Love’s Bitterest Cup

To explain the mysterious letter written by Elfrida Force to her housekeeper, we must condense the family history of the last three years, which had passed without 33any incident worth recording, and bring it up to the time when events full of importance for good or evil followed each other in rapid succession.

Mr. Force, on removing his family to Washington, in the month of February three years before, took apartments in one of the best hotels for himself, his wife, and their eldest daughter, while he placed his two younger daughters and his little ward at a first-class boarding school.

The Forces had some friends and acquaintances in the city, and to these they sent cards, which were promptly honored by calls.

For the sake of Odalite, Mrs. Force chose to enter the gay society for which she herself had little heart.

The trousseau prepared for the girl’s luckless, broken marriage came well into use as an elegant outfit for the fashionable season in the gay capital.

Mr. Force escorted his wife and daughter to all the receptions, concerts, balls and dinners to which they were invited, and everywhere he felt pride and pleasure in the general admiration bestowed upon his beautiful wife and their lovely daughter.

But the instinct of caste was strong in the breast of Elfrida Force. She and her daughter were recipients of many elegant entertainments, and she wished to reciprocate, but could not do so while living at a hotel.

His wife’s wishes, joined to his own longing for the freedom of domestic life, added zeal to Abel Force’s quest of a house.

But it was at the end of the session of Congress before his desire was gratified. Then a United States senator, whose term of office had expired, offered his handsome and elegantly furnished house for rent.

Mr. and Mrs. Force inspected the premises, and leased them for three years.

They did not wish to go in at once, as the season was at an end, and the summer at hand.

34But as soon as the retiring statesman and his family had vacated the house Mr. Force sent in a squad of housecleaners to prepare the place for the new tenants.

When the schools closed for the long summer vacation he gave little Rosemary Hedge into the hands of Miss Grandiere, who had come to Washington to fetch her home, and with his wife and three daughters left the city for an extensive summer tour.

After three months of varied travel the family returned to Washington in September, and took possession of the beautiful town house, near the P Street circle, in the northwest section of the city.

Then they replaced their daughters and their little ward at the same school—not as boarders, however, but as day pupils, for Mr. and Mrs. Force wished to have their girls as much as possible under their own care, believing home education to be the most influential for good—or for evil—of all possible training.

When Congress met, and the season began, Mrs. Force took the lead by giving a magnificent ball, to which all the beauty, fashion, wealth and celebrity of the national capital were invited, to which they nearly all came.

The ball was a splendid success.

The beautiful Elfrida Force became an acknowledged queen of society, and her lovely young daughter was the belle of the season.

Had no one in the city then heard of her disastrous wedding broken up at the altar?

Not a soul had heard of it. Not one of those friends and acquaintances of Mrs. Force whom she had met in Washington, for, be it remembered, she had written to no one of her daughter’s approaching marriage, and had bid to the wedding only the nearest neighbors and oldest friends of her family.

Odalite was saved this unmerited humiliation, at least—though many who admired the beautiful girl wondered 35that the lovely, dark eyes never sparkled, the sweet lips never smiled.

In this season she had several “eligible” offers of marriage—one from a young officer in the army; another from a middle-aged banker; another from an aged cabinet minister; a fourth from a foreign secretary of legation; a fifth from a distinguished lawyer; a sixth from a brilliant congressman; a seventh from a fashionable preacher; and so on and so on.

All these were declined with courtesy.

Odalite took very little pleasure in the gay life of Washington, and very little pride in her conquests.

Her sole delight was in Le’s letters, which came to her under cover to her mother; but were read and enjoyed by the whole family.

Le certainly was a faithful servant of the great republic, and never neglected his duty; but yet his “most chiefest occupation” must have been writing to Odalite, for his letters came by every possible opportunity, and they were not only letters, but huge parcels of manuscript, containing the journal of his thoughts, feelings, hopes and purposes from day to day. And all these might have been summed in one word—“Odalite.”

She also sent letters as bulky and as frequently; and all that she wrote might have been condensed into a monosyllable—“Le.”

These parcels were always directed in the hand of her mother.

Ah! mother and daughter ever felt that the eyes of an implacable enemy were secretly watching them, so that they must be on their guard against surprise and treachery.

They suffered this fear, although they never heard one word from, or of, Angus Anglesea. He might be dead, living, or imprisoned, for aught they knew of his state, condition, or whereabouts.

In the distractions of society, however, they forgot 36their secret fears, for indeed they had no time for reflection. This was one of the gayest seasons ever known in the gay capital; reception, ball and concert followed ball, concert and reception in a dizzy round; and the Forces were seen at all! If they had purposely intended to make up for all the long years of seclusion at Mondreer they certainly and completely succeeded.

At the end of the season they took a rest; but they did not leave Washington until June, when the schools closed, and then they placed little Rosemary Hedge in the hands of Miss Grandiere, who came to the city to receive her, and they went to Canada for the summer.

As this first year passed, so passed the second and nearly the whole of the third.

It was in September of the third year that the monotony of winter society and summer travel was broken by something of vital interest to all their lives.

They had just returned to Washington; replaced their youngest daughters and their ward at school, and settled themselves, with their eldest daughter, in their town house, which had been renovated during their absence.

It was a season of repose coming between the summer travel and the winter’s dissipations. They were receiving no calls, making no visits, but just resting.

One morning the father, mother and daughter were seated in the back piazza which faced the west, and was therefore, on this warm morning in September, cool and shady. The piazza looked down upon a little back yard, such as city lots can afford. But every inch of the ground had been utilized, for a walk covered with an arbor of latticework and grapevines led down to a back gate and to the stables in the rear. On the right hand of this walk was a green plot, with a pear tree and a plum tree growing in the midst, and a border of gorgeous autumn flowers blooming all around. On the other side of the walk was another plot with a peach tree and an apple tree growing in the midst, and a border of 37roses all around. And the grapevine and the fruit trees were all in full fruition now, and supplied the dessert every day.

Mr., Mrs. and Miss Force were all seated in the pleasant Quaker rocking-chairs with which this back piazza was furnished.

Mr. Force had the morning paper in his hands and he was reading aloud to the two ladies, who were both engaged in crochet work, when the back door opened and a manservant came out and handed an enveloped newspaper to his master, saying:

“The postmaster has just left it, sir.”

“And nothing else?” inquired the gentleman.

“Nothing else, sir—only that.”

“Only a newspaper,” said Mr. Force, laying it down carelessly, without examination, as he resumed the Union and the article he had been engaged in reading.

No one felt the slightest interest in the paper that lay neglected on the little stand beside Mr. Force’s chair. Many newspapers came by mail, and but few of them were opened. Mr. Force went on with his reading, and Mrs. and Miss Force with their embroidery. And the neglected newspaper, with its tremendous news, lay there unnoticed and forgotten with the prospect of being thrown, unopened, into the dust barrel; which must certainly have been its fate, had not Odalite chanced to cast her eye upon it and to observe something unfamiliar in its style and character. In idle curiosity she took it up, looked at it, and gave a cry.

“What is it, my dear?” inquired her father, as Odalite, with trembling fingers, tore off the envelope and opened the paper.

38“It—it is—it is postmarked Angleton,” she faltered.

“Angleton! Give it to me!” peremptorily exclaimed Abel Force, reaching his hand and taking the sheet from his daughter, who yielded it up and then covered her eyes with her hands, while her father examined the paper and her mother looked on with breathless interest.

“Thank Heaven!” exclaimed Abel Force, as his eyes were riveted on a paragraph he had found there.

“What—what is it?” demanded Elfrida Force, in extreme anxiety, while Odalite uncovered her eyes, and gazed with eager look and lips apart.

“A scoundrel has gone to his account! The earth is rid of an incubus! Listen! This is the Angleton Advertiser of August 20th, and it contains a notice of the death of Angus Anglesea.”

“Anglesea—dead!” exclaimed mother and daughter, in a breath, and in tones that expressed almost every other emotion under the sun, except sorrow.

“Yes, dead and gone to—his desserts!” exclaimed Abel Force, triumphantly; but catching himself up short, before he ended in a word that must never be mentioned, under any circumstances. “Here is a notice of his death.”

“Read it,” said Mrs. Force, while Odalite looked the eager interest, which she did not express in words.

Abel Force read this paragraph at the head of the death list:

“Died.—On Monday, August 10th, at Anglewood Manor, in the forty-fourth year of his age, after a long and painful illness, which he bore with heroic patience and fortitude, Col. the Hon. Angus Anglesea.”

“Dead!” muttered Elfrida Force, thoughtfully.

“Dead!” echoed Odalite, gravely.

“Yes! dead and—doomed!” exclaimed Abel Force, catching himself up before he had used an inadmissible word.

39“Then, thank Heaven, I am free! Oh! I hope it was no sin to say that!” exclaimed Odalite.

Her father stared at her for a moment, and then said:

“My dear, you were always free!”

“I could not feel so while that man lived,” she said.

“Why, what claim could the husband of another woman set up on you?” demanded Mr. Force, in surprise.

“None whatever,” replied Elfrida Force, answering for her daughter; “but after all that she has gone through, it is perfectly natural that a delicate and sensitive girl, like Odalite, should have felt ill at ease so long as her artful and unscrupulous enemy lived, and should feel a sense of relief at his departure.”

“I suppose so,” said Abel Force, who was scanning the first page of the Angleton paper. “And I suppose, also, that none of us exactly share ‘the profound gloom’ which, according to this sheet, ‘has spread like an eclipse over all the land, on the death of her illustrious son.’ The leading article here is on the death of Anglesea, with a brief sketch of his life and career, and such a high eulogium as should only have been pronounced upon the memory of some illustrious hero, martyr, Christian, or philanthropist. But, then, this Angleton paper was, of course, his own organ, and in his own interests, and in those of his family, or it would never have committed itself to such fulsome flatteries, even of the dead, whom it seems lawful to praise and justifiable to overpraise.”

“Read it, Abel,” said Mrs. Force.

“Yes, do, papa, dear,” added Odalite.

Mr. Force read:

“THE GREAT SOLDIER OF INDIA IS NO MORE

“A profound gloom, a vast pall of darkness, like some ‘huge eclipse of sun and moon,’ has fallen upon 40the land at the death of her illustrious son. Col. the Hon. Angus Anglesea died yesterday at his manor of Anglewood.

“The Hon. Angus Anglesea was born at Anglewood Manor, on November 21, 181—. He entered Eton at the early age of twelve years and Oxford at seventeen. He graduated with the highest honors, at the age of twenty-two. He succeeded his father on December 23, 182—. His tastes led him to a military career, and he entered the army as cornet in the Honorable East India Company’s service, in his twenty-fifth year. His distinguished military talents, his heroism and gallantry, his invaluable services during the Indian campaign, are matters that have passed into national history; and become so familiar to all that it would be impertinent to attempt to recapitulate them here.

“Col. Anglesea married, firstly, on October 13, 184—, Lady Mary Merland, eldest daughter of the sixth Earl of Middlemoor; by whom he has one son, Alexander, born September 1, 184—, now at Eton. Her ladyship died August 31, 185—. Col. Anglesea married, secondly, December 20, 185—, Odalite, eldest daughter of Abel Force, Esq., of Mondreer, Maryland, United States, by Lady Elfrida Glennon, eldest daughter of the late Earl of Enderby, who survives him. There is no issue by the second marriage.”

Abel Force finished reading, dropped the paper and stared at his wife and daughter, who were also staring at him. All three seemed struck dumb with astonishment at the audacity of the last paragraph.

“Who is responsible for that?” demanded Mrs. Force, who was the first to find her voice.

“The reckless braggart who has gone to the devil, I suppose! No one else could be,” said Abel Force, indignantly.

41“You are right. No one but Anglesea could have been the originator of such a falsehood.”

“And here is no mention made at all of the real second marriage and of the real widow; whom, by the way, he must have married within a few weeks after the death of his wife. Yet! let us see! Great Heaven! unless there is a misprint, there has been an infamous crime committed, and a heinous wrong done to that Californian widow, whose marriage with Col. Anglesea was registered to have taken place on August 1, 185—, full six weeks before the death of Anglesea’s wife, which took place on August 25th! And in that case—yes, in that case the diabolical villain had the legal right, if not the moral right, to marry our daughter! Great Heaven! how imperfect are the laws of our highest civilization, when men have the legal right to do that which is morally wrong!”

“Oh! oh! I will never acknowledge the validity of that marriage ceremony! I will never call myself that man’s widow, or wear a thread of mourning for him!” exclaimed Odalite, who could be very brave now that her mother’s great enemy was dead, and her mother forever safe from his malignity.

“You need not, my dear. Nor need the poor Californian woman ever suspect that any darker wrong than the robbery of her money has been done her. Why, either, should we be so excited over this discovery? It is no new villainy that has come to light. It is simply that he really wronged the Californian widow instead of you. The man is dead. Let us not harbor malice against the dead. He can harm us no more,” said Abel, in his wish to soothe the excited feelings of his wife and daughter. But ah! he knew nothing of the greater cause those two unhappy ladies had had for their detestation of their deadly enemy.

42But now he was gone forever, and they were delivered from his deviltries. It was

that so deeply moved them both. All felt it, even Mr. Force, who soon arose and went out for a walk to reflect coolly over the news of the morning.

Elfrida and Odalite went into the house and tried to occupy themselves with the question of luncheon and other household matters, but they could not interest themselves in any work; they could think of nothing but of the blessed truth that a great burden had been lifted from their hearts, a great darkness had passed away from their minds.

Late in the afternoon Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary came in from school.

Odalite told them that Col. Anglesea was dead, and showed them the paper containing the notice of his death and the sketch of his life.

At first the children received the news in silent incredulity, to be succeeded by the reverential awe with which the young and happy hear of death and the grave.

Wynnette was the first to recover herself.

“Oh! Odalite, I am glad, for your sake, that you are freed from the incubus of that man’s life. I hope it is no sin to say this, for I cannot help feeling so,” she said.

“I hope the poor sinner truly repented of his iniquity and found grace even at the eleventh hour,” breathed the pitiful little Elva.

“I don’t know,” sighed quaint little Rosemary, folding her mites of hands with sad solemnity. “I don’t know. It is an awful risk for any one, more particularly for a man like Col. Anglesea.”

“‘The vilest sinner may return,’ you know,” pleaded Elva.

“Yes, he may, but he don’t often do it,” said Wynnette, putting in her word.

43“Let me read the notice of his death and the sketch of his life,” suggested Odalite, for she had only shown them the paper containing these articles.

“Yes, do, Odalite,” said Wynnette.

Odalite read the brief notice, and then she turned to the sketch and said:

“This is longer, and I need not read the whole of it, you know.”

“No. Just pick out the plums from the pudding. I never read the whole of anything. Life is too short,” said Wynnette.

The other two girls seemed to agree with her, and so Odalite began and read the highly inflated eulogium on Col. Anglesea’s character and career.

The three younger ones listened with eyes and mouths open with astonishment.

“Why, they seem to think he was a good, wise, brave man!” gasped little Elva.

“That’s because they knew nothing about him,” exclaimed Wynnette.

“Isn’t there something in the Bible about a man being a good man among his own people, but turning into a very bad man when he gets into a strange city where the people don’t know who he is?” inquired Rosemary, very gravely.

“I believe there is, in the Old Testament somewhere, but I don’t know where,” answered Elva.

“That was the way with Anglesea, I suspect. He was a hypocrite in his own country; but as soon as he came abroad he cut loose and kicked up his heels—I mean he threw off all the restraints of honor and conscience,” explained Wynnette.

Odalite resumed her task, and read of Anglesea’s birth, his entrance into Eton, and afterward at Oxford, his succession to his estates, his entrance into the army, his marriage to Lady Mary Merland, the birth of his son, and the death of his wife.

44There she stopped. She did not see fit to read the paragraph relating to herself; and to prevent her sisters from seeing it, she rolled up the paper and put it into her pocket.

They did not suspect that there had been any mention made of his attempted marriage to Odalite, far less that it had been recorded there as an accomplished fact; but they wondered why his marriage to the lady of ‘Wild Cats’ had not been mentioned.

“And is there not a word said about his Californian nuptials?” demanded Wynnette.

“No, not a word,” replied Odalite.

“Ah! you see, he wasn’t proud of that second wife! She wasn’t an earl’s daughter!”

“I wonder how Mrs. Anglesea will take the news of her husband’s death, when she hears of it,” mused Elva.

“Ah!” breathed Wynnette.

Their talk was interrupted by the entrance of their father, who had just come in from his long walk.

“Oh, papa!” exclaimed Wynnette, “we have just heard the news! Oh! won’t Le be glad when he hears it?”

“My dear children,” said Mr. Force, very solemnly and also a little inconsistently, “we should never rejoice at any good that may come to us through the death or misfortune of a fellow creature.”

“But, oh, papa! in this case we can’t help it.”

“There’s the dinner bell,” said Abel Force, irrelevantly.

Washington City in the month of September is very quiet and sleepy. The torrid heat of the summer is passing away, but has not passed.

45It returns in hot waves when the incense of its burning seems to rise to heaven.

No one goes out in the sun who is not obliged to go, or does anything else he or she is not obliged to do.

The Forces lived quietly in their city home during this month, neither making nor receiving calls.

The subject of Col. Anglesea’s death and of Le’s return very naturally occupied much of their thought.

Le was expected home at the end of the three years voyage—then, or thereabouts, no one knew exactly the day, or even the week.

Letters notifying him of the death of Angus Anglesea were promptly written to him by every member of the family, so eager were they all to convey the news and express themselves on the subject.

Even little Elva wrote, and her letter contained a characteristic paragraph:

“I am almost afraid it is a sin to be so very glad, as I am that Odalite is now entirely free from the fear that has haunted her and oppressed her spirits and darkened her mind for nearly three years. I cannot help feeling glad when I see Odalite looking so bright, happy and hopeful, just as she used to look before that man bewitched her. But I know I ought to be sorry for him, and indeed I am, just a little. Maybe he couldn’t help being bad—maybe he didn’t have Christian parents. I do hope he repented and found grace before he died. But Rosemary shakes her head and sighs over him. But, then, you know, Rosemary is such a solemn little thing over anything serious—though she can be funny enough at times. Oh, how I wish it was lawful to pray for the dead! Then I would pray for that man every hour in the day. And now I will tell you a secret, or—make you a confession: I do pray for him every night, and then I pray to the Lord that if it is a sin for me to pray 46for the dead He will forgive me for praying for that man. Oh, Le! how we that call ourselves Christians should try to save sinners while they live!”

It was on a Saturday, near the middle of October, when answering letters came from Le—a large packet—directed to Mr. Force, but containing letters for each one. They were jubilant letters, filled full of life, and love, and hope. Not one regret for the dead man! not one hope that he had repented and found grace, as little Elva expressed it. Clearly, Le was one of those Christians who can rejoice in the just perdition of the lost.

His ship was at Rio Janeiro, on her return voyage, he wrote, and he expected to be home to eat his Christmas dinner with the uncle, aunt and cousins who were soon to be his father, mother, wife and sisters. The New Year’s wedding that was to have come off three years ago should be celebrated on the coming New Year with more éclat than had ever attended a wedding before. Now he would resign from the navy, and settle down with his dear Odalite at Greenbushes, where it would be in no man’s power to disturb their peace.

Le wrote in very much the same vein to every member of the family, for, as has been seen in the first part of this story, there never was such a frank, simple and confiding pair of lovers as these two who had been brought up together, and whose letters were read by father, mother and sisters, aunt, uncle and cousins.

To Elva, in addition to other things, he wrote: “Don’t trouble your gentle heart about the fate of Anglesea. Leave him to the Lord. No man is ever removed from this earth until it is best for him and everybody else that he should go. Then he goes and he cannot go before.”

“That is all very well to say,” murmured poor Elva; “but, all the same, when I remember how much I wished—something would happen to him—for Odalite’s sake, I 47cannot help feeling as if I had somehow helped to kill him.”

“Well, perhaps you did,” said Wynnette. “I believe the most gentle and tender angels are all unconsciously the most terrible destroyers of the evil. I have read somewhere or other that the most malignant and furious demon from the deepest pit will turn tail and—no, I mean will fly, howling in pain, wrath and terror, from before the face of a naked infant! Ah! there are wonderful influences in the invisible world around us. You may have been his Uriel.”

“But I didn’t want to be—I didn’t want to be!” said Elva, almost in tears.

“No, you didn’t want to be while you were awake and in your natural state; but how do you know, now, what you wanted to be when you were asleep and in your spiritual condition?”

Elva opened her large, blue eyes with such amazement that Wynnette burst out laughing.

And nothing more was said on the subject at that time, because Mr. Force, who had left a pile of other unopened letters on the table while they read and discussed Le’s, now took up one from the pile, looked at it, and exclaimed:

“Why, Elfrida, my dear, here is a letter from England for you. It is sealed with the Enderby crest. From your brother, no doubt.”

“The first I have had for years,” said the lady, as she took the letter from her husband’s hands.

It was directed in the style that would have been used had the earl’s sister lived in England:

It had been forwarded from the country post office to the city:

Elfrida opened it and read:

“My Dear and Only Sister: I have no apology to offer you for my long neglect of your regular letters, except that of the sad vis inertia of the confirmed invalid. That I know you will accept with charity and sympathy.

“I am lower in health, strength and spirits than ever before. I employ an amanuensis to write all my letters, except those to you.

“I shrink from having a stranger intermeddling with a correspondence between an only brother and sister, and so, because I was not able to write with my own hand, your letters have been unanswered.

“In none of them, however, have you mentioned any present or prospective establishment of any of your girls, except that, years ago, you spoke of an early, very early betrothal of your eldest daughter to a young naval officer. You have not alluded to that arrangement lately. Has that come to nothing? It was scarcely a match befitting one who will some day, should she live, be my successor here.

“Your girls must have grown up in all these years. Let us see. Odalite must be nineteen, Wynnette seventeen, and little Elva fifteen. Two of them, therefore, must be marriageable, according to Maryland notions. Write and tell me all about them. And tell me whether you will come into my views that I am about to open to you.

“I am lonely, very lonely, not having a near relative in the world, except yourself and your family. I want you all to come over and make me a long visit, and then try to make up your minds to the magnanimity of leaving one of your girls with me for so long as I may have to live; or, if one girl would feel lonesome, leave two, to keep each other company. You and your husband might be quite happy with one daughter at home.

“So I think. What do you?

49“My plan may be only the selfish wish of a chronic sufferer, who is nearly always sure to be an egotist. Consult your husband, and write to me.

“Give my love to my nieces, and kindest regards to Mr. Force, and believe me, ever, dear Elfrida,

Mrs. Force having read the letter to herself, passed it over without a word of comment to her husband.

Mr. Force also read it in silence, and then returned it to his wife, saying:

“This matter requires mature deliberation. We will think over it to-night, and decide to-morrow.”

“Or, as to-morrow is the Sabbath, we will write and give my brother our answer on Monday,” amended the lady.

“Yes, that will be better. It will give us more time to mature our plans,” assented Mr. Force.

“What is it?” inquired Wynnette, drawing near her parents, while Elva and Rosemary looked the interest that they did not put into words.

“A letter from your Uncle Enderby, my dears, inviting us all to come over and make him a long visit.”

“Oh! that would be delightful, mamma. Can we not go?” eagerly inquired Wynnette.

“Perhaps. You will all graduate at the end of this current term, and then, perhaps, we can go with advantage, but not before.”

“Oh, that will be joyful, joyful, joyful!” sang Wynnette, in the words of a revival hymn.

“But what will Le and Odalite do?” inquired little Elva, who always thought of everybody.

“Why, if Le and Odalite are to be married in January they can go over there for the bridal trip, you know,” said Wynnette. “They will have to go somewhere on a wedding tour—all brides and grooms have to—and the 50reason why is because for the first few weeks after marriage they are such insupportable idiots that no human beings can possibly endure their presence. My private opinion is that they ought to be sent to a lunatic asylum to spend the honeymoon; but as that cannot be done, we can send our poor idiots over to Uncle Enderby. Maybe by the time they have crossed the ocean seasickness may have brought them to their senses.”

“Thank you, for myself and Le,” said Odalite, laughing.

“Without joking, I really think your plan is a good one,” said Mrs. Force. “Whether we all follow in June or not, it will be an acceptable attention to my brother to send our son and daughter over to spend their honeymoon at Enderby Castle.”

There was more conversation, that need not be reported here, except to say that all agreed to the plan of the wedding trip.

On the following Monday, Mr. and Mrs. Force, having come to a decision, wrote a joint letter to the Earl of Enderby, cordially thanking him for his invitation, gladly accepting it, and explaining that the marriage of their daughter, Odalite, with Mr. Leonidas Force, would probably come off in January, after which the young pair would sail for England on a visit to Enderby Castle. That if all should go well, after the two younger girls should have graduated from their academy, the whole family would follow in June, and join at the castle.

It would be curious, at the moment we close a letter to some distant friend, could we look in and see what, at that moment, the friend might be doing.

At the instant that Mr. Force sealed the envelope to the Earl of Enderby, could he have been clairvoyant, he might have looked in upon the library of Enderby Castle and seen the sunset light streaming through a richly stained oriel window upon the thin, pale, patrician face and form of a man of middle age, who sat wrapped in 51an Indian silk dressing gown, reclining in a deeply cushioned easy-chair, and reading a newspaper—the London Evening Telegram.

And this is what the Earl of Enderby read:

“We take pleasure in announcing that Col. the Hon. Angus Anglesea has been appointed deputy lieutenant governor of the county.”

With the assembling of Congress, in the first week of December, the usual crowd of officials, pleasure-seekers, fortune hunters, adventurers and adventuresses poured into Washington. Hotels, boarding houses and private dwellings were full.

The serious business of fashion and the light recreation of legislation began.

Mr. Force went down to the capitol every day to listen to the disputes in the House or in the Senate.

Mrs. Force and Odalite drove out to call on such of their friends and acquaintances as had arrived in the city, and to leave cards for the elder lady’s “day”—the Wednesday of each week during the season.

Letters came from Le. His ship was still delayed for an indefinite time at Rio de Janeiro, waiting sailing orders, which seemed to be slow in coming.

Le’s letters betrayed the fact that he was fretting and fuming over the delay.

“Don’t know what the navy department means,” he wrote, “keeping us here for no conceivable purpose under the sun. But I know what I mean. I mean to resign as soon as ever I get home.

52“If there should come a war I will serve my country, of course; but in these ‘piping times of peace’ I will not stay in the service to be anybody’s nigger, even Uncle Sam’s!”

Odalite, Wynnette and Elva cheered him up with frequent letters.

Christmas is rather a quiet interlude in the gay life of Washington.

Congress adjourns until after New Year.

Most of the government officials—members of the administration and of both houses of Congress, and many of the civil service brigade, leave the city to spend their holidays in their distant homesteads.

In fact, there is an exodus until after New Year.

The gay season in Washington does not really begin until after the first of January.

The public receptions by the President and by the members of the cabinet take the initiative.

Then follow receptions by members of the diplomatic corps, by prominent senators and representatives, and by wealthy or distinguished private citizens.

Mr., Mrs. and Miss Force went everywhere, and received everybody—within the limits of their social circle.

Odalite, for the first time in her short life, enjoyed society with a real youthful zest.

There was no drawback now. Her mother’s deadly enemy had passed to his account, and could trouble her no more, she thought. Le was coming home, and they were to be married soon, and go to Europe and see all the beauties and splendors and glories of the Old World, which she so longed to view. They were to sojourn in the old, ancestral English home which had been the scene of her mother’s childhood—ah! and the scene of so many exploits of her ancestors—sieges, defenses, captures, recoveries, confiscations by this ruler, restorations by that—events 53which had passed into history and helped to make it. She would see London—wonderful, mighty London!—St. Paul’s, the Tower. Oh! and Paris, and the old Louvre!—Rome! St. Peter’s! the Coliseum! the Catacombs!—places which the facilities of modern travel have made as common as a market house to most of the educated world, but which, to this imaginative, country girl, were holy ground, sacred monuments, wonderful, most wonderful relics of a long since dead and gone world.

And Le would be her companion in all these profound enjoyments! And, after all, they should return home and settle down at Greenbushes, never to part again, but to be near neighbors to father, mother, sisters and friends; to give and receive all manner of neighborly kindnesses, courtesies, hospitalities.

Odalite’s heart was as full of happy thoughts as is a hive of honey bees. Her happiness beamed from her face, shining on all who approached her.

If Odalite had been admired during the two past seasons when she was pale, quiet and depressed, how much more was she admired now in her fair, blooming beauty, that seemed to bring sunshine, life and light into every room she entered.

Mrs. Force felt all a mother’s pride in the social success of her daughter.

But to Odalite herself the proudest and happiest day of the whole season was that on which she received a letter from Le, announcing his immediate return home.

“This letter,” he wrote, “will go by the steamer that leaves this port on the thirteenth of January. We have our sailing orders for the first of February. On that day we leave this blessed port homeward bound. Winds and waves propitious, we shall arrive early in March, and then—and then, Odalite——”

54And then the faithful lover and prospective bridegroom went off into the extravagances that were to be expected, even of him.

Odalite received this letter on the first of February, and knew that on that day Le had sailed, homeward bound.

“He will be here some time in the first week of March,” said Mrs. Force, in talking over the letter with her daughter. “Congress will have adjourned by the fourth. All strangers will have left. The city will be quiet. It will be in the midst of Lent also. I think, Odalite, that, under all the circumstances, we had better have a very private wedding, here in our city home, with none but our family and most intimate friends present. Then you and Le will sail for Europe, make the grand tour, and after that shall be finished, go to my brother at Enderby Castle, where we—your father, and sisters, and myself—will join you in the autumn. What do you think?”

“I think as you do, mamma, and would much prefer the marriage to be as quiet as possible,” Odalite assented.

“After you and Le leave us we shall still remain in the city until the girls shall have graduated. Then we will go down to the dear old home for a few weeks, and then sail for Liverpool, to join you at Enderby Castle.”

“That is an enchanting program, mamma! Oh! I hope we may be able to carry it through!” exclaimed Odalite.

“There is no reason in the world why we should not, my dear,” replied the lady.

Odalite sighed, with a presentiment of evil which she could neither comprehend nor banish.

“And now,” said her mother, “I must sit down and write to Mrs. Anglesea and to Mr. Copp. The house at Mondreer will need to be prepared for us. It wanted repairs badly enough when we left it. It must be in a 55worse condition now; so I must write at once to give them time enough to have the work done well.”

And she retired to her own room to go about her task.

When Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary came home in the afternoon, and heard that Le had sailed from Rio de Janeiro, and would certainly be home early in March, they were wild with delight.

When, upon much cross-examination of Odalite, they found out that the marriage of the young lovers was to be quietly performed in the parlor of their father’s house, and that the newly married pair would immediately sail for Europe in advance of the family, who were to join them at Enderby Castle later on, their ecstasies took forms strongly suggestive of Darwin’s theory concerning the origin of the species. In other words, they danced and capered all over the drawing room.

“We want Rosemary to go with us, papa, dear,” said Elva.

“We must have Rosemary to go with us, you know, mamma,” added Wynnette.

“That is not for us to say,” replied Mr. Force.

“It is a question for her mother and her aunt,” added Mrs. Force.

But the little girls did not yield the point. Rosemary’s three years’ association with them had made her as dear to Wynnette and Elva as a little sister. And when they found out that Rosemary was heartbroken at the prospect of parting from them, and “wild” to accompany them, they stuck to their point with the pertinacity of little terriers.

Now what could Abel Force—the kindest-hearted man on the face of the earth, perhaps—do but yield to the children’s innocent desire?

He wrote to Mrs. Hedge and to Miss Grandiere, proposing to those ladies to take Rosemary with his daughters 56to Europe, to give her the educational advantage of the tour.

In due time came the answer of the sisters, full of surprise and gratitude for the generous offer, which they accepted in the simple spirit in which it was made.

And when Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary were informed of the decision there were not three happier girls in the whole world than themselves.

The same mail brought a letter from the housekeeper at Mondreer, who was ever a very punctual correspondent.

She informed Mrs. Force that such internal improvements as might be made in bad weather were already progressing at Mondreer—that all the bedsteads were down, and all the carpets up, the floors had been scrubbed, and the windows and painting washed, and the kalsominers were at work.

But she wanted to know immediately, if Mrs. Force pleased, what that news was that she was saving for a personal interview. If it concerned her own “beat,” she would like to know it at once.

“Why, I thought you had told her, mamma,” said Odalite, when she had read this letter.

“No, my dear. I did not wish to excite any new talk of Angus Anglesea until you and Le should be married and off to Europe. I shrink from the subject, Odalite. I am sorry now that I hinted to the woman having anything to tell her.”

“But, mamma, ought she not be told that he is dead?”

“He has been dead to her since he left her. In good time she shall know that he is dead to us also. And, my dear, remember that he was not her husband, after all, but——”

“Oh! don’t finish the sentence, mamma! What will Le say?” sighed Odalite.

“Nothing. This will make no difference to you or to Le. That ceremony performed at All Faith, three years 57ago, whether legal or illegal, was certainly incomplete—the marriage rites arrested before the registry was made. You have never seen or spoken to the would-be bridegroom since that hour; and now the man is dead, and you are free, even if you were ever bound. Let us hear no more on that subject, my dear. Now I shall have to answer this letter, and—as I have been so unlucky as to have raised the woman’s suspicions and set her to talking—I must tell her the facts, I suppose. And—as for her sake as well as for our own, I choose to consider her the widow of Angus Anglesea—I shall send with the letter a widow’s outfit,” concluded the lady, as she left the room.

The whole remainder of that day was spent by Mrs. Force in driving along Pennsylvania Avenue and up Seventh Street, selecting from the best stores an appropriate outfit in mourning goods for the colonel’s widow.

These were all sent home in the evening, carefully packed in a large deal box, which, with a letter at its bottom, was dispatched by express to Mrs. Angus Anglesea, Charlotte Hall, Maryland.

It was the fourteenth of February, St. Valentine’s Feast and All Birds’ Wedding Day!

It was a bright morning, with a sunny blue sky, and a soft breeze giving a foretaste of early spring.

Miss Sibby Bayard had come by special invitation to dine, and take tea with the housekeeper at Mondreer.

The two ladies were seated in Mrs. Force’s favorite sitting room, whose front window looked east upon the bay, and whose side window looked north into the woods.

58A bright, open wood fire was burning in the wide fireplace, at which they sat in two rocking-chairs with their feet upon the brass fender.

Mrs. Anglesea had the edge of her skirt drawn up as usual, for, as she often declared, she would rather toast her shins before the fire than eat when she was hungry, or sleep when she was sleepy.

Miss Sibby was knitting one of a pair of white lamb’s-wool socks for her dear Roland.

Mrs. Anglesea was letting out the side seams of her Sunday basque.

“It is the most aggravating thing in this world that I seem to be always a-letting out of seams, and yet always a-having my gown bodies split somewhere or other when I put them on!” said the widow, apropos of her work, as she laid the open seam over her knee and began smoothing it out with her chubby fingers.

“You’re gettin’ too fat, that’s where it is. You’re gettin’ a great deal too fat,” remarked plain-spoken Miss Sibby.

“Well! That’s just what I’m complaining of! I’m getting so fat that the people make fun of me behind my back; they’d better not try it on before my face, I can tell them that!”

“How do you know they make fun of you at all?”

“By instick! I know it. And besides, this very morning, when Jake came from the post office, what did he fetch me? Not the letter from the old ’oman, as I was a-hoping and a-praying for! No! but a big onwelope with a impident walentine in it!”

“A walentine!”

“Yes, ma’am! A most impident one! A woman—no—a haystack dressed up like me, with impident verses under it! I wish I knowed who sent it! I’d give ’em walentines and haystacks, too, for their impidence.”

“Oh, don’t yer mind that! It was some boys or other! Boys is the devil, sez I, and you need never to 59expect nothing better from them, sez I! You can’t get blood out’n a turnip, sez I! nor likewise make a silk purse out’n a sow’s ear, sez I, and no more can’t you expect nothing out’n boys but the devil. Why, la! I got a wuss walentine than yourn! Found it tucked underneath of the front door this morning. Jest look at it!” said Miss Sibby, drawing a folded paper out of her pocket, opening and displaying it to her companion.

“See here,” she continued, pointing out its features as she spread it on her knee. “Here a tower, with a man on the top of it and a crown on the head of him, and his arms stretched out just as he has chucked an old ’oman over the wall! And here’s the old ’oman halfway down to the ground with her hands and feet flying. And onderneath of it all is wrote, ‘Descended from a duke.’ That’s meant for me, you know! It’s a harpoon on me and the Duke of England! But I don’t mind it! Not I! It’s nothing but their envy, sez I. The birds will pick at the highest fruit, sez I!”

“I think they ought to be well thrashed! Wish I had hold of ’em!”

“Lemme see yourn!” said Miss Sibby.

Mrs. Anglesea stood up and took a folded paper from under one of the silver candlesticks on the mantelpiece and handed it to her visitor.

A haystack, dressed in Mrs. Anglesea’s style and crowned with her head, and not a very violent caricature of her face. Evidently, like Miss Sibby’s valentine, the work of some waggish amateur.

“It’s the truth of the thing that gets me. I am getting to be a haystack,” said Mrs. Anglesea.

“Well, what do you do it for?” inquired Miss Sibby.

“How can I help it?” demanded her companion.

“Reggerlate your habits. Do by yourself as you do by the animyles, sez I!”

“I don’t understand you.”

“Well, I’ll try to ’splain. When we want to fatten 60fowl, we shut ’em up in coops so they can’t move round much; and we feed ’em full, don’t we?”

“Yes.”

“And when we want to fatten pigs, we shut ’em up in pens so they can’t run round much, and we feed ’em full, don’t we?”

“Yes! But what of that?”

“Well, them innicent fowls and quadruples are our kinfolks in the flesh, if they ain’t in the spirit anyways, and what’s law to them is law to us.”

“You’re too deep for me, ole ’oman!”

“Well, then, to come to the p’int——”

“Yes, down to hard pan.”

“If you want to get fatter and fatter, till you can’t pass through ne’er a door in this house, you keep eating as much as you can, and sitting into rocking-chairs as long as possible!”

“Oh, Lord!”

“And you’ll keep on a-getting fatter and fatter, until—until you’d do to go round the country in a show.”

“Oh, Lord! Next time I see young Dr. Ingle I’ll ask him wot sort o’ vittels produces fat and wot’ll make only skin and bone and muscle,” said the widow, in dismay.

“Yes, I reckon you’d better do that! It’s getting dangerous in your case, you know! As for me, I am fat enough; but never too fat. I always wariate betwixt a hund’ed and twenty-five to a hund’ed and thirty. But I never go beyond a hund’ed and thirty. Moderation is a jewel, sez I! Lord! here’s somebody a-coming! Who is it, I wonder?” exclaimed Miss Sibby, breaking off in her discourse and going to the front window. “Why, it’s Tommy Grandiere! And he and Jake a-bringin’ in of a big box!” she continued, as the “carryall” stopped before the door, and the farmer and the servant lifted down a box.

“It’s new curtains, or rugs, or something for the house. They’re alluss a-coming,” observed Mrs. Anglesea.

61As she spoke the door opened, and Jake’s head appeared, while Jake’s voice said:

“’Ere’s Marse Tom Grander, mum.”

Mr. Grandiere entered the room.

“Good-day, Mrs. Anglesea! Miss Sibby, glad to see you! I was up at Charlotte’s Hall this morning, and saw a box at the express office for you. As I was coming down this way, and thought maybe it would be a convenience to you for me to fetch it along, I just gave a receipt for it and fetched it. So here it is in the hall.”

“I thank you, sir, which it is a convenience! Not knowing as there was a box there for me, I might have left it for a week. Thanky’, sir! Won’t you sit down?” inquired Mrs. Anglesea, placing a chair for the newcomer.

“No, I thank you, ma’am. I have to go. But I would like to ask: Have you heard from Mr. and Mrs. Force lately?”

“Not for ’most a fortnight. But they are coming down in June.”

“In June? Yes, so I heard. Good-morning, Mrs. Anglesea. Good-morning, Miss Sibby.”

And the visitor hurried away.

“What’s in that box, do you think?” inquired Miss Sibby.

“Oh, curtains, or stair carpet, or rugs, or something for the house! They are allus a-coming! Only I ’most in general get a letter first to tell me where to send for them,” said Mrs. Anglesea.

“I would like to see the pattern o’ them rugs and curtains and things! Fashions do change so much, I would ralely like to see what the present fashion is! Ef you don’t keep up with the times, sez I, the times will leave you behind, sez I!”

“Well, we’ll open the box after dinner, Miss Sibby, but we can’t before. Dinner is ready to go on the table 62now, and it mustn’t be spoiled by keeping. It’s spring lamb and spinach, raised under glass——”

“Spring lamb and spinach the fourteenth of February! Never!” exclaimed the descendant of the Howards.

“Yes, but it is. Having the conveniences to do it with, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have the luxuries. Having the hotbeds, why not the spinach? That’s what I say to Jake and to Luce. And let me tell you them niggers live just as well as I do.”

“Lamb and spinach!” gasped Miss Sibby.

“And that ain’t all. Fresh fish, caught in the bay this morning, to begin with. And meringo pudding to finish off with. And a good bottle of wine to go all the way through with it. It isn’t often as I meddle with the wine cellar, though the ole man and ’oman did tell me to help myself—give me carte wheel, as they called it, to do as I please with what’s left in the vault. Most of it, to be sure, was took to Washington. Still I never makes free with the wine, ‘cept on high days and holidays. And there’s the bell, so now we’ll go in to dinner.”

The tête-à-tête dinner was greatly enjoyed by these gossips. They lingered over it as long as it was possible to do so.

“Talkin’ o’ walentines,” said Miss Sibby, apropos of nothing, “when I was young there wa’n’t no walentines made to sell. They was only made by ladies with fine taste for the work. They were cut out of fine paper, heart-shaped when folded, and scalloped circle when open, and finified off with ‘lilies and roses and other 63fine posies,’ and with written verses. Ah! I have known old Mrs. Grandiere—Miss Susannah’s mother—spend days and days cutting out and decorating walentines for the young people to send to their sweethearts. And they was all complimentary, and never impident. No sich thing as buying of a walentine ever heard of. And now they’ve got ’em in every shop window. But times changes, sez I, and them as lives the longest, sez I, sees the most, sez I.”

“I don’t think as your valentine or mine came out of the shops, Miss Sibby. I never seen any like them in shops. I think they was handmade by some young vilyun or other.”

“That is so. And the same scamp as made yourn, sez I, likewise made mine, sez I. And now as we’ve got done our dinner, hadn’t we might as well go and see them new-fashioned rugs and things in the box? If you have got anything to do, sez I, why, go and do it at once, sez I. Ain’t that so?”

“Yes, and we will go and open the box. Jake, bring a chisel and a clawhammer here, and life that big box out o’ the hall into the little parlor,” said the widow, calling to the one manservant, and then leading the way back to the sitting room.

Jake soon appeared with the box—a heavy deal case, four feet square—on his shoulder, and carefully lowered it to the floor.

“Now rip off the lid,” said the widow.

Jake, with considerable labor, opened the box.

“And now we shall see them new-fashioned rugs. And if I like ’em, I’ll send to Baltimore by Mark Truman’s schooner, and buy one to lay before my fireplace, soon’s ever I get paid for that last hogshead of tobacco,” said Miss Sibby, as the lid of the box flew up under Jake’s vigorous applications of the clawhammer.

The two women stooped over the open case.

First came a roll of coarse brown paper; then a layer 64of finer paper; then a large, folded parcel of bombazine and crape, which, on being unwrapped, turned out to be a made-up, deep mourning dress.

“Oh, this must be a mistake!” said Mrs. Anglesea. “This box must have been intended for somebody else.”

And she turned up the lid and read the direction again.

“No! It is directed to me, sure enough, but it must be a mistake, all the same. And I reckon the mistake was made at the store where all the things was bought, and they misdirected the box, and sent me these things, and sent them rugs to the party these was intended for. Lord! how careless people is, to be sure! But now let us see for curiosity what is in the box.”

And while Miss Sibby looked on with the greatest curiosity, Mrs. Anglesea unpacked the case.

More tissue paper; then a folded mantle of bombazine, trimmed with crape; then a black merino shawl; then half a dozen pair of black kid gloves; then another dress of black cashmere; then half a dozen pairs of black hose; then an inner wooden box, which, being lifted out and opened, was found to contain two compartments. In one was a widow’s black crape bonnet, with long, heavy black crape veil; and in the other a widow’s cap of crêpe lisse, and another of fine, white organdie.

When all these were laid out on the table the two women stood on either side of it, looking at each other and at the articles before them.

“Well, I reckon I’d better put ’em all back again, and wait till I hear from the owner,” said Mrs. Anglesea.

“I reckon maybe you better read this letter first. I think it must have been flung out accidental when the paper was took off the top of the things in the box,” said Miss Sibby, as she stooped and picked up a white envelope from among the waste paper under the table, and which had just caught her eye.

65“To be sure! This is directed to me, too, and in the handwriting of the ole ’oman, too. Now I wonder I didn’t see this before. I do reckon now she has sent these here things down to me to give to some one who is going in mourning.”

So saying, Mrs. Anglesea opened the letter, and being a frank soul, spelled it out aloud:

“My Dear Mrs. Anglesea: I received your letter, and hasten to reply. I should have preferred to give you my serious news in person, but since you insist on it, I give it you now in writing. Under all the circumstances, I need not fear even to give you a shock, when I tell you that Col. Angus Anglesea died at——”

“Good Lord! then the man is dead, sure enough!” exclaimed the widow, breaking off from her readings and looking up at her companion.

