Albeit Mr. O’Rorke had no partiality for the Saxon, he did not dislike
his English tour. It was an occasion for much enjoyment in the present,
with a prospect of considerable expatiation over in the future. He
travelled--and it is a mode which occasionally enhances the enjoyments
of travel--at another’s expense; and he indulged in many little luxuries
not known to his daily life.
It was towards the close of a glorious day, mellow in all the richness
of autumn, that he first caught sight of the great massive towers and
battlemented walls of Dalradern Castle. The setting sun had just fallen
on the windows, and the vast frontage was illuminated with a golden
glory that relieved the stern severity of the heavy masonry, and gave
warmth and colour to its cold and stately feudalism.
“And she left this for that rock--that miserable rock in the ocean,”
cried he. “What could possess her to do it? She was no fool, that was
clear enough. It was no fool could have made herself what she was; and
what else than folly could make any one exchange that princely place for
the wild and dreary desolation of Arran? There’s more in this than one
sees on the surface,” thought O’Rorke. “It’s not in human nature
to believe that she did not enjoy the grand life such a house must
supply--the very aspect of it suggested everything that wealth could
compass, and it could not be that she did not attach herself to its
enjoyments. No; there must have been a reason, or something that she
thought was a reason, for it. Ay, and that same reason, whatever it
was, must have been the source of her great unwillingness to address Sir
Within. She left him in anger, that’s plain enough; and about what
could it be? Had she wearied him? Had her temper, or her caprice, or her
extravagance, tired out his patience? Was it that the self-indulgence of
the spoiled child had at last revolted the very spirit that had
spoiled her? or was it”--and, to O’Rorke’s thinking, this seemed
not improbable--“Sir Within had made her some proposals, not merely
offensive to her dignity, but an outrage to her ambition? If I know
you, Miss Katty,” said he, aloud, “you never lived in that grand house
without dreaming of the time you’d be the mistress of it. And what made
you give up the game? That’s what I’d like to know, and it’s what I’ll
try to find out before I leave this.”
As he drew nearer the castle, the stately grandeur of the place
impressed him still more. Never had he seen such magnificent
timber--never before had he witnessed that marvellous order and
propriety which give even to a vast park all the elegance of a garden.
The clumps of flowery shrubs, in spots that few would probably ever
visit--rare trees in out-of-the-way places--seemed to show what immense
resources existed where so much that was valuable could be squandered
uncared for.
One of the keepers, by whom he was accompanied from the gate-lodge,
discoursed to him freely as they went along, telling of the hundreds
of acres enclosed within the demesne, the extensive gardens and
pleasure-grounds, to keep which in order required quite a regiment of
labourers, “and all,” as the man added, “for an old man that sits all
day at a window, and only comes out of an evening to take the air on a
terrace. Never sees any one, nor goes anywhere; and won’t even dine with
his young relation, Mr. Ladarelle, who is down here for the shooting.”
O’Rorke skirmished cautiously, of course, to ascertain whether the man
could tell him anything of Kate, but he found that he had only lately
entered the service, and never heard of her. He had heard, however, that
Sir Within was greatly changed of late; some heavy blow, of what sort he
knew not, had befallen him, and he now neither rode out nor drove, did
not care to enter the garden, and, in fact, seemed weary of his life,
and indifferent to everything.
“There he is now, on the terrace, taking his evening walk. I mustn’t
go any farther with you; but when you pass the two large oaks yonder,
you’ll see the great entrance, ring the bell, and some one will come to
you.”
O’Rorke went on his way, but had not gone far when he was overtaken by a
servant in livery, who, bare-headed and almost breathless from running,
demanded angrily “What he was doing there?”
“I have a letter for your master that I wish to deliver at once,”
replied he, firmly.
“Give it here, and wait for your answer round there, by the stables.”
“No such thing, my smart fellow; I am to deliver my letter into your
master’s hand, and I will give it to no other.”
“You’re more likely, then, to take it back with you,” said the other,
jeeringly, and turned away.
“Tell your master that my letter comes from Ireland,” cried O’Rorke
after him, “and that it is one won’t brook delay.” But whether the
fellow heard him or not, he could not say.
