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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A SPANISH MAID
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 BY 
 
 L. QUILLER COUCH 
 
 AUTHOR OF "man," ETC. ETC. 
 
 j^^^ 
 
 ^tia fork 
 
 DODD MEAD & COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: SERVICE & PATON 
 
 1898
 
 
 /IDs ICeacber 
 
 6254G4
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE afternoon sun glared down upon the plain 
 and upon the one rough tent which alone 
 broke the even stretch of the ground. All around lay 
 silence and a dry, dazzling desolation as if the world 
 were dead and the sun had come here to gloat upon 
 his own superior longevity. East, west, north, south, 
 as far as an eye could see, the bare land stretched 
 until it met the wonderful, radiating sky, with never a 
 mound or a hillock to cast a shadow or shut the view. 
 Nothing but the solitary tent, and, at the back of 
 that tent, a woman — dead. 
 
 There were no comforts here for the easing of death ; 
 not the commonest aids or simplest reliefs. A pair 
 of unskilful hands, guided by a mad, overcharged heart, 
 had raised this gibbose shelter to the end that death 
 might at least come under cover, and the last throes 
 
 be hidden from the merciless face of the scorching, 
 
 A I
 
 2 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 unabashed sun overhead. A tumbled layer of gaudy 
 shawls formed the deathbed, and one shawl of vivid 
 scarlet covered the rigid body to the waist, but the 
 bloodless features were bare, as were the ivory hands 
 crossed saint-like on the breast. 
 
 The face of the dead woman was finely cut and 
 handsome, framed on either side with loose waves 
 of jetty hair, but the curved nostrils, the curling lip, 
 the set chin left the silent declaration that the heart 
 of her had held tumults — passion, love, anger — as 
 plainly as if the words had been written across her 
 features. Such a woman — such a woman as this still 
 shape had been — must have grasped the beaker of 
 Life with both hands fiercely, and have drunk to the 
 depths of rapture and pain, in reckless, uncalculating 
 draughts, never in cautious sips. God would not 
 match those features to a placid life. But now the 
 tumult and the fierceness were over. Death had put 
 out the fire from her eyes, had smoothed the passion 
 lines from her face, had wrested away the wild power 
 of her will, and had left only a wonderful calm. 
 
 At the door of the shelter stood a living figure — the 
 figure of a girl, white and tense ; her eyes fixed on the 
 sunny Spanish plain stretching away before her, seeing 
 nothing, hearing nothing. Only in her small brown 
 hands was there any sign of life, as they gripped and
 
 A SPANISH MAW 3 
 
 loosened one another in a monotony of anguish, 
 leaving ten bloodless spots each time the fingers' tension 
 was relaxed. And this hving face at the door, in 
 spite of soft curves and young bloom, was as the face 
 of the dead woman upon the gaudy bed within ; holding 
 the same possibilities, the same elements of passion 
 — restraint unknown, calm impossible. 
 
 And the hours passed on. 
 
 The day colours on the plain became dyed in the 
 flush of sunset and still the girl stood there, motionless 
 except for the ceaseless grip of her hands. 
 
 By-and-bye a slow dimness fell on everything and 
 the still figure grew indistinct in the doorway beneath 
 the paling sky. Inside the tent the shadows deepened 
 to blackness, except where the faint light, creeping 
 through the doorway, lay on the motionless form on 
 the shawls. 
 
 At length a large uneven moon rose up on one side 
 of the sky, and a musical call in the far distance sent 
 its echoes across the silent plain. The sound roused 
 the girl to the realisation of the pain which had been 
 swelling in her heart. She turned from the outside 
 world with a sob, and faced round ; but the contrast 
 from the brightness of the moonlight to the shadowy 
 tent struck on her heart with a great stab of desolation 
 and falling on her knees by the dead woman, a wailing.
 
 4 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 childish moan broke from her^the moan of a young 
 thing yearning to be comforted. But the cold, 
 passionless face gave back no sympathy. There was no 
 comfort to be given ; nothing but desolation and 
 an unspeakable future. 
 
 When the moon, rising higher, threw a broad white 
 shaft through the doorway, it lighted a strange scene. 
 The girl had ceased her moaning. For an hour or 
 more she had knelt there with the misery surging 
 into full life in her heart. Passionately, despairingly, 
 she had implored some word or token from the cold, 
 unresponsive lips. " Mother ! My mother ! " she had 
 sobbed beseechingly, her cry rising to an anguished 
 wail. " My mother ! all that I love ! speak to me 
 again ! Tell me again, must I do it ? Say once more 
 that you loved me best, and I will even go to him. 
 Oh my mother ! my beloved ! " 
 
 But no response had come from the dead lips. 
 
 Then, at length, as her cry rang unanswered, and the 
 silence mocked at her misery and her undesired worship, 
 all the evil in her — a thick sediment — rose in defiance. 
 She realised that she was alone, that the mother who 
 had claimed and accepted all her adoration had left 
 her to misery and loneliness ; and she raved at the dead 
 woman so impotent and so indifferent. 
 
 " Go back to that devil and his tribe ? Go back and
 
 A SPANISH MAID 5 
 
 be of his people ? Go back to be a tortured slave ? I 
 will not go ! " 
 
 She rose from the ground. Her eyes flashed, and a 
 spot burned on each cheek as if seared with a pointed 
 iron ; her small hands were clenched, and the last 
 remnants of love and mourning went dying from her 
 heart. The girl was changed utterly. 
 
 " You are dead," she cried, in hard contempt, " I 
 have to live ; and the wide-stretched plains of Spain are 
 too narrow to hold me and — my chief." 
 
 She quivered with her rage ; and then, with a swift, 
 cruel movement, she snatched a soft, scarlet scarf from 
 beneath the head of the dead woman she had caressed 
 so passionately a short hour before, and winding it 
 round her own dark face and shoulders, turned from the 
 still form without another look or word of parting, and 
 ran from the tent, out into the moonlight and across the 
 solitude of the plain. 
 
 For an hour or more there was silence. The soft 
 thud of the girl's retreating feet had died quickly away 
 in the distance, and no living ear was there to conjure 
 back their echoes. The plain was bright and shadowless 
 as at noon, and the dead woman lay unmolested on her 
 bright draperies, white, and wonderfully beautiful in the 
 broad stream of moonlight which fell upon her. 
 
 At length, away across the plain, at the back of the
 
 6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 shelter, a dark mass grew slowly out of nothingness — a 
 dark mass which gradually drew nearer and nearer, 
 and, in so doing, lengthened, and curved, and advanced, 
 as some strange and gigantic serpent ; and then, as 
 the night minutes passed, this serpent, drawing yet 
 nearer, took shape, and showed itself to be a slowly- 
 marching line of men and beasts, wending their way 
 onwards across the plain. Nearer still they came, a 
 tribe of Spanish wanderers, strong-built and swarthy, 
 with heavily-burdened mules bearing their food and 
 few possessions, and a handful of dark-skinned women 
 following in their train. 
 
 Suddenly the foremost figure halted; his eyes had 
 sighted the unusual presence of the little tent upon 
 the broad white stretch of the plain before him. 
 Wheeling about, he uttered a clear, musical call which 
 rang out weirdly in the stillness, and at the sound 
 of it the long line of wanderers came to a standstill. 
 There was a trampling of hoofs, a short confusion of 
 voices, and then the leader, giving over his mule to 
 the care of the man nearest him, advanced alone. 
 
 A swarthy, sinewy man he was, of enormous height, 
 in well-worn velvet, with a broad silken sash bound 
 about his waist. He came with a steady, swinging 
 stride, with the notes of a wild, solemn-sounding chant 
 upon his lips, with careless courage in his heart, to
 
 A SPANISH MAID 7 
 
 seek chance booty. Then, placing his hand upon the 
 gleaming handle of his knife, he held aside the curtain 
 of the tent and stooped to enter the doorway. 
 
 What he saw there seemed to startle him, for he 
 uttered a sharp cry of wonder, and stepping quickly 
 back, tore the loose curtain from its supports that the 
 full light might fall on all. But when this was done, 
 when the cold moonlight shone down unshadowed, a 
 sudden power seemed to hold him still and rigid, and 
 there were many moments of absolute silence. Then 
 suddenly, the man leaned forward with horror and 
 amazement graven deep upon his face, and another 
 subdued cry broke from him. His starting eyes held fear 
 in them, and recognition. And suddenly he knew that 
 the search of years had come to an end. 
 
 It was no spirit-fancy, no trick of the brain. The 
 still, white woman on the bed was real — and dead ! As 
 the man realised it his hand grew weak upon his knife, 
 and his tongue clave dry to his mouth; and then an 
 anger which had blazed in his heart for years was 
 deadened for a while. In time, as he stood and looked 
 down upon the woman, some of the deadened anger 
 blazed back to fierce Ufe again, but mingling with it 
 came the fire of another mighty passion — a passion 
 older than his wrath — it was his love ! And he gripped 
 the handle of his knife again as the two passions fought 
 in his heart.
 
 8 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 He had hunted her so long, with vengeance in his 
 heart and curses on his lips, to repay those old days 
 when she had tricked and foiled him, maddened and 
 bewitched him, stabbing his very soul with jealousy till 
 he hated her as fiercely as he had loved her, yet holding 
 him, strong man as he was, enthralled in her power even 
 while he longed to kill her. This dead woman had 
 played a cruel, one-sided game, until that day — the day 
 on which his turn began, the birthday of Teresa. Then 
 he had returned her pain for pain, unsparing, illimitable. 
 How he had gloried in it ! How she had winced and 
 fought when he had tortured the child ! How her fury 
 had eased his fever of pain ! But she had baulked him 
 again, and the fever was but fiercer when she stole her 
 child and fled from him. 
 
 To-night it seemed to him that that flight belonged to 
 some long past age, it rose so far away in his memory. 
 Ever since that day he had followed, seeking her with 
 his implacable anger seething ceaselessly in his heart. 
 And now he had found her, within reach of his hand. 
 He might seize her if he would, and crush her in his 
 grip; he might clutch at her rounded throat, or strike 
 her across her curling lips. But she was white and dead 
 and unresisting. Even as he looked his anger ebbed 
 away ; he forgot her fickle heart and her wild witcheries. 
 He forgot the child who had basked in the love which
 
 A SPANISH MAID 9 
 
 had been held back from him, and he stood staring 
 down at the still face, and the night hours wore on, 
 and the lines about his rigid mouth grew softer; and 
 at last he stooped and smoothed her icy forehead with 
 his hard, brown hand ; and then he kneeled, all 
 trembling, and clasped his arms about the stiffening 
 body. 
 
 The moon, which had looked so long upon the white 
 woman on her scarlet bed, turned her gentle face away 
 and left the scene dim and unwitnessed. And the 
 night passed silently. 
 
 At length the cheery young dawn, ignorant of the 
 moon's mercy and less considerate, came to take her 
 place, looking with a rosy face athwart the plain, on 
 living and on dead alike. As his warm flush rested on 
 the woman's face, giving to it a fictitious glow more 
 ghastly than its own pallor, the man raised the body 
 from its resting-place, and taking it in his arms as if 
 it were a sleeping child, bore it away from the ruins 
 of the shelter he had torn from it, to the waiting tribe 
 in the distance. 
 
 " You did not call," said the man who stepped forward 
 to meet him. 
 
 " I did not need you," answered the chief. 
 
 " You have found her ? " the brown-skinned men and 
 women questioned eagerly, noting his burden.
 
 lo A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " I have found her," he replied tersely. 
 
 " Does she submit ? " they demanded. 
 
 *' She is dead," he declared. 
 
 " Dead ! " they cried in amazement. " Dead ! And 
 the girl — Teresa ? " 
 
 But he was laying his burden with rough care upon 
 the ground and did not heed them. 
 
 " The girl, Teresa, what of her ? " they persisted. 
 
 " Teresa, Teresa ! " he murmured absently, " I had 
 forgotten Teresa." Then, rousing himself, the evil light 
 came back into his eyes. "We will seek her by-and- 
 bye," he promised.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " TXT'E will seek her by-and-bye." 
 
 ^ ' The ear of Teresa's imagination heard the 
 words and gauged the value of the note which ran 
 through them ; also, she could see the evil light in 
 those eyes, and could feel again the stinging lash and 
 the pointed goad ; and she knew that the seeking would 
 be relentless. 
 
 The moon had looked down upon her flight ; and 
 the pink dawn which struck across her mother's face as 
 she lay under the eyes of her captor, fell on the girl 
 hurrying westward from the pursuit of the one living 
 being she feared. Others she could trick and cajole — 
 she had done so a hundred times — but there could be 
 neither tricks nor cajoleries with the father who stood 
 to her in lieu of devil. He knew them all and acted 
 according to that knowledge. 
 
 She might have been some spirit of evil — this girl, 
 Teresa — as she hurried on her way; her lithe body 
 curving forward in her impatience, her dark eyes burn- 
 ing, the gaudy shawl wound about her, demanding 
 
 II
 
 12 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 rather than pleading for food at the villages through 
 which she passed. And the peasants, as they looked 
 into her face, read something in her imperious eyes 
 which taught them either charity or terror, for they gave 
 her what she asked and ventured no question in return. 
 To the length of her journey she paid no heed, nor 
 did she note the morning give place to noonday and 
 noonday to evening; the night itself was but a 
 hindrance, nothing more. 
 
 At last, one morning, when the darkness had rolled 
 back from the land, her eager eyes looked on the 
 wonderful welcome of the sea, bordering the horizon 
 and melting into the mist of the sky above it ; and her 
 heart-beats came hurrying with her gladness as she 
 gazed and gazed, and scented the brine of it in the 
 breeze. In spite of her long tramp, with its scant meals 
 and grudged baitings, her lids were wide and her steps 
 light as she reached the crowded, evil-smelling town 
 and stood upon the bustling quay. 
 
 It was still early morning, but the sun was wide- 
 awake now, and as he turned his great hot face on his 
 cloud-pillow he rolled back the thin pink mist curtain 
 from over the waters, and opened his blazing eyes upon 
 the world, gilding all the masts, and ropes, and limply- 
 hanging sails at anchor in the bay. It was all a 
 wonderful sight to the girl of the plains, and she sank
 
 A SPANISH MAID 13 
 
 on to a rough stone bench, unnoticed by the chattering, 
 chaffering men and women round about her, and looked 
 out beyond the harbour. 
 
 This was what she had come for. This was why 
 she had toiled on through heat, and glare, and darkness. 
 To reach the sea, and sail, and sail, away to some 
 other land — some far-distant land — where that pursuing 
 devil could never find her. And she must not rest, 
 nor loiter; even now he was hurrying nearer to her; 
 each moment meant a closer step. 
 
 But though, in truth, there were the ships, she who 
 needed them so sorely was yet helpless on the shore, 
 without money or a friend ; and as she sat, and looked, 
 and thought, she realised her extremity, and her pulses 
 beat fever-fast, and her temples throbbed. 
 
 As she sat there chafing, gripping her hot hands and 
 breathing quick breaths, with her desperate, darting eyes 
 she noted, apart from all the other craft, a strange, 
 dark, square-rigged vessel, lying at anchor in the 
 distance ; and, as she noted it, her eyes became riveted, 
 so curious a ship it was — almost graceful, yet almost 
 evil. To Teresa it seemed, all suddenly, that, from this 
 ship, invisible arms reached out to hold her, to draw her, 
 and she watched and watched until it seemed as if her 
 soul's welfare were entangled in its cordage. As the 
 last traces of the morning mist melted into the sky, she
 
 14 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 could see that many men were moving on the deck, 
 and that then a boat was lowered and lay for some 
 minutes heaving on the water. After a while two 
 figures clambered down the vessel's side, and stepping 
 into the boat pushed it off, then a strip of daylight 
 showed between boat and vessel, and the boat drew 
 slowly and silently towards the quay. 
 
 The two men at the oars pulled with long, indolent 
 strokes, and Teresa, watching, forgot her fears and her 
 weariness, and all the noise and strangeness of the scene 
 about her, as the boat moved across the wonderful blue 
 of the waters toward the dull green stone-work of the 
 quay. There, having made fast their ropes to the iron 
 ring, the men stepped out, and climbing the steep, tide- 
 washed steps, mingled with the noisy, bargaining crowd. 
 Teresa, leaning forward on her bench to watch them 
 as they came in view, drew back with a quick gasp of 
 horror as she looked upon them closely. She had 
 never seen men such as these before. Unlike the 
 swarthy Spaniards she had always looked upon, these 
 men were small and ghastly, with lank, colourless hair, 
 and pale faces, clear and swelled as the faces of 
 drowned persons. 
 
 For many minutes her eyes followed them as they 
 passed and repassed silently in the throng, staring 
 before them with pale, abstracted eyes which seemed
 
 A SPANISH MAID 15 
 
 to focus nothing. And then a quick decision came to 
 Teresa. There was no time now to spare for the 
 weighing of right against wrong ; she could think of no 
 better chance ; and, without a moment's hesitation, she 
 rose from the bench and walked away from the busy 
 sailors and the chafferers, and stole down the slimy 
 green steps to the boat which lay moored at the foot of 
 them. Then she stepped into it and looked about 
 her. 
 
 Above she could hear the voices of the people, 
 gossiping and bargaining, exchanging their news and 
 their wares with equal readiness for fresh details and 
 current coin respectively. Around lay the heaving sea, 
 blue and sparkling. At a distance, apart from the 
 ordinary busy craft, loomed the strange black vessel with 
 its curious rigging. And there in the boat she stood 
 alone, rocking gently at the foot of the dark steps and 
 considering of her course. 
 
 As the girl paused, her eyes fell upon some dark sail- 
 cloth lying up in the boat's bow, and again her decision 
 was swift. Glancing hurriedly upward to note that she 
 was unobserved, she crawled to the bow and drew the 
 sail-cloth lightly over herself, and lay there motionless, 
 painfully conscious of the leaping pulses which beat in 
 her throat and ears. 
 
 Before half-an-hour had passed, the white-faced oars-
 
 i6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 men came down the steps again to their boat, and, 
 loosing her, silently took their places at the rowlocks. 
 They brought nothing with them from the town, and 
 they said no word to one another, but they gripped their 
 oars and pulled slowly away from the quay towards the 
 vessel outside the harbour. They had not glanced 
 towards the sail-cloth in the bows, and Teresa strove to 
 check the rise and fall of her breast as she lay gasping 
 under the weight of it. When she reckoned that the 
 distance to the ship must be well-nigh covered, she 
 softly bared her face and looked about her. The vessel 
 was near now, and here and there at the sides she could 
 see men moving and working intently, and she guessed 
 that they were preparing for departure. The men 
 in the boat heard none of her careful movements, 
 but pulled steadily on unconscious of the freight aboard. 
 Suddenly she spoke, and her voice was high and 
 imperious. The men as suddenly ceased their rowing, 
 and, turning slowly, looked at her. Their awful faces 
 struck a chill at her heart, and as their pale, unearthly 
 eyes met hers, she shivered in the hot sunshine; but 
 the wild, hurrying thought of the man who was pursuing 
 her, brought with it a sharp intolerance of her own 
 weakness. 
 
 " I wish to cross the sea," she declared, the com- 
 manding power in her eyes rivalling the anger now
 
 t) 
 
 A SPANISH MAID 17 
 
 gleaming in theirs. " I wish to sail to another land. 
 Your vessel will soon be on its way, and I desire to sail 
 in it." 
 
 Her words which began so imperiously trailed off into 
 a note of pleading, as the strength of her will recognised 
 a still stronger will in these terrible men ; but when she 
 had ceased there was silence. The paUid brows of the 
 men were scowling ; a narrow line of clenched teeth 
 showed from between their lips, but they uttered no 
 sound. 
 
 Then suddenly they started to their feet, and with 
 
 gripped hands stood before her, and the boat swayed 
 
 perilously, and the girl's heart thumped as if to choke 
 
 her. She had been in desperate straits and disinclined 
 
 to cavil at any means which could bring her to a 
 
 stranger-land, but between the ever-present terror which 
 
 was so surely following her across the plains, and these 
 
 ghastly men who faced her with death in their eyes, 
 
 she quivered for a moment as with some bodily sickness, 
 
 her heart shrank small, and she felt that the touch of 
 
 these clear, white fingers would throw her shrieking into 
 
 madness. With her eyes riveted on the eyes which 
 
 glared back into hers she crouched in the bows, while 
 
 the silence seemed most awful, and, in it, her own words 
 
 struck back on her ears, and echoed and hung upon 
 
 the hot air. 
 
 B
 
 i8 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Then, with a hellish look on his face, the nearer man 
 started forward to seize her; his swelled hand clawed 
 the air and almost clutched her ; but with one 
 dominant instinct impelling her — to escape that touch — 
 she sprang back quickly and turned to jump from the 
 boat into the water as it gently lapped against the prow. 
 In an instant the second man had gripped his fellow by 
 the shoulder, and again they stood in silence with but 
 their attitudes rearranged — one pallid man in the grip 
 of the other, the girl with her foot on the edge of the 
 swaying boat ready to plunge, and the hot morning sun 
 shining merrily down on all. 
 
 As they stood, in this wise, waiting for Fate to dictate 
 the next move, a mournful wail came to them across 
 the waters. The men turned their eyes towards the 
 dark ship, and they noted that she was ready to heave 
 anchor and move upon her way. Then again they 
 turned and looked back at the stretch of sea to be 
 retraced if they were to rid themselves of this girl. And 
 the quay was far, and the ship was near ; and, grinding 
 their teeth in silent rage, they took their oars again and 
 pulled swiftly towards the vessel. 
 
 In this fashion Fate dictated ; and the girl's future 
 moved a step closer. Whether in rehef or terror she 
 must go forward now in the power of the men she had 
 thought to cajole ; and she crouched again in the bow 
 jn silence.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 19 
 
 When the boat reached the high, black side of the 
 ship the men cHmbed swiftly up to the deck leaving 
 Teresa to follow as she could. At the top of the ladder 
 many faces were gathered to confront her — sullen, 
 amazed, resentful faces — but she was there, on their 
 deck, with a stretch of sea on every side, and, despite 
 their anger, they were forced to let her be ; there was 
 no time now for the bandying of words. The light 
 winds springing up were not to be wasted for a girl's 
 whims ; and the anchor was raised, the sails flapped, 
 then slowly swelled in the capricious breeze, and the 
 square-rigged vessel glided slowly over the waters, 
 with the silent, white-faced crew to guide her on 
 her way. 
 
 And the Spaniard stood alone and apart, with an 
 alert look, half-fear, half-triumph in her dark eyes. 
 That white-faced crew chilled her very blood when 
 they moved near to her, but she was free, she had 
 escaped, she was sailing to other lands ; and the voyage 
 could not last for ever. 
 
 Some dark, unhallowed souls, it has been told, roam 
 ever, accursed and void of peace, over the broad, 
 deep waters of the world, crying aloud in some rare 
 periods, out of their unbearable anguish, but more often 
 sailing on, with stern and pallid faces, betraying by no 
 sign, nor cry, nor tremor the agony scorching in their
 
 20 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 veins and tearing their souls. So did this dark, evil- 
 seeming ship, with its deathlike crew, move slowly 
 over the face of the ocean, silent and awful, as a 
 floating casket of Death's trophies, a group of lost, 
 tortured souls ; but for that one figure of Uving discord, 
 a spot of garish brilliance, crude against the gloomy 
 pallor — glowing, half-triumphant; standing out as a 
 spirit quick with evil, in a company of still, enduring 
 sin. 
 
 Time was unheeded on board the black ship. Night 
 and day went unregarded. On, and on, and always on, 
 over an endless waste of waters. And when the fervid 
 shores of Spain had suddenly faded from sight came no 
 more shores, no signs of life nor means of living ; nothing 
 but boundless, heaving water. Always water, always 
 silence ; always a gloomy, unseen presence, as of Death, 
 hovering in the air. And the past lengthened, and the 
 future drew nearer, as the ship moved on, and in the 
 present there sat that vivid figure upon the dark deck, 
 reckless, yet half-fearful. And the pale men passed and 
 repassed her as they went about their work ; and she saw 
 that they hated her, and she knew that if a finger's touch 
 from their clear hands should fall upon her she must 
 shriek in terror. Yet, so long as the finger's touch did 
 not fall upon her, nor the eyes do more than glower, she 
 laughed at their awesome faces, and her own eyes glittered
 
 A SPANISH MAID 21 
 
 cruelly as she filled in the grave of the one tenderness 
 her heart had ever known — the love for her mother — 
 and buried it for ever. 
 
 And the sky above, and the waters below, were just 
 two wide, unbounded stretches of changeless blue. 
 
 "I dream — in very truth, I dream," the girl would 
 murmur, "and yet this is no dream." 
 
 And at length, after a spell of time — moments, or days, 
 or hours — of strange unreality, Teresa rose from the coil 
 of black ropes on which she had rested, and, tossing 
 aside her fear, kept only the recklessness. A wild heed- 
 lessness possessed her. She paced the deck lightly, to 
 and fro, to and fro, spreading her hands to the empty 
 air, singing gay snatches of the passionate wander- 
 songs she had learned from her mother. It pleased 
 her to hear her own full notes, from defiant rise to 
 mournful cadence, cut the great silence, to stretch her 
 limbs in protest of her Uberty. It gave her courage ; 
 and with the courage came pleasure, as she noted the 
 angry amazement of the crew as they gazed upon 
 her. 
 
 But even as she noted it, a sudden wild change rolled 
 across the sky and fell upon the water. The strange 
 spell of peace which her voice had broken passed 
 away. A fierce anger seemed to fill the air, tearing the 
 sky and lashing the sea. The ship heaved and lurched
 
 22 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 as it met the boiling waves ; the foam seethed round 
 about its prow. Across the heavens flamed a jagged line 
 of fire, fearful and continuous. The masts creaked and 
 shivered ; the loose canvas billowed and struck with 
 cracks as of pistol shots, then was rent with a tear- 
 ing moan as of a human voice in anguish. And 
 the wind roared, and boomed, and wailed; and the 
 merry sun shrouded his face in awe. 
 
 Teresa, with her lithe arms still outstretched, the 
 mocking smile in her eyes and her gay song yet in 
 her throat, stood suddenly still in unutterable wonder, 
 half-fancying that some mad chorus had clashed forth to 
 swell her song. But in a moment the sense of danger 
 overwhelmed her, and she ran from side to side of 
 the ship in a panic of fear, crying aloud for help and 
 comfort in her terror. 
 
 But as she faced the silent men a yet greater terror 
 fell upon her — terror of a fate crueller and more sure 
 than wind, or waves, or fire ; for a row of fierce, 
 implacable, white faces met her eyes, and hatred, 
 fury, and threat of death came towards her in every 
 silent breath. For a moment she stood, blanched 
 and cowering, with her heart all weak and small in 
 her shivering body, as she looked into the unyielding 
 eyes and read the strength of their determination. 
 
 She had forced her way to their ship; she had
 
 A SPANISH MAID 23 
 
 defied and ignored them ; she had paced their silent 
 decks in her noisy insolence, her eyes flashing, her 
 arms waving, and her wild songs surging to the sea 
 and sky. And the sea and sky had answered her 
 evil incantations with anger and vengeance. Were 
 they, this hopeless vessel's hopeless crew, to suffer 
 the wrath of Heaven for her sinfulness as well as 
 for their own? Were they to be swept from their 
 one small foothold by the blasphemous mockery of 
 an unbidden demon? They glared and snarled at 
 her with their pale eyes and swelled, clear lips, and 
 looking back at them she seemed to read her doom. 
 
 " Ah ! " she shrieked in terror, as her heart grew faint 
 and her limbs rigid, " let me go from you ! Let me 
 go!" 
 
 At the sound of her voice they rushed towards her, 
 and then, in the horror and dread of their touch her 
 heart beat again madly ; again she moved her lips to 
 shriek, but her voice seemed to have died, and she 
 staggered back, frenzied and desperate, to the ship's 
 side. But there, against a coil of cordage, lay a keen- 
 bladed hatchet, and, in an instant, she had seized it, and 
 was cleaving the air wildly, brandishing it in the 
 desperate faces now closely confronting her. But scorn- 
 ful of one girl's puny strength, they closed upon her, 
 their lank hair blowing in the gale, their ghastly features
 
 24 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 lighted by the flames which shot across the sky. The 
 strength against the girl was overwhelming, but her mad 
 fear forced her to attempt defence, and raising the 
 hatchet high to her head she brought it down heavily 
 upon the arm stretched first to clutch her. 
 
 Then, above the roar and tumult of the storm her 
 shrieks rose again, wild and panic-stricken, for the shock 
 of the blow came thrilling back through her arteries. 
 The deck shook as if its timbers were tearing asunder ; 
 and with glaring, dilated eyes she saw that the gaping 
 wound which the steel had left upon the outstretched 
 arm was white and bloodless as the outer skin. 
 
 Then, still shrieking, Teresa felt the cold, thick hands 
 fasten upon her, gripping her arms and congealing her 
 surging blood. The horror of it turned her faint and 
 cold, impotent to resist the strength ranged against her, 
 unable even to spring to the waves which rose to the 
 deck to meet her. And the tempest raged, and the 
 black ship rolled, as the dumb sailors dragged the 
 Spaniard to the side to hurl her down into the seething 
 waters. 
 
 But, as they raised her in their arms, a scorching glare 
 of light blazed upon them all, searching the very hearts 
 of the passionate men ; and the ghastly remembrance of 
 a terrible past raged in them. With one impulse they 
 stayed their hands; the girl swayed back, and there
 
 A SPANISH MAID 25 
 
 fell on all things — sea, sky, and ship — a breathless 
 pause. 
 
 For a full minute it seemed that the whole world had 
 died, and the men stood rigid, as fearful of the death 
 as of the living presence of the Spaniard. 
 
 Then again the hurricane tore across the sky ; the 
 spell was broken ; and again the sailors gripped the girl, 
 and, binding her with ropes, carried her shrieking to the 
 hold. 
 
 And the lightning shivered " across the sky, and the 
 waters raged, and the dark ship flew before the roaring 
 wind.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ^ I "^HE fury of the storm was tremendous as it swept 
 -*- over the point of Western England on that black 
 September night, and Landecarrock village felt it in full 
 measure. The wind tore, wailing, round the weather- 
 stained church upon the cliif ; it bent the slanting tomb- 
 stones yet lower to the earth. It bowed and buffeted 
 the stunted trees which had battled bravely with so many 
 storms before this night, snapping their weaker boughs 
 with no measure of mercy. It shrieked angrily through 
 the one narrow street; it deafened the quick ears of Peter 
 Ludgven, the coastguard, as he struggled along the rugged 
 cliff path, with his face turned seawards, sometimes crawl- 
 ing on hands and knees round a more sheltered corner 
 into the full blast of the hurricane and the drenching rain, 
 sometimes sinking beside a broken hillock to draw a few 
 breaths with some regularity ; and it soughed with angry, 
 wailing sobs about the coastguard's cottage, where Mary 
 Ludgven, his wife, sat at the uncurtained, rain-washed 
 
 26
 
 A SPANISH MAID 27 
 
 window, pale and heavy-lidded with anxiety, and strained 
 her eyes through the lattice into the wild darkness 
 outside, rocking the cradle with her foot the while ; the 
 slow, rhythmic movement belying the quick throbs of her 
 troubled heart; for, in this bare end of the land, men had 
 been hurled down from the cliff to the sea by the power 
 of gentler storms than this. 
 
 Peter Ludgven's wife was a calm, brave woman, but 
 to watch and wait inactive comes near to heroism when 
 there is love in the heart. As the night wore on it 
 seemed to her ears that, above the shriek of the wind, she 
 could hear shrieks of human voices, rising in wild calls 
 or wailing in dire need. A great fear rose swelling in 
 her throat and drained the blood from her lips, and 
 again and again she left the cradle-side and went to the 
 door. And then the sudden blast which met her would 
 make her stagger with its strength, and pulHng the door 
 close behind her, she would stand, all trembling with 
 anxiousness, outside upon the doorstone. 
 
 If the fibres of the ears could break with the tension 
 of listening Mary Ludgven would have been a deaf 
 woman from that night. Hearing was a treacherous 
 sense in such a hurricane, but she stood and battled 
 with the gale and with her own agony of mind, and the 
 rain beat down and drenched her. At length came a 
 lull, and, in spite of straining ears, she could hear
 
 28 A SPANTSH MAID 
 
 nothing of the voices which had drawn her from her 
 small son's side in the face of Peter's wishes, and she 
 went back to the warm kitchen and again sat by the 
 uncurtained window with eyes turned to the storm, and 
 with white face and gripped hands endured the pain of 
 waiting. 
 
 But the night hours wore away at last, and with the 
 dawn the shrieks of the wind grew fainter, dying into 
 sobs, first passionate, then quite gentle. The morning 
 light showed a grey and sullen sky ; the sea was grey 
 and sullen, too, dashing high and foamy up the straight, 
 dark cliffs. But across the storm - clouds in the 
 east there broke a bar of wonderful metal - bright 
 glory. The air was fresh, and smelling sweet of sodden 
 turf and rain-drenched thyme ; the garden paths were 
 strewn with torn leaves and broken twigs ; the summer 
 greenery, which had withstood the storm's buffetings, 
 hung all wet and shining from the rain ; and the little 
 pink monthly roses over the porch were storm-faint, and 
 washed, and drooping, when Peter Ludgven, drenched 
 to the skin, and ruddy with the rough treatment of the 
 gale, came safely home to his wife. 
 
 "You never ought to a-married me, Peter," she said, 
 quietly, with a beautiful, glad light in her eyes. " I'm 
 too fearsome for a coastguard's wife." 
 
 " I couldn't help it, Mary Ludgven," he protested.
 
 A SPANISH MATD 29 
 
 laughing, as he took her, baby and all, into his strong 
 arms, " an' now 'tis too late." 
 
 '"Twas a most terrible night, Peter," she half- 
 whispered, her head resting against his shoulder. " We 
 haven't had nothin' like it since we was married. An' 
 I sat there by the window most all the time, waitin' for 
 the mornin's light to come, an' all afraid what 'twould 
 show when 'twas here. I b'leeve if anythin' had a- 
 
 happened — oh, my dear, my dear " she broke off in 
 
 little sobbing laughs. 
 
 "Come, Mary, 'tisn' so bad as all that my dear. 
 Here'm I come back to 'ee all safe an' sound. 'Tis 
 you'm most like to be leavin' me to live a widder- 
 man, I'm thinkin'," he declared cheerily. " You'm weak 
 with watchin'. Now I'll be off to slip out of my wet 
 things, an' then I'm ready for what's smellin' so good 
 over there on the peats." 
 
 Mary Ludgven frowned a quick, smiling frown of 
 self-condemnation as she moved from Peter's arms 
 and seated the baby in his cradle. 
 
 " Here'm I crakin' an' cryin' when you'm starvin' 
 with cold an' hunger," she exclaimed. "But I didn't 
 forget 'ee so bad as all that \ breakfast will be ready 
 by time you'm in your dry things." 
 
 In the comfort of the breaking sunlight, and the food, 
 and cheerful kitchen, together with the sight of Peter
 
 30 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 at the other end of the table, and the baby contentedly 
 chewing his fists in the cradle, Mary Ludgven forgot 
 some of the suspense of the night hours, and ate and 
 smiled till a flush of colour came back to her cheeks, 
 and her hands ceased from trembling. 
 
 "You must take a rest, now, Mary," urged Peter, 
 as he followed her up the steep, wooden stairs with 
 his son, Zel — short for Ezekiel — in his arms. 
 
 "Rest!" she laughed, "with that flaygerrying child 
 calling out to be washed an' dressed ! " And she caught 
 him from his father's hold, and tossed him till he 
 crowed and chuckled in as thorough a manner as his 
 pleasure and his breath would allow. 
 
 "You'll be dyin' with sleep before long," he pro- 
 tested. 
 
 " No ; cold water's best for me now. I couldn't 
 keep still if I was paid to." 
 
 And when her face was all wet and rosy with the 
 cold spring water, and the drops hung on her fair, 
 silken hair, Peter kissed her laughingly, for she re- 
 minded him, he said, of the hedges and gardens when 
 the storm was safe over. And then she left him to 
 the sleep he had earned, and went downstairs to her 
 daily work. 
 
 As she moved about her stone -flagged kitchen, 
 singing softly to the small son who sat in his cradle
 
 A SPANTSH MAID 3 1 
 
 and ignored everything but the string of empty cotton 
 reels which he strove to wind about his own pink 
 toes, a hand gently lifted the latch and the door 
 opened. 
 
 " Hist ! Mary," came a whisper, " Peter back all 
 right?" 
 
 Mary looked up from her big brown basin of flour, 
 and saw 'Zekiel — her brother — at the open door-latch, 
 with a look of quick enquiry on his handsome, boyish 
 face. 
 
 "Yes, Peter's back, safe and sound, thanks be. 
 Come in, 'Zekiel, an' shut the door ; you mustn' keep 
 the boy in that draught." 
 
 " 'Twas a night ! " remarked 'Zekiel, as he did as he 
 was bidden and crossed over to the open hearth, 
 heaving that sigh of admiration paid to excessive fury 
 by the simple-minded. " I was just goin' down to 
 the beach to see if there's anythin' to be seen ; 'tisn' 
 likely nothin's the worse for such a gale as that. I 
 thought I'd just look fore to see if Peter had a-got 
 back." 
 
 " He's up restin' now a bit. He's had a tryin' time, 
 lately. People hereabouts ain't so clean-handed as 
 they'd have folks believe ; and 'tisn' no child's-play coast- 
 guardin', I can tell that much." 
 
 "No, that's truth," agreed 'Zekiel, as he leaned over
 
 32 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the cradle and pinched his nephew's pink toes with 
 his own brown fingers. " Well, I'll be off," he said 
 at length, as Mary freed her hands of flour, and 
 turned to stir the peats. "But, if Peter's restin', you 
 might so well come along with me an' have a look 
 at the sea; 'tis grand now, sure enough, an' the air 
 is mild as milk." 
 
 Mary glanced slowly from the clock in the corner 
 to the sunlight on the garden. " I don't mind if I 
 do," she said. " I don't feel like sleepin' at all. You 
 mind Zel while I put the bread to rise, an' then 
 I'll come." 
 
 To the high point of the sloping cliff they mounted 
 and stood on the wet, green turf to watch the spumy 
 waters beneath as they seethed and dashed over the face 
 of the rocks ; and the sun brightened everything with 
 his great morning smile, as if he delighted to look 
 merrily upon another's fury. After watching the waters 
 for some minutes, 'Zekiel left his sister's side and strolled 
 along close to the edge of the cliff; while she, resting 
 after the quick walk from the cottage, looked away 
 over the sea; and then, forgetting the grandeur of it 
 all, looked back again at the white stones marking 
 the coastguard's uneven cliff path, and thought of 
 Peter. 
 
 Mary Ludgven had been born and bred in Lande-
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 33 
 
 carrock, had followed its manners and abided by its 
 fashions, and birth and breeding, manner and fashion, 
 had done well for her, for she was a beautiful woman. 
 A veritable Madonna she looked, standing there with 
 the wild, torn sky above her, the roaring water below, 
 and the morning sun and the morning mist making 
 almost a halo about her — a peaceful figure in the midst 
 of the signs of past tumult. A large, fair woman with a 
 grave, contented face, her golden hair parted over her 
 broad, white forehead, her smooth cheeks slightly pale 
 from the anxious night-watch^ but with a faint colour 
 creeping back to them ; her eyes as wells of colour, 
 deep and tranquil. The gown she wore was of dark 
 blue woollen stuff, and knotted about her shoulders was 
 a loose black kerchief, leaving her white throat bare; 
 and in her arms she held her little son. 
 
 Presently, back over the short, sodden turf came 
 'Zekiel, hurrying towards her, calling to her as he came 
 and pointing out to sea. Her eyes followed the 
 direction of his hand, and then she saw, looming 
 through the sunny mist, a large, dark, square-rigged 
 ship, and she shivered, as with an ague, as her eyes fell 
 upon it. 
 
 "A queer-lookin' craft," panted 'Zekiel, as he reached 
 her side. " I don't know as ever I saw such a riggin' 
 before." 
 

 
 34 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 They stood and watched the dark ship, and a 
 strange unreality in the sight seemed to rob them of 
 words. The high, dark bows and oddly-shaped sails had 
 loomed so suddenly through the mist, and were coming 
 so perilously near the rocks ; yet the vessel was neither 
 wrecked nor drifting, and no signal for aid or information 
 came from her crew. 
 
 " Look, look ! " cried Mary, suddenly, in a harsh 
 whisper. And 'Zekiel looked, and again they stood 
 there silent, their eyes riveted on the ship below. 
 
 What they saw was quickly over and past, but the 
 strangeness and cowardice of it seemed to scorch deep 
 into their brains, as if they had been looking on at the 
 scene for hours in wonder and growing rage. 
 
 The tall, gloomy ship drew nearer and nearer, until, 
 as Mary and 'Zekiel looked down on her, she seemed 
 to be almost underneath the cliff on which they stood, 
 and they saw that about her deck moved a ghastly-faced 
 crew, busy casting anchor and lowering a boat. When 
 this was done a slight scarlet figure was dragged, 
 struggling and shrieking, upon the deck, fighting and 
 beating with clenched hands till held and pinioned by 
 the sailors who lifted it, still struggling and shrieking, 
 over the vessel's side, and lowered it to the boat which 
 lay tossing on the yet angry sea. Several other figures, 
 clambering down swiftly to the boat loosed the rope and
 
 A SPANISH MAID 35 
 
 began to pull straight towards a little spit of sand to 
 the left of the cliff on which the watchers stood. 
 
 There was something of anger and of horror in the 
 eyes and hearts of Mary and 'Zekiel as they watched the 
 boat's course, and saw the scarlet figure held writhing in 
 the arms of the sailors. 
 
 " Is it a mazed woman they'm bringin' ashore ? " 
 gasped 'Zekiel, in a hoarse, strained voice. 
 
 But when the boat grated on the line of shingly beach 
 the rowers made no attempt to land and seek aid from 
 the village in their need, whatever it might be. Lifting 
 the fighting, furious figure with some rough handling, 
 they flung it from them on to the beach as one would 
 fling a bale of wool, and above the roar of the breakers 
 came the wild shrieks again and again, as the creature 
 sprang up and clung to them, clutching and tearing in 
 its fury. But again they flung it back with cruel, white 
 hands, and, pushing the boat off from the beach in 
 haste, rowed quickly back towards the ship. 
 
 The cruelty and cowardice of the end of this scene sent 
 the blood seething hot and quick in 'Zekiel's veins, and 
 he tore along the cliff till he reached the narrow foot- 
 path leading to the beach below and clambered down 
 it recklessly. But he reached it too late to lay hands 
 upon the boat's crew, for the whole scene had taken 
 but a few moments in the acting, and a stretch
 
 36 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 of foamy breakers already lay between boat and 
 shore. 
 
 There, on the sand, however, face downwards, lay 
 the scarlet form, crying aloud, and clutching and tear- 
 ing at the sand and shingle in a passion of baffled 
 fury. 
 
 'Zekiel's heart was full and his fists eager against the 
 brutes whose savage work he had watched, and within 
 him welled a great sympathy toward the castaway. 
 Hurrying to it in its grief, he knelt upon the shingle and 
 raised it in his arms. 
 
 "Don't 'ee, don't 'ee, my dear," he began in 
 passionate consolation. And then his voice died, and 
 words would not come ; he sat back on his heels and 
 his arms trembled round about their burden, but he 
 neither rose nor loosened his clasp. 
 
 She was so wonderful, this creature which he held in 
 the hollow of his arms. She was so beautiful with a 
 beauty he had never dreamed of. Her eyes, with the 
 fury still blazing in them, looked back into his eyes ; her 
 long, black hair fell back from her face and his fingers 
 were wound in its meshes ; her red lips were parted in 
 the end of rage and the beginning of wonder, and one 
 warm, brown arm lay against his trembling hand. 
 
 For many minutes he knelt there, and the roar of 
 the breakers was in his ears, booming and thundering.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 37 
 
 Half-consciously he longed for the roar to cease ; it 
 was surging in his head and deafening him ; the volume 
 of sound was swelling and crashing maddeningly. 
 For a moment the beach on which he knelt seemed 
 to rise and sway, and a thin mist floated between his 
 eyes and the eyes which flashed back at him. And 
 then it seemed that the silence he had longed for had 
 come. A great pause seemed to have fallen on every- 
 thing. He heard nothing; an absolute peace seemed 
 to surround him, and he knelt there as if spellbound, 
 looking down on the wonderful face of the stranger-girl 
 who lay in his arms. And, as he looked, his boyish 
 face changed; the youngness and the brightness of 
 it seemed to pass from his to hers, and as her 
 angry eyes softened and smiled up at him with a 
 languorous pleasure, his eyes grew hard and eager. 
 
 The sudden shriek of a lonely sea-bird roused him 
 at length ; he started, and the roar and thunder of 
 the sea came back to his ears. Then the stranger-girl 
 lowered her dark-fringed lids slowly over her smiling 
 eyes, and, drawing his gaze from her face, 'Zekiel 
 remembered her wrongs and looked out over the 
 waves. But the evil ship which he had thought to 
 see was invisible; between his eyes and it there had 
 dropped a thick, white curtain of mist. Ship, and boat, 
 and crew had vanished utterly, and as far as eye
 
 38 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 could see, the waves and the land were lonely, and 
 dim, and desolate. 
 
 Mary Ludgven, watching and waiting on the cliff 
 above, saw at last two figures coming slowly up the 
 cliff path towards her, a boy half-leading, half-supporting 
 a girl — 'Zekiel and the castaway. And even as she 
 watched, all eager to help and comfort the sufferer, 
 her eyes noted suddenly that the boy's face had 
 changed, had grown older; the roundness was gone, 
 and the young, careless glance from the eyes ; and, 
 with a curious shock of wonder, she realised that 
 'Zekiel was no longer her boy-brother. But the eyes 
 of the girl at his side were glowing with ardent 
 youth. 
 