“Lord ’a’ mercy! So he is! But read on! Don’t stop! Let’s hear all about it!” exclaimed Miss Sibby.

“Oh, I can’t! I can’t! It seems so strange! He was so strong and healthy I thought he’d live forever almost! I thought he’d outlive me, anyways. And now he’s dead! It don’t seem possible, you know,” said the widow, with a total change of manner.

“Why, Lord! I thought you suspicioned as it was your husband’s death as Mrs. Force was a-keeping from you.”

“No, I didn’t. It was all my nonsense. I hadn’t a notion as he could die, and he the perfect pictor of life and health. And to be cut off in his prime!”

“Why, woman, you seem like you was sorry for the man as robbed and deserted you!”

“Don’t speak of that now, Miss Sibby. It’s mean to speak ill of the dead, who can’t answer you back again!” said the widow.

66“And now I know you are sorry for him. And yet you ’lowed if he was dead you would not go into mourning for him!”

“Yes, but I didn’t think he was dead then, or that he would ever die in my lifetime. I—I didn’t know,” said the widow, in a breaking voice that she tried hard to steady.

“Well! them as would understand a widdy, sez I, need to have a long head, sez I! I knowed as you was awful tender-hearted and pitiful, Mrs. Anglesea. But I ralely didn’t think as you’d take on about him.”

“I’m not taken on about nobody. But a woman needn’t be a wild Indian, or a heathen, or cannibal, I reckon. A Christian’s ’lowed to have some sort o’ feelin’s. Now let me read the rest of my letter.”

And she resumed the perusal of her epistle, but in silence. She read all the particulars of Anglesea’s death as they were given by Mrs. Force in her own writing, and also in the slips cut from the Angleton Advertiser and inclosed in the letter. All except the concluding paragraph of the eulogy, giving the statement of his two marriages. These were cut off, in kindness to her, who thought herself his lawful wife.

When she had finished she gave all into Miss Sibby’s hands, and sat and watched in moody silence while the old lady adjusted her spectacles and slowly read them through.

“They speak very highly of the poor man in that there newspaper. He must have repented of his sins and made a good end, after all,” said Miss Sibby, very solemnly, as she returned letters and papers into Mrs. Anglesea’s hands.

“It was very thoughtful of Mrs. Force to send me down this box of mourning—very thoughtful. And I am very thankful to her for it,” murmured the widow, as if speaking to herself.

67“Then you will go in mourning for him?” said Miss Sibby.

“Of course I shall.”

No more was said just then.

Miss Bayard stayed to tea. And then, seeing that her friend was very much depressed in spirits, she volunteered to stay with her all night; a favor for which the widow was really very grateful.

The next morning, however, the elastic spirits of the lady from the mines had risen to their normal elevation, and Miss Sibby, with relieved feelings, left Mondreer to spread the news of Angus Anglesea’s death far and wide through the neighborhood.

And it is perfectly safe to say that the woman whom he had so deeply wronged was the only individual in the whole community who felt the least pity for his premature departure.

Congress adjourned on the fourth of March, and within a week from that time the crowd that always follows in their wake left Washington, and the city dropped into comparative repose; for not only were all the receptions over, the multitude departed, but the season of Lent was on.

The Forces enjoyed this time of rest from the world. They attended old St. John’s Church three times a week, and lived quietly between whiles, looking forward with pleasant anticipations to the arrival of Le, and to all the delights that were expected to follow that event.

Le arrived on Easter Sunday morning. His ship had reached New York on the day before. He had obtained leave of absence, and he had only time to catch the latest 68train to Washington, “on the run,” leaving all his luggage behind him and having not a moment to telegraph his friends of his approach.

He reached the city at twelve o’clock midnight, and not wishing to wake the family up at that hour, he took a room at a hotel.

But by sunrise the next morning he was up and dressed, had paid his bill, taken a hack from the sidewalk, and was on his way to P Street Circle, to look up his uncle’s city house.

That Easter Sunday the family were assembled around the table in the pleasant breakfast room of their house, which looked out upon the circle, where already the parterres were brilliant and fragrant with the earliest spring flowers—hyacinths, pink, blue and white; daffodils golden; tulips flame and fire color; jonquils, like golden cups in silver saucers; bridal wreath; yellow currant burning bush—all budding, but not yet blooming. All the grass of a tender emerald green. All the trees just bursting into leaf. Birds singing only as they sing on a spring morning.

“What a beautiful Easter Sunday is this! Not a cloud in all the sky!” said Odalite, as she turned from the window to take her seat at the table.

Mr. Force stood up to ask a blessing, but the doorbell rang sharply and he sat down again.

And before any one could put a question the door flew open and Le rushed in like the wind.

Every one jumped so suddenly from the table that chairs were overturned in their haste to welcome the wanderer.

There followed much handshaking, hugging and kissing, rather mixed and confused, until Le found Odalite in his arms. Then he came to a stop and held her there while he answered questions.

“Hadn’t an idea your ship was near port. When did you get in?” inquired Mr. Force.

69“Anchored yesterday at half-past two, got leave, and caught the three train. Hadn’t time to telegraph, or even to pack a portmanteau. Can any one lend me the loan of a clean change of linen?” inquired Le, with a look of distress.

“Of course! You shall go to my room and help yourself. But you don’t look much in want,” replied his uncle.

“Now sit down, Le. We were just about to begin breakfast when you came in,” said Mrs. Force, as the manservant in attendance placed another chair at the table for the newcomer.

There was silence for a few moments while Mr. Force said the grace.

Then the confusion of Babel began again. All asked questions, and without waiting for them to be answered, asked others. Wynnette and Elva, who were home for the Easter holidays, seemed to run a race with their tongues as to which could talk fastest and most. Mr. and Mrs. Force had much to ask and to tell. Odalite, and even quaint, little Rosemary, put in a word when they could get a chance.

It is always so when a sailor returns from a long voyage to his family circle.

There was but little breakfast eaten that morning, though they lingered long at the table—so long that, at length, Mrs. Force felt obliged to ask the question:

“Are you going to church with us this morning, Le?”

“Of course I am, auntie. I should be worse than a heathen not to go, if it were only to give thanks for my safe and joyful arrival at home,” replied the young man.

“That is right, my boy. I like to see you hold fast to the faith and practice of your forefathers in this untoward generation,” said Mr. Force.

“Well, then, since you are going with us, Le, dear, you had better get ready. We have but little time,” advised the lady.

70“Come with me to my room, Le. My underclothing will fit you well enough, I am sure. Bless you, my boy! you have caught up to me in size,” said Mr. Force, as he arose from the table to conduct the midshipman.

The ladies of the circle also went to their chambers to get ready for church.

And this was Le’s welcome home.

Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary had a week’s holiday with which they were all the more delighted because of their dear Le’s presence.

Although, as in love and duty bound, he devoted himself almost exclusively to Odalite, yet he found time to take a little notice of his younger friends—to tell them how much they had grown, how greatly they had improved, how womanly they had become since he saw them three years before, and so on and so on.

During this week the preparations for Leonidas and Odalite’s marriage were discussed.

It was decided that the wedding should take place on the first of April.

“All Fools’ Day! What a commentary!” exclaimed Wynnette, when she learned the decision.

No one had thought of its being All Fools’ Day when the date was fixed; and now that it was so fixed, the circumstance was somewhat too trivial to warrant any change in the time. So on the first of April the happy event was appointed to come off.

“I should like to ask Roland Bayard to come up to be my groomsman,” said Le, to no one in particular, since he spoke in full family council.

“Why, I thought he was at sea!” said Mr. Force.

“No, uncle, he has just got home. I had a letter from him this morning. He had seen the arrival of my ship in the papers and naturally addressed his letters here. I suppose his aunt gave him your address.”

“Quite likely. She knew it.”

“Queer, isn’t it?” ruminated Le. “Roland and I do 71happen to make our voyages and returns simultaneously, or nearly so, and without any possibility of intended concert of action.”

“Well, if you happen to start about the same time for a voyage of the same length, you will be apt to return about the same time, I suppose!”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“And now, Le, my boy, in regard to inviting young Bayard here, do so, by all means. Ask any of your particular friends. And ask them to come a day or so beforehand, so as to be ready for the occasion.”

“Thank you, Uncle Abel; but I think Roland is the only one whom I care to invite.”

“Does the liberty you have given Le include us all, papa, dear?” inquired Wynnette.

“In what respect, my dear? I don’t understand you.”

“May each of us invite one or more very particular friends?” Wynnette inquired.

“You must consult your mother and Odalite about that,” replied Mr. Force, good-humoredly.

“Whom do you wish to ask, Wynnette?” inquired her mother.

“Why, only the Grandieres and the Elks.”

“You mean the young people, of course?”

“Yes, mamma, dear.”

“Let me see. There are about eight of them, all counted—six girls and two boys. Well, my dear, you know this wedding is to be a private one, in our own parlor, and no company is to be specially invited to the wedding. But you may write and ask your young friends to come and make us a visit for a week or two, so that they may be in the house about that time.”

“Oh, thank you, mamma, dear! that will be best of all!” exclaimed Wynnette, in delight.

And that same day she wrote to Oldfield and to Hill Grove to ask the young Grandieres and Elks to come up to Washington about the last of March to make a 72visit, mentioning that Leonidas had got home from sea, and that he and Odalite were to be married on the first of April, and hoping that they would come in time to witness the wedding, which was to be a very quiet one in their own parlor.

Wynnette knew that such letters as these would insure a visit from those to whom they were written. And she was right. In a very few days came answers from Oldfield and Grove Hill. All the invited accepted the invitations, and would report in Washington on the thirtieth of March, two days before the wedding.

“Let us see,” again reflected Mrs. Force. “There are nine guests coming in all—counting six Grandieres, two Elks and young Bayard. Of them six are young girls, and three are young men. How shall we dispose of them?”

“Oh, mamma, dear, we must pack, like we used to do in the country. Elva and Rosemary and myself can sleep in one room. The four Grandiere girls can sleep in the large double-bedded room. The two little Elks can have the little hall chamber and sleep together. And Roland Bayard and the Grandiere boys and Le can have the large attic room, and sleep on cots. Never mind where you put young men and boys, you know!” said this little household strategist.

“Well, we must do the best we can for them,” replied the lady, and she turned her attention to other matters—to the details of Odalite’s simple trousseau, which was only to consist now in a white silk wedding dress, a gray poplin traveling dress, a navy-blue cloth suit for the voyage across the ocean, and a few plain, home dresses and wrappers, with plenty of underclothing.

All the preparations were completed on the morning of the thirtieth. Even Odalite’s trunk was packed, nothing being left out but her bridal dress and traveling suits.

Just before tea on the afternoon of the thirtieth, there 73was the expected inroad of the Goths and Vandals, in the forms of the young people from Oldfield, Grove Hill and Forest Rest.

They all traveled by the same train and arrived at the same hour—a laughing, talking, hilarious, uproarious troupe.

They were met with a joyous and affectionate welcome.

“And where is my little Rosemary? Where is my quaint, small, young woman?” inquired Roland, when he had shaken hands with all the rest.

“Why, here she is! Here she has been all the while!” exclaimed Wynnette, dragging the shy girl forward.

“What! not that tall young lady? Miss Hedge, I beg ten thousand pardons. I was looking for a little girl I used to ride on my shoulder!” exclaimed Roland, in affected dismay, as he took her tiny hand and raised it to his lips.

Now, Rosemary was not tall, except in comparison to what she had once been. Rosemary was still small and slight—“a mere slip of a girl,” as every one called her. She colored and cast down her eyes when her old friend pretended to treat her as a young lady.

He saw her slight distress and vexation, and immediately changed his tune.

“Why!—yes!—sure enough! This is my little Rosemary, after all!” he exclaimed.

And then she looked up shyly and smiled.

“Come! Let me show you your rooms, girls. And you, Leonidas, convey these young men heavenward. You young Shanghais will have to roost in the loft at the top of the house. Beg pardon. I mean you young gentlemen will be required to repose in the attic chambers of the mansion. Indeed, we shall all have to be packed like herrings in a barrel. Beg pardon, again. I mean like guests at a hotel on Inauguration Day. But 74the more the merrier, my dears,” sang Wynnette, as she danced upstairs in advance of her party.

Have you ever been in the aviary at the zoo, when all the birds have been singing, chattering and screaming at once?

If you have, you will have some idea of the condition of Mrs. Force’s house on this first evening of their young guests’ arrival.

They chattered in their rooms, they chattered all the way down the stairs, and they chattered around the tea table.

The extension table in the dining room had been drawn out to its full length to accommodate the party of sixteen that sat down to tea.

All these young people sitting opposite each other at the long board, and under the full blaze of the chandeliers, showed how much they had grown, changed and improved during the three years which had elapsed since their last meeting and parting in the country.

Odalite was the most beautiful of the group. She was now nineteen years of age; her elegant form was rather more rounded, her pure complexion brighter, her eyes darker, and her hair richer; her voice was deeper and sweeter; and all her motions more graceful than before.

Wynnette was seventeen; tall, thin and dark; with the same mischievous eyes, snub nose, full, ripe lips, and short, curly, black hair.

Elva was fifteen, tall for her age, thin, fair, with soft, blue eyes, and light, flaxen hair.

Rosemary Hedge was also fifteen years old, but very tiny for her age, with slender limbs and little mites of hands and feet, a small head covered with fine, silky black hair, a fair, clear, bright complexion, and large, soft, tender blue eyes.

The four Grandiere girls—Sophy, Nanny, Polly and Peggy—whose ages ranged from fourteen to twenty, were all of the same type, with well-grown and well-rounded 75forms, fair complexions, red cheeks and lips, blue eyes, and brown hair; except for difference in age and size, never were four sisters more alike.

The two Grandiere boys, whose ages were nineteen and twenty-two, were like the girls, with the same well-knit forms, blooming complexions, blue eyes and brown hair—only their features were on a larger and coarser scale, and their faces were freckled and sunburned.

The two Elk girls, Melina and Erina, were respectively thirteen and sixteen years old, and both bore a certain family likeness to Rosemary Hedge, except that they were not so tiny in form or dainty and delicate in features and complexion. They had the large blue eyes and the fine black hair, but their faces were thin and their complexions sallow.

Perhaps the most improved of all these young people during the preceding three years were the two gallant young sailors, Leonidas Force and Roland Bayard, with their tall forms, broad shoulders, deep chests, fine heads, handsome faces and full beards—only with a difference; for Le’s hair and beard were of a rich, silky brown, while Roland’s, alas! were of a rough, fierce red.

Upon the whole, the group of young folk around the table was very fair.

The first of April was a perfect day. The sky was a canopy of deepest, clearest blue. The sun shone in 76cloudless splendor. The trees in all the parks were in full leaf or blossom. The grass was of that fresh and tender green only to be seen at this season. The spring flowers were all in bloom, with radiance of color and richness of fragrance. Birds were singing rapturously from every bush and branch.

“A lovely day! Just the day for a wedding!” said Nanny Grandiere, as she threw open the shutters of her bedroom window, that looked out upon one of the most beautiful parks of the city.

Her three sisters, who occupied the same double-bedded room with herself, sleeping two in a bed, jumped up and ran across the room to join her.

“Yes, a beautiful day! ‘Blessed is the bride that the sun shines on,’ you know. Oh! I am so glad we all came here!” said Polly.

“And I am glad it is going to be a quiet wedding, with only ourselves. Oh, girls! I should not have wanted to come if they had been going to have a grand wedding, after the manner of these fashionable city people. I should have been scared to death among so many fine strangers. But now it will be real jolly!” said Peggy.

“And Mr. Force says that as there are enough of us we may have a dance, after the bride and groom have gone,” chimed in Sophy.

“‘After the bride and groom have gone!’” echoed Nanny. “That will be ‘Hamlet’ without the Prince of Denmark.”

“Well, it can’t be helped. We must have the dance without them or not at all. You know the ceremony is to be performed at half-past seven, the refreshments served at eight o’clock, and the bride and groom will leave the house at nine to catch the nine-thirty train to Baltimore, where they will stop. To-morrow morning they go on to New York, and the day after that they sail for Liverpool,” exclaimed Sophy.

“Yes, I know; but I don’t know why it should be so. 77I think they might just as well stay here and dance all night with us, and take an early train straight through to New York, as to start from here this evening and stop all night in Baltimore. I think it would be kinder in them, considering how far they are going, and how long they will be away.”

“But it would be so fatiguing to Odalite. At least, Mrs. Force said so. This is her plan,” Polly explained.

“Well, we had better hurry and dress. It is very warm in this room. Think of feeling summer heat on the first of April in a room where there is no visible fire! Oh! this heating by steam and lighting by gas is just wonderful!” exclaimed Sophy.

“I like open wood fires and astral lamps best,” said Nanny.

“Oh! but the modern improvements are so clean and tidy!” put in Peggy.

“I wonder what our colored servants would say to them,” mused Polly, aloud.

“And even others—Miss Sibby, for instance. What would Miss Sibby say to gas and steam?” suggested Sophy.

“Oh! I can tell you what she would say,” exclaimed Wynnette, who suddenly entered the room, and mimicked the old lady. “She would say: ‘Them as has the least to do with gas and steam, sez I, comes the best off, sez I.’ That would be her ipse dixit, for she don’t believe in newfangled notions, as she calls our boasted modern improvements.”

“Oh, Wynnette! Already dressed! and we not half ready! We shall be late, I fear,” exclaimed Sophy.

“You will that, if you don’t stir your stumps—I mean accelerate your action,” replied frank Wynnette.

“Well, don’t wait for us. You go down to breakfast, and don’t let them wait. I always lose my senses when I try to dress in a hurry,” said Nanny, sitting down on a hassock to put on her gaiters. “There! I said so! I 78have gone and put my right foot on my left boot!—I mean, my left foot on my right boot!—I mean——I don’t know what I mean! Please go down, and don’t bother!”

“Don’t go crazy; there’s time enough. Breakfast won’t be ready for half an hour yet,” laughed Wynnette, as she danced out of the room.

The flurried girls composed themselves as well as they could, and completed their toilets. Then they went downstairs to the parlor.

They found all the family and guests assembled.

“I hope we did not keep you waiting,” said Sophy, the eldest sister, after the morning greeting had been exchanged.

“Now, papa, don’t flunk. Beg pardon. I mean, don’t sacrifice truth to politeness. Let me reply. Yes, Miss Grandiere, you did keep us waiting just one minute and a half,” said Wynnette, pointing to the clock on the mantelpiece.

But Mr. Force had already given his arm to Miss Grandiere, and was leading the way to the breakfast room.

The others followed.

It was a merry breakfast. Yet the two happiest ones at the table were the most silent. Leonidas and Odalite neither originated a joke nor laughed at the joke of any other.

“Such is selfishness of love and joy,” whispered Wynnette to Rosemary, who was her next neighbor at the breakfast table.

When the meal was over, the young people—with the exception of the betrothed pair, who were away somewhere mooning by themselves—returned to the parlor, to discuss the duties and pleasures of the day.

“We must decorate the drawing room,” said Wynnette. “No, Messrs. Grandiere and Bayard, you are not to go to the capitol, or the departments, or to the White 79House, or to the patent office, or to the Smithsonian, or to the arsenal, or to the Navy Yard, or to the United States jail, or to the National Insane Asylum—that, I think, includes ‘the whole unbounded continent’—nor to any other public institution; no, nor on any other sightseeing expedition. You are just to get a Washington directory for your guide, and you are to make the round of all the conservatories in the city, and you are to bring us loads and loads and loads of the very best flowers to be had, and you are to order a marriage bell in orange flowers, with ropes of orange flowers, and you are to order——Take out your tablets, if you have any; if not, tear the margin off the morning paper, and make a memorandum, for I know the weakness of your minds and memories. Now, then you are to order the most æsthetic bouquet in the world for the bride, and you are to order nine of the next most utterly utter for the bridesmaids—for the Lord forbid that the bridesmaids’ bouquets should be equal to that of the bride!”

“Ten bouquets! Nine bridesmaids, you say! Why, I thought—I thought—this was to be a private wedding,” said Roland Bayard, driving his fingers through his red hair.

“And so it is, my dear. We are a very small company of family friends, and that is the very reason why every man-jack and woman-jenny in the company must be an officer. Like the village militia, don’t you see?”

“No, I don’t see, and I don’t understand.”

“Well, then, to come down to the level of your poor little wits, here are ten of us girls—Odalite, Wynnette, Elva, Rosemary, Melina, Erina, Sophy, Nanny, Polly and Peggy. Only one of us—Odalite, to wit—can be the bride, or the captain, say, but all the rest of us mean to be bridesmaids or officers, say!”

“Ah! And where are your rank and file?”

“Oh, the outside world, who are not invited to this entertainment. The officers must not be too familiar with 80the privates. And we are going to have an exclusive jollification. And now I hope you understand. And you had better be off at once, because we want all the flowers delivered by noon. And don’t attempt to go anywhere or do anything until you have executed this order,” said Wynnette, in conclusion.

Roland Bayard and the two Grandieres walked off.

Then little Elva whispered to her sister:

“Oh, Wynnette, those flowers will cost from thirty to fifty dollars. You know what awful prices mamma had to pay for decorating her rooms every time she had a party.”

“Well, what then?” inquired the thoughtless one.

“Why, those poor fellows will have to pay for them, and I don’t believe they have five dollars apiece.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Wynnette. “What a scatter-brain I am!”

And she ran out without bonnet or shawl, and was so fortunate as to catch the three young men, who had stopped at the gate to buy a paper from a newsboy.

“Say!” called Wynnette. “Come here, you Roland!”

And he came.

“I forgot to tell you. Have those flowers charged to my father. Mr. Abel Force, you know. They will understand. They have all supplied mamma for all her parties. You understand?”

“Yes, I understand. All right,” said Roland.

And Wynnette ran into the house, and Roland walked on and joined his companions.

But the deceitful, double-dealing young spendthrift never had bud or blossom charged to his host, but paid cash for all the flowers, thus making a deep hole in his savings of three years.

The day was spent in making the small final preparations for the wedding.

At noon the flowers came, fresh and blooming and fragrant, because just taken from their stalks. Besides 81the bouquets, there were—according to orders—“loads and loads and loads” of flowers to decorate the drawing room and the supper table.

The girls carefully laid away the bouquets, and went to work to decorate the rooms.

In the sliding doors between the front and rear drawing rooms they made an arch with festoons of orange blossoms, and from the middle of the arch hung a beautiful wedding bell of orange flowers. Under this they meant that the marriage ceremony should be performed. They meant to have everything their own way, or, to tell the literal truth, Wynnette meant to have everything her way, and to have every girl back her in that determination.

The arch finished, they decorated every available part of the room with flowers, until the place looked less like an apartment in a dwelling house than a bower in fairyland.

When their labor of love was completed the girls joined the family at an early dinner.

And when this was over they flew away to dress for the evening.

Still Wynnette had everything her own way. It was she who had decided that the six girls from the country should be enlisted as extra bridesmaids, “because,” she said, “it will please them, and give them something pleasant to talk about for a long time to come.”

She had said to her mother:

“They are going to be Odalite’s bridesmaids.”

And Mrs. Force had not objected. It was a matter of such little import.

She had said to Odalite:

“These girls have all brought their white organdie dresses, white roses, white gloves, and the rest, to wear to the wedding! And they want to stand up with you and smile every time you smile, and sigh every time you sigh, and howl every time you cry! You know! they 82want to back you in this game! I mean they wish to be and—they are to be your supernumerary bridesmaids!” said Wynnette, emphasizing the last clause, so there might be no possible misunderstanding.

Odalite was so happy that in answer to this she only quoted from Edmund Lear’s delicious “Book of Nonsense”:

And so it was settled that there were to be one groomsman and nine bridesmaids. A most unheard-of arrangement; but as Wynnette emphatically declared—there was no law against it.

And now the girls were off to their rooms to dress for the occasion.

At seven o’clock they were all assembled in Mrs. Force’s room, waiting for the summons to go down.

They were all dressed with the simple elegance that became the occasion.

Odalite wore a white silk-trained dress, with a lace overdress looped with lilies of the valley, and a lace veil fastened to her hair by a spray of the same delicate flower. She wore no jewelry. It was a whim of the bride to wear nothing on this occasion that she had worn on that of her first broken bridal—not even the same sort of materials for her dress, or the same sort of flowers for ornaments. Her bridal was very plain and 83inexpensive. But no flowers could have bloomed more beautifully than her cheeks and lips, and no diamonds shone more brilliantly than her eyes. The light of happiness irradiated her face and form—her whole presence and atmosphere.

The nine bridesmaids were all dressed very nearly alike.

Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary had white tulle dresses trimmed with rose-colored ribbon.

Sophy, Nanny, Polly and Peggy Grandiere wore white organdie dresses trimmed with light blue ribbon; and Erny and Milly Elk, white swiss muslin suits trimmed with bright yellow ribbon.

Mrs. Force wore a pale mauve damasse silk.

No one except the young bride wore any headdress but their own tastefully arranged hair.

It was to be a quiet wedding, you know—a very quiet wedding, with none but the family friends.

There came a rap at the door.

Wynnette, who was nearest at hand, opened it.

“Tell your mother, my dear, that the Rev. Dr. Priestly has come,” said Mr. Force, who stood without.

But Mrs. Force had heard the voice, and answered for herself:

“We are ready and waiting. Come in.”

He entered, smiling on the bevy of beauties that met his eyes.

He singled out his daughter, kissed her on the forehead, and drew her arm in his to take her downstairs, mentally applying to her the pretty line of Tennyson:

He led her down and the others followed in pairs.

He led her into the parlor, where stood the portly form of the Rev. Dr. Priestly, in full canonicals, and surrounded by a small group of four young men—to 84wit: Leonidas Force, the bridegroom; Roland Bayard, his best man; and Messrs. Ned and Sam Grandiere, nothing in particular.

The bridegroom advanced, bowed and received the bride from her father’s hand and led her up before the minister, who now stood under the floral arch between the front and rear drawing rooms, and from which the floral wedding bell hung.

The bridegroom and the bride stood before the minister—Roland Bayard, best man, stood on his right; Wynnette, first bridesmaid, stood on her left; behind them the eight white-robed girls formed a semicircle. Mr. Force stood on their right, with Mrs. Force on his arm. She was pale and trembling. He perceived her state, and whispered:

“I suppose every mother suffers something in seeing her daughter married, even under the most auspicious circumstances! But look at Odalite and Le! See how happy those children are, and recover your spirits.”

She glanced up in her husband’s kind face and smiled.

The doorbell rang sharply. Perhaps it was the utter stillness of the house—in the solemn pause of expectancy, as the minister opened his book—which made that sound reverberate through the air like a sudden and peremptory summons.

Mrs. Force looked up anxiously.

“It is of no consequence, my dear. Some chance caller, who does not know what is going on here. But I prepared for such an event by giving orders to the hall boy not to admit any one, but to tell all and sundry who might come that we are engaged,” whispered Mr. Force.

“Hush!” she murmured, but she looked relieved. “Hush! Dr. Priestly is about to begin.”

The minister, in fact, began, in a very impressive manner, to read the opening exhortation, and every eye was fixed upon him and every ear bent to hear him.

There was some movement in the hall outside. Mrs. 85Force started and turned her head. Her husband stooped and murmured low:

“Don’t tremble so, my dear! It is only the servants pressing close to the door to steal a look at the wedding. They would not let any visitors in. And even if they should make such a mistake, it would be no great matter!”

“Hush!” she answered, in the lowest murmur. “Do not talk! Attend to the ceremony.”

Uninterrupted by the inaudible whisper between husband and wife, the ceremony was proceeding. And no one moved or spoke, until the minister, lifting his eyes from the book in his hands, inquired gravely:

“‘Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?’”

“‘I do,’” answered Abel Force, stepping forward, taking his daughter’s hand with tender solemnity and placing it in that of Leonidas, who bowed with deep reverence as he received it.

Then Abel Force retreated to the side of his pale and agitated wife, whispered with a smile:

“Just what your father did for me, my love! Just what Leonidas may have to do for Odalite’s daughters some twenty years hence! The order of nature, dear wife! And we must smile and not cry over it.”

But Elfrida Force was not grieving over the marriage of her daughter. There was nothing in that marriage to give her pain; everything to give her satisfaction. Odalite was marrying no stranger, but Leonidas, who had been brought up in her home, who loved her, and was beloved by her as an only son. And Odalite was not to be taken away from her, but was to live on the adjoining plantation to their own, where, if they pleased, mother and daughter might meet every day. Altogether a most perfectly satisfactory marriage, in which her soul would have delighted but for a nameless dread of approaching evil—a dread which she could neither comprehend nor 86conquer—a dread of impeding ill which was fast growing into terror of an immediate death blow.

“Oh!” she breathed. “When it is entirely over—‘finished, done and sealed’—and they are off at sea, then, and then only, shall I be able to breathe freely.”

Meanwhile the solemn rites went on to the conclusion, and once more Odalite, with her hand safely clasped in that of her bridegroom, heard spoken over them the awful warning: “Those whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

There was a pause, but no interruption on this occasion—a short pause, and then the solemn, pathetic, beautiful benediction was pronounced upon the newly married and indeed happy pair.

And then Leonidas took his bride by her hand, to give her the sacred, sealing kiss, when—before his lips could meet hers—he was suddenly seized from behind and violently hurled to the other end of the room.

The intruder was Col. Angus Anglesea, who caught Odalite to his breast, and with his arm firmly clasping her waist, stood, haughty, insolent and defiant, in the midst of the thunderstruck group.

A scene of indescribable confusion followed. The bride fainted, the bridesmaids shrieked, the old minister dropped his book, and fell back in the nearest chair, in a state bordering on apoplexy.

87The men, panic-stricken by amazement for a moment, now pressed forward.

Anglesea glared at them.

“This woman is my wife!” he said.

Le instantly recovered himself, and dashed madly forward.

Heaven only knows what he might have done, but he was intercepted, and held as in a vise by Mr. Force, who sternly said:

“Le, there must be no violence here. This madman must be dealt with by law, not by violence.”

“‘This madman!’” shouted the infuriated youth, struggling desperately to free himself. “‘This madman,’ is it? This scoundrel, steeped to the lips in vice and crime! This——”

“Le, be quiet! Would you murder, or be murdered?” demanded Mr. Force, holding the young maniac firmly. Then turning to the intruder, he said, in a calm, commanding tone: “Col. Anglesea, leave the house.”

“When I have accomplished that for which I came here,” answered the intruder, smiling superior.

Young Bayard made a dash at him.

“Roland!” exclaimed Mr. Force, in a peremptory tone that arrested the steps of the young man. “Stop! I will have no struggle in my house. If the man does not leave quietly, he shall be taken off by a policeman.”

But now all Abel Force’s attention and energy were required to control the young lion whom he held.

“Let me get at him! The thief, who married a rich widow only to rob and desert her! The bigamist, who, having a living wife, tried to deceive and marry a wealthy, betrothed maiden, only to rob and ruin her! The forger, who invented and published a false account of his own death that he might entrap his victim into another marriage, and take a mean revenge by coming here with pretended claims to stop it! Oh! but he shall 88die for this!” roared the youth, foaming with rage and struggling fiercely to free himself.

“Le! Le! be quiet, I say! You are stark, staring mad!” exclaimed Abel Force, holding the young man fast, though it took all his strength to do it.

He might as well have talked to a cyclone.

“This felon!” thundered the youth—“this felon, who has broken every law of God and man! This felon, I say, who should have been in the State prison twenty years ago, serving out a life term! And you see him with my wife in his arms, and you will not let me go! Oh!”

Here Mrs. Force, commanding herself by a great effort, went up to where Col. Anglesea stood holding Odalite to his bosom, and clasped her hands, raised her eyes to him, and pleaded:

“Oh! for dear mercy’s sake, give me my poor child! Don’t you see that she is fainting, dying?”

Somewhat to her surprise, Anglesea placed Odalite in her arms, saying, lightly:

“So that you do not take her out of the room! You know that she is my wife! And——”

“Edward Grandiere! Be kind enough to step and bring in a policeman—two of them, if possible,” said Mr. Force, who had all he could do to hold Leonidas.

“Uncle! uncle! I don’t want to hurt you, but, by my soul, if you don’t let me go, I shall be compelled to hurt you!” exclaimed the maddened and writhing youth.

But the strong, mature man held him in arms that were like iron cable chains.

“I tell you I shall hurt you, uncle!”

“Very well, Le! Hurt me! But I shall hold you all the same.”

“Why won’t you let me kill him?” yelled Le.

“Because, though he deserves death, you would commit a crime.”

“Oh, Heaven! must I bear this?”

89“Be patient, Le! Let the law deal with this man! Edward Grandiere, I asked you to go for a policeman!”

“Yes, sir! I only stopped to ask Roland where I should find one,” said the young countryman, apologetically, as he hurried away.

At this point Mrs. Force had led Odalite to an easy-chair, where she recovered from her fainting fit only to fall into a paroxysm of hysterical sobs and tears. Her heartbroken mother sat by her side. Her bridesmaids stood all around her, too much frightened to offer the least comfort or assistance.

Col. Anglesea approached this group.

Odalite, who was sobbing convulsively, shuddered, and covered her eyes with her hands.

The bridesmaids, who all knew him, for he had dined often at the tables of their parents, regarded him in fear and horror, and cast down their eyes to avoid looking at him.

But Angus Anglesea ignored them all, passed them, and, addressing Mrs. Force, said, almost apologetically:

“I did not wish or intend to make a scene. But it was more than even my self-possession could endure to see my wife in the arms of another man, who was about to kiss her. I only want my just and lawful rights. You, madam, know that your eldest daughter is my lawful wife. Knowing this, I would ask you why you permitted your daughter to commit a felony that exposes her to the penalty of the laws for such cases made and provided?”

“We thought that Odalite was free to marry. We thought that you were dead,” said Elfrida Force, who had suddenly grown superstitiously afraid of this man, who seemed to be a Satan in strength, subtlety and unscrupulous wickedness.

“You thought I was dead! Upon what ground? I am in the prime of life, and in the height of health.”

90“We saw the notice of your death in a paper sent to us.”

“Really? Well, that is rather startling. I should like to see that paper.”

At this moment Dr. Priestly came up, and said:

“This is all very terrible. I—I do not understand it in the least.”

“It is easily explained, sir. A false report of my death reached my wife there. She, believing herself to be a widow, contracted marriage with that young gentleman yonder, who seems to be executing a war dance in the arms of my father-in-law!” replied Col. Anglesea.

“Oh, Dr. Priestly! will you be so kind as to go and assist Mr. Force in bringing Leonidas to reason?” pleaded the lady.

“Ye-yes! Of course! Oh, this is terrible, terrible! In the whole course of my ministry I never met anything so terrible. But, sir,” he said, suddenly breaking off in his discourse and turning to Col. Anglesea, “you said that this young lady believed herself to be a widow when she contracted marriage with Mr. Force. But she was never known here as wife or widow. I have known her for more than three years as Miss Force.”

“That certainly requires explanation, as our marriage was not a secret one, but was solemnized in the face of day and before a large congregation——”

“And then knocked as high as the sky by the dropping down upon you of your Californian wife! Oh, you hoofed and horned devil!” said Wynnette, suddenly joining the group and unable longer to restrain herself.

The Rev. Dr. Priestly stared.

“Oh! what am I saying? I mean, reverend sir”—Wynnette began, apologetically—“I mean that this gentleman’s attempted marriage with my elder sister was arrested at the very altar by the appearance of a lady from St. Sebastian, who claimed to be, and proved herself to be, his lawful wife.”

91The old minister looked perplexed and helplessly from the earnest girl to the scornful man.

“After that my sister went from the church to my father’s house, and lived under our parents’ protection. Of course, she was still Miss Force. The unfinished ceremony could not have changed her name or condition, even if the Californian had been an impostor, which she was not. This cowardly dead beat and mean skala——Oh! I beg pardon, I am sure, Dr. Priestly. I should have said: Col. Anglesea, here present, knows that she was not an impostor, and he knows that he has no claim on Odalite. He only comes here to make a scene. His marriage was broken off at the altar by the appearance of his wife, and he is determined that Odalite’s shall be broken off, for the day at least, by the appearance of himself, with the claim that he is her husband. It is ‘tit for tat,’ you know. ‘What’s good for the gander is good for the goose,’ you see. Oh, dear! Excuse me! I mean it is his revenge, reprisal, commending back of the poisoned chalice, don’t you know?”

“Madam, is this true?” inquired the bewildered minister.

Mrs. Force did not reply. She dared not. She was so utterly subdued by the appearance of her archenemy, under such inexplicable circumstances, she could only ignore his question and repeat her request:

“Oh! Dr. Priestly, you are a man of peace. Pray go and help my husband to bring our young relative to reason.”

The old minister unwillingly trotted off and arrived on the scene of action in good time, for Mr. Force’s strength was beginning to give way under the struggles of his prisoner to escape without hurting his captor.

“You see that man standing among the ladies, whom his presence insults and contaminates, and you will not let me get at him!” cried Le.

“My dear boy, I will not have a fight in my parlor, 92and in the presence of women and children, do you understand? Wait for the police. We will have him peaceably arrested and taken off. Then our interruption will be over. The marriage ceremony was concluded, you know. As soon as we get rid of this madman—for of course he is a madman—you can get ready and take the train for Baltimore, just as if nothing unpleasant had happened.”

Mr. Force spoke in a clear and ringing voice, and was heard by Col. Anglesea, who laughed out aloud and derisively.

At that moment Roland Bayard and Grandiere came in, convoying two policemen.

So rapidly had the events occurred which take so long to report, that ten minutes had not elapsed since the first appearance of Col. Anglesea on the scene, nor three since the departure of the young men in search of the policemen.

“Ah! here you are!” exclaimed Abel Force, in a tone of relief.

“Yes, sir!” said Roland Bayard. “We were so fortunate as to meet the two officers at the corner of the street!”

“And strangely enough, they were on their way to the house,” added Ned Grandiere.

“Some of the servants must have had the discretion to go for them. Well, officers, I am glad that you are here, and I hope you will be able to do your unpleasant duty quietly,” said Mr. Force. And pointing directly to the intruder, he added: “I give that man, there, Angus Anglesea, in charge for a violent breach of the peace. Take him away at once.”

The policemen stared at the speaker, and then at Col. Anglesea, in a very unofficial sort of way, and finally walked up to the colonel, and one of them said:

“I don’t understand it, sir! What does it mean?”

93“He’s drunk, I guess! But that need not hinder your duty. Go and serve the papers on him at once.”

The policeman came back to Mr. Force and offered him a folded document.

“What is this? What nonsense is this?” inquired Mr. Force, without taking the paper, because both his hands were still engaged in holding Le.

“Take it and read it, sir, if you please,” said the officer who had served it. “It is addressed to yourself.”

“Roland,” said Mr. Force, addressing young Bayard, “I don’t want to get you into a fight with your brother-in-arms, by asking you to hold Le; but will you please open that paper and hold it up before my eyes that I may read it?”

Roland bowed in silence, took the paper, opened it and stared at it for a moment, before he held it up to his host to be read.

Abel Force began to peruse the document and frowned as he went on. And well he might!

For it was no less than a writ of habeas corpus, issued by a judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, ordering Abel Force to produce the body of Odalite Anglesea, otherwise Odalite Force, before him the next morning, April 2, at 10 o’clock.

Abel Force, as has been seen, was a law-abiding man. On this trying occasion, under this galling insult, he commanded himself with wonderful power.

“Very well,” he said. “You have done your duty. I will obey the order. Take that man away with you. He has committed a gross breach of the peace; but let that pass for the present.”

94At this moment Col. Anglesea came up and said:

“I will meet you before the judge to-morrow morning. For the present, having seen the writ of habeas corpus served upon you, I withdraw. Good-evening, sir. Ladies, good-evening.”

And with as courtly a bow as if he were leaving the drawing room of a duchess, Col. Anglesea went out, followed by the policemen.

“Now be still, Le! This shall be settled equitably to-morrow. For the present nothing more can be done,” said Mr. Force, as with a long breath of relief he at length released his prisoner.

But Le was no sooner free than he dashed out of the room and out of the house in pursuit of his enemy.

“Let him go!” said Abel Force, in desperation. “Let him go. But I do not think he will catch Anglesea. He has probably taken a carriage, for I heard wheels roll away from the door before I released Le.”

“Sir, can I be of any further service here?” inquired the aged minister, coming forward.

“No, reverend sir, you cannot; but you will perhaps take some refreshments before you leave,” replied Mr. Force.

“Not any, I thank you. This has been a most agitating evening. If I can serve you in any manner, at this trying crisis, pray command me.”

“We thank you very much.”

“If my presence to-morrow can avail in any way——”

“I do not think it can, yet I should be glad to have you come.”

“I will meet you,” said the rector. And after shaking hands all around he left the room.

Mr. Force stepped quickly over to where his wife sat by his daughter’s easy-chair, holding her hand.

Odalite’s violent paroxysm of distress was over, but she still sobbed with a low, gasping breath as she lay back in a state of exhaustion.

95He looked at the girl and sighed. He would have spoken to her, but his wife raised her hand in warning and said, in a low tone:

“Leave her alone for a little while. She is very much prostrated, but will rally presently.”

“Elfrida,” he said then, bending over the lady’s chair, “Elfrida! can there be any truth in that man’s pretended claim to our child? Not that it will make any difference in the end, for I swear by all that is sacred, he shall never possess her! But you remember when we read that sketch of his life in the Angleton Advertiser, we noticed that the date of the death of his first wife, as given there, was some weeks later than the date of his marriage with the California widow.”

“I remember,” said the lady, faintly, for her heart, her mother heart, seemed dying within her.

“And such being the case, we should be thankful that Odalite’s marriage with Le was stopped just where it was. It would have been most disastrous if the man had reappeared and set up his claim to Odalite weeks or months after the marriage had been consummated.”

“Indeed it would!” replied the lady. “And yet, Abel, it may all be a fraud. He may have no claim on her whatever. If he could contrive to have published a false obituary of himself, could he not even more easily have inserted in the sketch of his life attached to it a false date of the death of his wife?”

“Indeed he could. The whole question of his right to Odalite hangs upon the true date of Lady Mary Anglesea’s demise. If she died before his Californian marriage, then is the Californian woman his lawful wife, and Odalite is free. If, on the contrary, as is made to appear in that fraudulent obituary notice, Lady Mary Anglesea died since the marriage with the Californian, then was that second marriage a felony, laying him liable to prosecution for bigamy, and to imprisonment at hard labor in the State’s prison, and his third incomplete 96marriage ceremony with our daughter only an awkward entanglement, which affords him a false excuse to lay claim to her, and which it may require the wisdom of the law courts to unravel. I have no doubt as to the final issue. We must be prepared to meet the villain in court to-morrow. We must prove the arrest of the marriage ceremony at All Faith Church, three years ago, by the appearance of the would-be bridegroom’s wife. Fortunately we have ‘a cloud of witnesses’ to that fact. Besides ourselves, all the young people who are our guests were present at the church on that occasion. Cheer up, my love!” he said, going over to the other side of Odalite’s chair, and bending over her. “Your perfect freedom and happiness is but a question of time. And meanwhile you will remain under my protection.”

“Dear papa! I cause you much trouble, do I not?” she inquired, tenderly, putting her hand in his.

“No, dearest! You never caused me any trouble in all your life! A scoundrel has given us both trouble; but it cannot last long. If the hearing should not be decisive to-morrow, I must ask for time and get the California lady up here. Also, later, that will take more time, I must send a trusty messenger over to England to ascertain from parish registers and tombstones the exact date of the death of Lady Mary Anglesea. But through all, as you are a minor, you must and shall remain under my protection. Take courage, love!”

“There is Le!” exclaimed Mrs. Force, as the hall doorbell rang, and the door opened, and a hurried step was heard approaching the drawing room.

Mr. Force started up, and went to meet the midshipman.

“I could not find the poltroon! He has run away, as he did on that first occasion, when I sent Roland to him!” exclaimed the youth. “But yet he shall not escape me!”

97“Come here, Le,” said Odalite, in a gentle voice.

And the boy crossed the room and knelt before her, placing both his hands in hers.

It was the old, instinctive, knightly gesture of allegiance and loyalty.

“What is it, Odalite?” he inquired.

She bent and kissed his forehead, and then she said:

“My lover and husband, you would do anything for me to-night? Would you not?”

“Anything, Odalite! my love and queen! anything! I would live or die for you! I would forego the dearest wish of my heart for you!” he exclaimed, lifting her hands and pressing them to his lips, and then placing them on his head—another old knightly gesture of allegiance and loyalty.

“Kiss me, Le! Kiss me with the kiss that seals our marriage vows,” she said.

He started up, and caught her to his bosom, and kissed her fondly, fervently, reverentially.

“Now, Le, I wish you to promise me to forego vengeance on your ‘dearest foe.’ To use no violence toward the wicked man who has caused all our trouble; because, dearest dear, there can be no violence without lawbreaking, and no lawbreaking without such consequences as would inflict the deepest sorrow, the fiercest anguish on me. And I have already suffered so much, you would not have me suffer more. You will promise me, Le?”

“Yes, my best beloved! Yes, my sovereign lady! I will promise all you ask—even to the renouncing of my just vengeance and the leaving of that incarnate fiend to the law. I wish it could hang him! I hope, at the least, it will send him to the State prison! I will do all that my queen——”

“Your wife, Le.”

“My angel wife requires me to do. And I will endure all that she requires me to endure.”