In less time, however, than he believed it possible for the man to have
given his message, came a demure-looking man in black from the castle,
who beckoned him to come forward.
“Are you the bearer of a letter from Ireland?” asked he.
“Yes. It is to be given to Sir Within Wardle’s own hand.”
“Come along with me, then.”
O’Rorke was too much excited by the thought of the presence he was
about to stand in, to note more than generally the spacious hall and
the immense marble stairs that led from it. The lofty corridor, whose
windows of stained glass threw a rose-coloured glow over walls and
pavement, together with the rich perfume of flowers, made his head feel
confused and addled.
As the servant ushered him on the terrace, he whispered, “Go forward,”
and then retired. O’Rorke advanced to where Sir Within was now seated,
one arm leaning on the table beside him.
“You said you came from Ireland,” asked he, in a weak voice; “is it from
Arran?”
“It is, Sir.”
“Thank Heaven!” muttered he to himself. “Give me your letter. Go down
yonder”--and he pointed to the extreme end of the terrace--“I shall call
you when I want you.”
When O’Rorke reached the end of the terrace, he turned a cautious,
furtive look towards the old man, who still sat with the unopened letter
in his hand, and did not move. At last he broke the seal, but such
seemed the agitation of his feelings that he could scarcely read it,
for he twice laid it on the table and hid his face between his hands.
Suddenly he looked up and beckoned O’Rorke towards him, and said:
“Tell me, my good man, do you know the contents of this letter?”
“I know what it’s about, Sir.”
“Were you with her when she wrote it?”
“I was.”
“Was it of her own will--at the suggestion of her own thoughts? I mean,
did she write this willingly, and without a struggle?”
“That she didn’t! She wrote it just because that without it her old
grandfather wouldn’t have even a chance for his life! She wrote it,
crying bitterly all the time, and sobbing as if her heart was breaking.”
The old man turned away his head, but with his hand motioned to the
other to cease speaking. Either O’Rorke, however, did not understand the
gesture, or he unheeded it. He went on:
“‘I’d rather,’ says she, ‘see my right hand cut off, than see it write
these lines,’ says she.”
“There! there!” burst in Sir Within, “that will do--that is enough--say
no more of this!”
But O’Rorke, intent on finding out what had been the relations between
them, and why they had been severed, in spite of all admonition,
continued:
“‘Sure, Miss Kate,” says I, “it is not one that was once so kind and so
generous to you will see you in trouble for a trifle like this, for of
course it would be a trifle to your honour!’”
“And yet she felt it a humiliation to ask me,” said he, despondingly.
“She did, indeed! ‘For,’ says she, ‘he may refuse me.’”
“No, no; she never thought that; she knew me better than to believe it.”
“Well, indeed, Sir, it was what I thought myself, and I said in my own
mind, ‘It’s more ashamed she is than afeard.’”
“Ashamed of what?” cried Sir Within, passionately. “What has shame to do
with it?”
The subtle peasant saw through what a channel the misconception came,
and, still bent on tracing out the mysterious tie between them, said:
“After all, Sir, for a young lady, and a handsome one too, to ask a
great favour of a gentleman not belonging to her, kith or kin, is a
thing that bad tongues would make the worst of if they got hold of it.”
Sir Within’s sallow cheek flushed up, and in a broken voice he said:
“Bad tongues are only tyrants to those who cannot brave them. Miss Kate
Luttrell is not of their number. You shall soon see if these same bad
tongues have any terrors for me.”
“I’m a poor man, but I wasn’t so always,” said O’Rorke, “and I know well
that it was slander and lying crushed _me_.”
The diversion was intended to have awakened some curiosity as to his
former condition, but Sir Within was perfectly indifferent on the
subject. All the interest the messenger had in _his_ eyes came from the
fact that he came from _her_, that he had seen her, and was near her
when she wrote.
“This island--I only know it by the map,” said Sir Within, trying to
talk in an easy, unconcerned strain--“it is very poor, I believe?”
“You might say wretched, and be nearer the mark.” “Is it celebrated for
sport? Is the shooting or the fishing the great attraction?”