 " What is it, 'Zekiel ? What does it all mean ? " she 
 cried as she went towards them. 
 
 " Devilment ! " said 'Zekiel slowly, with his eyes still 
 resting on the girl's beauty. 
 
 "Are you hurted?" asked Mary of the stranger. 
 But the stranger only smiled sadly and slowly shook 
 her head. 
 
 "Bring her along home, 'Zekiel; she's bruised and 
 shaken. I can't make out such doin's. Come home 
 an' let us tell Peter 'bout it all." 
 
 And turning their faces from the shrouded sea 
 they went down the hill in silence.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 39 
 
 "What outlandish bem' have 'ee got there, Mary 
 Ludgven ? " 
 
 Over the low cob wall which separated Betty 
 Higgins's back garden from the path, leaned Ann 
 Vitty, Betty's grandmother, gossiping with her favoured 
 cronieS; Luke Tregay and Daniel Laskey, who leaned 
 against the outer side and slanted towards her from 
 their sticks, as loosely-staked heliotropes towards their 
 sun. This cob wall was Ann Vitty's saloft, where 
 she and Luke Tregay met to talk over old times and 
 new manners, and hailed the passers-by with cheery 
 garrulity, enduring the proofs of their degeneration 
 from the former state of things for the sake of their 
 tidings of the latter. Here, too, mild-eyed Daniel 
 Laskey, sexton, joined them, and added to the 
 pleasantness of the meeting by his intelligent silence. 
 
 It was Ann Vitty's thin, sharp voice which greeted 
 Mary as she neared the corner by the big fuchsia 
 bush. 
 
 "Well, 'tis 'Zekiel's jetsam," answered Mary, trying 
 to smile back at the three old faces. 
 
 " Jetsam ! " cried Luke Tregay ; " queer jetsam 
 that! What be 'ee goin' to do with it now you've 
 a-got it?" 
 
 "I dunno what to do," confessed Mary. "We 
 dunno yet who the maid is, or where she comes from.
 
 40 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 but we'm goin' to take her home an' tell Peter. He'll 
 know what's best to be done." 
 
 " Take her home ! " repeated Ann Vitty, looking 
 the stranger up and down with a dubious glance as 
 she passed on slowly, leaning on 'Zekiel's arm. "'Tisn' 
 no business of mine, for sure, but, if you ask me, I 
 should say ' Don't 'ee.' As a figger-head, now, she 
 wouldn' come amiss, but as comp'ny in your own 
 house, I say, I wouldn' if I was you." 
 
 " Wreckage of that sort never did nobody no good," 
 remarked Luke Tregay, " not to my knowledge." 
 
 "But life's life, Luke," protested Mary, with rather 
 a wan smile. 
 
 " Maybe, maybe," he allowed, with some hesitation, 
 *' but sometimes we'd be as well pleased if 'twasn'." 
 
 " I didn' know there was wrecks," remarked Ann 
 Vitty. "We never heard no tidin's of 'em." 
 
 " No, 'tisn' no wreck," Mary explained ; " 'tis a 
 sort of castaway matter, I'm thinkin'; only me an' 
 'Zekiel saw it. But I must be hurryin' on, for 'twas 
 a wicked deed, sure enough, and the maid mus'n' 
 lack a welcome." 
 
 " H'm," ejaculated Daniel Laskey, looking con- 
 templatively at the dandelion root he had been boring 
 with his stick ; but Ann Vitty and Luke Tregay 
 clothed their forebodings in more forcible language
 
 A SPAmSH MAID 41 
 
 as they watched the three figures along the path and 
 up the Httle hill to the coastguard's cottage. 
 
 The comments of Ann Vitty and Luke Tregay 
 roused Mary Ludgven to a realisation of the coldness 
 and scant welcome which lay in her own heart, and 
 she tried to say some kindly and comforting words 
 now and again to the shivering girl as they walked 
 back to the little whitewashed home on the side of 
 the hill, but all the while her heart was heavy with 
 an unaccountable fear as she glanced from the stranger 
 to 'Zekiel, and saw his flushed cheeks and set lips ; 
 and she shrank with an unreasoning presentiment of 
 ill from the vivid, alluring face of the girl who leaned 
 so closely upon the boy's protecting arm.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TT was when 'Zekiel had placed his wonderful living 
 ■'- jetsam in Peter's roomy chair before the blazing 
 peats that he first realised the barrier which rose 
 between himself and her. Taking the bright shawl 
 from her shoulders, all damp with sea-water, he 
 pleaded, in a voice which fell strange on Mary's ears, 
 "Tell us of the brutes who served 'ee so." 
 
 But the girl, smiling back at him, opened her lips 
 for the first time since he had raised her from the 
 sand, and spoke in quick, tripping syllables which 
 were to him as strange and incomprehensible as the 
 notes of some foreign bird; carrying no meaning to 
 him, but the one hard fact that between him and 
 her stood an unscaleable barrier — the barrier of an 
 unknown tongue. He stood dumb before the bitter 
 irrevocableness of it, with pain and a sharp hopeless- 
 ness weighing at the corners of his lips. This sudden 
 limitation of his joy seemed unjust and unendurable. 
 
 42
 
 A SPANISH MAW 43 
 
 A sense of impotence and a new half-realised misery 
 swelled in his heart and robbed him of words. But 
 the girl, laying her hand on his arm, smiled again 
 into his eyes with a smile which seemed to need 
 no words, and some of the bitterness of circumstance 
 melted for a while. 
 
 And Mary, bringing warm food and heaping the 
 peat upon the hearth, felt as if the whole scene must 
 be a dream from which she would suddenly awake — 
 but a long, long dream which had been with her for 
 dull, weary hours ; and when she strove to rouse her- 
 self and think of the old, ordinary life, or of the 
 stormy night and the relief of the morning, it seemed 
 to her that those things had happened years ago, and 
 had become dim and faded in her mind. A dogged 
 war was being fought out in her heart — reason against 
 instinct, humanity wrestling with revulsion — and she 
 forced her hands towards hospitality that they might 
 not take the stranger and thrust her out from her 
 doorway and from the sight of the eager boy at her 
 side. But the stranger knew nothing of this war, 
 or made no sign of the knowledge, as she sat in the 
 glow of the peats, drinking hot broth and shedding 
 soft glances on Mary, and 'Zekiel, and little Zel, with 
 a fine impartiality. 
 
 When Peter came down the stairs, cheerful from
 
 44 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 his sleep, and damp-haired and glowing from his 
 sousing in cold water, he stood at the foot in wonder- 
 ment at the unexpected scene before him, and 
 looked at his wife with questions in his eyes. Step- 
 ping quickly towards him, Mary, in low and pitiful 
 tones, told of what had happened ; dwelling on the 
 cruelty of the sailors and the helpless plight of the 
 castaway with a warmth and eagerness unusual to her 
 quiet tongue, as if by convincing others of the girl's 
 wrongs and necessity she might touch the core of 
 her own humanity. And the girl herself, seeming to 
 divine the meaning of the words, laid down her spoon, 
 and with one hand resting lightly on 'Zekiel's arm 
 to stay his generosity, looked up at the coastguard 
 with a mingling of pleading and confidence in her big 
 eyes. 
 
 For some moments Peter stood looking back at her 
 in silence, while Mary glanced from one to the other 
 with a strange unrest at her heart; then he went over 
 to the girl, and, taking her brown little hand in both 
 his own, said slowly: "You'm welcome." 
 
 For reply the stranger only looked up at him 
 pathetically and shook her head. And 'Zekiel finished 
 the tale which Mary had begun, telling of that which, 
 to him, seemed the saddest part of all — the bafifling, 
 incomprehensible language.
 
 A SPANISH MAW 45 
 
 Again Peter looked at the girl, this time in rueful 
 silence, running his fingers through his damp curls 
 in the stress of his perplexity ; but his was never a 
 desponding nature, and in time his courage brought 
 him some inspiration. Standing before her, drawn 
 to his full height, and with an eagerness on his face 
 which commanded her whole attention, he looked 
 about for some object on which to begin his plan ; 
 finally, pointing to his wife, he pronounced in two broad, 
 distinct syllables her name, " Ma — ry." Again and 
 again he said it, and after a while a quick compre- 
 hension leaped to the girl's eyes, and laughingly she 
 repeated, with a short, babyish accent, " Ma — ri. 
 Ma — ri, Ma— ri." Peter chuckled with satisfaction 
 and persevered, for this was a brave beginning. With 
 a slow, waving forefinger, and a solemn nod of his 
 head at each syllable, he pointed to his brother-in-law, 
 and pronounced '"Zekiel." And now the girl smiled 
 broadly, and his second success was equal to his first. 
 Then, with his big hand flat upon his own blue 
 jersey, he gave her, "Pe — ter," with slow distinctness, 
 and she echoed the name without a hesitating letter; 
 while Mary and 'Zekiel marvelled at the brilliance of 
 the mind which could conceive such a notion, and 
 felt many degrees more comfortable. 
 
 When Peter had finished this, his first lesson in
 
 46 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the intricacies of his mother-tongue, the stranger-girl 
 rose from her chair, and smiHng trustfully upon them 
 all, tapped her own breast lightly with the broth 
 spoon. "Teresa, Teresa, Te — re — sa," she said, 
 turning from one to the other. And they repeated 
 "Te — re — sa," with slow, clumsy tongues, till, appar- 
 ently satisfied, she sank back into her chair with a 
 pleased sigh and yielded her attention once more to 
 her broth and to 'Zekiel's importunity. 
 
 For a while longer Peter looked at her, with his whole 
 brain twisted to the shape of questions which could 
 bring no answers ; then he crossed to the window and 
 looked thoughtfully out over the geraniums on the 
 ledge to the storm-battered garden beyond. His 
 heart was big enough to welcome half-a-hundred cast- 
 aways into his home and give them pity for their 
 hard lot, but it was the right and the wrong of 
 the matter which began to trouble him. 
 
 "She'd fret herself mazed," he decided mournfully. 
 " Cast out 'pon a strange spot, took to a strange house, 
 and kept by a lot of strange folk ; with' no manner of 
 means of goin' back home again ! An' how can I set 
 about her goin' back home again, when I don't so much 
 as know her ABC? Law ! " he declared awesomely, 
 " Babel would have drove me mazed in no time." 
 
 Up the hill path towards the cottage two figures were
 
 A SPANISH MAID 47 
 
 moving, an old man and a little girl, sauntering as folks 
 will saunter in those parts of the land where timepieces are 
 mainly kept for ornament, and the winding of them is 
 considered as encouraging a reckless waste of mechanism. 
 The old man had somewhat the look of an ascetic 
 Romish priest, slender bodied and clean-shaven of 
 face ; but the old grey waterproof coat which he wore 
 loose, its long skirts waving in the breeze, made a most 
 unpriestlike garment, and the mild eyes and placid lines 
 about the mouth pointed to a less severe creed than 
 that of Rome. With one hand he now and again 
 Hfted his broad-brimmed hat from his brow, as if for 
 ease and the play of the breeze ; in the other hand he 
 carried a little tin box. The child at his side was fair- 
 faced and demure, and wore a cloak of grey duffel, 
 hooded round her small grave features. 
 
 A particularly prolonged wave of the grey coat skirts 
 caught Peter's wide abstracted gaze, and brought it 
 back to a nearer focus, and, with the quickness of the 
 man who knows the value of tide turns, he hurried out of 
 the door and along the garden path to meet the wearer. 
 
 " Passon, sir," he appealed, " will 'ee be so good as to 
 come 'fore to my house. I'm put about a brave bit 
 over a matter of — of — ^jetsam." 
 
 The old man smiled, a mild, slow smile, as he turned 
 in at the gate,
 
 48 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Coastguarding brings its troubles to you, it seems, as 
 well as to your natural enemies, the villains," he re- 
 marked. " Ursula, my dear, better follow me." 
 
 As he came in at the doorway the parson lifted his 
 broad, soft hat. 
 
 ' Good-day, Mary — I may still call her Mary, Peter ? 
 
 Good-day, 'Zekiel. Ah ! " With the intuition of the 
 
 man who has lived among wrecks and finds no cargo 
 surprising, his eyes fell on Teresa. " The wreckage, 
 Peter?" he queried. Then, bowing to the stranger 
 with a certain courtHness, " Good-day, madam," he said. 
 
 " Passon," declared Peter, " that's what I wanted to 
 tell 'ee about. Her don't know what you'm saying. 
 Her can't make 'ee out. Her can't make none of us 
 out when we talks to her. Her's foreign, sir." 
 
 " Ah ! indeed, indeed. Poor maid ! poor maid ! But 
 I have heard nothing of a wreck ; no sound awoke me, 
 no word reached me." 
 
 Teresa gave her empty basin and spoon into 'Zekiel's 
 hands, and resting her dark head on the cushions 
 of Peter's chair, looked up with smiling interest at the 
 parson's mouth as he shaped his words. 
 
 "No, sir, there wasn' no wreck," said Peter. "'Zekiel 
 can tell 'ee the story best, for 'Zekiel was there to see it. 
 To my mind it's a black bit of business." 
 
 " I can tell 'ee what I seed, sir," cried 'Zekiel,
 
 A SPANISH MAW 49 
 
 turning to the parson, "but I can't tell 'ee why 'twas 
 done." 
 
 His hands clenched themselves unconsciously as he 
 recalled the work of the morning. Ursula stepped 
 softly to the cradle side, where Zel — left for the first 
 time without an audience — was keeping up a continuous 
 murmur of soft, sleepy protests. Teresa turned her 
 eyes from the parson's mouth to 'Zekiel's, and all waited 
 for the " black " story. 
 
 "I was standing on the chff," he went on, "looking 
 out towards the Dinnis Rock. There was a bit of 
 mornin' mist about, but, as far as eye could see, there 
 wasn' a sail, or a mast, or an oar above water. Then, 
 all to once, through the mist, there showed out a big, 
 ugly-looking black ship ; an' so curious-looking she was 
 I called out to Mary, an' we watched her together." 
 
 The parson laid his little tin box on the table and 
 crossed one forefinger on the other as he listened. 
 Ursula had sunk on her knees by the cradle, and was 
 rocking it gently as she smoothed Zel Ludgven's fat 
 arm, he having merged his protests into dream-coos. 
 The others looked at 'Zekiel's, tense face and waited, as 
 he paused before the thought of the ship's ugly work. 
 
 "Soon," he went on, "she slid out of the fog an' 
 came runnin' in, closer than ever I've seed a vessel run 
 in before, an' her crew cast anchor an' lowered a boat. 
 
 D
 
 5o A SPANISH MAID 
 
 An' then, up from somewhere down below, they dragged 
 this poor maid, an' all cryin', an' sobbin', an' strugglin' 
 as she was, they hauled her down into the boat an' held 
 her there, gripped as if she'd been a wild thing. An' so 
 they pulled for Averack Cove. An' when I'd a-thought 
 they was goin' to land an' ask help from Landecarrock 
 for some poor mazed soul, they dragged her up from the 
 bottom of the boat an' heaved her on to the shingle as 
 if she'd a-been a log. An' when she rose an' cried for 
 help an' mercy they beat her down again, an' then they 
 pulled away from Averack beach with never a word for 
 her, nor a morsel of food, nor a penny-piece. An' the 
 faces of 'em was gashly. An' I ran down the cliff path 
 more as if I was flyin', an' there I found the maid, 
 
 an' " the anger slid out of his voice suddenly and 
 
 his words slowed into an unconscious, spoken caress, 
 " an' she wasn' no mazed woman at all." 
 
 " Dear me ! dear me ! " murmured the parson 
 dreamily. "These signs of racial " 
 
 "An' the ship?" asked Peter, with sudden re- 
 collection of his calling. 
 
 "When I looked up again," said 'Zekiel, with a 
 certain shamefacedness in his truth-telling, "the fog 
 had a-dropped to the very breakers, an' the boat an' 
 the ship was gone." 
 
 " Most curious! Most curious!" remarked the parson.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 51 
 
 "And tell me, Ezekiel, were there no points in the 
 vessel's rigging, or in the dress or bearing of the 
 crew by which you could determine the nationality ? " 
 
 "No, sir, I didn' never seem to have seen the like 
 before." 
 
 " It is a curious and interesting study," mused the 
 parson aloud, as he clasped his thin hands beneath 
 his coat skirts and slowly paced the small kitchen, 
 "the different forms, and lines, and curves by which 
 the different countries betray their several tastes, and 
 traits, and progress in civilisation. The opulent East, 
 for instance, displaying in everything, from its archi- 
 tecture to its most trivial manufacture, those 
 curves " 
 
 "Curves!" interrupted 'Zekiel hotly, "they was 
 devils ! " 
 
 The parson started from his musings. "Devils are 
 not without curves," he affirmed, with his mild smile, 
 " if all we are told is true. If," he continued, turning to 
 Teresa, " the maiden would speak again, I might gather 
 from her accents some hint of her nationality, or from 
 the formation of her words some clue to the race 
 from which she springs. But I fear she will not use 
 a language with which I am familiar." 
 
 "Teresa, Teresa," said Peter, appealing to the girl, 
 " talk to the parson some ; do 'ee now, co'."
 
 52 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Madam," ventured the parson, " I would ask you 
 to speak a few words to me." 
 
 The girl looked from one to the other. Then, 
 seeing that they waited as for an answer to a question, 
 she broke once more into her quick, soft syllables, 
 smiling the while, until her long, black eyes were 
 almost closed. 
 
 "Ah," sighed the parson, smiling back indulgently 
 in the face of it, "it is neither Greek, nor Latin, 
 nor Hebrew; nor is it, I conjecture, of Teutonic 
 origin. In all probability the maiden is of Gaelic 
 extraction. It is a curious and interesting fact," he 
 continued, turning his gentle eyes on Peter, "that to 
 a close student of the races there would be but slight 
 difficulty in classifying the nationality of ninety out of 
 a hundred human beings, by a short, I might almost 
 say a cursory, observation of the features. To my 
 but imperfectly trained eye this maiden in question 
 appears to have more kinship with the southern Euro- 
 pean peoples — say Italy, or Spain, or Portugal — than 
 with any African or Asiatic tribes." 
 
 " 'Tis a pity for her, poor thing ! " murmured Mary, 
 "to be so far from home." 
 
 But 'Zekiel looked at the girl with no agreement in 
 his eyes. 
 
 " In the course of the coming week," continued the
 
 A SPANISH MAID 53 
 
 parson, "I shall be travelling into Haliggan on a 
 small matter of research, and, while there, I will 
 endeavour to meet with some person fluent in foreign 
 languages who could give us aid. In the meanwhile 
 if I, myself, can relieve or aid in any way, come, or 
 send, without hesitation to the Parsonage, and I shall 
 be pleased to do all in my power." 
 
 " Thank 'ee, passon, thank 'ee," replied Peter, know- 
 ing well the honesty underlying the old man's formal 
 words. 
 
 "Of the perpetrators of the unholy deed we will 
 say but little at present ; the sin is theirs and will not 
 go unpunished ; but a sharp look-out when the fog has 
 cleared somewhat more, and as full communication as 
 is possible along the coast, might, perchance, accelerate 
 that punishment. Meanwhile, my grand-daughter and 
 I will continue our walk to the cairn, where we were 
 taking a few tools and a frugal meal with us." He 
 beamed, as he lifted his Httle tin box from the table. 
 " If, as I have long suspected, there should be tracing 
 or inscription at the base of the cross beside it, the 
 rains of last night will have served to assist me in my 
 search." 
 
 "You'll pardon my stoppin' 'ee, sir," said Peter. 
 
 "I am pleased, Peter, pleased that you did so. A 
 father to my people first, an antiquarian afterwards, is
 
 54 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 what I would be; and this is a most curious and in- 
 teresting incident. Good-day ! good-day. Ursula, my 
 dear, we will proceed upon our way." 
 
 Ursula, lifting her sober little face from the cradle, 
 met Mary's grateful, troubled eyes, and blushed at the 
 thought of her own monopoly of younger Ludgven, 
 then, rising from her knees, she smiled gently on them 
 all, and, with a half-fearful glance at the stranger- 
 girl, followed the parson out into the sunshine 
 again. 
 
 When the garden gate had closed with its customary 
 click the husband and wife each looked into the face 
 of the other. 
 
 " What do 'ee think of it, Mary ? " asked Peter, seeing 
 the new anxiety in Mary's eyes as they two stood apart 
 by the little flower-bedecked window. 
 
 " I dunno, Peter, I dunno. 'Twas a wicked business, 
 sure enough ; but her eyes burn so queer ; an' look at 
 our 'Zekiel, he's like another creature ! " 
 
 Peter, turning to look again at the couple by the 
 hearth, saw 'Zekiel, the boisterous, outspoken, light- 
 hearted fisher-boy, kneeling grave-faced and compassion- 
 ate before the stranger-girl lying back languorously in 
 the big chair, more as a knight of the Middle Ages 
 paying homage to his lady, than a clumsy village boy 
 striving to discover, without the aid of language.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 55 
 
 whether or no the pile of peat and gorse blazed too 
 fiercely for the maid's comfort. 
 
 " She's got a mortal pretty face — a mortal pretty face," 
 said Peter slowly. " An' our 'Zekiel's struck down by 
 her black eyes," he added, with a laugh. " To my mind 
 he's fairly mazed about the maid already. But don't 'ee 
 fret, my dear, he'll be right again afore his beard's full 
 grown," Yet his own eyes grew suddenly serious. 
 "'Tis truth, she's got a mortal pretty face," he murmured, 
 as he turned away towards the door. 
 
 Mary knew that he spoke truly ; the girl's fairness was 
 beyond denial. But a load lay at her heart, unanalysed, 
 scarcely realised, but a load, nevertheless; and she turned 
 away from the m.aid's fair face, and bent over her cradle 
 and sighed a heavy sigh. 
 
 And 'Zekiel and the stranger, in the shine of the 
 glowing peats, looked and smiled and went on looking, 
 and found an eloquence in silence.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' 'TT EKIEL was mazed. 
 
 ^—^ For the first time, since the red cow from Trelean 
 church-town felt enterprise and walked eleven miles to 
 sup on Landecarrock cabbages, the village was of one 
 mind ', and its one mind declared that 'Zekiel Myners 
 was mazed. Peter had said it that first day when he 
 looked across his kitchen at the boy and the girl beside 
 his hearth and saw them smiling upon each other, but 
 he went his way and awaited the recovery with good- 
 humoured tolerance. The fisher-boys agreed with 
 Peter, and they laughed loudly and they jested freely 
 when the knowledge came upon them, for 'Zekiel's 
 whole-heartedness had been a weekly affront to them. 
 Countless were the Sunday afternoons he had sat with 
 his fellows on the bit of cob wall by the " look-out," the 
 corner round which all the lovers passed on their way 
 to Ten-Men's-Mound, there to decorate the hillocks with 
 their several presences, and do their weekly wooing till 
 
 56
 
 A SPANISH MAID 57 
 
 the time was come to pass down again and think of 
 sustenance; and, on these countless Sunday afternoons, 
 he had watched his line of company slide off one by 
 one, some shamefacedly, some with a gallant air, to meet 
 a maid and swell the irregular double file which slowly 
 chmbed the hill ; and he had flung banter at their 
 heels as he turned to sprawl more at ease on the space 
 which they had left, and had found ample entertainment 
 in his own thoughts or in the company of the one or 
 two lovers who chanced to be unmatched or forsaken 
 for the while. Now they found consolation in his 
 surrender, and they watched and enjoyed his worship 
 of the strange maid who draped her body in outlandish 
 garments and spoke no single word clear to their under- 
 standing. But the jests were kindly, and they also 
 waited for the end of the mazedness, for with them these 
 love-fevers usually ran a course, and the course was not 
 limitless. 
 
 Mary Ludgven, too, saw 'Zekiel's mazedness, but she 
 saw in it more than the common lad's love-sickness. To 
 her eyes the boy seemed to be as one lying under a 
 spell. She saw his face grow old; she saw the lines drawn 
 deeper and deeper about his mouth by the sharp point 
 of his passion ; she saw his unrest, and the hunger which 
 starved the old content from his eyes ; she felt that he 
 was bowing heart and soul before the witcheries from
 
 58 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 which she could only shrink, and the worship seemed 
 unnatural and horrible to her as the worship of a child 
 for some vile god. 
 
 And 'Zekiel — 'Zekiel did not dally to find a softer 
 word than "mazedness." " Mazedness " was as good a 
 word as " love," as he had learned to recognise love 
 in the pranks and ponderous gambollings of the pairs 
 who rounded the corner by the " look-out " on Sunday 
 afternoons. If that poor, common preference was 
 *' love," " love " was no word for the wonderful thing 
 which was overfilling his heart — the tearing pain, the 
 blazing joy, which was no mere mad South passion 
 crushing down obstacles, nor the dogged affection of 
 a Northerner, plodding, and bearing, and hoping ; it was 
 neither, with the elements of both. A great, clear, fierce 
 fire, scorching and comforting, dropping balm on his 
 heart as it seared it, forcing a great, voiceless cry 
 from his soul; a passion restrained, a longing held 
 back by reverence, a worship fired by impulse ; an 
 overwhelming, unutterable, incomparable force, which 
 he joyed in, and endured, and suffered, and hugged 
 close in his big, boyish heart, and would not have 
 parted with if he could. 
 
 The emotion had its drawbacks. It was even apt to 
 harass the mortal who inspired it; while, as to the 
 scene in which it was lived through, that spot became
 
 A SPANISH MAID 59 
 
 haunted by a spirit of discomfort and unrest, and the 
 dwellers in it in time chafed under the innovation, 
 and could give but scant sympathy; for they brought 
 common-sense to bear upon the agitation, with the 
 result that it received but a small meed of toleration 
 while it stirred the present. The haze of time was 
 needed to tone down the recollection of the discomfort 
 and bring a mild compassion. 
 
 So 'Zekiel, to friends and kinsfolk, was simply 
 " mazed 'bout the furrin' maid " ; and they looked at 
 his haggard face and thought and called him "fool 
 for his pains." For all this 'Zekiel cared nothing. 
 Teresa was the world for him ; nothing else mattered 
 — nothing, except the language which balked him and 
 shut him from her understanding; and, with a fine 
 courage, he faced that, and set himself the task of 
 teaching the words which should draw the girl close 
 to him by-and-bye. 
 
 " Speak to me, sweetheart. Speak with me heart to 
 heart." 
 
 That was 'Zekiel's prayer, but for two months he 
 did not utter it, though through every minute of those 
 two months he craved desperately to hear plain English 
 words from the girl's tongue, and see the light of 
 understanding in her eyes ; and the desire gripped at 
 his throat sometimes, almost choking him, and his own
 
 6o A SPANISH MAID 
 
 heart grew over-big with all that he would say to her. 
 But the pain was useless ; it accomplished nothing. He 
 had no charmed wand to strike his own words with a 
 soft blow upon her understanding. It could only be 
 brought about slowly and by labour. So he strove to 
 crush his heart back to some degree of patience ; and, 
 every day when work was done, he would change his 
 sea-stained clothes for his bettermost homespun and 
 jersey, and, leaving his little lodgment under Betty 
 Higgins' eaves, would climb the hill to Peter Ludgven's 
 cottage, where Teresa was still sheltered, that he might 
 struggle on with the teaching of his own broad syllables 
 to her lilting tongue. And the pleasure of it ! The 
 gladness of a new word mastered — a whole sentence 
 achieved ! Each word was a separate victory. But 
 even into the midst of the triumph there would creep 
 the heart-sickness, and the craving for the time of her 
 proficiency. 
 
 Teresa, looking so often into her teacher's eyes, must 
 have learned from them that other knowledge, too — the 
 teaching he forced back from his tongue — but she did 
 not resent it and she did not check it. Week after week 
 she took his time, and his labour, and his homage, and 
 gave him smiles for payment. Week after week, too, 
 she lived placidly on Peter Ludgven's bounty, without 
 a question or a scruple, content, too, to all seeming.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 6i 
 
 until, as time passed by, the autumn sun passed with 
 it, and each chilly day became a trial, and she shivered, 
 and her red lips drooped pathetically. Mary, seeing this, 
 pitied her, and piled peats on her hearth in reckless 
 fashion, and hoped for a merciful winter ; soon, too, 
 she forsook her cushioned chair by the ingle, and spoke 
 of the greater comfort of a straight-backed chair when 
 one must needs rock a cradle. So Teresa rested her 
 languid Hmbs on Mary's cushions before the warmth 
 of Mary's creating, and Mary took some comfort to 
 herself from this small straining of the truth. She felt 
 that it was good to be able to perform some tangible 
 bit of hospitality ; it eased the compunction in her heart, 
 and softened her self-reproach that she could not take 
 kindly to the maid whom 'Zekiel had set his heart 
 upon. 
 
 " Speak with me, sweetheart ! Speak with me heart 
 to heart ! " 
 
 It was on a grey, misty November afternoon that 
 'Zekiel spoke his prayer aloud, and then poured out a 
 torrent of quick, passionate love words, most of which 
 were still meaningless to the girl. But Teresa was 
 pettish and shivering that day. There was a touch of 
 east in the wind and the sky hung low over the sea; 
 her blood ran slow and her temper was short; and 
 when the boy put out his big hands to clasp hers she
 
 62 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 frowned, and at his rough touch and the grasp of his 
 hardened palm, she shrank back with a petulant cry of 
 distaste. She had never been capricious with him 
 before, and this freak came as a blow in the face 
 to him. He looked at her with wonder-wide eyes, 
 and all in absent-mindedness stroked her little hand 
 again. At that second touch she sprang back in anger, 
 and, catching up her shawl from the settle, she twined 
 it about her hastily and ran from him out into the 
 cold, damp air. 
 
 'Zekiel's heart contracted with a sharp pain. The 
 girl's way humiliated him and cut him to the quick. 
 For a moment he stood quite still and knew what 
 despair meant, and faintly felt what it would mean for 
 him if the girl went out of his life again. Then " 'Tis 
 her waywardness," he thought; "she isn' like Lande- 
 carrock maidens, an' I wouldn' have her be." And he 
 followed after her quickly that he might try to wipe out 
 his offence. 
 
 She was running along the road towards the sea, 
 flying fast before him, her dark hair blowing about her 
 shoulders, her red shawl waving in the wind. Then up 
 the cliff hill she turned, still fleet and unwavering, until 
 she reached the turfy level, the spot where 'Zekiel had 
 stood to watch the black ship and her crew the morning 
 after the storm. Here she stopped, breathless, panting,
 
 A SPAmSH MAID 63 
 
 with the colour flooding in her cheeks, and 'Zekiel 
 came up to her and took her gently by the arm to ask 
 forgiveness for his unknown fault. But she still shrank 
 from his touch, and turned from him, and looked away 
 towards the sea. Then there came back to him the 
 remembrance of the day when she had first come into 
 his life, when he had first set eyes upon her and held 
 her in his arms. 
 
 "What did it mean?" he thought wildly. "Why did 
 they serve her so ? " 
 
 Teresa, too, turned her eyes from the horizon back to 
 Averack beach and shivered, and, looking at her, 'Zekiel 
 saw in her face something which was new to him. 
 
 " Tell me of it ! " he cried, pointing down to the 
 shingle where the black boat had grounded. " Tell me 
 of the devils who served 'ee so." 
 
 Many of his words were clear to her, and the pleading 
 maddened her ; she only remembered the desertion, not 
 the welcome, and she hated the remembrance. She 
 turned on the boy furiously; her brows lowered and 
 grew ugly, and she pushed him from her. "No, no, 
 no ! " she cried, and her voice was not quite tuneful 
 now. " No, no, no ! " Then she flung away from him 
 again and ran, hurrying and stumbling, down the hill 
 she had but just climbed. And her face was ablaze with 
 anger and her eyes blinded by her rage-tears.
 
 64 A SPAmSH MAID 
 
 " He is cruel ! He drives me mad ! " she cried, 
 breaking into her own passionate mother-tongue. " He 
 will not have me forget ! He will never have me forget !" 
 
 Then, suddenly, came back an echo to her ears — an 
 echo of her angry words. " He will never have me 
 forget ! He will never have me forget ! " And then 
 came a short, pleasant laugh, and then a question : 
 
 " Is remembrance so terrible, signorina ? " 
 
 Teresa, rushing along with tear-blinded eyes, in her 
 heedless rage saw nothing but a sudden, indistinct figure 
 which seemed to rise before her, and then she felt a 
 shock which sent her reeling. Putting out her hands to 
 save herself she found them held by other hands, and 
 then an arm steadied her as she was wheeling to the 
 ground. The hands were firm, the arm was muscular, 
 the voice was cheerful, and hands, arm, and voice 
 belonged to a man — a young man — and the manner of 
 his support was close and sturdy. In another moment 
 Teresa was safe and her footing sure, and the tears were 
 on her cheeks now, leaving her eyes clear, but she still 
 clung to the strong arm. 
 
 " You are from Spain ?" she panted excitedly. "You 
 know my language ! You are one of us ! " 
 
 " I am from Spain," the young man answered, smiling 
 carelessly into her eager face, "and I know your 
 language, but I am not one of you."
 
 A SPANJSH MAW 65 
 
 " But you are a friend in this icy land of strangers," 
 she insisted. "You have felt the sun ; you have seen a 
 blue sky. You can warm my cold heart with words, and 
 melt for me the chill of these sullen persons and their 
 black days." 
 
 " I can do many things," he answered lightly, " when 
 I have learned why Spanish maids come tumbling from 
 the very skies into my arms. 'Tis a new fashion in 
 Landecarrock since I last lived here." 
 
 She listened to his careless, laughing words mocking 
 her eagerness, but the arm was still holding her, and the 
 hold was firm. She sighed a deep sigh then, part of 
 self-pity for her own past loneliness, part of pleasure in 
 the consolation here close to her — a fellow-creature who 
 smiled on her, and understood her, and who could 
 admire even while he mocked. 
 
 Then to them both came 'Zekiel, with his nostrils 
 strained and his hair dishevelled by the wind, and 
 halting suddenly, as if shocked into stillness, he looked 
 from Teresa to the man, with hunted eyes. It was' then 
 that the stranger slowly loosened the arm which held 
 the girl, and, looking with laughing eyes at 'Zekiel, 
 greeted him with an outstretched hand. 
 
 "'Zekiel, 'Zekiel, is this what you have been doing 
 while I have been a-roaming? Hunting poor Spanish 
 maidens till they rush to the very arms of strangers 
 
 E
 
 66 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 for protection? Ah, 'Zekiel, you have, in good truth, 
 been growing quickly, while I have been but dreaming 
 of it." 
 
 " Master Humphrey ! Back home again ! Spanish 
 maiden!" gasped 'Zekiel. "Is it true. Master Hum- 
 phrey ? Is she sure enough a Spanish maiden ? " 
 
 "Spanish, I vow, by the colour and tongue of her. 
 But we Englishmen must learn to forget old battles 
 in these days; we must bury old quarrels, and for- 
 swear chasing Spaniards now. And a woman, too, 
 'Zekiel ! To chase a woman ! Lord, what a change in 
 English manners ! " 
 
 " I didn' go for to do it, Master Humphrey. 'Tis 
 true we hold no great love for the Spaniard, but I 
 didn' go for to chase the maid with any manner of 
 
 hate towards her, rather " 'Zekiel coloured hotly, 
 
 and, after trying to face the laughing eyes, flinched, 
 and looked upon the ground. 
 
 " Rather with a manner of — of hve, 'Zekiel ? Folks 
 say we have strange ways of proving our devotion 
 here in these parts, and, forsooth, you seem to have 
 found a way of your own. At times, 'tis said, we're 
 slow, with but ice where blood should be; but of 
 such faults I'll hold you innocent, I swear. And the 
 maid herself, does she approve this fashion for the 
 storming of her heart ? "
 
 A SPANISH MAW 67 
 
 " The maid ! — the maid ! " cried 'Zekiel in his pain ; 
 "the maid's hard put to it to make out so much as a 
 word I say. 'Tis Hke to a great stone wall, that foreign 
 talk of hers. I've a-bruised my very heart an' soul 
 in tryin' to pull it down ; an' how can /, just a fisher- 
 boy, climb over it ? " 
 
 '"Love! love! love! Love will find out the way,'" 
 sang Master Humphrey. 
 
 But there lay no manner of comfort in platitudes 
 for 'Zekiel. Only a new pain was born to him as 
 he turned towards Teresa and saw her, still flushed 
 and panting, with her eager eyes fastened on Master 
 Humphrey's face. 
 
 " Teresa ! " cried 'Zekiel, with a sharp note of 
 anguish in his voice. 
 
 But Teresa did not move; it was as if she did not 
 hear him. 
 
 " Teresa," Master Humphrey repeated softly in her 
 own Southern words, " Teresa — a gleaner ; 'tis a 
 pleasant name." 
 
 And Teresa drew near to him, as if he had com- 
 manded her, and she laid her hands upon his arm as 
 a little child would lay them, and her eyes still 
 showed her pleasure. 
 
 Master Humphrey looked back at her in silence 
 for a moment, and then he laughed amusedly, as one
 
 68 A SPANISff MAID 
 
 who realises that he it is who makes the third of a 
 trio. 
 
 "Good-day, good-day!" he cried. "This is my 
 fine fashion of hurrying to the Parsonage as I pro- 
 mised Dame Tellam I would. I must see you all 
 again soon, 'Zekiel, and hear Landecarrock tidings." 
 
 And 'Zekiel stood and watched him go, and then 
 he moaned ; and to look forward seemed a blank and 
 dreary work. Then he turned to Teresa, and he 
 saw that she, too, was looking after Master Humphrey ; 
 and her eyes were shining and held a look that made 
 him wince and draw his breath back over his lip, 
 as children do when they cut themselves and will not 
 cry. 
 
 "Come 'long home," he pleaded, with the sharp 
 pain-note still in his voice. " Come 'long home, co'." 
 He knew that he must move her eyes from that 
 comely figure strolling up the hill, or he should speak 
 some mad words ; and a senseless, great tremor of 
 relief shook him when she stirred and slowly faced 
 him. There was no anger for him in her eyes now, 
 but he knew that the satisfaction which lay in them 
 was none of his causing. And it was in silence that 
 they turned and walked side by side back to Peter 
 Ludgven's hearth,
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TTT^HEN Master Humphrey reached that point of 
 ' ^ the hill where the road branched off to the 
 Parsonage, he turned and looked back at 'Zekiel and the 
 girl — two distance-dwarfed figures walking, with a wide 
 space between them along the level, past Ann Vitty's 
 fuchsia bush — and the sight, in some undefined way, 
 made him feel suddenly older than he need have felt, 
 and seemed to show no reason for the feeling. In the 
 three years which had passed since Master Humphrey 
 had grown weary of his loneliness and had started on 
 his travels, 'Zekiel, it was true, seemed to have grown 
 from slings, and surreptitious games of span-farthing, to 
 be sweetheart-high, and, in the sight of this growth, 
 may have lain the explanation of Master Humphrey's 
 consciousness of age. Be that as it might, when he 
 turned after a while and faced the hill again, a 
 thoughtful mood had fallen upon him. He walked 
 slowly, and when he reached the low wall round 
 
 6'J
 
 70 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 about the churchyard, he stopped and rested there, 
 in the face of all Dame Tellam's wishes, and looked 
 reflectively across the bare, wind-swept spot. 
 
 Daniel Laskey was tending graves a little way off, 
 bowing over his work with the obeisance which seventy 
 years is apt to force upon the shape. Master Hum- 
 phrey's eyes rested compassionately on the old man, 
 and he realised that Daniel, too, had grown older, 
 though the churchyard in which he toiled and spent 
 his strength, keeping it neat and prim as a bride 
 would keep her best room, was scarcely fuller than it 
 had been three years before. On a flat tombstone, 
 hard by Daniel, sat another figure — a big, unshapely 
 man, with a loose, smiling mouth, who played with 
 knuckle-bones, and broke the damp, grey silence with 
 an occasional foolish laugh, according to the interest 
 of the game. This was Sam'le Laskey, Daniel's son, 
 aged fifty-two. And Master Humphrey, watching him 
 as he played so foolishly and so contentedly upon the 
 old lichened slab, saw that Sam'le, at least, had grown 
 no older with the years that had passed, and a new 
 pity for Daniel stirred in him, for Master Humphrey 
 had lived three travelled years since last he had looked 
 upon father and son, and he had begun to understand 
 some of the hard things which may befall a man. 
 And he pulled a dried grass stem and chewed it
 
 A SPANISH MAID 71 
 
 absently as he contemplated the two at their ordinary 
 game of life. 
 
 There was an old tale told in Landecarrock, that, 
 when Daniel Laskey had been a boy, he had gone 
 away and married a girl who had died before her 
 " teens " had power to weary her. But Daniel never told 
 the tale himself; he only came quietly back to 
 Landecarrock with a silly-faced baby in his arms, long 
 before he had turned twenty, and, renting the cottage 
 down by the boat-sheds, bought a cradle and a few 
 odd things, and settled himself again upon his native 
 soil, being recognised as a widow -man from that 
 day. 
 
 For more than fifty years since then he had worked 
 from early Monday till late Saturday, and had kept 
 food and firing in the house, enough for two ; but if 
 the villagers expected Daniel to lavish love upon his 
 heir, they were disappointed, for Daniel Laskey and 
 Sam'le, his son, walked separate ways from the time 
 of Sam'le's "feeling his feet," and were never seen to 
 interchange a word in pleasantness or in wrath as far 
 back as any one could stir a memory. Landecarrock 
 folks supposed that Daniel provided clothing for Sam'le, 
 because Sam'le wore clothing, and, undoubtedly, he did 
 not provide it for himself, having never done a stroke 
 of work in his life, except once or twice in mistake for
 
 72 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 play ; but no one ever saw the purchase made (which 
 is saying much for Daniel's secretiveness), and Daniel 
 kept his own counsel. Sam'le, it is true, had sometimes 
 been questioned on the matter in his younger days, 
 but, as he told a different tale to each questioner — 
 thereby causing some friction in the village until the 
 questioners had come together and aired their authority 
 and faced its value — they remain mystified. 
 
 It was Sam'le's way to hover about his father as he 
 worked, at such times as the rest of the village had 
 gone a-fishing out at sea, but this seemed to be because 
 he hated solitude, not because he was affectionate. 
 And Daniel bore with him in silence ; and only once 
 in all the fifty -odd years — on that summer Sunday 
 evening when Sam'le inadvertently loosed all the boats 
 from their moorings while the village was at worship, 
 and came with slack lips and mildly wondering eyes 
 to the church to tell of it — only on that one occasion 
 had Daniel been known to volunteer a word on the 
 subject of his son. 
 
 " ' He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow ; 
 and the father of a fool hath no joy,' " he said grimly, 
 as he stood by the water and watched the men chasing 
 their boats round the point by means of Builder Belovely's 
 great smack; then he spat as though the taste in his 
 mouth was bitter, and then he turned and went into his
 
 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 73 
 
 cottage, leaving Sam'le to the mercy of the boatmen 
 on their return, and the womenkind meanwhile. 
 
 Master Humphrey smiled as the old tale drifted 
 through his mind ; then, after a while, having no graves 
 to tend or knuckle-bones to play with, he grew chilly 
 in the raw air and rose to go upon his way. But at 
 that moment, round the corner of the church came 
 a tall, lean figure, carrying a plummet in one hand, 
 and a note-book in the other, and Master Humphrey 
 cleared the hedge at a bound and hurried forward to 
 meet it. 
 
 " Parson," he cried, with all his cheerfulness returning, 
 " I was wanting you ; I was on my way to you. Say 
 you're glad to see me home again ! " 
 
 Parson Swayn, dropping his plummet and misplacing 
 his index-finger in his note-book, gripped the hand 
 held out to him, and beamed upon the young man. 
 
 " Humphrey ! my dear Humphrey ! I almost imagine 
 that my eyes must be deceiving me ! Truly, I am 
 overjoyed to see you home once again. But so sudden, 
 so unpretentious a return ! I have heard no word of 
 the expectation " 
 
 "All my fault, sir, all my fault, and I have had to 
 bear much scolding for it," confessed Master Humphrey. 
 "To tell truth, I turned babyish, and all suddenly 
 wanted my home. The longing gripped me as I stood
 
 74 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 one morning in the busy street of a dirty Spanish town, 
 and I turned about and came swiftly as sails and 
 horses could bring me. 'Twas but at dawn this 
 morning that I galloped in at my own gates and 
 shocked half Dame Tellam's love away by the sudden 
 and undignified manner of it. She, it was, who com- 
 manded me to come and report myself to my parson ; 
 for the thought of Squire Humphrey Harle being in 
 Landecarrock after three years roaming, and no one 
 a whit more awed or the wiser for it, was gall and 
 wormwood to the old lady." 
 
 "Something more than Dame Tellam's urgings 
 brought you up the hill, I trust," ventured the parson, 
 smiling his gentle smile. 
 
 "That's truth, sir, for I was eager to look on you 
 and the little maid, Ursula ; and I gladly left the dame 
 in peace to move the linen coverings from the chairs 
 and tables (her true reason for sending me upon my 
 way, I told her), that I might come to set my 
 own eyes upon you both. How does little Ursula 
 fare, parson ? " 
 
 "Little Ursula is little Ursula no longer, in one 
 sense of the word," replied the parson. "'Tis true 
 she is of small and delicate growth, but, remember, 
 she has slipped from twelve to fifteen years since last 
 you saw her. You will find us older, Humphrey — all
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 75 
 
 older. And " he added, with a smile, half-humorous, 
 
 half-pathetic, "we tend toward antiquatedness without 
 gaining interest as antiquities." 
 
 " The antiquatedness is more to my taste," protested 
 Master Humphrey. 
 
 " Boy, thou wert ever a Vandal. But come, I will 
 not entertain my guest entirely upon common ground. 
 We will go to my room where, no doubt, we shall find 
 the little housekeeper, Ursula, who will give us a cup 
 of her China tea-drink for our refreshment." 
 