98“Meantime—although we must have patience until this case is decided, as it must be decided, in our favor—we are husband and wife. Never dream that I can consider myself in any other light than as your wife, or that I could think of you in any other way than as my husband. We shall not be separated, but remain, as lately, members of the same family, inmates of the same house; living as a betrothed couple, or as brother and sister, until this cloud from the depths of Tartarus has been cleared away from between us. Do you promise, Le?”

“Everything! Everything you wish, Odalite.”

“That is my dear, brave, loyal Le!”

There was something in this interview—that had been held in the sight and hearing of all the little company—that so touched all hearts that the boys and girls gathered around the young couple with looks of heartfelt sympathy. The girls kissed Odalite and pressed the hands of Le. The boys shook hands with Le, and looked “unutterable things” at Odalite.

“My dear,” said Mr. Force to his wife, “I think you had better take our daughter off to your own apartment. It grows late, and she is tired. And we have a trying day before us to-morrow.”

This was the signal for the dispersion of the little group. And they all bade good-night and retired.

So ended Odalite’s second wedding day.

It was a drizzling, chilly, cheerless day—one of those relapses into winter into which early spring sometimes falls.

99Not one of the family had been able to sleep well after such a harassing evening as they had passed.

They assembled around the breakfast table with pale faces and careworn looks.

The table was full, and even crowded, with family and guests—sixteen in all.

Odalite was the last to come in. Her face was deathly white, and showed signs of an anxious and sleepless night. Yet she greeted the whole party with a wan smile and a slight bow as she took her seat.

Not one word was said of the ordeal soon to be passed through. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Force would allude to it, and no one else durst.

The conversation went on, or, rather, failed to go on, in abortive jets.

Subjects were started, but fell.

Some one said it was a horrid day, so different from yesterday, and more like November than April.

And several others said yes, or some word to the same effect, and that subject dropped dead.

Some one mentioned that the “English Opera Troupe” would perform the “Bride of Lammermoor” that evening.

No one answered that venture except Mr. Force, who, as a mere matter of form and politeness, said he believed so.

Ned Grandiere said it was good growing weather for the crops.

But no one complimented him by a reply.

And at length the dull repast was over, and all arose from the table.

It was now nine o’clock, and raining hard. At ten Mr. Force and Odalite were required to arrive before the judge.

As the party left the breakfast room, the guests dispersed to parlor, library, or chambers, as their inclinations led them.

100Mrs. Force called Odalite, and went upstairs, followed by all her daughters, to prepare for her drive to the courthouse.

Le followed his uncle into a little smoking room at the back of the hall. Neither of the men went there to smoke. Mr. Force went there to be alone while he waited for his wife and daughter, and Le to speak to his uncle.

“Uncle Abel, can I have a word with you?”

“As many as you please, or as time will permit, my boy. Come in.”

They entered the room, and took seats at the little round table, on which stood pipes of every description, cigar cases, tobacco pots, tapers, ash saucers and all the paraphernalia of smoking.

“Uncle Abel,” inquired Le, as soon as they were seated, “have you secured counsel?”

“No, Le, nor shall I do so. To engage counsel would be to give the case more importance than I choose to give it. It is a simple habeas corpus. A very informal matter, and, in this instance, a very impertinent one—an abuse of the privilege of habeas corpus. I do not need counsel, and shall not have any. I shall tell my story to the judge. I do not even know that I shall call a witness. That is all that will be necessary. I have no fears of the result.”

“Uncle Abel, I must go with you before the judge this morning.”

“No, Le!” emphatically objected Mr. Force. “No, Le! I cannot have my daughter, my young and innocent child, exposed to the ignominy of standing between two men, each of whom claims her as his wife.”

The young man was shocked at the presentation of the case from a point of view he had never contemplated before, and too greatly confused for a moment to make any reply. At length he said:

101“But, Uncle Abel, we know who has the right to her! We know that she is my wife!”

“No, Le, we do not know that. We only think we know it. We thought we knew that Angus Anglesea was dead and in Hades. But you see he is alive, and in Washington.”

“That is a nuisance; but his being here gives him no claim on Odalite.”

“None as you and I think. But we do not know what the law may decide, Le. It is of no use going over the whole situation again. You know it, as well as I do. Angus Anglesea married Ann Maria Wright, August 1, 18—. Of that transaction we have abundant proof. If Anglesea were then free to contract that marriage, then is he the lawful husband of Ann Maria Anglesea, his second wife. But, on the other hand, if his first wife, Lady Mary Anglesea, did not die until the twenty-fifth of that same August, then his marriage with Ann Maria Wright, on the first of the said month, is null and void, and he was free to contract marriage at the time that he married my daughter, and Odalite Force is his legal second wife.”

“Oh, Heaven! oh, Heaven! oh, Heaven! What shall I do?” exclaimed the youth, starting up in a frenzy.

“‘We must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,’” said Mr. Force; “for, Le, we have to deal with one who has the malice and subtlety of a demon from the deepest abyss. He is absolutely unscrupulous. I do not know, mind you, but I firmly believe he has falsified dates to suit his own base purposes. I believe also that he designedly laid a trap for us by which he could satiate his vengeance.”

“I—I shall kill him, and hang for it!” burst forth the boy.

“No, you won’t, Le. You came of Christian parents, and have had a Christian training. You will do nothing 102unworthy of your race and education,” calmly replied Mr. Force.

“Uncle!” exclaimed the youth, “how came that false publication of his death, with time, place and circumstances all complete, in the newspaper of his own village? It is amazing. It is incredible that such a fraud could have been perpetrated.”

“Yes, it is amazing and incredible. And yet we know that it is a fraud, since the man is alive and well. How it was done I do not know. Why it was done I can well understand. It was done as a trap to catch us, and place us in a false and humiliating position. I have no doubt that, from the hour of his ejection from our house and his ignominious retreat from the neighborhood, he meditated vengeance. I have no doubt he lay in wait, watching us for these three years past, giving no sign of his existence, leaving us to suppose that we were finally rid of him, but all the while watching and waiting for your return, Le, to see what would come of it. I believe that he knew the course of your ship as well as you did yourself—knew where she went and when she was ordered home. Then he manufactured this false evidence of his death, with time, place and circumstances all complete, as you said, with obituary eulogy, sketch of his life and career, and including his marriage with Lady Mary Merland, the date of her death, August 25, 18—, and his second marriage with Odalite Force——”

“I—I—uncle, I am quite anxious to hang for that man!” panted the youth.

“But we are not willing to let you, Le. Your execution would be of no sort of comfort to Odalite, or any of us. Now let me go on. All these concocted and published falsehoods had but one end—to entrap us all into a false sense of security, and to allow you and Odalite to contract marriage on your return from sea. I have no doubt that within ten days after your ship sailed from Rio de Janeiro, homeward bound, he sailed from Liverpool 103to New York, under an assumed name, and that he has been in the country ever since, and lately in the city, watching for your wedding day, so that he might turn the tables, and snatch your bride from your possession at the very altar, as it were, and so humiliate us all in retaliation for his exposure at All Faith Church.”

“Oh, the demon! the demon! Any fate would be cheaply bought at the cost of sending him to——”

“Le! Le! control yourself! Remember your Christian parentage and training, and do not speak and act like any border ruffian. Remember also that we do not know the man has falsified the date of his wife’s death. We only think so.”

“Uncle, suppose the judge to-day should decide against us—should adjudge Odalite to be the wife of that devil, and give her to him—what then?”

“I do not for a moment anticipate any such decision,” said Mr. Force.

“Yet, it is possible,” muttered Le.

“But most improbable. The case, I think, from every point of view, is too clearly in our favor.”

“You think, but you do not know. Our thoughts have misled us up to this moment, and may be misleading us now. But admitting the possibility that the decision may be against us—that Odalite may be given into the custody of Anglesea——”

The father’s face darkened and flushed.

“I would not give my child up to the scoundrel!”

“But suppose the court were to order you to do so?”

“I would resist, and take the consequences. I would never give my child to that devil! I would sooner—Heaven knows that I would sooner throw her alive into that lion’s cage in the circus at the Smithsonian Park over there!”

“But, uncle, suppose, in case of your resistance, the officers were ordered to do their duty and take the woman from you by force, to give her to the man. You 104know such might be the effect of your resistance. What then?”

The father’s face darkened like a thundercloud. His eyes, under their black brows, flashed like lightning.

“Le,” he said, “why do you torture me by such improbable suppositions? In such a case I should—I could be another Virginius, and give my child instant death to save her.”

“No, uncle, you would not. You came of Christian parents, and you have had a Christian training. You would do nothing unworthy of your race and your education. Uncle, remember your Christian parentage and training, and do not speak and act like a heathen Roman,” said Le, solemnly.

The two men looked at each other in comic embarrassment almost approaching laughter, had not the matter been so serious.

“We have been letting imagination run away with us, Le. You and I have been getting ourselves into unnecessary heroics. There will be nothing to justify it. It is true that we have the most infernal villain to deal with that ever disgraced the human form, but he must be dealt with by law, and not by violence. All will be well,” said the elder man.

“Uncle, it was I who got into heroics first, and then stung you into the same state. But really now, I do not think that I shall have any occasion to murder Anglesea and swing for it, or that you will have any cause to enact the Roman father and slay your daughter to save her. Wait for my coup.”

“If I had been that same Roman father, it would not have been my own kid I’d have killed, you bet. It would have been t’other I’d have gone for. I mean, I never could see the sense of Virginius slaying his own daughter, and running amuck through the streets of Rome, instead of doing execution on the minion of Appius Claudius 105in the first place. It was wrong end foremost, like most of the heroic dodges.”

Of course it was Wynnette who spoke. She was standing within the open door.

“What do you want, my dear?” inquired her father.

“Mamma sent me to look for you, and tell you that it is half-past nine. She and Odalite are ready, and the carriage is at the door.”

“Thank you, dear. Tell mamma that I will be with her in a moment,” said Mr. Force, as he arose from his seat.

Wynnette ran off with her message.

“So, uncle, you will not allow me to go with you to the examination?” inquired Le.

“By no means! On no account, dear boy! You yourself should not wish it under the circumstances.”

“All right. Who is going with Odalite besides yourself?”

“Her mother, her two sisters, Rosemary Hedge, and the four Misses Grandiere.”

“They can’t all go in one carriage.”

“No; no one but Odalite, her mother and the eldest Miss Grandiere will go in our carriage; the others will go by the street cars, under the escort of Roland Bayard. I take a crowd of ladies with me not only as witnesses to the broken marriage at All Faith Church—for the young men could have answered that purpose—but as the most fitting, proper and delicate support to my daughter. I take only one man, Roland Bayard, not only as the most important witness, who brought Anglesea’s Californian wife from San Francisco to St. Mary’s, but also as a proper escort for the young ladies in the street car. But you, Le, should, in delicacy, absent yourself.”

“At least, I will not press my company on you, uncle. But perhaps I may be there later. Don’t let anything 106discourage you, no matter how the case seems to be going. Wait for my coup,” said Le.

Mr. Force was drawing on his light overcoat in the hall, to which they had walked during this conversation, and he scarcely heard or heeded the youth’s last words, which seemed to be so significant.

They met Mrs. Force and Odalite at the front door.

“The girls have gone on in the cars before. Roland is with them. I told them to wait in the vestibule of the City Hall until we should join them,” said the elder lady.

Odalite said nothing. She was white and still, as she had been at the breakfast table.

It was pouring rain.

When the front door was opened Mr. Force and Leonidas both took large umbrellas from the hall rack and held them over the heads of the two ladies as they passed from the house to the carriage.

When the two latter had entered and taken their seats, Mr. Force followed them, and Le closed the door.

“I shall bring her back with me,” said the elder man.

“I am sure that you will,” replied the younger.

The carriage drove off, and Le re-entered the house, muttering to himself:

“Let them wait for my coup!”

Mr. Force with his party drove directly to the City Hall.

It was still raining hard, when they arrived—so hard that when the carriage drew up before the broad flight of steps leading up to the main entrance of the building, 107Mr. Force, upon alighting upon the pavement, had to take out one lady at a time, and lead her under the shelter of a large umbrella up into the hall.

They found Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary, with the three younger Grandiere girls, all under the escort of Roland Bayard, waiting for them in the vestibule.

When all the party were assembled, they mustered quite a formidable company—eleven in number.

“I never was in a courthouse in all my life before! I feel just as if I was going to be tried for murder or larceny, or something, myself! I know I shall never be able to hold up my head again!” whispered Elva, in a frightened voice, to Wynnette.

“And I reckon I shall be tried for murder, if ever I get a good chance to let daylight through that foreign beat!” replied Wynnette, too mad to mend her phrases as she usually did.

“Don’t be distressed, Elva, dear! We are not going into court. This is a case to be heard in chambers,” Roland explained.

“Chambers!” echoed, in a breath, all the girls, whose only idea of chambers was bedrooms.

Before Roland could explain further, Mr. Force had come in with Odalite on his arm, and hurried the whole party up another flight of stairs and along another passage, until they reached a door at which a bailiff stood.

The latter opened the door, in silence.

The whole party entered a large and well-furnished room, where, on this cold and rainy second of April, a bright coal fire was burning in the grate. The floor was covered with a dark red carpet, the windows shaded with buff blinds, now drawn three-quarters up, because the day was dark, and the walls were lined with tall bookcases, filled with well-worn volumes, mostly bound in calf. Several library tables, loaded with folios and stationery, occupied the middle of the spacious apartment.

In a large leathern chair, at one of these tables, sat a 108venerable man, with white hair and a benign countenance, a judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, whom, for convenience, we will call Judge Blank.

There was a grave young man standing near him, who might have been clerk or private secretary.

And seated in another armchair, at some little distance, was Col. Anglesea, looking as careless as if he were making a morning call.

He, too, seemed to be without counsel or witnesses.

Mr. Force came forward with his party, bowed to the dignitary, whom he frequently met in social life and knew very well, and saluted him with a—

“Good-morning, judge,” as if he, too, had just dropped in to make a morning call.

“Good-morning, Mr. Force,” replied his honor, rising and looking about him.

Seeing the large party who had entered the room, he turned to the young man in attendance, and said:

“O’Brien, find seats for these ladies.”

When they were all seated, Mr. Force remained standing before the judge, with only the table between them.

Col. Anglesea sat back at ease in his chair, with his chin a little elevated, playing carelessly with the charms attached to his watch chain.

There was a short pause, and then Mr. Force, laying a document on the table, said:

“Your honor, I return the writ with which I have been served. My daughter, Odalite Force, is present.”

“Take a seat, Mr. Force,” said the judge, and then, turning to the young man whom he had called O’Brien, he took from his hand a paper and began to read it to himself.

There was silence in the quiet room.

“This is not a bit like I thought it was going to be. I don’t feel at all scared now! Why, I know Judge 109Blank! He used to pat me on the head every time he saw me!” whispered Elva to Wynnette.

“Hush, hush! you mustn’t talk here. Yes, it is quiet enough here, for that matter! Executions are quiet nearly always. We read, ‘The execution was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner,’ and yet a man has been hung and choked to death, or perhaps a woman,” whispered Wynnette, most inconsistently talking more than the sister whom she had rebuked for breaking silence.

“Oh, Wynnette! why will you talk of such horrid, horrid things?” demanded Elva, in a frightened tone.

“Because I am thinking of the price. I am counting the cost of sending that earthworm to Hades——Hush!”

The judge had finished reading the document in his hand, and turning slowly to the respondent, said:

“Mr. Force, you are charged herein, under oath, by Col. Angus Anglesea, of Anglewood Manor, England, with having, on the twentieth of December, 18—, forcibly abducted, and for three years past and up to this present, illegally detained the person of his wife, Odalite Anglesea—otherwise Odalite Force. What have you to say to this charge?”

“I say that it is absolutely false and malicious from beginning to end! The young lady here present, to whom he so insolently refers, is my daughter, Odalite Force, a maiden and a minor, under my own immediate protection,” replied Abel Force.

“Col. Angus Anglesea will step forward,” said the venerable judge.

The colonel arose, bowed and came up to the table.

O’Brien handed him the New Testament.

He bowed again with hypocritical devotion and took the formal oath to speak “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

“Col. Anglesea, will you now state the grounds upon which you claim this lady here present, Odalite Force, 110or Anglesea, as your wife, and charge Abel Force, her father, with forcibly abducting and illegally detaining her?” said the judge.

“I will,” replied the colonel. And he began his statement:

“Three years and four months ago, on the twentieth of December, 18—, in the Church of All Faith, in the Parish of All Faith, in the State of Maryland, I married Odalite Force, here present, daughter of Abel Force, also here present. The Rev. Dr. Peters, rector of All Faith, performed the marriage. Mr. Abel Force gave away the bride. At the end of the ceremony a madwoman burst into the church, forced her way to the altar and created a disgraceful disturbance, into the details of which I need not go. Mr. Force, with the help of some of his neighbors, seized his daughter, tore her from my arms and conveyed her to his home, where he has forcibly and illegally detained her ever since. I see one man and several young women who were witnesses of the whole transaction, and may be put upon the stand to corroborate my testimony,” concluded the colonel.

“Oh, Lord!” muttered one and all of the girls, aghast at the proposition.

“Col. Anglesea,” questioned the judge, “you say that this happened more than three years ago. Why has not this complaint been made sooner?”

“Imperative business summoned me immediately to England and detained me there. I wrote many letters to my wife, imploring her to come over to me—letters which perhaps never reached her, for she never replied to them. I then sent a messenger, the Rev. Dr. Pratt, to see her in person, and try to induce her to come over to England under his escort and join me at Anglewood, where I impatiently awaited her. But my reverend courier failed to find her where I had left her, at her father’s country seat, Mondreer, and heard that she was with her family in Washington. He came here in 111search of my wife, but again failed to meet her. He was told that she was traveling with her family in Canada. In short, my agent failed to find her, and returned to England from his fruitless errand.”

“Lord! how that man can lie!—I mean, what reckless assertions he can make!” said Wynnette, in a low tone, to Roland.

“I like your first way of putting it best,” muttered young Bayard.

Col. Anglesea was going on with his statement:

“I was bound to England by business, which was at the same time a most sacred duty. It is needless to go into the description of that business and duty. It has nothing to do with this case further than it held me fast from coming to this country in search of my wife; from whom I had never heard directly since our violent parting in the church. Nor did I hear any news of her until last March, when a rumor reached me that she was on the eve of marriage with a cousin of hers, a Mr. Leonidas Force, a midshipman in the United States Navy. I took measures to find out the truth about this report, and having satisfied myself of it, I set sail for New York, where I arrived only three days since. I took the first train to Washington, and reached the city yesterday morning. I inquired the address of Mr. Abel Force and went directly to his house. I was refused admittance. I asked to see my wife, but was refused the privilege.”

“Oh, Lord! how that man can lie! I mean, how he can falsify the sacred truth!” panted Wynnette.

“Stick to the first form, my dear! The terse Saxon is the strongest,” muttered Roland.

Col. Anglesea continued:

“Knowing the desperate character of the man I had to deal with——”

“Oh! just hear him talking about our gentle, lovely papa!” whispered Elva.

112“Never mind! I’m putting it all down! He’s only piling up ‘wrath against a day of wrath.’ Spinning out rope enough to hang himself. I’ll give it to him! He’ll catch it!” panted Wynnette.

“Knowing, I say, the character of the man I had to deal with,” concluded Anglesea; “knowing from bitter experience that not even the holy ground of the house of God was sacred from his murderous violence——”

“Rosemary Hedge! make Roland Bayard kick that man out of the courthouse and horsewhip him in the public streets!” fiercely whispered Wynnette.

“Hush, hush, dear child! We are in the presence of the judge. Wait. I will deal with him later,” murmured young Bayard.

“Rosemary Hedge! tell Roland Bayard if he don’t kick that man out and lash him, you will never marry him!” hissed Wynnette, through her clenched teeth.

“He never asked me to,” replied Rosemary, in her tiny voice.

“Silence,” said the judge, noticing for the first time the excited whispering in the corner.

“There! I told you so! Next thing we’ll be kicked out,” muttered Wynnette, most unreasonably, since she herself had caused all the disturbance.

A dead silence fell among the group of girls while Anglesea went on with his statement:

“I applied for, and obtained, the writ of habeas corpus from your honor, ordering the abductor of my wife to bring her before you. So armed with the power of the law, I went to the house of Abel Force last night and entered it, and not a moment too soon. I found my wife standing with a young man whom I at once recognized as Mr. Midshipman Force, before a minister of the Gospel who had just pronounced the marriage benediction. I saw the writ served, and then left the house. I have no more to say but this, that I might have brought a criminal charge against her!”

113

At this moment there was a slight movement at the door, and Leonidas Force entered the room, advanced and bowed to the judge, and then handed a written paper to the father of Odalite.

Mr. Force took the paper, read it, started, and passed it on to the judge.

117His honor took it, read it slowly, and laid it on the table before him.

Mr. Force had resumed his seat.

Col. Anglesea remained standing immediately in front of the judge.

Le stood a little to the right, near the end of the table.

There was silence for a few moments.

Col. Anglesea was the first to speak again.

“In view of the evidence that I have offered to prove that I am the legal husband of Odalite Anglesea, here present, I pray your honor that my wife be delivered into my custody, or if such may not be, then into that of the sheriff, or of some other person whom I can trust.”

“Col. Anglesea,” began the judge, speaking very slowly and deliberately, “what did you say was the date of your first wife’s death?”

“The twenty-fifth of August, as you may see by the obituary notice in your possession.”

“Ah! but in what year?”

The colonel’s well-guarded face changed. He seemed disturbed, but quickly recovered himself, and answered:

“Oh! why, in the year 18—, the same year, of course, as well as the same month, in which I have been accused of having married the California widow—which, as I am not endowed with ubiquity, is impossible.”

“You say, then, that your first wife died on August 25, 18—?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“On what date was this notice inserted, and in what paper?”

“In the London Times of the twenty-sixth. It is usual, I believe, to publish the obituary notice on the day after the death,” said the colonel, with great dignity, as if he considered this cross-examination rather irrelevant, if not even impertinent.

“London Times of the twenty-sixth of August, 18—?”

118“Of course. Yes, your honor,” replied the colonel, scarcely able to control his annoyance.

At that moment Le drew from his breast pocket a folded newspaper, which he passed to Mr. Force, who, in turn, submitted it to the judge, saying respectfully:

“Here, your honor, is a copy of the London Times to which reference has been made. If your honor will examine the obituary column, you will see that the notice of Lady Mary Anglesea’s death is ‘conspicuous by its absence.’”

Col. Anglesea flushed and paled visibly while the judge turned over the paper and examined it.

“I hold here a copy of the London Times of August 25, 18—, the date you mentioned as containing the obituary notice of your wife’s death; but I fail to find it in the list of such notices,” said the judge.

“Will your honor allow me to look at that paper?” inquired Anglesea, struggling, and partly succeeding, in recovering his self-control.

“Certainly,” replied the judge, and he handed it over.

“Where did this paper come from?” frowningly inquired Anglesea of Mr. Force.

The latter gentleman replied by a wave of his hand toward Leonidas Force, who still stood near the right-hand end of the table before the judge.

“I procured it from Mr. Henry Herbert, an English gentleman, whose acquaintance I made since my return from sea, and who, as I casually found out, takes the London Times, and keeps a file of it.”

“Ah!” said Col. Anglesea. “I was certainly under the strong impression that the notice of my wife’s death was inserted in the Times of the day after the occurrence; but, as I really had nothing to do with the matter myself—such matters are usually attended to by the family solicitor, minister, or some other than the chief mourner—I could not have been certain, and should not have undertaken to give the precise date, as to which I 119must have been mistaken. And now that I reflect upon the matter, I remember that Lady Mary Anglesea died at Anglewood Manor at precisely 11:53 P.M., on the twenty-fifth, and, of course, the notice could not have reached London in time for insertion in the issue of the Times of the twenty-sixth. It may have first appeared in the issue of the twenty-seventh, or even of the twenty-eighth, and it may have never appeared in the Times at all, but in some other paper. I do not know. I fear I took the matter so for granted that the notice appeared in the Times on the day after the death, that I spoke hastily and unadvisedly,” concluded the colonel, with that air of candor he could so well assume.

“But you must remember from what paper you cut the notice that you have so carefully preserved,” suggested the judge.

“I did not cut it from any. There, again, is another reason why I cannot be sure of the date, or even of the name of the paper in which it was inserted. A thoughtful friend of the family—I do not remember who, whether it was our rector or some other—cut it out and gave it to me as a memento some days after the funeral. But, your honor, it seems to me that the date of the publication of the notice of the death is of very little consequence, as the fact remains that the event occurred on the twenty-fifth of August, 18—, while the marriage with which I am charged is said to have taken place on the first of the same month, which, if it did, was clearly illegal and of no effect, and constitutes no barrier to the marriage with Odalite, my present wife, which was solemnized at All Faith in the December following. But I say, on the contrary, that the marriage which I myself witnessed and arrested in the house of Mr. Abel Force, yesterday, April 1st, between Odalite Anglesea and Leonidas Force, was illegal, criminal and felonious; and I might now bring my wife before the criminal court on the charge of bigamy.”

120“Col. Anglesea, you will do well to remember that this is not a criminal court, nor are we investigating a criminal charge. And govern yourself accordingly,” said the judge, speaking for the first time with great severity in tone and look.

Angus Anglesea bowed and was silent.

“As this question of my daughter’s freedom to contract marriage has been raised, your honor, I will crave your indulgence while I call your attention to this paper which I hold in my hand. It is a copy of the Angleton Advertiser, of August 20th, and contains an obituary notice to the ‘late Angus Anglesea, of Anglewood, colonel,’ etc., etc., with a sketch of his life and career, and a high eulogium of his character. This paper appears to be the organ of his family, published in his own town of Angleton, and on his manor of Anglewood, and should be some authority in their affairs. And yet it publishes the death of the master of the manor, who stands living before us. Even if my daughter had been, as she certainly never was, the wife of Angus Anglesea, such evidence as this—appearing to be true, though it was false—of the death of the man whom she had not seen for more than three years, or since her incomplete marriage with him was broken off at the altar by the appearance of his wife, would have seemed to leave her free to contract marriage without a shade of reproach. This paper was sent to me through the English mails, in duplicates, the first of which reached me in September, and was soon after forwarded to his wife, Mrs. Ann Maria Anglesea, at Mondreer. The second came three days later. Will your honor look at it?”

The judge took it, slowly examined the obituary notice and glowing eulogium of the late Col. Angus Anglesea, of Anglewood Manor, etc., etc., looked in amazement from the death notice to the living subject, and then laying down the sheet, with a frown, said:

121“Mr. Force, this extraordinary publication has nothing whatever to do with the case in hand.”

Abel Force bowed in submission and sat down. His point, however, was gained. The judge had seen the paper, and could not help drawing his own conclusions.

Judge Blank then arose to give his decision, and said:

“Col. Angus Anglesea, it is not necessary to enter very deeply into the merits of this case. You have failed to prove any marital rights over the person of Odalite Anglesea, otherwise Odalite Force. I, therefore, remand her, as a minor, into the custody of her father, and I dismiss the case. Mr. Force, you can take your daughter away.”

Abel Force bowed deeply to the judge, and walked toward the group of ladies who were anxiously awaiting him.

Col. Anglesea stepped aside to let him pass, but hissed in his ear:

“There are other tribunals. And yet I will have my wife!”

Abel Force disdained reply, but gave his arm to Odalite, and told Le to give his to Mrs. Force.

And so they left the presence of the judge.

The capricious April weather had changed for the better. The rain had ceased. The sky was clear. The sun was shining.

As our party stood on the steps of the City Hall, waiting for their carriage to come up, Le spoke aside to the father of Odalite:

“Uncle, it is but two o’clock. Can we not drive immediately 122to St. John’s rectory, and have the interrupted marriage of yesterday completed? I suppose we would have to begin again at the beginning and have it all over again. Still that would give ample time to catch the New York express train, and reach the city in time to secure the Russ a for Liverpool.”

While Le spoke Mr. Force regarded him with amazement. When Le ceased Mr. Force replied:

“No, certainly not, my dear boy. No such plan can be entertained for a single moment. We do not know, since that scoundrel’s return, whether Odalite is free to marry. Nor shall we ever know until the date of Lady Mary Anglesea’s death is definitely ascertained. If she did not die until the twenty-fifth of August, 18—, as the fellow insists that she did not, then was the ceremony he went through with the Widow Wright no marriage at all, and the rites performed at All Faith between himself and Odalite legal and binding. You know that as well as I do, Le.”

The young man’s face grew dark with despair.

“In any case you will never give her up to him!” he cried.

“Never, so help me Heaven! Nor can I give her to you, Le, until she shall be proved to be free.”

“I thought, when the judge remanded her to your custody and dismissed the case, it was—his action was equivalent to declaring her free.”

“He had no power to do that. But in a doubtful case, when the self-styled ‘husband’ cannot prove his right to the woman in question, who is claimed by her father as his unmarried daughter and a minor, it is clearly the proper course to deliver her into the keeping of her father, always providing the father be a proper man to take the charge. No, Le, the judge has simply left the case where he found it. You might have noticed, too, that he referred to my daughter as Odalite Anglesea, otherwise Odalite Force.’”

123“I thought he quoted that from the writ.”

“He did, yet his doing so was significant.”

“Oh, Uncle Abel, is there no way out of all this misery? Uncle Abel, it is worse than death! Is there no help for us under the sun?” demanded the youth, with a gesture of despair.

“Yes, Le. Be patient.”

“I have been patient for three long years, only to be grievously disappointed at the end!” bitterly exclaimed the boy.

“Come, Le, listen to my plan. You know that we are all invited over to England to pay a long-promised visit to my brother-in-law, the Earl of Enderby. You know that you and Odalite were to have gone there after your marriage tour to join us at Castle Enderby.”

“And that plan has all fallen through with the rest,” complained Le.

“Not entirely, my boy. You cannot have a honeymoon anywhere just now. But we can go abroad together, and spend the summer in England. We can take advantage of our visit to investigate the particulars of Lady Mary Anglesea’s death. If we find that she died previous to the marriage of that villain with the Widow Wright, then was that marriage legal, and Mrs. Ann Anglesea is Angus Anglesea’s lawful wife, and our Odalite is free. If this should be the case, Le, I would offer no obstacle, suggest no delay, to your immediate marriage. By the way, Le, was that file of the Times you spoke of a complete one?”

“Oh, no, sir. Nor could I find a complete file in the city. From Mr. Herbert’s file the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth and thirtieth of August were missing, and there was no notice of Lady Mary Anglesea’s death in any that remained.”

“Well, we can find a perfect file in London. We can also find the Anglesea parish register, and possibly some monument or tablet or memorial window of the deceased 124lady which will give us the true date of her death. We cannot possibly fail to find it, Le. We shall be sure to do so. And if the discovery proves Odalite to be free, you shall have her the next hour, or as soon as a minister can be found to marry you.”

“And, on the other hand, uncle, if the facts do not show her to be legally free, still you will never, never yield her to that man?” anxiously persisted Le.

“I have told you no—never! I would see her dead first. Be assured of that. Why, Le, that scoundrel knows that he can never touch a hair of my daughter’s head.”

“Then why did he enact the villainy of last night and this morning if it were not in the hope of getting her into his possession?” demanded the youth.

“He acted from a low malice, to annoy us; if possible, to humiliate us. He knew that that was all he could do, and he did it. There, Le. There is your car, and the other young folks are going to board it. Follow them, my boy.”

“But may I not go in the carriage with you and Odalite?” pleaded the youth.

“No, dear boy. There is no room for you. Miss Grandiere goes with us. We are four, and fill the four seats. Hurry, or you will miss the car.”

Le ran down the steps, and saved the car.

All this time Odalite had been standing in the rear of her father, and between her mother and her friend Sophie Grandiere. Her veil was down, and it was so doubled as to hide her face. All three of the ladies were silent.

When Le had left his side, Mr. Force turned toward them, and said:

“I ordered the carriage to come for us at about a quarter after two. I had no idea we should be out before that hour, and have to wait.”

125“Well, we have not had long to wait, and here it comes,” replied Mrs. Force.

And the party walked down the steps, entered the carriage, and drove homeward.

The Forces, except when they gave a dinner, always kept up their old-fashioned, wholesome habit of dining in the middle of the day. Their usual dinner hour was half-past two, and they reached home just in time to take off their bonnets before sitting down to the table.

After dinner Mr. Force called a consultation of Mrs. Force, Odalite, Leonidas, Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary, in the library, for he said that all who were interested in the question about to be raised should have a voice in the discussion.

When they were all seated he began, and said:

“Mrs. Force and myself have called you here, my children, to help us to decide whether, under the circumstances that have lately arisen, we shall go to England as soon as we can get off, or whether we shall carry out our first intention of waiting until June for the school commencement at which you three younger ones expect to graduate. Court-martial fashion, we will begin with our youngest. Little Rosemary, what do you think about it? Shall we wait two months longer, until you graduate, or shall we go at once? You are to go with us whenever we go, and so you are an interested party, you know. Come, speak up, without fear or favor!”

But it was no easy matter to get the tiny creature to speak at all.

Looking down, fingering her apron, she managed at last to express her opinion that Mr. and Mrs. Force ought to decide for them all.

“No, no! That won’t do at all! No shirking your duty, Liliputian! Tell us what you think,” laughed the master of the house.

“Well—then—I—think—it would be nice to go at once.”

126“And miss your scholastic honors?”

“Yes,” muttered the child, looking shyly up from her long eyelashes. “I would rather miss them than miss going to England.”

“All right. One for the immediate voyage. Now, Elva?”

“Papa, I wish you would let Odalite settle the question. We all would like Odalite to have her own way,” said the affectionate little sister.

“Quite right; we shall come to Odalite presently; but, in the meantime, we want your own unbiased feeling about it.”

“Indeed, indeed, my feeling is to do just what Odalite wants me to do! Please, please, let me hear what Odalite says before I decide.”

“Very well, then, so you shall. Now, Wynnette?”

“Papa, I think we had best go at once. It is very warm here in the latter part of May, and all through June, and it will be so delightful on the ocean——”

“But your graduation, Wynnette?”

“Oh, papa! we shall not lose anything by losing those exercises. We are learning nothing new now. We are going over and over the old ground to make ourselves verbally perfect for the examination. So, indeed, by leaving school at once we shall lose nothing but the parade of the commencement.”

“We score two votes for the immediate voyage. Odalite, my dear, you have the floor.”

“Papa, if I could go to Europe immediately without detriment to the education of these girls, I should be very glad to go. But I think everything should yield to the interests of their education,” said Odalite.

“You have heard what Wynnette says, my dear—that they are adding nothing to their stock of knowledge in the last two months at school. Only perfecting themselves, in parrot-like verbiage, to answer questions at 127the coming examination. They will lose nothing but the pageantry of the exhibition.”

“Then, papa, I think I would like to go very soon.”

“And now, so would I, papa,” put in Elva.

“Quite so! Four in favor of the voyage. Now, Le?”

“Uncle, you know my anxiety that we be off. I would go by telegraph, if I could.”

“Five! Well, my dears, Mrs. Force and myself are already agreed that, upon all accounts, it is best that we should sail by the first Liverpool steamship on which we can procure staterooms for so large a party as ours is likely to be. I will write to the agent of the Cunard line by to-night’s mail. It is very necessary that we should go to England, without delay, not only to see our relative, Lord Enderby, whose health is in a very precarious condition, but also to investigate matters in which Odalite’s and Le’s welfare and happiness are deeply concerned. Rosemary, my dear, write and tell your aunt of our changed plans in regard to the time of the voyage. Children, this is the second of April. I think we will be able to sail by the twenty-third, at furthest. So you may all begin to get ready for your voyage,” said Mr. Force, rising to break up the conference.

Mr. Force went at once to his writing desk to write letters—one to the New York agent of the Cunard line of ocean steamers; another to his overseer at Mondreer, and a third to Miss Grandiere.

When all these were dispatched he joined his family circle in the parlor.

The talk ran on events of the day.

128“The proceedings were much less formal than I had supposed they would be,” Mrs. Force remarked.

Mr. Force laughed, and said:

“This reminds me of the first habeas corpus case I ever witnessed. In my youth I was traveling in the far West, and stopped, to get over an attack of chills, at the first house that would take me in. It was a better sort of log cabin, on the farm of Judge Starr, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State; and it was occupied by the judge, his wife and a hired boy. I had to sleep in the loft with the hired boy. The judge and his wife occupied the room below as parlor, bedroom, dining room and kitchen——”

“Oh, what living for civilized and enlightened human beings!” exclaimed Mrs. Force.

“He lives in a five-hundred-thousand-dollar house now, my dear, and if it were not irreverent to say so, I might almost add that his ‘cattle’ are ‘upon a thousand hills.’ But that is not the point now. On the morning after my arrival I heard the judge say to his wife—for you could hear through the gaping planks of the loft floor every word that was spoken in the room below—I heard him say:

“‘That case of little Valley Henley will come up to-day.’

“‘Will it?’ she replied. ‘Well, I’ll tell you what to do, Nick! You leave it to the child herself.’

“‘I will,’ said the judge.”

“And yet they say women have no power! And here was the wife of one of the judges of the supreme court of the State, ordering him what to do!” exclaimed Wynnette.

“Well,” continued Mr. Force, “about ten o’clock, having taken a warm cup of coffee, brought up to me by Mrs. Judge, and having got over the fever that followed the chill, I arose and dressed and went downstairs. But Mrs. Judge was ‘in the suds,’ and the room was full 129of hot steam; so I walked out into the back yard, where I found the judge in his red shirt sleeves, sawing wood. Almost before I could say good-morning, came the hired boy and proclaimed:

“‘They’re come.’

“‘Bring them right in here,’ said the judge, and he threw down his saw and seated himself astraddle the log on the wood horse.

“And then came half a dozen or more of men with a pale, scared little girl among them. An orphan child, she was, with plenty of money, and she was claimed by two uncles, one of whom had taken out a writ of habeas corpus, to compel the other to bring her before the judge, to decide who should have her.

“Well, there was a lawyer on each side, and witnesses on each side, and plenty of hard swearing and bold lying on both sides. And the judge sat in his red flannel shirt sleeves, astride the log on the wood horse, and stroked his stubble beard of a week’s growth, and listened patiently. The poor little object of dispute stood and trembled, until the judge noticed her and lifted her upon his knees, put his arm around her waist and held her there, saying:

“‘Don’t be afraid, little woman. No one shall hurt you in any way.’

“And the child plucked up her little spirits, and the judge listened first to one lawyer and then to the other, while they each exhausted all their law on the case, without affecting the issue in the least degree—for the result lay in the will of that helpless, orphan child, whose little head lay against the judge’s red shirt. While they all talked themselves hoarse, the judge listened gravely, but spoke never a word.

“And Mrs. Judge came in and out of the yard, hanging her clothes on the line.

“When they could talk no longer they were obliged to 130be silent, and then the judge lifted the child’s head from his bosom, sat her up straight, and asked her:

“‘Now, my little woman, let us hear what you have got to say, as you are the most interested party. Which uncle had you rather go and live with?’

“It was some time before the frightened child found courage to open her lips, but when, reassured by the manner of the judge, she did speak, it was to the purpose.

“‘Oh, sir, please, I want to go back to dear Uncle Ben! Mamma did leave me to Uncle Ben; indeed, indeed, the Lord knows that she did! And I don’t know Mr. Holloway! And no more did she! I never saw Mr. Holloway till he came here after me to take me away off to Portland.’

“‘Very well, you shall go back to Uncle Ben,’ said the judge, and raising his voice, he continued: ‘Mr. Benjamin Truman, here is your niece and ward. Take her, and take care of her.’

“A rough backwoodsman came forward and took the little maiden in his arms and kissed her, and then touched his hat to the judge on the wood horse and led the happy child away.

“And then a polished gentleman threw himself into a passion, and used objectionable language that might have subjected him to fine and imprisonment, had the law been administered to him in its severity. But the good judge only said:

“‘If you are not satisfied, there’s the orphans’ court—though, I have no doubt, that also would leave the child in the custody of her present guardian.’

“And with this the judge got off his ‘bench,’ took up his saw and resumed his work.

“And half the crowd went off swearing and threatening, and the other half laughing and cheering. That was my first experience in habeas corpus. Judge Starr has risen to wealth, power and position since then; children 131came to him among other good gifts, and his eldest daughter has lately married an English nobleman, who is quite as noble ‘in nature as in rank.’”

“Oh, I like that judge! I am glad he rose in the world!” exclaimed little Elva.

“I would like to see him,” murmured poor Odalite, won for the moment from the contemplation of her own woes.

“My love, for the last three years you have met him many, many times,” said her father.

“Met him!—here, in Washington? But I don’t remember any Judge Starr.”

“That was a fictitious name. I could not use his real name in telling such a story—though I don’t know why, either. But, my dear, he is now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. You cannot fail to identify him.”

“Oh, I know! I know!” exclaimed Odalite, with a bright smile.

“Who was it? Which was it? What was his name?” came in a dozen tones from the young people present.

“No; since papa has not named him, I must not,” said Odalite.

And then the sound of the supper bell summoned them to the table.

Two days after that Mr. Force received a letter from the New York agent of the Cunard line of steamers, telling him that the first steamer on which they could accommodate so large a party as the Forces’ would be the Persia, which would sail on the twenty-eighth of May. There were not so many ocean steamers then as now, and people had to secure their passages a long way beforehand.

“The twenty-eighth of may! Nearly two months! What a nuisance! But it is because there are so many of us! Seven cabin passengers for the first, and two for the second cabin! However, wife, I will tell you what 132we will do: We will go down to Mondreer to spend the intervening time; and we will give up this house at once. You know our lease expired on the first of April—two days ago—and we are only staying here a few days on sufferance, because the house is not wanted at this season. Yes; we will go down to Mondreer. What do you say?” inquired Abel Force of his wife, to whom he had just read the agent’s letter.

“We will go down to Mondreer as soon as the Grandieres have finished their visit. We invited them for a week, you know, and they have been here but three days, and have seen but little of the city. And as to the house, I suppose we will pay at the same rate at which we leased it, so long as we shall stay,” replied Mrs. Force.

The evening mail brought a letter from Beever, the overseer at Mondreer, giving good accounts of the estate; and also a letter from Miss Grandiere, acquiescing in Mr. Force’s plans, and begging on the part of her sister, Mrs. Hedge, as well as on her own, that Mr. and Mrs. Force would use their own judgment in all matters connected with Rosemary and the voyage; only stipulating that the child should be sent home to visit her friends before going abroad.

Mr. Force wrote and mailed three letters that afternoon. One to the New York agent of the Cunard steamships, engaging accommodations for his whole party for the Persia, on the twenty-eighth of May; another to Beever, expressing satisfaction at the report of affairs at Mondreer, and announcing his speedy return with his family to their country home; and a third to Miss Grandiere, telling her that Rosemary would be with her in a few days.

Then Mr. Force turned his attention to the young guests of the family, and put himself out a little to show them around Washington City and its suburbs.

Mrs. Force, meanwhile, at the head of her household, was busy with her packing and other preparations for 133their removal to Mondreer and their after voyage to Europe.

Every day she sent off boxes by express to Mondreer.

And so the week passed.

Nothing, meantime, had been heard of Col. Anglesea, until Mr. Force put a private detective upon his track, who reported, at the end of the week, that the colonel had left Washington for Quebec.

That was a relief, at least.

It was the tenth of April before the Grandieres finally concluded to return home, and then Mrs. Force, supported by her own girls, begged that they would remain until the whole family were ready to go to Mondreer, that all might travel together; for the lady did not wish that the news of Odalite’s second interrupted wedding should reach the neighborhood and get distorted by gossip before their own return to their country home.

It was, therefore, on a fine day, the twelfth of April, that the large party of family and guests left the city home in the care of the janitor sent by the landlord, and took the train en route for Mondreer.

It was a long day’s ride, and it was dark when their train ran into the little station where it stopped for half a minute.

The large party got out, and they found a much larger party collected to meet them.

There was old Tom Grandiere—as the master of Oldfield 134was beginning to be called—with an ox cart to carry his tribe of sons and daughters home.

There was William Elk, with an old barouche which he had brought to meet his niece.

There was Miss Sibby Bayard in her mule cart, come to fetch Roland.

Lastly, there was Mrs. Anglesea, in the capacious break, driven by Jacob, come to fetch the whole Force family home from the station to Mondreer.

And there were such hearty, cordial greetings as are seldom heard in this world.

“Welcome home, neighbors!”

“We have missed you!”

“Thank Heaven you have come back!”

And so on and so on! All speaking at once, so that it was difficult to tell who said what, or to reply distinctly to anything.

Yet the Forces all responded in the most cordial manner to these effusive greetings, in which Mrs. Force and Odalite detected an undertone of sadness and sympathy which both mother and daughter understood too well.

“They have heard of our new humiliation, although we have never written of it! Yes, they have all heard of it, though no one alludes to it,” was the unuttered thought of mother and daughter.

“Lord’s sake, ole man, hoist them children up here and get in! Don’t stand palavering with them people all night! I’m gwine to drive you all home myself. I only brought him for show! I wouldn’t trust him to take us home safe over bad roads in the dark,” said Mrs. Anglesea, from her seat on the box beside the coachman.

“Well, my girls and boys, have you been so spoiled by your gay city life that you will never be content with your dull, country home again?” demanded Thomas Grandiere, as he helped his big daughters to tumble up into the ox cart.

“Oh, dad, it was perfectly delightful! But we are 135glad to get home and see you, for all that!” answered Sophie.

sentimentally sighed Peggy. And all the other sisters and the brothers chimed in with her.

“Washington is well enough, but they are all too indifferent about the crops ever to amount to much, I think,” said Sam Grandiere, and his brother Ned seconded the motion. And so that party waved a last adieu to the Forces and drove off.

