The Services--Nash Routs Rawdon--The Dinner Talk--The Pedestrians
with the Ladies--Singing out of One Hymn-book--Grinstuns Again--The
Female Vagrant and the Idiot Boy--Little Marjorie--Nash's
Thoughts--The Captain and the Plot--Arrival of Rufus and Ben--To
Arms!
Mr. Errol's sermon was on the text, "Lord, I knew thee, that thou art an
hard man." He elaborated the unfaithful servant's harsh opinion of God,
and, before he sat down, completely exonerated the Father in Heaven from
the blasphemous judgment of those who call themselves His children.
There is a thief in the world who comes to steal and kill and destroy;
he is not God, but the enemy of God's children. The dominie's heart
warmed to the man who, though of a different communion, fulfilled St.
Paul's ideal of a clergyman, in that he arrogated no dominion over the
people's faith, but was a helper of their joy. The sermon lifted the
schoolmaster up, and brought God very near; and the hearty hymns and
reverent prayers helped him greatly. When the service was over, he
waited, and soon Carruthers presented his comely, matronly wife, while
Mrs. Carmichael recalled herself to his remembrance; and, finally, the
minister, having divested himself of gown and bands in the vestry, came
down the aisle with cheery step and voice to bid him welcome to
Flanders. Wilkinson was happy--happier than he had been for many a long
year. He seemed to have so many friends, and they were all so cordial,
so glad to see him--not a hard man or woman among them; and, therefore,
God could not be hard. He walked with the minister, who was going to
dine at Bridesdale and then ride five miles to preach at another
station. He thanked him for his sermon, and talked over it with him,
and, of course, quoted "The Excursion":--
If the heart
Could be inspected to its inmost folds,
By sight undazzled with the glare of praise,
Who shall be named--in the resplendent line
Of sages, martyrs, confessors--the man
Whom the best might of conscience, truth and hope,
For one day's little compass, has preserved
From painful and discreditable shocks
Of contradiction from some vague desire
Culpably cherished, or corrupt relapse
To some unsanctioned fear.
"That's just all the trouble, Mr. Wilkinson," said the delighted
minister. "People think to honour and glorify God by being afraid of
Him, forgetting that perfect love casts out the fear that hath torment,
and he that feareth is not made perfect in love."
With such conversation they beguiled the way till they stood at the gate
of Bridesdale, and entered the hospitable mansion, there to be received
by the odious Grinstun man.
"What in aa' the warld, Marjorie, did Susan mean, sending us yon
godless, low-lived chairact o' a Rawdon?" asked the Squire of his
sister, Mrs. Carmichael.
"I cannot understand it, John," she answered; "for her own Marjorie
fairly detests the little man. Perhaps it is some business affair with
the Captain."
"Aweel, aweel, we maun keep the peace, sin' I'm a judge o't; but I do
not like thee, Dr. Fell."
Then they all entered the house together. Wilkinson found the spurious
Miss Du Plessis gone.
The dominie saw that the working geologist was boring Mrs. Carmichael,
after her return to the drawing-room from laying aside her walking
attire, and valorously interposed to save her. He enquired for her
niece, Marjorie, and learned that that young lady had annexed Coristine
as her lawful prey, and, introducing him to her grown-up cousin, had
arranged the triangular journey to Mr. Perrowne's church. The service
there was longer than in the kirk, so that half an hour would probably
elapse before the two Anglican perverts appeared with their captive, the
lawyer. Before the absentees made their appearance, a man--dressed in
Mr. Nash's clothes, but with the beard and moustache recognized by Ben
Toner as those of the bailiff--was ushered in and greeted by the Squire
as Mr. Chisholm. The rest of the company seemed to know the transformed
detective, including the Grinstun man, whom he rallied on his attentions
to a young lady.
"You're a nice man, Rawdon, when every decent person has gone to church,
gallivanting with young ladies. I saw you at the Talfourds."
"Don't care a 'ang if you did," replied Rawdon, "if Miss Do Pleas us
takes a shine to a warm man, and gives you 'and-to-mouth beggars the
go-by, that honly shows 'er common sense."
"What has Miss Du Plessis got to do with it?"
"She's got this to do with it, that she's promised to be my missus
before the week's hout."
"When?"
"Wy, this mornin'; 'ere in this blessed room."
"Oh, come, Rawdon, you are joking. Miss Du Plessis hasn't been out of
Mrs. Talfourd's to-day."
"Don't you try none of your larks hon me, Mr. Chisholm. You can't take a
rise hout of this kid, hinnercent has he looks."
"But, I tell you she has not. Who do you think that girl was you brought
home Talfourd's place?"
"Wy, Miss Do Please us, of course; 'oo else could it be?"
Mr. Chisholm laughed loud and long, and at last ejaculated: "Miss Du
Plessis! Oh, but you're a green hand, Rawdon, to take Martha Baggs for
her; the daughter of old Baggs, in the revenue service. Hope you didn't
give your friends away, Rawdon?"
"You think you're pretty clever, Mr. Chisholm, comin' hover me with your
Marther Baggses. Hold Hirish knows Miss Do Please-us, I should say, and
wouldn't go takin' no Marther Baggs for 'er."
"Mr. Rawdon," interposed the Squire, "I'll thank you to speak more
respectfully of my father-in-law; as good a man, I judge, as yourself."
"No hoffence, Squire; but I wish you'd hask the hold gent to come 'ere
and shut up this 'ere bailiff's mouth with 'is Marther Baggs."
