OP CALIF- UBBABY
 
 Heron ford
 
 H ero n fo r d 
 
 By 
 
 Author of 
 
 "The Crimson Sign," "The Cava- 
 liers," "The Silver Cross," etc. 
 
 ************** ************** 
 
 ************* ***************: 
 
 New Tork 
 
 DODD, MEAD 6? COMPANY 
 
 i8 99
 
 Copyright 1899 
 
 by 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
 My dear Philip Russell, 
 
 It cannot be denied that you have the right taste 
 in Romance. Unlike other critics, however accomplished, 
 your own moods never interfere with your clear judgment 
 and perfect faculty of enjoyment. At every hour your ears 
 are open to the ringing of the horns of Elfland, and your 
 heart is responsive to the wooing of the Fairy who has a 
 constant seat at your fireside. Tour young feet have not 
 yet trodden far upon the strange and devious paths of life ; 
 but you are now learning, without knowing the fine truth, 
 that there is refuge and sanctuary from care and trouble 
 and pain in the fair house of which Imagination is the 
 builder a house that, though unsubstantial as a dream, 
 abides for ever, and is full of joy and all delights. We 
 have spent many happy hours together in the wonderland 
 of Youth. On that future day when you come to read 
 this hook, it is my hope that you may find in its pages some 
 faint reflection alas ! you will be older then of that 
 sweetness and joy that ^ue have found together in the Cave 
 of dladdin and the Garden of the Caliph of Bagdad.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE WAY I FIRST CAME TO HERONFORD i 
 
 II. How JOHN, LORD HERONFORD, WENT TO HIS OWN 
 
 PLACE 20 
 
 III. I FIND A NEW FRIEND 33 
 
 IV. THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 44 
 
 V. IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 51 
 
 VI. THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 69 
 
 VII. I MAKE LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 83 
 
 VIII. VICTORY VICTRIX 95 
 
 IX. Two COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 106 
 
 X. THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 119 
 
 XI. MR. WESTON TELLS THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN . .136 
 
 XII. THE GREY COUNTESS 157 
 
 XIII. THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 175 
 
 XIV. A WOMAN'S WISDOM 188 
 
 XV. JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 204 
 
 XVI. AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW . . . ; 219 
 
 XVII. LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 230 
 
 XVIII. A BLOW IN THE DARK 244 
 
 XIX. THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 254 
 
 XX. UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 265 
 
 XXI. A BITTER HOUR 279 
 
 XXII. THE FIRST Bow OF CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY. . . . 291 
 
 XXIII. CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY'S EXIT 306 
 
 XXIV. THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 329
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE WAY I FIRST CAME TO HERONFORD 
 
 IT cannot be questioned that there was and is a wild 
 strain in the Cassilis blood a wildness that disappeared 
 in this generation or in that but invariably and inevit- 
 ably reasserted itself after a slumbrous interval in the 
 headstrong men and beautiful women who drew their 
 birth from the first Cassilis of Heronford. There was a 
 lonely child of whom I shall have much to say, who 
 used to ponder with all the fascination of terror over the 
 tragic chronicles of this family, and who was wont to watch 
 in the evening shadows of the great hall the long line of 
 warriors and knights, statesmen and priests, boisterous 
 cavaliers, sour-visaged Puritans and beautiful women 
 (these for the most part with the same proud high air, 
 but some with a look of pain and fear eloquent in their 
 splendid eyes) the lad, I say, would watch that vision- 
 ary cavalcade pass before him with its burden of reck- 
 less mirth and tragic despair pass to the same dark and 
 miserable doom. In the solitude of his young life these 
 ghostly shapes stepping from their canvas peopled his 
 dreams asleep and waking with an awful reality, and even 
 yet sometimes appear to him as shadowy visitants 
 
 i
 
 2 HERONFORD 
 
 from the gloom and sorrow of the past. The whole 
 history of the house was written for the precocious child 
 in the sombre portraits that lined the long and rambling 
 corridor at the head of the great staircase, and he found 
 a certain companionship in the awe and fear inspired by 
 their silent faces. His mind was filled with their wild 
 and stormy history ; he knew the name and history of 
 every splendid gentleman and haughty lady in that long, 
 illustrious line. He felt that in some curious, inexpli- 
 cable way his young life was a part of that strange assem- 
 bly, and that each had a message for him. 
 
 Who shall explain the strange, unmeasurable working 
 of a child's mind ? More than once the boy was caught 
 in his little nightshirt with a candle in his hand, standing 
 before the portrait of the Grey Countess,* his eyes fixed 
 in terror and his little heart beating wildly in his breast. 
 I remember how the passionate disdain of those haughty 
 lips was wont to hold him with a complete fascination, 
 and the cold denial of her cruel eyes would send him 
 back in childish terror of what he could not tell to 
 his solitary chamber to shut out the sight of his tear- 
 stained pillow. I cannot remember that anyone had ever 
 told him I think it must have been his own thought and 
 the result of his own imaginative and morbid dreams 
 but he never doubted that the evil spirit, and the dark 
 fate that followed as its shadow, entered the house for 
 the first time when that awful woman crossed its thresh- 
 old as a bride. From that time the same eyes and lips 
 and the little frown between the brows were repeated in 
 
 * This lady was a widow when she intermarried with the fourth Lord 
 Cassilis, there never being an earldom in the family.
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 3 
 
 a hundred canvasses, and in every case the history was 
 the same wild riot and inevitable despair, or a still 
 darker tale of crime and punishment. 
 
 Is it possible that the child sees more and further than 
 the man ? I cannot say, but I know that in my graver 
 years here and there in that line of portraits I have 
 caught a fancied resemblance to the Grey Countess of 
 tradition, but of that spiritual sympathy and inward like- 
 ness I have seen nothing or nothing of which I could 
 speak with assurance. 
 
 As in most great houses looking back to a remote past 
 here also there was the story of a ghost, and it was said 
 there were few who did not believe it that the awful 
 shadow of the Grey Countess passed through the great 
 hall to the chamber which she had occupied in life when 
 any misfortune was about to befall the family at whose 
 door she had laid the atonement of her crime. It may 
 be that this wild and foolish story had first awakened the 
 boy's imagination, and led him to trace those baleful 
 features in the wayward and unfortunate among her de- 
 scendants ; but it is certain that for many years, in the 
 languid and feeble hours of midnight the lad would lie 
 listening for the rustle of her sweeping garments, and 
 the solemn tread of her pitiless feet with the blood stains 
 fresh upon them. In any case that great grey house 
 with its slumbrous galleries and lonely chambers, and all 
 about it the sweep and swell of the sea, moaning cease- 
 lessly in calm, or roaring in the stress and thunder of the 
 storm, seemed not unfitted to become the birthplace and 
 cradle of a race wayward and ungovernable as that of 
 Cassilis.
 
 4 HERDNFORD 
 
 The late lord was an old man when I first remember 
 him and it is with him that this story begins, though I 
 shall not have much to say regarding him. He was then 
 more than sixty, but I can still call to mind the bright- 
 ness of his eyes, the stately dignity of his carriage, and 
 the ungovernable temper that not unfrequently burst into 
 a tempest of oaths, shocking beyond description. I 
 speak now not merely from my boyish recollection, but 
 from what I have subsequently learned, and I am sure 
 that if the Grey Countess bequeathed her spirit to any 
 of her descendants, to none she gave a larger portion 
 than to John Cassilis, twelfth Baron Heronford. 
 
 And yet of all the gentlemen I have ever known his 
 manners were the most perfect, his courtesy the most 
 distinguished, and his quiet gaiety the most winning and 
 charming. There was no one of whom I ever stood in 
 such dread and terror; I would tremble at the sound of 
 his voice, and shrink when I heard his footstep and the 
 tap of his stick upon the floor. His venerable white 
 head, his shining eyes whose brightness age had not in 
 the slightest degree dimmed, his ceremonious manner, 
 were, so to speak, merely the mask to my youthful eyes 
 that concealed the waiting fury that burst forth from 
 time to time in fits of wrath and passion. At such 
 times he was entirely transformed, and as I have since 
 thought, his actions were completely beyond his control. 
 His servants did not venture to enter into his presence, 
 and he lived almost altogether in solitude until the mood 
 passed and his volcanic passion had spent its force. 
 
 They still point out the path along the cliffs where in 
 one of these wild paroxysms he urged the famous white
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 5 
 
 horse he was used to ride a mere sheep track climbing 
 in broken leaps along the side of the cliff that ran sheer 
 down to the white surf and the shining grey rocks below 
 a path on which the cragsman would need to exercise 
 all his skill and coolness. As I shall have to tell here- 
 after I climbed that path once, and all the way along 
 that dizzy verge I heard the ringing clatter of the hoofs 
 and the old man's labouring breath as he swung in his 
 hunting saddle, and I felt that men do not altogether die 
 when they are laid in the quiet churchyard and a stately 
 monument is reared over their mouldering bones. 
 
 John, twelfth Lord Heronford, was twice married. 
 His first wife died within ten months of becoming a 
 bride, but his second wife lived long enough to bring 
 three children into the world, and then quietly, and I am 
 afraid not unwillingly, went to rest with the wives of the 
 house of Cassilis in the shadow of the church. From 
 this time, I have been told, the old lord's temper became 
 more and more ungovernable, and his actions less ame- 
 nable to reason. It was said he had treated the mother 
 of his children with great harshness (a faded beauty with 
 sorrowful eyes whose portrait you may still see), and it was 
 supposed that his unkindness broke her heart. However, 
 whether it was due to remorse or whatever other cause, 
 from this time he was in the habit of making prolonged 
 sojourns in Paris and London, and lived among the rakes 
 and bloods of that period with the same audacious reck- 
 lessness he had done at home. During his long mi- 
 nority the estate had recovered itself and he had been the 
 master of a large, not to say a splendid fortune, but a 
 few years of cards and dice sufficed to empty his purse,
 
 6 HERONFORD 
 
 and in the days when I first remember him my lord was 
 a poor man with a desire to save and a touch of avarice. 
 His career as a prodigal had lasted for fifteen years, 
 and when he finally returned home, having drunk the 
 cup of pleasure and sin to its poisonous dregs, he found 
 his sons already grown up and his daughter a beautiful 
 girl blossoming into her first womanhood. 
 
 It has been said, but I think unjustly, that my lord had 
 no heart. It was, perhaps, hard to find and when found 
 hard to touch, but in any case there was never any love 
 and sympathy between my lord and his family. From 
 the first there was an impassable gulf of fear and distrust 
 between them, and finally, at any rate in the case of his 
 eldest son (my friend and patron), a fierce and irrecon- 
 cilable quarrel which lasted till his death. At all events, 
 my lord was soon left as completely alone as if his pale, 
 heart-broken wife had died childless, and the man, old in 
 heart and grey in experience, lived his own life solitary 
 and forgotten. 
 
 His daughter, toward whom her father had never 
 shown the least affection, had found a home with Lady 
 Ashtown, her mother's sister, and passed her time be- 
 tween that fine lady's Yorkshire house and the gaieties 
 of Bath ; a haughty and fashionable beauty of whom no 
 less a judge than Mr. Steele wrote with warmth in his 
 Tattler, and who found many admirers, though none 
 with sufficient courage to make her his wife. She wrote 
 once a year to her father, a letter proper in tone and duti- 
 ful in expression ; and there all intercourse between them 
 ended, for the old man, having read the filial epistle with 
 a smile, put it in the fire and returned no answer.
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 7 
 
 My lord's two. sons were of a very different disposi- 
 tion. The elder (my own lord of whom I shall have so 
 much to say) being quick, impatient, and high-spirited ; 
 while his brother was little more than a boor and a sot, 
 finding his chief companionship in the tavern and his 
 highest pleasure in the stable. Whatever cause for quar- 
 rel my lord had with his eldest son he was never unmind- 
 ful of the dignity of the family, nor did he once, then or 
 at any time, permit his personal feelings to interfere with 
 what he looked upon as his duty toward the family 
 honour and the reputation of his name. Even after the 
 bitter and irreconcilable quarrel between the father and 
 son had arisen the young man was always supplied with 
 the means to support his rank, and I am sure all my 
 lord's scraping and savings found their way in the long 
 run into the pockets of the prodigal. Nor did he look 
 for any recompense in thanks or return in gratitude, 
 which he certainly never got. It was merely the form 
 which his pride perhaps his madness assumed, and he 
 was satisfied that his eldest son should cut a figure in the 
 great world which he himself had abandoned. If this 
 was his ambition it was certainly satisfied to the fullest 
 extent, for from the time that Richard Cassilis left his 
 father's house till the time that he returned after his 
 father's funeral, there was no more brilliant and auda- 
 cious figure in the society of his time. 
 
 The story of his extravagance had reached even the 
 village of Cassilis, and the villagers discussed his doings 
 with a feeling which was partly awe and partly admira- 
 tion. They spoke with a lowering of the voice of the enor- 
 mous sums he had won and lost at cards with the same
 
 8 HERONFORD 
 
 easy indifference, of the duels he had fought and the 
 skill and success with which he fought them, of his 
 career of gallantry and the broken reputations carried off 
 as spoils by the victor ; in short, a multitude of traditions 
 grew up round his name which are even yet repeated 
 round the cottage firesides of a winter evening long after 
 Richard Cassilis, Lord Heronford, has passed to his rest. 
 It is likely the bright, audacious boy had won the hearts 
 of his people, and when he passed from their sight into 
 the great world they found an excuse for his sins and 
 excesses in the harshness and severity with which he had 
 been treated by his father. 
 
 Be this as it may, for a number of years the old man 
 lived completely alone, Will Cassilis, the second son, 
 being the only member of the family who ever visited 
 the Hall, and then altogether without his father's knowl- 
 edge or even approval. These secret visits were no 
 doubt the result of necessity, and this younger son of a 
 great house lived on terms of equality among his father's 
 grooms and servants because there was no other refuge 
 open to him. It was not, indeed, that he felt out of 
 place in the pantry or the servants' hall, for Will Cassilis 
 had early developed vicious habits, and more willingly 
 chose his companions among jockeys and broken game- 
 sters than among those of his own rank and degree. 
 But the sums of money with which his brother and sister 
 periodically supplied him were speedily dissipated in the 
 tavern or on the racecourse, and he was compelled to lie 
 hidden till his purse was again filled, and the means were 
 supplied to follow the courses he best loved. 
 
 In this way, separated from his family and indifferent
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 9 
 
 to the world, the old lord lived like a hermit and a mad- 
 man, keeping his own accounts, playing the tyrant over 
 his tenants and dependants, turning the night into day, 
 and giving matter for daily wonder to his neighbours by 
 his solitary freaks and extravagances of conduct. He had 
 furnished for himself a little room in the western tower, 
 which it was only possible to reach by a movable stair or 
 drawbridge, and here he would shut himself up for a fort- 
 night at a time, admitting no one to his presence and re- 
 fusing to see even his domestics. But for some reason 
 during these periods of retirement the light burned night 
 and day in his window. It was said he never slept or 
 rested, and that I can almost believe. As a child I have, 
 indeed, often wondered whether his conduct was due to 
 remorse and spiritual fear. He never sat down to his 
 solitary meals, he never retired to his lonely pillow, with- 
 out his drawn rapier placed upon the table or laid upon 
 the coverlet of his bed close to his hand. 
 
 For some years no change took place in his moody, 
 retired life, and then an event happened in which I my- 
 self had some interest, and which was not without its 
 effect on the fortunes of the family. It happened about 
 six months after the marriage of Richard Cassilis. That 
 prodigal (and with all his great faults no one possessed a 
 kinder heart or more generous disposition), having sorely 
 tried his father's patience and made tremendous inroads 
 on the already impoverished family estates, thought to 
 mend his fortunes with a rich wife, and married in the 
 June of that year Alicia, widow of the Honourable 
 Nicholas Carteret, with a fortune of sixty thousand 
 pounds, as I have seen stated in the Gentleman's Magazine.
 
 io HERONFORD 
 
 I have no doubt that my lord, his father, was rejoiced 
 that his son should have given promise of amendment in 
 his life, and was still more delighted that there was a 
 prospect in the future of keeping in his own hands the 
 rents and profits which till now had rattled through the 
 dice-box. Indeed, for many reasons he must have been 
 more than pleased. I have myself seen a letter almost 
 the only one he ever wrote addressed to his son on the 
 occasion of his marriage, and congratulating him, though 
 with a somewhat sarcastic humour, upon this happy and 
 fortunate event. 
 
 For a time the reconciliation was quite complete, for 
 though they could never agree when they met, in his own 
 way my lord was proud of his eldest son. In any event 
 the bitterness between them was so far abated that there 
 was some talk of the newly-wedded pair paying a visit to 
 Heronford, and arrangements had actually been made for 
 their reception when the incident occurred of which I 
 have spoken, and father and son never saw each other 
 alive. The marriage took place, as I have said, in June ; 
 the winter following was severe almost beyond precedent, 
 and from the middle of November till some time in 
 February the roads were almost impassable by reason of 
 the tremendous snowfall and continual frost. This may 
 have been the cause of the visit being postponed, but in 
 any case his necessity must have been urgent and his 
 case pressing who visited Heronford during that time. 
 
 On the evening of the twenty-third December my 
 lord was dining, as was his general custom at all seasons 
 of the year, in the great hall, though now close by the 
 north fireplace, and altogether alone. You know the
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD u 
 
 great hall at Heronford that gloomy, high-vaulted 
 chamber, even during the daylight filled with melancholy 
 shadows and cold silences. At night I can still hardly 
 enter it without a shudder. Yet my lord loved it better 
 than any other room but his little refuge in the west 
 tower, and here he sat, the table lighted by many candles, 
 and the other end of that spacious apartment dark almost 
 as night. 
 
 He leaned back in his chair and cracked his walnuts, 
 with a bottle of his favourite port at his right hand. It 
 is easy for me to picture him on this evening his cold 
 eyes settled on the gloomy shadows before him, his white 
 head resting against the back of the black oak-chair, and 
 his hand, the fingers covered with brilliants this being 
 one of his weaknesses playing with the stem of his 
 wine-glass ; a solitary, morose old man who even in his 
 pleasures saw in life not a caress but a struggle. The 
 four servants had retired for this was the number that 
 always waited on him when he dined alone and only 
 John Osborne stood behind my lord's chair and closer to 
 the fire. I used to think that the two understood one 
 another without words ; certainly there never was a serv- 
 ant more faithful, observant, and devoted, and though 
 neither ever for a moment crossed the formal line that 
 rank demands, I know my lord had always an affectionate 
 regard for his old servant beyond any living person, even 
 his own children. 
 
 John's duty ended for the day only when the last 
 bottle was finished and he had seen his master safely to 
 bed, which he did regularly at the one hour. To-night, 
 however, my lord had sat longer than usual, and had
 
 12 HERONFORD 
 
 drunk less and with more deliberation than was his custom. 
 It was past ten o'clock and there was still a bottle warm- 
 ing in the hearth where the fire played among the great 
 logs and went roaring up the wide chimney. John 
 walked to and fro behind his master's chair, while my 
 lord sat in gloomy silence and shivered a little. At the 
 further end of the hall the moon was shining through 
 the great window, and the glowing circle of light filled 
 the room with shadows. 
 
 "John." 
 
 "Yes, my lord." 
 
 " 'Tis a fine night." 
 
 " A fine night, my lord." 
 
 " You are not a man ; you are only a parrot." 
 
 " Yes, my lord." 
 
 " A very old bird." 
 
 " Neither of us is as young as we were, my lord," 
 John answered cheerfully. 
 
 "I know that, you fool," cries my lord moodily. 
 " 'Tis a damnable world, Osborne. There is no room 
 for old men ; good wine won't warm their dry bones. 
 There is nothing before them but the churchyard." 
 
 " If the Lord pleases, my lord." 
 
 Heronford laughed drily. 
 
 "And the heir I must not forget my importunate 
 heir who is waiting to bury me. I have kept him wait- 
 ing long enough, Osborne." 
 
 " If God permit " 
 
 " God does not enter into the matter. Heronford has 
 always managed its own affairs. Bring a glass, sir. 
 You must drink to the health of him who will turn you
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 13 
 
 out of doors when I am gone to him and my lady, his 
 wife. 'Tis good wine at 'any rate, and the toast will not 
 spoil it." 
 
 Without a word Osborne brought a glass and placed 
 it before his master, who poured out the wine with a 
 steady hand and with a face perfectly grave. Then the 
 latter rose to his feet. 
 
 "We will drink to my son, Richard Cassilis, the 
 future Lord Heron ford, unruly child, reckless boy, and 
 godless man. I give you his health, my servant and 
 friend. May his friends love him as mine have loved 
 me ; may his children honour him as mine have honoured 
 me; may in the devil's name what is that ? " 
 
 The two men, both old and white, stood facing one 
 another with their glasses suspended in their hands, while 
 the fire leaped in the great hearth and the rows of candles 
 in the silver candlesticks burned feebly round their long 
 wicks. There was a prolonged silence ; then Osborne 
 laid down his glass. 
 
 " 'Tis the judgment of heaven, my lord," he said 
 feebly. " You must not ask me to drink that toast." 
 
 But before Lord Heronford could answer the knocking 
 which they had heard was repeated with a clamorous in- 
 sistence, awakening the echoes of the empty house, and 
 it may be filling them both with a sense of its desolateness. 
 
 Lord Heronford put his glass untasted from his lips 
 and sat down with a quiet smile. 
 
 " It may be the devil come for me at last, Osborne. 
 You had better go and ask him to wait till I have finished 
 the bottle." 
 
 "But, my lord "
 
 i 4 HERONFORD 
 
 " Do not be a fool. Go and see who wants me at 
 this hour of the night. And remember, I will not see 
 an angel from heaven." 
 
 My lord watched his servant pass waveringly down the 
 hall, and then emptying his glass sat for some time with 
 his hands resting upon the table, the tips of his fingers 
 pressed tightly together according to his custom. Then 
 he rose from his chair and went over to the hearth, stand- 
 ing with his back to the fire. He was of a very tall 
 figure and not in the least bent by his age. I have often 
 seen him standing in this way his favourite attitude 
 his brows drawn, his eyes fixed, and if at such times he did 
 not affect me with fear he always impressed me with awe. 
 
 A long time passed nearly a quarter of an hour and 
 he began to grow impatient, for he never could bear delay. 
 
 Then the door opened and Osborne reappeared. 
 
 " Have you been asleep, sirrah ? What is the matter ? 
 Have you seen a ghost ? " 
 
 u As I am a sinner, my lord, I do not know." 
 
 " Pooh ! you are a fool. What is it ? " 
 
 " I am not sure that " 
 
 " Hell and the devil ! I must see myself. Get out 
 of my way, you addle-headed ass." 
 
 " Your lordship must not do that." 
 
 " I must not walk in my own house ! This is not 
 language that I will tolerate, sirrah." 
 
 " But, my lord " 
 
 " Let me have no more c buts.' Speak out plainly." 
 
 " It is a woman." 
 
 "The devil!" 
 
 " A woman and a child,"
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 15 
 
 " Pooh ! " said my lord, returning to his seat and 
 possessed at once by irritation and a certain humour. 
 " I thought you had more sense, Osborne. 'Twas 
 only a stone in the horse-pond after all. Times have 
 changed, John ; times have changed. I am too old for 
 the baggage to come trapesing after me. 'Tis a hard 
 night ; let them give her a bed and a crust and see her to 
 the parish in the morning. Let me hear no more about it." 
 
 II It is not my fault, my lord, but " 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 II 1 doubt but you must hear more. The creature seems 
 dazed-like, but is soft-spoken and well-mannered. She 
 says she has come from London to see your lordship." 
 
 " You are an idiot, John Osborne. I will see no 
 living woman in this house. I know what has happened 
 oh ! I know very well what has happened. I will 
 gather no crop of wild oats for any son of mine. 'Death, 
 man, don't stand glowering at me like the jackanapes you 
 are. Let the trull have a bed and show her to the door 
 in the morning." 
 
 Osborne came close behind his master's chair. Then 
 he did what he had never done before in his life j he laid 
 his hand upon his arm. 
 
 " I think your lordship must see this woman." 
 
 Lord Heron ford was so much taken by surprise and so 
 possessed by anger that for the moment he was unable to 
 answer a word. His domestics, as much from habit as 
 from fear of his wild and terrible fits of passionate wrath, 
 never ventured to question his commands for an instant. 
 He sat erect and speechless, his eyes flashing, his lips 
 white, and his long, thin fingers trembling upon the arms
 
 16 HERONFORD 
 
 of his chair. But the servant was evidently as much 
 moved as his master, and from whatever cause seemed 
 possessed by a fear greater than any the latter could 
 inspire. 
 
 " I think your lordship must see this woman." 
 
 Then he leaned forward and whispered some words in 
 a low tone in my lord's ear. 
 
 It was characteristic of the man that he should act as 
 he did. He had been swaying on the verge of a parox- 
 ysm of passion of a wild uncontrollable outburst which 
 yielded to no persuasion and admitted of no pause until 
 it had worn itself out through mere exhaustion, but now 
 in an instant he was cold as ice, and only in the tighten- 
 ing of his white lips was there evidence of his inward 
 agitation. 
 
 "An impostor or a dupe, Osborne," he said calmly 
 and with stern composure. " But I will see the woman. 
 Bring her here alone, and stay you said there was a 
 child, let her bring the child." 
 
 He rose from his chair and resumed his place by the 
 hearth, standing with his hands behind his back and his 
 eyes looking straight down the great room with a fixed 
 gaze, almost like that of ?, man walking in his sleep. But 
 his lips were still white and his brows were gathered in a 
 frown. He never moved nor stirred a foot from the time 
 that Osborne left the room until he returned followed by 
 a woman clad in a cloak that concealed her face and figure, 
 and carrying a child in her arms. Even when she came 
 close to where he was standing he did not look at her ; he 
 only drew his snuff-box a thing he seldom used from 
 his pocket and leisurely took a pinch of snuff.
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFOjRD 17 
 
 " Give the lady a chair, Osborne. You desired to see 
 me, madam. I am Lord Heron ford." 
 
 As I have said, whatever were his faults and his vices 
 there never was any man more courteous and full of dig- 
 nity, but that of a nature that rather repelled than at- 
 tracted, and now his manner was cold beyond measure 
 though full of formal courtesy. At the sound of his 
 voice the woman raised her eyes to his face and then 
 sank with an air of extreme exhaustion into the chair 
 which Osborne made haste to offer her. She was quite 
 young, hardly more than a girl, and to say that she was 
 beautiful is to speak with a halting appreciation. I have 
 in my possession a sacred treasure, a holy memorial a 
 little miniature of this forlorn wanderer, and I am sure 
 the sweet innocence of girlhood, the frank joy and fresh- 
 ness of youth, was never wedded to a beauty more subtle 
 and ravishing. But now there was no trace of timidity in 
 her manner, and the look she bent on my lord's face was 
 not one of appeal or entreaty, but of strong purpose and 
 courage. I think her face and eyes and the way she re- 
 garded him won upon my lord, for his voice was softer 
 when he spoke again. That was his way you could never 
 tell whither his feelings would lead him a moment before. 
 
 " It is a hard world, madam. I think I know your 
 story." 
 
 She looked at him with a fixed, bright look, and their 
 eyes met ; she held the child more tightly clasped in her 
 arms. 
 
 " I cannot I dare not believe that." 
 
 u No ? You are young, very young, and I am old. 1 
 have heard a good many stories in my time. I think I
 
 i8 HERONFORD 
 
 have heard yours among them. My poor child, 'tis a 
 common tale." 
 
 " I am sure that mine is not a common tale." 
 
 " My son Richard ? Ah ! I thought as much ; his 
 brother's tastes are different, but both Good God ! 
 madam, I will hear nothing more. I have done with 
 both of them." 
 
 " I have walked seven miles, my lord, and never thought 
 I should reach your house living. Do you know what 
 gave me strength ? It was my child my child and his. 
 For my boy's sake you must hear what I have to tell you; 
 if you refuse to hear me I must tell the world. I cannot 
 leave my boy without a name, I cannot I dare not die 
 and leave it unspoken. I owe that to my baby." 
 
 There was an undercurrent of passionate despair in her 
 voice, but there was something more the insistent asser- 
 tion of a right which gave her strength and courage, and 
 the old man, unaccustomed to such language, started at 
 the threat contained in her words. For a moment he 
 seemed swayed by contending emotions, and it seemed to 
 his servant, who knew his way better than any living 
 person, that he was about to order her from his presence. 
 But he suddenly changed his mind. He went to the 
 table, and lifting a candlestick with a steady hand came 
 over to where she was seated. 
 
 " Let me see your child," he said in a hard, measured 
 voice. 
 
 Without a word she opened the cloak that she still kept 
 gathered closely round her, and the streaming light fell 
 on the face of the sleeping child. The old man looked 
 at it for a long time and with a smile that was almost a
 
 THE WAY I CAME TO HERONFORD 19 
 
 sneer playing about his lips. Then he silently returned 
 to the table, set the candlestick in its place, and resumed 
 his place by the hearth. 
 
 " I am satisfied," he said. " Heronford is true to its 
 traditions. Osborne, you may leave us now. Madam, 
 I will hear your story." 
 
 From that hour till the day of his death they say my 
 lord was a changed man. Whatever the story may have 
 been he heard that night his strong and wayward spirit 
 seemed broken, and a haunting, watchful fear seemed to 
 possess him at all times. Nor was he ever known to men- 
 tion his children either in anger or contempt as he was 
 used to do, but having once written to his eldest son, 
 which he did shortly after this, he removed his portrait 
 from the wall of the gallery and burned the canvas with 
 his own hand. 
 
 Upon this particular night it was more than an hour 
 before he rang for Osborne. His servant fdund him in 
 such a condition as he had never seen him before, his 
 hands trembling, his voice thin with emotion, and his 
 head bowed like one struck down by misfortune. 
 
 " This lady will remain at Heronford," he said shortly. 
 " Have the rooms in the east wing prepared for her and 
 the child, and look you, John Osborne, if I hear a whis- 
 per you know what I mean before heaven I will break 
 your neck and fling you into the moat." 
 
 With that my lord drew himself up, and with all his 
 fine courtesy bowed to the lady whose hand he kissed ; 
 then walking unsteadily down the long chamber a 
 shadow among the shadows he passed through the door 
 and went unattended to his room.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HOW JOHN, LORD HERONFORD, WENT TO HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 THE child who was brought in this way to Heronford 
 has now no recollection of his mother. The lamp of 
 memory sheds no light on that sweet, innocent face. He 
 cannot withdraw the curtain that has fallen upon the past, 
 but he can remember when little more than a child sit- 
 ting on the grassy mound by the churchyard wall, his 
 boyish heart full of uncontrollable grief, and beating, as 
 it were, with his young hands upon the unmoving gates 
 of death. 
 
 He was four years old when he lost his mother, and 
 though as I have said, her face has passed wholly from 
 his memory, he can still remember the day on which she 
 was buried. There still remains in his mind the indis- 
 tinct, shadowy picture of an open grave, the parson in 
 his cassock, and Lord Heronford standing with his white 
 head uncovered in the pouring rain. Of this scene he 
 can see nothing else through the mists and shadows of 
 the past, and perhaps at the time these things impressed 
 him most. I have, indeed, sometimes wondered whether 
 this scene, so faint and vague, was not the creation of 
 my own fancy, for the child, living for the most part 
 solitary and alone in that grey, desolate house, early be- 
 came the subject of a thousand waking dreams. I lived 
 altogether in a world of ideas ; I moved in a land of 
 strange and grotesque imaginings. It is true that I was 
 
 2O
 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 21 
 
 clothed and fed and treated without harshness, but I had 
 no companionship : I lived altogether alone. The serv- 
 ants permitted the strange, uncompanionable child to go 
 his own way and to indulge undisturbed in the solitude 
 he seemed to love. 
 
 And in this manner, shut out from all other company, 
 I came to build my own house of dreams and to retire 
 thither, unloved and unpitied, a waif who had no busi- 
 ness in that great house. As for my lord, till I was ten 
 years old he never spoke to me, nor so much as noticed 
 my presence in the house. Not once but frequently he 
 passed me on the staircase as though I had no existence, 
 and at such times my heart would stand still in my bosom. 
 For of all my childish terrors there was none so great and 
 so overpowering as my fear of that old man with his 
 white face and tall, unbending figure. I cannot remem- 
 ber what awakened that dread first, but certainly it was 
 the great and absorbing passion of my childhood. It was 
 unreasoning, as a child's fear always is, and it was un- 
 founded, but I always trembled at his approach and stood 
 breathless till he had passed me. 
 
 That he was not altogether unmindful of me is clear 
 from the fact that by his orders I was sent every day to 
 the Vicarage, where for two hours Mr. Ballard assumed 
 to direct my studies, though I fear neither the master nor 
 the pupil was much in love with the task. But at any 
 rate I learned to read, and was soon able to open up for 
 myself a new world of which I was not slow to take 
 possession. There is a room in Heronford that I shall 
 always love the Book Room, that looks out upon the 
 pleasance and the grey cliffs beyond the swelling downs.
 
 22 HERONFORD 
 
 Here I found contentment; here I lost my haunting 
 sense of terror. Crossing the threshold of this chamber 
 the grey shadows and shapes that possessed the dim cor- 
 ridors melted into the sunshine, and the lad who an 
 hour before had been listening for the rustling robe of the 
 Grey Countess went hand in hand with Una, or swag- 
 gered in the tavern with Tom Jones and Parson Adams. 
 My books were a strange company poets, dramatists, 
 novelists and though I found much in them that I did 
 not understand, still there was life and action, and a great, 
 unknown world in which I was able to lose myself. 
 
 That I was a child grave and precocious beyond my 
 years is undoubted, but I do not remember ever wonder- 
 ing how I came to live at Heronford or why I passed my 
 life alone. That I accepted as a simple fact; I was part 
 of this old house as much as my lord or John Osborne, 
 who never was my friend, and who treated me always 
 with a coldness and distant respect that I could never 
 overcome. 
 
 I think I must have been about ten years old when an 
 event happened which created a deep impression upon my 
 mind, and opened up a new field of speculation and 
 wonder. It must be remembered there is nothing trivial 
 or unimportant in a child's life his petty sorrows are 
 tragedies, his little daily incidents the adventures of 
 romance. And this was especially the case with the 
 solitary child whose existence was an unbroken round of 
 dreams and musings, and who passed his life from day to 
 day without companionship. 
 
 It was the first time my lord ever spoke to me, and 
 that fact alone, with the circumstances attending it, com-
 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 23 
 
 bined to make the impression deeper and more abiding. 
 On the afternoon of a winter day indeed I can hardly 
 remember any summer in my childhood I was standing 
 in the round window of the Book Room, as was usual, 
 altogether oblivious of the present, and following the 
 curious voyages of Sir John Mandeville in a folio I had 
 lately discovered. I had not heard the door open, nor 
 had I heard the footsteps upon the floor, but I was 
 roused from my dreams by my lord's voice, and looked 
 up to find him watching me with a strange expression on 
 his face. It was not anger, for his lips were smiling, nor 
 was it love, for his eyes were hard and cold. I can, per- 
 haps, understand his feelings better now and the strange 
 interest he displayed, but then I was altogether overcome, 
 and would have made my escape had it been possible. 
 But he stood between me and the door, and never took 
 his eyes off my face. 
 
 Then he spoke, and I started at the sound of his hard 
 voice 
 
 " Come here, boy." 
 
 In an instant the book which I had been holding fell 
 with a crash to the floor. For a minute I stood trem- 
 bling, and then walked with a certain fascination close to 
 where he was standing. He took my chin in his hand that 
 was cold as ice, and with the same unchanged look about his 
 eyes and lips read my face as one would read a book. 
 But with a curious reaction I had ceased to fear him, and 
 I met his eyes boldly. He withdrew his hand and did 
 not speak for a minute. I found myself counting the 
 rings on his thin white fingers. Then what I have al- 
 ways accounted one of his strangest fancies seized upon
 
 24 HERONFORD 
 
 him a fancy so grotesque and terrible that its full 
 force, awful as it was, did not impress my childish mind, 
 but has often recurred to me since with a certain added 
 horror. 
 
 " There is an heirship of the body and the spirit," he 
 said as though speaking to himself. " Come with me, 
 child, and I will show you your future and your past." 
 
 With his hand resting on my shoulder, and with a cer- 
 tain gentleness that was almost affectionate, we left the 
 room together and went slowly toward the portrait gal- 
 lery. It was a curious picture the tall old man, with 
 his white head erect and proud and his eyes lighted with 
 a strange fire, and the sedate, solemn child full of awe 
 and wonder, and neither of them speaking a word. 
 
 The afternoon light was streaming through the western 
 windows with a mellow glow, and the long rows of por- 
 traits had caught the soft light. I had been afraid of 
 these pictures before, but never so much as now. Three 
 times we walked up and down the long gallery, stopping 
 here and there in silence, until that long line of silent 
 faces seemed to me to be alive, and the eloquent eyes 
 filled me with a nameless fear. Then Lord Heron ford 
 stopped before that portrait painted by Jannsen ; the por- 
 trait of a boy little older than myself, in the dress of a 
 royal page. 
 
 " You have now seen your inheritance," he said 
 slowly. " There is your past and your future. These 
 worshipful gentlemen are working in your blood as they 
 have wrought in mine. I have heard their footsteps be- 
 hind me all my life. The world says they are dead. 
 That is a lie; they are living every one of them
 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 25 
 
 living in me and in you. Not yet, perhaps they are 
 sleeping, but by-and-bye you will hear them whispering 
 in your ear ; you will feel them pulling at your heart. 
 Look, the master has already painted you," and he 
 pointed to the portrait of the page, " the same eyes and 
 lips and forehead ; you have already taken your place 
 among your ancestors. Perhaps a man's soul comes back 
 and lives again in the body of his descendants ; if so, 'tis 
 a good omen, and you should thank God. That was a 
 good man, a happy, brave, and fortunate man, John Cas- 
 silis, Governor of the Virginias. I could show you your 
 father's face, painted a hundred years before he was born 
 and mine. I had finished my life before I began to 
 live at all. But I will join them presently, and then " 
 
 He turned away and left me abruptly, and I stood 
 there lost in amazement. But though at that time I did 
 not understand all that he said, nor, indeed, till long 
 afterward when his meaning became clearer, there was 
 part of his language that I was able to follow. From 
 that time the thoughtful face of the youth became like 
 the face of a friend, or rather, like the presentment of 
 my better self, and I searched industriously among the 
 records in the Book Room for memorials of that honour- 
 able and fortunate personage. I think that happy re- 
 semblance was not without its effect upon myself. It 
 opened up an avenue of hope and light among these 
 shadowy paths in which I had begun to travel, and 
 though I dwelt upon my lord's words till I had them by 
 heart, they rather encouraged than depressed me. 
 
 I kept my own counsel regarding this strange inter- 
 view, and though Osborne questioned me in his indirect
 
 26 HERONFORD 
 
 and ambiguous manner, I answered him with that dis- 
 cretion and, perhaps, evasiveness that I had early learned. 
 But from this time forward my lord noticed me with in- 
 creasing friendliness, and more than once had me to dine 
 with him in the great hall, where we sat in chilling and 
 depressing state. On such occasions he never spoke a 
 word, but neither did he relax in that kindliness with 
 which he henceforward treated me. He not unfre- 
 quently broke out in abuse of the servants, but his anger 
 never vented itself upon me, and though I still held him 
 in the same awe, my fear was in a great degree abated. 
 
 There was no change in the life we led. The soli- 
 tude of Heronford remained unbroken, and my lord 
 ceased altogether to have any communication with the 
 world beyond his own estate. Besides his own servants 
 the only person he ever saw was the Vicar, and him he 
 regarded with good-natured contempt and only as a boon 
 companion. Perhaps once or twice in the week Mr. 
 Ballard was carried from the Hall to the Vicarage in a 
 pitiable condition, my lord, who had drank glass for 
 glass with him, lighting him to the door, and walking as 
 steadily as though he had not tasted a drop. But as 
 time went on this happened less frequently, for it was 
 evident to everyone that my lord was failing fast, and 
 age was making rapid inroads upon the vast fund of 
 health and vigour he had formerly enjoyed. 
 
 These signs of decay, however, never touched the 
 strength of his mind or his indomitable spirit. Even 
 when he was able to cross the hall only with the aid of 
 a stick, and his head and hands both shook with that 
 senile tremor that speaks so eloquently of change, the
 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 27 
 
 fibre of his understanding had not relaxed, his memory 
 had not weakened, nor the fire of his temper, so swift 
 and flashing, abated in the least degree. Osborne, in- 
 deed, was of opinion that the end was at hand, but for a 
 reason of his own. My lord had begun to read though 
 it seemed to me fitfully and always with impatience a 
 manual of devotion which he now carried continually 
 under his arm, but from what cause or for what reason 
 no one ever knew. It had certainly no effect upon his 
 conduct or the wild intemperance of his language, and 
 I am sure Osborne welcomed such outbursts as a sign 
 that his master had still some years to live. 
 
 But the end came, and that in a way as appalling and 
 terrible as it was sudden and unexpected, though, per- 
 haps, it formed a fitting conclusion to a life so wayward 
 and tempestuous. I was then about fourteen years of 
 age, a period when events leave a deep impression upon 
 the mind, and there is nothing that stands out so clearly 
 in my memory as the events of the fortnight preceding 
 Lord Heronford's decease. In a moment you will, per- 
 haps, understand why that should be the case, and though 
 you may hardly credit the story I am about to relate, yet 
 I set it down with sober and veracious faithfulness. I 
 can offer no explanation j I merely chronicle the events 
 as they occurred. 
 
 It was one of those rare evenings when my lord had 
 me to dine with him in the great hall. Throughout the 
 entire meal he had not spoken a word nor had I ventured 
 to address him, a thing I seldom did. I saw nothing 
 unusual in his appearance; there was certainly nothing 
 observable in his manner beyond the common. We had
 
 28 HERONFORD 
 
 not quite finished when suddenly he laid down his wine- 
 glass and sat for some time, his eyes fixed and bright, 
 and his head turned a little aside as though listening. 
 Then he moved in his chair 
 
 " Osborne John Osborne." 
 
 " My lord ? " 
 
 " What day of the week is this ? " 
 
 " Friday, my lord." 
 
 " And what day of the month ? " 
 
 "The 2 1 st September." 
 
 " Ah ! very well. This day fortnight remember, 
 this day fortnight I shall be in Hades." 
 
 Only he used a stronger word. 
 
 I sat and gazed at him in speechless astonishment, and 
 the servants who had distinctly heard his words did not 
 dare to move where they stood. He intended no jest ; 
 he meant every word he said. I think he was pleased at 
 our consternation, but he only wiped his lips with his 
 napkin, and folded his hands before him. It was merely 
 my fancy, but it seemed to me as I looked at him that he 
 was already dead, and that the lips which were speaking 
 were no longer living lips. For I was now quivering 
 with horror ; I could almost have cried out in my fear. 
 At any time such words were sufficiently terrible, but 
 the tone in which they were spoken, and the look which 
 accompanied them, intensified their effect a thousandfold. 
 
 Osborne tottered to the table and leaned against it for 
 support, his face blanched and his hands trembling. 
 
 " My lord my dear lord " he cried. 
 
 " Do not be a fool, sirrah. Every man must die 
 sometime I as well as the rest. A little sooner or 

 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 29 
 
 later what matter ? I had as lief die as live. Osborne, 
 listen to me, you dolt." 
 
 Oh ! my lord." 
 
 "This day fortnight. Did I ever break my word, 
 blockhead ? John Cassilis can keep his tryst with death 
 as well as with the puppets who march at his bidding. 
 It is not every man who sees his own obsequies. I must 
 prepare for mine." 
 
 At this I thought, perhaps, he only jested in his own 
 peculiar way, but I was very much mistaken. If it was 
 a jest it was carried out with a humour such as I hope 
 never again to witness. 
 
 At the beginning of the week a great oak coffin very 
 richly mounted was brought into the hall, and placed 
 upon a table in the centre of the chamber. Upon the 
 silver shield that was fastened on the lid some words 
 were engraved that at first I had not the courage to read. 
 But stealing into the room in the afternoon when there 
 was no one present I satisfied myself upon the point, and 
 crept away possessed by such feelings as you can imagine. 
 These were the words that I read 
 
 JOHN CASSILIS, 
 I2TH BARON HERONFORD, 
 BORN JULY I3TH, IJ - , 
 
 DIED OCTOBER fTH, 1 7 - . 
 
 During the entire week these words kept a sort of 
 rhythmic dance in my head, and never left my mind for 
 a moment. Death seemed to have already entered the 
 house, and the domestics moved about with the noiseless 
 feet of those who seem fearful to awaken one sleeping
 
 3 o HERONFORD 
 
 his last sleep in the same house. But my lord was alto- 
 gether unchanged, and in no respect departed from his 
 daily routine. He even dined as usual in the hall with 
 that awful memento of mortality before his eyes, and 
 walked past it as he went to his room with the same un- 
 moved countenance. From the evening when he first 
 made the announcement till the fatal Friday he did not 
 again revert to the subject, or allude to it in the most 
 distant way. Perhaps he was a little less restless and 
 spoke with less insistence than was his custom, but there 
 was no other change, and that hardly perceptible. 
 
 Upon the Friday night, however, for the first time I 
 observed that an alteration had taken place in him. There 
 was a cheerfulness and alacrity in his demeanour such as 
 I had not noticed for a long time a gaiety and almost a 
 softness which were quite foreign to his character. Nor 
 did he speak in that high tone which he always used, but 
 in a low and level voice, which seemed quite strange to 
 me when I heard it. For the first time also in my life 
 he spoke to me with a show of affection, and I thought 
 more than once he was about to impose some confidence 
 regarding matters of a personal nature. But on each oc- 
 casion he changed the subject, and finally dismissed me 
 with both his hands resting upon my shoulders. 
 
 I had returned to my own room, and was sitting con- 
 sidering what would happen when Osborne, who was 
 quite distracted with grief and terror, came to tell me 
 that I was wanted. I did not delay a moment, but put- 
 ting on my shoes which I had removed I went down 
 with him into the hall, where I found all the household 
 servants assembled.
 
 JOHN, LORD HERONFORD 31 
 
 My lord was standing at the door of the dining-hall 
 with a book in one hand and a candle in the other. As 
 soon as we came down he motioned to Osborne to come 
 to him, and handed him the candle. Then with his 
 hand resting on the shoulder of his trembling servant he 
 turned and walked slowly up the great hall, the servants 
 and myself following behind. As he advanced he began 
 to read in a steady, unbroken voice, and so soon as I 
 heard the first words I knew to what I was about to 
 listen 
 
 " I am the Resurrection and the Life " 
 
 It was the burial service, and surely never since those 
 beautiful words were written did they form part of a 
 ceremony so tragic and terrible. Lord Heronford turned 
 at the foot of the table, and till he had finished the con- 
 cluding " Amen " an awful silence filled the room and 
 oppressed our hearts. It was ghastly beyond description, 
 and as we rose from our knees there was no face in the 
 room but that of my lord that was not stamped with a 
 panic fear. It seems to me wonderful now that no one 
 ventured to say a word or to protest against a ceremony 
 so unnatural and appalling, but my lord's influence was 
 such that, even at this time, no one dared to oppose his 
 will. The domestics cowered together like a flock of 
 sheep, and I was no bolder than the rest. 
 
 When he had finished we found ourselves at the door 
 almost without knowing how, and my lord bowing in his 
 stately manner as though we had been his equals. 
 
 " Good-night, my friends. I am tired and have to 
 make a long journey. You need not call me early, 
 Osborne."
 
 3 2 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 With that he closed the door and we heard the great 
 bolt shot behind us. I cannot now remember how we 
 passed the night, for it is only a confused dream, but I 
 very well remember how the door was forced open in 
 the morning. We found my lord seated quite upright in 
 his chair, his hands resting upon its arms, and a serene, 
 almost a triumphant, look on his face. But he had fin- 
 ished his long journey, and it was in this way that John 
 Cassilis, twelfth Lord Heronford, went to his own place.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 
 
 MR. WILLIAM CASSILIS was the only member of Lord 
 Heronford's family who was present at his funeral. He 
 had been in the neighbourhood indeed, I might almost 
 say in the house when my lord died. In any case he 
 appeared on the morning following, his face swollen and 
 flushed, his eyes red and his hands trembling like one 
 just emerging from a prolonged debauch ; and at once, 
 and with a great show of authority, took the direction of 
 everything into his own hands, and prepared to celebrate 
 his father's funeral in the manner that seemed to him 
 most fitting. Certainly death is the soundest of all sleeps 
 or my lord had arisen in anger and indignation from the 
 oak coffin in which he was lying, and had driven the in- 
 truder from his house. The wine and ale were flowing 
 all day long ; the tables were spread continually as though 
 the occasion was a festival ; the doors were thrown open, 
 and all the world of idlers, topers, and jockeys flocked 
 like hungry birds to the good cheer. 
 
 Mr. Will did not, indeed, show himself much in pub- 
 lic but sat in his late father's room, surrounded by a 
 select crowd of boon companions, drinking early and 
 late, and playing at cards without intermission. You 
 cannot imagine a greater change than that which took 
 place in the short space of four-and-twenty hours. 
 Formerly we had spoken only in whispers, and silence 
 
 33
 
 34 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 had filled the darkened rooms and corridors ; now the 
 chambers were brilliantly lighted, the doors were swing- 
 ing continually, and the sound of tipsy laughter sounded 
 like mockery as indeed it was in the ears of death. 
 
 It is true that I had not loved my lord during his life, 
 but it was natural that I should feel some grief at the 
 death of the only protector I had ever known, and I 
 remained alone in my own room, more lonely than I had 
 ever known myself, a prey to my grief, and filled with 
 an unmeasured indignation which I could not put into 
 words. No one troubled himself regarding me j I re- 
 mained forgotten and unnoticed, and I shrank with a 
 peculiar sensitiveness from the crowd that filled the 
 rooms and passages. I was not present at my lord's 
 funeral, nor did I witness the closing scene, though I 
 would willingly have done so. 
 
 On the afternoon of the following Monday I saw 
 through the early snow that was falling in large infre- 
 quent flakes the coffin being borne down the drive to- 
 ward Heronford Church and Mr. Will following some 
 dozen paces behind, wrapped to the chin in his horse- 
 man's cloak and walking very unsteadily. Then there 
 came a great crowd of hangers-on and dependants, who 
 displayed gaiety rather than grief, but there were none 
 of the old lord's acquaintances or equals present, and the 
 procession was rather a comedy than the closing scene 
 of another human tragedy. Perhaps the lonely youth 
 looking from the window, and remembering the last 
 kindly words and the affectionate pressure of the old 
 hands upon his shoulders, dropped some regretful tears, 
 but for all that, it remains to be said that John Cassilis
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 35 
 
 went to his grave unloved and unmourned, and followed 
 by the laughter and jests of the crowd he hated and de- 
 spised. 
 
 It was not to be hoped that there would be any change 
 in the new order after the funeral, for Will Cassilis 
 found his temporary authority too pleasant to relinquish 
 almost at the moment of his taking it up. After all his 
 years of the lean kine he had now, at least for a brief 
 period, an uncontrolled opportunity to gratify his vicious 
 tastes in his own manner. I do not know whether Her- 
 onford had ever seen anything like his reign before, but 
 I am sure it will never forget that brief tempestuous des- 
 potism. Comus and his revellers filled the house with 
 the sound of their swinish merriment, and turned the 
 night into day with a thousand excesses which I am un- 
 willing to describe, as I was pained and shocked to wit- 
 ness them. A few of the old servants still remained, 
 astonished and bewildered by the new order, and among 
 them my lord's faithful servant Osborne, who had almost 
 seemed to himself and to me as much a part of Heronford 
 as the grey stone lions at the main door. I think Mr. Will 
 was afraid to meddle with him, though he did not spare 
 his old legs, and cracked his jokes upon him in his 
 clownish, insolent way till the old man found himself 
 seeking my company, whom he had always coldly 
 avoided, with his eyes streaming and his heart well-nigh 
 broken. He needed some confidant into whose ears he 
 might pour the story of his wrongs ; there was at least 
 repose and quiet in the little chamber at the head of the 
 staircase, and sympathy in the eyes of its occupant. 
 
 " Listen to them," he would say. " I found that run-
 
 36 HERONFORD 
 
 agate, Dick Scattergood, sitting in my lord's chair and 
 drinking his favourite tokay out of a tankard as if it had 
 been common ale. And that painted Jezebel wanted me 
 to dance with her, who have been in the house man and 
 boy for fifty years ! And my lord hardly cold yet ! Oh, 
 he can never rest through these wild doings ! They are 
 bringing down the judgment, and some night soon they 
 will have my lord coming into them fresh from the 
 churchyard and all the old Heronfords behind him. 
 They were always a proud, stiff-necked race, alive and 
 dead, and my dead lord won't stand the Hall being 
 turned into a tavern." 
 
 I am certain he believed this and looked confidently 
 for some supernatural visitation as the result of Mr. 
 Will's riotous and vicious conduct. 
 
 As yet the latter and myself had never met, and I need 
 scarcely say I shrank from the thought of such an en- 
 counter. That he must have known very well of my 
 presence in the house there could be little doubt, but it 
 is likely that more pleasant and congenial occupations 
 prevented him for the time from disturbing my solitude. 
 I can write of him now without bitterness, but at that 
 time I endured the agony of a shy and sensitive lad when 
 I heard his voice at a distance, and trembled when I 
 heard a footstep on the stair. I must confess also that I 
 shared Osborne's superstitious fears, for these had grown 
 with me as a part of my life, and I watched for the tall 
 figure and listened for the heavy step, as though the old 
 lord were returning from a journey, long after the lights 
 had gone out and silence had closed on the sacrilegious 
 merriment.
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 37 
 
 One forenoon, thinking that I was not likely to be dis- 
 turbed, I had stolen to the Book Room, almost the first 
 time that I had ventured thither since my lord's death. 
 Having gathered those volumes that I intended to carry 
 with me to my own chamber, I stood looking down upon 
 the deserted pleasance lost in the contemplation of that 
 dreary winter scene. I must have stood there for some 
 time when the door flew open and Will Cassilis came 
 noisily in, his riding-whip in his hand, and his face, nat- 
 urally red, more deeply flushed with his exercise. For a 
 moment he seemed surprised to find me here, and then 
 burst into a loud, unpleasant laugh that seemed to come 
 in part from ill-nature and in part from amusement. 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! " he cried, " I have smoked out the young 
 fox at last. The whelp ran very shy of me. This is 
 your lair, then ? " 
 
 I made no answer but stood looking at him almost in 
 consternation. Even though it was still early in the day 
 he had already made his libations to Bacchus, but as I 
 looked at him I could plainly see a change coming over 
 his countenance, only to be compared with that of a man 
 who suddenly and unexpectedly meets a well-known face 
 in a crowd. 
 
 " By 'tis true as the gospel. Is it Dick or ? " 
 
 Then he stopped and looked at me curiously, but the 
 smile had now gone from his lips. 
 
 " Do you know who I am, my young Jesuit ? " 
 
 I answered that I knew him to be Mr. William Cassilis. 
 
 " As you will learn some day 'tis a wise son knows his 
 own father, but 'tis like enough we are twigs of the same 
 tree. I have heard a whisper of this before, and upon
 
 38 HERONFORD 
 
 my soul I believe it now. You are growing too old for 
 Heronford." 
 
 I answered that I had been there all my life, thinking 
 at the time that drink made a man talk curiously. 
 
 "Then you never have heard much good of me, I 
 will take my oath." 
 
 I said I had never heard anything about him, good or 
 bad, and at that he laughed and shook his head with a 
 knowing look. 
 
 " Ay, ay, he rode a high horse, and it carried him to 
 the last fence. Dick favours him at odd times, and has 
 the same cursed trick of temper, but he can't stay. I was 
 always a jolly fellow and loved a jolly fellow. Dick won't 
 have you in the house; you are too cursedly like the 
 family portraits for that ; he won't stand them sitting 
 down at the table with him, especially when they come 
 in on the wrong side, d'ye understand ? You will have 
 to march. For me I don't mind not a damn. I like 
 my friends about me the more the better cheer. But 
 Dick is master here. Lord ! I can see his face when he 
 hears how I have warmed the house for him. We must 
 both make the most of our time, lad. When the piper 
 has changed the tune it will be time enough for us to 
 change our dancing." 
 
 Though upon the whole the interview was not of that 
 unpleasant nature that I had feared and anticipated it 
 caused me a good deal of disquietude, and I began to look 
 forward to the coming of the new lord with a certain 
 anxious foreboding. That Will Cassilis was in his own 
 way afraid of his brother I could very well see, and what 
 hope was there, I thought, for one quite unknown and
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 39 
 
 friendless like myself, in the house of one upon whom I 
 could have no claim and who could only regard me as an 
 intruder, or at the most a claimant upon his charity. That 
 the late Lord Heronford had some personal reason for his 
 kindness I had now come to think, though in a vague 
 way ; and if, as youth is prone to do, I indulged in any 
 dreams regarding my birth, they were sure to end in a 
 blush of shame and a feeling of humbled pride. I was 
 sure that in some way I was connected with my late lord's 
 family, though such association brought me no advantage 
 and conferred no honour. Rather it was a thing, if pos- 
 sible, to be concealed, and this thought added to the soli- 
 tude and isolation in which I was placed. 
 
 Will Cassilis did not again intrude upon me ; it is quite 
 possible that he forgot my very existence. He certainly 
 made the most of his brief hour of power and enjoyed 
 himself to the fullest while his sun shone. But that 
 suffered from an early eclipse, and so suddenly that his 
 day ended in the midst of his festivity. 
 
 Perhaps I was the only one who saw the chaise and 
 pair of horses being driven up the avenue, and a tall gen- 
 tleman clad from head to foot in black leisurely descend- 
 ing, standing to give instructions to his single servant, 
 and walking to the door with an air which was strangely 
 familiar to me. I knew in a moment that the new master 
 of Heronford had arrived, and those fears which Will 
 Cassilis had awakened were by no means allayed as I 
 watched the stern dark figure walking slowly to the door. 
 I knew that he was lately a widower, but I had expected 
 to find him younger. He seemed to me to be already an 
 old man, and I could see that his hair was almost grey.
 
 40 HERONFORD 
 
 He was as tall as the late lord and bore himself with the 
 same erectness. 
 
 I do not know what occurred upon his arrival, but 
 whatever happened, his action must have been prompt 
 and decisive. In a quarter of an hour Mr. Will's boon 
 companions, with many oaths I have no doubt, were 
 seeking other quarters, and with as great haste as they 
 had ever shewed in their lives j the cards and song-books 
 were thrown into the fire, and the litter of glass which had 
 been permitted to accumulate in the hall was swept into 
 the dust-heap. In a shorter time than I can tell you 
 every trace of the late saturnalia was carefully removed. 
 What passed between the two brothers will never be 
 known, but for some time Mr. Will treated the new lord 
 with a deference which showed that he had learned where 
 his interest lay. Indeed, as you will see, no two men 
 were ever more different, and if Mr. Will usually got his 
 own way it was because his brother was too indolent or 
 careless to interfere. 
 
 My farthest hope was that I myself might escape ob- 
 servation, and I was certainly very far from expecting 
 what eventually occurred. I never dreamt for a moment 
 that I could have any interest for my lord, or that upon 
 the very day of his arrival we should be placed upon that 
 footing upon which we stood till the day of his death. I 
 believe that Mr. Will in their first altercation had referred 
 in plain terms to my presence in the house, and that my 
 lord had immediately silenced him with a threat which the 
 latter had no desire should be put into execution. In 
 any case my lord was perfectly aware of my presence in 
 the house and the position I had occupied in his father's
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 41 
 
 time. Indeed, I found that he knew more than this, but 
 of that I shall write later. 
 
 It was some way on in the evening when my lord paid 
 me his first visit. I had lighted my little lamp and was 
 seated before my books far away in a sunny dreamland, 
 solitary no longer nor touching earth at all. But I heard 
 my lord's hand upon the door, and as he came in I rose 
 up, making a respectful bow and closing my book. He 
 looked quite pale and worn, and his eyes had a weary and 
 melancholy look, but were full of kindliness. Indeed, 
 with the quick instinct of a child, I had no sooner seen 
 his face than I felt that I had found a friend, and the 
 fear that had tightened about my heart relaxed in a mo- 
 ment. Without speaking he took a chair near me, and 
 folding his hands upon the table the very attitude that 
 was customary with his father he looked at me out of 
 his kind, weary eyes. 
 
 Then he spoke in his low, pleasant voice. 
 
 " I am the new Lord Heronford. What is your name, 
 my boy ? " 
 
 "I am called John Cassilis, but " I hesitated. 
 
 " Ah ! " 
 
 " I do not know that I have any right to that name, 
 my lord," I said, flushing hotly and with a sudden cour- 
 age. 
 
 "Who said you had no right to be called by that 
 name ? " he said sharply. 
 
 " I have only thought that," I answered, hanging down 
 my head. " I do not know." 
 
 " There are things of more importance than a man's 
 name," he said slowly, " but a good name is not to be
 
 42 HERONFORD 
 
 despised. You need not blush for your name; but there 
 are reasons remember there are good reasons why you 
 should not know more than that. Some day you will 
 know but not yet. Do not think it matters much. I am 
 not a good man, but I am your friend." 
 
 He held out his hand to me across the table, and I 
 placed mine in his hot palm. 
 
 " I have never had a friend," I said. " I am glad your 
 lordship will be my friend." 
 
 " Your eyes are like your mother's ! I knew your 
 mother, my child." 
 
 Here was a new bond between us, for that name (alas ! 
 it was only a name and not even a memory) always 
 touched my heart like a note of sweet music. 
 
 " I should like to hear something about my mother," I 
 said, looking up at him with a sudden appeal, but he 
 seemed to shrink at my words, and let my hand fall 
 which he had continued to hold. 
 
 " It was a long time ago almost before you were born 
 and she was only a girl, a beautiful girl, with the finest 
 spirit, and the sweetest, strongest heart. It is strange 
 that you and I should sit talking about her here, and that 
 to-morrow, perhaps, we should visit her grave together. 
 And I knew your father " he paused and then went on 
 with a sudden change in his voice " but of him you 
 must never speak." 
 
 " Why, my lord ? " I cried impulsively. 
 
 " Because he broke the best, the truest, and most faith- 
 ful heart in the world ; because he broke every law of 
 God and man, and because he is dead and buried. The 
 world never knew. She was an angel of God."
 
 I FIND A NEW FRIEND 43 
 
 There was a long pause ; I could see that he was deeply 
 moved. 
 
