THE CLEAVE.
Throughout the day Willsworthy was full of visitors. Never before had it
been so frequented. The act of Anthony Cleverdon had been bruited
through the neighbourhood, and aroused general indignation against the
young man and sympathy for the widow.
Mistress Malvine was sufficiently recovered in the afternoon to receive
some of those who arrived in her bedroom, and Mr. Solomon Gibbs
entertained the rest in the hall. Those who had known the Malvines
well--these were not many--and those who knew them distantly, persons of
the gentle class, of the yeoman and farmer ranks, all thought it
incumbent on them to come, express their opinions, and inquire after the
widow. Not only did these arrive, but also many cottagers appeared at
the kitchen door, full of sympathy--or at all events, of talk. It really
seemed as if Willsworthy, which had dropped out of every one's mind, had
suddenly claimed supreme regard.
It was a source of real gratification to the sick woman to assume a
position of so much consequence. It is always a satisfaction to hear
other persons pour out the vials of wrath and hold up hands in
condemnation of those who have given one offence, and Madame Malvine was
not merely flattered by becoming the centre of interest to the
neighbourhood, but was influenced by the opinions expressed in her ear,
and her indignation against Anthony was deepened.
Wherever in the house Urith went, she heard judgment pronounced on him
in no measured terms, the general voice condemned him as heartless and
profane. Question was made what proceeding would be taken against him,
and abundance of advice was offered as to the course to be pursued to
obtain redress. Urith was unable to endure the talk of the women in her
mother's room, and she descended to the hall, there to hear her Uncle
Solomon, amongst farmers and yeomen, tell the story of Anthony's deed
with much exaggeration, and to hear the frank expressions of
disapproval it elicited.
Then she went into the kitchen, where the poorer neighbours were
congregated. Everywhere it was the same. Condemnation fell on Anthony.
No one believed that he had not acted in wilful knowledge of what he was
about.
Urith could not fail to observe that there was a widespread latent
jealousy and dislike of the Cleverdons in the neighbourhood, occasioned
partly, no doubt, by the success of the old man in altering his position
and entering a superior class, but chiefly due to his arrogance,
hardness, and meanness. All the faults in Anthony's character were
commented on, and his good qualities denied or disparaged.
Urith could with difficulty restrain herself from contradicting these
harsh judges, and in taking on her the defence of the culprit, but she
saw clearly that her advocacy would be unavailing, and provoke comment.
She therefore left the house. Her mother was so much recovered as not to
need her. Whether the old lady acted wisely in receiving so much company
after her fit, Urith doubted, but her mother had insisted on the
visitors being admitted to her room, and under the excitement she
rallied greatly.
To be away from the clatter of tongues, she left the farm and went forth
upon the moor.
To the north of Willsworthy rises a ridge of bold and serrated rocks
that rise precipitously above the River Tavy, which foams below at a
depth of three hundred feet; they present the appearance of a series of
ruined towers, and are actually in places united by the remains of
ancient walls of rude moorstone, for what purpose piled up, it is not
possible to say.
A bar of red porphyritic granite crosses the ravine, and over this leaps
the river into a deep pool, immediately beneath the boldest towers and
pinnacles of rock that overhang. Among these crags, perched like an
eagle above the dizzy abyss, sat Urith on a rock, listening to the roar
of the river wafted up to her from beneath. Away to the north and east
of the moor extended shoulder on shoulder, to the lonely peak of Fur Tor
that rises in uttermost solitude near the sources of the Tavy, amidst
all but untraversable morasses. She was glad to be there, alone, away
from the lips that spit their venom on the name of Anthony.
The human heart is full of strange caprices, and is wayward as a spoiled
child. The very fact that the whole country side was combined to condemn
Anthony made Urith in heart exculpate him--that every mouth blamed him
made her excuse him. It was true that he had acted with audacious folly,
but there was merit in that audacity. What other youth would have
ventured into the churchyard on such a night? The audacity so qualified
the folly as almost to obliterate it. He had been challenged to the
venture. Would it have been manly had he declined the challenge? Did not
the blame attach to such as had dared him to the reckless deed? She
repeated to herself the words that had been spoken in her mother's house
about him, so extravagant in expression, exaggerated in judgment as to
transcend justice, and her heart revolted against the extravagance and
forgave him. If all the world stood up in condemnation, yet would not
she. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled. She recalled his chivalry
towards her on the moor; she heard again his voice; recollected how he
had held her in his arms; she felt again the throb of his heart, heard
his breathing as he strode with her through the flames, as he wrestled
with her for the mastery; and she laughed aloud, she rejoiced that he
had conquered. Had she overmastered him, and her will had been submitted
to by him, she would have despised him. Because he was so strong in his
resolution, so determined in carrying it out, she liked and respected
him.