 The "parson's room," to which he led Master 
 Humphrey, was the pride of Landecarrock. Every 
 man in the village — not to speak of some women and 
 children — felt that he, or she, had helped to make it 
 what it was. And they knew that it was like no other 
 room in the land. The first stone of it had been 
 placed, under the parson's watchful eyes, one year, 
 long ago, when the village had been mourning under 
 the stress of storm and wreck, and the very fish had 
 deserted the sea ; and the village blessed the parson, 
 and went to work with fresh hearts strengthening 
 their unskilled hands. And the parson stood by them 
 with a treasure destined for every inch, and a tale 
 for every treasure. And every Landecarrock man 
 straightened his back and felt proud when he looked 
 upon it finished, for it is not given to all men to
 
 76 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 accomplish fine art in the intervals of fish-catching, 
 and the experiment was new enough to be altogether 
 pleasant ; nor was there any carping art critic to be 
 reckoned with in those days and parts, to take the 
 bloom from the plum of their content. 
 
 On the outside, the parson's room was but a rough, 
 twelve-sided building, made of unshaped granite blocks, 
 with lancet windows and a domed roof. But it was 
 on the inside that the parson and his men looked 
 and felt proud ; for there was gathered together all 
 the treasures of stone, and marble, and gold, and gem 
 which the parson himself had sought for, or bargained 
 for, or accumulated ; and the twelve walls and the 
 domed roof were encrusted with beauty. Round the 
 base of the building the coarser treasures were placed 
 — granite slabs with strange inscriptions, crosses and 
 carved stones dug from the earth or saved from an 
 extreme destiny in the walls of pig-styes or cow- 
 sheds. Above these shone marbles and porphyries 
 of wonderful colour and fine polish ; and from these 
 again rose a rainbow-like gHtter of quartz, and spar, 
 and gem, and mineral, from jetty black to dazzling 
 white, from royal purple to delicate amethyst, from 
 deepest emerald to palest sea-green, from an umber 
 which glowed to a sparkling amber, with gold and 
 silver, tin and copper, corals and fossils, flints and
 
 A SPANISH MAID tj 
 
 shells, diamonds which had lain in the Cornish earth, 
 and amethysts which had lain by the Cornish sea. 
 And they glittered, and flashed, and gleamed in 
 sunlight by day and in the light of the big lamp 
 which hung from the roof by night. 
 
 To Ursula, who had grown up in it, this room seemed 
 no wonder ; it was beautiful, indeed, but she knew 
 of many such in another land. The land in question, 
 however, was fairyland, and of such a spot the 
 parson and his men knew no geography. But with 
 these twelve wonderful walls around her, and the wild, 
 lonely land outside, Ursula found it no hard matter 
 to live half her life in fairyland and weave fresh tales 
 to meet her limitations. 
 
 On this November afternoon she sat on a straight- 
 backed oak chair before the hearth, with a little table 
 beside her on which were set the cups and saucers — 
 white delf, blue starred — which had served for her 
 dolls before those treasures were laid in the old chest 
 for a long, long sleep some years ago, but which now 
 served for the China tea which she and the parson 
 drank together every afternoon. 
 
 Ursula looked less of a child now than on that day 
 when the Spanish girl had come to Peter Ludgven's 
 cottage. The big duffel cloak had hidden the air of 
 womanliness which became her so well, and the hood
 
 78 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 had covered the soft fair hair drawn Ughtly back from 
 her dreamy Uttle face. To-day, as she sat waiting in 
 the firelight beside her tea-table, she looked so serious 
 and demure in her little grey gown with the white 
 'kerchief about her shoulders, that the parson seemed 
 right in assuring Master Humphrey that she was " little 
 Ursula" no longer. She was dreaming of the ways and 
 the doings of that gracious, glorious land — that land 
 which was not Arabia, nor Persia, nor India, nor 
 Algeria, which was like them all, rich, gorgeous, 
 tropical, and yet different, more fanciful, nebulous, 
 unreal — which was, in fact, fairyland. She was 
 wondering in what manner the chief of all those 
 imaginary, yet intensely real, personages, the gallant 
 hero-fairy prince-knight, would sail to Landecarrock 
 — for that he would reach those shores in due time, 
 she felt sure — when the door opened, and Agrimony, 
 her little maid, put in her curly head. 
 
 " Mistress Ursula, if you please, the pot boils, and 
 the master is nearing home with a stranger by his side." 
 And Agrimony's face was wreathed in smiles. 
 
 "A stranger!" exclaimed Mistress Ursula, starting 
 from her day-dream, and flushing quickly at the rare 
 news of such a coming, seeming, as it did, to answer 
 to her wonderings. " A stranger ! Of what " 
 
 But Agrimony was gone, and her little mistress
 
 A SPAN/SI/ MAID 
 
 79 
 
 stood with her hands clasped and her breath coming 
 fast, waiting for the coming of the unknown. 
 
 "Ursula, dear child, I have brought a stranger to 
 you," announced the parson, as he crossed the room 
 followed by Master Humphrey. 
 
 The colour flooded Ursula's face, and for a moment 
 she closed her eyes in her exquisite agitation. When, 
 however, she looked up and saw the laughing face 
 she knew so well, a great disappointment shook her, 
 and her voice held the vibration as she faltered : 
 " Humphrey ! " 
 
 But at once, on the shock of the pain, came the 
 shock of the pleasure. The real event was so good, 
 the imaginary could wait, and " Humphrey ! " she cried 
 again, all-joyous. 
 
 '* I think you were not glad to see me. Mistress Ursula?" 
 ventured Master Humphrey. 
 
 " Oh yes, indeed, indeed," she protested ; then, in 
 strict truthfulness added, " now." 
 
 " Did you look to see some other friend ?" 
 
 "I looked," she faltered. "I looked to see " 
 
 Then she met the laughing eyes again and pride gave 
 her courage. " I can wait for others ; there is time 
 enough for any other," she declared with a pretty 
 gravity. "It is you whom I know I am glad to 
 see."
 
 So A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Agrimony, bringing in the pot, set it on the hearth, 
 and handed the little inlaid tea chest to Mistress 
 Ursula whose little hands were trembling. And 
 Agrimony noted the trembUng, and she noted also the 
 light in Master Humphrey's eyes as he looked at his 
 playfellow and realised that twelve and three make 
 fifteen. And then Agrimony passed out again into 
 the passage-way which led to the house itself, and 
 being there, she laughed softly, yet merrily. But Agri- 
 mony was often laughing when there seemed but small 
 reason for the act.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " IVyr ASTER HUMPHREY'S home agen!" 'Zekiel 
 •^^■^ announced that same evening, as he sat at 
 his sister's ingle and looked into the red heart of the 
 peat-clods. 
 
 " Master Humphrey — home ! " repeated Mary Ludgven 
 amazed. " Goodness me ! Then 'twas sudden, I'll be 
 bound, for I saw Dame Tellam down to Pecket's farm 
 only yesterday forenoon, an' she didn' make no mention 
 of it." She was sitting on a low, wooden chair beside 
 Teresa, with Zel on her lap, curling his bare toes in 
 the warmth of the fire, his day garments all slack about 
 him, buttons and strings being allowed some relaxation 
 in view of the imminence of bed-time. " Poor young 
 gentleman ! " she went on musingly. " I often think 
 'tis a lonesome life for him down in that great empty 
 house, not a soul of his own family to care whether 
 he's livin' or dyin', an' all his fine friends enjoyin' of 
 themselves far away from these parts." 
 
 " He'd best marry," said 'Zekiel, " if 'tis company
 
 82 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 he's wantin'. And 'twould be a good thing for Lande- 
 carrock as well as for himself." 
 
 "He's a bit young to marry and settle yet awhile, 
 I'm thinkin'," Mary hazarded. 
 
 " A bit young ! No one's too young who's a mind 
 to it an' a-plenty to live on." 'Zekiel's voice was 
 protesting, and his eyes left the peat flame which had 
 seemed to hold them, and rested on Teresa's face as 
 she sat opposite to him with the firelight glancing on 
 her, now lighting her with a red shine and again leaving 
 her indistinct in shadow. 
 
 " 'Tis true the old squire was but a boy when he 
 married," allowed Mary, " an' he was happy enough, 
 folks say, but I'm thinkin' Master Humphrey is made 
 of different stuff to what the old squire was, with a 
 likin' to see the world in his own way." 
 
 " To my mind, a young squire with money, an' 
 wits, an' a great empty house, an' a sight of people 
 on his land, ought to get married," declared 'Zekiel 
 hotly. 
 
 "You'm set on havin' the young master settled," 
 laughed Mary, as she gently smoothed Zel's feet and 
 looked into the blaze. 
 
 And 'Zekiel drew back into the shadow of the settle- 
 arm, for he knew that his face was eager with his words. 
 He knew, too, that Master Humphrey's loneliness and
 
 A SPANISH MAID 83 
 
 his people's comfort were nothing to him then ; but 
 the squire's face was handsome, and his own heart was 
 heavy. 
 
 " I'm thinkin'," spoke Mary slowly, after a long pause, 
 "that maybe Master Humphrey would be like to 
 know the words that Teresa talks. He's travelled in 
 a powerful sight of lands, folks say, and 'twould be a 
 good thing for the poor maid to find some livin' soul 
 to make known her troubles to. P'raps Peter might 
 tell him 'bout the matter, for he's a kindly young 
 gentleman to speak with, an' has a good heart with 
 all his laughin' ways." 
 
 " He knows most tongues, I make no doubt," 'Zekiel 
 agreed, with bitterness in his voice which was hateful 
 to him but would not be curbed ; " he's got the luck, 
 has Master Humphrey." But he did not tell Mary 
 of that first meeting on the hill, somehow he could 
 not fit the words to it. And then it seemed that the 
 pause had made the telling impossible. 
 
 " My precious ! 'tis bye-low time," cooed Mary to 
 her boy, as she caught him tightly to her and rocked 
 him to and fro. 
 
 " I must be goin', too," said 'Zekiel, rising as he 
 spoke. 
 
 " Goin' ! " Mary exclaimed, turning to him in surprise ; 
 for 'Zekiel's hours by her hearth had lengthened as
 
 84 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the days had shortened. "Whatever are 'ee goin' 
 for ? " 
 
 "Well," stammered 'Zekiel, "I dunno — but maybe — 
 I'd best be off." 
 
 " Better bide till Peter comes," said Mary, pitying the 
 pain on his face. Then she rose with Zel in her arms, 
 and climbed slowly up the white wooden stairs humming 
 a lullaby to her boy's drowsy objections as she went. 
 
 'Zekiel stood for a moment, irresolute, twisting his 
 knitted cap, then he turned to Teresa and held out his 
 hand to bid her good-night. 
 
 But Teresa's passion was over. Perhaps the new 
 twist in her life had touched her with generosity, or 
 perhaps she noted that, in the kindly firelight, 'Zekiel's 
 face was wonderfully comely, and his roughness seemed 
 but an admirable strength, or perhaps her selfish 
 heart was penitent. Whichever reason held good, when 
 'Zekiel held his hand to her she caught it with both her 
 own, and hfting her alluring face to him, all tender and 
 petitioning, she drew him gently to the chair which 
 Mary had left, and her warm fingers lingered about his 
 own for a long moment after their sweet force had 
 ceased. Then she smiled as a sorry child might smile, 
 and then she turned from him and looked into the fire, 
 pensive. 
 
 But 'Zekiel talked no more of leaving.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 85 
 
 "What did I do to 'ee," he murmured passionately, 
 " to make 'ee angry ? I didn' think when I learned 'ee 
 to say * No,' that 'twould be for the like of that." 
 
 She turned to him again. "No? No?" she re- 
 peated slowly, with a question in each word. Then 
 with an impulsive gesture she smoothed the hand she 
 had shrunk from, and smiling graciously, "Ah! it will 
 be * Yes ! Yes ! Yes ! ' " she softly promised. 
 
 And the fire burned low and clear, and the knitted 
 cap lay upon the floor, and the lullaby overhead grew 
 fainter and fainter until it died away. And in the 
 kitchen scarcely a word was spoken, but the girl's hand 
 lay upon the boy's, and, in the glorious silence which fell 
 for an unreckoned spell, the boy's still tongue recorded 
 a more triumphant joy than shouts from a thousand 
 throats could have told ; and when Mary came softly 
 down the stairs again from the crib of her sleeping boy, 
 'Zekiel had not yet said his "Good-night," the cut of its 
 syllables would have murdered his short happiness — his 
 exultation — the strength of which was no stronger than 
 a girl's whim could shatter, the length no longer than 
 the letter's difference between her "Yes" and "No." 
 
 Mary stood a while and looked from the shadow of 
 the stairway across at the figures in the firelight, and 
 the gaunt, eager-faced man seemed a stranger in her 
 eyes, but the girl-child at his side made her shudder.
 
 86 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 "Is the maid stealing all the youngness from his 
 face for her own?" she thought wildly. "Is she flesh 
 and blood same as us ? Or is she some bewitched 
 thing come in to us from the sea?" Then her own 
 injustice lashed her. " Oh, 'tis me that's wicked ! Poor 
 maid ! poor, friendless maid ! " 
 
 "All in darkness you folks?" The voice was Peter's, 
 coming in, cheerful and ordinary, with a rattle of the 
 door latch and a clatter of his thick boots on the stones, 
 striking at Mary's nervous fancies and bringing her 
 thoughts back to common-sense and supper. So she 
 moved quickly about her kitchen, with some answering 
 cheerfulness, forcing back her fears as she lighted the 
 candles and began to set the table. And Peter, after 
 throwing a tangle of gorse upon the hearth, rested on 
 the settle and spread his great hands to the blaze, 
 
 " An' how 'bout the lessons, 'Zekiel ; do 'em go 
 forward ? " he asked with a sly chuckle. 
 
 'Zekiel leaned his chin on his hand and looked gravely 
 into the leaping flame of Peter's raising. " 'Tis a terrible 
 thing is a foreign tongue," he answered slowly. " 'Tis 
 worse than oceans of water, or leagues of land, for 
 gettin' to the other side of." 
 
 "I've a-heard," declared Peter with a laugh, "that 'tis 
 bad for a teacher to go puttin' too much heart in his 
 work ; 'tis apt to clog the head."
 
 A SPAmSH MAID 87 
 
 " 'Tis apt to break the heart, I'm thinkin'," murmured 
 'Zekiel. 
 
 " Master Humphrey's home, Peter," interrupted Mary, 
 coming forward to hft a saucepan from the hearth. 
 
 "Yes, I've been a-talkin' with him," said Peter. "I 
 met him on the hill a while ago, light-hearted as ever. 
 He don't seem to sober down much with his travels, ii 
 we may go by the looks of him." 
 
 "We've been thinkin', 'Zekiel an' me," continued 
 Mary, "that maybe he would be so kind as to speak 
 with Teresa in her own words, an' hear what she's got to 
 tell — all about where she conies from, an' who's her 
 folks, an' the like of that — for, I make no doubt, he'll 
 have an understandin' of what they talk over in those 
 parts." 
 
 Peter looked across at Teresa with the laugh on his 
 lips still, which had been spent, so far, on 'Zekiel ; and 
 Teresa, who caught the words " Master Humphrey," and 
 remembered, knew that they were talking of the happy- 
 faced stranger-man and of herself, and her eyes glowed 
 as they met Peter's. The coastguard looked at her 
 long and steadily and his face slowly changed and grew 
 grave. 
 
 " 'Tis a powerful pretty face ! " he murmured, " a 
 
 powerful pretty face ! A man " The words trailed 
 
 off into silence, but still he sat and looked, and.
 
 88 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 without stirring a muscle, the girl held his will, and 
 her own eyes were inscrutable. 
 
 " Peter ! " It was Mary's voice, low and trembling, 
 as she saw the fixed look in her man's eyes, and, 
 shuddering at the spell which seemed to lurk in the 
 girl's lashes, came to lay her hand upon his shoulder. 
 "Peter, come 'fore to supper now, my dear; 'tis all 
 ready." And Peter's thoughts were too far away to 
 hear that her voice was not the voice of a happy 
 woman. 
 
 "P'raps Master Humphrey will be able to help her 
 
 back home to her own folks " she went on bravely, 
 
 but a crash from 'Zekiel's fist upon the table slaughtered 
 the end of her sentence, and brought Peter back to 
 his senses. 
 
 "Hullo, 'Zekiel ! What's wrong with you?" 
 
 " I didn' go for to do it," muttered 'Zekiel confusedly. 
 " I wasn' thinkin'." 
 
 "You'm a bit heavy-handed when you'm light of 
 mind, then. What was you a-saying', Mary, before he 
 let his fingers fall ? " 
 
 "That maybe Master Humphrey would be able to 
 help Teresa to get back home to her own folks." 
 
 "Maybe he would," Peter agreed quietly, "an' 
 
 maybe 'twould be for the best that she should go, 
 poor young maid ! Come," he added, in his own
 
 A SPANISH MAID 89 
 
 cheerful voice, as he roused himself, and rose from 
 the settle, "let's get to supper. I'm mortal hungry. 
 Come, 'Zekiel, draw 'fore your chair; we'll give 'ee 
 the run of your teeth to-night, if you've a mind to try 
 the power of 'em." 
 
 'Zekiel drew forward his chair at Peter's bidding, 
 but the "run of his teeth" that night was inconsider- 
 able. His hunger lay in his heart, and, in such a 
 case, it is the guest who pays the price, not the 
 host. 
 
 When 'Zekiel had at last said " Good-night," and 
 had closed the door between himself and Teresa's 
 re-born graciousness, he turned to the dim, still night, 
 and the keen air seemed to whip at his eyelids and 
 wake him from a dream. He stood still and bore it 
 for a while and then he turned and walked slowly 
 down the hill. But when he neared Betty's cottage 
 it seemed impossible that he should go in, and shut 
 himself between four little walls, and make-believe that 
 he wanted to sleep. The imprisonment looked hateful 
 as he thought of it, and he felt as if he should never 
 sleep again. Instead of walking on down the street, 
 he passed along by the back garden, and then struck 
 upwards, and climbed the cliff hill until he stood 
 again where he and Teresa had stood that after- 
 noon.
 
 90 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " What's the good of it all ? " he questioned, and his 
 boy-heart seemed bursting with his passion and despair 
 as he flung himself down on the short grass. "What's 
 to be the end of it all ! Can a man fall on the ground 
 and pray a maid to give herself to him when he can't 
 so much as give her the time of day in words plain 
 to her understandin'? Why did she ever come nigh 
 these parts? Why did I go down the cliff an' look 
 upon her face ? " Then he paused, for the passion in 
 his heart beat at his throat as if to stun the words 
 for traitors. 
 
 But, in time, solitude and the night helped the boy 
 to be more god-like. As he lay there, with the great 
 dark dome over him, and the slow " plash ! plash ! " of 
 the sea sounding in his ears, the pain ebbed away 
 from him, as if drawn by the out-going tide, leaving 
 only an indistinct sadness as its scar. For many 
 minutes he lay there with his brain empty of thought, 
 either of trouble or joy — a motionless body with a 
 blanched mind — only conscious that, in the wash of the 
 waves there was a great peace, and that to move might 
 be to bring back pain. 
 
 So the minutes passed away and he feared to 
 stir. 
 
 It was the bark of a dog which roused him at last, 
 and he sat up and gripped his hands round his knees,
 
 A SPANISH MAID 91 
 
 and waited for the back flow of the misery ; but in 
 mercy the turn of that tide was slow. He was feeling 
 the soothing, the wonderful great peace, which lies in 
 the hollow of the hand of Night, and his heart was as 
 a palimpsest from which she had wiped the old pain- 
 words away, and on which, for a while at least, 
 were written only letters spelling patience and a 
 wonderful gratitude. 
 
 "I'm glad she came," he thought slowly. "I was 
 lyin' when I said I wasn'. I'm glad she came ; an' 
 I'm glad 'twas me as first went to her. I've a-held 
 her in my arms, an' 1 can bear what's to come." 
 
 Again came the sharp bark of a dog, and this time 
 it was closer to his ear. Turning his face inland 
 'Zekiel saw through the dimness the wriggling body of 
 a small, white animal, with the dark form of a man 
 following close behind it. 
 
 " Any one there ? " inquired a voice sharply. 
 
 "'Tis only me. Master Humphrey; me — 'Zekiel 
 Myners." 
 
 " Hullo, 'Zekiel ; you coastguarding, too ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; only watching the water a bit before I go 
 back home." 
 
 " Dreaming, 'Zekiel ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; I dunno as I was." 
 
 Master Humphrey came and sat down on the turf by
 
 92 
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 'Zekiel's side and tapped the ashes from his pipe, while 
 the white dog sat sturdily on his haunches and looked 
 out towards the sea, whining now and again as he felt 
 the keenness of the night breeze. 
 
 " Much been happening in these parts since I was 
 here last ? " asked Master Humphrey, as he slowly filled 
 his pipe again. 
 
 " No, sir ; nothin' much to speak of. Just a few of the 
 old people died ofiF, and a few young ones come, an' a 
 brave many stormy days an' nights, but they happen 
 along every year ; 'tisn' no news to tell of a storm." 
 
 " And Mary — is she all safe and sound ? " 
 
 " Mary's all right, sir, bless her heart ! Married since 
 you left Landecarrock, an' she's got a fine boy of her 
 own, sir, too. She's livin' up at the new cottage on the 
 
 hill, she an' Peter, an " 'Zekiel hesitated, " an' the 
 
 stranger." 
 
 " What stranger is that ? " Master Humphrey asked, a 
 trifle indifferently. 
 
 " Her you saw with me to-day, sir. Her you said was 
 a Spanish maid." 
 
 " Ah yes, I was forgetting." There was fresh interest 
 in Master Humphrey's voice now. " However did she 
 get to Landecarrock of all places in the world ? Where 
 does she spring from, and what is she doing here ? " 
 
 "Ah, Master Humphrey, that's more'n we can tell.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 93 
 
 Who the maid is, an' where she comes from, is things we 
 don't know ; they'm as far from us now as they was the 
 day she came to us, more'n two months ago." 
 
 " But who brought her ? Why does she stay ? " 
 
 " Nobody brought her, sir, not as they'd bring a livin', 
 breathin' human bein'. She was thrown out down 
 there on Averaclc beach like as if she was so much 
 jetsam, an' 'twas there I found her." 
 
 "What does it mean, 'Zekiel? Has Landecarrock 
 learned new ways ? I don't understand. They didn't do 
 these things, you must remember, before I went away." 
 
 "Nobody doesn' understand, sir. 'Tis as strange to 
 us Landecarrock folks as 'tis to you. But I'll tell 'ee 
 from the beginning, sir, if you've a mind to hear." 
 
 And there, on the same spot, his wild eyes conjured 
 up the scene again, and in a low, passion-charged voice 
 he put it into words, and made Master Humphrey see 
 it, too. And the tale was so real and the boy's heart so 
 full, and his words so wonderful that it seemed as if the 
 black ship lay again under the cHff waiting for her boat 
 to do its work, and that they could almost hear her 
 straining hawsers, and the water lapping against her 
 sides, with only the blackness of the night hiding her 
 from their eyes. 
 
 "An' that's every word we know," declared 'Zekiel 
 when his tale was told. "There, on Averack beach,
 
 94 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 I come upon her, an' me an' Mary brought her back 
 home." 
 
 " 'Tis a strange tale, 'Zekiel," said Master Humphrey 
 musingly. " What does the girl herself say about it ? " 
 
 "That's the worst bit of all, sir. She doesn' say 
 nothin', or we never get to know nothin', for we can't 
 none of us make out a word she talks." 
 
 There was a pause when 'Zekiel had finished speaking, 
 while Master Humphrey fell to thinking of the face of 
 the girl who had stumbled into his arms a few hours 
 before. She seemed, in very truth, to have the knack of 
 banishing every-day modes of thought and action he 
 decided, and he smiled unconsciously. 'Zekiel, too, was 
 remembering the afternoon's meeting, and the throbs of 
 the old pain stirred again at his heart. 
 
 It was then that with the suffering a new thought 
 came swiftly to him, and his face grew hot in the dark- 
 ness and his hands quivered. Twice he tried to speak, 
 but the weight of his words shackled his tongue. 
 
 •' Master Humphrey," he broke out at last, " I'm 
 wonderin', would you be so kind as to do a great thing 
 for me — a real big thing ? " 
 
 There was awe in his voice, and Master Humphrey's 
 first impulse was to laugh at him for his solemn way ; 
 but somehow, when 'Zekiel, stirred from his ordinary 
 respect, laid a shaking hand upon his squire's sleeve, and
 
 A SPANISH MAID 95 
 
 leaned towards him in a great earnestness, he felt that 
 a laugh would be a cruelty, and he answered gravely. 
 " I'll do anything I can to help you, and do it gladly, 
 you may be sure of that, 'Zekiel." 
 
 " Learn me her talk, sir," he cried. " Learn me so 
 that I can speak with her. I'd slave, an' slave, an' 
 slave ! Oh, Master Humphrey, if only I could get 
 to her through those cursed, heathenish words ! If 
 only I could ! " 
 
 "Ah," thought Master Humphrey, "that's how it is 
 with him, poor 'Zekiel ! " But' aloud he said cheerfully, 
 as if the learning of a language were a mere bagatelle, 
 " Learn you ! Of course I will. Spanish talk isn't 
 altogether child's play, but come to me when you've an 
 hour or so to spare and we'll try. You're too strong a 
 fellow to be beaten by a lot of heathenish words." 
 
 " 'Twould be a mighty thing for me, sir. You don't 
 know how mighty a thing 'twould be," said 'Zekiel, 
 his voice deepening to indistinctness as he tried to 
 steady it. 
 
 " I think I do," Master Humphrey thought a while 
 later, as he and his little white dog walked slowly back to 
 big, lonely Pensallas in the valley.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 T%yr ASTER HUMPHREY sat before the fire in the 
 -*-*-^ small terrace room. He always came to an 
 anchorage in the small terrace room when he lived at 
 Pensallas alone. He had tried very often to live in the 
 bigger rooms as he had done when the old squire was 
 alive, but he always drifted away from them in about half- 
 an-hour and found himself back again in the small terrace 
 room. He thought, when he troubled to think of it 
 at all, that it was because the smaller room was about 
 the only one which was not lined with family portraits. 
 Master Humphrey admired his family's portraits as 
 some folks admire their family tree, because it is their 
 family tree, and not as a specimen of arboriculture — the 
 portraits might not be of Greek-god pattern, but they 
 were of his ancestors. He also reverenced them, 
 because he had begun life reverencing them. But the 
 family portraits made Master Humphrey feel lonely 
 now, they were so many, all paint and canvas together, 
 
 96
 
 A SPAN/SI/ MAID 97 
 
 and he was one to himself; he felt that he almost 
 owed them an apology for being alive and intrusive, 
 and the desolate feeling lowered his spirits. There- 
 fore, finding the truth of the saying, that " one is 
 never so lonely as in a crowd," he avoided the crowd 
 and left it to itself in silence and darkness. 
 
 On this evening, the second since he had galloped 
 back from his wanderings, he lounged before his fire 
 with his feet stretched to the warm stone coping round 
 the hearth, fitting them to the hollows worn long ago 
 by resting cavaliers or Elizabeth's adventurer-seamen, 
 as they told of their past successes and failures, and 
 hatched more for the future. His head rested on 
 the flamboyant patterned damask of his favourite 
 chair, and his eyes were turned upwards in lazy con- 
 templation of the carving on the over-mantel, where 
 the fruits and grains of the earth twined themselves 
 sociably into a wreathing display of plenty with a fine 
 disregard of seasonableness, while thin clouds of 
 tobacco smoke rose as incense to the little painted 
 gods sprawling across the ceiling. Dame Tellam was 
 treading about the room, piling, with her own hands, 
 fresh logs upon the hearth, and lighting the candles 
 on the mantelpiece; for an extra gossip with the boy, 
 grown man, was worth a risk of dignity. 
 
 "Am I forgiven, nurse, for scaring you out of your 
 
 G
 
 98 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 wits — dropping from the skies into your linen-covered 
 rooms?" asked Master Humphrey at the end of a 
 long, spiral whiff of smoke. 
 
 Dame Tellam had been Master Humphrey's nurse 
 in the days when he had been too young to revolt 
 against such a functionary, and though promoted 
 many years ago to housekeepership, she was always 
 " nurse " to him in private and when her dignity could 
 not suffer, as he was always "Master Humphrey" to 
 her. But, indeed, he was " Master Humphrey " to 
 most folks in Landecarrock, for they found it hard 
 to believe that the " darin' little mortal," who had so 
 often scuttled secretly from Pensallas down to the 
 waterside, defying and cajoling them all by turns, was 
 now a man grown and their own squire. 
 
 " Yes, Master Humphrey, I don't bear no malice, 
 in heart. Women-folks do like things to be all fitty 
 when anybody comes, but, bless your soul ! I've grown 
 to expect 'ee when I see 'ee now, sir, an' the coverin's 
 was all clean as new pins, so I wasn' ashamed. An' 
 if your dinner wasn' such as I could have wished it, 
 why, I knew 'twas nobody's fault but your own, sir, 
 an' that's a brave bit of comfort to a woman's mind." 
 
 Master Humphrey chuckled. 
 
 " I was always a graceless scamp, nurse, and I verily 
 believe you were glad to see I hadn't changed my
 
 A SPANISH MAID 99 
 
 ways. But, to tell truth, I was tired of roaming for 
 a while, and I wanted to see how the old place was 
 looking. You know the feeling I get? I used to have 
 it just the same when I was a little man in frocks — 
 must drop everything and run home to see how some- 
 body, or something, was looking." 
 
 " I mind it well, sir, and I hope as how you find 
 the old place to your mind after your long spell in 
 foreign parts ? " 
 
 "The old place is all right," said Master Humphrey, 
 with a smile and a half-sigh, "but I see some changes 
 about here and there." 
 
 " 'Twould be a wonder if you didn', sir." 
 
 " The boys and girls have grown up, nurse. Have I 
 grown as fast as they have?" 
 
 " You ain't one for agein' fast yourself, sir ; but boys 
 an' maids will grow, no matter whether you turn your 
 head the other way or no ; an' then comes the courtin', 
 an' the marryin' — plenty of that, sir, do what you 
 will." 
 
 " Pretty Mary Myners married, fancy that ! " said 
 Master Humphrey meditatively. " I knew Peter wanted 
 her. Good Peter, he deserved her. But 'Zekiel, nurse 
 — what has happened to 'Zekiel ? " 
 
 " He's mazed, sir — mazed, an' nothin' else ! An' all 
 on account of that foreign maid as he got from the sea,"
 
 loo A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " He was telling me of her yesterday. It's a strange 
 tale ! " 
 
 "Strange! Master Humphrey, 'tis worse than 
 strange; an' I say as no good '11 ever come of it. 
 There's somethin' about that maid that — well, I don't 
 know what 'tis — but it gives me the shivers. I declare 
 to goodness, if I meet that maid in the village, an' 
 she turns them great burnin' eyes on me, I feel for all 
 the world as if my bones was turned watery an' wouldn' 
 so much as bear my weight; an' if I've got a thing 
 in my hand — from a basket of eggs to my Bible — I'm 
 like to drop it an' stand glarin' at her like a great 
 conger. 'Tis as if she'd draw the heart out of a body, 
 an' make it forget everythin', be it errands or God. I 
 can't abide the maid; an' that poor lad 'Zekiel has 
 gone ten years older since he picked her up." 
 
 "You see, she's different from the maidens he's 
 known hereabouts all his hfe," protested Master 
 Humphrey. 
 
 "Thanks be to the Lord ! you'm right, sir. I wouldn' 
 have our village maids goin' about in that there 
 heathenish dress, an' with them great black eyes for 
 whatever. No, sir; Landecarrock maids are clear- 
 skinned and modest-eyed, as a rule, an' content with 
 a decent, sober petticoat an' bodice ; but they didn' 
 seem to suit 'Zekiel Myners, howsoever." 
 
 <P\
 
 A SPANISH MAID loi 
 
 " Poor 'Zekiel ! " murmured Master Humphrey. 
 
 " Poor 'Zekiel ! you'm right, sir. 'Tis a bad day's 
 work for a man when he takes to a creature as comes 
 from the water; he's safe to get some harm from it. 
 An' when 'tis some outlandish maiden as is brought to 
 shore, I'm thinkin' 'tis worst of all." 
 
 "You mustn't be too hard on her, nurse. She is 
 but flesh and blood," again the squire protested. 
 
 " I hope you'm right, sir," said the dame grimly, 
 with a doubtful shake of her cap ribbons, "but I've 
 known flesh an' blood do a deal of mischief before 
 now." And with this profound opinion, and a final 
 poke at the logs, Dame Tellam left the room, 
 for there was flesh and blood in Pensallas kitchen, 
 and, though home-grown, a watchful eye was never 
 amiss. 
 
 Master Humphrey was in a mood of lazy content- 
 ment, for a long day in a small boat, cutting through 
 the waves — grey waves with white caps to them — with 
 the tiller in one's stiffening hand and the cold spray 
 on one's face, is apt to make a man think he has 
 done hard work when he gets back to dry warmth 
 and thinks about it. And Master Humphrey stretched 
 his inches — a considerable number, from the head on 
 the damask, to the feet on the stone-coping — and he 
 ruffled his short curls — curls that were fair, with that
 
 102 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 ruddy shine on them which is less annoying in man- 
 hood than in youth — and he felt commonplacedly happy. 
 
 There followed a long, drowsy silence ; even the 
 logs had given over snapping at the flames and the 
 wind outside had dropped. Pensallas House boasted 
 no ghost to wander about knocking at panels or 
 clanking chains. The plots which had been hatched 
 inside its walls had all been good, solid, human plots ; 
 perhaps a superabundance of loyalty or lawlessness 
 may have run through them, but there was nothing 
 ethereal or mystic about them ; therefore, when 
 Master Humphrey's thoughts, after wandering from fish 
 to men, and from 'Zekiel Myners to Ursula Swayn, were 
 suddenly disturbed by a low, determined tapping at 
 his window, they did not fly to spirits or wraiths ; he 
 merely felt surprise, and turned to face the unshuttered 
 window, trying to pierce the outer darkness from his 
 position by the hearth. But there was no shape or 
 form to be seen through the glass, and, deciding that 
 the sound was but the striking of a twig against the 
 pane he turned again to the fire. No sooner had 
 he done this than the tapping was repeated; then he 
 rose and went to the window, and, opening it, asked 
 quietly, "Who's there?" 
 
 The window was a deep one opening to the ground, 
 and as Master Humphrey stood, holding the casement
 
 A SPANISH MAID 103 
 
 wide with one hand, a slight scarlet figure came forward 
 quickly out of the darkness and stepped into the room ; 
 and he saw that it was the Spanish girl. 
 
 For a few moments there was silence, and Master 
 Humphrey still held the open casement and wondered. 
 But as the girl stood confronting him, with quick eyes 
 and flushed face, her breast heaving from a hurried 
 flight, and her scarlet shawl wound about her, there 
 was in her such an incongruous blending of daring and 
 childish apology, that amusement rose above the 
 wonder, and, without a word, he drew her farther into 
 the room, closed the casement, and shut out the night 
 with the heavy tapestry curtain. 
 
 "And what is it all about?" he asked, slipping 
 naturally into Spanish at the sight of her. 
 
 "Was it — wrong?" she whispered between her 
 short breaths, as she stood hesitating — yet with a defiant 
 laugh in her eyes — half-way towards the fire. 
 
 " Terribly wrong ! " he declared with mock solemnity, 
 and an answering smile in his eyes. " But come and 
 be warm, you cold little mortal ! " he added, as he 
 took her hand in his own and felt that it was stiff" 
 and ice-cold from the frosty night. 
 
 " Ah ! " she wailed peevishly, " I am ever cold here in 
 these miles and miles of everlasting twilight. Winds, and 
 land, and people are cold ; all cold— cold as death ! "
 
 104 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " You say that ! " he protested, somewhat gravely. 
 "The friends you have met have warm hearts, at any 
 rate." 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders and lifted her brows 
 with a finished contempt better befitting an absolute 
 monarch than a friendless waif from the sea. 
 
 "Well," he persisted, "is not Peter Ludgven as 
 open-handed and good-hearted a fellow as ever trod 
 God's earth ? And Mary — is not she kind and gentle ? " 
 She shrugged her shoulders again impatiently at each 
 question. " And then 'Zekiel ? " he went on ; " what of 
 'Zekiel ? " and he smiled and waited for her answer. 
 
 "Ah, 'Zekiel! persistently 'Zekiel!" she cried, with 
 a quick frown and a stamp of her foot. " It is 
 because of 'Zekiel that I am here with you to-night." 
 
 " Because of 'Zekiel ! What of him ? " 
 
 "You are teaching him my language," she cried, and 
 she stamped her foot again, finding that the action 
 emphasised her feeHngs. "I do not wish him to 
 
 know my language. I — I " her eyes fell with a 
 
 show of demureness beneath the question in his, and 
 she added softly, " I like him better — as he is." 
 
 Master Humphrey stood still and looked at her, 
 and for a moment he made no comment. Then he 
 laid his pipe upon the table and took her hand again. 
 
 "Come," he said courteously, "come, and sit by
 
 A SPANISH MAID 105 
 
 the fire," and he drew forward another chair beside 
 his own and placed her in it. "Now, tell me, why 
 do you wish that the poor fellow should not learn 
 your Spanish talk ? " 
 
 "I do not wish it, and, therefore, I do not wish 
 it ; that is enough for me," she exclaimed passionately. 
 "It should also be enough for you — for him. Why 
 should he learn if I do not wish it ? " 
 
 "There m.ight be a reason," returned Master 
 Humphrey quietly, as he watched the blaze and tried 
 to realise this logic. 
 
 "But you will not teach him, now that I have 
 told you that I do not wish it — that I hate it?" She 
 waited for his answer, but Master Humphrey was silent. 
 
 "You will not teach him now — now that I forbid 
 it ? " she demanded. 
 
 " Yes," he persisted quietly. 
 
 " But the thought of it is hateful to me," she broke 
 out. " I shall suffer to hear him speak with his 
 coarse voice. I shall be mad, wild, enraged, when 
 I must listen to him. Now I am free from him if I 
 wish ; but when he knows my own words then he will 
 pester me, he will pain me " 
 
 "Do you never pain him?" 
 
 She looked at him, astonished. "Perhaps," she 
 repHed. " What of it ? "
 
 io6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Oh ! nothing. No doubt our notions of fair play 
 are wide apart." 
 
 "But you will do what I wish?" 
 
 " No ; I have promised to teach him." 
 
 " I hate you ! " she panted, sitting upright in the 
 deep chair, and turning on him furiously. 
 
 Master Humphrey laughed. "Oh, no, you must 
 not hate me, that would give 7}ie pain. I like pain as 
 little as you do." 
 
 She paused, and again she looked at him astonished. 
 
 "You are a strange man," she declared, "but all 
 Enghshmen — you are English ? — are not as you 
 are." 
 
 "No," he answered, "most Englishmen, and women, 
 too, take pain as it comes and don't grumble; but, 
 you see, I am more as you are. I cannot allow it 
 to come to me." 
 
 "Will you be unamiable then? Are you obstinate? 
 Do you mean to teach this rough fisherman my own 
 speech ? " 
 
 " Yes," he answered slowly, keeping his eyes on the 
 blazing logs that he might not look on her face. " He 
 wishes to learn ; I wish to help, when I can, and — 
 I have promised." 
 
 He waited for the outbreak of her wrath, but she 
 remained quite still.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 107 
 
 And the logs, weary of resisting the blaze, gaped 
 and fell apart, and the flames leaped up in triumph ; 
 the clock by the door ticked off its slow seconds into 
 the great maw of that past which is never satisfied ; 
 and still the girl was silent. 
 
 After a while this silence which had, in its beginning, 
 been a reUef, began to be irksome. Master Humphrey 
 chafed under it, and a great desire filled him to hear 
 the girl's voice again ; he wanted her to speak, even 
 if she were angry. He found, too, that he wanted 
 to look at her. Though he had turned his eyes to 
 the fire that he might not see her furious at his 
 words, he felt, now, that he wanted to see her face 
 with the anger on it, and he turned his eyes from 
 the fire again and looked at her. 
 
 But she, too, was looking into the flames, and her 
 face was thoughtful, not angry. 
 
 Master Humphrey took courage from the sight, and 
 with a light little laugh he ventured to break the 
 
 silence. " I am sorry that it troubles you, but " 
 
 and he leaned towards her with mischief in his eyes, 
 "you will be grateful to me when you hear how 
 eloquent he grows." 
 
 She slowly withdrew her eyes from the fire and looked 
 at him absently, then again she turned thoughtfully 
 to the flames, while he watched her curiously and
 
 io8 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 wondered as to her next mood — and the length of her 
 visit. 
 
 At last she raised her eyes to him again ; and she was 
 really wonderfully attractive in this softened mood, 
 with the firelight trembling on her. 
 
 " Is 'Zekiel the only one you care for ? " 
 
 " Oh, no," he laughed. " I care, in some measure, 
 for every one." 
 
 " Will you trouble yourself for me, also ? " 
 
 He bowed his head low in answer. " What shall it 
 be ? What shall I do ? Shall I build a boat to carry 
 you back to Spain ? " 
 
 In an instant the softened mood was gone, the girl's 
 eyes were wild and flashing, and she sprang to her feet 
 in a passion of rage. 
 
 " Carry me back to Spain ! " she cried. '^ How 
 dare you ! How dare you ! " 
 
 " I do not dare," he said, raising his hands in mock 
 terror to shield himself from her fury. 
 
 She stood trembling before him, with her fingers 
 clutching at her shawl. 
 
 "Come," he said soothingly. "Don't be angry. I 
 would not force you back to Spain. I thought you 
 were yearning for warmer skies, and longed for home. 
 Tell me what it is that I may do for you." 
 
 The shock of his words had struck the blood from
 
 A SPANISH MAID 109 
 
 her face, but his quiet manner now calmed her, and 
 she answered : " Teach me your speech ; that is what I 
 would ask of you." 
 
 Master Humphrey looked at the gods on the ceiling, 
 for he felt that the laughter, which would creep into his 
 eyes, was safer in that direction. 
 
 " Never before," he declared, " have I set forth to 
 instruct the young in any manner of thing, but I am 
 not the man to shirk blessings when they fall." 
 
 " When shall I come to you ? " she asked eagerly. 
 
 But the words made Master Humphrey somewhat 
 thoughtful. 
 
 "Perhaps," he said slowly, "it would be better if 
 you did not come." 
 
 She looked at him, wondering, and a little stern. 
 " Must I not come here ? " 
 
 "Perhaps it would be better if you did not come," 
 he repeated. Then, noticing her look of wonderment 
 he spoke lightly: "I must tell you that the old lady 
 who guards my house is a very good lady — a very 
 good lady, indeed — but, for some mysterious reason she 
 does not welcome little girls." 
 
 " I am no little girl," she declared haughtily. 
 
 "I may say she does not welcome big girls either. 
 In fact there are very few sizes she can bring herself 
 to admit — and yours is a wrong one. Perhaps "
 
 no A SPANISH MAW 
 
 " If you fear your house-woman I will not come," 
 she remarked with perfect gravity. " I cannot make 
 you brave." 
 
 And Master Humphrey rose from his chair and 
 looked at her curiously. 
 
 This strange girl was charming ; so unexpected in 
 her ways and words ; her rage and her smiles of such 
 equal excellence ; her pleadings and her petulance of 
 such uncommon interest. He was finding infinite 
 entertainment in the contemplation of her. 
 
 Finding her host grow silent under her contempt 
 Teresa turned from him and paced the room, then 
 she sighed and forgot her contempt and cried out 
 in pity for herself. 
 
 " I must go back to the narrow cottage and shiver 
 before the humble hearth, always prisoned, always 
 cold. Ah ! " and she clasped her hands dramati- 
 cally, and looked about her in appreciation. "What 
 would I not give for such a home as this ? " 
 
 " You would find it dark and lonely," he remarked, 
 roused by her admiration. 
 
 "No, no; I would fill it with light and sound," 
 she declared. 
 
 "You might obtain more light, no doubt, with- 
 out excessive trouble, but you would find it a hard 
 task to fill it with much else down in these
 
 A SPANISH MAID m 
 
 outlandish parts. Cheerful folks do not care to 
 come." 
 
 " They would come for me," she affirmed. 
 
 " Ah ! I beg your pardon ; they would come, of 
 course, for you." 
 
 "You came." 
 
 " Yes, I came, but — I would not be impolite — but I 
 did not come for you." 
 
 " Ah ! but yes," she turned on him with half-closed, 
 smiling eyes, then she paused. "It was one day," 
 she went on slowly, "I walked here with 'Zekiel — 
 rough 'Zekiel — and I saw this, your castle, all empty 
 and closed, and I looked at 'Zekiel, and he seemed 
 yet rougher to my eyes, and I said : ' Oh that the 
 prince of this castle would return,' and then I said : 
 ' The prince of this castle shall return.' " She looked 
 at him as a mischievous child might look when fibbing 
 for the sake of fun. 
 
 " Indeed ! " he said, in mock astonishment. 
 
 " And you came," she concluded. 
 
 "Yes — I came," he admitted; and for a moment the 
 remembrance of the sudden longing for home, which 
 had gripped him in that dirty little Spanish street, came 
 back to him. 
 
 Teresa had left his side and was gliding about the 
 room, peering at the books, and the statues, and the
 
 112 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 pictures, softly smoothing the rich curtains, testing the 
 comfort of the chairs. At length she came to a stand- 
 still before a long, bevelled mirror, and the gleam of it 
 held her as if in a spell ; unconsciously she turned 
 from side to side, tipping her chin, and drooping her 
 lids, lost to the recollection of all other matters in sheer 
 marvelHng at her own reflection. 
 
 Master Humphrey stood and watched her, and many 
 minutes passed before he chose to interrupt her 
 satisfaction. At length he spoke. "And when shall 
 we have our first lesson ? " he asked quietly. 
 