 " The world thought your father a splendid gentleman, 
 John, but it never saw his heart. Even the wife who 
 slept in his bosom, and who came to hate him before she 
 died, never knew his suffering. He came to be a very 
 old man before before he died." 
 
 " Dead ! " I said, with a feeling of relief. 
 
 " Dead yes, dead, soul and spirit, mind and body, 
 dead and buried. We need not weep for your father." 
 
 " I am glad that he is dead," I said firmly. 
 
 " He was not a good man," said my lord gravely, " but 
 he has had his reward and his works have followed him. 
 We must be friends if only for your mother's sake." 
 
 There was something in his voice and manner that 
 affected me exceedingly. Altogether unaccustomed to the 
 language of tenderness, I caught hold of his hand and 
 kissed it passionately. He did not at first prevent me, but 
 then he slowly withdrew it and placed it upon my head.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 
 
 IT was not long before the domestic life of Heronford 
 began to flow in that quiet and monotonous stream which 
 continued undisturbed and unruffled for some years. 
 Madam Cassilis had arrived from London and had taken 
 up the government of her brother's house with that high 
 hand and imperious will which distinguished her beyond 
 most women, and had it been possible for any living being 
 to move my lord she at least might have accomplished it. 
 But we were not long in discovering that my lord, with 
 all his quiet ways and air of settled melancholy, having 
 once made up his mind, was not to be moved by any in- 
 fluence or argument, and presented on all sides a passive 
 resistance, which was inexpugnable. From the first he 
 refused to see any company, and every attempt that was 
 made to overcome that resolution was met by a quiet 
 smile more eloquent than the strongest negation. 
 
 " I have seen too much of the world," he would say, 
 " and have grown in love with solitude. I have had my 
 time and must now pay for it; I cannot be tempted. 
 Will has his friends, choice spirits, noble wits who flour- 
 ish in the alehouse, and is esteemed a fine companion, but 
 I I am too much in love with myself, Judith, to spend 
 my time upon others." 
 
 In this way it came about that Heronford was almost 
 as solitary as it had been in the late lord's time, and the 
 neighbouring gentry, who had hoped to find a change, 
 
 44
 
 IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 45 
 
 were not long in discovering that they were unwelcome 
 visitors, and soon altogether ceased to trouble us. Mr. 
 Will entertained his friends abroad, and usually returned 
 home late at night from the " Heronford Arms," very 
 unsteady on his legs and inarticulate in his speech, to 
 sleep off his debauch in his own room. He had come 
 to regard me with suspicion and dislike, and watched my 
 lord's increasing familiarity and friendship with a jealousy 
 which, never openly manifested, showed itself in a thou- 
 sand trivial ways. 
 
 I found that my lord's first proffer and promise of 
 friendship was not a mere idle form of speech, but that 
 his first kindness grew and ripened into affection and 
 tenderness. This was never shown in public, for then 
 he displayed toward me some reserve and coldness, but 
 in the privacy of his own room his real nature opened 
 and expanded. I say his real nature, though I should not 
 err if I were to write his better nature, for indeed my 
 lord seemed as various as the chameleon and the creature 
 of as many whims and changes. At all periods solitary 
 and reserved, there were times when he would not utter 
 a word for days together, but sat in black and settled 
 gloom, the victim of I know not what dark and despond- 
 ent thoughts. But when this mood passed, which it did 
 as suddenly and unexpectedly as it had come, his speech 
 was full of a cynical yet kindly humour at once removed 
 from gaiety and levity. 
 
 There are men like my lord who see in life only the 
 play tragedy and comedy of marionettes ; they see the 
 wooden figures and the cunning strings that move them ; 
 they are familiar with the oft-repeated story, yet all the
 
 46 HERONFORD 
 
 time they are touched to kindly yet distant sympathy by 
 the good-humoured laughter and the wonder, admiration, 
 and pity of the open-mouthed spectators. 
 
 This was my lord's attitude in his lighter moments, 
 but indeed it was never quite possible to see the working 
 of his mind, for, as I have said, there never was any man 
 more reserved and less used to give expression to his 
 feelings and sentiments. Of his own past he never 
 spoke by any chance ; even the friends and acquaintances 
 he had left behind him in the great world he had quitted 
 he never once mentioned. Whether he had suffered an 
 injury or inflicted one I did not know, but I was sure 
 my lord shrank in pain from the recollection of his past 
 life, and would willingly have forgotten it in the employ- 
 ments of the present. 
 
 I came to be admitted at all times into his presence, 
 and very soon learned the nature of his moods and the 
 manner in which to treat him. I found that he soon 
 discovered this, and would call me with a smile his little 
 confessor, though I had no other feeling than that of 
 affectionate regard. Indeed, I came very early to love 
 my lord almost as a son loves his father. I am sure it 
 pleased him to see my young affection, and he took pains 
 to cultivate it. He would suffer no one to come be- 
 tween us, and when Madam Cassilis in her masculine 
 way would have had me sent into the world, as she said, 
 to become a man, he answered with his quiet smile that 
 she, at least, might teach me that but not too roughly. 
 I had long since sounded the depths of Mr. Ballard's 
 learning, and had taught him to fear me more as a pupil 
 than I had ever reverenced him as a master,
 
 IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 47 
 
 It was now that my lord himself took up the direction 
 of my studies, and we spent many pleasant evenings to- 
 gether in my old playground, the Book Room. It was 
 now that he first named me his young secretary a title 
 which he bestowed upon me in jest, but it was not very 
 long before I came to fill that position in earnest, and 
 was soon initiated into the management of the estate, the 
 affairs of which had become complicated almost beyond 
 unravelling. My lord was pleased to say that I had a 
 good head for business he himself could never under- 
 stand figures but at least I was willing to be useful to 
 my patron, and I think the efforts I made were not with- 
 out some success. His deceased wife's fortune had 
 either been dissipated or had proved to be merely vi- 
 sionary I could never rightly tell which and the late 
 lord, with all his desire to save in trifles, had allowed his 
 larger interests to remain completely neglected. With 
 all, my Lord Heronford was a poor man and had never 
 a large supply of ready money, though sufficient for his 
 limited expenditure. I knew that these things never 
 troubled him, and he met my fears with the same easy 
 smile with which he would have met his final ruin. 
 
 No brother was certainly ever more generous, and 
 while himself practising the most modest economy Mr. 
 Will had always enough, perhaps a superfluity, to indulge 
 those tastes and habits which distinguished him. As a 
 patron of the prize ring and a frequenter of racecourses 
 he was not unfrequently absent from home, an absence 
 that no one regretted, for at Heronford the pigeon and 
 the dupe became merely the bully and the sot. There 
 never was a greater contrast than that presented by these
 
 48 HERONFORD 
 
 two brothers, who hardly seemed to be sons of the same 
 house the one boisterous, rough, and unlettered, the 
 other of the most easy manner and most perfect courtesy ; 
 the one eager in the pursuit of his desires, the other ap- 
 parently regardless of all the pleasures of the world, and 
 having no outlook beyond the dull circuit of his daily life. 
 
 So long as his own privacy was undisturbed he gave 
 Mr. Will his own way and liberally provided him with 
 means. One thing, however, he would not tolerate, his 
 brother's friends and companions found no footing at 
 Heronford, and the one occasion on which I saw him 
 moved to anger was on his finding Mr. Weston of 
 Langston, had been brought to supper at the Hall. I 
 own that I was astonished at the vehemence of my lord's 
 lauguage, and I think his brother was nearly as much 
 surprised as myself. 
 
 Though his guest was not very sober he had treated 
 him with a chilling courtesy throughout the meal, and 
 upon its conclusion, but with perfect politeness, had in- 
 formed him that his horse was at the door, and they were 
 accustomed to keep early hours. 
 
 " We do not see many strangers," he had said, " and 
 are, perhaps, the more anxious for their safety. The 
 roads are dangerous, and there is a fine moon. I have 
 no doubt that you will forgive me that I do not press 
 you to stay with us longer, but it is now past our usual 
 hour and I am sure you are anxious to be upon your 
 road." 
 
 Mr. Weston, who had settled himself down for a long 
 night, and who had been hoping, I have no doubt, that 
 Lord Heronford himself was about to retire, had risen up
 
 IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 49 
 
 astonished, but did not dare to question his dismissal, and 
 left his unfinished bottle with no very good grace. It 
 was only when he had gone, and we heard the clattering 
 hoofs ringing on the gravel, that my lord gave expression 
 to the feeling he had repressed while his unwelcome 
 guest was present. 
 
 " Perhaps," he said, " you are sober enough to listen 
 to me. If you are not I shall wait till the morning, for 
 I will never speak again. I have given you a home here; 
 I have fed and clothed you ; I have given you means to 
 live your swinish life ; I have indulged you almost out 
 of my poverty ; I know you give me no thanks ; I ex- 
 pect no gratitude. You think I am only a fool for my 
 kindness. Do not mistake me, sir, or rather, do not 
 mistake me twice. This is my house ; this is my table ; 
 there is no will here but mine. Take your boon com- 
 panions to the tavern ; drink with them in the bagnio or 
 the booth ; play the fool as you please in your own 
 haunts, but before heaven, if you ever intrude one of 
 them upon me again you have crossed my threshold for 
 the last time." 
 
 He stood with his eyes flashing, and though he hardly 
 spoke beyond his quiet tone there was something in his 
 manner I can hardly describe it that his brother cow- 
 ered before as though he had been struck. 
 
 This happened nearly five years before those events 
 occurred of which I purpose to write more fully, but 
 from that time Will Cassilis took care never to transgress 
 in the same way. Mr. Weston, indeed, gave his own 
 version of the story, a version very far from correct, for 
 I was present and saw what occurred, but he would have
 
 5 o HERONFORD 
 
 ridden a long distance before he would again have stalled 
 his horse in my lord's stable or ventured to sit down at 
 his table. 
 
 It was, perhaps, a curious thing but Madam Cassilis 
 generally took her younger brother's part, though in her 
 high proud way she herself did not spare him, but she 
 never understood my lord. It may be their nature was 
 too nearly allied for perfect agreement, but between the 
 two there never was the least sympathy or confidence. 
 It is possible that a spoiled beauty may make a good 
 wife, but it is certain that she never makes a sweet old 
 maid, nor was Madam Cassilis any exception to this rule. 
 The intercourse between my lord and herself was like 
 the friendly play of a pair of foils that brighten one an- 
 other by the contract a game of thrust and parry in 
 which her womanly quickness gave her all the advantage. 
 And certainly if my lord did not openly exhibit that 
 family pride which was yet the strongest passion in his 
 heart, his sister asserted her position with a cold arro- 
 gance it is impossible to describe. Myself she always 
 treated as a mere servant and dependant, though not un- 
 kindly, and this more especially in her brother's pres- 
 ence, when she met his eye with a look of defiant in- 
 quiry to which he never made any answer. I had grown 
 so used to my position that such treatment had ceased to 
 pain me, but my lord never failed on such occasions to 
 atone for her asperity by his own increased friendliness 
 and affection. I had come to think that he felt for me 
 more than I felt myself, and perhaps I was not far 
 wrong in this ; in any case no man ever had a kinder 
 friend, a more patient teacher, a more generous protector.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 
 
 THE events which I am about to relate seem naturally 
 to begin with the coming of Mr. Earnshaw to Heron- 
 ford. Before that time there is little to chronicle ; our 
 uneventful daily life presented no feature of interest ; 
 time slipped past, leaving no memorial to mark its flight, 
 yet preparing us imperceptibly for those tragic scenes 
 which brought sorrow to the house I loved. But with 
 Mr. Earnshaw's arrival a new element was introduced 
 into our dull and uniform existence. He seemed to 
 have brought with him a new atmosphere, a new spirit. 
 We had grown grey with lethargy and melancholy, but 
 at once he introduced into our quiet household the 
 gaiety, bustle, and activity of the great world, the inim- 
 itable touch of youth, the breath of merriment. We had 
 lived isolated and apart from the world ; we now seemed 
 to hear its joyous laughter and to touch it with our 
 hands. I could not have believed after so many years of 
 solitude and seclusion any one could have moved my 
 lord from his settled life, but with the coming of his 
 guest he seemed to have caught the infection of his 
 gaiety, and to have awakened from his spiritual catalepsy. 
 
 I remember when Mr. Earnshaw had first proposed to 
 visit his kinsman, being then in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, my lord opposed the idea very strenuously, 
 and only consented to receive him after considerable re- 
 
 5 1
 
 5 2 HERONFORD 
 
 sistance and upon express conditions. But almost im- 
 mediately on his arrival he was drawn from his reserve 
 and surrendered almost at the first challenge. It was like 
 the renewal of his own splendid and prosperous days 
 his guest brought with him the laughter and bon-mots of 
 the wits, the news of Almacks', the gossip of the Court. 
 His courteous indifference was first quickened into curi- 
 osity, and that, finally, into a fresh and vivid interest. 
 Mr. Earnshaw, I could observe, exercised all his arts, and 
 I was pleased to see my lord drawn from his moody self- 
 seclusion. But this visit, which at the outset was to 
 have lasted four days, lengthened into a fortnight, and 
 finally the guest ceased to talk of his immediate depart- 
 ure. There could be no doubt my lord enjoyed his so- 
 ciety beyond anything I had known; they were very 
 equally matched in knowledge of the world, and each 
 capped the other's story without pause. 
 
 To hear them talk was to myself the introduction to a 
 new world. At first my lord would retire after dinner, 
 as he had been in the habit of doing, but in a short time 
 they got into the habit of sitting over their wine, and 
 afterwards of taking a hand at cards, when I was seldom 
 present. How these came to be first introduced I do 
 not know, but the fascination they had always exercised 
 over Lord Heronford appeared to revive, though he 
 would not admit so much to himself. It was very like 
 him to trifle with this temptation. I have seen him sit- 
 ting out while his brother and Mr. Earnshaw were play- 
 ing, and toying with his book that he was pretending to 
 read. However, though he played frequently he lost no 
 large sums of money, though I do not think he won, and
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 53 
 
 the players were pretty equally matched. But Earnshaw 
 was a gentleman of very large means, and the stakes for 
 which they played appeared to me quite disproportionate 
 to my lord's limited fortune. 
 
 Upon a certain afternoon we had been dining with 
 more than our customary conviviality, Lord Heronford 
 being, in what for him were very high spirits. Mr. 
 Will and the Vicar, the only stranger who ever joined 
 the party, were, I remember, engaged in an animated dis- 
 cussion over the merits of a horse which the former had 
 sold the day before, and they both agreed with some 
 humour that there were surprises in store for the pur- 
 chaser. Mr. Earnshaw and my lord occasionally joined 
 in this conversation, but for the most part laughed and 
 chatted very pleasantly by themselves, relating certain rec- 
 ollections of the prize ring of which Lord Heronford had 
 been an enthusiastic patron. It was a matter of such 
 unusual occurrence to hear my lord refer to the past that 
 I listened with great attention to their talk, and thought 
 it a very good sign to see him so bright and cheerful. 
 
 Taking no part myself in the conversation I watched 
 him as he sat at the head of the table, and I said to my- 
 self, looking at his fine face, his pleasant smile, and the 
 pose of his noble head, that never was a man kinder and 
 handsomer than my dear master. On this occasion his 
 animation had brought a flush to his cheeks, and his eyes 
 were quite bright and sparkling. Mr. Earnshaw cer- 
 tainly had the happy knack of drawing him out, and I am 
 sure took some pleasure, as he felt some pride, in break- 
 ing down the barrier of reserve behind which he had 
 taken refuge.
 
 54 HERONFORD 
 
 Having upon this afternoon an errand of my own, and 
 seeing that the gentlemen were likely to sit a long time 
 over their wine, I slipped quietly and unobserved from 
 the table and ran to my own room. Then I went 
 through the little door into the south garden, and ran 
 down the walk toward the wicket that leads upon the cliffs. 
 
 I closed the gate behind me and walked rapidly along 
 the cliffs, the little book that I had gone for carried 
 under my arm. The sea that lay in almost a summer 
 calm had caught a hundred lights from the setting sun, 
 and broke in a long, plaintive murmur on the sands far 
 below me. From the top of the downs where the cliffs 
 broke I could see Carnforth and the captain's house, 
 with its red roof, high chimneys, and tangle of enclosed 
 garden ; and I thought once I could catch a glimpse of 
 a white figure among the walnut trees. It was not the 
 first time coming from Heronford that I had waved my 
 handkerchief as a signal here, and had caught the an- 
 swer from the distant garden, but this afternoon I looked 
 in vain for a response. 
 
 My way led down the broken cliffs, along the deep, 
 dry sands on which walking was not easy, and then upon 
 a stretch of short sea grass that ended with the little 
 river and a wooden bridge across it. Here, a hundred 
 paces away and backed by a little hill covered with firs 
 and poplars, was an old house set in the heart of a 
 garden that grew almost in wild and unrestrained luxuri- 
 ance. 'Tis hard to draw in words any picture of this 
 house, builded apparently upon no definite plan or de- 
 sign, with its offshoots of little gables and long red 
 chimneys ; its half a dozen separate roofs of different
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 55 
 
 heights ; its quaint porches leading through low-browed 
 doors, and its windows opened without any thought of 
 effect or appearance. A great hedge of copper beeches 
 higher than the height of a tall man ran all round the 
 garden, in the centre of which was a fine smooth lawn 
 and a sun-dial set upon a twisted column. By the door, 
 or rather by the main door, for there were several, were 
 two small ship's guns mounted upon painted carriages, 
 and in a little arbour on the left as you came up you 
 could see the figure-head of a noble vessel, all green and 
 gold and a shameless carmine on the cheeks the Saucy 
 dretbusa's self. 
 
 As I opened the gate there was an air of sleepy quiet 
 all about the place, but coming nearer the house I 
 heard a ripple of silver laughter, that, let me own it with 
 an open mind, brought a flush to my face. I went 
 round by the west side and then stopped short, thinking 
 I had never seen a prettier picture in my life. Upon 
 the path stood a slim figure in a white dress, a broad 
 hat set upon the shining curls, and a bit of colour, blue 
 what I do not know about the waist and bosom. 
 She was feeding the pigeons that fluttered about her feet 
 and flew in little broken circles round her, so absorbed 
 in her task that she did not notice my approach. But 
 when she heard my feet upon the gravel she looked up 
 with a demure smile, but never pausing, while I stood 
 bareheaded with my hat held in my hand. 
 
 " Sit down on the seat, Jack, under the laburnum. I 
 have a great deal to say to you this evening, but I must 
 give my pets their supper first." 
 
 I did as she bade me, and for some time sat watching
 
 56 HERONFORD 
 
 the pleasant picture that she made, till having shaken 
 the last grain out of the basket, she came over and sat 
 down upon the seat with me, though quite at the other 
 end. 
 
 She had taken off her hat, which she held by its silk 
 strings, swinging it slowly as she watched her favourites 
 white and blue and brown running, fluttering, jos- 
 tling in their eagerness. 
 
 Then she turned to me, who had been watching her 
 alone, with a mock defiance in her eyes and a tone of 
 simulated reproof in her voice. 
 
 " Now, sir." 
 
 " Now, Mistress Victory," I said, coming a little 
 nearer and trying to take her hand. " I am glad you 
 have so much to say to me." 
 
 " You have no reason to be glad. Do you know 
 what day this is ? " 
 
 " I am sure it is Friday," I said, smiling. 
 
 " That is five days since Monday. You must sit 
 where you are, Jack. It is five days since you sat be- 
 side me last, and that shows " 
 
 " It has seemed like twelve months, Victory." 
 
 " Jack ! " She held up her forefinger menacingly. 
 44 I have ceased to believe you, sir." 
 
 " Since when ? " I asked. 
 
 " Since I have come to know the world. And oh ! I 
 had so much to tell you." 
 
 41 1 will listen for a week. What has your wonderful 
 knowledge of the world to do with me ? " 
 
 44 All men are the same there is no difference be- 
 tween them."
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 57 
 
 " Then I may go back to Heronford, and I thought, 
 Victory " 
 
 " But you must not think you have no right to 
 think. Listen, Jack. It is a great secret." 
 
 " I will keep it better than I keep my own." 
 
 " I did not know that you had any secrets. But this 
 is awful." 
 
 She was smiling half-playful, half-serious as was 
 her custom in a mood like this. 
 
 " I hope it will not frighten me," I said. " What is 
 this awful secret ? " 
 
 "Jack," she whispered, " I have got a lover." 
 
 " But that is no secret ; I have known that since the 
 first day I saw you. I have never forgotten it for a 
 moment." 
 
 " But I do not mean you, I mean a real lover." 
 
 I thought my dear sweetheart was mocking me in the 
 playful way that became her so well, and I answered 
 lightly 
 
 " Yes, I know a real lover. As he walks the birds 
 say 1 1 love her, I love her ; the wind ' ' 
 
 " But, indeed, Jack, this is serious. I do not mean 
 you." And she came a little nearer me. 
 
 " Victory ! " I cried now for the first time, seeing that 
 beneath her smiles and laughter there lay a sober earnest- 
 ness. 
 
 " You see I did not think he meant anything that he 
 rode over to see my father, and, Jack he frightened me." 
 
 I rose to my feet and held out my hands to her. 
 
 " Tell me all about it," I said. 
 
 " It was on Wednesday, when I had been expecting
 
 5 8 HERONFORD 
 
 you all day. When he came in I was quite alone and he 
 told me he loved me, and, Jack I hate him." 
 
 " But I do not understand, dear," I said. " Who did 
 this ? " 
 
 " Mr. Weston, of Langston." 
 
 u Why, he is old enough to be your father ! " I cried 
 indignantly. 
 
 Then I remember that I had met him here more than 
 once and that his visits had been growing in frequency, 
 but I had never for a moment had any suspicion regard- 
 ing their object, though now when I came to think of it 
 I wondered that I had been so blind. Who was there 
 who could see my sweet mistress and not instantly love 
 her ? Who could withstand the arch and radiant inno- 
 cence that gave her beauty the charm and freshness of an 
 opening flower ? Who that saw the dawn of sweet 
 womanliness in her eyes would not long to possess the 
 full day of sweetness and tenderness disclosed there ? I 
 remembered the first day I had seen her in Heronford 
 Church, her sweet face hidden by her bonnet and her eyes 
 bent soberly upon her book. From that hour the world 
 had changed for me ; a new song beating to a new, un- 
 dreamt-of melody had filled the pauses of my life and 
 mingled with my dreams ; a new interest had awakened 
 in the breast of the solitary lad and a new sense of the 
 largeness and joy of life. I do not know whether others 
 have experienced the same feeling with my discovery 
 there came the sense of sweet possession, a feeling of pro- 
 prietorship growing out of the perfect assurance of my love. 
 
 And now, when for the first time I learned that others 
 saw with the same eyes and were moved in the same way,
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 59 
 
 I had a feeling of consternation almost as much as of 
 jealousy. But I had another feeling. To think of Wes- 
 ton of Langston, Will Cassilis' boon companion, who 
 passed for a jolly fellow, with his hard living, hard riding, 
 hard drinking ways, with his oaths and rough manners, 
 with his coarse, red face and cruel eyes it was little 
 wonder that I stood with a sense of anger and indigna- 
 tion in my heart. And my sweetheart's face puzzled me. 
 
 " You say nothing, Victory," I cried, trying in vain to 
 read her eyes. 
 
 " What am I to say, Jack ? " 
 
 " Say ! Say that nothing will ever come between us ; 
 say that your heart is mine ; that " 
 
 "You were always a foolish boy. How can I say 
 that and Mr. Weston is " 
 
 " Oh ! " I cried bitterly. " I know all you would say. 
 It is true that he can give you a fine mansion and I I 
 can give you nothing but myself and my love. I have 
 nothing less than nothing. I do not even know certainly 
 that my name is my own John Cassilis, son of nobody 
 and master of nothing but himself. But, indeed, I loved 
 you, Victory. I could not help myself. I loved you 
 long before I knew I loved you. I was wrong and you 
 are right; I am not fit even to be your servant. It was 
 a dream a pleasant dream. I will waken by-and-bye." 
 
 I do not know what other wild, ungenerous words I 
 spoke, and I am glad to think I do not remember them, 
 but my heart was tossed in such a sea of passion and 
 doubt and unreasoning jealousy that I was for the moment 
 quite beyond myself. As I stood up, flinging out my 
 bitter words, she lost the arch and playful manner that
 
 60 HERONFORD 
 
 till now she had been wearing, and looked at me with a 
 tender seriousness that stopped me in my tempestuous 
 speech. She only spoke one word 
 
 "Jack!" 
 
 But that one word was more eloquent than a thousand. 
 In an instant my base suspicions, my selfish fears, my first 
 and last doubt, passed like a flying shadow, and in an 
 agony of self-reproach I caught her to my heart, and 
 kissed her a hundred times. For a moment she submit- 
 ted to my embrace and then gently released herself. 
 
 " I am wiser than you are, John Cassilis." 
 
 41 Wiser and better a thousand times ! " 
 
 44 1 think women are wiser than men ; at least they do 
 not lose their faith so easily, and perhaps perhaps they 
 think more of these things. Now sit down and let us 
 talk seriously." 
 
 44 You have forgiven me, Victory ? " 
 
 44 1 have forgotten," she said simply; "that is better. 
 I have been thinking, and I have thought you are listen- 
 ing, Jack ? that we cannot live always this boy-and-girl 
 life. Some day the world must come in Lord Heron- 
 ford, Mr. Weston, who can tell what ? The world 
 makes a difference." 
 
 44 It can make no difference," I cried. 
 
 44 Ah ! you think so, but it does. It was pleasant to 
 have our world all to ourselves, a little undiscovered 
 world of love and happiness, but " 
 
 44 1 am listening, dear." 
 
 44 We must tell my father, Jack." 
 
 44 Yes," I said, 4l it is right that we should tell him ; 
 perhaps we should have told him long ago. But you do
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 61 
 
 not know what he will do, Victory ? Do you know what 
 he should do ? He should rise up and say, l Mr. Cassilis, 
 or Mr. Whatever is your name, you have no right to 
 love my little girl. She is set far as the sky above you ; 
 she is a rose for a prince's garden. What have you to 
 do with her you a poor dependant, a nameless pauper 
 at best a drudging, poor relation ? You are a good 
 fellow at least he will say that for he likes me, Victory 
 but you are not for my little girl. I will not give her 
 to an admiral of the blue.' And then he should' bundle 
 me out of his house and I should never see you again. 
 Perhaps I cannot give you up, Victory." 
 
 u If my father should say that " 
 
 " What would you do ? " I cried. 
 
 " I should know he did not mean a word of it. Let 
 us go and hear what he does say, Jack." 
 
 Then she took my hand with a bright, confident look 
 in her steadfast eyes and a smile of hope and happiness on 
 her tender lips, and we went together toward the house. 
 
 It was now more than six years since Captain Blythe 
 had carried his household gods to Carnforth that quiet 
 port in which he had resolved to moor his storm-tossed 
 bark after thirty-five years spent in the service of a not 
 ungrateful country. Thither he had carried his models, 
 his guns, his wooden leg, and his fine, fighting spirit, in 
 sight and sound of the sea he loved ; to talk of the great 
 captains, to fight over again the old glorious fights, and, 
 as he hoped, to make ready for the last voyage that all 
 men must take when the Master Death comes quietly on 
 the quarter-deck. I had first seen him from above the 
 high oak rail of my pew staggering like a ship under a
 
 62 HERONFORD 
 
 press of canvas down the aisle of Heronford Church. 
 Then, indeed, I had noticed the shining, red face, the 
 blue eyes with the light of the sea in them, and the faded 
 uniform which he always wore, but it was only when the 
 service the coldest, dreariest service in the world be- 
 gan that I looked up curiously. His voice rang out like 
 a storm-trumpet, till at last his was the only voice that I 
 could hear. From the beginning to the end from the 
 first solemn words till the last Amen that deep voice 
 thundered in response a voice of fearless faith and ear- 
 nest piety. It amazed the sparse congregation ; it dis- 
 composed the vicar; the clerk suspended his office in 
 bewildered indignation, but the new worshipper saw 
 nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing but the mystery and 
 solemnity of his devotions. Then when the church dis- 
 persed, taking the tall, slim girl with the sweet face by 
 the arm, he trudged sturdily down the aisle with his head 
 held erect and the iron ring of his wooden limb echoing 
 on the pavement. 
 
 That was the first occasion on which I saw him, but 
 it was not long before I was made welcome in the cap- 
 tain's parlour and drank in his stories with the fine en- 
 thusiasm of youth. Perhaps that enthusiasm first insured 
 my welcome. I never tired hearing how the Belle Marie 
 was cut out at Brest; how single-handed the Wasp 
 fought three frigates for the length of a whole summer 
 day, with forty men dead on the decks and nearly as 
 many more dead or wounded below ; how the might and 
 majesty of England had made the sea her own glorious 
 heritage, and men like my old captain won her imperish- 
 able renown. Then I am sure for some reason he came
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 63 
 
 to like me for my own sake, and looked eagerly for my 
 coming. It was impossible not to love and admire him \ 
 his fine contempt for all form, his irresistible mirth 
 breaking forth in loud chuckles of laughter, his innocence 
 of the world, and his unconscious pride in himself and 
 all that belonged to him. He had offered me his friend- 
 ship without question, though at first with prudent re- 
 serve, and I was certain that no consideration but per- 
 sonal affection ever entered into our friendship. He had 
 made no enquiry regarding me or my condition, and I 
 am sure no thought of doing so had ever once occurred 
 to him. 
 
 But now the case was altered, the situation was com- 
 pletely changed. Never for one moment had he im- 
 agined that my boyish friendship for his daughter had 
 ripened into love. He had seen nothing ; he had under- 
 stood nothing ; such an idea must have appeared to him 
 impossible and absurd, and I knew how different a thing 
 it was to receive me as a friend and to welcome me as a 
 lover ; and I felt now that I had almost betrayed his 
 trust, though heaven knows with no will of my own. 
 The growth of that tender love had been so spontaneous 
 and unconscious that I cannot remember the first mo- 
 ment of its revelation, or the time when that sweet con- 
 fidence and mutual knowledge sprang to life. That 
 might to some degree excuse my offence, but the offence 
 remained, and I knew that I had no excuse to offer in 
 my own justification. 
 
 Victory halted for a moment on the threshold, and 
 turning round looked at me with a bright, high look that 
 flashed like an inspiration.
 
 64 HERONFORD 
 
 " Courage, Jack," she whispered, and then led me into 
 the room where the captain sat dozing by his table, with 
 a chart spread open before him and an old newspaper at 
 his elbow. We came up the room together I can see 
 that picture yet and stood at the other side of the table 
 for a minute without a word. The old man drew him- 
 self up with a start, and looked at us with a puzzled ex- 
 pression on his cheerful face. Victory was the first to 
 speak. 
 
 " We have come to report, Captain Blythe," she said, 
 with a brave smile, and then her courage failed her, and 
 I felt her hand trembling in my own. There was an- 
 other pause. I own as yet I could not put my thoughts 
 into words, but I was now full of courage. 
 
 " God bless my soul ! " cried the captain, " what is 
 the matter? " 
 
 "I hope sir," I said, " nothing is the matter, but " 
 
 " Then you hang confoundedly long in stays," cried 
 the captain cheerfully. " Take a pull on your weather 
 braces and you will move ahead." 
 
 But while I was still considering how I should put the 
 matter, it not being an easy one, nor I having had much 
 practice, Victory quitting my hand, went round the table 
 quietly and knelt down at her father's knee 
 
 " Father," she said, " we have something to tell you." 
 
 " 'Tis a monstrous long story, little girl. Have those 
 contraband rascals from Carnforth " 
 
 "Not that, sir, but something " 
 
 " It is right that I should tell my father ; it is all said 
 in a moment. Father, Jack has told me that he loves 
 me and I have told Jack that I I love him."
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 65 
 
 Then she hid her shining face on her father's knees, 
 and the sobs, which she had resolutely repressed, broke 
 out uncontrolled. 
 
 " God bless my soul ! " cried the captain, half rising 
 from the table and reaching for his pipe, as he always 
 did when greatly agitated. I did not like the symptom, 
 knowing it of old, but I kept my heart up, and began as 
 bravely as I could 
 
 "It is all my fault, sir; I only am to blame. I could 
 not help loving Victory ; I have loved her from the first 
 day I saw her, and I am sorry " 
 
 " If anyone should be sorry it is I, man. What the 
 devil have you to be sorry about ? " 
 
 " I am sorry, sir, that I am not worthy of her sorry 
 that I have nothing to offer her but my love." 
 
 " It is a damned poor outfit for a long voyage, sir," cried 
 the captain, now purple in his agitation. " Wait till you 
 get into the doldrums. Oh ! this is news with a vengeance." 
 
 " I have kept it back too long," I said ; " it is right 
 that you should know. If I had done wrong " 
 
 " For God's sake let me hear no more not another 
 word I want to think it out." 
 
 He rose up, leaving Victory still kneeling by his chair, 
 and paced up and down the room with his short broken 
 strides, and making a curious blowing noise with his mouth. 
 At every two or three turns he would stop short in his 
 walk, look first at Victory and then at me, and then with 
 a smothered " God bless my soul ! " resume his uneasy 
 march. I had never seen him so much moved, but I 
 could not tell with what feelings whether anger, dismay, 
 or astonishment he was regarding our sudden announce-
 
 66 HERONFORD 
 
 ment. We did not venture to disturb his tempestuous 
 meditations, but watched him almost with a guilty look 
 upon our faces. Then he stopped abruptly 
 
 " You say you love him, my lass ? " he cried in his 
 deep, strong voice. 
 
 But Victory did not falter in her sweet courage. 
 
 " I cannot help it, father. I love Jack." 
 
 Again the captain resumed his walk, and again he blew 
 out his lips like the fine, old grampus that he was. 
 
 I do not know how long he continued to walk in this 
 way it seemed like an age almost but at last he stopped, 
 and coming over to the chair he had quitted sat down in 
 it with a sigh. Then he laid his hand on Victory's head, 
 and sat for a while without speaking a word, his great 
 hand resting among the shining curls. 
 
 " We can't help it," he said, as though speaking to 
 himself; " 'tis the great law aye, the law of God, and 
 no man can say it nay. The woman must quit her 
 father and mother. God knows, Victory, I thought you 
 were only a little girl." 
 
 " Nineteen is a great age, father." 
 
 "Ay, ay, Methuselah's sister. And you, John Cassilis, 
 you silent dog, what have you to say for yourself ? " 
 
 u Only, sir, that I love Victory with all my heart." 
 
 " And let me tell you there are worse things than love 
 if it will but wash and wear. I won't deny I have been 
 infernally upset. 'Tis no easy thing to be turned out 
 into the cold at a moment's notice and without as much 
 as by your leave. But it's according to nature. I did it 
 myself and never thought of what I was doing. Yet I 
 never thought my lass would leave me."
 
 IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS 67 
 
 " I will never leave you, sir." 
 
 u Hearken to that, my gay rover. But I know better, 
 and will only keep you while I can. Come here, sir." 
 
 His voice was hard and strong, but his eyes were 
 shining with a kindly light, and I laid my hand in his 
 with a swift pulse of hope throbbing in my heart. 
 
 " 1 thought it was I who was sailing this ship," he said, 
 " but I find I have made a mistake. We won't cry over 
 that ; we'll try and make the best of it, and look you, sir, 
 we must see that we don't break her heart between us. I 
 have known you lad and man for six years, John Cassilis, 
 and maybe, after all is said and done, I had rather see her 
 leave me in your convoy than anybody else's. You are 
 a good fellow, Jack, an honest fellow, and I hope God 
 will bless both of you." 
 
 I am not wronging his honest memory when I say 
 that he brushed the tears from his eyes with his hand, 
 and looked up at me as through a mist of autumnal rain. 
 His voice was shaking and his lips trembling. But, in- 
 deed, my own eyes were not dry, for in the midst of my 
 own happiness I read his kind old heart as though it had 
 been a book. Then Victory flung her arms round his 
 neck and kissed him passionately. 
 
 " There, there, my lass," he said gently, " it is all over 
 and we are going to be happy again. We will have a 
 bowl of punch, and Jack and I will drink prosperity to a 
 long voyage and a fair wind all the way. And look you, 
 John Cassilis, here am I at sixty years, having worn the 
 King's uniform and fought his battles ; and I started my 
 voyage with nothing in the world but hope and an empty 
 sea-chest. 'Tis a stout heart and a clear conscience that
 
 68 HERONFORD 
 
 helps us to drum the French and beat the devil all the 
 world over. Now, lass, dry your tears and let us have 
 the punch. And Jack Jack Cassilis I don't mind 
 if you kiss my little girl." 
 
 I can remember no evening so pleasant in my life the 
 new-risen sun of love shining on the future without a 
 shadow, and all discord lost in that new sweet music. 
 
 It was like the captain to think of nothing but his 
 daughter's happiness. He refused to permit me to discuss 
 my own hopes or prospects that might be done in the 
 future if it must be done at all but at present we should 
 make the most of the shining hour. The fiddlers were 
 striking up and the jolly mariners were dancing ; to- 
 morrow the winds might blow and the seas might storm, 
 but to-night love was playing her melody, and our hearts 
 must keep time to that bewitching tune. 
 
 I shall never forget that evening, nor the moon against 
 the western sky, and the vast glory of starlight, as I 
 walked home across the cliffs and listened to the ripple 
 of the tide almost below the shadow of Heronford.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 
 
 WHEN I got home, it being then about eleven o'clock, 
 I found Mr. Ballard gone, and my lord and the two 
 gentlemen in the Book Room together. Will Cassilis 
 and Mr. Earnshaw were playing at cards the one flushed 
 and excited, the other cool and sedate, but both very 
 quiet and my lord was seated by the hearth with a book 
 open upon his knees and his head resting upon his hand. 
 He had not been playing at all, pleading a headache, with 
 which he was often troubled, but I wondered to see him 
 sitting there at this hour, for it was a thing quite contrary 
 to his custom. 
 
 As I came in he looked up and merely nodded to me, 
 but in such a way that I could not tell whether he was 
 not displeased to see me. For the other two gentlemen, 
 neither of them paid any attention to my entrance, both 
 being too much absorbed in their game. I walked over 
 and stood for a minute or two behind Will Cassilis' chair, 
 till I saw that he disliked being overlooked in this way ; 
 but before I went I noticed that his hands shook and that 
 the stakes were out of all reason for one of his means. I 
 own I could not help finding some fault with my lord, 
 who after all would have to pay the reckoning, that he 
 permitted his good nature to carry him so far in the in- 
 dulgence of this criminal recklessness, for a word from 
 
 69
 
 7 o HERONFORD 
 
 him might have prevented this folly. But that word my 
 lord would never speak. Upon the subject of his poverty 
 his pride carried him to a point I could never understand, 
 and I am sure even Mr. Earnshaw never knew how deeply 
 even his moderate winnings had involved his host. What- 
 ever it might cost I knew my lord would not now inter- 
 fere, and I knew also that he would discharge his brother's 
 indebtedness with the same punctilious exactness and 
 outward suavity that he would discharge his own. I had 
 myself, feeling it to be my duty, spoken to him more than 
 once upon the subject, and had so far prevailed upon him 
 that he had remonstrated with his brother, who as usual 
 had promised amendment and gone on as before. 
 
 As a rule Will Cassilis was the most unlucky player in 
 the world, but to-night his ill fortune had deserted him, 
 and by the time I came in he had won a considerable 
 sum. I noticed that he had by no means drunk so much 
 as usual, and with a permissible laxity of speech might be 
 called perfectly sober a condition of affairs which never 
 improved his temper. Nor had I been in the room very 
 long before I saw that my lord was for some reason very 
 unquiet in his mind, and was far more interested in the 
 play and the players than he desired to appear. He would 
 from time to time turn over the leaves of the book upon 
 his knee, but his eyes hardly rested upon the printed page, 
 and reading his face as I was always able to do, I knew 
 that he was agitated and troubled to no common degree. 
 For this I was unable to account, but looking for an ex- 
 planation it occurred to me that possibly as a kind of self- 
 imposed penance he was resisting that temptation which 
 had been and still was the strongest in his life. For my
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 71 
 
 lord was naturally a gambler, and could never withstand, 
 at least till lately, the allurements of the cards and dice. 
 
 I came over to the hearth and stood with my back to 
 the fireplace. 
 
 " What is the night like out-of-doors ? " my lord asked, 
 like one speaking mechanically. 
 
 " 'Tis a fine moonlight night and quite warm." 
 
 " Ah ! And nearly bed-time for all quiet folk." 
 
 He said no more but I knew that this was more than 
 a hint, and I was about to leave the room when an inci- 
 dent occurred which held me fixed in astonishment. The 
 two gentlemen at the table had been playing almost in 
 perfect silence only now and then we heard a word 
 spoken in an undertone and the shuffling of the cards, 
 but nothing more. Then suddenly and without warning 
 Mr. Earnshaw pushed back his chair and struck the table 
 sharply with his hand. 
 
 " This has gone on long enough, sir. You are a 
 common cheat." 
 
 The two gentlemen my lord and his brother at the 
 same instant leapt to their feet and stood looking at the 
 speaker, one in an agony of horror and dismay, the other 
 scowling and defiant. At first neither of them appeared 
 able to say a word, my lord's white face showing very 
 ghastly in the candlelight. But Mr. Earnshaw retained 
 his perfect self-possession, not raising his voice in the 
 least nor showing the slightest display of temper. He 
 even went so far but I thought at the time this was 
 merely a piece of acting to cover his agitation as to 
 snuff the candle nearest to him before he spoke again. 
 
 " You must remember, sir, you were not playing with
 
 72 HERONFORD 
 
 a schoolboy. I have been watching you for some time. 
 It was a common trick but very clumsy." 
 
 I still remember the easy contempt of his tone and the 
 fine manner with which he tossed his hand of cards on the 
 table. At this Will Cassilis began to swear and bluster, 
 but my lord stood very still and with a white face in the 
 place where he had risen. Indeed, I thought he would 
 have fallen, and I instinctively moved a little nearer to 
 him. 
 
 "'Tis very well," Will cried with an oath. "We 
 should have heard nothing of this had I not won your 
 money. You must not think to come over me in this 
 
 way, sir; I have seen it done before. By if I did 
 
 not remember the roof you were under you should give 
 me satisfaction for this here and now." 
 
 Earnshaw smiled. 
 
 " Whenever and wherever may suit the convenience 
 of Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 " By no man will call me cheat twice," Will 
 
 cried in his blustering manner. " But I don't forget 
 whose guest you are." 
 
 " I am quite prepared to stand over my words, sir, and 
 repeat them if necessary." 
 
 Then I saw my lord's face harden, and he came for- 
 ward to the table. 
 
 " 1 think," he said, " you have both forgotten me, 
 gentlemen." 
 
 Earnshaw rose from his chair and bowed gravely. 
 
 " I have spoken, my lord," he said, " in the heat of 
 the moment, but I cannot withdraw my words. I regret 
 that for my own sake and yours."
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 73 
 
 " It is a grave charge," my lord said slowly ; " a seri- 
 ous accusation that no honourable man would make 
 lightly. But Mr. Earnshaw must remember that my 
 brother's honour is mine." 
 
 " I know none of your lordship's friends who would 
 agree with you. I cannot." 
 
 " Sir ! " 
 
 " Lord Heronford's honour is beyond suspicion as it 
 is beyond praise." 
 
 " At least no man ever ventured to question it. Your 
 words imply, sir, what has never been said before in my 
 presence, nor will I permit them to pass now. You 
 know what you have said, Mr. Earnshaw ? " 
 
 " Lord Heronford does not desire me to repeat my 
 words ? " 
 
 " They have been spoken once too often that under 
 my roof, at my table, and in my presence you have been 
 cheated by a member of my family." 
 
 " That is an unpleasant way of putting an unpleasant 
 truth." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," my lord said, turning to his 
 brother, who till now had been silent. " I am the master 
 in this house. Mr. Earnshaw himself must see that for 
 my own sake I cannot permit this to go further." 
 
 " Perhaps," Earnshaw answered, " your lordship will 
 see what the cards themselves say ? " 
 
 " I will see nothing, sir ; I will hear nothing ; and re- 
 lying on my own unquestioned honour and integrity in 
 this way I answer your accusation." 
 
 He lifted the pack of cards from the table and, walking 
 slowly over to the fireplace, flung them into the grate
 
 74 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 and stamped upon them with his heel. Then he turned 
 round, his tall figure drawn up to its full height. 
 
 " I cannot now speak more plainly than I have done 
 by my action. I do not forget that you are my guest, 
 but there are higher claims than the claims of hospitality. 
 The honour of Heronford is in my hands; I will not 
 stand here and see it called in question. Now, Mr. 
 Earnshaw, there is only one of two ways out of this 
 difficulty : either that you withdraw your words, which I 
 have no doubt you spoke honestly, but labouring under 
 
 a terrible mistake " 
 
 " That with your lordship's permission I cannot do." 
 " Then you accept the other alternative ? " 
 " If you mean, my lord, that you will take the matter 
 upon your own shoulders, I have sufficient courage to 
 refuse that alternative also. There is no power on earth 
 will make me cross swords with you in this vulgar brawl. 
 Your brother and yourself are two very different persons." 
 " In this matter, sir, we are one. I recognise no dif- 
 ference, and I cannot permit his character and reputation 
 to be impugned any more than I would my own. And 
 you forget, sir, at my table, in my presence, almost under 
 
 my very eyes " 
 
 " I forget nothing, my lord, and least of all do I forget 
 the pain my words must cause you. I esteem the honour 
 of your friendship, and it is not my least regret that this 
 incident should cause a breach between us. But even 
 that cannot deter me from speaking the truth and stand- 
 ing by my words. At the same time I trust you will 
 pardon me when I say the position taken by your lord- 
 ship is one no sensible man ever would have anticipated."
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 75 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir." 
 
 " There was a time when you would have acted differ- 
 ently. Living here " 
 
 " You have already insulted me and my household, 
 Mr. Earnshaw, but I will not further permit you to crit- 
 icise my views and my conduct. Besides, that is alto- 
 gether beyond the question. Am I then to understand 
 that you refuse to uphold your words in that manner 
 customary among gentlemen ? " 
 
 " Even that taunt will not tempt me. In the same 
 manner that your lordship destroyed the proof," and he 
 pointed to the fireplace, " I will take the high ground and 
 refuse to quarrel with you upon any terms. But if Mr. 
 Cassilis desires to go further I am always at his service, 
 and he knows where I am to be found." 
 
 I own that at that moment my heart was sore for my 
 dear master, for I knew that every word that had been 
 spoken had lacerated his heart and caused him infinite 
 suffering. Knowing him as I did, in his strength and 
 weakness, from the beginning I had seen his mind laid 
 open before me. I felt that he did not doubt the truth 
 of the charge to which he had listened that he was con- 
 vinced in his own mind the fact was as Mr. Earnshaw 
 had stated but I knew there was hardly anything he 
 would not do to keep that knowledge from the world and 
 cover the disgrace. The longer he had lived in the re- 
 tirement of Heronford the deeper and more absorbing his 
 pride had grown, till it seemed to have become the dom- 
 inant note and passion of his life. It grew to a pass that 
 was almost incomprehensible ; it swayed him with a 
 tyranny that was absolute ; it interfered with the prompt-
 
 76 HERONFORD 
 
 ings of the kindest heart in the world, and warped his 
 judgment till right and wrong seemed to me quite con- 
 founded. 
 
 " The Honour of Heronford " ; the phrase was contin- 
 ually upon his lips till I had almost come to dread it. It 
 centred in himself; he was the guardian of the family 
 name, the upholder and champion of the family honour. 
 For this reason he had pinched to pay his brother's debts, 
 he had indulged while he had screened his libertinism, 
 and now for the same reason and no other he had placed 
 himself in a wholly false position. He knew that his own 
 character was above suspicion and his own honour un- 
 doubted, and he imagined that in taking up his brother's 
 cause that in itself was sufficient to avert scandal and 
 save the situation. I do not seek to justify him or to ex- 
 cuse his conduct. The course which he adopted was 
 the only one that occurred to him to avert a disgrace that 
 had far more terror for him than death, and having once 
 adopted it he clung to it regardless of all consequences. 
 Perhaps it might have succeeded with another person than 
 Mr. Earnshaw, whose manner and conduct I must admit 
 I could not help admiring from beginning to end. I felt, 
 so to speak, that he knew the cards in my lord's hand and 
 sympathised with him in the difficult game he was en- 
 deavouring to play. But, notwithstanding, he was not to 
 be drawn from the position he had taken up, and while 
 he did not conceal his contempt for the detected cheat, 
 his manner toward my lord, while always firm, was full of 
 courteous respect and regard. I saw that my lord per- 
 ceived he had failed, and that knowledge added a thou- 
 sandfold to his pain. The comedy, that to him was all
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 77 
 
 tragedy, was only too apparent, and the sooner it was 
 brought to an end the better. 
 
 " We have now spoken the last word, Mr. Earnshaw," 
 he said. " I cannot doubt for a moment you believe you 
 are right so much at least I owe you. But v/iser men 
 have been mistaken, and who can doubt you are mistaken 
 here ? If you please you can speak the story anywhere, 
 but I shall expect you will tell the whole story, omitting 
 nothing, and above all that I took and still take my 
 brother's part." 
 
 " Permit me to say, my lord, that I never admired you 
 more than at this moment even when you tell me I am 
 wrong. I might have held my tongue I almost wish I 
 had. But you may be certain that our discussion of to- 
 night will not be repeated by me." 
 
 " On that head, sir, you will be pleased to exercise 
 your judgment. I regret that I shall be unable to see 
 you before you leave in the morning." 
 
 " I assure you the regret is mutual." 
 
 With that the two gentlemen bowed courteously but 
 with great coldness to one another, and my lord followed 
 his guest to the door, where he bowed to him again. 
 
 When the door was closed he walked up the room with 
 his hands behind his back, his lips trembling, and his eyes 
 shining with an intense, inward fire. At the hearth he 
 turned and stood looking at his brother with a look I had 
 never seen him wear before. I cannot quite say what I 
 felt, for the face was certainly not that of my dear master. 
 I could not have believed that such a change was pos- 
 sible, so terrible in its sudden transformation, so ghastly 
 in its abandonment of despair, so hard in its indignant
 
 78 HERONFORD 
 
 pride. I could see that he was fighting with his tumult- 
 uous feelings that surged to find expression, and it was a 
 good while before he was calm enough to trust himself 
 to speak. Then he spoke in a cold, hard voice. 
 
 " Well, sir ? " 
 
 " By you let him off too easily, Richard," Will 
 
 answered with an uneasy shrug, for there was something 
 in his brother's voice he did not like. 
 
 " Is that all you have to say ? " 
 
 " I'll say anything you like I don't care a damn what. 
 What would you have me say ? You don't mean that 
 you believe Earnshaw's cock-and-bull story about the 
 cards ? Upon my soul 'tis bad enough to hear another 
 man " 
 
 " You miserable cheat and liar ! " cried my lord, with 
 slow, deliberate emphasis and with every word seeming 
 to drag out his heart. 
 
 " Hey ! This is Mr. Facing-both-Ways with a venge- 
 ance." 
 
 " Yes, sir. I, Richard Cassilis, Lord Heronford, have 
 trifled with my honour to screen your dishonour. Do you 
 think you deceived me any more than you deceived that 
 fine gentleman who now pities me as much as he despises 
 you ? A cheat ! A lying rogue ! The scandal of the 
 country ! A bye-word among men ! Do you think, I 
 say, you deceived me ? Oh ! not for a moment. By 
 heaven ! I read it in your face and the very motion of 
 your hands. You have soiled me with the filth of your 
 dishonour; you have made me a partner in your shame. 
 While I sat here in silence and agony I prayed that you 
 might not be discovered, and the devil would not hear my
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 79 
 
 prayer. And my hands were tied ; my mouth was closed ! 
 I could not rise and say, ' My brother, of my own blood 
 and name, sitting at my table and playing under my eyes, 
 is cheating his guest in the house of Cassilis. Our kind- 
 ness is the hospitality of rogues ; we rob you while you 
 sleep ; we drug your wine and pick your pockets ! ' ' 
 
 " And then," cried Will, with a laugh, " we offer to 
 cut your throat." 
 
 It was a cruel stab ; I could have struck him on the 
 face for that blow. My lord caught a deep breath, and 
 with his left hand over his heart stood looking at his 
 brother in speechless horror. 
 
 " You are right," he said slowly and after a long pause ; 
 " you have spoken the truth. To save your name my 
 name from the disgrace, I think I would even have 
 killed my friend. I did not see it in that way." 
 
 " Oh ! It is a hundred to one you would have made 
 daylight in him. No man ever I saw could stand up 
 against you with the foils." , 
 
 Strong in his passions as he was infirm in his judg- 
 ment, my lord always lived at the extremity of his emo- 
 tions, and now when his brother's brutal words had 
 placed his conduct in the strongest light he was plunged 
 in an agony of shame and contrition. 
 
 " It is true," he wailed ; " I am judged even out of 
 your mouth. My dishonour is as great as yours." 
 
 " There is not much to choose between us. Between 
 us we shall keep up the reputation of the family ; 'tis a 
 good thing it has little to lose." 
 
 " I have borne with you a good many years, and no man 
 can say that I have not shown you as much kindness as
 
 80 HERONFORD 
 
 you deserve. You have already tried me beyond endur- 
 ance ; I will stand it no longer. Another word " 
 
 " I did not begin the sermon I don't want to end 
 it," Will added with a significant look at me. " I would 
 remind your lordship that I am not responsible for the 
 congregation. Mr. Secretary stands to your credit in the 
 house." 
 
 For the first time Lord Heronford seemed to become 
 aware of my presence ; till now he had wholly forgotten 
 that I was in the room, and at these last words he 
 looked round at me almost with a look of fear in his 
 face. Moved by a sudden impulse and touched by his 
 look of suffering I came forward and held out my hand. 
 But he either did not see or disregarded the gesture I 
 made. 
 
 " I am sorry," he said, " that you should have been 
 present at this painful scene. I should have wished to 
 spare you. But you are in some sort a member of the 
 family, and everything that touches its honour must have 
 concern and interest for you. And it has its lessons 
 hard lessons, bitter lessons, the lesson that a man gathers 
 in his after years, the crop of what he has sowed in his 
 youth, that he gathers it at his own fireside and in his 
 own house. And not himself alone, but if he has chil- 
 dren, then his sons and his sons' sons after him. He 
 can't step aside from fate. I have something to say to 
 my brother, and he alone must hear it. You will see 
 Mr. Earnshaw before he leaves Heronford in the morn- 
 ing, and tell him I do not know " 
 
 " I will say, my lord, that your kind heart wishes him 
 a prosperous journey, and that you never esteemed him
 
 THE HONOUR OF HERONFORD 81 
 
 more than when you last parted from him " ; and my eyes 
 met those of Will Cassilis'. 
 
 " God knows that is true," said my lord with a sigh. 
 
 " You have a fine gift of words, Mr. Secretary," Will 
 said, but I did not answer him. Then I silently with- 
 drew and left the brothers alone. 
 
 I do not know what happened after I was gone, but 
 nearly an hour afterwards I heard the door opened and 
 closed, and the sound of footsteps echoing along the cor- 
 ridor. But my lord had never gone to bed at all. He 
 had spent the night in the Book Room, and in the morn- 
 ing, before anyone was astir, had gone out in the first 
 grey light along the cliffs. 
 
 I was the only one of the household present at Mr. 
 Earnshaw's departure, and I gave him my lord's message 
 in such terms as I was able to command. He was 
 standing with his foot upon the step and his hand resting 
 on the window of the chaise, almost hoping, I think, that 
 at the last moment my lord would put in an appearance. 
 
 " Lord Heronford could not have said more, Mr. 
 Cassilis," he said, when I had finished, " and he could 
 not have put it better. I have had a night to think upon 
 it, and I feel that I should not have spoken at all. I may 
 have been mistaken, and now dismiss the matter from my 
 memory for ever. In your ear I tell you Lord Heron- 
 ford is the finest gentleman I know, but I have known 
 gentlemen commit an indiscretion in the blindness of their 
 family pride. It was natural that he should stand by his 
 brother, who also is a gentleman, but living too much 
 alone is apt to make a man quixotic. Convey to my lord 
 my warm regard and sincere regrets ; I am still his friend.
 
 82 HERONFORD 
 
 And for yourself, do not live too long at Heronford ; the 
 light is too dim. Come up to town, see the world, and 
 do not forget there is one gentleman there will make you 
 welcome." 
 
 Then the door was shut, the postilions cracked their 
 whips, and I watched the chaise lumbering down the 
 drive till it was lost to view in the bend of the road. 
 But I could not help feeling that Mr. Earnshaw's visit 
 and the manner of his going had in many ways altered 
 the life at Heronford.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 I MAKE LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 
 
 I HAVE said I never knew what passed between Lord 
 Heronford and his brother when I left them together in 
 the Book Room, nor did my lord ever approach the sub- 
 ject in my presence even in the remotest way. This was 
 altogether like him, and quite natural to the man. With 
 a feminine sensitiveness he always avoided a painful sub- 
 ject, and however much it might possess his own mind 
 and poison his own thoughts, he never could be induced, 
 even remotely, to touch upon it in conversation. But I 
 knew this subject engrossed him wholly ; the entire trans- 
 action was one now only personal to himself, and he 
 brooded upon it with a persistence which seemed to me 
 childish because it was wholly unreasonable. It grew like 
 a shadow from the darkness of which he was never able 
 to move, and which drove him more and more to seek that 
 solitude which only increased his morbid thoughts. 
 
 From that day he was quite changed ; the little gleam 
 of playful humour that used to light up his conversation 
 like rifts of sunshine entirely disappeared. His interest in 
 matters of the household, always distant, seemed wholly 
 gone, and he avoided my society, which he had hitherto 
 welcomed, till I began to look for some cause of offence 
 in my own conduct. At another time I might have felt 
 it more, but if love is free and generous it also possesses 
 a certain selfishness, and in my own happiness I almost 
 
 83
 
 84 HERONFORD 
 
 forgot my lord's distress. Perhaps it was natural that I 
 should endeavour to escape from the gloom and shadow 
 of the house in which I lived, into the sunshine and 
 beauty of the new world that lay before me. The sweet- 
 ness of the present, the delicious promise of the future, 
 possessed me, as it still possesses youth, to the exclusion 
 of everything else. 
 
 Morning and evening I found myself (what long, sweet 
 days they were !) in the captain's house, in the beech wood 
 at the back of the hill, on the cliffs, on the sea-kissed 
 sands, the distilled sweetness of the world walking at my 
 side. Were the violets of that spring larger and more 
 fragrant than they ever have been since, the skies bluer, 
 the days balmier, and the long evenings tremulous with 
 a more delicate moonrise ? Oh ! love makes its own 
 world, and I suppose made my world for me, an earth 
 newly fashioned, and skies with the first morning and 
 evening glow in them. 
 
 It will give you some idea of the seclusion in which we 
 lived when I say that none of the family at Heronford 
 knew anything, or appeared to know anything, regarding 
 his neighbours. Certainly as far as I know they had 
 never once been mentioned, nor had my lord or any mem- 
 ber of his household ever called on them. This fact had 
 never troubled the captain, nor, so far as I remember, had 
 he ever remarked upon it, but I felt that the present state 
 of affairs could not long continue. My own position was 
 sufficiently ambiguous and embarrassing, and my long 
 absences, open as they were, could not fail to be observed. 
 So far as my lord himself was concerned these might 
 have been continued indefinitely without exciting either
 
 LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 85 
 
 notice or comment, but in my calculations I had to reckon 
 with Madam Cassilis, who had never shown me any sym- 
 pathy or kindness, but who had always regarded me with 
 suspicion and dislike almost openly avowed. 
 
 One morning Lord Heronford and myself were seated 
 over our accounts (since Mr. Earnshaw's visit the bal- 
 ance had been deeply weighted upon the wrong side), my 
 lord with his brows drawn, and myself in vain endeavour- 
 ing to deduce some prospect of hope from the inexorable 
 figures. The windows of the Book Room were lying 
 open, the air was sweet and warm, and the martins flew in 
 dips and circles about the pleasance. Presently Madam 
 Cassilis came in, and my lord rose and bowed to her, for 
 he invariably treated her with the same punctilious cour- 
 tesy that he would have showed a stranger. She returned 
 him a sweeping courtesy, though with some disdain in it, 
 that being the way she always affected to treat him, and 
 came over to the table where I was still seated with my 
 pen in my hand. She had been, as I have said, a great 
 beauty in her youth, and her figure must always have 
 been very striking, but her cheeks had now grown thin, 
 her lips hard, and her eyes had lost their softness and 
 only retained their fire. I own there was a time when I 
 was afraid of her, and I still preserved something of my 
 boyish shrinking in her presence, for she treated all alike, 
 and her swift, incisive speech always seemed to me to 
 cut like a whip. I often think that Nature had done 
 her a great wrong in not making her a man. 
 
 " I am very busy, Judith," said my lord, resuming his 
 seat. " I must finish these accounts this afternoon." 
 
 " You are always busy when I have anything to say.
 
 86 HERONFORD 
 
 You do not seem to get much comfort from your 
 books." 
 
 " There is not much comfort in them. They speak 
 a very hard truth." 
 
 " Well, that is one comfort. What do they say ? " 
 
 " That I am a poor man." 
 
 " Do they say it is your own fault ? " 
 
 " Not in so many words, but I do not require to be 
 reminded of that fact. I do not forget it." 
 
 " You have the knack of remembering unpleasant 
 things, but you don't profit by the experience. If I were 
 in your place " 
 
 " I wish to heaven you were." 
 
 " I would burn my books, look after my affairs, and 
 discharge my secretary." 
 
 My lord looked up at her with a swift look and a 
 sudden flush upon his face. I could very well see that for 
 the moment he was so astonished that he did not quite 
 know what answer to make. Then he recovered himself. 
 
 " I suppose I have given you the right to say these 
 things. I have indulged you so long. But there is still one 
 matter in which I will not permit you to interfere " 
 
 " I have no wish to interfere." 
 
 u Then we need not continue the subject." 
 
 This was the way in which these altercations always 
 ended, my lord's listless coldness and apparent apathy 
 presenting no weak point for attack, but on this occasion 
 I was not wrong in imagining that Madam Cassilis had 
 found a new weapon which she intended to use. 
 
 She made a little gesture of impatience. 
 
 " You are the master in your own house, but at least
 
 LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 87 
 
 it is your duty to look after the welfare and the morals of 
 your family. I am glad that you blush, Mr. Secretary. 
 I thought you had ceased to blush, but I am not quite so 
 blind as my lord. I have no desire to interfere, but at 
 least the amours of Lord Heronford's secretary should be 
 conducted with some outward regard to decorum." 
 
