she was a sharer in Harry's +confusion. + +"I think he means that God helped him," she said in a very low voice, +while she tugged at the knots on Fred's counterpane with restless, +trembling fingers. + +"Oh, was that it! I could not think what he meant," said Fred, in a +strange, altered voice, while he turned his head away, and looked +vacantly out through the open window where the beech-trees were +glistening in the sunshine, with their branches full of song. "I am +such an awfully queer kind of a fellow, I never think of these kind +of things;" and presently, in the same altered voice, he added, "and +that's, I suppose, why I am always getting into these scrapes." + +"Nonsense!" cried Harry, with a rising lump in his throat. + +"You say 'Nonsense,' but you know all the same it is perfectly true. +Mother always said so when we were at home. Oh, what will poor +mother say when she hears it all!" And Fred rocked himself to and +fro in the bed. + +"If it were only for her sake, you ought to try to be brave," said +Harry sadly. + +"If I do speak, to whom ought I to say it,--to Maurice, or to aunt?" +asked Fred after a pause, and with lips which were blanching already +at the thought of the dreaded confession. + +"To either. I don't think it matters to which." + +"If I had only not smashed that precious chess-box, it would not seem +half so bad a thing to have to confess;--and they will think, +perhaps, I broke it on purpose, out of spite." + +"Oh no; I'm sure they won't think that. But listen! I am almost +certain I hear Maurice coming up the stairs. Shall we stay with you, +Fred, while you are telling him, or not?" + +"Yes, yes, stay; or--no; I think I should get on better without you." + +"But you'll tell him all, won't you--about the bow and everything?" + +"I could not." + +"Yes, yes, you must. You will be twice as happy, once it is all off +your mind; and don't forget--" But here Harry and his sister had to +make a sudden rush towards the door of Kathleen's room, as Maurice's +voice was heard outside in the passage, demanding, in a somewhat +excited voice, to be admitted. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE MISCHIEF DISCOVERED. + +"Fred!" cried Maurice, in a voice of great excitement, as he hastily +pushed open the door of his cousin's room, and walked in--"Fred! what +do you think has happened?" + +Fred had just lain down in the shade of the bed-curtains, with the +express desire of concealing the workings of his face while he made +his dreaded confession; but now, in the unexpected agony of the +moment, he sat hastily up, and looked full at Maurice, whose blanched +cheeks and agitated manner showed that some great thing had just +occurred to upset him. + +"What is it, Maurice?" he inquired in a tone of no affected concern, +for his very heart was beating into his mouth; "nothing bad, I hope." + +"Very bad, I am sorry to say; for there has been a general +destruction of all mother's most precious things in the store-room +downstairs." + +"Oh, what--how?" + +"Well, that's just what we can none of us exactly make out; only when +I went in just now with mother to get out the Japanese theatre dodge, +which mother had given me leave to make a present of to you, as I +knew you were fond of mechanical inventions--" + +"Nonsense, Maurice; I could never have taken it from you." + +"Why, then, we found, when we opened the door," continued Maurice, +heedless of Fred's interruption, "everything in the most awful state +of confusion you can imagine. The theatre, which I was at the moment +in search of, was lying on the floor in the most terrible state of +smash--the lid of the case broken right off, and all the little men +and women thrown pell-mell about the place." + +"My goodness, how dreadful!" responded Fred. + +"Yes, poor mother is in a sad way about it, for father took such +delight in seeing the little puppets dancing, and thought it so +ingenious; and besides that, there was a lot more damage done, for +the ladder had fallen right across the room and smashed an entire set +of rare China plates and dishes in the corner under the window, +besides jam-pots to no end. There was one good thing, however--" + +"What?" asked Fred, drawing a quick, uneasy breath. + +But Maurice paused before he replied, for a sudden consciousness had +come over him that he was about to touch on an unpleasant subject, +and he coloured painfully, and hesitated in momentary embarrassment. + +"What?" asked Fred again, in an eager, hungry voice. It was +something to know that there was even one good thing in so utterly +bad a transaction. + +"Mother's precious chess-box was not broken." + +"Thank God!" cried Fred earnestly. + +Maurice looked at him for a moment in surprise, and then went on. +"You see, yesterday evening I was so thoroughly ashamed