LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEQO THE GREATEST GIFT THE GREATEST GIFT BY A. W. MARCHMONT Author of " By Right of Sword," " A Dash for the Throne," etc., etc NEW YORK F. M. BUCKLES & COMPANY 9 AND ii EAST 1 6-TH STREET LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO 1900 Copyright 1899 by F. M. BUCKWSS & COMPANY The Greatest Gift THE GREATEST GIFT. " The greatest gift, A woman's heart ; the heart of her I loved." PROLOGUE. I. THE mid-day express was tearing northward at full speed through the gusts and squalls of a boisterous March day, and the carriages, lightly laden, jerked and swayed after the panting, screeching engine. The occupant of one of the compartments, despite the rocking of the carriage, was walking from side to side in evident impatience. He was a tall, broad, good- looking man in the early thirties, and his bronzed face and sailor-cut clothes told his occupation at a glance. On the seat opposite to that on which he had been sitting so long as he could keep still lay a letter and a telegram, both open ; and, as his eyes fell on them from time to time in his walk, an expression alternately of intense pleasure and of pained anxiety came over his comely face. " Six thousand a year, and probably ten ! Phew ! " and he whistled as if to relieve his feelings. " It almost takes a man's breath away especially when the man's 7 8 be Greatest (Sift had bother enough to make as many hundreds. How the lassie's eyes will dance at the news ! God bless her ! And what a light there'll be on her face dear heart ! It's good to have a wife to tell news like this to. Six thousand probably ten ! I must read the letter again." Then, with a gesture that might have been con- strued as half-apologetic, had any one else been pres- ent, he picked up the letter and read it. 310, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W. C. March ioth, 186 Captain John Drury, s.s. Madeira, c,'o Indian Pacific Co., Gracechurch Street, E. C. "DEAR SIR, Can you see us immediately upon your arrival, as it is of the utmost importance that we should have an interview without delay ? "We may say that in accordance with your instruc- tions we have had the borings completed on both es- tates during your voyage, and the results have proved satisfactory beyond all anticipations. There is every reason to say that the properties will yield an annual return of at least six to seven thousand pounds (,6,000 to 7,000) per annum, and probably ten thousand (10,000). We have indeed already had offers ap- proaching closely the smaller sum we had named. "There are certain formalities and arrangements which must await your arrival, and some of them ought to be forthwith completed. The sooner they Ube Greatest Gift. 9 are settled the better. Hence our urgent request for an immediate call from you. Yours truly, ' ' STERN & SHAPCOTT." "Sorry I hadn't time to call. Should like to have had all the particulars to take down to Hattie. How full of curiosity the little woman will be ! But I could not delay even a train in the face of this. " Here his face clouded, and the pleased look gave way to a puzzled, anxious expression, as he laid down the letter and picked up the telegram. " What can it mean, I wonder? Can't be thatany- thing's wrong with our boy ? " "Come home the moment you reach England. I fear trouble. Most urgent. RACHEL PATMORE." "Why on earth didn't the good old soul say more or less ? What trouble can she mean ? Can't be with the wife or Godfrey ? Surely she'd have said some- thing. God keep them both safe ! Well, they've got my wire before this, and I shall soon be home now, though this confounded train seems to crawl. It's a grand thing to be home ay, and a grander never to have to leave my darlings again 1 " Then he recommenced pacing from side to side of the carriage, thinking of the contents of the letters, and full of an intense longing to reach home. By and by he let down the window with a joyful ex- clamation, noting a landmark that he knew well ; and he thrust out his head and shoulders and drew in deep breaths of the air, as if he would steep his senses in the subtle promise of home. 10 ttbe Greatest <3fft " I can scent the dear old hills ! " he cried to him- self, as he drew in his head and wiped the shower- drops from his face and beard, laughing- a deep- chested laugh of delight the while. Soon the train began to slacken speed, and he put together hastily his hand luggage, and then thrust his head out again to feed his eyes upon the sight of the little northern town, which was always in his thoughts when he was on his voyages ; and he tried to make out through the driving mist his