Mr. Terry, who preferred the society of the kitchen to that of the
parlour, was produced, and, on being asked if the lady with Mr. Rawdon
was Miss Du Plessis, answered that his "sight was gettin' bad, an' the
sinse av hairin' too, an' if it wor Miss Jewplesshy, she had changed her
vice intoirely, an' got to be cruel rough an' common in her ways. Av
coorse, it moight have been the young misthress; but Talfer's was nigh
to han', an' it was aisy axin'."
A horrible suspicion came over the Grinstun man, and paled his rubicund
visage. He darted up to his room, and speedily re-appeared with knapsack
on back and staff in hand, ready for the road. Mr. Carruthers pressed
him to stay at least for dinner, but he was resolved to solve the
mystery by a visit to the Talfourds, and said that, if Mr. Chisholm was
right, he would not be back for a while. His retreating figure was
watched with positive pleasure by most of the company, and with still
greater satisfaction by the small party returning from the Anglican
service.
"What garred ye fricht Rawdon awa, Mr. Chisholm?" asked the Squire.
"I wanted to eat my dinner comfortably," replied the detective, putting
beard and moustache in his pocket, when all the company, except the
dominie who knew, cried out, "it's Mr. Nash."
"To think of you deceiving me," exclaimed Mr. Carruthers, "and me a
justice of the peace. I've a thocht to bring you up for conspiracy."
"There can be no conspiracy without at least two persons," answered the
detective.
"But, man, you are two persons, that I've known off and on as Chisholm
and Nash."
"When he was one of my masters," put in the dominie, "his name was
Dowling."
"And this morning," remarked the man of aliases, with a smile, "I was
Miss Du Plessis or Martha Baggs, so Rawdon will have hard work to find
the lady of his affections."
At this juncture Coristine and his fair companions entered, and, while
the young Marjorie renewed her acquaintance, Wilkinson was gravely
introduced to one of his own teachers, to the no little amusement of the
lady herself, of the lawyer, and of the company generally who were in
the secret. Miss Carmichael explained that Mr. Perrowne had declined to
come to dinner, but would look in later in the day when Cecile came
home; whereat many smiled, and the dominie frowned heavily. Mrs.
Carruthers now announced dinner, when the Squire took in his sister,
Wilkinson, her daughter, Coristine, Marjorie, and Mr. Errol, the
hostess. All the pairs agreed in congratulating themselves on the
absence of the Grinstun man, and looked with approbation on Mr. Nash,
who, all alone but cheerful, brought up the rear. There was no room at
the table for the five youthful Carruthers, who rejoiced in the fact and
held high carnival in the kitchen with Tryphena and Tryphosa and their
maternal grandfather. Mr. Errol had said grace, and dinner was in
progress, when the hall door was heard to open, and, immediately, on
went the detective's facial disguise. But the lightness of the step that
followed it reassured him, so that his smooth features once more
appeared. Shortly afterwards Miss Du Plessis entered, apologizing for
her lateness, and taking the vacant chair between the host and the
dominie.
"I was really frightened," she said to the former, "by a dreadful little
man, with an Indian hat and a knapsack, who stopped and asked me if I
was Miss Do Please-us. When I told him that my name was Du Plessis, he
became much agitated, and cried 'Then I'm done, sold again and the money
paid,' after which he used such very bad language that I actually ran
away from him. I looked round, however, and saw him hurrying away
towards the Talfourds'." Wilkinson looked very fierce and warlike, and
attacked his food as if it were the obnoxious Rawdon.
"Cecile," said Miss Carmichael across the indignant dominie, "I told a
fib about you this morning, but quite innocently. I said you would not
be home to dinner."
"Neither I would, were it not that Mrs. Talfourd's sister came in after
church, and offered to stay with her the rest of the day. Whom did you
tell?"
"Your devoted friend, Mr. Perrowne."
Miss Du Plessis blushed a little, and the schoolmaster cut the clergyman
up several times and stuck his fork into him savagely. Then he commenced
a conversation with the Squire, into which the lady between them was
almost necessarily drawn. Mr. Nash edified Mrs. Carmichael; her
daughter conversed with the minister, to the latter's delight; while
Coristine divided his attentions between the hostess and Marjorie.
"What was Mr. Perrowne preaching on, Marjorie?" asked Mrs. Carruthers.
"Pillows on the ground," replied that young person.
Her cousin laughed, and came to the rescue, saying: "It was the Church,
the pillar and ground of the truth; Marjorie seems to associate all
English Church services with bedtime."
"There wasn't much bedtime about the service this morning," interposed
the lawyer; "the parson rattled along in grand style, and gave Miss
Carmichael, and all other broken reeds of dissenters, some piping hot
Durham mustard. Did it sting, Miss Carmichael?"
"Is that the effect mustard has on broken reeds, Mr. Coristine?"
"It is rather a mixing of metaphors, but you must make allowance for an
Irishman."
Mrs. Carruthers at once conversed with her countryman, or rather her
father's countryman, on Ireland, its woes and prospects, during which
Marjorie informed Mr. Errol that she had not known what made her
cousin's cheeks so red when looking on Eugene's prayer-book. Now she
knew; it was Durham mustard that stings. There must have been some in
the book. The victim of these remarks looked severely at the culprit,
but all in vain; she was not to be suppressed with a frown. She remarked
that Saul had a hymn-book that made you sneeze, and she asked him why,
and he said it was the snuff.