of myself for +my conduct to you, and the way I had knocked you about in the +afternoon, that I asked mother's leave to take the box out of the +store-room and have a game with you before tea." + +"Well, and what did she say?" + +"She was awfully kind, and told me I might have them certainly, if I +promised to take great care of them; but though I tried my best to +get hold of you afterwards, I could not succeed. You remember when I +met you in the shrubbery walk, don't you?" + +"I do," sighed Fred hopelessly. "I was a brute, that was all." + +"Now, Fred, if you say any of these kind of things again, I'll go out +of the room; for I was the one who was utterly in the wrong from +beginning to end,--even mother says I was." + +"How so?" asked Fred. + +"Oh nothing; that's to say it was only that time about the jam +picking, and I--or rather she--she thought just at first there had +been something wrong about the weighing of the cans; and, besides, +the girls overheard something or other which puzzled us a bit, and +which, I dare say, meant nothing; and I acted, as I always do, in a +headlong way. However," continued Maurice, noticing the distress in +his cousin's face; "however--what was I saying, Fred?" + +"I--I don't remember." + +"Oh yes, now I have it; it was about the chess-men. Well, as I was +telling you, I asked mother's leave to take the chess-men out of the +store-room to have a game with you; and then afterwards, when I could +not catch hold of you, I put them by in mother's room, so as we might +have a game this morning; which, as it turns out now, was a great +blessing, else they would have been destroyed to a certainty, for +they stood exactly on the spot where the Japanese theatre was knocked +down." + +"A blessing, indeed," groaned Fred, whose confession seemed every +moment more and more impossible and imprudent. "But I don't +understand, Maurice, how the Japanese box got upon the same shelf as +the chess-men; it was not there yesterday surely. And is the word +'Fragile' printed on it also?" + +"Of course it is. And as to its being on the shelf why, I put it +there myself last night: for I was afraid, what with the weight of +all the new jam-pots and crowds of other dodge-my-eyes upon the shelf +where it stood, it might come to grief, and so, as I thought, I gave +it a much safer berth; but you can see for yourself I am always an +unlucky dog. Though how it all happened is the marvel, for not a +living soul could have got into the place: the door was locked; and +the window, goodness knows, is sufficiently well barred to keep out a +host of robbers. The only thing mother and I can think is, that when +the housekeeper went in late last night to lock up some honey, which, +by-the-by, was upset and smeared about the whole place--" Here +Maurice paused for a moment, as if some sudden thought or suggestion +had passed like lightning through his brain, and in the pause Fred's +cheeks darkened to almost a purple colour, so vividly did the blush +of guilt deepen on his face. + +Maurice could not but look at him and wonder, and in doing so he for +a moment lost the thread of his recital, and once again he had to +apply to his cousin for aid. "What was I saying, Fred?" + +"About the honey." + +"Oh ay, about the honey. Mother thinks that when the housekeeper +carried it in at night, the kitchen cat must have darted in after +her; for there are rats and mice in there, I believe. You heard them +yesterday, didn't you?" + +"I--I don't remember." + +"That time I said you must have cheese-parings in your pocket." + +"I was not listening much to what you were saying just then," replied +Fred hoarsely. + +"I am not surprised at that; I only wonder you took it half so well. +But the point is, how, if it were the cat that did it, she managed to +get out again without either mother or my seeing her; for we both +went in at the same time, and she could scarcely have slipped through +our feet without one or other of us noticing it. What do you think, +Fred?" + +"I--I really don't know what to think." + +"Mother is certain, at least as nearly certain as one can be in such +a matter, that it was the cat; so I suppose she must be right: but +it's a rum affair from beginning to end, ain't it now?" + +"I suppose she must," murmured Fred, scarcely conscious of what he +was saying, for he was undergoing at that moment the most furious +assault of a new and unexpected temptation; a temptation which he +could not have foreseen, having hitherto deemed it impossible that +any valid excuse could be discovered which would screen him from the +consequences of hie but now his aunt had laid the blame of all the +sin,--mischief on shoulders which could bear no corresponding +punishment, and why, why need he thrust himself forward as the centre +point of guilt and