 " Madam ! " I said, rising to my feet. 
 
 " Sit down," my lord said quietly, and almost, as I 
 thought, with a feeling of relief. " It is best that we 
 should hear the last word upon this subject ; at least it 
 can do no harm." 
 
 " And I fear 'tis too late to do very much good," 
 madam cried in her high imperious way. " Ask this 
 gentleman where he spent yesterday and the day before 
 and every day for the last week past." 
 
 " I do not think it necessary to put that question," he 
 said with a grave smile. " I know already, and I am 
 sure he spent them more pleasantly than either you or I." 
 
 I do not know whether madam or myself was the 
 more astonished. 
 
 " Then you know your dependant's low intrigue ? " 
 she cried ; u it has gone on with your permission and 
 authority ? I was ready to believe anything, but I could 
 not have believed that." 
 
 " Hardly with my permission, for that never was asked, 
 and scarcely with my authority, for I have not ventured 
 to interfere. But " here my lord smiled gravely "you 
 must admit the lady does credit to my secretary's taste." 
 
 " A brazen baggage with red curls and a milkmaid's 
 cheeks," madam cried indignantly ; " a saucy, giggling 
 dairymaid. 'Tis the talk of the country."
 
 88 HERONFORD 
 
 " If we listen to the talk of the country I am afraid we 
 must begin to put our house in order in more ways than 
 one. My dear Judith, do not let us forget our own youth." 
 
 " You are pleased to insult me, my lord." 
 
 " Pardon me, I had forgotten. At least let me remem- 
 ber mine. My secretary is still young enough to be happy." 
 
 " And old enough to bring discredit on the family." 
 
 " Even if it were as you say the family would not 
 suffer much it would not add the burden of another 
 straw. Have you anything more to say ? " 
 
 " Will you bring her home to Heronford ? Shall I 
 prepare the bride's rooms in the west wing and send in 
 my own harpsichord that she may sing you ballads ? 
 I'm told she sings like a nightingale." 
 
 " I have sat long enough," I cried indignantly. " I 
 have listened to words " 
 
 " 'Tis well to follow the proverb in a case like this," 
 said my lord. " The storm is over." 
 
 " At any rate I have done my duty, and given you 
 warning. I know it has fallen upon deaf ears, but I 
 thought at least you took enough interest in your protege 
 to keep him from making a fool of himself." 
 
 With that she flung out of the room in her high 
 tragedy manner and left my lord and me alone together. 
 
 There is no speech that can cut and sting like the 
 speech of a woman. You can answer a man with a 
 blow or a word, but it is one of the privileges of a woman 
 to strike, and to strike where it hurts most and wounds 
 deepest without fear of retaliation or power of redress. 
 When Madam Cassilis was speaking I felt that I had no 
 power to reply, and while every word she spoke added to
 
 LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 89 
 
 my indignation and anger, I felt that my lord was right, 
 and that the wiser course had been to say nothing. But 
 the insulting bitterness with which she had treated me, 
 the cruel wrong she had done my dear love, gave me 
 now the courage that I needed, and I made up my mind 
 to tell my lord my story from beginning to end. But 
 he, so soon as Madam Cassilis was gone, reached over 
 and took up the pen that he had laid down. 
 
 " We have already lost too much time," he said in his 
 quiet voice. " We must go through this account again, 
 John." 
 
 " There is first something that I would like to say if 
 you will hear me." 
 
 " Upon the subject of which I have just heard ? " 
 
 " Yes, upon that subject." 
 
 " Remember, I am quite satisfied. Are you sure you 
 wish to speak under no feeling of compulsion or re- 
 straint ? " 
 
 My dear master laid down his pen, leaned his arms 
 upon the table, and looked at me with a soft and kindly 
 look in his eyes. 
 
 " I was wrong," I said, " not to speak of it before. I 
 have been burning to tell you, and if you will listen I 
 will tell you now." 
 
 " I am glad you think it right to tell me," he said, 
 closing the book that was lying open before him. " You 
 had better begin at the beginning." 
 
 I do not well remember what I said nor how I said it, 
 but I am sure I forgot everything but my subject as I 
 went on in my narrative, pouring out my whole heart in 
 the abandonment of my love. I drew such a picture of
 
 9 o HERONFORD 
 
 my sweet mistress, of her beauty, her courage, her inno- 
 cence, as only the painter Love can draw. I described 
 her father with his heroic heart and honourable wounds 
 received in the service of his country ; how my love had 
 first sprung to life and grown in depth and fulness every 
 day, till now it meant all the world and involved all my 
 happiness. I omitted nothing, and when I had finished 
 I had laid open my whole heart, as we only do in youth 
 and perhaps can only do once. 
 
 As I ended my lord drew a deep sigh. 
 
 " Ah ! if a man were always young oh ! happy three- 
 and-twenty. 'Tis a pretty story, John a fairy tale with 
 a lilt of music in it, but " 
 
 " Ah ! my lord," I said, that is it, but " 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
 "Sometimes my love seems altogether beyond my 
 reach ; for what can I offer ? What am I ? Nothing 
 but the poor dependent on the best master in the world. 
 I have nothing ; I have neither means nor hope of 
 means, birth " 
 
 " Who spoke of your birth ? " he asked sharply. 
 
 " I have never heard it spoken of but by yourself, and 
 then then I learned nothing. But I cannot remember 
 the time when I have not been reproached with it. It 
 used to hurt me, my lord ; it used to cut me deeply, and 
 perhaps it still does, but I have grown more reconciled 
 to what I could not help. When I was a child the hints 
 of the servants used to send me to my bed weeping, and 
 later " 
 
 " Later ? " queried my lord. 
 
 " Later, when I saw the footing on which I was treated
 
 LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 91 
 
 by the family I mean by all but your lordship I knew 
 that I had no right to the shelter of this roof but by your 
 kindness." 
 
 " A man should never forget his mother, sir. To doubt 
 his birth is to dishonour that mother's memory. I told 
 you once I knew your mother. She was no man's mistress. 
 She was a bad man's wife both before God and man." 
 
 I never doubted my lord's words not for an instant. 
 Only the man who has lived for years under the shadow 
 of disgrace and brooded upon it till he has felt it nearly 
 every hour of his life with poignant shame ; only the man 
 who has seen that shadow pass away and feels that he no 
 longer rests under it, can realise what I felt at that 
 moment. I could not keep back the hot blood that 
 flowed to my face. 
 
 "The time is coming," my lord went on," when you 
 will hear your mother's history and the story of your 
 birth. But, my dear lad, 'tis a sad history, and for one man 
 a disgraceful story. There are grave reasons why I alone 
 was made the depository of that history, though your 
 the late Lord Heronford was aware of all the facts. The 
 same reasons which compelled me to silence also restrained 
 him. But now I think there is another who guesses the 
 secret, and it must be told perhaps sooner than I expected. 
 Wait " my lord laid his hand on my arm " I have 
 something more to say. I could not take your father's 
 place nor could I ask you for that affection which a son 
 naturally yields, but I have not been a harsh guardian, 
 John, and and I think you have some regard for me." 
 
 "There is no man in the world I love and respect as 
 I love and respect your lordship."
 
 92 HERONFORD 
 
 " You can understand that only the strongest reasons 
 have kept me silent reasons that affect a man who was 
 once my friend, and the honour of a great and noble 
 house but no reason that affects your mother or you. 
 Your birth is as clear and honourable as my own, but " 
 he paused and looked at me gravely " when I speak, 
 when the world hears the story, the man to whom you 
 owe your birth if he were alive would be compelled 
 to suffer the punishment of his crime. He would have 
 no refuge but in death." 
 
 " 1 do not understand " 
 
 " The time has not yet come for me to speak more 
 plainly. It is a law we cannot alter the children must 
 suffer for the transgressions of their fathers, and I have 
 seen the same law working in this house and in myself. 
 You must bear a little longer, my dear lad, without 
 questioning." 
 
 I saw that he was almost overcome, and there was a 
 look in his eyes I did not understand love and entreaty 
 but the memory of which dwelt with me long after- 
 wards. There were many questions upon my tongue, 
 but at that look I instantly checked them. 
 
 " I have implicit faith in your goodness," I said ; " I 
 will wait patiently till you think it time to speak." 
 
 "That is well," he said, laying his hand upon mine, 
 and letting it rest there for some time; " it is something 
 that we are able to trust one another. Ah ! a great wrong 
 has been done you. A great wrong, an unpardonable sin. 
 It was not a little thing for a child to grow up among 
 these shadows and in this loneliness. It was a hard lot 
 for a child, and I have watched how you bore it."
 
 LORD HERONFORD MY CONFIDANT 93 
 
 " I have always felt that I had one friend." 
 
 "A bitter, disappointed man, John, whose heart is 
 buried in the grave of the past. But I can still remember. 
 It was because I saw my own life the life that might 
 have been in this new life of yours that I have said noth- 
 ing. But I loved you too well altogether to close my eyes, 
 and " my lord smiled sadly " if I could not recall the 
 rapture of love, at least I could hear the fluttering of his 
 wings. It was something to see that you were happy, and 
 I felt that the past owed you some recompense that the 
 future could afford to pay. I suppose you are happy ? " 
 
 " My lord ! " 
 
 " Ah ! there is no cloud in the springtime of love. She 
 is a beautiful girl, John, with eyes that remind me of a 
 woman a good woman I once knew." 
 
 " I know whom you mean," I cried. " I have seen 
 the resemblance myself." 
 
 Lord Heronford looked at me in amazement. 
 
 " She I mean died when you were only a child," he 
 said slowly. 
 
 " Four years old," I said. " My mother had the same 
 eyes." 
 
 I always wore my little miniature round my neck like 
 a charm, as indeed it was, and almost without thinking 
 what I did I opened my vest and placed the little gold 
 case in his hand. But I was not prepared for his agita- 
 tion. He sat gazing at it in perfect silence and with a 
 stony look, and then rising walked to the window, where 
 he stood looking at it with his back to me. I felt that it 
 must have recalled some very painful memory; when he 
 turned round his lips were quite white.
 
 94 HERONFORD 
 
 " I remember the time that was painted," he said. 
 " Your father was a villain, John, though he was my 
 friend. He broke her heart." 
 
 " Do not let us speak of him," I said. 
 
 " No, it is better that we should not speak of him. 
 You are right ; there is some resemblance here, but your 
 sweetheart is not so beautiful as your mother was. Good 
 God ! how those sweet lips used to laugh ! And she died 
 broken-hearted at two-and-twenty, and sacrificed herself 
 for the man who killed her. Sometimes we should pity 
 the living more than the dead. Well, you must see that 
 you do not walk in your father's footsteps." 
 
 " God forbid ! " I cried, almost with a feeling of horror. 
 
 " Amen ! " said my lord ; " we both pray the same 
 prayer. Take back your relic and pray that the world 
 may never warp and poison your heart as it has poisoned 
 his, till he forgot his love, his honour, and his name, and 
 found himself a criminal listening for years for the foot- 
 steps of justice." 
 
 Then my lord gave a little cry, tottered forward a step 
 or two, and fell in a swoon across the table.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 
 
 MY lord's illness was more serious than we at first sup- 
 posed, and I think he never regained his original health 
 in its entire vigour. The doctor who had come flying at 
 the first imperative summons pronounced that he was 
 suffering from a kind of stroke, and he remained uncon- 
 scious till the middle of the next day, when his mind 
 came back, though without the power of speech, which 
 only returned slowly and after nearly a week. During 
 all this time I remained constantly at his bedside, for he 
 seemed unwilling that I should leave the room, and dis- 
 tressed when I was absent. 
 
 I had a little bed brought into my lord's dressing-room, 
 where I used to lie listening to him tossing uneasily, and 
 after he had recovered his speech, talking with a broken 
 and passionate utterance, though it was impossible to piece 
 his rambling words together, or draw a coherent meaning 
 from them. In justice to myself I must say that I had 
 no desire to gather my lord's secrets from his unconscious 
 wanderings, and I as resolutely shut my ears against them, 
 but it was impossible at the end not to find myself driven 
 to the conclusion that he had lived and was living under 
 the shadow of a great fear. What the mainspring or 
 cause of this terror was I did not know, for always at this 
 point he seemed to stop aghast and returned upon the 
 path he had travelled, repeating the same phrases, and 
 dwelling on them with an iteration of horror. 
 
 95
 
 96 HERONFORD 
 
 There were times when I thought he would like to have 
 taken me into his confidence, and once he had actually 
 made me sit down beside him, but it was evident that at 
 the last moment his courage failed him. As he grew 
 stronger (and he now began to mend rapidly) this desire 
 seemed to pass away, though his dreams were still broken 
 and his sleep disturbed. But it was a very great relief 
 to myself when he became perfectly convalescent and no 
 longer required my attendance, and he was able to resume 
 his old habits without any change or interruption. 
 
 During all these last days I had spent in this way with 
 my lord he had never once returned to the subject of our 
 conversation, though I afterwards found he had kept the 
 matter in his mind and had by no means forgotten it. It 
 was after he had recovered so far as to be able to sit out in 
 the sunshine upon the terrace that he returned to the sub- 
 ject. Sitting here under the south wall one can see the 
 vast girdle of sand that clasps the waves of Carnforth Bay 
 in its silver folds, and the green swell of the hill that rises 
 above Carnforth Cottage. I suppose my lord had seen how 
 my eyes had followed my heart that they could not out- 
 run beyond the cliffs and across the bay ; he had been 
 watching me as he sat wrapped in a great cloak, for the day 
 though bright was not warm, and never speaking a word. 
 At last he sighed, and at that moment I turned to him. 
 
 " It has grown cold," I said, " your lordship had 
 better go indoors." 
 
 " No, it is not that. I have been thinking what Pisgah 
 views there are from the hills of youth ; the vineyards that 
 need no husbandry, the cornlands that are still ripening 
 to the harvest, the streams flowing with milk and honey,
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 97 
 
 the life that never withers and the hearts that never grow 
 old. Ah, that is a golden prospect. But there is another. 
 Ah, there is another. The old man at the end of his 
 journey looks back upon the wilderness he has travelled, 
 the long track of desert strewed with the wrecks of faith 
 and love and the promise of wasted years with desires 
 and unfulfilled ambition with memories that gather like 
 ghosts and ghosts that are more than memories. Of all 
 those who quitted the House of Bondage how many were 
 there that entered the Land of Promise, John ? " 
 
 " My lord, there were reasons," I answered gravely. 
 
 " Still it seems a pity they should have come so far ; it 
 was a long journey for nothing. But there were reasons 
 that is the answer, the last word, and Faith is silent 
 with the question on her lips. Still, you did not tell me 
 the name of your sweetheart, John ? " 
 
 "Victory, my lord." 
 
 " Ah, I suppose a sailor's curious fancy, but a very 
 good name for a woman a beautiful name on the lips 
 of a lover." 
 
 " A beautiful name anywhere," I cried. " She was born 
 on the day that Rodney chased the French at Finisterre, 
 and Captain Blythe fought the three-decker Sanspareil. 
 You should hear him tell the story, my lord. You would 
 think he saw every incident in the fight, from the time 
 they grappled with the enemy till they ran up the English 
 colours and gave three cheers for the fighting captain." 
 
 " Yes," said my lord, " I have been told he was a good 
 sailor, and with a little more luck might have been an 
 admiral. I am satisfied that he is a gentleman a little 
 rough but still a gentleman. You thought the eye of the
 
 98 HERONFORD 
 
 schoolmaster was not on you when you were playing 
 truant, and spending your days at the other side of the 
 bay with love in idleness. You were mistaken, my dear 
 lad. It was my duty to see that you made no mistake, 
 and I am satisfied. You might have done better, but 
 you might have done a great deal worse." 
 
 " I could have done no better," I said, " my love is the 
 best woman, the sweetest and tenderest, and she loves 
 me altogether for myself." 
 
 " Ah," said my lord gravely, " the love that only gives 
 is excellent, but the love that receives is perfect. I sup- 
 pose since the world began there never was a sweetheart 
 yet who had not all the graces. I should like to see 
 your sweetheart, my boy." 
 
 " Then come with me to Carnforth," I said. " I 
 should like you to see her with your own eyes." 
 
 I confess that I had no hope that I could induce my 
 lord to take this visit, his reluctance to passing beyond his 
 own rooms, and the strip of cliff where he was used to ex- 
 ercise, being excessive, and his dislike to meeting strangers 
 amounting to a passion. But I did not altogether despair, 
 since I had already succeeded so far, and since the wish 
 that he had expressed showed that he had no ordinary in- 
 terest in the affair. I did not immediately press him, but 
 neither did I let the matter drop, and after a good many 
 efforts I ultimately succeeded in inducing him to name a 
 day for his visit to Carnforth. But even then he would 
 have temporised and endeavoured to excuse himself upon 
 some trivial grounds, and I am quite sure he regretted his 
 promise. 
 
 When I announced his approaching visit, Captain
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 99 
 
 Blythe for the first time realised that there were more in- 
 terests in the world than he imagined, and his excitement 
 increased as the day fixed for the interview approached. 
 In common with the rest of the neighbourhood he had 
 formed the most extraordinary ideas regarding Lord 
 Heronford's character, which nothing that I could say 
 shook in the slightest, and a visit from a person so in- 
 scrutable and mysterious was a visit of no ordinary oc- 
 currence. At first he was as his phrase ran inclined 
 to cut his cable and run, but his natural courage came to 
 his aid, and he began to prepare for the interview in much 
 the same way and spirit as he would have prepared for a 
 general engagement with a superior force. A day or two 
 before he had laid out his glorious blue coat that he had 
 worn on the high day of Porto Rico, and paced up and 
 down his garden walk as he would have paced the quarter- 
 deck waiting for the enemy to come in sight a little 
 irascible and quick of temper but full of a noble courage. 
 He had carefully prepared his speech double-shotted his 
 guns and given directions as to the way in which my 
 lord was to be received ; but as it turned out his calcula- 
 tions were entirely upset, and the introduction was of the 
 most informal description. 
 
 My lord and myself were nearly an hour early, and 
 taking advantage of the familiar footing on which I stood 
 with the household, I had ushered him somewhat un- 
 ceremoniously into the captain's sanctum. It was a fine, 
 warm day, and the window looking out on the garden was 
 thrown open. The captain, divested of his coat, which 
 lay beside him, was seated at the table, stealing, as I sus- 
 pect, Dutch courage from the case-bottle at his elbow,
 
 ioo HERONFORD 
 
 and resting, as was usual with him, his wooden leg upon 
 a chair. As we came in he hastily drew himself bolt up- 
 right, his face very red, and showing unmistakable signs 
 of consternation. But I will do him the justice to say 
 his perturbation passed very quickly, and when he had 
 gained his feet he came forward dressed as he was, and 
 held out his hand with a heroic squareness of figure. 
 
 " I fought the crew of a French privateer in my night- 
 shirt once, my lord." 
 
 " And I am sure you gave them a sound drubbing too." 
 
 44 1 gave them as warm a welcome as they could have 
 wished, but 'tis not the way I like to go into action." 
 
 " We will imagine," says my lord, taking his hand, " that 
 the drums have beaten to quarters, if you please, and the 
 colours are flying, but I hope you will treat me as a friend." 
 
 " God forbid that I should treat you as anything else. 
 It is allowable to hate the French, though I allow there 
 are fine fellows among them, but I have done with fight- 
 ing for the rest of my life. I am glad to see your lord- 
 ship under my roof." 
 
 There was never a finer gentleman in the world, and 
 though his language smacked of the salt water and his 
 headlong life, his manner was altogether perfect, clothing 
 him with his natural character frank, generous, and full 
 of fitting self-respect and simple dignity. My lord's 
 manner, though altogether different, being stately and 
 ceremonious, was not more admirable, and if upon occa- 
 sion there broke forth a certain rough hilarity in the cap- 
 tain's conversation, it was only a strong breeze that 
 stirred you to congenial laughter. You never for a mo- 
 ment forgot that he was a gentleman in that full and
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 101 
 
 splendid sense which implies a simple heart, a noble sense 
 of baseness, a generous sympathy, and unfailing loyalty 
 to truth. 
 
 I must own that I had looked forward with some anxiety 
 to this meeting between Lord Heronford and the captain, 
 for I knew how fastidious my lord always was, and I knew 
 how closely the result might affect my own future. But 
 in a very few minutes my fears were laid completely at 
 rest. Without the least thought to impress his visitor 
 favourably, or draw him from the cold reserve he generally 
 maintained, the captain won my lord's sympathy com- 
 pletely, and inspired him with a real interest. To me 
 who knew Lord Heronford intimately that would not 
 appear an easy thing to do, for his mind had been so 
 warped and narrowed by his secluded life that few things 
 touched him with pleasure, and though proud beyond 
 reason he had become as shy and diffident as a young girl 
 in the presence of strangers. It may seem a curious thing 
 to say this of one who had seen so much of the great 
 world and taken so large a part in its follies and gaiety, 
 but there were in my lord two men and two natures so 
 different that they never coalesced, and so distinct that 
 they were the antipodes of each other. For the most 
 part the one was now only a memory ; the other was the 
 kind, retiring master with whom I spent my life. 
 
 In a very short time my lord was completely at his ease; 
 I could see that he was willing to draw his host out, which 
 was never a difficult thing to do. Once you carried the 
 captain back to the quarter-deck he forgot everything else; 
 the fighting blood of the old seaman mounted to his brain, 
 he seemed to hear the thunder of the broadsides, the ring-
 
 102 HERONFORD 
 
 ing cheer of boarders, and the call of his old comrades 
 from their places of renown. He never wearied in relating 
 that splendid history of thirty years with its fine, heroic 
 passages, when England was at war with all the world and 
 kept her right hand firm on her goodly heritage, the sea. 
 I had often heard his story myself, but it was new to my 
 lord, to whom it came like the salt, quickening breath of 
 ocean. The captain had forgotten his shirt sleeves and 
 his blue coat lying beside him ; he had forgotten his fore- 
 bodings, everything but the look of interest on my lord's 
 face and the memories that had been awakened. 
 
 " By heaven, you are right, my Lord Heron ford. Rod- 
 ney is the finest fellow in the world a hero every inch 
 of him from keel to truck. I have sailed with him my- 
 self, and should know him if ever man knew another. 
 It was a sight worth seeing how he took us into action 
 with the wind blowing half a gale from the south'ard six- 
 teen ships of the line and half the men down with the 
 scurvy. Upon my honour, my lord, this useless timber 
 leg of mine gets up and walks when I think of the way 
 that gallant fellow (God bless him !) sailed his ship that 
 Wednesday morning, and came up on the starboard side 
 of the French Admiral with a rousing English cheer." 
 
 " It must have been a fine sight," says my lord. 
 
 "There never was such another in the world. Here," 
 cries the captain, rising to his feet and breaking a piece 
 off the stem of his churchwarden, " here was the Terrible, 
 Captain Jennings Daddy Jennings we used to call him 
 till he was drowned off the Goodwins, but a good man 
 and a fine fellow always and here was the Hecate com- 
 ing up with her foremast gone by the board."
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 103 
 
 I need not follow the gallant old gentleman through the 
 details of this glorious day, but when he had finished the 
 churchwarden had lost its stem, and the fragments laid 
 upon the table had changed their position a hundred times 
 with the varying fortunes of the fight. In his excitement 
 he had risen to his feet, his face glowing, his blue eyes 
 gleaming with enthusiasm. The panorama of that heroic 
 sea-fight lay before him ; he was standing again on his 
 own quarter-deck, and his heart was filled with the clam- 
 orous call of battle. At such times he needed only a sym- 
 pathetic listener, and having now no doubt that he had 
 such an audience in my lord I slipped quietly out and left 
 them alone together. I was anxious that my lord should 
 not be restrained by my presence in any communication 
 he might see fit to make, and what, perhaps, was more to 
 the purpose, I had seen through the open window a dainty 
 figure in white crossing the bridge and passing up the 
 lane. 
 
 When I came out Victory was standing hesitating at 
 the gate. 
 
 "Jack!" she cried. 
 
 I came down through the laurels and held out both 
 my hands. 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! what have you done ? " 
 
 " I have brought my lord to see my dear sweetheart, 
 as I promised. That is all." 
 
 " I saw you coming across the sands. I knew my 
 father did not expect you for an hour, and I am sure he 
 was " 
 
 " My dear," I said, seeing now what troubled her, 
 " you can hear the thunder of the guns through the win-
 
 104 HERONFORD 
 
 dow yonder. The famous blue coat is nailed to the 
 main-mast, and Lord Heronford is watching the fight off 
 Finisterre. They have forgotten you and me." 
 
 " You are sure Lord Heronford will not care ? " 
 
 " Not the very least in the world. There is not a 
 gentleman in England like the captain." 
 
 " I am sure there is not, and for that reason but you 
 do not understand." 
 
 " Only a woman can understand." 
 
 " Do you think " 
 
 " I think Lord Heronford will say there is no rose 
 in the garden like the roses on your lips, and that John 
 Cassilis has had more luck than he deserves in this world." 
 
 " He may not see with your foolish eyes, Jack." 
 
 " I would have him see with his own. Come and 
 hear what he will say, Victory." 
 
 I did not then think how formidable this meeting must 
 have seemed to my dear love, or with how much trepida- 
 tion she had looked forward to this interview, but she 
 placed her hand in mine without a word, and we went 
 into the house together. 
 
 My lord sat in his chair in the attitude in which I had 
 left him, and the captain, who had not yet finished his 
 narrative, had just swept the fragments of the church- 
 warden into a heap, which I suppose represented the 
 conclusion of the engagement. 
 
 " 'Twas a good day's work," the captain was saying, 
 " and deserved the thanks of Parliament nine ships of 
 the line brought into Plymouth Sound " 
 
 My lord rose and came forward, holding out his hand. 
 
 " I need not ask your name, my dear," he said in his
 
 VICTORY VICTRIX 105 
 
 grave, friendly way, " I have heard it so often that we are 
 friends already if you will permit me to be your friend." 
 From that moment I had no fears regarding the result, 
 if at any time I had doubted. I could now understand 
 how my lord had been so great a favourite in his younger 
 days, and with what art he had won so many hearts and 
 gained so many friends. Though I knew him so inti- 
 mately, I had never yet seen the same gentle and winning 
 courtesy in his manner, the same gracious openness and 
 absence of reserve. It was done without an effort ; it was 
 quite natural and spontaneous ; and if it surprised me, 
 who knew him so well, it overcame my dear mistress, who 
 was quite unprepared for a reception so frank and un- 
 ceremonious. But, indeed, it was not wonderful after all. 
 Looking back across that long stretch of time and 
 changing fortunes, after many happy years, I can still 
 see my dear love bowing before my lord with the modest 
 roses on her cheeks, clad in the beauty of her youth and 
 innocence, a picture still fresh and glowing. What heart 
 could have failed to respond to that magic witchery ? 
 Who would not have yielded at the first summons and laid 
 their hearts at her feet ? Certainly my lord was entirely 
 captured and yielded at the first word.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 
 
 ONE morning Transome, the bailiff, and myself rode 
 over to Fareham on some business connected with the 
 estate I think chiefly to see my lord's attorney regard- 
 ing a mortgage, as to which some difficulty had arisen. 
 At any rate, the matter was one of some importance and 
 required immediate attention, and I was anxious that it 
 should be settled without delay, for Lord Heronford was 
 the worst man of business in the world, and now gener- 
 ally left these things in my hands. 
 
 When I got to Fareham I found a great stir of people 
 in the streets, it being market day, and Mr. Stone, the at- 
 torney, so busy that it was some time before we had 
 satisfactorily finished the business on which I had come, 
 if it was satisfactorily finished, as to which my memory 
 is not clear. At any rate, I had a long interview with the 
 little man in a back office overlooking a yard that was full 
 of country life, and no doubt lost my temper over the 
 meaningless forms and unending delays which seem in- 
 cidental and natural to our English law. Mr. Stone was 
 quite an honest man for an attorney I think there are 
 more rogues in that profession than elsewhere and had 
 managed the Heronford business so long as I remember. 
 If his advice had been followed upon many occasions my 
 own labours would have been less difficult, but his as- 
 sistance was most frequently sought after the step had 
 
 1 06
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 107 
 
 been taken, and it was necessary to provide for the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 He had been good enough more than once to tell me in 
 his dry, caustic manner that it was to be regretted I had 
 not been at Lord Heronford's elbow twenty years before, 
 and that for one who bore the name of Cassilis I had some 
 faint ideas of business. But we were always on quite 
 friendly terms, and I have no doubt he preferred to tran- 
 sact matters of this kind with me to dealing with my 
 lord, who usually flung into a passion and ended the in- 
 terview abruptly. 
 
 Whatever the business was on which I had come that 
 was at length settled, and he was gathering up the papers. 
 As he tied them he looked up at me under his brows as 
 you have seen an attorney do. 
 
 " I have always found you a sensible man, Mr. Cas- 
 silis. I can speak plainly with you ? " 
 
 " I hope I have merited your good opinion," I said. 
 44 1 do not object to plain speech." 
 
 44 'Tis the short way the safe way. What I have to say 
 is for your ears alone and altogether outside our business." 
 
 I prepared myself to listen to him patiently. 
 
 44 I do not know how intimately you are acquainted 
 with Lord Heronford's affairs I mean his private his- 
 tory before he succeeded to the title." 
 
 "I know nothing, Mr. Stone," I said with some heat; 
 " I desire to know nothing." 
 
 " That is exactly my own position, sir ; I have too 
 many concerns already to be troubled much by curiosity, 
 but " 
 
 41 Is it necessary to pursue the subject ? "
 
 io8 HERONFORD 
 
 " I hope the necessity may never arise. I accept the 
 assurance that you know nothing and have heard nothing 
 I am right in going so far ? that would be likely to 
 cause him any uneasiness in the present or fear in the 
 future. I am now speaking with more freedom than I 
 am in the habit of using, but I trust you implicitly, and 
 have some confidence in your judgment. The stories 
 which travelled to Fareham years ago, magnified I have 
 no doubt by rumour, were the idle tales that follow a 
 foolish young man of the town, intrigue, debt, drink, 
 play wasted wealth and wasted hours but nothing dis- 
 honourable, disgraceful, or criminal." 
 
 " I cannot discuss the matter, sir, for it is impossible." 
 
 " Pardon me, I am afraid we must, and I can only deal 
 with it in my own way. I remember Lord Heronford in 
 his youth. I have seen few handsomer young men, with 
 fine high spirits and an unfailing fund of gaiety, but he 
 was ridden at the first with too tight a curb, and perhaps 
 there was something in the blood pardon me, I have the 
 highest regard for his lordship. I must own, however, 
 that after he returned to Heronford upon the death of his 
 father, I was surprised beyond measure at the change that 
 had taken place in him. It was not the same man ; I 
 should not have recognised him." 
 
 " Time changes most men. Even we do not grow 
 younger." 
 
 " It was not that not that. Mr. Cassilis, besides 
 yourself there is no stranger living who has the honour and 
 welfare of Heronford and its owner as much at heart as 
 myself. Will you be plain with me, for such plainness may 
 assist us all does my lord live in fear of his brother ? "
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 109 
 
 I looked at him in amazement. 
 
 " Fear ! " I cried. 
 
 " I see," he answered, " that my question surprises 
 you, but I am perfectly serious. Then they are still on 
 terms of friendship ? " 
 
 " There have been differences between them," I said, 
 "but only on matters perfectly within my knowledge. So 
 far as I know my lord has no cause for fear." 
 
 "I hope that may prove to be the case. It may be a 
 mare's nest, but I am not sure." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " I said, with a foreboding 
 that I would not have expressed for the world. 
 
 " There is no man living," he went on quietly, " for 
 whom I have less respect than for Mr. William Cassilis. 
 Boy and man he, at least, has not altered, and the most 
 that I can say for him is that he deserves the character 
 that he bears a bad man, Mr. Cassilis, a vicious man, 
 an unfeeling and heartless man ; a man who would will- 
 ingly injure his best friend." 
 
 " That supposes he possesses the power." 
 
 " That is the very point. I have no ambition to pos- 
 sess a client in this gentleman ; I have no desire to see 
 him in my office or in my house, nor to bow to him upon 
 the public street. Even an attorney may possess some 
 self-respect, Mr. Cassilis. But this gentleman was good 
 enough to visit me some time since on a very curious 
 business." 
 
 " I presume he was quite sober ? " I said with some 
 scorn. 
 
 " Perfectly sober, and which is more to the point, per- 
 fectly serious. He was sitting in that chair, Mr. Cassilis,
 
 no HERONFORD 
 
 when he opened his business, and I must say there was a 
 fine directness in the way in which he dispensed with 
 preliminaries. There was no preface or apology or ex- 
 pression of regret. A bad man, sir; a very bad man." 
 
 " May I ask what was his business ? " 
 
 " Surely, that is exactly what I have set out to tell you. 
 It is monstrous, incredible ; I could hardly believe my 
 ears. He was anxious to know how in the event of his 
 brother, my lord, having committed a felony he would 
 stand in relation to the title and the estates." 
 
 " A felony ! " I cried, rising to my feet in astonish- 
 ment. " You are not serious ? " 
 
 " Oh, perfectly serious ! I have used almost his very 
 words, omitting only the unnecessary adjectives and inter- 
 jections, without which no speech of his would be com- 
 plete or perfect." 
 
 " And what was the offence with which he charged 
 Lord Heronford ? " 
 
 " Men in my profession at least acquire patience, Mr. 
 Cassilis, but perhaps even the best of us have still some- 
 thing to learn to attain perfection. I may have been 
 wanting in tact ; I may have shown some disgust or in- 
 dignation, I cannot say, but though I exercised all the art 
 of which I am possessed, I could not draw him an inch 
 toward committing himself. He merely wanted an an- 
 swer to his question and refused to move beyond this." 
 
 "You answered his question ? " 
 
 " Yes, I answered his question " Mr. Stone 
 rubbed his hands " but I do not think it probable he 
 will repeat the language I used or seek another interview 
 with me for some time to come. It is not often that men
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN in 
 
 of tape and wax have the pleasure of ordering a gentle- 
 man out of their house, but really it afforded me some 
 satisfaction. A bad man, sir; a very dangerous man." 
 
 " A sot and a bully ! " I cried indignantly. 
 
 " Admitted all the way, but such persons are usually 
 troublesome, and especially well, especially when they 
 have found, or imagine they have found, something which 
 may turn to their own advantage. Now suppose " 
 
 "Mr. Stone, I will suppose nothing." 
 
 " Again admitted, but that is evidently not his brother's 
 opinion. Very well. I have hesitated whether I should 
 make this communication, but I have come to the con- 
 clusion that I owe a clear duty to Lord Heron ford in this 
 matter, and that the best way I could discharge this duty 
 was to warn you. As yet there is no open trouble, nor, 
 so far as you have learned, any private claim, but my ex- 
 perience tells me we shall hear more of this. The ques- 
 tion then is, what steps you are to take to anticipate him, 
 if any." 
 
 " I am so confident of my lord's rectitude and honour 
 that I have no fear for the result, but I own I have not 
 the courage to tell Lord Heronford the story you have 
 told me. I have eaten his bread ; I have lived in his 
 house for years, and I have seen with my own eyes the 
 generous kindness with which he has treated his brother, 
 and born with his follies almost beyond endurance. No 
 other man in the world would have done it not one. It 
 is incredible." 
 
 " That is merely a figure of speech there is nothing 
 incredible in human nature. But you have now been 
 warned and placed upon your guard. As a member of
 
 ii2 HERONFORD 
 
 the family, so to speak, I know that you are concerned 
 for its honour and welfare, and should you see fit to con- 
 sult me hereafter I shall be very willing to give you what 
 advice I can. I admit I do not like the complexion of 
 affairs, and it is possible, as I have said, we have not 
 heard the end." 
 
 I had taken up a very natural position during this in- 
 terview, and in my attitude of indignant protest Lgave 
 expression to my natural feelings, but behind and beyond 
 this sentiment of anger there was a feeling of dismay, 
 doubt, and foreboding as yet too vague to put into words. 
 My knowledge of Lord Heronford's character, from the 
 time I had first known him his pride, that keeps most 
 men from meanness and wrong, his scrupulous honour 
 and veracity, his generous heart, cried out upon such a 
 charge as incredible and impossible. But there were many 
 things trivial incidents, chance and vagrant words, that 
 I could not forget, and above all those unconscious con- 
 fessions to which I had been an unwilling listener, and 
 which had caused me so much pain. I had been driven 
 to the conclusion that there was a secret in my lord's life 
 a secret with fear and terror at the heart of it but 
 it had never occurred to me, nor could I now bring my- 
 self to believe, that this secret was of such a nature as his 
 brother indicated and supposed. It was likely, I had 
 thought, that he had done some rash and unconsidered 
 wrong, upon which he had meditated and brooded until 
 his nature, naturally sensitive, had been changed and 
 warped, and his conscience had been charged with a burden 
 too heavy for his pride and self-regard to support. But 
 that my lord my kind, proud master had at any time
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 113 
 
 been guilty of a crime was beyond belief, and though I 
 was staggered and bewildered at what I had heard, I was 
 yet clear and confident. 
 
 On one matter, however, I had expressed my real feel- 
 ing to Mr. Stone whatever the consequences, I could 
 not bring myself to disclose to my lord the lawyer's con- 
 fidences. There was nothing for me to do but to exercise 
 a watchful vigilance, and to wait upon events which I had 
 a dull presentiment were about to follow. Latterly, Will 
 Cassilis had spent little time at Heronford, and when he 
 appeared there it was with a sour, discontented look and 
 an apparent desire to keep only his own company, which 
 I had not regretted. For the most part he had, I learned, 
 been staying with Mr. Weston at Langston, with whom 
 he had long had a close friendship, and who was in every 
 way fitted to be his intimate friend and congenial com- 
 panion, for their tastes and pursuits were identical. His 
 attitude toward myself had entirely changed ; whereas 
 formerly he was in the habit of treating me with a coarse 
 and contemptuous pleasantry, now he took no pains to 
 conceal his dislike or even some stronger feeling, and 
 scarcely spoke to me when we met by accident. That I 
 did not mind, but I could not now help thinking that his 
 change toward myself was in some way connected with 
 the wicked design he was harbouring. However, 'tis al- 
 ways better to have a bad man for an enemy than for a 
 friend, since he is less likely to prove dangerous at arm's 
 length, and I was quite contented that he should treat 
 me in this way. 
 
 When I left Mr. Stone's office I returned to " The 
 Little Green Man " where I had put up my horse, in-
 
 ii 4 HERONFORD 
 
 tending to dine there, as I usually did before I returned 
 to Heronford. There was always a great charm for me in 
 the square at Fareham upon market days, in the activity, 
 varied life, and humours of that miniature world. I liked 
 to see the open red faces puckered into cautious shrewd- 
 ness or expanded in hilarity, and to listen to the babel that 
 rolled and swelled over the price of pigs or the points of 
 a horse. I touched a life that was for the most part re- 
 mote and distant from my own, and felt a kindly sympathy 
 in a world from which chance and circumstances had 
 shut me out. 
 
 " The Little Green Man " was overflowing when I 
 came in, and I hardly ever remember when that benignant 
 and prosperous person had more guests under his roof. I 
 found a place at the table with some difficulty between 
 two neighbours who had a difference, and so left more 
 room between them than would otherwise have been the 
 case. What a continual uproar of boisterous, side-shak- 
 ing laughter ! What a clatter of knives and forks, and 
 what an endless succession of foaming tankards, the pledge 
 of good fellowship and loosener of tongues ! I own I like 
 to see men happy, contented and prosperous, and blessed 
 with a good appetite, and I enjoyed the spectacle almost 
 as a child enjoys a lively piece of acting in a theatre. 
 
 It consequently turned out that the afternoon was 
 growing when I went to look for Transome, whom I 
 found very comfortable in the bar, and after I had bidden 
 him see my horse brought round I went to the door, 
 where I stood watching the little busy groups now slowly 
 disappearing. I had already delayed too long and was 
 anxious to return home, for I remembered I had some
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 115 
 
 business to which it was necessary I should attend. Be- 
 sides, Transome was in that condition in which men act 
 with a judicial slowness of movement, and I was myself 
 about to walk round to the stables, when I heard a sud- 
 den and startling clatter of flying hoofs at the upper end 
 of the market square. Two horsemen came thundering 
 down the street one mounted on a strong, grey horse, 
 and the other on a handsome bay and both pulled up 
 opposite the inn door with a reckless promptitude. I 
 recognised them immediately I had seen them, and from 
 the way that Mr. Cassilis sat in his saddle I could see 
 that he had been drinking. He flung the reins on his 
 horse's neck and slid heavily to the ground. 
 
 " Here, you " he cried to me ; " come and take 
 
 my horse." 
 
 I made no answer, but stood looking at him quietly 
 with some thought of returning into the house, for I had 
 no desire for a public scene and perhaps a public quarrel, 
 and I saw that he was quite prepared for either. 
 
 " Do you hear me, you ? " and he repeated the 
 
 opprobrious epithet. " I mean to put an end to your fine 
 airs, Mr. Secretary Cassilis." 
 
 " Try the horsewhip, Will," said Mr. Weston, who 
 had by this time given his horse to the ostler ; " try the 
 horsewhip, and put a little movement into the legs of his 
 reverence. There is nothing like the horsewhip." 
 
 " I'll take my own way to make him dance," says Will 
 moodily. " Here, Tom, take my nag, for my man won't." 
 
 He let go the bridle and came up the steps to where I 
 was standing, his face inflamed with passion and his eyes 
 bloodshot. I felt that my position was a delicate one, for
 
 n6 HERONFORD 
 
 he was determined to push me into a quarrel, though at 
 the same time I knew him sufficiently well to know that 
 he would stop short of actual violence, for bully as he 
 was, he was also a coward. But I was firm that if I 
 answered him at all it would be with that soft answer 
 which turns away wrath, and that nothing he might say 
 would lead me into an angry altercation. 
 
 He came up close to me with his riding-whip held 
 threateningly in his hand. 
 
 " What fool's errand brought you to Fareham ? " he said. 
 
 " That is my business, Mr. Cassilis," I said, looking 
 at him quietly and squarely. " We had better not con- 
 tinue this conversation at present." 
 
 " Tilly vally ! " he cried contemptuously. u You are 
 going to teach me manners next, damn me, and give me 
 a lesson in etiquette. I am not to speak to his lordship, 
 George ! " 
 
 " Take his advice," said Mr. Weston. " Try the 
 other way about." 
 
 " I have had enough of your fine words and high looks, 
 and I am going to put up with them no longer. You 
 think you are snug and warm and comfortable. But 
 some fine morning you will waken up and find you have 
 made a mistake. Go back to your damned books and 
 make up your figures, for you are come to the end of 
 your rope." 
 
 He had raised his voice in his drunken anger, for a knot 
 of idlers had gathered round and were enjoying the quar- 
 rel in which we were engaged, though I am sure the 
 sympathy was upon my side, for neither Mr. Weston 
 nor Will Cassilis was a great favourite. I need hardly
 
 TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 117 
 
 say that I did not enjoy the position in which I was 
 placed, and I was now more than pleased to see my nag 
 being brought round. 
 
 "We will not quarrel, Mr. Cassilis," I said. "With 
 your permission I will ride home." 
 
 " You have my permission to ride to the devil." 
 I pushed quietly past him pleased at the self-restraint 
 I had exercised, and walked leisurely down the steps. As 
 I passed Mr. Weston, that gentleman wearing a con- 
 temptuous smile, tapped me on the shoulder with his 
 heavy riding-whip. At the touch my blood that had been 
 flowing with a cool and even pulse leapt in my veins, 
 and the anger that I had hitherto kept in check now en- 
 tirely overmastered me. I halted on the instant and 
 turned to face him. 
 
 " A word with you, sir." 
 " What have you to say to me ? " I asked. 
 " Mr. Cassilis is not quite sober, but I am." 
 " I am sorry to think there is one of you sober," I 
 said. 
 
 " Hey ! you had rather I was drunk too, you " 
 
 I will not write the word he used, but I had already 
 heard it twice before within the last five minutes. Per- 
 haps I should have been wiser to have taken no notice of 
 the insult, but those considerations which had before re- 
 strained me were not now so pressing, and my temper 
 was beyond my control. I only saw his mocking face 
 and heard the disgraceful taunt, and almost without think- 
 ing of what I did I struck him with my closed hand 
 fairly on the mouth. The blow was so violent that he 
 went down like a log and lay at my feet for a minute
 
 u8 HERONFORD 
 
 without stirring. Then he gathered himself up and stood 
 scowling at me, but the fight had all gone out of him. 
 
 " If you ever dare to address me again," I cried, " I 
 will horsewhip you like the cur you are, and if you de- 
 sire satisfaction you will know where to find me. Good- 
 afternoon." 
 
 I turned upon my heel and made my way through the 
 crowd of spectators, who respectfully made a path for 
 me, and who seemed disappointed that our altercation 
 had come to a termination so abrupt and ignominious. 
 I thought I knew what Mr. Weston had desired to say, 
 and I was not sorry to think I had prevented him from 
 dragging into this vulgar brawl a subject which beyond 
 all others was dear and sacred to me.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 
 
 I HAD made up my mind to say nothing to Lord 
 Heronford regarding what had occurred at Fareham, but 
 by some means it came to his knowledge probably 
 through Transome and he was very angry and indignant. 
 I am not sure that he did not attach some blame to my- 
 self, though even when my blood had got time to cool I 
 was at a loss to see how I could have acted otherwise 
 than I had done, and felt that under the circumstances I 
 had exercised some moderation and restraint. But while 
 he only hinted his displeasure at my action, he declared 
 that he would no longer tolerate his brother's conduct, 
 and repeated with great bitterness that he should no 
 longer make that house his home. 
 
 For the first time he took me to some extent into his 
 confidence, and showed me how much he had suffered by 
 his brother's conduct, which gave no sign or promise of 
 amendment. Till this time he had never said one word to 
 me upon the subject, nor, except upon the two occasions 
 to which I have referred, had I ever heard one angry or 
 passionate word pass between them at least upon my 
 lord's part. During all the years I had seen them to- 
 gether I had never heard his voice raised in anger or even 
 in friendly remonstrance, but whether it was that his pa- 
 tience had now been tried to the point of breaking, or 
 some new element had been introduced of which I knew 
 
 119
 
 120 HERONFORD 
 
 nothing, he had suddenly become very hot and bitter. In 
 this new state of affairs Madam Cassilis entirely sided 
 with her younger brother. I could not remember the 
 time when she had not inveighed against him and called 
 upon my lord to prevent the disgrace his conduct brought 
 upon the house of Heronford, and now, as usual when 
 my lord at length set down his foot, she went over to the 
 weaker side and took his part with acrimonious energy. 
 There were some frequent and painful scenes between 
 herself and my lord, though I was never present at any 
 of them, and I have reason to believe that she frequently 
 saw Mr. Will, and even gave him a lodging in the house 
 without his brother's knowledge. 
 
 My own position was by no means an enviable one, 
 for she showed me in a hundred ways that she attributed 
 to me or to my influence the rupture which had taken 
 place, and endeavoured to make me feel that I was now 
 only tolerated as a dependant because I made myself use- 
 ful. I am sure I should not have cared for that, since I 
 was too long accustomed to indifference and contemptuous 
 treatment, though never so openly displayed, but I knew 
 that Lord Heronford was pained by these outbursts and 
 was more than once on the point of interfering. Cer- 
 tainly at this time there was not a more divided or un- 
 happy household in the world, and, but for the hopes I 
 cherished and my love for my lord, I am sure I could 
 not have continued to live there longer. 
 
 " I suppose there is light at the end of the passage," my 
 lord would say wearily, " but it is a long journey in the 
 dark altogether in the dark. I have heard someone say 
 a man's worst foes are those who sit at his own table and
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 121 
 
 lie in his own bosom. Not always there is worse than 
 they " 
 
 " I can think of none worse," I said, " if they are 
 foes, but " 
 
 " But there is worse much worse. A man may be 
 his own deadly enemy. The world thinks mine an 
 enviable lot, John ? " 
 
 " You would find many men to change places with 
 you, my lord." 
 
 " And if they knew ! if they knew ! You see how 
 happy I am and how much there is to make me happy. 
 And I cannot stir hand or foot ; I am bound under the 
 wheel, and it must go on grinding till till I am ground 
 out. My father believed it was in the blood, and he may 
 have been right bad blood tainted blood, seven cen- 
 turies old a noble retrospect. Does a man make his own 
 life, or has it already been made for him before he comes 
 into the world at all ? I don't know, I cannot tell ; but I 
 know this one false step leads a man either to hell or 
 paradise one false step taken in the folly and wildness 
 of unripe youth. I hope you may never know what it 
 is to live under the shadow of sin through the best years 
 of your manhood sin shame, and fear." 
 
 " My lord," I cried, full of pity, " you know I love 
 you like a son, as indeed I should, for you have been 
 more than a father to me. Can I help you ? " 
 
 " There is no one can help me ; I must stand alone 
 at least, not yet. Some day you will hear everything, 
 and, John listen and promise the world must not 
 know I should not rest in my grave if I thought the 
 world knew. And yet "
 
 122 HERONFORD 
 
 "Will you tell me one thing?" I said with sudden 
 boldness ; "I do not ask or desire to know more. Has 
 your brother guessed or learned what you have now 
 hinted at ? " 
 
 He rose to his feet and looked at me with a white 
 face. " You have some reason for asking that question," 
 he said. " Tell me the truth tell me everything. Has 
 he spoken to you ? " 
 
 " He has said nothing to me, but " 
 
 " To whom has he spoken ? I can read it in your 
 eyes you have heard everything." 
 
 " I have heard nothing," I said. 
 
 " Then why did you ask the question ? You would 
 not ask without some cause." 
 
 " It is only that he now seems to act as though he had 
 some claim upon you." 
 
 " Ah ! " said my lord with a sigh of relief. " He would 
 not spare me at whatever cost to myself, or to the honour 
 of Heronford. I think I hope, he does not know or I 
 should have heard a brother's help a brother's sym- 
 pathy. I have been a good brother to him." 
 
 " You have been at least an indulgent one." 
 
 " Could I be otherwise ? What am I that I should 
 judge him I who was the rock, and am now only the 
 broken wave ? But he would not spare me." 
 
 I never forgot this conversation, not so much for what 
 was said, though in that there was enough for thought, but 
 for my lord's manner, which showed me how far he had 
 drifted into the shoals of despair and wretchedness. In 
 my own mind two things were now clear to me as noonday 
 the first that my lord had something to conceal, the
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 123 
 
 revelation of which menaced him with disgrace and per- 
 haps with ruin ; the second, that whatever the secret might 
 be his brother held the clue in his hands and was bent 
 upon following it to complete discovery. I felt that I had 
 not been entirely open and frank in the conversation which 
 I have just narrated, but I felt also that I had some excuse. 
 I could not bring myself to add to my lord's misery, and 
 I saw that the relation of what I had learned from Mr. 
 Stone at Fareham could do little good. I had, however, 
 no doubt that a catastrophe was impending, vague and 
 indefinite as yet, but shaping to fulfilment. 
 
 Nothing worthy of remark happened for some weeks, 
 and, outwardly at least, we continued to lead the same 
 dull and colourless life, unbroken by incident and undis- 
 turbed by change. It happened, however, during this 
 very time that a serious affray, in which two lives had 
 been lost, had broken out between the Revenue officers 
 and the lawless free traders who lived round Carnforth 
 and ran their cargoes of silk, lace, and spirits into the 
 sheltered bay on the other side of the headlands. As long 
 as I remember this trade had been carried on, and the 
 deep-sea fishers had been accustomed to land their com- 
 modities with impunity, snapping their fingers at the 
 law, and hardly waiting for the dark to come ashore. 
 We had drunk their French brandy ourselves, and 
 Madam Cassilis had worn their laces without question. 
 Now, however, there was a cruiser off the coast and a 
 sloop in Carnforth Bay, and the Preventive officers were 
 continually on the alert upon the cliffs. 
 
 Captain Blythe had taken part in the quarrel with his 
 headlong enthusiasm, and declared the coat he wore and
 
 124 HERONFORD 
 
 the commission he carried compelled him to take the 
 King's side and fight his enemies ashore and afloat, 
 whether French, Spanish, or English. He had gained 
 some ill-will by the attitude he had taken up, though he 
 had done little more than talk and bluster, and I was afraid 
 that some attempt at retaliation might be made either on 
 himself or his household. This fear brought me very 
 often to Carnforth, and I frequently stayed there till late 
 at night, walking home in the broad moonlight, and gain- 
 ing my bedchamber by the little hidden door in the west 
 wing. I do not think anyone in Heronford, except per- 
 haps Madam Cassilis, whose vigilance was lynx-eyed, 
 knew anything regarding these nocturnal wanderings, but 
 even she made no remark upon them. I own I liked 
 that quiet moonlight walk with the soft shimmer of light 
 in the throbbing sea, and silent cliffs, and undulating 
 downs, and more than once I have lain down on the 
 heath under the silver braid of stars with a thousand 
 hopes and dreams flowing through my heart. 
 
 I remember that fateful night very well. I remember 
 every trivial word and incident, and I shall never forget 
 them while I remember anything. The captain and my- 
 self had sat talking later than usual, for the dog had been 
 barking viciously during the evening, and we had thought 
 we heard the sound of footsteps under the window. But 
 whatever it might have been, nothing had happened, and 
 about midnight I had set out on my way home. 
 
 What a night that was ! The great orb of the moon 
 hung over the tremulous expanse of sea ; the vast depths 
 of heaven were sown with stars ; there was not a breath of 
 wind, and the languid waves broke one by one, each with
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 125 
 
 a separate note, on the shining beach. I had crossed the 
 sands of Carnforth Bay, taking my time as I went, and 
 had now the heather and soft turf that carpeted the cliffs 
 under my feet. I was not anxious to get home the 
 beauty of the scene had laid hold upon me and after a 
 while I lay down in the shelter of a great boulder with 
 my face to the sea and the soft stream of silver light that 
 rained upon the water. The music of the breaking waves 
 came up from far below, and now and then from some- 
 where on the downs I heard the bleat of wandering sheep. 
 
 The night was quite warm, and I sat here a good 
 while, half dreaming, half waking, till I was hardly con- 
 scious of the scene before me. 
 
 Then I suddenly became quite awake and sat up to 
 listen, for I had distinctly heard the sound of voices in 
 the soft, still air. I was unwilling to expose myself to 
 view, for the free traders had a bad reputation ; and lift- 
 ing myself cautiously till I had a clear view of the stretch 
 of cliffs, I saw the outlines of the speakers about a hun- 
 dred yards away. When I first saw them they were 
 standing apart, but it was altogether impossible for me 
 either to hear the words which were spoken or to recog- 
 nise the forms. But I was sure of this the voices that 
 I had first heard were voices raised in anger. The place 
 where they stood was the highest point of the cliffs, and 
 near the spot where the Grey Man's Path, of which I have 
 already spoken, begins its tortuous and terrible descent. 
 
 They were standing quite close to the verge, and I was 
 sure that from where they stood it was impossible for them 
 to discover myself. I never for a moment doubted they 
 were either Revenue officers or Carnforth men, but in
 
 126 HERONFORD 
 
 either case I was unwilling that I should be discovered 
 here at this hour of the night ; and I was about to return 
 to the shelter of the boulder when the terrible tragedy 
 occurred. 
 
 It seemed to me almost to take place in a moment a 
 moment of incredulous terror. They were still standing 
 apart when I heard a voice raised with a throb of anger 
 in it, and one of the two men stepped forward with his 
 arm raised as if to strike a blow. Whether he struck I 
 could not tell upon my solemn oath I could not tell 
 and at the same instant the other stepped back as if to 
 avoid the attack. There rose into the night a great ring- 
 ing scream of fear and agony, and then merciful God ! 
 the man with his arm still raised stood alone upon the cliffs. 
 
 It was all over; the tragedy was completed. I had 
 seen it all, and yet failed to realise it. I leaped to my 
 feet unable to move or speak, and while I still stood fixed 
 and fascinated, the murderer if, indeed, he was a mur- 
 derer stepped to the extreme edge of the cliff. Then 
 he threw up both his arms, and \vith a cry rather with 
 a scream which I shall never forget he set off running, 
 and was almost immediately lost to my view. 
 
 It hardly occurred to me till afterwards that I should 
 have followed the fugitive, but for the moment I was so 
 thrilled with horror and chilled by a blind unreasoning 
 fear, due, I suppose, as much to the suddenness of the 
 episode, as to the darkness, silence, and solitude, that I 
 remained standing motionless for a considerable time. 
 You can understand that, though you may never have 
 experienced my feelings. It is not a little matter to be 
 awakened in an instant out of a pleasant dream and find
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 127 
 
 yourself standing face to face with a tragedy, grim with 
 the issues of life and death, and a cry of agony ringing 
 in your ears. 
 
 At least I found it so, and then hardly knowing what I 
 did, but with the horror of it still clinging to me, I ran 
 to the verge of the cliff and gazed down that dark and 
 yawning gulf. I held my breath to listen as with a sort 
 of instinct ; I could hear nothing but the murmur of the 
 sea and the occasional cry of the distant sheep. Then 
 hardly trusting my voice I called aloud once, twice 
 and listened with no hope of an answer. A minute 
 passed filled with the beating of my heart as with the 
 tolling of a minster bell. Surely I heard something, a 
 cry, a moan, or was it only fancy ? And then I called 
 again, but only the sea throbbing in the silence answered 
 me, and I knew that I had heard nothing. 
 
 There was a fascination in the spot and I could hardly 
 drag myself away, halting, as I went, to listen, and turn- 
 ing on my steps at every sound. I knew that I could do 
 nothing ; I felt that I could lend no help ; and yet I was 
 unwilling to quit the scene. Indeed, the wild thought 
 occurred to me to make my way down the cliff, but I 
 knew how arduous and dangerous that was even in the day- 
 light, and at last I set out almost running for Heronford. 
 
 I found the gate in the sea wall open, though it was 
 usually locked, and closing it after me, I came at last to 
 the winter garden and so reached the angle of the west 
 wing. It had now grown much darker, and I was about 
 to push open my little door, when I heard the sound of 
 footsteps, and saw a man carrying a lantern, and running 
 at some speed, but stealthily, in the direction where I
 
 128 HERONFORD 
 
 stood. I drew further into the shadow of the door till 
 he came close to where I was, and then I leaped out. 
 
 " Who is that ? " I cried, for I could not see his face. 
 
 He stopped short at the sound of my voice as though 
 overcome by surprise, but made no. answer. 
 
 I again repeated my question, but hardly had I spoken 
 than I saw it was my lord, bareheaded and with a heavy 
 cloak about his shoulders. 
 
 II My lord ! " I cried in astonishment. 
 
 " Yes, it is I. My God ! You have heard it too." 
 
 " Heard what ? " 
 
 " That awful cry. I cannot get it out of my ears. It 
 has been ringing in them for half an hour. It was my 
 brother's voice, John." 
 
 " I hope to God it was not." 
 
 " There was murder in the voice. You have heard it 
 too ? " 
 
 " My lord, I saw it all." 
 
 The lantern fell from his hand with a crash to the 
 ground; he staggered forward and caught me by the 
 shoulder. Never in my life had I seen him so agitated. 
 His breath came in deep, swift respirations and his hands 
 were trembling. 
 
 " You ! what did you see ? Tell me what you saw." 
 
 I told him briefly all that I had witnessed and as 
 clearly as my own agitation would permit. When I had 
 finished he dropped his hand from my shoulder. 
 
 " Then you could not see the faces ? You did not 
 recognise the voice ? " 
 
 " I could see nothing more than I have told you. I 
 am sorry that I could not now."
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 129 
 
 " He cannot hide his crime it was an awful deed. 
 But perhaps he did not strike ; perhaps he did not even 
 intend to strike. You could not see that." 
 
 " I think he did not, but I am not sure." 
 
 " God knows that, but it was a sudden, awful death. 
 And he was a bad man, John ; my brother was a wicked 
 man, cut off in his sins. But he was my brother." 
 
 " I do not think it was his voice I heard," I said. 
 
 " I know it was ; I heard -it here ; I shall never forget 
 it. He had wronged and tortured some poor soul past 
 endurance and but he was my brother. We must find 
 his body, John. There is no doubt none." 
 
 " If you think that I will take the servants," I said ; 
 "you must not come." 
 
 " I could not rest though he did not love me he is 
 calling for me now. Listen ! Do you hear him calling ? " 
 
 " My lord, this will not do," I said firmly. " Mr. 
 William Cassilis is still a living man and " 
 
 " I am a dreamer dreaming dreams. Come with me 
 and you will see." 
 
 Before I could answer him he set out almost running 
 down the path, and I, filled with amazement, for I had 
 not yet had time to think, followed him closely. If I 
 thought at all I believed he was the victim of a terrible hal- 
 lucination, for I could not believe that at this distance he 
 had heard the cry that had so thrilled myself. And yet 
 it was, after all, possible that the voice was that of Wil- 
 liam Cassilis nay, the more I considered it there seemed 
 something familiar in the sound, until I brought my 
 mind to believe that I had recognised the tone. 
 
 As we went my lord never spoke a word to me, but I
 
 i 3 o HERONFORD 
 
 could hear him breathing heavily in front of me, pausing 
 now and again as though to listen, and his face as white 
 as the face of death. But I asked myself, What could 
 we do ? What assistance could we render ? What dis- 
 covery even could we make ? Even at dead water at 
 this point it was impossible to reach the foot of the cliffs 
 but by a boat or by the Grey Man's Path, and I never 
 for a moment thought that either my lord or myself 
 would essay this perilous route at this hour that was 
 darkening toward the dawn. 
 
 I could not tell what he had in his mind, but he went 
 on silently and quickly, and at length stopped on the very 
 spot where the fatal quarrel had taken place. He turned 
 round and waited till I came up, for I had fallen a little 
 behind. 
 
 " It was here, I think." He spoke in a voice that was 
 little more than a raised whisper. 
 
 " Just where you stand," I answered. " He slipped 
 back with his arms raised and fell over there." 
 
 He shivered a little, and then stepped forward till his 
 feet rested on the dizzy brink, and I involuntarily moved 
 forward to catch him. But he waved me back with his 
 hand. 
 
 " Listen ! Can you hear anything ? " 
 
 We both stood perfectly still. 
 
 Then I answered, " Nothing." 
 
 " Nothing, and I can see nothing, but he is lying be- 
 low there. I must go down to him. The path leads 
 past this very spot where we are standing. I remember 
 it when when we were boys." 
 