“Your mother and your aunt are both at our house, Rosemary, and so I came to fetch you over there,” said William Elk, as he helped his little mite of a niece into the old barouche. “You don’t grow a bit, child! Are you never going to be a woman?” he further inquired, as he settled her into her seat.

“Nature puts her finest essences into her tiniest receptacles, Uncle Elk!” said Roland, who called everybody else’s uncle his own.

But William Elk had driven off without receiving the benefit of the young man’s words.

“Roland, come here and get into this cart afore this here brute goes to sleep and drops down. There’s a time for all things, sez I, and the time to stand staring after a young gal, sez I, isn’t nine o’clock at night when there’s an ole ’oman and wicious mule on a cart waitin’ for you, and a mighty dark night and a rough road afore you, sez I!” called Miss Sibby, from her seat.

“All right, aunty, I’m coming.”

And the young fellow jumped into the cart, took the reins from the old lady, and started the mule at a speed that made the animal cock his ears and meditate rebellion.

By this time Mr. and Mrs. Force, their three daughters and Leonidas were seated in the break.

Mrs. Anglesea was on the box, driving. This she so 136insisted on doing that there was no preventing her except by enacting a scene.

“Jake’s getting old, and blind, and stupid. I’m not going to trust my precious neck to him, you bet! I have lost a good deal, but I want to keep my head on my shoulders,” she had said, as she took the reins from Jake, who immediately folded his arms, closed his eyes and resigned himself to sleep.

“You had better let me drive if you are afraid to trust Jake, Mrs. Anglesea,” suggested Mr. Force.

“You!” said the lady from Wild Cats’, in a tone of ineffable contempt. “Not much! I’d a heap rather trust Jake than you! Why, ole man, you never were a good whip since I knowed you, and you’ve been out of practice three years! Sit still and make yourself comfortable, and I’ll land you safe at Mondreer. Old Luce will have a comfortable tea there for you, and strawberry shortcake, too. Think of strawberries on the twelfth of April! But I raised ’em under glass. And so my beat wasn’t dead, after all! And I in mourning for him ever since the fourteenth of February! Well, my beat beats all! I shall never believe him dead until I see him strung up by a hangman and cut up by the doctors—of which I live in hopes! No, you needn’t worry. Jake’s fast asleep, and he wouldn’t hear thunder, nor even the dinner horn, much less my talk!”

“How did you hear that Col. Anglesea had turned up again?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Why, Lord! ole man, it’s all over the whole country. You couldn’t cork up and seal down news like that! It would bu’st the bottle! I believe some one fetched it down from Washington to the Calvert House, and then it got all over the country; and Lord love you, Jake heard it at the post office and fetched it home to the house. And then—when Beever got your letter, and not a word was said about the wedding, and Miss Grandiere got two—one from you and one from Rosemary—and 137nothing said neither about no brides nor grooms, we felt to see how it was. And now there’s lynching parties sworn in all over the neighborhood to put an end to that beat if ever he dares to show his face here again. Oh! the whole neighborhood is up in arms, I tell you!”

“I am very sorry my good neighbors’ sympathy demonstrates itself in that way,” said Mr. Force.

“You can’t help it, though!” triumphantly exclaimed the lady from the diggings, as she gave the off horse a sharp cut that started the whole team in a gallop, and jerked all the party out of their seats and into them again.

“As a magistrate, it is my bounden duty to help it,” returned Mr. Force, as soon as he recovered from the jolt.

“Look here, ole man! You take a fool’s advice and lay low and say nothing when lynch law is going round seeking whom it may devour! For when it has feasted on one wictim it licks its chops and looks round for another, and wouldn’t mind gobbling up a magistrate or two any more than you would so many oysters! Leastways that is how it was at Wild Cats’. And I tell you, our boys out there woudn’t have let a beat like him cumber the face of the earth twenty-four hours after his first performance, if they could have got hold of him. It’s a word and a blow with them, and the blow comes first! Now, for goodness’ sake, do stop talking, ole man! I can’t listen to you and drive down this steep hill at the same time without danger of upsetting! Whoa, Jessie! What y’re ’bout, Jack? Stea—dee!”

And the lady on the box gave her whole attention to taking her team safely down Chincapin Hill and across the bridge over Chincapin Creek.

“Oh! how glad I am to see the dear old woods and the creek and the bridge once more!” said little Elva, fervently.

“‘See!’ Why, you can’t see a mite of it! It is as 138dark here as the bottom of a shaft at midnight. No moon. And what light the stars might give hid by the meeting of the trees overhead. ‘See,’ indeed! There’s imagination for you!” replied Mrs. Anglesea.

“Well, anyhow I know we are on the dear old bridge, and going over the creek, because I can hear the sound of the wheels on the planks and the gurgle of the water running through the rocks and stones,” deprecatingly replied Elva.

“Why don’t you say ecstatically—

That’s the way to go on if you mean to do it up brown!” chaffed Wynnette.

“Oh, how can you be such a mocker! Are you not glad to get home?” pleaded Elva.

“Rather; but I’m not in raptures over it.”

“Look here, young uns! Stop talking; you distract me. I can’t listen and drive at the same time. And if you will keep on jawing you’ll get upset. These roads are awful bad washed by the spring rains, and if we get home safe it will be all owing to my good driving! Only you mustn’t distract me by jawing!” said Mrs. Anglesea. And having silenced every tongue but her own, she drove on slowly by the light of the carriage lanterns, which only shed a little stream directly in front of her, talking all the time about the negligence of the supervisors and the carelessness of the farmers in suffering the roads to be in such a condition at that time of the year.

“This could never a been the case if you’d been home, ole man! You’d a been after them supervisors with a sharp stick, you would! But, Lord! the don’t-care-ishness of the men about here!” she concluded, as she drew up at the first broad gate across the road leading into the Mondreer grounds.

139Her passengers thought, but did not say, that if the lady on the box could not listen and drive at the same time, she could certainly drive and talk pretty continuously at the same time.

“Here, you lazy nigger, Jake! Wake up and jump down and open this here gate!” exclaimed Mrs. Anglesea, giving the old sleeper such a sharp grip and hard shake that he yelled before he woke and said he dreamed a limb of a tree had caught him and knocked him out of his seat.

However, he soon came to a sense of the situation, half climbed and half tumbled down to the ground and opened the gate to let the break pass through.

The house was now in sight and lighted up from garret to basement.

“Oh, how pretty!” cried Elva.

And Wynnette mocked her good-humoredly.

“I told Luce to do it and leave all the window shutters open so you could see through. Lord! tallow candles are cheap enough, ’specially when you make ’em yourself. And there was an awful lot of beef tallow last killing to render down. I couldn’t tell you how many candles I run—about five hundred, I reckon! Well, here we are at the house, and——Oh, Lord! Jake, jump down and hold that dog, or he’ll break his chain and jump through the carriage windows!” cried Mrs. Anglesea, as they stopped before the house.

Indeed, Joshua was making “the welkin ring” with his joyous barks and his frantic efforts to get at the returning friends, whose presence he had scented.

“Let him loose this instant, Jake! Unchain him, I say!” exclaimed Wynnette. And without waiting for her orders to be obeyed, she sprang from the carriage, fell upon the dog’s neck, and covered him with caresses.

“Oh, you dear, good, true, trusty old fellow! To know us all again after so many years! To be so glad to see us! And to forgive us at once for going away and leaving 140you behind. You would never have left us, would you, my dog? Ah! dogs are a great deal more faithful than human beings.”

While Wynnette with her own hands unloosed the chain, the other members of the family alighted from the break.

And Joshua, released from restraint, dashed into the midst of the group, barking in frantic raptures, and darting from one to another trying to turn himself into a half a dozen dogs to worship at once a half a dozen false gods in the form of his returning friends.

They all responded to Joshua’s demonstrations, and then entered the house, closely followed by the dog, who did not mean to lose sight of them again.

In the lighted hall they found all the family servants gathered to welcome them home.

“Oh, dear mist’ess, we-dem all frought as you-dem had forsook us forever and ever, amen!” said Luce, bursting into tears, as she took and kissed the hand her mistress offered.

When all the greetings were over the family were allowed to go upstairs—still in custody of the dog, who kept his eye on them—and take off their traveling suits.

Mrs. Anglesea walked ahead to see that every one was comfortable.

Every bedroom was perfectly ready for its occupant, well lighted by candles in silver candlesticks on the mantelpiece and on the dressing bureau, and well warmed by a bright little wood fire in the open fireplace, which this chilly April evening rendered very pleasant.

“One thing I do grieve to part with, even in the lovely 141spring, and that is our beautiful open wood fires!” said Elva, as she sat down on the rug, with Joshua lying beside her, before the fire in the bedroom occupied by Wynnette and herself.

“So do I! I am always glad when a real cool evening comes to give us an excuse to kindle one,” Wynnette assented.

But the tea bell rang, and they had to leave the bright attraction, and, closely attended by Joshua, who resolved to keep them in view, go down to the dining room, where all the family were assembled.

This apartment was also brightly lighted by a chandelier, which hung from the ceiling over the well-spread table, and warmed by a clear little wood fire in the open chimney.

“Strawberries and wood fires! The charms of summer and winter meeting in spring!” exclaimed Wynnette, glancing from the open chimney to the piled-up glass bowl of luscious fruit that stood as the crowning glory of the table.

“Raised under glass, honey. And a time I had to keep the little niggers from stealing them! Children may be little angels, but I never seed one yet as wouldn’t steal fruit when it could get a chance.”

“I think they instinctively believe that all the fruit that grows belongs to them, or at least, as much of it as ever they want, and—maybe they are right,” said Mr. Force.

“That’s pretty morality to teach the young uns! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, ole man. That’s not my way, nohow. I spanked every one of them little niggers with a fine new shingle until they roared again, every time I caught ’em at the strawberries; and, providentially, there were plenty of new shingles handy—left by the carpenters who put the new roof on the back porch,” said the lady from the mines.

But no one replied; and as Mrs. Force had taken her 142seat at the head of the table, all the party gathered around, while the dog stretched himself on the rug before the fire and watched his family. They wouldn’t get away again for parts unknown, and stay three years—not if he knew it!

It was late when they sat down to tea, but as they were all very hungry, and this was their first meal at home after years of absence, they lingered long around the table.

And when at last they arose and went into the drawing room, still “dogged” by Joshua, it was only for a short chat around the fire, and then a separation for the night.

“Jake, put that dog out,” said Mrs. Anglesea, who could not all at once forget to give orders in the house she had ruled for three years, even now when the mistress was present.

Jake advanced toward the brute, but Joshua laid himself down at Wynnette’s feet and showed all his fangs in deadly fashion.

“’Deed, missis, it’s as much as my life’s worf to tech dat dorg now,” pleaded Jake.

“Let Joshua alone,” said Wynnette; “he shall sleep on the rug in my room, shan’t you, good dog?”

Joshua growled a reply that was perfectly well understood by Wynnette to mean that he certainly should do that very thing in spite of all the wildcat women in creation.

And so when all went upstairs, the dog trotted up soberly after his little mistress, and when the latter reached their room, he laid himself down contentedly on the rug, and watched until he saw them abed and asleep. Then he resigned himself to rest.

“Oh! the rapture of being at home again!” breathed little Elva, standing on the rose-wreathed front piazza, and looking forth upon the splendid April morning, when the sky was blue, and the bay was blue, and the 143forest trees of tenderest green, and the orchard trees with apple blossoms, peach blossoms, all like one vast parterre of blossoming flowers; and the tulips, hyacinths, jonquils, daffodils, pansies, japonicas, and all the wealth and splendor of spring bloom on the flower beds on the lawn were radiant with color and redolent of perfume.

“Oh! the rapture of being at home!” said little Elva, softly to herself, as she gazed on the scene.

“‘Hail, blest scenes of my childhood!’” sentimentally murmured a voice behind her.

Elva turned quickly, and saw, as she expected to see, the mocking face of Wynnette.

“Oh, Wynnette! how can you make such fun of me!” inquired Elva, in an aggrieved tone.

“To prevent other things making a fool of you. Come in, now, to breakfast. They are all down, and I came out to look for you.”

The girls went in together, and took their places at the table.

When the breakfast was over, Le asked his uncle for the loan of a horse to ride over to Greenbushes.

“I want to take a look at the little place, which I have not seen for three years and more,” he explained.

“Why, certainly, Le. Take any horse you like. And never think it necessary to ask me. Are you not as a son to me?” said Abel Force.

“I did hope to be your son, sir, in every possible sense of the word, but that hope seems dead now,” sighed the young man.

“Not at all, Le! We have only to prove a fraud in the alteration of the date of Lady Mary Anglesea’s death to set aside every imaginary barrier between you and Odalite.”

“But, sir, he denies that there ever was any marriage between himself and this Californian lady. He declares that it is all a conspiracy between the woman and the priest, that the marriage certificate is a forgery, and the 144telegram a fraud, and he defied us to go or send to St. Sebastian to test the matter. Now if this Californian lady is not Anglesea’s wife——” Le paused. He could not bring himself to conclude the sentence.

“If the Californian is not his wife, Odalite is, no matter at which date the first wife died,” said Mr. Force, finishing the unspoken argument.

“Yes, that is what I meant to say—only I could not.”

“My dear Le, have you the least doubt as to the reality of that St. Sebastian marriage, whatever may be said of its legality?”

“No, none in the world. Still I want further proof of it. I want to go to St. Sebastian and search the parish register, as he challenged us to do!”

“Bah! He only did that out of bravado, to annoy us and to gain time. He no more believed that we would either go or send to St. Sebastian than he believed that he would ever be permitted to touch the tip of Odalite’s finger as long as he should live in this world! He acted from a low spite, without the slightest hope of any other success.”

“Notwithstanding that, Uncle Abel, upon reflection, I shall go to California and search that parish register and bring back with me absolute, unquestionable proof of that marriage to take with us to England. Then, when we can prove that Lady Mary Anglesea’s death occurred before Col. Anglesea’s second marriage, we shall know Odalite to be free to become my wife. Don’t you see?”

“Yes, Le; but when do you propose to go to California on this quest? You know we sail for England in six weeks from this.”

“I shall start to-morrow, and lose no time! travel express! do my work as quickly as it can be done thoroughly—for to do it most thoroughly must be my first care—then I shall travel express coming home, and so be back again as soon as possible.”

145“Well, my boy, go!” said Mr. Force. “I approve your earnestness, and may Heaven speed you.”

“Now, ole ’oman, I want you to go all over the house ’long o’ me, to see for yourself how I’ve done my duty,” said the lady from Wild Cats’, as she followed Mrs. Force from the breakfast room on the day after the return of the family to Mondreer.

“Indeed, Mrs. Anglesea, I have no doubt you have done perfectly well,” replied the mistress of the house, deprecatingly.

“Yes, but I want you to see that I have. Now come into the storeroom,” said the housekeeper, resolutely leading the way, while Mrs. Force obediently followed.

“Now look at them there rows of pickles and preserves, and jams and jellies, on them there shelves. All made by my own hands. Them on the top shelf is three years old, and all the better for their age. Them on the middle shelf was made last year, and is very good. Them on the bottom shelf is the newest, and wants a little more age on ’em.”

“I’m afraid you worked too hard in making up these things, and also denied yourself the use of them, since the shelves are so full.”

“Who? Me? Not much! I own I did work hard. I like work. But as to denying myself anything good to eat, jest you catch yours to command at it, if you can; and if you do, jest let me know, so I can consult a mad doctor to find out what’s the matter with my thinking machine. No, ma’am. I don’t deny myself nothing good to eat. You bet your pile on that. Fasting never 146was no means of grace to me. I had plenty of pickles and preserves at all the three meals of the day. And so had the two niggers. Lord! why, next to eating myself, I love dearly to see other people eat.”

“I am very glad you enjoyed yourself,” said Mrs. Force.

“You bet! And now look into this closet, and see the dried yerbs and roots and berries I have got here. See now!”

“A great store, indeed.”

“All gathered by my own hands, and with the dew on ’em, before the sun was up, and shaken and dried in the shade by me. And now look here at this shelf full of boxes of honey. I ’tended to it all myself. I hived eleven swarms of bees since you have been gone. And I did want to complete the dozen so much. But, Lord! it is always so. Just because I wanted to, they got away while I was at church one Sunday morning. You can’t beat any religion into bees. They didn’t mind breaking the Sabbath no more than a wild Indian. But I’ll more than make up that dozen next season, you bet.”

“You have done admirably well to have saved so many.”

“Think so? Well, now come out into the meat house, and see the barrels of salt pork and beef, all corned by my own hands, and the sugar-cured hams and the smoked tongues. Oh, I tell you!”

Mrs. Force followed her manager out of a back door into a paved yard and across it, to a small detached building of stone, set apart for the purpose to which the able housekeeper had put it.

We cannot follow the two women through all the round of inspection, into the smoke houses, meat houses, poultry yards, etc., but will only add that the lady was gratified by all she saw, and was liberal in commendation of her deputy.

“Now come into the house, and we’ll go upstairs into 147the linen room, and then up into the garret to look at the carpet and woolen curtains, and blankets and things, laid up in lavender for the summer, and if you find a hole unmended in anything whatsoever, or a patch put on crooked, jest you let me know it, will you, and I’ll go right straight off and consult that same mad doctor I mentioned before, to see if anything’s the matter with my headpiece.”

When the inspection of the house was entirely over Mrs. Force was very earnest in her expressions of satisfaction and gratitude to the faithful and capable manager.

“You are a much better housekeeper than I ever was, Mrs. Anglesea,” she said, as they came downstairs together.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Gifts is divers. You’ve got a gift of working in silks and worsteds, and beads and things, and playing on the pianoforty, and speaking in all the lingoes of the Tower of Babel. But you can’t keep house worth a cent. And the Lord knows what would a-become of you all if it had not been for ole Aunt Lucy. Now she’s a fairish sort of a manager, though she can’t come up to me. No, ma’am! I never graduated from no college. I can’t play on nothing but the Jew’s-harp, and I can’t speak any language but what I learned at my ole mother’s knee. But, Lord! as for good housekeeping and downright useful hard working, I can whip the coat offen the back of any man or any woman going.”

“I think that few can excel you,” said Mrs. Force, as they entered the little parlor.

“You bet!” said the lady from the diggings, as she dropped heavily into an armchair and panted. “And I didn’t learn to keep house at Wild Cats’, neither! Lord, no; there wasn’t much chance to keep house in a log cabin with a dirt floor, and not even a loft or a lean-to! It was from my good ole mother I learned all I know! 148And little use it was to me at Wild Cats’. And, oh! when I think of the gold diggings, and my poor ole man leaving of a comfortable home to go and live in a poor shanty, and dig in the bowels of the earth for nigh eleven years to make his pile, and then to die and leave it all behind for that grand vilyan to rob me of——But there! Lord, what’s the use of thinking of it when I’ve got as fine a goose in the roaster before the kitchen fire as ever swam upon a pond, as rich a green gooseberry pie in the oven as ever was baked! And so, ole ’oman, I’ll leave yer now, ’cause I can’t trust ole Luce! She ain’t the ’oman she used to be by a long shot. She’s sort o’ getting blind, I think,” concluded the housekeeper, as she arose and left the room.

Mrs. Force sat back in her chair to rest after her tour of the house and yard.

While thus resting she heard the sound of carriage wheels, and then a gay bustle before the front door, the voices of Wynnette and Elva mingled with the voices of a lady and gentleman, the laughing of a child, the crowing of a baby, and the barking of a dog.

Presently the hall door opened and all this merry confusion of sounds rolled into the hall and into the drawing room.

And before Mrs. Force could arise from her chair to go and see what could be the matter, her door was suddenly thrown open and Wynnette, all aglow with excitement, burst into the room, exclaiming:

“Oh, mamma! It is Natalie! Dear Natalie and—and two babies! Dr. Ingle brought them in his gig, and he is only waiting to speak to you, to leave them here while he goes his round among his patients, and then he will call and take them home! But, oh, mamma, I want you to make him promise to come back and stay to dinner and spend the evening—will you? Oh, mamma, Natty is looking so lovely, and her babies are just heavenly!”

149“My dear, impetuous Wynnette, stop and take breath! Of course Natalie and her children must spend the day, and the doctor must return to dinner. Come! I will go to them,” said Mrs. Force, as she arose and went into the drawing room, followed by the delighted Wynnette.

As soon as Mrs. Force opened the door Dr. Ingle stepped rapidly to meet her, with both hands extended.

“Welcome back to us! Dear friend! Only this morning we heard of your arrival through Ned Grandiere, who came to my office early to ask me to call and see one of the colored folks on his farm; but Natalie immediately took a fit, and declared that I must bring her and the babies here before going anywhere else! So here they are, and now I must be off to Oldfields.”

Before the doctor had half finished this speech Natalie herself was in Mrs. Force’s arms, laughing and crying for joy.

“Well, well! I must say good-by, madam!” exclaimed the doctor, rather impatiently, as he held out his hands to the lady of the house.

“I suppose I must not detain you from your patients; but I cannot let you go until you have promised to return to dinner, and to spend the evening with us,” said Mrs. Force.

“I thank you! I promise! Good-morning!” And the doctor bowed himself out of the drawing room.

“Oh, you sweet little thing! You lovely, lovely little thing!” cooed Elva, seated upon a hassock, with the few months old baby across her lap.

“These are your children, Natalie? What fine children 150they are,” said Mrs. Force, as they all resumed their seats.

“Do you think so? I am glad you think so,” replied the proud young mother. “Come here, Effie, and speak to this lady,” she continued, taking a little, white-robed toddler by the hand and leading her up to Mrs. Force.

The little one stood before the lady, with her chin down on her bosom, and her soft brown eyes turned shyly up to her hostess.

“Make your courtesy now to the lady,” said her mother.

The little creature obeyed and dropped her courtesy, still turning her soft brown eyes, full of reverence and admiration, up to her hostess’ face.

“So this is my little namesake?” said Mrs. Force, lifting the child upon her lap.

“Yes, named Elfrida, for you and Elva; but we call her Effie, and she calls herself Essie,” said the young mother.

“Ah! is that your name, little one?” inquired the lady, stroking the child’s curls.

“Es, ma’am—Essie,” replied the baby.

“And what else besides Essie?”

“Essie—Indy, ma’am.”

“Oh, Essie Ingle—is that it?”

“Es, ma’am; Essie—Indy.”

“And how old are you, Essie?”

“Me—two—doin’ on fee.”

Mrs. Force looked at the mother for a translation of these words.

“She is two years, going on three,” laughed little Mrs. Ingle.

Mrs. Force continued her catechism of the child, who answered in broken baby language, but with rare intelligence, and still with such simple reverence and admiration as touched the lady’s heart.

“Oh, Natalie!” she said, “can there be anything more 151spirit-searching to a grown-up sinner than the innocent reverence and trust of a child! Lo! they think us so wise and so good, while we know ourselves to be so foolish and evil! Ah me, Natalie!”

Young Mrs. Ingle made no reply, but looked puzzled and distressed while little Essie put up her hand timidly—reverentially, and stroked the fair cheek of the lady, with some vague instinct of tenderness and sympathy.

“Oh, mamma, look at little Wynnie! sweet, little Wynnie! You have not noticed her yet!” said Elva, reproachfully, as she arose, and brought the infant to her mother.

“Wynnie?” inquired Mrs. Force, looking up into Natalie Ingle’s face, as she sat Essie on the carpet and took the babe on her lap.

“Yes, we have named her Wynnette, and we call her Wynnie. She is not christened yet. We waited for you to come home,” Natalie explained.

They were interrupted by other visitors.

The Rev. Dr. Peters and Mrs. Peters came to welcome their old friends to the neighborhood.

“Three years and three months since you left the neighborhood, madam,” said the rector, when the first greetings were over. “And dear, dear, what changes three years have made! Your two younger daughters have grown so much! Wynnette is a young lady. Elva soon will be one. And Odalite, madam? I hope she is well.”

“Odalite is quite well, thank you, Dr. Peters. She has gone over to Greenbushes, but she will be back to dinner. You and Mrs. Peters, I hope, will give us the happiness of your company for the day,” said the lady.

“Thank you, very much; but on this first day after your return home——”

“Now, doctor, I will take no denial. Wynnette, my love, go and tell Jacob to put up the doctor’s carriage 152and horse. Mrs. Peters, will you lay off your bonnet here, or will you go to a room?”

“I will go upstairs, if you please, dear. You see I have my cap in this little bandbox,” replied the rector’s wife.

So they had come to stay! And, of course, Mrs. Force knew that well enough when she invited them.

An old couple, like the good rector and his wife, could not be expected to come so long a drive only to make a short call.

Mrs. Force conducted her latest guest upstairs to a spare room, where the old lady took off her black Canton crape shawl, and her black silk bonnet, and put on her lace cap with white satin ribbons.

And then they went down together.

When they returned to the drawing room they found the place deserted.

Wynnette had carried off young Mrs. Ingle and the two babies to her own and Elva’s room, which was now converted into a day nursery, where Natalie, seated in a low rocking-chair, was putting her baby to sleep, while Elva, with a picture book, was quietly amusing Essie.

“Now, Natty, dear, as you know you are quite at home, you must excuse me, and let me go down to Dr. Peters, who is alone in the drawing room,” said Wynnette, as she kissed her ex-governess and dear friend and left the chamber.

But when she reached the hall below she found that the good rector was well taken care of.

Through the open hall door she saw him and her father walking up and down the piazza, enjoying the fine spring day, and smoking some of the squire’s fine cigars.

So Wynnette went into the drawing room, where she found her mother and the rector’s wife, who had just entered the place.

More visitors.

The gallop and halt of a horse was heard without, and 153soon after Mr. Sam Grandiere, escorted by Mr. Force and Dr. Peters, entered the drawing room, and made his bow to the lady of the house and her guest, and then shook hands with Wynnette and sat down, looking as red-headed, freckle-faced, bashful and awkward as ever.

He remarked that it was a fine day, though bad for the wheat crop, which wanted rain; and then he hoped that Mrs. Force and the young ladies felt rested after their journey.

Mrs. Force thanked him, and replied that the whole family were quite recovered from any little fatigue they might have felt.

The rector, to help the bashful young fellow out, inquired how he had enjoyed his trip to Washington, and what he thought of the city.

Young Sam was not to be “improved” in that way. He made a characteristic reply. Ignoring every object of interest within the city’s bounds, he answered that he thought the land about Washington very poor indeed, and very badly farmed, and crops looked very unpromising. He thought the soil had been too hard worked, and too little manured, and that it wanted rest and food, so to speak.

“But the city, my dear boy, the city! What do you think of the city, the great capital of a great nation?” persisted the minister.

“The city!” Well, Mr. Sam Grandiere didn’t think much of the city. There didn’t seem to be much downright, solid, earnest business going on there, like there was in Baltimore; and, for his part, he didn’t see how the people lived, except such as were in the service of the government. No, bad as the country was round about Washington, the city was even worse—even less productive.

The rector took up cudgels in defense of the national seat of government; spoke of the public buildings—the 154capitol, the departments, the patent office, the navy yard—and so on.

But Mr. Sam Grandiere could not see any profit or “produce” in any of them.

So the rector gave him over to a reprobate spirit.

Presently Mrs. Ingle—having left both her babies asleep upstairs, with Elva lovingly watching over them—came down into the drawing room and greeted the minister and his wife, and also Mr. Force, whom she had not earlier seen.

“You have grown plumper and rosier in the last three years, my dear. I should scarcely recognize in you the pale, delicate young bride whom I gave away to the worthy doctor. Ah! I see how it is! He has enforced the laws of health,” said the squire, as he warmly shook her hand.

“Yes; that is it,” replied Natalie. “He makes my life a burden to me with régime and hygiene.”

At this moment Le and Odalite walked into the room.

Le shook hands with the rector and his wife, while Odalite literally threw herself into the arms of Natalie.

And a few minutes later, when she had greeted all her parents’ guests, she went upstairs with young Mrs. Ingle to feast her eyes on the sleeping babies over which Elva was proudly and tenderly watching.

There the two friends sat down and had a good, long talk—all about the young doctor’s prospects, the young couple’s home, the neighbors, and so forth; but not once did they speak of Odalite’s trials. Odalite herself never alluded to the subject, nor did Natalie dare to do so.

And it may here be said that the reticence which was observed in the seclusion of the bedchamber was practiced in the social circle of the drawing room.

Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Force mentioned the subject of their family troubles, nor could their guests venture to do so.

Elfrida dreaded the indiscreet tongue of the lady 155from Wild Cats’; so she was greatly relieved, when she went out to caution Mrs. Anglesea, to hear that honest woman say:

“Let’s try to be jolly this one day, and forget all about my rascal and our troubles! ’Deed, do you know I have told everybody in this county how he treated me, so that they all know it as well as their a b c? And that’s a rhyme come out of time. I didn’t intend it, but I can’t mend it. I say! hold on here! there is something the matter with my headpiece! I never composed no poetry before and didn’t mean to do it now! It come out so itself! But you needn’t be afeard of me talking about Skallawag Anglesea! I’m sick to death of the name of him!” concluded the lady from the mines.

Mrs. Force then turned to receive young Dr. Ingle, who had just driven up in his gig and was now entering the front door, while old Jake took his equipage around to the stables.

Half an hour later dinner was served. And, in spite of all drawbacks, it proved a happy reunion of old friends.

After dinner the carriages were ordered, and the visitors departed.

One day Le spent in going around the neighborhood to see the old friends and neighbors, whom he had not seen for more than three years. The next day he stayed home at Mondreer, and spent nearly the whole of it in company of Odalite.

At night the squire drove him to the railway station, accompanied by Odalite, Wynnette and Elva, as once before. Also, Le was permitted to sit on the back seat 156beside Odalite, and when there he held her hand in his as on the previous occasion.

They reached the railway station in such good time that they had about fifteen minutes to wait in the little sitting room; and there the last adieus were made, when the train came in.

“It is not for a three years’ absence at sea this time, my dear! It is scarcely for three weeks. Before the middle of May I shall be with you again—please Heaven,” said Le, as he pressed Odalite to his heart in a last embrace, before he jumped into the car to be whirled out of sight.

Mr. Force with his daughters waited until the sound of the rushing train died away in the distance, and then took them back to the carriage and drove homeward.

Again, as before, they reached home about ten o’clock, to find Mrs. Force and the lady from the diggings waiting up for them—only on this occasion they were not sitting over a blazing hickory wood fire, in the dead of winter and night, with a jug of mulled wine steaming on the hearth; but they were sitting on the front piazza, on a fine spring evening, with a little table, on which was arranged a pitcher of iced sherbet, with glasses and a plate of wafer cakes.

“Well, he went off gay and happy as a lark, and we have come home chirp and merry as grigs!” said Wynnette, as she tore off and threw down her straw hat and seated herself at the table.

“Oh, I hope he will have a pleasant journey and a good time altogether! He can’t fail to get all the evidence he wants, ’cause it’s right there, you know! And I give him a letter to Joe Mullins, at Wild Cats’, as one of the witnesses to the marriage, though he wasn’t asked to sign the register! How should he, when he couldn’t read? I hope he’ll have time to run out to Wild Cats’ to see Joe! Though, come to think of it, I don’t know as he’ll find anything there but dark shafts and empty 157shanties. The leads was running out, and the boys was talking of leaving when I came away. Ah! I hope he will find some of the poor, dear boys! I should love to hear from them direct, once more.”

“How far is Wild Cats’ from St. Sebastian, Mrs. Anglesea?” rather anxiously inquired Wynnette.

“Oh, only a step—le’s see, now; ’bout a hundred and seventy-seven miles, I think they said it was.”

“Is there a railroad?”

“A what? A railroad? Oh, Lord! Why, child, when I was out there, which was less than four years ago, there was not even a turnpike road within a hundred miles of it. There’s a trail, though!”

“What do you mean by a trail?”

“Well, I mean a mule track.”

“Then I do not think that Le can go there. It must be a long and tedious journey, and he will not have time.”

“Oh, yes he will! And opportunity also. There’ll be mule trains, you know. He can pack on one of them. He can rough it! You bet! He’s every inch a man, is Le Force!”

“He must not risk losing his passage on our steamer,” said Odalite.

“Do not be anxious, my dear; he will not run any risks of losing the steamer. I think, also, that he will have time to do our friend’s commission. There has been a road made over that section since Mrs. Anglesea left it. And, now I think, we had better go indoors. The night air is too cold to remain out longer.”

They went into the house and soon after retired to bed.

The days that followed Le’s departure were active, cheerful, full of life.

The old friends and neighbors of the Forces received them back into their midst with not only the earnest 158love of time-honored friendship, but with the distinction due to illustrious visitors.

They called on them promptly.

They got up dinner and tea parties for their entertainment.

They would have nominated Mr. Force as their representative in Congress for the ensuing year, but that he was going abroad with his family for a year.

The Forces entered heartily into all the schemes of pleasure and hospitality set on foot in the community.

They accepted all the invitations given to them, and in return they gave dinner and tea parties until they had also entertained all their friends and neighbors.

And so the last weeks of April passed and May was on hand.

Letters from Le came by every Californian mail.

He had reached St. Sebastian; he had found the Rev. Father Minitree; he had searched the parish register; found the marriage between Angus Anglesea and Ann Maria Wright duly recorded, signed and witnessed; he had hunted out the living witnesses, and he had procured attested copies of the marriage record, further indorsed by the written and sworn statements of the officiating priest and of the surviving witnesses. And so, with evidence as strong as evidence could be, he wrote that he was ready to come home, only that he wished to oblige Mrs. Anglesea by going out to Wild Cats’ Gulch to inquire after her boys. The journey there and back, he thought, might occupy him four days. After that he should start for home, which he hoped to reach about the fifteenth of May.

Letters also came from the Earl of Enderby in answer to Mrs. Force’s missive that had announced the time of the family’s sailing for Europe—letters saying that the very near prospect and the anticipation of seeing his dear and only sister and her children had made him feel 159so much better in spirits that his health had improved under it.

Among the most constant visitors at Mondreer was Mr. Sam Grandiere, whose visits could not be mistaken as to their meaning, and whose attentions to Wynnette on all occasions of their meetings in other companies had attracted the observation of the whole neighborhood and caused much talk.

“Mr. Force is such a practical sort of man that so long as he knows young Grandiere comes of a good old Maryland family, and that his character is beyond reproach, he will not mind his roughness of manner or plainness of speech, or his want of a collegiate education, or refuse him his daughter on that account,” said young Dr. Ingle to his wife one evening when they were talking over the affair.

“No, perhaps not; but how could our brilliant Wynnette ever fancy such a lout!” exclaimed Natalie, indignantly.

“Oh, indeed, you are too severe on the poor fellow! And you, coming from the North, do not understand our Maryland ways. In your State it is the farmers’ boys who are sent to school and college in preference to the girls, if any are to go; but in Maryland it is always the farmers’ girls who are put to boarding school in preference to the boys; as in your State you find learned statesmen, lawyers and clergymen belonging to families of very plainly educated women, so in our State you will find refined and accomplished women in the same families with very plain, simply schooled men. It is queer, but it is so. Our Maryland men will make any sacrifice, even that of their own mental culture, in order to educate their women, and I think in that they show the very spirit of generosity.”

But among all the people who observed and criticized the growing intimacy between Wynnette and young 160Grandiere, none was more interested than quaint little Rosemary Hedge.

Rosemary was poetic, romantic and sentimental to a degree. She was devoted to Wynnette and Elva Force; and she could not bear the idea of Wynnette “throwing herself away” on such a rustic.

“He is my own dear cousin, Wynnette, and I love him dearly as a cousin; but, indeed, I could not marry him to save my soul! And though he is a good boy, I do not think he is a proper match for you,” said Rosemary, one morning, when she had come to spend the day at Mondreer, and the two girls were tête-à-tête in Wynnette’s room, where she had taken her visitor to lay off her bonnet.

“Why not?” curtly demanded Wynnette, who did not like these criticisms upon her lover.

But worse was to come.

“Why not?” echoed Rosemary. “Why, because dear Sam is so rough and ungainly. He has red hair and a freckled face——”

“So has the Duke of Argyll and all the princely Campbells!”

“And he has a club nose!”

“So have I. ‘Pot can’t call kettle black.’”

“And such big hands and feet——”

“So much the better for useful work.”

“But, oh! Wynnette, he—he——”

“What now?”

“He has no education to speak of—nothing but a common-school education!”

“Like any number of our great men who have risen to high rank, wealth and fame in the army, navy, civil service, or learned professions.”

“Yes, but he’ll never rise above his station. He hasn’t intellect enough.”

“Neither had any of the grand, brave, simple heroes 161and warriors of old whose deeds stir our hearts, even now.”

“But, Wynnette, Sam Grandiere is nothing like that! He would not even understand you if you were to talk to him as you do to me. His thoughts run all on crops and cattle and——”

“Whatever is really useful and beneficial to his folks.”

“In meeting their material wants only, Wynnette. But it is vain to argue with you. If you are determined to throw yourself away on Sam Grandiere——”

“Now, Rosemary, stow that, or the fat will be in the fire!” exclaimed the girl, flushing with a blaze of short-lived anger. “I mean I cannot bear to hear you depreciate the excellence of Samuel Grandiere. He is honest, true, and tender. He is as brave as a lion, and as magnanimous as a king—ought to be!”

“Yes, I know, but——”

“And where would you find such a lineage in the State as his?” vehemently interrupted Wynnette. “His pedigree can be traced back, step by step, to the Sieur Louis de Grandiere, who came over to England in the year 1420, in the suit of Katherine of Valois, queen of Henry the Fifth; though, of course, that tells but little. He was probably a gentleman in waiting, though he might have been a horse boy!”

“He was a gentleman in waiting on the queen. He was a nobleman of Provence,” replied quaint little Rosemary, craning her neck in defense of her ancestor.

“Oh, he was! Well, I always thought so! But that is more than can be said of Mr. Roland Bayard!” said Wynnette, maliciously.

Rosemary flushed to the edges of her curly black hair.

“I do not know what he has to do with the question,” she murmured.

“Only this, my love: that while we are taking sweet counsel together, and you are giving me the benefit of 162your wisdom in regard to Mr. Samuel Elk Grandiere, I might reciprocate by giving you a friendly warning in respect to Mr. Roland Bayard!”

“Oh, Wynnette!” cried Rosemary, deprecatingly, while the color deepened all over her face and neck.

“Nobody knows who he is! He was washed ashore from the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon, the only one saved. He was adopted by Miss Sibby, good soul, and he was educated at the expense of Mr. Force, generous man! Why, he was not only homeless, friendless and penniless, but he was nameless until the name of Roland Bayard was given him by Mr. Force and Miss Sibby, who were his sponsors in baptism!”

“Oh! oh! Wynnette! No one can look at Roland Bayard without seeing that he must be of princely lineage! He is very handsome, and graceful and accomplished! He is refined, cultured, intellectual!” pleaded Rosemary.

“Don’t see it! He has been through college and he has plenty of modest assurance, which prevents him from being bashful and awkward, as some of his betters are. But all the same, he is nobody’s son!”

“Oh, Wynnette! that is not generous of you! Can dear—can Roland help his misfortune? Is he to blame for being wrecked on our shore in his infancy, and losing everything, even his name? Oh, Wynnette!” said Rosemary, with tears in her eyes.

“No! I am not generous! I am a little catamount, and worse than that! It is not true, either, what I said about him! Roland is a fine fellow. And of course he must have been somebody’s son! Don’t cry, Rosie. I didn’t mean it, dear! Only the devil does get in me sometimes!” said the generous girl, stooping and kissing her quaint little friend.

Rosemary smiled through her tears; and then they went downstairs together.

163And as this was the first, so it was the last time that the subject in dispute was mentioned between the two girls.

As Wynnette and Rosemary approached the drawing room they heard a sweet confusion of laughing and talking within; which was explained as soon as Wynnette had opened the door.

Le had just arrived, and was in the midst of his friends shaking hands, hugging and kissing, asking and answering questions, all at once.

He rushed to Wynnette and Rosemary “at sight,” and gave them each a hearty, brotherly embrace.

“Yes,” he continued, with something that he had been saying when the girls came in—“yes, I have brought all the evidence we can possibly want or use—an overwhelming mass of evidence as to the marriage of Angus Anglesea and Ann Maria Wright at St. Sebastian, on August 1, 18—. That is proved and established beyond all doubt or question.”

“As if anybody ever did doubt it. The Lord knows if ever I had thought as any of you misdoubted as I was Anglesea’s lawful wedded wife, I wouldn’t a-stayed in this house one hour. Not I!” indignantly protested Mrs. Anglesea.

“No one ever did or ever could doubt that fact, my good lady,” said Mr. Force, soothingly; “but there are captious people who will contest things that they cannot doubt. And it is to meet such as these that we must be armed with overwhelming evidence.”

Mrs. Anglesea was mollified, and presently inquired if Le had seen her boys.

164“I did not go to Wild Cats’ Gulch, dear Mrs. Anglesea,” replied Le.

“‘Didn’t go!’ But you wrote as you was a-going!” exclaimed the lady from that section.

“Yes, and so I was. But on the very day when I proposed to start thither, on inquiring the best way to get there, I was referred to a man who was said to have once lived at the place. So I went, and found the referee to be a Mr. Joe Mullins, in the jewelry line of business.”

“Joe Mullins! My Joe! He in St. Sebastian! Do tell me now!” exclaimed Mrs. Anglesea.

“Yes, there he was, healthy, happy and prosperous, keeping a jeweler’s store, and living over it with his wife and two children!”

“Lord a mercy! Married, too!”

“Yes, and prosperous.”

“Well, well! And the other boys?”

Le looked solemn.

ruefully answered the young man.

“And the camp’s broke up, as I thought it would be.”

“Yes, two years ago.”

“Well, it is some satisfaction to hear about Joe. And so now I won’t interrupt of you no longer, as I dessay you have a heap to talk about among your ownselves,” said Mrs. Anglesea, as she left the drawing room.

As soon as she was gone the family fell into more confidential conversation.

“We shall sail for England in ten days,” said Mr. Force, “and with this complete evidence of the Californian marriage in our possession we will, on our arrival in the old country, seek out authentic evidence of the 165exact date of Lady Mary Anglesea’s demise, which I fully believe to have occurred in the August of some year previous to that of Col. Anglesea’s marriage with the Widow Wright. When we shall find such evidence, as I feel sure we shall, then there will be nothing wanting to prove that Ann Maria Anglesea is the lawful wife of Angus Anglesea, and that Odalite Force is, and has always been, free, and there need be nothing to prevent your immediate union, my dear children.”

“May Heaven speed the day!” earnestly aspirated Le.

Much more was said on the subject that need not be repeated here.

Preparations for their voyage had been so long and systematically in progress that the Forces had perfect leisure in the last week of their stay at home.

The last day was devoted to the friends they were about to leave behind.

They started early on the morning of the twenty-third of May, and made a round of farewell visits to all their old neighbors.

The last call they made was at Forest Rest, to take leave of Miss Sibby Bayard.

“So you are ralely a-going to cross the high seas? I hardly believed it on you, Abel Force!” she said, as she shook hands in turn with Mr. and Mrs. Force, Le and the three girls, and gave them seats. “I thought as you had more sense, Abel Force! I did that! Them as has the least to do with the sea, sez I, comes the best off, sez I!”

“But, my good lady, necessity has no law, you know. We are obliged to go,” laughed Mr. Force.

“What have you been up and doing of, old Abel, that you are obliged to run away from your own native country? Nobody but outlaws, sez I, is obliged to go off to furrin parts, sez I!”

Mr. Force found nothing to say to this.

Wynnette came to her father’s assistance.

166“We shall visit, among other interesting places, Arundel Castle, the seat of your ancestors for centuries past, Miss Sibby.”

“Hush, honey! You don’t say as you’ll go there?”

“As sure as the Lord permits us, we will, Miss Sibby.”

“And see it?”

“Yes, and see it.”

“With your own eyes?”

“Well, no,” gravely replied Wynnette, “not with our own eyes, because we might have to stretch them too wide to take in a view of the great stronghold of the great ducal house. We propose to hire some stout, able-bodied eyes for the occasion!”

“And now you are laughing at me, Miss Wynnette! You are always laughing heartiest inside when you’re a looking solemnest outside! But you ralely are gwine to visit ’Rundel Cassil?”

“Yes. All tourists go there.”

“Well, well, well! Them as lives the longest, sez I, sees the most, sez I. But little did I think as I should live to see any of my neighbors going to visit ’Rundel Cassil!”

“We will bring you a guidebook with illustrations, descriptive of the castle, and some relics and curiosities of the place. They are to be had, I think.”

“Do, my child! I should prize ’em above everything. And now, Miss Wynnette, you take a ole ’oman’s advice. Them as follows my advice, sez I, never comes to no harm, sez I. Mind that, honey.”

“All right, Miss Sibby; fire away!—I mean proceed with your good counsel.”

“Well, then, honey, I ain’t been that blind but I could see what was a-goin’ on between a certain young gentleman and a certain young lady.”

Wynnette tacitly pleaded guilty by a deep blush.

“Now, honey, don’t you take it anyways amiss what I am a-gwine to say. You’re gwine off to furrin parts. 167Now, honey, don’t you let any of them there furrin colonels and counts and things fashionate you away from you own dear sweetheart. He’s a good, true man, is Sam Grandiere, and a ole neighbor’s son. Now you take my advice and be true to him, as he is sure to be true to you. Them as breaks faith, sez I, is sure to pay for it, sez I. There, now, I won’t say no more. When you’ve said all you’ve got to say, sez I, it is time to stop, sez I.”

Mrs. Force now arose to take leave.

All her party kissed Miss Sibby good-by.