home where it nestled on the hillside to the east of the town. A sense of disappointment touched him for a mo- ment as the train stopped at the platform and he saw no one there to meet him. In some way he had pic- tured the dull, commonplace station as the background for the bright, love-lit face of his wife when she should welcome him with that happy, radiant smile which his thoughts had never wearied of conjuring up. He was thus disappointed at not seeing her. More- over, the fact that no one met him added to the anx- ious doubts which the telegram had roused. Then it seemed to him as if the people were getting out of his way. Every one knew John Drury, and every one loved his cheery, breezy, honest, sturdy English ways. . But now everybody seemed to be too busy to notice him. " Don't be a fool," he said to himself. "As if you thought everybody ought to leave their work just be- cause you've come home! You're a nice selfish fel- low." But he did not succeed in rallying himself. He passed out of the station and jumped into the nearest Ube Greatest Gift. n fly, telling the man, who was by chance a stranger to him, to drive as quickly as possible. He was very restless during the drive, and kept thrusting out his head first from one window and then from the other, despite the now heavily falling rain. When the fly reached the house his impatience drove him to jump out and walk quickly through the small garden, wondering where everybody was. As he reached the door, an old woman dressed in black met him. "Well, Rachel/' he said, trying to speak cheerfully, though he felt startled by the woman's look. ' ' This is a nice sort of welcome for a man who's fresh from the other side of the world. Where are my darlings ? I have such splendid news for them." The woman, with the familiarity of an old servant, laid a detaining hand on his arm as he was passing into the house. Then, as she looked into his face, her own eyes held gathered tears, and her lips trembled when she tried to speak. "Why, Rachel, my dear old friend," said John Drury kindly, "what's your trouble? What has happened to you ? " "The Lord be guid to ye, Maister John. Gether your wuts and your courage weel in hand, for it's wantin' them baith ye'll be the day. Nay, ye mauna gae in a minute till I tell ye. I've been speerin' for ye these twa hours, ever sin' the message came. And now I darena tell it ye ; the Lord help us all." "Come, Rachel ; what is it ? " said John Drury, his voice firm, though his cheek paled at the other's words. "Is aught wrong with Hattie or the bairn ? " 12 Ube Greatest Gift The old woman looked at him for a minute sorrow- fully and in silence, the tears which had gathered rolling' down her cheeks. "It's a mournfu', sorrowin' house ye've comeback to, Maister John ; and that's the truth." " There's no one dead ? " he asked. "Nay, not dead; but it's waur than that it's waur than that," said the woman. "Worse?" cried John Drury, starting. "Worse? What do you mean ? " And in his agitation he gripped the other's arm so hard that he pained her. " Ay, waur," repeated the woman, shaking her head slowly from side to side. " Ye need be the braw lad that ye are, John Drury, for the hand o' the Lord has fallen heavy on ye the day. Madness is waur than death, and crippled life than death, either," concluded the woman sententiously. "For God's sake speak plainly, Rachel ! " cried the man. "Ay, that will I, for ye maun ken it soon or late better soon. The wife has lost her reason, Maister John, and in her daftness has nearly killed the bairn doin' waur ; cripplin' the wee laddie for a' his life." The man stared hard into the other's face, as if scarce understanding her words, and then said, "Let me go and see them." And the change in his tone alarmed the woman more than any great outbreak of excited feeling would have done. They went into the house, the woman leading, and passed up the staircase. The wife lay in a heavy stupor, with two women in close attendance ; and John Drury stood by the bed- Ube Greatest (Btft. is side in silent, awful anguish, till he could endure the sight no longer, nor bear the pain of the thoughts which it roused. "The bairn ? " he said, turning to the old woman. She led him to another room where the doctor had just completed a second examination. The child was unconscious, and lay swathed in bandages. " How did it happen?" asked the wretched man, still unnaturally calm in manner. The old nurse told him in broken terms how she had had fears for some time for her mistress's reason, and had watched ; and how some days before a sudden change had increased her fear and caused her to send off the