 But the break of his words was no interruption to 
 her; she did not turn from the contemplation of her 
 raised eyebrows, which happened to be engrossing her 
 attention at the moment; she scarcely heard his 
 voice. 
 
 " They would come for me," she murmured absently, 
 then fell to silence again. 
 
 Master Humphrey still watched her, in smiling 
 curiosity, and began to contemplate the situation. 
 A beautiful maid had stepped suddenly out of the dark 
 night into his home, and seemed to have become 
 lost to consciousness of the necessity of departure in 
 her appreciation of her surroundings. Time was pass- 
 ing, in the methodical way it had, and still the maid 
 stood there, gravely, before the mirror, turning her head
 
 A SPANISH MAID 113 
 
 from side to side, and apparently well satisfied to con- 
 tinue doing so for some time to come. He mildly 
 wondered, with the smile lurking in his eyes, if the 
 rule of etiquette had yet been decided upon which 
 applied to his position at the moment. At length he 
 raised his voice and spoke again. 
 
 "When you have appreciated it to your entire 
 satisfaction perhaps you will command me." 
 
 Then she started and faced him, and there was 
 pleased wonder in her eyes. 
 
 " I am very beautiful," she said solemnly. 
 
 "You are right," he agreed. "Be grateful to 
 Spain." 
 
 Again her face changed, as a summer scene is changed 
 by a summer storm. 
 
 "Do not say that!" she cried. "Do not speak of 
 Spain to me ! It is hateful to me ! I will be of your 
 people, of your land, though it is gloomy, and grey, 
 and cold." 
 
 "Then, perhaps, you will decide upon an hour in 
 which I may teach you its language," he remarked. 
 To him she seemed as a specimen of uncurbed 
 animal, not entirely dangerous, but wild enough to 
 prove exciting. 
 
 " I will come to you, by the sea, to-morrow morning 
 — evening — when you will. I do not care," 
 
 H
 
 114 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 "Ah! — perhaps then — the morning would be — better. 
 Does Peter know that you have come here to- 
 night ? " 
 
 "No, no; how could he know? I could not tell 
 him. And now, must I go? Must I go from all 
 this warmth, and beauty, back to that mean little 
 home ? " 
 
 " I am afraid you must," he answered. 
 She went to the window, and, holding back the 
 curtain, looked out. 
 
 "Ah!" she cried in terror, "it is dark— dark as 
 a grave. I am fearful ! I shall die of fear. I cannot 
 go ! I cannot put my foot out into it, and walk 
 through those black paths." 
 
 She turned to him, trembling, and laid her clinging 
 hands upon his sleeve. 
 
 "Come, come," he said soothingly, holding her to 
 him closely, as one would hold a frightened child, 
 ''there is no reason for fear or dying. We are 
 all friendly folk in these parts. But I will take 
 care of you, little coward! You shall not face it 
 alone." 
 
 So they left the light and the warmth, and they 
 stepped out into the cold darkness, through the 
 window by which the girl had come. And, though 
 she still clung closely to Master Humphrey's arm in
 
 A SPANISH MAID 115 
 
 her fear, no more words passed between them until 
 they reached the village street. 
 
 It was here that Peter Ludgven met them, and 
 Master Humphrey, recognising him, called out : " Is 
 that you, Ludgven ? " 
 
 Peter turned. " Yes, Master Humphrey." 
 
 *' I've a charge to hand over to your keeping," said the 
 squire cheerfully. " This child is fearful of the dark, so 
 I gave myself the post of watch-dog." 
 
 "You'm very good, sir," said Peter slowly. "I'm 
 main sorry you should a-been troubled, sir." 
 
 "Oh! no trouble; don't think that. Cold night, 
 Peter ? " 
 
 " Mortal cold, sir." 
 
 "I'll say 'good-night' now, then." He laid his hand 
 firmly on Teresa's which still gripped his sleeve, and 
 then he loosed it gently and gave her into Peter's 
 care. 
 
 " Good-night, sir, an' thank you kindly," repHed Peter. 
 But as he climbed the hill, with the girl by his side, an 
 uncomfortable thought crept into his mind. "Where's 
 the maid been ? " he wondered. " How did she come 
 'pon Master Humphrey? Master Humphrey seemed 
 
 free enough about the matter — but he didn' say " 
 
 Thought after thought drifted through Peter's mind, but 
 the thought which came last and stayed was the thought
 
 ii6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 which had come the first time he had set eyes on her, 
 that morning after the storm. "She's got a mortal 
 pretty face — a mortal pretty face ! " 
 
 So they, too, walked on in silence until they reached 
 the little white cottage, and Mary came hurrying to the 
 door. 
 
 " Oh, Peter, Teresa's never come back ! She started 
 off " she began in scared tones. But Peter inter- 
 rupted her cheerily. 
 
 " Don't you be frettin'. She's here 'long with me. 
 I've brought her back right enough." 
 
 But the sight of the two figures on the threshold, all 
 safe and well, seemed to bring no great comfort to Mary 
 Ludgven after all, for she stepped back quickly and 
 turned all white and trembling, as if something had 
 bruised her heart.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TT was a glorious day, that day when jealousy — the red, 
 '■■ raging devil — entered into 'Zekiel Myners' heart and 
 killed his peace. But the merry sun cared nothing for 
 the pang at the boy's heart as he laughed down at the 
 heaving sea, for his sympathies are flagrantly with the 
 cheerful. And the heaving sea had never a glance for 
 the wild-hearted lover, as it coquetted with the joyous 
 god, its answering love-light sparkling on every ripple, 
 and its blue beauty defying all winter's chilly hints 
 and warnings. Envy had lain in 'Zekiel's heart for 
 many days, a stinging pain which pulsed with fresh 
 life whenever his eyes fell upon Master Humphrey 
 and acknowledged his superiority ; but this new tor- 
 ment was of a mightier growth than envy, it was 
 jealousy, bitter and unreasoning, and it entered in 
 and stayed. 
 
 For it was on this sunny, winter day that Master 
 Humphrey and the Spanish girl met on Landecarrock 
 
 117
 
 Ii8 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 beach, and 'Zekiel; mending his nets in the shelter of a 
 rock, glanced up, all unprepared, and saw the meeting. 
 At the sight he drew himself suddenly upright, then 
 swayed feebly, for a great blow seemed to have fallen 
 athwart his heart. And then the new devil rushed in — 
 in to his very soul — and he watched the man and the 
 maid with blazing eyes. He saw their hands touch and 
 the moment seemed an eternity. He saw them turn 
 together and loiter by the glistening baby-waves, and 
 every footfall trampled on his pain and made him 
 wince. He heard a light laugh float to him from 
 Teresa's throat — a laugh for which he would have 
 bartered his salvation if he could have called it from 
 her. He knew that they were speaking freely and easily 
 in that language which was to him as impossible as 
 the speech of angels. And he turned sick with the 
 despair of it all, his nets dropped from his hands, and 
 his heart withered and narrowed. 
 
 For a while the two figures dallied by the waves, 
 pacing slowly to and fro across the beach, leaving their 
 light footprints upon the firm sand, as they left their 
 deeper ones on a boy's soul ; but at length they turned 
 towards a group of rocks, and reaching a low, smooth 
 slab, sat down upon it side by side and turned their 
 faces to each other. This much 'Zekiel could see, and 
 though he could not hear their words or understand
 
 A SPANISH MAID 119 
 
 them even if he heard, the thought of what the words 
 might be, swelled in his brain and set it seething. 
 
 The callous sun still smiled and coquetted with the 
 little waves ; the sea-birds screeched and swooped across 
 the sky as if conscious of the value of a clear, blue 
 background for white wings touched with grey ; the 
 keen air stirred the pulses and brought a wonderful 
 colour to Teresa's cheeks, and the mist which still 
 hung here and there was but the morning's pride. 
 But all this beauty might have been chaos for any 
 ease it brought to 'Zekiel ; he stood with his nets all 
 tangled as they fell from his hands, and his eyes 
 blazing on the man and the maid as they lingered side 
 by side. 
 
 Higher on the cliff a little face was watching 'Zekiel, 
 a merry little face with pity on it, and dark curls for 
 a pleasant frame. It had seen all that 'Zekiel had 
 seen, and it had not liked the sight ; but degrees of 
 dislike are wide apart, as are also the methods of 
 enduring. 
 
 A sudden soft ripple of laughter above him startled 
 'Zekiel ; he had thought he was alone, and he turned 
 angrily to the intruder. Agrimony ! A common little 
 Landecarrock maid ! She was to witness his tragedy ! 
 There was no fitness in the fact. Looking up at her 
 he saw only the mirth on her face, not the pity;
 
 120 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 and he chafed, and he hated her suddenly, and 
 scowled. 
 
 But still the laughter rippled out, low and clear, 
 and seemingly heartless ; and then for a time the 
 merry face was hidden in two freckled little hands, 
 while a pair of shoulders swayed to the time of the 
 hilarity. 
 
 " 'Bide quiet, can't 'ee ! " 'Zekiel snapped out fiercely. 
 
 Then the face was lifted again, and the red lips 
 narrowed from laughter to words. 
 
 " Our squires seem like to be stolen from our 
 ladies." The words came down to him in mocking 
 confidence, and one freckled little hand waved towards 
 the figures on the beach. 
 
 "'Tis the squires that do the stealin'," raged 'Zekiel. 
 
 At that Agrimony fell to laughing again and 'Zekiel's 
 throat grew tight and strained with the wrath he was 
 choking back. Then he looked again at the beach, 
 and it so happened that above Agrimony's maddening 
 titter he heard Teresa laugh — a young, pleased laugh 
 — and he saw her put out her hand and lay it on 
 Master Humphrey's. The sight struck a piteous cry 
 from him, and, with gripped hands, he left his work 
 and strode towards them. 
 
 " How durst you ? " he demanded, as he stood 
 before them, red with rage and shaking with all
 
 A SPANISH MAID 121 
 
 the passions that surged in him. " How durst you 
 do it?" 
 
 For a whole minute there was absolute silence, 
 except for the monotonous plash of the waves and 
 the screech of the gulls ; but in that minute Teresa's 
 smiles reshaped themselves and stiffened into frowns. 
 She did not know the meaning of 'Zekiel's words, but 
 she saw the rage in his eyes, and his very presence 
 was an intrusion, and distasteful to her at the moment. 
 Master Humphrey, however, was only astonished as he 
 looked at the boy's desperate face. 
 
 "What is it, 'Zekiel?" he asked kindly. "What is 
 wrong ? " 
 
 " Wrong ! " came the cry, with that hopeless pain- 
 note in it — the note which can suddenly moisten eye- 
 lids arid for years. " 'Tis all wrong ! 'Tis a shameful 
 wrong, an' I won't stand by and bear it ! " 
 
 "But, for Heaven's sake, man, explain! Who is 
 wrong? What is wrong? Am I wrong, do you 
 say?" 
 
 "You'm a " But 'Zekiel's furious -words stopped 
 
 short, and his denunciation died in his teeth, for he 
 looked into Master Humphrey's eyes, and, with a 
 magnificent justice, acknowledged his honesty. "Oh, 
 Master Humphrey, sir," he cried out again in his pain, 
 " how durst you do it ? How durst you do it ? "
 
 122 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 "What have I done? Tell me, 'Zekiel, what have 
 I done ? " demanded the squire. 
 
 " Done ! you'm teachin' her to love 'ee, Master 
 Humphrey. You'm winnin' of her heart just to pass 
 away a chance hour or so, to throw it off again like 
 an old glove when you've a-done with it, an' drive 
 me mad." 
 
 '"Zekiel," said Master Humphrey, with a quick, 
 haughty lift of his head, "you must be mad already 
 to say this to me." 
 
 "An' I prayed 'ee to help me," went on 'Zekiel, 
 blind to the squire's anger. " I begged of 'ee to draw 
 me closer to her, an' you've come between us. Oh, 
 Master Humphrey ! what's your play-love beside of 
 mine?" 
 
 In the face of the boy's real pain, Master Humphrey's 
 wrath died quickly. " It is a great mistake," he said 
 quietly. " I have not won this girl's love. I have 
 not sought to win it ; though I account myself answer- 
 able to no one for my loves or for my hates, and I 
 certainly should not tolerate question or interference. 
 You asked a favour of me, so did this girl ; I granted 
 both. You wish to know her language, she wishes 
 to know yours. Is it fair that you fret because I 
 do for her what I willingly do for you ? " 
 
 Master Humphrey stopped speaking, and stood.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 123 
 
 white and dignified, before his accuser. Teresa on 
 the ledge above him, crouched with anger-red cheeks 
 and gripped hands. 'Zekiel stood still as a statue and 
 tried to realise it all. At last, as he looked long and 
 justly at his squire — debonair, well-favoured Master 
 Humphrey Harle — the realisation came in full measure, 
 and broke the spirit in him. 
 
 "My God! my God!" he cried out, "what's my 
 chance against such as him?" 
 
 The hopelessness of it all goaded him, and he 
 stumbled forward a step or two, throwing out his 
 arms towards Master Humphrey in his despair. Poor 
 'Zekiel ! The action held no malice ; but the girl 
 standing on the rock-slab, with her eyes blazing down 
 upon him, saw the gesture and misread it, and 
 leaping quickly on to the sand, struck him across 
 the face with her little clenched fist. 
 
 In an instant Master Humphrey had sprung forward 
 and gripped her by the arms, but he was too late 
 to stay her hand, and for a moment 'Zekiel staggered 
 under the unexpected blow. Then the blood which 
 had rushed to his face ebbed slowly away, leaving 
 him pallid, with the mark of the girl's knuckles 
 standing out in ugly relief. 
 
 For a long moment they stood motionless ; then, 
 without another word, 'Zekiel turned on his heel and
 
 124 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 strode away from them, across the sands and upwards 
 to the downs. 
 
 Between the two who stayed there was silence, 
 until silence became unbearable. Master Humphrey 
 still gripped the girl's hot, brown arm, and she 
 glared back at him with wide defiant eyes. Then 
 she laughed, a callous little laugh which filled his 
 soul with a minute's loathing. 
 
 " You little fury ! " he muttered ; " you little fiend ! " 
 
 " He is a devil ! " she cried. 
 
 " He is an honest fellow," he declared, " and I am 
 going to him." And Master Humphrey loosed his 
 hold of her arm, and he^ too, walked away from her 
 across the beach and up the cliff path to the downs. 
 
 The girl, left alone, clenched her teeth until they 
 pained her, and stood watching the two men go from 
 her, her own face ugly with mortification and rage. 
 
 And then, from her perch on the cliff came Agri- 
 mony and laughed at her, and with a jerk of her 
 head towards the figures moving away the laughter 
 took on an unbearable note, and "You've a-lost 'em 
 both this mornin', I'm thinkin'," she tittered. Teresa 
 understood little of her words, but the language of 
 laughter is cosmopolitan, and she understood that the 
 little village maid was taunting her. This third insult 
 whipped her wrath to fury and she lifted her clenched
 
 A SPANISH MAW 125 
 
 hand again to beat down the face which offended 
 her. But Agrimony was quick and quite unawed ; 
 stepping back and shaking her head till her curls 
 were all a-bobbing, she waved her aggravating little 
 hand and skipped away, leaving Teresa to chafe under 
 her laughter as she went. 
 
 And Teresa did chafe. She looked from the dancing 
 figure on the beach to the two men away in the distance, 
 and her face was dark and passionate. In half a 
 morning hour Landecarrock had grown hateful as Spain ; 
 every human being she knew, or had ever known, was 
 hateful. Agrimony, on the beach, turned before dancing 
 up the slope to the village street and curtsied low with 
 mock reverence. The two men on the downs had 
 met together. Teresa saw it all and raged at it, then 
 she tossed her head defiantly and walked back to the 
 village alone. 
 
 "There's no manner of good in that maid," declared 
 Ann Vitty, as she paused in her knitting and watched 
 the girl go up by the corner of her garden from the 
 street. "To my mind she's a-got a powerful strong 
 look of the black gentleman about her." 
 
 "Maybe you'm right," agreed Luke Tregay, taking 
 his little black pipe from his mouth to do it. " Maybe 
 you'm right. I dunno as I know the looks of that 
 gen'leman over-well myself, so I wouldn' go for to set
 
 126 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 my knowledge of 'un against your own ; but I must say 
 the maid ain't nothin' like our Landecarrock maids, nor 
 like any other body as ever I've a-seen, so I make no 
 doubt she's like them as I 'aven't seen. 'Tis a mortal 
 heathenish way she's got with her." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Ann Vitty meditatively, " 'twas queer 
 work — her comin' that way. Queer things do happen 
 one time an' another, of course; but I must say as I 
 wouldn' like to fall under her eye." 
 
 '"Tis a fine bold eye, too," declared Luke with a 
 good courage, preparing to better his lapse into ponder- 
 ous pleasantry. " In the matter of maids' eyes you 
 must know, Ann, 'tis we men-folk as must be the judges. 
 Law, bless me ! wimmen-folk can't never see straight 
 when 'tis other wimmen-folk's eyes as is the view to be 
 looked 'pon." 
 
 " Men-folks ! Poor, silly creatures, sure enough, to 
 set about judgin'," retorted Ann with scorn. "Talk 
 about wimmen-folk not seein' straight ! Men-folk don't 
 see nothin' at all, straight or crooked. A bold-eyed 
 maid looks at 'em, an' they'm blinded; an', 'Law me!' 
 they call out, ' What bootiful eyes she hev a-got ; I can't 
 see nothin' for dazzle.' Dazzle's booty to you men-folk. 
 You'm always for worshipping what you can't make 
 out." 
 
 Luke chuckled as the young ways of men were
 
 A SPANISH MAID 127 
 
 fathered on him. He liked the delicate inclusion of 
 himself in the green stupidity; and Ann Vitty seemed 
 to recognise this and regret it, for her next words 
 were chosen with a view to counteracting the com- 
 pliment. 
 
 "An' you, too, I b'leeve, come to your age, would be 
 just as foolish as the young ones if that maid were to 
 turn an' look at 'ce." 
 
 "Maybe you'm right, my dear soul. Humans is 
 somethin' like ducks; can't see but with one eye at 
 a time, an' that one's all for some little bit of shiney 
 trade that happens along. But, law ! Ann Vitty, the 
 ways of maids is pretty," he concluded indulgently. 
 
 "'Twas the ways of men-folk we was considerin'," 
 Ann Vitty corrected with some grimness. " T/iey wasn' 
 much to boast of for prettiness in my day, an' now I 
 call 'em mazed." 
 
 "Your day was my day, Ann." Luke's voice took 
 a conciliatory note. " An' I make no doubt we was all 
 mazed in our fathers' and mothers' eyes. But we 
 didn' cry out for no Spanish maids, anyhow; Lande- 
 carrock eyes was bright enough for us." 
 
 Ann Vitty had been a Landecarrock maid herself 
 and the implied compliment was not wasted ; she had 
 reached the turning of the heel in her knitting, and 
 the business was absorbing, but the tone in which
 
 128 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 she counted her stitches was free from the asperity 
 which had run through her last remark, and when 
 she spoke again she had waived aside the weaknesses 
 of man, and had turned to the uncertainty of the 
 fattening of pigs. 
 
 Daniel Laskey, who leaned against his own particular 
 hollow in the wall, still looked with absent eyes at the 
 corner by which the foreign maid had passed. But 
 if his thoughts had trailed away to the pretty ways — 
 or otherwise — of other maids he had known in that 
 far-off boyhood of his, at any rate he said nothing of 
 the matter, only murmured, " H'm ! " when the silence 
 seemed to call for sound. 
 
 Mary Ludgven was setting the table for dinner when 
 Teresa reached the cottage door. Her face was pale, 
 but her lips were smiUng as she moved to and fro, 
 cooing the while to Zel, who lay stretched on his back 
 in the cradle, fighting the air with his bare legs and 
 arms. Teresa stood and watched them for a moment 
 unnoticed, but the sight did not seem to please her, 
 for the gleam in her eyes was unholy, and her red 
 lips were scornful. 
 
 At length, Mary, turning towards the door, saw the 
 girl, and started. 
 
 " Oh, I didn' know you was there ! " she exclaimed, 
 striving, as she always did, to force a welcome note
 
 A SPANISH MAID 129 
 
 into her voice. "You'm just in time for dinner. I 
 was on my way to call Peter." 
 
 " I go," cried Teresa, who had gathered the sense 
 of the words, and she turned quickly to the little 
 wooden gate at the side, which led to Peter's vegetable 
 garden on the slope of the hill. 
 
 Mary's first impulse was to forbid the girl to go. 
 
 "No, no " she began, but Teresa was too quick 
 
 for forbiddings. And "Why shouldn' she go?" Mary 
 demanded of herself, with that never-ending struggle 
 to be just to the girl. Lifting Zel from his cradle 
 she sauntered out to the gate, and leaned against 
 it as Teresa went up the garden path with slackening 
 pace. 
 
 " Pe — ter," came Teresa's voice, low and tremb- 
 ling. 
 
 "Why does she say it like that?" thought Mary 
 resentfully. Perhaps she over-blamed a softness of 
 voice which was but instinctive with the girl — except 
 in her wrath ; but it was as well for Mary's peace that 
 she could not read the girl's heart at the moment, 
 stinging as it was from what she felt to be the 
 defeat and humiliation of the morning, and craving 
 to assert her power again, over some one — over 
 any one. 
 
 But the voice was too low. Peter did not hear it. 
 
 I
 
 130 
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 He was shouting a cheerful song with the full strength 
 of his lungs, and his back was turned to her. 
 
 " Peter ! " she called again, " Peter ! Peter ! " 
 
 This time her voice, though still low, was impera- 
 tive. 
 
 "Right! I'm a-comin'," shouted Peter. "I've just 
 a-got to turn this foot or two of weed." And he 
 went on with his labour and his song, while Mary 
 leaned heavily against the gate and still followed 
 Teresa with wide, pained eyes. There was no reason 
 why Mary's heart should pant so hardly and her breath 
 struggle in her throat; she was foohsh, she told her- 
 self again and again. There was no reason for fear, 
 but still the pain was there. 
 
 "Ah, Peter!" Teresa's voice was tense now and 
 vibrating. 
 
 "All right," he answered again, without looking up, 
 " 'twon't take but a minute or so " 
 
 But Teresa had drawn close to him, and she laid 
 her hand upon his stooping shoulder. Then, with a 
 start, Peter straightened his back and looked at her, 
 and their eyes met. The song — that silly, cheerful 
 song — it was forgotten, of course ; the smile on his 
 face died, too. The fat, pink-brown worms slid from 
 the newly-turned clod and the sudden touch of winter 
 air, down into the warmth and security of the good
 
 A SPANISH MAID 131 
 
 brown earth. But Peter did not heed them ; his eyes, 
 and his senses, and his will were held as if they 
 were enmeshed in the girl's lashes or clipped by her 
 lids. Teresa was asserting her power ; she was recover- 
 ing her slackened strength; and Peter — humble Peter 
 Ludgven — was accounted worthy enough subject for 
 the testing of that power; and he gazed upon her, a 
 fixed, spell-bound gaze, as if his soul's salvation lay 
 deep down in her baffling, inscrutable eyes. Then she 
 moved slowly from him, and he dropped his spade 
 and followed her. 
 
 Mary, who had watched it all, bowed her head on 
 her baby's warm, chubby shoulder, and closed her 
 eyes, as if she hoped this act might bar the recollec- 
 tion from her mind as the lids barred the scene from 
 her sight. Then she turned away from the garden 
 and went into the house, and waited. 
 
 "Why does the light, an' the strength, an' the 
 happiness go out of every man an' woman's face as 
 looks upon her?" she asked wildly. "Why did she 
 ever come to my doors ? " 
 
 But there was no answer to her cry, only Peter's 
 heavy footsteps drew nearer and then came in at the 
 door. There was a dazed look on his face which 
 hurt his wife's heart ; it was as if he had become a 
 stranger to her. With a sudden impulse she put
 
 132 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the child into his arms and turned to Teresa in 
 dumb petition. Teresa was smiUng placidly upon 
 the father and child, but to Mary it seemed that 
 the eyes between the girl's narrowed lids looked 
 pitiless.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " 'VT'OU will come, Teresa?" 
 
 -■■ There was pleading, mock or real, in Master 
 Humphrey's voice — the pleading of a man accustomed 
 to win his wish. 
 
 It was a bleak afternoon a few days before Christmas, 
 and all along the lonely lane in which they stood, the 
 wind swept, keen and blustering, over the dry white 
 ground, whirling the sticks, and twigs, and fallen 
 leaves, then driving them on before its boisterous- 
 ness, and whistling through the bare, bending branches 
 overhead. 
 
 All that day Teresa had been sullen and silent, 
 with ugly lines on her forehead, as she cowered by 
 the hearth; until Mary, taxing to the fullest her own 
 powers of interpretation and pantomimic action, had 
 roused her, and induced her to leave her brooding 
 and face the world out of doors, bringing down her 
 
 133
 
 134 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 own best shawl — a gorgeous tartan brought round to 
 Landecarrock by the good ship Mary Jean of Glasgow 
 — as a lure. And Teresa, either won by the colours 
 of it, or over-tired of her own megrims, had risen im- 
 patiently, and, snatching the gay thing from Mary's 
 hands, had wound it about herself in the "heathenish 
 manner" which the villagers found so trying to their 
 sense of fitness, and had gone out ungraciously, turning 
 her face towards Pensallas. 
 
 " You will come, Teresa ? " 
 
 The words were spoken suddenly behind her as 
 she stood by a gateway and looked through it to the 
 sea. Turning quickly she saw Master Humphrey, 
 ruddy and smihng, with his hands stretched out to 
 her, part mocking, part deprecating. 
 
 For a month Teresa had hated Master Humphrey 
 and her recollection of him in the aggregate — his 
 laughing, unconcerned face, his tolerant kindness, his 
 jests when she would be serious, his smiles when she 
 would be tragic, his championship of 'Zekiel, his 
 desertion of herself. To a certain extent 'Zekiel had 
 been graciously forgiven for obtruding his pain and 
 passion upon her so inconveniently, and 'Zekiel, with 
 his heart full of misery, had had no more spirit than 
 to snatch hungrily at the crumbs of comfort she 
 tossed to him. But with Master Humphrey it was
 
 A SPANISH MAID 135 
 
 another matter. 'Zekiel was but a common fisher-boy, 
 and his very soul was given over to her, whether she 
 desired it or not. Master Humphrey was the squire, 
 with wealth and beautiful possessions, and he had 
 been indifferent to her. Now for a month she had 
 met him and passed him with never a glance or a 
 word, but the look in her eyes and the set of her 
 lips did not mean that she had forgotten. 
 
 Master Humphrey had gone on his way cheerily as 
 ever, amused by the girl's temper when he noticed it, 
 but fairly unconcerned. But as the days passed, her 
 haughty little face began to interest him, perhaps to 
 pique him, and he felt that he would like to be 
 friends with her again. Christmas was coming and 
 he wanted her to smile and say that she would come 
 to his dance in the barn — not furrow her brow and 
 quarrel. Besides, there was that spell which she 
 seemed to have cast over 'Zekiel ; he wanted to watch 
 her ways. It was a dangerous game, interfering with 
 'Zekiel's love-experience, but it would be interesting 
 to find where the glamour lay 
 
 She turned at his words and saw him standing there. 
 And if for a moment an evil wave passed over her face, 
 ugly and startling, it was so fleeting that a second 
 later Master Humphrey doubted the truth of his own 
 sight, as she stepped closer to him, and looked at him
 
 136 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 with the soft radiance welling in her eyes which had 
 proved poor 'Zekiel's undoing. 
 
 A wonderful flush stole over her face, he saw ; it 
 was like the rosy bloom on a little child's cheeks. And 
 that speck of light, there, deep in her eyes ! It seemed 
 to tremble, then to grow small, then to dilate ! It was 
 curious ! it was most fascinating ! It seemed to hold the 
 eyes that looked at it ; or was it the brain it struck ? 
 
 A dazed, straining look crept into Master Humphrey's 
 laughing eyes ; deep, stern lines came and lay about 
 his lips where his smiles had lain before. They made 
 him seem suddenly quite old, as if he had been but 
 masquerading as the young debonair squire — playing 
 at boyishness for a whim, until now. He stood staring 
 at the girl^ oblivious of the fact that a gaze of several 
 minutes' length might be deemed uncivil. 
 
 It was Teresa who broke the long silence. She 
 laughed, a little, low, wooing laugh, which pardoned 
 the incivility before it was repented of, and said softly : 
 " I will come if you wish for me." 
 
 In the same half-conscious manner he took her 
 hands and drew her towards him. 
 
 " And you will dance with me ? " His voice was now 
 a whisper. 
 
 "And I will dance with you," she answered, with 
 her eyes still looking unshrinkingly into his.
 
 A SPAmSH MAID I37 
 
 That wonderful fleck of light ! It was tantalising 
 him ; it was evading him ; it had vanished. Surely it 
 was fancied ; it was really never there ! But, as he 
 felt the shock of loss, of disappointment, it had danced 
 back again. He had sometimes watched sunshine 
 trembling in the brown hollows of a trout stream; it 
 had been beauty on a larger scale than this, but it 
 had never stolen his senses. Now, in the bewitch- 
 ment, he drew the girl still closer, and the muscles 
 of his hands stiffened to a strength he did not 
 guess. Teresa's face was close to his; her lips were 
 parted 
 
 A sudden blast of wind came tearing and moaning 
 through the lane. It pierced the girl's sensitive body, 
 it chilled the blood in her veins and set a quick 
 anger in her eyes. 
 
 " A — h ! " said Master Humphrey. He drew his 
 eyes from hers, and dropped her hands ; and there was 
 some mingling of a groan and a sigh of relief in his 
 voice; then he looked slowly at the hedges and 
 the road, as if they were new to him. The wind's 
 fury had died as suddenly as it had risen, and 
 Teresa's anger was gone with it. She moved from 
 the gateway now and went slowly down the lane, and 
 Master Humphrey moved too, and walked by her 
 side. But it was a glint of triumph which lay at the
 
 138 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 back of the girl's eyes when they were turned from the 
 squire's face. 
 
 Master Humphrey had become dull. Having won 
 his wish, he seemed to have little to say that afternoon. 
 The whole length of the lane he paced at Teresa's 
 side, but his eyes were turned persistently from her 
 and were fixed upon the bare, wind-swept ground before 
 him, as a child, who, having dropped a treasure on his 
 outward way, is now returning carefully. 
 
 And the biting air which brought the blood to his 
 face, drained it from Teresa's. She grew white and 
 cold and shivered beneath Mary's tartan. "I shall 
 return to the hearth," she said pettishly, as she faced 
 back again. "There is no pleasure in this cold 
 pacing." 
 
 Master Humphrey turned, too, and then he dared 
 to look at her again. But a sudden gust buffeted 
 the last remnants of her patience. " Ah ! what a dull, 
 icy land, and people ! " she cried. " It is insupport- 
 able ! not to be borne ! " And with a gesture of 
 disgust she turned from him quickly and sped away, 
 leaving him standing in the lane alone. 
 
 With slow steps Master Humphrey retraced his 
 way, and stood again by the gateway where he had 
 found Teresa, and looked across the leaden waters. 
 
 " It was as if one were dreaming," he said half-
 
 A SPANISH MAID 1 39 
 
 aloud. Then he passed his hand across his eyes. 
 "I am awake now," he added ; "I was a fool!" Then 
 he leaned on the top bar and whistled most cheer- 
 fully; and a little water-course, trickling lazily down 
 the hedge on the other side of the road, played 
 secondo to his tune. 
 
 The early winter dimness was beginning to tone 
 down the day colours, when quick footsteps, hurrying 
 over the hard ground, dominated the duet. Master 
 Humphrey turned from his gateway and saw a little 
 figure in a hooded blue cloak, whose breath came fast, 
 and whose cheeks were pink from her hurry through 
 the keen and boisterous air. 
 
 " Ursula ! You, and all alone ! " 
 
 " Ah ! Humphrey," she panted, " I am glad. I am 
 come from Venton Cottages, where I walked quite 
 early this afternoon to learn how Ann Teagle fares, 
 for grandfather was busy with his writings ; and the 
 cottagers found so much to say, and I so much to 
 see, that the light was fading before I remembered 
 my homeward walk, and I began to fear that dark- 
 ness would come upon me and grandfather would be 
 grieved." 
 
 There was no excess of shyness or self-conscious- 
 ness on Ursula's little face in these days; that had 
 passed with the first strangeness of Master Humphrey's
 
 140 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 home-coming. She, at any rate, took no heed of the 
 ageing properties of three years. He was once more 
 the fellow - creature she knew most freely of all in 
 her small world ; he was her play-fellow again, with 
 only the games a trifle graver. 
 
 "There will be no darkness yet awhile," he assured 
 her cheerfully for her comfort. Then, as he looked 
 at her confident little face, a sudden impulse made 
 him say : " I have been talking with the Spanish maid, 
 Ursula." 
 
 He did not know why he told her, nor why he 
 looked at her so anxiously when he had done it ; 
 but when he saw her gentle eyes grow thoughtful he 
 suddenly looked away, and fingered a lichened tree 
 bole, and waited for her to speak. 
 
 " Poor maid ! " she said. " Grandfather always says, 
 ' Poor maid ! poor stranger in a strange land ! ' when 
 he speaks of her." 
 
 " And you ? " he asked. " Do you pity her ? " 
 
 *' I ? " she answered. " I think I fear her — when I 
 am by her, but when I am apart from her I think of 
 her very often." 
 
 *' What do you think of her then ? " 
 
 "She is so wonderful! Oh, Humphrey! she must 
 have seen — she must have lived in some of those 
 wonderful lands "
 
 A SPANISH MAID 141 
 
 " Have not I ? " he protested. 
 
 " And she is so beautiful " 
 
 " Am not I ? " he demanded laughing. 
 
 " Truly ; I will grant that you are a wonderful, 
 beautiful pair." 
 
 " No, do not pair us," he said, growing grave. 
 
 Then Ursula remembered the dimness again. 
 
 "I must not loiter," she sighed regretfully. "Will 
 you not come with me, Humphrey ? Agrimony shall 
 bring a third cup for you if you will," 
 
 But Master Humphrey looked troubled. 
 
 "No, dear," he said hesitating, "I think I will 
 not come. I — I feel scarcely fit to come." He 
 laughed unnaturally. " I have been — I am smirched ! " 
 He held out his hands to her with the Hchen dust 
 on them. 
 
 Ursula laughed at him. 
 
 " It is but a little lichen dust, stupid Humphrey ! 
 Blow it away." 
 
 He blew and the light dust disappeared, but still 
 a dark streak remained. Then he looked at her again, 
 with more trouble on his face than the occasion 
 seemed to need, and again Ursula laughed at him. 
 
 " Oh, stupid, helpless Humphrey ! to fret for such 
 a little spot ! I will soon make it right." 
 
 She ran to the stream which trickled down the
 
 142 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 opposite hedge, and, dabbling her little handkerchief 
 in it, came back and took his hand in hers. Quite 
 soberly she rubbed away at his palm with the damp 
 cambric until the streak was gone, and then, "The 
 other, please," she said, " for I will make you quite 
 clean again." And she rubbed the second palm with 
 much thoroughness. " Now, dry them," she commanded 
 with a business-like air. 
 
 "Look at me, Ursula," said Master Humphrey, with 
 sharp imperativeness, his wet hands still outstretched, 
 and she looked up at him quickly with the demure 
 little smile he knew so well. But to-day there was a 
 pretty gleam in her eyes, and that he did not 
 remember to have seen before — perhaps he had never 
 noticed Ursula's eyes before. Now the pretty gleam 
 startled him ; he liked it, and then he regretted it. 
 For one moment it recalled Teresa's eyes, but the 
 next moment that recollection and the regret were 
 both gone. This was such an honest little gleam; it 
 shone so steadily. The old smile came back to his 
 lips again and both faces looked young and very 
 happy. 
 
 " Dry your hands, silly Humphrey ! " she said again. 
 And he drew his handkerchief from his pocket and 
 obeyed her. Then he took the little wet one from 
 her and wrapped it in his own, and he laughed at
 
 A SPANISH MAID 143 
 
 her, and she at him ; and the bleak, wintry world 
 seemed to have become a wonderfully pleasant place 
 to both of them, though neither stopped to wonder 
 why. So they turned their faces villagewards and 
 walked briskly on. 
 
 There was clamour to be heard when they neared 
 the boat-sheds, and while they wondered at it, the 
 clamour was hushed and a low murmur took its place, 
 rising now and again above the wail and roar of the 
 wind. Coming closer they looked down upon a group 
 of men and boys, wives and maids, and many brown- 
 legged children ; while, apart from these, chasing along 
 the shore, were two other figures, and the first was 
 Sam'le Laskey, and the second was 'Zekiel Myners ; 
 and Sam'le was the pursued, and 'Zekiel the pursuer. 
 The children were laughing and shrieking excitedly, 
 but the early grins of the elders had already passed 
 out of their eyes, even while they lingered on the lips, 
 and their calls were protests and admonitions. 
 
 " 'Zekiel playing with Samuel Laskey ! " exclaimed 
 Ursula surprised. 
 
 But as she said it Sam'le doubled and both faces 
 were turned for some moments inland, and then they 
 saw that though on Sam'le's face there lay a sort of 
 half-pleased, half-proud daring, on 'Zekiel's there was 
 only rage.
 
 144 -^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 "What does it mean?" asked Master Humphrey, 
 moving towards the little crowd. 
 
 "Why, sir," answered a fisher-boy, "'twasn' nothin' 
 but fun to begin with. We was just throwin' a word 
 or two to 'Zekiel 'bout his maid, an' he didn' make 
 no caprouse 'bout it at all, but that there great 
 bufflehead, Sam'le, must needs go an' sing out some- 
 thin' — well, sir, 'twasn' no purty speech — an' 'Zekiel 
 he was up in a minute, an' he made for Sam'le. Sam'le 
 was a brave way off an' seed 'Zekiel a-coming, an' 
 runned, but I'm thinkin' 'tis a brave time since Sam'le 
 done such hard work as he's a-doing now. He'll get 
 more'n he thought for when 'Zekiel do get 'en, by 
 the look of it." 
 
 From where they stood they could see that Sam'le 
 was panting, and that the smile had died from his face 
 and something like fear had taken its place; and it 
 seemed as if 'Zekiel's rage must have blinded his own 
 eyes, for Sam'le's clumsy turns and manceuvrings saved 
 him each time. 
 
 After a minute or two Master Humphrey moved 
 forward to interfere and stop the chase which had 
 grown too serious to be watched as play, but Sam'le 
 turned suddenly, and, stumbling up to a pile of old 
 planks, clambered up them and ran along the top. In 
 an instant 'Zekiel sprang up after him, and then the
 
 A SPANISH MAID 145 
 
 chase was over, for the pile narrowed to a single plank 
 which stretched out over the sea at high Avater, and the 
 tide was now at the full. 
 
 The crowd realised the situation before it dawned on 
 Sam'le himself. When he reached the single plank and 
 saw that he could go no farther, and heard the footsteps 
 clattering close behind him, he looked down at the 
 deep, green water desperately, and then he turned to 
 'Zekiel with terrified eyes, and the tears ran big and 
 quick down his cheeks, and he cried loudly in his 
 fear. 
 
 '• Don't 'ee hurt 'en ! " cried one woman. 
 
 " He won't do nothin' to ole Sam'le," said another. 
 
 But 'Zekiel in this mood was not to be reckoned with. 
 Sam'le's taunt had goaded him, and the chase after 
 Sam'le had heated his blood to a dangerous point. 
 Now that Sam'le was in his power he fell on him and 
 gripped him as the silly fellow faced about trembling 
 between two terrors ; then, shaking him till his loose lips 
 fell farther apart and his silly, tear-wet face whitened, he 
 gripped him tighter, and forcing him to the very end of 
 the plank held him forward over the water lying dark 
 and noiseless below. 
 
 " Ah ! " shrieked one of the women, " Lord save 'en ! 
 'Zekiel's a-goin' to throw 'en in the sea ! " 
 
 " Leave 'en bide, 'Zekiel ! " shouted one of the men, 
 
 K
 
 146 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 but the words were caught by the wind, and 'Zekiel 
 seemed not to hear. 
 
 "The madness of it!" cried Master Humphrey, 
 hurrying forward to stop the work. But the little figure 
 which had stood so silently beside him watching it all, 
 was quicker than he, and, in another moment Ursula, 
 with her blue hood blown back from her face and her 
 cloak flying in the wind, climbed lightly up the old 
 wood pile, and ran along the single, swaying plank until 
 she had reached the two men. Then, with all her 
 strength, she clutched 'Zekiel's arm and forced him back 
 a few inches from the dangerous angle at which he 
 leaned. 
 
 He turned on her furiously, neither knowing nor caring 
 who was at his arm ; and the crowd on the shore held 
 its breath as it saw the rage on his face, and the bending 
 plank, and the little lady's peril. 
 
 With a rough jerk he tried to free himself; and 
 then the crowd cried out in its horror, for the jerk 
 shook Ursula's slight foothold, and she swayed back 
 in a way that made their hearts rise in their throats. 
 Before she had lost her balance, however. Master 
 Humphrey was near enough to save her; but 'Zekiel 
 was swifter than he ; seeing her danger, the arms which 
 were forcing one fellow-creature into peril were turned, 
 instinctively, to clutch another from it. He grasped
 
 A SPANISH MAID 147 
 
 her cloak and held her in an iron-strong grip until 
 she stood safe and steady beside him. Then he 
 himself stood, sobered and rather dizzy, and looked 
 at her with shame in his eyes. Master Humphrey's 
 arm was round her now but she laid her hand 
 again on 'Zekiel's ; and then, though her hand was 
 trembling and her face was white, she laughed half- 
 shyly up at the poor fellow and spoke as if no danger 
 to herself had happened. 
 
 "Let him go now, please, 'Zekiel. I think you 
 have pretended fierceness long enough to frighten him 
 to good behaviour. Poor Samuel ! " 
 
 It was hard to keep the wrath at its height in the 
 face of a gentle amusement which overlooked the 
 seriousness of it. 'Zekiel's anger had ebbed swiftly 
 out of him in the recognition of the little lady's 
 danger, and now he only said quietly: "He can go 
 safe, for all I care, miss." 
 
 Sam'le, with his head in a whirl and his feet uncom- 
 fortably near the edge of the unsteady plank, heard 
 none of the words which passed, for the wind blew 
 them far from his ears, nor did he understand his 
 own release nor the doings which had followed it; 
 but when he saw the squire and Miss Ursula turn 
 and walk back to safety, followed by 'Zekiel, he walked 
 back also, allowing only a prudent space between
 
 148 ' A SPANISH MAID 
 
 himself and his oppressor out of the cautiousness 
 which had been born with him. 
 
 "You was too boldacious, Sam'le," cried one, as 
 he set foot on land again. But Sam'le was white- 
 faced and disinclined for conversation, and the crowd, 
 as a whole, seemed to have lost its levity for a 
 while in the recollection of the scene just passed, 
 and the sight of the chief actors in it going their 
 several ways. 
 
 "You are trembling, little woman," said Master 
 Humphrey, drawing Ursula's arm through his as they 
 climbed the hill to the Parsonage. 
 
 " How he has changed ! Poor 'Zekiel ! One would 
 scarcely know him for the same 'Zekiel," she mused 
 aloud, not heeding his action or his words. 
 
 " And all because " 
 
 "He loves the strange girl," she interrupted vehe- 
 mently. " And who can wonder ! " she added more 
 
 gently. 
 
 He did not answer her but his thoughts went 
 back to his last meeting with the Spaniard, and he 
 pitied 'Zekiel, but himself he blamed; and with 
 the blame came some sense of shame, and when 
 they reached the door of the parson's room he 
 hesitated, for the same feeling was on him as when he 
 had said to Ursula : " I am not fit ! I am smirched ! "
 
 A SPANISH MAID 149 
 
 But she, turning and seeing the hesitation, smiled 
 confidently back at him. "Come," she said, with the 
 gracious little manner she wore when playing hostess. 
 "Come, for did I not wash the dusty hands quite 
 clean ? " 
 
 And so they entered the beautiful place together.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 IT was the squire's Christmas barn dance to which 
 he had bidden Teresa. The dance which was held 
 in Pensallas big barn every Christmas Eve as surely 
 as the sermon was preached in Landecarrock church on 
 Christmas Day, and for which neither perfection in, nor, 
 indeed, the most primitive knowledge of, Terpsichore's 
 grace was any condition of invitation or acceptance. 
 All Landecarrock was bidden, and all Landecarrock 
 responded to the bidding. 
 
 On more than one Christmas Eve the dance had 
 been stayed and the laughter hushed by news of a ship 
 in distress hard by, and the youths and the men had 
 exchanged the hold of a sweetheart's hand for an oar or 
 a rope, and the holly-wreathed barn for the furious sea. 
 On more than one Christmas Eve, too, the best suits 
 of the men and the gowns of the maids had born signs 
 of long wear and short purses, for times were known to 
 be hard and money scarce in Landecarrock, and, verily, 
 
 150
 
 A SPANISH MAID 151 
 
 to live sometimes was no easy matter. But nobody 
 fretted greatly over suits and gowns when the fiddlers 
 struck up their tune and the dance began ; and the 
 lanterns in the barn shed always a most kindly light on 
 rubbed seams and 'kerchief darns. 
 