The old lady cried a little, and prayed: “God bless them.”

And so they parted.

Early the next morning the Forces left Mondreer, taking the dog, Joshua, with them.

Wynnette had insisted on his coming.

“I promised him, papa,” she said—“I promised him; and it would be playing it too low to go back on a dumb brute—oh! I mean, dear papa, that it would seem base to break faith with a poor, confiding dog.”

So Joshua went.

“Look yere, ole woman,” said the lady from Wild Cats’, “I’m gwine to take the best of care of your house while you’re gone, and I want you to keep an eye on my rascal over yonder, while I keep a sharp lookout for him over here. He can’t be in both places at once; but wherever he is he will be at some deviltry—you may bet your pile on that.”

This was the lady’s last good-by to the departing family.

She watched the procession of three carriages that took them and all their luggage to the railway station, where Rosemary Hedge was to be brought by her mother and aunt to join them.

She watched them cross the lawn, and go out through the north gate, and disappear up the wooded road.

168And then she turned into the house to face the howling Luce.

“What on earth ails the woman?” demanded the housekeeper.

“Oh! dey’s gone ag’in!—dey’s gone ag’in! An’ dis time dey’s gone across de ocean! I shall nebber see ’em ag’in!—nebber no mo’!—nebber no mo’!” sobbed Lucy, sitting flat on the hall floor, and rocking her body back and forth.

“Oh, yes you will. Don’t be a fool! Get up and go to work. Work’s the best cure for trouble. Indeed, work’s the best cure for most things—poverty, for instance.”

“It didn’t use to be so! It didn’t use to be so!” said Luce, continuing to rock herself. “Dey nebber use to go ’way from year’s end to year’s end! But now it’s got to be a habit dey gibs deirselbes—a berry habit dey gibs deirselbes!”

The three carriages conveying the large party from the old manor house rolled on through the familiar woods, so often traversed by the young people of the household in going to and fro between Mondreer and Greenbushes.

In the foremost carriage rode Mr. and Mrs. Force, Wynnette and Elva.

In the second, Odalite and Le.

In the third, Dickon and Gipsy, the valet and lady’s maid, in charge of all the lighter luggage.

Joshua, the dog, raced on before in the highest state of ecstasy, but occasionally raced back again, as if to be sure that his large family were following him safely 169without disappearing in the woods to the right or the left.

Mr. Force knew perfectly well that that dog was going to give him more trouble and embarrassment on land and sea than all his party twice told; that it would be the unfailing cause of rows and rumpuses, on trains and boats, and that might end in Joshua being cast off, or lost, or killed.

But what could he do?

Talk of your henpecked husband, indeed! He is not half so common, or half so helpless, as your chickpecked father.

Wynnette had promised Joshua that he should never be left behind again, and she said that it would be base to deceive and betray a poor dog. Wynnette said the dog must come, and he came.

When they came in sight of Chincapin Creek little Elva put her head out of the window and gazed, and continued to gaze, fondly, if silently, on the spot so full of pleasant, childish memories, until they had crossed the bridge, and left the place behind. Then, with a little, involuntary sigh, she drew in her head and sat back in her seat.

Wynnette mocked her.

“Why don’t you say, ‘Adieu, blest scenes of my innocent infancy! Virtue and simplicity,’ and so on and so on!”

“Oh, Wynnette! How can you?” exclaimed Elva, almost in tears.

“I can’t! I never could! It isn’t in my line! But why don’t you?” mocked the girl, raising her black eyebrows.

They reached the station in full time, and had twenty minutes to wait. Mr. Force had engaged a whole compartment for his party by telegraph the day before.

In the waiting room they found all the Grandieres, 170all the Elks, and little Rosemary Hedge, with her luggage.

There followed an animating scene—a little laughing, more crying and much talking.

Mrs. Hedge implored Mrs. Force to be a mother to her fatherless child, and to bring her back safe and well at the end of the year.

Mrs. Force promised all that a woman could, under the circumstances.

And Roland Bayard, who sat beside little Rosemary holding her hand in his, spoke up and said:

“Dear Mrs. Hedge, don’t grieve about the little maiden. If, at any time, you should be pining to have her back, you can let me know and I will just run over and fetch her.”

There was something very comforting in this promise, because Mrs. Hedge knew that Roland Bayard meant what he said; and very cheering in the manner in which he put it—“Just run over and fetch her!” Why, it sounded like such a mere trifle to cross the ocean, in these days of steam. But Roland was still talking.

“And, Rosemary, if you get homesick before our friends are ready to return, write to me, darling, and I’ll come and fetch you back.”

“Oh, Mr. Bayard! you don’t know how you have consoled me!” said Mrs. Hedge, wiping her eyes.

“I will write to you every week, Roland. And I will keep a journal for you, and send it in monthly parts, so that you may seem to be traveling with us! Oh, how I wish you were!” sighed Rosemary.

“Do you, darling? Well, perhaps you may see me sooner than you expect,” replied Roland, mysteriously.

“Oh! oh! will you be coming over? Does the Kitty ever go to England?”

“I don’t know, dear; but if the Kitty don’t, there will be one or two other little craft crossing—perhaps. Let us live in hope.”

171While Rosemary and Roland chatted together, Mrs. Hedge turned to Mrs. Force, saying:

“Oh, you happy woman! You are going to Europe with all you love at your side—husband, children and nephew! While I stay home, widowed, practically childless and alone! Talk of the compensations of life! There is no compensation in mine.”

“‘The heart knoweth its own bitterness!’” murmured Elfrida Force to herself.

“Mother! Mother! I won’t go! I won’t leave you!” cried Rosemary, jumping up and throwing herself into the widow’s arms.

“Hush, my child, hush! I wish you to go, and you must do so. It is for your own profit and instruction,” replied Mrs. Hedge.

“Then, my own dear mother, won’t you just think that I have only gone back to school in Washington, and that I shall be home as usual to spend the Christmas holidays? Mr. Force expects to bring us all home in December.”

“Yes, yes, I shall be comforted, child,” replied the widow, and she held her daughter on her lap, against her bosom, with Rosemary’s arms clasped around her neck, until they heard the sound of the approaching train.

The train never stopped longer than three minutes at this station.

All arose to bid their last good-bys.

Among the rest, Joshua came out from behind Wynnette’s skirts, and shook himself, and very nearly shook the building. All alert was he to see that his eccentric family did not escape him again.

“Gracious goodness, Mr. Force! Here is that dog followed you all the way from Mondreer! What’s to be done with him? Shall I take him home? Will he follow me?” inquired Sam Grandiere, eager to be useful.

“He is to go abroad with us,” groaned the squire, who 172was hastily shaking hands right and left with the friends who had come to see him and his family off.

“But will they allow——”

There was no time to finish his question, for—

“Good-by, Sam,” said Wynnette, holding out her hand. “Remember the advice I gave you about taking a course at Charlotte Hall College.”

“I will, Wynnette, I will!” earnestly answered the young fellow, with tears brimming in his honest blue eyes.

“You will write to me as often as you can, and I will answer every one of your letters. And—listen here, Sam,” she added, in a whisper that the long-legged boy had to stoop to catch, “I won’t marry a royal duke if I can resist the temptation! Good-by.”

The whole party hurried out of the building to the platform, where the train had just stopped, with its puffing and blowing engine.

Mr. Force showed his tickets, and the party were conducted to their car. In the confusion of a final leave-taking, then and there, between two such large parties, Joshua, who did not at all like the looks of things in general, with the long train of cars, the panting engine, the steam, the smoke, the crowd, the baggage heavers, the excitement, and the general “hullabuloo,” and who feared that he might lose sight of his family in this crash of worlds, managed to slip into the car, between Wynnette’s duster and Gipsy’s arms full of shawls, and to ensconce himself under the broad lounge in the compartment.

The last kisses were given, the last “God bless you” spoken, and the travelers were seated in their compartment not ten seconds before the train started.

“Now!” exclaimed Wynnette, triumphantly. “Have we had the least trouble with Joshua?”

“Not yet,” curtly replied her father. “Where is he?”

173“Under the sofa—and Rosemary, Elva and myself, by sitting here, hide him from view.”

“Very well. Keep him quiet, if you can.”

The train was rushing on at express speed, when the conductor came along to collect the tickets. He entered their compartment. Joshua considered his appearance an unwarrantable intrusion, and told him so in a low, thunderous growl.

“What’s that?” suddenly demanded the conductor, looking around.

“Urr-rr-rr-rr,” remarked Joshua.

“It is a valuable dog of ours. I am quite willing to pay his fare,” replied Mr. Force, taking out his pocketbook.

“He can’t be allowed in the passenger car, sir,” replied the conductor.

“Not in the compartment that we have taken for our own convenience, and where he cannot possibly annoy anybody else?”

“No, sir; it is against the rules.”

“Oh, Mr. Conductor! please! please! He is such a good dog, and we love him so much! Indeed, he will not bite when he knows you don’t mean to hurt us! Please, Mr. Conductor, let him stay!” pleaded Elva.

“’Gainst the rules, miss. Very sorry.”

“Papa, tip that fellow with a V, and stop this row!—I mean, papa, pray offer this officer the consideration of a five-dollar note, and conclude this controversy.”

Of course, it was Wynnette who uttered this insolence.

“Hush, my dear, hush! This is quite inadmissible. The conductor must do his duty.”

“If he gets put off the train I’ll go, too! He’ll never find his way home!” said Wynnette.

Elva began to cry.

The conductor was in a hurry.

“If this young gentleman will bring the dog after me to the freight car, the baggage master will take charge of 174him for a trifle,” suggested the conductor, who was more moved to pity by Elva’s tears than to anger by Wynnette’s insolence.

“Go, Le,” said Mr. Force, opening his pocketbook and taking from it a note, which he put into the midshipman’s hands. “Give this to the man, and tell him if he will take care of the dog he shall have another at the end of this journey.”

“And introduce Joshua to the baggage master, and tell him what a cultivated and gentlemanly dog he is! And don’t you leave them together until you are sure that they are good friends! Do you hear me, Leonidas Force?”

“All right, Wynnette,” said good-humored Le, taking Joshua by the collar and trying to pull him from under the sofa.

But the dog declined to leave his retreat. He did not recognize Mr. Midshipman Force as his master.

“Bother! I shall have to take him myself. You can come with us if you like, Le; but you needn’t if you don’t,” said Wynnette. And she whistled for the dog, who immediately came out and put his gray paws upon her lap.

She arose and called him to follow her. Le and the conductor escorted her.

“I know we are going to have no end of trouble with that dog,” said Mr. Force.

“Oh, I think not, when we learn how to manage. We must always give him in charge of the baggage master at the start,” replied Mrs. Force.

Wynnette and Le were gone nearly an hour. At last they returned.

“What kept you so long? Did the dog prove intractable, or the baggage master unaccommodating?” inquired Odalite of Le.

“Not at all!” exclaimed Wynnette, answering for her companion. “That baggage man’s a good sort. He and 175Joshua became pals at once. He loves dogs, and dogs love him. As soon as ever I presented Joshua to him he held out his hand, and said:

“‘Hello, old pard! how are you? Shall we be pals?’ or words to that effect. And said Joshua slapped his paw into the open palm, and—

“‘It’s a whack!’ or barks to the same purpose.”

“But what kept you so long? What were you doing all that time?”

“Talking to the baggage master. I do like to talk to real men much better than to the curled and scented la-da-da things we meet in society. His name is Kirby. He came from Lancashire, England, where he has an old father living, to whom he sends a part of his wages every month. He is forty-five years old, and has been married twenty years, and has eleven children, the oldest eighteen and the youngest one. I told him we were going to Lancashire, and would take anything he might like to send to his dad.”

“But, my dear, Lancashire is a large county, and we may not be anywhere near his native place.”

“We could make a point of going there to oblige such a man as he is, papa. Think of his bringing up a large family and helping his old father, too, on such small wages as he must get. Oh, he is a downright real man. And, indeed, I have a warm place in my heart for real men.”

“That is why you like Sa——”

“Shut up, Rosemary!”

And Rosemary obeyed.

The remainder of the journey was made without disturbance.

They reached Washington about 3 P.M., dined and rested for an hour at their favorite hotel, and took the afternoon train to New York, where they arrived very late at night.

176They had no more trouble with the dog, now that they knew how to manage.

Mr. Force went down to the steamer to see about the passage of the animal, and found that there was a place in the steerage of the great ship where the creature could be accommodated.

Ah, what a chickpecked father that man was!

“If they had wanted to fetch a favorite cow, I should have been obliged to bring her somehow,” he said to himself.

On the next morning Mr. Force took his family to Central Park and to the menagerie.

In the evening he took them to the opera to hear Kellogg. That was their last night in the city.

Saturday, the twenty-eighth of May, was a very fine day. As early as seven in the morning the hacks engaged to take our travelers to the steamer were standing before the ladies’ entrance of the Metropolitan Hotel.

Their luggage had been sent aboard ship on the day before.

A little after seven the whole party came down and entered the carriages, and were driven off toward the pier where the Persia lay.

They arrived amid the bustle and confusion that always attends the sailing of an ocean steamer—crowds of carriages and drags of all sorts; crowds of men, women and children of all sorts; crowds of passengers going on; crowds of friends seeing them off; here and there a heartrending parting; a bedlam of sights; a babel of sounds, deafening noises, suffocating scents.

177Such was the scene on the pier and such was the scene on the deck when Mr. Force had succeeded in navigating his party from the first to the last.

“For Heaven’s sake keep close together! Are we all here?” he anxiously inquired.

“All!” answered a score of voices.

“Where’s that dog?”

“Here, papa. I have him by the collar,” answered Wynnette.

“Keep hold of him, then. And sit down, all of you, and be quiet until this crowd leaves the deck. We cannot attempt to get to our staterooms at present.”

His party complied with this order.

“All ashore!” called out a voice in authority.

The words were magical.

Hurried embraces; laughing good-bys; weeping good-bys; fervent God bless yous; agonized partings; and then a pressure over the gang plank to the pier.

Five minutes later and the valedictory gun was fired, and the Persia stood out to sea.

“Oh,” said little Elva, as she observed the sad faces of some passengers who were leaning over the sides of the ship and waving handkerchiefs to friends on the pier—“oh, I am glad we are all going together and have not left any one behind to cry after—no, not even our dog.”

A little later on our passengers sought their staterooms below. Dickon—than whom no blacker boy ever was born—took the dog to that part of the ship for such four-footed passengers made and provided, and then went to look up his own berth in the second cabin.

Never was finer weather, a clearer sky, a calmer sea, or a swifter voyage than blessed the Persia, which sailed on that Saturday morning of May 28th.

Only those of the most bilious temperaments suffered from seasickness. None of our party were affected.

All the passengers rejoiced at the prosperity of the 178voyage—all except Wynnette, who longed to see a storm at sea.

She was disgusted.

“I had just as lief travel in a canal boat!” she growled, when they were about halfway across the Atlantic.

She was bound to be disappointed to the last. The voyage was continued in the finest early summer weather, until in the dead of a moonlight night the steamer anchored in the Cove of Cork.

Early the next morning all the passengers were out on deck to see the beautiful bay with its lovely hilly shores, and its picturesque little port of Queenstown.

The ship remained at anchor only long enough to deliver mails and freight, and then she put to sea again and headed for the mouth of the Mersey.

Wynnette, Elva and Rosemary remained on deck all day feasting their eyes on the shores of England, the isles of the channel, and later on the green banks of the Mersey with its pretty towns and villages, castles and cottages.

Early in the afternoon the ship reached Liverpool.

When the bustle of the debarkation and the nuisance of the custom house was over, and Mr. Force was handing the ladies of his party into a capacious carriage to convey them to the Adelphi Hotel, he inquired:

“Well, shall we take rooms there for the night, or only supper, and leave by the evening express for Cumberland?”

“Oh, let us go on, if you please! What time does our train leave?” inquired Mrs. Force.

“Ten-fifty.”

“Then we can reach Nethermost, the nearest station to Enderby Castle, by morning. If you telegraph to Enderby my brother will send carriages there to meet us.”

“Very well,” said Mr. Force, as he shut the carriage 179door and gave the coachman the address to which he was to drive.

Mr. Force then sent his two servants with the dog and the lighter luggage in another conveyance after his family, while he and Leonidas Force attended to the duty of having their trunks transferred from the custom house to the Lime Street Railroad Station.

An hour after this the whole family were gathered around the tea table in their private parlor at the Adelphi. The dog, stretched on a Russian rug before the sofa, was making himself at home.

“What do you think of all this, Rosie?” kindly inquired Mr. Force of little Rosemary Hedge.

“I—I—feel as if I were reading it all in a novel by Aunt Sukey’s evening fire at Grove Hill,” replied the quaint little creature.

“And you, Elva?”

“Oh, I feel so very much at home, as if I had come back from somewhere to grandmother’s house. A very strange, pleasant feeling of old familiarity,” said weird little Elva.

“As for me,” said Wynnette, “I see ghosts!”

“Ghosts!” exclaimed all the company in chorus.

“Yes, ghosts! ‘This isle is full of spirits.’ I see ghosts! All sorts of ghosts! Ghosts of savages in skins! These must be spirits of the ancient Britons! Ghosts of men in armor! These must be the medieval knights and men-at-arms! Ghosts of gentlemen in velvet and satin tunic and lace collars and pointed shoes! These must be the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth’s time! And now come the hideous powdered wigs, broad-bottomed coats, and long silk stockings of——Say, papa! give me some of those strawberries, or I shall see his Satanic majesty presently.”

Mr. Force gravely passed along the cut-glass bowl of the luscious fruit.

180Immediately after supper the travelers left the hotel for the railway station.

There Abel Force engaged a whole compartment for his family, and took tickets in the second-class carriage for his two servants.

“And how can I carry a valuable dog?” inquired the squire of the guard.

“Take him in your own compartment, if you like, sir,” replied that officer, staring a little.

Joshua didn’t wait for permission, but jumped into the carriage after Wynnette.

The three other ladies followed. Last of all Abel Force and Le entered and took their seats, though the train was not yet quite ready to start.

Compartments on English trains differ from those on our own, in being entirely separated by a solid partition from other compartments on the same carriage, and they are thereby quite private for those who engage a whole one. This compartment taken by the Forces resembled the inside of a large coach, having eight cushioned seats, four being in front and four behind.

The train started at ten-fifty, and whirled on through the twilight of the summer night, which in England never seems to grow quite dark.

At the first station at which the train stopped, the guard came along and put his head into the window.

“Tickets, please, sir.”

Mr. Force handed over seven tickets for his party.

Guard counted them, and touched his hat.

“Dog ticket, please, sir.”

“What?” demanded the astonished squire.

“Dog ticket, please, sir.”

“Dog ticket? I have none. Didn’t know one would be required. Never heard of such a thing. But I will pay his fare.”

“Couldn’t take it, sir. ’Gainst the rules.”

181“Then what shall I do?” exclaimed the distressed squire.

“Uncle, I will jump out and buy a dog ticket at the station here,” said Le; and without waiting a second he sprang from the carriage and vanished into the ticket office.

“Look sharp, young gent, or you’ll be left. Train starts again in two minutes,” called the guard.

Le did look sharp, and the next minute reappeared, flourishing the prize.

He jumped in, and the train moved on.

Everybody went to sleep except Wynnette, who went off into a waking dream, and saw the ghosts of all her ancestors, from the Druids down, pass in procession before her. A weird, unreal, magical night journey this seemed to the travelers. The night express stopped at fewer stations than any other train of the twenty-four hours.

Whenever it did stop, our passengers waked up and looked out upon the strange and beautiful land—old, but always new—dotted with its country towns and villages, its castles, farmhouses and cottages, dimly seen in the soft haze of the summer night, where evening and morning twilight seemed to meet so that it was never dark.

On the whole, it was a pleasant, charming journey, the last few miles being along the rough and rocky coast. The dawn was reddening in the east, and the northern morning air felt fresh and invigorating, when the train stopped at Nethermost, a picturesque little hamlet built up and down the sides of the cliff wherever there was room for a sea-bird’s nest.

“Oh, what a charming place!” exclaimed Rosemary, looking out upon it. The line of railway ran along under the cliff, and the little station was built against the rocks.

The guard came and opened the door.

182Mr. Force jumped off, and then handed out the ladies of his party, one by one.

The porters were at the same time throwing off their luggage.

In another minute the train had moved on, and the travelers were left standing on the platform, with the sea on the west, the cliffs on the east, and the hamlet of Nethermost scattered at random on the sides of the latter.

“There are the carriages,” said Mr. Force, as he described three vehicles grouped together at a short distance.

At the same time a servant in livery approached, touched his hat, and respectfully inquired:

“Party for Enderby Castle, sir?”

“Yes,” replied Mr. Force.

“This way, if you please, sir.”

There were two spacious open barouches and one large wagon.

“My lord ordered me, sir, if the weather should be fine, to bring the barouches for the ladies, as they would be so much pleasanter,” the man explained, touching his hat, as he held the door of the first carriage open for Mrs. Force.

The travelers were soon seated—Mr. and Mrs. Force, Wynnette and Elva in the first barouche, Le, Odalite and Rosemary in the second, and the two servants, with the dog and the luggage, in the wagon.

“Oh, how jolly!” exclaimed Wynnette, looking about her.

183By this time it was light enough to see their surroundings—the hoary cliffs and the picturesque fishing village on their right; the far-spread rocky beach, with the fishing boats drawn up, on their left; the expanse of ocean beyond, dotted at long distances with sails; and right near them the only street of the hamlet that ran from the beach up through a natural cleft in the rocks, and looked something like a rude, broad staircase of flagstones, which were paved on edge to afford a hold to horses’ feet in climbing up the steep ascent.

By this time, too, the denizens of the village were out before their doors to stare at the unusual sight of three carriages and a large party of visitors for Enderby Castle.

For, of course, as his lordship’s carriages and liveried servants were there to meet the party of travelers, they must be visitors to the castle.

The men took off their hats and the women courtesied as the open carriages passed slowly up the steep street to the top of the cliff, where it joined the road leading northward along the sea toward Enderby Castle.

Now the travelers in the open carriages had a grand view of land and water.

On the east, moorland rolling into hills in the mid distance and rising into mountains on the far horizon. The newly risen sun shining above them and tinting all their tops with the soft and varied hues of the opal stone. Here and there at long distances could be seen the ruined tower of some ancient stronghold, or the roof and chimneys of some old farmstead. Everything looked old or ancient on this wild coast of Cumberland.

On the west the ocean rolled out until lost to view in the mists of the horizon.

Before them northward the road stretched for many a mile.

Far ahead they saw a mighty promontory stretching out to sea. At its base the waves dashed, leaped, roared, 184tumbled like raging wild beasts clawing at the rocks. On the extreme edge of its point arose a mass of gray stone buildings scarcely to be distinguished from the foundation on which they were built.

“How far is it to Enderby Castle?” inquired Mr. Force of the coachman who drove his carriage.

“Ten miles from the station, sir,” replied the man, touching his hat.

“That is the castle,” said Mrs. Force, pointing to the pile of buildings on the edge of the promontory, and handing the field glass with which she had been taking a view of her birthplace and first home.

“That! It is a fine, commanding situation, but it scarcely looks to be more than five miles from here.”

“It is not, if we could take a bee line over land and sea, but the road has to follow the bend of the estuary,” replied the lady.

All the occupants of both carriages, which had come to a standstill, were now on their feet gazing at that hoary headland, capped with its ancient stronghold.

The field glass was passed from one to another, while the carriages paused long enough for all to take a view.

“So that was the home of my grandparents and of our forefathers for—how long, dear mamma?” inquired Odalite.

“Eight centuries, my dear. The round tower that you see is the oldest part of the edifice, and was built by Kedrik of Enderbee in the year 950.”

“Lord, what a fine time the rats, mice, bats, owls, rooks and ghosts must have in it!” remarked Wynnette.

“It is like a picture in a Christmas ghost story,” said Elva.

“It seems like Aunt Sukey was reading it all to me out of a novel by the evening fire at Grove Hill,” mused Rosemary.

“Go on,” said Mr. Force.

And the carriages started again.

185The road, still running along the top of the cliff, turned gradually more and more to the left until its course verged from the north to the northwest, and then to the west, as it entered upon the long, high point of land upon which stood the castle. The road now began to ascend another steep, paved with stones on edge to make a hold for the horses’ feet in climbing, and at length entered a sort of alley between huge stone walls that rose higher and higher on either side as the road ascended, until it reached a heavy gateway flanked with towers, between which, and over the gateway, hung the spiked and rusting iron portcullis, looking as if it were ready, at the touch of a spring, to fall and impale any audacious intruder who might pass beneath it. But it was fast rusted into its place, where it had been stationary for ages.

“I wonder who was the last warder that raised this portcullis?” mused Wynnette.

“I cannot tell you, my dear. It has not been moved in the memory of man,” replied Mrs. Force.

“I see ghosts again!” exclaimed Wynnette—“men-at-arms on yonder battlements! Knights, squires and pursuivants in the courtyard here! Oh, what a haunted hole is this!”

They entered a quadrangular courtyard paved with flagstones, inclosed by stone buildings, and having at each of the four corners a strong tower.

The front building, through which they had passed by the ascending road, was the most ancient part of the castle and faced the sea. But in the rear of that was the more recent structure, used as the dwelling of the earl and his household. This modern building also faced the sea, on the other side, but it could not be approached from the cliff road except through the front. These buildings were not used at all. They were given over to the denizens objected to by Wynnette—to rats, mice, bats, owls and rooks, and—perhaps ghosts.

186On either side the buildings were used as quarters for the servants and offices for the household.

They drove through the courtyard, under an archway in the wall of the modern building, and out to the front entrance, facing the open sea.

Many steps led from the pavement up to the massive oaken doors, flanked by huge pillars of stone, that gave admittance to the building.

The coachman left his box, went up these stairs and knocked.

The double doors swung open.

Mr. Force alighted and handed out his wife and two elder daughters, while Le performed the same service for Elva and Rosemary, and the party walked up the stairs to the open door.

A footman in the gray livery of Enderby bowed them in.

A tall, fair, delicate-looking patrician of about forty years of age, clothed in an India silk dressing gown, leaning on the arm of his gray-haired valet, and further supporting himself by a gold-headed cane, approached to welcome them.

“My sister—I am glad to see you, Elfrida,” he said, passing his cane over to his valet and taking the lady by the hand to give her his brotherly kiss. “Now present me to your husband and daughters, and to these—young friends of yours. I am glad to see them all. Very glad.”

Mrs. Force introduced Mr. Force, Leonidas and the girls in turn.

187Lord Enderby shook hands with each in succession, and heartily welcomed them all to Enderby.

“You must take your place at the head of my bachelor household, Elfrida. In the meantime, my housekeeper, Mrs. Kelsy here, will show you to your rooms.”

As he spoke, an elderly woman, in her Sunday dress of black silk, with a white net shoulder shawl and a white net cap, came from the rear of the hall, courtesied, and said:

“My lady, this way, if you please.”

“Breakfast will be served as soon as you are ready for it, Elfrida,” said the host, as, still leaning on the arm of his valet and supporting himself by his cane, he turned and passed through a door on the right, into his own sanctum.

Widely yawned the foot of the broad staircase, up which Mrs. Kelsy led the guests of the house, to a vast upper hall, flanked with oaken doors leading into a suit of apartments on either side.

The housekeeper opened a door on the right, saying:

“Here is a suit of five rooms, my lady, fitted up for yourself and the young ladies. And here, on the opposite side, is a large room, with dressing room attached, for the young gentlemen—Good Lord!!”

This sudden exclamation from the housekeeper was called forth by the unexpected apparition of Gipsy, the negro maid, than whom no blacker human being ever saw the light. Gipsy was as black as ink, as black as ebony. Wynnette declared that charcoal made a light-colored mark on her. But aside from her complexion, Gipsy was a good-looking girl, with laughing black eyes, and laughing lips that disclosed fine white teeth.

“This is my maid, Zipporah, but we call her Gipsy for convenience,” said Mrs. Force.

“Oh, my lady! Will it bite? Can’t it talk? Is it vicious?” inquired the Cumberland woman, who had never seen and scarcely ever heard of a negro, and had 188the vaguest idea of dark-colored savages in distant parts of the world, who were pagans and cannibals.

“She is a very good girl, and can read and write as well as any of us; and she is, besides, a member of the Episcopal church at home, which is the same as your Church of England here,” Mrs. Force explained.

“Yes, my lady. Certainly, my lady. I beg pardon, my lady, I am sure,” said the housekeeper, in profuse apology; but still she did not seem satisfied, but gave Gipsy a wide berth while she eyed her suspiciously.

Now Gipsy resented this sort of treatment; besides, she was a bit of a wag; so every time her mistress’ back was turned she rolled up the whites of her big eyes, curled up her large red lips, and snapped her teeth together, in a way that made Kelsy’s blood run cold.

As soon as it was possible to do so, she made an excuse and left the room.

“Where is Dickon?” inquired Mr. Force.

“He’s round at the kennel with the dog. Joshua won’t make friends ’long o’ none of the grooms, nor likewise none o’ the doogs, so Dickon have to stay ’long o’ him to keep him quiet,” said Gipsy.

Mr. Force groaned.

“Now everything is going to be laid on that poor dog! Gipsy, I won’t give you my crimson silk dress when I have done with it, just for that. Papa, I can help you to dress just as well as Dickon can—and a great deal better, too. I can fix your shaving things and hair brushes, and lay out your clothes myself!” exclaimed Wynnette.

“My dear, I think you had better prepare for breakfast,” said her mother.

“Mother, we can’t do much preparing, as our trunks have not been brought up.”

“Take off your duster, my dear, and wash your face and hands, and brush your hair,” suggested Mrs. Force.

189“I suppose these two rooms are yours and papa’s, but which are ours?”

Mrs. Force walked through the whole suit, and finally assigned a room next to her own to Wynnette and Odalite, and another to Elva and Rosemary.

What struck all these visitors was the heavy and rather gloomy character of their apartments. Thick Brussels carpets, thick moreen window curtains, and bed curtains of dull colors and dingy appearance, massive bedsteads, bureaus, presses and chairs.

“And they call this the modern part of the castle! Oh, I know I shall see ghosts!” said Wynnette.

When they were all ready, they went downstairs to the hall, all hung with suits of armor, and decorated with arms, shields, spears, banners, battle-axes, and so on, and with stags’ heads and other trophies of the battlefield and the chase.

Here a footman showed them into the breakfast room, where the earl sat waiting for them. Breakfast was served in a very few minutes.

After breakfast the whole party adjourned to the drawing room, a vast, gloomy apartment with walls lined with old oil paintings, windows hung with heavy, dark curtains; floor covered with a thick, dull carpet, and filled up with massive furniture.

After they had been seated for a while, the earl arose, taking his cane in one hand and the arm of his brother-in-law with the other, and said:

“I hope you will amuse yourselves as you please, my dears, and excuse me: I wish to have a talk on family matters with your parents in the library. If you would like to go over the house, call one of the maids or the housekeeper to be your guide,” he concluded, as he left the room, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Force.

Odalite acted on her uncle’s suggestion, rang the bell, and requested to see the housekeeper.

190Mrs. Kelsy came, and on being requested, expressed her willingness to show the young ladies over the house.

“And to the picture gallery first, if you please,” she said, as she led the way across the hall to a long room on the opposite side.

Here were the family portraits.

“Odalite, here are the originals of all the ghosts I saw with my eyes shut, on last night’s journey, and of all the ghosts I saw here on the battlements and in the courtyard—all, all, all—men-at-arms, squires, knights, lords and ladies. If they would but talk, what interesting shades they would be!”

“Which, Wynnette? The ghosts or the pictures?”

“Either. Both. This, you say, Mrs. Kelsy, was Elfrida, Lady Enderby, my mother’s mother? Why, I should have known it. How much she is like my mother, and like Elva. And this is the second and last Lady Enderby? How lovely, yet how fragile. She was mamma’s stepmother, and she died young, leaving one delicate little boy, our uncle, the present earl. Sic transit, and so forth.”

They spent an hour in the picture gallery, and then the housekeeper proposed that they go into the library.

“But we cannot go there. Papa, mamma and uncle are shut up there, in close council,” said Odalite.

“Ah! Well, we will go upstairs, if you please, miss,” said Kelsy.

And upstairs they went. And all over the vast building they went, finding only gloomy rooms, each one more depressing than the others.

“And now show me the room Queen Elizabeth slept in when on a visit to Baron Ealon, of Enderby,” said Wynnette.

“Queen Elizabeth, miss! I never heard that Queen Elizabeth was ever in this part of the country!” the housekeeper exclaimed.

Wynnette laughed.

191“Oh, well, then,” she said, “show me the room that Alexander the Great, or Julius Cæsar, or Napoleon Bonaparte, or George Washington slept in.”

“I—do not think I ever heard of any of these grandees stopping at Enderby. But there is a room——”

“Yes, yes!” eagerly exclaimed Wynnette.

“Where the Young Pretender was hidden for days before he escaped to France,” said the housekeeper.

“Oh, show us that room, Mrs. Kelsy,” said a chorus of voices.

The housekeeper took them down a long flight of stairs and along a dark passage, and up another flight of stairs, and through a suit of unfurnished apartments, to a large room in the rear of the main building, whose black oak floor and whose paneled walls were bare, and whose windows were curtainless.

In the middle of this room stood a huge bedstead, whose four posts were the dragon supporters of the arms of Enderby and whose canopy was surmounted by an earl’s coronet. The velvet hangings of this bedstead, the brocade quilt and satin pillow cases had almost gone the way of all perishable things.

“And the Young Pretender occupied this room?” inquired Rosemary, reverently.

“Yes, miss, and it is kept just as he left it, except that the curtains have been taken from the windows, because they had fallen into rags.”

“And he slept in this bed?” said Elva, timidly laying her hand upon the sacred relic.

“Yes, miss, but I wouldn’t touch the quilt, if I was you. Bless you, it would go to pieces if you were to handle it!”

“I would make a bonfire of every unhealthy mess in this room, if it were mine!” said Wynnette.

The housekeeper looked at her in silent horror.

They lingered some time in “the pretender’s room.”

192As they were leaving it, Wynnette said, at random:

“And now show us the haunted chamber, please.”

The housekeeper stopped short, turned pale and stared at the speaker.

“Who told you anything about the haunted room?” she inquired.

“Nobody did,” replied Wynnette, staring in her turn.

“How, then, did you know anything about it?”

“By inference. Given an old castle, inferred a haunted room. Come, now, show it to us, dear Mrs. Kelsy.”

“No, you cannot see the haunted chamber, young miss. It has not been opened for ten years or more.”

“Come! This is getting to be exciting, and I declare I will see it, if I die for it,” said Wynnette.

“Not through my means, you will not, young lady. But there is the luncheon bell, and we had better go down.”

They returned to the inhabited parts of the house, and were shown by the housekeeper to the morning room, where the luncheon table was spread.

There they found Mr. and Mrs. Force. Their host had not yet joined them.

“My dear,” said Mr. Force, in a low voice, addressing Odalite, “we have had a consultation in the library. It is almost certain that Lady Mary Anglesea died one year before the time stated as that of her death. It is best, however, that we go down to Angleton and search for evidence in the church and mausoleum. Therefore, it is decided that Leonidas and myself go to Lancashire to-morrow to investigate the facts, leaving your mother, sisters, and self here. We shall only be absent for a few days.”

“Oh, papa! then you will take poor John Kirby’s letter and parcel to his old father there? You see, they live only a few miles from Angleton,” said Wynnette.

“Yes, dear, I will take them,” assented the squire. 193“And, Odalite, my love,” he added, turning to his eldest daughter, “if all goes well we shall have a merry marriage here at Enderby.”

Early the next morning Mr. Force, Leonidas and Wynnette, who begged to make one of the party, left Enderby Castle for Lancashire.

The gray-haired coachman drove them in an open carriage to the Nethermost Railway Station.

On this drive they retraced the road on the top of the cliffs which they had traversed on the previous day.

They reached Nethermost just in time to jump on board the “parliamentary,” a slow train—none but slow trains ever did stop at this obscure and unfrequented station.

Mr. Force secured a first-class compartment for himself and party, and they were soon comfortably seated and being whirled onward toward Lancaster.

For some miles the road followed the line of the coast in a southerly direction, and then diverged a little to the eastward until it reached the ancient and picturesque town of Lancaster, perched upon its own hill and crowned with its old castle, which dates back to the time of John of Gaunt.

Here they left their train, and on consulting the local time-table in the ticket office found that the next train on the branch line going to the station nearest Angleton did not start until 3 P.M.

This, as it was now but 11 A.M., gave the party an opportunity of seeing the town, as well as of getting a luncheon.

194A chorus of voices offered cabs; but Mr. Force, waving them all away, walked up the street of antiquated houses and brought his party to the ancient inn of “The Royal Oak.”

Here he ordered luncheon, to be ready at two, and then set out with his young people to walk through the town.

They climbed the hill and viewed the castle, now fallen from its ancient glory of a royal fortress—not into ruin, but into deeper degradation as the county jail. But the donjon keep, King John’s Tower, and John of Gaunt’s Gate remain as of old.

They next visited the old parish church of St. Mary’s, where they saw some wonderful stained glass windows, brass statuary, and oak carvings of a date to which the memory of man reached not back.

They could only gaze upon the outside of the cotton and silk factories and the iron foundries before the clock in the church tower struck two, and they returned to the hotel for lunch.

At three o’clock they took the train for Angleton.

Their course now lay eastward through many a mile of the manufacturing districts, and then entered a moorland, waste and sparsely inhabited, stretching eastward to the range of mountains known in local phraseology as “England’s Backbone.”

It was six o’clock on a warm June afternoon when the slow train stopped at a little, lonely station, in the midst of a moor, where there was not another house anywhere in sight.

Here our travelers left their compartment and came out upon the platform, carpetbags in hand; and the train went on its way.

Our party paused on the platform, looking about them.

On their right hand stood the station, a small, strong building of stone with two rooms and a ticket office. 195Behind that the moor stretched out in unbroken solitude to the horizon.

On their left hand was the track of the railroad, and beyond that the moor rolling into low hills, toward the distant range of mountains.

There was not a vehicle of any sort in sight; and there were but two human beings besides themselves on the spot—one was the ticket agent and the other the railway porter.

Mr. Force spoke to the latter.

“Where can I get a carriage to take my party on to Angleton?”

The man, a red, shock-haired rustic, stared at the questioner a minute before answering.

“Noa whurr, maister, leaf it be at t’ Whoit Coo.”

“And where is the White Cow?” inquired the gentleman.

The rustic stretched his arm out and pointed due east.

Mr. Force strained his eyes in that direction, but at first could see nothing but the moor stretching out in the distance and rolling into hills as it reached the range of mountains.

“Papa,” said Wynnette, who was straining her eyes also, “I think I see the place. I know I see a curl of smoke and the top of a chimney, and the peak of a gable-end roof. I think the rise of the ground prevents our seeing more.”

“Oie, oie, yon’s t’ Whoit Coo,” assented the porter.

“How far is it from here?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Taw mulls, maister.”

“Can you go there and bring us a carriage of some sort? I will pay you well for your trouble,” said Mr. Force.

“Naw, maister. Oi’ mawn’t leave t’ stution.”

“Uncle!” exclaimed Le, “I can go and bring you a 196carriage in no time. You take Wynnette into the house and wait for me.”

And without more ado Le ran across the track and strode off across the moor.

Mr. Force took Wynnette into the waiting room of the little wayside station, where they sat down.

There was no carpet on the floor, no paper on the walls, no shades at the windows, but against the walls were rows of wooden benches, and on them large posters of railway and steamboat routes, hotels, watering places, and so forth, and one picture of the winner of the last Derby.

They had scarcely time to get tired of waiting before Le came back with the most wretched-looking turnout that ever tried to be a useful conveyance.

It was a long cart covered with faded and torn black leather, and furnished with wooden seats without cushions. Its harness was worn and patched. But there was one comfort in the whole equipage—the horse was in very good condition. It was a strong draught horse.

“I shall not have to cry for cruelty to animals, at any rate,” said Wynnette, as her father helped her up into a seat.

“How far is it to Angleton?” inquired Mr. Force of the driver.

“Sux mulls, surr,” answered the man. “Sux mulls, if yur tek it cross t’ moor, but tun, ’round b’ t’ rood.”

“Is it very rough across the moor?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Muddlin’, maister,” replied the man.

“Go across the moor,” said the gentleman, as he stepped up into the carriage.

Le followed him. The horse started and trudged on, jolting them over the irons on the railway track and striking into the very worst country road they had ever known.

Yes. It was rough riding across that moor, sitting on 197hard benches, in a cart without springs, and drawn by a strong, hard-trotting horse.

Our travelers were jolted until their bones were sore before they reached the first stopping place.

This was “‘The White Cow,” an old-fashioned inn, in a dip of the moor, where the ground began to roll in hills and hollows toward the distant mountains.

The house fronted east, and, as it lay basking in the late afternoon summer sun, was very picturesque. Its steep, gable roof was of red tiles, with tall, twisted chimneys, and projecting dormer windows; its walls were of some dark, gray stone, with broad windows and doors, and a great archway leading into the stable yard. A staff, with a swinging sign, stood before the door.

The declining sun threw the shadow of the house in front of it; and in this shade a pair of country laborers sat on a bench, with a table before them. They were smoking short pipes and drinking beer, which stood in pewter pots on the board.

This was the only sign of life and business about the still place.

As the cart drew up Mr. Force got out of it and helped his daughter to alight.

Le followed them.

“I think we will go in the house and rest a while, and see if we can get a decent cup of tea, my dear. We have had nothing since we left Lancaster, at three o’clock, and it is now half-past seven. You must be both tired and hungry,” said the squire, leading her in.

responded Wynnette, misapplying a line from Browning, as she limped along on her father’s arm.

The man who had driven them from the railway station, and whom after developments proved to be waiter, hostler, groom and bootblack rolled into one for 198the guests of the White Cow, left his horse and cart standing and ran before Mr. Force to show the travelers into the house.

It was needless; but he did it.

They entered a broad hall paved with flagstones.

On the left of this an open door revealed the taproom, half full of rustic workingmen, who were smoking, drinking, laughing and talking, and whose forms loomed indistinctly through the thick smoke, tinted in one corner like a golden mist by the horizontal rays of the setting sun that streamed obliquely through the end window.

On the right another open door revealed a large low-ceiled parlor, with whitewashed walls and sanded floor, a broad window in front filled with flowering plants in pots, and a broad fireplace at the back filled with evergreen boughs and cut paper flowers. On the walls were cheap colored pictures, purporting to be portraits of the queen and members of the royal family. Against the walls were ranged Windsor chairs. On the mantelpiece stood an eight-day clock, flanked by a pair of sperm candles, in brass candlesticks.

In the middle of the floor stood a square table, covered with a damask cloth as white as new fallen snow, and so smooth and glossy, with such sharp lines where it had been folded, that proved it to have been just taken from the linen press and spread upon the table.

The house might be old-fashioned and somewhat dilapidated, not to say tumble-down, as to its outward appearance; but this large, low-ceiled room was clean, neat, fresh and fragrant as it was possible for a room to be.

“This is pleasant, isn’t it, papa?” said Wynnette, as she stood by the flowery window, threw off her brown straw hat, pulled off her gloves, drew off her duster, put them all upon one chair and dropped herself into another.

199“Yes. If the tea proves as good as the room, we shall be content,” replied Mr. Force.

The man-of-all-work, who had slipped out and put on a clean apron, and taken up a clean towel, with magical expedition, now reappeared to take orders.

“What would you please to have, sir?”

“Tea for the party, and anything else you have in the house that is good to eat with it.”

“Yes, sir.”

And the waiter pulled the white tablecloth this way and that and smoothed it with the palms of his hands, apparently for no other reason than to prove his zeal, for he did not improve the cloth.

Mr. Force and Le walked out “to look around,” they said.

The one maid-of-all-work came in and asked the young lady if she would not like to go to a room and wash her face and hands.

Wynnette decidedly would like it, and said so.

The girl was a fresh, wholesome-looking English lass, with rosy cheeks and rippling red hair. She wore a dark blue dress of some cheap woolen material, with a white apron and white collar.

She led the young lady out into the hall again, and up a flight of broad stone steps to an upper hall, and thence into a front bed chamber, immediately over the parlor.

Here again were the whitewashed walls, clean bare floor, the broad, white-shaded window, the open fireplace filled with evergreens, the polished wooden chairs, ranged along the walls, and all the dainty neatness of 200the room below. There were, besides, a white-curtained bed, with a strip of carpet on each side of it; a white-draped dressing table with an oval glass, and a white-covered washstand, with white china basin and ewer. In a word, it was a pure, fresh, dainty, and fragrant white room.

“Oh, what a nice place! Oh, how I should like to stay here to-night, instead of going further!” exclaimed Wynnette, appreciatively.

The girl made no reply, but began to lay out towels on the washstand, and to pour water from the ewer into the basin.

“This is a very lonesome country, though, isn’t it?” inquired Wynnette, who was bound to talk.

“There’s not a many gentry, ma’am. There be mill hands and pitmen mostly about here,” said the girl.

“Mill hands and pitmen! I saw no mills nor mines, either, as we drove along.”

“No, ma’am; but they beant far off. The hills do hide them just about here; but you might seen the high chimneys—I mean the tops of ’em and the smoke.”

“Are they pitmen down there in the barroom?”

“In the taproom? Yes, ma’am. Mill hands, and farm hands, too. They do come in at this hour for their beer and ’bacco.”

“Do you have many more customers besides these men?”