shame? + +"I am afraid I am worrying you with my talk. I was forgetting about +your headache," said Maurice apologetically, as he noticed Fred's +absent manner. + +"Oh, not in the least; I was only thinking." + +"Thinking of what?" + +"Not thinking, exactly; only wondering." + +"Wondering! what do you mean?" + +"I--I don't exactly know what I mean, except if it were the cat, +then,--then of course the cat could not have done it. + +"My dear fellow, what do you mean?" and Maurice looked gravely into +his cousin's face, fearing that perhaps the sharp blow on the side of +his head had done him some serious injury. + +The sudden cloud on his cousin's brow, and the intent anxious gaze +fixed on his own face, filled Fred with alarm; and under Maurice's +searching scrutiny all the blood rushed back upon Fred's heart, +leaving him ashy white and trembling. + +"Fred," cried Maurice, leaning forward excitedly, "now I am certain--" + +"Yes, yes, it is quite true; only don't, don't stare at me in that +awful way. I--I could not help it." + +"You could not help what?" + +"Help it! I didn't say that, did I? I meant of course that--that +you--you drove me to it." + +"Drove you," echoed Maurice, becoming every moment more terrified and +bewildered by his cousin's manner, "how did I drive you? I don't +know what you are talking about, Fred." + +"Nonsense, it was you yourself who said it first, and accused me of +it." + +"Accused you of what?" + +"Everything. You knew quite well, when you came up here, all about +it; and you only wanted to try and wring it out of me, by fair means +or foul." Here Fred, worn out by excitement and anxiety, burst into +a passionate fit of tears, and, leaning his face forward, buried it +completely in the counterpane of his bed. When he looked up again a +moment afterwards, surprised at Maurice's silence, he found his +cousin gone and the room empty. + +"Ah, no wonder he has left me," cried Fred bitterly; and then in his +despair he clasped his hands and lifted up his heart to God, asking +earnestly for the help he so sorely needed, and the forgiveness he +scarcely dared to crave. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A FULL CONFESSION. + +He had scarcely unfolded his hands and laid his poor aching head back +on the pillow when the door was pushed open again, and Maurice, +followed by his mother, hastily re-entered the room. + +"Fred, here is mother come to see you;" and Maurice's voice sounded +strangely reassuring and kind, considering the confession which he +had just heard, and which only a moment before had driven him from +the room. + +"Well, Fred, my boy," said Lady Brinsley drawing quite close to his +bed, and laying her hand gently on his arm, "I am afraid you have +been exciting yourself too much, and making yourself quite ill. You +ought to lie still after such a severe blow, and not speak at all." + +"It was I, mother, who roused him up. It was entirely my fault, but +I was so knocked on a heap about the store-room business, I rushed up +foolishly to tell him, and to ask him what he thought about it." + +"Well, it was rather a pity to disturb him about such a matter, +especially as he could not possibly make a guess about it." + +Fred listened in amazement. Was it possible Maurice had not +understood what he had said, and must he make the dreaded confession +again? He looked piteously into his aunt's face, and turned his face +quickly towards the wall. + +"What is the matter, Fred dear? are you in pain?" + +"Yes," moaned Fred. + +"Is it your head that aches?" + +"No, no; I am miserable and wretched, and I told Maurice all about +it, and he--he goes on as if I had said nothing." + +"Why, what did you tell him? for I am certain if there is anything or +any way Maurice can help you, he will be only too glad to do it." + +"No, no, I don't want help; at least I do, awfully, but--oh can't you +understand what I mean?" + +Maurice glanced at his mother meaningly, and her face grew more +anxious as, stooping over the bed, she said kindly, "Fred, dear, do +not torment yourself about fancies and worries which are only coming +into your head because you are ill and tired. Try and go to sleep, +and when you awake you will feel quite refreshed and comfortable." + +"I cannot sleep, aunt, till I have told you all. There is no use +trying," cried Fred excitedly. + +"Told me what?" asked Lady Brinsley, inexpressibly pained by the +cruel distress visible on her nephew's face. + +"That it was I who went into the store-room. I told Maurice all +about it before, and he only stared at me, and then rushed out of the +room." + +"You went into the store-room, Fred," cried both his aunt and his +cousin at the same moment; while Lady Brinsley added almost in a +whisper to her son, "It is quite impossible,--he only fancies