 Now, on this Christmas Eve, the old building was 
 glowing with many lanterns and jumping firelight; the 
 walls were bright with gay hangings, wreaths of holly 
 were twined about the rafters, and the pale, meek-seem- 
 ing mistletoe was not forgotten, for, from the middle of 
 the roof, a huge well-berried bough hung low to gladden 
 the eyes and the hearts of the bolder lovers. The 
 musicians — two violins, a 'cello, and a double bass viol 
 — sat together on a small, raised platform at one end of 
 the barn, and accounted this as important an occasion for 
 sustained effort as the morrow, when, from the church 
 gallery, they should lead, with much the same con- 
 gregation to follow, the full-throated cry of " Glory to 
 God in the Highest ! " 
 
 A wonderful gamut of life it was, lining the old barn 
 walls; from serious-eyed infants in their mothers' arms, 
 capering children brimming over with an undefined 
 jollity, boys and girls enwrapped in the bashfulness of 
 their tender teens, youths and maids, comely and high- 
 coloured, flicking conscious, half-shamed glances upwards 
 to the mistletoe, to men and matrons, looking upon the
 
 152 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 ways of youth with lenient eyes, though somewhat 
 sobered by the cares of Ufe, and, perhaps in consequence, 
 more appreciative of the good fare if less eager for the 
 dance, and white-haired granfers and grannies who sat 
 and gossiped, and judged correctly the value of warmth 
 and plenty, and who, having outlived all uncomfortably 
 strong emotions were, perhaps, the happiest of all. 
 
 Master Humphrey was there by the door, of course, 
 to greet them as they came, and take their good wishes 
 in return; and every Landecarrock eye beamed pride 
 upon him and admiration, varying in expression accord- 
 ing to the age of the face it looked out from ; the young 
 ones, whose past was short, deciding, " Never was there 
 such a comely squire ! " the old ones, recollecting his 
 infancy, thinking, " Law ! how fine an' comely he've 
 a grow'd ! " 
 
 Ann Vitty was there in a gorgeous flowered gown, 
 brought in a far back year by a sailor son from foreign 
 parts, and with intuitive tact had seated herself on a bench 
 beside Daniel Laskey, giving him the support of her 
 familiar presence in this, his annual plunge into society. 
 At the beginning of these evenings Ann Vitty's head 
 was always held somewhat stiffer, and her conversation 
 fell always into a somewhat more formal tone than usual 
 — more prone to platitude, as being in keeping with the 
 unaccustomed grandeur of her toilet. But these stiff-
 
 A SPANISH MAID 153 
 
 nesses wore away as the time passed — indeed, she had 
 fairly got the better of them this evening before the 
 company had all assembled. 
 
 •' 'Tis a fine sight ! " she remarked. " An' I always 
 says the same, 'tis a fine an' blessed sight to see so 
 many faces, young an' old, gathered together." 
 
 Daniel was feeling the responsibility of dialogue at 
 his time and was rising to the occasion. 
 
 "Yes, Ann," he agreed, " you'm right." 
 
 "An' to think we'm all spared', ceptin' Thomas 
 
 Capel's boy, to meet together here again " Her eyes 
 
 were roaming round the room in gratitude and apprecia- 
 tion of her fellow-creatures, but, at that point in her 
 remark, they chanced to fall on the big, ungainly figure 
 leaning against the opposite wall, and, at the sight, Ann 
 Vitty became her own self again and finished somewhat 
 irrelevantly. " Your Sam'le over there looks a bit pale- 
 faced an' peaky, Dan'le." 
 
 Daniel, who chose to ignore the rumours which had 
 drifted to him of his fifty-year-old son's late danger, 
 answered grimly : " Cuttin' a tooth, maybe." 
 
 Ann Vitty could have enjoyed the parent's opinion of 
 Sam'le's adventure, but, knowing Daniel's ways, she only 
 ventured the remark that, "He do look weak, poor soul 
 sure enough." 
 
 "'Tis kindly of Master Humphrey to provide 'en
 
 154 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 with a wall to lean 'pon," said Daniel dully. There 
 was no encouragement in his tone, and Ann turned 
 again to the crowd. 
 
 " An' the parson, too, an' Miss Ursula ! Dear old 
 gentleman ! he's hearty enough in his peaky way. Why, 
 
 he must be getting on for " then she ceased for 
 
 a moment and caught her breath. "There, now, I'm 
 blessed if there ain't that foreign maid come in 
 'long with Mary Ludgven ! Well, I never did ! Who'd 
 a-thought it ! " 
 
 And the last remnants of Ann Vitty's self-conscious- 
 ness fell away before the shock. 
 
 In the midst of all the simple, glad-faced Lande- 
 carrock folk the foreign girl stepped forward, and looked 
 as a sun-touched fire-fly might look in the midst of a 
 swarm of homely moths. And at that moment the 
 fiddlers drew their bows across the strings in the first 
 notes of a monotonously lively overture, by way of 
 warming the blood for further efforts, and, hearing it, 
 Teresa stood still, quivering with the measure of 
 the music, and allowed Mary to go down the room 
 alone. 
 
 As the air rose and fell, drawn from the instru- 
 ments by the proud, perspiring musicians, she turned 
 with a glowing face and looked towards Master 
 Humphrey.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 ^SS 
 
 " He is to dance with me ! " she thought with a 
 
 confident triumph. " And " glancing about her 
 
 contemptuously, "it is certain there is no other in the 
 company fitting to dance with him." 
 
 " Will 'ee dance with me, Teresa ? " It was 'Zekiel's 
 voice which interrupted her; he had drawn close to 
 her and his eyes were pleading though his voice was 
 restrained. 
 
 "No," she answered sharply, guessing his question 
 rather than hearing it. "No, I do not dance with 
 you." 
 
 The trace of her blow upon his cheek had scarcely 
 died away, nor had the bruise of the remembrance of 
 it from his heart, but his love was as strong and limit- 
 less as ever ; there was no alloy in that. 
 
 "Teresa!" he pleaded, "won't 'ee give me just this 
 bit of happiness ? " 
 
 "No," and she frowned imperiously as her eyes 
 wandered again to Master Humphrey. "No, I will 
 not dance with you." 
 
 'Zekiel saw the direction of her glance and he turned 
 away in bitterness. 
 
 When he had gone Teresa looked after him with 
 fierce relief and some contempt, but, as she watched 
 the little scene which followed his departure, it is 
 certain she did not altogether like what she saw.
 
 156 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Agrimony — "that hateful, laughing maid!" standing 
 beside Job Carvath in her rosebud cambric gown, with 
 her unruly curls tied fast in a knot of pink ribbon, and 
 her dark eyes dancing — with those same quick eyes of 
 her's saw 'Zekiel meet his refusal, and, as he walked 
 away from the foreign maid, she turned impulsively 
 to Job. 
 
 "Go 'way from me, Joby," she begged him. "I'll 
 dance with 'ee twice for it by-'m-bye if you'll go 'way 
 from me now." 
 
 "For why?" asked Joby, with some resentment at 
 the maid's sudden caprice. But Agrimony was in 
 nowise given to needless mystery. 
 
 " Why, my dear soul, I want to make 'Zekiel Myners 
 . dance just this one through with me," she answered, 
 with a broad smile which robbed the act of its flagrancy, 
 "an' vex the foreign maid." 
 
 Joby began to see the situation. 
 
 " Hev 'er served 'en bad ? " he asked. 
 
 "Served 'en like dirt beneath her feet," she 
 declared. 
 
 " An' you promise me true, twice by-'m-bye ? " 
 
 "True's I'm here," she promised, and he walked 
 away and left her solitary. 
 
 Quick as thought she followed 'Zekiel and stood 
 before him.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 157 
 
 " 'Zekiel Myners," she said, all sorrowful and long- 
 faced, " did 'ee ever see the like of that ? " 
 
 " The like of what ? " asked 'Zekiel, without pretence 
 of interest. The sight of Agrimony did not please 
 him ; she recalled the pain of that day by the beach, 
 and he had pain enough without that. 
 
 "Why, Job Carvath, he's been and walked away 
 an' left me, an' just as the dancin' was beginnin' " 
 
 Through 'Zekiel's own unhappiness there filtered the 
 thought that this maid was going to sob and that he 
 must do something to stop it. He looked down at 
 her civilly enough, but without much spirit. 
 
 " Shall I fetch 'en back to 'ee ? " he asked. 
 
 "He wouldn' come," she faltered, "an' there isn' no 
 time. Oh, 'Zekiel Myners ! " she cried, clasping her 
 hands as the fiddlers waxed more energetic, "oh, I 
 couldn' miss it, not whatever ! " She put out her little 
 hand to him, " I'll do as much for you some day. 
 Do 'ee, CO'." 
 
 In a dazed sort of way he took her hand in his and 
 they moved forward together, and though the glance 
 which Agrimony sent across the barn was but a flicker 
 of the lids, it was long enough to show her that, un- 
 doubtedly, the foreign maid was not pleased. 
 
 Teresa raised her chin a trifle higher and looked 
 again for Master Humphrey.
 
 158 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 But Master Humphrey, gay-hearted, smiling, and hos- 
 pitable, did not glance towards her ; he was playing his 
 part of squire and host in the manner which his guests, 
 with one exception, admired and expected of him. As 
 the musicians settled down to the well-known changes of 
 the rollicking tune, he made his way towards Dame 
 Tellam, sitting buxom and important beneath a festooned 
 Union Jack, the three-inch miniature of a departed 
 parent heaving upon her black silk bodice, and, taking 
 her hand, he escorted her to the top of the room that 
 she might support him in opening the proceedings by 
 leading off in the boisterous intricacies of the country 
 dance. 
 
 Teresa paled with the shock of her surprise, which 
 was, for a moment, sharper than her anger. But as she 
 watched, as she saw the couples form themselves in 
 two long files down the middle of the room, as she 
 heard the music rising and falling, saw the men and 
 maids join hands, step, curtsey, glide, and cross, all 
 light of heart and light of foot, absorbed by the pleasure 
 and the measure of the dance, whilst she, Teresa, 
 stood apart and unnoticed, her fury burned hot, 
 and her straight brows lowered above her glittering 
 
 eyes. 
 
 " He desired me to come," she raged within herself. 
 "He desired that I would dance with him, and I am
 
 A SPANISH MAID 159 
 
 left to stand alone, while every clumsy village fool is 
 dancing ! " 
 
 And the sight of 'Zekiel aggravated her chagrin ; her 
 fury included him. That he should dance — that he 
 should dare to dance, while she was left to stand alone ! 
 
 And was ever a dance so long or so hideously merry 
 as that dance ? Was ever music so wearisomely lively ? 
 Were there ever such monotonous repetitions of melody 
 and gesture, as of this melody and these gestures to 
 Teresa's ears and eyes as she stood chafing under her 
 mortification ? 
 
 And the jollity of Master Humphrey as he crossed 
 arms, bowed, and chassed along with his ponderous 
 partner, was as a breeze to the flame of her fury. 
 
 " Dance with him ! I will not dance with him ! I 
 will not speak with him when he comes to me ! " And 
 her teeth were fast clenched as she stood and watched 
 him. 
 
 At length the final crashing chords sounded from 
 the fiddles on the platform, and the panting, laughing 
 couples spread themselves and made towards the 
 benches and the settles for rest and the recovery of 
 their breath, some maids affecting dizziness on the 
 way, thus securing the support of a muscular arm about 
 the waist, some spurning such support with make-believe 
 affrontedness when placed there uninvited. And Master
 
 i6o A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Humphrey laughed and breathed quickly as the others, 
 as he led Dame Tellam back to her seat, but he did 
 not look towards Teresa. 
 
 After some minutes, and much chattering, the fiddles 
 wailed forth the notes of a second dance, a statelier 
 performance, and of a slower pace ; and Teresa waited, 
 with blazing cheeks and w^rathful eyes, for the coming 
 of the squire, that she might deal him the blow of 
 her refusal. Then the company rose to its feet again. 
 Agrimony was claimed by another swain ; the children 
 separated themselves from their elders, prepared to play 
 the part of audience in this more serious performance ; 
 but still Master Humphrey did not make his way to 
 Teresa, With laughing eyes and deferential air he 
 made his bow before Ann Vitty, and craved the pleasure 
 of leading her to the place of honour at the top of 
 the square. 
 
 Teresa had not learned the customs of these Christmas 
 dances, nor the rules of precedence laid down by tradi- 
 tion, and her wrath grew difficult to hide. 'Zekiel, 
 whose eyes craved to see laughter on her lips when so 
 many lips were laughing, and who suffered in her 
 mortification as she suffered, had no heart for pleasur- 
 ing if she were not pleasuring too. He sat where 
 Agrimony had left him and he watched the girl he 
 loved with unrest in his eyes. Then the sight of her
 
 A SPANISH MAID 16 1 
 
 lonely figure nerved him to brave her anger again, 
 and as the dance was forming he rose and went across 
 to her. 
 
 " Dance with me, Teresa ? " he implored. 
 
 She turned on him as if he had torn at her wound. 
 " Silence ! " she commanded ; " I do not dance this 
 night ! " 
 
 He did not betray his pain, but he did not move 
 from her side. He could not bear that, in the midst 
 of their Landecarrock pleasurings, the girl he loved 
 should stand apart and lonely. It stung him, and 
 she, even in her anger, felt some comfort in his 
 nearness. 
 
 When the second dance was over, and the dancers 
 were holding their hands to the heart-side of their 
 bodices and fanning their heated cheeks, the untired 
 children were to be rewarded for their inaction by one 
 of Landecarrock's favourite games, which included chant- 
 ing and capering to the accompaniment of the fiddles ; 
 and, as arrows from a bow, they shot from their seats 
 and formed themselves into a ring in the middle of 
 the room. Then Teresa left 'Zekiel's side and crossed 
 to where Mary sat with Zel in her arms. 
 
 To-night the Madonna-like calm which had been 
 driven from Mary's face through the past months 
 seemed to have come back to it. She was wearing 
 
 h
 
 1 62 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 a gown of a pale grey colour, and round her neck 
 and shoulders lay a soft, white 'kerchief, fastened with 
 a brooch of twisted gold — Peter's first love-gift to 
 her in the days of their wooing. 
 
 Through the first dance Ann Vitty had given lap- 
 room to the younger Ludgven, and Mary had stood 
 up to step it through with Peter, just as in the old 
 days before she was his wife, and the very act had 
 seemed to set things right again, and her heart was 
 easier; the doubts and fears seemed to have shrunk 
 away to nothings, and she watched the children now 
 with the old peace lying in her eyes. 
 
 Seeing Teresa coming towards her she made room 
 on the bench beside her, and for some moments 
 they sat there together in silence and looked upon 
 the antics of the children, as they were led by Master 
 Humphrey and Miss Ursula. Even when angry ex- 
 clamations broke from Teresa, Mary could not under- 
 stand them; she could see that the girl was enraged 
 but she could not guess the reason. 
 
 When the frolic was over the parson stepped 
 forward to his grand-daughter as she stood by the 
 squire, and then, turning to his people, he spoke a 
 few words of Christmas hopes and Christmas wishes, 
 with a beaming smile upon his thin face; and then 
 he bade them all " Good-night," and took Miss Ursula
 
 A SPANISH MAID 163 
 
 away with him, for the parson's hours were early, 
 morning and night, unless his flock had need of 
 him. 
 
 It was when the fiddlers were turning their pages 
 for another dance that Master Humphrey turned to 
 look for Teresa. His duties were over for the time 
 and he intended to fulfil his part of the promise 
 which he had asked and she had given. He had 
 just been holding Ursula's little hand and wrapping 
 her white frieze cloak about her, and a certain gentle- 
 ness which had then come into his face and his voice 
 had not left them as he came to Teresa where she 
 sat by Mary's side. But as the girl saw him approach 
 she stiffened in her wrath and set her teeth hard upon 
 her nether lip. 'Zekiel, with eyes which he could not 
 force himself to draw from the two figures, saw the 
 meeting, and his temples throbbed near to bursting, 
 and a mist came before his eyes, a mist that seemed 
 to grow denser, until, even in his pain and eagerness, 
 he wondered, and shut his lids to break the film; 
 but when he opened them again the mist was still 
 before his sight. 
 
 " I must claim you for the dance now, Teresa," said 
 Master Humphrey softly, as he bent towards the 
 girl. 
 
 But for answer she rose to her feet in voiceless
 
 l64 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 passion ; she clenched her hands as if to strike him 
 down before her ; her eyes flashed 
 
 The mist before 'Zekiel's eyes was rising in a Uttle 
 cloud now, and above the tuning of the fiddlers his 
 voice rang out. 
 
 "Fire!" he cried, and for a moment the barn was 
 silent with an awful hush.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FIRE ! " 
 The ghastly word burst as a great echo from the 
 people, breaking the hush it had caused, and, as the cry 
 left their lips, the blood seemed to drain from their 
 faces and go with it. With wide, horrified eyes they all 
 rose to their feet and looked at 'Zekiel. But 'Zekiel 
 was passive and unruffled, and he was looking at Teresa. 
 Quickly their eyes followed his ; they, too, looked at 
 Teresa, and then they saw ! 
 
 Up the flimsy hangings which draped the wall behind 
 the angry girl there was darting a great tongue of flame, 
 which branched, and crept, and trembled, up and along, 
 then pausing, then leaping, then broadening, leaving 
 a fiery trail as it went, which glowed, and curled, and 
 shivered as if it were alive. 
 
 In an instant Master Humphrey had clutched at 
 Teresa and had swung her back into the middle of the 
 room, and, leaping on to the bench, was puUing at the 
 
 165
 
 1 66 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 flaming draperies, trying to drag them to him and crush 
 them in his arms. But the fire was spreading its quick, 
 yellow tongues above and beyond his reach, Ucking its 
 way from flag to flag, hurrying with a ghastly, noiseless 
 hurry. And it was then that panic fell upon the 
 watching company, and a sudden, shrill lament broke 
 from their throats, gripping their courage, as it struck 
 on their own ears, so inhuman it sounded and so dis- 
 consolate. 
 
 " A ladder ! Water ! " shouted Master Humphrey, 
 but his voice was drowned in the clamour which 
 followed that first cry — the frenzied shrieks of the 
 children, the terrified wails of the women, the confused 
 shouts of the men — as they turned, some forcing, some 
 forced, in one great rush towards the door. 
 
 " Ladder ! " shouted Master Humphrey again. 
 
 Peter Ludgven who had seen his need was already 
 upon his way, but the help was useless, for, having once 
 reached the open, it was impossible to return. From 
 the middle of the room to the doorway a mass of 
 struggling persons was pressing forward with a din of 
 imploring, hysterical, terror-stricken voices — a din for 
 which no word has been coined, which pierced the 
 ears of the mind and echoed there for ever. And 
 if ever there came a lull in that awful sound of 
 absolute fear, there could be heard now the dull,
 
 A SPANISH MAID 167 
 
 more awful roar of the flames as they leaped on their 
 way triumphantly. 
 
 " Give help here, Myners ! " shouted the squire, as 
 his eyes fell on 'Zekiel at the back of the surging 
 crowd. But 'Zekiel paid no heed. The fire was 
 nothing to him. He was not in a mood to care for 
 danger or pain; he had Hved beyond them. He only 
 knew and felt that here was Teresa, close to him, 
 shuddering, frantic, with her anger shocked from her; 
 and his heart leaped. 
 
 Dragging her back and catching her fiercely to him 
 he cried in triumph : " You'm my maid, now, darlin' ! 
 My darlin' ! You'm mine ! I don't care ! If we'm 
 burnt to cinders, I don't care ! I don't care ! " And 
 he crushed her in his arms in his furious passion of 
 joy. 
 
 But Teresa had no desire to be his, nor to become a 
 cinder. Panic-stricken, bewildered, maddened by his 
 hindrance of her, she shrieked in terror and rage, and 
 tore and fought herself from his hold, turning back to 
 the crowd in a wilder frenzy than before to beat, and 
 tear, and force a path, until the end of the swaying mass 
 closed round her and she went from his sight. Then 
 'Zekiel's arms fell slackly to his sides, and, for a time, 
 it was as if he stood desolate in a solitary place. 
 
 And the cries of the crowd went on untiring, and
 
 i68 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the shouts of the squire, commanding order and 
 common-sense, were drowned as they left his lips, and 
 the smoke grew dense and the air hot, and the smell 
 of the burning and the sound of it were to the nostrils 
 and ears as if they had always been, and the lurid, 
 yellow tongues grew fiercer, licking and darting from 
 wall to rafter, and the flaming wreaths and the charred 
 drapings dropped on to the press of choking, fainting, 
 struggling persons below. And those who chanced to 
 be nearest saw that the little door set in the big double- 
 doors was their only hope, for their own weight barred 
 them from the unfastening of the big doors' bolts. 
 
 " 'Zekiel Myners ! Wake yerself up and don't be a 
 fool ! " A little figure in a smirched and torn rosebud 
 cambric frock pulled him by the arm and shook him 
 with all her trembling strength. But 'Zekiel, looking 
 at her slowly, only stood the firmer, and then she knew 
 what was in his mind. A wave of despair broke over 
 her as she glanced wildly round and saw the flames 
 ever hurrying nearer. It was so awful to stand still and 
 talk slowly with death at her elbow. But that must 
 be done if it was 'Zekiel Myners' life she was after. 
 
 "Why'm 'ee a fool, 'Zekiel Myners? You won't be 
 best pleased with the feelin' of frizzlin' to death when it 
 do come." She forced her stiff face to smile with a 
 pitiful levity. "Do 'ee think you'll look pretty when
 
 A SPANISH MAID 169 
 
 you'm roasted ? " The rafters were crackling overhead, 
 the wall near to her was glowing. "You'm thinkin' 
 'twill make a fine tale for the foreign maid to hear, to 
 set her crying? You'm thinkin' she'll be sorry for 
 'ee ? Just to have her sorry for a minnit, what's that 
 worth ? " 
 
 " She will be sorry," he said softly and rapturously, 
 and Agrimony guessed his words. 
 
 " But she won't ! " she cried ruthlessly. The smile 
 on her lips 7vould grow faint, and, feeling it, she forced 
 her throat to laugh though her voice shook through it, 
 and made the laughter come in ugly jerks. " She won't 
 be sorry. She'll come 'long to the old barn when 'tis 
 safe an' cold, an' she'll make sure to have another sweet- 
 heart with her — p'r'aps one more to her taste than you ; 
 an' p'r'aps she'll stoopy down an' pick up a bit of cinder 
 — p'r'aps 'twill be you an' p'r'aps 'twont — an' then the 
 other sweetheart will, maybe, speak somethin' pretty to 
 her, an' she'll forget the cinder betwixt her fingers^ an' 
 she'll turn her great shinin' eyes on him, like as if he 
 was the only man on God's earth." 
 
 She had stirred 'Zekiel at last. He looked at her 
 wildly, and a groan came from him, but he did not 
 budge as she pulled at his arm. 
 
 The smoke and the heat had become terrible. 
 Agrimony felt as if her heart would choke her; her
 
 170 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 words seemed to grow hard and painful in her throat. 
 For a moment she tried to make-believe she was on 
 Landecarrock beach, with the icy-cold wind in her face, 
 and the drench of an angry wave on her scorching flesh. 
 It was desperate work to stand calm and slow-speaking, 
 when every pulse in her body seemed to be forcing her 
 to turn and save herself, but she saw the advantage she 
 had gained, and when words would not come she fell to 
 laughing. 
 
 Then 'Zekiel turned on her. But Agrimony faced 
 him insolently. 
 
 "She'll have forgotten 'ee," she tittered. 
 
 " She won't never forget me," declared 'Zekiel, 
 clenching his hands and blazing his eyes on her. 
 
 Seconds were precious now. The flames were glowing 
 on her bare arms. Truly it was a fellow-creature's life 
 she was bidding for, but would she have bidden so 
 persistently for Job Carvath's life? Job Carvath was 
 being swept on in the crowd so there was no proof to 
 be brought. 
 
 In desperation she made her last attempt. 
 
 "No, she won't never forget 'ee," she agreed, with a 
 sudden sadness in her voice. " She'll grieve, an' grieve 
 finely, when she sees yer poor dead body. But 'twill be 
 her sweetheart what '11 point to me, as I'm lyin' here 
 beside 'ee, an' 'II say : ' 'Zekiel Myners knew how to make
 
 A SPANISH MATD 
 
 171 
 
 the best of his time ; he took good care to have a maid 
 with 'im to the last.' An' then her pretty face '11 grow 
 white an' sorrowful, an' her tender heart '11 break to think 
 you was but fickle after all " 
 
 *' Fickle ! " Agrimony had won her desire. " Fickle ! " 
 he cried. " My God ! an' for the likes of you ! " He 
 tossed off her hand from his arm in his wild pain, and, 
 dashing forward, was soon mingling with the surging 
 mass which pressed ever on towards the escape which 
 seemed so far away. 
 
 And Agrimony stood quite still where he had left her, 
 and the rigid laughter-lines were still about her lips ; and 
 then, quite slowly, she looked upwards at a fiery festoon 
 of holly hanging ready to fall, and then all suddenly 
 she sank to the floor in a little huddled heap of rosebud 
 cambric. 
 
 Half-way towards the doorway Mary Ludgven, ignorant 
 of the fate of husband or brother, swayed with the sway- 
 ing human mass, her baby still in her arms, crushed back 
 against her breast. She did not cry out, and the press 
 of the crowd forbade her moving forward or backward 
 except as it willed, but her face was white as death, and 
 " Peter ! Peter ! " she implored in soundless words 
 through her stiff lips. She guessed that 'Zekiel must 
 be behind her, so many feet further from the chance of 
 life, and the look which was set hard on his face when
 
 172 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 last she had seen him gave her an added pang. Before 
 her, strugghng, gasping, crying aloud in her terror, she 
 could sometimes catch a glimpse of Teresa as she 
 fought her way inch by inch towards safety. 
 
 At last, at the little doorway, she caught a sight of 
 Peter, and though his face was haggard with anxiety, 
 his voice was cheery as he cried out — 
 
 "Nobody's goin' to be burnt if they only takes it 
 sensible, an' comes out 'cordin' to the size of the door. 
 Don't 'ee crush so, you folks. Keep up yer hearts ! " 
 And then he strained his eyes along the surging faces in 
 search of his own folks. 
 
 Mary could see him now and again as she was swayed 
 from side to side, and her love seemed to leap in her 
 throat. " Peter ! Peter ! " she uttered faintly, the smoke 
 well-nigh choking her as she drew each breath. But 
 Peter did not see her. She tried to lift Zel high that 
 his eye might be caught by the movement, but her 
 arms were fast pinned by the press, and the little 
 fellow wailed with the pain of it. And then the 
 crowd forced her aside and he was lost to her sight 
 again. 
 
 At length Peter's eyes fell on Teresa as she fought her 
 way on, with blazing face and starting eyes. 
 
 " Where's Mary ? " he demanded hoarsely, as the girl 
 neared him.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 173 
 
 "Mary gone — safe!" she declared, crying the lie 
 aloud in her terror. " Peter, I die ! " 
 
 When, through the smoke and the glare, Mary 
 Ludgven caught sight of Peter again, she could see that 
 he was not looking for her; his eyes were shining on 
 Teresa, and she saw him lean forward and take the girl 
 in his strong arms, then bear her, clutching and clinging, 
 away to safety and the cool, free air. And she, his wife, 
 and his little child were left to faint, or struggle on, or 
 die alone ! He had forgotten her ! 
 
 Death had been awful when faced so closely, but the 
 awfulness of death faded into insignificance before the 
 bitter anguish which fell on Mary's soul as her eyes 
 looked upon the scene framed by that little doorway. 
 Above the clamour she had not heard the words ; she 
 had only witnessed the desertion. Peter was gone ; and 
 he did not come back. 
 
 *' 'Zekiel ! " she murmured piteously, and in her pain 
 she strove to turn towards him, but the crushing, 
 panting bodies prevented her. To go back was im- 
 possible. Husband and brother had forgotten her. 
 That wild creature from the sea had stolen their 
 hearts and their senses from them. And her little 
 child — the only thing left to her — was wailing and 
 sobbing with the pain from which she could not 
 shelter him. Her white face grew awful with its look
 
 174 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 of deep-graven agony ; her brain throbbed fiercely, and 
 it seemed as if each smoke-charged breath must be 
 her last. 
 
 It was Master Humphrey who carried her out into 
 the biting night air at last, just as she felt her 
 senses leaving her, and placed her on a little grass 
 slope beyond the crush and the trampling, bringing 
 her a bowl of water to revive her before he left her 
 to go back himself and give more help. 
 
 " Save 'Zekiel ! " she said slowly, in a quiet, dazed 
 way ; " mind and save 'Zekiel ! " 
 
 " Nearly every one's out now," said Master Humphrey ; 
 "and we'll soon have out the others. You rest here, 
 and I'll send Peter to you ; he's tending the faint 
 
 ones." 
 
 But the sound of Peter's name sharpened her 
 senses again, and the pain came tearing back at her 
 heart. She could not meet Peter yet. She could not 
 bear to suffer his tardy aid. Tottering, stumbling, 
 shaking in every limb, with her baby weighing down 
 her aching arms, she crept away from the glare, and 
 the smoke, and the noise, into the darkness of the 
 night, with only a great longing for the shelter of her 
 own home mingling with her heart-pain. 
 
 And when she had dragged herself up the hill and 
 reached the little white cottage, she entered in and
 
 A SPANISH MAID 175 
 
 closed the door; and then a piteous moan broke from 
 her. But she did not shed tears. After she had stood 
 a moment in the darkness, she went to the hearth and 
 stirred the embers till they quickened to a cheerful 
 flame. Then she lighted a candle, and looked about 
 as one looks who has returned after a long journey. 
 
 On the table lay the spray of leaves and berries 
 which Teresa had designed for her dark hair but had 
 discarded at the last. Across the arm of the settle 
 hung Zel's little night-gown, warm and ready for his 
 wear; beside it lay Peter's sou'-wester, as he had 
 thrown it aside before starting for the squire's dance. 
 Everything familiar, everything as it had been left 
 a few hours ago. How very long ago it seemed ! 
 
 A sleepy wail from Zel roused Mary from her 
 thoughts, and, sitting down before the hearth, she 
 undressed the tired baby-body and hushed it to sleep 
 in her arms, as quietly as if there were no shadow 
 athwart her life. 
 
 But when Zel had sunk to sleep she laid him in 
 his cradle, and blowing out the candle, sat by the 
 uncurtained window in all her pretty finery and looked 
 out, as if in waiting for the coming of the dawn. But 
 her eyes saw nothing that lay beyond their lids ; they 
 were looking wide and full upon her misery.
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 T ^ERY few worshippers climbed the hill to Lande- 
 
 ^ carrock church that Christmas morning. In 
 
 almost every cottage there were pains to be borne 
 
 which would not be ignored — jealous pains which 
 
 brooked no divided attention, scarcely allowing, indeed, 
 
 for decent thankfulness that, as yet, all lives had been 
 
 spared. 
 
 From Daniel Laskey, lying with a broken rib in 
 
 his cottage down by the boat-sheds, to Miss Ursula's 
 
 little maid. Agrimony, waving her blistered arms, as 
 
 she tossed deliriously on her little white bed up at 
 
 the Parsonage. From Dame Tellam's staff of maids 
 
 sobbing or swooning in Pensallas kitchen to 'Zekiel 
 
 Myners moaning in unconsciousness from the blow of 
 
 a falling plank in his little room beneath Betty 
 
 Higgins' eaves, there was woe indeed in Landecarrock 
 
 this Christmas Day. 
 
 Soon after daybreak Master Humphrey had galloped 
 17fi
 
 A SPANISH MAID lyy 
 
 back from Haliggan — where he had ridden off, all 
 smoke-grimed and exhausted as he was, as soon as 
 the fire had been got under — closely followed by the 
 cheery little doctor, who had hurried from his warm 
 bed and renounced his Christmas fare and festivities 
 to ride along the bleak backbone of the downs to 
 Landecarrock at the squire's bidding, without a thought 
 that he was somewhat of a martyr for so doing. And 
 together they had gone from house to house, easing 
 the sufferers and heartening those who had escaped 
 sound-bodied ; while the church bells pealed out the 
 message of Peace and Good-will in a sadly disjointed 
 fashion to their ears, for five of the ringers were 
 sitting at home with their arms swathed in linen 
 and oils. 
 
 Never before within Landecarrock memory had the 
 old church walls failed to ring with the rousing, 
 whole-lunged notes of the Christmas hymn or echo 
 with the words of the parson's Christmas discourse. 
 But on this woeful day old ways were broken through. 
 There had been a disaster — a disaster which, if not 
 exactly "national," was a deal more absorbing; and 
 when, before he opened his prayer-book, the parson 
 turned to his scanty congregation and spoke a few 
 words of comfort and sympathy to them as Lande- 
 carrock folk, before he addressed them as Christian 
 
 M
 
 178 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 brethren, they took it most kindly, and no one 
 questioned the innovation. The old man's words 
 touched the hearts of those who had found custom 
 too strong for them, who had left all the trouble and 
 excitement of the village behind them and had climbed 
 the hill to listen to him, and they brought out their 
 large Sunday handkerchiefs, and sniffed, and dried 
 their eyes without any affectation of concealment. 
 
 The singing, however, was but a dreary affair, for 
 the voices were few, and they trembled as they 
 " pitched the tune " unaided by the customary wails of 
 the stringed instruments. There was but one musician 
 in the gallery, and he, being "bass viol," had no 
 spirit to court attention as a soloist. '"Twould have 
 seemed like fulsome pride," he remarked afterwards, 
 " an' I hadn' no stummick for the work." 
 
 And the Christmas dinners were neglected as the 
 whole-bodied tended their sick, and the walls of the 
 squire's barn were still smoking sullenly, and the 
 shock of the fire seemed to rest upon the face of 
 the village. 
 
 Mary Ludgven, going to and from her home and 
 'Zekiel's sick-room, was the only one who volunteered 
 no words on the matter of the fire and its ugly 
 work. Peter had found her still sitting by the 
 window when, with Teresa clinging to his arm, he
 
 A SPANISH MAID 179 
 
 came back to tell her of 'Zekiel's accident, and she 
 rose without a word or a cry to go to him. She looked 
 terribly white, and her great heart was sick and 
 desolate; but above her pain there came a curious 
 thankfulness that here was something for her to do — 
 hard work which might ease the unbearable misery. 
 Peter put his arm about her quickly as she swayed 
 on first rising to her feet. " Thank God ! " he mur- 
 mured, and his voice seemed a sob. "Thank God 
 you'm safe ! " 
 
 Mary did not throw off his arm, or turn to reproach 
 him ; she stood white and passive for some moments, 
 looking still, with unseeing eyes, out through the little 
 window. Only when he kissed her she raised her 
 hand and slowly gripped the white 'kerchief which lay 
 so softly over her aching heart. She did not blame 
 Peter ; with fine justice, she told herself, that he could 
 not prevent the power of the dark girl's bewitchments. 
 But that realisation did not bring comfort or hope 
 to her. Peter could forget his wife and his child 
 when their lives were in ghastly danger, and could rest 
 content to clasp his arms about the girl who stole 
 his senses. 
 
 Peter, looking at her with troubled eyes, did not 
 guess at the pain she was bearing. 
 
 " She's dazed with things," he thought, as he walked
 
 i8o A SPANISH MAID 
 
 beside her to Betty Higgins' cottage and watched 
 her unmoved face as she looked upon 'Zekiel lying 
 there unconscious. 
 
 Teresa, left by herself in the kitchen, grew some- 
 what irritated at the desertion. She had undergone 
 much fear and danger, and felt that she had a right 
 to sympathy; but Peter and Mary had gone from 
 her without a word or a look, hurrying away to pity 
 and gaze upon 'Zekiel, who was stunned and could 
 be none the better or worse for their pity or their 
 gazing. When she had watched husband and wife 
 out of sight, she turned to look at sleeping Zel, 
 her only companion, and for a moment contemplated 
 shaking him into wakefulness, but on reflection she 
 decided that such a course would not better matters, 
 and, leaving him in peace, she made her way into 
 Mary's little larder, where she comforted herself to 
 some extent with the materials she found ready to her 
 hand. When that distraction had lost its first charm, 
 she climbed the stairs to her own little room, and 
 went to bed. The events of the night had tired her 
 as a child is tired after a fit of passion and a fright, 
 and she was soon fast asleep — in a sleep as childlike 
 and untroubled as that of Zel, lying in his cradle in 
 the kitchen below. 
 
 And Christmas Day wore on — with strange, unreal-
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 I8i 
 
 seeming hours, and the biting cold of the night 
 turned to a heavy clamminess, and the wind shifted 
 round to south. When the short afternoon was draw- 
 ing in, and the last sufferer had been eased, the 
 doctor stood in Master Humphrey's room and 
 swallowed a hasty meal as he waited for the saddling of 
 his mare. Then he mounted her and turned her head 
 homewards, cheerily promising to come back next day. 
 
 To the turn by Betty Higgins' cottage Master Hum- 
 phrey walked beside him, and spoke of oils and 
 bandages, and such like subjects, but at that point 
 he bade the little man " Good-bye," standing to watch 
 his odd little figure in the big brown cloak he wore, 
 as the good mare set her back for the steeper bit 
 of work before her. Then, instead of facing down 
 the village again, with a sudden impulse, Master 
 Humphrey turned the corner by Betty Higgins' 
 cottage, and going along the back of it, by Ann 
 Vitty's fuchsia bush, walked slowly on and up towards 
 the Parsonage. 
 
 It was Ursula who opened the door in answer to 
 his knock, and she gave a little exclamation of glad- 
 ness when she saw him standing there; so, although 
 he had not known before why he was there, nor what 
 he meant to do, he followed her without demur to 
 the parson's room.
 
 i82 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 "Does the little maid go on as we hoped?" he 
 asked, as they stood together by the hearth. 
 
 " She is better, 'Lizabeth says, quieter and more like 
 to sleep. 'Lizabeth is with her now, and sent me away 
 lest I should talk — lest she should talk, I say." A 
 faint smile crept into her anxious eyes. "And grand- 
 father — he is in the village amongst the people, and 
 I — was all alone, and " 
 
 "And scared by your own company," he declared, 
 with a short laugh. Laughter did not yet come very 
 easily to either of them; the laughter-lines seemed 
 to have become stiffened by the stern things which 
 had faced them since they had parted in the barn. 
 
 "I was glad to see you," she admitted, half-shamed 
 at her own past timorousness. " But please rest, 
 Humphrey," she added, quickly, as she looked at 
 him and noted his face in the soft candle-light. 
 
 He was still wearing the caped riding -coat which 
 he had hurried on while waiting for his horse to be 
 saddled so many hours ago, and as he sank into a deep 
 chair and laid his head back, she could see that he 
 was white and haggard, and his eyes looked weary. 
 The big lamp which hung from the roof had not 
 been lit this evening, but the candle-light showed the 
 pallor and the lines of weariness.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 183 
 
 " I am not in very fine trim to come into a lady's 
 presence," he said quietly. 
 
 " You are weary," declared Ursula, saying his excuses 
 
 for him. "And " she added, "I think that you 
 
 are hungry." 
 
 "Hungry?" he repeated, doubtfully. "Hungry?" 
 Then, turning to her with something of his own 
 laughing look : " I believe you are right. I am just 
 hungry." 
 
 "When did you eat last?" she enquired, with a 
 pretty severity on her face. 
 
 " Ah ! when ? — I cannot remember. I think it 
 must have been in some former age. Some time 
 before that ugly flame ran up the wall and burned 
 the big gap between yesterday and to-day." 
 
 She stood up again, and looked at him with her old- 
 fashioned little air of hospitality. "You must have 
 some food," she said; " I will bring some to you." 
 
 " I believe I wish for some very much," he admitted, 
 "now I lay my thoughts upon it. Let us go together 
 and hunt for some; I used to storm a larder with 
 excellent results." 
 
 " You are so weary," she protested. 
 
 " No, so hungry," he corrected, as he rose and 
 followed her. 
 
 In the larder they found 'Lizabeth's store of Christmas
 
 i84 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 fare ranged upon the shelves, and Master Humphrey, 
 being allowed free choice, favoured a capon pie and 
 a neat's tongue. 
 
 " I feel myself growing back to such a boy — oh, 
 such a boy ! " he whispered, as with the pie in one 
 hand and the dish of tongue in the other, he tip- 
 toed his way to the kitchen, preceded by Ursula 
 bearing a loaf of bread. 
 
 Ursula laughed softly. " Must I then grow back to 
 baby girlhood ? " she asked. 
 
 " I see no necessity," he declared. " I do not profess 
 to set examples. I but prove a rule occasionally." 
 
 In single file they went from cupboard to linen-press, 
 from dressers to dining-room, collecting table-cloth, 
 knives, forks, plates, glasses, and a decanter of good red 
 wine, talking in whispers and laughing softly as they 
 went lest 'Lizabeth's quick ear above stairs should 
 catch sound of them, and her sense of duty force her to 
 forsake her post by Agrimony's side. 
 
 "Phew! The heat of this evening is unbearable!" 
 exclaimed Master Humphrey as they reached the 
 parson's room again. " 'Tis as if that barn of mine had 
 scorched the whole land." 
 
 He laid his collection upon the table, and flung off 
 his riding-coat. "May I open a window?" he asked. 
 
 "Ah! yes," assented Ursula. "Why should we
 
 A SPANISH MAID 185 
 
 pant for air, when there is a whole worldful of it 
 beyond the walls ? " 
 
 But it seemed as if there was not a worldful of it 
 beyond the walls. Master Humphrey kneeled upon 
 the window-seat while his small hostess set the table 
 for his meal, and he leaned out into the darkness, but 
 the world outside was close, and hot, and airless. He 
 tried to pierce the blackness that closed up beyond the 
 bar of soft light which shone out from the room behind 
 him, but he could not distinguish the horizon. And the 
 sea itself, which had splashed its breakers up the cliffs 
 with a crisp "swish" when he had listened to it last, 
 while arraying himself for the dance the evening before, 
 now struck with a sullen, muffled boom ; while above the 
 slow sound of it there came a peculiar sucking noise, 
 as if the lips of the waves were draining the shingle on 
 Averack beach. 
 
 "I do not fancy this weather for Christmas," said 
 Master Humphrey, as he turned back to the room again 
 and obeyed the wave of Ursula's little hand. 
 
 He was really monstrously hungry, and the pie 
 was, indeed, most excellent. Then, too, the sight of 
 Ursula at the other end of the small table was extremely 
 pleasant to his eyes ; he insisted that she should share 
 his feast, for, he declared, he had become surfeited with 
 loneliness and could not bear another soHtary meal.
 
 i86 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 And Ursula, with a pretty mingling of courtesy and 
 childishness, yielded to his insistence, and took the 
 plate he held to her, with a gracious compliance. 
 
 It was but a one-course meal, but much time was 
 spent in the partaking of it. Ursula, to whom the 
 scene was something new and unusual, in her own 
 mind fell to playing it out in that undefined land of 
 hers where all romance took place. To her the parson's 
 room became the gem-set chamber of the palace, the 
 plates were gold, the glasses pure crystal, and Master 
 Humphrey must, perforce, do duty as the imaginary 
 prince. To Master Humphrey, who guessed none of 
 her imaginings, the scene was good enough as it stood ; 
 that half-shy queenhness of hers was most engaging, 
 and he did not care to hurry to the end of it and 
 break the spell. 
 
 The interruption came at length by the sound of the 
 turning of the heavy handle of the outer door, and in 
 another minute the parson was in the room, and they 
 saw him turn, with courtly hospitality, to welcome a 
 guest who had accompanied him. Rising to their feet 
 they, too, turned towards the door, and then they saw 
 that the newcomer was the foreign girl, Teresa. 
 
 " My dear," said the parson, turning to Ursula, " the 
 village folks are over-busy bearing their pains or 
 ministering to the pains of their neighbours, and I
 
 A SPAmSH MAID 187 
 
 fear that this poor stranger-maid has been somewhat 
 forgotten. I found her wandering alone, seeming deso- 
 late and uncared-for, and I brought her to our home 
 that we might minister to her comfort for a while." 
 
 Ursula stepped forward and half held out her hand 
 to draw the stranger to the hearth, but some impulse 
 checked her, and, instead, she drew a chair towards her 
 and smiled a welcome to the girl. But Teresa's eyes 
 had fallen on Master Humphrey, and, at the sight, she 
 stiffened, and Ursula's welcome was wasted. 
 
 "Ah, Humphrey!" said the parson turning to the 
 squire, " I am pleased to see you here resting at last. 
 You have undergone much since we exchanged our 
 Christmas greetings in the poor old barn. May I ask 
 you to remain here a while and assist Ursula in her 
 entertainment of the stranger. You know her language 
 and will be invaluable; and I, myself, have still some 
 visits to pay amongst the sufferers." 
 
 " I will stay gladly, sir," said Master Humphrey, as he 
 looked from the parson to the two figures by the hearth. 
 " I will stay until your return." For some unreasonable 
 reason the sight of Ursula and Teresa standing there 
 side by side did not please him, but he preferred 
 to stay and look at it rather than go and leave them 
 together. 
 
 "Thank you, Humphrey," said the parson, and in
 
 1 88 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 a few moments his gaunt figure was moving down 
 again through the outside darkness towards the village. 
 
 " You will eat, Teresa ? " asked Master Humphrey, 
 as he went forward to set a plate and a glass for her. 
 
 But Teresa's eyes had left his face, and were now 
 moving slowly over the wonderful walls of the parson's 
 room. She was seeing the colour and the beauty of them 
 for the first time, and the points of light where the 
 facets of the gems, and the quartz, and the crystals 
 caught the shine of the candles and the fire. In some 
 curious manner the gleam, and the sparkle, and the 
 strangeness of it all seemed to excite and intoxicate 
 her. A quick transition of mood came over her as 
 she looked; she was setting aside her anger and her 
 resentment, and again was feeling the full measure of 
 her power. 
 
 Looking at her Master Humphrey was reminded of 
 the night on which she had come to him at Pensallas 
 and had fallen absorbed in the beauty of her sur- 
 roundings. He stood and watched her in silence 
 until Ursula touched his arm gently and reminded him 
 of hospitality. Then he went closer to the Spaniard. 
 " You will eat, Teresa ? " he asked again. 
 
 She turned her dark, pleasure-steeped eyes upon him. 
 " Ah ! " she sighed, " how it is beautiful ! beautiful ! 
 beautiful ! "
 
 A SPANISH MAID 189 
 
 "Come," he urged, "there is some merit in this pie 
 also," and he placed a chair before the plate which 
 he had set for her. With a quick, excited spread of 
 her hands she came to the table and watched him as 
 he placed food upon her plate and poured wine into 
 her glass. 
 