“Not ivery day, ma’am; but we hev the farmers on their way to Middlemoor market stop here; and—and the gentry coming and going betwixt the station and Fell Hall, or Middlemoor Court, or Anglewood Manor, ma’am.”

“How far is Anglewood Manor from this?”

“About five miles, ma’am.”

“‘Five!’ Why, I thought it wasn’t more than four. The coachman told us it was only six from the station and we have come two.”

201“That was Anglewood village, I reckon, ma’am. That is only four miles from here; but Anglewood Manor is a short mile beyant that.”

“Ah! Who keeps this inn? There is no name on the sign.”

“No, ma’am. It’s ‘T’ Whoit Coo.’ It allers hev been ‘T’ Whoit Coo,’ ma’am.”

“But who keeps it?” persisted inquisitive Wynnette.

“Oo! Me mawther keeps it, iver sin’ feyther deed, ma’am. Mawther tends bar hersen, and Jonah waits and waters horses, and cleans boots, and does odd jobs, and I be chambermaid.”

“Ah! and who is Jonah?”

“Me brawther.”

“Ah! And so your mother, your brother, and yourself do all the work and run the hotel?”

“Yes, ma’am. It would no pay us else,” replied the “Maid of the Inn,” who seemed to be as much inclined to be communicative as Wynnette was to be inquisitive.

“Oh, well, it is lucky that you are all able to do so. But you have not told me your name yet.”

“Mine be Hetty Kirby, ma’am. Brawther Jonah’s be Jonah, and mawther’s be the Widow Kirby,” definitely replied the girl.

“‘Kirby!’ Oh—why——Tell me, did you have a relation named John Kirby go to America once upon a time?”

“Yes, ma’am, a long time ago, before I can remember, me Oncle John Kirby, me feyther’s yo’ngest brawther, went there and never come back.”

“Oh! And—is your grandfather living?”

The “Maid of the Inn” stared. What was all this to the young lady? Wynnette interpreted her look and explained:

“Because, if he is living, I have got a letter and a bundle for him from his son in New York.”

“Oh, Law! hev you, though, ma’am? Look at thet, 202noo! What wonders in this world. The grandfeyther is living, ma’am, but not in Moorton. He be lately coom to dwell wi’ ‘is son Job, me Oncle Job, who be sexton at Anglewood church.”

“Sexton at Anglewood church! Is your uncle sexton at Anglewood church? And does your grandfather, old Mr. Kirby, live with him?”

The maid of the inn stared again. Why should this strange young lady take so much interest in the Kirbys?

Again Wynnette interpreted her look, and explained:

“Because if your grandfather does live there, it will save us a journey to Moorton, as we are going to Anglewood, and can give him the letter and parcel without turning out of our way,” she said; but she was also thinking that if this old Kirby, to whom she was bringing letters and presents from his son in America, was the father of the sexton at Anglewood church, an inmate of his cottage, and probably assistant in his work, these circumstances might greatly facilitate their admission into vaults and mausoleums which the party had come to see, but which might otherwise have been closed to them.

“Oh, ma’am,” said Hetty, “would you mind letting mawther see the letter and parcel?”

“No, certainly not; but I have no right to let her open either of them, you know.”

“She shawnt, ma’am; but it wull do the mawther good to see the outside ’n ’em. And o’ Sunday, when she goes to church, she can see the grandfeyther, and get to read t’ letter. And there be t’ bell, ma’am. And we mun goo doon to tea.”

Wynnette was ready, and went downstairs, attended by the girl.

A dainty and delicious repast was spread upon the table. Tea, whose rich aroma filled the room and proved its excellence, muffins, sally-lunns, biscuits, buttered toast, rich milk, cream and butter, fried chicken, 203poached eggs, sliced tongue and ham, radishes, pepper grass, cheese, marmalade, jelly, pound cake and plum cake.

Wynnette’s eyes danced as she saw the feast.

“It is as good as a St. Mary’s county spread! And I couldn’t say more for it if I were to talk all day!” she exclaimed, as she took her place at the head of the table to pour out the tea.

Mr. Force asked a blessing, just as he would have done if he had been at home, and then the three hungry travelers “fell to.”

“Father,” said Wynnette, when she had poured out the tea, which Hetty began to hand around, “do you know the Widow Kirby who keeps this hotel——”

“Inn, my dear—inn,” amended the squire. “I am so happy to find myself in an old-fashioned inn that I protest against its being insulted with the name of hotel.”

“All right, squire,” said Wynnette.

or words to that effect. The landlady of this hostelry—I should say tavern—I mean inn—the landlady of this inn is the Widow Kirby, sister-in-law to the baggage master who took care of Joshua, and from whom we brought the letter and parcel, you know. And this young person is his niece, and the man who drove us here is his nephew. And his brother is sexton at Anglewood Church, and his father lives there. Now! What do you think of that?”

“We knew from the baggage master that the Kirbys lived in Lancashire, so we need not be surprised to find them here.”

“But, papa, Lancashire is a large place.”

“My love, it has been said that the habitable globe is 204but a small place, and we are always sure to meet some of the same people everywhere.”

“Now, the widow wants to see the letter and the parcel—the outside of them, I mean.”

“Well, there is no objection,” said the squire. And he made a move to reach his valise.

But Le hastily anticipated him and brought it.

The kind-hearted squire unlocked the case, found the letter and the parcel, and gave them into the hands of the young waitress.

“Oo! Thanky’, sir. Thanky’, ma’am. Thanky’,” she said, and continued to say, bobbing courtesies, and turning over and staring at the letter and the parcel as she took them out of the room.

“Wynnette, my dear, you find out everything; but you have missed your vocation. You ought to have been a newspaper correspondent or a detective.”

“I know it, papa. I know it!” exclaimed the girl, with a very demonstrative sigh. “And that’s the complaint with most of us. We’re nearly all out of place, and therefore in pain, like dislocated limbs. And that’s what’s the matter with humanity. Almost all its members are put out of joint.”

The rich glow of the summer sunset was slowly fading from the west.

Lights were brought in by the factotum, Jonah, who placed two on the tea table, and then proceeded to light the two that stood upon the mantelpiece.

Having done this, the man stood waiting orders.

“Have you put up the carriage?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Naw, maister. The carriage be waiting.”

“Well, then, you may just as well put it up. It is growing dark, and I do not feel like crossing the moor at this time of night. We will stay here, if you can let us have bedrooms.”

“Surely, maister, we ha’ rooms enough. I’ll call Hetty.”

205The chambermaid was called, and bringing the letter and parcel, still unopened, and her “mawther’s” duty and thanks to the gentlefolks for letting her see the outside of them.

Hetty, on being interviewed on the subject of sleeping accommodations, declared in effect that “The White Cow” could provide comfortable quarters for the whole party, for if the two gentlemen would share the double-bedded chamber over the taproom, the young lady could have the large single-bedded chamber over the parlor.

“That will be perfectly lovely. I did long to sleep in that very room, at least for one night,” said Wynnette, without waiting for any one else to speak.

“All right, then. That will do. We will stay. Eh, Le?” said the squire, turning to his young companion.

“Certainly, uncle. The half of a large bedded chamber is ample space for one used to a hammock,” replied Le.

So it was settled, and as the travelers were fatigued, they retired early.

Early the next morning our three travelers were astir.

They met in the neat parlor, where the air was delicious with the fragrance of fresh white, pink and blue hyacinths that filled the flower pots in the broad window.

They sat around the table, on which was arranged a breakfast that quite equaled in excellence the tea of the evening before.

Jonah waited on the party.

“Is that elegant and commodious equipage which brought us here yesterday the best thing in the way of 206a carriage that the White Cow can turn out?” inquired Mr. Force, as he sipped his coffee.

“Beg pardon, maister?” said the man, with a puzzled look.

“Can’t you trot out a better trap than that old hurdle on wheels which jolted us from the railway station yesterday?” demanded Wynnette.

“Beg pardon, ma’am?” said the man, with a bewildered look.

“We wish to know if you have not a better carriage than the one in which we came here,” Le tried to explain.

“Naw, maister, t’ Whoit Coo hev naw much demand fo’ ’m. T’ gentry do most come and go in their own, and send t’ same for or call t’ friends in visiting,” the man replied, in a tone of apology.

“Very well. Have the cart at the door as soon as it can be brought here, and bring me my bill.”

“Yes, maister.”

They all got up from the table.

“Papa,” said Wynnette, who was too well inclined to take the initiative in most matters, “papa, I think if we can get our business done at the manor to-day, we had better come back here to take supper and to sleep. It seems to me that it would be much nicer than to stop at Angleton.”

“Wait until you see Angleton before you decide, my dear. You may find the ‘Anglesea Arms’ as attractive as this inn,” replied the squire, who was drawing on his railway duster—a needless operation, since there was no more dust on the moor than could have been found on the sea.

“‘The Anglesea Arms,’ papa? No, thank you. The name is enough for me. I would rather sit in the old cart all day and eat bread and cheese, and sleep in the cart all night, gypsy fashion, than take rest or refreshment at the Anglesea Arms,” exclaimed Wynnette.

207“But, my dear, you are unjust. The inn has nothing to do with the man, beyond the accident of having been on the land of his ancestors centuries ago, and handed down the name from generation to generation.”

“Can’t help it, papa! I should feel—disgraced—there if I were to find myself by any accident under the roof of the—Anglesea Arms.”

“Whe-ew-ew! Poor, old inn,” whistled Mr. Force.

Oh, no doubt he ought to have lectured his wilful little daughter; but he did not. He was a child-spoiler, a chickpecked papa.

By this time they were ready to start.

Jonah brought the bill.

Mr. Force paid it, and gave the waiter half a crown.

Wynnette pulled his sleeve and whispered:

“Papa, give me half a sov. to tip the chambermaid. It’s the regular thing, you know. I mean, papa, dear, that it is usual for ladies to offer some such modest recognition of such young persons’ services.”

“What, my dear, have you no money?” inquired her father, looking at her in some surprise.

sighed Wynnette, in a very humble air, as she held out her open hand.

The squire poured into her palm some loose silver and one piece of gold—the whole not amounting to so much as five dollars.

Wynnette thanked him and skipped out of the parlor to find Hetty.

She found her waiting just outside the door. Hetty was a very good girl in her way; but she profited by the traditions of her class, and generally was to be found waiting when ladies were leaving the inn.

Wynnette pressed the half sovereign into the hand of 208the girl. Wynnette was a generous and extravagant little wretch, without the slightest idea of the value of money, and therefore likely, in some opinions, to come to poverty.

This half sovereign was about four times as much as the maid ever got from the richest of the inn’s guests; and she courtesied about four times as often in return.

“Small favors gratefully acknowledged, large ones in proportion,” seemed to be her just and simple rule.

“Come, Wynnette. Come, my dear,” called her father, who was already in the hall waiting for her.

In another minute the whole party were in the dilapidated carryall, and the driver turned the horse’s head eastward into an almost invisible roadway over the moor.

It was a splendid June morning. The sky was of a deep, clear sapphire blue so seldom seen even on the sunniest days in England. The moor took a darker shade of color from the sky, and the heather with which it was thickly overgrown seemed of a deep, intense green. The ground rolled in hills and dales, gradually rising higher and higher toward the range of mountains on the eastern horizon, where the highest ridges were capped with soft, snow-white clouds. As the sun rose higher, these clouds, as well as the mountain sides, became tinted with the most delicate and beautiful hues of rose, azure, emerald and gold, melting into each other and forming the loveliest varieties of color, light and shade.

Yet in the vast solitude of the moor no human being or human dwelling was to be seen.

The first sign of habitation was a thin spire which seemed to rise in mid distance before them.

“What is that?” inquired Mr. Force of the driver.

“Thet, maister, be the steeple of old Anglewood Church.”

“Are we so near the manor, then?”

209“Naw, sir. It be better’n three mulls off yet. You would naw see it, only for the air is so clear the day.”

Wynnette craned her neck to look forward. But there was nothing to be seen but the thin spire, as if drawn with pen and ink from the dark blue heath to the deep blue sky.

As they went on, the spire became a steeple, and the steeple a tower, and the tower a church.

As yet nothing but the church—darkly outlined against the background of hills—was visible. They were now on the top of one of the rolling hills, and could see it clearly.

“Is that church in the village of Angleton or in the manor of Anglewood?” inquired Mr. Force of the driver.

“It be on t’ manor, maister. The village it be nearer t’ us, but being in t’ hollow you can’t see it yet.”

“Ah!”

They went down the hill and through the hollow, came up the side of another higher hill, and then looked down on the village of Angleton in the vale at its foot.

On the top of the next hill stood the Old Church of Anglewood in full view.

The driver stopped his horse while they looked at the village in the vale and the church on the hill beyond.

“Wull I drive to the Anglesea Arms, maister?” inquired the driver, as he set his horse in motion again.

“No,” replied the squire, in deference to Wynnette. He had “won his spurs elsewhere,” no doubt, but the chickpecked papa was a little afraid of his baby. “No; but I want to stop at the village for a few minutes. Is there a newspaper published at Angleton?”

“Yes, sir. T’ Angleton ’Wertiser it be,” replied the man.

“Very well, then. Drive to the office of that paper.”

“Yes, maister.”

They were now descending a steep road, between low stone walls, leading down into the main street of the 210village and past the one public house, the one general store, the doctor’s office and surgery, the lawyer’s office, and finally the printing and publishing office of the Angleton Advertiser.

It was a two-storied stone building, evidently a dwelling house as well as a printing office; for there were two doors—one apparently a private door, leading into a narrow hall; the other the public door, broad and rough, and leading into the business rooms. Besides the upper windows were hung with Norfolk lace curtains and adorned with pots of geraniums, while the lower windows were shaded with dust and draped with cobwebs, and sustained above them the broad signboard—Angleton Advertiser.

When the carriage drew up before this building the three travelers alighted and went in.

The driver of the vehicle remained in his seat in charge.

The party of three found themselves in a very dingy room, with a counter on their right hand, at the nearest end of which a man stood writing at a desk. At the furthest end a boy stood folding and wrapping papers.

“Is this the office of the Angleton Advertiser?” needlessly inquired Mr. Force of the gentleman behind the desk.

“It is. What can I have the pleasure of doing for you, sir?” inquired the latter.

“You are the proprietor?” half asserted, half inquired the squire.

“Proprietor, editor, printer and publisher,” answered the man, reaching behind him and taking from a shelf a copy of his paper, which he offered to his visitor, saying: “Out to-day, sir; and there’s my name.”

“Ah!” said Mr. Force, spreading the paper before him, and looking first at the prospectus for the name of his new acquaintance.

211“Can I be of any service to you, sir?” inquired the proprietor.

“Well, Mr. Purdy, I would like to have a few minutes talk with you, if you are not too busy.”

“I am directing papers for the mail, but I am not pressed for time, as the mail does not go until to-night.”

“Thank you,” said the squire, as a mere form, for there did not appear to be any particular cause for gratitude. And he drew from his breast pocket a certain copy of the Angleton Advertiser and handed it to the man, saying again: “Thank you, Mr. Purdy. My name is Force. I only wish to ask you—and I hope without offense—what is the meaning of the obituary notice of a living man that is published in the first column of this paper?”

Purdy took the paper in a slow and dazed manner, and looked at the column which Mr. Force pointed out to him.

And as he looked he stared and stared.

“I—I—don’t understand!” he said at last, looking from the paper up to the face of his strange visitor.

“Neither do I understand, Mr. Purdy; but if we put our heads together perhaps we may be able to do so,” replied Abel Force.

The printer turned the paper over and over, in and out, up and down, and, lastly, back to the front page; and then he stared at the obituary notice of his landlord.

“What do you make of it?” inquired Abel Force.

“I can’t make anything of it. But I think it will make a lunatic of me! This is certainly my paper! I know my paper as well as I know my children. This is certainly my paper—though it is an old one—and this is the obituary notice of Col. Anglesea, who was alive and well at that very time, and is so at this present, as I think.”

“How do you account for that?”

“I can’t account for it! If I weren’t a sound man, 212and a sober man, and a wide-awake one, I should think I was drunk, or dreaming, or deranged. It is quite beyond me, Mr. Force. This is my paper—I see it, and know it—and this is an obituary notice of a living man that I never put in there! I see and know that as well! But how to reconcile these two contradictory facts, I don’t know. How did you come by that paper, if you please?”

“It was sent to me by mail!”

“Well, well, well!”

“Have you a file of the Angleton Advertiser?”

“Of course I have, sir.”

“Let us look at it, then, and compare this paper with the paper of that same date on the file.”

“Why, that is a good idea. And I shall only have to look at the copy of August 20th in last year’s file. I’ll do it at once.”

The editor turned and took down a roller full of papers from the two wooden pins on the wall behind him, and laid it upon the counter and began to turn over the sheets.

“Here it is!” exclaimed Purdy, pulling out a paper and spreading it out on the counter. “August 20th—and appears to be a facsimile of the one you brought here, sir. Now let us lay them on the board side by side and compare them.”

He took the file and hung it up again on the wall, to make room on the counter. Then he spread out the two papers side by side, with their first pages uppermost.

As he did so the boy who had been folding and wrapping papers at the other end of the counter left his work and crept toward the two men.

“Oh! see this!” exclaimed the proprietor—“see this! The two papers are facsimile in every letter and line, except in two places! See this! The first column on the first page of the paper from the file is occupied by the report of an agricultural fair at Middlemoor, and 213the same column in the same edition of the paper, in the copy you brought, is filled with the obituary of Col. Anglesea! And here! In the list of deaths on another page, the first paragraph in this paper from the file is a notice of the death of the Rev. Mr. Orton, our old vicar; and in the copy of the same paper that you brought me the same space is taken up with the notice of the death of Col. Anglesea. This is a very great mystery!”

“Perhaps if you could recall all the incidents of the day on which this paper was issued we might come to some solution of the problem,” suggested Mr. Force.

“I don’t know that I could,” replied Purdy.

“Father,” said the boy—“father, I remember something queer about that very day—I do.”

“You do? Come here, my son.”

The lad came up to the counter. He was a fine, wholesome-looking boy of about fifteen years of age, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes, and closely cut, light brown hair.

He bowed to the visitors and stood waiting for his father’s questions.

“You say you remember something about the twentieth of last August?”

“Why, I ought to, father, because it was something that happened unexpectedly that day that caused me to be promoted from being a mere ’prentice in the printing room to being your helper here.”

“Oh! Ah! Let me see! That was—yes—the day I took you into the office was the day Norton absconded, 214for his sudden desertion left me in the lurch. And so, Mr. Force,” said the editor, turning to his visitor, “I took my lad here, who had been learning to be a printer, on to help me. It was only as a temporary accommodation of myself to circumstances that I took him, for I intended to look up another assistant, but he proved himself so capable that I have kept him on ever since, and saved the expense of a journeyman.”

“Ah!” breathed Mr. Force, while Wynnette and Leonidas bent eagerly forward to listen for further developments of the mystery.

“Won’t the young lady take a chair?” said Mr. Purdy; for the party had been standing the whole time.

Leonidas drew the only chair in sight from the back of the passage between the counter and the wall, and Wynnette bowed, and seated herself.

“Could there have been any connection between the insertion of that fraudulent notice and the sudden flight of your foreman?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Looks like it,” said the editor, still being much puzzled. Then, turning to his son, he inquired:

“Obed, do you think you can throw any light on this mystery? You know what we are talking about, of course. You heard what this gentleman has been telling me.”

“Yes, father.”

“Well, do you remember anything more about the events of that day—the last that Norton was here?”

“Yes, father. And the more I think about it now, the better I understand things that I didn’t think much of at the time.”

“What were these things, Obed?”

“Yes!” involuntarily muttered Mr. Force. “What?”

Wynnette and Leonidas almost held their breath.

Obed told his story:

“You know, father, when the last paper was taken off the press that twentieth of August, Norton and I didn’t 215go to distributing the type, either of us, but both came into the front office at your call to help to fold and direct the papers, because the edition was a large one on account of the agricultural fair. You remember that, father?”

“Yes, now you remind me of it.”

“And when the papers were all dispatched it was nearly dark, and you went home, leaving Norton and myself to close up. The type was not distributed, but left, as it often was, till the next day.”

“Our paper is a weekly, as you, perhaps, know, sir,” interpolated the editor.

Mr. Force bowed.

The boy continued, now addressing the whole party:

“After father went out Norton said to me—and I remembered how surprised I was at his sudden kindness, though it did not arouse my suspicion of anything wrong—he said to me:

“‘You needn’t stop to-night, old man. I reckon I can clear up the counter and shut up the office.’

“So I went home to supper, and told father that Norton had let me off. You remember that, father?”

“Y-y-yes, now you remind me of it. But I don’t think I should remember it even now if the event were not marked by the fact that I never saw Norton from that night.”

“After supper,” continued the boy, “I went out to walk. The village street is always very gay on Saturday night. All the mill hands have got their week’s wages and are abroad, buying for Sunday, and the shops are gay. I stayed out just to see them until the custom began to drop off and the shutters to be put up. And then I started for home.”

“You needn’t think, sir, by that that my lad is the least bit wild. Obed is as steady as a lamp-post, but after being shut up in the office all day he must pull 216himself out a little by taking a walk, even though it is night. I tell him to,” Mr. Purdy explained.

“Quite right,” assented Mr. Force.

Obed continued:

“Now, father, comes the strange part, which I didn’t think much of at the time, but a great deal of now!”

“Go on, my boy.”

“When I came in sight of our printing office it was all closed up, the heavy shutters up and the iron bars across them; but I saw a glimmer of light through the chinks, and my first thought was fire, and I ran around to the back and climbed over the wall and looked through a hole that I knew was in the shutter of the back window, and there I saw——”

“Yes! yes!” exclaimed the editor, impatiently, as the boy had only stopped to clear his throat.

“There I saw Norton as busy setting type as if the making up of the paper was behindhand and he was working against time.”

“Ah!” breathed Abel Force.

“The gas jet was burning right in front of him, shining on his face and on his work so I could see him quite plainly. I thought maybe he had some job to do, and so it was all right; but just then a man came out of the shadows of the room somewhere and leaned over him.”

“Who was it? Col. Anglesea?” hastily demanded Abel Force.

Obed stared, and then replied, somewhat indignantly:

“Col. Anglesea? Not likely, sir.”

“What sort of a man was it?” inquired Mr. Purdy, by way of diversion from the Anglesea question.

“He was a gentleman, I should think, though,” said the boy, apologetically. “He was a rather short, stout man with a red face and light hair. I saw that much, for when he went up to Norton the gas jet shone on him also, and I could see him plainly. He spoke with Norton 217for a few minutes, and then went back somewhere into the darkness. I thought maybe it was some one who wanted some little job of labels printed and Norton was doing it for him. So I came away and went home.”

“Was that all?”

“Not quite. When we went to the office on Monday we found it closed, though it was Norton’s place to have opened it an hour before. Father and I opened it, and I went to the press to begin to distribute the type, and found——”

The boy stopped to clear his throat again.

“Yes, yes, what did you find, my lad?”

“Why, that the first two columns of the first page were distributed.”

“Oh!”

“I wasn’t surprised at that a bit, and I never thought anything else about it but that he—Norton—had already begun to distribute the type, and had got that far and stopped. The rest of the type looked just as it had been set. Father and I distributed the rest.”

“See how it is now, so far as the act goes; but I can see no motive for it,” said the editor.

“I do not know much about printing,” remarked Abel Force; “but was it not likely that on the Saturday night, when you and your son had gone home, leaving the press and the type just as the last copy of the paper had been taken from it, was it not possible that this man Norton may have distributed the type that had been set up for the report of the agricultural fair which had been struck off, and then set up this fraudulent obituary notice and substituted it for the distributed matter, and then struck off a few more copies of the paper?”

“Yes, sir; and that is just what has been done. But the motive, the motive, that’s what puzzles me,” exclaimed the editor.

“The motive was to spread a false report of Col. Anglesea’s 218death in America, where he had incurred some personal liabilities,” replied Mr. Force.

John Purdy stared.

“In America—Col. Anglesea—liabilities? I think you must be mistaken, sir.”

“Perhaps.” Mr. Force did not wish to get into a discussion; he wished to get information. “Have you any idea who the man could have been who was in your printing office on that night?” he inquired.

“Not the least in the world, sir, except that it was not Col. Anglesea. You take my word of honor for that.” Mr. Force bowed. He thought the boy’s description of the man who was in the office with the printer that night tallied perfectly with the personal appearance of Anglesea as he had known him, but he did not say so; he shunned disputes, so as to get facts.

“Where was Col. Anglesea at this time?” he inquired.

“Col. the Hon. Angus Anglesea, of Anglewood Manor, was at his home. He was soon after appointed deputy lieutenant of the county,” replied Purdy, with some vicarious dignity.

“Where is he now?”

“Abroad—traveling for his health, I think.”

“And—this man Norton, who must have set up the fraudulent obituary, where is he?”

“Nobody knows. He never returned to the office. I never saw him, or heard of him again. His was one of the cases of ‘Mysterious Disappearance,’ and as such it was noticed in all the local papers. All had different theories. The Middlemoor Messenger thought that he had been made away with by pitmen. The wretched pitmen get blamed for all the undiscovered crime in the county. They live mostly in darkness, and so people seem to believe that they ‘love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.’ But this is not so.”

“And no clew was ever discovered to the fate of Norton?”

219“None, sir. You see he was a single man, without any near relations, and so the affair was soon forgotten.”

“Well,” said Abel Force, straightening himself up, “I thank you for the information you have given me, and the opportunity you have afforded us of comparing the fraudulent paper with that of the same date on your file. This is your mailing day, and I must not detain you.”

“Come in at any time, sir; we shall be glad to see you. Making any stay in this place, sir?”

“Thank you. No, only over the Sabbath. Good-day.”

“Good-day, sir.”

“Le,” said Mr. Force, as they re-entered the carriage, “we are on the track of the fraud, but need not pursue it in the direction of that man and boy. Now we will see what the tombstones have to tell us.”

“Where to now, maister?” inquired the driver, from his seat.

“To Anglewood Church, Anglewood Manor,” said Mr. Force.

Leaving the office of the Angleton Advertiser, and turning up the village street, they repassed the blacksmith’s, the general dealer’s, the doctor’s surgery, the lawyer’s office, the post office, the news agency, and finally the Angleton Arms—an ancient hostelry, built of stone, with strong walls, peaked roof, high chimney and low, broad, latticed windows—which stood as on guard at the entrance of the hamlet.

Leaving the place at this point, they entered the road leading to Anglewood Manor.

220No pleasant, shady, grass-bordered country road was this, with vistas of woods and waters, fields and farms. It was a white and arid highway, running between gray stone walls, whose dread monotony was varied only by the occasional branch of a tree over their tops, or of an iron gate, or oaken door, in the sides.

“Whose property is this on the right and left of us?” inquired Mr. Force of the driver.

“Thet on t’ roight, maister, be Middlemoor, t’ seat o’ t’ Arl o’ Middlemoor. Thet on t’ left be Fell Hall, t’ seat o’ Squoire Ogden,” replied the man.

“What hateful roads!” exclaimed Wynnette. “I feel exactly as if we were driving on between a madhouse and a jail!”

They were slowly going uphill now, and presently came to a lane on the left, into which the carriage turned. Still on the left of the new way was the low stone wall, but behind and above it was a green hedge of Osage orange bushes, while opposite, on the right, was a lovely green hedge of all the variety of bushes and brambles that grow outdoors in that part of England.

“This is better,” said Wynnette, as they drove slowly on between the green hedges.

“We be noo at back o’ Fell Hall. And yon’s t’ steeple o’ t’ church,” the coachman volunteered to explain, as he pointed to the spire which rose above a clump of trees on their left.

They soon reached the entrance of the churchyard and passed in.

The church stood on an eminence, which they had been gradually climbing all the way from Angleton.

It was a very picturesque building of ancient English type—moss-grown and ivy-covered from base to pinnacle, until not a bit of its walls or roof could be seen. Many ancient gravestones, gray with age, sunk in long grass and covered with moss, clustered around it.

“Is the church open to visitors?” inquired Mr. Force 221of the driver, as they drew up to the closed and formidable-looking, iron-bound oaken doors.

“Oy, maister! It be t’ show o’ t’ place, be Anglewood Old Church.”

They all alighted from the rough carriage and stood on the flagstones of the church porch, and looked around them. The sun was in the west now, and shining on the grass-grown yard and the moss-covered gravestones.

“Are any of the Anglesea family buried out here?” inquired Mr. Force.

“Oot here? Laird, no, maister! They be all in t’ vault. And none ha’ been put into t’ groond here, even of t’ common folk, in my toime! They be took to t’ simitry.”

“To the cemetery?”

“Oy, maister, on t’ hill, over by yonder.”

“Ah! well! how are we to get into this building?”

“I’ll rin and get the key fra’ m’ oncle, Silas Kirby, t’ sexton.”

“And don’t you know, papa, we have got that letter and parcel from John Kirby to his father?” said Wynnette.

“Yes, yes, my dear, I know.”

“Well, then, may we not go to the sexton ourselves?”

“I will see. How far is your uncle’s home from here?” inquired Mr. Force of the driver.

“Whoy, joost by t’other gate o’ the churchyard,” replied the man.

“Then we will leave the carriage here and go across to his house, to take something we have brought for your grandfather,” said Mr. Force.

“Oy, oy! t’ letter Oi heerd t’ mawther talk aboot. Coom along wi’ Oi, maister. This be the way.”

Leaving the old carriage standing before the church door, the driver led the way through the long grass, and in and out among the tombstones, taking care not to step upon the graves, and so reached another gate opening 222upon a sequestered lane and flanked by two buildings, one of which was the sexton’s cottage, built of stone, with a steep roof, tall chimneys and latticed windows, and, like the church, so moss-grown and ivy-covered that only its doors and windows escaped the veil.

A tall, venerable, white-haired man, with a long white beard, sat in the door, smoking, and apparently meditating.

“Grandfeyther,” said Jonah Kirby, addressing this patriarch, “here be a gentleman from foreign pairts a bringing of a letter and news from Uncle John.”

“Eh! eh! then, what be ye talking aboot, lad?” inquired the old man, rising with difficulty, balancing himself, and bowing to the strangers.

Jonah Kirby repeated his introduction.

“Eh! My service to you, gentlefolks. A letter fra m’ lad in ’Merica! Eh! Laird bless us!—a letter fra m’ lad, quotha?”

“Yes, Mr. Kirby, my little girl here has brought you a letter from your son, John Kirby, who is a baggage master on a prosperous railroad in the United States. She made his acquaintance on the train. Here, Wynnette, my dear, give the old man his letter and parcel.”

The young girl handed both.

“Thanky, me leddy! Thanky koindly!” said the patriarch, sinking back in his armchair; for between age, weakness and emotion he was no longer able to stand.

“And ’ee saw me lad? And ’ee brought me this letter fra him? God bless ’ee, me leddy! God bless ’ee!” said the old man, in an earnest voice which trembled with agitation, as he took the girl’s hand, made as if he would have kissed it, but pressed it to his forehead and to his wet eyes instead—“God bless ’ee, me leddy!”

“It was all through the dog,” said Wynnette. “He took care of my dear dog for me, and fed him on the 223journey, and kept him from jumping off the train and out of all danger.”

“Oy! oy! John was ever good to animals, and varry fond of dogs, was John. And t’ lad’s doing well, ye say, me leddy?”

“Oh, yes. Read his letter,” said Wynnette.

“Oy, oy, to be sure. Here, Silas—Silas, lad—here be a letter fra furrin pairts, fra your brawther John. Come hither, Silas—and bring chairs for t’ gentlefolks. Ah! bad manners of me to be sitting while t’ gentlefolks stand!” said the patriarch, striving to get upon his feet, but failing, and sinking back.

“Pray do not disturb yourself,” said Mr. Force. “We do not wish to sit down. We would like to see the inside of the old church, if your son, the sexton, can show it to us.”

“Of coorse he can, and thet just noo. Silas, Silas, where be ye, and t’ gentlefolks waiting on ye?”

A tall, robust, tawny-headed and bearded man came out.

“Here’s a letter fra your brawther as t’ gentlefolks ha’ brought fra furrin pairts. But ’ee can read it when ’ee coom back. Gae, noo, and show t’ gentlefolks to Old Church. Coom here, Katie, me lass, and read this letter to thy auld grandad.”

This last speech was addressed to a fair-haired girl of about sixteen, who appeared at the door and courtesied to the strangers.

Silas Kirby, the sexton, bowed to the visitors, and in a few muffled words intimated his readiness to oblige them, and walked on before, swinging a large key in his hand.

When he reached the church door he put the key in the ponderous lock, turned it with a great twist, and unlocked it with a loud noise.

The travelers entered an obscurity of rich light and shade from stained glass windows, half-hidden in ivy, 224and glowing down upon dark oaken pews and tessellated floor.

When their eyes became accustomed to the semidarkness, the travelers went up toward the chancel, and saw the recumbent effigy of the founder of the family of Anglesea, and memorial tablets of many of their descendants.

Some little time was spent in reading the inscriptions upon these monuments, and examining the paintings on the walls between the windows; and then Mr. Force inquired:

“Is the monument of the late Lady Mary Anglesea in this church?”

“Noa, maister; not in the church.”

“Are her remains in the vault?”

“Loikely they be, maister. I ha’ not had occasion to go into t’ vault since I coom to t’ parish.”

“Then you were no here when Lady Mary Anglesea died, then?”

“Noa, maister, I were not. That were in Goodman Prout’s time. But her leddyship will be loikely i’ t’ vault.”

Saying this, the sexton took a key from his pocket and unlocked a door on the right-hand side of the chancel, revealing a narrow flight of stone steps leading into the crypt below.

All the party approached the opening.

“Wynnette, my dear, you had better not venture down. The air must be very bad,” said Mr. Force.

“Nay, maister, none so bad as you think. There be many a gentleman’s cellar far worse. There be windys—open windys—wi’ airn bars on each side of the wall, and on each end of the wall even wi’ the ground, and though they be some of ’em well choked up, yet for all that there be enough o’ them open to keep the air fresh i’ the vault. There be na fear, maister,” said the sexton.

Mr. Force, standing at the head of the steps leading 225down into the vault, felt for himself that there was no fear of foul air; the atmosphere was as fresh, though a little damper, than that of the church above.

The sexton unhooked a lantern that hung on a nail within the door, took a match from his pocket, lighted the little lamp and walked before the visitors down the steps.

The vault occupied all the space under the church, and it was provided with stone tables ranged around the four walls.

The place was dimly visible by the daylight which struggled through the ivy that half choked up the barred windows. This was strongest from the west, from which the declining sun shot rays of golden light through bars and ivy leaves, whose shadows flickered dimly on the stone tables and on the leaden caskets they supported.

But it needed the additional light of the lantern by which to read the inscription on the latter.

Mr. Force began at the casket nearest the foot of the stairs and read the name—Alexander d’Anglesay, 1250; Malcolm d’Anglesay, A. D.—the rest worn out; Dame Margery d’An—the rest illegible—see, 1090—the rest gone.

“On this side must be the oldest caskets; let us try the other,” said Mr. Force, crossing over to the opposite row, followed by the sexton carrying the lantern, and beginning to read the inscriptions:

“Ah! Richard Anglesea, born July 1, 1801, died January 31, 1850; aged 49 years. Ah! that was the father of an unworthy son! Fell gallantly at the head of his regiment in the battle of——What is that you say, Le?” Mr. Force broke off from his remarks to attend to the words of his young companion.

“I have looked at every casket, uncle! That of Lady Mary Anglesea is not in the vault,” said the young man, with a sigh of disappointment.

“Not, Le! Are you sure?”

226“Quite sure, uncle.”

“It is not here, papa! I have looked at every one with Le, and it is not among them,” added Wynnette.

Yet Mr. Force would not be satisfied, but went round to every casket, attended by the sexton carrying the lantern, by the light of which they read every inscription, or what was left of the inscription; but found no trace of Lady Mary Anglesea.

“We had as well give up the search here,” said Mr. Force.

“And where else should we look?” inquired Le, with a face of despair.

“The only other possible place will be the churchyard.”

“Oh, her leddyship will not be there, maister! Nabody has been interred there this many a year. T’ parish officers will na’ allow it! They all go to t’ simitry on t’ hill. Let alone one o’ t’ great family as never was buried in t’ open churchyard! Oh! But noo I moind me, maister!” exclaimed the man, with a sudden lightening of his face.

“What?” demanded Abel Force.

“And what a gey coote I was to forget it!”

“What?” again inquired Mr. Force.

“But it was all along of my thinking as you wanted to see t’ auld church, and not the leddy’s munniment, as put me off the track,” continued the man.

Mr. Force said no more, but waited for the sexton to explain himself in his own way.

“Her leddyship’s body must be in t’ grand new musselman as the squire had built to her memory. Eh, maister, I were not i’ the parish when t’ bootiful leddy deed; but the folk do say he took on a soight! Shet himself up in t’ hoose after t’ funeral and wouldn’t see a soul! Had the foine musselman built in the park and her laid in it! And then he betook hisself to furrin pairts and never come home for years! Bother 227my wooden head for not telling you first off; but you see, maister, I thought it was t’ auld church you wanted and not the leddy’s munnimint.”

“Where is”—Abel Force could scarcely bring himself to utter the detested name—“where is Col. Anglesea now?”

“Traveling, maister, in furrin lands. He coom home aboot a year ago, and he was ’pointed leevetinint o’ t’ county. But he couldn’t abide the manor since her leddyship deed, and so he resigned and went away again. Eh, but he loved the ground she walked on, and couldn’t abear it after she deed.”

Mr. Force, Wynnette and Leonidas listened to this with surprise and incredulity. This was, indeed, a new view of Angus Anglesea’s character.

“Can the mausoleum in the park be seen?” inquired Abel Force.

“Varry loikely, maister. T’ whole place can be seen, for t’ matter of that. T’ squoire let open t’ whole manor, hall and a’, to a’ that loike to look at it. A free-hairted and free-handed gentleman be our squoire.”

Here was another revelation.

“Will you be our guide to the new mausoleum?” inquired Abel Force.

“Ay, maister. I’ll walk over and speak to the keeper, Proby, and meet you at t’ musselman. Jonah will drive you over, maister. He knows t’ way as well as I do myself.”

They crossed the churchyard again and entered the carriage. Jonah mounted the box.

“Noo drive the gentlefolks to t’ east o’ t’ park, and 228roond by the musselman. I’ll cut across through t’ brush and speak to t’ keeper, and meet you there. It will be all roight, maister.”

With this the sexton struck off through the bushes that stood between the church and the manor house.

The old carriage left the churchyard by the way it had come and entered once more upon the lane, and turning eastward, drove on between green hedges for about a quarter of a mile, when it reached a massive gate of oak and iron, guarded by a porter’s lodge of stone in the same strong style of building as the sexton’s cottage at the churchyard wall.

A tidy woman come out of the lodge, and seeing the old carriage, with Jonah on the box, she smiled and nodded, and at once opened wide the gates.

“Any one at the manor house, Mistress Dillon?” inquired Jonah.

“Noa, lad; none but t’ housekeeper and t’ servants,” replied the woman, courtesying to “the gentlefolks” as the old carriage passed through the gate and entered the long avenue leading through the park to the house.

This avenue was shaded by rows of gigantic old oak trees on each side, whose branches met and intermingled overhead, so arching the way with a thick roof of foliage.

“Oh, what a beautiful—what a majestic vista!” exclaimed Wynnette, with more enthusiasm than she usually bestowed upon any object.

“It is very fine,” said her father. “There is nothing finer in their way than these old English parks.”

Presently the carriage turned with the avenue in a curve, and suddenly drew up before the manor house, which until that moment had been concealed by the lofty trees around it.

Anglesea Manor was a huge oblong building of some gray stone, supported at its corners by four square towers, each further strengthened by four turrets, all of which added to the architectural beauty of the edifice. 229There were three rows of lofty windows in the front. The lowest row was divided in the middle by massive oaken doors, opening upon a stone platform reached by seven stone steps.

“Oh-h-h!” breathed Wynnette, as she gazed on the fine old house. “To think that such a palace as this should be the inheritance of such a villain as he!”

The driver turned and looked at her with astonishment and some indignation. Then checking himself, he said, in perfect simplicity:

“Oo! you don’t know, young leddy, I reckon—this place belongs to our landlord, Col. Angus Anglesea.”

Then drawing up his horse, he inquired:

“Will you get out and go through the house, sir?”

“For Heaven’s sake, uncle, no—not yet. Let us go directly to the mausoleum, and see the date that is on the tomb, and solve this doubt that is intolerable,” pleaded Le.

“Very well, my dear boy; very well. Kirby, drive at once to the mausoleum. We will see the house later,” said Mr. Force.

The man touched his hat and started his horse.

They turned into a grass-grown road winding in and out among magnificent oaks that seemed the growth of many centuries, and that were probably once parts of the primeval forest of Britain.

Presently they came upon the mausoleum. It stood between two fine oak trees, and in front of a third, which formed its background. It was built in the form of a Grecian temple and surrounded by a silver-plated iron railing.

The carriage stopped and our tourists got out.

Le pushed on impetuously, opened the little gate, and stepped up to read the inscription on the marble. He read it attentively, stopped, gazed at it, read it again, and then turned away in silence.

“What is it, Le?” anxiously inquired Abel Force.

230“It is—read it, uncle,” replied the young man, breaking down and turning away.

Mr. Force entered the inclosure and read the inscription on the mausoleum:

Mr. Force turned away without a word.

Wynnette entered the inclosure, read the inscription and came out in perfect silence.

The driver of the old carriage and the sexton of the church, who had only just now kept his promise and come up to join the party, stood a little apart, not understanding the emotion of the strangers, attributed it all to sympathy with the bereaved husband.

“Oo, ay, maister, it was a sorrowful day when her leddyship departed this loife,” said Jonah Kirby, shaking his head—“a sorrowful day! I was at t’ funeral, as in duty bound. T’ squoire were first mourner, and hed to be present, though he were far from fit to stand. Laird Middlemoor, his feyther-in-law, hed to hold him up. I never saw t’ squoire from the day of t’ funeral until the day he took t’ train for Lunnun, when he were going abroad to furrin pairts. And then he had gone away to nothing but skin and bone! He came back about a year ago; but he couldn’t abear the place, and went away again. Ah, poor gentleman!”

Le and his uncle looked at each other in wonder. Was this Angus Anglesea of whom the man was speaking? who had reared this monument to the memory of his “beloved wife”? Was this Angus Anglesea, whom every one praised? And yet, who had gone abroad and deceived, betrayed, and robbed and deserted the poor Californian widow? And how, indeed, could he have 231married the Californian woman in St. Sebastian, on the first of August, as Le had unquestionable evidence that he had done, and be present at the death of his wife in the English manor house on the twenty-fifth of the same month, as these people declared that he had been; and, again, meet the Force family at Niagara early in the following September? It might have been just possible by almost incredibly rapid transits.

“Had Col. Anglesea been abroad just before his wife’s death?” inquired Abel Force of the driver, who knew more about the affairs of Anglewood than the sexton, because the former had always lived at Angleton, and the latter had only lately come to the parish.

“Oo, ay, maister, thet was the pity o’ ’t. The squoire hed been away a month or more. He coom home only a week before her leddyship deed. And he went away again after t’ funeral. He coom back again a year ago, but he couldn’t abear to stay. So he put up t’ musselman to her memory and went his way again. Ah, poor gentleman! He were a good gentleman, and a wise and a brave one!”

“I cannot make it out,” murmured Abel Force.

“The man is drawing a long bow, papa! that’s all there is in it—I mean he is telling romances in praise of his landlord. There cannot be a word of truth in what he says,” said Wynnette.

Le said nothing. He seemed utterly crushed by the blow that had fallen on him.

The carriage driver seemed not to hear or understand the murmured talk between the father and daughter, but when it ceased he touched his hat and asked:

“Wull I drive you to t’ manor house, noo, maister?”

“Yes, if you please,” returned Mr. Force, as he helped Wynnette to climb up into the dilapidated “trap.”

“And what do your honor think o’ t’ musselman, maister?” inquired the sexton, coming up and taking off his cap.

232“It is a very fine specimen of both architecture and sculpture,” replied Mr. Force.

The sexton smiled satisfaction, bowed and withdrew.

“I am puzzled, Le, and I think by going through the manor house I may come to understand things better,” whispered Mr. Force to his young companion.

But Le was too much depressed to answer, or to take any further interest in the events of the day.

They turned and drove back through the beautiful park to the front of the manor house, where the carriage drew up.

“If you will give me leave, maister, I’ll go roond and speak to Mistress Bolton, t’ hoosekeeper, and get her to coom and open t’ great door,” said Jonah Kirby, as he got down from his seat and struck into a flagged walk that led to the rear of the house.

“Le! Le! don’t look so down-hearted, dear boy! Remember, come what may, my daughter shall never be the wife of Angus Anglesea! Come, come, cheer up, lad!” said Abel Force, clapping his young companion on the back.

But Le’s only answer was a profound sigh.

“I think the best and shortest way out of our difficulty will be to go back to America, have that man prosecuted for bigamy and robbery, and sent to the State prison, and then have him divorced, if, indeed, he has any claim whatever on Odalite. And I don’t see why you don’t take that way,” said Wynnette.

“Because, my dearest dear,” answered her father, “to prosecute the man would be to bring our darling Odalite’s name into too much publicity. And, as for 233divorce, the very word is an offense to right-minded people.”

“It is better than——”

But whatever Wynnette was about to say was cut short by the loud, harsh turning of a key, and the noisy opening of the great door of Anglewood Manor House.

Jonah Kirby appeared, accompanied by altogether the very largest woman our travelers had ever seen in their lives, even at a traveling circus.