"What did Eugene put mustard in his prayer-book for?"
"Mr. Coristine didna say he put mustard in his bookie, Marjorie," said
the minister; "he said that Mr. Perrowne put mustard in his sermon,
because it was so fiery."
"I don't like mustard sermons; I like stories."
"Aye, we all like them, when they're good stories and well told, but
it's no easy work getting good stories. That was the way our Saviour
taught the people, and you couldna get a higher example."
"Why have we hardly any of that kind of teaching now?" asked Miss
Carmichael.
"Because the preachers are afraid for one thing, and lazy, for another.
They're afraid of the most ignorant folk in their congregation, who will
be sure to charge them with childishness and a contempt for the
intellect of their people. Then, it takes very wide and varied reading
to discover suitable stories that will point a Scripture moral."
"You seem to be on gude solid releegious groond doon there, meenister,"
interrupted the master of the house; "but Miss Du Plessis and Mrs.
Carmichael here are just corruptin' the minds o' Maister Wilkinson and
Maister Nash wi' the maist un-Sawbath like havers I ever hard at an
elder's table. We had better rise, gudewife!"
Shortly after the company returned to the parlour, Mr. Errol signified
that he must take his departure for the Lake Settlement, where his
second congregation was. At this Mr. Nash pricked up his ears, and said
he would saddle his horse and ride over with him. "Na, na!" cried the
Squire, "he'll no ride the day; I'll just get the waggon oot, and drive
ye baith there and back." Orders were given through Tryphosa, a comely,
red-cheeked damsel, who appeared in a few minutes to say that Timotheus
was at the gate. All went out to see the trio off, and there, sure
enough, was Timotheus of Peskiwanchow holding the restive horses. It
transpired that Carruthers, having lost his house servant through the
latter's misconduct, had commissioned his sister to find him a
substitute, and Marjorie's interest in Timotheus had resulted in his
being chosen to fill the vacant situation. He grinned his pleased
recognition of the two pedestrians, who bravely withstood all the
temptations to get into the waggon and visit the Lake Settlement. When
the waggon departed, Mrs. Carruthers went to her children, taking
Marjorie with her, and Mrs. Carmichael went upstairs for a read of a
religious paper and a nap. The young ladies and the tourists were the
sole occupants of the sitting-room. The lawyer went over to Miss Du
Plessis, and left his friend perforce to talk to Miss Carmichael.
"I hear, Miss Du Plessis, that you own a farm and valuable mineral
land," said Coristine.
"Did Messrs. Tylor, Woodruff and White give you that information?" she
asked in return.
"No, indeed; do you know my firm?"
"Very well, seeing I have been two years in Mr. Tylor's office."
"Two years in Tylor's office, and me not know it?"
"You do not seem to take much interest in feminine stenographers and
typewriters."
"No, I don't, that's a fact; but if I had known that it was you who were
one, it would have been a different thing."
"Now, Mr. Coristine, please make no compliments of doubtful sincerity."
"I never was more sincere in my life. But you haven't answered me about
the land."
"Well, I will answer you; I have no farm or valuable minerals, but my
father left me two hundred acres of water and wild land near what's
called the Lake Settlement, which he bought when Honoria married Mr.
Carruthers and took up her residence here."
"Do you know if the taxes are paid on your land?"
"No, I was not aware that wild land and water could be taxed."
"Taxed is it? You don't know these municipalities. If you had a little
island in your name, no bigger than this room, they'd tax you for it,
and make you pay school rate, and do statute labour beside, though there
wasn't a school or a road within ten miles of it. For downright jewing
and most unjustifiable extortion on non-residents, commend me to a
township council. You'll be sold out by the sheriff of the county, sure
as eggs, and the Grinstun man'll buy your property for the arrears of
taxes."
"Whatever shall I do, Mr. Coristine?" asked the alarmed young lady; "I
do not wish to lose my father's gift through negligence."
"You should have taken advice from the junior member of Tylor, Woodruff
and White," replied the lawyer, with a peculiar smile; "but the Grinstun
man has bagged your estate."
"Oh, do not say that, Mr Coristine. Tell me, what shall I do? And who is
the man you mean?"
"The man I mean is the one that met you when you came here to dinner. He
is going to quarry in your farm for grindstones, and make his fortune.
But, as he wants yourself into the bargain, I imagine he can't get the
land without you, so that somebody must have paid the taxes."
"Then it is the little wretch Marjorie told me of, the cruel creature
who kicked a poor dog?"
"The very same; he is the Grinstun man. I've got a poem on him I'll read
you some day."
"That will be delightful; I am very fond of good poetry."
"Wilks says it isn't good poetry; but any man that grovels over
Wordsworth, with a tear in the old man's eye, is a poor judge."
"I admire Wordsworth, Mr. Coristine, and am afraid that you are not in
earnest about poetry. To me it is like life, a very serious thing. But,
tell me, do you think the land is safe?"
"Oh yes; I wrote to one of the salaried juniors, giving him instructions
to look after it, just as soon as I heard what Grinstuns had his eye
on."
"Mr. Coristine! How shall I ever thank you for your kindness, you, of
all men, who profess to treat us workers for our living as positive
nonentities?"