telegram. And lastly, how that morning, al- most directly after the telegram had come announcing the husband's return, his wife had yielded to a sudden frenzy, in which she had vowed that she would kill the child, and in her madness she had thrown the boy from the window of her room to the gravel path below. "Was there no apparent motive?" he asked, when she had finished and was weeping. " I forgot," said the woman, as she put her hand in her pocket and drew out a letter. " I found this in her room." He took it, gazed a moment at her writing on the envelope, and kissing it broke it open. As he read, a look of anguish spread over his face, which became white, haggard, and drawn. His misery and hopeless- ness seemed to age him by half a score of years, while a wondering, mystified expression puckered his brow into a dozen lines : 14 Ube Greatest (Bift, "Your absence has betrayed you. I have learned your secret your traitorous love for Margery Ailing- ham. But I'll punish your treachery. You drive me to my death ; but my boy shall go with me. Godfrey shall never live to be in the care of my rival. May a false husband's curse light on you and ruin you as you have ruined me. HATTIE. " "Poor Hattie," he murmured. "Poor deluded child ! What can have caused this ? " Then he read the note again, like one almost stunned and unable to understand its meaning ; and, putting it away with a deep sigh, he went again to the bed on which lay the maimed child. Bending down he took the little thing's white hand and toyed with it with his finger. There was no answering clasp. He bent and kissed the nerveless fingers. "Will he live? " he asked, turning to the doctor. "I believe so, now," was the answer. " Is it so that he is is hopelessly crippled ? " ' ' I fear so. " "God help him, my bonny, bonny little lad ! " Seeing a slight bead of perspiration on the child's face, he drew out his handkerchief to wipe it, and as he did so he drew with it the letter of the lawyers announcing his good fortune, which fell down on to the bed. As he picked it up his hand shook, and he was more moved than he had yet been. " I was only glad for them," he murmured. " And now " He did not finish the sentence, and his head sank Ube Greatest etft. is on his breast, a deep, sorrow-laden sigh shaking him." "It is hard to bear very hard ! " Then he fell on his knees by the bed, and kissing again the little white hand, he buried his face on his arm on the bed. Next he raised his hands and prayed with awful earnestness. "Oh God, Thou knowest I am as innocent as this babe ! Help me not to rebel against this trouble. Help me to bear it. Give me strength." Again, after a long pause, " It is Thy will. I have no right to mur- mur. I will not. Thou hast,given ; Thou hast taken away ; blessed yes, blessed be Thy name. But it is hard ! " Then speech failed him, and laying his head close by that of the maimed child, he burst into tears. II. " WHO says that ? " The question was asked with a touch of imperious quickness, and the speaker, a strongly-framed, upstand- ing man, with self-reliance written in every line of his face, turned to his companion with a grave, earnest look while he waited for her answer. The girl laughed lightly and coquettishly. " Is it such a very dreadful thing, then, Mr. Dallas, to be told that a girl who everybody says is pretty, ad- mires you, and that you are supposed to admire her in return ? " 'Yes, it is serious when you say it, Miss Crawshay, and say it in such a tone as to imply that there is more 16 Ube Greatest 6ift. behind it," answered Hugh Dallas. "As for what others think, psh ! But you " A warm flush rushed into the girl's cheeks at the look which accompanied the words, and she tried to hide her feelings in a laugh. 1 ' I thought you were to be engaged to her, " she said, and, picking up her pet spaniel, she buried her blush- ing cheeks and golden hair in the dog's silky coat, while she glanced at the man teasingly out of her roguish blue eyes. He was quick to read the real nervousness that lay under the light banter, and he went close to where the girl was standing behind the trellised rail of a veranda and spoke in a low tone. " Do you say that, remembering what passed a year ago ? " The girl drew in her breath with a quick catch and stepped back from where she had been standing, and the blush faded rapidly, leaving her face grave and pale, while her eyes avoided the hot, passionate gaze of her lover. " I did not I do not want I I " She stopped and raised her eyes an instant and then dropped them again, very nervously. " But I want you to remember that night, Miss Craw- shay Beatrice. I have come now to ask for