She appeared to be about forty years old, and was dressed in a very full, light blue calico skirt, and loose basque of the same, that made her look even larger than she was. She wore a high-crowned, book-muslin cap, with a broad, blue ribbon around it. She carried in her hand a formidable bunch of keys.

“She’s ‘fearfully and wonderfully’ huge, papa. And she will expect a crown, and, maybe, half a guinea, for showing the house,” said Wynnette, in a low tone.

By this time Jonah Kirby had come down the steps and up to the side of the carriage.

“Mrs. Bolton, maister, and she’ll show t’ hoose with pleasure. She always loikes to oblige t’ gentlefolks, she bed me say.”

“Papa, it must be half a guinea, and don’t you forget!” whispered Wynnette, as she gave her hand to Kirby and allowed him to help her out of the carriage.

Mr. Force and Le followed, and they all walked up the steps, to be met by the enormous woman in blue, with many courtesies.

She led them at once into a vast stone hall, whose walls were hung with ancient armor, battle-axes, crossbows, lances and other insignia of war; and with horns, bugles, antlers, weapons and trophies of the chase, and whose tessellated floor was covered with the skins of wild animals. From the center of this hall a magnificent flight of stairs ascended, in large, spiral circles, to the stained glass skylight in the roof.

234There were handsome doors of solid oak on either side.

Mrs. Bolton paused in the middle of the hall and said:

“The doors on the right lead into the justice room, and the long dining room; those on the left into the ballroom, which is the largest room, three times told, in the house. There is nothing on this floor very interesting except the antique furniture and the curiously carved woodwork of the chimney pieces and doors.”

She spoke like a guide book, but presently added:

“Some gentlefolks, if they have a heap of time, like to look through them, but many prefer the picture gallery and the library, and the drawing rooms, which are all on the floor above and all very handsome.”

“We will go upstairs first, if you please; later, if we have time, we will see the rooms down here,” said Abel Force.

The housekeeper led the way upstairs to the next landing, where they came out upon the hall, whose walls were hung with antique tapestry, and whose oaken floor was covered here and there with Persian rugs.

On every side handsome mahogany double doors led into apartments. Before every door lay a rich Persian rug.

Mrs. Bolton opened a door on the left.

“The picture gallery, ladies and gentlemen,” she said, using her formula, though there was but one lady present.

They entered a long, lofty room lighted from the roof. The walls were hung with many pictures, so dark and dim with age that even the good light failed to make their meanings intelligible to the spectators. Yet these were considered the most valuable in the whole collection, and the housekeeper, with great pride, gave the history of each, in something like this style:

“Martyrdom of St. Stephen, ladies and gentlemen—painted by Leonardo da Vinci, in the year of our Lord 2351480, purchased at Milan in 1700 for five thousand guineas, by Ralph d’Anglesea of Anglewood. A very rare picture, no copy of it being in existence.”

Our party looked up and saw in a heavy, gilded frame, about five feet square, a very dark, murky canvas, with a small smirch in the middle—nothing more.

This was only a sample of a score of other priceless paintings, invisible as to forms and unintelligible as to meanings, which the housekeeper introduced to the visitors with much pride in the showing.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the family portraits,” said Mrs. Bolton, passing under a lofty archway adorned by the Anglesea arms, and leading the visitors into another compartment of the same gallery.

“Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a portrait of Kenneth d’Anglesea, year 800; very old.”

Our party looked at it and thought it was “very old”—a long brown smudge crowned with an oval yellow smudge, all in a very dark ground, and supposed to represent a human form—no more.

“And here, ladies and gentlemen, is Ethus d’Anglesea, year 950—also old.”

Again the visitors agreed with the housekeeper. The figure was old and almost invisible.

And so she went through a dozen or more of these earlier family portraits, and came down at last to later periods, to crusaders in the reign of Richard the Lion-hearted, by gradations down to courtiers in the reign of Elizabeth, to cavaliers in the reigns of the unfortunate Stuarts, to gallants in the reigns of the Georges, and finally down to the ladies and gentlemen of the reign of Queen Victoria.

“Here, sir, is an excellent portrait of our present master, Col. Angus Anglesea, and of his late lamented lady,” said the housekeeper, pausing before two full length portraits that hung side by side, like companion pictures, at the end of the gallery.

236Our travelers paused before the pictures and gazed at them in silence for some moments.

The portrait of Col. Anglesea was a very striking likeness. All our party recognized it at once as such.

But how was this? Here was the form, face and complexion, perfect to a curve of figure, perfect to a shade of color; yet the expression was different. For whereas the expression of Anglesea’s face, as our friends had known it, was either joyous, morose, or defiant, the character of this face was grave, thoughtful and benevolent. Yet it was certainly the portrait of Angus Anglesea.

Wynnette perceived the perplexity on the brows of her companions and whispered:

“A two-faced, double-dealing as well as double-dyed, villain, papa! A sanctimonious hypocrite at home and a brawling ruffian abroad!”

“I should scarcely take this to be the face of a hypocrite, my dear, or of any other than of a good, wise and brave man; yet—yet it is all very strange.”

Then they looked at the portrait of Lady Mary Anglesea, at which they had only glanced before.

It was the counterfeit presentment of a lady whose beauty, or rather the special character of whose beauty, at once riveted attention.

It was that of a tall, well-formed though rather delicate woman, with sweet, pale, oval face, tender, serious brown eyes, and soft, rippling brown hair that strayed in little, careless ringlets about her forehead and temples, adding to the exquisite sweetness and pathos of the whole presence.

“What a beautiful, beautiful creature! What lovely, lovely eyes!” breathed Wynnette, gazing at the picture.

“Yes, young lady,” said the housekeeper, “and as good and wise as she was beautiful. And when the lovely eyes closed on this world, be sure they opened in heaven. And when the beautiful form was laid in the tomb all 237the light seemed to have gone out of this world for us! It nearly killed the master. And no wonder—no wonder!” said Mrs. Bolton, drawing a large pocket handkerchief, that would have answered for a small tablecloth, from her pocket and wiping her eyes.

Again Abel Force and Leonidas looked at each other.

“Ah, yes! They were a handsome pair!” said the housekeeper, with a sigh that raised her mighty bosom as the wind raises the ocean—“a very handsome pair, and the parting of ’em has been nigh the death of the colonel,” she added, as she replaced her handkerchief in her pocket.

“And yet I have heard that he married again while he was abroad,” Mr. Force could not refrain from saying.

“He!” exclaimed Mrs. Bolton, in a tone of indignant astonishment.

“Yes; there is no law against a widower marrying, is there?” replied Abel Force, quietly.

“He! he marry again! Oh, sir, you are mistaken! He was more likely to die than to marry! Whoever told you so, sir—begging your pardon—told a most haynious falsehood!”

“I really hope he never did marry again.”

“He never did, sir, and he never will. He is true to her memory, and he lives only for their son, who is at Eton. Now, sir, shall I show you the library and the drawing rooms?”

Mr. Force bowed, and with his party followed the housekeeper from the picture gallery to the hall and through that to the drawing rooms, into which they only looked, for the apartment was fitted up in modern style and all the furniture shrouded in brown holland.

The library was more interesting, and contained many rare black-letter tomes, into which Abel Force would have liked to look, had time allowed.

238The sun was setting and it was growing dusk in this grand and gloomy mansion.

“We must go now, I think, my dear,” said Mr. Force, in a low voice, to his daughter.

Wynnette drew him quite away from the group into the light of the great oriel window of the library and whispered:

“Not a crown, nor a half sov., but a guinea, papa! a whole guinea for all those thundering bouncers—I mean those romances she has told us about the jolly old smoke-dried window shades and fire screens hung up in frames for pictures of the ancestors, and called Kenneths and Ethuses and things! Why, papa, those couldn’t have been portraits! There were no painters in Britain at the time those are said to have lived. And then about the Leonardo da Vinci picture! If he ever painted that it would be in one of the great art galleries of the world! Not in a private collection! Give her a guinea, papa! She can’t afford to lie so much for less!”

“My dear, the woman only repeats what she has heard,” said Mr. Force.

They rejoined Le and the housekeeper.

Mr. Force thanked the good woman for her attention and left a generous remuneration in her hand.

She courtesied and then saw them downstairs.

In the hall below she pointed out the full suits of armor worn by this or that knight in such or such a battle; and the antlers of the stag killed by this or that huntsman, in such or such a chase.

“Would your honor now like to look into the ballroom, or the long dining room, or justice room?”

“No, thank you; it is getting late. We have to return to Angleton,” replied Mr. Force.

And then each of the party, in turn, again thanked the housekeeper for the pleasure she had given them and took leave of her.

239

It was a bright June morning when our small party of travelers, having breakfasted well at the Anglesea Arms, and settled with the landlady, once more entered the dilapidated one-horse carriage, to be driven to the railway station.

As the front of the carriage was open, and every word spoken by the travelers could be heard by the driver, there was but little conversation indulged in except what related to the weather or the scenery.

The drive over the moors, although, in the springless vehicle on the rough up-and-down hill, it shook the passengers severely, was, in other respects, very pleasant.

They reached the little way station in good time, and had only a few moments to wait before the train came up.

Mr. Force was fortunate in securing a compartment for himself and his companions; and it was not until they were all three seated within it and the train was in motion again that any opportunity for private conversation was given.

“Well, we have spent three days—I had nearly said we have lost three days on our quest—and what have we gained?” gloomily inquired Mr. Force. “Nothing apparently but the knowledge that the deepest-dyed villain in the whole world enjoys in his own neighborhood the reputation of a saint, a sage, a hero and a philanthropist rolled into one! It is very curious that a man may be such an accomplished hypocrite all his life as to deceive 245all his neighbors, and then to go off into a foreign country and give reins to his evil nature and reveal himself as a pure devil! Clearly he must have been in California when his wife was taken ill. Clearly he married the Widow Wright during his wife’s lifetime, robbed the dupe and fled back to England in time to play the hypocrite at Lady Mary’s deathbed, and act chief mourner at her funeral; then, under pretense that he could not bear the house where he missed her every hour, hastened back to America, but, giving his dupe a wide berth, went to the North instead of the South, and honored with his presence Niagara Falls, where we——”

“‘Foregathered wi’ the de’il,’” put in Wynnette.

“True, my dear! We did! And we all suffered in consequence.” Then turning to the young midshipman, who sat buried in his bitter thoughts, he said: “Le, my dear boy, do not be so utterly cast down. There must be some way out of this trouble, and we will try to find it. Let us do our best and trust in Providence.”

The young man shrugged his shoulders impatiently at this well-meant piece of commonplace philosophy, as he replied:

“Yes, uncle, there is a way out of it, if you would only take it.”

“What way, Le?”

“The divorce court.”

“Le! The very word, divorce, is an offense to decent ears.”

“Uncle! the most straitlaced of all the Christian sects permit divorce under certain circumstances. The Westminster Catechism, that strictest of all moral and religious codes, provides for it.”

“If all the world’s church and state were to meet in convention and provide for it I would have none of it—except—except—as the very last resort; and then, Le, I should feel it as the very greatest humiliation of my life.”

246“Oh, uncle!”

“Listen, Le: Now that we know that Anglesea’s wife was living at the time of his marriage with the Widow Wright, we also know that marriage was unlawful; and now that we furthermore know that his wife was dead at the time of his marriage with Odalite Force we also know that this last marriage was lawful.”

“Uncle! uncle! I cannot bear——”

“One moment, Le. Do not be so impetuous. I said lawful—however wicked and immoral. And because it was lawful, Le, my dear daughter is bound by it, to a certain extent, and cannot form any matrimonial engagement while this bond exists.”

“But, good Heaven, sir——”

“Patience, Le. Hear me out. But, because that marriage was wicked and immoral, it shall never go a step further—it shall never be completed. That villain shall never see or speak to my daughter again. I swear it before high heaven! I shall keep Odalite at home under my own immediate protection. If the scoundrel is not hanged or sent to the devil in some other way before many years, I suppose I shall be compelled to advise my daughter to seek relief from the law. She could get it without the slightest difficulty.”

“But why not now?” pleaded the young man.

“Because of the humiliation. It will seem a less matter years hence.”

“And in the meantime,” said Le, bitterly, “I am to cherish murder in my heart day and night by wishing that man dead!”

“Hush, Le, hush! Such thought is sin and leads to crime.”

Le said no more, but fell into a gloomy silence that lasted until the train ran into Lancaster station.

They went to dine at the Royal Oak, and from that point Mr. Force telegraphed to Enderby Castle for a carriage to meet the party in the evening at Nethermost.

247Then they took the afternoon train and started on their homeward journey.

The sun was setting when they ran into the little wayside station.

A handsome open carriage, driven by the earl’s old coachman, awaited them.

They entered it at once, and the coachman turned the horses’ heads and began to ascend the graded and winding road that led up to the top of the cliff, and then drove all along the edge of the precipice in the direction of the castle.

It was a magnificent prospect, with the moors rolling off in hill and vale, but always rising toward the range of mountains on the east; and the ocean rolling away toward the western horizon, where the sky was still aflame with the afterglow of the sunset; while straight before them, though many miles distant up the coast, stretched out into the sea the mighty promontory of Enderby Cliff, with the ruined border castle standing on its crest, and the ocean beating at its base, while a few yards nearer inland stood the latter building, which was the dwelling of the earl and his household.

Wynnette had never been accused of artistic, poetic or romantic tendencies, yet, gazing on that scene, she fell into thought, thence into dream, finally into vision; and she saw passing before her, in a long procession, tall and brawny, yellow-haired savages, clad in the skins of wild beasts, and armed with heavy clubs, which they carried over their shoulders; then barbarians in leathern jerkins, armed with bows and arrows; rude soldiers with battle-axes and shields of tough hide; then a splendid procession of mounted knights in helmets, shining armor and gorgeous accouterments; ladies in long gowns of richest stuffs and high headgear, that looked like long veils hoisted above the head on a clothes prop; then trains of courtiers in plumed hats, full ruffs, rich doublets and trunk hose; and ladies in close velvet caps 248and cupid’s bow borders, large ruffs, long waists and enormous fardingales; next a train of cavaliers, with flapping bonnets, flowing locks, velvet coats and—

“Wynnette!”

It was the voice of her father that broke the spell and dispersed the visionary train.

“Are you asleep, my dear?”

“N-n-no, papa; only dreaming dreams and seeing visions,” replied the girl, rousing herself.

“Well, my dear, we are entering the castle courtyard.”

Wynnette looked out and saw that they were crossing the drawbridge that had been down for centuries over a moat that had been dry for nearly as long a period, and which was now thickly grown up in brushwood, and were entering under the arch of the great portcullis, which had been up for as many years as the drawbridge had been down and the moat had been dry.

They were in the middle of the hollow square that formed the courtyard of the castle. They had entered on the north side. On the same side were the stables, the kennels and the quarters for the outdoor servants. Opposite to them, on the south side, were the conservatories and forcing beds, protected by high walls. On the east side was the modern Enderby Castle, where the earl and his household lived in modest comfort. But on the west side, overhanging the terrible cliff, was the ancient Castle of Enderby, not quite a ruin, but deserted and desolate, abandoned to wind and wave, given over to bats and owls. At the foot of the awful rock the thunder of the sea was heard day and night. Those who lived habitually at the castle grew accustomed to it, but to temporary sojourners at Enderby there was something weird and terrible in the unceasing thunder of the sea against the rock. There was said to be a whirlpool through an enormous cavern at the foot of the cliff, having many inlets and outlets, and that the sea was drawn in and thrown out as by the sunken head of a many-mouthed 249monster. However that might be, it is certain that even in the finest weather, when the sea was calm everywhere else, the tempest raged against Enderby Cliff.

“The very, very first thing that I do to-morrow shall be to explore that old castle from top to bottom,” said Wynnette to herself, as the turning of the carriage hid it from her view.

A footman was lighting the lamps in the hall when the party entered.

“Are all well in the house, Prout?” inquired Mr. Force.

“All well, sir. My lord is taking his afternoon nap. The ladies are not down yet. The first dinner bell has just rung,” replied the man.

“Mamma and the girls are dressing for dinner, papa. I will just run up and see,” said Wynnette, flying up the stairs.

“Then we had better go to our rooms at once, Le, and get some of the dust of travel off us before we go to dinner,” said Mr. Force, as he followed Wynnette upstairs, though in a more leisurely fashion. Perhaps he was willing to put off, even for a few minutes, the painful task of communicating his discouraging news to Odalite.

When Mr. Force reached his apartment he found Wynnette standing in the middle of the room, under the hands of her mother’s ebony maid, Gipsy, who was helping her off with her duster.

“Where is your mother, my dear?” he inquired.

“Oh, they are all gone down to the drawing room. 250Prout was mistaken in thinking that they were not there. But, papa, I am not sorry! Bad news will keep; because being already spoiled, it cannot spoil any more. And now we must hurry and dress, or the porridge will be cold—I mean dinner will be kept waiting,” and saying this, Wynnette caught up her hat and duster, and, followed by Gipsy, passed into her own room, which she occupied jointly with Odalite.

Mr. Force used such dispatch in dressing that he was the first one of the three returning travelers who entered the drawing room.

He found no one present but Mrs. Force, Odalite, Elva and Rosemary.

Mrs. Force hurried to meet him, while Odalite stood pale and waiting, and the two younger girls looked eagerly expectant.

“What news? What news?” anxiously inquired the lady. “Prout has just told us of your return! What news? Oh, why don’t you answer, Abel?”

“My dear, because I have no good news to tell you,” he gravely replied.

Mrs. Force let go the hand she had seized and sank down upon the nearest sofa.

Odalite turned away and bowed her head upon her hands.

Rosemary and Elva were both too much awed by the grief of their elders even to come forward and greet the returned father and friend.

Nor did Mr. Force even observe the omission. His mind was absorbed by thoughts of his daughter’s distress.

Mrs. Force was the first one to break the painful silence.

“Then it was all true as to the date of Anglesea’s first wife’s death?” she inquired, in a faint voice.

“The date on Lady Mary’s tombstone is August 25, 18—,” gloomily replied Mr. Force.

251“Then the man’s marriage with Mrs. Wright on the first of the same August is invalid?”

“As a matter of course.”

“And the ceremony begun, but not completed, with our daughter in the following December gives Anglesea a shadow of a claim on Odalite?”

“A shadow of a claim only; yet a sufficiently dark and heavy and oppressive shadow. And now, dear Elfrida, let us talk of something else,” said Mr. Force, gravely.

“First, tell me about that fraudulent obituary notice in the Angleton Advertiser. Did you find out how it was effected?” inquired the lady.

“Yes. On the evening of the twentieth of August, after the last copy of the paper had been printed, and the whole edition sent off to its various subscribers, the editor and proprietor, one Purdy, went home, leaving the type undistributed on the press, and his pressman, one Norton, in charge of the office. There was, besides, the editor’s young son, whom Norton sent away. Later in the evening this Norton distributed the type on the first two columns of the first page, and then was joined by Angus Anglesea, who had furnished the manuscript for the false obituary notice, and had bribed the printer to set it up and print it off. So then several copies of the paper were thrown off, in all respects like unto the regular edition of the day, with the exception of the first two columns, in which the false obituary notice and memoir were substituted for the report of an agricultural fair, or something of the sort. And these last fraudulent copies were mailed at different times to me. You see the motive! It was to entrap and humiliate us. The same night, or the next morning, Norton absconded with the bribe he had taken from Anglesea.”

“You know this to be true?”

“As well as I can know anything that I have not been an eye and ear witness to. I will tell you how I unraveled 252the mystery when we have more time. I wish to speak to Odalite now, my dear,” said Abel Force.

And he crossed to where his daughter stood, put his arm around her waist, drew her to his heart, and said:

“Cheer up, my darling girl. You shall be as safe from all future persecution by that scoundrel as if he were in the convict settlement of Norfolk Island—where he ought to be. Try to forget all about him, my dear, and remember only how much we all love you, and how much we are anxious to do for your happiness.”

Odalite put her arms around her father’s neck, and kissed him in silence, and smiled through her tears.

Rosemary and Elva now came up, and put out their hands to welcome the travelers home.

Le came in, and almost in silence shook hands with his aunt and the two younger girls, and then took the hand of Odalite, pressed it, dropped it, and turned away to conceal his emotion.

Lastly entered the earl, leaning on the arm of his secretary.

He smilingly greeted the returning travelers, and hoped that they had had a pleasant journey.

Fortunately the announcement of dinner prevented the necessity of a reply. The earl gave his arm to his sister, smiling warmly, as he said:

“But it is you who must support me, my dear.”

And they led the way to the dining room.

Almost immediately after dinner, when the party returned to the drawing room, Lord Enderby excused himself, and retired to his own apartments, attended by his secretary and his valet.

Mr. and Mrs. Force, and the young people, remained in the drawing room, where Mr. Force gave a more detailed account of his journey into Lancashire, his researches at Anglewood, and all the circumstances that led to the detection of the perpetrators of the obituary fraud.

253“That is the way—or, rather, one way—in which false evidence can be manufactured,” he said, in conclusion.

It was late before the excited family party retired to rest.

It was not until after breakfast the next morning, when the young people had gone to take a walk on the edge of the cliff, and the three elders were seated together in the library of the castle, that Mr. Force told Lord Enderby the story of his journey into Lancashire, and its results.

The poor earl looked the image of distress and perplexity; his face, that was always pale, grew paler; his frame, that was always infirm, grew shaky; and his voice, always weak, became tremulous, as he said:

“I am amazed beyond all measure. I am grieved to the very soul. And—I am all but incredulous. Angus Anglesea, my comrade in India! My ‘brother-in-arms,’ as I used fondly to call him. Angus Anglesea, the very soul of truth and honor. Not overwise or prudent, but brave and good to his heart’s core. I have not seen him for years, it is true; but I had lost no faith in or affection for him. Circumstances have separated us; but neither coldness nor distrust had estranged us. And now you tell me, Force, that this man has radically, fundamentally changed his very nature—his very self—that the man of pure truth, honor and heroism has turned into an utter villain—a thief, a forger, a bigamist, an unequaled scoundrel!”

The earl paused and groaned as in pain.

“I am sorry to grieve you, my lord, but I have brought unquestionable proofs of the charges that I have made,” said Mr. Force.

“I admit the proofs; but, great heavens, that a man could so change in so few years! My comrade in India! My friend, whom I loved as a brother! Who could 254have thought it of him? Elfrida, you knew him in your youth. Could you have believed this of him?”

“Not when I first met him in your company, my brother; but then I was a very young girl, scarcely fifteen years of age, and the judgment of such a girl on the merits of a young man, especially when he is a young officer in a brilliant uniform, and with a more brilliant military record, is not infallible, you know,” replied Mrs. Force, evasively.

“Yet you could not have believed this infamy of him.”

“No, certainly not,” replied the lady, more to soothe the nervous invalid than to express her own convictions.

“Believe me, I am deeply grieved to have been the instrument of giving you so much pain. I would not have told you had I not deemed it my duty to do so; nor even under that impression had I supposed it would have distressed you so much.”

“My dear Force, you were right to tell me, though the hearing gives me sorrow—sorrow and perplexity, for I cannot reconcile the story you have told and proved with all my previous knowledge of Anglesea. I wonder, has he become insane? I did hear that he had been terribly affected by the death of his wife, whom he adored. I was in Switzerland at the time, and when I returned to England, in the autumn, I heard that he had gone abroad. I think, perhaps, he may have become insane.”

“Perhaps so,” said Mr. Force, but he mentally added: “As much insane as, and no more, than every criminal is insane—morally insane, but not, therefore, irresponsible.”

“Force,” said the earl, “whatever may have been the cause of Anglesea’s fall, your daughter Odalite must be released from her bonds.”

255

What ailed Wynnette?

That evening, while the family were all assembled in the drawing room after dinner, she stole away and went to find the housekeeper.

The old woman was in her own sitting room, joining the servants’ hall.

Mrs. Kelsy welcomed the little lady, who had already become a great favorite with her.

“I hope I don’t disturb you,” said Wynnette, deprecatingly.

“Dearie me, no, miss,” replied the housekeeper, rising and placing a chair for her young visitor.

Wynnette thanked her and sat down.

“You have been over the old castle, I hear, Miss Wynnette,” said the old woman.

“Yes, and I came here to get you to tell me all you know of that ancient ruin. You have been housekeeper here for a long time, and you must know lots about it.”

“Yes, my dear young lady, I have been here, girl and woman, for fifty years. My mother was housekeeper 263here before me. I was still-room-maid under until she died about twenty years ago, and I got her place, through the kindness of the earl.”

“That must have been very agreeable to you, as you were so used to the house.”

“It was, my dear young lady, it was.”

“And you must know lots of stories about the old castle.”

The housekeeper suddenly became silent and grave.

“And your mother must have known lots more than you did and told them to you.”

The housekeeper looked solemn and reticent.

“Didn’t she, now? You might as well tell me. I am the niece of the earl, and my mother is his heiress-presumptive.”

“Yes. I know that, young lady,” said Mrs. Kelsy, speaking at last.

“Well, then, you needn’t make a mystery of the matter to one of the family, you know.”

“What is it that you wish to hear, Miss Wynnette?”

“Oh, any story of the old ruin, so that it is a really marrow-freezing, blood-curdling, hair-raising story.”

“There is the guide to Enderby Castle, Miss Wynnette.”

“Oh, I know; but that contains only outlines—outlines traced in blood and fire, to be sure, but still only outlines. I want a story with more body in it. Come, now, that story of the Lady Cunigunda of Enderby, who was the greatest beauty of her time, for whom kings and princes were vainly breaking their hearts, and who was immured alive for marrying a handsome soldier. Come, tell me all about her. That’s a darling.”

“My dear Miss Wynnette, I know no more about her than you do. Not a bit more than what is printed in the guide. No, nor yet did my old mother, rest her soul.”

“But, now, tell the truth. Does not the ghost of Lady 264Cunigunda haunt the Round Tower in which she was immured?”

“Not as ever I heard of, my dear. Not as ever I heard of.”

“But, Mrs. Kelsy,” said Wynnette, solemnly, “I thought the old castle was a venerable, historical building.”

“So it is, my dear. So it is. Nobody can gainsay that.”

“But, Mrs. Kelsy, no castle, however ancient, and however full of legends of kings and princes and heroes and saints, can be even respectable, much less venerable, unless it has its ghost.”

“Enderby Old Castle has its ghost, Miss Wynnette,” retorted the old housekeeper, drawing herself up with dignity.

“Ah, I thought so! I knew so. Tell me about it, Mrs. Kelsy!” eagerly exclaimed Wynnette.

“My dear, I cannot, especially to-night—especially to-night.”

“Why not to-night?”

“Because, my dear, this very night of the twentieth of June is the anniversary of the murder of that poor young woman and her baby, when her spirit always revisits the scene of her murder,” said the old woman, solemnly.

“Do you mean—are you talking of the lady’s maid who was murdered by the coachman, and whose body was thrown down the shaft in the castle hall?” gravely inquired Wynnette.

“Hush, my dear. Hush! Don’t talk of it, or you may draw that perturbed spirit even here.”

“You know all about that tragedy, then?” persisted Wynnette.

“My mother did, and told me. And people enough have seen the ghost in the castle hall on this anniversary.”

265“Have you ever seen it?”

“Hush! Yes, once; and I never want to see it again. So that’s the last word I will speak about it to-night. Some other time I’ll tell you all, but not now. Not while her troubled spirit is abroad. Hush! What was that?”

“Nothing but a sough of the wind.”

“Oh, I thought it was the sob of a woman. I thought it was her sob. Oh, my dear, for the Lord’s sake, drop the subject,” pleaded the old woman.

“I will drop it this instant if you will promise to tell me all you know some day soon,” whispered Wynnette.

“Yes, yes, I promise. Let a Sunday and a church service come between this night and the story, and I will tell you on Monday,” said the housekeeper, whom Wynnette’s persistence had brought to a state of great nervous excitement.

The young girl then arose and bade the old woman good-night, and returned to the drawing room, where she found all the family circle about to separate and retire.

Wynnette went to the room which she shared with her eldest sister.

Odalite got ready and went to bed.

“Have you done with the light?” inquired Wynnette.

“Yes. Why?” inquired the elder sister.

“Because I want to turn it down low.”

“But are you not coming to bed?”

“Not yet. I wish to open the shutters and look out at the old castle by moonlight. I will draw the curtains at the foot of your bed, so that the beams may not keep you awake.”

“Oh, the moonlight would never disturb my slumbers, Wynnette,” said Odalite.

Nevertheless, the younger girl went and drew the white dimity curtains across the foot of the bed, which was facing the west window. Then Wynnette turned 266down the light to a mere glow-worm size, and opened the folding shutters of the window and sat down to look out at the prospect.

The moon was in its third quarter, had passed the meridian, and was now halfway down the western hemisphere, and hung over the sea, above the ruined castle on the cliff, illumining the scene with a weird light.

Wynnette looked down on the great square inclosure of the courtyard, shut in by strong walls of mighty buildings on all four sides, the walls of the ancient ruin being on the western side, directly opposite her window. The courtyard was as secure and as clean as the carefully kept interior of a barracks. And it was so quiet at this hour that the sound of the sea, beating against the rocks at the base of the old ruin, was heard as deafening thunder.

But Wynnette’s eyes were fixed on that row of ancient windows in the ruined hall and looked like mere slits in the wall.

And now happened to the girl a very marvelous event. As she gazed on these narrow openings they became illumined from within by a strange light.

It was not from the moon, for the moon was far above, and would have to be an hour lower to shed that light. Besides, it was a dark, red light, like nothing on this earth.

Wynnette gazed and wondered—wondered and gazed. It was a steady light; it never wavered or flickered, never brightened or faded.

Wynnette gazed and wondered—wondered and gazed, until, drawn by an irresistible fascination, she arose slowly and turned from the window, went past her sister’s bed, stooped over, saw that Odalite was fast asleep, and then she softly opened the chamber door, passed out and closed it behind her.

In the upper hall lights were always left burning low through the night.

267By these Wynnette found her way down the grand staircase to the armorial hall below.

Here, also, lights were burning low.

By these she found her way to the great west door in front, took down the bars, unhooked the chain, drew back the bolts, and turned the heavy key in the huge lock—all so noiselessly as to make her wonder, until she remembered how well-oiled every lock, key, bolt and hinge was, to save the nerves of the invalid earl.

She drew open the heavy doors and went out into the night.

The courtyard was bathed in moonlight, except where the old ruin some yards in front cast its black shadow, for the moon was now behind it.

Everything was as still as death except the sea that thundered at the foot of the cliff.

Wynnette felt no fear of material dangers. She knew that she was as safe from harm as though she were in a fortress.

She went straight across the courtyard, drawing nearer and nearer to the haunted castle; and as she approached it she gazed more intently at those luridly lighted loopholes. And then, oh strange! the lights seemed not to come from torch or candle, but from spectral eyes glaring forth into the night, and drawing her on with an irresistible power. Wynnette could not turn and fly; she was under a mighty spell, she must move on—on—on—until she reached the pile of fallen stones around the castle walls; and over these, climbing with difficulty and danger, still moving on and on, until she reached the portals.

The great iron-bound oaken doors seemed now to be closed and secured from within against intrusion, yet she was still drawn on so powerfully that she pushed with all her strength against those mighty doors, but with as little effect as if she had tried to move a mountain. When—

268Suddenly the door opened, a cold hand seized her wrist, drew her in, and the door closed.

Wynnette’s blood curdled. She would have cried out, but her organs of speech seemed paralyzed. She would have struggled to free herself, but the icy hand closed on her wrist like a fetter, and drew her on. She could only pray mutely and hard.

She could see nothing before her, not even the fingers of frost that closed around her wrist, and drew her on and on through the black darkness.

Again she tried to cry out, but the sound of her voice died in her throat. Again she tried to struggle, but the cold hand drew her on and on with irresistible power.

Where was it taking her? Perhaps to the terrible trap opening into the shaft leading down to the dread Dungeon of the Dark Death, under the foundations of the castle.

Oh, if she could only cry out. Oh, if she could only tear herself away from her horrible invisible captor. Oh, if she could but see where she was. But her voice 269seemed palsied and her limbs paralyzed, while she was drawn on and on through deepest darkness by an icy, invisible, irresistible hand. On and on, now to the right, now to the left, now up a few rugged steps, and now down and down into deeper depths of darkness, if that were possible.

Once more Wynnette tried to cry out, but failed; tried to escape, but failed; strained her eyes to see, but failed utterly in all attempts.

“It is a dream! It is a nightmare! Oh, if I could only scream so they would hear me and come to me. Oh, father! Oh, mother! Oh, Lord, have mercy on me!” her spirit cried, in her agony of terror, but no word came from her frozen lips.

Down—down—down—into profounder abysms of blackness.

Where were they going? Under the foundations of the castle? Under the bed of the sea? To the very center of the earth? Would they never stop descending?

“Oh, what a fool I was to come here at midnight. Shall I ever get out of this alive? Oh, no—never. Oh, what a horrible fate. Will they ever find me or my body? Oh, no—never. How could they? Oh, my dear mother! Oh, my dear father! What ever will you think has become of me—your wilful Wynnette? My whole arm is freezing from the clasp of that icy hand around my wrist. What is it going to do with me? But it is only a dream. I know it is only a dream. A cruel, deadly nightmare. Oh, if I could only scream. If I could only struggle and wake up. But I shall die in my sleep here, and they will find me dead in the morning. Oh, Lord, forgive my sins and save my soul. What was that?”

Suddenly the silence of that utter darkness was broken by a sound that became a noise, a roar, a deafening thunder, and Wynnette, in the anguish of her utter 270terror and helplessness, heard and knew the thunder of the sea against the rocks. But the air was growing close, fetid, sulphurous, suffocating.

“It is no nightmare. I hear the sea. It is breaking in mighty waves over my head. Ah, my limbs are numb—my breath is gone—my brain is going. Oh, if I could only cry out once. Mother! Mother!”

Then the darkness and the coldness as of death closed in, wrapped around, and settled down upon her with the weight of the grave.

And for the time being Wynnette was dead and buried to all life, sense and consciousness.

When Wynnette breathed again and opened her eyes she could not at once recover her consciousness. The shock and strain upon her nervous system had been too severe and protracted. She heard and saw as one half asleep. She heard the awful reverberations of the thunder of the sea. She saw around her blackness of darkness, relieved just in one spot, a few yards distant from where she lay, by a small fire on the ground, that smoldered in the foul air, and cast a lurid light but a few feet around, and fell upon the face and form of a crouching figure squatted near it.

It was a Rembrandt picture.

Wynnette watched it in weak, dull, stupid despair. Whether it was man, woman, or even human being, she neither knew, nor cared, nor questioned. Nor could any one else, even in the full possession of their senses, have, at sight, classified the strange figure squatted by the low fire in the subterranean abyss.

Wynnette was too stunned, dazed and weakened even to fear it.

And yet it was a dread, a frightful, a terrible form, tall and gaunt as could be well known, even in that crouching attitude, by the length of legs and arms. Its skin was like wrinkled parchment, and clung close to its bones. Its face and features were strong and bony and 271sharp. The eagle nose and the pointed chin nearly met over the sunken mouth. Burning black eyes flashed and flamed under beetling brows. White hair, parted over the top of the head, rolled in silver waves down over shoulders and back. It wore but one garment, a dark red gown, with sleeves that only reached to the elbow, and a skirt that only reached to the knees. It was squatting, as we said before. Its knees were drawn up; its long, gaunt, dark arms were around them, and the great claw-like fingers were clasped upon them. The head was bent, but the blazing eyes were fixed in a burning gaze upon the face of the recumbent girl.

As memory slowly awoke in the mind of the stupefied girl, she began to recall some of the phases of her night’s adventure. When had it happened? How long ago? An hour ago? A day? A year? A century? How long? And where was she now? She dimly remembered when she died, and how she died—how the faintness of death crept upon her; how her breath went and then her sense, and then—nothingness.

But how long was that ago?

She could not think.

Where was she now?

She could not say.

Only one thing was certain. She had died, and she had come to a bad place for her sins. She was in darkness. She was in—that awful pit of utter despair whose name she could not bear to breathe to her own spirit.

And that thing by the smoldering fire was her demon jailer!

Thus much was certainly true, she thought. And yet so dull and stupid was she still that she did not care very much where she was, or even wonder at her own insensibility.

At last, seeing that the creature by the fire still glared 272at her, she tried to speak, and at length muttered the question:

“Who are you?”

“Nobody,” was the slow, soft answer, in a tone strangely sad and sweet to come from such dried and withered lips.

“Are you—alive?” breathed Wynnette, in fearsome tones.

“Alive? Nay, babe, nor are you,” replied the same slow, sweet voice.

“I thought so; that is, I knew I was dead. But I thought maybe you and—and—and—the other dev—I mean the other—I mean I thought the natives of this place might be alive,” faltered Wynnette.

“Nay, child, I am dead as well as thou. We are both dead. But I have been dead longer than thou! Ay, ay, many years than thou, I reckon; for thou cannot be older than sixteen or seventeen, and I be ninety-seven. Ay, ay, I ha’ been dead a long time.”

The voice that spoke those words was as tender and plaintive as the notes of an Eolian harp.

“Are—we—are—we—in h—I mean, are we in the woeful place?”

“Yes, babe, we are in the woeful place. You and I and many, many, many millions, and millions and millions of others are dead and buried, and in the woeful place.”

“I feel as if I were alive, though. No, not quite; but almost alive,” said Wynnette, first pinching her own arm and then setting her teeth in it, and biting so hard that she only escaped breaking the skin.

“That’s a delusion, my baby. You are not alive, neither am I. But—they are alive!” she cried, lifting and waving her arm.

“They? Who?” demanded Wynnette.

“They—the victims of hate, power, cruelty and despotism, whose ruined earthly tabernacles lie all around 273us. All around us, like the broken shells upon the seashore. They are alive! They are the martyrs of love and truth; the martyrs of faith and freedom, of humanity. They are alive, baby. They stand among that ‘great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and peoples and kindreds and tongues—before the throne—clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.’ Ay, ay! They are alive! But you and I—we are dead.”

“I—I think I understand,” said Wynnette, who was beginning to regain her mental faculties and to recognize in her surroundings some subterranean cave of the cliff, or crypt of the castle, and in her companion some harmless lunatic. “We are in a sense dead and buried, and in a woeful state; but where, in all this woeful state, are we now sitting?”

“Don’t ye ken, bairnie, we are in the place the tyrants called the Dungeon of the Dark Death? And the heaps of gray and white lime that ye see here—or ye might see, gin it were light enough—be the moldering bones of their victims. And the latest victim of all was my lass! my lass! But death could not hold her, nor darkness, nor coldness. She came to life and ascended. She is a fair angel now—one of the fairest of angels. But though she is alive and we are dead, she has not forgotten us; but she comes on this day every year and visits our graves. I always see her when she comes. I can see her through all the clods of the grave that lie so heavy on my heart. Mayhap you may see her, too, baby; but I don’t know, I don’t know,” murmured the plaintive voice, as the old creature slowly shook her head.

“Does she—does she come here?” breathed Wynnette, in an awe-struck tone.

“Ay, she does; and every time she comes she shows me how her body was murdered, and how herself came out of it alive. Look! look!” The woman suddenly started up, crossed to the side of the girl, and clasped 274her hand and held it fast, saying again: “Look! Listen!” and she pointed up to the upper end of the cavern.

Now by what psychological law this weird old creature impressed her own visions on the imagination of the girl, let the occult scientists explain. I cannot pretend to do so.

But as Wynnette looked and listened, there came a whir-r-r-r through the air, and a thud-d-d upon the distant ground, and the form of a young woman and a child lay there.

Wynnette tried to shriek, but her voice died in her throat.

“You see her?” murmured the old woman.

Wynnette tried to speak, but failed.

“Watch!” said the crone.

Wynnette watched, breathlessly, her senses reeling. The shape presently began to change as clouds change, from form to form, and presently to arise like a pillar of mist, and take the form of a woman, young, fair, angelic, with an infant pressed to her bosom, and with heavenward gaze, slowly ascending in a path of light, which faded as she disappeared.

“There, she has gone! and we will go,” said the crone, as she tightened her grasp on the girl’s hand and drew her away.

No longer terrified, but awed, confused, bewildered, Wynnette allowed herself to be passively drawn away, and they began to toil up from the depths. Wynnette thought of Dante’s return from the Inferno, when he “saw the stars again.”

At length, more dead than alive, she began to realize, that though they were still in darkness, they were creeping over level ground or a stone floor. They were stealing along a dark and narrow passage, as she thought; for once when she stretched out her hand at arm’s length she felt the damp stone wall.

Presently, far off ahead of them, she saw the faint 275glimmer of a red light. As they drew nearer to this, she saw that it came through the chinks of an ill-fitting door.

When they reached the door the crone opened it, and Wynnette recognized, with feelings of relief, the great hall of the castle, and knew that they were above ground.

A fire of faggots burned on the flagstones, and burned more clearly in the freer air than had that smoldering, smoking heap of rubbish in the subterranean dungeon below.

The beldame drew the girl toward the fire, where there lay near by a pile of rushes.

“Sit ye down here, lass, and rest,” she said, as she herself dropped in a heap upon the rushes.

“I—I want to go home,” whimpered Wynnette, in the tone of a frightened child.

“Nay, bairn, thou wants to hear the story of my lass, and none but I can tell it. Not yon woman up in the new castle, for she but repeats the lies she has been told, and she believes. None but I can tell the true story. Sit ye down, bairn, and hear.”

“But—it is so late—so late—I ought to go home,” said Wynnette, divided between curiosity and uneasiness.

“It is not late. It is not yet one hour past midnight; and thou art a brave bairn, and there be none to harm thee. Besides, I must tell thee the true story.”

Wynnette drew some of the rushes into a heap, and sat down upon them.

“It was fifty years ago, my bairnie—fifty years ago. Earl Hardston ruled at Enderby. Distant cousin he 276was to yon present Earl Francis——What was that? Eh! nothing but the flap of the owl’s wing as it passed.

“Earl Hardston ruled at Enderby. A handsome devil he were. Tall, broad-shouldered, straight-backed, strong-limbed. His hair was black and glossy as the raven’s wing; his eyes were black and fiery as the hawk’s, and sometimes soft as the dove’s. Ah, a taking rascal he were.

“His lady mother and his lady sisters lived at the castle, and were to live there until my lord should marry, when they would all go to Kedge Hall, the dower-house of the Widows of Enderby. Kedge Hall was no to be compared to Enderby Castle, and so my lady and her daughters were no minded that my lord should take a wife.

“Ah, but they were wicked!

“Handsome jades they were, every one. Black-a-vized, like me lord, but not one of them to hold a candle to my lass, though she were the hen-wife’s child, and her feyther the undergardener.

“Oh, but she were the beauty of the world!

“I ha’e seen the Venus in the castle gallery, but it was no to be compared to my lass’ form. And her features were small and fine and clean-cut, and her skin was like the wild rose leaf. Her eyes were blue as violets, and her hair was yellow and soft and silky as the fringe of the young maize corn.

“Oh, but she was the beauty of the world!

“Everybody was in love with her. Every servant in the castle, from the old bachelor-butler down to the boy in buttons, which they called the page, was half mad for the love of my lass. Every laborer in the grounds, from the widowed gamekeeper down to the youngest stableboy, was half dying for the love of my lass.

“No, bairnie, she did not scorn any of them—not the lowliest. She had a smile and a gentle glance, and a kind word for every one—even for the freckle-faced 277and red-haired young groom, who always had a cold in his head and a swelled nose, and used to follow her about like a dog, until he lost his place for neglecting his business. She was kind and good to all.

“Oh, but she was the angel of the world, was my lassie. She were sweet and tender to every one, but she would ha’e none o’ them i’ the way o’ marriage. That were too much to ask, she thought.

“So time went on, till my lass was twenty years old, and she had never lo’ed a man. And my lord were thirty, and he had never married a wife.

“Ane autumn my lord had a company of friends staying at the castle—gentlemen friends, the lot of them. Sorrow a lady was ever asked to the castle barring it was some old lady without daughters, or nieces, or any women at all. It was not my lady countess who would throw temptation to matrimony in the way of her son, the earl.

“Oh, but she was the devil of the world. You shall hear, my bairn. You shall hear. Among the company at the castle was ane painter lad, which even the king made much of—so ’twas said—so fine was his paintings.

“My lady countess had noticed my lass, my Phebe. Ane day she sent a lackey down to my cottage, with orders for me to bring my girl up to the castle. So I obeyed my lady.

“We were showed to a room full of pictures, and images, and rubbish, which I soon found out was the painter lad’s workshop. My lady was there, sitting in the only easy-chair. And the painter lad was there, standing before a queer prop, with a picture on it.

“As soon as the lackey said, ‘The young woman, my lady,’ and shut the door, the countess looked at us without speaking, and then turned to the painter, and said, ‘Here is your model, Mr. Fordyce,’ as if my Phebe had been nothing but a bundle of lumber.

“The painter lad was an ugly little mug as ever was 278seen, but a great painter he were, and a civil man. He looked at my Phebe, and I could see the surprise and delight in his ill-favored little face, and he bowed to her, and handed both of us to seats. My lady frowned, and he blushed, and said something very softly, which I thought was asking pardon for his civility to us.

“Aweel, bairnie, that were the beginning o’ the end. Fra that day my lass went up to the castle every day, in obedience to my lady’s orders. I do not know, I cannot tell when it was, or how it was, that my lord first began to be present at the ‘sittings,’ as they called them. Maybe he heard the painter lad praising the beauty of my lass, for, bairnie, though she was born and brought up on his land, he had never seen her, for he never showed his face down in such low places as his laborers’ huts. So, maybe, he heard the painter lad praising her beauty, and for curiosity went in to take a look at her.