 But Teresa did not eat. She took the tall glass and 
 drained the wine, and then, still toying with the stem, 
 she turned quickly from side to side to look again 
 upon the wonderful walls. 
 
 "Alas, we did not dance together!" said Master 
 Humphrey at length, interrupting her absorption, from 
 his seat by the open casement. 
 
 At that she turned on him. " No," she answered, 
 " we did not dance together." There was no apparent 
 anger in her eyes, but they were glittering strangely. 
 And Ursula, from her little oak chair by the hearth, 
 watched her half-fearfully. 
 
 " The fire was ill-timed," he laughed. 
 
 " The fire was — as hell," she answered. " But it 
 was not fire which stayed my dance. I did not dance 
 that night." 
 
 "You dared not display your powers before us?" 
 he questioned, still laughing. 
 
 " I dared not ! " she cried, her eyes flashing and her 
 brows lowering. " Dared not ! You say I dared not 
 dance ! You — you heavy-footed English ! "
 
 190 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 "You, at least, have given us no proof of your own 
 light-footedness," he persisted, amused. 
 
 At his feigned incredulity she started from her chair, 
 and for a moment both Ursula and Master Humphrey 
 held their breath. 
 
 " You say I — I from Spain, dare not dance ! " she 
 cried, clutching at the long, scarlet scarf which was 
 lying loosely wound about her shoulders. " I will show 
 you if I dare not dance ! Dance as no leaden-footed 
 English could dance — no, not in their dreams ! " 
 
 She stepped quickly to the space of bare, polished 
 floor at the farther side of the room, and catching the 
 hem of her full, scarlet skirt and the heavy fringe of 
 her scarf dexterously in one hand, she twined the other 
 end of the scarf about her free arm, and raising one 
 foot slowly, began to lilt a weird, measured air. In 
 another moment the notes quickened and grew louder, 
 and soon the girl was swaying, turning, waving, twist- 
 ing, in all the graceful intricacies of a Spanish taran- 
 tella. 
 
 In the whole of her short life Ursula had seen 
 nothing so wonderful before. She sat looking with 
 fascinated eyes upon the whirling figure, and listening 
 with entranced ears to the strange, quick notes of the 
 girl's voice. The sight seemed to fit the unreal mood 
 which was lying with full power upon her this night.
 
 A SPANISH MAID igi 
 
 In imagination she was Tar from Landecarrock ; the 
 gem-set room lay in some opulent, unnamed city of 
 the far East; the swaying, whirling form before her 
 was the favourite slave-beauty of the palace, brought 
 here to dance for her — Princess Ursula's — pleasure, 
 the music was the music of merry days and light 
 hearts. 
 
 It was wonderful ! It was exquisite ! With absorbed, 
 dilated eyes she watched as one would watch a dream- 
 vision, conscious that it must vanish if but one waking 
 thought should creep into the mind. And the scarlet 
 figure whirled on madly, and the gem-set wall behind 
 it gleamed and glittered with the movements, as if each 
 facet were a living, admiring eye ; and the quick voice 
 lilted on, with a slight tremor as the breath came 
 quicker — a tremor which only served to strengthen the 
 spell, the witchery of the scene, and set the listeners' 
 blood coursing in their veins. And the little Lande- 
 carrock lady sat enthralled, bewitched, as for the first 
 time she saw her wonderful imaginings crystallised into 
 shape before her waking eyes. 
 
 Curious changes were passing over Master Humphrey's 
 mind, as he sat silent by the open window. He did 
 not once draw his eyes from the dancing girl, and the 
 moment of amused suspense he had felt when she 
 rose from her chair, quickly gave place to admiration
 
 192 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 — full, unstinted admiration, paid to the perfection of 
 the performance. He had looked on Spanish girls 
 at their dancing before this night, but this dance and 
 this girl were unlike anything he had seen before. The 
 smiling lips fascinated him ; the glittering eyes held 
 him. His very senses seemed caught in the whirl of the 
 scarlet draperies. But as the minutes passed, a vague 
 distaste crept across his mind ; the dance, though 
 beautiful and finished, half-troubled him. It seemed 
 evil ; the vivid, alluring figure seemed wrong, whirling 
 so madly in the stately beauty of the parson's room. 
 It struck him as incongruous, and, by degrees, he 
 hated it, and, in his uneasiness, half-rose, instinctively, 
 to try to stop it. 
 
 Then, all suddenly, the quick lilting was over, and 
 the girl's voice fell into a slow, wild song of her tribe, 
 a passionate, appealing incantation, and her feet moved 
 slowly to the new measure. 
 
 Fascinating as the tarantella had been, this strange 
 music held in it something far more weird and 
 mysterious. There was no need now for the little 
 dreamer to picture unreal things with the eye of her 
 mind, the reality was sufficiently wonderful. This room 
 which both listeners knew so well, became suddenly 
 unnatural — strange to them; as if in past times they 
 had seen it through a veil. The treasures of the walls
 
 A SPANISH MAID 193 
 
 Stood out with a curious distinctness ; the atmosphere 
 grew heavy and suffocating ; there seemed to be no 
 air left in the world ; an invisible weight pressed down 
 upon them ; and yet they did not draw their eyes from 
 the girl, but watched her, feeUng that some strange 
 thing must happen, and that they must look to her 
 for the signal. 
 
 Then, as they looked and listened, they heard her 
 passionate cry ring out wildly; they saw her spread 
 her arms high towards the domed roof; and then, with 
 terror on her face, she sprang forward, and the room 
 was filled with a blaze of light which played around 
 them all, and trembled, and then went out, leaving 
 them again in sudden gloom. 
 
 Then came a rattling crash, as if the roof were 
 splitting under the fire of artillery. And before the 
 rattling had ceased came another blaze of light, followed 
 by a booming roar, as of a hundred harvest-waggons 
 breaking into a mad race for life across wooden bridges 
 overhead. 
 
 Master Humphrey and Ursula sprang to their feet, 
 but Teresa had already rushed from the room, and, 
 hurrying after her, they saw her pulling madly at the 
 handle of the outer door. Before they reached it, 
 however, she had opened it, and was speeding through 
 the darkness. 
 
 N
 
 194 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 Flash followed flash, and roar beat upon roar, and 
 in the light of the quick flames which jerked across 
 the sky, they could see her making for the cliff; then 
 without a word they took hands and raced after her 
 through the tumult of the night. 
 
 They found her on her knees at the cliff- edge, 
 pointing outwards across the water. 
 
 " See ! See ! " she whispered hoarsely. And they 
 looked. 
 
 In the quick blaze of light which brought the very 
 foam-lines into distinctness, they saw, far out upon 
 the waters, a ship, large, and black, and of a curious 
 build. Then the blaze went out and they were in 
 darkness again. But darkness was as light to Teresa, 
 for the ship was pictured plain upon the retina of her 
 eye. 
 
 " See ! See ! " she repeated. But the words came 
 slowly now ; her terror was gone, and she gazed as 
 one spell-bound. 
 
 There was no need to go or call for help ; the ship 
 was not in distress; she was moving slowly on her 
 way through the night and the storm : and, answering 
 some imperative impulse, Master Humphrey and Ursula 
 kneeled upon the short turf beside Teresa, and, looking 
 out to sea, waited for the flashes as they came to light 
 the scene. It seemed, then, as if there were nothing
 
 A SPANISH MAID ,95 
 
 else in the world worth doing but just to kneel there 
 and wait for the quick, fleeting glimpses of the black 
 ship. And in the darkness their cheeks burned, and 
 their eyes were strained, and never a word was spoken 
 except those slow syllables by Teresa, as she still 
 pointed seaward, and whispered : "See ! See ! " 
 
 And the thunder crashed across the sky, rattling and 
 roaring, and the night lay hot, and airless, and heavy 
 upon everything, and the world seemed as a battle- 
 field on which deafening and terrible deeds were 
 v/rought in the darkness by vast, invisible armies. 
 And an hour passed, and still they kneeled and 
 watched. 
 
 At length the flashes came less frequently, and the 
 rattle and the roar faded into a muffled booming ; and 
 by-and-bye, as they still crouched, waiting, there 
 came the sound of footsteps on the turf. Then Master 
 Humphrey roused himself and spoke. 
 
 "Who's there?" he called. And the parson's voice 
 came in answer. 
 
 " There appears to me to be a certain bodily risk " 
 
 he began gently. 
 
 " Ah ! we are watching a ship — a strange ship ! " in- 
 terrupted Master Humphrey, in some excitement. " No 
 wreck, but a most strange vessel." 
 
 "Ah!" commented the parson, and he stood
 
 196 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 beside them, and with them waited for the next flash 
 of light. 
 
 But the storm was passing, and they were forced to 
 wait long, even over-long the waiting proved, for, when 
 the next flash trembled across the sky, there was no ship 
 lying up against the horizon ; it was as if it had passed 
 with the storm, and the sea-line was bare from head- 
 land to headland, and from breakers to sky-line there 
 lay nothing but a waste of heaving water. 
 
 " Come," said the parson, " she has gone upon her 
 way ; let us also go upon ours." 
 
 For some moments the three kneeling figures knelt 
 on, filled with a strange wonder, finding no word to 
 fit their tongues ; then they rose in silence and obeyed 
 him. 
 
 " Humphrey," said the parson, " if you will favour 
 me by escorting Ursula to the Parsonage, I will my- 
 self see my young guest safely back to shelter." 
 
 " I will," said Master Humphrey slowly, as if his 
 own voice were new to his ears. 
 
 And turning to take their separate paths they heard 
 the faint boom of the distant thunder as it travelled 
 away into space, and they felt a fresh little breeze 
 puff in their faces, and the smell of the turf rose and 
 mingled with the smell of the sea. 
 
 Down in Betty Higgins' cottage, 'Zekiel, in his delirium,
 
 A SPANISH MAW 197 
 
 was cursing the black ship and her ghastly crew which 
 had thrown the Spanish girl upon their shore ; and Alary, 
 listening to his words, felt that he only cried aloud the 
 dumb cry of her own heart. But the cries held widely 
 different meanings.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TTj^OR a week or more Landecarrock decided daily 
 -*- that Daniel Laskey would never go into his tidy 
 churchyard again, except feet foremost on the shoulders 
 of his neighbours ; but at the end of that time Daniel 
 Laskey decided for himself — and otherwise — once more 
 baffling everybody by doing the thing which had not 
 been expected of him. And the little doctor, standing 
 wide-legged, with hands in pockets, smiled broad 
 approval of the decision ; and even Sam'le at last 
 ventured his scared face, with its anointed blister by 
 the nose — trace of the falling mistletoe's fiery kiss — 
 round the lintel, to peer furtively at his parent. 
 
 Up at the Parsonage, too, Agrimony lay with swathed 
 arms, moaning her way back to life. And it seemed 
 that the whole of the village was healing gradually. 
 There were but two exceptions to this pleasant state 
 of things ; one of these was the barn itself, which stood, 
 charred and roofless, gaping up at the sky, and pro- 
 
 198
 
 A SPANISH MA/D 199 
 
 claiming itself incurable ; the other, 'Zekiel, who still 
 tossed on his bed at the whim of his fevered 
 brain. 
 
 For a fire, this fire had been somewhat merciful ; 
 and gradually the village turned its face from its scars 
 and drew breath, and looked about it, and found that 
 it had been making Landecarrock history — painfully, 
 but undeniably. This was, indeed, a new topic to be 
 talked over by the look-out, by the boat-sheds, by 
 Ann Vitty's fuchsia bush ; though the first gatherings 
 were but dismal affairs on account of the gaps in the 
 assemblage. 
 
 Perhaps Ann Vitty and Luke Tregay felt this dismal- 
 ness more than most of them, for Ann Vitty's salori 
 had been held with greater frequency and longer 
 duration than the others, and her fixed assembly had 
 been more select. vShe and Luke missed Daniel 
 Laskey as no one else missed him ; indeed, his 
 absence seemed more striking than his presence had 
 ever been, his vacant place against the wall seemed 
 to smite their eyes, and their topics sounded un- 
 finished lacking his comprehensive " H'm ! " as their 
 metaphorical coping-stone ; that empty silence at the 
 end of their remarks was desolate in their ears. 
 
 " Old folks is old, Luke, an' there's no denyin' of 
 it," sighed Ann Vitty, as she leaned over the wall, in
 
 200 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 a rare gleam of winter sunshine, and flashed her 
 knitting needles through the baitings of her long blue 
 stocking. " Dan'le's mendin', they say, but it do bring 
 it home to anybody that the poor dear must go 'fore 
 very long ; an' we'm bound to do likewise, in the course 
 of natur'." 
 
 Luke, with his eyes fixed mournfully upon the droop- 
 ing fuchsia stems, assented. "Iss, 'tis true, an' only 
 what's to be expected. We've a-lived long lives, as lives 
 is counted nowadays, nort but a flea-bite to Meethoosla 
 an' such as he, but full lives for them as has to 'bide by 
 newer fashions." 
 
 " Poor Dan'le ! I always considered he was one as 
 thought a powerful lot of his end, quiet-hke, to hisself. 
 But, law me ! such like ways often seems to keep a 
 man livin', I've a-noticed." 
 
 " P'r'aps you'm right ; any way, Dan'le wanted all he 
 could get to keep 'en livin' this time. Doctor said 'twas 
 a mortal bad smash-up, sure 'nuff." 
 
 " I've often thought on it since," went on Ann Vitty 
 reflectively. " 'Twas strange — mortal strange ! Some of 
 the folks do say that the fire springed right up from the 
 foreign maid, an' some declare 'twas the blaze in her 
 eyes as struck the first spark. Whether they'm right or 
 wrong 'twas a queer matter. Nothin' like it never 
 happened so afore."
 
 A SPANISH MAID 201 
 
 " No, my dear soul ! 'Tisn' like Landecarrock ways 
 to be over-trubbled with fire-heat in the winter," com- 
 mented Luke, with a jerk back of his memory to winter 
 days which had been over-trying to the marrow in 
 his bones. 
 
 " I say agen, as I've a-said afore," declared Ann Vitty, 
 " I don't much fancy the maid, an' if I was Mary 
 Ludgven I'd sooner be without her. She's got a pair of 
 heathenish eyes, whether or no they'm able to fire a 
 barn; an' the way she's a-been an' bewitched poor 
 'Zekiel Myners is enuff to make a body turn cold. 
 Look at the poor boy any time since that maid comed 
 'pon Averack beach, and cast yer mind 'pon what he 
 was afore ! Fire or no fire, she's a-got ways about her 
 that isn' goin' to bring no good to nobody, an' I wishes 
 her well out of the village." 
 
 Luke had nothing hopeful to bring forward in answer 
 to Ann's tirade. 
 
 " Seems to me," he remarked, with mournful anticipa- 
 tion, " there isn' no fikelihood of her goin' away ; she's 
 no manner o' maid to go for service, an' Peter Ludgven 
 isn' the man to turn any creetur to doors if they was 
 wantin' to stay." 
 
 " Bless 'ee, no ! Peter won't turn her away ! Let that 
 maid look 'pon any man, be he married or single, an' 
 he'll go straight an' do her biddin'. Do 'ee think I can't
 
 202 .4 SPANISH MAID 
 
 see her tricks? There's a devil in her, that's what I 
 say, an' there's more trouble to come. If so be as we 
 lives long enuff, we'll see 'Zekiel's jetsam pay 'en back 
 as jetsam alwise does — trouble 'pon trouble, if 'tis nothin' 
 worse." 
 
 " She isn' altogether what you'd call jetsam," ventured 
 Luke, hazarding a ray of hope upon Ann's dark future. 
 " 'Zekiel didn' ezactly draw the maid out from the sea 
 as you might say." 
 
 But Ann was not to be cheered. 
 
 " If he'd a-draw'd her straight down from the stars, 'tis 
 my belief 'twouldn' ha' made no difference ; the maid's 
 possessed. To my mind Landecarrock's never bin the 
 same since she comed. Did ever you mind a winter 
 same as this winter? I can't never mind such a one. 
 I've a-known 'em mild, an' I've a-known 'em short, in 
 my time, but nothin' like this. Why, there hasn' a-bin 
 a touch of cold in the air since the fire blazed up back 
 'pon Christmas Eve ; an' heavy ! — you can a-most weight 
 it in yer hands." 
 
 " You'm right," responded Luke, with a slow shake of 
 his head. " Us got brave an' hot that night, an' us haven' 
 had no chance of coolin' ourselves off since. 'Tis blow 
 'pon yer fingers to cool 'em, 'stead of chafin' yer 
 chillblines, as you haul down yer sails." 
 
 " Maybe 'tis savin' in the matter of firein', but 'tisn'
 
 A SPANISH MAW 203 
 
 natural ; an' somethin' '11 come of it, whoever lives to 
 see it.'' 
 
 " Somethin' '11 come of it." Each man and woman in 
 the village felt the same thing, though they might not all 
 have Ann Vitty's leisure or spirit of prophecy to put it 
 into words. It was as if some heavy, intangible thing 
 were hanging over them, waiting to fall and crush. 
 They had known storm, and stress, and death, and dearth 
 in other years, and time and time again hunger had 
 come to their doors, and had stalked inside, too, but 
 never before had this gloomy foreboding come and 
 wrapped them round, and pressed down upon them. 
 
 '"Tis the weather," declared Peter Ludgven, deter- 
 mined that if his cheerfulness was to die as other 
 people's it should die hard. "'Tis the weather what's 
 makin' us so wisht an' down-danted — weather an' poor 
 catches." 
 
 No one felt equal to proving Peter wrong ; and, certain 
 it was, that, instead of the furious north-easter which they 
 knew so intimately, lashing their cliffs and sweeping 
 across the land, the air was still and heavy ; a damp, 
 sodden smell rose from the earth, and fog, fog, fog, lay 
 everywhere, wrapping the hills, hiding the cliffs, lying 
 low upon the sea and the land, hanging in beads upon 
 the bare trees and bushes; creeping into the cottages, 
 into the ingle-nooks, into the very throats of the villagers ;
 
 204 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 and the sea lay out to meet it — a dull grey, heaving 
 stretch, sullen and ugly ; and man, and sea, and land 
 seemed gloomily waiting, grimly expectant. 
 
 At last something did come, but that was trifling, and 
 nobody paid any heed to it. Something else came soon 
 after, which caught and held all their powers of thinking 
 and feeling, and doing. But this first small thing came 
 so quietly, so unobtrusively ; not in a tearing whirlwind, 
 or a blinding snowstorm, or a crashing thunderbolt, such 
 as every villager felt would be a fitting form of arrival 
 into the midst of their gloom. It came floating over the 
 heaving grey water, with the languid, immature waves 
 flop — flopping against its small wooden sides, towards the 
 damp shingle of Averack beach. 
 
 Nobody saw it as it bobbed its way out of the fog on 
 the sea towards the fog on the land, for the only human 
 being anywhere near was Master Humphrey on the cliff 
 above, and his face and his thoughts were turned towards 
 the Parsonage. It is true that before long there was 
 another human being equally near to the wooden thing 
 bobbing its way from sea to land, but her face and her 
 thoughts were turned towards Master Humphrey. 
 
 " Ah ! " she sighed softly as she came out of the fog 
 towards him. 
 
 " Teresa," he answered. 
 
 " Why do you go up and up ? " she asked gaily. " I am
 
 A SPANISH MAID 205 
 
 going down." She was such a child to-day ; her lips 
 curved in such young smiles ; her eyes were so innocent 
 and dewy, as she pointed to the cliff path which led 
 down to the beach. 
 
 " I was on my way to the Parsonage," he explained. 
 
 " It is not good for you to go there," she declared. 
 
 " I think it is," he laughed. 
 
 "Ah, I mean — it is not good o/you" she corrected. 
 
 "Ah!" he agreed, "that is another matter." 
 
 "lam going down," she said again, and she still 
 pointed one small brown finger down towards the beach. 
 
 And then she turned her dark head and looked up at 
 him sideways ; and then she raised the dark arches of 
 her eyebrows ; and then two bright little specks came 
 and danced in her wide eyes ; and all the while there 
 was silence. 
 
 And she had never before appeared so child-like in 
 Master Humphrey's sight. 
 
 And Master Humphrey had a kindly heart for 
 children. 
 
 And then she faced towards the path down which her 
 finger pointed, and Master Humphrey followed her down 
 the zigzag to the beach. 
 
 And the wooden thing heaved on the dull sea, 
 nearer and nearer, with the impotent ripples striking 
 it weakly as it passed by, as if they found themselves
 
 2o6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 too feeble to prove the strength of their objection, 
 till at length they hurried it on to the swell of a list- 
 less breaker, and the listless breaker, faint with anxiety 
 to be rid of such a burden, slid it down to a dispirited 
 neighbour, which, in its turn, tossed it languidly upon 
 the shingle, and slowly sank back after the exertion 
 into the arms of its fellows, leaving the burden stranded 
 on Averack beach. 
 
 Teresa saw it first. 
 
 " Look ! " she cried. " Quick, look ! What has come 
 to us ? " 
 
 "Another Spanish maid, perchance," laughed Master 
 Humphrey, as he ran with her to the water's edge. 
 
 "But tell me," she demanded, kneeling and passing 
 her quick brown fingers over the wet wood, " why does 
 it come so ? " 
 
 Master Humphrey smiled and shook his head. 
 " Landecarrock sees many such treasures from the 
 sea drift to her beaches," he answered, as he lifted 
 one end and dragged it higher up the shingle, "but 
 they seldom tell us why they come." 
 
 "Open it quick, quick!" she commanded, beating 
 her hands together in her impatience. " I must see the 
 treasures ! " 
 
 "No " began Master Humphrey, as he kneeled 
 
 and examined the thing.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 207 
 
 " No ? " she repeated angrily. 
 
 " It would be " 
 
 " Open it ! " she commanded, and then they stood 
 upright and faced one another — and, in a minute or 
 so, a fair-sized pebble seemed sufficient for the 
 work. 
 
 This treasure from the sea was an oblong little chest 
 of black wood, fastened almost invisibly at every join ; 
 but, on its voyage, it had struck a rock, it seemed, for 
 on one side there was a large dent in the wood, and 
 at this spot Master Humphrey found the fair-sized 
 pebble sufficient to finish the work of staving- 
 in. 
 
 " Good ! " cried Teresa, as in her eagerness she fell 
 upon her knees and pushed in front of Master 
 Humphrey. Then she thrust her hand into the hole 
 to clutch at the treasure. 
 
 Whatever she had expected to find — coins, or jewels, 
 or ornaments of gold and gems — what she touched 
 surprised her. It was something soft and yielding, 
 and, closing her fingers upon it, she drew her hand 
 quickly back again, and looked upon a crumpled end 
 of yellow silk which she was holding — vivid yellow, 
 soft and shining. 
 
 Master Humphrey rose to his feet. 
 
 " Better push it back and leave it for Peter," he
 
 2oS A SPANISH MAID 
 
 said, as one advising a child in the matter of sharp- 
 edged tools. 
 
 " Leave it ! " she cried, " for Peter ! It did not come 
 to Peter ! I — I, myself, first touched it ! " 
 
 "You were taking away Peter's work," he assured 
 her. 
 
 "But it is not work I want to take away," she 
 said scornfully, " it is the treasure. It is mine ! 
 It came to me. I saw it first. Look ! Lovely ! 
 Gold ! " 
 
 With all her smiles come back again, she pulled at 
 the end she held, and drew out from the chest yard 
 upon yard of the soft, shining stuff. 
 
 "Ah!" she sighed, as she came at length to an end, 
 and buried her hands in the silken mass. 
 
 " You must put it back," declared Master Humphrey. 
 
 " No," decided Teresa. 
 
 " Yes," said Master Humphrey. 
 
 " No," repeated Teresa. 
 
 And then she lifted the yellow folds, and twined them 
 about her dark hair and her shoulders, and smiled out 
 at him from her vivid hood. 
 
 " There is much more in the box," she said quietly, 
 as she rubbed her cheek against the golden soft- 
 ness. 
 
 Higher up, through the fog, came the trill of a
 
 A SPANISH MAID 209 
 
 whistle. It was Peter's whistle ; and, as they heard it, 
 they looked at one another. 
 
 " Put it back," said Master Humphrey again. 
 
 '' No," said Teresa. 
 
 With a new line — a stern one — showing between his 
 eyebrows he stepped towards her, and put his hand 
 upon the silk about her shoulders. And now they 
 could hear Peter's footsteps coming down the path to 
 the beach. With a jerk of her shoulder Teresa 
 threw off Master Humphrey's hand and sprang away 
 from him. 
 
 " Listen ! " she said, and she raised her finger to 
 command silence, while Peter's whistle came trilling 
 again through the fog. Master Humphrey looked at 
 her but said nothing. 
 
 " Listen again ! " she commanded. " To me. This is 
 beautiful, and I will have it. Peter is coming ; he 
 need have neither work nor treasure," and moving 
 quickly to the little chest she lifted it in her arms, 
 and, running to the water's edge, flung it as far as her 
 strength allowed, out into the sea ; and a single splash 
 came back to them through the fog. 
 
 Then she turned and faced him, smiling defiantly, 
 with all her pilfered glory wound about her. But the 
 defiance went out from her face as she looked. Child- 
 moods are short-lived and very winning. 
 
 O
 
 210 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Come ! " she whispered coaxingly, holding her hand 
 to him. " Come ! " 
 
 And he turned and went with her. 
 
 When Peter, with the fog-beads standing out on his 
 rough coat and his curly hair, came looming through 
 the smoky denseness to the water's edge, the beach, 
 as far as his eye could penetrate, was empty and silent ; 
 and the line of dull, grey sea heaved slowly with the 
 ebbing tide, and told no tales. 
 
 But stealing away towards the village, in the golden 
 folds about Teresa's dark hair and slender shoulders, 
 something had come to Landecarrock at last.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " ^ALLA silk ! " 
 
 -^ Landecarrock folk gazed and gasped, then 
 blinked, and gasped, and gazed again, and three quick 
 breaths went to the exclamation as the Spaniard danced 
 past them in the fog. Then a score of questions blurted 
 themselves out, for Landecarrock folk had been some- 
 what overpowered with incident lately, and were suffering 
 from a surfeit of amazement; but all the while they 
 knew that their questions could not be answered, for, 
 when all are enquiring, who would exalt himself and 
 turn instructor to his equals ? 
 
 But at length, with one long breath a word was ventured 
 — the word which had been chafing in their skulls so long. 
 
 '"Tis witchcraft," declared Ann Vitty, and Lande- 
 carrock turned to her in fearful gratitude. She had 
 put their dread into sounding syllables ; and, ghastly 
 though it might be in their ears, a common danger was 
 better to bear than an individual terror. 
 
 "Mother!" exclaimed Betty Higgins, squeezing her 
 
 211
 
 212 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 youngest baby, Charity, in her nervousness, till that 
 infant squealed protests. " How can 'ee say it ? " 
 
 " 'Tis witchcraft ! " repeated Ann Vitty, bolder now 
 that the word had once sounded in her own ears ; " an' 
 I've alwise misdoubted as 'twas so." 
 
 " Yalla silk ! " they breathed, and they all turned their 
 heads one way to peer into the fog. 
 
 A wild mood had come to Teresa, as if with the 
 touch of her new mantle, and her yellow figure danced 
 on now, past the villagers, as if the heart inside it were 
 too light for sober ways. 
 
 A group of listless children were moping round about 
 a grindstone at the top of the village, and as the 
 Spaniard reached them, she caught them one by one 
 and swung them round, rippling out pretty laughter as 
 she saw their wondering faces ; then she chased them 
 gaily, and merrily flicked them with the shining silk, 
 then spun them in its soft folds, and released them 
 again all giddy and breathless. 
 
 And in a while the mad mood infected the children, 
 too, and they loosed their down-drawn lips and laughed 
 out shrilly, and joined in this fun which had fronted 
 them so suddenly. And the elders, hearing the laugh- 
 ing clamour, followed their own eyes into the fog, and 
 then stopped, startled, and widened their lids, and 
 looked upon the wild doings.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 213 
 
 The Stranger-maid who had always shunned them 
 haughtily, and passed them by with never a word or 
 a smile, was now frolicking as a child amongst their 
 children, darting to and fro in the midst, chasing, catch- 
 ing, whirling their plump, sturdy-legged sons and daughters 
 as if they were so many butterflies, dancing with them, 
 swooping upon them, entangling them in the long folds 
 of her gold-coloured drapery. And the children, wild 
 with the excitement, drunk with the joy of it, skipped, 
 and ran, and darted, too, shouting, laughing, clamour- 
 ing, as if tasting pleasure for the first time, and mad 
 with the excess of it. 
 
 And the elders stood where they had first halted, 
 gaping and awed, and looked upon their little Lande- 
 carrock boys and maids as if relationship had been 
 wiped out, and they were looking upon strangers. And 
 the minutes passed, and still they stared on, fascinated, 
 with no power to claim or to command these pranking 
 little figures. 
 
 And then, quickly as she had come upon them out 
 of the mist, the Spaniard whirled her yellow draperies 
 and danced away into it again, leaving them frisking 
 alone. Four or five of them danced after her, thinking 
 this but a new phase of the delightful frolic, but she was 
 quicker than they, and soon out-distanced them, never 
 once turning her face back to them as she sped into
 
 214 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 the denseness. Then all the frisking ceased, and a 
 sudden wondering silence fell upon them, and they 
 grouped themselves again about the grindstone, looking 
 cheated and chapfallen, and then they turned their 
 heated little faces to their elders, and looked silly also. 
 
 For many hours after this, a spirit of unrest lay upon 
 the young of Landecarrock. They had tasted the sweets 
 of a strange, incredible pleasure which had been snatched 
 from them again, leaving them mortified and unsatisfied ; 
 and now they grew peevish and fractious, and found 
 their old life tasteless, and colourless, and dull. Not 
 until the next day did they recover some of their interest 
 in affairs and bury their longings and their mortification 
 in forgetfulness. Then, as they dawdled apathetically 
 on Averack beach they chanced upon a little wooden 
 chest with one side staved in, which had been washed 
 up by the tide. The sight roused them, and having 
 rounded their eyes and wondered a while, they turned 
 it over and drew out from it countless sodden folds of 
 some soft material, all dripping and stained. And when 
 they had emptied the chest, and thrown the wet stuff 
 aside, it seemed worth while to kick the little wooden 
 thing from where it lay, and with the first kick their 
 spirits rose, and they kicked it again, and further. The 
 sport was good, exciting, and they grew quick and glee- 
 ful, and backwards and forwards they kicked the little
 
 A SPANISH MAID 215 
 
 chest, from boy to girl, from girl to boy ; and their 
 peevishness and their apathy fell away from them, and 
 their laughter could be heard again rising up into the 
 fog, until, in time, this game, too, seemed stale, and the 
 labour profitless. Then they turned again to the sodden 
 stuff lying upon the beach, and squeezing the wet grey- 
 green folds in their tanned little fists, made reins of it for 
 themselves, and played at horses on the shingle. 
 
 It was soon after this that the second "something" 
 came to Landecarrock. And even this "something," 
 though bearing such power with it, came without 
 noise, or blare, or crash to herald it, borne gaily 
 up the village street in the arms of the only creature 
 who could be gay in the face of the heavy, dank 
 gloom which oppressed the land. 
 
 The day was close, and grey, and misty, as all the other 
 days had been since Christmas Eve ; dampness rose from 
 the earth and dropped from the sky, as Teresa came 
 laughing up the hill from the boat-sheds with little 
 Charity Higgins in her arms. Charity's face was pale 
 and her eyes were heavy as she lay against Teresa's 
 shoulder, but Teresa's cheeks were glowing, her eyes 
 were bright and dancing, and her lips were parted 
 in child-smiles. And wound round about herself and 
 the baby was the yellow silk, binding them together. 
 
 . As the girl came on her way, tossing and rocking
 
 2i6 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 the child in her arms, mothers looked from their 
 doorways anxiously and scanned the pair, and they 
 knitted their brows and straightened their lips. They 
 hated the foreigner to fondle their children ; they hated 
 her to touch or look at them ; in their hearts they 
 knew her to be a " witch," and they shuddered as their 
 eyes fell upon her. On this day, as each mother, 
 looking from her doorway, saw that the child in the 
 foreigner's arms was none of hers, she shrank back 
 into her kitchen that she might not hold mouth- 
 speech with the girl. And Teresa came gaily on, 
 laughing and chattering her " heathenish words " to the 
 child, till she reached the open doorway of Betty 
 Higgins's cottage. 
 
 Betty was in her kitchen, and her heart gave a 
 scared, great thump, and her lips trembled as she saw 
 her baby in the foreigner's arms. 
 
 "Charry, my precious!" she cried, hurrying forward 
 to claim her own. "Come 'long to mammy." And 
 the baby, seeing her, struggled to free herself and 
 stretch her arms to her mother. 
 
 " Lord sakes ! " cried Betty. " What's the matter 
 wi' her arm?" 
 
 She stopped in the act of taking the child and 
 quickly pulled up the little flannel sleeve to the 
 shoulder. A cluster of bright, red spots burned angrily
 
 A SPANISH MAID 217 
 
 upon the baby flesh, and Betty's eyes full of horror, 
 and Teresa's still smiling, were riveted upon them. 
 
 " Lord A'mighty ! " exclaimed Betty, " what is it all ? 
 What 'vee been doin' to her ? " 
 
 But Teresa only smiled on placidly. 
 
 "Stop yer grinnin'!" commanded Betty, "an' tell me 
 what 'tis ? " 
 
 For answer Teresa drew her finger lightly in a circle 
 round the bright spots, and murmured in a cooing 
 voice : " Ah, pretty ! " 
 
 " Pretty ! " repeated Betty indignantly, snatching 
 Charity from the girl. " Little you'd care if they was 
 plague-spots. Come, my blessed, tell mother what the 
 wicked maid done to 'ee ! " 
 
 But Charity only turned her face to her mother's 
 heart, and moaned a little moan, half-peevish, half- 
 comforted. 
 
 Ann Vitty's words, '"Tis witchcraft," seemed to echo 
 again, and the blood shuddered out of Betty's comely 
 cheeks. She turned in quickly and shut her door, 
 leaving the foreigner to smile on, if she pleased, upon 
 the weather-worn wood of it, while she laid her baby 
 in its cradle, and knew, and never doubted, that the 
 cluster of bright spots meant death. 
 
 By evening-time of that same day a dozen or more 
 of Landecarrock boys and maids left their play,
 
 2i8 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 which had grown dull and tedious to them, and 
 volunteered for bed a full hour before time, instead 
 of cavilling about odd minutes, and haggling over the 
 shadows and the tide-line, as was common with them ; 
 these being the clocks which they and their elders 
 never read alike. 
 
 And before long the little doctor was riding his 
 good brown mare across the backbone of the downs 
 again, peering at his way through the mist by the 
 help of his big horn lantern. And when he reached 
 the village his cheery face turned grave^ for as he 
 went from bed to bed he knew the place to be stricken. 
 
 Landecarrock folk did not say many words when 
 they learned that Death was stalking their village ; 
 they seemed to have been waiting so long for him, or 
 some such visitant, that their sorrowful words had 
 mostly been said. They had cried out when the fire 
 had burst upon them in the barn, and conversation 
 had not been slack on the subject afterwards, but 
 when this new foe faced them they pressed their lips 
 noiselessly, and did the next thing, hour after hour, 
 with little comment, and only a grim look of waiting 
 in their eyes. They had been better schooled for 
 endurance than for sudden shocks. 
 
 Soon after the coming of the doctor, Peter Ludgven 
 went to Betty Higgins' cottage and carried 'Zekiel back
 
 A SPANISH MAID 219 
 
 with him to his own home on the hill. If 'Zekiel 
 had to die it was thought better for him to die of 
 his fever and weakness than of the loathsome sickness 
 which lay upon Charity Higgins and the others, if 
 such could be shut away from him. So Mary turned 
 her face to 'Zekiel and to Zel, giving her time and 
 her strength to the healing of the one and the pro- 
 tecting of the other. But Peter went outside again, 
 for his work lay also in the world and amongst his 
 fellows; and since it must be so, and he must go 
 where there was danger, it seemed best to him that he 
 should keep himself from those he cared for most ; 
 and his own home began to see but little of him after 
 he had laid 'Zekiel upon the bed. Mary knew that 
 he was wise in this matter; that it was all sensible 
 and right; but she could not thank him for the 
 wisdom, and the sense, and the rightness while her heart 
 was so empty and desolate. And all the while Teresa, 
 as some gorgeous insect that seems to find its pleasure 
 in skimming over foul and stagnant pools, went to 
 and fro, light-footed and light-hearted, up and down 
 the hushed village, in and out of the houses of 
 mourning, uninvited and unwelcomed, seeming to find 
 her pleasure in the sights she saw and the sounds 
 she heard. And Mary, facing the danger of the girl's 
 wild goings and comings, held Zel apart from her,
 
 220 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 and told her sternly of the risks she ran ; but her 
 words seemed mostly unmeaning to Teresa, and the 
 girl, whether understanding or ignorant, laughed in her 
 face, and went her own way. 
 
 And the sickness crept on swiftly and remorselessly ; 
 and above the hush which lay upon the village, soon 
 there could be heard the tap-tap of carpenter Upjohn's 
 hammer at work upon the coffins ; and Daniel Laskey, 
 creeping out into the gloomy world again for the first 
 time, with his newly-mended ribs behind his waistcoat, 
 turned his steps toward his churchyard, which was now 
 being so ruthlessly upturned by other hands, that the 
 eyes at least of the master might be there to super- 
 intend the melancholy disarrangement of his treasured 
 turf. 
 
 " The plague," the villagers called the swift vampire 
 which hurried into their homes, and, seizing on their 
 treasures, left them so near to human bankruptcy. 
 " The plague " it was to them before ever the doctor 
 had diagnosed it, and as he saw them sicken and 
 droop before his eyes he did not trouble them with 
 corrections, for he felt that no other word would fit 
 it better. 
 
 " What's the meaning of all this, Ludgven ? " 
 
 Peter, talking with Daniel Laskey as he sat at the 
 door of the cottage by his boat-sheds, turned as he
 
 J SPANISH MAID 221 
 
 heard the words, and saw the doctor himself standing 
 there with Master Humphrey at his side. Peter 
 touched his cap. 
 
 " Do 'ee mean the plague, sir ? " he asked. 
 
 "Ay, ay, the plague. What's the meaning of it? 
 How did it come ? " questioned the doctor. 
 
 "That's what we'm all askin', sir," replied Peter, 
 with a shake of his head. "Every man, woman, or 
 child as we sees a-droopin', we ask, ' What's the 
 meanin' of it ? How did 'ee come by it ? ' But, poor 
 souls ! they only twists in their mortal pains, an' then 
 stiffens before our very eyes while we'm a-waitin' for 
 the word." 
 
 " Strange ! " mused the little man aloud. " I find no 
 good enough cause for it. Landecarrock is clean as 
 fishing villages are like to be— clean as it has been 
 any time these centuries past, for sure. Any likely 
 vessels been here at anchor? Any sailors ashore? 
 Any cargoes landed ? " 
 
 "Nothin' an' nobody," declared Peter. " Lande- 
 carrock's bin like a place forsook since Christmas-time. 
 Like as if God A'mighty had a-cut us off from our 
 fellow-creeturs." 
 
 And then there flashed a sudden, ghastly thought 
 through Master Humphrey's brain, as he stood by 
 listening. His face had been growing white and
 
 222 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 haggard during the past gruesome days, but now the 
 blood rushed to it and burned there, and buzzed in 
 his ears, and made him dizzy. 
 
 " Doctor," he interrupted, trying to steady his voice, 
 which sounded weak and far away to his own ears, 
 "Could — could flotsam, or jetsam bring about such 
 a pestilence as this ? " 
 
 " Powers of hell, squire ! " shouted the little man, 
 "they'd manage it well, in truth! Yellow-jack, leprosy, 
 plagues of every breed, bottled up with sack or rum, 
 boxed in with fruits, tied up with grain, hiding in 
 bales of cotton or chests of silk." 
 
 "Nothin's come our way, sir, since back afore 
 Christmas-time," protested Peter. 
 
 "Yes, something did come." Master Humphrey 
 seemed to drop the words from his mouth slowly 
 and separately, as a man speaking a new language. 
 " A little chest of yellow silk — washed in upon 
 Averack beach. I know it, for I saw it, and I opened 
 it." 
 
 For a minute they looked at him in silence; the 
 doctor keen and curious, Peter amazed and expectant, 
 and Sam'le, who had joined the group, slouching near 
 to his father and staring up into each face in turn in 
 loose-lipped fear. 
 
 " H'm ! " ventured Daniel, breaking the silence.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 223 
 
 Then in answer to the questions in their eyes Master 
 Humphrey told his tale. 
 
 " Burn it ! " cried the doctor, when he had listened 
 impatiently to the end. "Burn it, and that quickly, 
 too ! But the maid — where is she ? I can't call her 
 
 to mind." 
 
 "She is well," declared Master Humphrey. "She 
 has not sickened." 
 
 " She has not sickened ! " echoed the doctor. " That 
 seems to exonerate your little chest of silk. But," 
 he added, more to himself than to them, "there's no 
 knowing, those dark-bloods seem impervious at times. 
 Can I see this maid and her silk?" he asked, turning 
 to Master Humphrey. 
 
 "Yes," said Master Humphrey. "Come with me; 
 I will find her for you."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ' ^7 EKIEL was himself again, that is to say, he had 
 ^— ' given over raving of " black ships " and " cursed 
 crews," and lay upon his bed sensible. For hours his 
 wide eyes, which seemed as if they would never close 
 again, had turned from Mary's face to the little casement, 
 with hopeless, hungry glances ; she had seen restless 
 recognition in them, too. Then the parson came, and, 
 standing by the bed, took 'Zekiel's hand and smiled 
 upon him, and then 'Zekiel spoke, and his voice was 
 strong, with a curious, hollow strength. It seemed as if 
 nothing would weaken him, as if his passion for the 
 Spanish girl flamed in him, with the fire of a fierce, 
 artificial vitality which would not let him sink or 
 die. 
 
 "Why didn' 'ee let me go?" he asked, looking up 
 into the parson's face, with quick suffering and reproach 
 in his own eyes. 
 
 224
 
 A SPANISH MAID 225 
 
 " Let you go, Ezekiel ! " repeated the parson. 
 "Whither should I let you go?" 
 
 "Hell! Hell! It must be hell! God A'mighty 
 wouldn' bear with me in Heaven. I couldn' worship 
 'En. I couldn' take no 'count of 'En, with my heart, 
 an' my soul, an' my body all a-worshippin' an' a-longin' 
 for her." 
 
 " We cannot spare you for hell, Ezekiel ; think of it, 
 lad ! We cannot willingly let you go to suffer the 
 tortures of the damned ! " 
 
 " I suffer 'em now," he cried despairingly. " 'Tis hell 
 for me to live ! 'Twas hell all the time I was seein' her. 
 'Twas hell when we was apart ; from day to day, an' 
 hour to hour, an' word to word. 'Twas hell ! hell ! hell ! 
 an' I can't rise up an' stir about in it again. I can't 
 face it. I can't — Teresa ! Teresa ! " 
 
 He pressed his thin fingers hard into his eyes, and his 
 body shook with the power of his pain. Mary, standing 
 silent at the foot of his bed, bore each word's separate 
 wring of torture, and she did not move or try to comfort 
 him. She did not tighten her lips or close her teeth, as 
 instinct teaches men and women to do to ease their 
 pain ; she only gripped her hands together and pressed 
 them tighdy over her heart — an impotent tourniquet to 
 stop its bleeding or deaden its pain. 
 
 " Ezekiel," said the old man gently, " you are young
 
 226 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 — young enough to be only brave. I pray you not 
 to turn coward and crouch from the first blow that 
 hurts." 
 
 The tension of the boy's fingers slackened again, and 
 his body lay quite still. The old man went on in a low, 
 soothing voice, full of sincerity and a fine pity. 
 
 " God, a man has told us, has stretched a crumb of 
 dust from Heaven to hell, and then, with a wonderful 
 tenderness and mercy, has reached out His arms to meet 
 it, if it will but float back towards Him, if ever so feebly. 
 That crumb is man. Will you be too poor, too weak a 
 man to raise even a finger, even a glance ? " 
 
 " I ain't a man. I ain't nothin' but a — a — lump of 
 pain," declared 'Zekiel. 
 
 The parson sighed a little. " We will wait for you — 
 wait for you to take shape from out your lump of pain. 
 It is possible that it may be quite splendid — that shape 
 for which we wait. Ah ! " he went on musingly, as if 
 forgetful of his listeners, his tall, spare figure swaying 
 slowly, his thin fingers interlaced, " in one's youth — 
 how well I know it ! — pain is so keen, so poignant. 
 The thing on which a man sets his heart is craved for 
 so passionately, and then, when it is denied, he cries out 
 bitterly, angrily, and he turns and curses, and draws his 
 eyes inward to his own black, hopeless heart, and says 
 that the world is black and loathsome, dark as night.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 227 
 
 hateful as hell ; and he wraps himself round tightly in 
 selfishness. But by-and-bye, if he has a germ of real 
 manhood — humanity — latent in him, that wrapping of 
 selfishness, that chrysalis of cowardice, is broken through 
 gradually, and the man, looking out, finds that the world 
 is not quite dark after all. There is a twilight in which 
 he can dimly perceive several desirable things still 
 lying round about in it ; and then, even as he looks, the 
 twilight lightens and the things stand out yet more 
 plainly and seem yet more desirable ; and as time passes 
 on he learns that the world is, after all, a fair spot still, 
 and the light, becoming more radiant and more glorious, 
 leads that man on to perfect day. Ah ! you are young, 
 Ezekiel, you are young " 
 
 The parson's voice was pitiful and soothing, and for 
 a while it seemed as if his words had been lulling the 
 excited boy upon the bed, but with a quick, bitter cry 
 'Zekiel silenced him. 
 