There flashed before her something like lightning--it was his eyes,
lifted to hers, with that strange look that sent a thrill through all
her veins and tingled in her extremities. That look of his had revealed
to her something to which she dare not give a name, a something which
gave him a right to demand of her that morning testimony to his
integrity of purpose, a something that constrained her, without a
thought of resistance, to give him what he asked, first her hand in
witness that she believed him, then the bunch of flowers in token that
she accepted him as her knight. As her knight?
Her heart bounded with pride and exultation at the thought! He her
knight! He, the noblest youth in all the region round, a very Saul,
taller by the head and shoulders than any other, incomparably handsome,
more manly, open, generous, brave--brave! who feared neither man nor
midnight spectre.
Yet--when Julian Crymes had charged her with attempting to rob her of
her lover, she, Urith, had repelled the charge, and had declared that
she did not value, did not want him. Nor had she then; but the very
violence, the defiance of Julian, had forced her to think of him--to
think of him in the light of a lover. The opposition of Julian had been
the steel stroke on her flinty heart that had brought out the spark of
fire. If anything had been required to fan this spark into flame, that
had been supplied by the chattering, censorious swarm of visitors that
afternoon.
And Anthony? How stood he?
At that moment he was weighed down with a sense of depression and
loneliness such as he had never felt previously. He had been accustomed
to be flattered and made a great deal of. His father, his sister, his
cousin, the servants, Fox Crymes, every one had shown him deference, had
let him see that he was esteemed a man born to fortune and success; he
had been good at athletic exercises, good in sport, a good horseman,
taller, stronger than his compeers, and heir to a wealthy gentleman. But
all at once luck had turned against him; he had committed blunders and
had injured those with whom he had come in contact; possibly blinded
Fox, had offended the Malvine family, thrown the old dame into a fit,
had quarrelled with his father, brought down on his head the reproach
and ridicule of all who knew him. Then came the encounter with his
grandmother, and the discovery of the wrong done to his mother and to
the father of Urith by his own father. Bold, self-opinionated as Anthony
was, yet this sudden shock had humbled him and staggered him: he had
fallen from a pinnacle and was giddy. A sort of irrational, blind
instinct within him drove him back in the direction of Willsworthy. He
felt that he could not rest unless he saw Urith again, and--so he
explained his feeling--told her more fully the circumstances of the
previous night's adventure, and heard from her own lips that her mother
was not seriously injured in health by the distress he had caused her,
and that she, Urith, forgave him.
His imagination worked. He had not been explicit enough when he came to
Willsworthy. The fainting fit of the mother had interrupted his
explanation. Afterwards he had forgotten to say what he had intended to
say, and what ought to have been said. When he was gone, Urith would
consider it strange that he had been so curt and reserved, she would
hear her Uncle Solomon's stories, tinged with rum punch past recognition
of where truth shaded into fiction.
Moreover, he felt a craving for Urith's sympathy; he wanted to acquaint
her with what he had done to Fox Crymes before the story reached her
embellished and enlarged. To his discredit it would be told, and might
prejudice her against him. He must forestall gossip and tell her the
truth himself.
So he rode in the direction of Willsworthy, but when he came near the
place, an unusual diffidence stole over him--he did not dare to venture
up to the house, and he hung about the vicinity in the road, then he
went out on the moor, and it was when on the down that he thought he
caught sight of her at some distance in the direction of the Cleave.
A labourer came by. "Who is that yonder?" he asked.
"I reckon any fool knows," answered the clown. "That be our young lady,
Mistress Urith."
"Take my horse, fellow," said Anthony, and dismounted.
He went over the moor in pursuit of the girl, and found her seated on
the rock with a foot swinging over the precipice. She was so startled
when he spoke to her as almost to lose her balance. He caught her hand,
and she rose to her feet.
They stood on a ledge. Two towers of rock rose with a cleft between them
like a window. The shelves of the granite were matted with whortleberry
leaves, now all ranges of colour from green, through yellow to carmine,
and with grey moss. A vein of porphyry penetrating the granite striped
it with red, and Nature had tried her delicate pencil on the stone,
staining or stippling it with her wondrously soft-toned lichenous
paints. Below, at the depth of five hundred feet, the river roared over
its red porphyry barrier, throwing into the air foam bubbles that were
caught by the wind and carried up, and danced about, and sported with
as are feathers by a wanton child. The great side of Stannon Down
opposite, rising to sixteen hundred feet, was covered by flying shadows
of forget-me-not blue and pale sulphurous gleams of sun. As the light
glided over it, it picked out the strange clusters of old circular huts
and enclosures, some with their doors and lintels unthrown down, that
were inhabited by an unknown race before history began.