“There’s no shooting, nor any fishing but the deep sea fishery; and more
men are lost in that than there are fortunes made of it.”
“And what could have induced Mr. Luttrell to take up his abode in such a
spot?”
“The same thing that sends men off to America, and Australia, and New
Zealand; the same thing that makes a man eat black bread when he can’t
get white; the same thing that---But what’s the use of telling you about
the symptoms, when you never so much as heard of the disease?”
“Miss Luttrell’s life must be a very lonely one,” said Sir “Within, with
every effort to talk in a tone of unconcern.
“‘Tis the wonder of wonders how she bears it. I asked the woman that
lives with them how she passed her time and what she did, and she said,
‘She takes up everything for a week or ten days, and goes at it as if
her life depended on it.’ One time it was gathering plants, and sprigs
of heath, and moss, and the like--even seaweed she’d bring home--going
after them up crags and cliffs that a goat couldn’t climb. Then she’d
give up that and take to gardening, and work all day long; then it was
making fishing-nets; then it was keeping a school, and teaching the
fishermen’s children; she even tried to teach them to sing, till a
sudden thought struck her that they ought to have a lifeboat on the
island, and she sat to writing to all the people that she could think of
to send a plan of one, meaning, I suppose”--here he grinned--“to make it
herself afterwards.”
[Illustration: 417]
Sir Within listened eagerly to’ all this, and then asked:
“And her uncle--does he aid her in these projects?”
“He! It’s little he troubles himself about her! Why, it’s often three
days that they don’t even meet! They never take their meals together.
It’s a wonder of kindness from him the day that he’ll tap the window of
her room with his knuckles and say ‘Good morning,’ and when she’d get up
to open the window to answer him, he’d be gone!”
“How desolate---how dreary!” muttered the old man. “Does this wearisome
life prey upon her? Is she altered in appearance--thinner or paler?”
“I’ll tell you how she looks, and there’s not a man in Ireland
understands a woman’s face better than him before you, and here’s what
it means in three words. It means scorn for a world that could let the
like of her wither and waste on that lonely rock, for it’s not alone
beauty she has, but she has grace and elegance, and a way of charming
about her that’s more than beauty, and there’s a something in her
voice--what it is I don’t know, but it goes on thrilling into you after
she has done speaking, till you just feel that a spell was working in
you, and making you a slave.”
“And _you_ have felt this?” said the old man, as though involuntarily
demanding an avowal that would have set the seal of confirmation on her
magic.
And the cunning Celt felt all the force of the sarcasm, while it did not
suit his purpose to confess it. And yet it needed great self-control to
suppress his rising anger, and keep him from declaring that in a matter
of sentiment, or on a question of female captivation, he, Tim O’Rorke,
Patriot, Martyr, and Paddy as he was, yielded to no man.
“Would you kindly ring that bell beside you, Mr.--Mr.----”
“O’Rorke, Sir.”
“Mr. O’Rorke, I am diffident about my pronunciation of Irish
names,” added the old diplomatist, cautiously veiling the sin of his
forgetfulness. A servant speedily appeared, and Sir Within ordered him
to take every care for “this gentleman’s accommodation.” “I shall be
able to prepare my reply to this letter to-night, Mr. O’Rorke, and
you will be free to leave this at any hour that may suit you in the
morning.”
O’Rorke retired from the presence, well satisfied with himself, and with
the way he had acquitted himself.
“Would you like to have the papers, Sir, or would you prefer seeing the
gallery, while supper is getting ready?” asked the obsequious servant.
“I’ll take a look at your pictures. I have a few myself,” said Mr.
O’Rorke; which was perfectly true, though they were not in the first
taste as objects of art, being certain coloured prints of Hempenstall,
the walking gallows, the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and a few
similar subjects from the year ‘98, in which, certes, the countenances
bestowed on the Royalists essentially distinguished them in the most
crowded mêlées from all honest patriots.
Leaving Mr. O’Rorke, then, to examine at his leisure Sir Within’s
varied treasures, we make no excuse to our reader for not recording the
criticism he passed upon them.