“But sometimes I think my lady countess planned it all—to amuse my lord, and keep him at home. What did she care for a peasant girl’s heart, or her soul, or her good name, either, if she could amuse my lord and keep him from going off and getting married, and bringing a wife home to send her and her lady daughter to Kedge Hall?

“Oh, but she was the devil of the world!

“Ah me! ah me! ah me! I did not know what was going on. You see, I didn’t go with my lass to the castle after that first time. My lady’s maid, an aul wife, always came and fetched her. No, I did not know what was going on. And why should I tell you of wickedness that is not for you to hear?

“No, no, I will pack the whole peck into a pint cup, and make an end of it.

“Oh, such an old tale. Oh, such a common tale. It is heard in every hamlet, on every hillside. Oh, but it comes home to one when it’s one’s ain child. Ah me! ah me!

279“Late in the autumn the pictures were finished and the sittings were over, and the painter lad went his way back to London. And my lass stayed hame with me and only went out sometimes in the gloaming. I never thought ill. I used to go to look after the poultry yard by the castle stables every day, and sometimes, with the gathering and sorting of eggs, and other matters, I would be kept at work all day long.

“One day I got on wi’ my work so weel that I cam’ hame airlier than common. And there, i’ the hut, was my lord, wi’ Phebe on his knee and his arm around her waist. Before I could weel tak’ in the whole, my lord had risen, and, with a ‘Good-e’en, dame,’ he passed me, and went out. And I sat down on the floor and covered my head wi’ my apun. I could speak no word of blame to my lass; my heart, it was broken.

“Presently she came to me and put her sweet arms around my neck, and said to me, in her ain sweet voice, ‘Minnie, minnie, I canna see you grieve and not tell you the truth, though I must break my word to do it. Minnie, yon great earl is my husband and your son, and I love him as I love my life!

“Bairnie, ye may think I were surprised at what I heard, but, indeed, I were not. I were very pleased, and that’s the truth, but not surprised. I thought my lass the beauty of the whole world. And the angel of the whole world, and our folk-lore were full of tales of how noble lords, and even royal princes, did love and marry peasant girls for their beauty and for their goodness. And who so beautiful and who so good as my ain lass?

“No. I was not surprised, but I was proud and pleased. I only asked her the how and the when, and the where, and when she had told me I believed in her, as I had a right to believe in her, but I also believed in him, as I had no right to believe in any man.

“And then she begged me to keep the secret, because 280she had broken her promise to keep it from everybody, and had told me, from love of me.

“I swore that I would keep her secret, and I kissed her, and petted her, and loved her. And she said, ‘Now I am completely happy, dear minnie, as I never was when I kept a secret from mine ain minnie.’ Ah me! ah me! But, there. She is still happy. I only am miserable. She is alive! I only am dead! But some time or other I shall come to life and be happy with her. Where was I, bairnie? What was I telling you last?”

“Of your dear daughter’s secret marriage with the earl, and of your promise to keep the secret,” said Wynnette.

“Ay, ay! And we were happy that night. Phebe and I. And I hugged her to my heart as we slept together, and I called her ‘My little countess! My little countess!’ Ah, I was drunk with pride and vanity. Not for myself, but for my beauty and angel of the world. I could not sleep for thinking of her and of her grandeur. Only I did think that mayhap if the king had chanced to come by our way and see her the king himself might ha’ married her and made her a queen. And I did not care for the earl so much but that I was sorry it was not the king who had seen her.

“Next morning Phebe went back to her spinning and I went to the henhouse. I quieted down and began to go over the tales in our folk-lore—and I thought, with uneasiness, how King Cœphutas, who married the beggar girl, and the other king that married the nut-brown maid, and all other kings and princes and nobles who had married good and beautiful peasant maids, had wedded them in open day before all the world, with a great flourish of trumpets and blowing of horns, and flaunting of flags, in honor of the wedding, and all the neighboring kings, and princes, and lords, and nobles invited to the feast. And here was this earl, who was neither king nor prince and nobody but an earl had 281married the beauty and the angel of the world, in the dark behind the door, as it were, and keeping his marriage a secret as if he was ashamed of it. I wondered what he meant. I thought if it had been the king who had married my lass he would not have done so.

“When I came hame that night I asked my girl how it was. And she told me it was from fear of his mother, who had set her heart on his marrying the daughter of a duke. The daughter of a duke, indeed. What was the daughter of a duke compared to the beauty and the angel of the whole world, as kings and princes would ha’ fought for, if they had only seen her? But it was all a lie, for my lady countess, she had set her heart on his never marrying anybody so long as she should live.

“I thought the earl was unworthy to be compared with the kings and princes of our folk-lore. And I feared my lass had thrown herself away on an ungrateful earl—a mere common earl—when she might have married a king or an emperor if she had only waited until one passed by and saw her.

“But it was done, and he was her husband, so I would not say anything to set her against him.”

“Ah, well, as the days and the weeks passed I got mortal tired of waiting for him to own my girl his wife, and take her to the great house with blowing of trumpets, and waving of banners, and flaunting of flags, and prancing of steeds, like I had heard of. What was the use of my girl being the wife of a great lord, if she had to wear a linsey gown, and sit in the hut and spin all day long while I was away to the henhouse? Why, none at all.

282“Oh, bairn, it is such a help to my poor heart telling you all this. And you believe me, don’t you?”

“I believe every word you say—tell me more,” earnestly replied Wynnette.

“At long last my lady countess and her young lady daughters went up to London town. And now I thought, while they are gone, my lord will take his wife hame to the great house; but he didn’t, bairn; he didn’t. Oh, he didn’t. He was abroad somewhere, to France, maybe, or to Paris, or some other furrin country thereaway. And my lass gave herself up to weeping, and never showed herself abroad, but stayed in the hut. One day I laid a baby boy in her arms and told her to be comforted, for that her son was the little Lord Glennon and the heir to the Earldom of Enderby.

“And then I had to tell my neighbors the secret, for I could not bear they should think ill o’ my ain lass. But nane o’ them would believe me. Not one. They laughed me to scorn—me and my lass. It is an old tale—oh, such an old tale, such a common old tale! Only it comes hame when it’s one’s ain bairn.

“One day my lord came hame and heard the report, and a fine passion he was in with my lass and me. He denied her and her child. He pretended it was Andy, the stableboy, she had married. And he scorned her, and threatened to turn us both out of the hut if we ever so much as named his name again.

“Oh, but he was the devil of the whole world!

“After that, in many long nights that my lass and I lay awake, we talked, and I got to know why the great earl had married my beauty and angel of the whole world. First he tried to win her love without her hand; but my girl was good and firm; and then he grew so mad for her love that he took her before a priest and married her.

“One day we did hear that the earl was to wed the duke’s daughter, and all the cottagers said I was a mad 283crone to think my lord had stooped to my lass. Ah, my lass! She was fading away before my very eyes. But not fast enough for my lord.

“One day there was a fair at Enderby Town, and all the laborers on the estate and all the servants at the castle had a holiday to go to the fair. All went but me and my lass. We ne’er left hame in those days. We could no bear that any should look on us and scorn us.

“So that day I left my lass spinning at the hut door, and the baby was sleeping in the basket by her side, and I went to my duty in the hen-houses. I had the old nests to clean out and fresh straw to put in them. I got done about twelve of the clock and come hame.

“But my girl was not in the house, nor the babe. I had no misgiving. I went in and waited for her. But she came no more. She never came again. When it grew dark I began to be so uneasy that I went out to look for her, but could no find her. There was no one as I could ask; all the world was gone to the fair, and nane would be hame till late, maybe not till morning.

“Well, bairn, when I had walked till my limbs were ready to sink under me I went hame and laid down, just as I was, on the outside of my bed. I was not asleep. Nay, bairnie, I was not asleep. I did no dream what followed. I saw it. My eyes were shut and all the world was still; for it was long after midnight, and even drawing near the morning; but still it was pitch-dark, when—no, I wasn’t asleep, and I didn’t dream it—when I felt a light through my shut eyelids. I opened them and saw the room was full of light that did not come from sun, or moon, or star, or candle, or lamp, or fire, but from a bright form that stood in the midst of the place and beckoned me to come to it.

“In an awe that was not a fright, I got up and went to it and said ‘Phebe!’ for I knew it was my lass that stood there, with her child in her arms, and clothed, not in the white raiment of the blest, but in what I thought 284was lovelier, a clear, soft, rosy gown that fell from her shoulders down to her feet. She had no crown on her head, but her silky, yellow hair streamed down around her form like sunbeams. I knew she was a spirit.

“‘Phebe!’ I said again—‘Phebe!’ She did not speak, but holding her child on her right arm, she raised her left hand and beckoned me, and pointed to the door, and went out. I followed her. She led me by ways I had never gone before, but have gone every year since that night. The same way I took you to-night, my bairn. The secret passage to the deep caverns under the foundations of the castle, the only way to them except through the trapdoor and shaft that runs two hundred feet down in a straight line—a way that is now known to none but me. Even you could no find it again. She led me through the secret passage and down the many, many steps cut in the solid rock, down, down, down, her light making the steep path light before me until we reached the Dungeon of the Dark Death—and even that she lighted up.

“She led me to a spot where her dead body lay on the ground, just under the bottom of the shaft, that reached only to the ceiling or roof above. Her body lay with the body of her babe, just as if they both had dropped down there and fallen asleep. I knew they were dead. I knew every bone in both was broken, though that did not appear on the outside. It was under where they struck the ground that the horror of death was. I knew also, as if I had seen it all, how she had died—how she had been entrapped to her sudden death—how she had not even suffered. There had been a swift fall, a shock, nothing, and then a wonderful coming to life in a new form.

“I tell you, lass, it was no dream, no dream! but a real seeing. And it was wonderful to stand there by the two crushed, dead bodies and see the two living souls. I thought of the chrysalis and the butterfly, the 285worm and the moth, the eggshell and the bird, as I stood there between life and death, and seeing both.

“And without any speech at all, my lass made me know how she had been betrayed to death—how, every one being gone off the place, and she alone in her hut, my lord had come to her and pretended to make it all up with her, and had asked her to walk with him in the hall of the old castle. And she had gone. And they walked up and down, up and down, until suddenly, when she was passing with her babe over the trapdoor they had passed so many times, he suddenly stepped back, the door fell in, and she shot down, struck the ground two hundred feet below, and knew no more until she woke up in her new form—not dead, but living, never more to die.

“Presently she beckoned to me again, and walking before me, a form of rosy light, led me back again by the way we had come, up, up, up, to the upper air again. Nor did she leave me until we were back in the hut. She waved her arm and signed for me to lie down on the bed; and I minded her and did what she said. Then she stood by my bed waving her hand to and fro, to and fro, until I went to sleep. And I slept so deep and so long that it was broad daylight, with the sun shining in at the bare window, when I waked.

“No, it was no dream, bairn. Soon as I waked I minded all that had passed in the night, and I knowed it was no dream.

“I went no more out that day. At noon my lord came to the hut, the first time he had come for many a day. And he asked me, in a careless way:

“‘Where is that wench of yours, goody?’ And I looked him straight in the face, and answered him:

“‘Her body and her babe’s lie crushed to death on the stone floor of the deep dungeon where you cast her down; but she and her child—they are in Paradise.’

286“He turned white as a sheet and he reeled in his saddle; but he quickly put on a bold face and said:

“‘You are a mad old beast, and before twenty-four hours are over your head you shall be committed to the County Lunatic Asylum.’

“And with that he struck spurs into his horse and dashed wildly away.

“Not too often, lass, does punishment follow fast on crime, but it did in this case. He dashed wildly off in a state of mind, I reckon, that made him unable to guide his young horse as he ought.

“Half an hour later he was carried hame to the castle on a shutter. The horse had thrown him and broken his neck.

“The title and estates, they went to a distant cousin, great-grandfather of the present Earl Francis. Earl Godfrey was good to me—he and his children and his children’s children have been good to me—always good to me, although they call me mad.

“When my girl was missed and the trapdoor was found open, they had it that she had trodden on it and it had gin way under her weight, and her death was a accident and nobody to blame. They wouldn’t listen to me—no one word. They said I was a poor, harmless creetur, crazed by the loss of my lass. They got a windlass and great chains and ropes, and then let down men and they took up my birds’ broken shells and gave them Christian burial.

“Everybody was kind to me, only they wouldn’t believe me. They said I was mad. They would have it as it was the poor stableboy as wronged my girl. And now I hear, after more than fifty years, some un have made another story and got it into a book, how the stableboy killed my girl and threw her body down the shaft, and was hanged for it at Carlisle. All lies, bairn! All lies! My story is the only true one.”

“I believe you,” said Wynnette.

287

“She has come to life,” said Wynnette, quoting the words of the departed woman.

All looked at the girl in some surprise. With all her oddities, Wynnette was not used to make such speeches as that. And now, for the first time, they noticed that Wynnette’s face was very pale, with dark circles under her eyes.

291“What is the matter with you, my dear?” inquired her mother.

“Nothing at all, mamma,” answered the girl.

“She sat by the open window late last night and fell asleep there, and slept until I woke her up this morning. That was quite enough to make her ill,” Odalite explained.

“Nay, my dear; in such fine June weather as the present, and in such pure air as ours, it would hardly have hurt her had she slept outdoors,” said the earl. “But what do you mean, my dear, by saying that our poor Old Zillah ‘has come to life’?” he inquired, as he turned to the girl.

“Nothing heterodox, uncle. Nothing but what we hear from our pulpits on every Easter Sunday morning,” she replied.

“Oh!” he exclaimed.

“Only in this case the truth seems to be very marked. A woman nearly a hundred years old must have been nearly dead for many years and now has certainly come to life.”

“Ah!”

“Nothing new, uncle, please. I never said anything new in my life.”

“Then you put old truths in a very new way.”

“Eternal truth, uncle, eternal truth; plain to gentle and simple, to young and old; plain as the sunshine to all who can see; hidden only from them who are blind, or who choose to keep their eyes shut.”

“Hum! Truth that neither the aged, the invalid nor the bereaved can afford to disregard, at least. And now, my dear, I must leave you, to inquire into the cause of Old Zillah’s sudden death. Will you come with me, gentlemen?”

Mr. Force and Leonidas arose to attend him.

Le gave the invalid the support of his strong young arm.

292And so the three men passed out of the room.

“Mamma, did you know anything about this wonderful old woman?” inquired Wynnette.

“Very little, my dear. Only the years of my earliest childhood were passed here. Old Zillah was an object of terror to me. Partly, perhaps, because she wore a man’s coat over her skirt, and a man’s hat on her head, and partly because she had the reputation of being a wise woman or a witch. She never came to the castle, and I never saw her except by chance, when I went with my nursery governess to walk or ride. She never came near me or spoke to me. I think I should have gone into fits if she had.”

“How old were you then, mamma?” she inquired.

“I do not know when I first began to hear of Old Zillah, or when I first saw her. She was the shadow and the terror of my dawn of life. I was but four years old when I lost my mother, and then my father left this place, taking me with him; and he went to his estate in Ireland—Weirdwaste, on the west coast.”

“‘Weirdwaste!’ What a name! Did you live long at Weirdwaste, mamma, dear?”

“Yes, many years alone there with my governess. My father was traveling on the continent.”

“What sort of a place was it, mamma?” inquired Wynnette. And Rosemary and Elva drew their chairs nearer to the sofa on which their mother sat to hear her answer.

“It was an old manor house on the inland end of a long, flat, dreary point of land stretching into the Atlantic Ocean. At high tide the entire cape, to within a few rods of the manor wall, was covered by the sea, and day and night the swash of the sea was heard.”

“How lonely you must have been, mamma, with no one but your governess and the servants,” said Elva. “But perhaps you had neighbors,” she added.

“No; no neighbors at all. There was no one within 293miles of us but the poorest Irish peasants, who were tenants of my father. The estate was vast in extent of territory, but poor in soil. The land steward lived in the manor house, to take care of it and of me. They kept two old servants—a man and a woman—an old horse, and older jaunting car. That is how I lived at Weirdwaste.”

“Oh! what a lonely life! How long did you live there, mamma?”

“Until I was nearly fifteen years of age, when my health failed, and the surgeon from the nearest town was called to see me, and thought my case so serious that he wrote to my father, who was in Paris. My father then came to see me, took me and my governess to Brighton, and established us in elegant lodgings on the King’s Road.”

“That must have been a most delightful change. How long did you stay in Brighton, mamma? And where did you go next? Not back to Weirdwaste, I hope,” said Wynnette.

“No, not back to Weirdwaste. I have never seen the dreary place since I left it,” replied the lady, in a low voice, but with paling cheeks and troubled brow.

“Mamma, love,” said Odalite, rising, “will you come with me into the library now and help me to translate the passage in Camoëns we were talking about yesterday?”

“Yes, dear,” replied the lady, rising to follow her eldest daughter.

“Well, I’m blest if that isn’t playing it rather too low down on a fellow, Odalite—I mean it is very inconsiderate in you to carry off mamma just as she is telling about the days of her youth, for the very first time, too! Bah! bother! what a nuisance!”

But Mrs. Force and her eldest daughter had passed out of the room.

The death of Old Zillah caused quite a commotion in 294the castle and its neighborhood. Notwithstanding her age, or, perhaps, because of her great age, her death came as a surprise, not to say as a shock, to the community. She had lived so long that it almost seemed as if she must always continue to live.

“Why, it’s like as if the old tower of the ruined castle itself had fallen!” said one to another.

People came from far and near to see the remains of the centenarian, and to get her real age, and hear some facts of her life. And all the cruel old legends were raked up again, until the whole air of the place was full of fetor, fire and brimstone. The people reveled in the moral malaria.

The mortal body of the oldest retainer of the House of Enderby at length found a peaceful resting place in Enderby churchyard.

No peeress of the realm ever had a larger funeral than this pauper, at least so far as the number of followers went.

It was not until night on the day after the funeral that Wynnette slipped away from the family circle and went to the housekeeper’s room to hear the promised story.

“I will hear both sides,” she said to herself, “though I do believe Old Zillah’s version to be the true one.”

She found the good woman seated at a small worktable and engaged in knitting.

“Well, Mrs. Kelsy, how are you to-night?” inquired Wynnette, as she took the offered seat beside the dame.

“Thanky’, miss, I’m none the better for the worriment of this week,” replied the housekeeper.

“You mean the funeral?”

“The whole on’t, miss! The greatest crowd as ever was every day this week, not even honoring the Sabbath itself, but coming more on that day than any other! And the talk, and the gossip, and the raking up of old scandals, until I was soul sick of it all. And all because 295a wise woman, over a hundred years old, was found dead in her bed. Warraloo! How else and where else should she ha’ been found dead, I’d like to know!”

“But you have had a night and day of rest, and I hope you feel recovered.”

“Rest, is it, miss? Recovered, is it? Not very much of either! It is dead beat I am!”

“I am sorry to hear that. I was hoping that you would feel well to-night and be inclined to tell me the story of the pretty maiden you promised.”

“Oh, ay, well, there is not so much to tell. And now the old creature as hung on so long is gone, I don’t mind telling it so much. The girl’s soul may have rest now that her mither doesn’t harry it up.”

“Yes, I hope it will,” said Wynnette, in a conciliating tone. “You will tell me the story now?”

“Yes! and whatever other story you may hear about it will be false, for I know that you will hear other stories, if you haven’t heard ’em already. There’s plenty of ’em going around, I tell you, and no two alike. But only I have the truth, for I have it straight from my mother, who had it from her’n! So it must be true! And no other story could be!”

“But I suppose if Old Zillah were alive she also could give the real facts,” ventured Wynnette.

“She? Least of all in this world could she tell it! For not only did she fail to tell the truth, but she told a many mad fancies; for she was about as mad as a March hare! Saw visions and talked with departed spirits, prophesied future events, and all that, she did! Yes, miss. She has been that a way ever since I knowed her, and as I have heard tell, was that a way ever since she lost her daughter.”

“Tell me about her daughter.”

“I’m a-gwine to. Well, you see, it seems the feyther had been undergardener, and he died, and then the widow was given the use of a little hut in the outside of 296the old castle wall, on the lane. And there she lived and brought up her only child, Phebe. They were both employed in the poultry yard.

“Phebe grew up beautiful as an angel—so beautiful that everybody who happened to meet her stopped to look at her—so beautiful, that her beauty turned her own head, as well as her mother’s. While she was yet a child all the gentry that met her gave her half crowns, and even half guineas, for the love of her fair face. At least so ’twas said, and so ’twas handed down. And people used to make such foolish speeches about her as that she was lovely enough to turn the head of a king.

“These speeches did turn her mother’s head, and her own as well. All the young men were in love with her, but she scorned them all for a poor little imp of a stableboy, an orphan as had been her playmate all her life.”

“I did hear that it was for the sake of the young earl she flouted the others,” said Wynnette.

“Oh, yes, I dare say—that was one of the stories that went round! That was false. The young earl did come down to celebrate his coming of age, and his mother and sisters came with him, and made up their minds to stay with him, which they might do until he should marry, in which case they would have to go to Kedge Hall, an old manor house on the moors. So my lady seemed to think the longer she could keep my lord, her son, from getting a wife, the better it would be for her and her girls.

“Among the men staying at the castle was an artist. He was to paint a picture of St. Cecelia for the countess, but he wanted a model. One day my lady, out driving, happened to see Phebe, and had her up to the castle to sit to the artist. And then the mischief began. My lord fell in love with her. Fairly went out of his senses for love of this beautiful creature, who didn’t even know how to read.

“And my lady encouraged the folly and wickedness. 297Eh, my dear, gentlefolks were not particular in those days. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘was a beauty right on his own land, the child of his tenant, one of his own born slaves, bound to do his will, who might amuse his fancy and keep him from marriage for many a year.’ She never feared such a thing as my lord marrying the girl. Such folly was not to be thought, and never was thought of by either of them.”

“But,” said Wynnette, “I heard that the earl had married her.”

“Stuff and nonsense! He never dreamed of such a thing! He was the proudest man alive! And he was engaged to a duke’s daughter! But the crazy old mother and the silly young girl fancied that he even might do that for love of Phebe’s fair face. So the poor stableboy was thrown over, and the young earl was received. The boy got madly jealous, and so—months after, when the hapless girl was found dead at the bottom of the shaft in the old castle—the stableboy was arrested on suspicion of the murder.”

“I know,” said Wynnette, “and the guide to Enderby Castle says that he was tried and convicted and hanged at Carlisle. But I have heard that contradicted.”

“Yes, it is contradicted. I do not know the truth. It has been so long ago that no living person can remember it, now that Old Zillah is gone.”

“She could,” said Wynnette.

“Oh, yes! she could! But she got facts and fancies so mixed up in her poor old brain that no one would dream of trusting to her stories. If you could ever have had the chance to see her, miss, you would have seen how very mad she was.”

Wynnette did not think it necessary to explain that she had seen Old Zillah and heard her story.

To no one could the girl breathe one word of her terrible night in the old castle. Sometimes she was half inclined to believe that she had really fallen asleep on 298the window sill and dreamed it all—from the moment of horror and amazement when the spectral eyes lighted up the loopholes of the old wall, to the moment when she was awakened by the voice of her sister.

Wynnette was more bewildered than she liked to own herself to be—bewildered as to the dream, or the reality of her terrible night! Bewildered as to the relative truth or falsehood of the two conflicting stories she had heard of the beautiful peasant girl’s fate.

“What is dream and what is reality? What is fact and what is fable?” she asked herself continually.

Meanwhile there was another member of the family circle fully as much perplexed as was Wynnette, though upon another subject.

The Earl of Enderby could not reconcile all his knowledge—his lifelong knowledge of Angus Anglesea, his schoolmate at Harrow; his classmate at Oxford, his brother-in-arms in India, the brave, tender, faithful friend and comrade of many years and many lands—with this thief, forger, bigamist, described under his name by Elfrida Force and all her family.

“Elf,” he said to her one day, as the two sat tête-à-tête in the library—all the other members of the family circle having gone out for a stroll on the top of the cliffs—“Elf, my dear, I have had some trials in my time—not the least among them, my inherited malady, dooming me to an early death and barring me from marriage——”

“Oh, Francis, don’t say that! Medical science has reached such perfection, you may be restored to health; 299and you are yet not middle-aged—you may marry and be happy,” said the lady, almost in tears.

“No, Elf! No, dear! It is impossible! But it is not of my infirmities I wish to speak now. I would rather never mention them—much rather forget them, if that were possible! I only meant to say that of all the trials I have ever suffered, that of hearing such news of Anglesea as you have told me is the most painful! I cannot forget it! I think of it constantly, by day and by night.”

“I am very sorry that we had to tell you, Francis.”

“Elf! You knew Anglesea in those early days when we both came down to spend our holidays at Brighton with you.”

“Yes; I remember.”

“You knew him then. Could you have believed such villainies of him?”

“No, not then.”

“Nor could I then, nor can I now. I wish the man were in England. I would go to him and make these charges face to face, and put him on his defense. I shall never rest until I put him on his defense.”

“Do you not believe what we have told you and proved to you—that this man is a thief, a forger and a bigamist, even on his own showing?”

“I believe that you believe it, my dear. And I believe as much of it as I can believe in the absence of the accused. And when a man is accused of crime he should be present and be put upon his defense. I wish to charge Anglesea to his face with these felonies and to hear what he has to say.”

Elfrida Force looked so coldly on her brother in answer to these words that he hastened to say:

“See here, my dear. Consider how I loved and trusted that man from my youth up. He was older than myself. He was my mentor, my guide, philosopher and 300friend. I could no more have doubted his honor than I could have doubted yours.”

The lady winced.

“Think of it, my dear. Do you wonder that I am sorely perplexed at what I hear of him? Or that I wish to hear what he has to say for himself? Suppose any one—Anglesea, for instance, before I had heard a word against him, when I loved and trusted him most—had come to me and said: ‘Your sister, whom you love and honor so much, has forfeited both love and honor——’ Elfrida! Heavens! What is the matter?” suddenly exclaimed the earl, as the lady sank back pallid and fainting in her chair.

“It is——Go on,” said the sister, recovering herself with an effort. “Nothing is the matter. You were saying that if Anglesea had come to you with slanders of your sister——What would you have done?”

“I should have knocked him down and kicked him out, first of all, as a preliminary to challenging him. Be sure I should not have believed his story told behind your back. And I am certain you would not wish me to be less just to Anglesea than to you.”

“Very well. I do not believe he will ever dare to show his face in England again; but if he should, and you should meet him, make the charge that we have made and see how he will meet it. Of course he will deny all and accuse his accusers of conspiracy.”

“It is all very painful and very perplexing, but do not think otherwise than that I will stand by you and yours, Elfrida, under all circumstances.”

“I am quite sure that you will, dear Francis,” replied the lady; and their talk drifted to other topics.

“I shall miss you very much, sister, when you go abroad,” he said at length.

“But I shall not go, Francis. I shall remain with you. I have been over the continent so often that I do not care to see it again,” replied the lady.

301“What do you say, Elfrida? You will not go on this tour with your husband and children? You will stay here with your invalid brother? That is good news to me, but what will your husband say to such a plan?”

“Of course I had a talk with Mr. Force before making up my mind. We talked it over last night. He thinks just as I do—that it is best for me to stay with you.”

“He is very kind; very, very kind. But you will both give up much for the sake of a poor, sick man.”

“No, indeed. I really do not care for the continental tour, I have made it so often.”

“But there are so many changes since you made it last.”

“Yes, there is gas instead of lamplight in all the cities; railway trains instead of diligences on all the highways; and sons on the thrones of their fathers. I am content to know of these things. I do not care to see them.”

“But Mr. Force? He will miss you.”

“Dear brother, our honeymoon was passed twenty-two years ago. Young love has matured to old love, or rather to love that never can know age nor absence. It is not necessary that we should always be looking into each other’s eyes to make sure that we are happy in our union.”

“Yet I dare say you never tried it. I dare swear you were never apart from each other for twenty-four hours in your married life.”

“No; we never were.”

“That is why you talk so glibly of a separation for months. You had better not try it, Elfrida. You had better go with your husband and party, or make them stay here with you.”

“Not so, Francis. I will not leave you, now that I have come to you after so many years of separation. And, on the other hand, I will not keep the other members 302of our family party from their travel. It is necessary that young people should have the advantage of this continental tour, and it is desirable that they should have the protection of their father, as well as of their cousin. So I must stay here, and they must go. If Mr. Force or myself should grow lonesome during the season of separation he can come here to me. Neither Abel nor myself should feel the slightest hesitation in leaving our young girls in the care of their cousin, Leonidas.”

“My dear, you have some strange, new, and, I suppose, American ideas of the liberty allowable to young people.”

“To our own young people, who certainly may be trusted with liberty,” replied Elfrida Force, with a smile.

“Well, of course—of course. I am human and selfish enough to be very glad that you are to stay with me instead of going with your party.”

The brother and sister then talked of some details relating to the intended tour, until the tête-à-tête was broken into by the return of the walking party.

It was the first of July that the tourists, consisting of Abel, Leonidas, Odalite, Wynnette and Elva Force and Rosemary Hedge, set out from Enderby to London, en route for Dover and Paris.

They were to have a three months’ travel over the continent, and were to return on the first of October, unless they should receive advices from the earl to meet him and his sister at Baden-Baden, where he often went in the autumn for the benefit of his health.

And with this understanding, and with the promise of an incessant fire of letters from both sides, the friends parted.

Leonidas, it should have been explained, on account of his six years active service at sea—serving double turns, as he put it—had got a six months furlough, beginning from the first of May. He would, therefore, 303not be due at the navy department to report for orders until the first of November.

When the large party had left the castle, life at Enderby settled down to the calmest, not to say the dullest, routine.

Elfrida Force spent her time in waiting on her invalid brother, reading the old black-letter tomes in the library, and in writing letters to her absent family and reading their letters to herself. Sometimes she walked or rode abroad, but always in company with her brother.

Sometimes the Vicar of Enderby came and dined with them, and played a game of chess in the evening with the earl. Two or three times a week the village doctor looked in to see his chronic patient, and once, on his advice, a telegram to London brought down a titled court physician to see the invalid.

Beyond these no company came to Enderby, and no visits were made by the earl or his sister.

The castle was too remote and too difficult of approach for mere visits of ceremony; and the sick earl was too much of a recluse to encourage or enjoy the visits of his neighbors. So the lives of the brother and sister, in the absence of their relatives, passed in almost monastic seclusion.

And so July, August and half of September passed.

It was on the sixteenth of the last-mentioned month that the village practitioner, after a long visit and talk with his patient, sent a telegram to the London physician, who came to Enderby by the night’s express.

The result of the consultation by the sofa of the invalid patient was this—that the earl must depart for Baden-Baden as soon as possible.

Preparations were immediately made for departure.

Among other precautions, Elfrida Force did not forget Wynnette’s dear dog. She made a visit to the kennels, where Joshua had found friends among his canine as well as his human companions, and there she spoke 304with the grooms and gave them some money in advance and promised them more on her return if she should find Joshua well and hearty.

“I think if anything were to happen to the dog my daughter Wynnette would almost break her heart,” she said.

“Bless ’ee, my lady, nothing shall happen the brute but good treatment. He’s a dog as any one might grow fond on; and as for we, why, we fairly dotes on him, my lady. And so do him on we. Look, my lady! Hi! Joshway!”

The dog came bounding from some distant spot and jumped upon the groom with every demonstration of joy until he saw his mistress, when the old love and loyalty immediately asserted itself, and he sprang from the groom to the lady.

Elfrida Force caressed him to his heart’s content, and then to divert his attention she emptied a small basket of cold meat that she had brought for the purpose, and while he was busy with a well-covered beef bone she patted his head and slipped away.

On the morning of the same day the earl sent off a telegram to Mr. Force, at the Hotel d’Angleterre, St. Petersburg, merely saying: “We leave to-morrow for Baden-Baden. Write to us at the Hotel d’Amerique.”

Late in the evening he received the following answer:

“We shall join you at the Hotel d’Amerique.”

The earl handed the telegram to his sister, saying:

“I told you the bridegroom would be impatient. The bridal honeymoon was sweet, no doubt. But what was that to be compared to the honeymoon of the silver wedding, eh, Elf?”

She was about to retort by asking him what he could know about it; but remembering in time the pathos of her brother’s life, and not quite knowing what else to say, she remarked that the twenty-fifth anniversary of 305her wedding was yet three years off. And then she kissed her brother and bade him good-night.

Fraught with destiny, the Civil War brought great changes and brought with misery final happiness to the Forces, as will be related in the third and final volume of this series, under the title of “When Shadows Die.” This is published in uniform style and price with this volume.

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A series of romances containing several of the old favorites in the field of historical fiction, replete with powerful romances of love and diplomacy that excel in thrilling and absorbing interest.

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A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. A story of American Colonial Times. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

A book that appeals to Americans as a vivid picture of Revolutionary scenes. The story is a strong one, a thrilling one. It causes the true American to flush with excitement, to devour chapter after chapter, until the eyes smart, and it fairly smokes with patriotism. The love story is a singularly charming idyl.

THE TOWER OF LONDON. A Historical Romance of the Times of Lady Jane Grey and Mary Tudor. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.

This romance of the “Tower of London” depicts the Tower as palace, prison and fortress, with many historical associations. The era is the middle of the sixteenth century.

The story is divided into two parts, one dealing with Lady Jane Grey, and the other with Mary Tudor as Queen, introducing other notable characters of the era. Throughout the story holds the interest of the reader in the midst of intrigue and conspiracy, extending considerably over a half a century.

IN DEFIANCE OF THE KING. A Romance of the American Revolution. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

Mr. Hotchkiss has etched in burning words a story of Yankee bravery, and true love that thrills from beginning to end, with the spirit of the Revolution. The heart beats quickly, and we feel ourselves taking a part in the exciting scenes described. His whole story is so absorbing that you will sit up far into the night to finish it. As a love romance it is charming.

GARTHOWEN. A story of a Welsh Homestead. By Allen Raine. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

“This is a little idyl of humble life and enduring love, laid bare before us, very real and pure, which in its telling shows us some strong points of Welsh character—the pride, the hasty temper, the quick dying out of wrath.... We call this a well-written story, interesting alike through its romance and its glimpses into another life than ours. A delightful and clever picture of Welsh village life. The result is excellent.”—Detroit Free Press.

MIFANWY. The story of a Welsh Singer. By Allan Raine. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

“This is a love story, simple, tender and pretty as one would care to read. The action throughout is brisk and pleasing; the characters, it is apparent at once, are as true to life as though the author had known them all personally. Simple in all its situations, the story is worked up in that touching and quaint strain which never grows wearisome, no matter how often the lights and shadows of love are introduced. It rings true, and does not tax the imagination.”—Boston Herald.

DARNLEY. A Romance of the times of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. By G. P. R. James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davies. Price, $1.00.

In point of publication, “Darnley” is that work by Mr. James which follows “Richelieu,” and, if rumor can be credited, it was owing to the advice and insistence of our own Washington Irving that we are indebted primarily for the story, the young author questioning whether he could properly paint the difference in the characters of the two great cardinals. And it is not surprising that James should have hesitated; he had been eminently successful in giving to the world the portrait of Richelieu as a man, and by attempting a similar task with Wolsey as the theme, was much like tempting fortune. Irving insisted that “Darnley” came naturally in sequence, and this opinion being supported by Sir Walter Scott, the author set about the work.

As a historical romance “Darnley” is a book that can be taken up pleasurably again and again, for there is about it that subtle charm which those who are strangers to the works of G. P. R. James have claimed was only to be imparted by Dumas.

If there was nothing more about the work to attract especial attention, the account of the meeting of the kings on the historic “field of the cloth of gold” would entitle the story to the most favorable consideration of every reader.

There is really but little pure romance in this story, for the author has taken care to imagine love passages only between those whom history has credited with having entertained the tender passion one for another, and he succeeds in making such lovers as all the world must love.

CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE SCHOONER CENTIPEDE. By Lieut. Henry A. Wise, U. S. N. (Harry Gringo). Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

The re-publication of this story will please those lovers of sea yarns who delight in so much of the salty flavor of the ocean as can come through the medium of a printed page, for never has a story of the sea and those “who go down in ships” been written by one more familiar with the scenes depicted.

The one book of this gifted author which is best remembered, and which will be read with pleasure for many years to come, is “Captain Brand,” who, as the author states on his title page, was a “pirate of eminence in the West Indies.” As a sea story pure and simple, “Captain Brand” has never been excelled, and as a story of piratical life, told without the usual embellishments of blood and thunder, it has no equal.

NICK OF THE WOODS. A story of the Early Settlers of Kentucky. By Robert Montgomery Bird. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

This most popular novel and thrilling story of early frontier life in Kentucky was originally published in the year 1837. The novel, long out of print, had in its day a phenomenal sale, for its realistic presentation of Indian and frontier life in the early days of settlement in the South, narrated in the tale with all the art of a practiced writer. A very charming love romance runs through the story. This new and tasteful edition of “Nick of the Woods” will be certain to make many new admirers for this enchanting story from Dr. Bird’s clever and versatile pen.

GUY FAWKES. A Romance of the Gunpowder Treason. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.

The “Gunpowder Plot” was a modest attempt to blow up Parliament, the King and his Counsellors. James of Scotland, then King of England, was weak-minded and extravagant. He hit upon the efficient scheme of extorting money from the people by imposing taxes on the Catholics. In their natural resentment to this extortion, a handful of bold spirits concluded to overthrow the government. Finally the plotters were arrested, and the King put to torture Guy Fawkes and the other prisoners with royal vigor. A very intense love story runs through the entire romance.

THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

A book rather out of the ordinary is this “Spirit of the Border.” The main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian missionaries in the Ohio Valley. Incidentally the reader is given details of the frontier life of those hardy pioneers who broke the wilderness for the planting of this great nation. Chief among these, as a matter of course, is Lewis Wetzel, one of the most peculiar, and at the same time the most admirable of all the brave men who spent their lives battling with the savage foe, that others might dwell in comparative security.

Details of the establishment and destruction of the Moravian “Village of Peace” are given at some length, and with minute description. The efforts to Christianize the Indians are described as they never have been before, and the author has depicted the characters of the leaders of the several Indian tribes with great care, which of itself will be of interest to the student.

By no means least among the charms of the story are the vivid word-pictures of the thrilling adventures, and the intense paintings of the beauties of nature, as seen in the almost unbroken forests.

It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly braved every privation and danger that the westward progress of the star of empire might be the more certain and rapid. A love story, simple and tender, runs through the book.

RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. R. James. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

In 1829 Mr. James published his first romance, “Richelieu,” and was recognized at once as one of the masters of the craft.

In this book he laid the story during those later days of the great cardinal’s life, when his power was beginning to wane, but while it was yet sufficiently strong to permit now and then of volcanic outbursts which overwhelmed foes and carried friends to the topmost wave of prosperity. One of the most striking portions of the story is that of Cinq Mar’s conspiracy; the method of conducting criminal cases, and the political trickery resorted to by royal favorites; affording a better insight into the statecraft of that day than can be had even by an exhaustive study of history. It is a powerful romance of love and diplomacy, and in point of thrilling and absorbing interest has never been excelled.

ROB OF THE BOWL. A Story of the Early Days of Maryland. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. Four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

This story is an authentic exposition of the manners and customs during Lord Baltimore’s rule. The greater portion of the action takes place in St. Mary’s—the original capital of the State.

The quaint character of Rob, the loss of whose legs was supplied by a wooden bowl strapped to his thighs, his misfortunes and mother wit, far outshine those fair to look upon. Pirates and smugglers did Rob consort with for gain, and it was to him that Blanche Werden owed her life and her happiness, as the author has told us in such an enchanting manner.

As a series of pictures of early colonial life in Maryland, “Rob of the Bowl” has no equal. The story is full of splendid action, with a charming love story, and a plot that never loosens the grip of its interest to its last page.

TICONDEROGA. A Story of Early Frontier Life in the Mohawk Valley. By G. P. R. James. Cloth, 12mo. Four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

The setting of the story is decidedly more picturesque than any ever evolved by Cooper. The story is located on the frontier of New York State. The principal characters in the story include an English gentleman, his beautiful daughter, Lord Howe, and certain Indian sachems belonging to the Five Nations, and the story ends with the Battle of Ticonderoga.

The character of Captain Brooks, who voluntarily decides to sacrifice his own life in order to save the son of the Englishman, is not among the least of the attractions of this story, which holds the attention of the reader even to the last page.

Interwoven with the plot is the Indian “blood” law, which demands a life for a life, whether it be that of the murderer or one of his race. A more charming story of mingled love and adventure has never been written than “Ticonderoga.”

MARY DERWENT. A tale of the Wyoming Valley in 1778. By Mrs. Ann S. Stephens. Cloth, 12mo. Four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

The scene of this fascinating story of early frontier life is laid in the Valley of Wyoming. Aside from Mary Derwent, who is of course the heroine, the story deals with Queen Esther’s son, Giengwatah, the Butlers of notorious memory, and the adventures of the Colonists with the Indians.

Though much is made of the Massacre of Wyoming, a great portion of the tale describes the love making between Mary Derwent’s sister, Walter Butler, and one of the defenders of Forty Fort.

This historical novel stands out bright and pleasing, because of the mystery and notoriety of several of the actors, the tender love scenes, descriptions of the different localities, and the struggles of the settlers. It holds the attention of the reader even to the last page.

WINDSOR CASTLE. A Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII., Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. By Wm. Harrison Ainsworth. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by George Cruikshank. Price, $1.00.

“Windsor Castle” is the story of Henry VIII., Catharine, and Anne Boleyn. “Bluff King Hal,” although a well-loved monarch, was none too good a one in many ways. Of all his selfishness and unwarrantable acts, none was more discreditable than his divorce from Catharine, and his marriage to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. The King’s love was as brief as it was vehement. Jane Seymour, waiting maid on the Queen, attracted him, and Anne Boleyn was forced to the block to make room for her successor. This romance is one of extreme interest to all readers.

HORSESHOE ROBINSON. A tale of the Tory Ascendency in South Carolina in 1780. By John P. Kennedy. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

Among the old favorites in the field of what is known as historical fiction, there are none which appeal to a larger number of Americans than Horseshoe Robinson, and this because it is the only story which depicts with fidelity to the facts the heroic efforts of the colonists in South Carolina to defend their homes against the brutal oppression of the British under such leaders as Cornwallis and Tarleton.

The reader is charmed with the story of love which forms the thread of the tale, and then impressed with the wealth of detail concerning those times. The picture of the manifold sufferings of the people, is never overdrawn, but painted faithfully and honestly by one who spared neither time nor labor in his efforts to present in this charming love story all that price in blood and tears which the Carolinians paid as their share in the winning of the republic.

Take it all in all, “Horseshoe Robinson” is a work which should be found on every book-shelf, not only because it is a most entertaining story, but because of the wealth of valuable information concerning the colonists which it contains. That it has been brought out once more, well illustrated, is something which will give pleasure to thousands who have long desired an opportunity to read the story again, and to the many who have tried vainly in these latter days to procure a copy that they might read it for the first time.

THE PEARL OF ORR’S ISLAND. A story of the Coast of Maine. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. Price, $1.00.

Written prior to 1862, the “Pearl of Orr’s Island” is ever new; a book filled with delicate fancies, such as seemingly array themselves anew each time one reads them. One sees the “sea like an unbroken mirror all around the pine-girt, lonely shores of Orr’s Island,” and straightway comes “the heavy, hollow moan of the surf on the beach, like the wild angry howl of some savage animal.”

Who can read of the beginning of that sweet life, named Mara, which came into this world under the very shadow of the Death angel’s wings, without having an intense desire to know how the premature bud blossomed? Again and again one lingers over the descriptions of the character of that baby boy Moses, who came through the tempest, amid the angry billows, pillowed on his dead mother’s breast.

There is no more faithful portrayal of New England life than that which Mrs. Stowe gives in “The Pearl of Orr’s Island.”

THE LAST TRAIL. A story of early days in the Ohio Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. Four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

“The Last Trail” is a story of the border. The scene is laid at Fort Henry, where Col. Ebenezer Zane with his family have built up a village despite the attacks of savages and renegades. The Colonel’s brother and Wetzel, known as Deathwind by the Indians, are the bordermen who devote their lives to the welfare of the white people. A splendid love story runs through the book.

That Helen Sheppard, the heroine, should fall in love with such a brave, skilful scout as Jonathan Zane seems only reasonable after his years of association and defense of the people of the settlement from savages and renegades.

If one has a liking for stories of the trail, where the white man matches brains against savage cunning, for tales of ambush and constant striving for the mastery, “The Last Trail” will be greatly to his liking.

THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSESHOE. A traditionary tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion. By Dr. Wm. A. Caruthers. Cloth, 12mo. Four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.

Many will hail with delight the re-publication of this rare and justly famous story of early American colonial life and old-time Virginian hospitality.

Much that is charmingly interesting will be found in this tale that so faithfully depicts early American colonial life, and also here is found all the details of the founding of the Tramontane Order, around which has ever been such a delicious flavor of romance.

Early customs, much love making, plantation life, politics, intrigues, and finally that wonderful march across the mountains which resulted in the discovery and conquest of the fair Valley of Virginia. A rare book filled with a delicious flavor of romance.

BY BERWEN BANKS. A Romance of Welsh Life. By Allen Raine. Cloth, 12mo. Four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price $1.00.

It is a tender and beautiful romance of the idyllic. A charming picture of life in a Welsh seaside village. It is something of a prose-poem, true, tender and graceful.

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For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 52–58 Duane St., New York.