 " My lord," I said, now thoroughly alarmed, " you
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 131 
 
 must and will do nothing of the kind. It is madness to 
 think of it. Before you had gone a dozen yards you 
 would have made your last step. I know the path and I 
 know its danger." 
 
 11 You do not understand. I care nothing for danger." 
 
 " I understand this, that I will not let you go. My 
 love gives me the right to prevent you." 
 
 " There is nothing will prevent me. I should never 
 rest again." 
 
 I saw that he was terribly in earnest so firmly fixed 
 and resolved in his purpose that it would be impossible 
 for me either to restrain him or dissuade him from his 
 mad attempt, and almost without thinking what I did I 
 cried out passionately 
 
 " If anyone goes I shall go. I am sure that I could 
 do it, but for you it is certain death that is, if either of 
 us need go, but " 
 
 " I must find him," he wailed. " He must not lie 
 bruised and mangled. I should go mad to think of it." 
 
 " Then you must wait here till I return. If the body 
 can be found I shall find it." 
 
 He sat down upon a boulder and wiped his white face 
 with a handkerchief. 
 
 "You will not be long, John. Perhaps he may still 
 be alive." 
 
 " I shall not be long," I answered. " Do not move 
 till I return." 
 
 In the long and varied history of my life I can remember 
 no scene like this. It was only when I had set my feet on 
 that narrow, broken path that ran zigzag along the black 
 and frowning cliffs, and looked down into the depths below,
 
 i 3 2 HERONFORD 
 
 that I realised fully the perils of my task. The moon had 
 disappeared and the stars were dying one by one, while 
 the cold morning wind had risen and the first faint silver 
 streak of dawn was lightening in the east. Below me was 
 the hollow roar of the sea breaking on the jagged rocks ; 
 round me rose the startled sea-mews fluttering with angry 
 wings. Here and there I seemed to hang on the air with- 
 out foothold or room to stir, the path broken and terminat- 
 ing at my feet. Once or twice looking down into that 
 black depth I grew so giddy that the cliff seemed to sway 
 with me, and I clung with a cold, sickening terror at my 
 heart. 
 
 But this was hardly the worst there were other terrors 
 fiercer and more turbulent than these, terrors begotten in 
 my own mind and created, as I now know, by my own 
 imagination. The hundred legends of my youth took 
 form and shape, and there, on that awful path, the ghosts 
 of Heronford rose mocking round me with their eyes and 
 voices. The two brothers of that fratricidal story whis- 
 pered the tale of that old crime in my ears, and whispered 
 it was too terrible for thought that the crime was alive 
 again under the stars, and cried blood-guiltily from the 
 earth. And even at that moment I do not ask for your 
 belief I heard the clink-clank of a horse's hoofs ringing 
 on the rock behind me clink-clank I could hear the 
 steps behind me and the stones go rolling into the chasm 
 below as the iron struck them. I could have cried out I 
 was so full of panic, and I would have given the world 
 to turn my head but dared not. 
 
 I shall never know how that journey was accomplished, 
 but at length I stood at the foot of the cliffs, where there
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 133 
 
 was a narrow fringe of rock and sand covered by tangled 
 sea-weed, and wiped the cold perspiration from my fore- 
 head. I was for the moment too weak to prosecute my 
 search, and sat down for a while to recover. The dawn 
 was growing clearer and broader, and I could now see 
 the line of coast lifting through the greyness of the morn- 
 ing. It was very cold that early cold that takes away 
 one's courage and I felt very miserable and depressed. 
 But I knew with what anxiety my lord was waiting my 
 return at that moment I felt a traitor toward him and 
 I rose up to pursue my search. 
 
 I walked backward and forward a dozen times; I 
 searched everywhere but I could find nothing. Certainly 
 the body of the man had not fallen to the bottom ; of that 
 there was not the least doubt. It was possible that it 
 might have been caught in its descent by some projecting 
 crag, but I did not think it likely, and looking up that 
 frowning bastion I could see nothing that would lead me 
 to that couclusion. Yet, unless I had been dreaming 
 dreaming awake and with my eyes open that must have 
 happened or I should have found him here at my feet. 
 It was altogether inexplicable ; nothing suggested itself 
 that would in any way account for his disappearance, 
 and I could not think what I should say to my lord when 
 I ascended. 
 
 All the time that I climbed up the path on my way 
 back my thoughts were busy rather with the living than 
 with the dead ; I was beset by a host of suggestions and 
 suspicions that made my master and benefactor the 
 centre of a tragedy as terrible as any in the legendary 
 annals of his house.
 
 134 HERONFORD 
 
 My lord had heard my footsteps as I ascended and 
 was waiting for me at the head of the path. 
 
 " You have found him ? " he cried. " He is dead ? " 
 
 " I do not know," I answered. " There is no trace 
 of the body anywhere. I have searched everywhere and 
 could find nothing." 
 
 " You dare not trifle with me. You think I cannot 
 bear to hear the truth. You were accustomed to speak 
 the truth." 
 
 " 1 am speaking the sober truth. I cannot understand 
 it, but there is not the slightest sign. I must have been 
 dreaming." 
 
 " Good God ! What a dream ! I tell you, you have 
 not searched. I can see him lying there with his up- 
 braiding eyes wide open and his blood crying like the 
 blood I will go myself." 
 
 " Not one step," I cried, placing myself before him. 
 " If you are not satisfied with what I have done and I 
 have done my best we will bring the boat round and you 
 can satisfy yourself. And, indeed, my lord, we have 
 more than that to think of we must consider " 
 
 " What ? " he cried. 
 
 " Who could have done this dreadful deed, and what 
 was the cause of its doing." 
 
 " Ah ! What, indeed ? My heart has gone out of 
 me. John, we will go home." 
 
 He suffered me to lead him home without showing any 
 trace of that strong, insurgent excitement which had 
 possessed him so short a time before, and appeared alto- 
 gether listless and apathetic. He had changed so far in 
 the course of an hour or two that instead of desiring to
 
 THE TRAGEDY ON THE CLIFFS 135 
 
 prosecute his search he showed the utmost reluctance to 
 proceeding further, and it was only by a supreme effort 
 that he at length consented to resume it. 
 
 But though we continued our labour the whole day we 
 made no discovery ; our search was entirely unproductive 
 of results ; and the matter appeared to me to become 
 more and more deeply enshrouded in mystery. 
 
 In another direction also our enquiries were equally 
 without result of William Cassilis we could learn noth- 
 ing. He had completely disappeared. He was seen in 
 none of his old haunts, and none of his old friends who 
 were accustomed to see him most frequently professed to 
 know anything regarding him.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 MR. WESTON TELLS THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 
 
 MR. WILLIAM CASSILIS had disappeared as completely 
 as if he had in reality been the victim of the tragedy 
 which I have described in the last chapter. But if he 
 had met his death upon the cliffs his body must unfail- 
 ingly have been discovered, for there was no inch of 
 ground that had not been thoroughly examined, and there 
 was nothing found which yielded us the slightest clue or 
 offered the merest indication. There was not even the 
 trace of a struggle at that point upon the cliffs where I had 
 seen the shadowy drama enacted. There was no trace 
 of a footprint upon the virgin turf; not a stone that we 
 could see had been overturned ; no whisper of the secret 
 could be won from the inviolate cliffs. In another direc- 
 tion also my investigation was barren of results. There 
 was no one missing along the coast, a fact which could 
 not well have been kept hidden for any length of time, 
 and upon this particular night the Preventive men had 
 been engaged upon a dangerous service on a distant part 
 of the coast. 
 
 The matter was so completely involved in mystery that 
 I could now form no opinion or theory, and had it not been 
 for the strangeness of my lord's language and conduct in 
 regard to it, I am certain I should not have dwelt upon the 
 scene with the intensity and persistence which I did. But 
 strive as I might that fastened upon me like a vice, and 
 
 136
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 137 
 
 with a hideous and fertile suggestiveness poisoned all my 
 waking thoughts. It lay in wait for me at every turn, it 
 rose at every instant, and in the end so affected my free 
 intercourse with him that I am not sure what was in my 
 mind. But though these horrible suspicions attacked me 
 with clamorous insistence I still clung loyally to my be- 
 lief in his innocence, and though it may appear strange 
 to say it I think I loved him better and with a deeper 
 sympathy at this period than I had ever done before. 
 
 Though he did not utter a word of complaint, it was 
 easy to see that he suffered beyond expression. His 
 cheeks had grown wasted and haggard, his eyes dry and 
 bright with want of sleep and the nervous fever that fol- 
 lows upon extreme wakefulness ; he could not rest for a 
 minute together in the same position, and flitted from oc- 
 cupation to occupation with a feverish aimlessness. One 
 question was always upon his lips " Is there any 
 news ? " and I do not know whether he received the in- 
 variable answer with a feeling of relief or of despair. He 
 wrote a good deal shut up in his own room that he some- 
 times used as a study, but I could form no idea of the 
 subject of his thoughts, and though usually careless in 
 these matters beyond the common he now carefully 
 locked up his papers in the armoire of which he carried 
 the key. I am not sure, however, that any one saw the 
 change which had taken place in him but myself. In 
 manner he was still the fine gentleman we had always 
 known courteous and considerate with his dependants, 
 uncomplaining and easily satisfied, and bearing himself 
 outwardly with his usual urbane dignity. 
 
 For a week I had carried on my fruitless and unavail-
 
 138 HERONFORD 
 
 ing search, and had exhausted every means of enquiry 
 within my reach ; no one had seen or heard of Mr. Wil- 
 liam Cassilis, and the general opinion seemed to be that 
 this was merely one of his frequent disappearances, and 
 that he would return shortly a shade more disreputable 
 and more bloated than he had left. I should add that in 
 pursuing these enquiries I had been guarded in the ex- 
 treme, and I was certain that besides Lord Heronford 
 and myself no one knew what I had seen upon the cliffs, 
 or had any idea of what had taken place there. For 
 several reasons I shrank from making this disclosure ; 
 it could not help me in my investigations, and for this 
 was after all the real reason that I did not even confess 
 to myself it might entail consequences that I did not 
 dare to contemplate. I felt certain that my early suspi- 
 cions were shut up in my own breast, and that I alone 
 had any grounds for forming them. 
 
 Even during my visits to Carnforth I had been as re- 
 served as elsewhere, and if Victory had seen anything in 
 my manner I am certain the captain did not she made 
 no remark upon it, for which I was thankful at the time. 
 But here also I had another cause for anxiety. Mr. 
 Weston, who for some time had ceased in his attentions, 
 had begun to renew his visits with a frequency that gave 
 me cause for alarm, and seemed to have won over the 
 captain by a display of good nature and hilarity which he 
 could sometimes assume. He could tell a very good 
 story with a natural turn of humour, and when he cared 
 to hide his coarseness had the art of proving a very en- 
 tertaining companion. I felt that neither Victory nor her 
 father had any suspicion of his real character, and my
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 139 
 
 own pride prevented me from saying anything to the detri- 
 ment of one whom I looked upon as a possible rival. It 
 was not that I doubted the faith and affection of my 
 sweetheart that I never did but I felt that he disliked 
 and hated me, and took no pains to conceal his feelings, 
 and in a thousand little ways slighted or ignored me. In 
 any other place or time I should not have borne with this 
 treatment, but here, where it was a hundredfold more in- 
 tolerable, I had not the means or the power to resent it 
 without provoking an open quarrel. There was no ap- 
 parent deliberateness in these petty slights and insults; 
 they seemed spontaneous and natural, and the free out- 
 come of that superiority with which he assumed to re- 
 gard me. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding, I knew that he acted upon a set 
 purpose, and knowing the position which I occupied, 
 imagined that contempt was the best weapon he could 
 use against me. I suppose I was too proud to remark 
 upon it, but it pained me to think that Victory should 
 have stood by and showed no indignation or perhaps a 
 certain indulgent tolerance. But at that time I knew 
 little of the working of a woman's mind, or of those sub- 
 tle feminine arguments by which a woman's heart can 
 justify her conduct in aiding those whom she may love. 
 She could not fail to read wonder and remonstrance in 
 my face, but only once she spoke to me of her visitor. 
 
 " I am going to school with Mr. Weston, Jack, and 
 hope to learn a great many useful lessons before we have 
 done. He knows so much and is not nearly so stupid as 
 you imagine. When he has completed my education I 
 shall be able to tell you "
 
 140 HERONFORD 
 
 " What, Victory ? " 
 
 " Some things you would very much like to know." 
 
 And with that I had to be content. 
 
 This was the third evening I found Mr. Weston in- 
 stalled at Carnforth. I found his horse tied at the gate 
 when I came up and himself lolling in the captain's chair 
 with a churchwarden in his hand, and a bottle of port 
 almost empty before him. When I entered there was an 
 almost imperceptible halt of embarrassment, and I thought 
 for a moment that I had been the subject of the conver- 
 sation, especially as I did not see Victory in the room. 
 But her voice was the first to welcome me from where 
 she was seated in the embrasure of the window and quite 
 hidden by the drapery of the curtains. 
 
 " Sit down quietly, Jack, and do not interrupt the story. 
 My father and Mr. Weston are seeing ghosts, and you 
 will break the charm." 
 
 The captain gave me his hand silently and with a 
 rather shamefaced look on his honest countenance, and 
 again turned uneasily to his visitor, who sat on his chair 
 and looked at me darkly. 
 
 " Oh ! Mr. Cassilis may as well hear the history, perhaps 
 'twill interest him. You see," Mr. Weston went on, "his 
 name was Steen Jan van Steen, and he had lived with 
 the devil so long that they were a good deal more than 
 speaking acquaintances. And the devil took care of him, 
 as the devil always does, Mr. Cassilis very good care. 
 For fifteen years his lugger ran her cargo as regularly as 
 a mail-coach, and Van Steen's dollars would almost have 
 satisfied a Jew. But he was voracious, insatiable, a per- 
 fect leech. The more ankers of Nantes that he ran ashore
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 141 
 
 the more he wanted to run, and he came to think his call- 
 ing as lawful as a parson's, and a good deal more useful. 
 He grew crazy on that head, and he worked his men like 
 so many negroes. Worked them ? I should think he did, 
 but only with his eye and his hand, and never a word did 
 he speak from one year's end to the other. For ten years 
 I don't think there was a word spoken on board the Frau 
 of Haarlem, but Jan van Steen's eye was worth all the 
 oaths that were ever sworn. His men trembled before it 
 open and shut, and used to declare that the devil was plain 
 to be seen when he looked at them. One man went over- 
 board, another had his throat cut, a third was found 
 strangled in his berth ; but the devil was a silent devil, 
 and nobody cried out over the mystery. When a man 
 once entered that vessel he never left her again alive at 
 any rate and there never was a crew that grumbled less 
 and worked harder. Oh ! Jan van Steen was a rare 
 captain. 
 
 " Now I should tell you that Jan, besides the devil, had 
 one friend an excellent friend, as silent as himself and 
 quite as fond of the brandy they ran ashore. The year 
 out and in they drank and played cards together, sitting 
 in the little cabin with never a word between them, and 
 what the stakes were nobody ever knew more than myself. 
 But while Jan grew thinner and more ghastly the mate 
 grew fatter and rosier, and the crew began to think the 
 dollars were changing hands, but they couldn't tell with 
 any certainty. No man dared to look through the sky- 
 light or listen at the door, but the ship sailed, and the 
 players played, and the devil was sitting by them all the 
 time. Well, things might have gone on in the same way
 
 i 4 2 HERONFORD 
 
 still, but the mate said something Jan did not care to 
 hear, and no man dared to cross Van Steen twice. 
 
 " They were lying at the time in Fairford Bay, an ill- 
 named, awful spot, with a narrow path up the cliffs and 
 the devil of a sea among the breakers, where the tide runs 
 like a mill-race. That night Jan and the mate had business 
 on the cliffs what their business was no one knew but 
 themselves, and Jan had business the mate knew nothing 
 about. The crew saw them landing in the cove and going 
 up the cliffs together, the mate first with a bag upon his 
 back, and Jan behind with his head sunk between his 
 shoulders, and his cap drawn down over his eyes. I am 
 the only one who knows what happened there, Mr. Cas- 
 silis, and I don't ask you to believe me unless you like. 
 
 " When they got to the top of the cliffs they were both 
 tired and sat down to rest, for it is a stiff climb and the 
 mate had been carrying a heavy load. They didn't speak 
 a word to each other, but the mate was whistling all the 
 time, for, as it turned out, he had had the best of the 
 bargain very much the best of the bargain. Jan eyed 
 him evilly, but the mate did not care, for he had either 
 grown accustomed to his look or had something in him 
 of the same nature himself, though with more humour in 
 it. I don't know how long they sat, but at last the mate 
 got up and lifted the bundle upon his back. 
 
 " c It has come to good-bye, shipmate,' he said. c We 
 have sailed together for a long spell.' 
 
 " c Ten years and better,' Jan groaned. 
 
 " l Better and worse ; I am the better, you are the 
 worse. But we have had a merry time.' 
 
 " * I am a beggar.'
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 143 
 
 " l You have the ship and the crew ; I have the dol- 
 lars. That is all. All's not gone by the board yet. Put 
 to sea again, get a few more of these shining boys to- 
 gether, and I'll come and sail with you. Ugh, we have 
 had a fine time, you and I.' 
 
 " Then the devil spoke in Jan van Steen's ear and he 
 got up. 
 
 " l We must shake hands before we part at any rate.' 
 
 " The mate grew afraid of him and stepped back till 
 one foot hung over the chasm. 
 
 " 1 1 don't like that black look, Jan van Steen. Don't 
 come near me.' 
 
 " But Jan had made up his mind that he should not work 
 for twenty years and die a beggar at the end of it. Before 
 the mate could raise his hand Jan had taken him by the 
 throat and squeezed the life out of him. His eyes started 
 from his head, his black tongue lolled out of his mouth, 
 and the choking rattle sounded in his throat. When Van 
 Steen saw that he was dead he gave him a little shake, such 
 as a terrier gives a rat, and flung him backward over the 
 cliffs, crashing headlong to the rocks four hundred feet 
 below. Jan straightened himself and wiped the perspira- 
 tion from his brows. It was an ugly thing to do with 
 the man he had lived with so long, but Jan was glad 
 when it was done. The money was safe at any rate. 
 
 " Jan lifted the bundle where it had fallen, and walking 
 back to the edge of the precipice looked down at the black 
 spot lying on the rocks with two arms spread out like a 
 cross. All at once he started back with a cry and dropped 
 his bundle. He could hardly trust his eyes the thing was 
 moving. There was no doubt of it. His eyes were glued
 
 i 4 4 HERONFORD 
 
 upon that awful object that writhed and twisted into a 
 hundred fantastic shapes, and turned its white face and 
 staring eyes continually toward him. Jan van Steen was 
 no coward, but he shivered and covered his face with his 
 hands. Then he looked again, and he saw that the mate 
 had risen to his feet and was beckoning to him to come 
 down. He even thought he could hear him calling to him 
 4 Jan van Steen, Jan van Steen.' Jan resisted that 
 awful invitation as long as he was able and then his fears 
 got the better of him, and leaving his savings of twenty 
 years lying there like so much dirt he began to go down. 
 He was shaking so much that he could hardly draw one leg 
 after another, and he hung back like a whipt boy, but 
 every time he stopped he could hear c Jan van Steen, Jan 
 van Steen,' called by that awful voice. 
 
 " When he got to the bottom he walked straight to the 
 spot where the thing was lying, and found that it lay lifeless 
 and motionless. He had the courage left to turn it over, 
 and he could not understand it at all that shapeless, 
 broken mass that had once been a man had surely never 
 moved. There was no life there there had been none 
 from the moment he relaxed his hold on the cliffs above. 
 Jan's eyes were not in the habit of playing him tricks 
 like these and he was angry with himself. 
 
 " c Der Teuffel ! ' cried Jan, invoking his best friend, 
 4 1 will soon settle you.' 
 
 " Then he found a deep, narrow gully in the rocks, a sort 
 of natural grave, above the reach of the tide at high Xvater, 
 and without more ado he dragged the body here and 
 thrust it deep into this ready-made sarcophagus. After 
 that Jan was a busy man for half an hour. He collected
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 145 
 
 a vast quantity of stones and piled them up upon the 
 mate till the hole was quite filled up and they rose level 
 with the top of the rocks. He thought he could never 
 gather enough nor bury his old friend deep enough. The 
 more the better; the heavier the better. And when he 
 had finished he wiped his forehead and shook his head. 
 
 " l Please God, you will not rise out of that, my friend.' 
 
 " But you will see. 
 
 " When Jan came back to the boat where the men 
 were waiting he did not expect they would ask him any 
 questions, and when he threw his bundle into the stern- 
 sheets, and sat down beside it, they pushed off and no- 
 body said a word. This was what was always done, for 
 Jan encouraged no familiarities ; but after a while he be- 
 gan to think he must lay some ground to account for the 
 mate's disappearance, and so he said carelessly 
 
 " l You will have to go back for Mr. Munday in an 
 hour, my lads.' 
 
 " The men looked at him in surprise, and one of them 
 whistled under his breath, for he thought the skipper had 
 been drinking. But none of them dared to contradict 
 him. 
 
 " l Ay, ay, sir ! ' And then the man added, c If you 
 please, sir, Mr. Munday has come aboard half an hour ago.' 
 
 11 Jan turned deadly sick for a moment and then he 
 began to swear, a thing he never did, until the men thought 
 he had taken leave of his senses altogether, and perhaps 
 they were not so very far wrong. But Jan thought the 
 men were attempting to trifle with him, and it looked 
 very like it, for when they got to the lugger the mate was 
 not to be found on board, and nobody knew anything
 
 146 HERONFORD 
 
 about him. But the men were positive they had rowed 
 him aboard before Captain van Steen had appeared, and 
 upon the one side and the other no one knew very well 
 what to think. Only Jan had thoughts of his own. 
 
 " But as to one thing he had made up his mind noth- 
 ing under the heavens would keep him another hour in 
 Fairford Bay, and so they got the mainsail on the lugger 
 and slid out past the surf into the dark, with a storm 
 coming up into the hot night and the thunder already be- 
 ginning to mutter and growl, with distant flakes of blue 
 lightning to give it edge. Though they had a lee shore 
 and a bad coast under them Jan did not care a straw. 
 He wanted his cabin and his bottle, and the quiet of his 
 own companionship. But he wanted what he was never 
 to get again. The lamp was lighted, the case-bottle was 
 set out, and Jan seated himself at the swinging table to 
 look the events of the last hour in the face. At first he 
 was not very comfortable, but by the time the bottle was 
 half empty he was entirely himself again and had recov- 
 ered his self-possession. He even dozed a little, but 
 would waken with a start and look round him with a 
 kind of expectation. Then he would rally himself on 
 his fears. 
 
 " l Ho ! ho ! ' he thought, l and they rowed Tom 
 Munday honest Tom aboard, did they ? I think not, 
 Tom. I have made you very comfortable in Fairford 
 Bay with a stone blanket and pillow, and we'll meet at 
 the resurrection, honest Tom.' 
 
 " After that, with a smile of satisfaction, he dozed 
 again, and for the first time he confessed to himself now 
 he was honestly frightened when he was told the mate
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 147 
 
 had been rowed to the lugger. But he had discovered 
 that was impossible, and every minute and with every 
 plunge of the Frau of Haarlem he was getting further 
 from the spot. He was rising to fetch another bottle 
 when he sank back into his chair with a gasp, and the 
 cold sweat stood out on his forehead in separate drops, 
 his lank black hair was lifted on end in his fright, and his 
 eyes bulged out from their sockets. The mate had come 
 back. There he sat as he had sat any time these ten 
 years past at the other side of the table, shuffling the 
 cards and dealing them with his slow, deliberate habit. 
 He was not changed in the slightest, or if changed only 
 more sinister and diabolic. First he dealt a card to himself, 
 then a card to Jan, and when he had exhausted the pack 
 he gathered up his cards and began to sort them in his 
 hand. His eyes frightened Jan as much as anything 
 else. There was such a look there and a yellow light in 
 them that scorched Jan's heart like a flame. And the 
 worst of it was that Jan could not help looking at them. 
 
 " The gale was rising and the Frau of Haarlem went 
 staggering like a drunken man, but Jan never heeded. 
 
 41 ' Mein Gott ! ' he gasped at last, ' you are not dead 
 then.' 
 
 " 4 You are wrong, Mynheer van Steen,' said the mate, 
 still calmly arranging his cards. 1 1 am dead and my 
 soul is in hell these three hours. But my body has come 
 back, and you have some reason for fear, Jan van Steen.' 
 
 " c In Heaven's name what do you want with me ? ' 
 
 " c You murdered your friend ; you robbed the dead ; 
 but you forgot that he might come back for his own. 
 And I have come back.'
 
 148 HERONFORD 
 
 " l Take everything then/ wailed the captain, c and 
 leave me in peace.' 
 
 " I shall never leave you again, Jan van Steen, as long 
 as you live. We will play cards together while the 
 sternpost and the keel of the Frau of Haarlem hold to- 
 gether, and after that we will go on playing to eternity. 
 Oh ! 'twill be a fine game for a poor stake, Jan.' 
 
 " c What stake ? ' 
 
 " c Your worthless soul, my friend. Now let me see 
 what hand you hold.' 
 
 " After that night the Frau of Haarlem never was heard 
 of again, but they say that somewhere the captain and his 
 mate are still sitting in the lugger's cabin, and the infernal 
 game goes on night and day, and the mate's eyes are al- 
 ways on Jan van Steen, who would like to die and cannot." 
 
 I must do Mr. Weston the justice to say that he told 
 this grewsome story with a good deal of dramatic power 
 and with excellent effect, and while he was speaking you 
 could have heard a pin drop in the room. The captain, 
 whose pipe had gone out, sat staring with his mouth open 
 and his eyes fixed upon the speaker, and Victory had risen 
 from her seat at the window and come forward into the 
 room, where she stood motionless, her two hands resting 
 upon the table. I was myself at once shocked and fas- 
 cinated, but I could not help thinking that for some reason 
 Mr. Weston had told this story very largely for my bene- 
 fit. He had more than once addressed me directly, and 
 at a particular point in his tale had looked at me with 
 significant meaning. At the same time I did not believe 
 that he knew anything indeed, it never occurred to me 
 that he could regarding the tragedy I had myself wit-
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 149 
 
 nessed or my own doubts regarding it, but I could not 
 help wondering at the points in common between the 
 two stories and the particular emphasis he laid upon them. 
 It was probably, nay, certainly, a mere coincidence, and 
 it was only my fears that could transform it into a par- 
 able. He himself had intensely enjoyed relating it, and 
 appeared pleased at the effect he had created. 
 
 "With your leave," said the captain after a pause, 
 during which he had been moving uneasily in his chair. 
 " I won't believe a word of your story. 'Tis the most 
 unnatural ghost ever I heard of." 
 
 " In what way does the gentleman displease you, sir ? " 
 
 " God bless me," cries the captain, " I don't mind a 
 fine, healthy , natural spirit, do you see ? But a dead man 
 without a soul is no more a ghost than I am a boatswain's 
 mate. There, there, Victory, you had better see that 
 Sparling brings up the supper." 
 
 " Mr. Weston has not frightened me," she said with 
 some eagerness, " and I should like to hear the end." 
 
 " There is no more to tell that I know of," said Mr. 
 Weston bluntly. " Mr. Cassilis agrees with me that the 
 story is pretty complete as it stands." 
 
 " But the mate was not really dead, you know ? " 
 
 " On my conscience you credit me with too much 
 knowledge. I think he must have been." 
 
 " That is a woman all the world over," said the cap- 
 tain. " She won't hear of me killing a grub on my roses." 
 
 "Van Steen deserved no sympathy at any rate," 
 Weston said, " and I should know, for I dealt with him 
 once or twice myself. By the way, Mr. Cassilis, has my 
 friend Will made his appearance yet ? "
 
 i 5 o HERONFORD 
 
 " Not so far as I know," I answered shortly. 
 
 " And you think he will ? " 
 
 " I cannot tell. I trust he may." 
 
 " Both Heronford and yourself were very fond of his 
 brother." 
 
 " We should not care to hear that any misfortune had 
 happened to him." 
 
 " It would break both your hearts if it did." 
 
 "You know more about Mr. Cassilis than either Lord 
 Heronford or myself," I answered shortly, and merely in 
 a little burst of temper. But my words had an effect 
 that I had not foreseen. He turned suddenly upon me 
 with a red and angry face, and quite forgetting where he 
 was broke into a fine round oath. 
 
 "What do you mean, sir ? " 
 
 " I mean," I answered, in no way put out, " that you 
 were his friend and confidant and knew his secrets better 
 than any man alive. I should have thought if he had 
 reasons for disappearing that you would have been in his 
 confidence and could probably have told us his where- 
 abouts without much difficulty." 
 
 " Oh ! you thought that, did you ? " 
 
 " Mr. Weston thinks he is dead, Mr. Cassilis," said 
 Victory gravely. 
 
 " I am sure of it," he said firmly. 
 
 " Then you must have some reason for your knowledge." 
 
 " My reasons are my own. There are people who 
 gave my friend a bad name, but there may have been 
 reasons for that, too. But for my part I say that he was 
 a better man than his brother or others I could name. 
 He gave himself no airs and affected no sanctimonious
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 151 
 
 virtues, dam'me. He may have loved a bottle like other 
 gentlemen. He could sing a good song, tell a good 
 story, and perhaps loved a pretty face too well for his 
 own comfort. But other people have done that, Mistress 
 Victory. There was no harm in that." 
 
 " I have nothing to say about his character," I said with 
 rising heat, " and I have never cared to discuss it." 
 
 " And now one must not, for Mr. Weston says " 
 Victory added and stopped. 
 
 " Mr. Cassilis knows he had enemies who would have 
 liked very well to see him out of the way. When I left 
 him he was going to see one of them, and nobody ever 
 set eyes on him again." 
 
 u And that was the reason why you told us the story 
 of Jan van Steen, Mr. Weston ? " Victory said quietly. 
 
 " Upon my soul, I think it was," he cried with a laugh. 
 
 But whatever he knew more, whether much or little, 
 and I had now begun to think he knew much more than 
 he had said, it was impossible to draw him an inch 
 further. He saw that he had awakened my curiosity 
 and alarm, though I had done my best to conceal it, and 
 he appeared for the present quite satisfied with this result. 
 
 Nor could I understand for what reason Victory had 
 turned the conversation into this channel with quiet per- 
 sistence, and showed so much anxiety with regard to the 
 fate of Mr. William Cassilis. It was not, I was certain, 
 merely feminine curiosity. Knowing her, or thinking I 
 knew her, so well, I saw in her eyes and manner a deep 
 and serious earnestness, and an anxiety for which I was 
 unable to account. I own it set me thinking. Mr. 
 Weston was my enemy, and as he very well knew, up to
 
 152 HERONFORD 
 
 this time, my unsuccessful enemy. I had reason to know 
 that he was unscrupulous, and in this case there were grave 
 motives for his employing that vice to my disadvantage as 
 his rival. Was it possible, I asked myself, that he was 
 endeavouring to connect the disappearance of his friend 
 with myself, or to suggest that I had aided Lord Heronford 
 to accomplish a terrible and awful crime ? His language, 
 no doubt, had been vague and mysterious in the extreme, 
 but his manner conveyed a thousand times more than his 
 words. There was accusation almost in the way in which 
 he had addressed me, and he had seemed to me to say 
 that he could tell a great deal more if he pleased. 
 
 But here, I need not say, I felt no alarm ; it was else- 
 where that my dread began to take root and grow. What 
 knowledge had he of the actual facts ? Was William 
 Cassilis really dead, and had Weston become possessed of 
 the secret of which I had believed myself the sole depos- 
 itory ? Jan van Steen and the murder on the cliffs ! That 
 story was no mere coincidence ; it led straight to the scene 
 that I had witnessed. And how had he learned ? Had 
 he also been an eye-witness, or so nimble are our thoughts 
 had he himself taken part in the drama, and were his 
 own the guilty hands ? If that was the case it might be 
 possible in this way to account for the disappearance of 
 the body which had so staggered and perplexed me. 
 
 But then in a word I was quite at sea, and on every 
 side there were such perplexities and difficulties that I 
 knew not what to think. Still there was no doubt that 
 my enemy held the clue in his hands wherever it led, 
 and Victory knew that as well as myself, from whatever 
 quarter she had gained her knowledge. Could she have
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 153 
 
 imagined, I asked myself, that having reason to hate my 
 lord's brother, I had lent myself to a plot against him ? 
 To-night she had treated me with coolness, almost with 
 coldness, and had listened to Weston's calumnious tale 
 almost with eagerness. She had spoken to Mr. Weston as 
 though a confidence had been already established between 
 them, and almost as if they shared a secret together. 
 
 Such feelings upon my part placed me altogether at a 
 disadvantage, and while the squire of Langston plunged 
 riotously through jest and anecdote, I sat in a moody 
 silence nursing my own gloomy thoughts. It had been 
 my intention to overstay him, but he seemed certainly in 
 no hurry to take his leave, and treated me rather as the 
 intruder who forced myself upon an unwilling company, 
 while he himself was the welcome and honoured guest. 
 The captain was altogether unconscious that we were not 
 the most harmonious party in the world. He rallied me 
 upon my reserve, told his old stories with his old unflag- 
 ging spirit, and lighted his pipe that was always going out 
 a hundred and odd times. Jan van Steen had interested 
 him a good deal more than William Cassilis, and for 
 Mr. Weston he thought him an excellent companion and 
 the best of good fellows. 
 
 But for my own part I could bear it no longer without 
 exhibiting some of the annoyance which I felt, and, as it 
 was already growing late, I rose up to take my departure. 
 I was greatly surprised when Mr. Weston rose almost at 
 the same moment and declared that it was time for him 
 to be going. 
 
 " Mr. Cassilis has been asleep and dreaming about 
 ghosts," he said without looking at me, " and, faith, I
 
 i 5 4 HERONFORD 
 
 feel as if I might see them too. I'll see him over the 
 running water at any rate." 
 
 While he looked for his riding-whip and bade the cap- 
 tain good-night hilariously Victory, who had all the night 
 been in very high spirits, drew me a little aside in the 
 most natural way and without attracting attention. 
 
 " I think I have found out something, Jack," she whis- 
 pered. " Do not say anything, and remember above all 
 things you must not quarrel, and, Jack do not think 
 foolish thoughts. Good-nightj Mr. Weston, and a 
 pleasant ride." 
 
 With that she disappeared. 
 
 Mr. Weston and myself went down the path to- 
 gether till we came to the gate where his horse was tied 
 that had been standing for I don't know how many 
 hours. He said nothing till he unhitched the reins, and 
 then throwing them over his arm, and with his hand 
 resting on the cropper of the saddle, spoke to me in a 
 voice greatly altered and almost in what I might call his 
 natural tone. 
 
 " I'm damned if I don't think myself a good Christian 
 after all." 
 
 " I am glad," I said, " that you have done something 
 to merit your own approval." 
 
 " Oh ! you speak like a book of bishop's sermons. 
 But I have shown that I can forgive my enemies at any 
 rate." 
 
 "You mean, I suppose," I said temperately, "that 
 you have forgiven me ? " 
 
 He flung out a wild oath. 
 
 " You struck me on the face, Mr. Prim ; you knocked
 
 THE STORY OF JAN VAN STEEN 155 
 
 me down before I could defend myself, and there were 
 fifty people there to see it done. You knew I couldn't 
 call you out or treat you like a gentleman ; you knew 
 that, by " 
 
 " Well, sir ? " 
 
 " Well, sir ! I put my affront in my pocket, for there 
 was nothing else I could do, and " 
 
 " And you forgave the offender ? " 
 
 " Did I ? That will depend on how he conducts him- 
 self." 
 
 " Oh ! I thought you said you had forgiven him. We 
 may as well be plain with one another, Mr. Weston, and 
 I shall ask you to be more explicit. I cannot understand 
 your language." 
 
 " I can speak plain enough when it serves my purpose. 
 You must give up coming here that is my first plain 
 point." 
 
 " I cannot quarrel with its plainness. May I ask the 
 reason for this extraordinary request ? " 
 
 " Because I will have it done." 
 
 " That may be quite satisfactory from your point of 
 view, but I am afraid it is not equally satisfactory from 
 mine. I fear it will require a stronger reason than that, 
 Mr. Weston, to induce me to comply with your demand." 
 
 " I have held my tongue so far, but I think I can show 
 you that I am able to back my will with something 
 stronger. Murder is not a very nice thing, Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 "It is a very ugly thing, Mr. Weston," I answered 
 calmly. 
 
 " Heronford and yourselves should know. You thought 
 you were safe, and there was no one loved a fine night
 
 156 HERONFORD 
 
 but yourselves. And Will Cassilis has gone on a visit 
 to his friends, has he ? A long visit, Mr. Cassilis, and 
 an old friend ; but you will think over what I have said 
 and let me know when you have made up your mind. I 
 should like to see you hanged very well, but at present 
 there are some things I should like better. Don't take 
 too long in thinking over it, for I haven't a great stock 
 of patience. Good-night." 
 
 I did not attempt to detain him. He threw his leg 
 over the saddle, gave the horse a cut with the whip, and 
 left me standing looking after him in dismay and confu- 
 sion. There was no doubt my enemy held my secret in 
 his hands, and the story of Jan van Steen was only a 
 parable.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 
 
 I HAD a suspicion which amounted to certainty as to 
 who first set the rumour afloat, but it was not long 
 before it was everywhere bruited that Lord Heronford had 
 killed his brother. It was said that he had flung him over 
 the cliffs, and such details were added as left no doubt in 
 my mind that the original author of the story was in full 
 possession of the facts. There were complaints, not in- 
 deed loud, but widespread, for men still spoke with re- 
 serve, that justice should long since have been placed on 
 the track of the criminal ; and it was declared that only 
 Lord Heronford's position had hitherto prevented the 
 necessary inquiry from taking place. Of course my lord 
 had no opportunity of hearing what was said regarding 
 him, but the same reticence was not observed with me, 
 and this dreadful story met me at every turn. 
 
 But the care which I took to prevent my lord from 
 hearing the gossip of the world was unavailing. One after- 
 noon in my absence he received a letter, delivered by a 
 stranger to one of the servants, and written in an unknown 
 hand. Believing that it was upon a matter of mere busi- 
 ness, with which he now never troubled, he laid it care- 
 lessly aside unopened to await my return, for such things 
 at this time fell altogether upon my shoulders. It so 
 happened that I had been to Fareham to see Mr. Stone 
 and did not return till much later than usual. I found my
 
 i 5 8- HERONFORD 
 
 lord sitting up for me in the Book Room, where a fire had 
 been kindled, for the nights were growing chilly, and a 
 single candle burning upon the table which surprised me, 
 for my lord was like his father and loved plenty of light. 
 Though there was a book upon his knee I do not think 
 he had been reading, and he was glad to see me when I 
 came in. 
 
 " You are a late traveller, John," he said without ris- 
 ing. " It must be nearly midnight." 
 
 " It went twelve as I came through the village," I 
 answered. " I was unable to see Stone till five o'clock, 
 and we had a good deal of business to discuss. The 
 leases at Appleby expire at Martinmas. But I had 
 hoped that you had gone to bed." 
 
 " 1 am a bad sleeper and was looking forward to a talk 
 when you came back. But I daresay you are tired." 
 
 " Not in the slightest. There are only two or three 
 accounts I want to verify before I forget them, and then 
 I have finished. It will not take me more than a mo- 
 ment." 
 
 " There is no end to business in this world," said my 
 lord with a sigh. 
 
 I went to the table for the purpose of lighting another 
 candle when my eye fell upon the unopened letter lying 
 among my papers where my lord had thrown it. I took 
 it up and was about to open it when I caught sight of the 
 superscription, and I stopped short. 
 
 " You have not read your correspondence," I said. 
 
 " No, I have other uses for my eyes, and it is gener- 
 ally troublesome. Who is the fellow now ? " 
 
 " I do not know i the hand is quite strange to me."
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 159 
 
 " Trouble, I am certain. Let me hear what he 
 says." 
 
 I broke the seal and opened the paper without any pre- 
 monition of evil, but the moment I read the first line I saw 
 that the accusation had come home at last, and that here 
 in its full details was all the hideous story set out with 
 cruel and vindictive circumstance. I stood holding the 
 letter to the light with my eyes glued to the page, and all 
 the while my mind was doing a twofold work. I could 
 not help reading the words, and while I read I clearly fol- 
 lowed their meaning, but all the time I was wondering in 
 what way I could prevent my lord from knowing what I 
 read. I knew that he was sitting watching me with a 
 quiet, settled smile upon his face and without any fore- 
 boding of the truth ; I could feel his eyes upon me. But 
 strive how I might I could not conceal my agitation. I 
 saw that my hands were shaking, and I knew that the 
 blood had left my cheeks. 
 
 The moment that I had feared had come at last, and it 
 was through me, who would have done anything to spare 
 him, that he was to hear what the world was saying. The 
 brutal words that I read rang in my ears and swam large 
 before my eyes. I read them twice over, and then feeling 
 that I must face the ordeal, flung the letter upon the table 
 carelessly and reached for the books I wanted. But though 
 he had said nothing he had noticed my agitation, and I had 
 aroused his interest. He was evidently waiting for me to 
 say something, but for my life I could not find a word to 
 utter. I opened my book of accounts and appeared to be 
 seeking for the figures that I wanted. He allowed me to go 
 on until I seemed to have finished, without saying a word,
 
 160 HERONFORD 
 
 and I began to think that perhaps the danger was past. 
 But I was mistaken. When I had done and closed the 
 book he rose in his chair. 
 
 " The letter seems to have given you annoyance," he 
 said, " or perhaps as usual you wished to spare me pain. 
 Are the duns knocking so loudly at the door ? " 
 
 " It is nothing," I answered. 
 
 " Nothing ! The writer has a good deal to say." 
 
 " The writer does not generally spare his reader," I 
 answered, with an assumption of cheerfulness. " This 
 has answered itself. Shall I tell you what Stone had to 
 say about Appleby and the new leases ? " 
 
 " Presently. But first let me see that unpleasant let- 
 ter. Perhaps I should have opened it myself. You are 
 doing too much for me, and one is only young once." 
 
 " I should prefer, my lord, that you did not read this 
 letter." 
 
 " No ! That is very like you, John. And yet you 
 said it was of no importance." 
 
 " At least it requires no answer." 
 
 " Then I think I can bear it with equanimity. I 
 should like to see it." 
 
 " My lord," I cried, taking a step forward, " I beseech 
 you leave it in my hands. The villain who wrote it 
 wished nothing better than it should come under your 
 eyes. That was his object and I would not help him. 
 Indeed you must not read it." 
 
 " I understand," he answered calmly ; " I think I 
 understand. But we cannot put off the evil day. It 
 must come in spite of ourselves. I must see what the 
 writer has to say concerning Richard, Lord Heronford."
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 161 
 
 " But, my lord " 
 
 11 Why should you fear for a few words more or less ? 
 If they are true there is nothing here that can surprise me ; 
 if they are false they cannot injure me." 
 
 He rose from his chair and walked steadily to the table, 
 though I would have stopped him if I dared. He took up 
 the letter where I had thrown it, and sat down in the 
 seat I had quitted that he might take advantage of the light. 
 His thin white hands were quite firm and his face was un- 
 ruffled only for the little frown between his eyes. Then he 
 began to read and I stood watching him, following his gaze 
 as he went down the page and turned the leaf. He read on 
 steadily without a pause until he came to the end, and I 
 almost breathed a sigh of relief when he had finished, so 
 great was the strain upon me. He laid down the letter 
 without a word and looked up in my face. I did not 
 speak but I am sure he knew all that I would have said. 
 But all the time I wondered at his apparently perfect 
 self-possession. 
 
 " I would give a good deal to know who is the writer. 
 It is a person of some education ; he writes with force 
 and clearness." 
 
 " He is a pitiful villain," I said indignantly. 
 
 " Ah ! Do not judge any man harshly or hastily ; he 
 probably believes that he writes the truth, and he has not 
 hurt me. But " 
 
 I stood silent. 
 
 " I would have spared you. And," my lord went on, 
 " he writes as if he had seen everything, heard everything, 
 knew everything. He speaks like a a man's conscience. 
 It is a pretty tale he tells, John, and hangs together
 
 162 HERONFORD 
 
 wonderfully. You have not heard anything like it be- 
 fore ? " 
 
 " My lord," I cried, now almost glad to get rid of my 
 secret, " I have heard it all before." 
 
 " And you did not tell me ? " he said reproachfully. 
 " That was not like my friend. But it is as well to hear 
 what the world is saying." 
 
 " The world is a liar," I cried. " Why should I carry 
 its slanders to your ears ? " 
 
 "Ah! why indeed?" 
 
 Lord Heronford began to walk up and down the room, 
 his face hidden from me in the shadows, but I could not 
 notice any signs of agitation about him. There was cer- 
 tainly none in his voice. 
 
 " From whom did you first hear this this wretched 
 story ? " 
 
 " The first hint came from Mr. Weston, of Langston, 
 but since then " 
 
 " Yes, he was my brother's friend, his close associate. I 
 have sometimes wondered how much he knew, but I think 
 he does not know everything. Had he known he would 
 not have spared me Good God ! I say me so long. 
 
 " But," cried my lord, " I had almost forgotten. You 
 yourself were on the cliffs and saw the deed. Will you 
 accuse me too ? " 
 
 " If I had only seen," I cried. 
 
 " Then I should indeed have had a faithful witness. 
 Not even a suspicion, John ? " 
 
 " My dear lord," I groaned, " you see my heart. Have 
 I not known you for years the truest, tenderest friend, 
 the faithfulest brother, the kindest heart in all the world ?
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 163 
 
 Suspicion ! I would ten thousand times rather doubt 
 myself. I would not even have believed the witness of 
 my eyes." 
 
 He seemed pleased with my warmth, and held out his 
 hand, which was burning hot. 
 
 " It is a good thing for a man to know that he has one 
 friend. I have one faithful friend at least." 
 
 " Lord Heronford needs no friend but himself," I said 
 gravely. " My lord, you will help me to stamp out this 
 accursed falsehood ? It has begun to grow without cause, 
 and the longer you remain passive the harder it will be to 
 trace the first slanderer. I think, nay, I am sure, I can 
 find the author, and if you will give me leave " 
 
 " You must do nothing rashly. Suppose I say sup- 
 pose the story here were true ? " 
 
 " My lord, for God's sake, do not speak like that." 
 
 " Ah ! but we must look on every side." 
 
 " I could never suppose it true." 
 
 " I do not mean as the writer puts it a deliberate crime 
 brooded over for days, weeks, months, wrought out with 
 cold and devilish malice not that, thank God, not that, 
 but something that might seem the same to the world, 
 something reaching almost to the same black guilt, some- 
 thing almost as horrible, unnatural, and ghastly. I seem 
 to myself to have been waiting patiently for this, and it 
 has come at last. The writer, though he did not mean 
 it, has proved himself my friend. It is better that you 
 should hear the truth from me, for I know now that I 
 am standing on the edge of the precipice." 
 
 " Tell me nothing," I said, " that gives you pain." 
 
 " Ah ! though you loved me, I have seen your own
 
 164 HERONFORD 
 
 fear in your face, which you would not admit or ac- 
 knowledge to yourself. It will give me ease to tell you. 
 I thought I was strong, and I am only a child." 
 
 He sat down on the chair beside me and took up the 
 letter in his hand. 
 
 "This cur says I feared and hated my brother. He 
 was right and wrong, for he does not know me. I feared 
 his passion, his selfish temper, his shameless disregard of 
 my name and his, and I feared his knowledge of my own 
 shame. But God knows I did not hate him. We were 
 brothers, and he could not help himself, for he was only 
 as he was made. You have yourself seen how he used 
 to treat me, but you did not know the half. The half! 
 You knew nothing." 
 
 " I have seen," I cried, " how much you have borne 
 with him." 
 
 " Never as I should have borne I confess my fault. 
 But the story goes far back for years and years of watch- 
 fulness almost to my youth. There was a time in my 
 life when I was mad as a man is mad when God has for- 
 saken him and the fire of hell is consuming his heart. I 
 had squandered the present, mortgaged the future, spent 
 every farthing I could raise, till I was weighed down with 
 a load of debts, and still my lusts were not satisfied, my 
 passions were not slaked, and my soul still kept calling 
 out for more. Good God ! it is a fearful dream now. 
 A madman panting after his hot sins. I recollected 
 nothing but the fierce delights I hungered after. I for- 
 got that I should some day have to pay the penalty. And 
 I have paid it." 
 
 Alas ! I could see that he was paying it now.
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 165 
 
 " There was a little while that my better angel fought 
 with me, and I was almost saved almost and the end 
 was worse than any man could guess. One wicked night 
 did it all, and in the morning there were ten thousand 
 pounds a debt of honour that I a pauper must pay. 
 I was mad I know I was mad and never thought of 
 what I did. To pay that debt I, who was a gentleman, 
 sacrificed everything that should be dear to a man love, 
 honour, happiness, peace, good name. And before I knew 
 where I was standing I had become a criminal for whom 
 there was no retreat or safety. That was the fate of 
 Richard Cassilis, the future Lord Heronford, at twenty- 
 five. I do not wonder that you shrink from me." 
 
 " Before God, I pity you with all my heart." 
 
 " I wonder will you pity me when you know every- 
 thing. There were reasons, there still are reasons, why 
 I guarded that secret from the knowledge of the world 
 from my brother, from you and hoped it should never be 
 known till I was dead. I was not afraid to meet the pun- 
 ishment I deserved, but that punishment would not have 
 fallen on myself alone. It was not even the honour of 
 Heronford who am I that I should talk of honour ? but 
 through my attainted blood the punishment would have 
 fallen on one I love better than myself. It will not be 
 long till you know what I mean I cannot, I dare not, 
 tell you now." 
 
 " Tell me nothing," I cried, with almost a glimmer- 
 ing of the true light breaking in on me at last and a new 
 love surging in my heart, " tell me nothing you do not 
 wish me to know." 
 
 " Ah, John ! you have been in the place of a son to me
 
 i66 HERONFORD 
 
 I have sometimes almost thought you were my son. 
 But what would become of him if his father's crime were 
 blazoned to the world ? Let the secret lie till I am carried 
 yonder I who am tired of living. In the escritoire you 
 will find the full history and all the proofs complete 
 everything in order, not a document missing. As my 
 executor you will have little trouble in proving your my 
 fault. The world will talk for ten days, and then all of 
 Richard Cassilis and his sins will be forgotten." 
 
 He sat watching me with an unwavering look that took 
 its steadfastness not from courage but from the weary 
 resolution of hopelessness. The candle that now burned 
 dimly with a long wick left his face in the shadow, but 
 I could see his eyes. 
 
 u That was the first step," he went on after a long 
 pause, " and it has led us here. My father knew, and it 
 embittered his last days, but pride, not love, kept him 
 silent, and I hoped that there was no other person had any 
 suspicions of the truth. I think I am sure that was 
 so for some years, and how the clue first came into my 
 brother's hands I cannot tell. But I think it was by some 
 foolish and reckless words I spoke on the night, you re- 
 member, before Mr. Earnshaw left Heronford. But he 
 grasped the truth, and from that hour till he disappeared 
 I had not one moment's rest or peace. I am sure he took 
 a pleasure in torturing me, and a hundred times threatened 
 to denounce me. But the proofs were not all to his hand, 
 and he was not certain where his own interest lay if my sin 
 was discovered. That was my only hope of safety, but I 
 knew how treacherous and insincere that hope might 
 prove.
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 167 
 
 " I was at the mercy of a drunken brawler, who was 
 bound by no restraint of feeling, no pity, no honourable 
 shame. I waited to hear my secret from Weston's from 
 a hundred lips ; I listened for the sharpening of the sword 
 of justice, and I trembled for the destruction of my hopes 
 my hope that I might die before it came. All the time 
 I paid him for his silence he taunted me with my dis- 
 honour, and yet, as heaven is my witness, I never thought 
 or dreamed that I should raise my hand against him. 
 You remember the night upon the cliffs. I am not sure 
 now whether he was alone, but he must have been watch- 
 ing and waiting for me it was no wish or will of mine 
 that I should meet him. I was patient with him beyond 
 the endurance of a saint; I listened to his threats and 
 reproaches, and I thought that I had no spirit left to 
 stand up against him. 
 
 " But at last he threatened not me but another whom it 
 was my duty to protect, and then for the first time he stung 
 me to defence and retaliation. But not in that way God 
 knows not in that way. I spoke wildly, madly, and then 
 I raised my arm to warn him only to warn him, not to 
 strike him. But it was in anger almost in hatred. He 
 was afraid of me, for he was always a coward ; but he need 
 not have feared me, for I would nor have hurt him for the 
 world not for the world. You saw it all I see it still. 
 He had forgotten where we were standing, and he stepped 
 back to avoid the blow he feared. I could not believe 
 that he was gone, but I knew it in a moment, and I know 
 it now. I know what Cain felt when the blood of Abel 
 cried to him from the ground. You do not speak to 
 me."
 
 i68 HERONFORD 
 
 " I was thinking, my lord," I said. 
 
 " Thinking ? " 
 
 " I was thinking whether Mr. Weston was with his 
 friend, or does he only guess." 
 
 " What does it matter now ? " 
 
 " I think it matters a great deal. I find it very hard to 
 put my thought in words, but I know now, indeed I al- 
 ways knew, there is no guilt upon your hands. 'Twas a 
 terrible, a deplorable accident, but that is quite a different 
 thing. And I am sure Mr. Weston could not have wit- 
 nessed what I saw. My lord, I will fight him and the 
 world with his own weapons. I am glad I know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " And you do not shrink from me ? " 
 
 " Neither I nor any honest man," I answered with 
 emphasis. " Why should I or any man for what was no 
 more your fault than it is my own ? 'Tis your own kind 
 heart and tender conscience that have distorted this 
 lamentable deed till it has put on the face of guilt. 'Tis 
 the mind that makes the guilty man ; you could not help 
 it ; your hands are clean." 
 
 He caught eagerly and hopefully at the comfort in my 
 words. 
 
 " You think that ; indeed, you think that ! But I 
 should have borne with him for I was wiser, older, 
 stronger; I should have yielded " 
 
 " Years ago," I answered, " you should have ceased to 
 bear with him for he was not worthy of your kindness. 
 This is a time when we can only afford to speak the 
 truth even of the dead. He was a bad man, and he met 
 a just end. It was the judgment of God."
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 169 
 
 " Upon us both," cried my lord bitterly. 
 
 " I think indeed upon both of you. But we cannot 
 alter the past ; regret is the amendment of fools, my lord ; 
 we must face the future. I shall speak only once of the 
 secret that you have kept so long. I think now I dimly 
 guess its nature, and, guessing that, I am certain your 
 brother made no confidant, and shared his discovery with 
 no accomplice. With his own hopes he would have 
 feared to do it, and upon your death he may have looked 
 either to destroying the proofs of which you have spoken 
 or finding them defective. I think, I am sure, that secret 
 is safe. For the other, my dear lord, we can both face 
 the world bravely, for we know that you are innocent. 
 Mr. Weston has guessed part of the truth and how 
 small a part for he is keen-scented and quick, and 
 would not hesitate to piece the lie to serve his purpose. 
 Perhaps, indeed, he was waiting I have it now," I went 
 on with a sudden inspiration ; " it was he who removed 
 the body I could swear it. That morning I saw the 
 lugger that he sails in Carnforth Bay, and he has lain by 
 till he can strike us both. I never guessed till now. 
 But he has lain too long." 
 
 " Ah, John ! " says my lord, " I like to see the light 
 of battle in your eyes. It gives me courage." 
 
 " My lord, we will fight this fight together." 
 
 He held out his hand to me. 
 
 " If we did not stand together, who should ? " he said 
 softly. 
 
 Our eyes spoke what neither of us dared to put into 
 words. 
 
 " If we did not stand together, who should ? " he re-
 
 170 HERONFORD 
 
 peated, still holding my hand in his. " I hope some day 
 you will altogether forgive me." 
 
 "We will try to bear the burden together," I said 
 steadily, " and if I had known earlier " 
 
 " Ah ! if I had had courage you will find it all the 
 long, shameful story locked up there, and you will then 
 know how much I have suffered. I could not bear to 
 read it again I could not look at it. Take the key; it 
 contains your birthright and my legacy. You are now 
 the proper guardian." 
 
 " Let us live as we have lived," I said. " It is better 
 that we should wait." 
 
 " No, no," he cried, " I am already easier to know 
 that you share my secret. It has crushed and broken 
 me." 
 
 I took the key from his hand without any further pro- 
 test. Then he did what he had never done before ; he 
 placed his two hands gently on my shoulders, and draw- 
 ing me toward him kissed me twice upon the forehead. 
 Neither of us spoke a word, but the silence was more 
 eloquent than any words of ours. I could only see him 
 dimly through the midst of my own tears. 
 
 " And now, John, will you help me to my room ? " 
 
 I took up the candle without a word and gave him my 
 arm. He placed his hand upon it, and I felt how it 
 trembled. The fire had long since gone out, the room 
 was full of quivering shadows, and the midnight silence 
 caught up the faint echo of our footsteps as we moved 
 to the door. That was concealed by a curtain of tapestry, 
 and I was surprised to find that it lay slightly open, yet 
 I was almost positive that I had closed it carefully after
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 171 
 
 me. Though I did not suspect there might be any eaves- 
 dropper, I was annoyed at this, and was angry with my- 
 self that I had not been more careful. But I am sure my 
 lord did not notice anything. I threw the door wide open 
 and we paused for a moment on the threshold, the candle 
 that I carried giving forth a faint, yellow light, and the 
 long corridor with its many doors stretching before us 
 from shadow into darkness. I do not quite know why I 
 halted ; it may have been merely instinct j it may have 
 been the warning of a finer sense than any appreciated 
 by the understanding. But I stopped and felt a little 
 shiver of nervous apprehension too vague to put into 
 words. I could not understand or explain it, but my 
 mind had been excited and I was full of fear and fore- 
 boding. I listened with all my ears ; I endeavoured to 
 evoke some palpable form from the grey shadow and fur- 
 ther gloom. My lord caught a glimpse of my irresolu- 
 tion. 
 
 " What is it, John ? " 
 
 11 Nothing," I answered. " Nothing stay, did you 
 hear that ? " 
 
 I could have sworn I heard the sound of someone 
 breathing softly, and a moment afterwards the fall of a 
 footstep as of a person walking with great gentleness. 
 Surely it could not have been merely fancy, and yet it 
 might have been ! It was long since I had felt in the 
 same way before ; not since the days when my boyish 
 mind had played in my loneliness with the phantoms of 
 the night, and the superstitious terrors of childhood had 
 encircled me with their appalling reality. I thought I 
 had entirely outgrown the feeling and that it had lost its
 
 i 7 2 HERONFORD 
 
 hold upon me, but every moment I felt that horrible 
 dread grow more and more acute. My lord caught my 
 alarm, and we both stood listening. 
 
 " There is someone here," I whispered. 
 
 " I do not think there can be." 
 
 " I am sure of it. There it is. Listen." 
 
 Again I distinctly heard the sound of footsteps, and 
 not very far from where we stood. The candle only 
 illumined a few yards round us, and I held it up above 
 my head as I advanced half a dozen paces forward. 
 
 " My God ! " I cried, " who is it ? " 
 
 My heart had almost stopped beating in my bosom. I 
 stood paralyzed with terror. I could not have moved to 
 have saved my life. My eyes were fixed with the 
 paralysis of perfect fascination. At first it was a mere 
 motionless shadow, only a little denser than the shadow 
 in which it stood. A shape so vague and indistinct as 
 hardly to be discerned. And then it seemed to grow out 
 of the shadow and to gather form. And then before I 
 knew almost before I had time to realise the fact a 
 grey Agure with a white face I could only see the colour, 
 it was so faint moved rustling past me and disappeared 
 into the darkness. It was hardly seen before it was gone, 
 and yet to look back on it it seemed to have been there a 
 lifetime. I could not resist the impulse. I heard my 
 lord give a little gurgling groan behind me as I leaped 
 forward in pursuit, but only the stout wood-work of the 
 door against which I stumbled met my hands. 
 
 Then the awful sense of the supernatural, blind and 
 unreasoning, again overcame me. The old story of my 
 childhood flashed back upon me, and struck me with the
 
 THE GREY COUNTESS 173 
 
 cold horror of it. I turned round to where my lord was 
 standing with a fixed terror in his eyes. 
 
 " You saw it too ? " he gasped. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " I cried involuntarily, " the Grey Count- 
 ess ! My lord, I could not have believed " 
 
 " No, you did not see the face ? " 
 
 " I did not. No." 
 
 " Ah ! I knew you did not. My God ! you did not. 
 But he will not let me rest. He is following me from 
 the grave." 
 
 " Who is following you ? " I cried. 
 
 " Oh God ! My brother has come back. It was his 
 face and eyes." 
 
 " You fancy that, my lord." 
 
 He turned upon me almost with a certain fierceness, 
 shaken as he was. 
 
 " Fancy ! Did we both fancy that we saw that cold 
 shadow rising out of nothing and passing into nothing ? 
 Are your own lips white, and are your own hands shak- 
 ing for a mere fancy ? We both saw it with our living 
 eyes, but the message was for me alone. I am not jnis- 
 taken ; I know the truth. My brother has come back." 
 
 " I thought," I said doubtfully, " I heard the sound 
 of footsteps. Perhaps we are both mistaken." 
 
 u Help me to my room, John. I am sure it was a 
 message for me, and I must obey it." 
 