it." + +"No, no, it is no fancy. I went into it last night. I got up on the +ladder in the dark, and then--then I saw a light coming round by the +passage-wall, and I--I fell somehow. I don't know how it happened; +and Harry and Kathleen lifted me up and carried me outside into the +other passage, and then I came upstairs and went to bed, and was--oh, +so miserable, you can't think." + +"And what did you go into the store-room for?" asked his aunt +quietly, while with a glance she checked the excited questions which +she saw ready to pour from her son's lips. + +"I--I wanted to get the chess-box. Maurice dared me to touch it, and +I was determined that I would." + +"But how did you get in?" continued Lady Brinsley in the same subdued +voice. + +"By the small door in the panels." + +"But that was bolted on the inside also." + +"There is no second door is there, mother?" asked Maurice, who could +not restrain his curiosity any longer. + +"There is," replied Fred hastily. "When you knocked me down in the +corner, I struck against the bolt and bruised my shoulder, and that +made me look round, and I saw the second door and the things that +fastened it." + +"And you unbolted it then; was that it?" + +"No, no; I tied pieces of cord round the bolts and drew the ends out +by the hinges; but I--I never meant to do all--all the terrible +mischief which I--I did do, or to break the theatre or anything. I +am so awfully sorry, aunt. I wish you would let me go home to-night, +I am so miserable." + +Fred pressed his hot fingers round his aunt's hand, and looked up +imploringly into her face. + +"It was all my fault," said Maurice humbly. "I was the one who began +the quarrel,--I--I: mother, don't look at him so gravely; it was I +who set the whole mischief agoing, besides the horrid cut which I +gave him behind his ear." + +"No, you have nothing to say to that; it was when I fell from the +ladder." + +"I thought you told me that I had done it." + +"No; at least you took up what I said wrongly, and I--I had not the +courage to explain." + +"And what made you tell me all about it now, Fred?" asked his aunt in +a sad but not unkind voice. + +"I don't know. I thought, and Harry said I was a coward,--or no, he +said I should be a coward to hide it; and besides, he told me it was +awfully wrong, and that--that--but then Harry is quite different to +me; he never does sneaky things, and I am always doing them." + +"Harry is a noble boy," said Lady Brinsley warmly. "I have noticed +his honesty of character ever since he came into the house." + +"Yes," cried Fred enthusiastically, "he is a regular brick. Mother +always said she could trust him as well as her own self;" and Fred's +cheeks as he mentioned his mother's name burned with a sudden access +of shame and misery, and the tears which he had held back till now +rushed into his eyes. + +"I am going to drive over to your own home this afternoon; do you +wish me to tell your mother all?" + +[Illustration: Supper was laid in the bright parlour.] + +"Oh yes, yes, do. Tell her everything, please; and oh! ask her to +come and take me home. I could never bear to stay on here after all +that has happened." + +"Nonsense, Fred; of course you will stay here. If you go home I +shall be perfectly wretched, for I--I am just as bad as you, and +worse;" and even Maurice's eyes clouded with tears at the misery +which had arisen so unexpectedly to darken his happy holidays. + +"I think we must be guided by what Fred and his mother wish," said +Lady Brinsley kindly. "I shall be truly grieved if our pleasant +party is broken up, and especially as the quarrel arose out of +Maurice's hasty temper." + +"No, that is quite untrue, for--for--" Fred paused, while a fresh +access of misery and shame seemed to overwhelm him. "For, for,--oh, +aunt, I had forgotten to tell you all. I did put the stones in the +can; and besides, I--I filled my can out of Harry's; and when he told +me to put back the bow, I--I found your note on the pincushion, and I +was ashamed, and then I kept it." + +Lady Brinsley could not but look and feel sorrowful at the confession +of so much sin and the sight of the misery it was causing her nephew. + +"I am sure you will be happier by-and-by; Fred, for having made up +your mind to tell me all," she said in a low voice full of +undisguised emotion; "and I am only very, very sorry that you had not +the courage at first to tell the whole truth, as it would have +averted all this trouble and saved both you and me the great pain +which we are each of us suffering. If, at the very beginning of all +this trouble, you had asked God's help, He would have given you the +strength to make the necessary confession; and the remembrance of His +forgiveness and love would have shielded you from the fresh snares +into which you have