the prom- ise you gave me then. I told you that with such an object to spur me, I would make some sort of a start within the year. I have my foot on the ladder now," he said, smiling with proud confidence, "and I mean climbing. My chance has come. I've been doing a goodish lot of work for a paper in the prov- Ube Greatest Gift 17 inces, and now I have been offered a post on the staff. It's next door to the editorship, and will be that soon. I didn't tell you till it was all settled ; though I wanted to," and speaking in a buoyant, light-hearted, happy tone, he looked for a smile of pleasure at the news. But the girl had shrunk back and was trembling, and looked frightened. An expression of surprise and momentary pain flitted over the man's face. But the result was only to brace his resolution. He stepped on to the veranda and took her hand. "You are glad, Beatrice, aren't you? You are not hurt that I did not tell you before ? Ah, my dear one," he cried, tenderly and earnestly, carried away by a thrill of feeling at the touch of the girl's hand in his. " I have longed for this moment, longed to be able to come and tell you all, to see the light come dancing into your eyes as I saw it a year ago ; the light which only love can kindle, my darling ; to claim your prom- ise and to know that you are mine, my own, all my own.'' He put his arm round her and looked into her downcast face as he added, in a whisper, " You do love me, don't you ? " The girl was trembling violently and did not answer. "Beatrice!" Love, entreaty, anxiety, all found expression in the single word. He drew her closer to him and stooped to kiss her. Then she shrank back from him and shiv- ered. He released her instantly, and she covered her face with both hands and leant back against the wall. A pause followed, full of intense emotion to both. 2 18 Ube Greatest Gift The man broke the silence, his voice nervous and a little hollow, but yet firm. " What is this ? " he asked. After another pause, she took her hands from her face and looked at him, her breath coming and going quickly in her effort to repress her agitation. " Are you angry ? " he asked. ''You will hate me," she said, in a tone just above a whisper, and trembled as she spoke "hate me." She repeated the word as if it eased her to blame her- self. " I hate myself." He knew then what was coming. ~" You wish to be released from your promise ? " He read the struggle that was passing in her ; and, though the knowledge that she was false pained and wounded him beyond measure, he strove to hide his feelings and to make the girl's task easy. " I was going to to write," she faltered. "It is enough,'' he answered quickly. "I ought not to have forced you to tell me. It has been hard for you. I ought to have seen for myself. I have been thoughtless. It has all been my fault. I had no right to ask you to wait for me. And yet, I thought but there, I trusted you." It was not meant bitterly ; but it cut the girl more deeply than any reproach he could have uttered, and she winced. "Good-by," he added, after a pause. "Don't go for a minute," she said, not looking at him. He stood gazing at her, and his thoughts were a mingled memory of the hist year's love scene between ttbe Greatest (Wft 19 them, and of the little signs and tokens by which he had seemed to read her love for him. "You will hate me when you know," she said again ; and the words broke his reverie. " Why don't you taunt me, or reproach me, or revile me, or do any- thing to make this easier for me ? " she cried, with some vehemence. "You know that you are hating me all the time that you look so calm and cold." The unexpected vehemence of her words surprised him, and his face showed this. " I am " "Wait," she cried impetuously, interrupting him. " Let me tell you. I will tell you. I have taken back the promise, because because " she hesitated and seemed to struggle with herself. " Don't " he began, pained and troubled for her. ' ' Because I cannot be poor. " The words came with a rush. " Ah ! " It sounded like the cry of a man who has been struck. "It is true it is true. I cannot be poor. I will not be poor. I have promised to be the wife of a rich man. Now reproach me," she cried, and hid her face in her hands again. " Don't, "he cried hastily, raising his hand. " Don't say that is the cause. I would rather it were any- thing else. Rather that you have ceased to care for me ; that you have wittingly and willingly jilted me ; that you have had a woman's love for a woman's triumph; that you have never cared for meat all; anything rather than that you know no higher feeling than a paltry love of money." 20 ttbe Greatest