 Whether it was that my own nerves were shaken, or 
 that I was impressed by his terror and the midnight silence 
 of this remote and gloomy corridor had affected me, I can- 
 not tell, but for the moment he almost won me over to 
 his belief. When I felt his hand in my own, bathed with
 
 174 HERONFORD 
 
 cold perspiration, and saw his white stricken face, I al- 
 most looked for the reappearance of the apparition. 
 Once a door slammed in a distant part of the house, and 
 I started so violently that the candle had almost fallen 
 from my hands. Nor was it till we reached my lord's 
 room, where there was a bright fire and the full, pleasant 
 shine of two burning lamps, that I was able to shake off 
 my horrible panic. My lord sank into a chair by the 
 bedside, and I poured out for him a quantity of spirits in 
 a glass, which I compelled him to drink. But I could 
 see that my medicine failed to touch the deep spring where 
 his malady had its rise ; his broken and diseased mind 
 failed to respond to my words of encouragement, and noth- 
 ing that I could say had any effect in rousing him. Now 
 that the first sudden shock of fear was over he desired to 
 be left alone, like a man altogether abandoned to his 
 despair and beyond the reach of hope. And after I had 
 done all that was in my power I left him unwillingly. 
 That night Lord Heronford had his second seizure.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 
 
 THIS second stroke by which Lord Heronford was 
 smitten was far more grave and serious than the first, and 
 it was thought that he could not possibly recover. When 
 the servant had entered his room in the morning he had 
 found him lying close to the door quite unconscious of 
 where he was, and only able to move his limbs as an in- 
 fant does apparently without conscious volition. His 
 powers of speech were completely paralysed, and he lay 
 with his eyes wide open and meaningless. I had never 
 seen anyone in this condition before, and I thought it a 
 picture infinitely pitiful. At one sudden and swift step 
 the man's mind had relapsed into the perfect blank of 
 first childhood, and his look was that of the infant that 
 looks with wonder that is hardly wonder on the scene 
 of his new arrival. He recognised no one, but with the 
 same vacant look his eyes followed us as we moved 
 through the room. I had immediately sent post for the 
 medical practitioner at Fareham, but on his arrival he ad- 
 mitted that he could do nothing but make some trifling 
 suggestions for the apparent comfort of the patient. He 
 held out no hope of my lord's ultimate recovery, and 
 though he did not say so in so many words, I could see 
 he thought the case beyond recovery. 
 
 I sat with my lord during the entire morning and after- 
 noon, for I felt that now a new duty had been imparted
 
 i 7 6 HERONFORD 
 
 into our relationship, and I was jealous that anyone 
 should take the place which I felt to be imperatively 
 mine. Madam Cassilis had shown a good deal of con- 
 cern more than I could have expected and had proved 
 herself of great use in the sick-room in our early trepi- 
 dation and confusion ; but she had not ventured in any 
 way to interfere with me, nor had she shown any desire 
 to usurp my place. I think her grave anxiety for her 
 brother had for the time banished all lesser consider- 
 ations, and it was not until the evening that she found 
 time to make clear her feelings toward myself and her 
 view of the general situation. 
 
 I had been able to find a very excellent nurse, and I 
 was engaged in giving her some trivial directions, when 
 Madam Cassilis came softly into the room and waited 
 with perfect composure until I had finished. 
 
 " I should like to speak with you, Mr. Cassilis, on an 
 important matter if you can spare the time," she said 
 coldly and with a glance at the sick-bed. " Lord Heron- 
 ford is still unconscious and does not seem to have moved." 
 
 " He is still unconscious," I answered gravely, for I 
 saw the look that was not at variance with the tones of 
 her voice ; ' " and I am quite at your disposal." 
 
 She made no reply and I followed her out of the 
 chamber. She did not speak till she reached the room 
 she used as a boudoir, and which I had never been in 
 but once or twice a long time before. She threw open 
 the door and entered, turning up the lamp which was 
 burning on the table. 
 
 " Close the door," she said sharply, and turning round 
 with swift decision j " I have a good deal to say to you."
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 177 
 
 I obeyed without saying a word, wondering upon what 
 ground and for what cause she intended to do battle with 
 me, and now resolutely determined in so far as I was able 
 to allow her to have her own way. Since the revelation 
 of the previous night I had acquired in a way not very 
 explicable a new self-respect, which rendered me more 
 enduring and patient. With my new knowledge I could 
 not help feeling some sympathy toward her ; her attitude 
 was feminine and natural ; and it was only just that she 
 should imagine my government of the sick-room to be a 
 usurpation of her own right and inheritance. 
 
 " You are aware, Mr. Cassilis, that there is no hope 
 my brother should recover. In case he dies I suppose 
 you have formed some plans about your future ? " 
 
 " I have not yet lost all hope," I answered. " There 
 is plenty of time to think about the future." 
 
 "You have sense enough to see you were never 
 wanting in sense that his death will alter your posi- 
 tion." 
 
 " It must necessarily make a considerable number of 
 changes. But I still cling to hope." 
 
 " You know very well what I mean. I have no desire 
 to hurt your feelings, but you cannot then remain in this 
 house. My brother had reasons for treating you as a 
 member of his family, and perhaps for holding you before 
 them all. But on his death you will be a stranger and 
 less than a stranger, and you can understand that it is im- 
 possible for me to tolerate you here. Your your rela- 
 tionship to the family would entirely prevent that. I 
 think it is not unlikely my brother may have made some 
 provision for you, but if that should not have been the
 
 178 HERONFORD 
 
 case I well I can spare you enough to push your for- 
 tunes respectably abroad." 
 
 " You are very good," I said, thinking what an ocean 
 of surprises lay before her, " but I have reason to know 
 that provision has been made for my future. Lord 
 Heronford has given me to understand as much." 
 
 " I might have known that," she answered sharply ; 
 14 unlike my brother William, you were always wise in 
 your generation. I do not wish to be hard upon you, but 
 you know what I think of you. You came between my 
 brothers ; you came between my brother and me, and 
 robbed me of his confidence. I have had more reasons 
 than one to regret you ever came into this house " 
 
 " I could not help my birth, madam " 
 
 " Your birth ! " she cried scornfully ; " you had no 
 birth." 
 
 " I had at least the misfortune to be born," I answered, 
 smiling gravely. 
 
 " It was a grave misfortune for all concerned for my 
 brother, for me, and for yourself, if you do not change 
 your mind and habits. You are not used to be blind in 
 other things, but you never seem to have known your 
 true position in this house and in the world." 
 
 " It is not very long since I have learned." 
 
 " Ah ! you have learned. I hope it has taught you 
 humility." 
 
 "It has taught me that among other lessons; I hope it 
 will also teach me to practice justice and to show kind- 
 ness." 
 
 She seemed to think there was an implied rebuke in 
 my words, as, indeed, perhaps there was.
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 179 
 
 "You were always a saint and martyr," she said scorn- 
 fully. " I have sometimes wondered where the Heron- 
 ford blood came in. Perhaps " 
 
 " Perhaps, madam ? " 
 
 " No. We will not quarrel. My brother was satisfied, 
 and there was a time when he knew his own business. 
 I merely wished to warn you that when he died you must 
 prepare to leave Heronford at once. You had better 
 make your preparations, for I do not wish to seem to 
 deal too harshly with you." 
 
 " I am afraid," I answered, " I am not in a position 
 to appreciate your kindness. But I think I will wait." 
 
 " You think you can set up your will against a de- 
 fenceless woman ? Very well, we shall see. If my 
 brother William were alive " 
 
 " I have had one friend all my life," I interrupted 
 gravely, " and you may be certain I shall endeavour to 
 carry out his wishes. I am sure I know his mind." 
 
 " Take your own course," she said, " you know what 
 is likely to happen, and you cannot blame me. I will not 
 call the servants to put you out, but there is one thing 
 on which I will insist so long as you remain under this 
 roof." 
 
 " And that, madam ? " 
 
 " You shall not enter my brother's room. That is my 
 place, and you have no more right or business there than 
 one of the grooms from the stable. It is monstrous ; it 
 is wicked to think that you of all the people in the world 
 should stand at his death-bed." 
 
 For the first time I was pained by her speech, and I 
 knew that upon this ground, at least, I was largely, if
 
 i8o HERONFORD 
 
 not altogether, in her power. If she had been anxious to 
 wound me, and yet I am not sure that that was really her 
 purpose, she could not have adopted any more effective 
 means. 
 
 " You surely do not mean that ? " I said. 
 
 " I will take means to prevent it. Is it a fitting thing 
 that the memory of a man's sin oh ! I can speak plainly, 
 Mr. Cassilis should stand at his bedside when he is 
 dying ? And what are you but that memory ? For the 
 time, at least, I am mistress here, and I will not have it." 
 
 " I am afraid," I said, " I cannot make you understand, 
 but surely love gives me the right which you deny me. 
 Lord Heronford loved me like a son." 
 
 " And I loved my brother, sir ; I was proud of him ; I 
 hoped for a great career for him, and he wasted his life 
 miserably among shadows. His conscience was too 
 tender, and I am certain I am certain it was you who 
 played the part of ghost. A pretty ghost ! It was you 
 who wrecked his life ; he cried over you like a woman 
 crying over her faugh ! I have had enough of this dis- 
 grace, and will now have matters in my own way, when 
 it is too late." 
 
 " I cannot oppose you, but you will regret the step you 
 intend to take." 
 
 " At any rate I will not discuss my regrets with you, 
 Mr. Cassilis. I shall endeavour to choose another con- 
 fidant, and you now know my wishes. I think we have 
 finished. You can go." 
 
 And in this way I was dismissed without being able to 
 make any further protest. Though I had been treated, 
 as I felt, with great injustice and want of consideration, I
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 181 
 
 must admit that I was rather grieved than angry. I was 
 able to put myself in madam's place, and I could not but 
 feel she was able to justify herself in taking the course 
 she had adopted. Having no suspicion of my real place 
 in the house, she had looked upon my presence so long 
 as I could remember as an insult to herself and a dis- 
 graceful incumbrance upon my lord, and I am sure she 
 had imagined my influence had been a hostile one, and 
 had helped to shut her out from her brother's sympathy. 
 With no clue in her hands to account for my lord's 
 actions, she had watched our growing familiarity with 
 pain and disgust, and had now taken the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of manifesting her feelings. 
 
 I went down to the Book Room and tried to lose my- 
 self over a volume that I took up, but I could not read. 
 My feelings were too much moved, my thoughts too 
 clamorous. 
 
 There was no book in the world at this moment had 
 grip enough to hold my mind. My lord was dying ! In 
 that room looking out over the lonely sea and cheerless 
 downs the curtain was falling upon the last scene of an- 
 other tragedy. For twenty years the dead hand had 
 guided the living spirit, and now it was all nearly over. 
 The grey evening of a grey life was settling into night. 
 Another man might have risen and defied himself and the 
 world, and drunk the cup of life with its coarse and vital 
 pleasures to the end, but my lord's nature had not the 
 strength for this. A certain tenderness, a weakness of 
 will, a want of robust and virile strength, had left him a 
 prey to his fears, and his strong emotions, finding no out- 
 let in his life, had lain hidden in his bosom, gnawing and
 
 1 82 HERONFORD 
 
 stinging there. I could not bear to think of that life of 
 broken purposes, humbled pride, and solitary conflict. 
 
 I was so agitated that I rose and walked up and down 
 the room, shaken by the storm of emotions my train of 
 thought had raised in me, and after a while my eye chanced 
 to light on the escritoire at the end of the apartment. I 
 suddenly stopped, overtaken by a temptation that in the 
 end I found irresistible. I could not help myself; I 
 yielded almost with a sense of shame. I had my lord's 
 word that the proofs were here upon which my whole fu- 
 ture depended my honour, my name, my inheritance, 
 my whole future life. I did not doubt his word not for 
 an instant but I knew his careless habit in regard to 
 papers, and I knew that if one simple link were missing 
 the whole chain of proof was broken. If he were mistaken 
 if he had overlooked some vital point, I could find no 
 means of repairing that, and there was a sudden end to 
 my cherished hopes. 
 
 The fear grew upon me as I stood swaying, and, as I 
 say, in the end I yielded to the impulse. But it was al- 
 most with a sense that I was violating his confidence that I 
 fitted the key into the lock and opened the drawer. It 
 was with the sense that I was guilty almost of sacrilege 
 that I untied the ribbon that bound them and spread the 
 papers before me. The secret of a man's life that he had 
 guarded fearfully from the world ! I sometimes even 
 now wonder whether I was wrong in doing what I did, 
 and even now I have not solved the doubt. My lord 
 had desired the papers should remain undisturbed till his 
 death, though not in so many words, but I knew that that 
 was his wish. And yet, upon the other hand, a great wrong
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 183 
 
 might be inflicted which he most of all would have re- 
 gretted, and if a portion of the chain of evidence were 
 wanting it might still be repaired should he regain con- 
 sciousness. And above all I alone should see them, to 
 whom they would tell no new story and who already 
 knew their history. 
 
 I entirely forgot myself in the perusal ; I forgot my 
 doubts and scruples, and sat, absorbed in the recital of the 
 pitiful narrative. In one thing I had been quite wrong. 
 However careless my lord had been in other matters, here 
 he had been rigorously exact. He had forgotten nothing ; 
 he had omitted nothing. There was no flaw in the proofs. 
 They admitted of no doubt, and were clear and intelligi- 
 ble to a degree. He had taken pains that there should be 
 no difficulty regarding them, and upon the wrapper that 
 enclosed them was written in his fine, legible hand the 
 words, The Confession of Richard Cassilis, Lord Heronford, 
 with the date. The documents were arranged in their or- 
 der. There was first the certificate of marriage, which 
 set out that Richard Cassilis was married to Gertrude 
 Wiltshire, in the parish church of Soame, in the county 
 of Herts, and was signed by James Dempster, vicar of the 
 said parish. There was a number of letters from the young 
 wife that were very painful to read, and which spoke of her 
 husband's desertion, and her fears for the child of which 
 she was about to become the mother; and immediately 
 after followed the certificate of the baptism of this child, 
 which took place at the parish church of Chelsea. I found 
 the letter which the late Lord Heronford wrote to his son, 
 and which showed that he was in entire possession of all 
 the facts. I could almost hear the old lord speak as I
 
 184 HERONFORD 
 
 read it. A Cassilis, he wrote, might be mad, but he always 
 went to the devil like a gentleman. He had never heard of 
 any that had been hanged, but it seemed that his son was 
 about to bring the fashion into the family. Nothing would 
 give him greater pleasure if it could be done without the 
 world knowing it. Bigamy was a novel crime in the an- 
 nals of Heronford, and his son had added graces to the act 
 none but himself could attain to. He had betrayed an an- 
 gel, who had the bad taste still to love him, villain as he 
 was, and the writer ended by saying that it would be his care 
 to provide for the future Lady Heronford and her son. 
 
 But the paper which most interested me was the dec- 
 laration of my lord himself, which had been written out 
 at great length and apparently not very many weeks be- 
 fore. It had been written with great care, for there were 
 many erasures and interlineations, and certainly with no 
 intention of sparing himself or of extenuating his conduct. 
 The facts were nearly all as I had already supposed them 
 to be. 
 
 He began by stating that it was while he had been on a 
 visit to Sir Onslow Gresham at his country place in 
 Hampshire that he had first met my mother. Her father, 
 who had been a retired captain of foot, had recently died, 
 and she was at that time residing with an aunt in very 
 straitened circumstances. At first he had looked upon it 
 merely as the case of a rustic beauty and her town ad- 
 mirer, and had hoped for an easy conquest, but he found 
 himself altogether mistaken, and in proportion as the lady 
 repulsed his careless advances he fell more and more deeply 
 in love with her innocence and beauty, until at last he was 
 prepared to make any sacrifice and at any cost. But un-
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 185 
 
 der the circumstances an open marriage was impossible. 
 At the first intimation of such a step his creditors would 
 have pressed their claims, and his father would at once 
 have ceased to furnish him with supplies. Nor did he 
 fail to add that shame and fear of ridicule had a share in 
 persuading him to the course he adopted. 
 
 A secret marriage was resolved upon, and when my 
 mother left her home it was believed by her friends she 
 had fallen a victim to the advances of an unscrupulous 
 lover. No one knew or suspected the real state of affairs. 
 The only witnesses to the marriage were the verger and 
 his daughter, whom Lord Heronford believed to be still 
 alive. From that day my mother never saw nor com- 
 municated with her friends again, and followed her hus- 
 band to London, where she remained in perfect retire- 
 ment. Then followed the usual course of such unhappy 
 marriages. If the young husband was not soon tired of 
 his wife he was not long in seeing at what cost he had 
 gained her, and the allurements of his old life irresistibly 
 drew him back within their vortex. I do not think he 
 had at first any deliberate intention of abandoning her 
 and of denying this marriage, but for some months he 
 only visited her rarely, and at last suggested she should 
 return to her friends. 
 
 It is impossible to say how matters might have ulti- 
 mately resolved themselves, but the crisis was accelerated 
 by one evening's play. Already nearly bankrupt by his 
 extravagance the misguided young man one unlucky night 
 rose from the card-table with a loss of twelve thousand 
 pounds, which he had absolutely no means of discharg- 
 ing. His friends knew his condition ; the most disgrace-
 
 i86 HERONFORD 
 
 ful form of ruin stared him in the face ; his resources 
 were at an end; his credit was exhausted. And just at 
 this time an unfortunate providence stepped in to assist 
 him. Mrs. Carteret had recently lost her husband, who 
 had left her the bulk of his fortune. Before her first 
 marriage, which had lasted only three years, she had had 
 a tenderness for my lord, and even during her married 
 life had remained upon very friendly terms with him. At 
 this juncture in his affairs she wrote him the letter of a 
 woman whose heart has taken possession of her judg- 
 ment a letter in which she laid her hand and fortune at 
 his disposal. The temptation was too great for the 
 already-drowning man. The irretrievable step was taken, 
 and they were married within a fortnight. 
 
 It was not till nearly a month afterwards that my lord 
 saw the young wife whom he had forsaken. He made 
 no attempt at disguising his conduct; he threw himself 
 upon her mercy and declared that his life was in her 
 hands, which was, indeed, the case. The interview must 
 have been a very painful one, and it was the last time 
 they met. It was only after the birth of her child that 
 my mother was impelled to take the decisive step which 
 led her to Heronford, and it was perhaps the wisest step 
 she could have taken. But her heart was broken, and I 
 do not think she was ever happy again. It was a fortu- 
 nate thing that Mrs. Carteret she was never Mrs. Cas- 
 silis died a few years afterwards without leaving any 
 family, and had it not been for myself there was left no 
 memorial of this crime which had wrecked two lives. 
 
 In the margin there was a note which explained a 
 matter that I had never been able to understand. Before
 
 THE SECRET OF A MAN'S LIFE 187 
 
 the death of his second wife my lord had made a restitu- 
 tion of that portion of her fortune which had come into 
 his hands, and the sacrifices he had made to achieve this 
 had contributed largely to his present embarrassments. 
 The one desire now remaining to him was that his son 
 might have a happier life and a more prosperous lot than 
 had fallen to his father. He had done him a wrong for 
 which he could never forgive himself, and he now left 
 himself with his sins and follies in the hands of the great 
 Judge Who sees the hearts of all men, and measures out 
 their portion of reward with justice and mercy. 
 
 There were some other letters, carefully marked and 
 numbered, which formed a running commentary upon 
 the narrative, and it was a long time before I had finished 
 their perusal. When I had done I tied them up once 
 more as I had found them and restored them to their 
 place in the drawer of the cabinet, which I locked, and 
 then withdrew the key.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 
 
 MR. WESTON'S visits and insinuations were not long 
 in bearing fruit. Captain Blythe was perceptibly troubled 
 in his mind, and met me with far less of his boisterous 
 frankness than he had ever before exhibited. 
 
 Though there was no failure of kindness upon his part, 
 I felt that our intercourse was to some extent strained, and 
 that there was something upon his mind of which he felt 
 himself ashamed. This was not so manifest that it gave 
 me ground for asking for an explanation, but I felt that a 
 barrier of suspicion and restraint was growing up between 
 us at which he chafed as much as myself. Mr. Weston's 
 visits were now of daily occurrence, and were so timed 
 that we never met. But it was perfectly evident to me 
 the course which he was pursuing. He had ceased to 
 annoy Victory with his importunities and, instead, was 
 making court to her father, who had conceived an ad- 
 miration for what he considered to be his outspoken hon- 
 esty and rough heartiness. He had won upon him com- 
 pletely, and I felt that in proportion as he obtained an 
 ascendancy over him I was declining in his favour. 
 
 I was sure that Mr. Weston had managed to insinuate 
 some suspicion in regard to my share in the disappearance 
 of William Cassilis, and by hints adroitly dropped had 
 implied that that had been carried out for my interest and 
 with my connivance. I did not know what he had said 
 or how far he had gone in making this charge, but the 
 captain was the least suspicious of mortals, and it must 
 
 188
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 189 
 
 have taken a great deal to alter his feeling toward me. 
 Nor could I quite understand the attitude that Victory had 
 assumed. She had formerly shown her aversion toward 
 Weston in a way that was not to be misunderstood, but 
 her manner had now become frank and friendly toward 
 him, and she had ceased to make him the object of her 
 quiet and playful wit. She had entirely lost the fears she 
 had at first entertained regarding him, and went so far as 
 to encourage his visits. I own that there were times when 
 I imagined her conduct was the result of waywardness and 
 coquetry, but even then I never doubted her fidelity toward 
 myself. Sometimes, also, I thought I detected in her an 
 increased seriousness that was quite new to her, and this 
 especially after Lord Heronford had been struck down. 
 
 Her father had entirely ceased to make enquiries after my 
 lord and would change the subject in an awkward manner 
 when his name was mentioned, but Victory showed a 
 quickened curiosity, and returned to the subject again and 
 again. I was not in the least afraid that Mr. Weston 
 might injure me in her esteem or supplant me in her af- 
 fection, but I honestly own that I was jealous when I 
 saw that he was rapidly taking my place with Captain 
 Blythe, and I more than once made my complaint to 
 Victory about it. But it seemed to afford her amuse- 
 ment, and she only smiled when I expressed my fears. 
 " The compass is out of order, Jack, and my father is 
 only waiting till it points north again. Have a little pa- 
 tience ; I am sure it is coming round. You see he is so 
 honest himself that he thinks no one can be a rogue, and 
 he cannot understand Mr. Weston's stories. I know he 
 is more unhappy than yourself."
 
 i 9 o HERONFORD 
 
 I found the captain in a very ill temper and complaining 
 of the pain in his timber leg, which usually troubled him 
 when matters were not going to his mind. It was evident 
 that he was not overjoyed to see me, for he was more pro- 
 fuse than usual in his greeting and more pressing in his 
 hospitality the manner in which he was accustomed to 
 show his uneasiness. When I sat down opposite to him 
 he was not very sure how he should treat me. The sus- 
 picion he had begun to entertain about me was struggling 
 visibly with his old affection, and after wringing my hand 
 very warmly he had suddenly relinquished it as though 
 ashamed of his warmth. I affected at first not to see 
 his embarassment, but talked vaguely on a hundred triv- 
 ial topics, until at last I determined at once to bring 
 matters to an issue and find exactly the ground of differ- 
 ence between us. 
 
 " I hope I am wrong, sir," I said, " but I think you 
 are not pleased to see me. You would prefer that I 
 stayed away altogether." 
 
 " God bless my soul, John Cassilis, what makes you 
 think that ? Has the little baggage been talking ? Have 
 I said anything ? Ay, I'll warrant I have, for I'm a bad- 
 tempered man when the wind is between east and north, 
 and it never blows from any other point nowadays. Or 
 perhaps it's the schnapps I'll give up the schnapps and 
 try a larger dose of tobacco. You shouldn't mind what 
 a one-legged old mariner says when he gets into the dol- 
 drums." 
 
 " It is not what you have said, sir," I answered. " It 
 is what you have not said." 
 
 " Then I can't please you any way, my lad. You are
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 191 
 
 worse than my old lieutenant in the Hecate ; he couldn't 
 sleep afloat, for he wanted a four-poster, and he couldn't 
 sleep ashore, for he wanted a hammock, and between the 
 two it was twelve years since he closed his eyes." 
 
 " I used to think you were my very good friend, sir." 
 
 " And you thought rightly, but it doesn't always blow 
 a twelve-knot breeze, and, egad, John, I am just now in 
 a flat calm, and that's the truth." 
 
 " Will you tell me what is wrong ? " 
 
 The captain rose from his seat and, hobbling to the 
 mantel-shelf, reached for his tobacco-pipe. This was 
 always a sign of mental agitation with him, and I knew 
 that he was endeavouring to make up his mind to say 
 something which he thought might give me pain. He 
 turned sharply round and looked at me gravely. 
 
 " I'm a dismasted old fool," he said, " and you are 
 worse than I am to heed me. Let us go on as we have 
 been going, and we'll fetch port at last somehow with 
 the help of God." 
 
 "You are trying to spare my feelings," I answered, 
 " but I should like to get back to our old footing as soon 
 as we can. Captain Blythe, I know very well what is 
 the matter. You have been listening to stories about me, 
 and you are not willing to tell me what you have heard." 
 
 " Stories, my lad ? " 
 
 " Stories, sir, grave calumnies, lying slanders. I know 
 what the world has been saying in general, and your 
 friend Mr. Weston in particular." 
 
 " Now that I think of it," said the captain, with a 
 futile attempt at diplomatic evasion, u I have heard some- 
 thing, but "
 
 i 9 2 HERONFORD 
 
 " And you believe it ? " 
 
 " Believe it ! " cried the captain excitedly, and I think 
 he was glad of the opportunity of losing his temper. 
 " Believe it ! Before God, sir, I am a gentleman, an 
 officer, a man of honour. Had I believed it do you think 
 I would have admitted you into my house, shaken you 
 by the hand, permitted you to speak a word to my little 
 girl who imagines, like every woman who ever wore a 
 petticoat, that the sun rises and sets on the man she wants 
 to marry ? By heaven ! sir, you do not think I have so 
 far lost my self-respect, and forgotten what I owe to my- 
 self and the service ? Yes, sir, I have heard stories, but 
 I don't turn my back on my friends because the world is 
 talking, and I don't believe them guilty because the old 
 wives are wagging their tongues." 
 
 " At least I am glad you do not think me guilty," I said. 
 
 " I wouldn't," said the captain, " believe the verdict 
 of any twelve men between this and the town of Ply- 
 mouth. But it is not that. I am in swithers, John, and 
 that is the truth of it." 
 
 " In what way, sir ? " 
 
 " Well, you see, 'tis one thing to believe a man guilty ; 
 'tis another thing to prove him innocent. If it were only 
 a matter of friendship, do you see, I would double shot 
 my guns, run up my ensign, and clear my decks for a close 
 engagement. But there is something more than that. I 
 must think of the little woman of her before every- 
 thing. She must not marry a man who can't hold up his 
 head before all the world with a name as clean and sweet as 
 her heart. I don't mind your birth the value of a straw 
 a good man is better than an earl ; I don't mind that
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 193 
 
 you should be poor, but dam'me, John, I do mind that the 
 world should be able to talk about Victory's husband." 
 
 " Then the world is a liar, Captain Blythe," I cried 
 hotly ; " I care nothing for the world." 
 
 " Nor I, my lad not the value of a straw, nor does any 
 man who is worth his rating, but a woman is different. 
 Now what has become of William Cassilis ? Tell me 
 that." 
 
 " I wish to God I knew," I answered. 
 
 " Is he alive or dead ? What do you think ? " 
 
 " I believe that he is dead." 
 
 " Then you have some reason for thinking that ? You 
 know what people are saying, and what they will go on 
 saying till we come to the truth. I liked Lord Heron- 
 ford myself, but Weston says " 
 
 " Mr. Weston has concerned himself a good deal about 
 the matter. I should like to know what Mr. Weston says." 
 
 " Oh ! you must not quarrel with Weston, he is a good- 
 natured, honest fellow who can keep his mind to himself, 
 and is very friendly toward yourself. And and to tell 
 you the truth, John, I promised in a way that I would 
 not discuss the matter with you or mention his name one 
 way or other. He did not want to hurt your feelings." 
 
 " He is very careful of my feelings," I answered bitterly ; 
 " but he has managed to poison you against me at any rate. 
 And I am powerless, sir. This abominable lie I can meet 
 nowhere face to face. I can find no one who will openly 
 accuse me ; I can find no one evert to tell me with what 
 I am charged. I had no grudge against William Cassilis ; 
 I had nothing to do with his death, and I had neither 
 hand nor part in it. You believe that, sir ? "
 
 I 9 4 HERONFORD 
 
 " As I believe in my own existence, my lad. But " 
 
 " But what, sir ? " 
 
 " They say you had something to gain by his death, 
 and that Lord Heronford and his brother were on the 
 worst of terms." 
 
 " I had nothing to gain by his removal," I answered, 
 " as you yourself will discover, and Lord Heronford is 
 now lying at the point of death and is unable to answer 
 for himself." 
 
 " It is all a tangle," said the captain despairingly, " and 
 from my heart I am sorry for you, John. But " 
 
 " You have had enough of me, sir." 
 
 " That's not fair, lad, and you know it. Enough of 
 you ! I would give my right hand to see you again with 
 a clear course and a soldier's wind. If it were not for 
 what Weston said There there I am talking again, 
 and upon my word I don't think he said anything after 
 all. But you must find William Cassilis, alive or dead." 
 
 " And in the meantime you would prefer that I did not 
 come to Carnforth ? I know you don't want to hurt me." 
 
 " No, no. Come with a thousand welcomes ; I am 
 always glad to see your face. But you know I am a 
 plain man, John it will be only fair to Victory that you 
 should sail off a little, do you see, till things come right. 
 We both love you, and the clouds will break, never fear." 
 
 " I may speak to Victory, sir, before I leave ? " 
 
 " To be sure you may. Tell her all your troubles, and 
 everything I said. She is a sensible little woman and will 
 give you better advice than I could, and, John don't hurt 
 her more than you can help. God bless me, I thought 
 when I had given up the sea I had done with trouble."
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 195 
 
 The captain made a pretence of pulling down the blind, 
 upon the ground that the sun was shining too strongly for 
 his eyes, but I could see that he was a good deal affected 
 by our interview and would willingly bring it to a close. 
 I was sure that he had not said all that he had at first 
 intended to say, but he had said enough to show me that 
 Mr. Weston had to some extent succeeded in turning his 
 stout old heart against me, and that I might prepare for a 
 still greater coldness between us. It was so unlike him to 
 alter his views upon any matter, and especially to change 
 in his affections, that I felt a stronger argument than that 
 of mere general rumour must have been used in effecting 
 this alteration. But it was useless to question him, and 
 at the moment it was impossible for me warmly to urge 
 my complete innocence. My knowledge made me feel 
 that I was almost a partner in the deed, and robbed my 
 vindication of myself of much of its force and warmth. 
 
 When I left him I found Victory waiting in the garden 
 with her hat on and dressed in her rough walking-dress. 
 She had not been present at any time during my inter- 
 view with the captain, and I was not sure whether I 
 should be able to see her before I left. But she had 
 evidently been waiting for me for some time, and was 
 apparently in a very serious mood. 
 
 " I know what you have been talking about," she said. 
 " And I am going to walk with you to the top of the 
 downs." 
 
 u Then you are not yet ashamed to be seen walking 
 with me ? " 
 
 " John ! " 
 
 " Oh ! I am quite serious, Victory. Your father thinks
 
 196 HERONFORD 
 
 I do not know what he thinks but he told me almost 
 in so many words that I was not fit to be your lover." 
 
 " My father is a dear old goose, John, but there is 
 not another gentleman like him in the world." 
 
 " I am sure there is not," I answered heartily, " though 
 he has almost ceased to be my friend." 
 
 " I am sure he did not tell you that. I know in his 
 heart he loves you like a son ; if he pained you, he pained 
 himself as much, and what is more, he did it for your 
 good." 
 
 " Would it be good for me that I should lose you ? " 
 
 " Well perhaps, but you have not lost me yet. Oh ! 
 you will not get rid of me so easily, and then, being only 
 a woman, I do not think I could give you up, even for 
 your good." 
 
 " At least you do not believe these stories ? " 
 
 " When a woman has given her heart to a man she is 
 ready to believe all the evil she hears about him. You 
 think that, John ? Then you don't know what a woman's 
 heart is made of." 
 
 " I used to think I knew your heart." 
 
 " Oh ! but you do not. I hardly know myself. When 
 her love is in danger it wakens the savage in her nature. 
 She is ready to watch and plan and fight, and she feels 
 almost that she could lie for him. I haven't done that, 
 but almost." 
 
 " I do not think I want you to fight for me," I said 
 reproachfully. 
 
 "And if I did not, who should ? You think I am a 
 poor fighter ? Well, we shall see, and you you are too 
 proud to fight for yourself. Now do not speak to me,
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 197 
 
 for I want to put my thoughts in order, and then you 
 Will see how wise I am." 
 
 She trudged along by my side, her sweet brows puckered 
 in a little frown, and never speaking a word. We walked 
 along the wet sand together, where a recent gale had 
 scattered patches of tangled sea-weed, and then climbed 
 the hill until we reached the sea of purple heather that 
 grew upon the downs. Here upon a great stone she sat 
 down and made a place for me beside her. 
 
 " Now," she said, " I am quite ready for the debate. 
 And before we begin I want to say two things." 
 
 " A hundred, if you please. I am listening, Victory." 
 
 11 Firstly, I am a very wise woman for my years, and 
 you are a very silly fellow." 
 
 " Both are admitted," I answered. " And now to the 
 next." 
 
 " Secondly, I should like you to kiss me, Jack." 
 
 Her sweet red lips were smiling, but her eyes were 
 serious. 
 
 " That is your way. I did not mean that you should 
 kiss me more than once. But at any rate the conference 
 is opened and we can proceed to business. The trouble 
 has come that I looked for, John." 
 
 " Yes, the trouble has come, but I know that I could 
 bear more than this with you by my side." 
 
 " I do not want you to bear it ; I want you to face it 
 and overcome it. A man should not rest on his inno- 
 cence when his enemies are trying to injure him." 
 
 " But I cannot find my enemies," I cried despairingly. 
 " I can meet no one who will tell me of what I am guilty. 
 I only know that there is a hideous story in the air. It
 
 198 HERONFORD 
 
 meets me everywhere, but only by insinuation. It has 
 reached your father's ears, and even you have heard it." 
 
 " I could not help hearing it. You do not think I 
 would have listened willingly. Is there anything you 
 would like to tell me, John ? " 
 
 " There is nothing I can tell you but that I am wholly 
 innocent." 
 
 u I do not need that you should tell me that. But I 
 have been thinking night and day I have been thinking 
 since I first heard the beginning of the tale, and I have 
 been piecing so many things together. In some things 
 I may be wrong, but in others I know I am right. You 
 will hear by-and-bye how I know, but love is a wonderful 
 prophet, John, and I can see now the whole way to the end." 
 
 " It seems to me to be a very long way." 
 
 " Perhaps it is not so far as you think. Now let me 
 begin at the beginning, and do not interrupt me till I 
 have done. Lord Heronford and his brother have been 
 living on bad terms for a long time I can't help your 
 family secrets and a little while ago there was a great 
 quarrel. I am not sure what it was about, but I have a 
 suspicion. But that does not matter. Then something 
 dreadful happened, and Mr. William Cassilis disappeared. 
 What became of him ? Lord Heronford would have 
 liked him out of the way, and John Cassilis was Lord 
 Heronford's friend and confidant." 
 
 " Victory ! " 
 
 " Oh ! you must not interrupt me. I am sure Mr. 
 William Cassilis was a very bad man, and you did not 
 love him either. On the night he disappeared you were 
 at Carnforth till nearly twelve you see I remember, and" 
 have been weaving the threads and an hour afterwards
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 199 
 
 there were three people on the cliffs. Lord Heronford, 
 his brother, and my sweetheart, John Cassilis. Were 
 they all all together ? I think not at first." 
 
 " In God's name, Victory," I groaned, " how did you 
 find this out ? " 
 
 " Oh ! then I am right," she cried with animation, " I 
 was not sure that you were there. Now what hap- 
 pened ? Words only or blows blows, I am sure, for 
 John Cassilis has been changed ever since, and Lord 
 Heronford had reason to think his brother was dead. He 
 searched for his body, but he could not find it. Now 
 why could he not find it ? " 
 
 " It is an awful mystery," I said. 
 
 "We are still travelling on the dry ground," she cried. 
 " Oh ! my poor John, why could you not have given me 
 your confidence ? You did not find him because you 
 did not search in the right place." 
 
 "What do you mean ? I do not follow you." 
 
 " Have you never thought there might have been a 
 witness ? Have you never wondered how the story 
 grew ? Have you never asked yourself why no magis- 
 trate Mr. Weston is a magistrate." 
 
 " You are torturing me, Victory. Tell me everything." 
 
 " And you told me nothing. Oh, John ! If you had 
 told me ! You remember Mr. Weston's hints those 
 little sly hints that cut both of us like a knife, for the 
 story was growing then, and I had heard it. I thought 
 at first it was all false, but Mr. Cassilis did not come 
 back, you had changed, and the story grew and grew. I 
 told you that a woman could fight for her lover and 
 could almost lie for him. John, I have lied for you, and 
 Mr. Weston thinks that I love him."
 
 200 HERONFORD 
 
 She laid her hand, hot and trembling, upon mine. 
 
 "Yes," she cried, "he believes I love him, and I hate 
 myself when I think of it. John, I have allowed him to 
 kiss me for your sake. I paid the price, but I have won 
 the game." 
 
 I looked at her in wonder. 
 
 " I felt that it was he who had first set the story in 
 motion, and I knew that he was holding something back. 
 I would have found it out if it had cost my life. I laid 
 a trap for him, John, and he fell into it ; he never sus- 
 pected me. I was only a fickle girl who had found a 
 new lover and discarded her old one. And then little by 
 little he told me the tale, and oh ! my dear, how I hated 
 him while he told me. I felt like Judith with the head 
 of Holofernes. 
 
 " His servant had gone that night to Heronford with a 
 letter for his friend, and not finding him at home was 
 returning by way of Carnforth. On the cliff road he 
 heard the sound of quarrelling, and coming quietly along 
 he saw Lord Heronford and his brother and someone he 
 thought was yourself. At first he was not sure, but in 
 the end he recognised you. He did not know who struck 
 the first blow, but in the end William Cassilis was driven 
 to the verge, and with one cry went over. Lord Heron- 
 ford instantly rushed back toward Heronford, but you, 
 the cooler villain, waited to see that he was dead. And 
 Mr. Weston has spared you for my sake, John. 
 
 " The servant brought the story to his master, who told 
 him he was dreaming and threatened him with a horse- 
 whip. But he has proved a better friend still, for he has 
 sent the man out of the country where no one will be able 
 to find him, but not before the fellow had time to tell the
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 201 
 
 tale to a friend in the stables. But Mr. Weston thinks 
 nothing can be done now. For my sake he has refused to 
 take any steps himself, and since I have given you up he has 
 no enmity against you. If I had not given you up " 
 
 "If " 
 
 " Then I am afraid the servant would have come back. 
 You see, John, the matter is very simple." 
 
 " But it is a tissue of lies from beginning to end. 
 Victory, I must tell you everything, though you may not 
 believe me." 
 
 " You must tell me nothing," she cried impetuously. 
 " When I gave John Cassilis my heart I gave him my life 
 and my faith. Do you think I believed this or any story 
 about you even before I knew it was a lie ? Do you 
 think I did not see that Mr. Weston wanted to play 
 upon my love and fear for you ? Do you think I would 
 believe anything to the discredit of the man I love ? 
 But you were in danger : I thought I might help you, 
 and I know I have helped you." 
 
 " Your faith and love have helped me," I said gravely. 
 " But, Victory, you cannot understand till you know the 
 truth. Since William Cassilis is dead " 
 
 " How do you know that he is dead ? " 
 
 " I have grave reason for knowing that he is dead." 
 
 " And I have excellent reason for thinking that he is 
 alive." 
 
 I rose to my feet in such a tumult of bewilderment as 
 kept me silent for a minute. She was so confident ; 
 there was such a dancing look in her eyes and triumphant 
 smile upon her lips that a sudden flash of hope illumined 
 my heart. I would have given the world to be assured 
 of the truth of this.
 
 202 HERONFORD 
 
 " You are not playing with me, Victory ? " I stam- 
 mered. " If it were true and my lord could have heard 
 that news " 
 
 " Wait until you hear," she cried. " I could not un- 
 derstand why Mr. Weston should have spared you if he 
 had had it in his power to injure you, and a chance word 
 he dropped first set me on the right track. I knew that 
 he wanted me to believe the worst about you, but if he 
 had wanted to shield you he would not have set the 
 country talking. And then I knew that a great part of 
 his story must be a lie the part in which I was most 
 interested. At first I could not tell where the truth lay 
 until I heard the story of the ghost." 
 
 " Mr. Weston told you that ? " I cried. " How did 
 he know of that ? " 
 
 " A man is blind when a woman can see with ease. 
 Because he had already learned from Mr. Cassilis. 
 When I asked who had told him the story I read the first 
 hint of the truth in his face, and I have been following 
 the truth ever since. I could almost have enjoyed seeing 
 him fall into the little pitfalls I laid for him, if I had not 
 been ashamed of myself. But I learned the truth, and, 
 John, I have seen Mr. Cassilis myself." 
 
 " A living man ! " I cried. 
 
 " Alive ! " she answered with a gentle scorn. " As 
 much alive as you or I. One night last week Thurs- 
 day it was Mr. Weston told my father that a friend was 
 waiting for him with his horse beyond the village, and he 
 could not stay. You know my father's habit. He would 
 have this friend sent for and would take no refusal. 
 There was something in Mr. Weston's answer that 
 awakened my curiosity, and I made up my mind to
 
 A WOMAN'S WISDOM 203 
 
 satisfy myself. I promised Susan a new bonnet to go 
 with me, and we got as far as the bridge when her cour- 
 age failed her. I had to go on alone, and though it was 
 dark I saw enough to be sure that my suspicion was 
 right and Mr. William Cassilis was still alive." 
 
 " This is the best news I ever heard in my life. Oh, 
 the pitiful villains ! And you are sure you were not 
 mistaken ? " 
 
 " I am as certain as that I am living. He took care 
 that I should not have more than one glimpse at his face, 
 but you have noticed the way he rides. John, it was 
 Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 " But you have said nothing to your father ? " 
 
 " The dear, old, gallant, loyal blunderer. He is the 
 last person who must hear it until Mr. Cassilis makes his 
 bow to the public in person. On the first hint he would 
 rise up in arms and take Mr. Weston by the throat, and 
 after that we might have long to look for the missing 
 Mr. Cassilis. And who would believe that I was not 
 mistaken ? Only my father and yourself. It is you 
 who must find him, and now you know where to look." 
 
 " Oh ! " I cried, " if we had only known this before ! 
 What agony and suffering it would have saved my lord, 
 whose grief has killed him. The lying, wicked knaves ! 
 If you knew it all, Victory ; if you knew it all ! " 
 
 " It was of you that I was thinking, John ; it was for 
 you that I was fighting." 
 
 " Greatheart, the gallant soldier," I cried, pressing 
 her hands to my lips. " You have, indeed, seen where I 
 have been blind. If that cruel villain is above ground I 
 will find him."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 
 
 THE country round Langston was very different at 
 the time of which I write from what it is at present. 
 Now the people are honest, thrifty, and industrious ; 
 there is a good market in the village, several excellent 
 schools, and a constable, who gives his time to the culti- 
 vation of roses. Then the people had the worst repu- 
 tation in the world. When they were not drinking at 
 the " Thatched House " they were helping to run the 
 smuggled goods ashore, and there was hardly anyone for 
 seven miles round who was not in some way connected 
 with this pernicious traffic. The half-yearly fair was 
 an orgie in which lives were habitually lost, and it was 
 seldom that the offender was brought to justice. 
 
 It was the day following the news of Victory's startling 
 discovery that I found myself at the " Thatched House," 
 the only inn in the village of Langston. That news 
 found me at first bewildered and incredulous ; it was so 
 unexpected, so unhoped for, that I could hardly at first 
 believe it ; the malice and heartlessness that underlay it 
 staggered my credulity. But the more I thought over 
 all the circumstance, and especially upon Victory's un- 
 equivocal conviction, the first faint hope grew into posi- 
 tive certainty and assurance. 
 
 Early the next morning I had visited the cliffs and 
 again carefully examined the scene of the accident, and I 
 found that at this point some fifteen feet down there was 
 a projecting ledge on which a quantity of dense brush- 
 
 204
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 205 
 
 wood was growing, and a young ash quite strong enough 
 to bear a man's weight. As far as this ledge the cliff did 
 not run quite perpendicular, and from this point it would 
 be perfectly practicable for one with some degree of safety 
 to make his way back to the top. I wondered that this 
 had never occurred to me before, but I was so certain of 
 the fatal termination of the tragedy that I had never looked 
 for any other issue. But I felt now that by a miraculous 
 good fortune the body had fallen upon the ledge, and had 
 been sustained by the brushwood that had its roots deep 
 in the crevices of the cliff, and that probably William Cas- 
 silis had lain here for some time stunned and unconscious. 
 
 Whether Weston had been in the neighbourhood await- 
 ing the result of the interview I was not certain, but cer- 
 tainly either he or someone in his confidence had seen 
 what had occurred and had come to the assistance of the 
 fallen man immediately after I had left. As to the mind 
 that had planned the scheme of the disappearance I had 
 not very far to seek. If left to himself William Cassilis, 
 in his vindictive hatred, would at once have raised an out- 
 cry, or would have endeavoured to exact compensation in 
 some manner equally effective. But his friend had turned 
 the incident to serve his own purpose, and in fact had 
 nearly succeeded. What arguments he had used I do 
 not know, but certainly, so far as Lord Heronford was 
 concerned, no plan could have been adopted that would 
 have caused him greater suffering and anguish. 
 
 But this was not the main motive for the design, 
 though it probably formed a part of it. I had been pres- 
 ent and my lips were sealed ; if I was not an accomplice 
 I might easily appear one, and had no means of clearing
 
 206 HERONFORD 
 
 myself of the charge. With that weapon Weston could 
 strike me at pleasure, and for my lord's sake I dare not 
 retaliate. By this means he would be able to clear a suc- 
 cessful rival from his path, and after he had succeeded 
 William Cassilis could then return to life with any story 
 he might choose to invent. The scheme was simple in 
 its diabolical cunning, and if it had been carried out with 
 care and vigilance it is hard to tell what the result might 
 have been. But William Cassilis was hard to hold, and 
 Weston had found it impossible to enforce a rigid seclu- 
 sion upon him. I was now assured that Victory was not 
 the only one who had seen him ; my lord and myself had 
 seen him in the corridor at Heronford, and whether or 
 not it was a wicked jest, we had met face to face the man 
 whom we would have given the world to know was alive. 
 
 After I had perfectly made up my mind as to the cer- 
 tainty of the discovery I did not quite know what was the 
 wisest course to take. I had a great mind to go over to 
 Fareham to consult with Mr. Stone upon the subject, and 
 it might have been well that I had, but I had a strong 
 disinclination to lay all the facts before him, and I was 
 naturally desirous of making the discovery myself. I felt 
 pretty confident that Mr. Weston had no suspicion of the 
 failure of his plans, and I hoped that this easy confidence 
 might beget some further carelessness. 
 
 In this mind I drove part of the way to Langston, and 
 then dismissing my conveyance I walked to the " Thatched 
 House," where I resolved to spend two or three days. I 
 was altogether unknown here, and I suppose there was 
 nothing in my appearance that called for comment, for I 
 seemed to escape all observation, and the story that I told
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 207 
 
 appeared to be received quite readily. All the enquiries 
 that I made, and they were made unobtrusively, were en- 
 tirely barren of result. I hung round the little quay and 
 chatted familiarly with the fishermen ; I affected to 
 drink in the evening in the corner of the common room, 
 and listened to secrets that were once illumined by a flash 
 of knives, or I lay in the shrubbery round Langston 
 Priory and watched the doors and passage to the stables. 
 But I could discern nothing that afforded me any satis- 
 faction. No one appeared to know anything about Mr. 
 Weston's household, or if he did was equally averse to 
 discussing the matter with a stranger, and certainly I my- 
 self saw nothing that awakened the slightest suspicion. 
 
 I had imagined that it would be easy for me to pick up 
 some clue, but at the end of the three days I was no 
 wiser than I had been at the beginning. I was then more 
 than surprised to receive a polite notice to quit. I had 
 thought I had secured a good friend in the landlord for I 
 had been free with my money and had given very little 
 trouble, but I now found that for some reason he was 
 tired of my company. He had formerly been butler at 
 the Priory and had lost an eye in that dangerous service, 
 but though crapulous in his manner he was at bottom 
 a good-humoured fellow, and would not have done me 
 an injury without some provocation. 
 
 "You'll not be staying much longer in these parts, I 
 reckon," he said, with his amorphous smile and his blind 
 eye beaming upon me with mellow benevolence. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know," I answered. " I haven't 
 quite made up my mind." 
 
 " For a young gentleman that has to earn his living
 
 208 HERONFORD 
 
 you must have a deal of spare time on your hands, Mr. 
 Brown " this was the travelling name I had assumed 
 " not but that you are a good customer and easily satis- 
 fied. But I'm thinking you had better make up your 
 mind while you have a whole skin. You see there are 
 times when a change of air is good for the constitution." 
 
 " I didn't think I had offended anyone," I answered, 
 " and I am certain I am not in the slightest danger." 
 
 " Oh ! you're sure of that, are you ? I don't say that 
 you are and I don't say that you're not, but I'm not go- 
 ing to take the responsibility of the doubt. You can see 
 for yourself that they're a quiet people in these parts till 
 the drink is in them, and then they take queer fancies 
 about strangers. Now they have begun to take fancies 
 about yourself, and in general there's no Christian burial 
 in the parish since the curate went to Bramston." 
 
 " I suppose you are serious," I said, " but I must say 
 I have seen no sign of ill-will since I have been here." 
 
 " Oh, never a sign. You never would till you wakened 
 up in glory with a hole in your back as deep as a well." 
 
 " It is too preposterous. What do they suppose I am ? " 
 
 " Well, I haven't quite got the rights of it yet. Some 
 of them say you're a gauger and some of them say you're 
 a bailiff, but the most hold you're a Frenchman because 
 you cut your words small and won't drink spirits. No, 
 no, Mr. Brown, I'm sorry to lose you, but you'll have to 
 be packing and let us get back to a quiet life." 
 
 " Oh ! " I answered, smiling, " I have no desire to 
 disturb the peace, but surely you will not turn me out 
 this evening ? It is a long way to the next inn, and it 
 promises to be a wet night."
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 209 
 
 41 1 think I can do with you another night if you keep to 
 your own room and don't show yourself too much in pub- 
 lic. But I'll have to answer for your conduct, and your 
 thirst for information has got me into trouble already." 
 
 He delivered his last words with a snap which showed 
 me two things : that this was a real and substantial griev- 
 ance upon his part, and that he was desirous of bringing 
 an unpleasant colloquy to a conclusion. I was fain to be 
 content with the further indulgence he showed me, and 
 though I was not altogether satisfied with his explanation, 
 I felt that after all I was merely losing time in the manner 
 in which my search had hitherto been conducted, and 
 that I must adopt some other course if I hoped for im- 
 mediate success. I thought over the matter for a long 
 time after I had retired for the night, but I could think of 
 no feasible plan that would bring me any nearer my end, 
 and at last I made up my mind that I must consult with Mr. 
 Stone and, putting so much of the story before him as I 
 might think necessary, rely upon his riper and practical 
 judgment and experience. 
 
 This was the resolution with which I fell asleep, but in 
 the morning I awakened with a new and bolder plan fresh 
 and fixed in my mind. This was nothing less than person- 
 ally to call upon Mr. Weston and charge him boldly with 
 the conspiracy into which he had entered. Looking back 
 upon it now I cannot possibly see what I thought to gain 
 by adopting this course, but my impatience was so great 
 that I wanted matters hurried to a crisis. I admit I did 
 not see the danger involved in this or the possible ad- 
 vantage I might give my enemy in showing him his scheme 
 was suspected if not discovered ; but, indeed, I did not
 
 2io HERONFORD 
 
 weigh the consequences at all, for no sooner had I con- 
 ceived the design than I resolved to put it in execution. 
 I do not think I was foolish enough to imagine that I 
 would be able to extort a confession, but I probably 
 trusted to the chapter of accidents, which is sometimes 
 more fruitful of results than the wisest and most delib- 
 erate counsel. 
 
 Langston Priory stands in the dip of a wooded hill that 
 bounds the view upon all sides but that of the sea, of which 
 you might almost catch the fresh, salt smell upon a day 
 when a landward breeze is blowing strong. Several miles 
 of park lie between the house and the coast road, and the 
 avenue which winds with many sweeps and turns, though 
 narrow and ill-kept, through a dense growth of noble trees, 
 gives one the idea that the extent is even greater. The 
 place showed no sign of care, but everywhere rather of 
 neglect and decay. The entrance gate was in ruins and 
 the lodge deserted ; in the avenue great trees that had been 
 uprooted by the winter storm lay just as they had fallen, 
 almost obstructing the path on which the grass was grow- 
 ing in long and tangled patches. The house was larger 
 and more imposing than Heronford. 
 
 A considerable portion of the abbey still stood in ex- 
 cellent preservation, but the grandfather of the present 
 Mr. Weston had added a great range built in the Italian 
 manner, an undertaking which had almost impoverished 
 him, and which he had left still incomplete. Neither of 
 his successors had attempted to complete the work he had 
 left unfinished, and the house now stood a memorial of 
 extravagance and folly. But I can give you no idea of the 
 appearance of neglect and ruin that the place presented.
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 211 
 
 The windows along one entire side had either been 
 boarded up or were closed with shutters ; the grass was 
 growing upon the drive till it could hardly be distinguished 
 from the turf, and the gardens with their forlorn groups 
 of statues fauns and nymphs and neglected gods were 
 rank and overgrown with weeds. 
 
 I rapped at the main door until I was tired,without being 
 able to make anyone hear me, and then I walked in the 
 direction of the stables, where I knew that I should find 
 someone to answer my inquiries. I was not mistaken in 
 this. I found an ostler crossing the yard and very intent 
 upon his work ; at sight of me he almost dropped the 
 bucket he was carrying. 
 
 " Is Mr. Weston at home ? " I said civilly. 
 
 " Anan ? " 
 
 " I am anxious to see Mr. Weston," I repeated. 
 " Shall I find him at home ? " 
 
 " Noa ; 'tis too early for squire. Ye had best not wait 
 for him. He wooant see you, I'm thinking." 
 
 " But my business is of importance." 
 
 " So is hissn, I reckon. You do'ant happen to know 
 squire, mister, nor dogwhip nayther," and he laughed as 
 though he enjoyed the jest. 
 
 " I know Mr. Weston very well," I answered, " and 
 look here, my man, if you will find him for me you shall 
 have a couple more of these. Perhaps," I added, " he 
 has visitors with him ? " 
 
 The fellow looked at the crown I gave him, holding it 
 in his open palm, and then he bit it with his teeth. 
 
 " Noa, noa," he said with a roguish look, " I do'ant 
 answer no questions about squire's business, but ye'er a
 
 212 HERONFORD 
 
 civil-spoken gentleman enough, and its odds not a par- 
 son, eh ? " 
 
 " I am not a parson," I laughed. 
 
 " Nor a Revenue man ? Squire's death on they." 
 
 " Not even that." 
 
 " Then he may see you, though you do'ant look his 
 sort. But I wo'ant answer for squire of a morning, and 
 ye'll best give him soft side of your tongue if ye want to 
 come soft wi' him. Ye're warned fair." 
 
 " I'm prepared even to take that risk." 
 
 " Well, I'll take the liberty of putting you into th' gun 
 room. There's only poor doitered Sir Archie there wi' 
 his whamlaries, and he wo'ant mind ye." 
 
 " Sir Archie ? " 
 
 " Ay, squire's brother soart of innocent. An ye're 
 sure ye're not a gauger ? " 
 
 On my reassuring him he led the way across the yard 
 and up a short flight of wooden steps that hardly hung 
 together. Going down a narrow hall we came to a door, 
 which he flung open without ceremony. 
 
 " Veesitors to see ye, Sir Archie." 
 
 He almost pushed me into the room, assured me 
 hurriedly that he would do his best to find his master, 
 and then closing the door behind him turned the key in 
 the lock and left me there a prisoner. I thought for a 
 moment that I had fallen into a trap, but knowing that 
 my visit was quite unexpected, I assured myself that the 
 fellow had only taken this precaution upon his own re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 The room was so dimly lighted by one window at the 
 end where I was standing that at first I could not see the
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 213 
 
 other occupant. But when I grew accustomed to the 
 gloom, and took in my surroundings by degrees, I was 
 overcome with no small degree of astonishment. There 
 was a number of fowling-pieces and three braces of silver- 
 mounted pistols arranged on a rack near the door, but the 
 rest of the room contained as curious a medley as could 
 be imagined. A mangy fox was snarling and snapping in 
 a wooden cage ; half a dozen white rats stopped to look 
 at me with their pink eyes, where they fed from a stone 
 trough in the centre of the room ; and a couple of owls 
 sat blinking on the branching antlers of a stag over the 
 fireplace. A litter of lurcher puppies were disporting on 
 a rug of bear's skin, and a little grey monkey, very quaint 
 and hideous, was perched tailor-wise upon the table among 
 a heap of bottles and broken plates. At one side against 
 the wall was a magnificent mirror, reaching from the floor 
 to the ceiling, but the glass was starred and cracked in a 
 hundred places as though it had been done with a ham- 
 mer. The chairs, which were originally covered with 
 silk or tapestry, had been stripped or broken, and a beau- 
 tiful Italian cabinet, that must at one time have been of 
 great value, was used to store a number of pairs of boots 
 and other miscellaneous lumber. 
 
 At the other end of the room, and as though occupying 
 the place of honour, was a carved lectern, which I had no 
 doubt had originally been brought from the abbey. On 
 this was seated a huge jackdaw that at the time I entered 
 was in a state of great excitement and anger, and was 
 flapping his close-cut wings with a rancous clamour. A 
 man was standing before him in a brown coat with wide 
 skirts that reached nearly to his heels, and was engaged in
 
 2i 4 HERONFORD 
 
 tempting him with some food that he would hold within 
 his reach and then suddenly withdraw. I thought at the 
 moment that I had never seen a more repulsive-looking 
 object than this individual, but in a little while my feeling 
 of aversion was turned into pity. His hair grew very long 
 and apparently never received any attention, while his 
 hands and face were indescribably dirty. His eyes had a 
 wild and vacant stare in them that sometimes narrowed 
 into a look of animal cunning ; his forehead was bulging 
 and projected ; and his thick, blubbering lips emphasised 
 the narrow and retreating chin. One shoulder was a little 
 higher than the other, and altogether I thought he might 
 very well have passed for a Caliban without his malice 
 and ferocity, though with a certain freakish mischief. 
 
 He stopped in his occupation when I came in, and 
 stood looking at me with a mixture of curiosity and alarm. 
 The jackdaw flapped heavily on to his shoulder but he 
 made no attempt to dislodge it, and the bird sat there, 
 thrusting out its neck and apparently scolding me. The 
 odour of the room was intolerable, and the din at first so 
 great that I could hardly make myself heard. 
 
 " Your favourite does not seem to care for strangers," 
 I said in a conciliatory tone, seeing his look of trepidation. 
 
 " Eh ? Ay ? " he queried in a thick, indistinct voice. 
 
 " I like birds myself. You seem to be fond of them." 
 
 " Jeremy is not well. It is one of his bad days. He 
 is always ill when he fasts. Jeremy is no saint. Are you 
 Jeremy ? " 
 
 He held up his finger to the bird that suddenly became 
 quite motionless, and then reproduced his tone so exactly 
 that I was almost certain it was he himself who had spoken.
 
 215 
 
 " Damnation ! " 
 
 His master, apparently delighted with the answer, burst 
 into a hoarse, broken laugh that stopped as suddenly as 
 it began. 
 
 " Ho ! Ho ! Jeremy is the wisest bird in the world. 
 He can tell what you are thinking about before you open 
 your mouth. Eh ! old Jeremy ? " 
 
 " He has learned bad habits. He should not swear." 
 
 " The gentleman says you should not swear not even 
 in Lent Lent, Jeremy. But we could tell him a secret, 
 old bird. He would swear himself after seven hundred 
 and fifty black years with only Sir Archie of all the round- 
 bellied old fellows to keep you company. Seven hundred 
 and fifty years, with never a prayer for the good of your 
 soul, and the devil sitting bolt upright in your coffin and 
 playing at marbles with your round old skull." 
 
 " My bead aches" croaked the bird. 
 
 " His soul is uneasy," said Sir Archie gravely ; " he is 
 always like that when he thinks of it. Would you like 
 to know his history ? " 
 
 I assented solemnly. 
 
 " Jeremy was not Jeremy in those days. He was the 
 Abbot Ambrosius, and wore a ring like a bishop, and had 
 two hundred jolly old monks to say the Aves and drink 
 with him when he was thirsty. And I was a lay brother 
 and dug in the garden, and looked after the poultry, and 
 sometimes held Jeremy's horse when he rode to see his 
 brother at Fareham. He was a great man in those days 
 weren't you, Jeremy ? But the devil got among the 
 monks, and Jeremy listened to the devil and there was an 
 end of it. He was to live to Domesday and never quit
 
 2 i6 HERONFORD 
 
 the Priory as long as he lived. A bad bargain, old 
 Jeremy, and the lay brother had the best of it." 
 
 " Hold your tongue, fool! " cried the bird, and this time 
 the voice was not Sir Archie's voice. 
 
 " He is always like that when he thinks of it. He used 
 to have a good temper, but seven hundred years have 
 broken it. And then it breaks his heart to think what 
 the Westons have done to him. I am Sir Archie Wes- 
 ton, you know." 
 
 I nodded sympathetically. 
 
 44 1 never could understand how that came about ; that 
 was the most curious part of it. But George is all right. 
 There is no doubt that he is a Weston." 
 
 II D the Westons ! " croaked the jackdaw. 
 
 44 You hear him now ; that is right, old thunderstorm. 
 He does not love George ; you know him ? " 
 
 41 You mean your brother ? " 
 
 " There is only one George my brother George. Ah ! 
 he is the only Weston that ever I could bear, and he is 
 so strong and tall and beautiful like an angel in a pic- 
 ture. He hates Jeremy, but he bears with his temper for 
 my sake, and George is very good to Sir Archie you 
 can't think how good. I couldn't live without George." 
 
 The tone of honest affection in the midst of his aim- 
 less, maundering babble struck me, and I was certain 
 that it could only have been waked by the remembrance 
 of kindness. I could not help thinking a little better of 
 Mr. George Weston. 
 
 44 1 am glad," I said, 44 that your brother is kind to 
 you. I am sure he is a good brother." 
 
 44 Those are his puppies," he said, pointing to the rug.
 
 JOHN CASSILIS PAYS A VISIT 217 
 
 " They don't understaud him as well as they understand 
 me, but then I have learned the language, and I love them 
 better. I suppose I was something else before I became 
 Sir Archie, and that is how they know me. I can tell 
 you it is a great thing to have been something else." 
 
 I am sure I pitied him from my heart, and I felt that 
 I could do nothing but acquiesce in his mood. 
 
 " You must be very happy," I said, " with your family 
 of pets." 
 
 " None of them ever troubles me but Jeremy, and that 
 is because he knows" so much more than the rest. George 
 does not like them, but he bears with them because they 
 are mine. You don't happen to know William Cassilis ? " 
 
 I started at the sudden question, and then answered 
 
 " Yes, I know William Cassilis." 
 