"By forgetting the past, Miss Du Plessis, and allowing me the honour of
your acquaintance in future. By the-bye, as you admire Wordsworth, and
good poetry, and airnest, serious men, I'll just go and send Wilks to
you. I have a word for Miss Carmichael. Is she constructed on the same
poetic principles as yourself?"
"Go away then, _farceur_! No; Marjorie is inclined to frivolity."
With a wave of her fan, she dismissed the lawyer, who began to think
lady stenographers and typewriters a class worthy of platonic attention.
"Short hand!" he muttered to himself; "hers is rather a long one and
pretty, and she is a favourable type of her kind, but I'm afraid a pun
would make her faint, when Wilks would certainly call me out and shoot
me dead with his revolver."
"Wilks, my boy," said Coristine aloud, when he reached the stiff chair
in which the dominie sat erect, facing Miss Carmichael on a lounge at
safe distance; "Miss Du Plessis would like to hear you discuss
Wordsworth and other Sunday poets. She doesn't seem to care about
hearing my composition on the Grinstun man."
The dominie eagerly but properly arose, answering: "Miss Du Plessis does
too much honour to my humble poetic judgment, and, in regard to your
doggrel, shows her rare good sense." He then walked across the room to
the object of his laudation, and, taking Coristine's vacated chair,
remarked that few poets preach a sermon so simply and beautifully as the
author of "The Excursion." Would Miss Du Plessis allow him to bring down
his pocket volume of the Rydal bard? Miss Du Plessis would be charmed;
so the schoolmaster withdrew, and soon reappeared with the book all
unconsciously open at "She was a phantom of delight." With guilty eyes,
he closed it, and, turning over the pages, stopped at the fifth book of
"The Excursion," announcing its subject, "The Pastor." It was now the
lady's turn to be uncomfortable, with the suggestion of Mr. Perrowne.
The lawyer, whose back had been turned to the poetic pair, looked
unutterable things at Miss Carmichael, who, not knowing to what extreme
of the ludicrous her companion might lead her, suggested a visit to the
garden, if Mr. Coristine did not think it too warm. "It's the very thing
for me," answered the lawyer, as they arose together and proceeded to
the French windows opening upon the verandah; "it's like 'Come into the
garden, Maud.'" They were outside by this time, and Miss Carmichael,
lifting a warning finger, said: "Mr. Coristine, I am a school teacher,
and am going to take you in hand as a naughty boy; you know that is not
for Sunday, don't you now?"
"If it was only another name that begins with the same letter," replied
the incorrigible Irishman, "I'd say the line would be good for any day
of the week in fine weather; but I'm more than willing to go to school
again."
"Sometimes," said the schoolteacher quietly, "sometimes the word
'garden' makes me sad. Papa had a great deal of trouble. He lost all his
children but me, and almost all his property, and he had quarrelled with
his relations in Scotland, or they had quarrelled with him; so that he
was, in spite of his public life, a lonely, afflicted man. When he was
dying, he repeated part of a hymn, and the refrain was 'The Garden of
Gethsemane.'"
"Ah, Miss Carmichael, dear, forgive me, the stupid, blundering idiot
that I am, to go and vex your tender heart with my silly nonsense. I'm
ashamed, and could cry to think of it."
"I will forgive you, Mr. Coristine," she replied, recovering from her
serious fit, and looking at the victim in a way that blended amusement
with imperiousness: "I will forgive you this once, if you promise future
good behaviour."
An impulse came over the lawyer to shake Miss Carmichael's hand, but she
made him no shadow of an excuse for so doing. It was plain that the
mutual confidences of the girls, which embraced, using the word in a
mere logical sense, their year long distant acquaintance with the
transformed pedestrians had given maturity to the closer and more
pleasant acquaintance of the day. Little Marjorie's appropriation of the
lawyer as her Eugene added another ripening element to its growth; so
that the two garden explorers felt none of the stiffness and uncertainty
of a first introduction. What Miss Carmichael's thoughts were she only
could tell, but she knew that the impetuous and affectionate Coristine
required the merest trifle of encouragement to change the steady
decorous tide of advancing knowledge and respect into an abruptly
awkward cataract, threatening the rupture of pleasant relations or the
loss of self-respect. She would have preferred talking with Wilkinson,
as a check upon the fervour of his friend, but, although she laughed at
the dominie's culpable ignorance of her city existence, in her secret
soul it piqued her not a little. No; she would rather take refuge with
the clergy, Mr. Errol or Mr. Perrowne.
Many roses were still in bloom, but, spite of many hints, Coristine's
button hole remained empty. He admired the pinks, the carnations, the
large-eyed pansies, "like Shakespeare's winking Mary-buds," he said, but
all in vain, save a civil answer. The Day-lilies and the sweet-scented
pure white and Japan lilies, the early Phloxes, the Honeysuckles against
the arbours, and many other floral beauties he stopped to inspect, and
wondered if Mrs. Carruthers would mind his gathering a few, although the
house was full of flowers. His companion did not satisfy his wonder,
only answering that she thought flowers looked so much better growing.