 "Young! Young! Why shouldn' I be young? I 
 don't want to be old ! I want — I want — O my God ! 
 — I want rest 1 " and, throwing out his wasted arms, he 
 turned his back upon light and the living, and buried 
 his face in his pillow, and knew despair. 
 
 A sharp rapping at the cottage door broke the silence 
 which followed, and Mary turned, dry-eyed, and went 
 slowly down the stairs.
 
 228 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 In a curiously dull, unemotional way she noted little 
 details of the room before her as she stood at the foot — 
 the size of it, the colour of its walls, a drooping fuchsia- 
 bloom in the window, the hot flush on Zel's cheek as he 
 lay asleep in his cradle, the loose folds of yellow silk 
 about Teresa's shoulders as she bent over him. Then 
 the latch clicked and the door opened, and Master 
 Humphrey stood on the threshold, with the doctor at 
 his shoulder. 
 
 " Forgive us for troubling you, Mary," said Master 
 Humphrey, coming forward, " but doctor has a wish 
 to see Teresa, and the bit of silk she's wearing." 
 
 Mary moved her head in answer, and Teresa, hearing 
 her name spoken^ rose smiUng from the cradle-side, 
 and looked upon the visitors. 
 
 " Teresa," said Master Humphrey, turning to her and 
 speaking in her own tongue, "doctor distrusts your 
 pretty silk, thinking it holds the plague which is killing 
 our people every hour. We want you to let us burn 
 it " 
 
 Teresa's eyes hardened as she heard him, and she 
 tightened the silk about her shoulders, but her lips 
 were smiling still. 
 
 "I think, Mrs Ludgven," said the doctor, turning 
 in angry impatience to Mary, " that this cursed plague, 
 as you call it, which is turning your village into a
 
 A SPANISH MAID 22$ 
 
 charnel-house, is lying thick, like enough, in this maid's 
 bit of finery " 
 
 " A — h ! " His angry words had stirred Mary at 
 last. The dull despair in her eyes kindled to quick 
 mother-fear, and, springing forward, she pushed Teresa 
 roughly back from the cradle-side. "Take it off!" she 
 cried. " Take it off this instant minute ! " And she 
 snatched at the silk to tear it away with her own 
 hands. 
 
 But Teresa stepped back and smiled insolently into 
 her face, as she gripped the soft stuff about her in 
 her two small fists. 
 
 " Come, Teresa," said Master Humphrey with some 
 sternness ; and the doctor stepped forward also. But 
 Teresa only looked from one to the other and laughed 
 a laugh which mocked and defied them ; and it seemed 
 sufficient to stay their hands. 
 
 " Doctor, doctor ! " cried Mary, " she's been fondlin' 
 of 'en ; she's been holdin' of 'en ; an' I prayed her 
 to let 'en 'bide." 
 
 "He is flushed," remarked the doctor, curbing his 
 impatience as he leaned over the cradle and looked at 
 the child. 
 
 With a sudden horror in her eyes, Mary caught up 
 the little sleeping form in her arms. But with devilish 
 maliciousness Teresa sprang before her, and, snatching
 
 230 A SPAmSff At A ID 
 
 at the child, hugged him in a rough embrace; then, 
 winding the yellow folds close about him, twirled airily 
 round before them in bravado, and laughed aloud. 
 
 "Give the child to his mother," commanded Master 
 Humphrey, gripping her by the shoulder. But she 
 twisted herself from his hold, and stood for a moment 
 holding the boy mockingly towards Mary, the yellow 
 wrap still all twined about him. 
 
 " Let me have 'en ! " cried Mary in her agony of 
 fear for him. " Give 'en to me this minute ! " And 
 Zel looked at her with wondering, sleepy eyes. 
 
 But, " Ah, no, he love— me— best ! " declared Teresa 
 tauntingly. 
 
 "Loves you best!" echoed Mary, white with her 
 indignation, as she held her arms to her boy. " Loves 
 you better than his own mother ! Come ! my precious ! 
 my sonny boy ! Come to mother ! " 
 
 " See ! " laughed Teresa, " how he love ! " And, step- 
 ping back a pace, she held the baby loosely in her arms, 
 watching him eagerly with her burning eyes, while 
 Mary faced them, her blue eyes hungering and her 
 arms outstretched. And then, in the moment of silence 
 which followed, and while, instinctively, all lips were 
 parted and no one dared draw breath, the baby smiled, 
 and stretching his plump arms to the Spaniard, laid 
 them about her neck.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 231 
 
 " Ah, God ! " With a bitter cry Mary sprang forward, 
 and, raising her clenched fist, struck down the baby 
 arms from their pretty holding. Then a sudden jealous 
 fury leaped into her face, the touch of the soft warm 
 flesh seemed to set madness running in her veins, and 
 she struck it again and again brutally. And the child's 
 wild cry of pain rang out sharply, and he turned and 
 spread his little arms to his mother in his baby 
 terror, but she only beat them down again. 
 
 The sight of the calm woman turned brute was over- 
 ghastly. Master Humphrey sprang forward and caught 
 her hands. *' Mary, Mary, you are mad ! " he cried 
 sharply. And then the door opened, and Peter came 
 in. 
 
 At sight of her husband the pent pain of months 
 foamed out from Mary's lips in furious words. Writhing 
 in her desolation, whipped to agony, she raved recklessly 
 of Peter's desertion, of his love for the Spaniard, and 
 of her own empty heart. While Zel sobbed wildly, 
 and stretched his baby arms for pity, and real tears 
 blistered his burning cheeks and splashed upon the 
 silken folds which still bound him to Teresa. 
 
 For some moments Peter stood dumb before this 
 raging wife, who seemed as a stranger to him, and his 
 eyes were wide with bewilderment. Then "What's the 
 meanin' of it all ? " he cried at last, bringing his fist down
 
 232 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 upon the table in stern amazement. "You'm mad!" 
 He echoed the words which had fallen on his ears 
 as he opened his own door. " What's this maid to me ? " 
 
 " What's the maid to you ? " raged Mary. " Every- 
 thin', an' I'm nothin'. She's stole my man ; she's 
 stole my child ; she's stole 'Zekiel " 
 
 " You'm speakin' false ! " said Peter, with slow fury. 
 Then he turned to Teresa, and, without a glance at 
 her mocking face, forced the child firmly from her 
 arms. "Take the boy, Mary!" he commanded, hold- 
 ing Zel to her, and the little fellow spread his hands 
 to her again. 
 
 " Take him ! " she echoed, " when he's chose her 
 before me ! " and she raised her clenched fist once 
 more and beat down the baby fingers. "You've 
 both chose her, an' I've done with both. Go to her, 
 
 cherish her " She stopped, and looked round 
 
 upon them all. Peter, strong and angry, with the 
 sobbing child in his arms ; the doctor, puzzled and 
 anxious; Master Humphrey, white and suffering — all 
 had turned from her to the Spaniard, who had raised 
 her hand, and, smiling still and defiant, looked back 
 at them triumphantly and seemed to hold their souls. 
 
 " See ! " laughed Mary, in bitter scorn, " see how the 
 maid bewitches you ! Every man looks upon her, an' 
 every man loves her "
 
 A SPANISH MAID 233 
 
 "No man loves her," said Master Humphrey slowly. 
 But Teresa raised her hand again, and from overhead 
 came the passionate cry, " Teresa ! Teresa ! " and 
 the parson's tread was heard upon the bare floor. 
 
 They all stood silent and listened, and the parson's 
 voice could be heard in a dull murmur; and then 
 again "Teresa ! " came the wild cry overhead. 
 
 " 'Zekiel's callin' the maid." 
 
 The words dropped on the silence so quietly that 
 the three men started as if a stranger had come among 
 them unperceived. From Teresa's face the smiles 
 had fallen away. 
 
 " 'Zekiel's callin' the maid," said Mary again. There 
 was an intensity in her voice which gripped the hear- 
 ing. They looked at her now, and the change in 
 her awed them. All the fury and the violence had 
 passed away from her, and she came forward slowly 
 with her eyes fixed upon Teresa. 
 
 The girl met her gaze, and set her own eyes to 
 shatter the power of it, but before the sudden force 
 fronting them they wavered and then quailed, and 
 she shrank back with a half-realised terror draining 
 away her defiance. She tried to re-form the smiles 
 about her mouth, to make the laugh sound in her 
 throat again, but her mouth had stiffened, and her 
 throat had narrowed. The woman coming so slowly
 
 234 
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 and determinedly towards her seemed all strength — 
 and inevitable ; and the quick, fearful recollection of 
 an evil figure coming, just as strong and inevitable, 
 nearer and nearer, across the Spanish plain, flashed 
 suddenly through the girl's brain and broke her daring. 
 
 Then Mary was close to her. 
 
 Teresa stood rigid. 
 
 With slow, strong hands the woman took the loose 
 ends of the yellow silk which had bound the child, 
 and twined them tightly about the girl. Then, with a 
 vice-like grip on each shoulder she turned the girl's 
 face to the door, and slowly forced her from the 
 house. 
 
 "I'm cursin' 'ee!" she said quietly. "Go!" And 
 with a sharp cry of fear Teresa broke from her hold 
 and ran out into the mist. And Mary closed the door. 
 Then turning to Peter she took Zel from his arms. 
 
 "Doctor," she said, in the same tense, monotonous 
 voice, "the child seems fevered. Will 'ee be so good 
 as to look at him?" And the doctor stepped across 
 to the settle as she laid her son upon it. 
 
 "Teresa!" 
 
 The cry rang out again from the bedroom overhead, 
 but Mary was deaf to it now, and it was Peter who 
 turned and stumbled up the stairs in answer. 
 
 Master Humphrey, with his eyes fixed on the closed
 
 A SPANISH MAID 235 
 
 door, still saw only the flying figure disappearing into 
 the mist, and heard only the ring of that last, sharp 
 cry. His veins were running with fire and ice. and 
 his head seemed over-heavy, but he was realising that 
 the girl with her plague-wrap had gone out into the 
 day, and that some one must follow and take it from 
 her.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A ND Master Humphrey followed. 
 •^ -^ Teresa had run, but he did not run, for his 
 head felt heavy as lead, and it seemed as if to run 
 would be to trample upon it with his own feet. The 
 hill, too, as he stumbled on, lifted itself and lurched 
 before his eyes. There was a nausea rising at the back 
 of his throat which locked his jaws. And the mist 
 dropped down and turned him chilly; and, more than 
 anything else in the whole world, he longed to halt 
 and lie down upon the sodden turf, and rest, and rest, 
 and rest, until all the trouble was over and done 
 with. 
 
 But he passed his hand over his eyes which were 
 aching, and he remembered that there must be no 
 rest yet. Landecarrock was plague-stricken. And 
 there was something — something which he must do. 
 What was it ? Ah, yes ! The girl Teresa and her 
 piece of silk ! He must hurry ! Hurry ! 
 
 236
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 237 
 
 He stumbled on down through the village street. 
 He would have asked if the maid had passed that 
 way, but there was no living creature with whom to 
 exchange a word. The street was empty. The doors 
 were closed. The whole place was silent but for the 
 distant slow plashing of the waves down there in the 
 mist by the boat-sheds, and — surely there was another 
 sound in his ears — a short, monotonous rapping ! Yes, 
 of course ; it was Carpenter Upjohn's hammer at work 
 upon the coffins. 
 
 He found her at the foot of the village street, where 
 the two roads branch — the one leading Pensallas way, 
 the other down to the boat-sheds. She was panting, 
 and trembling a little, too, and uncertain which way to 
 take ; but she seemed to have cast off that sudden 
 fear which had stolen her strength and set her 
 shrinking, for, as she saw Master Humphrey nearing 
 her, she tossed her head with her old defiance, and 
 faced him with blazing eyes. 
 
 " Give me the silk ! " he demanded, and he did not 
 glance at her face. 
 
 With her eyes still upon him she stepped back a 
 pace, and, slowly drawing the long, yellow wrap, all 
 sodden and limp, from about her shoulders, she wound 
 it tightly about her left arm, leaving her right arm 
 free.
 
 238 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Give it to me ! " he commanded again, advancing 
 as she retreated slowly downwards towards the sheds. 
 
 She did not utter a sound, but, with her eyes still 
 fastened upon him, as a panther gauging the moment 
 for his spring, she moved cautiously, step by step, 
 backwards, down the rough path. And step by step 
 he followed her, until, in such fashion, they neared the 
 cottage where Daniel Laskey sat at his door. 
 
 Then the path waved on either side of Master 
 Humphrey ; he could see it quivering, though his eyes 
 were fixed upon the girl's left arm. It seemed that 
 he was tottering forward. And he had not yet taken 
 that wrap from her ! It must be done now, quickly, 
 if he meant to do it at all. 
 
 Straining all his muscles to cords — the muscles 
 which had been growing gradually slack as wool — he 
 sprang forward and seized her hands in his, and 
 then there followed a silent and a horrible struggle — 
 but it was short. 
 
 As Master Humphrey clutched at the yellow thing 
 bound about the dark arm, he saw the girl's head 
 bend forward quickly upon it; then a hot breath fell 
 upon the back of his hand, and then he felt the 
 sharp, burning pain of teeth tearing his flesh; he 
 seemed to hear it, too, and the sickening sound was 
 worse than the pain of it. His whole body was filled
 
 A SPANISH MAW 239 
 
 with a sudden loathing which was abhorrent to him 
 and unendurable; he could hear the sound growing 
 louder and louder^ and he understood that it was 
 killing him. It became a roar, and deafened his ears ; 
 his wide eyes grew sightless ; he felt his face grow 
 damp and cold as death ; his torn hand slackened 
 its grip on the silk, and then he felt himself falling 
 — falling — falling ! 
 
 There was a crash upon the pebbles. 
 
 From away in the mist came an ugly cry of rage 
 or fear. 
 
 Teresa, standing straight, and a little breathless, 
 began to unwind the damp silk from her arm. 
 
 Crash ! 
 
 A stone hurled through the air struck at her foot 
 and scattered pebbles widely. Another sharp cry 
 sounded on the dank air; this time it came from 
 Teresa, and there was no fear in it, only anger. 
 Snatching up a handful of pebbles, she turned furiously 
 to face her foe, and saw Daniel Laskey rising painfully 
 to his feet, with a threatening hand outstretched 
 towards a large figure looming in the mist. 
 
 It was Sam'le, and his hand was raised again into 
 hurling position. 
 
 In an instant Teresa had sprung towards him, 
 flinging the pebbles wildly; but they scattered
 
 240 A SPANISH MAW 
 
 themselves harmlessly, and even as he ran from her 
 in terror, he sent the stone he held, whizzing back at 
 her; and his aim was true, for it struck her sharply 
 on the hand. 
 
 For an instant Teresa stood in ugly rage — 
 uncertain. And then, the fiend which lived in her, 
 prompted her to the evil work which brought her 
 her revenge upon the frightened, slack-faced fool, 
 shivering there in the mist and hating her, and brought 
 it more swiftly and more surely, too, than any but a 
 fiend could have conceived. 
 
 With a devilish instinct telling her what would be 
 most hideous and most terrible to this half-witted 
 fellow, she turned and faced the old man in his 
 doorway, and, springing on him, she gripped him by 
 the tluoat with her young strength, and then she 
 brought her clenched fist down upon his head. 
 
 Daniel was terribly silent. He had ever been a man 
 of few words, and his was no nature to bounce with 
 emergencies. Once or twice he raised a feeble hand 
 in defence, but Teresa beat it down again. And then, 
 back through the mist came Sam'le to suffer for his 
 sin. Nearer and nearer he came. He ran, he sidled, 
 he halted, he stumbled forward, he stood, he wrung 
 his limp fingers; but in all that he did he suffered, 
 and no mode of advance brought ease with it. Sharp,
 
 A SPANISH MAID 241 
 
 snapping cries of rage and torment broke from him. 
 He writhed in his terror, his hmbs shook, his eyes 
 started, his Hps quivered. 
 
 But he had to come closer and watch the ugly work ; 
 a spell was on him — the spell which drags timid children 
 to hsten to an old wife's tales of murder and spectral 
 victims, only to shriek aloud in the night at horror of 
 the recollection. He had to watch ; therein lay Teresa's 
 revenge. He was forced to watch, and he might not kill 
 the demon who was torturing him, for Nature had held 
 back many things from Sam'le Laskey, and one of these 
 was courage. 
 
 When her fury was somewhat eased, Teresa turned 
 and looked at Sam'le, and the light in her eyes sent 
 him back swiftly into the mist. Then she turned again 
 to Master Humphrey, and when she had looked at 
 him for a moment she laughed. And then the sound 
 of that laugh, and the sight of the two men close to 
 her, so quiet, and huddled, and horrible, and the silence, 
 and the chill, the pause, the stillness, the very smell of 
 death in the air, filled her with a quick terror. It 
 was as if she were alone in the world — alone with but 
 one other breathing creature, one merciless man, always 
 seeking, always drawing nearer and nearer to her across 
 the plains, across the seas, through the mist, tramping 
 — tramping ! 
 
 Q
 
 ^42 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Footsteps were sounding on the empty street beyond 
 — footsteps coming closer. With a curious inconsistency 
 born of her fear, Teresa tore off the long strip of yellow 
 silk, the thing she had fought for, and desired so much, 
 and, casting it down upon Master Humphrey's still body, 
 turned and sped away from that horrible spot. 
 
 From either side of the beach came a figure through 
 the mist ; and one was quick, and small, and bustling, 
 unconscious of the work lying so close to his hands, 
 the other was loose-limbed, white-faced, terrified, creep- 
 ing fearfully back towards the sight he knew to be 
 there. And the doctor worked, while Sam'le shuddered, 
 and each accomplished in full measure. 
 
 And as evening fell there was woe at Pensallas, for 
 the whisper ran from maid to maid, as water down a 
 slope, that the squire was stricken with the plague. 
 And up in the squire's bedroom Dame Tellam took up 
 her position, and snapped words at any who dared 
 withstand her and hint of risk. Master Humphrey 
 was her nursling, wasn't he, and the last of his race ? 
 And if he had to die, what did anything else matter ? 
 If she took the plague — and they all seemed set upon 
 it — what matter for that? She had to die some day, 
 and why not by the plague while 'twas going about? 
 'Twould be quick, and 'twould save a sight of trouble. 
 And so on, and so on. And the maids in the kitchen
 
 A SPANISH MAID 243 
 
 trembled and bit their tongues ; and had they been 
 French they would have described Dame Tellam in 
 those hours as difficile, but, being Landecarrock, they 
 only tightened their lips and did not fuss to find a 
 word. 
 
 Up at the Parsonage, in the parson's room, Miss 
 Ursula sat on the window-seat, with Agrimony for 
 company, and looked out into the gloom, waiting for 
 time to pass and all the while dreading its passing, for 
 the parson had come striding back to them between 
 his errands of mercy, and had spoken through the 
 window the dire tidings from the village, and life had 
 turned appalling in their sight. 
 
 " Humphrey, too ! " cried Miss Ursula in her heart. 
 
 " 'Zekiel raving again ! " thought Agrimony, chafing. 
 
 " Poor old Daniel ! " they murmured aloud. 
 
 And now and again came 'Lizabeth to look at them 
 and add some dark forebodings; but she did not 
 loiter long with them, for there was work to be done 
 as long as any one was left alive, and she found 
 neither mistress nor maid pleasantly sociable. Miss 
 Ursula was silent and sad, Agrimony was silent also, 
 but she found room for wrath in her sorrow. 'Zekiel 
 at any rate, was not ill of the plague ; and her thoughts 
 beat about the foreign maid, and she chafed. 
 
 A little further down the hill Peter Ludgven was
 
 244 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 turning in at the churchyard gate, and he carried a 
 spade on his shoulder. It was not coastguard's work 
 he had come to do among the graves, but hands were 
 becoming scarce in Landecarrock. 
 
 Down by the boat-sheds Sam'le Laskey kept vigil 
 on the pebbly beach outside the cottage door. Inside 
 his home there was no need for watching now. 
 
 As the day drew on towards night a change passed 
 over the land. The mist, which for weeks had hung 
 low down on everything, was lifted at last, as if a kind 
 hand in Heaven had raised a heavy, white curtain. 
 And up in the sky a pale, great moon-face looked out, 
 pranked by brilliant stars in multitudes, seeming as if 
 they had now remembered, and turned, in mercy, to 
 shine upon the distressful village below. 
 
 Along the garden path leading to Peter Ludgven's 
 white cottage, a slight figure crept slowly and without 
 noise between the bush shadows, and when it reached 
 the cottage door it raised the latch cautiously, and still 
 crept on into the dim kitchen. Here the shadows 
 were deep and moved gruesomely, for the room was 
 lighted only by the peats upon the hearth. 
 
 Over there, before the blaze, a woman was sitting 
 on a low chair, quite still, quite silent, bending forward, 
 and her back was turned to the door. The creeping 
 figure halted and stood uncertain, waiting again for
 
 A SPANISH MAID 245 
 
 Fate to take the initiative. In the morning she had 
 been forced out from this home — cursed; now, in the 
 evening, she had come back to it, silently defiant. But 
 the home had become strange, altered ; the silence and 
 the shadows were awesome. The bent figure over by 
 the hearth, so utterly still, made her shiver; the quiet 
 began to grow terrible. 
 
 "Teresa! Teresa!" 
 
 She remembered that cry ; that was not changed. It 
 rang out shrilly now from the room overhead, quicken- 
 ing the blood in her veins, and with stealthy feet she 
 moved to the stairway and crept softly up towards 
 the voice. 
 
 She stopped again in the doorway of the bedroom 
 and looked in. The room was bright with the flare 
 of loose-wicked tallow candles, and 'Zekiel had raised 
 himself in the bed, and was pointing with his right 
 arm to a chest standing in the corner by the window, 
 issuing commands. Old Ann Vitty, moving to and 
 fro, obeyed them all, by way of humouring him. Ann 
 Vitty's eyes, as she turned towards the light, seemed 
 over-washed with weeping, but Charity was in her 
 grave, Betty was laid out white and tidy for burial, 
 and surely it was as well to come and help a neigh- 
 bour as to sit and moan, with folded hands, and
 
 246 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 picture the home-coming of the sailor-husband and 
 father. 
 
 " The blue scarf," said 'Zelciel impatiently. " I 
 couldn' wrap a black thing about my throat ; 'twould 
 scare the maid." 
 
 " No, no, dear heart and soul ! " murmured Ann 
 Vitty, folding the black scarf obediently, and drawing 
 out the blue, to add to the pile of garments on the 
 chair. 
 
 " Teresa ! " 
 
 He fell back again on his pillows, throwing his 
 arms high, and wringing his hands wildly. 
 
 " Teresa ! Teresa ! " 
 
 " Hush 'ee, hush 'ee, dear heart ! " cooed Ann Vitty, 
 treading forward to smooth his rigid arm and comfort 
 him. But her hand was pushed aside, and with a 
 quavering cry she looked across the bed and into 
 the very eyes of the foreign maid. 
 
 " 'Zekiel — Teresa — here — near— close ! " The girl laid 
 her hand upon his cheek and the touch was a caress. 
 " Ah, 'Zekiel ! " 
 
 At her touch and the sound of her voice his arms 
 dropped, and he raised his head listening. 
 
 " She's callin', callin' to me ! " he whispered hoarsely. 
 
 Teresa laid a hand on either cheek and turned his 
 face to hers, and his eyes were straining, but they
 
 A SPANISH MAID 247 
 
 looked through her, and beyond her, and did not see 
 her there so close. 
 
 " 'Zekiel ! " she called softly. And he sprang up, 
 mad with the sound of it. 
 
 " Let the boy 'bide in peace," cried Ann Vitty 
 sternly. "You've a-worked 'en mischeef enough. Go 
 from 'en, I tell 'ee, an' leave 'en to die in peace, 
 you heathen witch — you ! " 
 
 But Teresa smiled in her face, and fondled 'Zekiel's 
 clenching hands. 
 
 *' 'Zekiel ! " she called again, pleased with her power. 
 And 'Zekiel flung out his arms, his voice caught in 
 his throat, and he gasped and panted for his breath. 
 
 " Go from my sight ! " commanded Ann Vitty, " or 
 I'll beat 'ee down them there stairs." She came round 
 the bed and gripped her bony fingers on the girl's 
 arms. "Go," she commanded again, "or I'll beat 
 'ee down as you stan' ! " And though the girl might 
 not know the words, the raised fist looked strong and 
 ugly, and she shrugged her shoulders and yielded. 
 
 " 'Zekiel, dear one ! " she called back softly. 
 
 "She's callin' to me," he whispered, raising his 
 hand for silence. " I'm comin', comin', sweetheart ! " 
 Then he turned his face to the doorway where she 
 stood, and his eyes seemed to see her far away, and 
 she looked back and beckoned to him, smiling; but
 
 248 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Ann Vitty's strength was painful, and Teresa turned 
 from the Hght and stumbled down the dark stairway 
 again to the kitchen. 
 
 At the sound of the footsteps, the figure by the hearth 
 raised its head and faced the girl. It was Mary Ludgven. 
 A branch of dried gorse falling forward on the peats 
 flamed up, and the light showed her face to be awful. 
 
 " You ! " she said slowly, and her voice sounded dead. 
 " Come fore'." 
 
 And Teresa stepped over to her, for the voice was 
 compelling. 
 
 "Come fore' an' look at my baby," repeated Mary. 
 And Teresa looked down upon her lap and saw the 
 child stretched there. 
 
 " I beat 'en to-day," went on the mother, and through 
 her dull tones there ran an awful note. " I beat 'en. 
 The feel of his little arm, warm, is under my hand all 
 the time, as 'twas then. I beat 'en, an' he stretched 
 fore' his hands to me, his eyes was all swimmin' with 
 his baby tears, an' I beat 'en back, I beat 'en back 
 every time. An' through his great tears, an' with his 
 lips all drawn down tremblin', he looked to me, sobbin' 
 an' wonderin' to be served so. An' I beat 'en every 
 time ; the feel is under my hand, the marks is on his 
 arms. He's stopped his sobbin', but he's shut his eyes. 
 I tried to coax 'en, but he wouldn' laugh back to me.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 249 
 
 he shut his eyes. Make 'en laugh back to me, Teresa ; 
 they all does as you wishes 'em." 
 
 And Teresa, with a boastful laugh, leaned down and 
 caught roughly at the bruised little arm to wake the 
 child. But at the touch of his flesh the laugh shuddered 
 into a ghastly shriek, and the arm dropped heavily 
 upon Mary's knee. 
 
 " He— is— ice ! " she cried. " Cold ! Dead ! " And 
 she sprang back towards the door. 
 
 " Dead ! " Mary rose to her feet and turned to the 
 girl, holding one bruised little arm close to her breast. 
 
 " But — I beat 'en " she cried slowly. " Won't he 
 
 never — laugh back to me — no more ? " 
 
 But the frozen agony on her face was terrible, and 
 Teresa, in wild fear, ran from the sight of it, out into the 
 night, rather than answer that question.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OHE sped back along the garden path between the 
 ^^ bush shadows, and out through the gate, then 
 down the hill, and on across the rough road by Ann 
 Vitty's fuchsia bush ; and as she ran she shut her eyes, 
 for the sight of Mary Ludgven's ghastly face danced 
 before her, and it was a sight to be shut out. Pressed 
 lids, however, could not accomplish it, for horror had 
 painted the picture on her eyes, and in her ears one 
 word was ringing, clanging and persistent as a meeting- 
 house bell, " Comin' ! Comin' ! " and it whipped her 
 fear and drove her on. Then she felt the rising road 
 beneath her feet, and she opened her eyes again and 
 saw the cliff hill before her, and she hurried on without 
 a pause, up the steep side of it, to the turfy level at the 
 top. Then, swerving, down again over the face of it, 
 clutching at the tufted sea-pinks as she stumbled down 
 the path, re-treading every foot of the way over which 
 
 250
 
 A SPANISH MAID 251 
 
 she had first come, on that storm-washed September 
 morning, from the sea to Mary Ludgven's home. 
 
 On Averack beach she stopped, for the sea fronted 
 her and barred her way — on Averack beach, where 
 'Zekiel had come to her, and, bending down, had taken 
 her into his arms and into his Hfe. She stood and 
 faced the waves, and the sea-pinks she had clutched 
 from the edge of the path were still in her hands. She 
 looked down on them, and in the white moonshine 
 they were pale and dead-looking. Pale and dead ! 
 — that was as the baby would be, back in the cottage. 
 So cold he was, too ! Drops of ice-water seemed still 
 to be dripping from the fingers which had clutched the 
 dead little arm. With a shiver she flung the flowers 
 out upon the waves, and tried to fling the recollection 
 with them. 
 
 Some ghastly spell seemed to be upon the land, upon 
 the night, upon her own eyes, ears, brain. Averack 
 beach was backed by steep chffs, and fronted by the 
 sea, but as Teresa stood there, gripping and loosening 
 her small brown hands, and looking out across the 
 silver way, it was as if a magic finger had put back her 
 life-clock, as if she were still standing upon the Spanish 
 plain, haunted, forsaken. She bore the horror of it 
 all for a while, and then she tossed her head and 
 laughed aloud. There, it had been an unshapely tent
 
 252 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 that stood behind her, no towering cHff or white-washed 
 cottage ; there it had been mile after mile of dry, 
 parched land, stretching before her, not a wet, heaving 
 sea. But the spell of the night weighed down upon 
 her again ; the horror was not to be tossed off with a 
 jerk of the head. There were miles, too, of that wet, 
 heaving sea stretching before her, and the moon was 
 shining on it as it had shone on the plain. And in the 
 white-washed cottage there was death, as there had been 
 in the tent. She knew it, and she shuddered, and 
 everything seemed awful — nothing impossible. And 
 the night passed on, and she stood there rigid, except 
 for the ceaseless clasping and unclasping of her hands, 
 and her eyes saw terrible sights on the moon-touched 
 water, and always in her ears was ringing the one word, 
 " Comin' ! Comin' ! " breaking towards her with each 
 wave. 
 
 At length, and suddenly, there rang out a sharper 
 call, " Comin' ! " and Teresa turned towards it. A boat 
 was coming in over the silver sea; she could see it 
 clearly, and a man was at the oars. Then with the 
 fear of that other night so strong on her, a band of 
 terror wound itself about her heart, gripping it tight, 
 and each breath brought a groan. And she watched 
 the man draw nearer and nearer, and her eyes were 
 wide and strained. Then at last she saw the boat
 
 A SPANISH MAID 253 
 
 rise on the breakers, and heard it grind upon the 
 shingle, and then, as she looked, the band about her 
 heart snapped with a stinging tang of joy, and she 
 closed her lids for a moment to ease their aching. 
 And the man leaped out and hurried towards her. 
 
 It was 'Zekiel — 'Zekiel Myners ! They had told her 
 he was ill, near to death, and he was here by her 
 side, laughing, bare-headed ! She had never heard him 
 laugh in that way before — and, oh ! it was a good 
 thing to be merry — merry, on such a night ! 
 
 " I've come to 'ee, sweetheart ! I heard 'ee callin' 
 of me, an' I've come." 
 
 His voice was soft, but joyous as a bird's, and his 
 hands caught hers and laid them tightly upon his 
 breast. He was wearing the clothes which Ann Vitty 
 had laid out for him, and the blue scarf was knotted 
 loosely about his throat. Handsome his face was, too, 
 though it was white as death. 
 
 " 'Zekiel ! " she cried, her voice trembling as a little 
 child's all glad and eager. " Ah, 'Zekiel, I am — happy ! 
 I was desolate." 
 
 He lifted her face to the full light of the moon, 
 and looked down upon it, smiling. 
 
 " Come ! " he said, and there was a grand power in 
 his voice. " Come, darlin' ! " 
 
 With a strong arm he drew her forward to the boat
 
 254 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 lying at the water's edge, and without a word she did 
 his bidding, and, stepping in, went to the stern, and 
 sat there watching him. 
 
 'Zekiel had come to her again on Averack beach 
 — had come when all things were ugly and terrible, 
 and he was strong and light-hearted — to-night. Master 
 Humphrey — he had become grim and stern, and — ah, 
 so still and horrible! 'Zekiel was better — at least, 
 to-night. She laughed softly to herself as she watched 
 him push off the boat and then leap into it as it 
 swung free from the beach. And then as he faced 
 her and sHd out his oars she smiled back at him; 
 and so, each looking joyously into the other's moonlit 
 face, they glided outward under the stars. 
 
 Beyond the little breakers the sea was smooth as 
 a pool, and 'Zekiel pulled a slow, rhythmic stroke 
 along the trembling, silver way which seemed to lead 
 to Heaven. Circles of light quivered about the oars 
 as they dipped out of sight, and showers of light 
 dripped off them as they rose again. And for a long 
 while no word was spoken as the boat passed out, 
 away from the shore, into the absolute silence of the 
 wonderful night. And the soft air was as a warm 
 breath upon the bare neck of the girl, and did not 
 stir so much as a curl upon the man's uncovered 
 head.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 255 
 
 At length 'Zekiel stopped — the oars, poised above 
 the water, dripped only single drops of light back 
 into it — ^and bending towards the girl he whispered 
 with an awesome gladness : " We'm nearin' Heaven ! " 
 
 For answer she spread her little hands to him, as 
 if her heaven were there. 
 
 Then he shipped oars, and, leaning over, drew her 
 to him, and for the second time he held her clasped 
 tightly in his arms, her soft cheek upon his happy 
 heart. And in all the world there seemed no pain, 
 no sin, no sorrow, no sound even, but the slow lap 
 of the water against the boat, which heaved gently, 
 as if it, too, were a soft cheek pressed against a 
 happy heart. And the glorious sky above was radiant, 
 the stars peered down, and some were trembling as 
 if with sympathy, and the moon looked full upon the 
 man and maid, for her pale glow was no intrusion, 
 and once or twice a fleck of light dropped and 
 trailed down athwart the sky, as if a happy tear had 
 fallen from the gentle eye. 
 
 And in the boat 'Zekiel at length raised the dark 
 face to his. " Darlin' ! " he cried triumphantly, and 
 he pressed his lips on hers. 
 
 And so he held her — her cheek to his — her heart to 
 his heart — and the pain, the torment, the madness, all 
 forgotten, wiped from his mind.
 
 256 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 And time passed on. The night moved nearer to 
 the dawning. The boat heaved gently upon the sea's 
 slow-throbbing heart, and the silence of a dead world 
 lay upon the face of the waters. 
 
 The quick, mournful cry of a sea-bird, lonely and 
 benighted, struck their ears at last, and 'Zekiel raised 
 his face to the sky, and so he held it, alert, as if 
 waiting for more sound. Then he loosed his arms 
 from the girl. " Comin' ! '' he whispered, and he passed 
 one hand across his eyes. His other hand falling, struck 
 upon an oar, and by instinct he gripped it and settled 
 it in the rowlock, then turned and slid the other blade 
 out on the wet shine of the sea. And Teresa crouched 
 back in the stern, and watched the blades grip the 
 water, then rise and dip again. 
 
 Still no word was spoken, and the boat turned and 
 pointed her bow shorewards, and glided back over 
 the trembling light again. A heavy foreboding began 
 to creep about Teresa's heart and press upon it. The 
 rise and fall of the oars held her eyes, and she grew 
 to dread each stroke that was pulled; but she could 
 not find courage to break through the silence and stop 
 them by a command. She could not find strength to 
 put out her hands and grip them to stillness ; she knew 
 that she was being taken back to the land where there 
 was death. She knew that she hated it, and was
 
 A SPANISH MAID 257 
 
 afraid, but she knew that the going back was inevit- 
 able. 
 
 'Zekiel's eyes were turned from her ; he was looking 
 out to the horizon, as if waiting for something which 
 lay beyond. 
 
 When the boat grated upon Averack beach again, 
 'Zekiel stepped quickly out and strode away towards 
 the cliff path. He threw no glance back as he went. 
 It seemed that he had forgotten the girl, and she, 
 in her wonder, looked at him and let him go. 
 
 But to-night her brain was full of tricks and fancies. 
 Averack beach held horrors ; unreasonable, impossible, 
 ghastly things were lurking on every side of her, and 
 when her lover had reached the cliff and had begun to 
 climb the path, she sprang from the boat, terrified, and 
 sped after him across the shingle. 
 
 " 'Zekiel ! " she panted as she neared him. " Stop ! 
 Is it — that I — am nothing — to you ? " 
 
 He turned at the sound of her voice and looked 
 towards the sea, smiling. 
 
 " 'Zekiel ! 'Zekiel ! " she cried. " I am here — I, Teresa 
 —close ! " 
 
 She laid a hand upon his arm, and he caught at it 
 fiercely and gladly. 
 
 "Teresa ! " he whispered, " sweetheart ! " 
 
 His grip was rough, and she stumbled and fell 
 
 R
 
 258 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 forward, clutching and tearing at a tuft of sea-pinks 
 growing by the path edge. But he caught her quickly 
 to him again. 
 
 " Don't 'ee go from me, darlin' ; don't 'ee draw 
 back from me," he said coaxingly. And then he flung 
 his arms about her, and bent to her lips, and kissed 
 them passionately again and again. 
 
 For a while he stood there on the steep path, sway- 
 ing, and with a rapturous smile on his white face. 
 Then he lifted his head high, as if listening, and his 
 arms slackened and drew away from Teresa until he 
 was holding only her hands. 
 
 " Hush ! " he whispered, and his hands slowly slid 
 from hers as he waited. Then, " Comin' ! comin' ! " he 
 shouted out upon the night, and he turned from 
 her and hurried up the cliff. And the sea-pinks 
 she had clutched in falling were left in his tightening 
 hold. 
 
 Teresa stood there, with her hands loose and nerve- 
 less at her sides, and she wondered. But, as the sound 
 of the stumbling footsteps grew fainter, some of the 
 strength which the night had stolen came back to 
 her, and she gripped her hands again and followed. 
 
 As the grey dawn came creeping up the sky, stealing 
 the brightness from the stars, up at the Parsonage a 
 side door was opened slowly, and Agrimony stepped
 
 A SPANISH MAID 259 
 
 out into the chilly air. She had been sitting on the 
 edge of her bed so many hours, waiting. Surely now 
 that the day had broken through the night she might 
 stir about and learn whether or not her fellow-creatures 
 were living or dead. Right or wrong, she had made 
 up her mind, and, closing the door cautiously behind 
 her, she left the garden and hurried down the hill. 
 If the parson scolded her for her deed she could bear 
 it. In her own sight the errand appeared to be one of 
 mere humanity. 
 
 Upstairs, in Peter Ludgven's cottage, the dawn was 
 creeping in at the side of the window curtains in 
 'Zekiel's room, taking all the radiance from the lamp- 
 flame, turning it garish and impotent. Ann Vitty had 
 dropped asleep in the hard, straight-backed chair by 
 the bed; her head had fallen forward on her breast; 
 her big-jointed, toil-worn hands lay slack upon her 
 lap, and her old eyes, weary with the sight of pain 
 and the wash of tears, were resting at last. She had 
 watched so long. With one thread of consciousness 
 she believed that she was watching still. But her 
 thoughts had glided from the real pains to the dream 
 pains, and she slept. 
 
 In the kitchen below, the dawn crept in unhindered, 
 for the curtains had been undrawn all night, and here 
 there was no lamp flame to resist it. Even the peats
 
 26o A SPANISH MAID 
 
 on the hearth were burnt out, and white, and cold. 
 On the low chair before the ashes Mary was still 
 sitting, crouched over the baby which lay upon her 
 lap, and she, too, had fallen asleep. 
 
 Some miles away, Peter Ludgven, with a set face 
 and a heavy heart, walked along the cliffs with his 
 eyes turned seawards — for this was his duty. But 
 here, in Landecarrock, stillness and silence were on 
 his home, sleep and death filled it ; and some careless 
 hand had left the cottage door open, and sleep and 
 death seemed to steal out into the chilly garden and 
 lie there, too. 
 
 Two figures were standing at the garden gate — Teresa 
 and Agrimony — and their eyes travelled from the open 
 doorway to the curtained window above it, but they 
 did not venture nearer. The silence which hung over 
 the house seemed to bar the open doorway, and they 
 waited. 
 
 Upstairs in the cottage, Ann Vitty's head jerked 
 forward; she stirred, and unconsciously drew her 
 fingers into working curves again. Then, with a start, 
 she awoke, feeling guilty and amazed. 
 
 "I must ha' dozed a minute," she muttered, and 
 she turned her sleep-heavy eyes to the bed. Everything 
 was still. " If he'd a-been ravin' I couldn' ha' closed 
 my eyes," she decided. "He must ha' been sleepin'
 
 A SPANISH MAID 261 
 
 sound." And she rose from her chair to bend over 
 the patient. 
 
 He lay on his back, with his face turned to the 
 ceihng; his hands, which were lying outside the 
 coverlet, were clenched, but his lips were laughing. 
 Ann Vitty leaned closer, and looked long at him, and 
 her brain wakened and her eyes widened. A greyness 
 spread over her wrinkled face which the lamp-light 
 could not hide with its garish shine, and after a minute 
 she trod hurriedly across to the window and drew 
 back the curtain. Then she came back to the bed 
 and leaned over it again, laying her hand against the 
 upturned cheek, and then she shrieked aloud : " He's 
 dead ! He's dead ! 'Zekiel Myners is dead ! " 
 
 The girls, watching in the garden below, saw the 
 curtain drawn back, and heard the shriek clap out on 
 the silence. And Agrimony caught Teresa's arm as 
 she sprang forward, and flung her back. " You dare ! " 
 she cried in her pain. And Teresa stood aside, 
 undetermined, while Agrimony rushed along the 
 garden path and in at the open door. 
 
 " He's dead ! He's dead ! " cried Ann Vitty, as 
 Agrimony came up the stairs. " Come fore' an' look 
 to 'en ; I couldn' ha' dozed more'n a minute or so. 
 I couldn' — I couldn'. An' I woke to find 'en cold 
 an' dead!"
 
 262 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 Agrimony hurried to the bed and looked at the 
 white face, but quick, great tears bUnded her eyes and 
 splashed down upon the sheet. 
 
 " Zekiel's dead ! " she sobbed. " Dead an' gone ! 
 Oh, Ann Vitty, is he gone for ever? Can't we do 
 nothin'?" She wrung her hands. "Let's do 
 somethin'," she pleaded. "Let's bring 'en back. 
 Tell me, Ann, tell me what to do ! " 
 
 Ann Vitty shook her head. "He's gone, sure 
 enough," she said, and she drew her apron across 
 her eyes. But Agrimony turned in desperation and 
 hurried down the stairs again. 
 
 " Mary Ludgven," she cried to the sleeping woman 
 before the hearth, " 'Zekiel's dead ! " 
 
 Mary raised her head slowly and stared at her with 
 dazed eyes. 
 
 '"Zekiel's dead!" Agrimony sobbed again. "Come 
 up an' do somethin'." 
 
 But Mary only shivered ; she did not rise. " Dead ! " 
 she said slowly, "they'm all dead. Won't he never 
 laugh back to me again ? " 
 
 "Laugh!" cried Agrimony, in sudden anger, "he's 
 dead ! — he's dead ! " And wild with the ache of inaction 
 she ran out at the open door again and along the 
 garden path. "You've killed 'en," she cried, seizing 
 Teresa's arms roughly. "You've killed 'en dead!
 
 A SPANISH/ MAID 263 
 
 you heathen brute beast ! You've killed 'Zekiel — 
 dead ! " 
 
 " Killed ! Dead ! " repeated Teresa, wondering. 
 
 " Yes ; killed ! — dead ! — and you've a-done it ! " 
 
 For answer Teresa threw up her head and laughed, 
 and Agrimony stiffened with anger. She clenched her 
 fi^j; ,to strike, but Teresa drew back and spoke. 
 " 'Zekiel — not — dead," she declared, picking her words. 
 " We have sailed — 'Zekiel and me — in a ship on the 
 sea — this night," she looked up and waved her hand 
 to the sky, "with the moon." 
 
 Agrimony gasped. '"Zekiel an' you," she repeated. 
 " You lie ! 'Zekiel's been ravin' ; most of yesterday he 
 was ravin' — dyin' ! " 
 
 But Teresa laughed again. "He was there," she 
 declared, pointing seawards. "'Zekiel — and me. He 
 took my hands. I was his beloved ! Ah ! — but an hour 
 — a minute — what you call — since we were there ! " 
 
 For a moment Agrimony stared and panted in 
 wonder, then tales she had heard flashed back through 
 her brain, and springing at Teresa, she shrieked aloud 
 in horror : " You'm a witch ! " she cried. " You'm a 
 witch, sure enough ! An' you've stole his soul so well 
 as killed his body ! " 
 
 Something had turned Teresa to a coward. It was 
 not the rage in the eyes fronting her, nor the death
 
 264 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 lying the other side of that open door, nor the chill 
 of the dawn. There was some strange power — some 
 undefined, awful strength — closing round about her, 
 numbing her courage; she felt the grip of it, and all 
 these other things became ghastly and terrible. She 
 quailed now before Agrimony's eyes ; she was afraid 
 of her — of everything — and she turned and ran swiftly 
 down the hill. 
 
 But Agrimony was swift, too, and desperate. It 
 seemed as if quick action must ease the great hope- 
 lessness in her heart ; and at the corner leading down 
 the village street she clutched at Teresa's skirt and 
 brought her to the ground. 
 
 " If you've stolen 'en, give 'en back ! " she cried, 
 "an' I won't ask nothin' more of 'ee." Then her 
 voice turned to fierce pleading. " Give 'en back, maid ! 
 Give 'en back, co' ! " 
 
 But Teresa had grown scared and trembling. " 'Zekiel 
 — he is not dead," she persisted. '"Zekiel, he talk — 
 sail — with me — but now — so small time gone." 
 
 From a cottage near by sounded the click of a 
 window hasp, then a casement was opened, and a 
 head leaned out. 
 
 " Who's it ? What's amiss ? " called a voice, as the 
 eyes belonging to it caught sight of the two girls. 
 