 He came close to me and laid his hand on my arm 
 with a look of great cunning, in which there was mingled 
 a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. 
 
 " Sir Archie and Jeremy know all about it they are 
 not sleeping. Ah ! but I am not sure of you. It is a 
 secret. Ho ! ho ! A secret ! You are sure you can keep 
 a secret ? " 
 
 " I can try if you will trust me with it." 
 
 " But you haven't seen Simpson yet ? Simpson is my 
 fox, and is quite a gentleman. You must ask him 
 whether he is better." 
 
 " But about William Cassilis ? " I said gently. 
 
 " Ah ! yes ; I was forgetting him. Sir Archie is not 
 the only one who is dead and walks up and down when 
 he should be lying in a lead coffin, and have a stone with 
 his name cut on it, and a little house all to himself with
 
 2 i8 HERONFORD 
 
 the worms and black-beetles to keep him company. I 
 can't make out what William Cassilis is now, but I know 
 he is dead and they haven't buried him." 
 
 "That is wrong," I said ; "but how do you know that 
 he is dead ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I know. Archie knows. Did I not hear 
 George tell him that he was the maddest dead man he 
 ever saw in his life ? You know all dead men are mad ? " 
 
 " 1 suppose they are when they come to life again." 
 
 " That must be the reason," he said with a sagacious 
 air. " If they would only remain deatl they never would 
 have a pain in their head. I have sometimes pains in my 
 head." 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear that. But you are forgetting 
 William Cassilis." 
 
 " I don't know why everyone when he dies should 
 come to live at Langston unless William Cassilis is right 
 and it is really hell, you know. He came here when he 
 died, and he has been walking about ever since and play- 
 ing cards, and but I was telling you about Simpson. 
 You can see that his leg is nearly broken " 
 
 " I see that he has been badly hurt." 
 
 "William Cassilis did that. George gave him to me 
 when he was only a little cub, and I suppose he misses the 
 fields and his little brothers, and the earth with the bracken 
 brown and green about it, and his temper is not good. 
 Last night was it last night, for I always forget " 
 
 "That will do, my dear Archie, I will tell this gentle- 
 man the story myself." 
 
 I turned round and found the door open and George 
 Weston standing close at my elbow.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 
 
 I SUPPOSE I was too much interested in the uncon- 
 scious revelations of the poor imbecile to hear the sound 
 of the door opening, and I was vexed that we should have 
 been interrupted so inopportunely, but I hid my embar- 
 rassment and returned Mr. Weston's stare with a cold 
 and distant bow. At first he paid no more attention to 
 me than if I had not been present at all, but turning his 
 back upon me went over and laid his hands with a rough 
 friendliness on his brother's shoulders. I imagined it was 
 their morning greeting, for Sir Archie's dull hanging face 
 was lighted up with a broad smile, and he mumbled some 
 words that were quite inarticulate. There was no doubt 
 he was unfeignedly glad to see my enemy. 
 
 " How is the poor head this morning, Archie ? The 
 monks have been quiet, eh ? and Jeremy has been a good 
 bird ? " 
 
 " Jeremy has said his prayers and my head is better. 
 I have told this gentleman about Jeremy. Why has he 
 come to Langston ? " 
 
 " To catch rats, Archie, if he can find them. Never 
 mind, we will set the dogs on him if he gives us any 
 trouble, and we will show him the way we hunt vermin. 
 Go into the stable and see how the horses are getting on, 
 and in the afternoon you and I will look after the badger. 
 I want to talk to this gentleman now." 
 
 219
 
 220 HERONFORD 
 
 He laid his hand affectionately inside his brother's arm 
 and drew him to the door, while Sir Archie followed him, 
 apparently perfectly satisfied with his assurance. When 
 the door was closed and we were left alone he turned 
 round on me with a face instantly lighted by the passion 
 of hate and resentment. 
 
 " By , you'll rue this. What the devil has brought 
 
 you here ? " 
 
 " I have come here to see you, Mr. Weston," I an- 
 swered coolly, though I thought for the moment he was 
 going to strike me. 
 
 " Oh ! you have come here to see me, you sneaking 
 cur ? You weren't content to spy on me at Langston, 
 Mr. Brown, when with a word from me you would have 
 been tossed into the quay or sent a longer journey than 
 you might have a taste for. I might have forgiven you 
 that. I might have let you go to the devil in your own 
 way, but you weren't satisfied with that. You must come 
 here to pry into my secrets, to dig up my family skele- 
 tons, to who brought you into this room, you ? " 
 
 " If all your secrets were as much to your credit, Mr. 
 Weston, as the one I have discovered here, you would 
 not have been troubled with my presence. I have 
 thought better of you since I have learned it." 
 
 " Who wants you to think well of him ? By Heaven, 
 I had rather have your ill-opinion than your good. I 
 want no man's good opinion least of all yours. I'll 
 know who brought you into this room, and if I leave a 
 whole bone in his body my name isn't George Weston. 
 Have you rubbed up your dull wits ? Have you found 
 out what you wanted ? Has that poor innocent satisfied
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 221 
 
 you that he is no wiser than yourself with more excuse 
 for his folly ? You were well-matched ; yes, you were 
 well-matched." 
 
 " A precious pair, George" croaked the jackdaw, that 
 all the time had been sitting on the lectern watching us 
 out of his wicked eyes. 
 
 " Hold your tongue or I'll wring your neck, you old 
 devil ! " cried Weston. " Now, Mr. Brown or Mr. 
 Cassilis one name is as good as the other what have 
 you come here to say to me ? " 
 
 " I have not come here to quarrel, sir." 
 
 " Only another lecture on deportment I thought as 
 much," he said with a sneer. " I don't forget that you 
 were not always so peaceably inclined, and if I bore with 
 your blow then it was for purposes of my own. But I 
 haven't forgot it, and will cry quits if we both live long 
 enough." 
 
 " I am ready to give you the satisfaction of a gentle- 
 man for my conduct." 
 
 " A fine gentleman ! It doesn't please me to stand up 
 to be shot at that's not my way. I'll fight you with my 
 own weapons, and when we have done I'll get more 
 satisfaction than I would ever get, in attending your 
 funeral. That's my notion of honour in fighting a gen- 
 tleman like you." 
 
 u You have strange notions of honour, Mr. Weston." 
 
 O * 
 
 " Well, I don't change my name, and lie in a pot-house 
 for the end of a week to see how my neighbour's smoke 
 is- blowing my honour doesn't take that turn. I'm sorry 
 now that I let you off so easily and only asked you to 
 change your lodging. I should have called 4 shark ' and
 
 222 HERONFORD 
 
 let the lads treat you in their own way. I'll do it yet, I 
 will, by " 
 
 " Then this was another polite attention of yours. It 
 did not occur to me." 
 
 " I suppose I should have sent you a polite note of in- 
 vitation, and asked you to come and share our festivities 
 at the Priory. Archie and you would have got on very 
 well together. But we have had enough of these civil 
 preliminaries, and I don't want to lose my temper. May 
 I take the liberty of asking on what errand you have 
 come to see me, for you are an intolerable time in get- 
 ting at the essentials ? " 
 
 " My errand is a very simple one, Mr. Weston, and 
 can be spoken in a word. I have come to ask you to 
 restore Mr. William Cassilis to his friends, for by this 
 time the farce is nearly played out." 
 
 His astonishment was so well counterfeited the blank 
 look, the start of surprise, the unconscious pause that 
 had I not already perfectly known the part he was acting 
 I should have been staggered by his manner. That 
 could not have been excelled by any actor upon the stage, 
 and only wanted an audience less incredulous than my- 
 self to have rendered it perfect. 
 
 " Dam'me, the farce is only beginning. But I can't 
 have understood what you want with me." 
 
 " I have spoken plainly ; you understand me perfectly. 
 If you think to deceive me in this way once for all I tell 
 you plainly you are mistaken, for I know " 
 
 " That I was so fond of honest Will Cassilis when 
 he was alive that I couldn't part with him now that he 
 is dead and gone. It seems I have founded a museum
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 223 
 
 and turned a collector of curiosities. I have seen the 
 thing done labelled in spirits and a stopper on the bot- 
 tle and Will Cassilis is to make a specimen. If he 
 were alive he would enjoy the joke with any man I 
 know, but since he is dead it can't tickle him now. 
 Upon my word I don't understand you, Mr. is it Brown 
 or Cassilis ? " 
 
 " Is it still necessary to endeavour to keep up this de- 
 ception, sir ? Was it last night you played at cards with 
 him, or did you see him this morning ? If you will be 
 good enough to bring him here I should be happy to tell 
 him what I think of your conduct and his." 
 
 " I see," he sneered, " that we are beginning to arrive 
 at an understanding, though you have a confounded way 
 of arriving at your meaning. You do not mean that I 
 have the custody merely of his honoured bones ; I am 
 supposed to produce him alive." 
 
 " That is exactly my meaning, and no one knows it 
 better than Mr. Weston." 
 
 "This is a better joke than the other, and that was hard 
 to beat. I see now what brought you to Langston and 
 set you prying into every hole in the village, though for 
 my life I couldn't understand it before. Your conscience 
 is troubling you, Mr. Cassilis ; the ghost has got into your 
 brain. I'm told you have seen the ghost." 
 
 " I have no doubt your friend has told you the whole 
 story." 
 
 " Oh ! he has, has he ? Come, sir, we'll beat about 
 the bush no longer. I wonder at your assurance. Do 
 you think that I am a child to be taken in by this cock- 
 and-bull story ? "
 
 224 HERONFORD 
 
 " We both know that William Cassilis is alive and in 
 this house at this moment." 
 
 " I know that you are standing before me with a rope 
 round your neck if I chose to speak the word. I know 
 that if I did my duty as a magistrate I should make out a 
 warrant for your committal, and see you conveyed safe 
 to Fareham gaol. And you come to me with your 
 
 trumped-up story to me, by who saw with my own 
 
 eyes you have the truth now your master and your- 
 self do my unfortunate friend to death. You would 
 make a fine show in the cart together, and I don't know 
 why I don't see you both upon the road." 
 
 " Shall I tell you the reason, Mr. Weston ? Because 
 you might find it difficult to produce the body. Knowing 
 what you appear to know you will now find it difficult 
 to explain why you have remained so long silent, but I 
 am glad to think I should have had so excellent a witness 
 on my behalf had things turned out differently. I am 
 sure you would have spoken the truth, Mr. Weston." 
 
 " I'll speak the truth yet, happen what may, and then 
 you can tell your story to a judge and jury and see whether 
 they will believe you. Do you want a warrant to search 
 my house, to examine my servants, to twist the words of 
 my unfortunate brother to the tune of your midsummer 
 madness ? Oh ! this is too much, by The confed- 
 erate who stands by and watches the deed done when he 
 feels that his neck is in danger comes here to try to shift 
 the charge and close the witness' mouth against him. I 
 know your tricks ; I see through your scheme, but it 
 won't do with me. No, no, Mr. John Cassilis, you 
 must try some other plan."
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 225 
 
 "You mean, then, to persist in your denial at all 
 hazards ? " 
 
 " I mean to see you hanged as high as Haman." 
 " It is idle for you to talk in this way. You have your- 
 self admitted to me even now you saw what occurred. 
 If William Cassilis had been killed no one knows better 
 than yourself it would have been merely the result of a 
 deplorable accident in which I had neither hand nor part. 
 But you know and I know that he was not killed, that 
 he is alive at this moment, and that you are keeping him 
 in hiding to serve your own ends and answer your own 
 wicked purpose." 
 
 " Fine words ! You would find it hard to prove that." 
 " I think I have found the means of proving it never- 
 theless." 
 
 " Let me hear your proofs. An idiot and a ghost ? " 
 Though he spoke contemptuously I saw that I had 
 awakened his interest, and he was anxious to know the 
 extent and source of my knowledge. I was almost upon 
 the point of allowing my feelings to get the better of me 
 and giving him the information he sought when I re- 
 strained myself. 
 
 " I shall produce my proofs at my own time and in my 
 own place, and even you will be compelled to confess 
 their sufficiency. I own that I did not come here out of 
 any spirit of friendship or good-will toward you. You 
 have tried to injure me ; you have injured me, and I may 
 have given you some cause for your hostility. I admit 
 that and I do not regret it ; I should do the same thing 
 again under the same circumstances. But that is not 
 everything. I have not come to you on my own ac-
 
 226 HERONFORD 
 
 count, for you will see that I shall fight my own battle in 
 a different way ; not on my own account, nor thinking 
 of my own advantage. I implore you on behalf of an 
 innocent man whose heart has been broken, whose spirit 
 has been tortured, who has been hounded to death by this 
 cruel plot of which I alone am the object, to give him 
 some hope and let him have some peace before he dies. 
 There is no need to disguise from you that Lord Heron- 
 ford imagined he was the cause of his brother's death. 
 Is he to die with this black shadow lying upon his death- 
 bed when a word from you will remove it ? It were only 
 common humanity to cease to persist in it." 
 
 " Upon my life, Mr. Cassilis, you have missed your 
 vocation in the world ; you have some skill in the use of 
 language. But might I not suggest that if I am guilty 
 of all you say, that it would be an easier and plainer 
 course to produce your evidence than to try to extort a 
 confession from the criminal ? Come, come, sir. You 
 need not harp upon that string; I am too old for cheap 
 pathos. You and I have tried conclusions together and I 
 have had the best of the argument. You thought a fox- 
 hunter couldn't fight ; you imagined because I loved a bot- 
 tle better than books that I had no wits. You were good 
 enough to declare war against me ; well, sir, you declared 
 war, and I imagine I have had a good deal the best of you 
 in the battle of Carnforth. That is the whole situation." 
 
 " Is it necessary, Mr. Weston, that we should touch 
 upon that subject ? " 
 
 " No, not now, for I think I have effectually done your 
 business there. I would only remind you, Mr. Cassilis, 
 that even a prize-fighter can love a woman as well as a
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 227 
 
 troubadour, and perhaps go a little further in his rough 
 way for her sake." 
 
 " And I am to take it as your final answer that you 
 will still persist in this persecution ? " 
 
 " You are to take it for my final answer that you are a 
 fool to suppose that I will give up the advantage I have 
 gained, and that I should be a greater fool still if I did. 
 And now, Mr. Cassilis, I have only one word more to say. 
 If my lamented friend is not dead I shall take care to see, 
 as far as you are concerned, that he is as good as dead. 
 You came here to see me on my own ground first to 
 threaten, and when that failed then to wheedle. Very 
 well, I haven't done with you. You say that you will 
 fight me in your own way ; so will I, and I will give you 
 a lesson you will never forget as long as you live. I will 
 take off the gloves and show you how easily I have been 
 dealing with you so far." 
 
 " Threatened men live long, sir ; at least, we need not 
 wrangle further. Even for your own sake I am sorry that 
 you have not seen your way at least to do common justice." 
 
 " Well, at any rate, I will do it now." 
 
 He went over to the window and, throwing up the 
 sash, called to someone in the courtyard, upon which the 
 rmdow looked. Never having had any doubt as to the 
 length to which his violence was capable of carrying him 
 I expected nothing less than that he was about to resort 
 to physical means, and I looked hastily round for some 
 means of defence in case it should come to the point of 
 resistance. With that view in my mind I edged nearer 
 the arms rack ; he glanced round, and seeing my move- 
 ment burst into a roar of laughter.
 
 228 HERONFORD 
 
 "You needn't be afraid, Mr. Cassilis. It has not 
 come to that yet, though it may. Simon ! " 
 
 I heard the sound of footsteps under the window. 
 
 " I want a couple of men to go into Langston. They 
 are to drive the gentleman who has come to see me, and 
 they had better take the light cart. Hurry them up. 
 Now, Mr. Cassilis," he continued, turning round to me, 
 " you see I have been providing for your comfort. I 
 hope you will see your way to accepting my kindness ; 
 if you do not I am afraid I shall have to use force, and 
 they will drive you whether you will or no. The next 
 time you visit Langston Priory I shall not be at such 
 trouble to provide for your convenience." 
 
 " I have not the slightest objection to your driving me 
 to Langston," I said, looking at him firmly, " and there 
 is no need for you to threaten me. I am not at all 
 afraid." 
 
 " Fools never do fear," he cried with a laugh, as he 
 threw open the door. " Now, Mr. Cassilis, the cart will 
 be ready in a moment, for my fellows never lose time 
 when I am near them. You see they are nearly ready." 
 
 We had come out into the bright sunshine of the court- 
 yard and stood watching the men yoking a high-spirited 
 mare in the cart. They were stout, honest-looking fel- 
 lows, who, though handy enough, seemed to me to savour 
 a good deal more of the sea than of the stable, and I re- 
 membered that Weston was generally supposed to have a 
 closer connection with the free traders than it might have 
 been convenient for him to have publicly known. How- 
 ever, I did not think he now intended me any foul play, 
 but merely wanted to see me safely off his premises, and
 
 AN UNPLEASANT INTERVIEW 229 
 
 I was preparing to get into the cart when he laid his hand 
 on my arm. 
 
 " Before you go there is something more that I should 
 like to say to you." 
 
 " Well, sir ? " 
 
 " It was merely that I never could understand why my 
 poor deceased friend was so bitter against you. It is a 
 curious coincidence. By the merest accident I dis- 
 covered that only this morning, and I am glad I did not 
 know earlier. I loved Lord Heronford so much that in 
 showing my affection for him I might have done your- 
 self some service. But all is well now, and I hope you 
 will find everything right at Heronford, only you might 
 have been as profitably employed looking after your in- 
 terests there as uncovering my nakedness here. Good- 
 morning, Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 The mare plunged in the shafts two or three times, and 
 then settling steadily to her collar we were carried rapidly 
 down the drive, and in a quarter of an hour I found my- 
 self again before the doors of the " Thatched House."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LOVE, THE COUNSELLOR 
 
 I HAD certainly no reason to congratulate myself upon 
 the result of my visit to Langston Priory ; indeed, when 
 I looked back upon it I came to the conclusion that I 
 had been hurried into the commission of a grave folly. 
 I had to deal with a vindictive and unscrupulous enemy 
 who had been bold enough to avow that he had not yet 
 satisfied his enmity, and had boldly declared that he was 
 preparing to strike another blow. I was not a step 
 nearer the solution of the difficulty ; I had learned noth- 
 ing of importance, for the rambling talk of the poor 
 imbecile had told me nothing of which I was not al- 
 ready fully assured ; but, upon the other hand, I had 
 voluntarily and of my own motion informed the con- 
 federates that their scheme was discovered, and that by 
 some means I had gained possession of their secret. 
 
 When I thought over the result of my visit there was 
 another matter that troubled me a good deal. I had not 
 failed to notice the look of triumphant malice with which 
 Mr. Weston had closed our interview, nor the signifi- 
 cant emphasis he had laid upon his last words. It was 
 impossible, in part at least, not to understand what he 
 had meant to convey. By some means he had learned 
 the secret which my lord had guarded so jealously, and 
 which there were so many reasons for keeping inviolate 
 till his death. At first I supposed that William Cassilis, 
 
 230
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 231 
 
 who had apparently withheld his confidence from him so 
 long upon that subject, had at last been induced to admit 
 him fully into his discovery, but his language conveyed 
 more than that, and carried with it a warning which 
 struck me with dismay when I began to consider it. 
 That warning had not been directed toward Lord Heron- 
 ford, against whom he had, indeed, obtained a powerful 
 weapon, but toward me, who could not possibly be in- 
 jured by the disclosure. It imported something more 
 than a mere discovery that had carried with it a power 
 to strike directly at myself or there was no meaning in 
 his language. 
 
 But how ? By what means ? All at once a series of 
 possibilities presented themselves to my mind, which 
 grew upon me with a heightening feeling of terror until 
 I felt my heart knocking in my breast. Was it possible 
 that by some means my precious papers had fallen into 
 his hands, and that while I was pursuing my foolish and 
 fruitless enquiries he had succeeded by some means in 
 obtaining the sole evidence of my birthright ? I had 
 imagined the papers were perfectly safe ; I had felt the 
 most absolute security in the fact that their existence 
 was known only to my lord and myself; it had never 
 occurred to me for a moment that any attempt would be 
 made upon them, or that the place where they were 
 deposited would be discovered. 
 
 But I remembered all the circumstances now, and I 
 exclaimed upon myself for a blind and heedless fool. 
 Upon that very night when these precious documents had 
 been intrusted to my keeping William Cassilis had been 
 at Heronford ; nay, more, he had been upon the very
 
 232 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 threshold of the room in which my lord and I were sit- 
 ting. I remembered now the circumstance of finding the 
 door open that I had supposed to be shut, and it was 
 possible for him to have overheard every word we had 
 spoken. I had been carried away by my idle fears that I 
 had myself afterwards laughed at, but the real significance 
 of the apparition had never struck me until now. In his 
 father's time William Cassilis had been accustomed to 
 come and go in that great house without anyone being 
 the wiser of his presence, and upon this occasion, led 
 probably by some freakish fancy, he had revisited the 
 house where he was supposed to be dead. It was such an 
 adventure as would appeal to his malignant nature, and 
 how could I now doubt that he had heard and seen every- 
 thing that had taken place between my lord and myself? 
 
 If my presentiment was well founded this was the 
 position in which I was placed, and the mind is so con- 
 stituted that this new calamity completely dwarfed for 
 the time all my other troubles and centred my hopes and 
 fears entirely upon myself. 
 
 The coast road from Langston to Heronford runs 
 through the village of Carnforth, where it makes a detour 
 of several miles, skirting the base of the hills that there 
 rise against the sea, and joining Ley ton and Amberley in 
 the chain of communication. When I was deposited at 
 the door of the " Thatched House " my conductors un- 
 yoked the mare from the cart and sat down to a can of 
 beer in the common room, keeping their eyes, as I felt, 
 on me all the time. I do not know whether they had 
 been able to communicate with the landlord without my 
 seeing, or whether he already had his instruction, but he
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 233 
 
 seemed perfectly to understand the situation, and treated 
 me very dryly and with the scantiest hospitality. I had 
 called for some luncheon, for it is a walk of nine miles 
 to Heronford, and there is no other house upon the road 
 where it would be possible for me to get any refresh- 
 ment; but he seemed unwilling at first to supply my 
 wants, and demurred to serving me. However, after a 
 little insistence upon my part I at last got what I wanted, 
 though I found that my morning visit had entirely 
 robbed me of an appetite. But when I came to pay my 
 modest bill he spoke out his mind very plainly. 
 
 " I'm glad to see you'll be for the road back, Mr. 
 Brown, and I hope you'll put out your right foot first. I 
 told you before in a friendly way that Langston wasn't a 
 healthy place, and if you take my advice it'll be a long 
 time before you pay us a visit again." 
 
 " You seem to be an honest fellow," I said, " and I 
 should like to know what you have against me. I haven't 
 grumbled over your charges, and when a man keeps an 
 inn he usually likes to see his guests coming and not 
 leaving him." 
 
 " Oh ! I'm not saying that I am different from other 
 people, but there are guests and guests. I've nothing 
 against yourself; you seem to be an honest, harmless sort 
 of gentleman, but I can't afford to let you in, and the next 
 time you come round these ways my orders are to show 
 you the other side of the door." 
 
 " That is plain spoken at any rate. But I understand 
 your position. I know you are Mr. Weston's tenant." 
 
 " I am nobody's tenant but my own, thank God, for 
 my wife who came from Amberley way had a little for-
 
 234 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 tune of her own, and ready money isn't so plentiful in 
 these parts now that it isn't welcome. But they are all 
 Mr. Weston's men hereabouts, and we must live on good 
 terms with our neighbours. You don't think that Mr. 
 Weston would interfere with my customers, the Lord 
 love you not he he is the most open-handed gentle- 
 man in the world but folk here have a suspicion, some- 
 how, that you and he aren't friendly, and that's enough. 
 It's as much as my house is worth to serve you, and 
 though I'm sorry for it, I can't do it again." 
 
 " I'm sure I don't complain in the least of your treat- 
 ment j I shouldn't like to think you had suffered on my 
 account." 
 
 " Oh ! it's all right now that you are going, and if you 
 will take the advice of a friend you won't come back to 
 Langston till you have made your peace with some peo- 
 ple we won't talk about. At any rate, I would rather 
 you didn't come to the 4 Thatched House.' ' 
 
 Of course I was perfectly aware that it was due to Mr. 
 Weston's interference that he had already turned me out 
 of his house, and it was the same influence now which led 
 him to look so eagerly for my departure. But I was unable 
 to find fault with his loyalty where his interest was so 
 deeply concerned, and when I took my road homeward, 
 to his evident satisfaction, we parted on perfectly amicable 
 terms. The two men who had accompanied me to the 
 " Thatched House" had evidently not entirely completed 
 their instructions when they set me down before the door 
 of that primitive hostelry. After I had gone some dis- 
 tance on my way I turned round and saw them watching 
 me from the hill above Langston, until I finally lost sight
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 235 
 
 of them at the turn of the road. But I took this only 
 for a piece of Mr. Weston's bravado, though, indeed, my 
 mind was at the time so fully occupied by other subjects 
 of interest that I did not give the circumstance so much 
 thought as I might otherwise have done. 
 
 As you know the road from Langston makes a long 
 elbow at Carnforth before it reaches Heronford, but there 
 is a shorter way, usually taken by those travelling lightly 
 like myself, across the sands and along the beaten road by 
 the cliffs. The way ran, indeed, it still runs, for I can see 
 it as I write, through the meadow by the captain's garden 
 and past the gate that leads to his house. There were 
 several reasons why I was at the moment unwilling to 
 take this way, for I had not the heart just now to see either 
 Victory or her father ; but my anxiety to verify my fears 
 was so great that I did not care to lose time in taking the 
 longer road, and I accordingly leaped over the stile and 
 made my way through the meadows. I hoped for the first 
 time in my life that I might be able to pass the house un- 
 observed, and I thought for the moment I was about to 
 succeed. Though the door lay open there was no one in 
 the porch, and the little garden was deserted but for the 
 presence of the Saucy Aretbusa. I passed the gate with the 
 feeling that I might never enter it again and reached the 
 bridge, where I stopped for a moment to look back at the 
 house that I loved, and the shady garden where my hap- 
 piest hours had been spent. 
 
 I stood looking back on it all for a moment or two, and 
 then lifting my knapsack, that I had rested on the parapet 
 of the bridge, turned away and began to resume my jour- 
 ney. But I had hardly gone more than a step or two
 
 236 HERONFORD 
 
 when I heard my name called behind me, and turning 
 round saw Victory running swiftly down the walk from 
 the house, her shining brown curls uncovered, and her 
 red stockings twinkling under her white dress. 
 
 "Jack! Jack!" 
 
 I again set down my knapsack and waited where I was 
 standing till she came up to me. Never had I so wanted 
 to take her in my arms and pour out all my trouble to her 
 patient, loving ears. 
 
 u Well, madcap," I said gravely, holding out my hand 
 as she came up, " I see that it is not possible for anyone 
 to pass your door without discovery." 
 
 " You have never tried to do that before. Jack." 
 
 " But it is different now." 
 
 " Is it different ? Shall I go back ? " 
 
 " It would be far better for yourself, Victory, that you 
 did. A poor beggar like me has no right to mix you up 
 in his troubles or ask you to take a share in his misfortunes." 
 
 " Of course you have no right. Do you think a 
 woman ever loves a man when he is unfortunate ? " 
 
 Well " 
 
 " Or do you think she loves him better when he has 
 trouble that he can share with her ? What do you think, 
 Jack ? " 
 
 " I think you are far too good for me, Victory." 
 
 " And I think you are a very foolish lover. If I were 
 a man I should love differently perhaps. But I am 
 only a very foolish girl, and I see by your face that you 
 need comfort, Jack. Tell me what is wrong ; I was not 
 mistaken ? " 
 
 "Everything is wrong, but you were not mistaken.
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 237 
 
 There is no doubt that William Cassilis is alive and 
 may be found at Langston." 
 
 " Oh ! I was sure of that ; I was sure of that," she 
 cried joyfully. " Then everything is right and you have 
 found him, as I knew you would." 
 
 " I have bungled everything from the beginning, and I 
 am further from the end of the difficulty than I was when 
 I started. I have learned nothing ; I have not gained a 
 shred of proof that people would not laugh at, and I have 
 thrown away the advantage that I had at first." 
 
 " But the great thing is that he is alive. We are 
 strong in that, dear; we can afford to wait." 
 
 " Your eyes shine like stars of strength, Victory. Per- 
 haps I should have waited. But you don't know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " I know, sir, we must fight our ship to the last 
 plank," cried the sailor's daughter, " and then, Jack, we 
 can go to the bottom together, but not till then. Now 
 tell me all the foolish things you have done." 
 
 It gave me heart to see her steadfast eyes, and hear the 
 ring of loyal faith in her sweet voice. Beginning at the 
 beginning I told her how I had gone to the village of 
 Langston, and how probably during my whole stay there 
 Mr. Weston was aware of the inquiries I was making ; 
 how I had at last recklessly made up my mind to visit the 
 Priory, and of all that had taken place there down to 
 Weston's final threat that he had not yet exhausted his 
 enmity against me. But I carefully avoided making any 
 reference to the further direction my fears had taken, or to 
 that new misfortune that threatened me with ruin even 
 after this horrible accusation had been satisfactorily cleared
 
 238 HERONFORD 
 
 up. She listened to me without interruption until I had 
 finished, and then she stood for some time without speak- 
 ing, apparently considering seriously what I had told her. 
 
 " I think you did what I should have expected you to 
 do," she said at length ; " it was not perhaps very wisely 
 done, but it was honest and courageous. How can he 
 do you any further injury ? " 
 
 " That is not my secret, dear, and I cannot tell you yet. 
 But perhaps it was not altogether an idle threat he may 
 have had it in his power to do me a serious injury." 
 
 " But not in a way that would strike at your character 
 or good name not that ? Then we need not care ; let him 
 do the worst he can. But, John, I can see one thing." 
 
 " What is that ? " I asked. 
 
 " That we are not strong enough to win this fight our- 
 selves. You must have the advice of someone who has 
 more experience, and someone who, perhaps, does not love 
 you as well as I do. He will be able to see more clearly." 
 
 " There is only one person I can think of who might 
 be able to assist me. I mean Mr. Stone, the lawyer at 
 Fareham, who is my friend, I am sure, and a very honest 
 man." 
 
 " Then you must lose no time in seeing him, and in 
 the meantime I want you to promise me one thing." 
 
 " If you do not ask too much." 
 
 " It is not a great deal only that you will not run 
 any risk till you have succeeded. I am beginning to 
 grow afraid ; I am sure you are in danger." 
 
 " I thought that you had all the courage, Victory. 
 What is the danger that you foresee ? " 
 
 " I have more courage than wisdom," she said, " or I
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 239 
 
 could help you better. But I am sure the man who tried 
 to kill your good name would not hesitate to attempt 
 your life. Tell me this," she cried suddenly, " is there 
 anyone who would gain anything, or thinks he would gain 
 anything, if you were removed ? " 
 
 I hesitated before I spoke and then I answered 
 
 " Perhaps yes." 
 
 " Ah ! I thought as much I was sure of it. And you 
 think there is no danger you think it is only my fear for 
 you when I say I am sure that there is ? You will 
 promise me to be careful ? And listen, John ; you will 
 promise to let me hear from you every day or I shall 
 imagine they have succeeded ? " 
 
 " That will be an easy thing to do, I can promise that. 
 What would your father say if he knew you had such 
 thoughts about his friend ? " 
 
 " A woman's instinct is clearer than a man's reason, and 
 you must not laugh at me. I feel that you are in danger." 
 
 "The danger, Victory, is not of the kind you think, 
 but I promise to be careful. And you still love me 
 though I have not succeeded ? " 
 
 " Love is only itself, and doesn't ask whether you 
 have succeeded or failed." 
 
 When I had left her and was once more on my way 
 home I asked myself whether such steadfast faith, such 
 sweet unflinching loyalty was not in itself compensation 
 enough for any suffering that I might endure or for any 
 prospective loss I might sustain. 
 
 But I did not share her fears for myself that there was 
 any personal violence to be dreaded at the hands of my 
 enemies. If they had succeeded in accomplishing what
 
 24 o HERONFORD 
 
 I feared, they had already done as much as malice could 
 suggest, and had nothing or little to gain by taking me 
 out of the way. On my lord's death I would be as 
 powerless as if my proofs had never had existence, and 
 any claim that I might be foolish enough to make would 
 only recoil upon my own head. I felt, indeed, that 
 neither Weston nor his less capable confederate would 
 hesitate at any step, but I was secure in the feeling that 
 personal injury to myself, while it was fraught with pos- 
 sible danger to them, could be of no great advantage, 
 and that was my best security. 
 
 I had hardly entered the main hall of Heronford and 
 made a hurried enquiry as to the condition of my lord 
 than Madam Cassilis came to meet me, looking, I 
 thought, worn and haggard. I imagined afterwards she was 
 relieved to see me, but she did not seem to notice my 
 formal greeting and spoke with her usual brusqueness. 
 
 " You have been travelling, I see, Mr. Cassilis. I 
 thought we should not see you again." 
 
 " But you see I have returned, madam." 
 
 " I am not blind, sir. You care a great deal for your 
 master. You have been absent for three days." 
 
 II But, madam, I hope you will remember your in- 
 structions. I could not quarrel with them, and I am 
 glad to hear my lord is better." 
 
 " Who told you that he is better ? I cannot see that 
 he is greatly changed, but I do not think he suffers." 
 
 " I suppose I need not ask," I said. " Will you per- 
 mit me to see him ? " 
 
 " Not a moment if I could help it, for I am frank with 
 you, but my lord wishes it, and that is enough. You had
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 241 
 
 better see him at once, for he appears to care less for his 
 sister than for his " and without finishing the sen- 
 tence she turned abruptly upon her heel and left me. 
 Without waiting a moment I ran to my lord's room, and 
 finding the door closed knocked softly. The nurse 
 whom I had left in charge opened the door, and upon 
 seeing me expressed her delight in a whisper. 
 
 " I'm glad you are come, sir. He has been calling for 
 you for two days, and I am sure has been fretting his 
 heart out. It has been l John, John,' all the time. His 
 eyes are shut, but I don't think he is sleeping." 
 
 I stole on tip-toe into the room and took up my place 
 at the foot of the bed. My lord's white face was sunk 
 among the pillows and his eyes were closed, but his face 
 did not wear any further sign of suffering than that it was 
 shrunk and wasted. When I had seen him before he had 
 been respiring heavily, but he was now breathing softly. 
 The light in the room was quite dim, for the blinds had 
 been drawn, and I stood watching him where I stood at 
 the foot of the bed for some time. After a little the 
 nurse came up and joined me, and then I think she made 
 a little noise, for he opened his eyes. At first though he 
 had been staring at me steadily he did not appear to rec- 
 ognise me, for he made no sign and the expression upon 
 his face did not alter. I imagined that if in my absence 
 he had regained consciousness his mind had again relapsed 
 into the blank into which it had fallen, and I stole quietly 
 round to the side of the bed and took his nerveless hand 
 in my own. But I found that his hand returned my pres- 
 sure, and bringing my face close to his own I heard him 
 whisper, though with great difficulty and with a catching
 
 242 HERONFORD 
 
 in his throat, "John, John." I found that this was 
 almost the only word he could utter ; and that though 
 his mind was now clear on one side he had altogether 
 lost the power of motion, and that a paralysis nearly as 
 complete had fallen upon his speech. 
 
 I sat down upon the bedside and remained for some 
 time in silence, holding his hand in mine. I cannot tell 
 you how I knew, yet I was certain he was glad to see me, 
 and that he was happier now that I had come back. I 
 had longed for the moment when he could again under- 
 stand me, and now that the time had come I was almost 
 afraid to break the news to him that was trembling on my 
 tongue. Yet I felt whatever happened he must hear the 
 good news before he died, and that joy is a medicine that 
 seldom kills. I therefore motioned the nurse from the 
 room, and waiting till she had closed the door behind her 
 I bent over him and kissed him on the forehead. 
 
 " You can hear and understand me, my lord ? " 
 
 A lingering pressure upon my hand was the only answer. 
 
 " I am going to make you very happy," I said. "You 
 must prepare yourself to hear good news wonderful 
 news and I am not sure whether you can bear it." 
 
 He turned his dull eyes toward me and gazed at me 
 with a fixed look ; I wondered whether he perfectly un- 
 derstood me. 
 
 " You can hardly believe," I went on, " what I have to 
 tell you, but it is true, perfectly true. There is no more 
 doubt about it than that I am sitting here beside you. 
 Think, my dear lord, of what I know you would like best 
 in the world. It is that ; it is that I have to tell you. 
 Perhaps we had better wait till you have thought what the
 
 LOVE THE COUNSELLOR 243 
 
 good news is likely to be, for I fear you cannot bear it now." 
 
 But I saw that he understood me perfectly. He drew 
 my hand closer to him, and again, with the catching in 
 his throat, he called out my name. 
 
 " If I thought you could bear it," I cried. " It is al- 
 most too good for you to believe it. You have been made 
 to believe a lie, and I have discovered the truth I and 
 another. Can you not guess what that truth is ? You 
 remember the night we were together in the Book Room 
 and what we saw there that was a part of the lie, but it 
 began before that. It began " I could never under- 
 stand or explain it ; you may remain incredulous and de- 
 clare that this is only an idle story, but so surely as I 
 write, as I was speaking, my lord sat upright in his bed 
 and gazed at me with widening eyes, from which the 
 dull, heavy stare had completely disappeared. 
 
 " My dear lord, you have been punished for nothing. 
 Your brother is not dead ; William Cassilis is alive and 
 well." 
 
 I had broken the news to him far more abruptly than I 
 intended, for I saw the effect I had already produced. But 
 I thought now that I had killed him. His body seemed 
 to relax ; he dropped my hand that he had still been hold- 
 ing, and he made a violent effort to speak that fell into a 
 little choking gurgle. Then quite plainly and altogether 
 in his natural voice he called out " Thank God ! " and 
 fell back upon his pillows. I ran hastily to the door and 
 called to the nurse, who had been waiting in the corridor. 
 For a moment we both thought he was dead, for he made 
 no response to our efforts to revive him, and then gradu- 
 ally his eyes opened and he raised his hand.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK. 
 
 WHEN I left the sick-room I had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that the news which I had broken so unskilfully 
 had done Lord Heronford no injury. On the contrary, 
 the first shock, which had produced an effect so extraor- 
 dinary, had seemed rather to have quickened his faculties 
 and to have supplied a healthful stimulus. I have, in- 
 deed, since heard of cases in which a sudden shock has 
 given the paralytic a complete command over his useless 
 limbs, but though nothing of that kind happened here, a 
 slight, if transitory, improvement was certainly notice- 
 able. I was, however, forbidden the sick-room when it 
 was thought further excitement might prove injurious to 
 the patient, and I was now at liberty to pursue my en- 
 quiries upon that subject which had caused me so much 
 uneasiness and distress. 
 
 I suppose years afterwards one likes to dwell on his 
 former weaknesses and his serious follies with a mild com- 
 plaisance, whether because we have a secret sympathy with 
 folly, or because we are pleased to think we have outgrown 
 our weakness. I can now recall with a smile the subter- 
 fuges I adopted to gain a few moments respite before I 
 entered the room where I felt my fate was to be decided. 
 One moment I was flattered with the hope that I was the 
 victim of my own unfounded fears ; the next I was 
 plunged in the most profound despondency, and between 
 
 244
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK 245 
 
 fear and hope I hung vacillating, hardly daring to take the 
 decisive step that was to resolve my doubts. I lingered 
 on my way down the staircase and stood halting in the 
 corridor, and when I came to the door I walked two or 
 three times past it before I ventured to turn the handle. 
 When I had thrown open the door I stood with a beating 
 heart upon the threshold ; so far as I could see nothing 
 had been disturbed, but everything was as I had last left 
 it. My papers lay in order upon the table ; the silver 
 candlesticks did not appear to have been moved ; and the 
 books of account which usually lay upon the escritoire 
 were in their usual position. When I noticed this last 
 circumstance I gave an audible sigh of relief; I could al- 
 most have cried out with joy ; after all I had been pur- 
 sued by a shadow and tortured by my own foolish fancy. 
 I was at last able to breathe freely. 
 
 I was so certain now that all was right that I did not 
 at once make any closer scrutiny, but sat down at the 
 table thinking how different my state of mind would have 
 been had my fears been well founded. 
 
 It was at this moment that by some chance my eyes 
 fell on a handkerchief lying close to the escritoire. I do 
 not know what possessed me but I rose from my seat, 
 and walking across the room lifted it from the floor. It 
 did not belong either to my lord or myself; it was too 
 fine to have been the property of a servant, Then I 
 turned it over and examined it ; embroidered in one cor- 
 ner were the letters " W.B.C." At the sight I turned 
 hot and cold in the same instant. My hand trembled so 
 much that I could hardly take the key from my pocket, 
 and with difficulty was able to fit it into the lock. But
 
 246 HERONFORD 
 
 I could not turn the key at all. I imagined at first that it 
 was my excitement that prevented me, but I was very 
 soon convinced that the lock had been tampered with. 
 Then I saw that the wood had been split near the hinges, 
 and hastily taking hold of the lid that came off easily in 
 my hands. My worst fears were realised. A single 
 glance showed me that my ruin was complete ! The 
 other papers did not appear to have been disturbed, or if 
 they had, had been laid back again in their place as though 
 the thief had lingered over his work, but the packet was 
 gone. I knew that I need search for it no further ; I 
 knew where it had been laid before my lord had handed 
 me the key ; and, alas ! I was only too certain where it 
 had gone. I let the lid fall from my hands with a crash ; 
 I was paralysed by the blow, and stood staring at the 
 wreck before me like one distraught by his grief. 
 
 Still you must not think that after the first stunning 
 moment I was so beaten to the earth that I resigned my- 
 self to the worst or resolved hopelessly to abandon the 
 field to my enemies. Perhaps it was partly resentment, 
 partly pride, but I was determined that I would not sur- 
 render, even to this blow, until I could fight no further 
 and had exhausted every means. But what was I to do ? 
 To whom should I turn for assistance and advice ? The 
 very nature of the papers prevented me from publishing 
 my loss, or giving my full confidence to any one with 
 whom I was acquainted. Unless I extended that com- 
 plete confidence I felt that I could not hope for help ; 
 my own knowledge of the perpetrators was founded upon 
 the secret those papers contained. 
 
 But it was impossible for me to rest, and my thoughts
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK 
 
 247 
 
 turned instinctively to Mr. Stone, in whose prudence and 
 common sense I had the utmost confidence, and who 
 perhaps might be able to assist me with his advice. I 
 had no sooner thought of him than I made up my mind 
 not to lose any further time. Late as it was in the after- 
 noon I resolved to ride at once to Fareham, and put the 
 matter before him as fully as I dared. I had no idea 
 what advice he could give me or what assistance he was 
 able to render, but I felt that if any one could be of use 
 it was he, and at the worst I would lose nothing by see- 
 ing him. Accordingly without losing any time I had 
 my horse saddled, and in about a quarter of an hour was 
 in the courtyard booted and spurred for my journey. It 
 happened to be John Transome, a great favourite of mine, 
 who was holding my horse, and he expressed his surprise 
 that I was riding so late and asked whether he would sit 
 up for me. 
 
 " I am afraid you must, John," I said as I took the 
 reins in my hand, " for I cannot be back much before 
 midnight. I am riding to Fareham on a matter of busi- 
 ness and may be detained an hour or two." 
 
 " If you are coming back to-night, sir, you will have 
 to be careful. It is likely to prove a very black night 
 and there won't be any moon." 
 
 " Old Whitefoot could find his way back alone," I 
 said. " I am quite certain to be back to-night." 
 
 The steady old horse must have wondered what new 
 and evil spirit had entered into his master, for I certainly 
 did not spare him, and when I got to Fareham he was 
 covered with a lather of foam. It is eighteen miles from 
 Heronford to Fareham by the high-road, but though I
 
 248 HERONFORD 
 
 travelled faster than I had ever done in my life the way 
 had never seemed so long. It was not that I was anxious 
 to finish my errand, or that I was likely to gain much 
 when it was finished, but in my present state of mind I 
 felt the absolute necessity for doing something, and in 
 some way or other that I was losing what might prove 
 precious time. 
 
 It was already dark when I got to Mr. Stone's door, 
 and having tied my horse to the railing, I went up the 
 steps and plied the brass knocker three or four times with- 
 out compelling any answer. This was so unlike the 
 methodical little bachelor's household ways that I began 
 to think there was no one within, when the door was 
 opened by a comely maid servant whose cheeks were very 
 red, and who seemed not a little confused at my summons. 
 
 " Is Mr. Stone within ? " I said. 
 
 " He is not at home, sir. He left the house at six." 
 
 " When do you expect him back ? " 
 
 " I don't know, sir ; I am not sure. He goes usually 
 to the vicar's in the evening, but he went off" in the gig." 
 
 " And you have no idea at what time he will return ? " 
 
 "No, sir, I can't say ; but, perhaps, sir, that is " 
 
 "Well?" I asked. 
 
 " Perhaps, sir," she said, with what I thought was a tell- 
 tale blush deepening on her cheek, " you would see John 
 John Vanney if you would not mind. John " 
 
 " I will see any one," I said, " who can tell me what 
 I want John Vanney or any one else." 
 
 I followed her into the dining-room feeling terribly de- 
 pressed by my disappointment, and a few minutes after 
 she had left me a young man made his appearance, whom
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK 249 
 
 I thought I had seen once or twice in Mr. Stone's office. 
 He had evidently made a very hurried toilet for the mark 
 of the wet brush was apparent on his hair, and for a mo- 
 ment he seemed almost as self-conscious as the maid had 
 done, but he was not so long in regaining his natural 
 confidence. He was afflicted with an atrocious squint, 
 but appeared very good-natured, and was certainly not 
 wanting in a moderate amount of self-possession. 
 
 " I am Mr. S-S-Stone's clerk, sir. P-p-perhaps you 
 r-remember to have s-seen me ? " 
 
 Some of his words he took with a gallop, running them 
 into one another, and others he took with a little gulp, 
 but upon the whole his rate of progression was slow and 
 exasperating. 
 
 " Yes," I said. " I remember you. When shall I be 
 able to see Mr. Stone ? " 
 
 " Upon my w-w-word I don't know, M-M-Mr. Cassilis. 
 He's g-gone to make old M-Mrs. C-Cooksley's will, and 
 I d-don't think he'll b-be back m-much before morning." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that," I said. " I wanted to see 
 him upon important business." 
 
 " I b-beg your p-pardon, Mr. Cassilis, b-but is it about 
 the n-new leases, sir ? You may not t-think it b-but I 
 know as m-much about them as M-Mr. Stone. He 
 t-trusts me with everything." 
 
 " It is not about the new leases. I want to see him 
 on quite a different business." 
 
 Notwithstanding his unpromising appearance, Mr. 
 Vanney showed a natural aptitude for his profession. 
 
 "N-not the new l-leases, sir? I b-beg your pardon. 
 I b-believe I understand. We heard L-Lord Heronford
 
 2 5 o HERONFORD 
 
 was ill. I d-do that b-business regularly now, M-Mr. 
 Cassilis, and my c-con-v-vey-ancing is n-nearly as good 
 as M-Mr. Stone's. If the m-matter is urgent I c-can go 
 with you m-myself, and you may be s-satisfied that the d -de- 
 vises, b-bequests, and limitations will be q-quite correct." 
 
 " I don't doubt your knowledge, Mr. Vanney, but I 
 won't trouble you. My business was with Mr. Stone, 
 but since he is not likely to be home to-night I suppose 
 I must wait until the morning. Will you be good 
 enough to tell him that I shall be with him at eleven 
 o'clock to-morrow, and that it is of the utmost impor- 
 tance I should see him ? " 
 
 " I will c-convey your m-message to him, sir, and I 
 am s-sorry that I c-can't be of no use to you. You will 
 be s-staying in Fareham to-night, sir ? " 
 
 That was my intention when I unloosed my horse from 
 the railing where I had tied him, but I do not know what 
 caused me to alter my mind. I had thought of putting 
 up at the " Green Man " to save myself the fatigue of 
 riding back the next morning, and I had even ridden some 
 way in that direction, when I suddenly touched Whitefoot 
 with the spur and turned his head in the direction of 
 Heronford. Life is made up of these impulses, and I 
 have sometimes found that the burden of the future turns 
 on such undetermined acts. 
 
 When I left Fareham behind me the night had grown 
 very dark, with a heavy mist rising that threatened to settle 
 into rain. But I did not trouble about the darkness, for 
 my horse was very surefooted and there is a fine broad 
 road all the way to the hamlet of Amberley West, where 
 you turn off the high-road to Heronford. On the whole
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK 251 
 
 I rather enjoyed the solitude and darkness, and the time 
 passed much more quickly than it had done on my mad 
 gallop to Fareham. There was something congenial to my 
 mood in this midnight isolation, but, indeed, there was no 
 health in my thoughts, and none of that steady fortitude 
 with which a man should face the frown of evil days. My 
 mind was still so agitated that the course of my thoughts 
 would not run clear, but was lost in the tumultuous riot 
 of my emotions and passed into gloomy despondency. 
 
 As I came through Barstowe I heard a clock strike 
 eleven, and I quickened my pace a little until I came to 
 the turn at Amberley West. There rather a curious in- 
 cident happened which did not strike me as being of 
 much significance at the time, but the meaning of which 
 I discovered afterwards. As I turned into the narrower 
 road a man upon horseback, apparently coming from the 
 opposite direction, though I had not heard the sound of 
 the hoofs, suddenly shot out of the darkness and almost 
 touched me before I was able to rein in my horse. I 
 could not see his face, nor did I think he could see mine, 
 but before I could utter a word he had wheeled round 
 and galloped back in the direction in which I was going. 
 I called after him, but he returned no answer, and I 
 smiled when I thought he had probably taken me for a 
 highwayman, though such romantic personages were even 
 at that time seldom to be met on our roads. It never 
 occurred to me that he had any design upon myself, and 
 in the end I ceased to think about the incident. 
 
 But I soon came to see that the adventures of the night 
 were not over. There is a long hill with a sharp turn near 
 the middle as you come up to Heronford, where one must
 
 252 HERONFORD 
 
 necessarily travel slowly. As I came toward the foot of 
 this hill I thought I caught sight of a light upon the road, 
 stationary at times and then moving with a fitful, irregular 
 motion. Folk generally retire early to rest in this neigh- 
 bourhood and I could not imagine what was wrong, 
 especially as I soon heard the sound of voices raised 
 either in distress or anger. I was armed only with my 
 heavy riding-whip, but I pushed on more rapidly, and soon 
 came near enough to see that this light was carried by a 
 man who stood in the centre of the road. There were a 
 couple of horses standing near him, and close by the 
 hedge I saw a heavy chaise, the near wheels of which had 
 evidently left the track and gone into the ditch. I thought 
 at first the chaise had been overturned, and when I came 
 close I reined in my horse and asked what was wrong. 
 At that moment I saw another man close to the carriage 
 
 D 
 
 and apparently endeavouring to move the chaise into the 
 road, but his efforts did not seem to meet with much 
 success. This man raised his head where he was stoop- 
 ing beside the wheel. 
 
 " It's easy to ask what is wrong," he answered in a 
 surly voice, again resuming his task. " I'd be more thank- 
 ful if you'd step down and give me a hand. There's a 
 lady inside that is nearly frightened to death." 
 
 " She is not hurt, I hope ? " 
 
 " More frightened than hurt. What's the use of talk- 
 ing?" 
 
 " Not much," I answered pleasantly, " but I'll give 
 you what assistance I am able. If we can't manage it 1 
 can bring you help in a few minutes." 
 
 I dismounted from my horse thinking that at least I had
 
 A BLOW IN THE DARK 253 
 
 to do with a very ill-tempered fellow, but feeling con- 
 cerned for his passenger. I left Whitefoot standing per- 
 fectly steady on the road and went over and joined the 
 man at the chaise. 
 
 " You can't see what you have to do in the dark," I said. 
 " Bring over the light and let us see exactly what is wrong." 
 
 The man came a little nearer with the lantern, and when 
 I saw how matters stood a dark suspicion flashed upon my 
 mind. There was nothing to prevent the horses drawing 
 the chaise out of the few inches of ditch into which the 
 wheel seemed to have slipped; the accident had been 
 planned ; the men were either laughing at me or had acted 
 with some much more serious intention. I instantly drew 
 back and caught my riding-whip firmly in my hand. 
 
 " What game is this you are playing ? " I cried. 
 " There is nothing wrong here, and " 
 
 Someone had been struck a crashing blow on the 
 head struck in the dark and without warning a mur- 
 derous blow that rung with a dull thud in my ears. Had 
 the earth suddenly become blood red, and was it I I, 
 John Cassilis who was catching at the empty air and had 
 called out once with that thrilling, stifled cry for help ? I 
 was not sure ; I did not know ; and then I became un- 
 conscious, and for a long time remembered nothing more.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 
 
 I DO not remember how long I remained unconscious, 
 but it must certainly have been for some hours. I have 
 a confused and indistinct recollection of the rough jolting 
 of the chaise, and of being carried between a couple of 
 men into a colder air that set my head throbbing. But it 
 is all a painful dream, and I think that no sooner did I 
 begin to come back to consciousness than I would swoon 
 off again, for I had little broken gleams of remembrance 
 shut in as suddenly by the blank of forgetfulness. The 
 first thing I remember perfectly was lifting my hand to 
 my head and finding it clotted with blood. I recollected 
 then that something unpleasant had happened, but at first 
 I imagined that it was someone else and not myself who 
 had suffered. It could not be myself for I felt no pain, 
 and though I had a feeling of languor I was almost happy. 
 But gradually my thoughts became clearer ; it was my own 
 blood that I felt, and myself who was lying at my length 
 in a bed of rustling straw ; it was I who had been struck, 
 and immediately the whole circumstances were present 
 to my mind. I did not know whether my life had been 
 aimed at, but certainly whoever used this violence had 
 been indifferent regarding the consequences. The scheme 
 for removing me had been deliberately planned, and there 
 was no doubt who were the authors of the design or of 
 the object with which it had been accomplished. I had 
 been struck down cruelly relentlessly and wherever I 
 
 254
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 255 
 
 might be I was still in the hands of my assailants. And 
 whither had I been carried ? What was the place of my 
 imprisonment ? I raised myself on my elbow in the 
 straw and looked round me ; then I fell back upon the 
 bed with a kind of groan. 
 
 It must have been now some hours after daybreak for 
 three separate shafts of grey light streamed through as 
 many little grated windows or apertures high up in the wall 
 near the ceiling. The room in which I lay was evidently 
 a kind of cellar, the floor of which was considerably lower 
 than the surface of the ground. The walls were apparently 
 very thick and were built of rough stone, down which here 
 and there poured a little trickle of perspiring damp. The 
 door was reached by means of a flight of stone steps, and 
 upon every side of me were piled up casks and puncheons 
 from which there came a sickening smell of raw spirits, 
 and over which I could hear the scurrying rats. The floor 
 was paved with broad stone flags, and, so far as I could 
 see, the ceiling was composed of the same material, but I 
 noticed that in the centre of this was a wide wooden trap, 
 by means of which entrance could be gained from above. 
 
 Had I been carried back to Langston ? or was I con- 
 fined in some secret hiding-place of the free traders ? 
 Was it intended by my captors that I should be left here 
 to die ? or, if not, what more dreadful fate was in store 
 for me ? There was no possibility of my being traced ; 
 it would even be days before I should be missed at all. 
 Missed ! There was probably no one who would do 
 more than coldly inquire after me, and then turn away 
 satisfied with the answer that I could not be found. Not 
 Victory no, she was different and if the loyal old cap-
 
 256 HERONFORD 
 
 tain only knew the truth ! But he would probably never 
 know the whole truth now. 
 
 At first when I recovered consciousness my mind was 
 quite clear, but it cannot have been long before the fever 
 supervened and I was entirely prostrated. My head was 
 wracked with pain ; I was consumed by an intolerable 
 thirst, and in my delirium I was carried through intermi- 
 nable caverns of ice and pressed down under suffocating 
 avalanches of snow. 
 
 I had no idea how long I lay in this condition ; it 
 seemed to me that I passed through months of torture, 
 though I discovered afterwards that I cannot have spent 
 more than four-and-twenty hours in this way. As I lay 
 turning on the straw I imagined that occasionally someone 
 raised my head and gave me a drink from the pannikin 
 that was lying at my side, and more than once I imagined 
 that the trap-door in the ceiling had been raised and that 
 someone had remained there staring at me with fixed and 
 wide-opened eyes. As my fever abated and I came back 
 to myself I thought it very likely that in the first matter 
 I had really not been mistaken, but the latter I set down 
 to mere delirium, and convinced myself that it was alto- 
 gether a hallucination. 
 
 It must have been drawing toward evening for the 
 light in the cellar was growing fainter, when I heard the 
 sound of the door being unlocked, and presently someone 
 came cautiously down the steep flight of stone steps. I 
 looked up eagerly, and in the darkening twilight saw a 
 man carrying a platter and a jug, which he set down close 
 to me. I sat up in the straw, but it was too dark to see 
 his face.
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 257 
 
 " I am glad," I cried, " to see the sight of a fellow- 
 being. For God's sake tell me where I am and how 
 long I am to be kept in this dungeon." 
 
 " Till the master can do better for you. You feel 
 more comfortable ? I'm glad you can talk now. I 
 thought you were going safe to Davy Jones." 
 
 " Yes, I feel better," I said, " but am weak as a child." 
 
 " Sakes, you have bled like a pig ; but that won't hurt 
 you, and you'll feel your feet under you in no time. 
 The master hits hard when " 
 
 " Who is your master ? " 
 
 " You must ask no questions, but I don't mind mak- 
 ing you a bit comfortable if I can. Is there anything 
 more I can do for you a rug or a blanket ? " 
 
 " Yes," I said, " it is cold ; but I don't mind the cold. 
 There is something you might do for me that I should 
 like far better, and you will be well paid for it." 
 
 " What might that be ? " 
 
 " If you will carry a message for me " 
 
 " It can't be done at no price. I don't say that I'm 
 not sorry to see a gentleman down on his luck, and I 
 wouldn't mind being friendly, but here you are and here 
 you must bide till further orders. Take my advice and 
 just make yourself as easy as you can, for if you once 
 cross the master you won't go much further, and you 
 may fare a deal worse." 
 
 " I don't see how I can be much worse. Tell me one 
 thing am I in Langston Priory ? " 
 
 " You may spier at me till Doomsday, and as long as 
 I'm here you'll get a civil answer and decent victuals, 
 but you'll get no information. I'm not responsible for
 
 258 HERONFORD 
 
 the bringing of you here, but I am responsible to see 
 that you don't get out." 
 
 " At least," I said, " you will take a message for me 
 to your master ? " 
 
 " Eh ! I would like to see myself trotting on any such 
 fool's errand. Man, if I begun to carry messages to 
 him I know what answer I'd be like to get. No, no, 
 I'll just keep on the safe side of him for your sake, and 
 I'll bring you down a blanket and a bit of a light to pass 
 the time, though with the rats running about you'll have 
 no want for company." 
 
 The man was evidently disposed to be friendly to- 
 ward me, but was not to be shaken in his dogged hon- 
 esty to his employer, and could be prevailed on to give 
 me neither information nor assistance. 
 
 He went away, and in a short time came back with a 
 blanket and a ship's lantern, which he set down on a 
 cask beside me. Nor did his little attentions cease here. 
 With more skill and tenderness than I could have ex- 
 pected from him he examined and bound up my wounded 
 head, and then arranged a pillow for me. It was, per- 
 haps, only a touch of common humanity that prompted 
 hita, but his spontaneous kindness affected me. 
 ; > >Jf I am ever a ble to thank you," I said, "I won't 
 forget what you have done for me." 
 
 u Hoot ! Hoot ! it's just nothing at all. You're not 
 the" valuta of a pin the worse, but you should thank God 
 that He made your skull so thick when He fashioned 
 youi'"lA>>gbod thick head is a gift in some parts, and it 
 has 1 Just fctood your friend here. I'll be wishing you a 
 hd when I come down to see you in the
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 259 
 
 morning I'll be finding you jumping about as merry as a 
 
 gng" 
 
 He again passed up the stone staircase and secured the 
 door carefully after him, leaving me with the light burn- 
 ing and a good deal easier in my body. I lay back on 
 my pillow watching the dull yellow gleam, and listening 
 to the occasional drip of damp in the further corner. 
 After a while the rats that had been disturbed by my 
 gaoler's entrance began to come out of their hiding- 
 places again, and sat watching me with their bright, in- 
 quisitive eyes till they had become accustomed to my 
 presence, and fearlessly resumed their gambols. I 
 thought that sleep was impossible ; I own that I should 
 almost have been afraid to resign myself to slumber if I 
 had thought it could have visited me. A thousand 
 hideous suggestions presented themselves to my mind 
 that I could not banish. If I had dared I should have 
 liked to put out the light and shut out the sight of the 
 dreary stone walls and the grey rats that tumbled over 
 one another on the floor. 
 
 At first every sense was awake to its full stretch and 
 span ; I was alive to every sound ; but gradually I began 
 to grow drowsy, and though I struggled against the feeling 
 as long as I was able I fell into a troubled and broken 
 sleep. But it must have been deeper than I had imagined, 
 and have lasted much longer. Indeed, it must have con- 
 tinued several hours. I awakened with a cry, and started 
 up on my couch. The lantern had gone out and it was 
 as black as midnight. The hoarse, eldritch scream of 
 laughter that had awakened me still rang through the 
 dungeon and echoed upon every side of me. I could
 
 2 6o HERONFORD 
 
 not tell from what quarter it had come, but it continued 
 long after I had risen to my feet and stood listening to it 
 with a beating heart. There was no meaning in the 
 sound it was wild, hoarse, discordant beyond descrip- 
 tion. I tried to pierce the darkness in vain, but nowhere 
 was there a ray of light to be seen. And then the mad 
 laughter died away as suddenly as it had commenced, 
 leaving me again alone with the intolerable silence. 
 
 I found myself trembling in every nerve ; I could think 
 of no explanation of the sound. It was impossible to 
 imagine that my enemies had added this further torture 
 to my suffering, unless indeed they had desired to drive 
 me mad. Surely their fiendish malice could not have 
 driven them so far as that ; and yet what other solution 
 was there of the mystery ? If I could only have seen 
 what I had to face I felt that I could bear anything 
 with equanimity ; but the expectant fear that lives in 
 darkness laid entire hold upon me. I stood listening for 
 a repetition of the sound ; I sought to catch the faintest 
 whisper or movement there was only the silence of 
 death about and around me. 
 