Then he pulled himself together, and answered naturally, joking on the
tall Scarlet Lychnis, now almost a garden flower of the past, which boys
call scarlet likeness and scarlet lightning, and ran on into accounts
of botanical rambles, descriptions of curious plants, with here a little
bit of reverent natural theology, and there an appropriate scrap from
some flower loving poet, or a query as to where the worshippers of
Wordsworth had got, if they had left "The Excursion" for the smaller
pieces on the Daisy, and the Celandine, the Broom, the Thorn and the
Yew. In thus talking he gained his end without knowing it, for, instead
of a mere routine lawyer and impulsive Irishman, Miss Carmichael found
in her companion an intelligent, thoughtful, and cultured acquaintance,
whose society she thoroughly enjoyed. Occasionally an unconscious and
half-timid lifting of her long eye-lashes towards his animated, handsome
face thrilled the botanist with a new, if fleeting, sensation of
delight. As they passed through a gate into a hillside meadow, at the
foot of which ran a silvery brook, they were made aware of voices in
song. The voices were two, one a sweet but somewhat drawly female
soprano, the other, a raucous, loud, overmastering shout, that almost
drowned the utterance of its companion. The masculine one furnished the
words to the promenaders, and these were:--
Shayll we gaythurr at thee rivverr
Whayerr bright angel feet have traw-odd?
"Do you know who these are?" asked Miss Carmichael.
"If I thought he knew as much tune," replied Coristine, "I should say he
was The Crew."
"Oh, tell me, please, who is The Crew?" Thereupon the lawyer launched
out into a description of his travels, so comical a one that his fair
companion laughed until the tears stood in her eyes, and she accused him
of making her break the Sabbath. "No," she said at last; "that is not
Sylvanus, but it is his brother Timotheus with Tryphosa. They are
sitting in a ferny hollow under these birches down the hill, with a
hymn-book between them, and as grave as if they were in church. Do you
not think, Mr. Coristine, that that is a very nice and proper way for
young people to improve their acquaintance?"
"Very much so, Miss Carmichael. May I go in and get a hymn book? I can
run like a deer, and won't take a minute over it. One will be enough,
won't it?"
The lady laughed a little pleasant laugh, and replied: "I think not,
sir. We are not servants, at least in the same sense, and the piano and
organ are at our disposal when we wish to exercise our musical powers."
"Snubbed again," muttered Coristine to himself; then aloud: "I wish I
were Timotheus."
"If you prefer Tryphosa's company to mine, sir, you are at liberty to
go; but I think your champion of Peskiwanchow would object to such
rivalry."
"Oh, I didn't mean with Tryphosa."
"You do not know what you mean, nor anybody else. Let us return to the
house."
As they sauntered back, the lawyer suddenly cried out: "What a forgetful
blockhead I am. I have had ever so many business questions to put to
you, and have forgotten all about them."
"Had you not better leave business till to-morrow, Mr. Coristine?" asked
the lady, gravely, almost severely.
"Your father's name was James Douglas Carmichael, was it not?" asked
Coristine, ignoring this quietus.
"Yes," she answered.
"He came to Canada in 1848, and was, for a time, in military service at
Kingston, before he completed his medical studies. Am I right?"
"How do you happen to know these things? My father was singularly
reticent about his past life; but you are right."
The lawyer opened his pocket-book and took out a newspaper cutting,
which he handed to his companion. "I found that at Barrie," he said,
"and trust I have not taken too great a liberty in constituting myself
your solicitor, and opening correspondence with Mr. MacSmaill, W.S.,
regarding your interests."
"It was very kind of you," she answered; "do you think it will bring us
any money, Mr. Coristine?"
"Yes; it must bring some, as it is directed to heirs. How much, depends
upon the wealth of your father's family."
"They were very wealthy. Papa told mamma to write home to them, but she
would not. She is too independent for that."
"Will you sanction my action, and allow me to work this case up? Your
mother cannot be an heir, you know, save in a roundabout way; so that
you, being of age, are sole authority in the matter."
"How do you know I am of age?"
"I don't; but thought that, perhaps, you might be, seeing you are so
mature and circumspect in your ways."
"Thank you for the doubtful compliment. I am of age, however."
"Then will you authorize me to proceed?"
"With all my heart."
"Do you know it makes me very sorry to become your solicitor?"
"Why?"
"Because henceforth ours are mere business relations, and I, a
struggling junior partner, must be circumspect too, and stand in proper
awe and distant respect for a prospective heiress."
"Do not allow your reverence to carry you too far to an opposite
extreme. You have been very good during most of our walk, and I have
enjoyed it very much."
As she tripped in at the French window, Coristine could not reply. It is
probable that he ejaculated inwardly, "the darlin'!" but, outwardly, he
took out his pipe and sought consolation in the bowl of the Turk's head.
While patrolling the long path down towards the meadow, he heard a low
whistle, and, proceeding to the point in the fence whence it came, found
Mr. Rawdon, as pale as he well could be, and much agitated. "Look 'ere,
Mr. Currystone," he said, "I've bin down to Talfourds and a good bit
further, and I find a fellow called Nash 'as bin about, plottin' to 'urt
my business along of that brute of a Chisholm. They can't 'urt it much,
but I can 'urt them, and, wot's more, I will. 'Ow I found out wot
they're about is my haffair. I hain't got no time to lose, so you tell
the genniwin Simon Pure Miss Do Please-us as I'll hoffer 'er a thousan'
dollars cash for that there farm of 'ers till to-morrow mornin'. 'Er
hacceptance must be hat the Post-hoffice hup the road hany time before
ten o'clock, and the deed can be drawn hup between you and me and the
Squire just has soon therehafter as she pleases. Ha, ha! pretty good,
eh? Miss Do Please-us, she pleases! Bye, bye! Mr. Currystone, don't you
forget, for it's business."