 "'Zekiel Myners is dead," cried Agrimony, "an' "
 
 A SPANISH MAID 265 
 
 But then her grief caught her voice, and the head 
 was drawn back ; and Agrimony turned to Teresa, 
 hating her. 
 
 Within a few moments the cottage door opened and 
 a man stepped out. 
 
 " What's the maid done ? " he asked. 
 " She's a witch ! " cried Agrimony. " She says as 
 'Zekiel isn' dead; as how he's been a-sailin' an' a- 
 talkin' with her; an' I know as how all last night he 
 was dyin'. Parson Swayn said the very words, an' 
 Ann Vitty's been sittin' by 'en all through, an' I've 
 seen 'en with my own eyes — dead ! " 
 
 '"Zekiel— he is not dead ! " repeated Teresa, shrinking. 
 The man looked from one maid to the other, and 
 ran his fingers through his hair. And then all down 
 the village street casements were thrown back, one 
 after another, and heads were hung out to know the 
 reason of the sharp words upon the stillness of the 
 dawn. And Agrimony cried out to them : " Here's a 
 witch — a heathen witch ! — what's been sailin' on the sea 
 with 'Zekiel Myners' sperrit, an' he lyin' dead 'pon his 
 bed the while." 
 
 And the heads were drawn back ; and in a marvellous 
 time out from the houses of mourning and houses of 
 death stepped figures scantily dressed, men and women 
 with haggard faces and sunken eyes, who closed round
 
 266 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 about the two maids and listened to Agrimony's tale 
 of evil-doing. 
 
 Teresa, still crouching on the ground, glinted from 
 face to face, her own cheeks drained to a curious 
 grey pallor, her black hair falling in a frame on either 
 side of them, her eyes wide and frightened. 
 
 And the villagers glared at her as they listened. 
 Trouble and pain had killed their fear of her and now 
 stirred them only to rage. 
 
 "From the day she come'd," declared a wife, whose 
 cottage behind her stood emptied of husband and 
 children, "from the day she come'd she've brought 
 nort but trubble 'pon trubble." 
 
 "She've ill-wished us plain enough," said a man 
 with a pitiless face. " Look to the catches ! Look to 
 the weather " 
 
 " An' the fire ! " burst in another voice. 
 
 " An' 'Zekiel Myners ! An' the plague ! " wailed a 
 white-faced woman with her hand against her heart. 
 " An' " 
 
 But Teresa had glanced beyond them down the 
 steep street, and there, advancing upon her, she saw 
 what seemed to her eyes an army of vengeance — men 
 and women with stern lips and pitiless eyes — and, 
 heading the line, with silly curses rolling off his tongue, 
 came Sam'le Laskey.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 267 
 
 With a shriek of terror she sprang to her feet, and, 
 wrenching herself from Agrimony's hold, darted away 
 from them along the old road by the fuchsia bush 
 towards the steep cliff hill. 
 
 The sight of her flying from them maddened the 
 villagers. The recollection of the pains they had borne 
 chafed in their brains ; their veins ran fire ; ghastly 
 sounds of rage and anguish broke from them ; and 
 with one unspoken consent, they moved forward and 
 followed after her. And in the midst of them, hooting, 
 and threatening, and howling vengeance, ran Sam'le 
 Laskey, and in his gripped hands were pebbles from 
 Landecarrock beach. 
 
 The grey of the dawn was passing ; the light spread- 
 ing over the land showed a dull, sunless day ; and once 
 more the mist seemed to be gathering over the 
 sea; and the girl sped on up the hill before her 
 pursuers. 
 
 At the summit she turned, and the foremost among 
 them could see her grey, drawn face and hunted eyes, 
 as she realised their merciless hatred of her and their 
 relentlessness. For one moment she stood there, sway- 
 ing, and spread her arms to them in abject terror, then 
 she turned with a cry of despair towards the cliff's face 
 and fled down the narrow path. 
 
 As she went out of their sight they halted, then they
 
 268 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 swerved from the road and hurried over to the edge 
 of the cUfif; only one of the number followed after 
 her down the path, and that one was Sam'le Laskey. 
 
 As those at the top leaned forward to watch the 
 hurrying figure, there came a sharp cry from the fore- 
 most line of them. It was Agrimony's cry, and she was 
 pointing to the beach below. 
 
 " Look ! Look ! " Her words now were hoarse 
 whispers. '"Tis 'Zekiel's boat! There — there on the 
 sand ! " 
 
 The men and women strained their eyes to see. 
 
 '"Tis 'Zekiel's boat !" they gasped. 
 
 "'Zekiel's, sure enough," said one man slowly, "an' 
 who'sever brought 'en round Landecarrock point, 
 'Zekiel hisself must have took 'en from the shed, for 
 he alwise kept his own key." 
 
 "There's been devilment abroad this night, eff never 
 afore," declared another solemnly. 
 
 And Agrimony buried her face in her hands and 
 sobbed. 
 
 "Look to her now!" cried a boy, who had thrown 
 himself flat on the turf and was peering over the edge. 
 "That's never no human creature, no common maid. 
 'Tis witch-work what she's a-doin', if ever there was 
 such." 
 
 Teresa had reached the beach, had floundered across
 
 A SPANISH MAID 269 
 
 the loose shingle, and had reached the boat where it 
 lay, now some way up from the water. The boat was 
 heavy, but the strength of terror lay in the girl's arms, 
 and in a frenzy of haste she clutched the bow-end, and, 
 bending her shoulders to the work, forced it some way 
 down over the beach. 
 
 "A slip of a maid to shift that lumberin' boat," cried 
 the boy, incredulous, with his hand outstretched. 
 But with jerk after jerk the girl forced it along, 
 and Sam'le Laskey stood by and pelted her the while. 
 
 " Ah ! God A'mighty ! " 
 
 The cry broke from a large, half-dressed woman, who, 
 in the excitement of the scene, had edged farther and 
 farther along the cliff. Now she came running back 
 to the crowd with shaking limbs and her finger pointed 
 seawards, and all eyes left the "witch-work" on the 
 beach below and followed the direction of her 
 hand. 
 
 No one spoke as they all looked and saw what the 
 woman had seen. Some of the men drew a hissing 
 breath back over their teeth, and some of the women 
 pressed their hands to their throats as if to loosen the 
 words which, if spoken, might relieve them ; the boy 
 on the turf, too, rose to his knees; but no eyes 
 were shifted when once they had fallen on the 
 sight.
 
 270 
 
 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 There, to the right of them, from the horizon line, 
 as if ghding out from the sky, came a large, dark ship, 
 square-rigged, with high, black bows, running swiftly 
 through the still air as if driven on by a favouring 
 wind. The mist which had been gathering over the 
 sea lifted itself, and the ship showed out with a 
 marvellous distinctness. Masts, sails, cordage, black 
 as pitch against the dull whiteness of the sea and 
 sky, seemed to press upon the eyes that watched, as 
 she drove on towards Averack Cove. Then, as she 
 came nearer, figures could be seen moving about her 
 deck and handling her ropes ; and some of the women 
 on the cliff shrieked as they clapped eyes on them, but 
 still they looked ; and the men on the cliff stared too, 
 with strained eyes set in bloodless faces, but they said 
 never a word. 
 
 A howl of rage from the beach below cut through the 
 air, and the men and women caught their breath and 
 sighed, as if waking from a dream, and looking down 
 they saw Sam'le Laskey standing at the water's edge, 
 with his right arm raised to hurl. But the boat — 'Zekiel's 
 boat — was heaving free on the waves, and the girl was 
 at the oars, pulling with a wild, waving stroke, which 
 set the boat lurching dangerously. And the bow 
 was turning seawards, pointing towards the black 
 vessel.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 271 
 
 The crowd on the cliff was trembling and dumb, 
 turning its eyes from boat to ship, from ship to boat. 
 It was as if a drama had been staged upon the waters 
 to be played out before them. The witch-maid in her 
 rolling boat, and the ghastly crew on the deck of the 
 black vessel, seemed to belong to one scene, brought 
 together to play their parts, and as the minutes passed 
 the space between them grew narrower. 
 
 Suddenly, as their eyes fell back upon the deck, the 
 villagers saw that a new figure was standing there — no 
 small, white-faced horror, such as those who steered 
 the evil ship, but a huge man, with a swarthy, alert face, 
 wearing a picturesque suit, which, even at a distance, 
 could be seen to be of rich texture, and round about 
 his waist was bound a bright, fringed sash. As they 
 watched, they saw him step forward from the crew and 
 stand at the bows, with his eyes fixed upon the unsteady 
 boat as it drew nearer and nearer. 
 
 " The devil an' his crew ! " murmured one of the men, 
 in a hard, expressionless voice. 
 
 " Hush ! " whispered the kneeling boy. " See ! " 
 
 As the dark man took his stand at the bows and 
 looked upon the boat, the girl, with her back turned to 
 him, stopped rowing suddenly, her hands dropped to 
 her sides, the oar blades, drifting, jerked in the row- 
 locks, and the mist which had lifted for a while began
 
 272 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 to creep down again. Spreading her hands slowly, as 
 if half-blind, she rose from the seat, and turning faced 
 the ship. 
 
 The crowd, watching, gripped its hands, and closed 
 its teeth hard behind pressed Hps, for the drama before 
 them began to savour of tragedy. 
 
 For one long moment the girl in the boat raised her 
 face to the man at the bows, and she swayed as she 
 stood. 
 
 The crowd on the cliff strained its eyes, for the 
 denseness was increasing; the mist was lowering, 
 thickening, spreading over every thing, and their 
 strained eyes could note the masts, the sails, the 
 cordage fading before them. A grey film hung about 
 the high, black sides, about 'Zekiel's boat, about the 
 swaying girl, and the rigid man. Then, through it, 
 they saw the man lean forward and fling out his arm, 
 and the gesture held terrible meaning. Turning 
 to the girl they saw her sway back as if the out- 
 flung arm had struck at her heart, then she sprang 
 quickly to the edge of the rocking boat, and for an 
 instant her face, just a blotch of pallor through the 
 mist, was turned towards Averack beach, then they 
 saw her fling up her arms and sway forward over the 
 sea. 
 
 The thick mist lay close down upon the waters, as a
 
 A SPANISH MAID 273 
 
 grey wall, fronting the faces on the cliff. The men and 
 women, with their eyes straining against it and their 
 ears alert, fancied that the sound of a splash hissed 
 back to them, but it might have been a wave breaking 
 upon the beach below ; they fancied that a faint cry 
 shuddered up to them, but it might have been the 
 wail of a distant sea-bird. 
 
 For many minutes they stood in absolute stillness 
 and silence, waiting. But the mist wall fronting them 
 was impenetrable. The black ship and the boat, the 
 threatening man and the witch-maid — all the horror and 
 the evil, were shut from them. 
 
 A woman's sob broke the silence at last, and Agri- 
 mony threw herself upon the turf, face downward, and 
 hid her eyes. But again the hush and the stillness 
 closed over them, and they waited. Only Sam'le 
 Laskey on the beach below stood at the water's edge, 
 hurling pebbles into the mist. 
 
 Back in Peter Ludgven's cottage, the doctor, on his 
 rounds, climbed the stairs to 'Zekiel Myners' room ; 
 and when he reached it he leaned long over the bed 
 as he listened to Ann Vitty's moanings. At length he 
 straightened his back again, and spending no time on 
 comfort or blame, stepped to the wall and unhung a
 
 274 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 small mirror from a nail, then he bent over the bed 
 again, and held the mirror to the man's white lips. 
 Then silence fell ; Ann Vitty found that all her words 
 had been said, and she threw her apron over her head 
 and wept quietly. 
 
 The stillness lasted so long that Ann Vitty, knowing 
 the doctor to be a man of many duties, at length drew 
 her apron down again and looked, then she, too, leaned 
 over the bed and watched. 
 
 Outside, the dense mist, which had lowered and 
 darkened the room, was melting away slowly, and the 
 sun shone through. One bright beam striking in at 
 the window, fell athwart the bed, and the doctor drew 
 the mirror quickly from over 'Zekiel's lips, and held 
 it in the golden shine, and the surface of the mirror 
 was dim. 
 
 " He isn't dead — yet," remarked the little man con- 
 cisely. Then he lifted one clenched hand from the 
 coverlet and turned it over in his own, and then 
 he straightened the rigid fingers, and, with a puzzled 
 look on his face, took a few crushed sea-pinks 
 from their hold. Then he laid the hand back again, 
 and turning, saw another battered flower on the 
 floor. 
 
 At Averack Cove, the men and women watching saw 
 the mist roll back at last, and the sun, struggling through,
 
 A SPANISH MAID 275 
 
 brightened the dull sea and set it glittering. But of the 
 scene which the denseness had shut from them, there 
 was only one trace left on the waste of waters — 'Zekiel's 
 boat, heaving with the rise and fall of the waves — 
 empty !
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 '' I "^HAT year, in Landecarrock, Spring ran swiftly 
 ■*• forward and, with a gush of warm tears for the 
 sorrow she had brought, died in Summer's tender hold- 
 ing; but Summer, when her turn came to die, was 
 loth to go, and lingered, looking back with love in 
 her eyes, then forward with a flush of fear upon her 
 cheeks, till Autumn, law-abiding even in his sympathy, 
 went back to fetch her, but, meeting her, held her in 
 his arms, and would not hasten her. And the 
 September day might have been June, as Peter 
 Ludgven dug his spade into the earth by his garden 
 gate, to loosen a bindweed root which had sent up an 
 arm to clutch a trailing woodbine branch ; and Mary 
 stood at her door, and watched him with far-away, 
 sorrow-steeped eyes, the hard look still on her face 
 which had lain there now for months, and her hands 
 loosely clasped before her. 
 
 Up the hill, towards the cottage, two figures were 
 
 276
 
 A SPANISH MAID 277 
 
 making their way slowly. And one was tall and angular, 
 with a long-skirted grey coat, which fluttered out now 
 and then as the warm breeze caught it ; the other 
 figure was shorter and more rounded, and wore a 
 loosely-tied, hooded cloak of pale blue cotton. 
 
 " And to this day — it is a curious fact — the northern 
 side of a churchyard will be deserted, while that which 
 lies south " 
 
 The parson's voice rose and fell in a gentle murmur 
 as he took his slow strides, and grasped his small 
 hammer in one hand, and his little tin box in the 
 other; while Miss Ursula's pretty face looked up at 
 him from its pale blue frame, as she imbibed the 
 antiquarian's lore with a sweet seriousness. 
 
 " And the custom of digging the graves from east to 
 
 west " The parson, raising his head, caught sight 
 
 of Peter at the gate. " Ah, Ludgven ! " he said, " good- 
 day to you." 
 
 " Mornin', passon." 
 
 " Gardening, I see." 
 
 " Yessir ; a bit of weedin'." 
 
 " Ah ! — yes ; the calystegia sepium, or bindweed ; order, 
 convolvulaceae — a troublesome plant, indeed, and most 
 persistent. The present victim ? I see ; I see. Lonicera 
 Periclymenum, or honeysuckle — Caprifoliaceae tribe." 
 
 " Yessir," agreed Peter politely.
 
 278 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " A glorious day ! " remarked the parson as he moved 
 on his way. " My grand-daughter and I purpose dimb- 
 ing the hill to the cairn, by the right-hand side of the 
 barrow. I still feel much doubt as to its origin. 
 Perhaps a closer examination may throw some more 
 decided light upon the matter. Ah, those Druids ! 
 — those Druids ! What trouble and confusion have 
 they not wrought for honest antiquarians ! Good-day, 
 Ludgven — good-day. " 
 
 " Good-day, passon." 
 
 " Ah, Mary ! good-day to you," he added, as his eyes 
 travelled along the path and saw her at the door. " I 
 had not perceived you." 
 
 " Good-day, sir," answered Mary dully. 
 
 "We want," he called back, with a kindly smile, 
 " to see some of Peter's roses growing in your cheeks 
 
 again." 
 
 When he had passed on up the hill Peter turned 
 and looked at his wife, and her white face seemed 
 to strike a fresh bruise on his heart. He sighed as he 
 leaned to grasp his spade again ; then he suddenly 
 determined something, and, leaving the spade at a 
 slant in the ground, he walked down the path to the 
 doorway. 
 
 " Mary," he said in a low voice, which was shaking, 
 too, " you heard what passon did say?"
 
 A SPANISH MAID 279 
 
 She looked at him without interest. 
 
 " I heard — I s'pose," she answered slowly. 
 
 " Can't 'ee — cheer up, dear heart? " 
 
 "I'm right enough." 
 
 He felt sick with the hopelessness of things. It was 
 so baffling — this new, cold nature of hers. Then, to 
 Peter, who had sorrowed so long over the small grave 
 in the churchyard, and still more over this living, daily 
 grief, it suddenly seemed that he could not go on bear- 
 ing it, as if he must take some action and do something 
 to break it away. He caught her arm, and his voice 
 shook with passion and appealing. 
 
 " Mary," he cried, " don't 'ee take on so ! Be as you 
 was before he died ; cry your heart out over the trouble 
 an' let me comfort 'ee. Co' Mary; don't 'ee stan' so 
 still and quiet. Ain't I nothin' to 'ee no longer ? " 
 
 " You'm hungry, p'r'aps," she said, starting half- 
 pettishly. " Come 'long in an' I'll set dinner." A 
 dull ache had shot through her heart where everything 
 had been blank and numb for months, and the stirring 
 of the pain frightened her ; she dreaded that the heart 
 in her should wake. But Peter had no mercy now. 
 
 " Mary ! " he demanded, pain sounding through his 
 cry, " tell me, ain't I nothin' to 'ee ? Didn' I love 
 'en, too ? But ain't you more to me than any son — ain't 
 I more to you ? "
 
 28o A SPANISH MAW 
 
 She did not speak or throw off his hand, but she 
 shivered under it as if struck by an ague, and her eyes 
 were frightened. She turned, and his hand fell from 
 her arm as she walked into the cottage, and something 
 like a sob tore his throat as he went back to his 
 spade. 
 
 • As that day wore on the air grew sultry ; the land 
 was as if palpitating under the glare of the sun, and the 
 sea looked brazen. Butterflies pitched upon chosen 
 flowers and stayed there, with their wings spread wide 
 to the heat ; even the bees became loiterers for once in 
 their life of hurry, and still seemed to be setting 
 good examples. 
 
 It was evening-time when the parson and Miss 
 Ursula came down the hill again, and Peter's garden 
 was empty as they passed, but a faint, hot breeze had 
 sprung to life, and was languidly Hfting the leaves of 
 the bushes, showing what their under - tints were like. 
 Just beyond Ann Vitty's fuchsia bush they overtook 
 Master Humphrey, who turned and looked glad, and 
 all three climbed the cliff hill together. 
 
 Master Humphrey was somewhat thinner for the 
 tussle he had had with death, back in the springtime, 
 but his face was well bronzed by summer's sun, and 
 his cheerfulness had come back to him. His eyes held 
 laughs in them as he drew out the woollen neckcloth
 
 A SPANISH MAID 281 
 
 which Dame Tellam still thought necessary to his well- 
 being, and which, in mercy towards her fears, he took 
 and wore — in his pocket. 
 
 "Whew ! " he ejaculated, as he looked from it to the 
 coppery sky. 
 
 "You will come with us, Humphrey?" asked the 
 parson, when they had strolled to the point where the 
 paths branched. " Ursula shall refresh you with a cup 
 of her China tea-drink." 
 
 "Yes, Humphrey, for Dame Tellam's sake, let me 
 minister to your fatigue." 
 
 "For my own sake the offer seems strong enough," 
 he laughed, and there lay a half-humble tenderness in 
 his eyes and voice. Ursula, looking at him, laughed 
 also ; she noted the cheerfulness, but she did not heed 
 the tenderness. 
 
 As they neared the churchyard they stood awhile 
 and looked over the low wall. The green tidiness had 
 been sadly scarred since the first day of Master 
 Humphrey's home-coming, and brown mounds, with sun- 
 shrunk sods of turf atop of them, were terribly close 
 and many. Over in a corner, by the big yew tree, 
 under which Daniel Laskey had been used to eat 
 his dinner, a man's figure was bending beside one of 
 these mounds, with his mouth pressed to the scorched 
 turf.
 
 282 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " Sam'le Laskey again ! " said Master Humphrey, 
 quietly. " Poor, angry fellow ! " 
 
 The two men and the girl stood silent for a time, and 
 looking at Sam'le, remembered. 
 
 " She was very, very beautiful ! " mused Miss Ursula 
 aloud at last. Then silence fell again. 
 
 " Flowers that grow out of place are classed as weeds," 
 quoth the parson slowly, but his voice was kindly. 
 
 Then they turned away and walked upwards to the 
 Parsonage. 
 
 When the tea had been drunk, and Agrimony had 
 carried away the cups, the parson went over to his 
 table, and, taking his afternoon's notes from his pocket, 
 fell deep in comparisons and probabilities. Ursula, 
 rising from the oak chair by her little tea-table, crossed 
 to a window-seat and held her cheeks forward to catch 
 the faint breeze through the open casement. Master 
 Humphrey rose, too, then sat beside her. 
 
 For some time they looked out over the garden and 
 the sea to the horizon, and neither spoke. 
 
 " 'Tis drawing on for a year since I came home to 
 Pensallas," said Master Humphrey at length. 
 
 "And I," exclaimed Miss Ursula, in low -voiced 
 delight, "am near to a year older." She lifted her 
 hands and pressed them palm to palm. 
 
 Master Humphrey leaned forward and took one of
 
 A SPANISH MA ID 2S3 
 
 the upraised little hands in his. "Tell me, Ursula," 
 he asked, " why are you so glad ? " 
 
 " A — h ! " She sighed a long, long sigh, which 
 meant many pleasant things, but held no coquetry, 
 and she let her hand lie in his clasp without a 
 tremor. 
 
 But by-and-bye, when their low voices, questioning, 
 answering, questioning, answering, had asked and told 
 of countless matters, and the light had grown quite 
 dim, and the parson at his table slumbered over his 
 researches, she forgot that he was Master Humphrey, 
 the squire — that he was grown-up — that he was he — 
 forgot, in fact, that he was anybody, for the size of 
 him was lost in the dimness, the reality of him was 
 lost in her imagination, and, with her hand holding 
 his as much as his held hers, her confidences drifted 
 on as easily, as artlessly, as if she were but thinking 
 her thoughts aloud; and she told him of the ways of 
 life in that splendid land over the sea, of the stories 
 she had weaved, of the dreams she dreamed, and the 
 pictures she saw, day after day, and month after 
 month, here, in this magic room, where nothing seemed 
 impossible ; and her voice rose and fell in dreamy 
 absorption. 
 
 "And then, one day, the prince feels in his heart 
 that he can wait no longer ; he must leave his palace
 
 284 A SPANJSH MAID 
 
 and sail the whole world over, if needs be, but he 
 must find the dream-maiden or he will never be 
 happy again. So he orders a ship to be prepared — 
 a most beautiful ship, hung with silken hangings, and 
 decked with beautiful flowers, with ribands flying from 
 the masthead, and scores of tiny lamps glittering 
 like jewels — and he sails away from his wonderful 
 country " 
 
 " And he stands on his deck," broke in Master 
 Humphrey, "and he scans every city, and hamlet, 
 and cliff, and meadow, as he sails by ; and he lands 
 and walks among them all, and seeks, and seeks, and 
 then sails on again, until at length he comes to a 
 wild, rocky land — where the dwellings of the people 
 almost touch the sea, I think — and then some voice 
 in his heart tells him that he is drawing nearer to 
 his dream-maiden " 
 
 " Oh, Humphrey ! how did you know? " 
 
 "And as he draws near to the land, he cries to his 
 men, 'Steer for the high cliff yonder, for she whom 
 I seek dwells there.' " 
 
 There was a tremor in Miss Ursula's little hand now, 
 for the story told by another tongue was most enthralling. 
 
 "And there," went on Master Humphrey, "there, 
 sure enough, he finds her in the old castle on the cliff, 
 waiting for him. And when he draws near she knows
 
 A SPANISH MAID 285 
 
 him and he knows her." It is Master Humphrey's 
 voice which trembles a Httle now. "And he holds 
 his arms to her, and she goes to him, and is folded 
 to his heart, and — and — well, of course, they are 
 happy ever after." 
 
 When this tale is told, they sit in silence for a 
 little while looking out into the dark, breathless night, 
 where the sky seems to be pressing down upon 
 the earth, and the earth to be panting under the 
 weight of it. 
 
 " She would have wedded no — other man, I 
 suppose — this dream-maiden ? No commonplace, week- 
 a-day man would have done?" 
 
 "Oh, no, Humphrey; how could she, when she 
 was waiting for the prince?" 
 
 " No ' Squire of Pensallas,' for instance, would have 
 had any chance ? " 
 
 "You see, she would not be his dream-maiden." 
 
 " She might have been." 
 
 Miss Ursula pondered. 
 
 "Of course," she said, illuminated by a sudden 
 thought, "a 'Squire of Pensallas' would be a sort of 
 a prince, too, in his way; and if he dreamed of a 
 maiden, and loved her in the dreams as the prince 
 did, he could sail away to find her — ^just the same — 
 I suppose."
 
 286 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " I suppose he could," agreed Master Humphrey. 
 
 Then Agrimony brought in candles and lighted 
 the hanging lamp, bringing an atmosphere of bustling 
 cheerfulness with her, setting the walls a-glistening, 
 and rousing the parson. Master Humphrey rose 
 from the window-seat. 
 
 " Dame Tellam's heart will be palpitating two beats 
 to one if I do not gladden her eyes soon," he laughed. 
 And with a cheerful "good-night," he left the parson's 
 room and went out into the darkness as the first big 
 splashes of thunder-rain were striking the fainting land. 
 Miss Ursula listened to his footsteps dying away in 
 the distance, then she turned her face from the window 
 to the lighted room. 
 
 " 'Tis making for a storm, I fear," she remarked 
 to the parson, and her little face grew rather anxious. 
 " I trust that Humphrey will escape it." 
 
 Outside, with one gust from across the sea, the 
 breeze stiffened to a wind which rushed over the land, 
 leaving the higher air still and oppressive; and the 
 big rain-drops quickened, then fell in a drenching 
 torrent, filling the air with a sharp " swish." Footsteps 
 sounded on Master Humphrey's ears as he bent his 
 head to the storm, and " Good-night, sir," came a 
 voice through the wind and downpour.
 
 •A SPANISH MAID 287 
 
 " You, Ludgven ! Good-night. Rough work for you 
 this time," he called back. 
 
 " Ay, sir, 'twill be a wet skin, anyhow." 
 Then each passed on his way, and a flash of light 
 across the sky showed their bending figures as they 
 battled on. Then a quick crash of thunder boomed and 
 rattled across the sky, and the storm had begun in 
 earnest. 
 
 Home in Peter Ludgven's cottage Mary sat by her 
 uncurtained window, with her face turned to the raging 
 night, and as she watched the sky flashing into light, 
 and heard the thunder crashing, as if upon the very 
 rafters over her head, each flash and each peal 
 scorched and beat down the dead wall which had 
 lain round about her heart, and she felt the pain 
 stirring, then throbbing quicker, then pulsing in her 
 with all the pent-up force of the past miserable 
 year. 
 
 For some time she sat on, still and quiet, making 
 no sign of the pain she was bearing, but, as it grew 
 keener, the remembrance of that last September night 
 came back to her, and she moaned and pressed her 
 hands together; and then, turning her head, her eyes, 
 with quick instinct, looked down on the spot where 
 the cradle had stood then, close to her foot. The 
 cradle was still and empty in the corner now.
 
 288 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " A — h, my God ! " she cried out sharply through 
 set teeth. And she rose and paced quickly to and 
 fro. The emptiness in her heart was maddening her 
 for the time, and the sight of the Httle grave which 
 rose before her eyes, out in the night and the lash of 
 the storm, turned her sick and desperate with an 
 agony of impotence and desolation. Her longing was 
 goading her; her love was torturing her; her little 
 kitchen was as a hell, its closed door shutting out 
 hope. 
 
 In time the sight of that closed door grew un- 
 bearable, and she flung it open to the storm, and 
 stood outside it in the wind and the rain, and the 
 flashing and the roaring. And by-and-bye, the cool 
 lash of the drops upon her head seemed to clear the 
 sudden madness from her brain, and by degrees the 
 picture of the small storm-swept grave faded from 
 before her eyes, and straining them through the night, 
 she thought of Peter. 
 
 "Peter," she said aloud, and quite calmly, "I want 
 'ee." But the words were caught from her mouth and 
 tossed high in the hurricane. 
 
 She left the door-stone then, and beat her way 
 slowly along the garden path. When she reached the 
 gate she battled back to the doorway, then hesitated, 
 and struggled to the gate again.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 289 
 
 When she had strained her eyes down the hill for 
 a while in the flashes of the lightning, she opened the 
 gate and went through, then turned her face down- 
 wards and walked till she reached Ann Vitty's 
 corner. 
 
 And all through the night she went backwards and 
 forwards in the cut of the wind and the lash of the 
 rain, but each battle forward was longer than the 
 battle back again. And so the hours passed; and 
 towards the dawning the storm was passing also, the 
 thunder was hushed, the downpour was but a gentle 
 rain driving in from the sea, and the wind's passion 
 was dying, sobbing itself away, as a naughty child 
 sobs with smothered face when all the anger has 
 gone by. 
 
 As Peter strode back over the cliff, drenched by 
 the rain and ruddy with the gale, he saw a woman 
 hurrying towards him with bare head and a white, 
 smiling face. As she came closer she spread her 
 hands to him, and then he, too, hurried, and catch- 
 ing the outspread hands, held them tightly, and stood 
 amazed. 
 
 " Why, Mary — dear heart alive ! " 
 
 "I've been wantin' of 'ee, Peter," she answered 
 
 trembling, and then she pressed her face to his wet 
 
 coat. 
 
 T
 
 290 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 So he held her for a minute, and knew it to be 
 truth, and was silent in the amazement and the joy 
 of it. Then he roused her tenderly. 
 
 " Come, my dear, come home to the warmth an' 
 the dryth or you'll be gettin' your death of cold ; 
 an' how'd that be for me?" 
 
 So she raised her head and turned her white 
 face homewards, and with Peter's arm still about 
 her they went slowly down the hill. 
 
 Her black gown was soaked; her white apron hung 
 limp from her waist. Her golden hair lay drenched, 
 and blown in loose strands and tendrils about her 
 face and neck ; and the 'kerchief about her bare throat 
 was heavy with the rain. But her eyes were happy, 
 and Peter's heart was near to bursting with his 
 resurgent gladness. 
 
 It had, indeed, been a furious storm, and Master 
 Humphrey must have felt some of the fury of it as 
 he walked back to Pensallas that night ; but to Miss 
 Ursula that seemed no good reason why he should 
 not venture up the Parsonage hill again. The friend- 
 ship between the Parsonage and Pensallas had been 
 too intimate to need, or allow of, formal visits, but on 
 most days there had been some meeting, chance or 
 otherwise, between the squire and the parson or his
 
 A SPANISH MAID 291 
 
 household. Now a week had passed by and Master 
 Humphrey had not come. 
 
 The parson, being particularly occupied just then 
 by a doubt as to the date of the north transept of 
 his church, was both absorbed and home-keeping, 
 and Miss Ursula after one remark anent the squire's 
 absence, felt suddenly disinclined to take note of it 
 again. 
 
 " If he had fallen sick from the exposure to the 
 rain, tidings would have reached us, for sure," she 
 decided. The decision somewhat relieved her anxiety 
 but left her yet more puzzled, and though she took 
 her way as usual in the village and the country round, 
 she heard no mention of Master Humphrey, nor would 
 she enquire. 
 
 Agrimony noted Master Humphrey's absence; she 
 also noted Miss Ursula's pretty face changing, as the 
 days went by, from puzzled anxiety to troubled unrest ; 
 but, indeed, there was little that Agrimony did not 
 note with those quick, dark eyes of hers, and for many 
 days when she was away from her small mistress's 
 presence, and alone, she laughed merrily to herself 
 over the matter, for she found such signs amusing. 
 But when a week had passed Agrimony stopped 
 laughing — the amusement had staled somewhat — and, 
 instead, she put on her hat and strolled down into
 
 292 
 
 A SPAAUSH MAID 
 
 the village with languid lids and eyes carefully care- 
 less of all details of life as she went, seeming as if 
 distant views and Landecarrock as a whole, were the 
 only sights she desired. 
 
 There was, indeed, little to be seen that morning 
 but view, and little to be heard, for the village was 
 very quiet and still. As she passed along by Lande- 
 carrock beach, however, she saw 'Zekiel Myners down 
 by the boat-sheds, occupied in running out his boat, and 
 she seemed to like the sight, for her eyes grew less 
 careless and more smiling. 
 
 " 'Zekiel ! " she called. " 'Zekiel Myners ! " 
 
 'Zekiel looked up, and he also seemed pleased with 
 circumstance, for his sun-browned face took on a ruddier 
 shade and his eyes brightened. 
 
 " Hullo ! " he called. " How'm 'ee gettin' along ? " 
 
 Then Agrimony answered with some sounds which 
 may have been words when they left her tongue, but 
 certainly were not such beyond her lips, and which, 
 at any rate, had the effect of drawing 'Zekiel from his 
 boat to her side to learn their import. 
 
 " How quiet-like all the place is this morning," she 
 said. 
 
 " Most have gone round the point mackerel fish- 
 in'," he explained. "The very fish take autumn for 
 
 summer."
 
 A SPANISH MAID 293 
 
 "An' you've a-been wavin' good-bye to 'em, I 
 s'pose ? " 
 
 " No ; I'm just about off; my lines hindered me." 
 
 " An' which of 'ee's got the squire aboard to-day ? " 
 
 " Nuther of us. Squire's gone away — went off some 
 days back." 
 
 "Aw, yes, to be sure. I wasn' thinkin'." 
 
 Agrimony spoke unblushingly, but having gained a 
 fact she moved to go. 'Zekiel stepped forward as she 
 stepped back. 
 
 "Won't 'ee — won't 'ee come for a breath of sea?" 
 he pleaded persuasively. 
 
 " Law, to think of such a thing ! A busy maid like 
 me ! An' all among the mackerel, too ! " she added. 
 
 " I wouldn' so much as catch a single livin' one ! " 
 he declared. 
 
 " That ain't no hard matter at any time ! " she 
 retorted. 
 
 " Come, Agrimony," he pleaded again. 
 
 She narrowed her lids at the dazzle of the sea as 
 she looked out to it, smiling, but she was shaking her 
 head the while. 
 
 " Agrimony," 'Zekiel said softly, 
 
 " 'Zekiel," she answered half-mimicking, yet softly, too. 
 
 " Agrimony, what's fish to me ? " 
 
 "They'm a brave bit to me," she laughed, stepping
 
 294 ^ SPANISH MAID 
 
 back and shaking her curly head. " I must be hurryin', 
 'Zekiel Myners ; I'll see 'ee again some time." 
 
 She went back to the Parsonage with her shred of 
 news, and 'Zekiel went back to his boat and spent 
 the day in doing his duty, but to have neglected it 
 would have been more to his taste. 
 
 When Agrimony, amongst other items of interest, 
 casually mentioned Master Humphrey's departing, Miss 
 Ursula heard her with surprise. 
 
 " How much unlike Master Humphrey to go without 
 bidding us ' good-bye,' " was all she said, but she 
 thought of the matter quite often, and wondered. And 
 as she wondered a recollection came to her. She had 
 told him that if a " Squire of Pensallas " had dreams of 
 a maid, and loved her in his dreams, he could do as 
 the prince would do, and go to seek her. Perhaps — 
 Master Humphrey 
 
 Miss Ursula pondered. She had found an explana- 
 tion ; it straightened out the puzzle. She had often 
 heard persons say it would be for the best — and yet — 
 Miss Ursula did not like the explanation. 
 
 The day grew to a most beautiful evening. Master 
 Humphrey would, like enough, have needed her to 
 " sail to the sunset " with him had he been at home, 
 as he had so often done before. And when tea had been 
 drunk, and Miss Ursula sat idle on the window-seat
 
 A SPANISH MAID 295 
 
 in the parson's room, it was but natural that she should 
 be thinking of him as she looked up to the sky, stretch- 
 ing away, all splendour, till it touched the sea. 
 
 The sun was not niggardly on this evening ; it did 
 not limit itself to the brightening of just one patch on 
 the under side of Heaven. The whole stretch of it was 
 golden, and glowing, and glorious, with jasper seas 
 lapping on glistening sands. 
 
 And then the gold took a deeper tint — red-gold it 
 was — rising in wonderful burnished cliffs and crags about 
 wonderful purple seas. Magic seas of a magic land, 
 stretching away and away, infinite, boundless — a land 
 all silence and solitude, with never a voice or a wave 
 to break the deep hush. 
 
 Then the cliffs and the crags were no longer red- 
 gold; they were a flaming orange, stretching out into 
 crimson waters — fiery seas on a fire-edged shore. The 
 sun had set the magic world afire, and the glow of it 
 touched everything. 
 
 Then slowly, very slowly, the fierceness grew more 
 dim. As the moments passed the glow died out, the 
 shores faded from their flame-tints to a tawny softness. 
 The fiery seas lay out in tender amethyst, and a faint 
 mist came before the eyes looking up from earth to 
 that under side of Heaven. 
 
 Miss Ursula's dreamy gaze was fixed upon the sky
 
 296 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 till all the glory had passed into greyness, and in the 
 greyness a star or two ; then she drew her eyes to earth, 
 and saw that night was falling. But as they rested on 
 the horizon it seemed that the stars had fallen also — 
 many stars, from the greyness above to the greyness 
 below — and Miss Ursula's heart beat fast, and she held 
 her breath ; and, at last, doubting her sight, she 
 rubbed her lids, thinking the stars were pictured on 
 her eyes. They were not stars when she looked again, 
 the strange bright thing was closer now, and she could 
 see that it was a ship — a wonderful little ship — sailing 
 in from the horizon, edged with light, brilliant from 
 stem to stern, gleaming from every point, with scores 
 of lights shining from ropes, and sails, and masthead. 
 Miss Ursula pressed her hands tightly together and 
 murmured two words : " The prince ! the prince ! " She 
 said over and over again beneath her breath, "The 
 prince ! the prince ! " In her tumult of excitement 
 she knelt upon the window-seat and leaned out of 
 the casement to watch the lovely thing as it drew 
 towards shore. Truly it was a ship from fairy- 
 land ! At length the garden hedge shut it from her 
 sight, and all was darkness from tamarisk bush to 
 the horizon. 
 
 With a deep sigh of ecstasy she turned to the room ; 
 that also was dark, for the parson had not come back
 
 A SPANISH MAID 297 
 
 from his north transept. Then Miss Ursula felt that 
 she could not speak of this strange, beautiful thing to 
 any one, and she stole to her own little room, and lay 
 there in her bed looking into the darkness with shining 
 eyes. " The prince ! the prince ! " she whispered. But 
 when at length she slept it was of Master Humphrey 
 she dreamed. 
 
 When the sun rose next morning it seemed to be his 
 will that Miss Ursula should rise also, for he shone 
 in at her window with such a blaze that his glory 
 entered the glory of her dreams, and the double bright- 
 ness awoke her. Her thoughts flew, quick as shot 
 arrows, to the wonderful ship which had shone out of 
 the twilight. " And was that a dream, too ? " she asked 
 the sun, but she sprang from her bed without waiting 
 for his reply, and looked across the metal-white 
 water. What she saw lying there on the shining sea, 
 just beyond the line of the tamarisk hedge, quickly 
 sorted dream from truth. It was a ship — a little 
 fairy ship — light, snowy-sailed, graceful, decked with 
 flowers from stem to stern, with silken ribbons floating 
 languidly from her masthead, and silken hangings about 
 her deck. 
 
 Miss Ursula dressed quickly, with shaking fingers, 
 but she looked for quite a long minute in her mirror 
 when it was done, and hoped her soft, white frock
 
 298 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 became her well. Then the demure little lady went 
 softly down the stairs, and stepped as quietly out of 
 the house as Agrimony had done when starting on her 
 " errand of humanity " that morning in the springtime. 
 
 The prince was coming ! It was as she had always 
 known it would be. She was going towards him, and 
 she felt him to be drawing nearer and nearer. Without 
 a second thought or a backward glance she made 
 her way to the edge of the cliff, where the path led 
 down to Averack Cove, and then she stood and looked 
 full upon the ship, and waited. It was very beautiful, 
 that little fairy ship, outlined with flowers and 
 hung wuth silk. She could see the lilies and roses 
 that were wreathed about it, and fancied the scent 
 of them was wafted up to her. 
 
 " Ursula ! " She turned to the voice. 
 
 " Humphrey ! " she cried. His eyes were shining, and 
 a white rose was in his coat. She looked at him with 
 puzzled eyes. "Humphrey ! " she cried again, and pointed 
 to the ship. " Look ! the prince ! " 
 
 But instead of looking seaward he looked into her 
 eyes. " Ursula ! " he said again, and then he held his 
 arms to her. 
 
 And then, quite suddenly, she understood his heart 
 and hers, and knew where fairyland lay.
 
 . A SPANISH MAID 299 
 
 "To live in this world one needs — not to speak of 
 other virtues — discretion and a fine forgiveness." 
 
 As he finished speaking the parson turned from 
 Agrimony, and waved his hands towards a sturdy 
 figure mending a net upon Averack beach. The 
 parson had been on his way to the village, Agrimony 
 on her way home, when they met on the cliff hill and 
 caught sight of the stooping figure below. Then the 
 parson spoke, and waved his hand towards the 
 beach, showing even more insight into human nature 
 by the gesture than by the words. Then he went 
 upon his way, and Agrimony stood very still where he 
 had left her. 
 
 In a few minutes, however, instead of taking the 
 Parsonage hill, she walked on by the cliff till she 
 reached the pathway. Then she trod down it lightly 
 and stood upon the beach. 
 
 " Fine mornin', 'Zekiel ! " she called. He straightened 
 his back as if her voice had touched a spring in it, 
 then he dropped his net, as if to smile upon her he 
 must, forsooth, have empty hands. 
 
 "Ha, Agrimony!" he answered, and he moved 
 towards her. 
 
 " Don't 'ee drop your work," she commanded ; " I 
 wouldn' have any man alive turn his eyes from duty 
 for the likes of me."
 
 . 300 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 " You witch — you ! " he exclaimed, and his eyes were 
 glad. 
 
 " I'm a witch, right enough, this mornin'. I'm feelin' 
 — well — like as if I could bring 'ee any mortal thing 
 you was to choose to ask." 
 
 For a moment 'Zekiel was dumb — but eager withal. 
 
 "Well, poor human creature," she demanded in 
 mock solemnity, "can 'ee tell me no desire of your 
 heart?" 
 
 " Agrimony," he breathed quickly, " you know ! " 
 
 For a moment she looked puzzled, feigning ignorance, 
 then she laughed. 
 
 " I b'leeve I do," she said. Then her dancing eyes 
 dropped quite shyly. 
 
 'Zekiel was ever a lad of action ; he wasted no time ; 
 he just clipped her hands and kissed her. 
 
 When, after a rather prolonged pause, 'Zekiel 
 gathered up his net there was a big tangle in it, and 
 Agrimony laughed out at him, rippling her voice and 
 bobbing her short, dark curls. At the sound of that 
 laugh the happiness died from 'Zekiel's face, a sudden 
 hunted look crept into his eyes, and he stood and gazed 
 at her as if listening to some sound far away. 
 
 When, surprised at the silence which followed, 
 Agrimony lifted her face from her hands and looked 
 at her lover the look on his face startled her.
 
 A SPANISH MAID 301 
 
 "You've — a-laughed that way — before," he said 
 slowly at last, and he knitted his brows. Then suddenly 
 the blood rushed to his face. " 'Twas a dream — an' — 
 an'," he pointed to the desolate beach, "there was a 
 ship — a maid ! " Then his voice became a cry. " No ; 
 'twasn' no dream ! Agrimony, Agrimony ! Is it 
 this as is the dream? — all a dream — naught but a 
 dream ? " 
 
 " No, no, dear heart ! " she cried, throwing her firm 
 arms round about his neck, and laughing up into his 
 pain-stricken eyes. "That was the dream; you was 
 ill, an' wanderin'. This is what's real ! " And she drew 
 his cheek to hers. 
 
 " I was — ill — an' wanderin'," he repeated dazedly, 
 "ill — an' wanderin'." Then he drew a long, deep 
 breath. "This is what's real," he echoed slowly, and 
 he held the reality close to his heart, then smiled 
 and kissed her with a gratitude which was almost 
 solemn. 
 
 And the storms beat on, and the sun still shone 
 upon Landecarrock and its folks. At Pensallas Mistress 
 Ursula Harle poured her China tea-drink from a massive 
 silver pot into teacups of less childish size than those 
 she had been wont to use at the old Parsonage, and 
 her dainty frocks and hooded cloaks were made of
 
 302 A SPANISH MAID 
 
 richer stuffs, but her pretty ways did not change with 
 her name, and Dame Tellam beamed approval. 
 
 In the coastguard's cottage Mary Ludgven's face 
 was calm as she bent over her second son, and her 
 smiles were placid as she looked upon 'Zekiel's wife. 
 In the churchyard, too, the graves grew green with 
 time and the number of them increased but slowly. 
 Landecarrock was striving to forget the time of its 
 visitation. Only now and again when a villager grew 
 garrulous in Peter Ludgven's hearing, and told of those 
 months, and framed the name "Teresa," the good 
 creature would knit his brow and plead : " I'd as lief 
 you didn' name it, my dear soul. I'd as Hef you let 
 the matter 'bide." 
 
 And so it passed. 
 
 But Sam'le Laskey did not forget. To him it was as 
 yesterday that the blazing-eyed witch had come close 
 to his home and tortured him ; and he hated her ; and 
 day after day he stood upon Averack beach and cursed 
 her with his impotent tongue, and hurled pebbles into 
 the sea, climbing back up the path to the churchyard 
 when he had done it, to lay his mouth to the turf and 
 whisper of his work. 
 
 THE END.
 
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