 Further rest was now altogether out of the question, 
 and never in my life did I long so eagerly for morning. 
 I thought it would never come, and when at last the 
 sickly grey dawn began to creep through the little win- 
 dows I welcomed it as the coming of a friend. As that 
 kindly light grew and broadened I could see nothing in 
 the cellar to account for what I had heard ; nothing ap- 
 peared to have been moved or disturbed, and certainly 
 the door had never been opened or I should have heard it. 
 
 I suppose it was about eight o'clock when my gaoler
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 261 
 
 of the evening before made his appearance with my break- 
 fast. I found him a thick, low-set, sturdy fellow, who 
 appeared to have something of the sailor in his carriage, 
 though his dress was rather that of an honest countryman. 
 His face was very good-natured, and a white scar across 
 his cheek gave his countenance rather a humorous turn. 
 
 " I told you you'd be right as a trivet this morning and 
 could put your pins under you like a Jack marine. 
 Hope you slept well ? " 
 
 " No," I said, " I have not slept." 
 
 " No ? I am sorry to hear that. But then I always 
 think myself the rats are uncanny bedfellows. For my 
 part give me a sonsy " 
 
 " It was not the rats," I said ; " I don't think I should 
 have minded the rats so much. Have you no idea of 
 what disturbed me during the night ? " 
 
 " Unless, maybe, it was the old chaps No, I 
 
 don't think they would trouble you now, they have been 
 so long under. I never saw any sign of them myself. 
 You had company then ? " 
 
 I told him how much I had been alarmed and what I 
 had heard, and I could see that he was thrown into 
 genuine perplexity at the news, and perhaps a little stirred 
 by superstitious fear. It was evident that he had no ink- 
 ling of the source of the disturbance, and if a trick had 
 been played upon me he was certainly not a party to it. 
 
 " I think you must have been dreaming," he said ; " a 
 knock on the head like this gives one queer fancies, and 
 I'll take my oath that nobody got out or came in since I 
 turned the key in the door last night myself. I don't 
 hold by spirits myself, leastways unless they run in this
 
 262 HERONFORD 
 
 shape, though I'm not saying that such things haven't 
 been seen by a time. There was my own aunt by mar- 
 riage, old Judy Pentreath, saw the corpse-light the night 
 Simon went under in the old Fly Away but then she 
 was a Cornish woman, and that doesn't count. No, 
 no, mister, you may take it from me you were dreaming, 
 though if you weren't Gosh, I should not like to 
 spend a night here myself, and that's the truth of it." 
 
 " I am sure you wouldn't," I said, " and think of my 
 case." 
 
 44 That's between you and the master," he answered, 
 44 and I can't interfere. You mustn't try on any of your 
 soft sawder with me for I can't and won't listen to you, 
 but as I say, in the way of my duty, I'll do you a good 
 turn if I can." 
 
 44 You are a good fellow, and I am glad to have your 
 good-will. But you haven't thought you are helping to 
 commit a felony." 
 
 44 As like as not," he answered imperturbably, 44 but I 
 always leave the thinking to the master, and it saves me a 
 world of bother. But I'll leave you to your breakfast, for 
 I'm sure there'd be more trouble still if I listened to you." 
 
 It was evident that he was still a good deal alarmed by 
 my communication, for before he left me he made an ex- 
 amination of the cellar so far as he was able, and as he 
 went out I saw him shaking his head, though whether in 
 doubt or in pity I did not know. I did not think I could 
 have eaten at all, yet when I began I found that I was 
 able to make an excellent repast, and felt a great deal the 
 better for it. At least my captors did not intend that I 
 should starve to death. My meal consisted of a rabbit
 
 THE BIRD IN THE TRAP 263 
 
 pie excellently flavoured, sweet butter and bread, and a jug 
 of generous beer, deliciously cool and refreshing. Cer- 
 tainly it gave me fresh spirit, and for the first time I began 
 to investigate more closely the place of my confinement. 
 I dragged a couple of casks under the window and, set- 
 ting the one upon the other, clambered up by means of 
 the iron bar across the aperture till I was able to look 
 out. But my view was bounded by a sloping bank of 
 earth and a dense growth of laurel trees that grew upon 
 it, very high and luxuriant. I remembered that at one 
 side of Langston Priory there was just such a growth of 
 laurels, and I had now no doubt, if I ever entertained 
 any, that that was the place of my imprisonment. But 
 there was no possibility of escape in this way, for the 
 window, even if unguarded, was too narrow to admit my 
 body, and the wall was built of massive single stones 
 that could not be dislodged. 
 
 When I had again descended to the floor I examined 
 the walls where the boxes and casks left me room, but I 
 could find no other door than that which was reached by 
 means of the stone steps. This door also I had the 
 curiosity to examine, and I found that it must have been 
 of extreme age, but was so closely studded with great nails 
 and strips of iron as to be almost composed of metal. 
 
 I sat down upon the lowest step that led to this door, 
 and by the mearest chance my eye happened to light upon 
 the trap in the ceiling, the existence of which I had al- 
 together forgotten. It flashed upon me at once that it 
 must have been by this means that my mysterious visitor 
 of last night had succeeded in alarming me. There was 
 a ring in the centre of the wood by means of which the
 
 264 HERONFORD 
 
 trap could be let down from the inside, and I resolved to 
 take an early opportunity of examining it, for I could 
 easily reach it in the same way that I had reached the 
 window. There was no definite thought of escape in 
 my mind, as I was sure that every possible means had 
 been taken to prevent that, but I was visited by faint and 
 shadowy gleams of that hope that keeps a man's spirit and 
 heart alive. Something unforeseen might happen I could 
 hardly tell what. Whoever had opened the door might 
 leave it unsecured imagining I could not reach it, or after 
 all I might find the means of prevailing upon the good- 
 nature of my gaoler, whose sympathy I already seemed 
 to have won. At any rate, whatever fate was in store 
 for me, it was hardly likely that I should be kept here 
 long, and in the turn and change of fortune 
 
 Surely the trap had moved ; surely the heavy frame had 
 changed its position ; surely I now heard the sound of 
 footsteps on the floor above ! I sat motionless, filled with 
 expectation, and almost, I confess, with dread. It was 
 not merely fancy ; my senses had not played me false. 
 I saw the trap-door slowly raised and a bright ray of 
 sunshine streamed in from above. Finally the trap fell 
 back with a clang, and a moment after there appeared at 
 the opening the face that I imagined I had seen in my 
 dreams. At first the round, staring eyes did not see me ; 
 then they met mine. No sooner had that happened than 
 the loud wild laughter that had so alarmed me before again 
 broke out. But there was no terror in it now ; every- 
 thing had been satisfactorily explained to me. 
 " Ho ! ho ! ho ! The bird's in the trap." 
 It was the voice of poor Archie Weston.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 
 
 THERE was a touch of grotesque humour in the situa- 
 tion which might have appealed to me under different 
 circumstances. I had been almost frightened out of my 
 wits ; I had racked my brains to think of a possible ex- 
 planation of the sound I had heard, and here in a mo- 
 ment I found that I had been driven to terror by the 
 vacant laugh of a harmless imbecile. But it was not the 
 incongruity between my alarm and its cause that appealed 
 to me now. I was filled with quite a different feeling. 
 The walls of my prison were so thick, the window and 
 door so strong and securely guarded, that escape seemed 
 hopeless, but here was at last perhaps a loophole that 
 offered some opportunity for hope. My enemies had 
 certainly never foreseen or imagined this visit. Whither 
 the trap-door led I did not know, but I felt that it prob- 
 ably led toward freedom. If Sir Archie had managed to 
 escape observation and find his way hither, I thought it 
 not unlikely that I might be able to make my exit by the 
 same means and equally avoid detection. This was my 
 first thought, and it was with this rising hope that I rose 
 from my seat and softly called out his name. 
 
 He lay looking at me with an expression in which 
 cunning and triumph were blended, but at first, though 
 I spoke to him several times, I could not get him to re- 
 turn me any answer. He still laughed occasionally ; not, 
 
 265
 
 2 66 HERONFORD 
 
 however, in the same boisterous, strident tones, but almost 
 under his breath, and raising his head at times as though 
 he were afraid of being detected. I was anxious not to 
 alarm him, and I did all that I was able to show him by 
 my manner that he had no reason to fear me. He re- 
 garded me like an animal, at once curious and alarmed, 
 but by degrees he appeared to grow more confident, and 
 allowed me to come close under where he lay. 
 
 " We are old friends, Sir Archie," I said, " and how is 
 the jackdaw ? Will you bring him to pay me a visit ? " 
 
 " It is too dark in the priest's hole for Jeremy, but I 
 want to see the little grey fellows running about and 
 frisking their long tails. Ho ! ho ! I often come here 
 to watch them but they never think I can see them in 
 the dark. They come out of the hole under the window 
 and they go pop pop one after the other." 
 
 " Will you come down and see them ? " I said. " They 
 are quite friendly now and I have seen them all." 
 
 He drew back with a little shudder. 
 
 " Archie's legs aren't long enough and he doesn't like 
 the dark. And it's cold there, very cold. I don't like 
 the cold." 
 
 " Then you are right not to come down here." 
 
 " I should like to come down," he went on, nodding 
 his head knowingly, " if it weren't for the dark. I know 
 there are spiders down there great fat fellows with long 
 legs black-beetles, and little things I can't see that go 
 tick-tick. But I daren't I daren't. It is the place 
 where the damned are locked up." 
 
 " Then," I said softly, " you must help me to get out." 
 
 " No, no, I know all about you you must never
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 267 
 
 come up again. George says you are better dead. But 
 Archie is sorry for you. Is your head better ? " 
 
 " My head aches as badly as your own does some- 
 times, Archie. I am sure you wouldn't keep me here if 
 you could help it." 
 
 " If I thought you wouldn't hurt Archie but I can't, 
 for George would be angry and I won't offend George." 
 
 " But he need never know," I urged persuasively ; 
 " and listen, Archie, I have been here ever so long, and I 
 can tell you all about those little grey fellows that you like 
 to watch. There is one that must be at least a hundred 
 years old he is so wise, and he limps a little as if he used 
 to go on a crutch ; and there is another Oh, I shall 
 tell you all about them. And I want to hear more about 
 the jackdaw and the owls and the fox and whether he is 
 better." 
 
 " Simpson is dead," he cried. " The devil killed poor 
 Simon." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that. You must be very sorry to 
 lose him." 
 
 " I will kill this devil," he cried passionately. " I 
 hate him ! I hate him ! Do you think you could help 
 me to kill the devil ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I do not know." 
 
 " I am waiting till I get a chance, but he is strong 
 and cunning. If I could only catch him when he is 
 asleep ! If you saw this devil you could tell whether 
 you could help me ? " 
 
 " We might be able to do something together. But 
 you must not let anyone know." 
 
 " Archie is very wise sometimes," said the poor crea-
 
 268 HERONFORD 
 
 ture, shaking his head, "and no one knows that he had 
 found out the priest's hole. But I will show you the 
 devil, and then you will be able to say whether you are 
 strong enough. You must not move till I come back." 
 
 He raised himself up from his prostrate position and 
 stole away so softly that I could not hear the sound of his 
 footsteps. I had no idea what object he had in view nor 
 what wild scheme was working in his confused mind, but 
 I knew that such a mind as his often shows great power 
 of secrecy and cunning, and I hoped there might be some 
 advantage in the secret he seemed anxious to share with 
 me. I remained standing where I was, and it was not 
 more than two or three minutes till he returned in a state 
 of great excitement. 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! " he cried, " I can show you the devil, 
 but you must come up softly and make no noise. And 
 you must only come up for a minute for George would 
 be angry, and you know I wouldn't vex George." 
 
 No sooner had I found that my appearance would not 
 alarm him and that he would offer no opposition than I 
 began to arrange the means of ascending through the trap. 
 This was very easily done. By placing half a dozen of 
 the smaller casks on end I formed a secure and stable 
 structure upon which I hastily clambered, and then pull- 
 ing myself up I scrambled on to the floor above. On my 
 sudden entrance Sir Archie appeared a little frightened 
 and seemed inclined to fly, but I speedily reassured him 
 and we again became very friendly. The apartment in 
 which I found myself was quite bare and ruinous and 
 seemed to have been formerly used as a little chapel or, 
 indeed, may have been the refectory in former times. The
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 269 
 
 roof was very high and arched, and the row of windows, 
 which were now unglazed, were of what I suppose is the 
 Gothic shape and placed high up in the wall, and certainly 
 far beyond my reach. There was one doorway at the 
 further end with a great deal of grotesque carving about 
 it, and excepting this there was no other means of exit. 
 These general features I observed at the first hurried 
 glance, but I was now more anxious to retain Sir Archie's 
 good-will and avoid giving him any cause for alarm. 
 
 " Now," said I, " you see you have no reason to be 
 frightened at all, and I am going to help you if I can. I 
 will follow wherever you may lead me, but remember, 
 you must take great care that no one may see us." 
 
 He regarded me with a very knowing look and laid 
 his finger on his lip. 
 
 " Wait till you see. Ho ! ho ! no one would think of 
 it," and then he went on as though he were imparting a 
 secret of importance, " I found it one day when I had 
 lost old Jeremy, and the sly fellow was trying to get back 
 to his old haunts. But I kept it close for the rogue's 
 sake, and now I will let you see the devil through it." 
 
 Taking me by the arm he drew me to the door, which 
 I found led upon a narrow corridor with windows like 
 those in the apartment we had quitted and built upon the 
 same level. At the end of this passage were half a dozen 
 steps, and after we had ascended them I found myself in 
 a little gallery, round the entire circuit of which there ran 
 a stone bench. In the wall opposite where we had come 
 up there was a small aperture about a foot in diameter, 
 but very skilfully masked, and which I failed to see until 
 Archie drew my attention to it. It had formerly been
 
 270 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 covered with an iron grating of some sort, for I saw the 
 marks in the stone where the clamps had been fixed, but 
 these had long since disappeared, and it was now merely 
 filled with rubbish. By standing upon the stone bench 
 we were able to reach it very easily, and Archie, putting 
 in his hand with great circumspection, cleared away the 
 material that choked the aperture. 
 
 " Now," he said, " look down and see the devil for 
 yourself. You needn't be afraid, for I have watched him 
 a hundred times." 
 
 I do not know with what object this post of observa- 
 tion was originally planned, but certainly nothing could 
 have better answered its purpose. I could see every cor- 
 ner of the room into which I looked, and I could equally 
 hear every word that was spoken. But certainly since 
 either the wakeful abbot had spied upon the erring breth- 
 ren, or the host had overlooked his suspected guest, none 
 of the watchers had ever been filled with livelier emotions 
 than I experienced at that moment. 
 
 Mr. George Weston stood with his back to the fire of 
 wood that burned in the grate, and at the moment when 
 I first saw him was speaking his mind with great plain- 
 ness and emphasis. Sprawling over the table near him 
 with a look half indifferent, half sulky, and perhaps one 
 part drunk, was Mr. William Cassilis himself. Weston 
 had evidently not long returned from his morning ride, 
 for his boots were bespattered with mud and he still 
 carried his riding-whip, while I thought his companion 
 seemed only lately risen from bed. 
 
 " Dam'me, you drunken brute," Weston was saying, 
 " you would spoil all with your folly ? What more do
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 271 
 
 you want than the snug quarters you have here, where you 
 can drink yourself to death if you please, and my com- 
 pany when you are sober ? I'm d , but I wish I had 
 
 never had anything to do with you, for I feel as if the 
 noose was round my neck already. There's a hue and 
 cry raised over the country already, and there's one per- 
 son at least imagines I have had a hand in it. We man- 
 aged the affair cursedly ill between us. The old horse 
 got home without his rider in the morning, and they 
 found the fool's hat and whip on the road. What was it 
 to me which of you won in your sparring match ? What 
 have I to gain whether he elbowed you out of Heronford 
 or no ? I was an idiot to mix myself up in it, and if I 
 hadn't hated the supercilious cur so much I would have 
 seen you both to perdition before I moved an inch. But 
 I am in it now, and if you think I am going to let you 
 hang me with any of your foolish tricks you don't know 
 George Weston." 
 
 " That's all very well and I don't want to quarrel, but 
 how long do you mean to keep me mewed up here in 
 this cursed old ruin ? I must get out I tell you, or I will 
 go mad. What with the blue devils and the drink and 
 that jibbering idiot " 
 
 "You had better leave my brother out of the question," 
 cried Weston angrily, " and remember, at least, that he is 
 my brother, whom I won't have ill-treated. But you will 
 stay here till you have served my purpose, and till I can 
 see my way to let you go with safety to myself. We are 
 both in the same boat, but don't forget that I could hang 
 you with a word. Robbery, Mr. Cassilis ; burglary, Mr. 
 Cassilis ; attempted murder, and if you had struck a little
 
 272 HERONFORD 
 
 harder Oh, no ! I can't afford to let you swagger 
 to Heronford yet. Your business is not finished and 
 neither is mine." 
 
 " It is all your own business," cried William Cassilis, 
 " and I know very well why you want me shut up here. 
 I have got all that I wanted." 
 
 " But I have not, and that is the more important matter 
 of the two. My dear Will, you must try and be reason- 
 able." 
 
 " Reasonable ! I have done all that you wanted me, 
 and upon my soul you forget, Weston." 
 
 " What do I forget ? " 
 
 " That when Heronford dies, and he can't live long now, 
 I'll be the biggest man in the county. I will, by " 
 
 Weston laughed. 
 
 " You can't get that out of your head for a minute. 
 And who has made you ? Who put you in the way, and 
 put the cards in your hand that won the game ? But don't 
 be too sure, Will ; don't crow till we have finished." 
 
 " What more have we got to do ? I have the pa- 
 pers " 
 
 41 You forget that we haven't yet got the person most 
 interested in them out of the way. I have no liking for 
 murder, though I think there is a friend of mine who 
 would hardly have hesitated even at that. It's an in- 
 fernally ugly word, and perhaps I don't hate your nephew 
 enough to give my friend a free hand. No, no, I don't 
 say that you meant anything by that blow on the head 
 but we must arrange things differently." 
 
 " Arrange things as you please, only see that he doesn't 
 come back to give me trouble."
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 273 
 
 " I don't think," said Weston, " that he will give you 
 much trouble when we have finished with him. I have 
 told them to take good care of him, but I have been 
 considering matters, and I think a sea voyage would be 
 good for his health." 
 
 " The longer the better, and if the vessel founders " 
 
 " I am afraid I couldn't afford that even for your sake, 
 my dear Will, but I'll wager that I manage without going 
 so far as that. The heir would hardly be pleased if he 
 knew how I had arranged for his comfort." 
 
 " You'll arrange both of us beautifully before you have 
 done," cries Will with an oath. 
 
 " 1 am more concerned for myself than for you at any 
 rate, and I propose for my own good to ship your rela- 
 tive to the West Indies. There are some sugar planta- 
 tions there that I think would suit him, and some friends 
 of mine who could show him how to work. One thing 
 is certain, the sooner we wash our hands of him and his 
 affairs the safer I shall feel." 
 
 " I should like to see the nigger among the canes with 
 all my heart," said Will heartily, " but can you manage 
 that ? " 
 
 "There's nothing easier. The Swallow will be off 
 Langston to-morrow night if the weather holds, and 
 Claude Slingsby will carry him safe to Havre. If he 
 escapes the cruisers he will reach port safe, and if he 
 doesn't escape the cruisers " 
 
 " Ay, if he doesn't " 
 
 " Then your Christian prayer will be answered and he 
 will go to the bottom, for Claude is not the man to give 
 up his ship while two planks hold together. Once in
 
 274 HERONFORD 
 
 Havre there will be no difficulty, and then Mr. Cassilis 
 will have some chance of becoming the greatest man in 
 the county. But look you, Will, until I give you leave I 
 won't have you trapesing over the country like a resur- 
 rected ghost, and while you are here I will have you 
 keep your drunken hands off Archie and his playthings. 
 You may treat your brother as you please, but, dam' me, 
 for my part I was born with some natural affection, and 
 I won't have it." 
 
 " You think you have me under your thumb," cried 
 Will, " but I will have you know " 
 
 " I have your worthless life in my pocket, and if it 
 weren't for one thing I would have your relative out of 
 the magazine and send him riding back to Heronford to 
 his books and his meagrims, but we can't afford to go 
 back. But look here, sir, never forget this for a mo- 
 ment," and Mr. Weston advancing to the table struck it 
 heavily with his riding-whip ; " I am the master here ; 
 you are mine, soul and body, my property, my goods and 
 chattels ; and if you venture to raise a finger in opposi- 
 tion to my wishes I will teach you a lesson you won't 
 forget. Oh, no ! I don't want to quarrel with you you 
 are not worth quarreling with but you had better re- 
 member my words for the future." 
 
 "You are always riding me too hard, George, and 
 you know very well that this was your scheme, and you 
 wanted the young fellow out of the way as well as I 
 did. Maybe you haven't your own ends to serve 
 maybe " 
 
 " Maybe you would like to see us both go to pieces and 
 this precious coxcomb come sailing in before us after all ?
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 275 
 
 I was a fool to bring him here as great a fool as yourself 
 and I won't be easy till I see him out of this house. 
 That damned fellow Stone, of Fareham, has been making 
 enquiries, and I think somehow he has got upon the right 
 track, but who put him on the track I can't imagine. 
 Now you know the truth, and you can say whether I 
 have any reason for my temper." 
 
 " Stone would do me an ill-turn if he could." 
 
 " Then don't give Stone an opportunity of falling across 
 you. The first time you move out of this house you will 
 find him at your elbow and then farewell to Heronford, 
 and look out for another chapter in the Newgate calendar 
 and a bran new ballad all to yourself." 
 
 With these words Mr. Weston flung out of the room 
 and left his associate to meditate upon the unpleasant 
 truths to which he had just given utterance. 
 
 During all this time I had overheard the conversation 
 with difficulty for Archie had manifested a great deal of 
 impatience, and had continually interrupted me by his in- 
 terjections. His hatred of William Cassilis was so great 
 that it seemed to have overmastered his dread, and I was 
 afraid lest he might give way to an outburst, which would 
 have the effect of leading to our detection. I found it 
 necessary to endeavour to quiet him from time to time, 
 but it was impossible to turn him from the one thought 
 that had seized hold upon his mind. I had promised to 
 help him to remove the devil, and between us we must 
 devise some means for that object. 
 
 When George Weston had left the room I leaped down 
 from the stone bench on which I had been standing, and 
 Archie caught hold of my arm.
 
 276 HERONFORD 
 
 " You saw him the black devil ? You are not afraid 
 of him ? " 
 
 " No, Archie, I am not afraid of him, nor need you 
 be. I don't think he will do you any harm." 
 
 " You don't know him, but I do. The devil always 
 leaves a black mark wherever he touches you, and look 
 here. What is that ? " 
 
 He pulled up his sleeve and showed me his arm where 
 the skin was discoloured about a crown-piece in extent, 
 or perhaps a little more. 
 
 " What is that ? He caught hold of me, and his fingers 
 burnt me then. Oh ! I could feel them burning me. 
 Which do you think is the best way to kill the devil ? " 
 
 " I don't know, but we must think of a plan. But 
 before I can do anything you must show me how you 
 came in here. When we are once outside " 
 
 He looked at me with a leer of great cunning. 
 
 " When the bird gets out of the window he flies away 
 home to his nest. No, no, you must stay with Archie 
 now, and perhaps some day he will show you when the 
 wicked old devil is dead. And the devil's secret too ; 
 he knows his secret." 
 
 " You must show me now or I shall not be able to help 
 you. I think I can promise you, Archie, when I get 
 out that he will not trouble you much longer. I can 
 find a way to drive him out of Langston Priory." 
 
 " You are sure of that ? If I thought you could " 
 
 " Trust me, and remember I am always your friend." 
 He hung for a moment doubtfully, but at last, with one 
 furtive glance at my face, he seemed to have made up his 
 mind and turned back into the passage through which
 
 UNDER A FOOL'S GUIDANCE 277 
 
 we had come. When we reached the chamber into which 
 I had first ascended I thought that he was playing some 
 elfish trick on me for he stopped short and burst into 
 a fit of vacant laughter. So far as I could see the only 
 means of exit were the trap-door and the door through 
 which we had just come. 
 
 " They say Archie is a fool, but all your wise men 
 couldn't get out of this but myself. Let me see if you 
 can find the way." 
 
 " It won't do for us to lose any time now, Archie. 
 We must make haste if you want me to help you." 
 
 " Ah ! I knew you couldn't. Your wits must be a 
 thousand years old before they could find it. Now see 
 how easily I can do it." 
 
 At the further end of the apartment the wall was cov- 
 ered by a thick curtain of ivy, which had originally 
 grown from the outside through the window but had now 
 struck its roots into the wall within and entirely hid it. 
 Archie walked straight across the room and surveyed the 
 dense screen for a moment without speaking ; then with 
 an agility which I could not have expected he seized 
 hold of the thick tendrils and swung himself into the 
 foliage. When he had clambered about ten feet from 
 the ground he suddenly stopped and, dividing the branches 
 with his hand, disclosed an opening quite large enough to 
 admit a grown man with ease. He appeared greatly de- 
 lighted with his performance, and manifested his pleasure 
 in his own peculiar way. I was about to follow him 
 when his discordant laugh suddenly ceased. He gave a 
 little cry and sat with his eyes fixed on something behind 
 and beyond me, apparently at once deprived of all power
 
 278 HERONFORD 
 
 of motion. I turned swiftly round and knew in a mo- 
 ment that my hope of escape was dashed to the ground. 
 Just as I was about to raise myself from the ground I 
 saw a rough head appearing above the trap, and in an- 
 other moment my gaoler had leaped upright upon his feet 
 and was hurrying toward me. He had drawn a pistol 
 from his breast, and as he came up presented it at my 
 head. 
 
 " I don't want to shoot you if I can help it, but if you 
 stir hand or foot I'll do it. Stand back, sir, I tell you. 
 I have only to whistle to bring up half a dozen more, 
 and you'll find them rougher than I am." 
 
 My first impulse was to make a struggle for the lib- 
 erty I had so nearly gained, but I saw that he would keep 
 his word if I moved, and there was no means of defence 
 within my reach. There was no help for it; I was 
 powerless to resist, and I yielded with the best grace I 
 could assume. 
 
 " If you had given me ten minutes more," I said, " I 
 should have been on easier terms with you, and if you 
 will now lay down your weapon " 
 
 " My business is to keep you safe, and I think you 
 have given me a poor return for my kindness. I'll keep 
 a sharper eye on you for the future, and for you, Mr. 
 Archie, I'm of opinion the master wouldn't be very 
 thankful to you if he knew what you were trying to do 
 for him. Now, sir, we'll march, if you please."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A BITTER HOUR 
 
 MY hope of escape cannot have been excessive, for 
 though I felt my disappointment, yet it was not to such 
 a degree that I was greatly affected by it. It is true that 
 I was disappointed, but all through I had felt in some 
 way that my luck would be too great to escape so easily ; 
 and, besides, it might be some comfort to know the worst 
 that could befall me. I had at least been freed from the 
 torture of anticipation and suspense. But comfort ! To 
 drag out my years in a gang of slaves chained to a life of 
 drudgery and wretchedness ; to pass without a word out 
 of the life and knowledge of those who knew me and the 
 few who loved me ; to go on living and yet to die more 
 certainly than if the grave had closed over me this was 
 the fate for which I had to prepare myself, and the lot to 
 which I had to steel my heart. I could expect no mercy ; 
 I could hope for no reprieve. My enemies had gone too 
 far to turn back now without destruction to themselves, 
 and to keep themselves safe it was necessary that my sac- 
 rifice should be completed. Yet the mind is so curiously 
 constituted that I had some little sense of satisfaction in 
 knowing their intentions and reading the hidden working 
 of their hearts. I had indeed paid a terrible price, but I 
 had learned everything, and now knew with certainty all 
 that I had hitherto desired to know. 
 
 But there was one matter from which I was able to 
 279
 
 2 8o HERONFORD 
 
 derive some hope, however faint. My friends had already 
 discovered that I was missing, and had begun an active 
 search on my behalf. I could see that Weston was in a 
 condition of great disquiet regarding their enquiries, and 
 I was certain he must have had some further reason for his 
 uneasiness than he had stated to his friend. I knew that 
 Stone was keen, energetic, and loyal, but without some clue 
 to guide him it was more than probable his labour would 
 be only thrown away. Without the knowledge which only 
 Victory or myself could impart he could never guess or 
 imagine my fate, or the person into whose hands I had 
 fallen. 
 
 But Victory upon her and her alone could I rely if I 
 was to be saved from this future worse than death, and I 
 felt the most implicit confidence in her clear intelligence 
 and unfailing instinct. She had warned me of the peril 
 that I had treated with contempt ; she had seen the dan- 
 ger with which I was menaced and to which I had been 
 blind ; and now I felt assured when the moment of trial 
 came she would act with promptitude and wisdom. She 
 knew my faith in Stone ; she knew that I had intended 
 to ask his advice, and I felt almost certain when the news 
 of my disappearance first reached her she would at once 
 find the means of communicating with him. It was evi- 
 dent that he was already so warm upon my track that 
 Weston was frightened and anxious to have me disposed 
 of elsewhere, and there was still a chance, however slight, 
 that my friends might reach me before I was carried on 
 shipboard, whither it would be impossible to follow me. 
 
 Morgan, my gaoler, was determined that I should not 
 make an attempt to escape a second time, or if I did make
 
 A BITTER HOUR 281 
 
 the attempt he would be present to witness it. However 
 much he disliked the task he made up his mind to stay 
 with me during the day, and although he was not quite so 
 friendly as he had previously been, I still found com- 
 panionship in his presence, and he helped to relieve my 
 loneliness. At bottom I am certain he was a kindly, 
 honest fellow, but his devotion to his master, which was 
 not unmingled with fear, seemed to possess him entirely, 
 and prevented his natural instincts from finding any out- 
 let. He seemed to think that I had shown myself un- 
 grateful for his former kindness, and that my abortive 
 tempt to escape had been an injury especially directed 
 toward himself, who would have suffered most had that 
 attempt proved successful. This was the entire burden 
 of his complaint against me, and this complaint he reit- 
 erated again and again. 
 
 " I did all I could for you," he said more than once ; 
 u I made you comfortable with good victuals and a bed 
 that might do a prince, and I treated you like an honest 
 shipmate who wouldn't get a poor fellow into trouble. 
 And that's your way ! that's my thanks ! when you get my 
 back turned to slip your cable, and leave me here to tell 
 the master that you had fooled me with your tricks. Did 
 you think, mister, what would have happened to me ? " 
 
 " I am afraid," I answered, " I never thought about 
 you at all. You are a good fellow, Morgan ; I am sure 
 they have kept you in the dark. This is a matter of life 
 and death to me. I think you know who I am. Do you 
 know why I am here ? Do you know what your master 
 intends to do with me ? " 
 
 " Some tomfoolery about a woman, I suppose ? The
 
 282 HERONFORD 
 
 wenches have a deal to answer for in this world and the 
 next, and the master would give his soul for the blink of 
 a blue eye God bless them ! But I heern them say you 
 are going to make a trip with the little spitfire, and Cap- 
 tain Claude I wish ye luck with him. Thunder ! he's 
 a daisy." 
 
 " I was certain you did not know everything. What 
 would you say to the West Indies, Morgan ? Would 
 you rather die at once here than be tortured to death 
 there ? " 
 
 He whistled and looked at me curiously. 
 
 " The West Indies ! I thought Captain Claude was 
 the worst of it, and to my mind that was bad enough, 
 for I made a voyage with him once myself. But the 
 West Indies ! What have the master and you been up 
 to ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you, Morgan," I cried eagerly, seeing at last 
 a distant hope of winning his sympathy. " I'll tell you, 
 and when you have heard " 
 
 "By you'll tell me nothing. I won't listen to 
 
 you. My business is to keep you here and not hearken 
 to stories, but, mate, I'm sorry for you, and that's the 
 truth on it. The West Indies ! Phew ! I don't wonder 
 you were so eager to levant with Sir Archie. I declare 
 to God I forgive you, but I'll see that you don't do it 
 again." 
 
 " But, Morgan," I went on, " that is not even the 
 worst of it." 
 
 But he interrupted me again. 
 
 " Best or worst, I can't help you. If you were bound 
 for a hotter port still I'd do the same, little as I liked it.
 
 A BITTER HOUR 283 
 
 I can only wish you a good voyage, and hope that it may 
 turn out better than you think for. I wish you hadn't 
 told me for I don't like the thought of it, and I've taken 
 a fancy to you though you did try to get me into trouble." 
 
 I suggested that at least after I had been removed he 
 might carry a letter for me, but he demurred at once. 
 
 " No, no ; I thank God I can neither read nor write, 
 and I don't know what you might put upon the paper. 
 I'll make you comfortable as far as I can, but more you 
 mustn't expect, and now, if you please, we'll try the other 
 tact in our talk, for we have sailed this one as long as I 
 have a mind for." 
 
 I felt that if Weston was as well served by all his 
 servants as by this one my chances of escape were not 
 great, and during the two days that Morgan spent almost 
 entirely in my company he never altered in the attitude 
 of stubborn fidelity he had assumed, and the blunt yet 
 not unsympathetic denial he gave to all my attempts to 
 secure his friendship. He certainly did not like his task, 
 nor during the whole time was he quite free from a 
 certain superstitious expectation regarding the vault in 
 which I was confined. It had formed part of the Old 
 Priory, and it appeared there was a current tradition, which 
 may have been well or ill-founded, that it had formerly 
 been used as a burial-place for the more exalted brethren. 
 I found that Morgan's first affected indifference toward 
 the supernatural was not long maintained, and in a short 
 time he was regaling me with tales so weird and ghastly 
 that my gloomy prison seemed to myself still more 
 hideous and uncanny. He evidently believed every 
 word he spoke, and at times I almost fancied he was
 
 284 HERONFORD 
 
 listening for the dead abbot's footsteps on the stairs or 
 watching for the hooded procession of cowled figures 
 moving to the strains of a ghostly Kyrie Eleison. 
 
 I could not help listening to his stories, sometimes I 
 listened in spite of myself, but for the most part my mind 
 was in a state too troubled and agitated to lend him a 
 serious attention. The minutes seemed interminable ; I 
 counted the crawling hours ; and as the second day wore 
 on I resigned myself altogether to despair, and for the first 
 time felt myself completely broken and unmanned. I do 
 not know that I had found any definite hope. I do not 
 know exactly in what manner I had expected Providence 
 would interfere on my behalf, but I was unable to realise 
 that at the last moment I should not in some way be 
 snatched from the horrible fate that was impending over 
 me. Now, however, as the daylight passed and the even- 
 ing shadows closed round me, a dull, blind, hopeless 
 feeling, that was not resignation, took possession of me. 
 My hope was dead ; I was beyond the reach of help ; I 
 could only bow down my head and let the storm pass 
 over me. The cup of life, with its almost untasted 
 sweetness, was lying broken at my feet. 
 
 There may have been some who would have faced the 
 situation with more courage and constancy perhaps there 
 were, but I think my feelings were natural and not alto- 
 gether ignoble. I was still suffering from the effect of 
 the injury I had sustained ; I could do nothing to help 
 myself, and there was now no hope that any help or 
 assistance could reach me. I had imagined that in the 
 rough justice of the world wrong might sometimes tri- 
 umph, but never wholly nor for long ; now, however, this
 
 A BITTER HOUR 285 
 
 comfortable doctrine failed to afford me consolation, for 
 I saw the unrighteous triumph and the innocent trodden 
 under foot, and I lost sight of the landmarks of my faith 
 in a sense of crushing defeat and overwhelming de- 
 spair. 
 
 It was the night of Friday, and must have been between 
 nine and ten o'clock, or perhaps a little later. I was be- 
 ginning to think that the summons I had been expecting 
 would be deferred for another day, and Morgan was 
 making his preparations to spend another fearful and un- 
 comfortable night in my company. He had trimmed the 
 lantern afresh, which he had set on a cask near him, and 
 was making a frugal supper of coarse bread and cheese 
 when there came an imperative summons upon the iron 
 door, so sudden and loud as to cause us both to start 
 where we sat. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " Morgan cried. " What is that ? " 
 But he did not venture to move. 
 
 A moment later the knocking was repeated and I heard 
 an angry voice demand admittance. In an instant Morgan 
 leaped to his feet, ran up the stone steps, and unlocked the 
 door which swung inward. I had risen from the box on 
 which I had been sitting, knowing that the fateful moment 
 had at length arrived, and I endeavoured to repress the 
 throbbing of my heart that laboured loudly in my bosom. 
 For a moment a grey mist swam before my eyes, but 
 presently that cleared away, and I was able to see a 
 cloaked figure coming down the steps and a bright light 
 behind the open door. I waited without moving where 
 I had risen, and when Mr. Weston, for it was he, came 
 close to where I stood he raised his hat and bowed to me
 
 286 HERONFORD 
 
 with a cruel mocking laugh in his eyes that I have never 
 forgotten. 
 
 " Good-evening, Mr. Cassilis," he said ; " I hope hon- 
 est Morgan has made you comfortable ? " 
 
 I remained silent. 
 
 " You do not appear to have cared for your quarters 
 perhaps you are right. They are damp certainly, and 
 dark, and the view is not extensive, but they are roomy 
 and commodious. But we can't get all we desire in this 
 world, and it wasn't quite convenient to lodge you better." 
 
 " You are in a position now to say what you please, 
 sir." 
 
 " Ay ; I am glad you have come to that comfortable 
 frame of mind. If you had always been of that way of 
 thinking it wouldn't have been necessary for me to take 
 so much trouble to show you that I like my own way. I 
 am going to change your lodging, Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 " I am quite aware of your intention," I answered ; 
 " I need not ask you to show me any mercy, but I would 
 remind you that though it seems to be your turn now, 
 mine may come some day." 
 
 " Oh ! I'll take the present and let you make what 
 you can of the future. I'm a dangerous person to offend 
 I think you will admit now, especially as you seem to 
 know my intentions." 
 
 " It is a long way to the West Indies, Mr. Weston, 
 but men have been known to find their way back." 
 
 He looked at me in astonishment. 
 
 " By " he cried. " Morgan, you have been blab- 
 bing. I'll " 
 
 " Morgan has told me nothing," I interposed, " and I
 
 A BITTER HOUR 287 
 
 do not think it necessary that you should know how I 
 have learned. But I warn you that so surely as you live, 
 William Cassilis and yourself will yet have to reckon 
 with me for what you have done." 
 
 " Threatened men live long," he laughed. " By the 
 time that you come back you will find some changes, Mr. 
 Cassilis ; and then, you know, you may never come back 
 at all. I think that is much more likely myself. You 
 were once good enough to knock me down and I sup- 
 posed you wondered why I did not shoot you. You 
 know now, and every day you live you will know better. 
 It did not suit me to give you the satisfaction of a gen- 
 tleman, but I have squared our account in such a way 
 that I don't think the balance is on your side now." 
 
 " Yes, you have proved yourself a generous enemy." 
 
 " Have I not ? " he cried with a sneer. " I have given 
 you good measure, pressed down and running over. 
 Will you dance at the wedding, Mr. Cassilis ? " 
 
 I suppose I should not have spoken the words but I 
 could not help it ; they were forced from me. 
 
 " I may yet live to see you hanged, Mr. Weston." 
 
 " Who knows ? " he answered with a shrug of indif- 
 ference; "though if that happened I shall be the first 
 gentleman of my family who has met his deserts. By 
 the way, there are some fine secrets in the Heron ford 
 family. Had I known them sooner I might have dealt 
 with you differently." 
 
 " I am satisfied that you have dealt with me after your 
 nature. Even in seeking this interview, Mr. Weston, 
 you have tried to show me that you could not help your- 
 self. Is it necessary that you should prolong it ? You
 
 288 HERONFORD 
 
 have now done your worst; you have enjoyed your 
 triumph, and I am ready to show you that I can bear 
 even more than this with the courage of a gentleman." 
 
 " By , Will would like to hear you crow like that ; 
 
 but you were always good at crowing, even when we 
 thought you only my lord's bastard. I wonder will you 
 crow as loudly six months hence. By that time the merry 
 wedding bells will scarce have finished chiming. I see 
 that touches you," he went on, stepping back ; " you have 
 not yet gained sufficient command over your temper, and 
 there must be no further breach of the peace oh, no, we 
 cannot afford that. Morgan, see if the cart is ready." 
 
 " Ay, ay, your Honour," said the willing and obse- 
 quious servant, who immediately ascended the steps and 
 left Weston and myself standing facing one another alone 
 in the cellar. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Cassilis," Weston said, seating himself 
 coolly beside me, " you see, however much I hate you, I am 
 not in the slightest degree afraid of your violence, though 
 you cried me for a coward through the country. You 
 believe I am a coward ? Very well. You think I'm a 
 fool ? Very well. You have had the satisfaction of calling 
 me both. And now let us see what is the price you have 
 paid for that indiscreet indulgence of your passion and 
 vanity. First, I have assisted that very unworthy gentle- 
 man William Cassilis to make sure of your inheritance 
 you are filius nullius, Mr. Cassilis. Second, I am going 
 to marry the young lady with whom you are in love you 
 had an excellent taste, Mr. Cassilis ; she has the sweetest 
 figure and loveliest face in England. Third, I intend to 
 send out a tombstone to the Bahamas is it the Bahamas ?
 
 A BITTER HOUR 289 
 
 to record your virtues. Fourth there is a fourth, 
 fifth and sixth, if I haven't forgotten them. You re- 
 member Humpty Dumpty a case very much to the 
 point ? 
 
 "'All the king's horses and all the king's men 
 Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.' 
 
 Perhaps you never understood the meaning of the lines 
 before ? " 
 
 He had advanced his face quite close to me, a lurking 
 light of triumph in his eyes and a cruel smile upon 
 his lips. At that moment I thought of the tortures 
 which the Indian warrior inflicts upon his captive the 
 taunts, the insults, the vindictive mockery which precedes 
 the torture of the stake, and I knew that the same savage 
 instinct now filled his bosom and had inspired his speech. 
 I could hardly understand such malignant hatred ; it 
 seemed to me almost to approach to the verge of mad- 
 ness. I had imagined before that he was merely a bully 
 and a coward, but though we were now alone he sat quite 
 close to me, unconcerned and triumphant, and even seemed 
 to court a display of violence upon my part. At the mo- 
 ment, indeed, some vague thought of resistance occurred 
 to me, and I do not know to what lengths I might have 
 been tempted, but before I had formed any definite 
 resolution the opportunity passed away. At this point 
 Morgan threw open the door and came down the steps, 
 apparently dressed for a journey. 
 
 " Is all ready ? " Weston asked, rising to his feet. 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir. The cart's here." 
 
 " You have seen that the men are armed ! It may be
 
 290 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 useful. Now, Mr. Cassilis, I will have to trouble you. 
 Your own naturally excellent judgment will suggest to 
 you that it is best to come quietly ; should you be dis- 
 posed to act otherwise I have no doubt Morgan will deal 
 with you as gently as possible under the circumstances, 
 but he sometimes forgets himself, and I should not like 
 to answer for the consequences." 
 
 I rose to my feet without making any response. 
 
 " That is right. Permit me to lead the way. I as- 
 sure you it is not every gentleman who is afforded an op- 
 portunity of seeing the world without incurring expense."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE FIRST BOW OF CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 
 
 WHEN we got into the open air I found a fine clear 
 night with a wide glitter of stars and a new moon lifting 
 its thin crescent above the woods. The faint odour of 
 the grass and foliage was inexpressibly sweet to me ; the 
 cool air, that carried on its wings a distant fragrance of 
 the sea, revived me like a charm, and I drank it in like 
 one suffering from a consuming thirst. It blew upon 
 my face like the breath of a lover ; it kissed my parched 
 lips and caressed my brow that ached and throbbed with 
 an intolerable pain. How cool, how sweet it was, the 
 blessed breath of that starry autumnal night ! I had not 
 known how weak and ill I was ; I had hardly noticed 
 the foul and sickening atmosphere of the loathsome 
 cellar in which I had been confined, but as I came out 
 into this clear brilliance of stars I felt as though I had 
 awakened from a nightmare horrible beyond words. 
 
 Two lanterns had been lighted and were placed upon 
 the grass hard by the path that ran past the door, but 
 their light was hardly needed. I was able to see every- 
 thing quite plainly. Upon one side the wall of the Priory 
 rose dark and silent ; upon the other there was a little 
 sweep of lawn enclosed by a dense growth of timber, 
 above which, as I have said, the moon was lifting her 
 sickle of silver. A horse harnessed to a light cart stood 
 a little distance away, and behind them another horse 
 
 291
 
 292 HERON-FORD 
 
 bridled and saddled. There were already two men 
 seated in the cart, but I could not see their faces, and 
 another held the saddle-horse by the head. I could hear 
 the faint click of grasshoppers in the grass, and now and 
 again the solitary note of an owl wakeful under the 
 moon. Weston stopped to lock the door behind us, but 
 Morgan advanced to my side and laid his hand upon my 
 arm. It may have been to some extent a precautionary 
 measure upon his part, unnecessary though it was, but 
 at the same time I think he desired in his rough, yet 
 kindly way to offer me some assistance. 
 
 " Keep up your heart, Mr. Cassilis," he whispered. 
 " You may be down on your luck now, but 'tis a long 
 lane that has no turning, and mind this don't run 
 across Captain Claude if you can help it. The master 
 is purgatory, but the captain is simple " 
 
 " That will do, Morgan," said Weston, coming 
 quietly behind us. " You need not give the captain a 
 character at present. Mr. Cassilis can form his own 
 judgment; and now look you you must see that Mr. 
 Archie gets into no trouble till I come back. I think 
 there is one of his old fits coming on him and you may 
 have to lock him up, but if you hurt him I'll you know 
 what I will do. He doesn't get on well with Mr. Will 
 and you had better keep them apart." 
 
 Morgan hastily relinquished my arm and fell back 
 without a word. Whatever Mr. Weston's faults might 
 be, he certainly had the art of keeping his servants in an 
 excellent state of discipline. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Cassilis," Weston continued, " I am sorry 
 that I must trouble you, but we have very little time to
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 293 
 
 lose. I intend to see you as far on your journey as I 
 can, and will do myself the honour of riding with you to 
 Langston. Here, Dick, help this gentleman into the cart." 
 
 I shall never forget this drive so long as I live. My 
 senses were preternaturally acute ; every trivial incident, 
 every sight and sound, is engraven in my memory. I 
 could not bring myself to believe that even at the last 
 moment there would not be a miraculous interposition 
 of Providence upon my behalf. While the mare plunged 
 through the darkness, and her ringing hoofs struck fire 
 from the stones, I listened for the voices of my friends, 
 and I was tempted, fruitless and foolish as I knew it to be, 
 to call out loudly for help. The two men sat so closely 
 upon either side of me that I could scarcely stir ; I could 
 barely see the road where it wound in the darkness under 
 the gloomy shadow of the trees, and I could only hear 
 Weston's voice in front when he called out some word 
 of warning or direction, but I could see neither the horse 
 nor the rider. Occasionally we came upon a little open 
 space, where I caught sight of the cold calm stretch of 
 stars and the silver arc of the autumnal moon, but for the 
 most part we were whirled rapidly through almost un- 
 broken darkness. 
 
 At last we came out upon the high-road, and here for 
 some reason our pace became slower, and Weston drew 
 close to the cart and gave some directions in a low tone, 
 
 D 
 
 which I only caught indistinctly. When we came close 
 to the village of Langston we halted abruptly and turned 
 down a broken, narrow lane that ran directly to the sea. 
 Here our progress was necessarily slow, and I thought 
 several times we should have stopped altogether, but all at
 
 294 HERONFORD 
 
 once I caught the sweet breath of the sea, and the silver 
 waters of the bay lay before me reflecting the brighter 
 glory of the sky. We were not more than a hundred 
 yards from the beach when we climbed the abrupt crest 
 of the little hill. 
 
 Never was there a scene wilder and more picturesque. 
 A mile away on the rocky promontory that is called the 
 Blind Man's Head a solitary fire had been lighted, and 
 the golden trail of light lay trembling on the sea. Hard 
 by us on the beech another great fire swirled and roared, 
 and a dozen or twenty men were hurrying here and there 
 in the broken shadows. Some distance from the shore a 
 schooner lay with her tapering masts clear against the 
 moon, and a light burned brightly on her deck. A boat 
 was passing from the schooner to the shore, ploughing a 
 furrow of phosphorescent light on the dark, starry bosom 
 of the sea, and the rowers were singing some wild sea- 
 song in excellent time as they bent over their oars, but I 
 only remember the chorus 
 
 " Oh ! the brandy, the brandy, the brandy and the rum 1 
 We'll bring the lace ashore for the girls that we adore, 
 And we'll drink till the morning come." 
 
 The men upon the beach were busily engaged piling 
 the square boxes and casks upon half a dozen carts, each 
 of which was drawn by a couple of horses, and were evi- 
 dently working with a will, for they never paused in their 
 task. I had known that the entire population along the 
 coast was in sympathy, if not in active alliance with the 
 free-traders, but I own I was astonished at the reckless- 
 ness and audacity of these proceedings. I could see that 
 most of the men were armed, and I was sure that they
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 295 
 
 were prepared to fight if necessary. The ordinary feeling 
 of antagonism between those who break the law and those 
 whose duty it is to guard and protect it, had been 
 deepened into one of intense hatred and desire for revenue 
 by a recent affray in which a number of lives had been 
 lost. It was now quite apparent that the smugglers were 
 in sufficient force to repel any attack that might be made 
 upon them, and it may have been for this reason that 
 they neglected to take the usual precautions they were in 
 the habit of adopting. 
 
 Mr. Weston halted his horse for a moment alongside 
 the cart in which I sat, and having directed the men to 
 remain where they were, rode down to the beach, where 
 the boat had just landed as he arrived there. At this 
 point it was almost as clear as noonday, for it was close 
 to where the great fire was roaring, and I could easily 
 distinguish the faces of the sailors as they unshipped their 
 oars and sprang knee-deep into the water. One man 
 still sat on the boxes in the stern-sheets with his cloak 
 drawn close about him. 
 
 " Ay, that's him," said the man on my right hand ; 
 " Captain Claude's a dandy ; you may take your oath he 
 won't wet his feet. That will be the last of the cargo." 
 
 " Old Harry's his own cousin," the other answered with 
 evident conviction. " He's got the devil's luck, but 
 there's nobody would dare to do it but himself, and as 
 fine-mannered as a lady. Did you ever hear him talk ? " 
 
 " I don't hold by his manners, but I allow he's a good 
 sailor and can handle his ship with ever a man from 
 Langston to the Ness, but for all that I wouldn't sail 
 under him for a keg of diamonds."
 
 296 HERONFORD 
 
 " They say there's a fortune for the king's officer that 
 can catch him, but there'll be two moons in the sky be- 
 fore they do that. There they are now ; the master 
 could hitch him under his arm and carry him to the 
 Priory like a bundle o' silk." 
 
 In the meantime the sailors had drawn the boat higher 
 up on the beach, and one of them taking the captain in 
 his arms had carried him ashore and set him down on the 
 dry shingle. Weston dismounted from his horse, shook 
 him warmly by the hand, and the two retired to a dis- 
 tance where they walked slowly together arm in arm, ap- 
 parently engaged in an animated conversation. I watched 
 them walking up and down, and I felt certain that I knew 
 what formed the subject of their deliberation. They 
 walked in this way for nearly a quarter of an hour, and 
 then I saw Weston halt and hold out his hand. But 
 Captain Slingsby merely raised his hat, and then the two 
 men walked leisurely toward where I was standing. As 
 he came close to me I saw Captain Claude distinctly for 
 the first time. He was of quite diminutive stature not 
 more than five feet four in height and his face was as 
 smooth and delicate as the face of a girl, with the most 
 dreamy and melancholy eyes in the world. He had now 
 divested himself of his cloak, which he carried over his 
 arm, and I could see that he wore fine silk stockings and 
 great silver buckles, while his blue coat and crimson vest 
 fitted him with exquisite neatness. I imagined at the time 
 that he was quite young, but I found afterwards that he 
 must be at least fifteen years older than I had first sup- 
 posed him. When he smiled he showed the whitest and 
 most regular teeth, of which he was inordinately proud,
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 297 
 
 and I never knew him that he did not carry a jewelled 
 snuff-box in his hand. 
 
 "This is the gentleman who is going to sail with you, 
 Captain Claude," Weston said as they came up. " I 
 hope you will make him comfortable." 
 
 " On the honour of a gentleman," the captain answered 
 with a little lisp, which I soon discovered to be a pure 
 affectation. " I am profoundly pleased to make your ac- 
 quaintance, Mr. Cassilis. I have no doubt we shall find 
 ourselves the most excellent friends in the world." 
 
 " I presume, sir," I said, " that Mr. Weston has told 
 you I am his prisoner and how he kidnapped me ? It is 
 hardly necessary to continue this farce." 
 
 " A little misunderstanding," said Captain Claude, wav- 
 ing his hand airily j " a disagreeable necessity which some- 
 times arises in the noblest families a trifle, it's hardly 
 worth one's while to mention. My dear friend, you need 
 say no more. Permit me to offer my profound commis- 
 eration. Believe me, I am your most obedient servant." 
 
 " I am glad to hear it," I said bluntly. "Then I am 
 sure you will assist me to return home." 
 
 Captain Claude's laugh was as low and sweet as a sil- 
 ver chime. 
 
 " 'Tis a monstrous pity I did not know your wishes 
 earlier a thousand pities on the honour of a mariner. 
 It would have been so easy ; I should have enjoyed your 
 society at Heronford ; I love the amenities of a noble 
 house. I regret, Mr. Cassilis, I am bound by the prom- 
 ise I have rashly made I regret, nay, I am overwhelmed 
 with remorse." 
 
 He spoke so simply and naturally that I could hardly
 
 298 HERONFORD 
 
 imagine that he was playing with me, and that he was not 
 perfectly sincere. But Mr. Weston's laugh was the best 
 commentary on his speech. 
 
 " Your friend," I said, " appreciates your humour bet- 
 ter than myself. I know it is useless to appeal either to 
 your pity or your sense of fair-play." 
 
 " I am sure I have not been misinformed," he answered 
 still in the same tone ; " Mr. Weston, of Langston, would 
 be the last person in the world to deceive his friend 
 positively the last. I understood that you wished to see 
 the world, that you were desirous of perfecting your 
 education by travel ; in a word, that you wished to make 
 the grand tour, and that it was to be my honour and 
 felicity to see you take the first step. On my faith, a 
 delightful prospect. Is it not so, Mr. Cassilis ? " 
 
 " No one knows better than yourself," I answered. 
 " I do not doubt you will carry out your instructions." 
 
 " I assure you to the last point and nicest shade a 
 gentleman has no alternative. I have promised, Mr. 
 Cassilis ; I am bound by my word. As a gentleman 
 you would not have me break my word ? " 
 
 " From what I have heard of you I am sure you will 
 keep it." 
 
 " Ah j you pay me a delicate compliment a charming 
 compliment. Mr. Weston, our friend appreciates the 
 situation. Had I known earlier that you had such strong 
 objections to the voyage I should not have consented to 
 receive you my better feelings would not have permitted 
 it. I cannot bear to see my friends unhappy." 
 
 " Captain Slingsby is a gentleman of sentiment," said 
 Weston with a sneer.
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 299 
 
 " It is the air I breathe," cried the captain, with a nice 
 flourish of his handkerchief. " I live for love and friend- 
 ship. Do not misjudge me, Mr. Cassilis; pray do not 
 misjudge me, it would make me the unhappiest of men. 
 I would not hurt your feelings for the world. But duty 
 is imperative duty and honour." 
 
 " And Mr. Weston agrees with you. I assure you, 
 sir, I already know the fate that is in store for me, and 
 I am afraid I am in no position to appreciate your fine 
 language." 
 
 " Ah ! do not say that. That would indeed be an un- 
 fortunate circumstance. I merely desire to pave the way 
 to an abiding friendship. I anticipate many delightful 
 evenings in your society unmarred by recrimination and 
 reproach. We will rise above the narrow feelings of self- 
 interest ; we will forget our selfish fears ; we will drink the 
 undiluted nectar of friendship. Judge no man harshly, 
 Mr. Cassilis, and especially a poor sailor whose coarse and 
 halting speech is always doing wrong to his tender heart." 
 
 His gravity was absolute ; he spoke with the emphasis 
 and deliberation of profound conviction. 
 
 " I have no doubt," I said, " you will carry out your 
 instructions. You will do justice to your reputation." 
 
 " Ah ! my reputation the breath of a cold, unfeeling 
 world. You are sneering, Mr. Cassilis ; you show me the 
 false reflection of my face in the glass of groundless 
 slander. That is nothing, sir. It is true I am beyond 
 the law and the dogs of justice are laid upon my track. 
 And then? There are good laws and bad laws; I 
 solemnly revere the good and just as solemnly despise 
 the bad. My conscience is above the law ; it makes its
 
 300 HERONFORD 
 
 own. A free trader a smuggler a contrabandist ? 
 Words, only words. I pour wealth into the bosom of 
 my country ; I increase its commerce ; I enlarge its 
 knowledge, and improve its taste. So far I am the bene- 
 factor of my kind, and hope for my reward in the ap- 
 plause and admiration of posterity, and in that proud 
 confidence I despise the slanders you have heard." 
 
 " Mr. Cassilis will know the full extent of your per- 
 fections before you have finished with him," laughed 
 Mr. Weston. 
 
 But the captain turned upon him fiercely. 
 
 " You be , sir. My remarks we not addressed to 
 
 you. Yours is not the example I should follow ; yours is 
 not the appreciation that I seek. My misfortune makes 
 you my employer, but my deserts prevent me from making 
 you my friend. Remember that, Mr. Weston, and re- 
 member that I will tolerate no impertinence from any 
 country squire from Land's End to John o' Groats. 
 Remember that, and be to you." 
 
 But Weston refused to see any cause for quarrel, and 
 shook his head with an appearance of rough good-humour. 
 
 " We won't quarrel, Claude at least, not till we have 
 squared accounts. You are as full of fire as a flint and 
 always had a blind eye to my graces, but I admit that you 
 are the prince and pink of mariners. There goes the last 
 of the cargo a good one and safely landed. I can hear 
 Swain swearing by this time how we have hoaxed him. 
 When do you get under weigh ? " 
 
 " When the Lord pleases, my bucolic friend," answered 
 the captain, who had not yet quite recovered his equa- 
 nimity. " If you will come aboard with myself and my
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 301 
 
 excellent compeer, Mr. Cassilis, you may have an op- 
 portunity of observing the dangers of my calling." 
 
 Mr. Weston laughed. 
 
 " I wouldn't sail with you, you little devil, for the 
 wealth of the Indies. What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Your keen senses will observe," said Captain Slingsby 
 with a well-marked lisp, which for some minutes had dis- 
 appeared, " that it is now a flat calm. We brought the 
 last of the breeze with us, and upon my honour I be- 
 lieve nay, I avow, I was the d est fool under heaven 
 to come in here in weather like this. The Spitfire is 
 somewhere on the coast, and should she manage to stum- 
 ble upon us here there is a chance that we may find our- 
 selves full-fledged angels, beating the nebulous ether with 
 post-mortem pinions. You see I cannot surrender with 
 grace, for I have a constitutional and natural objection 
 to being hanged in the vulgar manner which is now the 
 fashion." 
 
 " Then I'll pray that you may have a breeze before 
 morning." 
 
 " With your permission I should prefer that you per- 
 mitted matters to take their natural course ; your inter- 
 ference is unnecessary. However, if you are unwilling 
 that Mr. Cassilis should undergo the risk, he may remain 
 ashore and wait for more- propitious circumstances. You 
 will observe that I am acquainted with his Majesty's brig 
 Spitfire and her captain. I know that the one has a con- 
 suming and unnatural desire to put an end to my little 
 ventures since the accidental explosion of my long gun 
 which carried away an infinitesimal portion of his rigging, 
 and the other when it comes to reaching has decidedly
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 the heels of us. You are aware that I dislike fighting, 
 Mr. Weston, but I fear, alas ! I am convinced, that dis- 
 agreeable alternative would be forced upon me should 
 the Spit/ire find me here. Mr. Cassilis as a non-com- 
 batant " 
 
 41 He will be delighted to see how you handle your 
 ship, Claude," Weston answered with a laugh. " He 
 wouldn't miss the sight for a thousand pounds. There's 
 no doubt it's cursed weather and this would be an ugly 
 place to be caught in, but I hope you'll get a breeze from 
 the land before morning." 
 
 " Should it prove otherwise, my good friend, I think 
 you may bid farewell to your share in the little Swallow, 
 and for Claude Slingsby gentle Claude Slingsby he 
 will never run another cargo ashore or watch for the 
 signal fire from Blind Man's Head. One splendid mo- 
 ment, sir, one moment worth a life time, and then it will 
 be all over. The sun will set, the wind will blow, the 
 tides will flow and ebb, but only a lingering memory will 
 tell how Claude Slingsby fought his ship and went to 
 Davy Jones like a good sailor and a loyal gentleman." 
 
 The little captain had taken off his hat and stood bare- 
 headed with his clear, soft face and shining eyes turned 
 to the light. His voice, that had grown for the moment 
 deep and musical, vibrated with emotion, and though I 
 saw a certain grim humour in the situation, I felt not the 
 slightest inclination to smile. But Weston was evidently 
 more familiar with his moods and manner. 
 
 "You always croak like a frog, Claude," he said. "I 
 have never known you yet that you were not on the 
 point of a glorious death, and that drunk or sober. The
 
 CAPTAIN CL4UDE SLINGSBY 303 
 
 Spitfire will no more catch you this time than she has at 
 any other for the last four years, and if she did, why, 
 man, you can't expect Nature to stand still at the catas- 
 trophe." 
 
 Captain Slingsby bowed with a frigid politeness and 
 replaced his hat on his head. 
 