The Grinstun man stole along the meadow fence and travelled over the
fields, back way, towards the Lake Settlement. Emptying his pipe, the
lawyer found Miss Du Plessis and at once announced Mr. Rawdon's
proposal, which he urged her not to accept. She said the land was
certainly not worth any more, if it were worth that amount, and that a
thousand dollars would be of much immediate use to her mother. But
Coristine reminded her that Colonel Morton was, in all probability, with
her mother now, and begged her at least to wait until their joint
opinion could be procured. To this she agreed, and further conversation
was checked by the arrival of Marjorie, the five young Carruthers and
Mr. Michael Terry.
The whole party sallied out of the windows on to the verandah, the lawn,
and thence out of the front gate, where they found the dominie in a
state of radiant abstraction, strutting up and down the road, and
quoting pages of his favourite poet. He had just completed the lines:--
And yet a spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.
The lawyer went up to him before he came near and hissed at his friend,
"What about our compact?" to which the dominie, with a fierce
cheerfulness, replied, "It is broken, sir; shivered to atoms; buried in
oblivion. When a so-called honourable man takes a young lady walking in
garden and meadow alone, and breathes soft trifles in her ear, the
letter, the spirit, the whole periphery of the compact is gone. Your
conduct, sir, leaves me free to act as I please towards the world's
chief soul and radiancy. I shall do as I please, sir; I shall read
Louisa and Ruth and Laodamia and the Female Vagrant, none daring to make
me afraid. A single tress of ebon hair, a single beam of a dove-like
eye, shall be enough to fortify my heart against all your legal lore,
your scorn, your innuendos, your coward threats."
"Wilks, you're intoxicated."
"Such intoxication as mine is that of the soul--a thing to glory in."
"Well, go and glory, and read what you please; only add the Idiot Boy to
the Female Vagrant and you'll be a lovely pair. I'm going to do as I
please, too, so we're both happy at last."
Thus saying, the lawyer returned to Marjorie, while the dominie stood
stock still in the road, like a man thunderstruck, repeating: "The Idiot
Boy, the Female Vagrant, a pair?--and he was once my friend! A pair, a
pair--the Female Vagrant, the Idiot Boy!--and that slimy, crawling,
sickening caterpillar of a garden slug was once known to me! Truly, a
strange awaking!"
It was now six o'clock, the time under ordinary circumstances for tea;
but the circumstances were extraordinary, as the Squire, Mr. Nash and
the minister had to be waited for. The party was in the road waiting for
them. "Look, Eugene!" cried Marjorie; "there's Muggins. Here Muggy,
Muggy, good doggie!" Muggins came on at full speed, and, striding at a
very respectable pace, his master followed.
"Ow, Mr. Coristine, sow glad to see you again, I'm shore. I was
delighted to see you bringing two straye sheep into the true fowld this
morning. I howpe Miss Marjorie will turn out a good churchwoman; woun't
you now, Marjorie?"
"I'm not a woman, and I won't be one. A woman wears dirty clothes and a
check apron and a sun-bonnet. We've had a charwoman like that in our
house, and a washerwoman; and in Collingwood there's a fish-woman and an
apple-woman. I've seen them with my very own eyes. I don't think it a
bit nice of you, Mr. Brown, to call me a charwoman."
"I said churchwoman, my dear, not charwoman."
"It's the same thing; they scrub out churches. I've seen them do it. And
they're as old and ugly--worse than Tryphena!"
"Hush, hush, Marjorie!" interposed Miss Du Plessis; "you must not speak
like that of good Tryphena. Besides, Mr. Perrowne means by a churchwoman
one who is like me, and goes to the Church of England."
"If it's to be like you, and you will marry Eugene and go to the Church
of England, I will be a churchwoman and go with you."
Mr. Perrowne glowered at the lawyer, whom, a moment before, he had
greeted in so friendly a way. Coristine laughed, as he could afford to,
and said: "I'm sorry, Marjorie, that it cannot be as you wish. I am not
serious enough for Miss Du Plessis, nor a sufficient judge of good
poetry. Your friend wouldn't have me at any price; would you now, Miss
Du Plessis?"
"Certainly not with that mode of asking. How unpleasantly personal
children make things."
Muggins and the young Carruthers were having lots of fun. He sat up and
begged for bread, he ran after sticks and stones thrown by feeble hands,
he shook paws with the children, had his ears stroked and his tail
pulled with the greatest good-nature. Right under the eyes of the still
dumbfoundered dominie, his owner accompanied Miss Du Plessis into the
house, while Coristine prevailed on Marjorie to sing a hymn with a
pretty plaintive tune, commencing:--
Once in royal David's city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her infant
In a manger for his bed;
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
The old soldier left his grandchildren with Muggins and came to hear the
hymn. "The Howly Vargin bliss the little pet," he ejaculated, and then
crooned a few notes at the end of each verse.
"Fwat is it the Howly Scripchers says, sorr, about little childher an'
the good place?" he asked Coristine.
The lawyer took off his hat, and reverently replied: "Of such is the
Kingdom of Heaven."
The veteran crossed himself, and said: "There niver was a thruer word
shpoke or in wroitin', an' fwat does the childher, the innicents, know
about Pratishtants an' Cathlics, till me that now?"
As Coristine could not, the pair refilled their pipes and smoked in
company, an ideal Evangelical Alliance.