now fallen." + +"I wish I had," sobbed Fred. "I know I never, never--" But here a +knock at the bedroom door interrupted what he would have said, and +the footman appeared in the entrance with a serious and deprecating +air carrying some dark clothes in his hand. + +"I came to tell Master Malcomson, my lady," he observed, bowing to +Lady Brinsley, "that I have tried in vain to clean his evening suit +of clothes. When I took them down this morning to brush, I found +them all saturated with honey; and though I have done all in my +power, I cannot make them fit to wear." + +"Thank you, John; you may put them away on the table over there," +said Lady Brinsley quietly, ignoring the cause of the disaster. +"Master Fred is not well at present, and will not require to wear his +evening suit for some little time." + +The footman laid the clothes on the table without another word, and +left the room silently. He knew as well as Fred did how it had all +occurred: for the servants, when they heard of the catastrophe in the +store-room and the broken dish of honey, had not been long in putting +two and two together; and what with the sticky footprints leading +right up to Fred's door, and the fact of his remaining immured up in +his own room all the morning, they had come to no foolish conclusion, +that Fred had been at least a partner in the mysterious midnight raid +on the store-room, and that the cat was in no way to blame. + +To Fred, too, it was a blessed relief to know that he had made his +confession before the guilt had been literally brought home to his +own door; and when at length Lady Brinsley and her son sorrowfully +left the room, he lay back on his pillow and thanked God with his +whole heart that He had answered his prayer and given him the +strength necessary to overcome his weakness and cowardice; and when +Maurice turned back from the door and whispered hurriedly into his +ear, "Fred, you'll forgive me, won't you?" he only replied with a +burst of sobs, "Yes, yes; but oh! I want so badly to be forgiven +myself." And then turning suddenly round in the bed, he covered his +face with the clothes and was silent. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +HOME, SWEET HOME! + +That evening Mrs. Malcomson arrived at Jubilee Hall. Her sister, +Lady Brinsley, had driven over in the waggonette for her; and having +first, by Fred's express desire, told her everything which had +occurred since her son's arrival at the Hall, with a troubled and +sorrowful heart Mrs. Malcomson had taken leave of her husband, +promising to return on the following day. + +Fred was asleep when his mother arrived, and he continued to sleep on +heavily for several hours. When he did awake, the long summer +evening had slipped past, leaving only a gray twilight in his room, +while outside, in the still pale-green sky, a crescent moon was +shining softly. + +Fred sighed heavily on first awaking, and finding himself alone in +the large and now sombre bedroom; and, as is often the ease, the +awaking from an afternoon sleep, instead of refreshing him, had +flushed and heated him; and his mind was no sooner aroused and aware +of the solitude and stillness of all about him, than it became filled +with dark and fanciful apprehensions, to which he could give no +definite shape or form. + +One by one the guilty doings of the previous night passed before his +mind in a dreary procession of horror. Once again the horny +cockroaches seemed clinging to his shoeless feet; and the cold gust +of wind, as he turned the lonely corners of the passages, seemed to +blow down his neck and shoulders. Now the bolt creaked ominously in +the secret door; and the faint odour of honey, which still pervaded +the bedroom, became painfully overpowering and oppressive to his +senses. + +The suspense and horror of darkness which had filled his mind in the +store-room the night before, as he waited the slow approach of +daylight, seemed lying on him now; and the shadows cast by the rising +moon on the furniture of his room gave them grotesque and unfamiliar +shapes. + +The grave eyes of his aunt, as she heard his confession, seemed +gazing at him still through the gloomy air; so that he feared to turn +his head towards the spot where she had stood, lest he should have to +rehearse again the account of his crimes, and to meet her loving but +reproachful gaze. + +But all at once, with a great cry, he sat bolt upright in his bed, +and called out eagerly, "Mother, mother! Yes, mother was to be here +to-night! O mother, dearest mother! have you not come to see me and +to help me?" + +Just then there was a rustle by the bedside, and a startled voice +which answered him out of the darkness: "Fred, my darling boy, I am +here beside you! I thought you were asleep, or I would have spoken +before. Here, dearest, turn towards me." + +Poor Fred! he did turn in the direction of the voice, and as he +caught sight of the shadowy figure seated close by his bedside, he +flung his arms round it, and with a sob, born of the purest pleasure +and the keenest pain, he laid his head on his mother's shoulder, and +wept out the burden of his sorrow and care without a word; while in +the security of her presence the shadowy ghosts, which had haunted +the twilight, became comforting angels, and the whole room seemed +suddenly peopled with a happy crowd of familiar faces; while the +sprig of verbena in his mother's dress brought back the sunny +home-garden, with its rose-covered walls and its shady nooks. + +"O mother!" he sighed presently, "why did I ever leave you? Nothing +ever goes well with me when you are away. I may go home with you +to-morrow, may I not?" + +"Certainly, if you wish it." + +"Wish it! I am longing to be in the dear old place again." + +"It is only four days since you left it." + +"I know that, mother; and yet it seems like four years." + +There was a long pause, Fred still leaning on his mother's shoulder, +so heavily that he could hear the rapid beating of her heart. + +"Mother." + +"Well, Fred?" + +"Mother, you are terribly unhappy about me; I know you are." + +No answer. + +"Mother, have I vexed you so awfully that you will never be able to +love me any more?" + +No answer. + +"Mother, will you not speak to me? Do, dearest mother, do. What are +you thinking of now, that you will not answer me?" + +"I am thinking, Fred, and wishing--oh, so earnestly!--that you would +love me less, or rather that you would love God more. It is because +you lean so entirely on me when I am near you, that when I am absent +you always fall into trouble, and sorrow, and disgrace." + +"But could not I love God and you too, mother? I am sure I could. I +will try---I will indeed--if you will help me." + +"My help, dearest Fred, will be but a poor thing to lean on, compared +to the help you could gain elsewhere, if you would only ask God for +it, for Christ's sake." + +"Will you ask Him for it for me, mother?" murmured Fred in a husky +whisper. "Do, mother, now while you are here beside me;" and Fred, +raising his head from his mother's shoulder, took both her hands in +his, and drew her near him. + +Then Mrs. Malcomson knelt down on the floor by her son's bedside, and +prayed with all her heart for the much-needed help; for the heart to +be made pure, for the good impressions to be made lasting, and for +the peace of God which passeth understanding to be granted to both +their souls, for Christ's sake. And when she had finished praying, +they both sat hand in hand until the twilight had changed into +darkness, and the young moon had gone down for the night. Then Harry +and Kathleen came up to bed; and after a long chat over home and home +doings, the party broke up, and Mrs. Malcomson retired to her own +room. + +The next day Fred told his aunt of his earnest wish to return home, +and received from her the permission to do so. The history of his +midnight raid on the store-room had, despite all Lady Brinsley's +efforts, become the talk of the whole house; and Fred could not +appear among his playmates and friends without running the risk of +hearing much that would have been both unpleasant and painful. Nor +could Harry bear to hear the hints and innuendoes thrown out against +his brother by the less kind-hearted members of the company; so he +and Kathleen willingly agreed to give up the remainder of their +promised visit, and to share the banishment which Fred had incurred +by his deceitful and dishonest conduct. + +But there was no great air of banishment about the sunny fields and +grassy meadows of The Cedars, as they turned in at its familiar +gates, and drove up through the sweet-scented lime avenue to the door +of their home. + +"Oh, the dear old house, how did we ever care to leave it!" cried +Harry, as he leaped with one bound from the carriage to the steps of +the portico, and rushed inside for his father's sure greeting and +welcome. + +Fred's joy was even more intense, though it was silent, at finding +himself once more within the shelter of his home; and he, too, +wondered with a silent pang of surprise and pain how he could ever +have felt such keen delight in leaving it as he had done only a few +mornings ago, when he had started in such rampant spirits for Jubilee +Hall. But the pleasure of his return was damped not a little by the +anticipation of his father's displeasure, and the certainty of the +pain which he had caused him by his conduct during his absence from +home. + +"Mother, will you go in and speak to him first?" pleaded Fred. But +Mrs. Malcomson only answered by a look, which recalled with a strange +vividness their conversation