 " I look for neither sentiment nor regret at your hands, 
 sir. You remain as you were quarried, uncouth, un- 
 hewn, unpolished but you are for the time being my 
 
 employer, and be to you, sir. Our interview has 
 
 lasted too long ; I will bid you adieu. And look here," 
 
 he cried, turning round, "you lubbers, get that 
 
 gentleman aboard the boat, and " I will not repeat 
 
 his profanity " if you don't hurry, you swabs, I will 
 
 break every bone in your bodies. Hurry along 
 
 now ; lift you feet ; show your heels. Why the 
 
 do you stand like a pair of moonstruck calves ? Don't I 
 speak plain enough ? " 
 
 I was beginning to understand why men were afraid 
 of Captain Slingsby. I had never seen a man more 
 wholly possessed by a demoniac passion, and that by an 
 instantaneous change. His lisp had vanished ; the soft 
 and melancholy look had passed from his face. His 
 form seemed to dilate ; his eyes blazed and his voice rang 
 out hard and clear. And yet there was no cause for this 
 passionate outburst ; it was so sudden and unaccountable 
 that I was lost in amazement. But I was left no time 
 for speculation. The two men, who had remained in 
 close attendance upon me all the time, caught hold of 
 me by the arms and hurried me to the boat before I 
 could utter a word of protest.
 
 3 o 4 HERONFORD 
 
 By this time the shore was almost deserted. The 
 carts and horses had disappeared in a file along the road 
 over the sand-hills ; the fire upon the beach was burning 
 lower like a great eye of light in the darkness, and only 
 the boat waited for the captain and myself, moving un- 
 easily as it lay almost aground in the lazy tide. I was 
 bundled into the stern, though with no great violence, 
 and I now saw that the crew was fully armed. They 
 looked at me curiously for a moment, but no one made 
 any remark, nor had I any cause to complain of their 
 treatment, though I confess their appearance was not 
 such as to inspire me with confidence. A more forbid- 
 ding set of ruffians I thought I had never seen in my 
 life, but whether it was the proximity of their dreaded cap- 
 tain or the usual discipline to which they were accus- 
 tomed, no crew in any king's ship could have sat more 
 silent and impassive. 
 
 I watched Weston and Captain Slingsby still walking 
 up and down in the wavering shadows of the fire, and 
 saw the former stop once or twice to laugh at something 
 his companion had said. He was evidently in very high 
 spirits, a state of mind to which the successful landing 
 of the cargo and the removal of John Cassilis may both 
 have contributed. Then they came slowly down to 
 where the boat was lying, Mr. Weston with his hand 
 resting upon the captain's shoulder. 
 
 " It is farewell at last, my gallant captain," Weston 
 said. " I wish you a good voyage and never a ship on 
 the sea but yourself. Good luck." 
 
 The captain lifted his hat slightly, and wading through 
 the water stepped into the boat beside me.
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY 305 
 
 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr. Weston. The devil and I will carry 
 out your instructions between us, and if I should happen 
 to visit him this trip I will convey to him your respectful 
 compliments and inform him that you will not be long 
 after me. Good-bye, my flower of brimstone, and now 
 
 you get me aboard in a twinkling for I must change 
 
 my stockings or I shall catch my death of cold. Look 
 alive, you " 
 
 He leaned back in the stern-sheets with an air of ex- 
 treme languor and drew his cloak closely about him, nor 
 did he speak a word till we were alongside the schooner. 
 Then he turned to me. 
 
 " This is my poor ship, Mr. Cassilis. As companions 
 in misfortune, the quarry of a cruel fate, I shall en- 
 deavour to make you comfortable during our temporary 
 sojourn together. May I ask you to step aboard a poor 
 and narrow dwelling-place, but large and wide enough 
 for the sweep and play of noble spirits." 
 
 One of the men laughed behind him but the captain 
 was perfectly grave.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE SLINGSBY's EXIT 
 
 IT 'was a night of breathless calm when we came 
 aboard the Swallow. The tender crescent of the moon 
 lay like a fairy pinnace in the western sky, and the stars 
 were dying out in the wide sweep of the stirless sea. 
 The fires upon the headland and the beach were now 
 only little points of faint light in the darkness ; there was 
 no movement in the deck under my feet. 
 
 Captain Slingsby with infinite grace of manner drew 
 his arm within my own and brought me to his cabin, 
 where a supper was already spread upon the table. 
 Nothing would have surprised me regarding this remark- 
 able man, but I was certainly unprepared for my sur- 
 roundings, the like of which I had never seen before. 
 The cabin was not very large, but it was brilliantly lighted 
 by a silver lamp of beautiful workmanship which hung 
 from the ceiling. At one end a massive crucifix was 
 placed upon the wall, and beneath it was a small prie-Dieu 
 with a number of candles fixed in silver sconces. At the 
 other side was a bookcase filled with books bound in 
 bright, red leather, and beside this there was a guitar in a 
 greenbaise cover and several musical instruments in a 
 rack. The tablecloth was of a snowy whiteness, and I 
 noticed that nearly all the appointments were of silver. 
 
 The captain threw aside his cloak as we entered and 
 bowed me to a chair. 
 
 u Make yourself at home, my dear friend," he said 
 with an engaging smile, " and forget the unfortunate cir- 
 
 306
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 307 
 
 cumstances under which we are compelled to meet. For- 
 get and be happy. With your permission I shall retire 
 for a moment. My delicate constitution requires that I 
 should change my stockings a weakness I could never 
 overcome but that being done I shall rejoin you in a 
 moment." 
 
 When he returned I observed that in the meantime 
 Captain Claude had not been forgetful of his personal 
 appearance. He had newly arranged his hair, which was 
 naturally very luxuriant and glossy ; a slight touch of 
 rouge had brightened his complexion and added roses to 
 his cheeks ; a fine diamond sparkled in his bosom, and 
 the fingers of both his hands small as a girl's were 
 covered with brilliants. He carried a cambric handker- 
 chief which he pressed occasionally to his lips with the 
 air of a petit maitre. 
 
 " Now, my dear Mr. Cassilis, with your permission we 
 shall have supper," he said, taking the chair at the head of 
 the table and touching the bell ; " a swinish but necessary 
 meal. I find it clouds my understanding and darkens my 
 more delicate perceptions, but if we are indeed spirit we 
 are also flesh alas ! flesh and blood. Though I dislike 
 supper I cannot afford to dispense with it. We must 
 humour our fallen nature. Chicken, Anthony, and tongue 
 garnished with the classic parsley," he continued as the 
 steward entered, " and, Anthony, cheese and butter for Mr. 
 Cassilis. And, my excellent Anthony, the water for myself 
 and wine two bottles of the green seal for my respected 
 
 guest. When you have done that you may go to in 
 
 double quick time for Mr. Cassilis and myself intend to 
 have a night with the Muses and the elder Gods. And,
 
 308 HERONFORD 
 
 Anthony, tell Mr. Peacocke I want a word with him now. 
 Pardon me, Mr. Cassilis, but one must attend to business." 
 
 A moment or two afterwards the mate and steward 
 entered almost together. 
 
 " Ah, Peacocke, I sent for you. We have made a 
 good voyage of it, but we must get out of this. No one 
 knows why better than yourself." 
 
 " I own I am growing uneasy, sir." 
 
 " You have very good reason, Mr. Peacocke," the 
 captain laughed pleasantly, " for you will infallibly be 
 hanged if we are taken most unpleasant operation. 
 You must get every rag on the schooner with the first 
 breath of air and we must take our risk of the tide ; for I 
 had rather go on the rocks than sail into Execution Dock. 
 Do not hesitate to call me should you want me." 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 " And, Peacocke, you had better see that the carronade 
 is got ready ; and, Peacocke " 
 
 " Sir." 
 
 " Have an eye to the smallarms and see that the cut- 
 lasses are in order. My fellows are apt to be careless, 
 and a good edge, Peacocke, is an excellent thing both in 
 steel and an appetite." 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir. There is nothing more ? " 
 
 " I think not. Ah, yes, leave the case-bottle alone till 
 we are going into action or get into port and then you 
 may drink yourself drunk with my full authority and per- 
 mission, but not a drop till then." 
 
 " Very well, sir, I shall observe your instructions." 
 
 " An animal, Mr. Cassilis," the captain continued when 
 the mate had retired, " a very useful animal and an ex-
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 309 
 
 cellent seaman, but no companion for a man of breeding 
 and sentiment like myself. That is the curse of my call- 
 ing, sir. I must rejoice among barbarians and live among 
 savages, and the fine and delicate flowers of feeling and 
 fancy wither away without appreciation. I may work 
 with men like Weston and Peacocke, but how in heaven's 
 name can I confide in them or make them the partners 
 of my heart ? " 
 
 " And yet Mr. Weston has shown that he has a good 
 deal of confidence in you," I said gravely. " Will you 
 allow me to tell you what you are doing for him ? " 
 
 "Ah ! better not. Rather let me help you to a wing 
 of this most tender chicken, and try a glass of that wine 
 of France in which the spirit of the vine is dancing like 
 sunshine. I drink water myself, but that is merely a 
 weakness against which I have been fighting all my life. 
 Always avoid unpleasant topics while you can and make 
 the most of the shining hour. There was a poet once 
 Horatius Flaccus whose Latin I have forgotten, though 
 it was whipped into me till I ran away to sea, but I have 
 never forgotten his charming philosophy. Ah ! Mr. Cas- 
 silis, remember Horatius Flaccus you also are a scholar 
 and tell me what you think of my wine." 
 
 " I may seem ungrateful," I said, " but I am afraid I 
 am unable to forget my situation. I cannot forget what 
 I have come through : I cannot forget you are carrying 
 me into slavery that you are carrying me into a life 
 worse than death. It is enough almost to unsettle my 
 reason when I think of it." 
 
 " Then why think of it at all, my poor friend," said the 
 captain soothingly. " Believe me I deplore the circum-
 
 3 io HERONFORD 
 
 stances as much as yourself, possibly more, but upon my 
 honour as a gentleman I am in no degree to blame it 
 was not and is not my fault. I have kept my word all 
 my life ; I have never varied from it to the value or 
 breadth of a hair; I have sailed in the eye of duty as to a 
 point of the compass. In a moment of weakness are 
 the angels themselves exempt from weakness ? I gave 
 Mr. Weston my word of honour yes, sir, my word of 
 honour that I would carry a passenger for him to Havre 
 that pleasant town on the sunny shores of France. I 
 knew nothing more than that, and indeed I cared for noth- 
 ing more. I was paid for my promise, which meant with 
 Claude Slingsby the full performance of his contract. And 
 yet, believe me, I would not cause you pain for the world." 
 
 " Can you not put yourself in my place ? " I cried. 
 " And the crime " 
 
 The captain smiled and waved his handkerchief airily. 
 
 " Crime is only the creature of the law, and like the 
 king I am afraid I am above the law. The law has no 
 terrors for me, Mr. Cassilis, and no claims upon me. I 
 would not violate my conscience or prove false to my 
 word and my friend for all the laws of Europe." 
 
 " I think you have a heart somewhere, Captain 
 Slingsby," I cried despairingly. " Will you permit me 
 to tell you my story ? " 
 
 " I am all heart, sir," he answered, apparently flattered, 
 " and that is why I am now captain of the Swallow and 
 not flying the flag of an admiral, as many a worse man is 
 doing. Endeavour not to pain me too much and I will 
 hear your tale." 
 
 He poured himself out a glass of water and settled
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 311 
 
 himself in his chair with the look of a martyr. I did not 
 quite understand him ; I was young, and hoped that I 
 might touch him and win his sympathy, and in that hope 
 I began my story. I was terribly in earnest; I felt that 
 my fate was depending on the issue, and I watched his 
 face with my heart in my eyes. At first he was listless 
 and indifferent, now and again sipping the water in his 
 glass with an air of apathy, but gradually I saw that he 
 was growing interested, and finally I knew that I held 
 his sympathy in my hand. That knowledge inspired me. 
 I pictured the hope and joy that were growing in my life 
 my sweetheart's love and beauty the unmerited in- 
 jury my rival had inflicted on me the sufferings I had 
 endured the awful fate that was in store for me, and 
 when I had finished I saw without astonishment that 
 there were tears in his eyes. He was as much moved as 
 myself. Then he rose to his feet, and leaning across the 
 table held out his hand to me. 
 
 " My poor friend," he cried, " as heaven is my witness 
 I pity you with all my heart." 
 
 " I knew," I said, " I should win your pity. You did 
 not know the truth." 
 
 " The truth ! I knew nothing. On my oath, as a 
 gentleman, Weston is nothing more or less than a double- 
 dyed villain." 
 
 " He has certainly treated me villainously." 
 
 " He has treated you like a scoundrel. And the tall, 
 sweet girl with the shining eyes and lips like Cupid's bow 
 Mr. Cassilis, he will break her heart I am certain he 
 will break her heart. Good God, sir, the devil made a 
 world in which such things are possible."
 
 3 i2 HERONFORD 
 
 "At least you are now glad that you listened to me ? " 
 
 " I shall regret it as long as I live." 
 
 " Regret it ? " 
 
 " Do you think I shall ever get your cursed story out of 
 my head ? Do you think I am a mere block a creature 
 fashioned without a heart and a beast born without a con- 
 science ? Do you think that I can go through life with 
 equanimity, knowing that I have made myself the tool of 
 this designing knave, who should be a gentleman and is 
 merely an unwhipped rogue ? Ah ! Mr. Cassilis, I shall 
 regret the night I met you so long as I live." 
 
 " But," I said in astonishment, for I had believed I had 
 made him entirely my friend, "you will not permit him to 
 carry out his wickedness ? You will save me from the fate 
 he had in store for me ? I am surely safe in your keeping." 
 
 He threw up his hands with an air of extreme de- 
 jection. 
 
 " I am powerless, sir powerless to help myself or you. 
 What can I do ? What would you have me do ? Mr. 
 Weston is a rogue, but he trusted me he confided you 
 to my hands. I gave him my promise ; I took his filthy 
 pay, and under these circumstances, if the whole future 
 of my life was passed with broken hearts and every heart 
 my own, I could not withdraw a step but go right on to 
 the place of torment that is prepared for me. I have 
 broken every law, divine and human, but I have never 
 broken my word." 
 
 He spoke with an air of indescribable pride, and I 
 saw in a moment that I had been speaking to ears as 
 deaf as Weston's own. Whatever else might happen I 
 need look for no help from Captain Slingsby.
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 313 
 
 " I see," I cried, "that nothing I can say will alter you." 
 
 "My mind is fixed, Mr. Cassilis, as the pole star. 
 The situation lies, so to speak, in a nutshell. I do not 
 love my task, but it is my duty to carry you to Havre, 
 and carry you to Havre I will if God's winds and the 
 king's enemies permit. But that need not prevent our 
 being and remaining friends. Why should it ? We are 
 both the victims of adverse circumstances I of a rash 
 and hasty promise, you of a bad man's enmity. I do 
 not upbraid you that by your means I am doing an act 
 of grave injustice and cruelty, nor need you reproach me 
 that I lend myself to that act. Rather let us forget it 
 for the time and make the most of the shining hour." 
 
 He drew the cork from the bottle and filled my glass 
 with an appearance of great cordiality. 
 
 " We have had enough of the past, Mr. Cassilis," he 
 said ; " let us talk of the rosy future." 
 
 " Ah ! the rosy future ! " I cried bitterly. 
 
 " Or rather let us talk of supper," he answered, see- 
 ing my meaning, " which you have still left untasted. I 
 remember the time I could not eat myself, but now I 
 think there is no chance or change in this changing world 
 that could rob me of my appetite. I am not perhaps 
 what you would call a religious man, but I am something 
 of a theologian and have a taste for divinity. I believe 
 most strongly in the decrees of Providence, and am cer- 
 tain you cannot alter them by forbearing to dine or sup." 
 
 " I am in no position to quarrel with you, Captain 
 Slingsby ; I will do whatever you desire." 
 
 " Ah ! that is a more hopeful frame of mind. Now a 
 little more chicken and a glass of the sunny south. Ah !
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 Mr. Cassilis, I have an idea that you may never see 
 Havre after all." 
 
 "What do you mean ?" I cried eagerly. 
 
 " I am the victim of presentiments," he said dreamily. 
 " The airy voices of the future have whispered in my 
 ear from childhood, and misfortune has always knocked 
 a warning note at my heart before she dealt her crushing 
 blow. It is probable there may be a fight this trip, Mr. 
 Cassilis," he went on softly, " and it is possible that the 
 Swallow has made her last voyage. I have had some- 
 thing like that in my mind for the last two days, and yet 
 you see I can make my supper with a hearty appetite." 
 
 " And what will happen then ? " I asked with curiosity. 
 
 " Ah ! what indeed ? There is a little breeze from 
 the south an air soft and tender as a maiden's breath 
 the Swallow hardly stirs the sky is blue and cloudless 
 and suddenly the air is filled with shouts and cheers, 
 the flash and smoke of guns, and someone cries that the 
 Swallow is sinking by the head. The bottom is yellow 
 sand and shells, Mr. Cassilis, and the bones of Claude 
 Slingsby and his gentle mariners will lie there side by 
 side till the trumpet of the judgment." 
 
 I know that I can only give you a faint idea of the 
 man, and I certainly cannot describe the air with which 
 he spoke these words or the tone that he used. He 
 seemed to me to be almost dreaming with his eyes open, 
 but he spoke like one speaking under a sense of profound 
 conviction, and describing what he actually saw pass be- 
 fore his eyes. A prophet in a blue coat and crimson 
 vest, with rouge on his cheeks, rings on his fingers, and 
 the smooth unlined face of a boy may seem a curious
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 315 
 
 spectacle, yet its incongruity, strange as it may seem, did 
 not strike me, and I treated him with a perfectly serious 
 attention. At first sight, you would have thought Cap- 
 tain Slingsby an object meant for ridicule and the provo- 
 cation of laughter. His precise and finical manner, his 
 affected lisp, his splendid dress and diminutive figure, his 
 absurd speeches and florid language were all in the true 
 comedy manner, and yet I should never at any time have 
 thought of laughing at or with him. These things were, 
 it seemed to me, merely a transparent mask that never 
 hid the real man. At the most unexpected moments his 
 true nature would flash in his eyes, and when you would 
 look to see him soft as silk you would find him hard as 
 iron. The man fascinated and bewildered me. His 
 mind made as many leaps and changes as a harlequin, 
 and yet he was always so demoniacally in earnest that he 
 only impressed you with wonder and curiosity. 
 
 He now described the fate of the Swallow with the 
 earnestness of one who was watching the scene unrolled 
 before his eyes, and from that he passed to the subject 
 of dreams and visions. This was evidently a favourite 
 topic with him. He narrated a hundred instances of his 
 own power of second sight ; he recounted the miraculous 
 dreams that had warned him of impending dangers ; and 
 spoke of the spirits that seemed to be his constant com- 
 panions. I never spoke a word but sat and listened to 
 him, fascinated by his shining eyes and eager, animated 
 face. 
 
 Then he waved his hand airily, and laughed a pleasant 
 approval of his own power of narrative. 
 
 " You are a companion after my own heart, but I
 
 3 i6 HERONFORD 
 
 weary you, Mr. Cassilis. I like to ramble through this 
 fairyland of wonder, and look through the prison bars of 
 the unseen. I never rest ; I never tire ; I could fly for- 
 ever with the spirits through the infinite of space. The 
 world does not know Claude Slingsby. You think me a 
 strange being ? " 
 
 " I have met many men who are different." 
 
 " Why, that is a wise and harmless answer. But you 
 think I am a bad man. I have treated you like a pig. 
 Oh ! you need not answer me, I know your mind." 
 
 " I am not sure that I know my own mind regarding you." 
 
 11 No ? Then you must go to bed and think me over. 
 I have taken you to my heart, Mr. Cassilis ; I have num- 
 bered you among my friends. Your eyes please me ; your 
 ingenious youth has won my sympathy ; you are honest, 
 sincere, generous, and unfortunate. Meliora probo." 
 
 He rose from the table and going to the other side of 
 the cabin took the guitar out of the case, and coming 
 back resumed his seat. For some time he did not say 
 anything, but sat fingering the strings with his head a 
 little bent to one side. Then he looked up at me with 
 a look which seemed to me almost shy and apologetic. 
 
 " I know you are tired out," he said, " and so am I, 
 but this is my own best friend, and I have a habit a 
 foolish, harmless habit of forgetting my fancies for the 
 night in the music that I love. If you do not mind, we 
 will perform our devotions together, and then you can 
 go to bed and dream of Claude Slingsby knocking in 
 vain at the gates of Paradise and all the angels weeping 
 because they cannot take him in." 
 
 Without waiting for my answer he settled himself in
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 317 
 
 his chair, and after striking a note or two began to sing in 
 a low tone, but very sweetly and with great expression : 
 
 " Mother of God ! there is sorrow 
 And anguish under the sun, 
 And the tears are wet on our faces 
 Till the night of travail is done. 
 
 " Mother of God ! on thy bosom 
 I would lay my burden of fears, 
 And thou who in life felt the burden 
 Wilt dry the trace of my tears." 
 
 There were some other verses which I do not remem- 
 ber, but certainly no man could have thrown greater 
 pathos and meaning into the words he sang. His breast 
 shook with his emotion, and for the second time I saw the 
 tears in his eyes. Then he rose hastily and, catching my 
 hand, pressed it in his own. 
 
 " Forget my folly, my dear friend, and think of me as 
 I would be, not as I am. You will sleep with an easy 
 conscience and rise to the joy and glory of a new day. 
 
 Where the is Anthony ? Here, you scab, 
 
 show Mr. Cassilis to his berth and to you." 
 
 It was a long time before I fell asleep, for I was weary 
 almost beyond the healing of sleep, and the figure of the 
 little captain and the sound of his voice kept dancing in 
 my brain and linking themselves fantastically to the chain 
 of my own misfortunes. Then somehow there came a 
 welcome oblivion, though I remember to have heard in- 
 distinctly the creaking of the winch and the measured lilt 
 of voices and the rattling of the anchor chain. I do not 
 know how long I slept, but when I wakened the sun was 
 high up in the heavens and the Swallow was rolling un-
 
 3 i8 HERONFORD 
 
 easily in the measured swell. I rose hastily and was pro- 
 ceeding to dress when the man Anthony came into my 
 cabin with a basin of hot coffee. 
 
 " The captain's order, sir," he said. " I was to make 
 you comfortable, and see that you had your breakfast." 
 
 " I am obliged to him and you," I said, feeling that I 
 should make as many friends as I was able. " I have 
 been quite comfortable, and we seem to be making a quiet 
 passage." 
 
 " The Lord love you," he cried, smiling at my igno- 
 rance, " we have hardly stirred. There is not as much 
 air as would cool your porridge. And I beg pardon, sir, 
 do you know the captain at all ? " 
 
 " I met him last night for the first time." 
 
 " Then I would advise you to give him a wide berth 
 this blessed day, that's all. He's been raising hell since 
 daybreak, and if he's pretty free with his tongue more by 
 token he's very handy with a marlinspike. He don't like 
 the weather and he don't like the coast and he don't like the 
 Spitfire that's been trying for us since Adam was a boy. 
 I think 'twas that brought him in, and I know now he's 
 sorry he was tempted, and, Lord ! to hear him ! I never 
 seen him so bad before." 
 
 " Then there is a chance of the Swallow being taken ? " 
 
 The man looked at me significantly. 
 
 " No more chance than of your flying ashore, sir. 
 That's not Captain Claude's sort. We'll all go to the 
 bottom first like a snug ship's company. But you'd better 
 have the coffee now, and I'll get you a rasher for your 
 breakfast. I beg your pardon, sir, you won't forget not to 
 meddle with Captain Claude while he's in his tantrums.
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 319 
 
 I'm sure he'd be sorry afterwards if anything happened 
 to you." 
 
 After I had breakfasted, which I did quite alone, I 
 climbed the companion ladder and came upon the deck. 
 I was amazed to see that we were certainly not more than 
 two miles from the shore, and I could observe every ob- 
 ject upon the land with the utmost distinctness. We were 
 just outside the horn of the bay, and I could see the long 
 sweep of cliffs running to where they are shut in by St. 
 Dunstan's rock to the southward. The sea rolled in a 
 long, greasy swell j there was not a breath of air, and the 
 white sails only stirred with the motion of the vessel. 
 Though the sun was somewhat obscured by the autumnal 
 mist, it was already very warm, and there was everywhere 
 the promise of a day of intense calm. It seemed almost 
 like an answer to my prayers, for I knew now that my 
 one hope of safety, slender as it might be, depended on 
 the coming of the Spitfire. 
 
 One man stood idly by the tiller, and two or three others 
 lay sprawling forwards, but Captain Claude had almost the 
 entire deck to himself. He paced up and down like a wild 
 animal behind the bars of his cage, his head bent forward 
 and his hands folded across his chest. He was dressed 
 with quite as much care as he had been the evening before, 
 but I noticed that he was now armed, and that a pistol-butt 
 projected from his pocket. Remembering the steward's 
 warning, I went over to the bulwarks upon the other side 
 and stood there watching the long line of cliffs, but the 
 captain seemed not to have noticed my coming and to be 
 altogether unconscious of my presence. The only sounds 
 I could hear were the occasional creaking of the blocks
 
 3 20 HERONFORD 
 
 and the quick, sharp tread of the captain as he paced the 
 deck. I had no desire to go below again, and while my 
 eyes rested on the line of cliffs that shut in Carnforth 
 Bay, I felt that the last link was not yet broken that 
 bound me to those I loved. 
 
 An hour or more passed in this way when I heard the 
 hurried tread of the little captain close behind me, and 
 turning round I saw him standing regarding me under his 
 brows. I lifted my hat without a word, but he did not 
 seem to notice my salutation. He was evidently labour- 
 ing under intense excitement, for his lips were twitching 
 and his eyes were ablaze with an inward fire. 
 
 " You are familiar with the Word of God, sir ? " he 
 cried. 
 
 " I believe I am," I answered quietly. 
 
 " I thought as much," he said with a sneer. " Then 
 you must have heard of Jonah who made himself snug 
 in the stomach of the whale. I'm tempted to look out 
 for another miracle." 
 
 " Why, sir ? " 
 
 " Why, sir ? Is this weather natural ? Where's the 
 
 breeze that should be bowling the Swallow merrily out 
 
 of danger ? Who keeps me rotting in this cursed calm, 
 the like of which was never seen since the beginning of 
 the world ? You, sir you're my Jonah my snivel- 
 ling, sanctimonious, unsophisticated Jonah, and by 
 
 I'm tempted to let you try your luck with the fishes. I'm 
 sorry I ever saw your face, your smug, freezing, in- 
 digestible countenance. Go below, or I fling you over- 
 board." 
 
 I verily believe he would have been as good as his
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 321 
 
 threat, but I had no desire to continue the altercation, and 
 I turned away and went down the companion without a 
 word. I sat down in the cabin and took a book out of 
 the case, but I could still hear Captain Slingsby pacing 
 the deck, which he continued to do with brief intermis- 
 sions all through the morning and afternoon. 
 
 Anthony brought me some dinner, which I ate alone, 
 and I then continued to read until it became too dark for 
 me to see longer. The captain made his mid-day meal 
 upon the deck, and so far as I could see there was no 
 change either in the weather cr his temper. I began to 
 hope that I would end this long day altogether by myself, 
 but after Anthony had lighted the lamp, and I was again 
 settling myself to my book, Captain Claude came in and 
 sat down beside me. I laid down my book and waited 
 for him to speak. 
 
 " I am a brute and a fool, Mr. Cassilis," he said. " I am 
 ashamed of myself, and have come to beg your pardon." 
 
 " It is granted at once," I said ; " you have not hurt me." 
 
 " But I have hurt myself. I cannot help it ; I may do 
 it again. It is not I who speak, but the devil. I am 
 glad you did not answer me." 
 
 " It seems a pity," I said, " that you should let the 
 devil speak for you." 
 
 " A thousand pities, but it is so. I won't trouble you 
 again, Mr. Cassilis. The devil and I will keep clear of 
 you for the future. Use my cabin as if it were your 
 own, make yourself comfortable, and don't be afraid that 
 I will break in upon your meditations." 
 
 " But I cannot do that, Captain Slingsby. And I have 
 quite forgotten your hasty words."
 
 322 HERONFORD 
 
 " 'Tis all the amends I can make you, but don't think 
 I am virtuous enough to deny myself anything for your 
 sake. I deny myself nothing ; I couldn't rest to-night in 
 a bed of down. I must be moving, man ; I must keep 
 stirring or I shall go mad. Don't you see that I'm caught 
 in the trap of my own making I who was wary as a fox 
 and slippery as an eel. The air is coming up from the 
 southward now, and do you know what that will bring ? " 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 " Death, sir death to you and me and every man jack 
 aboard this tidy craft, for the Swallow will go to the bottom 
 with her sails standing and my flag flying at the main-mast 
 as if I were an admiral of the blue. And that is why I 
 ask your pardon, Mr. Cassilis, and so bid you a very good- 
 night." He held out his hand to me, which I could not 
 refrain from taking, and with a muttered word or two, 
 which I could not catch, he left me to my solitude. 
 
 I do not think I fear death more than other men, and 
 I am sure, in comparison with the fate in store for me, I 
 should willingly have chosen that alternative, but I own 
 the little captain's words almost stopped the beating of 
 my heart. He spoke in a tone of positive assurance ; he 
 seemed as certain of the future as if it were already an 
 accomplished fact. Under other circumstances I should 
 have looked for the coming of the Spitfire with joy and 
 hope, but I was now assured that in that event Captain 
 Claude would keep his word and would blow up his vessel 
 sooner than surrender. He had already made up his mind 
 that he could not escape, and I now understood him well 
 enough to know that it was not his own fate that troubled 
 him, but the thought that he was beaten at the game in
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 323 
 
 which he felt he had no superior. The vanity of the 
 man stood out conspicuous even in the moment when he 
 thought he was face to face with death. 
 
 I turned the pages of my book, but I felt that I could 
 read no more. I was like a man lost and groping in the 
 darkness who suddenly comes upon a blind wall and can 
 turn neither to the right hand nor the left. There 
 seemed to be no hope for me anywhere, and yet the dis- 
 tant perfume of life and love alas ! no longer mine 
 was inexpressibly dear and sweet to me. I had only be- 
 gun to taste of the cup when it had been dashed from my 
 hand. And yet at that moment I made up my mind to 
 face the future with courage and resolution, and if I was 
 indeed to die then to go out of life like a gentleman and 
 a Christian in charity and at peace with all mankind. 
 
 The hours that I spent this evening alone were certainly 
 unpleasant, but I am sure they were not unprofitable and 
 they have since exerted a silent influence on my life and 
 character. It is not necessary that I should carry you into 
 all the secret chambers of my thoughts, but when I rose up 
 I felt like a man who had gained a new access of strength 
 from some hidden source and who feels that after all death 
 is not the worst thing that life has power to bring us. 
 
 I lay down in my berth without divesting myself of my 
 clothes for I thought there was no possibility of my fall- 
 ing asleep. For a minute or two I lay listening to the 
 swish of the sea against the Swallow's sides, the straining 
 of beams and the creaking of blocks for a minute or two 
 and then quite in an instant I fell into the deepest, 
 sweetest and most dreamless sleep I ever enjoyed in my 
 life. It was not late when I retired to bed and I must
 
 324 HERONFORD 
 
 have slept for many hours many hours, for the sun had 
 dawned when I awakened in the grey cold light. 
 
 I sat up with a sudden start j for the moment I was all 
 abroad. Where was I ? How had I come here ? What 
 sound was it that had awakened me and still echoed in my 
 ears ? I sat up and listened. In an instant I remembered 
 everything. The wind had come at last for my cabin 
 was now at an angle and I felt the Swallow slipping 
 through the seas like a thing alive. But the sound a 
 crash like the headlong ruin of a falling tree ? and then it 
 came again, but now I was awake and in a moment I 
 knew its meaning. I leaped hastily from my bed and sprang 
 to the door. The moment that Captain Slingsby was look- 
 ing for had arrived and the Spitfire had fired her first sa- 
 lute. Oh ! I knew by instinct the sound that tore asunder 
 the silence of the dull grey morning with its reverberat- 
 ing thunder. And it was not distant but near at hand. 
 
 I dashed through the empty cabin without waiting to 
 think, and sprang up the companion-way to the entire 
 disregard of my neck in my blind haste. When I got 
 upon the deck I found it was blowing freshly, a cold, 
 steady wind though the ragged mist still lay in blurred 
 masses to the eastward where the newly risen sun glowed 
 like a dull red fire. The Swallow had every inch of 
 canvas set and was laying down her shapely bows to the 
 leaping waters that hissed round her. The entire crew 
 were lying under the bulwarks all but the captain, who 
 stood at the tiller bareheaded with his long fair hair tossed 
 by the wind and such a look in his eyes as I shall never 
 forget ; his mouth was open and showed his white teeth ; 
 his cheeks were flushed but now with no unnatural tints ;
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 325 
 
 his frail, diminutive figure swayed with every movement of 
 the schooner. Yet even at the moment I felt that his was 
 the soul that inspired the flying vessel and that all de- 
 pended on his indomitable will and fearless courage. 
 
 The shore was not now in sight, but about four hundred 
 yards away on the weather beam and I saw it with a leap- 
 ing of my heart there rose a ghostly fabric of canvas 
 looming through the thin mist. Captain Claude never 
 turned his head toward his passing foe but kept his eyes 
 fixed on the drawing sails. But the sight of the brig fasci- 
 nated me. Every moment she seemed to me to be draw- 
 ing nearer and nearer, and every moment I watched to see 
 the spurt of fire lighting up the greyness of the haze. 
 For a time I could not withdraw my eyes ; and then I 
 saw the flash of another gun ; I heard the hissing of the 
 iron messenger, and the green water was tossed into 
 white foam a few yards astern. Captain Claude turned 
 his head for the first time, and laughed pleasantly. 
 
 " He has got our range now," he cried. " He means 
 business, Mr. Peacocke." 
 
 " I am afraid he does, sir," answered the mate, who 
 was crouched near where the captain stood, " and he has 
 the legs of us." 
 
 " And the body and the head, but not the heart, Mr. 
 Peacocke. They won't say we did not die game. And 
 now, sir, we must not let him have it all his own way. See 
 what you can do with the carronade. You can take your 
 time ; there is no hurry for we have all eternity before us." 
 
 The mate made no response, but rose to his height and 
 it is wonderful how trivial incidents impress the memory 
 stopping to spit contemptuously over the bulwark, 
 lounged slowly forward. I saw from where I stood a
 
 326 HERONFORD 
 
 little crowd gathered round the gun and the tarpaulin cov- 
 ering withdrawn, and then one ran to the galley and 
 presently returned with a light in his hand. Captain Claude 
 put down his helm and altered the schooner's course. 
 
 " Don't fail to give them our compliments, Mr. Pea- 
 cocke," he shouted. " Now, old sure and steady." 
 
 Almost simultaneously came the deafening roar of the 
 gun and the shock that shook the Swallow from stem to 
 stern and for a moment seemed to stop her flight. 
 
 The captain had turned his head a little to watch the 
 effect of the shot and then he waved his hand delightedly. 
 
 " Hulled by the living thunder ! Try him again my 
 prince of Trojans. Never mind his blank body but show 
 us the daylight through those cursed long spars of his. Ah ! 
 good-morning, Mr. Cassilis. You will be in at the death 
 after all. 'Tis a fair hunting morning, and you are not 
 going to Havre this cruise. Ho ! ho ! we are booked for a 
 longer voyage the dismal Acheron and the lonely Styx. 
 What do you think of Claude Slingsby as a prophet now ? " 
 
 " Upon my word I think you are mad," I said bluntly. 
 
 " This seems to me a midsummer folly." 
 
 At this moment the Spitfire had answered the Swal- 
 low's gun, and a great, ragged hole had been torn in the 
 mainsail almost above my head. 
 
 The captain glanced coolly at the sail. 
 
 " This is growing pleasant. I avow they are most 
 pressing in their attentions. A little lower, Mr. Cassilis, 
 and you would have solved the great mystery. Mad ! 
 You think I am mad ? Very well, sir. Upon my honour 
 I believe you are not very far wrong, but I am sorry we 
 have not time to discuss the subject fully. Now, Mr. 
 Peacocke, we shall try our luck again if you please, and
 
 CAPTAIN CLAUDE'S EXIT 327 
 
 be to them. By the immortal gods we'll weather 
 
 them yet." 
 
 The effect of the Swallow's last discharge was plainly 
 seen. The Spitfiris topmast had been shot away, and 
 hung a ruin of ropes and canvas, while almost at the same 
 moment we glided into a thick belt of fog that completely 
 hid her from our view. Captain Claude gave a little cry 
 of delight and again altered the Swallow's course. The 
 mist was so close about us that I could not even see the 
 schooner's bow, and the wind was still blowing freshly. 
 
 " If it holds," cried Captain Claude joyfully, " we'll 
 sail them round this glorious world of God. Give us an 
 hour of this and they won't catch us in a century. How. 
 do you make Dunstan's holy light, Mr. Peacocke ? " 
 
 " South by south-west, captain," said the mate bending 
 over the compass. " I wish they would give us another 
 gun." 
 
 " To be sure you do, my gentle Peacocke, but Sey- 
 mour's not such a fool as to set our course for us. Keep 
 the men quiet forward, and listen with all your ears for 
 the dropping of a pin on the starboard side. If the fog 
 holds thick enough I am going to teach them a lesson 
 they'll never forget in their lives if the fog don't hold, 
 do you know what will happen, Mr. Cassilis ? " 
 
 " I think I know," I said. 
 
 " They'll blow us out of the water, and then hey for the 
 mermaids and their combs of gold ! That's the truth of 
 it. I think a couple of cable lengths would draw us slap 
 aboard them now. Ah ! did ye hear anything ? " 
 
 But I heard nothing. The fog hung thick and cold 
 about us ; the Swallow like a leaping greyhound, shoul- 
 dered her way through the freshening sea, and Captain
 
 328 HERONFORD 
 
 Claude stood erect with his head thrown forward listen- 
 ing for every noise. The minutes seemed to me to pass 
 like hours, and there was no change. The only sound 
 that I could hear was the leaping of the waves round the 
 bow, and the swish of the heavy sea. The men never 
 moved or spoke where they leaned over the bulwarks 
 listening and watching. I felt my heart beating with the 
 excitement, and I could hardly breathe. Was it ten min- 
 utes or ten hours that had passed in this way ? Once I 
 thought I heard the sound of creaking spars and of a 
 chain rattling, but I may have been mistaken for Cap- 
 tain Claude neither moved nor spoke. Then the mist 
 began to lighten, for I could see clearly from one end of 
 the Swallow to the other. 
 
 The next few minutes are now in my memory like a 
 dream. The fog had changed into wreaths of writhing 
 mist ; the round, red sun flashed out above the bows, and 
 suddenly bearing down upon us loomed the towering 
 fabric of a noble ship. 
 
 " Steady my lads all ! " cried the captain. " Ready 
 with the gun, Mr. Peacocke ? " 
 
 And then I heard a voice hailing us, a clear, ringing 
 voice that spoke above the sudden clamour. 
 
 " Surrender, you fool ! or I'll send you all to the bottom." 
 
 " Surrender be damned ! " cried the captain. " Sink us 
 if you can, you infernal son of a sea-cook. Now Mr. " 
 
 But the words were never finished. There was a sudden 
 crash, a jagged flash of dazzling flame, and the reverbera- 
 tion of ten thousand thunders. I was caught by the 
 throat and whirled into space like an eddying straw, 
 stunned and crushed and choked. But then there was a 
 great, silent darkness and I remembered nothing more.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 
 
 WHEN I came back to consciousness there was a grey, 
 wavering light in the little cabin where I lay. At first I 
 thought I was lying in my own bed at Heronford, and it 
 was a long time before I could piece the' fragments of 
 my mind together and think collectedly. Then gradually 
 and little by little the stray gleams of memory brightened 
 and widened, and I began to remember what had hap- 
 pened. I was still on board the Swallow, and the steady, 
 swinging motion that I felt was the movement of the 
 vessel. 
 
 After all Captain Claude had eluded the imminent peril 
 with which he was menaced when I was struck down, and 
 I was still his prisoner. His dexterity and courage had 
 stood him in good stead, and he had escaped where escape 
 had seemed impossible. My own position was un- 
 changed. The hopes faint as they were that I had of 
 the Spitfire's coming had ended in nothing the last 
 chance of rescue had disappeared. 
 
 I tried to raise my arm, but I found that I was unable, 
 and my head was racked with an intolerable pain. I re- 
 membered now I had been wounded by the falling of a 
 spar when the mast had gone by the board. That last 
 scene rose vividly before my eyes the great grey mass 
 
 3 2 9
 
 330 HERONFORD 
 
 lifting itself out of the waters, the swift leap of flame, and 
 the hopeless ruin of the Swallow's deck. And yet we 
 had escaped ! It seemed impossible, and as I tried to 
 fancy how it happened, the darkness again overtook me 
 and I lost myself among the shadows. 
 
 I was awakened by the sound of voices, and I opened 
 my eyes dreamily. The pain in my head no longer 
 troubled me, and my intolerable thirst was gone. At 
 first the voices sounded as if from an infinite distance, and 
 I had no curiosity to hear the words or know who were 
 the speakers. I was drowsy and contented and had no 
 desire to be disturbed. But gradually the voices became 
 more distinct, and as I listened a feeling of interest grew 
 in me. 
 
 " The seven sleepers of Ephesus were nothing to this 
 young gentleman," said a mellow voice with a clink of 
 laughter in it. " He's been asleep two days by the round 
 face ov Apollo, and Venus her sweet self couldn't get a 
 word out ov him. But the fever's gone, glory to God, 
 an' we've rejuced the inflammation to the natural condi- 
 tion entirely. It'll be his head that's troublin' him now." 
 
 " And the salt water, doctor. He had a good dose 
 of that." 
 
 " The salt water never hurt anybody yet unless by way 
 ov the sea-sickness, an' that used to play the juice with 
 meself. Ah ! me good sir, good morning. It's meself is 
 glad to see you so fresh and smiling after all." 
 
 " Where am I ? " I said. 
 
 " Afther a little nap of twenty-four hours and three- 
 quarters, be the same more or less, you find yourself on 
 board his Majesty's brig Spitfire, under the treatment ov
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 331 
 
 a poor surgeon's mate by name ov O'Brien, and, please 
 God, there's no harm done in the world." 
 
 The news wakened me into a new life. In a moment 
 I was wide awake, and a great rush of joy filled my heart. 
 
 " The Spitfire ! " I cried. 
 
 " Ay, sir, that's the name of this blessed old hulk, 
 though I'm told by all accounts you have some reason to 
 give thanks to the same, and it's not for me to take away 
 her character." 
 
 " You are telling me the truth ? " 
 
 " I was born in Ireland, me dear boy, and never told 
 a lie since I was a baby but wance, and that was an ac- 
 cident. You'll see for yourself in a day or two." 
 
 " And the Swallow and Captain Slingsby I thought " 
 
 " A dream, an ugly, good for nothing dream. I've 
 dreamt about them meself. I dreamt we met the little 
 devil on Tuesday morning, and more by good luck than 
 good guidance we gave him a belly full. Never a man 
 wanted it more and deserved it better. He's the only 
 man in the world, and I'm a good Christian, that I'd have 
 seen hanged with a heart and a half. Dream away, sir, 
 and dream that the Swallow has carried her last cask of 
 brandy it was the beautiful stuff by all accounts and 
 that the little rogue in the blue coat will never stick a 
 knife in the back of an honest man again. For they 
 went down together, and he cheated the gallows after all. 
 And now let me see your arm, and I'll try and make you 
 a little more comfortable." 
 
 " Ah ! I see I have been hurt." 
 
 " You have the luck of St. Patrick's great aunt, who 
 had a saint for her nephew. What's a little knock on the
 
 332 HERONFORD 
 
 head, a broken arm, and an infinitesimal derangement of 
 the nervous system when you might have been in pur- 
 gatory these two days past. Let me tell you, Mr. Cas- 
 silis, there were only three ov you saved, and the other 
 two by the same token will be hanged because they hadn't 
 the luck to be drowned." 
 
 But, indeed, I felt that I could not be too thankful for 
 my good fortune, and that I could never be sufficiently 
 grateful to that merciful Providence which had snatched 
 me from death and a fate still more awful. Only two 
 others and myself Peacocke was one of them had es- 
 caped the general destruction which had overtaken every 
 soul on board the Swallow^ and I had been picked up 
 clinging to a floating spar dead rather than alive. But 
 indeed, as I learned, it was only by the merest accident 
 that the Spitfire had arrived upon the scene at all, and I 
 heard with astonishment that this happy event was due 
 to the captain having received the afternoon before a note 
 signed by my friend, Mr. Stone, of whose existence he 
 had never heard, and whose communication he at first 
 regarded with suspicion. At first, knowing Captain 
 Slingsby's way, he had thought it only another ruse, and 
 had made up his mind to pay no further attention to it, 
 but at the last moment he had altered his resolution and 
 got a fortunate slant of wind northward. 
 
 Certainly I was now overpowered with kindness. Cap- 
 tain Seymour and the surgeon were continually at my 
 bedside, and the latter promised that in a few days I 
 should be on my feet again, while the former declared 
 by this time he had heard a good deal of my story that 
 I should be landed nowhere but in Carnforth Bay. You
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 333 
 
 can imagine how eagerly I looked forward to that event, 
 and to the moment when I should rap at the cottage door 
 and take my sweet love again in my arms, for I felt like 
 one newly risen from the dead ; I had been lifted out of 
 the blankest despair ; I was about to be restored to love 
 and happiness. I pictured over and over again the look 
 upon my sweetheart's face, and I heard her cry of joy as 
 she flung her arms about my neck and hid her face on my 
 breast. It seemed too great happiness to be real, and 
 sometimes I began to think that I was dreaming again. 
 
 Upon the subject of Captain Claude, Seymour and I 
 could never agree. Though he had intended to do me a 
 great wrong he had treated me not unkindly, and I had 
 imagined that he had once or twice displayed the vestiges 
 of a better nature. But the captain of the Spitfire, who 
 had known him for some years, had not a word to say in 
 his favour, and certainly if all the stories I heard were 
 true, I had reason to congratulate myself upon my treat- 
 ment. It appeared that he had been born of a good 
 Devonshire family, and had originally been in the royal 
 service. He had been dismissed his ship and had dis- 
 appeared report said he had tried his fortune on the 
 Spanish main but at any rate he was not heard of for 
 a good many years. Then he reappeared in London, 
 where he swaggered for some time as a man of fashion, 
 until he was involved in a serious murder in a Covent 
 Garden coffee-house, and, being tried upon the capital 
 charge, narrowly escaped with his life. 
 
 It was after this he became the owner or part-owner of 
 the Swallow, and for six years he had laughed at all at- 
 tempts to capture him. There was no free trader on the
 
 334 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 coast so daring as himself; he fought with a rope round 
 his neck, and occasionally added piracy to his other avo- 
 cations. He was as careless of his own life as he was of 
 the lives of his companions, and seemed as greedy of 
 danger as if he loved it for its own sake. The long list 
 of crimes of which he was accused and of some of them 
 he was probably guilty found me lost in wonder that a 
 body so frail and slight could have been animated by so 
 much energy, for he never seemed to have rested. But 
 of that other side of his nature, with its sentiment and 
 softness, no one seemed to have the least suspicion, and 
 I found it difficult to get credit for my narrative. Even 
 yet I cannot tell what he was whether a good man gone 
 wholly wrong, or a bad man with a distorted and glim- 
 mering perception of better things. 
 
 The surgeon found me an excellent patient, and in a 
 day or two I began to mend rapidly ; indeed, on the third 
 day I had recovered so far that I sat up for a little while 
 and made no doubt that I should get ashore by the end 
 of the week. I had written a letter to Mr. Stone and 
 another to Victory, but from neither had I yet had a re- 
 ply. Both letters were very short, and merely assured 
 them of my safety, but in Mr. Stone's letter I added the 
 request, knowing his energetic nature, that he would take 
 no steps in regard to the punishment of my enemies un- 
 til I had first communicated with him. Upon this mat- 
 ter I had not made up my mind, though I am afraid I 
 am like most other men who do not care to suffer serious 
 injury without retaliation. 
 
 But there was another thought working in my mind. I 
 now held the lives of Mr. Weston and his accomplice in
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 335 
 
 the hollow of my hand, and it occurred to me that I could 
 now make that important circumstance the means of ob- 
 taining possession of the papers of which I had been 
 robbed. I felt sure that when he was driven with his back 
 to the wall, Weston would no more hesitate regarding the 
 sacrifice of his confederate than he had hesitated to de- 
 stroy myself. How this desirable end was to be accom- 
 plished I did not yet see clearly, but I was pretty sure that 
 with Stone's assistance I should be able to attain it. It 
 would be no great advantage to me to punish the offend- 
 ers I am afraid in any case I would never have made a 
 persecutor and on the other hand there might be an 
 enormous gain to be derived from present forbearance. I 
 was afraid that Mr. Stone, by his excessive zeal, might 
 precipitate the catastrophe, and I couched my request to 
 him in language as strong as I could command, and ob- 
 scurely hinted at the urgency of the cause. 
 
 I think there was reason in this view, but you will see 
 in a moment that it never became necessary for me to 
 pursue it, and that that retributive Providence which 
 follows the footsteps of the wrongdoer wrought for me, 
 and administered the last justice in its own inscrutable 
 way. 
 
 It was two days after this that I came upon deck for the 
 first time, and though I still felt a little distressed and 
 shaken, I was able to walk about with the help of my kind 
 friend the surgeon's arm, and felt that I was no longer an 
 invalid. Still, it did not require very much to tire me, and 
 after the lapse of a quarter of an hour I was very glad to 
 return to Captain Seymour's cabin, where I had sat every 
 afternoon for the last three days. Here, with the stern
 
 336 HERONFORD 
 
 windows open, and the warm autumnal air blowing sweetly 
 through, I was able the captain having gone ashore on 
 some business to indulge in quiet meditation, with oc- 
 casional snatches of refreshing slumber. I must have 
 slept longer and more deeply than I imagined. I never 
 heard the captain's gig coming alongside, I never heard 
 the door of the cabin thrown open nor the familiar ring 
 upon the floor ; but I was first awakened by the call of a 
 loud and cheerful voice 
 
 11 Come aboard at last, Jack, my boy." 
 
 I opened my eyes with a start, and looking up saw 
 Captain Blythe standing beside me with both his honest 
 hands held out to me and a look of joy written on his 
 face. For the moment neither of us said another word, 
 but he caught hold of my outstretched hands and pressed 
 them in an eloquent silence. 
 
 He drew out his red silk handkerchief and rubbed his 
 forehead, and blew his nose vehemently. Then he looked 
 at me with misty eyes. 
 
 " You have had the devil's own time, my lad," he said 
 at last with a sympathetic ring in his voice. 
 
 It was so like an echo of the sweet, old days that I 
 could not help laughing boisterously. 
 
 " I have had my adventures ashore and afloat, sir," I 
 said ; " as many as would fill a book. But I am as a man 
 famished, and you must tell me the news first. Is all 
 
 well ? How is Victory and my Lord Heron ford ? 
 
 Tell me everything." 
 
 " All goes cheerily, Jack, now that we have got you 
 safe in port. Lord, man, what a fright you gave us to be 
 sure ! And I never could have thought that Weston
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 337 
 
 would have played the rogue as he did. I'll tell you the 
 
 truth, Jack, I will, by . I thought at first you had 
 
 slipped your cable and taken French leave of us in the 
 dark. I have been thinking since I could never look you 
 in the face again." 
 
 " Never fear, sir," I said, " we will soon forget that. 
 But Victory ? " 
 
 "There is no wonder in the world like a woman," said 
 the captain profoundly. " The little baggage is a witch, 
 and knew everything as if she had read it in a newspaper. 
 I can't tell how she found it out, but there it was as 
 plain sailing as if it had been laid down on a chart. When 
 the news first came she was under sail in two minutes, 
 and where do you think I found myself? " 
 
 " I think I can guess, sir. I remember we spoke of 
 Mr. Stone." 
 
 " Not by a long way. Under the guns of Madam 
 Cassilis, and let me tell you the storming of Carthagena 
 was nothing to that. It was after that we saw Stone, 
 and I have had enough of Stone to satisfy me for the rest 
 of my life." 
 
 " But he is a very honest man," said I. 
 
 " There is very little honesty goes to the making of a 
 lawyer, but I admit that his port is the very best I ever 
 tasted in my life, and I could almost, God forgive me, 
 forget his calling for its sake. I have eaten and drunk 
 Stone for a week, but he's your good friend, Jack, and 
 I wish him no ill." 
 
 " I am sure you do not," I said smiling. 
 
 "No, no, don't mistake me. I admit he ruffled me ; he 
 trod on my toes, and kept driving me out of my course,
 
 338 HERONFORD 
 
 but I don't cherish any feeling about him not a grain. 
 I don't like a man who cries c pooh, pooh,' at every turn, 
 but I can forgive him if his heart's sound. And the little 
 girl and he seemed to understand each other. At any 
 rate, they ran you straight home to Langston." 
 
 " By that time I had gone," I said. 
 
 The captain nodded. 
 
 " It's a very strange story," he said, " and the strangest 
 part to my mind is in the end of it. I did you a terrible 
 wrong, my lad, and I am not sure that I can ever forgive 
 myself for it. You see I had begun to doubt you well 
 hardly that but as bad and Weston's tales had set me 
 thinking, and I am sure that William Cassilis was dead. 
 I thought you knew something about it, and I didn't like 
 it it was a bad business, and I didn't see my way clear. 
 Well, well, when you disappeared I own I thought for a 
 while there might be something in it, Jack. I wouldn't 
 speak evil of the dead if I could help it, but when I think 
 of it that man's villainy takes away my breath." 
 
 " The dead ! " I cried. " But you know that William 
 Cassilis is as much alive as you or I." 
 
 Captain Blythe looked at me in momentary wonder, 
 and then he went on. 
 
 " I was forgetting that you had no news. It is a strange 
 story, Jack. You are sure you can bear to hear it ? " 
 
 " I can bear anything," I cried, " but this suspense. 
 What have you to tell me ? " 
 
 " We were too late," said the captain solemnly, " to be 
 of any use to you, but we were in time enough to see the 
 corpse of William Cassilis sent home to Heronford." 
 
 " What ! " I cried rising slowly to my feet.
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 339 
 
 " That was Mr. Stone's doing, and I suppose he did it 
 wisely. We had got a search warrant or some document 
 of that kind, for Victory had found a man out of West- 
 on's stables who was ready to depose on oath that you 
 were in the house. Well, we lost no time, but you were 
 gone, and a just God had dealt out his punishment before 
 we got there. You never knew that Weston had a 
 younger brother a poor, half-witted creature whom he 
 kept closed up and treated, I'm told, well enough. It 
 seems while William Cassilis was in Langston he never 
 would let the poor idiot alone, but tormented and worried 
 him as he did every living creature that came in his way. 
 Once or twice Archie that was his name had turned 
 on him and Weston was afraid there might be mischief 
 between them, for he had left orders that he was to be 
 looked after. I suppose they had set a bad watch or none. 
 At any rate they found the part of the house where Cas- 
 silis was lodged all in a blaze and the idiot and him there 
 together. They couldn't reach them, and I'm told it was 
 an awful sight. They fought together with the flames 
 roaring behind them, they fought on the window, and 
 they fought on the stone coping ; but the idiot never let 
 go his hold, and they came crashing to the ground to- 
 gether." 
 
 " Both dead ? " I asked breathless, thinking of poor 
 Archie's fears and threats. 
 
 " The poor innocent was breathing, but William Cas- 
 silis never moved or spoke again his neck was broken 
 and he was dead. Stone thought, for your sake and his 
 brother's, the world should know all about it, and he was 
 buried yesterday morning in Heronford churchyard."
 
 340 HERONFORD 
 
 " And my lord does he know ? " I asked. 
 
 " He knows nothing, I'm told. They say he may live 
 for twelve months, but his mind is gone and he's a mere 
 child. He was a fine man, was Lord Heronford : I never 
 saw a handsomer, but I suppose it was this trouble has 
 told upon him. All the world knows now that we did 
 him a terrible wrong." 
 
 I had never seen my good captain so eloquent or so ex- 
 cited, and he had not yet half finished his narrative ; but 
 the tidings I had already heard was too much for me and 
 I believe I fainted. At any rate the surgeon who was 
 hastily summoned induced my visitor to retire, and I was 
 left alone with my news. You can easily understand that 
 it was a long time before I could fully realise it. It had 
 come so suddenly and unexpectedly ; it was so horrible in 
 its details, that my mind at first could hardly grasp it. The 
 actual fact of that terrible death-struggle filled me with 
 horror. It almost softened my feelings toward the wretched 
 man who had pursued me with malignant hatred, and had 
 inflicted upon me a wrong so grevious. I could easily 
 imagine what had happened. I remembered with what 
 hatred Archie had watched his tormentor, and had waited 
 for an opportunity of retaliation. The animal ferocity 
 of the imbecile had been awakened, and he had planned 
 his revenge with instinctive cunning and certainty. I 
 pictured again and again that awful scene, and I could not 
 help feeling that William Cassilis had brought about his 
 own punishment and prepared his own end. And when 
 the first sharp edge of horror had become dulled, I thought 
 of my dear love who had never lost faith in me, who 
 had never wavered or doubted, and who with all a
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 341 
 
 woman's splendid heart and courage had laboured toward 
 my safety. My dear blind old captain might doubt, but 
 Victory had shown herself a true woman to the end. 
 Heaven bless those dear eyes that saw so clearly. 
 Heaven shield that tender heart that beat so faithfully. 
 
 It was nearly a week after this that the chaise I had 
 taken at Colehaven deposited me at Heronford. I must 
 admit that I was touched by my welcome for I had never 
 dreamed that I had come so near the hearts of my peo- 
 ple. They showed their delight in a hundred ways, and 
 had I not prevented it would have taken the horses from 
 the carriage and drawn me in triumph to the door. I 
 found then that many trivial nameless acts that I had 
 done were remembered, and if old Transome blubbered 
 upon my shoulder and spoilt my coat, I am sure I for- 
 gave him with all my heart and almost hugged him in 
 return. I felt that I was indeed again among my friends, 
 and their kindly feelings found a responsive echo in my 
 own breast and filled my own heart. But this was not 
 the only surprise in store for me ; there was another still 
 greater and more startling. Madam Cassilis was standing 
 on the steps to receive me clad in deep mourning. I 
 noticed that her face was drawn and aged, and perhaps 
 she had lost a little, but not much, of her stateliness. 
 But I thought notwithstanding her outward coldness of 
 manner that her eyes were not unfriendly, and certainly 
 she had never before addressed me in the same tone and 
 language. 
 
 " You are welcome home, Mr. Cassilis." 
 She held out her hand to me, and permitted it to remain 
 in mine perhaps a moment or more longer than was neces-
 
 342 HERONFORD 
 
 sary. Then our eyes met and at the altered look in them 
 I started with a sudden thought. Had she learned ? Had 
 my lord told her ? But in an instant I knew that was 
 impossible. Then she turned in her old hard manner. 
 
 " I know you are ill and tired, I will not detain you, 
 but I have a duty to discharge, and shall not keep you 
 long. Can you spare me a moment ? " 
 
 " Certainly," I said. " I have ceased to feel tired 
 since I entered the gates." 
 
 " Yes, they are glad to see you," she said with a con- 
 temptuous shrug. 
 
 I remembered the last time I had stood in madam's 
 boudoir, and the hard and, as I then thought, unfeeling 
 manner in which she had treated me. But now a won- 
 derful change had taken place in her. 
 
 I am sure she was not sorry to see me; there was not 
 the faintest trace of condescension in her manner ; she 
 regarded me as an equal, and, I thought, seemed almost 
 afraid of me. She turned round and faced me with her 
 hands resting upon the table behind her. 
 
 " You have always thought me a hard woman," she 
 said, slowly. 
 
 I was silent. 
 
 " Yes, a hard woman, and perhaps an unjust one." 
 
 u I do not know," I said. " I speak honestly ; I have 
 always thought you acted from a sense of duty." 
 
 " Yet one may do that and act wrongly." 
 
 "It has happened before," I said. 
 
 " It has happened now," she answered quickly. 
 "John Cassilis, I never thought I should live to beg 
 your pardon. Yet it has come to that, and I have the
 
 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE JOURNEY 343 
 
 pride left to humble myself before you. I beg your 
 pardon with all my heart." 
 
 " For what reason ? " I said, almost doubting my ears. 
 
 " Because," she cried, and I can hear her speak the 
 words yet, " it is the duty of the women of Heronford 
 to honour the head of the house. Wait," she went on, 
 " you will know in a moment. My brother William 
 was not a good man, and I am sure he intended to do 
 you a great wrong. But in death he made amends for 
 the injury he would have done, and this was found upon 
 him when he was brought here. You are the proper 
 guardian of these papers and the secret they contain." 
 
 She placed the little packet in my hands and I knew 
 it in an instant. It seemed never to have been opened, 
 but was tied with the same string as I had last seen it. 
 She watched me as I held it before me. 
 
 " Open it," she cried impatiently. " Open it and read." 
 
 " I need not do that," I said. " I have seen it before ; 
 I know the contents." 
 
 " Then you knew " 
 
 " Yes, madam, I knew everything." 
 
 " And you never spoke." 
 
 " The secret was not mine alone." 
 
 " I think," she said, and I knew how much it cost 
 her to speak the words, " there are good days in store for 
 Heronford. Will you let me take you to your father's 
 room ? " 
 
 Many years lie between that time and this many 
 happy years that love has filled with music and hallowed 
 with the richest blessings. I have seen my sons grow 
 up round me and heard the prattle of my grandchildren
 
 344 
 
 HERONFORD 
 
 filling this old house with joyous echoes. And the old 
 lady who sits yonder with little Ally's golden head upon 
 her knee her head is as white as my own, and she 
 moves out into the sunshine when it is warm against the 
 southern wall, but I can still see in her eyes the spring- 
 time and sweetness of a love that time has never weak- 
 ened, and death will only make the stronger. Ah ! My 
 Lady Heronford, I can still hear the laughter of the old 
 Victory, and see the gay and cheerful courage that shone 
 in the eyes of my brave old captain's daughter. Him 
 we buried full of age and honours, but I think his fight- 
 ing spirit is not dead, for there is another Ely the of his 
 blood and mine who has heard the thunders of Trafalgar, 
 and saw the great captain fall in his hour of victory. I 
 have another neighbour now in Langston Priory. Mr. 
 Weston has long since gone to his own place, and his 
 deeds have followed him. For myself I let him go his 
 own way, and if I did not forget, at least I forgave him 
 the wrongs he did me ; and he met his final punishment, 
 as often happens in this world, not at my hands, but his 
 own. 
 
 THE END.
 
 A.J.HERZ&BRO. 
 
 Booksellers, .Newsdealer 
 
 and Slutli.ners. 
 Mail Order* Solicited. 
 
 Waco, Tex.
 
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