Soon the waggonette came rattling along the road, and Marjorie ran to
meet her Uncle John and the minister, with both of whom she was a great
favourite. Mr. Nash also had a word to say to her: "You remember
scolding me for not going to church when I was Mr. Chisholm? Well, I've
been there this afternoon, and Mr. Errol told us we are all getting
ready here for what we are to do in Heaven. Now, you're a wise little
girl, and I want you to tell me what I will be able to do when I get
there. It can't be to hunt up bad people, because there are no bad
people in Heaven. What do you think about it?"
"I know," answered Marjorie, gravely; "play chess with dead uncles and
ministers, and teach tricks to the little children that never growed
up."
"Out of the mouths of babes!" ejaculated Mr. Errol, who overheard the
conversation; then continued: "Could anything be truer? The training in
observation and rapid mental combinations, which has made you successful
in your profession, is the foundation of your prowess on the chess
board. Your skill in every sort of make-up enables you to manipulate
handkerchiefs and oranges for children's amusement. The same training
and skill our Father can turn to good account in the upper sanctuary."
"Thank you, Mr. Errol, thank you, Marjorie, my dear. Perhaps the good
God will be kinder than we think, and find some use for a poor, lonely,
careless detective." Mr. Nash was unusually thoughtful, yet still had an
eye to business. He made diligent enquiries about Rawdon, and, at last,
getting on the scent through Miss Du Plessis, found out all that
Coristine and Timotheus had to tell of him. The latter had watched the
working geologist slinking off in the Lake Settlement direction across
the fields and by bush tracks. Mr. Terry and the children, having
partaken of tea, remained out in the front with Muggins, and sang some
more hymns, Marjorie leading their choir. The rest of the household,
reinforced by Mr. Perrowne, who, much to Wilkinson's disgust,
monopolized Miss Du Plessis, sat round the ample tea-table. In a
shamefaced way, as if engaged in an illegal ecclesiastical transaction,
the English clergyman mumbled: "For what we are about to receive," and
the evening meal proceeded. The Squire had ceded his end of the table to
his sister, and had taken his post at her left, where he talked to the
dominie, his next neighbour, and across the table to Mr. Errol. Perrowne
flanked the hostess on the right, and Nash on the left. Miss Du Plessis
sat between Perrowne and Wilkinson, a stately and elegant bone of
contention; while the lawyer had the detective on one side and Miss
Carmichael on the other. As that young lady had something to do with the
arrangement of the table by Tryphosa, in the matter of napkin rings, it
was, if Coristine only knew it, a mark of her confidence in him that
she permitted his presence on her right. Nevertheless he profited little
by it, as she gave all her conversation to the minister, save when the
attention of that elderly admirer was taken up by her uncle. As Perrowne
was compelled to be civil to Mrs. Carruthers, while Mr. Nash entertained
the lawyer, an opportunity was afforded the schoolmaster of improving
his acquaintance with Miss Du Plessis, of which he took joyful
advantage, feeling that in so doing with all brilliancy he was planting
thorns in the breasts of two innocent beings, whom he inwardly
characterized as a clerical puppy and an ungrateful, perfidious,
slanderous worm. Neither the puppy nor the worm were happy, as he
joyfully perceived.
The meal was over, and they were preparing to have early evening prayers
for the sake of the children, when a vehicle drove up, and a burly form,
clad in navy blue broadcloth with a plentiful trimming of gilt buttons,
descending from it, came along the path towards the house, accompanied
by Marjorie.
"It's papa!" she cried to Carruthers and his wife, who had gone to the
door to see who their visitor was, and call the children in. It was the
Captain, and in the buggy, holding the reins, sat The Crew. "Don't sit
grinning there, you blockhead!" shouted the ancient mariner to Sylvanus;
"hev ye been so long aboard ship ye can't tell a stable when you see it?
Drive on, you slabsided swab!" The Captain's combination of lumbering
with nautical pursuits gave a peculiar and not always congruous flavour
to his pet phrases; but Sylvanus did not mind; he drove round the lane
and met Timotheus.
"We have just finished tea, Captain," said Mrs. Carruthers with her
pretty touch of a cultivated Irish accent; "but Marjorie will tell
Tryphosa to set yours on the table at once."
"All right, Honoria!" growled Mr. Thomas; "I'm in port here for the
night, and I'm a goin' to make fast; so be I hev to belay on to the lee
side of a stack of shingle bolts. Now, Marjorie, my pet, give daddy
another kiss, and run away for a bit. John, I want you right away."
With the latter words, the Captain took the Squire off to the far end of
the verandah, and sat down with his legs dangling over among the
flowers, causing his brother-in-law to do the same. "John," said he,
taking off his naval cap, and mopping his forehead, "you're all goin' to
be murdered to-night in your bunks, else I wouldn't ha' quit dock o'
Sunday."
"Whatever do you mean, Thomas?"
"I mean what I say, and well to you and yourn. Sylvanus was down at
Peskiwanchow, gettin' some things his brother left there, when he
shipped for you. There's a bad crew in that whiskey mill, and, fool as
he is, he was sharp enough to hear them unbeknown. Says one of 'em,
'Better get out the fire-engines from town,' and he laughed. Says
another, 'Guess the boys'll hev a nice bonefire waitin' for us, time we
get to Flanders.' Then the low-down slab-pilers got their mutinous heads
together, and says, 'The J.P. and the bailiff's got to be roasted
anyway, wisht we could heave Nash in atop.' I've left the cursing and
swearin' out, because it's useless ballast, and don't count in the deal
any more'n sawdust. Now, John, what do you think of that?"