of the night before; and Fred, gathering +up all his courage, walked bravely into the house to meet his father, +and to receive with humility the sorrowful reproaches which he could +not but feel he had most justly deserved. + +Mr. Malcomson, however, said very little on the subject of his son's +faults, as he preferred speaking to him on such a grave matter in +private to rebuking him publicly before his younger brother and his +sister, and the meeting passed off with less pain on both sides than +could have been anticipated; for Mr. Malcomson could not but discern, +by the expression of Fred's face, that he was returning in a softened +and penitent mood, instead of being sullen and hardened. And Fred +felt grateful for the consideration shown him by his father, and was, +consequently, more desirous to prove by his conduct his contrition +for his faults. + +The supper was laid in the bright parlour, with its pretty low window +looking out upon the flowerbeds and trim yew hedges, while the scent +of the roses, hanging across the trellis-work of the verandah, came +in delicious gusts across the table. + +There were strawberries and raspberries, and cakes steaming from the +oven, and jugs of rich cream fresh from the dairy, arranged in +tempting order on the clean white cloth. And the room, though it +looked tiny after the lofty walls of Jubilee Hall, had an air of cosy +comfort, very cheering to those who now sat down with grateful hearts +to partake of the evening meal. + +After supper Fred went out, leaning on his mother's arm, through the +verandah into the garden, and walked with her up and down its +well-known paths, and round its box-edged flower-beds. They neither +of them said much, but they felt as if some new bond of love had +arisen between them, stronger than any they had known before. It was +not until Fred was taking his last turn round by the grotto and the +little fern-grown well, that he spoke out what had been the real +burden of his thoughts all the evening,-- + +"Mother, there is no place, after all, so safe for a young fellow as +his own home. I mean, of course, a really good home like ours." + +"What makes you say so, Fred?" + +"Because I feel it. I thought, when I was leaving this place a few +days ago, I should be ten times as happy and jolly as I had ever been +before--I could then be my own master, and I could do just as I +liked: but instead of that, I never was so miserable or wretched; and +it was just the very freedom which I had longed for so much which +made everything go on so badly." + +"I am sure you are quite right, Fred." + +"I know I am, mother; and I should never care to go away from home +again without you and father. It is so awfully jolly to be with you +both once more." + +"Yes, ain't it just," cried Harry, who could no longer resist his +desire to join the two ramblers in the garden. "Home is the most +golliferous place in the whole creation;--though, for all that, Aunt +Marian was awfully kind, and so was Maurice, and every one." + +"Yes; it was not their fault that we were all so very unhappy while +we were there,--at least that I was," said Fred humbly: "for, after +all, it is not so much the place that makes one jolly or miserable. +but the things that happen in the place; and not having father and +the dear old mother herself with us, was the reason we all came to +grief: besides,--besides, of course, other things as well;" and Fred, +stooping down, picked up an unripe apple from the ground, and shied +it over the garden hedge; then, in a somewhat hoarse whisper, he +added, "We shall do better perhaps by-and-by, with God's help; +sha'n't we, mother?" and he leaned his curly head against her +shoulder, and pressed her hand nearer to his side. + +"Yes, dearest Fred, with God's help we shall: and meantime, I think, +it has done us all no harm to find out what a pleasant and safe place +home is; and to discover for ourselves that the discipline of +home-life, though sometimes irksome and apparently vexatious in its +rules and obligations, is, after all, one of our greatest safeguards, +protecting us against the dangers and temptations of life, which, if +unopposed, would very quickly overcome us, and destroy all our peace +of mind and the innocent enjoyment of our lives." + +"Which means," cried Harry, turning a somersault over the low yew +hedge beside the path, and seizing his mother's disengaged arm in an +enthusiastic embrace,--"which means, in other words, words composed +expressly for the occasion by the great poet Shakespeare, Milton, +Mrs. Browning, or whoever the individual may be or may have +been,--that + + ''Midst pleasures and palaces + Though we may roam, + Be it ever so humble, + There's no place like home.'" + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78214 *** |