Anthony put his arm round Urith. "We stand," said he, "on the edge of a
chasm; a step, a start, and one or other--perhaps both--fall into the
abyss to sheer destruction. Let me hold you; I would not let you go--if
you went, it would not be alone."
Urith did not answer; a trembling fit came on her. She stood, she felt,
at the brink of another precipice than that before her eyes.
"I could not keep away," said Anthony. "I have got into trouble with
every one, and I was afraid that you also would be set against me; so,
after I had been to see about your father's grave, that all was right
there--and Bessie had laid a garland of flowers on it--then I came back
here. I thought I must see you and explain what I forgot to say this
morning."
"You need say no more about that matter," answered Urith. "I told you at
the time that I believed your word. You said you intended no ill. I am
sure of that, quite sure. I know it is not in you to hurt."
"And yet I have hurt you and your mother, and also Fox Crymes." Then he
told her how he had struck him, and that he was afraid he had seriously
injured his eye.
"And you have brought back the gloves!" exclaimed Urith.
"Yes; here they are."
"You have not fulfilled my commission?"
"I will do it if you wish it; I have not done it yet. I was going to
give Fox the gloves; I did not desire to see Julian. You must understand
that my father has been speaking to me to-day about Julian--it seems he
has set his mind on making a pair of us. I do not know what Julian
thinks, but I know my own mind, that this is not my taste. After he had
spoken to me about her, I could not go on direct to her house and see
her. My father would think that I gave in to him, and--I should have
been uneasy myself."
Urith said nothing, she was looking down at the tossing, thundering
torrent far below.
"I never cared much for Julian," continued Anthony, "and after yesterday
I like her less."
"Why so?" Urith looked up and met his eyes.
"Why so? Because I have seen you. If I have to go through life with any
one, I will take you in the saddle behind me--no one else."
Urith trembled more than before; a convulsive, irrepressible emotion had
come over her. Sometimes it happens when the heavens are opened with a
sudden flare of near and dazzling lightning, that those who have looked
up have been struck with blindness. So was it now; Urith had seen a
heaven of happiness, a glory of love--a new and wondrous world open
before her, such as she had never dreamed of, of which no foretaste had
ever been accorded her, and it left her speechless, with a cloud before
her eyes, and giddy, so that she held out her hands gropingly to catch
the rock; it was unnecessary, the strong arm of Anthony held her from
falling.
The young man paused for an answer.
"Well!" said he. "Have you no word?"
None; she moved her lips, she could not speak.
"Come," said he, after another pause, "they who ride pillion ride
thus--the man has his leather belt, and to that the woman holds. Urith,
if we are to ride together on life's road, lay hold of my belt."
She held out her hands, still gropingly.
"Stay!" she said, suddenly recovering herself with a start. "You forgot;
you do not know me. Look at my hands, they are still torn; I did that in
one of my fits of rage. Do you not fear to take me when I go, when
crossed, into such mad passion as these hands show?"
Anthony laughed. "I fear! I!"
Then she put her right hand to lay hold of his girdle, but caught and
drew out the gloves.
"I have these again!" she exclaimed. "Even these gloves cast at me in
defiance. Well, it matters not now. I refused to take them up, yet I
could not shake them off; now I take them and keep them. I accept the
challenge." She grasped him firmly by the girdle, and with the other
hand thrust the gloves into her bosom.
"I do not understand you," said Anthony.
"There is no need that you should."
Then he caught her up in his arms, with a shout of exultation, and held
her for a moment hanging over the awful gulf beneath.
She looked him steadily in the eyes. She doubted neither his strength to
hold her, nor his love.
Then he drew her to him and kissed her.
It is said that the sun dances on Easter day in the morning. It was noon
now, but the sun danced over Urith and Anthony.
"And now," said the latter, "about your mother. Will she give her
consent?"
"And your father?" asked Urith.
"Oh, my father!" repeated Anthony, scornfully, "whatsoever I will, that
he is content with. As to your mother----"
"I know what I will do," said Urith; "Luke has great influence with her.
I will tell him all, and get him to ask her to agree and bless us. Luke
will do anything I ask of him."