"It looks serious, Thomas, if your man is to be depended on."
"My man depended on? Sylvanus Pilgrim to be depended on? There's no more
dependable able-bodied seaman and master mill-hand afloat nor ashore.
He's true as the needle to the pole and the gang-saw to the plank. Don't
you go saying wrong of Sylvanus."
"I must take Nash into confidence with us, and call up your informant,"
said the Squire, leading the Captain into the house and setting him
carefully down at the tea table, where Mrs. Carruthers waited upon him.
Then he looked up Sylvanus in the kitchen, and told him to report as
soon as he had taken his supper. "We have no time to lose, Pilgrim," he
added, "so let Tryphena alone till our talk is over. She'll keep."
"I ain't agoin' ter persume ter tech Trypheeny, Square, an' I'll be
along in a half tack," replied The Crew.
Next, Nash was found smoking a cigar, and talking very earnestly with
Mr. Errol about presentiments, and sudden remembrances of childhood's
days. He dropped the conversation at once when business was mentioned,
and, in a few minutes, the Squire's official room contained five men,
with very serious faces, seeking to come to a full understanding of what
seemed a diabolical plot on the part of some spiteful malefactors. Four
of these have already been indicated; the fifth was the lawyer, who
proved a useful addition for pumping Sylvanus dry and taking careful
notes.
While the consultation was in progress, a gentle tap came to the door,
and, following it, a voice that thrilled the lawyer, saying, "May I come
in, uncle; I have some news for you?" Carruthers opened the door, when
Miss Carmichael told him that young Hill, the girls' brother, had
arrived with another man, and wanted to see him immediately on special
business that would not wait, and that they seemed to have been out
shooting. The Squire went out and returned with Rufus and Ben Toner. The
former related how Ben had gone to afternoon meetin' to tell what he
knew of the conspiracy to clean out all the scabs in Flanders, and have
trade run smooth. Coristine examined his old patient, who readily
responded, and Nash, who was now Chisholm in beard and moustache, helped
the interrogation. Toner's information, like that of Sylvanus, came from
accidentally overhearing the talk of four men in a waggon, driving
Flanders way during church time, while he was fishing in the river.
"I heerd 'em say as they'd be a big blayuz afore mornin', and as Squier
Cruthers, and the bailiff, and Nash, and a raivenue gaal, had got to go
to kingdom come. One on 'em says he seen Mr. Nash and got a hit off his
stick. He's a goin' to lay for him straight and for them two walkin'
spies likeways."
"What made you look up Rufus?" asked the lawyer.
"I thort the raivenue gaal might a been one of his sisters that's here.
Besides, he's got a gun, and so have I, and I'm a goin' to be true to my
word, Doctor, to you and the bailiff too, ef I have to shoot aivery
mother's son of them vilyins."
The Captain and Sylvanus, with Rufus and Ben, all testified to the
moving of several teams, with rough-looking characters on board, along
the roads that led towards Flanders, and the Lake Settlement in
particular. The Squire and Mr. Nash had noticed the same.
"Ben," said the latter, taking off his disguise, "I think I can trust
you. I am the detective Nash."
Toner started, but quickly recovered himself, and, rising, gave his hand
to the man of aliases, saying, "You kin, Mr. Nash, s'haylp me. Old man
Newcome swears he's a goin' to hev your life, but he won't ef I'm any
good."
The detective shook hands warmly, and, taking Ben aside, found that he
had no personal knowledge of Rawdon, the Newcome of whom he spoke being
apparently the go between. The intimacy between them, which was near
ruining the young man, had come about through Toner's attention to
Newcome's daughter, Sarah Eliza. "But," continued the unhappy lover,
"the old man's been and had Serlizer off for more'n a year, and puts me
off and off and better off, till I just up and wouldn't stand it no
more. I ain't a goin' to sell his stuff, nor drink his stuff, nor hev
nawthun more to do along of his gang, but I'd like to know where
Serlizer's put to, and I'm here and my gun, with a lot of powder and
shot and slugs, for the stummik of any gallihoot as lays a finger on
you, Mr. Nash, or the doctor or the gals."
Returning to the group, the detective urged immediate defensive action,
leaving the offensive till the morrow. The Squire at once looked up his
armoury, consisting of a rifle, a fowling piece (double-barrelled) and a
pair of heavy horse-pistols, with abundant ammunition. The Captain
reported that Sylvanus had a shotgun (single-barrelled), and that he had
brought the blunderbuss with which he fired salutes off the _Susan
Thomas_. Coristine answered for the revolvers carried by himself and the
dominie. The clergy were called in and the situation explained, when
both volunteered for service. Mr. Perrowne had a very good gun at his
lodgings; and his landlady, whose father had been in the army, possessed
a relic of him in the shape of an ancient carbine, which he was sure she
would lend to Mr. Errol, with bayonet complete. He went for them, under
escort of Rufus and Ben. When Mr. Terry was told, he begged for his son
in law's "swate-lukin' roifle," and was as cheerful as if a wedding was
in progress. Finally, Timotheus got the fowling piece and the Squire
looked to the priming of his pistols. Mr. Nash, of course, had both
revolver and dirk knife concealed somewhere about his person. Then Mr.
Errol conducted family prayers, the children were sent to bed, the
ladies briefly informed of the situation, and the garrison bidden a more
than usually affectionate good-night.